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12581 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass | Glass | Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent amorphous solid, that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling (quenching) of the molten form; some glasses such as volcanic glass are naturally occurring. The most familiar, and historically the oldest, types of manufactured glass are "silicate glasses" based on the chemical compound silica (silicon dioxide, or quartz), the primary constituent of sand. Soda-lime glass, containing around 70% silica, accounts for around 90% of manufactured glass. The term glass, in popular usage, is often used to refer only to this type of material, although silica-free glasses often have desirable properties for applications in modern communications technology. Some objects, such as drinking glasses and eyeglasses, are so commonly made of silicate-based glass that they are simply called by the name of the material.
Although brittle, buried silicate glass will survive for very long periods if not disturbed, and many examples of glass fragments exist from early glass-making cultures. Archaeological evidence suggests glass-making dates back to at least 3,600 BC in Mesopotamia, Egypt, or Syria. The earliest known glass objects were beads, perhaps created accidentally during metalworking or the production of faience. Due to its ease of formability into any shape, glass has been traditionally used for vessels, such as bowls, vases, bottles, jars and drinking glasses. In its most solid forms, it has also been used for paperweights and marbles. Glass can be coloured by adding metal salts or painted and printed as enamelled glass.
The refractive, reflective and transmission properties of glass make glass suitable for manufacturing optical lenses, prisms, and optoelectronics materials. Extruded glass fibres have application as optical fibres in communications networks, thermal insulating material when matted as glass wool so as to trap air, or in glass-fibre reinforced plastic (fibreglass).
Microscopic structure
The standard definition of a glass (or vitreous solid) is a solid formed by rapid melt quenching. However, the term "glass" is often defined in a broader sense, to describe any non-crystalline (amorphous) solid that exhibits a glass transition when heated towards the liquid state.
Glass is an amorphous solid. Although the atomic-scale structure of glass shares characteristics of the structure of a supercooled liquid, glass exhibits all the mechanical properties of a solid. As in other amorphous solids, the atomic structure of a glass lacks the long-range periodicity observed in crystalline solids. Due to chemical bonding constraints, glasses do possess a high degree of short-range order with respect to local atomic polyhedra. The notion that glass flows to an appreciable extent over extended periods of time is not supported by empirical research or theoretical analysis (see viscosity in solids). Laboratory measurements of room temperature glass flow do show a motion consistent with a material viscosity on the order of 1017–1018 Pa s.
Formation from a supercooled liquid
For melt quenching, if the cooling is sufficiently rapid (relative to the characteristic crystallization time) then crystallization is prevented and instead the disordered atomic configuration of the supercooled liquid is frozen into the solid state at Tg. The tendency for a material to form a glass while quenched is called glass-forming ability. This ability can be predicted by the rigidity theory. Generally, a glass exists in a structurally metastable state with respect to its crystalline form, although in certain circumstances, for example in atactic polymers, there is no crystalline analogue of the amorphous phase.
Glass is sometimes considered to be a liquid due to its lack of a first-order phase transition
where certain thermodynamic variables such as volume, entropy and enthalpy are discontinuous through the glass transition range. The glass transition may be described as analogous to a second-order phase transition where the intensive thermodynamic variables such as the thermal expansivity and heat capacity are discontinuous, however this is incorrect. The equilibrium theory of phase transformations do not hold for glass, and hence the glass transition cannot be classed as one of the classical equilibrium phase transformations in solids. Furthermore, it does not describe the temperature dependence of Tg upon heating rate, as found in differential scanning calorimetry.
Occurrence in nature
Glass can form naturally from volcanic magma. Obsidian is a common volcanic glass with high silica (SiO2) content formed when felsic lava extruded from a volcano cools rapidly. Impactite is a form of glass formed by the impact of a meteorite, where Moldavite (found in central and eastern Europe), and Libyan desert glass (found in areas in the eastern Sahara, the deserts of eastern Libya and western Egypt) are notable examples. Vitrification of quartz can also occur when lightning strikes sand, forming hollow, branching rootlike structures called fulgurites. Trinitite is a glassy residue formed from the desert floor sand at the Trinity nuclear bomb test site. Edeowie glass, found in South Australia, is proposed to originate from Pleistocene grassland fires, lightning strikes, or hypervelocity impact by one or several asteroids or comets.
History
Naturally occurring obsidian glass was used by Stone Age societies as it fractures along very sharp edges, making it ideal for cutting tools and weapons. Glassmaking dates back at least 6000 years, long before humans had discovered how to smelt iron. Archaeological evidence suggests that the first true synthetic glass was made in Lebanon and the coastal north Syria, Mesopotamia or ancient Egypt. The earliest known glass objects, of the mid-third millennium BC, were beads, perhaps initially created as accidental by-products of metalworking (slags) or during the production of faience, a pre-glass vitreous material made by a process similar to glazing.
Early glass was rarely transparent and often contained impurities and imperfections, and is technically faience rather than true glass, which did not appear until the 15th century BC. However, red-orange glass beads excavated from the Indus Valley Civilization dated before 1700 BC (possibly as early as 1900 BC) predate sustained glass production, which appeared around 1600 BC in Mesopotamia and 1500 BC in Egypt. During the Late Bronze Age there was a rapid growth in glassmaking technology in Egypt and Western Asia. Archaeological finds from this period include coloured glass ingots, vessels, and beads. Much early glass production relied on grinding techniques borrowed from stoneworking, such as grinding and carving glass in a cold state.
The term glass developed in the late Roman Empire. It was in the Roman glassmaking centre at Trier (located in current-day Germany) that the late-Latin term glesum originated, probably from a Germanic word for a transparent, lustrous substance. Glass objects have been recovered across the Roman Empire in domestic, funerary, and industrial contexts, as well as trade items in marketplaces in distant provinces. Examples of Roman glass have been found outside of the former Roman Empire in China, the Baltics, the Middle East, and India. The Romans perfected cameo glass, produced by etching and carving through fused layers of different colours to produce a design in relief on the glass object.
In post-classical West Africa, Benin was a manufacturer of glass and glass beads.
Glass was used extensively in Europe during the Middle Ages. Anglo-Saxon glass has been found across England during archaeological excavations of both settlement and cemetery sites. From the 10th century onwards, glass was employed in stained glass windows of churches and cathedrals, with famous examples at Chartres Cathedral and the Basilica of Saint Denis. By the 14th century, architects were designing buildings with walls of stained glass such as Sainte-Chapelle, Paris, (1203–1248) and the East end of Gloucester Cathedral. With the change in architectural style during the Renaissance period in Europe, the use of large stained glass windows became much less prevalent, although stained glass had a major revival with Gothic Revival architecture in the 19th century.
During the 13th century, the island of Murano, Venice, became a centre for glass making, building on medieval techniques to produce colourful ornamental pieces in large quantities. Murano glass makers developed the exceptionally clear colourless glass cristallo, so called for its resemblance to natural crystal, which was extensively used for windows, mirrors, ships' lanterns, and lenses. In the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries, enamelling and gilding on glass vessels was perfected in Egypt and Syria. Towards the end of the 17th century, Bohemia became an important region for glass production, remaining so until the start of the 20th century. By the 17th century, glass in the Venetian tradition was also being produced in England. In about 1675, George Ravenscroft invented lead crystal glass, with cut glass becoming fashionable in the 18th century. Ornamental glass objects became an important art medium during the Art Nouveau period in the late 19th century.
Throughout the 20th century, new mass production techniques led to widespread availability of glass in much larger amounts, making it practical as a building material and enabling new applications of glass. In the 1920s a mould-etch process was developed, in which art was etched directly into the mould, so that each cast piece emerged from the mould with the image already on the surface of the glass. This reduced manufacturing costs and, combined with a wider use of coloured glass, led to cheap glassware in the 1930s, which later became known as Depression glass. In the 1950s, Pilkington Bros., England, developed the float glass process, producing high-quality distortion-free flat sheets of glass by floating on molten tin. Modern multi-story buildings are frequently constructed with curtain walls made almost entirely of glass. Laminated glass has been widely applied to vehicles for windscreens. Optical glass for spectacles has been used since the Middle Ages. The production of lenses has become increasingly proficient, aiding astronomers as well as having other application in medicine and science. Glass is also employed as the aperture cover in many solar energy collectors.
In the 21st century, glass manufacturers have developed different brands of chemically strengthened glass for widespread application in touchscreens for smartphones, tablet computers, and many other types of information appliances. These include Gorilla glass, developed and manufactured by Corning, AGC Inc.'s Dragontrail and Schott AG's Xensation.
Physical properties
Optical
Glass is in widespread use in optical systems due to its ability to refract, reflect, and transmit light following geometrical optics. The most common and oldest applications of glass in optics are as lenses, windows, mirrors, and prisms. The key optical properties refractive index, dispersion, and transmission, of glass are strongly dependent on chemical composition and, to a lesser degree, its thermal history. Optical glass typically has a refractive index of 1.4 to 2.4, and an Abbe number (which characterises dispersion) of 15 to 100. Refractive index may be modified by high-density (refractive index increases) or low-density (refractive index decreases) additives.
Glass transparency results from the absence of grain boundaries which diffusely scatter light in polycrystalline materials. Semi-opacity due to crystallization may be induced in many glasses by maintaining them for a long period at a temperature just insufficient to cause fusion. In this way, the crystalline, devitrified material, known as Réaumur's glass porcelain is produced. Although generally transparent to visible light, glasses may be opaque to other wavelengths of light. While silicate glasses are generally opaque to infrared wavelengths with a transmission cut-off at 4 μm, heavy-metal fluoride and chalcogenide glasses are transparent to infrared wavelengths of up to 7 and up to 18 μm, respectively. The addition of metallic oxides results in different coloured glasses as the metallic ions will absorb wavelengths of light corresponding to specific colours.
Other
In the manufacturing process, glasses can be poured, formed, extruded and moulded into forms ranging from flat sheets to highly intricate shapes. The finished product is brittle and will fracture, unless laminated or tempered to enhance durability. Glass is typically inert, resistant to chemical attack, and can mostly withstand the action of water, making it an ideal material for the manufacture of containers for foodstuffs and most chemicals. Nevertheless, although usually highly resistant to chemical attack, glass will corrode or dissolve under some conditions. The materials that make up a particular glass composition have an effect on how quickly the glass corrodes. Glasses containing a high proportion of alkali or alkaline earth elements are more susceptible to corrosion than other glass compositions.
The density of glass varies with chemical composition with values ranging from for fused silica to for dense flint glass. Glass is stronger than most metals, with a theoretical tensile strength for pure, flawless glass estimated at to due to its ability to undergo reversible compression without fracture. However, the presence of scratches, bubbles, and other microscopic flaws lead to a typical range of to in most commercial glasses. Several processes such as toughening can increase the strength of glass. Carefully drawn flawless glass fibres can be produced with strength of up to .
Reputed flow
The observation that old windows are sometimes found to be thicker at the bottom than at the top is often offered as supporting evidence for the view that glass flows over a timescale of centuries, the assumption being that the glass has exhibited the liquid property of flowing from one shape to another. This assumption is incorrect, as once solidified, glass stops flowing. The sags and ripples observed in old glass were already there the day it was made; manufacturing processes used in the past produced sheets with imperfect surfaces and non-uniform thickness. (The near-perfect float glass used today only became widespread in the 1960s.)
Types
Silicate
Silicon dioxide (SiO2) is a common fundamental constituent of glass. Fused quartz is a glass made from chemically-pure silica. It has very low thermal expansion and excellent resistance to thermal shock, being able to survive immersion in water while red hot, resists high temperatures (1000–1500 °C) and chemical weathering, and is very hard. It is also transparent to a wider spectral range than ordinary glass, extending from the visible further into both the UV and IR ranges, and is sometimes used where transparency to these wavelengths is necessary. Fused quartz is used for high-temperature applications such as furnace tubes, lighting tubes, melting crucibles, etc. However, its high melting temperature (1723 °C) and viscosity make it difficult to work with. Therefore, normally, other substances (fluxes) are added to lower the melting temperature and simplify glass processing.
Soda-lime
Sodium carbonate (Na2CO3, "soda") is a common additive and acts to lowers the glass-transition temperature. However, sodium silicate is water soluble, so lime (CaO, calcium oxide, generally obtained from limestone), some magnesium oxide (MgO) and aluminium oxide (Al2O3) are other common components added to improve chemical durability. Soda-lime glasses (Na2O) + lime (CaO) + magnesia (MgO) + alumina (Al2O3) account for over 75% of manufactured glass, containing about 70 to 74% silica by weight. Soda-lime-silicate glass is transparent, easily formed, and most suitable for window glass and tableware. However, it has a high thermal expansion and poor resistance to heat. Soda-lime glass is typically used for windows, bottles, light bulbs, and jars.
Borosilicate
Borosilicate glasses (e.g. Pyrex, Duran) typically contain 5–13% boron trioxide (B2O3). Borosilicate glasses have fairly low coefficients of thermal expansion (7740 Pyrex CTE is 3.25/°C as compared to about 9/°C for a typical soda-lime glass). They are, therefore, less subject to stress caused by thermal expansion and thus less vulnerable to cracking from thermal shock. They are commonly used for e.g. labware, household cookware, and sealed beam car head lamps.
Lead
The addition of lead(II) oxide into silicate glass lowers melting point and viscosity of the melt. The high density of lead glass (silica + lead oxide (PbO) + potassium oxide (K2O) + soda (Na2O) + zinc oxide (ZnO) + alumina) results in a high electron density, and hence high refractive index, making the look of glassware more brilliant and causing noticeably more specular reflection and increased optical dispersion. Lead glass has a high elasticity, making the glassware more workable and giving rise to a clear "ring" sound when struck. However, lead glass cannot withstand high temperatures well. Lead oxide also facilitates solubility of other metal oxides and is used in colored glass. The viscosity decrease of lead glass melt is very significant (roughly 100 times in comparison with soda glass); this allows easier removal of bubbles and working at lower temperatures, hence its frequent use as an additive in vitreous enamels and glass solders. The high ionic radius of the Pb2+ ion renders it highly immobile and hinders the movement of other ions; lead glasses therefore have high electrical resistance, about two orders of magnitude higher than soda-lime glass (108.5 vs 106.5 Ω⋅cm, DC at 250 °C).
Aluminosilicate
Aluminosilicate glass typically contains 5-10% alumina (Al2O3). Aluminosilicate glass tends to be more difficult to melt and shape compared to borosilicate compositions, but has excellent thermal resistance and durability. Aluminosilicate glass is extensively used for fiberglass, used for making glass-reinforced plastics (boats, fishing rods, etc.), top-of-stove cookware, and halogen bulb glass.
Other oxide additives
The addition of barium also increases the refractive index. Thorium oxide gives glass a high refractive index and low dispersion and was formerly used in producing high-quality lenses, but due to its radioactivity has been replaced by lanthanum oxide in modern eyeglasses. Iron can be incorporated into glass to absorb infrared radiation, for example in heat-absorbing filters for movie projectors, while cerium(IV) oxide can be used for glass that absorbs ultraviolet wavelengths. Fluorine lowers the dielectric constant of glass. Fluorine is highly electronegative and lowers the polarizability of the material. Fluoride silicate glasses are used in manufacture of integrated circuits as an insulator.
Glass-ceramics
Glass-ceramic materials contain both non-crystalline glass and crystalline ceramic phases. They are formed by controlled nucleation and partial crystallisation of a base glass by heat treatment. Crystalline grains are often embedded within a non-crystalline intergranular phase of grain boundaries. Glass-ceramics exhibit advantageous thermal, chemical, biological, and dielectric properties as compared to metals or organic polymers.
The most commercially important property of glass-ceramics is their imperviousness to thermal shock. Thus, glass-ceramics have become extremely useful for countertop cooking and industrial processes. The negative thermal expansion coefficient (CTE) of the crystalline ceramic phase can be balanced with the positive CTE of the glassy phase. At a certain point (~70% crystalline) the glass-ceramic has a net CTE near zero. This type of glass-ceramic exhibits excellent mechanical properties and can sustain repeated and quick temperature changes up to 1000 °C.
Fibreglass
Fibreglass (also called glass fibre reinforced plastic, GRP) is a composite material made by reinforcing a plastic resin with glass fibres. It is made by melting glass and stretching the glass into fibres. These fibres are woven together into a cloth and left to set in a plastic resin.
Fibreglass has the properties of being lightweight and corrosion resistant, and is a good insulator enabling its use as building insulation material and for electronic housing for consumer products. Fibreglass was originally used in the United Kingdom and United States during World War II to manufacture radomes. Uses of fibreglass include building and construction materials, boat hulls, car body parts, and aerospace composite materials.
Glass-fibre wool is an excellent thermal and sound insulation material, commonly used in buildings (e.g. attic and cavity wall insulation), and plumbing (e.g. pipe insulation), and soundproofing. It is produced by forcing molten glass through a fine mesh by centripetal force, and breaking the extruded glass fibres into short lengths using a stream of high-velocity air. The fibres are bonded with an adhesive spray and the resulting wool mat is cut and packed in rolls or panels.
Non-silicate
Besides common silica-based glasses many other inorganic and organic materials may also form glasses, including metals, aluminates, phosphates, borates, chalcogenides, fluorides, germanates (glasses based on GeO2), tellurites (glasses based on TeO2), antimonates (glasses based on Sb2O3), arsenates (glasses based on As2O3), titanates (glasses based on TiO2), tantalates (glasses based on Ta2O5), nitrates, carbonates, plastics, acrylic, and many other substances. Some of these glasses (e.g. Germanium dioxide (GeO2, Germania), in many respects a structural analogue of silica, fluoride, aluminate, phosphate, borate, and chalcogenide glasses) have physico-chemical properties useful for their application in fibre-optic waveguides in communication networks and other specialized technological applications.
Silica-free glasses may often have poor glass forming tendencies. Novel techniques, including containerless processing by aerodynamic levitation (cooling the melt whilst it floats on a gas stream) or splat quenching (pressing the melt between two metal anvils or rollers), may be used increase cooling rate, or reduce crystal nucleation triggers.
Amorphous metals
In the past, small batches of amorphous metals with high surface area configurations (ribbons, wires, films, etc.) have been produced through the implementation of extremely rapid rates of cooling. Amorphous metal wires have been produced by sputtering molten metal onto a spinning metal disk. More recently a number of alloys have been produced in layers with thickness exceeding 1 millimeter. These are known as bulk metallic glasses (BMG). Liquidmetal Technologies sell a number of zirconium-based BMGs. Batches of amorphous steel have also been produced that demonstrate mechanical properties far exceeding those found in conventional steel alloys.
Experimental evidence indicates that the system Al-Fe-Si may undergo a first-order transition to an amorphous form (dubbed "q-glass") on rapid cooling from the melt. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images indicate that q-glass nucleates from the melt as discrete particles with a uniform spherical growth in all directions. While x-ray diffraction reveals the isotropic nature of q-glass, a nucleation barrier exists implying an interfacial discontinuity (or internal surface) between the glass and melt phases.
Polymers
Important polymer glasses include amorphous and glassy pharmaceutical compounds. These are useful because the solubility of the compound is greatly increased when it is amorphous compared to the same crystalline composition. Many emerging pharmaceuticals are practically insoluble in their crystalline forms. Many polymer thermoplastics familiar from everyday use are glasses. For many applications, like glass bottles or eyewear, polymer glasses (acrylic glass, polycarbonate or polyethylene terephthalate) are a lighter alternative to traditional glass.
Molecular liquids and molten salts
Molecular liquids, electrolytes, molten salts, and aqueous solutions are mixtures of different molecules or ions that do not form a covalent network but interact only through weak van der Waals forces or through transient hydrogen bonds. In a mixture of three or more ionic species of dissimilar size and shape, crystallization can be so difficult that the liquid can easily be supercooled into a glass. Examples include LiCl:RH2O (a solution of lithium chloride salt and water molecules) in the composition range 4<R<8. sugar glass, or Ca0.4K0.6(NO3)1.4. Glass electrolytes in the form of Ba-doped Li-glass and Ba-doped Na-glass have been proposed as solutions to problems identified with organic liquid electrolytes used in modern lithium-ion battery cells.
Production
Following the glass batch preparation and mixing, the raw materials are transported to the furnace. Soda-lime glass for mass production is melted in gas fired units. Smaller scale furnaces for specialty glasses include electric melters, pot furnaces, and day tanks.
After melting, homogenization and refining (removal of bubbles), the glass is formed. Flat glass for windows and similar applications is formed by the float glass process, developed between 1953 and 1957 by Sir Alastair Pilkington and Kenneth Bickerstaff of the UK's Pilkington Brothers, who created a continuous ribbon of glass using a molten tin bath on which the molten glass flows unhindered under the influence of gravity. The top surface of the glass is subjected to nitrogen under pressure to obtain a polished finish. Container glass for common bottles and jars is formed by blowing and pressing methods. This glass is often slightly modified chemically (with more alumina and calcium oxide) for greater water resistance.
Once the desired form is obtained, glass is usually annealed for the removal of stresses and to increase the glass's hardness and durability. Surface treatments, coatings or lamination may follow to improve the chemical durability (glass container coatings, glass container internal treatment), strength (toughened glass, bulletproof glass, windshields), or optical properties (insulated glazing, anti-reflective coating).
New chemical glass compositions or new treatment techniques can be initially investigated in small-scale laboratory experiments. The raw materials for laboratory-scale glass melts are often different from those used in mass production because the cost factor has a low priority. In the laboratory mostly pure chemicals are used. Care must be taken that the raw materials have not reacted with moisture or other chemicals in the environment (such as alkali or alkaline earth metal oxides and hydroxides, or boron oxide), or that the impurities are quantified (loss on ignition). Evaporation losses during glass melting should be considered during the selection of the raw materials, e.g., sodium selenite may be preferred over easily evaporating selenium dioxide (SeO2). Also, more readily reacting raw materials may be preferred over relatively inert ones, such as aluminum hydroxide (Al(OH)3) over alumina (Al2O3). Usually, the melts are carried out in platinum crucibles to reduce contamination from the crucible material. Glass homogeneity is achieved by homogenizing the raw materials mixture (glass batch), by stirring the melt, and by crushing and re-melting the first melt. The obtained glass is usually annealed to prevent breakage during processing.
Colour
Colour in glass may be obtained by addition of homogenously distributed electrically charged ions (or colour centres). While ordinary soda-lime glass appears colourless in thin section, iron(II) oxide (FeO) impurities produce a green tint in thick sections. Manganese dioxide (MnO2), which gives glass a purple colour, may be added to remove the green tint given by FeO. FeO and chromium(III) oxide (Cr2O3) additives are used in the production of green bottles. Iron (III) oxide, on the other-hand, produces yellow or yellow-brown glass. Low concentrations (0.025 to 0.1%) of cobalt oxide (CoO) produces rich, deep blue cobalt glass. Chromium is a very powerful colourising agent, yielding dark green.
Sulphur combined with carbon and iron salts produces amber glass ranging from yellowish to almost black. A glass melt can also acquire an amber colour from a reducing combustion atmosphere. Cadmium sulfide produces imperial red, and combined with selenium can produce shades of yellow, orange, and red. The additive Copper(II) oxide (CuO) produces a turquoise colour in glass, in contrast to Copper(I) oxide (Cu2O) which gives a dull brown-red colour.
Uses
Architecture and windows
Soda-lime sheet glass is typically used as transparent glazing material, typically as windows in external walls of buildings. Float or rolled sheet glass products is cut to size either by scoring and snapping the material, laser cutting, water jets, or diamond bladed saw. The glass may be thermally or chemically tempered (strengthened) for safety and bent or curved during heating. Surface coatings may be added for specific functions such as scratch resistance, blocking specific wavelengths of light (e.g. infrared or ultraviolet), dirt-repellence (e.g. self-cleaning glass), or switchable electrochromic coatings.
Structural glazing systems represent one of the most significant architectural innovations of modern times, where glass buildings now often dominate skylines of many modern cities. These systems use stainless steel fittings countersunk into recesses in the corners of the glass panels allowing strengthened panes to appear unsupported creating a flush exterior. Structural glazing systems have their roots in iron and glass conservatories of the nineteenth century
Tableware
Glass is an essential component of tableware and is typically used for water, beer and wine drinking glasses. Wine glasses are typically stemware, i.e. goblets formed from a bowl, stem, and foot. Crystal or Lead crystal glass may be cut and polished to produce decorative drinking glasses with gleaming facets. Other uses of glass in tableware include decanters, jugs, plates, and bowls.
Packaging
The inert and impermeable nature of glass makes it a stable and widely used material for food and drink packaging as glass bottles and jars. Most container glass is soda-lime glass, produced by blowing and pressing techniques. Container glass has a lower magnesium oxide and sodium oxide content than flat glass, and a higher silica, calcium oxide, and aluminum oxide content. Its higher content of water-insoluble oxides imparts slightly higher chemical durability against water, which is advantageous for storing beverages and food. Glass packaging is sustainable, readily recycled, reusable and refillable.
For electronics applications, glass can be used as a substrate in the manufacture of integrated passive devices, thin-film bulk acoustic resonators, and as a hermetic sealing material in device packaging, including very thin solely glass based encapsulation of integrated circuits and other semiconductors in high manufacturing volumes.
Laboratories
Glass is an important material in scientific laboratories for the manufacture of experimental apparatus because it is relatively cheap, readily formed into required shapes for experiment, easy to keep clean, can withstand heat and cold treatment, is generally non-reactive with many reagents, and its transparency allows for the observation of chemical reactions and processes. Laboratory glassware applications include flasks, petri dishes, test tubes, pipettes, graduated cylinders, glass lined metallic containers for chemical processing, fractionation columns, glass pipes, Schlenk lines, gauges, and thermometers. Although most standard laboratory glassware has been mass-produced since the 1920s, scientists still employ skilled glassblowers to manufacture bespoke glass apparatus for their experimental requirements.
Optics
Glass is a ubiquitous material in optics by virtue of its ability to refract, reflect, and transmit light. These and other optical properties can be controlled by varying chemical compositions, thermal treatment, and manufacturing techniques. The many applications of glass in optics includes glasses for eyesight correction, imaging optics (e.g. lenses and mirrors in telescopes, microscopes, and cameras), fibre optics in telecommunications technology, and integrated optics. Microlenses and gradient-index optics (where the refractive index is non-uniform) find application in e.g. reading optical discs, laser printers, photocopiers, and laser diodes.
Art
Glass as art dates to least 1300 BC shown as an example of natural glass found in Tutankhamun's pectoral, which also contained vitreous enamel, that is to say, melted coloured glass used on a metal backing. Enamelled glass, the decoration of glass vessels with coloured glass paints, has existed since 1300 BC, and was prominent in the early 20th century with Art Nouveau glass and that of the House of Fabergé in St. Petersburg, Russia. Both techniques were used in stained glass, which reached its height roughly from 1000 to 1550, before a revival in the 19th century.
The 19th century saw a revival in ancient glass-making techniques including cameo glass, achieved for the first time since the Roman Empire, initially mostly for pieces in a neo-classical style. The Art Nouveau movement made great use of glass, with René Lalique, Émile Gallé, and Daum of Nancy in the first French wave of the movement, producing coloured vases and similar pieces, often in cameo glass or in lustre glass techniques.
Louis Comfort Tiffany in America specialized in stained glass, both secular and religious, in panels and his famous lamps. The early 20th-century saw the large-scale factory production of glass art by firms such as Waterford and Lalique. Small studios may hand-produce glass artworks. Techniques for producing glass art include blowing, kiln-casting, fusing, slumping, pâte de verre, flame-working, hot-sculpting and cold-working. Cold work includes traditional stained glass work and other methods of shaping glass at room temperature. Objects made out of glass include vessels, paperweights, marbles, beads, sculptures and installation art.
See also
Fire glass
Flexible glass
Kimberley points
Prince Rupert's drop
Smart glass
References
External links
The Story of Glass Making in Canada from The Canadian Museum of Civilization.
"How Your Glass Ware Is Made" by George W. Waltz, February 1951, Popular Science.
All About Glass from the Corning Museum of Glass: a collection of articles, multimedia, and virtual books all about glass, including the Glass Dictionary.
National Glass Association—The largest trade association representing the flat (architectural), auto glass, and window & door industries
Amorphous solids
Dielectrics
Materials
Packaging materials
Sculpture materials
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12582 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gel%20electrophoresis | Gel electrophoresis | Gel electrophoresis is a method for separation and analysis of macromolecules (DNA, RNA and proteins) and their fragments, based on their size and charge. It is used in clinical chemistry to separate proteins by charge or size (IEF agarose, essentially size independent) and in biochemistry and molecular biology to separate a mixed population of DNA and RNA fragments by length, to estimate the size of DNA and RNA fragments or to separate proteins by charge.
Nucleic acid molecules are separated by applying an electric field to move the negatively charged molecules through a matrix of agarose or other substances. Shorter molecules move faster and migrate farther than longer ones because shorter molecules migrate more easily through the pores of the gel. This phenomenon is called sieving. Proteins are separated by the charge in agarose because the pores of the gel are too small to sieve proteins. Gel electrophoresis can also be used for the separation of nanoparticles.
Gel electrophoresis uses a gel as an anticonvective medium or sieving medium during electrophoresis, the movement of a charged particle in an electrical current. Gels suppress the thermal convection caused by the application of the electric field, and can also act as a sieving medium, retarding the passage of molecules; gels can also simply serve to maintain the finished separation so that a post electrophoresis stain can be applied. DNA Gel electrophoresis is usually performed for analytical purposes, often after amplification of DNA via polymerase chain reaction (PCR), but may be used as a preparative technique prior to use of other methods such as mass spectrometry, RFLP, PCR, cloning, DNA sequencing, or Southern blotting for further characterization.
Physical basis
Electrophoresis is a process that enables the sorting of molecules based on size. Using an electric field, molecules (such as DNA) can be made to move through a gel made of agarose or polyacrylamide. The electric field consists of a negative charge at one end which pushes the molecules through the gel, and a positive charge at the other end that pulls the molecules through the gel. The molecules being sorted are dispensed into a well in the gel material. The gel is placed in an electrophoresis chamber, which is then connected to a power source. When the electric field is applied, the larger molecules move more slowly through the gel while the smaller molecules move faster. The different sized molecules form distinct bands on the gel.
The term "gel" in this instance refers to the matrix used to contain, then separate the target molecules. In most cases, the gel is a crosslinked polymer whose composition and porosity are chosen based on the specific weight and composition of the target to be analyzed. When separating proteins or small nucleic acids (DNA, RNA, or oligonucleotides) the gel is usually composed of different concentrations of acrylamide and a cross-linker, producing different sized mesh networks of polyacrylamide. When separating larger nucleic acids (greater than a few hundred bases), the preferred matrix is purified agarose. In both cases, the gel forms a solid, yet porous matrix. Acrylamide, in contrast to polyacrylamide, is a neurotoxin and must be handled using appropriate safety precautions to avoid poisoning. Agarose is composed of long unbranched chains of uncharged carbohydrates without cross-links resulting in a gel with large pores allowing for the separation of macromolecules and macromolecular complexes.
Electrophoresis refers to the electromotive force (EMF) that is used to move the molecules through the gel matrix. By placing the molecules in wells in the gel and applying an electric field, the molecules will move through the matrix at different rates, determined largely by their mass when the charge-to-mass ratio (Z) of all species is uniform. However, when charges are not all uniform the electrical field generated by the electrophoresis procedure will cause the molecules to migrate differentially according to charge. Species that are net positively charged will migrate towards the cathode which is negatively charged (because this is an electrolytic rather than galvanic cell), whereas species that are net negatively charged will migrate towards the positively charged anode. Mass remains a factor in the speed with which these non-uniformly charged molecules migrate through the matrix toward their respective electrodes.
If several samples have been loaded into adjacent wells in the gel, they will run parallel in individual lanes. Depending on the number of different molecules, each lane shows the separation of the components from the original mixture as one or more distinct bands, one band per component. Incomplete separation of the components can lead to overlapping bands, or indistinguishable smears representing multiple unresolved components. Bands in different lanes that end up at the same distance from the top contain molecules that passed through the gel at the same speed, which usually means they are approximately the same size. There are molecular weight size markers available that contain a mixture of molecules of known sizes. If such a marker was run on one lane in the gel parallel to the unknown samples, the bands observed can be compared to those of the unknown to determine their size. The distance a band travels is approximately inversely proportional to the logarithm of the size of the molecule.
There are limits to electrophoretic techniques. Since passing a current through a gel causes heating, gels may melt during electrophoresis. Electrophoresis is performed in buffer solutions to reduce pH changes due to the electric field, which is important because the charge of DNA and RNA depends on pH, but running for too long can exhaust the buffering capacity of the solution. There are also limitations in determining the molecular weight by SDS-PAGE, especially when trying to find the MW of an unknown protein. Certain biological variables are difficult or impossible to minimize and can affect electrophoretic migration. Such factors include protein structure, post-translational modifications, and amino acid composition. For example, tropomyosin is an acidic protein that migrates abnormally on SDS-PAGE gels. This is because the acidic residues are repelled by the negatively charged SDS, leading to an inaccurate mass-to-charge ratio and migration. Further, different preparations of genetic material may not migrate consistently with each other, for morphological or other reasons.
Types of gel
The types of gel most typically used are agarose and polyacrylamide gels. Each type of gel is well-suited to different types and sizes of the analyte. Polyacrylamide gels are usually used for proteins and have very high resolving power for small fragments of DNA (5-500 bp). Agarose gels, on the other hand, have lower resolving power for DNA but have a greater range of separation, and are therefore used for DNA fragments of usually 50–20,000 bp in size, but the resolution of over 6 Mb is possible with pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Polyacrylamide gels are run in a vertical configuration while agarose gels are typically run horizontally in a submarine mode. They also differ in their casting methodology, as agarose sets thermally, while polyacrylamide forms in a chemical polymerization reaction.
Agarose
Agarose gels are made from the natural polysaccharide polymers extracted from seaweed.
Agarose gels are easily cast and handled compared to other matrices because the gel setting is a physical rather than chemical change. Samples are also easily recovered. After the experiment is finished, the resulting gel can be stored in a plastic bag in a refrigerator.
Agarose gels do not have a uniform pore size, but are optimal for electrophoresis of proteins that are larger than 200 kDa. Agarose gel electrophoresis can also be used for the separation of DNA fragments ranging from 50 base pair to several megabases (millions of bases), the largest of which require specialized apparatus. The distance between DNA bands of different lengths is influenced by the percent agarose in the gel, with higher percentages requiring longer run times, sometimes days. Instead high percentage agarose gels should be run with a pulsed field electrophoresis (PFE), or field inversion electrophoresis.
"Most agarose gels are made with between 0.7% (good separation or resolution of large 5–10kb DNA fragments) and 2% (good resolution for small 0.2–1kb fragments) agarose dissolved in electrophoresis buffer. Up to 3% can be used for separating very tiny fragments but a vertical polyacrylamide gel is more appropriate in this case. Low percentage gels are very weak and may break when you try to lift them. High percentage gels are often brittle and do not set evenly. 1% gels are common for many applications."
Polyacrylamide
Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) is used for separating proteins ranging in size from 5 to 2,000 kDa due to the uniform pore size provided by the polyacrylamide gel. Pore size is controlled by modulating the concentrations of acrylamide and bis-acrylamide powder used in creating a gel. Care must be used when creating this type of gel, as acrylamide is a potent neurotoxin in its liquid and powdered forms.
Traditional DNA sequencing techniques such as Maxam-Gilbert or Sanger methods used polyacrylamide gels to separate DNA fragments differing by a single base-pair in length so the sequence could be read. Most modern DNA separation methods now use agarose gels, except for particularly small DNA fragments. It is currently most often used in the field of immunology and protein analysis, often used to separate different proteins or isoforms of the same protein into separate bands. These can be transferred onto a nitrocellulose or PVDF membrane to be probed with antibodies and corresponding markers, such as in a western blot.
Typically resolving gels are made in 6%, 8%, 10%, 12% or 15%. Stacking gel (5%) is poured on top of the resolving gel and a gel comb (which forms the wells and defines the lanes where proteins, sample buffer, and ladders will be placed) is inserted. The percentage chosen depends on the size of the protein that one wishes to identify or probe in the sample. The smaller the known weight, the higher the percentage that should be used. Changes in the buffer system of the gel can help to further resolve proteins of very small sizes.
Starch
Partially hydrolysed potato starch makes for another non-toxic medium for protein electrophoresis. The gels are slightly more opaque than acrylamide or agarose. Non-denatured proteins can be separated according to charge and size. They are visualised using Napthal Black or Amido Black staining. Typical starch gel concentrations are 5% to 10%.
Gel conditions
Denaturing
Denaturing gels are run under conditions that disrupt the natural structure of the analyte, causing it to unfold into a linear chain. Thus, the mobility of each macromolecule depends only on its linear length and its mass-to-charge ratio. Thus, the secondary, tertiary, and quaternary levels of biomolecular structure are disrupted, leaving only the primary structure to be analyzed.
Nucleic acids are often denatured by including urea in the buffer, while proteins are denatured using sodium dodecyl sulfate, usually as part of the SDS-PAGE process. For full denaturation of proteins, it is also necessary to reduce the covalent disulfide bonds that stabilize their tertiary and quaternary structure, a method called reducing PAGE. Reducing conditions are usually maintained by the addition of beta-mercaptoethanol or dithiothreitol. For a general analysis of protein samples, reducing PAGE is the most common form of protein electrophoresis.
Denaturing conditions are necessary for proper estimation of molecular weight of RNA. RNA is able to form more intramolecular interactions than DNA which may result in change of its electrophoretic mobility. Urea, DMSO and glyoxal are the most often used denaturing agents to disrupt RNA structure. Originally, highly toxic methylmercury hydroxide was often used in denaturing RNA electrophoresis, but it may be method of choice for some samples.
Denaturing gel electrophoresis is used in the DNA and RNA banding pattern-based methods temperature gradient gel electrophoresis (TGGE) and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE).
Native
Native gels are run in non-denaturing conditions so that the analyte's natural structure is maintained. This allows the physical size of the folded or assembled complex to affect the mobility, allowing for analysis of all four levels of the biomolecular structure. For biological samples, detergents are used only to the extent that they are necessary to lyse lipid membranes in the cell. Complexes remain—for the most part—associated and folded as they would be in the cell. One downside, however, is that complexes may not separate cleanly or predictably, as it is difficult to predict how the molecule's shape and size will affect its mobility. Addressing and solving this problem is a major aim of quantitative native PAGE.
Unlike denaturing methods, native gel electrophoresis does not use a charged denaturing agent. The molecules being separated (usually proteins or nucleic acids) therefore differ not only in molecular mass and intrinsic charge, but also the cross-sectional area, and thus experience different electrophoretic forces dependent on the shape of the overall structure. For proteins, since they remain in the native state they may be visualized not only by general protein staining reagents but also by specific enzyme-linked staining.
A specific experiment example of an application of native gel electrophoresis is to check for enzymatic activity to verify the presence of the enzyme in the sample during protein purification. For example, for the protein alkaline phosphatase, the staining solution is a mixture of 4-chloro-2-2methylbenzenediazonium salt with 3-phospho-2-naphthoic acid-2'-4'-dimethyl aniline in Tris buffer. This stain is commercially sold as a kit for staining gels. If the protein is present, the mechanism of the reaction takes place in the following order: it starts with the de-phosphorylation of 3-phospho-2-naphthoic acid-2'-4'-dimethyl aniline by alkaline phosphatase (water is needed for the reaction). The phosphate group is released and replaced by an alcohol group from water. The electrophile 4- chloro-2-2 methylbenzenediazonium (Fast Red TR Diazonium salt) displaces the alcohol group forming the final product Red Azo dye. As its name implies, this is the final visible-red product of the reaction. In undergraduate academic experimentation of protein purification, the gel is usually run next to commercial purified samples to visualize the results and conclude whether or not purification was successful.
Native gel electrophoresis is typically used in proteomics and metallomics. However, native PAGE is also used to scan genes (DNA) for unknown mutations as in Single-strand conformation polymorphism.
Buffers
Buffers in gel electrophoresis are used to provide ions that carry a current and to maintain the pH at a relatively constant value.
These buffers have plenty of ions in them, which is necessary for the passage of electricity through them. Something like distilled water or benzene contains few ions, which is not ideal for the use in electrophoresis. There are a number of buffers used for electrophoresis. The most common being, for nucleic acids Tris/Acetate/EDTA (TAE), Tris/Borate/EDTA (TBE). Many other buffers have been proposed, e.g. lithium borate, which is rarely used, based on Pubmed citations (LB), isoelectric histidine, pK matched goods buffers, etc.; in most cases the purported rationale is lower current (less heat) matched ion mobilities, which leads to longer buffer life. Borate is problematic; Borate can polymerize, or interact with cis diols such as those found in RNA. TAE has the lowest buffering capacity but provides the best resolution for larger DNA. This means a lower voltage and more time, but a better product. LB is relatively new and is ineffective in resolving fragments larger than 5 kbp; However, with its low conductivity, a much higher voltage could be used (up to 35 V/cm), which means a shorter analysis time for routine electrophoresis. As low as one base pair size difference could be resolved in 3% agarose gel with an extremely low conductivity medium (1 mM Lithium borate).
Most SDS-PAGE protein separations are performed using a "discontinuous" (or DISC) buffer system that significantly enhances the sharpness of the bands within the gel. During electrophoresis in a discontinuous gel system, an ion gradient is formed in the early stage of electrophoresis that causes all of the proteins to focus on a single sharp band in a process called isotachophoresis. Separation of the proteins by size is achieved in the lower, "resolving" region of the gel. The resolving gel typically has a much smaller pore size, which leads to a sieving effect that now determines the electrophoretic mobility of the proteins.
Visualization
After the electrophoresis is complete, the molecules in the gel can be stained to make them visible. DNA may be visualized using ethidium bromide which, when intercalated into DNA, fluoresce under ultraviolet light, while protein may be visualised using silver stain or Coomassie brilliant blue dye. Other methods may also be used to visualize the separation of the mixture's components on the gel. If the molecules to be separated contain radioactivity, for example in a DNA sequencing gel, an autoradiogram can be recorded of the gel. Photographs can be taken of gels, often using a Gel Doc system.
Downstream processing
After separation, an additional separation method may then be used, such as isoelectric focusing or SDS-PAGE. The gel will then be physically cut, and the protein complexes extracted from each portion separately. Each extract may then be analysed, such as by peptide mass fingerprinting or de novo peptide sequencing after in-gel digestion. This can provide a great deal of information about the identities of the proteins in a complex.
Applications
Estimation of the size of DNA molecules following restriction enzyme digestion, e.g. in restriction mapping of cloned DNA.
Analysis of PCR products, e.g. in molecular genetic diagnosis or genetic fingerprinting
Separation of restricted genomic DNA prior to Southern transfer, or of RNA prior to Northern transfer.
Gel electrophoresis is used in forensics, molecular biology, genetics, microbiology and biochemistry. The results can be analyzed quantitatively by visualizing the gel with UV light and a gel imaging device. The image is recorded with a computer-operated camera, and the intensity of the band or spot of interest is measured and compared against standard or markers loaded on the same gel. The measurement and analysis are mostly done with specialized software.
Depending on the type of analysis being performed, other techniques are often implemented in conjunction with the results of gel electrophoresis, providing a wide range of field-specific applications.
Nucleic acids
In the case of nucleic acids, the direction of migration, from negative to positive electrodes, is due to the naturally occurring negative charge carried by their sugar-phosphate backbone.
Double-stranded DNA fragments naturally behave as long rods, so their migration through the gel is relative to their size or, for cyclic fragments, their radius of gyration. Circular DNA such as plasmids, however, may show multiple bands, the speed of migration may depend on whether it is relaxed or supercoiled. Single-stranded DNA or RNA tends to fold up into molecules with complex shapes and migrate through the gel in a complicated manner based on their tertiary structure. Therefore, agents that disrupt the hydrogen bonds, such as sodium hydroxide or formamide, are used to denature the nucleic acids and cause them to behave as long rods again.
Gel electrophoresis of large DNA or RNA is usually done by agarose gel electrophoresis. See the "Chain termination method" page for an example of a polyacrylamide DNA sequencing gel. Characterization through ligand interaction of nucleic acids or fragments may be performed by mobility shift affinity electrophoresis.
Electrophoresis of RNA samples can be used to check for genomic DNA contamination and also for RNA degradation. RNA from eukaryotic organisms shows distinct bands of 28s and 18s rRNA, the 28s band being approximately twice as intense as the 18s band. Degraded RNA has less sharply defined bands, has a smeared appearance, and the intensity ratio is less than 2:1.
Proteins
Proteins, unlike nucleic acids, can have varying charges and complex shapes, therefore they may not migrate into the polyacrylamide gel at similar rates, or all when placing a negative to positive EMF on the sample. Proteins, therefore, are usually denatured in the presence of a detergent such as sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) that coats the proteins with a negative charge. Generally, the amount of SDS bound is relative to the size of the protein (usually 1.4g SDS per gram of protein), so that the resulting denatured proteins have an overall negative charge, and all the proteins have a similar charge-to-mass ratio. Since denatured proteins act like long rods instead of having a complex tertiary shape, the rate at which the resulting SDS coated proteins migrate in the gel is relative only to its size and not its charge or shape.
Proteins are usually analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), by native gel electrophoresis, by preparative gel electrophoresis (QPNC-PAGE), or by 2-D electrophoresis.
Characterization through ligand interaction may be performed by electroblotting or by affinity electrophoresis in agarose or by capillary electrophoresis as for estimation of binding constants and determination of structural features like glycan content through lectin binding.
Nanoparticles
A novel application for gel electrophoresis is to separate or characterize metal or metal oxide nanoparticles (e.g. Au, Ag, ZnO, SiO2) regarding the size, shape, or surface chemistry of the nanoparticles. The scope is to obtain a more homogeneous sample (e.g. narrower particle size distribution), which then can be used in further products/processes (e.g. self-assembly processes). For the separation of nanoparticles within a gel, the particle size about the mesh size is the key parameter, whereby two migration mechanisms were identified: the unrestricted mechanism, where the particle size << mesh size, and the restricted mechanism, where particle size is similar to mesh size.
History
1930s – first reports of the use of sucrose for gel electrophoresis
1955 – introduction of starch gels, mediocre separation (Smithies)
1959 – introduction of acrylamide gels; disc electrophoresis (Ornstein and Davis); accurate control of parameters such as pore size and stability; and (Raymond and Weintraub)
1966 – first use of agar gels
1969 – introduction of denaturing agents especially SDS separation of protein subunit (Weber and Osborn)
1970 – Laemmli separated 28 components of T4 phage using a stacking gel and SDS
1972 – agarose gels with ethidium bromide stain
1975 – 2-dimensional gels (O’Farrell); isoelectric focusing then SDS gel electrophoresis
1977 – sequencing gels
1983 – pulsed field gel electrophoresis enables separation of large DNA molecules
1983 – introduction of capillary electrophoresis
2004 – introduction of a standardized time of polymerization of acrylamide gels enables clean and predictable separation of native proteins (Kastenholz)
A 1959 book on electrophoresis by Milan Bier cites references from the 1800s. However, Oliver Smithies made significant contributions. Bier states: "The method of Smithies ... is finding wide application because of its unique separatory power." Taken in context, Bier clearly implies that Smithies' method is an improvement.
See also
History of electrophoresis
Electrophoretic mobility shift assay
Gel extraction
Isoelectric focusing
Pulsed field gel electrophoresis
Nonlinear frictiophoresis
Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis
SDD-AGE
Zymography
Fast parallel proteolysis
References
External links
Biotechniques Laboratory electrophoresis demonstration, from the University of Utah's Genetic Science Learning Center
Discontinuous native protein gel electrophoresis
Drinking straw electrophoresis
How to run a DNA or RNA gel
Animation of gel analysis of DNA restriction
Step by step photos of running a gel and extracting DNA
A typical method from wikiversity
Protein methods
Molecular biology
Laboratory techniques
Electrophoresis
Polymerase chain reaction
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12583 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary%20Lineker | Gary Lineker | Gary Winston Lineker (; born 30 November 1960) is an English former professional footballer and current sports broadcaster. He is regarded as one of the greatest English strikers. His media career began with the BBC, where he has presented the flagship football programme Match of the Day since the late 1990s, the longest tenure of any MOTD presenter. Lineker is also the BBC's lead presenter for live football matches, including its coverage of international tournaments. He has also previously worked for Al Jazeera Sports, Eredivisie Live, NBC Sports Network, and BT Sport's coverage of the UEFA Champions League.
Lineker began his football career at Leicester City in 1978, and finished as the First Division's joint top goalscorer in 1984–85. He then moved to league champions Everton where he won both the PFA Players' Player of the Year and FWA Footballer of the Year awards in his debut season, before moving to Spanish giants Barcelona. With Barcelona, he won the 1987-1988 Copa del Rey and the 1989 European Cup Winners' Cup. He joined Tottenham Hotspur in 1989, and won his second FWA Footballer of the Year and won the FA Cup, his first and only major trophy in English football. Lineker's final club was Nagoya Grampus Eight; he retired in 1994 after two seasons at the Japanese side.
Lineker made his England debut in 1984, earning 80 caps and scoring 48 goals over an eight-year international career. He is England's joint third-highest scorer, behind Wayne Rooney and Bobby Charlton, level with Harry Kane, and his international goals-to-games ratio remains one of the best for the country. His six goals in the 1986 FIFA World Cup made him the tournament's top scorer, receiving the Golden Boot, the only time an Englishman achieved this until Harry Kane in the 2018 World Cup. Lineker was again integral to England's progress to the semi-finals of the 1990 World Cup, scoring another four goals. He still holds England's record for goals in the FIFA World Cup.
Lineker is also the only player to have been the top scorer in England with three clubs: Leicester City, Everton and Tottenham Hotspur. Notably, he never received a yellow or red card during his 16-year career. As a result, he was honoured in 1990 with the FIFA Fair Play Award. In a senior career which spanned 16 years and 567 competitive games, Lineker scored a total of 330 goals, including 282 goals at club level. After his retirement from football he was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame. A keen supporter of Leicester City, he led a consortium that invested in his old club, saving it from bankruptcy, and was appointed honorary vice-president.
Early life
Lineker was born in Leicester, the son of Margaret P. (Abbs) and Barry Lineker. He was given his middle name in honour of Winston Churchill, with whom he shares a birthday. He has one brother, Wayne, who is two years his junior. Lineker grew up with his family in the city, playing football with Wayne. Their father was a greengrocer, as was their grandfather William and great-grandfather George, in Leicester. Barry Lineker ran Lineker's fruit and veg stall in Leicester Market, and as a child and a young player Gary regularly helped out on the stall.
Lineker first attended Caldecote Road School (Caldecote Juniors), Braunstone in Leicester (east of the Meridian Centre). He then went to the City of Leicester Boys' Grammar School (now City of Leicester College) on Downing Drive in Evington, owing to his preference for football rather than rugby, which was the main sport of most schools near his home. Lineker was equally talented at both football and cricket. From the ages of 11 to 16 he captained the Leicestershire Schools cricket team, and had felt that he had a higher chance of succeeding at it rather than football. He later stated on They Think It's All Over that as a teenager he idolised former England captain David Gower, who was playing for Leicestershire at the time. During his youth he played for Aylestone Park Youth, later becoming the club's president.
Lineker left school with four O Levels. One of his teachers wrote on his report card that he "concentrates too much on football" and that he would "never make a living at that". He then joined the youth academy at Leicester City in 1976.
Club career
Leicester City
Lineker began his career at his hometown club Leicester City after leaving school in 1977, turning professional in the 1978–79 season and making his senior debut on New Year's Day 1979 in a 2–0 win at Filbert Street over Oldham Athletic in the Second Division. He earned a Second Division title medal a year later with 19 appearances, but played just nine league games in 1980–81 as Leicester went straight back down.
However, he became a regular player in 1981–82, scoring 19 goals in all competitions that season. Although Leicester missed out on promotion, they reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup, and clinched promotion a year later as Lineker scored 26 times in the Second Division. In 1983–84, he enjoyed regular First Division action for the first time and was the division's second-highest scorer with 22 goals, although Leicester failed to finish anywhere near the top of the league. He was the First Division's joint top scorer in 1984–85 with 24 goals, and was enjoying a prolific partnership with Alan Smith. However, by this stage he was attracting the attention of bigger clubs, and a move from Filbert Street was looking certain.
Everton
In the 1985 close season, defending league champions Everton signed Lineker for £800,000; he scored 40 goals in 57 games for his new team in the 1985–86 season. Lineker's first game for Everton happened to be away to Leicester City; at half time, he walked into the Leicester dressing room by mistake. He was again the First Division's leading goal scorer, this time with 30 goals (including three hat-tricks), and helped Everton finish second in the league. While at Everton, they reached the FA Cup final for the third consecutive year but lost 3–1 to Liverpool, despite Lineker giving them an early lead when he outpaced Alan Hansen to score. Liverpool had also pipped Everton to the title by just two points. "I was only on Merseyside a short time, nine or 10 months in total really, but it was still a happy time personally, while professionally it was one of the most successful periods of my career", he says. "I still have an affinity towards Everton."
Lineker scored three hat-tricks for Everton; at home to Birmingham City in a 4–1 league win on 31 August 1985, at home to Manchester City in a 4–0 home win on 11 February 1986, and then in the penultimate league game of the season on 3 May 1986, when they kept their title hopes alive with a 6–1 home win over Southampton. On his final league appearance, he scored twice in a 3–1 home win over West Ham United whose own title hopes had just disappeared. However, he and his colleagues were denied title glory as Liverpool also won their final league game of the season at Chelsea.
Lineker has consistently stated since retiring from football that this Everton team was the best club side he ever played in.
Barcelona
After winning the Golden Boot at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, Lineker was signed by Barcelona for £2.8 million. Barcelona were being managed by former Queens Park Rangers manager Terry Venables, who had also brought in Manchester United and Wales striker Mark Hughes. Barcelona gave Lineker his first chance of European football, as Leicester had never qualified for Europe while he played for them, and Everton were denied a place in the European Cup for 1985–86 due to the ban on English clubs in European competitions following the Heysel disaster.
Lineker made his Barcelona debut against Racing Santander, scoring twice. His Golden Boot-winning performance at the finals generated much anticipation of success at the Camp Nou, and he did not disappoint, scoring 21 goals in 41 games during his first season, including a hat-trick in a 3–2 win over archrivals Real Madrid. Barcelona went on to win the Copa del Rey in 1988 and the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1989. Lineker played in Barcelona's shock home and away defeats to Dundee United. Barcelona manager Johan Cruyff decided to play Lineker on the right of the midfield and he was eventually no longer an automatic choice in the team.
With 42 goals in 103 La Liga appearances, Lineker became the highest scoring British player in the competition's history, but was later surpassed by Gareth Bale in March 2016.
Tottenham Hotspur
Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson attempted to sign Lineker to partner his ex-Barcelona teammate Mark Hughes in attack, but Lineker instead signed for Tottenham Hotspur in July 1989 for £1.1 million. Over three seasons, he scored 67 goals in 105 league games and won the FA Cup while playing for the club. He finished as top scorer in the First Division in the 1989–90 season, scoring 24 goals as Spurs finished third.
He finally collected an English trophy when he won the 1991 FA Cup Final with Spurs, who beat Nottingham Forest 2–1. This was despite Lineker having a goal controversially disallowed for offside and also having a penalty saved by goalkeeper Mark Crossley. Lineker had contributed to Tottenham's run to the final. In the semi-final he scored twice in a 3–1 win over North London rivals Arsenal.
He was the top division's second-highest goalscorer in 1991–92 with 28 goals from 35 games, behind Ian Wright, who scored 29 times in 42 games. Despite Lineker's personal performance, Tottenham finished this final pre-Premier League season in 15th place. His last goal in English football came on the last day of the season in a 3–1 defeat to Manchester United at Old Trafford.
Nagoya Grampus Eight
In November 1991, Lineker accepted an offer of a two-year contract from J1 League club Nagoya Grampus Eight. The transfer fee paid to Tottenham Hotspur was £2 million. He officially joined Nagoya Grampus Eight after playing his final game for Spurs on 2 May 1992, when he scored the consolation goal in a 3–1 defeat by Manchester United on the last day of the season. Shortly before accepting the offer from Nagoya Grampus Eight, Tottenham had rejected an offer from ambitious Second Division club Blackburn Rovers, who had recently been taken over by steel baron Jack Walker.
Having scored 9 goals in 23 appearances over two injury impacted seasons for Nagoya Grampus Eight, he announced his retirement from playing in September 1994. The English national media had previously reported that he would be returning to England to complete his playing career at Middlesbrough or Southampton.
International career
Lineker was capped once by the England B national team, playing in a 2–0 home win over New Zealand's B team on 13 November 1984. He first played for the full England team against Scotland in 1984. He played five games in the 1986 World Cup and was top scorer of the tournament with six goals, winning the Golden Boot, making him the first English player to have done so. He scored the second quickest hat-trick ever at a FIFA World Cup tournament against Poland, the second English player to score a hat-trick at a World Cup, and scored two goals against Paraguay in the second round. He played most of the tournament wearing a lightweight cast on his forearm. He scored for England in the World Cup quarter-final against Argentina, but the game ended in defeat as Diego Maradona scored twice for the opposition (the first goal being the "Hand of God" handball, and the second being the "Goal of the Century"). In 1988, Lineker played in Euro 88, but failed to score as England lost all three Group games. It was later established that he had been suffering from hepatitis.
In the 1990 World Cup, he scored four goals to help England reach the semi-finals. He was unwell during the tournament, and accidentally defecated during the opening group game against the Republic of Ireland. After Andreas Brehme sent England 1–0 down in the semi-final, Lineker received a pass from Paul Parker and escaped two West German defenders on his way to scoring the equaliser, but the West Germans triumphed in the penalty shoot-out and went on to win the trophy. Later he said: "Football is a simple game; 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans win." Lineker's equaliser appears in the popular England national team anthem, "Three Lions", with the lyric "When Lineker scored".
He retired from international football with eighty caps and forty-eight goals, one fewer goal than Sir Bobby Charlton's England record (which Charlton accrued over 106 caps). In what proved to be his last England match, against Sweden at Euro 92, he was substituted by England coach Graham Taylor in favour of Arsenal striker Alan Smith, ultimately denying him the chance to equal—or even better—Charlton's record. He had earlier missed a penalty that would have brought him level, in a pre-tournament friendly against Brazil. He was visibly upset at the decision, not looking at Taylor as he took the bench.
He scored four goals in an England match on two occasions and is one of very few players never to have been given a yellow card or a red card in any type of game.
Media career
Following retirement from professional football, he developed a career in the media, initially on BBC Radio 5 Live and as a football pundit before replacing Des Lynam as the BBC's anchorman for football coverage, including their flagship football television programme Match of the Day, and as a team captain on the sports game show They Think It's All Over from 1995 to 2003. Following the departure of Steve Rider from the BBC, Lineker, who is a keen recreational golfer with a handicap of four, became the new presenter for the BBC's golf coverage. Also, he presented Grandstand in the London studio while then-presenter Desmond Lynam was in Aintree when the Grand National was abandoned because of a bomb alert at the racecourse in 1997. Despite receiving some criticism from his peers, he continued to front the BBC's coverage of the Masters and The Open, where he put his language skills to good use by giving an impromptu interview in Spanish with Argentinian Andrés Romero.
He participated in Prince Edward's charity television special The Grand Knockout Tournament in 1987. Lineker also appeared in the 1991 play An Evening with Gary Lineker by Arthur Smith and Chris England, which was adapted for television in 1994. He presented a six-part TV series for the BBC in 1998 (directed by Lloyd Stanton) called Golden Boots, with other football celebrities. It was an extensive history of the World Cup focusing on the 'Golden Boots' (top scorers).
In 2001, Lineker appeared in the TV show Brass Eye (episode "Paedogeddon"). In 2002, Lineker had a cameo appearance in the film Bend It Like Beckham. In 2005, Lineker was sued for defamation by Australian footballer Harry Kewell over comments Lineker had made writing in his column in The Sunday Telegraph about Kewell's transfer from Leeds United to Liverpool. However, the jury was unable to reach a verdict. It became known during the case that the article had actually been ghost-written by a journalist at The Sunday Telegraph following a telephone interview with Lineker.
In 2006, Lineker took on an acting role as the voice of Underground Ernie on the BBC's children's channel, CBeebies. In December 2008, Lineker appeared on the ITV1 television programme Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? where he and English rugby union player Austin Healey won £50,000 for the Nicholls Spinal Injury Foundation. In 2009, Lineker and his wife Danielle hosted a series of the BBC's Northern Exposure, following on from Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen from the previous year in visiting and showcasing locations throughout Northern Ireland.
In May 2010, Lineker resigned from his role as columnist for The Mail on Sunday in protest over the sting operation against Lord Triesman that reportedly jeopardised England's bid to host the 2018 World Cup. Triesman resigned as chairman of the bid and the FA on 16 May 2010 after the publication of a secret recording of a conversation between the peer and a former ministerial aide, during which he claimed that Spain and Russia were planning to bribe referees at the World Cup in South Africa.
Lineker then began working as an anchor for the English language football coverage for Al Jazeera Sport, which is broadcast throughout most of the Middle East. He left the Qatar-based network in 2012.
In 2013, Lineker began working for NBCSN as part of their Premier League coverage, and contributing to the US version of Match of the Day. On 9 June 2015, Lineker was unveiled as the lead presenter of BT Sport's Champions League coverage. On 13 August 2016, Lineker presented the first Match of the Day of the 2016–17 season wearing only boxer shorts. Believing it would simply not happen, he had promised in a tweet from December 2015 that if Leicester City won the Premier League, he would "present Match of the Day in just my undies".
On 18 October 2016, Lineker tweeted a rebuttal to a statement made by MP David Davies where Davies suggested refugees entering the UK should undergo dental checks to verify their age. Lineker posted "The treatment by some towards these young refugees is hideously racist and utterly heartless. What's happening to our country?" This led The Sun to call for Lineker's sacking from Match of the Day, claiming that he had breached BBC impartiality guidelines. Lineker described the controversy as "a spanking" but continued to advocate for refugees.
In July 2018, Lineker announced his support for People's Vote, a campaign group calling for a public vote on the final Brexit deal between the UK and the European Union.
Lineker was the highest-paid BBC employee, receiving payments of £1.75–1.76 million in the years 2016–17, 2017–18, 2018–19, and 2019–20, according to the BBC's list of top salaries. His pay has been criticised by Julian Knight, chair of the parliamentary Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, and Dame Esther Rantzen. The BBC's Director General, Tim Davie, stated that Lineker's pay was justified "because of the value of analysis to the viewing audience".
In 2021, Lineker makes a number of cameo appearances playing himself in the American football comedy TV series Ted Lasso.
Walkers commercials
Lineker has appeared in television commercials for the Leicester-based snack company Walkers. Originally signing a £200,000 deal in 1994, his first advert was 1995's "Welcome Home" (Lineker had recently returned to England having played in Japan). Walkers temporarily named their salt and vinegar crisps after Lineker, labelling them 'Salt & Lineker', in the late 1990s. In 2000, Lineker's Walkers commercials were ranked ninth in Channel 4's poll of the "100 Greatest Adverts".
Goalhanger Films
In May 2014, Lineker established his own production company Goalhanger Films Ltd. with former ITV Controller Tony Pastor. During the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Lineker presented several short videos produced by Goalhanger Films on YouTube with the title Blahzil.
In May 2015, the company produced a 60-minute-long documentary presented by Lineker titled Gary Lineker on the Road to FA Cup Glory for the BBC.
Personal life
Lineker married Michelle Cockayne in 1986. In May 2006, Cockayne filed for divorce on the grounds of her husband's alleged "unreasonable behaviour", with documents submitted to the court claiming that Lineker's actions in their marriage had caused her "stress and anxiety". Lineker and she have four sons; George, Harry, Tobias and Angus. The couple subsequently stated that the situation was amicable.
In November 1991, George, Lineker's eldest son, survived a rare form of leukaemia whilst he was a baby, and was treated at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. Lineker now supports children's cancer charity CLIC Sargent and has appeared in promotional clips encouraging people to give blood. Lineker has been actively involved with other cancer charities such as Leukaemia Busters, where between 1994 and 2005 Gary and Michelle were the charity's patrons. He has also been involved with the Fight for Life and Cancer Research UK charities.
Lineker was made a freeman of the City of Leicester in 1995 and he has been referred to as "Leicester's favourite son".
In October 2002, Lineker backed a £5 million bid to rescue his former club Leicester City, which had recently gone into administration, describing his involvement as "charity" rather than an "ego trip". He stated that he would invest a six-figure sum and that other members of his consortium would invest a similar amount. Lineker met with fans' groups to persuade them to try and raise money to rescue his former club. The club was eventually saved from liquidation. He is now honorary Vice President of Leicester City F.C.
Lineker married Danielle Bux on 2 September 2009, in Ravello, Italy. They went on to win £30,000 for charity on ITV's gameshow Mr and Mrs. On 13 January 2016, Lineker and Bux announced they were divorcing, after six years of marriage, the reason given being Gary not wanting more children.
In 1985, Lineker was best man at snooker player Willie Thorne's wedding and their close friendship was the subject of the VHS production, Best of Friends – The Official Story of Gary Lineker & Willie Thorne.
In 2013, Lineker participated in the genealogical programme Who Do You Think You Are? during which he discovered an ancestor who was a poacher, and another who was a legal clerk.
In November 2017, Lineker was named in the Paradise Papers in connection with a tax avoidance scheme relating to property owned in Barbados and a company set up in the British Virgin Islands.
Lineker speaks Spanish, which he learnt during his time playing for FC Barcelona, and is an advocate for the teaching of foreign languages in schools.
In April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Lineker announced that he was donating £140,000 to the British Red Cross towards research into the virus.
Career statistics
Club
International
Lineker earned his first cap for England in 1984 against Scotland during the 1983–84 British Home Championship. He played his last game for England in a 2–1 loss against Sweden in a Euro 1992 group stage match. He almost equalled the England goalscoring record, held at the time by Bobby Charlton, in a pre-tournament friendly against Brazil, but he missed a penalty kick, leaving him one goal short of Charlton's total, which was overtaken by Wayne Rooney in 2015.
Scores and results list England's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Lineker goal.
Honours
Leicester City
Football League Second Division: 1979–80
Everton
FA Charity Shield: 1985
Barcelona
Copa del Rey: 1987–88
European Cup Winners' Cup: 1988–89
Tottenham Hotspur
FA Cup: 1990–91
FA Charity Shield: 1991 (shared)
England
FIFA World Cup fourth place: 1990
Individual
English Second Division top scorer: 1982–83
English First Division top scorer: 1984–85, 1985–86, 1989–90
PFA Players' Player of the Year: 1985–86
FWA Footballer of the Year: 1985–86, 1991–92
FIFA World Cup Golden Boot: 1986
FIFA World Cup All-Star Team: 1986
Onze de Bronze: 1986
Ballon d'Or runner-up: 1986
FIFA Fair Play Award: 1990
FWA Tribute Award: 1997
FIFA World Player of the Year bronze award: 1991
FIFA 100
English Football Hall of Fame: 2003
PFA Team of the Century (1977–1996): 2007
Fellowships
Lineker is a Visiting Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford, appointed 2020.
References
Further reading
External links
Lineker`s first goal in Jleague-Jleague official
1960 births
Living people
Footballers from Leicester
English footballers
Association football forwards
Leicester City F.C. players
Everton F.C. players
FC Barcelona players
Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players
Nagoya Grampus players
English Football League players
First Division/Premier League top scorers
La Liga players
J1 League players
England B international footballers
England international footballers
1986 FIFA World Cup players
UEFA Euro 1988 players
1990 FIFA World Cup players
UEFA Euro 1992 players
FIFA 100
English Football Hall of Fame inductees
English expatriate footballers
English expatriate sportspeople in Spain
English expatriate sportspeople in Japan
Expatriate footballers in Spain
Expatriate footballers in Japan
People educated at City of Leicester Boys' Grammar School
English association football commentators
BBC sports presenters and reporters
BT Sport presenters and reporters
Golf writers and broadcasters
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
FA Cup Final players
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12584 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golgi%20apparatus | Golgi apparatus | The Golgi apparatus (), also known as the Golgi complex, Golgi body, or simply the Golgi, is an organelle found in most eukaryotic cells. Part of the endomembrane system in the cytoplasm, it packages proteins into membrane-bound vesicles inside the cell before the vesicles are sent to their destination. It resides at the intersection of the secretory, lysosomal, and endocytic pathways. It is of particular importance in processing proteins for secretion, containing a set of glycosylation enzymes that attach various sugar monomers to proteins as the proteins move through the apparatus.
It was identified in 1897 by the Italian scientist Camillo Golgi and was named after him in 1898.
Discovery
Owing to its large size and distinctive structure, the Golgi apparatus was one of the first organelles to be discovered and observed in detail. It was discovered in 1898 by Italian physician Camillo Golgi during an investigation of the nervous system. After first observing it under his microscope, he termed the structure as apparato reticolare interno ("internal reticular apparatus"). Some doubted the discovery at first, arguing that the appearance of the structure was merely an optical illusion created by the observation technique used by Golgi. With the development of modern microscopes in the twentieth century, the discovery was confirmed. Early references to the Golgi apparatus referred to it by various names including the "Golgi–Holmgren apparatus", "Golgi–Holmgren ducts", and "Golgi–Kopsch apparatus". The term "Golgi apparatus" was used in 1910 and first appeared in the scientific literature in 1913, while "Golgi complex" was introduced in 1956.
Subcellular localization
The subcellular localization of the Golgi apparatus varies among eukaryotes. In mammals, a single Golgi apparatus is usually located near the cell nucleus, close to the centrosome. Tubular connections are responsible for linking the stacks together. Localization and tubular connections of the Golgi apparatus are dependent on microtubules. In experiments it is seen that as microtubules are depolymerized the Golgi apparatuses lose mutual connections and become individual stacks throughout the cytoplasm. In yeast, multiple Golgi apparatuses are scattered throughout the cytoplasm (as observed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae). In plants, Golgi stacks are not concentrated at the centrosomal region and do not form Golgi ribbons. Organization of the plant Golgi depends on actin cables and not microtubules. The common feature among Golgi is that they are adjacent to endoplasmic reticulum (ER) exit sites.
Structure
In most eukaryotes, the Golgi apparatus is made up of a series of compartments and is a collection of fused, flattened membrane-enclosed disks known as cisternae (singular: cisterna, also called "dictyosomes"), originating from vesicular clusters that bud off the endoplasmic reticulum. A mammalian cell typically contains 40 to 100 stacks of cisternae. Between four and eight cisternae are usually present in a stack; however, in some protists as many as sixty cisternae have been observed. This collection of cisternae is broken down into cis, medial, and trans compartments, making up two main networks: the cis Golgi network (CGN) and the trans Golgi network (TGN). The CGN is the first cisternal structure, and the TGN is the final, from which proteins are packaged into vesicles destined to lysosomes, secretory vesicles, or the cell surface. The TGN is usually positioned adjacent to the stack, but can also be separate from it. The TGN may act as an early endosome in yeast and plants.
There are structural and organizational differences in the Golgi apparatus among eukaryotes. In some yeasts, Golgi stacking is not observed. Pichia pastoris does have stacked Golgi, while Saccharomyces cerevisiae does not. In plants, the individual stacks of the Golgi apparatus seem to operate independently.
The Golgi apparatus tends to be larger and more numerous in cells that synthesize and secrete large amounts of substances; for example, the antibody-secreting plasma B cells of the immune system have prominent Golgi complexes.
In all eukaryotes, each cisternal stack has a cis entry face and a trans exit face. These faces are characterized by unique morphology and biochemistry. Within individual stacks are assortments of enzymes responsible for selectively modifying protein cargo. These modifications influence the fate of the protein. The compartmentalization of the Golgi apparatus is advantageous for separating enzymes, thereby maintaining consecutive and selective processing steps: enzymes catalyzing early modifications are gathered in the cis face cisternae, and enzymes catalyzing later modifications are found in trans face cisternae of the Golgi stacks.
Function
The Golgi apparatus is a major collection and dispatch station of protein products received from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Proteins synthesized in the ER are packaged into vesicles, which then fuse with the Golgi apparatus. These cargo proteins are modified and destined for secretion via exocytosis or for use in the cell.
In this respect, the Golgi can be thought of as similar to a post office: it packages and labels items which it then sends to different parts of the cell or to the extracellular space. The Golgi apparatus is also involved in lipid transport and lysosome formation.
The structure and function of the Golgi apparatus are intimately linked. Individual stacks have different assortments of enzymes, allowing for progressive processing of cargo proteins as they travel from the cisternae to the trans Golgi face. Enzymatic reactions within the Golgi stacks occur exclusively near its membrane surfaces, where enzymes are anchored. This feature is in contrast to the ER, which has soluble proteins and enzymes in its lumen. Much of the enzymatic processing is post-translational modification of proteins. For example, phosphorylation of oligosaccharides on lysosomal proteins occurs in the early CGN. Cis cisterna are associated with the removal of mannose residues. Removal of mannose residues and addition of N-acetylglucosamine occur in medial cisternae. Addition of galactose and sialic acid occurs in the trans cisternae. Sulfation of tyrosines and carbohydrates occurs within the TGN. Other general post-translational modifications of proteins include the addition of carbohydrates (glycosylation) and phosphates (phosphorylation). Protein modifications may form a signal sequence that determines the final destination of the protein. For example, the Golgi apparatus adds a mannose-6-phosphate label to proteins destined for lysosomes. Another important function of the Golgi apparatus is in the formation of proteoglycans. Enzymes in the Golgi append proteins to glycosaminoglycans, thus creating proteoglycans. Glycosaminoglycans are long unbranched polysaccharide molecules present in the extracellular matrix of animals.
Vesicular transport
The vesicles that leave the rough endoplasmic reticulum are transported to the cis face of the Golgi apparatus, where they fuse with the Golgi membrane and empty their contents into the lumen. Once inside the lumen, the molecules are modified, then sorted for transport to their next destinations.
Those proteins destined for areas of the cell other than either the endoplasmic reticulum or the Golgi apparatus are moved through the Golgi cisternae towards the trans face, to a complex network of membranes and associated vesicles known as the trans-Golgi network (TGN). This area of the Golgi is the point at which proteins are sorted and shipped to their intended destinations by their placement into one of at least three different types of vesicles, depending upon the signal sequence they carry.
Current models of vesicular transport and trafficking
Model 1: Anterograde vesicular transport between stable compartments
In this model, the Golgi is viewed as a set of stable compartments that work together. Each compartment has a unique collection of enzymes that work to modify protein cargo. Proteins are delivered from the ER to the cis face using COPII-coated vesicles. Cargo then progress toward the trans face in COPI-coated vesicles. This model proposes that COPI vesicles move in two directions: anterograde vesicles carry secretory proteins, while retrograde vesicles recycle Golgi-specific trafficking proteins.
Strengths: The model explains observations of compartments, polarized distribution of enzymes, and waves of moving vesicles. It also attempts to explain how Golgi-specific enzymes are recycled.
Weaknesses: Since the amount of COPI vesicles varies drastically among types of cells, this model cannot easily explain high trafficking activity within the Golgi for both small and large cargoes. Additionally, there is no convincing evidence that COPI vesicles move in both the anterograde and retrograde directions.
This model was widely accepted from the early 1980s until the late 1990s.
Model 2: Cisternal progression/maturation
In this model, the fusion of COPII vesicles from the ER begins the formation of the first cis-cisterna of the Golgi stack, which progresses later to become mature TGN cisternae. Once matured, the TGN cisternae dissolve to become secretory vesicles. While this progression occurs, COPI vesicles continually recycle Golgi-specific proteins by delivery from older to younger cisternae. Different recycling patterns may account for the differing biochemistry throughout the Golgi stack. Thus, the compartments within the Golgi are seen as discrete kinetic stages of the maturing Golgi apparatus.
Strengths: The model addresses the existence of Golgi compartments, as well as differing biochemistry within the cisternae, transport of large proteins, transient formation and disintegration of the cisternae, and retrograde mobility of native Golgi proteins, and it can account for the variability seen in the structures of the Golgi.
Weaknesses: This model cannot easily explain the observation of fused Golgi networks, tubular connections among cisternae, and differing kinetics of secretory cargo exit.
Model 3: Cisternal progression/maturation with heterotypic tubular transport
This model is an extension of the cisternal progression/maturation model. It incorporates the existence of tubular connections among the cisternae that form the Golgi ribbon, in which cisternae within a stack are linked. This model posits that the tubules are important for bidirectional traffic in the ER-Golgi system: they allow for fast anterograde traffic of small cargo and/or the retrograde traffic of native Golgi proteins.
Strengths: This model encompasses the strengths of the cisternal progression/maturation model that also explains rapid trafficking of cargo, and how native Golgi proteins can recycle independently of COPI vesicles.
Weaknesses: This model cannot explain the transport kinetics of large protein cargo, such as collagen. Additionally, tubular connections are not prevalent in plant cells. The roles that these connections have can be attributed to a cell-specific specialization rather than a universal trait. If the membranes are continuous, that suggests the existence of mechanisms that preserve the unique biochemical gradients observed throughout the Golgi apparatus.
Model 4: Rapid partitioning in a mixed Golgi
This rapid partitioning model is the most drastic alteration of the traditional vesicular trafficking point of view. Proponents of this model hypothesize that the Golgi works as a single unit, containing domains that function separately in the processing and export of protein cargo. Cargo from the ER move between these two domains, and randomly exit from any level of the Golgi to their final location. This model is supported by the observation that cargo exits the Golgi in a pattern best described by exponential kinetics. The existence of domains is supported by fluorescence microscopy data.
Strengths: Notably, this model explains the exponential kinetics of cargo exit of both large and small proteins, whereas other models cannot.
Weaknesses: This model cannot explain the transport kinetics of large protein cargo, such as collagen. This model falls short on explaining the observation of discrete compartments and polarized biochemistry of the Golgi cisternae. It also does not explain formation and disintegration of the Golgi network, nor the role of COPI vesicles.
Model 5: Stable compartments as cisternal model progenitors
This is the most recent model. In this model, the Golgi is seen as a collection of stable compartments defined by Rab (G-protein) GTPases.
Strengths: This model is consistent with numerous observations and encompasses some of the strengths of the cisternal progression/maturation model. Additionally, what is known of the Rab GTPase roles in mammalian endosomes can help predict putative roles within the Golgi. This model is unique in that it can explain the observation of "megavesicle" transport intermediates.
Weaknesses: This model does not explain morphological variations in the Golgi apparatus, nor define a role for COPI vesicles. This model does not apply well for plants, algae, and fungi in which individual Golgi stacks are observed (transfer of domains between stacks is not likely). Additionally, megavesicles are not established to be intra-Golgi transporters.
Though there are multiple models that attempt to explain vesicular traffic throughout the Golgi, no individual model can independently explain all observations of the Golgi apparatus. Currently, the cisternal progression/maturation model is the most accepted among scientists, accommodating many observations across eukaryotes. The other models are still important in framing questions and guiding future experimentation. Among the fundamental unanswered questions are the directionality of COPI vesicles and role of Rab GTPases in modulating protein cargo traffic.
Brefeldin A
Brefeldin A (BFA) is a fungal metabolite used experimentally to disrupt the secretion pathway as a method of testing Golgi function. BFA blocks the activation of some ADP-ribosylation factors (ARFs). ARFs are small GTPases which regulate vesicular trafficking through the binding of COPs to endosomes and the Golgi. BFA inhibits the function of several guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs) that mediate GTP-binding of ARFs. Treatment of cells with BFA thus disrupts the secretion pathway, promoting disassembly of the Golgi apparatus and distributing Golgi proteins to the endosomes and ER.
Gallery
References
External links
Organelles | [
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12587 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GFDL%20%28disambiguation%29 | GFDL (disambiguation) | GFDL, or GNU Free Documentation License, is a license for free documentation.
GFDL may also refer to:
Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, a division of NOAA
GFDL hurricane model (see: Tropical cyclone forecast model) | [
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12590 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace%20Hopper | Grace Hopper | Grace Brewster Murray Hopper (; December 9, 1906 – January 1, 1992) was an American computer scientist and United States Navy rear admiral. One of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer, she was a pioneer of computer programming who invented one of the first linkers. Hopper was the first to devise the theory of machine-independent programming languages, and the FLOW-MATIC programming language she created using this theory was later extended to create COBOL, an early high-level programming language still in use today.
Prior to joining the Navy, Hopper earned a Ph.D. in mathematics from Yale University and was a professor of mathematics at Vassar College. Hopper attempted to enlist in the Navy during World War II but was rejected because she was 34 years old. She instead joined the Navy Reserves. Hopper began her computing career in 1944 when she worked on the Harvard Mark I team led by Howard H. Aiken. In 1949, she joined the Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation and was part of the team that developed the UNIVAC I computer. At Eckert–Mauchly she managed the development of one of the first COBOL compilers. She believed that a programming language based on English was possible. Her compiler converted English terms into machine code understood by computers. By 1952, Hopper had finished her program linker (originally called a compiler), which was written for the A-0 System. During her wartime service, she co-authored three papers based on her work on the Harvard Mark 1.
In 1954, Eckert–Mauchly chose Hopper to lead their department for automatic programming, and she led the release of some of the first compiled languages like FLOW-MATIC. In 1959, she participated in the CODASYL consortium, which consulted Hopper to guide them in creating a machine-independent programming language. This led to the COBOL language, which was inspired by her idea of a language being based on English words. In 1966, she retired from the Naval Reserve, but in 1967 the Navy recalled her to active duty. She retired from the Navy in 1986 and found work as a consultant for the Digital Equipment Corporation, sharing her computing experiences.
The U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer was named for her, as was the Cray XE6 "Hopper" supercomputer at NERSC. During her lifetime, Hopper was awarded 40 honorary degrees from universities across the world. A college at Yale University was renamed in her honor. In 1991, she received the National Medal of Technology. On November 22, 2016, she was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.
Early life and education
Grace Brewster Murray was born in New York City. She was the eldest of three children. Her parents, Walter Fletcher Murray and Mary Campbell Van Horne, were of Scottish and Dutch descent, and attended West End Collegiate Church. Her great-grandfather, Alexander Wilson Russell, an admiral in the US Navy, fought in the Battle of Mobile Bay during the Civil War.
Grace was very curious as a child; this was a lifelong trait. At the age of seven, she decided to determine how an alarm clock worked and dismantled seven alarm clocks before her mother realized what she was doing (she was then limited to one clock). For her preparatory school education, she attended the Hartridge School in Plainfield, New Jersey. Grace was initially rejected for early admission to Vassar College at age 16 (because her test scores in Latin were too low), but she was admitted the following year. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Vassar in 1928 with a bachelor's degree in mathematics and physics and earned her master's degree at Yale University in 1930.
In 1930 Grace Murray married New York University professor Vincent Foster Hopper (1906–1976); they divorced in 1945. Although she did not marry again, she retained his surname.
In 1934, Hopper earned a Ph.D. in mathematics from Yale under the direction of Øystein Ore. Her dissertation, "New Types of Irreducibility Criteria", was published that same year. She began teaching mathematics at Vassar in 1931, and was promoted to associate professor in 1941.
Career
World War II
Hopper tried to enlist in the Navy early in World War II. She was rejected for a few reasons. At age 34, she was too old to enlist, and her weight to height ratio was too low. She was also denied on the basis that her job as a mathematician and mathematics professor at Vassar College was valuable to the war effort. During the war in 1943, Hopper obtained a leave of absence from Vassar and was sworn into the United States Navy Reserve; she was one of many women who volunteered to serve in the WAVES. She had to get an exemption to enlist; she was below the Navy minimum weight of . She reported in December and trained at the Naval Reserve Midshipmen's School at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. Hopper graduated first in her class in 1944, and was assigned to the Bureau of Ships Computation Project at Harvard University as a lieutenant, junior grade. She served on the Mark I computer programming staff headed by Howard H. Aiken. Hopper and Aiken co-authored three papers on the Mark I, also known as the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator. Hopper's request to transfer to the regular Navy at the end of the war was declined due to her advanced age of 38. She continued to serve in the Navy Reserve. Hopper remained at the Harvard Computation Lab until 1949, turning down a full professorship at Vassar in favor of working as a research fellow under a Navy contract at Harvard.
UNIVAC
In 1949, Hopper became an employee of the Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation as a senior mathematician and joined the team developing the UNIVAC I. Hopper also served as UNIVAC director of Automatic Programming Development for Remington Rand. The UNIVAC was the first known large-scale electronic computer to be on the market in 1950, and was more competitive at processing information than the Mark I.
When Hopper recommended the development of a new programming language that would use entirely English words, she "was told very quickly that [she] couldn't do this because computers didn't understand English." Still, she persisted. "It's much easier for most people to write an English statement than it is to use symbols," she explained. "So I decided data processors ought to be able to write their programs in English, and the computers would translate them into machine code."
Her idea was not accepted for three years. In the meantime, she published her first paper on the subject, compilers, in 1952. In the early 1950s, the company was taken over by the Remington Rand corporation, and it was while she was working for them that her original compiler work was done. The program was known as the A compiler and its first version was A-0.
In 1952, she had an operational link-loader, which at the time was referred to as a compiler. She later said that "Nobody believed that," and that she "had a running compiler and nobody would touch it. They told me computers could only do arithmetic." She goes on to say that her compiler "translated mathematical notation into machine code. Manipulating symbols was fine for mathematicians but it was no good for data processors who were not symbol manipulators. Very few people are really symbol manipulators. If they are they become professional mathematicians, not data processors. It's much easier for most people to write an English statement than it is to use symbols. So I decided data processors ought to be able to write their programs in English, and the computers would translate them into machine code. That was the beginning of COBOL, a computer language for data processors. I could say 'Subtract income tax from pay' instead of trying to write that in octal code or using all kinds of symbols. COBOL is the major language used today in data processing."
In 1954 Hopper was named the company's first director of automatic programming, and her department released some of the first compiler-based programming languages, including MATH-MATIC and FLOW-MATIC.
COBOL
In the spring of 1959, computer experts from industry and government were brought together in a two-day conference known as the Conference on Data Systems Languages (CODASYL). Hopper served as a technical consultant to the committee, and many of her former employees served on the short-term committee that defined the new language COBOL (an acronym for COmmon Business-Oriented Language). The new language extended Hopper's FLOW-MATIC language with some ideas from the IBM equivalent, COMTRAN. Hopper's belief that programs should be written in a language that was close to English (rather than in machine code or in languages close to machine code, such as assembly languages) was captured in the new business language, and COBOL went on to be the most ubiquitous business language to date. Among the members of the committee that worked on COBOL was Mount Holyoke College alumna Jean E. Sammet.
From 1967 to 1977, Hopper served as the director of the Navy Programming Languages Group in the Navy's Office of Information Systems Planning and was promoted to the rank of captain in 1973. She developed validation software for COBOL and its compiler as part of a COBOL standardization program for the entire Navy.
Standards
In the 1970s, Hopper advocated for the Defense Department to replace large, centralized systems with networks of small, distributed computers. Any user on any computer node could access common databases located on the network. She developed the implementation of standards for testing computer systems and components, most significantly for early programming languages such as FORTRAN and COBOL. The Navy tests for conformance to these standards led to significant convergence among the programming language dialects of the major computer vendors. In the 1980s, these tests (and their official administration) were assumed by the National Bureau of Standards (NBS), known today as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
Retirement
In accordance with Navy attrition regulations, Hopper retired from the Naval Reserve with the rank of commander at age 60 at the end of 1966. She was recalled to active duty in August 1967 for a six-month period that turned into an indefinite assignment. She again retired in 1971 but was again asked to return to active duty in 1972. She was promoted to captain in 1973 by Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr.
After Republican Representative Philip Crane saw her on a March 1983 segment of 60 Minutes, he championed , a joint resolution originating in the House of Representatives, which led to her promotion on 15 December 1983 to commodore by special Presidential appointment by President Ronald Reagan. She remained on active duty for several years beyond mandatory retirement by special approval of Congress. Effective November 8, 1985, the rank of commodore was renamed rear admiral (lower half) and Hopper became one of the Navy's few female admirals.
Following a career that spanned more than 42 years, Admiral Hopper took retirement from the Navy on August 14, 1986. At a celebration held in Boston on the to commemorate her retirement, Hopper was awarded the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the highest non-combat decoration awarded by the Department of Defense.
At the time of her retirement, she was the oldest active-duty commissioned officer in the United States Navy (79 years, eight months and five days), and had her retirement ceremony aboard the oldest commissioned ship in the United States Navy (188 years, nine months and 23 days). Admirals William D. Leahy, Chester W. Nimitz, Hyman G. Rickover and Charles Stewart were the only other officers in the Navy's history to serve on active duty at a higher age. Leahy and Nimitz served on active duty for life due to their promotions to the rank of fleet admiral.
Post-retirement
Following her retirement from the Navy, she was hired as a senior consultant to Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Hopper was initially offered a position by Rita Yavinsky, but she insisted on going through the typical formal interview process. She then proposed in jest that she would be willing to accept a position which made her available on alternating Thursdays, exhibited at their museum of computing as a pioneer, in exchange for a generous salary and unlimited expense account. Instead, she was hired as a full-time Principal Corporate Consulting Engineer, a tech-track SVP-equivalent. In this position, Hopper represented the company at industry forums, serving on various industry committees, along with other obligations. She retained that position until her death at age 85 in 1992.
At DEC Hopper served primarily as a goodwill ambassador. She lectured widely about the early days of computing, her career, and on efforts that computer vendors could take to make life easier for their users. She visited most of Digital's engineering facilities, where she generally received a standing ovation at the conclusion of her remarks. Although no longer a serving officer, she always wore her Navy full dress uniform to these lectures contrary to U.S. Department of Defense policy.
"The most important thing I've accomplished, other than building the compiler," she said, "is training young people. They come to me, you know, and say, 'Do you think we can do this?' I say, 'Try it.' And I back 'em up. They need that. I keep track of them as they get older and I stir 'em up at intervals so they don't forget to take chances."
Anecdotes
Throughout much of her later career, Hopper was much in demand as a speaker at various computer-related events. She was well known for her lively and irreverent speaking style, as well as a rich treasury of early war stories. She also received the nickname "Grandma COBOL".
While she was working on a Mark II Computer at Harvard University in 1947, her associates discovered a moth that was stuck in a relay and impeding the operation of the computer. Upon extraction, the insect was affixed to a log sheet for that day with the notation, “First actual case of a bug being found”. While neither she nor her crew members mentioned the exact phrase, "debugging", in their log entries, the case is held as a historical instance of "debugging" a computer and Hopper is credited with popularizing the term in computing. For many decades, the term "bug" for a malfunction had been in use in several fields before being applied to computers. The remains of the moth can be found taped into the group's log book at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.
Grace Hopper is famous for her nanoseconds visual aid. People (such as generals and admirals) used to ask her why satellite communication took so long. She started handing out pieces of wire that were just under one foot long——the distance that light travels in one nanosecond. She gave these pieces of wire the metonym "nanoseconds." She was careful to tell her audience that the length of her nanoseconds was actually the maximum speed the signals would travel in a vacuum, and that signals would travel more slowly through the actual wires that were her teaching aids. Later she used the same pieces of wire to illustrate why computers had to be small to be fast. At many of her talks and visits, she handed out "nanoseconds" to everyone in the audience, contrasting them with a coil of wire long, representing a microsecond. Later, while giving these lectures while working for DEC, she passed out packets of pepper, calling the individual grains of ground pepper picoseconds.
Jay Elliot described Grace Hopper as appearing to be " 'all Navy', but when you reach inside, you find a 'Pirate' dying to be released."
Death
On New Year's Day 1992, Hopper died in her sleep of natural causes at her home in Arlington, Virginia; she was 85 years of age. She was interred with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery.
Dates of rank
Awards and honors
Military awards
Other awards
1964: Hopper was awarded the Society of Women Engineers Achievement Award, the Society's highest honor, "In recognition of her significant contributions to the burgeoning computer industry as an engineering manager and originator of automatic programming systems." In May 1955, Hopper was one of the founding members of the Society of Women Engineers.
1969: Hopper was awarded the inaugural Data Processing Management Association Man of the Year award (now called the Distinguished Information Sciences Award).
1971: The annual Grace Murray Hopper Award for Outstanding Young Computer Professionals was established in 1971 by the Association for Computing Machinery.
1973: Elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering.
1973: First American and the first woman of any nationality to be made a Distinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society.
1981: Received an Honorary PhD from Clarkson University.
1982: American Association of University Women Achievement Award and an Honorary Doctor of Science from Marquette University.
1983: Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.
1985: Honorary Doctor of Letters from Western New England College (now Western New England University).
1986: Received the Defense Distinguished Service Medal at her retirement.
1986: Received an Honorary Doctor of Science from Syracuse University.
1987: She became the first Computer History Museum Fellow Award Recipient "for contributions to the development of programming languages, for standardization efforts, and for lifelong naval service."
1988: Received the Golden Gavel Award, Toastmasters International.
1991: National Medal of Technology.
1991: Elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
1992: The Society of Women Engineers established three annual, renewable, "Admiral Grace Murray Hopper Scholarships"
1994: Inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
1996: was launched. Nicknamed Amazing Grace, it is on a very short list of U.S. military vessels named after women.
2001: Eavan Boland wrote a poem dedicated to Grace Hopper titled "Code" in her 2001 release Against Love Poetry.
2001: The Gracies, the Government Technology Leadership Award were named in her honor.
2009: The Department of Energy's National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center named its flagship system "Hopper".
2009: Office of Naval Intelligence creates the Grace Hopper Information Services Center.
2013: Google made the Google Doodle for Hopper's 107th birthday an animation of her sitting at a computer, using COBOL to print out her age. At the end of the animation, a moth flies out of the computer.
2016: On November 22, 2016, Hopper was posthumously awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom for her accomplishments in the field of computer science.
2017: Hopper College at Yale University was named in her honor.
2021: The Admiral Grace Hopper Award was established by the chancellor of the College of Information and Cyberspace (CIC) of the National Defense University to recognize leaders in the fields of information and cybersecurity throughout the National Security community.
Legacy
Grace Hopper was awarded 40 honorary degrees from universities worldwide during her lifetime.
Born with Curiosity: The Grace Hopper Story is an upcoming documentary film.
Nvidia is naming an upcoming GPU generation Hopper after Grace Hopper.
The Navy's Hopper Information Services Center is named for her.
The Navy named a guided-missile destroyer Hopper after her.
Places
Grace Hopper Avenue in Monterey, California, is the location of the Navy's Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center as well as the National Weather Service's San Francisco Bay Area forecast office.
Grace M. Hopper Navy Regional Data Automation Center at Naval Air Station, North Island, California.
Grace Murray Hopper Park, located on South Joyce Street in Arlington, Virginia, is a small memorial park in front of her former residence (River House Apartments) and is now owned by Arlington County, Virginia.
Brewster Academy, a school located in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, United States, dedicated their computer lab to her in 1985, calling it the Grace Murray Hopper Center for Computer Learning. The academy bestows a Grace Murray Hopper Prize to a graduate who excelled in the field of computer systems. Hopper had spent her childhood summers at a family home in Wolfeboro.
Grace Hopper College, one of the residential colleges of Yale University.
An administration building on Naval Support Activity Annapolis (previously known as Naval Station Annapolis) in Annapolis, Maryland is named the Grace Hopper Building in her honor.
Vice Admiral Walter E. "Ted" Carter announced on September 8, 2016 at the Athena Conference that the Naval Academy's newest Cyber Operations building would be named Hopper Hall after Admiral Grace Hopper. This is the first building at any service academy named after a woman. In his words, Grace Hopper was "the admiral of the cyber seas."
The US Naval Academy also owns a Cray XC-30 supercomputer named "Grace," hosted at the University of Maryland-College Park.
Building 1482 aboard Naval Air Station North Island, housing the Naval Computer and Telecommunication Station San Diego, is named the Grace Hopper Building, and also contains the History of Naval Communications Museum.
Building 6007, C2/CNT West in Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is named after her.
The street outside of the Nathan Deal Georgia Cyber Innovation and Training Center in Augusta, Georgia, is named Grace Hopper Lane.
Grace Hopper Academy is a for-profit immersive programming school in New York City named in Grace Hopper's honor. It opened in January 2016 with the goal of increasing the proportion of women in software engineering careers.
A bridge over Goose Creek, to join the north and south sides of the Naval Support Activity Charleston side of Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina, is named the Grace Hopper Memorial Bridge in her honor.
Minor planet 5773 Hopper discovered by Eleanor Helin is named in her honor. The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 8 November 2019 ().
Grace Hopper Hall, a community meeting hall in Orlando, Florida (located on the site of the former Orlando Naval Training Center) is named for her.
Programs
Women at Microsoft Corporation formed an employee group called Hoppers and established a scholarship in her honor.
Beginning in 2015, one of the nine competition fields at the FIRST Robotics Competition world championship is named for Hopper.
A named professorship in the Department of Computer Sciences was established at Yale University in her honor. Joan Feigenbaum was named to this chair in 2008.
In 2020, Google named its new undersea network cable 'Grace Hopper'. The cable will connect the US, UK and Spain and is estimated to be completed by 2022.
In popular culture
In his comic book series, Secret Coders by Gene Luen Yang, the main character is named Hopper Gracie-Hu.
Since 2013, Hopper's official portrait has been included in the matplotlib python library as sample data to replace the controversial Lenna image.
Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing
Her legacy was an inspiring factor in the creation of the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. Held yearly, this conference is designed to bring the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront.
See also
Code: Debugging the Gender Gap
Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing
List of pioneers in computer science
Systems engineering
Women in computing
Women in the United States Navy
List of female United States military generals and flag officers
Timeline of women in science
Notes
Obituary notices
Betts, Mitch (Computerworld 26: 14, 1992)
Bromberg, Howard (IEEE Software 9: 103–104, 1992)
Danca, Richard A. (Federal Computer Week 6: 26–27, 1992)
Hancock, Bill (Digital Review 9: 40, 1992)
Power, Kevin (Government Computer News 11: 70, 1992)
Sammet, J. E. (Communications of the ACM 35 (4): 128–131, 1992)
Weiss, Eric A. (IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 14: 56–58, 1992)
References
Further reading
Williams' book focuses on the lives and contributions of four notable women scientists: Mary Sears (1905–1997); Florence van Straten (1913–1992); Grace Murray Hopper (1906–1992); Mina Spiegel Rees (1902–1997).
External links
Oral History of Captain Grace Hopper – Interviewed by: Angeline Pantages 1980, Naval Data Automation Command, Maryland.
from Chips, the United States Navy information technology magazine.
Grace Hopper: Navy to the Core, a Pirate at Heart (2014), To learn more about Hopper's story and Navy legacy navy.mil.
The Queen of Code (2015), a documentary film about Grace Hopper produced by FiveThirtyEight.
Norwood, Arlisha. "Grace Hopper". National Women's History Museum. 2017.
1906 births
1992 deaths
American computer programmers
American computer scientists
COBOL
Programming language designers
American women computer scientists
Women inventors
American women mathematicians
United States Navy rear admirals (lower half)
Female admirals of the United States Navy
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Fellows of the British Computer Society
National Medal of Technology recipients
Recipients of the Defense Distinguished Service Medal
Recipients of the Legion of Merit
Recipients of the Meritorious Service Medal (United States)
Harvard University people
Vassar College faculty
Military personnel from New York City
Vassar College alumni
Yale University alumni
American people of Dutch descent
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Burials at Arlington National Cemetery
20th-century American engineers
20th-century American mathematicians
20th-century American scientists
20th-century American women scientists
Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
Computer science educators
American software engineers
20th-century women mathematicians
Mathematicians from New York (state)
Wardlaw-Hartridge School alumni
WAVES personnel | [
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12592 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU%20Manifesto | GNU Manifesto |
The GNU Manifesto is a call-to-action by Richard Stallman encouraging participation and support of the GNU Project's goal in developing the GNU free computer operating system. The GNU Manifesto was published in March 1985 in Dr. Dobb's Journal of Software Tools. It is held in high regard within the free software movement as a fundamental philosophical source.
The full text is included with GNU software such as Emacs, and is publicly available.
Background
Some parts of the GNU Manifesto began as an announcement of the GNU Project posted by Richard Stallman on September 27, 1983, in form of an email on Usenet newsgroups. The project's aim was to give computer users freedom and control over their computers by collaboratively developing and providing software that is based on Stallman's idea of software freedom (although the written definition had not existed until February 1986). The manifesto was written as a way to familiarize more people with these concepts, and to find more support in form of work, money, programs and hardware.
The GNU Manifesto possessed its name and full written form in 1985 but was updated in minor ways in 1987.
Summary
The GNU Manifesto opens with an explanation of what the GNU Project is, and what is the current, at the time, progress in creation of the GNU operating system. The system, although based on, and compatible with Unix, is meant by the author to have many improvements over it, which are listed in detail in the manifesto.
One of the major driving points behind the GNU project, according to Stallman, was the rapid (at the time) trend toward Unix and its various components becoming proprietary (i.e. closed-source and non-libre) software.
The manifesto lays a philosophical basis for launching the project, and importance of bringing it to fruition — proprietary software is a way to divide users, who are no longer able to help each other. Stallman refuses to write proprietary software as a sign of solidarity with them.
The author provides many reasons for why the project and software freedom is beneficial to users, although he agrees that its wide adoption will make a work of programmer less profitable.
A large part of the GNU Manifesto is focused on rebutting possible objections to GNU Project's goals. They include the programmer's need to make a living, the issue of advertising and distributing free software, and the perceived need of a profit incentive.
See also
History of free and open-source software
Open Letter to Hobbyists
References
External links
GNU Manifesto
GNU Project
Free software culture and documents
Free Software Foundation
Copyleft media
Internet culture
Political manifestos
1985 documents
Works about intellectual property law | [
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12594 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross%20domestic%20product | Gross domestic product | Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced in a specific time period by countries. GDP (nominal) per capita does not, however, reflect differences in the cost of living and the inflation rates of the countries; therefore, using a basis of GDP per capita at purchasing power parity (PPP) may be more useful when comparing living standards between nations, while nominal GDP is more useful comparing national economies on the international market. Total GDP can also be broken down into the contribution of each industry or sector of the economy. The ratio of GDP to the total population of the region is the per capita GDP and the same is called Mean Standard of Living.
GDP definitions are maintained by a number of national and international economic organizations. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defines GDP as "an aggregate measure of production equal to the sum of the gross values added of all resident and institutional units engaged in production and services (plus any taxes, and minus any subsidies, on products not included in the value of their outputs)". An IMF publication states that, "GDP measures the monetary value of final goods and services—that are bought by the final user—produced in a country in a given period of time (say a quarter or a year)."
GDP is often used as a metric for international comparisons as well as a broad measure of economic progress. It is often considered to be the "world's most powerful statistical indicator of national development and progress". However, critics of the growth imperative often argue that GDP measures were never intended to measure progress, and leave out key other externalities, such as resource extraction, environmental impact and unpaid domestic work. Critics frequently propose alternative economic models such as doughnut economics which use other measures of success or alternative indicators such as the OECD's Better Life Index as better approaches to measuring the effect of the economy on human development and well being.
History
William Petty came up with a basic concept of GDP to attack landlords against unfair taxation during warfare between the Dutch and the English between 1654 and 1676. Charles Davenant developed the method further in 1695. The modern concept of GDP was first developed by Simon Kuznets for a 1934 US Congress report, where he warned against its use as a measure of welfare (see below under limitations and criticisms). After the Bretton Woods conference in 1944, GDP became the main tool for measuring a country's economy. At that time gross national product (GNP) was the preferred estimate, which differed from GDP in that it measured production by a country's citizens at home and abroad rather than its 'resident institutional units' (see OECD definition above). The switch from GNP to GDP in the US was in 1991, trailing behind most other nations. The role that measurements of GDP played in World War II was crucial to the subsequent political acceptance of GDP values as indicators of national development and progress. A crucial role was played here by the US Department of Commerce under Milton Gilbert where ideas from Kuznets were embedded into institutions.
The history of the concept of GDP should be distinguished from the history of changes in many ways of estimating it. The value added by firms is relatively easy to calculate from their accounts, but the value added by the public sector, by financial industries, and by intangible asset creation is more complex. These activities are increasingly important in developed economies, and the international conventions governing their estimation and their inclusion or exclusion in GDP regularly change in an attempt to keep up with industrial advances. In the words of one academic economist, "The actual number for GDP is, therefore, the product of a vast patchwork of statistics and a complicated set of processes carried out on the raw data to fit them to the conceptual framework."
GDP became truly global in 1993 when China officially adopted it as its indicator of economic performance. Previously, China had relied on a Marxist-inspired national accounting system.
Determining gross domestic product (GDP)
GDP can be determined in three ways, all of which should, theoretically, give the same result. They are the production (or output or value added) approach, the income approach, or the speculated expenditure approach. It is representative of the total output and income within an economy
The most direct of the three is the production approach, which sums the outputs of every class of enterprise to arrive at the total. The expenditure approach works on the principle that all of the product must be bought by somebody, therefore the value of the total product must be equal to people's total expenditures in buying things. The income approach works on the principle that the incomes of the productive factors ("producers", colloquially) must be equal to the value of their product, and determines GDP by finding the sum of all producers' incomes.
Production approach
Also known as the Value Added Approach, it calculates how much value is contributed at each stage of production.
This approach mirrors the OECD(Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) definition given above.
Estimate the gross value of domestic output out of the many various economic activities;
Determine the intermediate consumption, i.e., the cost of material, supplies and services used to produce final goods or services.
Deduct intermediate consumption from gross value to obtain the gross value added.
Gross value added = gross value of output – value of intermediate consumption.
Value of output = value of the total sales of goods and services plus value of changes in the inventory.
The sum of the gross value added in the various economic activities is known as "GDP at factor cost".
GDP at factor cost plus indirect taxes less subsidies on products = "GDP at producer price".
For measuring output of domestic product, economic activities (i.e. industries) are classified into various sectors. After classifying economic activities, the output of each sector is calculated by any of the following two methods:
By multiplying the output of each sector by their respective market price and adding them together
By collecting data on gross sales and inventories from the records of companies and adding them together
The value of output of all sectors is then added to get the gross value of output at factor cost. Subtracting each sector's intermediate consumption from gross output value gives the GVA (=GDP) at factor cost. Adding indirect tax minus subsidies to GVA (GDP) at factor cost gives the "GVA (GDP) at producer prices".
Income approach
The second way of estimating GDP is to use "the sum of primary incomes distributed by resident producer units".
If GDP is calculated this way it is sometimes called gross domestic income (GDI), or GDP (I). GDI should provide the same amount as the expenditure method described later. By definition, GDI is equal to GDP. In practice, however, measurement errors will make the two figures slightly off when reported by national statistical agencies.
This method measures GDP by adding incomes that firms pay households for factors of production they hire - wages for labour, interest for capital, rent for land and profits for entrepreneurship.
The US "National Income and Expenditure Accounts" divide incomes into five categories:
Wages, salaries, and supplementary labour income
Corporate profits
Interest and miscellaneous investment income
Farmers' incomes
Income from non-farm unincorporated businesses
These five income components sum to net domestic income at factor cost.
Two adjustments must be made to get GDP:
Indirect taxes minus subsidies are added to get from factor cost to market prices.
Depreciation (or capital consumption allowance) is added to get from net domestic product to gross domestic product.
Total income can be subdivided according to various schemes, leading to various formulae for GDP measured by the income approach. A common one is:
GDP = compensation of employees + gross operating surplus + gross mixed income + taxes less subsidies on production and imports
GDP = COE + GOS + GMI + TP & M – SP & M
Compensation of employees (COE) measures the total remuneration to employees for work done. It includes wages and salaries, as well as employer contributions to social security and other such programs.
Gross operating surplus (GOS) is the surplus due to owners of incorporated businesses. Often called profits, although only a subset of total costs are subtracted from gross output to calculate GOS.
Gross mixed income (GMI) is the same measure as GOS, but for unincorporated businesses. This often includes most small businesses.
The sum of COE, GOS and GMI is called total factor income; it is the income of all of the factors of production in society. It measures the value of GDP at factor (basic) prices. The difference between basic prices and final prices (those used in the expenditure calculation) is the total taxes and subsidies that the government has levied or paid on that production. So adding taxes less subsidies on production and imports converts GDP(I) at factor cost to GDP(I) at final prices.
Total factor income is also sometimes expressed as:
Total factor income = employee compensation + corporate profits + proprietor's income + rental income + net interest
Expenditure approach
The third way to estimate GDP is to calculate the sum of the final uses of goods and services (all uses except intermediate consumption) measured in purchasers' prices.
Market goods that are produced are purchased by someone. In the case where a good is produced and unsold, the standard accounting convention is that the producer has bought the good from themselves. Therefore, measuring the total expenditure used to buy things is a way of measuring production. This is known as the expenditure method of calculating GDP.
Components of GDP by expenditure
GDP (Y) is the sum of consumption (C), investment (I), government Expenditures (G) and net exports (X – M).
Y = C + I + G + (X − M)
Here is a description of each GDP component:
C (consumption) is normally the largest GDP component in the economy, consisting of private expenditures in the economy (household final consumption expenditure). These personal expenditures fall under one of the following categories: durable goods, nondurable goods, and services. Examples include food, rent, jewelry, gasoline, and medical expenses, but not the purchase of new housing.
I (investment) includes, for instance, business investment in equipment, but does not include exchanges of existing assets. Examples include construction of a new mine, purchase of software, or purchase of machinery and equipment for a factory. Spending by households (not government) on new houses is also included in investment. In contrast to its colloquial meaning, "investment" in GDP does not mean purchases of financial products. Buying financial products is classed as 'saving', as opposed to investment. This avoids double-counting: if one buys shares in a company, and the company uses the money received to buy plant, equipment, etc., the amount will be counted toward GDP when the company spends the money on those things; to also count it when one gives it to the company would be to count two times an amount that only corresponds to one group of products. Buying bonds or stocks is a swapping of deeds, a transfer of claims on future production, not directly an expenditure on products; buying an existing building will involve a positive investment by the buyer and a negative investment by the seller, netting to zero overall investment.
G (government spending) is the sum of government expenditures on final goods and services. It includes salaries of public servants, purchases of weapons for the military and any investment expenditure by a government. It does not include any transfer payments, such as social security or unemployment benefits. Analyses outside the USA will often treat government investment as part of investment rather than government spending.
X (exports) represents gross exports. GDP captures the amount a country produces, including goods and services produced for other nations' consumption, therefore exports are added.
M (imports) represents gross imports. Imports are subtracted since imported goods will be included in the terms G, I, or C, and must be deducted to avoid counting foreign supply as domestic.
Note that C, I, and G are expenditures on final goods and services; expenditures on intermediate goods and services do not count. (Intermediate goods and services are those used by businesses to produce other goods and services within the accounting year.) So for example if a car manufacturer buys auto parts, assembles the car and sells it, only the final car sold is counted towards the GDP. Meanwhile, if a person buys replacement auto parts to install them on their car, those are counted towards the GDP.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, which is responsible for calculating the national accounts in the United States, "In general, the source data for the expenditures components are considered more reliable than those for the income components [see income method, above]."
GDP and GNI
GDP can be contrasted with gross national product (GNP) or, as it is now known, gross national income (GNI). The difference is that GDP defines its scope according to location, while GNI defines its scope according to ownership. In a global context, world GDP and world GNI are, therefore, equivalent terms.
GDP is product produced within a country's borders; GNI is product produced by enterprises owned by a country's citizens. The two would be the same if all of the productive enterprises in a country were owned by its own citizens, and those citizens did not own productive enterprises in any other countries. In practice, however, foreign ownership makes GDP and GNI non-identical. Production within a country's borders, but by an enterprise owned by somebody outside the country, counts as part of its GDP but not its GNI; on the other hand, production by an enterprise located outside the country, but owned by one of its citizens, counts as part of its GNI but not its GDP.
For example, the GNI of the USA is the value of output produced by American-owned firms, regardless of where the firms are located. Similarly, if a country becomes increasingly in debt, and spends large amounts of income servicing this debt this will be reflected in a decreased GNI but not a decreased GDP. Similarly, if a country sells off its resources to entities outside their country this will also be reflected over time in decreased GNI, but not decreased GDP. This would make the use of GDP more attractive for politicians in countries with increasing national debt and decreasing assets.
Gross national income (GNI) equals GDP plus income receipts from the rest of the world minus income payments to the rest of the world.
In 1991, the United States switched from using GNP to using GDP as its primary measure of production.
The relationship between United States GDP and GNP is shown in table 1.7.5 of the National Income and Product Accounts.
International standards
The international standard for measuring GDP is contained in the book System of National Accounts (2008), which was prepared by representatives of the International Monetary Fund, European Union, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, United Nations and World Bank. The publication is normally referred to as SNA2008 to distinguish it from the previous edition published in 1993 (SNA93) or 1968 (called SNA68)
SNA2008 provides a set of rules and procedures for the measurement of national accounts. The standards are designed to be flexible, to allow for differences in local statistical needs and conditions.
National measurement
Within each country GDP is normally measured by a national government statistical agency, as private sector organizations normally do not have access to the information required (especially information on expenditure and production by governments).
Nominal GDP and adjustments to GDP
The raw GDP figure as given by the equations above is called the nominal, historical, or current, GDP. When one compares GDP figures from one year to another, it is desirable to compensate for changes in the value of money – for the effects of inflation or deflation. To make it more meaningful for year-to-year comparisons, it may be multiplied by the ratio between the value of money in the year the GDP was measured and the value of money in a base year.
For example, suppose a country's GDP in 1990 was $100 million and its GDP in 2000 was $300 million. Suppose also that inflation had halved the value of its currency over that period. To meaningfully compare its GDP in 2000 to its GDP in 1990, we could multiply the GDP in 2000 by one-half, to make it relative to 1990 as a base year. The result would be that the GDP in 2000 equals $300 million × one-half = $150 million, in 1990 monetary terms. We would see that the country's GDP had realistically increased 50 percent over that period, not 200 percent, as it might appear from the raw GDP data. The GDP adjusted for changes in money value in this way is called the real, or constant, GDP.
The factor used to convert GDP from current to constant values in this way is called the GDP deflator. Unlike consumer price index, which measures inflation or deflation in the price of household consumer goods, the GDP deflator measures changes in the prices of all domestically produced goods and services in an economy including investment goods and government services, as well as household consumption goods.
Constant-GDP figures allow us to calculate a GDP growth rate, which indicates how much a country's production has increased (or decreased, if the growth rate is negative) compared to the previous year.
Real GDP growth rate for year n
= [(Real GDP in year n) − (Real GDP in year n − 1)] / (Real GDP in year n − 1)
Another thing that it may be desirable to account for is population growth. If a country's GDP doubled over a certain period, but its population tripled, the increase in GDP may not mean that the standard of living increased for the country's residents; the average person in the country is producing less than they were before. Per-capita GDP is a measure to account for population growth.
Cross-border comparison and purchasing power parity
The level of GDP in countries may be compared by converting their value in national currency according to either the current currency exchange rate, or the purchasing power parity exchange rate.
Current currency exchange rate is the exchange rate in the international foreign exchange market.
Purchasing power parity exchange rate is the exchange rate based on the purchasing power parity (PPP) of a currency relative to a selected standard (usually the United States dollar). This is a comparative (and theoretical) exchange rate, the only way to directly realize this rate is to sell an entire CPI basket in one country, convert the cash at the currency market rate & then rebuy that same basket of goods in the other country (with the converted cash). Going from country to country, the distribution of prices within the basket will vary; typically, non-tradable purchases will consume a greater proportion of the basket's total cost in the higher GDP country, per the Balassa–Samuelson effect.
The ranking of countries may differ significantly based on which method is used.
The current exchange rate method converts the value of goods and services using global currency exchange rates. The method can offer better indications of a country's international purchasing power. For instance, if 10% of GDP is being spent on buying hi-tech foreign arms, the number of weapons purchased is entirely governed by current exchange rates, since arms are a traded product bought on the international market. There is no meaningful 'local' price distinct from the international price for high technology goods. The PPP method of GDP conversion is more relevant to non-traded goods and services. In the above example if hi-tech weapons are to be produced internally their amount will be governed by GDP (PPP) rather than nominal GDP.
There is a clear pattern of the purchasing power parity method decreasing the disparity in GDP between high and low income (GDP) countries, as compared to the current exchange rate method. This finding is called the Penn effect.
Standard of living and GDP: wealth distribution and externalities
GDP per capita is often used as an indicator of living standards.
The major advantage of GDP per capita as an indicator of standard of living is that it is measured frequently, widely, and consistently. It is measured frequently in that most countries provide information on GDP on a quarterly basis, allowing trends to be seen quickly. It is measured widely in that some measure of GDP is available for almost every country in the world, allowing inter-country comparisons. It is measured consistently in that the technical definition of GDP is relatively consistent among countries.
GDP does not include several factors that influence the standard of living. In particular, it fails to account for:
Externalities – Economic growth may entail an increase in negative externalities that are not directly measured in GDP. Increased industrial output might grow GDP, but any pollution is not counted.
Non-market transactions – GDP excludes activities that are not provided through the market, such as household production, bartering of goods and services, and volunteer or unpaid services.
Non-monetary economy – GDP omits economies where no money comes into play at all, resulting in inaccurate or abnormally low GDP figures. For example, in countries with major business transactions occurring informally, portions of local economy are not easily registered. Bartering may be more prominent than the use of money, even extending to services.
Quality improvements and inclusion of new products – by not fully adjusting for quality improvements and new products, GDP understates true economic growth. For instance, although computers today are less expensive and more powerful than computers from the past, GDP treats them as the same products by only accounting for the monetary value. The introduction of new products is also difficult to measure accurately and is not reflected in GDP despite the fact that it may increase the standard of living. For example, even the richest person in 1900 could not purchase standard products, such as antibiotics and cell phones, that an average consumer can buy today, since such modern conveniences did not exist then.
Sustainability of growth – GDP is a measurement of economic historic activity and is not necessarily a projection.
Wealth distribution – GDP does not account for variances in incomes of various demographic groups. See income inequality metrics for discussion of a variety of inequality-based economic measures.
It can be argued that GDP per capita as an indicator standard of living is correlated with these factors, capturing them indirectly. As a result, GDP per capita as a standard of living is a continued usage because most people have a fairly accurate idea of what it is and know it is tough to come up with quantitative measures for such constructs as happiness, quality of life, and well-being.
Limitations and criticisms
Limitations at introduction
Simon Kuznets, the economist who developed the first comprehensive set of measures of national income, stated in his second report to the US Congress in 1937, in a section titled "Uses and Abuses of National Income Measurements":
The valuable capacity of the human mind to simplify a complex situation in a compact characterization becomes dangerous when not controlled in terms of definitely stated criteria. With quantitative measurements especially, the definiteness of the result suggests, often misleadingly, a precision and simplicity in the outlines of the object measured. Measurements of national income are subject to this type of illusion and resulting abuse, especially since they deal with matters that are the center of conflict of opposing social groups where the effectiveness of an argument is often contingent upon oversimplification. [...]
All these qualifications upon estimates of national income as an index of productivity are just as important when income measurements are interpreted from the point of view of economic welfare. But in the latter case additional difficulties will be suggested to anyone who wants to penetrate below the surface of total figures and market values. Economic welfare cannot be adequately measured unless the personal distribution of income is known. And no income measurement undertakes to estimate the reverse side of income, that is, the intensity and unpleasantness of effort going into the earning of income. The welfare of a nation can, therefore, scarcely be inferred from a measurement of national income as defined above. In 1962, Kuznets stated:Distinctions must be kept in mind between quantity and quality of growth, between costs and returns, and between the short and long run. Goals for more growth should specify more growth of what and for what.
Further criticisms
Ever since the development of GDP, multiple observers have pointed out limitations of using GDP as the overarching measure of economic and social progress. For example, many environmentalists argue that GDP is a poor measure of social progress because it does not take into account harm to the environment. Furthermore, the GDP does not consider human health nor the educational aspect of a population. American politician Robert F. Kennedy criticized the GDP as a measure of “everything except that which makes life worthwhile”. He continued to argue that it "does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play.”
Although a high or rising level of GDP is often associated with increased economic and social progress within a country, a number of scholars have pointed out that this does not necessarily play out in many instances. For example, Jean Drèze and Amartya Sen have pointed out that an increase in GDP or in GDP growth does not necessarily lead to a higher standard of living, particularly in areas such as healthcare and education. Another important area that does not necessarily improve along with GDP is political liberty, which is most notable in China, where GDP growth is strong yet political liberties are heavily restricted.
GDP does not account for the distribution of income among the residents of a country, because GDP is merely an aggregate measure. An economy may be highly developed or growing rapidly, but also contain a wide gap between the rich and the poor in a society. These inequalities often occur on the lines of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, or other minority status within countries. This can lead to misleading characterizations of economic well-being if the income distribution is heavily skewed toward the high end, as the poorer residents will not directly benefit from the overall level of wealth and income generated in their country. Even GDP per capita measures may have the same downside if inequality is high. For example, South Africa during apartheid ranked high in terms of GDP per capita, but the benefits of this immense wealth and income were not shared equally among the country. An inequality which the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 10 amongst other global initiatives aims to address.
GDP does not take into account the value of household and other unpaid work. Some, including Martha Nussbaum, argue that this value should be included in measuring GDP, as household labor is largely a substitute for goods and services that would otherwise be purchased for value. Even under conservative estimates, the value of unpaid labor in Australia has been calculated to be over 50% of the country's GDP. A later study analyzed this value in other countries, with results ranging from a low of about 15% in Canada (using conservative estimates) to high of nearly 70% in the United Kingdom (using more liberal estimates). For the United States, the value was estimated to be between about 20% on the low end to nearly 50% on the high end, depending on the methodology being used. Because many public policies are shaped by GDP calculations and by the related field of national accounts, the non-inclusion of unpaid work in calculating GDP can create distortions in public policy, and some economists have advocated for changes in the way public policies are formed and implemented.
The UK's Natural Capital Committee highlighted the shortcomings of GDP in its advice to the UK Government in 2013, pointing out that GDP "focuses on flows, not stocks. As a result, an economy can run down its assets yet, at the same time, record high levels of GDP growth, until a point is reached where the depleted assets act as a check on future growth". They then went on to say that "it is apparent that the recorded GDP growth rate overstates the sustainable growth rate. Broader measures of wellbeing and wealth are needed for this and there is a danger that short-term decisions based solely on what is currently measured by national accounts may prove to be costly in the long-term".
It has been suggested that countries that have authoritarian governments, such as the People's Republic of China, and Russia, inflate their GDP figures.
Research and development about the relation between GDP and use of GDP and reality
Instances of GDP measures have been considered numbers that are artificial constructs. In 2020 scientists, as part of a World Scientists' Warning to Humanity-associated series, warned that worldwide growth in affluence in terms of GDP-metrics has increased resource use and pollutant emissions with affluent citizens of the world – in terms of e.g. resource-intensive consumption – being responsible for most negative environmental impacts and central to a transition to safer, sustainable conditions. They summarised evidence, presented solution approaches and stated that far-reaching lifestyle changes need to complement technological advancements and that existing societies, economies and cultures incite consumption expansion and that the structural imperative for growth in competitive market economies inhibits societal change. Sarah Arnold, Senior Economist at the New Economics Foundation (NEF) stated that "GDP includes activities that are detrimental to our economy and society in the long term, such as deforestation, strip mining, overfishing and so on". The number of trees that are net lost annually is estimated to be approximately 10 billion. The global average annual deforested land in the 2015–2020 demi-decade was 10 million hectares and the average annual net forest area loss in the 2000–2010 decade 4.7 million hectares, according to the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020. According to one study, depending on the level of wealth inequality, higher GDP-growth can be associated with more deforestation. In 2019 "agriculture and agribusiness" accounted for 24 % of the GDP of Brazil, where a large share of annual net tropical forest loss occurred and is associated with sizable portions of this economic activity domain. The number of obese adults was approximately 600 million (12%) in 2015. In 2013 scientists reported that large improvements in health only lead to modest long-term increases in GDP per capita. After developing an abstract metric similar to GDP, the Center for Partnership Studies highlighted that GDP "and other metrics that reflect and perpetuate them" may not be useful for facilitating the production of products and provision of services that are useful – or comparatively more useful – to society, and instead may "actually encourage, rather than discourage, destructive activities". Steve Cohen of the Earth Institute elucidated that while GDP does not distinguish between different activities (or lifestyles), "all consumption behaviors are not created equal and do not have the same impact on environmental sustainability". Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, noted that "it's difficult to see if the current G.D.P.-based model of economic growth can go hand-in-hand with rapid cutting of emissions", which nations have agreed to attempt under the Paris Agreement in order to mitigate real-world impacts of climate change. Some have pointed out that GDP did not adapt to sociotechnical changes to give a more accurate picture of the modern economy and does not encapsulate the value of new activities such as delivering price-free information and entertainment on social media. In 2017 Diane Coyle explained that GDP excludes much unpaid work, writing that "many people contribute free digital work such as writing open-source software that can substitute for marketed equivalents, and it clearly has great economic value despite a price of zero", which constitutes a common criticism "of the reliance on GDP as the measure of economic success" especially after the emergence of the digital economy. Similarly GDP does not value or distinguish for environmental protection. A 2020 study found that "poor regions' GDP grows faster by attracting more polluting production after connection to China's expressway system. GDP may not be a tool capable of recognizing how much natural capital agents of the economy are building or protecting.
Proposals to overcome GDP limitations
In response to these and other limitations of using GDP, alternative approaches have emerged.
In the 1980s, Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum developed the capability approach, which focuses on the functional capabilities enjoyed by people within a country, rather than the aggregate wealth held within a country. These capabilities consist of the functions that a person is able to achieve.
In 1990 Mahbub ul Haq, a Pakistani Economist at the United Nations, introduced the Human Development Index (HDI). The HDI is a composite index of life expectancy at birth, adult literacy rate and standard of living measured as a logarithmic function of GDP, adjusted to purchasing power parity.
In 1989, John B. Cobb and Herman Daly introduced Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW) by taking into account various other factors such as consumption of nonrenewable resources and degradation of the environment. The new formula deducted from GDP (personal consumption + public non-defensive expenditures - private defensive expenditures + capital formation + services from domestic labour - costs of environmental degradation - depreciation of natural capital)
In 2005, Med Jones, an American Economist, at the International Institute of Management, introduced the first secular Gross National Happiness Index a.k.a. Gross National Well-being framework and Index to complement GDP economics with additional seven dimensions, including environment, education, and government, work, social and health (mental and physical) indicators. The proposal was inspired by the King of Bhutan's GNH philosophy.
In 2009 the European Union released a communication titled GDP and beyond: Measuring progress in a changing world that identified five actions to improve indicators of progress in ways that make them more responsive to the concerns of its citizens.
In 2009 Professors Joseph Stiglitz, Amartya Sen, and Jean-Paul Fitoussi at the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress (CMEPSP), formed by French President, Nicolas Sarkozy published a proposal to overcome the limitation of GDP economics to expand the focus to well-being economics with a well-being framework consisting of health, environment, work, physical safety, economic safety, and political freedom.
In 2008, the Centre for Bhutan Studies began publishing the Bhutan Gross National Happiness (GNH) Index, whose contributors to happiness include physical, mental, and spiritual health; time balance; social and community vitality; cultural vitality; education; living standards; good governance; and ecological vitality.
In 2013, the OECD Better Life Index was published by the OECD. The dimensions of the index included health, economic, workplace, income, jobs, housing, civic engagement, and life satisfaction.
Since 2012, John Helliwell, Richard Layard and Jeffrey Sachs have edited an annual World Happiness Report which reports a national measure of subjective well-being, derived from a single survey question on satisfaction with life. GDP explains some of the cross-national variation in life satisfaction, but more of it is explained by other, social variables (See 2013 World Happiness Report).
In 2019, Serge Pierre Besanger published a "GDP 3.0" proposal which combines an expanded GNI formula which he calls GNIX, with a Palma ratio and a set of environmental metrics based on the Daly Rule.
Lists of countries by their GDP
Lists of countries by GDP
List of countries by GDP (nominal), (per capita)
List of continents by GDP (nominal)
List of countries by GDP (PPP), (per capita)
List of countries by real GDP growth rate, (per capita)
List of countries by GDP sector composition
List of countries by past and projected GDP (PPP), (per capita), (nominal), (per capita)
See also
Economic growth
OECD Better Life Index
Chained volume series
Circular flow of income
GDP density
Genuine progress indicator
Gross regional domestic product
Gross regional product
Inventory investment
Modified gross national income
List of countries by average wage
Disposable household and per capita income
List of economic reports by U.S. government agencies
Misery index (economics)
National average salary
Potential output
Productivism
Social Progress Index
Notes
References
Further reading
Australian Bureau for Statistics, Australian National Accounts: Concepts, Sources and Methods, 2000. Retrieved November 2009. In depth explanations of how GDP and other national accounts items are determined.
Joseph E. Stiglitz, "Measuring What Matters: Obsession with one financial figure, GDP, has worsened people's health, happiness and the environment, and economists want to replace it", Scientific American, vol. 323, no. 2 (August 2020), pp. 24–31.
United States Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, . Retrieved November 2009. In depth explanations of how GDP and other national accounts items are determined.
External links
Global
Australian Bureau of Statistics Manual on GDP measurement
GDP-indexed bonds
OECD GDP chart
UN Statistical Databases
World Development Indicators (WDI) at Worldbank.org
World GDP Chart (since 1960)
Data
Bureau of Economic Analysis: Official United States GDP data
Historicalstatistics.org: Links to historical statistics on GDP for countries and regions, maintained by the Department of Economic History at Stockholm University.
Quandl - GDP by country - downloadable in CSV, Excel, JSON or XML
Historical US GDP (yearly data), 1790–present, maintained by Samuel H. Williamson and Lawrence H. Officer, both professors of economics at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Google – public data: GDP and Personal Income of the U.S. (annual): Nominal Gross Domestic Product
The Maddison Project of the Groningen Growth and Development Centre at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. This project continues and extends the work of Angus Maddison in collating all the available, credible data estimating GDP for countries around the world. This includes data for some countries for over 2,000 years back to 1 CE and for essentially all countries since 1950.
Articles and books
Gross Domestic Product: An Economy’s All, International Monetary Fund.
Stiglitz JE, Sen A, Fitoussi J-P. Mismeasuring our Lives: Why GDP Doesn't Add Up, New Press, New York, 2010
What's wrong with the GDP?
Whether output and CPI inflation are mismeasured, by Nouriel Roubini and David Backus, in Lectures in Macroeconomics
Rodney Edvinsson,
Clifford Cobb, Ted Halstead and Jonathan Rowe. "If the GDP is up, why is America down?" The Atlantic Monthly, vol. 276, no. 4, October 1995, pages 59–78
Jerorn C.J.M. van den Bergh, "Abolishing GDP"
GDP and GNI in OECD Observer No246-247, Dec 2004-Jan 2005
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12598 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg%20Wilhelm%20Friedrich%20Hegel | Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel | Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is considered one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy, with his influence extending to the entire range of contemporary philosophical issues, from aesthetics to ontology and politics, both in the analytic and continental tradition.
Hegel's principal achievement was the development of a distinctive articulation of idealism, sometimes termed absolute idealism, in which the dualisms of, for instance, mind and nature and subject and object are overcome. In contrast to Immanuel Kant, who believes that the subject imposes rational a priori pure concepts of understanding upon the sense-data of intuitions, Hegel believes that the pure concepts are grounded in reality itself. Pure concepts are not applied subjectively to sense-impressions, but rather things exist for their concept. The unity of concept and reality is the Idea. The idea itself is dynamic, active, self-determining, self-moving, and purposive. The idea properly exists as life. In life, the parts of the body are unified for the final cause of actualizing the living organism. Non-organic nature is also grounded in the concept, but is only “latent” and not fully self-determining. Geist, or Spirit is the highest form of life and the idea. Geist is the collective purposive agency and genus of man. Geist is equally substance and subject, meaning that geist is not only a living organic substance, but also a subject involved in complex normative and social spaces. Hegel is also known for his dialectical logic, which is mostly contained within his Science of Logic. In this book, Hegel creates a presuppositionless logic of pure thought, which begins with pure being. In the logic, positions and ideas are examined and revealed to be immanently contradictory. The contradiction within the position and itself is sublated (In German, it is called Aufhebung), in which a new position is posited which negates the previous position's contradiction. An example of sublation is the contradictory nature of pure indeterminate being. Pure being is revealed to be both equal to and different from nothing. This contradiction within being is resolved with its sublation into becoming, in which nothing passes into being and being passes into nothing. However, becoming also reveals its own contradictions and is sublated into determinate being. The logic progresses along through contradictions and sublations until there are no more contradictions that can be sublated. This is the absolute, which for Hegel is the idea.
Hegel influenced a wide variety of thinkers and writers. For example, theologian Paul Tillich wrote that the historical dialectical thought of Hegel "has influenced world history more profoundly than any other structural analysis." In his work Systematic Theology, Tillich referred to Hegel's work as "perfect essentialism," later writing "essentialism was in Hegel's system fulfilled." Karl Barth described Hegel as a "Protestant Aquinas" while Maurice Merleau-Ponty wrote that "all the great philosophical ideas of the past century—the philosophies of Marx and Nietzsche, phenomenology, German existentialism, and psychoanalysis—had their beginnings in Hegel." Michael Hardt has highlighted that the roots of post-structuralism and its unifying basis lies, in large part, in a general opposition not to the philosophical tradition tout court but specifically to the "Hegelian tradition" dominating philosophy in the twentieth century prior to post-structuralism.
Hegel's work has been considered the "completion of philosophy" by some of the most influential thinkers in existentialism, post-structuralism, and twentieth-century theology. Jacques Derrida wrote of Hegel in his work Of Grammatology that "if there were a definition of Différance, it would be precisely the limit, the interruption, the destruction of the Hegelian dialectical synthesis wherever it operates." Martin Heidegger observed in his 1969 work Identity and Difference and in his personal Black Notebooks that Hegel's system in an important respect "consummates western philosophy" by completing the idea of the logos, the self-grounding ground, in thinking through the identification of Being and beings, which is "the theme of logic", writing "[I]t is... incontestable that Hegel, faithful to tradition, sees the matter of thinking in beings as such and as a whole, in the movement of Being from its emptiness to its developed fullness." Heidegger in various places further stated Hegel's thinking to be "the most powerful thinking of modern times."
Life
Early years
Childhood
Hegel was born on 27 August 1770 in Stuttgart, capital of the Duchy of Württemberg in southwestern Germany. Christened Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, he was known as Wilhelm to his close family. His father, Georg Ludwig, was Rentkammersekretär (secretary to the revenue office) at the court of Karl Eugen, Duke of Württemberg. Hegel's mother, Maria Magdalena Louisa (née Fromm), was the daughter of a lawyer at the High Court of Justice at the Württemberg court. She died of bilious fever (Gallenfieber) when Hegel was thirteen. Hegel and his father also caught the disease, but they narrowly survived. Hegel had a sister, Christiane Luise (1773–1832); and a brother, Georg Ludwig (1776–1812), who perished as an officer during Napoleon's 1812 Russian campaign.
At the age of three, Hegel went to the German School. When he entered the Latin School two years later, he already knew the first declension, having been taught it by his mother. In 1776, he entered Stuttgart's gymnasium illustre and during his adolescence read voraciously, copying lengthy extracts in his diary. Authors he read include the poet Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock and writers associated with the Enlightenment, such as Christian Garve and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. His studies at the Gymnasium concluded with his Abiturrede ("graduation speech") "Der verkümmerte Zustand der Künste und Wissenschaften unter den Türken" ("The abortive state of art and scholarship in Turkey").
Tübingen (1788–1793)
At the age of eighteen, Hegel entered the Tübinger Stift (a Protestant seminary attached to the University of Tübingen), where he had as roommates the poet and philosopher Friedrich Hölderlin and the future philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling. Sharing a dislike for what they regarded as the restrictive environment of the Seminary, the three became close friends and mutually influenced each other's ideas. All greatly admired Hellenic civilization and Hegel additionally steeped himself in Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Lessing during this time. They watched the unfolding of the French Revolution with shared enthusiasm. Schelling and Hölderlin immersed themselves in theoretical debates on Kantian philosophy, from which Hegel remained aloof. Hegel, at this time, envisaged his future as that of a Popularphilosoph, (a "man of letters") who serves to make the abstruse ideas of philosophers accessible to a wider public; his own felt need to engage critically with the central ideas of Kantianism did not come until 1800.
Although the violence of the 1793 Reign of Terror dampened Hegel's hopes, he continued to identify with the moderate Girondin faction and never lost his commitment to the principles of 1789, which he expressed by drinking a toast to the storming of the Bastille every fourteenth of July.
Bern (1793–1796) and Frankfurt (1797–1801)
Having received his theological certificate (Konsistorialexamen) from the Tübingen Seminary, Hegel became Hofmeister (house tutor) to an aristocratic family in Bern (1793–1796). During this period, he composed the text which has become known as the Life of Jesus and a book-length manuscript titled "The Positivity of the Christian Religion". His relations with his employers becoming strained, Hegel accepted an offer mediated by Hölderlin to take up a similar position with a wine merchant's family in Frankfurt in 1797. There, Hölderlin exerted an important influence on Hegel's thought. While in Frankfurt, Hegel composed the essay "Fragments on Religion and Love". In 1799, he wrote another essay entitled "The Spirit of Christianity and Its Fate", unpublished during his lifetime.
Also in 1797, the unpublished and unsigned manuscript of "The Oldest Systematic Program of German Idealism" was written. It was written in Hegel's hand, but may have been authored by Hegel, Schelling, Hölderlin, or an unknown fourth person.
Career years
Jena, Bamberg and Nuremberg (1801–1816)
In 1801, Hegel came to Jena at the encouragement of his old friend Schelling, who held the position of Extraordinary Professor at the University of Jena. Hegel secured a position at the University of Jena as a Privatdozent (unsalaried lecturer) after submitting the inaugural dissertation De Orbitis Planetarum, in which he briefly criticized arguments that assert—based on Bode's Law or other arbitrary choice of mathematical series—there must exist a planet between Mars and Jupiter. Unbeknownst to Hegel, Giuseppe Piazzi had discovered the minor planet Ceres within that orbit on 1 January 1801. Later in the year, Hegel's first book The Difference Between Fichte's and Schelling's Systems of Philosophy was completed. He lectured on "Logic and Metaphysics" and gave lectures with Schelling on an "Introduction to the Idea and Limits of True Philosophy" and facilitated a "philosophical disputorium". In 1802, Schelling and Hegel founded the journal Kritische Journal der Philosophie (Critical Journal of Philosophy) to which they contributed until the collaboration ended when Schelling left for Würzburg in 1803.
In 1805, the university promoted Hegel to the position of Extraordinary Professor (unsalaried) after he wrote a letter to the poet and minister of culture Johann Wolfgang Goethe protesting the promotion of his philosophical adversary Jakob Friedrich Fries ahead of him. Hegel attempted to enlist the help of the poet and translator Johann Heinrich Voß to obtain a post at the renascent University of Heidelberg, but he failed. To his chagrin, Fries was, in the same year, made Ordinary Professor (salaried).
With his finances drying up quickly, Hegel was under great pressure to deliver his book, the long-promised introduction to his philosophical system. Hegel was putting the finishing touches to it, The Phenomenology of Spirit, as Napoleon engaged Prussian troops on 14 October 1806 in the Battle of Jena on a plateau outside the city. On the day before the battle, Napoleon entered the city of Jena. Hegel recounted his impressions in a letter to his friend Friedrich Immanuel Niethammer: I saw the Emperor—this world-soul [Weltseele]—riding out of the city on reconnaissance. It is indeed a wonderful sensation to see such an individual, who, concentrated here at a single point, astride a horse, reaches out over the world and masters it.
Pinkard (2000) notes that Hegel's comment to Niethammer "is all the more striking since he had already composed the crucial section of the Phenomenology in which he remarked that the Revolution had now officially passed to another land (Germany) that would complete 'in thought' what the Revolution had only partially accomplished in practice". Although Napoleon chose not to close down Jena as he had other universities, the city was devastated and students deserted it in droves, making Hegel's financial prospects even worse. The following February marked the birth of Hegel's illegitimate son, Georg Ludwig Friedrich Fischer (1807–1831), as the result of an affair with Hegel's landlady Christiana Burkhardt née Fischer (who had been abandoned by her husband).
In March 1807, Hegel moved to Bamberg, where Niethammer had declined and passed on to Hegel an offer to become editor of a newspaper, the . Unable to find more suitable employment, Hegel reluctantly accepted. Ludwig Fischer and his mother (whom Hegel may have offered to marry following the death of her husband) stayed behind in Jena.
In November 1808, Hegel was again through Niethammer, appointed headmaster of a gymnasium in Nuremberg, a post he held until 1816. While in Nuremberg, Hegel adapted his recently published Phenomenology of Spirit for use in the classroom. Part of his remit was to teach a class called "Introduction to Knowledge of the Universal Coherence of the Sciences", Hegel developed the idea of an encyclopedia of the philosophical sciences, falling into three parts: logic, philosophy of nature and philosophy of spirit.
In 1811, Hegel married Marie Helena Susanna von Tucher (1791–1855), the eldest daughter of a Senator. This period saw the publication of his second major work, the Science of Logic (Wissenschaft der Logik; 3 vols., 1812, 1813 and 1816), and the birth of his two legitimate sons, Karl Friedrich Wilhelm (1813–1901) and Immanuel Thomas Christian (1814–1891).
Heidelberg and Berlin (1816–1831)
Having received offers of a post from the Universities of Erlangen, Berlin and Heidelberg, Hegel chose Heidelberg, where he moved in 1816. Soon after, his illegitimate son Ludwig Fischer (now ten years old) joined the Hegel household in April 1817, having spent time in an orphanage after the death of his mother Christiana Burkhardt.
In 1817, Hegel published The Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences in Outline as a summary of his philosophy for students attending his lectures at Heidelberg.
In 1818, Hegel accepted the renewed offer of the chair of philosophy at the University of Berlin, which had remained vacant since Johann Gottlieb Fichte's death in 1814. Here, Hegel published his Philosophy of Right (1821). Hegel devoted himself primarily to delivering lectures; his lectures on aesthetics, the philosophy of religion, the philosophy of history and the history of philosophy were published posthumously from students' notes. His fame spread and his lectures attracted students from all over Germany and beyond.
In 1819–1827, he made two trips to Weimar, where he met Goethe, and to Brussels, the Northern Netherlands, Leipzig, Vienna, Prague, and Paris.
Hegel was appointed University Rector of the university in October 1829, but his term ended in September 1830. Hegel was deeply disturbed by the riots for reform in Berlin in that year. In 1831 Frederick William III decorated him with the Order of the Red Eagle, 3rd Class for his service to the Prussian state. In August 1831, a cholera epidemic reached Berlin and Hegel left the city, taking up lodgings in Kreuzberg. Now in a weak state of health, Hegel seldom went out. As the new semester began in October, Hegel returned to Berlin in the mistaken belief that the epidemic had largely subsided. By 14 November, Hegel was dead. The physicians pronounced the cause of death as cholera, but it is likely he died from another gastrointestinal disease. His last words are said to have been, "There was only one man who ever understood me, and even he didn't understand me." He was buried on 16 November. In accordance with his wishes, Hegel was buried in the Dorotheenstadt cemetery next to Fichte and Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand Solger.
Hegel's illegitimate son, Ludwig Fischer, had died shortly before while serving with the Dutch army in Batavia and the news of his death never reached his father. Early the following year, Hegel's sister Christiane committed suicide by drowning. Hegel's remaining two sons—Karl, who became a historian; and , who followed a theological path—lived long and safeguarded their father's manuscripts and letters, and produced editions of his works.
Philosophical work
Logic and metaphysics
During the era of German idealism, every standard work on logic consisted of three divisions: doctrines of concept, judgment, and inference. Doctrines of concept address the systematic, hierarchical relations of the most general classes of things. Doctrines of judgment investigate relations of subject and predicate. And doctrines of inference lay out the forms of syllogisms originally found in Aristotelian term logic.
Indeed, "logic" in the field of nineteenth-century continental philosophy takes on a range of meanings from "metaphysics" to "theory of science," from "critical epistemology" to "first philosophy." And debates about the nature of logic were intertwined with competition to inherit the mantle of Kant and with it the future direction of German philosophy. Each new logic book staked a new claim in a century-long expansionist turf war among philosophical trends.
With the possible exception of the study of inference, what was called "logic" in nineteenth-century Europe bears little resemblance to what logicians study today. Logic, especially the doctrine of the concept, was metaphysics. It was the search for a fundamental ontological structure within the relations of the most basic predicates (quantity, time, place etc.), a practice that goes back to the Pythagorean Table of Opposites, Plato's Sophist, Aristotle's Categories.
This research program took on new meaning with the 1781 publication of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. Kant derived his own table of categories––what he called the twelve pure, ancestral concepts of the understanding that structure all experience irrespective of content––from a standard term-logical table of judgments, noting also that...the true ancestral concepts...also have their equally pure derivative concepts, which could by no means be passed over in a complete system of transcendental philosophy, but with the mere mention of which I can be satisfied in a merely critical essay.
Hegel's Science of Logic is a notable contribution to the philosophical study of category metaphysics in its post-Kantian form. Hegel takes up the project that Kant suggested is necessary but did not complete, namely "to take note of and, as far as possible, completely catalog" the derivative concepts of the pure understanding and "completely illustrate its family tree."
The affinity between Hegel and Kant's logics (speculative and transcendental respectively) is reflected in their vocabulary. Kant spoke of Entstehen (coming-to-be) and Vergehen (ceasing-to-be), the same two terms that Hegel used to refer to the two compositional elements of Werden (becoming). And although the Logic's table of contents minimally resembles Kant's table of categories, the four headings of Kant's table (quantity, quality, relation, and modality) do not play, in Hegel's dialectic, the organizational role that Kant had in mind for them. Indeed, Hegel faulted Kant for copying the table of judgments from the "modern compendiums of logic" whose subject matter is, Hegel said, in need of "total reconstruction."
So how are the concepts derived? Hegel wrote that
...profounder insight into the antinomial, or more truly into the dialectical nature of reason demonstrates any Concept [Begriff] whatsoever to be a unity of opposed elements [Momente] to which, therefore, the form of antinomial assertions could be given.
In other words, every concept thus contains a contradiction that is itself the determination of another concept. All concepts are thus interrelated through a process of concretization (the introduction of new terms) that Hegel calls self-determination or freedom. The fully concrete system of logic (what Hegel calls the "diamond net" of concepts) thus grows out of a single, abstract seed concept––just as a tree grows from an actual seed. For this reason, Hegel's Logic begins with "Being, pure Being"––which is the abstract idea of God ("and God has the absolutely undisputed right that the beginning be made with him")––from which issue the further determinations of becoming, determinate being, something, infinity, and so on. This process culminates in what Hegel calls the Absolute Idea, which is "being, imperishable life, self-knowing truth, and is all truth" and outside of which there is only "error, confusion, opinion, endeavor, caprice and transitoriness."
This process of self-concretization has been the subject of much philosophical controversy and interest. Scholars such as Clark Butler hold that a good portion of the Logic is formalizable, proceeding deductively via indirect proof. Others, such as Hans-Georg Gadamer, theorize that Hegel's course in the Logic is determined primarily by the associations of ordinary words in the German language. Both of these interpretations are in a way equally true, because form and content are unified in logic according to Hegel.
Hegel also understood the course of his logic to be reflected in history:
...different stages of the logical Idea assume the shape of successive systems, each based on a particular definition of the Absolute. As the logical Idea is seen to unfold itself in a process from the abstract to the concrete, so in the history of philosophy the earliest systems are the most abstract, and thus at the same time the poorest...
The concepts developed in the Science of Logic are thus also to be found in Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy. For example: Parmenides took pure being to be the absolute; Gorgias replaced it with pure nothing; Heraclitus replaced both being and nothing with becoming (which is a unity of two contraries: coming-to-be and ceasing-to-be). Hegel understood the history of philosophy to be a transhistorical socratic argument concerning the identity of the Absolute. That history should resemble this dialectic indicated to Hegel that history is something rational.
Things-in-themselves
For both Hegel and Kant, "we arrive at the concept of the thing in itself by removing, or abstracting from, everything in our experiences of objects of which we can become conscious."
If we abstract 'Ding' [thing] from 'Ding an sich' [thing in itself], we get one of Hegel's standard phrases: 'an sich.' [in itself]....A child, in Hegel's example, is thus 'in itself' the adult it will become: to know what a 'child' is means to know that it is, in some respects, a vacancy which will only gain content after it has grown out of childhood.
The "thing as it is in itself" is indeed knowable: it is the indeterminate, "futural" aspect of the thing we experience—it is what we will come to know. In other words, although the thing-in-itself is at any given moment thoroughly unknown, it nevertheless remains that part of the thing about which it is possible to learn more. At the same time, this should not be construed as a merely epistemological claim (having to do only with our understanding of the thing); the in-itself may be equally taken in the ontological sense, namely as the undeveloped (for example, the seed is the in-itself of the plant).
Life
Karen Ng writes that "there is a central, recurring rhetorical device that Hegel returns to again and again throughout his philosophical system: that of describing the activity of reason and thought in terms of the dynamic activity and development of organic life." Hegel went so far as to include the concept of life as a category in his Science of Logic, likely inspired by Aristotle's emphasis on teleology, as well as Kant's treatment of Naturzweck (natural purposiveness) in the Critique of Judgment. Within this work, the category of life is conceived to be the absolute idea in the form of the subjective concept; an illustrative contrast may be seen in contrasting this with how the category of cognition is thought as being the absolute idea in the form of the judgement. The speculative identity of mind and nature suggests that reason and history progress in the direction of the Absolute by traversing various stages of relative immaturity, just like a sapling or a child, overcoming necessary setbacks and obstacles along the way (see Progress below).
The structure of Hegel's Logic appears to exhibit self-similarity, with sub-sections, in their treatment of more specific subject matter, resembling the treatment of the whole. Hegel's concept of Aufhebung, by which parts are preserved and repurposed within the whole, anticipates the concept of emergence in contemporary systems theory and evolutionary biology.
Hegel's system is often presented in the form of a Sierpiński triangle due to his tendency to group concepts by triads. However, Hegel himself describes the system as a "circle of circles:"
...the science presents itself as a circle that winds around itself, where the mediation winds the end back to the beginning which is the simple ground; the circle is thus a circle of circles, for each single member ensouled by the method is reflected into itself so that, in returning to the beginning it is at the same time the beginning of a new member.
Freedom
Hegel's thinking can be understood as a constructive development within the broad tradition that includes Schelling, Fichte, Aristotle, and Immanuel Kant. To this list, one could add Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Spinoza, Goethe, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Rousseau, Kant, and Fichte. It was Rousseau who determined that norms are only followed insofar as the subject accepts the norms as theirs. Kant imported Rousseau's ideas of individual autonomy into his considerations of moral and noumenal freedom. Fichte added a social element into Kant's moral philosophy in which the freedom of the absolute ego is limited by the "summons" of another consciousness. Hegel agreed with this premise, but did not agree that freedom was limited by another consciousness. Instead, true freedom was achieved through the intersubjective relations between different self-legislating normative subjects. Freedom is a relationship between the self and others, and the stance by which we view our actions as "our own". This mutual recognition of one another as rational normative agents is freedom.
In his discussion of "Spirit" in his Encyclopedia, Hegel praises Aristotle's On the Soul as "by far the most admirable, perhaps even the sole, work of philosophical value on this topic". In his Phenomenology of Spirit and his Science of Logic, Hegel's concern with Kantian topics such as freedom and morality and with their ontological implications is pervasive. Rather than simply rejecting Kant's dualism of freedom versus nature, Hegel aims to subsume it within "true infinity", the "Concept" (or "Notion": Begriff), "Spirit" and "ethical life" in such a way that the Kantian duality is rendered intelligible, rather than remaining a brute "given".
The reason why this subsumption takes place in a series of concepts is that Hegel's method in his Science of Logic and his Encyclopedia is to begin with basic concepts like "Being" and "Nothing" and to develop these through a long sequence of elaborations, including those already mentioned. In this manner, a solution that is reached in principle in the account of "true infinity" in the Science of Logic'''s chapter on "Quality" is repeated in new guises at later stages, all the way to "Spirit" and "ethical life" in the third volume of the Encyclopedia.
In this way, Hegel defended the truth in Kantian dualism against reductive or eliminative programs like materialism and empiricism. Like Plato, with his dualism of soul versus bodily appetites, Kant pursued the mind's ability to question its felt inclinations or appetites and to come up with a standard of "duty" (or, in Plato's case, "good") which transcends bodily restrictiveness. Hegel preserved this essential Platonic and Kantian concern in the form of infinity going beyond the finite (a process that Hegel in fact related to "freedom" and the "ought"), the universal going beyond the particular (in the Concept) and Spirit going beyond Nature. Hegel rendered these dualities intelligible by (ultimately) his argument in the "Quality" chapter of the "Science of Logic". The finite has to become infinite in order to achieve reality. The idea of the absolute excludes multiplicity so the subjective and objective must achieve synthesis to become whole. This is because, as Hegel suggested by his introduction of the concept of "reality", what determines itself—rather than depending on its relations to other things for its essential character—is more fully "real" (following the Latin etymology of "real", more "thing-like") than what does not. Finite things do not determine themselves because, as "finite" things, their essential character is determined by their boundaries over against other finite things, so in order to become "real" they must go beyond their finitude ("finitude is only as a transcending of itself").
The result of this argument is that finite and infinite—particular and universal, nature and freedom—do not face one another as independent realities, but instead the latter, in each case, is the self-transcending of the former. Rather than stress the singularity of each factor that complements and conflicts with the others, the relationship between finite and infinite (and particular and universal, and nature and freedom) becomes intelligible as a progressively developing and self-perfecting whole.
Progress
The mystical writings of Jakob Böhme had a strong effect on Hegel. Böhme had written that the Fall of Man was a necessary stage in the evolution of the universe. This evolution was the result of God's desire for complete self-awareness. Hegel was fascinated by the works of Kant, Rousseau and Johann Wolfgang Goethe and by the French Revolution. Modern philosophy, culture and society seemed to Hegel fraught with contradictions and tensions, such as those between the subject and object of knowledge, mind and nature, self and Other, freedom and authority, knowledge and faith, or the Enlightenment and Romanticism. Hegel's main philosophical project was to take these contradictions and tensions and interpret them as part of a comprehensive, evolving, rational unity that in different contexts he called "the absolute Idea" (Science of Logic, sections 1781–1783) or "absolute knowledge" (Phenomenology of Spirit, "(DD) Absolute Knowledge").
According to Hegel, this unity evolved through and manifested itself in contradiction and negation. Contradiction and negation have the dynamic quality that every point in each domain of reality—consciousness, history, philosophy, art, nature and society—leads to further development until a rational unity is reached that preserves the contradictions as phases and sub-parts by lifting them up (Aufhebung) to a higher unity. This mind comprehends all of these phases and sub-parts as steps in its own process of comprehension. It is rational because the same, underlying, logical, developmental order underlies every domain of reality and self-conscious rational thought, although only in the later stages of development does it come to full self-consciousness. Reason, or the idea, comes to completion in the philosophical comprehension of individual existing human minds, which emerge from nature, and through their own understanding bring this developmental process to an understanding of itself. Hegel's thought is revolutionary in that it is a philosophy of absolute negation—as long as absolute negation is at the center, systematization remains open, making it possible for human beings to become subjects.
"Mind" and "Spirit" are the common English translations of Hegel's use of the German "Geist", which combines the meaning of spirit—as in god, ghost, or mind—with an intentional force. In Hegel's draft manuscripts written during his time at the University of Jena, his notion of "Geist" was tightly bound to the notion of "Aether", from which he also derived the concepts of space and time, but in his later works (after Jena) he did not explicitly use his old notion of "Aether".
Civil society
Hegel distinguished between civil society and state in his Elements of the Philosophy of Right. In this work, civil society (Hegel used the term "bürgerliche Gesellschaft" though it is now referred to as Zivilgesellschaft in German to emphasize a more inclusive community) was a stage in the dialectical relationship between Hegel's perceived opposites, the macro-community of the state and the micro-community of the family. Broadly speaking, the term was split, like Hegel's followers, to the political left and right. On the left, it became the foundation for Karl Marx's civil society as an economic base; to the right, it became a description for all non-state (and the state is the peak of the objective spirit) aspects of society, including culture, society and politics. This liberal distinction between political society and civil society was used by Alexis de Tocqueville. In fact, Hegel's distinctions as to what he meant by civil society are often unclear. While it appears that he felt that a civil society, such as the one in which he lived, was an inevitable step in the dialectic, he allowed for the crushing of other "lesser," not fully realized civil societies as they were not fully conscious of their lack of progress. It was perfectly legitimate in Hegel's eyes for a conqueror, such as Napoleon, to come and destroy that which was not fully realized.
State
Hegel's State is the final culmination of the embodiment of freedom or right (Rechte) in the Elements of the Philosophy of Right. The State subsumes family and civil society and fulfills them. All three together are called "ethical life" (Sittlichkeit). The State involves three "moments". In a Hegelian State, citizens both know their place and choose their place. They both know their obligations and choose to fulfill them. An individual's "supreme duty is to be a member of the state" (Elements of the Philosophy of Right, section 258). The individual has "substantial freedom in the state". The State is "objective spirit" so "it is only through being a member of the state that the individual himself has objectivity, truth, and ethical life" (section 258). Every member loves the State with genuine patriotism, but has transcended simple "team spirit" by reflectively endorsing their citizenship.
Heraclitus
According to Hegel, "Heraclitus is the one who first declared the nature of the infinite and first grasped nature as in itself infinite, that is, its essence as process. The origin of philosophy is to be dated from Heraclitus. His is the persistent Idea that is the same in all philosophers up to the present day, as it was the Idea of Plato and Aristotle". For Hegel, Heraclitus's great achievements were to have understood the nature of the infinite, which for Hegel includes understanding the inherent contradictoriness and negativity of reality; and to have grasped that reality is becoming or process and that "being" and "nothingness" are empty abstractions. According to Hegel, Heraclitus's "obscurity" comes from his being a true (in Hegel's terms "speculative") philosopher who grasped the ultimate philosophical truth and therefore expressed himself in a way that goes beyond the abstract and limited nature of common sense and is difficult to grasp by those who operate within common sense. Hegel asserted that, in Heraclitus, he had an antecedent for his logic: "[...] there is no proposition of Heraclitus which I have not adopted in my logic".
Hegel cites a number of fragments of Heraclitus in his Lectures on the History of Philosophy. One to which he attributes great significance is the fragment he translates as "Being is not more than Non-being", which he interprets to mean the following:
Sein und Nichts sei dasselbeBeing and non-being are the same.
Heraclitus did not form any abstract nouns from his ordinary use of "to be" and "to become" and seemed to oppose any identity A to any other identity B, C and so on, which is not-A. However, Hegel interprets not-A as not existing at all, not nothing at all, which cannot be conceived, but an indeterminate or "pure" being without particularity or specificity. Pure being and pure non-being or nothingness are, for Hegel, abstractions from the reality of becoming and this is also how he interprets Heraclitus.
For Hegel, the inner movement of reality is the process of God thinking as manifested in the evolution of the universe of nature and thought; Hegel argued that, when fully understood, reality is being thought by God as manifested in a person's comprehension of this process. Since human thought is the image and fulfillment of God's thought, God can be understood by an analysis of thought and reality. Just as humans continually correct their concept of reality through a dialectical process, God becomes more fully manifested through the dialectical process of becoming.
For his god, Hegel does not take the logos of Heraclitus but refers to the nous of Anaxagoras, although he may well have regarded them the same as he continues to refer to god's plan, which is identical to God. Whatever the nous thinks at any time is actual substance and is identical to limited being, but more remains in the substrate of non-being, which is identical to pure or unlimited thought.
The universe as becoming is a combination of being and non-being. The particular is never complete in itself, but in its quest to find completion continually transforms into more comprehensive, complex, self-relating particulars. The essential nature of being-for-itself is that it is free "in itself;" it does not depend on anything else for its being. The limitations represent fetters, which it must constantly cast off as it becomes freer and more self-determining.
Although Hegel began his philosophizing with commentary on the Christian religion and often expresses the view that he is a Christian, his ideas are not acceptable to some Christians even though he has had a major influence on 19th- and 20th-century theology.
Religion
As a graduate of a Protestant seminary, Hegel's theological concerns were reflected in many of his writings and lectures. For instance, in his "The Philosophy of History", Hegel argued the Protestant cause in the Thirty Years' War was part of the struggle against absolutism and advanced the cause of human freedom. His thoughts on the person of Jesus Christ stood out from the theologies of the Enlightenment. In his posthumously published Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, Part 3, Hegel is particularly interested in demonstrations of God's existence and the ontological proof. He espouses that "God is not an abstraction but a concrete God [...] God, considered in terms of his eternal Idea, has to generate the Son, has to distinguish himself from himself; he is the process of differentiating, namely, love and Spirit". This means that Jesus, as the Son of God, is posited by God over and against himself as other. Hegel sees relational and metaphysical unities between Jesus and God the Father. To Hegel, Jesus is both divine and human. Hegel further attests that God (as Jesus) not only died, but "[...] rather, a reversal takes place: God, that is to say, maintains himself in the process, and the latter is only the death of death. God rises again to life, and thus things are reversed".
The philosopher Walter Kaufmann argued that there was sharp criticism of traditional Christianity in Hegel's early theological writings. Kaufmann also pointed out that Hegel's references to God or to the divine and spirit drew on classical Greek as well as Christian connotations of the terms. Kaufmann wrote:
Aside to his beloved Greeks, Hegel saw before him the example of Spinoza and, in his own time, the poetry of Goethe, Schiller, and Hölderlin, who also liked to speak of gods and the divine. So he, too, sometimes spoke of God and, more often, of the divine; and because he occasionally took pleasure in insisting that he was really closer to this or that Christian tradition than some of the theologians of his time, he has sometimes been understood to have been a Christian.
Hegel seemed to have an ambivalent relationship with magic, myth and Paganism. He formulated an early philosophical example of a disenchantment narrative, arguing that Judaism was responsible both for realizing the existence of Geist and, by extension, for separating nature from ideas of spiritual and magical forces and challenging polytheism. However, Hegel's manuscript "The Oldest Systematic Program of German Idealism" suggests that Hegel was concerned about the perceived decline in myth and enchantment in his age, and he therefore called for a "new myth" to fill the cultural vacuum.
Hegel continued to develop his thoughts on religion both in terms of how it was to be given a 'wissenschaftlich', or "theoretically rigorous," account in the context of his own "system," and how a fully modern religion could be understood.
Works
In addition to some articles published early in his career and during his Berlin period, Hegel published four major works during his lifetime:
The Phenomenology of Spirit (or The Phenomenology of Mind), his account of the evolution of consciousness from sense-perception to absolute knowledge, published in 1807.
Science of Logic, the logical and metaphysical core of his philosophy, in three volumes (1812, 1813 and 1816, respectively), with a revised first volume published in 1831.
Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences, a summary of his entire philosophical system, which was originally published in 1816 and revised in 1827 and 1830.
Elements of the Philosophy of Right, his political philosophy, published in 1820.
Posthumous works
During the last ten years of his life, Hegel did not publish another book but thoroughly revised the Encyclopedia (second edition, 1827; third, 1830). In his political philosophy, he criticized Karl Ludwig von Haller's reactionary work, which claimed that laws were not necessary. A number of other works on the philosophy of history, religion, aesthetics and the history of philosophy were compiled from the lecture notes of his students and published posthumously.
(full text at Internet Archive) (see also Lectures on the History of Philosophy)
Hegel's posthumous works have had remarkable influence on subsequent works on religion, aesthetics, and history because of the comprehensive accounts of the subject matters considered within the lectures, with Heidegger for example in Poetry, Language, Thought characterizing Hegel's Lectures on Aesthetics as the "most comprehensive reflection on the nature of art that the West possesses—comprehensive because it stems from metaphysics."
Legacy
There are views of Hegel's thought as the summit of early 19th-century German philosophical idealism. It profoundly impacted many future philosophical schools, including those opposed to Hegel's specific dialectical idealism, such as existentialism, the historical materialism of Marx, historism and British Idealism.
Hegel's influence was immense in philosophy and other sciences. Throughout the 19th century, many chairs of philosophy around Europe were held by Hegelians and Søren Kierkegaard, Ludwig Feuerbach, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels—among many others—were deeply influenced by, but also strongly opposed to many of Hegel's central philosophical themes. Scholars continue to point out Hegelian influences in a range of theoretical and/or learned works, such as Carl von Clausewitz's book on strategic thought, On War (1831). After less than a generation, Hegel's philosophy was banned by the Prussian right-wing and was firmly rejected by the left-wing in multiple official writings.
After the period of Bruno Bauer, Hegel's influence waned until the philosophy of British Idealism and the 20th-century Hegelian Western Marxism that began with György Lukács. In the United States, Hegel's influence is evident in pragmatism. The more recent movement of communitarianism has a strong Hegelian influence. American economists Murray Rothbard and Karl Popper regard Hegel's ideals as having inspired modern totalitarian political leaders and movements with what they describe as his "worship" of the state.
Reading Hegel
Some of Hegel's writing was intended for those with advanced knowledge of philosophy, although his Encyclopedia was intended as a textbook in a university course. Nevertheless, Hegel assumed that his readers are well-versed in Western philosophy. Especially crucial are Aristotle, Immanuel Kant and Kant's immediate successors, most prominently Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling. Those without this background would be advised to begin with one of the many general introductions to his thought. As is always the case, difficulties are magnified for those reading him in translation. In fact, Hegel himself argued, in his Science of Logic, that German was particularly conducive to philosophical thought.
According to Walter Kaufmann, the basic idea of Hegel's works, especially the Phenomenology of Spirit, is that a philosopher should not "confine him or herself to views that have been held but penetrate these to the human reality they reflect". In other words, it is not enough to consider propositions, or even the content of consciousness; "it is worthwhile to ask in every instance what kind of spirit would entertain such propositions, hold such views, and have such a consciousness. Every outlook in other words, is to be studied not merely as an academic possibility but as an existential reality". Kaufmann has argued that as unlikely as it may sound, it is not the case that Hegel was unable to write clearly, but that Hegel felt that "he must and should not write in the way in which he was gifted".
Left and right Hegelianism
Some historians have spoken of Hegel's influence as represented by two opposing camps. The Right Hegelians, the allegedly direct disciples of Hegel at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, advocated a Protestant orthodoxy and the political conservatism of the post-Napoleon Restoration period. Today this faction continues among conservative Protestants, such as the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, which was founded by missionaries from Germany when the Hegelian Right was active. The Left Hegelians, also known as the Young Hegelians, interpreted Hegel in a revolutionary sense, leading to an advocation of atheism in religion and liberal democracy in politics.
Recent studies have questioned this paradigm. No Hegelians of the period ever referred to themselves as "Right Hegelians", which was a term of insult originated by David Strauss, a self-styled Left Hegelian. Critiques of Hegel offered by the Left Hegelians radically diverted Hegel's thinking into new directions and eventually came to form a large part of the literature on and about Hegel.
The Left Hegelians also influenced Marxism, which has in turn inspired global movements, from the Russian Revolution, the Chinese Revolution and myriad of practices up until the present moment.
Twentieth-century interpretations of Hegel were mostly shaped by British idealism, logical positivism, Marxism and Fascism. According to Benedetto Croce, the Italian Fascist Giovanni Gentile "holds the honor of having been the most rigorous neo-Hegelian in the entire history of Western philosophy and the dishonor of having been the official philosopher of Fascism in Italy". Since the fall of the Soviet Union, a new wave of Hegel scholarship has arisen in the West without the preconceptions of the prior schools of thought. and Otto Pöggeler in Germany as well as Peter Hodgson and Howard Kainz in the United States are notable for their recent contributions to post-Soviet Union thinking about Hegel.
Triads
In accounts of Hegelianism formed prior to the Hegel renaissance, Hegel's dialectic was often characterized as a three-step process, "thesis, antithesis, synthesis"; a "thesis" (e.g. the French Revolution) would cause the creation of its "antithesis" (e.g. the Reign of Terror that followed) and would result in a "synthesis" (e.g. the constitutional state of free citizens). However, Hegel used this classification only once and he attributed the terminology to Kant. The terminology was largely developed earlier by Fichte. It was spread by Heinrich Moritz Chalybäus in accounts of Hegelian philosophy and, since then, the terms have been used for this type of framework.
The "thesis–antithesis–synthesis" approach erroneously gives the sense that things or ideas are contradicted or opposed by things that come from outside them. To the contrary, the fundamental notion of Hegel's dialectic is that things or ideas have internal contradictions. For Hegel, analysis or comprehension of a thing or idea reveals that underneath its apparently simple identity or unity is an underlying inner contradiction. This contradiction leads to the dissolution of the thing or idea in the simple form in which it presented to a higher-level, more complex thing or idea that more adequately incorporates the contradiction. The triadic form that appears in many places in Hegel (e.g. being–nothingness–becoming, immediate–mediate–concrete and abstract–negative–concrete) is about this movement from inner contradiction to higher-level integration or unification.
For Hegel, reason is "speculative" – not "dialectical". Believing that the traditional description of Hegel's philosophy in terms of thesis–antithesis–synthesis was mistaken, a few scholars like Raya Dunayevskaya have attempted to discard the triadic approach. According to their argument, although Hegel referred to "the two elemental considerations: first, the idea of freedom as the absolute and final aim; secondly, the means for realising it, i.e. the subjective side of knowledge and will, with its life, movement, and activity" (thesis and antithesis), he did not use "synthesis", but instead spoke of the "Whole": "We then recognised the State as the moral Whole and the Reality of Freedom, and consequently as the objective unity of these two elements". Furthermore, in Hegel's language the "dialectical" aspect or "moment" of thought and reality, by which things or thoughts turn into their opposites or have their inner contradictions brought to the surface, what he called Aufhebung, is only preliminary to the "speculative" (and not "synthesizing") aspect or "moment", which grasps the unity of these opposites or contradiction.
It is now widely agreed that explaining Hegel's philosophy in terms of thesis–antithesis–synthesis is inaccurate. Nevertheless, this interpretation survives in a number of scholarly works.
Renaissance
In the last half of the 20th century, Hegel's philosophy underwent a major renaissance. This was due to (a) the rediscovery and re-evaluation of Hegel as a possible philosophical progenitor of Marxism by philosophically oriented Marxists; (b) a resurgence of Hegel's historical perspective; and (c) an increasing recognition of the importance of his dialectical method. György Lukács' History and Class Consciousness (1923) helped to reintroduce Hegel into the Marxist canon. This sparked a renewed interest in Hegel reflected in the work of Herbert Marcuse, Theodor W. Adorno, Ernst Bloch, Raya Dunayevskaya, Alexandre Kojève and Gotthard Günther among others. In Reason and Revolution (1941), Herbert Marcuse made the case for Hegel as a revolutionary and criticized Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse's thesis that Hegel was a totalitarian. The Hegel renaissance also highlighted the significance of Hegel's early works (i.e. those written before The Phenomenology of Spirit). The direct and indirect influence of Kojève's lectures and writings (on The Phenomenology of Spirit in particular) mean that it is not possible to understand most French philosophers from Jean-Paul Sartre to Jacques Derrida without understanding Hegel. American neoconservative political theorist Francis Fukuyama's controversial book The End of History and the Last Man (1992) was heavily influenced by Kojève. The Swiss theologian Hans Küng has also advanced contemporary Hegelian scholarship.
Beginning in the 1960s, Anglo-American Hegel scholarship has challenged the traditional interpretation of Hegel as offering a metaphysical system: this has also been the approach of Z. A. Pelczynski and Shlomo Avineri. This view, sometimes referred to as the "non-metaphysical option", has influenced many major English-language studies of Hegel.
Late 20th-century literature in Western Theology that is friendly to Hegel includes works by such writers as Walter Kaufmann (1966), Dale M. Schlitt (1984), Theodore Geraets (1985), Philip M. Merklinger (1991), Stephen Rocker (1995) and Cyril O'Regan (1995).
Two prominent American philosophers, John McDowell and Robert Brandom (sometimes referred to as the "Pittsburgh Hegelians"), have produced philosophical works with a marked Hegelian influence. Each is avowedly influenced by the late Wilfred Sellars, also of Pittsburgh, who referred to his Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind (1956) as a series of "incipient Méditations Hegeliennes" (in homage to Edmund Husserl's 1931 Méditations cartésiennes). In a separate Canadian context, James Doull's philosophy is deeply Hegelian.
Beginning in the 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union, a fresh reading of Hegel took place in the West. For these scholars, fairly well represented by the Hegel Society of America and in cooperation with German scholars such as Otto Pöggeler and Walter Jaeschke, Hegel's works should be read without preconceptions. Marx plays little-to-no role in these new readings. American philosophers associated with this movement include Lawrence Stepelevich, Rudolf Siebert, Richard Dien Winfield, Randall Jackwak, and Theodore Geraets.
Criticism
Criticism of Hegel has been widespread in the 19th and the 20th centuries. A diverse range of individuals including Arthur Schopenhauer, Karl Marx, Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Bertrand Russell, G. E. Moore, Franz Rosenzweig, Eric Voegelin and A. J. Ayer have challenged Hegelian philosophy from a variety of perspectives. Among the first to take a critical view of Hegel's system was the 19th-century German group known as the Young Hegelians, which included Feuerbach, Marx, Engels and their followers. In Britain, the Hegelian British idealism school (members of which included Francis Herbert Bradley, Bernard Bosanquet and in the United States Josiah Royce) was challenged and rejected by analytic philosophers Moore and Russell. In particular, Russell considered "almost all" of Hegel's doctrines to be false. Regarding Hegel's interpretation of history, Russell commented: "Like other historical theories, it required, if it was to be made plausible, some distortion of facts and considerable ignorance". Logical positivists such as Ayer and the Vienna Circle criticized both Hegelian philosophy and its supporters, such as Bradley.
Hegel's contemporary Schopenhauer was particularly critical and wrote of Hegel's philosophy as "a pseudo-philosophy paralyzing all mental powers, stifling all real thinking". Hegel was described by Schopenhauer as a "clumsy charlatan". Kierkegaard criticized Hegel's "absolute knowledge" unity. The physicist and philosopher Ludwig Boltzmann also criticized the obscure complexity of Hegel's works, referring to Hegel's writing as an "unclear thoughtless flow of words". In a similar vein, Robert Pippin notes that some view Hegel as having "the ugliest prose style in the history of the German language". Russell wrote in A History of Western Philosophy (1945) that Hegel was "the hardest to understand of all the great philosophers". Karl Popper quoted Schopenhauer as stating, "Should you ever intend to dull the wits of a young man and to incapacitate his brains for any kind of thought whatever, then you cannot do better than give Hegel to read...A guardian fearing that his ward might become too intelligent for his schemes might prevent this misfortune by innocently suggesting the reading of Hegel."
Karl Popper wrote that "there is so much philosophical writing (especially in the Hegelian school) which may justly be criticised as meaningless verbiage". Popper also makes the claim in the second volume of The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945) that Hegel's system formed a thinly veiled justification for the absolute rule of Frederick William III and that Hegel's idea of the ultimate goal of history was to reach a state approximating that of 1830s Prussia. Popper further proposed that Hegel's philosophy served not only as an inspiration for communist and fascist totalitarian governments of the 20th century, whose dialectics allow for any belief to be construed as rational simply if it could be said to exist. Kaufmann and Shlomo Avineri have criticized Popper's theories about Hegel.
Isaiah Berlin listed Hegel as one of the six architects of modern authoritarianism who undermined liberal democracy, along with Rousseau, Claude Adrien Helvétius, Fichte, Saint-Simon and Joseph de Maistre.
Voegelin argued that Hegel should be understood not as a philosopher, but as a "sorcerer", i.e. as a mystic and hermetic thinker. This concept of Hegel as a hermetic thinker was elaborated by Glenn Alexander Magee, who argued that interpreting Hegel's body of work as an expression of mysticism and hermetic ideas leads to a more accurate understanding of Hegel.
Selected works
Published during Hegel's lifetime
Differenz des Fichteschen und Schellingschen Systems der Philosophie, 1801The Difference Between Fichte's and Schelling's Systems of Philosophy, tr. H. S. Harris and Walter Cerf, 1977
Phänomenologie des Geistes, 1807
Phenomenology of Mind, tr. J. B. Baillie, 1910; 2nd ed. 1931Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit, tr. A. V. Miller, 1977Phenomenology of Spirit, tr. Terry Pinkard, 2018
Wissenschaft der Logik, 1812, 1813, 1816, "Doctrine of Being" revised 1831Science of Logic, tr. W. H. Johnston and L. G. Struthers, 2 vols., 1929; tr. A. V. Miller, 1969; tr. George di Giovanni, 2010
Enzyklopädie der philosophischen Wissenschaften, 1817; 2nd ed. 1827; 3rd ed. 1830 (Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences)
(Pt. I:) The Logic of Hegel, tr. William Wallace, 1874, 2nd ed. 1892; tr. T. F. Geraets, W. A. Suchting and H. S. Harris, 1991; tr. Klaus Brinkmann and Daniel O. Dahlstrom 2010
(Pt. II:) Hegel's Philosophy of Nature, tr. A. V. Miller, 1970
(Pt. III:) Hegel's Philosophy of Mind, tr. William Wallace, 1894; rev. by A. V. Miller, 1971; rev. 2007 by M. J. Inwood
Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts, 1821Elements of the Philosophy of Right, tr. T. M. Knox, 1942; tr. H. B. Nisbet, ed. Allen W. Wood, 1991
Published posthumously
Lectures on Aesthetics Lectures on the Philosophy of History (also translated as Lectures on the Philosophy of World History), 1837
Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion Lectures on the History of Philosophy Lectures on Logic, 1831
See also
Dialectical idealism
"God is dead"
Hegel-Archiv
Political consciousness
Process theology
Pure thought
Rudy Rucker, the great-great-great-grandson of Hegel
Notes
Explanatory notes
Citations
Sources
Beiser, Frederick C. (ed.), 1993. The Cambridge Companion to Hegel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. .
Beiser, Frederick C., 2005. Hegel. New York: Routledge.
Burbidge, John, 2006. The Logic of Hegel's Logic: An Introduction. Broadview Press.
Findlay, J. N., 1958. Hegel: A Re-examination. New York: Oxford University Press.
Francke, Kuno, Howard, William Guild, Schiller, Friedrich, 1913–1914
Gentile, Andrea, 2018. Bewusstsein, Anschauung und das Unendliche bei Fichte, Schelling und Hegel. Über den unbedingten Grundsatz der Erkenntnis, Freiburg, München: Verlag Karl Alber,
Harris, H. S., 1995. Hegel: Phenomenology and System. Indianapolis: Hackett.
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 1895. Vorlesungen über die Philosophie der Religion. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. Eng. tr. E.B. Speirs and J. Burdon Sanderson as Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, New York: Humanities Press, 1974. .
Houlgate, Stephen, 2005. An Introduction to Hegel. Freedom, Truth and History. Oxford: Blackwell
Houlgate, Stephen, 2005. The Opening of Hegel's Logic: From Being to Infinity. Purdue University Press.
Hyppolite, Jean, 1946. Genèse et structure de la Phénoménologie de l'esprit. Paris: Aubier. Eng. tr. Samuel Cherniak and John Heckman as Genesis and Structure of Hegel's "Phenomenology of Spirit", Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1979. .
Inwood, M. J., 1983. Hegel—The Arguments of the Philosophers. London & New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul
Kainz, Howard P., 1996. G. W. F. Hegel. Athens: Ohio University Press. .
Kaufmann, Walter, 1965. Hegel: A Reinterpretation. New York: Doubleday (reissued Notre Dame IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1978).
Kojève, Alexandre, 1947. Introduction à la lecture de Hegel. Paris: Gallimard. Eng. tr. James H. Nichols, Jr., as Introduction to the Reading of Hegel: Lectures on the Phenomenology of Spirit, Basic Books, 1969. .
Losurdo, Domenico, 2004. Hegel and the Freedom of Moderns. Duke University Press Books
Lukács, Georg, 1948. Der junge Hegel. Zürich and Vienna (2nd ed. Berlin, 1954). Eng. tr. Rodney Livingstone as The Young Hegel, London: Merlin Press, 1975. .
Maker, William, 1994. Philosophy Without Foundations: Rethinking Hegel. State University of New York Press. .
Marcuse, Herbert, 1941. Reason and Revolution: Hegel and the Rise of Social Theory.
Mueller, Gustav Emil, 1968. Hegel: the man, his vision, and work. New York: Pageant Press.
Pinkard, Terry, 1988. Hegel's Dialectic: The Explanation of Possibility. Temple University Press
Pinkard, Terry, 1994. Hegel's Phenomenology: The Sociality of Reason. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
Pippin, Robert B., 1989. Hegel's Idealism: the Satisfactions of Self-Consciousness. Cambridge University Press. .
Plant, Raymond, 1983. Hegel: An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell
Riedel, Manfred, 1984. Between Tradition and Revolution: The Hegelian Transformation of Political Philosophy, Cambridge.
Rose, Gillian, 1981. Hegel Contra Sociology. Athlone Press.
Rosen, Stanley, 2000. G.W.F Hegel: Introduction To Science Of Wisdom, (Carthage Reprint) St. Augustines Press; 1 edition
Russon, John, 2004. Reading Hegel's Phenomenology. Indiana University Press. .
Singer, Peter, 2001. Hegel: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press (previously issued in the OUP Past Masters series, 1983)
Solomon, Robert, 1983. In the Spirit of Hegel, Oxford: Oxford University Press
Stewart, Jon, ed., 1996. The Hegel Myths and Legends. Northwestern University Press.
Stirling, James Hutchison, The Secret of Hegel: Being the Hegelian System in Origin Principle, Form and Matter, London: Oliver & Boyd
Stace, W. T., 1955. The Philosophy of Hegel. New York: Dover.
Taylor, Charles, 1975. Hegel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. .
Williams, Robert R., 2000. Hegel's Ethics of Recognition, University of California Press; New Ed edition
Wood, Allen W., 1990 Hegel's Ethical Thought, Cambridge University Press
External links
Andrew Chitty's (University of Sussex) Hegel Bibliography
« Der Instinkt der Vernünftigkeit » and other texts – Works on Hegel in Université du Québec site (in French)
Hegel, as the National Philosopher of Germany (1874) Karl Rosenkranz, Granville Stanley Hall, William Torrey Harris, Gray, Baker & Co. 1874
Hegel page in 'The History Guide'
Hegel.net – freely available resources (under the GNU FDL)
Lowenberg J., (1913) "The Life of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel". in German classics of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries''. New York: German Publication Society.
Audio
Video
Hegel: The First Cultural Psychologist 2007 from Vimeo Andy Blunden
Presentation by Terry Pinkard on Hegel: A Biography, May 10, 2000
Societies
The Hegel Society of America
The Hegel Society of Great Britain
Hegel texts online
Scans of all (original, German) books from Hegel (all editions) between 1807 and 1850 as PDFs at hegel.net
Philosophy of History Introduction
Hegel's The Philosophy of Right
Hegel's The Philosophy of History
Hegel by HyperText, reference archive on Marxists.org
Phenomenology of Spirit. translated by Terry Pinkard (2012)
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Writers from Stuttgart | [
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12600 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid%20network | Grid network | A grid network is a computer network consisting of a number of computer systems connected in a grid topology.
In a regular grid topology, each node in the network is connected with two neighbors along one or more dimensions. If the network is one-dimensional, and the chain of nodes is connected to form a circular loop, the resulting topology is known as a ring. Network systems such as FDDI use two counter-rotating token-passing rings to achieve high reliability and performance. In general, when an n-dimensional grid network is connected circularly in more than one dimension, the resulting network topology is a torus, and the network is called "toroidal". When the number of nodes along each dimension of a toroidal network is 2, the resulting network is called
a hypercube.
A parallel computing cluster or multi-core processor is often connected in regular interconnection network such as a
de Bruijn graph,
a hypercube graph,
a hypertree network,
a fat tree network,
a torus, or cube-connected cycles.
A grid network is not the same as a grid computer or a computational grid, although the nodes in a grid network are usually computers, and grid computing requires some kind of computer network or "universal coding" to interconnect the computers.
See also
Grid plan - street network
Network topology
References
Telecommunications
Network topology | [
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12601 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governor-General%20of%20Australia | Governor-General of Australia | The governor-general of Australia is the representative of the monarch, currently Queen Elizabeth II, in Australia. The governor-general is appointed by the monarch on the recommendation of government ministers. The governor-general has formal presidency over the Federal Executive Council and is commander-in-chief of the Australian Defence Force. The functions of the governor-general include appointing ministers, judges, and ambassadors; giving royal assent to legislation passed by parliament; issuing writs for election; and bestowing Australian honours.
In general, the governor-general observes the conventions of the Westminster system and responsible government, maintaining a political neutrality, and has almost always acted only on the advice of the prime minister or other ministers or, in certain cases, parliament. The governor-general also has a ceremonial role: hosting events at either of the two official residencesGovernment House in the capital, Canberra, and Admiralty House in Sydneyand travelling throughout Australia to open conferences, attend services and commemorations, and generally provide encouragement to individuals and groups who are contributing to their communities. When travelling abroad, the governor-general is seen as the representative of Australia, and of the Queen of Australia. The governor-general is supported by a staff (of 80 in 2018) headed by the official secretary to the governor-general of Australia.
A governor-general is not appointed for a specific term, but is generally expected to serve for five years subject to a possible short extension. Since 1 July 2019, the governor-general has been General David Hurley.
From Federation in 1901 until 1965, 11 out of the 15 governors-general were British aristocrats; they included six barons, two viscounts, two earls, and one royal duke. Since then, all but one of the governors-general have been Australian-born; the exception, Sir Ninian Stephen, arrived in Australia as a teenager. Only one governor-general, Dame Quentin Bryce (2008–2014), has been a woman. None has been of non-European or of Aboriginal Australian or Torres Strait Islander background.
Method of appointment
The governor-general is formally appointed by the monarch of Australia, in terms of letters patent issued by the monarch at some time during their reign and counter-signed by the then prime minister. When a new governor-general is to be appointed, the current prime minister recommends a name to the monarch, who by convention accepts that recommendation. The monarch then permits the recommendation to be publicly announced, usually several months before the end of the existing governor-general's term. During these months, the person recommended is referred to as the governor-general-designate. After receiving their commission, the new governor-general takes an Oath of Allegiance to the monarch and an Oath of Office. These oaths are administered by the chief justice of Australia or another senior judge. Traditionally, the ceremony takes place in the Senate chamber.
History
In 1919, Prime Minister Billy Hughes sent a memorandum to the Colonial Office in which he requested "a real and effective voice in the selection of the King's representative". He further proposed that the Dominions be able to nominate their own candidates and that "the field of selection should not exclude citizens of the Dominion itself". The memorandum met with strong opposition within the Colonial Office and was dismissed by Lord Milner, the Colonial Secretary; no response was given. The following year, as Ronald Munro Ferguson's term was about to expire, Hughes cabled the Colonial Office and asked that the appointment be made in accordance with the memorandum. To mollify Hughes, Milner offered him a choice between three candidates. After consulting his cabinet he chose Henry Forster, 1st Baron Forster. In 1925, under Prime Minister Stanley Bruce, the same practice was followed for the appointment of Forster's successor Lord Stonehaven, with the Australian government publicly stating that his name "had been submitted, with others, to the Commonwealth ministry, who had selected him".
The prime minister now advises the monarch to appoint their nominee. This has been the procedure since November 1930, when James Scullin's proposed appointment of Sir Isaac Isaacs was fiercely opposed by the British government. This was not because of any lack of regard for Isaacs personally, but because the British government considered that the choice of Governors-General was, since the 1926 Imperial Conference, a matter for the monarch's decision alone. (However, it became very clear in a conversation between Scullin and King George V's private secretary, Lord Stamfordham, on 11 November 1930, that this was merely the official reason for the objection, with the real reason being that an Australian, no matter how highly regarded personally, was not considered appropriate to be a governor-general.) Scullin was equally insistent that the monarch must act on the relevant prime minister's direct advice (the practice until 1926 was that Dominion prime ministers advised the monarch indirectly, through the British government, which effectively had a veto over any proposal it did not agree with). Scullin cited the precedents of the prime minister of South Africa, J. B. M. Hertzog, who had recently insisted on his choice of the Earl of Clarendon as governor-general of that country, and the selection of an Irishman as governor-general of the Irish Free State. Both of these appointments had been agreed to despite British government objections.
Despite these precedents, George V remained reluctant to accept Scullin's recommendation of Isaacs and asked him to consider Field Marshal Sir William Birdwood. However, Scullin stood firm, saying he would be prepared to fight a general election on the issue of whether an Australian should be prevented from becoming governor-general because he was Australian. On 29 November, the King agreed to Isaacs's appointment, but made it clear that he did so only because he felt he had no option. (Lord Stamfordham had complained that Scullin had "put a gun to the King's head".) This right not only to advise the monarch directly, but also to expect that advice to be accepted, was soon taken up by all the other Dominion prime ministers. This, among other things, led to the Statute of Westminster 1931 and to the formal separation of the Crowns of the Dominions. Now, the Queen of Australia is generally bound by constitutional convention to accept the advice of the Australian prime minister and state premiers about Australian and state constitutional matters, respectively.
Styles and titles of governors-general
Governors-general have during their tenure the style His/Her Excellency the Honourable and their spouses have the style His/Her Excellency. Since May 2013, the style used by a former governor-general is the Honourable; it was at the same time retrospectively granted for life to all previous holders of the office.
From the creation of the Order of Australia in 1975, the governor-general was, ex officio, Chancellor and Principal Companion of the order, and therefore became entitled to the post-nominal AC. In 1976, the letters patent for the order were amended to introduce the rank of Knight and Dame to the order, and from that time the governor-general became, ex officio, the Chancellor and Principal Knight of the order. In 1986 the letters patent were amended again, and governors-general appointed from that time were again, ex officio, entitled to the post-nominal AC (although if they already held a knighthood in the order that superior rank was retained).
Until 1989, all governors-general were members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom and thus held the additional style the Right Honourable for life. The same individuals were also usually either peers, knights, or both (the only Australian peer to be appointed as governor-general was the Lord Casey; and Sir William McKell was knighted only in 1951, some years into his term, but he was entitled to the style "The Honourable" during his tenure as premier of New South Wales, an office he held until almost immediately before his appointment). In 1989, Bill Hayden, a republican, declined appointment to the British Privy Council and any imperial honours. From that time until 2014, governors-general did not receive automatic titles or honours, other than the post-nominal AC by virtue of being Chancellor and Principal Companion of the Order of Australia. Dame Quentin Bryce was the first governor-general to have had no prior title or pre-nominal style. She was in office when, on 19 March 2014, the Queen, acting on the advice of Prime Minister Tony Abbott, amended the letters patent of the Order of Australia to provide, inter alia, that the governor-general would be, ex officio, Principal Knight or Principal Dame of the order. Until 2015, the honour continued after the retirement from office of the governor-general. Formerly, the governor-general automatically became a knight or dame (if he or she was not already one previously) upon being sworn in.
Backgrounds of governors-general
All the governors-general until 1965 were British-born, except for Australian-born Sir Isaac Isaacs (1931–1936) and Sir William McKell (1947–1953). There have been only Australian occupants since then, although Sir Ninian Stephen (1982–1989) had been born in Britain. Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, was a senior member of the royal family. Dame Quentin Bryce (2008–2014) was the first woman to be appointed to the office. Sir Isaac Isaacs and Sir Zelman Cowen were Jewish; Bill Hayden was an avowed atheist during his term and he made an affirmation rather than swear an oath at the beginning of his commission; the remaining Governors-General have been at least nominally Christian.
Various governors-general had previously served as governors of an Australian state or colony: Lord Hopetoun (Victoria 1889–1895); Lord Tennyson (South Australia 1899–1902); Lord Gowrie (South Australia 1928–34; and New South Wales 1935–1936); Major General Michael Jeffery (Western Australia 1993–2000); Dame Quentin Bryce (Queensland 2003–2008); General David Hurley (New South Wales 2014 - 2019). Sir Ronald Munro Ferguson had been offered the governorship of South Australia in 1895 and of Victoria in 1910, but refused both appointments. Lord Northcote was Governor of Bombay. Lord Casey was Governor of Bengal in between his periods of service to the Australian Parliament.
Former leading politicians and members of the judiciary have figured prominently. Lord Dudley was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1902–1905). Lord Stonehaven (as John Baird) was Minister for Transport in the Cabinets of Bonar Law and Stanley Baldwin; and after his return to Britain he became Chairman of the UK Conservative Party. Sir Isaac Isaacs was successively Commonwealth Attorney-General, a High Court judge, and Chief Justice. Sir William McKell was Premier of New South Wales. Lord Dunrossil (as William Morrison) was Speaker of the UK House of Commons. Lord De L'Isle was Secretary of State for Air in Winston Churchill's cabinet from 1951 to 1955. More recent governors-general in this category include Lord Casey, Sir Paul Hasluck, Sir John Kerr, Sir Ninian Stephen, Bill Hayden and Sir William Deane.
Of the eleven Australians appointed governor-general since 1965, Lord Casey, Sir Paul Hasluck and Bill Hayden were former federal parliamentarians; Sir John Kerr was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales; Sir Ninian Stephen and Sir William Deane were appointed from the bench of the High Court; Sir Zelman Cowen was a vice-chancellor of the University of Queensland and constitutional lawyer; Peter Hollingworth was the Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane; and Major-General Michael Jeffery was a retired military officer and former Governor of Western Australia. Quentin Bryce's appointment was announced during her term as Governor of Queensland; she had previously been the Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner. General David Hurley was a retired Chief of Defence Force and former Governor of New South Wales.
Significant post-retirement activities of earlier Governors-General have included: Lord Tennyson was appointed Deputy Governor of the Isle of Wight; Sir Ronald Munro Ferguson (by now Lord Novar) became Secretary of State for Scotland; and Lord Gowrie became Chairman of the Marylebone Cricket Club (Lord Forster had also held this post, before his appointment as governor-general).
Tenure
The constitution does not set a term of office, so a governor-general may continue to hold office for any agreed length of time. In recent decades the typical term of office has been five years. Some early governors-general were appointed to terms of just one year (Lord Tennyson) or two years (Lord Forster; later extended). At the end of this initial term, a commission may be extended for a short time, usually to avoid conflict with an election or during political difficulties.
The salary of the governor-general was initially set by the constitution, which fixed an annual amount of A£10,000 until the parliament decided otherwise. The constitution also provides that the salary of the governor-general cannot be "altered" during his or her term of office. Under the Governor-General Act 1974, each new commission has resulted in a pay increase. Today, the law ensures the salary is higher than that for the Chief Justice of the High Court, over a five-year period. The annual salary during Michael Jeffery's term was $365,000. Quentin Bryce's salary was $394,000. The current salary is $425,000 and there is a generous pension. Until 2001, Governors-General did not pay income tax on their salary; this was changed after the Queen agreed to pay tax.
Three governors-general have resigned their commission. The first governor-general, Lord Hopetoun, asked to be recalled to Britain in 1903 over a dispute about funding for the post. Sir John Kerr resigned in 1977, with his official reason being his decision to accept the position of Australian Ambassador to UNESCO in Paris, a post which ultimately he did not take up, but the resignation also being motivated by the 1975 constitutional controversy. In 2003, Archbishop Peter Hollingworth voluntarily stood aside while controversial allegations against him were managed, and the letters patent of the office were amended to take account of this circumstance. He later "stepped down over the church's handling" of "allegations" of sexual abuse of boys, for which he apologised before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in 2016. In 1961, Lord Dunrossil became the first and, to date, only governor-general to die while holding office.
A governor-general may be recalled or dismissed by the monarch before their term is complete. By convention, this may only be upon advice from the prime minister, who retains responsibility for selecting an immediate replacement or letting the vacancy provisions take effect. No Australian governor-general has ever been dismissed, and it is unclear how quickly the monarch would act on such advice. The constitutional crisis of 1975 raised the possibility of the prime minister and the governor-general attempting to dismiss each other at the same time. According to William McMahon, Harold Holt considered having Lord Casey dismissed from the governor-generalship, and went as far as to have the necessary documents drawn up. Casey had twice called McMahon into Yarralumla to give him a "dressing down" over his poor relationship with Deputy Prime Minister John McEwen, which he believed was affecting the government. Holt believed that this was an improper use of his authority, but no further action was taken.
A vacancy occurs on the resignation, death, or incapacity of the governor-general. A temporary vacancy occurs when the governor-general is overseas on official business representing Australia. A temporary vacancy also occurred in 2003 when Peter Hollingworth stood aside.
Section 4 of the constitution allows the Queen to appoint an administrator to carry out the role of governor-general when there is a vacancy. By convention, the longest-serving state governor holds a dormant commission, allowing an assumption of office to commence whenever a vacancy occurs. In 1975, Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam advised the Queen that Sir Colin Hannah, then Governor of Queensland, should have his dormant commission revoked for having made public political statements.
Constitutional role and functions
The Constitution of Australia, section 2, provides:A Governor-General appointed by the Queen shall be Her Majesty's representative in the Commonwealth, and shall have and may exercise in the Commonwealth during the Queen's pleasure, but subject to this Constitution, such powers and functions of the Queen as Her Majesty may be pleased to assign to him.Such further powers are currently set out in letters patent of 2008 from Queen Elizabeth II; these contain no substantive powers, but provide for the case of a governor-general's absence or incapacity. The constitution also provides that the governor-general is the monarch's "representative" in exercising the executive power of the Commonwealth (section 61) and as commander-in-chief of the armed forces (section 68).
Australian Solicitor-General Maurice Byers stated in 1974: "The constitutional prescription is that executive power is exercisable by the governor-general although vested in the Queen. What is exercisable is original executive power: that is, the very thing vested in the Queen by section 61. And it is exercisable by the Queen's representative, not her delegate or agent."
The 1988 Constitutional Commission report explained: "the governor-general is in no sense a delegate of the Queen. The independence of the office is highlighted by changes which have been made in recent years to the Royal Instruments relating to it." The changes occurred in 1984 when Queen Victoria's letters patent and instructions were revoked and replaced with new letters patent, on Prime Minister Bob Hawke's advice, who stated that this would clarify the governor-general's position under the constitution.
This remains the case even when the sovereign is in the country: Solicitor-General Kenneth Bailey, prior to the first tour of Australia by its reigning monarch in 1954, explained the position by saying: the Constitution expressly vests in the Governor-General the power or duty to perform a number of the Crown's functions in the Legislature and the Executive Government of the Commonwealth... The executive power of the Commonwealth, by section 61 of the Constitution, is declared to be vested in the Queen. It is also, in the same section, declared to be "exercisable" by the Governor-General as the Queen's representative. In the face of this provision, I feel it is difficult to contend that the Queen, even though present in Australia, may exercise in person functions of executive government which are specifically assigned by the constitution to the Governor-General."
As early as 1901, the authoritative commentary by Quick and Garran had noted that the governor-general of Australia was distinguished from other Empire governors-general by the fact that "[t]he principal and most important of his powers and functions, legislative as well as executive, are expressly conferred on him by the terms of the Constitution itself ... not by Royal authority, but by statutory authority". This view was also held by Senior Judge of the Supreme Court of Tasmania Andrew Inglis Clark, who, with W. Harrison Moore (a contributor to the first draft of the constitution put before the 1897 Adelaide Convention and professor of law at the University of Melbourne), postulated that the letters patent and the royal instructions issued by Queen Victoria were unnecessary "or even of doubtful legality".
The monarch chose not to intervene during the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis, in which Governor-General Sir John Kerr dismissed the Labor government of Gough Whitlam, on the basis that such a decision is a matter "clearly placed within the jurisdiction of the Governor-General". Through her private secretary, she wrote that she "has no part in the decisions which the Governor-General must take in accordance with the Constitution".
In an address to the Sydney Institute, January 2007, in connection with that event, Sir David Smith, a retired official secretary to the governor-general of Australia who had been Kerr's official secretary in 1975, described the constitution as conferring the powers and functions of Australia's head of state on the governor-general in "his own right". He stated that the governor-general was more than a representative of the sovereign, explaining: "under section 2 of the Constitution the Governor-General is the Queen's representative and exercises certain royal prerogative powers and functions; under section 61 of the Constitution the Governor-General is the holder of a quite separate and independent office created, not by the Crown, but by the Constitution, and empowered to exercise, in his own right as Governor-General... all the powers and functions of Australia's head of state."
Role in the Australian Parliament
The constitution describes the parliament of the commonwealth as consisting of the Queen, the Senate and the House of Representatives. Section 5 states that "the Governor-General may appoint such times for holding the sessions of the Parliament [...] prorogue the Parliament [and] dissolve the House of Representatives." These provisions make it clear that the Queen's role in the parliament is in name only and the actual responsibility belongs to the governor-general. Such decisions are usually taken on the advice of the prime minister, although that is not stated in the constitution.
The governor-general has a ceremonial role in swearing in and accepting the resignations of members of Parliament. They appoint a deputy, to whom members make an oath of allegiance before they take their seats. On the day parliament opens, the governor-general makes a speech, entirely written by the government, explaining the government's proposed legislative program.
The most important power is found in section 58: "When a proposed law passed by both Houses of Parliament is presented to the Governor-General for the Queen's assent, he shall declare ... that he assents in the Queen's name." The royal assent brings such laws into effect, as legislation, from the date of signing.
Sections 58 to 60 allow the governor-general to withhold assent, suggest changes, refer to the Queen or proclaim that the Queen has annulled the legislation. A number of governors-general have reserved royal assent for particular legislation for the Queen. Such assent has usually been given during a scheduled visit to Australia by the Queen. On other occasions royal assent has been given elsewhere. Examples of this have been the Flags Act (1953), the Royal Styles and Titles Acts (1953 and 1973), and the Australia Act (1986).
Role in executive government
At the start of Chapter 2 on executive government, the constitution says "The executive power of the Commonwealth is vested in the Queen and is exercisable by the Governor-General as the Queen's representative". The governor-general presides over a Federal Executive Council. By convention, the prime minister is appointed to this council and advises as to which parliamentarians shall become ministers and parliamentary secretaries.
In the constitution, the words "Governor-General-in-council" mean the governor-general acting with the advice of the Council. Powers exercised in council, which are not reserve powers, include:
establishing government departments
appointing federal judges, and
appointing ambassadors and high commissioners
All such actions are taken on the advice of ministers.
Military role
Under section 68 of the constitution, "the command in chief of the naval and military forces of the Commonwealth is vested in the Governor‑General". In practice, the associated powers over the Australian Defence Force are only exercised on the advice of the prime minister or minister for defence, on behalf of cabinet. The actual powers of the governor-general as commander-in-chief are not defined in the constitution, but rather in the Defence Act 1903 and other legislation. They include appointing the chief of the Defence Force and authorising the deployment of troops. There is some ambiguity with regard to the role of the governor-general in declarations of war. In 1941 and 1942, the Curtin Government advised the governor-general to declare war on several Axis powers, but then had King George VI make identical proclamations on Australia's behalf. No formal declarations of war have been made since World War II, although in 1973 the Whitlam Government advised the governor-general to proclaim the end of Australia's involvement in Vietnam, despite the lack of an initiating proclamation.
The powers of command-in-chief are vested in the governor-general rather than the "Governor-General in Council", meaning there is an element of personal discretion in their exercise. For instance, in 1970 Governor-General Paul Hasluck refused Prime Minister John Gorton's request to authorise a Pacific Islands Regiment peacekeeping mission in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea, on the grounds that cabinet had not been consulted. Gorton agreed to put the matter to his ministers, and a cabinet meeting agreed that troops should only be called out if requested by the territory's administrator; this did not occur. Defence Minister Malcolm Fraser, who opposed the call out, was responsible for informing Hasluck of the prime minister's lack of consultation. The incident contributed to Fraser's resignation from cabinet in 1971 and Gorton's subsequent loss of the prime ministership.
Reserve powers
In the United Kingdom, the reserve powers of the monarch (which are typically referred to as the "royal prerogative") are not explicitly stated in constitutional enactments, and are the province of convention and common law. In Australia, however, the powers are explicitly given to the governor-general in the constitution; it is their use that is the subject of convention.
The reserve powers are, according to the Constitution of Australia:
The power to dissolve (or refuse to dissolve) the House of Representatives (section 5)
The power to dissolve Parliament on the occasion of a deadlock (section 57)
The power to withhold assent to bills (section 58)
The power to appoint (or dismiss) ministers (section 64)
Those powers are generally and routinely exercised on ministerial advice, but the governor-general retains the ability to act independently in certain circumstances, as governed by convention. It is generally held that the governor-general may use powers without ministerial advice in the following situations:
if an election results in a parliament in which no party has a majority, the governor-general may select the prime minister
if a prime minister loses the support of the House of Representatives, the governor-general may appoint a new prime minister
if a prime minister advises a dissolution of the House of Representatives, the governor-general may refuse that request, or request further reasons why it should be granted; it is worth noting that convention does not give the governor-general the ability to dissolve either the House of Representatives or the Senate without advice
The use of the reserve powers may arise in the following circumstances:
if a prime minister advises a dissolution of Parliament on the occasion of a deadlock between the Houses, the governor-general may refuse that request
if the governor-general is not satisfied with a legislative bill as presented, they may refuse royal assent
if a prime minister resigns after losing a vote of confidence, the governor-general may select a new replacement contrary to the advice of the outgoing prime minister
if a prime minister is unable to obtain supply and refuses to resign or advise a dissolution, the governor-general may dismiss him or her and appoint a new prime minister
The above is not an exhaustive list, and new situations may arise. The most notable use of the reserve powers occurred in November 1975, in the course of the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis. On this occasion the governor-general, Sir John Kerr, dismissed the government of Gough Whitlam when the Senate withheld Supply to the government, even though Whitlam retained the confidence of the House of Representatives. Kerr determined that he had both the right and the duty to dismiss the government and commission a new government that would recommend a dissolution of the Parliament. Events surrounding the dismissal remain extremely controversial.
Biosecurity emergencies
On 18 March 2020, a human biosecurity emergency was declared in Australia owing to the risks to human health posed by the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, after the National Security Committee met the previous day. The Biosecurity Act 2015 specifies that the governor-general may declare such an emergency exists if the health minister (Greg Hunt at the time) is satisfied that "a listed human disease is posing a severe and immediate threat, or is causing harm, to human health on a nationally significant scale". This gives the minister sweeping powers, including imposing restrictions or preventing the movement of people and goods between specified places, and evacuations. The Biosecurity (Human Biosecurity Emergency) (Human Coronavirus with Pandemic Potential) Declaration 2020 was declared by Governor-General David Hurley under Section 475 of the Act.
Ceremonial role
In addition to the formal constitutional role, the governor-general has a representative and ceremonial role, though the extent and nature of that role has depended on the expectations of the time, the individual in office at the time, the wishes of the incumbent government, and the individual's reputation in the wider community. Governors-general generally become patrons of various charitable institutions, present honours and awards, host functions for various groups of people including ambassadors to and from other countries, and travel widely throughout Australia. Sir William Deane (governor-general 1996–2001) described one of his functions as being "Chief Mourner" at prominent funerals. In Commentaries on the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia, Garran noted that, since the Australian executive is national in nature (being dependent on the nationally elected House of Representatives, rather than the Senate), "the Governor-General, as the official head of the Executive, does not in the smallest degree represent any federal element; if he represents anything he is the image and embodiment of national unity and the outward and visible representation of the Imperial relationship of the Commonwealth".
That role can become controversial, however, if the governor-general becomes unpopular with sections of the community. The public role adopted by Sir John Kerr was curtailed considerably after the constitutional crisis of 1975; Sir William Deane's public statements on political issues produced some hostility towards him; and some charities disassociated themselves from Peter Hollingworth after the issue of his management of sex abuse cases during his time as Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane became a matter of controversy.
At one time, governors-general wore the traditional court uniform, consisting of a dark navy wool double-breasted coatee with silver oak leaf and fern embroidery on the collar and cuffs trimmed with silver buttons embossed with the Royal Arms and with bullion edged epaulettes on the shoulders, dark navy trousers with a wide band of silver oak-leaf braid down the outside seam, silver sword belt with ceremonial sword, bicorne cocked hat with plume of ostrich feathers, black patent leather Wellington boots with spurs, etc., that is worn on ceremonial occasions. There is also a tropical version made of white tropical wool cut in a typical military fashion worn with a plumed helmet. However, that custom fell into disuse during the tenure of Sir Paul Hasluck. The governor-general now wears an ordinary lounge suit if a man or day dress if a woman.
Diplomatic role
The governor-general makes state visits overseas on behalf of Australia, during which an administrator of the government is appointed. The right of governors-general to make state visits was confirmed at the 1926 Imperial Conference, as it was deemed not feasible for the sovereign to pay state visits on behalf of countries other than the United Kingdom. However, an Australian governor-general did not exercise that right until 1971, when Paul Hasluck visited New Zealand. Hasluck's successor John Kerr made state visits to eight countries, but Kerr's successor Zelman Cowen made only a single state visit – to Papua New Guinea – as he wished to concentrate on travelling within Australia. All subsequent governors-general have travelled widely while in office and made multiple state visits. Occasionally governors-general have made extended tours visiting multiple countries, notably in 2009 when Quentin Bryce visited nine African countries in 19 days.
The office of governor-general as an agency
The office of governor-general as an agency of the Commonwealth is regulated by the Governor-General Act 1974. The act provides the governor-general with a salary (fixed in 2014 at $425,000) and, after leaving office, a lifetime allowance fixed at two-thirds of the salary of the Chief Justice of the High Court. There is also provision for a surviving spouse or partner. The governor-general appoints an Official Secretary, who in turn appoints other staff.
By convention, the governor-general and any family occupy an official residence in Canberra, Government House (commonly referred to as Yarralumla).
The governor-general travels in a Rolls-Royce Phantom VI limousine for ceremonial occasions, such as the State Opening of Parliament. However, governors-general more commonly use Australian-built luxury cars when on official business.
The official cars of the governor-general fly the Flag of the Governor-General of Australia and display St. Edward's Crown instead of number plates. A similar arrangement is used for the governors of the six states. When the Queen is in Australia, the Queen's Personal Australian Flag is flown on the car in which she is travelling. During the Queen's 2011 visit to Australia, she and the Duke of Edinburgh were driven in a Range Rover Vogue.
History
The office of "governor-general" was previously used in Australia in the mid-19th century. Sir Charles FitzRoy (Governor of New South Wales from 1846–1855) and Sir William Denison (Governor of New South Wales from 1855–1861) also carried the additional title of Governor-General because their jurisdiction extended to other colonies in Australia.
The office of governor-general for the Commonwealth of Australia was conceived during the debates and conventions leading up to federation. The first Governor-General, the Earl of Hopetoun, was a previous governor of Victoria. He was appointed in July 1900, returning to Australia shortly before the inauguration of the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901. After the initial confusion of the Hopetoun Blunder, he appointed the first prime minister of Australia, Edmund Barton, to a caretaker government, with the inaugural 1901 federal election not occurring until March.
Early governors-general were British and were appointed by the queen or king on the recommendation of the Colonial Office. The Australian Government was merely asked, as a matter of courtesy, whether they approved of the choice or not. Governors-general were expected to exercise a supervisory role over the Australian Government in the manner of a colonial governor. In a very real sense, they represented the British Government. They had the right to "reserve" legislation passed by the Parliament of Australia: in effect, to ask the Colonial Office in London for an opinion before giving the royal assent. They exercised this power several times. The monarch, acting upon advice of the British Government, could also disallow any Australian legislation up to a year after the governor-general had given it the assent; although this power has never been used. These powers remain in section 59 of the Constitution of Australia, but today are regarded as dead letters.
The early governors-general frequently sought advice on the exercise of their powers from judges of the High Court of Australia, Sir Samuel Griffith and Sir Edmund Barton. That practice has continued from time to time.
During the 1920s, the importance of the position declined. As a result of decisions made at the 1926 Imperial Conference, the governor-general ceased to represent the British Government diplomatically, and the British right of supervision over Australian affairs was abolished. As the Balfour Declaration of 1926, later implemented as the Statute of Westminster 1931, put it:It is desirable formally to place on record a definition of the position held by the Governor-General as His Majesty's representative in the Dominions. That position, though now generally well recognised, undoubtedly represents a development from an earlier stage when the Governor-General was appointed solely on the advice of His Majesty's Ministers in London and acted also as their representative. In our opinion it is an essential consequence of the equality of status existing among the members of the British Commonwealth of Nations that the Governor-General of a Dominion is the representative of the Crown, holding in all essential respects the same position in relation to the administration of public affairs in the Dominion as is held by His Majesty the King in Great Britain, and that he is not the representative or agent of His Majesty's Government in Great Britain or of any Department of that Government. However, it remained unclear just whose prerogative it now became to decide who new governors-general would be. In 1930, King George V and the Australian Prime Minister James Scullin discussed the appointment of a new Governor-General to replace Lord Stonehaven, whose term was coming to an end. The King maintained that it was now his sole prerogative to choose a governor-general, and he wanted Field-Marshal Sir William Birdwood for the Australian post. Scullin recommended the Australian jurist Sir Isaac Isaacs, and he insisted that George V act on the advice of his Australian prime minister in this matter. Scullin was partially influenced by the precedent set by the Government of the Irish Free State, which always insisted upon having an Irishman as the governor-general of the Irish Free State.
The King approved Scullin's choice, albeit with some displeasure. The usual wording of official announcements of this nature read "The King has been pleased to appoint ...", but on this occasion the announcement said merely "The King has appointed ...", and his private secretary (Lord Stamfordham) asked the Australian solicitor-general, Sir Robert Garran, to make sure that Scullin was aware of the exact wording. The opposition Nationalist Party of Australia denounced the appointment as "practically republican", but Scullin had set a precedent. The convention gradually became established throughout the Commonwealth that the Governor-General is a citizen of the country concerned, and is appointed on the advice of the government of that country.
In 1931, the transformation was concluded with the appointment of the first Australian governor-general, Isaacs, and the first British Representative in Australia, Ernest Crutchley. 1935 saw the appointment of the first British high commissioner to Australia, Geoffrey Whiskard (in office 1936–1941).
After Scullin's defeat in 1931, non-Labor governments continued to recommend British people for appointment as governor-general, but such appointments remained solely a matter between the Australian government and the monarch. In 1947, Labor appointed a second Australian Governor-General, William McKell, who was in office as the Labor premier of New South Wales. The then leader of the Opposition, Robert Menzies, called McKell's appointment "shocking and humiliating".
In 1965 the Menzies conservative government appointed an Australian, Lord Casey, and thereafter only Australians have held the position. Suggestions during the early 1980s that the Prince of Wales might become the governor-general came to nothing due to the prospective constitutional difficulty that might ensue if Prince Charles became king. In 2007 media outlets reported that Prince William might become governor-general of Australia. Both the prime minister, John Howard, and Clarence House repudiated the suggestion.
Patronage
The governor-general is generally invited to become patron of various charitable and service organisations. Historically the governor-general has also served as Chief Scout of Australia. The chief scout is nominated by the Scouting Association's National Executive Committee and is invited by the president of the Scout Association to accept the appointment. Bill Hayden declined the office on the grounds of his atheism, which was incompatible with the Scout Promise. He did however serve as the association's patron during his term of office.
Spouse
Spouses of governors-general have no official duties but carry out the role of a vice-regal consort. They are entitled to the courtesy style Her Excellency or His Excellency during the office-holder's term of office. Most spouses of governors-general have been content to be quietly supportive. Some, however, have been notable in their own right, such as Dame Alexandra Hasluck, Lady Casey and Michael Bryce.
List of governors-general of Australia
Timeline of governors-general
See also
History of Australia
Constitutional history of Australia
Chapter II of the Constitution of Australia
Governors of the Australian states
British Empire
Royal Australian Air Force VIP aircraft
Governor-general (links to other countries which have Governors-General)
Australian VIP transport
Musical composition Earl's March written by Australian author Walter J. Turner in 1889 dedicated to Adrian Hope, whilst in office.
References
Further reading
(pp 515, 519, 548)
External links
"The Constitution as in force on 1 June 2003 together with proclamation declaring the establishment of the Commonwealth, letters patent relating to the Office of Governor-General, Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1942, Australia Act 1986."
A Mirror to the People a 58-minute documentary film on the Office of Governor-General of Australia 1999. Dir: Daryl Dellora. Features Sir William Deane, Sir Zelman Cowen, Sir Ninian Stephen. Special Commendation ATOM Awards.
Governors-General of Australia
Westminster system
Monarchy in Australia
Parliament of Australia
1975 Australian constitutional crisis
1901 establishments in Australia | [
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12607 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasnost | Glasnost | In the Russian language, the word glasnost (; , ) has several general and specific meanings. It has been used in Russian to mean "openness and transparency" since at least the end of the 18th century.
In the Russian Empire of the late-19th century, the term was particularly associated with reforms of the judicial system. Among these were reforms permitting attendance of the press and the public at trials whose verdicts were now to be read aloud. In the mid-1980s, it was popularised by Mikhail Gorbachev as a political slogan for increased government transparency in the Soviet Union.
Historical usage
Human rights activist Lyudmila Alexeyeva argues that the word glasnost has been in the Russian language for several hundred years as a common term: "It was in the dictionaries and lawbooks as long as there had been dictionaries and lawbooks. It was an ordinary, hardworking, non-descript word that was used to refer to a process, any process of justice or governance, being conducted in the open." In the mid-1960s it acquired a revived topical importance in discourse concerning the cold-war era internal policy of the Soviet Union.
In the USSR
The dissidents
On 5 December 1965 the Glasnost rally took place in Moscow, considered to be a key event in the emergence of the Soviet civil rights movement. Protesters on Pushkin Square led by Alexander Yesenin-Volpin demanded access to the closed trial of Yuly Daniel and Andrei Sinyavsky. The protestors made specific requests for "glasnost", herein referring to the specific admission of the public, independent observers and foreign journalists, to the trial that had been legislated in the then newly issued Code of Criminal Procedure. With a few specified exceptions, Article 111 of the Code stated that judicial hearings in the USSR should be held in public.
Such protests against closed trials continued throughout the post-Stalin era. Andrei Sakharov, for example, did not travel to Oslo to receive his Nobel Peace Prize due to his public protest outside a Vilnius court building demanding access to the 1976 trial of Sergei Kovalev, an editor of the Chronicle of Current Events and prominent rights activist.
Gorbachev
In 1986, Soviet general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and his advisers adopted glasnost as a political slogan, together with the term perestroika. Alexander Yakovlev, Head of the Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, is considered to be the intellectual force behind Gorbachev's reform program.
Glasnost was taken to mean increased openness and transparency in government institutions and activities in the Soviet Union (USSR). Glasnost reflected a commitment of the Gorbachev administration to allowing Soviet citizens to discuss publicly the problems of their system and potential solutions. Gorbachev encouraged popular scrutiny and criticism of leaders, as well as a certain level of exposure by the mass media.
Some critics, especially among legal reformers and dissidents, regarded the Soviet authorities' new slogans as vague and limited alternatives to more basic liberties. Alexei Simonov, president of the Glasnost Defence Foundation, makes a critical definition of the term in suggesting it was "a tortoise crawling towards Freedom of Speech".
Various meanings
Between 1986 and 1991, during an era of reforms in the USSR, glasnost was frequently linked with other generalised concepts such as perestroika (literally: restructuring or regrouping) and demokratizatsiya (democratisation). Gorbachev often appealed to glasnost when promoting policies aimed at reducing corruption at the top of the Communist Party and the Soviet government, and moderating the abuse of administrative power in the Central Committee. The ambiguity of "glasnost" defines the distinctive five-year period (1986–1991) at the end of the USSR's existence. There was decreasing pre-publication and pre-broadcast censorship and greater freedom of information.
The "Era of Glasnost" saw greater contact between Soviet citizens and the Western world, particularly the United States: restrictions on travel were loosened for many Soviet citizens which further eased pressures on international exchange between the Soviet Union and the West.
International relations
Gorbachev's interpretation of "glasnost" can best be summarised in English as "openness". While associated with freedom of speech, the main goal of this policy was to make the country's management transparent, and circumvent the holding of near-complete control of the economy and bureaucracy of the Soviet Union by a concentrated body of officials and bureaucratic personnel.
During Glasnost, Soviet history under Stalin was re-examined; censored literature in the libraries was made more widely available; and there was a greater freedom of speech for citizens and openness in the media. It was in the late 1980s when most people in the Soviet Union began to learn about the atrocities of Stalin, and learned about previously suppressed events.
Information about the supposedly higher quality of consumer goods and quality of life in the United States and Western Europe began to be transmitted to the Soviet population, along with western popular culture.
In Russia since 1991
The outright prohibition of censorship was enshrined in Article 29 of the new 1993 Constitution of the Russian Federation. This however has been the subject of ongoing controversy in contemporary Russia owing to heightened governmental interventions restricting access of information to Russian citizens, including internet censorship. There has also been pressure on government-operated media outlets to not publicize or discuss certain events or subjects in recent years. Monitoring of the infringement of media rights in the years from 2004 to 2013 found that instances of censorship were the most commonly reported type of violation.
See also
1965 Glasnost rally
Demokratizatsiya (Gorbachev's "Democratization")
Glasnost Bowl
Perestroika (Gorbachev's "Restructuring")
Uskoreniye (Gorbachev's "Acceleration")
Notes
References
Soviet phraseology
Soviet internal politics
Transparency (behavior)
Dissolution of the Soviet Union
Mikhail Gorbachev
1980s in the Soviet Union
Political catchphrases
Perestroika
Reform in the Soviet Union
Soviet democracy movements
Russian words and phrases
Ideology of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
1980s in politics | [
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12608 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geodesy | Geodesy | Geodesy ( ) is the Earth science of accurately measuring and understanding Earth's figure (geometric shape and size), orientation in space, and gravity. The field also incorporates studies of how these properties change over time and equivalent measurements for other planets (known as planetary geodesy). Geodynamical phenomena, including crustal motion, tides and polar motion, can be studied by designing global and national control networks, applying space geodesy and terrestrial geodetic techniques and relying on datums and coordinate systems.
The job title is geodesist or geodetic surveyor.
Definition
The word geodesy comes from the Ancient Greek word geodaisia (literally, "division of Earth").
It is primarily concerned with positioning within the temporally varying gravitational field. Geodesy in the German-speaking world is divided into "higher geodesy" ("Erdmessung" or "höhere Geodäsie"), which is concerned with measuring Earth on the global scale, and "practical geodesy" or "engineering geodesy" ("Ingenieurgeodäsie"), which is concerned with measuring specific parts or regions of Earth, and which includes surveying. Such geodetic operations are also applied to other astronomical bodies in the Solar System. It is also the science of measuring and understanding Earth's geometric shape, orientation in space, and gravitational field.
To a large extent, the shape of Earth is the result of rotation, which causes its equatorial bulge, and the competition of geological processes such as the collision of plates and of volcanism, resisted by Earth's gravitational field. This applies to the solid surface, the liquid surface (dynamic sea surface topography) and Earth's atmosphere. For this reason, the study of Earth's gravitational field is called physical geodesy.
Geoid and reference ellipsoid
The geoid is essentially the figure of Earth abstracted from its topographical features. It is an idealized equilibrium surface of sea water, the mean sea level surface in the absence of currents and air pressure variations, and continued under the continental masses. The geoid, unlike the reference ellipsoid, is irregular and too complicated to serve as the computational surface on which to solve geometrical problems like point positioning. The geometrical separation between the geoid and the reference ellipsoid is called the geoidal undulation. It varies globally between ±110 m, when referred to the GRS 80 ellipsoid.
A reference ellipsoid, customarily chosen to be the same size (volume) as the geoid, is described by its semi-major axis (equatorial
radius) a and flattening f. The quantity f = , where b is the semi-minor axis (polar radius), is a purely geometrical one. The mechanical ellipticity of Earth (dynamical flattening, symbol J2) can be determined to high precision by observation of satellite orbit perturbations. Its relationship with the geometrical flattening is indirect. The relationship depends on the internal density distribution, or, in simplest terms, the degree of central concentration of mass.
The 1980 Geodetic Reference System (GRS 80) posited a 6,378,137 m semi-major axis and a 1:298.257 flattening. This system was adopted at the XVII General Assembly of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG). It is essentially the basis for geodetic positioning by the Global Positioning System (GPS) and is thus also in widespread use outside the geodetic community. The numerous systems that countries have used to create maps and charts are becoming obsolete as countries increasingly move to global, geocentric reference systems using the GRS 80 reference ellipsoid.
The geoid is "realizable", meaning it can be consistently located on Earth by suitable simple measurements from physical objects like a tide gauge. The geoid can, therefore, be considered a real surface. The reference ellipsoid, however, has many possible instantiations and is not readily realizable, therefore it is an abstract surface. The third primary surface of geodetic interest—the topographic surface of Earth—is a realizable surface.
Coordinate systems in space
The locations of points in three-dimensional space are most conveniently described by three cartesian or rectangular coordinates, X, Y and Z. Since the advent of satellite positioning, such coordinate systems are typically geocentric: the Z-axis is aligned with Earth's (conventional or instantaneous) rotation axis.
Prior to the era of satellite geodesy, the coordinate systems associated with a geodetic datum attempted to be geocentric, but their origins differed from the geocenter by hundreds of meters, due to regional deviations in the direction of the plumbline (vertical). These regional geodetic data, such as ED 50 (European Datum 1950) or NAD 27 (North American Datum 1927) have ellipsoids associated with them that are regional "best fits" to the geoids within their areas of validity, minimizing the deflections of the vertical over these areas.
It is only because GPS satellites orbit about the geocenter, that this point becomes naturally the origin of a coordinate system defined by satellite geodetic means, as the satellite positions in space are themselves computed in such a system.
Geocentric coordinate systems used in geodesy can be divided naturally into two classes:
Inertial reference systems, where the coordinate axes retain their orientation relative to the fixed stars, or equivalently, to the rotation axes of ideal gyroscopes; the X-axis points to the vernal equinox
Co-rotating, also ECEF ("Earth Centred, Earth Fixed"), where the axes are attached to the solid body of Earth. The X-axis lies within the Greenwich observatory's meridian plane.
The coordinate transformation between these two systems is described to good approximation by (apparent) sidereal time, which takes into account variations in Earth's axial rotation (length-of-day variations). A more accurate description also takes polar motion into account, a phenomenon closely monitored by geodesists.
Coordinate systems in the plane
In surveying and mapping, important fields of application of geodesy, two general types of coordinate systems are used in the plane:
Plano-polar, in which points in a plane are defined by a distance s from a specified point along a ray having a specified direction α with respect to a base line or axis;
Rectangular, points are defined by distances from two perpendicular axes called x and y. It is geodetic practice—contrary to the mathematical convention—to let the x-axis point to the north and the y-axis to the east.
Rectangular coordinates in the plane can be used intuitively with respect to one's current location, in which case the x-axis will point to the local north. More formally, such coordinates can be obtained from three-dimensional coordinates using the artifice of a map projection. It is impossible to map the curved surface of Earth onto a flat map surface without deformation. The compromise most often chosen—called a conformal projection—preserves angles and length ratios, so that small circles are mapped as small circles and small squares as squares.
An example of such a projection is UTM (Universal Transverse Mercator). Within the map plane, we have rectangular coordinates x and y. In this case, the north direction used for reference is the map north, not the local north. The difference between the two is called meridian convergence.
It is easy enough to "translate" between polar and rectangular coordinates in the plane: let, as above, direction and distance be α and s respectively, then we have
The reverse transformation is given by:
Heights
In geodesy, point or terrain heights are "above sea level", an irregular, physically defined surface.
Heights come in the following variants:
Orthometric heights
Dynamic heights
Geopotential heights
Normal heights
Each has its advantages and disadvantages. Both orthometric and normal heights are heights in metres above sea level, whereas geopotential numbers are measures of potential energy (unit: m2 s−2) and not metric. The reference surface is the geoid, an equipotential surface approximating mean sea level. (For normal heights, the reference surface is actually the so-called quasi-geoid, which has a few metre separation from the geoid, because of the density assumption in its continuation under the continental masses.)
These heights can be related to ellipsoidal height (also known as geodetic height), which express the height of a point above the reference ellipsoid, by means of the geoid undulation. Satellite positioning receivers typically provide ellipsoidal heights, unless they are fitted with special conversion software based on a model of the geoid.
Geodetic data
Because geodetic point coordinates (and heights) are always obtained in a system that has been constructed itself using real observations, geodesists introduce the concept of a "geodetic datum": a physical realization of a coordinate system used for describing point locations. The realization is the result of choosing conventional coordinate values for one or more datum points.
In the case of height data, it suffices to choose one datum point: the reference benchmark, typically a tide gauge at the shore. Thus we have vertical data like the NAP (Normaal Amsterdams Peil), the North American Vertical Datum 1988 (NAVD 88), the Kronstadt datum, the Trieste datum, and so on.
In case of plane or spatial coordinates, we typically need several datum points. A regional, ellipsoidal datum like ED 50 can be fixed by prescribing the undulation of the geoid and the deflection of the vertical in one datum point, in this case the Helmert Tower in Potsdam. However, an overdetermined ensemble of datum points can also be used.
Changing the coordinates of a point set referring to one datum, so to make them refer to another datum, is called a datum transformation. In the case of vertical data, this consists of simply adding a constant shift to all height values. In the case of plane or spatial coordinates, datum transformation takes the form of a similarity or Helmert transformation, consisting of a rotation and scaling operation in addition to a simple translation. In the plane, a Helmert transformation has four parameters; in space, seven.
A note on terminology
In the abstract, a coordinate system as used in mathematics and geodesy is called a "coordinate system" in ISO terminology, whereas the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) uses the term "reference system". When these coordinates are realized by choosing datum points and fixing a geodetic datum, ISO says "coordinate reference system", while IERS says "reference frame". The ISO term for a datum transformation again is a "coordinate transformation".
Point positioning
Point positioning is the determination of the coordinates of a point on land, at sea, or in space with respect to a coordinate system. Point position is solved by computation from measurements linking the known positions of terrestrial or extraterrestrial points with the unknown terrestrial position. This may involve transformations between or among astronomical and terrestrial coordinate systems. The known points used for point positioning can be triangulation points of a higher-order network or GPS satellites.
Traditionally, a hierarchy of networks has been built to allow point positioning within a country. Highest in the hierarchy were triangulation networks. These were densified into networks of traverses (polygons), into which local mapping surveying measurements, usually with measuring tape, corner prism, and the familiar red and white poles, are tied.
Nowadays all but special measurements (e.g., underground or high-precision engineering measurements) are performed with GPS. The higher-order networks are measured with static GPS, using differential measurement to determine vectors between terrestrial points. These vectors are then adjusted in traditional network fashion. A global polyhedron of permanently operating GPS stations under the auspices of the IERS is used to define a single global, geocentric reference frame which serves as the "zero order" global reference to which national measurements are attached.
For surveying mappings, frequently Real Time Kinematic GPS is employed, tying in the unknown points with known terrestrial points close by in real time.
One purpose of point positioning is the provision of known points for mapping measurements, also known as (horizontal and vertical) control.
In every country, thousands of such known points exist and are normally documented by national mapping agencies. Surveyors involved in real estate and insurance will use these to tie their local measurements.
Geodetic problems
In geometric geodesy, two standard problems exist—the first (direct or forward) and the second (inverse or reverse).
First (direct or forward) geodetic problem
Given a point (in terms of its coordinates) and the direction (azimuth) and distance from that point to a second point, determine (the coordinates of) that second point.
Second (inverse or reverse) geodetic problem
Given two points, determine the azimuth and length of the line (straight line, arc or geodesic) that connects them.
In plane geometry (valid for small areas on Earth's surface), the solutions to both problems reduce to simple trigonometry.
On a sphere, however, the solution is significantly more complex, because in the inverse problem the azimuths will differ between the two end points of the connecting great circle, arc.
On the ellipsoid of revolution, geodesics may be written in terms of elliptic integrals, which are usually evaluated in terms of a series expansion—see, for example, Vincenty's formulae. In the general case, the solution is called the geodesic for the surface considered. The differential equations for the geodesic can be solved numerically.
Observational concepts
Here we define some basic observational concepts, like angles and coordinates, defined in geodesy (and astronomy as well), mostly from the viewpoint of the local observer.
Plumbline or vertical: the direction of local gravity, or the line that results by following it.
Zenith: the point on the celestial sphere where the direction of the gravity vector in a point, extended upwards, intersects it. It is more correct to call it a direction rather than a point.
Nadir: the opposite point—or rather, direction—where the direction of gravity extended downward intersects the (obscured) celestial sphere.
Celestial horizon: a plane perpendicular to a point's gravity vector.
Azimuth: the direction angle within the plane of the horizon, typically counted clockwise from the north (in geodesy and astronomy) or the south (in France).
Elevation: the angular height of an object above the horizon, Alternatively zenith distance, being equal to 90 degrees minus elevation.
Local topocentric coordinates: azimuth (direction angle within the plane of the horizon), elevation angle (or zenith angle), distance.
North celestial pole: the extension of Earth's (precessing and nutating) instantaneous spin axis extended northward to intersect the celestial sphere. (Similarly for the south celestial pole.)
Celestial equator: the (instantaneous) intersection of Earth's equatorial plane with the celestial sphere.
Meridian plane: any plane perpendicular to the celestial equator and containing the celestial poles.
Local meridian: the plane containing the direction to the zenith and the direction to the celestial pole.
Measurements
The level is used for determining height differences and height reference systems, commonly referred to mean sea level. The traditional spirit level produces these practically most useful heights above sea level directly; the more economical use of GPS instruments for height determination requires precise knowledge of the figure of the geoid, as GPS only gives heights above the GRS80 reference ellipsoid. As geoid knowledge accumulates, one may expect the use of GPS heighting to spread.
The theodolite is used to measure horizontal and vertical angles to target points. These angles are referred to the local vertical. The tacheometer additionally determines, electronically or electro-optically, the distance to target, and is highly automated to even robotic in its operations. The method of free station position is widely used.
For local detail surveys, tacheometers are commonly employed although the old-fashioned rectangular technique using angle prism and steel tape is still an inexpensive alternative. Real-time kinematic (RTK) GPS techniques are used as well. Data collected are tagged and recorded digitally for entry into a Geographic Information System (GIS) database.
Geodetic GPS receivers produce directly three-dimensional coordinates in a geocentric coordinate frame. Such a frame is, e.g., WGS84, or the frames that are regularly produced and published by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS).
GPS receivers have almost completely replaced terrestrial instruments for large-scale base network surveys. For planet-wide geodetic surveys, previously impossible, we can still mention satellite laser ranging (SLR) and lunar laser ranging (LLR) and very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) techniques. All these techniques also serve to monitor irregularities in Earth's rotation as well as plate tectonic motions.
Gravity is measured using gravimeters, of which there are two kinds. First, "absolute gravimeters" are based on measuring the acceleration of free fall (e.g., of a reflecting prism in a vacuum tube). They are used to establish the vertical geospatial control and can be used in the field. Second, "relative gravimeters" are spring-based and are more common. They are used in gravity surveys over large areas for establishing the figure of the geoid over these areas. The most accurate relative gravimeters are called "superconducting" gravimeters, which are sensitive to one-thousandth of one-billionth of Earth-surface gravity. Twenty-some superconducting gravimeters are used worldwide for studying Earth's tides, rotation, interior, and ocean and atmospheric loading, as well as for verifying the Newtonian constant of gravitation.
In the future, gravity and altitude will be measured by relativistic time dilation measured by optical clocks.
Units and measures on the ellipsoid
Geographical latitude and longitude are stated in the units degree, minute of arc, and second of arc. They are angles, not metric
measures, and describe the direction of the local normal to the reference ellipsoid of revolution. This is approximately the same as the direction of the plumbline, i.e., local gravity, which is also the normal to the geoid surface. For this reason, astronomical position determination – measuring the direction of the plumbline by astronomical means – works fairly well provided an ellipsoidal model of the figure of Earth is used.
One geographical mile, defined as one minute of arc on the equator, equals 1,855.32571922 m. One nautical mile is one minute of astronomical latitude. The radius of curvature of the ellipsoid varies with latitude, being the longest at the pole and the shortest at the equator as is the nautical mile.
A metre was originally defined as the 10-millionth part of the length from equator to North Pole along the meridian through Paris (the target was not quite reached in actual implementation, so that is off by 200 ppm in the current definitions). This means that one kilometre is roughly equal to (1/40,000) * 360 * 60 meridional minutes of arc, which equals 0.54 nautical mile, though this is not exact because the two units are defined on different bases (the international nautical mile is defined as exactly 1,852 m, corresponding to a rounding of 1,000/0.54 m to four digits).
Temporal change
In geodesy, temporal change can be studied by a variety of techniques. Points on Earth's surface change their location due to a variety of mechanisms:
Continental plate motion, plate tectonics
Episodic motion of tectonic origin, especially close to fault lines
Periodic effects due to tides and tidal loading
Postglacial land uplift due to isostatic adjustment
Mass variations due to hydrological changes, including the atmosphere, cryosphere, land hydrology and oceans
Sub-daily polar motion
Length-of-day variability
Earth's center-of-mass (geocenter) variations
Anthropogenic movements such as reservoir construction or petroleum or water extraction
The science of studying deformations and motions of Earth's crust and its solidity as a whole is called geodynamics. Often, study of Earth's irregular rotation is also included in its definition. The geodynamics studies require terrestrial reference frames that are realized by the stations belonging to the Global Geodedetic Observing System (GGOS).
Techniques for studying geodynamic phenomena on the global scale include:
Satellite positioning by GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and BeiDou
Very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI)
Satellite laser ranging (SLR) and lunar laser ranging (LLR)
DORIS
Regionally and locally precise levelling
Precise tacheometers
Monitoring of gravity change using land, airborne, shipborne, and spaceborne gravimetry
Satellite altimetry based on microwave and laser observations for studying the ocean surface, sea level rise, and ice cover monitoring
Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) using satellite images
Notable geodesists
Geodesists before 1900 (arranged by date)
Pythagoras 580–490 BC, ancient Greece
Eratosthenes 276–194 BC, ancient Greece
Hipparchus 190–120 BC, ancient Greece
Posidonius 135–51 BC, ancient Greece
Claudius Ptolemy AD 83–168, Roman Empire (Roman Egypt)
Al-Ma'mun 786–833, Baghdad (Iraq/Mesopotamia)
Abu Rayhan Biruni 973–1048, Khorasan (Iran/Samanid Dynasty)
Muhammad al-Idrisi 1100–1166, (Arabia & Sicily)
Regiomontanus 1436–1476, (Germany/Austria)
Abel Foullon 1513–1563 or 1565, (France)
Pedro Nunes 1502–1578 (Portugal)
Gerhard Mercator 1512–1594 (Belgium & Germany)
Snellius (Willebrord Snel van Royen) 1580–1626, Leiden (Netherlands)
Christiaan Huygens 1629–1695 (Netherlands)
Pierre Bouguer 1698–1758, (France & Peru)
Pierre de Maupertuis 1698–1759 (France)
Alexis Clairaut 1713–1765 (France)
Johann Heinrich Lambert 1728–1777 (France)
Roger Joseph Boscovich 1711–1787, (Rome/ Berlin/ Paris)
Ino Tadataka 1745–1818, (Tokyo)
Georg von Reichenbach 1771–1826, Bavaria (Germany)
Pierre-Simon Laplace 1749–1827, Paris (France)
Adrien Marie Legendre 1752–1833, Paris (France)
Johann Georg von Soldner 1776–1833, Munich (Germany)
George Everest 1790–1866 (England and India)
Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel 1784–1846, Königsberg (Germany)
Heinrich Christian Schumacher 1780–1850 (Germany & Russian Empire)
Carl Friedrich Gauss 1777–1855, Göttingen (Germany)
Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve 1793–1864, Dorpat and Pulkovo (Russian Empire)
Johann Jacob Baeyer 1794–1885, Berlin (Germany)
George Biddell Airy 1801–1892, Cambridge & London
Carl Christopher Georg Andræ 1812–1893, Copenhagen (Denmark)
Karl Maximilian von Bauernfeind 1818–1894, Munich (Germany)
Wilhelm Jordan 1842–1899, (Germany)
Hervé Faye 1814–1902 (France)
George Gabriel Stokes 1819–1903 (England)
Carlos Ibáñez e Ibáñez de Ibero 1825–1891, Barcelona (Spain)
Henri Poincaré 1854–1912, Paris (France)
Alexander Ross Clarke 1828–1914, London (England)
Charles Sanders Peirce 1839–1914 (United States)
Friedrich Robert Helmert 1843–1917, Potsdam (Germany)
Heinrich Bruns 1848–1919, Berlin (Germany)
Loránd Eötvös 1848–1919 (Hungary)
20th century geodesists (alphabetically arranged)
Tadeusz Banachiewicz, 1882–1954, (Poland)
Arne Bjerhammar, 1917–2011, (Sweden)
Guy Bomford, 1899–1996, (India?)
William Bowie, 1872–1940, (US)
Irene Kaminka Fischer, 1907–2009, (US)
Buckminster Fuller, 1895–1983 (United States)
John Fillmore Hayford, 1868–1925, (US)
Veikko Aleksanteri Heiskanen, 1895–1971, (Finland and US)
Reino Antero Hirvonen, 1908–1989, (Finland)
Friedrich Hopfner, 1881–1949, Vienna, (Austria)
Martin Hotine, 1898–1968, (England)
Harold Jeffreys, 1891–1989, London, (England)
William M. Kaula, 1926–2000, Los Angeles, (US)
Karl-Rudolf Koch 1935, Bonn, (Germany)
Feodosy Nikolaevich Krasovsky, 1878–1948, (Russian Empire, USSR)
Mikhail Sergeevich Molodenskii, 1909–1991, (Russia)
John A. O'Keefe, 1916–2000, (US)
Karl Ramsayer, 1911–1982, Stuttgart, (Germany)
Hellmut Schmid, 1914–1998, (Switzerland)
Yrjö Väisälä, 1889–1971, (Finland)
Petr Vaníček, 1935, Fredericton, (Canada)
Felix Andries Vening-Meinesz, 1887–1966, (Netherlands)
Thaddeus Vincenty, 1920–2002, (Poland)
Alfred Wegener, 1880–1930, (Germany and Greenland)
Hans-Georg Wenzel (1949–1999), (Germany)
See also
Fundamentals
Geodesics on an ellipsoid
History of geodesy
Physical geodesy
Earth's circumference
Governmental agencies
National mapping agency
U.S. National Geodetic Survey
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
United States Geological Survey
International organizations
International Association of Geodesy
International Federation of Surveyors
International Geodetic Student Organisation
Other
Éric Calais
EPSG Geodetic Parameter Dataset
Meridian arc
Surveying
References
Further reading
F. R. Helmert, Mathematical and Physical Theories of Higher Geodesy, Part 1, ACIC (St. Louis, 1964). This is an English translation of Die mathematischen und physikalischen Theorieen der höheren Geodäsie, Vol 1 (Teubner, Leipzig, 1880).
F. R. Helmert, Mathematical and Physical Theories of Higher Geodesy, Part 2, ACIC (St. Louis, 1964). This is an English translation of Die mathematischen und physikalischen Theorieen der höheren Geodäsie, Vol 2 (Teubner, Leipzig, 1884).
B. Hofmann-Wellenhof and H. Moritz, Physical Geodesy, Springer-Verlag Wien, 2005. (This text is an updated edition of the 1967 classic by W.A. Heiskanen and H. Moritz).
W. Kaula, Theory of Satellite Geodesy : Applications of Satellites to Geodesy, Dover Publications, 2000. (This text is a reprint of the 1966 classic).
Vaníček P. and E.J. Krakiwsky, Geodesy: the Concepts, pp. 714, Elsevier, 1986.
Torge, W (2001), Geodesy (3rd edition), published by de Gruyter, .
Thomas H. Meyer, Daniel R. Roman, and David B. Zilkoski. "What does height really mean?" (This is a series of four articles published in Surveying and Land Information Science, SaLIS.)
"Part I: Introduction" SaLIS Vol. 64, No. 4, pages 223–233, December 2004.
"Part II: Physics and gravity" SaLIS Vol. 65, No. 1, pages 5–15, March 2005.
"Part III: Height systems" SaLIS Vol. 66, No. 2, pages 149–160, June 2006.
"Part IV: GPS heighting" SaLIS Vol. 66, No. 3, pages 165–183, September 2006.
External links
Geodetic awareness guidance note, Geodesy Subcommittee, Geomatics Committee, International Association of Oil & Gas Producers
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12609 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurogame | Eurogame | A Eurogame, also called a German-style board game, German game, or Euro-style game, is a class of tabletop games that generally has indirect player interaction and abstract physical components. Eurogames are sometimes contrasted with American-style board games, which generally involve more luck, conflict, and drama. They are usually less abstract than chess or Go, but more abstract than wargames. Likewise, they generally require more thought and planning than party games such as Pictionary or Trivial Pursuit.
History
Contemporary Eurogames, such as Acquire, appeared in the 1960s. The 3M series of which Acquire formed a part became popular in Germany, and became a template for a new form of game, one in which direct conflict or warfare did not play a role, due in part to aversion in postwar Germany to products which glorified conflict.
German family board games
The genre developed as a more concentrated design movement in the late 1970s and early 1980s in Germany. The genre has spread to other European countries such as France, the Netherlands, and Sweden. The Settlers of Catan, first published in 1995, paved the way for the genre outside Europe.
Though neither the first Eurogame nor the first such game to find an audience outside Germany, it became much more popular than any of its predecessors. It quickly sold millions of copies in Germany, and in the process brought money and attention to the genre as a whole.
21st century
Germany purchased more board games per capita than any other country . While many Eurogames are published and played in Anglophone markets such as the United States and the United Kingdom, they occupy a niche status there. Other games in the genre to achieve widespread popularity include Carcassonne, Puerto Rico, Ticket to Ride, and Alhambra.
Characteristics
Eurogames tend to be focused on challenge for players. They feature economics and the acquisition of resources rather than direct conflict, and have a limited amount of luck. They also differ from abstract strategy games like chess by using themes tied to specific locales, and emphasize individual development and comparative achievement rather than direct conflict. Eurogames also emphasize the mechanical challenges of their systems over having the systems match the theme of the game. They are generally simpler than the wargames that flourished in the 1970s and 1980s from publishers such as SPI and Avalon Hill, but nonetheless often have a considerable depth of play.
One consequence of the increasing popularity of this genre has been an expansion upwards in complexity. Games such as Puerto Rico that were considered quite complex when Eurogames proliferated in the U.S. after the turn of the millennium are now the norm, with newer high-end titles like Terra Mystica and Tzolkin being significantly more difficult to master.
Incentive for social play
While many titles (especially the strategically heavier ones) are enthusiastically played by gamers as a hobby, Eurogames are, for the most part, well-suited to social play. In keeping with this social function, various characteristics of the games tend to support that aspect well, and these have become quite common across the genre. In contrast to games such as Risk or Monopoly, in which a close game can extend indefinitely, Eurogames usually have a mechanism to stop the game within its stated playing time. Common mechanisms include a pre-determined winning score, a set number of game turns, or depletion of limited game resources. Playing time varies from a half-hour to a few hours, with one to two hours being typical. Generally Eurogames do not have a fixed number of players like chess or bridge; although there is a sizeable body of German-style games that are designed for exactly two players, most games can accommodate anywhere from two to six players (with varying degrees of suitability). Six-player games are somewhat rare, with Power Grid being one example, or require expansions, as with The Settlers of Catan or Carcassonne. Players usually play for themselves individually, rather than in a partnership or team.
No player elimination
Another prominent characteristic of these games is the lack of player elimination. Eliminating players before the end of the game is seen as contrary to the social aspect of such games. Most of these games are designed to keep all players in the game as long as possible, so it is rare to be certain of victory or defeat until relatively late in the game. Related to no-player-elimination, Eurogame scoring systems are often designed so that hidden scoring or end-of-game bonuses can catapult a player who appears to be in a lagging position at end of play into the lead. A second-order consequence is that Eurogames tend to have multiple paths to victory (dependent on aiming at different end-of-game bonuses) and it is often not obvious to other players which strategic path a player is pursuing. Balancing mechanisms are often integrated into the rules, giving slight advantages to lagging players and slight hindrances to the leaders. This helps to keep the game competitive to the very end, an example of which is Power Grid, where the turn order is determined by number of cities (and biggest power plant as the tie-breaker), such that players further ahead is handicapped in their option of plays.
Game mechanics
A wide variety of often innovative mechanisms or mechanics are used, and familiar mechanics such as rolling dice and moving, capture, or trick taking are avoided. If a game has a board, the board is usually irregular rather than uniform or symmetric (such as Risk rather than chess or Scrabble). The board is often random (as in The Settlers of Catan) or has random elements (such as Tikal). Some boards are merely mnemonic or organizational and contribute only to ease of play, such as a cribbage board; examples of this include Puerto Rico and Princes of Florence. Random elements are often present, but do not usually dominate the game. While rules are light to moderate, they allow depth of play, usually requiring thought, planning, and a shift of tactics through the game and often with a chess- or backgammon-like opening game, middle game, and end game.
Stewart Woods' Eurogames cites six examples of mechanics common to eurogames:
Tile Placement – spatial placement of game components on the playing board.
Auctions – includes open and hidden auctions of both resources and actions from other players and the game system itself.
Trading/Negotiation – not simply trading resources of equivalent values, but allowing players to set markets.
Set Collection – collecting resources in specific groups that are then cashed in for points or other currency.
Area Control – also known as area majority or influence, this involves controlling a game element or board space through allocation of resources.
Worker Placement or Role Selection – players choose specific game actions in sequential order, with players disallowed from choosing a previously selected action.
Low randomness
Eurogame designs tend to de-emphasize luck and random elements. Often, the only random element of the game will be resource or terrain distribution in the initial setup, or (less frequently) the random order of a set of event or objective cards. The role played by deliberately random mechanics in other styles of game is instead fulfilled by the unpredictability of the behavior of other players.
Themes
Examples of themes are:
Carcassonne – build a medieval landscape complete with walled cities, monasteries, roads, and fields.
Puerto Rico – develop plantations on the island of Puerto Rico, set in the 18th century.
Power Grid – expand a power company's network and buy better plants.
Imperial – as an international investor, influence the politics of pre-World War I European empires.
Bruxelles 1893 – take the role of an Art Nouveau architect during the late 19th century and try to become the most famous architect in Belgium.
Game designer as author
Although not relevant to actual play, the name of the game's designer is often prominently mentioned on the box, or at least in the rule book. Top designers enjoy considerable following among enthusiasts of Eurogames. For this reason, the name "designer games" is often offered as a description of the genre. Recently, there has also been a wave of games designed as spin-offs of popular novels, such as the games taking their style from the German bestsellers Der Schwarm and Tintenherz.
Industry
Designers
Designers of Eurogames include:
Antoine Bauza, a prolific French designer, creator of 7 Wonders, Tokaido, and Takenoko.
Bruno Cathala, a French-born game designer, creator of Kingdomino and Five Tribes.
Vlaada Chvátil, a Czech designer of board games and video games, whose games include Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization, Galaxy Trucker, Space Alert, and Codenames. His rule books are often divided into several "learning scenarios" that gradually introduce players to the rules as they progress through the scenarios.
Leo Colovini, designer of Cartagena and Carcassonne: The Discovery.
Rüdiger Dorn is a German designer who created Istanbul, Karuba, Las Vegas, Luxor, and others.
Bruno Faidutti, French designer of Citadels.
Stefan Feld, designer particularly of games that make use of dice, and that allow players to score points in a variety of ways. He has designed games such as Castles of Burgundy and Trajan, and three of his games (Strasbourg, Bruges, and Carpe Diem) have been nominated for the Kennerspiel des Jahres.
Friedemann Friese, a German designer, creator of Power Grid, as well as many others.
Mac Gerdts, a German designer of games such as Antike, Imperial, Navegador, and most notably, Concordia.
Reiner Knizia, one of the most prolific German game designers, having designed over 600 published games. Recurring mechanisms in his games include auctions (Ra and Modern Art), tile placement (Tigris and Euphrates and Ingenious), and intricate scoring rules (Samurai). He has also designed many card games such as Lost Cities, Schotten-Totten, and Blue Moon, and the cooperative board game The Lord of the Rings.
Wolfgang Kramer, who often works with other game designers. His titles include El Grande, Tikal, Princes of Florence, and Torres. His games often have some sort of action point system, and include some geometric element.
Alan R. Moon, a British-born designer with numerous games to his credit, often with a railway theme, including the Spiel des Jahres-winning Ticket to Ride and Elfenland.
Alex Randolph, who created over 125 games and is responsible for the placement of the author's name on the rules and box.
Uwe Rosenberg, designer of games such as Agricola, Le Havre, Patchwork, and several others.
Sid Sackson was a prolific American game designer whose games, particularly Acquire, prefigured and strongly influenced the Eurogame genre.
Michael Schacht, German designer of Coloretto, Zooloretto, Aquaretto, Valdora, Africana, Web of power, China, Han, Hansa, Mondo, Mondo Sapiens, Spirits of the Forest, Coney Island.
Andreas Seyfarth, who has designed the games Puerto Rico, Manhattan, and, with Karen Seyfarth, Thurn and Taxis.
Klaus Teuber, designer of Catan, which has sold more than 22 million copies.
Klaus-Jürgen Wrede, the German game designer of the Carcassonne board game series. , Carcassonne has 10 major expansions as well as numerous mini-expansions.
Events
The Internationale Spieltage, also known as Essen Spiel, or the Essen Games Fair, is the largest non-digital game convention in the world, and the place where the largest number of eurogames are released each year. Founded in 1983 and held each fall in Essen, Germany, the fair was founded with the objective of providing a venue for people to meet and play board games, and show gaming as an integral part of German culture.
A "World Boardgaming Championships" is held annually in July in Pennsylvania, USA. The event is nine days long and includes tournament tracks of over a hundred games; while traditional wargames are played there, all of the most popular tournaments are Eurogames and it is generally perceived as a Eurogame-centered event. Attendance is international, though players from the U.S. and Canada predominate.
Awards
The most prestigious German board game award is the Spiel des Jahres ("game of the year"). The award is very family-oriented. Shorter, more approachable, games such as Ticket to Ride and Elfenland are usually preferred by the committee that gives out the award.
In 2011, the jury responsible for the Spiel des Jahres created the Kennerspiel des Jahres, or connoisseur's game of the year, for more complex games.
The Deutscher Spiele Preis ("German game prize") is also awarded to games that are more complex and strategic, such as Puerto Rico. However, there are a few games with broad enough appeal to win both awards: The Settlers of Catan (1995), Carcassonne (2001), Dominion (2009).
Influence
Xbox Live Arcade has included popular games from the genre, with Catan being released to strong sales on May 13, 2007, Carcassonne being released on June 27, 2007. Lost Cities and Ticket to Ride soon followed. Alhambra was due to follow later in 2007 until being cancelled.
The iPhone received versions of The Settlers of Catan and Zooloretto in 2009. Carcassonne was added to the iPhone App Store in June 2010. Later, Ticket to Ride was developed for both the iPhone and the iPad, significantly boosting sales of the board game tremendously.
See also
BoardGameGeek – online forum for board gaming hobbyists
BrettspielWelt – free German online gaming site
Cooperative board game – board games in which players work together to achieve a common goal
Going Cardboard – documentary about German-style board games and their community
List of game designers
References
External links
Brett and Board with information on German-style games (has not been updated in some time)
Luding.org – board game database with over 15,000 English and German reviewed games
BoardGameGeek – internet database of over 100,000 tabletop games, with online fan community.
Gamerate.net – internet database of board, card and electronic games.
Board games
German culture | [
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12610 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand%20Unified%20Theory | Grand Unified Theory | A Grand Unified Theory (GUT) is a model in particle physics in which, at high energies, the three gauge interactions of the Standard Model comprising the electromagnetic, weak, and strong forces are merged into a single force. Although this unified force has not been directly observed, the many GUT models theorize its existence. If unification of these three interactions is possible, it raises the possibility that there was a grand unification epoch in the very early universe in which these three fundamental interactions were not yet distinct.
Experiments have confirmed that at high energy the electromagnetic interaction and weak interaction unify into a single electroweak interaction. GUT models predict that at even higher energy, the strong interaction and the electroweak interaction will unify into a single electronuclear interaction. This interaction is characterized by one larger gauge symmetry and thus several force carriers, but one unified coupling constant. Unifying gravity with the electronuclear interaction would provide a more comprehensive theory of everything (TOE) rather than a Grand Unified Theory. Thus, GUTs are often seen as an intermediate step towards a TOE.
The novel particles predicted by GUT models are expected to have extremely high masses—around the GUT scale of GeV (just a few orders of magnitude below the Planck scale of GeV)—and so are well beyond the reach of any foreseen particle collider experiments. Therefore, the particles predicted by GUT models will be unable to be observed directly, and instead the effects of grand unification might be detected through indirect observations such as proton decay, electric dipole moments of elementary particles, or the properties of neutrinos. Some GUTs, such as the Pati–Salam model, predict the existence of magnetic monopoles.
While GUTs might be expected to offer simplicity over the complications present in the Standard Model, realistic models remain complicated because they need to introduce additional fields and interactions, or even additional dimensions of space, in order to reproduce observed fermion masses and mixing angles. This difficulty, in turn, may be related to an existence of family symmetries beyond the conventional GUT models. Due to this, and the lack of any observed effect of grand unification so far, there is no generally accepted GUT model.
Models that do not unify the three interactions using one simple group as the gauge symmetry, but do so using semisimple groups, can exhibit similar properties and are sometimes referred to as Grand Unified Theories as well.
History
Historically, the first true GUT which was based on the simple Lie group , was proposed by Howard Georgi and Sheldon Glashow in 1974. The Georgi–Glashow model was preceded by the semisimple Lie algebra Pati–Salam model by Abdus Salam and Jogesh Pati, who pioneered the idea to unify gauge interactions.
The acronym GUT was first coined in 1978 by CERN researchers John Ellis, Andrzej Buras, Mary K. Gaillard, and Dimitri Nanopoulos, however in the final version of their paper they opted for the less anatomical GUM (Grand Unification Mass). Nanopoulos later that year was the first to use the acronym in a paper.
Motivation
The supposition that the electric charges of electrons and protons seem to cancel each other exactly to extreme precision is essential for the existence of the macroscopic world as we know it, but this important property of elementary particles is not explained in the Standard Model of particle physics. While the description of strong and weak interactions within the Standard Model is based on gauge symmetries governed by the simple symmetry groups and which allow only discrete charges, the remaining component, the weak hypercharge interaction is described by an abelian symmetry which in principle allows for arbitrary charge assignments. The observed charge quantization, namely the postulation that all known elementary particles carry electric charges which are exact multiples of one-third of the "elementary" charge, has led to the idea that hypercharge interactions and possibly the strong and weak interactions might be embedded in one Grand Unified interaction described by a single, larger simple symmetry group containing the Standard Model. This would automatically predict the quantized nature and values of all elementary particle charges. Since this also results in a prediction for the relative strengths of the fundamental interactions which we observe, in particular the weak mixing angle, grand unification ideally reduces the number of independent input parameters, but is also constrained by observations.
Grand unification is reminiscent of the unification of electric and magnetic forces by Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism in the 19th century, but its physical implications and mathematical structure are qualitatively different.
Unification of matter particles
SU(5)
is the simplest GUT. The smallest simple Lie group which contains the standard model, and upon which the first Grand Unified Theory was based, is
.
Such group symmetries allow the reinterpretation of several known particles, including the photon, W and Z bosons, and gluon, as different states of a single particle field. However, it is not obvious that the simplest possible choices for the extended "Grand Unified" symmetry should yield the correct inventory of elementary particles. The fact that all currently known matter particles fit perfectly into three copies of the smallest group representations of and immediately carry the correct observed charges, is one of the first and most important reasons why people believe that a Grand Unified Theory might actually be realized in nature.
The two smallest irreducible representations of are (the defining representation) and . In the standard assignment, the contains the charge conjugates of the right-handed down-type quark color triplet and a left-handed lepton isospin doublet, while the contains the six up-type quark components, the left-handed down-type quark color triplet, and the right-handed electron. This scheme has to be replicated for each of the three known generations of matter. It is notable that the theory is anomaly free with this matter content.
The hypothetical right-handed neutrinos are a singlet of , which means its mass is not forbidden by any symmetry; it doesn't need a spontaneous symmetry breaking which explains why its mass would be heavy. (see seesaw mechanism).
SO(10)
The next simple Lie group which contains the standard model is
.
Here, the unification of matter is even more complete, since the irreducible spinor representation contains both the and of and a right-handed neutrino, and thus the complete particle content of one generation of the extended standard model with neutrino masses. This is already the largest simple group which achieves the unification of matter in a scheme involving only the already known matter particles (apart from the Higgs sector).
Since different standard model fermions are grouped together in larger representations, GUTs specifically predict relations among the fermion masses, such as between the electron and the down quark, the muon and the strange quark, and the tau lepton and the bottom quark for and . Some of these mass relations hold approximately, but most don't (see Georgi-Jarlskog mass relation).
The boson matrix for is found by taking the matrix from the representation of and adding an extra row and column for the right-handed neutrino. The bosons are found by adding a partner to each of the 20 charged bosons (2 right-handed W bosons, 6 massive charged gluons and 12 X/Y type bosons) and adding an extra heavy neutral Z-boson to make 5 neutral bosons in total. The boson matrix will have a boson or its new partner in each row and column. These pairs combine to create the familiar 16D Dirac spinor matrices of .
E6
In some forms of string theory, including E8 × E8 heterotic string theory, the resultant four-dimensional theory after spontaneous compactification on a six-dimensional Calabi–Yau manifold resembles a GUT based on the group E6. Notably E6 is the only exceptional simple Lie group to have any complex representations, a requirement for a theory to contain chiral fermions (namely all weakly-interacting fermions). Hence the other four (G2, F4, E7, and E8) can't be the gauge group of a GUT.
Extended Grand Unified Theories
Non-chiral extensions of the Standard Model with vectorlike split-multiplet particle spectra which naturally appear in the higher SU(N) GUTs considerably modify the desert physics and lead to the realistic (string-scale) grand unification for conventional three quark-lepton families even without using supersymmetry (see below). On the other hand, due to a new missing VEV mechanism emerging in the supersymmetric SU(8) GUT the simultaneous solution to the gauge hierarchy (doublet-triplet splitting) problem and problem of unification of flavor can be argued.
GUTs with four families / generations, SU(8): Assuming 4 generations of fermions instead of 3 makes a total of types of particles. These can be put into representations of . This can be divided into which is the theory together with some heavy bosons which act on the generation number.
GUTs with four families / generations, O(16): Again assuming 4 generations of fermions, the 128 particles and anti-particles can be put into a single spinor representation of .
Symplectic groups and quaternion representations
Symplectic gauge groups could also be considered. For example, (which is called in the article symplectic group) has a representation in terms of quaternion unitary matrices which has a dimensional real representation and so might be considered as a candidate for a gauge group. has 32 charged bosons and 4 neutral bosons. Its subgroups include so can at least contain the gluons and photon of . Although it's probably not possible to have weak bosons acting on chiral fermions in this representation. A quaternion representation of the fermions might be:
A further complication with quaternion representations of fermions is that there are two types of multiplication: left multiplication and right multiplication which must be taken into account. It turns out that including left and right-handed quaternion matrices is equivalent to including a single right-multiplication by a unit quaternion which adds an extra SU(2) and so has an extra neutral boson and two more charged bosons. Thus the group of left- and right-handed quaternion matrices is which does include the standard model bosons:
If is a quaternion valued spinor, is quaternion hermitian matrix coming from and is a pure imaginary quaternion (both of which are 4-vector bosons) then the interaction term is:
Octonion representations
It can be noted that a generation of 16 fermions can be put into the form of an octonion with each element of the octonion being an 8-vector. If the 3 generations are then put in a 3x3 hermitian matrix with certain additions for the diagonal elements then these matrices form an exceptional (Grassmann-) Jordan algebra, which has the symmetry group of one of the exceptional Lie groups (F4, E6, E7 or E8) depending on the details.
Because they are fermions the anti-commutators of the Jordan algebra become commutators. It is known that E6 has subgroup and so is big enough to include the Standard Model. An E8 gauge group, for example, would have 8 neutral bosons, 120 charged bosons and 120 charged anti-bosons. To account for the 248 fermions in the lowest multiplet of E8, these would either have to include anti-particles (and so have baryogenesis), have new undiscovered particles, or have gravity-like (spin connection) bosons affecting elements of the particles spin direction. Each of these possess theoretical problems.
Beyond Lie groups
Other structures have been suggested including Lie 3-algebras and Lie superalgebras. Neither of these fit with Yang–Mills theory. In particular Lie superalgebras would introduce bosons with the wrong statistics. Supersymmetry however does fit with Yang–Mills.
Unification of forces and the role of supersymmetry
The unification of forces is possible due to the energy scale dependence of force coupling parameters in quantum field theory called renormalization group "running", which allows parameters with vastly different values at usual energies to converge to a single value at a much higher energy scale.
The renormalization group running of the three gauge couplings in the Standard Model has been found to nearly, but not quite, meet at the same point if the hypercharge is normalized so that it is consistent with or GUTs, which are precisely the GUT groups which lead to a simple fermion unification. This is a significant result, as other Lie groups lead to different normalizations. However, if the supersymmetric extension MSSM is used instead of the Standard Model, the match becomes much more accurate. In this case, the coupling constants of the strong and electroweak interactions meet at the grand unification energy, also known as the GUT scale:
.
It is commonly believed that this matching is unlikely to be a coincidence, and is often quoted as one of the main motivations to further investigate supersymmetric theories despite the fact that no supersymmetric partner particles have been experimentally observed. Also, most model builders simply assume supersymmetry because it solves the hierarchy problem—i.e., it stabilizes the electroweak Higgs mass against radiative corrections.
Neutrino masses
Since Majorana masses of the right-handed neutrino are forbidden by symmetry, GUTs predict the Majorana masses of right-handed neutrinos to be close to the GUT scale where the symmetry is spontaneously broken in those models. In supersymmetric GUTs, this scale tends to be larger than would be desirable to obtain realistic masses of the light, mostly left-handed neutrinos (see neutrino oscillation) via the seesaw mechanism. These predictions are independent of the Georgi–Jarlskog mass relations, wherein some GUTs predict other fermion mass ratios.
Proposed theories
Several theories have been proposed, but none is currently universally accepted. An even more ambitious theory that includes all fundamental forces, including gravitation, is termed a theory of everything. Some common mainstream GUT models are:
minimal left-right model —
Georgi–Glashow model —
SO(10)
Flipped —
Pati–Salam model —
Flipped —
Trinification —
331 model
chiral color
Not quite GUTs:
Technicolor models
Little Higgs
String theory
Causal fermion systems
M-theory
Preons
Loop quantum gravity
Causal dynamical triangulation theory
Note: These models refer to Lie algebras not to Lie groups. The Lie group could be , just to take a random example.
The most promising candidate is . (Minimal) does not contain any exotic fermions (i.e. additional fermions besides the Standard Model fermions and the right-handed neutrino), and it unifies each generation into a single irreducible representation. A number of other GUT models are based upon subgroups of . They are the minimal left-right model, , flipped and the Pati–Salam model. The GUT group E6 contains , but models based upon it are significantly more complicated. The primary reason for studying E6 models comes from heterotic string theory.
GUT models generically predict the existence of topological defects such as monopoles, cosmic strings, domain walls, and others. But none have been observed. Their absence is known as the monopole problem in cosmology. Many GUT models also predict proton decay, although not the Pati–Salam model; proton decay has never been observed by experiments. The minimal experimental limit on the proton's lifetime pretty much rules out minimal and heavily constrains the other models. The lack of detected supersymmetry to date also constrains many models.
Some GUT theories like and suffer from what is called the doublet-triplet problem. These theories predict that for each electroweak Higgs doublet, there is a corresponding colored Higgs triplet field with a very small mass (many orders of magnitude smaller than the GUT scale here). In theory, unifying quarks with leptons, the Higgs doublet would also be unified with a Higgs triplet. Such triplets have not been observed. They would also cause extremely rapid proton decay (far below current experimental limits) and prevent the gauge coupling strengths from running together in the renormalization group.
Most GUT models require a threefold replication of the matter fields. As such, they do not explain why there are three generations of fermions. Most GUT models also fail to explain the little hierarchy between the fermion masses for different generations.
Ingredients
A GUT model consists of a gauge group which is a compact Lie group, a connection form for that Lie group, a Yang–Mills action for that connection given by an invariant symmetric bilinear form over its Lie algebra (which is specified by a coupling constant for each factor), a Higgs sector consisting of a number of scalar fields taking on values within real/complex representations of the Lie group and chiral Weyl fermions taking on values within a complex rep of the Lie group. The Lie group contains the Standard Model group and the Higgs fields acquire VEVs leading to a spontaneous symmetry breaking to the Standard Model. The Weyl fermions represent matter.
Current status
There is currently no hard evidence that nature is described by a Grand Unified Theory. The discovery of neutrino oscillations indicates that the Standard Model is incomplete and has led to renewed interest toward certain GUT such as . One of the few possible experimental tests of certain GUT is proton decay and also fermion masses. There are a few more special tests for supersymmetric GUT. However, minimum proton lifetimes from research (at or exceeding the 1034-1035 year range) have ruled out simpler GUTs and most non-SUSY models. The maximum upper limit on proton lifetime (if unstable), is calculated at 6 x 1039 years for SUSY models and 1.4 x 1036 years for minimal non-SUSY GUTs.
The gauge coupling strengths of QCD, the weak interaction and hypercharge seem to meet at a common length scale called the GUT scale and equal approximately to 1016 GeV (slightly less than the Planck energy of 1019 GeV), which is somewhat suggestive. This interesting numerical observation is called the gauge coupling unification, and it works particularly well if one assumes the existence of superpartners of the Standard Model particles. Still it is possible to achieve the same by postulating, for instance, that ordinary (non supersymmetric) models break with an intermediate gauge scale, such as the one of Pati–Salam group.
Ultra unification
In 2020, a proposed theory called ultra unification
tries to bring together the Standard Model and grand unification, particularly for the models with 15 Weyl fermions per generation, without the necessity of right-handed sterile neutrinos by adding new gapped topological phase sectors consistent with the nonperturbative global anomaly cancellation and cobordism constraints (especially from the baryon minus lepton number B−L, the electroweak hypercharge Y, and the mixed gauge-gravitational anomaly such as a Z/16Z class anomaly). Gapped topological phase sectors are constructed via symmetry extension, whose low energy contains unitary Lorentz invariant topological quantum field theories (TQFTs), such as four dimensional noninvertible, five dimensional noninvertible, or five dimensional invertible entangled gapped phase TQFTs. Alternatively, there could also be right-handed sterile neutrinos, gapless unparticle physics, or some combination of more general interacting conformal field theories, to cancel the mixed gauge-gravitational anomaly. In either case, this implies a new high-energy physics frontier beyond the conventional zero dimensional particle physics that relies on new types of topological forces and matter, including gapped extended objects such as line and surface operators or conformal defects, whose open ends carry deconfined fractionalized particle or anyonic string excitations. A physical characterization of these gapped extended objects require extensions of mathematical concepts such as cohomology, cobordism, or categories into particle physics.
See also
B − L quantum number
Classical unified field theories
Paradigm shift
X and Y bosons
Notes
References
Further reading
Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time, includes a brief popular overview.
External links
The Algebra of Grand Unified Theories
Particle physics
Physical cosmology
Physics beyond the Standard Model | [
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12611 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GTE | GTE | GTE Corporation, formerly General Telephone & Electronics Corporation (1955–1982), was the largest independent telephone company in the United States during the days of the Bell System. The company operated from 1926, with roots tracing further back than that, until 2000, when it was acquired by Bell Atlantic; the combined company took the name Verizon.
The Wisconsin-based Associated Telephone Utilities Company was founded in 1926; it went bankrupt in 1933 during the Great Depression, and was reorganized as General Telephone in 1934. In 1991, it acquired the third largest independent, Continental Telephone (ConTel). It owned Automatic Electric, a telephone equipment supplier similar in many ways to Western Electric, and Sylvania Lighting, the only non-communications-oriented company under GTE ownership. GTE provided local telephone service to many areas of the U.S. through operating companies, much as American Telephone & Telegraph provided local telephone service through its 22 Bell Operating Companies.
The company acquired BBN Planet, one of the earliest Internet service providers, in 1997. That division became known as GTE Internetworking, and was later spun off into the independent company Genuity (a name recycled from another Internet company GTE acquired in 1997) to satisfy Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requirements regarding the GTE-Bell Atlantic merger that created Verizon.
GTE operated in Canada via large interests in subsidiary companies such as BC Tel and Quebec-Téléphone. When foreign ownership restrictions on telecommunications companies were introduced, GTE's ownership was grandfathered. When BC Tel merged with Telus (the name given the privatized Alberta Government Telephones (AGT)) to create BCT.Telus, GTE's Canadian subsidiaries were merged into the new parent, making it the second-largest telecommunications carrier in Canada. As such, GTE's successor, Verizon Communications, was the only foreign telecommunications company with a greater than 20% interest in a Canadian carrier, until Verizon completely divested itself of its shares in 2004.
In the Caribbean, CONTEL purchased several major stakes in the newly independent countries of the British West Indies (namely in Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago).
Prior to GTE's merger with Bell Atlantic, GTE also maintained an interactive television service joint-venture called GTE mainStreet (sometimes also called mainStreet USA) as well as an interactive entertainment and video game publishing operation, GTE Interactive Media.
History
In 1918, Wisconsin public utility accountants Sigurd L. Odegard, John A. Pratt, John F. O'Connell bought the Richland Center Telephone Company for over $30,000 in Wisconsin. In 1920, the three accountants formed Commonwealth Telephone Company as the parent of Richland Center Telephone. Odegard was named president, Pratt vice-president, and O'Connell secretary. In 1922, Clarence R. Brown took over as vice-president when Pratt left the company that year.
Commonwealth Telephone expanded across southern Wisconsin, and made its first purchase outside the state later in the decade when it bought Belvidere Telephone Company in Illinois. It also acquired two electric utilities in Wisconsin. In 1926, the company bought Associated Telephone Company in Long Beach, California. Later that year, Commonwealth Telephone and Associated Telephone merged as Associated Telephone Utilities.
From 1926 to 1933, Associated Telephone Utilities bought over 300 telephone companies across the United States. During this time period, Associated Telephone Investment Company was created in 1930 as a branch of Associated Telephone Utilities. By 1933, both Associated Telephone Utilities and its branch went out of business due to financial losses.
General Telephone
In 1935, General Telephone Corporation was established with John Winn as president. The following year, the company created General Telephone Directory Company as a division. During World War II, General Telephone helped install phone service for military facilities. From 1946 to 1950, General Telephone obtained over 100,000 telephone lines and bought out Leich Electric Company.
General Telephone's holdings included 15 telephone companies across 20 states by 1951, when Donald C. Power was named president of the company under chairman and long-time GT executive Morris F. LaCroix, replacing the retiring Harold Bozell (president 1940 – 1951). Power proceeded to expand the company through the 1950s principally through two acquisitions.
In 1955, Theodore Gary & Company became a part of General Telephone and allowed the company to hold over 2 million telephone lines after the company merge. It also had a subsidiary, named the General Telephone and Electric Corporation, formed in 1930 with the Transamerica Corporation and British investors to compete against ITT.
In 1959, Sylvania Electric Products merged into General Telephone and was renamed to General Telephone & Electronics Corporation (GT&E). Power also obtained the purchases of multiple companies. such as Lenkurt Electric Company, Inc and Peninsular Telephone Company. In 1960, GT&E International Incorporated was created as a branch company. Power was named C.E.O. and chairman in 1961, making way for Leslie H. Warner, formerly of Theodore Gary, to become president. Simultaneously, GT&E went on to buy Community Antenna Television providers.
In 1964, Western Utilities Corporation became part of GT&E. Additional purchases during the 1960s included Hawaiian Telephone Company and Northern Ohio Telephone Company. At the end of the decade, ten million GT&E phones were active.
In the late 1960s, GT&E joined in the search for a railroad car Automatic Car Identification system. It designed the KarTrak optical system, which won over other manufacturer's systems in field trials, but ultimately proved to need too much maintenance. In the late 1970s the system was abandoned.
After a 1970 bomb attack to the company's headquarters in New York City, the company relocated to Stamford, Connecticut for their new headquarters. In 1971 GT&E undertook an identity change and became simply GTE, while Sylvania Electric Products became GTE Sylvania. The same year, Donald C. Power retired and Leslie H. Warner became chairman of the board. Theodore F. Brophy was brought in as president.
In 1974, GTE worked with American Telephone & Telegraph in a project to create satellite stations. A few years later, the company's international branch was replaced by a GTE products company in 1976. Their products company remained until 1979.
In 1979, GTE purchased Telenet to establish a presence in the growing packet switching data communications business. GTE Telenet was later included in the US Telecom joint venture.
1980s
In December 1983 Vanderslice stepped down as the company's president and chief operating officer.
In April 1988, after the retirement of Theodore F. Brophy, James L. "Rocky" Johnson was promoted from his position as president and chief operating officer to CEO of GTE; he was appointed chairman in 1991.
1990s
In April 1992, James L. "Rocky" Johnson retired after 43 years at GTE, remaining on the GTE board of directors as chairman Emeritus. Charles "Chuck" Lee was named to succeed Johnson. In 1994, Lee sold the company's satellite provider, Spacenet, to General Electric and Contel of Maine to Oxford Networks, which placed the company into a newly created subsidiary, Oxford West Telephone.
Merger with Bell Atlantic
Bell Atlantic merged with GTE on June 30, 2000, and named the new entity Verizon Communications. The GTE operating companies retained by Verizon are now collectively known as Verizon West division of Verizon (including east coast service territories). The remaining smaller operating companies were sold off or transferred into the remaining ones. Additional properties were sold off within a few years after the merger to CenturyTel, Alltel, and Hawaiian Telcom. On July 1, 2010, Verizon sold many former GTE properties to Frontier Communications. Other GTE territories in California, Florida, and Texas were sold to Frontier in 2015 and transferred in 2016, thus ending Verizon's landline operations outside of the historic Bell Atlantic footprint. Verizon still operates phone service in non-Bell System areas in Pennsylvania under Verizon North, and in non-Bell System areas in Virginia and Knotts Island, North Carolina under Verizon South.
Operating companies
Prior to the merger with Bell Atlantic, GTE owned the following operating companies in the US:
Contel of Minnesota, Inc.
Contel of the South, Inc. (Alabama, Indiana, Michigan)
GTE Alaska Incorporated
GTE Arkansas Incorporated
GTE California Incorporated (Arizona, California, Nevada)
GTE Florida Incorporated
GTE Hawaiian Telephone Company, Inc.
GTE Midwest Incorporated (Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska)
GTE North Incorporated (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin)
GTE Northwest Incorporated (Idaho, Oregon, Washington)
GTE South Incorporated (Illinois, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Wisconsin)
GTE Southwest Incorporated (Arkansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas)
GTE West Coast Incorporated (California)
Following the merger of GTE and Bell Atlantic, some of these companies and/or access lines have been sold off to other companies, such as Alltel, ATEAC, The Carlyle Group, CenturyTel, Citizens/Frontier Communications, and Valor Telecom.
References
External links
GTE.com (Archive)
‘Birthplace of GTE’ historical marker in Richland Center, Wisconsin
Verizon Communications
Companies based in Stamford, Connecticut
Technology companies disestablished in 2000
Companies formerly listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange
Defunct companies based in Connecticut
Defunct telecommunications companies of the United States
Telecommunications companies established in 1934
American companies established in 1934
2000 disestablishments in Connecticut
1934 establishments in Wisconsin
2000 mergers and acquisitions
American companies disestablished in 2000 | [
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12612 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General%20aviation | General aviation | General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services for other purposes. However, for statistical purposes ICAO uses a definition of general aviation which includes aerial work.
General aviation thus represents the "private transport" and recreational components of aviation.
Definition
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) defines civil aviation aircraft operations in three categories: General Aviation (GA), Aerial Work (AW) and Commercial Air Transport (CAT). Aerial work operations are separated from general aviation by ICAO by this definition. Aerial work is when an aircraft is used for specialized services such as agriculture, construction, photography, surveying, observation and patrol, search and rescue, and aerial advertisement. However for statistical purposes ICAO includes aerial work within general aviation, and has proposed officially extending the definition of general aviation to include aerial work, to reflect common usage. The proposed ICAO classification includes instructional flying as part of general aviation (non-aerial-work).
The International Council of Aircraft Owner and Pilot Associations (IAOPA) refers to the category as General Aviation/Aerial Work (GA/AW) to avoid ambiguity. Their definition of General Aviation includes:
Corporate Aviation: Company own-use flight operations
Fractional Ownership Operations: aircraft operated by a specialized company on behalf of two or more co-owners
Business Aviation (or Travel): self-flown for business purposes
Personal/Private Travel: travel for personal reasons/personal transport
Air Tourism: self-flown incoming/outgoing tourism
Recreational Flying: powered/powerless leisure flying activities
Air Sports: Aerobatics, Air Races, Competitions, Rallies etc.
General aviation thus includes both commercial and non-commercial activites.
IAOPA's definition of Aerial Work includes but is not limited to:
Agricultural flights, including crop dusting
Banner towing
Aerial firefighting
Medical evacuation
Pilot training
Search and Rescue
Sight seeing flights
Skydiving flights
Organ transplant transport flights
Commercial Air Transport includes:
Scheduled air services
Non-scheduled air transport
Air cargo services
Air taxi operations
However in some countries air taxi is regarded as being part of GA/AW.
Private flights are made in a wide variety of aircraft: light and ultra-light aircraft, sport aircraft, homebuilt aircraft, business aircraft (like private jets), gliders and helicopters. Flights can be carried out under both visual flight (VFR) and instrument flight (IFR) rules, and can use controlled airspace with permission.
The majority of the world's air traffic falls into the category of general aviation, and most of the world's airports serve GA exclusively. Flying clubs are considered a part of general aviation.
Geography
Europe
In 2003 the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) was established as the central EU regulator, taking over responsibility for legislating airworthiness and environmental regulation from the national authorities.
United Kingdom
Of the 21,000 civil aircraft registered in the UK, 96 percent are engaged in GA operations, and annually the GA fleet accounts for between 1.25 and 1.35 million hours flown. There are 28,000 Private Pilot Licence holders, and 10,000 certified glider pilots. Some of the 19,000 pilots who hold professional licences are also engaged in GA activities. GA operates from more than 1,800 airports and landing sites or aerodromes, ranging in size from large regional airports to farm strips.
GA is regulated by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). The main focus is on standards of airworthiness and pilot licensing, and the objective is to promote high standards of safety.
North America
General aviation is particularly popular in North America, with over 6,300 airports available for public use by pilots of general aviation aircraft (around 5,200 airports in the U.S. and over 1,000 in Canada). In comparison, scheduled flights operate from around 560 airports in the U.S. According to the U.S. Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), general aviation provides more than one percent of the United States' GDP, accounting for 1.3 million jobs in professional services and manufacturing.
Regulation
Most countries have a national aviation authority that oversees all civil aviation, including general aviation, adhering to the standardized codes of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Examples include the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the United States, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in the United Kingdom, Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ) in Zimbabwe, the Luftfahrt-Bundesamt (LBA) in Germany, the Bundesamt für Zivilluftfahrt in Switzerland, Transport Canada in Canada, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) in Australia, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in India and Iran Civil Aviation Organization in Iran.
Safety
Aviation accident rate statistics are necessarily estimates. According to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, general aviation in the United States (excluding charter) suffered 1.31 fatal accidents for every 100,000 hours of flying in 2005, compared to 0.016 for scheduled airline flights. In Canada, recreational flying accounted for 0.7 fatal accidents for every 1000 aircraft, while air taxi accounted for 1.1 fatal accidents for every 100,000 hours. More experienced GA pilots appear generally safer, although the relations between flight hours, accident frequency, and accident rates are complex and often difficult to assess.
A small number of commercial aviation accidents in the United States have involved collisions with general aviation flights, notably TWA Flight 553, Piedmont Airlines Flight 22, Allegheny Airlines Flight 853, PSA Flight 182 and Aeromexico Flight 498.
See also
Commercial aviation
Private aviation
Environmental impact of aviation
General Aviation Revitalization Act of 1994
Small Airplane Revitalization Act of 2013
List of current production certified light aircraft
List of very light jets
OpenAirplane (defunct web-based service)
One Six Right (2005 documentary)
Associations
Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association
Canadian Owners and Pilots Association
Experimental Aircraft Association
General Aviation Manufacturers Association
National Business Aviation Association
References
External links
International Aircraft Owners and Pilots Associations
European General Aviation Safety Team (EGAST) | [
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12613 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grue | Grue | Grue may refer to:
Grue (monster), a fictional predatory creature invented by American author Jack Vance and featured in the Zork series of interactive fiction computer games
Grue and bleen, portmanteau words formed from green and blue, coined by Nelson Goodman to illustrate his new riddle of induction
Grue, a linguistic and translation concept (see Blue–green distinction in language)
Grue, Norway, a municipality
Crane (bird), a gruiform
Grue (Freedom City), an alien race in the role-playing game Mutants and Masterminds
Isle-aux-Grues, an island in Quebec, Canada
Grues, Vendée, a commune in France
Grue (river), a river in north-west Italy
Grue (surname), notable people with the surname Grue
Grue, an influential science fiction fanzine published by Dean Grennell
An early form of Nutraloaf, a food served in prison, known as "grue" to prisoners in the Arkansas penal system as described in the 1978 Hutto v. Finney decision
A pen name used by cartoonist Johnny Gruelle
Grue/Brian Laborn, a supervillain in the web novel Worm
See also
GRU (disambiguation)
Groo (disambiguation)
Grew
Grewe | [
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12615 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gracchi%20brothers | Gracchi brothers | The Gracchi brothers were two Roman brothers, sons of the Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus who was consul in 177 BC. Tiberius, the elder brother, was tribune of the plebs in 133 BC and Gaius, the younger brother, was tribune a decade later between 123–22 BC.
They attempted to redistribute the occupation of the ager publicus— the public land hitherto controlled principally by aristocrats—to the urban poor and veterans, in addition to other social and constitutional reforms. After achieving some early success, both were assassinated by the Optimates, the conservative faction in the senate that opposed these reforms.
Early life
Their father was the elderly Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus who had served as tribune of the plebs, praetor, consul, and censor. Their mother was Cornelia, daughter of Scipio Africanus, himself considered a hero by the Roman people for his part in the war against Carthage. Their parents had 12 children, but only one daughter – who later married Scipio Aemilianus – and two sons, Tiberius and Gaius, survived childhood.
After the boys' father died while they were young, responsibility for their education fell to their mother. Cornelia ensured that the brothers had the best available Greek tutors, teaching them oratory and political science. The brothers were also well trained in martial pursuits; in horsemanship and combat they outshone all their peers. The older brother Tiberius was elected an augur at only 16 – according to the historian J. C. Stobart, had he taken the easy path rather than the cause of radical reform, he would have been clearly destined for consulship. Tiberius was the most distinguished young officer in the Third Punic War, Rome's last campaign against Carthage. He was the first to scale Carthage's walls; before that he saved an army of 20,000 men by skilled diplomacy. As the boys grew up, they developed strong connections with the ruling elite.
Gracchi reforms
Background
Central to the Gracchi reforms was an attempt to address economic distress and its military consequences. Much public land (ager publicus) had been divided among large landholders and speculators who further expanded their estates by driving peasants off their farms. While their old lands were being worked by slaves, the peasants were often forced into idleness in Rome where they had to subsist on handouts due to a scarcity of paid work. They could not legally join the army because they did not meet the property qualification; and this, together with the lack of public land to give in exchange for military service and the mutinies in the Numantine War, caused recruitment problems and troop shortages.
The Gracchi aimed to address these problems by reclaiming lands from wealthy members of the senatorial class that could then be granted to soldiers; by restoring land to displaced peasants; by providing subsidized grain for the needy and by having the Republic pay for the clothing of its poorest soldiers.
Reforms of Tiberius Gracchus
Tiberius was elected to the office of Tribune of the Plebs in 133 BC. He immediately began pushing for a programme of land reform, partly by invoking the 240-year-old Sextian-Licinian law that limited the amount of land that could be owned by a single individual. Using the powers of Lex Hortensia, Tiberius established a commission to oversee the redistribution of land holdings from the rich to the unlanded urban poor. The commission consisted of himself, his father-in-law and his brother Gaius.
Even liberal senators were agitated by the proposed changes, fearing their own lands would be confiscated. Senators arranged for other tribunes to oppose the reforms. Tiberius then appealed to the people, and argued that a tribune who opposes the will of the people in favour of the rich is not a true tribune. The senators were left with only one constitutional response – to threaten prosecution after Tiberius's term as a tribune ended. This meant Tiberius had to stand for a second term.
The senators obstructed his re-election. They also gathered an ad hoc force, with several of them personally marching to the Forum, and had Tiberius and some 300 of his supporters clubbed to death. This was the first open bloodshed in Roman politics in nearly four centuries.
Tiberius's land reform commission continued distributing lands, albeit much more slowly than Tiberius had envisaged, as Senators were able to eliminate more of the commission's supporters by legal means.
Reforms of Gaius Gracchus
Ten years later, in 123 BC, Gaius took the same office as his brother, as a Tribune of the Plebs. Gaius was more practically minded than Tiberius and consequently was considered more dangerous by the senatorial class. He gained support from the agrarian poor by reviving the land reform programme and from the urban poor with various popular measures. He also sought support from the second estate, those equestrians who had not ascended to become senators.
Many equestrians were publicans, in charge of tax collecting in the Roman province of Asia (located in western Anatolia), and of contracting for construction projects. The equestrian class would get to control a court that tried senators for misconduct in provincial administration. In effect, the equestrians replaced senators already serving at the court. Thus, Gaius became an opponent of senatorial influence. Other reforms implemented by Gaius included fixing prices on grain for the urban population and granting improvements in citizenship for Latins and others outside the city of Rome.
With this broad coalition of supporters, Gaius held his office for two years and had much of his prepared legislation passed. This included winning an unconstitutional re-election to the one-year office of Tribune. However Gaius's plans to extend rights to non-Roman Italians were eventually vetoed by another Tribune. A substantial proportion of the Roman poor, protective of their privileged Roman citizenship, turned against Gaius. With Gaius's support from the people weakened, the consul Lucius Opimius was able to crush the Gracchan movement by force. A mob was raised to assassinate Gaius. Knowing his death was imminent, he committed suicide on the Aventine Hill in 121 BC. All of his reforms were undermined except for the grain laws. Three thousand supporters were subsequently arrested and put to death in the proscriptions that followed.
Assessment and reasons for failure
According to the classicist J. C. Stobart, Tiberius's Greek education had caused him to overestimate the reliability of the people as a power base, causing him to overplay his hand. In Rome, even when led by a bold tribune, the people enjoyed much less influence than at the height of the Athenian democracy. Another problem for Gaius's aims was that the Roman constitution, specifically the Tribal Assembly, was designed to prevent any one individual governing for a sustained period of time – and there were several other checks and balances to prevent power being concentrated on any one person. Stobart adds that another reason for the failure was the Gracchi's idealism: they were deaf to the baser notes of human nature and failed to recognize how corrupt and selfish all sections of Roman society had become.
According to Oswald Spengler, the characteristic mistake of the Gracchan age was to believe in the possibility of the reversibility of history, a form of idealism which according to Spengler was at that time shared by both sides of the political spectrum. For example, Cato the Elder had sought to turn back the clock to the time of Cincinnatus and restore virtue by a return to austerity.
The philosopher Simone Weil ranked the conduct of the Gracchi second out of all the known cases of good-hearted conduct recorded by history for classical Rome, ahead of the Scipios and Virgil.
Historian Michael Crawford attributes the disappearance of much of Tiberius Gracchus' support to the reduced level of citizen participation due to dispersal far from Rome, and sees his tribunate as marking a step in the Hellenization of the Roman aristocracy. Crawford asserts that Gaius Gracchus' extortion law shifted the balance of power in Rome and that the Gracchi made available a new political armoury which the oligarchy subsequently sought to exploit.
Aftermath
The emergence of new forces of urban factions, rural voters, and others, engaging in continued conflict with each other for their own interests, meant that the problem of effective governance awaited resolution. The reforms of the Gracchi had come to an end by violence; and this provided a brutal precedent that would be followed by many future rulers of Rome.
Notes
References
Further reading
External links
Translation of Book 1 of The Civil Wars by Appian
Tiberius Gracchus (168–133 BCE) by Hugh Last (BTM format)
T Gracchi, Marius and Sulla by A. H. Beesly (BTM format)
2nd-century BC Romans
Brother duos
Populares
Tribunes of the plebs
Sempronii | [
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23860132 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin%20Shing%20Court | Tin Shing Court | Tin Shing Court () is a Home Ownership Scheme court developed by the Hong Kong Housing Authority in Tin Shui Wai, New Territories, Hong Kong, near Tin Yiu Estate, Light Rail Tin Yiu stop and Tin Shui Wai stop as well as MTR Tin Shui Wai station. It has totally 17 residential buildings completed in 1999.
Houses
Demographics
According to the 2016 by-census, Tin Shing Court had a population of 20,664. The median age was 43.4 and the majority of residents (96.5 per cent) were of Chinese ethnicity. The average household size was 3.3 people. The median monthly household income of all households (i.e. including both economically active and inactive households) was HK$30,000.
Politics
For the 2019 District Council election, the estate fell within two constituencies. Most of the estate is located in the Tin Shing constituency, which is represented by Hau Man-kin. The remainder falls within the Shing Yan constituency, which is represented by Au Kwok-kuen.
See also
Public housing estates in Tin Shui Wai
List of Home Ownership Scheme Courts in Hong Kong
References
Tin Shui Wai
Home Ownership Scheme
Residential buildings completed in 1999
1999 establishments in Hong Kong | [
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12616 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gossip | Gossip | Gossip is idle talk or rumour, especially about the personal or private affairs of others; the act is also known as dishing or tattling.
Gossip is a topic of research in evolutionary psychology, which has found gossip to be an important means for people to monitor cooperative reputations and so maintain widespread indirect reciprocity. Indirect reciprocity is a social interaction in which one actor helps another and is then benefited by a third party. Gossip has also been identified by Robin Dunbar, an evolutionary biologist, as aiding social bonding in large groups.
Etymology
The word is from Old English godsibb, from god and sibb, the term for the godparents of one's child or the parents of one's godchild, generally very close friends. In the 16th century, the word assumed the meaning of a person, mostly a woman, one who delights in idle talk, a newsmonger, a tattler. In the early 19th century, the term was extended from the talker to the conversation of such persons. The verb to gossip, meaning "to be a gossip", first appears in Shakespeare.
The term originates from the bedroom at the time of childbirth. Giving birth used to be a social event exclusively attended by women. The pregnant woman's female relatives and neighbours would congregate and idly converse. Over time, gossip came to mean talk of others.
Functions
Gossip can:
reinforceor punish the lack ofmorality and accountability
reveal passive aggression, isolating and harming others
serve as a process of social grooming
build and maintain a sense of community with shared interests, information, and values
begin a courtship that helps one find their desired mate, by counseling others
provide a peer-to-peer mechanism for disseminating information
Workplace gossip
Mary Gormandy White, a human resource expert, gives the following "signs" for identifying workplace gossip:
Animated people become silent ("Conversations stop when you enter the room")
People begin staring at someone
Workers indulge in inappropriate topics of conversation.
White suggests "five tips ... [to] handle the situation with aplomb:
Rise above the gossip
Understand what causes or fuels the gossip
Do not participate in workplace gossip.
Allow for the gossip to go away on its own
If it persists, "gather facts and seek help."
Peter Vajda identifies gossip as a form of workplace violence, noting that it is "essentially a form of attack." Gossip is thought by many to "empower one person while disempowering another" (Hafen). Accordingly, many companies have formal policies in their employee handbooks against gossip. Sometimes there is room for disagreement on exactly what constitutes unacceptable gossip, since workplace gossip may take the form of offhand remarks about someone's tendencies such as "He always takes a long lunch," or "Don’t worry, that’s just how she is."
TLK Healthcare cites as examples of gossip, "tattletaling to the boss without intention of furthering a solution or speaking to co-workers about something someone else has done to upset us." Corporate email can be a particularly dangerous method of gossip delivery, as the medium is semi-permanent and messages are easily forwarded to unintended recipients; accordingly, a Mass High Tech article advised employers to instruct employees against using company email networks for gossip. Low self-esteem and a desire to "fit in" are frequently cited as motivations for workplace gossip.
There are five essential functions that gossip has in the workplace (according to DiFonzo & Bordia):
Helps individuals learn social information about other individuals in the organization (often without even having to meet the other individual)
Builds social networks of individuals by bonding co-workers together and affiliating people with each other.
Breaks existing bonds by ostracizing individuals within an organization.
Enhances one's social status/power/prestige within the organization.
Inform individuals as to what is considered socially acceptable behavior within the organization.
According to Kurkland and Pelled, workplace gossip can be very serious depending upon the amount of power that the gossiper has over the recipient, which will in turn affect how the gossip is interpreted. There are four types of power that are influenced by gossip:
Coercive: when a gossiper tells negative information about a person, their recipient might believe that the gossiper will also spread negative information about them. This causes the gossiper's coercive power to increase.
Reward: when a gossiper tells positive information about a person, their recipient might believe that the gossiper will also spread positive information about them. This causes the gossiper's reward power to increase.
Expert: when a gossiper seems to have very detailed knowledge of either the organization's values or about others in the work environment, their expert power becomes enhanced.
Referent: this power can either be reduced OR enhanced to a point. When people view gossiping as a petty activity done to waste time, a gossiper's referent power can decrease along with their reputation. When a recipient is thought of as being invited into a social circle by being a recipient, the gossiper's referent power can increase, but only to a high point where then the recipient begins to resent the gossiper (Kurland & Pelled).
Some negative consequences of workplace gossip may include:
Lost productivity and wasted time,
Erosion of trust and morale,
Increased anxiety among employees as rumors circulate without any clear information as to what is fact and what isn’t,
Growing divisiveness among employees as people “take sides,"
Hurt feelings and reputations,
Jeopardized chances for the gossipers' advancement as they are perceived as unprofessional, and
Attrition as good employees leave the company due to the unhealthy work atmosphere.
Turner and Weed theorize that among the three main types of responders to workplace conflict are attackers who cannot keep their feelings to themselves and express their feelings by attacking whatever they can. Attackers are further divided into up-front attackers and behind-the-back attackers. Turner and Weed note that the latter "are difficult to handle because the target person is not sure of the source of any criticism, nor even always sure that there is criticism."
It is possible however, that there may be illegal, unethical, or disobedient behavior happening at the workplace and this may be a case where reporting the behavior may be viewed as gossip. It is then left up to the authority in charge to fully investigate the matter and not simply look past the report and assume it to be workplace gossip.
Informal networks through which communication occurs in an organization are sometimes called the grapevine. In a study done by Harcourt, Richerson, and Wattier, it was found that middle managers in several different organizations believed that gathering information from the grapevine was a much better way of learning information than through formal communication with their subordinates (Harcourt, Richerson & Wattier).
Various views
Some see gossip as trivial, hurtful and socially and/or intellectually unproductive. Some people view gossip as a lighthearted way of spreading information. A feminist definition of gossip presents it as "a way of talking between women, intimate in style, personal and domestic in scope and setting, a female cultural event which springs from and perpetuates the restrictions of the female role, but also gives the comfort of validation." (Jones, 1990:243)
In early modern England
In Early Modern England the word "gossip" referred to companions in childbirth, not limited to the midwife. It also became a term for women-friends generally, with no necessary derogatory connotations. (OED n. definition 2. a. "A familiar acquaintance, friend, chum", supported by references from 1361 to 1873). It commonly referred to an informal local sorority or social group, who could enforce socially acceptable behaviour through private censure or through public rituals, such as "rough music", the cucking stool and the skimmington ride.
In Thomas Harman’s Caveat for Common Cursitors 1566 a ‘walking mort’ relates how she was forced to agree to meet a man in his barn, but informed his wife. The wife arrived with her “five furious, sturdy, muffled gossips” who catch the errant husband with “his hosen [trousers] about his legs” and give him a sound beating. The story clearly functions as a morality tale in which the gossips uphold the social order.
In Sir Herbert Maxwell Bart's The Chevalier of the Splendid Crest [1900] at the end of chapter three the king is noted as referring to his loyal knight "Sir Thomas de Roos" in kindly terms as "my old gossip". Whilst a historical novel of that time the reference implies a continued use of the term "Gossip" as childhood friend as late as 1900.
In Judaism
Judaism considers gossip spoken without a constructive purpose (known in Hebrew as an evil tongue, lashon hara) as a sin. Speaking negatively about people, even if retelling true facts, counts as sinful, as it demeans the dignity of man — both the speaker and the subject of the gossip.
According to Proverbs 18:8: "The words of a gossip are like choice morsels: they go down to a man's innermost parts."
In Christianity
The Christian perspective on gossip is typically based on modern cultural assumptions of the phenomenon, especially the assumption that generally speaking, gossip is negative speech. However, due to the complexity of the phenomenon, biblical scholars have more precisely identified the form and function of gossip, even identifying a socially positive role for the social process as it is described in the New Testament. Of course, this does not mean that there are not numerous texts in the New Testament that see gossip as dangerous negative speech.
Thus, for example, the Epistle to the Romans associates gossips ("backbiters") with a list of sins including sexual immorality and with murder:
28: And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
29: Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
30: Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
31: Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
32: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. (Romans 1:28-32)
According to Matthew 18, Jesus also taught that conflict resolution among church members ought to begin with the aggrieved party attempting to resolve their dispute with the offending party alone. Only if this did not work would the process escalate to the next step, in which another church member would become involved. After that if the person at fault still would not "hear", the matter was to be fully investigated by the church elders, and if not resolved to be then exposed publicly.
Based on texts like these portraying gossip negatively, many Christian authors generalize on the phenomenon. So, in order to gossip, writes Phil Fox Rose, we "must harden our heart towards the 'out' person. We draw a line between ourselves and them; define them as being outside the rules of Christian charity... We create a gap between ourselves and God's Love." As we harden our heart towards more people and groups, he continues, "this negativity and feeling of separateness will grow and permeate our world, and we'll find it more difficult to access God’s love in any aspect of our lives."
The New Testament is also in favor of group accountability (Ephesians 5:11; 1st Tim 5:20; James 5:16; Gal 6:1-2; 1 Cor 12:26), which may be associated with gossip.
In Islam
Islam considers backbiting the equivalent of eating the flesh of one's dead brother. According to Muslims, backbiting harms its victims without offering them any chance of defense, just as dead people cannot defend against their flesh being eaten. Muslims are expected to treat others like brothers (regardless of their beliefs, skin color, gender, or ethnic origin), deriving from Islam's concept of brotherhood amongst its believers.
In the Bahá’í Faith
The Bahá’í Faith aims to promote the unity of humankind and considers backbiting to be the "worst human quality and the most great sin..." Therefore, even murder would be considered less reprobate than backbiting. Bahá’u’lláh, the Prophet-Founder of the Bahá’í Faith stated that, "Backbiting quencheth the light of the heart, and extinguisheth the life of the soul." More than affecting one's physical condition, Bahá’ís understands that when someone gossips and finds faults in others it hampers the spiritual development of those involved while also creating disunity among individuals, communities, and society at large.
In psychology
Evolutionary view
From Robin Dunbar's evolutionary theories, gossip originated to help bond the groups that were constantly growing in size. To survive, individuals need alliances; but as these alliances grew larger, it was difficult if not impossible to physically connect with everyone. Conversation and language were able to bridge this gap. Gossip became a social interaction that helped the group gain information about other individuals without personally speaking to them.
It enabled people to keep up with what was going on in their social network. It also creates a bond between the teller and the hearer, as they share information of mutual interest and spend time together. It also helps the hearer learn about another individual’s behavior and helps them have a more effective approach to their relationship. Dunbar (2004) found that 65% of conversations consist of social topics.
Dunbar (1994) argues that gossip is the equivalent of social grooming often observed in other primate species. Anthropological investigations indicate that gossip is a cross-cultural phenomenon, providing evidence for evolutionary accounts of gossip.
There is very little evidence to suggest meaningful sex differences in the proportion of conversational time spent gossiping, and when there is a difference, women are only very slightly more likely to gossip compared with men. Further support for the evolutionary significance of gossip comes from a recent study published in the peer-reviewed journal, Science Anderson and colleagues (2011) found that faces paired with negative social information dominate visual consciousness to a greater extent than positive and neutral social information during a binocular rivalry task.
Binocular rivalry occurs when two different stimuli are presented to each eye simultaneously and the two percepts compete for dominance in visual consciousness. While this occurs, an individual will consciously perceive one of the percepts while the other is suppressed. After a time, the other percept will become dominant and an individual will become aware of the second percept. Finally, the two percepts will alternate back and forth in terms of visual awareness.
The study by Anderson and colleagues (2011) indicates that higher order cognitive processes, like evaluative information processing, can influence early visual processing. That only negative social information differentially affected the dominance of the faces during the task alludes to the unique importance of knowing information about an individual that should be avoided. Since the positive social information did not produce greater perceptual dominance of the matched face indicates that negative information about an individual may be more salient to our behavior than positive.
Gossip also gives information about social norms and guidelines for behavior. Gossip usually comments on how appropriate a behavior was, and the mere act of repeating it signifies its importance. In this sense, gossip is effective regardless of whether it is positive or negative Some theorists have proposed that gossip is actually a pro-social behavior intended to allow an individual to correct their socially prohibitive behavior without direct confrontation of the individual. By gossiping about an individual’s acts, other individuals can subtly indicate that said acts are inappropriate and allow the individual to correct their behavior (Schoeman 1994).
Perception of those who gossip
Individuals who are perceived to engage in gossiping regularly are seen as having less social power and being less liked. The type of gossip being exchanged also affects likeability, whereby those who engage in negative gossip are less liked than those who engage in positive gossip. In a study done by Turner and colleagues (2003), having a prior relationship with a gossiper was not found to protect the gossiper from less favorable personality-ratings after gossip was exchanged. In the study, pairs of individuals were brought into a research lab to participate. Either the two individuals were friends prior to the study or they were strangers scheduled to participate at the same time. One of the individuals was a confederate of the study, and they engaged in gossiping about the research assistant after she left the room. The gossip exchanged was either positive or negative. Regardless of gossip type (positive versus negative) or relationship type (friend versus stranger) the gossipers were rated as less trustworthy after sharing the gossip.
Walter Block has suggested that while gossip and blackmail both involve the disclosure of unflattering information, the blackmailer is arguably ethically superior to the gossip. Block writes: "In a sense, the gossip is much worse than the blackmailer, for the blackmailer has given the blackmailed a chance to silence him. The gossip exposes the secret without warning." The victim of a blackmailer is thus offered choices denied to the subject of gossip, such as deciding if the exposure of his or her secret is worth the cost the blackmailer demands. Moreover, in refusing a blackmailer's offer one is in no worse a position than with the gossip. Adds Block, "It is indeed difficult, then, to account for the vilification suffered by the blackmailer, at least compared to the gossip, who is usually dismissed with slight contempt and smugness."
Contemporary critiques of gossip may concentrate on or become subsumed in the discussion of social media such as Facebook.
See also
Altruism
Backbiting
Blind item
Bullying
Circle of friends
Communication in small groups
Curiosity
False dilemma
Gossip magazines
Impression management
Interpersonal relationship
Lashon hara
Libel
Misinformation
Personal network
Popularity
Respectability
Rumor
Scandal
Sexual selection in human evolution
Social perception
Social status
Word of mouth
Yenta
References
Further reading
Niko Besnier, 2009: Gossip and the Everyday Production of Politics. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.
Niko Besnier, 1996: Gossip. In Encyclopedia of Cultural Anthropology. David Levinson and Melvin Ember, eds. Vol. 2, pp. 544–547. New York: Henry Holt.
Preview.
DiFonzo, Nicholas & Prashant Bordia. "Rumor, Gossip, & Urban Legend." Diogenes Vol. 54 (Feb 2007) pg 19-35.
Feeley, Kathleen A. and Frost, Jennifer (eds.) When Private Talk Goes Public: Gossip in American History. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.
Robert F. Goodman and Aaron Ben-Zeev, editors: Good Gossip. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 1993.
Hafen, Susan. "Organizational Gossip: A Revolving Door of Regulation & Resistance." The Southern Communication Journal Vol. 69, No. 3 (Spring 2004) pg 223
Harcourt, Jules, Virginia Richerson, and Mark J Wattier. "A National Study of Middle Managers' Assessment of Organizational Communication Quality." Journal of Business Communication Vol. 28, No. 4 (Fall 1991) pg 348-365
Jones, Deborah, 1990: 'Gossip: notes on women's oral culture'. In: Cameron, Deborah. (editor) The Feminist Critique of Language: A Reader. London/New York: Routledge, 1990, pp. 242–250. . Cited online in Rash, 1996.
Kenny, Robert Wade, 2014: Gossip. In Encyclopedia of Lying and Deception. Timothy R. Levine, ed. Vol. 1, pp. 410–414. Los Angeles: Sage Press.
Kurland, Nancy B. & Lisa Hope Pelled. "Passing the Word: Toward a Model of Gossip & Power in the Workplace." The Academy of Management Review Vol. 25, No. 2 (April 2000) pg 428-438
{{cite journal |first=Felicity |last=Rash |year=1996 |title=Rauhe Männer - Zarte Frauen: Linguistic and Stylistic Aspects of Gender Stereotyping in German Advertising Texts 1949-1959 |publisher=Web Journal of Modern Language Linguistics |issue=1 |url=http://wjmll.ncl.ac.uk/issue01/rashb.rtf |access-date=August 8, 2006}}
External links
Ronald de Sousa (U Toronto) on Gossip
"Go Ahead. Gossip May Be Virtuous" New York Times article by Patricia Cohen 2002-08-10 (requires registration)
Emrys Westacott (Alfred U) The Ethics of Gossiping
Robin Dunbar, Coevolution of neocortical size, group size and language in humans (pre-publication version)'' "Analysis of a sample of human conversations shows that about 60% of time is spent gossiping about relationships and personal experiences."
Benjamin Brown, From Principles to Rules and from Musar to Halakhah - The Hafetz Hayim's Rulings on Libel and Gossip.
Human communication
Social status
Group processes
Workplace
Evolutionary psychology
Moral psychology | [
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12618 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G4 | G4 | G4 or G.IV may refer to:
Transport
AEG G.IV, a German World War I heavy bomber
Allegiant Air, by IATA airline designator
Caudron G.4, a 1915 French biplane
Friedrichshafen G.IV, a 1918 German medium bomber
Gotha G.IV, a 1916 German heavy bomber
Gulfstream IV, a family of private jet aircraft
Mitsubishi G4M "Betty", a World War II Japanese fast bomber
Soko G-4 Super Galeb, a jet trainer/light attack jet of Yugoslav origin
USS G4 (SS-26), a 1914 G-class submarine of the United States Navy
County Route G4 (California), a county highway in Santa Clara County, California, USA
G4 Beijing–Hong Kong–Macau Expressway, an expressway in China
G4 (Taichung Metro), also known as Songzhu Station or Jiushe Station, a station under construction in the Taichung Metro
G4-class freighter, a cargo ship design
Biology
G4 EA H1N1, a strain of influenza
Science and technology
Group 4 element, a class of elements on the Periodic Table
ATC code G04 Urologicals, a subgroup of the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Classification System
G4, a type of bi-pin lamp base (socket), a lamp fitting where the pin spacing is 4mm
LG G4 smartphone
Group 4 compression, a type of image compression used in fax machines and some image file formats
Apple Computer
PowerPC G4, a type of microprocessor by Freescale used by Apple
Power Mac G4, a series of personal computers made by Apple Inc in July 1999
PowerBook G4, a series of Professional notebooks made by Apple Inc in 2001
iMac G4, a series of personal computer made by Apple Inc in January 2002
Xserve G4, an Xserve server made by Apple Inc in May 2002
iBook G4, an iBook series of consumer notebooks in October 2003
Mac Mini G4, a Mac Mini series of ultracompact computer in January 2005
Entertainment
G4 (American TV network), an American television channel
G4 (Canadian TV channel), a former Canadian television channel
G4 (band), a British vocal troupe
Grob's attack, an opening move in chess
Organisations
G4 nations, four nations that support each other's bids to become permanent members of the United Nations Security Council: Brazil, Germany, India, and Japan
Big Four (Western Europe), sometimes called 'G4', a group of powerful countries in Europe
VIP Protection Unit, a unit of the Hong Kong Police Force (originally Section G, Division 4)
See also
Group 4 (disambiguation)
G4S, formerly Group 4 Securicor
4G (disambiguation)
Gang of Four (disambiguation)
Kamen Rider Agito: Project G4, the Kamen Rider Agito film
Kamen Rider G4, the movie exclusive character
Giv (disambiguation) | [
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12619 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garbage%20collection%20%28disambiguation%29 | Garbage collection (disambiguation) | Garbage collection, or waste collection, is part of municipal waste management.
Garbage collection may also refer to:
Garbage collection (computer science), in automatic memory management
Garbage collection (SSD), in flash memory | [
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12620 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitarist | Guitarist | A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar by singing or playing the harmonica, or both.
Techniques
The guitarist may employ any of several methods for sounding the guitar, including finger picking, depending on the type of strings used (either nylon or steel), and including strumming with the fingers, or a guitar pick made of bone, horn, plastic, metal, felt, leather, or paper, and melodic flatpicking and finger-picking.
The guitarist may also employ various methods for selecting notes and chords, including fingering, thumbing, the barre (a finger lying across many or all strings at a particular fret), and guitar slides, usually made of glass or metal. These left- and right-hand techniques may be intermixed in performance.
Notable guitarists
Rock, metal, jazz, country and blues
Several magazines and websites have compiled what they intend as lists of the greatest guitarists—for example The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time by Rolling Stone magazine, or 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time by Guitar World magazine.
Rolling StoneThe first in this list is the American guitarist Jimi Hendrix introduced by Pete Townshend, guitarist for The Who, who was, in his turn, ranked at #10 in the list.
In describing the list to readers, Paul MacInnes from British newspaper The Guardian wrote, "Surprisingly enough for an American magazine, the top 10 is fair jam-packed with Yanks," though he also noted three exceptions in the top 10. The online magazine Blogcritics criticized the list for introducing some allegedly undeserving guitarists while forgetting some artists the writer considered perhaps more worthy, such as Johnny Marr, Al Di Meola, Phil Keaggy or John Petrucci.
In 2011, Rolling Stone updated the list, which this time was chosen by a panel of guitarists and other experts with the top 100 consisting of Eric Clapton, Eddie Van Halen, Keith Richards and Tony Iommi. Artists who had not been included in the previous list were added. Rory Gallagher, for example, was ranked in 57th place.
The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time is mentioned in many biographies about artists who appear in the list.
Guitar World Guitar World, a monthly music magazine devoted to the guitar, also published their list of 100 greatest guitarists in the book Guitar World Presents the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time from the Pages of Guitar World Magazine. Different from the Rolling Stone list, which listed guitarists in descending order, Guitar World divided guitarists by music genre—such as "Lords of Hard Rock" for hard rock artists or "Jazzmen" for jazz players. Despite the appearance in other magazines like Billboard, this publication by Guitar World was criticized for including no female musicians within its selection. However, Guitar World recently published a list of "Eight Amazing Female Acoustic Players," including Kaki King, Muriel Anderson and Sharon Isbin.
TIME and others Following the death of Les Paul, TIME website presented their list of 10 greatest artists in electric guitar. As in Rolling Stone magazine's list, Jimi Hendrix was chosen as the greatest guitarist followed by Slash from Guns 'N' Roses, B.B. King, Keith Richards, Jimmy Page, and Eric Clapton. Gigwise.com, an online music magazine, also ranks Jimi Hendrix as the greatest guitarist ever, followed by Jimmy Page, B.B. King, Keith Richards and Kirk Hammett.
Other genres
The classical guitar is strung with gut or nylon strings on top and wound basses for the lower strings. It was often ornately decorated with mother of pearl. Many early classical guitarists played with their finger tips only but later guitarists play with a combination of finger nail and flesh to project a clear sound and allowing for many different changes in sound quality (or timbre). This guitar tradition dates back at least to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when a four course instrument was popular among aristocrats. In the early nineteenth century there the guitar enjoyed a surge of popularity when composer/performers such as Fernando Sor, Napoléon Coste, Mauro Giuliani, and many others published thousands of pieces for the concert hall and home gatherings. The classical guitar enjoyed another period of popularity in the twentieth century when recordings amplified the relatively quiet instrument. There are many classical guitarists listed as notable in their respective epochs.
One of the most renowned flamenco guitarists in recent decades was Paco de Lucía. Flamenco music is a popular traditional music associated with the Andalucia region of southern Spain. It is characterized by intricate syncopated rhythms intimately informed by a gypsy dance style. Flamenco guitarists also often accompany flamenco singers performing "cante jondo" (deep song). de Lucía]was also one of the first to have successfully crossed over into other genres of music such as classical and jazz.
The cuatro guitar is a family of Latin American string instruments played in Puerto Rico, Venezuela and other Latin American countries. It is derived from the Spanish guitar. Although some have viola-like shapes, most cuatros resemble a small to mid-sized classical guitar. In Puerto Rico and Venezuela, the cuatro is an ensemble instrument for secular and religious music, and is played at parties and traditional gatherings. Christian Nieves is a Puerto Rican cuatro player and is recognized by the Institute of Puerto Rican culture as the most talented young of their national instrument, the Puerto Rican cuatro.
References
External links
Occupations in music | [
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12622 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic%20fiction | Gothic fiction | Gothic fiction, sometimes called Gothic horror in the 20th century, is a loose literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name is a reference to Gothic architecture the European Middle Ages, which was characteristic of the settings of early Gothic novels. The first work to call itself Gothic was Horace Walpole's 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, later subtitled "A Gothic Story". Early contributors included Clara Reeve, Ann Radcliffe, William Thomas Beckford and Matthew Lewis. Its 19th-century success include Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and work by E. T. A. Hoffmann, Edgar Allan Poe and Charles Dickens, and in poetry with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Also prominent was the later Dracula by Bram Stoker, Richard Marsh's The Beetle and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. Twentieth-century contributors include Daphne du Maurier, Stephen King, Shirley Jackson, Anne Rice and Toni Morrison.
Characteristics
Gothic fiction is characterized by an environment of fear, the threat of supernatural events, and the intrusion of the past upon the present. Gothic fiction is distinguished from other forms of scary or supernatural stories, such as fairy tales, by the specific theme of the present being haunted by the past. The setting typically includes physical reminders of the past, especially through ruined buildings which stand as proof of a previously thriving world which is decaying in the present. Especially in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, characteristic settings include castles, religious buildings like monasteries and convents, and crypts. The atmosphere is typically claustrophobic, and common plot elements include vengeful persecution, imprisonment, and murder. The depiction of horrible events in Gothic fiction often serves as a metaphorical expression of psychological or social conflicts. Gothic fiction often moves between "high culture" and "low" or "popular culture".
Role of architecture
Gothic literature is intimately associated with the Gothic Revival architecture of the same era. English Gothic writers often associated medieval buildings with what they saw as a dark and terrifying period, marked by harsh laws enforced by torture and with mysterious, fantastic, and superstitious rituals. In a way similar to the Gothic revivalists' rejection of the clarity and rationalism of the neoclassical style of the Enlightened Establishment, the literary Gothic embodies an appreciation of the joys of extreme emotion, the thrills of fearfulness and awe inherent in the sublime, and a quest for atmosphere. Ruins of Gothic buildings give rise to multiple linked emotions by representing inevitable decay and the collapse of human creations – hence the urge to add fake ruins as eyecatchers in English landscape parks.
Placing a story in a Gothic building serves several purposes. It draws on feelings of awe, implies that the story is set in the past, gives an impression of isolation or dissociation from the rest of the world, and draws on Gothic religious associations. Setting the novel in a Gothic castle was meant to imply not only a story set in the past, but one shrouded in darkness.The architecture also often served as a mirror for the characters and events of the story. The buildings in The Castle of Otranto, for example, are riddled with tunnels, which characters use to move back and forth in secret. This secret movement mirrors one of the plots in the story: the secrets surrounding Manfred's possession of the castle and how it came into his family.
The Female Gothic
From the castles, dungeons, forests and hidden passages of the Gothic novel genre emerged female Gothic. Guided by the works of authors such as Ann Radcliffe, Mary Shelley and Charlotte Brontë, the female Gothic allowed female societal and sexual desires to be introduced. In many respects, the novel's intended reader of the time was the woman who, even as she enjoyed such novels, would feel she had to "[lay] down her book with affected indifference, or momentary shame," according to Jane Austen, author of Northanger Abbey. The Gothic novel shaped its form for female readers to "turn to Gothic romances to find support for their own mixed feelings."
Female Gothic narratives focus on such topics as a persecuted heroine in flight from a villainous father and in search of an absent mother, while male writers tend towards masculine transgression of social taboos. The emergence of the ghost story gave female writers something to write about besides the common marriage plot, allowing them to present a more radical critique of male power, violence and predatory sexuality.
When the female gothic coincides with the explained supernatural, the natural cause of terror is not the supernatural, but female disability and societal horrors: rape, incest, and the threatening control of a male antagonist. Female Gothic also addresses women's discontent with patriarchal society, their problematic and dissatisfying maternal position, and their role within that society. Women's fears of entrapment in the domestic, the female body, marriage, childbirth, or domestic abuse commonly appear in the genre.
After the characteristic Gothic Bildungsroman-like plot sequence, female Gothic allowed readers to grow from "adolescence to maturity" in the face of the realized impossibilities of the supernatural. As protagonists in novels like Adeline in The Romance of the Forest learn that their superstitious fantasies and terrors are replaced by natural cause and reasonable doubt, the reader may grasp the true position of the heroine in the novel: "The heroine possesses the romantic temperament that perceives strangeness where others see none. Her sensibility, therefore, prevents her from knowing that her true plight is her condition, the disability of being female."
History
Precursors
The components that would eventually combine into Gothic literature had a rich history by the time Walpole presented a fictitious medieval manuscript in The Castle of Otranto in 1764.
Gothic literature is often described with words such as "wonder" and "terror." This sense of wonder and terror, which provides the suspension of disbelief so important to the Gothic—which, except for when it is parodied, even for all its occasional melodrama, is typically played straight, in a self-serious manner—requires the imagination of the reader to be willing to accept the idea that there might be something "beyond that which is immediately in front of us." The mysterious imagination necessary for Gothic literature to have gained any traction had been growing for some time before the advent of the Gothic. The necessity for this came as the known world was beginning to become more explored, reducing the inherent geographical mysteries of the world. The edges of the map were being filled in, and no one was finding any dragons. The human mind required a replacement. Clive Bloom theorizes that this void in the collective imagination was critical in the development of the cultural possibility for the rise of the Gothic tradition.
The setting of most early Gothic works was a medieval one, but this had been a common theme long before Walpole. In Britain especially, there was a desire to reclaim a shared past. This obsession frequently led to extravagant architectural displays, such as Fonthill Abbey, and sometimes mock tournaments were held. It was not merely in literature that a medieval revival made itself felt, and this too contributed to a culture ready to accept a perceived medieval work in 1764.
The Gothic often uses scenery of decay, death, and morbidity to achieve its effects (especially in the Italian Horror school of Gothic). However, Gothic literature was not the origin of this tradition; indeed it was far older. The corpses, skeletons, and churchyards so commonly associated with the early Gothic were popularized by the Graveyard Poets, and were also present in novels such as Daniel Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year, which contains comical scenes of plague carts and piles of plague corpses. Even earlier, poets like Edmund Spenser evoked a dreary and sorrowful mood in such poems as Epithalamion.
All of the aspects of pre-Gothic literature mentioned above occur to some degree in the Gothic, but even taken together, they still fall short of true Gothic. What was lacking was an aesthetic, which would serve to tie the elements together. Bloom notes that this aesthetic must take the form of a theoretical or philosophical core, which is necessary to "sav[e] the best tales from becoming mere anecdote or incoherent sensationalism." In this case, the aesthetic needed to be an emotional one, which was finally provided by Edmund Burke's 1757 work, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful, which "finally codif[ied] the gothic emotional experience." Specifically, Burke's thoughts on the Sublime, Terror, and Obscurity were most applicable. These sections can be summarized thus: the Sublime is that which is or produces the "strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling"; the Sublime is most often evoked by Terror; and to cause Terror we need some amount of Obscurity – we can't know everything about that which is inducing Terror – or else "a great deal of the apprehension vanishes"; Obscurity is necessary in order to experience the Terror of the unknown. Bloom asserts that Burke's descriptive vocabulary was essential to the Romantic works that eventually informed the Gothic.
The birth of Gothic was thought to have been influenced by political upheaval. Researchers linked its birth with the English Civil War and culminating in a Jacobite rebellion (1745) more recent to the first Gothic novel (1764). A collective political memory and any deep cultural fears associated with it likely contributed to early Gothic villain characters as literary representatives of defeated Tory barons or Royalists "rising" from their political graves in the pages of the early Gothic to terrorize the bourgeois reader of late eighteenth-century England.
Eighteenth-century Gothic novels
The first work to call itself "Gothic" was Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto (1764). The first edition presented the story as a translation of a sixteenth-century manuscript, and was widely popular. Walpole revealed himself as the true author in the second edition, which added the subtitle "A Gothic Story." The revelation prompted a backlash from readers, who considered it inappropriate for a modern author to write a supernatural story in a rational age. Walpole did not initially prompt many imitators. Beginning with Clara Reeve's The Old English Baron (1778), the 1780s saw more writers attempting his combination of supernatural plots with emotionally realistic characters. Examples include Sophia Lee's The Recess (1783-5) and William Beckford's Vathek (1786).
At the height of the Gothic's popularity in the 1790s, the genre was almost synonymous with Ann Radcliffe, whose works were highly anticipated and widely imitated. Particularly popular were The Romance of the Forest (1791) and The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794). Radcliffe's novels were often seen as the feminine and rational opposite of a more violently horrifying male Gothic associated with Matthew Lewis. Radcliffe's final novel, The Italian (1797), was a response to Lewis's The Monk (1796).
Other notable Gothic novels of the 1790s include William Godwin's Caleb Williams (1794), Regina Maria Roche's Clermont (1798), and Charles Brockden Brown's Wieland (1798), as well as large numbers of anonymous works published by the Minerva Press. In continental Europe, Romantic literary movements led to related Gothic genres such as the German Schauerroman and the French roman noir. Eighteenth-century Gothic novels were typically set in a distant past and (for English novels) a distant European country, but without specific dates or historical figures that characterized the later development of historical fiction.
The excesses, stereotypes, and frequent absurdities of the Gothic made it rich territory for satire. After 1800 there was a period in which Gothic parodies outnumbered sincere Gothics. In The Heroine by Eaton Stannard Barrett (1813), Gothic tropes are exaggerated for comic effect. In Jane Austen's novel Northanger Abbey (1818), the naive protagonist, much like a female Quixote, conceives herself a heroine of a Radcliffean romance and imagines murder and villainy on every side, though the truth turns out to be much more prosaic. This novel is also noted for including a list of early Gothic works since known as the Northanger Horrid Novels.
Second generation or Jüngere Romantik
The poetry, romantic adventures, and character of Lord Byron—characterised by his spurned lover Lady Caroline Lamb as "mad, bad and dangerous to know"—were another inspiration for the Gothic, providing the archetype of the Byronic hero. Byron features as the title character in Lady Caroline's own Gothic novel Glenarvon (1816).
Byron was also the host of the celebrated ghost-story competition involving himself, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley, and John William Polidori at the Villa Diodati on the banks of Lake Geneva in the summer of 1816. This occasion was productive of both Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818) and Polidori's The Vampyre (1819), featuring the Byronic Lord Ruthven. The Vampyre has been accounted by cultural critic Christopher Frayling as one of the most influential works of fiction ever written and spawned a craze for vampire fiction and theatre (and latterly film) which has not ceased to this day. Mary Shelley's novel, though clearly influenced by the Gothic tradition, is often considered the first science fiction novel, despite the omission in the novel of any scientific explanation of the monster's animation and the focus instead on the moral issues and consequences of such a creation.
John Keats' La Belle Dame sans Merci (1819) and Isabella, or the Pot of Basil (1820) which feature mysteriously fey ladies. In the latter poem the names of the characters, the dream visions and the macabre physical details are influenced by the novels of premiere Gothicist Ann Radcliffe.
A late example of traditional Gothic Novel is Melmoth the Wanderer (1820) by Charles Maturin, which combines themes of anti-Catholicism with an outcast Byronic hero. Jane C. Loudon's The Mummy! (1827) features standard Gothic motifs, characters, and plotting, but with one significant twist: it is set in the twenty-second century and speculates on fantastic scientific developments that might have occurred four hundred years in the future, thus making it one of the earliest examples, along with Frankenstein, of the science fiction genre developing from Gothic traditions.
During two decades, the most famous author of Gothic literature in Germany was the polymath E. T. A. Hoffmann. His novel The Devil's Elixirs (1815) was influenced by Lewis's The Monk and even mentions it. The novel also explores the motive of Doppelgänger, the term coined by another German author and supporter of Hoffmann, Jean Paul, in his humorous novel Siebenkäs (1796–1797). He also wrote an opera based on the Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué's Gothic story Undine (1816), for which de la Motte Fouqué himself wrote the libretto. Aside from Hoffmann and de la Motte Fouqué, three other important authors from the era were Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff (The Marble Statue, 1818), Ludwig Achim von Arnim (Die Majoratsherren, 1819), and Adelbert von Chamisso (Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte, 1814). After them, Wilhelm Meinhold wrote The Amber Witch (1838) and Sidonia von Bork (1847).
In Spain, the priest Pascual Pérez Rodríguez was the most assidous novelist in the Gothic way, closed aligned to the supernatural explained by Ann Radcliffe. At the same time, the poet José de Espronceda published The Student of Salamanca (1837-1840), a narrative poem which presents a horrid variation on the Don Juan legend.
In Russia, authors of romanticism's era include: Antony Pogorelsky (penname of Alexey Alexeyevich Perovsky), Orest Somov, Oleksa Storozhenko, Alexandr Pushkin, Nikolai Alekseevich Polevoy, Mikhail Lermontov (for his work Stuss), and Alexander Bestuzhev-Marlinsky. Pushkin is particularly important, as his 1833 short story "The Queen of Spades" was so popular, it was adapted into operas and later, films by both Russian and foreign artists. Some parts of Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov's "A Hero of Our Time" (1840) are also considered to belong in the Gothic genre, but they lack the supernatural elements of other Russian Gothic stories.
The following poems are also now considered to belong to the Gothic genre: Meshchevskiy's "Lila", Katenin's "Olga", Pushkin's "The Bridegroom", Pletnev's "The Gravedigger" and Lermontov's "Demon" (1829–1839).
The key author of the transition from romanticism to realism, Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol, who was also one of the most important authors of romanticism, produced a number of works which qualify as Gothic fiction. Each of his three short-story collections feature a number of stories that fall within the Gothic genre, and many that contain Gothic elements. They include "Saint John's Eve" and "A Terrible Vengeance" from Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka (1831–1832), "The Portrait" from Arabesques (1835), and "Viy" from Mirgorod (1835). While all are well-known, the latter is probably the most famous, having inspired at least eight film adaptations (two now considered lost), one animated film, two documentaries, as well as a video game. Gogol's work differs from western European Gothic fiction as his cultural influences drew on Ukrainian folklore, Cossack lifestyle, and being a very religious man, Orthodox Christianity.
Other relevant authors of Gogol's era include Vladimir Fyodorovich Odoevsky (The Living Corpse, written 1838, published 1844, The Ghost, The Sylphide, as well as short stories), Count Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy (The Family of the Vourdalak, 1839, and The Vampire, 1841), Mikhail Zagoskin (Unexpected Guests), Józef Sękowski/Osip Senkovsky (Antar), and Yevgeny Baratynsky (The Ring).
Nineteenth-century Gothic fiction
By the Victorian era, Gothic had ceased to be the dominant genre for novels in England, partly replaced by more sedate historical fiction. However, Gothic short stories continued to be popular, published in magazines or as small chapbooks called penny dreadfuls. The most influential Gothic writer from this period was the American Edgar Allan Poe, who wrote numerous short stories and poems reinterpreting Gothic tropes. His story "The Fall of the House of Usher" (1839), for example, revisits classic Gothic tropes of aristocratic decay, death, and madness. Poe is now considered the master of the American Gothic. In England, one of the most influential penny dreadfuls is the anonymously authored Varney the Vampire (1847), which introduced the trope of vampires having sharpened teeth. Another notable English author of penny dreadfuls is George W. M. Reynolds, known for The Mysteries of London (1844), Faust (1846), Wagner the Wehr-wolf (1847) and The Necromancer (1857). Elizabeth Gaskell's tales "The Doom of the Griffiths" (1858), "Lois the Witch", and "The Grey Woman" all employ one of the commonest themes of Gothic fiction: the power of ancestral sins to curse future generations, or the fear that they will. In Spain, Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer stood out with his romantic poems and short tales, some of them depicting supernatural events. Today he is considered by some as the most read writer in Spanish after Miguel de Cervantes.
In addition to these short Gothic fictions were some novels which drew on the Gothic. Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights (1847) transports the Gothic to the forbidding Yorkshire Moors and features ghostly apparitions and a Byronic hero in the person of the demonic Heathcliff. The Brontës' fictions were cited by feminist critic Ellen Moers as prime examples of Female Gothic, exploring woman's entrapment within domestic space and subjection to patriarchal authority and the transgressive and dangerous attempts to subvert and escape such restriction. Emily's Cathy and Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre are examples of female protagonists in such roles. Louisa May Alcott's Gothic potboiler, A Long Fatal Love Chase (written in 1866, but published in 1995) is also an interesting specimen of this subgenre. In addition to Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë's Villette also shows the influence of the Gothic tradition. Like other examples of the female Gothic, this book employs the explained supernatural. Throughout the book, a ghostly nun haunts the protagonist, Lucy Snowe. Lucy’s friend, a doctor, suggests that the nun is a product of her imagination, but the end of the book reveals that the nun was in fact a disguised suitor coming to visit Ginevra, a friend of Lucy’s. Another Gothic feature of Villette is an anti-Catholic bias. Like other gothic novels, such as Radcliffe’s The Italian, it is set in a Catholic country. The main character and narrator, Lucy, consistently says negative things about Catholicism in general and about specific Catholic people. As an English Protestant, Lucy is very out of place in her Catholic setting.
The genre was also a heavy influence on mainstream writers such as Charles Dickens, who read Gothic novels as a teenager and incorporated their gloomy atmosphere and melodrama into his own works, shifting them to a more modern period and an urban setting, for example in Oliver Twist (1837–1838), Bleak House (1854) and Great Expectations (1860–1861). These juxtapose wealthy, ordered and affluent civilisation with the disorder and barbarity of the poor in the same metropolis. Bleak House in particular is credited with seeing the introduction of urban fog to the novel, which would become a frequent characteristic of urban Gothic literature and film (Mighall 2007). Miss Havisham from Great Expectations, a bitter recluse who shuts herself away in her gloomy mansion since being jilted at the altar on her wedding day, is one of Dickens’ most Gothic characters. His most explicitly Gothic work is his last novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, which he did not live to complete and was published unfinished upon his death in 1870. The mood and themes of the Gothic novel held a particular fascination for the Victorians, with their obsession with mourning rituals, mementos, and mortality in general.
Irish Catholics also wrote Gothic fiction in the 19th century. Although some Anglo-Irish will dominate and define the sub-genre decades later, they did not own it. Irish Catholic Gothic writers included Gerald Griffin, James Clarence Mangan, and John and Michael Banim. William Carleton was a notable Gothic writer, but he converted from Catholicism to Anglicanism during his life.
In the German language, Jeremias Gotthelf wrote The Black Spider (1842), an allegorical work that uses Gothic themes. The last work from the German writer Theodor Storm, The Rider on the White Horse (1888), also uses Gothic motives and themes.
After Gogol, Russian literature saw the rise of realism, but many authors continued to write stories within Gothic fiction territory. Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev, one of the most celebrated realists, wrote Faust (1856), Phantoms (1864), Song of the Triumphant Love (1881) and Clara Milich (1883). Another classic Russian realist, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky, incorporated Gothic elements into many of his works, although none can be seen as purely Gothic. Grigory Petrovich Danilevsky, who wrote historical and early science fiction novels and stories, wrote Mertvec-ubiytsa (Dead Murderer) in 1879. Also, Grigori Alexandrovich Machtet wrote the story "Zaklyatiy kazak", which may now also be considered Gothic.
The 1880s saw the revival of the Gothic as a powerful literary form allied to fin de siecle, which fictionalized contemporary fears like ethical degeneration and questioned the social structures of the time. Classic works of this Urban Gothic include Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), George du Maurier's Trilby (1894), Richard Marsh's The Beetle (1897), Henry James' The Turn of the Screw (1898), and the stories of Arthur Machen.
In Ireland, Gothic fiction tended to be purveyed by the Anglo-Irish Protestant Ascendancy. According to literary critic Terry Eagleton, Charles Maturin, Sheridan Le Fanu, and Bram Stoker form the core of the Irish Gothic sub-genre with stories featuring castles set in a barren landscape and a cast of remote aristocrats dominating an atavistic peasantry, which represent in allegorical form the political plight of Catholic Ireland subjected to the Protestant Ascendancy. Le Fanu's use of the gloomy villain, forbidding mansion and persecuted heroine in Uncle Silas (1864) shows direct influence from both Walpole's Otranto and Radcliffe's Udolpho. Le Fanu's short story collection In a Glass Darkly (1872) includes the superlative vampire tale Carmilla, which provided fresh blood for that particular strand of the Gothic and influenced Bram Stoker's vampire novel Dracula (1897). Stoker's book not only created the most famous Gothic villain ever, Count Dracula, but also established Transylvania and Eastern Europe as the locus classicus of the Gothic. Published in the same year as Dracula, Florence Marryat's The Blood of the Vampire is another piece of vampire fiction. The Blood of the Vampire, which, like Carmilla, features a female vampire, is notable for its treatment of vampirism as both racial and medicalised. The vampire, Harriet Brandt, is also a psychic vampire, killing unintentionally.
In the United States, two notable late 19th-century writers in the Gothic tradition were Ambrose Bierce and Robert W. Chambers. Bierce's short stories were in the horrific and pessimistic tradition of Poe. Chambers indulged in the decadent style of Wilde and Machen, even to the extent of including a character named Wilde in his The King in Yellow (1895). Some works of the Canadian writer Gilbert Parker also fall into the genre, including the stories in The Lane that Had No Turning (1900).
The serialized novel The Phantom of the Opera (1909–1910) by the French writer Gaston Leroux is another well-known example of Gothic fiction from the early 20th century, when many German authors were writing works influenced by Schauerroman, including Hanns Heinz Ewers.
Russian Gothic
Russian Gothic was not, until the 1990s, viewed as a genre or label by Russian critics. If used, the word "gothic" was used to describe (mostly early) works of Fyodor Dostoyevsky from the 1880s. Most critics simply used tags such as "Romanticism" and "fantastique", such as in the 1984 story collection translated into English as Russian 19th-Century Gothic Tales , but originally titled Фантастический мир русской романтической повести, literally, "The Fantastic World of Russian Romanticism Short Story/Novella". However, since the mid-1980s, Russian gothic fiction as a genre began to be discussed in books such as The Gothic-Fantastic in Nineteenth-Century Russian Literature, European Gothic: A Spirited Exchange 1760–1960, The Russian Gothic novel and its British antecedents and Goticheskiy roman v Rossii (The Gothic Novel in Russia).
The first Russian author whose work has been described as gothic fiction is considered to be Nikolay Mikhailovich Karamzin. While many of his works feature gothic elements, the first considered to belong purely under the gothic fiction label is Ostrov Borngolm (Island of Bornholm) from 1793. Nearly ten years later, Nikolay Ivanovich Gnedich followed suit with his 1803 novel Don Corrado de Gerrera, set in Spain in the reign of Philip II. The term "Gothic" is sometimes also used to describe the ballads of Russian authors such as Vasily Andreyevich Zhukovsky, particularly "Ludmila" (1808) and "Svetlana" (1813).
During the last years of Imperial Russia in the early 20th century, many authors continued to write in the Gothic fiction genre. They include the historian and historical fiction writer Alexander Valentinovich Amfiteatrov, Leonid Nikolaievich Andreyev, who developed psychological characterization, the symbolist Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov, Alexander Grin, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov; and Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin. Nobel Prize winner Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin wrote Dry Valley (1912), which is seen as influenced by Gothic literature. In a monograph on the subject, Muireann Maguire writes, "The centrality of the Gothic-fantastic to Russian fiction is almost impossible to exaggerate, and certainly exceptional in the context of world literature."
Twentienth-century Gothic fiction
Gothic fiction and Modernism influenced each other. This is often evident in detective fiction, horror fiction and science fiction, but the influence of the Gothic can also be seen in the high literary modernism of the 20th century. Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) initiated a re-working of older literary forms and myths that becomes common in the work of Yeats, Eliot, and Joyce, among others. In Joyce's Ulysses (1922), the living are transformed into ghosts, which points to an Ireland in stasis at the time, but also a history of cyclical trauma from the Great Famine in the 1840s through to the current moment in the text. The way Ulysses uses tropes of the Gothic such as ghosts and hauntings while removing the literally supernatural elements of 19th-century Gothic fiction is indicative of a general form of modernist Gothic writing in the first half of the 20th century.
In America, pulp magazines such as Weird Tales reprinted classic Gothic horror tales from the previous century, by such authors as Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Edward Bulwer-Lytton, and printed new stories by modern authors featuring both traditional and new horrors. The most significant of these was H. P. Lovecraft who also wrote a conspectus of the Gothic and supernatural horror tradition in his Supernatural Horror in Literature (1936), as well as developing a Mythos that would influence Gothic and contemporary horror well into the 21st century. Lovecraft's protégé, Robert Bloch, contributed to Weird Tales and penned Psycho (1959), which drew on the classic interests of the genre. From these, the Gothic genre per se gave way to modern horror fiction, regarded by some literary critics as a branch of the Gothic although others use the term to cover the entire genre.
The Romantic strand of Gothic was taken up in Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca (1938), which is seen by some to have been influenced by Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. Other books by Du Maurier such as Jamaica Inn (1936) also display Gothic tendencies. Du Maurier's work inspired a substantial body of "female Gothics", concerning heroines alternately swooning over or being terrified by scowling Byronic men in possession of acres of prime real estate and the appertaining droit du seigneur.
Southern Gothic
The genre also influenced American writing, creating a Southern Gothic genre that combines some Gothic sensibilities such as the grotesque with the setting and style of the Southern United States. Examples include Erskine Caldwell, William Faulkner, Carson McCullers, John Kennedy Toole, Manly Wade Wellman, Eudora Welty, Rhodi Hawk, Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, Flannery O'Connor, Davis Grubb, Anne Rice, Harper Lee and Cormac McCarthy.
New Gothic romances
Such Gothic romances became popular in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s with authors such as Phyllis A. Whitney, Joan Aiken, Dorothy Eden, Victoria Holt, Barbara Michaels, Mary Stewart and Jill Tattersall. Many featured covers showing a terror-stricken woman in diaphanous attire in front of a gloomy castle, often with a single lit window. Many were published under the Paperback Library Gothic imprint and marketed to female readers. While the authors were mostly women, some men wrote Gothic romances under female pseudonyms: the prolific Clarissa Ross and Marilyn Ross were pseudonyms of the male Dan Ross; Frank Belknap Long published Gothics under his wife's name, Lyda Belknap Long; the British writer Peter O'Donnell wrote under the pseudonym Madeleine Brent. Apart from imprints like Love Spell, discontinued in 2010, very few books seem to embrace the term these days.
Contemporary Gothic
Gothic fiction continues to be extensively practised by contemporary authors.
Many modern writers of horror (or other types of fiction) exhibit considerable Gothic sensibilities – examples include Anne Rice, Stella Coulson, Susan Hill, Poppy Z. Brite and Neil Gaiman, and in some works Stephen King. Thomas M. Disch's novel The Priest (1994) was subtitled A Gothic Romance, and partly modelled on Matthew Lewis' The Monk. Many writers such as Poppy Z. Brite, Stephen King and particularly Clive Barker have focused on the surface of the body and the visuality of blood. England's Rhiannon Ward is among recent writers of Gothic fiction.
Contemporary American writers in the tradition include Joyce Carol Oates in such novels as Bellefleur and A Bloodsmoor Romance and short story collections such as Night-Side (Skarda 1986b), and Raymond Kennedy in his novel Lulu Incognito.
A number of Gothic traditions have also developed in New Zealand (with the sub-genre referred to as New Zealand Gothic or Maori Gothic) and Australia (being referred to as Australian Gothic). These explore everything from the multicultural natures of the two countries to their natural geography. Novels in the Australian Gothic tradition include Kate Grenville's The Secret River and the works of Kim Scott. An even smaller genre is Tasmanian Gothic, set exclusively on the island, with prominent examples including Gould's Book of Fish by Richard Flanagan and The Roving Party by Rohan Wilson.
Southern Ontario Gothic applies a similar sensibility to a Canadian cultural context. Robertson Davies, Alice Munro, Barbara Gowdy, Timothy Findley and Margaret Atwood have all produced notable exemplars of this form. Another writer in the tradition was Henry Farrell, best known for his 1960 Hollywood horror novel What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? Farrell's novels spawned a subgenre of "Grande Dame Guignol" in the cinema, represented by such films as the 1962 film based on Farrell's novel, which starred Bette Davis versus Joan Crawford; this sub-genre of films was dubbed the "psycho-biddy" genre.
The many Gothic sub-genres include a new "environmental Gothic" or "ecoGothic".
It is an ecologically aware Gothic engaged in "dark nature" and "ecophobia."
Writers and critics of the ecoGothic suggest that the Gothic is uniquely positioned to speak to anxieties about climate change and the planet's ecological future.
Among the bestselling books of the 21st century, Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, is now increasingly identified as a Gothic novel, as is Carlos Ruiz Zafón's 2001 novel The Shadow of the Wind.
Other media
The themes of the literary Gothic have been translated into other media.
There was a notable revival in 20th-century Gothic horror films such the classic Universal monsters films of the 1930s, Hammer Horror films, and Roger Corman's Poe cycle.
In Hindi cinema, the Gothic tradition was combined with aspects of Indian culture, particularly reincarnation, to give an "Indian Gothic" genre, beginning with the films Mahal (1949) and Madhumati (1958).
The 1960s Gothic television series Dark Shadows borrowed liberally from the Gothic tradition, featuring elements such as haunted mansions, vampires, witches, doomed romances, werewolves, obsession and madness.
The early 1970s saw a Gothic Romance comic book mini-trend with such titles as DC Comics' The Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love and The Sinister House of Secret Love, Charlton Comics' Haunted Love, Curtis Magazines' Gothic Tales of Love, and Atlas/Seaboard Comics' one-shot magazine Gothic Romances.
Twentieth-century rock music also had its Gothic side. Black Sabbath's 1970 debut album created a dark sound different from other bands at the time and has been called the first ever "Goth-rock" record. Themes from Gothic writers such as H. P. Lovecraft were also used among Gothic rock and heavy metal bands, especially in black metal, thrash metal (Metallica's The Call of Ktulu), death metal, and gothic metal. For example, heavy metal musician King Diamond delights in telling stories full of horror, theatricality, Satanism and anti-Catholicism in his compositions.
In role-playing games (RPG), the pioneering 1983 Dungeons & Dragons adventure Ravenloft instructs the players to defeat the vampire Strahd von Zarovich, who pines for his dead lover. It has been acclaimed as one of the best role-playing adventures of all time and even inspired an entire fictional world of the same name. "World of Darkness" is another RPG set in the real world, with the added element of a multitude of supernatural creatures such as the Werewolf, Vampire and others. It contains sub-games, allowing you to play as a human or as one of the inhuman creatures in the setting. My Life with Master, meanwhile, uses Gothic horror conventions as a metaphor for abusive relationships, placing the players in the shoes of minions of a tyrannical, larger-than-life Master.
Various video games feature Gothic horror themes and plots. For example, the Castlevania series typically involves a hero of the Belmont lineage exploring a dark, old castle, fighting vampires, werewolves, Frankenstein's monster, and other Gothic monster staples, culminating in a battle against Dracula himself. Others, such as Ghosts'n Goblins feature a camper parody of Gothic fiction. In 2017 Resident Evil 7: Biohazard involves an action hero and his wife trapped in a creepy plantation and mansion owned by a family with sinister and hideous secrets, solving puzzles, fighting enemies, and a terrifying visions of a ghostly mutant in the shape of a little girl, followed by 2021's Resident Evil Village, its sequel with another dark fantasy style focusing on a village under the control of a bizarre Satanic cult, werewolves and vampires and shapeshifters, also solving puzzles and passing on secret passages, and a mysterious dollhouse where a dollmaker uses her powers through controlling dolls.
Popular tabletop card game Magic the Gathering, known within its storyline for its parallel universe consisting of "planes", features one plane known as Innistrad. The general aesthetic of said plane appears to be based on northeast European Gothic horror. Cultists, ghosts, vampires, werewolves, and zombies are common denizens of Innistrad.
Modern Gothic horror films include Sleepy Hollow, Interview with the Vampire, Underworld, The Wolfman, From Hell, Dorian Gray, Let The Right One In, The Woman in Black, and Crimson Peak.
The TV series Penny Dreadful (2014–2016) brings many classic Gothic characters together in a psychological thriller set in the dark corners of Victorian London.
The Oscar-winning Korean film Parasite has been called Gothic as well – specifically, Revolutionary Gothic.
Recently, the Netflix original, The Haunting of Hill House and its successor The Haunting of Bly Manor have integrated classic Gothic conventions into modern psychological horror.
Scholarship
Educators in literary, cultural, and architectural studies appreciate the Gothic as an area that facilitates investigation of the beginnings of scientific certainty. As Carol Senf has stated, "the Gothic was... a counterbalance produced by writers and thinkers who felt limited by such a confident worldview and recognized that the power of the past, the irrational, and the violent continue to hold sway in the world." As such, the Gothic helps students better understand their own doubts about the self-assurance of today's scientists. Scotland is the location of what was probably the world's first postgraduate program to consider the genre exclusively: the MLitt in the Gothic Imagination at the University of Stirling, first recruited in 1996.
See also
French Revolution and the English Gothic Novel
Gothic film
Irish Gothic literature
List of gothic fiction works
Weird fiction
Notes
References
Baldick, Chris (1993), Introduction, in The Oxford Book of Gothic Tales, Oxford: Oxford University Press
Birkhead, Edith (1921), The Tale of Terror
Bloom, Clive (2007), Gothic Horror: A Guide for Students and Readers, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
Botting, Fred (1996), Gothic, London: Routledge
Brown, Marshall (2005), The Gothic Text, Stanford, CA: Stanford UP
Butuzov, A.E. (2008), Russkaya goticheskaya povest XIX Veka
Charnes, Linda (2010), Shakespeare and the Gothic Strain, Vol. 38, pp. 185
Clery, E.J. (1995), The Rise of Supernatural Fiction, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cornwell, Neil (1999), The Gothic-Fantastic in Nineteenth-Century Russian Literature, Amsterdam: Atlanta, GA: Rodopi, Studies in Slavic Literature and Poetics, volume 33
Cook, Judith (1980), Women in Shakespeare, London: Harrap & Co. Ltd
Cusack A., Barry M. (2012), Popular Revenants: The German Gothic and Its International Reception, 1800–2000, Camden House
Davenport-Hines, Richard (1998), Gothic: 400 Years of Excess, Horror, Evil and Ruin, London: Fourth Estate
Davison, Carol Margaret (2009), Gothic Literature 1764–1824, Cardiff: University of Wales Press
Drakakis, John & Dale Townshend (2008), Gothic Shakespeares, New York: Routledge
Eagleton, Terry (1995), Heathcliff and the Great Hunger, New York: Verso
Fuchs, Barbara (2004), Romance, London: Routledge
Gamer, Michael (2006), Romanticism and the Gothic. Genre, Reception and Canon Formation, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Gibbons, Luke (2004), Gaelic Gothic, Galway: Arlen House
Gilbert, Sandra and Susan Gubar (1979), The Madwoman in the Attic.
Goulart, Ron (1986), "The Pulps" in Jack Sullivan, ed., The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural: 337-40
Grigorescu, George (2007), Long Journey Inside The Flesh, Bucharest, Romania
Hadji, Robert (1986), "Jean Ray" in Jack Sullivan, ed., The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural
Haggerty, George (2006), Queer Gothic, Urbana, IL: Illinois UP
Halberstam, Jack (1995), Skin Shows, Durham, NC: Duke UP
Hogle, J.E. (2002), The Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction, Cambridge University Press
Horner, Avril & Sue Zlosnik (2005), Gothic and the Comic Turn, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
Horner, Avril (2002), European Gothic: A Spirited Exchange 1760–1960, Manchester & New York: Manchester University Press
Hughes, William, Historical Dictionary of Gothic Literature, Scarecrow Press, 2012
Jackson, Rosemary (1981), Fantasy: The Literature of Subversion
Kilgour, Maggie (1995), The Rise of the Gothic Novel, London: Routledge
Jürgen Klein (1975), Der Gotische Roman und die Ästhetik des Bösen, Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft
Jürgen Klein, Gunda Kuttler (2011), Mathematik des Begehrens, Hamburg: Shoebox House Verlag
Korovin, Valentin I. (1988), Fantasticheskii mir russkoi romanticheskoi povesti
Medina, Antoinette (2007), A Vampires Vedas
Mighall, Robert (2003), A Geography of Victorian Gothic Fiction: Mapping History's Nightmares, Oxford: Oxford University Press
Mighall, Robert (2007), "Gothic Cities", in C. Spooner and E. McEvoy, eds, The Routledge Companion to Gothic, London: Routledge, pp. 54–72
O'Connell, Lisa (2010), The Theo-political Origins of the English Marriage Plot, Novel: A Forum on Fiction, Vol. 43, Issue 1, pp. 31–37
Peterson, Dale (1987), The Slavic and East European Journal, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Spring, 1987), pp. 36–49
Punter, David (1996), The Literature of Terror, London: Longman (2 volumes)
Punter, David (2004), The Gothic, London: Wiley-Blackwell
Sabor, Peter & Paul Yachnin (2008), Shakespeare and the Eighteenth Century, Ashgate Publishing Ltd
Salter, David (2009), This demon in the garb of a monk: Shakespeare, the Gothic and the discourse of anti-Catholicism, Vol. 5, Issue 1, pp. 52–67
Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky (1986), The Coherence of Gothic Conventions, NY: Methuen
Shakespeare, William (1997), The Riverside Shakespeare: Second Edition, Boston, NY: Houghton Mifflin Co.
Simpson, Mark S. (1986), The Russian Gothic Novel and its British Antecedents, Slavica Publishers
Skarda, Patricia L., and Jaffe, Norma Crow (1981), Evil Image: Two Centuries of Gothic Short Fiction and Poetry. New York: Meridian
Skarda, Patricia (1986), "Gothic Parodies" in Jack Sullivan ed. (1986), The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural: 178-9
Skarda, Patricia (1986b), "Oates, Joyce Carol" in Jack Sullivan ed. (1986), The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural: 303-4
Stevens, David (2000), The Gothic Tradition,
Sullivan, Jack, ed. (1986), The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural
Summers, Montague (1938), The Gothic Quest
Townshend, Dale (2007), The Orders of Gothic
Varma, Devendra (1957), The Gothic Flame
Varma, Devendra (1986), "Maturin, Charles Robert" in Jack Sullivan, ed., The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural: 285-286
Wisker, Gina (2005), Horror Fiction: An Introduction, Continuum: New York
Wright, Angela (2007), Gothic Fiction, Basingstoke: Palgrave
External links
Gothic Fiction at the British Library
Key motifs in Gothic Fiction – a British Library film
Gothic Fiction Bookshelf at Project Gutenberg
Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies
Gothic author biographies
The Gothic Imagination
"Gothic", In Our Time, BBC Radio 4 discussion with Chris Baldick, A.N. Wilson and Emma Clery (Jan. 4, 2001)
1760s neologisms
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12627 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel | Gospel | Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words and deeds of Jesus, culminating in his trial and death and concluding with various reports of his post-resurrection appearances. Modern scholars are cautious of relying on the gospels uncritically, but nevertheless, they do provide a good idea of the public career of Jesus, and critical study can attempt to distinguish the original ideas of Jesus from those of the later authors.
The four canonical gospels were probably written between AD 66 and 110. All four were anonymous (the modern names were added in the 2nd century), almost certainly none were by eyewitnesses, and all are the end-products of long oral and written transmission. Mark was the first to be written, using a variety of sources; the authors of Matthew and Luke, acting independently, used Mark for their narrative of Jesus's career, supplementing it with the collection of sayings called the Q document and additional material unique to each; and there is a near-consensus that John had its origins as a "signs" source (or gospel) that circulated within a Johannine community. The contradictions and discrepancies between the first three and John make it impossible to accept both traditions as equally reliable.
Many non-canonical gospels were also written, all later than the four canonical gospels, and like them advocating the particular theological views of their various authors. Important examples include the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Peter, the Gospel of Judas, the Gospel of Mary, infancy gospels such as the Gospel of James (the first to introduce the perpetual virginity of Mary), and gospel harmonies such as the Diatessaron.
Etymology
Gospel is the Old English translation of Greek , meaning "good news"; this may be seen from analysis of ( "good" + "messenger" + diminutive suffix). The Greek term was Latinized as in the Vulgate, and translated into Latin as . In Old English, it was translated as ( "good" + "news"). The Old English term was retained as in Middle English Bible translations and hence remains in use also in Modern English.
Canonical gospels
Contents
The four canonical gospels are the gospel of Matthew, the gospel of Mark, the gospel of Luke and the gospel of John. They share the same basic outline of the life of Jesus: he begins his public ministry in conjunction with that of John the Baptist, calls disciples, teaches and heals and confronts the Pharisees, dies on the cross, and is raised from the dead.
Each has its own distinctive understanding of him and his divine role and scholars recognize that the differences of detail between the gospels are irreconcilable, and any attempt to harmonize them would only disrupt their distinct theological messages.
Mark never calls him "God" or claims that he existed prior to his earthly life, apparently believes that he had a normal human parentage and birth, makes no attempt to trace his ancestry back to King David or Adam, and originally had no post-resurrection appearances, although Mark 16:7, in which the young man discovered in the tomb instructs the women to tell "the disciples and Peter" that Jesus will see them again in Galilee, hints that the author knew of the tradition.
Matthew and Luke base their narratives of the life of Jesus on that in Mark, but each makes subtle changes, Matthew stressing Jesus's divine nature – for example, the "young man" who appears at Jesus' tomb in Mark becomes a radiant angel in Matthew. Similarly, the miracle stories in Mark confirm Jesus' status as an emissary of God (which was Mark's understanding of the Messiah), but in Matthew they demonstrate divinity.
Luke, while following Mark's plot more faithfully than does Matthew, has expanded on the source, corrected Mark's grammar and syntax, and eliminated some passages entirely, notably most of chapters 6 and 7. John, the most overtly theological, is the first to make Christological judgements outside the context of the narrative of Jesus's life.
Matthew, Mark and Luke are termed the synoptic gospels because they present very similar accounts of the life of Jesus while John presents a significantly different picture of Jesus's career, omitting any mention of his ancestry, birth and childhood, his baptism, temptation and transfiguration. John's chronology and arrangement of incidents is also distinctly different, clearly describing the passage of three years in Jesus's ministry in contrast to the single year of the synoptics, placing the cleansing of the Temple at the beginning rather than at the end, and the Last Supper on the day before Passover instead of being a Passover meal. The Gospel of John is the only gospel to call Jesus God. In contrast to Mark, where Jesus hides his identity as messiah, in John he openly proclaims it.
Composition
Like the rest of the New Testament, the four gospels were written in Greek. The Gospel of Mark probably dates from c. AD 66–70, Matthew and Luke around AD 85–90, and John AD 90–110. Despite the traditional ascriptions, all four are anonymous and most scholars agree that none were written by eyewitnesses. A few conservative scholars defend the traditional ascriptions or attributions, but for a variety of reasons the majority of scholars have abandoned this view or hold it only tenuously.
In the immediate aftermath of Jesus' death his followers expected him to return at any moment, certainly within their own lifetimes, and in consequence there was little motivation to write anything down for future generations, but as eyewitnesses began to die, and as the missionary needs of the church grew, there was an increasing demand and need for written versions of the founder's life and teachings. The stages of this process can be summarised as follows:
Oral traditions – stories and sayings passed on largely as separate self-contained units, not in any order;
Written collections of miracle stories, parables, sayings, etc., with oral tradition continuing alongside these;
Written proto-gospels preceding and serving as sources for the gospels – the dedicatory preface of Luke, for example, testifies to the existence of previous accounts of the life of Jesus.
Gospels formed by combining proto-gospels, written collections and still-current oral tradition.
Mark is generally agreed to be the first gospel; it uses a variety of sources, including conflict stories (Mark 2:1–3:6), apocalyptic discourse (4:1–35), and collections of sayings, although not the sayings gospel known as the Gospel of Thomas and probably not the Q source used by Matthew and Luke. The authors of Matthew and Luke, acting independently, used Mark for their narrative of Jesus's career, supplementing it with the collection of sayings called the Q document and additional material unique to each called the M source (Matthew) and the L source (Luke). Mark, Matthew and Luke are called the synoptic gospels because of the close similarities between them in terms of content, arrangement, and language. The authors and editors of John may have known the synoptics, but did not use them in the way that Matthew and Luke used Mark. There is a near-consensus that this gospel had its origins as a "signs" source (or gospel) that circulated within the Johannine community (the community that produced John and the three epistles associated with the name), later expanded with a Passion narrative and a series of discourses.
All four also use the Jewish scriptures, by quoting or referencing passages, or by interpreting texts, or by alluding to or echoing biblical themes. Such use can be extensive: Mark's description of the Parousia (second coming) is made up almost entirely of quotations from scripture. Matthew is full of quotations and allusions, and although John uses scripture in a far less explicit manner, its influence is still pervasive. Their source was the Greek version of the scriptures, called the Septuagint – they do not seem familiar with the original Hebrew.
Genre and historical reliability
The consensus among modern scholars is that the gospels are a subset of the ancient genre of bios, or ancient biography. Ancient biographies were concerned with providing examples for readers to emulate while preserving and promoting the subject's reputation and memory; the gospels were never simply biographical, they were propaganda and kerygma (preaching). As such, they present the Christian message of the second half of the first century AD, and as Luke's attempt to link the birth of Jesus to the census of Quirinius demonstrates, there is no guarantee that the gospels are historically accurate.
The majority view among critical scholars is that the authors of Matthew and Luke have based their narratives on Mark's gospel, editing him to suit their own ends, and the contradictions and discrepancies between these three and John make it impossible to accept both traditions as equally reliable. In addition, the gospels we read today have been edited and corrupted over time, leading Origen to complain in the 3rd century that "the differences among manuscripts have become great, ... [because copyists] either neglect to check over what they have transcribed, or, in the process of checking, they make additions or deletions as they please". Most of these are insignificant, but many are significant, an example being Matthew 1:18, altered to imply the pre-existence of Jesus. For these reasons modern scholars are cautious of relying on the gospels uncritically, but nevertheless they do provide a good idea of the public career of Jesus, and critical study can attempt to distinguish the original ideas of Jesus from those of the later authors.
Scholars usually agree that John is not without historical value: certain of its sayings are as old or older than their synoptic counterparts, its representation of the topography around Jerusalem is often superior to that of the synoptics, its testimony that Jesus was executed before, rather than on, Passover, might well be more accurate, and its presentation of Jesus in the garden and the prior meeting held by the Jewish authorities are possibly more historically plausible than their synoptic parallels. Nevertheless, it is highly unlikely that the author had direct knowledge of events, or that his mentions of the Beloved Disciple as his source should be taken as a guarantee of his reliability.
Textual history and canonisation
The oldest gospel text known is , a fragment of John dating from the first half of the 2nd century. The creation of a Christian canon was probably a response to the career of the heretic Marcion (c. 85–160), who established a canon of his own with just one gospel, the gospel of Luke, which he edited to fit his own theology. The Muratorian canon, the earliest surviving list of books considered (by its own author at least) to form Christian scripture, included Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Irenaeus of Lyons went further, stating that there must be four gospels and only four because there were four corners of the Earth and thus the Church should have four pillars.
Non-canonical (apocryphal) gospels
The many apocryphal gospels arose from the 1st century onward, frequently under assumed names to enhance their credibility and authority, and often from within branches of Christianity that were eventually branded heretical. They can be broadly organised into the following categories:
Infancy gospels: arose in the 2nd century, include the Gospel of James, also called the Protoevangelium, which was the first to introduce the concept of the Perpetual Virginity of Mary, and the Infancy Gospel of Thomas (not to be confused with the unrelated Coptic Gospel of Thomas), both of which related many miraculous incidents from the life of Mary and the childhood of Jesus that are not included in the canonical gospels.
Ministry gospels
Sayings gospels and agrapha
Passion, resurrection and post-resurrection gospels
Gospel harmonies: in which the four canonical gospels are combined into a single narrative, either to present a consistent text or to produce a more accessible account of Jesus' life.
The apocryphal gospels can also be seen in terms of the communities which produced them:
The Jewish-Christian gospels are the products of Christians of Jewish origin who had not given up their Jewish identity: they regarded Jesus as the messiah of the Jewish scripture, but did not agree that he was God, an idea which, although central to Christianity as it eventually developed, is contrary to Jewish beliefs.
Gnostic gospels uphold the idea that the universe is the product of a hierarchy of gods, of whom the Jewish god is a rather low-ranking member. Gnosticism holds that Jesus was entirely "spirit", and that his earthly life and death were therefore only an appearance, not a reality. Many Gnostic texts deal not in concepts of sin and repentance, but with illusion and enlightenment.
See also
Agrapha
Apocalyptic literature
The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ
Authorship of the Bible
Bodmer Papyri
Dating the Bible
Fifth gospel (genre)
The gospel
Gospel (liturgy)
Gospel harmony
Gospel in Islam
Gospel of Marcion
Jesusism
Jewish-Christian gospels
Notes
References
Citations
Bibliography
External links
A detailed discussion of the textual variants in the gospels – covering about 1200 variants on 2000 pages.
Greek New Testament – the Greek text of the New Testament: specifically the Westcott-Hort text from 1881, combined with the NA26/27 variants.
Synoptic Parallels A web tool for finding corresponding passages in the Gospels
Christian genres
Christian terminology
Greek-language books | [
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12628 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIMP | GIMP | GIMP ( ; GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a free and open-source raster graphics editor used for image manipulation (retouching) and image editing, free-form drawing, transcoding between different image file formats, and more specialized tasks. It is not designed to be used for drawing.
GIMP is released under GPL-3.0-or-later license and is available for Linux, macOS, and Microsoft Windows.
History
In 1995, Spencer Kimball and Peter Mattis began developing GIMP – originally named General Image Manipulation Program – as a semester-long project at the University of California, Berkeley for the eXperimental Computing Facility. The acronym was coined first, with the letter G being added to -IMP as a reference to "the gimp" in the scene from the 1994 Pulp Fiction film.
In 1996 was the initial public release of GIMP (0.54). The editor was quickly adopted and a community of contributors formed. The community began developing tutorials, artwork and shared better work-flows and techniques.
In the following year, Kimball and Mattis met with Richard Stallman of the GNU Project while he visited UC Berkeley and asked if they could change General in the application's name to GNU (the name of the operating system created by Stallman), and Stallman approved. The application subsequently formed part of the GNU software collection.
The first release supported Unix systems, such as Linux, SGI IRIX and HP-UX. Since then, GIMP has been ported to other operating systems, including Microsoft Windows (1997, GIMP 1.1) and macOS.
A GUI toolkit called GTK (at the time known as the GIMP ToolKit) was developed to facilitate the development of GIMP. The development of the GIMP ToolKit has been attributed to Peter Mattis becoming disenchanted with the Motif toolkit GIMP originally used. Motif was used up until GIMP 0.60.
Versions
Development
GIMP is primarily developed by volunteers as a free and open source software project associated with both the GNU and GNOME projects. Development takes place in a public git source code repository, on public mailing lists and in public chat channels on the GIMPNET IRC network.
New features are held in public separate source code branches and merged into the main (or development) branch when the GIMP team is sure they won't damage existing functions. Sometimes this means that features that appear complete do not get merged or take months or years before they become available in GIMP.
GIMP itself is released as source code. After a source code release, installers and packages are made for different operating systems by parties who might not be in contact with the maintainers of GIMP.
The version number used in GIMP is expressed in a major-minor-micro format, with each number carrying a specific meaning: the first (major) number is incremented only for major developments (and is currently 2). The second (minor) number is incremented with each release of new features, with odd numbers reserved for in-progress development versions and even numbers assigned to stable releases; the third (micro) number is incremented before and after each release (resulting in even numbers for releases, and odd numbers for development snapshots) with any bug fixes subsequently applied and released for a stable version.
Previously, GIMP applied for several positions in the Google Summer of Code (GSoC). From 2006 to 2009 there have been nine GSoC projects that have been listed as successful, although not all successful projects have been merged into GIMP immediately. The healing brush and perspective clone tools and Ruby bindings were created as part of the 2006 GSoC and can be used in version 2.8.0 of GIMP, although there were three other projects that were completed and are later available in a stable version of GIMP; those projects being Vector Layers (end 2008 in 2.8 and master), and a JPEG 2000 plug-in (mid 2009 in 2.8 and master).
Several of the GSoC projects were completed in 2008, but have been merged into a stable GIMP release later in 2009 to 2014 for Version 2.8.xx and 2.10.x. Some of them needed some more code work for the master tree.
Second public Development 2.9-Version was 2.9.4 with many deep improvements after initial Public Version 2.9.2. Third Public 2.9-Development version is Version 2.9.6. One of the new features is removing the 4 GB size limit of XCF file.
Increase of possible threads to 64 is also an important point for modern parallel execution in actual AMD Ryzen and Intel Xeon processors. Version 2.9.8 included many bug fixes and improvements in gradients and clips. Improvements in performance and optimization beyond bug hunting were the development targets for 2.10.0. MacOS Beta is available with Version 2.10.4.
The next stable version in the roadmap is 3.0 with a GTK3 port. 2.99-Series is the development Series to 3.0.
GIMP developers meet during the annual Libre Graphics Meeting. Interaction designers from OpenUsability have also contributed to GIMP.
Distribution
The current version of GIMP works with numerous operating systems, including Linux, macOS and Windows. Many Linux distributions include GIMP as a part of their desktop operating systems, including Fedora Linux and Debian.
GIMP began to host its own downloads after discontinuing use of SourceForge in 2013. The website later repossessed GIMP's dormant account and hosted advertising-laden versions of GIMP for Windows.
Professional reviews
Lifewire reviewed GIMP favorably in March 2019, writing that "[f]or those who have never experienced Photoshop, GIMP is simply a very powerful image manipulation program," and "[i]f you're willing to invest some time learning it, it can be a very good graphics tool."
GIMP's fitness for use in professional environments is regularly reviewed; it is often compared to and suggested as a possible replacement for Adobe Photoshop. GIMP has similar functionality to Photoshop, but has a different user interface.
GIMP 2.6 was used to create nearly all of the art in Lucas the Game, an independent video game by developer Timothy Courtney. Courtney started development of Lucas the Game in early 2014, and the video game was published in July 2015 for PC and Mac. Courtney explains GIMP is a powerful tool, fully capable of large professional projects, such as video games.
The single-window mode introduced in GIMP 2.8 was reviewed in 2012 by Ryan Paul of Ars Technica, who noted that it made the user experience feel "more streamlined and less cluttered". Michael Burns, writing for Macworld in 2014, described the single-window interface of GIMP 2.8.10 as a "big improvement".
In his review of GIMP for ExtremeTech in October 2013, David Cardinal noted that GIMP's reputation of being hard to use and lacking features has "changed dramatically over the last couple years", and that it was "no longer a crippled alternative to Photoshop". He described GIMP's scripting as one of its strengths, but also remarked that some of Photoshop's features such as Text, 3D commands, Adjustment Layers and History are either less powerful or missing in GIMP. Cardinal favorably described the UFRaw converter for raw images used with GIMP, noting that it still "requires some patience to figure out how to use those more advanced capabilities". Cardinal stated that GIMP is "easy enough to try" despite not having as well developed documentation and help system as those for Photoshop, concluding that it "has become a worthy alternative to Photoshop for anyone on a budget who doesn't need all of Photoshop's vast feature set".
The user interface has been criticized for being "hard to use".
Features
Tools used to perform image editing can be accessed via the toolbox, through menus and dialogue windows. They include filters and brushes, as well as transformation, selection, layer and masking tools.
Color
There are several ways of selecting colors, including palettes, color choosers and using an eyedropper tool to select a colour on the canvas. The built-in color choosers include RGB/HSV/LAB/LCH selector or scales, water-color selector, CMYK selector and a color-wheel selector. Colors can also be selected using hexadecimal color codes, as used in HTML color selection. GIMP has native support for indexed colour and RGB color spaces; other color spaces are supported using decomposition, where each channel of the new color space becomes a black-and-white image. CMYK, LAB and HSV (hue, saturation, value) are supported this way. Color blending can be achieved using the Blend tool, by applying a gradient to the surface of an image and using GIMP's color modes. Gradients are also integrated into tools such as the brush tool, when the user paints this way the output color slowly changes. There are a number of default gradients included with GIMP; a user can also create custom gradients with tools provided. Gradient plug-ins are also available.
Selections and paths
GIMP selection tools include a rectangular and circular selection tool, free select tool, and fuzzy select tool (also known as magic wand). More advanced selection tools include the select by color tool for selecting contiguous regions of color—and the scissors select tool, which creates selections semi-automatically between areas of highly contrasting colors. GIMP also supports a quick mask mode where a user can use a brush to paint the area of a selection. Visibly this looks like a red colored overlay being added or removed. The foreground select tool is an implementation of Simple interactive object extraction (SIOX), a method used to perform the extraction of foreground elements, such as a person or a tree in focus. The Paths Tool allows a user to create vectors (also known as Bézier curves). Users can use paths to create complex selections, including around natural curves. They can paint (or "stroke") the paths with brushes, patterns, or various line styles. Users can name and save paths for reuse.
Image editing
There are many tools that can be used for editing images in GIMP. The more common tools include a paint brush, pencil, airbrush, eraser and ink tools used to create new or blended pixels. The Bucket Fill tool can be used to fill a selection with a color or pattern. The Blend tool can be used to fill a selection with a color gradient. These color transitions can be applied to large regions or smaller custom path selections.
GIMP also provides "smart" tools that use a more complex algorithm to do things that otherwise would be time-consuming or impossible. These include:
Clone tool, which copies pixels using a brush
Healing brush, which copies pixels from an area and corrects tone and color
Perspective clone tool, which works like the clone tool but corrects for distance changes
Blur and sharpen tool blurs and sharpens using a brush
The Smudge tool can be used to subtly smear a selection where it stands.
Dodge and burn tool is a brush that makes target pixels lighter (dodges) or darker (burns)
Layers, layer masks and channels
An image being edited in GIMP can consist of many layers in a stack. The user manual suggests that "A good way to visualize a GIMP image is as a stack of transparencies," where in GIMP terminology, each level (analogous to a transparency) is called a layer. Each layer in an image is made up of several channels. In an RGB image, there are normally 3 or 4 channels, each consisting of a red, green and blue channel. Color sublayers look like slightly different gray images, but when put together they make a complete image. The fourth channel that may be part of a layer is the alpha channel (or layer mask). This channel measures opacity where a whole or part of an image can be completely visible, partially visible or invisible. Each layer has a layer mode that can be set to change the colors in the image.
Text layers can be created using the text tool, allowing a user to write on an image. Text layers can be transformed in several ways, such as converting them to a path or selection.
Automation, scripts and plug-ins
GIMP has approximately 150 standard effects and filters, including Drop Shadow, Blur, Motion Blur and Noise.
GIMP operations can be automated with scripting languages. The Script-Fu is a Scheme-based language implemented using a TinyScheme interpreter built into GIMP. GIMP can also be scripted in Perl, Python (Python-Fu), or Tcl, using interpreters external to GIMP. New features can be added to GIMP not only by changing program code (GIMP core), but also by creating plug-ins. These are external programs that are executed and controlled by the main GIMP program. MathMap is an example of a plug-in written in C.
There is support for several methods of sharpening and blurring images, including the blur and sharpen tool. The unsharp mask tool is used to sharpen an image selectively – it sharpens only those areas of an image that are sufficiently detailed. The Unsharp Mask tool is considered to give more targeted results for photographs than a normal sharpening filter. The Selective Gaussian Blur tool works in a similar way, except it blurs areas of an image with little detail.
GIMP-ML is an extension for machine learning with 15 filters.
GEGL
The Generic Graphics Library (GEGL) was first introduced as part of GIMP on the 2.6 release of GIMP. This initial introduction does not yet exploit all of the capabilities of GEGL; as of the 2.6 release, GIMP can use GEGL to perform high bit-depth color operations; because of this less information is lost when performing color operations. When GEGL is fully integrated, GIMP will have a higher color bit depth and better non-destructive work-flow. GIMP 2.8.xx supports only 8-bit of color, which is much less than what e.g. digital cameras produce (12-bit or more). Full support for high bit depth is included with GIMP 2.10. OpenCL enables hardware acceleration for some operations.
CTX
CTX is a new rasterizer for vector functions in gimp 3.0. Some objects like lines and circles can reduced to vector object with possible later scaling with optimal quality in the raster export to png and jpeg or others.
File formats
GIMP supports importing and exporting with a large number of different file formats, GIMP's native format XCF is designed to store all information GIMP can contain about an image; XCF is named after the eXperimental Computing Facility where GIMP was authored. Import and export capability can be extended to additional file formats by means of plug-ins. XCF file size is extended to more than 4 GB since 2.9.6 and new stable tree 2.10.x.
Forks and derivatives
Because of the free and open-source nature of GIMP, several forks, variants and derivatives of the computer program have been created to fit the needs of their creators. While GIMP is cross-platform, variants of GIMP may not be. These variants are neither hosted nor linked on the GIMP site. The GIMP site does not host GIMP builds for Windows or Unix-like operating systems either, although it does include a link to a Windows build.
Forks
CinePaint: Formerly Film Gimp, it is a fork of GIMP version 1.0.4, used for frame-by-frame retouching of feature film. CinePaint supports up to 32-bit IEEE-floating point color depth per channel, as well as color management and HDR. CinePaint is used primarily within the film industry due mainly to its support of high-fidelity image formats. It is available for BSD, Linux, and macOS.
GIMP classic: A patch against GIMP v2.6.8 source code created to undo changes made to the user interface in GIMP v2.4 through v2.6. A build of GIMP classic for Ubuntu is available. As of March 2011, a new patch could be downloaded that patches against the experimental GIMP v2.7.
GIMP Portable: A portable version of GIMP for Microsoft Windows XP or later that preserves brushes and presets between computers.
GIMPshop: Derivative that aim to replicate the Adobe Photoshop in some form. Development of GIMPshop was halted in 2006 and the project disavowed by the developer, Scott Moschella, after an unrelated party registered "GIMPshop" as part of an Internet domain name and passed off the website as belonging to Moschella while accepting donations and making revenue from advertising but passing on none of the income to Moschella.
GimPhoto: GimPhoto follows the Photoshop-UI tradition of GIMPshop. More modifications are possible with the GimPad tool. GimPhoto stands at version 24.1 for Linux and Windows (based on GIMP v2.4.3) and version 26.1 on macOS (based on GIMP v2.6.8). Installers are included for Windows 7, 8.1, and 10; macOS 10.6+; Ubuntu 14 and Fedora; as well as source code. Only one developer is at work in this project, so fast updates and new versions based on Gimp 2.8.x or 2.9.x are not planned.
McGimp: An independent port for macOS that is aim to run GIMP directly on this platform, and integrated multiple plug-ins intended to optimize photos.
Seashore: easier to use image editing application for macOS.
Glimpse: A discontinued UI rewrite stemming from a group of users who consider "GIMP" to be an ableist slur.
Extensions
GIMP's functionality can be extended with plugins. Notable ones include:
GIMP-ML, which provides machine learning-based image enhancement. GIMP-ML with python 3 is next target in development.
GIMP Animation Package (GAP), official plugin for creating animations. GAP can save animations in several formats, including GIF and AVI.
Resynthesizer, which provides content-aware fill. Original part of Paul Harrison's PhD thesis, now maintained by Lloyd Konneker.
G'MIC, which adds image filters and effects.
See also
About GIMP
Libre Graphics Meeting
List of computing mascots
:Category:Computing mascots
About editing
Image editing
Comparison of raster graphics editors
List of raster graphics editors
Other
List of free and open-source software packages
References
Further reading
External links
GIMP magazine
1995 software
AmigaOS 4 software
Applications using D-Bus
Cross-platform free software
Free graphics software
Free multilingual software
Free photo software
Free raster graphics editors
Free software programmed in C
GNU Project software
Graphics software that uses GTK
IRIX software
Macintosh graphics software
MacOS graphics software
Portable software
Raster graphics editors for Linux
Raster graphics editors
Technical communication tools
Windows graphics-related software | [
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12629 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global%20illumination | Global illumination | Global illumination (GI), or indirect illumination, is a group of algorithms used in 3D computer graphics that are meant to add more realistic lighting to 3D scenes. Such algorithms take into account not only the light that comes directly from a light source (direct illumination), but also subsequent cases in which light rays from the same source are reflected by other surfaces in the scene, whether reflective or not (indirect illumination).
Theoretically, reflections, refractions, and shadows are all examples of global illumination, because when simulating them, one object affects the rendering of another (as opposed to an object being affected only by a direct source of light). In practice, however, only the simulation of diffuse inter-reflection or caustics is called global illumination.
Algorithms
Images rendered using global illumination algorithms often appear more photorealistic than those using only direct illumination algorithms. However, such images are computationally more expensive and consequently much slower to generate. One common approach is to compute the global illumination of a scene and store that information with the geometry (e.g., radiosity). The stored data can then be used to generate images from different viewpoints for generating walkthroughs of a scene without having to go through expensive lighting calculations repeatedly.
Radiosity, ray tracing, beam tracing, cone tracing, path tracing, volumetric path tracing, Metropolis light transport, ambient occlusion, photon mapping, signed distance field and image-based lighting are all examples of algorithms used in global illumination, some of which may be used together to yield results that are not fast, but accurate.
These algorithms model diffuse inter-reflection which is a very important part of global illumination; however most of these (excluding radiosity) also model specular reflection, which makes them more accurate algorithms to solve the lighting equation and provide a more realistically illuminated scene. The algorithms used to calculate the distribution of light energy between surfaces of a scene are closely related to heat transfer simulations performed using finite-element methods in engineering design.
Photorealism
Achieving accurate computation of global illumination in real-time remains difficult. In real-time 3D graphics, the diffuse inter-reflection component of global illumination is sometimes approximated by an "ambient" term in the lighting equation, which is also called "ambient lighting" or "ambient color" in 3D software packages. Though this method of approximation (also known as a "cheat" because it's not really a global illumination method) is easy to perform computationally, when used alone it does not provide an adequately realistic effect. Ambient lighting is known to "flatten" shadows in 3D scenes, making the overall visual effect more bland. However, used properly, ambient lighting can be an efficient way to make up for a lack of processing power.
Procedure
More and more specialized algorithms are used in 3D programs that can effectively simulate the global illumination. These algorithms are numerical approximations to the rendering equation. Well known algorithms for computing global illumination include path tracing, photon mapping and radiosity.
The following approaches can be distinguished here:
Inversion:
is not applied in practice
Expansion:
bi-directional approach: Photon mapping + Distributed ray tracing, Bi-directional path tracing, Metropolis light transport
Iteration:
Radiosity
In Light-path notation global lighting the paths of the type L (D | S) corresponds * E.
A full treatment can be found in
Image-based lighting
Another way to simulate real global illumination is the use of high-dynamic-range images (HDRIs), also known as environment maps, which encircle and illuminate the scene. This process is known as image-based lighting.
List of methods
See also
:Category:Global illumination software
Bias of an estimator
Bidirectional scattering distribution function
Consistent estimator
Unbiased rendering
References
External links
Video demonstrating global illumination and the ambient color effect
Real-time GI demos – survey of practical real-time GI techniques as a list of executable demos
kuleuven - This page contains the Global Illumination Compendium, an effort to bring together most of the useful formulas and equations for global illumination algorithms in computer graphics.
Theory and practical implementation of Global Illumination using Monte Carlo Path Tracing.
Global illumination algorithms | [
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12630 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geometric%20series | Geometric series | In mathematics, a geometric series is the sum of an infinite number of terms that have a constant ratio between successive terms. For example, the series
is geometric, because each successive term can be obtained by multiplying the previous term by 1/2. In general, a geometric series is written as a + ar + ar2 + ar3 + ... , where a is the coefficient of each term and r is the common ratio between adjacent terms. Geometric series are among the simplest examples of infinite series and can serve as an introduction to Taylor series and Fourier series. Geometric series had an important role in the early development of calculus, are used throughout mathematics, and have important applications in physics, engineering, biology, economics, computer science, queueing theory, and finance.
The name geometric series indicates each term is the geometric mean of its two neighboring terms, similar to how the name arithmetic series indicates each term is the arithmetic mean of its two neighboring terms. The sequence of geometric series terms (without any of the additions) is called a geometric sequence or, equivalently, a geometric progression.
Coefficient a
The geometric series a + ar + ar2 + ar3 + ... is written in expanded form. Every coefficient in the geometric series is the same. In contrast, the power series written as a0 + a1r + a2r2 + a3r3 + ... in expanded form has coefficients ai that can vary from term to term. In other words, the geometric series is a special case of the power series. The first term of a geometric series in expanded form is the coefficient a of that geometric series.
In addition to the expanded form of the geometric series, there is a generator form of the geometric series written as
ark
and a closed form of the geometric series written as
a / (1 - r) within the range |r| < 1.
The derivation of the closed form from the expanded form is shown in this article's Sum section. However even without that derivation, the result can be confirmed with long division: a divided by (1 - r) results in a + ar + ar2 + ar3 + ... , which is the expanded form of the geometric series.
It is often a convenience in notation to set the series equal to the sum s and work with the geometric series
s = a + ar + ar2 + ar3 + ar4 + ... in its normalized form
s / a = 1 + r + r2 + r3 + r4 + ... or in its normalized vector form
s / a = [1 1 1 1 1 ...][1 r r2 r3 r4 ...]T or in its normalized partial series form
sn / a = 1 + r + r2 + r3 + r4 + ... + rn, where n is the power (or degree) of the last term included in the partial sum sn.
Typically a geometric series is thought of as a sum of numbers a + ar + ar2 + ar3 + ... but can also be thought of as a sum of functions a + ar + ar2 + ar3 + ... that converges to the function a / (1 - r) within the range |r| < 1. The adjacent image shows the contribution each of the first nine terms (i.e., functions) make to the function a / (1 - r) within the range |r| < 1 when a = 1. Changing even one of the coefficients to something other than coefficient a would (in addition to changing the geometric series to a power series) change the resulting sum of functions to some function other than a / (1 - r) within the range |r| < 1. As an aside, a particularly useful change to the coefficients is defined by the Taylor series, which describes how to change the coefficients so that the sum of functions converges to any user selected, sufficiently smooth function within a range.
Common ratio r
The geometric series a + ar + ar2 + ar3 + ... is an infinite series defined by just two parameters: coefficient a and common ratio r. Common ratio r is the ratio of any term with the previous term in the series. Or equivalently, common ratio r is the term multiplier used to calculate the next term in the series. The following table shows several geometric series:
The convergence of the geometric series depends on the value of the common ratio r:
If |r| < 1, the terms of the series approach zero in the limit (becoming smaller and smaller in magnitude), and the series converges to the sum a / (1 - r).
If |r| = 1, the series does not converge. When r = 1, all of the terms of the series are the same and the series is infinite. When r = −1, the terms take two values alternately (for example, 2, −2, 2, −2, 2,... ). The sum of the terms oscillates between two values (for example, 2, 0, 2, 0, 2,... ). This is a different type of divergence. See for example Grandi's series: 1 − 1 + 1 − 1 + ···.
If |r| > 1, the terms of the series become larger and larger in magnitude. The sum of the terms also gets larger and larger, and the series does not converge to a sum. (The series diverges.)
The rate of convergence also depends on the value of the common ratio r. Specifically, the rate of convergence gets slower as r approaches 1 or −1. For example, the geometric series with a = 1 is 1 + r + r2 + r3 + ... and converges to 1 / (1 - r) when |r| < 1. However, the number of terms needed to converge approaches infinity as r approaches 1 because a / (1 - r) approaches infinity and each term of the series is less than or equal to one. In contrast, as r approaches −1 the sum of the first several terms of the geometric series starts to converge to 1/2 but slightly flips up or down depending on whether the most recently added term has a power of r that is even or odd. That flipping behavior near r = −1 is illustrated in the adjacent image showing the first 11 terms of the geometric series with a = 1 and |r| < 1.
The common ratio r and the coefficient a also define the geometric progression, which is a list of the terms of the geometric series but without the additions. Therefore the geometric series a + ar + ar2 + ar3 + ... has the geometric progression (also called the geometric sequence) a, ar, ar2, ar3, ... The geometric progression - as simple as it is - models a surprising number of natural phenomena,
from some of the largest observations such as the expansion of the universe where the common ratio r is defined by Hubble's constant,
to some of the smallest observations such as the decay of radioactive carbon-14 atoms where the common ratio r is defined by the half-life of carbon-14.
As an aside, the common ratio r can be a complex number such as |r|eiθ where |r| is the vector's magnitude (or length), θ is the vector's angle (or orientation) in the complex plane and i2 = -1. With a common ratio |r|eiθ, the expanded form of the geometric series is a + a|r|eiθ + a|r|2ei2θ + a|r|3ei3θ + ... Modeling the angle θ as linearly increasing over time at the rate of some angular frequency ω0 (in other words, making the substitution θ = ω0t), the expanded form of the geometric series becomes a + a|r|eiω0t + a|r|2ei2ω0t + a|r|3ei3ω0t + ... , where the first term is a vector of length a not rotating at all, and all the other terms are vectors of different lengths rotating at harmonics of the fundamental angular frequency ω0. The constraint |r|<1 is enough to coordinate this infinite number of vectors of different lengths all rotating at different speeds into tracing a circle, as shown in the adjacent video. Similar to how the Taylor series describes how to change the coefficients so the series converges to a user selected sufficiently smooth function within a range, the Fourier series describes how to change the coefficients (which can also be complex numbers in order to specify the initial angles of vectors) so the series converges to a user selected periodic function.
Sum
Closed-form formula
For , the sum of the first n+1 terms of a geometric series, up to and including the r n term, is
where is the common ratio. One can derive that closed-form formula for the partial sum, s, by subtracting out the many self-similar terms as follows:
As approaches infinity, the absolute value of must be less than one for the series to converge. The sum then becomes
When , this can be simplified to
The formula also holds for complex , with the corresponding restriction, the modulus of is strictly less than one.
As an aside, the question of whether an infinite series converges is fundamentally a question about the distance between two values: given enough terms, does the value of the partial sum get arbitrarily close to the value it is approaching? In the above derivation of the closed form of the geometric series, the interpretation of the distance between two values is the distance between their locations on the number line. That is the most common interpretation of distance between two values. However the p-adic metric, which has become a critical notion in modern number theory, offers a definition of distance such that the geometric series 1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + ... with a = 1 and r = 2 actually does converge to a / (1 - r) = 1 / (1 - 2) = -1 even though r is outside the typical convergence range |r| < 1.
Proof of convergence
We can prove that the geometric series converges using the sum formula for a geometric progression:
The second equality is true because if then as and
Convergence of geometric series can also be demonstrated by rewriting the series as an equivalent telescoping series. Consider the function,
Note that
Thus,
If
then
So S converges to
Rate of convergence
As shown in the above proofs, the closed form of the geometric series partial sum up to and including the n-th power of r is a(1 - rn+1) / (1 - r) for any value of r, and the closed form of the geometric series is the full sum a / (1 - r) within the range |r| < 1.
If the common ratio is within the range 0 < r < 1, then the partial sum a(1 - rn+1) / (1 - r) increases with each added term and eventually gets within some small error, E, ratio of the full sum a / (1 - r). Solving for n at that error threshold,
where 0 < r < 1, the ceiling operation constrains n to integers, and dividing both sides by the natural log of r flips the inequality because it is negative. The result n+1 is the number of partial sum terms needed to get within aE / (1 - r) of the full sum a / (1 - r). For example to get within 1% of the full sum a / (1 - r) at r=0.1, only 2 (= ln(E) / ln(r) = ln(0.01) / ln(0.1)) terms of the partial sum are needed. However at r=0.9, 44 (= ln(0.01) / ln(0.9)) terms of the partial sum are needed to get within 1% of the full sum a / (1 - r).
If the common ratio is within the range -1 < r < 0, then the geometric series is an alternating series but can be converted into the form of a non-alternating geometric series by combining pairs of terms and then analyzing the rate of convergence using the same approach as shown for the common ratio range 0 < r < 1. Specifically, the partial sum
s = a + ar + ar2 + ar3 + ar4 + ar5 + ... + arn-1 + arn within the range -1 < r < 0 is equivalent to
s = a - ap + ap2 - ap3 + ap4 - ap5 + ... + apn-1 - apn with an n that is odd, with the substitution of p = -r, and within the range 0 < p < 1,
s = (a - ap) + (ap2 - ap3) + (ap4 - ap5) + ... + (apn-1 - apn) with adjacent and differently signed terms paired together,
s = a(1 - p) + a(1 - p)p2 + a(1 - p)p4 + ... + a(1 - p)p2(n-1)/2 with a(1 - p) factored out of each term,
s = a(1 - p) + a(1 - p)p2 + a(1 - p)p4 + ... + a(1 - p)p2m with the substitution m = (n - 1) / 2 which is an integer given the constraint that n is odd,
which is now in the form of the first m terms of a geometric series with coefficient a(1 - p) and with common ratio p2. Therefore the closed form of the partial sum is a(1 - p)(1 - p2(m+1)) / (1 - p2) which increases with each added term and eventually gets within some small error, E, ratio of the full sum a(1 - p) / (1 - p2). As before, solving for m at that error threshold,
where 0 < p < 1 or equivalently -1 < r < 0, and the m+1 result is the number of partial sum pairs of terms needed to get within a(1 - p)E / (1 - p2) of the full sum a(1 - p) / (1 - p2). For example to get within 1% of the full sum a(1 - p) / (1 - p2) at p=0.1 or equivalently r=-0.1, only 1 (= ln(E) / (2 ln(p)) = ln(0.01) / (2 ln(0.1)) pair of terms of the partial sum are needed. However at p=0.9 or equivalently r=-0.9, 22 (= ln(0.01) / (2 ln(0.9))) pairs of terms of the partial sum are needed to get within 1% of the full sum a(1 - p) / (1 - p2). Comparing the rate of convergence for positive and negative values of r, n + 1 (the number of terms required to reach the error threshold for some positive r) is always twice as large as m + 1 (the number of term pairs required to reach the error threshold for the negative of that r) but the m + 1 refers to term pairs instead of single terms. Therefore, the rate of convergence is symmetric about r = 0, which can be a surprise given the asymmetry of a / (1 - r). One perspective that helps explain this rate of convergence symmetry is that on the r > 0 side each added term of the partial sum makes a finite contribution to the infinite sum at r = 1 while on the r < 0 side each added term makes a finite contribution to the infinite slope at r = -1.
As an aside, this type of rate of convergence analysis is particularly useful when calculating the number of Taylor series terms needed to adequately approximate some user-selected sufficiently-smooth function or when calculating the number of Fourier series terms needed to adequately approximate some user-selected periodic function.
Historic insights
Zeno of Elea (c.495 – c.430 BC)
2,500 years ago, Greek mathematicians had a problem with walking from one place to another. Physically, they were able to walk as well as we do today, perhaps better. Logically, however, they thought that an infinitely long list of numbers greater than zero summed to infinity. Therefore, it was a paradox when Zeno of Elea pointed out that in order to walk from one place to another, you first have to walk half the distance, and then you have to walk half the remaining distance, and then you have to walk half of that remaining distance, and you continue halving the remaining distances an infinite number of times because no matter how small the remaining distance is you still have to walk the first half of it. Thus, Zeno of Elea transformed a short distance into an infinitely long list of halved remaining distances, all of which are greater than zero. And that was the problem: how can a distance be short when measured directly and also infinite when summed over its infinite list of halved remainders? The paradox revealed something was wrong with the assumption that an infinitely long list of numbers greater than zero summed to infinity.
Euclid of Alexandria (c.300 BC)
Euclid's Elements of Geometry Book IX, Proposition 35, proof (of the proposition in adjacent diagram's caption):
The terseness of Euclid's propositions and proofs may have been a necessity. As is, the Elements of Geometry is over 500 pages of propositions and proofs. Making copies of this popular textbook was labor intensive given that the printing press was not invented until 1440. And the book's popularity lasted a long time: as stated in the cited introduction to an English translation, Elements of Geometry "has the distinction of being the world's oldest continuously used mathematical textbook." So being very terse was being very practical. The proof of Proposition 35 in Book IX could have been even more compact if Euclid could have somehow avoided explicitly equating lengths of specific line segments from different terms in the series. For example, the contemporary notation for geometric series (i.e., a + ar + ar2 + ar3 + ... + arn) does not label specific portions of terms that are equal to each other.
Also in the cited introduction the editor comments,
Most of the theorems appearing in the Elements were not discovered by Euclid himself, but were the work of earlier Greek mathematicians such as Pythagoras (and his school), Hippocrates of Chios, Theaetetus of Athens, and Eudoxus of Cnidos. However, Euclid is generally credited with arranging these theorems in a logical manner, so as to demonstrate (admittedly, not always with the rigour demanded by modern mathematics) that they necessarily follow from five simple axioms. Euclid is also credited with devising a number of particularly ingenious proofs of previously discovered theorems (e.g., Theorem 48 in Book 1).
To help translate the proposition and proof into a form that uses current notation, a couple modifications are in the diagram. First, the four horizontal line lengths representing the values of the first four terms of a geometric series are now labeled a, ar, ar2, ar3 in the diagram's left margin. Second, new labels A' and D' are now on the first and third lines so that all the diagram's line segment names consistently specify the segment's starting point and ending point.
Here is a phrase by phrase interpretation of the proposition:
Similarly, here is a sentence by sentence interpretation of the proof:
Archimedes of Syracuse (c.287 – c.212 BC)
Archimedes used the sum of a geometric series to compute the area enclosed by a parabola and a straight line. His method was to dissect the area into an infinite number of triangles.
Archimedes' Theorem states that the total area under the parabola is 4/3 of the area of the blue triangle.
Archimedes determined that each green triangle has 1/8 the area of the blue triangle, each yellow triangle has 1/8 the area of a green triangle, and so forth.
Assuming that the blue triangle has area 1, the total area is an infinite sum:
The first term represents the area of the blue triangle, the second term the areas of the two green triangles, the third term the areas of the four yellow triangles, and so on. Simplifying the fractions gives
This is a geometric series with common ratio and the fractional part is equal to
The sum is
This computation uses the method of exhaustion, an early version of integration. Using calculus, the same area could be found by a definite integral.
Nicole Oresme (c.1323 – 1382)
Among his insights into infinite series, in addition to his elegantly simple proof of the divergence of the harmonic series, Nicole Oresme proved that the series 1/2 + 2/4 + 3/8 + 4/16 + 5/32 + 6/64 + 7/128 + ... converges to 2. His diagram for his geometric proof, similar to the adjacent diagram, shows a two dimensional geometric series. The first dimension is horizontal, in the bottom row showing the geometric series S = 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + 1/16 + ... , which is the geometric series with coefficient a = 1/2 and common ratio r = 1/2 that converges to S = a / (1-r) = (1/2) / (1-1/2) = 1. The second dimension is vertical, where the bottom row is a new coefficient aT equal to S and each subsequent row above it is scaled by the same common ratio r = 1/2, making another geometric series T = 1 + 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + ... , which is the geometric series with coefficient aT = S = 1 and common ratio r = 1/2 that converges to T = aT / (1-r) = S / (1-r) = a / (1-r) / (1-r) = (1/2) / (1-1/2) / (1-1/2) = 2.
Although difficult to visualize beyond three dimensions, Oresme's insight generalizes to any dimension d. Using the sum of the d−1 dimension of the geometric series as the coefficient a in the d dimension of the geometric series results in a d-dimensional geometric series converging to Sd / a = 1 / (1-r)d within the range |r|<1. Pascal's triangle and long division reveals the coefficients of these multi-dimensional geometric series, where the closed form is valid only within the range |r|<1.
Note that as an alternative to long division, it is also possible to calculate the coefficients of the d-dimensional geometric series by integrating the coefficients of dimension d−1. This mapping from division by 1-r in the power series sum domain to integration in the power series coefficient domain is a discrete form of the mapping performed by the Laplace transform. MIT Professor Arthur Mattuck shows how to derive the Laplace transform from the power series in this lecture video, where the power series is a mapping between discrete coefficients and a sum and the Laplace transform is a mapping between continuous weights and an integral.
The closed forms of Sd/a are related to but not equal to the derivatives of S = f(r) = 1 / (1-r). As shown in the following table, the relationship is Sk+1 = f(k)(r) / k!, where f(k)(r) denotes the kth derivative of f(r) = 1 / (1-r) and the closed form is valid only within the range |r| < 1.
Applications
Economics
In economics, geometric series are used to represent the present value of an annuity (a sum of money to be paid in regular intervals).
For example, suppose that a payment of $100 will be made to the owner of the annuity once per year (at the end of the year) in perpetuity. Receiving $100 a year from now is worth less than an immediate $100, because one cannot invest the money until one receives it. In particular, the present value of $100 one year in the future is $100 / (1 + ), where is the yearly interest rate.
Similarly, a payment of $100 two years in the future has a present value of $100 / (1 + )2 (squared because two years' worth of interest is lost by not receiving the money right now). Therefore, the present value of receiving $100 per year in perpetuity is
which is the infinite series:
This is a geometric series with common ratio 1 / (1 + ). The sum is the first term divided by (one minus the common ratio):
For example, if the yearly interest rate is 10% ( = 0.10), then the entire annuity has a present value of $100 / 0.10 = $1000.
This sort of calculation is used to compute the APR of a loan (such as a mortgage loan). It can also be used to estimate the present value of expected stock dividends, or the terminal value of a financial asset assuming a stable growth rate.
Fractal geometry
In the study of fractals, geometric series often arise as the perimeter, area, or volume of a self-similar figure.
For example, the area inside the Koch snowflake can be described as the union of infinitely many equilateral triangles (see figure). Each side of the green triangle is exactly 1/3 the size of a side of the large blue triangle, and therefore has exactly 1/9 the area. Similarly, each yellow triangle has 1/9 the area of a green triangle, and so forth. Taking the blue triangle as a unit of area, the total area of the snowflake is
The first term of this series represents the area of the blue triangle, the second term the total area of the three green triangles, the third term the total area of the twelve yellow triangles, and so forth. Excluding the initial 1, this series is geometric with constant ratio r = 4/9. The first term of the geometric series is a = 3(1/9) = 1/3, so the sum is
Thus the Koch snowflake has 8/5 of the area of the base triangle.
Geometric power series
The formula for a geometric series
can be interpreted as a power series in the Taylor's theorem sense, converging where . From this, one can extrapolate to obtain other power series. For example,
See also
Specific geometric series
: 1 − 1 + 1 − 1 + ⋯
A geometric series is a unit series (the series sum converges to one) if and only if |r| < 1 and a + r = 1 (equivalent to the more familiar form S = a / (1 - r) = 1 when |r| < 1). Therefore, an alternating series is also a unit series when -1 < r < 0 and a + r = 1 (for example, coefficient a = 1.7 and common ratio r = -0.7).
The terms of a geometric series are also the terms of a generalized Fibonacci sequence (Fn = Fn-1 + Fn-2 but without requiring F0 = 0 and F1 = 1) when a geometric series common ratio r satisfies the constraint 1 + r = r2, which according to the quadratic formula is when the common ratio r equals the golden ratio (i.e., common ratio r = (1 ± √5)/2).
The only geometric series that is a unit series and also has terms of a generalized Fibonacci sequence has the golden ratio as its coefficient a and the conjugate golden ratio as its common ratio r (i.e., a = (1 + √5)/2 and r = (1 - √5)/2). It is a unit series because a + r = 1 and |r| < 1, it is a generalized Fibonacci sequence because 1 + r = r2, and it is an alternating series because r < 0.
Encoded numbers
Zeno of Elea's geometric series with coefficient a=1/2 and common ratio r=1/2 is the foundation of binary encoded approximations of fractions in digital computers. Concretely, the geometric series written in its normalized vector form is s/a = [1 1 1 1 1 …][1 r r2 r3 r4 …]T. Keeping the column vector of basis functions [1 r r2 r3 r4 …]T the same but generalizing the row vector [1 1 1 1 1 …] so that each entry can be either a 0 or a 1 allows for an approximate encoding of any fraction. For example, the value v = 0.34375 is encoded as
v/a = [0 1 0 1 1 0 …][1 r r2 r3 r4 …]T where coefficient a = 1/2 and common ratio r = 1/2. Typically, the row vector is written in the more compact binary form v = 0.010110 which is 0.34375 in decimal.
Similarly, the geometric series with coefficient a=1 and common ratio r=2 is the foundation for binary encoded integers in digital computers. Again, the geometric series written in its normalized vector form is s/a = [1 1 1 1 1 …][1 r r2 r3 r4 …]T. Keeping the column vector of basis functions [1 r r2 r3 r4 …]T the same but generalizing the row vector [1 1 1 1 1 …] so that each entry can be either a 0 or a 1 allows for an encoding of any integer. For example, the value v = 151 is encoded as
v/a = [1 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 …][1 r r2 r3 r4 r5 r6 r7 r8 …]T where coefficient a = 1 and common ratio r = 2. Typically, the row vector is written in reverse order (so that the most significant bit is first) in the more compact binary form v = …010010111 = 10010111 which is 151 in decimal.
As shown in the adjacent figure, the standard binary encoding of a 32-bit floating point number is a combination of a binary encoded integer and a binary encoded fraction, beginning at the most significant bit with
the sign bit, followed by
an 8-bit integer exponent field with an assumed offset of 127 (so a value of 127 represents an exponent value of 0) and with a base of 2 meaning that the exponent value specifies a bit shift of the fraction field, followed by
a 23-bit fraction field with an assumed but not encoded 1 serving as the fraction's most significant nonzero bit which would be in bit position 23 if it were encoded.
Building upon the previous example of 0.34375 having binary encoding of 0.010110, a floating point encoding (according to the IEEE 754 standard) of 0.34375 is
the sign bit which is 0 because the number is not negative,
an 8-bit integer exponent field which must specify a shift that counters the 2 bit left shift to get the original binary encoding from 0.010110 to 1.0110, and that counter shift to recover the original binary encoding is a right shift of 2 bits which is specified by an exponent value of 125 (because 125 − 127 = -2 which is a right shift of 2 bits) which in binary is 0111 1101,
a 23-bit fraction field: .0110 0000 0000 0000 0000 000.
Although encoding floating point numbers by hand like this is possible, letting a computer do it is easier and less error prone. The following Julia code confirms the hand calculated floating point encoding of the number 0.34375:
julia> bitstring(Float32(0.34375))
"00111110101100000000000000000000"
Repeated decimals
Decimal fractions that have repeated patterns that continue forever (e.g., 0.7777... or 0.9999... or 0.123412341234...) can only be approximated when encoded as floating point numbers, but they can always be defined exactly as the ratio of two integers and those two integers can be calculated using the geometric series. For example, the repeated decimal fraction 0.7777... can be written as the geometric series
where coefficient a = 7/10 and common ratio r = 1/10. The geometric series closed form reveals the two integers that specify the repeated pattern:
This approach extends beyond base-ten numbers. In fact, any fraction that has an infinitely repeated pattern in base-ten numbers also has an infinitely repeated pattern in numbers written in any other base. For example, looking at the floating point encoding for the number 0.7777...
julia> bitstring(Float32(0.77777777777777777777))
"00111111010001110001110001110010"
reveals the binary fraction 0.110001110001110001... where the binary pattern 0b110001 repeats indefinitely and can be written in mostly (except for the powers) binary numbers as
where coefficient a = 0b110001 / 0b1000000 = 49 / 64 and common ratio r = 1 / 0b1000000 = 1 / 64. Using the geometric series closed form as before
You may have noticed that the floating point encoding does not capture the 0b110001 repeat pattern in the last couple (least significant) bits. This is because floating point encoding rounds the remainder instead of truncating it. Therefore, if the most significant bit of the remainder is 1, the least significant bit of the encoded fraction gets incremented and that will cause a carry if the least significant bit of the fraction is already 1, which can cause another carry if that bit of the fraction is already a 1, which can cause another carry, etc. This floating point rounding and the subsequent carry propagation explains why the floating point encoding for 0.99999... is exactly the same as the floating point encoding for 1.
julia> bitstring(Float32(0.99999999999999999999))
"00111111100000000000000000000000"
julia> bitstring(Float32(1.0))
"00111111100000000000000000000000"
As an example that has four digits in the repeated pattern, 0.123412341234... can be written as the geometric series
where coefficient a = 1234/10000 and common ratio r = 1/10000. The geometric series closed form reveals the two integers that specify the repeated pattern:
Complex Fourier series
As an example of the ability of the complex Fourier series to trace any 2D closed figure, in the adjacent animation a complex Fourier series traces the letter 'e' (for exponential). Given the intricate coordination of motions shown in the animation, a definition of the complex Fourier series can be surprisingly compact in just two equations:
where parameterized function s(t) traces some 2D closed figure in the complex plane as the parameter t progresses through the period from 0 to 1.
To help make sense of these compact equations defining the complex Fourier series, note that the complex Fourier series summation looks similar to the complex geometric series except that the complex Fourier series is basically two complex geometric series (one set of terms rotating in the positive direction and another set of terms rotating in the negative direction), and the coefficients of the complex Fourier series are complex constants that can vary from term to term. By allowing terms to rotate in either direction, the series becomes capable of tracing any 2D closed figure. In contrast, the complex geometric series has all the terms rotating in the same direction and it can trace only circles. Allowing the coefficients of the complex geometric series to vary from term to term would expand upon the shapes it can trace but all the possible shapes would still be limited to being puffy and cloud-like, not able to trace the shape of a simple line segment, for example going back and forth between 1 + i0 and -1 + i0. However, Euler's formula shows that the addition of just two terms rotating in opposite directions can trace that line segment between 1 + i0 and -1 + i0:
Concerning the complex Fourier series second equation defining how to calculate the coefficients, the coefficient of the non-rotating term c0 can be calculated by integrating the complex Fourier series first equation over the range of one period from 0 to 1. Over that range, all the rotating terms integrate to zero, leaving just c0. Similarly, any of the terms in the complex Fourier series first equation can be made to be a non-rotating term by multiplying both sides of the equation by before integrating to calculate cn, and that is the complex Fourier series second equation.
Notes
References
Abramowitz, M. and Stegun, I. A. (Eds.). Handbook of Mathematical Functions with Formulas, Graphs, and Mathematical Tables, 9th printing. New York: Dover, p. 10, 1972.
Arfken, G. Mathematical Methods for Physicists, 3rd ed. Orlando, FL: Academic Press, pp. 278–279, 1985.
Beyer, W. H. CRC Standard Mathematical Tables, 28th ed. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, p. 8, 1987.
Courant, R. and Robbins, H. "The Geometric Progression." §1.2.3 in What Is Mathematics?: An Elementary Approach to Ideas and Methods, 2nd ed. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, pp. 13–14, 1996.
James Stewart (2002). Calculus, 5th ed., Brooks Cole.
Larson, Hostetler, and Edwards (2005). Calculus with Analytic Geometry, 8th ed., Houghton Mifflin Company.
Pappas, T. "Perimeter, Area & the Infinite Series." The Joy of Mathematics. San Carlos, CA: Wide World Publ./Tetra, pp. 134–135, 1989.
Roger B. Nelsen (1997). Proofs without Words: Exercises in Visual Thinking, The Mathematical Association of America.
History and philosophy
C. H. Edwards Jr. (1994). The Historical Development of the Calculus, 3rd ed., Springer. .
Eli Maor (1991). To Infinity and Beyond: A Cultural History of the Infinite, Princeton University Press.
Morr Lazerowitz (2000). The Structure of Metaphysics (International Library of Philosophy), Routledge.
Economics
Carl P. Simon and Lawrence Blume (1994). Mathematics for Economists, W. W. Norton & Company.
Mike Rosser (2003). Basic Mathematics for Economists, 2nd ed., Routledge.
Biology
Edward Batschelet (1992). Introduction to Mathematics for Life Scientists, 3rd ed., Springer.
Richard F. Burton (1998). Biology by Numbers: An Encouragement to Quantitative Thinking, Cambridge University Press.
Computer science
John Rast Hubbard (2000). Schaum's Outline of Theory and Problems of Data Structures With Java, McGraw-Hill.
External links
"Geometric Series" by Michael Schreiber, Wolfram Demonstrations Project, 2007.
Ratios
Articles containing proofs | [
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12634 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List%20of%20islands%20of%20Greece | List of islands of Greece | Greece has many islands, with estimates ranging from somewhere around 1,200 to 6,000, depending on the minimum size to take into account. The number of inhabited islands is variously cited as between 166 and 227.
The largest Greek island by area is Crete, located at the southern edge of the Aegean Sea. The second largest island is Euboea or Evvia, which is separated from the mainland by the 60m-wide Euripus Strait, and is administered as part of the Central Greece region. After the third and fourth largest Greek islands, Lesbos and Rhodes, the rest of the islands are two-thirds of the area of Rhodes, or smaller.
The Greek islands are traditionally grouped into the following clusters: the Argo-Saronic Islands in the Saronic Gulf near Athens; the Cyclades, a large but dense collection occupying the central part of the Aegean Sea; the North Aegean islands, a loose grouping off the west coast of Turkey; the Dodecanese, another loose collection in the southeast between Crete and Turkey; the Sporades, a small tight group off the coast of Euboea; and the Ionian Islands, chiefly located to the west of the mainland in the Ionian Sea. Crete with its surrounding islets and Euboea are traditionally excluded from this grouping.
This article excludes the Peloponnese, which has technically been an island since the construction of the Corinth Canal in 1893, but is rarely considered to be an island.
Islands of Greece by size
The following are the largest Greek islands listed by surface area. The table includes all islands of over .
Islands of the Aegean Sea
Argo-Saronic Islands
This list includes Argo-Saronic islands, which are located in the Saronic Gulf. The largest Argo-Saronic island is Salamis. The main islands are in bold. Uninhabited islands are indicated, including those that may have been inhabited in the past:
Aegina (),
Agios Georgios (uninhabited),
Agios Georgios Salaminos (St. George's Island, uninhabited),
Agios Ioannis Diaporion (uninhabited)
Agios Thomas Diaporion (uninhabited),
Agistri (),
Alexandros Hydras,
Atalanti Island,
Dia (uninhabited)
Dokos (),
Falkonera (uninhabited),
Fleves (uninhabited),
Hydra (),
Katramoniso (Nisís Idhroúsa, uninhabited),
Kyra Aiginis (Nisída Kyrá) (uninhabited),
Laousses Islets (Nísoi Laoúses, uninhabited),
Leros Salaminos (uninhabited),
Modi Porou (uninhabited),
Moni Aiginas (uninhabited),
Patroklos (uninhabited),
Pera Island (Arta),
Platia (uninhabited),
Platia Aeginis (uninhabited),
Poros (),
Psili (uninhabited)
Psyttaleia (uninhabited),
Revithousa (uninhabited),
Romvi (Nisida Romvi) (uninhabited),
Salamis (),
Spetses (),
Spetsopoula (uninhabited),
Stavronisi Hydras (uninhabited),
Trikeri Hydras (uninhabited),
Velopoula (Nisída Velopoúla) (uninhabited),
Ypsili Diaporion (uninhabited)
Ypsili Argolidos (uninhabited)
Cretan islands
The two lists below show the islands, islets, and rocks that surround the island of Crete that are in the Aegean Sea or Libyan Sea.
Cretan islands of the Aegean Sea
Afendis Christos,
Agia Varvara,
Agioi Apostoloi,
Agioi Pandes,
Agioi Theodoroi,
Agios Nikolaos,
Agriomandra,
Anavatis,
Arnaouti,
Avgo (uninhabited islet),
Crete,
Daskaleia (uninhabited islet),
Dia (Zeus, uninhabited),
Diapori,
Dionysades (group of islands),
Gianysada,
Dragonada,
Paximada,
Paximadaki,
Elasa,
Ftena Trachylia,
Glaronisi,
Gramvoussa,
Agria Gramvousa,
Imeri Gramvousa,
Grandes (group of islands),
Kalydon (Spinalonga),
Karavi (uninhabited),
Karga (uninhabited),
Katergo (uninhabited),
Kavaloi (three uninhabited islands),
Anavatis,
Kavallos,
Kefali,
Kolokytha,
Koursaroi,
Kyriamadi (Peninsula),
Lazaretta,
Leon (Islet),
Mavros (Uninhabited islet),
Megatzedes (Uninhabited islet),
Mochlos,
Nikolos,
Palaiosouda (Islet),
Peristeri (Islet),
Peristerovrachoi (Uninhabited rocks),
Petalida (Islet),
Petalouda (Uninhabited islet),
Pontikaki (Uninhabited islet),
Pondikonisi (Uninhabited islet),
Praso Kissamou (Islet),
Prosfora (Uninhabited islet),
Pseira,
Sideros (Uninhabited rock),
Souda (Islet),
Valenti (Rock),
Vryonisi (Uninhabited islet),
Cretan islands of the Libyan Sea
Islands on the south coast of Crete are considered in the Libyan Sea.
Agia Eirini,
Ammoudi tous Volakous,
Artemis (Uninhabited islet),
Aspros Volakas (rock),
Chrysi (uninhabited),
Elafonisi,
Fotia (Uninhabited islet),
Gaidouronisi (Uninhabited),
Gavdopoula,
Gavdos (Southernmost point of Greece),
Koufonisi (Lefki) (Uninhabited islet),
Loutro (Rocky islet),
Makroulo (Uninhabited islet),
Marmaro (Uninhabited islet),
Mavros Volakas (Large rock),
Megalonisi (Uninhabited islet),
Mikronisi (Islet),
Papadoplaka (Reef islet),
Paximadia (Two small uninhabited islands),
Prasonisi, Gavdou (Islet),
Prasonisi, Rethymno (Islet),
Psarocharako (Rock),
Psyllos (Uninhabited islet),
Schistonisi (Islet),
Strongyli (Uninhabited islet),
Thetis (Islet),
Trachilos (Uninhabited islet),
Trafos (Islet),
Treis Volakous (Rocks),
Cyclades islands
The Cyclades islands comprise around 220 islands and islets. The main islands are indicated in bold below.
Agios Nikolaos (Macheres),
Amorgos (),
Ananes,
Anafi (),
Andros (),
Aniros (Anydros)
Ano Antikeros
Antimilos,
Antiparos,
Anydros Amorgou
Askania,
Christiana (uninhabited),
Delos,
Despotiko (uninhabited),
Donousa (,
Eschati,
Folegandros (,
Glaronisi,
Gyaros,
Hristiana
Htapodia Mykonou
Ios (),
Iraklia,
Kalogiros
Kardiotissa,
Kato Antikeros,
Kato Koufonisi,
Kea (),
Keros,
Kimolos,
Kitriani,
Koufonisia,
Kramvonisi
Kythnos (),
Liadi Island,
Makares,
Makronissos,
Megalo,
Milos (),
Mykonos,
Naxos (),
Nea Kameni,
Nikouria,
Nisida Prasini,
Ofidousa,
Pahia Anaphis
Palea Kameni,
Paros (),
Polyaigos,
Rhineia,
Saliagos,
Santorini (Thera),
Schoinoussa,
Serifopoula,
Serifos,
Sifnos,
Sikinos,
Skilonisi,
Stroggyli Parou,
Syros,
Therasia,
Tinos (),
Vous,
Vrachoi Bouvais,
Dodecanese islands
There are 164 total Dodecanese Islands of which 26 are inhabited. There are 12 main islands, as listed in bold below:
Agathonissi,
Agioi Theodoroi Halkis
Agreloussa
Alimia,
Antitilos
Anydros Patmou
Arefoussa
Arhangelos
Arkoi,
Armathia,
Astakida
Astypalaia,
Faradonesia
Farmakonisi,
Fokionissia
Fragos
Gaidourosnissi Tilou
Glaros Kinarou
Gyali,
Halavra
Halki,
Hiliomodi Patmou
Hondro
Htenies
Imia (uninhabited),
Kalavros Kalymnou
Kalolimnos,
Kalovolos
Kalymnos,
Kamilonisi
Kandeloussa
Karavolas Rodhou
Karpathos (),
Kasos,
Kastellorizo (Megisti),
Kinaros,
Kos (),
Koubelonisi
Kouloundros
Kouloura Leipson
Kounoupoi
Koutsomytis
Leipsoi,
Leros,
Levitha,
Makronisi Leipson
Makronissi Kasou
Makry Aspronisi Leipson
Makry Halkis
Marathos,
Marmaras
Mavra Levithas
Megalo Aspronisi Leipson
Megalo Glaronisi
Megalo Sofrano
Mesonisi Seirinas
Mikro Glaronisi,
Mikro Sofrano,
Nerónisi,
Nimos,
Nisídes Adelfoí,
Nisyros,
Paheia Nisyrou
Patmos,
Pergoussa
Piganoussa
Pitta
Plati Kasou
Plati Pserimou
Plati Symis
Pontikoussa
Prasonissi Rodhou
Prasouda
Pserimos,
Ro,
Rhodes (),
Safonidi
Saria,
Seirina
Sesklio
Stroggyli
Strongyli Megistis (Easternmost point of Greece),
Strongyli Kritinias
Strongyli Kasou
Symi,
Syrna,
Telendos,
Tilos,
Tragonisi
Zaforas,
Euboea and surrounding islands
Atalanti (uninhabited),
Euboea,
Hersonisi
Kavalliani (uninhabited),
Lichades,
Lithari
Mandilou
Monoliá,
Megalos Petalios
Petalioi (10 small uninhabited islands/islets),
Stouronisi,
North Aegean Islands
Agios Efstratios,
Chios,
Icaria,
Lesbos,
Lemnos,
Oinousses,
Pasas,
Psara,
Antipsara,
Samos,
Samiopoula,
Fournoi Korseon ()
Agios Minas ()
Thymaina ()
There are also two North Aegean Islands in the Thracian Sea:
Samothrace,
Thassos,
Sporades islands
The 30 islands in the Sporades are listed below with the four major islands in bold. The largest Sporades island is Skyros.
Adelfoi Islets,
Agios Georgios Skopelou
Alonissos (),
Arkos (Skiathos Municipality),
Aspronisi (Skiathos Municipality)
Dasia
Erinia (Rineia Skyrou),
Gioura,
Grammeza,
Korakas Alonissou
Kyra Panagia,
Lekhoussa,
Manolas Alonissou
Maragos (Skiathos Municipality)
Peristera,
Piperi,
Polemika Alonissou
Praso Skantzouras
Psathoura,
Repi,
Sarakino,
Skandili,
Skantzoura,
Skiathos ( in Municipality),
Skopelos (),
Skyropoula (Skyros Municipality),
Skyros (),
Tsougria (Skiathos Municipality),
Troulonisi (Skiathos Municipality)
Tsougriaki (Skiathos Municipality)
Valaxa,
Ionian Sea islands
Islands in the Ionian Sea are listed below. The seven largest and most popular islands are listed in bold.
Antikythera,
Antipaxos,
Arkoudi,
Atokos,
Cephalonia,
Corfu,
Diaplo,
Echinades
Apasa,
Drakonera,
Filippos,
Girovaris or Gkravaris,
Kalogiros,
Karlonisi,
Kouneli or Makropoula,
Lamprinos,
Makri,
Modio or Modi,
Oxeia,
Petalas,
Pistros,
Pontikos,
Praso,
Provati,
Sofía,
Soros,
Tsakalonisi,
Vromonas,
Elafonissos,
Ereikoussa,
Ithaca,
Kalamos,
Kastos,
Kravia,
Kythira,
Kythros,
Lazaretto,
Lefkada,
Madouri (Uninhabited),
Makropoúla,
Mathraki,
Meganisi,
Modia Islets,
Omfori (Uninhabited, private),
Othonoi (westernmost point of Greece),
Paxi,
Provati,
Proti,
Sapientza,
Schiza (Uninhabited),
Skorpios,
Skorpidi (Private),
Sparti Lefkados,
Sphacteria,
Strofades,
Thilia,
Vido,
Zakynthos,
Islets close to mainland
The following islands are close to the mainland and not part of a sea:
Alatas Trikeriou,
Ammouliani (Chalkidiki),
Antitrikeri (Thessaly)
Kelyfos,
Paleo Trikeri (Thessaly),
Trizonia island (Central Greece),
Islands not in the sea
Lake and river islands
Agios Achilleios (Small Prespa Lake),
Ioannina Island (Lake Pamvotida),
Vidronisi (Small Prespa Lake),
Anonymous islet (Limnothálassa Pápas lagoon, Western Achaia),
Islands in an island
Marathi Island (Marathi Lake (reservoir) in Mykonos),
Lagoon islands
Aitoliko Lagoon
Aitoliko,
Missolonghi Lagoon
Dolmas
Kleisova,
Komma,
Prokopanistos
Schinias
Tourlida,
Vasiladi,
See also
Geography of Greece
Ionian Islands
List of Aegean Islands
Lists of islands
List of islands of Turkey
List of islands in the Mediterranean
Notes
References
, Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World
External links
Geography of Greece
Greece
Lists of landforms of Greece | [
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12635 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gian%20Lorenzo%20Bernini | Gian Lorenzo Bernini | Gian Lorenzo (or Gianlorenzo) Bernini (, , ; Italian Giovanni Lorenzo; 7 December 159828 November 1680) was an Italian sculptor and architect. While a major figure in the world of architecture, he was more prominently the leading sculptor of his age, credited with creating the Baroque style of sculpture. As one scholar has commented, "What Shakespeare is to drama, Bernini may be to sculpture: the first pan-European sculptor whose name is instantaneously identifiable with a particular manner and vision, and whose influence was inordinately powerful ..." In addition, he was a painter (mostly small canvases in oil) and a man of the theater: he wrote, directed and acted in plays (mostly Carnival satires), for which he designed stage sets and theatrical machinery. He produced designs as well for a wide variety of decorative art objects including lamps, tables, mirrors, and even coaches.
As an architect and city planner, he designed secular buildings, churches, chapels, and public squares, as well as massive works combining both architecture and sculpture, especially elaborate public fountains and funerary monuments and a whole series of temporary structures (in stucco and wood) for funerals and festivals. His broad technical versatility, boundless compositional inventiveness and sheer skill in manipulating marble ensured that he would be considered a worthy successor of Michelangelo, far outshining other sculptors of his generation. His talent extended beyond the confines of sculpture to a consideration of the setting in which it would be situated; his ability to synthesize sculpture, painting, and architecture into a coherent conceptual and visual whole has been termed by the late art historian Irving Lavin the "unity of the visual arts".
Biography
Youth
Bernini was born on 7 December 1598 in Naples to Angelica Galante, a Neapolitan, and Mannerist sculptor Pietro Bernini, originally from Florence. He was the sixth of their thirteen children. Gian Lorenzo Bernini was the definition of childhood genius. He was "recognized as a prodigy when he was only eight years old, [and] he was consistently encouraged by his father, Pietro. His precocity earned him the admiration and favor of powerful patrons who hailed him as 'the Michelangelo of his century'”. More specifically, it was Pope Paul V, who after first attesting to the boy Bernini's talent, famously remarked, 'This child will be the Michelangelo of his age,' later repeating that prophecy to Cardinal Maffeo Barberini (the future Pope Urban VIII), as Domenico Bernini reports in his biography of his father. In 1606 his father received a papal commission (to contribute a marble relief in the Cappella Paolina of Santa Maria Maggiore) and so moved from Naples to Rome, taking his entire family with him and continuing in earnest the training of his son Gian Lorenzo.
Several extant works, dating circa 1615–1620, are by general scholarly consensus, collaborative efforts by both father and son: they include the Faun Teased by Putti (c. 1615, Metropolitan Museum, NYC), Boy with a Dragon (c. 1616–17, Getty Museum, Los Angeles), the Aldobrandini Four Seasons (c. 1620, private collection), and the recently discovered Bust of the Savior (1615–16, New York, private collection). Sometime after the arrival of the Bernini family in Rome, word about the great talent of the boy Gian Lorenzo got around and he soon caught the attention of Cardinal Scipione Borghese, nephew to the reigning pope, Paul V, who spoke of the boy genius to his uncle. Bernini was therefore presented before Pope Paul V, curious to see if the stories about Gian Lorenzo's talent were true. The boy improvised a sketch of Saint Paul for the marveling pope, and this was the beginning of the pope's attention on this young talent.
Once he was brought to Rome, he rarely left its walls, except (much against his will) for a five-month stay in Paris in the service of King Louis XIV and brief trips to nearby towns (including Civitavecchia, Tivoli and Castelgandolfo), mostly for work-related reasons. Rome was Bernini's city: “'You are made for Rome,’ said Pope Urban VIII to him, 'and Rome for you'”. It was in this world of 17th-century Rome and the international religious-political power which resided there that Bernini created his greatest works. Bernini's works are therefore often characterized as perfect expressions of the spirit of the assertive, triumphal but self-defensive Counter Reformation Roman Catholic Church. Certainly Bernini was a man of his times and deeply religious (at least later in life), but he and his artistic production should not be reduced simply to instruments of the papacy and its political-doctrinal programs, an impression that is at times communicated by the works of the three most eminent Bernini scholars of the previous generation, Rudolf Wittkower, Howard Hibbard, and Irving Lavin. As Tomaso Montanari's recent revisionist monograph, La libertà di Bernini (Turin: Einaudi, 2016) argues and Franco Mormando's anti-hagiographic biography, Bernini: His Life and His Rome (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011), illustrates, Bernini and his artistic vision maintained a certain degree of freedom from the mindset and mores of Counter-Reformation Roman Catholicism.
Partnership with Scipione Borghese
Under the patronage of the extravagantly wealthy and most powerful Cardinal Scipione Borghese, the young Bernini rapidly rose to prominence as a sculptor. Among his early works for the cardinal were decorative pieces for the garden of the Villa Borghese, such as The Goat Amalthea with the Infant Jupiter and a Faun. This marble sculpture (executed sometime before 1615) is generally considered by scholars to be the earliest work executed entirely by Bernini himself. Among Bernini's earliest documented work is his collaboration on his father's commission of February 1618 from Cardinal Maffeo Barberini to create four marble putti for the Barberini family chapel in the church of Sant'Andrea della Valle, the contract stipulating that his son Gian Lorenzo would assist in the execution of the statues. Also dating to 1618 is a letter by Maffeo Barberini in Rome to his brother Carlo in Florence, which mentions that he (Maffeo) was thinking of asking the young Gian Lorenzo to finish one of the statues left incomplete by Michelangelo, then in possession of Michelangelo's grandnephew which Maffeo was hoping to purchase, a remarkable attestation of the great skill that the young Bernini was already believed to possess.
Although the Michelangelo statue-completion commission came to naught, the young Bernini was shortly thereafter (in 1619) commissioned to repair and complete a famous work of antiquity, the sleeping Hermaphrodite owned by Cardinal Scipione Borghese (Galleria Borghese, Rome) and later (circa 1622) restored the so-called Ludovisi Ares (Palazzo Altemps, Rome).
Also dating to this early period are the so-called Damned Soul and Blessed Soul of circa 1619, two small marble busts which may have been influenced by a set of prints by Pieter de Jode I or Karel van Mallery, but which were in fact unambiguously cataloged in the inventory of their first documented owner, Fernando de Botinete y Acevedo, as depicting a nymph and a satyr, a commonly paired duo in ancient sculpture (they were not commissioned by nor ever belonged to either Scipione Borghese or, as most scholarship erroneously claims, the Spanish cleric, Pedro Foix Montoya). By the time he was twenty-two, Bernini was considered talented enough to have been given a commission for a papal portrait, the Bust of Pope Paul V, now in the J. Paul Getty Museum.
Bernini's reputation, however, was definitively established by four masterpieces, executed between 1619 and 1625, all now displayed in the Galleria Borghese in Rome. To the art historian Rudolf Wittkower these four works—Aeneas, Anchises, and Ascanius (1619), The Rape of Proserpina (1621–22), Apollo and Daphne (1622–1625), and David (1623–24)—"inaugurated a new era in the history of European sculpture". It is a view repeated by other scholars, such as Howard Hibbard who proclaimed that, in all of the seventeenth century, "there were no sculptors or architects comparable to Bernini". Adapting the classical grandeur of Renaissance sculpture and the dynamic energy of the Mannerist period, Bernini forged a new, distinctly Baroque conception for religious and historical sculpture, powerfully imbued with dramatic realism, stirring emotion and dynamic, theatrical compositions. Bernini's early sculpture groups and portraits manifest "a command of the human form in motion and a technical sophistication rivaled only by the greatest sculptors of classical antiquity." Moreover, Bernini possessed the ability to depict highly dramatic narratives with characters showing intense psychological states, but also to organize large-scale sculptural works that convey a magnificent grandeur.
Unlike sculptures done by his predecessors, these focus on specific points of narrative tension in the stories they are trying to tell: Aeneas and his family fleeing the burning Troy; the instant that Pluto finally grasps the hunted Persephone; the precise moment that Apollo sees his beloved Daphne begin her transformation into a tree. They are transitory but dramatic powerful moments in each story. Bernini's David is another stirring example of this. Michelangelo's motionless, idealized David shows the subject holding a rock in one hand and a sling in the other, contemplating the battle; similarly immobile versions by other Renaissance artists, including Donatello's, show the subject in his triumph after the battle with Goliath. Bernini illustrates David during his active combat with the giant, as he twists his body to catapult toward Goliath. To emphasize these moments, and to ensure that they were appreciated by the viewer, Bernini designed the sculptures with a specific viewpoint in mind. Their original placements within the Villa Borghese were against walls so that the viewers' first view was the dramatic moment of the narrative.
The result of such an approach is to invest the sculptures with greater psychological energy. The viewer finds it easier to gauge the state of mind of the characters and therefore understands the larger story at work: Daphne's wide open mouth in fear and astonishment, David biting his lip in determined concentration, or Proserpina desperately struggling to free herself. In addition to portraying psychological realism, they show a greater concern for representing physical details. The tousled hair of Pluto, the pliant flesh of Proserpina, or the forest of leaves beginning to envelop Daphne all demonstrate Bernini's exactitude and delight for representing complex real world textures in marble form.
Papal artist: the pontificate of Urban VIII
In 1621 Pope Paul V Borghese was succeeded on the throne of St. Peter by another admiring friend of Bernini's, Cardinal Alessandro Ludovisi, who became Pope Gregory XV: although his reign was very short (he died in 1623), Pope Gregory commissioned portraits of himself (both in marble and bronze) by Bernini. The pontiff also bestowed upon Bernini the honorific rank of 'Cavaliere,' the title with which for the rest of his life the artist was habitually referred. In 1623 came the ascent to the papal throne of his aforementioned friend and former tutor, Cardinal Maffeo Barberini, as Pope Urban VIII, and henceforth (until Urban's death in 1644) Bernini enjoyed near monopolistic patronage from the Barberini pope and family. The new Pope Urban is reported to have remarked, "It is a great fortune for you, O Cavaliere, to see Cardinal Maffeo Barberini made pope, but our fortune is even greater to have Cavalier Bernini alive in our pontificate." Although he did not fare as well during the reign (1644–55) of Innocent X, under Innocent's successor, Alexander VII (reigned 1655–67), Bernini once again gained pre-eminent artistic domination and continued in the successive pontificate to be held in high regard by Clement IX during his short reign (1667–69).
Under Urban VIII's patronage, Bernini's horizons rapidly and widely broadened: he was not just producing sculpture for private residences, but playing the most significant artistic (and engineering) role on the city stage, as sculptor, architect, and urban planner. His official appointments also testify to this—"curator of the papal art collection, director of the papal foundry at Castel Sant'Angelo, commissioner of the fountains of Piazza Navona". Such positions gave Bernini the opportunity to demonstrate his versatile skills throughout the city. To great protest from older, experienced master architects, he, with virtually no architectural training to his name, was appointed Chief Architect of St Peter's in 1629, upon the death of Carlo Maderno. From then on, Bernini's work and artistic vision would be placed at the symbolic heart of Rome.
Bernini's artistic pre-eminence under Urban VIII and Alexander VII meant he was able to secure the most important commissions in the Rome of his day, namely, the various massive embellishment projects of the newly finished St. Peter's Basilica, completed under Pope Paul V with the addition of Maderno's nave and facade and finally re-consecrated by Pope Urban VIII on 18 November 1626, after 150 years of planning and building. Within the basilica he was responsible for the Baldacchino, the decoration of the four piers under the cupola, the Cathedra Petri or Chair of St. Peter in the apse, the tomb monument of Matilda of Tuscany, the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament in the right nave, and the decoration (floor, walls and arches) of the new nave. The St Peter's Baldacchino immediately became the visual centerpiece of the new St. Peter's. Designed as a massive spiraling gilded bronze canopy over the tomb of St Peter, Bernini's four-pillared creation reached nearly from the ground and cost around 200,000 Roman scudi (about 8 million US dollars in the currency of the early 21st century). "Quite simply", writes one art historian, "nothing like it had ever been seen before". Soon after the St Peter's Baldacchino, Bernini undertook the whole-scale embellishment of the four massive piers at crossing of the basilica (i.e., the structures supporting the cupola) including, most notably, four colossal, theatrically dramatic statues, among them, the majestic St. Longinus executed by Bernini himself (the other three are by other contemporary sculptors François Duquesnoy, Francesco Mochi, and Bernini's disciple, Andrea Bolgi).
In the basilica, Bernini also began work on the tomb for Urban VIII, completed only after Urban's death in 1644, one in a long, distinguished series of tombs and funerary monuments for which Bernini is famous and a traditional genre upon which his influence left an enduring mark, often copied by subsequent artists. Indeed, Bernini's final and most original tomb monument, the Tomb of Pope Alexander VII, in St. Peter's Basilica, represents, according to Erwin Panofsky, the very pinnacle of European funerary art, whose creative inventiveness subsequent artists could not hope to surpass. Begun and largely completed during Alexander VII's reign, Bernini's design of the Piazza San Pietro in front of the Basilica is one of his most innovative and successful architectural designs, which transformed a formerly irregular, inchoate open space into an aesthetically unified, emotionally thrilling, and logistically efficient (for carriages and crowds), completely in harmony with the pre-existing buildings and adding to the majesty of the basilica.
Despite this busy engagement with large works of public architecture, Bernini was still able to devote himself to his sculpture, especially portraits in marble, but also large statues such as the life-size Saint Bibiana (1624, Church of Santa Bibiana, Rome). Bernini's portraits show his ever increasing ability to capture the utterly distinctive personal characteristics of his sitters, as well as his ability to achieve in cold white marble almost painterly-like effects that render with convincing realism the various surfaces involved: human flesh, hair, fabric of varying type, metal, etc. These portraits included a number of busts of Urban VIII himself, the family bust of Francesco Barberini and most notably, the Two Busts of Scipione Borghese—the second of which had been rapidly created by Bernini once a flaw had been found in the marble of the first. The transitory nature of the expression on Scipione's face is often noted by art historians, iconic of the Baroque concern for representing fleeting movement in static artworks. To Rudolf Wittkower the "beholder feels that in the twinkle of an eye not only might the expression and attitude change but also the folds of the casually arranged mantle".
Other marble portraits in this period include that of Costanza Bonarelli (executed around 1637), unusual in its more personal, intimate nature. (At the time of the sculpting of the portrait, Bernini was having an affair with Costanza, wife of one of his assistants, sculptor, Matteo.) Indeed, it would appear to be the first marble portrait of a non-aristocratic woman by a major artist in European history.
Beginning in the late 1630s, now known in Europe as one of the most accomplished portraitists in marble, Bernini also began to receive royal commissions from outside Rome, for subjects such as Cardinal Richelieu of France, Francesco I d'Este the powerful Duke of Modena, Charles I of England and his wife, Queen Henrietta Maria. The sculpture of Charles I was produced in Rome from a triple portrait (oil on canvas) executed by Van Dyck, that survives today in the British Royal Collection. The bust of Charles was lost in the Whitehall Palace fire of 1698 (though its design is known through contemporary copies and drawings) and that of Henrietta Maria was not undertaken due to the outbreak of the English Civil War.
Temporary eclipse and resurgence under Innocent X
In 1644, with the death of Pope Urban with whom Bernini had been so intimately connected and the ascent to power of the fierce Barberini-enemy Pope Innocent X Pamphilj, Bernini's career suffered a major, unprecedented eclipse, which was to last four years. This had not only to do with Innocent's anti-Barberini politics but also to Bernini's role in the disastrous project of the new bell towers for St. Peter's basilica, designed and supervised entirely by Bernini. The infamous bell tower affair was to be the biggest failure of his career, both professionally and financially. In 1636, eager to finally finish the exterior of St. Peter's, Pope Urban had ordered Bernini to design and build the two, long-intended bell towers for its facade: the foundations of the two towers had already been designed and constructed (namely, the last bays at either extremity of the facade) by Carlo Maderno (architect of the nave and the facade) decades earlier. Once the first tower was finished in 1641, cracks began to appear in the facade but, curiously enough, work nonetheless continued on the second tower and the first storey was completed. Despite the presence of the cracks, work only stopped in July 1642 once the papal treasury had been exhausted by the disastrous War of Castro. Knowing that Bernini could no longer depend on the protection of a favorable pope, his enemies (especially Francesco Borromini) raised a great alarm over the cracks, predicting a disaster for the whole basilica and placing the blame entirely on Bernini. The subsequent investigations, in fact, revealed the cause of the cracks as Maderno's defective foundations and not Bernini's elaborate design, an exoneration later confirmed by the meticulous investigation conducted in 1680 under Pope Innocent XI.
Nonetheless, Bernini's opponents in Rome succeeded in seriously damaging the reputation of Urban's artist and in persuading Pope Innocent to order (in February 1646) the complete demolition of both towers, to Bernini's great humiliation and indeed financial detriment (in the form of a substantial fine for the failure of the work). After this, one of the rare failures of his career, Bernini retreated into himself: according to his son, Domenico. his subsequent unfinished statue of 1647, Truth Unveiled by Time, was intended to be his self-consoling commentary on this affair, expressing his faith that eventually Time would reveal the actual Truth behind the story and exonerate him fully, as indeed did occur.
Although he received no personal commissions from Innocent or the Pamphilj family in the early years of the new papacy, Bernini did not lose his former positions granted to him by previous popes. Innocent X maintained Bernini in all of the official roles given to him by Urban, including that of chief Architect of St. Peter's. Under Bernini's design and direction, work continued on decorating the massive, recently completed but still entirely unadorned nave of St. Peter's, with the addition of an elaborate multi-colored marble flooring, marble facing on the walls and pilasters, and scores of stuccoed statues and reliefs. It is not without reason that Pope Alexander VII once quipped, 'If one were to remove from Saint Peter's everything that had been made by the Cavalier Bernini, that temple would be stripped bare.' Indeed, given all of his many and various works within the basilica over several decades, it is to Bernini that is due the lion's share of responsibility for the final and enduring aesthetic appearance and emotional impact of St. Peter's. He was also allowed to continue to work on Urban VIII's tomb, despite Innocent's antipathy for the Barberini. A few months after completing Urban's tomb, in 1648 Bernini won, in controversial circumstances, the Pamphilj commission for the prestigious Four Rivers Fountain on Piazza Navona, marking the end of his disgrace and the beginning a yet another glorious chapter in his life.
If there had been doubts over Bernini's position as Rome's preeminent artist, they were definitively removed by the unqualified success of the marvelously delightful and technically ingenious Four Rivers Fountain, featuring a heavy ancient obelisk placed over a void created by a cavelike rock formation placed in the center of an ocean of exotic sea creatures. Bernini continued to receive commissions from Pope Innocent X and other senior members of Rome's clergy and aristocracy, as well as from exalted patrons outside of Rome, such as Francesco d'Este. Recovering quickly form the humiliation of the bell tower, Bernini's boundless creativity continued as before. New types of funerary monument were designed, such as, in the Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, the seemingly floating medallion, hovering in the air as it were, for the deceased nun Maria Raggi, while chapels he designed, such as the Raimondi Chapel in the church of San Pietro in Montorio, illustrated how Bernini could use hidden lighting to help suggest divine intervention within the narratives he was depicting.
One of the most accomplished and celebrated works to come from Bernini's hand in this period was the Cornaro Family Chapel in the small Carmelite church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome. The Cornaro Chapel (inaugurated in 1651) showcased Bernini's ability to integrate sculpture, architecture, fresco, stucco, and lighting into "a marvelous whole" (bel composto, to use early biographer Filippo Baldinucci's term to describe his approach to architecture) and thus create what scholar Irving Lavin has called the "unified work of art". The central focus of the Cornaro Chapel is the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, depicting the so-called "transverberation" of Spanish nun and saint-mystic, Teresa of Avila. Bernini presents the spectator with a theatrically vivid portrait, in gleaming white marble, of the swooning Teresa and the quietly smiling angel, who delicately grips the arrow piercing the saint's heart. On either side of the chapel the artist places (in what can only strike the viewer as theater boxes), portraits in relief of various members of the Cornaro family – the Venetian family memorialized in the chapel, including Cardinal Federico Cornaro who commissioned the chapel from Bernini – who are in animated conversation among themselves, presumably about the event taking place before them. The result is a complex but subtly orchestrated architectural environment providing the spiritual context (a heavenly setting with a hidden source of light) that suggests to viewers the ultimate nature of this miraculous event.
Nonetheless, during Bernini's lifetime and in the centuries following till this very day, Bernini's Saint Teresa has been accused of crossing a line of decency by sexualizing the visual depiction of the saint's experience, to a degree that no artist, before or after Bernini, dared to do: in depicting her at an impossibly young chronological age, as an idealized delicate beauty, in a semi-prostrate position with her mouth open and her legs splayed-apart, her wimple coming undone, with prominently displayed bare feet (Discalced Carmelites, for modesty, always wore sandals with heavy stockings) and with the seraph "undressing" her by (unnecessarily) parting her mantle to penetrate her heart with his arrow.
Matters of decorum aside, Bernini's Teresa was still an artistic tour de force that incorporates all of the multiple forms of visual art and technique that Bernini had at his disposal, including hidden lighting, thin gilded beams, recessive architectural space, secret lens, and over twenty diverse types of colored marble: these all combine to create the final artwork—"a perfected, highly dramatic and deeply satisfying seamless ensemble".
Embellishment of Rome under Alexander VII
Upon his accession to the Chair of St Peter, Pope Alexander VII Chigi (1655–1667) began to implement his extremely ambitious plan to transform Rome into a magnificent world capital by means of systematic, bold (and costly) urban planning. In so doing, he brought to fruition the long, slow recreation of the urban glory of Rome—the "renovatio Romae"—that had begun in the fifteenth century under the Renaissance popes. Over the course of his pontificate Alexander commissioned many large-scale architectural changes in the city—indeed, some of the most significant ones in the city's recent history and for years to come—chosing Bernini as his principal collaborator (though other architects, especially Pietro da Cortona, were also involved). Thus did commence another extraordinarily prolific and successful chapter in Bernini's career.
Bernini's major commissions during this period include the piazza in front of St Peter's basilica. In a previously broad, irregular, and completely unstructured space, he created two massive semi-circular colonnades, each row of which was formed of four white columns. This resulted in an oval shape that formed an inclusive arena within which any gathering of citizens, pilgrims and visitors could witness the appearance of the pope—either as he appeared on the loggia on the facade of St Peter's or on balconies on the neighboring Vatican palaces. Often likened to two arms reaching out from the church to embrace the waiting crowd, Bernini's creation extended the symbolic greatness of the Vatican area, creating an "exhilarating expanse" that was, architecturally, an "unequivocal success".
Elsewhere within the Vatican, Bernini created systematic rearrangements and majestic embellishment of either empty or aesthetically undistinguished space that exist as he designed them to the present day and have become indelible icons of the splendor of the papal precincts. Within the hitherto unadorned apse of the basilica, the Cathedra Petri, the symbolic throne of St Peter, was rearranged as a monumental gilded bronze extravagance that matched the Baldacchino created earlier in the century. Bernini's complete reconstruction of the Scala Regia, the stately papal stairway between St. Peters's and the Vatican Palace, was slightly less ostentatious in appearance but still taxed Bernini's creative powers (employing, for example, clever tricks of optical illusion) to create a seemingly uniform, totally functional, but nonetheless regally impressive stairway to connect two irregular buildings within an even more irregular space.
Not all works during this era were on such a large scale. Indeed, the commission Bernini received to build the church of Sant'Andrea al Quirinale for the Jesuits was relatively modest in physical size (though great in its interior chromatic splendor), which Bernini executed completely free of charge. Sant'Andrea shared with the St. Peter's piazza—unlike the complex geometries of his rival Francesco Borromini—a focus on basic geometric shapes, circles and ovals to create spiritually intense buildings. Equally, Bernini moderated the presence of colour and decoration within these buildings, focussing visitors' attention on these simple forms that underpinned the building. Sculptural decoration was never eliminated, but its use was more minimal. He also designed the church of Santa Maria dell'Assunzione in the town of Ariccia with its circular outline, rounded dome and three-arched portico.
Visit to France and service to King Louis XIV
At the end of April 1665, and still considered the most important artist in Rome, if indeed not in all of Europe, Bernini was forced by political pressure (from both the French court and Pope Alexander VII) to travel to Paris to work for King Louis XIV, who required an architect to complete work on the royal palace of the Louvre. Bernini would remain in Paris until mid-October. Louis XIV assigned a member of his court to serve as Bernini's translator, tourist guide, and overall companion, Paul Fréart de Chantelou, who kept a Journal of Bernini's visit that records much of Bernini's behaviour and utterances in Paris. The writer Charles Perrault, who was serving at this time as an assistant to the French Finance Minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert, also provided a first-hand account of Bernini's visit.
Bernini's popularity was such that on his walks in Paris the streets were lined with admiring crowds. But things soon turned sour. Bernini presented finished designs for the east front (i.e., the all-important principal facade of the entire palace) of the Louvre, which were ultimately rejected, albeit formally not until 1667, well after his departure from Paris (indeed, the already constructed foundations for Bernini's Louvre addition were inaugurated in October 1665 in an elaborate ceremony, with both Bernini and King Louis in attendance). It is often stated in the scholarship on Bernini that his Louvre designs were turned down because Louis and his financial advisor Jean-Baptiste Colbert considered them too Italianate or too Baroque in style. In fact, as Franco Mormando points out, "aesthetics are never mentioned in any of [the] ... surviving memos" by Colbert or any of the artistic advisors at the French court. The explicit reasons for the rejections were utilitarian, namely, on the level of physical security and comfort (e.g., location of the latrines). It is also indisputable that there was an interpersonal conflict between Bernini and the young French king, each one feeling insufficiently respected by the other. Though his design for the Louvre went unbuilt, it circulated widely throughout Europe by means of engravings and its direct influence can be seen in subsequent stately residences such as Chatsworth House, Derbyshire, England, seat of the Dukes of Devonshire.
Other projects in Paris suffered a similar fate. With the exception of Chantelou, Bernini failed to forge significant friendships at the French court. His frequent negative comments on various aspects of French culture, especially its art and architecture, did not go down well, particularly in juxtaposition to his praise for the art and architecture of Italy (especially Rome); he said that a painting by Guido Reni was worth more than all of Paris. The sole work remaining from his time in Paris is the Bust of Louis XIV although he also contributed a great deal to the execution of the Christ Child Playing with a Nail marble relief (now in the Louvre) by his son Paolo as a gift to the Queen of France. Back in Rome, Bernini created a monumental equestrian statue of Louis XIV; when it finally reached Paris (in 1685, five years after the artist's death), the French king found it extremely repugnant and wanted it destroyed; it was instead re-carved into a representation of the ancient Roman hero Marcus Curtius.
Later years and death
Bernini remained physically and mentally vigorous and active in his profession until just two weeks before his death that came as a result of a stroke. The pontificate of his old friend, Clement IX, was too short (barely two years) to accomplish more than the dramatic refurbishment by Bernini of the Ponte Sant'Angelo, while the artist's elaborate plan, under Clement, for a new apse for the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore came to an unpleasant end in the midst of public uproar over its cost and the destruction of ancient mosaics that it entailed. The last two popes of Bernini's life, Clement X and Innocent XI, were both not especially close or sympathetic to Bernini and not particularly interested in financing works of art and architecture, especially given the disastrous conditions of the papal treasury. The most important commission by Bernini, executed entirely by him in just six months in 1674, under Clement X was the statue of the Blessed Ludovica Albertoni, another nun-mystic. The work, reminiscent of Bernini's Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, is located in the chapel dedicated to Ludovica remodeled under Bernini's supervision in the Trastevere church of San Francesco in Ripa, whose facade was designed by Bernini's disciple, Mattia de' Rossi.
In his last two years, Bernini also carved (supposedly for Queen Christina) the bust of the Savior (Basilica of San Sebastiano fuori le Mura, Rome) and supervised the restoration of the historic Palazzo della Cancelleria as per papal commission under Innocent XI. The latter commission is outstanding confirmation of both Bernini's continuing professional reputation and good health of mind and body even in advanced old age, inasmuch as the pope had chosen him over any number of talented younger architects plentiful in Rome, for this prestigious and most difficult assignment since, as his son Domenico points out, "deterioration of the palace had advanced to such an extent that the threat of its imminent collapse was quite apparent."
Shortly after the completion of the latter project, Bernini died in his home on 28 November 1680 and was buried, with little public fanfare, in the simple, unadorned Bernini family vault, along with his parents, in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore. Though an elaborate funerary monument had once been planned (documented by a single extant sketch of circa 1670 by disciple Ludovico Gimignani), it was never built and Bernini remained with no permanent public acknowledgement of his life and career in Rome until 1898 when, on the anniversary of his birth, a simple plaque and small bust was affixed to the face of his home on the Via della Mercede, proclaiming "Here lived and died Gianlorenzo Bernini, a sovereign of art, before whom reverently bowed popes, princes, and a multitude of peoples."
Personal life
In the 1630s, Bernini had an affair with a married woman named Costanza (wife of his workshop assistant, Matteo Bonucelli, also called Bonarelli) and sculpted a bust of her (now in the Bargello, Florence) during the height of their romance. Costanza later had an affair with Bernini's younger brother, Luigi, who was Bernini's right-hand man in his studio. When Bernini found out about Costanza and his brother, in a fit of mad fury, he chased Luigi through the streets of Rome and into the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, threatening his life. To punish his unfaithful mistress, Bernini had a servant go to the house of Costanza, where the servant slashed her face several times with a razor. The servant was later jailed, while Costanza herself was jailed for adultery. Bernini himself, instead, was exonerated by the pope, even though he had committed a crime in ordering the face-slashing. Soon after, in May 1639, at age forty-one, Bernini wed a twenty-two-year-old Roman woman, Caterina Tezio, in an arranged marriage, under orders from Pope Urban. She bore him eleven children, including youngest son Domenico Bernini, who would later be his first biographer. After his never-repeated fit of passion and bloody rage and his subsequent marriage, Bernini turned more sincerely to the practice of his faith, according to his early official biographers, whereas brother Luigi was to once again, in 1670, bring great grief and scandal to his family by his sodomitic rape of a young Bernini workshop assistant at the construction site of the 'Constantine' memorial in St. Peter's Basilica.
Architecture
Bernini's architectural works include sacred and secular buildings and sometimes their urban settings and interiors. He made adjustments to existing buildings and designed new constructions. Among his most well known works are the Piazza San Pietro (1656–67), the piazza and colonnades in front of St. Peter's Basilica and the interior decoration of the Basilica. Among his secular works are a number of Roman palaces: following the death of Carlo Maderno, he took over the supervision of the building works at the Palazzo Barberini from 1630 on which he worked with Borromini; the Palazzo Ludovisi (now Palazzo Montecitorio, started 1650); and the Palazzo Chigi (now Palazzo Chigi-Odescalchi, started 1664).
His first architectural projects were the façade and refurbishment of the church of Santa Bibiana (1624–26) and the St. Peter's baldachin (1624–33), the bronze columned canopy over the high altar of St. Peter's Basilica. In 1629, and before St. Peter's Baldachin was complete, Urban VIII put him in charge of all the ongoing architectural works at St Peter's. However, Bernini fell out of favor during the papacy of Innocent X Pamphili: one reason was the pope's animosity towards the Barberini and hence towards their clients including Bernini. Another reason was the failure of the belltowers designed and built by Bernini for St. Peter's Basilica, commencing during the reign of Urban VIII. The completed north tower and the only partially completed south tower were ordered demolished by Innocent in 1646 because their excessive weight had caused cracks in the basilica's facade and threatened to do more calamitous damage. Professional opinion at the time was in fact divided over the true gravity of the situation (with Bernini's rival Borromini spreading an extreme, anti-Bernini catastrophic view of the problem) and over the question of responsibility for the damage: Who was to blame? Bernini? Pope Urban VIII who forced Bernini to design over-elaborate towers? Deceased Architect of St. Peter's, Carlo Maderno who built the weak foundations for the towers? Official papal investigations in 1680 in fact completely exonerated Bernini, while inculpating Maderno. Never wholly without patronage during the Pamphili years, after Innocent's death in 1655 Bernini regained a major role in the decoration of St. Peter's with the Pope Alexander VII Chigi, leading to his design of the piazza and colonnade in front of St. Peter's. Further significant works by Bernini at the Vatican include the Scala Regia (1663–66), the monumental grand stairway entrance to the Vatican Palace, and the Cathedra Petri, the Chair of Saint Peter, in the apse of St. Peter's, in addition to the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament in the nave.
Bernini did not build many churches from scratch; rather, his efforts were concentrated on pre-existing structures, such as the restored church of Santa Bibiana and in particular St. Peter's. He fulfilled three commissions for new churches in Rome and nearby small towns. Best known is the small but richly ornamented oval church of Sant'Andrea al Quirinale, done (beginning in 1658) for the Jesuit novitiate, representing one of the rare works of his hand with which Bernini's son, Domenico, reports that his father was truly and very pleased. Bernini also designed churches in Castelgandolfo (San Tommaso da Villanova, 1658–1661) and Ariccia (Santa Maria Assunta, 1662–1664), and was responsible for the re-modeling of the Santuario della Madonna di Galloro (just outside of Ariccia), endowing it with a majestic new facade.
When Bernini was invited to Paris in 1665 to prepare works for Louis XIV, he presented designs for the east facade of the Louvre Palace, but his projects were ultimately turned down in favor of the more sober and classic proposals of a committee consisting of three Frenchmen: Louis Le Vau, Charles Le Brun, and the doctor and amateur architect Claude Perrault, signaling the waning influence of Italian artistic hegemony in France. Bernini's projects were essentially rooted in the Italian Baroque urbanist tradition of relating public buildings to their settings, often leading to innovative architectural expression in urban spaces like piazze or squares. However, by this time, the French absolutist monarchy now preferred the classicizing monumental severity of the Louvre's facade, no doubt with the added political bonus that it had been designed by a Frenchmen. The final version did, however, include Bernini's feature of a flat roof behind a Palladian balustrade.
Personal residences
During his lifetime Bernini lived in various residences throughout the city: principal among them, a palazzo right across from Santa Maria Maggiore and still extant at Via Liberiana 24, while his father was still alive; after his father's death in 1629, Bernini moved the clan to the long-ago-demolished Santa Marta neighborhood behind the apse of St. Peter's Basilica, which afforded him more convenient access to the Vatican Foundry and to his working studio also on the Vatican premises. In 1639, Bernini bought property on the corner of the via della Mercede and the via del Collegio di Propaganda Fide in Rome. This gave him the distinction of being the only one of two artists (the other is Pietro da Cortona) to be proprietor of his own large palatial (though not sumptuous) residence, furnished as well with its own water supply. Bernini refurbished and expanded the existing palazzo on the Via della Mercede site, at what are now Nos. 11 and 12. (The building is sometimes referred to as "Palazzo Bernini," but that title more properly pertains to the Bernini family's later and larger home on Via del Corso, to which they moved in the early nineteenth century, now known as the Palazzo Manfroni-Bernini.) Bernini lived at No. 11 (extensively remodeled in the 19th century), where his working studio was located, as well as a large collection of works of art, his own and those of other artists. It is imagined that it must have been galling for Bernini to witness through the windows of his dwelling, the construction of the tower and dome of Sant'Andrea delle Fratte by his rival, Borromini, and also the demolition of the chapel that he, Bernini, had designed at the Collegio di Propaganda Fide to see it replaced by Borromini's chapel. The construction of Sant'Andrea, however, was completed by Bernini's close disciple, Mattia de' Rossi, and it contains (to this day) the marble originals of two of Bernini's own angels executed by the master for the Ponte Sant'Angelo.
Fountains
True to the decorative dynamism of Baroque which loved the aesthetic pleasure and emotional delight afforded by the sight and sound of water in motion, among Bernini's most gifted and applauded creations were his Roman fountains, which were both utilitarian public works and personal monuments to their patrons, papal or otherwise. His first fountain, the 'Barcaccia' (commissioned in 1627, finished 1629) at the foot of the Spanish Steps, cleverly surmounted a challenge that Bernini was to face in several other fountain commissions, the low water pressure in many parts of Rome (Roman fountains were all driven by gravity alone), creating a low-lying flat boat that was able to take greatest advantage of the small amount of water available. Another example is the long-ago dismantled "Woman Drying Her Hair" fountain that Bernini created for the no-longer-extant Villa Barberini ai Bastioni on the edge of the Janiculum Hill overlooking St. Peter's Basilica. His other fountains include the Fountain of the Triton, or Fontana del Tritone, and the Barberini Fountain of the Bees, the Fontana delle Api. The Fountain of the Four Rivers, or Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi, in the Piazza Navona is an exhilarating masterpiece of spectacle and political allegory in which Bernini again brilliantly overcame the problem of the piazza's low water pressure creating the illusion of an abundance of water that in reality did not exist. An oft-repeated, but false, anecdote tells that one of the Bernini's river gods defers his gaze in disapproval of the facade of Sant'Agnese in Agone (designed by the talented, but less politically successful, rival Francesco Borromini), impossible because the fountain was built several years before the façade of the church was completed. Bernini was also the artist of the statue of the Moor in La Fontana del Moro in Piazza Navona (1653).
Bernini's Triton Fountain is depicted musically in the second section of Ottorino Respighi's Fountains of Rome.
Tomb monuments and other works
Another major category of Bernini's activity was that of the tomb monument, a genre on which his distinctive new style exercised a decisive and long-enduring influence; included in this category are his tombs for Popes Urban VIII and Alexander VII (both in St. Peter's Basilica), Cardinal Domenico Pimental (Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome, design only), and Matilda of Canossa (St. Peter's Basilica). Related to the tomb monument is the funerary memorial, of which Bernini executed several (including that, most notably, of Maria Raggi [Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome] also of greatly innovative style and long enduring influence. Among his smaller commissions, although not mentioned by either of his earliest biographers, Baldinucci or Domenico Bernini, the Elephant and Obelisk is a sculpture located near the Pantheon, in the Piazza della Minerva, in front of the Dominican church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva. Pope Alexander VII decided that he wanted a small ancient Egyptian obelisk (that was discovered beneath the piazza) to be erected on the same site, and in 1665 he commissioned Bernini to create a sculpture to support the obelisk. The sculpture of an elephant bearing the obelisk on its back was executed by one of Bernini's students, Ercole Ferrata, upon a design by his master, and finished in 1667. An inscription on the base relates the Egyptian goddess Isis and the Roman goddess Minerva to the Virgin Mary, who supposedly supplanted those pagan goddesses and to whom the church is dedicated. A popular anecdote concerns the elephant's smile. To find out why it is smiling, legend has it, the viewer must examine the rear end of the animal and notice that its muscles are tensed and its tail is shifted to the left as if it were defecating. The animal's rear is pointed directly at one of the headquarters of the Dominican Order, housing the offices of its Inquisitors as well as the office of Father Giuseppe Paglia, a Dominican friar who was one of the main antagonists of Bernini, as a final salute and last word.
Among his minor commissions for non-Roman patrons or venues, in 1677 Bernini worked along with Ercole Ferrata to create a fountain for the Lisbon palace of the Portuguese nobleman, the Count of Ericeira: copying his earlier fountains, Bernini supplied the design of the fountain sculpted by Ferrata, featuring Neptune with four tritons around a basin. The fountain has survived and since 1945 has been outside the precincts of the gardens of the Palacio Nacional de Queluz, several miles outside of Lisbon.
Paintings and drawings
Bernini would have studied painting as a normal part of his artistic training begun in early adolescence under the guidance of his father, Pietro, in addition to some further training in the studio of the Florentine painter, Cigoli. His earliest activity as a painter was probably no more than a sporadic diversion practiced mainly in his youth, until the mid-1620s, that is, the beginning of the pontificate of Pope Urban VIII (reigned 1623–1644) who ordered Bernini to study painting in greater earnest because the pontiff wanted him to decorate the Benediction Loggia of St. Peter's. The latter commission was never executed most likely because the required large-scale narrative compositions were simply beyond Bernini's ability as a painter. According to his early biographers, Baldinucci and Domenico Bernini, Bernini completed at least 150 canvases, mostly in the decades of the 1620s and 30s, but currently there are no more than 35–40 surviving paintings that can be confidently attributed to his hand. The extant, securely attributed works are mostly portraits, seen close up and set against an empty background, employing a confident, indeed brilliant, painterly brushstroke (similar to that of his Spanish contemporary Velasquez), free from any trace of pedantry, and a very limited palette of mostly warm, subdued colors with deep chiaroscuro. His work was immediately sought after by major collectors. Most noteworthy among these extant works are several, vividly penetrating self portraits (all dating to the mid 1620s – early 1630s), especially that in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, purchased during Bernini's lifetime by Cardinal Leopoldo de' Medici. Bernini's Apostles Andrew and Thomas in London's National Gallery is the sole canvas by the artist whose attribution, approximate date of execution (circa 1625) and provenance (the Barberini Collection, Rome) are securely known.
As for Bernini's drawings, about 350 still exist; but this represents a minuscule percentage of the drawings he would have created in his lifetime; these include rapid sketches relating to major sculptural or architectural commissions, presentation drawings given as gifts to his patrons and aristocratic friends, and exquisite, fully finished portraits, such as those of Agostino Mascardi (Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris) and Scipione Borghese and Sisinio Poli (both in New York's Morgan Library).
Disciples, collaborators, and rivals
Among the many sculptors who worked under his supervision (even though most were accomplished masters in their own right) were Luigi Bernini, Stefano Speranza, Giuliano Finelli, Andrea Bolgi, Giacomo Antonio Fancelli, Lazzaro Morelli, Francesco Baratta, Ercole Ferrata, the Frenchman Niccolò Sale, Giovanni Antonio Mari, Antonio Raggi, and François Duquesnoy. But his most trusted right-hand man in sculpture was Giulio Cartari, while in architecture it was Mattia de Rossi, both of whom traveled to Paris with Bernini to assist him in his work there for King Louis XIV. Other architect disciples include Giovanni Battista Contini and Carlo Fontana while Swedish architect, Nicodemus Tessin the Younger, who visited Rome twice after Bernini's death, was also much influenced by him.
Among his rivals in architecture were, above all, Francesco Borromini and Pietro da Cortona. Early in their careers they had all worked at the same time at the Palazzo Barberini, initially under Carlo Maderno and, following his death, under Bernini. Later on, however, they were in competition for commissions, and fierce rivalries developed, particularly between Bernini and Borromini. In sculpture, Bernini competed with Alessandro Algardi and Francois Duquesnoy, but they both died decades earlier than Bernini (respectively in 1654 and 1643), leaving Bernini effectively with no sculptor of his same exalted status in Rome. Francesco Mochi can also be included among Bernini's significant rivals, though he was not as accomplished in his art as Bernini, Algardi or Duquesnoy.
There was also a succession of painters (the so-called 'pittori berniniani') who, working under the master's close guidance and at times according to his designs, produced canvases and frescos that were integral components of Bernini's larger multi-media works such as churches and chapels: Carlo Pellegrini, Guido Ubaldo Abbatini, Frenchman Guillaume Courtois (Guglielmo Cortese, known as 'Il Borgognone'), Ludovico Gimignani, and Giovanni Battista Gaulli (who, thanks to Bernini, was granted the prized commission to fresco the vault of the Jesuit mother church of the Gesù by Bernini's friend, Jesuit Superior General, Gian Paolo Oliva). As far as Caravaggio is concerned, in all the voluminous Bernini sources, his name appears only once, in the Chantelou Diary which records Bernini's disparaging remark about him (specifically his Fortune Teller that had just arrived from Italy as a Pamphilj gift to King Louis XIV). However, how much Bernini really scorned Caravaggio's art is a matter of debate whereas arguments have been made in favor of a strong influence of Caravaggio on Bernini. Bernini would of course have heard much about Caravaggio and seen many of his works not only because in Rome at the time such contact was impossible to avoid, but also because during his own lifetime Caravaggio had come to the favorable attention of Bernini's own early patrons, both the Borghese and the Barberini. Indeed, much like Caravaggio, Bernini used a theatrical light as an important aesthetic and metaphorical device in his religious settings, often using hidden light sources that could intensify the focus of religious worship or enhance the dramatic moment of a sculptural narrative.
First biographies
The most important primary source for the life of Bernini is the biography written by his youngest son, Domenico, entitled Vita del Cavalier Gio. Lorenzo Bernino, published in 1713 though first compiled in the last years of his father's life (c. 1675–80). Filippo Baldinucci's Life of Bernini, was published in 1682, and a meticulous private journal, the Diary of the Cavaliere Bernini's Visit to France, was kept by the Frenchman Paul Fréart de Chantelou during the artist's four-month stay from June through October 1665 at the court of King Louis XIV. Also, there is a short biographical narrative, The Vita Brevis of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, written by his eldest son, Monsignor Pietro Filippo Bernini, in the mid-1670s.
Until the late 20th century, it was generally believed that two years after Bernini's death, Queen Christina of Sweden, then living in Rome, commissioned Filippo Baldinucci to write his biography, which was published in Florence in 1682. However, recent research now strongly suggests that it was in fact Bernini's sons (and specifically the eldest son, Mons. Pietro Filippo) who commissioned the biography from Baldinucci sometime in the late 1670s, with the intent of publishing it while their father was still alive. This would mean that first, the commission did not at all originate in Queen Christina who would have merely lent her name as patron (in order to hide the fact that the biography was coming directly from the family) and secondly, that Baldinucci's narrative was largely derived from some pre-publication version of Domenico Bernini's much longer biography of his father, as evidenced by the extremely large amount of text repeated verbatim (there is no other explanation, otherwise, for the massive amount of verbatim repetition, and it is known that Baldinucci routinely copied verbatim material for his artists' biographies supplied by family and friends of his subjects). As the most detailed account and the only one coming directly from a member of the artist's immediate family, Domenico's biography, despite having been published later than Baldinucci's, therefore represents the earliest and more important full-length biographical source of Bernini's life, even though it idealizes its subject and whitewashes a number of less-than-flattering facts about his life and personality.
Legacy
As one Bernini scholar has summarized, "Perhaps the most important result of all of the [Bernini] studies and research of these past few decades has been to restore to Bernini his status as the great, principal protagonist of Baroque art, the one who was able to create undisputed masterpieces, to interpret in an original and genial fashion the new spiritual sensibilities of the age, to give the city of Rome an entirely new face, and to unify the [artistic] language of the times." Few artists have had as decisive an influence on the physical appearance and emotional tenor of a city as Bernini had on Rome. Maintaining a controlling influence over all aspects of his many and large commissions and over those who aided him in executing them, he was able to carry out his unique and harmoniously uniform vision over decades of work with his long and productive life Although by the end of Bernini's life there was in motion a decided reaction against his brand of flamboyant Baroque, the fact is that sculptors and architects continued to study his works and be influenced by them for several more decades (Nicola Salvi's later Trevi Fountain [inaugurated in 1735] is a prime example of the enduring post-mortem influence of Bernini on the city's landscape).
In the eighteenth century Bernini and virtually all Baroque artists fell from favor in the neoclassical criticism of the Baroque, that criticism aimed above all on the latter's supposedly extravagant (and thus illegitimate) departures from the pristine, sober models of Greek and Roman antiquity. It is only from the late nineteenth century that art historical scholarship, in seeking a more objective understanding of artistic output within the specific cultural context in which it was produced, without the a priori prejudices of neoclassicism, began to recognize Bernini's achievements and slowly began restore his artistic reputation. However, the reaction against Bernini and the too-sensual (and therefore "decadent"), too emotionally charged Baroque in the larger culture (especially in non-Catholic countries of northern Europe, and particularly in Victorian England) remained in effect until well into the twentieth century (most notable are the public disparagement of Bernini by Francesco Milizia, Joshua Reynolds, and Jacob Burkhardt). Most of the popular eighteenth- and nineteenth-century tourist's guides to Rome all but ignore Bernini and his work, or treat it with disdain, as in the case of the best-selling Walks in Rome (22 editions between 1871 and 1925) by Augustus J.C. Hare, who describes the angels on the Ponte Sant'Angelo as 'Bernini's Breezy Maniacs.'
But now in the twenty-first century, Bernini and his Baroque have now been enthusiastically restored to favor, both critical and popular. Since the anniversary year of his birth in 1998, there have been numerous Bernini exhibitions throughout the world, especially Europe and North America, on all aspects of his work, expanding our knowledge of his work and its influence. In the late twentieth century, Bernini was commemorated on the front of the Banca d'Italia 50,000 lire banknote in the 1980s and 90s (before Italy switched to the euro) with the back showing his equestrian statue of Constantine. Another outstanding sign of Bernini's enduring reputation came in the decision by architect I.M. Pei to insert a faithful copy in lead of his King Louis XIV Equestrian statue as the sole ornamental element in his massive modernist redesign of the entrance plaza to the Louvre Museum, completed to great acclaim in 1989, and featuring the giant Louvre Pyramid in glass. In 2000 best-selling novelist, Dan Brown, made Bernini and several of his Roman works, the centerpiece of his political thriller, Angels & Demons, while British novelist Iain Pears made a missing Bernini bust the centerpiece of his best-selling murder mystery, The Bernini Bust (2003).
Selected works
Sculpture
The Goat Amalthea with the Infant Jupiter and a Faun (c. 1609–1615) Marble, height 44 cm (17 in), Galleria Borghese, Rome
Bust of Giovanni Battista Santoni (c. 1613–1616) Marble, life-size, Santa Prassede, Rome
A Faun Teased by Children (1616–17) Marble, height 132 cm (52 in), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence (1617) Marble, 66 cm x 108 cm (26 in x 43 in), Uffizi, Florence
Saint Sebastian (1617–18) Marble, life-size, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid
Bust of Giovanni Vigevano (1617–18) Marble tomb, life-size, Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome
Bust of Pope Paul V (1618) Marble, 35 cm (14 in), Galleria Borghese, Rome
Aeneas, Anchises, and Ascanius (1618–19) Marble, height 220 cm (87 in), Galleria Borghese, Rome
Damned Soul (1619) Marble, life-size, Palazzo di Spagna, Rome
Blessed Soul (1619) Marble, life-size, Palazzo di Spagna, Rome
Neptune and Triton (1620) Marble, height 182 cm (72 in), Victoria and Albert Museum, London
The Rape of Proserpina (1621–22) Marble, height 225 cm (89 in), Galleria Borghese, Rome
Bust of Pope Gregory XV (1621) Marble, height 64 cm (25 in), Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
Bust of Monsignor Pedro de Foix Montoya (c. 1621) Marble, life-size, Santa Maria di Monserrato, Rome
Bust of Cardinal Escoubleau de Sourdis (1622) Marble, life-size, Musée d'Aquitaine, Bordeaux
Apollo and Daphne (1622–1625) Marble, height 243 cm (96 in), Galleria Borghese, Rome
Bust of Antonio Cepparelli (1622) Marble, Museo di San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, Rome
David (1623–24) Marble, height 170 cm (67 in), Galleria Borghese, Rome
Saint Bibiana (1624–1626) Marble, life-size, Santa Bibiana, Rome
St. Peter's Baldachin (1623–1634) Bronze, partly gilt, 20 m (66 ft), St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City
Bust of Francesco Barberini (1626) Marble, height 80 cm (31 in), National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Charity with Four Children (1627–28) Terracotta, height 39 cm (15 in), Vatican Museums, Vatican City
Tomb of Pope Urban VIII (1627–1647) Bronze and marble, larger than life-size, St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City
Saint Longinus (1631–1638) Marble, height 440 cm (174 in), St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City
Two Busts of Scipione Borghese (1632) Marble, height 78 cm (31 in), Galleria Borghese, Rome
Bust of Costanza Bonarelli (1635) Marble, height 72 cm (28 in), Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence
Bust of Thomas Baker (1638) Marble, height 82 cm (32 in), Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Bust of Cardinal Richelieu (1640–41) Marble, life-size, The Louvre, Paris
Truth Unveiled by Time (1645–1652) Marble, height 280 cm (110 in), Galleria Borghese, Rome
Memorial to Maria Raggi (1647–1653) Gilt bronze and coloured marble, life-size Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome
Ecstasy of Saint Teresa (1647–1652) Marble, life-size, Cappella Cornaro, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome
Loggia of the Founders (1647–1652) Marble, life-size, Cappella Cornaro, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome
Corpus (1650) Bronze, life-size, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
Bust of Francesco I d'Este (1650–51) Marble, height 107 cm, Galleria Estense, Modena
The Vision of Constantine (1654–1670) Marble, Vatican Museums, Apostolic Palace, Vatican City
Daniel and the Lion (1655) Terracotta, height 41.6 cm, Vatican Museums, Vatican City
Daniel and the Lion (1655–56) Marble, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome
Habakkuk and the Angel (1655) Terracotta, height 52 cm, Vatican Museums, Vatican City
Habakkuk and the Angel (1656-1661) Marble, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome
Altar Cross (1657–1661) Gilt bronze corpus on bronze cross, height 45 cm (18 in), St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City
Chair of Saint Peter (1657–1666) Marble, bronze, white and golden stucco, St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City
Statue of Saint Augustine (1657–1666) Bronze, St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City
Saints Jerome and Mary Magdalen (1661–1663) Marble, height 180 cm, Cappella Chigi, Siena Cathedral, Siena
Constantine, Scala Regia (1663–1670) Marble with painted stucco drapery, Scala Regia, Apostolic Palace, Vatican City
Bust of Louis XIV (1665) White marble, height 105 cm, Salon de Diane, Musée National de Versailles, Versailles
Elephant and Obelisk (erected 1667) Marble, Piazza di Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome
Standing Angel with Scroll (1667–68) Clay, terracotta, height: 29.2 cm, Fogg Museum, Cambridge
Angels of Ponte Sant'Angelo (1667–1669) Marble, Ponte Sant'Angelo, Rome
Angel with the Crown of Thorns (1667–1669) Marble, over life-size, Sant'Andrea delle Fratte, Rome
Angel with the Superscription (1667–1669) Marble, over life-size, Sant'Andrea delle Fratte, Rome
Bust of Gabriele Fonseca (1668–1675) Marble, over life-size, San Lorenzo in Lucina, Rome
Equestrian Statue of King Louis XIV (1669–1684) Marble, height 76 cm, Palace of Versailles, Versailles
Blessed Ludovica Albertoni (1671–1674) Marble, Cappella Altieri-Albertoni, San Francesco a Ripa, Rome
Tomb of Pope Alexander VII (1671–1678) Marble and gilded bronze, over life-size, St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City
Architecture and fountains
St. Peter's Square (1656–1667) Marble, granite, travertine, stone, Vatican City
Sant'Andrea al Quirinale, Via XX Settembre
Fontana della Barcaccia (1627) Marble, Piazza di Spagna, Rome
Fontana del Tritone (1624–1643) Travertine, over life-size, Piazza Barberini, Rome
Fontana delle Api (1644) Travertine, Piazza Barberini, Rome
Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (1648–1651) Travertine and marble, Piazza Navona, Rome
Fontana del Moro (1653–54) Marble, Piazza Navona, Rome
Paintings
Self-Portrait as a Young Man (c. 1623) Oil on canvas, Galleria Borghese, Rome
Portrait of Pope Urban VIII (c. 1625) Oil on canvas, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome
Saint Andrew and Saint Thomas (c. 1627) Oil on canvas, 59 x 76 cm, National Gallery, London
Self-Portrait as a Mature Man (1630–35) Oil on canvas, Galleria Borghese, Rome
Self-Portrait as a Mature Man (1635-1638) Oil on canvas, Museo del Prado, Madrid
Portrait of a Boy (c. 1638) Oil on canvas, Galleria Borghese, Rome
Christ Mocked (c. 1644–55) Oil on canvas, Private Collection, London
Gallery
References
Bibliography
External links
Tools and techniques used by Bernini
Checklist of Bernini's architecture and sculpture in Rome
Gian Lorenzo Bernini - Biography, Style and Artworks
Extract on Bernini from Simon Schama's The Power of Art
Photographs of Bernini's Santa Maria Assunta
smARThistory: Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, Cornaro Chapel, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome
Constantly updated list and discussion of the most recent archival discoveries regarding Bernini's biography and works
The Vatican: spirit and art of Christian Rome, a book from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries (fully available online as PDF), which contains a good deal of material on Bernini
Gian Lorenzo Bernini
1598 births
1680 deaths
Burials at Santa Maria Maggiore
17th-century Italian architects
17th-century Italian painters
17th-century Italian sculptors
Architects from Naples
Italian Baroque sculptors
Italian Baroque architects
Italian Baroque painters
Italian Baroque people
Italian male painters
Italian male sculptors
Italian Roman Catholics
Catholic sculptors
Italian caricaturists
Italian architects | [
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12636 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German%20literature | German literature | German literature () comprises those literary texts written in the German language. This includes literature written in Germany, Austria, the German parts of Switzerland and Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, South Tyrol in Italy and to a lesser extent works of the German diaspora. German literature of the modern period is mostly in Standard German, but there are some currents of literature influenced to a greater or lesser degree by dialects (e.g. Alemannic).
Medieval German literature is literature written in Germany, stretching from the Carolingian dynasty; various dates have been given for the end of the German literary Middle Ages, the Reformation (1517) being the last possible cut-off point. The Old High German period is reckoned to run until about the mid-11th century; the most famous works are the Hildebrandslied and a heroic epic known as the Heliand. Middle High German starts in the 12th century; the key works include The Ring (ca. 1410) and the poems of Oswald von Wolkenstein and Johannes von Tepl. The Baroque period (1600 to 1720) was one of the most fertile times in German literature. Modern literature in German begins with the authors of the Enlightenment (such as Herder). The Sensibility movement of the 1750s–1770s ended with Goethe's best-selling The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774). The Sturm und Drang and Weimar Classicism movements were led by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller. German Romanticism was the dominant movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Biedermeier refers to the literature, music, the visual arts and interior design in the period between the years 1815 (Vienna Congress), the end of the Napoleonic Wars, and 1848, the year of the European revolutions. Under the Nazi regime, some authors went into exile (Exilliteratur) and others submitted to censorship ("internal emigration", Innere Emigration). The Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to German language authors fourteen times (as of 2020), or the second most often, tying with French language authors, after English language authors (with 32 laureates) with winners including Thomas Mann, Hermann Hesse, Günter Grass, and Peter Handke.
Periodization
Periodization is not an exact science but the following list contains movements or time periods typically used in discussing German literature. It seems worth noting that the periods of medieval German literature span two or three centuries, those of early modern German literature span one century, and those of modern German literature each span one or two decades. The closer one nears the present, the more debated the periodizations become.
Medieval German literature
Old High German literature (750–1050)
Middle High German literature (1050–1350)
Late medieval / Renaissance (1350–1500)
Early Modern German literature (see Early Modern literature)
Humanism and Protestant Reformation (1500–1650)
Baroque (1600–1720)
Enlightenment (1680–1789)
Modern German literature
18th- and 19th-century German literature
Empfindsamkeit / Sensibility (1750s–1770s)
Sturm und Drang / Storm and Stress (1760s–1780s)
German Classicism (1729–1832)
Weimar Classicism (1788–1805) or (1788–1832), depending on Schiller's (1805) or Goethe's (1832) death
German Romanticism (1790s–1880s)
Biedermeier (1815–1848)
Young Germany (1830–1850)
Poetic Realism (1848–1890)
Naturalism (1880–1900)
20th-century German literature
1900–1933
Fin de siècle (c. 1900)
Symbolism
Expressionism (1910–1920)
Dada (1914–1924)
New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit)
Well Known Writers of the 20th Century
1933–1945
National Socialist literature
Exile literature
1945–1989
By country
Federal Republic of Germany
German Democratic Republic
Austria
Switzerland
Other
By thematic or group
Post-war literature (1945–1967)
Group 47
Holocaust literature
Contemporary German literature (1989–)
Middle Ages
Medieval German literature refers to literature written in Germany, stretching from the Carolingian dynasty; various dates have been given for the end of the German literary Middle Ages, the Reformation (1517) being the last possible cut-off point.
Old High German
The Old High German period is reckoned to run until about the mid-11th century, though the boundary to Early Middle High German (second half of the 11th century) is not clear-cut.
The most famous work in OHG is the Hildebrandslied, a short piece of Germanic alliterative heroic verse which besides the Muspilli is the sole survivor of what must have been a vast oral tradition. Another important work, in the northern dialect of Old Saxon, is a life of Christ in the style of a heroic epic known as the Heliand.
Middle High German
Middle High German proper runs from the beginning of the 12th century, and in the second half of the 12th century, there was a sudden intensification of activity, leading to a 60-year "golden age" of medieval German literature referred to as the mittelhochdeutsche Blütezeit (1170–1230). This was the period of the blossoming of MHG lyric poetry, particularly Minnesang (the German variety of the originally French tradition of courtly love). One of the most important of these poets was Walther von der Vogelweide. The same sixty years saw the composition of the most important courtly romances. These are written in rhyming couplets, and again draw on French models such as Chrétien de Troyes, many of them relating Arthurian material, for example, Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach. The third literary movement of these years was a new revamping of the heroic tradition, in which the ancient Germanic oral tradition can still be discerned, but tamed and Christianized and adapted for the court. These high medieval heroic epics are written in rhymed strophes, not the alliterative verse of Germanic prehistory (for example, the Nibelungenlied).
The Middle High German period is conventionally taken to end in 1350, while the Early New High German is taken to begin with the German Renaissance, after the invention of movable type in the mid-15th century. Therefore, the literature of the late 14th and the early 15th century falls, as it were, in the cracks between Middle and New High German, and can be classified as either. Works of this transitional period include The Ring (c. 1410), the poems of Oswald von Wolkenstein and Johannes von Tepl, the German versions of Pontus and Sidonia, and arguably the works of Hans Folz and Sebastian Brant (Ship of Fools, 1494), among others. The Volksbuch (chapbook) tradition which would flourish in the 16th century also finds its origin in the second half of the 15th century.
Early Modern period
German Renaissance and Reformation
Sebastian Brant (1457–1521)
Thomas Murner (1475–1537)
Martin Luther (1483–1546)
Philipp Melanchthon (1497–1560)
Sebastian Franck (1500–1543)
Baroque period
The Baroque period (1600 to 1720) was one of the most fertile times in German literature. Many writers reflected the horrible experiences of the Thirty Years' War, in poetry and prose. Grimmelshausen's adventures of the young and naïve Simplicissimus, in the eponymous book Simplicius Simplicissimus, became the most famous novel of the Baroque period. Martin Opitz established rules for the "purity" of language, style, verse and rhyme. Andreas Gryphius and Daniel Caspar von Lohenstein wrote German language tragedies, or Trauerspiele, often on Classical themes and frequently quite violent. Erotic, religious and occasional poetry appeared in both German and Latin. Sibylle Ursula von Braunschweig-Lüneburg wrote part of a novel, Die Durchlauchtige Syrerin Aramena (Aramena, the noble Syrian lady), which when complete would be the most famous courtly novel in German Baroque literature; it was finished by her brother Anton Ulrich and edited by Sigmund von Birken.
18th century
The Enlightenment
Sensibility
Empfindsamkeit / Sensibility (1750s–1770s)
Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1724–1803), Christian Fürchtegott Gellert (1715–1769), Sophie de La Roche (1730–1807). The period culminates and ends in Goethe's best-selling Die Leiden des jungen Werther (1774).
Sturm und Drang
Sturm und Drang (the conventional translation is "Storm and Stress"; a more literal translation, however, might be storm and urge, storm and longing, or storm and impulse) is the name of a movement in German literature and music taking place from the late 1760s through the early 1780s in which individual subjectivity and, in particular, extremes of emotion were given free expression in response to the confines of rationalism imposed by the Enlightenment and associated aesthetic movements. The philosopher Johann Georg Hamann is considered to be the ideologue of Sturm und Drang, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a notable proponent of the movement, though he and Friedrich Schiller ended their period of association with it, initiating what would become Weimar Classicism.
19th century
German Classicism
Weimar Classicism (German “Weimarer Klassik” and “Weimarer Klassizismus”) is a cultural and literary movement of Europe, and its central ideas were originally propounded by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller during the period 1786 to 1805.
Romanticism
German Romanticism was the dominant movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. German Romanticism developed relatively late compared to its English counterpart, coinciding in its early years with the movement known as German Classicism or Weimar Classicism, which it opposed. In contrast to the seriousness of English Romanticism, the German variety is notable for valuing humor and wit as well as beauty. The early German romantics tried to create a new synthesis of art, philosophy, and science, looking to the Middle Ages as a simpler, more integrated period. As time went on, however, they became increasingly aware of the tenuousness of the unity they were seeking. Later German Romanticism emphasized the tension between the everyday world and the seemingly irrational and supernatural projections of creative genius. Heinrich Heine in particular criticized the tendency of the early romantics to look to the medieval past for a model of unity in art and society.
G.W.F. Hegel
E.T.A. Hoffmann
Friedrich Hölderlin
Heinrich von Kleist
Novalis (Friedrich von Hardenberg)
Friedrich Schlegel
August Wilhelm Schlegel
Friedrich Schleiermacher
Ludwig Tieck
Ludwig Uhland
Arthur Schopenhauer
Joseph von Eichendorff
Biedermeier and Vormärz
Biedermeier refers to work in the fields of literature, music, the visual arts and interior design in the period between the years 1815 (Vienna Congress), the end of the Napoleonic Wars, and 1848, the year of the European revolutions and contrasts with the Romantic era which preceded it. Typical Biedermeier poets are Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, Adelbert von Chamisso, Eduard Mörike, and Wilhelm Müller, the last three named having well-known musical settings by Robert Schumann, Hugo Wolf and Franz Schubert respectively.
Young Germany (Junges Deutschland) was a loose group of Vormärz writers which existed from about 1830 to 1850. It was essentially a youth movement (similar to those that had swept France and Ireland and originated in Italy). Its main proponents were Karl Gutzkow, Heinrich Laube, Theodor Mundt and Ludolf Wienbarg; Heinrich Heine, Ludwig Börne and Georg Büchner were also considered part of the movement. The wider circle included Willibald Alexis, Adolf Glassbrenner and Gustav Kühne.
Realism and Naturalism
Poetic Realism (1848–1890): Theodor Fontane, Gustav Freitag, Gottfried Keller, Wilhelm Raabe, Adalbert Stifter, Theodor Storm
Naturalism (1880–1900): Gerhart Hauptmann
20th century
1900 to 1933
Fin de siècle (c. 1900)
Weimar literature (1919–1933)
Symbolism
Expressionism (1910–1920)
Dada (1914–1924)
New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit)
Well Known Writers of the 20th century
A well-known writer of German Literature was Franz Kafka. Kafka's novel, The Trial, was ranked #3 on Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century. Kafka instills a macabre sensation in his writing, so much so, that his writing style was coined to be “Kafkaesque.” Kafka's writing allowed a peek into his melancholic life, one where he felt isolated from all human beings, one of his inspirations for writing.
Nazi Germany
National Socialist literature: see Blut und Boden, Nazi propaganda
Under the Nazi regime, some authors went into exile (Exilliteratur) and others submitted to censorship ("inner emigration", Innere Emigration)
Inner Emigration: Gottfried Benn, Werner Bergengruen, Hans Blüher, Hans Heinrich Ehrler, Hans Fallada, Werner Finck, Gertrud Fussenegger, Ricarda Huch, Ernst Jünger, Erich Kästner, Volker Lachmann, Oskar Loerke, Erika Mitterer, Walter von Molo, Friedrich Reck-Malleczewen, Richard Riemerschmid, Reinhold Schneider, Frank Thiess, Carl von Ossietzky, Ernst Wiechert
in exile: Ernst Bloch, Bertolt Brecht, Hermann Broch, Alfred Döblin, Lion Feuchtwanger, Bruno Frank, A. M. Frey, Anna Gmeyner, Oskar Maria Graf, Hermann Hesse, Heinrich Eduard Jacob, Hermann Kesten, Annette Kolb, Siegfried Kracauer, Emil Ludwig, Heinrich Mann, Klaus Mann, Thomas Mann, Balder Olden, Rudolf Olden, Robert Neumann, Erich Maria Remarque, Ludwig Renn, Alice Rühle-Gerstel, Otto Rühle, Alice Schwarz-Gardos, Anna Seghers, B. Traven, Bodo Uhse, Franz Werfel, Arnold Zweig, Stefan Zweig.
1945 to 1989
Post-war literature of West Germany (1945–1967): Heinrich Böll, Günter Grass, Group 47; Holocaust literature (Paul Celan, Edgar Hilsenrath)
GDR Literature in East Germany: Johannes R. Becher, Wolf Biermann, Bertolt Brecht, Sarah Kirsch, Günter Kunert, Reiner Kunze, Heiner Müller, Anna Seghers, Christa Wolf
Postwar literature of Switzerland and Austria: Ingeborg Bachmann, Thomas Bernhard, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Max Frisch, Elfriede Jelinek, Peter Handke
Postmodern literature: Christian Kracht, Hans Wollschläger, Christoph Ransmayr, Marlene Streeruwitz, Rainald Goetz, Clemens J. Setz, Oswald Wiener
21st century
Much of contemporary poetry in the German language is published in literary magazines. DAS GEDICHT, for instance, has featured German poetry from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Luxemburg for the last twenty years.
Science-Fiction, Fantasy: Andreas Eschbach, Frank Schätzing, Wolfgang Hohlbein, Bernhard Hennen, Walter Moers
Pop Literature: Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre
Migrant literature: Wladimir Kaminer, Feridun Zaimoglu, Rafik Schami
Poetry: Jürgen Becker, Marcel Beyer, Theo Breuer, Rolf Dieter Brinkmann, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Aldona Gustas, Ernst Jandl, Thomas Kling, Uwe Kolbe, Friederike Mayröcker, Durs Grünbein, Kurt Marti, Karl Krolow, Elke Erb
Aphorists: Hans Kruppa
Thriller: Ingrid Noll
Novel: Wilhelm Genazino, Günter Grass, Herta Müller, Siegfried Lenz, Charlotte Link, Rainald Goetz, Anna Kaleri, Norbert Scheuer, Dietmar Dath, Christian Kracht, Kathrin Schmidt, Burkhard Spinnen, Robert Menasse, Martin Walser, Andreas Mand, Zsuzsa Bánk, Marc Degens, Jenny Erpenbeck, Klaus Modick, Peter Handke, Elfriede Jelinek, Daniel Kehlmann
Literaturport (in German): audio clips of contemporary literature, many read out by the authors themselves
German-American literature: Paul-Henri Campbell, Walter Abish
Nobel Prize laureates
The Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to German-language authors fourteen times (as of 2020), tying with French-language authors, or the second most often after English-language authors (with 32).
The following writers are from Germany unless stated otherwise:
1902 Theodor Mommsen
1908 Rudolf Christoph Eucken
1910 Paul Heyse
1912 Gerhart Hauptmann
1919 Carl Spitteler (Swiss)
1929 Thomas Mann
1946 Hermann Hesse
1966 Nelly Sachs
1972 Heinrich Böll
1981 Elias Canetti (Bulgarian, later British)
1999 Günter Grass
2004 Elfriede Jelinek (Austrian)
2009 Herta Müller (Romanian by birth, later naturalized in West Germany)
2019 Peter Handke (Austrian)
See also
Goethe-Institut
German-speaking Europe
Standard German
Swiss literature
Austrian literature
Alemannic literature
Stiftung Lesen
History of German
List of German-language authors
List of German-language playwrights
List of German-language poets
List of German-language philosophers
History of literature
Projekt Gutenberg-DE
Sophie (digital lib)
Luso-Germanic Literature
Kindler literature encyclopedia
Media of Germany
Books in Germany
References
Literature
English
Cambridge History of German Literature. Watanabe-O’Kelly, Helen, ed. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
Konzett, Matthias Piccolruaz. Encyclopedia of German Literature. Routledge, 2000.
The Oxford Companion to German Literature, ed. by Mary Garland and Henry Garland, 3rd edition, Oxford University Press, 1997
Grange, William, ed. Historical dictionary of German literature to 1945 (2011) online
German
Bernd Lutz, Benedikt Jeßing (eds.): Metzler Lexikon Autoren: Deutschsprachige Dichter und Schriftsteller vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart, Stuttgart und Weimar: 4., aktualisierte und erweiterte Auflage 2010
Theo Breuer, Aus dem Hinterland. Lyrik nach 2000, Sistig/Eifel : Edition YE, 2005,
Theo Breuer, Kiesel & Kastanie (ed.): Von neuen Gedichten und Geschichten, Sistig/Eifel : Edition YE, 2008,
Jürgen Brocan, Jan Kuhlbrodt (eds.), Umkreisungen. 25 Auskünfte zum Gedicht, Leipzig: Poetenladen Literaturverlag, 2010
Manfred Enzensperger (ed.), Die Hölderlin-Ameisen: Vom Finden und Erfinden der Poesie, Cologne: Dumont, 2005
Peter von Matt, Die verdächtige Pracht. Über Dichter und Gedichte, Munich [etc.] : Hanser, 1998
Joachim Sartorius (ed.), Mimima Poetica. Für eine Poetik des zeitgenössischen Gedichts, Cologne : Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 1999
Anthologies
German poetry from 1750 to 1900, ed. by Robert M. Browning. Foreword by Michael Hamburger, New York : Continuum, 1984, 281 pp. (German Library),
Twentieth-Century German Poetry: An Anthology, edited by Michael Hofmann, New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2008 (Paperback Edition), 544 pp.,
Heinz Ludwig Arnold (ed.), TEXT+KRITIK: Lyrik des 20. Jahrhunderts (1999).
Verena Auffermann, Hubert Winkels (ed.), Beste Deutsche Erzähler (2000–)
Hans Bender (ed.), In diesem Lande leben wir. Deutsche Gedichte der Gegenwart (1978)
Hans Bender, Was sind das für Zeiten. Deutschsprachige Gedichte der achtziger Jahre (1988)
Christoph Buchwald, Uljana Wolf (ed.), Jahrbuch der Lyrik 2009 (2009)
Karl Otto Conrady (ed.), Der Große Conrady. Das Buch deutscher Gedichte. Von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart (2008).
Hugo von Hofmannsthal (ed.), Deutsche Erzähler I (1912, 1979)
Marie Luise Kaschnitz (ed.), Deutsche Erzähler II (1971, 1979)
Boris Kerenski & Sergiu Stefanescu, Kaltland Beat. Neue deutsche Szene (1999)
Axel Kutsch (ed.), Versnetze. Deutschsprachige Lyrik der Gegenwart (2009)
Andreas Neumeister, Marcel Hartges (ed.), Poetry! Slam! Texte der Pop-Fraktion (1996)
External links
Sophie – A digital library of works by German-speaking women | [
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... |
12639 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galilee | Galilee | Galilee (; ; ) is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon. Galilee traditionally refers to the mountainous part, divided into Upper Galilee (, ; , ) and Lower Galilee (, ; , ).
Galilee refers to all of the area that is north of the Mount Carmel-Mount Gilboa ridge and south of the east–west section of the Litani River. It extends from the Israeli coastal plain and the shores of the Mediterranean Sea with Acre in the west, to the Jordan Rift Valley to the east; and from the Litani in the north plus a piece bordering on the Golan Heights all the way to Dan at the base of Mount Hermon in the northeast, to Mount Carmel and Mount Gilboa in the south. This definition includes the plains of the Jezreel Valley north of Jenin and the Beth Shean Valley, the valley containing the Sea of Galilee, and the Hula Valley, although it usually does not include Haifa's immediate northern suburbs. By this definition it overlaps with much of the administrative Northern District of Israel and with Southern Lebanon.
Etymology
The region's Hebrew name is גָּלִיל (), meaning 'district' or 'circle'. The Hebrew form used in Isaiah (or 8:23 in different Biblical versions) is in the construct state, leading to (), meaning 'Galilee of the nations', which refers to gentiles who settled there at the time that the book was written, either by their own volition or as a result of being deported there.
Borders and geography
The borders of Galilee, split into Upper Galilee and Lower Galilee, were described by Josephus in his The Jewish War:
Now Phoenicia and Syria encompass about the Galilees, which are two, and called the Upper Galilee and the Lower. They are bounded toward the sun-setting, with the borders of the territory belonging to Ptolemais, and by Carmel; which mountain had formerly belonged to the Galileans, but now belonged to the Tyrians; to which mountain adjoins Gaba, which is called the City of Horsemen, because those horsemen that were dismissed by Herod the king dwelt therein; they are bounded on the south with Samaria and Scythopolis, as far as the river Jordan; on the east with Hippeae and Gadaris, and also with Ganlonitis, and the borders of the kingdom of Agrippa; its northern parts are hounded by Tyre, and the country of the Tyrians. As for that Galilee which is called the Lower, it, extends in length from Tiberias to Zabulon, and of the maritime places Ptolemais is its neighbor; its breadth is from the village called Xaloth, which lies in the great plain, as far as Bersabe, from which beginning also is taken the breadth of the Upper Galilee, as far as the village Baca, which divides the land of the Tyrians from it; its length is also from Meloth to Thella, a village near to Jordan.
Most of Galilee consists of rocky terrain, at heights of between 500 and 700 m. Several high mountains are in the region, including Mount Tabor and Mount Meron, which have relatively low temperatures and high rainfall. As a result of this climate, flora and fauna thrive in the region, while many birds annually migrate from colder climates to Africa and back through the Hula–Jordan corridor. The streams and waterfalls, the latter mainly in Upper Galilee, along with vast fields of greenery and colourful wildflowers, as well as numerous towns of biblical importance, make the region a popular tourist destination.
Due to its high rainfall –, mild temperatures and high mountains (Mount Meron's elevation is 1,000–1,208 m), the upper Galilee region contains some distinctive flora and fauna: prickly juniper (Juniperus oxycedrus), Lebanese cedar (Cedrus libani), which grows in a small grove on Mount Meron, cyclamens, paeonias, and Rhododendron ponticum which sometimes appears on Meron.
Western Galilee () is a modern term referring to the western part of the Upper Galilee and its shore, and usually also the northwestern part of the Lower Galilee, mostly overlapping with Acre sub-district. Galilee Panhandle is a common term referring to the "panhandle" in the east that extends to the north, where Lebanon is to the west, and includes Hula Valley and Ramot Naftali mountains of the Upper Galilee.
History
Iron Age and Hebrew Bible
According to the Bible, Galilee was named by the Israelites and was the tribal region of Naphthali and Dan, at times overlapping the Tribe of Asher's land. However, Dan was dispersed among the whole people rather than isolated to the lands of Dan, as the Tribe of Dan was the hereditary local law enforcement and judiciary for the whole nation. Normally, Galilee is just referred to as Naphthali.
Chapter 9 of 1 Kings states that Solomon rewarded his Phoenician ally, King Hiram I of Sidon, with twenty cities in the land of Galilee, which would then have been either settled by foreigners during and after the reign of Hiram, or by those who had been forcibly deported there by later conquerors such as the Assyrians. Hiram, to reciprocate previous gifts given to David, accepted the upland plain among the and renamed it "the land of Cabul" for a time.
Classical antiquity
During the expansion under the Hasmonean dynasty, much of the Galilee region was conquered and annexed by the first Hasmonean king of Judaea Aristobulus I (104–103 BCE). Galilee in the first century was dotted with small towns and villages. The Jewish historian Josephus claims that there were 204 small towns in Galilee, but modern scholars believe this estimate to be an exaggeration. Many of these towns were located around the Sea of Galilee, which contained many edible fish and which was surrounded by fertile land. Salted, dried, and pickled fish were an important export good. In 4 BCE, a rebel named Judah plundered Galilee's largest city, Sepphoris. According to Josephus, the Syrian governor Publius Quinctilius Varus responded by sacking Sepphoris and selling the population into slavery, but the region's archaeology lacks evidence of such destruction.
After the death of Herod the Great that same year, the Roman emperor Augustus appointed his son Herod Antipas as tetrarch of Galilee, which remained a Roman client state. Antipas paid tribute to the Roman Empire in exchange for Roman protection. The Romans did not station troops in Galilee, but threatened to retaliate against anyone who attacked it. As long as he continued to pay tribute, Antipas was permitted to govern however he wished and was permitted to mint his own coinage. Antipas was relatively observant of Jewish laws and customs. Although his palace was decorated with animal carvings, which many Jews regarded as a transgression against the law prohibiting idols, his coins bore only agricultural designs, which his subjects deemed acceptable. In general, Antipas was a capable ruler; Josephus does not record any instance of his use of force to put down an uprising and he had a long, prosperous reign. However, many Jews probably resented him as not sufficiently devout. Antipas rebuilt the city of Sepphoris and, in either 18 CE or 19 CE, he founded the new city of Tiberias. These two cities became Galilee's largest cultural centers. They were the main centers of Greco-Roman influence, but were still predominantly Jewish. A massive gap existed between the rich and poor, but lack of uprisings suggest that taxes were not exorbitantly high and that most Galileans did not feel their livelihoods were being threatened. Late in his reign, Antipas married his half-niece Herodias, who was already married to one of her other uncles. His wife, whom he divorced, fled to her father Aretas, an Arab king, who invaded Galilee and defeated Antipas's troops before withdrawing. Both Josephus and the Gospel of Mark record that the itinerate preacher John the Baptist criticized Antipas over his marriage and Antipas consequently had him imprisoned and then beheaded. In around 39 CE, at the urging of Herodias, Antipas went to Rome to request that he be elevated from the status of tetrarch to the status of king. The Romans found him guilty of storing arms, so he was removed from power and exiled, ending his forty-three-year reign. During the Great Revolt (66–73 CE), a Jewish mob destroyed Herod Antipas's palace.
The archaeological discoveries of synagogues from the Hellenistic and Roman period in the Galilee show strong Phoenician influences, and a high level of tolerance for other cultures relative to other Jewish religious centers.
According to medieval Hebrew legend, Simeon bar Yochai, one of the most famed of all the Tannaim, wrote the Zohar while living in Galilee. Eastern Galilee retained a Jewish majority until at least the seventh century.
Early Muslim and Crusader periods
After the Muslim conquest of the Levant in the 630s, the Galilee formed part of Jund al-Urdunn (the military district of Jordan), itself part of Bilad al-Sham (Islamic Syria). Its major towns were Tiberias the capital of the district, Qadas, Beisan, Acre, Saffuriya, and Kabul. The geographer al-Ya'qubi (d. 891), who referred to the region 'Jabal al-Jalil', noted that its inhabitants were Arabs from the Amila tribe.
The Shia Fatimids conquered the region in the 10th century; a breakaway sect, venerating the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim, formed the Druze religion, centered in Mount Lebanon and partially in the Galilee. During the Crusades, Galilee was organized into the Principality of Galilee, one of the most important Crusader seigneuries.
Ottoman era
During Early Ottoman era, the Galilee was governed as the Safad Sanjak, initially part of the larger administrative unit of Damascus Eyalet (1549–1660) and later as part of Sidon Eyalet (1660–1864). During the 18th century, the administrative division of Galilee was renamed to Acre Sanjak, and the Eyalet itself became centered in Acre, factually becoming the Acre Eyalet between 1775 and 1841.
The Jewish population of Galilee increased significantly following their expulsion from Spain and welcome from the Ottoman Empire. The community for a time made Safed an international center of cloth weaving and manufacturing, as well as a key site for Jewish learning. Today it remains one of Judaism's four holy cities and a center for kabbalah.
In the mid-17th century Galilee and Mount Lebanon became the scene of the Druze power struggle, which came in parallel with much destruction in the region and decline of major cities.
In the mid-18th century, Galilee was caught up in a struggle between the Arab leader Zahir al-Umar and the Ottoman authorities who were centred in Damascus. Zahir ruled Galilee for 25 years until Ottoman loyalist Jezzar Pasha conquered the region in 1775.
In 1831, the Galilee, a part of Ottoman Syria, switched hands from Ottomans to Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt until 1840. During this period, aggressive social and politic policies were introduced, which led to a violent 1834 Arab revolt. In the process of this revolt the Jewish community of Safed was greatly reduced, in the event of Safed Plunder by the rebels. The Arab rebels were subsequently defeated by the Egyptian troops, though in 1838, the Druze of Galilee led another uprising. In 1834 and 1837, major earthquakes leveled most of the towns, resulting in great loss of life.
Following the 1864 Tanszimat reforms in the Ottoman Empire, the Galilee remained within Acre Sanjak, but was transferred from Sidon Eyalet to the newly formed Syria Vilayet and shortly, from 1888, became administered from Beirut Vilayet.
In 1866, Galilee's first hospital, the Nazareth Hospital, was founded under the leadership of American-Armenian missionary Dr. Kaloost Vartan, assisted by German missionary John Zeller.
In the early 20th century, Galilee remained part of Acre Sanjak of Ottoman Syria. It was administered as the southernmost territory of the Beirut Vilayet.
British administration
Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, and the Armistice of Mudros, it came under British rule, as part of the Occupied Enemy Territory Administration. Shortly after, in 1920, the region was included in the British Mandate territory, officially a part of Mandatory Palestine from 1923.
Israeli period
After the 1948 Arab–Israeli war, nearly the whole of Galilee came under Israel's control. A large portion of the population fled or was forced to leave, leaving dozens of entire villages empty; however, a large Israeli Arab community remained based in and near the cities of Nazareth, Acre, Tamra, Sakhnin, and Shefa-'Amr, due to some extent to a successful rapprochement with the Druze. The kibbutzim around the Sea of Galilee were sometimes shelled by the Syrian army's artillery until Israel seized Western Golan Heights in the 1967 Six-Day War.
During the 1970s and the early 1980s, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) launched multiple attacks on towns and villages of the Upper and Western Galilee from Lebanon. This came in parallel to the general destabilization of Southern Lebanon, which became a scene of fierce sectarian fighting which deteriorated into the Lebanese Civil War. On the course of the war, Israel initiated Operation Litani (1979) and Operation Peace For Galilee (1982) with the stated objectives of destroying the PLO infrastructure in Lebanon, protecting the citizens of the Galilee and supporting allied Christian Lebanese militias. Israel took over much of southern Lebanon in support of Christian Lebanese militias until 1985, when it withdrew to a narrow security buffer zone.
From 1985 to 2000, Hezbollah, and earlier Amal, engaged the South Lebanon Army supported by the Israel Defense Forces, sometimes shelling Upper Galilee communities with Katyusha rockets. In May 2000, Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak unilaterally withdrew IDF troops from southern Lebanon, maintaining a security force on the Israeli side of the international border recognized by the United Nations. The move brought a collapse to the South Lebanon Army and takeover of Southern Lebanon by Hezbollah. However, despite Israeli withdrawal, clashes between Hezbollah and Israel continued along the border, and UN observers condemned both for their attacks.
The 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict was characterized by round-the-clock Katyusha rocket attacks (with a greatly extended range) by Hezbollah on the whole of Galilee, with long-range, ground-launched missiles hitting as far south as the Sharon Plain, Jezreel Valley, and Jordan Valley below the Sea of Galilee.
Demography
, there were 1.2 million residents in Galilee, of which 47% were Jewish. The Jewish Agency has attempted to increase the Jewish population in this area, but the non-Jewish population also has a high growth rate.
The largest cities in the region are Acre, Nahariya, Nazareth, Safed, Karmiel, Shaghur, Shefa-'Amr, Afula, and Tiberias. The port city of Haifa serves as a commercial center for the whole region.
Because of its hilly terrain, most of the people in the Galilee live in small villages connected by relatively few roads. A railroad runs south from Nahariya along the Mediterranean coast, and a fork to the east was opened in 2016. The main sources of livelihood throughout the area are agriculture and tourism. Industrial parks are being developed, bringing further employment opportunities to the local population which includes many recent immigrants. The Israeli government is contributing funding to the private initiative, the Galilee Finance Facility, organised by the Milken Institute and Koret Economic Development Fund.
The Galilee is home to a large Arab population, comprising a Muslim majority and two smaller populations, of Druze and Arab Christians, of comparable sizes. Both Israeli Druze and Christians have their majorities in the Galilee. Other notable minorities are the Bedouin, the Maronites and the Circassians.
The north-central portion of the Galilee is also known as Central Galilee, stretching from the border with Lebanon to the northern edge of the Jezreel Valley, including the cities of Nazareth and Sakhnin, has an Arab majority of 75% with most of the Jewish population living in hilltop cities like Upper Nazareth. The northern half of the central Lower Galilee, surrounding Karmiel and Sakhnin is known as the "Heart of the Galilee". The eastern Galilee is nearly 100% Jewish. This part includes the Finger of the Galilee, the Jordan River Valley, and the shores the Sea of Galilee, and contains two of Judaism's Four Holy Cities. The southern part of the Galilee, including Jezreel Valley, and the Gilboa region are also nearly 100% Jewish, with a few small Arab villages near the West Bank border. About 80% of the population of the Western Galilee is Jewish, all the way up to the Lebanese border. Jews also form a small majority in the mountainous Upper Galilee with a significant minority Arab population (mainly Druze and Christians).
As of 2011, the Galilee is attracting significant internal migration of Haredi Jews, who are increasingly moving to the Galilee and Negev as an answer to rising housing prices in central Israel.
Tourism
Galilee is a popular destination for domestic and foreign tourists who enjoy its scenic, recreational, and gastronomic offerings. The Galilee attracts many Christian pilgrims, as many of the miracles of Jesus occurred, according to the New Testament, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee—including his walking on water, calming the storm, and feeding five thousand people in Tabgha. In addition, numerous sites of biblical importance are located in the Galilee, such as Megiddo, Jezreel Valley, Mount Tabor, Hazor, Horns of Hattin, and more.
A popular hiking trail known as the yam leyam, or sea-to-sea, starts hikers at the Mediterranean. They then hike through the Galilee mountains, Tabor, Neria, and Meron, until their final destination, the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee).
In April 2011, Israel unveiled the "Jesus Trail", a 40-mile (60-km) hiking trail in the Galilee for Christian pilgrims. The trail includes a network of footpaths, roads, and bicycle paths linking sites central to the lives of Jesus and his disciples, including Tabgha, the traditional site of Jesus's miracle of the loaves and fishes, and the Mount of Beatitudes, where he delivered his Sermon on the Mount. It ends at Capernaum on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus espoused his teachings.
Many kibbutzim and moshav families operate Zimmerim (from the Yiddish word for 'room', צימער, from 'Zimmer' in German, with the Hebrew ending for plural, -im; the local term for a Bed and breakfast). Numerous festivals are held throughout the year, especially in the autumn and spring holiday seasons. These include the Acre (Acco) Festival of Alternative Theater, the olive harvest festival, music festivals featuring Anglo-American folk, klezmer, Renaissance, and chamber music, and Karmiel Dance Festival.
Cuisine
The cuisine of the Galilee is very diverse. The meals are lighter than in the central and southern regions. Dairy products are heavily consumed (especially the Safed cheese that originated in the mountains of the Upper Galilee). Herbs like thyme, mint, parsley, basil, and rosemary are very common with everything including dips, meat, fish, stews and cheese.
In the eastern part of the Galilee, there is freshwater fish as much as meat (especially the Tilapia that lives in the Sea of Galilee, Jordan river, and other streams in the region), including fish filled with thyme and grilled with rosemary to flavor, or stuffed with oregano leaves, then topped with parsley and served with lemon to squash. This technique exists in other parts of the country including the coasts of the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. A specialty of the region is a baked Tilapia flavored with celery, mint and a lot of lemon juice. Baked fish with tahini is also common in Tiberias while the coastal Galileans prefer to replace the tahini with yogurt and add sumac on top.
The Galilee is famous for its olives, pomegranates, wine and especially its Labneh w'Za'atar which is served with pita bread, meat stews with wine, pomegranates and herbs such as akub, parsley, khalmit, mint, fennel, etc. are common. Galilean kubba is usually flavored with cumin, cinnamon, cardamom, concentrated pomegranate juice, onion, parsley and pine nuts and served as meze with tahini dip.
Kebabs are also made almost in the same way with sumac replacing cardamom and with carob sometimes replacing the pomegranate juice.
Because of its climate, beef has become more popular than lamb, although both are still eaten there.
Dates are popular in the tropical climate of the Eastern Galilee.
Subregions
The definition of Galilee varies depending on the period, author, and point of view (geological, geographical, administrative). Ancient Galilee consisted in broad terms of the Upper and Lower Galilee. Today the northwestern part of the Upper Galilee is in Southern Lebanon, with the rest being in Israel. The Israeli Galilee is often divided into these subregions, which often overlap:
Upper Galilee extends from the Beit HaKerem Valley northwards into southern Lebanon. Its eastern border is the Hula Valley and the Sea of Galilee separating it from the Golan Heights. To the west it reaches to the Coastal Plain which separates it from the Mediterranean.
Lower Galilee covers the area north of the Valleys (Jezreel, Harod and Beth Shean Valley) and south of the Beit HaKerem Valley. Its borders to the east on the Jordan Rift Valley. It contains the Arab city of Nazareth and the village of Cana.
The "Galilee Panhandle" (, Etzba HaGalil, lit. "Finger of Galilee") is a panhandle along the Hulah Valley, squeezed between the Lebanese border and the Golan Heights; it contains the towns of Metulla and Qiryat Shemona, the Dan and part of the Banias rivers.
The following subregions are sometimes regarded, from different points of view, as distinct from the Galilee, for instance the entire Jordan Valley including the Sea of Galilee and its continuation to the south as one geological and geographical unit, and the Jezreel, Harod, and Beit She'an valleys as "the northern valleys".
The Hula Valley
The Korazim Plateau
The Sea of Galilee and its valley
The Jordan Valley from the southern tip of the Sea of Galilee down to Beit She'an
The Jezreel Valley, including in its eastern part, the Harod Valley, which stretches between Afula and the Beit She'an Valley
The Beit She'an Valley at the junction of the Jordan Valley and the extended Jezreel Valley
Mount Gilboa
The Western Galilee is a modern Israeli term, which in its minimal definition refers to the coastal plain just west of the Upper Galilee, also known as Plain of Asher or Plain of the Galilee, which stretches from north of Acre to Rosh HaNikra on the Israel-Lebanon border, and in the common broad definition adds the western part of Upper Galilee, and usually the northwestern part of Lower Galilee as well, corresponding more or less to Acre sub-district or the Northern District.
Gallery
See also
Galilean
Northern District (Israel)
Koenig Memorandum
Ahuzat Naftali
References
Sources
Further reading
Aviam, M., "Galilee: The Hellenistic to Byzantine Periods," in The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land, vol. 2 (4 vols) (Jerusalem: IES / Carta), 1993, 452–58.
Meyers, Eric M. (ed), Galilee through the Centuries: Confluence of Cultures (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1999) (Duke Judaic Studies 1).
Chancey, A.M., Myth of a Gentile Galilee: The Population of Galilee and New Testament Studies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002) (Society of New Testament Monograph Series 118).
Aviam, M., "First-century Jewish Galilee: An archaeological perspective," in Edwards, D.R. (ed.), Religion and Society in Roman Palestine: Old Questions, New Approaches (New York / London: Routledge, 2004), 7–27.
Aviam, M., Jews, Pagans and Christians in the Galilee (Rochester NY: University of Rochester Press, 2004) (Land of Galilee 1).
Chancey, Mark A., Greco-Roman Culture and the Galilee of Jesus (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006) (Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series, 134).
Freyne, Sean, "Galilee and Judea in the First Century," in Margaret M. Mitchell and Frances M. Young (eds), Cambridge History of Christianity. Vol. 1. Origins to Constantine (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006) (Cambridge History of Christianity), 163–94.
Zangenberg, Jürgen, Harold W. Attridge and Dale B. Martin (eds), Religion, Ethnicity and Identity in Ancient Galilee: A Region in Transition (Tübingen, Mohr Siebeck, 2007) (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament, 210).
Fiensy, David A., "Population, Architecture, and Economy in Lower Galilean Villages and Towns in the First Century AD: A Brief Survey," in John D. Wineland, Mark Ziese, James Riley Estep Jr. (eds), My Father's World: Celebrating the Life of Reuben G. Bullard (Eugene (OR), Wipf & Stock, 2011), 101–19.
Safrai, Shmuel, "The Jewish Cultural Nature of Galilee in the First Century" The New Testament and Christian–Jewish Dialogue: Studies in Honor of David Flusser, Immanuel 24/25 (1990): 147–86; electronically published on jerusalemperspective.com.
External links
Galilee (definition of) on Haaretz.com
Land of Israel
Regions of Israel
New Testament regions
Jesus and history
Geography of Northern District (Israel)
Levant
Historical regions | [
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12641 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goths | Goths | The Goths (; , ) were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Europe.
In his book Getica (c. 551), the historian Jordanes writes that the Goths originated in southern Scandinavia, but the accuracy of this account is unclear. A people called the Gutonespossibly early Gothsare documented living near the lower Vistula River in the 1st century, where they are associated with the archaeological Wielbark culture. From the 2nd century, the Wielbark culture expanded southwards towards the Black Sea in what has been associated with Gothic migration, and by the late 3rd century it contributed to the formation of the Chernyakhov culture. By the 4th century at the latest, several Gothic groups were distinguishable, among whom the Thervingi and Greuthungi were the most powerful. During this time, Ulfilas began the conversion of Goths to Arianism.
In the late 4th century, the lands of the Goths were invaded from the east by the Huns. In the aftermath of this event, several groups of Goths came under Hunnic domination, while others migrated further west or sought refuge inside the Roman Empire. Goths who entered the Empire by crossing the Danube inflicted a devastating defeat upon the Romans at the Battle of Adrianople in 378. These Goths would form the Visigoths, and under their king Alaric I they began a long migration, eventually establishing a Visigothic Kingdom in Spain at Toledo. Meanwhile, Goths under Hunnic rule gained their independence in the 5th century, most importantly the Ostrogoths. Under their king Theodoric the Great, these Goths established an Ostrogothic Kingdom in Italy at Ravenna.
The Ostrogothic Kingdom was destroyed by the Eastern Roman Empire in the 6th century, while the Visigothic Kingdom was conquered by the Umayyad Caliphate in the early 8th century. Remnants of Gothic communities in the Crimea, known as the Crimean Goths, lingered on for several centuries, although Goths would eventually cease to exist as a distinct people.
Name
In the Gothic language, the Goths were called the *Gut-þiuda ('Gothic people') or *Gutans ('Goths'). The Proto-Germanic form of the Gothic name is *Gutōz, which co-existed with an n-stem variant *Gutaniz, attested in Gutones, gutani, or gutniskr. The form *Gutōz is identical to that of the Gutes and closely related to that of the Geats (*Gautōz). Though these names probably mean the same, their exact meaning is uncertain. They are all thought to be related to the Proto-Germanic verb *geuta-, which means "to pour".
Classification
The Goths are classified as a Germanic people in modern scholarship. Along with the Burgundians, Vandals and others they belong to the East Germanic group. Roman authors of late antiquity did not classify the Goths as Germani. In modern scholarship the Goths are sometimes referred to as being Germani.
History
Prehistory
A crucial source on Gothic history is the Getica of the 6th-century historian Jordanes, who may have been of Gothic descent. Jordanes claims to have based the Getica on an earlier lost work by Cassiodorus, but also cites material from fifteen other classical sources, including an otherwise unknown writer, Ablabius. Many scholars accept that Jordanes' account on Gothic origins is at least partially derived from Gothic tribal tradition and accurate on certain details.
According to Jordanes, the Goths originated on an island called Scandza (Scandinavia), from where they emigrated by sea to an area called Gothiscandza under their king Berig. Historians are not in agreement on the authenticity and accuracy of this account. Most scholars agree that Gothic migration from Scandinavia is reflected in the archaeological record, but the evidence is not entirely clear. Rather than a single mass migration of an entire people, scholars open to hypothetical Scandinavian origins envision a process of gradual migration in the 1st centuries BC and AD, which was probably preceded by long-term contacts and perhaps limited to a few elite clans from Scandinavia.
Similarities between the name of the Goths, some Swedish place names and the names of the Gutes and Geats have been cited as evidence that the Goths originated in Gotland or Götaland. The Goths, Geats and Gutes may all have descended from an early community of seafarers active on both sides of the Baltic. Similarities and dissimilarities between the Gothic language and Scandinavian languages (particularly Gutnish) have been cited as evidence both for and against a Scandinavian origin.
Scholars generally locate Gothiscandza in the area of the Wielbark culture. This culture emerged in the lower Vistula and along the Pomeranian coast in the 1st century AD, replacing the preceding Oksywie culture. It is primarily distinguished from the Oksywie by the practice of inhumation, the absence of weapons in graves, and the presence of stone circles. This area had been intimately connected with Scandinavia since the time of the Nordic Bronze Age and the Lusatian culture. Its inhabitants in the Wielbark period are usually thought to have been Germanic peoples, such as the Goths and Rugii. Jordanes writes that the Goths, soon after settling Gothiscandza, seized the lands of the Ulmerugi (Rugii).
Early history
The Goths are generally believed to have been first attested by Greco-Roman sources in the 1st century under the name Gutones. The equation between Gutones and later Goths is disputed by several historians.
Around 15 AD, Strabo mentions the Butones, Lugii, and Semnones as part of a large group of peoples who came under the domination of the Marcomannic king Maroboduus. The "Butones" are generally equated with the Gutones. The Lugii have sometimes been considered the same people as the Vandals, with whom they were certainly closely affiliated. The Vandals are associated with the Przeworsk culture, which was located to the south of the Wielbark culture. Wolfram suggests that the Gutones were clients of the Lugii and Vandals in the 1st century AD.
In 77 AD, Pliny the Elder mentions the Gutones as one of the peoples of Germania. He writes that the Gutones, Burgundiones, Varini, and Carini belong to the Vandili. Pliny classifies the Vandili as one of the five principal "German races", along with the coastal Ingvaeones, Istvaeones, Irminones, and Peucini. In an earlier chapter Pliny writes that the 4th century BC traveler Pytheas encountered a people called the Guiones. Some scholars have equated these Guiones with the Gutones, but the authenticity of the Pytheas account is uncertain.
In his work Germania from around 98 AD, Tacitus writes that the Gotones (or Gothones) and the neighbouring Rugii and Lemovii were Germani who carried round shields and short swords, and lived near the ocean, beyond the Vandals. He described them as "ruled by kings, a little more strictly than the other German tribes". In another notable work, the Annals, Tacitus writes that the Gotones had assisted Catualda, a young Marcomannic exile, in overthrowing the rule of Maroboduus. Prior to this, it is probable that both the Gutones and Vandals had been subjects of the Marcomanni.
Sometime after settling Gothiscandza, Jordanes writes that the Goths defeated the neighbouring Vandals. Wolfram believes the Gutones freed themselves from Vandalic domination at the beginning of the 2nd century AD.
In his Geography from around 150 AD, Ptolemy mentions the Gythones (or Gutones) as living east of the Vistula in Sarmatia, between the Veneti and the Fenni. In an earlier chapter he mentions a people called the Gutae (or Gautae) as living in southern Scandia. These Gutae are probably the same as the later Gauti mentioned by Procopius. Wolfram suggests that there were close relations between the Gythones and Gutae, and that they might have been of common origin.
Movement towards the Black Sea
Beginning in the middle of the 2nd century, the Wielbark culture shifted southeast towards the Black Sea. During this time the Wielbark culture is believed to have ejected and partially absorbed peoples of the Przeworsk culture. This was part of a wider southward movement of eastern Germanic tribes, which was probably caused by massive population growth. As a result, other tribes were pushed towards the Roman Empire, contributing to the beginning of the Marcomannic Wars. By 200 AD, Wielbark Goths were probably being recruited into the Roman army.
According to Jordanes, the Goths entered Oium, part of Scythia, under the king Filimer, where they defeated the Spali. This migration account partly corresponds with the archaeological evidence. The name Spali may mean "the giants" in Slavic, and the Spali were thus probably not Slavs. In the early 3rd century AD, western Scythia was inhabited by the agricultural Zarubintsy culture and the nomadic Sarmatians. Prior to the Sarmatians, the area had been settled by the Bastarnae, who are believed to have carried out a migration similar to the Goths in the 3rd century BC. Peter Heather considers the Filimer story to be at least partially derived from Gothic oral tradition. The fact that the expanding Goths appear to have preserved their Gothic language during their migration suggests that their movement involved a fairly large number of people.
By the mid-3rd century AD, the Wielbark culture had contributed to the formation of the Chernyakhov culture in Scythia. This strikingly uniform culture came to stretch from the Danube in the west to the Don in the east. It is believed to have been dominated by the Goths and other Germanic groups such as the Heruli. It nevertheless also included Iranian, Dacian, Roman and probably Slavic elements as well.
3rd century raids on the Roman Empire
The first incursion of the Roman Empire that can be attributed to Goths is the sack of Histria in 238. The first references to the Goths in the 3rd century call them Scythians, as this area, known as Scythia, had historically had been occupied by an unrelated people of that name. It is in the late 3rd century that the name Goths () is first mentioned. Ancient authors do not identify the Goths with the earlier Gutones. Philologists and linguists have no doubt that the names are linked.
On the Pontic steppe the Goths quickly adopted several nomadic customs from the Sarmatians. They excelled at horsemanship, archery and falconry, and were also accomplished agriculturalists and seafarers. J. B. Bury describes the Gothic period as "the only non-nomadic episode in the history of the steppe." William H. McNeill compares the migration of the Goths to that of the early Mongols, who migrated southward from the forests and came to dominate the eastern Eurasian steppe around the same time as the Goths in the west. From the 240s at the earliest, Goths were heavily recruited into the Roman Army to fight in the Roman–Persian Wars, notably participating at the Battle of Misiche in 244. An inscription at the Ka'ba-ye Zartosht in Parthian, Persian and Greek commemorates the Persian victory over the Romans and the troops drawn from Gwt W Grmany xštr, the Gothic and German kingdoms, which is probably a Parthian gloss for the Danubian (Gothic) limes and the Germanic limes.
Meanwhile, Gothic raids on the Roman Empire continued, In 250–51, the Gothic king Cniva captured the city of Philippopolis and inflicted a devastating defeat upon the Romans at the Battle of Abrittus, in which the Roman Emperor Decius was killed. This was one of the most disastrious defeats in the history of the Roman army.
The first Gothic seaborne raids took place in the 250s. The first two incursions into Asia Minor took place between 253 and 256, and are attributed to Boranoi by Zosimus. This may not be an ethnic term but may just mean "people from the north". It is unknown if Goths were involved in these first raids. Gregory Thaumaturgus attributes a third attack to Goths and Boradoi, and claims that some, "forgetting that they were men of Pontus and Christians," joined the invaders. An unsuccessful attack on Pityus was followed in the second year by another, which sacked Pityus and Trabzon and ravaged large areas in the Pontus. In the third year, a much larger force devastated large areas of Bithynia and the Propontis, including the cities of Chalcedon, Nicomedia, Nicaea, Apamea Myrlea, Cius and Bursa. By the end of the raids, the Goths had seized control over Crimea and the Bosporus and captured several cities on the Euxine coast, including Olbia and Tyras, which enabled them to engage in widespread naval activities.
After a 10-year hiatus, the Goths and the Heruli, with a raiding fleet of 500 ships, sacked Heraclea Pontica, Cyzicus and Byzantium. They were defeated by the Roman navy but managed to escape into the Aegean Sea, where they ravaged the islands of Lemnos and Scyros, broke through Thermopylae and sacked several cities of southern Greece (province of Achaea) including Athens, Corinth, Argos, Olympia and Sparta. Then an Athenian militia, led by the historian Dexippus, pushed the invaders to the north where they were intercepted by the Roman army under Gallienus. He won an important victory near the Nessos (Nestos) river, on the boundary between Macedonia and Thrace, the Dalmatian cavalry of the Roman army earning a reputation as good fighters. Reported barbarian casualties were 3,000 men. Subsequently, the Heruli leader Naulobatus came to terms with the Romans.
After Gallienus was assassinated outside Milan in the summer of 268 in a plot led by high officers in his army, Claudius was proclaimed emperor and headed to Rome to establish his rule. Claudius' immediate concerns were with the Alamanni, who had invaded Raetia and Italy. After he defeated them in the Battle of Lake Benacus, he was finally able to take care of the invasions in the Balkan provinces.
In the meantime, a second and larger sea-borne invasion had started. An enormous coalition consisting of Goths (Greuthungi and Thervingi), Gepids and Peucini, led again by the Heruli, assembled at the mouth of river Tyras (Dniester). The Augustan History and Zosimus claim a total number of 2,000–6,000 ships and 325,000 men. This is probably a gross exaggeration but remains indicative of the scale of the invasion. After failing to storm some towns on the coasts of the western Black Sea and the Danube (Tomi, Marcianopolis), the invaders attacked Byzantium and Chrysopolis. Part of their fleet was wrecked, either because of the Goth's inexperience in sailing through the violent currents of the Propontis or because they were defeated by the Roman navy. Then they entered the Aegean Sea and a detachment ravaged the Aegean islands as far as Crete, Rhodes and Cyprus. According to the Augustan History, the Goths achieved no success on this expedition because they were struck by the Cyprianic Plague. The fleet probably also sacked Troy and Ephesus, damaging the Temple of Artemis, though the temple was repaired and then later torn down by Christians a century later, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. While their main force had constructed siege works and was close to taking the cities of Thessalonica and Cassandreia, it retreated to the Balkan interior at the news that the emperor was advancing.
Learning of the approach of Claudius, the Goths first attempted to directly invade Italy. They were engaged near Naissus by a Roman army led by Claudius advancing from the north. The battle most likely took place in 269, and was fiercely contested. Large numbers on both sides were killed but, at the critical point, the Romans tricked the Goths into an ambush by pretending to retreat. Some 50,000 Goths were allegedly killed or taken captive and their base at Thessalonika destroyed. Apparently Aurelian, who was in charge of all Roman cavalry during Claudius' reign, led the decisive attack in the battle. Some survivors were resettled within the empire, while others were incorporated into the Roman army. The battle ensured the survival of the Roman Empire for another two centuries.
In 270, after the death of Claudius, Goths under the leadership of Cannabaudes again launched an invasion of the Roman Empire, but were defeated by Aurelian, who, however, did surrender Dacia beyond the Danube.
Around 275 the Goths launched a last major assault on Asia Minor, where piracy by Black Sea Goths was causing great trouble in Colchis, Pontus, Cappadocia, Galatia and even Cilicia. They were defeated sometime in 276 by Emperor Marcus Claudius Tacitus.
By the late 3rd century, there were at least two groups of Goths, separated by the Dniester River: the Thervingi and the Greuthungi. The Gepids, who lived northwest of the Goths, are also attested as this time. Jordanes writes that the Gepids shared common origins with the Goths.
In the late 3rd century, as recorded by Jordanes, the Gepids, under their king Fastida, utterly defeated the Burgundians, and then attacked the Goths and their king Ostrogotha. Out of this conflict, Ostrogotha and the Goths emerged victorious. In the last decades of the 3rd century, large numbers of Carpi are recorded as fleeing Dacia for the Roman Empire, having probably been driven from the area by Goths.
Co–existence with the Roman Empire (300–375)
In 332, Constantine helped the Sarmatians to settle on the north banks of the Danube to defend against the Goths' attacks and thereby enforce the Roman border. Around 100,000 Goths were reportedly killed in battle, and Aoric, son of the Thervingian king Ariaric, was captured. Eusebius, an historian who wrote in Greek in the third century, wrote that in 334, Constantine evacuated approximately 300,000 Sarmatians from the north bank of the Danube after a revolt of the Sarmatians' slaves. From 335 to 336, Constantine, continuing his Danube campaign, defeated many Gothic tribes.
Having been driven from the Danube by the Romans, the Thervingi invaded the territory of the Sarmatians of the Tisza. In this conflict, the Thervingi were led by Vidigoia, "the bravest of the Goths" and were victorious, although Vidigoia was killed. Jordanes states that Aoric was succeeded by Geberic, "a man renowned for his valor and noble birth", who waged war on the Hasdingi Vandals and their king Visimar, forcing them to settle in Pannonia under Roman protection.
Both the Greuthungi and Thervingi became heavily Romanized during the 4th century. This came about through trade with the Romans, as well as through Gothic membership of a military covenant, which was based in Byzantium and involved pledges of military assistance. Reportedly, 40,000 Goths were brought by Constantine to defend Constantinople in his later reign, and the Palace Guard was thereafter mostly composed of Germanic warriors, as Roman soldiers by this time had largely lost military value. The Goths increasingly became soldiers in the Roman armies in the 4th century leading to a significant Germanization of the Roman Army. Without the recruitment of Germanic warriors in the Roman Army, the Roman Empire would not have survived for as long as it did. Goths who gained prominent positions in the Roman military include Gainas, Tribigild, Fravitta and Aspar. Mardonius, a Gothic eunuch, was the childhood tutor and later adviser of Roman emperor Julian, on whom he had an immense influence.
The Gothic penchant for wearing skins became fashionable in Constantinople, a fashion which was loudly denounced by conservatives. The 4th-century Greek bishop Synesius compared the Goths to wolves among sheep, mocked them for wearing skins and questioned their loyalty towards Rome: A man in skins leading warriors who wear the chlamys, exchanging his sheepskins for the toga to debate with Roman magistrates and perhaps even sit next to a Roman consul, while law–abiding men sit behind. Then these same men, once they have gone a little way from the senate house, put on their sheepskins again, and when they have rejoined their fellows they mock the toga, saying that they cannot comfortably draw their swords in it.
In the 4th century, Geberic was succeeded by the Greuthungian king Ermanaric, who embarked on a large-scale expansion. Jordanes states that Ermanaric conquered a large number of warlike tribes, including the Heruli (who were led by Alaric), the Aesti and the Vistula Veneti, who, although militarily weak, were very numerous, and put up a strong resistance. Jordanes compares the conquests of Ermanaric to those of Alexander the Great, and states that he "ruled all the nations of Scythia and Germany by his own prowess alone." Interpreting Jordanes, Herwig Wolfram estimates that Ermanaric dominated a vast area of the Pontic Steppe stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea as far eastwards as the Ural Mountains, encompassing not only the Greuthungi, but also Baltic Finnic peoples, Slavs (such as the Antes), Rosomoni (Roxolani), Alans, Huns, Sarmatians and probably Aestii (Balts). According to Wolfram, it is certainly possible that the sphere of influence of the Chernyakhov culture could have extended well beyond its archaeological extent. Chernyakhov archaeological finds have been found far to the north in the forest steppe, suggesting Gothic domination of this area. Peter Heather on the other hand, contends that the extent of Ermanaric's power is exaggerated. Ermanaric's possible dominance of the Volga-Don trade routes has led historian Gottfried Schramm to consider his realm a forerunner of the Viking-founded state of Kievan Rus'. In the western part of Gothic territories, dominated by the Thervingi, there were also populations of Taifali, Sarmatians and other Iranian peoples, Dacians, Daco–Romans and other Romanized populations.
According to Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks (The Saga of Hervör and Heidrek), a 13th-century legendary saga, Árheimar was the capital of Reidgotaland, the land of the Goths. The saga states that it was located on the Dnieper river. Jordanes refers to the region as Oium.
In the 360s, Athanaric, son of Aoric and leader of the Thervingi, supported the usurper Procopius against the Eastern Roman Emperor Valens. In retaliation, Valens invaded the territories of Athanaric and defeated him, but was unable to achieve a decisive victory. Athanaric and Valens thereupon negotiated a peace treaty, favorable to the Thervingi, on a boat in the Danube river, as Athanaric refused to set his feet within the Roman Empire. Soon afterwards, Fritigern, a rival of Athanaric, converted to Arianism, gaining the favor of Valens. Athanaric and Fritigern thereafter fought a civil war in which Athanaric appears to have been victorious. Athanaric thereafter carried out a crackdown on Christianity in his realm.
Arrival of the Huns (about 375)
Around 375 the Huns overran the Alans, an Iranian people living to the east of the Goths, and then, along with Alans, invaded the territory of the Goths themselves. A source for this period is the Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus, who wrote that Hunnic domination of the Gothic kingdoms in Scythia began in the 370s. It is possible that the Hunnic attack came as a response to the Gothic expansion eastwards.
Upon the suicide of Ermanaric, the Greuthungi gradually fell under Hunnic domination. Christopher I. Beckwith suggests that the Hunnic thrust into Europe and the Roman Empire was an attempt to subdue the independent Goths in the west. The Huns fell upon the Thervingi, and Athanaric sought refuge in the mountains (referred to as Caucaland in the sagas). Ambrose makes a passing reference to Athanaric's royal titles before 376 in his De Spiritu Sancto (On the Holy Spirit).
Battles between the Goths and the Huns are described in the Hlöðskviða (The Battle of the Goths and Huns), a medieval Icelandic saga. The sagas recall that Gizur, king of the Geats, came to the aid of the Goths in an epic conflict with the Huns, although this saga might derive from a later Gothic-Hunnic conflict.
Although the Huns successfully subdued many of the Goths who subsequently joined their ranks, Fritigern approached the Eastern Roman emperor Valens in 376 with a portion of his people and asked to be allowed to settle on the south bank of the Danube. Valens permitted this, and even assisted the Goths in their crossing of the river (probably at the fortress of Durostorum). The Gothic evacuation across the Danube was probably not spontaneous, but rather a carefully planned operation initiated after long debate among leading members of the community. Upon arrival, the Goths were to be disarmed according to their agreement with the Romans, although many of them still managed to keep their arms. The Moesogoths settled in Thrace and Moesia.
The Gothic War of 376–382
Mistreated by corrupt local Roman officials, the Gothic refugees were soon experiencing a famine; some are recorded as having been forced to sell their children to Roman slave traders in return for rotten dog meat. Enraged by this treachery, Fritigern unleashed a widescale rebellion in Thrace, in which he was joined not only by Gothic refugees and slaves, but also by disgruntled Roman workers and peasants, and Gothic deserters from the Roman Army. The ensuing conflict, known as the Gothic War, lasted for several years. Meanwhile, a group of Greuthungi, led by the chieftains Alatheus and Saphrax, who were co–regents with Vithericus, son and heir of the Greuthungi king Vithimiris, crossed the Danube without Roman permission. The Gothic War culminated in the Battle of Adrianople in 378, in which the Romans were badly defeated and Valens was killed.
Following the decisive Gothic victory at Adrianople, Julius, the magister militum of the Eastern Roman Empire, organized a wholesale massacre of Goths in Asia Minor, Syria and other parts of the Roman East. Fearing rebellion, Julian lured the Goths into the confines of urban streets from which they could not escape and massacred soldiers and civilians alike. As word spread, the Goths rioted throughout the region, and large numbers were killed. Survivors may have settled in Phrygia.
With the rise of Theodosius I in 379, the Romans launched a renewed offensive to subdue Fritigern and his followers. Around the same time, Athanaric arrived in Constantinople, having fled Caucaland through the scheming of Fritigern. Athanaric received a warm reception by Theodosius, praised the Roman Emperor in return, and was honoured with a magnificent funeral by the emperor following his death shortly after his arrival. In 382, Theodosius decided to enter peace negotiations with the Thervingi, which were concluded on 3 October 382. The Thervingi were subsequently made foederati of the Romans in Thrace and obliged to provide troops to the Roman army.
Later division and spread of the Goths
In the aftermath of the Hunnic onslaught, two major groups of the Goths would eventually emerge, the Visigoths and Ostrogoths. Visigoths means the "Goths of the west", while Ostrogoths means "Goths of the east". The Visigoths, led by the Balti dynasty, claimed descent from the Thervingi and lived as foederati inside Roman territory, while the Ostrogoths, led by the Amali dynasty, claimed descent from the Greuthungi and were subjects of the Huns. Procopius interpreted the name Visigoth as "western Goths" and the name Ostrogoth as "eastern Goth", reflecting the geographic distribution of the Gothic realms at that time. A people closely related to the Goths, the Gepids, were also living under Hunnic domination. A smaller group of Goths were the Crimean Goths, who remained in Crimea and maintained their Gothic identity well into the Middle Ages.
Visigoths
The Visigoths were a new Gothic political unit brought together during the career of their first leader, Alaric I. Following a major settlement of Goths in the Balkans made by Theodosius in 382, Goths received prominent positions in the Roman army. Relations with Roman civilians were sometimes uneasy. In 391, Gothic soldiers, with the blessing of Theodosius I, massacred thousands of Roman spectators at the Hippodrome in Thessalonica as vengeance for the lynching of the Gothic general Butheric.
The Goths suffered heavy losses while serving Theodosius in the civil war of 394 against Eugenius and Arbogast. In 395, following the death of Theodosius I, Alaric and his Balkan Goths invaded Greece, where they sacked Piraeus (the port of Athens) and destroyed Corinth, Megara, Argos, and Sparta. Athens itself was spared by paying a large bribe, and the Eastern emperor Flavius Arcadius subsequently appointed Alaric magister militum ("master of the soldiers") in Illyricum in 397.
In 401 and 402, Alaric made two attempts at invading Italy, but was defeated by Stilicho. In 405–406, another Gothic leader, Radagaisus, also attempted to invade Italy, and was also defeated by Stilicho. In 408, the Western Roman emperor Flavius Honorius ordered the execution of Stilicho and his family, then incited the Roman population to massacre tens of thousands of wives and children of Goths serving in the Roman military. Subsequently, around 30,000 Gothic soldiers defected to Alaric. Alaric in turn invaded Italy, seeking to pressure Honorious into granting him permission to settle his people in North Africa. In Italy, Alaric liberated tens of thousands of Gothic slaves, and in 410 he sacked the city of Rome. Although the city's riches were plundered, the civilian inhabitants of the city were treated humanely, and only a few buildings were burned. Alaric died soon afterwards, and was buried along with his treasure in an unknown grave under the Busento river.
Alaric was succeeded by his brother-in–law Athaulf, husband of Honorius' sister Galla Placidia, who had been seized during Alaric's sack of Rome. Athaulf settled the Visigoths in southern Gaul. After failing to gain recognition from the Romans, Athaulf retreated into Hispania in early 415, and was assassinated in Barcelona shortly afterwards. He was succeeded by Sigeric and then Wallia, who succeeded in having the Visigoths accepted by Honorius as foederati in southern Gaul, with their capital at Toulouse. Wallia subsequently inflicted severe defeats upon the Silingi Vandals and the Alans in Hispania. Periodically they marched on Arles, the seat of the praetorian prefect but were always pushed back. In 437 the Visigoths signed a treaty with the Romans which they kept.
Under Theodoric I the Visigoths allied with the Romans and fought Attila to a stalemate in the Battle of the Catalaunian Fields, although Theodoric was killed in the battle. Under Euric, the Visigoths established an independent Visigothic Kingdom and succeeded in driving the Suebi out of Hispania proper and back into Galicia. Although they controlled Spain, they still formed a tiny minority among a much larger Hispano-Roman population, approximately 200,000 out of 6,000,000.
In 507, the Visigoths were pushed out of most of Gaul by the Frankish king Clovis I at the Battle of Vouillé. They were able to retain Narbonensis and Provence after the timely arrival of an Ostrogoth detachment sent by Theodoric the Great. The defeat at Vouillé resulted in their penetrating further into Hispania and establishing a new capital at Toledo.
Under Liuvigild in the latter part of the 6th century, the Visigoths succeeded in subduing the Suebi in Galicia and the Byzantines in the south-west, and thus achieved dominance over most of the Iberian peninsula. Liuvigild also abolished the law that prevented intermarriage between Hispano-Romans and Goths, and he remained an Arian Christian. The conversion of Reccared I to Roman Catholicism in the late 6th century prompted the assimilation of Goths with the Hispano-Romans.
At the end of the 7th century, the Visigothic Kingdom began to suffer from internal troubles. Their kingdom fell and was progressively conquered by the Umayyad Caliphate from 711 after the defeat of their last king Roderic at the Battle of Guadalete. Some Visigothic nobles found refuge in the mountain areas of the Asturias, Pyrenees and Cantabria. According to Joseph F. O'Callaghan, the remnants of the Hispano-Gothic aristocracy still played an important role in the society of Hispania. At the end of Visigothic rule, the assimilation of Hispano-Romans and Visigoths was occurring at a fast pace. Their nobility had begun to think of themselves as constituting one people, the gens Gothorum or the Hispani. An unknown number of them fled and took refuge in Asturias or Septimania. In Asturias they supported Pelagius's uprising, and joining with the indigenous leaders, formed a new aristocracy. The population of the mountain region consisted of native Astures, Galicians, Cantabri, Basques and other groups unassimilated into Hispano-Gothic society. The Christians began to regain control under the leadership of the nobleman Pelagius of Asturias, who founded the Kingdom of Asturias in 718 and defeated the Muslims at the Battle of Covadonga in c. 722, in what is taken by historians to be the beginning of the Reconquista. It was from the Asturian kingdom that modern Spain and Portugal evolved.
The Visigoths were never completely Romanized; rather, they were 'Hispanicized' as they spread widely over a large territory and population. They progressively adopted a new culture, retaining little of their original culture except for practical military customs, some artistic modalities, family traditions such as heroic songs and folklore, as well as select conventions to include Germanic names still in use in present-day Spain. It is these artifacts of the original Visigothic culture that give ample evidence of its contributing foundation for the present regional culture. Portraying themselves heirs of the Visigoths, the subsequent Christian Spanish monarchs declared their responsibility for the Reconquista of Muslim Spain, which was completed with the Fall of Granada in 1492.
Ostrogoths
After the Hunnic invasion, many Goths became subjects of the Huns. A section of these Goths under the leadership of the Amali dynasty came to be known as the Ostrogoths. Others sought refuge in the Roman Empire, where many of them were recruited into the Roman army. In the spring of 399, Tribigild, a Gothic leader in charge of troops in Nakoleia, rose up in rebellion and defeated the first imperial army sent against him, possibly seeking to emulate Alaric's successes in the west. Gainas, a Goth who along with Stilicho and Eutropius had deposed Rufinus in 395, was sent to suppress Tribigild's rebellion, but instead plotted to use the situation to seize power in the Eastern Roman Empire. This attempt was however thwarted by the pro-Roman Goth Fravitta, and in the aftermath, thousands of Gothic civilians were massacred in Constantinople, many being burned alive in the local Arian church where they had taken shelter. As late as the 6th century Goths were settled as foederati in parts of Asia Minor. Their descendants, who formed the elite Optimatoi regiment, still lived there in the early 8th century. While they were largely assimilated, their Gothic origin was still well–known: the chronicler Theophanes the Confessor calls them Gothograeci.
The Ostrogoths fought together with the Huns at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains in 451. Following the death of Attila and the defeat of the Huns at the Battle of Nedao in 454, the Ostrogoths broke away from Hunnic rule under their king Valamir. Mentions of this event were probably preserved in Slavic epic songs. Under his successor, Theodemir, they utterly defeated the Huns at the Bassianae in 468, and then defeated a coalition of Roman–supported Germanic tribes at the Battle of Bolia in 469, which gained them supremacy in Pannonia.
Theodemir was succeeded by his son Theodoric in 471, who was forced to compete with Theodoric Strabo, leader of the Thracian Goths, for the leadership of his people. Fearing the threat posed by Theodoric to Constantinople, the Eastern Roman emperor Zeno ordered Theodoric to invade Italy in 488. By 493, Theodoric had conquered all of Italy from the Scirian Odoacer, whom he killed with his own hands; he subsequently formed the Ostrogothic Kingdom. Theodoric settled his entire people in Italy, estimated at 100,000–200,000, mostly in the northern part of the country, and ruled the country very efficiently. The Goths in Italy constituted a small minority of the population in the country. Intermarriage between Goths and Romans were forbidden, and Romans were also forbidden from carrying arms. Nevertheless, the Roman majority was treated fairly.
The Goths were briefly reunited under one crown in the early 6th century under Theodoric, who became regent of the Visigothic kingdom following the death of Alaric II at the Battle of Vouillé in 507. Shortly after Theodoric's death, the country was invaded by the Eastern Roman Empire in the Gothic War, which severely devastated and depopulated the Italian peninsula. The Ostrogoths made a brief resurgence under their king Totila, who was, however, killed at the Battle of Taginae in 552. After the last stand of the Ostrogothic king Teia at the Battle of Mons Lactarius in 553, Ostrogothic resistance ended, and the remaining Goths in Italy were assimilated by the Lombards, another Germanic tribe, who invaded Italy and founded the Kingdom of the Lombards in 567.
Crimean Goths
Gothic tribes who remained in the lands around the Black Sea, especially in Crimea, were known as the Crimean Goths. During the late 5th and early 6th century, the Crimean Goths had to fend off hordes of Huns who were migrating back eastward after losing control of their European empire. In the 5th century, Theodoric the Great tried to recruit Crimean Goths for his campaigns in Italy, but few showed interest in joining him. They affiliated with the Eastern Orthodox Church through the Metropolitanate of Gothia, and were then closely associated with the Byzantine Empire.
During the Middle Ages, the Crimean Goths were in perpetual conflict with the Khazars. John of Gothia, the metropolitan bishop of Doros, capital of the Crimean Goths, briefly expelled the Khazars from Crimea in the late 8th century, and was subsequently canonized as an Eastern Orthodox saint.
In the 10th century, the lands of the Crimean Goths were once again raided by the Khazars. As a response, the leaders of the Crimean Goths made an alliance with Sviatoslav I of Kiev, who subsequently waged war upon and utterly destroyed the Khazar Khaganate. In the late Middle Ages the Crimean Goths were part of the Principality of Theodoro, which was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in the late 15th century. As late as the 18th century a small number of people in Crimea may still have spoken Crimean Gothic.
Language
The Goths were Germanic-speaking. The Gothic language is the Germanic language with the earliest attestation (the 4th century), and the only East Germanic language documented in more than proper names, short phrases that survived in historical accounts, and loan-words in other languages, making it a language of great interest in comparative linguistics. Gothic is known primarily from the Codex Argenteus, which contains a partial translation of the Bible credited to Ulfilas.
The language was in decline by the mid-500s, due to the military victory of the Franks, the elimination of the Goths in Italy, and geographic isolation. In Spain, the language lost its last and probably already declining function as a church language when the Visigoths converted to Catholicism in 589; it survived as a domestic language in the Iberian peninsula (modern Spain and Portugal) as late as the 8th century.
Frankish author Walafrid Strabo wrote that Gothic was still spoken in the lower Danube area, in what is now Bulgaria, in the early 9th century, and a related dialect known as Crimean Gothic was spoken in the Crimea until the 16th century, according to references in the writings of travelers. Most modern scholars believe that Crimean Gothic did not derive from the dialect that was the basis for Ulfilas' translation of the Bible.
Physical appearance
In ancient sources, the Goths are always described as tall and athletic, with light skin, blonde hair and blue eyes. The 4th-century Greek historian Eunapius described their characteristic powerful musculature in a pejorative way: "Their bodies provoked contempt in all who saw them, for they were far too big and far too heavy for their feet to carry them, and they were pinched in at the waist – just like those insects Aristotle writes of." Procopius notes that the Vandals and Gepids looked similar to the Goths, and on this basis, he suggested that they were all of common origin. Of the Goths, he wrote that "they all have white bodies and fair hair, and are tall and handsome to look upon."
Culture
Art
Early
Before the invasion of the Huns, the Gothic Chernyakhov culture produced jewelry, vessels, and decorative objects in a style much influenced by Greek and Roman craftsmen. They developed a polychrome style of gold work, using wrought cells or setting to encrust gemstones into their gold objects.
Ostrogoths
The eagle-shaped fibula, part of the Domagnano Treasure, was used to join clothes c. AD 500; the piece on display in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg is well-known.
Visigoths
In Spain an important collection of Visigothic metalwork was found in the treasure of Guarrazar, Guadamur, Province of Toledo, Castile-La Mancha, an archeological find composed of twenty-six votive crowns and gold crosses from the royal workshop in Toledo, with Byzantine influence. The treasure represents the high point of Visigothic goldsmithery, according to . The two most important votive crowns are those of Recceswinth and of Suintila, displayed in the National Archaeological Museum of Madrid; both are made of gold, encrusted with sapphires, pearls, and other precious stones. Suintila's crown was stolen in 1921 and never recovered. There are several other small crowns and many votive crosses in the treasure.
These findings, along with others from some neighbouring sites and with the archaeological excavation of the Spanish Ministry of Public Works and the Royal Spanish Academy of History (April 1859), formed a group consisting of:
National Archaeological Museum of Spain: six crowns, five crosses, a pendant and remnants of foil and channels (almost all of gold).
Royal Palace of Madrid: a crown and a gold cross and a stone engraved with the Annunciation. A crown, and other fragments of a tiller with a crystal ball were stolen from the Royal Palace of Madrid in 1921 and its whereabouts are still unknown.
National Museum of the Middle Ages, Paris: three crowns, two crosses, links and gold pendants.
The aquiliform (eagle-shaped) fibulae that have been discovered in necropolises such as Duraton, Madrona or Castiltierra (cities of Segovia), are an unmistakable indication of the Visigothic presence in Spain. These fibulae were used individually or in pairs, as clasps or pins in gold, bronze and glass to join clothes, showing the work of the goldsmiths of Visigothic Hispania.
The Visigothic belt buckles, a symbol of rank and status characteristic of Visigothic women's clothing, are also notable as works of goldsmithery. Some pieces contain exceptional Byzantine-style lapis lazuli inlays and are generally rectangular in shape, with copper alloy, garnets and glass.
Society
Archaeological evidence in Visigothic cemeteries shows that social stratification was analogous to that of the village of Sabbas the Goth. The majority of villagers were common peasants. Paupers were buried with funeral rites, unlike slaves. In a village of 50 to 100 people, there were four or five elite couples. In Eastern Europe, houses include sunken-floored dwellings, surface dwellings, and stall-houses. The largest known settlement is the Criuleni District. Chernyakhov cemeteries feature both cremation and inhumation burials; among the latter the head aligned to the north. Some graves were left empty. Grave goods often include pottery, bone combs, and iron tools, but hardly ever weapons.
Peter Heather suggests that the freemen constituted the core of Gothic society. These were ranked below the nobility, but above the freedmen and slaves. It is estimated that around a quarter to a fifth of weapon-bearing Gothic males of the Ostrogothic Kingdom were freemen.
Religion
Initially practising Gothic paganism, the Goths were gradually converted to Arianism in the course of the 4th century. According to Basil of Caesarea, a prisoner named Eutychus taken captive in a raid on Cappadocia in 260 preached the gospel to the Goths and was martyred. It was only in the 4th century, as a result of missionary activity by the Gothic bishop Ulfilas, whose grandparents were Cappadocians taken captive in the raids of the 250s, that the Goths were gradually converted. Ulfilas devised a Gothic alphabet and translated the Gothic Bible.
During the 370s, Goths converting to Christianity were subject to persecution by the Thervingian king Athanaric, who was a pagan.
The Visigothic Kingdom in Hispania converted to Catholicism in the late 6th century.
The Ostrogoths (and their remnants, the Crimean Goths) were closely connected to the Patriarchate of Constantinople from the 5th century, and became fully incorporated under the Metropolitanate of Gothia from the 9th century.
Law
Warfare
Economy
Archaeology shows that the Visigoths, unlike the Ostrogoths, were predominantly farmers. They sowed wheat, barley, rye, and flax. They also raised pigs, poultry, and goats. Horses and donkeys were raised as working animals and fed with hay. Sheep were raised for their wool, which they fashioned into clothing. Archaeology indicates they were skilled potters and blacksmiths. When peace treaties were negotiated with the Romans, the Goths demanded free trade. Imports from Rome included wine and cooking-oil.
Roman writers note that the Goths neither assessed taxes on their own people nor on their subjects. The early 5th-century Christian writer Salvian compared the Goths' and related people's favourable treatment of the poor to the miserable state of peasants in Roman Gaul:
For in the Gothic country the barbarians are so far from tolerating this sort of oppression that not even Romans who live among them have to bear it. Hence all the Romans in that region have but one desire, that they may never have to return to the Roman jurisdiction. It is the unanimous prayer of the Roman people in that district that they may be permitted to continue to lead their present life among the barbarians.
Architecture
Ostrogoths
The Mausoleum of Theodoric (Italian: Mausoleo di Teodorico) is an ancient monument just outside Ravenna, Italy. It was built in 520 AD by Theodoric the Great, an Ostrogoth, as his future tomb.
The current structure of the mausoleum is divided into two decagonal orders, one above the other; both are made of Istria stone. Its roof is a single 230-tonne Istrian stone, 10 meters in diameter. Possibly as a reference to the Goths' tradition of an origin in Scandinavia, the architect decorated the frieze with a pattern found in 5th- and 6th-century Scandinavian metal adornments. A niche leads down to a room that was probably a chapel for funeral liturgies; a stair leads to the upper floor. Located in the centre of the floor is a circular porphyry stone grave, in which Theodoric was buried. His remains were removed during Byzantine rule, when the mausoleum was turned into a Christian oratory. In the late 19th century, silting from a nearby rivulet that had partly submerged the mausoleum was drained and excavated.
The Palace of Theodoric, also in Ravenna, has a symmetrical composition with arches and monolithic marble columns, reused from previous Roman buildings. With capitals of different shapes and sizes. The Ostrogoths restored Roman buildings, some of which have come down to us thanks to them.
Visigoths
During their governance of Hispania, the Visigoths built several churches of basilical or cruciform floor plan that survive, including the churches of San Pedro de la Nave in El Campillo, Santa María de Melque in San Martín de Montalbán, Santa Lucía del Trampal in Alcuéscar, Santa Comba in Bande, and Santa María de Lara in Quintanilla de las Viñas; the Visigothic crypt (the Crypt of San Antolín) in the Palencia Cathedral is a Visigothic chapel from the mid 7th century, built during the reign of Wamba to preserve the remains of the martyr Saint Antoninus of Pamiers, a Visigothic-Gallic nobleman brought from Narbonne to Visigothic Hispania in 672 or 673 by Wamba himself. These are the only remains of the Visigothic cathedral of Palencia.
Reccopolis (Spanish: Recópolis), located near the tiny modern village of Zorita de los Canes in the province of Guadalajara, Castile-La Mancha, Spain, is an archaeological site of one of at least four cities founded in Hispania by the Visigoths. It is the only city in Western Europe to have been founded between the fifth and eighth centuries. According to Lauro Olmo Enciso who is a professor of archaeology at the University of Alcalá, the city was ordered to build by the Visigothic king Leovigild to honor his son Reccared I and to serve as Reccared's seat as co-king in the Visigothic province of Celtiberia, to the west of Carpetania, where the main capital, Toledo, lay.
Legacy
The Goths' relationship with Sweden became an important part of Swedish nationalism, and until the 19th Century, before the Gothic origin had been thoroughly researched by archaeologists, Swedish scholars considered Swedes to be the direct descendants of the Goths. Today, scholars identify this as a cultural movement called Gothicismus, which included an enthusiasm for things Old Norse.
In medieval and modern Spain, the Visigoths were believed to be the progenitors of the Spanish nobility (compare Gobineau for a similar French idea). By the early 7th century, the ethnic distinction between Visigoths and Hispano-Romans had all but disappeared, but recognition of a Gothic origin, e.g. on gravestones, still survived among the nobility. The 7th century Visigothic aristocracy saw itself as bearers of a particular Gothic consciousness and as guardians of old traditions such as Germanic namegiving; probably these traditions were on the whole restricted to the family sphere (Hispano-Roman nobles were doing service for the Visigothic Royal Court in Toulouse already in the 5th century and the two branches of Spanish aristocracy had fully adopted similar customs two centuries later).
Beginning in 1278, when Magnus III of Sweden ascended to the throne, a reference to Gothic origins was included in the title of the King of Sweden: In 1973, with the accession of King Carl XVI Gustaf, the title was changed to simply "King of Sweden."
The Spanish and Swedish claims of Gothic origins led to a clash at the Council of Basel in 1434. Before the assembled cardinals and delegations could engage in theological discussion, they had to decide how to sit during the proceedings. The delegations from the more prominent nations argued that they should sit closest to the Pope, and there were also disputes over who were to have the finest chairs and who were to have their chairs on mats. In some cases, they compromised so that some would have half a chair leg on the rim of a mat. In this conflict, Nicolaus Ragvaldi, bishop of the Diocese of Växjö, claimed that the Swedes were the descendants of the great Goths, and that the people of Västergötland (Westrogothia in Latin) were the Visigoths and the people of Östergötland (Ostrogothia in Latin) were the Ostrogoths. The Spanish delegation retorted that it was only the "lazy" and "unenterprising" Goths who had remained in Sweden, whereas the "heroic" Goths had left Sweden, invaded the Roman empire and settled in Spain.
In Spain, a man acting with arrogance would be said to be "haciéndose los godos" ("making himself to act like the Goths"). In Chile, Argentina, and the Canary Islands, godo was an ethnic slur used against European Spaniards, who in the early colonial period often felt superior to the people born locally (criollos). In Colombia, it remains as slang for a person with conservative views.
A large amount of literature has been produced on the Goths, with Henry Bradley's The Goths (1888) being the standard English-language text for many decades. More recently, Peter Heather has established himself as the leading authority on the Goths in the English-speaking world. The leading authority on the Goths in the German-speaking world is Herwig Wolfram.
List of early literature on the Goths
In the sagas
Gutasaga
Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks (The Saga of Hervör and Heidrek)
Hlöðskviða (The Battle of the Goths and Huns)
In Greek and Roman literature
Ambrose.
Ammianus Marcellinus
The anonymous author(s) of the Augustan History
Aurelius Victor: The Caesars, a history from Augustus to Constantius II
Cassiodorus: A lost history of the Goths used by Jordanes
Claudian: Poems
Epitome de Caesaribus
Eunapius"
Eutropius: Breviary
Eusebius
George Syncellus
Gregory of Nyssa
Isidore of Seville in his History of the Kings of the Goths, Vandals, and Suevi
Jerome: Chronicle
Jordanes, in his Getica
Julian the Apostate
Lactantius: On the death of the Persecutors
Olympiodorus of Thebes
Panegyrici latini
Paulinus the Deacon: Life of bishop Ambrose of Milan
Paulus Orosius
Philostorgius: Greek church history
Pliny the Elder in Natural History
Procopius
Ptolemy in Geography
Sozomen
Strabo in Geographica
Synesius: De regno and De providentia.
Tacitus in Germania and Annals
Themistius: Speeches
Theoderet of Cyrrhus
Theodosian Code
Zosimus
See also
Gothic Wars
Gaut
Getae
Gutes
Geats
Gothicism
Gutian people
Notes and sources
Notes
Footnotes
Ancient sources
Modern sources
Reprinted in
Further reading
Early Germanic peoples
Germanic tribes | [
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12644 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycolysis | Glycolysis | Glycolysis is the metabolic pathway that converts glucose C6H12O6, into pyruvic acid, CH3COCOOH. The free energy released in this process is used to form the high-energy molecules adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH). Glycolysis is a sequence of ten reactions catalyzed by enzymes.
Glycolysis is a metabolic pathway that does not require oxygen. The wide occurrence of glycolysis in other species indicates that it is an ancient metabolic pathway. Indeed, the reactions that make up glycolysis and its parallel pathway, the pentose phosphate pathway, occur in the oxygen-free conditions of the Archean oceans, also in the absence of enzymes, catalyzed by metal.
In most organisms, glycolysis occurs in the liquid part of cells, the cytosol. The most common type of glycolysis is the Embden–Meyerhof–Parnas (EMP) pathway, which was discovered by Gustav Embden, Otto Meyerhof, and Jakub Karol Parnas. Glycolysis also refers to other pathways, such as the Entner–Doudoroff pathway and various heterofermentative and homofermentative pathways. However, the discussion here will be limited to the Embden–Meyerhof–Parnas pathway.
The glycolysis pathway can be separated into two phases:
Investment phase – wherein ATP is consumed
Yield phase – wherein more ATP is produced than originally consumed
Overview
The overall reaction of glycolysis is:
The use of symbols in this equation makes it appear unbalanced with respect to oxygen atoms, hydrogen atoms, and charges. Atom balance is maintained by the two phosphate (Pi) groups:
Each exists in the form of a hydrogen phosphate anion (HPO42−), dissociating to contribute 2 H+ overall
Each liberates an oxygen atom when it binds to an adenosine diphosphate (ADP) molecule, contributing 2O overall
Charges are balanced by the difference between ADP and ATP. In the cellular environment, all three hydroxyl groups of ADP dissociate into −O− and H+, giving ADP3−, and this ion tends to exist in an ionic bond with Mg2+, giving ADPMg−. ATP behaves identically except that it has four hydroxyl groups, giving ATPMg2−. When these differences along with the true charges on the two phosphate groups are considered together, the net charges of −4 on each side are balanced.
For simple fermentations, the metabolism of one molecule of glucose to two molecules of pyruvate has a net yield of two molecules of ATP. Most cells will then carry out further reactions to "repay" the used NAD+ and produce a final product of ethanol or lactic acid. Many bacteria use inorganic compounds as hydrogen acceptors to regenerate the NAD+.
Cells performing aerobic respiration synthesize much more ATP, but not as part of glycolysis. These further aerobic reactions use pyruvate, and NADH + H+ from glycolysis. Eukaryotic aerobic respiration produces approximately 34 additional molecules of ATP for each glucose molecule, however most of these are produced by a mechanism vastly different from the substrate-level phosphorylation in glycolysis.
The lower-energy production, per glucose, of anaerobic respiration relative to aerobic respiration, results in greater flux through the pathway under hypoxic (low-oxygen) conditions, unless alternative sources of anaerobically oxidizable substrates, such as fatty acids, are found.
History
The pathway of glycolysis as it is known today took almost 100 years to fully elucidate. The combined results of many smaller experiments were required in order to understand the pathway as a whole.
The first steps in understanding glycolysis began in the nineteenth century with the wine industry. For economic reasons, the French wine industry sought to investigate why wine sometimes turned distasteful, instead of fermenting into alcohol. French scientist Louis Pasteur researched this issue during the 1850s, and the results of his experiments began the long road to elucidating the pathway of glycolysis. His experiments showed that fermentation occurs by the action of living microorganisms, yeasts, and that yeast's glucose consumption decreased under aerobic conditions of fermentation, in comparison to anaerobic conditions (the Pasteur effect).
Insight into the component steps of glycolysis were provided by the non-cellular fermentation experiments of Eduard Buchner during the 1890s. Buchner demonstrated that the conversion of glucose to ethanol was possible using a non-living extract of yeast, due to the action of enzymes in the extract. This experiment not only revolutionized biochemistry, but also allowed later scientists to analyze this pathway in a more controlled laboratory setting. In a series of experiments (1905-1911), scientists Arthur Harden and William Young discovered more pieces of glycolysis. They discovered the regulatory effects of ATP on glucose consumption during alcohol fermentation. They also shed light on the role of one compound as a glycolysis intermediate: fructose 1,6-bisphosphate.
The elucidation of fructose 1,6-bisphosphate was accomplished by measuring CO2 levels when yeast juice was incubated with glucose. CO2 production increased rapidly then slowed down. Harden and Young noted that this process would restart if an inorganic phosphate (Pi) was added to the mixture. Harden and Young deduced that this process produced organic phosphate esters, and further experiments allowed them to extract fructose diphosphate (F-1,6-DP).
Arthur Harden and William Young along with Nick Sheppard determined, in a second experiment, that a heat-sensitive high-molecular-weight subcellular fraction (the enzymes) and a heat-insensitive low-molecular-weight cytoplasm fraction (ADP, ATP and NAD+ and other cofactors) are required together for fermentation to proceed. This experiment begun by observing that dialyzed (purified) yeast juice could not ferment or even create a sugar phosphate. This mixture was rescued with the addition of undialyzed yeast extract that had been boiled. Boiling the yeast extract renders all proteins inactive (as it denatures them). The ability of boiled extract plus dialyzed juice to complete fermentation suggests that the cofactors were non-protein in character.
In the 1920s Otto Meyerhof was able to link together some of the many individual pieces of glycolysis discovered by Buchner, Harden, and Young. Meyerhof and his team were able to extract different glycolytic enzymes from muscle tissue, and combine them to artificially create the pathway from glycogen to lactic acid.
In one paper, Meyerhof and scientist Renate Junowicz-Kockolaty investigated the reaction that splits fructose 1,6-diphosphate into the two triose phosphates. Previous work proposed that the split occurred via 1,3-diphosphoglyceraldehyde plus an oxidizing enzyme and cozymase. Meyerhoff and Junowicz found that the equilibrium constant for the isomerase and aldoses reaction were not affected by inorganic phosphates or any other cozymase or oxidizing enzymes. They further removed diphosphoglyceraldehyde as a possible intermediate in glycolysis.
With all of these pieces available by the 1930s, Gustav Embden proposed a detailed, step-by-step outline of that pathway we now know as glycolysis. The biggest difficulties in determining the intricacies of the pathway were due to the very short lifetime and low steady-state concentrations of the intermediates of the fast glycolytic reactions. By the 1940s, Meyerhof, Embden and many other biochemists had finally completed the puzzle of glycolysis. The understanding of the isolated pathway has been expanded in the subsequent decades, to include further details of its regulation and integration with other metabolic pathways.
Sequence of reactions
Summary of reactions
Preparatory phase
The first five steps of Glycolysis are regarded as the preparatory (or investment) phase, since they consume energy to convert the glucose into two three-carbon sugar phosphates (G3P).
The first step is phosphorylation of glucose by a family of enzymes called hexokinases to form glucose 6-phosphate (G6P). This reaction consumes ATP, but it acts to keep the glucose concentration low, promoting continuous transport of glucose into the cell through the plasma membrane transporters. In addition, it blocks the glucose from leaking out – the cell lacks transporters for G6P, and free diffusion out of the cell is prevented due to the charged nature of G6P. Glucose may alternatively be formed from the phosphorolysis or hydrolysis of intracellular starch or glycogen.
In animals, an isozyme of hexokinase called glucokinase is also used in the liver, which has a much lower affinity for glucose (Km in the vicinity of normal glycemia), and differs in regulatory properties. The different substrate affinity and alternate regulation of this enzyme are a reflection of the role of the liver in maintaining blood sugar levels.
Cofactors: Mg2+
G6P is then rearranged into fructose 6-phosphate (F6P) by glucose phosphate isomerase. Fructose can also enter the glycolytic pathway by phosphorylation at this point.
The change in structure is an isomerization, in which the G6P has been converted to F6P. The reaction requires an enzyme, phosphoglucose isomerase, to proceed. This reaction is freely reversible under normal cell conditions. However, it is often driven forward because of a low concentration of F6P, which is constantly consumed during the next step of glycolysis. Under conditions of high F6P concentration, this reaction readily runs in reverse. This phenomenon can be explained through Le Chatelier's Principle. Isomerization to a keto sugar is necessary for carbanion stabilization in the fourth reaction step (below).
The energy expenditure of another ATP in this step is justified in 2 ways: The glycolytic process (up to this step) becomes irreversible, and the energy supplied destabilizes the molecule. Because the reaction catalyzed by phosphofructokinase 1 (PFK-1) is coupled to the hydrolysis of ATP (an energetically favorable step) it is, in essence, irreversible, and a different pathway must be used to do the reverse conversion during gluconeogenesis. This makes the reaction a key regulatory point (see below). This is also the rate-limiting step.
Furthermore, the second phosphorylation event is necessary to allow the formation of two charged groups (rather than only one) in the subsequent step of glycolysis, ensuring the prevention of free diffusion of substrates out of the cell.
The same reaction can also be catalyzed by pyrophosphate-dependent phosphofructokinase (PFP or PPi-PFK), which is found in most plants, some bacteria, archea, and protists, but not in animals. This enzyme uses pyrophosphate (PPi) as a phosphate donor instead of ATP. It is a reversible reaction, increasing the flexibility of glycolytic metabolism. A rarer ADP-dependent PFK enzyme variant has been identified in archaean species.
Cofactors: Mg2+
Destabilizing the molecule in the previous reaction allows the hexose ring to be split by aldolase into two triose sugars: dihydroxyacetone phosphate (a ketose), and glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate (an aldose). There are two classes of aldolases: class I aldolases, present in animals and plants, and class II aldolases, present in fungi and bacteria; the two classes use different mechanisms in cleaving the ketose ring.
Electrons delocalized in the carbon-carbon bond cleavage associate with the alcohol group. The resulting carbanion is stabilized by the structure of the carbanion itself via resonance charge distribution and by the presence of a charged ion prosthetic group.
Triosephosphate isomerase rapidly interconverts dihydroxyacetone phosphate with glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate (GADP) that proceeds further into glycolysis. This is advantageous, as it directs dihydroxyacetone phosphate down the same pathway as glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate, simplifying regulation.
Pay-off phase
The second half of glycolysis is known as the pay-off phase, characterised by a net gain of the energy-rich molecules ATP and NADH. Since glucose leads to two triose sugars in the preparatory phase, each reaction in the pay-off phase occurs twice per glucose molecule. This yields 2 NADH molecules and 4 ATP molecules, leading to a net gain of 2 NADH molecules and 2 ATP molecules from the glycolytic pathway per glucose.
The aldehyde groups of the triose sugars are oxidised, and inorganic phosphate is added to them, forming 1,3-bisphosphoglycerate.
The hydrogen is used to reduce two molecules of NAD+, a hydrogen carrier, to give NADH + H+ for each triose.
Hydrogen atom balance and charge balance are both maintained because the phosphate (Pi) group actually exists in the form of a hydrogen phosphate anion (HPO42−), which dissociates to contribute the extra H+ ion and gives a net charge of -3 on both sides.
Here, arsenate (AsO43−), an anion akin to inorganic phosphate may replace phosphate as a substrate to form 1-arseno-3-phosphoglycerate. This, however, is unstable and readily hydrolyzes to form 3-phosphoglycerate, the intermediate in the next step of the pathway. As a consequence of bypassing this step, the molecule of ATP generated from 1-3 bisphosphoglycerate in the next reaction will not be made, even though the reaction proceeds. As a result, arsenate is an uncoupler of glycolysis.
This step is the enzymatic transfer of a phosphate group from 1,3-bisphosphoglycerate to ADP by phosphoglycerate kinase, forming ATP and 3-phosphoglycerate. At this step, glycolysis has reached the break-even point: 2 molecules of ATP were consumed, and 2 new molecules have now been synthesized. This step, one of the two substrate-level phosphorylation steps, requires ADP; thus, when the cell has plenty of ATP (and little ADP), this reaction does not occur. Because ATP decays relatively quickly when it is not metabolized, this is an important regulatory point in the glycolytic pathway.
ADP actually exists as ADPMg−, and ATP as ATPMg2−, balancing the charges at −5 both sides.
Cofactors: Mg2+
Phosphoglycerate mutase isomerises 3-phosphoglycerate into 2-phosphoglycerate.
Enolase next converts 2-phosphoglycerate to phosphoenolpyruvate. This reaction is an elimination reaction involving an E1cB mechanism.
Cofactors: 2 Mg2+, one "conformational" ion to coordinate with the carboxylate group of the substrate, and one "catalytic" ion that participates in the dehydration.
A final substrate-level phosphorylation now forms a molecule of pyruvate and a molecule of ATP by means of the enzyme pyruvate kinase. This serves as an additional regulatory step, similar to the phosphoglycerate kinase step.
Cofactors: Mg2+
Biochemical logic
The existence of more than one point of regulation indicates that intermediates between those points enter and leave the glycolysis pathway by other processes. For example, in the first regulated step, hexokinase converts glucose into glucose-6-phosphate. Instead of continuing through the glycolysis pathway, this intermediate can be converted into glucose storage molecules, such as glycogen or starch. The reverse reaction, breaking down, e.g., glycogen, produces mainly glucose-6-phosphate; very little free glucose is formed in the reaction. The glucose-6-phosphate so produced can enter glycolysis after the first control point.
In the second regulated step (the third step of glycolysis), phosphofructokinase converts fructose-6-phosphate into fructose-1,6-bisphosphate, which then is converted into glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate and dihydroxyacetone phosphate. The dihydroxyacetone phosphate can be removed from glycolysis by conversion into glycerol-3-phosphate, which can be used to form triglycerides. Conversely, triglycerides can be broken down into fatty acids and glycerol; the latter, in turn, can be converted into dihydroxyacetone phosphate, which can enter glycolysis after the second control point.
Free energy changes
The change in free energy, ΔG, for each step in the glycolysis pathway can be calculated using ΔG = ΔG°' + RTln Q, where Q is the reaction quotient. This requires knowing the concentrations of the metabolites. All of these values are available for erythrocytes, with the exception of the concentrations of NAD+ and NADH. The ratio of NAD+ to NADH in the cytoplasm is approximately 1000, which makes the oxidation of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate (step 6) more favourable.
Using the measured concentrations of each step, and the standard free energy changes, the actual free energy change can be calculated. (Neglecting this is very common - the delta G of ATP hydrolysis in cells is not the standard free energy change of ATP hydrolysis quoted in textbooks).
From measuring the physiological concentrations of metabolites in an erythrocyte it seems that about seven of the steps in glycolysis are in equilibrium for that cell type. Three of the steps — the ones with large negative free energy changes — are not in equilibrium and are referred to as irreversible; such steps are often subject to regulation.
Step 5 in the figure is shown behind the other steps, because that step is a side-reaction that can decrease or increase the concentration of the intermediate glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate. That compound is converted to dihydroxyacetone phosphate by the enzyme triose phosphate isomerase, which is a catalytically perfect enzyme; its rate is so fast that the reaction can be assumed to be in equilibrium. The fact that ΔG is not zero indicates that the actual concentrations in the erythrocyte are not accurately known.
Regulation
Enzymes are the main components which drive the metabolic pathway and hence, exploring the regulatory mechanisms on these enzymes will give us insights to the regulatory processes affecting glycolysis. There are in total 9 primary steps in glycolysis which is driven by 14 different enzymes. Enzymes can be modified or are affected using 5 main regulatory processes including post-translational modification (PTM) and localization.
Biological mechanisms by which enzymes are regulated
1. Gene Expression
2. Allostery
3. Protein-protein interaction (PPI)
4. Post translational modification (PTM)
5. Localization
Regulation by insulin in animals
In animals, regulation of blood glucose levels by the pancreas in conjunction with the liver is a vital part of homeostasis. The beta cells in the pancreatic islets are sensitive to the blood glucose concentration. A rise in the blood glucose concentration causes them to release insulin into the blood, which has an effect particularly on the liver, but also on fat and muscle cells, causing these tissues to remove glucose from the blood. When the blood sugar falls the pancreatic beta cells cease insulin production, but, instead, stimulate the neighboring pancreatic alpha cells to release glucagon into the blood. This, in turn, causes the liver to release glucose into the blood by breaking down stored glycogen, and by means of gluconeogenesis. If the fall in the blood glucose level is particularly rapid or severe, other glucose sensors cause the release of epinephrine from the adrenal glands into the blood. This has the same action as glucagon on glucose metabolism, but its effect is more pronounced. In the liver glucagon and epinephrine cause the phosphorylation of the key, rate limiting enzymes of glycolysis, fatty acid synthesis, cholesterol synthesis, gluconeogenesis, and glycogenolysis. Insulin has the opposite effect on these enzymes. The phosphorylation and dephosphorylation of these enzymes (ultimately in response to the glucose level in the blood) is the dominant manner by which these pathways are controlled in the liver, fat, and muscle cells. Thus the phosphorylation of phosphofructokinase inhibits glycolysis, whereas its dephosphorylation through the action of insulin stimulates glycolysis.
Regulation of the rate limiting enzymes
The three regulatory enzymes are hexokinase (or glucokinase in the liver), phosphofructokinase, and pyruvate kinase. The flux through the glycolytic pathway is adjusted in response to conditions both inside and outside the cell. The internal factors that regulate glycolysis do so primarily to provide ATP in adequate quantities for the cell's needs. The external factors act primarily on the liver, fat tissue, and muscles, which can remove large quantities of glucose from the blood after meals (thus preventing hyperglycemia by storing the excess glucose as fat or glycogen, depending on the tissue type). The liver is also capable of releasing glucose into the blood between meals, during fasting, and exercise thus preventing hypoglycemia by means of glycogenolysis and gluconeogenesis. These latter reactions coincide with the halting of glycolysis in the liver.
In addition hexokinase and glucokinase act independently of the hormonal effects as controls at the entry points of glucose into the cells of different tissues. Hexokinase responds to the glucose-6-phosphate (G6P) level in the cell, or, in the case of glucokinase, to the blood sugar level in the blood to impart entirely intracellular controls of the glycolytic pathway in different tissues (see below).
When glucose has been converted into G6P by hexokinase or glucokinase, it can either be converted to glucose-1-phosphate (G1P) for conversion to glycogen, or it is alternatively converted by glycolysis to pyruvate, which enters the mitochondrion where it is converted into acetyl-CoA and then into citrate. Excess citrate is exported from the mitochondrion back into the cytosol, where ATP citrate lyase regenerates acetyl-CoA and oxaloacetate (OAA). The acetyl-CoA is then used for fatty acid synthesis and cholesterol synthesis, two important ways of utilizing excess glucose when its concentration is high in blood. The rate limiting enzymes catalyzing these reactions perform these functions when they have been dephosphorylated through the action of insulin on the liver cells. Between meals, during fasting, exercise or hypoglycemia, glucagon and epinephrine are released into the blood. This causes liver glycogen to be converted back to G6P, and then converted to glucose by the liver-specific enzyme glucose 6-phosphatase and released into the blood. Glucagon and epinephrine also stimulate gluconeogenesis, which coverts non-carbohydrate substrates into G6P, which joins the G6P derived from glycogen, or substitutes for it when the liver glycogen store have been depleted. This is critical for brain function, since the brain utilizes glucose as an energy source under most conditions. The simultaneously phosphorylation of, particularly, phosphofructokinase, but also, to a certain extent pyruvate kinase, prevents glycolysis occurring at the same time as gluconeogenesis and glycogenolysis.
Hexokinase and glucokinase
All cells contain the enzyme hexokinase, which catalyzes the conversion of glucose that has entered the cell into glucose-6-phosphate (G6P). Since the cell membrane is impervious to G6P, hexokinase essentially acts to transport glucose into the cells from which it can then no longer escape. Hexokinase is inhibited by high levels of G6P in the cell. Thus the rate of entry of glucose into cells partially depends on how fast G6P can be disposed of by glycolysis, and by glycogen synthesis (in the cells which store glycogen, namely liver and muscles).
Glucokinase, unlike hexokinase, is not inhibited by G6P. It occurs in liver cells, and will only phosphorylate the glucose entering the cell to form glucose-6-phosphate (G6P), when the glucose in the blood is abundant. This being the first step in the glycolytic pathway in the liver, it therefore imparts an additional layer of control of the glycolytic pathway in this organ.
Phosphofructokinase
Phosphofructokinase is an important control point in the glycolytic pathway, since it is one of the irreversible steps and has key allosteric effectors, AMP and fructose 2,6-bisphosphate (F2,6BP).
Fructose 2,6-bisphosphate (F2,6BP) is a very potent activator of phosphofructokinase (PFK-1) that is synthesized when F6P is phosphorylated by a second phosphofructokinase (PFK2). In the liver, when blood sugar is low and glucagon elevates cAMP, PFK2 is phosphorylated by protein kinase A. The phosphorylation inactivates PFK2, and another domain on this protein becomes active as fructose bisphosphatase-2, which converts F2,6BP back to F6P. Both glucagon and epinephrine cause high levels of cAMP in the liver. The result of lower levels of liver fructose-2,6-bisphosphate is a decrease in activity of phosphofructokinase and an increase in activity of fructose 1,6-bisphosphatase, so that gluconeogenesis (in essence, "glycolysis in reverse") is favored. This is consistent with the role of the liver in such situations, since the response of the liver to these hormones is to release glucose to the blood.
ATP competes with AMP for the allosteric effector site on the PFK enzyme. ATP concentrations in cells are much higher than those of AMP, typically 100-fold higher, but the concentration of ATP does not change more than about 10% under physiological conditions, whereas a 10% drop in ATP results in a 6-fold increase in AMP. Thus, the relevance of ATP as an allosteric effector is questionable. An increase in AMP is a consequence of a decrease in energy charge in the cell.
Citrate inhibits phosphofructokinase when tested in vitro by enhancing the inhibitory effect of ATP. However, it is doubtful that this is a meaningful effect in vivo, because citrate in the cytosol is utilized mainly for conversion to acetyl-CoA for fatty acid and cholesterol synthesis.
TIGAR, a p53 induced enzyme, is responsible for the regulation of phosphofructokinase and acts to protect against oxidative stress. TIGAR is a single enzyme with dual function that regulates F2,6BP. It can behave as a phosphatase (fructuose-2,6-bisphosphatase) which cleaves the phosphate at carbon-2 producing F6P. It can also behave as a kinase (PFK2) adding a phosphate onto carbon-2 of F6P which produces F2,6BP. In humans, the TIGAR protein is encoded by C12orf5 gene. The TIGAR enzyme will hinder the forward progression of glycolysis, by creating a build up of fructose-6-phosphate (F6P) which is isomerized into glucose-6-phosphate (G6P). The accumulation of G6P will shunt carbons into the pentose phosphate pathway.
Pyruvate kinase
Pyruvate kinase enzyme catalyzes the last step of glycolysis, in which pyruvate and ATP are formed. Pyruvate kinase catalyzes the transfer of a phosphate group from phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) to ADP, yielding one molecule of pyruvate and one molecule of ATP.
Liver pyruvate kinase is indirectly regulated by epinephrine and glucagon, through protein kinase A. This protein kinase phosphorylates liver pyruvate kinase to deactivate it. Muscle pyruvate kinase is not inhibited by epinephrine activation of protein kinase A. Glucagon signals fasting (no glucose available). Thus, glycolysis is inhibited in the liver but unaffected in muscle when fasting. An increase in blood sugar leads to secretion of insulin, which activates phosphoprotein phosphatase I, leading to dephosphorylation and activation of pyruvate kinase. These controls prevent pyruvate kinase from being active at the same time as the enzymes that catalyze the reverse reaction (pyruvate carboxylase and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase), preventing a futile cycle.
Post-glycolysis processes
The overall process of glycolysis is:
Glucose + 2 NAD+ + 2 ADP + 2 Pi → 2 pyruvate + 2 NADH + 2 H+ + 2 ATP
If glycolysis were to continue indefinitely, all of the NAD+ would be used up, and glycolysis would stop. To allow glycolysis to continue, organisms must be able to oxidize NADH back to NAD+. How this is performed depends on which external electron acceptor is available.
Anoxic regeneration of NAD+
One method of doing this is to simply have the pyruvate do the oxidation; in this process, pyruvate is converted to lactate (the conjugate base of lactic acid) in a process called lactic acid fermentation:
Pyruvate + NADH + H+ → lactate + NAD+
This process occurs in the bacteria involved in making yogurt (the lactic acid causes the milk to curdle). This process also occurs in animals under hypoxic (or partially anaerobic) conditions, found, for example, in overworked muscles that are starved of oxygen. In many tissues, this is a cellular last resort for energy; most animal tissue cannot tolerate anaerobic conditions for an extended period of time.
Some organisms, such as yeast, convert NADH back to NAD+ in a process called ethanol fermentation. In this process, the pyruvate is converted first to acetaldehyde and carbon dioxide, and then to ethanol.
Lactic acid fermentation and ethanol fermentation can occur in the absence of oxygen. This anaerobic fermentation allows many single-cell organisms to use glycolysis as their only energy source.
Anoxic regeneration of NAD+ is only an effective means of energy production during short, intense exercise in vertebrates, for a period ranging from 10 seconds to 2 minutes during a maximal effort in humans. (At lower exercise intensities it can sustain muscle activity in diving animals, such as seals, whales and other aquatic vertebrates, for very much longer periods of time.) Under these conditions NAD+ is replenished by NADH donating its electrons to pyruvate to form lactate. This produces 2 ATP molecules per glucose molecule, or about 5% of glucose's energy potential (38 ATP molecules in bacteria). But the speed at which ATP is produced in this manner is about 100 times that of oxidative phosphorylation. The pH in the cytoplasm quickly drops when hydrogen ions accumulate in the muscle, eventually inhibiting the enzymes involved in glycolysis.
The burning sensation in muscles during hard exercise can be attributed to the release of hydrogen ions during the shift to glucose fermentation from glucose oxidation to carbon dioxide and water, when aerobic metabolism can no longer keep pace with the energy demands of the muscles. These hydrogen ions form a part of lactic acid. The body falls back on this less efficient but faster method of producing ATP under low oxygen conditions. This is thought to have been the primary means of energy production in earlier organisms before oxygen reached high concentrations in the atmosphere between 2000 and 2500 million years ago, and thus would represent a more ancient form of energy production than the aerobic replenishment of NAD+ in cells.
The liver in mammals gets rid of this excess lactate by transforming it back into pyruvate under aerobic conditions; see Cori cycle.
Fermentation of pyruvate to lactate is sometimes also called "anaerobic glycolysis", however, glycolysis ends with the production of pyruvate regardless of the presence or absence of oxygen.
In the above two examples of fermentation, NADH is oxidized by transferring two electrons to pyruvate. However, anaerobic bacteria use a wide variety of compounds as the terminal electron acceptors in cellular respiration: nitrogenous compounds, such as nitrates and nitrites; sulfur compounds, such as sulfates, sulfites, sulfur dioxide, and elemental sulfur; carbon dioxide; iron compounds; manganese compounds; cobalt compounds; and uranium compounds.
Aerobic regeneration of NAD+, and disposal of pyruvate
In aerobic organisms, a complex mechanism has been developed to use the oxygen in air as the final electron acceptor.
Firstly, the NADH + H+ generated by glycolysis has to be transferred to the mitochondrion to be oxidized, and thus to regenerate the NAD+ necessary for glycolysis to continue. However the inner mitochondrial membrane is impermeable to NADH and NAD+. Use is therefore made of two “shuttles” to transport the electrons from NADH across the mitochondrial membrane. They are the malate-aspartate shuttle and the glycerol phosphate shuttle. In the former the electrons from NADH are transferred to cytosolic oxaloacetate to form malate. The malate then traverses the inner mitochondrial membrane into the mitochondrial matrix, where it is reoxidized by NAD+ forming intra-mitochondrial oxaloacetate and NADH. The oxaloacetate is then re-cycled to the cytosol via its conversion to aspartate which is readily transported out of the mitochondrion. In the glycerol phosphate shuttle electrons from cytosolic NADH are transferred to dihydroxyacetone to form glycerol-3-phosphate which readily traverses the outer mitochondrial membrane. Glycerol-3-phosphate is then reoxidized to dihydroxyacetone, donating its electrons to FAD instead of NAD+. This reaction takes place on the inner mitochondrial membrane, allowing FADH2 to donate its electrons directly to coenzyme Q (ubiquinone) which is part of the electron transport chain which ultimately transfers electrons to molecular oxygen (O2), with the formation of water, and the release of energy eventually captured in the form of ATP.
The glycolytic end-product, pyruvate (plus NAD+) is converted to acetyl-CoA, CO2 and NADH + H+ within the mitochondria in a process called pyruvate decarboxylation.
The resulting acetyl-CoA enters the citric acid cycle (or Krebs Cycle), where the acetyl group of the acetyl-CoA is converted into carbon dioxide by two decarboxylation reactions with the formation of yet more intra-mitochondrial NADH + H+.
The intra-mitochondrial NADH + H+ is oxidized to NAD+ by the electron transport chain, using oxygen as the final electron acceptor to form water. The energy released during this process is used to create a hydrogen ion (or proton) gradient across the inner membrane of the mitochondrion.
Finally, the proton gradient is used to produce about 2.5 ATP for every NADH + H+ oxidized in a process called oxidative phosphorylation.
Conversion of carbohydrates into fatty acids and cholesterol
The pyruvate produced by glycolysis is an important intermediary in the conversion of carbohydrates into fatty acids and cholesterol. This occurs via the conversion of pyruvate into acetyl-CoA in the mitochondrion. However, this acetyl CoA needs to be transported into cytosol where the synthesis of fatty acids and cholesterol occurs. This cannot occur directly. To obtain cytosolic acetyl-CoA, citrate (produced by the condensation of acetyl CoA with oxaloacetate) is removed from the citric acid cycle and carried across the inner mitochondrial membrane into the cytosol. There it is cleaved by ATP citrate lyase into acetyl-CoA and oxaloacetate. The oxaloacetate is returned to mitochondrion as malate (and then back into oxaloacetate to transfer more acetyl-CoA out of the mitochondrion). The cytosolic acetyl-CoA can be carboxylated by acetyl-CoA carboxylase into malonyl CoA, the first committed step in the synthesis of fatty acids, or it can be combined with acetoacetyl-CoA to form 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA (HMG-CoA) which is the rate limiting step controlling the synthesis of cholesterol. Cholesterol can be used as is, as a structural component of cellular membranes, or it can be used to synthesize the steroid hormones, bile salts, and vitamin D.
Conversion of pyruvate into oxaloacetate for the citric acid cycle
Pyruvate molecules produced by glycolysis are actively transported across the inner mitochondrial membrane, and into the matrix where they can either be oxidized and combined with coenzyme A to form CO2, acetyl-CoA, and NADH, or they can be carboxylated (by pyruvate carboxylase) to form oxaloacetate. This latter reaction "fills up" the amount of oxaloacetate in the citric acid cycle, and is therefore an anaplerotic reaction (from the Greek meaning to "fill up"), increasing the cycle's capacity to metabolize acetyl-CoA when the tissue's energy needs (e.g. in heart and skeletal muscle) are suddenly increased by activity.
In the citric acid cycle all the intermediates (e.g. citrate, iso-citrate, alpha-ketoglutarate, succinate, fumarate, malate and oxaloacetate) are regenerated during each turn of the cycle. Adding more of any of these intermediates to the mitochondrion therefore means that that additional amount is retained within the cycle, increasing all the other intermediates as one is converted into the other. Hence the addition of oxaloacetate greatly increases the amounts of all the citric acid intermediates, thereby increasing the cycle's capacity to metabolize acetyl CoA, converting its acetate component into CO2 and water, with the release of enough energy to form 11 ATP and 1 GTP molecule for each additional molecule of acetyl CoA that combines with oxaloacetate in the cycle.
To cataplerotically remove oxaloacetate from the citric cycle, malate can be transported from the mitochondrion into the cytoplasm, decreasing the amount of oxaloacetate that can be regenerated. Furthermore, citric acid intermediates are constantly used to form a variety of substances such as the purines, pyrimidines and porphyrins.
Intermediates for other pathways
This article concentrates on the catabolic role of glycolysis with regard to converting potential chemical energy to usable chemical energy during the oxidation of glucose to pyruvate. Many of the metabolites in the glycolytic pathway are also used by anabolic pathways, and, as a consequence, flux through the pathway is critical to maintain a supply of carbon skeletons for biosynthesis.
The following metabolic pathways are all strongly reliant on glycolysis as a source of metabolites: and many more.
Pentose phosphate pathway, which begins with the dehydrogenation of glucose-6-phosphate, the first intermediate to be produced by glycolysis, produces various pentose sugars, and NADPH for the synthesis of fatty acids and cholesterol.
Glycogen synthesis also starts with glucose-6-phosphate at the beginning of the glycolytic pathway.
Glycerol, for the formation of triglycerides and phospholipids, is produced from the glycolytic intermediate glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate.
Various post-glycolytic pathways:
Fatty acid synthesis
Cholesterol synthesis
The citric acid cycle which in turn leads to:
Amino acid synthesis
Nucleotide synthesis
Tetrapyrrole synthesis
Although gluconeogenesis and glycolysis share many intermediates the one is not functionally a branch or tributary of the other. There are two regulatory steps in both pathways which, when active in the one pathway, are automatically inactive in the other. The two processes can therefore not be simultaneously active. Indeed, if both sets of reactions were highly active at the same time the net result would be the hydrolysis of four high energy phosphate bonds (two ATP and two GTP) per reaction cycle.
NAD+ is the oxidizing agent in glycolysis, as it is in most other energy yielding metabolic reactions (e.g. beta-oxidation of fatty acids, and during the citric acid cycle). The NADH thus produced is primarily used to ultimately transfer electrons to O2 to produce water, or, when O2 is not available, to produced compounds such as lactate or ethanol (see Anoxic regeneration of NAD+ above). NADH is rarely used for synthetic processes, the notable exception being gluconeogenesis. During fatty acid and cholesterol synthesis the reducing agent is NADPH. This difference exemplifies a general principle that NADPH is consumed during biosynthetic reactions, whereas NADH is generated in energy-yielding reactions. The source of the NADPH is two-fold. When malate is oxidatively decarboxylated by “NADP+-linked malic enzyme" pyruvate, CO2 and NADPH are formed. NADPH is also formed by the pentose phosphate pathway which converts glucose into ribose, which can be used in synthesis of nucleotides and nucleic acids, or it can be catabolized to pyruvate.
Glycolysis in disease
Diabetes
Cellular uptake of glucose occurs in response to insulin signals, and glucose is subsequently broken down through glycolysis, lowering blood sugar levels. However, the low insulin levels seen in diabetes result in hyperglycemia, where glucose levels in the blood rise and glucose is not properly taken up by cells. Hepatocytes further contribute to this hyperglycemia through gluconeogenesis. Glycolysis in hepatocytes controls hepatic glucose production, and when glucose is overproduced by the liver without having a means of being broken down by the body, hyperglycemia results.
Genetic diseases
Glycolytic mutations are generally rare due to importance of the metabolic pathway, this means that the majority of occurring mutations result in an inability for the cell to respire, and therefore cause the death of the cell at an early stage. However, some mutations are seen with one notable example being Pyruvate kinase deficiency, leading to chronic hemolytic anemia.
Cancer
Malignant tumor cells perform glycolysis at a rate that is ten times faster than their noncancerous tissue counterparts. During their genesis, limited capillary support often results in hypoxia (decreased O2 supply) within the tumor cells. Thus, these cells rely on anaerobic metabolic processes such as glycolysis for ATP (adenosine triphosphate). Some tumor cells overexpress specific glycolytic enzymes which result in higher rates of glycolysis. Often these enzymes are Isoenzymes, of traditional glycolysis enzymes, that vary in their susceptibility to traditional feedback inhibition. The increase in glycolytic activity ultimately counteracts the effects of hypoxia by generating sufficient ATP from this anaerobic pathway. This phenomenon was first described in 1930 by Otto Warburg and is referred to as the Warburg effect. The Warburg hypothesis claims that cancer is primarily caused by dysfunctionality in mitochondrial metabolism, rather than because of the uncontrolled growth of cells.
A number of theories have been advanced to explain the Warburg effect. One such theory suggests that the increased glycolysis is a normal protective process of the body and that malignant change could be primarily caused by energy metabolism.
This high glycolysis rate has important medical applications, as high aerobic glycolysis by malignant tumors is utilized clinically to diagnose and monitor treatment responses of cancers by imaging uptake of 2-18F-2-deoxyglucose (FDG) (a radioactive modified hexokinase substrate) with positron emission tomography (PET).
There is ongoing research to affect mitochondrial metabolism and treat cancer by reducing glycolysis and thus starving cancerous cells in various new ways, including a ketogenic diet.
Interactive pathway map
The diagram below shows human protein names. Names in other organisms may be different and the number of isozymes (such as HK1, HK2, ...) is likely to be different too.
Alternative nomenclature
Some of the metabolites in glycolysis have alternative names and nomenclature. In part, this is because some of them are common to other pathways, such as the Calvin cycle.
Structure of glycolysis components in Fischer projections and polygonal model
The intermediates of glycolysis depicted in Fischer projections show the chemical changing step by step. Such image can be compared to polygonal model representation. Another comparation of Fischer projections and Poligonal Model in glycolysis is shown in a video. Video animations in the same channel in YouTube can be seen for another metabolic pathway (Krebs Cycle) and the representation and applying of Polygonal Model in Organic Chemistry
See also
Carbohydrate catabolism
Citric acid cycle
Cori cycle
Fermentation (biochemistry)
Gluconeogenesis
Glycolytic oscillation
Pentose phosphate pathway
Pyruvate decarboxylation
Triose kinase
References
External links
A Detailed Glycolysis Animation provided by IUBMB (Adobe Flash Required)
The Glycolytic enzymes in Glycolysis at RCSB PDB
Glycolytic cycle with animations at wdv.com
Metabolism, Cellular Respiration and Photosynthesis - The Virtual Library of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Cell Biology
The chemical logic behind glycolysis at ufp.pt
Expasy biochemical pathways poster at ExPASy
metpath: Interactive representation of glycolysis
Biochemistry
Carbohydrates
Cellular respiration
Metabolic pathways | [
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12645 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary%20North%20%28economist%29 | Gary North (economist) | Gary Kilgore North (February 11, 1942 – February 24, 2022) was an American writer, Austrian School economic historian, and leading figure in the Christian reconstructionist movement. North authored or coauthored over fifty books on topics including Reformed Protestant theology, economics, and history. He was an Associated Scholar of the Mises Institute.
He is known for his advocacy of biblical or "radically libertarian" economics and also as a theorist of dominionism and theonomy. He supported the establishment and enforcement of Bible-based religious law, a view which put him in conflict with other libertarians. He believed that capital punishment is appropriate punishment for male homosexuality, adultery, blasphemy, abortion, and witchcraft.
Early life and education
North was born in Horn Lake, Mississippi on February 11, 1942, and grew up in Southern California, the son of FBI special agent Samuel W. North Jr. and his wife Peggy. North converted to Christianity in high school and began frequenting conservative book-stores in the Los Angeles area during his college years. Between 1961 and 1963, while an undergraduate student at University of California, Riverside, North became acquainted with the works of Wilhelm Röpke, Rose Wilder Lane, Cornelius Van Til, Austrian School economists Eugen Böhm von Bawerk, Ludwig von Mises, F. A. Hayek and Murray Rothbard, and also read the works of Calvinist philosopher Rousas John Rushdoony. Later he married Rushdoony's daughter, collaborated with him and eulogized Rushdoony in a blog post on LewRockwell.com.
Career
Starting in 1967, North became a contributor to the libertarian journal The Freeman where he had first read the work of Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek. In the 1970s, he was the director of seminars for the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE). North received a Ph.D. in history from the University of California, Riverside in 1972. His dissertation was The Concept of Property in Puritan New England, 1630–1720.
He served as research assistant for libertarian Republican Congressman Ron Paul in Paul's first term (1976). North was a regular contributor to the LewRockwell.com website, which lists an extensive archive of his articles there. North's own website, Garynorth.com, posts commentary on religious, social, and political issues and offers paid access to investment advice and other premium content. North also published a blog called Deliverance from Debt which provided advice about relief from debt. Another North website, "Free Christian Curriculum", seeks to provide a free Christian homeschooling curriculum for children from age 3 through grade 12.
Ron Paul curriculum
In addition, North offered the Ron Paul Curriculum, a home school online curriculum associated with former U.S. Congressman Ron Paul, which is free for grades K–5 and available to paid members from grades 6–12. As director of curriculum development, North outlined four goals of the educational project: providing a "detailed study" of the "history of liberty"; teaching a "thorough understanding of Austrian economics"; serving as "an academically rigorous curriculum that is tied to primary source" material rather than textbooks; and teaching "the Biblical principle of self-government and personal responsibility", which North called "the foundation of the market economy".
Christian, Bible-based economic methodology
North wrote that the "starting point for all economic analysis" lies in accepting that "God [has] cursed the earth" in the Book of Genesis 3:17–19; this "made scarcity an inescapable fact of man's existence". In his 1982 Dominion Covenant: Genesis, North wrote that mainstream modern economics, whether libertarian, conservative or liberal, is "in disintegration" because it is "humanist" in its approach and consequently rejects the notion that "biblical revelation" is necessary for sound economic theory. He also wrote that economics "must begin with the [Biblical] story of creation" if it is not to collapse into "total chaos".
Proposed "Christian theocratic" political and social order
A 2011 article in The New York Times identified North as a central figure in Christian reconstructionism, the philosophy which advocates the institution of "a Christian theocracy under Old Testament law [as] the best form of government, and a radically libertarian one." North wrote: "I certainly believe in biblical theocracy."
The article also described North as "the leading proponent of 'Christian economics,' which applies biblical principles to economic issues and the free market." North supported the abolition of the fractional-reserve banking system and a return to the gold standard. According to the Times, North believed that the Bible forbids inflation, welfare programs, and also writes that "God would prefer gold money to paper".
Range of capital offenses
North favored capital punishment for a range of offenders, including murderers, blasphemers, children who curse their parents, male homosexuals, and other people who commit some of the acts deemed capital offenses in the Old Testament. (North believed that the death penalty for sabbath breaking and some other crimes no longer applies.) North stated that the biblical admonition to kill homosexuals in the Book of Leviticus is God's "law and its morally appropriate sanction", arguing that "God is indeed a homophobe" who "hates the practice [of homosexuality] and those who practice it" and "hates the sin and hates the sinner."
North said that capital punishment should be carried out by stoning, because it is the biblically approved method of execution and it is cheap due to the plentiful and convenient supply of stones.
Religious liberty
North said: "We must use the doctrine of religious liberty to gain independence for Christian schools until we train up a generation of people who know that there is no religious neutrality, no neutral law, no neutral education, and no neutral civil government. Then they will get busy in constructing a Bible-based social, political and religious order which finally denies the religious liberty of the enemies of God."
Adam C. English suggests that this quote implies that "religious liberty is a useful tool to Christians in the present, yet is ultimately to be denied to anyone who is not Christian once the Christians are in power". English argues that although this may seem inconsistent (advocating religious liberty but denying the reality of the notion), North and his fellow reconstructionists understand "liberty" in a theological sense. According to the reconstructionists, "anyone outside of the Christian faith is in bondage," and so "government by rigorous theonomy is not oppressive but liberating".
Y2K
North was also a prominent promoter of exaggerated predictions of computer failure from the Year 2000 problem (Y2K) during the late 1990s, earning him the nickname "Scary Gary." His main website became dominated by links to extremist predictions for Y2K damage, including widespread collapse of governments and financial institutions. North declared on his home page that Y2K "may be the biggest problem that the modern world has ever faced" and labeled 2000 as "The Year the Earth Stands Still".
Critics said the motivation for North's predictions was linked to his Christian reconstructionist aims, which require widespread societal collapse to set the stage for a new theocratic order. North made the connection explicit in communications with fellow reconstructionists: "The Y2K crisis is systemic. It cannot possibly be fixed. I think it will wipe out every national government in the West. Not just modify them—destroy them...That is what I have wanted all my adult life. In my view, Y2K is our deliverance."
Death
North was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2017, and underwent treatment for about five years. He died in hospice care in Dallas, Georgia (a town about 40 miles northwest of Atlanta, where he had lived since about 2008), on February 24, 2022, at the age of 80.
Publications
Institute for Christian Economics
North was the founder of the Institute for Christian Economics (ICE), which publishes online books and magazines focusing on Christian ethics. ICE, along with Dominion Press in Tyler, Texas, are important sources for reconstructionist publications.
Books and newsletters
North authored or coauthored more than fifty books, many of which are available for free download. For many years, North was the author and editor of the newsletter The Remnant Review. He also provided Gary North's Reality Check, a free e-newsletter.
Documentary and educational film
Unknown History of the 20th Century (DVD) (2006)
See also
Austrian School
Christian right
Dominion Theology
Neo-Calvinism
Paleolibertarianism
Right-libertarianism
Theocracy
Theonomy
References
External links
Biography and works by North at Mises Institute
Digitized books by Gary North at The Online Books Page
– video by North, for Lowest cost colleges, which links to Zero debt degrees.
1942 births
2022 deaths
20th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians
21st-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians
People from DeSoto County, Mississippi
Writers from Mississippi
University of California, Riverside alumni
American bloggers
American Calvinist and Reformed theologians
American economics writers
American finance and investment writers
American libertarians
American male non-fiction writers
American Presbyterians
Austrian School economists
Calvinist and Reformed philosophers
Christian reconstructionism
Christian libertarians
Dominion theology
Mises Institute people
American male bloggers
Bible commentators | [
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12646 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guernica | Guernica | Guernica (, ), official name (reflecting the Basque language) Gernika (), is a town in the province of Biscay, in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, Spain. The town of Guernica is one part (along with neighbouring Lumo) of the municipality of Gernika-Lumo (, whose population is 16,224 .
Guernica is best known ─ among those residing outside the Basque region ─ both as the scene of the April 26, 1937 bombing of Guernica, one of the first aerial bombings (by Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe), and as the inspiration for Pablo Picasso's painting Guernica, depicting Picasso's outrage at the attack.
Location
This village is situated at 10m altitude, in the region of Busturialdea, in the valley of the Oka river. Moreover, the river ends in an estuary that gives its name to the village of Guernika. Its mouth is known as Urdaibai's estuary's heart. Gernika borders on the following townships:
North: Forua, Kortezubi and Arratzu.
East: Ajangiz
South: Muxika
West: Errigoiti
History
Early history
The town of Guernica was founded by Count Tello on April 28, 1366, at the intersection of the road from Bermeo to Durango with the road from Bilbao to Elantxobe and Lekeitio. The strategic importance of the site was increased by the fact that it lay on a major river estuary, where vessels could dock at the port of Suso.
In time, it took on the typical shape of a Basque town, comprising a series of parallel streets (Goienkale, Azokekale, Artekale and Barrenkale; respectively: ‘upper, market, between, lower roads’) and a transverse street called Santa María, with a church at each end of the built-up area.
Life in the town became rigidly structured, with the aim being to preserve the privileges of the dominant middle classes. This pattern continued practically unaltered until the late 17th century.
On a small hillock in the town, stands the Meeting House and the famous Tree of Gernika. By ancient tradition, Basques, and indeed other peoples in Medieval Europe, held assemblies under a tree, usually an oak, to discuss matters affecting the community.
In Biscay, each administrative district (known as a merindad) had its appointed tree, but over the centuries, the Tree of Guernica acquired particular importance. It stood in the parish of Lumo, on a site known as Gernikazarra, beside a small shrine.
The laws of Biscay continued to be drawn up under this tree until 1876, with each town and village in the province sending two representatives to the sessions, known as General Assemblies. This early form of democracy was recorded by the philosopher Rousseau, by the poet William Wordsworth, by the dramatist Tirso de Molina and by the composer Iparragirre, who wrote the piece called Gernikako Arbola.
When the Domain of Biscay was incorporated into the kingdom of Castile, the king of Castile visited Guernica and swore an oath under the Tree promising to uphold the fueros or local laws of Biscay. The oath of King Ferdinand, known as the "Catholic Monarch", on June 30, 1476, is depicted in a painting by Francisco de Mendieta popularly known as El besamanos ("The Royal audience"). On July 3, 1875, during the Carlist Wars, the pretender to the throne Don Carlos also visited Guernica and swore the oath. Throughout the 19th century, there were frequent meetings under the Tree, including both General Assemblies and other political events.
By the 18th century, there was a square at the centre of the town, flanked by the town hall, a public gaol housing prisoners from all over the Lordship of Biscay, a hospital and a poor-house for local people. Day-to-day life comprised agriculture (growing of cereals, vegetable and fruit), crafts (menders, tailors, cobblers, flax manufacturers) and trade (transportation and sale of goods and produce).
This was also a time of continual conflicts with the neighbouring parish of Lumo over disputed land. These disputes were not finally settled until 1882, when the two parishes joined to form Gernika-Lumo.
The first industrial concerns were set up in the early years of the 20th century. This encouraged population growth, and the town grew from 4,500 inhabitants in 1920 to 6,000 in 1936.
Modern history
On April 26, 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, Guernica was the scene of the Bombing of Guernica by the Condor Legion of Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe and the Italian Aviazione Legionaria. According to official Basque figures, 1,654 civilians were killed, but German sources report a round figure of 300 civilians killed in the bombing, according to the German Bundeswehr Magazine (published in April 2007, page 94). The raid was requested by Francisco Franco to aid in his overthrowing the Basque Government and the Spanish Republican government. The town was devastated, though the Biscayan assembly and the Oak of Guernica survived. The Bombing of Guernica, which went on continuously for three hours, is considered the beginning of the Luftwaffe doctrine of terror bombing civilian targets in order to demoralize the enemy. Pablo Picasso painted his famous Guernica painting to commemorate the horrors of the bombing and René Iché made a violent sculpture the day after the bombing. It has inspired musical compositions by Octavio Vazquez (Gernika Piano Trio), René-Louis Baron, and Lenny White, and poems by Paul Eluard (Victory of Guernica), and Uys Krige (Nag van die Fascistiese Bomwerpers) (English translation from the Afrikaans: Night of the Fascist Bombers). There is also a short film from 1950, by Alain Resnais, titled Guernica.
Celebrations were staged in 1966 to mark the 600th anniversary of the founding of the town. As part of these celebrations, a statue of Count Tello, made by local sculptor Agustín Herranz, was set up in the Fueros Square.
At present, Gernika-Lumo has 16,244 (2009) inhabitants. It is a town with a prosperous service sector, and is also home to industrial companies, as well as good cultural and educational amenities.
Cultural importance
Guernica is historically the seat of the parliament of the province of Biscay, whose executive branch is located in nearby Bilbao.
In prior centuries, Lumo had been the meeting place of the traditional Biscayan assembly, Urduña and chartered towns like Guernica were under the direct authority of the Lord of Biscay, and Enkarterri and the Durango area had separate assemblies. All would hold assemblies under local big trees. As time passed, the role of separate assemblies was superseded by the single assembly in Guernica, and by 1512, its oak, known as the Gernikako Arbola, became symbolic of the traditional rights of the Basque people as a whole.
The trees are always renewed from their own acorns. One of these trees (the "Old Tree") lived until the 19th century, and may be seen, as a dry stump, near the assembly house. A tree planted in 1860 to replace it died in 2004 and was in turn replaced; the sapling that had been chosen to become the official Oak of Guernica is also sick so the tree will not be replaced until the earth around the site has been restored to health.
A hermitage was built beside the Gernikako Arbola to double as an assembly place, followed by the current house of assembly (Biltzar Jauregia in Basque), built in 1826.
Symbol for peace
On April 26, 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, the town was razed to the ground by German aircraft belonging to the Condor Legion, sent by Hitler to support Franco's troops. For almost four hours bombs rained down on Guernica in an "experiment" for the blitzkrieg tactics and bombing of civilians seen in later wars.
In 1987 the 50th anniversary of the bombing was commemorated as the town hosted the Preliminary Congress of the World Association of Martyr Cities. The full congress was held subsequently in Madrid, bringing together representatives of cities all over the world. Since then, Gernika-Lumo has been a member of this association. 1988 saw the setting up of the monument Gure Aitaren Etxea, by Basque sculptor Eduardo Chillida, and in 1990 Large Figure in a Shelter, by British sculptor Henry Moore, was erected beside it. These monuments are symbolic of Gernika-Lumo as a city of peace.
As part of the "Symbol for Peace" movement, Gernika has twinned with several towns, including Berga (Catalonia – 1986), Pforzheim (Germany – 1988) and Boise, Idaho (United States – 1993). The twinning agreements include co-operation in the fields of culture, education and industry.
Market day
There is a popular saying in Guernica which runs as follows: "lunes gerniqués, golperik ez". This translates roughly as "not a stroke of work gets done on Mondays". The Monday market day has for decades been considered as a holiday in the town.
People would flock to Guernica not just from the immediate vicinity, but from all over the province, so that the town was packed. They came not just to buy or sell at the produce market, but also to eat at the town's renowned restaurants and afterwards perhaps to watch a pelota game at the local court. The Monday market has been fulfilling its age-old function of bringing people together since the times when people could not afford to travel far and it provided them with a chance to socialise. The bombing of Guernica by Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe and the Italian Aviazione Legionaria was deliberately chosen to occur on a Monday (April 26, 1937), because it was known that the Basque people who lived outside of Guernica proper would travel into town for the Market Day, thus affording the pilots of the German and Italian aircraft the opportunity to murder as many innocent people as possible.
Sports
Jai alai (cesta-punta) is a form of pelota. The Guernica jai alai court is the biggest operational court of its type in the world. It was designed by Secundino Zuano, one of Spain's leading architects of the 20th century and first opened in 1963. It is acknowledged by players of the game to be the world's finest court.
Bare-handed pelota games are held at the Santanape court. This is the most popular form of the sport.
Twin towns – sister cities
Berga, Catalonia, Spain
Pforzheim, Germany
Dresden, Germany
Hiroshima, Japan
Boise, Idaho, United States
See also
Municipal elections in Gernika-Lumo
Bombing of Guernica
References
External links
Official site in English, Basque and Spanish
writer and filmmaker Begonya Plaza interviewed survivors, and people of importance in Guernica in 1987 in documentary "GERNICA LIVES"
Painter and art educator Dorothy Koppelman writes "Art Opposes Injustice: Picasso’s Guernica"
GERNIKA-LUMO in the Bernardo Estornés Lasa – Auñamendi Encyclopedia (Euskomedia Fundazioa)
Web page about Gernika-Lumo with great photos of it.
Municipalities in Biscay
Spanish Civil War | [
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12648 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrit%20Rietveld | Gerrit Rietveld | Gerrit Rietveld was a Dutch furniture designer and architect.
Early life
Rietveld was born in Utrecht on 24 June 1888 as the son of a joiner. He left school at 11 to be apprenticed to his father and enrolled at night school before working as a draughtsman for C. J. Begeer, a jeweller in Utrecht, from 1906 to 1911.
De Stijl
By the time he opened his own furniture workshop in 1917, Rietveld had taught himself drawing, painting and model-making. He afterwards set up in business as a cabinet-maker.
Rietveld designed his Red and Blue Chair in 1917 which has become an iconic piece of modern furniture. Hoping that much of his furniture would eventually be mass-produced rather than handcrafted, Rietveld aimed for simplicity in construction. In 1918, he started his own furniture factory, and changed the chair's colours after becoming influenced by the De Stijl movement, of which he became a member in 1919, the same year in which he became an architect. The contacts that he made at De Stijl gave him the opportunity to exhibit abroad as well. In 1923, Walter Gropius invited Rietveld to exhibit at the Bauhaus.
He built the Rietveld Schröder House, in 1924, in close collaboration with the owner Truus Schröder-Schräder. Built in Utrecht on the Prins Hendriklaan 50, the house has a conventional ground floor, but is radical on the top floor, lacking fixed walls but instead relying on sliding walls to create and change living spaces. The house has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000. His involvement in the Schröder House exerted a strong influence on Truus' daughter, Han Schröder, who became one of the first female architects in the Netherlands.
Nieuwe Zakelijkheid
Rietveld broke with De Stijl in 1928 and became associated with a more functionalist style of architecture, known as either Nieuwe Zakelijkheid or Nieuwe Bouwen. The same year he joined the Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne. From the late 1920s he was concerned with social housing, inexpensive production methods, new materials, prefabrication and standardisation. In 1927 he was already experimenting with prefabricated concrete slabs, a very unusual material at that time. In the 1920s and 1930s, however, all his commissions came from private individuals, and it was not until the 1950s that he was able to put his progressive ideas about social housing into practice, in projects in Utrecht and Reeuwijk.
Rietveld designed the Zig-Zag Chair in 1934 and started the design of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, which was finished after his death.
De Stijl revival
In 1951 Rietveld designed a retrospective exhibition about De Stijl which was held in Amsterdam, Venice and New York. Interest in his work revived as a result. In subsequent years he was given many commissions, including the Dutch pavilion for the Venice Biennale (1953), the art academies in Amsterdam and Arnhem, and the press room for the UNESCO building in Paris. Designed for the display of small sculptures at the Third International Sculpture Exhibition in Arnhem's Sonsbeek Park in 1955, Rietveld's ‘Sonsbeek Pavilion’ was rebuilt at the Kröller-Müller Museum in 1965. Due to irreparable damages caused by regular decay, it was once again rebuilt, this time with new materials, in 2010. In order to handle all these projects, in 1961 Rietveld set up a partnership with the architects Johan van Dillen and J. van Tricht built hundreds of homes, many of them in the city of Utrecht.
His work was neglected when rationalism came into vogue, but he later benefited from a revival of the style of the 1920s thirty years later.
Death
Rietveld died on 25 June 1964 in Utrecht.
His son Wim Rietveld also became a renowned industrial designer.
Recognition
Rietveld had his first retrospective exhibition devoted to his architectural work at the Central Museum, Utrecht, in 1958. When the art academy in Amsterdam became part of the higher professional education system in 1968 and was given the status of an Academy for Fine Arts and Design, the name was changed to the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in honour of Rietveld. "Gerrit Rietveld: A Centenary Exhibition" at the Barry Friedman Gallery, New York, in 1988 was the first comprehensive presentation of the Dutch architect's original works ever held in the U.S. The highlight of a celebratory “Rietveld Year” in Utrecht, the exhibition “Rietveld’s Universe” opened at the Centraal Museum and compared him and his work with famous contemporaries like Wright, Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe.
Two software tools, both for code review, have been named after Gerrit Rietveld: Gerrit and Rietveld.
References
External links
Rietveld Schröder Archive on delpher.nl
Buildings of Gerrit Rietveld on architectureguide.nl
Rietveld Originals, Rietveld's furniture designs that are still in production
1888 births
1964 deaths
20th-century Dutch architects
20th-century Dutch artists
Articles containing video clips
Artists from Utrecht
Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne members
Constructivist architects
De Stijl
Dutch furniture designers
Dutch graphic designers
Dutch industrial designers
Furniture makers
Modernist architects
Modernist architecture in the Netherlands | [
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12649 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary | Gary | Gary may refer to:
Gary (given name), a common masculine given name, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name
Gary, Indiana, the largest city named Gary
Places
Iran
Gary, Iran, Sistan and Baluchestan Province
United States
Gary (Tampa), Florida
Gary, Maryland
Gary, Minnesota
Gary, South Dakota
Gary, West Virginia
Gary – New Duluth, a neighborhood in Duluth, Minnesota
Gary Air Force Base, San Marcos, Texas
Gary City, Texas
Ships
USS Gary (DE-61), a destroyer escort launched in 1943
USS Gary (CL-147), scheduled to be a light cruiser, but canceled prior to construction in 1945
USS Gary (FFG-51), a frigate, commissioned in 1984
USS Thomas J. Gary (DE-326), a destroyer escort commissioned in 1943
People and fictional characters
Gary (surname), including a list of people with the name
Gary (rapper), South Korean rapper and entertainer
Gary (Argentine singer), Argentine singer of cuarteto songs
Other uses
Gary: Tank Commander, a British television sitcom
Gary (mango), a mango cultivar
4735 Gary, an asteroid
Gary Elks, an American football team from 1920 to 1923
"Gary" (Voltron Force), a 2012 episode
See also
Garry (disambiguation)
Gareth (given name)
Garath (disambiguation)
Garaidh, a given name | [
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12650 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary%2C%20Indiana | Gary, Indiana | Gary is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States, historically dominated by major industrial activity. The city is located along the southern shore of Lake Michigan about from downtown Chicago, Illinois. Gary is adjacent to the Indiana Dunes National Park and in the Chicago metropolitan area.
Gary was named after lawyer Elbert Henry Gary, who was the founding chairman of the United States Steel Corporation. Although initially a very diverse city, after white flight in the 1970s, the city of Gary held the nation's highest percentage of African Americans for several decades. The city is known for its large steel mills and as the birthplace of the Jackson family.
The population of Gary was 69,093, as of the 2020 Census. Once a prosperous steel town, it has suffered drastic population loss due to overseas competition and restructuring of the industry, falling by 61 percent from its peak of 178,320 in 1960. As with many Rust Belt cities, it suffers from above average unemployment and decaying infrastructure. Due to the rapid population decrease over the past half-century, it is estimated that nearly one-third of all houses in the city are unoccupied or abandoned.
History
Founding and early years
Gary, Indiana, was founded in 1906 by the United States Steel Corporation as the home for its new plant, Gary Works. The city was named after lawyer Elbert Henry Gary, who was the founding chairman of the United States Steel Corporation.
Gary was the site of civil unrest in the steel strike of 1919. On October 4, 1919, a riot broke out on Broadway, the main north–south street through downtown Gary, between steel workers and strike breakers brought in from outside. Three days later, Indiana governor James P. Goodrich declared martial law. Shortly thereafter, over 4,000 federal troops under the command of Major General Leonard Wood arrived to restore order.
The jobs offered by the steel industry provided Gary with very rapid growth and a diverse population within the first 26 years of its founding. According to the 1920 United States Census, 29.7% of Gary's population at the time was classified as foreign-born, mostly from eastern European countries, with another 30.8% classified as native-born with at least one foreign-born parent. By the 1930 United States Census, the first census in which Gary's population exceeded 100,000, the city was the fifth largest in Indiana and comparable in size to South Bend, Fort Wayne, and Evansville. At that time, 78.7% of the population was classified as white, with 19.3% of the population classified as foreign-born and another 25.9% as native-born with at least one foreign-born parent. In addition to white internal migrants, Gary had attracted numerous African-American migrants from the South in the Great Migration, and 17.8% of the population was classified as black. 3.5% were classified as Mexican (now likely to be identified as Hispanic, as some were likely American citizens in addition to immigrants).
Post-World War II
Gary's fortunes have risen and fallen with those of the steel industry. The growth of the steel industry brought prosperity to the community. Broadway was known as a commercial center for the region. Department stores and architecturally significant movie houses were built in the downtown area and the Glen Park neighborhood.
In the 1960s, like many other American urban centers reliant on one particular industry, Gary entered a spiral of decline. Gary's decline was brought on by the growing overseas competitiveness in the steel industry, which had caused U.S. Steel to lay off many workers from the Gary area. The U.S. Steel Gary Works employed over 30,000 in 1970, declined to just 6,000 by 1990, and further declined to 5,100 in August 2015. Attempts to shore up the city's economy with major construction projects, such as a Holiday Inn hotel and the Genesis Convention Center, failed to reverse the decline.
Rapid racial change occurred in Gary during the late 20th century. These population changes resulted in political change which reflected the racial demographics of Gary: the non-white share of the city's population increased from 21% in 1930, 39% in 1960, to 53% in 1970. Non-whites were primarily restricted to live in the Midtown section just south of downtown (per the 1950 Census, 97% of the black population of Gary was living in this neighborhood). Gary had one of the nation's first African-American mayors, Richard G. Hatcher, and hosted the ground-breaking 1972 National Black Political Convention.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Gary had the highest percentage of African-Americans of U.S. cities with a population of 100,000 or more, 84% (as of the 2000 U.S. census). This no longer applies to Gary since the population of the city has now fallen well below 100,000 residents. As of 2013, the Gary Department of Redevelopment has estimated that one-third of all homes in the city are unoccupied and/or abandoned.
U.S. Steel continues to be a major steel producer, but with only a fraction of its former level of employment. While Gary has failed to reestablish a manufacturing base since its population peak, two casinos opened along the Gary lakeshore in the 1990s, although this has been aggravated by the state closing of Cline Avenue, an important access to the area. Today, Gary faces the difficulties of a Rust Belt city, including unemployment and decaying infrastructure.
Recent history
Gary has closed several of its schools within the last ten years. While some of the school buildings have been reused, most remain unused since their closing. As of 2014, Gary is considering closing additional schools in response to budget deficits.
Gary chief of police Thomas Houston was convicted of excessive force and abuse of authority in 2008; he died in 2010 while serving a three-year, five-month federal prison sentence.
In April 2011, 75-year-old mayor Rudolph M. Clay announced that he would suspend his campaign for reelection as he was being treated for prostate cancer. He endorsed rival Karen Freeman-Wilson, who won the Democratic mayoral primary in May 2011. Freeman-Wilson won election with 87 percent of the vote and her term began in January 2012; she is the first woman elected mayor in the city's history. She was reelected in 2015. She was defeated in her bid for a third term in the 2019 Democratic primary by Lake County Assessor Jerome Prince. Since no challengers filed for the November 2019 general election, Prince's nomination is effectively tantamount to election, and officially succeeded Freeman-Wilson on January 1, 2020, two days after he was sworn in as the city's 21st mayor on December 30, 2019.
National Register of Historic Places
The following single properties and national historic districts are listed on the National Register of Historic Places:
American Sheet and Tin Mill Apartment Building
Louis J. Bailey Branch Library-Gary International Institute
Combs Addition Historic District
Ralph Waldo Emerson School
Eskilson Historic District
Gary Bathing Beach Aquatorium
Gary City Center Historic District
Gary Land Company Building
Gary Public Schools Memorial Auditorium
Jackson-Monroe Terraces Historic District
Jefferson Street Historic District
Knights of Columbus Building
Lincoln Street Historic District
Horace Mann Historic District
Miller Town Hall
Monroe Terrace Historic District
Morningside Historic District
Polk Street Concrete Cottage Historic District
Polk Street Terraces Historic District
Theodore Roosevelt High School
Barney Sablotney House
St. Augustine's Episcopal Church
Van Buren Terrace Historic District
West Fifth Avenue Apartments Historic District
St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church and School
Neighborhoods
Downtown Gary
Downtown Gary is separated by Broadway into two distinctive communities. Originally, the City of Gary consisted of The East Side, The West Side, The South Side (the area south of the train tracks near 9th Avenue), and Glen Park, located further South along Broadway. The East Side was demarcated by streets named after the States in order of their acceptance into the Union. This area contained mostly wood-frame houses, some of the earliest in the city, and became known in the 20th century for its ethnic populations from Europe and large families. The single-family houses had repeating house designs that alternated from one street to another, with some streets looking very similar. Among the East Side's most notable buildings were Memorial Auditorium (a large red-brick and stone civic auditorium and the site of numerous events, concerts and graduations), The Palace Theater, Emerson School, St. Luke's Church, H.C. Gordon & Sons, and Goldblatt's Department stores, in addition to the Fair Department Store. All fronted Broadway as the main street that divided Gary.
The West Side of Gary, or West of Broadway, the principal commercial street, had streets named after the presidents of the United States in order of their election. Lytton's, Hudson's ladies store, J.C. Penney, and Radigan Bros Furniture Store developed on the west side of Broadway. Developed later, this side of town was known for its masonry or brick residences, its taller and larger commercial buildings, including the Gary National Bank Building, Hotel Gary (now Genesis Towers), The Knights of Columbus Hotel & Building (now a seniors building fronting 5th Avenue), the Tivoli Theater (demolished), the U.S. Post Office, Main Library, Mercy and Methodist Hospitals and Holy Angels Cathedral and School. The West Side also had a secondary principal street, Fifth Avenue, which was lined with many commercial businesses, restaurants, theaters, tall buildings, and elegant apartment buildings. The West Side was viewed as having wealthier residents. The houses dated from about 1908 to the 1930s. Much of the West Side's housing were for executives of U.S. Steel and other prominent businessmen. Notable mansions were 413 Tyler Street and 636 Lincoln Street. Many of the houses were on larger lots. By contrast, a working-class area was made up of row houses made of poured concrete were arranged together and known as "Mill Houses"; they were built to house steel mill workers.
The areas known as Emerson and Downtown West combine to form Downtown Gary. It was developed in the 1920s and houses several pieces of impressive architecture, including the Moe House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and another, the Wynant House (1917), which was destroyed by fire. A significant number of older structures have been demolished in recent years because of the cost of restoration. Restructuring of the steel and other heavy industry in the late 20th century resulted in a loss of jobs, adversely affecting the city.
Abandoned buildings in the downtown area include historic structures such as Union Station, the Palace Theater, and City Methodist Church. A large area of the downtown neighborhood (including City Methodist) was devastated by a major fire on October 12, 1997. Interstate 90 was constructed between downtown Gary and the United States Steel plant.
West
Ambridge Mann is a neighborhood located on Gary's near west side along 5th Avenue. Ambridge was developed for workers at the nearby steel plant in the 1910s and 1920s. It is named after the American Bridge Works, which was a subsidiary of U.S. Steel. The neighborhood is home to a huge stock of prairie-style and art deco homes. The Gary Masonic Temple was located in the neighborhood, along with the Ambassador apartment building. Located just south of Interstate 90, the neighborhood can be seen while passing Buchanan Street.
Brunswick is located on Gary's far west side. The neighborhood is located just south of Interstate 90 and can also be seen from the expressway. The Brunswick area includes the Tri-City Plaza shopping center on West 5th Avenue (U.S. 20). The area is south of the Gary Chicago International Airport.
Downtown West is located in north-central Gary on the west side of Broadway just south of Interstate 90. The Genesis Convention Center, the Gary Police Department, the Lake Superior Court House, and the Main Branch of the Gary Public Library are located along 5th Avenue. A new 123-unit mixed-income apartment development was built using a HUD Hope VI grant in 2006. The Adam Benjamin Metro Center is located just north of 4th Avenue. It is operated by the Gary Public Transportation Corporation and serves as a multi-modal hub. It serves both as the Downtown Gary South Shore train station and an intercity bus stop.
Tolleston is one of Gary's oldest neighborhoods, predating much of the rest of the city. It was platted by George Tolle in 1857, when the railroads were constructed to this area. This area is west of Midtown and south of Ambridge Mann. Tarrytown is a subdivision located in Tolleston between Whitcomb Street and Clark Road.
South
Black Oak is located on the far southwest side of Gary, in the vicinity of the Burr Street exit to the Borman Expressway. It was annexed in the 1970s. Prior to that, Black Oak was an unincorporated area informally associated with Hammond, and the area has Hammond telephone numbers. After three referendums, the community voters approved annexation, having been persuaded by Mayor Hatcher that they would benefit more from services provided by the city than from those provided by the county. In the 21st-century, it is the only majority-white neighborhood in Gary.
Glen Park is located on Gary's far south side and is made up mostly of mid-twentieth-century houses. Glen Park is divided from the remainder of the city by the Borman Expressway. The northern portion of Glen Park is home to Gary's Gleason Park Golf Course and the campus of Indiana University Northwest. The far western portion of Glen Park is home to the Village Shopping Center. Glen Park includes the 37th Avenue corridor at Broadway.
Midtown is located south of Downtown Gary, along Broadway. In the pre-1960s days of de facto segregation, this developed historically as a "black" neighborhood as African Americans came to Gary from the rural South in the Great Migration to seek jobs in the industrial economy.
North and East
Aetna is located on Gary's far east side along the Dunes Highway. Aetna predates the city of Gary. This company town was founded in 1881 by the Aetna Powder Works, an explosives company. Their factory closed after the end of World War I.
The Town of Aetna was annexed by Gary in 1928, around the same time that the city annexed the Town of Miller. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Gary's prosperous industries helped generate residential and other development in Aetna, resulting in an impressive collection of art deco architecture. The rest of the community was built after World War II and the Korean War in the 1950s, in a series of phases. On its south and east, Aetna borders the undeveloped floodplain of the Little Calumet River.
Emerson is located in north-central Gary on the east side of Broadway. Located just south of Interstate 90, Gary City Hall is located in Emerson, along with the Indiana Department of Social Services building and the Calumet Township Trustee's office. A 6,000-seat minor league baseball stadium for the Gary SouthShore RailCats, U.S. Steel Yard, was constructed in 2002, along with contiguous commercial space and minor residential development.
Miller Beach, also known simply as Miller, is on Gary's far northeast side. Settled in the 1850s and incorporated as an independent town in 1907, Miller was annexed by the city of Gary in 1918. Miller developed around the old stagecoach stop and train station known by the 1850s as Miller's Junction and/or Miller's Station.
Miller Beach is racially and economically diverse. It attracts investor interest due to the many year-round and summer homes within walking distance of Marquette Park and Lake Michigan. Prices for lakefront property are affordable compared to those in Illinois suburban communities. Lake Street provides shopping and dining options for Miller Beach visitors and residents. East Edge, a development of 28 upscale condominium, townhome, and single-family homes, began construction in 2007 at the eastern edge of Miller Beach along County Line Road, one block south of Lake Michigan.
Geography
The city is located at the southern end of the former lake bed of the prehistoric Lake Chicago and the current Lake Michigan. Most of the city's soil, to nearly one foot below the surface, is pure sand. The sand beneath Gary, and on its beaches, is of such volume and quality that for over a century companies have mined it, especially for the manufacture of glass.
According to the 2010 census, Gary has a total area of , of which (or 87.22%) is land and (or 12.78%) is water.
Gary is "T" shaped, with its northern border on Lake Michigan. At the northwesternmost section, Gary borders Hammond and East Chicago. Miller Beach, its easternmost neighborhood, borders Lake Station and Portage. Gary's southernmost section borders Griffith, Hobart, Merrillville, and unincorporated Ross. Gary is about from the Chicago Loop.
Climate
Gary is listed by the Köppen-Geiger climate classification system as humid continental (Dfa). In July and August, the warmest months, high temperatures average 84 °F (29 °C) and peak just above 100 °F (38 °C), and low temperatures average 63 °F (17 °C). In January and February, the coldest months, high temperatures average around 29 °F (−2 °C) and low temperatures average 13 °F (−11 °C), with at least a few days of temperatures dipping below 0 °F (−18 °C).
The weather of Gary is greatly regulated by its proximity to Lake Michigan. Weather varies yearly. In summer months Gary is humid. The city's yearly precipitation averages about 40 inches. Summer is the rainiest season. Winters vary but are predominantly snowy. Snowfall in Gary averages approximately 25 inches per year. Sometimes large blizzards hit because of "lake effect snow", a phenomenon whereby large amounts of water evaporated from the lake deposit onto the shoreline areas as inordinate amounts of snow.
Demographics
The change in the economy and resulting loss of jobs has caused a drop in population by more than half since its peak in 1960.
2010 census
As of the census of 2010, there were 80,294 people, 31,380 households, and 19,691 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 39,531 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 84.8% African American, 10.7% White, 0.3% Native American, 0.2% Asian, 1.8% from other races, and 2.1% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 5.1% of the population. Non-Hispanic Whites were 8.9% of the population in 2010, down from 39.1% in 1970.
There were 31,380 households, of which 33.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 25.2% were married couples living together, 30.9% had a female householder with no husband present, 6.7% had a male householder with no wife present, and 37.2% were non-families. 32.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.54 and the average family size was 3.23.
The median age in the city was 36.7 years. 28.1% of residents were under the age of 18; 8.6% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 21.8% were from 25 to 44; 27.1% were from 45 to 64; and 14.5% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 46.0% male and 54.0% female.
2000 census
As of the census of 2000, there were 102,746 people, 38,244 households, and 25,623 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,045.5 people per square mile (789.8/km2). There were 43,630 housing units at an average density of 868.6 per square mile (335.4/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 84.03% African American, 11.92% White, 0.21% Native American, 0.14% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 1.97% from other races, and 1.71% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 4.93% of the population.
There were 38,244 households, out of which 31.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 30.2% were married couples living together, 30.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.0% were non-families. 28.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.66 and the average family size was 3.28.
In the city, the population was spread out, with 29.9% under the age of 18, 10.1% from 18 to 24, 25.1% from 25 to 44, 22.2% from 45 to 64, and 12.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 84.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 78.0 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $27,195, and the median income for a family was $32,205. Males had a median income of $34,992 versus $24,432 for females. The per capita income for the city was $14,383. About 22.2% of families and 25.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 37.9% of those under age 18 and 14.1% of those age 65 or over.
Arts and culture
Arts and film
Meredith Willson's 1957 Broadway musical The Music Man featured the song "Gary, Indiana", in which lead character (and con man) Professor Harold Hill wistfully recalls his purported hometown, then prosperous. Hill claims to be an alumnus of "Gary Conservatory of Music, Class of '05," but this is later revealed to be another of his lies. The City of Gary was not founded until 1906. Willson's musical, set in 1912, was adapted both as a film of the same name released in 1962, and as a television film, produced in 2003.
The 1996 urban film Original Gangstas was filmed in the city. It starred Gary native Fred Williamson, Pam Grier, Jim Brown, Richard Roundtree, and Isabel Sanford, among others. Since the early 2000s, Gary has been the setting for numerous films made by Hollywood filmmakers. In 2009, scenes for the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street were filmed in Gary. Scenes from Transformers: Dark of the Moon wrapped up filming on August 16, 2010.
The History Channel documentary Life After People was filmed in Gary, exploring areas that have deteriorated or been abandoned because of the loss of jobs and residents.
In John Mellencamp's 1985 song, "Minutes to Memories", an old man on a bus, recalling his humble life, tells the young man beside him, "I worked my whole life in the steel mills of Gary."
Historic places on the National Register
Public libraries
The Gary Public Library System consists of the main library at 220 West 5th Avenue and several branches: Brunswick Branch, W. E. B. DuBois Branch, J. F. Kennedy Branch, Tolleston Branch, and Woodson Branch. In March 2011, the Gary Library Board voted to close the main library on 5th Avenue and the Tolleston branch in what officials said was their best economic option. The main library closed at the end of 2011. The building now houses a museum.
Lake County Public Library operates the Black Oak Branch at 5921 West 25th Avenue in the Gary city limits. In addition, Indiana University Northwest operates the John W. Anderson Library on its campus.
Sports
The following sports franchises are based in Gary:
The Gary SouthShore RailCats are an American Association, professional baseball team. The team plays in Gary's U.S. Steel Yard baseball stadium. The RailCats played in the Northern League from 2002 until 2010. They now play in the modern American Association. The team won league championships in 2005, 2007, and 2013.
Gary has hosted two professional basketball franchises. The Gary Splash played in the International Basketball League from 2010 to 2013, at the Genesis Convention Center. Previously, the Gary Steelheads played in the Genesis Convention Center as part of the IBL (1999–2001), CBA, USBL, and IBL.
Education
Three school districts serve the city, and multiple charter schools are located within the city.
Public schools
Most public schools in Gary are administered by the Gary Community School Corporation. The other public schools within the city are administered by Lake Ridge Schools Corporation, which is the school system for the Black Oak neighborhood and unincorporated Calumet Township. Due to annexation law, Black Oak residents retained their original school system and were not required to attend Gary public schools. In 1927, it was mandated that Black students attend a separate high school.
Charter schools
Charter schools in Indiana, including those in Gary, are granted charters by one of a small number of chartering institutions. Indiana charter schools are generally managed in cooperation between the chartering institution, a local board of parents and community members, salaried school administrators, and a management company. Charter schools in Gary as of 2011 include Thea Bowman Leadership Academy, Charter School of the Dunes, Gary Lighthouse Charter School (formerly, Blessed Sacrament Parish and Grade School), and 21st Century Charter.
Higher education
Gary is home to two regional state college campuses:
Indiana University Northwest
Ivy Tech Community College Northwest
Media
Newspapers
Gary is served by two major newspapers based outside the city, and by a Gary-based, largely African-American interest paper. These papers provide regional topics, and cover events in Gary.
The Post-Tribune, originally the Gary Post-Tribune, is now based in the nearby town of Merrillville.
The Times, previously known as the Hammond Times. Offices and facilities for The Times are in nearby Munster.
The Gary Crusader, based in Gary and largely focused on African-American interests and readership.
The INFO Newspaper, based in Gary and largely focused on African-American interests and readership.
The Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times, based in Chicago, are also distributed in Gary.
Television and radio
Gary is served by five local broadcasters plus government access and numerous Chicago area radio and TV stations, and by other nearby stations in Illinois and Indiana.
WPWR-TV (Channel 50) is the Chicago MyNetworkTV affiliate, but is licensed to Gary. Studios and transmitters are co-located with WFLD's in Chicago, and are also owned by Fox Television Stations.
WYIN (Channel 56) is a PBS affiliate licensed to Gary. Their studios are in Merrillville.
WGVE (FM 88.7) is owned by the Gary Community School Corporation, and is used primarily as a teaching facility. Programming is maintained by students in the broadcast program at the Gary Career Center. WGVE also carries limited NPR programming.
WLTH (AM 1370) primarily carries talk programming, as well as other local programs.
WWCA (AM 1270) is a Relevant Radio owned-and-operated radio station, carrying programming from the Catholic-oriented Relevant Radio network.
Infrastructure
Medical facilities
Gary Community Health Center
Methodist Hospital
Police
Gary is served by the Gary Police Department and the Lake County Sheriff; for as 1 out of 177 people are victimized by a violent crime in Gary, while 1 in 270 people are victimized by a violent crime in Indiana as a whole.
Fire department
The Gary Fire Department (GFD) provides fire protection and emergency medical services to the city of Gary.
Transportation
Gary Public Transportation Corporation (GPTC) a commuter bus system that offers service to numerous stops throughout the city and neighboring suburbs. GPTC also has express service to locations outside the city, including connections to Chicago transit. Front-door pickup is available for disabled citizens at no extra cost.
Gary/Chicago International Airport is operating as the "third airport" for the Chicago area. With a new runway, it is undergoing much federally funded expansion, and the administration is courting airlines aggressively. The National Guard is intending to base its Chicago area air operation there as well.
Interstate 90 (I-90, Indiana Toll Road), I-80, I-94, and I-65 run through Gary, as well as U.S. Highway 6 (US 6), US 12 and US 20, and State Road 912 (SR 912, Cline Avenue). A former stretch of SR 312 has been decommissioned.
Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District (NICTD) operates the South Shore Line, a commuter rail system between Chicago and South Bend. It is one of the last original operating interurban railway systems in the US.
Notable people
The Jacksons
Gary is the hometown of the Jackson family, a family of musicians who influenced the sound of modern popular music. In 1950, Joseph and Katherine Jackson moved from East Chicago, Indiana into their two-bedroom house at 2300 Jackson Street. They had married on November 5, 1949. Their entertainer children later recorded a song entitled "2300 Jackson Street" (1989). The Jackson children include:
Rebbie Jackson
Jackie Jackson
Tito Jackson
Jermaine Jackson
La Toya Jackson
Marlon Jackson
Michael Jackson
Randy Jackson
Janet Jackson
Other notable people
Chuck Higgins, saxophonist, best known for the song "Pachuko Hop"
Charles Adkins, Olympic boxer
Forddy Anderson, NCAA basketball coach
Dan Barreiro, sports radio talk show host
Bob Benoit, horse racing executive
Albert M. Bielawski, early 20th century Michigan politician
Frank Borman, astronaut
Lyman Bostock, Major League Baseball (MLB) player
John Brim, bluesman
Donna Britt, journalist and author
Avery Brooks, actor, director
Vic Bubas, NCAA basketball coach
John A. Bushemi, WWII photographer killed in action
Vivian Carter, music producer
John Chickerneo, National Football League (NFL) player
Rudolph M. Clay, Mayor of Gary 2006–12
Branden Dawson (born 1993), basketball player
Tony DeSantis (1914–2007), founder of Drury Lane theaters
Polly Draper (born 1955), actress, Thirtysomething
Clarissa Pinkola Estés, writer and psychoanalyst
Bianca Ferguson (born 1955), actress, General Hospital
Harry Flournoy (1943–2016), basketball player
Tellis Frank (born 1965), basketball player
Karen Freeman-Wilson (born 1960), Mayor of Gary 2012–19, former Indiana Attorney General
Winston Garland (born 1964), basketball player
Joe Gates (1954–2010), baseball player
Freddie Gibbs (born 1982), rapper
A. J. Hammons (born 1992), basketball player
Tom Harmon (1919–1990), 1940 Heisman Trophy winner for Michigan, sportscaster, father of actor Mark Harmon
Richard G. Hatcher (1933–2019), Mayor of Gary 1968–87
LaTroy Hawkins (born 1972), MLB pitcher for 21 years
Eric Hillman (born 1966), MLB and Japan pitcher
Gerald Irons (born 1949), NFL linebacker for Oakland Raiders and Cleveland Browns 1970–79
Johnny Jackson (1955–2006), drummer for Jackson 5; murdered in Gary in 2006
Tim Jankovich, basketball head coach, SMU
Elijah Johnson (born 1990), basketball player in the Israeli Basketball Premier League
Jason Johnson (born 1965), NFL player
Tank Johnson (born 1981), NFL player
Alex Karras (1935–2012), winner of Outland Trophy, member of College Football Hall of Fame and Pro Football Hall of Fame, NFL player and actor (Blazing Saddles, Webster)
Lou Karras (1927–2018), NFL player 1950–52
Ted Karras Jr. (born 1964), football player and coach
Ted Karras Sr. (1934–2016), NFL player 1958–66
Robert Kearns (1927–2005), inventor of intermittent windshield wiper systems, subject of Flash of Genius
Ron Kittle (born 1958), Chicago White Sox outfielder and 1983 American League Rookie of the Year
Milo Komenich (1920–1977), basketball player for 1943 national champion Wyoming
Bob Kuechenberg (1947–2019), NFL lineman, two-time Super Bowl champion with Miami Dolphins
Barney Liddell (1921–2003), trombonist in the Lawrence Welk Orchestra, 1948–1982
Kevin Magee (1959–2003), basketball player
Karl Malden (1912–2009), Academy Award-winning actor; born in Chicago, raised in Gary
William Marshall (1924–2003), stage and film actor
Milt May (born 1950), professional baseball player
Kym Mazelle (born 1960), singer
Willie McCarter (born 1946), NBA player, Los Angeles Lakers
Lloyd McClendon (born 1959), professional baseball player, manager of Pittsburgh Pirates, Seattle Mariners
Matt McConnell (born 1963), television broadcaster for the Arizona Coyotes, National Hockey League
James McCracken, opera singer
Robert A. McDonald (born 1953), CEO of Procter & Gamble, Secretary of Veterans Affairs under Barack Obama
Ralph McQuarrie (1929–2012), conceptual designer and illustrator on Star Wars
Larry Moffett (1954–2011), basketball player
Brandon Moore (born 1980), NFL player
Sista Monica Parker (1956–2014), electric blues, gospel and soul singer, songwriter, producer
Jerilynn Patton, known as Jlin, electronic musician
Jon Petrovich (1947–2011), television executive, CNN
Dan Plesac (born 1962), MLB pitcher with 18-year career, MLB Network analyst
Jesse Powell (born 1971), recording artist
Elizabeth Brown Pryor (1951–2015), author and diplomat
Jimmy Reed (1925–1976), musician, Blues Hall of Fame
Glenn Robinson (born 1973), NBA player and league's No. 1 draft pick, father of Glenn Robinson III
Glenn Robinson III (born 1994), NBA player
Paul Samuelson (1915–2009), economist, recipient of John Bates Clark Medal (1947) and Nobel Prize (1970)
Jerry Shay (born 1944), NFL player 1966–71
Helene Stanley (1929–1990), film actress
Joseph Stiglitz (born 1943), economist, recipient of John Bates Clark Medal (1979) and Nobel Prize (2001)
Hank Stram (1923–2005), NFL head coach 1960–1977, member of Pro Football Hall of Fame
Jeanne Stunyo (born 1936), diver, Olympic silver medalist
George Taliaferro (1927–2018), quarterback in College Football Hall of Fame
Crystal Taliefero (born 1963), singer
Ernest Lee Thomas (born 1949), actor (What's Happening!!)
Todd Wagner (born 1960), entrepreneur
Deniece Williams (born 1950), Grammy Award-winning R&B artist
Fred Williamson (born 1938), NFL player, linebacker for Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl I, 3-time AFL All-Star, actor, director, producer
Tony Zale (1913–1997), twice middleweight champion, member of International Boxing Hall of Fame
Sister cities
Fuxin, Liaoning, China
Lagos, Nigeria
See also
Northwest Indiana
Neighborhoods in Gary, Indiana
:Magnitogorsk, a city modeled after Gary
References
Further reading
External links
Chicago metropolitan area
Cities in Indiana
Company towns in Indiana
Northwest Indiana
Populated places established in 1906
Cities in Lake County, Indiana
Indiana populated places on Lake Michigan
Inland port cities and towns in Indiana
Urban decay in the United States
U.S. Steel
1906 establishments in Indiana | [
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12651 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory%20the%20Illuminator | Gregory the Illuminator | Gregory the Illuminator (Classical , Grigor Lusavorich; – ) is the patron saint and first official head of the Armenian Apostolic Church. He was a religious leader who converted Armenia from paganism to Christianity in 301.
Beginnings
Gregory was the son of the Armenian Parthian nobles Anak the Parthian and Okohe. His father, Anak, was a Prince said to be related to the Arsacid Kings of Armenia or was from the House of Suren, one of the seven branches of the ruling Arsacid dynasty of Sakastan. Anak was charged with assassinating Khosrov II, one of the kings of the Arsacid dynasty and was put to death. Gregory narrowly escaped execution with the help of Sopia and Yevtagh, his caretakers. He was taken to Caesarea in Cappadocia where Sopia and Yevtagh hoped to raise him. Gregory was given to the Christian Holy Father Phirmilianos (Euthalius) to be educated and was brought up as a devout Christian.
Upon coming of age, Gregory married a woman called Miriam, a devout Christian who was the daughter of a Christian Armenian prince in Cappadocia. From their union, Miriam bore Gregory two children, their sons Vrtanes and Aristaces. Through Vrtanes, Gregory and Miriam would have further descendants and when Gregory died, Aristaces succeeded him. At some point, Miriam and Gregory separated in order that Gregory might take up a monastic life. Gregory left Cappadocia and went to Armenia in the hope of atoning for his father's crime by evangelizing his homeland.
At that time Tiridates III, son of the late King Khosrov II, reigned. Influenced partly by the fact that Gregory was the son of his father's enemy, he ordered Gregory imprisoned for twelve (some sources indicate fourteen) years in a pit on the Ararat Plain under the present day church of Khor Virap located near the historical city Artashat in Armenia. Gregory was eventually called forth from his pit in c. 297 to restore sanity to Tiridates III, who had lost all reason after he was betrayed by Roman emperor Diocletian.
Declaration of Christianity in Armenia
In 301 Gregory baptized Tiridates III along with members of the royal court and upper class as Christians. Tiridates III issued a decree by which he granted Gregory full rights to begin carrying out the conversion of the entire nation to the Christian faith. The same year Armenia became the first to adopt Christianity in the early fourth century
The newly built cathedral, the Mother Church in Etchmiadzin became and remains the spiritual and cultural center of Armenian Christianity and center of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Most Armenians were baptized in the Aratsani (upper Euphrates) and Yeraskh (Arax) rivers.
Many of the pre-Christian (traditional Indo-European) festivals and celebrations such as Tyarndarach (Trndez, associated with fire worship) and Vardavar or Vadarvar associated with water worship, that dated back thousands of years, were preserved and continued in the form of Christian celebrations and chants. In 302, Gregory received consecration as Patriarch of Armenia from Leontius of Caesarea.
Retirement and death
In 318, Gregory appointed his second son Aristaces as the next Catholicos in line of Armenia's Holy Apostolic Church to stabilize and continue strengthening Christianity not only in Armenia, but also in the Caucasus. Gregory also placed and instructed his grandson Gregory (one of the sons of Vrtanes) in charge of the holy missions to the peoples and tribes of all of the Caucasus and Caucasian Albania; the younger man was martyred by a fanatical mob while preaching in Albania.
In his later years, Gregory withdrew to a small sanctuary near Mount Sebuh (Mt. Sepuh) in the Daranali province (Manyats Ayr, Upper Armenia) with a small convent of monks, where he remained until his death.
Relics and veneration
After his death his corpse was removed to the village of Thodanum (T'ordan, modern Doğanköy, near Erzincan). His relics were scattered near and far in the reign of the Eastern Roman Emperor Zeno. In the 8th century, the iconoclast decrees in Greece caused a number of religious orders to flee the Byzantine Empire and seek refuge elsewhere. San Gregorio Armeno in Naples was built in that century over the remains of a Roman temple dedicated to Ceres, by a group of nuns escaping from the Byzantine Empire with the relics of Gregory, including his skull, a femur bone, his staff, the leather straps used in his torture and the manacles that held the saint. The femur and manacles were returned by Pope John Paul II to Catholicos Karekin II and are now enshrined at Saint Gregory the Illuminator Cathedral in Yerevan. The Gregoriou Monastery on Mount Athos also claims to have the skull. The Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin and the Holy See of Cilicia in Antelias, Lebanon each claim to have the right arm of the saint, in an arm-shaped reliquary, which is used for the blessing the Holy Myron every seven years.
On 20 February, 1743, Nardò, Italy was hit by a devastating earthquake that destroyed almost the entire city. The only structure to survive intact after the quake was the city's statue of St. Gregory the Illuminator. According to the city's registers, only 350 out of the city's 10,000 inhabitants died in the earthquake, leading the inhabitants to believe that St. Gregory saved the city. Every year, they mark the anniversary of the earthquake by holding three days of celebrations in his honor. Relics of the saint are kept at Nardò Cathedral.
A number of prayers, and about thirty of the canonical hymns of the Armenian Church, are ascribed to Gregory the Illuminator. Homilies of his appeared for the first time in a work called Haschacnapadum at Constantinople in 1737; a century afterwards a Greek translation was published at Venice by the Mekhiterists; and they have since been edited in German by J M Schmid (Ratisbon, 1872). The original authorities for Gregory's life are Agathangelos, whose History of Tiridates was published by the Mekhitarists in 1835; Moses of Chorene, Historiae Armenicae; and Symeon the Metaphrast.
A Life of Gregory by the Vartabed Matthew was published in the Armenian language at Venice in 1749 and was translated into English by Father Malan (1868).
In the calendar of the Armenian Church, the discovery of the relics of St. Gregory is an important feast and is commemorated on the Saturday before the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost. Two other feast days in the Armenian Apostolic Church are devoted to St. Gregory: the feast of his entry into Khor Virap, the 'deep pit or dungeon' (commemorated on the last Saturday of Lent) and his deliverance from Khor Virap (commemorated on the Saturday before the second Sunday after Pentecost). Gregory is commemorated on September 30 by the Eastern Orthodox Church, which styles him "Holy Hieromartyr Gregory, Bishop of Greater Armenia, Equal of the Apostles and Enlightener of Armenia." He is listed on September 30 in the Roman Martyrology of the Ordinary Form of the Catholic Church; his feast day is listed as October 1 in the Extraordinary Form. He is honored with a feast day on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA) on March 23.
Gallery
See also
Eastern Christianity
Gregorids
Vardapet, Armenian preaching monks
References
Notes
Citations
Sources
Agat’angeghos, History of the Armenians, SUNY Press, 1976
R. G. Hovannisian, ed. The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times, Volume I: The Dynastic Periods: From Antiquity to the Fourteenth Century, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004
V. M. Kurkjian, A History of Armenia, Indo-European Publishing, 2008
A. Terian, Patriotism and Piety in Armenian Christianity: The Early Panegyrics on Saint Gregory, St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2005
External links
Agathangelos: History of St. Gregory and the Conversion of Armenia
Gandzasar Monastery, Nagorno Karabakh
250s births
331 deaths
Catholicoi of Armenia
Catholicoi of Cilicia
4th-century Armenian bishops
Armenian hermits
4th-century Christian saints
Armenian saints
History of Eastern Catholicism
House of Suren
People from Cappadocia
3rd-century Christian saints
3rd-century Armenian people
Armenian people of Iranian descent | [
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12653 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God%20Emperor%20of%20Dune | God Emperor of Dune | God Emperor of Dune is a science fiction novel by Frank Herbert published in 1981, the fourth in his Dune series of six novels. It was ranked as the No. 11 hardcover fiction best seller of 1981 by Publishers Weekly.
Plot
Leto II Atreides, the God Emperor, has ruled the universe as a tyrant for 3,500 years after becoming a hybrid of human and giant sandworm in Children of Dune. The death of all other sandworms as a result of the terraforming of Dune, and his control of the remaining supply of the all-important drug melange, has allowed him to keep civilization under his complete command. Leto has been physically transformed into a worm, retaining only his human face and arms, and though he is now seemingly immortal and invulnerable to harm, he is prone to instinct-driven bouts of violence when provoked to anger. As a result, his rule is one of religious awe and despotic fear. Leto has disbanded the Landsraad to all but a few Great Houses; the remaining powers defer to his authority, although they individually conspire against him in secret. The Fremen have long since lost their identity and military power, and have been replaced as the Imperial army by the Fish Speakers, an all-female army who obey Leto without question. He has rendered the human population into a state of trans-galactic stagnation; space travel is non-existent to most people in his Empire, which he has deliberately kept to a near-medieval level of technological sophistication. All of this he has done in accordance with a prophecy divined through precognition that will establish an enforced peace preventing humanity from destroying itself through aggressive behavior.
The desert planet Arrakis has been terraformed into a lush forested biosphere, except for a single section of desert retained by Leto for his Citadel. A string of Duncan Idaho gholas have served Leto over the millennia, and Leto has also fostered the bloodline of his twin sister Ghanima. Her descendant Moneo is Leto's majordomo and closest confidante, while Moneo's daughter Siona has become the leader of an Arrakis-based rebellion against Leto. She steals a set of secret records from his archives, not realizing that he has allowed it. Leto intends to breed Siona with the latest Duncan ghola, but is aware that the ghola, moved by his own morality, may try to assassinate him before this can occur. The Ixians send a new ambassador named Hwi Noree to serve Leto, and though he realizes that she has been specifically designed and trained to ensnare him, he cannot resist falling in love with her. She agrees to marry him. Leto tests Siona by taking her out to the middle of the desert. After improperly using her stillsuit to preserve moisture, dehydration forces her to accept Leto's offer of spice essence from his body to replenish her. Awakened to Leto's prophecy, which he calls the Golden Path, Siona is convinced of the importance of it. She remains dedicated to Leto's destruction, and an errant rainstorm demonstrates for her his mortal vulnerability to water.
When Idaho falls in love and copulates with Hwi, Moneo sends him and Siona out to Tuono Village, an outcropping along the Royal Procession road, to keep them safe from Leto's wrath. Leto changes the venue of his wedding from Tabur Village to Tuono Village. Siona and Idaho overcome a searing mutual hatred of each other to plan an assassination. As Leto's wedding procession moves across a high bridge over a river, Siona's associate Nayla destroys the support beams with a lasgun. The bridge collapses and Leto's entourage, including Hwi, plunge to their deaths into the river below. Leto's body rends apart in the water; the sandtrout which are part of his body encyst the water and scurry off, while the worm portion burns and disintegrates on the shore. With his dying breaths, Leto reveals a secret portion of the Golden Path: the production of a human who is invisible to prescient vision. Having begun millennia before with the union of Leto's twin sister Ghanima and Farad'n of House Corrino, Siona is the finished result, and she and her descendants will retain this ability. He explains that humanity is now free from the domination of oracles, free to scatter throughout the universe, never again to face complete domination or complete destruction. After revealing the location of his secret spice hoard, Leto dies, leaving Duncan and Siona to face the task of managing the empire. The Ixians have also begun the construction of navigation computers that will render the Spacing Guild's Navigators obsolete. Leto's death causes the Scattering, a great forced exodus of the former Imperium citizens to other galaxies and planets.
Analysis
In God Emperor of Dune, Frank Herbert analyzes the cyclical patterns of human society, as well as humanity's evolutionary drives. Using his ancestral memories, Leto II has knowledge of the entirety of human history and is able to recall the effects and patterns of tyrannical institutions, from the Babylonian empire through the Jesuits on ancient Earth, and thus builds an empire existing as a complete nexus encompassing all these methods. This galactic empire differs from the historical tyrants in that it is deliberately designed to end in destruction, and is only instituted in the first place as part of a plan to rescue humanity from an absolute destruction which Leto II has foreseen through his oracular visions. Leto II personally explores the emergent effects of civilization, noting that most hierarchical structures are remnants of evolutionary urges toward safety. Thus, by forming a perfectly safe and stable empire, Leto II delivers a message to be felt throughout history.
Stylistically, the novel is permeated by quotations from, and speeches by its main character, Leto, to a degree unseen in any of the other Dune novels. In part, this stylistic shift is an artifact of how Herbert wrote it: the first draft was written almost entirely in the first-person narrative voice, only being revised in later drafts to insert more third-person narration of events.
Critical reception
God Emperor of Dune was ranked as the No. 11 hardcover fiction best seller of 1981 by Publishers Weekly. The Los Angeles Times wrote that the novel was "Rich fare ... heavy stuff", and Time called it "a fourth visit to distant Arrakis that is every bit as fascinating as the other three—every bit as timely." Critic John Leonard of The New York Times was less charitable, stating the original Dune novel "was just about a perfect science fiction" that had not been improved on: "not in Dune Messiah, in Children of Dune or in God Emperor of Dune."
References
External links
God Emperor of Dune
1981 American novels
1981 science fiction novels
Dune (franchise) novels
Novels by Frank Herbert
Sequel novels | [
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12654 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goonhilly%20Satellite%20Earth%20Station | Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station | Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station is a large radiocommunication site located on Goonhilly Downs near Helston on the Lizard peninsula in Cornwall, England. Owned by Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd under a 999-year lease from BT Group plc, it was at one time the largest satellite earth station in the world, with more than 30 communication antennas and dishes in use. The site also links into undersea cable lines.
History
Its first dish, Antenna One (dubbed "Arthur"), was built in 1962 to link with Telstar. It was the first open parabolic design and is 25.9 metres (85 feet) in diameter and weighs 1,118 tonnes. After Pleumeur-Bodou Ground Station (Brittany) which received the first live transatlantic television broadcasts from the United States via the Telstar satellite at 0H47 GMT on 11 July 1962, Arthur received his first video in the middle of the same day. It is now a Grade II listed structure and is therefore protected.
The site has also played a key role in communications events such as the Muhammad Ali fights, the Olympic Games, the Apollo 11 Moon landing, and 1985's Live Aid concert.
Statistics
The site's largest dish, dubbed "Merlin", has a diameter of 32 metres (105 feet). Other dishes include Guinevere, Tristan, and Isolde after characters in Arthurian legend, much of which takes place in Cornwall.
The earth station is powered by the National Grid. If power fails, all essential equipment will run off huge batteries for up to 20 minutes, during which time four one-megawatt diesel generators will take over. The nearby wind generator farm is not part of the complex.
Closure
On 12 September 2006, BT announced it would shut down satellite operations at Goonhilly in 2008, and move them to Madley Communications Centre in Herefordshire, making that centre BT's only earth station.
Visitor centre
Until Easter 2010 the site had a visitor centre inside which the Connected Earth gallery told the history of satellite communications. There were many other interactive exhibits, a cafe, a shop and one of Britain's fastest cybercafés (a one gigabit pipe and a theoretical maximum speed per computer of 100 Mbit). There were also tours around the main BT site and into the heart of Arthur.
At its prime, the site attracted around 80,000 visitors a year, but in March 2010 BT announced that the visitor centre would be "Closed for Easter and beyond, until further notice."
Future
On 11 January 2011 it was announced that part of the site was to be sold to create a space science centre. This would involve upgrading some of the dishes to make them suitable for "deep space communication with spacecraft missions". A new company was formed to manage the operations, Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd. The company leased most of the antennas for at least three years with the option to buy the entire complex in the future. Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd. took ownership of the site in January 2014.
There are plans to connect one or more of the Goonhilly dishes into global radio astronomy interferometer networks.
There are also plans to upgrade the former visitor centre into "an outreach centre promoting space and space science for visitors, including local residents and schools".
In July 2015 European Space Agency has begun a 9-month feasibility study to examine if antenna Goonhilly 6 could be used to support Artemis 1 of the Orion spacecraft.
The site is (as of 2017) a partner in the bid by Newquay Airport to become the UK's first Spaceport.
Support for Moon exploration
In April 2018, Goonhilly became part of a collaboration partnership for commercial lunar mission support services, with the European Space Agency and Surrey Satellite Technology. The agreement calls for the upgrade of Goonhilly, and development of the Lunar Pathfinder mission. Plans exist for small landers with a lunar mothership providing communications relay.
Gallery
References
External links
British Telecom buildings and structures
Buildings and structures in Cornwall
Earth stations in England
Industrial archaeological sites in Cornwall
Mass media in Cornwall
Science and technology in Cornwall
Transatlantic telecommunications
1962 establishments in England | [
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12656 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s%20law | Godwin's law | Godwin's law, short for Godwin's law (or rule) of Nazi analogies, is an Internet adage asserting that as an online discussion grows longer (regardless of topic or scope), the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Adolf Hitler approaches 1. In less mathematical terms, the longer the discussion, the more likely a Nazi comparison becomes, and with long enough discussions, it is a certainty.
Promulgated by the American attorney and author Mike Godwin in 1990, Godwin's law originally referred specifically to Usenet newsgroup discussions. He stated that he introduced Godwin's law in 1990 as an experiment in memetics. Later it was applied to any threaded online discussion, such as Internet forums, chat rooms, and comment threads, as well as to speeches, articles, and other rhetoric where reductio ad Hitlerum occurs.
In 2012, "Godwin's law" became an entry in the third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. In 2021 Harvard researchers published an article stating the law does not apply in Reddit discussions.
Generalization, corollaries, and usage
There are many corollaries to Godwin's law, some considered more canonical (by being adopted by Godwin himself) than others. For example, there is a tradition in many newsgroups and other Internet discussion forums that, when a Hitler comparison is made, the thread is finished and whoever made the comparison loses whatever debate is in progress. This principle is itself frequently referred to as Godwin's law.
Godwin's law itself can be applied mistakenly or abused as a distraction, diversion or even as censorship, when fallaciously miscasting an opponent's argument as hyperbole when the comparison made by the argument is appropriate.
Mike Godwin himself has also criticized the overapplication of Godwin's law, claiming it does not articulate a fallacy; but rather is intended to reduce the frequency of inappropriate and hyperbolic comparisons. "Although deliberately framed as if it were a law of nature or of mathematics," Godwin wrote, "its purpose has always been rhetorical and pedagogical: I wanted folks who glibly compared someone else to Hitler to think a bit harder about the Holocaust."
In December 2015, Godwin commented on the Nazi and fascist comparisons being made by several articles about Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, saying: "If you're thoughtful about it and show some real awareness of history, go ahead and refer to Hitler when you talk about Trump, or any other politician." In August 2017, Godwin made similar remarks on social networking websites Facebook and Twitter with respect to the two previous days' Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, endorsing and encouraging comparisons of its alt-right organizers to Nazis.
In June 2018, Godwin wrote an opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times denying the need to update or amend the rule, and rejected the idea that whoever invokes Godwin's Law has lost the argument, and argues that appropriate application of the rule "should function less as a conversation ender and more as a conversation starter."
See also
Association fallacy
List of eponymous laws
Nazi analogies
Straw man
Think of the children
Thought-terminating cliché
References
Further reading
External links
"I Seem to be a Verb"; Mike Godwin's commentary on the 18th anniversary of Godwin's law
"My Nazi Can Beat Up Your Nazi" by Michael Sietzman
Interview with "Mike Godwin on Godwin's Law" by Dan Amira, New York magazine, March 8, 2013
Wired 2.10; Meme, Counter-Meme by Mike Godwin
1990 neologisms
Adages
Adolf Hitler
Eponyms
Genetic fallacies
Internet culture
Internet terminology
Internet trolling
Nazi analogies
Political Internet memes
Principles | [
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12657 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groningen%20%28disambiguation%29 | Groningen (disambiguation) | Groningen is a city in the Netherlands.
Groningen may also refer to:
Places
Groningen (province), a province of the Netherlands of which Groningen is the capital city
Lordship of Groningen, the name under which the province was ruled by the Habsburg between 1536 and 1594
Groningen gas field, a natural gas field in province of Groningen
Groningen, Suriname, a town in the Saramacca District, Suriname
Groningen, Minnesota, an unincorporated community in Minnesota, United States
Gröningen, a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany
Grøningen, a Norwegian lake
Other uses
Groningen (cattle), a breed of dairy cattle
Gronings dialect, the Dutch language dialect spoken in Groningen
FC Groningen, the football club from Groningen, the Netherlands
HNLMS Groningen, several ships of the Dutch navy
University of Groningen, Netherlands
See also | [
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12662 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goya%20%28disambiguation%29 | Goya (disambiguation) | Francisco Goya (1746–1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker.
Goya may also refer to:
Film and television
Goya or the Hard Way to Enlightenment, a 1971 East German film
Goya (TV series), a 2015 Pakistani television series
Goya Awards, a film award in Spain
Music
Goya (band), a Polish pop group
Goya: A Life in Song, a musical by Maury Yeston
Goya (opera), an opera by Gian Carlo Menotti
Goya guitar, a line of acoustic guitars created by Levin
Goya, a line of electric guitars by Hagström
Goya MusicMan, a South African music collector and disc jockey.
Places
Goya, Argentina, a city in Corrientes Province, Argentina
Goya Department, Corrientes Province, Argentina
Goya (crater), a crater on Mercury
Ships
Goya (ship), a German ship during World War II
SS Goya, a Norwegian ship that carried eastern European refugees to New Zealand in 1951
Other uses
Goya Foods, a food manufacturer and distributor in the U.S. and Latin America
Goya (moth), a genus of moth
Goya (surname)
Goya (wrestler) (b. 1987), Mexican professional wrestler
Greek Orthodox Youth of America, a Greek-American youth group
6592 Goya, a Main-belt asteroid
Goya Museum, a museum in Castres, France
Goya (Madrid Metro), a station named after the Spanish painter
Bitter melon or goya, a tropical and subtropical vine with edible fruit
Goya, a biography by Lion Feuchtwanger
Goya, a biography by Robert Hughes
Goya, a nightclub in the former Neues Schauspielhaus, Berlin, Germany
See also
Goia (disambiguation)
Goiás (disambiguation) | [
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12663 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green%20Bay%20Packers | Green Bay Packers | The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. It is the third-oldest franchise in the NFL, dating back to 1919, and is the only non-profit, community-owned major league professional sports team based in the United States. Home games have been played at Lambeau Field since 1957.
The Packers are the last of the "small town teams" which were common in the NFL during the league's early days of the 1920s and 1930s. Founded in 1919 by Earl "Curly" Lambeau and George Whitney Calhoun, the franchise traces its lineage to other semi-professional teams in Green Bay dating back to 1896. Between 1919 and 1920, the Packers competed against other semi-pro clubs from around Wisconsin and the Midwest, before joining the American Professional Football Association (APFA), the forerunner of today's NFL, in 1921. In 1933, the Packers began playing part of their home slate in Milwaukee until changes at Lambeau Field in 1995 made it more lucrative to stay in Green Bay full time; Milwaukee is still considered a home media market for the team. Although Green Bay is by far the smallest major league professional sports market in North America, Forbes ranked the Packers as the world's 27th most valuable sports franchise in 2019, with a value of $2.63 billion.
The Packers have won 13 league championships, the most in NFL history, with nine pre-Super Bowl NFL titles and four Super Bowl victories. The Packers won the first two Super Bowls in 1966 and 1967 and were the only NFL team to defeat the American Football League (AFL) prior to the AFL–NFL merger. The Vince Lombardi Trophy is named after the Packers' coach Vince Lombardi, who guided them to their first two Super Bowls. Their two subsequent Super Bowl wins came in 1996 under head coach Mike Holmgren and 2010 under head coach Mike McCarthy. Additionally, the Packers have recorded the most wins (804) and the highest win–loss record (.571) in NFL history, including both regular season and playoff games.
The Packers are long-standing adversaries of the Chicago Bears, Minnesota Vikings, and Detroit Lions, who today form the NFL's NFC North division (formerly known as the NFC Central Division). They have played over 100 games against each of those teams through history, and have a winning overall record against all of them, a distinction only shared with the Kansas City Chiefs and Dallas Cowboys. The Bears–Packers rivalry is one of the oldest rivalries in U.S. professional sports history, dating back to 1921.
History
Founding
The Green Bay Packers were founded on August 11, 1919 by former high-school football rivals Earl "Curly" Lambeau and George Whitney Calhoun. Lambeau solicited funds for uniforms from his employer, the Indian Packing Company, a meat packing company. He was given $500 ($ today) for uniforms and equipment, on the condition that the team be named after its sponsor. The Green Bay Packers have played in their original city longer than any other team in the NFL.
On August 27, 1921, the Packers were granted a franchise in the American Professional Football Association, a new national pro football league that had been formed the previous year. The APFA changed its name to the National Football League a year later. Financial troubles plagued the team and the franchise was forfeited within the year before Lambeau found new financial backers and regained the franchise the next year. These backers, known as "The Hungry Five", formed the Green Bay Football Corporation.
1929–1931: Lambeau's team arrives
After a near-miss in 1927, Lambeau's squad claimed the Packers' first NFL title in 1929 with an undefeated 12–0–1 campaign, behind a stifling defense which registered eight shutouts. Green Bay would repeat as league champions in 1930 and 1931, bettering teams from New York, Chicago and throughout the league, with all-time greats and future Hall of Famers Mike Michalske, Johnny (Blood) McNally, Cal Hubbard and Green Bay native Arnie Herber. Among the many impressive accomplishments of these years was the Packers' streak of 29 consecutive home games without defeat, an NFL record which still stands.
1935–1945: The Don Hutson era
The arrival of end Don Hutson from Alabama in 1935 gave Lambeau and the Packers the most-feared and dynamic offensive weapon in the game. Credited with inventing pass patterns, Hutson would lead the league in receptions eight seasons and spur the Packers to NFL championships in 1936, 1939 and 1944. An iron man, Hutson played both ways, leading the league in interceptions as a safety in 1940. Hutson claimed 18 NFL records when he retired in 1945, many of which still stand. In 1951, his number 14 was the first to be retired by the Packers, and he was inducted as a charter member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1963.
1946–1958: Wilderness
After Hutson's retirement, Lambeau could not stop the Packers' slide. He purchased a large lodge near Green Bay for team members and families to live. Rockwood Lodge was the home of the 1946–49 Packers. The 1947 and 1948 seasons produced a record of 12–10–1, and 1949 was even worse at 3–9. The lodge burned down on January 24, 1950, and insurance money paid for many of the Packers' debts.
Curly Lambeau departed after the 1949 season. Gene Ronzani and Lisle Blackbourn could not coach the Packers back to their former magic, even as a new stadium was unveiled in 1957. The losing would descend to the disastrous 1958 campaign under coach Ray "Scooter" McLean, whose lone 1–10–1 year at the helm is the worst in Packers history.
1959–1967: The Lombardi era and the glory years
Former New York Giants assistant Vince Lombardi was hired as Packers head coach and general manager on February 2, 1959. Few suspected the hiring represented the beginning of a remarkable, immediate turnaround. Under Lombardi, the Packers would become the team of the 1960s, winning five World Championships over a seven-year span, including victories in the first two Super Bowls. During the Lombardi era, the stars of the Packers' offense included Bart Starr, Jim Taylor, Carroll Dale, Paul Hornung (as halfback and placekicker), Forrest Gregg, and Jerry Kramer. The defense included Willie Davis, Henry Jordan, Willie Wood, Ray Nitschke, Dave Robinson, and Herb Adderley.
1959: Lombardi's first season
The Packers' first regular-season game under Lombardi was on September 27, 1959, a 9–6 victory over the Chicago Bears in Green Bay. After winning their first three, the Packers lost the next five before finishing strong by sweeping their final four. The 7–5 record represented the Packers' first winning season since 1947, enough to earn rookie head coach Lombardi the NFL Coach of the Year.
1960
The next year, the Packers, led by Paul Hornung's 176 points, won the NFL West title and played in the NFL Championship against the Philadelphia Eagles at Philadelphia. In a see-saw game, the Packers trailed by only four points when All-Pro Eagle linebacker Chuck Bednarik tackled Jim Taylor just nine yards short of the goal line as time expired.
1961
The Packers returned to the NFL Championship game the following season and faced the New York Giants in the first league title game to be played in Green Bay. The Packers scored 24-second-quarter points, including a championship-record 19 by Paul Hornung, on special "loan" from the Army (one touchdown, four extra-points and three field goals), powering the Packers to a 37–0 rout of the Giants, their first NFL Championship since 1944. It was in 1961 that Green Bay became known as "Titletown."
1962
The Packers stormed back in the 1962 season, jumping out to a 10–0 start, on their way to a 13–1 season. This consistent level of success would lead to Lombardi's Packers becoming one of the most prominent teams of their era, and to being featured as the face of the NFL on the cover of Time on December 21, 1962, as part of the magazine's cover story on "The Sport of the '60s". Shortly after Time's article, the Packers faced the Giants in a much more brutal championship game than the previous year, but the Packers prevailed on the kicking of Jerry Kramer and the determined running of Jim Taylor. The Packers defeated the Giants in New York, 16–7.
1965
The Packers returned to the championship game in 1965 following a two-year absence when they defeated the Colts in a playoff for the Western Conference title. That game would be remembered for Don Chandler's controversial tying field goal in which the ball allegedly went wide right, but the officials signaled "good." The 13–10 overtime win earned the Packers a trip to the NFL Championship game, where Hornung and Taylor ran through the defending champion Cleveland Browns, helping the Packers win, 23–12, to earn their third NFL Championship under Lombardi and ninth overall. Goalpost uprights would be made taller the next year.
1966: the first "AFL-NFL World Championship Game"
The 1966 season saw the Packers led to the first-ever Super Bowl by MVP quarterback Bart Starr. The team went 12–2, and as time wound down in the NFL Championship against the Dallas Cowboys, the Packers clung to a 34–27 lead. Dallas had the ball on the Packers' two-yard line, threatening to tie the ballgame. But on fourth down the Packers' Tom Brown intercepted Don Meredith's pass in the end zone to seal the win. The team crowned its season by rolling over the AFL champion Kansas City Chiefs 35–10 in Super Bowl I.
1967: Super Bowl II, and Lombardi's departure
The 1967 season was the last for Lombardi as the Packers' head coach. The NFL Championship game, a rematch of the 1966 contest against Dallas, became indelibly known as the "Ice Bowl" as a result of the brutal conditions at Lambeau Field. Still, the coldest NFL game ever played, it remains one of the most famous football games at any level in the history of the sport. With 16 seconds left, Bart Starr's touchdown on a quarterback sneak brought the Packers a 21–17 victory and their still unequaled third straight NFL Championship. They then won Super Bowl II with a 33–14 victory over the Oakland Raiders. Lombardi stepped down as head coach after the game, and Phil Bengtson was named his successor. Lombardi remained as general manager for one season but left in 1969 to become head coach and minority owner of the Washington Redskins.
After Lombardi died of cancer on September 3, 1970, the NFL renamed the Super Bowl trophy the Vince Lombardi Trophy in recognition of his accomplishments with the Packers. The city of Green Bay renamed Highland Avenue in his honor in 1968, placing Lambeau Field at 1265 Lombardi Avenue ever since.
1968–1991: Post-Lombardi and decline
For about a quarter-century after Lombardi's departure, the Packers had relatively little on-field success. In the 24 seasons from 1968 to 1991, they had only five seasons with a winning record, one being the shortened 1982 strike season. They appeared in the playoffs twice, with a 1–2 record. The period saw five different head coaches—Phil Bengtson, Dan Devine, Bart Starr, Forrest Gregg, and Lindy Infante—two of whom, Starr and Gregg, were Lombardi's era stars, while Bengtson was a former Packer coach. Each led the Packers to a worse record than his predecessor. Poor personnel decisions were rife, notoriously the 1974 trade by acting general manager Dan Devine which sent five 1975 or 1976 draft picks (two first-rounders, two-second-rounders and a third) to the Los Angeles Rams for aging quarterback John Hadl, who would spend only 1 seasons in Green Bay. Another came in the 1989 NFL Draft, when offensive lineman Tony Mandarich was taken with the second overall pick ahead of future Hall of Fame inductees Barry Sanders, Derrick Thomas, and Deion Sanders. Though rated highly by nearly every professional scout at the time, Mandarich's performance failed to meet expectations, earning him ESPN's ranking as the third "biggest sports flop" in the last 25 years.
1992–2007: Brett Favre era
The Packers' performance in the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s led to a shakeup, with Ron Wolf hired as general manager and given full control of the team's football operations to start the 1991 season. In 1992, Wolf hired San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Mike Holmgren as the Packers' new head coach.
Soon afterward, Wolf acquired quarterback Brett Favre from the Atlanta Falcons for a first-round pick. Favre got the Packers their first win of the 1992 season, stepping in for injured quarterback Don Majkowski and leading a comeback over the Cincinnati Bengals. He started the following week, a win against the Pittsburgh Steelers, and never missed another start for Green Bay through the end of the 2007 season. He would go on to break the record for consecutive starts by an NFL quarterback, starting 297 consecutive games including stints with the New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings with the streak finally coming to an end late in the 2010 season.
The Packers had a 9–7 record in 1992, and began to turn heads around the league when they signed perhaps the most prized free agent in NFL history in Reggie White on the defense in 1993. White believed that Wolf, Holmgren, and Favre had the team heading in the right direction with a "total commitment to winning." With White on board the Packers made it to the second round of the playoffs during both the 1993 and 1994 seasons but lost their 2nd-round matches to their playoff rival, the Dallas Cowboys, playing in Dallas on both occasions. In 1995, the Packers won the NFC Central Division championship for the first time since 1972. After a home playoff 37–20 win against Favre's former team, the Atlanta Falcons, the Packers defeated the defending Super Bowl champion San Francisco 49ers 27–17 in San Francisco on the road to advance to the NFC Championship Game, where they lost again to the Dallas Cowboys 38–27.
1996: Super Bowl XXXI champions
In 1996, the Packers' turnaround was complete. The team posted a league-best 13–3 record in the regular season, dominating the competition and securing home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. They were ranked no. 1 in offense with Brett Favre leading the way, no. 1 in defense with Reggie White as the leader of the defense and no. 1 in special teams with former Heisman Trophy winner Desmond Howard returning punts and kickoffs for touchdowns. After relatively easy wins against the 49ers in a muddy 35–14 beatdown and Carolina Panthers 30–13, the Packers advanced to the Super Bowl for the first time in 29 years. In Super Bowl XXXI, Green Bay defeated the New England Patriots 35–21 to win their 12th world championship. Desmond Howard was named MVP of the game for his kickoff return for a touchdown that ended the Patriots' bid for a comeback. Then-Packers president Bob Harlan credited Wolf, Holmgren, Favre, and White for ultimately changing the fortunes of the organization and turning the Green Bay Packers into a model NFL franchise. A 2007 panel of football experts at ESPN ranked the 1996 Packers the 6th-greatest team ever to play in the Super Bowl.
1997: defeat in Super Bowl XXXII
The following season the Packers recorded another 13–3 record and won their second consecutive NFC championship. After defeating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 21–7 and San Francisco 49ers 23–10 in the playoffs, the Packers returned to the Super Bowl as an 11 point favorite. The team ended up losing in an upset to John Elway and the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXXII, by the score of 31–24.
1998: Holmgren's last season
In 1998, the Packers went 11–5 and met the San Francisco 49ers in the first round of the NFC playoffs. It was the fourth consecutive year these teams had met in the playoffs and the sixth overall contest since the 1995 season. The Packers had won all previous games, and the media speculated that another 49ers loss would result in the dismissal of San Francisco head coach Steve Mariucci. Unlike the previous playoff matches, this game was hotly contested, with the teams frequently exchanging leads. With 4:19 left in the 4th quarter, Brett Favre and the Packers embarked on an 89-yard drive, which concluded with a Favre touchdown pass to receiver Antonio Freeman. This play appeared to give Green Bay the victory. But San Francisco quarterback Steve Young led the 49ers on an improbable touchdown drive, which culminated when Terrell Owens caught Young's pass between several defenders to give the 49ers a lead with three seconds remaining. Afterwards, the game was mired in controversy. Many argued that during the 49ers game-winning drive, Niners receiver Jerry Rice fumbled the ball but officials stated he was down by contact. Television replays confirmed the fumble, but referees were unable to review the play; the next season the NFL reinstituted an instant replay system. In the end, this game turned out to be the end of an era in Green Bay. Days later Mike Holmgren left the Packers to become vice president, general manager and head coach of the Seattle Seahawks. Much of Holmgren's coaching staff went with him, and Reggie White also retired after the season (but later played one season for the Carolina Panthers in 2000).
1999: Ray Rhodes' one-year tenure
In 1999, the team struggled to find an identity after the departure of so many of the individuals responsible for their Super Bowl run. Ray Rhodes was hired in 1999 as the team's new head coach. Rhodes had served around the league as a highly regarded defensive coordinator and more recently experienced moderate success as head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles from 1995 to 1998. Ron Wolf believed that Rhodes' experience and player-friendly demeanor would fit nicely in Green Bay's veteran locker room, but Rhodes was fired after one 8–8 season. Wolf visited team practice late in the 1999 season and believed that players had become too comfortable with Rhodes' style, and said the atmosphere resembled a country club.
2000–05: Mike Sherman as head coach
In 2000, Wolf replaced Rhodes with Mike Sherman. Sherman had never been a head coach at any level of football and was relatively unknown in NFL circles. He had only coached in professional football for three years starting as the Packers' tight ends coach in 1997 and 1998. In 1999, he followed Mike Holmgren to Seattle and became the Seahawks' offensive coordinator, although Sherman did not call the plays during games. Despite Sherman's apparent anonymity, Wolf was blown away in the interview process by the coach's organizational skills and attention to detail. Sherman's inaugural season started slowly, but the Packers won their final four games to achieve a 9–7 record. Brett Favre praised the atmosphere Sherman had cultivated in Green Bay's locker room and fans were optimistic about the team's future. In the offseason, however, Wolf suddenly announced his own resignation as general manager to take effect after the April 2001 draft. Packers' president Bob Harlan was surprised by Wolf's decision and felt unsure of how to replace him. Harlan preferred the structure Green Bay had employed since 1991; a general manager who ran football operations and hired a subservient head coach. But with the momentum and locker room chemistry that was built during the 2000 season, Harlan was reluctant to bring in a new individual with a potentially different philosophy. Wolf recommended that Harlan give the job to Sherman. Though Harlan was wary of the structure in principle, he agreed with Wolf that it was the best solution. In 2001, Sherman assumed the duties of both general manager and head coach.
From 2001 to 2004, Sherman coached the Packers to respectable regular-season success, led by the spectacular play of Brett Favre, Ahman Green, and a formidable offensive line. But Sherman's teams faltered in the playoffs. Prior to 2003, the Packers had never lost a home playoff game since the NFL instituted a post-season in 1933 (they were 13–0, with 11 of the wins at Lambeau and two more in Milwaukee.). That ended January 4, 2003, when the Atlanta Falcons defeated the Packers 27–7 in an NFC Wild Card game. The Packers would also lose at home in the playoffs to the Minnesota Vikings two years later.
By the end of the 2004 season, the Packers team depth appeared to be diminishing. Sherman also seemed overworked and reportedly had trouble communicating with players on the practice field with whom he was also negotiating contracts. Harlan felt the dual roles were too much for one man to handle and removed Sherman from the general manager position in early 2005 while retaining him as a head coach. Harlan hired the Seattle Seahawks' vice president of operations Ted Thompson as the new executive vice president, general manager and director of football operations. The relationship between Thompson and Sherman appeared strained, as Thompson immediately began rebuilding Green Bay's roster. Following a dismal 4–12 season, Thompson fired Sherman.
2006–07: McCarthy arrives, Favre departs
In 2006, Thompson hired Mike McCarthy, the former offensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers and New Orleans Saints, as his new head coach. McCarthy had also previously served as the quarterbacks coach for the Packers in 1999. In McCarthy's debut year coaching the Packers, the team began the season with a 4–8 record. Then, Brett Favre sustained injuries, as did the backup quarterback, Aaron Rodgers. Despite the injuries, McCarthy coached the team to four consecutive wins, finishing with an 8–8 record.
After missing the playoffs in 2006, Brett Favre announced that he would return for the 2007 season; under McCarthy it would turn out to be one of his best. The Packers won 10 of their first 11 games and finished 13–3, earning a first-round bye in the playoffs. That was sufficient to propel McCarthy to secure the best record among active coaches through their first 25 games. The Packers' passing offense, led by Favre and a very skilled wide receiver group, finished second in the NFC, behind the Dallas Cowboys, and third overall in the league. Running back Ryan Grant, acquired for a sixth-round draft pick from the New York Giants, became the featured back in Green Bay and rushed for 956 yards and 8 touchdowns in the final 10 games of the regular season. In the divisional playoff round, in a heavy snowstorm, the Packers beat the Seattle Seahawks 42–20. Grant rushed for 201 yards and three touchdowns, while Favre tossed an additional three touchdown passes to receiver Donald Driver (as well as a snowball, which Favre memorably threw at Driver in celebration).
On January 20, 2008, Green Bay appeared in their first NFC Championship Game in 10 years facing the New York Giants in Green Bay. The game was lost 23–20 on an overtime field goal by Lawrence Tynes. This would be Brett Favre's final game as a Green Bay Packer with his final pass being an interception in overtime.
Mike McCarthy coached the NFC team during the 2008 Pro Bowl in Hawaii. Al Harris and Aaron Kampman were also picked to play for the NFC Pro Bowl team as starters. Donald Driver was named as a third-string wideout on the Pro Bowl roster. Brett Favre was named the first-string quarterback for the NFC, but he declined to play in the Pro Bowl and was replaced on the roster by Tampa Bay quarterback Jeff Garcia. The Packers also had several first alternates, including offensive tackle Chad Clifton and linebacker Nick Barnett.
In December 2007, Ted Thompson was signed to a 5-year contract extension with the Packers. In addition, on February 5, 2008, head coach Mike McCarthy signed a 5-year contract extension.
2008–present: Aaron Rodgers era
2008: Transition
On March 4, 2008, Brett Favre announced his retirement. Within five months, however, he filed for reinstatement with the NFL on July 29. Favre's petition was granted by Commissioner Roger Goodell, effective August 4, 2008. On August 6, 2008, it was announced that Brett Favre was traded to the New York Jets for a conditional draft pick in 2009.
The Packers began their 2008 season with their 2005 first-round draft pick, quarterback Aaron Rodgers, under center, as the first QB other than Favre to start for the Packers in 16 years. Rodgers played well in his first year starting for the Packers, throwing for over 4,000 yards and 28 touchdowns. However, injuries plagued the Packers' defense, as they lost 7 close games by 4 points or less, finishing with a 6–10 record. After the season, eight assistant coaches were dismissed by the organization, including Bob Sanders, the team's defensive coordinator, who was replaced by Dom Capers.
2009: Return to the playoffs
In March 2009, the organization assured fans that Brett Favre's jersey number would be retired, but not during the 2009 season. In April 2009, the Packers selected defensive lineman B. J. Raji of Boston College as the team's first pick in the draft. The team then traded three draft picks (including the pick the Packers acquired from the Jets for Brett Favre) for another first-round pick, selecting linebacker Clay Matthews III of the University of Southern California.
During the 2009 NFL season, two match-ups between the franchise and its former quarterback Brett Favre were highly anticipated after Favre's arrival with the division-rival Vikings in August. The first encounter took place in Week 4, on a Monday Night Football game that broke several TV audience records. The scheduling of this game was made possible when Baseball Commissioner and Packer board of directors member Bud Selig forced baseball's Minnesota Twins to play 2 games within a 12-hour span. The Vikings won the game 30–23. Brett Favre threw 3 TDs, no interceptions, and had a passer rating of 135. The teams met for a second time in Week 8, Favre leading the Vikings to a second win, 38–26, in Green Bay. Rodgers was heavily pressured in both games, being sacked 14 times total, but still played well, throwing five touchdowns and only one interception. The next week, the Packers were upset by the winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Following a players-only meeting, the team found some stability on the offensive line with the return of tackle Mark Tauscher bringing a minor halt to sacks to Rodgers and opening the running game to Ryan Grant and the other running backs. Green Bay finished the season strongly, winning 7 out of their last 8 games, including winning their 16th regular season finale in the past 17 seasons, and earning a NFC wild-card playoff bid with an 11–5 regular-season record. The Packers defense was ranked No. 2 and the offense was ranked No. 6 with rookies Brad Jones and Clay Matthews III becoming sensations at linebacker and young players like James Jones, Brandon Jackson, Jermichael Finley and Jordy Nelson becoming threats on offense. Rodgers also became the first quarterback in NFL history to throw for at least 4,000 yards in each of his first two seasons as a starter. Also, cornerback Charles Woodson won NFL Defensive Player of the Year honors after recording 9 interceptions, forcing four fumbles, 3 touchdowns and registering 74 tackles and 2 sacks. In fact, Woodson's 9 interceptions were more than the 8 collected by all Packer opponents that season. Though the defense was ranked high, injuries to Al Harris, Tramon Williams, Will Blackmon, Atari Bigby and Brandon Underwood severely limited the depth of the secondary and teams like the Minnesota Vikings and Pittsburgh Steelers used that to their advantage by unleashing aerial assaults against inexperienced players with the NFL's best receivers. The season ended with an overtime loss in a wild card round shootout at the Arizona Cardinals, 51–45. It was the second time McCarthy led the Packers to the postseason.
2010: Super Bowl XLV championship
The team lost Johnny Jolly to a season-long suspension after he violated the NFL drug policy. Their running corps suffered a blow when RB Ryan Grant sustained a season-ending ankle injury in Week 1. By the end of the season, the team had 16 people on injured reserve, including 7 starters: running back Ryan Grant, tight end Jermichael Finley, linebacker Nick Barnett, safety Morgan Burnett, linebacker Brandon Chillar, tackle Mark Tauscher, and linebacker Brad Jones. Key injuries didn't stop McCarthy's team from finishing the regular season with a 10–6 record. In week 7, the team faced the Minnesota Vikings, then led by former Packers quarterback Brett Favre. Green Bay beat Favre's new team 28–24, when Favre's final pass to Randy Moss in the end zone flew incomplete. In week 17, the Packers clinched their playoff berth with a 10–3 victory over the Chicago Bears at Lambeau Field, aided in large part by Nick Collins’ interception of Jay Cutler’s throw that allowed Green Bay to run out the clock.
The Packers 10–6 record allowed them to clinch the No. 6 seed in the NFC playoffs. They first faced No. 3 seeded Philadelphia, winning 21–16. In the Divisional round, they defeated No. 1 seed Atlanta 48–21. They then played the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field in the NFC Championship Game—only the second playoff meeting between the two storied rivals (the other a 33–14 Chicago victory which sent them to the 1941 NFL Championship Game). McCarthy's Packers won 21–14 to move on to Super Bowl XLV, having secured a 3–0 record in the postseason.
On the evening before the Super Bowl, McCarthy had each player fitted for a championship ring. Aware of the motivational tactic, team president Mark Murphy instructed his organization to begin designing the ring. The following day on February 6, 2011, they defeated the AFC champion Pittsburgh Steelers 31–25, becoming the first No. 6 seed from the NFC to win a Super Bowl. It was the first time the Packers had won the Lombardi Trophy since 1996. Aaron Rodgers was named Super Bowl MVP.
During Super Bowl XLV, McCarthy’s team initially enjoyed a comfortable 21–3 lead over the Steelers. Then, Charles Woodson had to leave the game with a broken collarbone and the Steelers’ Hines Ward found the end-zone to make the score 21–10 by halftime. During the third quarter, Pittsburgh scored 7 more points to make the score 21–17. In the fourth quarter, Green Bay's’ Clay Matthews tackled Pittsburgh's Rashard Mendenhall, and Desmond Bishop recovered the ball for a key turnover.
2011: 15–1 season
In 2011, coming off their victory in Super Bowl XLV, the Packers won their first 13 games, eventually finishing the season 15–1. The 15 victories marked the franchise record for wins in a season, and tied for second-most regular-season wins in NFL history, behind only the 2007 Patriots who went 16–0. Following the season, Aaron Rodgers would be named the NFL's MVP, his first such award. During that year, McCarthy's offensive strategies aided Rodgers in throwing for 4,643 yards and 45 touchdowns. These strategies also propelled the Packers to lead the NFL in scoring that year.
Despite receiving home-field advantage, Green Bay lost their first postseason game to eventual Super Bowl XLVI champion New York Giants, 37–20.
2012
With an 11–5 record, the Packers beat the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC wild-card round 24–10, but lost in the divisional round of the playoffs to the eventual NFC Champion San Francisco 49ers by a score of 45–31. The Packers offense finished the season fifth in points and 11th in yards per game. Under McCarthy, Rodgers passed for 4,295 yards. The defense finished 11th in points allowed and 22nd in yards allowed per game.
The Packers topped the first-ever AP Pro32 rankings, a new pro football version of the AP Top 25 college football and basketball polls.
2013: injury to Rodgers
In 2013, the Packers started 5–2, leading up to a Week 9 match-up against the Bears. It was in that game which the Packers lost Aaron Rodgers to a broken collarbone; Rodgers would miss the next six games, during which the club would go 2–3–1 under three different quarterbacks: Seneca Wallace (injured during first start), Scott Tolzien (benched), and Matt Flynn.
Despite having a 7–7–1 record, the Packers were still in a position to win the NFC North division, if they were able to win their final game. With Rodgers returning, the Packers managed to beat the Bears in a Week 9 rematch, 33–28. Finishing at 8–7–1, the Packers won their division and were awarded a home playoff game. It was the fifth consecutive time that McCarthy led his team to a playoff appearance. However, despite Rodgers' return, the Packers would lose to the San Francisco 49ers 20–23 in the first round of the playoffs.
2014
The Packers recorded their 700th victory, against the Bears, in Week 4. The team went undefeated at home for the first time since the 2011 season; they also led the league in scoring, with 486 points, the second-most in franchise history. The 2014 season also marked the first time since 2009 that the team had a 4,000-yard passer, two 1,000-yard receivers, and a 1,000-yard rusher. McCarthy led an offense that finished sixth in the league in total offense. After winning against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 16, McCarthy (99 wins) passed Hall of Famer Vince Lombardi (98) on the all-time wins list for the Packers. Overall, the team went 12–4, clinching the No. 2 seed in the NFC and a fourth consecutive NFC North division title, making the playoffs for the sixth straight season, tying a franchise record. The Packers beat the Cowboys in the divisional round, advancing to the NFC Championship to face the Seattle Seahawks. After leading throughout most of regulation, the Packers lost 28–22 in a historic overtime rally by Seattle.
Following the season, quarterback Aaron Rodgers was named the league's Most Valuable Player for the second time.
2015
During Week 2 of the preseason against the Pittsburgh Steelers, wide receiver Jordy Nelson caught an eight-yard pass from Aaron Rodgers, but then fell to the turf without contact. A few days later, it was revealed that Nelson had torn his ACL. He would remain inactive for the rest of the 2015 season. Even without Nelson, the Packers managed to get off to a 6–0 start, but the Packers then lost four of their next five games, falling to 7–4.
On December 3, against the Detroit Lions, the Packers quickly fell to a 20–0 deficit going into halftime. Green Bay started to make a comeback in the second half thanks to a touchdown by Davante Adams and a 27-yard touchdown run by Aaron Rodgers to bring the game within two points at 23–21. The Packers then got the ball back in their possession with 23 seconds left in the game. While attempting a "lateral" play, Rodgers was sacked with no time remaining but then a flag was thrown for a facemask penalty on Detroit. The Packers now had one more un-timed play, which Aaron Rodgers threw a 61-yard Hail Mary touchdown to tight end Richard Rodgers II. It was the longest Hail Mary touchdown pass thrown in NFL history.
Up until week 14, McCarthy delegated play calling duties to associate head coach Tom Clements. However, the team's struggling offense made McCarthy decide to take back play calling duties. During that first game that McCarthy resumed play calling, the Packers ran the ball for 230 yards in 44 carries. Green Bay then finished the season 10–6 and 2nd in the NFC North behind the Minnesota Vikings.
The Packers beat the Washington Redskins in the NFC wild-card game to advance to the divisional round with the Arizona Cardinals. A similar play to tie the game against the Cardinals happened between Aaron Rodgers and Jeff Janis. Janis caught a 41-yard touchdown from Rodgers which sent the game into overtime. However, the Packers fell to Arizona 26–20, ending their season.
2016
After a 4–6 start to the season, the Packers went on a six-game winning streak to finish the regular season with a 10–6 record. The team clinched the NFC North for the fifth time in six years with their Week 17 win over the Detroit Lions. At the conclusion of the regular season, the success of his team made McCarthy the fourth head coach in NFL history to guide his team to eight or more consecutive playoff appearances. They routed the fifth-seeded New York Giants, 38–13, in the wild-card round of the playoffs and upset the top-seeded Dallas Cowboys, 34–31, in the divisional round of the playoffs, but their season came to an end when they were beaten by the second-seeded Atlanta Falcons in the NFC Championship Game, 44–21.
2017 and 2018
The Green Bay Packers began the 2017 regular season with a 4–2 record. On October 15, during a week 6 game against the Minnesota Vikings, Aaron Rodgers was driven to the ground by Vikings linebacker Anthony Barr after throwing a pass. Rodgers suffered a broken collarbone during the play, and the Packers placed him on injured reserve on October 20, with the stipulation that he could return in eight weeks (in accordance with NFL rules), especially if the injury healed quickly and the Packers were still in playoff contention. Rodgers did indeed return to the field for a week 15 game against the Carolina Panthers on December 17, but the Packers were eliminated from the playoff hunt after a 31–24 loss. The team placed Rodgers back on injured reserve after the game, a move that prompted several teams to complain that the Packers had violated the NFL's rules about reactivating injured players.
During Rodgers' absence, backup quarterback Brett Hundley stepped into the starting role for the first time in his professional career, but struggled to replicate Rodgers' success, despite a Pro Bowl-caliber season by receiver Davante Adams. In a 23–0 loss to the Baltimore Ravens in week 11, the Packers suffered their first shutout at Lambeau Field in 11 years (the last time was a 35–0 loss to the New England Patriots in 2006). The Packers finished the season at 7–9, missing the playoffs for the first time since 2008. Off the field, the Packers organization opened the Titletown District adjacent to Lambeau Field. This shopping, entertainment, and restaurant district includes a public plaza, park, and various commercial businesses.
In 2018, the Packers again failed to qualify for the playoffs, finishing third in the NFC North with a record of 6–9–1. Following a Week 13 loss to the Arizona Cardinals, Mike McCarthy was released as head coach, replaced by Offensive Coordinator Joe Philbin on an interim basis. McCarthy left Green Bay having tallied a 125–77–2 (.618) regular season record, as well as a postseason record of 10–8 (.556). His total record with the Packers was 135–85–2. McCarthy had brought the team to nine playoff berths and facilitated one Super Bowl win. Following the season, Matt LaFleur, the Offensive Coordinator of the Tennessee Titans the prior season, was hired as the Packers' new coach.
2019-2021
Under first-year head coach Matt LaFleur, Aaron Rodgers and the Packers opened the season by defeating the Chicago Bears in the season's opening game, the first time since 2003 that the league-wide kickoff game did not feature the defending Super Bowl champions, with the Packers and Bears being selected for their historic rivalry in the NFL's 100th season. The Packers returned to the playoffs for the first time since 2016, finishing with a record of 13–3 and securing a first-round bye as the NFC's second seed. They defeated the Seattle Seahawks 28–23 in the NFC Divisional round to advance to the NFC Championship game, where they were defeated 37–20 by the San Francisco 49ers.
In 2020, the Green Bay Packers won the NFC North Division for the second consecutive year. They also earned a first-round bye, with the top seed in the NFC. They defeated the Los Angeles Rams 32-18 in the Divisional Round, but fell to the underdog Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC championship- their fourth straight loss in the game in five appearances under Rodgers. Rodgers won his third MVP award during the season.
The next year, they clinched the top seed in the NFC again, with a 13-4 record, before losing 13-10 to the 49ers in the Divisional round. The special teams unit was consistently the worst in the NFL during the season, though their defense was noted as an improvement from previous seasons. The special teams was especially costly in the postseason game as a field goal attempt and punt were both blocked, the latter of which the 49ers returned for a touchdown. The defense did not allow any touchdowns in that game, as the only other points the 49ers scored were off two field goals. Matt LaFleur became the first coach to have three straight 13-win seasons, however none of them ended with a trip to the Super Bowl. For his performance in the season, Aaron Rodgers won his fourth MVP award- the second most for any quarterback, only behind Peyton Manning who has five.
Community ownership
The Packers are the only community-owned franchise in North America's four traditional major leagues. Rather than being the property of an individual, partnership, or corporate entity, they are held by stockholders, 360,584 in total as of 2014. No one is allowed to hold more than 200,000 shares. It is this broad-based community support and non-profit structure which has kept the team in Green Bay for nearly a century even though it is the smallest market in North American professional sports.
The city of Green Bay had a population of only 107,395 as of the 2020 census, and 600,000 in its television market, significantly less than the average NFL figures. The team, however, has long had an extended fan base throughout Wisconsin and parts of the Midwest, thanks in part to playing one pre-season and three regular-season home games each year in Milwaukee through 1995. It was only when baseball-only Miller Park preempted football there that the Packers' home slate became played entirely in Green Bay.
, there have been six stock sales to fund Packer operations over the team's history, beginning with $5,000 being raised through 1,000 shares offered at $5 apiece in 1923. The latest was in November 2021, where they sold almost 200,000 shares.
The original "Articles of Incorporation for the Green Bay Football Corporation", enacted in 1923, specified that should the franchise be sold, any post-expenses money would have gone to the Sullivan-Wallen Post of the American Legion to build "a proper soldier's memorial." This stipulation was included to ensure there could never be any financial inducement for shareholders to move the club from Green Bay. At the November 1997 annual meeting, shareholders voted to change the beneficiary from the Sullivan-Wallen Post to the Green Bay Packers Foundation, which makes donations to many charities and institutions throughout Wisconsin.
Even though it is referred to as "common stock" in corporate offering documents, a share of Packers stock does not share the same rights traditionally associated with common or preferred stock. It does not include an equity interest, does not pay dividends, cannot be traded, has no securities-law protection, and brings no season ticket purchase privileges. All shareholders receive are voting rights, an invitation to the corporation's annual meeting, and an opportunity to buy exclusive shareholder-only merchandise. Shares of stock cannot be resold, except back to the team for a fraction of the original price. While new shares can be given as gifts, transfers are technically allowed only between immediate family members once ownership has been established.
Green Bay is the only team with this form of ownership structure in the NFL, which does not comply with current league rules stipulating a maximum of 32 owners per team, with one holding a minimum 30% stake. The Packers' corporation was grandfathered when the NFL's current ownership policy was established in the 1980s. As a publicly held nonprofit, the Packers are also the only American major-league sports franchise to release its financial balance sheet every year.
Board of directors
Green Bay Packers, Inc., is governed by a seven-member executive committee elected from a 45-member board of directors. It consists of a president, vice president, treasurer, secretary and three members-at-large; only the president is compensated. Responsibilities include directing corporate management, approving major capital expenditures, establishing broad policy, and monitoring management performance.
The team's elected president normally represents the Packers in NFL owners meetings. During his time as coach, Vince Lombardi generally represented the team at league meetings in his role as general manager, except at owners-only meetings, where president Dominic Olejniczak appeared.
Green Bay Packers Foundation
The team created the Green Bay Packers Foundation in December 1986. It assists in a wide variety of activities and programs benefiting education, civic affairs, health services, human services and youth-related programs.
At the team's 1997 annual stockholders meeting the foundation was designated in place of a Sullivan-Wallen Post soldiers memorial as recipient of any residual assets upon the team's sale or dissolution.
Fan base
The Packers have an exceptionally loyal fan base. Regardless of team performance, every game played in Green Bay–preseason, regular season, and playoffs–has been sold out since 1960. Despite the Packers having by far the smallest local TV market, the team consistently ranks as one of the most popular in the NFL. They also have one of the longest season ticket waiting lists in professional sports: 86,000 names long, more than there are seats at Lambeau Field. The average wait is said to be over 30 years, but with only 90 or so tickets turned over annually it would be 955 years before the newest name on the list got theirs. As a result, season tickets are willed to next of kin and newborns placed optimistically on the waiting list.
Packers fans are often referred to as cheeseheads, a nickname for Wisconsin residents reflecting the state's bountiful cheese production first leveled as an insult at a 1987 game between the Chicago White Sox and Milwaukee Brewers. Instead, it came to be a statewide source of pride, and particularly since 1994 has been embraced by Packers fans. Bright orange triangular cheesehead hats are a fixture wherever the team plays.
During training camp in the summer months, held outside the Don Hutson Center, young Packers fans can bring their bikes and have their favorite players ride them from the locker room to practice at Ray Nitschke Field. This old tradition began around the time of Lambeau Field's construction in 1957. Gary Knafelc, a Packers end at the time, said, "I think it was just that kids wanted us to ride their bikes. I can remember kids saying, 'Hey, ride my bike.'"
The team holds an annual scrimmage called Family Night, typically an intra-squad affair, at Lambeau Field. During 2004 and 2005 sellout crowds of over 60,000 fans showed up, with an all-time mark of 62,492 set in 2005 when the Buffalo Bills appeared.
In August 2008, ESPN.com ranked Packers fans as second-best in the NFL. The team initially finished tied with the Pittsburgh Steelers (who finished ahead of the Packers) as having the best fans, but the tie was broken by ESPN's own John Clayton, a Pittsburgh native.
Branding
Nickname
Needing to outfit his new squad, team founder Curly Lambeau solicited funds from his employer, the Indian Packing Company. He was given $500 for uniforms and equipment in return for the team being named for its sponsor. An early newspaper article referred to the fledglings as "the Indians", but by the time they played their first game "Packers" had taken hold.
Indian Packing was purchased in 1920 by the Acme Packing Company. Acme continued to support the team, which played its first NFL season with "ACME PACKERS" emblazoned on its jerseys.
Team colors
Lambeau, a Notre Dame alumnus, borrowed its Irish's navy blue and gold team colors, much as George Halas borrowed his Illinois alma mater's for the Chicago Bears. As a result, the early Packers were often referred to as the "Bays" or the "Blues" (and even occasionally as "the Big Bay Blues").
By 1950, Green Bay replaced navy blue with kelly green, but kept what was by then a lighter shade of athletic gold. Navy blue was kept as a secondary color, seen primarily on sideline capes, but was quietly dropped on all official materials shortly thereafter. In 1958, this kelly green was replaced by a darker hunter green; it and athletic gold have served as the team colors since. The team's current uniform combination of forest green or white jerseys and metallic gold pants was adopted soon after Vince Lombardi arrived in 1959. However, to celebrate the NFL's 75th anniversary in 1994, the Packers joined in a league-wide donning of "throwback" jerseys, back to navy blue and gold. The team would go throwback again for two Thanksgiving Day games against the Detroit Lions, in blue and gold 1930s-era uniforms in 2001, and 1960s green and gold (only slightly different from the current ones) in 2003.
Logo
In 1951, the team finally stopped wearing leather helmets, adopting the metallic gold plastic headgear it has used ever since. The oval "G" logo was added in 1961 when Lombardi asked Packers equipment manager Gerald "Dad" Braisher to design a logo. Braisher tasked his assistant, St. Norbert College art student John Gordon. Satisfied with a football-shaped letter "G", the pair presented it to Lombardi, who then approved the addition. Tiki Barber falsely reported it to stand for "greatness" without a reliable source to back up his claims. Other reputable media outlets then published similar stories using Barber's false claim as a source. The Packers' Assistant Director of PR and Corporate Communications had the following to say: "There's nothing in our history that suggests there's any truth to this. The Packers Hall of Fame archivist said the same thing." The team used a number of different logos prior to 1961, but the "G" is the only logo that has ever appeared on the helmet. The Packers hold the trademark on the "G" logo, and have granted limited permission to other organizations to utilize a similar logo, such as the University of Georgia and Grambling State University, in addition to the city of Green Bay itself as part of its civic logo. Adopted in 1964, the Georgia "G", though different in design and color, was similar to the Packers' "G". Then-Georgia head coach Vince Dooley thought it best to clear the use of Georgia's new emblem with the Packers.
Uniform variation
While several NFL teams choose to wear white jerseys at home early in the season due to white's ability to reflect the late summer sun rays, the Packers have done so only twice, during the opening two games of the 1989 season. However, the team did wear an all-white uniform in 2016 versus the Chicago Bears during the two teams' designated Color Rush game, in which Chicago wore all-navy uniforms. The Packers again wore an all-white uniform at Lambeau in the Color Rush game against the Bears (who again wore all-navy uniforms) in 2017. Although alternate gold jerseys with green numbers are sold on a retail basis, the team currently has no plans to introduce such a jersey to be used in actual games.
During the 2010 season, the Packers paid tribute to their historical roots with a throwback jersey modeled after that worn by the club in 1929, during its first world championship season. The jersey was navy blue with a gold circle and navy numbers, again making the Packers "the Blues." These were then changed in 2015 to the navy blue throwback worn from 1937 to 1949, featuring gold shoulders and numbers. In 2021, the Packers changed their throwback thirds to an all-green design, resembling the uniforms worn from 1950 to 1953. Originally, the Packers wore brown helmets with the throwbacks, but since 2013, they wore their gold helmets without any decals due to the NFL's one-shell rule.
Upon the NFL's switch of uniform suppliers in 2012 to Nike from Reebok, the Packers refused any changes to their uniform in any way outside of the required supplier's logo and new league uniform logos, declining all of Nike's "Elite 51" enhancements, including retaining the traditional striped collar of the jersey rather than Nike's new collar design.
Stadium history
After their early seasons at Bellevue Park and Hagemeister Park, the Packers played home games in City Stadium from 1925 to 1956. The team won its first six NFL world championships there.
By the 1950s, the wooden 25,000-seat arena was considered outmoded. The NFL threatened to move the franchise to Milwaukee full-time unless it got a better stadium. The city responded by building a new 32,150 seat City Stadium for the team, the first built exclusively for an NFL team, which opened in time for the 1957 season. It was renamed Lambeau Field in 1965 to honor Curly Lambeau, who had died earlier in the year.
Expanded seven times before the end of the 1990s, Lambeau Field capacity reached 60,890. In 2003, it was extensively renovated to expand seating, modernize stadium facilities, and add an atrium area. Even with a current seating capacity of 72,928, ticket demand far outpaces supply, as all Packers games have been sold out since 1960. About 86,000 names are on the waiting list for season tickets.
The Packers played part of their home slate in Milwaukee starting in 1933, including two to three home games each year in Milwaukee's County Stadium from 1953 to 1994. Indeed, County Stadium had been built partly to entice the Packers to move to Milwaukee full-time. The Packers worked to capture their growing fan base in Milwaukee and the larger crowds. By the 1960s, threat of an American Football League franchise in Milwaukee prompted the Packers to stay, including scheduling a Western Conference Playoff in 1967.
County Stadium was built primarily as a baseball stadium and made only the bare minimum adjustments to accommodate football. At its height, it only seated 56,000 people, just barely above the NFL minimum; many of those seats were badly obstructed. The field was just barely large enough to fit a football field. Both teams shared the same sideline (separated by a piece of tape) and the end zones extended onto the warning track. By 1994, improvements and seating expansions at Lambeau, along with the Brewers preparing to campaign for their new stadium prompted the Packers to play their full slate in Green Bay for the first time in 62 years. Former season ticketholders for the Milwaukee package continue to receive preference for one pre-season and the second and fifth regular-season games at Lambeau Field each season, along with playoff games through a lottery under the "Gold Package" plan.
The Packers have three practice facilities across the street from Lambeau Field in Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin: the Don Hutson Center, an indoor facility; Ray Nitschke Field, an outdoor field with artificial FieldTurf; and Clarke Hinkle Field, an outdoor field with natural grass.
Statistics and records
Season-by-season results
This is a partial list of the Packers' last five completed seasons. For the full season-by-season franchise results, see List of Green Bay Packers seasons.
Note: The Finish, Wins, Losses, and Ties columns list regular season results and exclude any postseason play.
Records
Playoff record
Overall record 36 wins, 25 losses
Championships
League Championships
The Packers have been league champions a record 13 times, topping their nearest rival, the Chicago Bears, by four. The first three were decided by league standing, the next six by the NFL Title Game, and the last four by Super Bowl victories. The Packers are also the only team to win three consecutive NFL titles, having accomplished this twice—from 1929 to 1931 under Lambeau, and from 1965 to 1967 under Lombardi.
NFL Championship by standings
From 1920 to 1932, the NFL championship was awarded based on standings, with no championship game taking place. The Packers won three such championships.
Pre-Super Bowl NFL Championships
From 1933 to 1969, the NFL held a championship game to decide their champion. The Packers won 8 NFL Championship Games. From 1966 to 1969, the NFL Championship Game was followed by the Super Bowl.
Super Bowl Championships
Starting in 1966, the NFL began holding the Super Bowl. The Packers have won four Super Bowls.
NFC Championships
The Packers have won three NFC Championship Games, with twice as many losses. NFC Championships did not exist before the AFL–NFL merger in 1970.
Division Championships
The Packers have won 21 divisional championships.
Notable players
Current roster
Pro Football Hall of Fame members
The Packers have the second most members in the Pro Football Hall of Fame with 30, 25 of which were inducted as Packers. They trail only the Chicago Bears with 37 Hall of Famers, 30 of which were inducted as Bears.
Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame
Many Packers players and coaches are also enshrined in the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame. In 2018 Ron Wolf, the most recent Packers contributor to be honored, was inducted.
Retired numbers
In nearly nine decades of Packers football, the Packers have formally retired six numbers. All six Packers are members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and their numbers and names are displayed on the green facade of Lambeau Field's north endzone as well as in the Lambeau Field Atrium.
Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame
The Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame was the first hall of fame built to honor a single professional American football team. John P. Holloway, a Brown County administrator and arena director, and William L. Brault, a Green Bay restaurateur and Packers fan, co-founded the Packer Hall of Fame museum in 1966.
As of 2019, the Packers Hall of Fame has inducted 162 people, 24 of whom have been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Notable coaches
Current staff
Head coaches
*Interim head coaches
Media
The Packers are unique in having their market area cover two media markets, both Green Bay and Milwaukee. NFL blackout restrictions for the team apply within both areas. However, Packers games have not been blacked out locally since 1972 (the last year home game local telecasts were prohibited regardless of sellout status) due to strong home attendance and popularity. As mentioned above, every Packers home game—preseason, regular season and playoffs—has been sold out since 1960.
Radio
The flagship station of the Packers Radio Network is Good Karma Brands's WTMJ in Milwaukee, which was the former flagship of the Journal Broadcast Group before its merger with E. W. Scripps Company in April 2015; Scripps itself sold their Milwaukee radio assets to GKB in November 2018, and the team then brought their broadcast operations in-house, thus the personnel is directly employed by the team. WTMJ has aired Packers games since 1929, the longest association between a radio station and an NFL team to date, and the only rights deal in American professional sports where a station outside of the team's main metro area is the radio flagship. While this might be unusual, the station can be heard at city-grade strength at all hours in Green Bay proper. Games air in Green Bay on WTAQ (1360/97.5) and WIXX-FM (101.1), and WAPL (105.7) and WHBY (1150) in Appleton and the Fox Cities. Wayne Larrivee is the play-by-play announcer and Larry McCarren is the color analyst. Larrivee joined the team after many years as the Chicago Bears' announcer. Jim Irwin and Max McGee were the longtime radio announcers before Larrivee and McCarren. When victory is assured for the Packers, either a game-winning touchdown, interception or a crucial 4th down defensive stop, Larrivee's trademark declaration of "And there is your dagger!" signifies the event. In limited circumstances where the Milwaukee Brewers are in either playoff or post-season contention and their play-by-play takes priority, WTMJ's sister FM station WKTI (94.5) currently airs Packer games to avert game conflicts. Surrounding pre-game programming is also carried on sister station WAUK (540), an ESPN Radio affiliate and former competitor which produced unofficial Packers programming for years.
On October 27, 2021, the Packers announced that it would end its longtime association with WTMJ at the end of the season, with iHeartMedia's sports radio station WRNW (97.3) becoming the team's Milwaukee radio affiliate in 2022.
Television
The TV rights for pre-season games not nationally broadcast are held by Scripps television stations WGBA-TV (Channel 26) in Green Bay and WTMJ-TV (Channel 4) in Milwaukee, along with Quincy Media's six ABC stations in the central, northern and western parts of the state, KQDS-TV (Channel 21) in Duluth-Superior, and in Escanaba/Marquette, Michigan, WLUC-TV (Channel 6), along with their Fox subchannel. As such, these stations are authorized to use the tagline Your official Packers station in their market area by the team, and also carry two weeknight programs; Packers Live on Tuesday evening, and the weekly coach's show, The Matt LaFleur Show on Wednesday evenings at 6:30 pm throughout the football season. Until the end of the 2011 season, the team's partner in Green Bay was WFRV-TV (Channel 5), and sister satellite WJMN-TV in Escanaba. As part of the 2012 deal, McCarren resigned his duties as sports director of WFRV to move to WTMJ/WGBA as a Packers analyst, becoming WGBA's official sports director on April 1, 2013, as his non-compete clause to appear as a sports anchor in Green Bay expired, though he retired as sports director in March 2015 to focus full-time on his duties for the Packer radio and television networks. WFRV/WJMN still airs any Packers regular-season home games against an AFC team or other games cross-flexed to CBS. Charter Communications's Spectrum News 1 (which is exclusive to the state's largest cable provider, Spectrum) serves as the team's official cable partner, and airs surrounding 'behind the scenes' and analysis programming about the team statewide.
The 2012 TV rights deal expanded the team's preseason network further across the Midwest. Additional stations include the Quad Cities region of Iowa/Illinois where game coverage is carried by KLJB (Channel 18) in Davenport, Iowa and KGCW (Channel 26) in Burlington, Iowa, both owned by Grant Broadcasting System II, KCWI-TV (Channel 23) in Des Moines, KWWL (Channel 7) in Waterloo, Iowa, and in Omaha, Nebraska, KMTV-TV (Channel 3), a sister Scripps station to WTMJ and WGBA. As part of a large package of preseason football from various team networks, KFVE (Channel 9) in Honolulu, Hawaii also carried Packers state network games in the 2016 preseason. The network also added its first affiliate with Spanish language play-by-play, Milwaukee's WYTU-LD (Channel 63/49.4), a Telemundo affiliate, which is additionally carried as an intrastate superstation by Spectrum. The Spanish broadcast is also simulcast by Scripps' WACY-TV (Channel 32) in the Green Bay/Appleton market (WACY is an otherwise English-language MyNetworkTV affiliate).
Pre-season coverage is produced by CBS, formerly using the NFL on CBS graphics package until the last contract ended as a remnant of WFRV's former ownership by the CBS Corporation itself until 2007. In 2012, the pre-season coverage began to use the NBC Sports Sunday Night Football graphics package due to WTMJ/WGBA's NBC affiliation, before instituting a custom Packers-motif package in the 2019 preseason. The TV play-by-play announcer, Kevin Harlan (also on loan from CBS), is the son of former Packers president Bob Harlan, with Rich Gannon joining him as color commentator. Since the 2008 pre-season all Packers preseason games on the statewide network are produced and aired in high definition, with WTMJ-TV subcontracting the games to minor network affiliates in Milwaukee during Summer Olympics years due to mandatory non-preemption policies by their network, NBC (this was not done in 2012 as the pre-season opener was a national ESPN game). In Green Bay, WACY carries preseason games in English if WGBA is unable to during Olympics years.
ESPN Monday Night Football games, both pre-season and season, are broadcast over the air on Fox affiliate WLUK-TV in Green Bay and ABC affiliate WISN-TV (Channel 12) in Milwaukee (ABC affiliate WBAY-TV in Green Bay carried those games from 2006 until 2015; the 2016 season was first where that station has not carried a Packer game in its history), while the stations airing Packers games in the NFL Network Thursday Night Football package have varied over the years depending on arrangements for syndication or co-network productions and simulcasts with CBS, NBC, and currently, Fox. WBAY's evening news anchor Bill Jartz also serves as the public address system announcer for Lambeau Field.
The team's intra-squad Lambeau scrimmage at the beginning of the season, marketed as Packers Family Night, was broadcast for over a decade by WITI (Channel 6) in Milwaukee, and produced by WLUK-TV in Green Bay, both Fox affiliates which broadcast the bulk of the team's regular-season games, along with the state's other Fox affiliates until the 2016 season. In 2017, Scripps and the Packers Television Network began to originate the Packers Family Night broadcast.
In popular culture
On the television sitcom That '70s Show, in season 7 episode 14, Donna Pinciotti gave the gang—including Red Forman, a long-time Packer fan—six free tickets to Lambeau Field for a game against the Chicago Bears. Eric comes back wearing Bears Jersey # 34 Sweetness Walter Payton causing the crowd to boo and make negative comments towards him. Eric doesn't understand football in general. In the season 8 finale, Red declined to move to Florida after Steven Hyde bought him season tickets.
In 2015, five members of the Packers (David Bakhtiari, Don Barclay, T. J. Lang, Clay Matthews, and Josh Sitton) made an appearance as an a cappella group in the musical comedy Pitch Perfect 2. Aaron Rodgers' brother Jordan also appeared. That same year, Rodgers himself appeared in an episode of the sketch comedy television series Key & Peele, along with Ha Ha Clinton-Dix.
In the television series Danny Phantom, the main antagonist, Vlad Masters/Vlad Plasmius, is a Packers "Fanatic". His prized possession is a football autographed by Ray Nitschke, and his dream is to own the team.
In the 1998 film There's Something about Mary, Mary, played by actress Cameron Diaz, consistently talks about her boyfriend "Brett". It is revealed towards the end of the film that "Brett" is then Packers' quarterback Brett Favre.
References
Notes
Citations
External links
Green Bay Packers at the National Football League official website
Green Bay Packers at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Green Bay Packers at the Green Bay Press-Gazette
1919 establishments in Wisconsin
Fan-owned sports teams
National Football League teams
Publicly traded sports companies
American football teams established in 1919
Sports in Green Bay, Wisconsin
Tourist attractions in Brown County, Wisconsin | [
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12664 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General-purpose%20machine%20gun | General-purpose machine gun | A general-purpose machine gun (GPMG) is an air-cooled, usually belt-fed machine gun that can be adapted flexibly to various tactical roles for light and medium machine guns. A GPMG will typically feature a quick-change barrel design calibered for various fully powered cartridges such as the 7.62×51mm NATO, 7.62×54mmR, 7.5×54mm French, 7.5×55mm Swiss and 7.92×57mm Mauser, and be configured for mounting to different stabilizing platforms from bipods and tripods to vehicles, aircraft, boats and fortifications, usually as an infantry support weapon or squad automatic weapon.
History
The general-purpose machine gun (GPMG) originated with the MG 34, designed in 1934 by Heinrich Vollmer of Mauser on the commission of Nazi Germany to circumvent the restrictions on machine guns imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. It was introduced into the Wehrmacht as an entirely new concept in automatic firepower, dubbed the Einheitsmaschinengewehr, meaning "universal machine gun" in German. In itself the MG 34 was an excellent weapon for its time: an air-cooled, recoil-operated machine gun that could run through belts of 7.92×57mm Mauser ammunition at a rate of 850 rounds per minute, delivering killing firepower at ranges of more than 1,000 meters. The main feature of the MG 34 is that simply by changing its mount, sights and feed mechanism, the operator could radically transform its function: on its standard bipod it was a light machine gun ideal for infantry assaults; on a tripod it could serve as a sustained-fire medium machine gun; mounting on aircraft or vehicles turned it into an air defence weapon, and it also served as the coaxial machine gun on numerous German tanks.
During World War II, the MG 34 was superseded by a new GPMG, the MG 42, although it remained in combat use. The MG 42 was more efficient to manufacture, and more robust, and had an extremely high cyclic rate of fire of 1,200 to 1,500 rounds per minute. One of the Einheitsmaschinengewehr GPMG roles was to provide low level anti-aircraft coverage. A high cyclic rate of fire is advantageous for use against targets typically exposed to fire for a limited time span, like aircraft or targets minimizing their exposure by quickly moving from cover to cover. Arguably the finest all-round GPMG ever produced, it was nicknamed "Hitler's buzzsaw" by Allied troops, and alongside the MG 34 it inflicted heavy casualties on Allied soldiers on all European and North African fronts of World War II. Following the war the victorious Allied nations took an interest in the MG 34 and MG 42, influencing many post-war general-purpose machine guns, many still in use today. They lent design elements to the Belgian FN MAG and the American M60, while spawning the Zastava M53, Swiss M51, and Austrian MG 74. Such were the MG 42's qualities of firepower and usability that it became the foundation of an entire series of postwar machine guns, including the MG 1 and MG 3 - the latter, , is still in production.
Post-WWII examples
German Rheinmetall MG 3, a direct descendant of the MG 42, is still in service with the German Army and others and widely exported.
German Heckler & Koch HK21, is based on the Heckler & Koch G3 rifle and widely exported.
German Heckler & Koch MG5, the new standard machine gun of the German Army.
Italian MG 42/59, a direct descendant of the MG 42 and a licensed MG 3 variant, is still in service with the Italian military
Belgian FN MAG, which copied the MG 42's feed-system and trigger-mechanism. It is the most widely used GPMG among western armies.
Belgian/American Mk 48, is a GPMG based on the FN Minimi light machine gun and M249 SAW.
American M60, which is based on the German FG 42 and uses the MG 42's feed-system and stamp-steel construction.
American M240, itself an FN MAG variant. It replaced the M60 in U.S. service.
French MAS AA-52, which more or less copies the MG 42 feed-system. It has been largely phased out in favour of the FN MAG and FN Minimi.
Czechoslovakian Uk vz. 59, is based on the Vz. 52 and Vz.52/57, and originating with ZB vz. 26 and Bren gun designs.
Russian PK/PKM, family of multi-purpose machine-guns, is based on the AKM assault rifle featuring stamped receivers, widely exported.
Russian AEK-999, is an improved version of the PK/PKM.
Russian Pecheneg, is a variant of the PK/PKM with a fixed barrel and cooling jacket.
Yugoslav Zastava M84, is a direct copy of the Russian PK machine-gun.
Polish UKM-2000, is based on the Russian PK machine-gun.
People's Republic of China Type 80, is based on the Russian PK machine-gun.
People's Republic of China Type 67, and later improved models.
People's Republic of China Type 88 Machine Gun
People's Republic of China QJY-201
Japanese Sumitomo NTK-62, is a GPMG based on the FN MAG.
South African Vektor SS-77, is based on the Russian PK/PKM.
South African Denel DMG-5, is based on the Vektor SS-77 and Russian PK/PKM.
South Korean S&T Motiv K12, is based on the K3 light machine gun.
Swiss MG 51, a direct descendant of the MG42.
Swiss SIG MG 710-3
Swiss SIG MG 50
Austrian MG 74, a direct descendant of the MG 42/59 and since 1974 the standard machine gun of the Austrian Armed Forces.
Israeli IWI Negev NG-7, is a GPMG based on the IWI Negev light machine gun.
Canadian C6A1 FLEX, an improved version of C6 that is a Canadian version of FN MAG.
Belgian FN EVOLYS, is a multi-caliber, 3D printing and polymers material lightweight machine gun.
Gallery
See also
Light machine gun
Heavy machine gun
Squad automatic weapon
List of firearms
Fully powered cartridge
References
Machine guns | [
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12665 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gdynia | Gdynia | Gdynia ( ; ; (currently), , (1939-1945), ; ) is a city in northern Poland and a seaport on the Baltic Sea coast. With a population of 244,969, it is the 12th-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in the Pomeranian Voivodeship after Gdańsk. Gdynia is part of a conurbation with the spa town of Sopot, the city of Gdańsk, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the Tricity (Trójmiasto) with around 1,000,000 inhabitants.
Historically and culturally part of Kashubia and Eastern Pomerania, Gdynia for centuries remained a small fishing village. By the 20th-century it attracted visitors as a seaside resort town. In 1926 Gdynia was granted city rights, after which it enjoyed demographic and urban development, with a modernist cityscape. It became a major seaport city of Poland. The violent 1970 protests in and around Gdynia contributed to the rise of the Solidarity movement in nearby Gdańsk.
The port of Gdynia is a regular stopover on the cruising itinerary of luxury passenger ships and ferries travelling to Scandinavia. The city is also known for holding the annual Gdynia Film Festival. In 2013, Gdynia was ranked by readers of The News as Poland's best city to live in, and topped the national rankings in the category of "general quality of life". In 2021, the city entered the UNESCO Creative Cities Network and was named UNESCO City of Film.
History
Early history
The area of the later city of Gdynia shared its history with Pomerelia (Eastern Pomerania). In prehistoric times, it was the center of Oksywie culture; it was later populated by Slavs with some Baltic Prussian influences. In the late 10th century, the region was united with the emerging state of Poland by its first historic ruler Mieszko I. During the reign of Bolesław II, the region seceded from Poland and became independent, to be reunited with Poland in 1116/1121 by Bolesław III. In 1209, the present-day district of Oksywie was first mentioned (Oxhöft). Following the fragmentation of Poland, the region became part of the Duchy of Pomerania (Eastern), which became separate from Poland in 1227, to be reunited in 1282. The first known mention of the name "Gdynia", as a Pomeranian (Kashubian) fishing village dates back to 1253. The first church on this part of the Baltic Sea coast was built there. In 1309–1310, the Teutonic Order invaded and annexed the region from Poland. In 1380, the owner of the village which became Gdynia, Peter from Rusocin, gave the village to the Cistercian Order. In 1382, Gdynia became property of the Cistercian abbey in Oliwa. In 1454, King Casimir IV Jagiellon signed the of act of incorporation of the region to the Kingdom of Poland, and the Thirteen Years' War, the longest of all Polish-Teutonic wars, started. It ended in 1466, when the Teutonic Knights recognized the region as part of Poland. Administratively, Gdynia was located in the Pomeranian Voivodeship in the province of Royal Prussia in the Greater Poland Province of the Kingdom of Poland and later of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
In 1772, Gdynia was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia in the First Partition of Poland. Gdynia, under the Germanized name Gdingen, was included within the newly formed province of West Prussia and was expropriated from the Cistercian Order. In 1789, there were only 21 houses in Gdynia. Around that time Gdynia was so small that it was not marked on many maps of the period: it was about halfway from Oksywie and Mały Kack, now districts of Gdynia. In 1871, the village became part of the German Empire. In the early 20th century Gdynia was not a poor fishing village as it is sometimes described; it had become a popular tourist spot with several guest houses, restaurants, cafés, several brick houses and a small harbour with a pier for small trading ships. The first Kashubian mayor was Jan Radtke. It is estimated that around 1910 the population of Gdynia was 895 people.
Following World War I, in 1918, Poland regained independence, and following the Treaty of Versailles, in 1920, Gdynia was re-integrated with the reborn Polish state. Simultaneously, the nearby city of Gdańsk (Danzig) and surrounding area was declared a free city and put under the League of Nations, though Poland was given economic liberties and requisitioned for matters of foreign representation.
Construction of the seaport
The decision to build a major seaport at Gdynia village was made by the Polish government in winter 1920, in the midst of the Polish–Soviet War (1919–1920). The authorities and seaport workers of the Free City of Danzig felt Poland's economic rights in the city were being misappropriated to help fight the war. German dockworkers went on strike, refusing to unload shipments of military supplies sent from the West to aid the Polish army, and Poland realized the need for a port city it was in complete control of, economically and politically.
Construction of Gdynia seaport started in 1921 but, because of financial difficulties, it was conducted slowly and with interruptions. It was accelerated after the Sejm (Polish parliament) passed the Gdynia Seaport Construction Act on 23 September 1922. By 1923 a 550-metre pier, of a wooden tide breaker, and a small harbour had been constructed. Ceremonial inauguration of Gdynia as a temporary military port and fishers' shelter took place on 23 April 1923. The first major seagoing ship arrived on 13 August 1923.
To speed up the construction works, the Polish government in November 1924 signed a contract with the French-Polish Consortium for Gdynia Seaport Construction. By the end of 1925, they had built a small seven-metre-deep harbour, the south pier, part of the north pier, a railway, and had ordered the trans-shipment equipment. The works were going more slowly than expected, however. They accelerated only after May 1926, because of an increase in Polish exports by sea, economic prosperity, the outbreak of the German–Polish trade war which reverted most Polish international trade to sea routes, and thanks to the personal engagement of Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski, Polish Minister of Industry and Trade (also responsible for the construction of Centralny Okręg Przemysłowy). By the end of 1930 docks, piers, breakwaters, and many auxiliary and industrial installations were constructed (such as depots, trans-shipment equipment, and a rice processing factory) or started (such as a large cold store).
Trans-shipments rose from 10,000 tons (1924) to 2,923,000 tons (1929). At this time Gdynia was the only transit and special seaport designed for coal exports.
In the years 1931–1939 Gdynia harbour was further extended to become a universal seaport. In 1938 Gdynia was the largest and most modern seaport on the Baltic Sea, as well as the tenth biggest in Europe. The trans-shipments rose to 8.7 million tons, which was 46% of Polish foreign trade. In 1938 the Gdynia shipyard started to build its first full-sea ship, the Olza.
Construction of the city
The city was constructed later than the seaport. In 1925 a special committee was inaugurated to build the city; city expansion plans were designed and city rights were granted in 1926, and tax privileges were granted for investors in 1927. The city started to grow significantly after 1928.
A new railway station and the Post Office were completed. The State railways extended their lines, built bridges and also constructed a group of houses for their employees. Within a few years houses were built along some of road leading northward from the Free City of Danzig to Gdynia and beyond. Public institutions and private employers helped their staff to build houses.
In 1933 a plan of development providing for a population of 250,000 was worked out by a special commission appointed by a government committee, in collaboration with the municipal authorities. By 1939 the population had grown to over 120,000.
Gdynia during World War II (1939–1945)
During the German invasion of Poland, which started World War II in September 1939, Gdynia was the site of fierce Polish defense. On 13 September, 1939, the Germans carried out first arrests of local Poles in the southern part of the city, while the Polish defense was still ongoing in the northern part. On 14 September 1939, the Germans captured the entire city, and then occupied it until 1945. On 15–16 September, the Germans carried out further mass arrests of 7,000 Poles, while Polish soldiers still fought in nearby Kępa Oksywska. The German police surrounded the city and carried out mass searches of weapons. Arrested Poles were held and interrogated in churches, cinemas and halls, and then around 3,000 people were released until 18 September. The occupiers established several prisons and camps for Polish people, who were afterwards either deported to concentration camps or executed. Some Poles from Gdynia were executed by the Germans near Starogard Gdański in September 1939. In October and November 1939, the Germans carried out public executions of 52 Poles, including activists, bank directors and priests, in various parts of the city. In November 1939, the occupiers also murdered hundreds of Poles from Gdynia during the massacres in Piaśnica committed nearby as part of the Intelligenzaktion. Among the victims were policemen, officials, civil defenders of Gdynia, judges, court employees, the director and employees of the National Bank of Poland, merchants, priests, school principals, teachers, and students of local high schools. On the night of 10–11 November, the German security police carried out mass arrests of over 1,500 Poles in the Obłuże district, and then murdered 23 young men aged 16-20, in retaliation for breaking windows at the headquarters of the German security police. On 11 November, a German gendarme shot and killed two Polish boys who were collecting Polish books from the street, which were thrown out of the windows by new German settlers in the Oksywie district. The Germans renamed the city to Gotenhafen after the Goths, an ancient Germanic tribe, who had lived in the area. 10 Poles from Gdynia were also murdered by the Russians in the large Katyn massacre in April–May 1940.
Some 50,000 Polish citizens, who moved to Gdynia after 1920, were expelled to the General Government (German-occupied central Poland) to make space for new German settlers in accordance with the Lebensraum policy. Local Kashubians who were suspected to support the Polish cause, particularly those with higher education, were also arrested and executed. The German gauleiter Albert Forster considered Kashubians of "low value" and did not support any attempts to create a Kashubian nationality. Despite such circumstances, local Poles, incl. Kashubians, organized Polish resistance groups, Kashubian Griffin (later Pomeranian Griffin), and the exiled "Związek Pomorski" in the United Kingdom. In 1943, local Poles managed to save some kidnapped Polish children from the Zamość region, by buying them from the Germans at the local train station.
The harbour was transformed into a German naval base. The shipyard was expanded in 1940 and became a branch of the Kiel shipyard (Deutsche Werke Kiel A.G.). The city became an important base, due to its being relatively distant from the war theater, and many German large ships—battleships and heavy cruisers—were anchored there. During 1942, Dr Joseph Goebbels authorized relocation of to Gotenhafen Harbour as a stand-in for during filming of the German-produced movie Titanic, directed by Herbert Selpin.
The city was the location of two subcamps of the Stutthof concentration camp. The first subcamp was located in the Orłowo district in 1941–1942, the second, named Gotenhafen, was located at the shipyard in 1944–1945.
The seaport and the shipyard both witnessed several air raids by the Allies from 1943 onwards, but suffered little damage. Gdynia was used during winter 1944–45 to evacuate German troops and refugees trapped by the Red Army. Some of the ships were hit by torpedoes from Soviet submarines in the Baltic Sea on the route west. The ship sank, taking about 9,400 people with her – the worst loss of life in a single sinking in maritime history. The seaport area was largely destroyed by withdrawing German troops and millions of encircled refugees in 1945 being bombarded by the Soviet military (90% of the buildings and equipment were destroyed) and the harbour entrance was blocked by the German battleship that had been brought to Gotenhafen for major repairs.
After World War II
On 28 March 1945, the city was captured by the Soviets and restored to Poland, although with a Soviet-installed communist regime, which stayed in power until the Fall of Communism in the 1980s. Its historic name was restored, and it was assigned to the Gdańsk Voivodeship. The post-war period saw an influx of settlers from Warsaw which was destroyed by Germany, and other parts of the country as well as Poles from the cities of Wilno (now Vilnius) and Lwów (now Lviv) from the Soviet-annexed former eastern Poland. Also Greeks, refugees of the Greek Civil War, settled in the city. The port of Gdynia was one of the three Polish ports through which refugees of the Greek Civil War reached Poland.
In the Polish 1970 protests, worker demonstrations took place at Gdynia Shipyard. Workers were fired upon by the police. The fallen (e.g. Brunon Drywa) became symbolized by a fictitious worker Janek Wiśniewski, commemorated in a song by Mieczysław Cholewa, Pieśń o Janku z Gdyni.
One of Gdynia's important streets is named after Janek Wiśniewski. The same person was portrayed by Andrzej Wajda in his movie Man of Iron as Mateusz Birkut.
On 4 December 1999, a storm destroyed a huge crane in a shipyard, which was able to lift 900 tons.
Geography
Population and area
Climate
The climate of Gdynia is an oceanic climate owing to its position of the Baltic Sea, which moderates the temperatures, compared to the interior of Poland. The climate is cool throughout the year and there is a somewhat uniform precipitation throughout the year. Typical of Northern Europe, there is little sunshine during the year.
Districts
Gdynia is divided into smaller divisions: dzielnicas and osiedles. Gdynia's dzielnicas include: Babie Doły, Chwarzno-Wiczlino, Chylonia, Cisowa, Dąbrowa, Działki Leśne, Grabówek, Kamienna Góra, Karwiny, Leszczynki, Mały Kack, Obłuże, Oksywie, Orłowo, Pogórze, Pustki Cisowskie-Demptowo, Redłowo, Śródmieście, Wielki Kack, Witomino-Leśniczówka, Witomino-Radiostacja, Wzgórze Św. Maksymiliana
.
Osiedles: Bernadowo, Brzozowa Góra, Chwarzno, Dąbrówka, Demptowo, Dębowa Góra, Fikakowo, Gołębiewo, Kacze Buki, Kolibki, Kolonia Chwaszczyno, Kolonia Rybacka, Krykulec, Marszewo, Międzytorze, Niemotowo, Osada Kolejowa, Osada Rybacka, Osiedle Bernadowo, Port, Pustki Cisowskie, Tasza, Wiczlino, Wielka Rola, Witomino, Wysoka, Zielenisz.
Sights and tourist attractions
Gdynia is a relatively modern city. Its architecture includes the 13th century St. Michael the Archangel's Church in Oksywie, the oldest building in Gdynia, and the 17th century neo-Gothic manor house located on Folwarczna Street in Orłowo. The city also holds many examples of early 20th-century architecture, especially monumentalism and early functionalism, and modernism. A good example of modernism is PLO building situated at 10 Lutego Street.
The surrounding hills and the coastline attract many nature lovers. A leisure pier and a cliff-like coastline in Kępa Redłowska, as well as the surrounding Nature Reserve, are also popular locations. In the harbour, there are two anchored museum ships, the destroyer and the tall ship frigate Dar Pomorza. A -long promenade leads from the marina in the city center, to the beach in Redłowo.
Most of Gdynia can be seen from Kamienna Góra ( asl) or the viewing point near Chwaszczyno. There are also two viewing towers, one at Góra Donas, the other at Kolibki.
In 2015 the Emigration Museum opened in the city.
Culture
Gdynia hosts the Gdynia Film Festival, the main Polish film festival. The International Random Film Festival was hosted in Gdynia in November 2014.
Since 2003 Gdynia has been hosting the Open'er Festival, one of the biggest contemporary music festivals in Europe. The festival welcomes many foreign hip-hop, rock and electronic music artists every year. In record-high 2018 it was attended by over 140,000 people, who enjoyed the lineup headlined by Bruno Mars, Gorillaz, Arctic Monkeys and Depeche Mode.
Another important summer event in Gdynia is the Viva Beach Party, which is a large two-day techno party made on Gdynia's Public Beach and a summer-welcoming concerts CudaWianki. Gdynia also hosts events for the annual Gdańsk Shakespeare Festival.
In the summer of 2014 Gdynia hosted Red Bull Air Race World Championship.
Cultural references
In 2008, Gdynia made it onto the Monopoly Here and Now World Edition board after being voted by fans through the Internet. Gdynia occupies the space traditionally held by Mediterranean Avenue, being the lowest voted city to make it onto the Monopoly Here and Now board, but also the smallest city to make it in the game. All of the other cities are large and widely known ones, the second smallest being Riga. The unexpected success of Gdynia can be attributed to a mobilization of the town's population to vote for it on the Internet.
An abandoned factory district in Gdynia was the scene for the survival series Man vs Wild, season 6, episode 12. The host, Bear Grylls, manages to escape the district after blowing up a door and crawling through miles of sewer.
Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the supervillain in the James Bond novels, was born in Gdynia on 28 May 1908, according to Thunderball.
Gdynia is sometimes called "Polish Roswell" due to the alleged UFO crash on 21 January 1959.
Notable people
Stanisław Baranowski (1935–1978) a Polish glaciologist, undertook scientific expeditions to Spitsbergen and Antarctica.
Karol Olgierd Borchardt (1905–1986) a Polish writer and captain of the Polish Merchant Marine
Krzysztof Charamsa (born 1972) a Polish former Catholic theologian and author
Adam Darski (born 1977) a Polish musician and TV personality, frontman for the blackened death metal band Behemoth
Wiesław Dawidowski (born 1964) a Polish Augustinian Catholic priest, doctor of theology and journalist
Rafał de Weryha-Wysoczański (born 1975) a Polish art historian, genealogist and writer
Jacek Fedorowicz (born 1937), Polish satirist and actor
Eugeniusz Geno Małkowski (1942–2016) a Polish painter
Gunnar Heinsohn (born 1943) a German author, sociologist and economist
Klaus Hurrelmann (born 1944) Professor of Public Health and Education
Hilary Jastak (1914–2000 in Gdynia) a Polish Catholic priest, Doctor of Theology, Chaplain of Solidarity movement, Major of Polish Armed Forces, Lieutenant Commander of Polish Navy
Janusz Kaczmarek (born 1961) a Polish lawyer, prosecutor and politician
Marcin Kupinski (born 1983) a Polish ballet dancer
Tomasz Makowiecki (born 1983) a Polish musician, singer and songwriter
Dorota Nieznalska (born 1973) a Polish visual artist and sculptor
Kazimierz Ostrowski (1917–1999 in Gdynia) Polish painter
Anna Przybylska (1978–2014) a Polish actress and model
Zvi Aryeh Rosenfeld (1922–1978), Polish-American rabbi and educator
Jerzy Rubach (born 1948) a Polish and American linguist who specializes in phonology
Arkadiusz Rybicki (1953–2010) a Polish politician, active in the Solidarity movement
Joanna Senyszyn (born 1949) a Polish left-wing politician, vice-president of the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) and MEP
Anna Siewierska (1955-2011) a Polish-born linguist, specialist in language typology
Wojciech Szczurek (born 1963) Mayor of the City of Gdynia since 1998
Józef Unrug (1884–1973), German-born Polish vice admiral who helped create the Polish navy
Marian Zacharski (born 1951) a Polish Intelligence officer convicted of espionage
Marek Żukowski (born 1952) a Polish theoretical physicist, specializes in quantum mechanics
Sport
Jörg Berger (1944–2010), German soccer player, trainer
Adelajda Mroske (1944–1975) a Polish speed skater, she competed in four events at the 1964 Winter Olympics
Ryszard Marczak (born 1945) a former long-distance runner from Poland, competed in the marathon at the 1980 Summer Olympics
Józef Błaszczyk (born 1947) a sailor from Poland, competed in the 1972 Summer Olympics
Andrzej Chudziński (1948–1995) a Polish swimmer, competed in three events at the 1972 Summer Olympics
Anna Sobczak (born 1967) a Polish fencer, competed in the women's individual and team foil events at the 1988 and 1992 Summer Olympics
Tomasz Sokołowski (born 1970) a former Polish footballer, over 350 pro games and 12 for Poland
Jarosław Rodzewicz (born 1973) a Polish fencer, won a silver medal in the team foil event at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Marcin Mięciel (born 1975), soccer player, over 500 pro games
Michael Klim (born 1977), Polish-born Australian swimmer, Olympic gold medallist and world champion
Anna Rybicka (born 1977) a Polish fencer, she won a silver medal in the women's team foil event at the 2000 Summer Olympics
Andrzej Bledzewski (born 1977) a Polish retired football goalkeeper, over 400 pro games
Tomasz Dawidowski (born 1978) a Polish footballer, over 200 pro games and 10 for Poland
Maciej Grabowski (born 1978) is a Polish laser class sailor, competed in the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics
Adriana Dadci (born 1979) a Polish judoka, competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics
Stefan Liv (1980–2011) a Polish-born Swedish professional ice hockey goaltender
Monika Pyrek (born 1980) a retired Polish pole vaulter, competed at the 2000, 2004 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics
Anna Rogowska (born 1981) pole vaulter, the bronze medallist at the 2004 Summer Olympics
Michał Zych (born 1982) a Polish ice dancer
Karolina Chlewińska (born 1983) a Polish foil fencer, competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Igor Janik (born 1983) a javelin thrower, competed in the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics
Klaudia Jans-Ignacik (born 1984) a retired Polish tennis player, competed in the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics
Piotr Hallmann (born 1987) a Polish mixed martial artist, second lieutenant in the Polish Navy
Joanna Mitrosz (born 1988) a Polish rhythmic gymnast, competed at the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics
Małgorzata Białecka (born 1988) a Polish windsurfer, competed at 2016 Summer Olympics
Olek Czyż (born 1990) a Polish professional basketball player, played for Poland
Justyna Plutowska (born 1991) a Polish ice dancer
Fictional characters
Ernst Stavro Blofeld (born 28 May 1908 in Gdingen) a fictional character and villain from the James Bond series of novels and films, created by Ian Fleming
Sports
Sport teams
Arka Gdynia – men's football team (Polish Cup winner 1979 and 2017, Polish SuperCup winner in 2017 and in 2018. Currently plays in the first division of Polish football, the Ekstraklasa)
Bałtyk Gdynia – men's football team, currently playing in Polish 4th division
Arka Gdynia (basketball) – men's basketball team (9 time Polish Basketball League winner)
Arka Gdynia (women's basketball) – women's basketball team (12-time Basket Liga Kobiet champion)
RC Arka Gdynia – rugby team (Champions of Poland in seasons 2003/2004, 2004/2005 and 2010/2011)
Seahawks Gdynia – American football team (Polish American Football League) (4-time champion of Poland in 2012, 2014 and in 2015)
Arka Gdynia (handball) – handball team which plays in Ekstraliga (First division of Polish handball)
International events
2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship
2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup
2020 World Athletics Half Marathon Championships
Economy and infrastructure
Notable companies that have their headquarters or regional offices in Gdynia:
PROKOM SA – the largest Polish I.T. company
C. Hartwig Gdynia SA – one of the largest Polish freight forwarders
Sony Pictures – finance center
Thomson Reuters – business data provider
Vistal – bridge constructions, offshore and shipbuilding markets; partially located on old Stocznia Gdynia terrains
Nauta – ship repair yard; partially located on old Stocznia Gdynia terrains
Crist – shipbuilding, offshore constructions, steel structures, sea engineering, civil engineering; located on old Stocznia Gdynia terrains
Former:
Stocznia Gdynia – former largest Polish shipyard, now under bankruptcy procedures
Nordea – banks, sold and consolidated with PKO bank
Transport
Port of Gdynia
In 2007, 364,202 passengers, 17,025,000 tons of cargo and containers passed through the port. Regular car ferry service operates between Gdynia and Karlskrona, Sweden.
Airport
The conurbation's main airport, Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport, lays approximately south-west of central Gdynia, and has connections to approximately 55 destinations. It is the third largest airport in Poland. A second General Aviation terminal was scheduled to be opened by May 2012, which will increase the airport's capacity to 5mln passengers per year.
Another local airport, (Gdynia-Kosakowo Airport) is situated partly in the village of Kosakowo, just to the north of the city, and partly in Gdynia. This has been a military airport since the World War II, but it has been decided in 2006 that the airport will be used to serve civilians. Work was well in progress and was due to be ready for 2012 when the project collapsed following a February 2014 EU decision regarding Gdynia city funding as constituting unfair competition to Gdańsk airport. In March 2014, the airport management company filed for bankruptcy, this being formally announced in May that year. The fate of some PLN 100 million of public funds from Gdynia remain unaccounted for with documents not being released, despite repeated requests for such from residents to the city president, Wojciech Szczurek.
Road transport
Trasa Kwiatkowskiego links Port of Gdynia and the city with Obwodnica Trójmiejska, and therefore A1 motorway. National road 6 connects Tricity with Słupsk, Koszalin and Szczecin agglomeration.
Railways
The principal station in Gdynia is Gdynia Główna railway station, and Gdynia has five other railway stations. Local services are provided by the 'Fast Urban Railway,' Szybka Kolej Miejska (Tricity) operating frequent trains covering the Tricity area including Gdańsk, Sopot and Gdynia. Long-distance trains from Warsaw via Gdańsk terminate at Gdynia, and there are direct trains to Szczecin, Poznań, Katowice, Lublin and other major cities. In 2011-2015 the Warsaw-Gdańsk-Gdynia route is undergoing a major upgrading costing $3 billion, partly funded by the European Investment Bank, including track replacement, realignment of curves and relocation of sections of track to allow speeds up to , modernization of stations, and installation of the most modern ETCS signalling system, which is to be completed in June 2015. In December 2014 new Alstom Pendolino high-speed trains were put into service between Gdynia, Warsaw and Kraków reducing rail travel times to Gdynia by 2 hours.
Education
There are currently 8 universities and institutions of higher education based in Gdynia. Many students from Gdynia also attend universities located in the Tricity.
State-owned:
Gdynia Maritime University
Polish Naval Academy
Privately owned:
WSB Universities - WSB University in Gdańsk, departments of Economics and Management
Academy of International Economic and Political Relations
University of Business and Administration in Gdynia
Pomeranian Higher School of Humanities
Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University – a department in Gdynia
Higher School of Social Communication
Twin towns – sister cities
Gdynia is twinned with:
Aalborg, Denmark
Baranavichy, Belarus
Brooklyn (New York), United States
Côte d'Opale (communauté), France
Haikou, China
Kaliningrad, Russia
Karlskrona, Sweden
Kiel, Germany
Klaipėda, Lithuania
Kotka, Finland
Kristiansand, Norway
Kunda (Viru-Nigula), Estonia
Liepāja, Latvia
Plymouth, England, United Kingdom
Seattle, United States
See also
Gdynia trolleybus
Ports of the Baltic Sea
St. Anthony parish, Gdynia
Notes
References
Further reading
(ed.) R. Wapiński, Dzieje Gdyni, Gdańsk 1980
(ed.). S. Gierszewski, Gdynia, Gdańsk 1968
Gdynia, in: Pomorze Gdańskie, nr 5, Gdańsk 1968
J. Borowik, Gdynia, port Rzeczypospolitej, Toruń 1934
B. Kasprowicz, Problemy ekonomiczne budowy i eksploatacji portu w Gdyni w latach 1920–1939, Zapiski Historyczne, nr 1-3/1956
M. Widernik, Główne problemy gospodarczo-społeczne miasta Gdyni w latach 1926–1939., Gdańsk 1970
(ed.) A. Bukowski, Gdynia. Sylwetki ludzi, oświata i nauka, literatura i kultura, Gdańsk 1979
Gminy województwa gdańskiego, Gdańsk 1995
H. Górnowicz, Z. Brocki, Nazwy miast Pomorza Gdańskiego, Wrocław 1978
Gerard Labuda (ed.), Historia Pomorza, vol. I-IV, Poznań 1969–2003
(ed.) W. Odyniec, Dzieje Pomorza Nadwiślańskiego od VII wieku do 1945 roku, Gdańsk 1978
L. Bądkowski, Pomorska myśl polityczna, Gdańsk 1990
L. Bądkowski, W. Samp, Poczet książąt Pomorza Gdańskiego, Gdańsk 1974
B. Śliwiński, Poczet książąt gdańskich, Gdańsk 1997
Józef Spors, Podziały administracyjne Pomorza Gdańskiego i Sławieńsko-Słupskiego od XII do początków XIV w, Słupsk 1983
M. Latoszek, Pomorze. Zagadnienia etniczno-regionalne, Gdańsk 1996
B. Bojarska, Eksterminacja inteligencji polskiej na Pomorzu Gdańskim (wrzesień-grudzień 1939), Poznań 1972
K. Ciechanowski, Ruch oporu na Pomorzu Gdańskim 1939–1945., Warszawa 1972
External links
Gdynia Port - Home for all Polish Ocean Liners
Gdynia city website
Virtual tour on Gdynia's coast
Gdynia tourist guide
Gdynia Tripadvisor
Planned cities in Poland
Port cities and towns in Poland
Port cities and towns of the Baltic Sea
1926 in Poland
City counties of Poland
Cities and towns in Pomeranian Voivodeship
Pomeranian Voivodeship (1919–1939)
Marinas in Poland
Nazi war crimes in Poland
UFO sightings | [
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0.8902115821838379... |
12666 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluon | Gluon | A gluon () is an elementary particle that acts as the exchange particle (or gauge boson) for the strong force between quarks. It is analogous to the exchange of photons in the electromagnetic force between two charged particles. Gluons bind quarks together, forming hadrons such as protons and neutrons.
Gluons are vector gauge bosons that mediate strong interactions of quarks in quantum chromodynamics (QCD). Gluons themselves carry the color charge of the strong interaction. This is unlike the photon, which mediates the electromagnetic interaction but lacks an electric charge. Gluons therefore participate in the strong interaction in addition to mediating it, making QCD significantly harder to analyze than quantum electrodynamics (QED).
Properties
The gluon is a vector boson, which means, like the photon, it has a spin of 1. While massive spin-1 particles have three polarization states, massless gauge bosons like the gluon have only two polarization states because gauge invariance requires the polarization to be transverse to the direction that the gluon is traveling. In quantum field theory, unbroken gauge invariance requires that gauge bosons have zero mass. Experiments limit the gluon's rest mass (if any) to less than a few meV/c2. The gluon has negative intrinsic parity.
Counting gluons
Unlike the single photon of QED or the three W and Z bosons of the weak interaction, there are eight independent types of gluon in QCD.
This may be difficult to understand intuitively. Quarks carry three types of color charge; antiquarks carry three types of anticolor. Gluons may be thought of as carrying both color and anticolor. This gives nine possible combinations of color and anticolor in gluons. The following is a list of those combinations (and their schematic names):
red-antired red-antigreen red-antiblue
green-antired green-antigreen green-antiblue
blue-antired blue-antigreen blue-antiblue
These are not the actual color states of observed gluons, but rather effective states. To correctly understand how they are combined, it is necessary to consider the mathematics of color charge in more detail.
Color singlet states
It is often said that the stable strongly interacting particles (such as the proton and the neutron, i.e. hadrons) observed in nature are "colorless", but more precisely they are in a "color singlet" state, which is mathematically analogous to a spin singlet state. Such states allow interaction with other color singlets, but not with other color states; because long-range gluon interactions do not exist, this illustrates that gluons in the singlet state do not exist either.
The color singlet state is:
In other words, if one could measure the color of the state, there would be equal probabilities of it being red-antired, blue-antiblue, or green-antigreen.
Eight colors
There are eight remaining independent color states, which correspond to the "eight types" or "eight colors" of gluons. Because states can be mixed together as discussed above, there are many ways of presenting these states, which are known as the "color octet". One commonly used list is:
These are equivalent to the Gell-Mann matrices. The critical feature of these particular eight states is that they are linearly independent, and also independent of the singlet state, hence 32 − 1 or 23. There is no way to add any combination of these states to produce any other, and it is also impossible to add them to make r, g, or b the forbidden singlet state. There are many other possible choices, but all are mathematically equivalent, at least equally complicated, and give the same physical results.
Group theory details
Technically, QCD is a gauge theory with SU(3) gauge symmetry. Quarks are introduced as spinors in Nf flavors, each in the fundamental representation (triplet, denoted 3) of the color gauge group, SU(3). The gluons are vectors in the adjoint representation (octets, denoted 8) of color SU(3). For a general gauge group, the number of force-carriers (like photons or gluons) is always equal to the dimension of the adjoint representation. For the simple case of SU(N), the dimension of this representation is .
In terms of group theory, the assertion that there are no color singlet gluons is simply the statement that quantum chromodynamics has an SU(3) rather than a U(3) symmetry. There is no known a priori reason for one group to be preferred over the other, but as discussed above, the experimental evidence supports SU(3). If the group were U(3), the ninth (colorless singlet) gluon would behave like a "second photon" and not like the other eight gluons.
Confinement
Since gluons themselves carry color charge, they participate in strong interactions. These gluon-gluon interactions constrain color fields to string-like objects called "flux tubes", which exert constant force when stretched. Due to this force, quarks are confined within composite particles called hadrons. This effectively limits the range of the strong interaction to meters, roughly the size of an atomic nucleus. Beyond a certain distance, the energy of the flux tube binding two quarks increases linearly. At a large enough distance, it becomes energetically more favorable to pull a quark-antiquark pair out of the vacuum rather than increase the length of the flux tube.
Gluons also share this property of being confined within hadrons. One consequence is that gluons are not directly involved in the nuclear forces between hadrons. The force mediators for these are other hadrons called mesons.
Although in the normal phase of QCD single gluons may not travel freely, it is predicted that there exist hadrons that are formed entirely of gluons — called glueballs. There are also conjectures about other exotic hadrons in which real gluons (as opposed to virtual ones found in ordinary hadrons) would be primary constituents. Beyond the normal phase of QCD (at extreme temperatures and pressures), quark–gluon plasma forms. In such a plasma there are no hadrons; quarks and gluons become free particles.
Experimental observations
Quarks and gluons (colored) manifest themselves by fragmenting into more quarks and gluons, which in turn hadronize into normal (colorless) particles, correlated in jets. As revealed in 1978 summer conferences, the PLUTO detector at the electron-positron collider DORIS (DESY) produced the first evidence that the hadronic decays of the very narrow resonance Υ(9.46) could be interpreted as three-jet event topologies produced by three gluons. Later, published analyses by the same experiment confirmed this interpretation and also the spin = 1 nature of the gluon (see also the recollection and PLUTO experiments).
In summer 1979, at higher energies at the electron-positron collider PETRA (DESY), again three-jet topologies were observed, now interpreted as q gluon bremsstrahlung, now clearly visible, by TASSO, MARK-J and PLUTO experiments (later in 1980 also by JADE). The spin = 1 property of the gluon was confirmed in 1980 by TASSO and PLUTO experiments (see also the review). In 1991 a subsequent experiment at the LEP storage ring at CERN again confirmed this result.
The gluons play an important role in the elementary strong interactions between quarks and gluons, described by QCD and studied particularly at the electron-proton collider HERA at DESY. The number and momentum distribution of the gluons in the proton (gluon density) have been measured by two experiments, H1 and ZEUS, in the years 1996–2007. The gluon contribution to the proton spin has been studied by the HERMES experiment at HERA. The gluon density in the proton (when behaving hadronically) also has been measured.
Color confinement is verified by the failure of free quark searches (searches of fractional charges). Quarks are normally produced in pairs (quark + antiquark) to compensate the quantum color and flavor numbers; however at Fermilab single production of top quarks has been shown. No glueball has been demonstrated.
Deconfinement was claimed in 2000 at CERN SPS in heavy-ion collisions, and it implies a new state of matter: quark–gluon plasma, less interactive than in the nucleus, almost as in a liquid. It was found at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven in the years 2004–2010 by four contemporaneous experiments. A quark–gluon plasma state has been confirmed at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) by the three experiments ALICE, ATLAS and CMS in 2010.
Jefferson Lab's Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility, in Newport News, Virginia, is one of 10 Department of Energy facilities doing research on gluons. The Virginia lab was competing with another facility – Brookhaven National Laboratory, on Long Island, New York – for funds to build a new electron-ion collider. In December 2019 the US Department of Energy selected the Brookhaven National Laboratory to host the electron-ion collider.
See also
Quark
Hadron
Meson
Gauge boson
Quark model
Quantum chromodynamics
Quark–gluon plasma
Color confinement
Glueball
Gluon field
Gluon field strength tensor
Exotic hadrons
Standard Model
Three-jet events
Deep inelastic scattering
Quantum chromodynamics binding energy
Footnotes
References
Further reading
Bosons
Elementary particles
Gauge bosons
Gluons
Quantum chromodynamics
Messenger particles | [
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12667 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book%20of%20Genesis | Book of Genesis | The Book of Genesis (from Greek Génesis; , Bərēʾšīṯ, "In [the] beginning") is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its first word, Bereshit ("In the beginning"). Genesis is an account of the creation of the world, the early history of humanity, and of Israel's ancestors and the origins of the Jewish people.
Tradition credits Moses as the author of Genesis, as well as the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and most of Deuteronomy, but modern scholars, especially from the 19th century onward, see them as being written hundreds of years after Moses is supposed to have lived, in the 6th and 5th centuries BC. Based on scientific interpretation of archaeological, genetic, and linguistic evidence, most scholars consider Genesis to be primarily Judeo-Christian mythology rather than historical.
It is divisible into two parts, the primeval history (chapters 1–11) and the ancestral history (chapters 12–50). The primeval history sets out the author's concepts of the nature of the deity and of humankind's relationship with its maker: God creates a world which is good and fit for mankind, but when man corrupts it with sin God decides to destroy his creation, sparing only the righteous Noah and his family to re-establish the relationship between man and God. The ancestral history (chapters 12–50) tells of the prehistory of Israel, God's chosen people. At God's command, Noah's descendant Abraham journeys from his birthplace (described as Ur of the Chaldeans and whose identification with Sumerian Ur is tentative in modern scholarship) into the God-given land of Canaan, where he dwells as a sojourner, as does his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob. Jacob's name is changed to "Israel", and through the agency of his son Joseph, the children of Israel descend into Egypt, 70 people in all with their households and God promises them a future of greatness. Genesis ends with Israel in Egypt, ready for the coming of Moses and the Exodus. The narrative is punctuated by a series of covenants with God, successively narrowing in scope from all mankind (the covenant with Noah) to a special relationship with one people alone (Abraham and his descendants through Isaac and Jacob).
In Judaism, the theological importance of Genesis centres on the covenants linking God to his chosen people and the people to the Promised Land. Christianity has interpreted Genesis as the prefiguration of certain cardinal Christian beliefs, primarily the need for salvation (the hope or assurance of all Christians) and the redemptive act of Christ on the Cross as the fulfilment of covenant promises as the Son of God.
Title
The name Genesis is from the Latin Vulgate, in turn borrowed or transliterated from Greek , meaning "origin"; , Bərēšīṯ, "In [the] beginning".
Composition
For much of the 20th century most scholars agreed that the five books of the Pentateuch—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy—came from four sources, the Yahwist, the Elohist, the Deuteronomist and the Priestly source, each telling the same basic story, and joined together by various editors. Since the 1970s there has been a revolution leading scholars to view the Elohist source as no more than a variation on the Yahwist, and the Priestly source as a body of revisions and expansions to the Yahwist (or "non-Priestly") material. (The Deuteronomistic source does not appear in Genesis.)
Scholars use examples of repeated and duplicate stories to identify separate sources. In Genesis, these include three different accounts of a patriarch claiming that his wife was his sister, the two creation stories, and the two versions of Abraham sending Hagar and Ishmael into the desert.
This leaves the question of when these works were created. Scholars in the first half of the 20th century concluded that the Yahwist is a product of the monarchic period, specifically at the court of Solomon, 10th century BC, and the Priestly work in the middle of the 5th century BC (with claims that the author is Ezra), but more recent thinking is that the Yahwist is from either just before or during the Babylonian captivity of the 6th century BC, and the Priestly final edition was made late in the Exilic period or soon after. The almost complete absence of all the characters and incidents mentioned in chapters 1–11 from the rest of the Hebrew Bible has led a sizeable minority of scholars to the conclusion that these chapters were composed much later than those that follow, possibly in the 3rd century BCE.
As for why the book was created, a theory which has gained considerable interest, although still controversial, is "Persian imperial authorisation." This proposes that the Persians of the Achaemenid Empire, after their conquest of Babylon in 539 BC agreed to grant Jerusalem a large measure of local autonomy within the empire but required the local authorities to produce a single law code accepted by the entire community. The two powerful groups making up the community—the priestly families who controlled the Second Temple and who traced their origin to Moses and the wilderness wanderings, and the major landowning families who made up the "elders" and who traced their own origins to Abraham, who had "given" them the land—were in conflict over many issues, and each had its own "history of origins", but the Persian promise of greatly increased local autonomy for all provided a powerful incentive to cooperate in producing a single text.
Genre
Genesis is an example of an "antiquities", as the Romans called this type of literature, a popular genre telling of the appearance of humans and the ancestors and heroes, with elaborate genealogies and chronologies fleshed out with stories and anecdotes. The most notable examples are found in the work of Greek historians of the 6th century BC: their intention was to connect notable families of their own day to a distant and heroic past, and in doing so they did not distinguish between myth, legend, and facts. Professor Jean-Louis Ska of the Pontifical Biblical Institute calls the basic rule of the antiquarian historian the "law of conservation": everything old is valuable, nothing is eliminated. This antiquity was needed to prove the worth of Israel's traditions to the nations (the neighbours of the Jews in the early Persian province of Judea), and to reconcile and unite the various factions within Israel itself.
Describing the work of the biblical authors, John Van Seters wrote that lacking many historical traditions and none from the distant past, "They had to use myths and legends for earlier periods. In order to make sense out of the variety of different and often conflicting versions of stories, and to relate the stories to each other, they fitted them into a genealogical chronology."
David Adams Leeming describes it as the creation myth of both Judaism and Christianity.
Textual witnesses
There are four major textual witnesses to the book: the Masoretic Text, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Septuagint, and fragments of Genesis found at Qumran. The Qumran group provides the oldest manuscripts but covers only a small proportion of the book; in general, the Masoretic Text is well preserved and reliable, but there are many individual instances where the other versions preserve a superior reading.
Structure
Genesis appears to be structured around the recurring phrase elleh toledot, meaning "these are the generations," with the first use of the phrase referring to the "generations of heaven and earth" and the remainder marking individuals—Noah, the "sons of Noah", Shem, etc., down to Jacob. The toledot formula, occurring eleven times in the book of Genesis, delineating its sections and shaping its structure, serves as a heading which marks a transition to a new subject:
Genesis 1:1 (narrative) In the beginning
Genesis 2:4 (narrative) Toledot of Heaven and Earth
Genesis 5:1 (genealogy) Toledot of Adam
Genesis 6:9 (narrative) Toledot of Noah
Genesis 10:1 (genealogy) Toledot of Shem, Ham, and Japheth
Genesis 11:10 (genealogy) Toledot of Shem
Genesis 11:27 (narrative) Toledot of Terach
Genesis 25:12 (genealogy) Toledot of Ishmael
Genesis 25:19 (narrative) Toledot of Isaac
Genesis 36:1 & 36:9 (genealogy) Toledot of Esau
Genesis 37:2 (narrative) Toledot of Jacob
It is not clear, however, what this meant to the original authors, and most modern commentators divide it into two parts based on the subject matter, a "primeval history" (chapters 1–11) and a "patriarchal history" (chapters 12–50). While the first is far shorter than the second, it sets out the basic themes and provides an interpretive key for understanding the entire book. The "primeval history" has a symmetrical structure hinging on chapters 6–9, the flood story, with the events before the flood mirrored by the events after; the "ancestral history" is structured around the three patriarchs Abraham, Jacob and Joseph. (The stories of Isaac do not make up a coherent cycle of stories and function as a bridge between the cycles of Abraham and Jacob.)
Summary
The Genesis creation narrative comprises two different stories; the first two chapters roughly correspond to these. In the first, Elohim, the Hebrew generic word for God, creates the heavens and the earth including humankind, in six days, and rests on the seventh. In the second, and now referred to as "Yahweh Elohim", the Lord God, he creates two individuals, Adam and Eve, as the first man and woman, placing them in the Garden of Eden.
In the third chapter he instructs them not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. They promise not to, but a talking serpent, portrayed as a deceptive creature or trickster, convinces Eve to eat the fruit against God's wishes, and she convinces Adam, whereupon God throws them out and curses both of them — Adam was cursed with getting what he needs only by sweat and work, and Eve to giving birth in pain. This is interpreted by Christians as the fall of humanity. Eve bears two sons, Cain and Abel. Cain works in the garden, and Abel works with meat; they both offer offerings to God one day, and Cain kills Abel after God liked Abel's offering more than Cain's. God then curses Cain. Eve bears another son, Seth, to take Abel's place.
After many generations of Adam have passed from the lines of Cain and Seth, the world becomes corrupted by human sin and Nephilim, and God wants to wipe out humanity for their wickedness. However, Noah is the only good human; so first, he instructs the righteous Noah and his family to build an ark and put examples of all the animals on it, seven pairs of every clean animal and one pair of every unclean. Then God sends a great flood to wipe out the rest of the world. When the waters recede, God promises he will never destroy the world with water again, making a rainbow as a symbol of his promise. God sees mankind cooperating to build a great tower city, the Tower of Babel, and divides humanity with many languages and sets them apart with confusion.
From a long family tree down from Noah to a man named Abram, God instructs the man Abram to travel from his home in Mesopotamia to the land of Canaan. There, God makes a promise to Abram, promising that his descendants shall be as numerous as the stars, but that people will suffer oppression in a foreign land for four hundred years, after which they will inherit the land "from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates". Abram's name is changed to 'Abraham' (father of many) and that of his wife Sarai to Sarah (princess), and God says that all males should be circumcised as a sign of his promise to Abraham. Due to her old age, Sarah tells Abraham to take her Egyptian handmaiden, Hagar, as a second wife (to bear a child). Through Hagar, Abraham fathers Ishmael.
God then plans to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for the sins of their people. Abraham protests but fails to get God to agree not to destroy the cities (his reasoning being that everybody there is evil, except for Abraham's nephew Lot). Angels save Abraham's nephew Lot (who was living there at the same time) and his family, but his wife looks back on the destruction, (even though God commanded not to) and turns into a pillar of salt for going against his word. Lot's daughters, concerned that they are fugitives who will never find husbands, get Lot drunk so they can become pregnant by him, and give birth to the ancestors of the Moabites and Ammonites.
Abraham and Sarah go to the Philistine town of Gerar, pretending to be brother and sister (they are half-siblings). The King of Gerar takes Sarah for his wife, but God warns him to return her (because she's really Abraham's wife), and he obeys. God sends Sarah a son and tells her she should name him Isaac; through him will be the establishment of the covenant (promise). Sarah then drives Ishmael and his mother Hagar out into the wilderness (because Ishmael is not her real son and Hagar is a slave), but God saves them and promises to make Ishmael a great nation.
Then, God tests Abraham by demanding that he sacrifice Isaac. As Abraham is about to lay the knife upon his son, God restrains him, promising him numberless descendants (again). On the death of Sarah, Abraham purchases Machpelah (believed to be modern Hebron) for a family tomb and sends his servant to Mesopotamia to find among his relations a wife for Isaac; after proving herself worthy, Rebekah becomes Isaac's betrothed. Keturah, Abraham's other wife, births more children, among whose descendants are the Midianites. Abraham dies at a prosperous old age and his family lays him to rest in Hebron (Machpelah).
Isaac's wife Rebecca gives birth to the twins Esau (meaning velvet), father of the Edomites, and Jacob (meaning supplanter or follower). Esau was a couple of seconds older as he had come out of the womb first, and was going to become the heir; however, through carelessness, he sold his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of stew. His mother, Rebecca, ensures Jacob rightly gains his father's blessing as the firstborn son and inheritor. At 77 years of age, Jacob leaves his parents and later seeks a wife and meets Rachel at a well. He goes to her father, his uncle, where he works for a total of 14 years to earn his wives, Rachel and Leah. Jacob's name is changed to 'Israel', and by his wives and their handmaidens he has twelve sons, the ancestors of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel, and a daughter, Dinah.
Joseph, Jacob's favourite son of the twelve, makes his brothers jealous (especially because of special gifts Jacob gave him) and because of that jealousy they sell Joseph into slavery in Egypt. Joseph endures many trials including being innocently sentenced to jail but he stays faithful to God. After several years, he prospers there after the pharaoh of Egypt asks him to interpret a dream he had about an upcoming famine, which Joseph does through God. He is then made second in command of Egypt by the grateful pharaoh, and later on, he is reunited with his father and brothers, who fail to recognize him and plead for food. After much manipulation to see if they still hate him, Joseph reveals himself, forgives them for their actions, and lets them and their households into Egypt, where Pharaoh assigns to them the land of Goshen. Jacob calls his sons to his bedside and reveals their future before he dies. Joseph lives to old age and tells his brothers that if God leads them out of the country, then they should take his bones with them.
Themes
Promises to the ancestors
In 1978 David Clines published his influential The Theme of the Pentateuch – influential because he was one of the first to take up the question of the theme of the entire five books. Clines' conclusion was that the overall theme is "the partial fulfilment – which implies also the partial nonfulfillment – of the promise to or blessing of the Patriarchs". (By calling the fulfilment "partial" Clines was drawing attention to the fact that at the end of Deuteronomy the people are still outside Canaan.)
The patriarchs, or ancestors, are Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, with their wives (Joseph is normally excluded). Since the name YHWH had not been revealed to them, they worshipped El in his various manifestations. (It is, however, worth noting that in the Jahwist source, the patriarchs refer to deity by the name YHWH, for example in Genesis 15.) Through the patriarchs, God announces the election of Israel, that is, he chooses Israel to be his special people and commits himself to their future. God tells the patriarchs that he will be faithful to their descendants (i.e. to Israel), and Israel is expected to have faith in God and his promise. ("Faith" in the context of Genesis and the Hebrew Bible means an agreement to the promissory relationship, not a body of a belief.)
The promise itself has three parts: offspring, blessings, and land. The fulfilment of the promise to each patriarch depends on having a male heir, and the story is constantly complicated by the fact that each prospective mother – Sarah, Rebekah and Rachel – is barren. The ancestors, however, retain their faith in God and God in each case gives a son – in Jacob's case, twelve sons, the foundation of the chosen Israelites. Each succeeding generation of the three promises attains a more rich fulfilment, until through Joseph "all the world" attains salvation from famine, and by bringing the children of Israel down to Egypt he becomes the means through which the promise can be fulfilled.
God's chosen people
Scholars generally agree that the theme of divine promise unites the patriarchal cycles, but many would dispute the efficacy of trying to examine Genesis' theology by pursuing a single overarching theme, instead citing as more productive the analysis of the Abraham cycle, the Jacob cycle, and the Joseph cycle, and the Yahwist and Priestly sources. The problem lies in finding a way to unite the patriarchal theme of the divine promise to the stories of Genesis 1–11 (the primeval history) with their theme of God's forgiveness in the face of man's evil nature. One solution is to see the patriarchal stories as resulting from God's decision not to remain alienated from mankind: God creates the world and mankind, mankind rebels, and God "elects" (chooses) Abraham.
To this basic plot (which comes from the Yahwist) the Priestly source has added a series of covenants dividing history into stages, each with its own distinctive "sign". The first covenant is between God and all living creatures, and is marked by the sign of the rainbow; the second is with the descendants of Abraham (Ishmaelites and others as well as Israelites), and its sign is circumcision; and the last, which does not appear until the Book of Exodus, is with Israel alone, and its sign is Sabbath. A great leader mediates each covenant (Noah, Abraham, Moses), and at each stage God progressively reveals himself by his name (Elohim with Noah, El Shaddai with Abraham, Yahweh with Moses).
Judaism's weekly Torah portions in the Book of Genesis
It is a custom among religious Jewish communities for a weekly Torah portion, popularly referred to as a parashah, to be read during Jewish prayer services on Saturdays, Mondays and Thursdays. The full name, Parashat ha-Shavua, is popularly abbreviated to parashah (also parshah or parsha), and is also known as a Sidra (or Sedra ).
The parashah is a section of the Torah (Five Books of Moses) used in Jewish liturgy during a particular week. There are 54 weekly parshas, or parashiyot in Hebrew, and the full cycle is read over the course of one Jewish year.
The first 12 of the 54 come from the Book of Genesis, and they are:
Chapters 1 – 6 (verses 1–8) Parashat Bereshit
Chap. 6 (v. 9 ff) – 11 Parashat Noach
Chap. 12 – 17 Parashat Lekh Lekha
Chap. 18 – 22 Parashat Vayera
Chap. 23 – 25 (v. 1–18) Parashat Chayyei Sarah
Chap. 25 (v. 19 ff) – 28 (v. 1–9) Parashat Toledot
Chap. 28 (v. 10 ff) – 32 (v. 1–3) Parashat Vayetzei
Chap. 32 (v. 4 ff) – 36 Parashat Vayishlach
Chap. 37 – 40 Parashat Vayeshev
Chap. 41 – 44 (v. 1–17) Parashat Miketz
Chap. 44 (v. 18 ff) – 47 (v. 1–27) Parashat Vayigash
Chap. 47 (v. 28 ff) – 50 Parashat Vayechi
See also
Biblical criticism
Criticism of the Bible
Dating the Bible
Enûma Eliš
Genesis creation narrative
Genesis 1:1
Historicity of the Bible
Mosaic authorship
Paradise Lost
Protevangelium
Wife–sister narratives in the Book of Genesis
Notes
References
Bibliography
Commentaries on Genesis
Fretheim, Terence E. "The Book of Genesis." In The New Interpreter's Bible. Edited by Leander E. Keck, vol. 1, pp. 319–674. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994. .
Hirsch, Samson Raphael. The Pentateuch: Genesis. Translated by Isaac Levy. Judaica Press, 2nd edition 1999. . Originally published as Der Pentateuch uebersetzt und erklaert Frankfurt, 1867–1878.
Kass, Leon R. The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis. New York: Free Press, 2003. .
Plaut, Gunther. The Torah: A Modern Commentary (1981),
Sarna, Nahum M. The JPS Torah Commentary: Genesis: The Traditional Hebrew Text with the New JPS Translation. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1989. .
Speiser, E.A. Genesis: Introduction, Translation, and Notes. New York: Anchor Bible, 1964. .
General
External links
Genesis
Genesis
Mythology books
1
Creation myths | [
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12669 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GM | GM | GM or Gm may refer to:
Companies
General Motors, US automobile manufacturing company which was founded in 1908
Motors Liquidation Company, the US automobile manufacturing company known as General Motors Corporation from 1916 to 2009
General Mills, US food manufacturing company
Gunn & Moore, UK sports equipment company
Places
The Gambia, by ISO 3166 code
Germany, by FIPS 10-4 country code
Greater Manchester, England
Sports and gaming
RGM-79 GM, a mobile suit series in the video game Mobile Suit Gundam
Gamemaster or game master, a person officiating in a multiplayer role-playing game
Grandmaster (chess)
Grandmaster (martial arts)
G.M. The Independent Fantasy Roleplaying Magazine
Science and measurement
Geiger–Müller tube or G-M tube, a type of radiation detector
Genetic modification or Genetically Modified, manipulation of an organism's genome
Gigametre or gigameter (Gm), one billion metres
Silty gravel, in the Unified Soil Classification System
Standard gravitational parameter
Metacentric height, related to ship stability
Transconductance, an electronic component parameter
GM, unit of crosssection named after Maria Goeppert Mayer
Other uses
Gm (digraph)
GM chassis or Gusenichnaya Machina, a Russian tracked vehicle chassis
G minor, chords and scale
General manager
General MIDI, a standardized specification for music synthesizers
Genital mutilation
George Medal, a UK, primarily civil, decoration for acts of great bravery
Gold master, a version of software to be distributed to customers, i.e. ready for release to manufacturing
Google Maps
Gunner's mate, a US Navy rating
See also
GM1, a ganglioside in brain biochemistry
Gram, a unit of mass, usually abbreviated "g" rather than "gm"
Grandmaster (disambiguation)
MG (disambiguation)
G (disambiguation)
M (disambiguation) | [
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12673 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galois%20group | Galois group | In mathematics, in the area of abstract algebra known as Galois theory, the Galois group of a certain type of field extension is a specific group associated with the field extension. The study of field extensions and their relationship to the polynomials that give rise to them via Galois groups is called Galois theory, so named in honor of Évariste Galois who first discovered them.
For a more elementary discussion of Galois groups in terms of permutation groups, see the article on Galois theory.
Definition
Suppose that is an extension of the field (written as and read "E over F "). An automorphism of is defined to be an automorphism of that fixes pointwise. In other words, an automorphism of is an isomorphism such that for each . The set of all automorphisms of forms a group with the operation of function composition. This group is sometimes denoted by
If is a Galois extension, then is called the Galois group of , and is usually denoted by .
If is not a Galois extension, then the Galois group of is sometimes defined as , where is the Galois closure of .
Galois group of a polynomial
Another definition of the Galois group comes from the Galois group of a polynomial . If there is a field such that factors as a product of linear polynomials
over the field , then the Galois group of the polynomial is defined as the Galois group of where is minimal among all such fields.
Structure of Galois groups
Fundamental theorem of Galois theory
One of the important structure theorems from Galois theory comes from the fundamental theorem of Galois theory. This states that given a finite Galois extension , there is a bijection between the set of subfields and the subgroups Then, is given by the set of invariants of under the action of , so
Moreover, if is a normal subgroup then . And conversely, if is a normal field extension, then the associated subgroup in is a normal group.
Lattice structure
Suppose are Galois extensions of with Galois groups The field with Galois group has an injection which is an isomorphism whenever .
Inducting
As a corollary, this can be inducted finitely many times. Given Galois extensions where then there is an isomorphism of the corresponding Galois groups:
Examples
In the following examples is a field, and are the fields of complex, real, and rational numbers, respectively. The notation indicates the field extension obtained by adjoining an element to the field .
Computational tools
Cardinality of the Galois group and the degree of the field extension
One of the basic propositions required for completely determining the Galois groups of a finite field extension is the following: Given a polynomial , let be its splitting field extension. Then the order of the Galois group is equal to the degree of the field extension; that is,
Eisenstein's criterion
A useful tool for determining the Galois group of a polynomial comes from Eisenstein's criterion. If a polynomial factors into irreducible polynomials the Galois group of can be determined using the Galois groups of each since the Galois group of contains each of the Galois groups of the
Trivial group
is the trivial group that has a single element, namely the identity automorphism.
Another example of a Galois group which is trivial is Indeed, it can be shown that any automorphism of must preserve the ordering of the real numbers and hence must be the identity.
Consider the field The group contains only the identity automorphism. This is because is not a normal extension, since the other two cube roots of ,
and
are missing from the extension—in other words is not a splitting field.
Finite abelian groups
The Galois group has two elements, the identity automorphism and the complex conjugation automorphism.
Quadratic extensions
The degree two field extension has the Galois group with two elements, the identity automorphism and the automorphism which exchanges and −. This example generalizes for a prime number
Product of quadratic extensions
Using the lattice structure of Galois groups, for non-equal prime numbers the Galois group of is
Cyclotomic extensions
Another useful class of examples comes from the splitting fields of cyclotomic polynomials. These are polynomials defined as
whose degree is , Euler's totient function at . Then, the splitting field over is and has automorphisms sending for relatively prime to . Since the degree of the field is equal to the degree of the polynomial, these automorphisms generate the Galois group. If then
If is a prime , then a corollary of this is
In fact, any finite abelian group can be found as the Galois group of some subfield of a cyclotomic field extension by the Kronecker–Weber theorem.
Finite fields
Another useful class of examples of Galois groups with finite abelian groups comes from finite fields. If is a prime power, and if and denote the Galois fields of order and respectively, then is cyclic of order and generated by the Frobenius homomorphism.
Degree 4 examples
The field extension is an example of a degree field extension. This has two automorphisms where and Since these two generators define a group of order , the Klein four-group, they determine the entire Galois group.
Another example is given from the splitting field of the polynomial
Note because the roots of are There are automorphisms
generating a group of order . Since generates this group, the Galois group is isomorphic to .
Finite non-abelian groups
Consider now where is a primitive cube root of unity. The group is isomorphic to , the dihedral group of order 6, and is in fact the splitting field of over
Quaternion group
The Quaternion group can be found as the Galois group of a field extension of . For example, the field extension
has the prescribed Galois group.
Symmetric group of prime order
If is an irreducible polynomial of prime degree with rational coefficients and exactly two non-real roots, then the Galois group of is the full symmetric group
For example, is irreducible from Eisenstein's criterion. Plotting the graph of with graphing software or paper shows it has three real roots, hence two complex roots, showing its Galois group is .
Comparing Galois groups of field extensions of global fields
Given a global field extension (such as ) the and an equivalence class of valuations on (such as the -adic valuation), and on such that their completions give a Galois field extensionof local fields. Then, there is an induced action of the Galois groupon the set of equivalence classes of valuations such that the completions of the fields are compatible. This means if then there is an induced isomorphic of local fieldsSince we have taken the hypothesis that lies over (i.e. there is a Galois field extension ), the field morphism is in fact an isomorphism of -algebras. If we take the isotropy subgroup of for the valuation class then there's a surjection of the global Galois group to the local Galois group such that there's and isomorphism between the local Galois group and the isotropy subgroup. Diagrammatically, this meanswhere the vertical arrows are isomorphisms. This gives a technique for constructing Galois groups of local fields using global Galois groups.
Infinite groups
A basic example of a field extension with an infinite group of automorphisms is , since it contains every algebraic field extension . For example, the field extensions for a square-free element each have a unique degree automorphism, inducing an automorphism in
One of the most studied classes of infinite Galois group is the absolute Galois group, which is an infinite, profinite group defined as the inverse limit of all finite Galois extensions for a fixed field. The inverse limit is denoted
,
where is the separable closure of the field . Note this group is a topological group. Some basic examples include and
.
Another readily computable example comes from the field extension containing the square root of every positive prime. It has Galois group
,
which can be deduced from the profinite limit
and using the computation of the Galois groups.
Properties
The significance of an extension being Galois is that it obeys the fundamental theorem of Galois theory: the closed (with respect to the Krull topology) subgroups of the Galois group correspond to the intermediate fields of the field extension.
If is a Galois extension, then can be given a topology, called the Krull topology, that makes it into a profinite group.
See also
Fundamental theorem of Galois theory
Absolute Galois group
Galois representation
Demushkin group
Solvable group
Notes
References
External links
Galois group and the Quaternion group
Comparing the global and local galois groups of an extension of number fields
Galois Representations - Richard Taylor
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12674 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German%20Empire | German Empire | The German Empire or the Imperial State of Germany, also referred to as Imperial Germany, the Kaiserreich, as well as simply Germany, was the period of the German Reich from the unification of Germany in 1871 until the November Revolution in 1918, when the German Reich changed its form of government from a monarchy to a republic.
It was founded on 18 January 1871 when the south German states, except for Austria, joined the North German Confederation and the new constitution came into force on April 16, changing the name of the federal state to the German Empire and introducing the title of German Emperor for Wilhelm I, King of Prussia from the House of Hohenzollern. Berlin remained its capital, and Otto von Bismarck, Minister President of Prussia, became Chancellor, the head of government. As these events occurred, the Prussian-led North German Confederation and its southern German allies were still engaged in the Franco-Prussian War.
The German Empire consisted of 26 states, each with their own nobility, four constituent kingdoms, six grand duchies, five duchies (six before 1876), seven principalities, three free Hanseatic cities, and one imperial territory. While Prussia was one of four kingdoms in the realm, it contained about two-thirds of the Empire's population and territory, and Prussian dominance had also been constitutionally established, since the King of Prussia was also the German Emperor (German: Kaiser)
After 1850, the states of Germany had rapidly become industrialized, with particular strengths in coal, iron (and later steel), chemicals, and railways. In 1871, Germany had a population of 41 million people; by 1913, this had increased to 68 million. A heavily rural collection of states in 1815, the now united Germany became predominantly urban. The success of German industrialization manifested itself in two ways since the early 20th century: The German factories were larger and more modern than their British and French counterparts. The dominance of German Empire in natural sciences, especially in physics and chemistry was such that one-third of all Nobel Prizes went to German inventors and researchers. During its 47 years of existence, the German Empire became the industrial, technological, and scientific giant of Europe, and by 1913, Germany was the largest economy in Continental Europe and the third-largest in the world. Germany also became a great power, it built up the longest railway network of Europe, the world's strongest army, and a fast-growing industrial base. Starting very small in 1871, in a decade, the navy became second only to Britain's Royal Navy. After the removal of Otto von Bismarck by Wilhelm II in 1890, the empire embarked on Weltpolitik – a bellicose new course that ultimately contributed to the outbreak of World War I.
From 1871 to 1890, Otto von Bismarck's tenure as the first and to this day longest-serving Chancellor was marked by relative liberalism, but it became more conservative afterward. Broad reforms and the Kulturkampf marked his period in the office. Late in Bismarck's chancellorship and in spite of his earlier personal opposition, Germany became involved in colonialism. Claiming much of the leftover territory that was yet unclaimed in the Scramble for Africa, it managed to build the third-largest colonial empire at the time, after the British and the French ones. As a colonial state, it sometimes clashed with the interests of other European powers, especially the British Empire. During its colonial expansion, the German Empire committed the Herero and Namaqua genocide.
In addition, Bismarck's successors were incapable of maintaining their predecessor's complex, shifting, and overlapping alliances which had kept Germany from being diplomatically isolated. This period was marked by various factors influencing the Emperor's decisions, which were often perceived as contradictory or unpredictable by the public. In 1879, the German Empire consolidated the Dual Alliance with Austria-Hungary, followed by the Triple Alliance with Italy in 1882. It also retained strong diplomatic ties to the Ottoman Empire. When the great crisis of 1914 arrived, Italy left the alliance and the Ottoman Empire formally allied with Germany.
In the First World War, German plans to capture Paris quickly in the autumn of 1914 failed, and the war on the Western Front became a stalemate. The Allied naval blockade caused severe shortages of food. However, Imperial Germany had success on the Eastern Front; it occupied a large amount of territory to its east following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. The German declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917 contributed to bringing the United States into the war. In October 1918, after the failed Spring Offensive, the German armies were in retreat, allies Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire had collapsed, and Bulgaria had surrendered. The empire collapsed in the November 1918 Revolution with the abdications of its monarchs, which left the post-war federal republic to govern a devastated populace. The Treaty of Versailles imposed post-war reparation costs of 132 billion gold marks (around US$269 billion or €240 billion in 2019, or roughly US$32 billion in 1921), as well as limiting the army to 100,000 men and disallowing conscription, armored vehicles, submarines, aircraft, and more than six battleships. The consequential economic devastation, later exacerbated by the Great Depression, as well as humiliation and outrage experienced by the German population are considered leading factors in the rise of Adolf Hitler and Nazism.
History
Background
The German Confederation had been created by an act of the Congress of Vienna on 8 June 1815 as a result of the Napoleonic Wars, after being alluded to in Article 6 of the 1814 Treaty of Paris.
The liberal Revolutions of 1848 were crushed after the relations between the educated, well-off middle-class liberals and the urban artisans broke down; Otto von Bismarck's pragmatic Realpolitik, which appealed to peasants as well as the traditional aristocracy, took its place. Bismarck sought to extend Hohenzollern hegemony throughout the German states; to do so meant unification of the German states and the exclusion of Prussia's main German rival, Austria, from the subsequent German Empire. He envisioned a conservative, Prussian-dominated Germany. The Second Schleswig War against Denmark in 1864, the Austro-Prussian War in 1866, and the Franco-Prussian War in 1870–1871 sparked a growing pan-German ideal and contributed to the formation of a German State.
The German Confederation ended as a result of the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 between the constituent Confederation entities of the Austrian Empire and its allies on one side and Prussia and its allies on the other. The war resulted in the partial replacement of the Confederation in 1867 by a North German Confederation, comprising the 22 states north of the river Main. The patriotic fervor generated by the Franco-Prussian War overwhelmed the remaining opposition to a unified Germany (aside from Austria) in the four states south of the Main, and during November 1870, they joined the North German Confederation by treaty.
Foundation
On 10 December 1870, the North German Confederation Reichstag renamed the Confederation the "German Empire" and gave the title of German Emperor to William I, the King of Prussia, as Bundespräsidium of the Confederation. The new constitution (Constitution of the German Confederation) and the title Emperor came into effect on 1 January 1871. During the Siege of Paris on 18 January 1871, William accepted to be proclaimed Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles.
The second German Constitution, adopted by the Reichstag on 14 April 1871 and proclaimed by the Emperor on 16 April, was substantially based upon Bismarck's North German Constitution. The political system remained the same. The empire had a parliament called the Reichstag, which was elected by universal male suffrage. However, the original constituencies drawn in 1871 were never redrawn to reflect the growth of urban areas. As a result, by the time of the great expansion of German cities in the 1890s and 1900s, rural areas were grossly over-represented.
The legislation also required the consent of the Bundesrat, the federal council of deputies from the 27 states. Executive power was vested in the emperor, or Kaiser, who was assisted by a Chancellor responsible only to him. The emperor was given extensive powers by the constitution. He alone appointed and dismissed the chancellor (so in practice, the emperor ruled the empire through the chancellor), was supreme commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and final arbiter of all foreign affairs, and could also disband the Reichstag to call for new elections. Officially, the chancellor was a one-man cabinet and was responsible for the conduct of all state affairs; in practice, the State Secretaries (top bureaucratic officials in charge of such fields as finance, war, foreign affairs, etc.) functioned much like ministers in other monarchies. The Reichstag had the power to pass, amend, or reject bills and to initiate legislation. However, as mentioned above, in practice, the real power was vested in the emperor, who exercised it through his chancellor.
Although nominally a federal empire and league of equals, in practice, the empire was dominated by the largest and most powerful state, Prussia. Prussia stretched across the northern two-thirds of the new Reich and contained three-fifths of its population. The imperial crown was hereditary in the ruling house of Prussia, the House of Hohenzollern. With the exception of 1872–1873 and 1892–1894, the chancellor was always simultaneously the prime minister of Prussia. With 17 out of 58 votes in the Bundesrat, Berlin needed only a few votes from the smaller states to exercise effective control.
The other states retained their own governments but had only limited aspects of sovereignty. For example, both postage stamps and currency were issued for the empire as a whole. Coins through one mark were also minted in the name of the empire, while higher-valued pieces were issued by the states. However, these larger gold and silver issues were virtually commemorative coins and had limited circulation.
While the states issued their own decorations and some had their own armies, the military forces of the smaller ones were put under Prussian control. Those of the larger states, such as the Kingdoms of Bavaria and Saxony, were coordinated along Prussian principles and would, in wartime, be controlled by the federal government.
The evolution of the German Empire is somewhat in line with parallel developments in Italy, which became a united nation-state a decade earlier. Some key elements of the German Empire's authoritarian political structure were also the basis for conservative modernization in Imperial Japan under Meiji and the preservation of an authoritarian political structure under the tsars in the Russian Empire.
One factor in the social anatomy of these governments was the retention of a very substantial share in political power by the landed elite, the Junkers, resulting from the absence of a revolutionary breakthrough by the peasants in combination with urban areas.
Although authoritarian in many respects, the empire had some democratic features. Besides universal suffrage, it permitted the development of political parties. Bismarck intended to create a constitutional façade that would mask the continuation of authoritarian policies. In the process, he created a system with a serious flaw. There was a significant disparity between the Prussian and German electoral systems. Prussia used a highly restrictive three-class voting system in which the richest third of the population could choose 85% of the legislature, all but assuring a conservative majority. As mentioned above, the king and (with two exceptions) the prime minister of Prussia was also the emperor and chancellor of the empire – meaning that the same rulers had to seek majorities from legislatures elected from completely different franchises. Universal suffrage was significantly diluted by gross over-representation of rural areas from the 1890s onward. By the turn of the century, the urban-rural population balance was completely reversed from 1871; more than two-thirds of the empire's people lived in cities and towns.
Bismarck era
Bismarck's domestic policies played an important role in forging the authoritarian political culture of the Kaiserreich. Less preoccupied with continental power politics following unification in 1871, Germany's semi-parliamentary government carried out a relatively smooth economic and political revolution from above that pushed them along the way towards becoming the world's leading industrial power of the time.
Bismarck's "revolutionary conservatism" was a conservative state-building strategy designed to make ordinary Germans—not just the Junker elite—more loyal to the throne and empire. According to Kees van Kersbergen and Barbara Vis, his strategy was:
Bismarck created the modern welfare state in Germany in the 1880s and enacted universal male suffrage in 1871. He became a great hero to German conservatives, who erected many monuments to his memory and tried to emulate his policies.
Foreign policy
Bismarck's post-1871 foreign policy was conservative and sought to preserve the balance of power in Europe. British historian Eric Hobsbawm concludes that he "remained undisputed world champion at the game of multilateral diplomatic chess for almost twenty years after 1871, [devoting] himself exclusively, and successfully, to maintaining peace between the powers". This was a departure from his adventurous foreign policy for Prussia, where he favored strength and expansion, punctuating this by saying, "The great question of the age are not settled by speeches and majority votes – this was the error of 1848–49 – but by iron and blood."
Bismarck's chief concern was that France would plot revenge after its defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. As the French lacked the strength to defeat Germany by themselves, they sought an alliance with Russia, which would trap Germany between the two in a war (as would ultimately happen in 1914). Bismarck wanted to prevent this at all costs and maintain friendly relations with the Russians and thereby formed an alliance with them and Austria-Hungary, the Dreikaiserbund (League of Three Emperors), in 1881. The alliance was further cemented by a separate non-aggression pact with Russia called Reinsurance Treaty, which was signed in 1887. During this period, individuals within the German military were advocating a preemptive strike against Russia, but Bismarck knew that such ideas were foolhardy. He once wrote that "the most brilliant victories would not avail against the Russian nation, because of its climate, its desert, and its frugality, and having but one frontier to defend", and because it would leave Germany with another bitter, resentful neighbor.
Meanwhile, the chancellor remained wary of any foreign policy developments that looked even remotely warlike. In 1886, he moved to stop an attempted sale of horses to France because they might be used for cavalry and also ordered an investigation into large Russian purchases of medicine from a German chemical works. Bismarck stubbornly refused to listen to Georg Herbert Münster, ambassador to France, who reported back that the French were not seeking a revanchist war and were desperate for peace at all costs.
Bismarck and most of his contemporaries were conservative-minded and focused their foreign policy attention on Germany's neighboring states. In 1914, 60% of German foreign investment was in Europe, as opposed to just 5% of British investment. Most of the money went to developing nations such as Russia that lacked the capital or technical knowledge to industrialize on their own. The construction of the Baghdad Railway, financed by German banks, was designed to eventually connect Germany with the Ottoman Empire and the Persian Gulf, but it also collided with British and Russian geopolitical interests. Conflict over the Baghdad Railway was resolved in June 1914.
Many consider Bismarck's foreign policy as a coherent system and partly responsible for the preservation of Europe's stability. It was also marked by the need to balance circumspect defensiveness and the desire to be free from the constraints of its position as a major European power. Bismarck's successors did not pursue his foreign policy legacy. For instance, Kaiser Wilhelm II, who dismissed the chancellor in 1890, let the treaty with Russia lapse in favor of Germany's alliance with Austria, which finally led to a stronger coalition-building between Russia and France.
Colonies
Germans had dreamed of colonial imperialism since 1848. Although Bismarck had little interest in acquiring overseas possessions, most Germans were enthusiastic, and by 1884 he had acquired German New Guinea. By the 1890s, German colonial expansion in Asia and the Pacific (Kiauchau in China, Tientsin in China, the Marianas, the Caroline Islands, Samoa) led to frictions with the UK, Russia, Japan, and the US. The largest colonial enterprises were in Africa, where the Herero Wars in what is now Namibia in 1906–1907 resulted in the Herero and Namaqua genocide.
Economy
By 1900, Germany became the largest economy in continental Europe and the third-largest in the world behind the United States and the British Empire, which were also its main economic rivals. Throughout its existence, it experienced economic growth and modernization led by heavy industry. In 1871, it had a largely rural population of 41 million, while by 1913, this had increased to a predominantly urban population of 68 million.
Industrial power
For 30 years, Germany struggled against Britain to be Europe's leading industrial power. Representative of Germany's industry was the steel giant Krupp, whose first factory was built in Essen. By 1902, the factory alone became "A great city with its own streets, its own police force, fire department and traffic laws. There are 150 kilometers of rail, 60 different factory buildings, 8,500 machine tools, seven electrical stations, 140 kilometers of underground cable, and 46 overhead."
Under Bismarck, Germany was a world innovator in building the welfare state. German workers enjoyed health, accident and maternity benefits, canteens, changing rooms, and a national pension scheme.
Railways
Lacking a technological base at first, the Germans imported their engineering and hardware from Britain but quickly learned the skills needed to operate and expand the railways. In many cities, the new railway shops were the centers of technological awareness and training, so that by 1850, Germany was self-sufficient in meeting the demands of railroad construction, and the railways were a major impetus for the growth of the new steel industry. However, German unification in 1870 stimulated consolidation, nationalisation into state-owned companies, and further rapid growth. Unlike the situation in France, the goal was support of industrialisation, and so heavy lines crisscrossed the Ruhr and other industrial districts and provided good connections to the major ports of Hamburg and Bremen. By 1880, Germany had 9,400 locomotives pulling 43,000 passengers and 30,000 tons of freight, and forged ahead of France. The total length of German railroad tracks expanded from 21,000 km, (13,000 miles) in 1871 to 63,000 km, (39,000 miles) by 1913, establishing the largest rail network in the world after the United States The German rail network was followed by Austria-Hungary (), France (), the United Kingdom (), Italy () and Spain ().
Industry
Industrialisation progressed dynamically in Germany, and German manufacturers began to capture domestic markets from British imports, and also to compete with British industry abroad, particularly in the U.S. The German textile and metal industries had by 1870 surpassed those of Britain in organisation and technical efficiency and superseded British manufacturers in the domestic market. Germany became the dominant economic power on the continent and was the second-largest exporting nation after Britain.
Technological progress during German industrialisation occurred in four waves: the railway wave (1877–1886), the dye wave (1887–1896), the chemical wave (1897–1902), and the wave of electrical engineering (1903–1918). Since Germany industrialised later than Britain, it was able to model its factories after those of Britain, thus making more efficient use of its capital and avoiding legacy methods in its leap to the envelope of technology. Germany invested more heavily than the British in research, especially in chemistry, motors and electricity. Germany's dominance in physics and chemistry was such that one-third of all Nobel Prizes went to German inventors and researchers.
The German cartel system (known as Konzerne), being significantly concentrated, was able to make more efficient use of capital. Germany was not weighted down with an expensive worldwide empire that needed defense. Following Germany's annexation of Alsace-Lorraine in 1871, it absorbed parts of what had been France's industrial base.
By 1900, the German chemical industry dominated the world market for synthetic dyes. The three major firms BASF, Bayer and Hoechst produced several hundred different dyes, along with the five smaller firms. In 1913, these eight firms produced almost 90% of the world supply of dyestuffs and sold about 80% of their production abroad. The three major firms had also integrated upstream into the production of essential raw materials and they began to expand into other areas of chemistry such as pharmaceuticals, photographic film, agricultural chemicals and electrochemicals. Top-level decision-making was in the hands of professional salaried managers; leading Chandler to call the German dye companies "the world's first truly managerial industrial enterprises". There were many spinoffs from research—such as the pharmaceutical industry, which emerged from chemical research.
German factories were larger and more modern than their British and French counterparts.
By the start of World War I (1914–1918), German industry switched to war production. The heaviest demands were on coal and steel for artillery and shell production, and on chemicals for the synthesis of materials that were subject to import restrictions and for chemical weapons and war supplies.
Consolidation
The creation of the Empire under Prussian leadership was a victory for the concept of Kleindeutschland (Smaller Germany) over the Großdeutschland concept. This meant that Austria-Hungary, a multi-ethnic Empire with a considerable German-speaking population, would remain outside of the German nation state. Bismarck's policy was to pursue a solution diplomatically. The effective alliance between Germany and Austria played a major role in Germany's decision to enter World War I in 1914.
Bismarck announced there would be no more territorial additions to Germany in Europe, and his diplomacy after 1871 was focused on stabilizing the European system and preventing any wars. He succeeded, and only after his departure from office in 1890 did the diplomatic tensions start rising again.
Social issues
After achieving formal unification in 1871, Bismarck devoted much of his attention to the cause of national unity. He opposed Catholic civil rights and emancipation, especially the influence of the Vatican under Pope Pius IX, and working-class radicalism, represented by the emerging Social Democratic Party.
Kulturkampf
Prussia in 1871 included 16,000,000 Protestants, both Reformed and Lutheran, and 8,000,000 Catholics. Most people were generally segregated into their own religious worlds, living in rural districts or city neighbourhoods that were overwhelmingly of the same religion, and sending their children to separate public schools where their religion was taught. There was little interaction or intermarriage. On the whole, the Protestants had a higher social status, and the Catholics were more likely to be peasant farmers or unskilled or semiskilled industrial workers. In 1870, the Catholics formed their own political party, the Centre Party, which generally supported unification and most of Bismarck's policies. However, Bismarck distrusted parliamentary democracy in general and opposition parties in particular, especially when the Centre Party showed signs of gaining support among dissident elements such as the Polish Catholics in Silesia. A powerful intellectual force of the time was anti-Catholicism, led by the liberal intellectuals who formed a vital part of Bismarck's coalition. They saw the Catholic Church as a powerful force of reaction and anti-modernity, especially after the proclamation of papal infallibility in 1870, and the tightening control of the Vatican over the local bishops.
The Kulturkampf launched by Bismarck 1871–1880 affected Prussia; although there were similar movements in Baden and Hesse, the rest of Germany was not affected. According to the new imperial constitution, the states were in charge of religious and educational affairs; they funded the Protestant and Catholic schools. In July 1871 Bismarck abolished the Catholic section of the Prussian Ministry of ecclesiastical and educational affairs, depriving Catholics of their voice at the highest level. The system of strict government supervision of schools was applied only in Catholic areas; the Protestant schools were left alone.
Much more serious were the May laws of 1873. One made the appointment of any priest dependent on his attendance at a German university, as opposed to the seminaries that the Catholics typically used. Furthermore, all candidates for the ministry had to pass an examination in German culture before a state board which weeded out intransigent Catholics. Another provision gave the government a veto power over most church activities. A second law abolished the jurisdiction of the Vatican over the Catholic Church in Prussia; its authority was transferred to a government body controlled by Protestants.
Nearly all German bishops, clergy, and laymen rejected the legality of the new laws, and were defiant in the face of heavier and heavier penalties and imprisonments imposed by Bismarck's government. By 1876, all the Prussian bishops were imprisoned or in exile, and a third of the Catholic parishes were without a priest. In the face of systematic defiance, the Bismarck government increased the penalties and its attacks, and were challenged in 1875 when a papal encyclical declared the whole ecclesiastical legislation of Prussia was invalid, and threatened to excommunicate any Catholic who obeyed. There was no violence, but the Catholics mobilized their support, set up numerous civic organizations, raised money to pay fines, and rallied behind their church and the Centre Party. The "Old Catholic Church", which rejected the First Vatican Council, attracted only a few thousand members. Bismarck, a devout pietistic Protestant, realized his Kulturkampf was backfiring when secular and socialist elements used the opportunity to attack all religion. In the long run, the most significant result was the mobilization of the Catholic voters, and their insistence on protecting their religious identity. In the elections of 1874, the Centre party doubled its popular vote, and became the second-largest party in the national parliament—and remained a powerful force for the next 60 years, so that after Bismarck it became difficult to form a government without their support.
Social reform
Bismarck built on a tradition of welfare programs in Prussia and Saxony that began as early as in the 1840s. In the 1880s he introduced old-age pensions, accident insurance, medical care and unemployment insurance that formed the basis of the modern European welfare state. He came to realize that this sort of policy was very appealing, since it bound workers to the state, and also fit in very well with his authoritarian nature. The social security systems installed by Bismarck (health care in 1883, accident insurance in 1884, invalidity and old-age insurance in 1889) at the time were the largest in the world and, to a degree, still exist in Germany today.
Bismarck's paternalistic programs won the support of German industry because its goals were to win the support of the working classes for the Empire and reduce the outflow of immigrants to America, where wages were higher but welfare did not exist. Bismarck further won the support of both industry and skilled workers by his high tariff policies, which protected profits and wages from American competition, although they alienated the liberal intellectuals who wanted free trade.
Germanization
One of the effects of the unification policies was the gradually increasing tendency to eliminate the use of non-German languages in public life, schools and academic settings with the intent of pressuring the non-German population to abandon their national identity in what was called "Germanisation". These policies often had the reverse effect of stimulating resistance, usually in the form of homeschooling and tighter unity in the minority groups, especially the Poles.
The Germanisation policies were targeted particularly against the significant Polish minority of the empire, gained by Prussia in the partitions of Poland. Poles were treated as an ethnic minority even where they made up the majority, as in the Province of Posen, where a series of anti-Polish measures was enforced. Numerous anti-Polish laws had no great effect especially in the province of Posen where the German-speaking population dropped from 42.8% in 1871 to 38.1% in 1905, despite all efforts.
Antisemitism
Antisemitism was endemic in Germany during the period. Before Napoleon's decrees ended the ghettos in Germany, it had been religiously motivated, but by the 19th century, it was a factor in German nationalism. In the popular mind Jews became a symbol of capitalism and wealth. On the other hand, the constitution and legal system protected the rights of Jews as German citizens. Antisemitic parties were formed but soon collapsed.
Law
Bismarck's efforts also initiated the levelling of the enormous differences between the German states, which had been independent in their evolution for centuries, especially with legislation. The completely different legal histories and judicial systems posed enormous complications, especially for national trade. While a common trade code had already been introduced by the Confederation in 1861 (which was adapted for the Empire and, with great modifications, is still in effect today), there was little similarity in laws otherwise.
In 1871, a common Criminal Code () was introduced; in 1877, common court procedures were established in the court system (), code of civil procedure () and code of criminal procedure (). In 1873 the constitution was amended to allow the Empire to replace the various and greatly differing Civil Codes of the states (If they existed at all; for example, parts of Germany formerly occupied by Napoleon's France had adopted the French Civil Code, while in Prussia the of 1794 was still in effect). In 1881, a first commission was established to produce a common Civil Code for all of the Empire, an enormous effort that would produce the (BGB), possibly one of the most impressive legal works in the world; it was eventually put into effect on 1 January 1900. All of these codifications are, albeit with many amendments, still in effect today.
Year of the three emperors
On 9 March 1888, Wilhelm I died shortly before his 91st birthday, leaving his son Frederick III as the new emperor. Frederick was a liberal and an admirer of the British constitution, while his links to Britain strengthened further with his marriage to Princess Victoria, eldest child of Queen Victoria. With his ascent to the throne, many hoped that Frederick's reign would lead to a liberalization of the Reich and an increase of parliament's influence on the political process. The dismissal of Robert von Puttkamer, the highly conservative Prussian interior minister, on 8 June was a sign of the expected direction and a blow to Bismarck's administration.
By the time of his accession, however, Frederick had developed incurable laryngeal cancer, which had been diagnosed in 1887. He died on the 99th day of his rule, on 15 June 1888. His son Wilhelm II became emperor.
Wilhelmine era
Bismarck's resignation
Wilhelm II wanted to reassert his ruling prerogatives at a time when other monarchs in Europe were being transformed into constitutional figureheads. This decision led the ambitious Kaiser into conflict with Bismarck. The old chancellor had hoped to guide Wilhelm as he had guided his grandfather, but the emperor wanted to be the master in his own house and had many sycophants telling him that Frederick the Great would not have been great with a Bismarck at his side. A key difference between Wilhelm II and Bismarck was their approaches to handling political crises, especially in 1889, when German coal miners went on strike in Upper Silesia. Bismarck demanded that the German Army be sent in to crush the strike, but Wilhelm II rejected this authoritarian measure, responding "I do not wish to stain my reign with the blood of my subjects." Instead of condoning repression, Wilhelm had the government negotiate with a delegation from the coal miners, which brought the strike to an end without violence. The fractious relationship ended in March 1890, after Wilhelm II and Bismarck quarrelled, and the chancellor resigned days later. Bismarck's last few years had seen power slip from his hands as he grew older, more irritable, more authoritarian, and less focused.
With Bismarck's departure, Wilhelm II became the dominant ruler of Germany. Unlike his grandfather, Wilhelm I, who had been largely content to leave government affairs to the chancellor, Wilhelm II wanted to be fully informed and actively involved in running Germany, not an ornamental figurehead, although most Germans found his claims of divine right to rule amusing. Wilhelm allowed politician Walther Rathenau to tutor him in European economics and industrial and financial realities in Europe.
As Hull (2004) notes, Bismarckian foreign policy "was too sedate for the reckless Kaiser". Wilhelm became internationally notorious for his aggressive stance on foreign policy and his strategic blunders (such as the Tangier Crisis), which pushed the German Empire into growing political isolation and eventually helped to cause World War I.
Domestic affairs
Under Wilhelm II, Germany no longer had long-ruling strong chancellors like Bismarck. The new chancellors had difficulty in performing their roles, especially the additional role as Prime Minister of Prussia assigned to them in the German Constitution. The reforms of Chancellor Leo von Caprivi, which liberalized trade and so reduced unemployment, were supported by the Kaiser and most Germans except for Prussian landowners, who feared loss of land and power and launched several campaigns against the reforms.
While Prussian aristocrats challenged the demands of a united German state, in the 1890s several organizations were set up to challenge the authoritarian conservative Prussian militarism which was being imposed on the country. Educators opposed to the German state-run schools, which emphasized military education, set up their own independent liberal schools, which encouraged individuality and freedom. However nearly all the schools in Imperial Germany had a very high standard and kept abreast with modern developments in knowledge.
Artists began experimental art in opposition to Kaiser Wilhelm's support for traditional art, to which Wilhelm responded "art which transgresses the laws and limits laid down by me can no longer be called art". It was largely thanks to Wilhelm's influence that most printed material in Germany used blackletter instead of the Roman type used in the rest of Western Europe. At the same time, a new generation of cultural creators emerged.
From the 1890s onwards, the most effective opposition to the monarchy came from the newly formed Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), whose radicals advocated Marxism. The threat of the SPD to the German monarchy and industrialists caused the state both to crack down on the party's supporters and to implement its own programme of social reform to soothe discontent. Germany's large industries provided significant social welfare programmes and good care to their employees, as long as they were not identified as socialists or trade-union members. The larger industrial firms provided pensions, sickness benefits and even housing to their employees.
Having learned from the failure of Bismarck's Kulturkampf, Wilhelm II maintained good relations with the Roman Catholic Church and concentrated on opposing socialism. This policy failed when the Social Democrats won a third of the votes in the 1912 elections to the Reichstag, and became the largest political party in Germany. The government remained in the hands of a succession of conservative coalitions supported by right-wing liberals or Catholic clerics and heavily dependent on the Kaiser's favour. The rising militarism under Wilhelm II caused many Germans to emigrate to the U.S. and the British colonies to escape mandatory military service.
During World War I, the Kaiser increasingly devolved his powers to the leaders of the German High Command, particularly future President of Germany, Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg and Generalquartiermeister Erich Ludendorff. Hindenburg took over the role of commander–in–chief from the Kaiser, while Ludendorff became de facto general chief of staff. By 1916, Germany was effectively a military dictatorship run by Hindenburg and Ludendorff, with the Kaiser reduced to a mere figurehead.
Foreign affairs
Colonialism
Wilhelm II wanted Germany to have her "place in the sun", like Britain, which he constantly wished to emulate or rival. With German traders and merchants already active worldwide, he encouraged colonial efforts in Africa and the Pacific ("new imperialism"), causing the German Empire to vie with other European powers for remaining "unclaimed" territories. With the encouragement or at least the acquiescence of Britain, which at this stage saw Germany as a counterweight to her old rival France, Germany acquired German Southwest Africa (modern Namibia), German Kamerun (modern Cameroon), Togoland (modern Togo) and German East Africa (modern Rwanda, Burundi, and the mainland part of current Tanzania). Islands were gained in the Pacific through purchase and treaties and also a 99-year lease for the territory of Kiautschou in northeast China. But of these German colonies only Togoland and German Samoa (after 1908) became self-sufficient and profitable; all the others required subsidies from the Berlin treasury for building infrastructure, school systems, hospitals and other institutions.
Bismarck had originally dismissed the agitation for colonies with contempt; he favoured a Eurocentric foreign policy, as the treaty arrangements made during his tenure in office show. As a latecomer to colonization, Germany repeatedly came into conflict with the established colonial powers and also with the United States, which opposed German attempts at colonial expansion in both the Caribbean and the Pacific. Native insurrections in German territories received prominent coverage in other countries, especially in Britain; the established powers had dealt with such uprisings decades earlier, often brutally, and had secured firm control of their colonies by then. The Boxer Rising in China, which the Chinese government eventually sponsored, began in the Shandong province, in part because Germany, as colonizer at Kiautschou, was an untested power and had only been active there for two years. Eight western nations, including the United States, mounted a joint relief force to rescue westerners caught up in the rebellion. During the departure ceremonies for the German contingent, Wilhelm II urged them to behave like the Hun invaders of continental Europe – an unfortunate remark that would later be resurrected by British propagandists to paint Germans as barbarians during World War I and World War II. On two occasions, a French-German conflict over the fate of Morocco seemed inevitable.
Upon acquiring Southwest Africa, German settlers were encouraged to cultivate land held by the Herero and Nama. Herero and Nama tribal lands were used for a variety of exploitative goals (much as the British did before in Rhodesia), including farming, ranching, and mining for minerals and diamonds. In 1904, the Herero and the Nama revolted against the colonists in Southwest Africa, killing farm families, their laborers and servants. In response to the attacks, troops were dispatched to quell the uprising which then resulted in the Herero and Namaqua Genocide. In total, some 65,000 Herero (80% of the total Herero population), and 10,000 Nama (50% of the total Nama population) perished. The commander of the punitive expedition, General Lothar von Trotha, was eventually relieved and reprimanded for his usurpation of orders and the cruelties he inflicted. These occurrences were sometimes referred to as "the first genocide of the 20th century" and officially condemned by the United Nations in 1985. In 2004 a formal apology by a government minister of the Federal Republic of Germany followed.
Middle East
Bismarck and Wilhelm II after him sought closer economic ties with the Ottoman Empire. Under Wilhelm II, with the financial backing of the Deutsche Bank, the Baghdad Railway was begun in 1900, although by 1914 it was still short of its destination in Baghdad. In an interview with Wilhelm in 1899, Cecil Rhodes had tried "to convince the Kaiser that the future of the German empire abroad lay in the Middle East" and not in Africa; with a grand Middle-Eastern empire, Germany could afford to allow Britain the unhindered completion of the Cape-to-Cairo railway that Rhodes favoured. Britain initially supported the Baghdad Railway; but by 1911 British statesmen came to fear it might be extended to Basra on the Persian Gulf, threatening Britain's naval supremacy in the Indian Ocean. Accordingly, they asked to have construction halted, to which Germany and the Ottoman Empire acquiesced.
South America
In South America, Germany's primary interest was in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay and viewed the countries of northern South America – Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela – as a buffer to protect its interest from the growing influence of the United States. Policymakers in Germany analysed the possibility of establishing bases in Margarita Island and showed interest in the Galápagos Islands but soon abandoned any such designs given that far-flung bases in northern South America would be very vulnerable. Germany attempted to promote Chile, a country that was heavily influenced by Germany, into a regional counterweight to the United States. Germany and Britain managed through Chile to have Ecuador deny the United States a naval base in the Galápagos Islands.
Claims that German communities in South America acted as extensions of the German Empire were ubiquituous by 1900 but it has never been proved that these communities acted in such way to any significant degree. German political, cultural and scientific influence was particularly intense in Chile in the decades before World War I, and the prestige of Germany and German things in Chile remained high after the war but did not recover to its pre-war levels.
Pre-war Europe
Berlin was deeply suspicious of a supposed conspiracy of its enemies: that year-by-year in the early 20th century it was systematically encircled by enemies. There was a growing fear that the supposed enemy coalition of Russia, France and Britain was getting stronger militarily every year, especially Russia. The longer Berlin waited the less likely it would prevail in a war. According to American historian Gordon A. Craig, it was after the set-back in Morocco in 1905 that the fear of encirclement began to be a potent factor in German politics." Few outside observers agreed with the notion of Germany as a victim of deliberate encirclement. English historian G. M. Trevelyan expressed the British viewpoint:The encirclement, such as it was, was of Germany's own making. She had encircled herself by alienating France over Alsace-Lorraine, Russia by her support of Austria-Hungary's anti--Slav policy in the Balkans, England by building her rival fleet. She had created with Austria-Hungary a military bloc in the heart of Europe so powerful and yet so restless that her neighbors on each side had no choice but either to become her vassals or to stand together for protection....They used their central position to create fear in all sides, in order to gain their diplomatic ends. And then they complained that on all sides they had been encircled.
Wilhelm II, under pressure from his new advisors after Bismarck left, committed a fatal error when he decided to allow the "Reinsurance Treaty" that Bismarck had negotiated with Tsarist Russia to lapse. It allowed Russia to make a new alliance with France. Germany was left with no firm ally but Austria-Hungary, and her support for action in annexing Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908 further soured relations with Russia. Berlin missed the opportunity to secure an alliance with Britain in the 1890s when it was involved in colonial rivalries with France, and he alienated British statesmen further by openly supporting the Boers in the South African War and building a navy to rival Britain's. By 1911 Wilhelm had completely picked apart the careful power balance established by Bismarck and Britain turned to France in the Entente Cordiale. Germany's only other ally besides Austria was the Kingdom of Italy, but it remained an ally only pro forma. When war came, Italy saw more benefit in an alliance with Britain, France, and Russia, which, in the secret Treaty of London in 1915 promised it the frontier districts of Austria and also colonial concessions. Germany did acquire a second ally in 1914 when the Ottoman Empire entered the war on its side, but in the long run, supporting the Ottoman war effort only drained away German resources from the main fronts.
World War I
Origins
Following the assassination of the Austro-Hungarian Archduke of Franz Ferdinand by a Bosnian Serb, the Kaiser offered Emperor Franz Joseph full support for Austro-Hungarian plans to invade the Kingdom of Serbia, which Austria-Hungary blamed for the assassination. This unconditional support for Austria-Hungary was called a "blank cheque" by historians, including German Fritz Fischer. Subsequent interpretation – for example at the Versailles Peace Conference – was that this "blank cheque" licensed Austro-Hungarian aggression regardless of the diplomatic consequences, and thus Germany bore responsibility for starting the war, or at least provoking a wider conflict.
Germany began the war by targeting its chief rival, France. Germany saw France as its principal danger on the European continent as it could mobilize much faster than Russia and bordered Germany's industrial core in the Rhineland. Unlike Britain and Russia, the French entered the war mainly for revenge against Germany, in particular for France's loss of Alsace-Lorraine to Germany in 1871. The German high command knew that France would muster its forces to go into Alsace-Lorraine. Aside from the very unofficial Septemberprogramm, the Germans never stated a clear list of goals that they wanted out of the war.
Western Front
Germany did not want to risk lengthy battles along the Franco-German border and instead adopted the Schlieffen Plan, a military strategy designed to cripple France by invading Belgium and Luxembourg, sweeping down to encircle and crush both Paris and the French forces along the Franco-German border in a quick victory. After defeating France, Germany would turn to attack Russia. The plan required violating the official neutrality of Belgium and Luxembourg, which Britain had guaranteed by treaty. However, the Germans had calculated that Britain would enter the war regardless of whether they had formal justification to do so. At first the attack was successful: the German Army swept down from Belgium and Luxembourg and advanced on Paris, at the nearby river Marne. However, the evolution of weapons over the last century heavily favored defense over offense, especially thanks to the machine gun, so that it took proportionally more offensive force to overcome a defensive position. This resulted in the German lines on the offense contracting to keep up the offensive timetable while correspondingly the French lines were extending. In addition, some German units that were originally slotted for the German far-right were transferred to the Eastern Front in reaction to Russia mobilizing far faster than anticipated. The combined effect had the German right flank sweeping down in front of Paris instead of behind it exposing the German Right flank to the extending French lines and attack from strategic French reserves stationed in Paris. Attacking the exposed German right flank, the French Army and the British Army put up a strong resistance to the defense of Paris at the First Battle of the Marne, resulting in the German Army retreating to defensive positions along the river Aisne. A subsequent Race to the Sea resulted in a long-held stalemate between the German Army and the Allies in dug-in trench warfare positions from Alsace to Flanders.
German attempts to break through failed at the two battles of Ypres (1st/2nd) with huge casualties. A series of allied offensives in 1915 against German positions in Artois and Champagne resulted in huge allied casualties and little territorial change. German Chief of Staff Erich von Falkenhayn decided to exploit the defensive advantages that had shown themselves in the 1915 Allied offensives by attempting to goad France into attacking strong defensive positions near the ancient city of Verdun. Verdun had been one of the last cities to hold out against the German Army in 1870, and Falkenhayn predicted that as a matter of national pride the French would do anything to ensure that it was not taken. He expected that he could take strong defensive positions in the hills overlooking Verdun on the east bank of the River Meuse to threaten the city and the French would launch desperate attacks against these positions. He predicted that French losses would be greater than those of the Germans and that continued French commitment of troops to Verdun would "bleed the French Army white." In February 1916, the Battle of Verdun began, with the French positions under constant shelling and poison gas attack and taking large casualties under the assault of overwhelmingly large German forces. However, Falkenhayn's prediction of a greater ratio of French killed proved to be wrong as both sides took heavy casualties. Falkenhayn was replaced by Erich Ludendorff, and with no success in sight, the German Army pulled out of Verdun in December 1916 and the battle ended.
Eastern Front
While the Western Front was a stalemate for the German Army, the Eastern Front eventually proved to be a great success. Despite initial setbacks due to the unexpectedly rapid mobilisation of the Russian army, which resulted in a Russian invasion of East Prussia and Austrian Galicia, the badly organised and supplied Russian Army faltered and the German and Austro-Hungarian armies thereafter steadily advanced eastward. The Germans benefited from political instability in Russia and its population's desire to end the war. In 1917 the German government allowed Russia's communist Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin to travel through Germany from Switzerland into Russia. Germany believed that if Lenin could create further political unrest, Russia would no longer be able to continue its war with Germany, allowing the German Army to focus on the Western Front.
In March 1917, the Tsar was ousted from the Russian throne, and in November a Bolshevik government came to power under the leadership of Lenin. Facing political opposition from the Bolsheviks, he decided to end Russia's campaign against Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria to redirect Bolshevik energy to eliminating internal dissent. In March 1918, by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the Bolshevik government gave Germany and the Ottoman Empire enormous territorial and economic concessions in exchange for an end to war on the Eastern Front. All of present-day Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania was given over to the German occupation authority Ober Ost, along with Belarus and Ukraine. Thus Germany had at last achieved its long-wanted dominance of "Mitteleuropa" (Central Europe) and could now focus fully on defeating the Allies on the Western Front. In practice, however, the forces that were needed to garrison and secure the new territories were a drain on the German war effort.
Colonies
Germany quickly lost almost all its colonies. However, in German East Africa, an impressive guerrilla campaign was waged by the colonial army leader there, General Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck. Using Germans and native Askaris, Lettow-Vorbeck launched multiple guerrilla raids against British forces in Kenya and Rhodesia. He also invaded Portuguese Mozambique to gain his forces supplies and to pick up more Askari recruits. His force was still active at war's end.
1918
The defeat of Russia in 1917 enabled Germany to transfer hundreds of thousands of troops from the Eastern to the Western Front, giving it a numerical advantage over the Allies. By retraining the soldiers in new infiltration tactics, the Germans expected to unfreeze the battlefield and win a decisive victory before the army of the United States, which had now entered the war on the side of the Allies, arrived in strength. In what was known as the "kaiserschlacht", Germany converged their troops and delivered multiple blows that pushed back the allies. However, the repeated German offensives in the spring of 1918 all failed, as the Allies fell back and regrouped and the Germans lacked the reserves needed to consolidate their gains. Meanwhile, soldiers had become radicalised by the Russian Revolution and were less willing to continue fighting. The war effort sparked civil unrest in Germany, while the troops, who had been constantly in the field without relief, grew exhausted and lost all hope of victory. In the summer of 1918, the British Army was at its peak strength with as many as 4.5 million men on the western front and 4,000 tanks for the Hundred Days Offensive, the Americans arriving at the rate of 10,000 a day, Germany's allies facing collapse and the German Empire's manpower exhausted, it was only a matter of time before multiple Allied offensives destroyed the German army.
Home front
The concept of "total war" meant that supplies had to be redirected towards the armed forces and, with German commerce being stopped by the Allied naval blockade, German civilians were forced to live in increasingly meagre conditions. First food prices were controlled, then rationing was introduced. During the war about 750,000 German civilians died from malnutrition.
Towards the end of the war, conditions deteriorated rapidly on the home front, with severe food shortages reported in all urban areas. The causes included the transfer of many farmers and food workers into the military, combined with the overburdened railway system, shortages of coal, and the British blockade. The winter of 1916–1917 was known as the "turnip winter", because the people had to survive on a vegetable more commonly reserved for livestock, as a substitute for potatoes and meat, which were increasingly scarce. Thousands of soup kitchens were opened to feed the hungry, who grumbled that the farmers were keeping the food for themselves. Even the army had to cut the soldiers' rations. The morale of both civilians and soldiers continued to sink.
Spanish Flu Pandemic
The population of Germany was already suffering from outbreaks of disease due to malnutrition due to Allied blockade preventing food imports. Spanish flu arrived in Germany with returning troops. Around 287,000 people died of Spanish flu in Germany between 1918 and 1920.
Revolt and demise
Many Germans wanted an end to the war and increasing numbers began to associate with the political left, such as the Social Democratic Party and the more radical Independent Social Democratic Party, which demanded an end to the war. The entry of the U.S. into the war in April 1917 tipped the long-run balance of power even more in favour of the Allies.
The end of October 1918, in Kiel, in northern Germany, saw the beginning of the German Revolution of 1918–1919. Units of the German Navy refused to set sail for a last, large-scale operation in a war which they saw as good as lost, initiating the uprising. On 3 November, the revolt spread to other cities and states of the country, in many of which workers' and soldiers' councils were established. Meanwhile, Hindenburg and the senior generals lost confidence in the Kaiser and his government.
Bulgaria signed the Armistice of Salonica on 29 September 1918. The Ottoman Empire signed the Armistice of Mudros on 30 October 1918. Between 24 October and 3 November 1918, Italy defeated Austria-Hungary in the battle of Vittorio Veneto, which forced Austria-Hungary to sign the Armistice of Villa Giusti on 3 November 1918. So, in November 1918, with internal revolution, the Allies advancing toward Germany on the Western Front, Austria-Hungary falling apart from multiple ethnic tensions, its other allies out of the war and pressure from the German high command, the Kaiser and all German ruling kings, dukes, and princes abdicated, and German nobility was abolished. On 9 November, the Social Democrat Philipp Scheidemann proclaimed a republic. The new government led by the German Social Democrats called for and received an armistice on 11 November. It was succeeded by the Weimar Republic. Those opposed, including disaffected veterans, joined a diverse set of paramilitary and underground political groups such as the Freikorps, the Organisation Consul, and the Communists.
Constitution
The Empire's legislation was based on two organs, the Bundesrat and the Reichstag (parliament). There was universal male suffrage for the Reichstag; however, legislation would have to pass both houses. The Bundesrat contained representatives of the states.
Constituent states
Before unification, German territory (excluding Austria and Switzerland) was made up of 27 constituent states. These states consisted of kingdoms, grand duchies, duchies, principalities, free Hanseatic cities and one imperial territory. The free cities had a republican form of government on the state level, even though the Empire at large was constituted as a monarchy, and so were most of the states. Prussia was the largest of the constituent states, covering two-thirds of the empire's territory.
Several of these states had gained sovereignty following the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, and had been de facto sovereign from the mid-1600s onward. Others were created as sovereign states after the Congress of Vienna in 1815. Territories were not necessarily contiguous—many existed in several parts, as a result of historical acquisitions, or, in several cases, divisions of the ruling families. Some of the initially existing states, in particular Hanover, were abolished and annexed by Prussia as a result of the war of 1866.
Each component of the German Empire sent representatives to the Federal Council (Bundesrat) and, via single-member districts, the Imperial Diet (Reichstag). Relations between the Imperial centre and the Empire's components were somewhat fluid and were developed on an ongoing basis. The extent to which the German Emperor could, for example, intervene on occasions of disputed or unclear succession was much debated on occasion—for example in the inheritance crisis of the Lippe-Detmold.
Unusually for a federation and/or a nation-state, the German states maintained limited autonomy over foreign affairs and continued to exchange ambassadors and other diplomats (both with each other and directly with foreign nations) for the Empire's entire existence. Shortly after the Empire was proclaimed, Bismarck implemented a convention in which his sovereign would only send and receive envoys to and from other German states as the King of Prussia, while envoys from Berlin sent to foreign nations always received credentials from the monarch in his capacity as German Emperor. In this way, the Prussian foreign ministry was largely tasked with managing relations with the other German states while the Imperial foreign ministry managed Germany's external relations.
Map and table
Other maps
Language
About 92% of the population spoke German as their first language. The only minority language with a significant number of speakers (5.4%) was Polish (a figure that rises to over 6% when including the related Kashubian and Masurian languages).
The non-German Germanic languages (0.5%), like Danish, Dutch and Frisian, were located in the north and northwest of the empire, near the borders with Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Low German was spoken throughout northern Germany and, though linguistically as distinct from High German (Hochdeutsch) as from Dutch and English, was considered "German", hence also its name. Danish and Frisian were spoken predominantly in the north of the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein and Dutch in the western border areas of Prussia (Hanover, Westphalia, and the Rhine Province).
Polish and other West Slavic languages (6.28%) were spoken chiefly in the east.
A few (0.5%) spoke French, the vast majority of these in the Reichsland Elsass-Lothringen where francophones formed 11.6% of the total population.
1900 census results
Linguistic maps
Religion
Generally, religious demographics of the early modern period hardly changed. Still, there were almost entirely Catholic areas (Lower and Upper Bavaria, northern Westphalia, Upper Silesia, etc.) and almost entirely Protestant areas (Schleswig-Holstein, Pomerania, Saxony, etc.). Confessional prejudices, especially towards mixed marriages, were still common. Bit by bit, through internal migration, religious blending was more and more common. In eastern territories, confession was almost uniquely perceived to be connected to one's ethnicity and the equation "Protestant = German, Catholic = Polish" was held to be valid. In areas affected by immigration in the Ruhr area and Westphalia, as well as in some large cities, religious landscape changed substantially. This was especially true in largely Catholic areas of Westphalia, which changed through Protestant immigration from the eastern provinces.
Politically, the confessional division of Germany had considerable consequences. In Catholic areas, the Centre Party had a big electorate. On the other hand, Social Democrats and Free Trade Unions usually received hardly any votes in the Catholic areas of the Ruhr. This began to change with the secularization arising in the last decades of the German Empire.
In Germany's overseas colonial empire, millions of subjects practiced various indigenous religions in addition to Christianity. Over two million Muslims also lived under German colonial rule, primarily in German East Africa.
Coat of arms
Legacy
The defeat and aftermath of the First World War and the penalties imposed by the Treaty of Versailles shaped the positive memory of the Empire, especially among Germans who distrusted and despised the Weimar Republic. Conservatives, liberals, socialists, nationalists, Catholics and Protestants all had their own interpretations, which led to a fractious political and social climate in Germany in the aftermath of the empire's collapse.
Under Bismarck, a united German state had finally been achieved, but it remained a Prussian-dominated state and did not include German Austria as Pan-German nationalists had desired. The influence of Prussian militarism, the Empire's colonial efforts and its vigorous, competitive industrial prowess all gained it the dislike and envy of other nations. The German Empire enacted a number of progressive reforms, such as Europe's first social welfare system and freedom of press. There was also a modern system for electing the federal parliament, the Reichstag, in which every adult man had one vote. This enabled the Socialists and the Catholic Centre Party to play considerable roles in the empire's political life despite the continued hostility of Prussian aristocrats.
The era of the German Empire is well remembered in Germany as one of great cultural and intellectual vigour. Thomas Mann published his novel Buddenbrooks in 1901. Theodor Mommsen received the Nobel prize for literature a year later for his Roman history. Painters like the groups Der Blaue Reiter and Die Brücke made a significant contribution to modern art. The AEG turbine factory in Berlin by Peter Behrens from 1909 was a milestone in classic modern architecture and an outstanding example of emerging functionalism. The social, economic, and scientific successes of this Gründerzeit, or founding epoch, have sometimes led the Wilhelmine era to be regarded as a golden age.
In the field of economics, the "Kaiserzeit" laid the foundation of Germany's status as one of the world's leading economic powers. The iron and coal industries of the Ruhr, the Saar and Upper Silesia especially contributed to that process. The first motorcar was built by Karl Benz in 1886. The enormous growth of industrial production and industrial potential also led to a rapid urbanisation of Germany, which turned the Germans into a nation of city dwellers. More than 5 million people left Germany for the United States during the 19th century.
Sonderweg
Many historians have emphasized the central importance of a German or "special path" (or "exceptionalism") as the root of Nazism and the German catastrophe in the 20th century. According to the historiography by Kocka (1988), the process of nation-building from above had very grievous long-term implications. In terms of parliamentary democracy, Parliament was kept weak, the parties were fragmented, and there was a high level of mutual distrust. The Nazis built on the illiberal, anti-pluralist elements of Weimar's political culture. The Junker elites (the large landowners in the east) and senior civil servants used their great power and influence well into the twentieth century to frustrate any movement toward democracy. They played an especially negative role in the crisis of 1930–1933. Bismarck's emphasis on military force amplified the voice of the officer corps, which combined advanced modernisation of military technology with reactionary politics. The rising upper-middle-class elites, in the business, financial and professional worlds, tended to accept the values of the old traditional elites. The German Empire was for Hans-Ulrich Wehler a strange mixture of highly successful capitalist industrialisation and socio-economic modernisation on the one hand, and of surviving pre-industrial institutions, power relations and traditional cultures on the other. Wehler argues that it produced a high degree of internal tension, which led on the one hand to the suppression of socialists, Catholics and reformers, and on the other hand to a highly aggressive foreign policy. For these reasons Fritz Fischer and his students emphasised Germany's primary guilt for causing the First World War.
Hans-Ulrich Wehler, a leader of the Bielefeld School of social history, places the origins of Germany's path to disaster in the 1860s–1870s, when economic modernisation took place, but political modernisation did not happen and the old Prussian rural elite remained in firm control of the army, diplomacy and the civil service. Traditional, aristocratic, premodern society battled an emerging capitalist, bourgeois, modernising society. Recognising the importance of modernising forces in industry and the economy and in the cultural realm, Wehler argues that reactionary traditionalism dominated the political hierarchy of power in Germany, as well as social mentalities and in class relations (). The catastrophic German politics between 1914 and 1945 are interpreted in terms of a delayed modernisation of its political structures. At the core of Wehler's interpretation is his treatment of "the middle class" and "revolution", each of which was instrumental in shaping the 20th century. Wehler's examination of Nazi rule is shaped by his concept of "charismatic domination", which focuses heavily on Hitler.
The historiographical concept of a German has had a turbulent history. 19th-century scholars who emphasised a separate German path to modernity saw it as a positive factor that differentiated Germany from the "western path" typified by Great Britain. They stressed the strong bureaucratic state, reforms initiated by Bismarck and other strong leaders, the Prussian service ethos, the high culture of philosophy and music, and Germany's pioneering of a social welfare state. In the 1950s, historians in West Germany argued that the led Germany to the disaster of 1933–1945. The special circumstances of German historical structures and experiences, were interpreted as preconditions that, while not directly causing National Socialism, did hamper the development of a liberal democracy and facilitate the rise of fascism. The paradigm has provided the impetus for at least three strands of research in German historiography: the "long 19th century", the history of the bourgeoisie, and comparisons with the West. After 1990, increased attention to cultural dimensions and to comparative and relational history moved German historiography to different topics, with much less attention paid to the . While some historians have abandoned the thesis, they have not provided a generally accepted alternative interpretation.
Military
The Empire of Germany had two armed forces:
the Imperial German Army, which included
the Imperial German Air Service, and
the Imperial German Navy
Territorial legacy
In addition to present-day Germany, large parts of what comprised the German Empire now belong to several other modern European countries.
See also
Economic history of Germany
Kingdom of Germany
List of German monarchs
List of German monarchs in 1918
References
Informational notes
Citations
Further reading
Barker, J. Ellis. Modern Germany; her political and economic problems, her foreign and domestic policy, her ambitions, and the causes of her success (1907)
Berghahn, Volker Rolf. Modern Germany: society, economy, and politics in the twentieth century (1987) ACLS E-book
Berghahn, Volker Rolf. Imperial Germany, 1871–1914: Economy, Society, Culture, and Politics (2nd ed. 2005)
Berghahn, Volker Rolf. "German Colonialism and Imperialism from Bismarck to Hitler". German Studies Review, vol. 40, no. 1 (2017) pp. 147–162 Online
Blackbourn, David. The Long Nineteenth Century: A History of Germany, 1780–1918 (1998) excerpt and text search
Blackbourn, David, and Geoff Eley. The Peculiarities of German History: Bourgeois Society and Politics in Nineteenth-Century Germany (1984)
Blanke, Richard. Prussian Poland in the German Empire (1981)
Brandenburg, Erich. From Bismarck to the World War: A History of German Foreign Policy 1870–1914 (1927) online free.
Carroll, E. Malcolm. Germany and the great powers, 1866–1914: A study in public opinion and foreign policy (1938); online at Questia ; 862pp; written for advanced students.
Cecil, Lamar. Wilhelm II: Prince and Emperor, 1859–1900 (1989) online edition ; vol2: Wilhelm II: Emperor and Exile, 1900–1941 (1996) online edition
Chickering, Roger. Imperial Germany and the Great War, 1914–1918 (2nd ed. 2004) excerpt and text search
Clark, Christopher. Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947 (2006), the standard scholarly survey
Dawson, William Harbutt. The Evolution of Modern Germany (1908), 503 pages, covers 1871–1906 with focus on social and economic history and colonies
Dawson, William Harbutt. Bismarck and state socialism; an exposition of the social and economic legislation of Germany since 1870 (1890) 175 pages
Dawson, William Harbutt. Municipal life and government in Germany (1914); 507 pages, describes the workings of local government and bureaucracy
Dawson, William Harbutt. Germany and the Germans (1894) 387pp; politics and parties, Volume 2
Eyck, Erich. Bismarck and the German Empire (1964) excerpt and text search
Fischer, Fritz. From Kaiserreich to Third Reich: Elements of Continuity in German History, 1871–1945. (1986). .
Geiss, Imanuel. German Foreign Policy, 1871–1914 (1979) excerpt
Hewitson, Mark. "Germany and France before the First World War: a reassessment of Wilhelmine foreign policy." English Historical Review 115.462 (2000): 570–606; argues Germany had a growing sense of military superiority
Holborn, Hajo. A History of Modern Germany: 1840–1945 (1969), pp. 173–532
Hoyer, Katja. Blood and Iron: The Rise and Fall of the German Empire 1871-1918 (2021)
Jefferies, Mattew. Imperial Culture in Germany, 1871–1918. (Palgrave, 2003) .
Kennedy, Paul. The Rise of the Anglo-German Antagonism, 1860–1914 (2nd ed. 1988)
Koch, Hannsjoachim W. A constitutional history of Germany in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (1984).
Kurlander, Eric. The Price of Exclusion: Ethnicity, National Identity, and the Decline of German Liberalism, 1898–1933 (2007).
Levy, Richard S. The Downfall of the Anti-Semitic Political Parties in Imperial Germany (Yale University Press, 1975).
Levy, Richard S. ed. Antisemitism: A historical encyclopedia of prejudice and persecution (2 vol Abc-clio, 2005).
Milward, Alan S. and S. B. Saul. The Development of the Economies of Continental Europe: 1850–1914 (1977) pp. 17–70.
Mombauer, Annika and Wilhelm Deist, eds. The Kaiser: New Research on Wilhelm II's Role in Imperial Germany (2003) online
Mommsen, Wolfgang. Imperial Germany 1867–1918: Politics, Culture, and Society in an Authoritarian State. (1995). .
Nipperdey, Thomas. Germany from Napoleon to Bismarck (1996) dense coverage of chief topics
Padfield, Peter. The Great Naval Race: Anglo-German Naval Rivalry 1900–1914 (2005)
Ragins, Sanford. Jewish Responses to Anti-Semitism in Germany, 1870–1914: A Study in the History of Ideas (ISD, 1980).
Retallack, James. Germany in the Age of Kaiser Wilhelm II, (1996) .
Retallack, James. Imperial Germany 1871–1918 (2008)
Rich, Norman. "The Question of National Interest in Imperial German Foreign Policy: Bismarck, William II, and the Road to World War I." Naval War College Review (1973) 26#1: 28-41. online
Ritter, Gerhard. The Sword and the Scepter; the Problem of Militarism in Germany. (4 vol University of Miami Press 1969–1973)
Richie, Alexandra. Faust's Metropolis: A History of Berlin (1998), 1139 pages, pp. 188–233
Sagarra, Eda. A Social History of Germany, 1648–1914 (1977) online
Scheck, Raffael. "Lecture Notes, Germany and Europe, 1871–1945" (2008), a brief textbook by a leading scholar
Schollgen, Gregor. Escape into War? The Foreign Policy of Imperial Germany. (Berg, 1990) .
Smith, Helmut Walser, ed. The Oxford Handbook of Modern German History (2011), 862 pp; 35 essays by specialists; Germany since 1760 excerpt
Smith, Woodruff D. The German Colonial Empire (1978
Sperber, Jonathan. The Kaiser's Voters: Electors and Elections in Imperial Germany (1997) online review
Stern, Fritz. Gold and Iron: Bismarck, Bleichroder, and the Building of the German Empire (1979) Bismarck worked closely with this leading banker and financier excerpt and text search
Steinberg, Jonathan. Bismarck: A Life (2011), a recent scholarly biography; emphasis on Bismarck's personality
Steinmetz, George (2007) The Devil's Handwriting: Precoloniality and the German Colonial State in Qingdao, Samoa, and Southwest Africa. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Taylor, A.J.P. Bismarck: The Man and the Statesman (1967) online edition
Wehler, Hans-Ulrich. The German Empire, 1871–1918. (Berg, 1985).
Wildenthal, Lora. German Women for Empire, 1884–1945 (2001)
Historiography
Berghahn, Volker Rolf. "Structure and Agency in Wilhelmine Germany: The history of the German Empire, Past, present and Future," in Annika Mombauer and Wilhelm Deist, eds. The Kaiser: New Research on Wilhelm II's Role in Imperial Germany (2003) pp. 281–293, historiography
Chickering, Roger, ed. Imperial Germany: A Historiographical Companion (1996), 552pp; 18 essays by specialists
Dickinson, Edward Ross. "The German Empire: an Empire?" History Workshop Journal Issue 66, (Autumn 2008) online in Project MUSE, with guide to recent scholarship
Jefferies, Matthew. Contesting the German Empire 1871–1918 (2008) excerpt and text search
Müller, Sven Oliver, and Cornelius Torp, ed. Imperial Germany Revisited: Continuing Debates and New Perspectives (2011)
Reagin, Nancy R. "Recent Work on German National Identity: Regional? Imperial? Gendered? Imaginary?" Central European History (2004) v 37, pp. 273–289
Primary sources
Dawson, William Harbutt. Germany at Home (1908) 275 pp; popular description of social life in villages and cities
Vizetelly, Henry. Berlin Under the New Empire: Its Institutions, Inhabitants, Industry, Monuments, Museums, Social Life, Manners, and Amusements (2 vol. London, 1879) Volume 2
External links
Ravenstein's Atlas of the German Empire , Library.wis.edu
Administrative subdivision and census results (1900/1910), Gemeindeverzeichnis.de
German Reich map of states 1913 (300 dpi)
Dissemination of the German Language 1913 (map, 300 dpi)
Dissemination of the main foreign mother tongues in the German Reich 1913 (map, 300 dpi)
Former empires
Former monarchies of Europe
Former monarchies
Modern history of Germany
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1910s in Germany
Germanic empires
States and territories established in 1871
States and territories disestablished in 1918
19th century in Germany
20th century in Germany by period | [
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12677 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallienus | Gallienus | Publius Licinius Egnatius Gallienus (; c. 218 – September 268) was Roman emperor with his father Valerian from 253 to 260 and alone from 260 to 268. He ruled during the Crisis of the Third Century that nearly caused the collapse of the empire. He won a number of military victories against usurpers and Germanic tribes, but was unable to prevent the secession of important provinces. His 15-year reign was the longest in half a century.
Born into a wealthy and traditional senatorial family, Gallienus was the son of Valerian and Mariniana. Valerian became Emperor in September 253 and had the Roman senate elevate Gallienus to the ranks of Caesar and Augustus. Valerian divided the empire between him and his son, with Valerian ruling the east and his son the west. Gallienus defeated the usurper Ingenuus in 258 and destroyed an Alemanni army at Mediolanum in 259.
The defeat and capture of Valerian at Edessa in 260 by the Sasanian Empire threw the Roman Empire into the chaos of civil war. Control of the whole empire passed to Gallienus. He defeated the eastern usurpers Macrianus Major and Lucius Mussius Aemilianus in 261–262 but failed to stop the formation of the breakaway Gallic Empire under general Postumus. Aureolus, another usurper, proclaimed himself emperor in Mediolanum in 268 but was defeated outside the city by Gallienus and besieged inside. While the siege was ongoing, Gallienus was assassinated, stabbed to death by the officer Cecropius, as part of a conspiracy.
Early life
Youth and family
The exact birth date of Gallienus is unknown. The 6th-century Greek chronicler John Malalas and the Epitome de Caesaribus report that he was about 50 years old at the time of his death, meaning he was born around 218. He was the son of Emperor Valerian and Mariniana, who may have been of senatorial rank, possibly the daughter of Egnatius Victor Marinianus, and his brother was Valerianus Minor. Inscriptions on coins connect him with Falerii in Etruria, which may have been his birthplace; it has yielded many inscriptions relating to his mother's family, the Egnatii. Gallienus married Cornelia Salonina about ten years before his accession to the throne. She was the mother of three princes: Valerian II, who died in 258; Saloninus, who was named co-emperor but was murdered in 260 by the army of general Postumus; and Marinianus, who was killed in 268, shortly after his father was assassinated. Gallienus' niece might have been Basilla of Rome, who was beheaded for her Christian faith under Valerian's reign.
Emperor
Rise to power
When Valerian was proclaimed emperor in September 253, he asked the Senate to ratify the elevation of Gallienus to caesar and augustus. He was also designated Consul Ordinarius for 254. As Marcus Aurelius and his adopted brother Lucius Verus had done a century earlier, Gallienus and his father divided the Empire. Valerian left for the East to stem the Persian threat, and Gallienus remained in Italy to repel the Germanic tribes on the Rhine and Danube. Division of the empire had become necessary due to its sheer size and the numerous threats it faced, and it facilitated negotiations with enemies who demanded to communicate directly with the emperor.
Early reign
Gallienus spent most of his time in the provinces of the Rhine area (Germania Inferior, Germania Superior, Raetia, and Noricum), though he almost certainly visited the Danube area and Illyricum in the years from 253 to 258. According to Eutropius and Aurelius Victor, he was particularly energetic and successful in preventing invaders from attacking the German provinces and Gaul, despite the weakness caused by Valerian's march on Italy against Aemilianus in 253. According to numismatic evidence, he seems to have won many victories there, and a victory in Roman Dacia might also be dated to that period. Even the hostile Latin tradition attributes success to him at this time.
In 255 or 257, Gallienus was made Consul again, suggesting that he briefly visited Rome on those occasions, although no record survives. During his Danube sojourn (Drinkwater suggests in 255 or 256), he proclaimed his elder son Valerian II caesar and thus official heir to himself and Valerian I; the boy probably joined Gallienus on campaign at that time, and when Gallienus moved west to the Rhine provinces in 257, he remained behind on the Danube as the personification of Imperial authority.
Revolts and usurpers
Ingenuus revolt
Sometime between 258 and 260 (the exact date is unclear), while Valerian was distracted with the ongoing invasion of Shapur I in the East, and Gallienus was preoccupied with his problems in the West, Ingenuus, governor of at least one of the Pannonian provinces, took advantage and declared himself emperor. Valerian II had apparently died on the Danube, most likely in 258. Ingenuus may have been responsible for Valerian II's death. Alternatively, the defeat and capture of Valerian at the battle of Edessa may have been the trigger for the subsequent revolts of Ingenuus, Regalianus, and Postumus. In any case, Gallienus reacted with great speed. He left his son Saloninus as caesar at Cologne, under the supervision of Albanus (or Silvanus) and the military leadership of Postumus. He then hastily crossed the Balkans, taking with him the new cavalry corps (comitatus) under the command of Aureolus and defeated Ingenuus at Mursa or Sirmium. Ingenuus was killed by his own guards or committed suicide by drowning himself after the fall of his capital, Sirmium.
Alemanni invasion
A major invasion by the Alemanni and other Germanic tribes occurred between 258 and 260 (it is hard to fix the precise date of these events), probably due to the vacuum left by the withdrawal of troops supporting Gallienus in the campaign against Ingenuus. Franks broke through the lower Rhine, invading Gaul, some reaching as far as southern Spain, sacking Tarraco (modern Tarragona). The Alemanni invaded, probably through Agri Decumates (an area between the upper Rhine and the upper Danube), likely followed by the Juthungi. After devastating Germania Superior and Raetia (parts of southern France and Switzerland), they entered Italy, the first invasion of the Italian peninsula, aside from its most remote northern regions, since Hannibal 500 years before. When invaders reached the outskirts of Rome, they were repelled by an improvised army assembled by the Senate, consisting of local troops (probably praetorian guards) and the strongest of the civilian population. On their retreat through northern Italy, they were intercepted and defeated in the battle of Mediolanum (near present-day Milan) by Gallienus' army, which had advanced from Gaul, or from the Balkans after dealing with the Franks. The battle of Mediolanum was decisive, and the Alemanni did not bother the empire for the next ten years. The Juthungi managed to cross the Alps with their valuables and captives from Italy. A historian in the 19th century suggested that the initiative of the Senate gave rise to jealousy and suspicion by Gallienus, thus contributing to his exclusion of senators from military commands.
Regalianus revolt
Around the same time, Regalianus, who held some command in the Balkans, was proclaimed emperor. The reasons for this are unclear, and the Historia Augusta (almost the sole resource for these events) does not provide a credible story. It is possible the seizure can be attributed to the discontent of the civilian and military provincials, who felt the defense of the province was being neglected.
Regalianus held power for some six months and issued coins bearing his image. After some success against the Sarmatians, his revolt ended when the Roxolani invaded Pannonia and killed Regalianus in taking the city of Sirmium. There is a suggestion that Gallienus invited the Roxolani to attack Regalianus, but other historians dismiss the accusation. It is also suggested that the invasion was finally checked by Gallienus near Verona and that he directed the restoration of the province, probably in person.
Capture of Valerian
In the East, Valerian was confronted with serious troubles. Bands of "Scythai" began a naval raid of Pontus, in the northern part of Asia Minor. After ravaging the province, they moved south into Cappadocia. A Roman army from Antioch, under Valerian, tried to intercept them but failed. According to Zosimus, this army was infected by a plague that gravely weakened it. In that condition, this army had to repel a new invasion of the province of Mesopotamia by Shapur I, ruler of the Sassanid Empire. The invasion occurred probably in the early spring of 260. The Roman army was defeated at the Battle of Edessa, and Valerian was taken prisoner. Shapur's army raided Cilicia and Cappadocia (in present-day Turkey), sacking, as Shapur's inscriptions claim, 36 cities.
Macrianus revolt
It took a rally by an officer named Callistus (Balista), a fiscal official named Fulvius Macrianus, the remnants of the Roman army in the east, and Odenathus and his Palmyrene horsemen to turn the tide against Shapur. The Sassanids were driven back, but Macrianus proclaimed his two sons Quietus and Macrianus (sometimes misspelled Macrinus) as emperors. Coins struck for them in major cities of the East indicate acknowledgement of the usurpation. The two Macriani left Quietus, Ballista, and, presumably, Odenathus to deal with the Persians while they invaded Europe with an army of 30,000 men, according to the Historia Augusta. At first they met no opposition.
The Pannonian legions joined the invaders, being resentful of the absence of Gallienus. He sent his successful commander Aureolus against the rebels, however, and the decisive battle was fought in the spring or early summer of 261, most likely in Illyricum, although Zonaras locates it in Pannonia. In any case, the army of the usurpers was defeated and surrendered, and their two leaders were killed.
In the aftermath of the battle, the rebellion of Postumus had already started, so Gallienus had no time to deal with the rest of the usurpers, namely Balista and Quietus. He came to an agreement with Odenathus, who had just returned from his victorious Persian expedition. Odenathus received the title of dux Romanorum and besieged the usurpers, who were based at Emesa. Eventually, the people of Emesa killed Quietus, and Odenathus arrested and executed Balista about November 261.
Postumus revolt
After the defeat at Edessa, Gallienus lost control over the provinces of Britain, Spain, parts of Germania, and a large part of Gaul when another general, Postumus, declared his own realm (usually known today as the Gallic Empire). The revolt partially coincided with that of Macrianus in the East. Gallienus had installed his son Saloninus and his guardian, Silvanus, in Cologne in 258. Postumus, a general in command of troops on the banks of the Rhine, defeated some raiders and took possession of their spoils. Instead of returning it to the original owners, he preferred to distribute it amongst his soldiers. When news of this reached Silvanus, he demanded the spoils be sent to him. Postumus made a show of submission, but his soldiers mutinied and proclaimed him emperor. Under his command, they besieged Cologne, and after some weeks the defenders of the city opened the gates and handed Saloninus and Silvanus to Postumus, who had them killed. The dating of these events was long uncertain, but an inscription discovered in 1992 at Augsburg indicates that Postumus had been proclaimed emperor by September 260. Postumus claimed the consulship for himself and one of his associates, Honoratianus, but according to D.S. Potter, he never tried to unseat Gallienus or invade Italy.
Upon receiving news of the murder of his son, Gallienus began gathering forces to face Postumus. The invasion of the Macriani forced him to dispatch Aureolus with a large force to oppose them, however, leaving him with insufficient troops to battle Postumus. After some initial defeats, the army of Aureolus, having defeated the Macriani, rejoined him, and Postumus was expelled. Aureolus was entrusted with the pursuit and deliberately allowed Postumus to escape and gather new forces. Gallienus returned in 263 or 265 and surrounded Postumus in an unnamed Gallic city. During the siege, Gallienus was severely wounded by an arrow and had to leave the field. The standstill persisted until his later death, and the Gallic Empire remained independent until 274.
Aemilianus revolt
In 262, the mint in Alexandria started to again issue coins for Gallienus, demonstrating that Egypt had returned to his control after suppressing the revolt of the Macriani. In spring of 262, the city was wrenched by civil unrest as a result of a new revolt. The rebel this time was the prefect of Egypt, Lucius Mussius Aemilianus, who had already given support to the revolt of the Macriani. The correspondence of bishop Dionysius of Alexandria provides a commentary on the background of invasion, civil war, plague, and famine that characterized this age.
Knowing he could not afford to lose control of the vital Egyptian granaries, Gallienus sent his general Theodotus against Aemilianus, probably by a naval expedition. The decisive battle probably took place near Thebes, and the result was a clear defeat of Aemilianus. In the aftermath, Gallienus became Consul three more times in 262, 264, and 266.
Herulian invasions
In the years 267–269, Goths and other barbarians invaded the empire in great numbers. Sources are extremely confused on the dating of these invasions, the participants, and their targets. Modern historians are not even able to discern with certainty whether there were two or more of these invasions or a single prolonged one. It seems that, at first, a major naval expedition was led by the Heruli starting from north of the Black Sea and leading to the ravaging of many cities of Greece (among them, Athens and Sparta). Then another, even more numerous army of invaders started a second naval invasion of the empire. The Romans defeated the barbarians on sea first. Gallienus' army then won a battle in Thrace, and the emperor pursued the invaders. According to some historians, he was the leader of the army who won the great Battle of Naissus, while the majority believes that the victory must be attributed to his successor, Claudius II.
Aureolus revolt
In 268, at some time before or soon after the battle of Naissus, the authority of Gallienus was challenged by Aureolus, commander of the cavalry stationed in Mediolanum (Milan), who was supposed to keep an eye on Postumus. Instead, he acted as deputy to Postumus until the very last days of his revolt, when he seems to have claimed the throne for himself. The decisive battle took place at what is now Pontirolo Nuovo near Milan; Aureolus was clearly defeated and driven back to Milan. Gallienus laid siege to the city but was murdered during the siege. There are differing accounts of the murder, but the sources agree that most of Gallienus' officials wanted him dead. According to the Historia Augusta, an unreliable source compiled long after the events it describes, a conspiracy was led by the commander of the guard Aurelius Heraclianus and Lucius Aurelius Marcianus. Marcianus's role in the conspiracy is not confirmed by any other ancient source.
Assassination
Cecropius, commander of the Dalmatians, spread the word that the forces of Aureolus were leaving the city, and Gallienus left his tent without his bodyguard, only to be struck down by Cecropius. One version has Claudius selected as emperor by the conspirators, another chosen by Gallienus on his death bed; the Historia Augusta was concerned to substantiate the descent of the Constantinian dynasty from Claudius, and this may explain its accounts, which do not involve Claudius in the murder. The other sources (Zosimus i.40 and Zonaras xii.25) report that the conspiracy was organized by Heraclianus, Claudius, and Aurelian.
According to Aurelius Victor and Zonaras, on hearing the news that Gallienus was dead, the Senate in Rome ordered the execution of his family (including his brother Valerianus and son Marinianus) and their supporters, just before receiving a message from Claudius to spare their lives and deify his predecessor. The tomb of Gallienus is thought to be located to the south of Rome, at the IXth mile of the Via Appia.
Legacy
Historiography
Gallienus was not treated favorably by ancient historians, partly due to the secession of Gaul and Palmyra and his inability to win them back; at the time of Gallienus' death, Palmyra was still nominally loyal to Rome, but, under the leadership of Odaenathus, was independent in nearly every other respect. Palmyra would formally secede after Odaenathus' death and the ascension of his widow Zenobia. It was not until the reign of Aurelian several years later that the breakaway provinces were truly brought back into the Roman fold. According to modern scholar Pat Southern, some historians now see Gallienus in a more positive light. Gallienus produced some useful reforms.
Coins
About 40 rare gold coins of Gallienus have been discovered as part of the Lava Treasure in Corsica, France, in the 1980s.
Military reforms
He contributed to military history as the first to commission primarily cavalry units, the Comitatenses, that could be dispatched anywhere in the Empire in short order. This reform arguably created a precedent for the future emperors Diocletian and Constantine I. The biographer Aurelius Victor reports that Gallienus forbade senators from becoming military commanders. This policy undermined senatorial power, as more reliable equestrian commanders rose to prominence. In Southern's view, these reforms and the decline in senatorial influence not only helped Aurelian to salvage the Empire, but they also make Gallienus one of the emperors most responsible for the creation of the Dominate, along with Septimius Severus, Diocletian, and Constantine I.
Decree of Toleration
The capture of Valerian in the year 259 forced Gallienus to issue the first official declaration of tolerance with regard to the Christians, restoring their places of worship and cemeteries, therefore implying a recognition of the property of the Church. However, the edict did not turn Christianity into an official religion.
In popular culture
Films
Gallienus was played by Franco Cobianchi in the 1964 film The Magnificent Gladiator.
Novels
He appears in Harry Sidebottom's historical fiction novel series Warrior of Rome.
David Drake's novel Birds of Prey takes place during Gallienus' reign.
Family tree of Licinia gens
See also
Little Peace of the Church
Thirty Tyrants (Roman)
Gallienus usurpers
Citations
References
Primary sources
Aurelius Victor, Epitome de Caesaribus
Eutropius, Breviarium ab urbe condita
Historia Augusta (Augustan History), The Two Gallieni
Joannes Zonaras, Epitome Historiarum, extract: Zonaras: Alexander Severus to Diocletian: 222–284
Zosimus, Historia Nova
Secondary sources
Lukas de Blois. The policy of the emperor Gallienus, Brill, Leiden, 1976,
Bray, John. Gallienus : A Study in Reformist and Sexual Politics, Wakefield Press, Kent Town, 1997,
Drinkwater, John F. The Gallic Empire. Separatism and Continuity in the North-Western Provinces of the Roman Empire A.D. 260–274. Franz Steiner Verlag, Wiesbaden, 1987.
Isbouts, Jean-Pierre "The Biblical World: An Illustrated Atlas" copyright 2007 National Geographic Society.
Lissner, Ivar. "Power and Folly; The Story of the Caesars". Jonathan Cape Ltd., London, 1958.
Southern, Pat. The Roman Empire from Severus to Constantine, Routledge, London and New York, 2001.
Syme, Ronald. Ammianus and the Historia Augusta, The Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1968.
Syme, Ronald. Historia Augusta Papers, The Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1983.
Watson, Alaric. Aurelian and the Third Century, Routledge, Oxon, 1999.
External links
"Valerian and Gallienus", at De Imperatoribus Romanis.
Download an Excel list of all Gallienus bronze and billon coins incl. hoard coins not in RIC etc.
210s births
268 deaths
3rd-century murdered monarchs
3rd-century Roman emperors
Crisis of the Third Century
Deified Roman emperors
Egnatii
Eponymous archons
Imperial Roman consuls
Licinii
Murdered Roman emperors
Year of birth uncertain
Sons of Roman emperors
Roman pharaohs | [
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12679 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambeson | Gambeson | A gambeson (also aketon, padded jack, pourpoint, or arming doublet) is a padded defensive jacket, worn as armor separately, or combined with mail or plate armor. Gambesons were produced with a sewing technique called quilting. They were usually constructed of linen or wool; the stuffing varied, and could be for example scrap cloth or horse hair. During the 14th century, illustrations usually show buttons or laces up the front.
An arming doublet (also called aketon) worn under armor, particularly plate armor of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Europe, contains arming points for attaching plates. Fifteenth century examples may include mail goussets sewn into the elbows and armpits to protect the wearer in locations not covered by plate. German gothic armor arming doublets were generally shorter than Italian white armor doublets, which could extend to the upper thigh. In late fifteenth century Italy this also became a civilian fashion. Men who were not knights wore arming doublets, probably because the garment suggested status and chivalry.
Etymology
The term gambeson is a loan from Old French gambeson, gambaison, originally wambais, formed after the Middle High German term wambeis "doublet", in turn from Old High German wamba "stomach" (cognate to womb).
The term aketon, originally medieval French alcottonem, might be a loan from Arabic al-qutn "cotton" (definite article – "the cotton").
In medieval Norse, the garment was known as vápntreyja, literally "weapon shirt", or panzari/panzer. Treyja is a loan from (Middle) Low German. Panzari/panzer is probably also a loan from (Middle) Low German, though the word has its likely origin in Italian, and is related to Latin pantex 'abdomen', cognate with English paunch.
History
Quilted leather open jackets and trousers were worn by Scythian horsemen before the 4th century BC, as can be seen on Scythian gold ornaments crafted by Greek goldsmiths. As stand alone, cloth armor, the European gambeson can be traced at least to the late tenth century, but it is likely to have been in use in various forms for longer than that. In Europe, its use became widespread in the thirteenth century, and peaked in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
The gambeson was used both as a complete armor unto itself and underneath mail and plate in order to cushion the body and prevent chafing. Evidence for its use under armor does not appear until the mid twelfth century. It was very insulating and thus uncomfortable, but its protection was vital for the soldier.
Although they are thought to have been used in Europe much earlier, gambesons underwent a revolution from their first proven use in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries as an independent item of armor to one that facilitated the wearing of mail, but it remained popular amongst infantry as cloth armor. Although quilted armor survived into the English Civil War in England as a poor man's cuirass, and as an item to be worn beneath the few remaining suits of full plate, it was increasingly replaced by the 'buff coat' – a leather jacket of rough suede.
There are two distinctive designs of gambeson: those designed to be worn beneath another armor, and those designed to be worn as independent armor. The latter tend to be thicker and higher in the collar, and faced with other materials, such as leather, or heavy canvas. This variant is usually referred to as padded jack and made of several (some say around 18, some even 30) layers of cotton, linen or wool. These jacks were known to stop even heavy arrows and their design of multiple layers bears a striking resemblance to modern day body armor, which substituted at first silk, ballistic nylon and later Kevlar as fabric.
For common soldiers who could not afford mail or plate armor, the gambeson, combined with a helmet as the only additional protection, remained a common sight on European battlefields during the entire Middle Ages, and its decline – paralleling that of plate armor – came only with the Renaissance, as the use of firearms became more widespread, until by the eighteenth century it was no longer in military use.
While the use of linen has been shown in archaeological evidence, the use of cotton – and cotton-based canvas – is disputed since large amounts of cotton cloth were not widely available in northern Europe at this time. It is quite probable that Egypt (and Asia-Minor generally) still produced cotton well after the 7th and 8th centuries and knowledge (and samples) of this cloth was brought to Europe by the returning Crusaders; however, the logistics and expense of equipping a town militia or army with large numbers of cotton-based garments is doubtful, when flax-based textiles (linen) were in widespread use.
Linothorax was a type of armor similar to gambeson used by ancient Greeks. Meanwhile, the Mesoamericans were known to make use of quilted textile armor called Ichcahuipilli before the arrival of the Spaniards. Another example is the bullet resistant Myeonje baegab that was created in the Joseon Dynasty in an attempt to confront the effects of Western rifles.
See also
Doublet (a.k.a. pourpoint)
Buff coat
Jack of plate
References
External links
How a man shall be armed for his ease when he shall fight on foot a translation of the mid-fifteenth century treatise on armor, translated into modern English and accompanied by pictorial references.
13th-century fashion
14th-century fashion
15th-century fashion
Medieval armour
Western plate armour
Quilting | [
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12681 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography%20of%20Afghanistan | Geography of Afghanistan | Afghanistan is a landlocked mountainous country located at the crossroads of Central and South Asia. It is also sometimes included as part of the Middle East. The country is the 40th largest in the world in size. Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan, located in the Kabul Province. With a location at the intersection of major trade routes, Afghanistan has attracted a succession of invaders since the sixth century BCE.
Afghanistan contains most of the Hindu Kush. There are four major rivers in the country: the Amu Darya, the Hari River, the Kabul River and the Helmand River. The country also contains a number of smaller rivers, lakes, and streams.
Climate
Rainfall in Afghanistan is very scarce, and mainly only affects the northern highlands, arriving in March and April. Rainfall in the more arid lowlands is rare, and can be very unpredictable. Marked characteristics are the great differences of summer and winter temperature and of day and night temperature, as well as the extent to which change of climate can be attained by slight change of place. The Afghan climate is a dry one. The sun shines for three-fourths of the year, and the nights are clearer than the days.
Taking the highlands of the country as a whole, there is no great difference between the mean temperature of Afghanistan and that of the lower Himalaya. However, a remarkable feature of the Afghan climate is its extreme temperature range within limited periods. The smallest daily range in the north is when the weather is cold; the greatest is when it is hot. For seven months of the year (from May to November) this range exceeds 17 °C (31 °F) daily. Waves of intense cold occur, lasting for several days, and one may have to endure temperatures of , rising to a maximum of . At Ghazni the snow has been known to stay long beyond the vernal equinox; the temperatures sink as low as . Oral tradition tells of the destruction of the entire population of Ghazni by snowstorms on more than one occasion. On the other hand, the summer temperature is exceedingly high, especially in the Oxus regions, where a shade maximum of is not uncommon.
The summer heat is strong in the Sistan Basin, Jalalabad and Turkestan. The simoom wind occurs in Kandahar province during the summer. The hot season is rendered more intense by frequent dust storms and strong winds; whilst the bare rocky ridges that traverse the country, absorbing heat by day and radiating it by night, render the summer nights most oppressive. In Kabul the heat is tempered occasionally by cool breezes from the Hindu Kush, and the nights are usually cool. In Kandahar snow seldom falls on the plains or lower hills; when it does, it melts at once.
The combination of hot summers and bitterly cold winters has been noted comparable to the U.S. state of Wyoming.
The summer rains that accompany the southwest monsoon in India, beat along the southern slopes of the Himalaya, and travel up the Kabul valley as far as Laghman, though they are more clearly felt in Bajour and Panjkora, under the Hindu Kush, and in the eastern branches of Safed Koh. Rain also falls at this season at the head of Kurram valley. South of this the Suliman mountains may be taken as the western limit of the monsoon's action. It is not felt in the rest of Afghanistan, in which, as in the rest of western Asia, the winter rains and snow are the most considerable. The spring rain, though less copious, is more important to agriculture than the winter rain, unless where the latter falls in the form of snow. In the absence of monsoon influences there are steadier weather indications than in India. The north-west blizzards which occur in winter and spring are the most noticeable feature, and their influence is clearly felt on the Indian frontier.
Mountain systems
The Hindu Kush mountain range reaches a height of at Noshaq, Afghanistan's highest peak. Of the ranges extending southwestward from the Hindu Kush, the Foladi peak (Shah Foladi) of the Baba mountain range (Koh-i-Baba) reaches the greatest height: . The Safed Koh range, which includes the Tora Bora area, dominates the border area southeast of Kabul.
Important passes include the Unai Pass across the Safed Koh, the Kushan and Salang Passes through the Hindu Kush, and the Khyber Pass that connects Afghanistan with Pakistan. The summit of the Khyber Pass at at Landi Kotal, Pakistan is 5 km (3 mi) east of the border town of Torkham. Other key passages through the mountainous Pakistan border include two from Paktika Province into Pakistan's Waziristan region: one at Angoor Ada, and one further south at the Gumal River crossing, plus the Charkai River passage south of Khost, Afghanistan, at Pakistan's Ghulam Khan village into North Waziristan. The busy Pak-Afghan border crossing at Wesh, Afghanistan is in a flat and dry area, though this route involves Pakistan's Khojak Pass at just from the border. The border connects Kandahar and Spin Boldak in Afghanistan with Quetta in Pakistan.
The Wakhan Corridor in the northeast lies eastward of the province of Panjshir, between the Hindu Kush and the Pamir Mountains, which leads to the Wakhjir Pass into Xinjiang in China. In Kabul, and over all the northern part of the country to the descent at Gandamak, winter is rigorous, especially so on the high Arachosian plateau.
Although Herat is approximately lower than Kandahar, the summer climate there is more temperate along with the yearly climate. From May to September, the wind blows from the northwest with great force, and this extends across the country to Kandahar. The winter is mild; snow melts as it falls, and even on the mountains does not lie long. Three years out of four at Herat it does not freeze hard enough for the people to store ice. Yet, it was not very far from Herat, in Rafir Kala, in 1750, where Ahmad Shah's army, retreating from Persia, is said to have lost 18,000 men from cold in a single night. In the northern Herat districts records of the coldest month (February) show the mean minimum as and the maximum as . The eastern reaches of the Hari River, including the rapids, are frozen hard in the winter, and people travel on it as on a road.
Rivers and lakes
Afghanistan usually does not face much water shortage because it receives snow during winter and once that melts the water runs into numerous rivers, lakes, and streams, but most of its national water flows into neighboring countries. It loses about two-thirds of its water to neighboring Pakistan, Iran, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
The nation's drainage system is largely landlocked.
Vegetation
The characteristic distribution of vegetation on the mountains of Afghanistan is worthy of attention. The great mass of it is confined to the main ranges and their immediate offshoots, whilst on the more distant and terminal prolongations it is almost entirely absent; in fact, these are naked rock and stone. On the Safed Koh alpine range itself and its immediate branches, at a height of there is abundant growth of large forest trees, among which conifers are the most noble and prominent, such as Cedrus deodara, Abies excelsa, Pinus longifolia, Pinus pinaster, Stone pine (the edible pine, although this species is probably introduced, since it is original to Spain and Portugal) and the larch. There is also the yew, the hazel, juniper, walnut, wild peach and almond. Growing under the shade of these are several varieties of rose, honeysuckle, currant, gooseberry, hawthorn, rhododendron and a luxuriant herbage, among which the ranunculus family is important for frequency and number of genera. The lemon and wild vine are also here met with, but are more common on the northern mountains. The walnut and oak (evergreen, holly-leaved and kermes) descend to the secondary heights, where they become mixed with alder, ash, khinjak, Arbor-vitae, juniper, with species of Astragalus. Here also are Indigoferae rind dwarf laburnum.
Down to there are wild olive, species of rock-rose, wild privet, acacias and mimosas, barberry and Zizyphus; and in the eastern ramifications of the chain, Nannerops ritchiana (which is applied to a variety of useful purposes), Bignonia or trumpet flower, sissu, Salvadora persica, verbena, acanthus, varieties of Gesnerae.
The lowest terminal ridges, especially towards the west, are, as it has been said, naked in aspect. Their scanty vegetation is almost wholly herbal; shrubs are only occasional; trees almost non-existent. Labiate, composite and umbelliferous plants are most common. Ferns and mosses are almost confined to the higher ranges.
In the low brushwood scattered over portions of the dreary plains of the Kandahar tablelands, it is possible to find leguminous thorny plants of the papilionaceous suborder, such as camel-thorn (Hedysarum alhagi), Astragalus in several varieties, spiny rest-harrow (Ononis spinosa), the fibrous roots of which often serve as a tooth-brush; plants of the sub-order Mimosae, as the sensitive mimosa; a plant of the rue family, called by the natives lipad; the common wormwood; also certain orchids, and several species of Salsola. The rue and wormwood are in general use as domestic medicines—the former for rheumatism and neuralgia; the latter in fever, debility and dyspepsia, as well as for a vermifuge. The lipad, owing to its heavy nauseous odour, is believed to keep off evil spirits. In some places, occupying the sides and hollows of ravines, it is found the Rose Bay, called in Persian khar-zarah, or ass-bane, the wild laburnum and various Indigoferae.
In the last several decades, 90% of forests in Afghanistan have been destroyed and much of the timber has been exported to neighboring Pakistan. As a result, large percent of Afghanistan's land could be subject to soil erosion and desertification. On the positive note, the Karzai administration and international organizations are helping counter this problem by often planting millions of saplings. Afghanistan had a 2018 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 8.85/10, ranking it 15th globally out of 172 countries.
See also
Environmental issues in Afghanistan
Valleys of Afghanistan
References
Further reading
1911 Encyclopædia Britannica– physical geography
Federal Research Division, Library of Congress. 1997. "Afghanistan: A Country Sturdy".
External links
Topographic map of Afghanistan (1 : 300 000)
Persia (Iran), Afghanistan and Baluchistan is a map from 1897
Afghanistan, Beloochistan, etc. is a map from 1893 created by the American Methodist Church | [
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12683 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauntlet | Gauntlet | Gauntlet or The Gauntlet may refer to:
Common uses
Gauntlet (glove), protective gloves used as a form of armor
Running the gauntlet, a form of physical punishment
Arts, entertainment, and media
Fictional characters
Gauntlet (comics), a Marvel Comics superhero
Gauntlet (Inhuman), a Marvel Comics supervillain
Games
Gauntlet (1985 video game), a 1985 four-player arcade game with many followups:
Gauntlet II, a 1986 arcade sequel
Gauntlet: The Third Encounter, a 1990 game for the Atari Lynx
Gauntlet III: The Final Quest, a 1991 home computer game
Gauntlet IV, a 1994 video game for the Sega Genesis
Gauntlet Legends, a 1998 arcade game
Gauntlet Dark Legacy, a 2000 arcade game
Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows, a 2005 video game
Gauntlet (2014 video game), developed by Arrowhead Game studios
Gauntlet (Nintendo DS), an unreleased remake of the first game
Gauntlet (Donald R. Lebeau video game), a 1984 shoot 'em up game for the Atari 8-bit family
Gauntlet (Micro Power video game), a 1984 Defender clone
The Gauntlet (module), an adventure module for Dungeons & Dragons
Television
Series
Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Gauntlet (2003–2004), an MTV reality television game show series
Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Gauntlet II (2005–2006), an MTV reality television game show series
Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Gauntlet III (2008), an MTV reality television game show series
Episodes
"Gauntlet" (Stargate Universe), an episode of Stargate Universe
"The Gauntlet" (Supergirl), an episode of Supergirl
"The Gauntlet," an episode of MacGyver
"The Gauntlet," the name given to the twelfth season of Mystery Science Theater 3000
Other uses in arts, entertainment, and media
Gauntlet (newspaper), published by students at the University of Calgary
"The Gauntlet" (comics), a Spider-Man storyline
The Gauntlet (film), 1977, starring Clint Eastwood and Sondra Locke
The Gauntlet (novel), a children's book, written by Ronald Welch, 1951
RVR-01 "Gauntlet", a fighter craft in the game Thunder Force V
Sports
Gauntlet for the Gold, a professional wrestling match type exclusive to TNA Wrestling
Gauntlet match, a professional wrestling match type
Other uses
Gauntlet (body piercing studio), a former California-based company, closed in 1998
Gauntlet (keyboard), a wireless glove used as a computer input device
Gauntlet track, a type of railroad track
Gloster Gauntlet, a British biplane
SA-15 "Gauntlet", a Soviet surface-to-air missile
See also | [
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12684 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand%20jury | Grand jury | A grand jury is a jury—a group of citizens—empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may subpoena physical evidence or a person to testify. A grand jury is separate from the courts, which do not preside over its functioning.
Originating in England during the Middle Ages, grand juries are only retained in two countries, the United States and Liberia. Other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most others now employ a different procedure that does not involve a jury: a preliminary hearing. Grand juries perform both accusatory and investigatory functions. The investigatory functions of grand juries include obtaining and reviewing documents and other evidence, and hearing sworn testimonies of witnesses who appear before it; the accusatory function determines whether there is probable cause to believe that one or more persons committed a particular offense within the venue of a district court.
In Ireland, they also functioned as local government authorities. In Japan, the Law of July 12, 1948, created the Kensatsu Shinsakai (Prosecutorial Review Commission or PRC system), inspired by the American system.
The grand jury is so named because traditionally it has more jurors than a trial jury, sometimes called a petit jury (from the French word petit meaning "small"). A grand jury in the United States is usually composed of 16 to 23 citizens, though in Virginia it has fewer members for regular or special grand juries.
Purpose
The function of a grand jury is to accuse persons who may be guilty of a crime, but the institution is also a shield against unfounded and oppressive prosecution. It is a means for lay citizens, representative of the community, to participate in the administration of justice. It can also make presentments on crime and maladministration in its area. Traditionally, a grand jury numbers 23 members.
The mode of accusation is by a written statement of two types:
in solemn form (indictment) describing the offense with proper accompaniments of time and circumstances, and certainty of act and person, or
by a less formal mode, which is usually the spontaneous act of the grand jury, called presentment.
No indictment or presentment can be made except by concurrence of at least twelve of the jurors. The grand jury may accuse upon their own knowledge, but it is generally done upon the testimony of witnesses under oath and other evidence heard before them. Grand jury proceedings are, in the first instance, at the instigation of the government or other prosecutors, and ex parte and in secret deliberation. The accused has no knowledge nor right to interfere with their proceedings.
If they find the accusation true, which is usually drawn up in form by the prosecutor or an officer of the court, they write upon the indictment the words "a true bill" which is signed by the foreperson of the grand jury and presented to the court publicly in the presence of all the jurors. If the indictment is not proven to the satisfaction of the grand jury, the word ignoramus or "not a true bill" is written upon it by the grand jury, or by their foreman and then said to be ignored, and the accusation is dismissed as unfounded. (The potential defendant is said to have been "no-billed" by the grand jury.) If the grand jury returns an indictment as a true bill ("billa vera"), the indictment is said to be founded and the party to stand indicted and required to be put on trial.
Origins
The first instance of a grand jury can be traced back to the Assize of Clarendon in 1166, an Act of Henry II of England. Henry's chief impact on the development of the English monarchy was to increase the jurisdiction of the royal courts at the expense of the feudal courts. Itinerant justices on regular circuits were sent out once each year to enforce the "King's Peace". To make this system of royal criminal justice more effective, Henry employed the method of inquest used by William the Conqueror in the Domesday Book. In each shire, a body of important men were sworn (juré) to report to the sheriff all crimes committed since the last session of the circuit court. Thus originated the more recent grand jury that presents information for an indictment. The grand jury was later recognized by King John in Magna Carta in 1215 on demand of the nobility.
The grand jury can be said to have "celebrated" its 800th birthday in 2015, because a precursor to the grand jury is defined in Article 61, the longest of the 63 articles of Magna Carta, also called Magna Carta Libertatum (Latin: "the Great Charter of Liberties") executed on 15 June 1215 by King John and by the Barons. The document was primarily composed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton (1150–1228). He and Cardinal Hugo de Sancto Caro developed schemas for the division of the Bible into chapters and it is the system of Archbishop Langton which prevailed. He was a Bible scholar, and the concept of the grand jury may possibly derive from Deuteronomy 25:1: "If there be a controversy between men, and they come unto judgment, that the judges may judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked." (King James Version) Thus the grand jury has been described as the "Shield and the Sword" of the People: as a "Shield for the People" from abusive indictments of the government- or malicious indictments of individuals- and as the "Sword of the People" to cut away crime by any private individual; or to cut away crime by any public servant, whether in the judicial, executive, or legislative branches.
Notable cases
On 2 July 1681, a popular statesman, Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury was arrested on suspicion of high treason and committed to the Tower of London. He immediately petitioned the Old Bailey on a writ of habeas corpus, but the Old Bailey said it did not have jurisdiction over prisoners in the Tower of London, so Cooper had to wait for the next session of the Court of King's Bench. Cooper moved for a writ of habeas corpus on 24 October 1681, and his case finally came before a grand jury on 24 November 1681.
The government's case against Cooper was particularly weak – the government admitted that most of the witnesses brought against Cooper had already perjured themselves, and the documentary evidence was inconclusive, and the jury was handpicked by the Whig Sheriff of London. For these reasons the government had little chance of securing a conviction, and on 13 February 1682, the case was dropped when the grand jury issued an ignoramus bill (a finding of deficient evidence), rather than comply with the king's intent of a true bill (a grand jury indictment).
The grand jury's theoretical function against abuse of executive power was seen during the Watergate crisis in America, in United States v. Nixon, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled eight-to-zero on 23 July 1974 (Justice William Rehnquist who had been appointed by Nixon recused himself from the case) that executive privilege applied only to the co-equal branches, the legislative and judicial, not to grand jury subpoenas, thus implying a grand jury constituted protections equaled to a "fourth branch of government". The second Watergate grand jury indicted seven lawyers in the White House, including former Attorney General John Mitchell, and named President Nixon as a "secret, un-indicted, co-conspirator". Despite evading impeachment by resigning from office, Nixon was still required to testify before a grand jury.
Similarly, in 1998, President Clinton became the first sitting president required to testify before a grand jury as the subject of an investigation by the Office of Independent Counsel. The testimony came after a four-year investigation into Clinton and his wife Hillary's alleged involvement in several scandals including Whitewater and the Rose Law Firm. Revelations from the investigation sparked a battle in Congress over whether or not to impeach Clinton.
By jurisdiction
England and Wales
The sheriff of every county was required to return to every quarter sessions and assizes (or more precisely the commission of oyer and terminer and of gaol delivery), 24 men of the county "to inquire into, present, do and execute all those things which, on the part of our Lord the King (or our Lady the Queen), shall then be commanded them". Grand jurors at the assizes or at the borough quarter sessions did not have property qualifications; but, at the county quarter sessions, they had the same property qualification as petty jurors. However, at the assizes, the grand jury generally consisted of gentlemen of high standing in the county.
After the court was opened by the crier making proclamation, the names of those summoned to the grand jury were called and they were sworn. They numbered at least 14 and not more than 23. The person presiding (the judge at the assizes, the chairman at the county sessions, the recorder at the borough sessions) gave the charge to the grand jury, i.e. he directed their attention to points in the various cases about to be considered which required explanation.
The charge having been delivered, the grand jury withdrew to their own room, having received the bills of indictment. The witnesses whose names were endorsed on each bill were sworn as they came to be examined, in the grand jury room, the oath being administered by the foreman, who wrote his initials against the name of the witness on the back of the bill. Only the witnesses for the prosecution were examined, as the function of the grand jury was merely to inquire whether there was sufficient ground to put the accused on trial. If the majority of them (and at least 12) thought that the evidence so adduced made out a sufficient case, the words "a true bill" were endorsed on the back of the bill. If they were of the opposite opinion, the phrase "not a true bill", or the single Latin word ignoramus ("we do not know" or "we are ignorant (of)"), was endorsed instead and the bill was said to be "ignored" or thrown out. They could find a true bill as to the charge in one count, and ignore that in another; or as to one defendant and not as to another; but they could not, like a petty jury, return a special or conditional finding, or select part of a count as true and reject the other part. When some bills were "found", some of the jurors came out and handed the bills to the clerk of arraigns (in assizes) or clerk of the peace, who announced to the court the name of the prisoner, the charge, and the endorsements of the grand jury. They then retired and considered other bills until all were disposed of; after which they were discharged by the judge, chairman, or recorder.
If a bill was thrown out, although it could not again be referred to the grand jury during the same assizes or sessions, it could be preferred at subsequent assizes or sessions, but not in respect of the same offense if a petty jury had returned a verdict.
Ordinarily, bills of indictment were preferred after there had been an examination before the magistrates. But this need not always take place. With certain exceptions, any person would prefer a bill of indictment against another before the grand jury without any previous inquiry into the truth of the accusation before a magistrate. This right was at one time universal and was often abused. A substantial check was put on this abuse by the Vexatious Indictments Act 1859. This Act provided that for certain offences which it listed (perjury, libel, etc.), the person presenting such an indictment must be bound by recognizance to prosecute or give evidence against the accused, or alternatively had judicial permission (as specified) so to do.
If an indictment was found in the absence of the accused, and he/she was not in custody and had not been bound over to appear at assizes or sessions, then process was issued to bring that person into court, as it is contrary to the English law to "try" an indictment in the absence of the accused.
The grand jury's functions were gradually made redundant by the development of committal proceedings in magistrates' courts from 1848 onward when the (three) Jervis Acts, such as the Justices Protection Act 1848, codified and greatly expanded the functions of magistrates in pre-trial proceedings; these proceedings developed into almost a repeat of the trial itself. In 1933 the grand jury ceased to function in England, under the Administration of Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1933 and was entirely abolished in 1948, when a clause from 1933 saving grand juries for offences relating to officials abroad was repealed by the Criminal Justice Act 1948.
Scotland
The grand jury was introduced in Scotland, solely for high treason, a year after the union with England, by the Treason Act 1708, an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain. Section III of the Act required the Scottish courts to try cases of treason and misprision of treason according to English rules of procedure and evidence. This rule was repealed in 1945.
The first Scottish grand jury under this Act met at Edinburgh on 10 October 1748 to take cognisance of the charges against such rebels as had not surrendered, following the Jacobite rising of 1745.
An account of its first use in Scotland illustrates the institution's characteristics. It consisted of 23 good and lawful men, chosen out of 48 who were summoned: 24 from the county of Edinburgh (Midlothian), 12 from Haddington (East Lothian) and 12 from Linlithgow (West Lothian). The court consisted of three judges from the High Court of Justiciary (Scotland's highest criminal court), of whom Tinwald (Justice Clerk) was elected preses (presiding member). Subpoenas under the seal of the court and signed by the clerk were executed on a great number of persons in different shires, requiring them to appear as witnesses under the penalty of £100 each. The preses named Sir John Inglis of Cramond as Foreman of the Grand Jury, who was sworn first in the English manner by kissing the book; the others followed three at a time; after which Lord Tinwald, addressing the jurors, informed them that the power His Majesty's advocate possessed before the union, of prosecuting any person for high treason, who appeared guilty on a precognition taken of the facts, being now done away, power was lodged with them, a grand jury, 12 of whom behoved to concur before a true bill could be found. An indictment was then preferred in court and the witnesses endorsed on it were called over and sworn; on which the jury retired to the exchequer chambers and the witnesses were conducted to a room near it, whence they were called to be examined separately. Two solicitors for the crown were present at the examination but no one else; and after they had finished and the sense of the jury was collected, the indictment was returned a "true bill", if the charges were found proved, or "ignoramus" if doubtful. The proceedings continued for a week, in which time, out of 55 bills, 42 were sustained and 13 dismissed.
Further Acts of Parliament in the 19th century regarding treason did not specify this special procedure and the Grand Jury was used no longer.
Ireland
In Ireland, grand juries were active from the Middle Ages during the Lordship of Ireland in parts of the island under the control of the English government (The Pale), that was followed by the Kingdom of Ireland. They mainly functioned as local government authorities at the county level. The system was so-called as the grand jurors had to present their public works proposals and budgets in court for official sanction by a judge. Grand jurors were usually the largest local payers of rates, and therefore tended to be the larger landlords, and on retiring they selected new members from the same background.
Distinct from their public works function, as property owners they also were qualified to sit on criminal juries hearing trials by jury, as well as having a pre-trial judicial function for serious criminal cases. Many of them also sat as magistrates judging the less serious cases.
They were usually wealthy "country gentlemen" (i.e. landowners, landed gentry, farmers and merchants):
From 1691 to 1793, Dissenters and Roman Catholics were excluded from membership. The concentration of power and wealth in a few families caused resentment over time. The whole local government system started to become more representative from the passing of the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840. The growing divergence of opinions can be seen in the House of Commons debate on 8 March 1861 led by Isaac Butt. Grand juries were eventually replaced by democratically elected County Councils by the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898, as regards their administrative functions.
After the formation of Irish Free State in 1922, grand juries were not required, but they persisted in Northern Ireland until abolished by the Grand Jury (Abolition) Act of the Parliament of Northern Ireland in 1969.
United States
The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States reads, "No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury..."
In the early decades of the United States, grand juries played a major role in public matters. During that period counties followed the traditional practice of requiring all decisions be made by at least 12 of the grand jurors, (e.g., for a 23-person grand jury, 12 people would constitute a bare majority). Any citizen could bring a matter before a grand jury directly, from a public work that needed repair, to the delinquent conduct of a public official, to a complaint of a crime, and grand juries could conduct their own investigations.
In that era most criminal prosecutions were conducted by private parties, either a law enforcement officer, a lawyer hired by a crime victim or his family, or even by laymen. A layman could bring a bill of indictment to the grand jury; if the grand jury found that there was sufficient evidence for a trial, that the act was a crime under law, and that the court had jurisdiction, it would return the indictment to the complainant. The grand jury would then appoint the complaining party to exercise essentially the same authority as a state attorney general has, that is, a general power of attorney to represent the state in the case.
The grand jury served to screen out incompetent or malicious prosecutions. The advent of official public prosecutors in the later decades of the 19th century largely displaced private prosecutions.
While all states currently have provisions for grand juries, today approximately half of the states employ them and 22 require their use, to varying extents. The constitution of Pennsylvania required, between 1874 and 1968, that a grand jury indict all felonies. Six states (Oklahoma, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Nevada, and Kansas) allow citizens to circulate a petition in order to impanel a grand jury.
An American federal grand jury has from 16 to 23 jurors, with twelve votes required to return an indictment. All grand jury proceedings are conducted behind closed doors, without a presiding judge. The prosecutors are tasked with arranging for the appearance of witnesses, as well as drafting the order in which they are called, and take part in the questioning of witnesses. The targets of the grand jury or their lawyers have no right to appear before a grand jury unless they are invited, nor do they have a right to present exculpatory evidence. Possibly as a result, there is a running joke in the legal profession that a grand jury could "indict a ham sandwich" if the prosecutor asked. Some sources state the joke originated from a quote by Sol Wachtler in 1985, but it is found in a newspaper article from 1979, attributed to an unnamed "Rochester defense lawyer".
Canada
Grand juries were once common across Canada. The institution of British civil government in 1749 at Nova Scotia brought the judicature system peculiar to that form, and the grand jury was inherent to it. A similar form derived in Quebec from the promise of the Royal Proclamation of 1763 that a faithful copy of Laws of England would be instituted in the North American possessions of the Crown. Archival records are found that document the presentments of a grand jury in Quebec as early as 16 October 1764. One of the chief complaints was related to the jury trial, and the use of language. The desire for English law was a driver for the division in 1791 of Quebec, as it was then known, at the Ottawa river into Upper Canada and Lower Canada, as each of the two groups (French and English) desired to maintain their traditions. In point of fact, the second law passed in Upper Canada relates to (petit) jury trial. This was continued so that Chapter 31 of the 1859 Consolidated Statutes of Upper Canada specifies the constitution of Grand and Petit Juries in the province (now known as Ontario). The colony at St. John's Island, ceded by France in 1763, and separated on 30 May 1769 from Nova Scotia, became Prince Edward Island on 29 November 1798. Prince Edward Island derived its grand jury from its administrative parent between 1763 and 1769, Nova Scotia, as did Sunbury County when it was split off in 1784 to become the Colony of New Brunswick. The Colony of British Columbia, when it was formed on 2 August 1858, instituted a grand jury, along with the Colony of the Queen Charlotte Islands (1853–1863) and the Colony of Vancouver Island (1848–1866) when the latter were absorbed by the former.
Old courthouses with the two jury boxes necessary to accommodate the 24 jurors of a grand jury can still be seen. The grand jury would evaluate charges and return what was called a "true bill (of indictment)" if the charges were to proceed. or a verdict of nolle prosequi if not. The practice gradually disappeared in Canada over the course of the twentieth century, after being the subject of extended discussions late in the 19th. It was ultimately abolished in 1984 when the Nova Scotia courts formally ended the practice. Prince Edward Island maintained a grand jury as recently as 1871.
Australia
The grand jury existed in New South Wales for a short period in the 1820s. The New South Wales Act 1823 (UK) enabled the establishment of quarter sessions, as a subsidiary court structure below that of the Supreme Court. Francis Forbes, Chief Justice, reasoned that this entailed the creation of quarter sessions as they existed in England. Thus, inadvertently, trial by jury and indictment by grand jury were introduced, but only for these subsidiary courts. Grand juries met in Sydney, Parramatta, Windsor and other places. This democratic method of trial proved very popular, but was resented by conservatives. Eventually, conservative elements in the colony were successful in having these innovations suppressed by the Australian Courts Act 1828 (UK). George Forbes, a member of the Legislative Council, unsuccessfully moved for the reintroduction of grand juries in 1858, but this was thwarted by the Attorney-General and the Chief Justice.
In South Australia and Western Australia, grand juries existed for longer periods of time. In South Australia, the first grand jury sat on 13 May 1837, but they were abolished in 1852. In Western Australia, by the Grand Jury Abolition Act Amendment Act 1883 (WA), grand juries were abolished (section 4: A Grand Jury shall not be summoned for the Supreme Court of Western Australia, nor for any General Quarter Sessions for the said Colony). This 1883 abolition Act was itself abolished by the Criminal Procedure and Appeals (Consequential and Other Provisions) Act 2004 (section 5: The Grand Jury Abolition Act Amendment Act 1883 is repealed).
The Australian state of Victoria maintained, until 2009, provisions for a grand jury in the Crimes Act 1958 under section 354 indictments, which had been used on rare occasions by individuals to bring other persons to court seeking them to be committed for trial on indictable offences. Grand juries were introduced by the Judicature Act 1874 and have been used on a very limited number of occasions. Their function in Victoria particularly relates to alleged offences either by bodies corporate or where magistrates have aborted the prosecution.
New Zealand
New Zealand abolished the grand jury in 1961.
Cape Colony
Trial by jury was introduced in the Cape Colony by Richard Bourke, Lieutenant Governor and acting Governor of the colony between 1826 and 1828. The acting Governor, who was later influential in the establishment of jury trial in New South Wales, obtained the consent of the Secretary of State for the Colonies in August 1827 and the first Charter of Justice was issued on 24 August 1827.
Jury trial was brought into practical operation in 1828 and the 1831 Ordinance 84 laid down that criminal cases would be heard by a panel of nine, selected from males aged between 21 and 60, owning or renting property to a value of £1.17s (37 shillings) per annum or having liability for taxes of 30 shillings in Cape Town and 20 shillings outside the town. Black (i.e. non-white) jurors were not entirely excluded and sat occasionally. This is not to imply, however, that juries did not operate in an oppressive manner towards the Black African and Asian residents of the Cape, whose participation in the jury lists was, in any event, severely limited by the property qualification. The property qualification was amended in 1831 and 1861 and, experimentally, a grand jury came into operation.
The grand jury was established for Cape Town alone. It met quarterly. In 1842 it was recorded that it served a district of 50,000 inhabitants and in one quarterly session there were six presentments (1 homicide, 2 assaults, 1 robbery, 1 theft, 1 fraud).
As elsewhere, the judge could use his charge to the grand jury to bring matters of concern to him to the attention of the public and the government. In May 1879 Mr. Justice Fitzpatrick, returning from circuit in the northern and western parts of Cape Colony, gave a charge to the grand jury at the Criminal Sessions at Cape Town, in which, after congratulating them upon the lightness of the calendar, he observed there were indications in the country of a growing mutual bad feeling between the races, etc. This was reported in the Cape Argus and was a subject of a question to the government in the House of Commons in London.
The grand jury continued in operation until 1885, by which time the Cape was under responsible government, when it was abolished by Act 17 of 1885 of the Cape Parliament.
France
Grand juries were established in France in 1791 under the name jury d'accusation, but they were abolished with the introduction of the Code of Criminal Instruction in 1808.
The jury law of 1791 created an eight-man jury d'accusation in each arrondissement (a subdivision of the departement) and a 12-man jury de jugement in each departement. In each arrondissement the procureur-syndic drew up a list of 30 jurors from the electoral roll every three months for the jury d'accusation. There was no public prosecutor or juge d'instruction. Instead the police or private citizens could bring a complaint to the Justice of the Peace established in each canton (a subdivision of the arrondissement). This magistrate interrogated the accused to determine whether grounds for prosecution existed and if so sent the case to the directeur du jury (the director of the jury d'accusation), who was one of the arrondissement's civil court judges, and who served in the post for six months on a rotating basis. He decided whether to dismiss the charges or, if not, whether the case was a délit (misdemeanour) or a crime (felony, i.e. imprisonable for 2 years or more). Délits went to the tribunal de police correctionnelle of the arrondissement, while for crimes the directeur de jury convoked the jury d'accusation of the arrondissement, in order to get an indictment. The directeur du jury drew up the bill of indictment (acte d'accusation) summarising the charges to be presented to the jury d'accusation. The directeur made a presentation to the jury in the absence of the accused and the jury heard the witnesses. The jury then decided by majority vote whether there were sufficient grounds for the case to go to the tribunal criminel of the departement. Between 1792 and 1795 there was no property qualification for jurors.
The functions of the jury d’accusation were prescribed in the law of 1791 passed by the Constituent Assembly and were maintained and re-enacted in the Code des Délits et des Peines of 3 Brumaire, Year 4 (25 October 1795) and this was the operative law until it was abolished in 1808. Special juries and special grand juries were originally defined in law, for cases thought to require more qualified jurors, but these were abolished in Year 8 (1799).
Belgium
From 1795 to 1808 grand juries also operated in Belgium, which was divided into French departements in October 1795.
Japan
After World War II, under the influence of the Allies, Japan passed the Prosecutorial Review Commission Law on July 12, 1948, which created the Kensatsu Shinsakai (or Prosecutorial Review Commission (PRC) system), a figure analogue to the grand jury system. However, until 2009 the PCR's recommendations were not binding, and were only regarded as advisory. Additionally, a survey conducted by the Japanese Cabinet Office in October 1990 showed that 68. 8% of surveyed Japanese citizens were not familiar with the PRC system. On May 21, 2009, the Japanese government introduced new legislation which would make the PRC's decisions binding. A PRC is made up of 11 randomly selected citizens, is appointed to a six-month term, and its primary purpose is examining cases prosecutors have chosen not to continue prosecuting. It has therefore been perceived as a way to combat misfeasance in public officials.
From 1945 to 1972 Okinawa was under American administration. Grand jury proceedings were held in the territory from 1963 until 1972. By an ordinance of the civil administration of the Ryukyu Islands promulgated in 1963, grand jury indictment and petit jury trial were assured for criminal defendants in the civil administration courts. This ordinance reflected the concern of the U.S. Supreme Court that U.S. civilians tried for crimes abroad under tribunals of U.S. provenance should not be shorn of the protections of the U.S. Bill of Rights. Indeed, the District Court in Washington twice held that the absence of the jury system in the civil administration courts in Okinawa invalidated criminal convictions.
Liberia
By article 21 of the Constitution of Liberia, 'No person shall be held to answer for a capital or infamous crime except in cases of impeachment, cases arising in the Armed Forces and petty offenses, unless upon indictment by a Grand Jury". For example, the national Port Authority's managing director was indicted by the Monteserrado County Grand Jury in July 2015, on charges of economic sabotage, theft of property and criminal conspiracy.
Grand juries in Liberia date from the time of the original constitution in 1847.
Sierra Leone
Under the administration of the Sierra Leone Company, which began in 1792, the Governor and Council or any two members thereof, being also justices of the peace, held quarter sessions for the trial of offences committed within the colony. The process for indictment etc. was the same as the practice in England or as near as possible thereto. To effect this, they were empowered to issue their warrant or precept to the Sheriff, commanding him to summon a grand jury to sit at the court of quarter sessions. Grand juries continued in operation after the transfer to the colony to the Crown in 1807.
Governor Kennedy (1852–1854) was concerned that jurors were frustrating government policy by being biased in certain cases; in particular he felt that liberated Africans on the grand jury would never convict another liberated African on charges of owning or importing slaves. He promulgated the Ordinance of 29 November 1853 which abolished the grand jury. Opposition was immediately mounted in Freetown. A public meeting launched a petition with 550 names to the Colonial Secretary in London, and the opposition declared that the Kennedy ordinance was a reproach upon the loyalty of the community. Grand juries have been considered one colonial body representative of local opinion and the Colonial Secretary's support for Kennedy upholding the abolition inspired a round of agitation for a local voice in government decision-making.
See also
Blue-ribbon committee
Civil grand jury
Examining magistrate, which has a similar function (but works differently) in countries using the inquisitorial system
Immunity from prosecution
Inquests in England and Wales
Notes
References
External links
Grand juror handbooks from the court system
U.S. Federal Grand Jury Handbook (PDF)
Handbook for Hennepin County (Minnesota) Grand Jurors (PDF)
Courts by type
Criminal procedure
Juries
History of local government in Ireland
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12686 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overview%20of%20gun%20laws%20by%20nation | Overview of gun laws by nation | Gun laws and policies (collectively referred to as firearms regulation or gun control) regulate the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification and use of small arms by civilians.
Laws of some countries may afford civilians a right to keep and bear arms, and have more liberal gun laws than neighboring jurisdictions. Countries that regulate access to firearms will typically restrict access to certain categories of firearms and then restrict the categories of persons who may be granted a license for access to such firearms. There may be separate licenses for hunting, sport shooting ( target shooting), self-defense, collecting, and concealed carry, with different sets of requirements, permissions, and responsibilities.
Gun laws are often enacted with the intention of reducing the use of small arms in criminal activity, specifying weapons perceived as being capable of inflicting the greatest damage and those most easily concealed, such as handguns and other short-barreled weapons. Persons restricted from legal access to firearms may include those below a certain age or having a criminal record. Firearm licenses may be denied to those felt most at risk of harming themselves or others, such as persons with a history of domestic violence, alcohol use disorder or substance use disorder, mental illness, depression, or attempted suicide. Those applying for a firearm license may have to demonstrate competence by completing a gun safety course and show provision for a secure location to store weapons.
The legislation which restricts small arms may also restrict other weapons, such as explosives, crossbows, swords, electroshock weapons, air guns, and pepper spray. It may also restrict firearm accessories, notably high-capacity magazines and sound suppressors. There may be restrictions on the quantity or types of ammunition purchased, with certain types prohibited. Due to the global scope of this article, detailed coverage cannot be provided on all these matters; the article will instead attempt to briefly summarize each country's weapon laws in regard to small arms use and ownership by civilians.
Vocabulary and terminology
Firearms are not defined the same way in each country.
Those laws might be classified by countries according to some specific common characteristics:
Yemen and the majority of U.S. states do not require any permit for acquisition of a majority of types of firearms, meaning that any non-prohibited person can buy them from licensed dealers.
Some countries including Austria, Liechtenstein and Switzerland are partially licensed meaning that any non-prohibited citizen can buy repeating rifles and break-action shotguns from licensed dealers and a permit is only required for handguns and semi-automatic firearms.
Some countries allow firearm ownership without a good reason or with simple declaration of reason. For example, in Austria while law requires good reason to acquire license for handgun, self-defense at home is accepted as a good reason. Canada and New Zealand do not require good reason for acquisition of most types of long guns but require for restricted weapons like handguns.
Some countries require good reason for firearm license. In some like Poland or Malta list of good reasons and conditions that must be met is explicitly stated in the law while in others like Kenya or United Kingdom law does not specify what constitutes a good reason leaving it at discretion of authorities. In some countries like China, Japan and Myanmar only very limited number of people are allowed to own firearms and few licenses are issued;
In a few countries, including Cambodia, Eritrea, and the Solomon Islands, ownership of firearms by civilians is completely prohibited.
Comparison
This section uses the expressions shall issue and may issue which are partly specific to and defined by the US system of firearm regulations.
Africa
The Bamako Declaration on an African Common Position on the Illicit Proliferation, Circulation and Trafficking of Small Arms and Light Weapons was adopted in Bamako, Mali, on 1 December 2000 by the representatives of the 51 member states of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). The provisions of this declaration recommend that the signatories would establish the illegal possession of small arms and light weapons as a criminal offence under national law in their respective countries.
Botswana
Botswana's law allows possession of shotguns and rifles only. The government has put a limit on the number of licenses issued every year – only 50 people can receive them, no matter how many apply, meaning that the acceptance rate is usually below 1%.
Currently there are 34,550 (or 1.5 per 100 people) registered firearms.
Central African Republic
Officially only 139 people have a permit to own firearms in Central African Republic, mostly members of parliament. They are entitled to possess one 12-gauge shotgun and one 9mm automatic pistol. Regardless, illegal possession and carry of firearms is widespread in country which large parts are under control of different armed groups. Anti-balaka and ex-Seleka militias possess and carry home-made shotguns, automatic rifles and rocket launchers.
Chad
Law on firearms passed in 1968 requires permit to own a firearm in Chad which must be renewed annually. This law does not specify any conditions that must be met to obtain a license except for tax stamp which must be paid, between 500 and 3000 CFA francs depending on type of firearm. Considering that in 2017 Chadian government raised 5 million francs from issuing firearm licenses it would mean that there are between 1,666 and 10,000 active firearm licenses in Chad or between 0.01 and 0.06 per 100 people.
Djibouti
Possession of firearms in Djibouti is generally prohibited except when special permits are granted in exceptional circumstances by the Head of State.
Eritrea
Firearms in Eritrea are completely prohibited for civilian use without exceptions.
Eswatini
Permitted types of firearms in Swaziland are shotguns, revolvers, pistols and rifles. To obtain a license one must get approval from the Local Chief's council, Local Station Commander, Regional Administrator, Director of Crimes at Police Headquarters, Licensing Officer/Registrar of Firearms Registry, Licensing Board and lastly the Police Station Commander. Requirements include general standing in the community. The application acceptance rate is around 57% as of 2002.
Gambia
Current law states that firearm licenses are privilege in Gambia and authorities have full discretion in issuing them.
Ghana
Firearm law in Ghana allows acquisition of shotguns and handguns (pistols and revolvers). It requires that every firearm must be reregistered every year however this is widely ignored. Out of 1,230,000 people who legally bought a gun only 40,000 are reregistering their weapons every year. Unlike other African countries, handguns are popular in Ghana. For example, in Greater Accra Region 74.4% of people who legally acquired guns in 2020 chose revolvers, while 21% chose shotguns. In the Ashanti region 45.5% chose shotguns, while 21.5% chose revolvers.
Kenya
Gun regulation in Kenya is established by the Firearms Act (Cap. 114) of Kenya. The Act states: "No person under the age of twelve years shall have in his possession any firearm or ammunition to which Part II applies, and no person under the age of fourteen years shall have in his possession any firearm or ammunition to which Part II applies other than a miniature rifle not exceeding 0.22 calibre or a shotgun the bore of which is not larger than 20 gauge, and ammunition suitable therefor, except in circumstances where he is entitled to have possession thereof without holding a firearm certificate by virtue of subsection (8), subsection (9) or subsection (10) of section 7; and no person shall part with the possession of any such firearm or ammunition to any person whom he knows or has reason to believe to be under the age of twelve or fourteen years, as the case may be, except in circumstances where that other person is entitled to have possession thereof."
The Chief Licensing Officer (CLO) has discretion to award, deny, or revoke firearm licenses. Applicants must be 21 years of age or older, pass a stringent background check for criminal activity, mental health and domestic violence, and state genuine reason(s) for their need to privately own and carry a firearm. Checks are regularly repeated, with failure to pass resulting in immediate revocation of the license. Once licensed to own a gun, no additional permit is required to carry a concealed firearm.
Lesotho
Applicants for firearm possession must have obtain a reference letter from the village chief or headman. It is later sent to local police stations for approval, then to district police for their approval, then to the National Security Service for their final approval.
Liberia
Liberia allows only possession of single barrel shotguns for hunting purposes. Private security agencies are banned from arming their employees. However, some criminals have automatic firearms, particularly AK-47s. These are believed to be leftovers from the country's decade-long intermittent civil war. Automatic firearms are also likely coming across the country's porous borders with Guinea, Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone. These countries have more liberal gun-ownership laws. All of Liberia's neighbors have experienced some form of armed conflict in the last two decades leaving them awash with illegal automatic weapons. The Emergency Response Unit (ERU), the only armed unit within the Liberia National Police, responds to armed incidents, particularly armed robbery.
Liberia Firearms and Ammunition Control Act of 2015 regulates the possession and use of small arms and light weapons in the country. The illegal possession of small arms and light weapons constitutes a first-degree misdemeanor and is punishable by a term of imprisonment of not more than a year and seizure of the illegally possessed arm or ammunition.
Mozambique
There are no licensed firearm dealers in Mozambique, therefore any person wanting to obtain one must travel to a different country (usually South Africa), purchase guns, then return, surrender them for authorities and ask them to allow them to obtain them.
Namibia
Namibia permits firearm ownership under license, which is issued on a may-issue basis. In 2017 Namibian police issued 7,647 firearm licenses from 9,239 applications, the acceptance rate therefore being around 83%. Overall there are currently 200,100 registered firearms in Namibia or 9 per 100 people. Most popular types of firearms owned by civilians are pistols (46%), rifles (34%) and shotguns (24%). Carrying unloaded concealed firearms in public is allowed.
Rwanda
In 2019 Rwanda passed a new law dealing with firearm possession. It states that authorities have total discretion when determining whether persons can own firearms and can therefore deny applications without reason, even if someone met all requirements.
Senegal
Senegal has a strict gun legislation. Applications for firearm licenses do not need to specify a reason. An application requires: copy of identity card, criminal record, medical check-up, four photos, tax stamp and personality test. Decisions should be made after a few months.
Gun ownership is very rare, however numbers are on the rise. In 2016 Senegal police issued 1000 licenses, while rejecting 250 (80% acceptance rate), compared to 456 in 2011. In 2017 it was estimated that police issued more than 7,000 total licenses (0.04 per 100 people).
Sierra Leone
In 2012 Sierra Leone legalized gun ownership after 16 years of a total ban being enforced. According to the act authorities have discretion in determining whether persons have good reasons to own firearms.
Somalia
UN embargo enacted in 1992 prohibits importation of any firearms into Somalia except for security forces. The Somali government does not allow any domestic firearm production and it doesn't license any firearm shops, effectively outlawing acquisition of firearms by civilians. However this is widely ignored and illegal possession and sale of firearms is widespread in Somalia.
Somaliland
According to 2010 gun control law residents of Somaliland are allowed to possess firearms for the purpose of defense of life and property. The law specifies pistols and AK automatic rifles as permissible while also mentioning that others can be allowed. Only one weapon of each type can be registered. Possession of more than one weapon of each type require justification and is granted only for legal persons. Permits to register a weapon are provided to people over 18 without criminal background. Permit must be renewed every year. Both citizens and residents can register firearms and they can be inherited. Sale of firearms is limited to government and licensed dealers. Weapons of war such as mortars, bombs, chemical weapons as well as supressors are prohibited. Openly carrying firearms is prohibited. Importing firearms is currently impossible due to UN embargo.
South Africa
To apply for a firearm license in South Africa applicants must pass a competency test covering the specific type of firearm that is being applied for, and a test on the South African firearm laws. Once these tests are passed one needs to apply for a competency certificate, where the South African Police Service performs a background check and an inspection of the premises where the firearm will be stored. After both tests are passed and the respective certificates are awarded, one can then apply for a firearm license in categories ranging from self-defence to professional hunting. Different license categories have different restrictions, for example the amount of ammunition owners may hold.
Americas
Argentina
Firearms in Argentina are restricted, being regulated by ANMaC (Agencia Nacional de Materiales Controlados) since October 2015. Said agency replaced RENAR (Registro Nacional de Armas de la Republica Argentina), both being a branch of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights. To own a firearm in Argentina, one must be a legitimate user. Applicants must: be 21 years of age or older, provide a medical certificate that certifies they are physically and mentally fit, complete a safety course, provide a legitimate means of income, and undergo and pass a background check. A successful applicant is fingerprinted and issued a license which has to be renewed every five years. One may not legally discharge a firearm in Argentina if they are not a legitimate user, even if that gun belongs to someone else. Once a legitimate user wants to purchase a firearm, they must provide a secure location to store the firearm(s), and give an acceptable reason for wanting a firearm – such as collecting, target shooting, hunting, business, or self-defense in the home.
Firearms must be purchased through a licensed dealer and registered with ANMaC. If a firearm is inherited, a re-registering form must be filed. There is no limit on the number of firearms owned so long as they are properly stored. Ammunition sales are recorded but unlimited.
Carry permits for licensed handgun owners are extremely difficult to obtain, and require appearing before the ANMaC board to make their case. Carry permits are renewed yearly to re-examine their "clear and present" danger, and the permit is usually revoked immediately if this danger is removed. Those dealing in money or valuables or in private security may be issued a business carry permit.
Handguns above .32 calibre are conditional-use; fully automatic handguns are prohibited to civilians. Bolt-action rifles above .22, long rifles and semi-automatic rifles above .22, and long rifles with a non-detachable magazine are conditional-use; fully automatic rifles and semi-automatic rifles above .22, and long rifles with detachable magazines are prohibited. Semi-automatic shotguns and shotguns with barrels between long are conditional-use; fully automatic shotguns and shotguns with barrels under are prohibited.
Belize
Permanent residents or citizens of Belize are allowed to own a gun after a background check. The maximum caliber is 9mm, and you can have only 100 rounds at any one time. Licenses are available to farmers to have shotguns to protect livestock, as well as for hunting and personal protection. Firearms may be imported but must be declared before arrival. Imported guns will be impounded by the police and registered before a license is granted.
Brazil
All firearms in Brazil are required to be registered. The minimum age for ownership is 25,
and certificates of aptitude and mental health are required prior to the acquisition of a firearm and every ten years thereafter.
It is generally illegal to carry a firearm outside your residence, commerce/store or farm.
Executive Order 5.123, of 1 July 2004
allows the Federal Police to confiscate firearms which are not possessed for a valid reason;
The total number of firearms in Brazil is thought to be between 14 million and 17 million
with an estimated 9 million being unregistered.
In a 2005 referendum, Brazilians voted against a government proposal for a total ban on the sales of firearms to private citizens. Since then, government kept pushing politics towards disarming the population, but reports show an increase on the number of crimes.
In January 2019 President Bolsonaro signed an executive order which loosened Brazil's gun laws by removing the police's discretionary power to reject license applications.
Currently there are more than one million guns legally registered by civilians.
Canada
Canada's firearm laws are stated in the Firearms Act. The possession and acquisition licence (PAL) is distributed by the RCMP (federal police) and requires taking a firearms safety course and passing a test, a background check, and reference interviews. The PAL allows purchase of most popular sporting rifles and shotguns. A Restricted-PAL (RPAL) has an additional course for restricted weapons, which have increased storage requirements.
The two main reasons for owning firearms are target shooting and hunting.
Carrying firearms for self-defense against human threats is prohibited without a permit. These permits are typically only issued to Police, and those in a profession that involves carrying valuable goods, such as armoured car personnel. The RCMP is also able to issue an Authorization to Carry permit to private individuals on the basis that a person's life is in imminent danger and police protection is inadequate. These permits are seldom issued. In the 1990s, Toronto City Councillor Norm Gardner was revealed to hold such a permit when he shot a man who was committing a robbery. As of October 2018, only two permits for protection of life were actively issued in the country.
An Authorization to Carry permit can be obtained for protection against wild animals. However these are only issued to a licensed professional trapper, or to people in a profession that exposes them to dangerous animals in remote areas. However the applicant must prove why carrying a rifle or shotgun isn't possible, and they must choose a firearm that is appropriate for the circumstances.
In Canada, firearms fall into one of three categories:
Non-Restricted: Long guns with an overall length greater than and semi-automatics with a barrel longer than . These can be possessed with an ordinary PAL, and are the only class of firearms which can be used for hunting.
Restricted: This includes handguns with barrel lengths greater than 4.1 inches (105 mm), and long guns which do not meet the length requirements for non-restricted but are not prohibited. These guns require ATTs, so can only be discharged at ranges.
Prohibited: These weapons generally cannot be possessed by civilians, and include fully automatic weapons and many military arms, military-grade assault weapons, and handguns with barrel length equal to or shorter than 4.1 inches (105 mm), and those chambered for .25 and .32 cartridges. Normally, the only way to possess these is by being grandfathered in or through inheritance. Most magazines for semi-automatic long guns capable of holding more than 5 centerfire cartridges or 10 rounds for handguns are prohibited.
Restricted and Prohibited firearms can only be used at an approved shooting range, and cannot be used for hunting. Transportation of firearms that meet these classifications are restricted by an Authorization to Transport (ATT) permit, and they can only be transported to and from approved ranges in a locked case.
Non-citizens may obtain a non-resident firearms declaration from a customs officer, for a temporary 60-day authorization to bring a non-prohibited firearm into Canada.
Chile
In Chile, the 103rd article of the Constitution declares gun ownership as a privilege granted in accordance to a special law. Firearms are regulated by the police. Civilian gun ownership is allowed by law but discouraged by authorities, with regular press statements and campaigns denouncing the dangers of possessing firearms.
Police-issued firearm permits require applicants to be 18 years of age, provide a mental health certificate issued by a psychiatrist, have a clean criminal record with no domestic violence accusations, and pass a written test on firearm safety and knowledge. Final approval lies in a district police commander, who can deny the permit in "justified cases" not detailed by the law. There are five types of permits:
A defense permit allowing ownership of 2 firearms which must remain at the declared address.
A hunting permit requiring a hunting license, and allowing up to 6 firearms.
A sporting permit requiring membership in a registered gun club, and also allowing up to 6 firearms. It is possible for those under 18 years of age to obtain this permit.
A collection permit allows an unlimited number of firearms to be owned, and does allow the holder to possess ammunition.
Each of these permits has limits on types of firearms used, and allows for a police-issued permit to buy a specified quantity of appropriate ammunition from a specific gun shop. Transport permits are required to take firearms from the permit-holder's residence to a specified shooting range or hunting ground, and are valid for two years. Transported firearms must be unloaded and not attached to the body.
A self-defense permit allows carrying a firearm for protection against specific human threats. Such permits are valid for one year, but as the police commander can deny applications without stating a reason, they are very rarely issued. Automatic firearms are forbidden for civilian use.
Cuba
Gun control law enacted in 2008 in Cuba divides firearm licenses in to six categories:
First self-defense permit allows possession and carry of pistols or revolvers. It is issued for people who require them due to their job in security or who are authorized by the Ministry of Interior,
Second self-defense permit allows carry of pistols, revolvers and shotguns by employees of security companies during their duty,
Hunting permit allows possession of shotguns,
Sport shooting permit allows possession, carry and use in authorized places of rifles, shotguns, pistols and revolvers,
Fifth permit allows possession, carry and use of firearms for the hunting, sport shooting and scientific purposes by legal entities.
Collection permit allows possession of firearms with historical value.
Colombia
Article 3 of Colombia's firearm law states that civilians may possess firearms only via permit issued at discretion of the competent authority.
In 1993, Colombia legislated gun ownership, effectively establishing a government licensing monopoly. In 2016, president of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos signed an executive order suspending civilians from carrying firearms, with some exceptions including security details, hunting, private defense and collection. It was extended in 2018 by newly elected president Ivan Duque, albeit with the added stipulation: "for reasons of emergency or security [...] taking into consideration among other factors, the particular circumstances of each application". A legal challenge to this modification has been prepared.
Costa Rica
Only citizens and permanent residents of Costa Rica are allowed to possess firearms: handguns (up to three), rifles (up to three for sporting use; hunting is illegal in Costa Rica), and semi-automatic weapons between the calibers of 5.6 to 18.5 millimeters.
To bring your guns you must apply with the Ministry of Public Security and declare it when you arrive to the customs department, who will hold it until you go through the registration process. You can purchase firearms from a licensed gun shop or private individual. Gun owners must have a clean criminal record in Costa Rica and must pass a psychological exam.
El Salvador
Salvador laws aims to allow and regulate civilian possession of firearms. In order to get a firearm license one must have no criminal records, be at least 21 years of age (24 for a carry license), pay tax stamp (around $32 dollars) and undergo a written test. The process takes around three hours in total. In 2017 there were 344,587 registered firearms in El Salvador, or 5.6 per 100 people.
Greenland
Possession on most long guns is allowed without a permit in Greenland, while semi- and fully-automatic firearms and handguns require a permit. In 2018, proposed amendment to firearm law would raise the minimum age to purchase guns to 16.
Haiti
The constitution of Haiti provides citizens with the constitutional right to possess firearms at home. However, due to the collapse of a licensing system, no new licenses are issued except for ex-members of military. The Firearm registry has also ceased to exist, but the constitutional right to possess firearms remain in effect regardless of system outages.
Honduras
Gun laws in Honduras are stated in the Act on the Control of Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives and Other Related Material of 2000.
In April 2002, the National Arms Registry was formed, requiring all citizens to register their firearms with the Ministry of Defense.
In 2003, a ban on certain “assault rifles” was passed, restricting citizens from possessing military-style rifles such as the AK-47 and the M-16.
In 2007, an additional decree suspended the right to openly carry a firearm in public, and limited the number of firearms a person can possess.
Jamaica
Gun laws in Jamaica are stated in the Firearms Act and regulated by the Firearms Licensing Authority.
Applicants must pass a police background check and complete a certification process to obtain a firearms license for shotguns, handguns and rifles. Shotguns and rifles for hunting or sport-shooting purposes are easier to obtain than handguns. Fully automatic weapons are prohibited. Handguns are limited to those under .45 calibre for revolvers or 10 mm for pistols. Ammunition purchases are limited to 250 rounds per year for shotguns and 50 for handguns, with applications for additional ammunition generally granted during the hunting season. A gun safe is required for storage of all firearms and ammunition. Once licensed, no additional permit is required to carry a firearm open or concealed, unless the carrying of firearms has been temporarily prohibited under section 22 of the Act.
Mexico
Under the Mexican Constitution, Article 10, citizens and legal residents have the right to own and carry arms, but may only carry them in accordance with police regulations, i.e. Article 32 of the "Ley Federal de Armas de Fuego y Explosivos".
Applicants must: have a clear criminal record; proven income and residence (i.e.: cannot be homeless); undergone compulsory military service; a clean bill of health (including drug tests); justified the weapon's use; be employed.
New firearms are purchased through the Ministry of Defense. Prohibited weapons include: large-calibre handguns; shotguns with barrels shorter than or bore greater than 12 gauge; and rifles which are fully automatic or of large calibre. One handgun is permitted for home defense, but it must be registered within 30 days of purchase. For hunting and sport shooting, up to nine long guns and one handgun is permitted, requiring membership in a hunting or shooting club. Collectors may be authorized to possess additional and prohibited weapons.
A carry license may be issued to those employed by private security firms, and certain weapons are exclusive to the armed forces. Licenses must be renewed biennially.
Panama
Obtaining firearms in Panama requires a Firearms Possession Certificate (FPC), which requires: criminal background check, drugs test, psychological test and firearms training. The minimum age to own a firearm is 18. The FPC allows the owner to move the firearms, unloaded and stowed, to and from a gun range. At least 6 hours of annual gun range practice is mandatory. There are no firearm caliber nor magazine capacity restrictions and all kinds of semiautomatic weapons are allowed for civilian ownership. Automatic weapons may only be owned by the state. Ammunition is restricted by type. Tracer, incendiary, armor-piercing and explosive ammunition is prohibited to civilians. An FPC is valid for 10 years.
Concealed carry of firearms is allowed through a Firearms Carry License (FCL). An FCL has the same requirements as an FPC, but carrier must be at least 21 years of age. Only handguns, such as pistols and revolvers, are permitted for concealed carry; however, up to two handguns may be carried loaded simultaneously. An FCL is valid for 4 years.
The Public Security Ministry handles all firearm matters. All legally owned firearms must be registered to their owners and appear on their permits. Direct or private handover of firearms is prohibited. A buyer must submit an application to the Security Ministry which, if approved, will deliver the updated permits and the firearms directly to the owner. No private owner may take out a firearm directly from a dealer. A shall-issue permit policy apply for all permits; the state must issue a permit if applicant meets all requirements. Firearm applications must be resolved in 30 business days or less.
Importation of firearms is only allowed to authorized local dealers. An individual may not privately import his/her own firearms while immigrating from another country. Firearms may temporarily be taken out of the country for sport events or repairs.
Firearms are regulated by Article 312 of the Panamanian Constitution of 1972 and the General Firearms, Ammunition and Related Materials Act (Law 57 of 2011).
Paraguay
In order to get a firearm possession license one must have no criminal records, be at least 22 years of age, and obtain certificate of safely handling a firearm. Carry permit requires a good reason. Automatic weapons are prohibited. As of 2014, there are 392,000 registered firearms and 1,961 carry permits issued to civilians.
United States
In the United States, gun laws are found in a number of federal statutes, enforced by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). The right to keep and bear arms is protected by the Second Amendment to the Constitution since 1791, although there was a lack of clear federal court rulings defining the right in relation to militia service until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it protects any individual's right to keep and bear arms unconnected with service in a militia for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home, in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008). This was followed up by the Supreme Court affirming in McDonald v. City of Chicago (2010) that the Second Amendment is incorporated by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and thereby applies to state and local laws as well as federal laws. Most state constitutions also guarantee this right, although there is some variance across the country as both federal and state laws apply to firearm possession and ownership. Fully-automatic firearms (or machine guns) are allowed only if they were manufactured before 1986, and a $200 tax stamp is paid. There is no officially disclosed waiting period, but applicants generally must wait for 9-12 months for approval. Additionally, applicants must have their fingerprints recorded. Since civilians are only allowed to own machine guns manufactured before 1986, unless they obtain an SOT license "Special Occupational Taxpayer". Their market value has risen into the tens of thousands of dollars.
Law varies greatly from state to state, both in its scope and in its range.
Per 18 U.S. Code § 922 – Unlawful Acts, persons are prohibited from possessing firearms or ammunition if:
they have been convicted of a felony, or any other crime for which they could have been sentenced to more than a year in prison, or are under indictment for such
they are a fugitive from justice
they have been convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence
they are an unlawful user of, or addicted to, any illegal controlled substance
they have been adjudicated mentally defective
they have been discharged from the Armed Forces under dishonorable conditions
they have renounced their United States citizenship
The carrying of weapons, either openly or concealed, is regulated by the states, and these laws have changed rapidly over the past decade. , most states allow you to carry without a permit or grant licenses on a shall-issue basis to qualified applicants. A few states leave the issuance of carry permits to the discretion of issuing authorities (called may-issue), and a few states plus Washington, D.C. ban open-carry in general. Under the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act, current and former law enforcement officers can carry anywhere (except private property where they are subject to the rules of the owner and gun-free public places like schools) as long as they carry a photo id from their agency and have completed yearly training from said agency.
Uruguay
Uruguayan law allows for firearm possession on a shall-issue basis. These firearms must be of a caliber smaller than .50 BMG. Carry permits are issued on a may-issue basis, which in practice is no-issue except for people working as private security guards. Policemen and military can carry their firearms while off-duty without the need for a licence. The legal carrying of firearms must always be in a concealed manner, no open carry is allowed. In recent times, politicians from the governing coalition have expressed their intentions of allowing the issuing of concealed carry permits to civilians. With approximately 35 civilian firearms per 100 people, Uruguay is the eighth most armed country in the world and most armed in Latin America.
Venezuela
During the dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gómez, in 1914, a disarmament decree in the Federal District was enacted, and later in 1919, a disarmament law was decreed, ordering every weapon owner to give them away to the authorities; the only exceptions were machetes and hunting shotguns. The official justification offered was to diminish crime, but the law was ultimately used to disarm the population and to prevent possible uprisings. Historian Manuel Caballero argued that while Gómez's final intention was to prevent his enemies from obtaining weapons, the law contributed to avoid civil wars in Venezuela for the next century.
In 2012 Venezuela banned private sales of firearms and ammunition hoping to lower crime rates. The Army, police, and certain groups trusted by the government (colectivos) are exempted from the ban and can buy firearms from state-owned manufacturers. In 2013 Venezuela stopped issuing new firearm licenses. In 2017 government banned carrying firearms in public places.
Asia
Afghanistan
Automatic rifles are restricted to government forces and security companies in Afghanistan. Handguns, while allowed, are mostly issued for important people. Non-automatic rifles can be obtained for sports and hunting. Rules regarding shotguns and antique firearms are most permissive with no good reason required. Shotguns including pump-action shotguns are popular in some regions as self-defense weapons.
Bangladesh
Gun laws are very restrictive in Bangladesh. Only people over the age of 25 (30 for handguns) and under 60 who pay taxes can apply for firearm licence. Self-defence is only accepted reason and requires proving danger to life. Legal owners can only own one long gun (shotgun or rifle) and one handgun (pistol or revolver). They cannot work as security guards.
Brunei
Firearms are prohibited for citizens. Military and police personnel may apply for a licence to keep a private firearm by establishing a genuine reason, such as sport shooting or gun collecting.
Cambodia
Firearms are completely prohibited for civilian use without exceptions since 1999.
People's Republic of China
Gun ownership in the People's Republic of China (PRC) is regulated by law. Generally, private citizens are not allowed to possess guns. Civilian ownership of guns is largely restricted to authorized, non-individual entities, including sporting organizations, authorized hunting reserves, and wildlife protection, management and research organizations. The chief exception to the general ban on individual firearm ownership is for the purpose of hunting.
Illegal possession or sale of firearms may result in a minimum punishment of three years in prison, and penalties for the trafficking of "arms and ammunition or other military materials to an enemy during war time" include life imprisonment.
Hong Kong and Macau
In Hong Kong and Macau, gun ownership is tightly controlled and possession is mainly in the hands of law enforcement, military, and private security firms (providing protection for jewelers and banks). Under Section 13 of Cap 238 Firearms and Ammunition Ordinance of Hong Kong, a license is required for unrestricted firearms and ammunition. A license may be issued after a rigorous process to check for criminal records or a history of mental illness. License holders may store other firearms at home in a locked box, but ammunition must be kept at different premises. Only fully automatic firearms appear prohibited; those found in possession without a license could be fined at level 6 of the standard scale ("Maximum fine of HKD $100,000") and face imprisonment for up to 14 years.
East Timor
Under East Timorese law, only the military and police forces may possess, carry and use firearms.
In late June 2008, the Prime Minister, Xanana Gusmão, introduced a proposed gun law to Parliament for "urgent debate", pushing back scheduled budgetary discussions. The new law, which would allow civilians to own guns, sparked heated debates in the East Timorese parliament. The United Nations, which has a peacekeeping force deployed in the nation, also expressed concerns over the new law. The law was defeated in the Parliament.
India
Guns in India are regulated by law. The Arms Act, 1959 and the Arms Rules 1962 prohibit the sale, manufacture, possession, acquisition, import, export, and transport of firearms and ammunition unless under a license, which is difficult to obtain. The Indian Government has a monopoly over the production and sale of firearms, with the exception of some breech-loading smooth-bore shotguns, of which a limited number may be produced and imported. The Arms Act classifies firearms into two categories: Prohibited Bore (PB) and Non-Prohibited Bore (NPB), where all semi-automatic and fully automatic firearms fall under the Prohibited Bore category. The Arms Act of 1962 added to the Prohibited bore category, any firearm which can chamber and fire ammunition of calibers .303, 7.62 mm, .410, .380, .455, .45 rimless, or 9 mm. Smooth-bore guns having barrels shorter than 20 Inches (508 mm) are also specified as Prohibited guns.
Licenses for acquisition and possession of both PB and NPB firearms could be given by a state government or district magistrate before 1987. Since that year, issuing of licenses for PB firearms became the responsibility of the central government. Licenses are valid for five years and may be renewed after the term. The sale of firearms requires both the selling and purchasing party to possess a permit.
The criteria considered during issuing of NPB firearm permits are whether the applicant faces a threat to their life. PB firearms criteria are more stringent, often for persons in government positions who face immediate danger or threats, those whose occupations involve open threats and danger, and their immediate family members. PB licenses were tightened since 2014, when otherwise-eligible persons started to be frequently rejected on basis of national security grounds. Exceptions are made for defense officers, who are allowed to keep firearms without licenses under the Defence Service rule, and a handful of professional shooters.
Firearm licenses are issued on a may-issue basis and approximately half of applications are accepted. For example, between April 2015 and March 2016 authorities in Mumbai rejected 169 out of 342 firearm applications.
Indonesia
In Indonesia, gun licenses are only issued to civilians employed in a profession that involves using firearms, such as in the military and law enforcement, with an exception made for politicians and businessmen.
Applicants must be over the age of 21 to obtain a firearms license, and go through a background check and mental evaluation. They must also state a genuine reason for wanting to own a firearm, which can include hunting, target shooting, collecting, security, and self-defense. All firearms must be registered. Gun permits are valid for five years and may be renewed.
Civilians cannot possess military weapons, but may possess long rifles. Handguns can only be used for sport-shooting and hunting. In 2012 however, it was claimed that police had been issuing permits to regular citizens.
Iraq
In 2012, Iraq relaxed its gun laws. The "possession of one rifle or pistol per home" was allowed via simple registration at local police stations.
In 2017, the law was relaxed once again. The possession and carrying of handguns, semi-automatic and fully automatic firearms and other weapons for self-defense, hunting and sport shooting purposes was allowed. Firearm licenses require official authorization and identity cards.
Israel
Gun laws in Israel are comprehensive despite soldiers being allowed to carry their service weapons on or off duty. Civilians must obtain a firearms license to lawfully acquire, possess, sell or transfer firearms and ammunition. In 2018, Israel significantly loosened firearms restrictions, allowing all citizens who had undergone combat training and qualified in Advanced Infantry Training ('Rifleman "07"') to apply for a private handgun license.
Prior to 2018, only a small group of people had been eligible for firearms licenses: certain retired military personnel, police officers or prison guards; residents of settlements (in the West Bank) or those who often work in such towns; and licensed hunters and animal-control officers. Age requirements vary: 21 for those who completed military service or civil service equivalent, 27 otherwise, and 45 for non-citizens. Firearm license applicants must have been a resident of Israel for at least three consecutive years, pass a background check (criminal, health, and mental history), establish a genuine reason for possessing a firearm (such as self-defense, hunting, or sport), and pass a weapons-training course. Around 40% of applications for firearms permits were rejected.
Those holding firearms licenses must renew them and pass a shooting course every three years. Security guards must pass these tests to renew their license to carry firearms belonging to their employers. Applicants must demonstrate that they have a safe at their residence in which to keep the firearm. Permits are given only for personal use, and holders for self-defense purposes may own only one handgun and purchase an annual supply of 50 cartridges (although more may be purchased to replace rounds used at a firing range).
In addition to private licenses of firearms, organizations can issue carry-licenses to their members or employees for activity related to that organization (e.g. security companies, shooting clubs, other workplaces). Members of officially recognized shooting clubs (e.g.: practical shooting, Olympic shooting) are eligible for personal licenses allowing them to possess additional firearms (small bore rifles, pistol caliber carbines, handguns, air rifles and air pistols) and ammunition after demonstrating a need and fulfilling minimum membership time and activity requirements. Unlicensed individuals who want to engage in practice shooting are allowed supervised use of shotguns and small bore rifles at firing ranges.
Most individuals who are licensed to possess handguns may carry them loaded in public, concealed or openly.
In 2005, there were 237,000 private citizens and 154,000 security guards licensed to carry firearms. Another 34,000 Israelis own guns illegally due to their failure to renew their firearms license. In 2007, there were estimated to be 500,000 licensed small arms held by civilians, in addition to 1,757,500 by the military, and 26,040 by the police.
Japan
The weapons law of Japan begins by stating "No one shall possess a firearm or firearms or a sword or swords", and very few exceptions are allowed.
Citizens are permitted to possess firearms for hunting and sport shooting, but only after submitting to a lengthy licensing procedure. As part of the procedure, a shooting-range test must be passed with a "mark of at least 95%". A mental-health evaluation taking place at a hospital, and a thorough background check where one's family and friends are interviewed, are also part of the procedure.
A gun license expires after three years, after which license tests must be repeated. After ten years of shotgun ownership, a license-holder may apply to obtain a rifle.
Japan has been described as the country with "perhaps the first ever gun buyback initiative" in 1685, and is the first nation to have imposed gun laws in the world; as such, gun ownership is very rare: 0.6 guns per 100 people in 2007. When mass killings occur, they are often perpetrated by assailants wielding knives or other means, not guns. In 2014, Japan saw 6 gun deaths.
Each prefecture in the country can operate a total of three gun shops. New cartridges can only be purchased after turning in expended cartridges. In turn, new magazines can be bought only by trading in old ones. If a gun owner dies, their relatives must surrender their firearms. Off-duty police are not allowed to carry weapons, and arrests are generally made without firearms; instead, police are expected to be proficient in judo.
Jordan
According to Jordanian law on gun control passed in 1952 Jordanian residents are allowed to keep rifles and handguns at their home with amount of ammunition necessary for self-defense provided they obtain a permit. Permits are denied for people under 21 and convicted of any crimes. Possession and carrying of automatic firearms require special permit.
In 2019 law was proposed that would ban both semi- and fully-automatic firearms in Jordan.
Kuwait
Firearms may be licensed to a citizen (or foreigner recommended by the Minister of Interior) who is at least 25 years old and fully capable of handling a weapon, with no criminal record, who is not a suspect or under police surveillance, and who has a source of income.
Hunting shotguns are the most commonly licensed weapons. Rifles chambered for .22 long rifle are also common, with hunting rifles being more difficult to obtain. Handguns are only allowed for VIPs. Automatic rifles and machine guns are not legally permitted for civilian possession.
Lebanon
In the Lebanese Republic, ownership of any firearm other than handguns, hunting arms or antiques is illegal and only the latter two are permitted to leave the owner's home. Disregard for this law is prevalent. Lebanon does not officially grant the right to bear arms, but it is a firmly held cultural belief in the country. Firearm licenses are granted to certain individuals, but the test is not open to the public and requires a particular need to be demonstrated.
Gun control has been largely unsuccessful in Lebanon due to a historic context of gun availability and usage, a lack of effective central government control or authority over many parts of the country, and the tumultuous nature of the region. Although gunsmithing was once prominent in the region, it has all but ceased since the mid-1930s, yet it remains legal with a permit. Lebanon has come to be one of the largest arms markets in the Middle East.
Lebanon ranks 58th worldwide for privately owned firearms per capita.
Malaysia
The Arms Act (1960) requires Malaysian citizens to have a license for the manufacture, import, export, repair, or ownership of firearms. A firearm license can only be granted by the Chief Police Officer of a state. Discharging a firearm in crimes such as extortion, robbery, resisting arrest and house-breaking is punished by the death penalty. Exhibiting a firearm for any of the scheduled offences (without discharging) carries a penalty of life imprisonment and caning of not less than six strokes. Possession of unlawful firearms carries a sentence of up to fourteen years in prison and caning. While the general public cannot obtain a gun through legal means, a black market for guns does exist.
Mongolia
Mongolia currently observes a law on firearms passed in 2001 which allows anyone to apply for a firearm license, which may be issued after 21 days.
There are 46,982 (or 1.6 per 100 people) registered firearms in Mongolia including 44,306 for hunting, 1,598 for security and ward use, 619 for sports training, 260 as "art" firearms and 199 for collection purposes.
Myanmar
Possession of firearms for civilians is generally prohibited except Chin hunters.
Nepal
Nepal allows firearm ownership if an applicant can provide sufficient reason, for example hunting or self-defense.
There are 34,315 (or 0.1 per 100 people) registered firearms in Nepal including 13,892 shotguns, 312 pistols and 118 revolvers.
North Korea
According to 2009 law civilian possession of firearms is prohibited in North Korea.
Pakistan
Pakistan has permissive firearm laws compared to the rest of South Asia, and has the sixth-highest number of privately owned guns in the world. Laws regulate the carrying of weapons in public in most urban areas. Private guns are prohibited in educational institutions, hostels, boarding and lodging houses, fairs, gatherings or processions of a political, religious, ceremonial, or sectarian character, and on the premises of courts of law or public offices. The law in Pakistan does not stipulate whether gun licenses should be denied or revoked, and a license permits ownership of any number of weapons including handguns of any size and fully automatic weapons. Gun is a traditionally important part of rural life in its North-Western areas where it is not uncommon to see people legally carrying RPGs and assault rifles.
Philippines
The Philippines has generally strict gun laws, though liberal in comparison to other Asia-Pacific countries due to its active gun culture. Philippine gun control became notorious in 1972 during the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos who implemented a near-prohibition of all civilian guns. Current gun laws in the Philippines are outlined in Republic Act 10591 or the "Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act", signed in 2013. In order to own a firearm, a citizen must acquire a License to Own and Possess Firearms (LTOPF). Applicants must meet the following requirements: (a) has not been convicted of any crime involving moral turpitude; (b) has passed the psychiatric test administered by a PNP-accredited psychologist or psychiatrist; (c) has passed the drug test conducted by an accredited and authorized drug testing laboratory or clinic; (d) has passed a gun safety seminar which is administered by the PNP or a registered and authorized gun club; (e) has filed in writing the application to possess a registered firearm which shall state the personal circumstances of the applicant; (f) must present a police clearance from the city or municipality police office; and (g) has not been convicted or is currently an accused in a pending criminal case before any court of law for a crime that is punishable with a penalty of more than two (2) years.
License holders may carry concealed handguns in public with the acquisition of a separate Permit to Carry Firearms Outside of Residence (PTCFOR), which is granted on a may-issue basis. Generally, applicants must demonstrate an imminent threat of danger and secure a Threat Assessment Certificate from the police in order to be issued a PTCFOR. Exempted from this requirement are members of the national bar (lawyers, judges, court workers), accountants, accredited media practitioners, cashiers, bank tellers, clergymen (priests, ministers, rabbis, imams), active or medical workers (physicians, nurses, midwives, medtechs), engineers and high-risk businessmen, as they are deemed to be in imminent danger due to the nature of their profession, occupation or business.
Many Filipinos own firearms for self-protection and target-shooting, which require licenses: around 2,000,000 people out of 100,000,000 have a registered firearm.
Despite the laws, some people in the Philippines are gun enthusiasts and gun users, in part due to the influence of American culture.
Singapore
Singaporean citizens must obtain a license to lawfully possess firearms or ammunition; applicants must provide justification for the license, which is often restricted to the military, police, and private security companies. Target-shooting licenses permit ownership of a gun, provided it is securely stored in an approved and protected firing range, and is not taken out of the firing range without special permission. Self-defense permits are not allowed, unless there is an 'imminent threat' to their lives that can be justified to the government. There is no restriction on types of small arms one may own after obtaining a license.
Owing to its mandatory national service, nearly half the civilian population have the experience and are well-trained in operating firearms, most notably the M16 and the SAR 21. Singapore has the lowest gun-related deaths in the world.
South Korea
Similar to Singapore, the majority of South Korean men are well-trained in the use of firearms, due to mandatory military service. Guns are also notably absent in South Korean society outside of the military, and gun ownership and gun-related deaths rank among the lowest in the world.
South Korea has strict gun policies. Hunting and sporting licenses are issued, but any firearm used in these circumstances must be stored at a local police station. Air rifles also have to be stored at police stations; crossbows and electric shock devices are also classified as firearms but their private retention is permitted. Tasers are prohibited, and possessing a toy gun without an orange tip is strictly prohibited. Violation of firearms laws can result in a US$18,000 fine and up to 10 years in prison.
Syria
According to 2001 law Syrian citizens and foreign Arabs can own one revolver and two shotguns under license issued for people who can provide genuine reason such as protection of business.
Idlib
All types of firearms including pistols, rifles and grenades are reportedly sold in rebel-held Idlib district without any license in shops which are mostly run by militia groups. In October 2020 Idlib's Salvation Government reportedly stated it will start licensing firearms. Many other rebel groups expressed opposition to this and some doubted possibility of registering firearms in Idlib.
Taiwan
Both rifles and handguns can be held by citizens, albeit with strict controls. An unusual feature of the rules are specific provisions for indigenous people, and self-made weapons. Gun owners in Taiwan are required to receive regular inspections every two years as well as random inspections by the police.
Thailand
A firearm license in Thailand is only granted for the following uses: self-defense, property protection, hunting, or sporting. Applicants for a firearms license must be at least 20 years of age (the age of majority under the Civil and Commercial Code), have a record of good behavior, have an occupation and receive income, and have a permanent address in Thailand with a name "listed in the house registration specifically in the area where you are applying for a license, for at least six months". A license may not be issued to anyone who is a repeat criminal offender or mentally unstable. The application fee for most firearms licenses is 1,000 Baht for each license or unit; a license for possession and use of air rifles is 200 Baht per license/unit.; carry licenses are also 1,000 Baht per license. Since October 2017 citizenship is required to purchase and use firearms. A person is also not allowed to carry his gun without an additional permit for concealed carry. Fully automatic firearms and explosive devices are prohibited.
The amended 2017 law will cover weapon suppressors, electric darts, and new types of fireworks including bang fai (locally-made rockets) and talai ("rocket-like fireworks with a circular wing"). The amendment further provides that anyone who creates a bomb scare may be subject to convictions of up to three years of imprisonment and/or fined up to 60,000 Baht. Another significant change is that only Thais will be permitted to register a gun with the authorities. Formerly, foreigners residing in Thailand could also apply for weapons permits. The Act already prohibits the manufacture, purchase, ownership, use, ordering, or import of firearms or ammunition, except by persons who have been granted a license from the local registrar. Violation of this provision is punishable with convictions including imprisonment for a period of between one and ten years and/or fines of between 2,000 and 20,000 Baht.
Turkey
Turkey is restrictive in terms of gun control statutes. Automatic and semi-automatic firearms are "prohibited for civilian possession (with no or limited exceptions)", and for any application, "an applicant may be asked to produce a medical certificate confirming he or she is capable of handling firearms and that he or she has no psychological – or physical – impediments". Background checks are mandatory, and a "genuine reason" is required for the issue of licenses.
Civilians must additionally apply through the police for a handgun carry permit or a rifle carry license (the latter also requiring a hunting license). They must have a special reason prior to application, and the carry licenses are expensive. Special professions like police officers, military personnel, judges, public prosecutors, and senior politicians have their own life-time license from the government, and can apply for free licenses for handgun and rifle carry.
United Arab Emirates
In 2019, the government of the United Arab Emirates relaxed its gun laws. The minimum age to possess firearms was lowered from 25 to 21, while legal owners can now have up to three guns. People from other countries are not allowed to apply for licenses at all. Most popular purposes to own them include hunting and trap shooting.
Weapons can be purchased during a yearly gun show called Adihex. In 2018, more than 1,764 legal weapons were sold.
Firearm licenses are issued after 60 days of applications to the relevant authority. If there is no response that means that the license has been rejected.
Uzbekistan
In 2019, the president of Uzbekistan signed a new gun law. It allows citizens to own smooth-bore firearms and firearms with rifled barrels for hunting and sport shooting purposes. Carrying in public places is prohibited and the minimum age is 21 years. Only gas and electric weapons can be used for self-defense purposes. The maximum magazine capacity is ten rounds.
Vietnam
Firearms in Vietnam are restricted to the military and law enforcement agencies, with possession of firearms prohibited to civilians. The chief exception to this is for hunting and sporting purposes, requiring users to undergo mandatory background checks to be licensed.
Yemen
Yemen has a permissive gun policy and does not require permits for firearm ownership. The 1992 Law "On Regulating Carrying Firearms and Ammunitions and Their Trade", established the right to own firearms (rifles, machine guns, revolvers and hunting rifles) for the purpose of legitimate defense. Licenses are required to carry firearms in cities, which are issued on a may-issue basis with varying restrictions depending on the city. Open and concealed carry is unrestricted in rural areas. Since the breakout of the civil war in 2011 there has been barely any state gun control, and fully-automatic rifles/assault rifles, anti-tank guided missiles or armored vehicles are available over the counter for various militias and individuals willing to buy them.
According to the Small Arms Survey of 2018 titled Estimating Global Civilian-Held Firearms Numbers, there are roughly 14.9 million civilian-held firearms in Yemen (52.8 firearms held per 100 residents), making Yemen the second most armed country in the world after the United States.
Europe
Bosnia-Herzegovina
The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska have relatively strict weapon laws compared to the rest of Europe. Weapons are regulated by the Weapons and Ammunition Law. People over 21 may apply for a permit. Those with a history of criminal activity, mental disorders, alcohol or substance use will be denied a permit. There is also a thorough background check, interviewing neighbors and family, and the applicant must complete a course and pass a multiple-choice exam. Police have the last word on the matter, with an appeal possible to a police captain. Firearms must be kept in a "safe place" within a residence, and may be confiscated by police if the owner is found to be "irresponsible". Concealed carry is allowed with a permit. Pepper spray may be carried by females if registered with police.
Georgia
In Georgia, civilians above 18 years of age may obtain a firearm permit from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, allowing them to purchase and keep firearms for hunting and sports (pump-action shotguns, hunting rifles, carbines, combined hunting firearms), self-defense (handguns, air guns, sprays, electric tranquilizers) or collections. Permits are denied to persons who are mentally ill, use illicit substances or alcohol recreationally, and those who have criminal records.
Iceland
In Iceland, a license is required to own or possess firearms. A national government safety course must be passed before applying for a license. A special license is required to own a handgun, which may only be used for target shooting at a licensed range. Semi-automatic firearms have caliber restrictions, while fully automatic firearms are only permitted for collectors.
Applicants must sit through a mandatory four-hour lecture on the "history and physics of the firearm". Paperwork must be filed in the police, magistrate, and the Environment Agency of Iceland. Applicants need to prove clean criminal records, need to be evaluated by a doctor to prove they "are of sound mind" and have "good enough eyesight". Two books referring to guns must be bought and read, a three-day course must be attended, and the applicant should score at least 75% on exams concerning gun safety, management, "what animals are allowed to be hunted and when". Finally, a practical exam must be taken. After Icelanders have their license, they need to own a gun safe to store the weapons in, plus a separate place to store the ammunition".
Approximately one gun is owned for every three people in the country, being used mostly for hunting and competitive shooting. From January to July 2019, 394 shotguns, 785 rifles, and 208 handguns were registered in Iceland. In total, police counts for guns in Iceland include about 40,000 shotguns, 25,000 rifles, and 3,600 handguns as of July that year.
Monaco
Law in Monaco divides firearms into two categories:
Category "A" weapons including hand guns, semi-automatic firearms and those firing centerfire ammunition require membership in the Monaco Rifle Club, a certificate of aptitude and handling for the requested weapon, and no past history of treatment in a psychiatric unit;
Category "B" weapons are hunting weapons that do not require licensing unless they are imported.
North Macedonia
To obtain a firearm license in North Macedonia one must be at least 18 years old, able-bodied, healthy, not representing danger to public order, have permanent residency, possess technical knowledge of weapons and regulations related to them and have a justified reason for acquiring the weapon. Justified reasons include:
Proving one's life or property is in danger;
Being an active member of hunting or archery associations and passing a specific hunting exam;
Being a weapons collector;
Legally inheriting a weapon;
Weapons having been granted as awards by the state or during archery competitions.
Fully automatic firearms are prohibited. Carrying firearms in public places is prohibited.
Norway
Firearms in Norway are regulated by the Firearm Weapons Act,
with a new secondary law in effect 1 July 2009 furthering regulation. A firearms license for rifles or shotguns can be issued by police to "sober and responsible" persons 16 years of age or older who are able to document a need for the weapon. This usually requires first obtaining a hunting or sports-shooting license. For handguns, the minimum ownership age is 21. Firearms or their vital components must be stored securely in the residence, and police may make inspections after providing 48-hours' notice.
Russia
Russian citizens over 18 years of age can obtain a firearms license after attending gun-safety classes and passing a federal test and background check. Firearms may be acquired for self-defense, hunting, or sports activities. Carrying permits may be issued for hunting firearms licensed for hunting purposes. Initially, purchases are limited to long smooth-bore firearms and pneumatic weapons with a muzzle energy of up to . After five years of shotgun ownership, rifles may be purchased. Handguns are generally not allowed (except traumatic handguns which are allowed for self-defense but can fire only cartridges with Rubber bullets), but with the growing popularity of practical shooting events and competitions in Russia in recent years (e.g. IPSC), handgun ownership has now been allowed and the handguns have to be stored at a shooting club. Rifles and shotguns with barrels less than long are prohibited, as are firearms which shoot in bursts or have more than a 10-cartridge capacity. Suppressors are prohibited.
In 2014 Russia relaxed its gun laws by allowing concealed carry firearms for self-defense purposes.
Serbia
Serbia has weapon laws and ranks third in guns per capita with a strong gun culture, especially in rural areas, with about one million guns in legal circulation. Weapons are regulated by the Weapons and Ammunition Law (Zakon o oružju i municiji).
People over age 18 may own firearms with a permit, which is denied to those with a criminal history, mental disorder, or history of alcohol or illegal substance use. There is a thorough background check with police having the final decision. Firearms must be stored in a designated gun cabinet, and may be confiscated by police if the owner is found irresponsible.
Rifles, shotguns and handguns may be owned with an appropriate permit. Having a permit to own a firearm does not itself allow the bearer to carry the firearm anywhere outside the home, regardless of whether it is concealed or not. The owner may transport their firearms at any time provided they are unloaded. Concealed carry permits for handguns require proving an imminent threat, with the police making a final decision. Therefore, concealed carry permits are hard to obtain. There is no limit on the number of firearms one may own, though every gun transaction is recorded by the police. There is no caliber restriction. Fully automatic firearms and suppressors are prohibited for civilians. Automatic long firearms are allowed to be obtained and used by legal entities under special circumstances. People over 18 years of age can buy and carry stun guns and electric tranquilizers with no permit needed. People over 16 can carry OC sprays. There is no restriction regarding the number of rounds that may be purchased. Ammunition may be bought only for the caliber in which an owned firearm is chambered. Reloading is allowed only to those who have passed an exam in handling explosive materials. Old firearms (produced before 1900), historically significant firearms, as well as black powder firearms (all category C items) may be bought without any permit.
Serbia has its own civilian gun and ammunition industry: Zastava Arms, Prvi Partizan, and Krušik.
Switzerland
Firearm regulations in Switzerland are comparatively liberal. Swiss gun laws are primarily about the acquisition of arms, and not ownership. As such a license is not required to own a gun by itself, but a shall-issue permit is required to purchase most types of firearms. Bolt-action rifles do not require an acquisition permit, and can be acquired with just a background check.
The Swiss have male conscription for military service. A recent referendum in 2011 on a call to force military weapons to be kept at military sites was defeated. Weapons may voluntarily be kept in the local armory and there is no longer an obligation to keep the weapon at home.
The Swiss "Federal Law on Arms, Arms Accessories and Ammunitions" (WG, LArm) of 20 June 1997 has as its objectives (Article 1) to combat the wrongful use of arms, their accessories, parts and ammunition. It governs the acquisition of arms, their introduction into Swiss territory, export, storage, possession, carrying, transport, and brokerage. It regulates the manufacture and trade in arms, and seeks to prevent the wrongful carrying of ammunition and dangerous objects. Article 3 states that "The right to acquire, possess and carry arms is guaranteed in the framework of this law".
Ukraine
As of 27th February 2022 there are no restrictions on ownership of any types of weapons, in fact the Ukranian government has given out thousands of military-grade weapons to its populace. This is due to the ongoing Russo-Ukranian war.
Ukraine is the only European country without firearms statutes; regulation is by Order No. 622 of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. A firearm license may be issued to citizens who meet an age requirement (21 for shotguns, 18 for shotguns for hunting purposes, and 25 for rifles), have no criminal record or history of domestic violence or mental illness and have a specific reason such as target shooting, hunting or collecting. Handguns of .22, 9 mm, .357 magnum and .38 caliber are permitted only for target shooting and those who can prove a threat against their lives (who are typically also given concealed carry permits). All firearms must be stored unloaded in a safe.
Citizens wishing to purchase weapons must complete courses on the fundamentals of Ukrainian legislation on weapons, their technical design and rules for the safe handling of weapons, as well as practical shooting. The organization of relevant courses is assigned to the internal affairs bodies. In order to obtain a weapon permit, citizens submit an application in the prescribed form, a certificate of completion of relevant courses, undergo a medical examination, an inspection of the internal affairs agencies and pass a test on the fundamentals of current legislation and rules for handling weapons and their application skills.
Article 263 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code says that for illegal carrying, storing and selling firearms, explosives and ammunition a person faces from 3 to 7 years in prison.
Weapon permits are not issued, and issued ones are canceled if there are:
Certificates (conclusions) of the medical institution that a person cannot own a weapon for health reasons;
The court's decision to declare him incompetent, partially capable, or to lead missing;
Information about the systematic violations by the person of the rules of arms trafficking, public order, being registered and treated for alcohol use disorder, use of narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances without a doctor's prescription;
Court verdict on conviction of a person to imprisonment;
Outstanding or not removed in the prescribed manner of conviction for serious crimes, as well as crimes committed with the use of weapons or explosive devices;
Court rulings on the direction to serve deprivation of liberty, conditionally convicted with a delay in the execution of the sentence, or a court ruling on the replacement of the unmerited term of correctional labor with a sentence of imprisonment.
The list of diseases and physical defects, in the presence of which a weapon permit is not issued, is approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.
Foreigners have the right to purchase civilian weapons of ammunition and ammunition for permits issued by the internal affairs bodies on the basis of petitions from diplomatic missions or consular offices of the states of which they are citizens, as well as ministries and other central executive authorities of Ukraine, subject to the export of such weapons from Ukraine later than 5 days after purchase. Foreigners who have received certificates of permanent residence in Ukraine have the right to purchase weapons in the manner established for citizens of Ukraine. Hunting and sporting weapons can be imported by foreigners into Ukraine with the appropriate permission of the internal affairs bodies and hunting agreements made with hunting farms or inviting ministries and other central executive authorities to participate in sports competitions.
European Union
Historically and legally EU member states have their own laws which differ from one country to another which led to differences in the extent of legal access to firearms among EU countries.
EU harmonisation started in 1991, with European Directive 91/477/EC which set minimum standards regarding civilian firearms acquisition and possession that EU member states must implement into their national legal systems. In this text, firearms are considered as any portable barrelled weapon that expels, is designed to expel or may be converted to expel a shot, bullet or projectile by the action of a combustible propellant.
Since 2017 EU directive amendment, arms are classified in three EU categories:
Category A – Prohibited firearms: including for instance explosive military missiles and launchers, automatic firearms, firearms disguised as other objects, or ammunition with penetrating, explosive or incendiary projectiles, and the projectiles for such ammunition, or semi-automatic firearms;
Category B – Firearms subject to authorisation, including for instance various kind of repeating and semi-automatic long firearms, but excluding those which belongs to category A
Category C – Firearms and weapons subject to declaration, including various kind of long firearms with, but excluding those which belongs to category A or B
Category D existing previously (Other firearms) is deleted
This classification relies on short firearms having a barrel not exceeding 30 centimetres or whose overall length does not exceed 60 centimetres.
Under article 5 of the directive:
Member states are free to adopt more stringent rules, according to article 3.
UN trend in EU
EU plans related to firearms is in line with the UN Firearms Protocol (117 states parties in 2019). This UN protocol existing since 2005 tighten regulations on the manufacture and trafficking of small firearms, like handguns and pistols. This relies on three main legal measures: criminalizing illicit trafficking of firearms; authorising or licensing legitimate manufacturers and vendors; and establishing marking and recording for tracing firearms.
Most, but not all, EU member states have ratified the UN Firearms Protocol.
Austria
Austria is the only country in the European Union where firearms are only partially licensed; the Waffengesetz (Weapons Act) provides the legal terms for all types of weapons, including firearms. § 1 of the law defines Weapons as objects that are designed to directly eliminate or reduce the ability of people to attack or defend themselves (e.g. knives, pepper spray, gas pistols, etc.) or for firing projectiles during hunting or sport shooting (e.g. crossbows, bows, etc.). § 2 further defines Firearms as weapons where projectiles can be fired from a barrel in a predefined direction. Most common firearms and some other weapons fall into three different categories, which come with different restrictions:
Category A is divided into two subcategories "war material" and "restricted weapons". "War material" includes for example tanks, fully automatic weapons and armour-piercing weapons; "restricted weapons" includes weapons disguised as other objects, firearms which can be disassembled in a faster than usual fashion for hunting and sport, shotguns with an overall length of less than 90 cm (35 in) or barrel length shorter than 45 cm (18 in), pump action shotguns, suppressors and firearms with suppressors, knuckledusters, blackjacks, steel rods. Category B covers all handguns, repeating shotguns and semi-automatic weapons which are not category A (e.g. pistols, revolvers, semi-automatic rifles and semi-automatic shotguns). Category C includes most other firearms that are not category A or B (e.g. repeating rifles, revolving rifles, break-action rifles and break-action shotguns).
All firearms of category A, B, and C are registered in the central weapon register (Zentrales Waffenregister, or short ZWR). Firearms of category C are the least restricted; all citizens over 18 may purchase them at licensed sellers, even without a firearms licence (barring a 3-day waiting period to check for a weapon ban on the buyer). Category B weapons have further restrictions; buyers must have a firearms license or a carry permit, and be 21, unless granted an exception for the age of 18. Category A weapons typically require further exceptions to be granted for holders, except in the case of suppressors and suppressed weapons, which may be held by those with valid hunting licences without an additional permit. "War material" requires a further special federal permit, which is in practice only granted to approved collectors and experts. In general, ammunition sales are unrestricted, though handgun ammunition and some rifle ammunition requires a permit. Antique firearms made before 1871, many black powder firearms and some other "less effective weapons" also require no licence or registration.
In addition, § 11a defines further restrictions on the purchase, possession and carrying of all weapons and ammunition for asylum seekers and many third-country nationals. Owning weapons without a permit for them is strictly prohibited and controlled by the police.
Carrying firearms in public generally requires a carry permit (or "Waffenpass"). Carry permits are issued by the authorities on a shall issue or may issue basis, depending on reason and applicant. Austrian law makes no distinction between concealed or open carry; with a carry permit, the holder may carry their weapon(s) freely throughout the whole country and even in certain "weapon free zones". However, holders must carry their weapons in a way that does not constitute a public nuisance; for example, openly displaying a handgun in one's belt at the cinema while wearing civil clothing would be considered unusual and could be considered a public nuisance if the police were called.
Belgium
Possessing or carrying firearms is generally illegal in Belgium. An exception is made for people who have a valid firearms licence. Since 2006, after a shooting incident in Antwerp, there are very strict conditions and rules for gun owners to obtain such a licence.
However the laws and regulations concerning the carrying and possession of firearms for hunters, sport shooters, collectors and also for the import and export of guns, differs from area to area in Belgium; a valid licence is almost always required. Blank guns, airsoft guns, paintball guns, and deactivated guns don't need a permit or licence and are free to purchase.
The gun law in Belgium doesn't apply (or at least applies differently) for the military and law enforcement services such as the police, customs and some private security units (only handguns). Until its abolition in 2019, the security units of Belgian courts and prison transport (Corps de securité Justice/Veiligheidskorps Justitie) were also permitted to carry handguns.
Croatia
Croatia issues firearms permits for self-defense, hunting, sport shooting:
Hunting permits require a certificate indicating successfully passing the hunting exam;
Sporting permits require a certificate issued by a target shooting organization on active membership;
Self-defense permits require a proof of danger to life.
Every permit also requires an applicant to be at least 18 years old, not be convicted of crimes, there being no other circumstances indicating that the weapon may be abused (for example by a history of alcoholism) and passing medical examinations.
As of October 2020 there 99,829 legal gun owners in Croatia. 14,711 people can own and carry firearms for the purpose of personal safety.
Cyprus
The Republic of Cyprus has strict gun control. Private citizens are completely forbidden from owning handguns and rifles in any calibre, including .22 rimfire ammunition. Shotguns limited to two rounds are allowed with a license, issued by provincial police. Shotguns must be for hunting purposes, and a licensed citizen may own up to ten shotguns, typically double-barrelled. A firearm license is required to buy ammunition, of up to 250 shells per purchase, with sales being recorded. Cyprus also controls airguns, and airgun owners require a license. Even though purchasing automatic weapons is illegal, the military issues their reserves an automatic weapon, therefore the majority of the male population has one due to military conscription.
Czech Republic
Civilian firearms possession in the Czech Republic has spanned over six centuries beginning with the Hussite revolution in the 1420s when firearms became indispensable for success of the mostly commoners militia army in its battles with professional crusader warriors armed with cold weapons. Starting with their use in the war for religious freedom, the right to be armed remains to be generally considered as a symbol of liberty in the country, alongside concepts such as freedom of speech and free elections.
The first legislation pertaining to firearms was adopted in the 1517 St. Wenceslaus Agreement, which stated that "all people of all standing have the right to keep firearms at home" and established ban on firearm carrying. A 1524 enactment on firearms then introduced a system of issuing firearms carry permits. Permitless right to possess firearms and carrying subject to shall-issue permits remained in place until the 1939 German occupation. During Czech history, only Nazis and Communists enacted firearms bans.
Following the Velvet Revolution of 1989, the country's firearms legislation returned to its historical roots. The authorities shall issue firearms license to any person older than 18, with a clean criminal record, and physically and mentally sound, that passes a firearms proficiency test and is legally reliable.
The Czech Republic is unusual in comparison to other EU countries in that the vast majority of gun owners (250,342 out of 307,372) possess their firearms for purposes of protection of life and property. Furthermore, the Czech Republic has a shall-issue concealed carry permit system, whereby every self-defense license holder may carry up to two concealed firearms with a round chambered. The Czech Republic had a higher rate of concealed carry licenses per capita than the US up to 2010, despite a relatively lower gun-ownership rate.
Denmark
Civilians in Denmark aged 16 and above can acquire gun licenses for hunting or sport shooting. This requires passing a written multiple-choice test and a practical test, after which a certified hunting license instructor determines if the applicant is suitable to own a weapon. A license is usually provided if the applicant has no or only minor marks on their criminal record.
A hunting license permits the over-the-counter-purchase and ownership of an unlimited number of shotguns of up to 12 gauge and 2-round capacity. From there, the police has to be notified of new weapon purchases through an online form. Bolt-action rifles can also be bought over-the-counter, although they require a rifle license which is obtained through the police. The allowed calibers range from the smallest possible, up to .50 BMG, with .50 BMG not included. Semi-automatic rifles are allowed if the rifle is limited to two rounds (hunting in Denmark), or without limitation on capacity (hunting outside of Denmark). Currently, only larger calibers (.308, 6.555, .300wm etc.) are issued as semi-auto rifles for hunting abroad. .223/5.5645 and similar caliber rifles are generally not approved. The hunter must pass a shotgun or rifle shooting test before being allowed to hunt.
For sport-shooting purposes, shotguns can also be used, as can bolt-action rifles of almost any caliber (.50 BMG as one of the exceptions). Sporting rifles are often chambered in 22lr and 6.555 mm.
Semi-automatic rifles are not allowed for sports shooting.
Handguns: After two years of active membership in a shooting club, one can apply for a handgun permit which is then subject to background checks and approval by the police, and one has to be 21 years old.
Approved calibers: All calibers under 9mm (919, 38 Spl, 357 magnum, .32acp etc.), plus a limited number of larger calibers; .40sw, 45 ACP, 44 Spl. The maximum number of handguns are 6 in 22 cal. When applying for gun number 3, a special permit from the department of justice is required. Large caliber guns, i.e. bigger than 22 cal, are restricted to a maximum of two in the same caliber. Therefore, one can only own two handguns in 9 mm at any given time. However, it is legal to own an additional two handguns in 9 mm, if these are revolvers.
For all handguns, the overall length must be at least 210 millimeters (8.2677 inch), regardless of caliber, measured without orthopedic grips or removal parts.
A weapon permit for sporting purposes (both long and short firearms) has to be renewed every five years. Rifle permits for hunting rifles have to be renewed every ten years. Shotguns are not held on individual permits; holders are allowed to own these as long as they have a valid hunting license – and they can keep it for up to ten years after the hunting license expires – albeit they are not allowed to keep ammunition without a valid license.
Carrying a firearm in public is strictly prohibited, however, a notion of proportional self-defense exists. This means that if someone is attacked with a firearm, they are legally allowed to defend themselves proportionally – e.g. with a firearm of their own.
Fully automatic weapons are prohibited for civilian use, unless a special permit is issued by the Ministry of Justice. These permits are extremely rare, and are normally only issued to people or companies working for, or supplying the police or military.
Illegal possession of a firearm may be punished with imprisonment of no less than one year. Civilians may keep privately owned weapons including pistols, revolvers, shotguns and rifles at their residences. These, together with its ammunition have to be stored in an approved gun cabinet (EN1143-1 grade 0 or better). The police may inspect a shooting club's weapons at their discretion, but require a court order to inspect privately held firearms.
Finland
The ownership and use of firearms in Finland is regulated by the country's Firearms Act of 1998. Weapons are individually licensed by local police, with no limit on the number of licenses an individual may hold. Licenses are granted for recreational uses, exhibition or (under certain circumstances) professional use. No type of weapon is explicitly prohibited, but licenses are granted only for a reason. Self-defense is not accepted as a valid reason for licensing. In general, this excludes all but hunting and sports guns from non-professional use. Fully automatic weapons are generally not permitted. With the exception of law enforcement, only specially trained security guards may carry loaded weapons in public.
In 2007, Finland had the third largest gun-ownership rate globally (behind the US and Yemen), and the first in Europe. Finns are avid hunters, and as of 2007, there were 1.6 million registered weapons and 650,000 people with firearm permits in the country, i.e. 12% of the population. In November that year, Finland updated their gun laws after two school shootings that left 20 people dead, and to comply with an EU directive by removing the ability of 15-18-year-olds to have their own permit. The possibility of creating a dual-license for an already licensed weapon with permission of the license holder was allowed (e.g. parental permission). In 2011, a constitutional law committee concluded that people over the age of 20 can receive a permit for semi-automatic handguns; individuals must demonstrate continuous activity in handgun sporting group for two years prior.
France
In 1563, Charles IX of France had an address to the Rouen parliament about forbidding firearms in which he made the following statement:
In France, a hunting license or a sport-shooting license is needed to purchase any firearm. In September 2015, firearms were divided into four categories that determine the regulations that apply to their possession and use. Category C firearms can be obtained with a hunting license, or sport-shooting license with a medical certificate. Category C includes mainly single-shot-per-barrel shotguns and single-shot or manual repeating rifles (including centre-fire rifles, for hunting or target shooting). Once legally purchased these category C arms may be kept, without using them, even when no longer licensed for hunting or sport-shooting.
Category B firearms are only available to sport-shooters licensed for at least 6 months, with a medical certificate, without any felony convictions, and additionally requires at least three shooting sessions with an instructor. Specific authorisations for purchase and possession may then be sought from a local police administration, are valid for 5 years, and are renewable. Such weapons may then only be used for sport-shooting at shooting ranges, never for hunting. Category B includes all assault type rifles, such as AK-47/AKM, AK-74 or AR-15/M16/M4, and any look-alike weapons even when chambered for rimfire cartridges (.22 LR). These must be semi-automatic only. All handguns, including those using rimfire ammunition, are classed as category B. It is illegal to possess these category B weapons after expiry of a non-renewed specific authorisation: the arms must be disposed of (sold to a gun shop or else destroyed, for example).
Air-guns including pistols are freely available to adults, as category D arms, provided that their energy level does not exceed 20 J (previously 10 J). Typical energy levels are 6 J for a target pistol and 7.5 J for a target rifle. A scoped Field Target rifle might produce 15 or 16 J (maximum authorised in FT competition). Air-soft arms, firing non-metallic pellets and not exceeding 2 J energy, are considered to be toys, rather than weapons, and so are excluded from firearm regulations.
Also freely available are category D defensive pepper sprays up to a maximum 75 g capacity. Bigger capacity sprays are considered offensive weapons, not defensive, and so are classed in category B, and require specific authorisation.
A person cannot own more than 12 centerfire firearms, and cannot own more than 10 magazines and 1,000 rounds of ammunition per firearm. A one-year carry license may be issued for persons "exposed to exceptional risks to their life" allowing them to carry a handgun with a maximum of 50 rounds. Such authorizations are extremely rare, however, as the state would normally insist on providing police protection in such cases. Since November 2015, police officers are authorised to carry their service weapons whilst off-duty.
Germany
Gun ownership in Germany is restrictive, being regulated by the Federal Weapons Act (German: Waffengesetz) of 1972.
The laws apply to weapons with a fire energy exceeding 7.5 J. A firearms license may be granted to those over the age of 18 who have no criminal convictions or mental disability, who are deemed reliable and can justify a reason for owning a firearm. A separate license is required for each firearm owned. Target-shooters must have been a member of a shooting club with 18 recorded visits in the previous 12 months. A firearms carry permit is a second-tier license which allows concealed carrying in public, and is only issued to those with a particular need.
Several weapons and special ammunitions are completely prohibited, such as automatic firearms. Buying, possessing, lending, using, carrying, crafting, altering and the trading of these weapons is illegal and punishable by up to five years imprisonment, confiscation of the weapon and a fine of up to €10,000. Using an illegal weapon for crimes of any kind is punishable by 1–10 years imprisonment.
Germany's National Gun Registry, introduced at the end of 2012, counted 5.5 million firearms legally owned by 1.4 million people.
Greece
Greece has gun regulations in place. Shotguns (limited to a 3-round capacity), rifles and handguns require a license issued by Police Headquarters. A license may be issued to a Greek citizen over the age of 18 if: a) there are serious fears about his or her personal security along with a positive recommendation by the Prosecutor and b) it is required for the safety of shops, banks, other financial institutions, etc. To purchase handguns and rifles, citizens must either have a concealed-carry permit or a target-shooting permit (for rifles). Semi auto rifles are prohibited. Hunters can own up to 10 shotguns and rifles (with no gun barrel rifling) and sport shooters can own up to 7 guns. There is no license-check or record kept for ammunition purchases for shotguns but target shooters can only own 500 rounds per weapon.
Hungary
Gun laws in Hungary are relatively strict, regulated by Code 24/2004, governmental decision 253/2004. (VIII. 31.) and directive of the Minister of Internal Affairs 49/2004. The law defines a firearm as having muzzle energy that exceeds . A firearms license may be granted to those over the age of 18 who have no criminal convictions or mental disability, and have passed a basic firearms theory/practical examination. Three categories of firearms ownership are allowed: Hunting (Firearms restricted to bolt action and double barrel shotguns), Sports shooting (only restriction is no fully automatic firearms), Self defense (special permission from the Police, very rarely granted in special cases e.g. gun shop owners). Sports shooting has in recent years gained popularity with the number of sports category licenses being issued steadily climbing. Government initiatives to popularize shooting sports such as building shooting ranges and introducing shooting as a sport in the schooling system has slowly begun. It is generally expected that obtaining (and keeping) a firearms permit is a slow and somewhat costly process, but once a permit is granted and the necessary yearly memberships are paid, yearly doctors certificates are obtained and the mandatory 2–3 sporting events are attended (for sports shooter) ownership is fairly liberal as to the type of firearm one can own.
In 2010, there were 129,000 registered gun owners (1.3% of the population) in Hungary with 235,000 firearms. The majority of these were hunting rifles. Gun violence is very rare in Hungary due to the close monitoring and control of firearm ownership. Crime with firearms are very rare and this statistic usually includes crimes committed with non-lethal "pepper spray" guns. Police use lethal force with a firearm less than 10 times per year, on average.
Ireland
Gun laws in Ireland are strict, requiring all firearms to be licensed individually through the Gardaí (police). Applicants must be 16 years of age and have a good reason for ownership, a secure location to store firearms, proof of competency with the firearm or arrangements to achieve such, provide access to medical records and two character references, and be of sound mind and temperate habits. Applicants convicted of certain specified offenses will be denied a firearms certificate. Personal protection is not a valid reason for ownership.
Irish firearms law is based on the Firearms Act 1925, which was amended by several following acts in 1964, 1968, 1971, 1990, 1998 and 2000. The cumulative effect of these modifications, along with modifications in other acts and confusion over which amendments applied, resulted in a 2006 Irish Law Reform Commission recommendation that all extant legislation be restated (written in a single document with all prior Acts repealed). However, the Criminal Justice Act 2006, contained a rewriting almost 80% of the Firearms Act. It was quickly followed by amendments in 2007 and further major amendments in 2009, exacerbating the legislative confusion. the Law Reform Commission recommendation has not as yet been fully enacted; the Firearms Act consists of the initial 1925 Act amended by approximately twenty separate Acts and is well understood by only a handful of those directly involved in its drafting, amendment or usage. Extensive complaints have arisen over the application of the legislation, with several hundred judicial review cases won in the High Court and Supreme Court by firearms owners, all relating to licensing decisions which had not adhered to the Firearms Act.
Italy
In Italy, national police issue gun licenses to those over the age of 18 without criminal records, who are not mentally ill or known to use illicit substances, and who can prove competence with firearm safety. A shooting sports license permits transporting unloaded firearms and firing them in designated shooting ranges. A hunting license allows holders to engage in hunting with firearms. A concealed carry license permits a person to carry a loaded firearm in public, and requires proving a "valid reason" to do so (e.g.: a security guard or a jeweler at risk of robbery). The number of firearms an individual may own and retain in their home is limited to:
- unlimited hunting weapon (only long, not resembling an automatic one or gas propelled)
- twelve long or short bud classified for sport by a sport association federated with Italian Olimpic Comitee (CONI)
- three weapon not allowed for hunting or classified as sporting.
- eight historical firearms (manufactured before 1890)
- unlimited quantity of smooth bore muzzle-loading firearms built as per a project made before than 1890.
- Unlimited quantity of Moderate Offensive Capacity (<7,5 Joule) weapons.
The last two can be purchased without permission or declaration in a authorized firearm shop by everyone who can prove to be at least 18 year, carry of such weapon is forbidden without a licence and no declaration is required (Art. 7 c.4 DM 362/2001). These limits can be exceeded with a collector license.
Private firearms must be registered at the local police department within 72 hours of acquisition. Ammunition: any licence allow the owner to keep 200 rounds of handgun and 1500 rounds of hunting ammunition and up to 5 kg of smokeless powder to reload the ammo. Declaration is required within 72 hour form acquisition for handgun ammo and for hunting ammo, but only if the quantity exceed the 1.000.
Lithuania
Luxembourg
In Luxembourg, anyone wishing to purchase, possess or use a firearm must hold a permit issued by the Minister of Justice in person.
The most common reasons for applying for a permit are hunting, recreational shooting, weapons collecting, and inheriting a firearm. Anyone who inherits a firearm must have a permit even if they have no intention to ever touch or use the gun.
Self-defence is not a valid reason for owning a firearm. However, the Ministry of Justice is concerned that some permit holders falsely cite another reason (such as recreational shooting) as a justification for acquiring their permit when their sole actual motivation is self-defence.
Malta
Firearms are allowed in Malta for sport shooting, collection and hunting purposes. To get firearm license one must join a shooting or collectors club for training, which will issue a recommendation letter for the police, after which applicant must pass knowledge of firearm safety and the Arms Act. After successfully completing every step one will get license.
There are 102,610 registered firearms (or 22 per 100 people), including 56,000 shotguns, 10,553 pistols, 7,856 rifles, 5,369 revolvers, 501 machine guns, 477 sub-machine guns, 633 combat shotguns, 22 cannons, 7 humane killers and 2 rocket launchers.
Law allow carrying firearms while hunting, with 10,544 licensed to do so on land and 247 on sea. Carrying loaded firearms outside of hunting grounds or shooting range is illegal. Automatic firearms are allowed only if they were produced before 1946.
Netherlands
In the Netherlands, gun ownership is restricted to law enforcement, hunters, and target shooters (self-defense is not a valid reason to own firearms). A hunting license requires passing a hunters safety course. To own a gun for target shooting, the applicant must have been a member of a shooting club for a year. People with felonies, drug addictions, and mental illnesses may not possess firearms.
Once obtained, firearms must be stored in a safe and annually inspected by police. Firearms may only be used in self-defense as a matter of "equal force". Fully automatic firearms are banned, but there are otherwise few restrictions: semi-automatics, handguns, and magazines of all sizes are legal, as are all types of ammunition. A licensed gun owner may only have five firearms registered to his or her license at one time.
Poland
Gun ownership in Poland is regulated and requires a permit to own or possess firearms. Permits are granted for specific purposes, such as self-defense, sports, hunting, collecting etc. and shall issue except the ones for self-defense, which may issue. Institutional permits allow for firearm ownership by security companies, shooting ranges, sports clubs etc.
Permits are issued to permanent residents over 21, not addicted to alcohol or other substances, having no criminal record, being in good physical and mental health, who passed an exam before sporting association, hunting association or the police. Permits specify the purposes, categories and quantities of allowed guns; categories depend on permit type while quantities are assigned at the discretion of the police, based on documentation provided. Quantities can be increased when one uses up all available slots.
Carrying loaded guns is allowed on all types of permits besides permits for collecting and commemorative purposes. Hunters can carry loaded only on hunting grounds. Guns shall be carried concealed in a holster close to the body. Carrying is limited in public transport only to self-defense permit holders. It is prohibited to carry while intoxicated, and when attending public gatherings or mass events.
Everyone, including foreigners, is allowed to use legal guns at registered shooting ranges, regardless of actual gun's ownership, e.g. rented from the range or shared by a legal owner present. Discharging a firearm for training or leisure out of a registered shooting range (even on a large private property) is prohibited.
Full-auto or select-fire firearms are permitted only on institutional and training permits. Since 2020 police can issue permit for firearms with suppressors for hunting permits, but only to be used for sanitary shootings, see main article for more details. Armor-piercing, incendiary, tracer and other special ammunition is banned. Only valid permit holders are allowed to buy or possess live ammunition, and only of the types exactly matching the guns they legally own. The quantity of matching ammunition in possession is not limited. Hunters, collectors and sports shooters are allowed to manufacture (reload) ammunition, but strictly for their own use. There are further limits regarding allowed types and calibers depending on the type of permit – see main article for details. There's no limit on magazine capacity, except when hunting.
Replicas of cartridgeless black powder firearms designed before 1885 require no permit to own. However, separate bill of law allows businesses to sell black powder to licensed customers only. This is often circumvented by obtaining a European Gun Card for your black powder firearm, asking a licensed colleague (there's no restriction on private sale or just giving out of black powder) or by buying powder in neighboring countries, mostly the Czech Republic.
Airguns up to 17 Joules of muzzle energy are unregulated. Airguns above that limit are considered pneumatic weapons, no permit is required but must be registered with the police and may be used only on registered shooting ranges. Use of pneumatic weapons outside of shooting range is considered the same kind of offense as using regular firearms.
Poland remains the most disarmed country in Europe.
Romania
Gun ownership in Romania is regulated by Law 295/2004. Romania has one of the toughest gun ownership laws in the world. In order for citizens to obtain a weapon, they must obtain a permit from the police, and must register their weapon once they purchase it. There are several categories of permits, with different requirements and rights, including hunting permits, self-defense permits, sports shooting permits and collectors permits. The only categories of people who are legally entitled to carry a weapon are owners of self-defense permits, magistrates, MPs, military forces and certain categories of diplomats. A psychological evaluation is required beforehand in all cases.
Furthermore, knives and daggers may in certain conditions (blade longer than 15 cm and at least 0.4 cm in width, double edge along the whole blade, etc.) be considered weapons and have a similar regime to those of firearms.
In order for a hunter to obtain a hunting/gun ownership license, he must spend a certain "practice time" with a professional hunter. To obtain a self-defense permit, one must be under witness protection. Sporting and collectors licenses require membership in a sport shooting club or collectors' association, respectively.
The amount of ammunition that can be owned is regulated by permit type. Sporting permits allow the ownership of 1000 matching cartridges per gun; hunting permits allow 300 matching cartridges per gun; self-defense permits allow 50 bullet cartridges and 50 blanks per gun; Collectors permits do not allow for private ownership of ammunition.
Explosive weapons and ammunitions, fully automatic weapons, weapons camouflaged in the shape of another object, armor-piercing ammunition and lethal weapons that do not fit in any category defined by the law are prohibited.
The type of gun is also regulated by permit. Below is a shortened version of the table detailing the restrictions by type of lethal weapon and permit, for civilian owners. Note that for collectors, short weapons designed after 1945 are forbidden, while only non-lethal weapons are allowed for self-defense permits.
It is illegal to use or carry weapons with a muzzle velocity of over 10kJ if "the barrel is fitted with devices conceived or adapted to reduce recoil"
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Gun type !! Hunting !! Sporting !! Collection
|-
| Short, center-fire weapons such as pistols and revolvers || No || Yes || Yes
|-
| Long, semi-automatic weapons with a magazine capacity of more than 3 cartridges || No || Yes || Yes
|-
| Long, semi-automatic weapons that retain the appearance of a fully automatic weapon || Yes || No || Yes
|-
| Long, semi-automatic weapons with a magazine capacity of at most 3 cartridges, and which cannot be reasonably modified to hold more than 3 cartridges || Yes || Yes || Yes
|-
| Long, smooth-bore semi-automatic and repetition weapons with a length of at most 60 cm || Yes || Yes || Yes
|-
| Short, single-shot centerfire weapons with a length of at most 28 cm || No || Yes || Yes
|-
| Short, rim-fire single-shot, semi-automatic and repetition weapons || No || Yes || Yes
|-
| Single-shot center-fire rifles || Yes || Yes || Yes
|-
| Single-shot smoothbore weapons at least 28 cm long || Yes || Yes || Yes
|}
Note that there are other restrictions for obtaining weapons under a sports-shooting license.
Minors (14 and older) may also use a weapon, provided that they are under the supervision of someone who has a gun license. However, they cannot own or carry one until the age of 18.
The use of guns for self-defense is only allowed if the gun is a last resort option.
Slovakia
Gun ownership in Slovakia is regulated principally by law 190/2003 (law of weapons and ammunition).
A firearms license may be issued to an applicant at least 21 years of age (18 years for category D if they own a valid hunting permit, 15 years for state representative in sport-shooting), with no criminal history, and of sound health and mind, who has a valid reason for owning a gun, passes an oral exam covering aspects of gun law, safe handling, and first aid.
Licenses are issued in 6 categories:
Category A: Concealed carry for self-defense
Category B: Home self-defense
Category C: Possession for work purposes
Category D: Long guns for hunting
Category E: Possession for sport shooting
Category F: Collecting
A concealed carry license is only issued if the police deem a sufficient justification. Because of that issue of this license is may-issue in practice, and vary across Slovakia by stance of individual police department issuing licence. It is kind of similar to California, some department is almost shall-issue, another need true sufficient reason (like a constant more than average threat, previous assaults on applicant, transports of money, former service in army or law enforcement, legal awareness of applicant, clientelism). Only about 2% of the adult population holds this license.
There is an exception for non-repeating muzzle-loaded firearms, which may be purchased without a license.
Slovenia
Gun ownership in Slovenia is regulated under the "Weapons Law" (Zakon o orožju) which is harmonised with the directives of the EU. Gun permits are issued to applicants at least 18 years old, reliable, without criminal history and who has not been a conscientious objector, who passes a medical exam and a test on firearm safety. A specific reason must be given for gun ownership: for hunting or target shooting, the applicant must provide proof of membership in a hunting or sports shooting organization; for collection, the applicant must arrange safe storage with a level of security dependent on the type of weapons; for self-defense, the applicant must prove a risk to personal safety to such an extent that a weapon is needed.
As in most EU member states, the ownership of Category A firearms is prohibited; however these can be owned by weapon collectors, providing that requirements are met. Firearms must be stored in a locked cabinet with ammunition stored separately. Concealed carry is allowed in special circumstances. A gun permit is also required for airguns with muzzle velocity greater than or energy of .
Spain
Firearm regulation in Spain is restrictive, enacted in Real Decreto 137/1993. A firearm license may be obtained from the Guardia Civil after passing a police background check, a physiological and medical test, and a practical and theoretical exam. Shotgun, rifle and sporting licenses must be renewed after 5 years, subject to firearm inspection. Sporting licence requires to present proof of sporting activity of at least one competition each year. A minimum score may be required for some categories. Police may inspect firearms at any time. A self-defense and concealed carry license must be renewed every year, and is only available under special conditions.
A license-holder may own up to 6 shotguns, and unlimited rifles. With a sporting license, valid for 5 years, 1 to 10 handguns may be owned, depending on sports-shooting level. Magazine capacity for semi-automatic centerfire rifles and semi-automatic shotguns is limited to 10 rounds for sports shooting and 2 rounds for hunting. Handgun magazines are limited to 20 round capacity. Rimfire rifles, regardless of type have no magazine limit. Rifles chambered for certain cartridges with military origins are prohibited, such as .223/5.56 NATO and .50 BMG. The .308 Winchester and 7.62x39 mm (AK round) cartridges are only permitted in bolt-action, repetition or single-shot firearms. Proof of ownership of an approved safe is required for all centerfire rifles and handguns, and the owner is responsible for firearm thefts. Ammunition must be stored separately. Rifle and handgun ammunition may only be possessed for legally owned firearms, and purchases and possession is limited to 200 rounds rifle and 100 rounds for handguns. In addition, there are yearly limits in quantity (1000 for rifles,100 for handguns); however additional quantities can be petitioned, mainly for sporting use. For shotgun Ammunition, adults with a valid ID can purchase/possess up to 5,000 shells and there are no yearly limits in quantity. License-holders are only allowed to transport their unloaded firearms from their residence to the shooting range or hunting field and back, with no detours. Firearms may only be discharged at approved shooting ranges or hunting grounds (in season).
There are firearm license for private security for handguns and rifles. These cannot be used outside of work and must be stored in the workplace premises (with approved safe).
In addition there are handgun license for self-defense in concealed carry. However, this is granted on a "may issue" basis with several standards of necessity to be met and very few are granted. This license must be renewed annually and is not automatic.
Members of police forces and officers and non-commissioned officers of the armed forces have a special firearms license which encompasses all of the others. There are additional licenses for collectors and muzzle-loading firearms.
Sweden
Gun ownership in Sweden is regulated by Vapenlagen 1996:67 (literally, The Weapon Law),
modified by weapon decree Vapenförordningen 1996:70 and FAP 551-3 / RPSFS 2009:13. The police issue licenses to persons older than 18 years in good standing on the "need to have" basis, which generally implies either hunting or sport shooting. Passing a hunting examination or membership in an approved sport shooting club for six months is required. Licenses for semi-automatic handguns are issued for five years and can be renewed, rifle and single-shot handgun licenses are valid for the owner's lifetime. License-holders may lend a weapon to a person at least 15 years of age for supervised use.
A separate license is required for each particular firearm, caliber conversion kit or suppressor. There's no codified limit on the number of licenses a person can hold, but in practice a license-holder may own up to six hunting rifles, ten handguns, or a mix of eight rifles and handguns. Firearms must be stored in an approved safe. A firearm registered for hunting may be used for sport shooting, but not vice versa. Licenses obtained for hunting are implicitly limited to bolt-action or, more rarely, semi-automatic rifles that are "applicable for hunting", with no strict definition of the latter in the laws, which causes controversy.
Self-defense with firearms, as well as carry, is generally prohibited. Carry permits can be issued by the police under very special circumstances like an immediate and proven life threat. Transportation of unloaded firearms is allowed to and from approved shooting ranges or hunting grounds.
Firearm collectors must have a clearly stated demarcation of their interest in collecting (e.g.: pre-World War II British handguns). The police may demand security measures on keeping the collection. Collectors may request a time-limited permit to discharge their weapons. Firearms manufactured before 1890 and not using sealed cartridges are exempt from the weapon law.
United Kingdom (Except Northern Ireland)
The UK increased firearm regulation through several Firearms Acts,
leading to an outright ban on automatic firearms and many semi-automatic firearms. Breech-loading handguns are also tightly controlled.
There are three types of weapons that require different licences:
Section 1 firearms require a firearms certificate (FAC), and include bolt-action rifles, semi-automatic rifles in rimfire only, and all shotguns that do not conform to section 2 requirements. There are additional requirements for both sections, such as length and ammunition type, and some accessories such as suppressors are also subject to licensing restrictions.
Section 2 firearms are shotguns with a maximum magazine capacity of two cartridges, excluding those in the chamber, and require a Shotgun Certificate (SGC); unlike the other licences, the onus is on the police to find good reason not to grant applicants a licence.
All firearms and accessories that do not conform to section 1 or 2 requirements are designated as prohibited weapons and require a section 5 licence from the Home Office for legal possession.
An SGC allows the holder to purchase and own any number of shotguns, so long as they can be securely stored, and does not restrict purchase or storage of ammunition; additionally they may legally give shotgun ammunition to non-licence holders. Section 2 and 5 weapons require individual permission for each firearm or accessory, and there are restrictions as to the type and quantity of ammunition held. Aside from Northern Ireland, private ownership of most handguns was banned in 1997, with exception for section 5 firearms licences, which are only generally issued to maritime security personnel, and those under police protection.
There are several factors that may disqualify applicants. A custodial sentence of between three months and three years disqualifies applicants for five years from release; three years or greater disqualifies applicants for life. "Intemperate habits", such as substance use, may disqualify applicants. Being of "unsound mind", meaning a history of mental illness, or other relevant medical conditions may disqualify applicants, however there are no conditions that "make them automatically unsuitable to possess a firearm", and police will contact the applicant's general practitioner, who place a flag on the records of all licence holders. Applicants must also have suitable measures for storing firearms and ammunition, such as a gun safe. The FAC additionally requires demonstrating a good reason for each firearm the applicant wishes to own (such as hunting, pest control, collecting, or target shooting). Self-defence is only accepted as a good reason in Northern Ireland.
Oceania
Firearms are completely prohibited for civilian use without exceptions in Nauru, Palau and Marshall Islands. Fiji suspended all firearm licenses in 2000, Cook Islands and Solomon Islands did the same respectively in 1999 and 1992. Papua New Guinea does not issue new licenses since 2000, but former are still valid. Kiribati effectively made it impossible to obtain new firearms by banning import of them.
Australia
Gun laws in Australia are under the jurisdiction of the state governments, with the importation of guns regulated by the federal government. Gun laws were largely aligned in 1996 by the National Firearms Agreement. In two federally funded gun buybacks and voluntary surrenders and state governments' gun amnesties before and after the Port Arthur Massacre, more than a million firearms were collected and destroyed, possibly one third of the national stock.
A person must have a firearm licence to possess or use a firearm. Licence holders must demonstrate a "genuine reason" (which does not include self-defence) for holding a firearm licence and must not be a "prohibited person". All firearms must be registered by serial number to the owner, who must also hold a firearms licence.
New Zealand
New Zealand's gun laws focus mainly on vetting firearm owners. A firearms licence may be issued by police to applicants who attend a safety lecture, pass a written test on safety and the Arms Code, and have secure storage for firearms and ammunition; the police will also interview the applicant and two references to be certain the applicant is "fit and proper" to own a firearm. Having criminal associations, a history of domestic violence, mental instability, or alcohol or drug use almost always result in the application being denied. Misbehavior involving firearms commonly leads to a firearms licence being revoked by police. Even when licensed, a person may only be in possession of a firearm for a particular lawful, proper and sufficient purpose,
for which the NZ Police policy is to exclude self-defense, however this is not written in the Arms Act or supporting regulations.
Handguns, machine guns, or selective-fire assault rifles require stricter vetting procedures, a higher level of storage security, and a "special reason" for obtaining the weapon. The applicant must gain an appropriate endorsement on their licence and a permit to procure before obtaining.
After the Christchurch mosque shootings in 2019, legislation to restrict semi-automatic firearms and magazines with a capacity of more than 10 rounds, and provide an amnesty and buyback of such weapons was introduced and passed by the New Zealand parliament.
See also
Arms Trade Treaty
Concealed carry
Defensive gun use
Estimated number of civilian guns per capita by country
Global gun cultures
Glossary of firearms terms
Gun control
Gun ownership
Gun violence
Index of gun politics articles
List of countries by firearm-related death rate
Percent of households with guns by country.
Right to arms
Notes
References
Relevant legislation
External links
GunPolicy.org – University of Sydney hosted database on armed violence, firearm law and gun control
Small Arms Survey with 2007 survey of 178 countries
Missing Pieces: A Guide for Reducing Gun Violence through parliamentary action Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, Inter-Parliamentary Union, 2007
Questionnaire for the Seventh United Nations Survey of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems, covering the period 1998––2000
Gun Politics
Firearm laws | [
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12688 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shock%20site | Shock site | A shock site or gore site is a website that is intended to be offensive or disturbing to its viewers, though it can also contain elements of humor or evoke (in some viewers) sexual arousal. They contain material of high shock value, generally of a pornographic, scatological, racist, sexist, graphically violent, insulting, vulgar, profane, or otherwise provocative nature. Some shock sites display a single picture, animation, video clip or small gallery, and are circulated via email or disguised in posts to discussion sites as a prank. Steven Jones distinguishes these sites from those that collect galleries where users search for shocking content, such as Rotten.com. Gallery sites can contain beheadings, execution, electrocution, suicide, murder, stoning, torching, drowning, vehicular accidents, war victims, rape, necrophilia, genital mutilation and other sexual crimes.
Some shock sites have also gained their own subcultures and have become internet memes on their own. Goatse.cx featured a page devoted to fan-submitted artwork and tributes to the site's hello.jpg, and a parody of the image was unwittingly shown by a BBC newscast as an alternative for the then-recently unveiled logo for the 2012 Summer Olympics. A 2007 shock video known as 2 Girls 1 Cup also quickly became an Internet phenomenon, with videos of reactions, homages, and parodies widely posted on video sharing sites such as YouTube.
History
There have been several shock galleries that have launched and shut down. Rotten.com hosted murder videos and images of deceased people and brandished the motto "Pure Evil Since 1996". During their operation, the owners of Rotten.com launched several new sites, one of which was Shockumentary.com in 2006. Shockumentary.com was created to sell mondo films like Traces of Death (1993). Ogrish.com (established in 2000) hosted "mutilated corpses, car accidents, burn victims, congenital malformations and other grotesqueries". Ogrish.com's reputation rested on its publication of gore media from terrorists and war. In 2006, Ogrish.com was rebranded as Liveleak.com. BestGore, established in 2008 by Mark Marek, was notorious for its extremely graphic content, such as photos and videos of murders, suicides and violent accidents with an estimated 15–20 million monthly visits during its operation. He pleaded guilty and was given a six-month conditional sentence for his role in a case where he was accused of corrupting public morals in Alberta, Canada. Some shock galleries, however, established more specific niches. The sites Necrobabes, Cannibal Café, and Gourmet tailored themselves to would-be cannibals in the early 2000s. These sites gained attention in 2003 when Armin Meiwes, an aspiring cannibal, used the sites to connect with Jürgen Brandes, a man who desired to be eaten. The two met, and Brandes' murder and cannibalism were recorded and posted on various sites. Additionally, Graham Coutts visited Necrobabes, Rapepassion, Violentpleasure, and Hangingbitches frequently before strangling teacher Jane Longhurst.
There have also been several individual videos that received viral attention. Goatse was one of the earliest and best-known shock sites, featuring an image of a man stretching his anus with his hands. The site featured a page devoted to fan-submitted artwork and tributes to the site. The site was shut down in 2004; however, various mirror sites featuring the image still exist. In 2012, it was resurrected as an e-mail service. In 2008, the Dnepropetrovsk maniacs posted the graphic murder video "3 Guys 1 Hammer". This was followed years later by Eric Clinton Kirk Newman's (known now as Luka Rocco Magnotta) video "1 Lunatic 1 Icepick" in 2012—a video of Newman murdering Chinese student Jun Lin that contained dismemberment, cannibalism, and necrophilia and was posted on Bestgore.com. Newman also shared a video one year prior of him using a vacuum and plastic bag to suffocate two kittens to the song "Happy Xmas (War is Over)" by John Lennon to several gore sites. Meatspin is a shock site containing a looping video (set playing to "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record) by Dead or Alive") of two people engaging in anal sex while the penis of the receiving partner spins endlessly. Although frequently reported to be gay porn, it has been mentioned that the clip was derived from a trans porn film. A counter keeps track of how many "spins" the viewer has watched. In 2013, a student at Florida State University hacked the wireless network of his campus and redirected all traffic to Meatspin. In 2015, consternation followed when a family restaurant played the website in front of young children. In 2016, the website was played on a public digital billboard in Sweden, resulting in international media attention. The site first went live on March 10, 2005. the domain is now meatspin.cc. John-Michael Bond of The Daily Dot stated that to an extent, "casual homophobia" of the 2000s helped popularize Meatspin.
Legality
Currently, there is no federal or state legislation in the United States outlawing snuff films that depict the murder of a human being—a common source of material for shock sites. In 2000, California introduced a bill to outlaw these films, but after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) raised protest over First Amendment Concerns, the bill failed to pass. No other bill has passed since. In the case of Miller v. California, the U.S. Supreme Court established a test to determine whether content falls under the category of unprotected obscenity. The Miller test requires that content "appeals to the prurient interest" to be obscene, meaning content must have a sexual component.
That test was modified by United States v. Richards, which ruled that animal crush videos (videos that involve the killing of animals) can be obscene and therefore, are unprotected by the First Amendment even though they do not clearly appeal to sexual interests. The court ruled animal crush videos to be unprotected obscenity for two reasons. First, animal crush videos can appeal to a "specific sexual fetish," which fits the sexual conduct requirement of the Miller test. Second, United States v. Richards modified the Miller test by ruling that obscenity "can also cover unusual deviant acts" even if they are not directly sexual. Child pornography also falls under the category of unprotected obscenity by these tests. Due to the combination of murder and pornography depicted on shock sites that contain murder videos like gore2gasm.com, legal scholars have argued that murder videos also appeal to specific sexual interests and are thus unprotected under United States v. Richards.
In terms of liability, unless snuff films are illegal, third party providers like shock sites that host murder videos and related snuff films are protected by the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (CDA). However, websites that require users to upload illegal content or actively encourage users to create and share illegal content can be held liable. Additionally, courts have granted increasing privacy rights to families over the publication and distribution of images of deceased relatives. The owners of Rotten.com were successfully sued by families for hosting photos of dead people and videos of their deaths on the site.
In the UK, legislators passed the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act of 2008, which included a section outlawing extreme pornography (that which is intended to sexually arouse viewers that threatens a person's life, is likely to seriously harm a person's anus, breasts, or genitals, or involves a human corpse or an animal). This has resulted in shock sites, as well as US pornographers including Max Hardcore and Extreme Associates, being convicted of obscenity in the UK.
During the Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand, the shooter broadcast the killings live on Facebook. The video was shared on Facebook and uploaded to YouTube shortly after. Footage of the mass killings were hosted on 4chan, 8chan, LiveLeak, Voat, Zero Hedge, and KiwiFarms. Rather than the Australian government trying to ban this specific instance of murder videos, internet service providers in Australia chose to place temporary blocks on any sites that hosted the footage until all the footage was believed to be removed.
Ethics
Several ethical concerns have been raised on the topic of shock sites and murder videos. One concern is that the popularity of shock sites will encourage an increase in violent murders, which can result in more extreme and violent videos that will likely generate more views on shock sites. Murder videos can inspire copycats to replicate the snuff films. After one of the Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs' videos leaked on the internet as "3 Guys 1 Hammer" in 2007, Eric Clinton Kirk Newman murdered Lin Jun, a Chinese student, and uploaded the video (including scenes of dismemberment, cannibalism, and necrophilia) under the similar title of "1 Lunatic 1 Icepick" in 2012.
Another concern is the right of a victim and the victim's family to privacy after death. This is the issue of whether Lin Jun's parents have a right to remove the video of their son's murder from the internet. Murder victims cannot consent to the footage of their deaths being used and uploaded, and several court cases have agreed that parents and loved ones should have a right to prevent the widespread viewership of a personal tragedy and stop the video from being published.
Finally, while shock value is not sufficient to justify banning content legally (as was determined by Cohen v. California), there are still ethical concerns about the emotional damages caused by the jarring nature and content of shock sites. Viewing violent content such as murder videos on social media can cause or trigger post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and cause other emotional distress.
Media
As more people upload and view murder videos on shock sites, some believe that this practice is being mirrored in the horror movie genre. The presence of CCTV in Saw and the online torture auctions in Hostel Part II raise questions on the nefarious use of monitoring systems and the widespread access to videos of Al-Qaeda beheadings, executions in American prisons, and other real depictions of violence and murder on the internet. In examples like Saw, the contemporary horror genre reflects real horror on the internet.
Additionally, a parody of Goatse was shown by a BBC newscast as an alternative for the then recently unveiled logo for the 2012 Summer Olympics.
See also
2 Girls 1 Cup
4chan
Deepfake pornography
Elsagate
Fan service
Internet pornography
Internet privacy
Internet troll
List of Internet phenomena
Moral panic
NSFW
RackaRacka
Rule 34
Shock humour
References
Further reading
Internet slang
Internet trolling
Internet memes
Online obscenity controversies
2000s fads and trends
de:Internet-Phänomen#Sonstiges | [
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12691 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography%20of%20Albania | Geography of Albania | Albania is a small country in Southern, Southeastern Europe and Western Balkans strategically positioned on the Adriatic and Ionian Sea inside the Mediterranean Sea, with a coastline of about . It is bounded by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, North Macedonia to the east and Greece to the southeast and south.
Most of Albania rises into mountains and hills, tending to run the length of the country from north to south, as for instance the Albanian Alps in the north, the Sharr Mountains in the northeast, the Skanderbeg Mountains in the center, the Korab Mountains in the east, the Pindus Mountains in the southeast, and the Ceraunian Mountains in the southwest. Plains and plateaus extend in the west along the Albanian Adriatic and Ionian Sea Coast.
Few of the most considerable and oldest bodies of freshwater of Europe occur in Albania. The second largest lake of Southern Europe, the Lake of Shkodër, is located in the northwest surrounded by the Albanian Alps and the Adriatic Sea. Nevertheless, one of the oldest continuously existing lakes in the world, the Lake of Ohrid, straddles in the southeast, while the highest tectonic lakes of the Balkan Peninsula, the Large and Small Lake of Prespa are well hidden among high mountains in the southeast.
Rivers originate in the east of Albania and loops towards the west into the sea. They are encompassed by the drainage basins of the Adriatic, Aegean and Black Sea. The longest river in the country, measured from its mouth to its source, is the Drin that starts at the confluence of its two headwaters, the Black and White Drin, though also notable is the Vjosë, one of the last intact large river systems in Europe.
For a small country, Albania is characterized for its biological diversity and abundance of contrasting ecosystems and habitats, defined in an area of 28,748 square kilometres. This great diversity derives from Albania's geographic location on the Mediterranean Sea, with typical climatic conditions, varied topography, as well as the wealth of terrestrial and marine ecosystems providing a variety of habitats, each with its own typical flora and fauna.
There are 799 Albanian protected areas covering a surface of 5,216.96 square kilometres. These include two strict nature reserves, 14 national parks, one marine park, eight archaeological parks, 750 natural monuments, 22 habitat/species management areas, five protected landscapes, 4 protected landscapes, four managed resources areas and four ramsar wetlands. The national parks cover a surface area of or roughly 13.65% of the overall territory.
Borders
A total surface area of 28.748 square kilometres (11,100 sq mi), the country is located in the southeastern part of the Adriatic and the northeastern part of the Ionian Sea, both located within the Mediterranean Sea. It has a length of borders of about , of which are taken by terrestrial borders, of shore borders, river borders and of lake borders. Inland water surface is , composed by natural lakes , coastal lagoons , artificial lakes and rivers .
The countries of Montenegro () and Kosovo () border the country in the north and northeast, respectively. A significant portion of this border connects high points and follows mountain ridges through the largely inaccessible Albanian Alps. The eastern border is shared with North Macedonia, which stretches . This border is located at the tripoint between Albania, Kosovo, and North Macedonia passing through the Sharr and Korab Mountains and continues until it reaches Lake Ohrid and Lake Prespa. The southern and southeastern border with Greece is long. The border is located at the tripoint border between Albania, North Macedonia, and Greece running across the Large and Small Lake Prespa until it reaches the Ionian Sea at the Strait of Corfu.
Physical geography
Topography
The most significant feature of Albania is possibly its relief, with numerous successive mountain ranges and its average altitude, more than 700 metres above sea level. Much of the mountains lie to the north, east and south of the western lowlands in the northern, eastern and southern mountain ranges.
The Albanian Alps extend over 90 kilometres through the north of Albania, traversing an area of 2,000 square kilometres. These mountains represent an
extension of the Dinaric Alps and no wider than 40 kilometres. They are deeply fragmented and often inaccessible. It holds the Maja Jezercë, which is the highest point of the Dinarides and simultaneously the second highest point of Albania.
The Korab Mountains dominate the east of the country and expand 40 kilometres along the eastern border of the country, where peaks can clearly reach 2,500 metres. The mountains offer the country's most prominent peak at Mount Korab, which is fragmented by many deep structural depressions. Another distinguishing feature remains the evidence of the last ice age in form of glacial lakes at relatively low altitudes.
One of the most remarkable features about the south of Albania is the presence of the Ceraunian Mountains that cut across the landscape for nearly 100 kilometres. Thousand meter high mountains fall vertically into the Mediterranean Sea constituting at least the first barrier to communication between the sea and the country's southern inland.
Hydrography
The country has a dense network of rivers and streams characterized by a high flow rate. They belong to the drainage basins of the Adriatic, Aegean and Black Sea. They mostly rise in the mountainous eastern half of the country and have their mouths in the west along the coasts. They are sustained from snowmelt of the snow-capped mountains or from the abundant precipitation that falls at loftier elevations.
Eight notable rivers, along with their numerous tributaries, make up the river system of the country. The longest river is the Drin, which flows for within the country. Its catchment area is one of the most biodiverse places in Europe and encompasses the lakes of Shkodër, Ohrid and Prespa. Of particular concern represent the river of Vjosa as it is considered as the last remaining wild river in Europe. The country's other rivers are Fan, Ishëm, Erzen, Mat, Seman and Shkumbin.
With more than 250 lakes, the country is home to two of the largest lakes in Southern Europe and one of the oldest in the World. The lakes of the country are predominantly of karstic or glacial origin. The largest lake in Southern Europe is the Lake of Shkodër geographically located in the north, shared with Montenegro. One of the ancientest lakes in the world is the Lake of Ohrid located in the southeast, shared with North Macedonia. The highest positioned lakes in Southern Europe are the Large and Small Lake of Prespa in the southeast, shared with North Macedonia and Greece.
The country is also home to many lagoons of varied shape, size and structure. They are primarily positioned along the coast in the west of the country and also in the southeast. They contribute to the overall productivity of the coastal waters by supporting a variety of habitats and ecosystems. The largest lagoon in the country is the Lagoon of Karavasta located between the mouth of Shkumbin and Seman. Another significant lagoons are the lagoons of Patoku, Narta, Kunë-Vain and Butrint.
Biodiversity
The proximity to the Mediterranean Sea and the convergence of exceptional climatic, geological and hydrological conditions, have contributed for the development of a diverse biodiversity, making Albania one of the biodiversity hotspots of Europe.
In terms of phytogeography, the land area of Albania extends within the Boreal Kingdom, specifically within the Illyrian province of the Circumboreal Region. Its territory can be subdivided into four terrestrial ecoregions of the Palearctic realm – the Illyrian, Balkan, Pindus and Dinaric forests.
Forests and woodlands are the most widespread terrestrial ecosystem in Albania. That of the northern edge of the country has an affinity for those of Continental Europe, while those of the southern edge refer to the affinity with that of the Mediterranean Basin. They are substantial because they provide shelter for a vast array of rare and endangered species of animals, among others the brown bear, Balkan lynx, grey wolf, golden jackal, Egyptian vulture and golden eagle. Albania had a 2018 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 6.77/10, ranking it 64th globally out of 172 countries.
The Mediterranean monk seal, short-beaked common dolphin and common bottlenose dolphin can frequently be seen in the coastal waters of the country. Outstanding is the presence of the Dalmatian pelican, the rarest pelican in the world. The biodiversity of Albania is conserved in its protected areas, which provide protection to hundreds of threatened and endangered species.
Protected areas
Numerous parts of Albania are protected in accordance with a number of national and international designations due to their natural, historical or cultural value. Protected areas belong to the most principal instruments of conservation which in turn contributes effectively to the maintenance of species, habitats and ecosystems.
The country has currently fifteen designated national parks, whereby one is specified as a marine park. Ranging from the Adriatic Sea and the Ionian Sea to the Albanian Alps and the Ceraunian Mountains, they possess outstanding landscapes constituting habitats to thousands of plant and animal species. Butrint, Divjakë-Karavasta, Karaburun-Sazan, Llogara, Prespa, Shebenik-Jabllanicë, Theth and Valbonë are among the most spectacular national parks of the country.
Climate
Albania has a combination of a mediterranean climate and a continental climate, with four distinct seasons. The climatic conditions are highly variable and modified locally by altitude and latitude. Its climate is strongly influenced by the Mediterranean Sea in the west, and the mountains that raise in every corner around the country.
Its diverse regions have a remarkable range of microclimates, with the weather system on the coasts contrasting with that prevailing in the interior. Moreover, the weather varies from the north and towards the south and the west to the east. Albania occupies the climate ranges from temperate climate on the coasts to continental climate in the interior. The warmest areas of the country are at the coasts, which are characterized by a Mediterranean climate (Csa, Csb and Cfa) as defined by the Köppen climate classification. The highlands experiences an Oceanic climate. Winters in Albania are characteristically mild and wet while summers are warm and dry. The northern areas of country such as the Albanian Alps experiences a subarctic climate with frequently very cold winters, and short, mild summers.
The lowlands of Albania have mild winters, averaging about . The summer temperatures average , however, humidity is low. In the southern lowlands, specifically the areas on the Ionian sea, temperatures average about in the winter and during the summer.
Physiographic regions
The country is divided into four physiographic regions, the Northern Mountain Range, Central Mountain Range, Southern Mountain Range and Western Lowlands with two subdivisions corresponding roughly to the Albanian Adriatic and Ionian Sea Coast.
Western Lowlands
Except for its sea coast in the west, the western lowlands are ringed by a great arc-shaped line of mountains spreading in the north, east and south. The predominantly flat and regular landscape is morphologically characterized by the sea and rivers, in terms of topography and soil, and also in its climate and biodiversity. The region experiences mild and short winters, with low rainfalls, and long hot and dry summers. It is mostly dominated by the extensive Myzeqe plain, a large alluvial plain traversed by three main rivers, the Shkumbin, Seman and Vjosë.
The Albanian Adriatic Sea Coast stretches from the mouth of the River of Buna nearby the Lake of Shkodër in the north, across the Gulf of Drin, to the Bay of Vlorë in the south. The two largest coastal cities Durrës and Vlorë are located in the northern and the southern part of the region, respectively. The total length of the coastline is approximately , mostly of which are taken up by sandy beaches, wetlands and alluvial deposits, occurred by quaternary sediments of the main rivers of the country.
The coastline is lined with different habitats and ecosystems, providing optimal conditions for a rich biodiversity. Of particular importance is the presence of numerous lagoons and ponds, representing one of the wealthiest scenery of the country, in terms of biology. Likely, the lagoons of Karavasta and Narta, in the immediate proximity to the sea, are among the most important ones in the Mediterranean Sea.
While the Adriatic coast is relatively low, the Ionian coast is, with few exceptions, rugged and mountainous. The Albanian Ionian Sea Coast stretches from the Peninsula of Karaburun in the north, through the Albanian Riviera, to the Straits of Corfu in the south. The largest coastal city Sarandë is located in the southern part of the region, while smaller villages include Borsh, Dhermi, Himara, Qeparo, Piqeras, and Lukovë. The total length of the coastline is approximately .
The most characteristic features of the coastline are the Ceraunian Mountains, which extend nearly along the Albanian Riviera roughly in a southeast–northwest direction. The region is particular fertile and known for its citrus fruits and viticulture, that has a long and special tradition in the region. The coastline is abundant in dolomite from the triassic period, the carbonate rocks follows with limestone from the jurassic period and bituminous schists, cretaceous porcelain and phosphate limestone.
Northern Mountain Range
The northern mountain range is the most mountainous region in the country and its physical geography and shape is distinguished by the convergence of two distinct geological regions, the Albanian Alps and Mirdita Highlands. A dominant feature of the region's landscape is the presence of several u-shaped valleys, such as the Valley of Valbonë, formed by the process of glaciation.
The Albanian Alps are the southernmost extension of the Dinaric Alps and simultaneously the highest and most imposing mountains of the country. Despite the fact that the ice ages had relatively little geological influence on the alps, the southernmost glaciers of Europe were recently discovered on the alps.
The Albanian Alps are home to many important rivers of Western Balkans. The main drainage basins of the Alps are those of the Drin and Danube Rivers. Rivers on the Alps fall roughly into two categories, those that flow into the Lim and those that enter the White Drin and meet the Black Drin downstream at the Drin confluence. However, Drin dominates, draining most of the Alps with its tributaries and when measured from the source of the White Drin to the mouth of the Drin near Lezhë. But not all of the Drin flows near or parallel to the Alps. One Drin tributary is the Valbona River, which drains into the Adriatic Sea, and its eastern tributary the Gashi River.
Central Mountain Range
The terrain of the central mountain range is predominantly mountainous and extremely fragmented carved into its present shape by the glaciers of the last ice age. The region is dominated by three mountain ranges, each running from north-northeast to south-southwest, roughly parallel to the eastern border of Albania.
The Korab Mountains are certainly the most striking feature of the physical geography of the region. They offer simultaneously the highest mountain of the country, the Mount Korab. The mountains extends over 40 kilometres and covers an area of 560 square kilometres. Between the valleys of Shkumbin and Devoll rise the mountains that constitute to the Valamara Mountains, while farther north stretches the connected mountain massifs of Shebenik and Jabllanicë.
The vast majority of the region's natural lakes are located in the southern half of the region and most of them are the product of a long contiguous history. The Lake of Ohrid lie adjacent to the border shared with North Macedonia. It is one of the oldest continuously existing lakes in the world with a unique biodiversity. Further south, well hidden among high mountains, extend the Lake of Prespa that is linked by a small channel with a sluice that separates the two lakes.
Southern Mountain Range
The Ceraunian Mountains, a coastal mountain range in southwestern Albania, stretches about besides the Ionian Sea from Sarandë in south-east-northwest direction along the Albanian Riviera to Orikum. The relief is varied, with many mountain passes, canyons, gorges, hills and other landforms. The mountains are characterized by housing Black pines, Bulgarian firs, Bosnian pines and Ash trees. The mountain chain is home to many large mammals, including brown bears, grey wolves, lynx, golden eagles and others. The highest point on the chain is Maja e Çikës, that rises to an elevation of above the Adriatic. From the peak, there is a view of the Albanian Riviera, the northern Ionian Islands as well as the Italian coast of Apulia and Otranto. The section has wide and long beaches, with a number of bays and headlands.
Stretching until the Llogara Pass at , the mountain chain gets separated into the Ceraunians in the west and the Akroceraunians (or Reza e Kanalit) in the east within the Karaburun Peninsula. The villages of Palasë, Dhërmi, Vuno, Himarë, Qeparo, Borsh, Pilur, Kudhës and Ilias are located on the Ceraunian range. The Llogara National Park covers an area of and
The Karaburun Peninsula is situated at the eastern side of Strait of Otranto, where the Adriatic Sea meets the Ionian Sea. Its area is , having a length of , and a width of only . The Mesokanali is the narrow channel, that separates the peninsula from the Sazan Island. Geologically, it is made up of carbonic limestone, dating back to the Mesozoic period, while in the northwestern it is composed of terrigenous sediment. Furthermore, these formations have been continuously under the effect of Karst and are exploited as marble. The relief of the peninsula comprises a number of hills with an average altitude of about above the Adriatic. The highest summits are Maja e
Ilqës , Maja e Flamurit and Maja Çadëri .
The coastal landscape is characterized by a rough relief, that dips vertically into the Ionian Sea, it features several solitary peaks, large canyons, bays, caves and gulfs. Examples of typical landforms include Gjipe Canyon, Gjiri i Arushës, Gjiri i Dafinës, Gjiri i Gramës and so on. The geological evolution has formed also capes such as Haxhi Aliu, Galloveci and Kepi i Gjuhëzës, and other of 20 caves along the entire shoreline. The climate is Mediterranean, having hot summers and generally warm to cool, dry winters. Due to its climatic, hydrological and geological conditions, the area is characterized by its unique flora and fauna. Most of the territory consists of forests and is relatively well preserved, it includes many types of trees, such as Mediterranean oak, Manna ash, Kermes oak and Field maple.
See also
Environment of Albania
Climate of Albania
Biodiversity of Albania
Notes
References
Further reading
Dako, Alba, Mirela Lika and Hysen Mankolli – Monitoring Aspects of Air Quality in Urban Areas of Tirana and Durrës, Albania, Natura Montenegrina 7, Number 2 (2008): 549–557.
Floqi, Tania, Daut Vezi and Ilirian Malollari – Identification and Evaluation of Water Pollution from Albanian Tanneries, Desalination 213, Number 1-3 (2007): 56–64.
Muller, Daniel, Thomas Sikor – Effects of Post-Socialist Reforms on Land Cover and Land Use in South-Eastern Albania. Applied Geography 26, Number 3-4 (2006): 175–191.
Environment of Albania | [
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12692 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimp | Gimp | Gimp or GIMP may refer to:
Character
Gimp (gaming), weak game character
Gimp (sadomasochism), a sexual submissive dressed generally in a bondage suit
Embroidery and crafts
Gimp (thread), an ornamental trim used in sewing and embroidery
Gimp thread (scoubidou), plastic thread used in crafts such as lanyards
Arts and entertainment
Gimp (album), by Psylons
The GIMP Project, a New York dance company
"The Gimp", a leather man in the film Pulp Fiction
"The Gimp (Sometimes)", a song by British experimental band Coil off their 2004 album Black Antlers
Science and technology
GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program), an open-source image editor
GIMPs (Gravitationally-interacting massive particles), a possible origin of dark matter
Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS)
See also
Gimp-Print, a collection of printer drivers
Martin Snyder (1893–1981), Jewish-American gangster commonly known as Moe the Gimp | [
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12694 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnosphaerid | Gymnosphaerid | The gymnosphaerids (or Gymnosphaerida) are a small group of heliozoan protists found in marine environments. They tend to be roughly spherical with radially directed axopods, supported by microtubules in a triangular-hexagonal array arising from an amorphous central granule.
Genera
There are only three genera, each with a single species: Gymnosphaera albida, Hedraiophrys hovassei, and Actinocoryne contractilis.
Gymnosphaera albida is free-living, usually benthic in shallow water. The cells are round and naked, around 70-100 μm in diameter, and resemble the unrelated Actinosphaerium. The outer cytoplasm, or ectoplasm, forms a distinct layer containing large vesicles.
Hedraiophrys hovassei is larger and lives attached to algae and other objects. The cells have a conical base, and are covered with long siliceous spicules. The ectoplasm is distinct and frothy, and typically contains bacterial and algal endosymbionts.
Actinocoryne contractilis is benthic. When feeding, it has a multinucleate base and a contractile stalk up to 150 μm in length, supporting a relatively small uninucleate head, where the central granule and axopods are located. In order to move, it collapses the stalk and head into an amoeboid form which is capable of migration. Reproduction is either by budding off the head or fragmentation of the headless form, producing small free-living cells similar to Gymnosphaera, which then attach themselves and regrow the stalk and base.
Classification
Gymnosphaerids were originally considered centrohelids, which also have microtubules in a triangular-hexagonal array, but are set apart from the others by the structure of the central granule and the mitochondria, which have tubular cristae. The two groups have been treated as separate orders (Axoplasthelida and Centroplasthelida) in a common class, but this has lost support. Instead the gymnosphaerids may be allied with the desmothoracids, and on account of this have been placed in the Cercozoa, but this is somewhat tentative.
Order Gymnosphaerida Poche 1913 emend. Mikrjukov 2000
Family Gymnosphaeridae Poche 1913
Genus ?Actinolophus Schultze 1874
Species Actinolophus pedunculatus Schulze 1874
Genus ?Wagnerella Mereschkowsky 1878
Species Wagnerella borealis Mereschkowsky 1878
Genus Gymnosphaera Sassaki 1894 non BIume 1828
Species Gymnosphaera albida Sassaki 1894
Genus Hedraiophrys Febvre-Chevalier & Febvre 2005
Species Hedraiophrys hovassei Febvre-Chevalier & Febvre 2005
Genus Actinocoryne Febvre-Chevalier 1980
Species Actinocoryne contractilis Febvre-Chevalier 1980
References
Amoeboids
Filosa | [
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12695 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group%20representation | Group representation | In the mathematical field of representation theory, group representations describe abstract groups in terms of bijective linear transformations of a vector space to itself (i.e. vector space automorphisms); in particular, they can be used to represent group elements as invertible matrices so that the group operation can be represented by matrix multiplication. Representations of groups are important because they allow many group-theoretic problems to be reduced to problems in linear algebra, which is well understood. They are also important in physics because, for example, they describe how the symmetry group of a physical system affects the solutions of equations describing that system.
The term representation of a group is also used in a more general sense to mean any "description" of a group as a group of transformations of some mathematical object. More formally, a "representation" means a homomorphism from the group to the automorphism group of an object. If the object is a vector space we have a linear representation. Some people use realization for the general notion and reserve the term representation for the special case of linear representations. The bulk of this article describes linear representation theory; see the last section for generalizations.
Branches of group representation theory
The representation theory of groups divides into subtheories depending on the kind of group being represented. The various theories are quite different in detail, though some basic definitions and concepts are similar. The most important divisions are:
Finite groups — Group representations are a very important tool in the study of finite groups. They also arise in the applications of finite group theory to crystallography and to geometry. If the field of scalars of the vector space has characteristic p, and if p divides the order of the group, then this is called modular representation theory; this special case has very different properties. See Representation theory of finite groups.
Compact groups or locally compact groups — Many of the results of finite group representation theory are proved by averaging over the group. These proofs can be carried over to infinite groups by replacement of the average with an integral, provided that an acceptable notion of integral can be defined. This can be done for locally compact groups, using Haar measure. The resulting theory is a central part of harmonic analysis. The Pontryagin duality describes the theory for commutative groups, as a generalised Fourier transform. See also: Peter–Weyl theorem.
Lie groups — Many important Lie groups are compact, so the results of compact representation theory apply to them. Other techniques specific to Lie groups are used as well. Most of the groups important in physics and chemistry are Lie groups, and their representation theory is crucial to the application of group theory in those fields. See Representations of Lie groups and Representations of Lie algebras.
Linear algebraic groups (or more generally affine group schemes) — These are the analogues of Lie groups, but over more general fields than just R or C. Although linear algebraic groups have a classification that is very similar to that of Lie groups, and give rise to the same families of Lie algebras, their representations are rather different (and much less well understood). The analytic techniques used for studying Lie groups must be replaced by techniques from algebraic geometry, where the relatively weak Zariski topology causes many technical complications.
Non-compact topological groups — The class of non-compact groups is too broad to construct any general representation theory, but specific special cases have been studied, sometimes using ad hoc techniques. The semisimple Lie groups have a deep theory, building on the compact case. The complementary solvable Lie groups cannot be classified in the same way. The general theory for Lie groups deals with semidirect products of the two types, by means of general results called Mackey theory, which is a generalization of Wigner's classification methods.
Representation theory also depends heavily on the type of vector space on which the group acts. One distinguishes between finite-dimensional representations and infinite-dimensional ones. In the infinite-dimensional case, additional structures are important (e.g. whether or not the space is a Hilbert space, Banach space, etc.).
One must also consider the type of field over which the vector space is defined. The most important case is the field of complex numbers. The other important cases are the field of real numbers, finite fields, and fields of p-adic numbers. In general, algebraically closed fields are easier to handle than non-algebraically closed ones. The characteristic of the field is also significant; many theorems for finite groups depend on the characteristic of the field not dividing the order of the group.
Definitions
A representation of a group G on a vector space V over a field K is a group homomorphism from G to GL(V), the general linear group on V. That is, a representation is a map
such that
Here V is called the representation space and the dimension of V is called the dimension of the representation. It is common practice to refer to V itself as the representation when the homomorphism is clear from the context.
In the case where V is of finite dimension n it is common to choose a basis for V and identify GL(V) with , the group of n-by-n invertible matrices on the field K.
If G is a topological group and V is a topological vector space, a continuous representation of G on V is a representation ρ such that the application defined by is continuous.
The kernel of a representation ρ of a group G is defined as the normal subgroup of G whose image under ρ is the identity transformation:
A faithful representation is one in which the homomorphism is injective; in other words, one whose kernel is the trivial subgroup {e} consisting only of the group's identity element.
Given two K vector spaces V and W, two representations and are said to be equivalent or isomorphic if there exists a vector space isomorphism so that for all g in G,
Examples
Consider the complex number u = e2πi / 3 which has the property u3 = 1. The cyclic group C3 = {1, u, u2} has a representation ρ on given by:
This representation is faithful because ρ is a one-to-one map.
Another representation for C3 on , isomorphic to the previous one, is σ given by:
The group C3 may also be faithfully represented on by τ given by:
where
Another example:
Let be the space of homogeneous degree-3 polynomials over the complex numbers in variables
Then acts on by permutation of the three variables.
For instance, sends to .
Reducibility
A subspace W of V that is invariant under the group action is called a subrepresentation. If V has exactly two subrepresentations, namely the zero-dimensional subspace and V itself, then the representation is said to be irreducible; if it has a proper subrepresentation of nonzero dimension, the representation is said to be reducible. The representation of dimension zero is considered to be neither reducible nor irreducible, just like the number 1 is considered to be neither composite nor prime.
Under the assumption that the characteristic of the field K does not divide the size of the group, representations of finite groups can be decomposed into a direct sum of irreducible subrepresentations (see Maschke's theorem). This holds in particular for any representation of a finite group over the complex numbers, since the characteristic of the complex numbers is zero, which never divides the size of a group.
In the example above, the first two representations given (ρ and σ) are both decomposable into two 1-dimensional subrepresentations (given by span{(1,0)} and span{(0,1)}), while the third representation (τ) is irreducible.
Generalizations
Set-theoretical representations
A set-theoretic representation (also known as a group action or permutation representation) of a group G on a set X is given by a function ρ : G → XX, the set of functions from X to X, such that for all g1, g2 in G and all x in X:
where is the identity element of G. This condition and the axioms for a group imply that ρ(g) is a bijection (or permutation) for all g in G. Thus we may equivalently define a permutation representation to be a group homomorphism from G to the symmetric group SX of X.
For more information on this topic see the article on group action.
Representations in other categories
Every group G can be viewed as a category with a single object; morphisms in this category are just the elements of G. Given an arbitrary category C, a representation of G in C is a functor from G to C. Such a functor selects an object X in C and a group homomorphism from G to Aut(X), the automorphism group of X.
In the case where C is VectK, the category of vector spaces over a field K, this definition is equivalent to a linear representation. Likewise, a set-theoretic representation is just a representation of G in the category of sets.
When C is Ab, the category of abelian groups, the objects obtained are called G-modules.
For another example consider the category of topological spaces, Top. Representations in Top are homomorphisms from G to the homeomorphism group of a topological space X.
Two types of representations closely related to linear representations are:
projective representations: in the category of projective spaces. These can be described as "linear representations up to scalar transformations".
affine representations: in the category of affine spaces. For example, the Euclidean group acts affinely upon Euclidean space.
See also
Irreducible representations
Character table
Character theory
Molecular symmetry
List of harmonic analysis topics
List of representation theory topics
Representation theory of finite groups
Semisimple representation
Notes
References
. Introduction to representation theory with emphasis on Lie groups.
Yurii I. Lyubich. Introduction to the Theory of Banach Representations of Groups. Translated from the 1985 Russian-language edition (Kharkov, Ukraine). Birkhäuser Verlag. 1988.
Group theory
Representation theory | [
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12696 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GRE%20Physics%20Test | GRE Physics Test | The GRE physics test is an examination administered by the Educational Testing Service (ETS). The test attempts to determine the extent of the examinees' understanding of fundamental principles of physics and their ability to apply them to problem solving. Many graduate schools require applicants to take the exam and base admission decisions in part on the results.
The scope of the test is largely that of the first three years of a standard
United States undergraduate physics curriculum, since many students who plan to continue to graduate school apply during the first half of the fourth year. It consists of 100 five-option multiple-choice questions covering subject areas including classical mechanics, electromagnetism, wave phenomena and optics, thermal physics, relativity, atomic and nuclear physics, quantum mechanics, laboratory techniques, and mathematical methods. The table below indicates the relative weights, as asserted by ETS, and detailed contents of the major topics.
Major content topics
1. Classical mechanics (20%)
kinematics
Newton's laws of motion
work and energy
rotational motion about a fixed axis
dynamics of systems of particles
central forces and celestial mechanics
three-dimensional particle dynamics
Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formalism
noninertial reference frames
elementary topics in fluid mechanics
2. Electromagnetism (18%)
electrostatics
currents and DC circuits
magnetic fields in free space
Lorentz force
Induction
Maxwell's equations and their applications
electromagnetic waves (electromagnetic radiation)
AC circuits
magnetic and electric fields in matter
3. Optics and wave phenomena (9%)
wave properties
superposition
interference
diffraction
geometrical optics
light polarization
Doppler effect
4. Thermodynamics and statistical mechanics (10%)
laws of thermodynamics
thermodynamic processes
equations of state
ideal gases
Kinetic theory of gases
ensembles
statistical concepts and calculation of thermodynamic quantities
thermal expansion and heat transfer
5. Quantum mechanics (12%)
fundamental concepts
solutions of the Schrödinger wave equation
square wells (Particle in a box)
harmonic oscillators
hydrogenic atoms
spin
angular momentum
wave function symmetry
elementary perturbation theory
6. Atomic physics (10%)
properties of electrons
Bohr model
energy quantization
atomic structure
atomic spectra
selection rules
black-body radiation
x-rays
atoms in electric and magnetic fields
7. Special relativity (6%)
introductory concepts of special relativity
time dilation
length contraction
simultaneity
energy and momentum
four-vectors and Lorentz transformation
8. Laboratory methods (6%)
data and error analysis
electronics
instrumentation
radiation detection
counting statistics
interaction of charged particles with matter
laser and optical interferometers
dimensional analysis
fundamental applications of probability and statistics
9. Specialized topics (9%)
particle and nuclear physics
nuclear properties
radioactive decay
fission and fusion
reactions
fundamental properties of elementary particles
condensed matter
crystal structure
x-ray diffraction
thermal properties
electron theory of metals
semiconductors
superconductors
mathematical methods
single and multivariate calculus
coordinate systems (rectangular, cylindrical, spherical)
vector algebra and vector differential operators
Fourier series
partial differential equations
boundary value problems
matrices and determinants
functions of complex variables
miscellaneous
astrophysics
computer applications
See also
Graduate Record Examination
GRE Biochemistry Test
GRE Biology Test
GRE Chemistry Test
GRE Literature in English Test
GRE Mathematics Test
GRE Psychology Test
Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT)
Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE)
References
External links
Official Description of the GRE Physics Test
Detailed Solutions to ETS released tests - The Missing Solutions Manual, free online, and User Comments and discussions on individual problems
More solutions to the released tests - Includes solutions to the recently released 2008 exam
GRE Prep Course at Ohio State University - Preparation course, with links to all 4 publicly released Physics GRE tests, as well as links to other Physics GRE resources
GR0877 Solutions - Solutions to 2008 exam
- Physics GRE Review at Troy University
GRE standardized tests
Standardized tests for Physics | [
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12697 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gardnerian%20Wicca | Gardnerian Wicca | Gardnerian Wicca, or Gardnerian witchcraft, is a
tradition in the neopagan religion of Wicca, whose members can trace initiatory descent from Gerald Gardner. The tradition is itself named after Gardner (1884–1964), a British civil servant and amateur scholar of magic. The term "Gardnerian" was probably coined by the founder of Cochranian Witchcraft, Robert Cochrane in the 1950s or 60s, who himself left that tradition to found his own.
Gardner claimed to have learned the beliefs and practices that would later become known as Gardnerian Wicca from the New Forest coven, who allegedly initiated him into their ranks in 1939. For this reason, Gardnerian Wicca is usually considered to be the earliest created tradition of Wicca, from which most subsequent Wiccan traditions are derived.
From the supposed New Forest coven, Gardner formed his own Bricket Wood coven, and in turn initiated many Witches, including a series of High Priestesses, founding further covens and continuing the initiation of more Wiccans into the tradition. In the UK, Europe and most Commonwealth countries someone self-defined as Wiccan is usually understood to be claiming initiatory descent from Gardner, either through Gardnerian Wicca, or through a derived branch such as Alexandrian Wicca or Algard Wicca. Elsewhere, these original lineaged traditions are termed "British Traditional Wicca".
Beliefs and practices
Covens and initiatory lines
Gardnerian Wiccans organise into covens, that traditionally, though not always, are limited to thirteen members. Covens are led by a High Priestess and the High Priest of her choice, and celebrate both a Goddess and a God.
Gardnerian Wicca and other forms of British Traditional Wicca operate as an initiatory mystery cult; membership is gained only through initiation by a Wiccan High Priestess or High Priest. Any valid line of initiatory descent can be traced all the way back to Gerald Gardner, and through him back to the New Forest coven.
Rituals and coven practices are kept secret from non-initiates, and many Wiccans maintain secrecy regarding their membership in the Religion. Whether any individual Wiccan chooses secrecy or openness often depends on their location, career, and life circumstances. In all cases, Gardnerian Wicca absolutely forbids any member to share the name, personal information, fact of membership, and so on without advanced individual consent of that member for that specific instance of sharing. (In this regard, secrecy is specifically for reasons of safety, in parallel to the LGBT custom of being "in the closet", the heinousness of the act of "outing" anyone, and the dire possibilities of the consequences to an individual who is "outed". Wiccans often refer to being in or out of the "broom closet", to make the exactness of the parallel clear.)
In Gardnerian Wicca, there are three grades of initiation. Ronald Hutton suggests that they appear to be based upon the three grades of Freemasonry.
Theology
In Gardnerian Wicca, the two principal deities are the Horned God and the Mother Goddess. Gardnerians use specific names for the God and the Goddess in their rituals. Doreen Valiente, a Gardnerian High Priestess, revealed that there were more than one.
Ethics and morality
The Gardnerian tradition teaches a core ethical guideline, often referred to as "The Rede" or "The Wiccan Rede". In the archaic language often retained in some Gardnerian lore, the Rede states, "An it harm none, do as thou wilt."
Witches ... are inclined to the morality of the legendary Good King Pausol, "Do what you like so long as you harm no one". But they believe a certain law to be important, "You must not use magic for anything which will cause harm to anyone, and if, to prevent a greater wrong being done, you must discommode someone, you must do it only in a way which will abate the harm."
Two features stand out about the Rede. The first is that the word rede means "advice" or "counsel". The Rede is not a commandment but a recommendation, a guideline. The second is that the advice to harm none stands at equal weight with the advice to do as one wills. Thus Gardnerian Wiccan teachings stand firm against coercion and for informed consent; forbid proselytisation while requiring anyone seeking to become an initiate of Gardnerian Wicca to ask for teaching, studies, initiation. To expound a little further, the qualifying phrase "an (if) it harm none" includes not only other, but self. Hence, weighing the possible outcomes of an action is a part of the thought given before taking an action; the metaphor of tossing a pebble into a pond and observing the ripples that spread in every direction is sometimes used. The declarative statement "do as thou wilt" expresses a clear statement of what is, philosophically, known as "free will."
A second ethical guideline is often called the Law of Return, sometimes the Rule of Three, which mirrors the physics concept described in Sir Isaac Newton's Third Law of Motion: "When one body exerts a force on a second body, the second body simultaneously exerts a force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction on the first body." This basic law of physics is more usually today stated thus: "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." Like the Rede, this guideline teaches Gardnerians that whatever energy or intention one puts out into the world, whether magical or not, will return to that person multiplied by three. This teaching underlies the importance of doing no harm—for that would give impetus to a negative reaction centered on oneself or one's group (such as a coven). This law is controversial, as discussed by John Coughlin, author of The Pagan Resource Guide, in an essay, "The Three-Fold Law."
In Gardnerian Wicca, these tradition-specific teachings demand thought before action, especially magical action (spell work). An individual or a coven uses these guidelines to consider beforehand what the possible ramifications may be of any working. Given these two ethical core principles, Gardnerian Wicca hold themselves to a high ethical standard. For example, Gardnerian High Priestess Eleanor Bone was not only a respected elder in the tradition, but also a matron of a nursing home. Moreover, the Bricket Wood coven today is well known for its many members from academic or intellectual backgrounds, who contribute to the preservation of Wiccan knowledge. Gerald Gardner himself actively disseminated educational resources on folklore and the occult to the general public through his Museum of Witchcraft on the Isle of Man. Therefore, Gardnerian Wicca can be said to differ from some modern non-coven Craft practices that often concentrate on the solitary practitioner's spiritual development.
The religion tends to be non-dogmatic, allowing each initiate to find for him/herself what the ritual experience means by using the basic language of the shared ritual tradition, to be discovered through the Mysteries. The tradition is often characterised as an orthopraxy (correct practice) rather than an orthodoxy (correct thinking), with adherents placing greater emphasis on a shared body of practices as opposed to faith.
Algard Wicca
Algard Wicca is a tradition, or denomination, in the Neo-Pagan religion of Wicca. It was founded in the United States in 1972 by Mary Nesnick, an initiate of both Gardnerian and Alexandrian Wicca, in an attempt to fuse the two traditions. One of the spiritual seekers who approached Nesnick in the early 1970s was Eddie Buczynski, but she turned him down for initiation because he was homosexual.
History
Gardner and the New Forest coven
On retirement from the British Colonial Service, Gardner moved to London but then before World War II moved to Highcliffe, east of Bournemouth and near the New Forest on the south coast of England. After attending a performance staged by the Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship, he reports meeting a group of people who had preserved their historic occult practices. They recognised him as being "one of them" and convinced him to be initiated. It was only halfway through the initiation, he says, that it dawned on him what kind of group it was, and that witchcraft was still being practised in England.
The group into which Gardner was initiated, known as the New Forest coven, was small and utterly secret as the Witchcraft Act of 1735 made it illegal—a crime—to claim to predict the future, conjure spirits, or cast spells; it likewise made an accusation of witchcraft a criminal offence. Gardner's enthusiasm over the discovery that witchcraft survived in England led him to wish to document it, but both the witchcraft laws and the coven's secrecy forbade that, despite his excitement. After World War II, Gardner's High Priestess and coven leader relented sufficiently to allow a fictional treatment that did not expose them to prosecution, "High Magic's Aid".
Anyhow, I soon found myself in the circle and took the usual oaths of secrecy which bound me not to reveal any secrets of the cult. But, as it is a dying cult, I thought it was a pity that all the knowledge should be lost, so in the end I was permitted to write, as fiction, something of what a witch believes in the novel High Magic's Aid.After the witchcraft laws were repealed in 1951, and replaced by the Fraudulent Mediums Act, Gerald Gardner went public, publishing his first non-fiction book about Witchcraft, "Witchcraft Today", in 1954. Gardner continued, as the text often iterates, to respect his oaths and the wishes of his High Priestess in his writing. Fearing, as Gardner stated in the quote above, that witchcraft was literally dying out, he pursued publicity and welcomed new initiates during that last years of his life. Gardner even courted the attentions of the tabloid press, to the consternation of some more conservative members of the tradition. In Gardner's own words, "Witchcraft doesn't pay for broken windows!"
Gardner knew many famous occultists. Ross Nichols was a friend and fellow Druid (until 1964 Chairman of the Ancient Order of Druids, when he left to found his own Druidic Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids). Nichols edited Gardner's "Witchcraft Today" and is mentioned extensively in Gardner's "The Meaning of Witchcraft". Near the end of Aleister Crowley's life, Gardner met with him for the first time on 1 May 1947 and visited him twice more before Crowley's death that autumn; at some point, Crowley gave Gardner an Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO) charter and the 4th OTO degree—the lowest degree authorising use of the charter.
Doreen Valiente, one of Gardner's priestesses, identified the woman who initiated Gardner as Dorothy Clutterbuck, referenced in "A Witches' Bible" by Janet and Stewart Farrar. Valiente's identification was based on references Gardner made to a woman he called "Old Dorothy" whom Valiente remembered. Biographer Philip Heselton corrects Valiente, clarifying that Clutterbuck (Dorothy St. Quintin-Fordham, née Clutterbuck), a Pagan-minded woman, owned the Mill House, where the New Forest coven performed Gardner's initiation ritual. Scholar Ronald Hutton argues in his Triumph of the Moon that Gardner's tradition was largely the inspiration of members of the Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship and especially that of a woman known by the magical name of "Dafo". Dr. Leo Ruickbie, in his Witchcraft Out of the Shadows, analysed the documented evidence and concluded that Aleister Crowley played a crucial role in inspiring Gardner to establish a new pagan religion. Ruickbie, Hutton, and others further argue that much of what has been published of Gardnerian Wicca, as Gardner's practice came to be known, was written by Blake, Yeats, Valiente and Crowley and contains borrowings from other identifiable sources.
The witches Gardner was originally introduced to were originally referred to by him as "the Wica" and he would often use the term "Witch Cult" to describe the religion. Other terms used, included "Witchcraft" or "the Old Religion." Later publications standardised the spelling to "Wicca" and it came to be used as the term for the Craft, rather than its followers. "Gardnerian" was originally a pejorative term used by Gardner's contemporary Roy Bowers (also known as Robert Cochrane), a British cunning man, who nonetheless was initiated into Gardnerian Wicca a couple of years following Gardner's death.
Reconstruction of the Wiccan rituals
Gardner stated that the rituals of the existing group were fragmentary at best, and he set about fleshing them out, drawing on his library and knowledge as an occultist and amateur folklorist. Gardner borrowed and wove together appropriate material from other artists and occultists, most notably Charles Godfrey Leland's Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, the Key of Solomon as published by S.L. MacGregor Mathers, Masonic ritual, Crowley, and Rudyard Kipling. Doreen Valiente wrote much of the best-known poetry, including the much-quoted Charge of the Goddess.
Bricket Wood and the North London coven
In 1948-9 Gardner and Dafo were running a coven separate from the original New Forest coven at a naturist club near Bricket Wood to the north of London. By 1952 Dafo's health had begun to decline, and she was increasingly wary of Gardner's publicity-seeking. In 1953 Gardner met Doreen Valiente who was to become his High Priestess in succession to Dafo. The question of publicity led to Doreen and others formulating thirteen proposed 'Rules for the Craft', which included restrictions on contact with the press. Gardner responded with the sudden production of the Wiccan Laws which led to some of his members, including Valiente, leaving the coven.
Gardner reported that witches were taught that the power of the human body can be released, for use in a coven's circle, by various means, and released more easily without clothing. A simple method was dancing round the circle singing or chanting; another method was the traditional "binding and scourging." In addition to raising power, "binding and scourging" can heighten the initiates' sensitivity and spiritual experience.
Following the time Gardner spent on the Isle of Man, the coven began to experiment with circle dancing as an alternative. It was also about this time that the lesser 4 of the 8 Sabbats were given greater prominence. Bricket Wood coven members liked the Sabbat celebrations so much, they decided that there was no reason to keep them confined to the closest full moon meeting, and made them festivities in their own right. As Gardner had no objection to this change suggested by the Bricket Wood coven, this collective decision resulted in what is now the standard eight festivities in the Wiccan Wheel of the year.
The split with Valiente led to the Bricket Wood coven being led by Jack Bracelin and a new High Priestess, Dayonis. This was the first of a number of disputes between individuals and groups, but the increased publicity only seems to have allowed Gardnerian Wicca to grow much more rapidly. Certain initiates such as Alex Sanders and Raymond Buckland who brought his take on the Gardnerian tradition to the United States in 1964 started off their own major traditions allowing further expansion.
References
External links
Gerald Gardner – The History of Wicca
Gardnerian History
A Very British Witchcraft TV program
Wiccan descendants from Gardner | [
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12701 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich%20Mean%20Time | Greenwich Mean Time | Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, counted from midnight. At different times in the past, it has been calculated in different ways, including being calculated from noon; as a consequence, it cannot be used to specify a particular time unless a context is given. The term 'GMT' is also used as one of the names for the time zone UTC+00:00 and, in UK law, is the basis for civil time in the United Kingdom.
English speakers often use GMT as a synonym for Coordinated Universal Time (UTC): in modern usage, this is incorrectGMT is now a time zone, not a time standard. For navigation, it is considered equivalent to UT1 (the modern form of mean solar time at 0° longitude); but this meaning can differ from UTC by up to 0.9s. The term GMT should thus not be used for purposes that require precision.
Because of Earth's uneven angular velocity in its elliptical orbit and its axial tilt, noon (12:00:00) GMT is rarely the exact moment the Sun crosses the Greenwich Meridian and reaches its highest point in the sky there. This event may occur up to 16 minutes before or after noon GMT, a discrepancy described by the equation of time. Noon GMT is the annual average (i.e. "mean") moment of this event, which accounts for the word "mean" in "Greenwich Mean Time".
Originally, astronomers considered a GMT day to start at noon, while for almost everyone else it started at midnight. To avoid confusion, the name Universal Time was introduced to denote GMT as counted from midnight. Today, Universal Time usually refers to UTC or UT1.
The term "GMT" is especially used by United Kingdom bodies, such as the BBC World Service, the Royal Navy, and the Met Office; and others particularly in Arab countries, such as the Middle East Broadcasting Centre and OSN.
History
As the United Kingdom developed into an advanced maritime nation, British mariners kept at least one chronometer on GMT to calculate their longitude from the Greenwich meridian, which was considered to have longitude zero degrees, by a convention adopted in the International Meridian Conference of 1884. Synchronisation of the chronometer on GMT did not affect shipboard time, which was still solar time. But this practice, combined with mariners from other nations drawing from Nevil Maskelyne's method of lunar distances based on observations at Greenwich, led to GMT being used worldwide as a standard time independent of location. Most time zones were based upon GMT, as an offset of a number of hours (and possibly half or quarter hours) "ahead of GMT" or "behind GMT".
Greenwich Mean Time was adopted across the island of Great Britain by the Railway Clearing House in 1847 and by almost all railway companies by the following year, from which the term "railway time" is derived. It was gradually adopted for other purposes, but a legal case in 1858 held "local mean time" to be the official time. On 14 May 1880, a letter signed by "Clerk to Justices" appeared in The Times, stating that "Greenwich time is now kept almost throughout England, but it appears that Greenwich time is not legal time. For example, our polling booths were opened, say, at 8 13 and closed at 4 13 p.m." This was changed later in 1880, when Greenwich Mean Time was legally adopted throughout the island of Great Britain. GMT was adopted in the Isle of Man in 1883, in Jersey in 1898 and in Guernsey in 1913. Ireland adopted GMT in 1916, supplanting Dublin Mean Time. Hourly time signals from Greenwich Observatory were first broadcast on 5 February 1924, rendering the time ball at the observatory redundant.
The daily rotation of the Earth is irregular (see ΔT) and has a slowing trend; therefore atomic clocks constitute a much more stable timebase. On 1 January 1972, GMT as the international civil time standard was superseded by Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), maintained by an ensemble of atomic clocks around the world. Universal Time (UT), a term introduced in 1928, initially represented mean time at Greenwich determined in the traditional way to accord with the originally defined universal day; from 1 January 1956 (as decided by the International Astronomical Union in Dublin in 1955, at the initiative of William Markowitz) this "raw" form of UT was re-labelled UT0 and effectively superseded by refined forms UT1 (UT0 equalised for the effects of polar wandering) and UT2 (UT1 further equalised for annual seasonal variations in Earth rotation rate).
Ambiguity in the definition of GMT
Historically, GMT has been used with two different conventions for numbering hours. The long-standing astronomical convention, dating from the work of Ptolemy, was to refer to noon as zero hours (see Julian day). This contrasted with the civil convention of referring to midnight as zero hours dating from the Roman Empire. The latter convention was adopted on and after 1 January 1925 for astronomical purposes, resulting in a discontinuity of 12 hours, or half a day. The instant that was designated as "December 31.5 GMT" in 1924 almanacs became "January 1.0 GMT" in 1925 almanacs. The term Greenwich Mean Astronomical Time (GMAT) was introduced to unambiguously refer to the previous noon-based astronomical convention for GMT. The more specific terms UT and UTC do not share this ambiguity, always referring to midnight as zero hours.
GMT in legislation
United Kingdom
Legally, the civil time used in the UK is called "Greenwich mean time" (without capitalisation), according to the Interpretation Act 1978, with an exception made for those periods when the Summer Time Act 1972 orders an hour's shift for daylight saving. The Interpretation Act 1978, section 9, provides that whenever an expression of time occurs in an Act, the time referred to shall (unless otherwise specifically stated) be held to be Greenwich mean time. Under subsection 23(3), the same rule applies to deeds and other instruments.
During the experiment of 1968 to 1971, when the British Isles did not revert to Greenwich Mean Time during the winter, the all-year British Summer Time was called British Standard Time (BST).
In the UK, UTC+00:00 is disseminated to the general public in winter and UTC+01:00 in summer.
BBC radio stations broadcast the "six pips" of the Greenwich Time Signal. It is named from its original generation at the Royal Greenwich Observatory. If announced (such as near the start of summer time or of winter time), announcers on domestic channels declare the time as GMT or BST as appropriate. As the BBC World Service is broadcast to all time zones, the announcers use the term "Greenwich Mean Time" consistently throughout the year.
Other countries
Several countries define their local time by reference to Greenwich Mean Time. Some examples are:
Belgium: Decrees of 1946 and 1947 set legal time as one hour ahead of GMT.
Ireland: "Standard Time" is defined as being one hour in advance of GMT. "Winter Time" is defined as being the same as GMT.
Canada: Interpretation Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. I-21, section 35(1). This refers to "standard time" for the several provinces, defining each in relation to "Greenwich time", but does not use the expression "Greenwich mean time". Several provinces, such as Nova Scotia (Time Definition Act. R.S., c. 469, s. 1), have their own legislation which specifically mentions either "Greenwich Mean Time" or "Greenwich mean solar time".
Time zone
Greenwich Mean Time is defined in law as standard time in the following countries and areas, which also advance their clocks one hour (GMT+1) in summer.
United Kingdom, where the summer time is called British Summer Time (BST)
Ireland, where it is called Winter Time, changing to Standard Time in summer.
Portugal (with the exception of the Azores)
Canary Islands
Faroe Islands
Greenwich Mean Time is used as standard time all year round in the following countries and areas:
Burkina Faso
The Gambia
Ghana
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Iceland
Ivory Coast
Liberia
Mali
Mauritania
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha
Senegal
Sierra Leone
Togo
See also
Ruth Belville – "the Greenwich Time Lady", daughter of John Henry Belville, who was in business of daily personal distribution of Greenwich Mean Time via a watch
Notes
References
Sources
.
CanLII. (Canadian statute)
(UK statute, see also Interpretation Act 1978)
(Irish Statute Book)
Irish Statute Book
(Irish statute)
External links
International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service
The original BBC World Service GMT time signal in MP3 format
Geography of the Royal Borough of Greenwich
Time zones
Time in the United Kingdom
1884 introductions | [
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12702 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIF | GIF | The Graphics Interchange Format (GIF; or , see pronunciation) is a bitmap image format that was developed by a team at the online services provider CompuServe led by American computer scientist Steve Wilhite and released on 15 June 1987. It has since come into widespread usage on the World Wide Web due to its wide support and portability between applications and operating systems.
The format supports up to 8 bits per pixel for each image, allowing a single image to reference its own palette of up to 256 different colors chosen from the 24-bit RGB color space. It also supports animations and allows a separate palette of up to 256 colors for each frame. These palette limitations make GIF less suitable for reproducing color photographs and other images with color gradients, but well-suited for simpler images such as graphics or logos with solid areas of color.
GIF images are compressed using the Lempel–Ziv–Welch (LZW) lossless data compression technique to reduce the file size without degrading the visual quality. This compression technique was patented in 1985. Controversy over the licensing agreement between the software patent holder, Unisys, and CompuServe in 1994 spurred the development of the Portable Network Graphics (PNG) standard. By 2004 all the relevant patents had expired.
History
CompuServe introduced GIF on 15 June 1987 to provide a color image format for their file downloading areas. This replaced their earlier run-length encoding format, which was black and white only. GIF became popular because it used LZW data compression. Since this was more efficient than the run-length encoding used by PCX and MacPaint, fairly large images could be downloaded reasonably quickly even with slow modems.
The original version of GIF was called 87a. In 1989, CompuServe released an enhanced version, called 89a, which added support for animation delays (multiple images in a stream were already supported in 87a), transparent background colors, and storage of application-specific metadata. The 89a specification also supports incorporating text labels as text (not embedding them in the graphical data), but as there is little control over display fonts, this feature is not widely used. The two versions can be distinguished by looking at the first six bytes of the file (the "magic number" or signature), which, when interpreted as ASCII, read "GIF87a" and "GIF89a", respectively.
CompuServe encouraged the adoption of GIF by providing downloadable conversion utilities for many computers. By December 1987, for example, an Apple IIGS user could view pictures created on an Atari ST or Commodore 64. GIF was one of the first two image formats commonly used on Web sites, the other being the black-and-white XBM.
In September 1995 Netscape Navigator 2.0 added the ability for animated GIFs to loop.
The feature of storing multiple images in one file, accompanied by control data, is used extensively on the Web to produce simple animations.
The optional interlacing feature, which stores image scan lines out of order in such a fashion that even a partially downloaded image was somewhat recognizable, also helped GIF's popularity, as a user could abort the download if it was not what was required.
In May 2015 Facebook added support for GIF. In January 2018 Instagram also added GIF stickers to the story mode.
Terminology
As a noun, the word GIF is found in the newer editions of many dictionaries. In 2012, the American wing of the Oxford University Press recognized GIF as a verb as well, meaning "to create a GIF file", as in "GIFing was the perfect medium for sharing scenes from the Summer Olympics". The press's lexicographers voted it their word of the year, saying that GIFs have evolved into "a tool with serious applications including research and journalism".
Pronunciation
The creators of the format pronounced the acronym GIF as , with a soft g as in 'gin'. Wilhite stated that the intended pronunciation deliberately echoes the American peanut butter brand Jif, and CompuServe employees would often quip "choosy developers choose GIF", a spoof of Jif's television commercials. The word is now also widely pronounced , with a hard g as in 'gift'. In 2017, an informal poll on the programming website Stack Overflow showed some numerical preference for the hard-g pronunciation, especially among respondents in eastern Europe, though both the soft g and pronouncing each letter individually were found to be popular in Asia and parts of Africa.
Dictionary.com cites both, indicating as the primary pronunciation, while Cambridge Dictionary of American English offers only the hard-g pronunciation. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary and Oxford Dictionaries cite both pronunciations, but place the hard g first: . The New Oxford American Dictionary gave only in its second edition but updated it to in the third edition.
The disagreement over the pronunciation has led to heated Internet debate. On the occasion of receiving a lifetime achievement award at the 2013 Webby Awards ceremony, Wilhite publicly rejected the hard-g pronunciation; his speech led to more than 17,000 posts on Twitter and dozens of news articles. The White House and the TV program Jeopardy! also entered the debate in 2013.
In February 2020, The J.M. Smucker Company, the owners of the Jif brand, partnered with the animated image database and search engine Giphy to release a limited-edition "Jif vs. GIF" (hashtagged as #JIFvsGIF) jar of peanut butter that had a label humorously declaring the soft-g pronunciation to refer exclusively to the peanut butter, and GIF to be exclusively pronounced with the hard-g pronunciation.
Usage
GIFs are suitable for sharp-edged line art with a limited number of colors, such as logos. This takes advantage of the format's lossless compression, which favors flat areas of uniform color with well defined edges. They can also be used to store low-color sprite data for games. GIFs can be used for small animations and low-resolution video clips, or as reactions in online messaging used to convey emotion and feelings instead of using words. They are popular on social media platforms such as Tumblr, Facebook and Twitter.
File format
Conceptually, a GIF file describes a fixed-sized graphical area (the "logical screen") populated with zero or more "images". Many GIF files have a single image that fills the entire logical screen. Others divide the logical screen into separate sub-images. The images may also function as animation frames in an animated GIF file, but again these need not fill the entire logical screen.
GIF files start with a fixed-length header ("GIF87a" or "GIF89a") giving the version, followed by a fixed-length Logical Screen Descriptor giving the pixel dimensions and other characteristics of the logical screen. The screen descriptor may also specify the presence and size of a Global Color Table (GCT), which follows next if present.
Thereafter, the file is divided into segments, each introduced by a 1-byte sentinel:
An image (introduced by 0x2C, an ASCII comma )
An extension block (introduced by 0x21, an ASCII exclamation point )
The trailer (a single byte of value 0x3B, an ASCII semicolon ), which should be the last byte of the file.
An image starts with a fixed-length Image Descriptor, which may specify the presence and size of a Local Color Table (which follows next if present). The image data follows: one byte giving the bit width of the unencoded symbols (which must be at least 2 bits wide, even for bi-color images), followed by a linked list of sub-blocks containing the LZW-encoded data.
Extension blocks (blocks that "extend" the 87a definition via a mechanism already defined in the 87a spec) consist of the sentinel, an additional byte specifying the type of extension, and a linked list of sub-blocks with the extension data. Extension blocks that modify an image (like the Graphic Control Extension that specifies the optional animation delay time and optional transparent background color) must immediately precede the segment with the image they refer to.
The linked lists used by the image data and the extension blocks consist of series of sub-blocks, each sub-block beginning with a byte giving the number of subsequent data bytes in the sub-block (1 to 255). The series of sub-blocks is terminated by an empty sub-block (a 0 byte).
This structure allows the file to be parsed even if not all parts are understood. A GIF marked 87a may contain extension blocks; the intent is that a decoder can read and display the file without the features covered in extensions it does not understand.
The full detail of the file format is covered in the GIF specification.
Palettes
GIF is palette-based: the colors used in an image (a frame) in the file have their RGB values defined in a palette table that can hold up to 256 entries, and the data for the image refer to the colors by their indices (0–255) in the palette table. The color definitions in the palette can be drawn from a color space of millions of shades (224 shades, 8 bits for each primary), but the maximum number of colors a frame can use is 256. This limitation seemed reasonable when GIF was developed because few people could afford the hardware to display more colors simultaneously. Simple graphics, line drawings, cartoons, and grey-scale photographs typically need fewer than 256 colors.
Each frame can designate one index as a "transparent background color": any pixel assigned this index takes on the color of the pixel in the same position from the background, which may have been determined by a previous frame of animation.
Many techniques, collectively called dithering, have been developed to approximate a wider range of colors with a small color palette by using pixels of two or more colors to approximate in-between colors. These techniques sacrifice spatial resolution to approximate deeper color resolution. While not part of the GIF specification, dithering can be used in images subsequently encoded as GIF images. This is often not an ideal solution for GIF images, both because the loss of spatial resolution typically makes an image look fuzzy on the screen, and because the dithering patterns often interfere with the compressibility of the image data, working against GIF's main purpose.
In the early days of graphical web browsers, graphics cards with 8-bit buffers (allowing only 256 colors) were common and it was fairly common to make GIF images using the websafe palette. This ensured predictable display, but severely limited the choice of colors. When 24-bit color became the norm, palettes could instead be populated with the optimum colors for individual images.
A small color table may suffice for small images, and keeping the color table small allows the file to be downloaded faster. Both the 87a and 89a specifications allow color tables of 2n colors for any n from 1 through 8. Most graphics applications will read and display GIF images with any of these table sizes; but some do not support all sizes when creating images. Tables of 2, 16, and 256 colors are widely supported.
True color
Although GIF is almost never used for true color images, it is possible to do so. A GIF image can include multiple image blocks, each of which can have its own 256-color palette, and the blocks can be tiled to create a complete image. Alternatively, the GIF89a specification introduced the idea of a "transparent" color where each image block can include its own palette of 255 visible colors plus one transparent color. A complete image can be created by layering image blocks with the visible portion of each layer showing through the transparent portions of the layers above.
To render a full-color image as a GIF, the original image must be broken down into smaller regions having no more than 255 or 256 different colors. Each of these regions is then stored as a separate image block with its own local palette and when the image blocks are displayed together (either by tiling or by layering partially transparent image blocks), the complete, full-color image appears. For example, breaking an image into tiles of 16 by 16 pixels (256 pixels in total) ensures that no tile has more than the local palette limit of 256 colors, although larger tiles may be used and similar colors merged resulting in some loss of color information.
Since each image block can have its own local color table, a GIF file having many image blocks can be very large, limiting the usefulness of full-color GIFs. Additionally, not all GIF rendering programs handle tiled or layered images correctly. Many rendering programs interpret tiles or layers as animation frames and display them in sequence as an animation with most web browsers automatically displaying the frames with a delay time of 0.1 seconds or more.
Example GIF file
Microsoft Paint saves a small black-and-white image as the following GIF file. Paint does not make optimal use of GIF; due to the unnecessarily large color table (storing a full 256 colors instead of the used 2) and symbol width, this GIF file is not an efficient representation of the 15-pixel image (illustrated enlarged above).
Although the Graphic Control Extension block declares color index 16 (hexadecimal 10) to be transparent, that index is not used in the image. The only color indexes appearing in the image data are decimal 40 and 255, which the Global Color Table maps to black and white, respectively.
Note that the hex numbers in the following tables are in little-endian byte order, as the format specification prescribes.
Image coding
The image pixel data, scanned horizontally from top left, are converted by LZW encoding to codes that are then mapped into bytes for storing in the file. The pixel codes typically don't match the 8-bit size of the bytes, so the codes are packed into bytes by a "little-Endian" scheme: the least significant bit of the first code is stored in the least significant bit of the first byte, higher order bits of the code into higher order bits of the byte, spilling over into the low order bits of the next byte as necessary. Each subsequent code is stored starting at the least significant bit not already used.
This byte stream is stored in the file as a series of "sub-blocks". Each sub-block has a maximum length 255 bytes and is prefixed with a byte indicating the number of data bytes in the sub-block. The series of sub-blocks is terminated by an empty sub-block (a single 0 byte, indicating a sub-block with 0 data bytes).
For the sample image above the reversible mapping between 9-bit codes and bytes is shown below.
A slight compression is evident: pixel colors defined initially by 15 bytes are exactly represented by 12 code bytes including control codes.
The encoding process that produces the 9-bit codes is shown below. A local string accumulates pixel color numbers from the palette, with no output action as long as the local string can be found in a code table. There is special treatment of the first two pixels that arrive before the table grows from its initial size by additions of strings. After each output code, the local string is initialized to the latest pixel color (that could not be included in the output code).
Table 9-bit
string --> code code Action
#0 | 000h Initialize root table of 9-bit codes
palette | :
colors | :
#255 | 0FFh
clr | 100h
end | 101h
| 100h Clear
Pixel Local |
color Palette string |
BLACK #40 28 | 028h 1st pixel always to output
WHITE #255 FF | String found in table
28 FF | 102h Always add 1st string to table
FF | Initialize local string
WHITE #255 FF FF | String not found in table
| 0FFh - output code for previous string
FF FF | 103h - add latest string to table
FF | - initialize local string
WHITE #255 FF FF | String found in table
BLACK #40 FF FF 28 | String not found in table
| 103h - output code for previous string
FF FF 28 | 104h - add latest string to table
28 | - initialize local string
WHITE #255 28 FF | String found in table
WHITE #255 28 FF FF | String not found in table
| 102h - output code for previous string
28 FF FF | 105h - add latest string to table
FF | - initialize local string
WHITE #255 FF FF | String found in table
WHITE #255 FF FF FF | String not found in table
| 103h - output code for previous string
FF FF FF | 106h - add latest string to table
FF | - initialize local string
WHITE #255 FF FF | String found in table
WHITE #255 FF FF FF | String found in table
WHITE #255 FF FF FF FF | String not found in table
| 106h - output code for previous string
FF FF FF FF| 107h - add latest string to table
FF | - initialize local string
WHITE #255 FF FF | String found in table
WHITE #255 FF FF FF | String found in table
WHITE #255 FF FF FF FF | String found in table
No more pixels
107h - output code for last string
101h End
For clarity the table is shown above as being built of strings of increasing length. That scheme can function but the table consumes an unpredictable amount of memory. Memory can be saved in practice by noting that each new string to be stored consists of a previously stored string augmented by one character. It is economical to store at each address only two words: an existing address and one character.
The LZW algorithm requires a search of the table for each pixel. A linear search through up to 4096 addresses would make the coding slow. In practice the codes can be stored in order of numerical value; this allows each search to be done by a SAR (Successive Approximation Register, as used in some ADCs), with only 12 magnitude comparisons. For this efficiency an extra table is needed to convert between codes and actual memory addresses; the extra table upkeeping is needed only when a new code is stored which happens at much less than pixel rate.
Image decoding
Decoding begins by mapping the stored bytes back to 9-bit codes. These are decoded to recover the pixel colors as shown below. A table identical to the one used in the encoder is built by adding strings by this rule:
shift
9-bit ----> Local Table Pixel
code code code --> string Palette color Action
100h 000h | #0 Initialize root table of 9-bit codes
: | palette
: | colors
0FFh | #255
100h | clr
101h | end
028h | #40 Decode 1st pixel
0FFh 028h | Incoming code found in table
| #255 - output string from table
102h | 28 FF - add to table
103h 0FFh | Incoming code not found in table
103h | FF FF - add to table
| - output string from table
| #255
| #255
102h 103h | Incoming code found in table
| - output string from table
| #40
| #255
104h | FF FF 28 - add to table
103h 102h | Incoming code found in table
| - output string from table
| #255
| #255
105h | 28 FF FF - add to table
106h 103h | Incoming code not found in table
106h | FF FF FF - add to table
| - output string from table
| #255
| #255
| #255
107h 106h | Incoming code not found in table
107h | FF FF FF FF - add to table
| - output string from table
| #255
| #255
| #255
| #255
101h | End
LZW code lengths
Shorter code lengths can be used for palettes smaller than the 256 colors in the example. If the palette is only 64 colors (so color indexes are 6 bits wide), the symbols can range from 0 to 63, and the symbol width can be taken to be 6 bits, with codes starting at 7 bits. In fact, the symbol width need not match the palette size: as long as the values decoded are always less than the number of colors in the palette, the symbols can be any width from 2 to 8, and the palette size any power of 2 from 2 to 256. For example, if only the first four colors (values 0 to 3) of the palette are used, the symbols can be taken to be 2 bits wide with codes starting at 3 bits.
Conversely, the symbol width could be set at 8, even if only values 0 and 1 are used; these data would only require a two-color table. Although there would be no point in encoding the file that way, something similar typically happens for bi-color images: the minimum symbol width is 2, even if only values 0 and 1 are used.
The code table initially contains codes that are one bit longer than the symbol size in order to accommodate the two special codes clr and end and codes for strings that are added during the process. When the table is full the code length increases to give space for more strings, up to a maximum code 4095 = FFF(hex). As the decoder builds its table it tracks these increases in code length and it is able to unpack incoming bytes accordingly.
Uncompressed GIF
The GIF encoding process can be modified to create a file without LZW compression that is still viewable as a GIF image. This technique was introduced originally as a way to avoid patent infringement. Uncompressed GIF can also be a useful intermediate format for a graphics programmer because individual pixels are accessible for reading or painting. An uncompressed GIF file can be converted to an ordinary GIF file simply by passing it through an image editor.
The modified encoding method ignores building the LZW table and emits only the root palette codes and the codes for CLEAR and STOP. This yields a simpler encoding (a 1-to-1 correspondence between code values and palette codes) but sacrifices all of the compression: each pixel in the image generates an output code indicating its color index. When processing an uncompressed GIF, a standard GIF decoder will not be prevented from writing strings to its dictionary table, but the code width must never increase since that triggers a different packing of bits to bytes.
If the symbol width is , the codes of width fall naturally into two blocks: the lower block of codes for coding single symbols, and the upper block of codes that will be used by the decoder for sequences of length greater than one. Of that upper block, the first two codes are already taken: for CLEAR and for STOP. The decoder must also be prevented from using the last code in the upper block, , because when the decoder fills that slot, it will increase the code width. Thus in the upper block there are codes available to the decoder that won't trigger an increase in code width. Because the decoder is always one step behind in maintaining the table, it does not generate a table entry upon receiving the first code from the encoder, but will generate one for each succeeding code. Thus the encoder can generate codes without triggering an increase in code width. Therefore, the encoder must emit extra CLEAR codes at intervals of codes or less to make the decoder reset the coding dictionary. The GIF standard allows such extra CLEAR codes to be inserted in the image data at any time. The composite data stream is partitioned into sub-blocks that each carry from 1 to 255 bytes.
For the sample 3×5 image above, the following 9-bit codes represent "clear" (100) followed by image pixels in scan order and "stop" (101).
100 028 0FF 0FF 0FF 028 0FF 0FF 0FF 0FF 0FF 0FF 0FF 0FF 0FF 0FF 101
After the above codes are mapped to bytes, the uncompressed file differs from the compressed file thus:
Compression example
The trivial example of a large image of solid color demonstrates the variable-length LZW compression used in GIF files.
The code values shown are packed into bytes which are then packed into blocks of up to 255 bytes. A block of image data begins with a byte that declares the number of bytes to follow. The last block of data for an image is marked by a zero block-length byte.
Interlacing
The GIF Specification allows each image within the logical screen of a GIF file to specify that it is interlaced; i.e., that the order of the raster lines in its data block is not sequential. This allows a partial display of the image that can be recognized before the full image is painted.
An interlaced image is divided from top to bottom into strips 8 pixels high, and the rows of the image are presented in the following order:
Pass 1: Line 0 (the top-most line) from each strip.
Pass 2: Line 4 from each strip.
Pass 3: Lines 2 and 6 from each strip.
Pass 4: Lines 1, 3, 5, and 7 from each strip.
The pixels within each line are not interlaced, but presented consecutively from left to right. As with non-interlaced images, there is no break between the data for one line and the data for the next. The indicator that an image is interlaced is a bit set in the corresponding Image Descriptor block.
Animated GIF
Although GIF was not designed as an animation medium, its ability to store multiple images in one file naturally suggested using the format to store the frames of an animation sequence. To facilitate displaying animations, the GIF89a spec added the Graphic Control Extension (GCE), which allows the images (frames) in the file to be painted with time delays, forming a video clip. Each frame in an animation GIF is introduced by its own GCE specifying the time delay to wait after the frame is drawn. Global information at the start of the file applies by default to all frames. The data is stream-oriented, so the file offset of the start of each GCE depends on the length of preceding data. Within each frame the LZW-coded image data is arranged in sub-blocks of up to 255 bytes; the size of each sub-block is declared by the byte that precedes it.
By default, an animation displays the sequence of frames only once, stopping when the last frame is displayed. To enable an animation to loop, Netscape in the 1990s used the Application Extension block (intended to allow vendors to add application-specific information to the GIF file) to implement the Netscape Application Block (NAB). This block, placed immediately before the sequence of animation frames, specifies the number of times the sequence of frames should be played (1 to 65535 times) or that it should repeat continuously (zero indicates loop forever). Support for these repeating animations first appeared in Netscape Navigator version 2.0, and then spread to other browsers. Most browsers now recognize and support NAB, though it is not strictly part of the GIF89a specification.
The following example shows the structure of the animation file Rotating earth (large).gif shown (as a thumbnail) in the article's infobox.
The animation delay for each frame is specified in the GCE in hundredths of a second. Some economy of data is possible where a frame need only rewrite a portion of the pixels of the display, because the Image Descriptor can define a smaller rectangle to be rescanned instead of the whole image. Browsers or other displays that do not support animated GIFs typically show only the first frame.
The size and color quality of animated GIF files can vary significantly depending on the application used to create them. Strategies for minimizing file size include using a common global color table for all frames (rather than a complete local color table for each frame) and minimizing the number of pixels covered in successive frames (so that only the pixels that change from one frame to the next are included in the latter frame). More advanced techniques involve modifying color sequences to better match the existing LZW dictionary, a form of lossy compression. Simply packing a series of independent frame images into a composite animation tends to yield large file sizes. Tools are available to minimize the file size given an existing GIF.
Metadata
Metadata can be stored in GIF files as a comment block, a plain text block, or an application-specific application extension block. Several graphics editors use unofficial application extension blocks to include the data used to generate the image, so that it can be recovered for further editing.
All of these methods technically require the metadata to be broken into sub-blocks so that applications can navigate the metadata block without knowing its internal structure.
The Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) metadata standard introduced an unofficial but now widespread "XMP Data" application extension block for including XMP data in GIF files. Since the XMP data is encoded using UTF-8 without NUL characters, there are no 0 bytes in the data. Rather than break the data into formal sub-blocks, the extension block terminates with a "magic trailer" that routes any application treating the data as sub-blocks to a final 0 byte that terminates the sub-block chain.
Unisys and LZW patent enforcement
In 1977 and 1978, Jacob Ziv and Abraham Lempel published a pair of papers on a new class of lossless data-compression algorithms, now collectively referred to as LZ77 and LZ78. In 1983, Terry Welch developed a fast variant of LZ78 which was named Lempel–Ziv–Welch (LZW).
Welch filed a patent application for the LZW method in June 1983. The resulting patent, US4558302, granted in December 1985, was assigned to Sperry Corporation who subsequently merged with Burroughs Corporation in 1986 and formed Unisys. Further patents were obtained in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada.
In addition to the above patents, Welch's 1983 patent also includes citations to several other patents that influenced it, including two 1980 Japanese patents from NEC's Jun Kanatsu, (1974) from John S. Hoerning, (1977) from Klaus E. Holtz, and a 1981 German patent from Karl Eckhart Heinz
.
In June 1984, an article by Welch was published in the IEEE magazine which publicly described the LZW technique for the first time. LZW became a popular data compression technique and, when the patent was granted, Unisys entered into licensing agreements with over a hundred companies.
The popularity of LZW led CompuServe to choose it as the compression technique for their version of GIF, developed in 1987. At the time, CompuServe was not aware of the patent. Unisys became aware that the version of GIF used the LZW compression technique and entered into licensing negotiations with CompuServe in January 1993. The subsequent agreement was announced on 24 December 1994. Unisys stated that they expected all major commercial on-line information services companies employing the LZW patent to license the technology from Unisys at a reasonable rate, but that they would not require licensing, or fees to be paid, for non-commercial, non-profit GIF-based applications, including those for use on the on-line services.
Following this announcement, there was widespread condemnation of CompuServe and Unisys, and many software developers threatened to stop using GIF. The PNG format (see below) was developed in 1995 as an intended replacement. However, obtaining support from the makers of Web browsers and other software for the PNG format proved difficult and it was not possible to replace GIF, although PNG has gradually increased in popularity. Therefore, GIF variations without LZW compression were developed. For instance the libungif library, based on Eric S. Raymond's giflib, allows creation of GIFs that followed the data format but avoided the compression features, thus avoiding use of the Unisys LZW patent. A 2001 Dr. Dobb's article described another alternative to LZW compression, based on square roots.
In August 1999, Unisys changed the details of their licensing practice, announcing the option for owners of certain non-commercial and private websites to obtain licenses on payment of a one-time license fee of $5000 or $7500. Such licenses were not required for website owners or other GIF users who had used licensed software to generate GIFs. Nevertheless, Unisys was subjected to thousands of online attacks and abusive emails from users believing that they were going to be charged $5000 or sued for using GIFs on their websites. Despite giving free licenses to hundreds of non-profit organizations, schools and governments, Unisys was completely unable to generate any good publicity and continued to be condemned by individuals and organizations such as the League for Programming Freedom who started the "Burn All GIFs" campaign in 1999.
The United States LZW patent expired on 20 June 2003. The counterpart patents in the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy expired on 18 June 2004, the Japanese patents expired on 20 June 2004, and the Canadian patent expired on 7 July 2004. Consequently, while Unisys has further patents and patent applications relating to improvements to the LZW technique, LZW itself (and consequently GIF) have been free to use since July 2004.
Alternatives
PNG
Portable Network Graphics (PNG) was designed as a replacement for GIF in order to avoid infringement of Unisys' patent on the LZW compression technique. PNG offers better compression and more features than GIF, animation being the only significant exception. PNG is more suitable than GIF in instances where true-color imaging and alpha transparency are required.
Although support for PNG format came slowly, new web browsers support PNG. Older versions of Internet Explorer do not support all features of PNG. Versions 6 and earlier do not support alpha channel transparency without using Microsoft-specific HTML extensions. Gamma correction of PNG images was not supported before version 8, and the display of these images in earlier versions may have the wrong tint.
For identical 8-bit (or lower) image data, PNG files are typically smaller than the equivalent GIFs, due to the more efficient compression techniques used in PNG encoding. Complete support for GIF is complicated chiefly by the complex canvas structure it allows, though this is what enables the compact animation features.
Animation formats
Videos resolve many issues that GIFs present through common usage on the web. They include drastically smaller file sizes, the ability to surpass the 8-bit color restriction, and better frame-handling and compression through codecs. Virtually universal support for the GIF format in web browsers and a lack of official support for video in the HTML standard caused GIF to rise to prominence for the purpose of displaying short video-like files on the web.
MNG ("Multiple-image Network Graphics") was originally developed as a PNG-based solution for animations. MNG reached version 1.0 in 2001, but few applications support it.
In 2006, an extension to the PNG format called APNG ("Animated Portable Network Graphics") was proposed as alternative to the MNG format by Mozilla. APNG is supported by most browsers as of 2019. APNG provide the ability to animate PNG files, while retaining backwards compatibility in decoders that cannot understand the animation chunk (unlike MNG). Older decoders will simply render the first frame of the animation. The PNG group officially rejected APNG as an official extension on 20 April 2007. There have been several subsequent proposals for a simple animated graphics format based on PNG using several different approaches. Nevertheless, Animated Portable Network Graphics is still under development by Mozilla and is supported in Firefox 3 while MNG support was dropped. APNG is currently supported by all major web browsers including Chrome since version 59.0 and Opera and Firefox and Edge.
Embedded Adobe Flash objects and MPEG files were used on some websites to display simple video, but required the use of an additional browser plugin. WebM and WebP are in development and are supported by some web browsers. Other options for web animation include serving individual frames using AJAX, or animating SVG images using JavaScript or SMIL ("Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language").
With the introduction of widespread support of the HTML5 video (<video>) tag in most web browsers, some websites use a looped version of the video tag generated by JavaScript functions. This gives the appearance of a GIF, but with the size and speed advantages of compressed video. Notable examples are Gfycat and Imgur and their GIFV metaformat, which is really a video tag playing a looped MP4 or WebM compressed video.
High Efficiency Image File Format (HEIF) is an image file format, finalized in 2015, which uses a discrete cosine transform (DCT) lossy compression algorithm based on the HEVC video format, and related to the JPEG image format. In contrast to JPEG, HEIF supports animation. Compared to the GIF format, which lacks DCT compression, HEIF allows significantly more efficient compression. HEIF stores more information and produces higher-quality animated images at a small fraction of an equivalent GIF's size.
VP9 only supports alpha compositing with 4:2:0 chroma subsampling in the YUVA420 pixel format, which may be unsuitable for GIFs that combine transparency with rasterised vector graphics with fine color details.
The AV1 codec can also be used either as a video or a sequenced image.
Uses
In April 2014, 4chan added support for silent WebM videos that are under 3 MB in size and 2 min in length, and in October 2014, Imgur started converting any GIF files uploaded to the site to video and giving the link to the HTML player the appearance of an actual file with a .gifv extension.
In January 2016, Telegram started re-encoding all GIFs to MPEG-4 videos that "require up to 95% less disk space for the same image quality."
See also
AVIF
Cinemagraph, a partially animated photograph often in GIF
Comparison of graphics file formats
Comparison of layout engines (graphics)
GIF art, a form of digital art associated with GIF
GIFBuilder, early animated GIF creation program
GNU plotutils (supports pseudo-GIF, which uses run-length encoding rather than LZW)
Microsoft GIF Animator, historic program to create simple animated GIFs
Software patent
References
External links
The GIFLIB project
spec-gif89a.txt GIF 89a specification on w3.org
GIF 89a specification reformatted into HTML
LZW and GIF explained
Animated GIFs: a six-minute documentary produced by Off Book (web series)
GifCities (The GeoCities Animated GIF Search Engine)
Raster graphics file formats
CompuServe
Open formats
Computer-related introductions in 1987
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12706 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg%20Egan | Greg Egan | Greg Egan (born 20 August 1961) is an Australian science fiction writer and amateur mathematician, best known for his works of hard science fiction. Egan has won multiple awards including the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, the Hugo Award, and the Locus Award.
Life and work
Egan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from the University of Western Australia.
He published his first work in 1983. He specialises in hard science fiction stories with mathematical and quantum ontology themes, including the nature of consciousness. Other themes include genetics, simulated reality, posthumanism, mind uploading, sexuality, artificial intelligence, and the superiority of rational naturalism to religion. He often deals with complex technical material, like new physics and epistemology. He is a Hugo Award winner (with eight other works shortlisted for the Hugos) and has also won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. His early stories feature strong elements of supernatural horror.
Egan's short stories have been published in a variety of genre magazines, including regular appearances in Interzone and Asimov's Science Fiction.
Mathematics
In 2018, Egan described a construction of superpermutations, thus giving an upper bound to their length. On 27 February 2019, using ideas developed by Robin Houston and others, Egan produced a superpermutation of n = 7 symbols of length 5906, breaking previous records.
Personal life
As of 2015, Egan lives in Perth. Egan is a vegetarian and an atheist.
Egan does not attend science fiction conventions, does not sign books, and has stated that he appears in no photographs on the web, though both SF fan sites and Google Search have at times mistakenly represented photos of other people with the same name as those of the writer.
Awards
Permutation City: John W. Campbell Memorial Award (1995)
Oceanic: Hugo Award, Locus Award, Asimov's Readers' Award (1999)
Distress: Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis as Best Foreign Fiction (2000)
Egan's work has won the Japanese Seiun Award for best translated fiction seven times.
Teranesia was named the winner of the 2000 Ditmar Award for best novel, but Egan declined the award.
Works
Novels
An Unusual Angle (1983),
Quarantine (1992),
Permutation City (1994),
Distress (1995),
Diaspora (1997),
Teranesia (1999),
Schild's Ladder (2002),
Incandescence (2008),
Zendegi (2010),
Dichronauts (2017),
The Book of All Skies (2021),
Orthogonal trilogy
The Clockwork Rocket (2011),
The Eternal Flame (2012),
The Arrows of Time (2013),
Collections
Axiomatic (1995),
Our Lady of Chernobyl (1995),
Luminous (1998),
Dark Integers and Other Stories (2008),
Crystal Nights and Other Stories (2009),
Oceanic (2009),
The Best of Greg Egan (2019),
Instantiation (2020)
Other short fiction
Excerpted
Diaspora:
"Orphanogenesis" in Interzone issue 123, September 1997
Academic papers
An Efficient Algorithm for the Riemannian 10j Symbols by Dan Christensen and Greg Egan
Asymptotics of 10j Symbols by John Baez, Dan Christensen and Greg Egan
Conic-Helical Orbits of Planets around Binary Stars do not Exist by Greg Egan
Short movies
The production of a short film inspired by the story "Axiomatic" commenced in 2015, and the film was released online in October 2017.
Notes
References
External links
Greg Egan at Library of Congress Authorities — with 11 catalog records
Stories available at freesfonline
1961 births
Australian science fiction writers
Hugo Award-winning writers
Australian atheists
Australian computer programmers
Living people
University of Western Australia alumni
20th-century Australian novelists
21st-century Australian novelists
Writers from Perth, Western Australia
Australian male novelists
Amateur mathematicians | [
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12707 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy%20Fawkes | Guy Fawkes | Guy Fawkes (; 13 April 1570 – 31 January 1606), also known as Guido Fawkes while fighting for the Spanish, was a member of a group of provincial English Catholics who was involved in the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. He was born and educated in York; his father died when Fawkes was eight years old, after which his mother married a recusant Catholic.
Fawkes converted to Catholicism and left for mainland Europe, where he fought for Catholic Spain in the Eighty Years' War against Protestant Dutch reformers in the Low Countries. He travelled to Spain to seek support for a Catholic rebellion in England without success. He later met Thomas Wintour, with whom he returned to England. Wintour introduced him to Robert Catesby, who planned to assassinate and restore a Catholic monarch to the throne. The plotters leased an undercroft beneath the House of Lords; Fawkes was placed in charge of the gunpowder that they stockpiled there. The authorities were prompted by an anonymous letter to search Westminster Palace during the early hours of 5 November, and they found Fawkes guarding the explosives. He was questioned and tortured over the next few days and confessed to wanting to blow up the House of Lords.
Immediately before his execution on 31 January, Fawkes fell from the scaffold where he was to be hanged and broke his neck, thus avoiding the agony of being hanged, drawn and quartered. He became synonymous with the Gunpowder Plot, the failure of which has been commemorated in the UK as Guy Fawkes Night since 5 November 1605, when his effigy is traditionally burned on a bonfire, commonly accompanied by fireworks.
Early life
Childhood
Guy Fawkes was born in 1570 in Stonegate, York. He was the second of four children born to Edward Fawkes, a proctor and an advocate of the consistory court at York, and his wife, Edith. Guy's parents were regular communicants of the Church of England, as were his paternal grandparents; his grandmother, born Ellen Harrington, was the daughter of a prominent merchant, who served as Lord Mayor of York in 1536. Guy's mother's family were recusant Catholics, and his cousin, Richard Cowling, became a Jesuit priest. Guy was an uncommon name in England, but may have been popular in York on account of a local notable, Sir Guy Fairfax of Steeton.
The date of Fawkes's birth is unknown, but he was baptised in the church of St Michael le Belfrey, York on 16 April. As the customary gap between birth and baptism was three days, he was probably born about 13 April. In 1568, Edith had given birth to a daughter named Anne, but the child died aged about seven weeks, in November that year. She bore two more children after Guy: Anne (b. 1572), and Elizabeth (b. 1575). Both were married, in 1599 and 1594 respectively.
In 1579, when Guy was eight years old, his father died. His mother remarried several years later, to the Catholic Dionis Baynbrigge (or Denis Bainbridge) of Scotton, Harrogate. Fawkes may have become a Catholic through the Baynbrigge family's recusant tendencies, and also the Catholic branches of the Pulleyn and Percy families of Scotton, but also from his time at St. Peter's School in York. A governor of the school had spent about 20 years in prison for recusancy, and its headmaster, John Pulleyn, came from a family of noted Yorkshire recusants, the Pulleyns of Blubberhouses. In her 1915 work The Pulleynes of Yorkshire, author Catharine Pullein suggested that Fawkes's Catholic education came from his Harrington relatives, who were known for harbouring priests, one of whom later accompanied Fawkes to Flanders in 1592–1593. Fawkes's fellow students included John Wright and his brother Christopher (both later involved with Fawkes in the Gunpowder Plot) and Oswald Tesimond, Edward Oldcorne and Robert Middleton, who became priests (the latter executed in 1601).
After leaving school Fawkes entered the service of Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu. The Viscount took a dislike to Fawkes and after a short time dismissed him; he was subsequently employed by Anthony-Maria Browne, 2nd Viscount Montagu, who succeeded his grandfather at the age of 18. At least one source claims that Fawkes married and had a son, but no known contemporary accounts confirm this.
Military career
In October 1591 Fawkes sold the estate in Clifton in York that he had inherited from his father. He travelled to the continent to fight in the Eighty Years War for Catholic Spain against the new Dutch Republic and, from 1595 until the Peace of Vervins in 1598, France. Although England was not by then engaged in land operations against Spain, the two countries were still at war, and the Spanish Armada of 1588 was only five years in the past. He joined Sir William Stanley, an English Catholic and veteran commander in his mid-forties who had raised an army in Ireland to fight in Leicester's expedition to the Netherlands. Stanley had been held in high regard by Elizabeth I, but following his surrender of Deventer to the Spanish in 1587 he, and most of his troops, had switched sides to serve Spain. Fawkes became an alférez or junior officer, fought well at the siege of Calais in 1596, and by 1603 had been recommended for a captaincy. That year, he travelled to Spain to seek support for a Catholic rebellion in England. He used the occasion to adopt the Italian version of his name, Guido, and in his memorandum described James I (who became king of England that year) as "a heretic", who intended "to have all of the Papist sect driven out of England." He denounced Scotland, and the King's favourites among the Scottish nobles, writing "it will not be possible to reconcile these two nations, as they are, for very long". Although he was received politely, the court of Philip III was unwilling to offer him any support.
Gunpowder Plot
In 1604 Fawkes became involved with a small group of English Catholics, led by Robert Catesby, who planned to assassinate the Protestant King James and replace him with his daughter, third in the line of succession, Princess Elizabeth. Fawkes was described by the Jesuit priest and former school friend Oswald Tesimond as "pleasant of approach and cheerful of manner, opposed to quarrels and strife ... loyal to his friends". Tesimond also claimed Fawkes was "a man highly skilled in matters of war", and that it was this mixture of piety and professionalism that endeared him to his fellow conspirators. The author Antonia Fraser describes Fawkes as "a tall, powerfully built man, with thick reddish-brown hair, a flowing moustache in the tradition of the time, and a bushy reddish-brown beard", and that he was "a man of action ... capable of intelligent argument as well as physical endurance, somewhat to the surprise of his enemies."
The first meeting of the five central conspirators took place on Sunday 20 May 1604, at an inn called the Duck and Drake, in the fashionable Strand district of London. Catesby had already proposed at an earlier meeting with Thomas Wintour and John Wright to kill the King and his government by blowing up "the Parliament House with gunpowder". Wintour, who at first objected to the plan, was convinced by Catesby to travel to the continent to seek help. Wintour met with the Constable of Castile, the exiled Welsh spy Hugh Owen, and Sir William Stanley, who said that Catesby would receive no support from Spain. Owen did, however, introduce Wintour to Fawkes, who had by then been away from England for many years, and thus was largely unknown in the country. Wintour and Fawkes were contemporaries; each was militant, and had first-hand experience of the unwillingness of the Spaniards to help. Wintour told Fawkes of their plan to "doe some whatt in Ingland if the pece with Spaine healped us nott", and thus in April 1604 the two men returned to England. Wintour's news did not surprise Catesby; despite positive noises from the Spanish authorities, he feared that "the deeds would nott answere".
One of the conspirators, Thomas Percy, was appointed a Gentleman Pensioner in June 1604, gaining access to a house in London that belonged to John Whynniard, Keeper of the King's Wardrobe. Fawkes was installed as a caretaker and began using the pseudonym John Johnson, servant to Percy. The contemporaneous account of the prosecution (taken from Thomas Wintour's confession) claimed that the conspirators attempted to dig a tunnel from beneath Whynniard's house to Parliament, although this story may have been a government fabrication; no evidence for the existence of a tunnel was presented by the prosecution, and no trace of one has ever been found; Fawkes himself did not admit the existence of such a scheme until his fifth interrogation, but even then he could not locate the tunnel. If the story is true, however, by December 1604 the conspirators were busy tunnelling from their rented house to the House of Lords. They ceased their efforts when, during tunnelling, they heard a noise from above. Fawkes was sent out to investigate, and returned with the news that the tenant's widow was clearing out a nearby undercroft, directly beneath the House of Lords.
The plotters purchased the lease to the room, which also belonged to John Whynniard. Unused and filthy, it was considered an ideal hiding place for the gunpowder the plotters planned to store. According to Fawkes, 20 barrels of gunpowder were brought in at first, followed by 16 more on 20 July. On 28 July however, the ever-present threat of the plague delayed the opening of Parliament until Tuesday, 5 November.
Overseas
In an attempt to gain foreign support, in May 1605 Fawkes travelled overseas and informed Hugh Owen of the plotters' plan. At some point during this trip his name made its way into the files of Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, who employed a network of spies across Europe. One of these spies, Captain William Turner, may have been responsible. Although the information he provided to Salisbury usually amounted to no more than a vague pattern of invasion reports, and included nothing which regarded the Gunpowder Plot, on 21 April he told how Fawkes was to be brought by Tesimond to England. Fawkes was a well-known Flemish mercenary, and would be introduced to "Mr Catesby" and "honourable friends of the nobility and others who would have arms and horses in readiness". Turner's report did not, however, mention Fawkes's pseudonym in England, John Johnson, and did not reach Cecil until late in November, well after the plot had been discovered.
It is uncertain when Fawkes returned to England, but he was back in London by late August 1605, when he and Wintour discovered that the gunpowder stored in the undercroft had decayed. More gunpowder was brought into the room, along with firewood to conceal it. Fawkes's final role in the plot was settled during a series of meetings in October. He was to light the fuse and then escape across the Thames. Simultaneously, a revolt in the Midlands would help to ensure the capture of Princess Elizabeth. Acts of regicide were frowned upon, and Fawkes would therefore head to the continent, where he would explain to the Catholic powers his holy duty to kill the King and his retinue.
Discovery
A few of the conspirators were concerned about fellow Catholics who would be present at Parliament during the opening. On the evening of 26 October, Lord Monteagle received an anonymous letter warning him to stay away, and to "retyre youre self into yowre contee whence yow maye expect the event in safti for ... they shall receyve a terrible blowe this parleament". Despite quickly becoming aware of the letterinformed by one of Monteagle's servantsthe conspirators resolved to continue with their plans, as it appeared that it "was clearly thought to be a hoax". Fawkes checked the undercroft on 30 October, and reported that nothing had been disturbed. Monteagle's suspicions had been aroused, however, and the letter was shown to King James. The King ordered Sir Thomas Knyvet to conduct a search of the cellars underneath Parliament, which he did in the early hours of 5 November. Fawkes had taken up his station late on the previous night, armed with a slow match and a watch given to him by Percy "becaus he should knowe howe the time went away". He was found leaving the cellar, shortly after midnight, and arrested. Inside, the barrels of gunpowder were discovered hidden under piles of firewood and coal.
Torture
Fawkes gave his name as John Johnson and was first interrogated by members of the King's Privy chamber, where he remained defiant. When asked by one of the lords what he was doing in possession of so much gunpowder, Fawkes answered that his intention was "to blow you Scotch beggars back to your native mountains." He identified himself as a 36-year-old Catholic from Netherdale in Yorkshire, and gave his father's name as Thomas and his mother's as Edith Jackson. Wounds on his body noted by his questioners he explained as the effects of pleurisy. Fawkes admitted his intention to blow up the House of Lords, and expressed regret at his failure to do so. His steadfast manner earned him the admiration of King James, who described Fawkes as possessing "a Roman resolution".
James's admiration did not, however, prevent him from ordering on 6 November that "John Johnson" be tortured, to reveal the names of his co-conspirators. He directed that the torture be light at first, referring to the use of manacles, but more severe if necessary, authorising the use of the rack: "the gentler Tortures are to be first used unto him et sic per gradus ad ima tenditur [and so by degrees proceeding to the worst]". Fawkes was transferred to the Tower of London. The King composed a list of questions to be put to "Johnson", such as "as to what he is, For I can never yet hear of any man that knows him", "When and where he learned to speak French?", and "If he was a Papist, who brought him up in it?" The room in which Fawkes was interrogated subsequently became known as the Guy Fawkes Room.
Sir William Waad, Lieutenant of the Tower, supervised the torture and obtained Fawkes's confession. He searched his prisoner, and found a letter addressed to Guy Fawkes. To Waad's surprise, "Johnson" remained silent, revealing nothing about the plot or its authors. On the night of 6 November he spoke with Waad, who reported to Salisbury "He [Johnson] told us that since he undertook this action he did every day pray to God he might perform that which might be for the advancement of the Catholic Faith and saving his own soul". According to Waad, Fawkes managed to rest through the night, despite his being warned that he would be interrogated until "I had gotton the inwards secret of his thoughts and all his complices". His composure was broken at some point during the following day.
The observer Sir Edward Hoby remarked "Since Johnson's being in the Tower, he beginneth to speak English". Fawkes revealed his true identity on 7 November, and told his interrogators that there were five people involved in the plot to kill the King. He began to reveal their names on 8 November, and told how they intended to place Princess Elizabeth on the throne. His third confession, on 9 November, implicated Francis Tresham. Following the Ridolfi plot of 1571, prisoners were made to dictate their confessions, before copying and signing them, if they still could. Although it is uncertain if he was tortured on the rack, Fawkes's scrawled signature suggests the suffering he endured at the hands of his interrogators.
Trial and execution
The trial of eight of the plotters began on Monday 27 January 1606. Fawkes shared the barge from the Tower to Westminster Hall with seven of his co-conspirators. They were kept in the Star Chamber before being taken to Westminster Hall, where they were displayed on a purpose-built scaffold. The King and his close family, watching in secret, were among the spectators as the Lords Commissioners read out the list of charges. Fawkes was identified as Guido Fawkes, "otherwise called Guido Johnson". He pleaded not guilty, despite his apparent acceptance of guilt from the moment he was captured.
The jury found all the defendants guilty, and the Lord Chief Justice Sir John Popham pronounced them guilty of high treason. The Attorney General Sir Edward Coke told the court that each of the condemned would be drawn backwards to his death, by a horse, his head near the ground. They were to be "put to death halfway between heaven and earth as unworthy of both". Their genitals would be cut off and burnt before their eyes, and their bowels and hearts removed. They would then be decapitated, and the dismembered parts of their bodies displayed so that they might become "prey for the fowls of the air". Fawkes's and Tresham's testimony regarding the Spanish treason was read aloud, as well as confessions related specifically to the Gunpowder Plot. The last piece of evidence offered was a conversation between Fawkes and Wintour, who had been kept in adjacent cells. The two men apparently thought they had been speaking in private, but their conversation was intercepted by a government spy. When the prisoners were allowed to speak, Fawkes explained his not guilty plea as ignorance of certain aspects of the indictment.
On 31 January 1606, Fawkes and three others – Thomas Wintour, Ambrose Rookwood, and Robert Keyes – were dragged (i.e., "drawn") from the Tower on wattled hurdles to the Old Palace Yard at Westminster, opposite the building they had attempted to destroy. His fellow plotters were then hanged and quartered. Fawkes was the last to stand on the scaffold. He asked for forgiveness of the King and state, while keeping up his "crosses and idle ceremonies" (Catholic practices). Weakened by torture and aided by the hangman, Fawkes began to climb the ladder to the noose, but either through jumping to his death or climbing too high so the rope was incorrectly set, he managed to avoid the agony of the latter part of his execution by breaking his neck. His lifeless body was nevertheless quartered and, as was the custom, his body parts were then distributed to "the four corners of the kingdom", to be displayed as a warning to other would-be traitors.
Legacy
On 5 November 1605, Londoners were encouraged to celebrate the King's escape from assassination by lighting bonfires, provided that "this testemonye of joy be carefull done without any danger or disorder". An Act of Parliament designated each 5 November as a day of thanksgiving for "the joyful day of deliverance", and remained in force until 1859. Fawkes was one of 13 conspirators, but he is the individual most associated with the plot.
In Britain, 5 November has variously been called Guy Fawkes Night, Guy Fawkes Day, Plot Night, and Bonfire Night (which can be traced directly back to the original celebration of 5 November 1605). Bonfires were accompanied by fireworks from the 1650s onwards, and it became the custom after 1673 to burn an effigy (usually of the pope) when heir presumptive James, Duke of York, converted to Catholicism. Effigies of other notable figures have found their way onto the bonfires, such as Paul Kruger and Margaret Thatcher, although most modern effigies are of Fawkes. The "guy" is normally created by children from old clothes, newspapers, and a mask. During the 19th century, "guy" came to mean an oddly dressed person, while in many places it has lost any pejorative connotation and instead refers to any male person and the plural form can refer to people of any gender (as in "you guys").
James Sharpe, professor of history at the University of York, has described how Guy Fawkes came to be toasted as "the last man to enter Parliament with honest intentions". William Harrison Ainsworth's 1841 historical romance Guy Fawkes; or, The Gunpowder Treason portrays Fawkes in a generally sympathetic light, and his novel transformed Fawkes in the public perception into an "acceptable fictional character". Fawkes subsequently appeared as "essentially an action hero" in children's books and penny dreadfuls such as The Boyhood Days of Guy Fawkes; or, The Conspirators of Old London, published around 1905. According to historian Lewis Call, Fawkes is now "a major icon in modern political culture" whose face has become "a potentially powerful instrument for the articulation of postmodern anarchism" in the late 20th century.
References
Footnotes
Citations
Bibliography
External links
Guy Fawkes story from the BBC, including archive video clips
The Trials of Robert Winter, Thomas Winter, Guy Fawkes, John Grant, Ambrose Rookwood, Robert Keyes, Thomas Bates, and Sir Everard Digby
Guy Fawkes Attainder from the Parliamentary Archives
1570 births
1606 deaths
16th-century English criminals
17th-century English criminals
17th-century Roman Catholics
Converts to Roman Catholicism from Anglicanism
English criminals
English revolutionaries
English Roman Catholics
People associated with the Gunpowder Plot
Failed assassins
History of Catholicism in England
People educated at St Peter's School, York
People from York
Prisoners in the Tower of London
Roman Catholic activists
English military personnel of the Eighty Years' War
Criminals from Yorkshire
Traitors in history
Military personnel from York | [
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12709 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodtimes%20virus | Goodtimes virus | The Goodtimes virus, also styled as Good Times virus, was a computer virus hoax that spread during the early years of the Internet's popularity. Warnings about a computer virus named "Good Times" began being passed around among Internet users in 1994. The Goodtimes virus was supposedly transmitted via an email bearing the subject header "Good Times" or "Goodtimes", hence the virus's name, and the warning recommended deleting any such email unread. The virus described in the warnings did not exist, but the warnings themselves were, in effect, virus-like. In 1997 the Cult of the Dead Cow hacker collective announced that they had been responsible for the perpetration of the "Good Times" virus hoax as an exercise to "prove the gullibility of self-proclaimed 'experts' on the Internet".
History
The first recorded email warnings about the Good Times virus showed up on 15 November 1994. The first message was brief, a simple five sentence email with a Christmas greeting, advising recipients not to open email messages with the subject "GOOD TIMES!!", as doing so would "ruin" their files. Later messages became more intricate. The most common versions—the "Infinite loop" and "ASCII buffer" editions—were much longer, containing descriptions of what exactly Good Times would do to the computer of someone who opened it, as well as comparisons to other viruses of the time, and references to a U.S. Federal Communications Commission warning. The warning emails themselves usually contained the very subject line warned against.
Sample email
Purported effects
The longer version of the Good Times warning contained descriptions of what Good Times was supposedly capable of doing to computers. In addition to sending itself to every email address in a recipient's received or sent mail, the Good Times virus caused a wide variety of other effects. For example, one version said that if an infected computer contained a hard drive, it could be destroyed. If Good Times was not stopped in time, an infected computer would enter an "nth-complexity infinite binary loop" (a meaningless term), damaging the processor. The "ASCII" buffer email described the mechanism of Good Times as a buffer overflow.
Hoaxes similar to Good Times
A number of computer virus hoaxes appeared after the Good Times hoax had begun to be widely shared. These messages were similar in form to Good Times, warning users not to open messages bearing particular subject lines. Subject lines mentioned in these emails include "Penpal greetings", "Free Money", "Deeyenda", "Invitation", and "Win a Holiday".
The Bad Times computer virus warning is generally considered to be a spoof of the Good Times warning.
Viruses that function like Good Times
Developments in mail systems, such as Microsoft Outlook, without sufficient thought for security implications, made viruses that indeed propagate themselves via email possible. Notable examples include the Melissa worm, the ILOVEYOU virus, and the Anna Kournikova virus. In some cases, a user must open a document or program contained in an email message in order to spread the virus; in others, notably the Kak worm, merely opening or previewing an email message itself will trigger the virus.
Some e-mail viruses written after the Good Times scare contained text announcing that "This virus is called 'Good Times, presumably hoping to gain kudos amongst other virus writers by appearing to have created a worldwide scare. In general, virus researchers avoided naming these viruses as "Good Times", but an obvious potential for confusion exists, and some anti-virus tools may well detect a real virus they identify as "Good Times", though this will not be the cause of the original scare.
Spoofs
Weird Al Yankovic made a song parody of the virus titled "Virus Alert".
The Bad Times virus hoax was created years later.
References
External links
Internet memes
Virus hoaxes
1994 hoaxes | [
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12710 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary%20Snyder | Gary Snyder | Gary Snyder (born May 8, 1930) is an American man of letters. Perhaps best known as a poet (his early work has been associated with the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance), he is also an essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist with anarchoprimitivist leanings. He has been described as the "poet laureate of Deep Ecology". Snyder is a winner of a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the American Book Award. His work, in his various roles, reflects an immersion in both Buddhist spirituality and nature. He has translated literature into English from ancient Chinese and modern Japanese. For many years, Snyder was an academic at the University of California, Davis and for a time served as a member of the California Arts Council.
Life and career
Early life
Gary Sherman Snyder was born in San Francisco, California, to Harold and Lois Hennessy Snyder. Snyder is of German, Scottish, Irish and English ancestry. His family, impoverished by the Great Depression, moved to King County, Washington, when he was two years old. There, they tended dairy cows, kept laying hens, had a small orchard, and made cedar-wood shingles. At the age of seven, Snyder was laid up for four months by an accident. "So my folks brought me piles of books from the Seattle Public Library," he recalled in interview, "and it was then I really learned to read and from that time on was voracious — I figure that accident changed my life. At the end of four months, I had read more than most kids do by the time they're eighteen. And I didn't stop." Also during his ten childhood years in Washington, Snyder became aware of the presence of the Coast Salish people and developed an interest in the Native American peoples in general and their traditional relationship with nature.
In 1942, following his parents' divorce, Snyder moved to Portland, Oregon, with his mother and his younger sister, Anthea. Their mother, Lois Snyder Hennessy (born Wilkey), worked during this period as a reporter for The Oregonian. One of Gary's boyhood jobs was as a newspaper copy boy, also at the Oregonian. Also, during his teen years, he attended Lincoln High School, worked as a camp counselor, and went mountain climbing with the Mazamas youth group. Climbing remained an interest of his, especially during his twenties and thirties. In 1947, he started attending Reed College on a scholarship. Here he met, and for a time, roomed with the education author Carl Proujan; and became acquainted with Philip Whalen and Lew Welch. During his time at Reed, Snyder published his first poems in a student journal. In 1948, he spent the summer working as a seaman. To get this job, he joined the now defunct Marine Cooks and Stewards union, and would later work as a seaman in the mid-1950s to gain experience of other cultures in port cities. Snyder married Alison Gass in 1950; however, they separated after seven months, and divorced in 1952.
While attending Reed, Snyder did folklore research on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in central Oregon. He graduated with a dual degree in anthropology and literature in 1951. Snyder's senior thesis, entitled The Dimensions of a Myth, employed perspectives from anthropology, folklore, psychology, and literature to examine a myth of the Pacific Northwest's Haida people. He spent the following few summers working as a timber scaler at Warm Springs, developing relationships with its people that were less rooted in academia. This experience formed the basis for some of his earliest published poems (including "A Berry Feast"), later collected in the book The Back Country. He also encountered the basic ideas of Buddhism and, through its arts, some of the Far East's traditional attitudes toward nature. He went to Indiana University with a graduate fellowship to study anthropology. (Snyder also began practicing self-taught Zen meditation.) He left after a single semester to return to San Francisco and to 'sink or swim as a poet'. Snyder worked for two summers in the North Cascades in Washington as a fire lookout, on Crater Mountain in 1952 and Sourdough Mountain in 1953 (both locations on the upper Skagit River). His attempts to get another lookout stint in 1954 (at the peak of McCarthyism), however, failed. He had been barred from working for the government, due to his association with the Marine Cooks and Stewards. Instead, he went back to Warm Springs to work in logging as a choker setter (fastening cables to logs). This experience contributed to his Myths and Texts and the essay Ancient Forests of the Far West.
The Beats
Back in San Francisco, Snyder lived with Whalen, who shared his growing interest in Zen. Snyder's reading of the writings of D. T. Suzuki had in fact been a factor in his decision not to continue as a graduate-student in anthropology, and in 1953 he enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley to study Asian culture and languages. He studied ink and wash painting under Chiura Obata and Tang dynasty poetry under Ch'en Shih-hsiang. Snyder continued to spend summers working in the forests, including one summer as a trail-builder in Yosemite. He spent some months in 1955 and 1956 living in a cabin (which he dubbed "Marin-an") outside Mill Valley, California with Jack Kerouac. It was also at this time that Snyder was an occasional student at the American Academy of Asian Studies, where Saburō Hasegawa and Alan Watts, among others, were teaching. Hasegawa introduced Snyder to the treatment of landscape painting as a meditative practice. This inspired Snyder to attempt something equivalent in poetry, and with Hasegawa's encouragement, he began work on Mountains and Rivers without End, which would be completed and published forty years later. During these years, Snyder was writing and collecting his own work, as well as embarking on the translation of the "Cold Mountain" poems by the 8th-century Chinese recluse Han Shan; this work appeared in chapbook-form in 1959, under the title Riprap & Cold Mountain Poems.
Snyder met Allen Ginsberg when the latter sought Snyder out on the recommendation of Kenneth Rexroth. Then, through Ginsberg, Snyder and Kerouac came to know each other. This period provided the materials for Kerouac's novel The Dharma Bums, and Snyder was the inspiration for the novel's main character, Japhy Ryder, in the same way Neal Cassady had inspired Dean Moriarty in On the Road. As the large majority of people in the Beat movement had urban backgrounds, writers like Ginsberg and Kerouac found Snyder, with his backcountry and manual-labor experience and interest in things rural, a refreshing and almost exotic individual. Lawrence Ferlinghetti later referred to Snyder as 'the Thoreau of the Beat Generation'.
Snyder read his poem "A Berry Feast" at the poetry reading at the Six Gallery in San Francisco (October 7, 1955) that heralded what was to become known as the San Francisco Renaissance. This also marked Snyder's first involvement with the Beats, although he was not a member of the original New York circle, but rather entered the scene through his association with Kenneth Rexroth. As recounted in Kerouac's Dharma Bums, even at age 25 Snyder felt he could have a role in the fateful future meeting of West and East. Snyder's first book, Riprap, which drew on his experiences as a forest lookout and on the trail-crew in Yosemite, was published in 1959.
Japan and India
Independently, some of the Beats, including Philip Whalen, had become interested in Zen, but Snyder was one of the more serious scholars of the subject among them, preparing in every way he could think of for eventual study in Japan. In 1955, the First Zen Institute of America offered him a scholarship for a year of Zen training in Japan, but the State Department refused to issue him a passport, informing him that "it has been alleged you are a Communist." A subsequent District of Columbia Court of Appeals ruling forced a change in policy, and Snyder got his passport. In the end, his expenses were paid by Ruth Fuller Sasaki, for whom he was supposed to work; but initially he served as personal attendant and English tutor to Zen abbot Miura Isshu, at Rinko-in, a temple in Shokoku-ji in Kyoto, where Dwight Goddard and R. H. Blyth had preceded him. Mornings, after zazen, sutra chanting, and chores for Miura, he took Japanese classes, bringing his spoken Japanese up to a level sufficient for kōan study. He developed a friendship with Philip Yampolsky, who took him around Kyoto. In early July 1955, he took refuge and requested to become Miura's disciple, thus formally becoming a Buddhist.
He returned to California via the Persian Gulf, Turkey, Sri Lanka and various Pacific Islands, in 1958, voyaging as a crewman in the engine room on the oil freighter Sappa Creek, and took up residence at Marin-an again. He turned one room into a zendo, with about six regular participants. In early June, he met the poet Joanne Kyger. She became his girlfriend, and eventually his wife. In 1959, he shipped for Japan again, where he rented a cottage outside Kyoto. He became the first foreign disciple of Oda Sesso Roshi, the new abbot of Daitoku-ji. He married Kyger on February 28, 1960, immediately after her arrival, which Sasaki insisted they do, if they were to live together and be associated with the First Zen Institute of America. Snyder and Joanne Kyger were married from 1960 to 1965.
During the period between 1956 and 1969, Snyder went back and forth between California and Japan, studying Zen, working on translations with Ruth Fuller Sasaki, and finally living for a while with a group of other people on the small, volcanic island of Suwanosejima. His previous study of written Chinese assisted his immersion in the Zen tradition (with its roots in Tang Dynasty China) and enabled him to take on certain professional projects while he was living in Japan. Snyder received the Zen precepts and a dharma name (Chofu, "Listen to the Wind"), and lived sometimes as a de facto monk, but never registered to become a priest and planned eventually to return to the United States to 'turn the wheel of the dharma'. During this time, he published a collection of his poems from the early to mid '50s, Myths & Texts (1960), and Six Sections from Mountains and Rivers Without End (1965). This last was the beginning of a project that he was to continue working on until the late 1990s. Much of Snyder's poetry expresses experiences, environments, and insights involved with the work he has done for a living: logger, fire-lookout, steam-freighter crew, translator, carpenter, and itinerant poet, among other things. During his years in Japan, Snyder was also initiated into Shugendo, a form of ancient Japanese animism, (see also Yamabushi). In the early 1960s he traveled for six months through India with his wife Joanne, Allen Ginsberg, and Peter Orlovsky. Snyder and Joanne Kyger separated soon after a trip to India, and divorced in 1965.
Dharma Bums
In the 1950s, Snyder took part in the rise of a strand of Buddhist anarchism emerging from the Beat movement. Snyder was the inspiration for the Japhy Ryder character in Kerouac's novel The Dharma Bums (1958). Snyder had spent considerable time in Japan studying Zen Buddhism, and in 1961 published an essay, "Buddhist Anarchism", where he described the connection he saw between these two traditions, originating in different parts of the world: "The mercy of the West has been social revolution; the mercy of the East has been individual insight into the basic self/void." He advocated "using such means as civil disobedience, outspoken criticism, protest, pacifism, voluntary poverty and even gentle violence" and defended "the right of individuals to smoke ganja, eat peyote, be polygynous, polyandrous or homosexual" which he saw as being banned by "the Judaeo-Capitalist-Christian-Marxist West".
Kitkitdizze
In 1966, Snyder joined Allen Ginsberg, Zentatsu Richard Baker, Roshi of the San Francisco Zen Center, and Donald Walters, a.k.a. "Swami Kriyananda," to buy in the Sierra foothills, north of Nevada City, California. In 1970, this would become his home, with the Snyder family's portion being named Kitkitdizze. Snyder spent the summers of 1967 and 1968 with a group of Japanese back-to-the-land drop-outs known as "the Tribe" on Suwanosejima (a small Japanese island in the East China Sea), where they combed the beaches, gathered edible plants, and fished. On the island, on August 6, 1967, he married Masa Uehara, whom he had met in Osaka a year earlier. In 1968, they moved to California with their infant son, Kai (born April 1968). Their second son, Gen, was born a year later. In 1971, they moved to the San Juan Ridge in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada of Northern California, near the South Yuba River, where they and friends built a house that drew on rural-Japanese and Native-American architectural ideas. In 1967 his book The Back Country appeared, again mainly a collection of poems stretching back over about fifteen years. Snyder devoted a section at the end of the book to his translations of eighteen poems by Kenji Miyazawa.
Later life and writings
Regarding Wave appeared in January 1970, a stylistic departure offering poems that were more emotional, metaphoric, and lyrical. From the late 1960s, the content of Snyder's poetry increasingly had to do with family, friends, and community. He continued to publish poetry throughout the 1970s, much of it reflecting his re-immersion in life on the American continent and his involvement in the back-to-the-land movement in the Sierra foothills. His 1974 book Turtle Island, titled after a Native American name for the North American continent, won a Pulitzer Prize. It also influenced numerous West Coast Generation X writers, including Alex Steffen, Bruce Barcott and Mark Morford. His 1983 book Axe Handles, won an American Book Award. Snyder wrote numerous essays setting forth his views on poetry, culture, social experimentation, and the environment. Many of these were collected in Earth House Hold (1969), The Old Ways (1977), The Real Work (1980), The Practice of the Wild (1990), A Place in Space (1995), and The Gary Snyder Reader (1999). In 1979, Snyder published He Who Hunted Birds in His Father's Village: The Dimensions of a Haida Myth, based on his Reed thesis. Snyder's journals from his travel in India in the mid-1960s appeared in 1983 under the title Passage Through India. In these, his wide-ranging interests in cultures, natural history, religions, social critique, contemporary America, and hands-on aspects of rural life, as well as his ideas on literature, were given full-blown articulation.
In 1986, Snyder became a professor in the writing program at the University of California, Davis. Snyder is now professor emeritus of English.
Snyder was married to Uehara for twenty-two years; the couple divorced in 1989. Snyder married Carole Lynn Koda (October 3, 1947 – June 29, 2006), who would write Homegrown: Thirteen brothers and sisters, a century in America, in 1991, and remained married to her until her death of cancer. She had been born in the third generation of a successful Japanese-American farming family, noted for its excellent rice. She shared Buddhism, extensive travels, and work with Snyder, and performed independent work as a naturalist.
As Snyder's involvement in environmental issues and his teaching grew, he seemed to move away from poetry for much of the 1980s and early 1990s. However, in 1996 he published the complete Mountains and Rivers Without End, a mixture of the lyrical and epic modes celebrating the act of inhabitation on a specific place on the planet. This work was written over a 40-year period. It has been translated into Japanese, French and Russian. In 2004 Snyder published Danger on Peaks, his first collection of new poems in twenty years.
Snyder was awarded the Levinson Prize from the journal Poetry, the American Poetry Society Shelley Memorial Award (1986), was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1987), and won the 1997 Bollingen Prize for Poetry and, that same year, the John Hay Award for Nature Writing. Snyder also has the distinction of being the first American to receive the Buddhism Transmission Award (for 1998) from the Japan-based Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai Foundation. For his ecological and social activism, Snyder was named as one of the 100 visionaries selected in 1995 by Utne Reader.
Snyder's life and work was celebrated in John J. Healy's 2010 documentary The Practice of the Wild. The film, which debuted at the 53rd San Francisco International Film Festival, features wide-ranging, running conversations between Snyder and poet, writer and longtime colleague Jim Harrison, filmed mostly on the Hearst Ranch in San Simeon, California. The film also shows archival photographs and film of Snyder's life.
Work
Poetics
Gary Snyder uses mainly common speech-patterns as the basis for his lines, though his style has been noted for its "flexibility" and the variety of different forms his poems have taken. He typically uses neither conventional meters nor intentional rhyme. "Love and respect for the primitive tribe, honour accorded the Earth, the escape from city and industry into both the past and the possible, contemplation, the communal", such, according to Glyn Maxwell, is the awareness and commitment behind the specific poems.
The author and editor Stewart Brand once wrote: "Gary Snyder's poetry addresses the life-planet identification with unusual simplicity of style and complexity of effect." According to Jody Norton, this simplicity and complexity derives from Snyder's use of natural imagery (geographical formations, flora, and fauna) in his poems. Such imagery can be both sensual at a personal level yet universal and generic in nature. In the 1968 poem "Beneath My Hand and Eye the Distant Hills, Your Body," the author compares the intimate experience of a lover's caress with the mountains, hills, cinder cones, and craters of the Uintah Mountains. Readers become explorers on both a very private level as well as a very public and grand level. A simplistic touch becoming a very complex interaction occurring at multiple levels. This is the effect Snyder intended. In an interview with Faas, he states, "There is a direction which is very beautiful, and that's the direction of the organism being less and less locked into itself, less and less locked into its own body structure and its relatively inadequate sense organs, towards a state where the organism can actually go out from itself and share itself with others."
Snyder has always maintained that his personal sensibility arose from his interest in Native Americans and their involvement with nature and knowledge of it; indeed, their ways seemed to resonate with his own. And he has sought something akin to this through Buddhist practices, Yamabushi initiation, and other experiences and involvements. However, since his youth he has been quite literate, and he has written about his appreciation of writers of similar sensibilities, like D. H. Lawrence, William Butler Yeats, and some of the great ancient Chinese poets. William Carlos Williams was another influence, especially on Snyder's earliest published work. Starting in high school, Snyder read and loved the work of Robinson Jeffers, his predecessor in poetry of the landscape of the American West; but, whereas Jeffers valued nature over humankind, Snyder saw humankind as part of nature. Snyder commented in interviews, "I have some concerns that I'm continually investigating that tie together biology, mysticism, prehistory, general systems theory". Snyder argues that poets, and humans in general, need to adjust to very long timescales, especially when judging the consequences of their actions. His poetry examines the gap between nature and culture so as to point to ways in which the two can be more closely integrated.
In 2004, receiving the Masaoka Shiki International Haiku Awards Grand Prize, Snyder highlighted traditional ballads and folk songs, Native American songs and poems, William Blake, Walt Whitman, Jeffers, Ezra Pound, Noh drama, Zen aphorisms, Federico García Lorca, and Robert Duncan as significant influences on his poetry, but added, "the influence from haiku and from the Chinese is, I think, the deepest."
Romanticism
Snyder is among those writers who have sought to dis-entrench conventional thinking about primitive peoples that has viewed them as simple-minded, ignorantly superstitious, brutish, and prone to violent emotionalism. In the 1960s Snyder developed a "neo-tribalist" view akin to the "post-modernist" theory of French Sociologist Michel Maffesoli. The "re-tribalization" of the modern, mass-society world envisioned by Marshall McLuhan, with all of the ominous, dystopian possibilities that McLuhan warned of, subsequently accepted by many modern intellectuals, is not the future that Snyder expects or works toward. Snyder's is a positive interpretation of the tribe and of the possible future.
Todd Ensign describes Snyder's interpretation as blending ancient tribal beliefs and traditions, philosophy, physicality, and nature with politics to create his own form of Postmodern environmentalism. Snyder rejects the perspective which portrays nature and humanity in direct opposition to one another. Instead, he chooses to write from multiple viewpoints. He purposely sets out to bring about change on the emotional, physical, and political levels by emphasizing the ecological problems faced by today's society.
Beat
Gary Snyder is widely regarded as a member of the Beat Generation circle of writers: he was one of the poets that read at the famous Six Gallery event, and was written about in one of Kerouac's most popular novels, The Dharma Bums. Some critics argue that Snyder's connection with the Beats is exaggerated and that he might better be regarded as a part of the San Francisco Renaissance, which developed independently. Snyder himself has some reservations about the label "Beat", but does not appear to have any strong objection to being included in the group. He often talks about the Beats in the first person plural, referring to the group as "we" and "us".
A quotation from a 1974 interview at the University of North Dakota Writers Conference (published in The Beat Vision):
I never did know exactly what was meant by the term 'The Beats', but let's say that the original meeting, association, comradeship of Allen [Ginsberg], myself, Michael [McClure], Lawrence [Ferlinghetti], Philip Whalen, who's not here, Lew Welch, who's dead, Gregory [Corso], for me, to a somewhat lesser extent (I never knew Gregory as well as the others) did embody a criticism and a vision which we shared in various ways, and then went our own ways for many years. Where we began to come really close together again, in the late '60s, and gradually working toward this point, it seems to me, was when Allen began to take a deep interest in Oriental thought and then in Buddhism which added another dimension to our levels of agreement; and later through Allen's influence, Lawrence began to draw toward that; and from another angle, Michael and I after the lapse of some years of contact, found our heads very much in the same place, and it's very curious and interesting now; and Lawrence went off in a very political direction for a while, which none of us had any objection with, except that wasn't my main focus. It's very interesting that we find ourselves so much on the same ground again, after having explored divergent paths; and find ourselves united on this position of powerful environmental concern, critique of the future of the individual state, and an essentially shared poetics, and only half-stated but in the background very powerfully there, a basic agreement on some Buddhist type psychological views of human nature and human possibilities.
Snyder has also commented "The term Beat is better used for a smaller group of writers ... the immediate group around Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, plus Gregory Corso and a few others. Many of us ... belong together in the category of the San Francisco Renaissance. ... Still, beat can also be defined as a particular state of mind ... and I was in that mind for a while".
Bibliography
Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems (1959)
Myths & Texts (1960)
Six Sections from Mountains and Rivers Without End (1965)
The Back Country (Fulcrum, 1967)
Regarding Wave (1969)
Earth House Hold (1969)
Smokey the Bear Sutra (1969)
Turtle Island (1974)
The Old Ways (1977)
He Who Hunted Birds in His Father's Village: The Dimensions of a Haida Myth (1979)
The Real Work: Interviews & Talks 1964-1979 (1980)
Axe Handles (1983)
Passage Through India (1983)
Left Out in the Rain (1988)
The Practice of the Wild (1990)
No Nature: New and Selected Poems (1992)
A Place in Space (1995)
narrator of the audio book version of Kazuaki Tanahashi's Moon in a Dewdrop from Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō
Mountains and Rivers Without End (1996)
The Geography Of Home (Poetry book)(1999)
The Gary Snyder Reader: Prose, Poetry, and Translations (1999)
The High Sierra of California, with Tom Killion (2002)
Look Out: a Selection of Writings (November 2002)
Danger on Peaks (2005)
Back on the Fire: Essays (2007)
The Selected Letters of Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder, 1956-1991, (2009).
Tamalpais Walking, with Tom Killion (2009)
The Etiquette of Freedom, with Jim Harrison (2010) film by Will Hearst with book edited by Paul Ebenkamp
Nobody Home: Writing, Buddhism, and Living in Places, with Julia Martin, Trinity University Press (2014).
This Present Moment (April 2015)
Distant Neighbors: The Selected Letters of Wendell Berry and Gary Snyder (May 2015)
The Great Clod: Notes and Memories on the Natural History of China and Japan (March 2016)
Dooby Lane: Also Known as Guru Road, A Testament Inscribed in Stone Tablets by DeWayne Williams, with Peter Goin (October 2016)
Citations
General sources
Charters, Ann (ed.). The Portable Beat Reader. Penguin Books. New York. 1992. (hc); (pbk)
Hunt, Anthony. "Genesis, Structure, and Meaning in Gary Snyder's Mountains and Rivers Without End" Univ. of Nevada Press. 2004.
Knight, Arthur Winfield. Ed. The Beat Vision (1987) Paragon House. ; (pbk)
Kyger, Joanne. Strange Big Moon: The Japan and India Journals: 1960–1964 (2000) North Atlantic Books.
Smith, Eric Todd. Reading Gary Snyder's Mountains and Rivers Without End (1999) Boise State University.
Snyder, Gary. The Politics of Ethnopoetics (1975) Snyder essay A Place in Space
Snyder, Gary. 1980. The Real Work: Interviews & Talks 1964–1979. New Directions, New York. (hbk); (pbk)
Stirling, Isabel. Zen Pioneer: The Life & Works of Ruth Fuller Sasaki (2006) Shoemaker & Hoard.
Suiter, John. Poets on the Peaks (2002) Counterpoint. ; (pbk)
Western Literature Association. Updating the Literary West (1997) Texas Christian University Press.
Further reading
Sherlock, John. (2010). Gary Snyder: a bibliography of works by and about Gary Snyder. UC Davis Library.
External links
Profile at Poetry Foundation
Profile at Poets.org
Snyder talk "Mountains and Rivers without End" at the Smithsonian Museums of Asian art (Audio 1 hr) at 12 July 2008. Talk programme
"The Wild Mind Of Gary Snyder" by Trevor Carolan and "Writers and the War Against Nature" by Gary Snyder in Shambhala Sun magazine
2007 Public Access TV interview (Nevada County TeleVision), 61 minutes
"Gary Snyder" by Bert Almon from the Western Writers Series Digital Editions at Boise State University
New York Times profile "A Poem, 40 Years Long" 6 October 1996
Gary Snyder on Art, Anarchy and the Environment (2010 San Francisco Film Society interview)
Gary Snyder Papers at Special Collections Dept., University Library, University of California, Davis
Gary Snyder. Letters to Shandel Parks MSS 719. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego Library.
Records of Gary Snyder are held by Simon Fraser University's Special Collections and Rare Books
Western American Literature Journal: Gary Snyder
1930 births
Activists from California
American Book Award winners
American environmentalists
American male non-fiction writers
American male poets
American non-fiction environmental writers
American people of English descent
American people of German descent
American people of Irish descent
American people of Scottish descent
American spiritual writers
American Zen Buddhists
Anti-consumerists
Beat Generation writers
Bollingen Prize recipients
Deep ecologists
Engaged Buddhists
English-language haiku poets
Industrial Workers of the World members
Lincoln High School (Portland, Oregon) alumni
Living people
Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
The Oregonian people
PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award winners
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry winners
Reed College alumni
Rinzai Buddhists
University of California, Davis faculty
Writers from Portland, Oregon | [
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12712 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonzo%20journalism | Gonzo journalism | Gonzo journalism is a style of journalism that is written without claims of objectivity, often including the reporter as part of the story using a first-person narrative. The word "gonzo" is believed to have been first used in 1970 to describe an article about the Kentucky Derby by Hunter S. Thompson, who popularized the style. It is an energetic first-person participatory writing style in which the author is a protagonist, and it draws its power from a combination of social critique and self-satire. It has since been applied to other subjective artistic endeavors.
Gonzo journalism involves an approach to accuracy that concerns the reporting of personal experiences and emotions, in contrast to traditional journalism, which favors a detached style and relies on facts or quotations that can be verified by third parties. Gonzo journalism disregards the strictly-edited product once favored by newspaper media and strives for a more personal approach; the personality of a piece is as important as the event or actual subject of the piece. Use of sarcasm, humor, exaggeration, and profanity is common.
Thompson, who was among the forefathers of the New Journalism movement, said in the February 15, 1973, issue of Rolling Stone, "If I'd written the truth I knew for the past ten years, about 600 people—including me—would be rotting in prison cells from Rio to Seattle today. Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism."
Etymology
The term "gonzo" was first used in connection with Hunter S. Thompson by The Boston Globe magazine editor Bill Cardoso in 1970. He described Thompson's article "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved", which was written for the June 1970 edition of Scanlan's Monthly, as "pure Gonzo journalism". This predates the December 1970 debut of the muppet of that name. Cardoso said "gonzo" was South Boston Irish slang describing the last man standing after an all-night drinking marathon. He also said it was a corruption of the French Canadian word gonzeaux, which means "shining path", although this is disputed.
Another speculation is that the word may have been inspired by the 1960 hit song "Gonzo" by New Orleans rhythm and blues pianist James Booker. This possibility is supported by a 2007 oral biography of Thompson, which states that the term is taken from a song by Booker but does not explain why Thompson or Cardoso would have chosen the term to describe Thompson's journalism. The 2013 documentary Bayou Maharaja: The Tragic Genius of James Booker quotes Thompson's literary executor as saying that the song was the origin of the term. According to a Greg Johnson biographical note on Booker, the song title "Gonzo" comes from a character in a movie called The Pusher, which in turn may have been inspired by a 1956 Evan Hunter novel of the same title.
Thompson himself first used the term referring to his own work on page 12 of the counterculture classic Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. He wrote, "But what was the story? Nobody had bothered to say. So we would have to drum it up on our own. Free Enterprise. The American Dream. Horatio Alger gone mad on drugs in Las Vegas. Do it now: pure Gonzo journalism."
Lexico proposes etymology from (simpleton, dolt) and/or (dolt, goose).
Hunter S. Thompson
Thompson based his style on William Faulkner's notion that "fiction is often the best fact". While the things that Thompson wrote about are basically true, he used satirical devices to drive his points home. He often wrote about recreational drugs and alcohol use, which added subjective flair to his reporting. The term "gonzo" has also come into (sometimes pejorative) use to describe journalism in Thompson's style, characterized by a drug-fueled stream of consciousness writing technique.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas followed the Mint 400 piece in 1971 and included a main character by the name of Raoul Duke, accompanied by his attorney, Dr. Gonzo, with defining art by Ralph Steadman. Although this book is considered a prime example of gonzo journalism, Thompson regarded it as a failed experiment. He had intended it to be an unedited record of everything he did as it happened, but he edited the book five times before publication.
Thompson would instigate events himself, often in a prankish or belligerent manner, and then document both his actions and those of others. Notoriously neglectful of deadlines, Thompson often annoyed his editors because he submitted articles late, "too late to be edited, yet still in time for the printer". Thompson wanted his work to be read as he wrote it, in its "true Gonzo" form. Historian Douglas Brinkley said gonzo journalism requires virtually no rewriting and frequently uses transcribed interviews and verbatim telephone conversations.
"I don't get any satisfaction out of the old traditional journalist's view: 'I just covered the story. I just gave it a balanced view, Thompson said in an interview for the online edition of The Atlantic. "Objective journalism is one of the main reasons American politics has been allowed to be so corrupt for so long. You can't be objective about Nixon."
Influence
Thompson felt that objectivity in journalism was a myth. Gonzo journalism has now become a bona fide style of writing that concerns itself with "telling it like it is", similar to the New Journalism of the 1960s, led primarily by Tom Wolfe and also championed by Lester Bangs, George Plimpton, Terry Southern, and John Birmingham, and is considered a subgenre of New Journalism. When asked whether there was a difference between the two, Thompson answered, "Yeah, I think so. Unlike Tom Wolfe or Gay Talese, for instance, I almost never try to reconstruct a story. They're both much better reporters than I am, but then I don't really think of myself as a reporter."
In 1998, Christopher Locke asserted that the webzine genre is descended from gonzo journalism, a claim that has since been extended to social media. Thompson's gonzo journalism influence is reflected in the current website Gonzo Today which features a top banner by Thompson's longtime illustrator Ralph Steadman, with rotating contributions by others including Thompson associate, poet Ron Whitehead.
See also
Citizen journalism
Creative nonfiction
Embedded journalism
Gonzo pornography
Immersion journalism
New Games Journalism
New Journalism
Nonfiction novel
Reportage
Transmetropolitan
Citations
General sources
External links
Gonzo Today – Independent gonzo journalism website with some contributions from Thompson illustrator Ralph Steadman
Hunter S. Thompson
Journalism ethics
Newswriting
Types of journalism | [
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12713 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant%20panda | Giant panda | The giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca; ), also known as the panda bear (or simply the panda), is a bear species endemic to China. It is characterised by its bold black-and-white coat and rotund body. The name "giant panda" is sometimes used to distinguish it from the red panda, a neighboring musteloid. Though it belongs to the order Carnivora, the giant panda is a folivore, with bamboo shoots and leaves making up more than 99% of its diet. Giant pandas in the wild will occasionally eat other grasses, wild tubers, or even meat in the form of birds, rodents, or carrion. In captivity, they may receive honey, eggs, fish, yams, shrub leaves, oranges, or bananas along with specially prepared food.
The giant panda lives in a few mountain ranges in central China, mainly in Sichuan, but also in neighbouring Shaanxi and Gansu. As a result of farming, deforestation, and other development, the giant panda has been driven out of the lowland areas where it once lived, and it is a conservation-reliant vulnerable species. A 2007 report showed 239 pandas living in captivity inside China and another 27 outside the country. As of December 2014, 49 giant pandas lived in captivity outside China, living in 18 zoos in 13 different countries. Wild population estimates vary; one estimate shows that there are about 1,590 individuals living in the wild, while a 2006 study via DNA analysis estimated that this figure could be as high as 2,000 to 3,000. Some reports also show that the number of giant pandas in the wild is on the rise. In March 2015, conservation news site Mongabay stated that the wild giant panda population had increased by 268, or 16.8%, to 1,864. In 2016, the IUCN reclassified the species from "endangered" to "vulnerable", affirming decade-long efforts to save the panda. In July 2021, Chinese authorities also reclassified the giant panda as vulnerable rather than endangered.
While the dragon has often served as China's national symbol, internationally the giant panda has often filled this role. As such, it is becoming widely used within China in international contexts, for example, appearing since 1982 on gold panda bullion coins and as one of the five Fuwa mascots of the Beijing Olympics.
Taxonomy
Classification
For many decades, the precise taxonomic classification of the giant panda was under debate because it shares characteristics with both bears and raccoons. However, molecular studies indicate the giant panda is a true bear, part of the family Ursidae. These studies show it diverged about from the common ancestor of the Ursidae; it is the most basal member of this family and equidistant from all other extant bear species. The giant panda has been referred to as a living fossil.
Etymology
The word panda was borrowed into English from French, but no conclusive explanation of the origin of the French word panda has been found. The closest candidate is the Nepali word ponya, possibly referring to the adapted wrist bone of the red panda, which is native to Nepal. The Western world originally applied this name to the red panda.
In many older sources, the name "panda" or "common panda" refers to the lesser-known red panda, thus necessitating the inclusion of "giant" and "lesser/red" prefixes in front of the names. Even in 2013, the Encyclopædia Britannica still used "giant panda" or "panda bear" for the bear, and simply "panda" for the red panda, despite the popular usage of the word "panda" to refer to giant pandas.
Since the earliest collection of Chinese writings, the Chinese language has given the bear 20 different names, such as mò ( ancient Chinese name for giant panda), huāxióng ( "spotted bear") and zhúxióng ( "bamboo bear"). The most popular names in China today are dàxióngmāo ( literally "giant bear cat"), or simply xióngmāo ( "bear cat"). The name xióngmāo ( "bear cat") was originally used to describe the red panda (Ailurus fulgens), but since the giant panda was thought to be closely related to the red panda, dàxióngmāo () was named relatively.
In Taiwan, another popular name for panda is the inverted dàmāoxióng ( "giant cat bear"), though many encyclopediae and dictionaries in Taiwan still use the "bear cat" form as the correct name. Some linguists argue, in this construction, "bear" instead of "cat" is the base noun, making this name more grammatically and logically correct, which may have led to the popular choice despite official writings. This name did not gain its popularity until 1988, when a private zoo in Tainan painted a sun bear black and white and created the Tainan fake panda incident.
Subspecies
Two subspecies of giant panda have been recognized on the basis of distinct cranial measurements, colour patterns, and population genetics.
The nominate subspecies, A. m. melanoleuca, consists of most extant populations of the giant panda. These animals are principally found in Sichuan and display the typical stark black and white contrasting colours.
The Qinling panda, A. m. qinlingensis, is restricted to the Qinling Mountains in Shaanxi at elevations of . The typical black and white pattern of Sichuan giant pandas is replaced with a light brown and white pattern. The skull of A. m. qinlingensis is smaller than its relatives, and it has larger molars.
A detailed study of the giant panda's genetic history from 2012 confirms that the separation of the Qinlin population occurred about 300,000 years ago, and reveals that the non-Qinlin population further diverged into two groups, named the Minshan and the Qionglai-Daxiangling-Xiaoxiangling-Liangshan group respectively, about 2,800 years ago.
Description
Adults measure around long, including a tail of about , and tall at the shoulder. Males can weigh up to . Females (generally 10–20% smaller than males) can weigh as little as , but can also weigh up to . The average weight for adults is .
The giant panda has a body shape typical of bears. It has black fur on its ears, eye patches, limbs and shoulders. The rest of the animal's coat is white. The bear's distinctive coat appears to serve as camouflage in both winter and summer environments. The white areas may serve as camouflage in snow, while the black shoulders and legs provide crypsis in shade. Studies in the wild have found that when viewed from a distance, the panda displays disruptive coloration while close up, they rely more on blending in. The black ears may signal aggressive intent, while the eye patches might facilitate them identifying one another. The giant panda's thick, woolly coat keeps it warm in the cool forests of its habitat. The panda's skull shape is typical of durophagous carnivorans. It has evolved from previous ancestors to exhibit larger molars with increased complexity and expanded temporal fossa. A giant panda has a 3D canine teeth bite force of 2603.47 newtons and bite force quotient of 292. Another study had a giant panda bite of 1298.9 newtons (BFQ 151.4) at canine teeth and 1815.9 newtons (BFQ 141.8) at carnassial teeth.
The giant panda's paw has a "thumb" and five fingers; the "thumb" – actually a modified sesamoid bone – helps it to hold bamboo while eating. Stephen Jay Gould discusses this feature in his book of essays on evolution and biology, The Panda's Thumb.
The giant panda's tail, measuring , is the second-longest in the bear family, behind the sloth bear.
The giant panda typically lives around 20 years in the wild and up to 30 years in captivity. A female named Jia Jia was the oldest giant panda ever in captivity, born in 1978 and died at an age of 38 on 16 October 2016.
Pathology
A seven-year-old female named Jin Yi died in 2014 in a zoo in Zhengzhou, China, after showing symptoms of gastroenteritis and respiratory disease. It was found that the cause of death was toxoplasmosis, a disease caused by an obligate intracellular parasitic protozoan known as Toxoplasma gondii that infects most warm-blooded animals, including humans.
Genomics
The giant panda genome was sequenced in 2009 using Illumina dye sequencing. Its genome contains 20 pairs of autosomes and one pair of sex chromosomes.
Ecology
Diet
Despite its taxonomic classification as a carnivoran, the giant panda's diet is primarily herbivorous, consisting almost exclusively of bamboo. However, the giant panda still has the digestive system of a carnivore, as well as carnivore-specific genes, and thus derives little energy and little protein from consumption of bamboo. Its ability to digest cellulose is ascribed to the microbes in its gut. Pandas are born with sterile intestines and require bacteria obtained from their mother's feces to digest vegetation. The giant panda is a highly specialised animal with unique adaptations, and has lived in bamboo forests for millions of years.
The average giant panda eats as much as 9 to 14 kg (20 to 30 lb) of bamboo shoots a day to compensate for the limited energy content of its diet. Ingestion of such a large quantity of material is possible and necessary because of the rapid passage of large amounts of indigestible plant material through the short, straight digestive tract. It is also noted, however, that such rapid passage of digesta limits the potential of microbial digestion in the gastrointestinal tract, limiting alternative forms of digestion. Given this voluminous diet, the giant panda defecates up to 40 times a day. The limited energy input imposed on it by its diet has affected the panda's behavior. The giant panda tends to limit its social interactions and avoids steeply sloping terrain to limit its energy expenditures.
Two of the panda's most distinctive features, its large size and round face, are adaptations to its bamboo diet. Anthropologist Russell Ciochon observed: "[much] like the vegetarian gorilla, the low body surface area to body volume [of the giant panda] is indicative of a lower metabolic rate. This lower metabolic rate and a more sedentary lifestyle allows the giant panda to subsist on nutrient poor resources such as bamboo." Similarly, the giant panda's round face is the result of powerful jaw muscles, which attach from the top of the head to the jaw. Large molars crush and grind fibrous plant material.
The morphological characteristics of extinct relatives of the giant panda suggest that while the ancient giant panda was omnivorous 7 million years ago (mya), it only became herbivorous some 2–2.4 mya with the emergence of A. microta. Genome sequencing of the giant panda suggests that the dietary switch could have initiated from the loss of the sole T1R1/T1R3 umami taste receptor, resulting from two frameshift mutations within the T1R1 exons. Umami taste corresponds to high levels of glutamate as found in meat and may have thus altered the food choice of the giant panda. Although the pseudogenisation of the umami taste receptor in Ailuropoda coincides with the dietary switch to herbivory, it is likely a result of, and not the reason for, the dietary change. The mutation time for the T1R1 gene in the giant panda is estimated to 4.2 mya while fossil evidence indicates bamboo consumption in the giant panda species at least 7 mya, signifying that although complete herbivory occurred around 2 mya, the dietary switch was initiated prior to T1R1 loss-of-function.
Pandas eat any of 25 bamboo species in the wild, such as Fargesia dracocephala and Fargesia rufa. Only a few bamboo species are widespread at the high altitudes pandas now inhabit. Bamboo leaves contain the highest protein levels; stems have less.
Because of the synchronous flowering, death, and regeneration of all bamboo within a species, the giant panda must have at least two different species available in its range to avoid starvation. While primarily herbivorous, the giant panda still retains decidedly ursine teeth and will eat meat, fish, and eggs when available. In captivity, zoos typically maintain the giant panda's bamboo diet, though some will provide specially formulated biscuits or other dietary supplements.
Pandas will travel between different habitats if they need to, so they can get the nutrients that they need and to balance their diet for reproduction. For six years, scientists studied six pandas tagged with GPS collars at the Foping Reserve in the Qinling Mountains. They took note of their foraging and mating habits and analyzed samples of their food and feces. The pandas would move from the valleys into the Qinling Mountains and would only return to the valleys in autumn. During the summer months, bamboo shoots rich in protein are only available at higher altitudes which causes low calcium rates in the pandas. During breeding season, the pandas would return to lower altitudes to eat bamboo leaves rich in calcium.
Predators
Although adult giant pandas have few natural predators other than humans, young cubs are vulnerable to attacks by snow leopards, yellow-throated martens, eagles, feral dogs, and the Asian black bear. Sub-adults weighing up to may be vulnerable to predation by leopards.
Behavior
The giant panda is a terrestrial animal and primarily spends its life roaming and feeding in the bamboo forests of the Qinling Mountains and in the hilly province of Sichuan. Giant pandas are generally solitary. Each adult has a defined territory and a female is not tolerant of other females in her range. Social encounters occur primarily during the brief breeding season in which pandas in proximity to one another will gather. After mating, the male leaves the female alone to raise the cub.
Pandas were thought to fall into the crepuscular category, those who are active twice a day, at dawn and dusk; however, Jindong Zhang found that pandas may belong to a category all of their own, with activity peaks in the morning, afternoon and midnight. Due to their sheer size, they can be active at any time of the day. Activity is highest in June and decreases in late summer to autumn with an increase from November through the following March. Activity is also directly related to the amount of sunlight during colder days.
Pandas communicate through vocalisation and scent marking such as clawing trees or spraying urine. They are able to climb and take shelter in hollow trees or rock crevices, but do not establish permanent dens. For this reason, pandas do not hibernate, which is similar to other subtropical mammals, and will instead move to elevations with warmer temperatures. Pandas rely primarily on spatial memory rather than visual memory.
Though the panda is often assumed to be docile, it has been known to attack humans, presumably out of irritation rather than aggression.
Pandas have been known to cover themselves in horse manure to protect themselves against cold temperatures.
Reproduction
Initially, the primary method of breeding giant pandas in captivity was by artificial insemination, as they seemed to lose their interest in mating once they were captured. This led some scientists to try extreme methods, such as showing them videos of giant pandas mating and giving the males sildenafil (commonly known as Viagra). Only recently have researchers started having success with captive breeding programs, and they have now determined giant pandas have comparable breeding to some populations of the American black bear, a thriving bear species. The normal reproductive rate is considered to be one young every two years.
Giant pandas reach sexual maturity between the ages of four and eight, and may be reproductive until age 20. The mating season is between March and May, when a female goes into estrus, which lasts for two or three days and only occurs once a year. When mating, the female is in a crouching, head-down position as the male mounts her from behind. Copulation time ranges from 30 seconds to five minutes, but the male may mount her repeatedly to ensure successful fertilisation. The gestation period is somewhere between 95 and 160 days - the variability is due to the fact that the fertilized egg may linger in the reproductive system for a while before implanting on the uterine wall.
Giant pandas give birth to twins in about half of pregnancies. If twins are born, usually only one survives in the wild. The mother will select the stronger of the cubs, and the weaker cub will die due to starvation. The mother is thought to be unable to produce enough milk for two cubs since she does not store fat. The father has no part in helping raise the cub.
When the cub is first born, it is pink, blind, and toothless, weighing only , or about of the mother's weight, proportionally the smallest baby of any placental mammal. It nurses from its mother's breast six to 14 times a day for up to 30 minutes at a time. For three to four hours, the mother may leave the den to feed, which leaves the cub defenseless. One to two weeks after birth, the cub's skin turns grey where its hair will eventually become black. Slight pink colour may appear on the cub's fur, as a result of a chemical reaction between the fur and its mother's saliva. A month after birth, the colour pattern of the cub's fur is fully developed. Its fur is very soft and coarsens with age. The cub begins to crawl at 75 to 80 days; mothers play with their cubs by rolling and wrestling with them. The cubs can eat small quantities of bamboo after six months, though mother's milk remains the primary food source for most of the first year. Giant panda cubs weigh 45 kg (100 pounds) at one year and live with their mothers until they are 18 months to two years old. The interval between births in the wild is generally two years.
In July 2009, Chinese scientists confirmed the birth of the first cub to be successfully conceived through artificial insemination using frozen sperm. The cub was born at 07:41 on 23 July that year in Sichuan as the third cub of You You, an 11-year-old. The technique for freezing the sperm in liquid nitrogen was first developed in 1980 and the first birth was hailed as a solution to the dwindling availability of giant panda semen, which had led to inbreeding. Panda semen, which can be frozen for decades, could be shared between different zoos to save the species. It is expected that zoos in destinations such as San Diego in the United States and Mexico City will now be able to provide their own semen to inseminate more giant pandas. In August 2014, a rare birth of panda triplets was announced in China; it was the fourth of such births ever reported.
Attempts have also been made to reproduce giant pandas by interspecific pregnancy where cloned panda embryos were implanted into the uterus of an animal of another species. This has resulted in panda fetuses, but no live births.
Human use and interaction
Early references
In the past, pandas were thought to be rare and noble creatures – the Empress Dowager Bo was buried with a panda skull in her vault. The grandson of Emperor Taizong of Tang is said to have given Japan two pandas and a sheet of panda skin as a sign of goodwill. Unlike many other animals in Ancient China, pandas were rarely thought to have medical uses. The few known uses include the Sichuan tribal peoples' use of panda urine to melt accidentally swallowed needles, and the use of panda pelts to control menstruation as described in the Qin dynasty encyclopedia Erya.
The creature named mo (貘) mentioned in some ancient books has been interpreted as giant panda. The dictionary Shuowen Jiezi (Eastern Han Dynasty) says that the mo, from Shu (Sichuan), is bear-like, but yellow-and-black, although the older Erya describes mo simply as a "white leopard". The interpretation of the legendary fierce creature pixiu (貔貅) as referring to the giant panda is also common.
During the reign of the Yongle Emperor (early 15th century), his relative from Kaifeng sent him a captured zouyu (騶虞), and another zouyu was sighted in Shandong. Zouyu is a legendary "righteous" animal, which, similarly to a qilin, only appears during the rule of a benevolent and sincere monarch. It is said to be fierce as a tiger, but gentle and strictly vegetarian, and described in some books as a white tiger with black spots. Puzzled about the real zoological identity of the creature captured during the Yongle era, J. J. L. Duyvendak exclaims, "Can it possibly have been a Pandah?"
Western discovery
The West first learned of the giant panda on 11 March 1869, when the French missionary Armand David received a skin from a hunter. The first Westerner known to have seen a living giant panda is the German zoologist Hugo Weigold, who purchased a cub in 1916. Kermit and Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., became the first Westerners to shoot a panda, on an expedition funded by the Field Museum of Natural History in the 1920s. In 1936, Ruth Harkness became the first Westerner to bring back a live giant panda, a cub named Su Lin who went to live at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago. In 1938, Floyd Tangier Smith captured and delivered five giant pandas to London, they arrived on 23 December aboard the SS Antenor. These five were the first on British soil and were transferred to London Zoo. One, named Grandma, only lasted a few days. She was taxidermized by E. Gerrard and Sons and sold to Leeds City Museum where she is currently on display to the public. Another, Ming, became London Zoo's first Giant Panda. Her skull is held by the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
Diplomacy
Gifts of giant pandas to American and Japanese zoos formed an important part of the diplomacy of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the 1970s, as it marked some of the first cultural exchanges between China and the West. This practice has been termed "panda diplomacy".
By 1984, however, pandas were no longer given as gifts. Instead, China began to offer pandas to other nations only on 10-year loans, under terms including a fee of up to US$1,000,000 per year and a provision that any cubs born during the loan are the property of China. Since 1998, because of a WWF lawsuit, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service only allows a US zoo to import a panda if the zoo can ensure that China will channel more than half of its loan fee into conservation efforts for the giant panda and its habitat.
In May 2005, China offered a breeding pair to Taiwan. The issue became embroiled in cross-Strait relations – both over the underlying symbolism, and over technical issues such as whether the transfer would be considered "domestic" or "international", or whether any true conservation purpose would be served by the exchange. A contest in 2006 to name the pandas was held in the mainland, resulting in the politically charged names Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan (from tuanyuan, meaning "reunion", i.e. "reunification"). China's offer was initially rejected by Chen Shui-bian, then President of Taiwan. However, when Ma Ying-jeou assumed the presidency in 2008, the offer was accepted, and the pandas arrived in December of that year.
Biofuel
Microbes in panda waste are being investigated for their use in creating biofuels from bamboo and other plant materials.
Conservation
The giant panda is a vulnerable species, threatened by continued habitat loss and habitat fragmentation, and by a very low birthrate, both in the wild and in captivity. Its range is currently confined to a small portion on the western edge of its historical range, which stretched through southern and eastern China, northern Myanmar, and northern Vietnam.
The giant panda has been a target of poaching by locals since ancient times and by foreigners since it was introduced to the West. Starting in the 1930s, foreigners were unable to poach giant pandas in China because of the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War, but pandas remained a source of soft furs for the locals. The population boom in China after 1949 created stress on the pandas' habitat and the subsequent famines led to the increased hunting of wildlife, including pandas. During the Cultural Revolution, all studies and conservation activities on the pandas were stopped. After the Chinese economic reform, demand for panda skins from Hong Kong and Japan led to illegal poaching for the black market, acts generally ignored by the local officials at the time.
In 1963, the PRC government set up Wolong National Nature Reserve to save the declining panda population.
In 2006, scientists reported that the number of pandas living in the wild may have been underestimated at about 1,000. Previous population surveys had used conventional methods to estimate the size of the wild panda population, but using a new method that analyzes DNA from panda droppings, scientists believe the wild population may be as large as 3,000. In 2006, there were 40 panda reserves in China, compared to just 13 reserves in 1998. As the species has been reclassified to "vulnerable" since 2016, the conservation efforts are thought to be working. Furthermore, in response to this reclassification, the State Forestry Administration of China announced that they would not accordingly lower the conservation level for panda, and would instead reinforce the conservation efforts.
The giant panda is among the world's most adored and protected rare animals, and is one of the few in the world whose natural inhabitant status was able to gain a UNESCO World Heritage Site designation. The Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries, located in the southwest province of Sichuan and covering seven natural reserves, were inscribed onto the World Heritage List in 2006.
Not all conservationists agree that the money spent on conserving pandas is well spent. Chris Packham has argued that the breeding of pandas in captivity is "pointless" because "there is not enough habitat left to sustain them". Packham argues that the money spent on pandas would be better spent elsewhere, and has said he would "eat the last panda if I could have all the money we have spent on panda conservation put back on the table for me to do more sensible things with". He also quoted, "The panda is possibly one of the grossest wastes of conservation money in the last half century", though he has apologised for upsetting people who like pandas. However, a 2015 paper found that the giant panda can serve as an umbrella species as the preservation of their habitat also helps other endemic species in China, including 70% of the country's forest birds, 70% of mammals and 31% of amphibians.
In 2012, Earthwatch Institute, a global nonprofit that teams volunteers with scientists to conduct important environmental research, launched a program called "On the Trail of Giant Panda". This program, based in the Wolong National Nature Reserve, allows volunteers to work up close with pandas cared for in captivity, and help them adapt to life in the wild, so that they may breed, and live longer and healthier lives. Efforts to preserve the panda bear populations in China have come at the expense of other animals in the region, including snow leopards, wolves, and dholes.
In order to improve living and mating conditions for the fragmented populations of pandas, nearly 70 natural reserves have been combined to form the Giant Panda National Park in 2020. With a size of 10,500 square miles, the park is roughly three times as large as Yellowstone National Park and incorporates the Wolong National Nature Reserve. The state-owned Bank of China helped to enable the project with US$1.5 billion.
One major aim is to permanently keep the panda population stable enough to avoid a relapse to its former IUCN Red List "endangered" status. Especially small, isolated populations run the risk of inbreeding and smaller genetic variety makes the individuals more vulnerable to various defects and genetic mutation. Allowing a larger group of individuals to roam through a larger area freely and choose from a greater variety of mates, helps to enrich genetic diversity of their offspring.
In 2020, the panda population of the new national park was already above 1,800 individuals, which is roughly 80 percent of the entire panda population in China. Establishing the new protected area in the Sichuan Province also gives various other endangered or threatened species, like the Siberian tiger, the possibility to improve their living conditions by offering them a habitat. Other species who benefit from the protection of their habitat include the snow leopard, the golden snub-nosed monkey, the red panda and the complex-toothed flying squirrel.
In July 2021, Chinese conservation authorities announced that giant pandas are no longer endangered in the wild following years of conservation efforts, with a population in the wild exceeding 1,800.
Zoos
Pandas have been kept in zoos as early as the Western Han Dynasty in China, where the writer Sima Xiangru noted that the panda was the most treasured animal in the emperor's garden of exotic animals in the capital Chang'an (present Xi'an). Not until the 1950s were pandas again recorded to have been exhibited in China's zoos.
Chi Chi at the London Zoo became very popular. This influenced the World Wildlife Fund to use a panda as its symbol.
A 2006 New York Times article outlined the economics of keeping pandas, which costs five times more than keeping the next most expensive animal, an elephant. American zoos generally pay the Chinese government $1 million a year in fees, as part of a typical ten-year contract. San Diego's contract with China was to expire in 2008, but got a five-year extension at about half of the previous yearly cost. The last contract, with the Memphis Zoo in Memphis, Tennessee, ended in 2013.
Population chart
See also
List of giant pandas
Panda tea
Pygmy giant panda
Wildlife of China
List of endangered and protected species of China
References
Notes
Bibliography
AFP (via Discovery Channel) (20 June 2006). Panda Numbers Exceed Expectations.
Associated Press (via CNN) (2006). Article link.
Catton, Chris (1990). Pandas. Christopher Helm.
Friends of the National Zoo (2006). Panda Cam: A Nation Watches Tai Shan the Panda Cub Grow. New York: Fireside Books.
Goodman, Brenda (12 February 2006). Pandas Eat Up Much of Zoos' Budgets. The New York Times.
(An earlier edition is available as The Smithsonian Book of Giant Pandas, Smithsonian Institution Press, 2002, .)
Panda Facts At a Glance (N.d.). www.wwfchina.org. WWF China.
Ryder, Joanne (2001). Little panda: The World Welcomes Hua Mei at the San Diego Zoo. New York: Simon & Schuster.
(There are also several later reprints)
Warren, Lynne (July 2006). "Panda, Inc." National Geographic. (About Mei Xiang, Tai Shan and the Wolong Panda Research Facility in Chengdu China).
External links
BBC Nature: Giant panda news, and video clips from BBC programmes past and present.
Panda Pioneer: the release of the first captive-bred panda 'Xiang Xiang' in 2006
WWF – environmental conservation organization
Pandas International – panda conservation group
National Zoo Live Panda Cams – Baby Panda Tai Shan and mother Mei Xiang
Information from Animal Diversity
NPR News 2007/08/20 – Panda Romance Stems From Bamboo
View the panda genome on Ensembl.
Texts and pictures of the Panda exhibition at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin
iPanda-50: annotated image dataset for fine-grained panda identification on Github
Mammals of China
Endemic fauna of China
Clawed herbivores
Herbivorous mammals
EDGE species
Vulnerable animals
Vulnerable fauna of Asia
Articles containing video clips
Species endangered by agricultural development
Species endangered by logging
Mammals described in 1869
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12716 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glissando | Glissando | In music, a glissando (; plural: glissandi, abbreviated gliss.) is a glide from one pitch to another (). It is an Italianized musical term derived from the French glisser, "to glide". In some contexts, it is distinguished from the continuous portamento. Some colloquial equivalents are slide, sweep (referring to the "discrete glissando" effects on guitar and harp, respectively), bend, smear, rip (for a loud, violent gliss to the beginning of a note), lip (in jazz terminology, when executed by changing one's embouchure on a wind instrument), plop, or falling hail (a glissando on a harp using the back of the fingernails).
Portamento
Prescriptive attempts to distinguish the glissando from the portamento by limiting the former to the filling in of discrete intermediate pitches on instruments like the piano, harp, and fretted stringed instruments have run up against established usage of instruments like the trombone and timpani. The latter could thus be thought of as capable of either "glissando" or "portamento", depending on whether the drum was rolled or not. The clarinet gesture that opens Rhapsody in Blue could likewise be thought of either way: it was originally planned as a glissando (Gershwin's score labels each individual note) but is in practice played as a portamento though described as a glissando.
Notation
The glissando is indicated by following the initial note with a line, sometimes wavy, in the desired direction, often accompanied by the abbreviation gliss.. Occasionally, the desired notes are notated in the standard method (i.e. semiquavers) accompanied by the word 'glissando'.
Discrete glissando
On some instruments (e.g., piano, harp, xylophone), discrete tones are clearly audible when sliding. For example, on a keyboard, a player's fingernails can be made to slide across the white keys or over the black keys, producing either a C major scale or an F major pentatonic scale, or their relative modes; by performing both at once, it is possible to produce a full chromatic scale. Pianists can also complete a glissando of two pitches an octave apart. Maurice Ravel used glissandi in many of his piano compositions, and "Alborada del Gracioso" contains notable piano glissando passages in thirds executed by the right hand. Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Liszt and Gershwin have all used glissandi for piano in notable compositions.
Organ players—particularly in contemporary music—sometimes employ an effect known as the palm glissando, where over the course of the glissando the flat of the hand is used to depress a wide area of keys simultaneously, resulting in a dramatic atonal sweep. A similar device on the piano are cluster-glissandos, used extensively by Karlheinz Stockhausen in Klavierstück X, and which "more than anything else, lend the work its unique aural flavour". On a harp, the player can slide their finger across the strings, quickly playing the scale (or on pedal harp even arpeggios such as C-D-E-F-G-A-B). Wind, brass, and fretted-stringed-instrument players can perform an extremely rapid chromatic scale (e.g., sliding up or down a string quickly on a fretted instrument).
Arpeggio effects (likewise named glissando) are also obtained by bowed strings (playing harmonics) and brass, especially the horn.
Continuous glissando or portamento
Musical instruments with continuously variable pitch can effect a portamento over a substantial range. These include unfretted stringed instruments (such as the violin, viola, cello and double bass, and fretless guitars), stringed instruments with a way of stretching the strings (such as the guitar, veena, or sitar), a fretted guitar or lap steel guitar when accompanied with the use of a slide, wind instruments without valves or stops (such as the trombone or slide whistle), timpani (kettledrums), electronic instruments (such as the theremin, the ondes Martenot, synthesizers and keytars), the water organ, and the human voice.
Other wind instruments can effect a similar limited slide by altering the lip pressure (on trumpet, for example) or a combination of embouchure and rolling the head joint (as on the flute), while others such as the clarinet can achieve this by slowly dragging fingers off tone holes or changing the oral cavity's resonance by manipulating tongue position, embouchure, and throat shaping.
Many electric guitars are fitted with a tremolo arm which can produce either a portamento, a vibrato, or a combination of both (but not a true tremolo despite the name).
Bent note
A bent note is a musical note that is varied in pitch. With unfretted strings or other continuous-pitch instruments such as the trombone, or with the human voice, such variation is more properly described in terms of intonation. A note is commonly bent to a higher pitch on fretted instruments literally by bending the string with excess finger pressure, and to a lower pitch on harmonica (a free-reed aerophone) by altering the vocal tract to shift the resonance of the reed. On brass instruments such as the trumpet, the note is bent by using the lip. "Indeterminately pitched instruments [such as unpitched percussion instruments and friction drum rolls]...produce a pitch or pitch spectrum that becomes higher with an increase of dynamic and lower with a decrease of dynamic."
The bent note is commonly found in various forms of jazz, blues, and rock.
See also
Bend (guitar)
Blue note
Blues scale
List of ornaments
Meend
Octave glissando
Portamento
Shepard tone (cf. Shepard-Risset glissando)
Staccato
Vibrato
References
Further reading
Boyden, David D., and Robin Stowell. 2001. "Glissando". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
Harris, Ellen T. 2001. "Portamento". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
Hoppe, Ulrich, Frank Rosanowski, Michael Döllinger, Jörg Lohscheller, Maria Schuster, and Ulrich Eysholdt. 2003. "Glissando: Laryngeal Motorics and Acoustics". Journal of Voice 17, no. 3 (September): 370–76.
Piston, Walter. 1955. Orchestration. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Articulations (music)
Ornamentation
Musical notation
Musical techniques | [
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12717 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giraffe | Giraffe | The giraffe is a tall African hoofed mammal belonging to the genus Giraffa. It is the tallest living terrestrial animal and the largest ruminant on Earth. Traditionally, giraffes were thought to be one species, Giraffa camelopardalis, with nine subspecies. Most recently, researchers proposed dividing giraffes into up to eight extant species due to new research into their mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, as well as morphological measurements. Seven other extinct species of Giraffa are known from the fossil record.
The giraffe's chief distinguishing characteristics are its extremely long neck and legs, its horn-like ossicones, and its spotted coat patterns. It is classified under the family Giraffidae, along with its closest extant relative, the okapi. Its scattered range extends from Chad in the north to South Africa in the south, and from Niger in the west to Somalia in the east. Giraffes usually inhabit savannahs and woodlands. Their food source is leaves, fruits, and flowers of woody plants, primarily acacia species, which they browse at heights most other herbivores cannot reach.
Lions, leopards, spotted hyenas, and African wild dogs may prey upon giraffes. Giraffes live in herds of related females and their offspring, or bachelor herds of unrelated adult males, but are gregarious and may gather in large aggregations. Males establish social hierarchies through "necking,” which are combat bouts where the neck is used as a weapon. Dominant males gain mating access to females, which bear the sole responsibility for raising the young.
The giraffe has intrigued various ancient and modern cultures for its peculiar appearance, and has often been featured in paintings, books, and cartoons. It is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as vulnerable to extinction and has been extirpated from many parts of its former range. Giraffes are still found in numerous national parks and game reserves, but estimates as of 2016 indicate there are approximately 97,500 members of Giraffa in the wild. More than 1,600 were kept in zoos in 2010.
Etymology
The name "giraffe" has its earliest known origins in the Arabic word (), perhaps borrowed from the animal's Somali name . The Arab name is translated as "fast-walker". In early Modern English the spellings and were used, probably directly from the Arabic, and in Middle English and , . The Italian form arose in the 1590s. The modern English form developed around 1600 from the French .
"Camelopard" is an archaic English name for the giraffe; it derives from the Ancient Greek καμηλοπάρδαλις (kamēlopárdalis), from κάμηλος (kámēlos), "camel", and πάρδαλις (párdalis), "leopard", referring to its camel-like shape and leopard-like colouration.
Taxonomy
Carl Linnaeus originally classified living giraffes as one species in 1758. He gave it the binomial name Cervus camelopardalis. Morten Thrane Brünnich classified the genus Giraffa in 1762. The species name camelopardalis is from Latin.
Evolution
The giraffe is one of only two living genera of the family Giraffidae in the order Artiodactyla, the other being the okapi. The family was once much more extensive, with over 10 fossil genera described. The elongation of the neck appears to have started early in the giraffe lineage. Comparisons between giraffes and their ancient relatives suggest vertebrae close to the skull lengthened earlier, followed by lengthening of vertebrae further down. One early giraffid ancestor was Canthumeryx which has been dated variously to have lived 25–20 million years ago (mya), 17–15 mya or 18–14.3 mya and whose deposits have been found in Libya. This animal was medium-sized, slender and antelope-like. Giraffokeryx appeared 15 mya on the Indian subcontinent and resembled an okapi or a small giraffe, and had a longer neck and similar ossicones. Giraffokeryx may have shared a clade with more massively built giraffids like Sivatherium and Bramatherium.
Giraffids like Palaeotragus, Shansitherium and Samotherium appeared 14 mya and lived throughout Africa and Eurasia. These animals had bare ossicones and small cranial sinuses and were longer with broader skulls. Paleotragus resembled the okapi and may have been its ancestor. Others find that the okapi lineage diverged earlier, before Giraffokeryx. Samotherium was a particularly important transitional fossil in the giraffe lineage, as its cervical vertebrae were intermediate in length and structure between a modern giraffe and an okapi, and were more vertical than the okapi's. Bohlinia, which first appeared in southeastern Europe and lived 9–7 mya was likely a direct ancestor of the giraffe. Bohlinia closely resembled modern giraffes, having a long neck and legs and similar ossicones and dentition.
Bohlinia entered China and northern India in response to climate change. From there, the genus Giraffa evolved and, around 7 mya, entered Africa. Further climate changes caused the extinction of the Asian giraffes, while the African giraffes survived and radiated into several new species. Living giraffes appear to have arisen around 1 mya in eastern Africa during the Pleistocene. Some biologists suggest the modern giraffes descended from G. jumae; others find G. gracilis a more likely candidate. G. jumae was larger and more heavily built, while G. gracilis was smaller and more lightly built.
The changes from extensive forests to more open habitats, which began 8 mya, are believed to be the main driver for the evolution of giraffes. During this time, tropical plants disappeared and were replaced by arid C4 plants, and a dry savannah emerged across eastern and northern Africa and western India. Some researchers have hypothesised that this new habitat coupled with a different diet, including acacia species, may have exposed giraffe ancestors to toxins that caused higher mutation rates and a higher rate of evolution. The coat patterns of modern giraffes may also have coincided with these habitat changes. Asian giraffes are hypothesised to have had more okapi-like colourations.
The giraffe genome is around 2.9 billion base pairs in length compared to the 3.3 billion base pairs of the okapi. Of the proteins in giraffe and okapi genes, 19.4% are identical. The divergence of giraffe and okapi lineages dates to around 11.5 mya. A small group of regulatory genes in the giraffe appear to be responsible for the animal's stature and associated circulatory adaptations.
Species and subspecies
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) currently recognises only one species of giraffe with nine subspecies. During the 1900s, various taxonomies with two or three species were proposed. A 2007 study on the genetics of giraffes using mitochondrial DNA suggested at least six lineages could be recognised as species. A 2011 study using detailed analyses of the morphology of giraffes, and application of the phylogenetic species concept, described eight species of living giraffes. A 2016 study also concluded that living giraffes consist of multiple species. The researchers suggested the existence of four species, which have not exchanged genetic information between each other for 1 to 2 million years.
A 2020 study showed that depending on the method chosen, different taxonomic hypotheses recognizing from two to six species can be considered for the genus Giraffa. That study also found that multi-species coalescent methods can lead to taxonomic over-splitting, as those methods delimit geographic structures rather than species. The three-species hypothesis, which recognises G. camelopardalis, G. giraffa, and G. tippelskirchi, is highly supported by phylogenetic analyses and also corroborated by most population genetic and multi-species coalescent analyses. A 2021 whole genome sequencing study suggests the existence of four distinct species and seven subspecies.
The cladogram below shows the phylogenetic relationship between the four proposed species and seven subspecies based on the genome analysis. Note the eight lineages correspond to eight of the traditional subspecies in the one species hypothesis. The Rothschild giraffe is subsumed into G. camelopardalis camelopardalis.
The following table compares the different hypotheses for giraffe species. The description column shows the traditional nine subspecies in the one species hypothesis.
The first extinct species to be described was Giraffa sivalensis Falconer and Cautley 1843, a reevaluation of a vertebra that was initially described as a fossil of the living giraffe. While taxonomic opinion may be lacking on some names, the extinct species that have been published include:
Giraffa gracilis
Giraffa jumae
Giraffa priscilla
Giraffa pomeli
Giraffa punjabiensis
Giraffa pygmaea
Giraffa sivalensis
Giraffa stillei
Appearance and anatomy
Fully grown giraffes stand tall, with males taller than females. The average weight is for an adult male and for an adult female. Despite its long neck and legs, the giraffe's body is relatively short. The skin of a giraffe is mostly gray, or tan, and can reach a thickness of . The long tail ends in a long, dark tuft of hair and is used as a defense against insects.
The coat has dark blotches or patches, which can be orange, chestnut, brown, or nearly black, separated by light hair, usually white or cream coloured. Male giraffes become darker as they age. The coat pattern has been claimed to serve as camouflage in the light and shade patterns of savannah woodlands. When standing among trees and bushes, they are hard to see at even a few metres distance. However, adult giraffes move about to gain the best view of an approaching predator, relying on their size and ability to defend themselves rather than on camouflage, which may be more important for calves. Each individual giraffe has a unique coat pattern. Giraffe calves inherit some coat pattern traits from their mothers, and variation in some spot traits is correlated with neonatal survival. The skin underneath the blotches may serve as windows for thermoregulation, being sites for complex blood vessel systems and large sweat glands.
The fur may give the animal chemical defense, as its parasite repellents give it a characteristic scent. At least 11 main aromatic chemicals are in the fur, although indole and 3-methylindole are responsible for most of the smell. Because the males have a stronger odour than the females, the odour may also have sexual function.
Head
Both sexes have prominent horn-like structures called ossicones, formed from ossified cartilage, covered in skin and fused to the skull at the parietal bones. Being vascularised, the ossicones may have a role in thermoregulation, and are used in combat between males. Appearance is a reliable guide to the sex or age of a giraffe: the ossicones of females and young are thin and display tufts of hair on top, whereas those of adult males end in knobs and tend to be bald on top. Also, a median lump, which is more prominent in males, emerges at the front of the skull. Males develop calcium deposits that form bumps on their skulls as they age. Multiple sinuses lighten a giraffe's skull. However, as males age, their skulls become heavier and more club-like, helping them become more dominant in combat. The occipital condyles of the skull allow the animal to tilt its head straight up and grab food on the branches above with the tongue.
Located on both sides of the head, the giraffe's eyes give it good eyesight and a wide field of vision from its great height. The eye is larger than in other ungulates, with a greater retinal surface area. Giraffes possibly see in colour and their senses of hearing and smell are sharp. The ears are movable and the nostrils are slit-shaped, which may be an adaptation against blowing sand.
The giraffe's prehensile tongue is about long. It is black, perhaps to protect against sunburn and is useful for grasping foliage, and delicately removing leaves from branches. The giraffe's upper lip is prehensile and useful when foraging, and is covered in hair to protect against thorns. Papillae cover the tongue and the inside of the mouth. The upper jaw has a hard palate and lacks front teeth. The molars and premolars have a low-crowned, broad surface with an almost square cross-section.
Legs, locomotion and posture
A giraffe's front and back legs are about the same length. The radius and ulna of the front legs are articulated by the carpus, which, while structurally equivalent to the human wrist, functions as a knee. It appears that a suspensory ligament allows the lanky legs to support the animal's great weight. The hooves of large male giraffes reach a diameter of . The rear of each hoof is low, and the fetlock is close to the ground, allowing the foot to provide additional support for the animal's weight. Giraffes lack dewclaws and interdigital glands. The giraffe's pelvis, though relatively short, has an ilium that is outspread at the upper ends.
A giraffe has only two gaits: walking and galloping. Walking is done by moving the legs on one side of the body, then doing the same on the other side. When galloping, the hind legs move around the front legs before the latter move forward, and the tail will curl up. The animal relies on the forward and backward motions of its head and neck to maintain balance and the counter momentum while galloping. The giraffe can reach a sprint speed of up to , and can sustain for several kilometres. Giraffes would probably not be competent swimmers as their long legs would be highly cumbersome in the water, although they could possibly float. When swimming, the thorax would be weighed down by the front legs, making it difficult for the animal to move its neck and legs in harmony or keep its head above the water's surface.
A giraffe rests by lying with its body on top of its folded legs. To lie down, the animal kneels on its front legs and then lowers the rest of its body. To get back up, it first gets on its front knees and shifts hindquarters onto its back feet. It then moves from kneeling to standing on its front legs and pulls the rest of its body upwards, swinging its head for balance. If the giraffe wants to bend down to drink, it either spreads its front legs or bends its knees. Studies in captivity found the giraffe sleeps intermittently around 4.6 hours per day, mostly at night. It usually sleeps lying down; however, standing sleeps have been recorded, particularly in older individuals. Intermittent short "deep sleep" phases while lying are characterised by the giraffe bending its neck backwards and resting its head on the hip or thigh, a position believed to indicate paradoxical sleep.
Neck
The giraffe has an extremely elongated neck, which can be up to in length. Along the neck is a mane made of short, erect hairs. The neck typically rests at an angle of 50–60 degrees, though juveniles have straighter necks and rest at 70 degrees. The long neck results from a disproportionate lengthening of the cervical vertebrae, not from the addition of more vertebrae. Each cervical vertebra is over long. They comprise 52–54 per cent of the length of the giraffe's vertebral column, compared with the 27–33 percent typical of similar large ungulates, including the giraffe's closest living relative, the okapi. This elongation largely takes place after birth, perhaps because giraffe mothers would have a difficult time giving birth to young with the same neck proportions as adults. The giraffe's head and neck are held up by large muscles and a strengthened nuchal ligament, which are anchored by long dorsal spines on the anterior thoracic vertebrae, giving the animal a hump.
The giraffe's neck vertebrae have ball and socket joints. The point of articulation between the cervical and thoracic vertebrae of giraffes is shifted to lie between the first and second thoracic vertebrae (T1 and T2), unlike most other ruminants where the articulation is between the seventh cervical vertebra (C7) and T1. This allows C7 to contribute directly to increased neck length and has given rise to the suggestion that T1 is actually C8, and that giraffes have added an extra cervical vertebra. However, this proposition is not generally accepted, as T1 has other morphological features, such as an articulating rib, deemed diagnostic of thoracic vertebrae, and because exceptions to the mammalian limit of seven cervical vertebrae are generally characterised by increased neurological anomalies and maladies.
There are several hypotheses regarding the evolutionary origin and maintenance of elongation in giraffe necks. Charles Darwin originally suggested the "competing browsers hypothesis", which has been challenged only recently. It suggests that competitive pressure from smaller browsers, like kudu, steenbok and impala, encouraged the elongation of the neck, as it enabled giraffes to reach food that competitors could not. This advantage is real, as giraffes can and do feed up to high, while even quite large competitors, such as kudu, can feed up to only about high. There is also research suggesting that browsing competition is intense at lower levels, and giraffes feed more efficiently (gaining more leaf biomass with each mouthful) high in the canopy. However, scientists disagree about just how much time giraffes spend feeding at levels beyond the reach of other browsers,
and a 2010 study found that adult giraffes with longer necks actually suffered higher mortality rates under drought conditions than their shorter-necked counterparts. This study suggests that maintaining a longer neck requires more nutrients, which puts longer-necked giraffes at risk during a food shortage.
Another theory, the sexual selection hypothesis, proposes the long necks evolved as a secondary sexual characteristic, giving males an advantage in "necking" contests (see below) to establish dominance and obtain access to sexually receptive females. In support of this theory, necks are longer and heavier for males than females of the same age, and males do not employ other forms of combat. However, one objection is it fails to explain why female giraffes also have long necks. It has also been proposed that the neck serves to give the animal greater vigilance.
Internal systems
In mammals, the left recurrent laryngeal nerve is longer than the right; in the giraffe, it is over longer. These nerves are longer in the giraffe than in any other living animal; the left nerve is over long. Each nerve cell in this path begins in the brainstem and passes down the neck along the vagus nerve, then branches off into the recurrent laryngeal nerve which passes back up the neck to the larynx. Thus, these nerve cells have a length of nearly in the largest giraffes. Despite its long neck and large skull, the brain of the giraffe is typical for an ungulate. Evaporative heat loss in the nasal passages keep the giraffe's brain cool. The shape of the skeleton gives the giraffe a small lung volume relative to its mass. Its long neck gives it a large amount of dead space, in spite of its narrow windpipe. The giraffe also has an increased level of tidal volume so the ratio of dead space to tidal volume is similar to other mammals. The animal can still supply enough oxygen to its tissues, and it can increase its respiratory rate and oxygen diffusion when running.
The circulatory system of the giraffe has several adaptations for its great height. Its heart, which can weigh more than and measures about long, must generate approximately double the blood pressure required for a human to maintain blood flow to the brain. As such, the wall of the heart can be as thick as . Giraffes have unusually high heart rates for their size, at 150 beats per minute. When the animal lowers its head, the blood rushes down fairly unopposed and a rete mirabile in the upper neck, with its large cross-sectional area, prevents excess blood flow to the brain. When it raises again, the blood vessels constrict and direct blood into the brain so the animal does not faint. The jugular veins contain several (most commonly seven) valves to prevent blood flowing back into the head from the inferior vena cava and right atrium while the head is lowered. Conversely, the blood vessels in the lower legs are under great pressure because of the weight of fluid pressing down on them. To solve this problem, the skin of the lower legs is thick and tight, preventing too much blood from pouring into them.
Giraffes have oesophageal muscles that are unusually strong to allow regurgitation of food from the stomach up the neck and into the mouth for rumination. They have four chambered stomachs, as in all ruminants; the first chamber has adapted to their specialized diet. The intestines of an adult giraffe measure more than in length and have a relatively small ratio of small to large intestine. The liver of the giraffe is small and compact. A gallbladder is generally present during fetal life, but it may disappear before birth.
Behaviour and ecology
Habitat and feeding
Giraffes usually inhabit savannahs and open woodlands. They prefer Acacieae, Commiphora, Combretum and open Terminalia woodlands over denser environments like Brachystegia woodlands. The Angolan giraffe can be found in desert environments. Giraffes browse on the twigs of trees, preferring those of the subfamily Acacieae and the genera Commiphora and Terminalia, which are important sources of calcium and protein to sustain the giraffe's growth rate. They also feed on shrubs, grass and fruit. A giraffe eats around of foliage daily. When stressed, giraffes may chew the bark off branches. Giraffes are also recorded to chew old bones.
During the wet season, food is abundant and giraffes are more spread out, while during the dry season, they gather around the remaining evergreen trees and bushes. Mothers tend to feed in open areas, presumably to make it easier to detect predators, although this may reduce their feeding efficiency. As a ruminant, the giraffe first chews its food, then swallows it for processing and then visibly passes the half-digested cud up the neck and back into the mouth to chew again. The giraffe requires less food than many other herbivores because the foliage it eats has more concentrated nutrients and it has a more efficient digestive system. The animal's faeces come in the form of small pellets. When it has access to water, a giraffe drinks at intervals no longer than three days.
Giraffes have a great effect on the trees that they feed on, delaying the growth of young trees for some years and giving "waistlines" to too tall trees. Feeding is at its highest during the first and last hours of daytime. Between these hours, giraffes mostly stand and ruminate. Rumination is the dominant activity during the night, when it is mostly done lying down.
Social life
Giraffes are usually found in groups that vary in size and composition according to ecological, anthropogenic, temporal, and social factors. Traditionally, the composition of these groups had been described as open and ever-changing. For research purposes, a "group" has been defined as "a collection of individuals that are less than a kilometre apart and moving in the same general direction". More recent studies have found that giraffes have long-term social associations and may form groups or pairs based on kinship, sex or other factors, and these groups regularly associate with other groups in larger communities or sub-communities within a fission–fusion society. Proximity to humans can disrupt social arrangements. Masai giraffes of Tanzania live in distinct social subpopulations that overlap spatially, but have different reproductive rates and calf survival rates.
The number of giraffes in a group can range from one up to 66 individuals. Giraffe groups tend to be sex-segregated although mixed-sex groups made of adult females and young males also occur. Female groups may be matrilineally related. Generally females are more selective than males in who they associate with regarding individuals of the same sex. Particularly stable giraffe groups are those made of mothers and their young, which can last weeks or months. Young males also form groups and will engage in playfights. However, as they get older, males become more solitary but may also associate in pairs or with female groups. Giraffes are not territorial, but they have home ranges that vary according to rainfall and proximity to human settlements. Male giraffes occasionally wander far from areas that they normally frequent.
Early biologists suggested giraffes were mute and unable to produce air flow of sufficient velocity to vibrate their vocal folds. To the contrary; they have been recorded to communicate using snorts, sneezes, coughs, snores, hisses, bursts, moans, grunts, growls and flute-like sounds. During courtship, males emit loud coughs. Females call their young by bellowing. Calves will emit snorts, bleats, mooing and mewing sounds. Snorting and hissing in adults is associated with vigilance. During nighttime, giraffes appear to hum to each other above the infrasound range. The purpose is unclear. Dominant males display to other males with an erect posture; holding the chin and head high while walking stiffly and approaching them laterally. The less dominant show submissiveness by lowing the head and ears with the chin moved in and then jump and flee.
Reproduction and parental care
Reproduction in giraffes is broadly polygamous: a few older males mate with the fertile females. Females can reproduce throughout the year and experience oestrus cycling approximately every 15 days. Female giraffes in oestrous are dispersed over space and time, so reproductive adult males adopt a strategy of roaming among female groups to seek mating opportunities, with periodic hormone-induced rutting behaviour approximately every two weeks. Males prefer young adult females over juveniles and older adults.
Male giraffes assess female fertility by tasting the female's urine to detect oestrus, in a multi-step process known as the flehmen response. Once an oestrous female is detected, the male will attempt to court her. When courting, dominant males will keep subordinate ones at bay. A courting male may lick a female's tail, rest his head and neck on her body or nudge her with his ossicones. During copulation, the male stands on his hind legs with his head held up and his front legs resting on the female's sides.
Giraffe gestation lasts 400–460 days, after which a single calf is normally born, although twins occur on rare occasions. The mother gives birth standing up. The calf emerges head and front legs first, having broken through the fetal membranes, and falls to the ground, severing the umbilical cord. A newborn giraffe is tall. Within a few hours of birth, the calf can run around and is almost indistinguishable from a one-week-old. However, for the first one to three weeks, it spends most of its time hiding; its coat pattern providing camouflage. The ossicones, which have lain flat while it was in the womb, become erect within a few days.
Mothers with calves will gather in nursery herds, moving or browsing together. Mothers in such a group may sometimes leave their calves with one female while they forage and drink elsewhere. This is known as a "calving pool". Adult males play almost no role in raising the young, although they appear to have friendly interactions. Calves are at risk of predation, and a mother giraffe will stand over her calf and kick at an approaching predator. Females watching calving pools will only alert their own young if they detect a disturbance, although the others will take notice and follow. Calves may be weaned at six to eight months old but can remain with their mothers for up to 14 months. Females become sexually mature when they are four years old, while males become mature at four or five years. Spermatogenesis in male giraffes begins at three to four years of age. Males must wait until they are at least seven years old to gain the opportunity to mate.
Necking
Male giraffes use their necks as weapons in combat, a behaviour known as "necking". Necking is used to establish dominance and males that win necking bouts have greater reproductive success. This behaviour occurs at low or high intensity. In low-intensity necking, the combatants rub and lean against each other. The male that can hold itself more erect wins the bout. In high-intensity necking, the combatants will spread their front legs and swing their necks at each other, attempting to land blows with their ossicones. The contestants will try to dodge each other's blows and then get ready to counter. The power of a blow depends on the weight of the skull and the arc of the swing. A necking duel can last more than half an hour, depending on how well matched the combatants are. Although most fights do not lead to serious injury, there have been records of broken jaws, broken necks, and even deaths.
After a duel, it is common for two male giraffes to caress and court each other. Such interactions between males have been found to be more frequent than heterosexual coupling. In one study, up to 94 percent of observed mounting incidents took place between males. The proportion of same-sex activities varied from 30 to 75 percent. Only one percent of same-sex mounting incidents occurred between females.
Mortality and health
Giraffes have high adult survival probability, and an unusually long lifespan compared to other ruminants, up to 38 years. Because of their size, eyesight and powerful kicks, adult giraffes are usually not subject to predation, although lions may regularly prey on individuals up to . Giraffes are the most common food source for the big cats in Kruger National Park, comprising nearly a third of the meat consumed, although only a small portion of the giraffes were probably killed by predators, as a majority of the consumed giraffes appeared to be scavenged. Adult female survival is significantly correlated with gregariousness, the average number of other females she is seen associating with. Calves are much more vulnerable than adults and are also preyed on by leopards, spotted hyenas and wild dogs. A quarter to a half of giraffe calves reach adulthood. Calf survival varies according to the season of birth, with calves born during the dry season having higher survival rates.
The local, seasonal presence of large herds of migratory wildebeests and zebras reduces predation pressure on giraffe calves and increases their survival probability. In turn, it has been suggested that other ungulates may benefit from associating with giraffes, as their height allows them to spot predators from further away. Zebras were found to glean information on predation risk from giraffe body language and spend less time scanning the environment when giraffes are present.
Some parasites feed on giraffes. They are often hosts for ticks, especially in the area around the genitals, which have thinner skin than other areas. Tick species that commonly feed on giraffes are those of genera Hyalomma, Amblyomma and Rhipicephalus. Giraffes may rely on red-billed and yellow-billed oxpeckers to clean them of ticks and alert them to danger. Giraffes host numerous species of internal parasites and are susceptible to various diseases. They were victims of the (now eradicated) viral illness rinderpest. Giraffes can also suffer from a skin disorder, which comes in the form of wrinkles, lesions or raw fissures. As much as 79% of giraffes show signs of the disease in Ruaha National Park, but it did not cause mortality in Tarangire and is less prevalent in areas with fertile soils.
Relationship with humans
Cultural significance
With its lanky build and spotted coat, the giraffe has been a source of fascination throughout human history, and its image is widespread in culture. It has been used to symbolise flexibility, far-sightedness, femininity, fragility, passivity, grace, beauty and the continent of Africa itself.
Giraffes were depicted in art throughout the African continent, including that of the Kiffians, Egyptians, and Kushites. The Kiffians were responsible for a life-size rock engraving of two giraffes, dated 8,000 years ago, that has been called the "world's largest rock art petroglyph". How the giraffe got its height has been the subject of various African folktales. The Tugen people of modern Kenya used the giraffe to depict their god Mda. The Egyptians gave the giraffe its own hieroglyph, named 'sr' in Old Egyptian and 'mmy' in later periods.
Giraffes have a presence in modern Western culture. Salvador Dalí depicted them with burning manes in some of his surrealist paintings. Dali considered the giraffe to be a symbol of masculinity, and a flaming giraffe was meant to be a "masculine cosmic apocalyptic monster". Several children's books feature the giraffe, including David A. Ufer's The Giraffe Who Was Afraid of Heights, Giles Andreae's Giraffes Can't Dance and Roald Dahl's The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me. Giraffes have appeared in animated films, as minor characters in Disney's The Lion King and Dumbo, and in more prominent roles in The Wild and the Madagascar films. Sophie the Giraffe has been a popular teether since 1961. Another famous fictional giraffe is the Toys "R" Us mascot Geoffrey the Giraffe.
The giraffe has also been used for some scientific experiments and discoveries. Scientists have looked at the properties of giraffe skin when developing suits for astronauts and fighter pilots because the people in these professions are in danger of passing out if blood rushes to their legs. Computer scientists have modeled the coat patterns of several subspecies using reaction–diffusion mechanisms. The constellation of Camelopardalis, introduced in the seventeenth century, depicts a giraffe. The Tswana people of Botswana traditionally see the constellation Crux as two giraffes—Acrux and Mimosa forming a male, and Gacrux and Delta Crucis forming the female.
Captivity
The Egyptians kept giraffes as pets and shipped them around the Mediterranean. The giraffe was among the many animals collected and displayed by the Romans. The first one in Rome was brought in by Julius Caesar in 46 BC and exhibited to the public. With the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the housing of giraffes in Europe declined. During the Middle Ages, giraffes were known to Europeans through contact with the Arabs, who revered the giraffe for its peculiar appearance.
Individual captive giraffes were given celebrity status throughout history. In 1414, a giraffe was shipped from Malindi to Bengal. It was then taken to China by explorer Zheng He and placed in a Ming dynasty zoo. The animal was a source of fascination for the Chinese people, who associated it with the mythical Qilin. The Medici giraffe was a giraffe presented to Lorenzo de' Medici in 1486. It caused a great stir on its arrival in Florence. Zarafa, another famous giraffe, was brought from Egypt to Paris in the early 19th century as a gift from Muhammad Ali of Egypt to Charles X of France. A sensation, the giraffe was the subject of numerous memorabilia or "giraffanalia".
Giraffes have become popular attractions in modern zoos, though keeping them healthy is difficult as they require wide areas and high amounts of browse for food. Captive giraffes in North America and Europe appear to have a higher mortality rate than in the wild; causes of death include poor husbandry, nutrition and management decisions. Giraffes in zoos display stereotypical behaviours, the most common being the licking of non-food items. Zookeepers may offer various activities to stimulate giraffes, including training them to accept food from visitors. Stables for giraffes are built particularly high to accommodate their height.
Exploitation
Giraffes were probably common targets for hunters throughout Africa. Different parts of their bodies were used for different purposes. Their meat was used for food. The tail hairs served as flyswatters, bracelets, necklaces, and thread. Shields, sandals, and drums were made using the skin, and the strings of musical instruments were from the tendons. The smoke from burning giraffe skins was used by the medicine men of Buganda to treat nose bleeds. The Humr people of Kordofan consume the drink Umm Nyolokh, which is prepared from the liver and bone marrow of giraffes. Richard Rudgley hypothesised that Umm Nyolokh might contain DMT. The drink is said to cause hallucinations of giraffes, believed to be the giraffes' ghosts, by the Humr.
Conservation status
In 2016, giraffes were assessed as Vulnerable from a conservation perspective by the IUCN. In 1985, it was estimated there were 155,000 giraffes in the wild. This declined to over 140,000 in 1999. Estimates as of 2016 indicate there are approximately 97,500 members of Giraffa in the wild. The Masai and reticulated subspecies are endangered, and the Rothschild subspecies is near threatened. The Nubian subspecies is critically endangered.
The primary causes for giraffe population declines are habitat loss and direct killing for bushmeat markets. Giraffes have been extirpated from much of their historic range, including Eritrea, Guinea, Mauritania and Senegal. They may also have disappeared from Angola, Mali, and Nigeria, but have been introduced to Rwanda and Eswatini. , there were more than 1,600 in captivity at Species360-registered zoos. Habitat destruction has hurt the giraffe. In the Sahel, the need for firewood and grazing room for livestock has led to deforestation. Normally, giraffes can coexist with livestock, since they do not directly compete with them. In 2017, severe droughts in northern Kenya led to increased tensions over land and the killing of wildlife by herders, with giraffe populations being particularly hit.
Protected areas like national parks provide important habitat and anti-poaching protection to giraffe populations. Community-based conservation efforts outside national parks are also effective at protecting giraffes and their habitats. Private game reserves have contributed to the preservation of giraffe populations in southern Africa. The giraffe is a protected species in most of its range. It is the national animal of Tanzania, and is protected by law, and unauthorised killing can result in imprisonment. The UN backed Convention of Migratory Species selected giraffes for protection in 2017. In 2019, giraffes were listed under Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which means international trade including in parts/derivatives is regulated.
Translocations are sometimes used to augment or re-establish diminished or extirpated populations, but these activities are risky and difficult to undertake using the best practices of extensive pre- and post-translocation studies and ensuring a viable founding population. Aerial survey is the most common method of monitoring giraffe population trends in the vast roadless tracts of African landscapes, but aerial methods are known to undercount giraffes. Ground-based survey methods are more accurate and can be used in conjunction with aerial surveys to make accurate estimates of population sizes and trends. The Giraffe Conservation Foundation has been criticized for alleged mistreatment of giraffes and giraffe scientists.
See also
Fauna of Africa
Giraffe Centre
Giraffe Manor - hotel in Nairobi with giraffes
References
External links
Giraffe Conservation Foundation
Articles containing video clips
Fauna of Sub-Saharan Africa
Herbivorous mammals
Mammal genera
Mammals of Africa
National symbols of Tanzania
Taxa named by Mathurin Jacques Brisson
Vulnerable animals
Vulnerable biota of Africa | [
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12718 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griffith%27s%20experiment | Griffith's experiment | Griffith's experiment, reported in 1928 by Frederick Griffith, was the first experiment suggesting that bacteria are capable of transferring genetic information through a process known as transformation. Griffith's findings were followed by research in the late 1930s and early 40s that isolated DNA as the material that communicated this genetic information.
Pneumonia was a serious cause of death in the wake of the post-WWI Spanish influenza pandemic, and Griffith was studying the possibility of creating a vaccine. Griffith used two strains of pneumococcus (Diplococcus pneumoniae) bacteria which infect mice – a type III-S (smooth) which was virulent, and a type II-R (rough) strain which was nonvirulent. The III-S strain synthesized a polysaccharide capsule that protected itself from the host's immune system, resulting in the death of the host, while the II-R strain did not have that protective capsule and was defeated by the host's immune system. A German bacteriologist, Fred Neufeld, had discovered the three pneumococcal types (Types I, II, and III) and discovered the quellung reaction to identify them in vitro. Until Griffith's experiment, bacteriologists believed that the types were fixed and unchangeable, from one generation to another.
In this experiment, bacteria from the III-S strain were killed by heat, and their remains were added to II-R strain bacteria. While neither alone harmed the mice, the combination was able to kill its host. Griffith was also able to isolate both live II-R and live III-S strains of pneumococcus from the blood of these dead mice. Griffith concluded that the type II-R had been "transformed" into the lethal III-S strain by a "transforming principle" that was somehow part of the dead III-S strain bacteria.
Today, we know that the "transforming principle" Griffith observed was the DNA of the III-s strain bacteria. While the bacteria had been killed, the DNA had survived the heating process and was taken up by the II-R strain bacteria. The III-S strain DNA contains the genes that form the smooth protective polysaccharide capsule. Equipped with this gene, the former II-R strain bacteria were now protected from the host's immune system and could kill the host. The exact nature of the transforming principle (DNA) was verified in the experiments done by Avery, McLeod and McCarty and by Hershey and Chase.
Notes
References
(References the original experiment by Griffith. Original article and 35th anniversary reprint available.'')
Further reading
854 pages.
Genetics experiments
Genetics in the United Kingdom
History of genetics
Microbiology
1928 in biology | [
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12719 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave%20de%20Molinari | Gustave de Molinari | Gustave de Molinari (; 3 March 1819 – 28 January 1912) was a Belgian political economist and French Liberal School theorist associated with French laissez-faire economists such as Frédéric Bastiat and Hippolyte Castille.
Biography
Born in Liège, Wallonia, Molinari's critique of the state sometimes resulted in his opposing causes and events which might seemingly be aligned with his overall critique of power and privilege. An example of this was the American Civil War which Molinari believed to be far more about the trade interests of Northern industrialists than about slavery, although he did not deny that abolitionism was a part of the picture. According to Ralph Raico, Molinari never relented in his last work published a year before his death in 1912, writing:
The American Civil War had not been simply a humanitarian crusade to free the slaves. The war "ruined the conquered provinces," but the Northern plutocrats pulling the strings achieved their aim: the imposition of a vicious protectionism that led ultimately "to the regime of trusts and produced the billionaires."
Molinari supported his liberal views by citing evolutionary concepts, claiming that the "economic state" (an international commercial system) would have a complete laissez-faire. He argued this was the ultimate stage of social evolution, caused by a struggle for existence between competing commercial actors. War has been the driver of early social systems, he felt, which encouraged invention as a result. After industry developed however wars grew detrimental rather than beneficial, replaced with economic competition. Molinari felt this would be better, since it applied to all classes in society. As the less fit were eliminated by competition, the entire society would be raised over time. He argued competition like this would never end, but continue forever. Molinari opposed both monarchy and socialism as a result of being detrimental to this process. Acknowledging that great poverty had risen in tandem with wealth, he argued it would be eliminated through moral evolution occurring alongside the economic progress, which was necessary for it.
Influence
Some anarcho-capitalists consider Molinari to be the first proponent of anarcho-capitalism. In the preface to the 1977 English translation by Murray Rothbard called The Production of Security the "first presentation anywhere in human history of what is now called anarcho-capitalism", although admitting that "Molinari did not use the terminology, and probably would have balked at the name".
Austrian School economist Hans-Hermann Hoppe says that "the 1849 article 'The Production of Security' is probably the single most important contribution to the modern theory of anarcho-capitalism". In the past, Molinari influenced some of the political thoughts of individualist anarchist Benjamin Tucker and the Liberty circle. The Molinari Institute directed by philosopher Roderick T. Long is named after him, whom it terms the "originator of the theory of Market Anarchism".
References
Further reading
External links
Molinari Institute
1819 births
1912 deaths
19th-century economists
Belgian economists
Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery
Classical economists
Corresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences
European classical liberals
French Liberal School
Writers from Liège | [
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12720 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrilla%20warfare | Guerrilla warfare | Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tactics, and mobility, to fight a larger and less-mobile traditional military.
Although the term "guerrilla warfare" was coined in the context of the Peninsular War in the 19th century, the tactical methods of guerrilla warfare have long been in use. In the 6th century BC, Sun Tzu proposed the use of guerrilla-style tactics in The Art of War. The 3rd century BC Roman general Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus is also credited with inventing many of the tactics of guerrilla warfare. Guerrilla warfare has been used by various factions throughout history and is particularly associated with revolutionary movements and popular resistance against invading or occupying armies.
Guerrilla tactics focus on avoiding head-on confrontations with enemy armies, instead engaging in limited skirmishes with the goal of exhausting adversaries and forcing them to withdraw. Guerrilla groups often depend on the logistical and political support of either the local population or foreign backers who do not engage in an armed struggle but sympathize with the guerrilla group's efforts.
Etymology
The Spanish word is the diminutive form of ('war'). The term became popular during the early-19th century Peninsular War, when, after the defeat of their regular armies, the Spanish and Portuguese people successfully rose against the Napoleonic troops and defeated a highly superior army using the guerrilla strategy. In correct Spanish usage, a person who is a member of a unit is a () if male, or a ([geriˈʎeɾa]) if female.
The term guerrilla was used in English as early as 1809 to refer to the individual fighters (e.g., "The town was taken by the guerrillas"), and also (as in Spanish) to denote a group or band of such fighters. However, in most languages guerrilla still denotes the specific style of warfare. The use of the diminutive evokes the differences in number, scale, and scope between the guerrilla army and the formal, professional army of the state.
History
Prehistoric tribal warriors presumably employed guerrilla-style tactics against enemy tribes. Evidence of conventional warfare, on the other hand, did not emerge until 3100 BC in Egypt and Mesopotamia.
The Chinese general and strategist Sun Tzu, in his The Art of War (6th century BC), became one of the earliest to propose the use of guerrilla warfare. This inspired developments in modern guerrilla warfare.
In the 3rd century BC, Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, widely regarded as the "father of guerrilla warfare", devised the Fabian strategy which the Roman Republic used to great effect against Hannibal's army. This strategy would influence guerrilla tactics into the modern era.
In the medieval Roman Empire, guerrilla warfare was frequently practiced between the eighth through tenth centuries along the eastern frontier with the Umayyad and then Abbasid caliphates. Tactics involved a heavy emphasis on reconnaissance and intelligence, shadowing the enemy, evacuating threatened population centres, and attacking when the enemy dispersed to raid. In the later tenth century this form of warfare was codified in a military manual known by its later Latin name as De velitatione bellica ('On Skirmishing') so it would not be forgotten in the future.
Since the Enlightenment, ideologies such as nationalism, liberalism, socialism, and religious fundamentalism have played an important role in shaping insurgencies and guerrilla warfare.
In the 17th century, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, founder of the Maratha Empire, pioneered Shiva sutra or Ganimi Kava (Guerrilla Tactics) to defeat the many times larger and more powerful armies of the Mughal Empire.
Kerala Varma (Pazhassi Raja) (1753-1805) used guerrilla techniques in his war against the British East India Company in India between 1790 and 1805.
Arthur Wellesley adopted the term "guerrilla" into English from Spanish usage in 1809 - after the Pazhassi revolt against the British. Arthur Wellesley (in India 1797-1805) had commanded forces assigned to defeat Pazhassi's techniques, but failed.
The Moroccan military leader Abd el-Krim ( - 1963) and his father unified the Moroccan tribes under their control and took up arms against the Spanish and French invaders in 1920. For the first time in history, tunnel warfare was used alongside modern guerrilla tactics, which caused considerable damage to both the colonial armies in Morocco.
In the early 20th century Michael Collins and Tom Barry both developed many tactical features of guerrilla warfare during the guerrilla phase of the 1919-1921 Irish War of Independence. Collins developed mainly urban guerrilla-warfare tactics in Dublin city (the Irish capital). Operations in which small Irish Republican Army (IRA) units (3 to 6 guerrillas) quickly attacked a target and then disappeared into civilian crowds frustrated the British enemy. The best example of this occurred on Bloody Sunday (21 November 1920), when Collins's assassination unit, known as "The Squad", wiped out a group of British intelligence agents ("the Cairo Gang") early in the morning (14 were killed, six were wounded) - some regular officers were also killed in the purge. That afternoon a British force of mixed units took revenge, shooting at a crowd at a football match in Croke Park, killing fourteen civilians and injuring 60 others.
In west County Cork, Tom Barry was the commander of the IRA West Cork brigade. Fighting in west Cork was rural, and the IRA fought in much larger units than their fellows in urban areas. These units, called "flying columns", engaged British forces in large battles, usually for between 10 - 30 minutes. The Kilmichael Ambush in November 1920 and the Crossbarry Ambush in March 1921 are the most famous examples of Barry's flying columns causing large casualties to enemy forces.
The Algerian War of 1954 started with a handful of Algerian guerrillas. Primitively armed, the guerrillas fought the French for over eight years. This remains a prototype for modern insurgency and counterinsurgency, terrorism, torture, and asymmetric warfare prevalent throughout the world today. In South Africa, African National Congress (ANC) members studied the Algerian War, prior to the release and apotheosis of Nelson Mandela; in their intifada against Israel, Palestinian fighters have sought to emulate it. Additionally, the tactics of Al-Qaeda closely resemble those of the Algerians.
Strategy, tactics and methods
Strategy
Guerrilla warfare is a type of asymmetric warfare: competition between opponents of unequal strength. It is also a type of irregular warfare: that is, it aims not simply to defeat an enemy, but to win popular support and political influence, to the enemy's cost. Accordingly, guerrilla strategy aims to magnify the impact of a small, mobile force on a larger, more-cumbersome one. If successful, guerrillas weaken their enemy by attrition, eventually forcing them to withdraw.
Tactics
Tactically, guerrillas usually avoid confrontation with large units and formations of enemy troops but seek and attack small groups of enemy personnel and resources to gradually deplete the opposing force while minimizing their own losses. The guerrilla prizes mobility, secrecy, and surprise, organizing in small units and taking advantage of terrain that is difficult for larger units to use. For example, Mao Zedong summarized basic guerrilla tactics at the beginning of the Chinese Civil War as:"The enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy camps, we harass; the enemy tires, we attack; the enemy retreats, we pursue." At least one author credits the ancient Chinese work The Art of War with inspiring Mao's tactics. In the 20th century, other communist leaders, including North Vietnamese Ho Chi Minh, often used and developed guerrilla warfare tactics, which provided a model for their use elsewhere, leading to the Cuban "foco" theory and the anti-Soviet Mujahadeen in Afghanistan.
Unconventional methods
In addition to traditional military methods, guerrilla groups may rely also on destroying infrastructure, using improvised explosive devices, for example. They typically also rely on logistical and political support from the local population and foreign backers, are often embedded within it (thereby using the population as a human shield), and many guerrilla groups are adept at public persuasion through propaganda and use of force.
The opposing army may come to suspect all civilians as potential guerrilla backers.
Many guerrilla movements today also rely heavily on children as combatants, scouts, porters, spies, informants, and in other roles. It has drawn international condemnation. Many states also recruit children into their armed forces.
Some guerrilla groups also use refugees as weapons to solidify power or politically destabilize an adversary. The FARC guerrilla war displaced millions of Colombians, and so did the tribal guerrilla warfare (against Soviets) in Afghanistan. The civilian population living in the area might be suspected of having collaborated with the enemy and find itself displaced, as the guerrillas fight for territory.
Growth during the 20th century
The growth of guerrilla warfare in the 20th century was inspired in part by theoretical works on guerrilla warfare, starting with the Manual de Guerra de Guerrillas by Matías Ramón Mella written in the 19th century and, more recently, Mao Zedong's On Guerrilla Warfare, Che Guevara's Guerrilla Warfare, and Lenin's text of the same name, all written after the successful revolutions carried by them in China, Cuba and Russia, respectively. Those texts characterized the tactic of guerrilla warfare as, according to Che Guevara's text, being "used by the side which is supported by a majority but which possesses a much smaller number of arms for use in defense against oppression".
Foco theory
In the 1960s, the Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara developed the foco () theory of revolution in his book Guerrilla Warfare, based on his experiences during the 1959 Cuban Revolution. This theory was later formalised as "focal-ism" by Régis Debray. Its central principle is that vanguardism by cadres of small, fast-moving paramilitary groups can provide a focus for popular discontent against a sitting regime, and thereby lead a general insurrection. Although the original approach was to mobilize and launch attacks from rural areas, many foco ideas were adapted into urban guerrilla warfare movements.
Comparison of guerrilla warfare and terrorism
There is no commonly accepted definition of "terrorism", and the term is frequently used as political propaganda by belligerents (most often by governments in power) to denounce opponents whose status as terrorists is disputed.
Contrary to some terrorist groups, guerrillas usually work in open positions as armed units, try to hold and seize land, do not refrain from fighting enemy military force in battle and usually apply pressure to control or dominate territory and population, or deny that control to the enemy. While the primary concern of guerrillas is the enemy's active military units, terrorists largely are concerned with non-military agents and target mostly civilians. Guerrilla forces principally fight in accordance with the law of war (jus in bello). In this sense, they respect the rights of innocent civilians by refraining from targeting them.
See also
Conventional warfare
Counter-insurgency
Fabian strategy
Free War
Freedom Fighters (disambiguation)
History of guerrilla warfare
"Yank" Levy
List of guerrilla movements
List of guerrillas
List of revolutions and rebellions
Militia
Partisan (military)
Paramilitary
Resistance during World War II
Special forces
Unconventional warfare
Terrorism
Violent non-state actor
Viet Cong
Improvised explosive device
TM 31-210 Improvised Munitions Handbook
References
Further reading
Asprey, Robert. War in the Shadows: The Guerrilla in History
Derradji Abder-Rahmane, The Algerian Guerrilla Campaign Strategy & Tactics, the Edwin Mellen Press, New York, USA, 1997.
Hinckle, Warren (with Steven Chain and David Goldstein): Guerrilla-Krieg in USA (Guerrilla war in the USA), Stuttgart (Deutsche Verlagsanstalt) 1971.
Keats, John (1990). They Fought Alone. Time Life.
MacDonald, Peter. Giap: The Victor in Vietnam
Oller, John. The Swamp Fox: How Francis Marion Saved the American Revolution. Boston: Da Capo Press, 2016. .
Peers, William R.; Brelis, Dean. Behind the Burma Road: The Story of America's Most Successful Guerrilla Force. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1963.
Polack, Peter. Guerrilla Warfare; Kings of Revolution Casemate,.
Thomas Powers, "The War without End" (review of Steve Coll, Directorate S: The CIA and America's Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Penguin, 2018, 757 pp.), The New York Review of Books, vol. LXV, no. 7 (19 April 2018), pp. 42–43. "Forty-plus years after our failure in Vietnam, the United States is again fighting an endless war in a faraway place against a culture and a people we don't understand for political reasons that make sense in Washington, but nowhere else." (p. 43.)
Schmidt, LS. 1982. "American Involvement in the Filipino Resistance on Mindanao During the Japanese Occupation, 1942-1945" . M.S. Thesis. U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. 274 pp.
Sutherland, Daniel E. "Sideshow No Longer: A Historiographical Review of the Guerrilla War." Civil War History 46.1 (2000): 5-23; American Civil War, 1861–65
Sutherland, Daniel E. A Savage Conflict: The Decisive Role of Guerrillas in the American Civil War (U of North Carolina Press, 2009). online
Weber, Olivier, Afghan Eternity, 2002
External links
– Pakistani militants conduct raids in Iran
abcNEWS Exclusive: The Secret War – Deadly guerrilla raids in Iran
Insurgency Research Group – Multi-expert blog dedicated to the study of insurgency and the development of counter-insurgency policy.
Guerrilla warfare on Spartacus Educational
Encyclopædia Britannica, Guerrilla warfare
Relearning Counterinsurgency Warfare
Casebook on Insurgency and Revolutionary Warfare United States Army Special Operations Command
Counter Insurgency Jungle Warfare School (CIJWS)India
Warfare by type
Spanish words and phrases
Wars by type | [
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12727 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original%20proof%20of%20G%C3%B6del%27s%20completeness%20theorem | Original proof of Gödel's completeness theorem | The proof of Gödel's completeness theorem given by Kurt Gödel in his doctoral dissertation of 1929 (and a shorter version of the proof, published as an article in 1930, titled "The completeness of the axioms of the functional calculus of logic" (in German)) is not easy to read today; it uses concepts and formalisms that are no longer used and terminology that is often obscure. The version given below attempts to represent all the steps in the proof and all the important ideas faithfully, while restating the proof in the modern language of mathematical logic. This outline should not be considered a rigorous proof of the theorem.
Assumptions
We work with first-order predicate calculus. Our languages allow constant, function and relation symbols. Structures consist of (non-empty) domains and interpretations of the relevant symbols as constant members, functions or relations over that domain.
We assume classical logic (as opposed to intuitionistic logic for example).
We fix some axiomatization (i.e. a syntax-based, machine-manageable proof system) of the predicate calculus: logical axioms and rules of inference. Any of the several well-known equivalent axiomatizations will do. Gödel's original proof assumed the Hilbert-Ackermann proof system.
We assume without proof all the basic well-known results about our formalism that we need, such as the normal form theorem or the soundness theorem.
We axiomatize predicate calculus without equality (sometimes confusingly called without identity), i.e. there are no special axioms expressing the properties of (object) equality as a special relation symbol. After the basic form of the theorem has been proved, it will be easy to extend it to the case of predicate calculus with equality.
Statement of the theorem and its proof
In the following, we state two equivalent forms of the theorem, and show their equivalence.
Later, we prove the theorem. This is done in the following steps:
Reducing the theorem to sentences (formulas with no free variables) in prenex form, i.e. with all quantifiers ( and ) at the beginning. Furthermore, we reduce it to formulas whose first quantifier is . This is possible because for every sentence, there is an equivalent one in prenex form whose first quantifier is .
Reducing the theorem to sentences of the form . While we cannot do this by simply rearranging the quantifiers, we show that it is yet enough to prove the theorem for sentences of that form.
Finally we prove the theorem for sentences of that form.
This is done by first noting that a sentence such as is either refutable (its negation is always true) or satisfiable, i.e. there is some model in which it holds (it might even be always true, i.e. a tautology); this model is simply assigning truth values to the subpropositions from which B is built. The reason for that is the completeness of propositional logic, with the existential quantifiers playing no role.
We extend this result to more and more complex and lengthy sentences, Dn (n=1,2...), built out from B, so that either any of them is refutable and therefore so is φ, or all of them are not refutable and therefore each holds in some model.
We finally use the models in which the Dn hold (in case all are not refutable) in order to build a model in which φ holds.
Theorem 1. Every valid formula (true in all structures) is provable.
This is the most basic form of the completeness theorem. We immediately restate it in a form more convenient for our purposes:
When we say "all structures", it is important to specify that the structures involved are classical (Tarskian) interpretations I, where I=<U,F> (U is a non-empty (possibly infinite) set of objects, whereas F is a set of functions from expressions of the interpreted symbolism into U). [By contrast, so-called "free logics" countenance possibly empty sets for U. For more regarding free logics, see the work of Karel Lambert.]
Theorem 2. Every formula φ is either refutable or satisfiable in some structure.
"φ is refutable" means by definition "¬φ is provable".
Equivalence of both theorems
If Theorem 1 holds, and φ is not satisfiable in any structure, then ¬φ is valid in all structures and therefore provable, thus φ is refutable and Theorem 2 holds. If on the other hand Theorem 2 holds and φ is valid in all structures, then ¬φ is not satisfiable in any structure and therefore refutable; then ¬¬φ is provable and then so is φ, thus Theorem 1 holds.
Proof of theorem 2: first step
We approach the proof of Theorem 2 by successively restricting the class of all formulas φ for which we need to prove "φ is either refutable or satisfiable". At the beginning we need to prove this for all possible formulas φ in our language. However, suppose that for every formula φ there is some formula ψ taken from a more restricted class of formulas C, such that "ψ is either refutable or satisfiable" → "φ is either refutable or satisfiable". Then, once this claim (expressed in the previous sentence) is proved, it will suffice to prove "φ is either refutable or satisfiable" only for φ's belonging to the class C. If φ is provably equivalent to ψ (i.e., (φ≡ψ) is provable), then it is indeed the case that "ψ is either refutable or satisfiable" → "φ is either refutable or satisfiable" (the soundness theorem is needed to show this).
There are standard techniques for rewriting an arbitrary formula into one that does not use function or constant symbols, at the cost of introducing additional quantifiers; we will therefore assume that all formulas are free of such symbols. Gödel's paper uses a version of first-order predicate calculus that has no function or constant symbols to begin with.
Next we consider a generic formula φ (which no longer uses function or constant symbols) and apply the prenex form theorem to find a formula ψ in normal form such that φ≡ψ (ψ being in normal form means that all the quantifiers in ψ, if there are any, are found at the very beginning of ψ). It follows now that we need only prove Theorem 2 for formulas φ in normal form.
Next, we eliminate all free variables from φ by quantifying them existentially: if, say, x1...xn are free in φ, we form . If ψ is satisfiable in a structure M, then certainly so is φ and if ψ is refutable, then is provable, and then so is ¬φ, thus φ is refutable. We see that we can restrict φ to be a sentence, that is, a formula with no free variables.
Finally, we would like, for reasons of technical convenience, that the prefix of φ (that is, the string of quantifiers at the beginning of φ, which is in normal form) begin with a universal quantifier and end with an existential quantifier. To achieve this for a generic φ (subject to restrictions we have already proved), we take some one-place relation symbol F unused in φ, and two new variables y and z.. If φ = (P)Φ, where (P) stands for the prefix of φ and Φ for the matrix (the remaining, quantifier-free part of φ) we form . Since is clearly provable, it is easy to see that is provable.
Reducing the theorem to formulas of degree 1
Our generic formula φ now is a sentence, in normal form, and its prefix starts with a universal quantifier and ends with an existential quantifier. Let us call the class of all such formulas R. We are faced with proving that every formula in R is either refutable or satisfiable. Given our formula φ, we group strings of quantifiers of one kind together in blocks:
We define the degree of to be the number of universal quantifier blocks, separated by existential quantifier blocks as shown above, in the prefix of . The following lemma, which Gödel adapted from Skolem's proof of the Löwenheim–Skolem theorem, lets us sharply reduce the complexity of the generic formula we need to prove the theorem for:
Lemma. Let k>=1. If every formula in R of degree k is either refutable or satisfiable, then so is every formula in R of degree k+1.
Comment: Take a formula φ of degree k+1 of the form , where is the remainder of (it is thus of degree k-1). φ states that for every x there is a y such that... (something). It would have been nice to have a predicate Q' so that for every x, Q'(x,y) would be true if and only if y is the required one to make (something) true. Then we could have written a formula of degree k, which is equivalent to φ, namely . This formula is indeed equivalent to φ because it states that for every x, if there is a y that satisfies Q'(x,y), then (something) holds, and furthermore, we know that there is such a y, because for every x', there is a y' that satisfies Q'(x',y'). Therefore φ follows from this formula. It is also easy to show that if the formula is false, then so is φ. Unfortunately, in general there is no such predicate Q'. However, this idea can be understood as a basis for the following proof of the Lemma.
Proof. Let φ be a formula of degree k+1; then we can write it as
where (P) is the remainder of the prefix of (it is thus of degree k-1) and is the quantifier-free matrix of . x, y, u and v denote here tuples of variables rather than single variables; e.g. really stands for where are some distinct variables.
Let now x' and y' be tuples of previously unused variables of the same length as x and y respectively, and let Q be a previously unused relation symbol that takes as many arguments as the sum of lengths of x and y; we consider the formula
Clearly, is provable.
Now since the string of quantifiers does not contain variables from x or y, the following equivalence is easily provable with the help of whatever formalism we're using:
And since these two formulas are equivalent, if we replace the first with the second inside Φ, we obtain the formula Φ' such that Φ≡Φ':
Now Φ' has the form , where (S) and (S') are some quantifier strings, ρ and ρ' are quantifier-free, and, furthermore, no variable of (S) occurs in ρ' and no variable of (S') occurs in ρ. Under such conditions every formula of the form , where (T) is a string of quantifiers containing all quantifiers in (S) and (S') interleaved among themselves in any fashion, but maintaining the relative order inside (S) and (S'), will be equivalent to the original formula Φ'(this is yet another basic result in first-order predicate calculus that we rely on). To wit, we form Ψ as follows:
and we have .
Now is a formula of degree k and therefore by assumption either refutable or satisfiable.
If is satisfiable in a structure M, then, considering , we see that is satisfiable as well.
If is refutable, then so is , which is equivalent to it; thus is provable.
Now we can replace all occurrences of Q inside the provable formula by some other formula dependent on the same variables, and we will still get a provable formula.
(This is yet another basic result of first-order predicate calculus. Depending on the particular formalism adopted for the calculus, it may be seen as a simple application of a "functional substitution" rule of inference, as in Gödel's paper, or it may be proved by considering the formal proof of , replacing in it all occurrences of Q by some other formula with the same free variables, and noting that all logical axioms in the formal proof remain logical axioms after the substitution, and all rules of inference still apply in the same way.)
In this particular case, we replace Q(x',y') in with the formula . Here (x,y|x',y') means that instead of ψ we are writing a different formula, in which x and y are replaced with x' and y'. Q(x,y) is simply replaced by .
then becomes
and this formula is provable; since the part under negation and after the sign is obviously provable, and the part under negation and before the sign is obviously φ, just with x and y replaced by x' and y', we see that is provable, and φ is refutable. We have proved that φ is either satisfiable or refutable, and this concludes the proof of the Lemma.
Notice that we could not have used instead of Q(x',y') from the beginning, because would not have been a well-formed formula in that case. This is why we cannot naively use the argument appearing at the comment that precedes the proof.
Proving the theorem for formulas of degree 1
As shown by the Lemma above, we only need to prove our theorem for formulas φ in R of degree 1. φ cannot be of degree 0, since formulas in R have no free variables and don't use constant symbols. So the formula φ has the general form:
Now we define an ordering of the k-tuples of natural numbers as follows: should hold if either , or , and precedes in lexicographic order. [Here denotes the sum of the terms of the tuple.] Denote the nth tuple in this order by .
Set the formula as . Then put as
Lemma: For every n, φ.
Proof: By induction on n; we have , where the latter implication holds by variable substitution, since the ordering of the tuples is such that . But the last formula is equivalent to φ.
For the base case, is obviously a corollary of φ as well. So the Lemma is proven.
Now if is refutable for some n, it follows that φ is refutable. On the other hand, suppose that is not refutable for any n. Then for each n there is some way of assigning truth values to the distinct subpropositions (ordered by their first appearance in ; "distinct" here means either distinct predicates, or distinct bound variables) in , such that will be true when each proposition is evaluated in this fashion. This follows from the completeness of the underlying propositional logic.
We will now show that there is such an assignment of truth values to , so that all will be true: The appear in the same order in every ; we will inductively define a general assignment to them by a sort of "majority vote": Since there are infinitely many assignments (one for each ) affecting , either infinitely many make true, or infinitely many make it false and only finitely many make it true. In the former case, we choose to be true in general; in the latter we take it to be false in general. Then from the infinitely many n for which through are assigned the same truth value as in the general assignment, we pick a general assignment to in the same fashion.
This general assignment must lead to every one of the and being true, since if one of the were false under the general assignment, would also be false for every n > k. But this contradicts the fact that for the finite collection of general assignments appearing in , there are infinitely many n where the assignment making true matches the general assignment.
From this general assignment, which makes all of the true, we construct an interpretation of the language's predicates that makes φ true. The universe of the model will be the natural numbers. Each i-ary predicate should be true of the naturals precisely when the proposition is either true in the general assignment, or not assigned by it (because it never appears in any of the ).
In this model, each of the formulas is true by construction. But this implies that φ itself is true in the model, since the range over all possible k-tuples of natural numbers. So φ is satisfiable, and we are done.
Intuitive explanation
We may write each Bi as Φ(x1...xk,y1...ym) for some x-s, which we may call "first arguments" and y-s that we may call "last arguments".
Take B1 for example. Its "last arguments" are z2,z3...zm+1, and for every possible combination of k of these variables there is some j so that they appear as "first arguments" in Bj. Thus for large enough n1, Dn1 has the property that the "last arguments" of B1 appear, in every possible combinations of k of them, as "first arguments" in other Bj-s within Dn. For every Bi there is a Dni with the corresponding property.
Therefore in a model that satisfies all the Dn-s, there are objects corresponding to z1, z2... and each combination of k of these appear as "first arguments" in some Bj, meaning that for every k of these objects zp1...zpk there are zq1...zqm, which makes Φ(zp1...zpk,zq1...zqm) satisfied. By taking a submodel with only these z1, z2... objects, we have a model satisfying φ.
Extensions
Extension to first-order predicate calculus with equality
Gödel reduced a formula containing instances of the equality predicate to ones without it in an extended language. His method involves replacing a formula φ containing some instances of equality with the formula
Here denote the predicates appearing in φ (with their respective arities), and φ' is the formula φ with all occurrences of equality replaced with the new predicate Eq. If this new formula is refutable, the original φ was as well; the same is true of satisfiability, since we may take a quotient of satisfying model of the new formula by the equivalence relation representing Eq. This quotient is well-defined with respect to the other predicates, and therefore will satisfy the original formula φ.
Extension to countable sets of formulas
Gödel also considered the case where there are a countably infinite collection of formulas. Using the same reductions as above, he was able to consider only those cases where each formula is of degree 1 and contains no uses of equality. For a countable collection of formulas of degree 1, we may define as above; then define to be the closure of . The remainder of the proof then went through as before.
Extension to arbitrary sets of formulas
When there is an uncountably infinite collection of formulas, the Axiom of Choice (or at least some weak form of it) is needed. Using the full AC, one can well-order the formulas, and prove the uncountable case with the same argument as the countable one, except with transfinite induction. Other approaches can be used to prove that the completeness theorem in this case is equivalent to the Boolean prime ideal theorem, a weak form of AC.
References
The first proof of the completeness theorem.
The same material as the dissertation, except with briefer proofs, more succinct explanations, and omitting the lengthy introduction.
External links
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: "Kurt Gödel"—by Juliette Kennedy.
MacTutor biography: Kurt Gödel.
Logic
Godel's completeness theorem
Mathematical proofs
Godel's completeness theorem
Godel's completeness theorem
Works by Kurt Gödel
Article proofs | [
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12729 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grits | Grits | Grits is a porridge made from boiled cornmeal. Hominy grits is a type of grits made from hominy – corn that has been treated with an alkali in a process called nixtamalization, with the pericarp (ovary wall) removed. Grits is often served with other flavorings as a breakfast dish. Grits can be either savory or sweet, with savory seasonings being more common. The dish originated in the Southern United States but is now available nationwide. Grits is often part of a dinner entrée shrimp and grits, served primarily in the South.
Grits is similar to other thick maize-based porridges from around the world, such as polenta and mieliepap. In the Charleston, South Carolina area, cooked grits is called "hominy" and uncooked grits is called "grist." The word "grits" is derived from the Old English word , meaning "coarse meal".
Origin
The dish originated with the Native American Muscogee tribe using a corn similar to hominy. American colonists learned to make the dish from the Native Americans, and it quickly became an American staple.
At that time, the hominy for grits was ground on a stone mill. The ground hominy was then passed through screens, the finer sifted material used as grit meal, and the coarser as grits.
Three-quarters of the grits sold in the U.S. are bought in the South, in an area stretching from Lower Texas to Washington, D.C., that is sometimes called the "grits belt". The state of Georgia declared grits to be its official prepared food in 2002. A similar bill was introduced in South Carolina to name it the official state food, but it did not advance. Nevertheless, South Carolina still has an entire chapter of legislation dealing exclusively with corn meal and grits. State law in South Carolina requires grits and rice meal to be enriched, similar to the requirement for flour.
Grits may be either yellow or white, depending on the color of the corn used. The most common version in supermarkets is "quick" grits, which have the germ and hull removed. Whole kernel grits is sometimes called "speckled".
Preparation
Grits are prepared by mixing water or milk and cornmeal, and stirring them over heat. Whole grain grits require much longer to become soft than "quick grits".
Some people serve grits with sugar, while others object to sweetened grits. They are often served with butter. They are served with grated cheese, sausage, bacon, salt and pepper, or red-eye gravy.
Left-over grits congeal and can be sliced then fried either plain or with a breading, making "fried grits", "fried hominy", or "grit cakes".
Dishes
Grits are eaten with a wide variety of foods, such as eggs and bacon, fried catfish, shrimp, salmon croquettes, or country ham.
Shrimp and grits is a traditional dish in the coastal communities in the South Carolina Lowcountry and Georgia's Lower Coastal Plain. While shrimp and grits may have come from the South Carolina Lowcountry, particularly the Gullah people, the Shrimp and grits dishes eaten by most people trace a much more recent heritage to the Crooks Corner restaurant in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in 1982.
Solidified cooked grits can be sliced and fried in vegetable oil, butter, or bacon grease, or they can first be breaded in beaten egg and bread crumbs.
See also
Creamed corn
Cuisine of the Southern United States
Cuisine of the United States
Groats
Hasty pudding
List of porridges
Mush (cornmeal)
Polenta
Three Sisters (agriculture)
References
Native American cuisine
Porridges
Cuisine of the Southern United States
Native American cuisine of the Southeastern Woodlands
Soul food
Staple foods
Maize dishes
Symbols of Georgia (U.S. state)
Muscogee culture
Cuisine of the Thirteen Colonies
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12730 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General%20Electric | General Electric | General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate incorporated in New York State and headquartered in Boston. Until 2021, the company operated in sectors including aviation, power, renewable energy, digital industry, weapons manufacturing, locomotives, and venture capital and finance, but has since divested from several areas, now primarily consisting of the first four segments.
In 2020, GE ranked among the Fortune 500 as the 33rd largest firm in the United States by gross revenue. In 2011, GE ranked among the Fortune 20 as the 14th most profitable company, but later very severely underperformed the market (by about 75%) as its profitability collapsed. Two employees of GE—Irving Langmuir (1932) and Ivar Giaever (1973)—have been awarded the Nobel Prize.
On November 9, 2021, the company announced it would divide into three public companies. The new companies will be focused on aviation, healthcare, and energy (renewable energy, power and digital) respectively. The first spinoff of the healthcare division is planned for 2023 and to be followed by the spinoff of the energy division in 2024.
History
Formation
During 1889, Thomas Edison had business interests in many electricity-related companies, including Edison Lamp Company, a lamp manufacturer in East Newark, New Jersey; Edison Machine Works, a manufacturer of dynamos and large electric motors in Schenectady, New York; Bergmann & Company, a manufacturer of electric lighting fixtures, sockets, and other electric lighting devices; and Edison Electric Light Company, the patent-holding company and the financial arm backed by J. P. Morgan and the Vanderbilt family for Edison's lighting experiments.
In 1889, Drexel, Morgan & Co., a company founded by J.P. Morgan and Anthony J. Drexel, financed Edison's research and helped merge those companies under one corporation to form Edison General Electric Company, which was incorporated in New York on April 24, 1889. The new company also acquired Sprague Electric Railway & Motor Company in the same year. The consolidation did not involve all of the companies established by Edison; notably, the Edison Illuminating Company, which would later become Consolidated Edison, was not part of the merger.
In 1880, Gerald Waldo Hart formed the American Electric Company of New Britain, Connecticut, which merged a few years later with Thomson-Houston Electric Company, led by Charles Coffin. In 1887, Hart left to become superintendent of the Edison Electric Company of Kansas City, Missouri. General Electric was formed through the 1892 merger of Edison General Electric Company of Schenectady, New York, and Thomson-Houston Electric Company of Lynn, Massachusetts, with the support of Drexel, Morgan & Co. Both plants continue to operate under the GE banner to this day. The company was incorporated in New York, with the Schenectady plant used as headquarters for many years thereafter. Around the same time, General Electric's Canadian counterpart, Canadian General Electric, was formed.
In 1893, General Electric bought the business of Rudolf Eickemeyer in Yonkers, New York, along with all of its patents and designs. One of the employees was Charles Proteus Steinmetz. Only recently arrived in the United States, Steinmetz was already publishing in the field of magnetic hysteresis and had earned worldwide professional recognition. Led by Steinmetz, Eickemeyer's firm had developed transformers for use in the transmission of electrical power among many other mechanical and electrical devices. Steinmetz quickly became known as the engineering wizard in GE's engineering community.
Public company
In 1896, General Electric was one of the original 12 companies listed on the newly formed Dow Jones Industrial Average, where it remained a part of the index for 122 years, though not continuously.
In 1911, General Electric absorbed the National Electric Lamp Association (NELA) into its lighting business. GE established its lighting division headquarters at Nela Park in East Cleveland, Ohio. The lighting division has since remained in the same location.
RCA and NBC
Owen D. Young, through GE, founded the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in 1919, after purchasing the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America. He aimed to expand international radio communications. GE used RCA as its retail arm for radio sales. In 1926, RCA co-founded the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), which built two radio broadcasting networks. In 1930, General Electric was charged with antitrust violations and was ordered to divest itself of RCA.
Television
In 1927, Ernst Alexanderson of GE made the first demonstration of television broadcast reception at his General Electric Realty Plot home at 1132 Adams Rd, Schenectady, New York. On January 13, 1928, he made what was said to be the first broadcast to the public in the United States on GE's W2XAD: the pictures were picked up on 1.5 square inch (9.7 square centimeter) screens in the homes of four GE executives. The sound was broadcast on GE's WGY (AM).
Experimental television station W2XAD evolved into the station WRGB which, along with WGY and WGFM (now WRVE), was owned and operated by General Electric until 1983. In 1965, the company expanded into cable with the launch of a franchise, which was awarded to a non-exclusive franchise in Schenectady through subsidiary General Electric Cablevision Corporation. On February 15, 1965, General Electric expanded its holdings in order to acquire more television stations to met the maximum limit of the FCC, and more cable holdings through subsidiaries General Electric Broadcasting Company and General Electric Cablevision Corporation.
The company also owned television stations such as KOA-TV (now KCNC-TV) in Denver and WSIX-TV (later WNGE-TV, now WKRN) in Nashville, but like WRGB, General Electric sold off most of its broadcasting holdings, but held on to the Denver television station until in 1986, when General Electric bought out RCA and made it into an owned-and-operated station by NBC. It even stayed on until 1995 when it was transferred to a joint venture between CBS and Group W in a swap deal, alongside KUTV in Salt Lake City for longtime CBS O&O in Philadelphia, WCAU-TV.
Power generation
Led by Sanford Alexander Moss, GE moved into the new field of aircraft turbo superchargers. This technology also led to the development of industrial gas turbine engines used for power production. GE introduced the first set of superchargers during World War I, and continued to develop them during the interwar period. Superchargers became indispensable in the years immediately prior to World War II. GE supplied 300,000 turbo superchargers for use in fighter and bomber engines. This work led the U.S. Army Air Corps to select GE to develop the nation's first jet engine during the war. This experience, in turn, made GE a natural selection to develop the Whittle W.1 jet engine that was demonstrated in the United States in 1941. GE was ranked ninth among United States corporations in the value of wartime production contracts. Although, their early work with Whittle's designs was later handed to Allison Engine Company. GE Aviation then emerged as one of the world's largest engine manufacturers, bypassing the British company, Rolls-Royce plc.
Some consumers boycotted GE light bulbs, refrigerators and other products during the 1980s and 1990s. The purpose of the boycott was to protest against GE's role in nuclear weapons production.
In 2002, GE acquired the wind power assets of Enron during its bankruptcy proceedings. Enron Wind was the only surviving U.S. manufacturer of large wind turbines at the time, and GE increased engineering and supplies for the Wind Division and doubled the annual sales to $1.2 billion in 2003. It acquired ScanWind in 2009.
In 2018, GE Power garnered press attention when a model 7HA gas turbine in Texas was shut down for two months due to the break of a turbine blade. This model uses similar blade technology to GE's newest and most efficient model, the 9HA. After the break, GE developed new protective coatings and heat treatment methods. Gas turbines represent a significant portion of GE Power's revenue, and also represent a significant portion of the power generation fleet of several utility companies in the United States. Chubu Electric of Japan and Électricité de France also had units that were impacted. Initially, GE did not realize the turbine blade issue of the 9FB unit would impact the new HA units.
Computing
GE was one of the eight major computer companies of the 1960s along with IBM, Burroughs, NCR, Control Data Corporation, Honeywell, RCA, and UNIVAC. GE had a line of general purpose and special purpose computers, including the GE 200, GE 400, and GE 600 series general purpose computers, the GE 4010, GE 4020, and GE 4060 real-time process control computers, and the DATANET-30 and Datanet 355 message switching computers (DATANET-30 and 355 were also used as front end processors for GE mainframe computers). A Datanet 500 computer was designed, but never sold.
In 1962, GE started developing its GECOS (later renamed GCOS) operating system, originally for batch processing, but later extended to timesharing and transaction processing. Versions of GCOS are still in use today. From 1964 to 1969, GE and Bell Laboratories (which soon dropped out) joined with MIT to develop the Multics operating system on the GE 645 mainframe computer. The project took longer than expected and was not a major commercial success, but it demonstrated concepts such as single-level storage, dynamic linking, hierarchical file system, and ring-oriented security. Active development of Multics continued until 1985.
GE got into computer manufacturing because in the 1950s they were the largest user of computers outside the United States federal government, aside from being the first business in the world to own a computer. Its major appliance manufacturing plant "Appliance Park" was the first non-governmental site to host one. However, in 1970, GE sold its computer division to Honeywell, exiting the computer manufacturing industry, though it retained its timesharing operations for some years afterwards. GE was a major provider of computer time-sharing services, through General Electric Information Services (GEIS, now GXS), offering online computing services that included GEnie.
In 2000, when United Technologies Corp. planned to buy Honeywell, GE made a counter-offer that was approved by Honeywell. On July 3, 2001, the European Union issued a statement that "prohibit the proposed acquisition by General Electric Co. of Honeywell Inc.". The reasons given were it "would create or strengthen dominant positions on several markets and that the remedies proposed by GE were insufficient to resolve the competition concerns resulting from the proposed acquisition of Honeywell".
On June 27, 2014, GE partnered with collaborative design company Quirky to announce its connected LED bulb called Link. The Link bulb is designed to communicate with smartphones and tablets using a mobile app called Wink.
Acquisitions and divestments
In December 1985, GE reacquired RCA, primarily for the NBC television network (also parent of Telemundo Communications Group) for $6.28 billion; this merger surpassed the Capital Cities/ABC merger that happened earlier that year as the largest non-oil merger in world business history. The remainder was sold to various companies, including Bertelsmann (Bertelsmann acquired RCA Records) and Thomson SA, which traces its roots to Thomson-Houston, one of the original components of GE. Also in 1986, Kidder, Peabody & Co., a U.S.-based securities firm, was sold to GE and following heavy losses was sold to PaineWebber in 1994.
In 2002, Francisco Partners and Norwest Venture Partners acquired a division of GE called GE Information Systems (GEIS). The new company, named GXS, is based in Gaithersburg, Maryland. GXS is a provider of B2B e-Commerce solutions. GE maintains a minority stake in GXS. Also in 2002, GE Wind Energy was formed when GE bought the wind turbine manufacturing assets of Enron Wind after the Enron scandals.
In 2004, GE bought 80% of Vivendi Universal Entertainment, the parent of Universal Pictures from Vivendi. Vivendi bought 20% of NBC forming the company NBCUniversal. GE then owned 80% of NBCUniversal and Vivendi owned 20%. In 2004, GE completed the spin-off of most of its mortgage and life insurance assets into an independent company, Genworth Financial, based in Richmond, Virginia.
Genpact formerly known as GE Capital International Services (GECIS) was established by GE in late 1997 as its captive India-based BPO. GE sold 60% stake in Genpact to General Atlantic and Oak Hill Capital Partners in 2005 and hived off Genpact into an independent business. GE is still a major client to Genpact today, for services in customer service, finance, information technology, and analytics.
In May 2007, GE acquired Smiths Aerospace for $4.8 billion. Also in 2007, GE Oil & Gas acquired Vetco Gray for $1.9 billion, followed by the acquisition of Hydril Pressure & Control in 2008 for $1.1 billion.
GE Plastics was sold in 2008 to SABIC (Saudi Arabia Basic Industries Corporation). In May 2008, GE announced it was exploring options for divesting the bulk of its consumer and industrial business.
On December 3, 2009, it was announced that NBCUniversal would become a joint venture between GE and cable television operator Comcast. Comcast would hold a controlling interest in the company, while GE would retain a 49% stake and would buy out shares owned by Vivendi.
Vivendi would sell its 20% stake in NBCUniversal to GE for US$5.8 billion. Vivendi would sell 7.66% of NBCUniversal to GE for US$2 billion if the GE/Comcast deal was not completed by September 2010 and then sell the remaining 12.34% stake of NBCUniversal to GE for US$3.8 billion when the deal was completed or to the public via an IPO if the deal was not completed.
On March 1, 2010, GE announced plans to sell its 20.85% stake in Turkey-based Garanti Bank. In August 2010, GE Healthcare signed a strategic partnership to bring cardiovascular Computed Tomography (CT) technology from start-up Arineta Ltd. of Israel to the hospital market. In October 2010, GE acquired gas engines manufacture Dresser Industries in a $3 billion deal and also bought a $1.6 billion portfolio of retail credit cards from Citigroup Inc. On October 14, 2010, GE announced the acquisition of data migration & SCADA simulation specialists Opal Software. In December 2010, for the second time that year (after the Dresser acquisition), GE bought the oil sector company Wellstream., an oil pipe maker, for 800 million pounds ($1.3 billion).
In March 2011, GE announced that it had completed the acquisition of privately held Lineage Power Holdings from The Gores Group. In April 2011, GE announced it had completed its purchase of John Wood plc's Well Support Division for $2.8 billion.
In 2011, GE Capital sold its $2 billion Mexican assets to Santander for $162 million and exit the business in Mexico. Santander additionally assumed the portfolio debts of GE Capital in the country. Following this, GE Capital focused in its core business and shed its non-core assets.
In June 2012, CEO and President of GE Jeff Immelt said that the company would invest ₹3 billion to accelerate its businesses in Karnataka. In October 2012, GE acquired $7 billion worth of bank deposits from MetLife Inc.
On March 19, 2013, Comcast bought GE's shares in NBCU for $16.7 billion, ending the company's longtime stake in television and film media.
In April 2013, GE acquired oilfield pump maker Lufkin Industries for $2.98 billion.
In April 2014, it was announced that GE was in talks to acquire the global power division of French engineering group Alstom for a figure of around $13 billion. A rival joint bid was submitted in June 2014 by Siemens and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) with Siemens seeking to acquire Alstom's gas turbine business for €3.9 billion, and MHI proposing a joint venture in steam turbines, plus a €3.1 billion cash investment. In June 2014 a formal offer from GE worth $17 billion was agreed by the Alstom board. Part of the transaction involved the French government taking a 20% stake in Alstom to help secure France's energy and transport interests and French jobs. A rival offer from Siemens-Mitsubishi Heavy Industries was rejected. The acquisition was expected to be completed in 2015. In October 2014, GE announced it was considering the sale of its Polish banking business Bank BPH.
Later in 2014, General Electric announced plans to open its global operations center in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Global Operations Center opened in October 2016 as home to GE's multifunctional shared services organization. It supports the company's finance/accounting, human resources, information technology, supply chain, legal and commercial operations, and is one of GE's four multifunctional shared services centers worldwide in Pudong, China; Budapest, Hungary; and Monterrey, Mexico.
In April 2015, GE announced its intention to sell off its property portfolio, worth $26.5 billion, to Wells Fargo and The Blackstone Group. It was announced in April 2015 that GE would sell most of its finance unit and return around $90 billion to shareholders as the firm looked to trim down on its holdings and rid itself of its image of a "hybrid" company, working in both banking and manufacturing. In August 2015, GE Capital agreed to sell its Healthcare Financial Services business to Capital One for US$9 billion. The transaction involved US$8.5 billion of loans made to a wide array of sectors including senior housing, hospitals, medical offices, outpatient services, pharmaceuticals and medical devices. Also in August 2015, GE Capital agreed to sell GE Capital Bank's on-line deposit platform to Goldman Sachs. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but the sale included US$8 billion of on-line deposits and another US$8 billion of brokered certificates of deposit. The sale was part of GE's strategic plan to exit the U.S. banking sector and to free itself from tightening banking regulations. GE also aimed to shed its status as a "systematically important financial institution".
In September 2015, GE Capital agreed to sell its transportation-finance unit to Canada's Bank of Montreal. The unit sold had US$8.7 billion (CA$11.5 billion) of assets, 600 employees and 15 offices in the U.S. and Canada. Exact terms of the sale were not disclosed, but the final price would be based on the value of the assets at closing, plus a premium according to the parties. In October 2015, activist investor Nelson Peltz's fund Trian bought a $2.5 billion stake in the company.
In January 2016, Haier acquired GE's appliance division for $5.4 billion. In October 2016, GE Renewable Energy agreed to pay €1.5 billion to Doughty Hanson & Co for LM Wind Power during 2017.
At the end of October 2016, it was announced that GE was under negotiations for a deal valued at about $30 billion to combine GE Oil & Gas with Baker Hughes. The transaction would create a publicly traded entity controlled by GE. It was announced that GE Oil & Gas would sell off its water treatment business, GE Water & Process Technologies, as part of its divestment agreement with Baker Hughes. The deal was cleared by the EU in May 2017, and by the United States Department of Justice in June 2017. The merger agreement was approved by shareholders at the end of June 2017. On July 3, 2017, the transaction was completed and Baker Hughes became a GE company and was renamed Bake Hughes, A GE Company (BHGE). In November 2018, GE reduced its stake in Baker Hughes to 50.4%. On October 18, 2019, GE reduced its stake to 36.8% and the company was renamed back to Baker Hughes.
In May 2017, GE had signed $15 billion of business deals with Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is one of GE's largest customers. In September 2017, GE announced the sale of its Industrial Solutions Business to ABB. The deal closed on June 30, 2018.
Fraud allegations and notice of possible SEC civil action
On August 15, 2019, Harry Markopolos, a financial fraud investigator known for his discovery of a Ponzi Scheme run by Bernard Madoff, accused General Electric of being a "bigger fraud than Enron", alleging $38 billion in accounting fraud. GE denied wrongdoing.
On October 6, 2020, General Electric reported it received a Wells notice from the Securities and Exchange Commission stating the SEC may take civil action for possible violations of securities laws.
Insufficient reserves for long-term care policies
It is alleged that GE is "hiding" (i.e. under-reserved) $29 billion in losses related to its long-term care business.
According to an August 2019 Fitch Ratings report, there are concerns that GE has not set aside enough money to cover its long-term care liabilities.
In 2018, a lawsuit (the Bezio case) was filed in New York state court on behalf of participants in GE's 401(k) plan and shareowners alleging violations of Section 11 of the Securities Act of 1933 based on alleged misstatements and omissions related to insurance reserves and performance of GE's business segments.
The Kansas Insurance Department (KID) is requiring General Electric to make $14.5 billion of capital contributions for its insurance contracts during the 7-year period ending in 2024.
GE reported the total liability related to its insurance contracts increased significantly from 2016 to 2019:
December 31, 2016 $26.1 billion
December 31, 2017 $38.6 billion
December 31, 2018 $35.6 billion
December 31, 2019 $39.6 billion
In 2018, GE announced the issuance of the new standard by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) regarding Financial Services - Insurance (Topic 944) will materially affect its financial statements. Mr. Markopolos estimated there will be a $US 10.5 billion charge when the new accounting standard is adopted in the first quarter of 2021.
Anticipated $8 billion loss upon disposition of Baker Hughes
In 2017, GE acquired a 62.5% interest in Baker Hughes (BHGE) when it combined its oil & gas business with Baker Hughes Incorporated.
In 2018, GE reduced its interest to 50.4%, resulting in the realization of a $2.1 billion loss. GE is planning to divest its remaining interest and has warned that the divestment will result in an additional loss of $8.4 billion (assuming a BHGE share price of $23.57 per share). In response to the fraud allegations, GE noted the amount of the loss would be $7.4 billion if the divestment occurred on July 26, 2019. Mr. Markopolos noted that BHGE is an asset available for sale and therefore mark-to-market accounting is required.
Markopolos noted GE's current ratio was only 0.67. He expressed concerns that GE may file for bankruptcy if there is a recession.
Other
In 2018, the GE Pension Plan reported losses of US$3.3 billion on plan assets.
In 2018, General Electric changed the discount rate used to calculate the actuarial liabilities of its pension plans. The rate was increased from 3.64% to 4.34%. Consequently, the reported liability for the underfunded pension plans decreased by $7 billion year-over-year, from $34.2 billion in 2017 to $27.2 billion in 2018.
In October 2018, General Electric announced it would "freeze pensions" for about 20,000 salaried U.S. employees. The employees will be moved to a defined-contribution retirement plan in 2021.
On March 30, 2020, General Electric factory workers protested to convert jet engine factories to make ventilators during the COVID-19 crisis.
In June 2020, GE made an agreement to sell its Lighting business to Savant Systems, Inc., an industry leader in the professional smart home space. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
In November 2020, General Electric warned it would be cutting jobs waiting for a recovery due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Financial performance
Dividends
In 2018, GE reduced its quarterly dividend from $0.12 to $0.01 per share.
Stock
As a publicly-traded company on the New York Stock Exchange, GE stock was one of the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average from 1907 to 2018, the longest continuous presence of any company on the index, and during this time the only company which was part of the original Dow Jones Industrial Index created in 1896. In August 2000, the company had a market capitalization of $601 billion, and was the most valuable company in the world. On June 26, 2018, the stock was removed from the index and replaced with Walgreens Boots Alliance. In the years leading to its removal, GE was the worst performing stock in the Dow, falling more than 55 percent year on year and more than 25 percent year to date. The company continued to lose value after being removed from the index.
Bribery
In July 2010, General Electric was willing to pay $23.4 million to settle an SEC complaint, as GE bribed Iraqi government officials to win contracts under the U.N. oil-for-food program.
Corporate affairs
In 1959, General Electric was accused of promoting the largest illegal cartel in the United States since the adoption of the Sherman Antitrust Act (1890) in order to maintain artificially high prices. In total, 29 companies and 45 executives would be convicted. Subsequent parliamentary inquiries revealed that "white-collar crime" was by far the most costly form of crime for the United States' finances.
GE is a multinational conglomerate headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. However its main offices are located at 30 Rockefeller Plaza at Rockefeller Center in New York City, known now as the Comcast Building. It was formerly known as the GE Building for the prominent GE logo on the roof; NBC's headquarters and main studios are also located in the building. Through its RCA subsidiary, it has been associated with the center since its construction in the 1930s. GE moved its corporate headquarters from the GE Building on Lexington Avenue to Fairfield, Connecticut in 1974. In 2016, GE announced a move to the South Boston Waterfront neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, partly as a result of an incentive package provide by state and city governments. The first group of workers arrived in the summer of 2016, and the full move will be completed by 2018. Due to poor financial performance and corporate downsizing, GE sold the land it planned to build its new headquarters building on, instead choosing to occupy neighboring leased buildings.
GE's tax return is the largest return filed in the United States; the 2005 return was approximately 24,000 pages when printed out, and 237 megabytes when submitted electronically. As of 2011, the company spent more on U.S. lobbying than any other company.
In 2005, GE launched its "Ecomagination" initiative in an attempt to position itself as a "green" company.
GE is one of the biggest players in the wind power industry and is developing environment-friendly products such as hybrid locomotives, desalination and water reuse solutions, and photovoltaic cells. The company "plans to build the largest solar-panel-making factory in the U.S.," and has set goals for its subsidiaries to lower their greenhouse gas emissions.
On May 21, 2007, GE announced it would sell its GE Plastics division to petrochemicals manufacturer SABIC for net proceeds of $11.6 billion. The transaction took place on August 31, 2007, and the company name changed to SABIC Innovative Plastics, with Brian Gladden as CEO.
In February 2017, GE announced that the company intends to close the gender gap by promising to hire and place 20,000 women in technical roles by 2020. The company is also seeking to have a 50:50 male to female gender representation in all entry-level technical programs.
In October 2017, GE announced they would be closing research and development centers in Shanghai, Munich and Rio de Janeiro. The company spent $5 billion on R&D in the last year.
On February 25, 2019, GE sold its diesel locomotive business to Wabtec.
CEO
, John L. Flannery was replaced by H. Lawrence Culp Jr. as chairman and CEO in a unanimous vote of the GE Board of Directors.
Charles A. Coffin (1913–1922)
Owen D. Young (1922–1939, 1942–1945)
Philip D. Reed (1940–1942, 1945–1958)
Ralph J. Cordiner (1958–1963)
Gerald L. Phillippe (1963–1972)
Fred J. Borch (1967–1972)
Reginald H. Jones (1972–1981)
Jack Welch (1981–2001)
Jeff Immelt (2001–2017)
John L. Flannery (2017–2018)
H. Lawrence Culp Jr. (2018–present)
Corporate recognition and rankings
In 2011, Fortune ranked GE the sixth-largest firm in the U.S., and the 14th-most profitable. Other rankings for 2011–2012 include the following:
#18 company for leaders (Fortune)
#82 green company (Newsweek)
#91 most admired company (Fortune)
#19 most innovative company (Fast Company).
In 2012, GE's brand was valued at $28.8 billion. CEO Jeff Immelt had a set of changes in the presentation of the brand commissioned in 2004, after he took the reins as chairman, to unify the diversified businesses of GE.
Tom Geismar later stated that looking back at the logos of the 1910s, 1920s, and 1930s, one can clearly judge that they are old-fashioned. Chermayeff & Geismar, along with colleagues Bill Brown and Ivan Chermaev, created the modern 1980 logo. They, in turn, argued that even now the old logos look out of date, earlier they were good. The changes included a new corporate color palette, small modifications to the GE logo, a new customized font (GE Inspira) and a new slogan, "Imagination at work", composed by David Lucas, to replace the slogan "We Bring Good Things to Life" used since 1979. The standard requires many headlines to be lowercased and adds visual "white space" to documents and advertising. The changes were designed by Wolff Olins and are used on GE's marketing, literature, and website. In 2014, a second typeface family was introduced: GE Sans and Serif by Bold Monday created under art direction by Wolff Olins.
, GE had appeared on the Fortune 500 list for 22 years and held the 11th rank. GE was removed from the Dow Jones Industrial Average on June 28, 2018, after the value had dropped below 1% of the index's weight.
Businesses
GE's primary business divisions are:
GE Additive
GE Aviation
GE Capital
GE Digital
GE Healthcare
GE Power
GE Renewable Energy
GE Research
Through these businesses, GE participates in markets that include the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity (e.g. nuclear, gas and solar), industrial automation, medical imaging equipment, motors, aircraft jet engines, and aviation services. Through GE Commercial Finance, GE Consumer Finance, GE Equipment Services, and GE Insurance it offers a range of financial services. It has a presence in over 100 countries.
General Imaging manufacturers GE digital cameras.
Even though the first wave of conglomerates (such as ITT Corporation, Ling-Temco-Vought, Tenneco, etc.) fell by the wayside by the mid-1980s, in the late 1990s, another wave (consisting of Westinghouse, Tyco, and others) tried and failed to emulate GE's success.
GE is planning to set up a silicon carbide chip packaging R&D center in coalition with SUNY Polytechnic Institute in Utica, New York. The project will create 470 jobs with the potential to grow to 820 jobs within 10 years.
On September 14, 2015, GE announced the creation of a new unit: GE Digital, which will bring together its software and IT capabilities. The new business unit will be headed by Bill Ruh, who joined GE in 2011 from Cisco Systems and has since worked on GE's software efforts.
Former divisions
GE Industrial was a division providing appliances, lighting and industrial products; factory automation systems; plastics, silicones and quartz products; security and sensors technology, and equipment financing, management and operating services. As of 2007 it had 70,000 employees generating $17.7 billion in revenue. After some major realignments in late 2007, GE Industrial was organized in two main sub businesses:
GE Consumer & Industrial
Appliances
Electrical Distribution
Lighting
GE Enterprise Solutions
Digital Energy
GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms
Security
Sensing & Inspection Technologies
The former GE Plastics division was sold in August 2007 and is now SABIC Innovative Plastics.
On May 4, 2008, it was announced that GE would auction off its appliances business for an expected sale of $5–8 billion. However, this plan fell through as a result of the recession.
The former GE Appliances and Lighting segment was dissolved in 2014 when GE's appliance division was attempted to be sold to Electrolux for $5.4 billion, but eventually sold it to Haier in June 2016 due to antitrust filing against Electrolux. GE Lighting (consumer lighting) and the newly created Current, powered by GE, which deals in commercial LED, solar, EV, and energy storage, became stand-alone businesses within the company, until the sale of the latter to American Industrial Partners in April 2019
The former GE Transportation division merged with Wabtec on February 25, 2019, leaving GE with a 24.9% holding in Wabtec.
On July 1, 2020, GE Lighting was acquired by Savant Systems and remains headquartered at Nela Park in East Cleveland, Ohio.
Environmental record
Carbon footprint
General Electric Company reported Total CO2e emissions (Direct + Indirect) for the twelve months ending 31 December 2020 at 2,080 Kt (-310 /-13% y-o-y). There has been a consistent declining trend in reported emissions since 2016.
Pollution
Some of GE's activities have given rise to large-scale air and water pollution. Based on data from 2000, researchers at the Political Economy Research Institute listed the corporation as the fourth-largest corporate producer of air pollution in the United States (behind only E. I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co., United States Steel Corp., and ConocoPhillips), with more than 4.4 million pounds per year (2,000 tons) of toxic chemicals released into the air. GE has also been implicated in the creation of toxic waste. According to EPA documents, only the United States Government, Honeywell, and Chevron Corporation are responsible for producing more Superfund toxic waste sites.
In 1983, New York State Attorney General Robert Abrams filed suit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York to compel GE to pay for the clean-up of what was claimed to be more than 100,000 tons of chemicals dumped from their plant in Waterford, New York. In 1999, the company agreed to pay a $250 million settlement in connection with claims it polluted the Housatonic River (Pittsfield, Massachusetts) and other sites with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and other hazardous substances.
In 2003, acting on concerns that the plan proposed by GE did not "provide for adequate protection of public health and the environment," the United States Environmental Protection Agency issued a unilateral administrative order for the company to "address cleanup at the GE site" in Rome, Georgia, also contaminated with PCBs.
The nuclear reactors involved in the 2011 crisis at Fukushima I in Japan were GE designs, and the architectural designs were done by Ebasco, formerly owned by GE. Concerns over the design and safety of these reactors were raised as early as 1972, but tsunami danger was not discussed at that time. , the same model nuclear power reactors designed by GE are operating in the US; however, as of May 31, 2019, the controversial Pilgrim Nuclear Generating Station, in Plymouth, Massachusetts, has been shut down and is in the process of decommission.
Pollution of the Hudson River
GE heavily contaminated the Hudson River with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) between 1947 and 1977. This pollution caused a range of harmful effects to wildlife and people who eat fish from the river or drink the water. In response to the contamination, activists protested in various ways. Musician Pete Seeger founded the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater and the Clearwater Festival to draw attention to the problem. In 1983, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declared a 200-mile (320 km) stretch of the river, from Hudson Falls to New York City, to be a Superfund site requiring cleanup. This Superfund site is considered to be one of the largest in the nation. Other sources of pollution, including mercury contamination and sewage dumping, have also contributed to problems in the Hudson River watershed.
Pollution of the Housatonic River
From until 1977, GE polluted the Housatonic River with PCB discharges from its plant at Pittsfield, Massachusetts. EPA designated the Pittsfield plant and several miles of the Housatonic to be a Superfund site in 1997, and ordered GE to remediate the site. Aroclor 1254 and Aroclor 1260, made by Monsanto, was the primary contaminant of the pollution. The highest concentrations of PCBs in the Housatonic River are found in Woods Pond in Lenox, Massachusetts, just south of Pittsfield, where they have been measured up to 110 mg/kg in the sediment. About 50% of all the PCBs currently in the river are estimated to be retained in the sediment behind Woods Pond dam. This is estimated to be about of PCBs. Former filled oxbows are also polluted. Waterfowl and fish who live in and around the river contain significant levels of PCBs and can present health risks if consumed.
Environmental initiatives
On June 6, 2011, GE announced that it has licensed solar thermal technology from California-based eSolar for use in power plants that use both solar and natural gas.
On May 26, 2011, GE unveiled its EV Solar Carport, a carport that incorporates solar panels on its roof, with electric vehicle charging stations under its cover.
In May 2005, GE announced the launch of a program called "Ecomagination", intended, in the words of CEO Jeff Immelt, "to develop tomorrow's solutions such as solar energy, hybrid locomotives, fuel cells, lower-emission aircraft engines, lighter and stronger durable materials, efficient lighting, and water purification technology". The announcement prompted an op-ed piece in The New York Times to observe that, "while General Electric's increased emphasis on clean technology will probably result in improved products and benefit its bottom line, Mr. Immelt's credibility as a spokesman on national environmental policy is fatally flawed because of his company's intransigence in cleaning up its own toxic legacy."
GE has said that it will invest $1.4 billion in clean technology research and development in 2008 as part of its Ecomagination initiative. As of October 2008, the scheme had resulted in 70 green products being brought to market, ranging from halogen lamps to biogas engines. In 2007, GE raised the annual revenue target for its Ecomagination initiative from $20 billion in 2010 to $25 billion following positive market response to its new product lines. In 2010, GE continued to raise its investment by adding $10 billion into Ecomagination over the next five years.
GE Energy's renewable energy business has expanded greatly, to keep up with growing U.S. and global demand for clean energy. Since entering the renewable energy industry in 2002, GE has invested more than $850 million in renewable energy commercialization. In August 2008, it acquired Kelman Ltd, a Northern Ireland-based company specializing in advanced monitoring and diagnostics technologies for transformers used in renewable energy generation and announced an expansion of its business in Northern Ireland in May 2010. In 2009, GE's renewable energy initiatives, which include solar power, wind power and GE Jenbacher gas engines using renewable and non-renewable methane-based gases, employ more than 4,900 people globally and have created more than 10,000 supporting jobs.
GE Energy and Orion New Zealand (Orion) have announced the implementation of the first phase of a GE network management system to help improve power reliability for customers. GE's ENMAC Distribution Management System is the foundation of Orion's initiative. The system of smart grid technologies will significantly improve the network company's ability to manage big network emergencies and help it to restore power faster when outages occur.
In June 2018, GE Volunteers, an internal group of GE Employees, along with Malaysian Nature Society, transplanted more than 270 plants from the Taman Tugu forest reserve so that they may be replanted in the forest trail which is under construction.
Educational initiatives
GE Healthcare is collaborating with The Wayne State University School of Medicine and the Medical University of South Carolina to offer an integrated radiology curriculum during their respective MD Programs led by investigators of the Advanced Diagnostic Ultrasound in micro-gravity study. GE has donated over one million dollars of Logiq E Ultrasound equipment to these two institutions.
Marketing initiatives
Between September 2011 and April 2013, GE ran a content marketing campaign dedicated to telling the stories of "innovators—people who are reshaping the world through act or invention". The initiative included 30 3-minute films from leading documentary film directors (Albert Maysles, Jessica Yu, Leslie Iwerks, Steve James, Alex Gibney, Lixin Fan, Gary Hustwit and others), and a user-generated competition that received over 600 submissions, out of which 20 finalists were chosen.
Short Films, Big Ideas was launched at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival in partnership with cinelan. Stories included breakthroughs in Slingshot (water vapor distillation system), cancer research, energy production, pain management and food access. Each of the 30 films received world premiere screenings at a major international film festival, including the Sundance Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Festival. The winning amateur director film, The Cyborg Foundation, was awarded a prize at the 2013 at Sundance Film Festival. According to GE, the campaign garnered more than 1.5 billion total media impressions, 14 million online views, and was seen in 156 countries.
In January 2017, GE signed an estimated $7 million deal with the Boston Celtics to have its corporate logo put on the NBA team's jersey.
Political affiliation
In the 1950s, GE sponsored Ronald Reagan's TV career and launched him on the lecture circuit. GE has also designed social programs, supported civil rights organizations, and funds minority education programs.
Notable appearances in media
In the early 1950s, Kurt Vonnegut was a writer for GE. A number of his novels and stories (notably Cat's Cradle and Player Piano) refer to the fictional city of Ilium, which appears to be loosely based on Schenectady, New York. The Ilium Works is the setting for the short story "Deer in the Works".
In 1981, GE won a Clio award for its :30 Soft White Light Bulbs commercial, We Bring Good Things to Life. The slogan "We Bring Good Things to Life" was created by Phil Dusenberry at the ad agency BBDO.
GE was the primary focus of a 1991 short subject Academy Award-winning documentary, Deadly Deception: General Electric, Nuclear Weapons, and Our Environment, that juxtaposed GE's "We Bring Good Things To Life" commercials with the true stories of workers and neighbors whose lives have been affected by the company's activities involving nuclear weapons.
In 2013, GE received a National Jefferson Award for Outstanding Service by a Major Corporation.
See also
GE Technology Infrastructure
Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory
List of assets owned by General Electric
Phoebus cartel
Top 100 US Federal Contractors
References
Further reading
Carlson, W. Bernard. Innovation as a Social Process: Elihu Thomson and the Rise of General Electric, 1870–1900 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991).
Woodbury, David O. Elihu Thomson, Beloved Scientist (Boston: Museum of Science, 1944)
Haney, John L. The Elihu Thomson Collection American Philosophical Society Yearbook 1944.
Hammond, John W. Men and Volts: The Story of General Electric, published 1941, 436 pages.
Mill, John M. Men and Volts at War: The Story of General Electric in World War II, published 1947.
Irmer, Thomas. Gerard Swope. In Immigrant Entrepreneurship: German-American Business Biographies, 1720 to the Present, vol. 4, edited by Jeffrey Fear. German Historical Institute.
External links
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12731 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George%20Harrison | George Harrison | George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician, singer-songwriter, and music and film producer who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Indian culture and helped broaden the scope of popular music through his incorporation of Indian instrumentation and Hindu-aligned spirituality in the Beatles' work. Although the majority of the band's songs were written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, most Beatles albums from 1965 onwards contained at least two Harrison compositions. His songs for the group include "Taxman", "Within You Without You", "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "Here Comes the Sun" and "Something".
Harrison's earliest musical influences included George Formby and Django Reinhardt; Carl Perkins, Chet Atkins and Chuck Berry were subsequent influences. By 1965, he had begun to lead the Beatles into folk rock through his interest in Bob Dylan and the Byrds, and towards Indian classical music through his use of Indian instruments, such as sitar, on numerous Beatles songs, starting with "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)". Having initiated the band's embracing of Transcendental Meditation in 1967, he subsequently developed an association with the Hare Krishna movement. After the band's break-up in 1970, Harrison released the triple album All Things Must Pass, a critically acclaimed work that produced his most successful hit single, "My Sweet Lord", and introduced his signature sound as a solo artist, the slide guitar. He also organised the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh with Indian musician Ravi Shankar, a precursor to later benefit concerts such as Live Aid. In his role as a music and film producer, Harrison produced acts signed to the Beatles' Apple record label before founding Dark Horse Records in 1974 and co-founding HandMade Films in 1978.
Harrison released several best-selling singles and albums as a solo performer. In 1988, he co-founded the platinum-selling supergroup the Traveling Wilburys. A prolific recording artist, he was featured as a guest guitarist on tracks by Badfinger, Ronnie Wood and Billy Preston, and collaborated on songs and music with Dylan, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr and Tom Petty, among others. Rolling Stone magazine ranked him number 11 in their list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". He is a two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee – as a member of the Beatles in 1988, and posthumously for his solo career in 2004.
Harrison's first marriage, to model Pattie Boyd in 1966, ended in divorce in 1977. The following year he married Olivia Arias, with whom he had a son, Dhani. Harrison died from lung cancer in 2001 at the age of 58, two years after surviving a knife attack by an intruder at his Friar Park home. His remains were cremated, and the ashes were scattered according to Hindu tradition in a private ceremony in the Ganges and Yamuna rivers in India. He left an estate of almost £100 million.
Early years: 1943–1958
Harrison was born at 12 Arnold Grove in Wavertree, Liverpool on 25 February 1943. He was the youngest of four children of Harold Hargreaves (or Hargrove) Harrison (1909–1978) and Louise ( French; 1911–1970). Harold was a bus conductor who had worked as a ship's steward on the White Star Line, and Louise was a shop assistant of Irish Catholic descent. He had one sister, Louise (born 16 August 1931), and two brothers, Harold (born 1934) and Peter (20 July 1940 – 1 June 2007).
According to Boyd, Harrison's mother was particularly supportive: "All she wanted for her children is that they should be happy, and she recognised that nothing made George quite as happy as making music." Louise was an enthusiastic music fan, and she was known among friends for her loud singing voice, which at times startled visitors by rattling the Harrisons' windows. When Louise was pregnant with George, she often listened to the weekly broadcast Radio India. Harrison's biographer Joshua Greene wrote, "Every Sunday she tuned in to mystical sounds evoked by sitars and tablas, hoping that the exotic music would bring peace and calm to the baby in the womb."
Harrison lived the first four years of his life at 12 Arnold Grove, a terraced house on a cul-de-sac. The home had an outdoor toilet and its only heat came from a single coal fire. In 1949, the family was offered a council house and moved to 25 Upton Green, Speke. In 1948, at the age of five, Harrison enrolled at Dovedale Primary School. He passed the eleven-plus exam and attended Liverpool Institute High School for Boys from 1954 to 1959. Though the institute did offer a music course, Harrison was disappointed with the absence of guitars, and felt the school "moulded [students] into being frightened".
Harrison's earliest musical influences included George Formby, Cab Calloway, Django Reinhardt and Hoagy Carmichael; by the 1950s, Carl Perkins and Lonnie Donegan were significant influences. In early 1956, he had an epiphany: while riding his bicycle, he heard Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel" playing from a nearby house, and the song piqued his interest in rock and roll. He often sat at the back of the class drawing guitars in his schoolbooks, and later commented, "I was totally into guitars." Harrison cited Slim Whitman as another early influence: "The first person I ever saw playing a guitar was Slim Whitman, either a photo of him in a magazine or live on television. Guitars were definitely coming in."
At first, Harold Harrison was apprehensive about his son's interest in pursuing a music career. However, in 1956, he bought George a Dutch Egmond flat-top acoustic guitar, which according to Harold, cost £3.10s.– (equivalent to £ in ). One of his father's friends taught Harrison how to play "Whispering", "Sweet Sue" and "Dinah". Inspired by Donegan's music, Harrison formed a skiffle group, the Rebels, with his brother Peter and a friend, Arthur Kelly. On the bus to school, Harrison met Paul McCartney, who also attended the Liverpool Institute, and the pair bonded over their shared love of music.
The Beatles: 1958–1970
McCartney and his friend John Lennon were in a skiffle group called the Quarrymen. In March 1958, at McCartney's urging, Harrison auditioned for the Quarrymen at Rory Storm's Morgue Skiffle Club, playing Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith's "Guitar Boogie Shuffle", but Lennon felt that Harrison, having just turned 15, was too young to join the band. McCartney arranged a second meeting, on the upper deck of a Liverpool bus, during which Harrison impressed Lennon by performing the lead guitar part for the instrumental "Raunchy". He began socialising with the group, filling in on guitar as needed, and then became accepted as a member. Although his father wanted him to continue his education, Harrison left school at 16 and worked for several months as an apprentice electrician at Blacklers, a local department store. During the group's first tour of Scotland, in 1960, Harrison used the pseudonym "Carl Harrison", in reference to Carl Perkins.
In 1960, promoter Allan Williams arranged for the band, now calling themselves the Beatles, to play at the Indra and Kaiserkeller clubs in Hamburg, both owned by Bruno Koschmider. Their first residency in Hamburg ended prematurely when Harrison was deported for being too young to work in nightclubs. When Brian Epstein became their manager in December 1961, he polished up their image and later secured them a recording contract with EMI. The group's first single, "Love Me Do", peaked at number 17 on the Record Retailer chart, and by the time their debut album, Please Please Me, was released in early 1963, Beatlemania had arrived. Often serious and focused while on stage with the band, Harrison was known as "the quiet Beatle". That moniker arose when the Beatles arrived in the United States in early 1964, and Harrison was ill with a case of Strep throat and a fever and was medically advised to limit speaking as much as possible until he performed on The Ed Sullivan Show as scheduled. As such, the press noticed Harrison's apparent laconic nature in public appearances on that tour and the subsequent nickname stuck, much to Harrison's amusement. He had two lead vocal credits on the LP, including the Lennon–McCartney song "Do You Want to Know a Secret?", and three on their second album, With the Beatles (1963). The latter included "Don't Bother Me", Harrison's first solo writing credit.
Harrison served as the Beatles' scout for new American releases, being especially knowledgeable about soul music. By 1965's Rubber Soul, he had begun to lead the other Beatles into folk rock through his interest in the Byrds and Bob Dylan, and towards Indian classical music through his use of the sitar on "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)". He later called Rubber Soul his "favourite [Beatles] album". Revolver (1966) included three of his compositions: "Taxman", selected as the album's opening track, "Love You To" and "I Want to Tell You". His drone-like tambura part on Lennon's "Tomorrow Never Knows" exemplified the band's ongoing exploration of non-Western instruments, while the sitar- and tabla-based "Love You To" represented the Beatles' first genuine foray into Indian music. According to the ethnomusicologist David Reck, the latter song set a precedent in popular music as an example of Asian culture being represented by Westerners respectfully and without parody. Author Nicholas Schaffner wrote in 1978 that following Harrison's increased association with the sitar after "Norwegian Wood", he became known as "the maharaja of raga-rock". Harrison continued to develop his interest in non-Western instrumentation, playing swarmandal on "Strawberry Fields Forever".
By late 1966, Harrison's interests had moved away from the Beatles. This was reflected in his choice of Eastern gurus and religious leaders for inclusion on the album cover for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967. His sole composition on the album was the Indian-inspired "Within You Without You", to which no other Beatle contributed. He played sitar and tambura on the track, backed by musicians from the London Asian Music Circle on dilruba, swarmandal and tabla. He later commented on the Sgt. Pepper album: "It was a millstone and a milestone in the music industry ... There's about half the songs I like and the other half I can't stand."
In January 1968, he recorded the basic track for his song "The Inner Light" at EMI's studio in Bombay, using a group of local musicians playing traditional Indian instruments. Released as the B-side to McCartney's "Lady Madonna", it was the first Harrison composition to appear on a Beatles single. Derived from a quotation from the Tao Te Ching, the song's lyric reflected Harrison's deepening interest in Hinduism and meditation. During the recording of The Beatles that same year, tensions within the group ran high, and drummer Ringo Starr quit briefly. Harrison's four songwriting contributions to the double album included "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", which featured Eric Clapton on lead guitar, and the horn-driven "Savoy Truffle".
Dylan and the Band were a major musical influence on Harrison at the end of his career with the Beatles. While on a visit to Woodstock in late 1968, he established a friendship with Dylan and found himself drawn to the Band's sense of communal music-making and to the creative equality among the band members, which contrasted with Lennon and McCartney's domination of the Beatles' songwriting and creative direction. This coincided with a prolific period in his songwriting and a growing desire to assert his independence from the Beatles. Tensions among the group surfaced again in January 1969, at Twickenham Studios, during the filmed rehearsals that became the 1970 documentary Let It Be. Frustrated by the cold and sterile film studio, by Lennon's creative disengagement from the Beatles, and by what he perceived as a domineering attitude from McCartney, Harrison quit the group on 10 January. He returned twelve days later, after his bandmates had agreed to move the film project to their own Apple Studio and to abandon McCartney's plan for making a return to public performance.
Relations among the Beatles were more cordial, though still strained, when the band recorded their 1969 album Abbey Road. The LP included what Lavezzoli describes as "two classic contributions" from Harrison – "Here Comes the Sun" and "Something" – that saw him "finally achieve equal songwriting status" with Lennon and McCartney. During the album's recording, Harrison asserted more creative control than before, rejecting suggestions for changes to his music, particularly from McCartney. "Something" became his first A-side when issued on a double A-side single with "Come Together"; the song was number one in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and West Germany, and the combined sides topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States. In the 1970s Frank Sinatra recorded "Something" twice (1970 and 1979) and later dubbed it "the greatest love song of the past fifty years". Lennon considered it the best song on Abbey Road, and it became the Beatles' second most covered song after "Yesterday".
In May 1970, Harrison's song "For You Blue" was coupled on a US single with McCartney's "The Long and Winding Road" and became Harrison's second chart-topper when the sides were listed together at number one on the Hot 100. His increased productivity meant that by the time of their break-up he had amassed a stockpile of unreleased compositions. While Harrison grew as a songwriter, his compositional presence on Beatles albums remained limited to two or three songs, increasing his frustration, and significantly contributing to the band's break-up. Harrison's last recording session with the Beatles was on 4 January 1970, when he, McCartney and Starr recorded his song "I Me Mine" for the Let It Be soundtrack album.
Solo career: 1968–1987
Early solo work: 1968–1969
Before the Beatles' break-up, Harrison had already recorded and released two solo albums: Wonderwall Music and Electronic Sound, both of which contain mainly instrumental compositions. Wonderwall Music, a soundtrack to the 1968 film Wonderwall, blends Indian and Western instrumentation, while Electronic Sound is an experimental album that prominently features a Moog synthesizer. Released in November 1968, Wonderwall Music was the first solo album by a Beatle and the first LP released by Apple Records. Indian musicians Aashish Khan and Shivkumar Sharma performed on the album, which contains the experimental sound collage "Dream Scene", recorded several months before Lennon's "Revolution 9".
In December 1969, Harrison participated in a brief tour of Europe with the American group Delaney & Bonnie and Friends. During the tour that included Clapton, Bobby Whitlock, drummer Jim Gordon and band leaders Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett, Harrison began to play slide guitar, and also began to write "My Sweet Lord", which became his first single as a solo artist.
All Things Must Pass: 1970
For many years, Harrison was restricted in his songwriting contributions to the Beatles' albums, but he released All Things Must Pass, a triple album with two discs of his songs and the third of recordings of Harrison jamming with friends. The album was regarded by many as his best work, and it topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. The LP produced the number-one hit single "My Sweet Lord" and the top-ten single "What Is Life". The album was co-produced by Phil Spector using his "Wall of Sound" approach, and the musicians included Starr, Clapton, Gary Wright, Billy Preston, Klaus Voormann, the whole of Delaney and Bonnie's Friends band and the Apple group Badfinger. On release, All Things Must Pass was received with critical acclaim; Ben Gerson of Rolling Stone described it as being "of classic Spectorian proportions, Wagnerian, Brucknerian, the music of mountain tops and vast horizons". Author and musicologist Ian Inglis considers the lyrics of the album's title track "a recognition of the impermanence of human existence ... a simple and poignant conclusion" to Harrison's former band. In 1971, Bright Tunes sued Harrison for copyright infringement over "My Sweet Lord", owing to its similarity to the 1963 Chiffons hit "He's So Fine". When the case was heard in the United States district court in 1976, he denied deliberately plagiarising the song, but lost the case, as the judge ruled that he had done so subconsciously.
In 2000, Apple Records released a thirtieth anniversary edition of the album, and Harrison actively participated in its promotion. In an interview, he reflected on the work: "It's just something that was like my continuation from the Beatles, really. It was me sort of getting out of the Beatles and just going my own way ... it was a very happy occasion." He commented on the production: "Well, in those days it was like the reverb was kind of used a bit more than what I would do now. In fact, I don't use reverb at all. I can't stand it ... You know, it's hard to go back to anything thirty years later and expect it to be how you would want it now."
The Concert for Bangladesh: 1971
Harrison responded to a request from Ravi Shankar by organising a charity event, the Concert for Bangladesh, which took place on 1 August 1971. The event drew over 40,000 people to two shows in New York's Madison Square Garden. The goal of the event was to raise money to aid starving refugees during the Bangladesh Liberation War. Shankar opened the show, which featured popular musicians such as Dylan, Clapton, Leon Russell, Badfinger, Preston and Starr.
A triple album, The Concert for Bangladesh, was released by Apple in December, followed by a concert film in 1972. Credited to "George Harrison and Friends", the album topped the UK chart and peaked at number 2 in the US, and went on to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Tax troubles and questionable expenses later tied up many of the proceeds, but Harrison commented: "Mainly the concert was to attract attention to the situation ... The money we raised was secondary, and although we had some money problems ... they still got plenty ... even though it was a drop in the ocean. The main thing was, we spread the word and helped get the war ended."
Living in the Material World to George Harrison: 1973–1979
Harrison's 1973 album Living in the Material World held the number one spot on the Billboard albums chart for five weeks, and the album's single, "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)", also reached number one in the US. In the UK, the LP peaked at number two and the single reached number 8. The album was lavishly produced and packaged, and its dominant message was Harrison's Hindu beliefs. In Greene's opinion it "contained many of the strongest compositions of his career". Stephen Holden, writing in Rolling Stone, felt the album was "vastly appealing" and "profoundly seductive", and that it stood "alone as an article of faith, miraculous in its radiance". Other reviewers were less enthusiastic, describing the release as awkward, sanctimonious and overly sentimental.
In November 1974, Harrison became the first ex-Beatle to tour North America when he began his 45-date Dark Horse Tour. The shows included guest spots by his band members Billy Preston and Tom Scott, and traditional and contemporary Indian music performed by "Ravi Shankar, Family and Friends". Despite numerous positive reviews, the consensus reaction to the tour was negative. Some fans found Shankar's significant presence to be a bizarre disappointment, and many were affronted by what Inglis described as Harrison's "sermonizing". Further, he reworked the lyrics to several Beatles songs, and his laryngitis-affected vocals led to some critics calling the tour "dark hoarse". The author Robert Rodriguez commented: "While the Dark Horse tour might be considered a noble failure, there were a number of fans who were tuned-in to what was being attempted. They went away ecstatic, conscious that they had just witnessed something so uplifting that it could never be repeated." Simon Leng called the tour "groundbreaking" and "revolutionary in its presentation of Indian Music".
In December, Harrison released Dark Horse, which was an album that earned him the least favourable reviews of his career. Rolling Stone called it "the chronicle of a performer out of his element, working to a deadline, enfeebling his overtaxed talents by a rush to deliver a new 'LP product', rehearse a band, and assemble a cross-country tour, all within three weeks". The album reached number 4 on the Billboard chart and the single "Dark Horse" reached number 15, but they failed to make an impact in the UK. The music critic Mikal Gilmore described Dark Horse as "one of Harrison's most fascinating works – a record about change and loss".
Harrison's final studio album for EMI and Apple Records, the soul music-inspired Extra Texture (Read All About It) (1975), peaked at number 8 on the Billboard chart and number 16 in the UK. Harrison considered it the least satisfactory of the three albums he had recorded since All Things Must Pass. Leng identified "bitterness and dismay" in many of the tracks; his long-time friend Klaus Voormann commented: "He wasn't up for it ... It was a terrible time because I think there was a lot of cocaine going around, and that's when I got out of the picture ... I didn't like his frame of mind". He released two singles from the LP: "You", which reached the Billboard top 20, and "This Guitar (Can't Keep from Crying)", Apple's final original single release.
Thirty Three & 1/3 (1976), Harrison's first album release on his own Dark Horse Records label, produced the hit singles "This Song" and "Crackerbox Palace", both of which reached the top 25 in the US. The surreal humour of "Crackerbox Palace" reflected Harrison's association with Monty Python's Eric Idle, who directed a comical music video for the song. With an emphasis on melody and musicianship, and a more subtle subject matter than the pious message of his earlier works, Thirty Three & 1/3 earned Harrison his most favourable critical notices in the US since All Things Must Pass. The album peaked just outside the top ten there, but outsold his previous two LPs. As part of his promotion for the release, Harrison performed on Saturday Night Live with Paul Simon.
In 1979, Harrison released George Harrison, which followed his second marriage and the birth of his son Dhani. Co-produced by Russ Titelman, the album and the single "Blow Away" both made the Billboard top 20. The album marked the beginning of Harrison's gradual retreat from the music business, with several of the songs having been written in the tranquil setting of Maui in the Hawaiian archipelago. Leng described George Harrison as "melodic and lush ... peaceful ... the work of a man who had lived the rock and roll dream twice over and was now embracing domestic as well as spiritual bliss".
Somewhere in England to Cloud Nine: 1980–1987
The murder of John Lennon on 8 December 1980 disturbed Harrison and reinforced his decades-long concern about stalkers. The tragedy was also a deep personal loss, although Harrison and Lennon had little contact in the years before Lennon was killed. Following the murder, Harrison commented: "After all we went through together I had and still have great love and respect for John Lennon. I am shocked and stunned." Harrison modified the lyrics of a song he had written for Starr in order to make the song a tribute to Lennon. "All Those Years Ago", which included vocal contributions from Paul and Linda McCartney, as well as Starr's original drum part, peaked at number two in the US charts. The single was included on the album Somewhere in England in 1981.
Harrison did not release any new albums for five years after 1982's Gone Troppo received little notice from critics or the public. During this period he made several guest appearances, including a 1985 performance at a tribute to Carl Perkins titled Blue Suede Shoes: A Rockabilly Session. In March 1986 he made a surprise appearance during the finale of the Birmingham Heart Beat Charity Concert, an event organised to raise money for the Birmingham Children's Hospital. The following year, he appeared at The Prince's Trust concert at London's Wembley Arena, performing "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Here Comes the Sun". In February 1987 he joined Dylan, John Fogerty and Jesse Ed Davis on stage for a two-hour performance with the blues musician Taj Mahal. Harrison recalled: "Bob rang me up and asked if I wanted to come out for the evening and see Taj Mahal ... So we went there and had a few of these Mexican beers – and had a few more ... Bob says, 'Hey, why don't we all get up and play, and you can sing?' But every time I got near the microphone, Dylan comes up and just starts singing this rubbish in my ear, trying to throw me."
In November 1987, Harrison released the platinum album Cloud Nine. Co-produced with Jeff Lynne of Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), the album included Harrison's rendition of James Ray's "Got My Mind Set on You", which went to number one in the US and number two in the UK. The accompanying music video received substantial airplay, and another single, "When We Was Fab", a retrospective of the Beatles' career, earned two MTV Music Video Awards nominations in 1988. Recorded at his estate in Friar Park, Harrison's slide guitar playing featured prominently on the album, which included several of his long-time musical collaborators, including Clapton, Jim Keltner and Jim Horn. Cloud Nine reached number eight and number ten on the US and UK charts respectively, and several tracks from the album achieved placement on Billboards Mainstream Rock chart – "Devil's Radio", "This Is Love" and "Cloud 9".
Later career: 1988–1996
The Traveling Wilburys and return to touring: 1988–1992
In 1988, Harrison formed the Traveling Wilburys with Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan and Tom Petty. The band had gathered in Dylan's garage to record a song for a Harrison European single release. Harrison's record company decided the track, "Handle with Care", was too good for its original purpose as a B-side and asked for a full album. The LP, Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1, was released in October 1988 and recorded under pseudonyms as half-brothers, supposed sons of Charles Truscott Wilbury, Sr. It reached number 16 in the UK and number 3 in the US, where it was certified triple platinum. Harrison's pseudonym on the album was "Nelson Wilbury"; he used the name "Spike Wilbury" for their second album.
In 1989, Harrison and Starr appeared in the music video for Petty's song "I Won't Back Down". In October that year, Harrison assembled and released Best of Dark Horse 1976–1989, a compilation of his later solo work. The album included three new songs, including "Cheer Down", which Harrison had recently contributed to the Lethal Weapon 2 film soundtrack.
Following Orbison's death in December 1988, the Wilburys recorded as a four-piece. Their second album, issued in October 1990, was mischievously titled Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3. According to Lynne, "That was George's idea. He said, 'Let's confuse the buggers.'" It peaked at number 14 in the UK and number 11 in the US, where it was certified platinum. The Wilburys never performed live, and the group did not record together again following the release of their second album.
In December 1991, Harrison joined Clapton for a tour of Japan. It was Harrison's first since 1974 and no others followed. On 6 April 1992, Harrison held a benefit concert for the Natural Law Party at the Royal Albert Hall, his first London performance since the Beatles' 1969 rooftop concert. In October 1992, he performed at a Bob Dylan tribute concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City, playing alongside Dylan, Clapton, McGuinn, Petty and Neil Young.
The Beatles Anthology: 1994–1996
In 1994, Harrison began a collaboration with McCartney, Starr and producer Jeff Lynne for the Beatles Anthology project. This included the recording of two new Beatles songs built around solo vocal and piano tapes recorded by Lennon as well as lengthy interviews about the Beatles' career. Released in December 1995, "Free as a Bird" was the first new Beatles single since 1970. In March 1996, they released a second single, "Real Love". Harrison refused to participate in the completion of a third song. He later commented on the project: "I hope somebody does this to all my crap demos when I'm dead, make them into hit songs."
Later life and death: 1997–2001
After the Anthology project, Harrison collaborated with Ravi Shankar on the latter's Chants of India. Harrison's final television appearance was a VH-1 special to promote the album, taped in May 1997. Soon afterwards, Harrison was diagnosed with throat cancer; he was treated with radiotherapy, which was thought at the time to be successful. He publicly blamed years of smoking for the illness.
In January 1998, Harrison attended Carl Perkins' funeral in Jackson, Tennessee, where he performed a brief rendition of Perkins' song "Your True Love". In May, he represented the Beatles at London's High Court in their successful bid to gain control of unauthorised recordings made of a 1962 performance by the band at the Star-Club in Hamburg. The following year, he was the most active of the former Beatles in promoting the reissue of their 1968 animated film Yellow Submarine.
On 30 December 1999, Harrison and his wife were attacked at their home, Friar Park. Michael Abram, a 34-year-old man suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, broke in and attacked Harrison with a kitchen knife, puncturing a lung and causing head injuries before Olivia Harrison incapacitated the assailant by striking him repeatedly with a fireplace poker and a lamp. Harrison later commented, "I felt exhausted and could feel the strength draining from me. I vividly remember a deliberate thrust to my chest. I could hear my lung exhaling and had blood in my mouth. I believed I had been fatally stabbed." Following the attack, Harrison was hospitalised with more than 40 stab wounds, and part of his punctured lung was removed. He released a statement soon afterwards regarding his assailant: "He wasn't a burglar, and he certainly wasn't auditioning for the Traveling Wilburys. Adi Shankara, an Indian historical, spiritual and groovy-type person, once said, 'Life is fragile like a raindrop on a lotus leaf.' And you'd better believe it." Upon being released from a mental hospital in 2002 after less than three years in state custody, Abram said "If I could turn back the clock, I would give anything not to have done what I did in attacking George Harrison, but looking back on it now, I have come to understand that I was at the time not in control of my actions. I can only hope the Harrison family might somehow find it in their hearts to accept my apologies."
The injuries inflicted on Harrison during the home invasion were downplayed by his family in their comments to the press. Having seen Harrison looking so healthy beforehand, those in his social circle believed that the attack brought about a change in him and was the cause for his cancer's return. In May 2001, it was revealed that Harrison had undergone an operation to remove a cancerous growth from one of his lungs, and in July, it was reported that he was being treated for a brain tumour at a clinic in Switzerland. While in Switzerland, Starr visited him but had to cut short his stay in order to travel to Boston, where his daughter was undergoing emergency brain surgery. Harrison, who was very weak, quipped: "Do you want me to come with you?" In November 2001, he began radiotherapy at Staten Island University Hospital in New York City for non-small cell lung cancer that had spread to his brain. When the news was made public, Harrison bemoaned his physician's breach of privacy, and his estate later claimed damages.
On 29 November 2001, Harrison died at a property belonging to McCartney, on Heather Road in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles. He was 58 years old. He died in the company of Olivia, Dhani, Shankar and the latter's wife Sukanya and daughter Anoushka, and Hare Krishna devotees Shyamsundar Das and Mukunda Goswami, who chanted verses from the Bhagavad Gita. His final message to the world, as relayed in a statement by Olivia and Dhani, was: "Everything else can wait, but the search for God cannot wait, and love one another." He was cremated at Hollywood Forever Cemetery and his funeral was held at the Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine in Pacific Palisades, California. His close family scattered his ashes according to Hindu tradition in a private ceremony in the Ganges and Yamuna rivers near Varanasi, India. He left almost £100 million in his will.
Harrison's final album, Brainwashed (2002), was released posthumously after it was completed by his son Dhani and Jeff Lynne. A quotation from the Bhagavad Gita is included in the album's liner notes: "There never was a time when you or I did not exist. Nor will there be any future when we shall cease to be." A media-only single, "Stuck Inside a Cloud", which Leng describes as "a uniquely candid reaction to illness and mortality", achieved number 27 on Billboards Adult Contemporary chart. The single "Any Road", released in May 2003, peaked at number 37 on the UK Singles Chart. "Marwa Blues" went on to receive the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance, while "Any Road" was nominated for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.
Musicianship
Guitar work
Harrison's guitar work with the Beatles was varied and flexible. Although not fast or flashy, his lead guitar playing was solid and typified the more subdued lead guitar style of the early 1960s. His rhythm guitar playing was innovative, for example when he used a capo to shorten the strings on an acoustic guitar, as on the Rubber Soul album and "Here Comes the Sun", to create a bright, sweet sound. Eric Clapton felt that Harrison was "clearly an innovator" as he was "taking certain elements of R&B and rock and rockabilly and creating something unique". Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner described Harrison as "a guitarist who was never showy but who had an innate, eloquent melodic sense. He played exquisitely in the service of the song". The guitar picking style of Chet Atkins and Carl Perkins influenced Harrison, giving a country music feel to many of the Beatles' recordings. He identified Chuck Berry as another early influence.
In 1961 the Beatles recorded "Cry for a Shadow", a blues-inspired instrumental co-written by Lennon and Harrison, who is credited with composing the song's lead guitar part, building on unusual chord voicings and imitating the style of other English groups such as the Shadows. Harrison's liberal use of the diatonic scale in his guitar playing reveals the influence of Buddy Holly, and his interest in Berry inspired him to compose songs based on the blues scale while incorporating a rockabilly feel in the style of Perkins. Another of Harrison's musical techniques was the use of guitar lines written in octaves, as on "I'll Be on My Way".
By 1964, he had begun to develop a distinctive personal style as a guitarist, writing parts that featured the use of nonresolving tones, as with the ending chord arpeggios on "A Hard Day's Night". On this and other songs from the period, he used a Rickenbacker 360/12 – an electric guitar with twelve strings, the low eight of which are tuned in pairs, one octave apart, with the higher four being pairs tuned in unison. His use of the Rickenbacker on A Hard Day's Night helped to popularise the model, and the jangly sound became so prominent that Melody Maker termed it the Beatles' "secret weapon". In 1965 Harrison used an expression pedal to control his guitar's volume on "I Need You", creating a syncopated flautando effect with the melody resolving its dissonance through tonal displacements. He used the same volume-swell technique on "Yes It Is", applying what Everett described as "ghostly articulation" to the song's natural harmonics.
In 1966, Harrison contributed innovative musical ideas to Revolver. He played backwards guitar on Lennon's composition "I'm Only Sleeping" and a guitar counter-melody on "And Your Bird Can Sing" that moved in parallel octaves above McCartney's bass downbeats. His guitar playing on "I Want to Tell You" exemplified the pairing of altered chordal colours with descending chromatic lines and his guitar part for Sgt Peppers "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" mirrors Lennon's vocal line in much the same way that a sarangi player accompanies a khyal singer in a Hindu devotional song.
Everett described Harrison's guitar solo from "Old Brown Shoe" as "stinging [and] highly Claptonesque". He identified two of the composition's significant motifs: a bluesy trichord and a diminished triad with roots in A and E. Huntley called the song "a sizzling rocker with a ferocious ... solo". In Greene's opinion, Harrison's demo for "Old Brown Shoe" contains "one of the most complex lead guitar solos on any Beatles song".
Harrison's playing on Abbey Road, and in particular on "Something", marked a significant moment in his development as a guitarist. The song's guitar solo shows a varied range of influences, incorporating the blues guitar style of Clapton and the styles of Indian gamakas. According to author and musicologist Kenneth Womack: "'Something' meanders toward the most unforgettable of Harrison's guitar solos ... A masterpiece in simplicity, [it] reaches toward the sublime".
After Delaney Bramlett inspired him to learn slide guitar, Harrison began to incorporate it into his solo work, which allowed him to mimic many traditional Indian instruments, including the sarangi and the dilruba. Leng described Harrison's slide guitar solo on Lennon's "How Do You Sleep?" as a departure for "the sweet soloist of 'Something'", calling his playing "rightly famed ... one of Harrison's greatest guitar statements". Lennon commented: "That's the best he's ever fucking played in his life."
A Hawaiian influence is notable in much of Harrison's music, ranging from his slide guitar work on Gone Troppo (1982) to his televised performance of the Cab Calloway standard "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" on ukulele in 1992. Lavezzoli described Harrison's slide playing on the Grammy-winning instrumental "Marwa Blues" (2002) as demonstrating Hawaiian influences while comparing the melody to an Indian sarod or veena, calling it "yet another demonstration of Harrison's unique slide approach". Harrison was an admirer of George Formby and a member of the Ukulele Society of Great Britain, and played a ukulele solo in the style of Formby at the end of "Free as a Bird". He performed at a Formby convention in 1991, and served as the honorary president of the George Formby Appreciation Society. Harrison played bass guitar on a few tracks, including the Beatles songs "She Said She Said", "Golden Slumbers", "Birthday" and "Honey Pie". He also played bass on several solo recordings, including "Faster", "Wake Up My Love" and "Bye Bye Love".
Sitar and Indian music
During the Beatles' American tour in August 1965, Harrison's friend David Crosby of the Byrds introduced him to Indian classical music and the work of sitar maestro Ravi Shankar. Harrison described Shankar as "the first person who ever impressed me in my life ... and he was the only person who didn't try to impress me." Harrison became fascinated with the sitar and immersed himself in Indian music. According to Lavezzoli, Harrison's introduction of the instrument on the Beatles' song "Norwegian Wood" "opened the floodgates for Indian instrumentation in rock music, triggering what Shankar would call 'The Great Sitar Explosion' of 1966–67". Lavezzoli recognises Harrison as "the man most responsible for this phenomenon".
In June 1966 Harrison met Shankar at the home of Mrs Angadi of the Asian Music Circle, asked to be his student, and was accepted. Before this meeting, Harrison had recorded his Revolver track "Love You To", contributing a sitar part that Lavezzoli describes as an "astonishing improvement" over "Norwegian Wood" and "the most accomplished performance on sitar by any rock musician". On 6 July, Harrison travelled to India to buy a sitar from Rikhi Ram & Sons in New Delhi. In September, following the Beatles' final tour, he returned to India to study sitar for six weeks with Shankar. He initially stayed in Bombay until fans learned of his arrival, then moved to a houseboat on a remote lake in Kashmir. During this visit, he also received tutelage from Shambhu Das, Shankar's protégé.
Harrison studied the instrument until 1968, when, following a discussion with Shankar about the need to find his "roots", an encounter with Clapton and Jimi Hendrix at a hotel in New York convinced him to return to guitar playing. Harrison commented: "I decided ... I'm not going to be a great sitar player ... because I should have started at least fifteen years earlier." Harrison continued to use Indian instrumentation occasionally on his solo albums and remained strongly associated with the genre. Lavezzoli groups him with Paul Simon and Peter Gabriel as the three rock musicians who have given the most "mainstream exposure to non-Western musics, or the concept of 'world music'".
Songwriting
Harrison wrote his first song, "Don't Bother Me", while sick in a hotel bed in Bournemouth during August 1963, as "an exercise to see if I could write a song", as he remembered. His songwriting ability improved throughout the Beatles' career, but his material did not earn full respect from Lennon, McCartney and producer George Martin until near the group's break-up. In 1969, McCartney told Lennon: "Until this year, our songs have been better than George's. Now this year his songs are at least as good as ours". Harrison often had difficulty getting the band to record his songs. Most Beatles albums from 1965 onwards contain at least two Harrison compositions; three of his songs appear on Revolver, "the album on which Harrison came of age as a songwriter", according to Inglis.
Harrison wrote the chord progression of "Don't Bother Me" almost exclusively in the Dorian mode, demonstrating an interest in exotic tones that eventually culminated in his embrace of Indian music. The latter proved a strong influence on his songwriting and contributed to his innovation within the Beatles. According to Mikal Gilmore of Rolling Stone, "Harrison's openness to new sounds and textures cleared new paths for his rock and roll compositions. His use of dissonance on ... 'Taxman' and 'I Want to Tell You' was revolutionary in popular music – and perhaps more originally creative than the avant-garde mannerisms that Lennon and McCartney borrowed from the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luciano Berio, Edgard Varèse and Igor Stravinsky ..."
Of the 1967 Harrison song "Within You Without You", author Gerry Farrell said that Harrison had created a "new form", calling the composition "a quintessential fusion of pop and Indian music". Lennon called the song one of Harrison's best: "His mind and his music are clear. There is his innate talent, he brought that sound together." In his next fully Indian-styled song, "The Inner Light", Harrison embraced the Karnatak discipline of Indian music, rather than the Hindustani style he had used in "Love You To" and "Within You Without You". Writing in 1997, Farrell commented: "It is a mark of Harrison's sincere involvement with Indian music that, nearly thirty years on, the Beatles' 'Indian' songs remain the most imaginative and successful examples of this type of fusion – for example, 'Blue Jay Way' and 'The Inner Light'."
Beatles biographer Bob Spitz described "Something" as a masterpiece, and "an intensely stirring romantic ballad that would challenge 'Yesterday' and 'Michelle' as one of the most recognizable songs they ever produced". Inglis considered Abbey Road a turning point in Harrison's development as a songwriter and musician. He described Harrison's two contributions to the LP, "Here Comes the Sun" and "Something", as "exquisite", declaring them equal to any previous Beatles songs.
Collaborations
From 1968 onwards, Harrison collaborated with other musicians; he brought in Eric Clapton to play lead guitar on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" for the 1968 Beatles' White Album, and collaborated with John Barham on his 1968 debut solo album, Wonderwall Music, which included contributions from Clapton again, as well as Peter Tork from the Monkees. He played on tracks by Dave Mason, Nicky Hopkins, Alvin Lee, Ronnie Wood, Billy Preston and Tom Scott. Harrison co-wrote songs and music with Dylan, Clapton, Preston, Doris Troy, David Bromberg, Gary Wright, Wood, Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty, among others. Harrison's music projects during the final years of the Beatles included producing Apple Records artists Doris Troy, Jackie Lomax and Billy Preston.
Harrison co-wrote the song "Badge" with Clapton, which was included on Cream's 1969 album, Goodbye. Harrison played rhythm guitar on the track, using the pseudonym "L'Angelo Misterioso" for contractual reasons. In May 1970 he played guitar on several songs during a recording session for Dylan's album New Morning. Between 1971 and 1973 he co-wrote and/or produced three top ten hits for Starr: "It Don't Come Easy", "Back Off Boogaloo" and "Photograph". Aside from "How Do You Sleep?", his contributions to Lennon's 1971 album Imagine included a slide guitar solo on "Gimme Some Truth" and dobro on "Crippled Inside". Also that year, he produced and played slide guitar on Badfinger's top ten hit "Day After Day", and a dobro on Preston's "I Wrote a Simple Song". He worked with Harry Nilsson on "You're Breakin' My Heart" (1972) and with Cheech & Chong on "Basketball Jones" (1973).
In 1974 Harrison founded Dark Horse Records as an avenue for collaboration with other musicians. He wanted Dark Horse to serve as a creative outlet for artists, as Apple Records had for the Beatles. Eric Idle commented: "He's extremely generous, and he backs and supports all sorts of people that you'll never, ever hear of." The first acts signed to the new label were Ravi Shankar and the duo Splinter. Harrison produced and made multiple musical contributions to Splinter's debut album, The Place I Love, which provided Dark Horse with its first hit, "Costafine Town". He also produced and played guitar and autoharp on Shankar's Shankar Family & Friends, the label's other inaugural release. Other artists signed by Dark Horse include Attitudes, Henry McCullough, Jiva and Stairsteps.
Harrison collaborated with Tom Scott on Scott's 1975 album New York Connection, and in 1981 he played guitar on "Walk a Thin Line", from Mick Fleetwood's The Visitor. His contributions to Starr's solo career continued with "Wrack My Brain", a 1981 US top 40 hit written and produced by Harrison, and guitar overdubs to two tracks on Vertical Man (1998). In 1996 Harrison recorded "Distance Makes No Difference With Love" with Carl Perkins for the latter's album Go Cat Go!, and in 1990 he played slide guitar on the title track of Dylan's Under the Red Sky album. In 2001 he performed as a guest musician on Jeff Lynne and Electric Light Orchestra's comeback album Zoom, and on the song "Love Letters" for Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings. He also co-wrote a new song with his son Dhani, "Horse to the Water", which was recorded on 2 October, eight weeks before his death. It appeared on Jools Holland's album Small World, Big Band.
Guitars
When Harrison joined the Quarrymen in 1958 his main guitar was a Höfner President Acoustic, which he soon traded for a Höfner Club 40 model. His first solid-body electric guitar was a Czech-built Jolana Futurama/Grazioso. The guitars he used on early recordings were mainly Gretsch models, played through a Vox amplifier, including a Gretsch Duo Jet that he bought secondhand in 1961 and posed with on the album cover for Cloud Nine. He also bought a Gretsch Tennessean and a Gretsch Country Gentleman, which he played on "She Loves You", and during the Beatles' 1964 appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. In 1963, he bought a Rickenbacker 425 Fireglo, and in 1964 he acquired a Rickenbacker 360/12 guitar, which was the second of its kind to be manufactured. Harrison obtained his first Fender Stratocaster in 1965 and first used it during the recording of the Help! album that February; he also used it when recording Rubber Soul later that year, most notably on the song "Nowhere Man".
In early 1966, Harrison and Lennon each purchased Epiphone Casinos, which they used on Revolver. Harrison also used a Gibson J-160E and a Gibson SG Standard while recording the album. He later painted his Stratocaster in a psychedelic design that included the word "Bebopalula" above the pickguard and the guitar's nickname, "Rocky", on the headstock. He played this guitar in the Magical Mystery Tour film and throughout his solo career. In July 1968, Clapton gave him a Gibson Les Paul that had been stripped of its original finish and stained cherry red, which Harrison nicknamed "Lucy". Around this time, he obtained a Gibson Jumbo J-200 acoustic guitar, which he subsequently gave to Dylan to use at the 1969 Isle of Wight Festival. In late 1968, Fender Musical Instruments Corporation gave Harrison a custom-made Fender Telecaster Rosewood prototype, made especially for him by Philip Kubicki. In August 2017, Fender released a "Limited Edition George Harrison Rosewood Telecaster" modelled after a Telecaster that Roger Rossmeisl originally created for Harrison.
Film production and HandMade Films
Harrison helped finance Ravi Shankar's documentary Raga and released it through Apple Films in 1971. He also produced, with Apple manager Allen Klein, the Concert for Bangladesh film. In 1973, he produced the feature film Little Malcolm, but the project was lost amid the litigation surrounding the former Beatles ending their business ties with Klein.
In 1973, Peter Sellers introduced Harrison to Denis O'Brien. Soon after, the two went into business together. In 1978, to produce Monty Python's Life of Brian, they formed the film production and distribution company HandMade Films. Their opportunity for investment came after EMI Films withdrew funding at the demand of their chief executive, Bernard Delfont. Harrison financed the production of Life of Brian in part by mortgaging his home, which Idle later called "the most anybody's ever paid for a cinema ticket in history". The film grossed $21 million at the box office in the US. The first film distributed by HandMade Films was The Long Good Friday (1980), and the first they produced was Time Bandits (1981), a co-scripted project by Monty Pythons Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin. The film featured a new song by Harrison, "Dream Away", in the closing credits. Time Bandits became one of HandMade's most successful and acclaimed efforts; with a budget of $5 million, it earned $35 million in the US within ten weeks of its release.
Harrison served as executive producer for 23 films with HandMade, including A Private Function, Mona Lisa, Shanghai Surprise, Withnail and I and How to Get Ahead in Advertising. He made cameo appearances in several of these films, including a role as a nightclub singer in Shanghai Surprise, for which he recorded five new songs. According to Ian Inglis, "[Harrison's] executive role in HandMade Films helped to sustain British cinema at a time of crisis, producing some of the country's most memorable movies of the 1980s." Following a series of box office bombs in the late 1980s, and excessive debt incurred by O'Brien which was guaranteed by Harrison, HandMade's financial situation became precarious. The company ceased operations in 1991 and was sold three years later to Paragon Entertainment, a Canadian corporation. Afterwards, Harrison sued O'Brien for $25 million for fraud and negligence, resulting in an $11.6 million judgement in 1996.
Humanitarian work
Harrison was involved in humanitarian and political activism throughout his life. In the 1960s, the Beatles supported the civil rights movement and protested against the Vietnam War. In early 1971, Ravi Shankar consulted Harrison about how to provide aid to the people of Bangladesh after the 1970 Bhola cyclone and the Bangladesh Liberation War. Harrison hastily wrote and recorded the song "Bangla Desh", which became pop music's first charity single when issued by Apple Records in late July. He also pushed Apple to release Shankar's Joi Bangla EP in an effort to raise further awareness for the cause. Shankar asked for Harrison's advice about planning a small charity event in the US. Harrison responded by organising the Concert for Bangladesh, which raised more than $240,000. Around $13.5 million was generated through the album and film releases, although most of the funds were frozen in an Internal Revenue Service audit for ten years, due to Klein's failure to register the event as a UNICEF benefit beforehand. In June 1972, UNICEF honoured Harrison and Shankar, and Klein, with the "Child Is the Father of Man" award at an annual ceremony in recognition of their fundraising efforts for Bangladesh.
From 1980, Harrison became a vocal supporter of Greenpeace and CND. He also protested against the use of nuclear energy with Friends of the Earth, and helped finance Vole, a green magazine launched by Monty Python member Terry Jones. In 1990, he helped promote his wife Olivia's Romanian Angel Appeal on behalf of the thousands of Romanian orphans left abandoned by the state following the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. Harrison recorded a benefit single, "Nobody's Child", with the Traveling Wilburys, and assembled a fundraising album with contributions from other artists including Clapton, Starr, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Donovan and Van Morrison.
The Concert for Bangladesh has been described as an innovative precursor for the large-scale charity rock shows that followed, including Live Aid. The George Harrison Humanitarian Fund for UNICEF, a joint effort between the Harrison family and the US Fund for UNICEF, aims to support programmes that help children caught in humanitarian emergencies. In December 2007, they donated $450,000 to help the victims of Cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh. On 13 October 2009, the first George Harrison Humanitarian Award went to Ravi Shankar for his efforts in saving the lives of children, and his involvement with the Concert for Bangladesh.
Personal life
Hinduism
By the mid-1960s Harrison had become an admirer of Indian culture and mysticism, introducing it to the other Beatles. During the filming of Help! in the Bahamas, they met the founder of Sivananda Yoga, Swami Vishnu-devananda, who gave each of them a signed copy of his book, The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga. Between the end of the last Beatles tour in 1966 and the beginning of the Sgt Pepper recording sessions, he made a pilgrimage to India with his wife Pattie; there, he studied sitar with Ravi Shankar, met several gurus, and visited various holy places. In 1968 he travelled to Rishikesh in northern India with the other Beatles to study meditation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Harrison's use of psychedelic drugs encouraged his path to meditation and Hinduism. He commented: "For me, it was like a flash. The first time I had acid, it just opened up something in my head that was inside of me, and I realized a lot of things. I didn't learn them because I already knew them, but that happened to be the key that opened the door to reveal them. From the moment I had that, I wanted to have it all the time – these thoughts about the yogis and the Himalayas, and Ravi's music."
In line with the Hindu yoga tradition, Harrison became a vegetarian in the late 1960s. After being given various religious texts by Shankar in 1966, he remained a lifelong advocate of the teachings of Swami Vivekananda and Paramahansa Yogananda – yogis and authors, respectively, of Raja Yoga and Autobiography of a Yogi. In mid-1969, he produced the single "Hare Krishna Mantra", performed by members of the London Radha Krishna Temple. Having also helped the Temple devotees become established in Britain, Harrison then met their leader, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, whom he described as "my friend ... my master" and "a perfect example of everything he preached". Harrison embraced the Hare Krishna tradition, particularly japa-yoga chanting with beads, and became a lifelong devotee.
Regarding other faiths, he once remarked: "All religions are branches of one big tree. It doesn't matter what you call Him just as long as you call." He commented on his beliefs:
Before his religious conversion, Cliff Richard had been the only British performer known for similar activities; Richard's conversion to Christianity in 1966 had gone largely unnoticed by the public. "By contrast," wrote Inglis, "Harrison's spiritual journey was seen as a serious and important development that reflected popular music's increasing maturity ... what he, and the Beatles, had managed to overturn was the paternalistic assumption that popular musicians had no role other than to stand on stage and sing their hit songs."
Family and interests
Harrison married model Pattie Boyd on 21 January 1966, with McCartney serving as best man. Harrison and Boyd had met in 1964 during the production of the film A Hard Day's Night, in which the 19-year-old Boyd had been cast as a schoolgirl. They separated in 1974 and their divorce was finalised in 1977. Boyd said her decision to end the marriage was due largely to George's repeated infidelities. The last infidelity culminated in an affair with Ringo's wife Maureen, which Boyd called "the final straw". She characterised the last year of their marriage as "fuelled by alcohol and cocaine", and she stated: "George used coke excessively, and I think it changed him ... it froze his emotions and hardened his heart." She subsequently moved in with Eric Clapton, and they married in 1979.
Harrison married A&M, and later Dark Horse Records', marketing executive Olivia Trinidad Arias on 2 September 1978. As Dark Horse was a subsidiary of A&M, the couple had first met over the phone working on record company business, and then in person at the A&M Records offices in Los Angeles in 1974. Together they had one son, Dhani Harrison, born on 1 August 1978.
Harrison restored the English manor house and grounds of Friar Park, his home in Henley-on-Thames, where several of his music videos were filmed including "Crackerbox Palace"; the grounds also served as the background for the cover of All Things Must Pass. He employed ten workers to maintain the garden. Harrison commented on gardening as a form of escapism: "Sometimes I feel like I'm actually on the wrong planet, and it's great when I'm in my garden, but the minute I go out the gate I think: 'What the hell am I doing here?'" His autobiography, I, Me, Mine, is dedicated "to gardeners everywhere". The former Beatles publicist Derek Taylor helped Harrison write the book, which said little about the Beatles, focusing instead on Harrison's hobbies, music and lyrics. Taylor commented: "George is not disowning the Beatles ... but it was a long time ago and actually a short part of his life."
Harrison had an interest in sports cars and motor racing; he was one of the 100 people who purchased the McLaren F1 road car. He had collected photos of racing drivers and their cars since he was young; at 12 he had attended his first race, the 1955 British Grand Prix at Aintree. He wrote "Faster" as a tribute to the Formula One racing drivers Jackie Stewart and Ronnie Peterson. Proceeds from its release went to the Gunnar Nilsson cancer charity, set up after the Swedish driver's death from the disease in 1978. Harrison's first extravagant car, a 1964 Aston Martin DB5, was sold at auction on 7 December 2011 in London. An anonymous Beatles collector paid £350,000 for the vehicle that Harrison had bought new in January 1965.
Relationships with the other Beatles
For most of the Beatles' career the relationships in the group were close. According to Hunter Davies, "the Beatles spent their lives not living a communal life, but communally living the same life. They were each other's greatest friends." Harrison's ex-wife Pattie Boyd described how the Beatles "all belonged to each other" and admitted, "George has a lot with the others that I can never know about. Nobody, not even the wives, can break through or even comprehend it." Starr said, "We really looked out for each other and we had so many laughs together. In the old days we'd have the biggest hotel suites, the whole floor of the hotel, and the four of us would end up in the bathroom, just to be with each other." He added, "there were some really loving, caring moments between four people: a hotel room here and there – a really amazing closeness. Just four guys who loved each other. It was pretty sensational."
Lennon stated that his relationship with Harrison was "one of young follower and older guy ... [he] was like a disciple of mine when we started." The two later bonded over their LSD experiences, finding common ground as seekers of spirituality. They took radically different paths thereafter with, according to biographer Gary Tillery, Harrison finding God and Lennon coming to the conclusion that people are the creators of their own lives. In 1974, Harrison said of his former bandmate: "John Lennon is a saint and he's heavy-duty, and he's great and I love him. But at the same time, he's such a bastard – but that's the great thing about him, you see?"
Harrison and McCartney were the first of the Beatles to meet, having shared a school bus, and often learned and rehearsed new guitar chords together. McCartney said that he and Harrison usually shared a bedroom while touring. McCartney has referred to Harrison as his "baby brother". In a 1974 BBC radio interview with Alan Freeman, Harrison stated: "[McCartney] ruined me as a guitar player". Perhaps the most significant obstacle to a Beatles reunion after the death of Lennon was Harrison and McCartney's personal relationship, as both men admitted that they often got on each other's nerves. Rodriguez commented: "Even to the end of George's days, theirs was a volatile relationship".
Legacy
In June 1965, Harrison and the other Beatles were appointed Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). They received their insignia from the Queen at an investiture at Buckingham Palace on 26 October. In 1971 the Beatles received an Academy Award for the best Original Song Score for the film Let It Be. The minor planet 4149 Harrison, discovered in 1984, was named after him, as was a variety of Dahlia flower. In December 1992 he became the first recipient of the Billboard Century Award, an honour presented to music artists for significant bodies of work. The award recognised Harrison's "critical role in laying the groundwork for the modern concept of world music" and for his having "advanced society's comprehension of the spiritual and altruistic power of popular music". Rolling Stone magazine ranked him number 11 in their list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". He is also in number 65 in the list of "100 greatest songwriters of all time" by the same magazine.
In 2002, on the first anniversary of his death, the Concert for George was held at the Royal Albert Hall. Eric Clapton organised the event, which included performances by many of Harrison's friends and musical collaborators, including McCartney and Starr. Eric Idle, who described Harrison as "one of the few morally good people that rock and roll has produced", was among the performers of Monty Python's "Lumberjack Song". The profits from the concert went to Harrison's charity, the Material World Charitable Foundation.
In 2004, Harrison was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist by his former bandmates Lynne and Petty, and into the Madison Square Garden Walk of Fame in 2006 for the Concert for Bangladesh. On 14 April 2009, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce awarded Harrison a star on the Walk of Fame in front of the Capitol Records Building. McCartney, Lynne and Petty were present when the star was unveiled. Harrison's widow Olivia, the actor Tom Hanks and Idle made speeches at the ceremony, and Harrison's son Dhani spoke the Hare Krishna mantra.
A documentary film titled George Harrison: Living in the Material World, directed by Martin Scorsese, was released in October 2011. The film features interviews with Olivia and Dhani Harrison, Klaus Voormann, Terry Gilliam, Starr, Clapton, McCartney, Keltner and Astrid Kirchherr.
Harrison was posthumously honoured with The Recording Academy's Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammy Awards in February 2015.
Discography
Wonderwall Music (1968)
Electronic Sound (1969)
All Things Must Pass (1970)
Living in the Material World (1973)
Dark Horse (1974)
Extra Texture (Read All About It) (1975)
Thirty Three & 1/3 (1976)
George Harrison (1979)
Somewhere in England (1981)
Gone Troppo (1982)
Cloud Nine (1987)
Brainwashed (2002)
See also
List of peace activists
Notes
References
Citations
Sources
Further reading
Documentaries
External links
"George Harrison's Greatest Musical Moments" – Rolling Stone
"George Harrison" – Daily Telegraph obituary
BBC News:
"George Harrison dies"
"George Harrison: Life in pictures"
"George Harrison: The quiet Beatle"
1943 births
2001 deaths
20th-century British guitarists
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Devotees of Paramahansa Yogananda
EMI Records artists
English autobiographers
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George
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12733 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant%20planet | Giant planet | The giant planets constitute a diverse type of planet much larger than Earth. They are usually primarily composed of low-boiling-point materials (gases or ices), rather than rock or other solid matter, but massive solid planets can also exist. There are four known giant planets in the Solar System: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Many extrasolar giant planets have been identified orbiting other stars.
They are also sometimes called jovian planets, after Jupiter ("Jove" being another name for the Roman god "Jupiter"). They are also sometimes known as gas giants. However, many astronomers now apply the latter term only to Jupiter and Saturn, classifying Uranus and Neptune, which have different compositions, as ice giants. Both names are potentially misleading: all of the giant planets consist primarily of fluids above their critical points, where distinct gas and liquid phases do not exist. The principal components are hydrogen and helium in the case of Jupiter and Saturn, and water, ammonia and methane in the case of Uranus and Neptune.
The defining differences between a very low-mass brown dwarf and a gas giant () are debated. One school of thought is based on formation; the other, on the physics of the interior. Part of the debate concerns whether "brown dwarfs" must, by definition, have experienced nuclear fusion at some point in their history.
Terminology
The term gas giant was coined in 1952 by the science fiction writer James Blish and was originally used to refer to all giant planets. Arguably it is something of a misnomer, because throughout most of the volume of these planets the pressure is so high that matter is not in gaseous form. Other than the upper layers of the atmosphere, all matter is likely beyond the critical point, where there is no distinction between liquids and gases. Fluid planet would be a more accurate term. Jupiter also has metallic hydrogen near its center, but much of its volume is hydrogen, helium, and traces of other gases above their critical points. The observable atmospheres of all these planets (at less than unit optical depth) are quite thin compared to their radii, only extending perhaps one percent of the way to the center. Thus the observable portions are gaseous (in contrast to Mars and Earth, which have gaseous atmospheres through which the crust can be seen).
The rather misleading term has caught on because planetary scientists typically use rock, gas, and ice as shorthands for classes of elements and compounds commonly found as planetary constituents, irrespective of the matter's phase. In the outer Solar System, hydrogen and helium are referred to as gases; water, methane, and ammonia as ices; and silicates and metals as rock. When deep planetary interiors are considered, it may not be far off to say that, by ice astronomers mean oxygen and carbon, by rock they mean silicon, and by gas they mean hydrogen and helium. The many ways in which Uranus and Neptune differ from Jupiter and Saturn have led some to use the term only for the planets similar to the latter two. With this terminology in mind, some astronomers have started referring to Uranus and Neptune as ice giants to indicate the predominance of the ices (in fluid form) in their interior composition.
The alternative term jovian planet refers to the Roman god Jupiter—the genitive form of which is Jovis, hence Jovian—and was intended to indicate that all of these planets were similar to Jupiter.
Objects large enough to start deuterium fusion (above 13 Jupiter masses for solar composition) are called brown dwarfs, and these occupy the mass range between that of large giant planets and the lowest-mass stars. The 13-Jupiter-mass () cutoff is a rule of thumb rather than something of precise physical significance. Larger objects will burn most of their deuterium and smaller ones will burn only a little, and the value is somewhere in between. The amount of deuterium burnt depends not only on the mass but also on the composition of the planet, especially on the amount of helium and deuterium present. The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia includes objects up to 60 Jupiter masses, and the Exoplanet Data Explorer up to 24 Jupiter masses.
Description
A giant planet is a massive planet and has a thick atmosphere of hydrogen and helium. They may have a dense molten core of rocky elements, or the core may have completely dissolved and dispersed throughout the planet if the planet is hot enough. In "traditional" giant planets such as Jupiter and Saturn (the gas giants) hydrogen and helium constitute most of the mass of the planet, whereas they only make up an outer envelope on Uranus and Neptune, which are instead mostly composed of water, ammonia, and methane and therefore increasingly referred to as "ice giants".
Extrasolar giant planets that orbit very close to their stars are the exoplanets that are easiest to detect. These are called hot Jupiters and hot Neptunes because they have very high surface temperatures. Hot Jupiters were, until the advent of space-borne telescopes, the most common form of exoplanet known, due to the relative ease of detecting them with ground-based instruments.
Giant planets are commonly said to lack solid surfaces, but it is more accurate to say that they lack surfaces altogether since the gases that constitute them simply become thinner and thinner with increasing distance from the planets' centers, eventually becoming indistinguishable from the interplanetary medium. Therefore, landing on a giant planet may or may not be possible, depending on the size and composition of its core.
Subtypes
Gas giants
Gas giants consist mostly of hydrogen and helium. The Solar System's gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn, have heavier elements making up between 3 and 13 percent of their mass. Gas giants are thought to consist of an outer layer of molecular hydrogen, surrounding a layer of liquid metallic hydrogen, with a probable molten core with a rocky composition.
Jupiter and Saturn's outermost portion of the hydrogen atmosphere has many layers of visible clouds that are mostly composed of water and ammonia. The layer of metallic hydrogen makes up the bulk of each planet, and is referred to as "metallic" because the very high pressure turns hydrogen into an electrical conductor. The core is thought to consist of heavier elements at such high temperatures (20,000 K) and pressures that their properties are poorly understood.
Ice giants
Ice giants have distinctly different interior compositions from gas giants. The Solar System's ice giants, Uranus and Neptune, have a hydrogen-rich atmosphere that extends from the cloud tops down to about 80% (Uranus) or 85% (Neptune) of their radius. Below this, they are predominantly "icy", i.e. consist mostly of water, methane, and ammonia. There is also some rock and gas, but various proportions of ice–rock–gas could mimic pure ice, so that the exact proportions are unknown.
Uranus and Neptune have very hazy atmospheric layers with small amounts of methane, giving them aquamarine colors; light blue and ultramarine respectively. Both have magnetic fields that are sharply inclined to their axes of rotation.
Unlike the other giant planets, Uranus has an extreme tilt that causes its seasons to be severely pronounced. The two planets also have other subtle but important differences. Uranus has more hydrogen and helium than Neptune despite being less massive overall. Neptune is therefore denser and has much more internal heat and a more active atmosphere. The Nice model, in fact, suggests that Neptune formed closer to the Sun than Uranus did, and should therefore have more heavy elements.
Massive solid planets
Massive solid planets can also exist.
Solid planets up to thousands of Earth masses may be able to form around massive stars (B-type and O-type stars; 5–120 solar masses), where the protoplanetary disk would contain enough heavy elements. Also, these stars have high UV radiation and winds that could photoevaporate the gas in the disk, leaving just the heavy elements.
For comparison, Neptune's mass equals 17 Earth masses, Jupiter has 318 Earth masses, and the 13 Jupiter-mass limit used in the IAU's working definition of an exoplanet equals approximately 4000 Earth masses.
Super-Puffs
A super-puff is a type of exoplanet with a mass only a few times larger than
Earth’s but a radius larger than Neptune, giving it a very low mean density. They are cooler and less massive than the inflated low-density hot-Jupiters.
The most extreme examples known are the three planets around Kepler-51 which are all Jupiter-sized but with densities below 0.1 g/cm3.
Extrasolar giant planets
Because of the limited techniques currently available to detect exoplanets, many of those found to date have been of a size associated, in the Solar System, with giant planets. Because these large planets are inferred to share more in common with Jupiter than with the other giant planets, some have claimed that "jovian planet" is a more accurate term for them. Many of the exoplanets are much closer to their parent stars and hence much hotter than the giant planets in the Solar System, making it possible that some of those planets are a type not observed in the Solar System. Considering the relative abundances of the elements in the universe (approximately 98% hydrogen and helium) it would be surprising to find a predominantly rocky planet more massive than Jupiter. On the other hand, models of planetary-system formation have suggested that giant planets would be inhibited from forming as close to their stars as many of the extrasolar giant planets have been observed to orbit.
Atmospheres
The bands seen in the atmosphere of Jupiter are due to counter-circulating streams of material called zones and belts, encircling the planet parallel to its equator. The zones are the lighter bands, and are at higher altitudes in the atmosphere. They have an internal updraft and are high-pressure regions. The belts are the darker bands, are lower in the atmosphere, and have an internal downdraft. They are low-pressure regions. These structures are somewhat analogous to the high and low-pressure cells in Earth's atmosphere, but they have a very different structure—latitudinal bands that circle the entire planet, as opposed to small confined cells of pressure. This appears to be a result of the rapid rotation and underlying symmetry of the planet. There are no oceans or landmasses to cause local heating and the rotation speed is much higher than that of Earth.
There are smaller structures as well: spots of different sizes and colors. On Jupiter, the most noticeable of these features is the Great Red Spot, which has been present for at least 300 years. These structures are huge storms. Some such spots are thunderheads as well.
See also
References
Bibliography
SPACE.com: Q&A: The IAU's Proposed Planet Definition, 16 August 2006, 2:00 AM ET
BBC News: Q&A New planets proposal Wednesday, 16 August 2006, 13:36 GMT 14:36 UK
External links
SPACE.com: Q&A: The IAU's Proposed Planet Definition 16 August 2006 2:00 am ET
BBC News: Q&A New planets proposal Wednesday, 16 August 2006, 13:36 GMT 14:36 UK
Gas Giants in Science Fiction:
Episode "Giants" on The Science Channel TV show Planets
Types of planet | [
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12734 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goddess | Goddess | A goddess is a female deity. In many known cultures, goddesses are often linked with literal or metaphorical pregnancy or imagined feminine roles associated with how women and girls are perceived or expected to behave. This includes themes of spinning, weaving, beauty, love, sexuality, motherhood, domesticity, creativity, and fertility (exemplified by the ancient mother goddess cult). Many major goddesses are also associated with magic, war, strategy, hunting, farming, wisdom, fate, earth, sky, power, laws, justice, and more. Some themes, such as discord or disease, which are considered negative within their cultural contexts also are found associated with some goddesses. There are as many differently described and understood goddesses as there are male, shapeshifting, or neuter gods.
In some faiths, a sacred female figure holds a central place in religious prayer and worship. For example, Shaktism, the worship of the female force that animates the world, is one of the three major sects of Hinduism.
Polytheist religions, including Polytheistic reconstructionists, honor multiple goddesses and gods, and usually view them as discrete, separate beings. These deities may be part of a pantheon, or different regions may have tutelary deities.
Etymology
The noun goddess is a secondary formation, combining the Germanic god with the Latinate -ess suffix. It first appeared in Middle English, from about 1350. The English word follows the linguistic precedent of a number of languages—including Egyptian, Classical Greek, and several Semitic languages—that add a feminine ending to the language's word for god.
Historical polytheism
Ancient Near East
Mesopotamia
Inanna was the most worshipped goddess in ancient Sumer. She was later syncretised with the East Semitic goddess Ishtar. Other Mesopotamian goddesses include Ninhursag, Ninlil, Antu and Gaga.
Ancient Africa (Egypt)
Goddesses of the Ennead of Heliopolis: Tefnut, Nut, Nephthys, Isis
Goddesses of the Ogdoad of Hermopolis: Naunet, Amaunet, Kauket, Hauhet; originally a cult of Hathor
Satis and Anuket of the triad of Elephantine
Canaan
Goddesses of the Canaanite religion: Ba`alat Gebal, Astarte, Anat.
Anatolia
Cybele: Her Hittite name was Kubaba, but her name changed to Cybele in Phrygian and Roman culture. Her effect can be also seen on Artemis as the Lady of Ephesus.
Hebat: Mother Goddess of the Hittite pantheon and wife of the leader sky god, Teshub. She was the origin of the Hurrian cult.
Arinniti: Hittite Goddess of the sun. She became patron of the Hittite Empire and monarchy.
Leto: A mother Goddess figure in Lykia. She was also the main goddess of the capital city of Lykia League (Letoon)
Pre-Islamic Arabia
In pre-Islamic Mecca the goddesses Uzza, Manāt and al-Lāt were known as "the daughters of god". Uzzā was worshipped by the Nabataeans, who equated her with the Graeco-Roman goddesses Aphrodite, Urania, Venus and Caelestis. Each of the three goddesses had a separate shrine near Mecca. Uzzā, was called upon for protection by the pre-Islamic Quraysh. "In 624 at the battle called "Uhud", the war cry of the Qurayshites was, "O people of Uzzā, people of Hubal!" (Tawil 1993).
According to Ibn Ishaq's controversial account of the Satanic Verses (q.v.), these verses had previously endorsed them as intercessors for Muslims, but were abrogated. Most Muslim scholars have regarded the story as historically implausible, while opinion is divided among western scholars such as Leone Caetani and John Burton, who argue against, and William Muir and William Montgomery Watt, who argue for its plausibility.
The Quran (Q53:19-31) warns of the vanity of trusting to the intercession of female deities, in particular "the daughters of god".
Indo-European traditions
Pre-Christian and pre-Islamic goddesses in cultures that spoke Indo-European languages.
Indian
Ushas: is the main goddess of the Rigveda.
Prithivi: the Earth, also appears as a goddess. Rivers are also deified as goddesses.
Agneya: or Aagneya is the Hindu Goddess of Fire.
Varuni: is the Hindu Goddess of Water. Bhoomi, Janani, Buvana, and Prithvi are names of the Hindu Goddess of Earth.
Iranian
Anahita: or Anahit, or Nahid, or Arədvī Sūrā Anāhitā, or Aban: the divinity of "the Waters" and hence associated with fertility, healing, beauty and wisdom.
Daena: a divinity, counted among the yazatas, representing insight and revelation, hence "conscience" or "religion".
Spenta Armaiti: or Sandaramet, one of the Amesha Spentas, a female divinity associated with earth and Mother Nature. She is also associated with the female virtue of devotion (to family, husband, and child). In the Iranian calendar, her name is on the twelfth month and also the fifth day of the month.
Ashi: a divinity of fertility and fortune in the Zoroastrian hierarchy of yazatas.
Greco-Roman
Eleusinian Mysteries: Persephone, Demeter, Baubo
Greek muses: Calliope (goddess of epic poetry), Clio (history), Erato (love poetry), Euterpe (music, song, and lyric poetry), Melpomene (tragedy), Polyhymnia (sacred poetry), Terpsichore (dance), Thalia (comedy and pastoral poetry), and Urania (astronomy).
Artemis: Goddess of the wilderness, wild animals, virginity, childbirth and the hunt.
Aphrodite: Goddess of Love and Beauty.
Athena: Goddess of crafts, strategy, wisdom and war. Athena is also a virgin goddess.
Dione: An early chthonic goddess of prophesy.
Eris: Goddess of chaos.
Gaia: Primordial Goddess of the Earth. Most gods descend from her.
Hecate: Goddess of sorcery, crossroads and magic. Often considered a chthonic or lunar goddess. She is either portrayed as a single goddess or a triple goddess (maiden, mother, crone).
Hera: Goddess of family and marriage. She is the wife of Zeus and the queen of the Olympians. Mother of Ares.
Hestia: Goddess of the hearth, home, domesticity, family and the state. Eldest sibling of Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hera and Demeter. Hestia is also a virgin goddess.
Iris: Goddess of rainbows.
Nike: Goddess of Victory. She is predominantly pictured with Zeus or Athena and sometimes Ares.
Selene: Goddess of the Moon.
Celtic
Goddesses and Otherworldly Women in Celtic polytheism include:
Celtic antiquity: Brigantia
Gallo-Roman goddesses: Epona, Dea Matrona
Irish mythology: Áine, Boann, Brigid, The Cailleach, Danu, Ériu, Fand and The Morrígan (Nemain, Macha, and Badb) among others.
The Celts honoured goddesses of nature and natural forces, as well as those connected with skills and professions such as healing, warfare and poetry. The Celtic goddesses have diverse qualities such as abundance, creation and beauty, as well as harshness, slaughter and vengeance. They have been depicted as beautiful or hideous, old hags or young women, and at times may transform their appearance from one state to another, or into their associated creatures such as crows, cows, wolves or eels, to name but a few. In Irish mythology in particular, tutelary goddesses are often associated with sovereignty and various features of the land, notably mountains, rivers, forests and holy wells.
Germanic
Surviving accounts of Germanic mythology and Norse mythology contain numerous tales of female goddesses, giantesses, and divine female figures in their scriptures. The Germanic peoples had altars erected to the "Mothers and Matrons" and held celebrations specific to these goddesses (such as the Anglo-Saxon "Mothers-night"). Various other female deities are attested among the Germanic peoples, such as Nerthus attested in an early account of the Germanic peoples, Ēostre attested among the pagan Anglo-Saxons, and Sinthgunt attested among the pagan continental Germanic peoples. Examples of goddesses attested in Norse mythology include Frigg (wife of Odin, and the Anglo-Saxon version of whom is namesake of the modern English weekday Friday), Skaði (one time wife of Njörðr), Njerda (Scandinavian name of Nerthus), that also was married to Njörðr during Bronze Age, Freyja (wife of Óðr), Sif (wife of Thor), Gerðr (wife of Freyr), and personifications such as Jörð (earth), Sól (the sun), and Nótt (night). Female deities also play heavily into the Norse concept of death, where half of those slain in battle enter Freyja's field Fólkvangr, Hel's realm of the same name, and Rán who receives those who die at sea. Other female deities such as the valkyries, the norns, and the dísir are associated with a Germanic concept of fate (Old Norse Ørlög, Old English Wyrd), and celebrations were held in their honour, such as the Dísablót and Disting.
Pre-Columbian America
Aztec
Chalchiuhtlicue: goddess of water (rivers, seas, storms, etc.)
Chantico: goddess of the hearth, flames
Coyolxauhqui: warrior goddess associated with the moon
Duality Earth Goddesses: Cihuacoatl (childbirth and maternal death), Coatlicue (earth as the womb and grave), Tlazolteotl (filth and purification)
Itzpapalotl: monstrous ruler of Tamoanchan (a paradise realm)
Mictecacihuatl: queen of Mictlan (the underworld)
Xochiquetzal: goddess of fertility, beauty, and female sexuality
Other
The Inca pantheon included: Pachamama, the supreme Mother Earth, Mama Killa, a moon goddess, and Mama Ocllo, a fertility goddess.
The main goddesses in the Maya pantheon were Ixchel, a mother goddess, and the Maya moon goddess. The Goddess I presided over eroticism, human procreation, and marriage. Ixtab was the goddess of suicide.
Neopaganism
Most Modern Pagan traditions honour one or more goddesses. While some who follow Wicca believe in a duotheistic belief system, consisting of a single goddess and a single god, who in hieros gamos represent a united whole, others recognise only one or more goddesses.
Wicca
In Wicca "the Goddess" is a deity of prime importance, along with her consort the Horned God.
Within many forms of Wicca the Goddess has come to be considered as a universal deity, more in line with her description in the Charge of the Goddess, a key Wiccan text. In this guise she is the "Queen of Heaven", similar to Isis. She also encompasses and conceives all life, much like Gaia. Similarly to Isis and certain late Classical conceptions of Selene, she is the summation of all other goddesses, who represent her different names and aspects across the different cultures. The Goddess is often portrayed with strong lunar symbolism, drawing on various cultures and deities such as Diana, Hecate, and Isis, and is often depicted as the Maiden, Mother, and Crone triad popularised by Robert Graves (see Triple Goddess below). Many depictions of her also draw strongly on Celtic goddesses. Some Wiccans believe there are many goddesses, and in some forms of Wicca, notably Dianic Wicca, the Goddess alone is worshipped, and the God plays very little part in their worship and ritual.
Goddesses or demi-goddesses appear in sets of three in a number of ancient European pagan mythologies; these include the Greek Erinyes (Furies) and Moirai (Fates); the Norse Norns; Brighid and her two sisters, also called Brighid, from Irish or Celtic mythology.
Robert Graves popularised the triad of "Maiden" (or "Virgin"), "Mother" and "Crone", and while this idea did not rest on sound scholarship, his poetic inspiration has gained a tenacious hold. Considerable variation in the precise conceptions of these figures exists, as typically occurs in Neopaganism and indeed in pagan religions in general. Some choose to interpret them as three stages in a woman's life, separated by menarche and menopause. Others find this too biologically based and rigid, and prefer a freer interpretation, with the Maiden as birth (independent, self-centred, seeking), the Mother as giving birth (interrelated, compassionate nurturing, creating), and the Crone as death and renewal (holistic, remote, unknowable) — and all three erotic and wise.
Folk religion and animism
African religions
In African and African diasporic religions, goddesses are often syncretised with Marian devotion, as in Ezili Dantor (Black Madonna of Częstochowa) and Erzulie Freda (Mater Dolorosa). There is also Buk, an Ethiopian goddess still worshipped in the southern regions. She represents the fertile aspect of women. So when a woman is having her period not only does it signify her submission to nature but also her union with the goddess. Another Ethiopian goddess is Atete, the goddess of spring and fertility. Farmers traditionally leave some of their products at the end of each harvesting season as an offering while women sing traditional songs.
A rare example of henotheism focused on a single Goddess is found among the Southern Nuba of Sudan. The Nuba conceive of the creator Goddess as the "Great Mother" who gave birth to earth and to mankind.
Chinese folk religion
Mazu is the goddess of the sea who protects fishermen and sailors, widely worshipped in the south-eastern coastal areas of China and neighbouring areas in Southeast Asia.
The Goddess Weaver Zhinü, daughter of the Celestial Mother, wove the stars and their light, known as "the Silver River" (what Westerners call "The Milky Way Galaxy"), for heaven and earth. She was identified with the star Westerners know as Vega.
Shinto
Goddess Amaterasu is the chief among the Shinto gods, while there are important female deities Ame-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto, Inari and Konohanasakuya-hime.
Hinduism
Hinduism is a complex of various belief systems that sees many gods and goddesses as being representative of and/or emanative from a single source, Brahman, understood either as a formless, infinite, impersonal monad in the Advaita tradition or as a dual god in the form of Lakshmi-Vishnu, Radha-Krishna, Shiva-Shakti in Dvaita traditions. Shaktas, worshippers of the Goddess, equate this god with Devi, the Mother Goddess. Such aspects of one god as male god (Shaktiman) and female energy (Shakti), working as a pair are often envisioned as male gods and their wives or consorts and provide many analogues between passive male ground and dynamic female energy.
For example, Brahma pairs with Sarasvati. Shiva likewise pairs with Parvati who later is represented through a number of Avatars (incarnations): Sati and the warrior figures, Durga and Kali. All goddesses in Hinduism are sometimes grouped together as the great goddess, Devi.
The Shaktis took a further step. Their ideology, based mainly on tantras, sees Shakti as the principle of energy through which all divinity functions, thus showing the masculine as depending on the feminine. In the great shakta scripture known as the Devi Mahatmya, all the goddesses are aspects of one presiding female force—one in truth and many in expression—giving the world and the cosmos the galvanic energy for motion. It expresses through philosophical tracts and metaphor, that the potentiality of masculine being is actuated by the feminine divine. More recently, the Indian author Rajesh Talwar has critiqued Western religion and written eloquently on the sacred feminine in the context of the North Indian Goddess Vaishno Devi.
Local deities of different village regions in India were often identified with "mainstream" Hindu deities, a process that has been called Sanskritisation. Others attribute it to the influence of monism or Advaita, which discounts polytheist or monotheist categorisation.
While the monist forces have led to a fusion between some of the goddesses (108 names are common for many goddesses), centrifugal forces have also resulted in new goddesses and rituals gaining ascendance among the laity in different parts of Hindu world. Thus, the immensely popular goddess Durga was a pre-Vedic goddess who was later fused with Parvati, a process that can be traced through texts such as Kalika Purana (10th century), Durgabhaktitarangini (Vidyapati 15th century), Chandimangal (16th century) etc.
Widely celebrated Hindu festival Navaratri is in the honour of the divine feminine Devi (Durga) and spans nine nights of prayer in the autumn, also referred as Sharada Navratri.
Abrahamic religions
Judaism
According to Zohar, Lilith is the name of Adam's first wife, who was created at the same time as Adam. She left Adam and refused to return to the Garden of Eden after she mated with archangel Samael. Her story was greatly developed during the Middle Ages in the tradition of Aggadic midrashim, the Zohar and Jewish mysticism.
The Zohar tradition has influenced Jewish folklore, which postulates God created Adam to marry a woman named Lilith. Outside of Jewish tradition, Lilith was associated with the Mother Goddess, Inanna – later known as both Ishtar and Asherah. In The Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh was said to have destroyed a tree that was in a sacred grove dedicated to the goddess Ishtar/Inanna/Asherah. Lilith ran into the wilderness in despair. She then is depicted in the Talmud and Kabbalah as first wife to God's first creation of man, Adam. In time, as stated in the Old Testament, the Hebrew followers continued to worship "False Idols", like Asherah, as being as powerful as God. Jeremiah speaks of his (and God's) displeasure at this behavior to the Hebrew people about the worship of the goddess in the Old Testament. Lilith is banished from Adam and God's presence when she is discovered to be a "demon" and Eve becomes Adam's wife. Lilith then takes the form of the serpent in her jealous rage at being displaced as Adam's wife. Lilith as serpent then proceeds to trick Eve into eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge and in this way is responsible for the downfall of all of mankind. In religions pre-dating Judaism, the serpent was associated with wisdom and rebirth (with the shedding of its skin).
The following female deities are mentioned in prominent Hebrew texts:
Agrat bat Mahlat
Anath
Asherah
Ashima
Astarte
Eisheth
Christianity
The veneration of Mary, the mother of Jesus, as an especially privileged saint has continued since the beginning of the Catholic faith. Mary is venerated as the Mother of God, Queen of Heaven, Mother of the Church, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Star of the Sea, and other lofty titles.
Marian devotion similar to this kind is also found in Eastern Orthodoxy and sometimes in Anglicanism, although not in the majority of denominations of Protestantism.
In some Christian traditions (like the Orthodox tradition), Sophia is the personification of either divine wisdom (or of an archangel) that takes female form. She is mentioned in the first chapter of the Book of Proverbs. Sophia is identified by some as the wisdom imparting Holy Spirit of the Christian Trinity, whose names in Hebrew—Ruach and Shekhinah—are both feminine, and whose symbol of the dove was commonly associated in the Ancient Near East with the figure of the Mother Goddess.
In mysticism, Gnosticism, as well as some Hellenistic religions, there is a female spirit or goddess named Sophia who is said to embody wisdom and who is sometimes described as a virgin. In Roman Catholic mysticism, Saint Hildegard celebrated Sophia as a cosmic figure both in her writing and art. Within the Protestant tradition in England, the 17th-century mystic universalist and founder of the Philadelphian Society Jane Leade wrote copious descriptions of her visions and dialogues with the "Virgin Sophia" who, she said, revealed to her the spiritual workings of the universe. Leade was hugely influenced by the theosophical writings of 16th-century German Christian mystic Jakob Böhme, who also speaks of Sophia in works such as The Way to Christ. Jakob Böhme was very influential to a number of Christian mystics and religious leaders, including George Rapp and the Harmony Society.
Latter Day Saint movement
Members of the Latter Day Saint movement believe in, although they do not directly worship, a Heavenly Mother who is the female counterpart of the Heavenly Father. Its adherents also believe that all humans, both men and women, have the potential to become as Gods through a process known as exaltation.
Feminism
Goddess movement
At least since first-wave feminism in the United States, there has been interest in analyzing religion to see if and how doctrines and practices treat women unfairly, as in Elizabeth Cady Stanton's The Woman's Bible. Again in second-wave feminism in the U.S., as well as in many European and other countries, religion became the focus of some feminist analysis in Judaism, Christianity, and other religions, and some women turned to ancient goddess religions as an alternative to Abrahamic religions (Womanspirit Rising 1979; Weaving the Visions 1989). Today both women and men continue to be involved in the Goddess movement (Christ 1997). The popularity of organisations such as the Fellowship of Isis attest to the continuing growth of the religion of the Goddess throughout the world.
While much of the attempt at gender equity in mainstream Christianity (Judaism never recognised any gender for God) is aimed at reinterpreting scripture and degenderising language used to name and describe the divine (Ruether, 1984; Plaskow, 1991), there are a growing number of people who identify as Christians or Jews who are trying to integrate goddess imagery into their religions (Kien, 2000; Kidd 1996,"Goddess Christians Yahoo Group").
Sacred feminine
The term "sacred feminine" was first coined in the 1970s, in New Age popularisations of the Hindu Shakti. Hinduism also worships multitude of goddesses that have their important role and thus in all came to interest for the New Age, feminist, and lesbian feminist movements.
Metaphorical use
The term "goddess" has also been adapted to poetic and secular use as a complimentary description of a non-mythological woman. The OED notes 1579 as the date of the earliest attestation of such figurative use, in Lauretta the diuine Petrarches Goddesse.
Shakespeare had several of his male characters address female characters as goddesses, including Demetrius to Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream ("O Helen, goddess, nymph, perfect, divine!"), Berowne to Rosaline in Love's Labour's Lost ("A woman I forswore; but I will prove, Thou being a goddess, I forswore not thee"), and Bertram to Diana in All's Well That Ends Well. Pisanio also compares Imogen to a goddess to describe her composure under duress in Cymbeline.
See also
Anima (Jung)
Gavari
Gender of God
Goddess movement
Heavenly Mother
List of goddesses
Matriarchy
Mother goddess
Ochre
Oshun
Sophia
The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory
The White Goddess
Tree deity
Venus figurines
References
Further reading
Dexter, Miriam Robbins, and Victor Mair (2010). Sacred Display: Divine and Magical Female Figures of Eurasia. Cambria Press.
Barnhart, Robert K (1995). The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology: the Origins of American English Words. HarperCollins.
Gorshunova . Olga V.(2008), Svjashennye derevja Khodzhi Barora…, ( Sacred Trees of Khodzhi Baror: Phytolatry and the Cult of Female Deity in Central Asia) in Etnoragraficheskoe Obozrenie, n° 1, pp. 71–82. . .
Deities
Gender and religion
Jungian archetypes
Pantheism | [
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12736 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List%20of%20German-language%20poets | List of German-language poets | This list contains the names of individuals (of any ethnicity or nationality) who wrote poetry in the German language. Most are identified as "German poets", but some are not German.
A
Abraham a Sancta Clara
Friedrich Achleitner
Dietmar von Aist
Heinrich Albert (composer)
Der wilde Alexander
Hermann Allmers
Peter Paul Althaus
Günther Anders
Alfred Andersch
Ernst Moritz Arndt
Achim von Arnim
Bettina von Arnim
Hans Arp
H. C. Artmann
Hans Erasmus Aßmann
Hartmann von Aue
Count Anton Alexander von Auersperg
Rose Ausländer
B
Ingeborg Bachmann
Hugo Ball
Wolfgang Bauer
Konrad Bayer
Johannes Robert Becher
Richard Beer-Hofmann
Gottfried Benn
Michael Beheim
Werner Bergengruen
Thomas Bernhard
F.W. Bernstein
Marcel Beyer
Horst Bienek
Otto Julius Bierbaum
Wolf Biermann
Johannes Bobrowski
Paul Boldt
Wolfgang Borchert
Nicolas Born
Thomas Brasch
Volker Braun
Bertolt Brecht
Helene Brehm
Clemens von Brentano
Theo Breuer
Rolf Dieter Brinkmann
Georg Britting
Hermann Broch
Barthold Heinrich Brockes
August Buchner
Georg Büchner
Gottfried August Bürger
Hermann Burger
Erika Burkart
Wilhelm Busch
C
Paul-Henri Campbell
Hans Carossa
Daniel Casper von Lohenstein
Paul Celan
Conrad Celtes
Adelbert von Chamisso
Hanns Cibulka
Matthias Claudius
Heinz Czechowski
Daniel Czepko von Reigersfeld
D
Simon Dach
Theodor Däubler
Georg Friedrich Daumer
Max Dauthendey
Franz Josef Degenhardt
Richard Dehmel
Friedrich Christian Delius
Franz von Dingelstedt
Hugo Dittberner
Reinhard Döhl
Tankred Dorst
Lebrecht Blücher Dreves
Annette von Droste-Hülshoff
E
Albert Ehrenstein
Günter Eich
Joseph von Eichendorff
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12737 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpowder | Gunpowder | Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). The sulfur and carbon act as fuels while the saltpeter is an oxidizer. Gunpowder has been widely used as a propellant in firearms, artillery, rocketry, and pyrotechnics, including use as a blasting agent for explosives in quarrying, mining, and road building.
Gunpowder is classified as a low explosive because of its relatively slow decomposition rate and consequently low brisance. Low explosives deflagrate (i.e., burn at subsonic speeds), whereas high explosives detonate producing a supersonic shockwave. Ignition of gunpowder packed behind a projectile generates enough pressure to force the shot from the muzzle at high speed, but usually not enough force to rupture the gun barrel. It thus makes a good propellant, but is less suitable for shattering rock or fortifications with its low-yield explosive power. Nonetheless it was widely used to fill fused artillery shells (and used in mining and civil engineering projects) until the second half of the 19th century, when the first high explosives were put into use.
Gunpowder is one of the Four Great Inventions of China. Originally developed by the Taoists for medicinal purposes, it was first used for warfare around 904 AD. It spread across Eurasia by the end of the 13th century. Its use in weapons has declined due to smokeless powder replacing it, and it is no longer used for industrial purposes due to its relative inefficiency compared to newer alternatives such as dynamite and ammonium nitrate/fuel oil.
Chemistry
A simple, commonly cited, chemical equation for the combustion of gunpowder is:
2 KNO3 + S + 3 C → K2S + N2 + 3 CO2.
A balanced, but still simplified, equation is:
10 KNO3 + 3 S + 8 C → 2 K2CO3 + 3 K2SO4 + 6 CO2 + 5 N2.
The exact percentages of ingredients varied greatly through the medieval period as the recipes were developed by trial and error, and needed to be updated for changing military technology.
Gunpowder does not burn as a single reaction, so the byproducts are not easily predicted. One study showed that it produced (in order of descending quantities) 55.91% solid products: potassium carbonate, potassium sulfate, potassium sulfide, sulfur, potassium nitrate, potassium thiocyanate, carbon, ammonium carbonate and 42.98% gaseous products: carbon dioxide, nitrogen, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen, methane, 1.11% water.
Gunpowder made with less-expensive and more plentiful sodium nitrate instead of potassium nitrate (in appropriate proportions) works just as well. However, it is more hygroscopic than powders made from potassium nitrate. Muzzleloaders have been known to fire after hanging on a wall for decades in a loaded state, provided they remained dry. By contrast, gunpowder made with sodium nitrate must be kept sealed to remain stable.
Gunpowder releases 3 megajoules per kilogram and contains its own oxidant. This is lower than TNT (4.7 megajoules per kilogram), or gasoline (47.2 megajoules per kilogram, but gasoline requires an oxidant, so an optimized gasoline and O2 mixture contains 10.4 megajoules per kilogram).
Gunpowder also has a low energy density compared to modern "smokeless" powders, and thus to achieve high energy loadings, large amounts are needed with heavy projectiles.
Effect
Gunpowder is a low explosive: it does not detonate, but rather deflagrates (burns quickly). This is an advantage in a propellant device, where one does not desire a shock that would shatter the gun and potentially harm the operator; however, it is a drawback when an explosion is desired. In that case, the propellant (and most importantly, gases produced by its burning) must be confined. Since it contains its own oxidizer and additionally burns faster under pressure, its combustion is capable of bursting containers such as a shell, grenade, or improvised "pipe bomb" or "pressure cooker" casings to form shrapnel.
In quarrying, high explosives are generally preferred for shattering rock. However, because of its low brisance, gunpowder causes fewer fractures and results in more usable stone compared to other explosives, making it useful for blasting slate, which is fragile, or monumental stone such as granite and marble. Gunpowder is well suited for blank rounds, signal flares, burst charges, and rescue-line launches. It is also used in fireworks for lifting shells, in rockets as fuel, and in certain special effects.
Combustion converts less than half the mass of gunpowder to gas; most of it turns into particulate matter. Some of it is ejected, wasting propelling power, fouling the air, and generally being a nuisance (giving away a soldier's position, generating fog that hinders vision, etc.). Some of it ends up as a thick layer of soot inside the barrel, where it also is a nuisance for subsequent shots, and a cause of jamming an automatic weapon. Moreover, this residue is hygroscopic, and with the addition of moisture absorbed from the air forms a corrosive substance. The soot contains potassium oxide or sodium oxide that turns into potassium hydroxide, or sodium hydroxide, which corrodes wrought iron or steel gun barrels. Gunpowder arms therefore require thorough and regular cleaning to remove the residue.
History
China
The first confirmed reference to what can be considered gunpowder in China occurred in the 9th century AD during the Tang dynasty, first in a formula contained in the Taishang Shengzu Jindan Mijue (太上聖祖金丹秘訣) in 808, and then about 50 years later in a Taoist text known as the Zhenyuan miaodao yaolüe (真元妙道要略). The Taishang Shengzu Jindan Mijue mentions a formula composed of six parts sulfur to six parts saltpeter to one part birthwort herb. According to the Zhenyuan miaodao yaolüe, "Some have heated together sulfur, realgar and saltpeter with honey; smoke and flames result, so that their hands and faces have been burnt, and even the whole house where they were working burned down." Based on these Taoist texts, the invention of gunpowder by Chinese alchemists was likely an accidental byproduct from experiments seeking to create the elixir of life. This experimental medicine origin is reflected in its Chinese name huoyao ( ), which means "fire medicine". Saltpeter was known to the Chinese by the mid-1st century AD and was primarily produced in the provinces of Sichuan, Shanxi, and Shandong. There is strong evidence of the use of saltpeter and sulfur in various medicinal combinations. A Chinese alchemical text dated 492 noted saltpeter burnt with a purple flame, providing a practical and reliable means of distinguishing it from other inorganic salts, thus enabling alchemists to evaluate and compare purification techniques; the earliest Latin accounts of saltpeter purification are dated after 1200.
The earliest chemical formula for gunpowder appeared in the 11th century Song dynasty text, Wujing Zongyao (Complete Essentials from the Military Classics), written by Zeng Gongliang between 1040 and 1044. The Wujing Zongyao provides encyclopedia references to a variety of mixtures that included petrochemicals—as well as garlic and honey. A slow match for flame throwing mechanisms using the siphon principle and for fireworks and rockets is mentioned. The mixture formulas in this book do not contain enough saltpeter to create an explosive however; being limited to at most 50% saltpeter, they produce an incendiary. The Essentials was written by a Song dynasty court bureaucrat and there is little evidence that it had any immediate impact on warfare; there is no mention of its use in the chronicles of the wars against the Tanguts in the 11th century, and China was otherwise mostly at peace during this century. However it had already been used for fire arrows since at least the 10th century. Its first recorded military application dates its use to the year 904 in the form of incendiary projectiles. In the following centuries various gunpowder weapons such as bombs, fire lances, and the gun appeared in China. Explosive weapons such as bombs have been discovered in a shipwreck off the shore of Japan dated from 1281, during the Mongol invasions of Japan.
By 1083 the Song court was producing hundreds of thousands of fire arrows for their garrisons. Bombs and the first proto-guns, known as "fire lances", became prominent during the 12th century and were used by the Song during the Jin-Song Wars. Fire lances were first recorded to have been used at the Siege of De'an in 1132 by Song forces against the Jin. In the early 13th century the Jin utilized iron-casing bombs. Projectiles were added to fire lances, and re-usable fire lance barrels were developed, first out of hardened paper, and then metal. By 1257 some fire lances were firing wads of bullets. In the late 13th century metal fire lances became 'eruptors', proto-cannons firing co-viative projectiles (mixed with the propellant, rather than seated over it with a wad), and by 1287 at the latest, had become true guns, the hand cannon.
Middle East
The Muslims acquired knowledge of gunpowder some time between 1240 and 1280, by which point the Syrian Hasan al-Rammah had written recipes, instructions for the purification of saltpeter, and descriptions of gunpowder incendiaries. It is implied by al-Rammah's usage of "terms that suggested he derived his knowledge from Chinese sources" and his references to saltpeter as "Chinese snow" ( ), fireworks as "Chinese flowers," and rockets as "Chinese arrows" that knowledge of gunpowder arrived from China. However, because al-Rammah attributes his material to "his father and forefathers", al-Hassan argues that gunpowder became prevalent in Syria and Egypt by "the end of the twelfth century or the beginning of the thirteenth". In Persia saltpeter was known as "Chinese salt" () namak-i chīnī) or "salt from Chinese salt marshes" ( ).
Hasan al-Rammah included 107 gunpowder recipes in his text al-Furusiyyah wa al-Manasib al-Harbiyya (The Book of Military Horsemanship and Ingenious War Devices), 22 of which are for rockets. If one takes the median of 17 of these 22 compositions for rockets (75% nitrates, 9.06% sulfur, and 15.94% charcoal), it is nearly identical to the modern reported ideal recipe of 75% potassium nitrate, 10% sulfur, and 15% charcoal.
Al-Hassan claims that in the Battle of Ain Jalut of 1260, the Mamluks used against the Mongols, in "the first cannon in history", formula with near-identical ideal composition ratios for explosive gunpowder. Other historians urge caution regarding claims of Islamic firearms use in the 1204–1324 period as late medieval Arabic texts used the same word for gunpowder, naft, that they used for an earlier incendiary, naphtha.
Iqtidar Alam Khan claims that it was invading Mongols who introduced gunpowder to the Islamic world and cites Mamluk antagonism towards early musketeers in their infantry as an example of how such weapons were not always met with open acceptance in the Middle East. Similarly, the refusal of their Qizilbash forces to use firearms contributed to the Safavid rout at Chaldiran in 1514.
The musket appeared in the Ottoman Empire by 1465. In 1598, Chinese writer Zhao Shizhen described Turkish muskets as being superior to European muskets. The Chinese military book Wu Pei Chih (1621) later described Turkish muskets that used a rack-and-pinion mechanism, which was not known to have been used in European or Chinese firearms at the time.
The state-controlled manufacture of gunpowder by the Ottoman Empire through early supply chains to obtain nitre, sulfur and high-quality charcoal from oaks in Anatolia contributed significantly to its expansion between the 15th and 18th century. It was not until later in the 19th century when the syndicalist production of Turkish gunpowder was greatly reduced, which coincided with the decline of its military might.
Europe
Some sources mention possible gunpowder weapons being deployed by the Mongols against European forces at the Battle of Mohi in 1241. Professor Kenneth Warren Chase credits the Mongols for introducing into Europe gunpowder and its associated weaponry. However, there is no clear route of transmission, and while the Mongols are often pointed to as the likeliest vector, Timothy May points out that "there is no concrete evidence that the Mongols used gunpowder weapons on a regular basis outside of China." However, Timothy May also points out "However... the Mongols used the gunpowder weapon in their wars against the Jin, the Song and in their invasions of Japan."
The earliest Western accounts of gunpowder appears in texts written by English philosopher Roger Bacon in 1267 called Opus Majus and Opus Tertium. The oldest written recipes in continental Europe were recorded under the name Marcus Graecus or Mark the Greek between 1280 and 1300 in the Liber Ignium, or Book of Fires.
Records show that, in England, gunpowder was being made in 1346 at the Tower of London; a powder house existed at the Tower in 1461; and in 1515 three King's gunpowder makers worked there. Gunpowder was also being made or stored at other Royal castles, such as Portchester. The English Civil War (1642–1645) led to an expansion of the gunpowder industry, with the repeal of the Royal Patent in August 1641.
In late 14th century Europe, gunpowder was improved by corning, the practice of drying it into small clumps to improve combustion and consistency. During this time, European manufacturers also began regularly purifying saltpeter, using wood ashes containing potassium carbonate to precipitate calcium from their dung liquor, and using ox blood, alum, and slices of turnip to clarify the solution.
During the Renaissance, two European schools of pyrotechnic thought emerged, one in Italy and the other at Nuremberg, Germany. In Italy, Vannoccio Biringuccio, born in 1480, was a member of the guild Fraternita di Santa Barbara but broke with the tradition of secrecy by setting down everything he knew in a book titled De la pirotechnia, written in vernacular. It was published posthumously in 1540, with 9 editions over 138 years, and also reprinted by MIT Press in 1966.
By the mid-17th century fireworks were used for entertainment on an unprecedented scale in Europe, being popular even at resorts and public gardens. With the publication of Deutliche Anweisung zur Feuerwerkerey (1748), methods for creating fireworks were sufficiently well-known and well-described that "Firework making has become an exact science." In 1774 Louis XVI ascended to the throne of France at age 20. After he discovered that France was not self-sufficient in gunpowder, a Gunpowder Administration was established; to head it, the lawyer Antoine Lavoisier was appointed. Although from a bourgeois family, after his degree in law Lavoisier became wealthy from a company set up to collect taxes for the Crown; this allowed him to pursue experimental natural science as a hobby.
Without access to cheap saltpeter (controlled by the British), for hundreds of years France had relied on saltpetremen with royal warrants, the droit de fouille or "right to dig", to seize nitrous-containing soil and demolish walls of barnyards, without compensation to the owners. This caused farmers, the wealthy, or entire villages to bribe the petermen and the associated bureaucracy to leave their buildings alone and the saltpeter uncollected. Lavoisier instituted a crash program to increase saltpeter production, revised (and later eliminated) the droit de fouille, researched best refining and powder manufacturing methods, instituted management and record-keeping, and established pricing that encouraged private investment in works. Although saltpeter from new Prussian-style putrefaction works had not been produced yet (the process taking about 18 months), in only a year France had gunpowder to export. A chief beneficiary of this surplus was the American Revolution. By careful testing and adjusting the proportions and grinding time, powder from mills such as at Essonne outside Paris became the best in the world by 1788, and inexpensive.
Two British physicists, Andrew Noble and Frederick Abel, worked to improve the properties of gunpowder during the late 19th century. This formed the basis for the Noble-Abel gas equation for internal ballistics.
The introduction of smokeless powder in the late 19th century led to a contraction of the gunpowder industry. After the end of World War I, the majority of the British gunpowder manufacturers merged into a single company, "Explosives Trades limited"; and a number of sites were closed down, including those in Ireland. This company became Nobel Industries Limited; and in 1926 became a founding member of Imperial Chemical Industries. The Home Office removed gunpowder from its list of Permitted Explosives; and shortly afterwards, on 31 December 1931, the former Curtis & Harvey's Glynneath gunpowder factory at Pontneddfechan, in Wales, closed down, and it was demolished by fire in 1932. The last remaining gunpowder mill at the Royal Gunpowder Factory, Waltham Abbey was damaged by a German parachute mine in 1941 and it never reopened. This was followed by the closure of the gunpowder section at the Royal Ordnance Factory, ROF Chorley, the section was closed and demolished at the end of World War II; and ICI Nobel's Roslin gunpowder factory, which closed in 1954. This left ICI Nobel's Ardeer site in Scotland as the sole gunpowder factory in Great Britain; it too closed in October 1976.
India
Gunpowder and gunpowder weapons were transmitted to India through the Mongol invasions of India. The Mongols were defeated by Alauddin Khalji of the Delhi Sultanate, and some of the Mongol soldiers remained in northern India after their conversion to Islam. It was written in the Tarikh-i Firishta (1606–1607) that Nasiruddin Mahmud the ruler of the Delhi Sultanate presented the envoy of the Mongol ruler Hulegu Khan with a dazzling pyrotechnics display upon his arrival in Delhi in 1258. Nasiruddin Mahmud tried to express his strength as a ruler and tried to ward off any Mongol attempt similar to the Siege of Baghdad (1258). Firearms known as top-o-tufak also existed in many Muslim kingdoms in India by as early as 1366. From then on the employment of gunpowder warfare in India was prevalent, with events such as the "Siege of Belgaum" in 1473 by Sultan Muhammad Shah Bahmani.
The shipwrecked Ottoman Admiral Seydi Ali Reis is known to have introduced the earliest type of matchlock weapons, which the Ottomans used against the Portuguese during the Siege of Diu (1531). After that, a diverse variety of firearms, large guns in particular, became visible in Tanjore, Dacca, Bijapur, and Murshidabad. Guns made of bronze were recovered from Calicut (1504)- the former capital of the Zamorins
The Mughal emperor Akbar mass-produced matchlocks for the Mughal Army. Akbar is personally known to have shot a leading Rajput commander during the Siege of Chittorgarh. The Mughals began to use bamboo rockets (mainly for signalling) and employ sappers: special units that undermined heavy stone fortifications to plant gunpowder charges.
The Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan is known to have introduced much more advanced matchlocks, their designs were a combination of Ottoman and Mughal designs. Shah Jahan also countered the British and other Europeans in his province of Gujarāt, which supplied Europe saltpeter for use in gunpowder warfare during the 17th century. Bengal and Mālwa participated in saltpeter production. The Dutch, French, Portuguese, and English used Chhapra as a center of saltpeter refining.
Ever since the founding of the Sultanate of Mysore by Hyder Ali, French military officers were employed to train the Mysore Army. Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan were the first to introduce modern cannons and muskets, their army was also the first in India to have official uniforms. During the Second Anglo-Mysore War Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan unleashed the Mysorean rockets at their British opponents effectively defeating them on various occasions. The Mysorean rockets inspired the development of the Congreve rocket, which the British widely utilized during the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812.
Southeast Asia
Cannons were introduced to Majapahit when Kublai Khan's Chinese army under the leadership of Ike Mese sought to invade Java in 1293. History of Yuan mentioned that the Mongol used cannons (Chinese: Pao) against Daha forces. Cannons were used by the Ayutthaya Kingdom in 1352 during its invasion of the Khmer Empire. Within a decade large quantities of gunpowder could be found in the Khmer Empire. By the end of the century firearms were also used by the Trần dynasty.
Even though the knowledge of making gunpowder-based weapon has been known after the failed Mongol invasion of Java, and the predecessor of firearms, the pole gun (bedil tombak), was recorded as being used by Java in 1413, the knowledge of making "true" firearms came much later, after the middle of the 15th century. It was brought by the Islamic nations of West Asia, most probably the Arabs. The precise year of introduction is unknown, but it may be safely concluded to be no earlier than 1460. Before the arrival of the Portuguese in Southeast Asia, the natives already possessed primitive firearms, the Java arquebus. Portuguese influence to local weaponry, particularly after the capture of Malacca (1511), resulted in a new type of hybrid tradition matchlock firearm, the istinggar.
Portuguese and Spanish invaders were unpleasantly surprised and even outgunned on occasion. Circa 1540, the Javanese, always alert for new weapons found the newly arrived Portuguese weaponry superior to that of the locally made variants. Majapahit-era cetbang cannons were further improved and used in the Demak Sultanate period during the Demak invasion of Portuguese Malacca. During this period, the iron for manufacturing Javanese cannons was imported from Khorasan in northern Persia. The material was known by Javanese as wesi kurasani (Khorasan iron). When the Portuguese came to the archipelago, they referred to it as Berço, which was also used to refer to any breech-loading swivel gun, while the Spaniards call it Verso. By the early 16th century, the Javanese already locally-producing large guns, some of them still survived until the present day and dubbed as "sacred cannon" or "holy cannon". These cannons varied between 180-260-pounders, weighing anywhere between 3–8 tons, length of them between 3–6 m. Javanese bronze breech-loaded swivel-guns, known as cetbang, or erroneously as lantaka, was used widely by the Majapahit navy as well as by pirates and rival lords. Following the decline of the Majapahit, particularly after the paregreg civil war (1404–1406), the consequent decline in demand for gunpowder weapons caused many weapon makers and bronze-smiths to move to Brunei, Sumatra, Malaysia and the Philippines lead to widespread use, especially in the Makassar Strait. It led to near universal use of the swivel-gun and cannons in the Nusantara archipelago.
Saltpeter harvesting was recorded by Dutch and German travelers as being common in even the smallest villages and was collected from the decomposition process of large dung hills specifically piled for the purpose. The Dutch punishment for possession of non-permitted gunpowder appears to have been amputation. Ownership and manufacture of gunpowder was later prohibited by the colonial Dutch occupiers. According to colonel McKenzie quoted in Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles', The History of Java (1817), the purest sulfur was supplied from a crater from a mountain near the straits of Bali.
Historiography
On the origins of gunpowder technology, historian Tonio Andrade remarked, "Scholars today overwhelmingly concur that the gun was invented in China." Gunpowder and the gun are widely believed by historians to have originated from China due to the large body of evidence that documents the evolution of gunpowder from a medicine to an incendiary and explosive, and the evolution of the gun from the fire lance to a metal gun, whereas similar records do not exist elsewhere. As Andrade explains, the large amount of variation in gunpowder recipes in China relative to Europe is "evidence of experimentation in China, where gunpowder was at first used as an incendiary and only later became an explosive and a propellant... in contrast, formulas in Europe diverged only very slightly from the ideal proportions for use as an explosive and a propellant, suggesting that gunpowder was introduced as a mature technology."
However, the history of gunpowder is not without controversy. A major problem confronting the study of early gunpowder history is ready access to sources close to the events described. Often the first records potentially describing use of gunpowder in warfare were written several centuries after the fact, and may well have been colored by the contemporary experiences of the chronicler. Translation difficulties have led to errors or loose interpretations bordering on artistic licence. Ambiguous language can make it difficult to distinguish gunpowder weapons from similar technologies that do not rely on gunpowder. A commonly cited example is a report of the Battle of Mohi in Eastern Europe that mentions a "long lance" sending forth "evil-smelling vapors and smoke", which has been variously interpreted by different historians as the "first-gas attack upon European soil" using gunpowder, "the first use of cannon in Europe", or merely a "toxic gas" with no evidence of gunpowder. It is difficult to accurately translate original Chinese alchemical texts, which tend to explain phenomena through metaphor, into modern scientific language with rigidly defined terminology in English. Early texts potentially mentioning gunpowder are sometimes marked by a linguistic process where semantic change occurred. For instance, the Arabic word naft transitioned from denoting naphtha to denoting gunpowder, and the Chinese word pào changed in meaning from trebuchet to a cannon. This has led to arguments on the exact origins of gunpowder based on etymological foundations. Science and technology historian Bert S. Hall makes the observation that, "It goes without saying, however, that historians bent on special pleading, or simply with axes of their own to grind, can find rich material in these terminological thickets."
Another major area of contention in modern studies of the history of gunpowder is regarding the transmission of gunpowder. While the literary and archaeological evidence supports a Chinese origin for gunpowder and guns, the manner in which gunpowder technology was transferred from China to the West is still under debate. It is unknown why the rapid spread of gunpowder technology across Eurasia took place over several decades whereas other technologies such as paper, the compass, and printing did not reach Europe until centuries after they were invented in China.
Components
Gunpowder is a granular mixture of:
a nitrate, typically potassium nitrate (KNO3), which supplies oxygen for the reaction;
charcoal, which provides carbon and other fuel for the reaction, simplified as carbon (C);
sulfur (S), which, while also serving as a fuel, lowers the temperature required to ignite the mixture, thereby increasing the rate of combustion.
Potassium nitrate is the most important ingredient in terms of both bulk and function because the combustion process releases oxygen from the potassium nitrate, promoting the rapid burning of the other ingredients. To reduce the likelihood of accidental ignition by static electricity, the granules of modern gunpowder are typically coated with graphite, which prevents the build-up of electrostatic charge.
Charcoal does not consist of pure carbon; rather, it consists of partially pyrolyzed cellulose, in which the wood is not completely decomposed. Carbon differs from ordinary charcoal. Whereas charcoal's autoignition temperature is relatively low, carbon's is much greater. Thus, a gunpowder composition containing pure carbon would burn similarly to a match head, at best.
The current standard composition for the gunpowder manufactured by pyrotechnicians was adopted as long ago as 1780. Proportions by weight are 75% potassium nitrate (known as saltpeter or saltpetre), 15% softwood charcoal, and 10% sulfur. These ratios have varied over the centuries and by country, and can be altered somewhat depending on the purpose of the powder. For instance, power grades of black powder, unsuitable for use in firearms but adequate for blasting rock in quarrying operations, are called blasting powder rather than gunpowder with standard proportions of 70% nitrate, 14% charcoal, and 16% sulfur; blasting powder may be made with the cheaper sodium nitrate substituted for potassium nitrate and proportions may be as low as 40% nitrate, 30% charcoal, and 30% sulfur. In 1857, Lammot du Pont solved the main problem of using cheaper sodium nitrate formulations when he patented DuPont "B" blasting powder. After manufacturing grains from press-cake in the usual way, his process tumbled the powder with graphite dust for 12 hours. This formed a graphite coating on each grain that reduced its ability to absorb moisture.
Neither the use of graphite nor sodium nitrate was new. Glossing gunpowder corns with graphite was already an accepted technique in 1839, and sodium nitrate-based blasting powder had been made in Peru for many years using the sodium nitrate mined at Tarapacá (now in Chile). Also, in 1846, two plants were built in south-west England to make blasting powder using this sodium nitrate. The idea may well have been brought from Peru by Cornish miners returning home after completing their contracts. Another suggestion is that it was William Lobb, the plant collector, who recognised the possibilities of sodium nitrate during his travels in South America. Lammot du Pont would have known about the use of graphite and probably also knew about the plants in south-west England. In his patent he was careful to state that his claim was for the combination of graphite with sodium nitrate-based powder, rather than for either of the two individual technologies.
French war powder in 1879 used the ratio 75% saltpeter, 12.5% charcoal, 12.5% sulfur. English war powder in 1879 used the ratio 75% saltpeter, 15% charcoal, 10% sulfur. The British Congreve rockets used 62.4% saltpeter, 23.2% charcoal and 14.4% sulfur, but the British Mark VII gunpowder was changed to 65% saltpeter, 20% charcoal and 15% sulfur. The explanation for the wide variety in formulation relates to usage. Powder used for rocketry can use a slower burn rate since it accelerates the projectile for a much longer time—whereas powders for weapons such as flintlocks, cap-locks, or matchlocks need a higher burn rate to accelerate the projectile in a much shorter distance. Cannons usually used lower burn-rate powders, because most would burst with higher burn-rate powders.
Other compositions
Besides black powder, there are other historically important types of gunpowder. "Brown gunpowder" is cited as composed of 79% nitre, 3% sulfur, and 18% charcoal per 100 of dry powder, with about 2% moisture. Prismatic Brown Powder is a large-grained product the Rottweil Company introduced in 1884 in Germany, which was adopted by the British Royal Navy shortly thereafter. The French navy adopted a fine, 3.1 millimeter, not prismatic grained product called Slow Burning Cocoa (SBC) or "cocoa powder". These brown powders reduced burning rate even further by using as little as 2 percent sulfur and using charcoal made from rye straw that had not been completely charred, hence the brown color.
Lesmok powder was a product developed by DuPont in 1911, one of several semi-smokeless products in the industry containing a mixture of black and nitrocellulose powder. It was sold to Winchester and others primarily for .22 and .32 small calibers. Its advantage was that it was believed at the time to be less corrosive than smokeless powders then in use. It was not understood in the U.S. until the 1920s that the actual source of corrosion was the potassium chloride residue from potassium chlorate sensitized primers. The bulkier black powder fouling better disperses primer residue. Failure to mitigate primer corrosion by dispersion caused the false impression that nitrocellulose-based powder caused corrosion. Lesmok had some of the bulk of black powder for dispersing primer residue, but somewhat less total bulk than straight black powder, thus requiring less frequent bore cleaning. It was last sold by Winchester in 1947.
Sulfur-free powders
The development of smokeless powders, such as cordite, in the late 19th century created the need for a spark-sensitive priming charge, such as gunpowder. However, the sulfur content of traditional gunpowders caused corrosion problems with Cordite Mk I and this led to the introduction of a range of sulfur-free gunpowders, of varying grain sizes. They typically contain 70.5 parts of saltpeter and 29.5 parts of charcoal. Like black powder, they were produced in different grain sizes. In the United Kingdom, the finest grain was known as sulfur-free mealed powder (SMP). Coarser grains were numbered as sulfur-free gunpowder (SFG n): 'SFG 12', 'SFG 20', 'SFG 40' and 'SFG 90', for example; where the number represents the smallest BSS sieve mesh size, which retained no grains.
Sulfur's main role in gunpowder is to decrease the ignition temperature. A sample reaction for sulfur-free gunpowder would be:
6 KNO3 + C7H4O → 3 K2CO3 + 4 CO2 + 2 H2O + 3 N2
Smokeless powders
The term black powder was coined in the late 19th century, primarily in the United States, to distinguish prior gunpowder formulations from the new smokeless powders and semi-smokeless powders. Semi-smokeless powders featured bulk volume properties that approximated black powder, but had significantly reduced amounts of smoke and combustion products. Smokeless powder has different burning properties (pressure vs. time) and can generate higher pressures and work per gram. This can rupture older weapons designed for black powder. Smokeless powders ranged in color from brownish tan to yellow to white. Most of the bulk semi-smokeless powders ceased to be manufactured in the 1920s.
Granularity
Serpentine
The original dry-compounded powder used in 15th-century Europe was known as "Serpentine", either a reference to Satan or to a common artillery piece that used it. The ingredients were ground
together with a mortar and pestle, perhaps for 24 hours, resulting in a fine flour. Vibration during transportation could cause the components to separate again, requiring remixing in the field. Also if the quality of the saltpeter was low (for instance if it was contaminated with highly hygroscopic calcium nitrate), or if the powder was simply old (due to the mildly hygroscopic nature of potassium nitrate), in humid weather it would need to be re-dried. The dust from "repairing" powder in the field was a major hazard.
Loading cannons or bombards before the powder-making advances of the Renaissance was a skilled art. Fine powder loaded haphazardly or too tightly would burn incompletely or too slowly. Typically, the breech-loading powder chamber in the rear of the piece was filled only about half full, the serpentine powder neither too compressed nor too loose, a wooden bung pounded in to seal the chamber from the barrel when assembled, and the projectile placed on. A carefully determined empty space was necessary for the charge to burn effectively. When the cannon was fired through the touchhole, turbulence from the initial surface combustion caused the rest of the powder to be rapidly exposed to the flame.
The advent of much more powerful and easy to use corned powder changed this procedure, but serpentine was used with older guns into the 17th century.
Corning
For propellants to oxidize and burn rapidly and effectively, the combustible ingredients must be reduced to the smallest possible particle sizes, and be as thoroughly mixed as possible. Once mixed, however, for better results in a gun, makers discovered that the final product should be in the form of individual dense grains that spread the fire quickly from grain to grain, much as straw or twigs catch fire more quickly than a pile of sawdust.
In late 14th century Europe and China, gunpowder was improved by wet grinding; liquid, such as distilled spirits was added during the grinding-together of the ingredients and the moist paste dried afterwards. The principle of wet mixing to prevent the separation of dry ingredients, invented for gunpowder, is used today in the pharmaceutical industry. It was discovered that if the paste was rolled into balls before drying the resulting gunpowder absorbed less water from the air during storage and traveled better. The balls were then crushed in a mortar by the gunner immediately before use, with the old problem of uneven particle size and packing causing unpredictable results. If the right size particles were chosen, however, the result was a great improvement in power. Forming the damp paste into corn-sized clumps by hand or with the use of a sieve instead of larger balls produced a product after drying that loaded much better, as each tiny piece provided its own surrounding air space that allowed much more rapid combustion than a fine powder. This "corned" gunpowder was from 30% to 300% more powerful. An example is cited where of serpentine was needed to shoot a ball, but only of corned powder.
Because the dry powdered ingredients must be mixed and bonded together for extrusion and cut into grains to maintain the blend, size reduction and mixing is done while the ingredients are damp, usually with water. After 1800, instead of forming grains by hand or with sieves, the damp mill-cake was pressed in molds to increase its density and extract the liquid, forming press-cake. The pressing took varying amounts of time, depending on conditions such as atmospheric humidity. The hard, dense product was broken again into tiny pieces, which were separated with sieves to produce a uniform product for each purpose: coarse powders for cannons, finer grained powders for muskets, and the finest for small hand guns and priming. Inappropriately fine-grained powder often caused cannons to burst before the projectile could move down the barrel, due to the high initial spike in pressure. Mammoth powder with large grains, made for Rodman's 15-inch cannon, reduced the pressure to only 20 percent as high as ordinary cannon powder would have produced.
In the mid-19th century, measurements were made determining that the burning rate within a grain of black powder (or a tightly packed mass) is about 6 cm/s (0.20 feet/s), while the rate of ignition propagation from grain to grain is around 9 m/s (30 feet/s), over two orders of magnitude faster.
Modern types
Modern corning first compresses the fine black powder meal into blocks with a fixed density (1.7 g/cm3). In the United States, gunpowder grains were designated F (for fine) or C (for coarse). Grain diameter decreased with a larger number of Fs and increased with a larger number of Cs, ranging from about for 7F to for 7C. Even larger grains were produced for artillery bore diameters greater than about . The standard DuPont Mammoth powder developed by Thomas Rodman and Lammot du Pont for use during the American Civil War had grains averaging in diameter with edges rounded in a glazing barrel. Other versions had grains the size of golf and tennis balls for use in Rodman guns. In 1875 DuPont introduced Hexagonal powder for large artillery, which was pressed using shaped plates with a small center core—about diameter, like a wagon wheel nut, the center hole widened as the grain burned. By 1882 German makers also produced hexagonal grained powders of a similar size for artillery.
By the late 19th century manufacturing focused on standard grades of black powder from Fg used in large bore rifles and shotguns, through FFg (medium and small-bore arms such as muskets and fusils), FFFg (small-bore rifles and pistols), and FFFFg (extreme small bore, short pistols and most commonly for priming flintlocks). A coarser grade for use in military artillery blanks was designated A-1. These grades were sorted on a system of screens with oversize retained on a mesh of 6 wires per inch, A-1 retained on 10 wires per inch, Fg retained on 14, FFg on 24, FFFg on 46, and FFFFg on 60. Fines designated FFFFFg were usually reprocessed to minimize explosive dust hazards. In the United Kingdom, the main service gunpowders were classified RFG (rifle grained fine) with diameter of one or two millimeters and RLG (rifle grained large) for grain diameters between two and six millimeters. Gunpowder grains can alternatively be categorized by mesh size: the BSS sieve mesh size, being the smallest mesh size, which retains no grains. Recognized grain sizes are Gunpowder G 7, G 20, G 40, and G 90.
Owing to the large market of antique and replica black-powder firearms in the US, modern black powder substitutes like Pyrodex, Triple Seven and Black Mag3 pellets have been developed since the 1970s. These products, which should not be confused with smokeless powders, aim to produce less fouling (solid residue), while maintaining the traditional volumetric measurement system for charges. Claims of less corrosiveness of these products have been controversial however. New cleaning products for black-powder guns have also been developed for this market.
Production
For the most powerful black powder, meal powder, a wood charcoal, is used. The best wood for the purpose is Pacific willow, but others such as alder or buckthorn can be used. In Great Britain between the 15th and 19th centuries charcoal from alder buckthorn was greatly prized for gunpowder manufacture; cottonwood was used by the American Confederate States. The ingredients are reduced in particle size and mixed as intimately as possible. Originally, this was with a mortar-and-pestle or a similarly operating stamping-mill, using copper, bronze or other non-sparking materials, until supplanted by the rotating ball mill principle with non-sparking bronze or lead. Historically, a marble or limestone edge runner mill, running on a limestone bed, was used in Great Britain; however, by the mid 19th century this had changed to either an iron-shod stone wheel or a cast iron wheel running on an iron bed. The mix was dampened with alcohol or water during grinding to prevent accidental ignition. This also helps the extremely soluble saltpeter to mix into the microscopic pores of the very high surface-area charcoal.
Around the late 14th century, European powdermakers first began adding liquid during grinding to improve mixing, reduce dust, and with it the risk of explosion. The powder-makers would then shape the resulting paste of dampened gunpowder, known as mill cake, into corns, or grains, to dry. Not only did corned powder keep better because of its reduced surface area, gunners also found that it was more powerful and easier to load into guns. Before long, powder-makers standardized the process by forcing mill cake through sieves instead of corning powder by hand.
The improvement was based on reducing the surface area of a higher density composition. At the beginning of the 19th century, makers increased density further by static pressing. They shoveled damp mill cake into a two-foot square box, placed this beneath a screw press and reduced it to half its volume. "Press cake" had the hardness of slate. They broke the dried slabs with hammers or rollers, and sorted the granules with sieves into different grades. In the United States, Eleuthere Irenee du Pont, who had learned the trade from Lavoisier, tumbled the dried grains in rotating barrels to round the edges and increase durability during shipping and handling. (Sharp grains rounded off in transport, producing fine "meal dust" that changed the burning properties.)
Another advance was the manufacture of kiln charcoal by distilling wood in heated iron retorts instead of burning it in earthen pits. Controlling the temperature influenced the power and consistency of the finished gunpowder. In 1863, in response to high prices for Indian saltpeter, DuPont chemists developed a process using potash or mined potassium chloride to convert plentiful Chilean sodium nitrate to potassium nitrate.
The following year (1864) the Gatebeck Low Gunpowder Works in Cumbria (Great Britain) started a plant to manufacture potassium nitrate by essentially the same chemical process. This is nowadays called the 'Wakefield Process', after the owners of the company. It would have used potassium chloride from the Staßfurt mines, near Magdeburg, Germany, which had recently become available in industrial quantities.
During the 18th century, gunpowder factories became increasingly dependent on mechanical energy. Despite mechanization, production difficulties related to humidity control, especially during the pressing, were still present in the late 19th century. A paper from 1885 laments that "Gunpowder is such a nervous and sensitive spirit, that in almost every process of manufacture it changes under our hands as the weather changes." Pressing times to the desired density could vary by a factor of three depending on the atmospheric humidity.
Legislation
The United Nations Model Regulations on the Transportation of Dangerous Goods and national transportation authorities, such as United States Department of Transportation, have classified gunpowder (black powder) as a Group A: Primary explosive substance for shipment because it ignites so easily. Complete manufactured devices containing black powder are usually classified as Group D: Secondary detonating substance, or black powder, or article containing secondary detonating substance, such as firework, class D model rocket engine, etc., for shipment because they are harder to ignite than loose powder. As explosives, they all fall into the category of Class 1.
Other uses
Besides its use as a propellant in firearms and artillery, black powder's other main use has been as a blasting powder in quarrying, mining, and road construction (including railroad construction). During the 19th century, outside of war emergencies such as the Crimean War or the American Civil War, more black powder was used in these industrial uses than in firearms and artillery. Dynamite gradually replaced it for those uses. Today, industrial explosives for such uses are still a huge market, but most of the market is in newer explosives rather than black powder.
Beginning in the 1930s, gunpowder or smokeless powder was used in rivet guns, stun guns for animals, cable splicers and other industrial construction tools. The "stud gun", a powder-actuated tool, drove nails or screws into solid concrete, a function not possible with hydraulic tools, and today is still an important part of various industries, but the cartridges usually use smokeless powders. Industrial shotguns have been used to eliminate persistent material rings in operating rotary kilns (such as those for cement, lime, phosphate, etc.) and clinker in operating furnaces, and commercial tools make the method more reliable.
Gunpowder has occasionally been employed for other purposes besides weapons, mining, fireworks and construction:
After the Battle of Aspern-Essling (1809), Dominique-Jean Larrey, the surgeon of the Napoleonic Army, lacking salt, seasoned a horse meat bouillon for the wounded under his care with gunpowder. It was also used for sterilization in ships when there was no alcohol.
British sailors used gunpowder to create tattoos when ink wasn't available, by pricking the skin and rubbing the powder into the wound in a method known as traumatic tattooing.
Christiaan Huygens experimented with gunpowder in 1673 in an early attempt to build an internal combustion engine, but he did not succeed. Modern attempts to recreate his invention were similarly unsuccessful.
Near London in 1853, Captain Shrapnel demonstrated a mineral processing use of black powder in a method for crushing gold-bearing ores by firing them from a cannon into an iron chamber, and "much satisfaction was expressed by all present". He hoped it would be useful on the goldfields of California and Australia. Nothing came of the invention, as continuously-operating crushing machines that achieved more reliable comminution were already coming into use.
Starting in 1967, Los Angeles-based artist Ed Ruscha began using gunpowder as an artistic medium for a series of works on paper.
See also
Ballistics
Berthold Schwarz
Black powder rocket motor
Black powder substitute
Bulk loaded liquid propellants
Faversham explosives industry
Gunpowder magazine
Gunpowder Plot
Gunpowder warfare
Technology of the Song dynasty
Notes
References
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Hadden, R. Lee. 2005. "Confederate Boys and Peter Monkeys." Armchair General. January 2005. Adapted from a talk given to the Geological Society of America on 25 March 2004.
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Schmidtchen, Volker (1977a), "Riesengeschütze des 15. Jahrhunderts. Technische Höchstleistungen ihrer Zeit", Technikgeschichte 44 (2): 153–73 (153–57)
Schmidtchen, Volker (1977b), "Riesengeschütze des 15. Jahrhunderts. Technische Höchstleistungen ihrer Zeit", Technikgeschichte 44 (3): 213–37 (226–28).
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External links
Gun and Gunpowder
The Origins of Gunpowder
Cannons and Gunpowder
Oare Gunpowder Works, Kent, UK
Royal Gunpowder Mills
The DuPont Company on the Brandywine A digital exhibit produced by the Hagley Library that covers the founding and early history of the DuPont Company powder yards in Delaware
Video Demonstration of the Medieval Siege Society's Guns, Including showing ignition of gunpowder
Black Powder Recipes
Chinese inventions
Explosives
Firearm propellants
Pyrotechnic compositions
Rocket fuels
Solid fuels | [
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12738 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grampus | Grampus | Grampus may refer to:
Animals
Grampus, the genus and another name for Risso's dolphin, Grampus griseus
A synonym of the genus Orcinus
Another name for Orcinus orca, the killer whale or orca
Another name for the hellbender, a species of salamander
Another name for a hellgrammite, the dobsonfly larva
Another name for Mastigoproctus giganteus, a species of whip scorpion
Ships
CSS Grampus, an American river steamer built in 1856 and used by the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War
, the name of a number of Royal Navy ships and submarines
, a fisheries research and fish-culture ship in commission with the United States Commission on Fish and Fisheries from 1886 to 1903 and as USFS Grampus with the United States Bureau of Fisheries from 1903 to 1917
, the name of a number of ships of the United States Navy
Grampus-class submarines, a group of minelaying submarines built for the British Royal Navy in the late 1930s
A versatile attack, reconnaissance and research submarine used by the Blue Fleet in the anime series Blue Submarine No. 6
Sports
Nagoya Grampus, an association football club based in Nagoya, Japan
See also
Krampus, a mythical figure | [
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12740 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary%20Kildall | Gary Kildall | Gary Arlen Kildall (; May 19, 1942 – July 11, 1994) was an American computer scientist and microcomputer entrepreneur.
During the 1970s, Kildall created the CP/M operating system among other operating systems and programming tools, and subsequently founded Digital Research, Inc. (or "DRI") to market and sell his software products. Kildall was among the earliest individuals to recognize microprocessors as fully capable computers (rather than simply as equipment controllers), and to organize a company around this concept. Due to his accomplishments during this era, Kildall is considered a pioneer of the personal computer revolution.
During the 1980s, Kildall also appeared on PBS as co-host (with Stewart Cheifet) of Computer Chronicles, a weekly informational program which covered the latest developments in personal computing.
Although Kildall's career in computing spanned more than two decades, he is mainly remembered in connection with his development of the CP/M operating system, an early multi-platform microcomputer OS that has many parallels to the later MS-DOS used on the IBM PC.
Early life
Gary Kildall was born and grew up in Seattle, Washington, where his family operated a seamanship school. His father, Joseph Kildall, was a captain of Norwegian heritage. His mother Emma was of half Swedish descent, as Kildall's grandmother was born in Långbäck, Sweden, in Skellefteå Municipality, but emigrated to Canada at 23 years of age.
A self-described "greaser" during high school, Kildall later attended the University of Washington (UW), hoping to become a mathematics teacher. During his studies, Kildall became increasingly interested in computer technology. After receiving his degree, he fulfilled a draft obligation to the United States Navy by teaching at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) in Monterey, California. Being within an hour's drive of Silicon Valley, Kildall heard about the first commercially available microprocessor, the Intel 4004. He bought one of the processors and began writing experimental programs for it. To learn more about the processors, he worked at Intel as a consultant on his days off.
Kildall briefly returned to UW and finished his doctorate in computer science in 1972, then resumed teaching at NPS. He published a paper that introduced the theory of data-flow analysis used today in optimizing compilers (sometimes known as Kildall's method), and he continued to experiment with microcomputers and the emerging technology of floppy disks. Intel lent him systems using the 8008 and 8080 processors, and in 1973, he developed the first high-level programming language for microprocessors, called PL/M. For Intel he also wrote an 8080 instruction set simulator named INTERP/80. He created CP/M the same year to enable the 8080 to control a floppy drive, combining for the first time all the essential components of a computer at the microcomputer scale. He demonstrated CP/M to Intel, but Intel had little interest and chose to market PL/M instead.
Business career
CP/M
Kildall and his wife Dorothy established a company, originally called "Intergalactic Digital Research" (later renamed as Digital Research, Inc.), to market CP/M through advertisements in hobbyist magazines. Digital Research licensed CP/M for the IMSAI 8080, a popular clone of the Altair 8800. As more manufacturers licensed CP/M, it became a de facto standard and had to support an increasing number of hardware variations. In response, Kildall pioneered the concept of a BIOS, a set of simple programs stored in the computer hardware (ROM or EPROM chip) that enabled CP/M to run on different systems without modification.
CP/M's quick success took Kildall by surprise, and he was slow to update it for high density floppy disks and hard disk drives. After hardware manufacturers talked about creating a rival operating system, Kildall started a rush project to develop CP/M 2. By 1981, at the peak of its popularity, CP/M ran on different computer models and DRI had million in yearly revenues.
IBM dealings
IBM approached Digital Research in 1980, at Bill Gates' suggestion, to negotiate the purchase of a forthcoming version of CP/M called CP/M-86 for the IBM PC. Gary had left negotiations to his wife, Dorothy, as he usually did, while he and colleague and developer of MP/M operating system Tom Rolander used Gary's private airplane to deliver software to manufacturer Bill Godbout. Before the IBM representatives would explain the purpose of their visit, they insisted that Dorothy sign a non-disclosure agreement. On the advice of DRI attorney Gerry Davis, Dorothy refused to sign the agreement without Gary's approval. Gary returned in the afternoon and tried to move the discussion with IBM forward, and accounts disagree on whether he signed the non-disclosure agreement, as well as if he ever met with the IBM representatives.
Various reasons have been given for the two companies failing to reach an agreement. DRI, which had only a few products, might have been unwilling to sell its main product to IBM for a one-time payment rather than its usual royalty-based plan. Dorothy might have believed that the company could not deliver CP/M-86 on IBM's proposed schedule, as the company was busy developing an implementation of the PL/I programming language for Data General. Also possible, the IBM representatives might have been annoyed that DRI had spent hours on what they considered a routine formality. According to Kildall, the IBM representatives took the same flight to Florida that night that he and Dorothy took for their vacation, and they negotiated further on the flight, reaching a handshake agreement. IBM lead negotiator Jack Sams insisted that he never met Gary, and one IBM colleague has confirmed that Sams said so at the time. He accepted that someone else in his group might have been on the same flight, and noted that he flew back to Seattle to talk with Microsoft again.
Sams related the story to Gates, who had already agreed to provide a BASIC interpreter and several other programs for the PC. Gates' impression of the story was that Gary capriciously "went flying", as he would later tell reporters. Sams left Gates with the task of finding a usable operating system, and a few weeks later he proposed using the operating system 86-DOS—an independently developed operating system that implemented Kildall's CP/M API—from Seattle Computer Products (SCP). Paul Allen negotiated a licensing deal with SCP. Allen had 86-DOS adapted for IBM's hardware, and IBM shipped it as IBM PC DOS.
Kildall obtained a copy of PC DOS, examined it, and concluded that it infringed on CP/M. When he asked Gerry Davis what legal options were available, Davis told him that intellectual property law for software was not clear enough to sue. Instead Kildall only threatened IBM with legal action, and IBM responded with a proposal to offer CP/M-86 as an option for the PC in return for a release of liability. Kildall accepted, believing that IBM's new system (like its previous personal computers) would not be a significant commercial success. When the IBM PC was introduced, IBM sold its operating system as an unbundled option. One of the operating system options was PC DOS, priced at . PC DOS was seen as a practically necessary option; most software titles required it and without it the IBM PC was limited to its built-in Cassette BASIC. CP/M-86 shipped a few months later six times more expensive at , and sold poorly against DOS and enjoyed far less software support.
Later work
With the loss of the IBM deal, Gary and Dorothy found themselves under pressure to bring in more experienced management, and Gary's influence over the company waned. He worked in various experimental and research projects, such as a version of CP/M with multitasking (MP/M) and an implementation of the Logo programming language. He hoped that Logo, an educational dialect of LISP, would supplant BASIC in education, but it did not. After seeing a demonstration of the Apple Lisa, Kildall oversaw the creation of DRI's own graphical user interface, called GEM. Novell acquired DRI in 1991 in a deal that netted millions for Kildall.
Kildall resigned as CEO of Digital Research on 28 June 1985, but remained chairman of the board.
Kildall also pursued computing-related projects outside DRI. During the seven years from 1983 to 1990 he co-hosted a public television program on the side, called Computer Chronicles, that followed trends in personal computing.
In 1984 he started another company, Activenture, which adapted optical disc technology for computer use. In early 1985 it was renamed KnowledgeSet and released the first computer encyclopedia in June 1985, a CD-ROM version of Grolier's Academic American Encyclopedia named The Electronic Encyclopedia, later acquired by Banta Corporation. Kildall's final business venture, known as Prometheus Light and Sound (PLS) and based in Austin, Texas, developed a modular PBX communication system that integrated land-line telephones with mobile phones (called "Intelliphone") to reduce the then-high online costs and to remotely connect with home appliances. It included a UUCP-based store and forward system to exchange emails and files between the various nodes and was planned to include TCP/IP support at a later point in time.
Personal life
Kildall's colleagues recall him as creative, easygoing, and adventurous. In addition to flying, he loved sports cars, auto racing, and boating, and had a lifelong love of the sea.
Although Kildall preferred to leave the IBM affair in the past and to be known for his work before and afterward, he continually faced comparisons between himself and Bill Gates, as well as fading memories of his contributions. A legend grew around the fateful IBM-DRI meeting, encouraged by Gates and various journalists, suggesting that Kildall had irresponsibly taken the day off for a recreational flight.
In later years, Kildall privately expressed bitter feelings about being overshadowed by Microsoft, and began suffering from alcoholism.
Selling DRI to Novell had made Kildall a wealthy man, and he moved to the West Lake Hills suburb of Austin. His Austin house was a lakeside property, with stalls for several sports cars, and a video studio in the basement. Kildall owned and flew his own Learjet and had at least one boat on the lake. While in Austin he also participated in volunteer efforts to assist children with HIV/AIDS. He also owned a mansion with a panoramic ocean view in Pebble Beach, California, near the headquarters of DRI.
Computer Connections
In 1992, Kildall was invited to the University of Washington computer science program's 25th anniversary event. As a distinguished graduate of the program, Kildall was disappointed when asked to attend simply as an audience member. He also took offense at the decision to give the keynote speech to Bill Gates, a Harvard dropout who had donated to UW, but had never attended.
In response, Kildall began writing a memoir, entitled Computer Connections: People, Places, and Events in the Evolution of the Personal Computer Industry. The memoir, which Kildall sought to publish, expressed his frustration that people did not seem to value elegance in computer software.
Writing about Bill Gates, Kildall described him as "more of an opportunist than a technical type, and severely opinionated, even when the opinion he holds is absurd."
In an appendix, he called DOS "plain and simple theft" because its first 26 system calls worked the same as CP/M's. He accused IBM of contriving the price difference between PC DOS and CP/M-86 in order to marginalize CP/M.
Kildall had completed a rough draft of the manuscript by the end of 1993, but the full text remains unpublished. Journalist Harold Evans used the memoir as a primary source for a chapter about Kildall in the 2004 book They Made America, concluding that Microsoft had robbed Kildall of his inventions. IBM veterans from the PC project disputed the book's description of events, and Microsoft described it as "one-sided and inaccurate."
In August 2016, Kildall's family made the first seven chapters of Computer Connections available as a free public download.
Death
On July 8, 1994, Kildall sustained a head injury at the Franklin Street Bar & Grill, a biker bar in Monterey, California. The exact circumstances of the injury are unclear. Various sources have claimed he fell from a chair, fell down steps, or was assaulted because he had entered the establishment wearing Harley-Davidson leathers. Harold Evans, in They Made America, states that Kildall "stumbled and hit his head" inside the premises, and "was found on the floor."
Following the injury, Kildall was discharged from the hospital twice. He was pronounced dead at the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, on July 11, 1994.
Kildall's exact cause of death remains unclear. An autopsy, conducted on July 12, did not conclusively determine the cause of death. Evans states that Kildall's head injury triggered a cerebral hemorrhage, causing a blood clot to form inside the skull. A CP/M Usenet FAQ states that Kildall was concussed due to his injury, and died of a heart attack; the connection between the two is unclear.
Kildall's body was cremated. His remains were buried in Evergreen Washelli Memorial Park, in north Seattle.
Recognition
Following the announcement of Kildall's death, Bill Gates commented that he was "one of the original pioneers of the PC revolution" and "a very creative computer scientist who did excellent work. Although we were competitors, I always had tremendous respect for his contributions to the PC industry. His untimely death was very unfortunate and his work will be missed."
In March 1995, Kildall was posthumously honored by the Software Publishers Association (SPA) for his contributions to the microcomputer industry:
The first programming language and first compiler specifically for microprocessors: PL/M. (1973)
The first microprocessor disk operating system, which eventually sold a quarter of a million copies: CP/M. (1974)
The first successful open system architecture by segregating system-specific hardware interfaces in a set of BIOS routines. (1975)
Creation of the first diskette track buffering schemes, read-ahead algorithms, file directory caches, and RAM drive emulators.
Introduction of operating systems with preemptive multitasking and windowing capabilities and menu-driven user interfaces (with Digital Research): MP/M, Concurrent CP/M, Concurrent DOS, DOS Plus, GEM.
Introduction of a binary recompiler: XLT86. (1981)
The first computer interface for video disks to allow automatic nonlinear playback, presaging today's interactive multimedia. (1984, with Activenture)
The file system and data structures for the first consumer CD-ROM. (1985, with KnowledgeSet)
In April 2014, the city of Pacific Grove installed a commemorative plaque outside Kildall's former residence, which also served as the early headquarters of Digital Research.
See also
History of personal computers
John Q. Torode
References
Further reading
(Part 2 not released due to family privacy reasons.)
(18 pages)
External links
1942 births
1994 deaths
American computer programmers
American computer scientists
American computer businesspeople
American technology company founders
American technology chief executives
Digital Research people
Digital Research employees
CP/M people
Naval Postgraduate School faculty
Scientists from Seattle
University of Washington alumni
American people of Norwegian descent
Accidental deaths from falls
20th-century American businesspeople
Death conspiracy theories
People from Pebble Beach, California | [
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12741 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gesta%20Danorum | Gesta Danorum | Gesta Danorum ("Deeds of the Danes") is a patriotic work of Danish history, by the 12th-century author Saxo Grammaticus ("Saxo the Literate", literally "the Grammarian"). It is the most ambitious literary undertaking of medieval Denmark and is an essential source for the nation's early history. It is also one of the oldest known written documents about the history of Estonia and Latvia.
Consisting of sixteen books written in Latin on the invitation of Archbishop Absalon, Gesta Danorum describes Danish history and to some degree Scandinavian history in general, from prehistory to the late 12th century. In addition, Gesta Danorum offers singular reflections on European affairs in the High Middle Ages from a unique Scandinavian perspective, supplementing what has been handed down by historians from Western and Southern Europe.
Books
The sixteen books, in prose with an occasional excursion into poetry, can be categorized into two parts: Books 1–9, which deal with Norse mythology and semi-legendary Danish history, and Books 10–16, which deal with medieval history. Book 9 ends with Gorm the Old. The last three books (14–16), which describe Danish conquests on the south shore of the Baltic Sea and wars against Slavic peoples (the Northern Crusades), are very valuable for the history of West Slavic tribes (Polabian Slavs, Pomeranians) and Slavic paganism. Book 14 contains a unique description of the temple on the island of Rügen.
Overview
Book 1
The first book is mostly Saxo's original work, sharing little with other primary works, but taking some inspiration from Ancient Greek epics. It very briefly covers the rule of the eponymous founder of the Danish nation, Dan, but also his sons Humble and Lother, and Dan's grandson, Skiold, whose son, Gram is the first Danish king to be given some detail, his reign revolves around conquering Sweden and Finland, only to die in a battle. Most of the book deals with the adventures of Hading, the son of Gram and Finnish princess, Signe. Here the adventure concerns the loss of Denmark to the Swedes as well as Hading's attempts to reclaim it with the help of giants and Odin. The book concludes with Hading's suicide after hearing of his friend's death.
Book 2
Follows adventurers of Hading's descendants, who perform cunning raids across the Baltic Sea and far as England, while encountering many supernatural events and being forced to solve disputes via single combat.
Book 3
Introduces Amleth as a grandson of a Danish king, whose father was murdered by his uncle, the governor of Jylland. Amleth pretends to be a fool in fear of his uncle who has married his mother.
Book 4
Deals with Amleth securing his place as the king of the Danes, and return to Britain where he ends up marrying a Britanian princess, whose father plots the demise of Amleth, and the queen of Scotland who is famous for murdering all her suitors.
Book 5
Focused on empire-building of Frotho III and his brilliant Norwegian advisor, Erick the Eloquent. Ultimately Frotho ends up ruling over Britain, Scandinavia, the Slavs, and the Huns. Saxo makes many parallels to Augustus.
Book 6
Follows the adventurers of the legendary hero, Starkad who is disappointed in the decadent ways of Frothi III's descendants.
Book 7
Is a collection of short and unrelated love stories, many of these ventures feature shieldmaidens.
Book 8
Covers the famous Battle of Brávellir, between Harald Wartooth and Sigurd Ring. Danish involvement in the Saxon wars against Charlemagne, voyages to Biarmia, and the death of Starkad.
Book 9
The book deals with Ragnar Lothbrok and his rising empire, he appoints many of his sons to govern parts of his empire all the way from Scotland to Scythia.
History
Chronology
When exactly Gesta Danorum was written is the subject of numerous works; however, it is generally agreed that Gesta Danorum was not finished before 1208. The last event described in the last book (Book 16) is King Canute VI of Denmark subduing Pomerania under Duke Bogislaw I, in 1186. However the preface of the work, dedicated to Archbishop Anders Sunesen, mentions the Danish conquest of the areas north of the Elbe in 1208.
Book 14, comprising nearly one-quarter of the text of the entire work, ends with Absalon's appointment to archbishop in 1178. Since this book is so large and Absalon has greater importance than King Valdemar I, this book may have been written first and comprised a work on its own. It is possible that Saxo then enlarged it with Books 15 and 16, telling the story of King Valdemar I's last years and King Canute VI's first years.
It is believed that Saxo then wrote Books 11, 12, and 13. Svend Aagesen's history of Denmark, Brevis Historia Regum Dacie (circa 1186), states that Saxo had decided to write about "The king-father and his sons," which would be King Sweyn Estridson, in Books 11, 12, and 13. He would later add the first ten books. This would also explain the 22 years between the last event described in the last book (Book 16) and the 1208 event described in the preface.
Manuscripts
The original manuscripts of the work are lost, except for four fragments: the Angers Fragment, Lassen Fragment, Kall-Rasmussen Fragment and Plesner Fragment. The Angers Fragment is the biggest fragment, and the only one attested to be in Saxo’s own handwriting. The other ones are copies from ca. 1275. All four fragments are in the collection of the Danish Royal Library in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The text has, however, survived. In 1510–1512, Christiern Pedersen, a Danish translator working in Paris, searched Denmark high and low for an existing copy of Saxo’s works, which by that time was nearly all but lost. By that time most knowledge of Saxo’s work came from a summary located in Chronica Jutensis, from around 1342, called Compendium Saxonis. It is also in this summary that the name Gesta Danorum is found. The title Saxo himself used for his work is unknown.
Christiern Pedersen finally found a copy in the collection of Archbishop Birger Gunnersen of Lund, Skåne (Skåne is now part of Sweden, but at the time was still part of Denmark), which he gladly lent him. With the help of printer Jodocus Badius, Gesta Danorum was refined and printed.
Printing
The first printed press publication and the oldest known complete text of Saxo’s works is Christiern Pedersen's Latin edition, printed and published by Jodocus Badius in Paris, France, on 15 March 1514 under the title of Danorum Regum heroumque Historiae ("History of the Kings and heroes of the Danes"). The edition features the following colophon: ...impressit in inclyta Parrhisorum academia Iodocus Badius Ascensius Idibus Martiis. MDXIIII. Supputatione Romana. (the Ides of March, 1514).
The full front page reads (with abbreviations expanded) in Latin:
Danorum Regum heroumque Historiae stilo eleganti a Saxone Grammatico natione Zialandico necnon Roskildensis ecclesiae praeposito, abhinc supra trecentos annos conscriptae et nunc primum literaria serie illustratae tersissimeque impressae.
English language:
Histories of the Kings and heroes of the Danes, composed in elegant style by Saxo Grammaticus, a Zealander and also provost of the church of Roskilde, over three hundred years ago, and now for the first time illustrated and printed correctly in a learned compilation.
Latin versions
The source of all existing translations and new editions is Christiern Pedersen's Latin Danorum Regum heroumque Historiae. There exist a number of different translations today, some complete, some partial:
Danish translations
Christiern Pedersen, never published ca. 1540, Lost
Jon Tursons, lost, never published ca. 1555
, 2 volumes
English translations
, Volume 1 includes books I-X and Volume 2 includes books XI-XVI.
Other translations
[Full translation on Russian by Andrey Dosaev in two vols.]
Gesta Danorum is also translated partially in other English, French and German releases.
Hamlet
Certain aspects of Gesta Danorum formed the basis for William Shakespeare's play Hamlet. It is thought that Shakespeare never read Gesta Danorum, and instead had access to an auxiliary version of the tale describing the downfall of Amleth, Prince of Denmark.
Saxo's version, told of in Books 3 and 4, is very similar to that of Shakespeare's Hamlet. In Saxo's version, two brothers, Orvendil and Fengi are given the rule over Jutland by King Rørik Slyngebond of the Danes. Soon after, Orvendil marries King Rørik's daughter, Geruth (Gertrude in Hamlet). Amleth is their first and only child.
Fengi becomes resentful of his brother's marriage, and also wants sole leadership of Jutland, so therefore murders Orvendil. After a very brief period of mourning, Fengi marries Geruth, and declares himself sole leader of Jutland. Eventually, Amleth avenges his father's murder and plans the murder of his uncle, making him the new and rightful King of Jutland. However, while Hamlet dies in Shakespeare's version just after his uncle's death, in Saxo's version Amleth survives and begins ruling his kingdom, going on to other adventures.
References
Sources
In two volumes : ; , e-text both volumes without appendixes or indices
, (table of contents in Danish).
External links
12th-century history books
12th-century Latin books
Sources of Norse mythology
Sources on Germanic paganism
Danish chronicles
Danish non-fiction books
12th century in Denmark
Cultural depictions of Ragnar Lodbrok | [
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12743 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garrison%20Keillor | Garrison Keillor | Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor (born August 7, 1942) is an American author, singer, humorist, voice actor, and radio personality. He created the Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) show A Prairie Home Companion (called Garrison Keillor's Radio Show in some international syndication), which he hosted from 1974 to 2016. Keillor created the fictional Minnesota town Lake Wobegon, the setting of many of his books, including Lake Wobegon Days and Leaving Home: A Collection of Lake Wobegon Stories. Other creations include Guy Noir, a detective voiced by Keillor who appeared in A Prairie Home Companion comic skits. Keillor is also the creator of the five-minute daily radio/podcast program The Writer's Almanac, which pairs one or two poems of his choice with a script about important literary, historical, and scientific events that coincided with that date in history.
In November 2017, Minnesota Public Radio cut all business ties with Keillor after an allegation of inappropriate behavior with a freelance writer for A Prairie Home Companion. On April 13, 2018, MPR and Keillor announced a settlement that allows archives of A Prairie Home Companion and The Writer's Almanac to be publicly available again, and soon thereafter, Keillor began publishing new episodes of The Writer's Almanac on his website.
Early life
Keillor was born in Anoka, Minnesota, the son of Grace Ruth (née Denham) and John Philip Keillor. His father was a carpenter and postal worker who was half-Canadian with English ancestry; Keillor's paternal grandfather was from Kingston, Ontario. His maternal grandparents were Scottish emigrants from Glasgow. He was the third of six children, with three brothers and two sisters.
Keillor's family belonged to the Plymouth Brethren, an Evangelical Christian movement that he has since left. In 2006, he told Christianity Today that he was attending the St. John the Evangelist Episcopal church in Saint Paul, Minnesota, after previously attending a Lutheran church in New York.
Keillor graduated from Anoka High School in 1960 and from the University of Minnesota with a bachelor's degree in English in 1966. During college, he began his broadcasting career on the student-operated radio station known today as Radio K.
In his 2004 book Homegrown Democrat: A Few Plain Thoughts from the Heart of America, Keillor mentions some of his noteworthy ancestors, including Joseph Crandall, who was an associate of Roger Williams, who founded Rhode Island and the first American Baptist church; and Prudence Crandall, who founded the first African-American women's school in America.
Career
Radio
Garrison Keillor started his professional radio career in November 1969 with Minnesota Educational Radio (MER), later Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), which today distributes programs under the American Public Media (APM) brand. He hosted a weekday drive-time broadcast called A Prairie Home Entertainment, on KSJR FM at St. John's University in Collegeville. The show's eclectic music was a major divergence from the station's usual classical fare. During this time he submitted fiction to The New Yorker magazine, where his first story for that publication, "Local Family Keeps Son Happy," appeared in September 1970.
Keillor resigned from The Morning Program in February 1971 in protest of what he considered interference with his musical programming; as part of his protest, he played nothing but the Beach Boys' "Help Me, Rhonda" during one broadcast. When he returned to the station in October, the show was dubbed A Prairie Home Companion.
Keillor has attributed the idea for the live Saturday night radio program to his 1973 assignment to write about the Grand Ole Opry for The New Yorker, but he had already begun showcasing local musicians on the morning show, despite limited studio space. In August 1973, MPR announced plans to broadcast a Saturday night version of A Prairie Home Companion with live musicians.
A Prairie Home Companion (PHC) debuted as an old-style variety show before a live audience on July 6, 1974; it featured guest musicians and a cadre cast doing musical numbers and comic skits replete with elaborate live sound effects. The show was punctuated by spoof commercial spots for PHC fictitious sponsors such as Powdermilk Biscuits, the Ketchup Advisory Board, and the Professional Organization of English Majors (POEM); it presents parodic serial melodramas, such as The Adventures of Guy Noir, Private Eye and The Lives of the Cowboys. Keillor voiced Noir, the cowboy Lefty, and other recurring characters, and provided lead or backup vocals for some of the show's musical numbers. The show aired from the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul.
After the show's intermission, Keillor read clever and often humorous greetings to friends and family at home submitted by members of the theater audience in exchange for an honorarium. Also in the second half of the show, Keillor delivered a monologue called The News from Lake Wobegon, a fictitious town based in part on Keillor's own hometown of Anoka, Minnesota, and on Freeport and other small towns in Stearns County, Minnesota, where he lived in the early 1970s. Lake Wobegon is a quintessentially Minnesota small town characterized by the narrator as a place "... where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average."
The original PHC ran until 1987, when Keillor ended it to focus on other projects. In 1989, he launched a new live radio program from New York City, The American Radio Company of the Air, which had essentially the same format as PHC. In 1992, he moved ARC back to St. Paul, and a year later changed the name back to A Prairie Home Companion; it remained a fixture of Saturday night radio broadcasting for decades.
On a typical broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion, Keillor's name was not mentioned unless a guest addressed him by name, although some sketches featured Keillor as his alter ego, Carson Wyler. In the closing credits, which Keillor read, he gave himself no billing or credit except "written by Sarah Bellum," a joking reference to his own brain.
Keillor regularly took the radio company on the road to broadcast from popular venues around the United States; the touring production typically featured local celebrities and skits incorporating local color. In April 2000, he took the program to Edinburgh, Scotland, producing two performances in the city's Queen's Hall, which were broadcast by BBC Radio. He toured Scotland with the program to celebrate its 25th anniversary. (In the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, the program is known as Garrison Keillor's Radio Show.) Keillor produced broadcast performances similar to PHC but without the "Prairie Home Companion" brand, as in his 2008 appearance at the Oregon Bach Festival. He was also the host of The Writer's Almanac, from 1993 to 2017, which, like PHC, was produced and distributed by American Public Media.
In a March 2011 interview, Keillor announced that he would be retiring from A Prairie Home Companion in 2013; but in a December 2011 interview with the Sioux City Journal, Keillor said: "The show is going well. I love doing it. Why quit?" During an interview on July 20, 2015, Keillor announced his intent to retire from the show after the 2015–2016 season, saying, "I have a lot of other things that I want to do. I mean, nobody retires anymore. Writers never retire. But this is my last season. This tour this summer is the farewell tour."
Keillor's final episode of the show was recorded live for an audience of 18,000 fans at the Hollywood Bowl in California on July 1, 2016, and broadcast the next day, ending 42 seasons of the show. After the performance, President Barack Obama phoned Keillor to congratulate him. The show continued on October 15, 2016, with Chris Thile as its host.
Separation from MPR
On November 29, 2017, the Star Tribune reported that Minnesota Public Radio was terminating all business relationships with Keillor as a result of "allegations of his inappropriate behavior with an individual who worked with him." In January 2018, MPR CEO Jon McTaggart elaborated that they had received allegations of "dozens" of sexually inappropriate incidents from the individual, including requests for sexual contact. Keillor denied any wrongdoing and said his firing stems from an incident when he touched a woman's bare back while trying to console her. He said he had apologized to her soon after, that they had already made up, and that he was surprised to hear the allegations when her lawyer called.
In its statement of termination, MPR announced that Keillor would keep his executive credit for the show, but that since he owns the trademark for the phrase "prairie home companion", they would cease rebroadcasting episodes of A Prairie Home Companion featuring Keillor and remove the trademarked phrase from the radio show hosted by Chris Thile. MPR also eliminated its business connections to PrairieHome.org and stopped distributing Keillor's daily program The Writer's Almanac. The Washington Post also canceled Keillor's weekly column when they learned he had continued writing columns, including a controversial piece criticizing Al Franken's resignation because of sexual misconduct allegations, without revealing that he was under investigation at MPR. Several fans wrote MPR to protest his firing, and within the month, 153 members had canceled their memberships because of it. In January 2018, Keillor announced he was in mediation with MPR over the firing. On January 23, 2018, MPR News reported further on the investigation after interviewing almost 60 people who had worked with Keillor. The story described other alleged sexual misconduct by Keillor, and a $16,000 severance check for a woman who was asked to sign a confidentiality agreement to prevent her from talking about her time at MPR (she refused and never deposited the check).
Settlement and access to archived shows
Keillor received a letter from the MPR CEO, Jon McTaggart, dated April 5, 2018, confirming that both sides wanted archives of A Prairie Home Companion and The Writer's Almanac to be publicly available again. In April 2018, MPR and Keillor announced a settlement under which MPR would restore the online archives.
Finding Your Roots segment
Also due to the allegations of inappropriate behavior, Keillor's segment in the PBS series Finding Your Roots episode that aired on December 19, 2017, was replaced by an older segment featuring Maya Rudolph.
Writing
At age 13, Keillor adopted the pen name "Garrison" to distinguish his personal life from his professional writing. He commonly uses "Garrison" in public and in other media.
Keillor has been called "[o]ne of the most perceptive and witty commentators about Midwestern life" by Randall Balmer in Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism. He has written numerous magazine and newspaper articles and more than a dozen books for adults as well as children. In addition to writing for The New Yorker, he has written for The Atlantic Monthly and National Geographic. He has also written for Salon.com and authored an advice column there under the name "Mr. Blue." Following a heart operation, he resigned on September 4, 2001, his last column being titled "Every dog has his day":
In 2004 Keillor published a collection of political essays, Homegrown Democrat: A Few Plain Thoughts from the Heart of America, and in June 2005 he began a column called The Old Scout, which ran at Salon.com and in syndicated newspapers. The column went on hiatus in April 2010 so that he could "finish a screenplay and start writing a novel."
Keillor wrote the screenplay for the 2006 movie A Prairie Home Companion, directed by Robert Altman. He also appears in the movie.
Bookselling
On November 1, 2006, Keillor opened an independent bookstore, "Common Good Books, G. Keillor, Prop." in the Blair Arcade Building at the southwest corner of Selby and N. Western Avenues in the Cathedral Hill area in the Summit-University neighborhood of Saint Paul, Minnesota.
In April 2012, the store moved to a new location on Snelling Avenue across from Macalester College in the Macalester-Groveland neighborhood. In April of 2019, Keillor sold his interest in the bookstore.
Voice-over work
Probably owing in part to his distinctive North-Central accent, Keillor is often used as a voice-over actor. Some notable appearances include:
Voiceover artist for Honda UK's "the Power of Dreams" campaign. The campaign's most memorable advertisement is the 2003 Honda Accord commercial Cog, which features a Heath Robinson contraption (or Rube Goldberg Machine) made entirely of car parts. The commercial ends with Keillor asking, "Isn't it nice when things just work?" Since then, Keillor has voiced the tagline for most if not all UK Honda advertisements, and even sang the voiceover in the 2004 Honda Diesel commercial Grrr. His most recent ad was a reworking of an existing commercial with digitally added England flags to tie in with the World Cup. Keillor's tagline was "Come on, England, keep the dream alive."
Voice of the Norse god Odin in an episode of the Disney animated series Hercules
Voice of Walt Whitman and other historical figures in Ken Burns's documentary series The Civil War and Baseball
Narrator of "River of Dreams" Documentary at the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium in Dubuque, Iowa
In 1991, Keillor released Songs of the Cat, an album of original and parody songs about cats.
Reception
In Slate, Sam Anderson called Keillor "very clearly a genius. His range and stamina alone are incredible—after 30 years, he rarely repeats himself—and he has the genuine wisdom of a Cosby or Mark Twain." But Keillor's "willful simplicity," Anderson wrote, "is annoying because, after a while, it starts to feel prescriptive. Being a responsible adult doesn't necessarily mean speaking slowly about tomatoes." Anderson also noted that in 1985, when Time magazine called Keillor the funniest man in America, Bill Cosby said, "That's true if you're a pilgrim."
In popular culture
Keillor's style, particularly his speaking voice, has often been parodied.
The Simpsons parodied him in an episode in which the family is shown watching a Keillor-like monologist on television; they are perplexed at why the studio audience is laughing so much, prompting Homer to ask "What the hell's so funny?" and Bart to suggest "Maybe it's the TV." Homer then hits the set, exclaiming: "Stupid TV! Be more funny!"
On the November 19, 2011, episode of Saturday Night Live, cast member Bill Hader impersonated Keillor in a sketch depicting celebrities auditioning to replace Regis Philbin as co-host of Live! with Kelly.
One Boston radio critic likens Keillor and his "down-comforter voice" to "a hypnotist intoning, 'You are getting sleepy now'," while noting that Keillor does play to listeners' intelligence.
Pennsylvanian singer-songwriter Tom Flannery wrote a song in 2003 titled "I Want a Job Like Garrison Keillor's."
Two parody books by "Harrison Geillor": The Zombies of Lake Woebegotten and The Twilight of Lake Woebegotten, were published by Night Shade Books in 2010 and 2011.
Personal life
Keillor is a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. He is tall. He considers himself a loner and prefers not to make eye contact with people. Though not diagnosed, he also considers himself to be on the high-functioning end of the autism spectrum. He spoke about his experiences as an autistic person in his keynote address at the 19th Annual Minnesota Autism Conference in 2014.
Keillor has been married three times. He was married to Mary Guntzel from 1965 to 1976; they had one son, Jason (born 1969). He was married to Ulla Skaerved, a former exchange student from Denmark at Keillor's high school whom he re-encountered at a class reunion, from 1985 to 1990. He married classical string player Jenny Lind Nilsson (born 1957), who is also from Anoka, in 1995. They have one daughter, Maia Grace Keillor (born December 29, 1997).
Between his first and second marriages, Keillor was romantically involved with Margaret Moos, who worked as a producer of A Prairie Home Companion.
On September 7, 2009, Keillor was briefly hospitalized after suffering a minor stroke. He returned to work a few days later.
2006 Methodist church comments
In 2006, after a visit to a United Methodist church in Highland Park, Texas, Keillor created a local controversy with his remarks about the event, including the rhetorical suggestion of a connection between event participants and supporters of torture and a statement creating an impression of political intimidation: "I walked in, was met by two burly security men ... and within 10 minutes was told by three people that this was the Bushes' church and that it would be better if I didn't talk about politics." In response, the lecture series coordinator said the two "burly security men" were a local policeman and the church's own security supervisor, both present because the agreement with Keillor's publisher specified that the venue provide security. In addition, the coordinator said that Keillor arrived at the church, declined an introduction, and took the stage without an opportunity to mingle with the audience, so he did not know when these warnings might have been dispensed. The publicist concurred, saying that Keillor did not have contact with any church members or people in the audience before he spoke. Supposedly, before Keillor's remarks, participants at the event had considered the visit to have been cordial and warm. Asked to respond, Keillor stuck to his story, describing the people who advised him not to discuss politics and saying that he did not have security guards at other stops on the tour.
In 2007, Keillor wrote a column that in part criticized "stereotypical" gay parents, who he said were "sardonic fellows with fussy hair who live in over-decorated apartments with a striped sofa and a small weird dog and who worship campy performers." In response to the strong reactions of many readers, Keillor said:
In 2008, Keillor created a controversy in St. Paul when he filed a lawsuit against his neighbor's plan to build an addition on her home, citing his need for "light and air" and a view of "open space and beyond". Keillor's home is significantly larger than others in his neighborhood and it would still be significantly larger than his neighbor's with its planned addition. Keillor came to an undisclosed settlement with his neighbor shortly after the story became public.
In 2009, one of Keillor's "Old Scout" columns contained a reference to "lousy holiday songs by Jewish guys" and a complaint about "Silent Night" as rewritten by Unitarians, upsetting some readers. A Unitarian minister named Cynthia Landrum responded, "Listening to him talk about us over the years, it's becoming more and more evident that he isn't laughing with us—he's laughing at us", while Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe called Keillor "cranky and intolerant".
Awards and other recognition
"A Prairie Home Companion" received a Peabody Award in 1980.
Keillor received a Medal for Spoken Language from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1990.
In 1994, Keillor was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame.
He received a National Humanities Medal from the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1999.
"Welcome to Minnesota" markers in interstate rest areas near the state's borders include statements such as "Like its neighbors, the thirty-second state grew as a collection of small farm communities, many settled by immigrants from Scandinavia and Germany. Two of the nation's favorite fictional small towns – Sinclair Lewis's Gopher Prairie and Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon – reflect that heritage."
In 2007, The Moth, a NYC-based not-for-profit storytelling organization, awarded Garrison Keillor the first The Moth Award – Honoring the Art of the Raconteur at the annual Moth Ball.
In September 2007, Keillor was awarded the 2007 John Steinbeck Award, given to artists who capture "the spirit of Steinbeck's empathy, commitment to democratic values, and belief in the dignity of the common man."
Keillor received a Grammy Award in 1988 for his recording of Lake Wobegon Days.
In 2016, he received the Fitzgerald Award for Achievement in American Literature.
He has also received two CableACE Awards and a George Foster Peabody Award.
Bibliography
Keillor's work in print includes:
Lake Wobegon
Lake Wobegon Days (1985), ; a recorded version of this won a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word or Non-musical Album in 1988
Leaving Home: A Collection of Lake Wobegon Stories (1987; collection of Lake Wobegon stories),
We Are Still Married (1989; collection including some Lake Wobegon stories),
An expanded edition was released in 1990 that added six stories and removed one from the original publication.
Wobegon Boy (1997),
Lake Wobegon Summer 1956 (2001),
In Search of Lake Wobegon (Photographs by Richard Olsenius, 2001),
Pontoon: A Novel of Lake Wobegon (2007),
Liberty: A Novel of Lake Wobegon (2008),
Life among the Lutherans (2009),
Pilgrims: A Wobegon Romance (2009),
The Lake Wobegon Virus (2020),
Other works
G.K. The D.J. (1977)
Happy to Be Here (1981),
WLT: A Radio Romance (1991),
The Book of Guys (1993),
The Sandy Bottom Orchestra (with Jenny Lind Nilsson, 1996),
Me, by Jimmy "Big Boy" Valente (1999),
Love Me (2003),
Homegrown Democrat: A Few Plain Thoughts from the Heart of America (2004),
Daddy's Girl (2005),
A Christmas Blizzard (2009),
Cat, You Better Come Home (2010), 978-0670012770
Guy Noir and the Straight Skinny (2012),
The Keillor Reader (2014),
That Time of Year: A Minnesota Life (2020)
Poetry
The Selected Verse of Margaret Haskins Durber (1979)
77 Love Sonnets (2009),
O, What a Luxury: Verses Lyrical, Vulgar, Pathetic & Profound (2013)
Living with Limericks (2019),
Poetry anthologies
Good Poems (2002),
Good Poems for Hard Times (2005),
Good Poems, American Places (2011),
Contributions to The New Yorker
References
Further reading
Cara Buckley, "The Garrison Keillor You Never Knew" (archived), The New York Times, June 16, 2016.
External links
A Prairie Home Companion radio website—Garrison Keillor's public radio show
The Writer's Almanac website—Garrison Keillor's daily poetry program
"Minnesota Zen Master"—a detailed profile of Garrison Keillor, published in The Guardian, March 6, 2004.
"Kingdom of the Frown"—A feature article from The Reykjavík Grapevine on Garrison Keillor
"A Prairie Home Conundrum", Slate, June 16, 2006
An interview with Garrison Keillor at Everydayyeah.com
"Garrison Keillor—The Man on the Radio in the Red Shoes", PBS, American Masters
Speech by Keillor at Concordia University February 15, 2011
1995 Paris Review interview
1942 births
20th-century American male actors
20th-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American male actors
21st-century American non-fiction writers
American advice columnists
American Episcopalians
American humorists
American male non-fiction writers
American male radio actors
American male singers
American people of English descent
American people of Scottish descent
American Public Media
American public radio personalities
American radio hosts
Audiobook narrators
Edward R. Murrow Award (CPB) winners
Grammy Award winners
Living people
Male actors from Minnesota
Male actors from Saint Paul, Minnesota
Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
Minnesota Democrats
Minnesota Public Radio people
Monologists
National Humanities Medal recipients
People from Anoka, Minnesota
People from Ramsey County, Minnesota
Radio personalities from Minnesota
The New Yorker people
The New Yorker staff writers
University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts alumni
Virgin Records artists
Writers from Saint Paul, Minnesota
Novelists from Minnesota
Anoka High School alumni
20th-century American male writers
21st-century American male writers | [
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12744 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galatia | Galatia | Galatia (; , Galatía, "Gaul") was an ancient area in the highlands of central Anatolia, roughly corresponding to the provinces of Ankara and Eskişehir, in modern Turkey. Galatia was named after the Gauls from Thrace (cf. Tylis), who settled here and became a small transient foreign tribe in the 3rd century BC, following the supposed Gallic invasion of the Balkans in 279 BC. It has been called the "Gallia" of the East; Roman writers calling its inhabitants Galli (Gauls or Celts).
Geography
Galatia was bounded on the north by Bithynia and Paphlagonia, on the east by Pontus and Cappadocia, on the south by Cilicia and Lycaonia, and on the west by Phrygia. Its capital was Ancyra (i.e. Ankara, today the capital of modern Turkey).
Celtic Galatia
The terms "Galatians" came to be used by the Greeks for the three Celtic peoples of Anatolia: the Tectosages, the Trocmii, and the Tolistobogii. By the 1st century BC the Celts had become so Hellenized that some Greek writers called them Hellenogalatai (Ἑλληνογαλάται). The Romans called them Gallograeci. Though the Celts had, to a large extent, integrated into Hellenistic Asia Minor, they preserved their linguistic and ethnic identity.
By the 4th century BC the Celts had penetrated into the Balkans, coming into contact with the Thracians and Greeks. In 380 BC they fought in the southern regions of Dalmatia (present day Croatia), and rumors circulated around the ancient world that Alexander the Greats father, Philip II of Macedonia had been assassinated by someone using a dagger of Celtic origins. Arrian writes that "Celts established on the Ionic coast" were among those who came to meet Alexander the Great during a campaign against the Getae in 335 BC. Several ancient accounts mention that the Celts formed an alliance with Dionysius I of Syracuse who sent them to fight alongside the Macedonians against the Thebans. In 279 BC two Celtic factions united under the leadership of Brennus and began to push southwards from southern Bulgaria towards the Greek states. According to Livy, a sizable force split off from this main group and headed toward Asia Minor.
For several years a federation of Hellespontine cities, including Byzantion and Chalkedon, prevented the Celts from entering Asia Minor. During the course of the power struggle between Nikomedes I of Bithynia and his brother Zipoetes, the former hired 20,000 Galatian mercenaries. The Galatians split into two groups headed by Leonnorius and Lutarius respectively, which crossed the Bosporus and the Hellespont respectively. In 277 BC, when the hostilities had ended the Galatians came out of Nikomedes' control and began raiding Greek cities in Asia Minor while Antiochus was solidifying his rule in Syria. The Galatians looted Cyzikus, Ilion, Didyma, Priene, Thyatira and Laodicea on the Lycus, while the citizens of Erythras paid them ransom. Either in 275 or 269 BC Antiochus' army faced the Galatians somewhere on the plain of Sardis in the Battle of Elephants. In the aftermath of the battle the Celts then settled in northern Phrygia, a region that eventually came to be known as Galatia.
The territory of Celtic Galatia included the cities of Ancyra (present day Ankara), Pessinus, Tavium, and Gordion.
Roman Galatia
Upon the death of Deiotarus, the Kingdom of Galatia was given to Amyntas, an auxiliary commander in the Roman army of Brutus and Cassius who gained the favor of Mark Antony. After his death in 25 BC, Galatia was incorporated by Augustus into the Roman Empire, becoming a Roman province. Near his capital Ancyra (modern Ankara), Pylamenes, the king's heir, rebuilt a temple of the Phrygian god Men to venerate Augustus (the Monumentum Ancyranum), as a sign of fidelity. It was on the walls of this temple in Galatia that the major source for the Res Gestae of Augustus were preserved for modernity. Few of the provinces proved more enthusiastically loyal to Rome.
Josephus related the Biblical figure Gomer to Galatia (or perhaps to Gaul in general): "For Gomer founded those whom the Greeks now call Galatians, [Galls], but were then called Gomerites." Others have related Gomer to Cimmerians.
Paul the Apostle visited Galatia in his missionary journeys, and wrote to the Christians there in the Epistle to the Galatians.
Although originally possessing a strong cultural identity, by the 2nd century AD, the Galatians had become assimilated (Hellenization) into the Hellenistic civilization of Anatolia. The Galatians were still speaking the Galatian language in the time of St. Jerome (347–420 AD), who wrote that the Galatians of Ancyra and the Treveri of Trier (in what is now the Rhineland) spoke the same language (Comentarii in Epistolam ad Galatos, 2.3, composed c. 387).
In an administrative reorganisation (c. 386–395), two new provinces succeeded it, Galatia Prima and Galatia Secunda or Salutaris, which included part of Phrygia. The fate of the Galatian people is a subject of some uncertainty, but they seem ultimately to have been absorbed into the Greek-speaking populations of Anatolia.
Gallery
See also
Ancient regions of Anatolia
History of Anatolia
References
Notes
Encyclopedia, MS Encarta 2001, under article "Galatia".
Barraclough, Geoffrey, ed. HarperCollins Atlas of World History. 2nd ed. Oxford: HarperCollins, 1989. 76–77.
John King, Celt Kingdoms, pg. 74–75.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, VI: Epistle to the Galatians.
Stephen Mitchell, 1993. Anatolia: Land, Men, and Gods in Asia Minor vol. 1: "The Celts and the Impact of Roman Rule." (Oxford: Clarendon Press) 1993. . Concentrates on Galatia; volume 2 covers "The Rise of the Church". (Bryn Mawr Classical Review)
David Rankin, (1987) 1996. Celts and the Classical World (London: Routledge): Chapter 9 "The Galatians".
Coşkun, A., "Das Ende der "romfreundlichen Herrschaft" in Galatien und das Beispiel einer "sanften Provinzialisierung" in Zentralanatolien," in Coşkun, A. (hg), Freundschaft und Gefolgschaft in den auswärtigen Beziehungen der Römer (2. Jahrhundert v. Chr. – 1. Jahrhundert n. Chr.), (Frankfurt M. u. a., 2008) (Inklusion, Exklusion, 9), 133–164.
Justin K. Hardin: Galatians and the Imperial Cult. A Critical Analysis of the First-Century Social Context of Paul's Letter. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, Germany 2008, .
External links
Celtic Galatians
UNRV.com: Galatia
States and territories established in the 3rd century BC
States and territories disestablished in the 1st century BC
Regions of Asia
Historical regions
Historical regions of Anatolia
Pauline churches
Ancient Greek geography
Former countries in the Middle East
Hellenistic Phrygia
Geography of the Middle East
History of Western Asia
Near East
New Testament regions
Gauls | [
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12745 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galatians | Galatians | Galatians may refer to:
Galatians (people)
Epistle to the Galatians, a book of the New Testament
English translation of the Greek Galatai or Latin Galatae, Galli, or Gallograeci to refer to either the Galatians or the Gauls in general
See also
Galatia in Asia Minor
Galatia (Roman province)
Galatian (disambiguation) | [
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12746 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generalization | Generalization | A generalization is a form of abstraction whereby common properties of specific instances are formulated as general concepts or claims. Generalizations posit the existence of a domain or set of elements, as well as one or more common characteristics shared by those elements (thus creating a conceptual model). As such, they are the essential basis of all valid deductive inferences (particularly in logic, mathematics and science), where the process of verification is necessary to determine whether a generalization holds true for any given situation.
Generalization can also be used to refer to the process of identifying the parts of a whole, as belonging to the whole. The parts, which might be unrelated when left on their own, may be brought together as a group, hence belonging to the whole by establishing a common relation between them.
However, the parts cannot be generalized into a whole—until a common relation is established among all parts. This does not mean that the parts are unrelated, only that no common relation has been established yet for the generalization.
The concept of generalization has broad application in many connected disciplines, and might sometimes have a more specific meaning in a specialized context (e.g. generalization in psychology, generalization in learning).
In general, given two related concepts A and B, A is a "generalization" of B (equiv., B is a special case of A) if and only if both of the following hold:
Every instance of concept B is also an instance of concept A.
There are instances of concept A which are not instances of concept B.
For example, the concept animal is a generalization of the concept bird, since every bird is an animal, but not all animals are birds (dogs, for instance). For more, see Specialisation (biology).
Hypernym and hyponym
The connection of generalization to specialization (or particularization) is reflected in the contrasting words hypernym and hyponym. A hypernym as a generic stands for a class or group of equally ranked items, such as the term tree which stands for equally ranked items such as peach and oak, and the term ship which stands for equally ranked items such as cruiser and steamer. In contrast, a hyponym is one of the items included in the generic, such as peach and oak which are included in tree, and cruiser and steamer which are included in ship. A hypernym is superordinate to a hyponym, and a hyponym is subordinate to a hypernym.
Examples
Biological generalization
An animal is a generalization of a mammal, a bird, a fish, an amphibian and a reptile.
Cartographic generalization of geo-spatial data
Generalization has a long history in cartography as an art of creating maps for different scale and purpose. Cartographic generalization is the process of selecting and representing information of a map in a way that adapts to the scale of the display medium of the map. In this way, every map has, to some extent, been generalized to match the criteria of display. This includes small cartographic scale maps, which cannot convey every detail of the real world. As a result, cartographers must decide and then adjust the content within their maps, to create a suitable and useful map that conveys the geospatial information within their representation of the world.
Generalization is meant to be context-specific. That is to say, correctly generalized maps are those that emphasize the most important map elements, while still representing the world in the most faithful and recognizable way. The level of detail and importance in what is remaining on the map must outweigh the insignificance of items that were generalized—so as to preserve the distinguishing characteristics of what makes the map useful and important.
Mathematical generalizations
A polygon is a generalization of a 3-sided triangle, a 4-sided quadrilateral, and so on to n sides.
A hypercube is a generalization of a 2-dimensional square, a 3-dimensional cube, and so on to n dimensions.
A quadric, such as a hypersphere, ellipsoid, paraboloid, or hyperboloid, is a generalization of a conic section to higher dimensions.
A Taylor series is a generalization of a MacLaurin series.
The binomial formula is a generalization of the formula for .
See also
Categorical imperative (ethical generalization)
Ceteris paribus
Class diagram
External validity (scientific studies)
Faulty generalization
Generic (disambiguation)
Critical thinking
Generic antecedent
Hasty generalization
Inheritance (object-oriented programming),
Mutatis mutandis
-onym
Ramer–Douglas–Peucker algorithm
Semantic compression
Specialization (logic), the opposite process
Inventor's paradox
References
Generalizations
Critical_thinking
Inductive_reasoning | [
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12747 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gia%20Carangi | Gia Carangi | Gia Marie Carangi (January 29, 1960November 18, 1986) was an American model, considered by many to be the first woman to be titled as supermodel. She was featured on the cover of fashion magazines, including multiple editions of Vogue and Cosmopolitan, and appeared in advertising campaigns for such fashion houses as Armani, Christian Dior, Versace, and Yves Saint Laurent.
After she became addicted to heroin, Carangi's modeling career rapidly declined. At age 26 she died of AIDS-related complications, believed to have contracted the disease from a contaminated needle, becoming one of the first famous women to die of the disease. Her life was dramatized in the television film Gia, starring Angelina Jolie, which debuted on HBO in 1998.
Life and career
1960–1977: Early life
Carangi was born in Philadelphia, the third and youngest child of Joseph Carangi, a restaurant owner, and Kathleen Carangi (née Adams), a homemaker. She had two older brothers. Her father was Italian, and her mother was of Irish and Welsh ancestry. Joseph and Kathleen had an unstable, violent marriage, ultimately leading Kathleen to abandon the family when Carangi was eleven years old. She was described as "needy and manipulative" by relatives who recalled her as spoiled and shy as a child and a "mommy's girl" who did not receive the motherly attention that she desired. Those who knew Gia blamed her "fractured childhood" for the instability and drug dependence that plagued her adult life.
In her adolescent years, Carangi found the attention she sought from other teenage girls, befriending them by sending flowers. While attending Abraham Lincoln High School, Carangi bonded with "the Bowie kids", a group of obsessive David Bowie fans who emulated Bowie's "defiantly weird, high-glam" style. Carangi was drawn to Bowie for his fashion preferences and his ambiguous gender play and outspoken bisexuality. One of Carangi's friends later spoke of her "tomboy persona", describing her relaxed openness about her sexuality as reminiscent of the character Cay in the 1985 film Desert Hearts. Carangi and her "bi-try Bowie-mad" friends hung out in Philadelphia's gay clubs and bars. Though she associated with the lesbian community, she did not want to take up "the accepted lesbian style."
1978–1980: Career beginnings and success
After being featured in Philadelphia newspaper ads, Carangi moved to New York City at the age of 17, where she signed with Wilhelmina Models. Her first major shoot, published in October 1978, was with top fashion photographer Chris von Wangenheim, who had her pose nude behind a chain-link fence with makeup artist Sandy Linter. Carangi immediately became infatuated with Linter and pursued her, though the relationship never became stable. By the end of 1978, her first year in New York, Carangi was already a well-established model. Of her quick rise to prominence, described by Vogue as "meteoric", Carangi later said, "I started working with very good people, I mean all the time, very fast. I didn't build into a model, I just sort of became one."
Carangi was a favorite model of various fashion photographers, including Von Wangenheim, Francesco Scavullo, Arthur Elgort, Richard Avedon, and Denis Piel. Well-integrated within the fashion world, she had the selection of several photographers, most notably Scavullo. Carangi was featured on the cover of many fashion magazines, including the April 1979 issue of British Vogue, the April 1979 and August 1980 issues of Vogue Paris, the August 1980 issue of American Vogue, the February 1981 issue of Vogue Italia, and multiple issues of Cosmopolitan between 1979 and 1982. During these years, she also appeared in various advertising campaigns for high-profile fashion houses, including Armani, André Laug, Christian Dior, Versace, and Yves Saint Laurent. At the height of her career, Carangi was most known in modeling circles by only her first name. During this time, she also appeared in the Blondie music video for "Atomic".
1980–1981: Drug use and career decline
A regular at Studio 54 and the Mudd Club, Carangi usually used cocaine in clubs. After her agent, mentor, and friend Wilhelmina Cooper, died of lung cancer in March 1980, a devastated Carangi began using drugs and developed an addiction to heroin. Carangi's addiction soon began to affect her work; she had violent temper tantrums, walked out of photo shoots to buy drugs, and fell asleep in front of the camera. Scavullo recalled a fashion shoot with Carangi in the Caribbean when "she was crying, she couldn't find her drugs. I literally had to lay her down on her bed until she fell asleep." During one of her final location shoots for American Vogue, Carangi had red bumps in the crooks of her elbows where she had injected heroin. Despite airbrushing, some of the photos, as published in the November 1980 issue, reportedly still showed visible needle marks.
In November 1980, Carangi left Wilhelmina Models and signed with Ford Models, but she was dropped within weeks. By then, her career was in a steep decline. Modeling offers soon ceased and her fashion industry friends, including Sandy Linter, refused to speak to her, fearing their association with her would harm their careers. In an attempt to quit using drugs, she moved back to Philadelphia with her mother and stepfather in February 1981. Carangi underwent a 21-day detox program, but her sobriety was short-lived. She was arrested in March 1981 after she drove into a fence in a suburban neighborhood. After a chase with police, she was taken into custody where it was later determined she was under the influence of alcohol and cocaine. After her release, Carangi briefly signed with a new agency, Legends, and worked sporadically, mainly in Europe.
1981–1983: Attempted comeback and retirement
In late 1981, although still using drugs, Carangi was determined to make a comeback in the fashion industry and signed with Elite Model Management. While some clients refused to work with her, others were willing to hire her because of her past status as a top model. Scavullo photographed her for the April 1982 cover of Cosmopolitan, her last cover appearance for an American magazine. Sean Byrnes, Scavullo's long-time assistant, later said, "What she was doing to herself finally became apparent in her pictures. ... I could see the change in her beauty. There was an emptiness in her eyes."
Carangi then mainly worked with photographer Albert Watson and found work modeling for department stores and catalogs. She appeared in an advertising campaign for Versace, shot by Richard Avedon. He hired her for the fashion house's next campaign, but during the photo shoot, in late 1982, Carangi became uncomfortable and left before any usable shots of her were taken. Around this time, Carangi enrolled in an outpatient methadone program but soon began using heroin again. By the end of 1982, she had only a few clients that were willing to hire her. Carangi's final photo shoot was for German mail-order clothing company Otto Versand in Tunisia; she was sent home during the shoot for using heroin. She left New York for the final time in early 1983.
1983–1986: Later years and death
As she had spent most of her modeling earnings on drugs, Carangi spent the final three years of her life with various lovers, friends, and family members in Philadelphia and Atlantic City. She was admitted to an intense drug treatment program at Eagleville Hospital in December 1984. After treatment, she got a job in a clothing store, which she eventually quit. She later found employment as a checkout clerk and then worked in the cafeteria of a nursing home. By late 1985, she had begun using drugs again and was engaging in sex work in Atlantic City.
In December 1985, Carangi was admitted to Warminster General Hospital in Warminster, Pennsylvania, with bilateral pneumonia. A few days later, she was diagnosed with AIDS-related complex. In the fall of 1986, Gia Carangi was hospitalized again after being found on the street badly beaten and raped. On October 18, she was admitted to Hahnemann University Hospital. Gia Carangi died at the Hahnemann Hospital of AIDS-related complications one month later on November 18, 1986, at the age of 26, becoming one of the first famous women to die of the disease. Her funeral was held on November 23 at a small funeral home in Philadelphia. No one from the fashion world attended. However, weeks later, Francesco Scavullo, Carangi's friend and confidant, sent a Mass card when he heard the news.
Legacy
Carangi is often considered to be the first supermodel, although that title has been applied to others, including Margaux Hemingway,
Audrey Munson, Lisa Fonssagrives, Dorian Leigh, Twiggy, Jean Shrimpton, and Janice Dickinson. Model Cindy Crawford, who rose to prominence the year Carangi died, was referred to as "Baby Gia" because of her resemblance to Carangi. Crawford later recalled, "My agents took me to all the photographers who liked Gia: Albert Watson, Francesco Scavullo, Bill King. Everyone loved her look so much that they gladly saw me." Additionally, Carangi, whose sexual orientation has been reported as either lesbian or bisexual, is considered a lesbian icon and is said to have "epitomized lesbian chic more than a decade before the term was coined." Argentine model Mica Argañaraz has often been compared to Carangi, whom she considers a beauty icon.
Carangi's life has been the subject of several works. A biography of Carangi by Stephen Fried titled Thing of Beauty—taken from the first line of John Keats' famous poem Endymion—was published in 1993. Gia, a biographical television film starring Angelina Jolie, debuted on HBO in 1998. Jolie won a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for her performance, among other accolades. A documentary titled The Self-Destruction of Gia, released in 2003, showcased footage of Carangi, contemporary interviews with Carangi's family and former colleagues, including Sandy Linter, and footage of actress-screenwriter Zoë Lund, herself a heroin addict, who had been commissioned to write a screenplay based upon Carangi's life at the time of her own death of drug-related causes in 1999.
A biography of Carangi by Sacha Lanvin Baumann titled Born This Way: Friends, Colleagues, and Coworkers Recall Gia Carangi, the Supermodel Who Defined an Era, was published in 2015. Sondra Scerca, who brought Carangi to Wilhelmina, is currently writing a memoir titled GIA, WILLY and ME, which will be released in 2022.
The AIDS Memorial Quilt contains one panel with only Carangi's name.
Designers and brands represented
Armani
Bloomingdale's
Citicorp
Cutex
Christian Dior
Perry Ellis
Diane von Fürstenberg
Lancetti
Levi's
Maybelline
Yves Saint Laurent
Versace
Vidal Sassoon
References
External links
1960 births
1986 deaths
Female models from Pennsylvania
American female models
American people of Irish descent
American people of Italian descent
American people of Welsh descent
LGBT models
LGBT people from Pennsylvania
People from Philadelphia
20th-century American women
AIDS-related deaths in Pennsylvania
Burials in Pennsylvania
20th-century LGBT people | [
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12750 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giacomo%20Puccini | Giacomo Puccini | Giacomo Puccini (22 December 1858 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long line of composers, stemming from the late-Baroque era. Though his early work was firmly rooted in traditional late-19th-century Romantic Italian opera he later developed his work in the realistic verismo style, of which he became one of the leading exponents.
His most renowned works are La bohème (1896), Tosca (1900), Madama Butterfly (1904), and Turandot (1924), all of which are among the most frequently performed and recorded of all operas.
Family and education
Puccini was born Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini in Lucca, Italy, in 1858. He was the sixth of nine children of Michele Puccini (1813–1864) and Albina Magi (1830–1884). The Puccini family was established in Lucca as a local musical dynasty by Puccini's great-great-grandfather – also named Giacomo (1712–1781). This first Giacomo Puccini was maestro di cappella of the Cattedrale di San Martino in Lucca. He was succeeded in this position by his son, Antonio Puccini, and then by Antonio's son Domenico, and Domenico's son Michele (father of the subject of this article). Each of these men studied music at Bologna, and some took additional musical studies elsewhere. Domenico Puccini studied for a time under Giovanni Paisiello. Each composed music for the church. In addition, Domenico composed several operas, and Michele composed one opera. Puccini's father Michele enjoyed a reputation throughout northern Italy, and his funeral was an occasion of public mourning, at which the then-famed composer Giovanni Pacini conducted a Requiem.
With the Puccini family having occupied the position of maestro di cappella for 124 years (1740–1864) by the time of Michele's death, it was anticipated that Michele's son Giacomo would occupy that position as well when he was old enough. However, when Michele Puccini died in 1864, his son Giacomo was only six years old, and thus not capable of taking over his father's job. As a child, he nevertheless participated in the musical life of the Cattedrale di San Martino, as a member of the boys' choir and later as a substitute organist.
Puccini was given a general education at the seminary of San Michele in Lucca, and then at the seminary of the cathedral. One of Puccini's uncles, Fortunato Magi, supervised his musical education. Puccini got a diploma from the Pacini School of Music in Lucca in 1880, having studied there with his uncle Fortunato, and later with Carlo Angeloni, who had also instructed Alfredo Catalani. A grant from Queen Margherita, and assistance from another uncle, Nicholas Cerù, provided the funds necessary for Puccini to continue his studies at the Milan Conservatory, where he studied composition with Stefano Ronchetti-Monteviti, Amilcare Ponchielli, and Antonio Bazzini. Puccini studied at the conservatory for three years, sharing a room with Pietro Mascagni. In 1880, at the age of 21, Puccini composed his Mass, which marks the culmination of his family's long association with church music in his native Lucca.
Early career and first operas
Puccini wrote an orchestral piece called the Capriccio sinfonico as a thesis composition for the Milan Conservatory. Puccini's teachers Ponchielli and Bazzini were impressed by the work, and it was performed at a student concert at the conservatory on 14 July 1883, conducted by Franco Faccio. Puccini's work was favorably reviewed in the Milanese publication La Perseveranza, and thus Puccini began to build a reputation as a young composer of promise in Milanese music circles.
Le Villi
After the premiere of the Capriccio sinfonico, Ponchielli and Puccini discussed the possibility that Puccini's next work might be an opera. Ponchielli invited Puccini to stay at his villa, where Puccini was introduced to another young man named Ferdinando Fontana. Puccini and Fontana agreed to collaborate on an opera, for which Fontana would provide the libretto. The work, Le Villi, was entered into a competition sponsored by the Sozogno music publishing company in 1883 (the same competition in which Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana was the winner in 1889). Although it did not win, Le Villi was later staged at the Teatro Dal Verme, premiering on 31 May 1884. G. Ricordi & Co. music publishers assisted with the premier by printing the libretto without charge. Fellow students from the Milan Conservatory formed a large part of the orchestra. The performance was enough of a success that Casa Ricordi purchased the opera. Revised into a two-act version with an intermezzo between the acts, Le Villi was performed at La Scala in Milan, on 24 January 1885. However, Ricordi did not publish the score until 1887, hindering further performance of the work.
Edgar
Giulio Ricordi, head of G. Ricordi & Co. music publishers, was sufficiently impressed with Le Villi and its young composer that he commissioned a second opera, which would result in Edgar. Work was begun in 1884 when Fontana began working out the scenario for the libretto. Puccini finished primary composition in 1887 and orchestration in 1888. Edgar premiered at La Scala on 21 April 1889 to a lukewarm response. The work was withdrawn for revisions after its third performance. In a Milanese newspaper, Giulio Ricordi published a defense of Puccini's skill as a composer, while criticizing Fontana's libretto. A revised version met with success at the Teatro del Giglio in Puccini's native Lucca on 5 September 1891. In 1892, further revisions reduced the length of the opera from four acts to three, in a version that was well received in Ferrara and was performed in Turin and in Spain. Puccini made further revisions in 1901 and 1905, but the work never achieved popularity. Without the personal support of Ricordi, Edgar might have cost Puccini his career. Puccini had eloped with his former piano student, the married Elvira Gemignani, and Ricordi's associates were willing to turn a blind eye to his lifestyle as long as he was successful. When Edgar failed, they suggested to Ricordi that he should drop Puccini, but Ricordi said that he would stay with him and continued his allowance until his next opera.
Manon Lescaut
On commencing his next opera, Manon Lescaut, Puccini announced that he would write his own libretto so that "no fool of a librettist" could spoil it. Ricordi persuaded him to accept Ruggero Leoncavallo as his librettist, but Puccini soon asked Ricordi to remove him from the project. Four other librettists were then involved with the opera, as Puccini constantly changed his mind about the structure of the piece. It was almost by accident that the final two, Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, came together to complete the opera.
Manon Lescaut premiered at the Teatro Regio in Turin on 2 February 1893. By coincidence, Puccini's first enduringly popular opera appeared within a week of the premiere of Verdi's last opera, Falstaff, which was first performed on 9 February 1893. In anticipation of the premiere, La Stampa wrote that Puccini was a young man concerning whom "great hopes" had a real basis (""). Because of the failure of Edgar, however, a failure of Manon Lescaut could have jeopardized Puccini's future as a composer. Although Giulio Ricordi, head of Casa Ricordi, was supportive of Puccini while Manon Lescaut was still in development, the Casa Ricordi board of directors was considering cutting off Puccini's financial support. In any event, "Manon Lescaut was Puccini's first and only uncontested triumph, acclaimed by critics and public alike." After the London premiere in 1894, George Bernard Shaw pronounced: "Puccini looks to me more like the heir of Verdi than any of his rivals."
Manon Lescaut was a great success and established Puccini's reputation as the most promising rising composer of his generation, and the most likely "successor" to Verdi as the leading exponent of the Italian operatic tradition. Illica and Giacosa returned as librettists for Puccini for his next three operas, probably his greatest successes: La bohème, Tosca and Madama Butterfly.
Middle career
La bohème
Puccini's next work after Manon Lescaut was La bohème, a four-act opera based on the 1851 book by Henri Murger, La Vie de Bohème. La bohème premiered in Turin in 1896, conducted by Arturo Toscanini. Within a few years, it had been performed in many of the leading opera houses of Europe, including in Britain, as well as in the United States. It was a popular success, and remains one of the most frequently performed operas ever written.
The libretto of the opera, freely adapted from Murger's episodic novel, combines comic elements of the impoverished life of the young protagonists with the tragic aspects, such as the death of the young seamstress Mimí. Puccini's own life as a young man in Milan served as a source of inspiration for elements of the libretto. During his years as a conservatory student and in the years before Manon Lescaut, he experienced poverty similar to that of the bohemians in La bohème, including chronic shortage of necessities like food, clothing and money to pay rent. Although Puccini was granted a small monthly stipend by the Congregation of Charity in Rome (), he frequently had to pawn his possessions to cover basic expenses. Early biographers such as Wakeling Dry and Eugenio Checchi, who were Puccini's contemporaries, drew express parallels between these incidents and particular events in the opera. Checchi cited a diary kept by Puccini while he was still a student, which recorded an occasion in which, as in Act 4 of the opera, a single herring served as a dinner for four people. Puccini himself commented: "I lived that Bohème, when there wasn't yet any thought stirring in my brain of seeking the theme of an opera". ("")
Puccini's composition of La bohème was the subject of a public dispute between Puccini and fellow composer Ruggiero Leoncavallo. In early 1893, the two composers discovered that they were both engaged in writing operas based on Murger's work. Leoncavallo had started his work first, and he and his music publisher claimed to have "priority" on the subject (although Murger's work was in the public domain). Puccini responded that he started his own work without having any knowledge of Leoncavallo's project, and wrote: "Let him compose. I will compose. The audience will decide." Puccini's opera premiered a year before that of Leoncavallo, and has been a perennial audience favorite, while Leoncavallo's version quickly faded into obscurity.
Tosca
Puccini's next work after La bohème was Tosca (1900), arguably Puccini's first foray into verismo, the realistic depiction of many facets of real life including violence. Puccini had been considering an opera on this theme since he saw the play Tosca by Victorien Sardou in 1889, when he wrote to his publisher, Giulio Ricordi, begging him to get Sardou's permission for the work to be made into an opera: "I see in this Tosca the opera I need, with no overblown proportions, no elaborate spectacle, nor will it call for the usual excessive amount of music."
The music of Tosca employs musical signatures for particular characters and emotions, which have been compared to Wagnerian leitmotivs, and some contemporaries saw Puccini as thereby adopting a new musical style influenced by Richard Wagner. Others viewed the work differently. Rejecting the allegation that Tosca displayed Wagnerian influences, a critic reporting on the Torino premiere of 20 February 1900 wrote: "I don't think you could find a more Puccinian score than this."
Automobile crash and near death
On 25 February 1903, Puccini was seriously injured in a car crash during a nighttime journey on the road from Lucca to Torre del Lago. The car was driven by Puccini's chauffeur and was carrying Puccini, his future wife Elvira, and their son Antonio. It went off the road, fell several metres, and flipped over. Elvira and Antonio were flung from the car and escaped with minor injuries. Puccini's chauffeur, also thrown from the car, suffered a serious fracture of his femur. Puccini was pinned under the vehicle, with a severe fracture of his right leg and with a portion of the car pressing down on his chest. A doctor living near the scene of the crash, together with another person who came to investigate, saved Puccini from the wreckage. The injury did not heal well, and Puccini remained under treatment for months. During the medical examinations that he underwent it was also found that he was suffering from a form of diabetes. The accident and its consequences slowed Puccini's completion of his next work, Madama Butterfly.
Madama Butterfly
The original version of Madama Butterfly premiered at La Scala on 17 February 1904 with Rosina Storchio in the title role. It was initially greeted with great hostility (probably largely owing to inadequate rehearsals). When Storchio's kimono accidentally lifted during the performance, some in the audience started shouting: "The butterfly is pregnant" and "There is the little Toscanini". The latter comment referred to her well publicised affair with Arturo Toscanini. This version was in two acts; after its disastrous premiere, Puccini withdrew the opera, revising it for what was virtually a second premiere at Brescia in May 1904 and performances in Buenos Aires, London, the US and Paris. In 1907, Puccini made his final revisions to the opera in a fifth version, which has become known as the "standard version". Today, the standard version of the opera is the version most often performed around the world. However, the original 1904 version is occasionally performed as well, and has been recorded.
Later works
After 1904, Puccini's compositions were less frequent. In 1906 Giacosa died and, in 1909, there was scandal after Puccini's wife, Elvira, falsely accused their maid Doria Manfredi of having an affair with Puccini. Finally, in 1912, the death of Giulio Ricordi, Puccini's editor and publisher, ended a productive period of his career.
La fanciulla del West
Puccini completed La fanciulla del West, based on a play by David Belasco, in 1910. This was commissioned by, and first performed at, the Metropolitan Opera in New York on 10 December 1910 with Met stars Enrico Caruso and Emmy Destinn for whom Puccini created the leading roles of Dick Johnson and Minnie. Toscanini, then the musical director of the Met, conducted. This was the first world premiere of an opera at the Met. The premiere was a great success. However, the compositional style employed in the opera, with few stand-alone arias, was criticized at the time. Some contemporaries also criticized the opera for failing to achieve an "American" tone. However, the opera has been acclaimed for its incorporation of advanced harmonic language and rhythmic complexity into the Italian operatic form. In addition, one aria from the opera, Ch'ella mi creda, has become a staple of compilation albums by operatic tenors. It is said that during World War I, Italian soldiers sang this aria to maintain their spirits.}} The 2008 Italian film, Puccini e la fanciulla (Puccini and the Girl), is based on the period of his life when he was composing the opera.
La rondine
Puccini completed the score of La rondine, to a libretto by Giuseppe Adami in 1916 after two years of work, and it was premiered at the Grand Théâtre de Monte Carlo on 27 March 1917. The opera had been originally commissioned by Vienna's Carltheater; however, the outbreak of World War I prevented the premiere from being given there. Moreover, the firm of Ricordi had declined the score of the opera – Giulio Ricordi's son Tito was then in charge and he described the opera as "bad Lehár". It was taken up by their rival, Lorenzo Sonzogno, who arranged the first performance in neutral Monaco. The composer continued to work at revising this, the least known of his mature operas, until his death.
La rondine was initially conceived as an operetta, but Puccini eliminated spoken dialogue, rendering the work closer in form to an opera. A modern reviewer described La rondine as "a continuous fabric of lilting waltz tunes, catchy pop-styled melodies, and nostalgic love music," while characterizing the plot as recycling characters and incidents from works like 'La traviata' and 'Die Fledermaus'.
Il trittico: Il tabarro, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi
In 1918, Il trittico premiered in New York. This work is composed of three one-act operas, each concerning the concealment of a death: a horrific episode (Il tabarro) in the style of the Parisian Grand Guignol, a sentimental tragedy (Suor Angelica), and a comedy (Gianni Schicchi).
Turandot
Turandot, Puccini's final opera, was left unfinished at the composer's death in November 1924, and the last two scenes were completed by Franco Alfano based on the composer's sketches. The libretto for Turandot was based on a play of the same name by Carlo Gozzi. The music of the opera is heavily inflected with pentatonic motifs, intended to produce an Asiatic flavor to the music. Turandot contains a number of memorable stand-alone arias, among them Nessun dorma.
Puccini and his librettists
The libretto of Edgar was a significant factor in the failure of that opera. Thereafter, especially throughout his middle and late career, Puccini was extremely selective, and at times indecisive, in his choice of subject matter for new works. Puccini was deeply involved in the process of writing the libretto itself, requiring many iterative revisions of his libretti in terms of both structure and text. Puccini's relationships with his librettists were at times very difficult. His publisher, Casa Ricordi, was frequently required to mediate disputes and impasses between them.
Puccini explored many possible subjects that he ultimately rejected only after a significant amount of effort—such as the creation of a libretto—had been put into them. Among the subjects that Puccini seriously considered, but abandoned, were: Cristoforo Sly, Anima Allegra (based on the play El genio alegre by Serafín and Joaquín Álvarez Quintero), Two Little Wooden Shoes (I due zoccoletti) (a short story by Maria Louise Ramé, a.k.a. Ouida), the life of Marie Antoinette, Margherita da Cortona, and Conchita (based on the novel La Femme et le pantin – The Woman and the Puppet, by Pierre Loüys). Some of these abandoned subjects were taken up and turned into operas by other composers. For example, Franco Vittadini made an opera of Anima Allegra, Mascagni's opera Lodoletta is derived from Two Little Wooden Shoes, and Riccardo Zandonai eventually wrote Conchita.
Torre del Lago
From 1891 onwards, Puccini spent most of his time, when not traveling on business, at Torre del Lago, a small community about fifteen miles from Lucca situated between the Ligurian Sea and Lake Massaciuccoli, just south of Viareggio. Torre del Lago was the primary place for Puccini to indulge his love of hunting. "I love hunting, I love cars: and for these things, in the isolation of Torre del Lago, I keep the faith." ("Amo la caccia, adoro l'automobile: e a questo e a quella nelle solitudini di Torre del Lago serbo intera la mia fede.")
By 1900, he had acquired land and built a villa on the lake, now known as the "Villa Museo Puccini". He lived there until 1921, when pollution produced by peat works on the lake forced him to move to Viareggio, a few kilometres north. After his death, a mausoleum was created in the Villa Puccini and the composer is buried there in the chapel, along with his wife and son who died later.
The Villa Museo was owned by his granddaughter, Simonetta Puccini, until her death, and is open to the public. An annual Festival Puccini is held at Torre del Lago.
Marriage and affairs
In the autumn of 1884, Puccini began a relationship with a married woman named Elvira Gemignani (née Bonturi, 1860–1930) in Lucca. Elvira's husband, Narciso Gemignani, was an "unrepentant womanizer", and Elvira's marriage was not a happy one. Elvira became pregnant by Puccini, and their son, Antonio (1886–1946), was born in Monza. Elvira left Lucca when the pregnancy began to show, and gave birth elsewhere to avoid gossip. Elvira, Antonio and Elvira's daughter by Narciso, Fosca (1880–1968), began to live with Puccini shortly afterwards. Narciso was killed by the husband of a woman that Narciso had an affair with, dying on 26 February 1903, one day after Puccini's car accident. Only then, in early 1904, were Puccini and Elvira able to marry, and to legitimize Antonio.
The marriage between Puccini and Elvira was also troubled by infidelity, as Puccini had frequent affairs himself, including with well-known singers such as Maria Jeritza, Emmy Destinn, Cesira Ferrani, and Hariclea Darclée. In 1906, while attending the opening of Madama Butterfly in Budapest, Puccini fell in love with Blanke Lendvai, the sister of Hungarian composer Ervin Lendvai (his friend and protégé for many years). Blanke and Puccini exchanged love letters until 1911, when he started an affair with German aristocrat Baroness Josephine von Stangel, which lasted for six years.
In 1909, Puccini's wife Elvira publicly accused Doria Manfredi, a maid working for the Puccini family, of having an affair with the composer. After being publicly accused of adultery, Doria Manfredi committed suicide. An autopsy determined, however, that Doria had died a virgin, refuting the allegations made against her. Elvira Puccini was prosecuted for slander, and was sentenced to more than five months in prison, although a payment to the Manfredi family by Puccini spared Elvira from having to serve the sentence. Some music critics and interpreters of Puccini's work have speculated that the psychological effects of this incident on Puccini interfered with his ability to complete compositions later in his career, and also influenced the development of his characters such as Liù (from Turandot), a slave girl who dies tragically by suicide.
According to documents found in the possession of a descendant of the Manfredi family, Nadia Manfredi, in 2007, Puccini was actually having an affair with Giulia Manfredi, Doria's cousin. Press reports at the time when these documents were discovered alleged that Nadia Manfredi was Puccini's granddaughter, by a son, Antonio Manfredi, born to Giulia.
Politics
Unlike Wagner and Verdi, Puccini was not active in politics. Puccini biographer Mary Jane Phillips-Matz wrote: "Throughout this entire period [of World War I and its immediate aftermath], Puccini's interest in politics was close to zero, as it had been all his life, so far as one can judge. He seemed almost indifferent to everything from mayoral elections in Viareggio to cabinet appointments in Rome." Another biographer speculates that Puccini may have been—if he had a political philosophy—a monarchist.
Puccini's indifference to politics caused him problems during World War I. Puccini's long-standing and close friendship with Toscanini was interrupted for nearly a decade because of an argument in the summer of 1914 (in the opening months of the war) during which Puccini remarked that Italy could benefit from German organization. Puccini was also criticized during the war for his work on La rondine under a 1913 commission contract with an Austrian theater after Italy and Austria-Hungary became opponents in the war in 1915 (although the contract was ultimately cancelled). Puccini did not participate in the public war effort, but privately rendered assistance to individuals and families affected by the war.
In 1919, Puccini was commissioned to write music to an ode by honoring Italy's victories in World War I. The work, Inno a Roma (Hymn to Rome), was to premiere on 21 April 1919, during a celebration of the anniversary of the founding of Rome. The premiere was delayed to 1 June 1919, when it was played at the opening of a gymnastics competition. Although not written for the fascists, Inno a Roma was widely played during Fascist street parades and public ceremonies.
Puccini had some contact with Benito Mussolini and the Italian Fascist Party in the year preceding his death. In 1923 the Fascist Party in Viareggio made Puccini an honorary member and sent him a membership card. However, evidence that Puccini was actually a member of the Fascist party is ambiguous. The Italian Senate has traditionally included a small number of members appointed in recognition of their cultural contributions to the nation. Puccini hoped to attain this honor, which had been granted to Verdi, and undertook to use his connections to bring about the appointment. While honorary senators could vote, there is no indication that Puccini sought the appointment for this purpose. Puccini also wished to establish a national theater in Viareggio, a project which would require government support. Puccini met with Mussolini twice, in November and December 1923, seeking support for the theater project. While the theater project never came to fruition, Puccini was named Senator (senatore a vita) a few months before his death.
At the time Puccini met with Mussolini, Mussolini had been prime minister for approximately a year, but his party had not yet taken full control of the Italian Parliament through the violence and irregularities of the 1924 general election. Puccini was no longer alive when Mussolini announced the end of representative government, and the beginning of a fascist dictatorship, in his speech before the Chamber of Deputies on 3 January 1925.
Death
A chain smoker of Toscano cigars and cigarettes, Puccini began to complain of chronic sore throats towards the end of 1923. A diagnosis of throat cancer led his doctors to recommend a new and experimental radiation therapy treatment, which was being offered in Brussels. Puccini and his wife never knew how serious the cancer was, as the news was revealed only to his son.
Puccini died in Brussels on 29 November 1924, aged 65, from complications after the treatment; uncontrolled bleeding led to a heart attack the day after surgery. News of his death reached Rome during a performance of La bohème. The opera was immediately stopped, and the orchestra played Chopin's Funeral March for the stunned audience. He was buried in Milan, in Toscanini's family tomb, but that was always intended as a temporary measure. In 1926 his son arranged for the transfer of his father's remains to a specially created chapel inside the Puccini villa at Torre del Lago.
Style and critical reception
Most broadly, Puccini wrote in the style of the late-Romantic period of classical music (see Romantic music). Music historians also refer to Puccini as a component of the giovane scuola ("young school"), a cohort of composers who came onto the Italian operatic scene as Verdi's career came to an end, such as Mascagni, Leoncavallo, and others mentioned below. Puccini is also frequently referred to as a verismo composer.
Puccini's career extended from the end of the Romantic period into the modern period. He consciously attempted to 'update' his style to keep pace with new trends, but did not attempt to fully adopt a modern style. One critic, Andrew Davis, has stated: "Loyalty toward nineteenth-century Italian-opera traditions and, more generally, toward the musical language of his Tuscan heritage is one of the clearest features of Puccini's music." Davis also identifies, however, a "stylistic pluralism" in Puccini's work, including influences from "the German symphonic tradition, French harmonic and orchestrational traditions, and, to a lesser extent, aspects of Wagnerian chromaticism". In addition, Puccini frequently sought to introduce music or sounds from outside sources into his operas, such as his use of Chinese folk melodies in Turandot.
All of Puccini's operas have at least one set piece for a lead singer that is separate enough from its surroundings that it can be treated as a distinct aria, and most of his works have several of these. At the same time, Puccini's work continued the trend away from operas constructed from a series of set pieces, and instead used a more "through-composed" or integrated construction. His works are strongly melodic. In orchestration, Puccini frequently doubled the vocal line in unison or at octaves in order to emphasize and strengthen the melodic line.
Verismo is a style of Italian opera that began in 1890 with the first performance of Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana, peaked in the early 1900s, and lingered into the 1920s. The style is distinguished by realistic – sometimes sordid or violent – depictions of everyday life, especially the life of the contemporary lower classes. It by and large rejects the historical or mythical subjects associated with Romanticism. Cavalleria rusticana, Pagliacci, and Andrea Chénier are uniformly considered to be verismo operas. Puccini's career as a composer is almost entirely coincident in time with the verismo movement. Only his Le Villi and Edgar preceded Cavalleria rusticana. Some view Puccini as essentially a verismo composer, while others, although acknowledging that he took part in the movement to some degree, do not view him as a "pure" verismo composer. In addition, critics differ as to the degree to which particular operas by Puccini are, or are not, properly described as verismo operas. Two of Puccini's operas, Tosca and Il tabarro, are universally considered to be verismo operas. Puccini scholar Mosco Carner places only two of Puccini's operas other than Tosca and Il tabarro within the verismo school: Madama Butterfly, and La fanciulla del West. Because only three verismo works by Puccini continue to appear regularly on stage (the aforementioned Cavalleria rusticana, Pagliacci, and Andrea Chénier), Puccini's contribution has had lasting significance to the genre.
Both during his lifetime and in posterity, Puccini's success outstripped other Italian opera composers of his time, and he has been matched in this regard by only a handful of composers in the entire history of opera. Between 2004 and 2018, Puccini ranked third (behind Verdi and Mozart) in the number of performances of his operas worldwide, as surveyed by Operabase. Three of his operas (La bohème, Tosca, and Madame Butterfly) were amongst the 10 most frequently performed operas worldwide.
Gustav Kobbé, the original author of The Complete Opera Book, a standard reference work on opera, wrote in the 1919 edition: "Puccini is considered the most important figure in operatic Italy today, the successor of Verdi, if there is any." Other contemporaries shared this view. Italian opera composers of the generation with whom Puccini was compared included Pietro Mascagni (1863–1945), Ruggero Leoncavallo (1857–1919), Umberto Giordano (1867–1948), Francesco Cilea (1866–1950), Baron Pierantonio Tasca (1858–1934), Gaetano Coronaro (1852–1908), and Alberto Franchetti (1860–1942). Only three composers, and three works, by Italian contemporaries of Puccini appear on the Operabase list of most-performed works: Cavalleria rusticana by Mascagni, Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo, and Andrea Chénier by Umberto Giordano. Kobbé contrasted Puccini's ability to achieve "sustained" success with the failure of Mascagni and Leoncavallo to produce more than merely "one sensationally successful short opera". By the time of Puccini's death in 1924, he had earned $4 million from his works.
Although the popular success of Puccini's work is undeniable, and his mastery of the craft of composition has been consistently recognized, opinion among critics as to the artistic value of his work has always been divided. Grove Music Online described Puccini's strengths as a composer as follows:
Puccini succeeded in mastering the orchestra as no other Italian had done before him, creating new forms by manipulating structures inherited from the great Italian tradition, loading them with bold harmonic progressions which had little or nothing to do with what was happening then in Italy, though they were in step with the work of French, Austrian and German colleagues.
In his work on Puccini, Julian Budden describes Puccini as a gifted and original composer, noting the innovation hidden in the popularity of works such as "Che gelida manina". He describes the aria in musical terms (the signature embedded in the harmony for example), and points out that its structure was rather unheard of at the time, having three distinct musical paragraphs that nonetheless form a complete and coherent whole. This gumption in musical experimentation was the essence of Puccini's style, as evidenced in his diverse settings and use of the motif to express ideas beyond those in the story and text.
Puccini has, however, consistently been the target of condescension by some music critics who find his music insufficiently sophisticated or difficult. Some have explicitly condemned his efforts to please his audience, such as this contemporary Italian critic:
He willingly stops himself at minor genius, stroking the taste of the public ... obstinately shunning too-daring innovation ... A little heroism, but not taken to great heights; a little bit of veristic comedy, but brief; a lot of sentiment and romantic idyll: this is the recipe in which he finds happiness. ()
Budden attempted to explain the paradox of Puccini's immense popular success and technical mastery on the one hand, and the relative disregard in which his work has been held by academics:
No composer communicates more directly with an audience than Puccini. Indeed, for many years he has remained a victim of his own popularity; hence the resistance to his music in academic circles. Be it remembered, however, that Verdi's melodies were once dismissed as barrel-organ fodder. The truth is that music that appeals immediately to a public becomes subject to bad imitation, which can cast a murky shadow over the original. So long as counterfeit Puccinian melody dominated the world of sentimental operetta, many found it difficult to come to terms with the genuine article. Now that the current coin of light music has changed, the composer admired by Schoenberg, Ravel, and Stravinsky can be seen to emerge in his full stature.
Puccini studies
Founded in 1996 in Lucca, the Centro di studi Giacomo Puccini embraces a wide range of approaches to the study of Puccini's work. In the US, the American Center for Puccini Studies specializes in the presentation of unusual performing editions of composer's works and introduces neglected or unknown Puccini pieces. It was founded in 2004 by the singer and director Harry Dunstan.
Works
Puccini wrote orchestral pieces, sacred music, chamber music, solo music for piano and organ and songs for voice and piano, most notably his 1880 mass Messa di gloria, his Preludio Sinfonico of 1882, and his 1890 string quartet movement Crisantemi. However, he is primarily known for his operas:
Le Villi, libretto by Ferdinando Fontana (in one act – premiered at the Teatro Dal Verme, 31 May 1884)
Edgar, libretto by Ferdinando Fontana (in four acts – premiered at La Scala, 21 April 1889)
Manon Lescaut, libretto by Luigi Illica, Marco Praga and Domenico Oliva (in four acts – premiered at the Teatro Regio, 1 February 1893)
La bohème, libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa (in four acts – premiered at the Teatro Regio, 1 February 1896)
Tosca, libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa (in three acts – premiered at the Teatro Costanzi, 14 January 1900)
Madama Butterfly, libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa (in two acts – premiered at La Scala, 17 February 1904)
La fanciulla del West, libretto by Guelfo Civinini and Carlo Zangarini (in three acts – premiered at the Metropolitan Opera, 10 December 1910)
La rondine, libretto by Giuseppe Adami (in three acts – premiered at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, 27 March 1917)
Il trittico (premiered at the Metropolitan Opera, 14 December 1918)
Il tabarro, libretto by Giuseppe Adami
Suor Angelica, libretto by Giovacchino Forzano
Gianni Schicchi, libretto by Giovacchino Forzano
Turandot, libretto by Renato Simoni and Giuseppe Adami (in three acts – incomplete at the time of Puccini's death, completed by Franco Alfano: premiered at La Scala, 25 April 1926)
Notes
References
Sources
Sadie, Stanley (ed.), The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, London: Macmillan/New York: Grove, 1980, , p. 203.
Further reading
Cagnoni, Romano; Ravenni, Gabriella Biagi. Giacomo Puccini: luoghi e suggestioni (2008), Maria Pacini Fazzi (ed.), photographs by Romano Cagnoni
Kendell, Colin (2012), The Complete Puccini: The Story of the World's Most Popular Operatic Composer, Stroud, Gloucestershire: Amberley Publishing, 2012.
Keolker, James, Last Acts: The Operas of Puccini and His Italian Contemporaries from Alfano to Zandonai, 2000.
External links
Centro Studi di Giacomo Puccini
American Center for Puccini Studies
Puccini-Research-Center
Festival Puccini e la sua Lucca
1858 births
1924 deaths
19th-century classical composers
19th-century Italian male musicians
20th-century classical composers
20th-century Italian composers
20th-century Italian male musicians
Deaths from cancer in Belgium
Deaths from esophageal cancer
Italian classical composers
Italian male classical composers
Italian opera composers
Italian Romantic composers
Male opera composers
Milan Conservatory alumni
Musicians from Lucca
Pupils of Amilcare Ponchielli
Members of the Senate of the Kingdom of Italy | [
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12753 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gramophone%20%28disambiguation%29 | Gramophone (disambiguation) | Gramophone or phonograph is a device for the mechanical recording and reproduction of sound.
Gramophone may also refer to:
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Grammy Award or Gramophone Award, annual awards presented by The Recording Academy
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Gramaphone Records, a music store in Chicago, U.S. | [
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12754 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George%20Cukor | George Cukor | George Dewey Cukor (; July 7, 1899 – January 24, 1983) was an American film director and film producer. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO when David O. Selznick, the studio's Head of Production, assigned Cukor to direct several of RKO's major films, including What Price Hollywood? (1932), A Bill of Divorcement (1932), Our Betters (1933), and Little Women (1933). When Selznick moved to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1933, Cukor followed and directed Dinner at Eight (1933) and David Copperfield (1935) for Selznick and Romeo and Juliet (1936) and Camille (1936) for Irving Thalberg.
He was replaced as one of the directors of Gone with the Wind (1939), but he went on to direct The Philadelphia Story (1940), Gaslight (1944), Adam's Rib (1949), Born Yesterday (1950), A Star Is Born (1954), Bhowani Junction (1956), and won the Academy Award for Best Director for My Fair Lady (1964). He continued to work into the 1980s.
Early life
Cukor was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the younger child and only son of Hungarian-Jewish immigrants Viktor, an assistant district attorney, and Helén Ilona Gross. His parents selected his middle name in honor of Spanish–American War hero George Dewey. The family was not particularly religious (pork was a staple on the dinner table), and when he started attending temple as a boy, Cukor learned Hebrew phonetically, with no real understanding of the meaning of the words or what they represented. As a result, he was ambivalent about his faith and dismissive of old world traditions from childhood, and as an adult he embraced Anglophilia to remove himself even further from his roots.
As a child, Cukor appeared in several amateur plays and took dance lessons, and at the age of seven he performed in a recital with David O. Selznick, who in later years became a mentor and friend. As a teenager, Cukor frequently was taken to the New York Hippodrome by his uncle. Infatuated with theatre, he often cut classes at DeWitt Clinton High School to attend afternoon matinees. During his senior year, he worked as a supernumerary with the Metropolitan Opera, earning 50¢ per appearance, and $1 if he was required to perform in blackface.
Following his graduation in 1917, Cukor was expected to follow in his father's footsteps and pursue a career in law. He halfheartedly enrolled in the City College of New York, where he entered the Students Army Training Corps in October 1918. His military experience was limited; Germany surrendered in early November, and Cukor's duty ended after only two months. He left school shortly afterwards.
Career
Early stage career
Cukor obtained a job as an assistant stage manager and bit player with a touring production of The Better 'Ole, a popular British musical based on Old Bill, a cartoon character created by Bruce Bairnsfather. In 1920, he became the stage manager for the Knickerbocker Players, a troupe that shuttled between Syracuse, New York and Rochester, New York, and the following year he was hired as general manager of the newly formed Lyceum Players, an upstate summer stock company. In 1925, he formed the C.F. and Z. Production Company with Walter Folmer and John Zwicki, which gave him his first opportunity to direct. Following their first season, he made his Broadway directorial debut with Antonia by Hungarian playwright Melchior Lengyel, then returned to Rochester, where C.F. and Z. evolved into the Cukor-Kondolf Stock Company, a troupe that included Louis Calhern, Ilka Chase, Phyllis Povah, Frank Morgan, Reginald Owen, Elizabeth Patterson and Douglass Montgomery, all of whom worked with Cukor in later years in Hollywood. Lasting only one season with the company was Bette Davis. Cukor later recalled: "Her talent was apparent, but she did buck at direction. She had her own ideas, and though she only did bits and ingenue roles, she didn't hesitate to express them." For the next several decades, Davis claimed she was fired, and although Cukor never understood why she placed so much importance on an incident he considered so minor, he never worked with her again.
For the next few years, Cukor alternated between Rochester in the summer months and Broadway in the winter. His direction of a 1926 stage adaptation of The Great Gatsby by Owen Davis brought him to the attention of the New York critics. Writing in the Brooklyn Eagle, drama critic Arthur Pollock called it "an unusual piece of work by a director not nearly so well known as he should be." Cukor directed six more Broadway productions, then departed for Hollywood in 1929.
Early Hollywood career
When Hollywood began to recruit New York theater talent for sound films, Cukor immediately answered the call. In December 1928, Paramount Pictures signed him to a contract that reimbursed him for his airfare and initially paid him $600 per week with no screen credit during a six-month apprenticeship. He arrived in Hollywood in February 1929, and his first assignment was to coach the cast of River of Romance to speak with an acceptable Southern accent. In October, the studio lent him to Universal Pictures to conduct the screen tests and work as a dialogue director for All Quiet on the Western Front, released in 1930. That year, he co-directed three films at Paramount, and his weekly salary was increased to $1,500. He made his solo directorial debut with Tarnished Lady (1931) starring Tallulah Bankhead.
Cukor was then assigned to One Hour with You (1932), an operetta with Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald, when original director Ernst Lubitsch opted to concentrate on producing the film instead. At first the two men worked well together, but two weeks into filming Lubitsch began arriving on the set on a regular basis, and he soon began directing scenes with Cukor's consent. Upon the film's completion, Lubitsch approached Paramount general manager B.P. Schulberg and threatened to leave the studio if Cukor's name wasn't removed from the credits. When Schulberg asked him to cooperate, Cukor filed suit. He eventually settled for being billed as assistant director and then left Paramount to work with David O. Selznick at RKO Studios.
Cukor quickly earned a reputation as a director who could coax great performances from actresses and he became known as a "woman's director", a title he resented. Despite this reputation, during his career, he oversaw more performances honored with the Academy Award for Best Actor than any other director: James Stewart in The Philadelphia Story (1940), Ronald Colman in A Double Life (1947), and Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady (1964). One of Cukor's earlier ingenues was actress Katharine Hepburn, who debuted in A Bill of Divorcement (1932) and whose looks and personality left RKO officials at a loss as to how to use her. Cukor directed her in several films, both successful, such as Little Women (1933) and Holiday (1938), and disastrous, such as Sylvia Scarlett (1935). Cukor and Hepburn became close friends off the set.
Cukor was hired to direct Gone with the Wind by Selznick in 1936, even before the book was published. He spent the next two years involved with pre-production, including supervision of the numerous screen tests of actresses anxious to portray Scarlett O'Hara. Cukor favored Hepburn for the role, but Selznick, concerned about her reputation as "box office poison", would not consider her without a screen test, and the actress refused to film one. Of those who did, Cukor preferred Paulette Goddard, but her supposedly illicit relationship with Charlie Chaplin (they were, in fact, secretly married) concerned Selznick.
Between his Wind chores, the director assisted with other projects. He filmed the cave scene for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938), and, following the firing of its original director Richard Thorpe, Cukor spent a week on the set of The Wizard of Oz (1939). Although he filmed no footage, he made crucial changes to the look of Dorothy by eliminating Judy Garland's blonde wig and adjusting her makeup and costume, encouraging her to act in a more natural manner. Additionally, Cukor softened the Scarecrow's makeup and gave Margaret Hamilton a different hairstyle for the Wicked Witch of the West, as well as altering her makeup and other facial features. Cukor also suggested that the studio cast Jack Haley, on loan from 20th Century Fox, as the Tin Man.
Cukor spent many hours coaching Vivien Leigh and Olivia de Havilland before the start of filming Wind, but Clark Gable resisted his efforts to get him to master a Southern accent. However, despite rumors about Gable being uncomfortable with Cukor on the set, nothing in the internal memos of David O. Selznick indicates or suggests that Clark Gable played any role in Cukor's dismissal from the film. Rather, they show Selznick's mounting dissatisfaction with Cukor's slow pace and quality of work. From a private letter from journalist Susan Myrick to Margaret Mitchell in February 1939: "George [Cukor] finally told me all about it. He hated [leaving the production] very much he said but he could not do otherwise. In effect he said he is an honest craftsman and he cannot do a job unless he knows it is a good job and he feels the present job is not right. For days, he told me he has looked at the rushes and felt he was failing...the things did not click as it should. Gradually he became convinced that the script was the trouble...So George just told David he would not work any longer if the script was not better and he wanted the [Sidney] Howard script back...he would not let his name go out over a lousy picture...and bull-headed David said 'OK get out!'"
Selznick had already been unhappy with Cukor ("a very expensive luxury") for not being more receptive to directing other Selznick assignments, even though Cukor had remained on salary since early 1937; and in a confidential memo written in September 1938, four months before principal photography began, Selznick flirted with the idea of replacing him with Victor Fleming. "I think the biggest black mark against our management to date is the Cukor situation and we can no longer be sentimental about it...We are a business concern and not patrons of the arts." Cukor was relieved of his duties, but he continued to work with Leigh and Olivia de Havilland off the set. Various rumors about the reasons behind his dismissal circulated throughout Hollywood. Selznick's friendship with Cukor had crumbled slightly when the director refused other assignments, including A Star Is Born (1937) and Intermezzo (1939). Given that Gable and Cukor had worked together before (on Manhattan Melodrama, 1934) and Gable had no objection to working with him then, and given Selznick's desperation to get Gable for Rhett Butler, if Gable had any objections to Cukor, certainly they would have been expressed before he signed his contract for the film. Yet, writer Gore Vidal, in his autobiography Point to Point Navigation, recounted that Gable demanded that Cukor be fired off Wind because, according to Vidal, the young Gable had been a male hustler and Cukor had been one of his johns. This has been confirmed by Hollywood biographer E.J. Fleming, who has recounted that, during a particularly difficult scene, Gable erupted publicly, screaming: "I can't go on with this picture. I won't be directed by a fairy. I have to work with a real man."
Cukor's dismissal from Wind freed him to direct The Women (1939), which has an all-female cast, followed by The Philadelphia Story (1940). He also directed Greta Garbo, another of his favorite actresses, in Two-Faced Woman (1941), her last film before she retired from the screen.
In 1942, at the age of 43, Cukor enlisted in the Signal Corps. Following basic training at Fort Monmouth, he was assigned to the old Paramount studios in Astoria, Queens (where he had directed three films in the early 1930s), although he was permitted to lodge at the St. Regis Hotel in Manhattan. Working with Irwin Shaw, John Cheever and William Saroyan, among others, Cukor produced training and instructional films for army personnel. Because he lacked an officer's commission, he found it difficult to give orders and directions to his superiors. Despite his efforts to rise above the rank of private—he even called upon Frank Capra to intercede on his behalf—he never achieved officer's status or any commendations during his six months of service. In later years, Cukor suspected his homosexuality impeded him from receiving any advances or honors, although rumors to that effect could not be confirmed.
The remainder of the decade was a series of hits and misses for Cukor. Both Two-Faced Woman and Her Cardboard Lover (1942) were commercial failures. More successful were A Woman's Face (1941) with Joan Crawford and Gaslight (1944) about a woman suffering from suspicion with Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer. During this era, Cukor forged an alliance with screenwriters Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon, who had met in Cukor's home in 1939 and married three years later. Over the course of seven years, the trio collaborated on seven films, including A Double Life (1947) starring Ronald Colman, Adam's Rib (1949), Born Yesterday (1950), The Marrying Kind (1952), and It Should Happen to You (1954), all featuring Judy Holliday, another Cukor favorite, who won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Born Yesterday.
Later Hollywood career
In December 1952, Cukor was approached by Sid Luft, who proposed the director helm a musical remake of A Star Is Born (1937) with his then-wife Judy Garland in the lead role. Cukor had declined to direct the earlier film because it was too similar to his own What Price Hollywood? (1932), but the opportunity to direct his first Technicolor film and work with screenwriter Moss Hart and especially Garland appealed to him, and he accepted. Getting the updated A Star Is Born (1954) to the screen proved to be a challenge. Cukor wanted Cary Grant for the male lead and went so far as to read the entire script with him, but Grant, while agreeing it was the role of a lifetime, steadfastly refused to do it, and Cukor never forgave him. The director then suggested either Humphrey Bogart or Frank Sinatra tackle the part, but Jack L. Warner rejected both. Stewart Granger was the front runner for a period of time, but he backed out when he was unable to adjust to Cukor's habit of acting out scenes as a form of direction. James Mason eventually was contracted, and filming began on October 12, 1953. As the months passed, Cukor was forced to deal not only with constant script changes but a very unstable Garland, who was plagued by chemical and alcohol dependencies, extreme weight fluctuations, and real and imagined illnesses. In March 1954, a rough cut still missing several musical numbers was assembled, and Cukor had mixed feelings about it. When the last scene finally was filmed in the early morning hours of July 28, 1954, Cukor already had departed the production and was unwinding in Europe. The first preview the following month ran 210 minutes and, despite ecstatic feedback from the audience, Cukor and editor Folmar Blangsted trimmed it to 182 minutes for its New York premiere in October. The reviews were the best of Cukor's career, but Warner executives, concerned the running time would limit the number of daily showings, made drastic cuts without Cukor, who had departed for Pakistan to scout locations for the epic Bhowani Junction in 1954-1955. At its final running time of 154 minutes, the film had lost musical numbers and crucial dramatic scenes, and Cukor called it "very painful." He was not included in the film's six Oscar nominations.
Over the next 10 years, Cukor directed a handful of films with varying success. Les Girls (1957) won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, and Wild Is the Wind (also 1957) earned Oscar nominations for Anna Magnani and Anthony Quinn, but neither Heller in Pink Tights nor Let's Make Love (both 1960) were box-office hits. Another project during this period was the ill-fated Something's Got to Give, an updated remake of the comedy My Favorite Wife (1940). Cukor liked leading lady Marilyn Monroe but found it difficult to deal with her erratic work habits, frequent absences from the set, and the constant presence of Monroe's acting coach Paula Strasberg. After 32 days of shooting, the director had only 7½ minutes of usable film. Then Monroe travelled to New York to appear at a birthday celebration for President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden, where she serenaded Kennedy. Studio documents released after Monroe's death confirmed that her appearance at the political fundraising event was approved by Fox executives. The production came to a halt when Cukor had filmed every scene not involving Monroe and the actress remained unavailable. 20th Century Fox executive Peter Levathes fired her and hired Lee Remick to replace her, prompting co-star Dean Martin to quit because his contract guaranteed he would be playing opposite Monroe. With the production already $2 million over budget and everyone back at the starting gate, the studio pulled the plug on the project. Less than two months later, Monroe was found dead in her home.
Two years later, Cukor achieved one of his greatest successes with My Fair Lady (1964). Throughout filming, there were mounting tensions between the director and designer Cecil Beaton; Cukor was thrilled with leading lady Audrey Hepburn, but the crew was less enchanted with her diva-like demands. Although several reviews were critical of the film – Pauline Kael said it "staggers along" and Stanley Kauffmann thought Cukor's direction was like "a rich gravy poured over everything, not remotely as delicately rich as in the Asquith-Howard 1937 [sic] Pygmalion" — the film was a box-office hit which won him the Academy Award for Best Director, the Golden Globe Award for Best Director, and the Directors Guild of America Award after having been nominated for each several times.
Following My Fair Lady, Cukor became less active. He directed Maggie Smith in Travels with My Aunt (1972) and helmed the critical and commercial flop The Blue Bird (1976), the first joint Soviet-American production. He reunited twice with Katharine Hepburn for the television movies Love Among the Ruins (1975) and The Corn Is Green (1979). At the age of 82, Cukor directed his final film, Rich and Famous for MGM in 1981, starring Jacqueline Bisset and Candice Bergen.
In 1970, he received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.
In 1976, Cukor was awarded the George Eastman Award, given by George Eastman House for distinguished contribution to the art of film.
Personal life
It was an open secret in Hollywood that Cukor was gay, at a time when society was against it, although he was discreet about his sexual orientation and "never carried it as a pin on his lapel," as producer Joseph L. Mankiewicz put it. He was a celebrated bon vivant whose luxurious home was the site of weekly Sunday afternoon parties attended by closeted celebrities and the attractive young men they met in bars and gyms and brought with them. At least once, in the midst of his reign at MGM, he was arrested on vice charges, but studio executives managed to get the charges dropped and all records of it expunged, and the incident was never publicized by the press. In the late 1950s, Cukor became involved with a considerably younger man named George Towers. He financed his education at the Los Angeles State College of Applied Arts and Sciences and the University of Southern California, from which Towers graduated with a law degree in 1967. That fall Towers married a woman, and his relationship with Cukor evolved into one of father and son, and for the remainder of Cukor's life the two remained very close.
By the mid-1930s, Cukor was not only established as a prominent director, but socially as an unofficial head of Hollywood's gay subculture. His home, redecorated in 1935 by gay actor-turned-interior designer William Haines with gardens designed by Florence Yoch and Lucile Council, was the scene of many gatherings for the industry's homosexuals. The close-knit group reputedly included Haines and his partner Jimmie Shields, writer W. Somerset Maugham, director James Vincent, screenwriter Rowland Leigh, costume designers Orry-Kelly and Robert Le Maire, and actors John Darrow, Anderson Lawler, Grady Sutton, Robert Seiter, and Tom Douglas. Frank Horn, secretary to Cary Grant, was also a frequent guest.
Cukor's friends were of paramount importance to him and he kept his home filled with their photographs. Regular attendees at his soirées included Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, Joan Crawford and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart, Claudette Colbert, Marlene Dietrich, Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, actor Richard Cromwell, Stanley Holloway, Judy Garland, Gene Tierney, Noël Coward, Cole Porter, director James Whale, costume designer Edith Head, and Norma Shearer, especially after the death of her first husband Irving Thalberg. He often entertained literary figures like Sinclair Lewis, Theodore Dreiser, Hugh Walpole, Aldous Huxley and Ferenc Molnár.
Frances Goldwyn, second wife of studio mogul Sam Goldwyn, long considered Cukor to be the love of her life, but their relationship remained platonic. According to biographer A. Scott Berg, Frances even arranged for Cukor's burial to be adjacent to her own plot at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery.
The PBS series American Masters produced a comprehensive documentary about his life and work titled On Cukor directed by Robert Trachtenberg in 2000.
Death and legacy
Cukor died of a heart attack on January 24, 1983, and was interred in Grave D, Little Garden of Constancy, Garden of Memory (private), Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale), California. Records in probate court indicated his net worth at the time of his death was $2,377,720.
In 2013, The Film Society of Lincoln Center presented a comprehensive weeks-long retrospective of his work titled "The Discreet Charm of George Cukor."
In 2019, Cukor's film Gaslight was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Filmography
Films
Uncredited contributing work
Award and nominations
See also
George Kuchar
References
Sources
Hillstrom, Laurie Collier, International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers. Detroit: St. James Press, 1997. .
Katz, Ephraim, The Film Encyclopedia. New York: HarperCollins, 2001. .
Levy, Emanuel, George Cukor, Master of Elegance. The Director and his Stars. New York, William Morrow, 1994.
McGilligan, Patrick, George Cukor: A Double Life. New York: St. Martin's Press 1991.
Myrick, Susan, White Columns in Hollywood: Reports from the GWTW Sets. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 1982 .
Wakeman, John, World Film Directors. New York: H. W. Wilson Company 1987. .
External links
Cukor bibliography at UC Berkeley Media Resources Center
Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database
Literature on George Cukor
George Cukor papers, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
1899 births
1983 deaths
United States Army personnel of World War I
American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent
Best Directing Academy Award winners
Best Director Golden Globe winners
Filmmakers who won the Best Film BAFTA Award
Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)
DeWitt Clinton High School alumni
Primetime Emmy Award winners
Gay artists
LGBT Jews
LGBT people from New York (state)
Directors Guild of America Award winners
Film directors from New York City
Film directors from Los Angeles
United States Army personnel of World War II
LGBT film directors
20th-century LGBT people | [
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12772 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas%20mask | Gas mask | A gas mask is a mask used to protect the wearer from inhaling airborne pollutants and toxic gases. The mask forms a sealed cover over the nose and mouth, but may also cover the eyes and other vulnerable soft tissues of the face. Most gas masks are also respirators, though the word gas mask is often used to refer to military equipment (such as a field protective mask), the scope used in this article. The gas mask only protects the user from digesting, inhaling, and contact through the eyes (many agents affect through eye contact). Most combined gas mask filters will last around 8 hours in a biological or chemical situation. Filters against specific chemical agents can last up to 20 hours.
Airborne toxic materials may be gaseous (for example, chlorine or mustard gas), or particulates (such as biological agents). Many filters provide protection from both types.
The first gas masks mostly used circular lenses made of glass, mica or cellulose acetate to allow vision. Glass and mica were quite brittle and needed frequent replacement. The later Triplex lens style (a cellulose acetate lens sandwiched between glass ones) became more popular, and alongside plain cellulose acetate they became the standard into the 1930s. Panoramic lenses were not popular until the 1930s, but there are some examples of those being used even during the war (Austro-Hungarian 15M). Later, stronger polycarbonate came into use.
Some masks have one or two compact air filter containers screwed onto inlets, while others have a large air filtration container connected to the gas mask via a hose that is sometimes confused with an air-supplied respirator in which an alternate supply of fresh air (oxygen tanks) is delivered.
Principles of construction
Absorption is the process of being drawn into a (usually larger) body or substrate, and adsorption is the process of deposition upon a surface. This can be used to remove both particulate and gaseous hazards. Although some form of reaction may take place, it is not necessary; the method may work by attractive charges. For example, if the target particles are positively charged, a negatively charged substrate may be used. Examples of substrates include activated carbon, and zeolites. This effect can be very simple and highly effective, for example using a damp cloth to cover the mouth and nose while escaping a fire. While this method can be effective at trapping particulates produced by combustion, it does not filter out harmful gases which may be toxic or which displace the oxygen required for survival.
Safety of old gas masks
Gas masks have a useful lifespan limited by the absorbent capacity of the filter. Filters cease to provide protection when saturated with hazardous chemicals, and degrade over time even if sealed. Most gas masks have sealing caps over the air intake and are stored in vacuum-sealed bags to prevent the filter from degrading due to exposure to humidity and pollutants in normal air. Unused gas mask filters from World War II may not protect the wearer at all, and could be harmful if worn due to long-term changes in the chemical composition of the filter.
Some World War II or Soviet Cold War gas masks contained chrysotile asbestos or crocidolite asbestos in their filters, not known to be harmful at the time. It is not reliably known for how long the materials were used in filters. Breathing blue asbestos in the factories resulted in the death of 10 percent of the workforce due to pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma, between 2.5 and 3.2 times the normal incidence of lung or respiratory cancers.
Many stories have circulated about various Russian gas masks common in surplus stores and their filters; the GP-5 is often thought to have an asbestos filter. In normal use the asbestos is contained within the filter, but could be breathed in if the filter is damaged. Modern gas masks do not use asbestos.
Typically, masks using 40 mm connections are a more recent design. Rubber degrades with time, so boxed unused "modern type" masks can be cracked and leak. The US C2 canister (black) contains hexavalent chromium; studies by the U.S. Army Chemical Corps found that the level in the filter was acceptable, but suggest caution when using, as it is a carcinogen.
Modern filter classification
The filter is selected according to the toxic compound. Each filter type protects against a particular hazard and is color-coded:
Particle filters are often included, because in many cases the hazardous materials are in the form of mist, which can be captured by the particle filter before entering the chemical adsorber. In Europe and jurisdictions with similar rules such as Russia and Australia, filter types are given suffix numbers to indicate their capacity. For non-particle hazards, the level "1" is assumed and a number "2" is used to indicate a better level. For particles (P), three levels are always given with the number. In the US, only the particle part is further classified by NIOSH air filtration ratings.
A filter type that can protect against multiple hazards is notated with the European symbols concatenated with each other. Examples include ABEK, ABEK-P3, and ABEK-HgP3. A2B2E2K2-P3 is the highest rating of filter available. An entirely different "multi/CBRN" filter class with an olive color is used in the US.
Filtration may be aided with an air pump to improve wearer comfort. Filtration of air is only possible if there is sufficient oxygen in the first place. Thus, when handling asphyxiants, or when ventilation is poor or the hazards are unknown, filtration is not possible and air must be supplied (with a SCBA system) from a pressurized bottle as in scuba diving.
Use
A modern mask typically is constructed of an elastic polymer in various sizes. It is fitted with various adjustable straps which may be tightened to secure a good fit. Crucially, it is connected to a filter cartridge near the mouth either directly, or via a flexible hose. Some models contain drinking tubes which may be connected to a water bottle. Corrective lens inserts are also available for users who require them.
Masks are typically tested for fit before use. After a mask is fitted, it is often tested by various challenge agents. Isoamyl acetate, a synthetic banana flavourant, and camphor are often used as innocuous challenge agents. In the military, teargases such as CN, CS, and stannic chloride in a chamber may be used to give the users confidence in the efficacy of the mask.
Shortcomings
The protection of a gas mask comes with some disadvantages. The wearer of a typical gas mask must exert extra effort to breathe, and some of the exhaled air is re-inhaled due to the dead space between the facepiece and the user's face. The exposure to carbon dioxide may exceed its OELs (0.5% by volume/9 grammes per cubic metre for an eight-hour shift; 1.4%/27 grammes per m3 for 15 minutes' exposure) by a factor of many times: for gas masks and elastomeric respirators, up to 2.6%); and in case of long-term use, headache, dermatitis and acne may appear. The UK HSE textbook recommends limiting the use of respirators without air supply (that is, not PAPR) to one hour.
Reaction and exchange
This principle relies on substances harmful to humans being usually more reactive than air. This method of separation will use some form of generally reactive substance (for example an acid) coating or supported by some solid material. An example is synthetic resins. These can be created with different groups of atoms (usually called functional groups) that have different properties. Thus a resin can be tailored to a particular toxic group. When the reactive substance comes in contact with the resin, it will bond to it, removing it from the air stream. It may also exchange with a less harmful substance at this site.
Though it was crude, the hypo helmet was a stopgap measure for British troops in the trenches that offered at least some protection during a gas attack. As the months passed and poison gas was used more often, more sophisticated gas masks were developed and introduced. There are two main difficulties with gas mask design:
The user may be exposed to many types of toxic material. Military personnel are especially prone to being exposed to a diverse range of toxic gases. However, if the mask is for a particular use (such as the protection from a specific toxic material in a factory), then the design can be much simpler and the cost lower.
The protection will wear off over time. Filters will clog up, substrates for absorption will fill up, and reactive filters will run out of reactive substances. Thus the user only has protection for a limited time, and then they must either replace the filter device in the mask, or use a new mask.
History and development
Early breathing devices
According to Popular Mechanics, "The common sponge was used in ancient Greece as a gas mask..." In 1785, Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier invented a respirator.
Primitive respirator examples were used by miners and introduced by Alexander von Humboldt in 1799, when he worked as a mining engineer in Prussia. The forerunner to the modern gas mask was invented in 1847 by Lewis P. Haslett, a device that contained elements that allowed breathing through a nose and mouthpiece, inhalation of air through a bulb-shaped filter, and a vent to exhale air back into the atmosphere. First Facts states that a "gas mask resembling the modern type" was patented by Lewis Phectic Haslett of Louisville, Kentucky, who received a patent on June 12, 1849. U.S. patent #6,529 issued to Haslett, described the first "Inhaler or Lung Protector" that filtered dust from the air.
Early versions were constructed by the Scottish chemist John Stenhouse in 1854 and the physicist John Tyndall in the 1870s. Another early design was the "Safety Hood and Smoke Protector" invented by Garrett Morgan in 1912, and patented in 1914. It was a simple device consisting of a cotton hood with two hoses which hung down to the floor, allowing the wearer to breathe the safer air found there. In addition, moist sponges were inserted at the end of the hoses in order to better filter the air. This was later modified to include its own air supply, leading to World War I era gas masks.
First World War
The First World War brought about the first need for mass-produced gas masks on both sides because of extensive use of chemical weapons. The German army successfully used poison gas for the first time against Allied troops at the Second Battle of Ypres, Belgium on April 22, 1915. An immediate response was cotton wool wrapped in muslin, issued to the troops by May 1. This was followed by the Black Veil Respirator, invented by John Scott Haldane, which was a cotton pad soaked in an absorbent solution which was secured over the mouth using black cotton veiling.
Seeking to improve on the Black Veil respirator, Cluny MacPherson created a mask made of chemical-absorbing fabric which fitted over the entire head. A canvas hood treated with chlorine-absorbing chemicals, and fitted with a transparent mica eyepiece. Macpherson presented his idea to the British War Office Anti-Gas Department on May 10, 1915; prototypes were developed soon after. The design was adopted by the British Army and introduced as the British Smoke Hood in June 1915; Macpherson was appointed to the War Office Committee for Protection against Poisonous Gases. More elaborate sorbent compounds were added later to further iterations of his helmet (PH helmet), to defeat other respiratory poison gases used such as phosgene, diphosgene and chloropicrin. In summer and autumn 1915, Edward Harrison, Bertram Lambert and John Sadd developed the Large Box Respirator. This canister gas mask had a tin can containing the absorbent materials by a hose and began to be issued in February 1916. A compact version, the Small Box Respirator, was made a universal issue from August 1916.
In the first gas masks of World War I, it was initially found that wood charcoal was a good absorbent of poison gases. Around 1918, it was found that charcoals made from the shells and seeds of various fruits and nuts such as coconuts, chestnuts, horse-chestnuts, and peach stones performed much better than wood charcoal. These waste materials were collected from the public in recycling programs to assist the war effort.
The first effective filtering activated charcoal gas mask in the world was invented in 1915 by Russian chemist Nikolay Zelinsky.
Also in World War I, since dogs were frequently used on the front lines, a special type of gas mask was developed that dogs were trained to wear. Other gas masks were developed during World War I and the time following for horses in the various mounted units that operated near the front lines. In America, thousands of gas masks were produced for American as well as Allied troops. Mine Safety Appliances was a chief producer. This mask was later used widely in industry.
Second World War
The British Respirator, Anti-Gas (Light) was developed in 1943 by the British. It was made of plastic and rubber-like material that greatly reduced the weight and bulk compared to World War I gas masks, and fitted the user's face more snugly and comfortably. The main improvement was replacing the separate filter canister connected with a hose by an easily replaceable filter canister screwed on the side of the gas mask. Also, it had replaceable plastic lenses.
Modern mask
Gas mask development since has mirrored the development of chemical agents in warfare, filling the need to protect against ever more deadly threats, biological weapons, and radioactive dust in the nuclear era. However, for agents that cause harm through contact or penetration of the skin, such as blister agent or nerve agent, a gas mask alone is not sufficient protection, and full protective clothing must be worn in addition to protect from contact with the atmosphere. For reasons of civil defence and personal protection, individuals often buy gas masks since they believe that they protect against the harmful effects of an attack with nuclear, biological, or chemical (NBC) agents, which is only partially true, as gas masks protect only against respiratory absorption. Most military gas masks are designed to be capable of protecting against all NBC agents, but they can have filter canisters proof against those agents (heavier) or only against riot control agents and smoke (lighter and often used for training purposes). There are lightweight masks solely for protection against riot-control agents and not for NBC situations.
Although thorough training and the availability of gas masks and other protective equipment can nullify the casualty-causing effects of an attack by chemical agents, troops who are forced to operate in full protective gear are less efficient in completing tasks, tire easily, and may be affected psychologically by the threat of attack by those weapons. During the Cold War, it was seen as inevitable that there would be a constant NBC threat on the battlefield and so troops needed protection in which they could remain fully functional; thus, protective gear and especially gas masks have evolved to incorporate innovations in terms of increasing user comfort and compatibility with other equipment (from drinking devices to artificial respiration tubes, to communications systems etc.).
During the Iran–Iraq War (1980–88), Iraq developed its chemical weapons program with the help of European countries such as Germany and France and used them in a large scale against Iranians and Iraqi Kurds. Iran was unprepared for chemical warfare. In 1984, Iran received gas masks from the Republic of Korea and East Germany, but the Korean masks were not suited for the faces of non-East Asian people, the filter lasted for only 15 minutes, and the 5,000 masks bought from East Germany proved to be not gas masks but spray-painting goggles. As late as 1986, Iranian diplomats still travelled in Europe to buy active charcoal and models of filters to produce defensive gear domestically. In April 1988, Iran started domestic production of gas masks by the Iran Yasa factories.
In schools
Many civilians learned how to use gas masks through the civil defense department, but children received most gas mask education in school drills. Schools would implement gas mask education and training after the outbreak of a war. Schools would harshly enforce the compulsory carrying of gas masks at all times. Gas mask and air raid drills were closely related and children would be made to wear gas masks in everyday activities, including gymnastics. The wearing of gas masks in the classrooms were especially difficult for teachers as they had trouble distinguishing one child from another. The gas masks became as uniform as the students' uniforms. Other civilians learned the use of a gas mask through posters, pamphlets, and radio lectures, but children learned through cartoons and rhymes such as "coughs and sneezes spread diseases".
See also
Assigned Protection Factors
Cartridges and canisters of air-purifying respirators
GP-5 gas mask
Hopcalite
M2 Gas Mask
M40 Field Protective Mask
M50 joint service general purpose mask
C-4 Protective Mask
NBC suit
PH helmet
Plague doctor's outfit
Respirator
Respirator fit test
Respirators testing in the workplaces
Respirator assigned protection factors
Smoke hood
Notes
Bibliography
External links
How Stuff Works - Gas Masks Science.com
The History of Gas Masks inventors.about.com, About, Inc. updated August 6, 2016
Respirator Fact Sheet
CBRN SCBA NIOSH Approved Respirators List of NIOSH Approved CBRN SCBA respirators
American inventions
British inventions
Iranian inventions
Science and technology in the United Kingdom
Military personal equipment
1914 introductions
Riot control equipment
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