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Corinthian order
The Corinthian order is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of ancient Greek and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order which was the earliest, followed by the Ionic order. When classical architecture was revived during the Renaissance, two more orders were added to the canon: the Tuscan order and the Composite order. The Corinthian, with its offshoot the Composite, is the most ornate of the orders. This architectural style is characterized by slender fluted columns and elaborate capitals decorated with acanthus leaves and scrolls. There are many variations.
The name "Corinthian" is derived from the ancient Greek city of Corinth, although the style had its own model in Roman practice, following precedents set by the Temple of Mars Ultor in the Forum of Augustus (c. 2 AD). It was employed in southern Gaul at the Maison Carrée, Nîmes and at the comparable at Vienne. Other prime examples noted by Mark Wilson Jones are the lower order of the Basilica Ulpia and the Arch of Trajan at Ancona (both of the reign of Trajan, 98–117 AD), the Column of Phocas (re-erected in Late Antiquity but 2nd century in origin), and the Temple of Bacchus at Baalbek (c. 150 AD).
The Corinthian order is named for the Greek city-state of Corinth, to which it was connected in the period. However, according to the architectural historian Vitruvius, the column was created by the sculptor Callimachus, probably an Athenian, who drew acanthus leaves growing around a votive basket. Its earliest use can be traced back to the Late Classical Period (430–323 BC). The earliest Corinthian capital was found in Bassae, dated at 427 BC.
Proportion is a defining characteristic of the Corinthian order: the "coherent integration of dimensions and ratios in accordance with the principles of "symmetria"" are noted by Mark Wilson Jones, who finds that the ratio of total column height to column-shaft height is in a 6:5 ratio, so that, secondarily, the full height of column with capital is often a multiple of 6 Roman feet while the column height itself is a multiple of 5. In its proportions, the Corinthian column is similar to the Ionic column, though it is more slender, and stands apart by its distinctive carved capital. The abacus upon the capital has concave sides to conform to the outscrolling corners of the capital, and it may have a rosette at the center of each side. Corinthian columns were erected on the top level of the Roman Colosseum, holding up the least weight, and also having the slenderest ratio of thickness to height. Their height to width ratio is about 10:1.
One variant is the Tivoli order, found at the Temple of Vesta, Tivoli. The Tivoli order's Corintinan capital has two rows of acanthus leaves and its abacus is decorated with oversize fleurons in the form of hibiscus flowers with pronounced spiral pistils. The column flutes have flat tops. The frieze exhibits fruit swags suspended between bucrania. Above each swag is a rosette. The cornice does not have modillions.
Indo-Corinthian capitals are capitals crowning columns or pilasters, which can be found in the northwestern Indian subcontinent, and usually combine Hellenistic and Indian elements. These capitals are typically dated to the 1st centuries of our era, and constitute important elements of Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara.
The classical design was often adapted, usually taking a more elongated form, and sometimes being combined with scrolls, generally within the context of Buddhist stupas and temples. Indo-Corinthian capitals also incorporated figures of the Buddha or Bodhisattvas, usually as central figures surrounded, and often in the shade, of the luxurious foliage of Corinthian designs.
During the first flush of the Italian Renaissance, the Florentine architectural theorist Francesco di Giorgio expressed the human analogies that writers who followed Vitruvius often associated with the human form, in squared drawings he made of the Corinthian capital overlaid with human heads, to show the proportions common to both.
The Corinthian architrave is divided in two or three sections, which may be equal, or may bear interesting proportional relationships, to one with another. Above the plain, unadorned architrave lies the frieze, which may be richly carved with a continuous design or left plain, as at the U.S. Capitol extension. At the Capitol the proportions of architrave to frieze are exactly 1:1. Above that, the profiles of the cornice mouldings are like those of the Ionic order. If the cornice is very deep, it may be supported by brackets or modillions, which are ornamental brackets used in a series under a cornice.
The Corinthian column is almost always fluted, and the flutes of a Corinthian column may be enriched. They may be filleted, with rods nestled within the hollow flutes, or stop-fluted, with the rods rising a third of the way, to where the entasis begins. In French, these are called "chandelles" and sometimes terminate in carved wisps of flame, or with bellflowers. Alternatively, beading or chains of husks may take the place of the fillets in the fluting, Corinthian being the most flexible of the orders, with more opportunities for variation.
Elaborating upon an offhand remark when Vitruvius accounted for the origin of its acanthus capital, it became a commonplace to identify the Corinthian column with the slender figure of a young girl; in this mode the classifying French painter Nicolas Poussin wrote to his friend Fréart de Chantelou in 1642:
The beautiful girls whom you will have seen in Nîmes will not, I am sure, have delighted your spirit any less than the beautiful columns of Maison Carrée for the one is no more than an old copy of the other.
Sir William Chambers expressed the conventional comparison with the Doric order:
The proportions of the orders were by the ancients formed on those of the human body, and consequently, it could not be their intention to make a Corithian column, which, as Vitruvius observes, is to represent the delicacy of a young girl, as thick and much taller than a Doric one, which is designed to represent the bulk and vigour of a muscular full grown man.
The oldest known example of a Corinthian column is in the Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae in Arcadia, c. 450–420 BC. It is not part of the order of the temple itself, which has a Doric colonnade surrounding the temple and an Ionic order within the cella enclosure. A single Corinthian column stands free, centered within the cella. This is a mysterious feature, and archaeologists debate what this shows: some state that it is simply an example of a votive column. A few examples of Corinthian columns in Greece during the next century are all used "inside" temples. A more famous example, and the first documented use of the Corinthian order on the exterior of a structure, is the circular Choragic Monument of Lysicrates in Athens, erected c. 334 BC.
A Corinthian capital carefully buried in antiquity in the foundations of the circular tholos at Epidaurus was recovered during modern archaeological campaigns. Its enigmatic presence and preservation have been explained as a sculptor's model for stonemasons to follow in erecting the temple dedicated to Asclepius. The architectural design of the building was credited in antiquity to the sculptor Polykleitos the Younger, son of the Classical Greek sculptor Polykleitos the Elder. The temple was erected in the 4th century BC. These capitals, in one of the most-visited sacred sites of Greece, influenced later Hellenistic and Roman designs for the Corinthian order. The concave sides of the abacus meet at a sharp keel edge, easily damaged, which in later and post-Renaissance practice has generally been replaced by a canted corner. Behind the scrolls the spreading cylindrical form of the central shaft is plainly visible.
Much later, the Roman writer Vitruvius (c. 75 BC – c. 15 BC) related that the Corinthian order had been invented by Callimachus, a Greek architect and sculptor who was inspired by the sight of a votive basket that had been left on the grave of a young girl. A few of her toys were in it, and a square tile had been placed over the basket, to protect them from the weather. An acanthus plant had grown through the woven basket, mixing its spiny, deeply cut leaves with the weave of the basket.
Claude Perrault incorporated a vignette epitomizing the Callimachus tale in his illustration of the Corinthian order for his translation of Vitruvius, published in Paris, 1684. Perrault demonstrates in his engraving how the proportions of the carved capital could be adjusted according to demands of the design, without offending. The texture and outline of Perrault's leaves is dry and tight compared to their 19th-century naturalism at the U.S. Capitol. A Corinthian capital may be seen as an enriched development of the Ionic capital, though one may have to look closely at a Corinthian capital to see the Ionic volutes ("helices"), at the corners, perhaps reduced in size and importance, scrolling out above the two ranks of stylized acanthus leaves and stalks ("cauliculi" or "caulicoles"), eight in all, and to notice that smaller volutes scroll inwards to meet each other on each side. The leaves may be quite stiff, schematic and dry, or they may be extravagantly drilled and undercut, naturalistic and spiky. In Late Antique and Byzantine practice, the leaves may be blown sideways, as if by the wind of Faith. Unlike the Doric and Ionic column capitals, a Corinthian capital has no neck beneath it, just a ring-like astragal molding or a banding that forms the base of the capital, recalling the base of the legendary basket.
Most buildings (and most clients) are satisfied with just two orders. When orders are superposed one above another, as they are at the Colosseum, the natural progression is from sturdiest and plainest (Doric) at the bottom, to slenderest and richest (Corinthian) at the top. The Colosseum's topmost tier has an unusual order that came to be known as the Composite order during the 16th century. The mid-16th-century Italians, especially Sebastiano Serlio and Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola, who established a canonic version of the orders, thought they detected a "Composite order", combining the volutes of the Ionic with the foliage of the Corinthian, but in Roman practice volutes were almost always present.
In Romanesque and Gothic architecture, where the Classical system had been replaced by a new aesthetic composed of arched vaults springing from columns, the Corinthian capital was still retained. It might be severely plain, as in the typical Cistercian architecture, which encouraged no distraction from liturgy and ascetic contemplation, or in other contexts it could be treated to numerous fanciful variations, even on the capitals of a series of columns or colonettes within the same system.
During the 16th century, a sequence of engravings of the orders in architectural treatises helped standardize their details within rigid limits: Sebastiano Serlio; the "Regola delli cinque ordini" of Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola (1507–1573); "I quattro libri dell'architettura" of Andrea Palladio, and Vincenzo Scamozzi's "L'idea dell'architettura universale", were followed in the 17th century by French treatises with further refined engraved models, such as Perrault's. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=46259 |
Nightmare
A nightmare, also called a bad dream, is an unpleasant dream that can cause a strong emotional response from the mind, typically fear but also despair, anxiety and great sadness. However, psychological nomenclature differentiates between nightmares and bad dreams, specifically, people remain asleep during bad dreams whereas nightmares awaken individuals. The dream may contain situations of discomfort, psychological or physical terror or panic. After a nightmare, a person will often awaken in a state of distress and may be unable to return to sleep for a short period of time.
Nightmares can have physical causes such as sleeping in an uncomfortable position or having a fever, or psychological causes such as stress or anxiety. Eating before going to sleep, which triggers an increase in the body's metabolism and brain activity, is a potential stimulus for nightmares.
Recurrent nightmares may require medical help, as they can interfere with sleeping patterns and cause insomnia.
Those with nightmares experience abnormal sleep architecture and that the results of having a nightmare during the night were very similar to those of people who have insomnia. This is thought to be caused by frequent nocturnal awakenings and fear of falling asleep.
According to the International Classification of Sleep Disorders-Third Edition (ICSD-3) the nightmare disorder, together with REM sleep behaviour disorder (RBD) and recurrent isolated sleep paralysis form the REM-related parasomnias subcategory of the Parasomnias cluster. Nightmares may be idiopathic without any signs of psychopathology or associated with disorders like stress, anxiety, substance abuse, psychiatric illness or PTSD (>80% of PTSD patients report nightmares). As regarding the dream content of the dreams they are usually imprinting negative emotions like sadness, fear or rage. According to the clinical studies the content can range from being chased, injury or death of others, falling, natural disasters or accidents. Typical dreams or recurrent dreams may also have some of these topics.
Scientific research shows that nightmares may have many causes.
In a study focusing on children, researchers were able to conclude that nightmares directly correlate with the stress in children’s lives. Children who experienced the death of a family member or a close friend or know someone with a chronic illness have more frequent nightmares than those who are only faced with stress from school or stress from social aspects of daily life.
A study researching the causes of nightmares focuses on patients who have sleep apnea. The study was conducted to determine whether or not nightmares may be caused by sleep apnea, or being unable to breathe. In the nineteenth century, authors believed that nightmares were caused by not having enough oxygen, therefore it was believed that those with sleep apnea had more frequent nightmares than those without it. The results actually showed that healthy people have more nightmares than the sleep apnea patients.
Another study supports the hypothesis. In this study, 48 patients (aged 20–85 yrs) with obstructive airways disease (OAD), including 21 with and 27 without asthma, were compared with 149 sex- and age-matched controls without respiratory disease. OAD subjects with asthma reported approximately 3 times as many nightmares as controls or OAD subjects without asthma. The evolutionary purpose of nightmares then could be a mechanism to awaken a person who is in danger.
Lucid-dreaming advocate Stephen LaBerge has outlined a possible reason for how dreams are formulated and why nightmares occur with a high frequency. To LaBerge, a dream starts with an individual thought or scene, such as walking down a dimly lit street. Since dreams are not predetermined, the brain responds to the situation by either thinking a good thought or a bad thought, and the dream framework follows from there. Since the prominence of bad thoughts in dreams is higher than good, the dream will proceed to be a nightmare.
There is a view, possibly featured in the story "A Christmas Carol", that eating cheese before sleep can cause nightmares, but there is little scientific evidence for this phenomenon.
Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung seemed to have shared a belief that people frequently distressed by nightmares could be re-experiencing some stressful event from the past. Both perspectives on dreams suggest that therapy can provide relief from the dilemma of the nightmarish experience.
Halliday (1987), grouped treatment techniques into four classes. Direct nightmare interventions that combine compatible techniques from one or more of these classes may enhance overall treatment effectiveness:
Recurring posttraumatic stress disorder nightmares in which traumas are re-experienced respond well to a technique called imagery rehearsal. This involves dreamers coming up with alternative, mastery outcomes to the nightmares, mentally rehearsing those outcomes while awake, and then reminding themselves at bedtime that they wish these alternate outcomes should the nightmares reoccur. Research has found that this technique not only reduces the occurrence of nightmares and insomnia, but also improves other daytime PTSD symptoms. The most common variations of Imagery Rehearsal Therapy (IRT) "relate to the number of sessions, duration of treatment, and the degree to which exposure therapy is included in the protocol". The medication prazosin appears useful in decreasing the number of nightmares and the distress caused by them in people with PTSD.
The prevalence in children (5–12 years old) is between 20 and 30%, and in adults 8 to 30%.
The word "nightmare" is derived from the Old English "mare", a mythological demon or goblin who torments others with frightening dreams. The term has no connection with the word for "female horse." The word "nightmare" is cognate with the Dutch term "nachtmerrie" and German "Nachtmahr" (dated). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=46262 |
Nadsat
Nadsat is a fictional register or argot used by the teenage gang members in Anthony Burgess's dystopian novel "A Clockwork Orange". Burgess was a linguist and he used this background to depict his characters as speaking a form of Russian-influenced English. The name comes from the Russian suffix equivalent of "-teen" as in "thirteen" (-надцать, "-nad·tsat"). Nadsat was also used in Stanley Kubrick's film adaptation of the book.
Nadsat is a mode of speech used by the "nadsat", members of the teen subculture in the novel "A Clockwork Orange". The narrator and protagonist of the book, Alex, uses it in first-person style to relate the story to the reader. He also uses it to communicate with other characters in the novel, such as his "droogs", parents, victims and any authority-figures with whom he comes in contact. As with many speakers of non-standard varieties of English, Alex is capable of speaking standard English when he wants to. It is not a written language: the sense that readers get is of a transcription of vernacular speech.
Nadsat is English with some borrowed words from Russian. It also contains influences from Cockney rhyming slang, the King James Bible, German, some words of unclear origin and some that Burgess invented. The word "nadsat" is the suffix of Russian numerals from 11 to 19 (-надцать). The suffix is an almost exact linguistic parallel to the English '-teen' and is derived from "на", meaning "on" and a shortened form of "десять", the number ten. "Droog" is Russian друг "close friend". Some of the words are almost childish plays on English words, such as "eggiweg" ("egg") and "appy polly loggy" ("apology"), as well as regular English slang "sod" and "snuff it". The word "like" and the expression "the old" are often used as fillers or discourse markers.
The original 1991 translation of Burgess' book into Russian solved the problem of how to illustrate the Nadsat words, by using transliterated, slang English words in places where Burgess had used Russian ones (i.e. "droogs" became "фрэнды" ("frendy"). This solution was imperfect as it lacked the original abstractness. Borrowed English words with Russian inflection were widely used in Russian slang, especially among Russian hippies in the 1970s–1980s. Since the 1990s anglicisms in Russian have been common particularly regarding computers and programming. Future translations would simply use the original untranslated Nadsat terms.
Burgess, a polyglot who loved language in all its forms, was aware that linguistic slang was of a constantly changing nature. Burgess knew that if he used contemporarily modes of speech, the novel would very quickly become dated. His use of Nadsat was pragmatic; he needed his narrator to have a unique voice that would remain ageless while reinforcing Alex's indifference to his society's norms and to suggest that youth subculture existed independent of the rest of society. In "A Clockwork Orange", Alex's interrogators describe the source of his argot as "subliminal penetration".
Russian influences play the biggest role in Nadsat. Most of those Russian-influenced words are slightly anglicized loan-words, often maintaining the original Russian pronunciation. One example is the Russian word "Lyudi", which is anglicized to "lewdies", meaning "people". Another Russian word is "Bábushka" which is anglicized to "baboochka", meaning "grandmother", "old woman". Some of the anglicised words are truncated, for example "pony" from "ponimát’", "to understand", or otherwise shortened, for example "veck" from "čelovék", "person", "man" (though the anglicized word "chelloveck" is also used in the book).
A further means of constructing Nadsat words is the employment of homophones (known as folk etymology). For example, one Nadsat term which may seem like an English composition, "horrorshow", actually stems from the Russian word for "good"; "khorosho", which sounds similar to "horrorshow". In this same manner many of the Russian loan-words become an English–Russian hybrid, with Russian origins, English spellings and pronunciations. A further example is the Russian word for "head", "golová", which sounds similar to "Gulliver" known from "Gulliver’s Travels"; "Gulliver" became the Nadsat expression for the concept "head".
Many of Burgess' loan-words, such as "devotchka" ("girl") and "droog" ("friend") maintain both their relative spelling and meaning over the course of translation.
Additional words were borrowed from other languages: A (possibly Saudi-owned) hotel was named 'Al Idayyin, an Arabic-sounding variant on “Holiday Inn” Hotel chain.
Nadsat's English slang is constructed with common language-formation techniques. Some words are blended, others clipped or compounded. In Nadsat-language a "fit of laughter" becomes a "guff" (shortened version of "guffawing"); a "skeleton key" becomes a "polyclef" ("many keys"); and the "state jail" is blended to the "staja". Many common English slang terms are simply shortened. A "cancer stick" which is (or was) a common English-slang expression for a "cigarette" is shortened to a "cancer". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=46264 |
Atbash
Atbash (; also transliterated Atbaš) is a monoalphabetic substitution cipher originally used to encrypt the Hebrew alphabet. It can be modified for use with any known writing system with a standard collating order.
The Atbash cipher is a particular type of monoalphabetic cipher formed by taking the alphabet (or abjad, syllabary, etc.) and mapping it to its reverse, so that the first letter becomes the last letter, the second letter becomes the second to last letter, and so on. For example, the Latin alphabet would work like this:
Due to the fact that there is only one way to perform this, the Atbash cipher provides a communications security, as it lacks any sort of key. If multiple collating orders are available, which one was used in encryption can be used as a key, but this does not provide significantly more security, considering that only a few letters can give away which one was used.
The name derives from the first, last, second, and second to last Hebrew letters (Aleph–Taw–Bet–Shin).
The Atbash cipher for the modern Hebrew alphabet would be:
Several biblical verses are described by commentators as being examples of Atbash:
The Atbash cipher can be seen as a special case of the affine cipher.
Under the standard affine convention, an alphabet of "m" letters is mapped to the numbers 0, 1, ... , "m" − 1. (The Hebrew alphabet has "m" = 22, and the standard Latin alphabet has "m" = 26). The Atbash cipher may then be enciphered and deciphered using the encryption function for an affine cipher by setting "a" = "b" = ("m" − 1):
This may be simplified to
If, instead, the "m" letters of the alphabet are mapped to 1, 2, ... , "m", then the encryption and decryption function for the Atbash cipher becomes | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=46265 |
Encaustic painting
Encaustic painting, also known as hot wax painting, involves using heated beeswax to which colored pigments are added. The liquid or paste is then applied to a surface—usually prepared wood, though canvas and other materials are often used. The simplest encaustic mixture can be made from adding pigments to beeswax, but there are several other recipes that can be used—some containing other types of waxes, damar resin, linseed oil, or other ingredients. Pure, powdered pigments can be used, though some mixtures use oil paints or other forms of pigment.
Metal tools and special brushes can be used to shape the paint before it cools, or heated metal tools can be used to manipulate the wax once it has cooled onto the surface. Today, tools such as heat lamps, heat guns, and other methods of applying heat allow artists to extend the amount of time they have to work with the material. Because wax is used as the pigment binder, encaustics can be sculpted as well as painted. Other materials can be encased or collaged into the surface, or layered, using the encaustic medium to stick them to the surface.
A completely unrelated type of "encaustic painting", not involving wax at all, is found in British ceramics, after Josiah Wedgwood devised and patented the technique in 1769. This was a mixture of ceramic slip and overglaze "enamel" paints used to imitate ancient Greek vase painting, and given a light second firing. Usually the vessel was black and painted in the red of red-figure painting. The technique was copied by other British potteries. Encaustic tiles are not painted at all, but effectively inlaid with contrasting colours of clay for a polychrome pattern.
The word encaustic originates from the Greek word "enkaustikos" which means to burn in, and this element of heat is necessary for a painting to be called encaustic.
The wax encaustic painting technique was described by the Roman scholar Pliny the Elder in his "Natural History" from the 1st Century AD. The oldest surviving encaustic panel paintings are the Romano-Egyptian Fayum mummy portraits from Egypt around 100–300 AD, but was a very common technique in ancient Greek and Roman painting. It continued to be used in early Byzantine icons but was effectively abandoned in the Western Church.
Kut-kut, a lost art of the Philippines, employs sgraffito and encaustic techniques. It was practiced by the indigenous tribe of Samar island around 1600 to 1800. Artists in the Mexican muralism movement, such as Diego Rivera and Jean Charlot sometimes used encaustic painting. The Belgian artist James Ensor also experimented with encaustic.
In the 20th century, painter Fritz Faiss (1905–1981), a student of Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky at the Bauhaus, together with Dr. Hans Schmid, rediscovered the so-called "Punic wax" technique of encaustic painting. Faiss held two German patents related to the preparation of waxes for encaustic painting. One covered a method for treating beeswax so that its melting point was raised from . This occurred after boiling the wax in a solution of sea water and soda three successive times. The resulting harder wax is the same as the Punic wax referred to in ancient Greek writings on encaustic painting. Other 20th-century North American artists, including Jasper Johns, Tony Scherman, Mark Perlman, and Fernando Leal Audirac have used encaustic techniques.
Encaustic art has seen a resurgence in popularity since the 1990s with people using electric irons, hotplates and heated styli on different surfaces including card, paper and even pottery. The iron makes producing a variety of artistic patterns easier. The medium is not limited to just simple designs; it can be used to create complex paintings, just as in other media such as oil and acrylic. Although technically difficult to master, attractions of this medium for contemporary artists are its dimensional quality and luminous color.
Artists specializing in encaustic painting include the following: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=46268 |
New materials in 20th-century art
New materials in 20th-century art were introduced to art making from the very beginning of the century. The introduction of new materials (and techniques) and heretofore non-art materials helped drive change in art during the 20th century. Traditional materials and techniques were not necessarily displaced in the 20th century. Rather, they functioned alongside innovations that came with the 20th century. Such mainstays as oil-on-canvas painting, and sculpting in traditional materials continued right through the 20th century into the 21st century. Furthermore, even "traditional" materials were greatly expanded in the course of the 20th century. The number of pigments available to artists (painters, primarily) has increased both in quantity and quality, by most reckoning. New formulations for traditional materials especially the commercial availability of acrylic paint have become widely used, introducing initial issues over their stability and longevity.
Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Kurt Schwitters, Joseph Cornell and others incorporated paper collage and mixed drawing (materials) with paint to fashion their work. Both Picasso and Marcel Duchamp pioneered the use of found objects as material for paintings and sculpture during the 1910s. In the 1940s Jackson Pollock pioneered the use of housepaint, silver and aluminum paint, duco, and various objects for use in his paintings. In the 1950s Robert Rauschenberg included 3-D elements like tires and stuffed animals
as well as using discarded materials like crushed or flattened cardboard boxes. Yves Klein incorporated live nude models and a symphony orchestra in his performance pieces of his paintings. John Chamberlain used crushed auto parts for sculpture. In the 1960s Pop artists Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, Tom Wesselmann and Roy Lichtenstein made art from commercial products, or art that resembled commercial products like television sets, soup cans, brillo boxes, comic books, household furniture and restaurant items among other things. Edward Kienholz made replicas of actual environments both domestic and commercial, while George Segal made life-size plaster figures in settings using real objects and props. Dan Flavin used electric fluorescent lights and ballasts to create sculpture. In the 1970s Frank Stella introduced honeycombed aluminum and glitter. In the 1980s Julian Schnabel made "plate paintings" with broken crockery stuck to the surface and then painted over, Anselm Kiefer and Richard Long used mud, soil or tar in their works. In the 1960s and again in the 1990s artists used excrement notably - the Italian artist Piero Manzoni in 1961 and the British artist Chris Ofili who specialized in using elephant dung in the 1990s. Tracey Emin included her bed, entitled My Bed, in 1999.
Some innovations concerning materials used in art merely function in a supportive way, and other innovative materials are much more conspicuous. Frank Stella's use of honeycombed aluminum served as a lightweight and strong and very configurable support for imagery. In the sculpture entitled "Monogram," by Robert Rauschenberg, an angora goat assumes a position of central importance.
The advent of Modernism and Modern Art in the first decades of the 20th century inspired artists to test and transcend the boundaries and the limitations of the traditional and conventional forms of art making in search of newer forms and in search of new materials. The innovations of painters like Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Georges Seurat, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and the French Symbolists provided essential inspiration for the development of modern art by the younger generation of artists in Paris and elsewhere in Europe. Henri Matisse and other young artists revolutionized the Paris art world with "wild", multi-colored, expressive, paintings that the critics called Fauvism. Henri Rousseau, Pablo Picasso, Giorgio de Chirico, Amedeo Modigliani, Marc Chagall, Robert Delaunay and scores of young artists in Paris made their first modern paintings venturing toward abstraction and other new ways of formulating figurative, still-life and landscape imagery.
During the first decade of the 20th century modern art developed simultaneously in several different areas in Europe (France, England, Scandinavia, Russia, Germany, Italy), and in the United States. Artists began to formulate different directions of modern art, seemingly unrelated to one another.
In printmaking, the linocut was invented by the artists of Die Brücke in Germany between 1905 and 1913. At first they described their prints as woodcuts, which sounded more respectable. The technique remains popular as a very simple method of printmaking, even suitable for use in schools.
Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Juan Gris and other cubist artists introduced new elements and materials like newspaper clippings, fabric, and sheet music into their paintings. Eventually the movement was called Synthetic Cubism developed between 1912 and 1919. Synthetic cubism is characterized by works with different textures, surfaces, collage elements, papier collé and a large variety of subject matter. It was the beginning of collage materials being introduced as an important ingredient of fine art work by the avant-garde.
Considered the first work of this new style was Pablo Picasso's ""Still Life with Chair-caning"" (1911–1912), which includes oil cloth that was printed to look like chair-caning pasted onto an oval canvas, with text; and rope framing the whole picture. At the upper left are the letters "JOU", which appear in many cubist paintings and refers to the newspaper titled ""Le Journal"".
The Dada movement began during World War I as a protest against the madness and violence of war. Applying shock tactics and anarchy to art the Dadaists pioneered the use of new artistic techniques such as collage, photomontage readymades and the use of found objects. Artists like Marcel Duchamp, Hannah Höch, Kurt Schwitters, Francis Picabia, Man Ray and others incorporated into their work random everyday objects often combined with more conventional artist materials. They included photographs, panes of glass, picture frames, eyeglasses, boxes, newspapers, magazines, ticket stubs, metal pipes, bulbs, bottle racks, urinals, bicycle wheels and other objects. Marcel Duchamp created "The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even," working on the piece from 1915 to 1923. He made the work on two panes of glass; with materials such as lead foil, fuse wire, and dust.
During the 1930s Surrealist artist Méret Oppenheim created sexually charged erotic pieces. Oppenheim's best known piece is "Object (Le Déjeuner en fourrure)" (1936). The sculpture consists of a teacup, saucer and spoon that the artist covered with fur from a Chinese gazelle. It is displayed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Robert Rauschenberg began to create what became known as his Combine paintings in the early 1950s.
In 1960 Yves Klein incorporated live nude models and a symphony orchestra in his performance pieces of his paintings. Klein also made use of Photomontage in the famous pseudo-performance picture of himself diving off a wall onto a Paris street "Le Saut dans le Vide" (Leap into the Void. In the 1960s John Chamberlain continued using crushed auto parts for sculpture. Dan Flavin used electric fluorescent lights and ballasts to create his sculpture. In May 1961 Italian artist Piero Manzoni used his own excrement, selling it in cans titled "Artist's Shit" ("Merda d'Artista"). However the contents of the cans remain a much-disputed enigma, since opening them would destroy the value of the artwork. Various theories about the contents have been proposed, including speculation that it is plaster. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=46270 |
Mother's Day
Mother's Day is a celebration honoring the mother of the family, as well as motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on various days in many parts of the world, most commonly in the months of March or May. It complements similar celebrations honoring family members, such as Father's Day, Siblings Day, and Grandparents Day.
The modern Mother's Day began in the United States, at the initiative of Anna Jarvis in the early 20th century. This is not (directly) related to the many traditional celebrations of mothers and motherhood that have existed throughout the world over thousands of years, such as the Greek cult to Cybele, the mother god Rhea, the Roman festival of Hilaria, or the Christian Mothering Sunday celebration (originally a commemoration of Mother Church, not motherhood). However, in some countries, Mother's Day is still synonymous with these older traditions.
The U.S.-derived modern version of Mother's Day has been criticized for having become too commercialized. Founder Jarvis herself regretted this commercialism and expressed views on how that was never her intention.
The modern holiday of Mother's Day was first celebrated in 1908, when Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her mother at St Andrew's Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia. St Andrew's Methodist Church now holds the International Mother's Day Shrine. Her campaign to make Mother's Day a recognized holiday in the United States began in 1905, the year her mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis, died. Ann Jarvis had been a peace activist who cared for wounded soldiers on both sides of the American Civil War, and created Mother's Day Work Clubs to address public health issues. She and another peace activist and suffragette Julia Ward Howe had been urging for the creation of a Mother’s Day dedicated to peace. 40 years before it became an official holiday, Ward Howe had made her Mother’s Day Proclamation in 1870, which called upon mothers of all nationalities to band together to promote the “amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.” Anna Jarvis wanted to honor this and to set aside a day to honor all mothers because she believed a mother is "the person who has done more for you than anyone in the world".
In 1908, the U.S. Congress rejected a proposal to make Mother's Day an official holiday, joking that they would also have to proclaim a "Mother-in-law's Day". However, owing to the efforts of Anna Jarvis, by 1911 all U.S. states observed the holiday, with some of them officially recognizing Mother's Day as a local holiday (the first being West Virginia, Jarvis' home state, in 1910). In 1914, Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation designating Mother's Day, held on the second Sunday in May, as a national holiday to honor mothers.
Although Jarvis was successful in founding Mother's Day, she became resentful of the commercialization of the holiday. By the early 1920s, Hallmark Cards and other companies had started selling Mother's Day cards. Jarvis believed that the companies had misinterpreted and exploited the idea of Mother's Day and that the emphasis of the holiday was on sentiment, not profit. As a result, she organized boycotts of Mother's Day, and threatened to issue lawsuits against the companies involved. Jarvis argued that people should appreciate and honor their mothers through handwritten letters expressing their love and gratitude, instead of buying gifts and pre-made cards. Jarvis protested at a candy makers' convention in Philadelphia in 1923, and at a meeting of American War Mothers in 1925. By this time, carnations had become associated with Mother's Day, and the selling of carnations by the American War Mothers to raise money angered Jarvis, who was arrested for disturbing the peace.
In 1912 Anna Jarvis trademarked the phrase "Second Sunday in May, Mother's Day, Anna Jarvis, Founder", and created the Mother's Day International Association. She specifically noted that "Mother's" should "be a singular possessive, for each family to honor its own mother, not a plural possessive commemorating all mothers in the world." This is also the spelling used by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson in his 1914 presidential proclamation, by the U.S. Congress in relevant bills, and by various U.S. presidents in their proclamations concerning Mother's Day.
While the United States holiday was adopted by some other countries, existing celebrations, held on different dates, honoring motherhood have become described as "Mother's Day", such as Mothering Sunday in the United Kingdom or, in Greece, the Eastern Orthodox celebration of the presentation of Jesus Christ to the temple (2 February of Julian Calendar). Both the secular and religious Mother Day are present in Greece. Mothering Sunday is often referred to as "Mother's Day" even though it is an unrelated celebration.
In some countries, the date adopted is one significant to the majority religion, such as Virgin Mary Day in Catholic countries. Other countries selected a date with historical significance. For example, Bolivia's Mother's Day is a fixed date, remembering of a battle in which women participated to defend their children. See the "International history and tradition" section for the complete list.
Some countries, such as Russia, celebrated International Women's Day instead of Mother's Day or simply celebrate both holidays, which is the custom in Ukraine. Kyrgyzstan has recently introduced Mother's Day, but "year on year International Women's Day is certainly increasing in status".
In most countries, Mother's Day is an observance derived from the holiday as it has evolved in the United States, promoted by companies who saw benefit in making it popular. As adopted by other countries and cultures, the holiday has different meanings, is associated with different events (religious, historical or legendary), and is celebrated on different dates.
In some cases, countries already had existing celebrations honoring motherhood, and their celebrations then adopted several external characteristics from the US holiday, such as giving carnations and other presents to one's mother.
The extent of the celebrations varies greatly. In some countries, it is potentially offensive to one's mother not to mark Mother's Day. In others, it is a little-known festival celebrated mainly by immigrants, or covered by the media as a taste of foreign culture.
In the Roman Catholic Church, the holiday is strongly associated with revering the Virgin Mary. In some Catholic homes, families have a special shrine devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary. In many Eastern Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches, a special prayer service is held in honor of the Theotokos Virgin Mary.
In Islam there is no concept of Mother's Day, but the Quran teaches that children should give priority to loving their mother over their father.
In Hindu tradition, Mother's Day is called "Mata Tirtha Aunshi" or "Mother Pilgrimage fortnight", and is celebrated in countries with a Hindu population, especially in Nepal, where mothers are honored with special foods. The holiday is observed on the new moon day in the month of Baisakh, i.e., April/May. This celebration is based on Hindu religion and it pre-dates the creation of the US-inspired celebration by at least a few centuries.
In Buddhism, the festival of Ullambana is derived from the story of Maudgalyayana and his mother.
In Albania, as in a number of Balkan and Eastern European countries, Mother's Day is celebrated on 8 March, in conjunction with International Women's Day.
Mother's Day in most Arab countries is celebrated on 21 March. It was introduced in Egypt by journalist Mustafa Amin and was first celebrated in 1956. The practice has since been copied by other Arab countries.
In Argentina, Mother's Day is celebrated on the third Sunday of October. The holiday was originally celebrated on 11 October, the old liturgical date for the celebration of the Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary but after the Second Vatican Council, which moved the Virgin Mary festivity to 1 January, the Mother's Day started to be celebrated the third Sunday of October because of popular tradition. Argentina is the only country in the world that celebrates Mother's Day on this date.
In Armenia, Mother's Day is celebrated on 8 March, and on 7 April as Maternity and Beauty Day.
In Australia, Mother's Day is celebrated on the second Sunday in May.
In Bangladesh, Mother's Day is celebrated on the 10 May. Mother's Day has only recently gained popularity in Bangladesh.
Belarus celebrates Mother's Day on 14 October. Like other ex-Communist republics, Belarus used to celebrate only International Women's Day on 8 March. Mother's Day in Belarus was officially established by the Belarusian government, and it was celebrated for the first time in 1996. The celebration of the Virgin Mary (the holiday of Protection of the Holy Mother of God) is celebrated in the same day.
Mother's Day in Bhutan is celebrated on 8 May. It was introduced in Bhutan by the Tourism Council of Bhutan.
In Belgium, Mother's Day ("Moederdag" or "Moederkesdag" in Dutch and "Fête des Mères" in French) is celebrated on the second Sunday of May. In the week before this holiday children make little presents at primary school, which they give to their mothers in the early morning of Mother's Day. Typically, the father will buy croissants and other sweet breads and pastries and bring these to the mother while she is still in bed – the beginning of a day of pampering for the mother. There are also many people who celebrate Mother's Day on 15 August instead; these are mostly people around Antwerp, who consider that day (Assumption) the classical Mother's Day and the observance in May an invention for commercial reasons. It was originally established on that day as the result of a campaign by Frans Van Kuyck, a painter and Alderman from Antwerp.
In Bolivia, Mother's Day is celebrated on 27 May. El "Día de la Madre Boliviana" was passed into law on 8 November 1927, during the presidency of Hernando Siles Reyes. The date commemorates the Battle of La Coronilla, which took place on 27 May 1812, during the Bolivian War of Independence, in what is now the city of Cochabamba. In this battle, women fighting for the country's independence were slaughtered by the Spanish army. It is not a public holiday, but all schools hold activities and festivities throughout the day. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=46276 |
Ukrainian language
Ukrainian ( ) is an East Slavic language. It is the official state language of Ukraine and one of the three official languages in the unrecognized state of Transnistria, the other two being Moldovan and Russian. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic script (see Ukrainian alphabet).
Historical linguists trace the origin of the Ukrainian language to the Old East Slavic of the early medieval state of Kievan Rus'. After the fall of the Kievan Rus' as well as the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, the language developed into a form called the Ruthenian language. The Ukrainian language has been in common use since the late 17th century, associated with the establishment of the Cossack Hetmanate. From 1804 until the Russian Revolution, the Ukrainian language was banned from schools in the Russian Empire, of which the biggest part of Ukraine (Central, Eastern and Southern) was a part at the time. It has always maintained a sufficient base in Western Ukraine, where the language was never banned, in its folk songs, itinerant musicians, and prominent authors.
The standard Ukrainian language is regulated by the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine ("NANU"), particularly by its Institute for the Ukrainian Language, Ukrainian language-information fund, and Potebnya Institute of Language Studies. The Ukrainian language retains a degree of mutual intelligibility with Belarusian, Polish and Russian.
The first theory of the origin of Ukrainian language was suggested in Imperial Russia in the middle of the 18th century by Mikhail Lomonosov. This theory posits the existence of a common language spoken by all East Slavic people in the time of the Rus'. According to Lomonosov, the differences that subsequently developed between Great Russian and Ukrainian (which he referred to as Little Russian) could be explained by the influence of the Polish and Slovak languages on Ukrainian and the influence of Uralic languages on Russian from the 13th to the 17th centuries.
Another point of view developed during the 19th and 20th centuries by linguists of Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union. Like Lomonosov, they assumed the existence of a common language spoken by East Slavs in the past. But unlike Lomonosov's hypothesis, this theory does not view "Polonization" or any other external influence as the main driving force that led to the formation of three different languages (Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian) from the common Old East Slavic language. The supporters of this theory disagree, however, about the time when the different languages were formed.
Soviet scholars set the divergence between Ukrainian and Russian only at later time periods (14th through 16th centuries). According to this view, Old East Slavic diverged into Belarusian and Ukrainian to the west (collectively, the Ruthenian language of the 15th to 18th centuries), and Old Russian to the north-east, after the political boundaries of the Kievan Rus' were redrawn in the 14th century.
Some researchers, while admitting the differences between the dialects spoken by East Slavic tribes in the 10th and 11th centuries, still consider them as "regional manifestations of a common language" (see, for instance, the article by Vasyl Nimchuk).
In contrast, Ahatanhel Krymsky and Alexei Shakhmatov assumed the existence of the common spoken language of Eastern Slavs only in prehistoric times. According to their point of view, the diversification of the Old East Slavic language took place in the 8th or early 9th century.
Latest research suggests that Russian diverged from Ukrainian and Belorusian in the 6th century.
However the above research did not take into account findings by Russian linguist Andrey Zaliznyak who stated that in the 11th century Novgorod language differed from Kiev language (as well as other Slavic languages) much more than in later centuries, meaning that there was no common Old East Slavic language of Kievan Rus' from which Ukrainian and Russian languages diverged, but that Russian language developed as convergence of Novgorod language and other Russian dialects, whereas Ukrainian and Belorusian were continuation of respective Kiev and Polotsk dialects of Kievan Rus'.
Some Ukrainian features were recognizable in the southern dialects of Old East Slavic as far back as the language can be documented.
Ukrainian linguist Stepan Smal-Stotsky denies the existence of a common Old East Slavic language at any time in the past. Similar points of view were shared by Yevhen Tymchenko, Vsevolod Hantsov, Olena Kurylo, Ivan Ohienko and others. According to this theory, the dialects of East Slavic tribes evolved gradually from the common Proto-Slavic language without any intermediate stages during the 6th through 9th centuries. The Ukrainian language was formed by convergence of tribal dialects, mostly due to an intensive migration of the population within the territory of today's Ukraine in later historical periods. This point of view was also supported by George Shevelov's phonological studies.
As a result of close Slavic contacts with the remnants of the Scythian and Sarmatian population north of the Black Sea, lasting into the early Middle Ages, the appearance of the voiced fricative γ(h) in modern Ukrainian and some southern Russian dialects is explained by the assumption that it initially emerged in Scythian and related eastern Iranian dialects, from earlier common Proto-Indo-European "*g" and "*gʰ".
During the 13th century, when German settlers were invited to Ukraine by the princes of Galicia-Vollhynia, German words began to appear in the language spoken in Ukraine. Their influence would continue under Poland not only through German colonists but also through the Yiddish-speaking Jews. Often such words involve trade or handicrafts. Examples of words of German or Yiddish origin spoken in Ukraine include "dakh" (roof), "rura" (pipe), "rynok" (market), "kushnir" (furrier), and "majster" (master or craftsman).
In the 13th century, eastern parts of Rus' (including Moscow) came under Tatar yoke until their unification under the Tsardom of Muscovy, whereas the south-western areas (including Kiev) were incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. For the following four centuries, the language of the two regions evolved in relative isolation from each other. Direct written evidence of the existence of the Ukrainian language dates to the late 16th century. By the 16th century, a peculiar official language was formed: a mixture of the liturgical standardised language of Old Church Slavonic, Ruthenian and Polish, with the influence of the last of these three gradually increasing, considering that the nobility and rural large-landowning class, known as the szlachta, was largely Polish-speaking. Documents soon took on many Polish characteristics superimposed on Ruthenian phonetics. Polish rule and education also involved significant exposure to the Latin language. Much of the influence of Poland on the development of the Ukrainian language has been attributed to this period and is reflected in multiple words and constructions used in everyday Ukrainian speech that were taken from Polish or Latin. Examples of Polish words adopted from this period include "zavzhdy" (always; taken from old Polish word "zawżdy") and "obitsiaty" (to promise; taken from Polish "obiecać") and from Latin (via Polish) "raptom" (suddenly) and "meta" (aim or goal).
Significant contact with Tatars and Turks resulted in many Turkic words, particularly those involving military matters and steppe industry, being adopted into the Ukrainian language. Examples include "torba" (bag) and "tyutyun" (tobacco).
Due to heavy borrowings from Polish, German, Czech and Latin, early modern vernacular Ukrainian ("prosta mova", "simple speech") had more lexical similarity with West Slavic languages than with Russian or Church Slavonic. By the mid-17th century, the linguistic divergence between the Ukrainian and Russian languages was so acute that there was a need for translators during negotiations for the Treaty of Pereyaslav, between Bohdan Khmelnytsky, head of the Zaporozhian Host, and the Russian state.
During the Khazar period, the territory of Ukraine was settled by Iranian (post-Scythian), Turkic (post-Hunnic, proto-Bulgarian), and Uralic (proto-Hungarian) tribes and Slavic tribes. Finally, the Varangian ruler of Novgorod, called Oleg, seized Kiev and established the political entity of Kievan Rus'.
The era of Kievan Rus' is the subject of some linguistic controversy, as the language of much of the literature was purely or heavily Old Slavonic. Literary records from Kievan Rus' testify to substantial difference between Russian and Ruthenian (Rusyn) form of the Ukrainian language as early as Kievan Rus' time.
Some theorists see an early Ukrainian stage in language development here, calling it Old Ruthenian (Rusyn); others term this era Old East Slavic. Russian theorists tend to amalgamate Rus' to the modern nation of Russia, and call this linguistic era Old Russian. However, according to Russian linguist Andrey Zaliznyak, Novgorod people did not call themselves Rus' until the 14th century, calling Rus' only Kyiv, Pereiaslav and Chernihiv principalities (Kievan Rus' state existed till 1240). At the same time as evidenced by the contemporary chronicles, the ruling princes of Galicia–Volhynia and Kiev called themselves "People of Rus'" - Ruthenians (Rusyny), and Galicia–Volhynia was called Kingdom of Rus.
Also according to Andrey Zaliznyak, in the 11th century Novgorod language differed from Kievan language (as well as other Slavic languages) much more that later, meaning that there was no common Old East Slavic language of Kievan Rus' from which Ukrainian and Russian languages diverged (as Soviet linguistics stated), but that Russian language developed as convergence of Novgorod language and South Russian dialects, whereas Ukrainian and Belorusian were continuation of respective Kiev and Polotsk dialects of Kievan Rus'.
After the fall of Galicia–Volhynia, Ukrainians mainly fell under the rule of Lithuania and then Poland. Local autonomy of both rule and language was a marked feature of Lithuanian rule. In the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Old Slavic became the language of the chancellery and gradually evolved into the Ruthenian language. Polish rule, which came later, was accompanied by a more assimilationist policy. By the 1569 Union of Lublin that formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a significant part of Ukrainian territory was moved from Lithuanian rule to Polish administration, resulting in cultural Polonization and visible attempts to colonize Ukraine by the Polish nobility. Many Ukrainian nobles learned the Polish language and adopted Catholicism during that period. Lower classes were less affected because literacy was common only in the upper class and clergy. The latter were also under significant Polish pressure after the Union with the Catholic Church. Most of the educational system was gradually Polonized. In Ruthenia, the language of administrative documents gradually shifted towards Polish.
The Polish language has had heavy influences on Ukrainian (particularly in Western Ukraine). The southwestern Ukrainian dialects are transitional to Polish. As the Ukrainian language developed further, some borrowings from Tatar and Turkish occurred. Ukrainian culture and language flourished in the sixteenth and first half of the 17th century, when Ukraine was part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Among many schools established in that time, the Kiev-Mogila Collegium (the predecessor of the modern Kyiv-Mohyla Academy), founded by the Ruthenian Orthodox Metropolitan Peter Mohyla, was the most important. At that time languages were associated more with religions: Catholics spoke Polish, and members of the Orthodox church spoke Ruthenian.
After the Treaty of Pereyaslav, Ukrainian high culture went into a long period of steady decline. In the aftermath, the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy was taken over by the Russian Empire and closed down later in the 19th century. Most of the remaining Ukrainian schools also switched to Polish or Russian in the territories controlled by these respective countries, which was followed by a new wave of Polonization and Russification of the native nobility. Gradually the official language of Ukrainian provinces under Poland was changed to Polish, while the upper classes in the Russian part of Ukraine used Russian.
During the 19th century, a revival of Ukrainian self-identification manifested in the literary classes of both Russian-Empire Dnieper Ukraine and Austrian Galicia. The Brotherhood of Sts Cyril and Methodius in Kiev applied an old word for the Cossack motherland, "Ukrajina", as a self-appellation for the nation of Ukrainians, and "Ukrajins'ka mova" for the language. Many writers published works in the Romantic tradition of Europe demonstrating that Ukrainian was not merely a language of the village but suitable for literary pursuits.
However, in the Russian Empire expressions of Ukrainian culture and especially language were repeatedly persecuted for fear that a self-aware Ukrainian nation would threaten the unity of the empire. In 1804 Ukrainian as a subject and language of instruction was banned from schools. In 1811 by the Order of the Russian government, the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy was closed. The Academy had been open since 1632 and was the first university in Eastern Europe. In 1847 the Brotherhood of Sts Cyril and Methodius was terminated. The same year Taras Shevchenko was arrested, exiled for ten years, and banned for political reasons from writing and painting. In 1862 Pavlo Chubynsky was exiled for seven years to Arkhangelsk. The Ukrainian magazine "Osnova" was discontinued. In 1863, the tsarist interior minister Pyotr Valuyev proclaimed in his decree that "there never has been, is not, and never can be a separate Little Russian language". A following ban on Ukrainian books led to Alexander II's secret Ems Ukaz, which prohibited publication and importation of most Ukrainian-language books, public performances and lectures, and even banned the printing of Ukrainian texts accompanying musical scores. A period of leniency after 1905 was followed by another strict ban in 1914, which also affected Russian-occupied Galicia.
For much of the 19th century the Austrian authorities demonstrated some preference for Polish culture, but the Ukrainians were relatively free to partake in their own cultural pursuits in Halychyna and Bukovyna, where Ukrainian was widely used in education and official documents. The suppression by Russia retarded the literary development of the Ukrainian language in Dnipro Ukraine, but there was a constant exchange with Halychyna, and many works were published under Austria and smuggled to the east.
By the time of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the collapse of Austro-Hungary in 1918, the former 'Ruthenians' or 'Little Russians' were ready to openly develop a body of national literature, institute a Ukrainian-language educational system, and form an independent state named Ukraine (the Ukrainian People's Republic, shortly joined by the West Ukrainian People's Republic). During this brief independent statehood the stature and use of Ukrainian greatly improved.
In the Russian Empire Census of 1897 the following picture emerged, with Ukrainian being the second most spoken language of the Russian Empire. According to the Imperial census's terminology, the Russian language ("Русскій") was subdivided into Ukrainian (Малорусскій, 'Little Russian'), what we known as Russian today (Великорусскій, 'Great Russian'), and Belarusian (Бѣлорусскій, 'White Russian').
The following table shows the distribution of settlement by native language (""по родному языку"") in 1897 in Russian Empire governorates ("guberniyas") that had more than 100,000 Ukrainian speakers.
Although in the rural regions of the Ukraine provinces, 80% of the inhabitants said that Ukrainian was their native language in the Census of 1897 (for which the results are given above), in the urban regions only 32.5% of the population claimed Ukrainian as their native language. For example, in Odessa (then part of the Russian Empire), at the time the largest city in the territory of current Ukraine, only 5.6% of the population said Ukrainian was their native language. Until the 1920s the urban population in Ukraine grew faster than the number of Ukrainian speakers. This implies that there was a (relative) decline in the use of Ukrainian language. For example, in Kiev, the number of people stating that Ukrainian was their native language declined from 30.3% in 1874 to 16.6% in 1917.
During the seven-decade-long Soviet era, the Ukrainian language held the formal position of the principal local language in the Ukrainian SSR. However, practice was often a different story: Ukrainian always had to compete with Russian, and the attitudes of the Soviet leadership towards Ukrainian varied from encouragement and tolerance to discouragement.
Officially, there was no state language in the Soviet Union until the very end when it was proclaimed in 1990 that Russian language was the all-Union state language and that the constituent republics had rights to declare additional state languages within their jurisdictions. Still it was implicitly understood in the hopes of minority nations that Ukrainian would be used in the Ukrainian SSR, Uzbek would be used in the Uzbek SSR, and so on. However, Russian was used in all parts of the Soviet Union and a special term, "a language of inter-ethnic communication", was coined to denote its status.
Soviet language policy in Ukraine may be divided into the following policy periods:
Following the Russian Revolution, the Russian Empire was broken up. In different parts of the former empire, several nations, including Ukrainians, developed a renewed sense of national identity. In the chaotic post-revolutionary years the Ukrainian language gained some usage in government affairs. Initially, this trend continued under the Bolshevik government of the Soviet Union, which in a political struggle to retain its grip over the territory had to encourage the national movements of the former Russian Empire. While trying to ascertain and consolidate its power, the Bolshevik government was by far more concerned about many political oppositions connected to the pre-revolutionary order than about the national movements inside the former empire, where it could always find allies.
The widening use of Ukrainian further developed in the first years of Bolshevik rule into a policy called korenizatsiya. The government pursued a policy of Ukrainianization by lifting a ban on the Ukrainian language. That led to the introduction of an impressive education program which allowed Ukrainian-taught classes and raised the literacy of the Ukrainophone population. This policy was led by Education Commissar Mykola Skrypnyk and was directed to approximate the language to Russian. Newly generated academic efforts from the period of independence were co-opted by the Bolshevik government. The party and government apparatus was mostly Russian-speaking but were encouraged to learn the Ukrainian language. Simultaneously, the newly literate ethnic Ukrainians migrated to the cities, which became rapidly largely Ukrainianized – in both population and in education.
The policy even reached those regions of southern Russian SFSR where the ethnic Ukrainian population was significant, particularly the areas by the Don River and especially Kuban in the North Caucasus. Ukrainian language teachers, just graduated from expanded institutions of higher education in Soviet Ukraine, were dispatched to these regions to staff newly opened Ukrainian schools or to teach Ukrainian as a second language in Russian schools. A string of local Ukrainian-language publications were started and departments of Ukrainian studies were opened in colleges. Overall, these policies were implemented in thirty-five raions (administrative districts) in southern Russia.
Soviet policy towards the Ukrainian language changed abruptly in late 1932 and early 1933, with the termination of the policy of Ukrainianization. In December 1932, the regional party cells received a telegram signed by V. Molotov and Stalin with an order to immediately reverse the Ukrainianization policies. The telegram condemned Ukrainianization as ill-considered and harmful and demanded to "immediately halt Ukrainianization in raions (districts), switch all Ukrainianized newspapers, books and publications into Russian and prepare by autumn of 1933 for the switching of schools and instruction into Russian".
The following years were characterized by massive repression and discrimination for the Ukrainophones. Western and most contemporary Ukrainian historians emphasize that the cultural repression was applied earlier and more fiercely in Ukraine than in other parts of the Soviet Union, and were therefore anti-Ukrainian; others assert that Stalin's goal was the generic crushing of any dissent, rather than targeting the Ukrainians in particular.
Stalinist policies shifted to define Russian as the language of (inter-ethnic) communication. Although Ukrainian continued to be used (in print, education, radio and later television programs), it lost its primary place in advanced learning and republic-wide media. Ukrainian was demoted to a language of secondary importance, often associated with the rise in Ukrainian self-awareness and nationalism and often branded "politically incorrect". The new Soviet Constitution adopted in 1936, however, stipulated that teaching in schools should be conducted in native languages.
Major repression started in 1929–30, when a large group of Ukrainian intelligentsia was arrested and most were executed. In Ukrainian history, this group is often referred to as "Executed Renaissance" (Ukrainian: розстріляне відродження). "Ukrainian bourgeois nationalism" was declared to be the primary problem in Ukraine. The terror peaked in 1933, four to five years before the Soviet-wide "Great Purge", which, for Ukraine, was a second blow. The vast majority of leading scholars and cultural leaders of Ukraine were liquidated, as were the "Ukrainianized" and "Ukrainianizing" portions of the Communist party. Soviet Ukraine's autonomy was completely destroyed by the late 1930s. In its place, the glorification of Russia as the first nation to throw off the capitalist yoke had begun, accompanied by the migration of Russian workers into parts of Ukraine which were undergoing industrialization and mandatory instruction of classic Russian language and literature. Ideologists warned of over-glorifying Ukraine's Cossack past, and supported the closing of Ukrainian cultural institutions and literary publications. The systematic assault upon Ukrainian identity in culture and education, combined with effects of an artificial famine ("Holodomor") upon the peasantry—the backbone of the nation—dealt Ukrainian language and identity a crippling blow.
This sequence of policy change was repeated in Western Ukraine when it was incorporated into Soviet Ukraine. In 1939, and again in the late 1940s, a policy of Ukrainianization was implemented. By the early 1950s, Ukrainian was persecuted and a campaign of Russification began.
After the death of Stalin (1953), a general policy of relaxing the language policies of the past was implemented (1958 to 1963). The Khrushchev era which followed saw a policy of relatively lenient concessions to development of the languages at the local and republic level, though its results in Ukraine did not go nearly as far as those of the Soviet policy of Ukrainianization in the 1920s. Journals and encyclopedic publications advanced in the Ukrainian language during the Khrushchev era, as well as transfer of Crimea under Ukrainian SSR jurisdiction.
Yet, the 1958 school reform that allowed parents to choose the language of primary instruction for their children, unpopular among the circles of the national intelligentsia in parts of the USSR, meant that non-Russian languages would slowly give way to Russian in light of the pressures of survival and advancement. The gains of the past, already largely reversed by the Stalin era, were offset by the liberal attitude towards the requirement to study the local languages (the requirement to study Russian remained). Parents were usually free to choose the language of study of their children (except in few areas where attending the Ukrainian school might have required a long daily commute) and they often chose Russian, which reinforced the resulting Russification. In this sense, some analysts argue that it was not the "oppression" or "persecution", but rather the "lack of protection" against the expansion of Russian language that contributed to the relative decline of Ukrainian in the 1970s and 1980s. According to this view, it was inevitable that successful careers required a good command of Russian, while knowledge of Ukrainian was not vital, so it was common for Ukrainian parents to send their children to Russian-language schools, even though Ukrainian-language schools were usually available. While in the Russian-language schools within the republic, Ukrainian was supposed to be learned as a second language at comparable level, the instruction of other subjects was in Russian and, as a result, students had a greater command of Russian than Ukrainian on graduation. Additionally, in some areas of the republic, the attitude towards teaching and learning of Ukrainian in schools was relaxed and it was, sometimes, considered a subject of secondary importance and even a waiver from studying it was sometimes given under various, ever expanding, circumstances.
The complete suppression of all expressions of separatism or Ukrainian nationalism also contributed to lessening interest in Ukrainian. Some people who persistently used Ukrainian on a daily basis were often perceived as though they were expressing sympathy towards, or even being members of, the political opposition. This, combined with advantages given by Russian fluency and usage, made Russian the primary language of choice for many Ukrainians, while Ukrainian was more of a hobby. In any event, the mild liberalization in Ukraine and elsewhere was stifled by new suppression of freedoms at the end of the Khrushchev era (1963) when a policy of gradually creeping suppression of Ukrainian was re-instituted.
The next part of the Soviet Ukrainian language policy divides into two eras: first, the Shelest period (early 1960s to early 1970s), which was relatively liberal towards the development of the Ukrainian language. The second era, the policy of Shcherbytsky (early 1970s to early 1990s), was one of gradual suppression of the Ukrainian language.
The Communist Party leader from 1963 to 1972, Petro Shelest, pursued a policy of defending Ukraine's interests within the Soviet Union. He proudly promoted the beauty of the Ukrainian language and developed plans to expand the role of Ukrainian in higher education. He was removed, however, after only a brief tenure, for being too lenient on Ukrainian nationalism.
The new party boss from 1972 to 1989, Volodymyr Shcherbytsky, purged the local party, was fierce in suppressing dissent, and insisted Russian be spoken at all official functions, even at local levels. His policy of Russification was lessened only slightly after 1985.
The management of dissent by the local Ukrainian Communist Party was more fierce and thorough than in other parts of the Soviet Union. As a result, at the start of the Mikhail Gorbachev reforms perebudova and hlasnist’ (Ukrainian for "perestroika" and "glasnost"), Ukraine under Shcherbytsky was slower to liberalize than Russia itself.
Although Ukrainian still remained the native language for the majority in the nation on the eve of Ukrainian independence, a significant share of ethnic Ukrainians were russified. In Donetsk there were no Ukrainian language schools and in Kiev only a quarter of children went to Ukrainian language schools.
The Russian language was the dominant vehicle, not just of government function, but of the media, commerce, and modernity itself. This was substantially less the case for western Ukraine, which escaped the artificial famine, Great Purge, and most of Stalinism. And this region became the center of a hearty, if only partial, renaissance of the Ukrainian language during independence.
Since 1991, Ukrainian has been the official state language in Ukraine, and the state administration implemented government policies to broaden the use of Ukrainian. The educational system in Ukraine has been transformed over the first decade of independence from a system that is partly Ukrainian to one that is overwhelmingly so. The government has also mandated a progressively increased role for Ukrainian in the media and commerce. In some cases the abrupt changing of the language of instruction in institutions of secondary and higher education led to the charges of Ukrainianization, raised mostly by the Russian-speaking population. This transition, however, lacked most of the controversies that arose during the de-russification of the other former Soviet Republics.
With time, most residents, including ethnic Russians, people of mixed origin, and Russian-speaking Ukrainians, started to self-identify as Ukrainian nationals, even those who remained Russophone. The Russian language, however, still dominates the print media in most of Ukraine and private radio and TV broadcasting in the eastern, southern, and, to a lesser degree, central regions. The state-controlled broadcast media have become exclusively Ukrainian. There are few obstacles to the usage of Russian in commerce and it is still occasionally used in government affairs.
Late 20th century Russian politicians like Alexander Lebed and Mikhail Yur'ev still claimed that Ukrainian is a Russian dialect.
In the 2001 census, 67.5% of the country's population named Ukrainian as their native language (a 2.8% increase from 1989), while 29.6% named Russian (a 3.2% decrease). For many Ukrainians (of various ethnic origins), the term "native language" may not necessarily associate with the language they use more frequently. The overwhelming majority of ethnic Ukrainians consider the Ukrainian language "native", including those who often speak Russian. According to the official 2001 census data approximately 75% of Kiev's population responded "Ukrainian" to the "native language" ("ridna mova") census question, and roughly 25% responded "Russian". On the other hand, when the question "What language do you use in everyday life?" was asked in the sociological survey, the Kievans' answers were distributed as follows: "mostly Russian": 52%, "both Russian and Ukrainian in equal measure": 32%, "mostly Ukrainian": 14%, "exclusively Ukrainian": 4.3%.
Ethnic minorities, such as Romanians, Tatars and Jews usually use Russian as their lingua franca. But there are tendencies within these minority groups to use Ukrainian. The Jewish writer Olexander Beyderman from the mainly Russian-speaking city of Odessa is now writing most of his dramas in Ukrainian. The emotional relationship regarding Ukrainian is changing in southern and eastern areas.
Opposition to expansion of Ukrainian-language teaching is a matter of contention in eastern regions closer to Russia – in May 2008, the Donetsk city council prohibited the creation of any new Ukrainian schools in the city in which 80% of them are Russian-language schools.
In 2019 a contentious bill was adopted by the Ukrainian parliament formalizing rules governing the usage of Ukrainian introducing penalties for violations.
The literary Ukrainian language, which was preceded by Old East Slavic literature, may be subdivided into two stages: during the 12th to 18th centuries what in Ukraine is referred to as "Old Ukrainian", but elsewhere, and in contemporary sources, is known as the Ruthenian language, and from the end of the 18th century to the present what in Ukraine is known as "Modern Ukrainian", but elsewhere is known as just Ukrainian.
Influential literary figures in the development of modern Ukrainian literature include the philosopher Hryhorii Skovoroda, Ivan Kotlyarevsky, Mykola Kostomarov, Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky, Taras Shevchenko, Ivan Franko, and Lesia Ukrainka. The earliest literary work in the Ukrainian language was recorded in 1798 when Ivan Kotlyarevsky, a playwright from Poltava in southeastern Ukraine, published his epic poem, "Eneyida", a burlesque in Ukrainian, based on Virgil's "Aeneid". His book was published in vernacular Ukrainian in a satirical way to avoid being censored, and is the earliest known Ukrainian published book to survive through Imperial and, later, Soviet policies on the Ukrainian language.
Kotlyarevsky's work and that of another early writer using the Ukrainian vernacular language, Petro Artemovsky, used the southeastern dialect spoken in the Poltava, Kharkiv and southern Kieven regions of the Russian Empire. This dialect would serve as the basis of the Ukrainian literary language when it was developed by Taras Shevchenko and Panteleimon Kulish in the mid 19th century. In order to raise its status from that of a dialect to that of a language, various elements from folklore and traditional styles were added to it.
The Ukrainian literary language developed further when the Russian state banned the use of the Ukrainian language, prompting many of its writers to move to the western Ukrainian region of Galicia which was under more liberal Austrian rule; after the 1860s the majority of Ukrainian literary works were published in Austrian Galicia. During this period Galician influences were adopted in the Ukrainian literary language, particularly with respect to vocabulary involving law, government, technology, science, and administration.
The use of the Ukrainian language is increasing after a long period of decline. Although there are almost fifty million ethnic Ukrainians worldwide, including 37.5 million in Ukraine (77.8% of the total population), the Ukrainian language is prevalent only in western and central Ukraine. In Kyiv, both Ukrainian and Russian are spoken, a notable shift from the recent past when the city was primarily Russian-speaking. The shift is believed to be caused, largely, by an influx of the rural population and migrants from the western regions of Ukraine but also by some Kyivans options to use the language they speak at home more widely in everyday affairs. Public signs and announcements in Kyiv are in Ukrainian. In southern and eastern Ukraine, Russian is the prevalent language of the urban population. According to the Ukrainian Census of 2001, 87.8% of people living in Ukraine can communicate in Ukrainian.
Use of the Ukrainian language in Ukraine can be expected to increase, as the rural population migrates into the cities. In eastern and southern Ukraine, the rural Ukrainophones continue to prefer Russian. Interest in Ukrainian literature is growing rapidly, compensating for the periods when its development was hindered by either policies of direct suppression or lack of state support.
Ukrainian has become popular in other countries through movies and songs performed in the Ukrainian language. The most popular Ukrainian rock bands, such as Okean Elzy, Vopli Vidopliassova, BoomBox, and others perform regularly in tours across Europe, Israel, North America and especially Russia. In countries with significant Ukrainian populations, bands singing in the Ukrainian language sometimes reach top places in the charts, such as Enej from Poland. Other notable Ukrainian-language bands are The Ukrainians from the United Kingdom, Klooch from Canada, Ukrainian Village Band from the United States, and the Kuban Cossack Choir from the Kuban region in Russia.
The 2010s saw a revival of Ukrainian cinema. Top Ukrainian-language films by IMDb rating:
Oleksa Horbach's 1951 study of argots analyzed sources (argots of professionals, thugs, prisoners, homeless, school children, etc.) with special attention to an etymological analysis of argots, ways of word formation and borrowing depending on the source-language (Church Slavonic, Russian, Czech, Polish, Romani, Greek, Romanian, Hungarian, German).
Several modern dialects of Ukrainian exist
All the countries neighbouring Ukraine (except for Hungary) historically have regions with a sizable Ukrainian population and therefore Ukrainian language speakers. Ukrainian is an official minority language in some of them.
Ukrainian is also spoken by a large émigré population, particularly in Canada (see Canadian Ukrainian), United States, and several countries of South America like Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. The founders of this population primarily emigrated from Galicia, which used to be part of Austro-Hungary before World War I, and belonged to Poland between the World Wars. The language spoken by most of them is the Galician dialect of Ukrainian from the first half of the 20th century. Compared with modern Ukrainian, the vocabulary of Ukrainians outside Ukraine reflects less influence of Russian, but often contains many loanwords from the local language.
Most of the countries where it is spoken are ex-USSR, where many Ukrainians have migrated. Canada and the United States are also home to a large Ukrainian population. Broken up by country (to the nearest thousand):
Ukrainian is one of three official languages of the breakaway Moldovan republic of Transnistria.
Ukrainian is widely spoken within the 400,000-strong (in 1994) Ukrainian community in Brazil.
Ukrainian is a fusional, nominative-accusative, satellite framed language. It exhibits T-V distinction, and is null-subject. The canonical word order of Ukrainian is SVO. Other word orders are usual due to the free word order created by Ukrainian's inflectional system.
Nouns decline for 7 cases: nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, instrumental, locative, vocative; 3 genders: masculine, feminine, neuter; and 2 numbers: singular, plural. Adjectives agree with nouns in case, gender, and number.
Verbs conjugate for 3 tenses: past, present, future; 2 voices: active, mediopassive, 3 persons: first, second, third; and 2 numbers, singular, and plural. Ukrainian verbs come in aspect pairs: perfective, and imperfective. Pairs are usually formed by a prepositional prefix and occasionally a root change. The past tense agrees with its subject in number and gender, having developed from the perfect participle.
The Old East Slavic and Russian "o" in syllables ending in a consonant, often corresponds to a Ukrainian "i", as in "pod" > "pid" (під, 'under'). Thus, in the declension of nouns, the "o" can re-appear as it is no longer located in a closed syllable, such as "rik" (рік, 'year') (nom): "rotsi" (loc) (році). Similarly, some words can have "і" in some declensions when most of the declension have "o", for example "слово" (nominative singular), "слова" (nominative plural) but "слiв" (genitive plural).
Ukrainian case endings are somewhat different from Old East Slavic, and the vocabulary includes a large overlay of Polish terminology. Russian "na pervom etaže" 'on the first floor' is in the locative (prepositional) case. The Ukrainian corresponding expression is "na peršomu poversi" (на першому поверсі). "-omu" is the standard locative (prepositional) ending, but variants in "-im" are common in dialect and poetry, and allowed by the standards bodies. The "kh" of Ukrainian "poverkh" (поверх) has mutated into "s" under the influence of the soft vowel "i" ("k" is similarly mutable into "c" in final positions).
The Ukrainian language has six vowels, , , , , , .
A number of the consonants come in three forms: hard, soft (palatalized) and long, for example, , , and or , , and .
The letter represents voiced glottal fricative , often transliterated as Latin "h". It is the voiced equivalent of English . Russian speakers from Ukraine often use the soft Ukrainian in place of Russian , which comes from northern dialects of Old East Slavic. The Ukrainian alphabet has the additional letter for , which appears in a few native words such as "gryndžoly" 'sleigh' and "gudzyk" 'button'. However, appears almost exclusively in loan words, and is usually simply written . For example, loanwords from English on public signs usually use for both English "g" and "h".
Another phonetic divergence between the Ukrainian and Russian languages is the pronunciation of Cyrillic "v/w". While in standard Russian it represents , in many Ukrainian dialects it denotes (following a vowel and preceding a consonant (cluster), either within a word or at a word boundary, it denotes the allophone , and like the off-glide in the English words "flow" and "cow", it forms a diphthong with the preceding vowel). Native Russian speakers will pronounce the Ukrainian as , which is one way to tell the two groups apart. As with above, Ukrainians use to render both English "v" and "w"; Russians occasionally use for "w" instead.
Unlike Russian and most other modern Slavic languages, Ukrainian does not have final devoicing.
Ukrainian is written in a version of Cyrillic, consisting of 33 letters, representing 38 phonemes; an apostrophe is also used. Ukrainian orthography is based on the phonemic principle, with one letter generally corresponding to one phoneme, although there are a number of exceptions. The orthography also has cases where the semantic, historical, and morphological principles are applied.
The modern Ukrainian alphabet is the result of a number of proposed alphabetic reforms from the 19th and early 20th centuries, in Ukraine under the Russian Empire, in Austrian Galicia, and later in Soviet Ukraine. A unified Ukrainian alphabet (the "Skrypnykivka", after Mykola Skrypnyk) was officially established at a 1927 international Orthographic Conference in Kharkiv, during the period of Ukrainization in Soviet Ukraine. But the policy was reversed in the 1930s, and the Soviet Ukrainian orthography diverged from that used by the diaspora. The Ukrainian letter ge "ґ" was banned in the Soviet Union from 1933 until the period of Glasnost in 1990.
The letter щ represents two consonants . The combination of with some of the vowels is also represented by a single letter ( = я, = є, or = ї, = ю), while = йо and the rare regional = йи are written using two letters. These iotated vowel letters and a special soft sign change a preceding consonant from hard to soft. An apostrophe is used to indicate the hardness of the sound in the cases when normally the vowel would change the consonant to soft; in other words, it functions like the yer in the Russian alphabet.
A consonant letter is doubled to indicate that the sound is doubled, or long.
The phonemes and do not have dedicated letters in the alphabet and are rendered with the digraphs дз and дж, respectively. is equivalent to English "ds" in "pods", is equivalent to "j" in "jump".
As in Russian, the acute accent may be used to denote vowel stress.
"The Dictionary of Ukrainian Language" in 11 volumes contains 135,000 entries. Lexical card catalog of the Ukrainian Institute of Language Studies has 6 million cards. The same Institute is going to publish the new "Dictionary of Ukrainian Language" in 13 volumes. As mentioned at the top of the article, Ukrainian is most closely related lexically to Belarusian, and is also closer to Polish than to Russian (for example, можливість, "mozhlyvist", "possibility", and Polish "możliwość", but Russian возможность, "vozmozhnost").
Ukrainian has varying degrees of mutual intelligibility with other Slavic languages and is considered to be most closely related to Belarusian.
In the 19th century, the question of whether Ukrainian, Belarusian and Russian languages are dialects of a single language or three separate languages was actively discussed, with the debate affected by linguistic and political factors. The political situation (Ukraine and Belarus being mainly part of the Russian Empire at the time) and the historical existence of the medieval state of Kievan Rus', which occupied large parts of these three nations, led to the creation of the common classification known later as the East Slavic languages. The underlying theory of the grouping is their descent from a common ancestor. In modern times, Ukrainian, Russian, and Belarusian are usually listed by linguists as separate languages.
Until the 17th and 18th centuries (the time of national and language revival of Ukraine) the Ukrainians were predominantly peasants and petits bourgeois; as a result, the Ukrainian language was mostly vernacular and few earlier literary works from the period can be found. In the cities, Ukrainian coexisted with Church Slavonic — a literary language of religion that evolved from the Old Slavonic — and later Polish and Russian, both languages which were more often used in formal writing and communication during that time.
The Ukrainian language has the following similarities and differences with other Slavic languages:
Unlike all other Slavic languages, Ukrainian has a synthetic future (also termed inflectional future) tense which developed through the erosion and cliticization of the verb 'to have' (or possibly 'to take'): "pysa-ty-mu" (infinitive-future-1st sg.) "I will write". Although the inflectional future (based on the verb 'to have') is characteristic of Romance languages, Ukrainian linguist A. Danylenko argues that Ukrainian differs from Romance in the choice of auxiliary, which should be interpreted as 'to take' and not 'to have.' He states that Late Common Slavic (LCS) had three verbs with the same root *em- :
The three verbs became conflated in East Slavic due to morphological overlap, in particular of iměti ‘to have’ and jati ‘to take’ as exemplified in the Middle Ukrainian homonymic imut’ from both iměti (< *jĭměti) and jati (< *jęti). Analogous grammaticalization of the type take (‘to take,’ ‘to seize’) > future is found in Chinese and Hungarian. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=46279 |
Father's Day
Father's Day is a day of honoring fatherhood and paternal bonds, as well as the influence of fathers in society. In Catholic countries of Europe, it has been celebrated on March 19 as Saint Joseph's Day since the Middle Ages. In America, Father's Day was founded by Sonora Smart Dodd, and celebrated on the third Sunday of June for the first time in 1910. It is held on various days in many parts of the world all throughout the year, often in the months of March, May and June.
Father's day complements similar celebrations honoring family members, such as Mother's Day, Siblings Day and Grandparents' Day.
For centuries, the Orthodox Church has appointed the second Sunday before Nativity as the Sunday of the Forefathers to commemorate the ancestors of Christ according to the flesh, starting with Adam and emphasizing the Patriarch Abraham, to whom God said,
In thy seed shall all of the nations of the earth be blessed
This feast can fall between December 11 and 17. This feast includes the ancestors of the Theotokos and various holy prophets.
A customary day for the celebration of fatherhood in Catholic Europe is known to date back to at least 1508. It is usually celebrated on March 19, as the feast day of Saint Joseph, who is referred to as the fatherly "Nutritor Domini" ("Nourisher of the Lord") in Catholicism and "the putative father of Jesus" in southern European tradition. This celebration was brought to the Americas by the Spanish and Portuguese. The Catholic Church actively supported the custom of a celebration of fatherhood on St. Joseph's Day from either the last years of the 14th century or from the early 15th century, apparently on the initiative of the Franciscans.
In the Coptic Orthodox Church, the celebration of fatherhood is also observed on St Joseph's Day, but the Copts observe this on July 20. The Coptic celebration may date back to the fifth century.
Whether to celebrate this day worldwide or not, remained a debatable topic for long. Then, in 1908, by Grace Golden Clayton proposed the day to honour those men who lost their lives in a mining accident in the US. Though, it was not accepted then. But in 1909, Sonora Smart Dodd, who along with her five brothers were raised by her father alone, being inspired after attending Mother’s day in a church, tried to convince the Spokane Ministerial Association to celebrate father’s day worldwide and succeeded.
In addition to Father's Day, International Men's Day is celebrated in many countries on November 19 in honor of men including boys.
The following is a list of when Father's day is celebrated, in order of date of observance.
In Algeria, the third Sunday in June is the dedicated day to celebrate the Father's Day.
In Egypt, Father's Day is celebrated on June 21 of every year.
In Kenya, Father's Day is celebrated on the third Sunday of June and is not a public holiday.
In Morocco, the third Sunday in June is the dedicated day to celebrate the Father's Day.
While Mozambique recognizes International Fathers' Day on June 16 in most small towns they consider Father's day to be just about every Friday.
In Seychelles, Father's Day is celebrated on June 16 and is not a public holiday.
In South Africa, Father's Day is celebrated on the third Sunday of June. It is not a public holiday.
In South Sudan, Father's Day is celebrated on the last Monday of August. President Salva Kiir Mayardit proclaimed it before August 27, 2012. First celebrated on August 27, 2012, Father's Day was not celebrated in South Sudan in 2011 (due to the country's independence).
In Sudan, Father's Day (عيد الأب), is celebrated on the twenty-first of June.
In the People's Republic of China, there is no official Father's Day. Some people celebrate on the third Sunday of June, according to the tradition of the United States. Father's Day is also celebrated in the special administrative regions. In Hong Kong, it is celebrated on the third Sunday of June and is not a public holiday. In Macau, Father's Day ("Dia do Pai") is celebrated on the third Sunday of June and is not a public holiday.
Father's Day is observed on the third Sunday of June in India. The event is not a public holiday. The day is usually celebrated only in bigger cities like Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi, Kanpur, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Pune and others. After this day was first observed in the United States in 1908 and gradually gained popularity, Indian metropolitan cities, much later, followed suit by recognising this event. In India, the day is usually celebrated with children giving gifts like greeting cards, electronic gadgets, shirts, coffee mugs or books to their fathers.
In Indonesia, Father's Day is celebrated on November 12 and is not a public holiday. Father's Day in Indonesia was first declared in 2006 in Solo City Hall attended by hundreds of people from various community groups, including people from community of inter-religion communication. Because of its recent declaration, there is not very much hype about the celebration, compared to the celebration of Mother's Day on December 22. Google also created its doodle for Indonesia in 2019.
In Israel, Father's Day is usually celebrated as part of Family Day on Shevat 30, though some celebrate on May 1 together with Workers' Day or Labour Day.
In Japan, Father's Day () is celebrated on the third Sunday of June and is not a public holiday. Common presents are sake, shochu, fashion items, some kinds of gourmet food, sports equipment and various sweets.
Since 2012, Kazakhstan celebrates Defender of the Fatherland Day () to commemorate the foundation of the armed forces. It is also called Army Day and it is celebrated on May 7. Kazakh society perceives it as ‘a men’s day’ and honouring men so it is vaguely a celebration of fathers.
In South Korea, Parents' day () is celebrated on May 8 and is not a public holiday.
In Malaysia, Father's Day falls on the third Sunday of June.
The Mongolian Men's Association began the celebration of Father's Day on 8 August since 2005.
The Newar population (natives of Kathmandu valley) in Nepal honors fathers on the day of "kusa aunsi", which occurs in late August or early September, depending on the year, since it depends on the lunar calendar. The Western-inspired celebration of Father's Day that was imported into the country is always celebrated on the same day as "Gokarna Aunsi".
The rest of the population has also begun to celebrate the "Gokarna Aunsi" day It is commonly known as "Abu ya Khwa Swoyegu" in Nepal Bhasa or (). On the new moon day ("Amavasya"), it is traditional to pay respect to one's deceased father; Hindus go to the Shiva temple of Gokarneswor Mahadev, in Gokarna, a suburb of Kathmandu while Buddhists go to Jan Bahal (Seto Machhendranath or white Tara) temple in Kathmandu.
Traditionally, in the Kathmandu Valley, the south-western corner is reserved for women and women-related rituals, and the north-eastern is for men and men-related rituals. The worship place for "Mata Tirtha Aunsi" ('Mother Pilgrimage New Moon') is located in Mata Tirtha in the south-western half of the valley, while the worship place for Gokarna Aunsi is located in the north-eastern half. This division is reflected in many aspects of the life in the Kathmandu Valley.
Father's Day is celebrated on the third Sunday of June. The Rutgers WPF launched a campaign titled 'Greening PakistanPromoting Responsible Fatherhood' on Father's Day (Sunday June 18, 2017) across Pakistan to promote active fatherhood and responsibility for the care and upbringing of children. Father's Day is not a public holiday in Pakistan.
In the Philippines, Father's Day is officially celebrated every third Sunday of June according to a recent presidential proclamation, but it is not a public holiday. It is more widely observed by the public on the 3rd Sunday of June perhaps due to American influence and as proclaimed in 1988 by Philippine President Corazon Aquino.
Under Proclamation No. 58, series of 1998, issued by then Philippine President Joseph Ejercito Estrada, the first Monday of December of every year was designated as Mother's Day and Father's Day. This Proclamation expressly repealed Proclamation No. 266, series of 1988 issued by the late Pres. Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino.
In Singapore, Father's Day is celebrated on the third Sunday of June but is not a public holiday.
Father's Day (Sinhala: ; Tamil: ) is observed on the third Sunday of June. It is not a public holiday. Many schools hold special events to honor fathers.
In Taiwan, Father's Day is not an official holiday, but is widely observed on August 8, the eighth day of the eighth month of the year. In Mandarin Chinese, the pronunciation of the number eight is "bā", and the pronunciation is very similar to the character ("bà"), which means "Pa" or "dad". The eighth day of the eighth month () is a pun for dad (). The Taiwanese, therefore, sometimes refer to August 8 as "Bābā Holiday" as a pun for "Dad's Holiday" () or the more formal "Father's Day" ().
In Thailand, the birthday of the king, is set as Father's Day. December 5 is the birthday of the late king Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX). Traditionally, Thais celebrate by giving their father or grandfather a canna flower (), which is considered a masculine flower; however, this is not as commonly practiced today. Thai people will wear yellow on this day to show respect for the late king, because yellow is the color of the day for Monday, the day King Bhumibol Adulyadej was born. Thais flood the Sanam Luang, a massive park in front of the palace, to watch the king give his annual speech, and often stay until the evening, when there is a national ceremony. Thais will light candles and show respect to the king by declaring their faith. This ceremony happens in almost every village in Thailand, and even overseas at Thai organizations.
It first gained nationwide popularity in the 1980s as part of a campaign by Prime Minister Prem Tinsulanonda to promote Thailand's royal family. Mother's Day is celebrated on the birthday of Queen Sirikit, August 12.
In Turkey, Father's Day is celebrated on the third Sunday in June and is not a public holiday.
In the United Arab Emirates, Father's Day is celebrated on June 21, generally coinciding with midsummer's day.
In the Roman Catholic tradition, Fathers are celebrated on Saint Joseph's Day (commonly called the Feast of Saint Joseph), March 19, though in certain countries Father's Day has become a secular celebration. It is also common for Catholics to honor their "spiritual father," their parish priest, on Father's Day.
In Austria, Father's Day is celebrated on the second Sunday of June and it is not a public holiday.
In Belarus Father's Day is celebrated on the third Sunday of June.
In Belgium, Father's Day ("Vaderdag") is celebrated on the second Sunday of June or 14 June, and it is not a public holiday. Except for Antwerp, where it's celebrated on March 19.
In Bulgaria, Father's Day is celebrated on December 26 and it is not a public holiday. According to the Eastern Orthodox tradition, fathers are celebrated on Saint Joseph's Day - one day after Christmas.
In Croatia, according to the Roman Catholic tradition, fathers are celebrated on Saint Joseph's Day ("Dan svetog Josipa"), March 19. It is not a public holiday.
In Denmark, Father's Day ("Fars dag") is celebrated on June 5. It coincides with Constitution Day.
In Estonia, Father's day ("Isadepäev") is celebrated on the second Sunday of November. It is an established flag day and a national holiday.
In Finland, Father's Day (; ) is celebrated on the second Sunday of November. It is an established flag day.
In France lighter manufacturer "Flaminaire" introduced the idea of father's day first in 1949 for commercial reasons.
Director "Marcel Quercia" wanted to sell their lighter in France. In 1950, they introduced "la Fête des Pères", which would take place every third Sunday of June (following the American example). Their slogan « Nos papas nous l'ont dit, pour la fête des pères, ils désirent tous un Flaminaire » (Our daddies told us, for father's day, they all want a Flaminaire). In 1952, the holiday was officially decreed. A national father's day committee was set up to give a prize for fathers that deserved it most (originally, candidates were nominated by the social services of each town hall's/mayor's office); This complements "la Fête des Mères" (Mother's day) which was made official in France in 1928 and added to the calendar in Vichy in 1941.
In Germany, Father's Day ("Vatertag") is celebrated differently from other parts of the world. It is always celebrated on Ascension Day (the Thursday forty days after Easter), which is a federal holiday. Regionally, it is also called men's day, "Männertag", or gentlemen's day, "Herrentag". It is a tradition for groups of males (young and old but usually excluding pre-teenage boys) to do a hiking tour with one or more smaller wagons, "", pulled by manpower. In the wagons are wine or beer bottles (according to the region) and traditional regional food, "". Many men use this holiday as an opportunity to get drunk. According to the Federal Statistical Office of Germany, alcohol-related traffic accidents multiply by three on this day. The tradition of Father's Day is especially prevalent in Eastern Germany.
These traditions are probably rooted in Christian Ascension Day's processions to the farmlands, which has been celebrated since the 18th century. Men would be seated in a wooden cart and carried to the village's plaza, and the mayor would award a prize to the father who had the most children, usually a big piece of ham. In the late 19th century the religious component was progressively lost, especially in urban areas such as Berlin, and groups of men organized walking excursions with beer and ham. By the 20th century, alcohol consumption had become a major part of the tradition. Many people will take the following Friday off at work, and some schools are closed on that Friday as well; many people then use the resulting four-day-long weekend for a short vacation.
In Greece, the idea was by SYGAPA association (divorced fathers) and his founder and President, professor, Dr Nicolas Spitalas in 2004 for introducing the father's role in society and in the schools. Following the France example "la Fête des Pères", it took place every third Sunday of June. Their slogan is: "J'aime mon papa, égalité parentale". This day was made official in Greece in 2010 and added to the calendar because of activism of the members of SYGAPA INTERNATIONAL.
In Hungary, Father's Day is celebrated on the third Sunday of June and is not a public holiday.
In Ireland, Father's Day is celebrated on the third Sunday of June and is not a public holiday.
In Italy, according to the Roman Catholic tradition, Father's Day is celebrated on Saint Joseph's Day, commonly called the Feast of Saint Joseph ("Festa di San Giuseppe"), March 19. It was a public holiday until 1977.
In Latvia, Father's Day (Tēvu diena) is celebrated on the second Sunday of September and is not a public holiday. In Latvia people did not always celebrate this day because of the USSR's influence with its own holidays. This day in Latvia was 'officially born' in 2008 when it was celebrated and marked in the calendar for the first time on September 14 (second September Sunday) to promote the idea that man as the father must be satisfied and proud of his family and children, also, the father is important to gratitude and loving words from his family for devoted to continuous altruistic concerns. Because this day is new to the country it does not have established unique traditions, but people borrow ideas from other country's Father's Day traditions to congratulate fathers in Latvia.
In Lithuania, Father's Day ("Tėvo diena") is celebrated on the first Sunday of June and is a public holiday.
Malta has followed the international trend and celebrates Father’s Day on the third Sunday in June. As in the case of Mother’s Day, the introduction of Father’s Day celebrations in Malta was encouraged by Frans H Said (Uncle Frans of the children’s radio programmes). The first mention of Father’s Day was in June 1977, and the day is now part of the local events calendar. (The Times of Malta 11 June 2017) ( Il-Mument - Maltese newspaper- 18 June 2017)
In the Netherlands (including its constituent countries in the Caribbean), Father's Day ("Vaderdag") is celebrated on the third Sunday of June and is not a public holiday. Traditionally, as on Mother's Day, fathers get breakfast in bed made by their children and families gather together and have dinner, usually at the grandparents' house. In recent years, families also started having dinner out, and as on Mother's Day, it is one of the busiest days for restaurants. At school, children handcraft presents for their fathers. Consumer goods companies have all sorts of special offers for fathers: socks, ties, electronics, suits, and men's healthcare products.
In Norway, Father's day ("Farsdag"), is celebrated on the second Sunday of November. It is not a public holiday.
In Poland, Father's Day () is celebrated on June 23 and is not a public holiday. Google also created its Doodle for Father's Day 2019
Father's Day ("Dia do Pai") is celebrated on March 19 (see Roman Catholic tradition below) in Portugal. It is not a bank and public holiday.
The Law instituting the Father's day celebration in Romania passed on September 29, 2009 and stated that Father's day will be celebrated annually on the second Sunday of May. First time it was celebrated on May 9th 2010. This year it will be celebrated on 10 May 2020. The next dates this celebration will take place are: May 2021, May 2022, May 2023, May 2024, May 2025, May 2026 and May 2027.
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Russia continues the Soviet Union's tradition of celebrating Defender of the Fatherland Day on 23 February. It is usually called "Man's Day" and it is considered the Russian equivalent of Father's Day.
In Slovakia, Father's Day () is celebrated on the third Sunday of June. It is not a public holiday.
Father's Day ("El Día del Padre") is observed on the feast day of Saint Joseph, which is March 19. It is celebrated as a public holiday in some regions of Spain.
In Sweden, Father's day ("Fars dag"), is celebrated on the second Sunday of November but is not a public holiday.
In Ukraine, Father's Day ("Den Batka") is celebrated on the third Sunday of June. It is not a public holiday.
In the United Kingdom, Father's Day is celebrated on the third Sunday of June. The day does not have a long tradition; "The English Year" (2006) states that it entered British popular culture "sometime after the Second World War, not without opposition". Singer songwriter Jon Barker also contributed to the UK's Father's Day culture by releasing the now popular song "Thank you for being my dad". The song reached charts around the world and is widely played at funerals each year around the world.
In Canada, Father's Day is celebrated on the third Sunday of June and is not a public holiday. Father's Day typically involves spending time with one's father or the father figures in one's life. Small family gatherings and the giving of gifts may be part of the festivities organized for Father's Day.
In Costa Rica, the Unidad Social Cristiana party presented a bill to change the celebration of Father's Day from the third Sunday of June to March 19, the day of Saint Joseph. That was to give tribute to this saint, who gave his name to the capital of the country San José, Costa Rica, so family heads will be able to celebrate Father's Day at the same time as the Feast of Saint Joseph the Worker. The official date is still the third Sunday of June.
In Haiti, Father's Day ("Fête des pères") is celebrated on the last Sunday of June and is not a public holiday. Fathers are recognized and celebrated on this day with cards, gifts, breakfast, lunch brunch or early Sunday dinner; whether enjoying the day at the beach or mountains, spending family time or doing favourite activities.
Children exclaim ""bonne fête papa"", while everyone wishes all fathers ""bonne Fête des Pères"" (Happy Father's Day).
In Mexico, Father's Day is celebrated on the third Sunday of June and is not a public holiday. Father's Day typically involves spending time with one's father or the father figures in one's life. Small family gatherings and the giving of gifts may be part of the festivities organized for Father's Day.
In Trinidad and Tobago, Father's Day is celebrated on the third Sunday in June and is not a public holiday.
In the US, Father's Day is celebrated on the third Sunday of June. Typically, families gather to celebrate the father figures in their lives.
In recent years, retailers have adapted to the holiday by promoting greeting cards and gifts such as electronics and tools. Schools (if in session) and other children's programs commonly have activities to make Father's Day gifts.
In Australia, Father's Day is celebrated on the first Sunday of September, which is the first Sunday of spring in Australia, and is not a public holiday. At school, children often handcraft a present for their fathers. Consumer goods companies have all sorts of special offers for fathers: socks, ties, electronics, suits, and men's healthcare products. Most families present fathers with gifts and cards, and share a meal to show appreciation, much like Mother's Day.
YMCA Victoria continues the tradition of honouring the role fathers and father figures play in parenting through the annual awarding of Local Community Father of the Year in 32 municipalities in Victoria. The Father's Day Council of Victoria annually recognises fathers in the Father of the Year Award.
In New Zealand, Fathers' Day is celebrated on the first Sunday of September and it is not a public holiday. Fathers' Day was first observed at St Matthew's Church, Auckland on 14 July 1929 and first appeared in commercial advertising the following year. By 1931 other churches had adopted the day and in 1935 much of Australia moved to mark the day at the beginning of September. New Zealand followed this, with a Wellington advert in 1937 and a Christchurch Salvation Army service in 1938.
In Samoa, Father's Day is celebrated on the second Sunday in August, and is a recognised national holiday on the Monday following.
Father's Day in Argentina is celebrated on the third Sunday of June.
Attempts have been made to change the date to August 24, to commemorate the day on which the "Father of the Nation", José de San Martín. became a father. In 1953, the proposal to celebrate Father's Day in all educational establishments on August 24, in honor of José de San Martín, was raised to the General Direction of Schools of Mendoza Province. The day was celebrated for the first time in 1958, on the third Sunday of June, but it was not included in the school calendars due to pressure from several groups.
Schools in the Mendoza Province continued to celebrate Father's Day on August 24, and in 1982, the provincial governor passed a law declaring Father's Day in the province to be celebrated on that day.
In 2004, a proposal to change the date to August 24 was presented to the Argentine Chamber of Deputies as a single, unified project.
In Brazil Father's Day ("Dia dos Pais", in Portuguese) is celebrated three months after Mother's Day, on the second Sunday of August. Publicist Sylvio Bhering picked the day in honor of Saint Joachim, patron of fathers. While it is not an official holiday (see Public holidays in Brazil), it is widely observed and typically involves spending time with and giving gifts to one's father or father figure.
In Colombia, Father's Day is celebrated on the third Sunday of June.
In Peru, Father's Day is celebrated on the third Sunday of June and is not a public holiday. People usually give a present to their fathers and spend time with him mostly during a family meal.
In Venezuela, Father's Day is celebrated on the third Sunday of June and is not a public holiday. Traditionally, as on Mother's Day, families gather together and have lunch, usually at the grandparents' house. In recent years, families also started having lunch out, and as on Mother's Day, it is one of the busiest days for restaurants. At school, children handcraft their present for their fathers. Consumer goods companies have all sorts of special offers for fathers: electronics, suits, and men's healthcare products. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=46280 |
Milton Berle
Milton Berle (born Mendel Berlinger; ; July 12, 1908 – March 27, 2002) was an American comedian and actor. Berle's career as an entertainer spanned over 80 years, first in silent films and on stage as a child actor, then in radio, movies and television. As the host of NBC's "Texaco Star Theatre" (1948–55), he was the first major American television star and was known to millions of viewers as "Uncle Miltie" and "Mr. Television" during the first Golden Age of Television. He was honored with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in both radio and TV.
Milton Berle was born into a Jewish family in a five-story walkup at 68 W. 118th Street in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan. His given name was Mendel Berlinger. He chose Milton Berle as his professional name when he was 16. His father, Moses Berlinger (1873–1938), was a paint and varnish salesman. His mother, Sarah (Sadie) Glantz Berlinger (1877–1954), changed her name to Sandra Berle when Milton became famous. He had three older brothers (from oldest to youngest): Phil, Frank and Jack Berle. For many years, the latter two worked as Berle's TV production staff members, while Phil Berle was a program executive at NBC.
Berle entered show business in 1913 at the age of five when he won a children's Charlie Chaplin contest. He appeared as a child actor in silent films. He claimed The Perils of Pauline as his first film appearance, playing the character of a young boy, though this has never been independently verified. In "Milton Berle: An Autobiography", he explained that the director told him that he would portray a little boy who would be thrown from a moving train. He said, "I was scared shitless, even when he went on to tell me that Pauline would save my life. Which is exactly what happened, except that at the crucial moment they threw a bundle of rags instead of me from the train. I bet there are a lot of comedians around today who are sorry about that."
By Berle's account, he continued to play child roles in other films: "Bunny's Little Brother", "Tess of the Storm Country", "Birthright", "Love's Penalty", "Divorce Coupons" and "Ruth of the Range". Berle recalled, "There were even trips out to Hollywood—the studios paid—where I got parts in "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm", with Mary Pickford; "The Mark of Zorro", with Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., and "Tillie's Punctured Romance", with Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Normand and Marie Dressler." However, Berle's claim to have appeared in "Tillie's Punctured Romance" has been disputed by film historians, among them Glenn Mitchell, who in his book, "The Chaplin Encyclopedia", writes that Berle's alleged role was most likely played by child actor Gordon Griffith.
In 1916, Berle enrolled in the Professional Children's School.
Around 1920, at age 12, Berle made his stage debut in a revival of the musical comedy "Florodora" in Atlantic City, New Jersey, which later moved to Broadway. By the time he was 16, he was working as a Master of Ceremonies in Vaudeville. In 1932, he starred in Earl Carrol's, "Vanities", a Broadway Musical. By the early 1930s he was a successful stand-up comedian, patterning himself after one of Vaudeville's top comics, Ted Healy.
In 1933, he was hired by producer Jack White to star in the theatrical featurette "Poppin' the Cork" a topical musical comedy concerning the repealing of Prohibition. Berle also co-wrote the score for this film, which was released by Educational Pictures. Berle continued to dabble in songwriting. With Ben Oakland and Milton Drake, Berle wrote the title song for the RKO Radio Pictures release "Li'l Abner" (1940), an adaptation of Al Capp's comic strip, featuring Buster Keaton as Lonesome Polecat. Berle wrote a Spike Jones B-side, "Leave the Dishes in the Sink, Ma."
From 1934–36, Berle appeared regularly on "The Rudy Vallee Hour", and he attracted publicity as a regular on "The Gillette Original Community Sing", a Sunday night comedy-variety program broadcast on CBS from September 6, 1936 to August 29, 1937. In 1939, he was the host of "Stop Me If You've Heard This One" with panelists spontaneously finishing jokes sent in by listeners.
In the late 1940s, he canceled well-paying nightclub appearances to expand his radio career. "Three Ring Time", a comedy-variety show sponsored by Ballantine Ale, was followed by a 1943 program sponsored by Campbell's Soups. The audience participation show "Let Yourself Go" (1944–1945) could best be described as "slapstick radio" with studio audience members acting out long suppressed urges—often directed at host Berle. "Kiss and Make Up", on CBS in 1946, featured the problems of contestants decided by a jury from the studio audience with Berle as the judge. Berle also made guest appearances on many comedy-variety radio programs during the 1930s and 1940s.
Scripted by Hal Block and Martin Ragaway, "The Milton Berle Show" brought Berle together with Arnold Stang, later a familiar face as Berle's TV sidekick. Others in the cast were Pert Kelton, Mary Schipp, Jack Albertson, Arthur Q. Bryan, Ed Begley, Brazilian singer Dick Farney, and announcer Frank Gallop. Sponsored by Philip Morris, it aired on NBC from March 11, 1947 until April 13, 1948.
Berle later described this series as "the best radio show I ever did ... a hell of a funny variety show". It served as a springboard for Berle's emergence as television's first major star.
Berle first appeared on television in 1929 in an experimental broadcast in Chicago which he hosted in front of 129 people. He would return to television 20 years later, becoming the first major American television star.
Berle would revive the structure and routines of his vaudeville act for his debut on commercial TV, hosting The Texaco Star Theatre on June 8, 1948 over the NBC Television Network. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=46284 |
Long John Silver's
Long John Silver's LLC (also formerly known as Long John Silver's Seafood Shop and sometimes abbreviated as LJS) is an American fast food restaurant chain that specializes in seafood. The brand's name is derived from the novel "Treasure Island" by Robert Louis Stevenson, in which the pirate "Long John" Silver is one of the main characters.
Formerly a division of Yum! Brands, Inc., the company was divested to a group of franchisees in September 2011, and is now 80% franchise owned.
The first restaurant was opened on August 18, 1969, in Lexington, Kentucky. The original location, on 301 Southland Drive just off Nicholasville Road, was previously a seafood carry out restaurant named the Cape Codder. The original Cape Codder concrete block building was redesigned by architect Druce Henn, who created the New England style of Long John Silver's early chain restaurants. That original location is now a styling salon.
Earlier restaurants were known for their Cape Cod style buildings, blue roofs with square cupolas, wood benches/tables, lobster pots, and ship's wheels. Later, more nautically themed decorations were added such as seats made to look like nautical flags.
Those early restaurants also featured separate entrance and exit doors, a corridor like waiting line area, deep fryers with food heaters that were transparent so customers could see the food waiting to be served, and wrought iron 'sword' door handles. A major exterior theme of these buildings had dock-like walkways lined with pilings and thick ropes.
Somewhat newer restaurants retained the basic structural design and theme but eliminated most of the interior features. Its parent company, Jerrico was taken private in 1989, through a highly leveraged management buyout, and one year later, the other restaurant concepts were divested in order to focus on Long John Silver's.
After struggling for the next several years under its heavy debt load, Jerrico Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 1998. In September 1999, A&W announced to acquire the chain out of bankruptcy, as a result a new company called Yorkshire Global Restaurants has been formed.
In 2000, Yorkshire Global Restaurants agreed to test multi branded locations with Louisville, Kentucky based Tricon Global, owner of the KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell chains.
The parent company of Long John Silver's and A&W, Yorkshire was acquired by Tricon Global and Tricon was renamed to Yum! Brands, Inc in 2002, but by January 2011, Yum! announced it was looking for a buyer for its Long John Silver's and A&W All-American Restaurants divisions, citing poor sales and a desire to transfer more of its focus to international expansion.
In September 2011, Yum! announced the impending sale of Long John Silver's to LJS Partners – a group consisting of franchisees and other private investors.
In July 2013, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nutrition and health policy watchdog group, named Long John Silver's "Big Catch" meal the worst restaurant meal in America, noting that it contained 33 grams of trans fat, 19 grams of saturated fat, 1,320 calories, and almost 3,700 milligrams of sodium.
In January 2014, the company announced that it had eliminated trans fats from its menu.
In March 2015, James O'Reilly, who had previously worked for KFC (another Yum! Brands holding), was appointed as the CEO. He stated that he expected the chain to maintain its 1,132 stores, refocus its marketing following negative press about the fat and sodium content of the menu, and looked to the possibility of future expansion.
On May 22, 2018, Long John Silver's announced the acquisition of seventy six franchised restaurants primarily owned by ServUS located primarily in Indiana, as well as renovating its restaurants. On October 19, 2019, Warren W. Rosenthal, former president of Jerrico and developer of 1,350 Long John Silver's restaurants, died, aged 96. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=46286 |
Xerxes I
Xerxes I (; – August 465 BC), commonly known as Xerxes the Great, was the fourth King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, ruling from 486 to 465 BC. He was the son and successor of Darius the Great () and his mother was Atossa, a daughter of Cyrus the Great (), the first Achaemenid king. Like his father and predecessor Darius I, he ruled the empire at its territorial apex. He ruled from 486 BC until his assassination in 465 BC at the hands of Artabanus, the commander of the royal bodyguard.
Xerxes I is notable in Western history for his failed invasion of Greece in 480 BC. His forces temporarily overran mainland Greece north of the Isthmus of Corinth until losses at Salamis and Plataea a year later reversed these gains and ended the second invasion decisively. However, Xerxes successfully crushed revolts in Egypt and Babylon. Roman Ghirshman says that, "After this he ceased to use the title of 'king of Babylon', calling himself simply 'king of the Persians and the Medes'." Xerxes also oversaw the completion of various construction projects at Susa and Persepolis.
Xerxes is identified with the fictional king Ahasuerus in the biblical Book of Esther. That book is broadly considered to be fictional.
"Xérxēs" () is the Greek and Latin ("Xerxes", "Xerses") transliteration of the Old Iranian "Xšaya-ṛšā" ("ruling over heroes"), which can be seen by the first part "xšaya", meaning "ruling", and the second "ṛšā", meaning "hero, man". The name of Xerxes was known in Akkadian as "Ḫi-ši-ʾ-ar-šá" and in Aramaic as "ḥšyʾrš". Xerxes would become a popular name amongst the rulers of the Achaemenid Empire.
Much of Xerxes' bad reputation is due to propaganda by the Macedonian king Alexander the Great (), who had him vilified. The modern historian Richard Stoneman regards the portrayal of Xerxes as more nuanced and tragic in the work of the contemporary Greek historian Herodotus. However, many modern historians agree that Herodotus recorded spurious information. Pierre Briant has accused him of presenting a stereotyped and biased portrayal of the Persians. Many Achaemenid-era clay tablets and other reports written in Elamite, Akkadian, Egyptian and Aramaic are frequently contradictory to the reports of classical authors, i.e. Ctesias, Plutarch and Justin.
Xerxes' father was Darius the Great (), the incumbent monarch of the Achaemenid Empire, albeit himself not a member of the family of Cyrus the Great, the founder of the empire. His mother was Atossa, a daughter of Cyrus. They had married in 522 BC, with Xerxes being born in .
According to the Greek dialogue First Alcibiades, which describes typical upbringing and education of Persian princes; they were raised by eunuchs. When reaching the age of 7, they learn how to ride and hunt; at age 14, they are looked after by four teachers of aristocratic stock, who teach them how to be "wise, just, prudent and brave." Persian princes were also taught on the basics of the Zoroastrian religion, to be truthful, have self-restraint, and to be courageous. The dialogue further adds that "Fear, for a Persian, is the equivalent of slavery." At the age of 16 or 17, they begin their "national service" for 10 years, which included practicing archery and javelin, competing for prizes, and hunting. Afterwards they serve in the military for around 25 years, and are then elevated to the status of elders and advisers of the king.
This account of education amongst the Persian elite is supported by Xenophon's description of the 5th-century BC Achaemenid prince Cyrus the Younger, whom he was well-acquainted with. Stoneman suggests that this was the type of upbringing and education that Xerxes experienced. It is unknown if Xerxes ever learned to read or write, with the Persians favouring oral history over written literature. Stoneman suggests that Xerxes' upbringing and education was possibly not much different from that of the later Iranian kings, such as Abbas the Great, king of the Safavid Empire in the 17th-century AD. Starting from 498 BC, Xerxes resided in the royal palace of Babylon.
While Darius was preparing for another war against Greece, a revolt spurred in Egypt in 486 BC due to heavy taxes and the deportation of craftsmen to build the royal palaces at Susa and Persepolis. Under Persian law, the king was required to choose a successor before setting out on dangerous expeditions. When Darius decided to leave (487–486 BC), he (Darius) prepared his tomb at Naqsh-e Rustam (five kilometers from his royal palace at Persepolis) and appointed Xerxes, his eldest son by Atossa, as his successor. However, Darius could not lead the campaign due to his failing health and died in October 486 BC at the age of 64.
Artobazan claimed the crown as the eldest of all the children; while Xerxes, on the other hand, argued that he was sprung from Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus, and that it was Cyrus who had won the Persians their freedom. Xerxes was also helped by a Spartan king in exile who was present in Persia at the time, Eurypontid king Demaratus, who also argued that the eldest son does not universally mean they have claim to the crown, as Spartan law states that the first son born while the father is king is the heir to the kingship. Some modern scholars also view the unusual decision of Darius to give the throne to Xerxes to be a result of his consideration of the unique positions that Cyrus the Great and his daughter Atossa enjoyed. Artobazan was born to "Darius the subject", while Xerxes was the eldest son born in the purple after Darius's rise to the throne, and Artobazan's mother was a commoner while Xerxes's mother was the daughter of the founder of the empire.
Xerxes was crowned and succeeded his father in October–December 486 BC when he was about 36 years old. The transition of power to Xerxes was smooth due again in part to the great authority of Atossa and his accession of royal power was not challenged by any person at court or in the Achaemenian family, or any subject nation.
At Xerxes' accession, trouble was brewing in some of his domains. A revolt occurred in Egypt, which seems to have been dangerous enough for Xerxes to personally lead the army to restore order (which also gave him the opportunity to begin his reign with a military campaign). Xerxes suppressed the revolt in January 484 BC, and appointed his full-brother Achaemenes as satrap of the country, replacing the previous satrap Pherendates, who was reportedly killed during the revolt. The suppression of the Egyptian revolt expended the army, which had been mobilized by Darius over the previous three years. Xerxes thus had to raise another army for his expedition into Greece, which would take four years. There was also unrest in Babylon, which revolted at least twice against Xerxes. The first revolt broke out in June or July of 484 BC and was led by a rebel of the name Bel-shimanni. Bel-shimmani's revolt was short-lived, Babylonian documents written during his reign only account for a period of two weeks.
Two years later, Babylon produced another rebel leader, Shamash-eriba. Beginning in the summer of 482 BC, Shamash-eriba seized Babylon itself and other nearby cities, such as Borsippa and Dilbat, and was only defeated in March 481 BC after a lengthy siege of Babylon. The precise cause of the unrest in Babylon is uncertain. It may have been due to tax increase. Prior to these revolts, Babylon had occupied a special position within the Achaemenid Empire, the Achaemenid kings had been titled as "King of Babylon" and "King of the Lands", perceiving Babylonia as a somewhat separate entity within their empire, united with their own kingdom in a personal union. Xerxes dropped "King of Babylon" from his titulature and divided the previously large Babylonian satrapy (accounting for most of the Neo-Babylonian Empire's territory) into smaller sub-units.
Using texts written by classical authors, it is often assumed that Xerxes enacted a brutal vengeance on Babylon following the two revolts. According to ancient writers, Xerxes destroyed Babylon's fortifications and damaged the temples in the city. The Esagila was allegedly exposed to great damage and Xerxes allegedly carried the statue of Marduk away from the city, possibly bringing it to Iran and melting it down (classical authors held that the statue was entirely made of gold, which would have made melting it down possible). Modern historian Amélie Kuhrt considers it unlikely that Xerxes destroyed the temples, but believes that the story of him doing so may derive from an anti-Persian sentiment among the Babylonians. It is doubtful if the statue was removed from Babylon at all and some have even suggested that Xerxes did remove a statue from the city, but that this was the golden statue of a man rather than the statue of the god Marduk. Though mentions of it are lacking considerably compared to earlier periods, contemporary documents suggest that the Babylonian New Year's Festival continued in some form during the Achaemenid period. Because the change in rulership from the Babylonians themselves to the Persians and due to the replacement of the city's elite families by Xerxes following its revolt, it is possible that the festival's traditional rituals and events had changed considerably.
Darius died while in the process of preparing a second army to invade the Greek mainland, leaving to his son the task of punishing the Athenians, Naxians, and Eretrians for their interference in the Ionian Revolt, the burning of Sardis, and their victory over the Persians at Marathon. From 483 BC, Xerxes prepared his expedition: The Xerxes Canal was dug through the isthmus of the peninsula of Mount Athos, provisions were stored in the stations on the road through Thrace, and two pontoon bridges later known as Xerxes' Pontoon Bridges were built across the Hellespont. Soldiers of many nationalities served in the armies of Xerxes from all over his multi-ethnic massive Eurasian-sized empire and beyond, including the Assyrians, Phoenicians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Jews, Macedonians, European Thracians, Paeonians, Achaean Greeks, Ionians, Aegean islanders, Aeolians, Greeks from Pontus, Colchians, Indians and many more.
According to the Greek historian Herodotus, Xerxes's first attempt to bridge the Hellespont ended in failure when a storm destroyed the flax and papyrus cables of the bridges. In retaliation, Xerxes ordered the Hellespont (the strait itself) whipped three hundred times, and had fetters thrown into the water. Xerxes's second attempt to bridge the Hellespont was successful. The Carthaginian invasion of Sicily deprived Greece of the support of the powerful monarchs of Syracuse and Agrigentum; ancient sources assume Xerxes was responsible, modern scholarship is skeptical. Many smaller Greek states, moreover, took the side of the Persians, especially Thessaly, Thebes and Argos. Xerxes was victorious during the initial battles.
Xerxes set out in the spring of 480 BC from Sardis with a fleet and army which Herodotus estimated was roughly one million strong along with 10,000 elite warriors named the Immortals. More recent estimates place the Persian force at around 60,000 combatants.
At the Battle of Thermopylae, a small force of Greek warriors led by King Leonidas of Sparta resisted the much larger Persian forces, but were ultimately defeated. According to Herodotus, the Persians broke the Spartan phalanx after a Greek man called Ephialtes betrayed his country by telling the Persians of another pass around the mountains. At Artemisium, large storms had destroyed ships from the Greek side and so the battle stopped prematurely as the Greeks received news of the defeat at Thermopylae and retreated.
After Thermopylae, Athens was captured. Most of the Athenians had abandoned the city and fled to the island of Salamis before Xerxes arrived. A small group attempted to defend the Athenian Acropolis, but they were defeated. Xerxes ordered the Destruction of Athens and burnt the city, leaving an archaeologically attested destruction layer, known as the Perserschutt. The Persians thus gained control of all of mainland Greece to the north of the Isthmus of Corinth.
Xerxes was induced, by the message of Themistocles (against the advice of Artemisia of Halicarnassus), to attack the Greek fleet under unfavourable conditions, rather than sending a part of his ships to the Peloponnesus and awaiting the dissolution of the Greek armies. The Battle of Salamis (September, 480 BC) was won by the Greek fleet, after which Xerxes set up a winter camp in Thessaly.
According to Herodotus, fearing that the Greeks might attack the bridges across the Hellespont and trap his army in Europe, Xerxes decided to retreat back to Asia, taking the greater part of the army with him. Another cause of the retreat might have been that the continued unrest in Babylon, a key province of the empire, required the king's personal attention.
He left behind a contingent in Greece to finish the campaign under Mardonius, who according to Herodotus had suggested the retreat in the first place. This force was defeated the following year at Plataea by the combined forces of the Greek city states, ending the Persian offensive on Greece for good.
After the military blunders in Greece, Xerxes returned to Persia and oversaw the completion of the many construction projects left unfinished by his father at Susa and Persepolis. He oversaw the building of the Gate of All Nations and the Hall of a Hundred Columns at Persepolis, which are the largest and most imposing structures of the palace. He oversaw the completion of the Apadana, the Tachara (Palace of Darius) and the Treasury, all started by Darius, as well as having his own palace built which was twice the size of his father's. His taste in architecture was similar to that of Darius, though on an even more gigantic scale. He had colorful enameled brick laid on the exterior face of the Apadana. He also maintained the Royal Road built by his father and completed the Susa Gate and built a palace in Susa.
In August 465 BC, Artabanus, the commander of the royal bodyguard and the most powerful official in the Persian court, assassinated Xerxes with the help of a eunuch, Aspamitres. Although Artabanus bore the same name as the famed uncle of Xerxes, a Hyrcanian, his rise to prominence was due to his popularity in religious quarters of the court and harem intrigues. He put his seven sons in key positions and had a plan to dethrone the Achaemenids.
Greek historians give contradicting accounts of events. According to Ctesias (in Persica 20), Artabanus then accused the Crown Prince Darius, Xerxes's eldest son, of the murder and persuaded another of Xerxes's sons, Artaxerxes, to avenge the patricide by killing Darius. But according to Aristotle (in Politics 5.1311b), Artabanus killed Darius first and then killed Xerxes. After Artaxerxes discovered the murder, he killed Artabanus and his sons. Participating in these intrigues was the general Megabyzus, whose decision to switch sides probably saved the Achaemenids from losing their control of the Persian throne.
While there is no general consensus in scholarship whether Xerxes and his predecessors had been influenced by Zoroastrianism, it is well established that Xerxes was a firm believer in Ahura Mazda, whom he saw as the supreme deity. However, Ahura Mazda was also worshipped by adherents of the (Indo-)Iranian religious tradition. On his treatment of other religions, Xerxes followed the same policy as his predecessors; he appealed to local religious scholars, made sacrifices to local deities, and destroyed temples in cities and countries that caused disorder.
By queen Amestris:
By unknown wives or mistresses:
Xerxes is the central character of the Aeschylus play "The Persians". Xerxes is the protagonist of the opera "Serse" by the German-English Baroque composer George Frideric Handel. It was first performed in the King's Theatre London on 15 April 1738. The famous aria "Ombra mai fù" opens the opera.
The murder of Xerxes by Artabanus ("Artabano"), execution of crown prince Darius ("Dario"), revolt by Megabyzus ("Megabise"), and subsequent succession of Artaxerxes I is romanticised by the Italian poet Metastasio in his opera libretto "Artaserse", which was first set to music by Leonardo Vinci, and subsequently by other composers such as Johann Adolf Hasse and Johann Christian Bach.
The historical novel "Xerxes of de Hoogmoed" (1919) by Dutch writer Louis Couperus describes the Persian wars from the perspective of Xerxes. Though the account is fictionalised, Couperus nevertheless based himself on an extensive study of Herodotus. The English translation "Arrogance: The Conquests of Xerxes" by Frederick H. Martens appeared in 1930.
Later generations' fascination with ancient Sparta, particularly the Battle of Thermopylae, has led to Xerxes' portrayal in works of popular culture. He was played by David Farrar in the fictional film "The 300 Spartans" (1962), where he is portrayed as a cruel, power-crazed despot and an inept commander. He also features prominently in the graphic novels "300" and "" by Frank Miller, as well as the film adaptation "300" (2007) and its sequel "" (2014), as portrayed by Brazilian actor Rodrigo Santoro, in which he is represented as a giant man with androgynous qualities, who claims to be a god-king. This portrayal attracted controversy, especially in Iran. Ken Davitian plays Xerxes in "Meet the Spartans", a parody of the first "300" movie replete with sophomoric humour and deliberate anachronisms.
Other works dealing with the Persian Empire or the Biblical story of Esther have also featured or alluded to Xerxes, such as the video game "Assassin's Creed II" and the film "One Night with the King" (2006), in which Ahasuerus (Xerxes) was portrayed by British actor Luke Goss. He is the leader of the Persian Empire in the video game "Civilization II" and "III" (along with Scheherazade), although "Civilization IV" replaces him with Cyrus the Great and Darius I.
Gore Vidal, in his historical fiction novel "Creation" (1981), describes at length the rise of the Achemenids, especially Darius I, and presents the life and death circumstances of Xerxes. Vidal's version of the Persian Wars, which diverges from the orthodoxy of the Greek histories, is told through the invented character of Cyrus Spitama, a half-Greek, half-Persian, and grandson of the prophet Zoroaster. Thanks to his family connection, Cyrus is brought up in the Persian court after the murder of Zoroaster, becoming the boyhood friend of Xerxes, and later a diplomat who is sent to India, and later to Greece, and who is thereby able to gain privileged access to many leading historical figures of the period.
Xerxes (Ahasuerus) is portrayed by Richard Egan in the 1960 film "Esther and the King" and by Joel Smallbone in the 2013 film, "The Book of Esther". In at least one of these films, the events of the Book of Esther are depicted as taking place upon Xerxes' return from Greece.
Xerxes plays an important background role (never making an appearance) in two short works of alternate history taking place generations after his complete victory over Greece. These are: "Counting Potsherds" by Harry Turtledove in his anthology "Departures" and "The Craft of War" by Lois Tilton in "Alternate Generals" volume 1 (edited by Turtledove). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=46289 |
Menelaus
In Greek mythology, Menelaus (; , "Menelaos", from μένος "vigor, rage, power" and λαός "people," "wrath of the people") was a king of Mycenaean (pre-Dorian) Sparta, the husband of Helen of Troy, and the son of Atreus and Aerope. According to the "Iliad", Menelaus was a central figure in the Trojan War, leading the Spartan contingent of the Greek army, under his elder brother Agamemnon, king of Mycenae. Prominent in both the "Iliad" and "Odyssey", Menelaus was also popular in Greek vase painting and Greek tragedy, the latter more as a hero of the Trojan War than as a member of the doomed House of Atreus.
Although early authors, such as Aeschylus refer in passing to Menelaus’ early life, detailed sources are quite late, post-dating 5th-century BC Greek tragedy. According to these sources, Menelaus' father, Atreus, had been feuding with his brother Thyestes over the throne of Mycenae. After a back-and-forth struggle that featured adultery, incest, and cannibalism, Thyestes gained the throne after his son Aegisthus murdered Atreus. As a result, Atreus’ sons, Menelaus and Agamemnon, went into exile. They first stayed with King Polypheides of Sicyon, and later with King Oeneus of Calydon. But when they thought the time was ripe to dethrone Mycenae’s hostile ruler, they returned. Assisted by King Tyndareus of Sparta, they drove Thyestes away, and Agamemnon took the throne for himself.
When it was time for Tyndareus’ stepdaughter Helen to marry, many kings and princes came to seek her hand. Among the contenders were Odysseus, Menestheus, Ajax the Great, Patroclus, and Idomeneus. Most offered opulent gifts. Tyndareus would accept none of the gifts, nor would he send any of the suitors away for fear of offending them and giving grounds for a quarrel. Odysseus promised to solve the problem in a satisfactory manner if Tyndareus would support him in his courting of Tyndareus’s niece Penelope, the daughter of Icarius. Tyndareus readily agreed, and Odysseus proposed that, before the decision was made, all the suitors should swear a most solemn oath to defend the chosen husband in any quarrel. Then it was decreed that straws were to be drawn for Helen’s hand. The suitor who won was Menelaus (Tyndareus, not to displease the mighty Agamemnon offered him another of his daughters, Clytaemnestra). The rest of the suitors swore their oaths, and Helen and Menelaus were married, Menelaus becoming a ruler of Sparta with Helen after Tyndareus and Leda abdicated the thrones. Menelaus and Helen had a daughter Hermione as supported, for example, by Sappho, while some variations of the myth suggest they had three sons as well: Aithiolas, Maraphius, and Pleisthenes.
Their supposed palace (ἀνάκτορον) has been discovered (the excavations started in 1926 and continued until 1995) in Pellana, Laconia, to the north-west of modern (and classical) Sparta. Other archaeologists consider that Pellana is too far away from other Mycenaean centres to have been the "capital of Menelaus".
According to legend, in return for awarding her a golden apple inscribed "to the fairest," Aphrodite promised Paris the most beautiful woman in all the world. After concluding a diplomatic mission to Sparta during the latter part of which Menelaus was absent to attend the funeral of his maternal grandfather Catreus in Crete, Paris ran off to Troy with Helen despite his brother Hector's prohibition. Invoking the oath of Tyndareus, Menelaus and Agamemnon raised a fleet of a thousand ships and went to Troy to secure Helen's return; the Trojans refused, providing a "casus belli" for the Trojan War.
Homer's "Iliad" is the most comprehensive source for Menelaus’s exploits during the Trojan War. In Book 3, Menelaus challenges Paris to a duel for Helen’s return. Menelaus soundly beats Paris, but before he can kill him and claim victory, Aphrodite spirits Paris away inside the walls of Troy. In Book 4, while the Greeks and Trojans squabble over the duel’s winner, Athena inspires the Trojan Pandarus to shoot Menelaus with his bow and arrow. However, Athena never intended for Menelaus to die and she protects him from the arrow of Pandarus. Menelaus is wounded in the abdomen, and the fighting resumes. Later, in Book 17, Homer gives Menelaus an extended "aristeia" as the hero retrieves the corpse of Patroclus from the battlefield.
According to Hyginus, Menelaus killed eight men in the war, and was one of the Greeks hidden inside the Trojan Horse. During the sack of Troy, Menelaus killed Deiphobus, who had married Helen after the death of Paris.
There are four versions of Menelaus’ and Helen’s reunion on the night of the sack of Troy:
Book 4 of the "Odyssey" provides an account of Menelaus’ return from Troy and his homelife in Sparta. When visited by Odysseus’ son Telemachus, Menelaus recounts his voyage home. As happened to many Greeks, Menelaus' homebound fleet was blown by storms to Crete and Egypt where they were becalmed, unable to sail away. They trapped Proteus and forced him to reveal how to make the voyage home. After their homecoming, Menelaus and Helen’s marriage is strained; Menelaus continually revisits the losses of the Trojan War, particularly as he and Helen have no male heir. Menelaus is fond of Megapenthes and Nicostratus, his sons by slave women. According to Euripides’ "Helen", Menelaus is reunited with Helen after death, on the Isle of the Blessed.
Menelaus appears in Greek vase painting in the 6th to 4th centuries BC, such as: Menelaus’s reception of Paris at Sparta; his retrieval of Patroclus’s corpse; and his reunion with Helen.
Menelaus appears as a character in a number of 5th-century Greek tragedies: Sophocles’ "Ajax", and Euripides’ "Andromache", "Helen", "Orestes", "Iphigenia at Aulis", and "The Trojan Women". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=46299 |
Menelaus of Alexandria
Menelaus of Alexandria (; , "Menelaos ho Alexandreus"; c. 70 – 140 CE) was a Greek mathematician and astronomer, the first to recognize geodesics on a curved surface as natural analogs of straight lines.
Although very little is known about Menelaus's life, it is supposed that he lived in Rome, where he probably moved after having spent his youth in Alexandria. He was called "Menelaus of Alexandria" by both Pappus of Alexandria and Proclus, and a conversation of his with Lucius, held in Rome, is recorded by Plutarch.
Ptolemy (2nd century CE) also mentions, in his work "Almagest" (VII.3), two astronomical observations made by Menelaus in Rome in January of the year 98. These were occultations of the stars Spica and Beta Scorpii by the moon, a few nights apart. Ptolemy used these observations to confirm precession of the equinoxes, a phenomenon that had been discovered by Hipparchus in the 2nd century BCE.
"Sphaerica" is the only book that has survived, in an Arabic translation. Composed of three books, it deals with the geometry of the sphere and its application in astronomical measurements and calculations. The book introduces the concept of spherical triangle (figures formed of three great circle arcs, which he named "trilaterals") and proves Menelaus' theorem on collinearity of points on the edges of a triangle (which may have been previously known) and its analog for spherical triangles. It was later translated by the sixteenth century astronomer and mathematician Francesco Maurolico.
The lunar crater Menelaus is named after him.
The titles of a few books by Menelaus have been preserved: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=46301 |
Lobster
Lobsters are a family (Nephropidae, sometimes also "Homeridae") of large marine crustaceans.
Lobsters have long bodies with muscular tails, and live in crevices or burrows on the sea floor. Three of their five pairs of legs have claws, including the first pair, which are usually much larger than the others. Highly prized as seafood, lobsters are economically important, and are often one of the most profitable commodities in coastal areas they populate. Commercially important species include two species of "Homarus" (which looks more like the stereotypical lobster) from the northern Atlantic Ocean, and scampi (which looks more like a shrimp, or a "mini lobster") – the Northern Hemisphere genus "Nephrops" and the Southern Hemisphere genus "Metanephrops". Although several other groups of crustaceans have the word "lobster" in their names, the unqualified term "lobster" generally refers to the clawed lobsters of the family Nephropidae. Clawed lobsters are not closely related to spiny lobsters or slipper lobsters, which have no claws (chelae), or to squat lobsters. The closest living relatives of clawed lobsters are the reef lobsters and the three families of freshwater crayfish.
Lobsters are invertebrates with a hard protective exoskeleton. Like most arthropods, lobsters must moult to grow, which leaves them vulnerable. During the moulting process, several species change color. Lobsters have eight walking legs; the front three pairs bear claws, the first of which are larger than the others. The front pincers are also biologically considered legs, so they belong in the order Decapods ("ten-footed"). Although lobsters are largely bilaterally symmetrical like most other arthropods, some genera possess unequal, specialized claws.
Lobster anatomy includes two main body parts: the cephalothorax and the abdomen. The cephalothorax fuses the head and the thorax, both of which are covered by a chitinous carapace. The lobster's head bears antennae, antennules, mandibles, the first and second maxillae. The head also bears the (usually stalked) compound eyes. Because lobsters live in murky environments at the bottom of the ocean, they mostly use their antennae as sensors. The lobster eye has a reflective structure above a convex retina. In contrast, most complex eyes use refractive ray concentrators (lenses) and a concave retina. The lobster's thorax is composed of maxillipeds, appendages that function primarily as mouthparts, and pereiopods, appendages that serve for walking and for gathering food. The abdomen includes pleopods (also known as "swimmerets"), used for swimming as well as the tail fan, composed of uropods and the telson.
Lobsters, like snails and spiders, have blue blood due to the presence of hemocyanin, which contains copper. In contrast, vertebrates and many other animals have red blood from iron-rich hemoglobin. Lobsters possess a green hepatopancreas, called the tomalley by chefs, which functions as the animal's liver and pancreas.
Lobsters of the family Nephropidae are similar in overall form to a number of other related groups. They differ from freshwater crayfish in lacking the joint between the last two segments of the thorax, and they differ from the reef lobsters of the family Enoplometopidae in having full claws on the first three pairs of legs, rather than just one. The distinctions from fossil families such as the Chilenophoberidae are based on the pattern of grooves on the carapace.
Typically, lobsters are dark colored, either bluish green or greenish brown as to blend in with the ocean floor, but they can be found in a multitude of colors. Lobsters with atypical coloring are extremely rare, accounting for only a few of the millions caught every year, and due to their rarity, they usually are not eaten, instead being released back into the wild or donated to aquariums. Often, in cases of atypical coloring, there is a genetic factor, such as albinism or hermaphroditism. Notably, the New England Aquarium has a collection of such lobsters, called the Lobster Rainbow, on public display. Special coloring does not appear to have an effect on the lobster's taste once cooked; with the exception of albinos, all lobsters possess astaxanthin, which is responsible for the bright red color lobsters turn after being cooked.
Lobsters live up to an estimated 45 to 50 years in the wild, although determining age is difficult. In 2012, a report was published describing how growth bands in calcified regions of the eyestalk or gastric mill in shrimps, crabs and lobsters could be used to measure growth and mortality in decapod crustaceans. Without such a technique, a lobster's age is estimated by size and other variables; this new knowledge "could help scientists better understand the population and assist regulators of the lucrative industry".
Research suggests that lobsters may not slow down, weaken or lose fertility with age, and that older lobsters may be more fertile than younger lobsters. This longevity may be due to telomerase, an enzyme that repairs long repetitive sections of DNA sequences at the ends of chromosomes, referred to as telomeres. Telomerase is expressed by most vertebrates during embryonic stages, but is generally absent from adult stages of life. However, unlike most vertebrates, lobsters express telomerase as adults through most tissue, which has been suggested to be related to their longevity. Telomerase is especially present in 'Green Spotted' lobsters - whose markings are thought to be produced by the enzyme interacting with their shell pigmentation Lobster longevity is limited by their size. Moulting requires metabolic energy and the larger the lobster, the more energy is needed; 10 to 15% of lobsters die of exhaustion during moulting, while in older lobsters, moulting ceases and the exoskeleton degrades or collapses entirely leading to death.
Lobsters, like many other decapod crustaceans, grow throughout life and are able to add new muscle cells at each moult. Lobster longevity allows them to reach impressive sizes. According to "Guinness World Records", the largest lobster ever caught was in Nova Scotia, Canada, weighing .
Lobsters live in all oceans, on rocky, sandy, or muddy bottoms from the shoreline to beyond the edge of the continental shelf. They generally live singly in crevices or in burrows under rocks.
Lobsters are omnivores and typically eat live prey such as fish, mollusks, other crustaceans, worms, and some plant life. They scavenge if necessary, and are known to resort to cannibalism in captivity. However, when lobster skin is found in lobster stomachs, this is not necessarily evidence of cannibalism – lobsters eat their shed skin after moulting. While cannibalism was thought to be nonexistent among wild lobster populations, it was observed in 2012 by researchers studying wild lobsters in Maine. These first known instances of lobster cannibalism in the wild are theorized to be attributed to a local population explosion among lobsters caused by the disappearance of many of the Maine lobsters' natural predators.
In general, lobsters are long, and move by slowly walking on the sea floor. However, when they flee, they swim backward quickly by curling and uncurling their abdomens. A speed of has been recorded. This is known as the caridoid escape reaction.
Symbiotic animals of the genus "Symbion", the only member of the phylum Cycliophora, live exclusively on lobster gills and mouthparts. Different species of "Symbion" have been found on the three commercially important lobsters of the North Atlantic Ocean – "Nephrops norvegicus", "Homarus gammarus", and "Homarus americanus".
Lobster recipes include lobster Newberg and lobster Thermidor. Lobster is used in soup, bisque, lobster rolls, and "cappon magro". Lobster meat may be dipped in clarified butter, resulting in a heightened flavor.
Cooks boil or steam live lobsters. When a lobster is cooked, its shell's color changes from blue to orange because the heat from cooking breaks down a protein called crustacyanin, which suppresses the orange hue of the chemical astaxanthin, which is also found in the shell.
According to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the mean level of mercury in American lobster between 2005 and 2007 was 0.107ppm.
In North America, the American lobster did not achieve popularity until the mid-19th century, when New Yorkers and Bostonians developed a taste for it, and commercial lobster fisheries only flourished after the development of the lobster smack, a custom-made boat with open holding wells on the deck to keep the lobsters alive during transport.
Prior to this time, lobster was considered a poverty food or as a food for indentured servants or lower members of society in Maine, Massachusetts, and the Canadian Maritimes. Some servants specified in employment agreements that they would not eat lobster more than twice per week, however there is limited evidence for this. Lobster was also commonly served in prisons, much to the displeasure of inmates. American lobster was initially deemed worthy only of being used as fertilizer or fish bait, and until well into the 20th century, it was not viewed as more than a low-priced canned staple food.
As a crustacean, lobster remains a taboo food in the dietary laws of Judaism and certain streams of Islam. ("See also:" Kashrut, Halal, and List of halal and kosher fish)
Caught lobsters are graded as new-shell, hard-shell, or old-shell, and because lobsters which have recently shed their shells are the most delicate, an inverse relationship exists between the price of American lobster and its flavor. New-shell lobsters have paper-thin shells and a worse meat-to-shell ratio, but the meat is very sweet. However, the lobsters are so delicate, even transport to Boston almost kills them, making the market for new-shell lobsters strictly local to the fishing towns where they are offloaded. Hard-shell lobsters with firm shells, but with less sweet meat, can survive shipping to Boston, New York, and even Los Angeles, so they command a higher price than new-shell lobsters. Meanwhile, old-shell lobsters, which have not shed since the previous season and have a coarser flavor, can be air-shipped anywhere in the world and arrive alive, making them the most expensive.
Several methods are used for killing lobsters. The most common way of killing lobsters is by placing them live in boiling water, sometimes after having been placed in a freezer for a period of time. Another method is to split the lobster or sever the body in half lengthwise. Lobsters may also be killed or immobilized immediately before boiling by a stab into the brain (pithing), in the belief that this will stop suffering. However, a lobster's brain operates from not one but several ganglia and disabling only the frontal ganglion does not usually result in death. The boiling method is illegal in some places, such as in Reggio Emilia, Italy, where offenders face fines up to €495. Lobsters can be killed by electrocution prior to cooking, with one device, the CrustaStun, applying a 110-volt, 2 to 5 amp electrical charge to the animal. The Swiss government banned boiling lobster live without stunning them first; Since March 2018, lobsters in Switzerland need to be knocked out, or killed instantly, before they are prepared. They also get other protections while in transit.
The killing methods most likely to cause pain and distress are:
Lobsters are caught using baited one-way traps with a color-coded marker buoy to mark cages. Lobster is fished in water between , although some lobsters live at . Cages are of plastic-coated galvanized steel or wood. A lobster fisher may tend as many as 2,000 traps. Around year 2000, owing to overfishing and high demand, lobster aquaculture expanded. However, as of 2008, no lobster aquaculture operation had achieved commercial success, mainly because of lobsters' tendency towards cannibalism and the slow growth of the species.
The fossil record of clawed lobsters extends back at least to the Valanginian age of the Cretaceous (140 million years ago). This list contains all extant species in the family Nephropidae: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=46310 |
Flounder
Flounders are a group of flatfish species. They are demersal fish, found at the bottom of oceans around the world; some species will also enter estuaries.
The name "flounder" is used for several only distantly related species, though all are in the suborder Pleuronectoidei (families Achiropsettidae, Bothidae, Pleuronectidae, Paralichthyidae, and Samaridae). Some of the better known species that are important in fisheries are:
Larval flounder are born with one eye on each side of their head, but as they grow from the larval to juvenile stage through metamorphosis, one eye migrates to the other side of the body. As a result, both eyes are then on the side which faces up. The side to which the eyes migrate is dependent on the species type. As an adult, a flounder changes its habits and camouflages itself by lying on the bottom of the ocean floor as protection against predators.
Flounders ambush their prey, feeding at soft muddy areas of the sea bottom, near bridge piles, docks and coral reefs.
A flounder's diet consists mainly of fish spawn, crustaceans, polychaetes and small fish. Flounder typically grow to a length of , and as large as . Their width is about half their length. Male "Platichthys" have been found up to off the coast of northern Sardinia, sometimes with heavy encrustations of various species of barnacle.
Fluke, a type of flounder, are being farm raised in open water by Mariculture Technologies in Greenport, New York.
World stocks of large predatory fish and large ground fish, including sole and flounder, were estimated in 2003 to be only about 10% of pre-industrial levels, largely due to overfishing. Most overfishing is due to the extensive activities of the fishing industry. Current estimates suggest that approximately 30 million flounder (excluding sole) are alive in the world today. In the Gulf of Mexico, along the coast of Texas, research indicates the flounder population could be as low as 15 million due to heavy overfishing and industrial pollution.
According to Seafood Watch, Atlantic flounders and soles are currently on the list of seafood that sustainability-minded consumers should avoid. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=46311 |
Globalization
Globalization or globalisation is the process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide. As a complex and multifaceted phenomenon, globalization is considered by some as a form of capitalist expansion which entails the integration of local and national economies into a global, unregulated market economy. Globalization has grown due to advances in transportation and communication technology. With the increased global interactions comes the growth of international trade, ideas, and culture. Globalization is primarily an economic process of interaction and integration that's associated with social and cultural aspects. However, conflicts and diplomacy are also large parts of the history of globalization, and modern globalization.
Economically, globalization involves goods, services, the economic resources of capital, technology, and data. Also, the expansions of global markets liberalize the economic activities of the exchange of goods and funds. Removal of cross-border trade barriers has made formation of global markets more feasible. The steam locomotive, steamship, jet engine, and container ships are some of the advances in the means of transport while the rise of the telegraph and its modern offspring, the Internet and mobile phones show development in telecommunications infrastructure. All of these improvements have been major factors in globalization and have generated further interdependence of economic and cultural activities around the globe.
Though many scholars place the origins of globalization in modern times, others trace its history long before the European Age of Discovery and voyages to the New World, some even to the third millennium BC. Large-scale globalization began in the 1820s. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, the connectivity of the world's economies and cultures grew very quickly. The term "globalization" is recent, only establishing its current meaning in the 1970s.
In 2000, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) identified four basic aspects of globalization: trade and transactions, capital and investment movements, migration and movement of people, and the dissemination of knowledge. Further, environmental challenges such as global warming, cross-boundary water, air pollution, and over-fishing of the ocean are linked with globalization. Globalizing processes affect and are affected by business and work organization, economics, socio-cultural resources, and the natural environment. Academic literature commonly subdivides globalization into three major areas: economic globalization, cultural globalization, and political globalization.
The term "globalization" became popular in social science in the 1990s. It derives from the word "globalize", which refers to the emergence of an international network of economic systems. The term 'globalization' had been used in its economic sense at least as early as 1981, and in other senses since at least as early as 1944. Theodore Levitt is credited with popularizing the term and bringing it into the mainstream business audience in the later half of the 1980s. Since its inception, the concept of globalization has inspired competing definitions and interpretations. Its antecedents date back to the great movements of trade and empire across Asia and the Indian Ocean from the 15th century onward.
Due to the complexity of the concept, various research projects, articles, and discussions often stay focused on a single aspect of globalization.
Sociologists Martin Albrow and Elizabeth King define globalization as "all those processes by which the people of the world are incorporated into a single world society." In "The Consequences of Modernity", Anthony Giddens writes: "Globalization can thus be defined as the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa." In 1992, Roland Robertson, professor of sociology at the University of Aberdeen and an early writer in the field, described globalization as "the compression of the world and the intensification of the consciousness of the world as a whole."
In "Global Transformations", David Held and his co-writers state:
Held and his co-writers' definition of globalization in that same book as "transformation in the spatial organization of social relations and transactions—assessed in terms of their extensity, intensity, velocity and impact—generating transcontinental or inter-regional flows" was called "probably the most widely-cited definition" in the 2014 DHL Global Connectiveness Index.
Swedish journalist Thomas Larsson, in his book "The Race to the Top: The Real Story of Globalization", states that globalization:
Paul James defines globalization with a more direct and historically contextualized emphasis:
Globalization is the extension of social relations across world-space, defining that world-space in terms of the historically variable ways that it has been practiced and socially understood through changing world-time.
Manfred Steger, professor of global studies and research leader in the Global Cities Institute at RMIT University, identifies four main empirical dimensions of globalization: economic, political, cultural, and ecological. A fifth dimension—the ideological—cutting across the other four. The ideological dimension, according to Steger, is filled with a range of norms, claims, beliefs, and narratives about the phenomenon itself.
James and Steger stated that the concept of globalization "emerged from the intersection of four interrelated sets of 'communities of practice' (Wenger, 1998): academics, journalists, publishers/editors, and librarians." They note the term was used "in education to describe the global life of the mind"; in international relations to describe the extension of the European Common Market; and in journalism to describe how the "American Negro and his problem are taking on a global significance". They have also argued that four forms of globalization can be distinguished that complement and cut across the solely empirical dimensions. According to James, the oldest dominant form of globalization is embodied globalization, the movement of people. A second form is agency-extended globalization, the circulation of agents of different institutions, organizations, and polities, including imperial agents. Object-extended globalization, a third form, is the movement of commodities and other objects of exchange. He calls the transmission of ideas, images, knowledge, and information across world-space disembodied globalization, maintaining that it is currently the dominant form of globalization. James holds that this series of distinctions allows for an understanding of how, today, the most embodied forms of globalization such as the movement of refugees and migrants are increasingly restricted, while the most disembodied forms such as the circulation of financial instruments and codes are the most deregulated.
The journalist Thomas L. Friedman popularized the term "flat world", arguing that globalized trade, outsourcing, supply-chaining, and political forces had permanently changed the world, for better and worse. He asserted that the pace of globalization was quickening and that its impact on business organization and practice would continue to grow.
Economist Takis Fotopoulos defined "economic globalization" as the opening and deregulation of commodity, capital, and labor markets that led toward present neoliberal globalization. He used "political globalization" to refer to the emergence of a transnational élite and a phasing out of the nation-state. Meanwhile, he used "cultural globalization" to reference the worldwide homogenization of culture. Other of his usages included "ideological globalization", "technological globalization", and "social globalization".
Lechner and Boli (2012) define globalization as more people across large distances becoming connected in more and different ways.
"Globophobia" is used to refer to the fear of globalization, though it can also mean the fear of balloons.
There are both distal and proximate causes which can be traced in the historical factors affecting globalization. Large-scale globalization began in the 19th century.
Archaic globalization conventionally refers to a phase in the history of globalization including globalizing events and developments from the time of the earliest civilizations until roughly the 1600s. This term is used to describe the relationships between communities and states and how they were created by the geographical spread of ideas and social norms at both local and regional levels.
In this schema, three main prerequisites are posited for globalization to occur. The first is the idea of Eastern Origins, which shows how Western states have adapted and implemented learned principles from the East. Without the spread of traditional ideas from the East, Western globalization would not have emerged the way it did. The second is distance. The interactions of states were not on a global scale and most often were confined to Asia, North Africa, the Middle East, and certain parts of Europe. With early globalization, it was difficult for states to interact with others that were not within a close proximity. Eventually, technological advances allowed states to learn of others' existence and thus another phase of globalization can occur. The third has to do with inter-dependency, stability, and regularity. If a state is not dependent on another, then there is no way for either state to be mutually affected by the other. This is one of the driving forces behind global connections and trade; without either, globalization would not have emerged the way it did and states would still be dependent on their own production and resources to work. This is one of the arguments surrounding the idea of early globalization. It is argued that archaic globalization did not function in a similar manner to modern globalization because states were not as interdependent on others as they are today.
Also posited is a "multi-polar" nature to archaic globalization, which involved the active participation of non-Europeans. Because it predated the Great Divergence in the nineteenth century, where Western Europe pulled ahead of the rest of the world in terms of industrial production and economic output, archaic globalization was a phenomenon that was driven not only by Europe but also by other economically developed Old World centers such as Gujarat, Bengal, coastal China, and Japan.
The German historical economist and sociologist Andre Gunder Frank argues that a form of globalization began with the rise of trade links between Sumer and the Indus Valley Civilization in the third millennium BCE. This archaic globalization existed during the Hellenistic Age, when commercialized urban centers enveloped the axis of Greek culture that reached from India to Spain, including Alexandria and the other Alexandrine cities. Early on, the geographic position of Greece and the necessity of importing wheat forced the Greeks to engage in maritime trade. Trade in ancient Greece was largely unrestricted: the state controlled only the supply of grain.
Trade on the Silk Road was a significant factor in the development of civilizations from China, Indian subcontinent, Persia, Europe, and Arabia, opening long-distance political and economic interactions between them. Though silk was certainly the major trade item from China, common goods such as salt and sugar were traded as well; and religions, syncretic philosophies, and various technologies, as well as diseases, also traveled along the Silk Routes. In addition to economic trade, the Silk Road served as a means of carrying out cultural trade among the civilizations along its network. The movement of people, such as refugees, artists, craftsmen, missionaries, robbers, and envoys, resulted in the exchange of religions, art, languages, and new technologies.
"Early modern-" or "proto-globalization" covers a period of the history of globalization roughly spanning the years between 1600 and 1800. The concept of "proto-globalization" was first introduced by historians A. G. Hopkins and Christopher Bayly. The term describes the phase of increasing trade links and cultural exchange that characterized the period immediately preceding the advent of high "modern globalization" in the late 19th century. This phase of globalization was characterized by the rise of maritime European empires, in the 15th and 17th centuries, first the Portuguese Empire (1415) followed by the Spanish Empire (1492), and later the Dutch and British Empires. In the 17th century, world trade developed further when chartered companies like the British East India Company (founded in 1600) and the Dutch East India Company (founded in 1602, often described as the first multinational corporation in which stock was offered) were established.
Early modern globalization is distinguished from modern globalization on the basis of expansionism, the method of managing global trade, and the level of information exchange. The period is marked by such trade arrangements as the East India Company, the shift of hegemony to Western Europe, the rise of larger-scale conflicts between powerful nations such as the Thirty Years' War, and the rise of newfound commodities—most particularly slave trade. The Triangular Trade made it possible for Europe to take advantage of resources within the Western Hemisphere. The transfer of animal stocks, plant crops, and epidemic diseases associated with Alfred W. Crosby's concept of the Columbian Exchange also played a central role in this process. European, Muslim, Indian, Southeast Asian, and Chinese merchants were all involved in early modern trade and communications, particularly in the Indian Ocean region.
According to economic historians Kevin H. O'Rourke, Leandro Prados de la Escosura, and Guillaume Daudin, several factors promoted globalization in the period 1815–1870:
During the 19th century, globalization approached its form as a direct result of the Industrial Revolution. Industrialization allowed standardized production of household items using economies of scale while rapid population growth created sustained demand for commodities. In the 19th century, steamships reduced the cost of international transport significantly and railroads made inland transportation cheaper. The transport revolution occurred some time between 1820 and 1850. More nations embraced international trade. Globalization in this period was decisively shaped by nineteenth-century imperialism such as in Africa and Asia. The invention of shipping containers in 1956 helped advance the globalization of commerce.
After World War II, work by politicians led to the agreements of the Bretton Woods Conference, in which major governments laid down the framework for international monetary policy, commerce, and finance, and the founding of several international institutions intended to facilitate economic growth by lowering trade barriers. Initially, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) led to a series of agreements to remove trade restrictions. GATT's successor was the World Trade Organization (WTO), which provided a framework for negotiating and formalizing trade agreements and a dispute resolution process. Exports nearly doubled from 8.5% of total gross world product in 1970 to 16.2% in 2001. The approach of using global agreements to advance trade stumbled with the failure of the Doha Development Round of trade negotiation. Many countries then shifted to bilateral or smaller multilateral agreements, such as the 2011 South Korea–United States Free Trade Agreement.
Since the 1970s, aviation has become increasingly affordable to middle classes in developed countries. Open skies policies and low-cost carriers have helped to bring competition to the market. In the 1990s, the growth of low-cost communication networks cut the cost of communicating between countries. More work can be performed using a computer without regard to location. This included accounting, software development, and engineering design.
Student exchange programs became popular after World War II, and are intended to increase the participants' understanding and tolerance of other cultures, as well as improving their language skills and broadening their social horizons. Between 1963 and 2006 the number of students studying in a foreign country increased 9 times.
Since the 1980s, modern globalization has spread rapidly through the expansion of capitalism and neoliberal ideologies. The implementation of neoliberal policies has allowed for the privatization of public industry, deregulation of laws or policies that interfered with the free flow of the market, as well as cut-backs to governmental social services. These neoliberal policies were introduced to many developing countries in the form of structural adjustment programs (SAPs) that were implemented by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). These programs required that the country receiving monetary aid would open its markets to capitalism, privatize public industry, allow free trade, cut social services like healthcare and education and allow the free movement of giant multinational corporations. These programs allowed the World Bank and the IMF to become global financial market regulators that would promote neoliberalism and the creation of free markets for multinational corporations on a global scale.
In the late 19th and early 20th century, the connectedness of the world's economies and cultures grew very quickly. This slowed down from the 1910s onward due to the World Wars and the Cold War, but picked up again in the 1980s and 1990s. The revolutions of 1989 and subsequent liberalization in many parts of the world resulted in a significant expansion of global interconnectedness. The migration and movement of people can also be highlighted as a prominent feature of the globalization process. In the period between 1965 and 1990, the proportion of the labor force migrating approximately doubled. Most migration occurred between the developing countries and least developed countries (LDCs). As economic integration intensified workers moved to areas with higher wages and most of the developing world oriented toward the international market economy. The collapse of the Soviet Union not only ended the Cold War's division of the world – it also left the United States its sole policeman and an unfettered advocate of free market. It also resulted in the growing prominence of attention focused on the movement of diseases, the proliferation of popular culture and consumer values, the growing prominence of international institutions like the UN, and concerted international action on such issues as the environment and human rights. Other developments as dramatic were the Internet's becoming influential in connecting people across the world; , more than 2.4 billion people—over a third of the world's human population—have used the services of the Internet. Growth of globalization has never been smooth. One influential event was the late 2000s recession, which was associated with lower growth (in areas such as cross-border phone calls and Skype usage) or even temporarily negative growth (in areas such as trade) of global interconnectedness.
Globalized society offers a complex web of forces and factors that bring people, cultures, markets, beliefs, and practices into increasingly greater proximity to one another.
Economic globalization is the increasing economic interdependence of national economies across the world through a rapid increase in cross-border movement of goods, services, technology, and capital. Whereas the globalization of business is centered around the diminution of international trade regulations as well as tariffs, taxes, and other impediments that suppresses global trade, economic globalization is the process of increasing economic integration between countries, leading to the emergence of a global marketplace or a single world market. Depending on the paradigm, economic globalization can be viewed as either a positive or a negative phenomenon. Economic globalization comprises: globalization of production; which refers to the obtainment of goods and services from a particular source from locations around the globe to benefit from difference in cost and quality. Likewise, it also comprises globalization of markets; which is defined as the union of different and separate markets into a massive global marketplace. Economic globalization also includes competition, technology, and corporations and industries.
Current globalization trends can be largely accounted for by developed economies integrating with less developed economies by means of foreign direct investment, the reduction of trade barriers as well as other economic reforms, and, in many cases, immigration.
International standards have made trade in goods and services more efficient. An example of such standard is the intermodal container. Containerization dramatically reduced transport of its costs, supported the post-war boom in international trade, and was a major element in globalization. International Organization for Standardization is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations.
A multinational corporation or worldwide enterprise is an organization that owns or controls production of goods or services in one or more countries other than their home country. It can also be referred as an international corporation, a transnational corporation, or a stateless corporation.
A free-trade area is the region encompassing a trade bloc whose member countries have signed a free-trade agreement (FTA). Such agreements involve cooperation between at least two countries to reduce trade barriers import quotas and tariffs and to increase trade of goods and services with each other.
If people are also free to move between the countries, in addition to a free-trade agreement, it would also be considered an open border.
Arguably the most significant free-trade area in the world is the European Union, a politico-economic union of member states that are primarily located in Europe. The EU has developed European Single Market through a standardized system of laws that apply in all member states. EU policies aim to ensure the free movement of people, goods, services, and capital within the internal market,
Trade facilitation looks at how procedures and controls governing the movement of goods across national borders can be improved to reduce associated cost burdens and maximize efficiency while safeguarding legitimate regulatory objectives.
Global trade in services is also significant. For example, in India, business process outsourcing has been described as the "primary engine of the country's development over the next few decades, contributing broadly to GDP growth, employment growth, and poverty alleviation".
William I. Robinson's theoretical approach to globalization is a critique of Wallerstein's World Systems Theory. He believes that the global capital experienced today is due to a new and distinct form of globalization which began in the 1980s. Robinson argues not only are economic activities expanded across national boundaries but also there is a transnational fragmentation of these activities. One important aspect of Robinson's globalization theory is that production of goods are increasingly global. This means that one pair of shoes can be produced by six countries, each contributing to a part of the production process.
Cultural globalization refers to the transmission of ideas, meanings, and values around the world in such a way as to extend and intensify social relations. This process is marked by the common consumption of cultures that have been diffused by the Internet, popular culture media, and international travel. This has added to processes of commodity exchange and colonization which have a longer history of carrying cultural meaning around the globe. The circulation of cultures enables individuals to partake in extended social relations that cross national and regional borders. The creation and expansion of such social relations is not merely observed on a material level. Cultural globalization involves the formation of shared norms and knowledge with which people associate their individual and collective cultural identities. It brings increasing interconnectedness among different populations and cultures.
Cross-cultural communication is a field of study that looks at how people from differing cultural backgrounds communicate, in similar and different ways among themselves, and how they endeavour to communicate across cultures. Intercultural communication is a related field of study.
Cultural diffusion is the spread of cultural items—such as ideas, styles, religions, technologies, languages etc.
Cultural globalization has increased cross-cultural contacts, but may be accompanied by a decrease in the uniqueness of once-isolated communities. For example, sushi is available in Germany as well as Japan, but Euro-Disney outdraws the city of Paris, potentially reducing demand for "authentic" French pastry. Globalization's contribution to the alienation of individuals from their traditions may be modest compared to the impact of modernity itself, as alleged by existentialists such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. Globalization has expanded recreational opportunities by spreading pop culture, particularly via the Internet and satellite television.
Religions were among the earliest cultural elements to globalize, being spread by force, migration, evangelists, imperialists, and traders. Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and more recently sects such as Mormonism are among those religions which have taken root and influenced endemic cultures in places far from their origins.
Globalization has strongly influenced sports. For example, the modern Olympic Games has athletes from more than 200 nations participating in a variety of competitions. The FIFA World Cup is the most widely viewed and followed sporting event in the world, exceeding even the Olympic Games; a ninth of the entire population of the planet watched the 2006 FIFA World Cup Final.
The term globalization implies transformation. Cultural practices including traditional music can be lost or turned into a fusion of traditions. Globalization can trigger a state of emergency for the preservation of musical heritage. Archivists may attempt to collect, record, or transcribe repertoires before melodies are assimilated or modified, while local musicians may struggle for authenticity and to preserve local musical traditions. Globalization can lead performers to discard traditional instruments. Fusion genres can become interesting fields of analysis.
Music has an important role in economic and cultural development during globalization. Music genres such as jazz and reggae began locally and later became international phenomena. Globalization gave support to the world music phenomenon by allowing music from developing countries to reach broader audiences. Though the term "World Music" was originally intended for ethnic-specific music, globalization is now expanding its scope such that the term often includes hybrid subgenres such as "world fusion", "global fusion", "ethnic fusion", and worldbeat.
Bourdieu claimed that the perception of consumption can be seen as self-identification and the formation of identity. Musically, this translates into each individual having their own musical identity based on likes and tastes. These likes and tastes are greatly influenced by culture, as this is the most basic cause for a person's wants and behavior. The concept of one's own culture is now in a period of change due to globalization. Also, globalization has increased the interdependency of political, personal, cultural, and economic factors.
A 2005 UNESCO report showed that cultural exchange is becoming more frequent from Eastern Asia, but that Western countries are still the main exporters of cultural goods. In 2002, China was the third largest exporter of cultural goods, after the UK and US. Between 1994 and 2002, both North America's and the European Union's shares of cultural exports declined while Asia's cultural exports grew to surpass North America. Related factors are the fact that Asia's population and area are several times that of North America. Americanization is related to a period of high political American clout and of significant growth of America's shops, markets and objects being brought into other countries.
Some critics of globalization argue that it harms the diversity of cultures. As a dominating country's culture is introduced into a receiving country through globalization, it can become a threat to the diversity of local culture. Some argue that globalization may ultimately lead to Westernization or Americanization of culture, where the dominating cultural concepts of economically and politically powerful Western countries spread and cause harm to local cultures.
Globalization is a diverse phenomenon which relates to a multilateral political world and to the increase of cultural objects and markets between countries. The Indian experience particularly reveals the plurality of the impact of cultural globalization.
Transculturalism is defined as "seeing oneself in the other". Transcultural is in turn described as "extending through all human cultures" or "involving, encompassing, or combining elements of more than one culture".
Political globalization refers to the growth of the worldwide political system, both in size and complexity. That system includes national governments, their governmental and intergovernmental organizations as well as government-independent elements of global civil society such as international non-governmental organizations and social movement organizations. One of the key aspects of the political globalization is the declining importance of the nation-state and the rise of other actors on the political scene.
William R. Thompson has defined it as "the expansion of a global political system, and its institutions, in which inter-regional transactions (including, but certainly not limited to trade) are managed".
Political globalization is one of the three main dimensions of globalization commonly found in academic literature, with the two other being economic globalization and cultural globalization.
Intergovernmentalism is a term in political science with two meanings. The first refers to a theory of regional integration originally proposed by Stanley Hoffmann; the second treats states and the national government as the primary factors for integration.
Multi-level governance is an approach in political science and public administration theory that originated from studies on European integration. Multi-level governance gives expression to the idea that there are many interacting authority structures at work in the emergent global political economy. It illuminates the intimate entanglement between the domestic and international levels of authority.
Some people are citizens of multiple nation-states. Multiple citizenship, also called dual citizenship or multiple nationality or dual nationality, is a person's citizenship status, in which a person is concurrently regarded as a citizen of more than one state under the laws of those states.
Increasingly, non-governmental organizations influence public policy across national boundaries, including humanitarian aid and developmental efforts. Philanthropic organizations with global missions are also coming to the forefront of humanitarian efforts; charities such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Accion International, the Acumen Fund (now Acumen) and the Echoing Green have combined the business model with philanthropy, giving rise to business organizations such as the Global Philanthropy Group and new associations of philanthropists such as the Global Philanthropy Forum. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation projects include a current multibillion-dollar commitment to funding immunizations in some of the world's more impoverished but rapidly growing countries. The Hudson Institute estimates total private philanthropic flows to developing countries at US$59 billion in 2010.
As a response to globalization, some countries have embraced isolationist policies. For example, the North Korean government makes it very difficult for foreigners to enter the country and strictly monitors their activities when they do. Aid workers are subject to considerable scrutiny and excluded from places and regions the government does not wish them to enter. Citizens cannot freely leave the country.
Globalization has been a gendered process where giant multinational corporations have outsourced jobs to low-wage, low skilled, quota free economies like the ready made garment industry in Bangladesh where poor women make up the majority of labor force. Despite a large proportion of women workers in the garment industry, women are still heavily underemployed compared to men. Most women that are employed in the garment industry come from the countryside of Bangladesh triggering migration of women in search of garment work. It is still unclear as to whether or not access to paid work for women where it didn't exist before has empowered them. The answers varied depending on whether it is the employers perspective or the workers and how they view their choices. Women workers did not see the garment industry as economically sustainable for them in the long run due to long hours standing and poor working conditions. Although women workers did show significant autonomy over their personal lives including their ability to negotiate with family, more choice in marriage, and being valued as a wage earner in the family. This did not translate into workers being able to collectively organize themselves in order to negotiate a better deal for themselves at work.
Another example of outsourcing in manufacturing includes the maquiladora industry in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico where poor women make up the majority of the labor force. Women in the maquiladora industry have produced high levels of turnover not staying long enough to be trained compared to men. A gendered two tiered system within the maquiladora industry has been created that focuses on training and worker loyalty. Women are seen as being untrainable, placed in un-skilled, low wage jobs, while men are seen as more trainable with less turnover rates, and placed in more high skilled technical jobs. The idea of training has become a tool used against women to blame them for their high turnover rates which also benefit the industry keeping women as temporary workers.
Scholars also occasionally discuss other, less common dimensions of globalization, such as environmental globalization (the internationally coordinated practices and regulations, often in the form of international treaties, regarding environmental protection) or military globalization (growth in global extent and scope of security relationships). Those dimensions, however, receive much less attention the three described above, as academic literature commonly subdivides globalization into three major areas: economic globalization, cultural globalization and political globalization.
An essential aspect of globalization is movement of people, and state-boundary limits on that movement have changed across history. The movement of tourists and business people opened up over the last century. As transportation technology improved, travel time and costs decreased dramatically between the 18th and early 20th century. For example, travel across the Atlantic ocean used to take up to 5 weeks in the 18th century, but around the time of the 20th century it took a mere 8 days. Today, modern aviation has made long-distance transportation quick and affordable.
Tourism is travel for pleasure. The developments in technology and transport infrastructure, such as jumbo jets, low-cost airlines, and more accessible airports have made many types of tourism more affordable. At any given moment half a million people are in the air. International tourist arrivals surpassed the milestone of 1 billion tourists globally for the first time in 2012.
A visa is a conditional authorization granted by a country to a foreigner, allowing them to enter and temporarily remain within, or to leave that country. Some countries – such as those in the Schengen Area – have agreements with other countries allowing each other's citizens to travel between them without visas. The World Tourism Organization announced that the number of tourists who require a visa before traveling was at its lowest level ever in 2015.
Immigration is the international movement of people into a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle or reside there, especially as permanent residents or naturalized citizens, or to take-up employment as a migrant worker or temporarily as a foreign worker.
According to the International Labour Organization, there were an estimated 232 million international migrants in the world (defined as persons outside their country of origin for 12 months or more) and approximately half of them were estimated to be economically active (i.e. being employed or seeking employment). International movement of labor is often seen as important to economic development. For example, freedom of movement for workers in the European Union means that people can move freely between member states to live, work, study or retire in another country.
Globalization is associated with a dramatic rise in international education. More and more students are seeking higher education in foreign countries and many international students now consider overseas study a stepping-stone to permanent residency within a country. The contributions that foreign students make to host nation economies, both culturally and financially has encouraged major players to implement further initiatives to facilitate the arrival and integration of overseas students, including substantial amendments to immigration and visa policies and procedures.
A transnational marriage is a marriage between two people from different countries. A variety of special issues arise in marriages between people from different countries, including those related to citizenship and culture, which add complexity and challenges to these kinds of relationships.
In an age of increasing globalization, where a growing number of people have ties to networks of people and places across the globe, rather than to a current geographic location, people are increasingly marrying across national boundaries. Transnational marriage is a by-product of the movement and migration of people.
Before electronic communications, long-distance communications relied on mail. Speed of global communications was limited by the maximum speed of courier services (especially horses and ships) until the mid-19th century. The electric telegraph was the first method of instant long-distance communication. For example, before the first transatlantic cable, communications between Europe and the Americas took weeks because ships had to carry mail across the ocean. The first transatlantic cable reduced communication time considerably, allowing a message and a response in the same day. Lasting transatlantic telegraph connections were achieved in the 1865–1866. The first wireless telegraphy transmitters were developed in 1895.
The Internet has been instrumental in connecting people across geographical boundaries. For example, Facebook is a social networking service which has more than 1.65 billion monthly active users .
Globalization can be spread by Global journalism which provides massive information and relies on the internet to interact, "makes it into an everyday routine to investigate how people and their actions, practices, problems, life conditions, etc. in different parts of the world are interrelated. possible to assume that global threats such as climate change precipitate the further establishment of global journalism."
In the current era of globalization, the world is more interdependent than at any other time. Efficient and inexpensive transportation has left few places inaccessible, and increased global trade has brought more and more people into contact with animal diseases that have subsequently jumped species barriers (see zoonosis).
Coronavirus disease 2019, abbreviated COVID-19, first appeared in Wuhan, China in November 2019. More than 180 countries have reported cases since then. , the U.S. has the most confirmed active cases in the world. More than 3.4 million people from the worst-affected countries entered U.S. in the first three months since the inception of the COVID-19 pandemic.
One index of globalization is the "KOF Index of Globalization", which measures three important dimensions of globalization: economic, social, and political. Another is the A.T. Kearney / Foreign Policy Magazine Globalization Index.
Measurements of economic globalization typically focus on variables such as trade, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), Gross Domestic Product (GDP), portfolio investment, and income. However, newer indices attempt to measure globalization in more general terms, including variables related to political, social, cultural, and even environmental aspects of globalization.
The DHL Global Connectedness Index studies four main types of cross-border flow: trade (in both goods and services), information, people (including tourists, students, and migrants), and capital. It shows that the depth of global integration fell by about one-tenth after 2008, but by 2013 had recovered well above its pre-crash peak. The report also found a shift of economic activity to emerging economies.
Reactions to processes contributing to globalization have varied widely with a history as long as extraterritorial contact and trade. Philosophical differences regarding the costs and benefits of such processes give rise to a broad-range of ideologies and social movements. Proponents of economic growth, expansion and development, in general, view globalizing processes as desirable or necessary to the well-being of human society.
Antagonists view one or more globalizing processes as detrimental to social well-being on a global or local scale; this includes those who focus on social or natural sustainability of long-term and continuous economic expansion, the social structural inequality caused by these processes, and the colonial, imperialistic, or hegemonic ethnocentrism, cultural assimilation and cultural appropriation that underlie such processes.
Globalization tends to bring people into contact with foreign people and cultures. Xenophobia is the fear of that which is perceived to be foreign or strange. Xenophobia can manifest itself in many ways involving the relations and perceptions of an ingroup towards an outgroup, including a fear of losing identity, suspicion of its activities, aggression, and desire to eliminate its presence to secure a presumed purity.
Critiques of globalization generally stem from discussions surrounding the impact of such processes on the planet as well as the human costs. They challenge directly traditional metrics, such as GDP, and look to other measures, such as the Gini coefficient or the Happy Planet Index, and point to a "multitude of interconnected fatal consequences–social disintegration, a breakdown of democracy, more rapid and extensive deterioration of the environment, the spread of new diseases, increasing poverty and alienation" which they claim are the unintended consequences of globalization. Others point out that, while the forces of globalization have led to the spread of western-style democracy, this has been accompanied by an increase in inter-ethnic tension and violence as free market economic policies combine with democratic processes of universal suffrage as well as an escalation in militarization to impose democratic principles and as a means to conflict resolution.
On August 9, 2019, Pope Francis denounced isolationism and hinted that the Catholic Church will embrace globalization at the October 2019 Amazonia Synod, stating “the whole is greater than the parts. Globalization and unity should not be conceived as a sphere, but as a polyhedron: each people retains its identity in unity with others"
A 2005 study by Peer Fis and Paul Hirsch found a large increase in articles negative towards globalization in the years prior. In 1998, negative articles outpaced positive articles by two to one. The number of newspaper articles showing negative framing rose from about 10% of the total in 1991 to 55% of the total in 1999. This increase occurred during a period when the total number of articles concerning globalization nearly doubled.
A number of international polls have shown that residents of Africa and Asia tend to view globalization more favorably than residents of Europe or North America. In Africa, a Gallup poll found that 70% of the population views globalization favorably. The BBC found that 50% of people believed that economic globalization was proceeding too rapidly, while 35% believed it was proceeding too slowly.
In 2004, Philip Gordon stated that "a clear majority of Europeans believe that globalization can enrich their lives, while believing the European Union can help them take advantage of globalization's benefits while shielding them from its negative effects." The main opposition consisted of socialists, environmental groups, and nationalists. Residents of the EU did not appear to feel threatened by globalization in 2004. The EU job market was more stable and workers were less likely to accept wage/benefit cuts. Social spending was much higher than in the US. In a Danish poll in 2007, 76% responded that globalization is a good thing.
Fiss, "et al.", surveyed US opinion in 1993. Their survey showed that, in 1993, more than 40% of respondents were unfamiliar with the concept of globalization. When the survey was repeated in 1998, 89% of the respondents had a polarized view of globalization as being either good or bad. At the same time, discourse on globalization, which began in the financial community before shifting to a heated debate between proponents and disenchanted students and workers. Polarization increased dramatically after the establishment of the WTO in 1995; this event and subsequent protests led to a large-scale anti-globalization movement.
Initially, college educated workers were likely to support globalization. Less educated workers, who were more likely to compete with immigrants and workers in developing countries, tended to be opponents. The situation changed after the financial crisis of 2007. According to a 1997 poll 58% of college graduates said globalization had been good for the US. By 2008 only 33% thought it was good. Respondents with high school education also became more opposed.
According to Takenaka Heizo and Chida Ryokichi, there was a perception in Japan that the economy was "Small and Frail". However, Japan was resource-poor and used exports to pay for its raw materials. Anxiety over their position caused terms such as "internationalization" and "globalization" to enter everyday language. However, Japanese tradition was to be as self-sufficient as possible, particularly in agriculture.
Many in developing countries see globalization as a positive force that lifts them out of poverty. Those opposing globalization typically combine environmental concerns with nationalism. Opponents consider governments as agents of neo-colonialism that are subservient to multinational corporations. Much of this criticism comes from the middle class; the Brookings Institution suggested this was because the middle class perceived upwardly mobile low-income groups as threatening to their economic security.
The literature analyzing the economics of free trade is extremely rich with extensive work having been done on the theoretical and empirical effects. Though it creates winners and losers, the broad consensus among economists is that free trade is a large and unambiguous net gain for society. In a 2006 survey of 83 American economists, "87.5% agree that the U.S. should eliminate remaining tariffs and other barriers to trade" and "90.1% disagree with the suggestion that the U.S. should restrict employers from outsourcing work to foreign countries."
Quoting Harvard economics professor N. Gregory Mankiw, "Few propositions command as much consensus among professional economists as that open world trade increases economic growth and raises living standards." In a survey of leading economists, none disagreed with the notion that "freer trade improves productive efficiency and offers consumers better choices, and in the long run these gains are much larger than any effects on employment." Most economists would agree that although increasing returns to scale might mean that certain industry could settle in a geographical area without any strong economic reason derived from comparative advantage, this is not a reason to argue against free trade because the absolute level of output enjoyed by both "winner" and "loser" will increase with the "winner" gaining more than the "loser" but both gaining more than before in an absolute level.
In the book "The End of Poverty", Jeffrey Sachs discusses how many factors can affect a country's ability to enter the world market, including government corruption; legal and social disparities based on gender, ethnicity, or caste; diseases such as AIDS and malaria; lack of infrastructure (including transportation, communications, health, and trade); unstable political landscapes; protectionism; and geographic barriers. Jagdish Bhagwati, a former adviser to the U.N. on globalization, holds that, although there are obvious problems with overly rapid development, globalization is a very positive force that lifts countries out of poverty by causing a virtuous economic cycle associated with faster economic growth. However, economic growth does not necessarily mean a reduction in poverty; in fact, the two can coexist. Economic growth is conventionally measured using indicators such as GDP and GNI that do not accurately reflect the growing disparities in wealth. Additionally, Oxfam International argues that poor people are often excluded from globalization-induced opportunities "by a lack of productive assets, weak infrastructure, poor education and ill-health;" effectively leaving these marginalized groups in a poverty trap. Economist Paul Krugman is another staunch supporter of globalization and free trade with a record of disagreeing with many critics of globalization. He argues that many of them lack a basic understanding of comparative advantage and its importance in today's world.
The flow of migrants to advanced economies has been claimed to provide a means through which global wages converge. An IMF study noted a potential for skills to be transferred back to developing countries as wages in those a countries rise. Lastly, the dissemination of knowledge has been an integral aspect of globalization. Technological innovations (or technological transfer) are conjectured to benefit most developing and least developing countries (LDCs), as for example in the adoption of mobile phones.
There has been a rapid economic growth in Asia after embracing market orientation-based economic policies that encourage private property rights, free enterprise and competition. In particular, in East Asian developing countries, GDP per head rose at 5.9% a year from 1975 to 2001 (according to 2003 Human Development Report of UNDP). Like this, the British economic journalist Martin Wolf says that incomes of poor developing countries, with more than half the world's population, grew substantially faster than those of the world's richest countries that remained relatively stable in its growth, leading to reduced international inequality and the incidence of poverty.
Certain demographic changes in the developing world after active economic liberalization and international integration resulted in rising general welfare and, hence, reduced inequality. According to Wolf, in the developing world as a whole, life expectancy rose by four months each year after 1970 and infant mortality rate declined from 107 per thousand in 1970 to 58 in 2000 due to improvements in standards of living and health conditions. Also, adult literacy in developing countries rose from 53% in 1970 to 74% in 1998 and much lower illiteracy rate among the young guarantees that rates will continue to fall as time passes. Furthermore, the reduction in fertility rate in the developing world as a whole from 4.1 births per woman in 1980 to 2.8 in 2000 indicates improved education level of women on fertility, and control of fewer children with more parental attention and investment. Consequently, more prosperous and educated parents with fewer children have chosen to withdraw their children from the labor force to give them opportunities to be educated at school improving the issue of child labor. Thus, despite seemingly unequal distribution of income within these developing countries, their economic growth and development have brought about improved standards of living and welfare for the population as a whole.
Per capita gross domestic product (GDP) growth among post-1980 globalizing countries accelerated from 1.4 percent a year in the 1960s and 2.9 percent a year in the 1970s to 3.5 percent in the 1980s and 5.0 percent in the 1990s. This acceleration in growth seems even more remarkable given that the rich countries saw steady declines in growth from a high of 4.7 percent in the 1960s to 2.2 percent in the 1990s. Also, the non-globalizing developing countries seem to fare worse than the globalizers, with the former's annual growth rates falling from highs of 3.3 percent during the 1970s to only 1.4 percent during the 1990s. This rapid growth among the globalizers is not simply due to the strong performances of China and India in the 1980s and 1990s—18 out of the 24 globalizers experienced increases in growth, many of them quite substantial.
The globalization of the late 20th and early 21st centuries has led to the resurfacing of the idea that the growth of economic interdependence promotes peace. This idea had been very powerful during the globalization of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and was a central doctrine of classical liberals of that era, such as the young John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946).
Some opponents of globalization see the phenomenon as a promotion of corporate interests. They also claim that the increasing autonomy and strength of corporate entities shapes the political policy of countries. They advocate global institutions and policies that they believe better address the moral claims of poor and working classes as well as environmental concerns. Economic arguments by fair trade theorists claim that unrestricted free trade benefits those with more financial leverage (i.e. the rich) at the expense of the poor.
Globalization allows corporations to outsource manufacturing and service jobs from high cost locations, creating economic opportunities with the most competitive wages and worker benefits. Critics of globalization say that it disadvantages poorer countries. While it is true that free trade encourages globalization among countries, some countries try to protect their domestic suppliers. The main export of poorer countries is usually agricultural productions. Larger countries often subsidize their farmers (e.g., the EU's Common Agricultural Policy), which lowers the market price for foreign crops.
Democratic globalization is a movement towards an institutional system of global democracy that would give world citizens a say in political organizations. This would, in their view, bypass nation-states, corporate oligopolies, ideological non-governmental organizations (NGO), political cults and mafias. One of its most prolific proponents is the British political thinker David Held. Advocates of democratic globalization argue that economic expansion and development should be the first phase of democratic globalization, which is to be followed by a phase of building global political institutions. Dr. Francesco Stipo, Director of the United States Association of the Club of Rome, advocates unifying nations under a world government, suggesting that it "should reflect the political and economic balances of world nations. A world confederation would not supersede the authority of the State governments but rather complement it, as both the States and the world authority would have power within their sphere of competence". Former Canadian Senator Douglas Roche, O.C., viewed globalization as inevitable and advocated creating institutions such as a directly elected United Nations Parliamentary Assembly to exercise oversight over unelected international bodies.
Global civics suggests that civics can be understood, in a global sense, as a social contract between global citizens in the age of interdependence and interaction. The disseminators of the concept define it as the notion that we have certain rights and responsibilities towards each other by the mere fact of being human on Earth. World citizen has a variety of similar meanings, often referring to a person who disapproves of traditional geopolitical divisions derived from national citizenship. An early incarnation of this sentiment can be found in Socrates, whom Plutarch quoted as saying: "I am not an Athenian, or a Greek, but a citizen of the world." In an increasingly interdependent world, world citizens need a compass to frame their mindsets and create a shared consciousness and sense of global responsibility in world issues such as environmental problems and nuclear proliferation.
Baha'i-inspired author Meyjes, while favoring the single world community and emergent global consciousness, warns of globalization as a cloak for an expeditious economic, social, and cultural Anglo-dominance that is insufficiently inclusive to inform the emergence of an optimal world civilization. He proposes a process of "universalization" as an alternative.
Cosmopolitanism is the proposal that all human ethnic groups belong to a single community based on a shared morality. A person who adheres to the idea of cosmopolitanism in any of its forms is called a cosmopolitan or cosmopolite. A cosmopolitan community might be based on an inclusive morality, a shared economic relationship, or a political structure that encompasses different nations. The cosmopolitan community is one in which individuals from different places (e.g. nation-states) form relationships based on mutual respect. For instance, Kwame Anthony Appiah suggests the possibility of a cosmopolitan community in which individuals from varying locations (physical, economic, etc.) enter relationships of mutual respect despite their differing beliefs (religious, political, etc.).
Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan popularized the term "Global Village" beginning in 1962. His view suggested that globalization would lead to a world where people from all countries will become more integrated and aware of common interests and shared humanity.
Military cooperation – Past examples of international cooperation exist. One example is the security cooperation between the United States and the former Soviet Union after the end of the Cold War, which astonished international society. Arms control and disarmament agreements, including the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (see START I, START II, START III, and New START) and the establishment of NATO's Partnership for Peace, the Russia NATO Council, and the G8 Global Partnership against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction, constitute concrete initiatives of arms control and de-nuclearization. The US–Russian cooperation was further strengthened by anti-terrorism agreements enacted in the wake of 9/11.
Environmental cooperation – One of the biggest successes of environmental cooperation has been the agreement to reduce chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) emissions, as specified in the Montreal Protocol, in order to stop ozone depletion. The most recent debate around nuclear energy and the non-alternative coal-burning power plants constitutes one more consensus on what not to do. Thirdly, significant achievements in IC can be observed through development studies.
Economic cooperation - One of the biggest challenges in 2019 with globalization is that many believe the progress made in the past decades are now back tracking. The back tracking of globalization has coined the term "Slobalization." Slobalization is a new, slower pattern of globalization.
Anti-globalization, or counter-globalization, consists of a number of criticisms of globalization but, in general, is critical of the globalization of corporate capitalism. The movement is also commonly referred to as the alter-globalization movement, anti-globalist movement, anti-corporate globalization movement, or movement against neoliberal globalization. Opponents of globalization argue that there is unequal power and respect in terms of international trade between the developed and underdeveloped countries of the world. The diverse subgroups that make up this movement include some of the following: trade unionists, environmentalists, anarchists, land rights and indigenous rights activists, organizations promoting human rights and sustainable development, opponents of privatization, and anti-sweatshop campaigners.
In "The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy", Christopher Lasch analyzes the widening gap between the top and bottom of the social composition in the United States. For him, our epoch is determined by a social phenomenon: the revolt of the elites, in reference to "The revolt of the masses" (1929) of the Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset. According to Lasch, the new elites, i.e. those who are in the top 20% in terms of income, through globalization which allows total mobility of capital, no longer live in the same world as their fellow-citizens. In this, they oppose the old bourgeoisie of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which was constrained by its spatial stability to a minimum of rooting and civic obligations. Globalization, according to the sociologist, has turned elites into tourists in their own countries. The denationalization of business enterprise tends to produce a class who see themselves as "world citizens, but without accepting ... any of the obligations that citizenship in a polity normally implies". Their ties to an international culture of work, leisure, information – make many of them deeply indifferent to the prospect of national decline. Instead of financing public services and the public treasury, new elites are investing their money in improving their voluntary ghettos: private schools in their residential neighborhoods, private police, garbage collection systems. They have "withdrawn from common life".
Composed of those who control the international flows of capital and information, who preside over philanthropic foundations and institutions of higher education, manage the instruments of cultural production and thus fix the terms of public debate. So, the political debate is limited mainly to the dominant classes and political ideologies lose all contact with the concerns of the ordinary citizen. The result of this is that no one has a likely solution to these problems and that there are furious ideological battles on related issues.
However, they remain protected from the problems affecting the working classes: the decline of industrial activity, the resulting loss of employment, the decline of the middle class, increasing the number of the poor, the rising crime rate, growing drug trafficking, the urban crisis.
D.A. Snow et al. contend that the anti-globalization movement is an example of a new social movement, which uses tactics that are unique and use different resources than previously used before in other social movements.
One of the most infamous tactics of the movement is the Battle of Seattle in 1999, where there were protests against the World Trade Organization's Third Ministerial Meeting. All over the world, the movement has held protests outside meetings of institutions such as the WTO, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the World Economic Forum, and the Group of Eight (G8). Within the Seattle demonstrations the protesters that participated used both creative and violent tactics to gain the attention towards the issue of globalization.
Capital markets have to do with raising and investing money in various human enterprises. Increasing integration of these financial markets between countries leads to the emergence of a global capital marketplace or a single world market. In the long run, increased movement of capital between countries tends to favor owners of capital more than any other group; in the short run, owners and workers in specific sectors in capital-exporting countries bear much of the burden of adjusting to increased movement of capital.
Those opposed to capital market integration on the basis of human rights issues are especially disturbed by the various abuses which they think are perpetuated by global and international institutions that, they say, promote neoliberalism without regard to ethical standards. Common targets include the World Bank (WB), International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) and free trade treaties like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) and the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). In light of the economic gap between rich and poor countries, movement adherents claim free trade without measures in place to protect the under-capitalized will contribute only to the strengthening the power of industrialized nations (often termed the "North" in opposition to the developing world's "South").
Corporatist ideology, which privileges the rights of corporations (artificial or juridical persons) over those of natural persons, is an underlying factor in the recent rapid expansion of global commerce. In recent years, there have been an increasing number of books (Naomi Klein's 2000 "No Logo", for example) and films ("e.g. The Corporation" & "Surplus") popularizing an anti-corporate ideology to the public.
A related contemporary ideology, consumerism, which encourages the personal acquisition of goods and services, also drives globalization. Anti-consumerism is a social movement against equating personal happiness with consumption and the purchase of material possessions. Concern over the treatment of consumers by large corporations has spawned substantial activism, and the incorporation of consumer education into school curricula. Social activists hold materialism is connected to global retail merchandizing and supplier convergence, war, greed, anomie, crime, environmental degradation, and general social malaise and discontent. One variation on this topic is activism by "postconsumers", with the strategic emphasis on moving "beyond" addictive consumerism.
The global justice movement is the loose collection of individuals and groups—often referred to as a "movement of movements"—who advocate fair trade rules and perceive current institutions of global economic integration as problems. The movement is often labeled an anti-globalization movement by the mainstream media. Those involved, however, frequently deny that they are anti-globalization, insisting that they support the globalization of communication and people and oppose only the global expansion of corporate power. The movement is based in the idea of social justice, desiring the creation of a society or institution based on the principles of equality and solidarity, the values of human rights, and the dignity of every human being. Social inequality within and between nations, including a growing global digital divide, is a focal point of the movement. Many nongovernmental organizations have now arisen to fight these inequalities that many in Latin America, Africa and Asia face. A few very popular and well known non-governmental organizations (NGOs) include: War Child, Red Cross, Free The Children and CARE International. They often create partnerships where they work towards improving the lives of those who live in developing countries by building schools, fixing infrastructure, cleaning water supplies, purchasing equipment and supplies for hospitals, and other aid efforts.
The economies of the world have developed unevenly, historically, such that entire geographical regions were left mired in poverty and disease while others began to reduce poverty and disease on a wholesale basis. From around 1980 through at least 2011, the GDP gap, while still wide, appeared to be closing and, in some more rapidly developing countries, life expectancies began to rise. If we look at the Gini coefficient for world income, since the late 1980s, the gap between some regions has markedly narrowed—between Asia and the advanced economies of the West, for example—but huge gaps remain globally. Overall equality across humanity, considered as individuals, has improved very little. Within the decade between 2003 and 2013, income inequality grew even in traditionally egalitarian countries like Germany, Sweden and Denmark. With a few exceptions—France, Japan, Spain—the top 10 percent of earners in most advanced economies raced ahead, while the bottom 10 percent fell further behind. By 2013, 85 multibillionaires had amassed wealth equivalent to all the wealth owned by the poorest half (3.5 billion) of the world's total population of 7 billion.
Critics of globalization argue that globalization results in weak labor unions: the surplus in cheap labor coupled with an ever-growing number of companies in transition weakened labor unions in high-cost areas. Unions become less effective and workers their enthusiasm for unions when membership begins to decline. They also cite an increase in the exploitation of child labor: countries with weak protections for children are vulnerable to infestation by rogue companies and criminal gangs who exploit them. Examples include quarrying, salvage, and farm work as well as trafficking, bondage, forced labor, prostitution and pornography.
Women often participate in the workforce in precarious work, including export-oriented employment. Evidence suggests that while globalization has expanded women's access to employment, the long-term goal of transforming gender inequalities remains unmet and appears unattainable without regulation of capital and a reorientation and expansion of the state's role in funding public goods and providing a social safety net. Furthermore, the intersectionality of gender, race, class, and more remain overlooked when assessing the impact of globalization.
In 2016, a study published by the IMF posited that neoliberalism, the ideological backbone of contemporary globalized capitalism, has been "oversold", with the benefits of neoliberal policies being "fairly difficult to establish when looking at a broad group of countries" and the costs, most significantly higher income inequality within nations, "hurt the level and sustainability of growth."
Beginning in the 1930s, opposition arose to the idea of a world government, as advocated by organizations such as the World Federalist Movement (WFM). Those who oppose global governance typically do so on objections that the idea is unfeasible, inevitably oppressive, or simply unnecessary. In general, these opponents are wary of the concentration of power or wealth that such governance might represent. Such reasoning dates back to the founding of the League of Nations and, later, the United Nations.
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment. Environmentalist concerns with globalization include issues such as global warming, global water supply and water crises, inequity in energy consumption and energy conservation, transnational air pollution and pollution of the world ocean, overpopulation, world habitat sustainability, deforestation, biodiversity loss and species extinction.
One critique of globalization is that natural resources of the poor have been systematically taken over by the rich and the pollution promulgated by the rich is systematically dumped on the poor. Some argue that Northern corporations are increasingly exploiting resources of less wealthy countries for their global activities while it is the South that is disproportionately bearing the environmental burden of the globalized economy. Globalization is thus leading to a type of" environmental apartheid".
Helena Norberg-Hodge, the director and founder of Local Futures/International Society for Ecology and Culture, criticizes globalization in many ways. In her book "", Norberg-Hodge claims that "centuries of ecological balance and social harmony are under threat from the pressures of development and globalization." She also criticizes the standardization and rationalization of globalization, as it does not always yield the expected growth outcomes. Although globalization takes similar steps in most countries, scholars such as Hodge claim that it might not be effective to certain countries and that globalization has actually moved some countries backward instead of developing them.
A related area of concern is the pollution haven hypothesis, which posits that, when large industrialized nations seek to set up factories or offices abroad, they will often look for the cheapest option in terms of resources and labor that offers the land and material access they require (see Race to the bottom). This often comes at the cost of environmentally sound practices. Developing countries with cheap resources and labor tend to have less stringent environmental regulations, and conversely, nations with stricter environmental regulations become more expensive for companies as a result of the costs associated with meeting these standards. Thus, companies that choose to physically invest in foreign countries tend to (re)locate to the countries with the lowest environmental standards or weakest enforcement.
The European Union–Mercosur Free Trade Agreement, which would form one of the world's largest free trade areas, has been denounced by environmental activists and indigenous rights campaigners. The fear is that the deal could lead to more deforestation of the Amazon rainforest as it expands market access to Brazilian beef.
Globalization is associated with a more efficient system of food production. This is because crops are grown in countries with optimum growing conditions. This improvement causes an increase in the world's food supply which encourages improved food security.
Norway's limited crop range advocates globalization of food production and availability. The northern-most country in Europe requires trade with other countries to ensure population food demands are met. The degree of self-sufficiency in food production is around 50% in Norway. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=46313 |
Chowder
Chowder is a type of soup or stew often prepared with milk or cream and thickened with broken crackers, crushed ship biscuit, or a roux. Variations of chowder can be seafood or vegetable. Crackers such as oyster crackers or saltines may accompany chowders as a side item, and cracker pieces may be dropped atop the dish. New England clam chowder is typically made with chopped clams and diced potatoes, in a mixed cream and milk base, often with a small amount of butter. Other common chowders include seafood chowder, which includes fish, clams, and many other types of shellfish; lamb or veal chowder made with barley; corn chowder, which uses corn instead of clams; a wide variety of fish chowders; and potato chowder, which is often made with cheese. Fish chowder, corn chowder, lamb chowder and especially clam chowder are popular in the North American regions of New England and Atlantic Canada.
The origin of the term "chowder" is obscure. One possible source is the French word "chaudron", the French word for cauldron, the type of cooking or heating stove on which the first chowders were probably cooked. "Chodier" was also a name for a cooking pot in the Creole language of the French Caribbean islands: "Crab pas mache, li pas gras; li mache touop, et li tomber nans chodier" ("if a crab don't walk, he don't get fat, if he walks too much, he falls into a cooking pot"). Note also the Portuguese, Brazilian, Galician and Basque fish and shellfish stew known as "caldeirada" which would appear to have a similar etymology. Another possible source of the word "chowder" could be the French dish called "chaudrée" (sometimes spelled "chauderée"), which is a type of thick fish soup from the coastal regions of Charente-Maritime and Vendée. Yet another etymology could be from Quebecois French, where "chaudière" means "bucket".
Although in the sixteenth century in Cornwall and Devon a dialect word "jowter" was used to describe hawkers, particularly fish-sellers, with later variants "chowder" and "chowter", this is not cited by the Oxford English Dictionary as a possible source due to controversy regarding the origins of the dish itself. The earliest citation the OED gives for the word used in its current sense of a fish-based stew is American. Other usage which attests to its use in England in the middle of 18th century is in a novel by Tobias Smollett in which one of the characters states, "My head sings and simmers like a pot of chowder". A Manx sailor in his memoirs refers to a meal made aboard a British ship on a voyage through the Caribbean in 1786: "...we frequently served up a mess called "chowder", consisting of a mixture of fresh fish, salt pork, pounded biscuit and onions; and which, when well seasoned and stewed, we found to be an excellent palatable dish." Cookbooks of the period included recipes for "Chowder, a Sea Dish". In 1830 an English baked dish made with salmon and potato was called a chowder.
In Merriam-Webster's dictionary chowder is defined as "a thick soup or stew made of seafood or corn with potatoes and onions and milk or tomatoes".
Chowder as it is known today originated as a shipboard dish, and was thickened with the use of hardtack. Chowder was brought to North America with immigrants from England and France and seafarers more than 250 years ago and became popular as a delicious dish, and is now a widely used dish as it is simple to prepare.
In 1890, in the magazine "American Notes and Queries", it was said that the dish was of French origin. Among French settlers in Canada it was a custom to stew clams and fish laid in courses with bacon, sea biscuits, and other ingredients in a bucket called a "chaudière", and it thus came to be invented. Then the Native Americans adopted it as "chawder", which was then corrupted as "chowder" by the Yankees.
In the United States, early chowder making is traced to New England. It was a bowl of simmering chowder by the sea side that provided in its basic form "sustenance of body and mind – a marker of hearth and home, community, family and culture". It is a food which evolved along the coastal shoreline of New England as a "congerie" of simple things, very basic and cooked simply. It is a simple dish of salt and pepper, potatoes and onion, pork and fish, cream and hard crackers, and not a sophisticated dish of the elite. Its simplicity made it attractive and it became a regional dish of the New Englanders, and their favorite recipe was "chowder master". "Symbolically, functionally, mnemonically or dynamically" chowder has become a powerful means for New Englanders to define themselves as a community, a rich community with a deep past and value that distinguishes their region from all others. The dish has been made there for a long time and is imbibed into the community culture. Etta M. Madden and Martha L. Finch observe that chowder provides "visceral memories that provided feelings of familiarity, comfort and continuity".
A recipe formulated and published in 1894 by Charles Ranhofer, a famous chef of Delmonico's restaurant, was called "Chowder de Lucines" and had ingredients of pork, clams, potato (sliced to a seven sixteenths-inch size), onion, parsley, tomato, crackers garnished by thyme, salt and pepper. Others in the same family, totally different from the New England clam chowder, are: "Fulton Market style", introduced in 1904 and made from clams, tomatoes, allspice, cloves, red pepper, and Worcester sauce; a "Vegetable Clam Chowder" introduced in 1929 and made of clams, chopped onions, diced carrots, stewed tomatoes, and thyme; "Coney Island Clam Chowder"; "New York Clam Chowder"; and "Manhattan Clam Chowder", a late entry after 1930.
In most cases, particularly in the Maritime Provinces, Canadian chowder is thinner and more seafood-forward than its creamier American counterparts.
Chowder is a soup with cream or milk mixed with ingredients such as potatoes, sweet corn, smoked haddock, clams and prawns, etc. Some cream-style chowders do not use cream, and are instead prepared using milk and a roux to thicken them. Some of the popular variations are clam chowder and potatoes; seafood chowder; spiced haddock chowder; Irish fish chowder with soda bread; crayfish chowder; clam chowder with cod; British seaside chowder with saffron; thick smoked-haddock chowder; Raymond Blanc's light shellfish chowder; New England-style clam chowder with crunchy thyme breadcrumbs; smoked haddock chowder with leeks and sweetcorn; clam, broad bean and salami chowder; and many more. Almost always, no matter the type, chowder is garnished or dressed with chopped chives. Chowder can be a comfort food, especially during the winter months served with a nice piece of cornbread or buttermilk biscuit.
Considered a national dish of Bermuda, the primary ingredients in Bermuda fish chowder include fish, tomato, and onion that is seasoned with black rum and a Sherry pepper sauce. The dish is of British origin, and was brought to the New World by the colonists.
Clam chowder is prepared with clams, diced potato, onion, and sometimes celery. It may be prepared as a cream-style or broth-style soup. Several variations of clam chowder exist, including New England clam chowder, which is a cream-style soup; Manhattan clam chowder, a broth-style soup prepared using tomato, vegetables and clams; Rhode Island clam chowder, a broth-style soup prepared using tomato and clams with no vegetables, and alternatively a simple broth-style soup using clams; New Jersey clam chowder; Delaware clam chowder; Hatteras clam chowder; and Minorcan clam chowder. In Connecticut clam chowder, milk is used instead of cream. New England clam chowder is made in a diverse variety of styles.
Clam chowder may be prepared with fresh, steamed clams or canned clams. The "clam liquor" from steamed or canned clams may be retained for use in the soup, and fresh or bottled clam juice may be used. 21 January is the National New England Clam Chowder Day.
In the late 1800s clam chowder was introduced in New Zealand as an "American" dish and has become integral to New Zealand cuisine. A variant of New Zealand clam chowder is "pipi chowder", also known as "pipi soup" made with New Zealand surf clams. "Pipi" comes from the indigenous Maori name for the shellfish. Despite strong historical ties between New Zealand and Australia clam chowder is virtually unheard of in Australia and absent from Australian restaurant menus.
Corn chowder is similar in consistency to New England clam chowder, with corn being used instead of clams. Additional vegetables that may be used in its preparation include potatoes, celery and onion. Some are prepared using bacon as an ingredient. Corn chowder may be prepared with fresh, frozen, or canned corn.
Fish chowder is prepared with fish such as salmon or cod, and is similar to clam chowder in ingredients and texture. Ingredients used in fish chowder may include potato, onion, celery, carrot, corn and bacon.
A popular dish in Pacific Northwest cuisine, smoked salmon chowder gets its red color from tomato paste and is prepared with celery, garlic, leeks, chives, potatoes and Alaskan smoked salmon. The best known smoked salmon chowders are made at Pike Place Market and by Ivar's Salmon House, both in Seattle, Washington.
Southern Illinois Chowder, also referred to as "downtown chowder", is a thick stew or soup that is very different from the New England and Manhattan chowders. The main ingredients are beef, chicken, tomatoes, cabbage, lima beans, and green beans. Traditionally, squirrel meat was a common addition. Southern Illinois chowder is a hearty dish that has been described as being closer in style to burgoo and Brunswick stew than coastal chowders.
Seafood chowder is prepared with various types of seafood as a primary ingredient, and may be prepared as a broth- or cream-style chowder. It is a popular menu item in New Zealand using ready-prepared mixed seafood, called "seafood marinara," "marinara mix", or simply "marinara." These terms are unique to New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.
Spiced haddock chowder is made with haddock fillets, carrot, potato, plain flour, bay leaves, peppercorns, mustard, and spices added to milk and cooked in a pot with butter.
The White Castle restaurant serves a potato and bacon chowder.
In North America, as people moved west, some homemade preparations of traditional chowder used canned or bottled clams when fresh clams were not available. In some places the ingredients were modified based upon other locally available foods such as salmon, corn and chicken.
Mass-produced, canned varieties of chowder are manufactured and purveyed to consumers, such as Campbell's and Progresso's New England Clam Chowder, among other brands. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=46316 |
Democratic-Republican Party
The Democratic-Republican Party, better known at the time as the Republican Party and various other names, was an American political party founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the early 1790s that championed republicanism, political equality, and expansionism. The party became increasingly dominant after the 1800 elections as the opposing Federalist Party collapsed. The Democratic-Republicans later splintered during the 1824 presidential election. One faction of the Democratic-Republicans eventually coalesced into the modern Democratic Party, while the other faction ultimately formed the core of the Whig Party.
The Democratic-Republican Party originated as a faction in Congress that opposed the centralizing policies of Alexander Hamilton, who served as Secretary of the Treasury under President George Washington. The Democratic-Republicans and the opposing Federalist Party each became more cohesive during Washington's second term, partly as a result of the debate over the Jay Treaty. Though he was defeated by Federalist John Adams in the 1796 presidential election, Jefferson and his Democratic-Republican allies came into power following the 1800 elections. As president, Jefferson presided over a reduction in the national debt and government spending, and completed the Louisiana Purchase with France.
Madison succeeded Jefferson as president in 1809 and led the country during the largely-inconclusive War of 1812 with Britain. After the war, Madison and his congressional allies established the Second Bank of the United States and implemented protective tariffs, marking a move away from the party's earlier emphasis on states' rights and a strict construction of the United States Constitution. The Federalists collapsed after 1815, beginning a period known as the Era of Good Feelings. Lacking an effective opposition, the Democratic-Republicans split into groups after the 1824 presidential election; one faction supported President John Quincy Adams, while the other faction backed General Andrew Jackson. Jackson's faction eventually coalesced into the Democratic Party, while supporters of Adams became known as the National Republican Party, which itself later merged into the Whig Party.
Democratic-Republicans were deeply committed to the principles of republicanism, which they feared were threatened by the supposed monarchical tendencies of the Federalists. During the 1790s, the party strongly opposed Federalist programs, including the national bank. After the War of 1812, Madison and many other party leaders came to accept the need for a national bank and federally-funded infrastructure projects. In foreign affairs, the party advocated western expansion and tended to favor France over Britain, though the party's pro-French stance faded after Napoleon took power. The Democratic-Republicans were strongest in the South and the western frontier, and weakest in New England.
In the 1788–89 presidential election, the first such election following the ratification of the United States Constitution in 1788, George Washington won the votes of every member of the Electoral College. His unanimous victory in part reflected the fact that no formal political parties had formed at the national level in the United States prior to 1789, though the country had been broadly polarized between the Federalists, who supported ratification of the Constitution, and the Anti-Federalists, who opposed ratification. Washington selected Thomas Jefferson as Secretary of State and Alexander Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury, and he relied on James Madison as a key adviser and ally in Congress.
Hamilton implemented an expansive economic program, establishing the First Bank of the United States, and convincing Congress to assume the debts of state governments. Hamilton pursued his programs in the belief that they would foster a prosperous and stable country. His policies engendered an opposition, chiefly concentrated in the Southern United States, that objected to Hamilton's anglophilia and accused him of unduly favoring well-connected wealthy Northern merchants and speculators. Madison emerged as the leader of the congressional opposition while Jefferson, who declined to publicly criticize Hamilton while both served in Washington's Cabinet, worked behind the scenes to stymie Hamilton's programs. Jefferson and Madison established the "National Gazette", a newspaper which recast national politics not as a battle between Federalists and Anti-Federalists, but as a debate between aristocrats and republicans. In the 1792 election, Washington effectively ran unopposed for president, but Jefferson and Madison backed New York Governor George Clinton's unsuccessful attempt to unseat Vice President John Adams.
Political leaders on both sides were reluctant to label their respective faction as a political party, but distinct and consistent voting blocs emerged in Congress by the end of 1793. Ultimately, Jefferson's followers became known as the Republicans (or the Democratic-Republicans) and Hamilton's followers became known as the Federalists. While economic policies were the original motivating factor in the growing partisan split, foreign policy also became a factor as Hamilton's followers soured on the French Revolution and Jefferson's allies continued to favor it. In 1793, after Britain entered the French Revolutionary Wars, several Democratic-Republican Societies were formed in opposition to Hamilton's economic policies and in support of France. Partisan tensions escalated as a result of the Whiskey Rebellion and Washington's subsequent denunciation of the Democratic-Republican Societies, a group of local political societies that favored democracy and generally supported the Democratic-Republican Party. The ratification of the Jay Treaty further inflamed partisan warfare, resulting in a hardening of the divisions between the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans.
By 1795–96, election campaigns—federal, state and local—were waged primarily along partisan lines between the two national parties, although local issues continued to affect elections, and party affiliations remained in flux. As Washington declined to seek a third term, the 1796 presidential election became the first contested president election. Having retired from Washington's Cabinet in 1793, Jefferson had left the leadership of the Democratic-Republicans in Madison's hands. Nonetheless, the Democratic-Republican congressional nominating caucus chose Jefferson as the party's presidential nominee on the belief that he would be the party's strongest candidate; the caucus chose Senator Aaron Burr of New York as Jefferson's running mate. Meanwhile, an informal caucus of Federalist leaders nominated a ticket of John Adams and Thomas Pinckney. Though the candidates themselves largely stayed out of the fray, supporters of the candidates waged an active campaign; Federalists attacked Jefferson as a francophile and atheist, while the Democratic-Republicans accused Adams of being an anglophile and a monarchist. Ultimately, Adams won the presidency by a narrow margin, garnering 71 electoral votes to 68 for Jefferson, who became the vice president.
Shortly after Adams took office, he dispatched a group of envoys to seek peaceful relations with France, which had begun attacking American shipping after the ratification of the Jay Treaty. The failure of talks, and the French demand for bribes in what became known as the XYZ Affair, outraged the American public and led to the Quasi-War, an undeclared naval war between France and the United States. The Federalist-controlled Congress passed measures to expand the army and navy and also pushed through the Alien and Sedition Acts. The Alien and Sedition Acts restricted speech that was critical of the government, while also implementing stricter naturalization requirements. Numerous journalists and other individuals aligned with the Democratic-Republicans were prosecuted under the Sedition Act, sparking a backlash against the Federalists. Meanwhile, Jefferson and Madison drafted the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, which held that state legislatures could determine the constitutionality of federal laws.
In the 1800 presidential election, the Democratic-Republicans once again nominated a ticket of Jefferson and Burr. Shortly after a Federalist caucus re-nominated President Adams on a ticket with Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Adams dismissed two Hamilton allies from his Cabinet, leading to an open break between the two key figures in the Federalist Party. Though the Federalist Party united against Jefferson's candidacy and waged an effective campaign in many states, the Democratic-Republicans won the election by winning most Southern electoral votes and carrying the crucial state of New York. Jefferson and Burr both finished with 73 electoral votes, more than Adams or Pinckney, necessitating a contingent election between Jefferson and Burr in the House of Representatives. Burr declined to take his name out of consideration, and the House deadlocked as most Democratic-Republican congressmen voted for Jefferson and most Federalists voted for Burr. Preferring Jefferson to Burr, Hamilton helped engineer Jefferson's election on the 36th ballot of the contingent election. Jefferson would later describe the 1800 election, which also saw Democratic-Republicans gain control of Congress, as the "Revolution of 1800", writing that it was "as real of a revolution in the principles of our government as that of [1776] was in its form." In the final months of his presidency, Adams reached an agreement with France to end the Quasi-War and appointed several Federalist judges, including Chief Justice John Marshall.
Despite the intensity of the 1800 election, the transition of power from the Federalists to the Democratic-Republicans was peaceful. In his inaugural address, Jefferson indicated that he would seek to reverse many Federalist policies, but he also emphasized reconciliation, noting that "every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle". He appointed a geographically balanced and ideologically moderate Cabinet that included Madison as Secretary of State and Albert Gallatin as Secretary of the Treasury; Federalists were excluded from the Cabinet, but Jefferson appointed some prominent Federalists and allowed many other Federalists to keep their positions. Gallatin persuaded Jefferson to retain the First Bank of the United States, a major part of the Hamiltonian program, but other Federalist policies were scrapped. Jefferson and his Democratic-Republican allies eliminated the whiskey excise and other taxes, shrank the army and the navy, repealed the Alien and Sedition Acts, and pardoned all ten individuals who had been prosecuted under the acts.
With the repeal of Federalist laws and programs, many Americans had little contact with the federal government in their daily lives, with the exception of the postal service. Partly as a result of these spending cuts, Jefferson lowered the national debt from $83 million to $57 million between 1801 and 1809. Though he was largely able to reverse Federalist policies, Federalists retained a bastion of power on the Supreme Court; Marshall Court rulings continued to reflect Federalist ideals until Chief Justice Marshall's death in the 1830s. In the Supreme Court case of "Marbury v. Madison", the Marshall Court established the power of judicial review, through which the judicial branch had the final word on the constitutionality of federal laws.
By the time Jefferson took office, Americans had settled as far west as the Mississippi River. Many in the United States, particularly those in the west, favored further territorial expansion, and especially hoped to annex the Spanish province of Louisiana. In early 1803, Jefferson dispatched James Monroe to France to join ambassador Robert Livingston on a diplomatic mission to purchase New Orleans. To the surprise of the American delegation, Napoleon offered to sell the entire territory of Louisiana for $15 million. After Secretary of State James Madison gave his assurances that the purchase was well within even the strictest interpretation of the Constitution, the Senate quickly ratified the treaty, and the House immediately authorized funding. The Louisiana Purchase nearly doubled the size of the United States, and Treasury Secretary Gallatin was forced to borrow from foreign banks to finance the payment to France. Though the Louisiana Purchase was widely popular, some Federalists criticized it; Congressman Fisher Ames argued that "We are to spend money of which we have too little for land of which we already have too much."
By 1804, Vice President Burr had thoroughly alienated Jefferson, and the Democratic-Republican presidential nominating caucus chose George Clinton as Jefferson's running mate for the 1804 presidential election. That same year, Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel after taking offense to a comment allegedly made by Hamilton; Hamilton died in the subsequent duel. Bolstered by a superior party organization, Jefferson won the 1804 election in a landslide over Federalist candidate Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. In 1807, as the Napoleonic Wars continued, the British announced the Orders in Council, which called for a blockade on the French Empire. In response to subsequent British and French attacks on American shipping, the Jefferson administration passed the Embargo Act of 1807, which cut off trade with Europe. The embargo proved unpopular and difficult to enforce, especially in Federalist-leaning New England, and expired at the end of Jefferson's second term. Jefferson declined to seek a third term in the 1808 presidential election, but helped Madison triumph over George Clinton and James Monroe at the party's congressional nominating caucus. Madison won the general election in a landslide over Pinckney.
As attacks on American shipping continued after Madison took office, both Madison and the broader American public moved towards war. Popular anger towards Britain led to the election of a new generation of Democratic-Republican leaders, including Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun, who championed high tariffs, federally-funded internal improvements, and a belligerent attitude towards Britain. On June 1, 1812, Madison asked Congress for a declaration of war. The declaration was passed largely along sectional and party lines, with intense opposition coming from the Federalists and some other congressmen from the Northeast. For many who favored war, national honor was at stake; John Quincy Adams wrote that the only alternative to war was "the abandonment of our right as an independent nation." George Clinton's nephew, DeWitt Clinton, challenged Madison in the 1812 presidential election. Though Clinton assembled a formidable coalition of Federalists and anti-Madison Democratic-Republicans, Madison won a close election.
Madison initially hoped for a quick end to the War of 1812, but the war got off to a disastrous start. The United States had more military success in 1813, and a force under William Henry Harrison crushed Native American and British resistance in the Old Northwest with a victory in the Battle of the Thames. The British shifted soldiers to North America in 1814 following the abdication of Napoleon, and a British detachment burned Washington in August 1814. In early 1815, Madison learned that his negotiators in Europe had reached the Treaty of Ghent, ending the war without major concessions by either side. Though it had no effect on the treaty, General Andrew Jackson's victory in the January 1815 Battle of New Orleans ended the war on a triumphant note. Napoleon's defeat at the June 1815 Battle of Waterloo brought a final end to the Napoleonic Wars and attacks on American shipping. With Americans celebrating a successful "second war of independence" from Britain, the Federalist Party slid towards national irrelevance. The subsequent period of virtually one-party rule by the Democratic-Republican Party is known as the "Era of Good Feelings."
In his first term, Madison and his allies had largely hewed to Jefferson's domestic agenda of low taxes and a reduction of the national debt, and Congress allowed the national bank's charter to expire during Madison's first term. The challenges of the War of 1812 led many Democratic-Republicans to reconsider the role of the federal government. When the 14th Congress convened in December 1815, Madison proposed the re-establishment of the national bank, increased spending on the army and the navy, and a tariff designed to protect American goods from foreign competition. Madison's proposals were strongly criticized by strict constructionists like John Randolph, who argued that Madison's program "out-Hamiltons Alexander Hamilton." Responding to Madison's proposals, the 14th Congress compiled one of the most productive legislative records up to that point in history, enacting the Tariff of 1816 and establishing the Second Bank of the United States. At the party's 1816 congressional nominating caucus, Secretary of State James Monroe defeated Secretary of War William H. Crawford in a 65-to-54 vote. The Federalists offered little opposition in the 1816 presidential election and Monroe won in a landslide election.
Monroe believed that the existence of political parties was harmful to the United States, and he sought to usher in the end of the Federalist Party by avoiding divisive policies and welcoming ex-Federalists into the fold. Monroe favored infrastructure projects to promote economic development and, despite some constitutional concerns, signed bills providing federal funding for the National Road and other projects. Partly due to the mismanagement of national bank president William Jones, the country experienced a prolonged economic recession known as the Panic of 1819. The panic engendered a widespread resentment of the national bank and a distrust of paper money that would influence national politics long after the recession ended. Despite the ongoing economic troubles, the Federalists failed to field a serious challenger to Monroe in the 1820 presidential election, and Monroe won re-election essentially unopposed.
During the proceedings over the admission of Missouri Territory as a state, Congressman James Tallmadge, Jr. of New York "tossed a bombshell into the Era of Good Feelings" by proposing amendments providing for the eventual exclusion of slavery from Missouri. The amendments sparked the first major national slavery debate since the ratification of the Constitution, and instantly exposed the sectional polarization over the issue of slavery. Northern Democratic-Republicans formed a coalition across partisan lines with the remnants of the Federalist Party in support of the amendments, while Southern Democratic-Republicans were almost unanimously against such the restrictions. In February 1820, Congressman Jesse B. Thomas of Illinois proposed a compromise, in which Missouri would be admitted as a slave state, but slavery would be excluded in the remaining territories north of the parallel 36°30′ north. A bill based on Thomas's proposal became law in April 1820.
By 1824, the Federalist Party had largely collapsed as a national party, and the 1824 presidential election was waged by competing members of the Democratic-Republican Party. The party's congressional nominating caucus was largely ignored, and candidates were instead nominated by state legislatures. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, former Speaker of the House Henry Clay, Secretary of the Treasury William Crawford, and General Andrew Jackson emerged as the major candidates in the election. The regional strength of each candidate played an important role in the election; Adams was popular in New England, Clay and Jackson were strong in the West, and Jackson and Crawford competed for the South.
As no candidate won a majority of the electoral vote in the 1824 election, the House of Representatives held a contingent election to determine the president. Clay personally disliked Adams but nonetheless supported him in the contingent election over Crawford, who opposed Clay's nationalist policies, and Jackson, whom Clay viewed as a potential tyrant. With Clay's backing, Adams won the contingent election. After Clay accepted appointment as Secretary of State, Jackson's supporters claimed that Adams and Clay had reached a "Corrupt Bargain" in which Adams promised Clay the appointment in return for Clay's support in the contingent election. Jackson, who was deeply angered by the result of the contingent election, returned to Tennessee, where the state legislature quickly nominated him for president in the 1828 election.
Adams shared Monroe's goal of ending partisan conflict, and his Cabinet included individuals of various ideological and regional backgrounds. In his 1825 annual message to Congress, Adams presented a comprehensive and ambitious agenda, calling for major investments in internal improvements as well as the creation of a national university, a naval academy, and a national astronomical observatory. His requests to Congress galvanized the opposition, spurring the creation of an anti-Adams congressional coalition consisting of supporters of Jackson, Crawford, and Vice President Calhoun. Following the 1826 elections, Calhoun and Martin Van Buren (who brought along many of Crawford's supporters) agreed to throw their support behind Jackson in the 1828 election. In the press, the two major political factions were referred to as "Adams Men" and "Jackson Men".
The Jacksonians formed an effective party apparatus that adopted many modern campaign techniques and emphasized Jackson's popularity and the supposed corruption of Adams and the federal government. Though Jackson did not articulate a detailed political platform in the same way that Adams did, his coalition was united in opposition to Adams's reliance on government planning and tended to favor the opening of Native American lands to white settlement. Ultimately, Jackson won 178 of the 261 electoral votes and just under 56 percent of the popular vote. Jackson won 50.3 percent of the popular vote in the free states and 72.6 percent of the vote in the slave states. The election marked the permanent end of the Era of Good Feelings and the start of the Second Party System. The dream of non-partisan politics, shared by Monroe, Adams, and many earlier leaders, was shattered, replaced with Van Buren's ideal of partisan battles between legitimated political parties.
In the 1790s, political parties were new in the United States and people were not accustomed to having formal names for them. There was no single official name for the Democratic-Republican Party, but party members generally called themselves Republicans and voted for what they called the "Republican party", "republican ticket" or "republican interest". Jefferson and Madison often used the terms "republican" and "Republican party" in their letters. As a general term (not a party name), the word republican had been in widespread usage from the 1770s to describe the type of government the break-away colonies wanted to form: a republic of three separate branches of government derived from some principles and structure from ancient republics; especially the emphasis on civic duty and the opposition to corruption, elitism, aristocracy and monarchy.
The term "Democratic-Republican" was used by contemporaries only occasionally, but is used by some modern sources, partly to distinguish this party from the present-day Republican Party. Some present-day sources describe the party as the "Jeffersonian Republicans". Other sources have labeled the party as the "Democratic Party", though that term was often used pejoratively, and the party is not to be confused with the present-day Democratic Party.
The Democratic-Republican Party saw itself as a champion of republicanism and denounced the Federalists as supporters of monarchy and aristocracy. Ralph Brown writes that the party was marked by a "commitment to broad principles of personal liberty, social mobility, and westward expansion." Political scientist James A. Reichley writes that "the issue that most sharply divided the Jeffersonians from the Federalists was not states rights, nor the national debt, nor the national Bank... but the question of social equality." In a world in which few believed in democracy or egalitarianism, Jefferson's belief in political equality for men stood out from many of the other Founding Fathers of the United States, who held that the rich and powerful should lead society. Jefferson advocated a philosophy that historians would later call Jeffersonian democracy, which was marked by his belief in agrarianism and strict limits on the national government. Influenced by the Jeffersonian belief in equality, by 1824 all but three states had removed property-owning requirements for voting.
Though open to some redistributive measures, Jefferson saw a strong centralized government as a threat to freedom. Thus, the Democratic-Republicans opposed Federalist efforts to build a strong, centralized state, and resisted the establishment of a national bank, the build-up of the army and the navy, and passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts. Jefferson was especially averse to a national debt, which he believed to be inherently dangerous and immoral. After the party took power in 1800, Jefferson became increasingly concerned about foreign intervention and more open to programs of economic development conducted by the federal government. In an effort to promote economic growth and the development of a diversified economy, Jefferson's Democratic-Republican successors would oversee the construction of numerous federally-funded infrastructure projects and implement protective tariffs.
While economic policies were the original catalyst to the partisan split between the Democratic-Republicans and the Federalists, foreign policy was also a major factor that divided the parties. Most Americans supported the French Revolution prior to the Execution of Louis XVI in 1793, but Federalists began to fear the radical egalitarianism of the revolution as it became increasingly violent. Jefferson and other Democratic-Republicans defended the French Revolution. until Napoleon ascended to power between 1797 and 1803. Democratic-Republican foreign policy was marked by support for expansionism, as Jefferson championed the concept of an "Empire of Liberty" that centered on the acquisition and settlement of western territories. Under Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, the United States completed the Louisiana Purchase, acquired Spanish Florida, and reached a treaty with Britain providing for shared sovereignty over Oregon Country. In 1823, the Monroe administration promulgated the Monroe Doctrine, which reiterated the traditional U.S. policy of neutrality with regard to European wars and conflicts, but declared that the United States would not accept the recolonization of any country by its former European master. The Monroe Doctrine would be the cornerstone of American foreign policy for several decades.
From the foundation of the party, slavery divided the Democratic-Republicans. Many Southern Democratic-Republicans, especially from the Deep South, defended the institution. Jefferson and many other Democratic-Republicans from Virginia held an ambivalent view on slavery; Jefferson believed it was an immoral institution, but he opposed the immediate emancipation of all slaves on economic grounds. Meanwhile, Northern Democratic-Republicans often took stronger anti-slavery positions than their Federalist counterparts, supporting measures like the abolition of slavery in Washington. In 1807, with President Jefferson's support, Congress outlawed the international slave trade, doing so at the earliest possible date allowed by the Constitution.
After the War of 1812, Southerners increasingly came to view slavery as a beneficial institution rather than an unfortunate economic necessity, further polarizing the party over the issue. Anti-slavery Northern Democratic-Republicans held that slavery was incompatible with the equality and individual rights promised by the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. They further held that slavery had been permitted under the Constitution only as a local and impermanent exception, and thus, slavery should not be allowed to spread outside of the original thirteen states. The anti-slavery positions developed by Northern Democratic-Republicans would influence later anti-slavery parties, including the Free Soil Party and the Republican Party. Some Democratic-Republicans from the border states, including Henry Clay, continued to adhere to the Jeffersonian view of slavery as a necessary evil; many of these leaders joined the American Colonization Society, which proposed the voluntary recolonization of Africa as part of a broader plan for the gradual emancipation of slaves.
Madison and Jefferson formed the Democratic-Republican Party from a combination of former Anti-Federalists and supporters of the Constitution who were dissatisfied with the Washington administration's policies. Nationwide, Democratic-Republicans were strongest in the South, and many of party's leaders were wealthy Southern slaveowners. The Democratic-Republicans also attracted middle class Northerners, such as artisans, farmers, and lower-level merchants, who were eager to challenge the power of the local elite. Every state had a distinct political geography that shaped party membership; in Pennsylvania, the Republicans were weakest around Philadelphia and strongest in Scots-Irish settlements in the west. The Federalists had broad support in New England, but in other places they relied on wealthy merchants and landowners. After 1800, the Federalists collapsed in the South and West, though the party remained competitive in New England and in some Mid-Atlantic states.
Historian Sean Wilentz writes that, after assuming power in 1801, the Democratic-Republicans began to factionalize into three main groups: moderates, radicals, and Old Republicans. The Old Republicans, led by John Randolph, were a loose group of influential Southern plantation owners who strongly favored states' rights and denounced any form of compromise with the Federalists. The radicals consisted of a wide array of individuals from different sections of the country who were characterized by their support for far-reaching political and economic reforms; prominent radicals include William Duane and Michael Leib, who jointly led a powerful political machine in Philadelphia. The moderate faction consisted of many former supporters of the ratification of the Constitution, including James Madison, who were more accepting of Federalist economic programs and sought conciliation with moderate Federalists.
After 1810, a younger group of nationalist Democratic-Republicans, led by Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun, rose to prominence. These nationalists favored federally-funded internal improvements and high tariffs, positions that would form the basis for Clay's American System. In addition to its base among the leaders of Clay and Calhoun's generation, nationalist policies also proved attractive to many older Democratic-Republicans, including James Monroe. The Panic of 1819 sparked a backlash against nationalist policies, and many of those opposed to the nationalist policies rallied around William H. Crawford until he had a major stroke in 1823. After the 1824 election, most of Crawford's followers, including Martin Van Buren, gravitated to Andrew Jackson, forming a major part of the coalition that propelled Jackson to victory in the 1828 election.
The Democratic-Republican Party invented campaign and organizational techniques that were later adopted by the Federalists and became standard American practice. It was especially effective in building a network of newspapers in major cities to broadcast its statements and editorialize its policies. Fisher Ames, a leading Federalist, used the term "Jacobin" to link members of Jefferson's party to the radicals of the French Revolution. He blamed the newspapers for electing Jefferson and wrote they were "an overmatch for any Government... The Jacobins owe their triumph to the unceasing use of this engine; not so much to skill in use of it as by repetition".
As one historian explained: "It was the good fortune of the Republicans to have within their ranks a number of highly gifted political manipulators and propagandists. Some of them had the ability... to not only see and analyze the problem at hand but to present it in a succinct fashion; in short, to fabricate the apt phrase, to coin the compelling slogan and appeal to the electorate on any given issue in language it could understand". Outstanding propagandists included editor William Duane (1760–1835) and party leaders Albert Gallatin, Thomas Cooper and Jefferson himself. Just as important was effective party organization of the sort that John J. Beckley pioneered. In 1796, he managed the Jefferson campaign in Pennsylvania, blanketing the state with agents who passed out 30,000 hand-written tickets, naming all 15 electors (printed tickets were not allowed). Beckley told one agent: "In a few days a select republican friend from the City will call upon you with a parcel of tickets to be distributed in your County. Any assistance and advice you can furnish him with, as to suitable districts & characters, will I am sure be rendered". Beckley was the first American professional campaign manager and his techniques were quickly adopted in other states.
The emergence of the new organizational strategies can be seen in the politics of Connecticut around 1806, which have been well documented by Cunningham. The Federalists dominated Connecticut, so the Republicans had to work harder to win. In 1806, the state leadership sent town leaders instructions for the forthcoming elections. Every town manager was told by state leaders "to appoint a district manager in each district or section of his town, obtaining from each an assurance that he will faithfully do his duty". Then the town manager was instructed to compile lists and total the number of taxpayers and the number of eligible voters, find out how many favored the Republicans and how many the Federalists and to count the number of supporters of each party who were not eligible to vote but who might qualify (by age or taxes) at the next election. These highly detailed returns were to be sent to the county manager and in turn were compiled and sent to the state manager. Using these lists of potential voters, the managers were told to get all eligible people to town meetings and help the young men qualify to vote. The state manager was responsible for supplying party newspapers to each town for distribution by town and district managers. This highly coordinated "get-out-the-vote" drive would be familiar to modern political campaigners, but was the first of its kind in world history.
The coalition of Jacksonians, Calhounites, and Crawfordites built by Jackson and Van Buren would become the Democratic Party, which dominated presidential politics in the decades prior to the Civil War. Supporters of Adams and Clay would form the main opposition to Jackson as the National Republican Party. The National Republicans in turn eventually formed part of the Whig Party, which was the second major party in the United States between the 1830s and the early 1850s. The diverse and changing nature of the Democratic-Republican Party allowed both major parties to claim that they stood for Jeffersonian principles. Historian Daniel Walker Howe writes that Democrats traced their heritage to he "Old Republicanism of Macon and Crawford", while the Whigs looked to "the new Republican nationalism of Madison and Gallatin."
The Whig Party fell apart in the 1850s due to divisions over the expansion of slavery into new territories. The modern Republican Party was formed in 1854 to oppose the expansion of slavery, and many former Whig Party leaders joined the newly formed anti-slavery party. The Republican Party sought to combine Jefferson's ideals of liberty and equality with Clay's program of using an active government to modernize the economy. The Democratic-Republican Party inspired the name and ideology of the Republican Party, but is not directly connected to that party.
Fear of a large debt is a major legacy of the party. Andrew Jackson believed the national debt was a "national curse" and he took special pride in paying off the entire national debt in 1835. Politicians ever since have used the issue of a high national debt to denounce the other party for profligacy and a threat to fiscal soundness and the nation's future.
The affiliation of many Congressmen in the earliest years is an assignment by later historians. The parties were slowly coalescing groups; at first there were many independents. Cunningham noted that only about a quarter of the House of Representatives up until 1794 voted with Madison as much as two-thirds of the time and another quarter against him two-thirds of the time, leaving almost half as fairly independent. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32080 |
Ulvophyceae
The Ulvophyceae or ulvophytes are a class of green algae, distinguished mainly on the basis of ultrastructural morphology, life cycle and molecular phylogenetic data. The sea lettuce, "Ulva", belongs here. Other well-known members include "Caulerpa", "Codium", "Acetabularia", "Cladophora", "Trentepohlia" and "Monostroma".
The Ulvophytes are diverse in their morphology and their habitat. Most are seaweeds such as those listed above. Others, such as "Rhizoclonium", "Pithophora" and some species of "Cladophora" live in fresh water and in some areas are considered weeds.
The origin and early diversification of the Ulvophyceae likely took place in the late Neoproterozoic. Although most contemporary ulvophytes are marine macroalgae (seaweeds), ancestral ulvophytes may have been freshwater, unicellular green algae. Molecular phylogenetic evidence suggests that macroscopic growth was achieved independently in the various major lineages of Ulvophyceae (Ulvales-Ulotrichales, Trentepohliales, Cladophorales, Bryopsidales and Dasycladales). Fossils are rare but there are some good candidates in a mid-Ordovician lagerstatten.
Current hypothesis on relationships among the main clades of Ulvophyceae are shown below. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32082 |
Federalist Party
The Federalist Party was the first political party in the United States. Under Alexander Hamilton, it dominated the national government from 1789 to 1801. It became a minority party while keeping its stronghold in New England and made a brief resurgence by opposing the War of 1812. It then collapsed with its last presidential candidate in 1816. Remnants lasted in a few places for a few years. The party appealed to businesses and to conservatives who favored banks, national over state government, manufacturing, an army and navy, and in world affairs preferred Great Britain and opposed the French Revolution.
The Federalists called for a strong national government that promoted economic growth and fostered friendly relationships with Great Britain in opposition to Revolutionary France. It controlled the federal government until 1801, when it was overwhelmed by the Democratic-Republican opposition led by Thomas Jefferson. The Federalist Party came into being between 1792 and 1794 as a national coalition of bankers and businessmen in support of Hamilton's fiscal policies. These supporters worked in every state to build an organized party committed to a fiscally sound and nationalistic government. The only Federalist President was John Adams. George Washington was broadly sympathetic to the Federalist program, but he remained officially non-partisan during his entire presidency.
Federalist policies called for a national bank, tariffs and good relations with Great Britain as expressed in the Jay Treaty negotiated in 1794. Hamilton developed the concept of implied powers and successfully argued the adoption of that interpretation of the Constitution. Their political opponents, the Democratic-Republicans led by Jefferson, denounced most of the Federalist policies, especially the bank and implied powers; and vehemently attacked the Jay Treaty as a sell-out of republican values to the British monarchy. The Jay Treaty passed and the Federalists won most of the major legislative battles in the 1790s. They held a strong base in the nation's cities and in New England. They factionalized when President Adams secured peace with France, to the anger of Hamilton's larger faction. After the Jeffersonians, whose base was in the rural South and West, won the hard-fought presidential election of 1800, the Federalists never returned to power. They recovered some strength through their intense opposition to the War of 1812, but they practically vanished during the Era of Good Feelings that followed the end of the war in 1815.
The Federalists left a lasting legacy in the form of a strong Federal government. After losing executive power, they decisively shaped Supreme Court policy for another three decades through Chief Justice John Marshall.
On taking office in 1790, President Washington nominated his wartime chief of staff Alexander Hamilton to the new office of Secretary of the Treasury. Hamilton wanted a strong national government with financial credibility. Hamilton proposed the ambitious Hamiltonian economic program that involved assumption of the state debts incurred during the American Revolution, creating a national debt and the means to pay it off and setting up a national bank, along with creating tariffs, with Madison playing major roles in the program. Parties were considered to be divisive and harmful to republicanism. No similar parties existed anywhere in the world.
By 1790, Hamilton started building a nationwide coalition. Realizing the need for vocal political support in the states, he formed connections with like-minded nationalists and used his network of treasury agents to link together friends of the government, especially merchants and bankers, in the new nation's dozen major cities. His attempts to manage politics in the national capital to get his plans through Congress brought strong responses across the country. In the process, what began as a capital faction soon assumed status as a national faction and then as the new Federalist Party. The Federalist Party supported Hamilton's vision of a strong centralized government and agreed with his proposals for a national bank and heavy government subsidies. In foreign affairs, they supported neutrality in the war between France and Great Britain.
The majority of the Founding Fathers were originally Federalists. Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and many others can all be considered Federalists. These Federalists felt that the Articles of Confederation had been too weak to sustain a working government and had decided that a new form of government was needed. Hamilton was made Secretary of the Treasury and when he came up with the idea of funding the debt he created a split in the original Federalist group. Madison greatly disagreed with Hamilton not just on this issue, but on many others as well and he and John J. Beckley created the Anti-Federalist faction. These men would form the Republican Party under Thomas Jefferson.
By the early 1790s, newspapers started calling Hamilton supporters "Federalists" and their opponents "Democrats", "Republicans", "Jeffersonians", or—much later—"Democratic-Republicans". Jefferson's supporters usually called themselves "Republicans" and their party the "Republican Party". The Federalist Party became popular with businessmen and New Englanders as Republicans were mostly farmers who opposed a strong central government. Cities were usually Federalist strongholds whereas frontier regions were heavily Republican. However, these are generalizations as there are special cases such as the Presbyterians of upland North Carolina, who had immigrated just before the Revolution and often been Tories, became Federalists. The Congregationalists of New England and the Episcopalians in the larger cities supported the Federalists while other minority denominations tended toward the Republican camp. Catholics in Maryland were generally Federalists.
The state networks of both parties began to operate in 1794 or 1795. Patronage now became a factor. The winner-takes-all election system opened a wide gap between winners, who got all the patronage; and losers, who got none. Hamilton had many lucrative Treasury jobs to dispense—there were 1,700 of them by 1801. Jefferson had one part-time job in the State Department, which he gave to journalist Philip Freneau to attack the Federalists. In New York, George Clinton won the election for governor and used the vast state patronage fund to help the Republican cause.
Washington tried and failed to moderate the feud between his two top cabinet members. He was re-elected without opposition in 1792. The Democratic-Republicans nominated New York's Governor Clinton to replace Federalist John Adams as Vice President, but Adams won. The balance of power in Congress was close, with some members still undecided between the parties. In early 1793, Jefferson secretly prepared resolutions introduced by William Branch Giles, Congressman from Virginia, designed to repudiate Hamilton and weaken the Washington Administration. Hamilton defended his administration of the nation's complicated financial affairs, which none of his critics could decipher until the arrival in Congress of the Republican Albert Gallatin in 1793.
Federalists counterattacked by claiming the Hamiltonian program had restored national prosperity as shown in one 1792 anonymous newspaper essay: To what physical, moral, or political energy shall this flourishing state of things be ascribed? There is but one answer to these inquiries: Public credit is restored and established. The general government, by uniting and calling into action the pecuniary resources of the states, has created a new capital stock of several millions of dollars, which, with that before existing, is directed into every branch of business, giving life and vigor to industry in its infinitely diversified operation. The enemies of the general government, the funding act and the National Bank may bellow tyranny, aristocracy, and speculators through the Union and repeat the clamorous din as long as they please; but the actual state of agriculture and commerce, the peace, the contentment and satisfaction of the great mass of people, give the lie to their assertions.
Jefferson wrote on February 12, 1798:
In New England, the Federalist Party was closely linked to the Congregational church. When the party collapsed, the church was disestablished. In 1800 and other elections, the Federalists targeted infidelity in any form. They repeatedly charged that Republican candidates, especially Jefferson, were atheistic or nonreligious. Conversely, the Baptists, Methodists and other dissenters as well as the religiously nonaligned favored the Republican cause. Jefferson told the Baptists of Connecticut there should be a "wall of separation" between church and state.
International affairs—the French Revolution and the subsequent war between royalist Britain and republican France—decisively shaped American politics in 1793–1800 and threatened to entangle the nation in wars that "mortally threatened its very existence". The French revolutionaries guillotined King Louis XVI in January 1793, leading the British to declare war to restore the monarchy. The King had been decisive in helping the United States achieve independence, but now he was dead and many of the pro-American aristocrats in France were exiled or executed. Federalists warned that American republicans threatened to replicate the horrors of the French Revolution and successfully mobilized most conservatives and many clergymen. The Republicans, some of whom had been strong Francophiles, responded with support even through the Reign of Terror, when thousands were guillotined, though it was at this point that many began backing away from their pro-France leanings. Many of those executed had been friends of the United States, such as the Comte D'Estaing, whose fleet had fought alongside the Americans in the Revolution (Lafayette had already fled into exile, and Thomas Paine went to prison in France). The republicans denounced Hamilton, Adams and even Washington as friends of Britain, as secret monarchists and as enemies of the republican values. The level of rhetoric reached a fever pitch.
In 1793, Paris sent a new minister, Edmond-Charles Genêt (known as "Citizen Genêt"), who systematically mobilized pro-French sentiment and encouraged Americans to support France's war against Britain and Spain. Genêt funded local Democratic-Republican Societies that attacked Federalists. He hoped for a favorable new treaty and for repayment of the debts owed to France. Acting aggressively, Genêt outfitted privateers that sailed with American crews under a French flag and attacked British shipping. He tried to organize expeditions of Americans to invade Spanish Louisiana and Spanish Florida. When Secretary of State Jefferson told Genêt he was pushing American friendship past the limit, Genêt threatened to go over the government's head and rouse public opinion on behalf of France. Even Jefferson agreed this was blatant foreign interference in domestic politics. Genêt's extremism seriously embarrassed the Jeffersonians and cooled popular support for promoting the French Revolution and getting involved in its wars. Recalled to Paris for execution, Genêt kept his head and instead went to New York, where he became a citizen and married the daughter of Governor Clinton. Jefferson left office, ending the coalition cabinet and allowing the Federalists to dominate.
The Jay Treaty battle in 1794–1795 was the effort by Washington, Hamilton and John Jay to resolve numerous difficulties with Britain. Some of these issues dated to the Revolution, such as boundaries, debts owed in each direction and the continued presence of British forts in the Northwest Territory. In addition, the United States hoped to open markets in the British Caribbean and end disputes stemming from the naval war between Britain and France. Most of all the goal was to avert a war with Britain—a war opposed by the Federalists, that some historians claim the Jeffersonians wanted.
As a neutral party, the United States argued it had the right to carry goods anywhere it wanted. The British nevertheless seized American ships carrying goods from the French West Indies. The Federalists favored Britain in the war and by far most of America's foreign trade was with Britain, hence a new treaty was called for. The British agreed to evacuate the western forts, open their West Indies ports to American ships, allow small vessels to trade with the French West Indies and set up a commission that would adjudicate American claims against Britain for seized ships and British claims against Americans for debts incurred before 1775. One possible alternative was war with Britain, a war that the United States was ill-prepared to fight.
The republicans wanted to pressure Britain to the brink of war (and assumed that the United States could defeat a weak Britain). Therefore, they denounced the Jay Treaty as an insult to American prestige, a repudiation of the American-French alliance of 1777 and a severe shock to Southern planters who owed those old debts and who were never to collect for the lost slaves the British captured. Republicans protested against the treaty and organized their supporters. The Federalists realized they had to mobilize their popular vote, so they mobilized their newspapers, held rallies, counted votes and especially relied on the prestige of President Washington. The contest over the Jay Treaty marked the first flowering of grassroots political activism in the United States, directed and coordinated by two national parties. Politics was no longer the domain of politicians as every voter was called on to participate. The new strategy of appealing directly to the public worked for the Federalists as public opinion shifted to support the Jay Treaty. The Federalists controlled the Senate and they ratified it by exactly the necessary ⅔ vote (20–10) in 1795. However, the republicans did not give up and public opinion swung toward the republicans after the Treaty fight and in the South the Federalists lost most of the support they had among planters.
The excise tax of 1791 caused grumbling from the frontier including threats of tax resistance. Corn, the chief crop on the frontier, was too bulky to ship over the mountains to market unless it was first distilled into whiskey. This was profitable as the United States population consumed per capita relatively large quantities of liquor. After the excise tax, the backwoodsmen complained the tax fell on them rather than on the consumers. Cash poor, they were outraged that they had been singled out to pay off the "financiers and speculators" back in the East and to pay the salaries of the federal revenue officers who began to swarm the hills looking for illegal stills.
Insurgents in western Pennsylvania shut the courts and hounded federal officials, but Jeffersonian leader Albert Gallatin mobilized the western moderates and thus forestalled a serious outbreak. Washington, seeing the need to assert federal supremacy, called out 13,000 state militia and marched toward Washington, Pennsylvania to suppress this Whiskey Rebellion. The rebellion evaporated in late 1794 as Washington approached, personally leading the army (only two sitting Presidents have directly led American military forces, Washington during the Whiskey Rebellion and Madison in an attempt to save the White House during the War of 1812). The rebels dispersed and there was no fighting. Federalists were relieved that the new government proved capable of overcoming rebellion while Republicans, with Gallatin their new hero, argued there never was a real rebellion and the whole episode was manipulated in order to accustom Americans to a standing army.
Angry petitions flowed in from three dozen Democratic-Republican Societies created by Citizen Genêt. Washington attacked the societies as illegitimate and many disbanded. Federalists now ridiculed Republicans as "democrats" (meaning in favor of mob rule) or "Jacobins" (a reference to the Reign of Terror in France).
Washington refused to run for a third term, establishing a two-term precedent that was to stand until 1940 and eventually to be enshrined in the Constitution as the 22nd Amendment. He warned in his Farewell Address against involvement in European wars and lamented the rising north–south sectionalism and party spirit in politics that threatened national unity: The party spirits serves always to distract the Public Councils, and enfeeble the Public Administration. It agitates the Community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which find a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.
Washington never considered himself a member of any party, but broadly supported most Federalist policies.
The spoils system helped finance Federalist printers until 1801 and Republican editors after that. Federalist Postmasters General, Timothy Pickering (1791–94) and Joseph Habersham (1795–1801) appointed and removed local postmasters to maximize party funding. Numerous printers were appointed as postmasters. They did not deliver the mail, but they did collect fees from mail users and obtained free delivery of their own newspapers and business mail.
To strengthen their coalitions and hammer away constantly at the opposition, both parties sponsored newspapers in the capital (Philadelphia) and other major cities. On the Republican side, Philip Freneau and Benjamin Franklin Bache blasted the administration with all the scurrility at their command. Bache in particular targeted Washington himself as the front man for monarchy who must be exposed. To Bache, Washington was a cowardly general and a money-hungry baron who saw the Revolution as a means to advance his fortune and fame; Adams was a failed diplomat who never forgave the French their love of Benjamin Franklin and who craved a crown for himself and his descendants; and Alexander Hamilton was the most inveterate monarchist of them all.
The Federalists, with twice as many newspapers at their command, slashed back with equal vituperation. John Fenno and "Peter Porcupine" (William Cobbett) were their nastiest penmen and Noah Webster their most learned. Hamilton subsidized the Federalist editors, wrote for their papers and in 1801 established his own paper, the "New York Evening Post." Though his reputation waned considerably following his death, Joseph Dennie ran three of the most popular and influential newspapers of the period, "The Farmer's Weekly Museum", the "Gazette of the United States" and "The Port Folio".
The Federalists were conscious of the need to boost voter identification with their party. Elections remained of central importance, but the rest of the political calendar was filled with celebrations, parades, festivals and visual sensationalism. The Federalists employed multiple festivities, exciting parades and even quasi-religious pilgrimages and "sacred" days that became incorporated into the American civil religion. George Washington was always their hero and after his death he became viewed as a sort of demigod looking down from heaven to bestow his blessings on the party. At first, the Federalists focused on commemorating the ratification of the Constitution and organized parades to demonstrate widespread popular support for the new Federalist Party. The parade organizers incorporated secular versions of traditional religious themes and rituals, thereby fostering a highly visible celebration of the nation's new civil religion.
The Fourth of July became a semi-sacred day—a status has maintained for much of American history. Its celebration in Boston emphasized national over local patriotism and included orations, dinners, militia musters, parades, marching bands, floats and fireworks. By 1800, the Fourth of July was closely identified with the Federalist Party. Republicans were annoyed and staged their own celebrations on the same day—with rival parades sometimes clashing with each other, which generated even more excitement and larger crowds. After the collapse of the Federalists starting in 1815, the Fourth of July became a nonpartisan holiday.
Hamilton distrusted Vice President Adams—who felt the same way about Hamilton—but was unable to block his claims to the succession. The election of 1796 was the first partisan affair in the nation's history and one of the more scurrilous in terms of newspaper attacks. Adams swept New England and Jefferson the South, with the middle states leaning to Adams. Adams was the winner by a margin of three electoral votes and Jefferson, as the runner-up, became Vice President under the system set out in the Constitution prior to the ratification of the 12th Amendment.
The Federalists were strongest in New England, but also had strengths in the middle states. They elected Adams as President in 1796, when they controlled both houses of Congress, the presidency, eight state legislatures and ten governorships.
Foreign affairs continued to be the central concern of American politics, for the war raging in Europe threatened to drag in the United States. The new President was a loner, who made decisions without consulting Hamilton or other "High Federalists". Benjamin Franklin once quipped that Adams was a man always honest, often brilliant and sometimes mad. Adams was popular among the Federalist rank and file, but had neglected to build state or local political bases of his own and neglected to take control of his own cabinet. As a result, his cabinet answered more to Hamilton than to himself. Hamilton was especially popular because he rebuilt the Army—and had commissions to give out.
After an American delegation was insulted in Paris in the XYZ affair (1797), public opinion ran strongly against the French. An undeclared "Quasi-War" with France from 1798 to 1800 saw each side attacking and capturing the other's shipping. It was called "quasi" because there was no declaration of war, but escalation was a serious threat. At the peak of their popularity, the Federalists took advantage by preparing for an invasion by the French Army. To silence Administration critics, the Federalists passed the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798. The Alien Act empowered the President to deport such aliens as he declared to be dangerous. The Sedition Act made it a crime to print false, scandalous and malicious criticisms of the federal government, but it conspicuously failed to criminalize criticism of Vice President Thomas Jefferson.
Several Republican newspaper editors were convicted under the Act and fined or jailed and three Democratic-Republican newspapers were shut down. In response, Jefferson and Madison secretly wrote the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions passed by the two states' legislatures that declared the Alien and Sedition Acts unconstitutional and insisted the states had the power to nullify federal laws.
Undaunted, the Federalists created a navy, with new frigates; and a large new army, with Washington in nominal command and Hamilton in actual command. To pay for it all, they raised taxes on land, houses and slaves, leading to serious unrest. In one part of Pennsylvania, the Fries' Rebellion broke out, with people refusing to pay the new taxes. John Fries was sentenced to death for treason, but received a pardon from Adams. In the elections of 1798, the Federalists did very well, but this issue started hurting the Federalists in 1799. Early in 1799, Adams decided to free himself from Hamilton's overbearing influence, stunning the country and throwing his party into disarray by announcing a new peace mission to France. The mission eventually succeeded, the "Quasi-War" ended and the new army was largely disbanded. Hamiltonians called Adams a failure while Adams fired Hamilton's supporters still in the cabinet.
Hamilton and Adams intensely disliked one another and the Federalists split between supporters of Hamilton ("High Federalists") and supporters of Adams. Hamilton became embittered over his loss of political influence and wrote a scathing criticism of Adams' performance as President in an effort to throw Federalist support to Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. Inadvertently, this split the Federalists and helped give the victory to Jefferson.
Adams's peace moves proved popular with the Federalist rank and file and he seemed to stand a good chance of re-election in 1800. If the Three-Fifths Compromise had not been enacted, he most likely would have won reelection since many Federalist legislatures removed the right to select electors from their constituents in fear of a Democratic victory. Jefferson was again the opponent and Federalists pulled out all stops in warning that he was a dangerous revolutionary, hostile to religion, who would weaken the government, damage the economy and get into war with Britain. Many believed that if Jefferson won the election, it would be the end of the newly formed United States. The Republicans crusaded against the Alien and Sedition laws as well as the new taxes and proved highly effective in mobilizing popular discontent.
The election hinged on New York as its electors were selected by the legislature and given the balance of North and South, they would decide the presidential election. Aaron Burr brilliantly organized his forces in New York City in the spring elections for the state legislature. By a few hundred votes, he carried the city—and thus the state legislature—and guaranteed the election of a Republican President. As a reward, he was selected by the Republican caucus in Congress as their vice presidential candidate. Alexander Hamilton, knowing the election was lost anyway, went public with a sharp attack on Adams that further divided and weakened the Federalists.
Members of the Republican Party planned to vote evenly for Jefferson and Burr because they did not want for it to seem as if their party was divided. The party took the meaning literally and Jefferson and Burr tied in the election with 73 electoral votes. This sent the election to the House of Representatives to break the tie. The Federalists had enough weight in the House to swing the election in either direction. Many would rather have seen Burr in the office over Jefferson, but Hamilton, who had a strong dislike of Burr, threw his political weight behind Jefferson. During the election, neither Jefferson nor Burr attempted to swing the election in the House of Representatives. Jefferson remained at Monticello to oversee the laying of bricks to a section of his home. Jefferson allowed for his political beliefs and other ideologies to filter out through letters to his contacts. Thanks to Hamilton's support, Jefferson would win the election and Burr would become his Vice President. Many Federalists held to the belief that this was the end of the United States and that the experiment they had begun had ended in failure. This unintended complication led directly to the proposal and ratification of the 12th Amendment. "We are all republicans—we are all federalists", proclaimed Jefferson in his inaugural address. This election marked the first time power had been transferred between opposing political parties, an act that occurred remarkably without bloodshed. Though there had been strong words and disagreements, contrary to the Federalists fears, there was no war and no ending of one-government system to let in a new one. His patronage policy was to let the Federalists disappear through attrition. Those Federalists such as John Quincy Adams (John Adams' own son) and Rufus King willing to work with him were rewarded with senior diplomatic posts, but there was no punishment of the opposition.
Fisher Ames (1758–1808) of Massachusetts ranks as one of the more influential figures of his era. Ames led Federalist ranks in the House of Representatives. His acceptance of the Bill of Rights garnered support in Massachusetts for the new Constitution. His greatest fame came as an orator who defined the principles of the Federalist Party and the follies of the Republicans. Ames offered one of the first great speeches in American Congressional history when he spoke in favor of the Jay Treaty. Ames was part of Hamilton's faction and cautioned against the excesses of democracy unfettered by morals and reason: "Popular reason does not always know how to act right, nor does it always act right when it knows". He warned his countrymen of the dangers of flattering demagogues, who incite dis-union and lead their country into bondage: "Our country is too big for union, too sordid for patriotism, too democratic for liberty. What is to become of it, He who made it best knows. Its vice will govern it, by practising upon its folly. This is ordained for democracies".
Jefferson had a very successful first term, typified by the Louisiana Purchase, which was ironically supported by Hamilton, but opposed by most Federalists at the time as unconstitutional. Some Federalist leaders (Essex Junto) began courting Jefferson's Vice President and Hamilton's nemesis Aaron Burr in an attempt to swing New York into an independent confederation with the New England states, which along with New York were supposed to secede from the United States after Burr's election to Governor. However, Hamilton's influence cost Burr the governorship of New York, a key in the Essex Junto's plan, just as Hamilton's influence had cost Burr the presidency nearly four years before. Hamilton's thwarting of Aaron Burr's ambitions for the second time was too much for Burr to bear. Hamilton had known of the Essex Junto (whom Hamilton now regarded as apostate Federalists) and Burr's plans and opposed them vehemently. This opposition by Hamilton would lead to his fatal duel with Burr in July 1804.
The thoroughly disorganized Federalists hardly offered any opposition to Jefferson's reelection in 1804 and Federalists seemed doomed. Jefferson had taken away most of their patronage, including federal judgeships. The party now controlled only five state legislatures and seven governorships. After again losing the presidency in 1804, the party was now down to three legislatures and five governorships (four in New England). Their majorities in Congress were long gone, dropping in the Senate from 23 and 1796, 218 and 1800 to only six in 1804. In New England and in some districts in the middle states, the Federalists clung to power, but the tendency from 1800 to 1812 was steady slippage almost everywhere as the Republicans perfected their organization and the Federalists tried to play catch-up. Some younger leaders tried to emulate the Democratic-Republican tactics, but their overall disdain of democracy along with the upper class bias of the party leadership eroded public support. In the South, the Federalists steadily lost ground everywhere.
The Federalists continued for several years to be a major political party in New England and the Northeast, but never regained control of the presidency or the Congress. With the death of Washington and Hamilton and the retirement of Adams, the Federalists were left without a strong leader as Chief Justice John Marshall stayed out of politics. However, a few younger leaders did appear, notably Daniel Webster. Federalist policies favored factories, banking and trade over agriculture and therefore became unpopular in the growing Western states. They were increasingly seen as aristocratic and unsympathetic to democracy. In the South, the party had lingering support in Maryland, but elsewhere was crippled by 1800 and faded away by 1808.
Massachusetts and Connecticut remained the party strongholds. Historian Richard J. Purcell explains how well organized the party was in Connecticut:
It was only necessary to perfect the working methods of the organized body of office-holders who made up the nucleus of the party. There were the state officers, the assistants, and a large majority of the Assembly. In every county there was a sheriff with his deputies. All of the state, county, and town judges were potential and generally active workers. Every town had several justices of the peace, school directors and, in Federalist towns, all the town officers who were ready to carry on the party's work. Every parish had a "standing agent," whose anathemas were said to convince at least ten voting deacons. Militia officers, state's attorneys, lawyers, professors and schoolteachers were in the van of this "conscript army." In all, about a thousand or eleven hundred dependent officer-holders were described as the inner ring which could always be depended upon for their own and enough more votes within their control to decide an election. This was the Federalist machine.
After 1800, the major Federalist role came in the judiciary. Although Jefferson managed to repeal the Judiciary Act of 1801 and thus dismissed many lower level Federalist federal judges, the effort to impeach Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase in 1804 failed. Led by the last great Federalist, John Marshall as Chief Justice from 1801 to 1835, the Supreme Court carved out a unique and powerful role as the protector of the Constitution and promoter of nationalism.
As the wars in Europe intensified, the United States became increasingly involved. The Federalists restored some of their strength by leading the anti-war opposition to Jefferson and Madison between 1807 and 1814. President Jefferson imposed an embargo on Britain in 1807 as the Embargo Act of 1807 prevented all American ships from sailing to a foreign port. The idea was that the British were so dependent on American supplies that they would come to terms. For 15 months, the Embargo wrecked American export businesses, largely based in the Boston-New York region, causing a sharp depression in the Northeast. Evasion was common and Jefferson and Treasury Secretary Gallatin responded with tightened police controls more severe than anything the Federalists had ever proposed. Public opinion was highly negative and a surge of support breathed fresh life into the Federalist Party.
The Republicans nominated Madison for the presidency in 1808. Meeting in the first-ever national convention, Federalists considered the option of nominating Jefferson's Vice President George Clinton as their own candidate, but balked at working with him and again chose Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, their 1804 candidate. Madison lost New England excluding Vermont, but swept the rest of the country and carried a Republican Congress. Madison dropped the Embargo, opened up trade again and offered a carrot and stick approach. If either France or Britain agreed to stop their violations of American neutrality, the United States would cut off trade with the other country. Tricked by Napoleon into believing France had acceded to his demands, Madison turned his wrath on Britain and the War of 1812 began. Young Daniel Webster, running for Congress from New Hampshire in 1812, first gained overnight fame with his anti-war speeches.
The nation was at war during the 1812 presidential election and war was the burning issue. Opposition to the war was strong in traditional Federalist strongholds in New England and New York, where the party made a comeback in the elections of 1812 and 1814. In their second national convention in 1812, the Federalists, now the peace party, nominated DeWitt Clinton, the dissident Republican Mayor of New York City and an articulate opponent of the war. Madison ran for reelection promising a relentless war against Britain and an honorable peace. Clinton, denouncing Madison's weak leadership and incompetent preparations for war, could count on New England and New York. To win, he needed the middle states and there the campaign was fought out. Those states were competitive and had the best-developed local parties and most elaborate campaign techniques, including nominating conventions and formal party platforms. The Tammany Society in New York City highly favored Madison and the Federalists finally adopted the club idea in 1808. Their Washington Benevolent Societies were semi-secret membership organizations which played a critical role in every northern state as they held meetings and rallies and mobilized Federalist votes. New Jersey went for Clinton, but Madison carried Pennsylvania and thus was reelected with 59% of the electoral votes. However, the Federalists gained 14 seats in Congress.
The War of 1812 went poorly for the Americans for two years. Even though Britain was concentrating its military efforts on its war with Napoleon, the United States still failed to make any headway on land and was effectively blockaded at sea by the Royal Navy. The British raided and burned Washington, D.C. in 1814 and sent a force to capture New Orleans.
The war was especially unpopular in New England. The New England economy was highly dependent on trade and the British blockade threatened to destroy it entirely. In 1814, the British Navy finally managed to enforce their blockade on the New England coast, so the Federalists of New England sent delegates to the Hartford Convention in December 1814.
During the proceedings of the Hartford Convention, secession from the Union was discussed, though the resulting report listed a set of grievances against the Democratic-Republican federal government and proposed a set of Constitutional amendments to address these grievances. They demanded financial assistance from Washington to compensate for lost trade and proposed constitutional amendments requiring a two-thirds vote in Congress before an embargo could be imposed, new states admitted, or war declared. It also indicated that if these proposals were ignored, then another convention should be called and given "such powers and instructions as the exigency of a crisis may require". The Federalist Massachusetts Governor had already secretly sent word to England to broker a separate peace accord. Three Massachusetts "ambassadors" were sent to Washington to negotiate on the basis of this report.
By the time the Federalist "ambassadors" got to Washington, the war was over and news of Andrew Jackson's stunning victory in the Battle of New Orleans had raised American morale immensely. The "ambassadors" hastened back to Massachusetts, but not before they had done fatal damage to the Federalist Party. The Federalists were thereafter associated with the disloyalty and parochialism of the Hartford Convention and destroyed as a political force. Across the nation, Republicans used the great victory at New Orleans to ridicule the Federalists as cowards, defeatists and secessionists. Pamphlets, songs, newspaper editorials, speeches and entire plays on the Battle of New Orleans drove home the point.
The Federalists fielded their last presidential candidate (Rufus King) in 1816. With the party's passing, partisan hatreds and newspaper feuds declined and the nation entered the "Era of Good Feelings". As late as 1822 the Federalists controlled the Massachusetts Senate. After the dissolution of the final Federalist congressional caucus in 1825, the last traces of Federalist activity came in Delaware and Massachusetts local politics in the late 1820s. As late as 1828, the party won control of the Delaware state legislature. In 1829 Harrison Gray Otis was elected Mayor of Boston and became the last major Federalist office holder.
Intellectually, Federalists were profoundly devoted to liberty. As Samuel Eliot Morison explained, they believed that liberty is inseparable from union, that men are essentially unequal, that "vox populi" ("voice of the people") is seldom if ever "vox Dei" ("the voice of God") and that sinister outside influences are busy undermining American integrity. Oxford-trained British historian Patrick Allitt concludes that Federalists promoted many positions that would form the baseline for later American conservatism, including the rule of law under the Constitution, republican government, peaceful change through elections, judicial supremacy, stable national finances, credible and active diplomacy and protection of wealth.
In terms of "classical conservatism", the Federalists had no truck with European-style aristocracy, monarchy, or established religion. Historian John P. Diggins says: "Thanks to the framers, American conservatism began on a genuinely lofty plane. James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Marshall, John Jay, James Wilson, and, above all, John Adams aspired to create a republic in which the values so precious to conservatives might flourish: harmony, stability, virtue, reverence, veneration, loyalty, self-discipline, and moderation. This was classical conservatism in its most authentic expression".
The Federalists were dominated by businessmen and merchants in the major cities who supported a strong national government. The party was closely linked to the modernizing, urbanizing, financial policies of Alexander Hamilton. These policies included the funding of the national debt and also assumption of state debts incurred during the Revolutionary War, the incorporation of a national Bank of the United States, the support of manufactures and industrial development, and the use of a tariff to fund the Treasury. In foreign affairs, the Federalists opposed the French Revolution, engaged in the "Quasi War" (an undeclared naval war) with France in 1798–99, sought good relations with Britain and sought a strong army and navy. Ideologically, the controversy between Republicans and Federalists stemmed from a difference of principle and style. In terms of style, the Federalists feared mob rule, thought an educated elite should represent the general populace in national governance and favored national power over state power. Republicans distrusted Britain, bankers, merchants and did not want a powerful national government. The Federalists, notably Hamilton, were distrustful of "the people", the French and the Republicans. In the end, the nation synthesized the two positions, adopting representative democracy and a strong nation state. Just as importantly, American politics by the 1820s accepted the two-party system whereby rival parties stake their claims before the electorate and the winner takes control of majorities in state legislatures and the Congress and gains governorships and the presidency.
As time went on, the Federalists lost appeal with the average voter and were generally not equal to the tasks of party organization; hence they grew steadily weaker as the political triumphs of the Republican Party grew. For economic and philosophical reasons, the Federalists tended to be pro-British—the United States engaged in more trade with Great Britain than with any other country—and vociferously opposed Jefferson's Embargo Act of 1807 and the seemingly deliberate provocation of war with Britain by the Madison Administration. During "Mr. Madison's War", as they called it, the Federalists made a temporary comeback. However, they lost all their gains and more during the patriotic euphoria that followed the war. The membership was aging rapidly, but a few young men from New England did join the cause, most notably Daniel Webster.
After 1816, the Federalists had no national power base apart from John Marshall's Supreme Court. They had some local support in New England, New York, eastern Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware. After the collapse of the Federalist Party in the course of the 1824 presidential election, most surviving Federalists (including Daniel Webster) joined former Republicans like Henry Clay to form the National Republican Party, which was soon combined with other anti-Jackson groups to form the Whig Party in 1833. By then, nearly all remaining Federalists joined the Whigs. However, some former Federalists like James Buchanan, Louis McLane and Roger B. Taney became Jacksonian Democrats.
The "Old Republicans", led by John Randolph of Roanoke, refused to form a coalition with the Federalists and instead set up a separate opposition since Jefferson, Madison, Gallatin, Monroe, John C. Calhoun and Clay had in effect adopted Federalist principles of implied powers to purchase the Louisiana Territory and after the failures and lessons of the War of 1812 raised tariffs to protect factories, chartered the Second National Bank, promoted a strong army and navy and promoted internal improvements. All these measures were opposed to the strict construction of the Constitution, which was the formal basis of the Republicans, but the drift of the party to support them could not be checked. It was aided by the Supreme Court, whose influence under John Marshall as a nationalizing factor now first became apparent. The whole change reconciled the Federalists to their absorption into the Republican Party. Indeed, they claimed, with considerable show of justice, that the absorption was in the other direction: that the Republicans had recanted and that the "Washington-Monroe policy", as they termed it after 1820, was all that Federalists had ever desired.
The name "Federalist" came increasingly to be used in political rhetoric as a term of abuse and was denied by the Whigs, who pointed out that their leader Henry Clay was the Republican Party leader in Congress during the 1810s.
The Federalists had a weak base in the South, with their main base in the Northeast and especially New England. It was the reverse for the Republicans. As a result, anti-slavery elements were largely based in the Federalist Party. Several leading Federalists, most notably John Jay and Alexander Hamilton, were leaders of the anti-slavery movement. They led the successful battles to abolish the international slave trade in New York City and the battle to abolish slavery in the state of New York.
The affiliation of many Congressmen in the earliest years is an assignment by later historians. The parties were slowly coalescing groups; at first there were many independents. Cunningham noted that only about a quarter of the House of Representatives up until 1794 voted with Madison as much as two-thirds of the time and another quarter against him two-thirds of the time, leaving almost half as fairly independent. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32086 |
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution. As the oldest and most senior branch of the U.S. military in order of precedence, the modern U.S. Army has its roots in the Continental Army, which was formed (14 June 1775) to fight the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783)—before the United States of America was established as a country. After the Revolutionary War, the Congress of the Confederation created the United States Army on 3 June 1784 to replace the disbanded Continental Army. The United States Army considers itself descended from the Continental Army, and considers its institutional inception to be the origin of that armed force in 1775.
As a uniformed military service, the U.S. Army is part of the Department of the Army, which is one of the three military departments of the Department of Defense. The U.S. Army is headed by a civilian senior appointed civil servant, the secretary of the Army (SECARMY) and by a chief military officer, the chief of staff of the Army (CSA) who is also a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It is the largest military branch, and in the fiscal year 2017, the projected end strength for the Regular Army (USA) was 476,000 soldiers; the Army National Guard (ARNG) had 343,000 soldiers and the U.S. Army Reserve (USAR) had 199,000 soldiers; the combined-component strength of the U.S. Army was 1,018,000 soldiers. As a branch of the armed forces, the mission of the U.S. Army is "to fight and win our Nation's wars, by providing prompt, sustained land dominance, across the full range of military operations and the spectrum of conflict, in support of combatant commanders". The branch participates in conflicts worldwide and is the major ground-based offensive and defensive force of the United States.
The United States Army serves as the land-based branch of the U.S. Armed Forces. Section 3062 of Title 10, U.S. Code defines the purpose of the army as:
In 2018, the "Army Strategy 2018" articulated an eight-point addendum to the Army Vision for 2028. While the Army Mission remains constant, the Army Strategy builds upon the Army's Brigade Modernization by adding focus to Corps and Division-level echelons. Modernization, reform for high-intensity conflict, and Joint multi-domain operations are added to the strategy, to be completed by 2028.
The Continental Army was created on 14 June 1775 by the Second Continental Congress as a unified army for the colonies to fight Great Britain, with George Washington appointed as its commander. The army was initially led by men who had served in the British Army or colonial militias and who brought much of British military heritage with them. As the Revolutionary War progressed, French aid, resources and military thinking helped shape the new army. A number of European soldiers came on their own to help, such as Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, who taught Prussian Army tactics and organizational skills.
The army fought numerous pitched battles and in the South in 1780 and 1781, at times using the Fabian strategy and the hit-and-run tactics, under the leadership of Major General Nathanael Greene, hit where the British were weakest to wear down their forces. Washington led victories against the British at Trenton and Princeton, but lost a series of battles in the New York and New Jersey campaign in 1776 and the Philadelphia campaign in 1777. With a decisive victory at Yorktown and the help of the French, the Continental Army prevailed against the British.
After the war, the Continental Army was quickly given land certificates and disbanded in a reflection of the republican distrust of standing armies. State militias became the new nation's sole ground army, with the exception of a regiment to guard the Western Frontier and one battery of artillery guarding West Point's arsenal. However, because of continuing conflict with Native Americans, it was soon realized that it was necessary to field a trained standing army. The Regular Army was at first very small and after General St. Clair's defeat at the Battle of the Wabash, where more than 800 Americans were killed, the Regular Army was reorganized as the Legion of the United States, which was established in 1791 and renamed the United States Army in 1796.
In 1798, during the Quasi-War with France, Congress established a three-year "Provisional Army" of 10,000 men, consisting of twelve regiments of infantry and six troops of light dragoons. By March 1799 Congress created an "Eventual Army" of 30,000 men, including three regiments of cavalry. Both "armies" existed only on paper, but equipment for 3,000 men and horses was procured and stored.
The War of 1812, the second and last war between the United States and Great Britain, had mixed results. The U.S. Army did not conquer Canada but it did destroy Native American resistance to expansion in the Old Northwest and it validated its independence by stopping two major British invasions in 1814 and 1815. After taking control of Lake Erie in 1813, the U.S. Army seized parts of western Upper Canada, burned York and defeated Tecumseh, which caused his Western Confederacy to collapse. Following U.S. victories in the Canadian province of Upper Canada, British troops who had dubbed the U.S. Army "Regulars, by God!", were able to capture and burn Washington, which was defended by militia, in 1814. The regular army, however proved they were professional and capable of defeating the British army during the invasions of Plattsburgh and Baltimore, prompting British agreement on the previously rejected terms of a status quo ante bellum. Two weeks after a treaty was signed (but not ratified), Andrew Jackson defeated the British in the Battle of New Orleans and Siege of Fort St. Philip, and became a national hero. U.S. troops and sailors captured HMS Cyane, Levant and Penguin in the final engagements of the war. Per the treaty, both sides (the United States and Great Britain) returned to the geographical status quo. Both navies kept the warships they had seized during the conflict.
The army's major campaign against the Indians was fought in Florida against Seminoles. It took long wars (1818–1858) to finally defeat the Seminoles and move them to Oklahoma. The usual strategy in Indian wars was to seize control of the Indians' winter food supply, but that was no use in Florida where there was no winter. The second strategy was to form alliances with other Indian tribes, but that too was useless because the Seminoles had destroyed all the other Indians when they entered Florida in the late eighteenth century.
The U.S. Army fought and won the Mexican–American War (1846–1848), which was a defining event for both countries. The U.S. victory resulted in acquisition of territory that eventually became all or parts of the states of California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, Wyoming and New Mexico.
The American Civil War was the costliest war for the U.S. in terms of casualties. After most slave states, located in the southern U.S., formed the Confederate States, the Confederate States Army, led by former U.S. Army officers, mobilized a large fraction of Southern white manpower. Forces of the United States (the "Union" or "the North") formed the Union Army, consisting of a small body of regular army units and a large body of volunteer units raised from every state, north and south, except South Carolina.
For the first two years Confederate forces did well in set battles but lost control of the border states. The Confederates had the advantage of defending a large territory in an area where disease caused twice as many deaths as combat. The Union pursued a strategy of seizing the coastline, blockading the ports, and taking control of the river systems. By 1863, the Confederacy was being strangled. Its eastern armies fought well, but the western armies were defeated one after another until the Union forces captured New Orleans in 1862 along with the Tennessee River. In the Vicksburg Campaign of 1862–1863, General Ulysses Grant seized the Mississippi River and cut off the Southwest. Grant took command of Union forces in 1864 and after a series of battles with very heavy casualties, he had General Robert E. Lee under siege in Richmond as General William T. Sherman captured Atlanta and marched through Georgia and the Carolinas. The Confederate capital was abandoned in April 1865 and Lee subsequently surrendered his army at Appomattox Court House. All other Confederate armies surrendered within a few months.
The war remains the deadliest conflict in U.S. history, resulting in the deaths of 620,000 men on both sides. Based on 1860 census figures, 8% of all white males aged 13 to 43 died in the war, including 6.4% in the North and 18% in the South.
Following the Civil War, the U.S. Army had the mission of containing western tribes of Native Americans on the Indian reservations. They set up many forts, and engaged in the last of the American Indian Wars. U.S. Army troops also occupied several Southern states during the Reconstruction Era to protect freedmen.
The key battles of the Spanish–American War of 1898 were fought by the Navy. Using mostly new volunteers, the U.S. Army defeated Spain in land campaigns in Cuba and played the central role in the Philippine–American War.
Starting in 1910, the army began acquiring fixed-wing aircraft. In 1910, during the Mexican Revolution, the army was deployed to U.S. towns near the border to ensure the safety of lives and property. In 1916, Pancho Villa, a major rebel leader, attacked Columbus, New Mexico, prompting a U.S. intervention in Mexico until 7 February 1917. They fought the rebels and the Mexican federal troops until 1918.
The United States joined World War I as an "Associated Power" in 1917 on the side of Britain, France, Russia, Italy and the other Allies. U.S. troops were sent to the Western Front and were involved in the last offensives that ended the war. With the armistice in November 1918, the army once again decreased its forces.
In 1939, estimates of the Army's strength range between 174,000 and 200,000 soldiers, smaller than that of Portugal's, which ranked it 17th or 19th in the world in size. General George C. Marshall became Army chief of staff in September 1939 and set about expanding and modernizing the Army in preparation for war.
The United States joined World War II in December 1941 after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Some 11 million Americans were to serve in various Army operations. On the European front, U.S. Army troops formed a significant portion of the forces that captured North Africa and Sicily and later fought in Italy. On D-Day 6 June 1944 and in the subsequent liberation of Europe and defeat of Nazi Germany, millions of U.S. Army troops played a central role.
In the Pacific War, U.S. Army soldiers participated alongside the United States Marine Corps in capturing the Pacific Islands from Japanese control. Following the Axis surrenders in May (Germany) and August (Japan) of 1945, army troops were deployed to Japan and Germany to occupy the two defeated nations. Two years after World War II, the Army Air Forces separated from the army to become the United States Air Force in September 1947. In 1948, the army was desegregated by order of President Harry S. Truman.
The end of World War II set the stage for the East–West confrontation known as the Cold War. With the outbreak of the Korean War, concerns over the defense of Western Europe rose. Two corps, V and VII, were reactivated under Seventh United States Army in 1950 and U.S. strength in Europe rose from one division to four. Hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops remained stationed in West Germany, with others in Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, until the 1990s in anticipation of a possible Soviet attack.
During the Cold War, U.S. troops and their allies fought communist forces in Korea and Vietnam. The Korean War began in June 1950, when the Soviets walked out of a UN Security Council meeting, removing their possible veto. Under a United Nations umbrella, hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops fought to prevent the takeover of South Korea by North Korea and later to invade the northern nation. After repeated advances and retreats by both sides and the Chinese People's Volunteer Army's entry into the war, the returned the peninsula to the status quo in July 1953.
The Vietnam War is often regarded as a low point for the U.S. Army due to the use of drafted personnel, the unpopularity of the war with the U.S. public and frustrating restrictions placed on the military by U.S. political leaders. While U.S. forces had been stationed in South Vietnam since 1959, in intelligence and advising/training roles, they were not deployed in large numbers until 1965, after the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. U.S. forces effectively established and maintained control of the "traditional" battlefield, but they struggled to counter the guerrilla hit and run tactics of the communist Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army. On a tactical level, U.S. soldiers (and the U.S. military as a whole) did not lose a sizable battle.
During the 1960s, the Department of Defense continued to scrutinize the reserve forces and to question the number of divisions and brigades as well as the redundancy of maintaining two reserve components, the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve. In 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara decided that 15 combat divisions in the Army National Guard were unnecessary and cut the number to eight divisions (one mechanized infantry, two armored, and five infantry), but increased the number of brigades from seven to 18 (one airborne, one armored, two mechanized infantry and 14 infantry). The loss of the divisions did not sit well with the states. Their objections included the inadequate maneuver element mix for those that remained and the end to the practice of rotating divisional commands among the states that supported them. Under the proposal, the remaining division commanders were to reside in the state of the division base. However, no reduction in total Army National Guard strength was to take place, which convinced the governors to accept the plan. The states reorganized their forces accordingly between 1 December 1967 and 1 May 1968.
The Total Force Policy was adopted by Chief of Staff of the Army General Creighton Abrams in the aftermath of the Vietnam War and involves treating the three components of the army – the Regular Army, the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve as a single force. Believing that no U.S. president should be able to take the United States (and more specifically the U.S. Army) to war without the support of the U.S. people, General Abrams intertwined the structure of the three components of the army in such a way as to make extended operations impossible, without the involvement of both the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve.
The 1980s was mostly a decade of reorganization. The army converted to an all-volunteer force with greater emphasis on training and technology. The Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986 created unified combatant commands bringing the army together with the other four military services under unified, geographically organized command structures. The army also played a role in the invasions of Grenada in 1983 (Operation Urgent Fury) and Panama in 1989 (Operation Just Cause).
By 1989 Germany was nearing reunification and the Cold War was coming to a close. Army leadership reacted by starting to plan for a reduction in strength. By November 1989 Pentagon briefers were laying out plans to reduce army end strength by 23%, from 750,000 to 580,000. A number of incentives such as early retirement were used.
In 1990, Iraq invaded its smaller neighbor, Kuwait, and U.S. land forces quickly deployed to assure the protection of Saudi Arabia. In January 1991 Operation Desert Storm commenced, a U.S.-led coalition which deployed over 500,000 troops, the bulk of them from U.S. Army formations, to drive out Iraqi forces. The campaign ended in total victory, as Western coalition forces routed the Iraqi Army. Some of the largest tank battles in history were fought during the Gulf war. The Battle of Medina Ridge, Battle of Norfolk and the Battle of 73 Easting were tank battles of historical significance.
After Operation Desert Storm, the army did not see major combat operations for the remainder of the 1990s but did participate in a number of peacekeeping activities. In 1990 the Department of Defense issued guidance for "rebalancing" after a review of the Total Force Policy, but in 2004, Air War College scholars concluded the guidance would reverse the Total Force Policy which is an "essential ingredient to the successful application of military force".
On 11 September 2001, 53 Army civilians (47 employees and six contractors) and 22 soldiers were among the 125 victims killed in the Pentagon in a terrorist attack when American Airlines Flight 77 commandeered by five Al-Qaeda hijackers slammed into the western side of the building, as part of the September 11 attacks. In response to the 11 September attacks and as part of the Global War on Terror, U.S. and NATO forces invaded Afghanistan in October 2001, displacing the Taliban government. The U.S. Army also led the combined U.S. and allied invasion of Iraq in 2003; it served as the primary source for ground forces with its ability to sustain short and long-term deployment operations. In the following years, the mission changed from conflict between regular militaries to counterinsurgency, resulting in the deaths of more than 4,000 U.S. service members (as of March 2008) and injuries to thousands more. 23,813 insurgents were killed in Iraq between 2003–2011.
Until 2009, the army's chief modernization plan, its most ambitious since World War II, was the Future Combat Systems program. In 2009, many systems were canceled, and the remaining were swept into the BCT modernization program. By 2017, the Brigade Modernization project was completed and its headquarters, the Brigade Modernization Command, was renamed the Joint Modernization Command, or JMC. In response to Budget sequestration in 2013, Army plans were to shrink to 1940 levels, although actual Active-Army end-strengths were projected to fall to some 450,000 troops by the end of FY2017. From 2016 to 2017, the Army retired hundreds of OH-58 Kiowa Warrior observation helicopters, while retaining its Apache gunships. The 2015 expenditure for Army research, development and acquisition changed from $32 billion projected in 2012 for FY15 to $21 billion for FY15 expected in 2014.
By 2017, a task force was formed to address Army modernization, which triggered shifts of units: RDECOM, and ARCIC, from within Army Materiel Command (AMC), and TRADOC, respectively, to a new Army Command (ACOM) in 2018. The Army Futures Command (AFC), is a peer of FORSCOM, TRADOC, and AMC, the other ACOMs. AFC's mission is modernization reform: to design hardware, as well as to work within the acquisition process which defines materiel for AMC. TRADOC's mission is to define the architecture and organization of the Army, and to train and supply soldiers to FORSCOM. AFC's cross-functional teams (CFTs) are Futures Command's vehicle for sustainable reform of the acquisition process for the future. In order to support the Army's modernization priorities, its FY2020 budget allocated $30 billion for the top six modernization priorities over the next five years. The $30 billion came from $8 billion in cost avoidance and $22 billion in terminations.
The task of organizing the U.S. Army commenced in 1775. In the first one hundred years of its existence, the United States Army was maintained as a small peacetime force to man permanent forts and perform other non-wartime duties such as engineering and construction works. During times of war, the U.S. Army was augmented by the much larger United States Volunteers which were raised independently by various state governments. States also maintained full-time militias which could also be called into the service of the army.
By the twentieth century, the U.S. Army had mobilized the U.S. Volunteers on four separate occasions during each of the major wars of the nineteenth century. During World War I, the "National Army" was organized to fight the conflict, replacing the concept of U.S. Volunteers. It was demobilized at the end of World War I, and was replaced by the Regular Army, the Organized Reserve Corps and the state militias. In the 1920s and 1930s, the "career" soldiers were known as the "Regular Army" with the "Enlisted Reserve Corps" and "Officer Reserve Corps" augmented to fill vacancies when needed.
In 1941, the "Army of the United States" was founded to fight World War II. The Regular Army, Army of the United States, the National Guard and Officer/Enlisted Reserve Corps (ORC and ERC) existed simultaneously. After World War II, the ORC and ERC were combined into the United States Army Reserve. The Army of the United States was re-established for the Korean War and Vietnam War and was demobilized upon the suspension of the draft.
Currently, the Army is divided into the Regular Army, the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard. Some states further maintain state defense forces, as a type of reserve to the National Guard, while all states maintain regulations for state militias. State militias are both "organized", meaning that they are armed forces usually part of the state defense forces, or "unorganized" simply meaning that all able bodied males may be eligible to be called into military service.
The U.S. Army is also divided into several branches and functional areas. Branches include officers, warrant officers, and enlisted Soldiers while functional areas consist of officers who are reclassified from their former branch into a functional area. However, officers continue to wear the branch insignia of their former branch in most cases, as functional areas do not generally have discrete insignia. Some branches, such as Special Forces, operate similarly to functional areas in that individuals may not join their ranks until having served in another Army branch. Careers in the Army can extend into cross-functional areas for officer, warrant officer, enlisted, and civilian personnel.
Before 1933, members of the Army National Guard were considered state militia until they were mobilized into U.S. Army, typically on the onset of war. Since the 1933 amendment to the National Defense Act of 1916, all Army National Guard soldiers have held dual status. They serve as National Guardsmen under the authority of the governor of their state or territory and as a reserve members of the U.S. Army under the authority of the president, in the Army National Guard of the United States.
Since the adoption of the total force policy, in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, reserve component soldiers have taken a more active role in U.S. military operations. For example, Reserve and Guard units took part in the Gulf War, peacekeeping in Kosovo, Afghanistan and the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Headquarters, United States Department of the Army (HQDA):
Source: U.S. Army organization
See Structure of the United States Army for detailed treatment of the history, components, administrative and operational structure and the branches and functional areas of the Army.
The U.S. Army is made up of three components: the active component, the Regular Army; and two reserve components, the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve. Both reserve components are primarily composed of part-time soldiers who train once a month – known as battle assemblies or unit training assemblies (UTAs) – and conduct two to three weeks of annual training each year. Both the Regular Army and the Army Reserve are organized under Title 10 of the United States Code, while the National Guard is organized under Title 32. While the Army National Guard is organized, trained and equipped as a component of the U.S. Army, when it is not in federal service it is under the command of individual state and territorial governors. However, the District of Columbia National Guard reports to the U.S. president, not the district's mayor, even when not federalized. Any or all of the National Guard can be federalized by presidential order and against the governor's wishes.
The U.S. Army is led by a civilian secretary of the Army, who has the statutory authority to conduct all the affairs of the army under the authority, direction and control of the secretary of defense. The chief of staff of the Army, who is the highest-ranked military officer in the army, serves as the principal military adviser and executive agent for the secretary of the Army, i.e., its service chief; and as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a body composed of the service chiefs from each of the four military services belonging to the Department of Defense who advise the president of the United States, the secretary of defense and the National Security Council on operational military matters, under the guidance of the chairman and vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In 1986, the Goldwater–Nichols Act mandated that operational control of the services follows a chain of command from the president to the secretary of defense directly to the unified combatant commanders, who have control of all armed forces units in their geographic or function area of responsibility, thus the secretaries of the military departments (and their respective service chiefs underneath them) only have the responsibility to organize, train and equip their service components. The army provides trained forces to the combatant commanders for use as directed by the secretary of defense.
By 2013, the army shifted to six geographical commands that align with the six geographical unified combatant commands (CCMD):
The army also transformed its base unit from divisions to brigades. Division lineage will be retained, but the divisional headquarters will be able to command any brigade, not just brigades that carry their divisional lineage. The central part of this plan is that each brigade will be modular, i.e., all brigades of the same type will be exactly the same and thus any brigade can be commanded by any division. As specified before the 2013 end-strength re-definitions, the three major types of ground combat brigades are:
In addition, there are combat support and service support modular brigades. Combat support brigades include aviation (CAB) brigades, which will come in heavy and light varieties, fires (artillery) brigades (now transforms to division artillery) and expeditionary military intelligence brigades. Combat service support brigades include sustainment brigades and come in several varieties and serve the standard support role in an army.
The U.S. Army currently consists of 10 active divisions and one deployable division headquarters (7th Infantry Division) as well as several independent units. The force is in the process of contracting after several years of growth. In June 2013, the Army announced plans to downsize to 32 active combat brigade teams by 2015 to match a reduction in active duty strength to 490,000 soldiers. Army chief of staff Raymond Odierno projected that the Army was to shrink to "450,000 in the active component, 335,000 in the National Guard and 195,000 in U.S. Army Reserve" by 2018. However, this plan was scrapped by the new administration and now the Army plans to grow by 16,000 soldiers to a total of 476,000 by October 2017. The National Guard and the Army Reserve will see a smaller expansion.
Within the Army National Guard and United States Army Reserve there are a further 8 divisions, over 15 maneuver brigades, additional combat support and combat service support brigades and independent cavalry, infantry, artillery, aviation, engineer and support battalions. The Army Reserve in particular provides virtually all psychological operations and civil affairs units.
"For a description of U.S. Army tactical organizational structure, see: a U.S. context and also a global context."
United States Army Special Operations Command (Airborne) (USASOC):
These are the U.S. Army ranks authorized for use today and their equivalent NATO designations. Although no living officer currently holds the rank of General of the Army, it is still authorized by Congress for use in wartime.
There are several paths to becoming a commissioned officer including the United States Military Academy, Reserve Officers' Training Corps, Officer Candidate School, and Direct commissioning. Regardless of which road an officer takes, the insignia are the same. Certain professions including physicians, pharmacists, nurses, lawyers and chaplains are commissioned directly into the Army.
Most army commissioned officers (those who are generalists) are promoted based on an "up or out" system. The Defense Officer Personnel Management Act of 1980 establishes rules for timing of promotions and limits the number of officers that can serve at any given time.
Army regulations call for addressing all personnel with the rank of general as "General (last name)" regardless of the number of stars. Likewise, both colonels and lieutenant colonels are addressed as "Colonel (last name)" and first and second lieutenants as "Lieutenant (last name)".
Warrant officers are single track, specialty officers with subject matter expertise in a particular area. They are initially appointed as warrant officers (in the rank of WO1) by the secretary of the Army, but receive their commission upon promotion to chief warrant officer two (CW2).
By regulation, warrant officers are addressed as "Mr. (last name)" or "Ms. (last name)" by senior officers and as "sir" or "ma'am" by all enlisted personnel. However, many personnel address warrant officers as "Chief (last name)" within their units regardless of rank.
Sergeants and corporals are referred to as NCOs, short for non-commissioned officers. This distinguishes corporals from the more numerous specialists who have the same pay grade, but do not exercise leadership responsibilities.
Privates and privates first class (E3) are addressed as "Private (last name)", specialists as "Specialist (last name)", corporals as "Corporal (last name)" and sergeants, staff sergeants, sergeants first class and master sergeants all as "Sergeant (last name)". First sergeants are addressed as "First Sergeant (last name)" and sergeants major and command sergeants major are addressed as "Sergeant Major (last name)".
Training in the U.S. Army is generally divided into two categories – individual and collective. Because of COVID-19 precautions, the first two weeks of basic training — not including processing & out-processing — incorporate social distancing and indoor desk-oriented training. Once the recruits have tested negative for COVID-19 for two weeks, the remaining 8 weeks follow the traditional activities for most recruits, followed by Advanced Individualized Training (AIT) where they receive training for their military occupational specialties (MOS). Some individual's MOSs range anywhere from 14–20 weeks of One Station Unit Training (OSUT), which combines Basic Training and AIT. The length of AIT school varies by the MOS. The length of time spent in AIT depends on the MOS of the soldier. Certain highly technical MOS training requires many months (e.g., foreign language translators). Depending on the needs of the army, Basic Combat Training for combat arms soldiers is conducted at a number of locations, but two of the longest-running are the Armor School and the Infantry School, both at Fort Benning, Georgia. Sergeant Major of the Army Dailey notes that an infantrymen's pilot program for One Station Unit Training (OSUT) extends 8 weeks beyond Basic Training and AIT, to 22 weeks. The pilot, designed to boost infantry readiness ended December 2018. The new Infantry OSUT covered the M240 machine gun as well as the M249 squad automatic weapon. The redesigned Infantry OSUT started in 2019. Depending on the result of the 2018 pilot, OSUTs could also extend training in other combat arms beyond the infantry. One Station Unit Training will be extended to 22 weeks for Armor by Fiscal Year 2021. Additional OSUTs are expanding to Cavalry, Engineer, and Military Police (MP) in the succeeding Fiscal Years.
A new training assignment for junior officers was instituted, that they serve as platoon leaders for Basic Combat Training (BCT) platoons. These lieutenants will assume many of the administrative, logistical, and day-to-day tasks formerly performed by the drill sergeants of those platoons and are expected to "lead, train, and assist with maintaining and enhancing the morale, welfare and readiness" of the drill sergeants and their BCT platoons. These lieutenants are also expected to stem any inappropriate behaviors they witness in their platoons, to free up the drill sergeants for training.
The United States Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) is being introduced into the Army, beginning with 60 battalions spread throughout the Army. The test is the same for all soldiers, men or women. It will take an hour to complete, including resting periods. The ACFT supersedes the Army physical fitness test (APFT), as being more relevant to survival in combat. Six events were determined to better predict which muscle groups of the body were adequately conditioned for combat actions: three deadlifts, a standing power throw of a ten-pound medicine ball, hand-release pushups (which replace the traditional pushup), a sprint/drag/carry 250 yard event, three pull-ups with leg tucks (one needed to pass), a mandatory rest period, and a two-mile run. Eventually (by October 2020) all soldiers from all three components (Active Army, Reserve, and National guard) will be subject to this test. The ACFT will test all soldiers in basic training by October 2020. The ACFT becomes the official test of record 1 October 2020; before that day every Army unit is required to complete a diagnostic ACFT | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32087 |
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services. Initially formed as a part of the United States Army on 1 August 1907, the USAF was established as a separate branch of the U.S. Armed Forces on 18 September 1947 with the passing of the National Security Act of 1947. It is the second youngest branch of the U.S. Armed Forces, and the fourth in order of precedence. The U.S. Air Force articulates its core missions as air superiority, global integrated intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, rapid global mobility, global strike, and command and control.
The U.S. Air Force is a military service branch organized within the Department of the Air Force, one of the three military departments of the Department of Defense. The Air Force, through the Department of the Air Force, is headed by the civilian Secretary of the Air Force, who reports to the Secretary of Defense, and is appointed by the President with Senate confirmation. The highest-ranking military officer in the Air Force is the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, who exercises supervision over Air Force units and serves as one of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Certain Air Force components are assigned, as directed by the Secretary of Defense and Secretary of the Air Force, to unified combatant commands. Combatant commanders are delegated operational authority of the forces assigned to them, while the Secretary of the Air Force and the Chief of Staff of the Air Force retain administrative authority over their members.
Along with conducting independent air operations, the U.S. Air Force provides air support for land and naval forces and aids in the recovery of troops in the field. , the service operates more than 5,369 military aircraft, and 406 ICBMs. It has a $156.3 billion budget and is the second largest service branch, with 328,255 active duty airmen, 145,789 civilian personnel, 69,200 reserve airmen, and 105,700 Air National Guard airmen.
According to the National Security Act of 1947 (61 "Stat". 502), which created the USAF:
Section 8062 of Title 10 US Code defines the purpose of the USAF as:
The five core missions of the Air Force have not changed dramatically since the Air Force became independent in 1947, but they have evolved, and are now articulated as air superiority, global integrated intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, rapid global mobility, global strike, and command and control. The purpose of all of these core missions is to provide, what the Air Force states as, global vigilance, global reach, and global power.
Air superiority is "that degree of dominance in the air battle of one force over another which permits the conduct of operations by the former and its related land, sea, air, and special operations forces at a given time and place without prohibitive interference by the opposing force" (JP 1-02).
Offensive Counterair (OCA) is defined as "offensive operations to destroy, disrupt, or neutralize enemy aircraft, missiles, launch platforms, and their supporting structures and systems both before and after launch, but as close to their source as possible" (JP 1-02). OCA is the preferred method of countering air and missile threats since it attempts to defeat the enemy closer to its source and typically enjoys the initiative. OCA comprises attack operations, sweep, escort, and suppression/destruction of enemy air defense.
Defensive Counter air (DCA) is defined as "all the defensive measures designed to detect, identify, intercept, and destroy or negate enemy forces attempting to penetrate or attack through friendly airspace" (JP 1-02). A major goal of DCA operations, in concert with OCA operations, is to provide an area from which forces can operate, secure from air and missile threats. The DCA mission comprises both active and passive defense measures. Active defense is "the employment of limited offensive action and counterattacks to deny a contested area or position to the enemy" (JP 1-02). It includes both ballistic missile defense and air-breathing threat defense, and encompasses point defense, area defense, and high-value airborne asset defense. Passive defense is "measures taken to reduce the probability of and to minimize the effects of damage caused by hostile action without the intention of taking the initiative" (JP 1-02). It includes detection and warning; chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear defense; camouflage, concealment, and deception; hardening; reconstitution; dispersion; redundancy; and mobility, counter-measures, and stealth.
Airspace control is "a process used to increase operational effectiveness by promoting the safe, efficient, and flexible use of airspace" (JP 1-02). It promotes the safe, efficient, and flexible use of airspace, mitigates the risk of fratricide, enhances both offensive and defensive operations, and permits greater agility of air operations as a whole. It both deconflicts and facilitates integration of joint air operations.
Global integrated intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) is the synchronization and integration of the planning and operation of sensors, assets, and processing, exploitation, dissemination systems across the globe to conduct current and future operations.
Planning and directing is "the determination of intelligence requirements, development of appropriate intelligence architecture, preparation of a collection plan, and issuance of orders and requests to information collection agencies" (JP 2-01, Joint and National Intelligence Support to Military Operations). These activities enable the synchronization and integration of collection, processing, exploitation, analysis, and dissemination activities/resources to meet information requirements of national and military decision makers.
Collection is "the acquisition of information and the provision of this information to processing elements" (JP 2-01). It provides the ability to obtain required information to satisfy intelligence needs (via use of sources and methods in all domains). Collection activities span the Range of Military Operations (ROMO).
Processing and exploitation is "the conversion of collected information into forms suitable to the production of intelligence" (JP 2-01). It provides the ability, across the ROMO, to transform, extract, and make available collected information suitable for further analysis or action.
Analysis and production is "the conversion of processed information into intelligence through the integration, evaluation, analysis, and interpretation of all source data and the preparation of intelligence products in support of known or anticipated user requirements" (JP 2-01). It provides the ability to integrate, evaluate, and interpret information from available sources to create a finished intelligence product for presentation or dissemination to enable increased situational awareness.
Dissemination and integration is "the delivery of intelligence to users in a suitable form and the application of the intelligence to appropriate missions, tasks, and functions" (JP 2-01). It provides the ability to present information and intelligence products across the ROMO enabling understanding of the operational environment to military and national decision-makers.
Rapid global mobility is the timely deployment, employment, sustainment, augmentation, and redeployment of military forces and capabilities across the ROMO. It provides joint military forces the capability to move from place to place while retaining the ability to fulfill their primary mission. Rapid Global Mobility is essential to virtually every military operation, allowing forces to reach foreign or domestic destinations quickly, thus seizing the initiative through speed and surprise.
Airlift is "operations to transport and deliver forces and materiel through the air in support of strategic, operational, or tactical objectives" (Annex 3–17, Air Mobility Operations). The rapid and flexible options afforded by airlift allow military forces and national leaders the ability to respond and operate in a variety of situations and time frames. The global reach capability of airlift provides the ability to apply US power worldwide by delivering forces to crisis locations. It serves as a US presence that demonstrates resolve and compassion in humanitarian crisis.
Air refueling is "the refueling of an aircraft in flight by another aircraft" (JP 1-02). Air refueling extends presence, increases range, and serves as a force multiplier. It allows air assets to more rapidly reach any trouble spot around the world with less dependence on forward staging bases or overflight/landing clearances. Air refueling significantly expands the options available to a commander by increasing the range, payload, persistence, and flexibility of receiver aircraft.
Aeromedical evacuation is "the movement of patients under medical supervision to and between medical treatment facilities by air transportation" (JP 1-02). JP 4-02, Health Service Support, further defines it as "the fixed wing movement of regulated casualties to and between medical treatment facilities, using organic and/or contracted mobility airframes, with aircrew trained explicitly for this mission." Aeromedical evacuation forces can operate as far forward as fixed-wing aircraft are able to conduct airland operations.
Global precision attack is the ability to hold at risk or strike rapidly and persistently, with a wide range of munitions, any target and to create swift, decisive, and precise effects across multiple domains.
Strategic attack is defined as "offensive action specifically selected to achieve national strategic objectives. These attacks seek to weaken the adversary's ability or will to engage in conflict, and may achieve strategic objectives without necessarily having to achieve operational objectives as a precondition" (Annex 3–70, Strategic Attack).
Air Interdiction is defined as "air operations conducted to divert, disrupt, delay, or destroy the enemy's military potential before it can be brought to bear effectively against friendly forces, or to otherwise achieve JFC objectives. Air Interdiction is conducted at such distance from friendly forces that detailed integration of each air mission with the fire and movement of friendly forces is not required" (Annex 3-03, Counterland Operations).
Close Air Support is defined as "air action by fixed- and rotary-winged aircraft against hostile targets that are in close proximity to friendly forces and which require detailed integration of each air mission with the fire and movement of those forces" (JP 1-02). This can be as a pre-planned event or on demand from an alert posture (ground or airborne). It can be conducted across the ROMO.
The purpose of nuclear deterrence operations (NDO) is to operate, maintain, and secure nuclear forces to achieve an assured capability to deter an adversary from taking action against vital US interests. In the event deterrence fails, the US should be able to appropriately respond with nuclear options. The sub-elements of this function are:
Assure/Dissuade/Deter is a mission set derived from the Air Force's readiness to carry out the nuclear strike operations mission as well as from specific actions taken to assure allies as a part of extended deterrence. Dissuading others from acquiring or proliferating WMD, and the means to deliver them, contributes to promoting security and is also an integral part of this mission. Moreover, different deterrence strategies are required to deter various adversaries, whether they are a nation state, or non-state/transnational actor. The Air Force maintains and presents credible deterrent capabilities through successful visible demonstrations and exercises which assure allies, dissuade proliferation, deter potential adversaries from actions that threaten US national security or the populations and deployed military forces of the US, its allies and friends.
Nuclear strike is the ability of nuclear forces to rapidly and accurately strike targets which the enemy holds dear in a devastating manner. If a crisis occurs, rapid generation and, if necessary, deployment of nuclear strike capabilities will demonstrate US resolve and may prompt an adversary to alter the course of action deemed threatening to our national interest. Should deterrence fail, the President may authorize a precise, tailored response to terminate the conflict at the lowest possible level and lead to a rapid cessation of hostilities. Post-conflict, regeneration of a credible nuclear deterrent capability will deter further aggression. The Air Force may present a credible force posture in either the Continental United States, within a theater of operations, or both to effectively deter the range of potential adversaries envisioned in the 21st century. This requires the ability to engage targets globally using a variety of methods; therefore, the Air Force should possess the ability to induct, train, assign, educate and exercise individuals and units to rapidly and effectively execute missions that support US NDO objectives. Finally, the Air Force regularly exercises and evaluates all aspects of nuclear operations to ensure high levels of performance.
Nuclear surety ensures the safety, security and effectiveness of nuclear operations. Because of their political and military importance, destructive power, and the potential consequences of an accident or unauthorized act, nuclear weapons and nuclear weapon systems require special consideration and protection against risks and threats inherent in their peacetime and wartime environments. The Air Force, in conjunction with other entities within the Departments of Defense or Energy, achieves a high standard of protection through a stringent nuclear surety program. This program applies to materiel, personnel, and procedures that contribute to the safety, security, and control of nuclear weapons, thus assuring no nuclear accidents, incidents, loss, or unauthorized or accidental use (a Broken Arrow incident). The Air Force continues to pursue safe, secure and effective nuclear weapons consistent with operational requirements. Adversaries, allies, and the American people must be highly confident of the Air Force's ability to secure nuclear weapons from accidents, theft, loss, and accidental or unauthorized use. This day-to-day commitment to precise and reliable nuclear operations is the cornerstone of the credibility of the NDO mission. Positive nuclear command, control, communications; effective nuclear weapons security; and robust combat support are essential to the overall NDO function.
Command and control is "the exercise of authority and direction by a properly designated commander over assigned and attached forces in the accomplishment of the mission. Command and control functions are performed through an arrangement of personnel, equipment, communications, facilities, and procedures employed by a commander in planning, directing, coordinating, and controlling forces and operations in the accomplishment of the mission" (JP 1-02). This core function includes all of the C2-related capabilities and activities associated with air, cyberspace, nuclear, and agile combat support operations to achieve strategic, operational, and tactical objectives.
At the strategic level command and control, the US determines national or multinational security objectives and guidance, and develops and uses national resources to accomplish these objectives. These national objectives in turn provide the direction for developing overall military objectives, which are used to develop the objectives and strategy for each theater.
At the operational level command and control, campaigns and major operations are planned, conducted, sustained, and assessed to accomplish strategic goals within theaters or areas of operations. These activities imply a broader dimension of time or space than do tactics; they provide the means by which tactical successes are exploited to achieve strategic and operational objectives.
Tactical Level Command and Control is where individual battles and engagements are fought. The tactical level of war deals with how forces are employed, and the specifics of how engagements are conducted and targets attacked. The goal of tactical level C2 is to achieve commander's intent and desired effects by gaining and keeping offensive initiative.
The U.S. War Department created the first antecedent of the U.S. Air Force, as a part of the U.S. Army, on 1 August 1907, which through a succession of changes of organization, titles, and missions advanced toward eventual independence 40 years later. In World War II, almost 68,000 U.S. airmen died helping to win the war, with only the infantry suffering more casualties. In practice, the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) was virtually independent of the Army during World War II, and in virtually all ways functioned as an independent service branch, but airmen still pressed for formal independence. The National Security Act of 1947 was signed on 26 July 1947 by President Harry S. Truman, which established the Department of the Air Force, but it was not until 18 September 1947, when the first secretary of the Air Force, W. Stuart Symington, was sworn into office that the Air Force was officially formed as an independent service branch.
The act created the "National Military Establishment" (renamed Department of Defense in 1949), which was composed of three subordinate Military Departments, namely the Department of the Army, the Department of the Navy, and the newly created Department of the Air Force. Prior to 1947, the responsibility for military aviation was shared between the Army Air Forces and its predecessor organizations (for land-based operations), the Navy (for sea-based operations from aircraft carriers and amphibious aircraft), and the Marine Corps (for close air support of Marine Corps operations). The 1940s proved to be important for military aviation in other ways as well. In 1947, Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in his X-1 rocket-powered aircraft, beginning a new era of aeronautics in America.
The predecessor organizations in the Army of today's Air Force are:
During the early 2000s, two USAF aircraft procurement projects took longer than expected, the KC-X and F-35 programs. As a result, the USAF was setting new records for average aircraft age.
Since 2005, the USAF has placed a strong focus on the improvement of Basic Military Training (BMT) for enlisted personnel. While the intense training has become longer, it also has shifted to include a deployment phase. This deployment phase, now called the BEAST, places the trainees in a simulated combat environment that they may experience once they deploy. While the trainees do tackle the massive obstacle courses along with the BEAST, the other portions include defending and protecting their base of operations, forming a structure of leadership, directing search and recovery, and basic self aid buddy care. During this event, the Military Training Instructors (MTI) act as mentors and opposing forces in a deployment exercise.
In 2007, the USAF undertook a Reduction-in-Force (RIF). Because of budget constraints, the USAF planned to reduce the service's size from 360,000 active duty personnel to 316,000. The size of the active duty force in 2007 was roughly 64% of that of what the USAF was at the end of the first Gulf War in 1991. However, the reduction was ended at approximately 330,000 personnel in 2008 in order to meet the demand signal of combatant commanders and associated mission requirements. These same constraints have seen a sharp reduction in flight hours for crew training since 2005 and the Deputy Chief of Staff for Manpower and Personnel directing Airmen's Time Assessments.
On 5 June 2008, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates accepted the resignations of both the Secretary of the Air Force, Michael Wynne, and the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, General T. Michael Moseley. In his decision to fire both men Gates cited "systemic issues associated with... declining Air Force nuclear mission focus and performance". Left unmentioned by Gates was that he had repeatedly clashed with Wynne and Moseley over other important non-nuclear related issues to the service. This followed an investigation into two incidents involving mishandling of nuclear weapons: specifically a nuclear weapons incident aboard a B-52 flight between Minot AFB and Barksdale AFB, and an accidental shipment of nuclear weapons components to Taiwan. To put more emphasis on nuclear assets, the USAF established the nuclear-focused Air Force Global Strike Command on 24 October 2008, which later assumed control of all USAF bomber aircraft.
On 26 June 2009, the USAF released a force structure plan that cut fighter aircraft and shifted resources to better support nuclear, irregular and information warfare. On 23 July 2009, The USAF released their Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Flight Plan, detailing Air Force UAS plans through 2047. One third of the planes that the USAF planned to buy in the future were to be unmanned. According to Air Force Chief Scientist, Dr. Greg Zacharias, the USAF anticipates having hypersonic weapons by the 2020s, hypersonic RPAs by the 2030s and recoverable hypersonic RPAs aircraft by the 2040s. Air Force intends to deploy a Sixth-generation jet fighter by the mid–2030s.
The United States Air Force has been involved in many wars, conflicts and operations using military air operations. The USAF possesses the lineage and heritage of its predecessor organizations, which played a pivotal role in U.S. military operations since 1907:
In addition since the USAF dwarfs all other U.S. and allied air components, it often provides support for allied forces in conflicts to which the United States is otherwise not involved, such as the 2013 French campaign in Mali.
The USAF has also taken part in numerous humanitarian operations. Some of the more major ones include the following:
The Department of the Air Force is one of three military departments within the Department of Defense, and is managed by the civilian Secretary of the Air Force, under the authority, direction, and control of the Secretary of Defense. The senior officials in the Office of the Secretary are the Under Secretary of the Air Force, four Assistant Secretaries of the Air Force and the General Counsel, all of whom are appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. The senior uniformed leadership in the Air Staff is made up of the Chief of Staff of the Air Force and the Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force.
The directly subordinate commands and units are named Field Operating Agency (FOA), Direct Reporting Unit (DRU), and the currently unused Separate Operating Agency.
The Major Command (MAJCOM) is the superior hierarchical level of command. Including the Air Force Reserve Command, as of 30 September 2006, USAF has ten major commands. The Numbered Air Force (NAF) is a level of command directly under the MAJCOM, followed by Operational Command (now unused), Air Division (also now unused), Wing, Group, Squadron, and Flight.
Headquarters, United States Air Force (HQ USAF):
The major components of the U.S. Air Force, as of 28 August 2015, are the following:
The USAF, including its Air Reserve Component (e.g., Air Force Reserve + Air National Guard), possesses a total of 302 flying squadrons.
The organizational structure as shown above is responsible for the peacetime organization, equipping, and training of air units for operational missions. When required to support operational missions, the Secretary of Defense (SECDEF) directs the Secretary of the Air Force (SECAF) to execute a Change in Operational Control (CHOP) of these units from their administrative alignment to the operational command of a Regional Combatant commander (CCDR). In the case of AFSPC, AFSOC, PACAF, and USAFE units, forces are normally employed in-place under their existing CCDR. Likewise, AMC forces operating in support roles retain their componency to USTRANSCOM unless chopped to a Regional CCDR.
"Chopped" units are referred to as "forces". The top-level structure of these forces is the Air Expeditionary Task Force (AETF). The AETF is the Air Force presentation of forces to a CCDR for the employment of Air Power. Each CCDR is supported by a standing Component Numbered Air Force (C-NAF) to provide planning and execution of air forces in support of CCDR requirements. Each C-NAF consists of a Commander, Air Force Forces (COMAFFOR) and AFFOR/A-staff, and an Air Operations Center (AOC). As needed to support multiple Joint Force Commanders (JFC) in the CCMD's Area of Responsibility (AOR), the C-NAF may deploy Air Component Coordinate Elements (ACCE) to liaise with the JFC. If the Air Force possesses the preponderance of air forces in a JFC's area of operations, the COMAFFOR will also serve as the Joint Forces Air Component Commander (JFACC).
The Commander, Air Force Forces (COMAFFOR) is the senior USAF officer responsible for the employment of air power in support of JFC objectives. The COMAFFOR has a special staff and an A-Staff to ensure assigned or attached forces are properly organized, equipped, and trained to support the operational mission.
The Air Operations Center (AOC) is the JFACC's Command and Control (C2) center. Several AOCs have been established throughout the Air Force worldwide. These centers are responsible for planning and executing air power missions in support of JFC objectives.
The AETF generates air power to support CCMD objectives from Air Expeditionary Wings (AEW) or Air Expeditionary Groups (AEG). These units are responsible for receiving combat forces from Air Force MAJCOMs, preparing these forces for operational missions, launching and recovering these forces, and eventually returning forces to the MAJCOMs. Theater Air Control Systems control employment of forces during these missions.
The classification of any USAF job for officers or enlisted airmen is the Air Force Specialty Code (AFSC).
AFSCs range from officer specialties such as pilot, combat systems officer, special tactics, nuclear and missile operations, intelligence, cyberspace operations, judge advocate general (JAG), medical doctor, nurse or other fields, to various enlisted specialties. The latter range from flight combat operations such as loadmaster, to working in a dining facility to ensure that Airmen are properly fed. There are additional occupational fields such as computer specialties, mechanic specialties, enlisted aircrew, communication systems, cyberspace operations, avionics technicians, medical specialties, civil engineering, public affairs, hospitality, law, drug counseling, mail operations, security forces, and search and rescue specialties.
Beyond combat flight crew personnel, other combat USAF AFSCs are Special Tactics Officer, Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD), Combat Rescue Officer, Pararescue, Security Forces, Combat Control, Combat Weather, Tactical Air Control Party, Special Operations Weather Technician, and AFOSI agents.
Nearly all enlisted career fields are "entry level", meaning that the USAF provides all training. Some enlistees are able to choose a particular field, or at least a field before actually joining, while others are assigned an AFSC at Basic Military Training (BMT). After BMT, new enlisted airmen attend a technical training school where they learn their particular AFSC. Second Air Force, a part of Air Education and Training Command, is responsible for nearly all enlisted technical training.
Training programs vary in length; for example, 3M0X1 (Services) has 31 days of tech school training, while 3E8X1 (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) is one year of training with a preliminary school and a main school consisting of over 10 separate divisions, sometimes taking students close to two years to complete. Officer technical training conducted by Second Air Force can also vary by AFSC, while flight training for aeronautically-rated officers conducted by AETC's Nineteenth Air Force can last well in excess of one year.
USAF rank is divided between enlisted airmen, non-commissioned officers, and commissioned officers, and ranges from the enlisted Airman Basic (E-1) to the commissioned officer rank of General (O-10), however in times of war officers may be appointed to the higher grade of General of the Air Force. Enlisted promotions are granted based on a combination of test scores, years of experience, and selection board approval while officer promotions are based on time-in-grade and a promotion selection board. Promotions among enlisted personnel and non-commissioned officers are generally designated by increasing numbers of insignia chevrons. Commissioned officer rank is designated by bars, oak leaves, a silver eagle, and anywhere from one to five stars. General of the Air Force Henry "Hap" Arnold is the only individual in the history of the US Air Force to attain the rank of five-star general.
The commissioned officer ranks of the USAF are divided into three categories: company grade officers, field grade officers, and general officers. Company grade officers are those officers in pay grades O-1 to O-3, while field grade officers are those in pay grades O-4 to O-6, and general officers are those in pay grades of O-7 and above.
Air Force officer promotions are governed by the Defense Officer Personnel Management Act of 1980 and its companion Reserve Officer Personnel Management Act (ROPMA) for officers in the Air Force Reserve and the Air National Guard. DOPMA also establishes limits on the number of officers that can serve at any given time in the Air Force. Currently, promotion from second lieutenant to first lieutenant is virtually guaranteed after two years of satisfactory service. The promotion from first lieutenant to captain is competitive after successfully completing another two years of service, with a selection rate varying between 99% and 100%. Promotion to major through major general is through a formal selection board process, while promotions to lieutenant general and general are contingent upon nomination to specific general officer positions and subject to U.S. Senate approval.
During the board process, an officer's record is reviewed by a selection board at the Air Force Personnel Center at Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. At the 10 to 11-year mark, captains will take part in a selection board to major. If not selected, they will meet a follow-on board to determine if they will be allowed to remain in the Air Force. Promotion from major to lieutenant colonel is similar and occurs approximately between the thirteen year (for officers who were promoted to major early "below the zone") and the fifteen year mark, where a certain percentage of majors will be selected below zone (i.e., "early"), in zone (i.e., "on time") or above zone (i.e., "late") for promotion to lieutenant colonel. This process will repeat at the 16-year mark (for officers previously promoted early to major and lieutenant colonel) to the 21-year mark for promotion to full colonel.
The Air Force has the largest ratio of general officers to total strength of all of the U.S. Armed Forces and this ratio has continued to increase even as the force has shrunk from its Cold War highs.
Although provision is made in Title 10 of the United States Code for the Secretary of the Air Force to appoint warrant officers, the Air Force does not currently use warrant officer grades, and is the only one of the U.S. Armed Services not to do so. The Air Force inherited warrant officer ranks from the Army at its inception in 1947. The Air Force stopped appointing warrant officers in 1959, the same year the first promotions were made to the new top enlisted grade, Chief Master Sergeant. Most of the existing Air Force warrant officers entered the commissioned officer ranks during the 1960s, but small numbers continued to exist in the warrant officer grades for the next 21 years.
The last active duty Air Force warrant officer, CWO4 James H. Long, retired in 1980 and the last Air Force Reserve warrant officer, CWO4 Bob Barrow, retired in 1992. Upon his retirement, he was honorarily promoted to CWO5, the only person in the Air Force ever to hold this grade. Since Barrow's retirement, the Air Force warrant officer ranks, while still authorized by law, are not used.
Enlisted Airmen have pay grades from E-1 (entry level) to E-9 (senior enlisted). While all USAF personnel, enlisted and officer, are referred to as "Airmen", in the same manner that all Army personnel, enlisted and officer, are referred to as "Soldiers", the term also refers to the pay grades of E-1 through E-4, which are below the level of non-commissioned officers (NCOs). Above the pay grade of E-4 (i.e., pay grades E-5 through E-9) all ranks fall into the category of NCO and are further subdivided into "NCOs" (pay grades E-5 and E-6) and "Senior NCOs" (pay grades E-7 through E-9); the term "Junior NCO" is sometimes used to refer to staff sergeants and technical sergeants (pay grades E-5 and E-6).
The USAF is the only branch of the U.S. military where NCO status is achieved when an enlisted person reaches the pay grade of E-5. In all other branches, NCO status is generally achieved at the pay grade of E-4 (e.g., a Corporal in the Army and Marine Corps, Petty Officer Third Class in the Navy and Coast Guard). The Air Force mirrored the Army from 1976 to 1991 with an E-4 being either a Senior Airman wearing three stripes without a star or a Sergeant (referred to as "Buck Sergeant"), which was noted by the presence of the central star and considered an NCO. Despite not being an NCO, a Senior Airman who has completed Airman Leadership School can be a supervisor according to the AFI 36–2618.
The first USAF dress uniform, in 1947, was dubbed and patented "Uxbridge Blue" after "Uxbridge 1683 Blue", developed at the former Bachman-Uxbridge Worsted Company. The current Service Dress Uniform, which was adopted in 1994, consists of a three-button, pocketless coat, with silver "U.S." pins on the lapels for officers or with a silver ring surrounding on those of enlisted Airmen, matching trousers, and either a service cap or flight cap, all in Shade 1620, "Air Force Blue" (a darker purplish-blue). This is worn with a light blue shirt (Shade 1550) and Shade 1620 herringbone patterned necktie. Enlisted Airmen wear sleeve rank on both the jacket and shirt, while officers wear metal rank insignia pinned onto the epaulet loops on the coat, and Air Force Blue slide-on epaulet loops on the shirt. USAF personnel assigned to Base Honor Guard duties wear, for certain occasions, a modified version of the standard service dress uniform, but with silver trim on the sleeves and trousers, with the addition of a ceremonial belt (if necessary), service cap with silver trim and Hap Arnold Device, and a silver aiguillette placed on the left shoulder seam and all devices and accoutrement.
The Airman Battle Uniform (ABU) became the sole authorized combat and utility uniform (except the flight duty uniform for aviation and missile airmen) of the USAF on 1 November 2011. The ABU replaced the Battle Dress Uniform (BDU) previously worn by all U.S. military forces. Airmen who are assigned to Air Force Special Operations Command, deployed to Air Forces Central Command AOR, certain Global Strike Command Security Forces, and other Air Force ground combat forces wear the Airman Combat Uniform (ACU) in the Operational Camouflage Pattern. The Air Force will replace the ABU with the OCP uniform, starting on 1 October 2018.
In addition to basic uniform clothing, various badges are used by the USAF to indicate a billet assignment or qualification-level for a given assignment. Badges can also be used as merit-based or service-based awards. Over time, various badges have been discontinued and are no longer distributed.
All enlisted Airmen attend Basic Military Training (BMT) at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas for 8 1/2 weeks. Individuals who have prior service of over 24 months of active duty in the other service branches who seek to enlist in the Air Force must go through a 10-day Air Force familiarization course rather than enlisted BMT, however prior service opportunities are severely limited.
Officers may be commissioned upon graduation from the United States Air Force Academy, upon graduation from another college or university through the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (AFROTC) program, or through the Air Force Officer Training School (OTS). OTS, located at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama since 1993, in turn encompasses two separate commissioning programs: Basic Officer Training (BOT), which is for officer candidates for the Regular Air Force and the Air Force Reserve; and the Academy of Military Science (AMS), which is for officer candidates of the Air National Guard.
The Air Force also provides Commissioned Officer Training (COT) for officers of all three components who are direct-commissioned into medicine, law, religion, biological sciences, or healthcare administration. COT is fully integrated into the OTS program and today encompasses extensive coursework as well as field exercises in leadership, confidence, fitness, and deployed-environment operations.
The US Air Force Fitness Test (AFFT) is designed to test the abdominal circumference, muscular strength/endurance and cardiovascular respiratory fitness of airmen in the USAF. As part of the "Fit to Fight" program, the USAF adopted a more stringent physical fitness assessment; the new fitness program was put into effect on 1 June 2010. The annual ergo-cycle test which the USAF had used for several years had been replaced in 2004. In the AFFT, Airmen are given a score based on performance consisting of four components: waist circumference, the sit-up, the push-up, and a run. Airmen can potentially earn a score of 100, with the run counting as 60%, waist circumference as 20%, and both strength test counting as 10% each. A passing score is 75 points. Effective 1 July 2010, the AFFT is administered by the base Fitness Assessment Cell (FAC), and is required twice a year. Personnel may test once a year if he or she earns a score above a 90%. Additionally, only meeting the minimum standards on each one of these tests will not get you a passing score of 75%, and failing any one component will result in a failure for the entire test.
The U.S. Air Force has over 5,638 aircraft in service as of September 2012. Until 1962, the Army and Air Force maintained one system of aircraft naming, while the U.S. Navy maintained a separate system. In 1962, these were unified into a single system heavily reflecting the Army/Air Force method. For more complete information on the workings of this system, refer to United States Department of Defense aerospace vehicle designation. The various aircraft of the Air Force include:
The attack aircraft of the USAF are designed to attack targets on the ground and are often deployed as close air support for, and in proximity to, U.S. ground forces. The proximity to friendly forces require precision strikes from these aircraft that are not always possible with bomber aircraft. Their role is tactical rather than strategic, operating at the front of the battle rather than against targets deeper in the enemy's rear. The Air Force is currently running the OA-X experiment, with the intent to procure an off-the-shelf light attack aircraft. Current USAF attack aircraft are operated by Air Combat Command, Pacific Air Forces, and Air Force Special Operations Command.
US Air Force bombers are strategic weapons, primarily used for long range strike missions with either conventional or nuclear ordnance. Traditionally used for attacking strategic targets, today many bombers are also used in the tactical mission, such as providing close air support for ground forces and tactical interdiction missions. All Air Force bombers are under Global Strike Command.
The service's B-2A aircraft entered service in the 1990s, its B-1B aircraft in the 1980s and its current B-52H aircraft in the early 1960s. The B-52 Stratofortress airframe design is over 60 years old and the B-52H aircraft currently in the active inventory were all built between 1960 and 1962. The B-52H is scheduled to remain in service for another 30 years, which would keep the airframe in service for nearly 90 years, an unprecedented length of service for any aircraft. The B-21 is projected to replace the B-52 and parts of the B-1B force by the mid-2020s.
Transport aircraft are typically used to deliver troops, weapons and other military equipment by a variety of methods to any area of military operations around the world, usually outside of the commercial flight routes in uncontrolled airspace. The workhorses of the USAF airlift forces are the C-130 Hercules, C-17 Globemaster III, and C-5 Galaxy. The CV-22 is used by the Air Force for special operations. It conducts long-range, special operations missions, and is equipped with extra fuel tanks and terrain-following radar. Some aircraft serve specialized transportation roles such as executive/embassy support (C-12), Antarctic Support (LC-130H), and AFSOC support (C-27J, C-145A, and C-146A). Although most of the US Air Force's cargo aircraft were specially designed with the Air Force in mind, some aircraft such as the C-12 Huron (Beechcraft Super King Air) and C-146 (Dornier 328) are militarized conversions of existing civilian aircraft. Transport aircraft are operated by Air Mobility Command, Air Force Special Operations Command, and United States Air Forces in Europe – Air Forces Africa.
The purpose of electronic warfare is to deny the opponent an advantage in the EMS and ensure friendly, unimpeded access to the EM spectrum portion of the information environment. Electronic warfare aircraft are used to keep airspaces friendly, and send critical information to anyone who needs it. They are often called "The Eye in the Sky". The roles of the aircraft vary greatly among the different variants to include Electronic Warfare/Jamming (EC-130H), Psychological Operations/Communications (EC-130J), Airborne Early Warning and Control (E-3), Airborne Command Post (E-4B), ground targeting radar (E-8C), range control (E-9A), and communications relay (E-11A, EQ-4B).
The fighter aircraft of the USAF are small, fast, and maneuverable military aircraft primarily used for air-to-air combat. Many of these fighters have secondary ground-attack capabilities, and some are dual-roled as fighter-bombers (e.g., the F-16 Fighting Falcon); the term "fighter" is also sometimes used colloquially for dedicated ground-attack aircraft, such as the F-117 Nighthawk. Other missions include interception of bombers and other fighters, reconnaissance, and patrol. The F-16 is currently used by the USAF Air Demonstration squadron, the Thunderbirds, while a small number of both man-rated and non-man-rated F-4 Phantom II are retained as QF-4 aircraft for use as Full Scale Aerial Targets (FSAT) or as part of the USAF Heritage Flight program. These extant QF-4 aircraft are being replaced in the FSAT role by early model F-16 aircraft converted to QF-16 configuration. The USAF has 2,025 fighters in service as of September 2012.
These aircraft are used for search and rescue and combat search and rescue on land or sea. The HC-130N/P aircraft are being replaced by newer HC-130J models. HH-60U are replacement aircraft for "G" models that have been lost in combat operations or accidents. New HH-60W helicopters are under development to replace both the "G" and "U" model Pave Hawks.
The USAF's KC-135 and KC-10 aerial refueling aircraft are based on civilian jets. The USAF aircraft are equipped primarily for providing the fuel via a tail-mounted refueling boom, and can be equipped with "probe and drogue" refueling systems. Air-to-air refueling is extensively used in large-scale operations and also used in normal operations; fighters, bombers, and cargo aircraft rely heavily on the lesser-known "tanker" aircraft. This makes these aircraft an essential part of the Air Force's global mobility and the U.S. force projection. The KC-46A Pegasus began to be delivered to USAF units starting in 2019.
Specialized multi-mission aircraft provide support for global special operations missions. These aircraft conduct infiltration, exfiltration, resupply, and refueling for SOF teams from improvised or otherwise short runways. The MC-130J is currently being fielded to replace "H" and "P" models used by U.S. Special Operations Command. The MC-12W is used in the Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) role.
Initial generations of RPAs were primarily surveillance aircraft, but some were fitted with weaponry (such as the MQ-1 Predator, which used AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-ground missiles). An armed RPA is known as an unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV).
These aircraft are modified to observe (through visual or other means) and report tactical information concerning composition and disposition of forces. The OC-135 is specifically designed to support the Treaty on Open Skies by observing bases and operations of party members under the 2002 signed treaty.
The reconnaissance aircraft of the USAF are used for monitoring enemy activity, originally carrying no armament. Although the U-2 is designated as a 'utility' aircraft, it is a reconnaissance platform. The roles of the aircraft vary greatly among the different variants to include general monitoring (RC-26B), Ballistic missile monitoring (RC-135S), Electronic Intelligence gathering (RC-135U), Signal Intelligence gathering (RC-135V/W), and high altitude surveillance (U-2)
Several unmanned remotely controlled reconnaissance aircraft (RPAs), have been developed and deployed. Recently, the RPAs have been seen to offer the possibility of cheaper, more capable fighting machines that can be used without risk to aircrews.
The Air Force's trainer aircraft are used to train pilots, combat systems officers, and other aircrew in their duties.
Several gliders are used by the USAF, primarily used for cadet flying training at the U.S. Air Force Academy.
Utility aircraft are used basically for what they are needed for at the time. For example, a Huey may be used to transport personnel around a large base or launch site, while it can also be used for evacuation. These aircraft are all around use aircraft.
These aircraft are used for the transportation of Very Important Persons (VIPs). Notable people include the President, Vice President, Cabinet secretaries, government officials (e.g., senators and representatives), the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and other key personnel.
These aircraft are used to study meteorological events such as hurricanes and typhoons.
The culture of the United States Air Force is primarily driven by pilots, at first those piloting bombers (driven originally by the Bomber Mafia), followed by fighters (Fighter Mafia).
In response to a 2007 United States Air Force nuclear weapons incident, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates accepted in June 2009 the resignations of Secretary of the Air Force Michael Wynne and the Chief of Staff of the Air Force General T. Michael Moseley. Moseley's successor, General Norton A. Schwartz, a former airlift and special operations pilot was the first officer appointed to that position who did not have a background as a fighter or bomber pilot. The Washington Post reported in 2010 that General Schwartz began to dismantle the rigid class system of the USAF, particularly in the officer corps.
In 2014, following morale and testing/cheating scandals in the Air Force's missile launch officer community, Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James admitted that there remained a "systemic problem" in the USAF's management of the nuclear mission.
Daniel L. Magruder, Jr. defines USAF culture as a combination of the rigorous application of advanced technology, individualism and progressive airpower theory. Major General Charles J. Dunlap, Jr. adds that the U.S. Air Force's culture also includes an egalitarianism bred from officers perceiving themselves as their service's principal "warriors" working with small groups of enlisted airmen either as the service crew or the onboard crew of their aircraft. Air Force officers have never felt they needed the formal social "distance" from their enlisted force that is common in the other U.S. armed services. Although the paradigm is changing, for most of its history, the Air Force, completely unlike its sister services, has been an organization in which mostly its officers fought, not its enlisted force, the latter being primarily a rear echelon support force. When the enlisted force did go into harm's way, such as crew members of multi-crewed aircraft, the close comradeship of shared risk in tight quarters created traditions that shaped a somewhat different kind of officer/enlisted relationship than exists elsewhere in the military.
Cultural and career issues in the U.S. Air Force have been cited as one of the reasons for the shortfall in needed UAV operators. In spite of demand for UAVs or drones to provide round the clock coverage for American troops during the Iraq War, the USAF did not establish a new career field for piloting them until the last year of that war and in 2014 changed its RPA training syllabus again, in the face of large aircraft losses in training, and in response to a GAO report critical of handling of drone programs. Paul Scharre has reported that the cultural divide between the USAF and US Army has kept both services from adopting each other's drone handing innovations.
Many of the U.S. Air Force's formal and informal traditions are an amalgamation of those taken from the Royal Air Force (e.g., dining-ins/mess nights) or the experiences of its predecessor organizations such as the U.S. Army Air Service, U.S. Army Air Corps and the U.S. Army Air Forces. Some of these traditions range from "Friday Name Tags" in flying units to an annual "Mustache Month". The use of "challenge coins" dates back to World War I when a member of one of the aero squadrons bought his entire unit medallions with their emblem, while another cultural tradition unique to the Air Force is the "roof stomp", practiced by Airmen to welcome a new commander or to commemorate another event, such as a retirement. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32090 |
Cape Breton University
Cape Breton University (CBU), formerly known as the "University College of Cape Breton" (UCCB), is a university in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia, Canada. Located near Sydney, CBU is the only post-secondary degree-granting institution on Cape Breton Island. The university is enabled by the "Cape Breton University Act" passed by the Nova Scotia House of Assembly. Prior to this, CBU was enabled by the "University College of Cape Breton Act" (amended). The University College of Cape Breton's Coat of Arms were registered with the Canadian Heraldic Authority on May 27, 1995.
CBU is an ordinary (full) member of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC), the Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC) and Association of Atlantic Universities (AAU), as well as an Associate Member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU).
CBU traces its roots to 1951 when the St. Francis Xavier University Sydney Campus was opened as a satellite campus of St. Francis Xavier University. Also referred to informally as "St. Francis Xavier Junior College" or "Xavier Junior College" (XJC) and colloquially as "Little X", the St. Francis Xavier University Sydney Campus was situated in Sydney's central business district. Several buildings were opened as a result of growth during its first decade of operation.
While working as librarian at Xavier Junior College, Mother St. Margaret of Scotland (Sister Margaret Beaton) recognized that documents of historical significance to Cape Breton Island were being lost. In 1957 Sister Beaton responded to this challenge and established Cape Bretoniana.
The Nova Scotia Eastern Institute of Technology (NSEIT) opened in 1968 on Grand Lake Road (Trunk 4) several kilometres east of the Sydney city limits. This institution focused on business technology and trades and its development was largely enabled by federal and provincial funding at a time when the coal and steel industries in Industrial Cape Breton were facing serious financial challenges.
In the early 1970s, the provincial and federal governments, as well as the local community, recognized the need for developing an institution of higher learning in the economically challenged Industrial Cape Breton region. With assistance from the Cape Breton Development Corporation, St. Francis Xavier University Sydney Campus and NSEIT were merged into the College of Cape Breton (CCB) in June 1974.
In 1980, the former NSEIT campus on Grand Lake Road was expanded as the institution consolidated at this location. The Government of Nova Scotia granted CCB a charter for granting university degrees in 1982, and the institution renamed itself as the University College of Cape Breton (UCCB). UCCB united diverse education streams such as the liberal arts and sciences with technological and vocational diploma programs.
A major expansion for the 1987 Canada Winter Games included the construction of sports facilities built at the campus. During the 1990s about $20 million were spent on several campus expansions that built residences, a Culture and Heritage Centre, and academic and research facilities.
As a result of a 2004 study the decision was made to rename the institution to reflect its transformation over the previous two decades into primarily a university level institution. This process led to UCCB transferring its trades and technology programs to the Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC) which operated its "Marconi Campus" (the former Adult Vocational Training Centre - AVTC) which is located immediately next to the CBU Grand Lake Road campus.
On September 23, 2004 the university's Board of Governors voted unanimously to rename the institution Breton University; however, the proposed name was opposed by a number of groups in the institution and local community over the removal of the word "Cape" from the name, thus the name Cape Breton University was adopted instead. The name change became official through the "University College of Cape Breton Act (amended)" which received Royal Assent on May 19, 2005.
In 2011, CBU's library underwent a $2 million renovation to improve the space and create new seating areas.
The Culture and Heritage Centre includes the Great Hall, the Art Gallery, the Folklore Department, and the Beaton Institute.
The Beaton Institute, housed at CBU, is the second largest public archive in Nova Scotia. Sister Margaret Beaton of Scotland, recognizing that many documents of significance to Cape Breton were being lost to neglect during her career as librarian at Xavier Junior College, began collecting these documents back in 1957. Preceded by Cape Bretoniana, the Beaton Institute operates as a regional archive from and about Cape Breton Island's history, society, politics, economy, health, people, places, and events. The building is 17,000 square feet and includes a reading room, vault, work room, and several offices and specialized rooms. The collection includes paper records, photographs, film, video, audio materials, books, maps, plans, and microfilms, housing 3,000 manuscript collections, 60,000 images, 2,500 sound recordings, 1,500 video cassettes and film reels, 1,500 reference books, 2,000 maps and plans. Materials in the collection reflect the Mi'kmaq, Jewish, Acadian, Ukrainian, African Nova Scotian, Lithuanian, Polish, and Italian communities of Cape Breton, along with a collection of Gaelic materials.
CBU's library is located adjacent to the Campus Center, along with the main cafeteria, Art Gallery 1, and Boardmore Theatre. The library features twelve special collections, apart from the main collection, including a CBU thesis repository, the Bernier LGBT Collection, the Fortress of Louisbourg Collection, and the F.A.C.E. Collection which provides access to the publications and contributions of the CBU faculty. There is also has a collection of Cape Breton Post and Chronicle Herald publications on microfilm, which can be read on the microfilm readers located on the first floor. CBU Library has access to Novanet Search, Novanet Classic, and WorldCat, allowing students to search for publications from libraries all across Nova Scotia and the world. Interlibrary loaning services are available to access publications and journal articles not held in the CBU Library's collection or accessible through CBU's electronic resources.
The university continued to expand with major campus additions initiated in 2009. As a collaborative player, CBU became a lead partner in the establishment of the Cape Breton Health Recreation Complex. The $10 million project is a newly opened health and recreation community facility situated on the CBU campus. It provides CBU students and the community with access to a track and field operation and year-round indoor soccer facilities as well as a fitness centre.
CBU is growing in terms or residence and enhanced food services through the construction of Harriss Hall, a new student residence and dining hall, in September 2010, giving the campus a total of four residences. Harriss Hall is also the new location for residence mail services, replacing MacDonald, and holds the office of the Residence Life Coordinator. With this new addition, the residence halls now offer meal service and living space for over 550 students. Recently, each dorm, along with the off-campus students, have been assigned colors and animals to represent them in residence competitions. The four residences on campus include Cabot Residence, MacDonald Residence, Harriss Hall, and Alumni Hall. MacDonald offers single and double rooms, Harriss offers single suites, Cabot offers four-bedroom apartments, and Alumni offers five-bedroom apartments along with two-bedroom dorms.
In 2010, funded by both public and private investment, construction began on the Verschuren Centre for Sustainability in Energy & Environment (CSEE). The purpose of this centre is to plan and carry out research about new sources of energy and ways of increasing environmental sustainability on the east coast of Canada. In 2012, the new Shannon School of Business building opened and became the new home of the Shannon School of Business faculty and programs.
The university built a three-turbine, 5.4-megawatt wind farm off campus, at a cost of $17.6 million in partnership with Natural Forces Technologies, with the aim of producing enough electricity to offset its carbon dioxine emissions. The project took advantage of a government program which paid a premium rate per kilowatt for energy from small-scale green energy facilities. The farm is expected to generate approximately $2.1 million in annual revenue.
Cape Breton University serves more than 5,500 full-time and part-time students from local, regional and national locations. CBU is also the academic home of over 1,000 international students representing more than 50 countries.
Virtually all Cape Breton University degree, diploma and certificate programs offer a transition-to-work component through co-op education, work placements, internships and work-study programs.
Dean: Dr. Andrew Parnaby
Bachelor of Arts (BA) and Bachelor of Arts Community Studies (BACS) degrees in:
Minor only:
Diplomas:
Certificates:
Dean: Dr. Carolin Kreber
Graduate Degrees:
Undergraduate Degrees:
Professional Degrees:
Diplomas:
Certificates:
Dean: Dr. George Karaphillis
Masters of Business Administration in Community Economic Development (MBACED) with specializations in:
Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) with majors in:
Additional concentrations include:
Certificates:
Bacheor of Hospitality and Tourism Management (BHTM) also affiliated with the School of Business.
Dean: Richard Pierrynowski, MSc
Bachelor of Science (BSc) degrees in:
Minor only:
Bachelor of Science Community Studies (BSCS) degrees with concentrations in:
Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) Transfer Degrees (with Dalhousie) include:
Bachelor of Engineering Technology (BET) Degrees in:
Certificates:
Associate Vice-President: Stephen Augustine, MA
"In 2010, Unama'ki College was founded as an offshoot of the school specializing in Mi'kmaq history, culture and education." As of 2013, "it has some 250 aboriginal students. Its library holds 1,500 books on aboriginal issues and 7,000 documents."
The College includes the following facilities:
The Department of Indigenous Studies offers the following disciplines:
CBU offers nine major entrance scholarships based on the student's average from high school. Students with a 90% average or greater are eligible for scholarships ranging in amount from $10,000 (Orpha Thayer-Scott) to $24,000 (Chancellor's) over a four-year period. Other entrance scholarships ranging from $500 to $2,000 a year are also available.
Students taking a minimum of 24 credits are eligible for in-course scholarships the following year depending on their academic performance. Unlike in-course bursaries, which are also available, in-course scholarships do not require an application.
A new Work-Study Bursary Program is also available to provide students with financial need the opportunity for on-campus employment
The Government of Canada sponsors an Aboriginal Bursaries Search Tool that lists over 680 scholarships, bursaries, and other incentives offered by governments, universities, and industry to support Aboriginal post-secondary participation. Cape Breton University scholarships for Aboriginal, First Nations and Métis students include: Earth Tech/CBCL Award – Entrance Award; Verschuren Family Entrance Scholarship; Wood, Walker Foundation Aboriginal Awards Entrance Scholarship; Bank of Montreal Aboriginal Business Administration Student Scholarship
Dean of Research & Graduate Studies: Dr. Tanya Brann-Barrett
CBU is a small comprehensive university that performs over $3 million in externally funded research and employed over 65 students as researchers in 2011. The Office of Research and Graduate Studies publishes two annual research publication titled Research Matters, as well as a separate student Research Matters magazine. Research chairs at CBU include:
Additionally, Dr. Bruce Hatcher is the Director of the Bras D'Or Institute.
Projects are funded by all federal granting councils (CFI, NSRIT, NSERC, SSHRC, CIHR, AIF projects).
The President's Award for Excellence in Research is an annual award which recognizes members of the CBU Faculty who demonstrate excellence in research and scholarship. From 2012, the winners have been:
The Cape Breton University Students' Union provides services such as the Emergency Bursary Fund, funding and management of societies, health and dental plans, Food Bank, Women's Centre, Pride and Ally Centre, Multicultural Hub, Capers Helping Capers, The Orange Initiative, The Pit (campus bar), Caper Convenience (store), and free legal service. The CBUSU's main focus is advocacy on behalf of its members, and it is also the largest employer of students on the CBU campus.
The SRC acts as the board of directors for the Union. It is a body of students elected to represent the various demographics of CBU, including the different schools within it. They meet on a regular basis to vote on motions put before the SRC by representatives or CBU students.
The current Executive includes:
The CBU Students' Union list includes the following active societies:
The "Caper Times" is a newspaper owned collectively by the students of Cape Breton University and published by the Publishing Board of the "Caper Times". It prints 2,000 copies on a fortnightly basis and is distributed on campus and to 25 points across the Cape Breton Regional Municipality and southern Victoria County. The newspaper has been autonomous from the Cape Breton University Students' Union since March 1, 2013. It is a member of the Canadian University Press. The newspaper also publishes an electronic monthly newsletter, CampusLink, which is tailored specifically for Cape Breton University students and faculty. The current Editor-in-Chief is Dipanshu Grover.
CBU is represented in the Atlantic University Sport (AUS) association by the CBU Capers. The Capers' varsity program includes four teams: men's and women's soccer and basketball teams. All sports teams wear uniforms with the Caper logo and mascot along with the school colour (orange).
Of the over 15,000 CBU alumni across the world, some prominent names include: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32092 |
University of New Brunswick
The University of New Brunswick (UNB) is a public university with two primary campuses in Fredericton and Saint John, New Brunswick. It is the oldest English-language university in Canada, and among the oldest public universities in North America. UNB was founded by a group of seven Loyalists who left the United States after the American Revolution.
UNB has two main campuses: the original campus, founded in 1785 in Fredericton, and a smaller campus which opened in Saint John in 1964. In addition, there are two small satellite health sciences campuses located in Moncton and Bathurst, New Brunswick, and two offices in the Caribbean and in Beijing. UNB offers over 75 degrees in fourteen faculties at the undergraduate and graduate levels with a total student enrollment of approximately 11,400 between the two principal campuses. UNB was named the most entrepreneurial university in Canada at the 2014 Startup Canada Awards.
In 1783, Loyalist settlers began to build upon the ruins of a former Acadian village called Ste-Anne-des-Pays-Bas. The new settlement was named Frederick's Town in honour of Prince Frederick, son of King George III and uncle of Queen Victoria.
Initially modelled on the Anglican ideals of older, European institutions, the University of New Brunswick was founded in 1785 as the Academy of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The petition requesting the establishment of the school, titled "The Founders' Petition of 1785," was addressed to Governor Thomas Carleton and was signed by seven Loyalist men: William Paine, William Wanton, George Sproule, Zephaniah Kingsley, Sr., John Coffin, Ward Chipman, and Adino Paddock.
By an 1800 provincial charter, signed by Jonathan Odell, the Academy of Liberal Arts and Sciences became the College of New Brunswick. The college was succeeded by King's College, which was granted by royal charter in December 1827. King's College operated under the control of the Church of England until 1859, when it was made non-sectarian by an act of the provincial legislature that transformed the college into the University of New Brunswick. In 1866, Mary Kingsley Tibbits became the first regularly admitted female student of UNB. By 1867, the University of New Brunswick had two faculties: Arts and Applied Science. It awarded the degrees of Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, Master of Arts, and Doctor of Science. The latter was awarded only in the fields of civil engineering, electrical engineering, and forestry.
UNB was one of only two schools in Canada in the late 1800s that offered a Forestry Engineering degree (the other being the University of Toronto). So when the federal government began creating Dominion Forests on federal land in Western Canada between 1899 and 1906, most of the first Forest Rangers were from UNB.
In 1906, UNB established a bicameral system of university government consisting of a senate responsible for academic policy, and a board of governors exercising exclusive control over financial policy and other matters. The president, appointed by the board, was to provide a link between the two bodies and to provide institutional leadership. At this time, the university had 156 male students, 21 female students, and only eleven academic staff, who were all male.
In the 1960s, University policies changed in response to social pressure and the belief that higher education was a key to social justice and economic productivity for individuals and for society. In 1964, a second, smaller campus was established in Saint John, New Brunswick. The growth of the UNBSJ campus is particularly notable, for the campus began with only 96 students spread throughout various buildings in Saint John's central business district. In 1968, UNBSJ moved to its new home at Tucker Park.
The Association of University of New Brunswick Teachers (AUNBT) was established in 1954; in 1979, this association became the bargaining agent for all full-time academic staff, and in 2008, it achieved certification for contract academic staff.
In 1959, the Faculty of Law moved from Saint John to Fredericton following a report on the status of legal education in Canada by Professor Maxwell Cohen from McGill University. In his report, Cohen stated that the Saint John Law School was only "nominally a faculty of UNB". This prompted Lord Beaverbrook, as Chancellor, and UNB President Colin B. Mackay, to permanently move the Saint John Law School to the UNB Fredericton campus, despite the Dean's objections.
In the fall of 2007, a report commissioned by the provincial government recommended that UNBSJ and the New Brunswick Community College be reformed and consolidated into a new polytechnic post-secondary institute. The proposal immediately came under heavy criticism and led to the several organized protests. Under heavy fire from the public, the Graham government eventually announced that it would set aside the possibility of UNB Saint John losing its status as a university and would refer the report to a working group for further study. The government would go on to announce in January that UNBSJ would retain its liberal arts program and its association with UNB and the working group reported back to government in May, with its findings and government's response being made public in June.
Currently UNBF has approximately 9,000 students, while UNBSJ has 3,000. Though UNBF has more students at the moment, UNBSJ is growing at a faster rate. Both campuses have undergone significant expansion over the years, and many university buildings have received funding from Lord Beaverbrook and other prominent industrialists and philanthropists. UNB's largest expansion coincided with the baby boom, when its Fredericton campus tripled in size.
The UNB Fredericton campus is located on a hill overlooking the Saint John River. The campus is well known for its colourful fall foliage, Georgian style red-brick buildings, and a very steep hill. UNB Fredericton has shared the "College Hill" with St. Thomas University (STU) since 1964, when the former St. Thomas College moved from Chatham, NB (now Miramichi). While the universities share some infrastructure, they remain separate institutions.
Architect G. Ernest Fairweather designed several of the campus buildings, including the Old Civil Engineering Building (1900) and the Gymnasium (1906). In addition, several of the stained glass windows in the Convocation Hall were created by Robert McCausland Limited.
UNBF's War Memorial Hall (usually referred to as Memorial Hall), originally built as a science building in 1924, honours the 35 UNB Alumni who died in World War I.
UNBF's Brigadier Milton F. Gregg, V.C., Centre for the Study of War and Society (usually referred to as The Gregg Centre) was created in 2006.
The Richard J. Currie Center, a five-storey 139,000-square-foot building, was constructed in 2013.
Two buildings on the Fredericton campus have been designated National Historic Sites of Canada: the 1827 Sir Howard Douglas Hall (the Old Arts Building), and the 1851 William Brydone Jack Observatory.
The UNB Saint John campus (UNBSJ) is located in Tucker Park in the Millidgeville neighbourhood, several kilometres north of the city's central business district, and has views of the Kennebecasis River and Grand Bay. New Brunswick's largest health care facility, Saint John Regional Hospital, is located adjacent to the UNBSJ campus. Since 2010, the UNBSJ campus has been home to Dalhousie Medicine New Brunswick, a medical school that operates as a partnership between the Government of New Brunswick, the University of New Brunswick and Dalhousie’s Faculty of Medicine.
The Saint John campus has undergone expansion over the years and is the fastest growing component of the UNB system with many new buildings constructed between the 1970s and the first decade of the 21st century. A trend in recent years has been a growth in the number of international students.
Notable differences from its parent campus in Fredericton lay in the campus culture. While UNB Fredericton has a substantial number of students living in its on-campus residences, this is not the case for UNBSJ. The majority of students do not live within walking distance of the campus due to its remote location, so unlike Fredericton, Saint John is predominantly a "commuter campus".
April 1, 2010, the construction on the Hans W. Klohn Commons began. This building is one of the most environmentally friendly buildings in Atlantic Canada. The building features an electric elevator that produces power for the commons. The building is part of the Tucker Park enhancement project, which will include the refurbishment of the Canada Games Stadium, the new Dalhousie Medicine New Brunswick facility, and the New Brunswick Community College's Allied Health building.
The University of New Brunswick has attempted to reduce its environmental impact through installing a natural gas burning microturbine at the Central Heating Plant that produces 100 kW of electricity for the university.
Heat energy, a result of this process, is used to contribute to the overall heating of the campus to increase its overall energy efficiency. UNB recycles electronics in addition to traditional materials and operates a move-out materials collection program. The university adheres to a green purchasing policy and has reduced greenhouse gas emissions 26 percent since 1990; they have also decreased water consumption since 2005 through the adoption of new technologies. With these efforts to create a more sustainable campus, the University of New Brunswick received an overall "B+" grade in the 2011 College Sustainability Report Card put out by the Sustainable Endowment's Institute.
There are over 75 undergraduate programs, while the school of Graduate Studies offers course and research-based programs in over 30 fields. UNB has a 16:1 student-to-faculty ratio.
UNB is the seat of 11 Canada Research Chairs and is home to more than 60 research centres and institutes. It conducts about 75 per cent of all university research in the province. UNB's annual research spending (2013–14) generated $32.2 million in added provincial income for the New Brunswick economy. Between 2004 and 2009, the university's research revenue increased by 77 per cent: the highest increase among Canadian comprehensive universities.
UNB has developed technology used by Google, is a research partner with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is a global leader in powered prosthetic research and developing MRI technology, and is home to one of the motion analysis labs in North America as well as the world's first research centre in dermoskeletics.
In 2014, UNB was awarded the most entrepreneurial university in Canada by Startup Canada. The university has also supported in launching 23 new startup companies as of 2015.
In 2020, "Maclean's" magazine ranked UNB eighth (tied) out of 15 universities placed in the publication's "comprehensive university" category.
In 2012, UNB's law school was ranked 2nd nationally in elite firm hiring by "Maclean's". According to Canadian Lawyer Magazine, the law school ranks among the top five in Canada.
In 2008, the "National Post" and the "Ottawa Citizen" recognized UNB as being among the top three comprehensive research universities in Canada for the highest percentage growth of research income across a five-year period.
Because so many of UNB's students, alumni, and professors have produced celebrated poetry, the city of Fredericton has earned the nickname "Poets' Corner." Two of Canada's four Confederation Poets – Sir Charles G.D. Roberts and Bliss Carman – were educated at UNB, as was Francis Joseph Sherman, along with a number of notable 20th- and 21st-century Canadian writers. In 1947, the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada unveiled a "Poet's Corner" monument in honour of Carman, Roberts, and Sherman.
The Institute of Biomedical Engineering (IBME) on the Fredericton campus is one of the research institutes in biomedical engineering in Canada. It was founded in 1965 as the Bio-Engineering Institute, making it one of the oldest research institutes to be solely dedicated to the field of biomedical engineering. The institute is also the region's prosthetic fitting centre where amputees are fitted with "intelligent" artificial limbs. The institute also carries out research in the field of myoelectric signal processing, biomedical instrumentation and human motion analysis. The IBME also developed the UNB Test of Prosthetic Function which is used by researchers all over the world. Although the institute does not offer degrees in biomedical engineering, students at UNB usually enroll in one of the other faculties of engineering such as electrical or mechanical and pursue their research in biomedical engineering at the IBME.
The Canadian Rivers Institute was founded in 2000 and is a site of river sciences research. The mandate of the CRI is to conduct both multi-disciplinary basic and applied research focusing on rivers from their headwaters to their estuaries, to promote the conservation, protection and sustainable use of water, and to educate professionals, graduate students and the public on water sciences. Members of the CRI conduct research on regional, national and international issues related to rivers and their land-water linkages.
With researchers from both UNB campuses, the CRI develops the aquatic science needed to understand, protect and sustain water resources. Since 2013, the CRI and its partners have been working with NB Power to research the potential environmental impacts of the future options being considered for the Mactaquac Generating Station. The Mactaquac Dam on the Saint John River will reach the end of its lifespan by 2030, and CRI has been evaluating key environmental challenges such as river health, fish passage and flow management. In 2015, CRI was given an additional $2.8 million from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) to conduct an aquatic ecosystem study on the Saint John River.
UNB created its BEd program for First Nations students in 1977 in an effort to help First Nations communities take control of their own schools. In 1981, the Mi'kmaq-Maliseet Institute (MMI), the former name of the MWC, opened its doors with an expanded mandate to train professionals and improve First Nations access to First Nations education. The Institute provided a variety of services, including research, curriculum development, language education, policy development, children's literacy, and more. In addition, the Institute funded the Mi'kmaq-Maliseet Resource Collection, which contains materials that are immensely valuable to knowledge of First Nations culture, history, and perspective in the region.
The Canadian Research Institute for Social Policy was founded in 1996 as the Atlantic Centre for Policy Research, supported by the Canadian Institute For Advanced Research. The name change took effect in January, 2000. The institute was designated as a Statistics Canada Research Data Centre in 2002. The institute brings interdisciplinary researchers together to focus on issues pertaining to social policy on a national and international level, specifically issues relevant to children and youth development. Projects included the New Brunswick Schools Early Literacy Initiative; Mapping Literacy as a Determinant of Healt;, Raising and Leveling the Bar: A Collaborative Research Initiative on Children's Learning, Behavioural, and Health Outcomes; and the Confident Learners Initiative.
The University of New Brunswick's Medical Training Centre is the first anglophone school of medicine in New Brunswick. It is a joint medical programme, offered with Dalhousie University Faculty of Medicine.
UNB awards over five million dollars in scholarships each year. These include the Blake-Kirkpatrick, Beaverbrook, and President's scholarships. With $7.2 million available in undergraduate scholarships, one in two students entering UNB from high school received a scholarship as of 2015. UNB has a scholarship guarantee in which any admitted student with an average of 80% or higher will receive a guaranteed amount of five hundred dollars.
As a member of the Loran Scholars university consortium, UNB offers a matching tuition waiver as part of a $100,000 undergraduate scholarship to recognize incoming students who demonstrate "exemplary character, service and leadership". Five Loran Scholars have studied at UNB over the years. Additionally, it is part of the Schulich Leader Scholarships program, awarding an $100,000 STEM scholarship to an incoming engineering student and a $80,000 scholarship to a science, technology, or mathematics student each year.
UNB has approximately 10,000 students from over 100 countries. Students have over 125 clubs and societies to choose from between the Fredericton and Saint John campuses and there are 13 residences available to students in Fredericton and two in Saint John. Students on both campuses have access to UNB's facilities, fitness classes and outdoor activities such as snowshoeing and kayaking. There are exchanges available in more than 35 countries around the world with over 89 university partners.
UNB Fredericton is represented in U Sports by the UNB Reds while UNBSJ is represented by the UNBSJ Seawolves. The Reds compete in the following sports: men's and women's basketball, men's and women's hockey, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's volleyball, and swimming. Men's and women's track & field and cross country were added as a varsity sport for 2010/2011; this is a joint Fredericton/Saint John Campus program.
In the past, UNBF used different names for each individual sport's team; for instance, the men's swim team was the Beavers, and the hockey team was the Red Devils. The university club teams, which are supported financially by the Student Union as well as by individual members of the teams, do not use the Reds name and thus continue the tradition of using different nicknames for each sport.
Traditional among a number of songs commonly played and sung at various times such as commencement, convocation, and athletic events are "Carmina Universitatis Novi Brunsvici", "Alma Mater" (1904), and "UNB Anthem", with words by A.G. Bailey and music by D.V. Start.
Colloquial songs included "Bombers Away" to celebrate the football team:
Bombers away, my boys
Bombers away,
'Cause when you fight red bombers.
Fight you Bombers, Fight you Bombers,
Fight, Fight, Fight.
As of 2012, the University of New Brunswick reports 64,000 living alumni, half of whom live in New Brunswick.
The university presses, "The Baron" and "The Brunswickan", are members of Canadian University Press. Publishing since 1867, "The Brunswickan" is the oldest official student publication in Canada.
UNB is also home to several notable magazines and journals, such as "The Fiddlehead" and "Studies in Canadian Literature". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32094 |
University of Sudbury
The University of Sudbury () is a Roman Catholic bilingual university in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada which offers courses in French and English. Programs include religious studies, philosophy, Indigenous studies and folklore (entirely in French). It is a federated school of Laurentian University.
The university is a member of Association des collèges et universités de la francophonie canadienne (Association of Colleges and Universities of the Canadian Francophonie), a network of academic institutions of the Canadian Francophonie.
The university was founded as the Collège du Sacré-Cœur (Sacred Heart College) in 1913 by the Jesuits. Exclusively French after 1916, Sacred Heart College was the centre of education for young Franco-Ontarians for decades since it was the first, and for a long time, the only college in Northern Ontario. In 1957, it changed its name and became the University of Sudbury. In 1960, it formed the Catholic component of Laurentian federation.
A plaque was erected by Ontario Heritage Foundation, Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Recreation at Notre Dame & Kathleen Streets, Sudbury: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32095 |
University of Prince Edward Island
The University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) is a public university in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, and the sole university in the province. Founded in 1969, the enabling legislation is the "University Act, R.S.P.E.I 2000."
The university traces its roots back to 1804, when Lt. Governor Edmund Fanning and the Legislative Council of Prince Edward Island called for the establishment of Kent College. By 1820, the first Kent College building, known as "the National School", or James Breading's School was erected. Later succeeded by Central Academy, which received a Royal Charter in 1834.
The Colleges were renamed for the Prince of Wales in honour of the future King Edward VII in 1860. The University of Prince Edward Island also traces its roots back to its two earlier predecessor organizations, St. Dunstan's University and Prince of Wales College, founded in 1855 and 1860 respectively. The two institutions were merged in 1969 by the government of Alex Campbell as part of a campaign to integrate the Island's Roman Catholic and Protestant communities, which had previously maintained the two separate institutions of higher learning. Holland College was later created to fill the void left by the merger of Prince of Wales College into the university.
The University of Prince Edward Island is a non-denominational university established in 1969 by the amalgamation of Prince of Wales College (PWC) founded in 1834, and St. Dunstan's University (SDU) founded in 1855. The first student to enroll was Elizabeth Rollins Epperly, who would later become president. Its predecessor institutions ceased to operate although St. Dunstan's still retains its charter and the lands that were home to Prince of Wales became the campus for Holland College. UPEI is located on the former St. Dunstan's campus.
On 8 May 2004 Canada Post issued 'University of Prince Edward Island, 1804-2004' as part of the Canadian Universities series. The stamp was based on a design by Denis L'Allier and on a photograph by Guy Lavigueur. The 49¢ stamps are perforated 13.5 and were printed by Canadian Bank Note Company, Limited.
UPEI's campus, located at the corner of Belvedere and University Avenues in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island's capital city, is built on 134 acres (54 hectares) of land. The Confederation Trail runs alongside its eastern boundary.
Original SDU buildings in the central quadrangle have been renovated to retain integrity of their exterior aesthetic design while meeting modern standards. Main Building, built in 1854, and Dalton Hall, built between 1917 and 1919, are on the registry of Historic Places of Canada.
The War Memorial Hall (more generally known as Memorial Hall) is a landmark building on the campus of UPEI. Built as a men's residence building in 1946, Memorial Hall honours alumni who had enlisted and died in the First World War, and in the Second World War.
Over the past three decades, UPEI has experienced significant growth with many new buildings integrated into the campus, including Central Utility Building (1973), Duffy Science Centre (1967), Blanchard Hall (1973), Bernardine Hall (1968), Robertson Library (1975), Atlantic Veterinary College (1986), Chi-Wan Young Sports Centre (1990), Wanda Wyatt Dining Hall (1990), Food Technology Centre, K.C. Irving Chemistry Centre (1997), W.A. Murphy Student Centre (2002), MacLauchlan Arena (2004), Bill and Denise Andrew Hall residence facility (2006), expansions to the Atlantic Veterinary College (2007 and 2009), Regis and Joan Duffy Research Centre (2007), a research and development laboratory which is home to the National Research Council of Canada, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, and other partners, and Don and Marion McDougall Hall (2008). The most recent addition is the Health Sciences Building, home to the School of Nursing and Applied Human Sciences programs.
In October 2004, the UPEI administration undertook an official campus plan to improve the aesthetics of modern buildings constructed since the amalgamation which do not enhance the original SDU design, and to take overall campus aesthetics into account for future developments on and adjacent to the campus.
The current President is Dr. Alaa Abd-El-Aziz, installed July 1, 2011. The current chancellor is Catherine Callbeck, who was installed on September 29, 2018.
UPEI's seven faculties (arts, business, education, nursing, science, sustainable design engineering and veterinary medicine) and one school (mathematical and computational sciences) offers a wide range of programs and degrees to undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students. Co-op programs have been established in Business Administration, Computer Science, Physics, and Dietetics.
Master's and Doctoral degree programs were first introduced through the Atlantic Veterinary College and, beginning in 1999, a Master of Science degree was offered through the Faculty of Science. In that same year the first students were admitted to the university's new Master of Education program. As of 2010, in addition to the MEd graduate program, the Faculty of Education offered a PhD in Educational Studies. The university also now offers a Master of Arts in Island Studies. Recently the Faculty of Business Administration began offering an Executive Master of Business Administration degree. Since 1998, The Centre for Conflict Resolution Studies has been offering courses leading to a Certificate in Conflict Resolution Studies. The Master of Applied Health Services Research (MAHSR) program is coordinated by the Atlantic Research Training Centre (ARTC).
The Faculty of Education offers one-year post-degree bachelor's degrees with specializations in international, adult, and indigenous education, French immersion and human resources development, a Master of Education (MEd) in leadership in learning, and a PhD in Educational Studies.
The Department of Applied Human Sciences has an accredited dietitian program. The university is accredited by a professional organization such as the Dietitians of Canada and the university's graduates may subsequently become registered dieticians.
The Faculty Development Office provides professional development courses applicable to many sectors and industries, including development programs for administrative assistants and new managers; collaboration, conflict, and communication training; and, financial management courses.
In "Maclean's" 2020 Guide to Canadian Universities, UPEI was ranked in eleventh in the publication's category for "primarily undergraduate" Canadian universities.
UPEI manages over $17 million in annual research expenditures. The on-campus biosciences and health research facility is used by researchers from UPEI, National Research Council (Canada), and Agriculture and Agri-Foods Canada.
UPEI houses the L.M. Montgomery Institute, founded in 1993, which promotes scholarly inquiry into the life, works, culture, and influence of the Canadian writer, L.M. Montgomery. The collection of novels, manuscripts, texts, letters, photographs, sound recordings and artifacts and other Montgomery ephemera.
The UPEI Panthers have nine teams playing in the Atlantic University Sport (AUS) and the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS), including men's and women's ice hockey, soccer, basketball, as well as women's field hockey and rugby union and co-ed swimming.
The UPEI campus provides its students with many athletics amenities typically found on university campuses. The CARI Complex is a public recreation facility located on the campus and includes two hockey rinks (the MacLauchlan Arena as well as a practice rink) as well as two 25-metre swimming pools (a shallow recreational wading pool, and an eight-lane competitive pool with diving boards). In 2009 UPEI inaugurated the UPEI Alumni Canada Games Place which was built in part to host the 2009 Canada Games. It consists of a "class 2" eight-lane 400-metre running track and rugby field that has spectator seating for 1,335.
UPEI accommodates 434 students in three residences, Bill and Denise Andrew Hall, Blanchard Hall, and Bernardine Hall. Bill and Denise Andrew Hall has two-room suites with single bedrooms. In Blanchard Hall, each suite has two single bedrooms with a kitchenette and a living room. Bernardine Hall (known as "Bernie" to the students) offers suites with two double bedrooms and a shared bathroom. Although the hall is co-ed, one floor is female-only.
In 2015 each of the first 5 presidents were recognized as Founders of the University.
Being a long-standing university and college in the Maritime province of Prince Edward Island (called the Cradle of Confederation) UPEI/SDU/PWC have been in a position to provide education to a long list of people who have gone to notable achievements. The most well known graduate (of Prince of Wales College) is Lucy Maude Montgomery, author of "Anne of Green Gables" and other books. The most distinguished Saint Dunstan's graduate may be James Charles McGuigan, Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome.
Following is a partial list of Past Honorary Degree Recipients from UPEI: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32096 |
University of Utah
The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. As the state's public flagship institution and top-tier research university, the U is classified by the Carnegie Foundation among the 131 research universities with the "highest research activity" in the nation and is a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU). Graduate studies include the S.J. Quinney College of Law and the School of Medicine, Utah's first medical school. As of Fall 2019, there were 24,485 undergraduate students and 8,333 graduate students, for an enrollment total of 32,818.
The university was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret () by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret, making it Utah's oldest institution of higher education. It received its current name in 1892, four years before Utah attained statehood, and moved to its current location in 1900.
The university ranks 61st among U.S. universities by total research expenditures with over $384 million spent in 2019. Twenty-two Rhodes Scholars, four Nobel Prize winners, three Turing Award winners, eight MacArthur Fellows, various Pulitzer Prize winners, two astronauts, Gates Cambridge Scholars, and Churchill Scholars have been affiliated with the university as students, researchers, or faculty members in its history. In addition, the university's Honors College has been reviewed among 100 leading national Honors Colleges in the U.S.
The university's athletic teams, the Utes, participate in NCAA Division I athletics (FBS for football) as a member of the Pac-12 Conference. Its football team has received national attention for winning the 2005 Fiesta Bowl and the 2009 Sugar Bowl.
The university's health care system includes four hospitals, including the University of Utah Hospital and Huntsman Cancer Institute, along with twelve community clinics and specialty centers such as the Moran Eye Center.
Soon after the Mormon pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake valley in 1847, Brigham Young began organizing a Board of Regents to establish a university. The university was established on February 28, 1850, as the "University of Deseret" by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret, and Orson Spencer was appointed as the first chancellor of the university. Early classes were held in private homes or wherever space could be found. The university closed in 1853 due to lack of funds and lack of feeder schools.
Following years of intermittent classes in the Salt Lake City Council House, the university began to be re-established in 1867 under the direction of David O. Calder, who was followed by John R. Park in 1869. The university moved out of the council house into the Union Academy building in 1876 and into Union Square in 1884. In 1892, the school's name was changed to the University of Utah, and John R. Park began arranging to obtain land belonging to the U.S. Army's Fort Douglas on the east bench of the Salt Lake Valley, where the university moved permanently in 1900. Additional Fort Douglas land has been granted to the university over the years, and the fort was officially closed on October 26, 1991. Upon his death in 1900, Dr. John R. Park bequeathed his entire fortune to the university.
The university grew rapidly in the early 20th century but was involved in an academic freedom controversy in 1915 when Joseph T. Kingsbury recommended that five faculty members be dismissed after a graduation speaker made a speech critical of Utah governor William Spry. One third of the faculty resigned in protest of these dismissals. Some felt that the dismissals were a result of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' influence on the university, while others felt that they reflected a more general pattern of repressing religious and political expression that might be deemed offensive. The controversy was largely resolved when Kingsbury resigned in 1916, but university operations were again interrupted by World War I, and later The Great Depression and World War II. Student enrollment dropped to a low of 3,418 during the last year of World War II, but A. Ray Olpin made substantial additions to campus following the war, and enrollment reached 12,000 by the time he retired in 1964. Growth continued in the following decades as the university developed into a research center for fields such as computer science and medicine.
During the 2002 Winter Olympics, the university hosted the Olympic Village, a housing complex for the Olympic and Paralympic athletes, as well as the opening and closing ceremonies. Multiple large improvements were made to the university prior to the events, including extensive renovations to the Rice-Eccles Stadium, a light rail line leading to downtown Salt Lake City, a new student center known as the Heritage Center, an array of new student housing, and what is now a 180-room campus hotel and conference center.
The University of Utah Asia Campus opened as an international branch campus in the Incheon Global Campus in Songdo, Incheon, South Korea in 2014. Three other European and American universities are also participating. The Asia Campus was funded by the South Korean government.
In 2015, the university helped open the Ensign College of Public Health in Kpong, Ghana.
In 2019, the university was named a member of the Association of American Universities.
Campus takes up , including the Health Sciences complex, Research Park, and Fort Douglas. It is located on the east bench of the Salt Lake Valley, close to the Wasatch Range and approximately 2 miles east of downtown Salt Lake City.
Most courses take place on the west side of campus, known as lower campus due to its lower elevation. Presidents Circle is a loop of buildings named after past university presidents with a courtyard in the center. Major libraries on lower campus include the J. Willard Marriott Library and the S.J. Quinney Law Library. The primary student activity center is the A. Ray Olpin University Union, and campus fitness centers include the Health, Physical Education, and Recreation Complex (HPER) and the Eccles Student Life Center.
Lower campus is also home to most public venues, such as the Rice-Eccles Stadium, the Jon M. Huntsman Center, and the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, a museum with rotating exhibitions and a permanent collection of American, European, African, and Asian art. Venues for performing arts include Kingsbury Hall, used for touring companies and concerts, Pioneer Memorial Theatre, used by the professional Pioneer Theatre Company, David P. Gardner Hall, used by the School of Music and for musical performances, and the Marriott Center for Dance. Red Butte Garden, with formal gardens and natural areas, as well as the new site of the Utah Museum of Natural History, is located on the far east side of campus.
The health sciences complex, at the northeast end of campus, includes the University of Utah Medical Center, Primary Children's Medical Center, the Huntsman Cancer Institute, the Moran Eye Center, and the Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library. South of the health sciences complex, several university residence halls and apartments are clustered together near Fort Douglas and the Heritage Center, which serves as a student center and cafeteria for this area. In addition, there are 1,115 university apartments for students, staff, and faculty across three apartment complexes on campus. At the southeast end of campus is Research Park, which is home to research companies including ARUP Laboratories, Evans & Sutherland, Sarcos, Biofire Diagnostics, and Myriad Genetics.
Courses are also held at off-campus centers located in St. George and Sandy.
In July 2017, the Academic Senate bestowed the designation of tobacco-free campus on the university, but rules were not enforced until 2018. The rule prohibits students and faculty from "smoking or using chewing tobacco, electronic cigarettes and all other recreational nicotine-delivery products on any property owned, leased or controlled by the University of Utah."
The University of Utah provides student housing in a 33-building housing complex on campus. The complex consists of eight housing areas: Chapel Glen, Gateway Heights, Sage Point, Officer's Circle, Benchmark Plaza, Shoreline Ridge, the Donna Garff Marriott Honors Residential Scholars Community (MHC for short), and the Lassonde Studios. The MHC is a dormitory strictly for honors students and was completed in fall 2012. Built in 2016, the Lassonde Studios is part of the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute and houses 400 students; the studios also feature a "creative garage" with 3D printers and spaces for startups.
A number of campus shuttles, running on biodiesel and used vegetable oil, circle the campus on six different routes. The Utah Transit Authority (UTA) runs several buses through the university area as well as the TRAX Red Line (light rail), which runs to South Jordan. Riders can travel downtown, to "FrontRunner" (commuter rail), to West Valley, to the Salt Lake City International Airport, or to Draper by transferring to the TRAX Green or Blue lines. Students and staff can use their university IDs to ride UTA buses, TRAX, and "FrontRunner".
In 2012, the university unveiled a new plan for a friendlier campus for bicyclers called the "Bicycle Master Plan" which aims to transform the campus into a safer and more accessible place for bicyclers and to promote the increase of bicycle ridership. The plan emphasizes both campus pathways and on-street facilities that connect the core campus area with surrounding neighborhoods. The Bicycle Master Plan gives guidelines for facilities and programs that are within the University's jurisdiction. It also provides recommendations for the University to work with external entities such as UDOT, UTA, and Salt Lake City to improve bicycling conditions in locations that are important to the campus environment, but which are not under the University's direct control.
The university is ranked 3rd by the EPA for annual green power usage among universities, with 31% of its power coming from wind and solar sources. Other sustainability efforts include a permanent sustainability office, a campus cogeneration plant, building upgrades and energy efficient building standards, behavior modification programs, purchasing local produce, and student groups, as well as a branch of the Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective. Sustainability and transportation are also a large part of the university's campus master plan. The Sustainable Endowments Institute gave the university a "B+" in its College Sustainability Report Card 2011, with A's for climate change and energy, food and recycling, student involvement, and transportation.
The expanded recycling program launched on July 1, 2007. Since its launch, the program has continued to grow and refine its procedures to better accommodate a growing campus' needs. Currently there are programs in place for paper, cardboard, aluminum, batteries, glass, printer cartridges, wooden pallets and plastics #1 and #2.
On July 7, 2011 the university unveiled its plans to be the first location in the United States to install solar ivy. Unlike rooftop panels, solar ivy panels are small and shaped like ivy so that they can be installed in an attractive arrangement that will scale walls, much like ivy growing over a building's surface. These panels were designed by Sustainably Minded Interactive Technology of New York.
A renewable energy partnership was entered into by the university, Rocky Mountain Power and 3Degrees on September 28, 2011 allowing the purchase of renewable wind power that in its first year will produce 98.233 million kilowatt-hours of wind energy, which is 36% of the university's total power usage, with plans for an additional two-year renewable energy commitment. The university's first-year renewable energy purchase through Blue Sky and 3Degrees has the combined environmental benefit of taking more than 13,200 cars off the road for one year or planting 1.7 million trees. The university's support for renewable energy is made possible through a student fee-funded sustainability program established in 2005.
The university unveiled the addition of a new solar array system on April 16, 2012 on the rooftop of the Natural History Museum of Utah. This is the second system installed on the university's campus, the other being at the HPER East building. The Natural History Museum of Utah's system is a 330-kilowatt system, while the HPER East system is a 263-kilowatt system. The combined arrays consist of 2,470 Sharp photovoltaic panels covering 40,000 square feet of rooftop space and together they will annually produce 802,240 kilowatt hours
The University of Utah is governed by a 10-member Board of Trustees, 8 of whom are appointed by the Governor of Utah with the consent of the Utah Senate. The President of the University of Utah Alumni Association serves as the 9th member, and the President of the Associated Students of the University of Utah (ASUU) serves as the 10th member. The 8 appointed members serve for four-year terms, four expiring on June 30 of each odd-numbered year. The two ex officio members serve for the terms of their respective offices. Subject to the Board of Trustees, the university faculty have authority to legislate on matters of educational policy via the Academic Senate. The Senate is composed of 100 faculty members proportionally representing and elected by their respective colleges, 2 elected deans, and 18 students from the ASUU, one from each college and the ASUU president. The Senate also includes the University President, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, Senior Vice President for Health Sciences, and all non-elected deans as ex officio members who may debate and present motions but do not vote. Much of the actual Senate work is carried out by 12 Senate-elected committees which work on the central academic issues of the institution. The committees report to the full Senate and the Senate often acts on their proposals as well as on issues brought to its attention by the administration.
As of 2014, 44% of the university's revenues come from patient care, 19% from sales and services, 10% from grants and contracts, 8.2% from tuition and fees, 7.7% from state appropriations, 3.4% from auxiliary enterprises, and the rest from other revenues.
The University of Utah is a public flagship four-year research university accredited through the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities since 1933. The U organizes its 150 academic departments and programs into 17 colleges and schools. The School for Cultural and Social Transformation is the university's newest college, with its first graduating class in 2018.
The University operates on a semester calendar with the rest of the Utah higher education system. Undergraduate tuition and fees for 2015–2016 were $8,240 for Utah residents (about 325% the cost of tuition and fees in 2000, $2,534 for 13 credit hours per semester, 2 semesters), and $26,180 for non-residents per 12-credit-hour semester.
For the Class of 2023 (enrolling Fall 2019), Utah received 24,404 applications and accepted 15,159 (62%), with 4,249 enrolling. The middle 50% range of SAT scores for enrolling freshmen was 572.5-680 for evidence-based reading and writing, 570-700 for math, and 1150-1370 for the composite. The middle 50% ACT score range was 22-28 for math, 21-31 for English, and 22-29 for the composite. The average high school grade point average (GPA) was 3.66.
The university uses a holistic admissions process and weighs ACT/SAT standardized test scores, GPA, grade trend, rigorous AP/IB/Honors classes taken in high school, academic achievements, along with other "personal achievements and characteristics".
In Fall 2015, the undergraduate and graduate student body was 31,551, with 23,794 undergraduate students and 7,757 graduate students; 73% of students were full-time, 56% were male and 44% female, and 82% were Utah residents. The undergraduate student body was 69% white, 11% Hispanic, 6% non-resident alien, 5% Asian, 4% two or more races, 1% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, 1% black, and 1% Native American. Ethnicity or citizenship was unknown for 2%.
The Department of Ballet offers the top ranked ballet and ballroom dance program in the United States and is one of the oldest and most reputable university ballet departments in the country. The Department was founded by William F. Christensen in 1951, who also founded the San Francisco Ballet and Ballet West companies.
The university has made unique contributions to the study of genetics due in part to long-term genealogy efforts of the LDS Church, which has allowed researchers to trace genetic disorders through several generations. The relative homogeneity of Utah's population also makes it an ideal laboratory for studies of population genetics. The university is home to the Genetic Science Learning Center, a resource which educates the public about genetics through its website.
The University of Utah was one of the original four nodes of ARPANET, the world's first packet-switching computer network and embryo of the current worldwide Internet. The School of Computing produced many of the early pioneers in computer science and graphics, including Turing Award winner Alan Kay, Pixar founder Ed Catmull, Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, and Adobe founder John Warnock. Notable innovations of computer science faculty and alumni include the first method for representing surface textures in graphical images, the Gouraud shading model, magnetic ink printing technology, the Johnson counter logic circuit, the oldest algebraic mathematics package still in use (REDUCE), the Phong reflection model, the Phong shading method, and the rendering equation. Through the movement of Utah graduates and faculty, research at the University spread outward to laboratories like Xerox Parc, JPL, and the New York Institute of Technology. Present graphics research is focused on biomedical applications for visualization, scientific computing, and image analysis at the Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute.
In March 2012, the university received unanimous approval from the board of trustees to create a new academic college, the School of Dentistry, which is the university's first new college in sixty years. The new school has received funding for a new structure and has started as a debt-free program. The new school enrolled its first students for the fall semester of 2013 and averages the same cost as the university's medical school tuition.
The S.J. Quinney College of Law, founded in 1913, was the only law school in Utah until the 1970s.
The University of Utah has the only accredited allopathic medical school in the State of Utah. The medical school has made several notable contributions to medicine, such as establishing the first Cerebrovascular Disease Unit west of the Mississippi River in 1970 and administering the world's first permanent artificial heart, the Jarvik-7, to Barney Clark in 1982.
The University of Utah College of Pharmacy is 4th in the nation for NIH research grants. The department of Pharmacology and Toxicology within the School of Pharmacy is world-renowned for research in epilepsy treatment with their Anticonvulsant Drug Development (ADD) program.
The university is host to the Neal A. Maxwell Lecture Series in Political Theory and Contemporary Politics, a forum for political theorists to share their newest theoretical work, and is home to the Hinckley Institute of Politics, which places more than 350 students every year in local, state, national, and global internships.
The university has 9 men's and 11 women's varsity teams. Athletic teams include men's baseball, basketball, football, golf, hockey, lacrosse, skiing, swimming/diving, and tennis and women's basketball, cross country, gymnastics, skiing, soccer, softball, swimming/diving, tennis, track and field, and volleyball. The school's sports teams are called the Utes, though some teams have an additional nickname, such as "Runnin' Utes" for the men's basketball team. The university participates in the NCAA's Division I (FBS for football) as part of the Pac-12 Conference. When they were in the same conference, there was a fierce BYU–Utah rivalry, and the Utah–BYU football game, traditionally the season finale, has been called the "Holy War" by national broadcasting commentators. The university fight song is "Utah Man", commonly played at athletic games and other university events. In 1996, Swoop was introduced as the new mascot of the University of Utah. Because of relationships with the local Ute Indians, Utah adopted a new mascot. While still known as the Utes, Utah is now represented by the Red-tailed Hawk known for the use of his tail feathers in Ute head-dresses, and said he "Reflects the soaring spirit of our state and school"
In 2002, the university was one of 20 schools to make the "U.S. News & World Report" College Sports Honor Roll. In 2005, Utah became the first school to produce No. 1 overall draft picks in both the NFL draft and NBA draft for the same year. Alex Smith was picked first overall by the San Francisco 49ers in the 2005 NFL Draft, and Andrew Bogut was picked first overall by the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2005 NBA Draft. The university has won thirteen NCAA Skiing Championships, most recently in 2019, as well as the 1977 AIAW National Women's Skiing Championship.
The men's basketball team won the NCAA title in 1944 and the NIT crown in 1947. Arnie Ferrin, the only four-time All-American in Utah basketball history, played for both the 1944 and 1947 teams. He also went on to help the Minneapolis Lakers win NBA Championships in 1949 and 1951. Wat Misaka, the first person of Asian descent to play in the NBA, also played for Utah during this era.
Utah basketball rose again to national prominence when head coach Rick Majerus took his team, including guard Andre Miller, combo forward Hanno Möttölä, and post player Michael Doleac, to the NCAA Final Four in 1998. After eliminating North Carolina to advance to the final round, Utah lost the championship game to Kentucky, 78–69.
In 2004–2005, the football team, coached by Urban Meyer and quarterbacked by Alex Smith, along with defensive great Eric Weddle, went 11–0 during the regular season and defeated Pittsburgh 35–7 in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl, becoming the first team from a conference without an automatic Bowl Championship Series (BCS) bid to go to a BCS bowl game. The team ended its perfect 12–0 season ranked 4th in AP polling.
2008–2009 was another undefeated year for the football team, coached by Kyle Whittingham, as they finished the season 13–0 and defeated Alabama 31–17 in the 2009 Sugar Bowl. Utah finished the season 2nd in AP polling, their highest rank ever. At the end of the season, the Utes were the only unbeaten team in the country, with the nation's longest active streak of bowl victories (8).
The Utah Utes moved to the Pac-12 Conference for the start of the 2011–2012 football season. They are in the South Division with University of Colorado, University of Arizona, Arizona State University, UCLA and University of Southern California. Their first game in the Pac-12 was at USC on September 10, 2011, and resulted in a 23–14 Utah loss.
The women's gymnastics team, coached by Megan Marsden, has won ten national championships, including the 1981 AIAW championship, and placed 2nd nationally eight times. As of 2013, it has qualified for the NCAA championship every year since 1976, the only program to do so. The program has averaged over 11,000 fans per meet 1992–2010 and has been the NCAA gymnastics season attendance champions 16 of these 19 years. In 2010, there was an average of 14,213 fans per meet, the largest crowd being 15,030.
The university marching band, known as the "Pride of Utah", perform at all home football games, as well as some away games and bowl games. They performed at the 2005 BCS Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, the 2009 BCS Allstate Sugar Bowl, and the Inaugural Parade of President Barack Obama.
The band began as a military band in the 1940s. In 1948, university president A. Ray Olpin recruited Ron Gregory from Ohio State University to form a collegiate marching band. Support for the band dwindled in the 60s, and ASUU (the Associated Students of the University of Utah) discontinued its funding in 1969. The band was revived in 1976 after a fund raising effort. under the direction of Gregg I. Hanson. As of 2011, the band is under the direction of Dr. Brian Sproul.
Close to 50% of freshmen live on campus, but most students choose to live elsewhere after their first year, with 13% of all undergraduates living on campus. The university is located in a large metropolitan area, but many students live in the neighborhoods immediately surrounding the university. An additional 1,115 family apartments are available to students, staff, and faculty. One of the university's primary four goals for long-term campus growth is to increase student engagement through the addition of on-campus housing, intramural fields, athletic centers, and a new student activity center.
The current student activity center, the A. Ray Olpin University Union, is a common gathering place for university-wide events such as Crimson Nights, roughly monthly student activity nights; PlazaFest, a fair for campus groups at the start of the school year; and the Grand Kerfuffle, a concert at the end of the school year. The building includes a cafeteria, computer lab, recreational facilities, and a ballroom for special events. The Union also houses the Lowell Bennion Community Service Center, CESA (Center for Ethnic Student Affairs) which provides an inclusive space for students and houses various advising programs of the Office of Equity and Diversity, the Union Programming Council which is in charge of promoting student life on campus through events like Crimson Nights, and ASUU (the Associated Students of the University of Utah), which is responsible for appropriating funds to student groups and organizations on campus. ASUU holds primary and general elections each year for student representatives, typically with 10–15% of the student population voting.
Due to the large number of LDS Church members at the university, there is an LDS Institute of Religion building near main campus, as well as several LDS student groups and 46 campus wards. Approximately 650 students are part of 6 sororities and 8 fraternities at the university, most of which have chapter houses on "Greek Row" just off campus.
The University of Utah has a dry campus, meaning that alcohol is banned on campus. In 2004, Utah became the first state with a law expressly permitting concealed weapons on public university campuses. The University of Utah tried to uphold its gun ban but the Utah Supreme Court rejected the ban in 2006.
The university has several public broadcasting affiliations, many of which utilize the Eccles Broadcast Center. These stations include KUED channel 7, a PBS member station and producer of local documentaries; KUEN channel 9, an educational station for teachers and students from the Utah Education Network; KUER 90.1 FM, a public radio affiliate of National Public Radio, American Public Media, and Public Radio International; and K-UTE 1620.
"NewsBreak" is the student-run television newscast on campus. During 2011, the program celebrated its 40th anniversary. Broadcasts air every Thursday night at 10 pm during the fall and spring semesters on KUEN.
"The Daily Utah Chronicle", also referred to as the "Chrony", has been the university's independent, student-run paper since 1890. It publishes daily on school days during fall and spring semesters and weekly during summer semester. The paper typically runs between eight and twelve pages, with longer editions for weekend game guides. The paper converted to a broadsheet format in 2003 when the Newspaper Agency Corporation began printing it. The Society of Professional Journalists selected the newspaper as one of three finalists for best all-around daily student newspaper in the nation in both 2007 and 2008. Staff from the "Chronicle" feed into Utah journalism circles, some of them rising to considerable prominence, such as former editor Matt Canham, whose work with "The Salt Lake Tribune" earned him the Don Baker Investigative Reporting Award from the Utah Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
The University of Utah Press, the oldest press in Utah and now part of the J. Willard Marriott Library, publishes books on topics including the outdoors, anthropology and archaeology, linguistics, creative nonfiction, Mesoamerica, Native American studies, and Utah, Mormon, and Western history. The university is also home to a national literary journal, "Quarterly West".
Notable alumni include politicians Rocky Anderson, Bob Bennett, Merrill Cook, E. Jake Garn, Jon Huntsman, Jr., Karen Morgan, Frank E. Moss, and Karl Rove; recent LDS Church presidents Gordon B. Hinckley and Thomas S. Monson; historian and Pulitzer Prize for History laureate Laurel Thatcher Ulrich; authors Orson Scott Card, Stephen Covey, Shannon Hale, Terry Tempest Williams, and Wallace Stegner; R Adams Cowley, William DeVries, Russell M. Nelson, and Robert Jarvik in medicine; historian Richard Foltz; educators Gordon Gee, Jonathan Westover, and Ann Weaver Hart; reporter Martha Raddatz; and speed reading innovator Evelyn Nielsen Wood.
Notable science and engineering alumni include Jim Blinn; Mark W. Fuller, CEO of WET Design; Jim Clark, founder of Silicon Graphics, Netscape Communications Corporation, myCFO, and Healtheon; Gretchen W. McClain, former NASA Deputy Associate Administrator of Human Space Exploration and Chief Director of the International Space Station; Henri Gouraud; John C. Cook who played a crucial role in establishing the field of ground-penetrating radar; Ralph Hartley; rocket scientist Joseph Majdalani; Alan Kay; Simon Ramo; and John Warnock, co-founder of Adobe Systems.
Notable entrepreneur and business leader alumni include Alan Ashton, co-founder of WordPerfect and Thanksgiving Point; Freestyle Skiër Tom Wallisch; Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese; Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar; J. Willard Marriott, founder of Marriott International; Robert A. "Bob" McDonald, CEO of Procter & Gamble; David Neeleman, founder of JetBlue; and Telle Whitney, CEO and President of the Anita Borg Institute
In athletics, notable alumni include baseball player Chris Shelton; basketball players Andrew Bogut, Andre Miller and Keith Van Horn; football players Paul Kruger, Star Lotulelei, Jamal Anderson, Kevin Dyson, Eric Weddle, Alex Smith, and Steve Smith Sr.; hall of fame karate grandmaster Dan Hausel; and football coach LaVell Edwards.
Notable alumni serial killers include Ted Bundy, who briefly attended the College of Law before dropping out.
Notable faculty in science and engineering include David Evans and Ivan Sutherland, founders of Evans and Sutherland; Bui Tuong Phong, pioneer of computer graphics; Henry Eyring, known for studying chemical reaction rates; Stephen Jacobsen, founder of Sarcos; Jindřich Kopeček and Sung Wan Kim, pioneers of polymeric drug delivery and gene delivery; Suhas Patil, founder of Cirrus Logic; Stanley Pons, who claimed to have discovered "cold fusion" in 1989; Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, later co-winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry; and Thomas Stockham, founder of Soundstream. In medicine, notable faculty include Mario Capecchi, the co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine; Willem Johan Kolff; and Russell M. Nelson. Biologist Ralph Vary Chamberlin, founding dean of the Medical School, professor, and later historian of the University, was also an alumnus. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32097 |
University of Victoria
The University of Victoria (commonly known as UVic) is a public research university located in the Greater Victoria municipalities of Oak Bay and Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. The university traces its roots to Victoria College, the first post-secondary institution established in British Columbia in 1903. It operated as an affiliated college until 1963 when it was reorganized into the present University of Victoria. UVic has ranked as the second best comprehensive university in Canada for three successive years.
Its campus is situated 7 km north of Downtown Victoria and is spread over 403 acres. The university operates nine academic faculties and schools including the Peter B. Gustavson School of Business and the Faculties of Education, Engineering, Fine Arts, Human & Social Development, Humanities, Law, Science, and Social Sciences.
It is the nation's lead institution in the VENUS and NEPTUNE deep-water seafloor observatory projects. The university also hosts and leads the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS) and is home to two Environment Canada labs: the Canadian Center for Climate Modelling and Analysis and the Water and Climate Impacts Research Centre. The Ocean Climate Building housed at the Queenswood location is solely dedicated to ocean and climate research. The Institute of Integrated Energy Systems is a leading center for research on sustainable energy solutions and alternative energy sources. The university is also home to Canada's first and only Indigenous Law degree program along with dedicated research centers for Indigenous and Environmental law.
Based in the capital city of British Columbia, the university has educated many prominent legal and political leaders, including Jody Wilson-Raybould, Rona Ambrose, and Supreme Court Justice Russell Brown. In recent years, the university counts amongst its alumni the founders of several leading technology companies, including Flickr, Slack, and Hootsuite. The University of Victoria has also produced several Rhodes and Gates Scholars and its alumni and faculty have worked on Nobel Prize winning research teams. As of 2018, the university has been home to more than 40 Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada.
The University of Victoria is the oldest post-secondary institution in British Columbia, established in 1903 as an affiliated college of McGill University before gaining full autonomy through a charter on July 1, 1963. Victoria College, which had been established in 1903 as an affiliated college of McGill University, gained autonomy and full degree granting status on March 1, 1963. The non-denominational university had enjoyed 60 years of prior teaching tradition at the university level as Victoria College. This 60 years of history may be viewed conveniently in three distinct stages.
Between the years 1903 and 1915, Victoria College was affiliated with McGill University, offering first- and second-year McGill courses in Arts and Science. Administered locally by the Victoria School Board, the College was an adjunct to Victoria High School and shared its facilities. Both institutions were under the direction of a single Principal: E.B. Paul, 1903–1908; and S.J. Willis, 1908–1915.
The opening in 1915 of the University of British Columbia, established by Act of Legislature in 1908, obliged the college to suspend operations in higher education in Victoria. University of British Columbia was created in 1908. A single, public provincial university, it was modeled on the American state university, with an emphasis on extension work and applied research. The governance was modeled on the provincial University of Toronto Act of 1906 which established a bicameral system of university government consisting of a senate (faculty), responsible for academic policy, and a board of governors (citizens) exercising exclusive control over financial policy and having formal authority in all other matters. The president, appointed by the board, was to provide a link between the two bodies and to perform institutional leadership.
In 1920, as a result of local demands, Victoria College began the second stage of its development, reborn in affiliation with the University of British Columbia. Though still administered by the Victoria School Board, the college was now completely separated from Victoria High School, moving in 1921 into the magnificent Dunsmuir mansion known as Craigdarroch Castle. Over the next two decades, under Principals E.B. Paul and P.H. Elliott, Victoria College built a reputation for thorough and scholarly instruction in first- and second-year arts and science. It was also during this period that future author Pierre Berton edited and served as principal cartoonist for the student newsletter, "The Microscope". Between the years 1921-1944, the enrollment at Victoria College did not very often reach above 250. However, in 1945, 128 servicemen returned from World War II. This pushed enrollment up to 400, and in 1946; 600.
The final stage, between the years 1945 and 1963, saw the transition from two-year college to university, under Principals J.M. Ewing and W.H. Hickman.
During this period, the college was governed by the Victoria College Council, representative of the parent University of British Columbia, the Greater Victoria School Board, and the provincial Department of Education. Physical changes were many. In 1946 the college was forced by postwar enrollment to move from Craigdarroch to the Lansdowne campus of the Provincial Normal School, the current location of Camosun College's Lansdowne Campus. The Normal School, itself an institution with a long and honourable history, joined Victoria College in 1956 as its Faculty of Education. Late in this transitional period (through the co-operation of the Department of National Defence and the Hudson's Bay Company) the 284-acre (1,1 km²)--now 385-acre (1.6 km²)--campus at Gordon Head was acquired. Academic expansion was rapid after 1956, until in 1961 the college, still in affiliation with UBC, awarded its first bachelor's degrees.
In the early part of this century, professional education expanded beyond the traditional fields of theology, law and medicine. Graduate training based on the German-inspired American model of specialized course work and the completion of a research thesis was introduced. The policy of university education initiated in the 1960s responded to population pressure and the belief that higher education was a key to social justice and economic productivity for individuals and for society.
The university gained its full autonomy in 1963 as the University of Victoria. The University Act of 1963 vested administrative authority in a chancellor elected by the convocation of the university, a board of governors, and a president appointed by the board; academic authority was given to the senate which was representative both of the faculties and of the convocation.
University of Victoria's Arms were registered with the Canadian Heraldic Authority on April 3, 2001. The historical traditions of the university are reflected in the coat of arms, its academic regalia and its house flag. The BA hood is of solid red, a colour that recalls the early affiliation with McGill, as do the martlets in the coat of arms. The BSc hood, of gold, and the BEd hood, of blue, show the colours of the University of British Columbia. Blue and gold have been retained as the official colours of the University of Victoria. The motto at the top of the Arms of the University, in Hebrew characters, is "Let there be Light"; the motto at the bottom, in Latin, is "A Multitude of the Wise is the Health of the World."
On May 11, 1992, the Department of Political Science created the Committee to Make the Department More Supportive to Women as a response to concerns regarding experiences of graduate and undergraduate students. The committee was made up of five female undergraduate students and Dr. Somer Brodribb, an untenured professor working in the Department. Later, this Committee was unofficially called the “Chilly Climate” or Climate Committee within the department. “Chilly Climate” is a term used by the Project on the Status and Education of Women.
A preliminary report published by the Climate Committee to the Department of Political Science on March 23, 1993 which looked at the experience of both faculty and students at University of Victoria issued recommendations that, in their eyes, would make the department more hospitable to female students while also highlighting the experiences of female students which the committee found troubling. These recommendations included the establishment of a committee for addressing issues that were raised in the report, the creation of formal policies addressing race and gender discrimination, and workshops for faculty on race and gender issues in the classroom environment. Notably, the preliminary report also highlighted the importance of including classroom content from feminist perspectives and more texts authored by female scholars.
In response to this report, the tenured professors of political science department Robert Bedeski, Colin Bennett, Ron Cheffins, Warren Magusson, Terry Morley, Norman Ruff, Rob Walker, and Jeremy Wilson challenged what they perceived to be slander from Dr. Brodribb, who chaired the Committee. They requested that Dr. Brodribb allow an investigation into the allegations of sexist behaviour in the Chilly Climate report. Dr. Bodribb refused, stating that this went against the agreement her committee made with the women interviews and could expose them to further discrimination. If the evidence was not handed over the tenured professors requested a complete withdrawal of the statements made in the Chilly Climate report and an apology that would be distributed to all those who saw the report. They also mentioned seeking further action if Dr. Brodribb did neither of these things. To review documents related to the report, one can go to the University of Victoria Libraries Special Collections.
A review committee was established by University of Victoria President David Strong, requesting advice from lawyers Beth Bilson and Thomas R. Berger to assist in evaluating the climate of the political science department. They published a report in August 1993, which included recommendations that University of Victoria President David Strong later endorsed.
With a total area of on its main site alone, the campus lies on the border between the municipalities of Oak Bay and Saanich, divided almost perfectly down the centre of campus (with the northeast half being located in Saanich and the southwest half in Oak Bay). This municipal boundary is marked and commemorated by undermount plates and a bronze line near the main quadrangle. Despite its name, no part of the university's main campus is located in the City of Victoria proper. The campus is several hundred feet from the Pacific Ocean at Cadboro Bay.
The campus of the University of Victoria was originally designed by American architectural firm of Wurster, Bernardi & Emmons, which had previously achieved fame for having completed major buildings at Stanford University and UC Berkeley. The principles and concept of the original design are still being followed, with the academic portions of the campus located inside the Ring Road, forming a perfect circle in diameter. This academic ring is a distinctive feature of the University of Victoria and was intended to foster interaction, intellectual sharing, and collaboration. The area outside of Ring Road hosts important parts of the university, including the residential colleges (now residence halls), Student Union Buildings, sports facilities, as well as some of the newer academic facilities which have expanded outwards in recent years (The Faculties of Law and Theatre for example).
The following is a list of prominent buildings on the University of Victoria campus:
The university offers on-campus housing for over 3,200 students. A variety of housing is available, including single and double dormitories, Cluster Housing (apartment-style housing with four people per unit), bachelor and one-bedroom apartments, and family housing. Four buildings in one of the oldest residential complexes at the university are named for Emily Carr, Arthur Currie, Margaret Newton, and David Thompson. Construction on the South Tower Complex was completed in January 2011. The largest residence building in terms of capacity is Ring Road Hall, which holds 294 beds and is split into three wings. The campus has become increasingly cycling-friendly.
Much of the university estate and endowment lands have been preserved as a nature setting, notably Finnerty Gardens and Mystic Vale, a forested area and park. The large campus is home to deer, owls, squirrels and many other wild animals native to the area. A large population of domestic rabbits was a feature of the campus previously. In May 2010, the university began trapping and euthanizing the rabbits as they had been known to put athletes at risk in the playing fields and cause extensive damage to university grounds. Local veterinarians offered to perform neutering of the male rabbits. As of July 2011, the UVic campus is free of rabbits. 900 rabbits were saved and sent to shelters. The majority of rabbits moved to shelters died between 2011 and 2016, after which the remaining survivors (147 rabbits) were relocated to a private sanctuary in Alberta.
The University of Victoria Libraries system is the second largest in British Columbia, being composed of three 'on-campus' libraries, the William C. Mearns Center for Learning/McPherson Library, the Diana M. Priestly Law Library, and the MacLaurin Curriculum Library. The Library System has undergone significant growth in recent years thanks to the University's investment in library purchases and research. Amongst the highlights in the University of Victoria Archives and Special Collections are priceless items from Imperial Japan, to carbon dated original manuscripts of the Sancti Epiphanii. The collection also includes extensive histories of colonial Victoria and the Colony of Vancouver Island among other documents. The library's digitization programme is becoming increasingly active in making materials available. Renovations and new construction over the past decade have included special collections classrooms, an innovative Learning Commons and an art gallery. The UVic libraries collection includes extensive digital resources, over 2.0 million books, 2.3 million items in microforms, plus serial subscriptions, sound recordings, music scores, films and videos, and archival materials.
The University of Victoria houses the Education Heritage Museum, which displays educational history artifacts in the main hallway of the MacLaurin building. The collection consists of manuscripts, texts, photographs, audio-visual material, lesson plans, posters, bells, ink bottles, fountain pens, desks, maps, athletic clothing, photographs, and school yearbooks used in kindergarten to grade 12 schools in Canada from the mid-1800s to the 1980s.
The University of Victoria has two art collections (University and Maltwood) which host loan exhibitions, and exhibits of the works of students and faculty in the University Centre Exhibition Gallery. The University Collection, founded in 1953 by Dr. W.H. Hickman, Principal of Victoria College (1953-1963), consists of 6,000 works, mainly by contemporary artists practicing in British Columbia. The Maltwood Art Museum and Gallery, founded through the bequest of English sculptress and antiquarian, Katharine Emma Maltwood, F.R.S.A. (1878-1961), reflects her and her husband John Maltwood's taste. The collection of 12,000 works of fine, decorative and applied arts includes Oriental ceramics, costumes, rugs, seventeenth century English furniture, Canadian paintings and Katherine Maltwood's own sculptures.
The University of Victoria has acquired a portfolio of properties around Victoria, British Columbia and across Vancouver Island. These include the Legacy Gallery in downtown Victoria, the University Club, the Inter-urban campus, a former Saanich-based lodge and retreat, the Swans Hotel and Restaurant complex, and the Queenswood Property. The large, partially forested Queenswood property has been proposed as a site of future expansion for the university.
In 2017, the University of Victoria announced plans to develop a downtown campus/accommodation centre in the historic area of Victoria, BC including accommodation for students and other facilities. The new downtown campus will be centered in buildings donated to the university and located around the historic Broad Street area, beside the old Bay Centre. The downtown development has been suggested as a possible future home for UVic's Peter B. Gustavson School of Business.
The UVic endowment (estimated at $374 million) and large private donations have allowed for the university's estate to continue growing and for facilities to be upgraded and expanded on an ongoing basis.
Below is a list of undergraduate faculties, departments, and schools within the University of Victoria system.
UVic also offers a number of interdisciplinary undergraduate programs, including Applied Ethics, Arts of Canada, European Studies, Film Studies, Human Dimensions of Climate Change, Indigenous Studies, Latin American Studies, Social Justice Studies, and Technology and Society.
The Peter B. Gustavson School of Business, formerly the Faculty of Business, was renamed following a donation by local entrepreneur Peter B. Gustavson. This business school offers a wide range of programs including the BCom, MBA and other business degrees, EQUIS and AACSB accredited. The program starts with two years of general studies (with 5 required classes) and then the 3rd and 4th year are business intensive. Three co-op work terms are also required.
MGB Program: The Peter B. Gustavson School of Business is also offering a program called the Master Of Global Business. This program is in partnership with Montpellier Business School (France) and Sungkyunkwan University (Korea). In September, The Peter B. Gustavson School of Business is welcoming 35 students from 13 different countries. The module mostly focuses on MBS courses such as Finance, Supply chain management, marketing etc.
The Faculty of Engineering admits approximately 400 students into first-year programs each year. Students can specialize in the following disciplines: Biomedical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Software Engineering.
The Faculty of Fine Arts splits into five different departments: Art History and Visual Studies, the School of Music, Theatre, Visual Arts and Writing. UVic's Department of Art History and Visual Studies has a long tradition of scholarship in the areas of Islamic art, South and Southeast Asian art, and Native arts of North America. It is one of few schools that has traditionally held two chairs of Islamic art, most recently filled by Anthony Welch and Marcus Milwright.
The Faculty of Humanities consists of ten departments (English, French, Genders Studies, Germanic and Slavic Studies, Greek and Roman Studies, Hispanic and Italian Studies, History, Linguistics, Pacific and Asian Studies, and Philosophy), as well as three Programs (Latin American Studies, Medieval Studies, and Religious Studies). The faculty offers certificates, minors, and majors leading to both BA and BSc degrees, as well as MA and PhD degrees. Languages, narratives, philosophies, histories—the Faculty of Humanities brings these all together in a critical context of analysis, interpretation, research, and communication.
The UVic Faculty of Law is consistently ranked as one of the best and most-applied to law schools in Canada. It offers a hands-on work experience program for young lawyers and an intensive environmental law program, featuring a course at Hakia Beach, BC in association with the Tula Foundation. UVic Law has been deeply involved with many Aboriginal, ecological, and environmental cases in British Columbia, and continues this tradition today.
The university's School of Earth & Ocean Sciences, within the Faculty of Science, has produced a large number of influential findings in its history. The School of Earth & Ocean Science also collaborate with the VENUS and NEPTUNE research institutes. The university was a founding member of the Western Canadian Universities Marine Sciences Society. UVic maintains this field station on the west coast of Vancouver Island, which is jointly run by the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, the University of Alberta and the University of Calgary.
The UVic School of Public Administration specializes in its M.A., and PhD. programs but also offers a selective admission minors program for political leaders and mid-career civil servants.
Continuing education has been an integral part of the University of Victoria since its inception in 1963. Today, the Division of Continuing Studies provides adult and continuing education programming in co-operation with UVic faculties and community partners. The Division of Continuing Studies offers a comprehensive portfolio of programs in a range of academic disciplines, using diploma, certificate and other programming models to serve adult, part-time and internationally dispersed students.
UVic is one of Canada's largest graduate schools, offering more than 160 graduate programs across the University's faculties and departments. Their most popular graduate degrees are in the following areas:
UVic's Graduate programs range from individual interdisciplinary programs to graduate research programs. The university also offers students specialized degree options and doctoral options.
Admission to the University of Victoria is based on a selective academic system and is highly competitive. Each year, the university receives far more applications than there are spaces available, making it one of the most applied to institutions in Canada. Applicants are required to submit applications with their grade points average (GPA) and personal statements in order to be considered for admission. The university may also accept qualified applicants studying under IB programs, AP programs or other international distinctions. Given its endowment, the University of Victoria is able to offer scholarships and financial aid to a large number of students.
The University of Victoria is one of the most international universities in Canada and has partnered with a number of research institutions to provide UVic students with the opportunity to gain research experience abroad. International conferences and study abroad opportunities are encouraged for all students, with many students completing a gap year before commencing their studies. Both UVic undergraduate and graduate students may travel abroad with UVic's many partner universities.
The University of Victoria has partnered with institutions around the world, including Sciences Po, University of London, University of Washington, Hong Kong University, Utrecht University, and the National University of Singapore.
The University of Victoria has ranked in a number of post-secondary rankings. In the 2019 "Academic Ranking of World Universities" rankings, the university ranked 301–400 in the world and 13–18 in Canada. The 2021 "QS World University Rankings" ranked the university 370th in the world, and fourteenth in Canada. The 2020 "Times Higher Education World University Rankings" ranked the university 401–500 in the world, and 16–18 in Canada. In the 2020 "U.S. News & World Report Best Global University Ranking", the university ranked 262nd in the world, and 10th in Canada. The Canadian-based "Maclean's" magazine ranked the University of Victoria second in their 2020 Canadian comprehensive university category.
Along with academic and research-based rankings, the university has also been ranked by publications that evaluate the employment prospects of its graduates. In the "Times Higher Education's" 2018 global employability ranking, the university ranked 200–250 in the world, and 8–9 in Canada. In "QS's" 2019 graduate employability ranking, the university ranked 301–500 in the world, and 10–17 in Canada.
In 2018, Research Infosource named the University of Victoria the 19th best research university, with a sponsored research income of $114.922 million, and an average research income of $170,000 per faculty member in 2017.
The university's research performance has been noted in several bibliometric university rankings, which uses citation analysis to evaluate the impact a university has on academic publications. In 2019, the Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities ranked the university 374th in the world, and 15th in Canada. The University Ranking by Academic Performance 2018–19 rankings placed the university 370th in the world, and 17th in Canada.
Research facilities operated by the University of Victoria include:
The University maintains a field station on the west coast of Vancouver Island to conduct marine research. The facility is jointly run by the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, the University of Alberta and the University of Calgary. Undergraduates at the University of Victoria have full access to research and learning at this facility.
In 2011 the university, in collaboration with the provincial government purchased and modified a state of the art ocean vessel capable of launching 'deep sea submersibles' and conducting long-range marine biology research expeditions. The 'floating laboratory' is undergoing upgrades and expansions currently and was scheduled to be in service by late 2011.
The School of Earth & Ocean Sciences is also home to the VENUS and NEPTUNE research institutes responsible for seismic, oceanic and climate change research.
Located in the Greater Victoria area the University's legal centre provides free legal assistance to the disadvantaged as well as dealing with important environmental cases in British Columbia. The UVic Law Center is the only full-time, term clinical program offered by a Canadian law school. The program reflects the faculty's emphasis on integrating legal theory, legal skills, and community service while providing students with unique education and research opportunities.
Located in the Greater Victoria, British Columbia area the Vancouver Island Technology Park is a state of the art, 35 acre commercial research facility. It is the largest university-owned technology centre in BC. The venture allows the university to work with leading technology and biomedical companies while provided students with unparalleled research opportunities. The facility focuses on fuel cell, new media, wireless, and life science/biotechnological research. The UVic Genome BC Proteomics Centre and a number of other research institutes are based out of the research park. The Capital Regional District is a major commercial hub for technology companies.
Several fraternities, sororities, and secret societies exist on the University of Victoria, despite the fact that the Students' Society does not recognize fraternities, sororities, or societies on the basis that they, by definition, seek to exclude portions of the membership. This issue was once a topic of debate in student politics at the University of Victoria in 2010.
Many years ago, University of Victoria students started a fraternity, two sororities and one non-exclusive, non-profit social-service club. Although the fraternities and sororities have no affiliation with the University of Victoria itself, they continue to thrive and have purchased nearby properties. The fraternities and sororities on campus are as follows:
CFUV is a long-standing campus radio station focusing on the campus and the surrounding community. CFUV serves Greater Victoria at 101.9, and via cable on 104.3, Vancouver Island and many areas in the Lower Mainland and northwestern Washington state.
The University of Victoria maintains several residence halls on campus, which were originally based on the Oxbridge Collegiate model of constituent colleges which serve as a smaller, more personal home environment to the students of the wider university. The University no longer operates these halls as individual colleges, but rather as halls of residences (as well as dormitories and apartments) as part of the Residence Life and Education department. Today, all halls of residence are equipped with Common Rooms and high-speed internet for students. Most UVic students live on campus or within a few blocks of the main site.
The oldest and most famous of these residence halls is Craigdarroch, which features large stone-clad buildings and ivy covered walkways and courtyards. The modernist Lansdowne Halls feature six buildings connected by a series of bridges, walkways, and tunnels, including the popular 'UVic Underground'. Gordon Head and Ring Road Hall feature rooms and amenities for students, organized around a series of large courtyards.
In the centre of the Residence Village is the Cadboro Commons and a number of restaurants operated by the university, where students may eat and study. A mixture of dorms, single rooms, apartments, cluster studios, and family housing are available but decided by lottery system. First year students are guaranteed accommodation in one of the Residence Halls of campus.
UVic's oldest and most recognized weekly student newspaper, founded in 1948, is "The Martlet". It is distributed all over campus and the Greater Victoria area. The paper is named after the legendary martlet bird, whose inability to land is often seen to symbolize the constant quest for knowledge, learning, and adventure. "The Martlet" is partly funded by student fees. "The Martlet" is the only independent campus newspaper at the University of Victoria, and therefore one of the only publications that has the time and resources to fully hold both the University of Victoria and the University of Victoria Students' Society (UVSS) accountable. "The Martlet" regularly reports on UVic Board of Governors and Senate meetings, as well as University of Victoria Students' Society Board meetings and elections.
Today, "The Martlet" has a wide circulation and can be found in coffee shops, theatres, grocery stores, offices, and street corners throughout Victoria, British Columbia. The newspaper maintains its strong editorial line and commitment to politics and activism. Many national journalists and columnists in Canada have gotten their start in writing journalism at "The Martlet" and it continues to produce opportunities for student writers to become professionals. Notable "Martlet" alumni include Andrew MacLeod of the Tyee, Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps, and Leader of the B.C. Green Party Andrew Weaver.
In recent years, "The Martlet" has broken stories about UVSS spending deficits, UVic's reputational enhancement project, divestment lobbying efforts by UVic student activists, issues with UVic's sexualized violence policy, the arrival of Starbucks on campus, problems in the UVic Sociology department, international student tuition hikes, student groups' support of the Unist'ot'en First Nation camp, pro-life vs. pro-choice protesters on campus, racism and antisemitism on campus, and the ongoing battle for UVic student Lilia Zaharieva to receive her life-saving medication for her cystic fibrosis.
"The Martlet" is currently undergoing a transformation as it slowly transitions to more exclusive web-only content, in line with the shifting tendencies of journalism worldwide. Along with the 5000 physical papers circulated around the UVic campus and the local community, "The Martlet" has over 3500 followers on Twitter and 1700 followers on Facebook.
Martlet stories are regularly picked up by larger publications including the CBC, CTV News, the Times Colonist, and Chek News.
Cadborosaurus is a mythical sea serpent in the folklore of regions of the Pacific Coast of North America that is rumored by students to live in Cadboro Bay, adjacent to the University Of Victoria. The Cadborosaurus, or 'Caddy' as he is colloquially named, has become a favourite for students.
Notable among a number of songs commonly played and sung at various events such as commencement and convocation, and athletic games, is 'Rack and Ruin', a reminder of the tradition of the founding Victoria College.
"Rack and Ruin,
Blood and Gore,
Victoria College
Evermore!"
UVic maintains an extensive series of sculpted gardens on campus which serve as a place of respite and peace for students, staff, and members of the public who visit them. The Garden's include some of the largest collections of West-Coast plants and are cared for by the Friends of Finerty Gardens, a charity which raises funds and helps support the garden's growth. The Finnerty Gardens include ponds, trails, flower gardens, and benches throughout. The University Multi-Faith Centre is nestled neared the gardens.
The martlet and its red colour adorn many parts of the University of Victoria, including the crest, coat of arms, and flag representing the university's previous affiliation to McGill University which also uses the martlet. The legendary martlet bird's inability to land is often seen to symbolize the constant quest for knowledge, learning, and adventure. The oldest student newspaper on campus, "The Martlet", is named after the bird.
UVic Orientation/Weeks of Welcome takes place each year for all new students to the school. UVic Orientation includes events, activities, and workshops to help students adjust to university life. The main event of UVic Orientation, which takes place on the day immediately preceding the first day of classes, has gone by a number of names over the years. This event is currently referred to as New Student Welcome, and is UVic's largest Orientation event.
The University Club of Victoria is a private club located on the campus of University of Victoria. Faculty, Staff, and students are all members of the club and outside organization may also use the dining halls, meeting rooms, and other facilities. Alumni of the university often become members as well. The catering staff host dinners and awards celebrations frequently and the Holiday Roast Pig is a classic event on campus.
The University Club (formerly called the Faculty Club) opened on March 16, 1982. The building, located on campus, is surrounded by high trees in a quiet, wooded area.
The University of Victoria Students' Society is the second largest student society in British Columbia and represents the UVic undergraduate student body, plans campus wide events and operates the Student Union Building. The student society's leadership is elected annually during campus wide undergraduate student elections. As a multimillion-dollar organization, the UVSS is one of the larger student unions which exist in Canada. The UVSS also negotiates with local government and healthcare providers for Student Transit Passes and health insurance.
In 2014, the UVSS Student Union building underwent a major overhaul and renovation. In 2015, the University expanded and doubled the capacity of the public transit hub on campus which is adjacent to the Student Union building.
In 2016, plans began for the fundraising and building of a new, much larger Student Union Building to accommodate the growing student population.
The University of Victoria has one of the highest percentages of graduate and doctoral students in the country. The GSS offers services and academic support for UVic's 3,000 Graduate students. The society's services include the Grad House Restaurant, health and dental plan, funding for grad student events, and reduced-cost membership in the Victoria Car Share Co-operative.
The Victoria Vikes (more commonly known as "Vikes Nation") represent the university in a number of competitive sports, including rowing, swimming, rugby, and basketball. The Vikes have especially long ties to competitive rowing having competed for several international titles. Sailing remains an important sport at the university and the UVic Sailing Club (UVSC) maintains training facilities and boats at the nearby Cadboro Bay.
Significant endowments, scholarships, and bursaries allow the university to recruit the best student-athletes, regardless of financial standing. UVic is a participating partner in the Canada West Universities Athletic Association (CWUAA) (the western division of ) and in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). Basketball games were traditionally played in the 2,500 seat, McKinnon Gymnasium which was built in 1975.
An athletics facility was completed in 2015, which provides considerably more space and facilities for athletics. The $77 million Centre for Athletes, Recreation, and Special Abilities (CARSA), opened its doors on May 4, 2015.
The university currently has both men's and women's teams in each of the following sports:
UVic maintains a boathouse on Elk Lake in Victoria, British Columbia.
As the two oldest universities in the province, the University of Victoria (UVic) and the University of British Columbia (UBC) have long been fierce rivals in sports and athletics, including in Rowing, Rugby, and Soccer. The UVic Vikes and UBC Thunderbirds rivalry is a symbol of good sportsmanship, but has sometimes resulted in violence and less-than-polite behaviour by both sides. The "Annual UBC I UVic Soccer Classic" is one of the largest university sporting events in Canada and pits the UBC Men's Soccer Team against the UVic Men's Soccer Team. The annual classic alternates between the UVic Centennial Stadium and the UBC Thunderbird Stadium.
Vikes Nation fans and UBC Thunderbird fans pack into the Centennial stadium for the classic, with the UVic Cheerleaders and Marching Band also present. In 2015, UVic also constructed a new and expanded Athletics Facility (CARSA) which includes a major auditorium/gymnasium for Vikes Basketball Teams, and significantly more seating, stands, and court facilities.
The Centennial Stadium is a historic stadium located on the campus of the University of Victoria in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. The large facility was built as a 1967 Canadian Centennial project to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Canadian confederation, but has undergone many repairs and upgrades since then. Today, it is one of the largest university stadiums in British Columbia and is home to the UVic Vikes.
UVic Charter Inductees are:
Championships
Men's basketball: 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1997
Women's basketball: 1980, 1981, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1992, 1998, 2000, 2003
Men's cross-country: 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2015
Women's cross-country: 1981, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1995, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002
Women's field hockey: 1985, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2008
Men's soccer: 1976, 1988, 1997, 2004, 2011
Women's soccer: 2005
Canadian University Championship Titles
Men's rugby: 1998, 1999
Men's rowing: 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2009
Women's rowing: 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003
Men's golf: 2003, 2005, 2006
Canadian Western Universities Championship Titles
Women's field hockey: 2015
UVic has 25 sport clubs that are administered by Vikes Recreation and run by students.
The Transgender Archives are a part of the University of Victoria Libraries and are committed to preserving the histories of pioneering activists, community leaders, and researchers who have made contributions to the betterment of trans, non-binary, and two-spirit people.
Since 2007, at the Transgender Archives there has also been an active collection of documents, rare publications, and memorabilia of organizations or persons that had a hand in activism by and for trans, non-binary, and two-spirit people. The Transgender Archives are free and accessible and can be found at the University of Victoria's main campus at the Mearns Centre for Learning, McPherson Library.
The Transgender Archives are the largest in the world, and were rated in the top 12 Most Enlightening LGBTQ Museums in the World in 2019. The records are over 160 metres in distance and go back over 120 years, spanning 15 languages, 25 countries, and 6 continents
The second edition of the Transgender Archives book, 'Foundations for the Future', was released in 2016 and is available for free online at the University of Victoria's Transgender Archives home page. The book is written by Founder and Academic Director of the Transgender Archives, Aaron Devor. With the support of Grants and Awards Librarian Christine Walde, it was published by the University of Victoria Libraries. The book focuses on the history of trans activism and research, and also includes information regarding the origin of the Transgender Archives as well as multiple examples from the collection. The book's first edition, which was released in 2014, was a 2015 Lambda Literacy Awards finalist in LGBT nonfiction. In the same year, the book finished first for best offset print book at the 2015 College and University Print Management Awards.
Some key members of the Transgender Archives are:
Some of the university's noted faculty members, past and present, are:
The university has over 88,000 alumni. Listed below are some of UVic's noted alumni:
The asteroid 150145 Uvic was named in the university's honour on 1 June 2007. UVic was the first university in BC to have an asteroid named for it. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32098 |
University of Manitoba
The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a public research university in the province of Manitoba, Canada. Its main campus is located in the Fort Garry neighbourhood of southern Winnipeg with other campuses throughout the city. Founded in 1877, it is the first university of western Canada. The university maintains a reputation as a top research-intensive post-secondary educational institution and conducts more research annually than any other university in the region.
The U of M is the largest university both by total student enrollment and campus area in the province of Manitoba, and the 17th-largest in all of Canada. The campus boasts dozens of faculties and hundreds of degree programs. The U of M is a member of the U15 and of Universities Canada, while its global affiliations include the International Association of Universities and the Association of Commonwealth Universities. Its increased global outreach has resulted in one of the most internationally diverse student bodies in Canada, while its competitive academic and research programs have consistently ranked among the top in the Canadian Prairies.
The Manitoba Bisons represent the team in athletics as a member of U Sports and Canada West Universities Athletic Association (CWUAA).
University of Manitoba alumni include Nobel Prize recipients, Academy Award winners, Order of Merit recipients, and Olympic medalists, among many others. , there have been 99 Rhodes Scholarship recipients from the University of Manitoba, more than that of any other university in western Canada. Likewise, the university has produced countless government figures, including provincial premiers, Supreme Court justices, and Members of Parliament (MPs). Research at the U of M has produced various world-renowned contributions, including the creation of canola oil in the 1970s.
Along with the Fort Garry campus as its central hub, the University of Manitoba operates three other major locations: the Bannatyne Campus, the James W. Burns Executive Education Centre, and the William Norrie Centre. Additionally, the university also administers its French-language affiliate, Université de Saint-Boniface in the Saint Boniface ward of Winnipeg.
The University of Manitoba is a non-denominational university, founded by Alexander Morris, that received a charter on February 28, 1877, becoming the first university to be established in all of western Canada. It officially opened on June 20, 1877 to confer degrees on students graduating from its three founding colleges: St. Boniface College (Roman Catholic/Francophone), St John's College (Anglican), and Manitoba College (Presbyterian). The U of M would grant its first degrees in 1880.
The University would add a number of colleges to its corporate and associative body since. In 1882, the Manitoba Medical College, founded by physicians and surgeons, became a part of the University. The College's Bacteriological Research Building would be designed by architect Charles Henry Wheeler in 1897, while the Science Building, between 1899–1900 by architect George Creeford Browne. Other colleges soon followed:
In 1901, the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba would change the "University Act" so as to allow the University to do its own teaching. In 1905, a building in downtown Winnipeg became the University's first teaching facility, with a staff of six science professors. The governance would be modeled on the provincial "University of Toronto Act" (1906), which would establish a bicameral system of university government consisting of a senate (faculty), who are responsible for academic policy, and a board of governors (citizens), who exercise exclusive control over financial policy and have formal authority in all other matters. The president, appointed by the board, was to provide a link between the two bodies and to perform institutional leadership.
In the early part of the 20th century, professional education expanded beyond the traditional fields of theology, law, and medicine. Graduate training based on the German-inspired American model of specialized course work and the completion of a research thesis was introduced.
The Manitoba Medical Alumni Association would erect the Medical Corps Memorial, dedicated to the memory of the graduates and students of the University of Manitoba Medical College, who had laid down their lives during the North West Rebellion (1 name); 1900 South African War (1 name); and The Great War [i.e., World War I] (7 names).
The first school of architecture in western Canada was founded in 1919 at the University of Manitoba.
By 1920, the University would be the largest university in the Canadian Prairies and the fifth largest in Canada, with 1,654 male and 359 female students, as well as 184 academic staff (including 6 women). It had eight faculties: Arts, Science, Law, Medicine, Engineering, Architecture, Pharmacy, and Agriculture.
The Faculty of Law was an affiliated college, the Manitoba Law School, which was founded in 1914 by the University and the Law Society of Manitoba. In 1920, the college had 123 students (including 5 women), and 21 academic staff. The college would become a full part of the university in 1966.
Originally located on Broadway, the University would move to its permanent site in Fort Garry in 1929, following the addition of more programs, schools, and faculties. The university maintained the Broadway facilities for many years.
The University would establish an Evening Institute in 1936.
St. Andrew's College, which originally trained the ministry for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada, became an affiliated college in 1981. The College would be the first Ukrainian-language college opened by the Orthodox Church in North America. Today, it remains a home to a large Ukrainian cultural and religious library.
Responding to population pressure, the policy of university education would be initiated in the 1960s. As result, in 1967, two of the colleges that had originally been part of the University of Manitoba were given university status of their own by the provincial government: United College, which had been formed by the merging of Wesley College and Manitoba College, would become the University of Winnipeg; and Brandon College would become Brandon University.
St. Boniface College and St. John's College, two of the founding colleges of the University, still remain part of the University of Manitoba. St. Boniface is the University's only French-language college, offering instruction in French, as well as facilities for the training of teachers who expect to teach in the French language. St. John's, which dates back to 1820, offers instruction in Arts and Science and, among other special programs, prepares men and women for the ordained ministry of the Anglican Church.
On 28 February 2002, Canada Post issued 'University of Manitoba, 1877–2002' as part of the Canadian Universities series. The stamp was based on a design by Steven Slipp, based on photographs by Mike Grandmaison and on an illustration by Bonnie Ross. The 48¢ stamps are perforated 13.5 and were printed by Ashton-Potter Canada Limited.
The main Fort Garry campus (66 Chancellors Circle, on the Red River in south Winnipeg) comprises over 60 teaching and research buildings of the University and sits on of land. Among these buildings, 33 are used for teaching, of which 4 are colleges: St. John's College, St. Paul's College, St. Andrew's College, and University College. The remaining buildings include laboratories, administrative and service offices, and residences, as well as Smartpark, the location of 7 buildings leased to research and development organizations involving university-industry partnerships.
In 2013, the University of Manitoba sponsored an urban planning design competition to plan an extension to the Fort Garry Campus. The goal is to improve the general campus experience and guide future growth of parking citation revenue by establishing an urban framework for housing, university buildings and the associated public transportation in the area. The winning design submission was from Janet Rosenberg & Studio Inc. (Toronto) and Cibinel Architects Ltd. (Winnipeg) with Landmark Planning & Design Inc. (Winnipeg) and ARUP Canada Inc. (Toronto).
The William Norrie Centre on Selkirk Avenue is the campus for social work education for inner-city residents. The University operates agricultural research stations near Glenlea and Carman, Manitoba. The Ian N. Morrison Research Farm near Carman is a facility from Winnipeg, while the Glenlea facility is approximately and is from Winnipeg.
U of M's Bannatyne Campus is a complex of ten buildings in central Winnipeg belonging to the university's health sciences branch. Located about 13 kilometers north of the Fort Garry site, this campus is adjoined to the west of Winnipeg's Health Sciences Centre (HSC), between McDermot and William Avenue.
The Bannatyne Campus is home to the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, the U of M faculty that was established to consolidate the university's health education community into a more unified body. The Rady Faculty consists of several health sciences departments, including the Max Rady College of Medicine, the Dr. Gerald Niznick College of Dentistry, the College of Rehabilitation Sciences, and the College of Pharmacy, as well as the College of Nursing, although it still remains on the Fort Garry campus.
The Brodie Centre is the main building of the Bannatyne campus, which not only connects the various health education facilities but also the Neil John MacLean Health Sciences Library and the Joe Doupe Fitness Centre.
The College of Pharmacy, originally located at Fort Garry, moved to the Bannatyne campus on October 16, 2008 with the opening of the Apotex Centre. The Faculty of Pharmacy Apotex Centre is detached from the rest of the Bannatyne complex, located right across from the main entrance of the Brodie Centre.
The Dental Building is the westernmost building of the entire campus, housing the Dr. Gerald Niznick College of Dentistry. The College encompasses the entirety of dental education offered at the U of M, including the School of Dental Hygiene.
Although the College of Nursing also belongs to the consolidated Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, it remains on the Fort Garry campus until additional facilities can be built at Bannatyne.
The Max Rady College of Medicine has 27 academic departments found throughout the Bannatyne campus, the Health Sciences Centre, and other Winnipeg health sciences facilities. Each department is involved in teaching, research, service and clinical activities with an academic staff of approximately 1,630 faculty members. The college also consists of several centres, institutes, and research groups, often in partnership with other health sciences organizations.
In 2007–08, the University acquired more than CA$150 million in research income. The University holds 48 Canada Research Chairs and is either home to or a partner in 37 different research centres, institutes, and shared facilities. These centres foster collaborative research and scholarship.
The U of M is the network leader of Intelligent Sensing for Innovative Structures (ISIS) Canada, headquartered at the Faculty of Engineering. ISIS Canada is a National Network of Centres of Excellence (NCE), developing better ways to build, repair, and monitor civil structures. The University is a member of 13 other NCEs. The Centre for Defence and Security Studies at the U of M has a research, teaching, and outreach program designed to advance knowledge, understanding and debate in Canada on defence and security issues.
The university has a total enrollment of approximately 26,000 students in 24 faculties. Most academic units offer graduate studies programs leading to master's or doctoral degrees. The University of Manitoba ranked 14th in "Maclean's" Medical/Doctoral university category, tied with the University of Saskatchewan. The Medical/Doctoral category ranks Canadian universities that are research-intensive.
There are five colleges under the University of Manitoba banner: Université de Saint-Boniface (University of St. Boniface, where courses are taught completely in French), St. John's College, St. Paul's College, St. Andrew's College, and University College. Within these colleges are multiple faculties.
Along with those listed under the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences section above, faculties and programs found at the University of Manitoba include:
The University of Manitoba provides services to urban and rural Indigenous people. The University's Department of Native Studies is the oldest such unit in Western Canada. Many of the Indigenous Access programs include summer courses that bring new Indigenous students to campus before the start of the school year for campus orientation sessions. Indigenous Elders are present on campus at the U of M to provide social supports at Migizii Agamik (Bald Eagle Lounge), the Indigenous Centre on campus. Tutoring services are available within the U of M's Medicine, Engineering, and Social Work ACCESS Programs. The University connects with First Nations communities to talk to potential students at a much younger age through Curry Biz Camp, which fosters entrepreneurship among young First Nations and Métis students. On June 2, 2017, Indigenous knowledge and guidance became a formally-recognized part of the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences with the creation of Ongomiizwin, the largest Indigenous education and health unit in Canada in terms of scope and mandate.
The Anthropology Laboratory Museum at the U of M collects, inventories, and displays artifacts including cartographic materials, prints, drawings, and textual records from the Manitoba Region. The Human History collection includes archaeological and ceremonial objects, and weapons. The Natural Sciences artifacts include biological, zooarchaeological, aquatic, Earth Science, Geological and Paleontological Collections.
The main art gallery on campus is "School of Art Gallery." Other art galleries include: Arch II, Faculty of Architecture, Dr. Paul H. T. Thorlakson Gallery, Icelandic Collection, Elizabeth Dafoe Library, Gallery of Student Art (GOSA), and University Centre.
The include:
Since its establishment, the University of Manitoba has had eleven presidents in total, including:
Since its establishment, the University of Manitoba has had fourteen chancellors in total. However, following the first chancellor, between 1904 and 1908, no successor was appointed by the Government. The Vice-Chancellor is currently also the president, David Barnard.
The academic staff are represented by two unions. The professors are represented by the University of Manitoba Faculty Association, while sessional instructors and teaching assistants are represented by the CUPE Local 3909, and professors at the Faculty of Dentistry are represented by the University of Manitoba Dental Clinical Staff Association.
The support staff are divided among many unions. The support staff and the campus security are represented by the AESES, though the support staff at the Faculty of the Engineering are represented by CUPE Local 1482. All outside workers are represented by the CAW Local 3007.
The University has approximately 27,000 students—24,000 undergraduate and 3,000 graduate. It offers over ninety degrees, including more than sixty at the undergraduate level. Most academic units offer graduate studies programs leading to master's or doctoral degrees. The school song is known as "Brown and Gold" and was written by W. J. MacDonald with lyrics written by Charles McCullough in 1939.
, there have been 96 Rhodes Scholars from the University of Manitoba, more than from any other university in Western Canada.
The students at the university are members of the University of Manitoba Students' Union (UMSU). UMSU represents students at the Board of Governors and Senate, as well as providing programs and support to students. The University of Manitoba Graduate Students' Association (UMGSA) also represents over 3,000 graduate students at the University of Manitoba. The UMGSA is guided by its vision, goals and governing documents, all of which focus on promoting and providing graduate student advocacy, offering services and support to students, as well as developing and encouraging involvement in the graduate student community.
The National Panhellenic Conference sororities on campus are Alpha Delta Pi, Alpha Gamma Delta, and Alpha Phi. Fraternities on campus include Delta Upsilon, Delta Kappa Epsilon, and Phi Delta Theta. Fraternity Rush and Sorority Recruitment occur during the first weeks of school in September.
Students can participate in the University of Manitoba Orchestra.
The university is represented in U Sports by the Manitoba Bisons. Athletic facilities on campus include the Max Bell Centre, the Investor's Group Athletic Centre, and IG Field, which opened in 2013 to replace University Stadium.
The University of Manitoba offers recreational programs year-round, including a swimming program, adult classes and summer programs for children. The university's Frank Kennedy Centre, Max Bell Centre, and Investor's Group Athletic Centre contain indoor tracks, a swimming pool, work-out facilities, and an international ice hockey rink, as well as basketball, volleyball, squash and racquetball courts. Frank Kennedy Centre also hosts dance, combat and gymnastics rooms, and indoor tennis courts. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32099 |
Urban exploration
Urban exploration (often shortened as UE, urbex and sometimes known as roof-and-tunnel hacking) is the exploration of manmade structures, usually abandoned ruins or hidden components of the manmade environment. Photography and historical interest/documentation are heavily featured in the hobby and it sometimes involves trespassing onto private property. Urban exploration is also called draining (a specific form of urban exploration where storm drains or sewers are explored), urban spelunking, urban rock climbing, urban caving, building hacking, or mousing.
The activity presents various risks, including both physical danger and, if done illegally and/or without permission, the possibility of arrest and punishment. Some activities associated with urban exploration violate local or regional laws and certain broadly interpreted anti-terrorism laws, or can be considered trespassing or invasion of privacy.
Ventures into abandoned structures are perhaps the most common example of urban exploration. Many sites are entered first by locals and may have graffiti or other kinds of vandalism, while others are better preserved. Although targets of exploration vary from one country to another, high-profile abandonments include amusement parks, grain elevators, factories, power plants, missile silos, fallout shelters, hospitals, asylums, schools, poor houses, and sanatoriums.
In Japan, abandoned infrastructure is known as (literally "ruins"), and the term is synonymous with the practice of urban exploration. are particularly common in Japan because of its rapid industrialization (e.g., Hashima Island), damage during World War II, the 1980s real estate bubble, and the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.
Many explorers find decay of uninhabited space profoundly beautiful, and some are also proficient freelance photographers who document what they see, such as those who document the infrastructure of the former USSR.
Abandoned sites are also popular among historians, preservationists, architects, archaeologists, industrial archaeologists, and ghost hunters.
Another aspect of urban exploration is the practice of exploring active or "in use" buildings, which includes gaining access to secured or "member-only" areas, mechanical rooms, roofs, elevator rooms, abandoned floors, and other normally unseen parts of working buildings. The term "infiltration" is often associated with the exploration of active structures. People entering restricted areas may be committing trespass, and civil prosecution may result.
Catacombs such as those found in Paris, Rome, Odessa, and Naples have been investigated by urban explorers. Some consider the Mines of Paris, comprising many of the tunnels that are not open to public tourism, including the catacombs, the "Holy Grail" due to their extensive nature and history. Explorers of these spaces are known as cataphiles.
Entry into storm drains, or "draining", is another common form of urban exploration. Groups devoted to the task have arisen, such as the Cave Clan in Australia. Draining has a specialized set of guidelines, the foremost of which is "When it rains, no drains!" The dangers of becoming entrapped, washed away, or killed increase dramatically during heavy rainfall.
A small subset of explorers enter sanitary sewers. Sometimes they are the only connection to caves or other subterranean features. Sewers are among the most dangerous locations to explore owing to risk of poisoning by buildups of toxic gas (commonly methane and hydrogen sulfide).
Exploring active and abandoned subway and railway tunnels, bores, and stations is often considered trespassing and can result in civil prosecution, due to security concerns. As a result, this type of exploration is rarely publicized. An important exception to this is the abandoned subway of Rochester, New York, the only American city with an abandoned subway system that was once operational. The Cincinnati subway is also abandoned, but was never completed. London has a number of stations on the London Underground network that have been closed over the years, with Aldwych tube station a popular location for explorers.
Universities, and other large institutions such as hospitals, often distribute hazardous superheated steam for heating or cooling buildings from a central heating plant. These pipes are generally run through utility tunnels, which are often intended to be accessible solely for the purposes of maintenance. Nevertheless, many of these steam tunnels, especially those on college campuses, have a tradition of exploration by students. This practice was once called "vadding" at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but students there now call it roof and tunnel hacking.
Some steam tunnels have dirt floors, poor lighting and temperatures above . Others have concrete floors, bright light, and more moderate temperatures. Most steam tunnels have large intake fans to bring in fresh air and push the hot air out the back, and these may start without warning. Most active steam tunnels do not contain airborne asbestos, but proper breathing protection may be required for other respiratory hazards. Experienced explorers are very cautious inside active utility tunnels since pipes can spew boiling hot water or steam from leaky valves or pressure relief blowoffs. Often there are puddles of muddy water on the floor, making slips and falls a special concern near hot pipes.
Steam tunnels have generally been secured more heavily in recent years, due to their frequent use for carrying communications network backbone cables, increased safety and liability concerns, and perceived risk of use in terrorist activities.
The rise in urban exploration's popularity can be attributed to increased media attention. Recent television shows such as "Urban Explorers" on the Discovery Channel, "MTV's Fear", and the "Ghost Hunting" exploits of The Atlantic Paranormal Society have packaged the hobby for a popular audience. The fictional film "After..." (2006), a hallucinatory thriller set in Moscow's underground subways, features urban explorers caught up in extreme situations. Talks and exhibits on urban exploration have appeared at the fifth and sixth Hackers on Planet Earth Conference, complementing numerous newspaper articles and interviews.
Another source of popular information is "Cities of the Underworld", a documentary series that ran for three seasons on the History Channel starting in 2007. This series roamed around the world, showing little-known underground structures in remote locales, as well as right under the feet of densely packed city-dwellers.
With the rise in the hobby's popularity, there has been increasing discussion of whether the extra attention has been beneficial. The unspoken rule of urban exploring is "take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints". However different groups such as the New Wave Urbex Smashcrew genres have different intentions and because of the rising popularity, many other individuals who may also have similar intentions are creating concern among many property owners.
Urban exploration comes with a number of inherent dangers. For example, storm drains are not designed with human access as their primary use. They can be subject to flash flooding and bad air. There have been a number of deaths in storm water drains, but these are usually during floods, and the victims are normally not urban explorers.
Many abandoned structures have hazards such as unstable structures, unsafe floors, broken glass, unknown chemicals and other harmful substances (most notably asbestos), stray voltage, and entrapment hazards. Other risks include freely roaming guard dogs and hostile squatters. Some abandoned locations may be heavily guarded by motion detectors and active security patrols, while others are more easily accessible and carry less risk of discovery.
Asbestos is a long-term health risk for urban explorers, along with contaminants from dried bird feces, which can cause pigeon-breeder's lung, a form of hypersensitivity pneumonitis. Urban explorers may use dust masks and respirators to mitigate this danger. Some sites are occasionally used by substance abusers for recreation or waste disposal, and there may be used or infected syringes en route, such as those commonly used with heroin.
The activity's growing popularity has resulted in increased attention not just from explorers but also from vandals and law enforcement. The illicit aspects of urban exploring, which may include trespassing and breaking and entering, have had critical attention in mainstream newspapers.
In Australia, lawyers for the Roads and Traffic Authority of New South Wales shut down the Sydney Cave Clan's website after they raised concerns that the portal could "risk human safety and threaten the security of its infrastructure". Another website belonging to the Bangor Explorers Guild was criticized by the Maine State Police for encouraging behavior that "could get someone hurt or killed". The Toronto Transit Commission has used the Internet to crimp subway tunnel explorations, going as far as to send investigators to various explorers' homes.
Jeff Chapman, who authored "Infiltration", writes that genuine urban explorers "never vandalize, steal or damage anything". The thrill comes from "discovery and a few nice pictures". Some explorers also request permission for entry in advance.
Rooftopping and skywalking are the ascent of rooftops, cranes, antennas, smokestacks, etc., usually illegally, to get an adrenaline rush and take selfie photos or videos. Rooftopping is different from skywalking because it is mostly about taking panoramic photographs of the scene below and safety (getting home to see and post your photos) is more important than the thrill. Skywalking has been especially popular in Russia.
Many urban explorers adhere to the philosophy of cave explorers and outdoors hikers: "Take nothing but pictures. Leave nothing but footprints." Some are photographers who specialize in documenting urban ruins and scenes of industrial decay. Professional photographers in this field include Julia Solis, Rebecca Lilith Bathory Johnny Joo, Irishmanlost, Seph Lawless, and Andrew L. Moore. Other well-known photographers, such as Jan Saudek, use interiors of abandoned buildings as backdrops for their figurative and portrait works. In recent years the photography blog PetaPixel has run numerous stories about urban exploration photography.
Some urban explorers use head-cams such as GoPro or other helmet cameras for videos.
Some also use quadcopter drones for exploration and recording.
The location-based games "Ingress" and the following "Pokémon Go" based on the former have urban exploration elements. While some are concerned with keeping certain sites secret from the public at large, mainly to prevent vandalism, several apps dedicated to urban exploration exist.
Urban exploration is featured in a number of works, in a variety of media, such as: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32100 |
Umbriel (moon)
Umbriel is a moon of Uranus discovered on October 24, 1851, by William Lassell. It was discovered at the same time as Ariel and named after a character in Alexander Pope's poem "The Rape of the Lock". Umbriel consists mainly of ice with a substantial fraction of rock, and may be differentiated into a rocky core and an icy mantle. The surface is the darkest among Uranian moons, and appears to have been shaped primarily by impacts. However, the presence of canyons suggests early endogenic processes, and the moon may have undergone an early endogenically driven resurfacing event that obliterated its older surface.
Covered by numerous impact craters reaching in diameter, Umbriel is the second most heavily cratered satellite of Uranus after Oberon. The most prominent surface feature is a ring of bright material on the floor of Wunda crater. This moon, like all moons of Uranus, probably formed from an accretion disk that surrounded the planet just after its formation. The Uranian system has been studied up close only once, by the spacecraft "Voyager 2" in January 1986. It took several images of Umbriel, which allowed mapping of about 40% of the moon's surface.
Umbriel, along with another Uranian satellite, Ariel, was discovered by William Lassell on October 24, 1851. Although William Herschel, the discoverer of Titania and Oberon, claimed at the end of the 18th century that he had observed four additional moons of Uranus, his observations were not confirmed and those four objects are now thought to be spurious.
All of Uranus's moons are named after characters created by William Shakespeare or Alexander Pope. The names of all four satellites of Uranus then known were suggested by John Herschel in 1852 at the request of Lassell. Umbriel is the "dusky melancholy sprite" in Alexander Pope's "The Rape of the Lock", and the name suggests the Latin "umbra", meaning "shadow". The moon is also designated Uranus II.
Umbriel orbits Uranus at the distance of about , being the third farthest from the planet among its five major moons. Umbriel's orbit has a small eccentricity and is inclined very little relative to the equator of Uranus. Its orbital period is around 4.1 Earth days, coincident with its rotational period. In other words, Umbriel is a synchronous or tidally locked satellite, with one face always pointing toward its parent planet. Umbriel's orbit lies completely inside the Uranian magnetosphere. This is important, because the trailing hemispheres of airless satellites orbiting inside a magnetosphere (like Umbriel) are struck by magnetospheric plasma, which co-rotates with the planet. This bombardment may lead to the darkening of the trailing hemispheres, which is actually observed for all Uranian moons except Oberon (see below). Umbriel also serves as a sink of the magnetospheric charged particles, which creates a pronounced dip in energetic particle count near the moon's orbit as observed by "Voyager 2" in 1986.
Because Uranus orbits the Sun almost on its side, and its moons orbit in the planet's equatorial plane, they (including Umbriel) are subject to an extreme seasonal cycle. Both northern and southern poles spend 42 years in complete darkness, and another 42 years in continuous sunlight, with the Sun rising close to the zenith over one of the poles at each solstice. The "Voyager 2" flyby coincided with the southern hemisphere's 1986 summer solstice, when nearly the entire northern hemisphere was unilluminated. Once every 42 years, when Uranus has an equinox and its equatorial plane intersects the Earth, mutual occultations of Uranus's moons become possible. In 2007–2008 a number of such events were observed including two occultations of Titania by Umbriel on August 15 and December 8, 2007 as well as of Ariel by Umbriel on August 19, 2007.
Currently Umbriel is not involved in any orbital resonance with other Uranian satellites. Early in its history, however, it may have been in a 1:3 resonance with Miranda. This would have increased Miranda's orbital eccentricity, contributing to the internal heating and geological activity of that moon, while Umbriel's orbit would have been less affected. Due to Uranus's lower oblateness and smaller size relative to its satellites, its moons can escape more easily from a mean motion resonance than those of Jupiter or Saturn. After Miranda escaped from this resonance (through a mechanism that probably resulted in its anomalously high orbital inclination), its eccentricity would have been damped, turning off the heat source.
Umbriel is the third largest and fourth most massive of Uranian moons. The moon's density is 1.39 g/cm3, which indicates that it mainly consists of water ice, with a dense non-ice component constituting around 40% of its mass. The latter could be made of rock and carbonaceous material including heavy organic compounds known as tholins. The presence of water ice is supported by infrared spectroscopic observations, which have revealed crystalline water ice on the surface of the moon. Water ice absorption bands are stronger on Umbriel's leading hemisphere than on the trailing hemisphere. The cause of this asymmetry is not known, but it may be related to the bombardment by charged particles from the magnetosphere of Uranus, which is stronger on the trailing hemisphere (due to the plasma's co-rotation). The energetic particles tend to sputter water ice, decompose methane trapped in ice as clathrate hydrate and darken other organics, leaving a dark, carbon-rich residue behind.
Except for water, the only other compound identified on the surface of Umbriel by the infrared spectroscopy is carbon dioxide, which is concentrated mainly on the trailing hemisphere. The origin of the carbon dioxide is not completely clear. It might be produced locally from carbonates or organic materials under the influence of the energetic charged particles coming from the magnetosphere of Uranus or the solar ultraviolet radiation. This hypothesis would explain the asymmetry in its distribution, as the trailing hemisphere is subject to a more intense magnetospheric influence than the leading hemisphere. Another possible source is the outgassing of the primordial CO2 trapped by water ice in Umbriel's interior. The escape of CO2 from the interior may be a result of past geological activity on this moon.
Umbriel may be differentiated into a rocky core surrounded by an icy mantle. If this is the case, the radius of the core (317 km) is about 54% of the radius of the moon, and its mass is around 40% of the moon's mass—the parameters are dictated by the moon's composition. The pressure in the center of Umbriel is about 0.24 GPa (2.4 kbar). The current state of the icy mantle is unclear, although the existence of a subsurface ocean is considered unlikely.
Umbriel's surface is the darkest of the Uranian moons, and reflects less than half as much light as Ariel, a sister satellite of similar size. Umbriel has a very low Bond albedo of only about 10% as compared to 23% for Ariel. The reflectivity of the moon's surface decreases from 26% at a phase angle of 0° (geometric albedo) to 19% at an angle of about 1°. This phenomenon is called opposition surge. The surface of Umbriel is slightly blue in color, while fresh bright impact deposits (in Wunda crater, for instance) are even bluer. There may be an asymmetry between the leading and trailing hemispheres; the former appears to be redder than the latter. The reddening of the surfaces probably results from space weathering from bombardment by charged particles and micrometeorites over the age of the Solar System. However, the color asymmetry of Umbriel is likely caused by accretion of a reddish material coming from outer parts of the Uranian system, possibly, from irregular satellites, which would occur predominately on the leading hemisphere. The surface of Umbriel is relatively homogeneous—it does not demonstrate strong variation in either albedo or color.
Scientists have so far recognized only one class of geological feature on Umbriel—craters. The surface of Umbriel has far more and larger craters than do Ariel and Titania. It shows the least geological activity. In fact, among the Uranian moons only Oberon has more impact craters than Umbriel. The observed crater diameters range from a few kilometers at the low end to 210 kilometers for the largest known crater, Wokolo. All recognized craters on Umbriel have central peaks, but no crater has rays.
Near Umbriel's equator lies the most prominent surface feature: Wunda crater, which has a diameter of about 131 km. Wunda has a large ring of bright material on its floor, which may be an impact deposit or deposit of carbon dioxide ice. Nearby, seen along the terminator, are the craters Vuver and Skynd, which lack bright rims but possess bright central peaks. Study of limb profiles of Umbriel revealed a possible very large impact feature having the diameter of about 400 km and depth of approximately 5 km.
Much like other moons of Uranus, the surface of Umbriel is cut by a system of canyons trending northeast–southwest. They are not, however, officially recognized due to the poor imaging resolution and generally bland appearance of this moon, which hinders geological mapping.
Umbriel's heavily cratered surface has probably been stable since the Late Heavy Bombardment. The only signs of the ancient internal activity are canyons and dark polygons—dark patches with complex shapes measuring from tens to hundreds of kilometers across. The polygons were identified from precise photometry of "Voyager 2"'s images and are distributed more or less uniformly on the surface of Umbriel, trending northeast–southwest. Some polygons correspond to depressions of a few kilometers deep and may have been created during an early episode of tectonic activity. Currently there is no explanation for why Umbriel is so dark and uniform in appearance. Its surface may be covered by a relatively thin layer of dark material (so called "umbral material") excavated by an impact or expelled in an explosive volcanic eruption. Alternatively, Umbriel's crust may be entirely composed of the dark material, which prevented formation of bright features like crater rays. However, the presence of the bright feature within Wunda seems to contradict this hypothesis.
Umbriel is thought to have formed from an accretion disc or subnebula; a disc of gas and dust that either existed around Uranus for some time after its formation or was created by the giant impact that most likely gave Uranus its large obliquity. The precise composition of the subnebula is not known; however, the higher density of Uranian moons compared to the moons of Saturn indicates that it may have been relatively water-poor. Significant amounts of nitrogen and carbon may have been present in the form of carbon monoxide (CO) and molecular nitrogen (N2) instead of ammonia and methane. The moons that formed in such a subnebula would contain less water ice (with CO and N2 trapped as clathrate) and more rock, explaining the higher density.
Umbriel's accretion probably lasted for several thousand years. The impacts that accompanied accretion caused heating of the moon's outer layer. The maximum temperature of around 180 K was reached at the depth of about 3 km. After the end of formation, the subsurface layer cooled, while the interior of Umbriel heated due to decay of radioactive elements present in its rocks. The cooling near-surface layer contracted, while the interior expanded. This caused strong extensional stresses in the moon's crust, which may have led to cracking. This process probably lasted for about 200 million years, implying that any endogenous activity ceased billions of years ago.
The initial accretional heating together with continued decay of radioactive elements may have led to melting of the ice if an antifreeze like ammonia (in the form of ammonia hydrate) or some salt was present. The melting may have led to the separation of ice from rocks and formation of a rocky core surrounded by an icy mantle. A layer of liquid water (ocean) rich in dissolved ammonia may have formed at the core–mantle boundary. The eutectic temperature of this mixture is 176 K. The ocean, however, is likely to have frozen long ago. Among Uranian moons Umbriel was least subjected to endogenic resurfacing processes, although it may like other Uranian moons have experienced a very early resurfacing event.
So far the only close-up images of Umbriel have been from the "Voyager 2" probe, which photographed the moon during its flyby of Uranus in January 1986. Since the closest distance between "Voyager 2" and Umbriel was , the best images of this moon have a spatial resolution of about 5.2 km. The images cover about 40% of the surface, but only 20% was photographed with the quality required for geological mapping. At the time of the flyby the southern hemisphere of Umbriel (like those of the other moons) was pointed towards the Sun, so the northern (dark) hemisphere could not be studied. No other spacecraft has ever visited Uranus or its moons. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32101 |
Urd (Oh My Goddess!)
Urd was one of a series of characters created by Kōsuke Fujishima, and is depicted as the older sister of Belldandy. Belldandy, Keiichi Morisato, Skuld (Urd and Belldandy's younger sister) and Urd make up the four major characters in "Oh My Goddess!". Urd first appeared in the manga in chapter 14, "Sexy sister", but she has also been depicted in a novel ("Ah! My Goddess: First End"), three anime series ("Oh My Goddess!" (OVA), "Ah! My Goddess" and "The Adventures of Mini-Goddess") and in "".
As with her fictional sisters, Belldandy and Skuld, Urd has her origins in Norse mythology. Urd is one of the three Norns and represents the past, (the Norse Verdandi representing the present, with Skuld representing the future). Nevertheless, other than her name, Urd (like her "Oh My Goddess!" sisters) has little in common with her Norse namesake.
Unlike the problems with transliteration that were encountered with Belldandy, "Urd" presented no significant difficulties for translators. While Toren Smith determined that "Urtht" would be the more accurate translation of the Old Norse, when translating the manga series into English he acknowledged that "Urd" was an accepted alternate translation, and thus was comfortable using the spelling.
Urd is Belldandy's older sister and is the second Goddess to appear to Keiichi. Urd ranks as Goddess second class, management category limited license, similar to her youngest sister Skuld. She is Yggdrasil's System Administrator and Manager.
Although her powers exceed those of her sisters, she was supposedly relegated to "second class" ranking due to her tendency to lie according to her younger sister, Belldandy. Later, the real reason that Urd dropped the first class license examination was revealed to be because she was asked why she wanted to be a first class goddess. When she did not answer and the licensing goddess said "I think it better if you don't," meaning don't become a first class goddess. Many years later, Urd once again took the first-class licensing exam this time examined by Peorth and Belldandy. At one point, Peorth commented that Urd's control and mastery of her own powers, exceeded her own. At the end of this story arc the licensing goddess approved her first-class exam to which Urd surprisingly declined. She explained to Peorth that a first class goddess' prime directive is to protect and bless all things. However, Urd wishes to selectively protect what is most dear to her (this is followed by a page with Urd drawn enveloping her sisters with her black and white wings). She also concluded that there can be use in a Goddess that can lie, which is forbidden to first class goddesses.
Urd has extensive knowledge of potion lore. She checks her cabinet of potions each day and can tell if even a minute amount is missing. Urd recharges her energy by drinking sake and travels via television screens. She bears the emblem of the past. If allowed to wield her full first class power unsealed, Urd could possibly be the most powerful of the Goddesses on Earth. Her power is so great that she unknowingly burned Peorth (a first class Goddess) by merely touching her shoulder to which Peorth stated "It's no wonder the Almighty was cautious about her powers."
Urd fancies herself a Goddess of Love, although the mishaps of using her magical potions and her general lack of restraint tends to complicate, rather than stimulate, Keiichi and Belldandy's love life. She came to Earth to spur Keiichi onward with love potions and deceitful though well-meaning advice, but as punishment for deserting her post and for using her powers on Earth without authorization, The Almighty banished her from Heaven until further notice. That notice of return came after the Terrible Master Urd episode c. chapter 47, but by then she wanted to stay on Earth and everyone helped muck up things so she couldn't go back right away. She and Skuld have since done emergency duty on Yggdrasil in heaven at least twice since then, as of ch 162.
As she demonstrates later in the manga, she can exercise immense control over her powers despite her second-class status. She was able to draw her personal sigil using first-class lightning magic on her first attempt, a task that First Class Goddess Peorth needed numerous attempts to successfully complete.
Urd shares a common father with her younger sisters (Belldandy, Skuld), but has a different mother, the Demon Lord Hild. Their father has yet to be introduce to the series, but it is implied that he is someone of high status. Because of her heritage, Urd is a hybrid of Goddess and Demon, reflected in the half-white, half-black appearance of her Angel, World of Elegance. Urd is the first and only hybrid introduced in the series, and possibly the only hybrid in the Ah! My Goddess universe. Perhaps due to her Demonic heritage, Austrian Polka (in the English manga) or Enka (in the Japanese manga and TV series) instantly puts Urd to sleep and she is unable to awaken until the music ceases. Similarly, the demon Marller dances to rock music, and the two often use these weaknesses against each other.
Keiichi's friends and his sister Megumi are aware of Urd's existence and her relationship with Belldandy and residency at Keiichi's home; however, for the most part they are not aware of her "goddess" status.
For the longest time, she was unable to summon her angel since she was so scared when she first saw it and ordered it never to come out. This was caused by her self-doubt at being a hybrid Goddess/Demon since she equated having pure white wings as the sign of being a true Goddess. She has since gotten over whatever self-doubt that was holding her back and can now once again call her angel at will, much to Skuld's chagrin (she had originally thought that Urd had no angel and wanted to top her eldest sister by being first).
Unlike her younger sister Belldandy, Urd is very impulsive and headstrong. Belldandy describes Urd as being very passionate about everything she does. Urd is a great believer in the idea that the 'End justifies the Means', although, as Belldandy puts it: "...she gets so wrapped up in the means that she forgets what the end was." She once stole Sleipnir to get a cure for a sick Belldandy, but spent so much time in the effort to master riding Sleipnir that it took eight days for her to get to the place where the cure was. Another god had fetched the cure six days earlier. Despite such, she usually means well and will do anything to protect her loved ones. Because of her being the oldest, she believes it's also her duty to look after Belldandy and Skuld.
Urd's impulsiveness often makes her act first without fully considering the consequences. She is also a constant meddler, seemingly unable to leave well enough alone. She is also quite short tempered for a goddess, and is rather easy to irritate and anger. Urd is also notable for her tendency to lie, something a goddess supposedly can't do (or, more accurately, it is something a goddess "shouldn't" do, being against the rules). Although she's not a pathological liar, she's more than willing to distort the truth if needed to accomplish an objective. She is also very open about (and rather proud of) her sexuality, evidenced by her provocative dress, jibes at the younger Skuld and her slightly comical distress when turned into a child as a result of energy drainage. Her first appearance to Keiichi Morisato was through a semi-pornographic video.
Urd has an interesting love-hate relationship with her youngest sister, Skuld. Both seem to antagonize one another at times, with Urd usually teasing Skuld about her age, bust size, and apparent lack of talent when it comes to magic. However both do care for each other and will come to the other's aid when necessary. Urd and Skuld are commonly seen playing different games at the table in front of the television for rights to watching their favorite shows, although the two of them have stated that simply watching television isn't as fun as competing for the television, they have been joined at times by Belldandy, Keiichi's mother and Peorth. When Keiichi asked Belldandy "Are they best friends or what?" Belldandy replied with a smile and "They're best friends. I almost envy their ability to feel so strongly for each other."
For a goddess, Urd seems to have an amazing tendency to have her plans backfire, usually a result of her impulsive tendency to use raw power to solve a situation. Given her power levels this tends to cause explosions. Quite often, something will happen to louse up whatever scheme she's currently cooked up. Examples including: drinking one of her own love potions, trying to help Belldandy bake a cake and blowing up the kitchen, trying to help Keiichi build a motorbike and blowing up the garage, trying to dispel a number of computer "bugs" and blowing up the house, and so on.
One of Urd's most defining traits is her mixed Goddess-Demon ancestry. Because of this unique heritage, Urd is occasionally uncertain of her status within her world, as her Goddess and Demon personalities are always in conflict inside her. It was this inner conflict that allowed the Lord of Terror to eventually overcome Urd's will at one point. Deep in her heart, she truly wishes to be recognized as a Goddess and, in her earlier years, often looked up to Belldandy as a role model. This has led Urd to quietly deny her demonic heritage, much to the consternation of her mother, Hild.
Yumi Touma has said that it is only in the last of the OAV episodes that Urd can be seen "as an older sister, one that you can depend on."
Episodes in which World of Elegance has appeared. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32110 |
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and Unionist Party and also known colloquially as the Tories or simply the Conservatives, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom. The governing party since 2010, it holds an overall majority in the House of Commons with 365 Members of Parliament. It also has 245 members of the House of Lords, 8 members of the London Assembly, 31 members of the Scottish Parliament, 11 members of the Welsh Parliament and 7,430 local councillors.
The Conservative Party was founded in 1834 from the Tory Party—the Conservatives' colloquial name is Tories—and was one of two dominant political parties in the 19th century, along with the Liberal Party. Under Benjamin Disraeli, it played a preeminent role in politics at the height of the British Empire. In 1912, the Liberal Unionist Party merged with the party to form the Conservative and Unionist Party. In the 1920s, the Labour Party surpassed the Liberals as the Conservatives' main rivals. Conservative Prime Ministers, most notably Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher, led governments for 57 years of the 20th century.
Positioned on the centre-right of British politics, the Conservative Party is ideologically conservative. Different factions have dominated the party at different times, including one nation conservatives, Thatcherites and liberal conservatives, while its views and policies have changed throughout its history. The party has generally adopted liberal economic policies—favouring free market economics, limiting state regulation, and pursuing privatisation—although in the past has also supported protectionism. The party is British unionist, opposing both Irish reunification and Welsh and Scottish independence, and historically supported the continuance and maintenance of the British Empire. The party includes those with differing views on the European Union, with Eurosceptic and pro-European wings. On social policy, it has historically taken a more socially conservative approach, although this has receded over recent decades. In foreign policy, it favours a strong military capability, being supportive of British participation in NATO.
The Conservatives are a member of the International Democrat Union and the European Conservatives and Reformists Party. The Scottish, Welsh, Northern Irish and Gibraltarian branches of the party are semi-autonomous. Its support base has consisted primarily of middle class voters, especially in rural areas of England, and its domination of British politics throughout the 20th century has led to it being referred to as one of the most successful political parties in the Western world.
The Conservative Party was founded in the 1830s. However, some writers trace its origins to the reign of Charles II in the 1670s Exclusion Crisis. Other historians point to a faction, rooted in the 18th century Whig Party, that coalesced around William Pitt the Younger in the 1780s. They were known as "Independent Whigs", "Friends of Mr Pitt", or "Pittites" and never used terms such as "Tory" or "Conservative". Pitt died in 1806. From about 1812 on the name "Tory" was commonly used for a new party that, according to historian Robert Blake, "are the ancestors of Conservatism". Blake adds that Pitt's successors after 1812 "were not in any sense standard-bearers of 'true Toryism'".
The term "Conservative" was suggested as a title for the party by a magazine article by J. Wilson Croker in the "Quarterly Review" in 1830. The name immediately caught on and was officially adopted under the aegis of Robert Peel around 1834. Peel is acknowledged as the founder of the Conservative Party, which he created with the announcement of the Tamworth Manifesto. The term "Conservative Party" rather than Tory was the dominant usage by 1845.
The widening of the electoral franchise in the 19th century forced the Conservative Party to popularise its approach under Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby and Benjamin Disraeli, who carried through their own expansion of the franchise with the Reform Act of 1867. In 1886, the party formed an alliance with Spencer Compton Cavendish, Lord Hartington (later the 8th Duke of Devonshire) and Joseph Chamberlain's new Liberal Unionist Party and, under the statesmen Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, Lord Salisbury and Arthur Balfour, held power for all but three of the following twenty years before suffering a heavy defeat in 1906 when it split over the issue of free trade. Historian Richard Shannon argues that while Salisbury presided over one of the longest periods of Tory dominance, he misinterpreted and mishandled his election successes. Salisbury's blindness to the middle class and reliance on the aristocracy prevented the Conservatives from becoming a majority party. Historian E. H. H. Green argues that after Salisbury's retirement the Party was ideologically driven and resembled a broader European conservatism. After its defeat in 1906, a radical conservatism emerged that sought to promote "tariff reform" (that is high new tariffs) in order to unite the British Empire and protect British agriculture and industry from foreign competition and head off the threat of socialism.
Young Winston Churchill denounced Chamberlain's attack on free trade, and helped organize the opposition inside the Unionist/Conservative Party. Nevertheless, Balfour, as party leader, followed Chamberlain's policy introduced protectionist legislation. The high tariff element called itself "Tariff Reformers" and in a major speech in Manchester on 13 May 1904, Churchill warned their takeover of the Unionist/Conservative party would permanently brand it as follows:
Two weeks later, Churchill crossed the floor and formally joined the Liberal Party (he rejoined the Conservatives in 1925). In December, Balfour lost control of his party, as the defections multiplied. He was replaced by Liberal Prime Minister Henry Campbell-Bannerman who called an election in January 1906, which produced a massive Liberal victory with a gain of 214 seats. Liberal Prime Minister H. H. Asquith enacted a great deal of reform legislation, but the Unionists worked hard at grassroots organizing. Two general elections were held in 1910, one in January and one in December. The two main parties were now almost dead equal in seats. The Unionists had more popular votes but the Liberals kept control with a coalition with the Irish Parliamentary Party.
In 1912, the Liberal Unionists merged with the Conservative Party. In Ireland, the Irish Unionist Alliance had been formed in 1891 which merged Unionists who were opposed to Irish Home Rule into one political movement. Its MPs took the Conservative whip at Westminster, and in essence, formed the Irish wing of the party until 1922. In Britain, the Conservative party was known as the Unionist Party because of its opposition to home rule in Ireland.
Under Bonar Law's leadership in 1911–14, the Party morale improved, the "radical right" wing was contained, and the party machinery strengthened. It made some progress toward developing constructive social policies. Historian Jeremy Smith says Bonar Law was pushing hard—certainly blustering and threatening, and perhaps bluffing—but in the end his strategy proved both coherent and effective.
While the Liberals were mostly against the war until the invasion of Belgium, Conservative leaders were strongly in favour of aiding France and stopping Germany. The Liberal party was in full control of the government until its mismanagement of the war effort under the Shell Crisis badly hurt its reputation. An all-party coalition government was formed in May 1915. In late 1916 Liberal David Lloyd George became prime minister but the Liberals soon split and the Conservatives dominated the government, especially after their landslide in the 1918 election. The Liberal party never recovered, but Labour gained strength after 1920.
Nigel Keohane finds that the Conservatives were bitterly divided before 1914, especially on the issue of Irish Unionism and the experience of three consecutive election losses. However the war pulled the party together, allowing it to emphasise patriotism as it found new leadership and worked out its positions on the Irish question, socialism, electoral reform, and the issue of intervention in the economy. The fresh emphasis on anti-Socialism was its response to the growing strength of the Labour Party. When electoral reform was an issue, it worked to protect their base in rural England. It aggressively sought female voters in the 1920s, often relying on patriotic themes.
In 1922, Bonar Law and Stanley Baldwin led the break-up of the coalition and the Conservatives governed until 1923, when a minority Labour government led by Ramsay MacDonald came to power. The Conservatives regained power in 1924 and remained in power for the full five-year term. They were defeated in 1929 as a minority Labour government, again led by MacDonald; took office. In 1931, following the collapse of the Labour minority government, it entered another coalition, which was dominated by the Conservatives with some support from factions of both the Liberal and Labour Parties (National Labour and National Liberals). In May 1940, a more balanced coalition was formed, the National Government, which, under the leadership of Winston Churchill, saw the United Kingdom through World War II. However, the party lost the 1945 general election in a landslide to the resurgent Labour Party, who won their first ever majority government.
The concept of the "property-owning democracy" was coined by Noel Skelton in 1923 and became a core principle of the party.
While serving in Opposition during the late 1940s, the Conservative Party exploited and incited growing public anger at food rationing, scarcity, controls, austerity, and omnipresent government bureaucracy. It used the dissatisfaction with the socialist and egalitarian policies of the Labour Party to rally middle-class supporters and build a political comeback that won them the 1951 general election. Their appeal was especially effective to housewives, who faced more difficult shopping conditions after the war than during the war.
In 1947, the party published its Industrial Charter which marked its acceptance of the "post-war consensus" on the mixed economy and labour rights. David Maxwell Fyfe chaired a committee into Conservative Party organisation that resulted in the Maxwell Fyfe Report (1948–49). The report required the party to do more fundraising, by forbidding constituency associations from demanding large donations from candidates, with the intention of broadening the diversity of MPs. In practice, it may have had the effect of lending more power to constituency parties and making candidates more uniform.
The success of the Conservative Party in reorganising itself was validated by its victory at the 1951 general election. Winston Churchill, the party leader, brought in a Party Chairman to modernise the creaking institution. Frederick Marquis, 1st Earl of Woolton, was a successful department store owner and wartime Minister of Food. As Party Chairman 1946–55, he rebuilt the local organisations with an emphasis on membership, money, and a unified national propaganda appeal on critical issues. To broaden the base of potential candidates, the national party provided financial aid to candidates and assisted the local organisations in raising local money. Woolton emphasised rhetoric that characterised the opponents as "Socialist" rather than "Labour". The libertarian influence of Professor Friedrich Hayek's 1944 best-seller "Road to Serfdom" was apparent in the younger generation, but that took another quarter-century to have a policy impact. By 1951, Labour had worn out its welcome in the middle classes; its factions were bitterly embroiled. Conservatives were ready to govern again.
With a narrow victory at the 1951 general election, despite losing the popular vote, Churchill was back in power. Although he was ageing rapidly, he had national and global prestige. Apart from rationing, which was ended in 1954, most of the welfare state enacted by Labour were accepted by the Conservatives and became part of the "post-war consensus" that was satirised as Butskellism, and which lasted until the 1970s. The Conservatives were conciliatory towards unions, but they did privatise the steel and road haulage industries in 1953. During the Conservatives' thirteen-year tenure in office, pensions went up by 49% in real terms, sickness and unemployment benefits by 76% in real terms, and supplementary benefits by 46% in real terms. However, family allowances fell by 15% in real terms during that period.
"Thirteen Wasted Years" was a popular slogan attacking the Conservative record 1951–1964. Criticism came primarily from Labour. In addition, there were attacks by the right wing of the Conservative party itself for its tolerance of socialist policies and reluctance to curb the legal powers of labour unions, thus making them complicit in the Post-war consensus. The critics contend that Britain was overtaken by its economic competitors, and was unable to prevent a troublesome wage-price upward spiral. Historian Graham Goodlad calls for taking a longer perspective. He argues that there were significant advances in transport, healthcare, and higher education. It would have been unrealistic to expect that Britain could continue as a world power after the huge expense of the Second World War, and the independence of India and other colonies. Goodlad says the Conservative foreign-policy leadership properly adjusted Britain's world role by building an independent nuclear capacity and maintaining a leading role in world affairs, and anyway successive governments seldom did a better job.
The Conservatives were re-elected in 1955 and 1959 with larger majorities. Conservative Prime Ministers Churchill, Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan and Alec Douglas-Home promoted relatively liberal trade regulations and less state involvement throughout the 1950s and early-1960s. The Suez Crisis of 1956 was a humiliating defeat for Prime Minister Eden, but his successor, Macmillan, minimised the damage and focused attention on domestic issues and prosperity. Macmillan boasted during the 1959 general election that Britain had "never had it so good".
In 1958, Geoffrey Howe co-authored the report "A Giant's Strength" published by the Inns of Court Conservative Association. The report argued that the unions had become too powerful and that their legal privileges ought to be curtailed. Iain Macleod discouraged the authors from publicising the report. Macmillan believed that trade union votes had contributed towards the 1951 and 1955 victories and thought that it "would be inexpedient to adopt any policy involving legislation which would alienate this support".
Macmillan's bid to join the European Economic Community (EEC) in early 1963 was blocked by French President Charles de Gaulle. The period saw the decline of the United Kingdom as a prominent world leader, with the loss of practically the entire Empire and a laggard economy.
Following controversy over the selections of Harold Macmillan and Alec Douglas-Home via a process of consultation known as the 'Magic Circle', a formal election process was created and the first leadership election was held in 1965. Of the three candidates, Edward Heath won with 150 votes to Reginald Maudling's 133 and Enoch Powell's 15 votes.
Edward Heath's 1970–74 government was known for taking the UK into the EEC, although the right-wing of the party objected to his failure to control the trade unions at a time when a declining British industry saw many strikes, as well as a recession which started in 1973 and lasted for two years.
Since accession to the EEC, which developed into the EU, British membership has been a source of heated debate within the Conservative Party.
Heath had come to power in June 1970 and the last possible date for the next general election was not until mid-1975. However a general election was held in February 1974 in a bid to win public support during a national emergency caused by the miners' strike. However, Heath's attempt to win a second term in power at this "snap" election failed, as a deadlock result left no party with an overall majority. The Conservatives had more votes than Labour; but Labour had four more seats. Heath resigned within days, after failing to gain Liberal Party support in order to form a coalition government, paving the way for Harold Wilson and Labour to return to power as a minority government. Heath's hopes of returning to power later in the year were ended when Labour won the October 1974 election with an overall majority of three seats.
Loss of power weakened Heath's control over the party and Margaret Thatcher deposed him in the 1975 leadership election. The UK in the 1970s had seen sustained high inflation rates, which were above 20% at the time of the leadership election, subsequently falling to below 10%; unemployment had risen, and over the winter of 1978–79 there was a series of strikes known as the "Winter of Discontent". Thatcher led her party to victory at the 1979 general election with a manifesto which concentrated on the party's philosophy rather than presenting a "shopping list" of policies.
As Prime Minister, Thatcher focused on rejecting the mild liberalism of the post-war consensus that tolerated or encouraged nationalisation, strong labour unions, heavy regulation, high taxes, and a generous welfare state. She did not challenge the National Health Service, and supported the Cold War policies of the consensus, but otherwise tried to dismantle and delegitimise it. To replace the old post-war consensus, she built a right-wing political ideology that became known as Thatcherism, based on social and economic ideas from British and American intellectuals such as Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman. Thatcher believed that too much socially democratic-oriented government policy was leading to a long-term decline in the British economy. As a result, her government pursued a programme of economic liberalism, adopting a free-market approach to public services based on the sale of publicly owned industries and utilities, as well as a reduction in trade union power. She held the belief that the existing trend of unions was bringing economic progress to a standstill by enforcing "wildcat" strikes, keeping wages artificially high and forcing unprofitable industries to stay open.
One of Thatcher's largest and most successful policies assisted council house tenants in public housing to purchase their homes at favourable rates. The "Right to Buy" had emerged in the late-1940s but was too great a challenge to the Post-War Consensus to win Conservative endorsement. Thatcher from her earliest days in politics favoured the idea because it would lead to a "property-owning democracy", an important idea that had emerged in the 1920s. Some local Conservative-run councils enacted profitable local sales schemes during the late-1960s. By the 1970s, many working-class people had ample incomes to afford to buy homes, and eagerly adopted Thatcher's invitation to purchase their homes at a sizable discount. The new owners were more likely to vote Conservative, as Thatcher had hoped.
Thatcher led the Conservatives to two further electoral victories with landslide majorities in 1983 and 1987. She was greatly admired by her supporters for her leadership in the Falklands War of 1982—which coincided with a dramatic boost in her popularity—and for policies such as giving the right to council house tenants to buy their council house at a discount on market value. She was also deeply unpopular in certain sections of society due to high unemployment, which reached its highest level since the 1930s, peaking at over 3,000,000 people following her economic reforms, and her response to the miners' strike. Unemployment had doubled between 1979 and 1982, largely due to Thatcher's monetarist battle against inflation. At the time of the 1979 general election, inflation had been at 9% or under for the previous year, having decreased under Callaghan, then increased to over 20% in the first two years of the Thatcher ministry, but it had fallen again to 5.8% by the start of 1983 (it continued to be under 7% until 1990). The British economy benefitted in the first Thatcher ministry by tax income from North Sea oil coming on stream.
The period of unpopularity of the Conservatives in the early-1980s coincided with a crisis in the Labour Party which then formed the main opposition. The Social Democratic Party (SDP) was established in 1981 and consisted of more than twenty breakaway Labour MPs, who quickly formed the SDP-Liberal Alliance with the Liberal Party. By the turn of 1982, the SDP-Liberal Alliance was ahead of the Conservatives in the opinion polls, but victory in the Falklands War in June that year, along with the recovering British economy, saw the Conservatives returning quickly to the top of the opinion polls and winning the 1983 general election with a landslide majority, due to a split opposition vote.
Thatcher now faced, arguably, her most serious rival yet after the 1983 general election, when Michael Foot resigned as Leader of the Labour Party and was succeeded by Neil Kinnock. With a new leader at the helm, Labour were clearly determined to defeat the Conservatives at the next election and for virtually the entirety of Thatcher's second ministry it was looking a very serious possibility, as the lead in the opinion polls constantly saw a change in leadership from the Conservatives to Labour, with the Alliance occasionally scraping into first place.
By the time of the general election in June 1987, the economy was stronger, with lower inflation and falling unemployment and Thatcher secured her third successive electoral victory with a second, albeit reduced, landslide majority.
The introduction of the Community Charge (known by its opponents as the "poll tax") in 1989 is often cited as contributing to her political downfall. The summer of 1989 saw her fall behind Neil Kinnock's Labour in the opinion polls for the first time since 1986, and her party's fall in popularity continued into 1990. By the second half of that year, opinion polls were showing that Labour had a lead of up to 16 points over the Conservatives and they faced a tough 18 months ahead of them if they were to prevent Kinnock's ambition to become Prime Minister from becoming a reality. At the same time, the economy was sliding into another recession.
Internal party tensions led to a leadership challenge by the Conservative MP Michael Heseltine; and, after months of speculation about her future as Prime Minister, she resigned on 28 November 1990, making way for a new Conservative leader more likely to win the next general election in the interests of party unity.
John Major won the party leadership election on 27 November 1990, and his appointment led to an almost immediate boost in Conservative Party fortunes. A MORI poll six days before Mrs Thatcher's resignation had shown the Conservatives to be 11 points behind Labour, but within two months the Conservatives had returned to the top of the opinion polls with a narrow lead.
A general election had to be held within the next eighteen months and the UK economy was sliding into recession, but 1991 was a year of electoral uncertainty as the Conservatives and Labour regularly swapped places at the top of the opinion polls, and Major resisted Neil Kinnock's numerous calls for an immediate election.
The election was finally held on 9 April 1992 and the Conservatives won a fourth successive electoral victory, even though the economy was still in recession and most of the polls had predicted either a narrow Labour victory or a hung parliament. Major's vigorous campaigning, notably his claim that the UK would have higher prices and higher taxes under a Labour government, was seen to have been crucial in his election win (in which he became the first—and as of 2015, only—Prime Minister to attract 14,000,000 votes in a general election), as was a high-profile campaign by "The Sun" newspaper against Labour leader Neil Kinnock, who resigned in the aftermath of the election to be succeeded by John Smith. The Conservative Party also touched upon the issue of immigration, claiming that under Labour, immigration would rise hugely.
The UK economy was deep in recession by this stage and remained so until the end of the year. The pound sterling was forced out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism on 16 September 1992, a day thereafter referred to as "Black Wednesday".
Soon after, approximately one million householders faced repossession of their homes during a recession that saw a sharp rise in unemployment, taking it close to 3,000,000 people. The party subsequently lost much of its reputation for good financial stewardship although the end of the recession was declared in April 1993 bringing economic recovery and a fall in unemployment.
From 1994–1997, Major privatised British Rail, splitting it up into franchises to be run by the private sector. Its success is hotly debated, with a large increase in passenger numbers and investment in the network balanced by worries about the level of subsidy. Train fares cost more than under British Rail.
The party was plagued by internal division and infighting, mainly over the UK's role in the European Union. The party's Eurosceptic wing, represented by MPs such as John Redwood, opposed further EU integration, whilst the party's pro-European wing, represented by those such as Chancellor of the Exchequer Kenneth Clarke, was broadly supportive. The issue of the creation of a single European currency also inflamed tensions, and these would continue to dog the party until the early-2000s (decade).
Major also had to survive a leadership challenge in 1995 by the Secretary of State for Wales, the aforementioned John Redwood. Major survived, but Redwood received 89 votes from MPs, as well as the backing of the "Sun" newspaper, which described the choice as being between "Redwood or Deadwood". This further undermined Major's influence in the Conservative Party.
The Conservative government was also increasingly accused in the media of "sleaze". Their support reached its lowest ebb in late 1994, after the sudden death of Labour Party leader John Smith and the election of Tony Blair as his successor, when Labour had up to 60% of the vote in opinion polls and had a lead of some 30 points ahead of the Conservatives. The Labour lead was gradually narrowed over the next two years, as the Conservatives gained some credit for the strong economic recovery and fall in unemployment. But as the 1997 general election loomed, despite their high-profile New Labour, New Danger campaign, it was still looking certain that Labour would win.
An effective opposition campaign by the Labour Party culminated in a landslide defeat for the Conservatives in 1997 that was Labour's largest ever parliamentary victory, and the worst defeat for the Conservatives since the 1906 general election 91 years earlier. The 1997 general election left the Conservative Party as an England-only party, with all Scottish and Welsh seats having been lost, and not a single new seat having been gained anywhere.
John Major resigned as party leader after the Conservatives were heavily defeated in a landslide and was succeeded by William Hague. Though Hague was a strong orator, a Gallup poll for "The Daily Telegraph" found that two-thirds of voters regarded him as "a bit of a wally", for headlines such as his claim that he drank 14 pints of beer in a single day in his youth. He was also criticised for attending the Notting Hill Carnival and for wearing a baseball cap in public in what were seen as poor attempts to appeal to younger voters. Shortly before the 2001 general election, Hague was much maligned for a speech in which he predicted that a re-elected Labour government would turn the UK into a "foreign land". The BBC also reported that the Conservative peer John Lord Taylor criticised Hague for not removing the whip from John Townend, a Conservative MP, after the latter made a speech in which he said the British were becoming "a mongrel race", although Hague did reject Townend's views.
The 2001 general election resulted in a net gain of just one seat for the Conservative Party, just months after the fuel protests of September 2000 had seen the Conservatives briefly take a narrow lead over Labour in the opinion polls.
Having privately set himself a target of 209 seats, matching Labour's performance in 1983—a target which he missed by 43—William Hague resigned soon after.
Iain Duncan Smith (2001–2003) (often known as IDS or simply: "Duncan Smith") is a strong Eurosceptic, but the issue did not define Duncan Smith's leadership, though during his tenure, Europe ceased to be an issue of division in the party as it united behind calls for a referendum on the proposed European Union Constitution.
However, before he could lead the party into a general election, Duncan Smith lost the vote on a motion of no confidence by MPs who felt that the party would not be returned to government under his leadership. This was despite the Conservative support equalling that of Labour in the months leading up to his departure from the leadership.
Michael Howard then stood for the leadership unopposed on 6 November 2003.
Under Howard's leadership in the 2005 general election, the Conservative Party increased their total vote share by around 0.7% (up to 32.4%) and—more significantly—their number of parliamentary seats by 33 (up to 198 seats). This gain accompanied a large decline in the Labour vote, and the election reduced Labour's majority from 167 to 68 and its share of the vote to 35.2%. The campaign, based on the slogan "Are you thinking what we're thinking?", was designed by Australian pollster Lynton Crosby. The day following the election, on 6 May, Howard announced that he did not feel it was right to continue as leader after defeat in the general election, also saying that he would be too old to lead the party into another campaign and would therefore step down after allowing time for the party to amend its leadership election rules.
David Cameron won the 2005 leadership election. Cameron defeated his closest rival, David Davis, by a margin of more than two to one, taking 134,446 votes to 64,398. He then announced his intention to reform and realign the Conservatives, saying they needed to change the way they looked, felt, thought and behaved, advocating a more centre-right stance as opposed to their recent staunchly right-wing platform. Although Cameron's views are probably to the left of the party membership and he sought to make the Conservative brand more attractive to young, socially liberal voters, he has also expressed his admiration for Margaret Thatcher, describing himself as a "big fan of Thatcher's", though he questions whether that makes him a "Thatcherite". For most of 2006 and the first half of 2007, polls showed leads over Labour for the Conservatives.
Polls became more volatile in summer 2007 with the accession of Gordon Brown as Prime Minister, although polls gave the Conservatives a lead after October of that year and, by May 2008, with the UK's economy sliding into its first recession since 1992. The Conservatives gained control of the London mayoralty for the first time in May 2008 after Boris Johnson defeated the Labour incumbent, Ken Livingstone.
The Conservative lead in the opinion polls had been almost unbroken for nearly three years when Britain finally went to the polls on 6 May 2010, though since the turn of 2010 most polls had shown the Conservative lead as less than 10 points wide. The election resulted in a hung parliament with the Conservatives having the most seats (306) but being twenty seats short of an overall majority. Following the resignation of Gordon Brown as Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party five days afterwards, David Cameron was named as the country's new Prime Minister and the Conservatives entered government in a coalition with the Liberal Democrats—the first post-war coalition government.
In May 2014, the Conservatives were defeated in the European parliamentary elections coming in third place behind the UK Independence Party and Labour. UKIP ended with 24 MEPs, Labour 20, and the Conservatives 19. The result was described by UKIP leader Nigel Farage as "disastrous" for Cameron, and the leaders of the other main parties.
In September 2014, the Unionist side, championed by Labour as well as by the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats, won in the Scottish Independence referendum by 55% No to 45% Yes on the question "Should Scotland be an independent country". This can be seen as a victory for British Unionism, a core part of traditional Conservative ideology, and also for David Cameron as the incumbent Prime Minister.
At the 2015 general election, the Conservatives won a majority of seats in the House of Commons and formed a majority government under David Cameron. The party increased its national vote share, becoming the first incumbent party to do so since 1900. The result was unexpected and exceeded even the party leadership's expectations, as most polls had predicted a hung parliament. This was also the first general election since 1992 in which the Conservatives had won an overall majority, although the vote share of 36.9% was lower than the previous four Conservative majority governments under Thatcher and Major. In March 2017, the party was fined £70,000, the largest fine of this sort in British political history, after an Electoral Commission investigation found "significant failures" by the party to report its 2015 general election campaign spending.
On the morning of Friday 24 June 2016, Cameron announced his intention to resign as Prime Minister, after he failed to convince the British public to stay in the European Union, and subsequently the Conservative Party leadership election was announced with Theresa May, Michael Gove, Stephen Crabb, Liam Fox and Andrea Leadsom confirmed as the official contenders to be his successor with Boris Johnson ruling himself out of the process. After Crabb withdrew, Fox and then Gove were eliminated in successive ballots by Conservative MPs, leaving Leadsom and May as the final candidates to be put before the wider Conservative Party membership. Leadsom subsequently withdrew from the contest on 11 July.
On 11 July 2016, Theresa May became the leader of the Conservative Party with immediate effect following the withdrawal from the leadership election of her sole remaining opponent, Andrea Leadsom. Appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on 13 July 2016, May promised social reform and a more centrist political outlook for the Conservative Party and its government. In a speech after her appointment, May emphasised the term Unionist in the name of the party, reminding all of "the precious, precious bond between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland". May considers herself a one nation conservative.
May's early cabinet appointments were interpreted both as "centrist and conciliatory", an effort to reunite the party in the wake of the UK's vote to leave the European Union, and as "a shift to the right" according to "The Guardian".
May appointed former Mayor of London Boris Johnson as Foreign Secretary, former Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Amber Rudd as Home Secretary, and former Shadow Home Secretary David Davis to the newly created office of Brexit Secretary. Liam Fox and Philip Hammond, who had both previously served as Secretary of State for Defence (Fox from 2010 to 2011 and Hammond from 2011 to 2014), were appointed to the newly created office of International Trade Secretary and as Chancellor of the Exchequer respectively.
Replacing Michael Gove, Elizabeth Truss was made Justice Secretary, the "first female Lord Chancellor in the thousand-year history of the role".
Andrea Leadsom, who was energy minister and May's primary competitor for party leader, was made the new environment secretary. However, former Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers resigned from Cabinet after May offered her a different, non-Cabinet post that was, she said, "not one which I felt I could take on". Nearly half of the first May ministry were women.
In her first speech, May made a promise to combat the "burning injustice" in British society and create a union "between all of our citizens" and promising to be an advocate for the "ordinary working-class family" and not just for "privileged few" in the UK.
In April 2017, the Cabinet agreed to hold a general election on 8 June. During the resulting campaign, Theresa May asked the electorate to "strengthen my hand" in Brexit negotiations, promised "strong and stable leadership in the national interest" and warned of a "coalition of chaos" under Jeremy Corbyn.
Contrary to opinion polling at the time, the election resulted in a hung parliament, with the Conservative Party having 317 seats in the House of Commons, but without an overall majority. The Democratic Unionist Party suggested it would be able to provide a confidence and supply arrangement depending on negotiations. On 9 June 2017, May announced her intention to form a new minority government with support from the DUP, which was finalised on 26 June.
On 8 January 2018, May announced her first major cabinet reshuffle, keeping in place most ministers, but promoting others.
In May 2018, the Conservative Party was accused of failing to take action on Islamophobia that was allegedly happening in the party.
In February 2019, three Conservative MPs – Heidi Allen, Sarah Wollaston, and Anna Soubry – defected from the party to join The Independent Group, a pro-EU political association of MPs founded by seven former members of the Labour party. The MPs said the reasons for their departure were their opposition to the party's handling of Brexit, what they saw as the takeover of the Conservative party by 'right wing, ... hard-line anti-EU' MPs, and lack of concern from the Conservative party for the 'most vulnerable in society'.
May announced her resignation from the leadership of the Conservative party on 24 May 2019, intending to leave the role on 7 June. However, she remained Prime Minister until a successor was elected by the party.
Theresa May resigned as Prime Minister on 24 July 2019 after her successor, Boris Johnson, was elected on 23 July 2019. She remained as the Member of Parliament for the Parliamentary Constituency of Maidenhead and won re-election for a further term as backbencher in the December general election.
In July 2019, former Foreign Secretary and Mayor of London Boris Johnson defeated Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, with 66% of the vote in the final ballot of Conservative Party members, to become Leader of the Conservative Party. He became Prime Minister the next day.
Johnson lost his working majority in the House of Commons on 3 September 2019 when former Justice minister Phillip Lee crossed the floor during Johnson's speech to join the Liberal Democrats, later explaining that he believed the Conservative party had been "infected with the twin diseases of populism and English nationalism". The same day, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond announced that he would "defend his party" against "incomers and entryists", perceived by some as referring to Johnson's adviser Dominic Cummings. Later that same day, 21 Conservative MPs had the Conservative whip withdrawn after voting with the Opposition to grant the House of Commons control over its order paper, leading to Johnson becoming the first Prime Minister to lose his first Commons vote.
Subsequent votes in the Commons effected the passing of the Benn Act, which Prime Minister Johnson controversially dubbed the 'Surrender Act'. The Act required the Prime Minister to request a formal extension to Article 50 if a new withdrawal agreement had not been approved by Parliament by 19 October 2019. After having agreed a revised withdrawal agreement (WA) with the European Union on 17 October, the Government put a motion before the House of Commons in a rare Saturday sitting on 19 October. This motion requested approval for the revised WA, such that the Benn Act would have been satisfied and no extension to Article 50 would be legally required. An amendment to the motion was passed, withholding formal approval of the WA until all the necessary legislation had been passed by Parliament. The following week, the full Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB) was introduced. It passed a second reading, but the programme motion for the bill put forward by the Government was voted down. This meant that there was no guarantee that the legislation would be passed in time to allow the United Kingdom to legally withdraw from the European Union (EU) on 31 October. Johnson had made withdrawal from the EU by this date "with no ifs, buts or maybes" a key pledge during his campaign for the leadership of the Conservative Party.
Johnson then immediately halted the WAB, and then called for a general election to be held. He made clear his view that Parliament was “...refusing to deliver Brexit. It’s impossible to deliver legislation. It’s time, frankly, the opposition summoned up the nerve to submit themselves to the judgment of our collective boss, which is the UK”. After failing to gain the necessary support of two-thirds of all MPs to call an election under the provisions of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act, the Government indicated its intention to pass a short bill requiring only a simple majority of votes to hold such an election. The early parliamentary general election act was passed on 29 October 2019 and specified that a general election was to be held on 12 December 2019. This election resulted in Johnson's Conservatives winning of a majority of 80 seats in the House of Commons, a significant improvement on their 2017 result, and indeed the Party's largest majority since 1987, under Thatcher. The party won several constituencies especially in Northern England, but also in the Midlands and North Wales, that the party had never won before.
Since the election, a number of far-right activists claim to have joined the Conservatives, prompting concerns over entryism.
The Conservative Party believes that free markets and individual achievement are the primary factors behind economic prosperity.
A leading economic theory advocated by Conservatives is supply-side economics, this theory holds that reduced income tax rates increase GDP growth and thereby generate the same or more revenue for the government from the smaller tax on the extra growth. This belief is reflected, in part, by the advocacy of tax cuts. The party has recently focused on the social market economy in Britain, promoting a free market for competition with social balance to create fairness. This has included curbs on the banking sector, enterprise zones to revive regions in Britain and grand infrastructure projects such as high-speed rail.
One concrete economic policy of recent years has been opposition to the European single currency. Anticipating the growing Euroscepticism within his party, John Major negotiated a British opt-out from the single currency in the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, although several members of Major's cabinet, such as Kenneth Clarke, were personally supportive of EMU participation. Following Major's resignation after the 1997 defeat, each of the four subsequent Conservative leaders, including David Cameron, have positioned the party firmly against the adoption of the euro. This policy is broadly popular with the British electorate.
Following Labour's victory in the 1997 general election, the Conservative Party opposed Labour's decision to grant the Bank of England independent control of interest rates—on the grounds that it would be a prelude to the abolition of the pound sterling and acceptance of the European single currency, and also expressed concern over the removal of monetary policy from democratic control. However, Bank independence was popular amongst the financial community as it helped to keep inflation low. The Conservatives accepted Labour's policy in early 2000.
Since coming to power, the 50% top rate of income tax has been dropped to 45% in 2013. Furthermore, the Conservative Party has reduced government spending.
Since the election of David Cameron as party leader, the Conservative Party has distanced itself from association with social conservatism. Socially conservative policies such as tax incentives for married couples and the belief that benefits for those out of work should be reduced may have played a role in the party's electoral decline in the 1990s and early 2000s, and so the party has attempted to seek a new direction. The introduction of equal marriage rights for LGBT+ individuals in 2010 can be said to have represented a shift away from social conservatism, though the extent to which this policy truly represented a more 'liberal' Conservative party has been challenged.
Since 1997, debate has occurred within the party between 'modernisers' such as Alan Duncan, who believe that the Conservatives should modify their public stances on social issues, and 'traditionalists' such as Liam Fox and Owen Paterson, who believe that the party should remain faithful to its traditional conservative platform. William Hague and Michael Howard campaigned on traditionalist grounds in the 2001 and 2005 general elections respectively, and 2001 also saw the election of traditionalist Iain Duncan Smith as party leader. In the current parliament, modernising forces are represented by MPs such as Neil O'Brien, who has argued that the party needs to renew its policies and image, and is said to be inspired by Macron's centrist politics. Ruth Davidson is also seen as a reforming figure, as is the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, Kemi Badenoch. Many of the original 'traditionalists' remain influential, though Ian Duncan Smith's influence in terms of Commons contributions has waned. Many 'traditionalist' backbenchers such as Christopher Chope, Peter Bone and Jacob Rees-Mogg command significant media attention for their use of fillibustering and frequent interjections, and so remain influential forces in the Commons, though they cannot be taken to represent all 'traditionalist' Conservatives.
The party has strongly criticised Labour's "state multiculturalism". Shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve said in 2008 that state multiculturalism policies had created a "terrible" legacy of "cultural despair" and dislocation, which has encouraged support for "extremists" on both sides of the debate. David Cameron responded to Grieve's comments by agreeing that policies of "state multiculturalism" that treat social groups as distinct, for example policies that "treat British Muslims as Muslims, rather than as British citizens", are wrong. However, he expressed support for the premise of multiculturalism on the whole, arguing that it was "absolutely right" to encourage society to integrate more "to build a strong British identity for the future".
Official statistics showed that EU and non-EU mass immigration, together with asylum seeker applications, all increased substantially during Cameron's term in office. However, this was not solely as a result of intentional government policy – during this period, there were significant refugee flows into the UK and an increased level of asylum applications due to conflict and persecution in a number of other states. Some political and media discourses at the time suggested that this increase in immigration and reception of refugees and asylum seekers caused significant strain on other areas of social policy through overburdening the NHS and the welfare state – these discourses were influential, but have not been empirically or decisively proven to be true.
For much of the 20th century, the Conservative Party took a broadly Atlanticist stance in relations with the United States, favouring close ties with the United States and similarly aligned nations such as Canada, Australia and Japan. The Conservatives have generally favoured a diverse range of international alliances, ranging from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to the Commonwealth of Nations.
Close US-British relations have been an element of Conservative foreign policy since World War II. Winston Churchill during his 1951–1955 post-war premiership built up a strong relationship with the Eisenhower Administration in the United States. Harold Macmillan demonstrated a similarly close relationship with the Democratic administration of John F. Kennedy. Though the US–British relationship in foreign affairs has often been termed a 'Special Relationship', a term coined by Winston Churchill, this has often been observed most clearly where leaders in each country are of a similar political stripe. The former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher built a close relationship with the American President Ronald Reagan in his opposition to the former Soviet Union, but John Major was less successful in his personal contacts with George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Out of power and perceived as largely irrelevant by American politicians, Conservative leaders Hague, Duncan-Smith, and Howard each struggled to forge personal relationships with presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. However, the Republican 2008 presidential candidate, John McCain, spoke at the 2006 Conservative Party Conference.
The Conservatives have proposed a Pan-African Free Trade Area, which it says could help entrepreneurial dynamism of African people. The Conservatives pledged to increase aid spending to 0.7% of national income by 2013. They met this pledge in 2014, when spending on aid reached 0.72% of GDP and the commitment was enshrined in UK law in 2015.
David Cameron had sought to distance himself from former US President Bush and his neoconservative foreign policy, calling for a "rebalancing" of US-UK ties and met Barack Obama during his 2008 European tour. Despite traditional links between the centre-right UK Conservatives and US Republicans, and between centre-left Labour and the Democrats, London Mayor Boris Johnson, a Conservative, endorsed Barack Obama in the 2008 election.
Beyond relations with the United States, the Commonwealth and the EU, the Conservative Party has generally supported a pro free-trade foreign policy within the mainstream of international affairs. The degree to which Conservative Governments have supported interventionist or non-interventionist presidents in the US has often varied with the personal relations between the US president and the British prime minister.
The Conservatives maintain a continuous stance of staying neutral on matters relating to Kashmir.
Since the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, the Conservative Party has supported the coalition military action in Afghanistan. The Conservative Party believes that success in Afghanistan is defined in terms of the Afghans achieving the capability to maintain their own internal and external security. They have repeatedly criticised the former Labour Government for failing to equip British Forces adequately in the earlier days on the campaign—especially highlighting the shortage of helicopters for British Forces resulting from Gordon Brown's £1.4bn cut to the helicopter budget in 2004.
The Conservative Party believes that in the 21st century defence and security are interlinked. It has pledged to break away from holding a traditional Strategic Defence Review and have committed to carrying out a more comprehensive Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) immediately upon coming into office. This review will include both defence and homeland security related matters. The Labour Government last conducted a review in 1998. To prevent a long gap in the future it also pledged to hold regular defence reviews every 4–5 years, and if necessary will put this requirement into legislation. Party officials claim that the SDSR will be a major improvement, and will ensure that Britain maintains generic and flexible capability to adapt to any changing threats. It will be a cross-departmental review that will begin with foreign policy priorities and will bring together all the levers of domestic national security policy with overseas interests and defence priorities.
As well as an SDSR, the Conservative Party pledged in 2010 to undertake a fundamental and far-reaching review of the procurement process and how defence equipment is provided in Britain. It pledged to reform the procurement process, compile a Green Paper on Sovereignty Capability, and publish another Defence Industrial Strategy following on from the Defence Industrial Strategy in 2005. The Conservative Party has said that there will be four aims for British defence procurement: to provide the best possible equipment at the best possible price; to streamline the procurement process to ensure the speedy delivery of equipment to the front line; to support our industry jobs at home by increasing defence exports; to provide defence procurement that underpins strategic relationships abroad and; to provide predictability to the defence industry.
The Conservative Party also pledged to increase Britain's share of the global defence market as Government policy.
The Conservative Party aims to build enhanced bilateral defence relations with key European partners and believes that it is in Britain's national interest to cooperate fully with all its European neighbours. It has pledged to ensure that any EU military capability must supplement and not supplant British national defence and NATO, and that it is not in the British interest to hand over security to any supranational body.
The Conservatives see it as a priority to encourage all members of the European Union to do more in terms of a commitment to European security at home and abroad.
Regarding the defence role of the European Union, the Conservatives pledged to re-examine some of Britain's EU Defence commitments to determine their practicality and utility; specifically, to reassess UK participation provisions like Permanent Structured Cooperation, the European Defence Agency and EU Battlegroups to determine if there is any value in Britain's participation.
The Conservative Party upholds the view that NATO should remain the most important security alliance for the United Kingdom. It believes that NATO, which has been the cornerstone of British security for the past 60 years, should continue to have primacy on all issues relating to Europe's defence, and pledged in 2010 to make NATO reform a key strategic priority.
It has also called on the so-called fighting/funding gap to be changed and have called on the creation of a fairer funding mechanism for NATO's expeditionary operations. As well as this, the Conservatives believe that there is scope for expanding NATO's Article V to include new 21st Century threats such as energy and cybersecurity.
The 2010 manifesto said the Conservatives will maintain Britain's continuous at sea, independent, submarine based strategic nuclear deterrent based on the Trident missile system.
In 1945, the Conservatives first declared support for universal healthcare. Since entering office in 2010, they have introduced the Health and Social Care Act, constituting the biggest reformation that the NHS has ever undertaken. However, there has been much criticism and protest about the 2010 government's actions on the NHS, focussing on budget cuts and privatisation of services. After a 2013 union protest said by police to have been one of the largest protests seen in Manchester, the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) said that austerity was having a devastating effect, with 21,000 NHS jobs lost over the previous three months alone, and that "The NHS is one of Britain's finest achievements and we will not allow ministers to destroy, through cuts and privatisation, what has taken generations to build." The Department of Health responded that there was "absolutely no government policy to privatise NHS services".
Views on drug legality and policing vary greatly within the Conservative Party. Some Conservative politicians such as Alan Duncan and Crispin Blunt take the libertarian approach that individual freedom and economic freedom of industry and trade should be respected. Other Conservative politicians, despite being economically liberal, are in favour of full prohibition of the ownership and trade of many drugs. Other Conservatives are in the middle ground, favouring stances such as looser regulation and decriminalisation of some drugs. Legalisation of cannabis for medical uses is favoured by some Conservative politicians, including Boris Johnson.
In education, the Conservatives have pledged to review the National Curriculum, and introduce the English Baccalaureate. The restoration of discipline was also highlighted, as they want it to be easier for pupils to be searched for contraband items, the granting of anonymity to teachers accused by pupils, and the banning of expelled pupils being returned to schools via appeal panels.
In Higher education, the Conservatives have increased tuition fees to £9,250 per year, however have ensured that this will not be paid by anyone until they are earning over £25,000. The Scottish Conservatives also support the re-introduction of tuition fees in Scotland. In 2016 the Conservative government extended student loan access in England to postgraduate students to help improve access to education.
Within the EU, the UK is one of the largest recipients of research funding in the European Union, receiving £7 billion between 2007 and 2015, which is invested in universities and research-intensive businesses. Following the vote to leave the EU, Prime Minister Theresa May guaranteed that the Conservative government would protect funding for existing research and development projects in the UK.
As prime minister, David Cameron wanted to 'support family life in Britain' and put families at the centre of domestic social policymaking. He stated in 2014 that there was 'no better place to start' in the Conservative mission of 'building society from the bottom up' than the family, which was responsible for individual welfare and well-being long before the welfare state came into play. He also argued that 'family and politics are inextricably linked'. Both Cameron and Theresa May have aimed at helping families achieve a work-home balance and have previously proposed to offer all parents 12 months parental leave, to be shared by parents as they choose. This policy is now in place, offering 50 weeks total parental leave, of which 37 weeks are paid leave, which can be shared between both parents.
Other policies have included doubling the free hours of childcare for working parents of three and four-year-olds from 15 hours to 30 hours a week during term-time, although parents can reduce the number of hours per week to 22 and spread across 52 weeks of the year. However, numerous childcare providers have argued that this policy is unworkable, as it means that they do not receive enough compensation from the government to make up for the lost childcare fees, and so their businesses are no longer financially viable. The government also introduced a policy to fund 15 hours a week of free education and childcare for 2-year olds in England if parents are receiving certain state benefits or the child has a SEN statement or diagnosis, worth £2,500 a year per child.
One of the Conservatives' key policy goals in 2010 was to reduce the number of people in the UK claiming state benefits, and increase the number of people in the workforce. Between 2010 and 2014, all claimants of Incapacity Benefit were moved onto a new benefit scheme, Employment and Support Allowance, which was then subsumed into the Universal Credit system alongside other welfare benefits in 2018. The Universal Credit system has come under immense scrutiny since its introduction. Shortly after her appointment to the Department for Work and Pensions, Secretary of State Amber Rudd acknowledged there were 'real problems' with the Universal Credit system, especially the wait times for initial payments and the housing payments aspect of the combined benefits. Rudd pledged specifically to review and address the uneven impact of Universal Credit implementation on economically disadvantaged women, which had been the subject of numerous reports by the Radio 4 You and Yours programme and others.
Until 1999, Conservatives opposed the creation of a national minimum wage, as they believed it would cost jobs, and businesses would be reluctant to start business in the UK from fear of high labour costs. However the party have since pledged support and in the July 2015 budget, Chancellor George Osborne announced a National Living Wage of £9/hour, to be introduced by 2020, for those aged 25 and over. The National Minimum Wage in 2012 was £6.19 for over-21 year olds, so the proposed rises in National Living Wage by 2020 will represent a significantly higher pay for many. However, the National Living Wage varies significantly by age, and there is evidence that up to 200,000 eligible individuals are not actually receiving the pay that they should be under the National Living Wage scheme. The party support, and have implemented, the restoration of the link between pensions and earnings, and seek to raise retirement age from 65 to 67 by 2028.
David Cameron brought several 'green' issues to the forefront of his 2010 campaign. These included proposals designed to impose a tax on workplace car parking spaces, a halt to airport growth, a tax on cars with exceptionally poor petrol mileage, and restrictions on car advertising. Many of these policies were implemented in the Coalition—including the 'Green Deal'.
In 2010, the Conservatives campaigned with the conviction to cut the perceived bureaucracy of the modern police force and pledged greater legal protection to people convicted of defending themselves against intruders. They also supported the creation of a UK Bill of Rights to replace the Human Rights Act 1998, but this was vetoed by their coalition partners the Liberal Democrats. Some Conservatives, particularly within the socially conservative Cornerstone Group, support the re-introduction of the death penalty.
No subject has proved more divisive in the Conservative Party in recent history than the role of the United Kingdom within the European Union. Though the principal architect of the UK's entry into the European Communities (which became the European Union) was Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath, and both Winston Churchill and Harold Macmillan favoured some form of European union, the bulk of contemporary Conservative opinion is opposed to closer economic and particularly political union with the EU. This is a noticeable shift in British politics, as in the 1960s and 1970s the Conservatives were more pro-Europe than the Labour Party: for example, in the 1971 House of Commons vote on whether the UK should join the European Economic Community, only 39 of the then 330 Conservative MPs were opposed to membership. Divisions on Europe came to the fore under the premiership of Margaret Thatcher (1979–1990) and were cited by several ministers resigning, including Geoffrey Howe, the Deputy Prime Minister, whose resignation triggered the challenge that ended Thatcher's leadership. Under Thatcher's successor, John Major (1990–1997), the slow process of integration within the EU forced party tensions to the surface. A core of Eurosceptic MPs under Major used the small Conservative majority in Parliament to oppose Government policy on the Maastricht Treaty. By doing so they undermined Major's ability to govern.
The Conservative Party has members with varying opinions of the EU, with pro-European Conservatives joining the affiliate Conservative Group for Europe, while some Eurosceptics left the party to join the United Kingdom Independence Party. Whilst the vast majority of Conservatives in recent decades have been Eurosceptics, views among this group regarding the UK's relationship with the EU have been polarised between moderate, soft Eurosceptics who support continued British membership but oppose further harmonisation of regulations affecting business and accept participation in a multi-speed Europe, and a more radical, economically libertarian faction who oppose policy initiatives from Brussels, support the rolling back of integration measures from the Maastricht Treaty onwards, and have become increasingly supportive of a complete withdrawal. Under current EU practices, the degree to which a Conservative Government could implement policy change regarding the EU would depend directly on the willingness of other EU member states to agree to such policies.
In 2009 the Conservative Party actively campaigned against the Lisbon Treaty, which it believes would give away too much sovereignty to Brussels. Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague stated that, should the treaty be in force by the time of an incoming Conservative government, he would "not let matters rest there". However, on 14 June 2009 the shadow Business Secretary, Kenneth Clarke, said in an interview to the BBC that the Conservative Party would not reopen negotiations on the Lisbon Treaty if the Irish backed it in a new referendum, which they did on 2 October 2009.
The Conservative Party pledged an in-out referendum on membership of the European Union after a renegotiation. The referendum took place on 23 June 2016, and resulted in a vote to leave the European Union – a policy commonly referred to as Brexit. Prime Minister Theresa May signed the notice under Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty which officially began Britain's withdrawal from the EU, on 28 March 2017, and at 12:20 on 29 March 2017, the UK ambassador Tim Barrow delivered the notice to EU president Donald Tusk, officially triggering what was intended to be a two-year process of leaving the European Union.
Following the election of Boris Johnson as leader, the Conservative Party became a strong supporter of the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union. On 3 September 2019 the Conservative group in the House of Commons withdrew its whip from twenty-one MPs who voted in favour of the so-called Benn-Burton Act, preventing the UK to leave the EU with no deal.
In the 2019 general election the Conservative Party adopted a clear pro-Brexit platform. Following the election, the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act was passed; the United Kingdom finally withdrew from the European Union on 31 January 2020.
The Conservatives staunchly support the maintenance of the United Kingdom, and oppose the independence of any of the countries of the United Kingdom: England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland from it. They have had a mixed history on support for Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish devolution.
In 1968, Edward Heath issued his 'Perth declaration', in support of a Scottish assembly, in the wake of growing nationalism. However, the cause went unanswered during his turbulent premiership, and under Margaret Thatcher and John Major's leadership, the Conservatives vehemently opposed devolution, and campaigned against it in the 1997 devolution referendum. Following the Scottish Parliament's establishment in 1999, they have vowed to support its continued existence, and along with Labour and the Liberal Democrats, they supported the Scotland Bill (2011), granting further devolution of power. They campaigned alongside Labour and the Liberal Democrats against full Scottish Independence in the 2014 Scottish Independence referendum.
In Wales, the Conservatives campaigned against devolution in the 1997 referendum, however likewise as with Scotland, they have vowed to maintain the Senedd's continued existence, and in 2011 supported the further devolution of power.
In Northern Ireland, the Conservatives suspended the parliament in 1973 in the wake of the growing Troubles, and made unsuccessful attempts to re-establish it in the same year, and in 1982. They supported the Belfast Agreement negotiated by the Blair government in 1998, and in 2009, negotiated an electoral pact with the declining Ulster Unionist Party, whom it had previously been allied to before 1973 and informally during the John Major's tenure as Prime Minister. The pact was abandoned for the 2015 general election, where the Northern Ireland Conservatives ran their own candidates.
On 4 October 2016, the Democratic Unionist Party's leader Arlene Foster and MPs held a champagne reception at the Conservative Party conference, marking what some have described as an "informal coalition" or an "understanding" between the two parties to account for the Conservatives' narrow majority in the House of Commons. Since then, the DUP has generally supported Conservative legislation.
The party opposed Labour's attempts to devolve power to the northern regions of England in 2004. It declared support for a commission into the West Lothian question, as to whether or not only English MPs should be able to vote on issues solely affecting English matters following the Scottish Independence Referendum.
Traditionally the Conservative Party has defended Britain's unwritten constitution and system of government. The party opposed many of Tony Blair's reforms, such as the removal of the hereditary peers, the incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights into British law, and the 2009 creation of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, a function formerly carried out by the House of Lords.
Until 2001 most members of the party were against an elected House of Lords; however opinion was later split, shown in the vote on the House of Lords Reform Bill 2012, when 80 backbenchers voted for an 80% elected upper chamber, and 110 did not.
There was also a split on whether to introduce a British Bill of Rights that would replace the Human Rights Act 1998; David Cameron expressed support, but Ken Clarke described it as "xenophobic and legal nonsense".
The Conservative Party comprises the voluntary party, parliamentary party (sometimes called the political party) and the professional party.
Members of the public join the party by becoming part of a local constituency Conservative Association. The country is also divided into regions, with each region containing a number of areas, both having a similar structure to constituency associations. The National Conservative Convention sets the voluntary party's direction. It is composed of all association chairs, officers from areas and regions, and 42 representatives and the Conservative Women's Organisation. The Convention meets twice a year. Its Annual General Meeting is usually held at Spring Forum, with another meeting usually held at the Conservative Party Conference. In the organisation of the Conservative Party, constituency associations dominate selection of local candidates, and some associations have organised open parliamentary primaries.
The 1922 Committee consists of backbench MPs, meeting weekly while parliament is sitting. Frontbench MPs have an open invitation to attend. The 1922 Committee plays a crucial role in the selection of party leaders. All Conservative MPs are members of the 1922 Committee by default. There are 20 executive members of the Committee, agreed by consensus among backbench MPs.
The Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) is effectively head of the Professional Party and leads financing, organisation of elections and drafting of policy.
The Conservative Party Board is the party's ultimate decision making body, responsible for all operational matters (including fundraising, membership and candidates) and is made up of representatives from each (voluntary, political and professional) section of the Party. The Party Board meets about once a month and works closely with CCHQ, elected representatives and the voluntary membership mainly through a number of management sub-committees (such as membership, candidates and conferences).
Membership peaked in the mid-1950s at approximately 3 million, before declining steadily through the second half of the 20th century. Despite an initial boost shortly after David Cameron's election as leader in December 2005, membership resumed its decline in 2006 to a lower level than when he was elected. In 2010, the Conservative Party had about 177,000 members according to activist Tim Montgomerie, and in 2013 membership was estimated by the party itself at 134,000. The membership fee for the Conservative Party is £25, or £5 if the member is under the age of 23. From April 2013 until the 2015 general election people could join Team2015 without being Party members, and take part in political campaigning for the party. At the 2018 Conservative Spring Forum, Party Chairman Brandon Lewis announced that the party's membership stood at 124,000.
In 2013 the Conservative Party lost an estimated 35-40% of its membership due to the Same Sex Marriage Bill.
Associations select their constituency's candidates. Some associations have organised open parliamentary primaries. A constituency Association must choose a candidate using the rules approved by, and (in England, Wales and Northern Ireland) from a list established by, the Committee on Candidates of the Board of the Conservative Party. Prospective candidates apply to the Conservative Central Office to be included on the approved list of candidates, some candidates will be given the option of applying for any seat they choose, while others may be restricted to certain constituencies. A Conservative MP can only be deselected at a special general meeting of the local Conservative association, which can only be organised if backed by a petition of more than fifty members.
From 1998–2015, the Conservative Party maintained a youth wing for members under 30 called Conservative Future, with branches at both universities and at parliamentary constituency level. By 2006, the group had become the largest political organisation on British university campuses. The organisation was closed in 2015 after allegations that bullying by Mark Clarke had caused the suicide of Elliot Johnson, a 21-year-old party activist.
The major annual party events are the Spring Forum and the Conservative Party Conference, which takes place in Autumn in alternately Manchester or Birmingham. This is when the National Conservative Convention holds meetings.
In the first decade of the 21st century, half the party's funding came from a cluster of just fifty "donor groups", and a third of it from only fifteen. In the year after the 2010 general election, half the Tories' funding came from the financial sector.
For 2013, the Conservative Party had an income of £25.4 million, of which £749,000 came from membership subscriptions.
In 2015, according to accounts filed with the Electoral Commission, the party had an income of about £41.8 million and expenditures of about £41 million.
Construction businesses, including the Wates Group and JCB, have also been significant donors to the party, contributing £430,000 and £8.1m respectively between 2007 and 2017.
The Conservative Party is affiliated to—and plays a leading part in—a number of international organisations. As a global level, the Conservatives are a member of the International Democrat Union, which unites right-of-centre parties, including the Conservative Party of Canada, the U.S. Republican Party, the Liberal Party of Australia, the Indian Bharatiya Janata Party, and the South Korean United Future Party.
At a European level, the Conservatives are members of the European Conservatives and Reformists Party (ECR), which unites centre-right parties in opposition to a federal European Union, through which the Conservatives have ties to the Ulster Unionist Party and the governing parties of Israel and Turkey, Likud and the Justice and Development Party respectively. In the European Parliament, the Conservative Party's MEPs sit in the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, which is affiliated to the ACRE. Party leader David Cameron pushed the foundation of the ECR, which was launched in 2009, along with the Czech Civic Democratic Party and the Polish Law and Justice, before which the Conservative Party's MEPs sat in the European Democrats, which had become a subgroup of the European People's Party in the 1990s. Since the 2014 European election, the ECR group has been the third-largest group, with the largest members being the Conservatives (nineteen MEPs), Law and Justice (eighteen MEPs), the Liberal Conservative Reformers (five MEPs), and the Danish People's Party and New Flemish Alliance (four MEPs each).
As of June 2009, Cameron required a further four partners apart from the Polish and Czech supports to qualify for official fraction status in the parliament; the rules state that a caucus needs at least 25 MEPs from at least seven of the 27 EU member states. In forming the caucus, Cameron is reportedly breaking with two decades of co-operation by the UK's Conservative Party with the mainstream European Christian Democrats and conservatives in the European parliament, the European People's Party (EPP) on the grounds that it is dominated by European federalists and supporters of the Lisbon treaty, which is opposed by the Tories. EPP leader Wilfried Martens, former prime minister of Belgium, stated "Cameron's campaign has been to take his party back to the centre in every policy area with one major exception: Europe. […] I can't understand his tactics. Merkel and Sarkozy will never accept his Euroscepticism."
When Sir Christopher Lawson was appointed as a marketing director at Conservative Central Office in 1981, he was surprised find to that, apart from a few diverse symbols, there was no logo to represent the party. He developed a design based the Olympic flame in the colours of the Union Jack, which was intended to represent leadership, striving to win, dedication, and a sense of community. Despite opposition from some traditionalists in the party, the emblem was adopted for the 1983 general election. In 1989, the party's director of communications, Brendan Bruce, decided to conduct some market research into the public reaction to the logo. The results were that recognition of the symbol was low and that people found it old fashioned and uninspiring. It was decided to redesign the existing logo, rather than adopt an entirely new one which might be interpreted as signalling a change of the party's ethos. Using a design company headed by Michael Peters, an image of a hand carrying a torch was developed, which referenced the Statue of Liberty.
In 2006, there was a rebranding exercise to emphasise the Conservatives' commitment to environmentalism; a project costing £40,000 resulted in a sketched silhouette of an oak tree, a national symbol, which was said to represent "strength, endurance, renewal and growth". However, there was criticism from within the party; former chairman Norman Tebbit remarked on national radio that the new green logo resembled "a bunch of broccoli". It had been intended to unveil the emblem at the party conference, but a leak to the press resulted in it being launched a week earlier. A change from green to the traditional Conservative blue colour appeared in 2007, followed by a version with the Union Jack superimposed in 2010. An alternative version featuring the colours of the Rainbow flag was unveiled for an LGBT event at the 2009 conference in Manchester.
The Conservative Party has a variety of internal factions or ideologies, including one-nation conservatism, liberal conservatism, social conservatism, Thatcherism, traditional conservatism, neoconservatism, Euroscepticism, pro-Europeanism, Christian democracy, localism and green conservatism.
This socially conservative right-wing grouping is currently associated with the Cornerstone Group (or Faith, Family, Flag), and is the oldest tradition within the Conservative Party, closely associated with High Toryism. The name stems from its support for three British social institutions (though the Church is an English institution): the Church of England, the unitary British state and the family. To this end, it emphasises the country's Anglican heritage, oppose any transfer of power away from the United Kingdom—either downwards to the nations and regions or upwards to the European Union—and seek to place greater emphasis on traditional family structures to repair what it sees as a broken society in the UK. It is a strong advocate of marriage and believes the Conservative Party should back the institution with tax breaks and have opposed the alleged assaults on both traditional family structures and fatherhood.
Most oppose high levels of immigration and support the lowering of the current 24‑week abortion limit. Some members in the past have expressed support for capital punishment. Prominent MPs from this wing of the party include Andrew Rosindell, Nadine Dorries, Edward Leigh and Jacob Rees-Mogg—the latter two being prominent Roman Catholics, notable in a faction marked out by its support for the established Church of England. The conservative English philosopher Roger Scruton is a representative of the intellectual wing of the traditionalist group: his writings rarely touch on economics and instead focus on conservative perspectives concerning political, social, cultural and moral issues.
One-nation conservatism was the party's dominant ideology in the 20th century until the rise of Thatcherism in the 1970s. It has included in its ranks Conservative Prime Ministers such as Stanley Baldwin, Harold Macmillan and Edward Heath. One Nation Conservatives in the contemporary party include Malcolm Rifkind and Damian Green. The name itself comes from a famous phrase of Disraeli. Ideologically, One Nation Conservatism identifies itself with a broad liberal conservative stance. They are often associated with the Tory Reform Group and the Bow Group.
Adherents of One-Nation Conservatism believe in social cohesion and support social institutions that maintain harmony between different interest groups, classes, and—more recently—different races or religions. These institutions have typically included the welfare state, the BBC, and local government. One Nation Conservatives often invoke Edmund Burke and his emphasis on civil society ("little platoons") as the foundations of society, as well as his opposition to radical politics of all types. The Red Tory theory of Phillip Blond is a strand of the One Nation school of thought. Prominent Red Tories include former Cabinet Ministers Iain Duncan Smith and Eric Pickles and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State Jesse Norman. There is a difference of opinion among supporters regarding the European Union. Some support it perhaps stemming from an extension of the cohesion principle to the international level, though others are strongly against the EU (such as Peter Tapsell).
The second main grouping in the Conservative Party is the "free-market wing" of economic liberals who achieved dominance after the election of Margaret Thatcher as party leader in 1975. Their goal was to reduce the role of the government in the economy and to this end, they supported cuts in direct taxation, the privatisation of nationalised industries and a reduction in the size and scope of the welfare state. Supporters of the "free-market wing" have been labelled as "Thatcherites". The group has disparate views of social policy: Thatcher herself was socially conservative and a practising Anglican but the free-market wing in the Conservative Party harbour a range of social opinions from the civil libertarian views of Michael Portillo, Daniel Hannan, and David Davis to the traditional conservatism of former party leaders William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith. The Thatcherite wing is also associated with the concept of a "classless society".
Whilst a number of party members are pro-European, some free-marketeers are Eurosceptic, perceiving most EU regulations as interference in the free market and/or a threat to British sovereignty. EU centralisation also conflicts with the localist ideals that have grown in prominence within the party in recent years. Rare Thatcherite Europhiles included Leon Brittan. Many take inspiration from Thatcher's Bruges speech in 1988, in which she declared that "we have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain only to see them reimposed at a European level". A number of free-market Conservatives have signed the Better Off Out pledge to leave the EU. Thatcherites and economic liberals in the party tend to support Atlanticism, something exhibited between Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.
Thatcher herself claimed philosophical inspiration from the works of Burke and Friedrich Hayek for her defence of liberal economics. Groups associated with this tradition include the No Turning Back Group and Conservative Way Forward, whilst Enoch Powell and Keith Joseph are usually cited as early influences in the movement. Some free-market supporters and Christian democrats within the party tend to advocate the social market economy, which supports free markets alongside social and environmental responsibility, as well a welfare state. Keith Joseph was the first to introduce the model idea into British politics, writing the publication: "Why Britain needs a Social Market Economy".
Sometimes two groupings have united to oppose the third. Both Thatcherite and Traditionalist Conservatives rebelled over Europe (and in particular Maastricht) during John Major's premiership; and Traditionalist and One Nation MPs united to inflict Margaret Thatcher's only major defeat in Parliament, over Sunday trading.
Not all Conservative MPs can be easily placed within one of the above groupings. For example, John Major was the ostensibly "Thatcherite" candidate during the 1990 leadership election, but he consistently promoted One-Nation Conservatives to the higher reaches of his cabinet during his time as Prime Minister. These included Kenneth Clarke as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Michael Heseltine as Deputy Prime Minister.
National campaigning within the Conservative Party is fundamentally managed by the CCHQ campaigning team, which is part of its central office
However, it also delegates local responsibility to Conservative associations in the area, usually to a team of Conservative activists and volunteers in that area, but campaigns are still deployed from and thus managed by CCHQ
National campaigning sometimes occurs in-house by volunteers and staff at CCHQ in Westminster
CCHQ maintains responsibility overall for campaigning in the Conservative Party, and targeting voters
The "Voter Communications Department" is line-managed by the Conservative Director of Communications who upholds overall responsibility, though she has many staff supporting her, and the whole of CCHQ at election time, her department being one of the most predominant at this time, including Project Managers, Executive Assistants, Politicians, and Volunteers. The Conservative Party also has regional call centres and VoteSource do-it-from-home accounts.
This chart shows the electoral performance of the Conservative Party in each general election since 1835.
For results of the Tories, the party's predecessor, see here.
"Prior to 1973, the Ulster Unionist Party acted as the de-facto Northern Ireland branch of the Conservative Party. The UUP's results may be seen here." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32113 |
Upper Peninsula of Michigan
The Upper Peninsula of Michigan – also known as Upper Michigan or colloquially the U.P. – is the northern and more elevated of the two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan, the other being the Lower Peninsula. It is bounded primarily by Lake Superior to the north, separated from the Canadian province of Ontario at the east end by the St. Marys River, and flanked by Lake Huron and Lake Michigan along much of its south. The Straits of Mackinac separate it from the Lower Peninsula of Michigan to the south. Although the peninsula extends as a geographic feature into the state of Wisconsin, the state boundary follows the Montreal and Menominee rivers and a line connecting them.
First inhabited by Algonquian-speaking native American tribes, the area was explored by French colonists, then occupied by British forces, before being ceded to the newly established United States in the late 18th century. After being assigned to various territorial jurisdictions, it was granted to the newly formed state of Michigan as part of the settlement of a dispute with Ohio over the city of Toledo. The region's exploitable timber resources and the discovery of iron and copper deposits in the 19th century brought immigrants, especially French Canadian, Finnish, Swedish, Cornish, and Italian. (The peninsula includes the only counties in the United States where a plurality of residents claim Finnish ancestry.) With the exhaustion of readily available minerals, the area's economy declined in the 20th century, largely becoming dependent on logging and tourism.
The Upper Peninsula contains 29% of the land area of Michigan but just 3% of its total population. Residents are called "Yoopers" (derived from "UP-ers") and have a strong regional identity. Although proposals have been made to establish the UP as a separate state, they have failed to gain traction. Its largest cities are Marquette, Sault Ste. Marie, Escanaba, Menominee, Houghton, and Iron Mountain. Because of the surrounding waters and northern latitude, it receives more snow than most of the eastern U.S. The heavily forested land, soil types, short growing season and logistical factors (e.g. long distance to market, lack of infrastructure, etc.) make the Upper Peninsula poorly suited for agriculture. The region is home to a variety of wildlife, including moose, wolves, coyotes, elk, deer, foxes, bears, bobcats, eagles, hawks, owls, and smaller animals.
The first known inhabitants of the Upper Peninsula were tribes speaking Algonquian languages. They arrived roughly around A.D. 800 and subsisted chiefly from fishing. Early tribes included the Menominee, Nocquet, and the Mishinimaki. Étienne Brûlé of France was probably the first European to visit the peninsula, crossing the St. Marys River around 1620 in search of a route to the Far East.
French colonists laid claim to the land in the 17th century, establishing missions and fur trading posts such as Sault Ste. Marie and St. Ignace. Following the end of the French and Indian War (part of the Seven Years' War) in 1763, the territory was ceded to Great Britain. Sault Ste Marie is the oldest European settlement in Michigan and the site of Native American settlements for centuries.
American Indian tribes formerly allied with the French were dissatisfied with the British occupation, which brought new territorial policies. Whereas the French cultivated alliances among the Indians, the British postwar approach was to treat the tribes as conquered peoples. In 1763, tribes united in Pontiac's Rebellion to try to drive the British from the area. American Indians captured Fort Michilimackinac, at present-day Mackinaw City, then the principal fort of the British in the Michilimackinac region, as well as others and killed hundreds of British. In 1764, they began negotiations with the British which resulted in temporary peace and changes in objectionable British policies.
Although the Upper Peninsula nominally became United States territory with the 1783 Treaty of Paris, the British did not give up control until 1797 under terms of the Jay Treaty. As an American territory, the Upper Peninsula was still dominated by the fur trade. John Jacob Astor founded the American Fur Company on Mackinac Island in 1808; however, the industry began to decline in the 1830s as beaver and other game were overhunted.
When the Michigan Territory was first established in 1805, it included only the Lower Peninsula and the eastern portion of the Upper Peninsula. In 1819, the territory was expanded to include the remainder of the Upper Peninsula, all of what later became Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota (previously included in the Indiana and Illinois Territories). When Michigan applied for statehood in the 1830s, the proposal corresponded to the original territorial boundaries.
However, there was an armed conflict known as the Toledo War with the state of Ohio over the location of their mutual border. Meanwhile, the people of Michigan approved a constitution in May 1835 and elected state officials in late autumn 1835. Although the state government was not yet recognized by the United States Congress, the territorial government effectively ceased to exist. President Andrew Jackson's government offered the remainder of the Upper Peninsula to Michigan, if it would cede the Toledo Strip to Ohio. A constitutional convention of the state legislature refused, but a second convention, hastily convened by Governor Stevens Thomson Mason, consisting primarily of his supporters, agreed in December 1836 to the deal. In January 1837, the U.S. Congress admitted Michigan as a state of the Union.
At the time, Michigan was considered the losing party in the compromise. The land in the Upper Peninsula was described in a federal report as a "sterile region on the shores of Lake Superior destined by soil and climate to remain forever a wilderness." This belief changed when rich mineral deposits (primarily copper and iron) were discovered in the 1840s. The Upper Peninsula's mines produced more mineral wealth than the California Gold Rush, especially after shipping was improved by the opening of the Soo Locks in 1855, and docks in Marquette in 1859. The Upper Peninsula supplied 90% of America's copper by the 1860s. It was the largest supplier of iron ore by the 1890s, and production continued to a peak in the 1920s, but sharply declined shortly afterward. The last copper mine closed in 1995, although the majority of mines had closed decades before. Some iron mining continues near Marquette. The Eagle Mine, a nickel-copper mine, opened in 2014.
Thousands of Americans and immigrants moved to the area during the mining boom, prompting the federal government to create Fort Wilkins near Copper Harbor to maintain order. The first wave were the Cornish from England, with centuries of mining experience; followed by Irish, Germans, and French Canadians. During the 1890s, Finnish immigrants began settling there in large numbers, forming the population plurality in the northwestern half of the peninsula. In the early 20th century, 75% of the population was foreign-born.
From 1861 to 1865, 90,000 Michigan men fought in the American Civil War, including 1,209 from the Upper Peninsula. Houghton County contributed 460 soldiers, while Marquette County, Michigan sent 265.
There was a boundary dispute over the border with Wisconsin. The northwestern most portion of the border follows a line from Lac Vieux Desert to the headwaters of the Montreal River. An 1847 survey established the east branch of the Montreal River as the border. However, the 1908 revision of the Constitution of Michigan specified that the west branch of the Montreal River was the proper border, which would have placed at additional 360 square miles of land on the Michigan side of the border. A 1926 Supreme Court decision awarded this tract of land to Wisconsin.
The Upper Peninsula contains , about 29 percent of the land area of the state (exclusive of territorial waters, which constitute about 40% of Michigan's total jurisdictional area). The maximum east–west distance in the Upper Peninsula is about , and the maximum north–south distance is about . It is bounded on the north by Lake Superior, on the east by St. Marys River, on the south by Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, and on the west by Wisconsin and (counting the water border on Lake Superior) by Minnesota. It has about of continuous shoreline with the Great Lakes. There are about 4,300 inland lakes, the largest of which is Lake Gogebic, and of streams.
Michigan's Upper Peninsula is bounded on land by Wisconsin to the southwest and west; and in territorial waters by Minnesota to the west, Ontario to the west, north and east, and the Door Peninsula of Wisconsin extends into Lake Michigan east of the western Upper Peninsula.
Five Michigan Upper Peninsula counties include nearby major islands: Mackinac Island, Round Island and Bois Blanc Island in Lake Huron are in Mackinac County; Sugar Island and Neebish Island in the St. Marys River, and Drummond Island in Lake Huron are in Chippewa County; Grand Island is in Alger County; Summer Island is Delta County; and Isle Royale is part of Keweenaw County.The peninsula is divided between the flat, swampy areas in the east, part of the Great Lakes Plain, and the steeper, more rugged western half, called the Superior Upland, part of the Canadian Shield. The rock in the western portion is the result of volcanic eruptions and is estimated to be at least 3.5 billion years old (much older than the eastern portion) and contains the region's ore resources. Banded-iron formations were deposited 2 billion years ago; this is the Marquette Range Supergroup. A considerable amount of bedrock is visible. Mount Arvon, the highest point in Michigan, is found in the region, as well as the Porcupine and Huron mountains. All of the higher areas are the remnants of ancient peaks, worn down over millions of years by erosion and glaciers.
The Keweenaw Peninsula is the northernmost part of the peninsula (not counting Isle Royale, which is politically part of the UP). It projects into Lake Superior and was the site of the first copper boom in the United States, part of a larger region of the peninsula called the Copper Country. Copper Island is its northernmost section. Its lowest elevation is along the shoreline of Lake Huron and Lake Michigan, averaging above sea level. Its highest elevation is Mount Arvon, at .
About one third of the peninsula is government-owned recreational forest land today, including the Ottawa National Forest and Hiawatha National Forest. Although heavily logged in the 19th century, the majority of the land was forested with mature trees by the 1970s.
The Upper Peninsula contains a large variety of wildlife. Some of the mammals found in the UP include shrews, moles, mice, white-tailed deer, moose, black bears, cougar, gray and red foxes, wolves, river otters, martens, fishers, muskrats, bobcats, coyotes, snowshoe hares, cotton-tail rabbits, porcupines, chipmunks, squirrels, raccoons, opossum and bats. There is a large variety of birds, including hawks, osprey, owls, gulls, hummingbirds, chickadees, robins (the state bird), woodpeckers, warblers, and bald eagles. In terms of reptiles and amphibians, the UP has common garter snakes, red bellied snakes, pine snakes, northern water snakes, brown snakes, eastern garter snakes, eastern fox snakes, eastern ribbon back snakes, green snakes, northern ringneck snakes, Eastern Milk Snakes (Mackinac and Marquette counties) and Eastern Hognose snakes (Menominee County only), plus snapping turtles, wood turtles, and painted turtles (the state reptile), green frogs, bullfrogs, northern leopard frogs, and salamanders. Lakes and rivers contain many fish such as walleye, muskie, northern pike, trout, salmon, bullhead catfish, and bass. Invasive species like the alewife and sea lamprey can be found in the Great Lakes. The UP also contains many shellfish, such as clams, aquatic snails, and crayfish. The American Bird Conservancy and the National Audubon Society have designated several locations as internationally Important Bird Areas.
There is significant controversy over the presence of Eastern Cougars in the UP. Historically, the last of the species, or subspecies, was extirpated near Newberry in 1906, although there have been sightings of the creatures over the years since. These reports increased in number over the first decade of the 21st century. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE) formed a four-person team to investigate sightings in the state. The biologists with the DNRE currently do not believe that there is a breeding population anywhere in the state, rather that the sighted animals are visitors to the state. As late as January 2007, the DNRE's official position was that no cougars lived in Michigan. Several residents in the state disagree with both current and previous positions on the part of the DNRE. Researchers at Central Michigan University and the Michigan Wildlife Conservancy in 2006 published the findings of a study using DNA analysis of fecal samples taken in the Upper and Lower peninsulas that showed the presence of cougars at the time. These results were disputed in a second journal article in 2007 by other researchers from Eastern Michigan University and the U.S. Forest Service. A citizen's group, the Michigan Citizens for Cougar Recognition (MCCR), independently tracked sightings and in 2009 listed Delta County as the location with the greatest number of reports in the state. The DNRE verified five sets of tracks and two trail camera photos in Delta, Chippewa, Marquette, and Menominee counties since 2008. DNRE officials acknowledge that there are cougars in the UP, but not elsewhere in the state. Critics of the DNRE's position on the species, including the founder of the MCCR, say that the department is attempting to "avoid paying for a cougar management program".
There are also many invasive species that are primarily brought in the ballast water of foreign ships, usually from the ocean bordering Northeastern Asia. This water is dumped directly into the Great Lakes, depositing a variety of fresh and salt water fish and invertebrates, most notably the zebra mussel, "Dreissena polymorpha". There are also many plant species that have been transported to the Great Lakes, including Purple Loosestrife "Lythrum salicaria" and "Phragmites australis", both of which are considered to be a threat to native hydrophyte wetland plants.
The Emerald ash borer was first reported in the UP at Brimley State Park, and is considered to be a serious ecological threat to the habitat and economy.
The Upper Peninsula has a humid continental climate ("Dfb" in the Köppen climate classification system). The Great Lakes have a great effect on the larger part of the peninsula. Winters tend to be long, cold, and snowy for most of the peninsula, and because of its northern latitude, the daylight hours are short—around 8 hours between sunrise and sunset in the winter. Lake Superior has the greatest effect on the area, especially the northern and western parts. Lake-effect snow causes many areas to get in excess of of snow per year—especially in the Keweenaw Peninsula and Gogebic County, and to a lesser extent Baraga, Marquette and Alger counties, making the western UP a prominent part of the midwestern snow belt.
Records of of snow or more have been set in many communities in this area. The Keweenaw Peninsula averages more snowfall than any other location east of the Mississippi River. Because of the howling storms across Lake Superior, which cause dramatic amounts of precipitation, it has been said that the lake-effect snow makes the Keweenaw Peninsula the snowiest place east of the Rockies. Herman averages of snow every year. Lake-effect snow can cause blinding whiteouts in just minutes, and some storms can last for days. Hancock is found frequently on lists of the snowiest cities in America.
The banana belt along the Wisconsin border has a more continental climate since most of its weather does not arrive from the lakes. Summers tend to be warmer and winter nights much colder. Coastal communities have temperatures tempered by the Great Lakes. In summer, it might be cooler at lakeside than it is inland, and the opposite effect is seen in winter. The area of the Upper Peninsula north of Green Bay though Menominee and Escanaba (and extending west to Iron River) does not have the extreme weather and precipitation found to the north. The coldest temperature officially recorded in the Upper Peninsula was in Humboldt in January 1915.
Like the entire Lower Peninsula, most of the Upper Peninsula observes Eastern Time. However, the four counties bordering Wisconsin are in the Central Time zone.
In 1967, when the Uniform Time Act came into effect, the Upper Peninsula went under year-round CST, with no daylight saving time. In 1973, the majority of the peninsula switched to Eastern Time; only the four western border counties of Gogebic, Iron, Dickinson, and Menominee continue to observe Central Time. Daylight saving time is observed peninsula-wide.
There are 15 counties in the Upper Peninsula.
State prisons are located in Baraga, Marquette, Munising, Newberry, and Kincheloe.
Historically, the Upper Peninsula tended to vote for the Democratic Party due to its legacy of mining and historically high union membership. However, as union strength in the peninsula has declined, the region has become steadily less receptive to the Democratic party, and has alternately swung toward either party in recent years. Split-ticket voting has become a common practice in the peninsula. In the 2012 presidential election, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney carried all but two counties. In the 2016 presidential election, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump won all counties across the Upper Peninsula except Marquette County.
All counties in the UP are part of Michigan's 1st congressional district. Jack Bergman, a Republican, has been the U.S. Representative for this district since January 2017.
In Michigan's 2010 gubernatorial election Republican Rick Snyder carried every UP county but one, Gogebic, on his way to victory over his Democratic opponent, Virg Bernero.
Due to the geographic separation and perceived cultural and political differences from the Lower Peninsula, at various times there have been proposals for the Upper Peninsula to secede from Michigan as a 51st state named "Superior", sometimes including portions of northern Wisconsin and/or the northern Lower Peninsula. Several prominent legislators, including the region's long-serving state representative Dominic Jacobetti, attempted unsuccessfully to gain passage of such a bill in the 1970s. It would be the least populous state in the union, and as stronger connections to the rest of Michigan have developed since completion of the Mackinac Bridge in the 1950s, the proposal's future is unclear.
The Upper Peninsula remains a predominantly rural region. As of the 2010 census, the region had a population of 311,361—scarcely more than 3% of Michigan's total population.
According to the 2010 census, 103,211 people live in the 12 towns of at least 4,000 people, covering . A total of 116,548 people live in the 18 towns and villages of at least 2,000 people, which cover —less than 1% of the peninsula's land area.
Federal censuses indicate that the population of the Upper Peninsula grew throughout the 19th century as European settlers moved into the region, then boomed around the turn of the century, and experienced gradual decline overall during most of the 20th century. The decline was uneven, however: the population in the largest cities – Marquette, Sault Ste Marie, and Escanaba – grew somewhat, while smaller cities and non-urban areas have generally declined in population. The six westernmost counties experienced the largest decrease, from a 1920 population of 153,674 to a 2010 population of 82,668. Many ghost towns exist in the region.
A "" indicates an increase in population from the previous census, and a "" indicates a decrease in population from the previous census.
The Upper Peninsula is rich in mineral deposits, including iron, copper, nickel and silver. Small amounts of gold have also been discovered and mined. In the 19th century, mining dominated the economy, and the UP became home to many isolated company towns. For many years, mines in the Keweenaw Peninsula were the world's largest producers of copper (see Copper mining in Michigan). The mines began declining as early as 1913, with most closing temporarily during the Great Depression. Mines reopened during World War II, but almost all quickly closed after the war ended. The last copper mine in the Copper Country was the White Pine mine, which closed in 1995.
From approximately 1870 to 1915, about 32 quarries mined Jacobsville Sandstone in the Upper Peninsula, particularly near Marquette and the town of Jacobsville. The sandstone was used in many buildings, both locally and around the United States.
Since logging of white pine began in the 1880s, timber has been an important industry. Stands of hemlock and hardwood in the western reaches of the forest experienced larger scale selection-cutting beginning in the mid-20th century. Because of the highly seasonal climate and the short growing season, agriculture is limited in the Upper Peninsula, though potatoes, strawberries and a few other small fruits are grown.
Tourism has become the main industry in recent decades. In 2005, ShermanTravel, LLC listed the Upper Peninsula as #10 in its assessment of all travel destinations worldwide. The peninsula has extensive coastline on the Great Lakes, large tracts of state and national forests, cedar swamps, more than 150 waterfalls, and low population densities. Because of the camping, boating, fishing, snowmobiling, hunting, and hiking opportunities, many Lower Peninsula and Wisconsin families spend their vacations in the UP, and tourists visit from Detroit, Chicago, Grand Rapids, Milwaukee, and other metropolitan areas. The opening of the Mackinac Bridge in 1957 (see below) has made the Upper Peninsula easily accessible to tourists from the Lower Peninsula and southeast of Michigan, and has helped make the UP a year-round tourist destination.
In 2004, microbreweries began opening across the Upper Peninsula, with 14 by 2014, and 23 by 2019. In 2019, their annual economic impact totaled $346 million. , three of Michigan's fifty largest breweries were in the Upper Peninsula: Keweenaw Brewing Company, Blackrocks Brewery, and the Ore Dock Brewing Company.
American Indian casinos contribute to the tourist attractions and are popular in the UP. Originally the casinos were simple, one-room affairs. Some of the casinos are now quite elaborate and are being developed as part of resort and conference facilities, including features such as golf courses, pool and spa, dining, and rooms to accommodate guests.
The Upper Peninsula is separated from the Lower by the Straits of Mackinac, five miles (8 km) across at the narrowest, and is connected to it by the Mackinac Bridge at St. Ignace, one of the longest suspension bridges in the world. Until the bridge was completed in 1957, travel between the two peninsulas was difficult and slow (and sometimes even impossible during winter months). In 1881, the Mackinac Transportation Company was established by three railroads, the Michigan Central Railroad, the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad, and the Detroit, Mackinac and Marquette Railroad, to operate a railroad car ferry across the Straits. Beginning in 1923, the State of Michigan operated automobile ferries between the two peninsulas. At the busiest times of year the wait was several hours long. In winter, travel was possible over the ice only after the straits had solidly frozen.
Of the many "M-" prefixed trunklines crisscrossing the UP, the four longest (in order of length) are,
There are 43 airports in the Upper Peninsula. Of these, six airports have commercial passenger service: Gogebic-Iron County Airport north of Ironwood, Houghton County Memorial Airport southwest of Calumet, Ford Airport west of Iron Mountain, Sawyer International Airport south of Marquette, Delta County Airport in Escanaba, and Chippewa County International Airport south of Sault Ste. Marie. There are 19 other public use airports with a hard surface runway. These are used for general aviation and charter. Notably, Mackinac Island, Beaver Island, and Drummond Island are all accessible by airports. There are five public access airports with turf runways and thirteen airports for the private use of their owners. There is only one control tower in the Upper Peninsula, at Sawyer.
The Eastern Upper Peninsula Transportation Authority operates car ferries in its area. These include ferries for Sugar Island, Neebish Island, and Drummond Island. Three ferry companies run passenger ferries from St. Ignace to Mackinac Island.
The three major bridges in the Upper Peninsula are:
Despite its rural character, there are public buses in several counties of the Upper Peninsula.
The Upper Peninsula of Michigan has three state universities (Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan Technological University in Houghton, and Northern Michigan University in Marquette), one private university (Finlandia University located in Hancock, Michigan, on the Keweenaw Peninsula), and five community colleges (Bay Mills Community College in Brimley, Bay de Noc Community College in Escanaba and Iron Mountain, Gogebic Community College in Ironwood, and Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College in Baraga).
Early settlers included multiple waves of people from Nordic countries, and people of Finnish ancestry make up 16% of the peninsula's population; the UP is home to the highest concentration of Finns outside Europe and the only counties of the United States where a plurality of residents claim Finnish ancestry. The Finnish sauna and the concept of sisu have been adopted widely by residents of the Upper Peninsula. The television program "Finland Calling" was for a long period the only Finnish-language television broadcast in the United States; it aired on Marquette station WLUC-TV from March 25, 1962, until March 29, 2015. Finlandia University, America's only college with Finnish roots, is located in Hancock. Street signs in Hancock appear in English and Finnish to celebrate this heritage.
Other sizable ethnic communities in the Upper Peninsula include French-Canadian, German, Cornish, Italian, and Ojibwe ancestry.
Upper Peninsula natives speak a dialect influenced by Scandinavian and French-Canadian speech. A popular bumper sticker, a parody of the "Say YES to Michigan" slogan promoted by state tourism officials, shows an outline of the Upper Peninsula and the slogan, "Say ya to da UP, eh!" The dialect and culture are captured in many songs by Da Yoopers, a comedy music and skit troupe from Ishpeming, Michigan.
Throughout the Upper Peninsula there are newspapers, such as "The Daily News" in Iron Mountain, "The Menominee County Journal" in Stephenson, "The Daily Mining Gazette" in Houghton, "The Daily Press" in Escanaba, and the "Sault Ste. Marie Evening News" that serve the rest of the UP "The Mining Journal", based in Marquette, is the only daily newspaper that publishes a Sunday edition, which is distributed, with the exception of Chippewa and eastern Mackinac counties, across the entire UP (the other six days are distributed in its local area only).
The Keweenaw Peninsula is home to several ski areas. Mont Ripley, just outside Houghton, is popular among students of Michigan Technological University (the university actually owns the mountain). Further up the peninsula in the small town of Lac La Belle is Mt. Bohemia. A skiing purist's resort, Bohemia is a self-proclaimed "experts only" mountain, and it does not groom its heavily gladed slopes. Other ski areas are Pine Mountain located in Iron Mountain, Norway Mountain in the town of the same name, and the Porcupine Mountains located in Ontonagon.
Today, the western Upper Peninsula is home to about 173,887 people, while the eastern Upper Peninsula is home to about 133,499 people, a total of 307,386—only about 3% of the state's population—living in almost one-third of the state's land area. Residents are known as Yoopers (from "UP-ers"), and many consider themselves Yoopers before they consider themselves Michiganders. (People living in the Lower Peninsula are commonly called "trolls" by Upper Peninsula residents, as they live "Under the Bridge".) This regionalism is not only a result of the physical separation of the two peninsulas, but also the history of the state.
Residents of the western Upper Peninsula take on some of the cultural identities of both Wisconsin and Michigan. In terms of sports fandom, residents may support Detroit professional teams or those of Wisconsin—particularly the Green Bay Packers. This is a result of both proximity and the broadcast and print media of the area. The four counties that border Wisconsin are also in the Central Time Zone, unlike the rest of Michigan, which is on Eastern time. In some cases, commercial cartographers draw incorrect maps that inadvertently annex the Upper Peninsula into Wisconsin.
The Upper Peninsula has a distinctive local cuisine. The pasty (pronounced "pass-tee"), a kind of meat turnover originally brought to the region by Cornish miners, is popular among locals and tourists alike. Pasty varieties include chicken, venison, pork, hamburger, and pizza.
Many restaurants serve potato sausage and "cudighi", a spicy Italian meat.
Finnish immigrants contributed "nisu", a cardamom-flavored sweet bread; "pannukakku", a variant on the pancake with a custard flavor; "viili" (sometimes spelled "fellia"), a stretchy, fermented Finnish milk; and "korppu", hard slices of toasted cinnamon bread, traditionally dipped in coffee. Some Finnish foods such as "juusto" (squeaky cheese, essentially a cheese curd, like Leipäjuusto) and "saunamakkara" (a ring-bologna sausage) have become so ubiquitous in Upper Peninsula cuisine that they are now commonly found in most grocery stores and supermarkets.
Maple syrup is a highly prized local delicacy. Fresh Great Lakes fish, such as the lake trout, whitefish, and (in the spring) smelt are widely eaten. There is minimal concern about contamination of fish from Lake Superior waters. Smoked fish is also popular. Thimbleberry jam and chokecherry jelly are a treat. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32117 |
Universal (metaphysics)
In metaphysics, a universal is what particular things have in common, namely characteristics or qualities. In other words, universals are repeatable or recurrent entities that can be instantiated or exemplified by many particular things. For example, suppose there are two chairs in a room, each of which is green. These two chairs both share the quality of "chairness", as well as greenness or the quality of being green; in other words, they share a "universal". There are three major kinds of qualities or characteristics: types or kinds (e.g. mammal), properties (e.g. short, strong), and relations (e.g. father of, next to). These are all different types of universals.
Paradigmatically, universals are "abstract" (e.g. humanity), whereas particulars are "concrete" (e.g. the personhood of Socrates). However, universals are not necessarily abstract and particulars are not necessarily concrete. For example, one might hold that numbers are particular yet abstract objects. Likewise, some philosophers, such as D. M. Armstrong, consider universals to be concrete.
Most do not consider classes to be universals, although some prominent philosophers do, as John Bigelow.
The history of any creation went through a process of qualifications meeting dependancies of that type thing, including all parts put together to make it an accepted thing of its particular type. A chair must first exist upon a surface with the force of gravity upon it. The chair must be upon something solid and it must provide a platform for something to sit upon. Any other universals for “chairness” must qualify the particular dependencies set forth by authority. The first chair qualified itself as a chair from it’s propriety. Universals exist in every created thing, but only in the individual subparts themselves, not in the whole thing itself. Universals can be thought of as an evolution of a creation’s life constantly on a journey towards perfection.
"The problem of universals" is an ancient problem in metaphysics about whether universals exist. The problem arises from attempts to account for the phenomenon of similarity or attribute agreement among things. For example, grass and Granny Smith apples are similar or agree in attribute, namely in having the attribute of greenness. The issue is how to account for this sort of agreement in attribute among things.
There are many philosophical positions regarding universals. Taking "beauty" as an example, three positions are:
Taking a broader view, the main positions are generally considered classifiable as: realism, nominalism, and idealism (sometimes simply named "anti-realism" with regard to universals). Realists posit the existence of independent, abstract universals to account for attribute agreement. Nominalists deny that universals exist, claiming that they are not necessary to explain attribute agreement. Conceptualists posit that universals exist only in the mind, or when conceptualized, denying the independent existence of universals. Complications which arise include the implications of language use and the complexity of relating language to ontology.
A universal may have instances, known as its "particulars". For example, the type "dog" (or "doghood") is a universal, as are the property "red" (or "redness") and the relation "betweenness" (or "being between"). Any particular dog, red thing, or object that is between other things is not a universal, however, but is an "instance" of a universal. That is, a universal type ("doghood"), property ("redness"), or relation ("betweenness") "inheres" in a particular object (a specific dog, red thing, or object between other things).
Platonic realism holds universals to be the referents of general terms, such as the "abstract", nonphysical, non-mental entities to which words such as "sameness", "circularity", and "beauty" refer. Particulars are the referents of proper names, such as "Phaedo," or of definite descriptions that identify single objects, such as the phrase, "that bed over there". Other metaphysical theories may use the terminology of universals to describe physical entities.
Plato's examples of what we might today call universals included mathematical and geometrical ideas such as a circle and natural numbers as universals. Plato's views on universals did, however, vary across several different discussions. In some cases, Plato spoke as if the perfect circle functioned as the form or blueprint for all copies and for the word definition of "circle". In other discussions, Plato describes particulars as "participating" in the associated universal.
Contemporary realists agree with the thesis that universals are multiply-exemplifiable entities. Examples include by D. M. Armstrong, Nicholas Wolterstorff, Reinhardt Grossmann, Michael Loux.
Nominalists hold that universals are not real mind-independent entities but either merely concepts (sometimes called "conceptualism") or merely names. Nominalists typically argue that properties are abstract particulars (like tropes) rather than universals. JP Moreland distinguishes between "extreme" and "moderate" nominalism. Examples of nominalists include the medieval philosophers Roscelin of Compiègne and William of Ockham and contemporary philosophers W. V. O. Quine, Wilfred Sellars, D. C. Williams, and Keith Campbell.
The ness-ity-hood principle is used mainly by English-speaking philosophers to generate convenient, concise names for universals or properties. According to the Ness-Ity-Hood Principle, a name for any universal may be formed that is distinctive, "of left-handers" may be formed by taking the predicate "left-handed" and adding "ness", which yields the name "left-handedness". The principle is most helpful in cases where there is not an established or standard name of the universal in ordinary English usage: What is the name of the universal distinctive of chairs? "Chair" in English is used not only as a subject (as in "The chair is broken"), but also as a predicate (as in "That is a chair"). So to generate a name for the universal distinctive of chairs, take the predicate "chair" and add "ness", which yields "chairness". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32120 |
University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology
The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) was a university based in the centre of the city of Manchester in England. It specialised in technical and scientific subjects and was a major centre for research. On 1 October 2004, it amalgamated with the Victoria University of Manchester (commonly called the University of Manchester) to produce a new entity called the University of Manchester.
UMIST gained its royal charter in 1956 and became a fully autonomous university in 1994. Previously its degrees were awarded by the Victoria University of Manchester. The UMIST motto was "Scientia et Labore" (By Knowledge and Work).
The foundation of UMIST can be traced to 1824 during the Industrial Revolution when a group of Manchester businessmen and industrialists met in a public house, the "Bridgewater Arms", to establish the "Mechanics' Institute in Manchester", where artisans could learn basic science, particularly mechanics and chemistry. Hundreds of such institutions were founded in towns and cities throughout the country and while many of the fine Victorian buildings built to house them remain, Manchester's alone survived as an independent institution serving some of its original educational aims throughout the 20th century.
The meeting, convened by George William Wood on 7 April 1824,
was attended by prominent members of the science and engineering community, including:
A committee was elected to realise the planned institution, including Wood, Fairbairn, Heywood, Roberts and John Davies and the Institute opened in 1825 with Heywood as chairman.
However, the Institute's intentions were paternal and no democratic control by its students was intended. In 1829, radical Rowland Detrosier led a breakaway group to form the New Mechanics' Institution in Poole Street, a move that had a serious effect on the recruitment and finances of the original institute. Subscriptions and memberships in 1830–31 were an all-time low and only the gradual opening of the board up to election by the members rectified the situation. Detrosier's break-away ultimately rejoined the Institute.
By 1840, the Institute was established with 1,000 subscribers and a library of some 5,500 books. However, the increased popularity had been somewhat at the cost of science education, more and more lectures on non-scientific subjects were occupying its programmes.
The Institute occupied a building on Cooper Street (near the present St Peter's Square) and later moved to its present site on David Street (later renamed Princess Street). This still stands and is a Grade II* listed building.
In 1883 secretary of the Institution John Henry Reynolds reorganised the Institution as a Technical School using the schemes and examinations of the City and Guilds of London Institute. A new building was begun in 1895 and opened by the Prime Minister Arthur Balfour in October 1902. On the site previously had been cheap crowded inner-city housing occupied by Irish immigrants.
This is the western end of the Sackville Street Building until 2005 known as the UMIST Main Building, pictured above, a grade II listed building by Spalding and Cross with Renaissance motifs of Burmantofts terracotta. By this time the institution was called the "Manchester Municipal School of Technology" or fondly known as "The Tech". As a project of the Manchester City Council it includes in the decoration many portrayals of the city's coat of arms.
As befits its roots in the early chemical industry of the region the Tech had pioneered Chemical Engineering as an academic subject in Britain, indeed the lectures by George E. Davis in 1888 were highly influential in defining the discipline. Similarly in the 1920s it pioneered academic training in Management, with the formation of a Department of Industrial Administration funded by an endowment from asbestos magnate Sir Samuel Turner.
In 1905, the Tech become the "Faculty of Technology" of the Victoria University of Manchester, allowing the award of BSc and MSc degrees. The Principal of the School of Technology was now also Dean of the Faculty and an "ex officio" member of the University's Senate.
After the recent merger with Victoria University of Manchester the UMIST Main Building was renamed as the "Sackville St. Building".
In 1918, the institution changed name again to "Manchester Municipal College of Technology". By 1949 over 8500 students were enrolled, however most still studying non-degree courses.
The appointment of B. V. Bowden (later Lord Bowden) in 1953 marked the beginning of a phase of expansion.
On 29 July 1955 the institute received its own Royal Charter incorporating it as a university college under the name "Manchester College of Science and Technology", and became separately funded by the University Grants Committee. The process of independence from the city was completed on 1 August 1956 when the Manchester Corporation transferred the assets of the "Manchester Municipal College of Technology" to the new college, with the Principal of the municipal college becoming the first Principal of the university college on the same day.
By 1966 all non-degree courses were moved to the Manchester School of Design which is now known as Manchester Metropolitan University, and in 1966 the name finally changed to the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology on the initiative of Acting Principal Frank Morton. UMIST and the Victoria University of Manchester retained close ties for the second half of the 20th century, with UMIST students being awarded, or having the choice of, a University of Manchester degree until full autonomy.
In 1994 UMIST finally achieved the status of an independent University with its own degree awarding powers with the Principal, Harold Hankins, becoming the Principal and Vice-Chancellor.
Until this time UMIST was the Faculty of Technology of the Victoria University of Manchester, an interesting situation because the University of Manchester also had its own science and engineering courses. Although academically part of the University, UMIST was financially and administratively independent.
Congregation ceremonies were held at the University of Manchester on Oxford Road, but in 1991 the first congregation ceremony was held in the Great Hall at UMIST itself in the Sackville Street Building.
UMIST students were entitled to use the facilities of the Victoria University, including the John Rylands University Library at the Oxford Road site and sports facilities and social clubs organised by the students' unions. In fact, first year UMIST undergraduates were often placed into Manchester University halls of residence and vice versa.
In the late 20th century, student life at UMIST centred on the Barnes Wallis Building, which was the home of the Students' Union (later known as the Students' Association) and Harry's Bar. The main redbrick building contained the student self-service café, known as The Readers' Digest.
A prominent feature of the student calendar from the 1960s onwards was the Bogle Stroll. This was a sponsored walk for charity which was held annually during Rag Week. Each year, hundreds of students followed the circular route which started and finished at the UMIST campus. The tradition continues in The University of Manchester
Sports facilities included a gymnasium in the main building, the large assembly hall, the MUTECH playing fields and the Sugden Sports Centre (jointly owned by UMIST and the Metropolitan University and opened in 1998). The director of sport administered the facilities, recreation classes and inter-departmental competitions. The athletic union was responsible for administering the grant-aided clubs and inter-varsity teams.
During the last quarter of the 20th century UMIST established a reputation as a major research-based university, performing well in the government's Research Assessment Exercise in 2001, and was well placed in various league tables. UMIST has won four Queen's Prizes for Higher and Further Education, two Prince of Wales' Awards for Innovation and two Queen's Award for Export Achievement.
UMIST was instrumental in the founding of what is now the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. Famous alumni include Nobel Laureate in nuclear physics Sir John Cockcroft, aeroplane pioneer Sir Arthur Whitten Brown, and designer of the Lancaster bomber Roy Chadwick, while famous academics include mathematicians Louis Joel Mordell, Hanna Neumann, Lewis Fry Richardson and Robin Bullough, and the physicist Henry Lipson.
Other notable alumni include Margaret Beckett, a politician who in 2006 became Foreign Secretary.
The later 20th century saw UMIST diminishing its formal connections with Manchester University. In 1994 most of the remaining institutional ties with the Victoria University of Manchester were severed, as new legislation allowed UMIST to become a fully autonomous university with powers to award its own degrees.
UMIST, together with the Victoria University of Manchester ceased to exist on 1 October 2004, when they were combined in a new single University of Manchester. Terry Leahy, CEO of Tesco and alumnus was the last Chancellor of UMIST, and the Vice-Chancellor was a chemical engineer, John Garside.
The merged university undertook a massive expansion and a £350 million capital investment programme in new buildings. Some, such as the Alan Turing Building, house merged departments such as the School of Mathematics. The estates plan, published in 2007, indicates an intention to sell a number of former UMIST teaching buildings, including the Moffat Building, the Maths and Social Sciences Tower, the Morton Building and the Fairbairn Building, as well as formerly UMIST-owned halls of residence including Hardy Farm, Chandos Hall, Wright-Robinson Hall and Weston Hall. The original UMIST Main Building is not included in this list. Covenants restrict it to educational use. No plans have been announced for the sale of any former Victoria University of Manchester buildings. Unions and some ex-UMIST staff and students have reacted angrily to the potential sales.
In the estates strategy for 2010–2020 for the University of Manchester it is stated that essentially all of the former UMIST campus, described as the "area north of the Mancunian Way," is to be disposed of. Only the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, which was built in 2006, is exempted, whilst the fate of the former UMIST Main Building is left vague. The Faraday Building will be replaced by student accommodation and it is envisaged that the Engineering Schools will eventually be relocated to new buildings on the site of the present halls of residence in the Grosvenor Place area. This plan will, therefore, encompass the destruction of almost all of UMIST's physical legacy.
In March 2007, the press claimed that the merger had created a debt of £30 million, about 5% of the University's annual turnover, and that the University was aiming to tackle this debt by implementing 400 voluntary redundancies. The University and College Union accused the University of mismanagement and called for a halt to recruitment. Critics use these statistics to support the claim that it was not a merger of equals, that it was effectively a takeover of UMIST by Manchester University and that this was not in UMIST's best interests.
Until the late 1980s, UMIST's official alumni organisation was called the Manchester Technology Association, a name which was a relic of UMIST's past incarnation as 'The Tech'. The organisation's name was then updated to become the UMIST Association. It published a glossy magazine for UMIST graduates called "Mainstream".
In 2004, at the time of the university merger, the UMIST Association also merged with its equivalent organisation at the Victoria University of Manchester. This step was taken after minimal consultation with its membership. From that point on, there was no official association specifically for past UMIST students or staff. However, the growth of social networking websites has allowed the development of a number of unofficial UMIST alumni groups in cyberspace, particularly on Facebook. has over 5,000 members and has a sub-group for each of UMIST's academic departments.
UMIST moved to its present location just south of Manchester city centre at the end of the 19th century. The Main Building (now called the Sackville Street Building) was purpose-built between 1895 and 1902 by Spalding and Cross. Starting in 1927, plans were drawn up by the architects Bradshaw Gass & Hope for an extension which would approximately double the size of the original building. However, construction was delayed by the war and other factors, so that the extension was not fully completed until 1957.
In the 1960s the institution expanded rapidly to the south, growing from a single large building to an entire campus. Around a dozen modern buildings were constructed on the other side of the railway viaduct from the Main Building. The new edifices were designed by leading Manchester architects and were all built out of concrete. They included the George Begg Building (Mechanical Engineering), the Maths and Social Sciences Tower, the Faraday Building, the Renold Building, and the Barnes Wallis Building, the last two of which faced each other across a bowling green, which later became a landscaped garden.
A promotional film made in 1974 to attract prospective students to UMIST is available here: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32121 |
United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification
The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, Particularly in Africa (UNCCD) is a Convention to combat desertification and mitigate the effects of drought through national action programs that incorporate long-term strategies supported by international cooperation and partnership arrangements.
The Convention, the only convention stemming from a direct recommendation of the Rio Conference's Agenda 21, was adopted in Paris, France on 17 June 1994 and entered into force in December 1996. It is the only internationally legally binding framework set up to address the problem of desertification. The Convention is based on the principles of participation, partnership and decentralization—the backbone of Good Governance and Sustainable Development. It has 197 parties, making it near universal in reach.
To help publicise the Convention, 2006 was declared "International Year of Deserts and Desertification" but debates have ensued regarding how effective the International Year was in practice.
The UNCCD has been ratified by 197 states: all 193 UN Member States, the Cook Islands, Niue, the State of Palestine and the European Union.
On 28 March 2013, Canada became the first country to withdraw from the convention. However, three years later, Canada reversed its withdrawal by re-acceding to the convention on 21 December 2016, which resulted in Canada becoming party to the convention again on 21 March 2017.
The Holy See is the only state that is not a party to the convention that is eligible to accede to it.
The permanent Secretariat of the UNCCD was established during the first Conference of the parties (COP 1) held in Rome in 1997. It has been located in Bonn, Germany since January 1999, and moved from its first Bonn address in Haus Carstanjen to the new UN Campus in July 2006.
The functions of the secretariat are to make arrangements for sessions of the Conference of the Parties (COP) and its subsidiary bodies established under the Convention, and to provide them with services as required. One key task of the secretariat is to compile and transmit reports submitted to it.
The secretariat also provides assistance to affected developing country Parties, particularly those in Africa. This is important when compiling information and reports required under the Convention. UNCCD activities are coordinated with the secretariats of other relevant international bodies and conventions, like those of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
The Conference of the Parties (COP) oversees the implementation of the Convention. It is established by the Convention as the supreme decision-making body, and it comprises all ratifying governments. The first five sessions of the COP were held annually from 1997 to 2001.
Starting 2001 sessions are held on a biennial basis interchanging with the sessions of the Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention (CRIC), whose first session was held in 2002.
The UN Convention to Combat Desertification has established a Committee on Science and Technology (CST). The CST was established under Article 24 of the Convention as a subsidiary body of the COP, and its mandate and terms of reference were defined and adopted during the first session of the Conference of the Parties in 1997. It is composed of government representatives competent in the fields of expertise relevant to combating desertification and mitigating the effects of drought. The committee identifies priorities for research, and recommends ways of strengthening cooperation among researchers. It is multi-disciplinary and open to the participation of all Parties. It meets in conjunction with the ordinary sessions of the COP.
The CST collects, analyses and reviews relevant data. It also promotes cooperation in the field of combating desertification and mitigating the effects of drought through appropriate sub-regional, regional and national institutions, and in particular by its activities in research and development, which contribute to increased knowledge of the processes leading to desertification and drought as well as their impact.
The Bureau of the CST is composed of the Chairperson and the four Vice Chairpersons. The chairman is elected by the Conference of the Parties at each of its sessions with due regard to ensure geographical distribution and adequate representation of affected Country Parties, particularly those in Africa, who shall not serve for more than two consecutive terms. The Bureau of the CST is responsible for the follow-up of the work of the Committee between sessions of the COP and may benefit from assistance of ad hoc panels established by the COP.
The CST also contributes to distinguishing causal factors, both natural and human, with a view to combating desertification and achieving improved productivity as well as the sustainable use and management of resources.
Under the authority of the CST, a Group of Experts was established by the COP with a specific work programme, to assist in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the CST. This Group of Experts working under the authority of the CST, provides advice on the areas of drought and desertification.
The Group of Experts plays an important institutional role, providing the CST with information on the current knowledge, the extent and the impact, the possible scenarios and the policy implications on various themes assigned in its work programme. The results of the work performed by the GoE are widely recognized and include dissemination of its results on ongoing activities (benchmarks and indicators, traditional knowledge, early warning systems).
The Group of Experts develops and makes available to all interested people information on appropriate mechanisms for scientific and technological cooperation and articulates research projects, which promote awareness about desertification and drought between countries and stakeholders at the international, regional and national level.
The Group of Experts seeks to build on and use existing work and evidence to produce pertinent synthesis and outputs for the use of the Parties to the Convention and for the broader dissemination to the scientific community. The programme of work and its mandate is pluri-annual in nature, for a maximum of four years.
National Action Programmes (NAP) are one of the key instruments in the implementation of the Convention. They are strengthened by Action Programmes on Sub-regional (SRAP) and Regional (RAP) level. National Action Programmes are developed in the framework of a participative approach involving the local communities and they spell out the practical steps and measures to be taken to combat desertification in specific ecosystems.
Full text available from UNCCD.int | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32124 |
Uniramia
Uniramia ("uni" – one, "ramus" – branch, i.e. single-branches) is a group within the arthropods. In the past this group included the Onychophora, which are now considered a separate category. The group is currently used in a narrower sense.
Uniramia is one of three subphyla in the Arthropoda classification suggested by Sidnie Manton. This classification divided arthropods into a three-phyla polyphyletic group, with phylum Uniramia including the Hexapoda (insects), Myriapoda (centipedes and millipedes) and the Onychophora (velvetworms). The discovery of fossil lobopods, determined to be intermediate between onychophorans and arthropods led to the splintering of the Lobopoda and Onychophora into separate groups. This redefined the Uniramia as strictly "true" arthropods with exoskeletons and jointed appendages. Uniramians have strictly uniramous appendages.
Systematics can result in rival taxonomies, and this seems to have happened to Uniramia. The name Uniramia was temporarily rejected as a polyphyletic group, but when used now refers to the subphylum consisting of the insects + myriapods. Subphylum Uniramia is characterized by uniramous (single-branching) appendages, one pair of antennae and two pairs of mouthparts (single pairs of mandibles and maxillae). Their body forms and ecologies are diverse. While most unirames are terrestrial, "some are aquatic for part or all of their life cycles." Atelocerata is described as replacing Uniramia in early twentieth-century texts (Heymons, 1901), where it was the preferred name for the category uniting the Hexapoda (insects) + Myriapoda; but depending on the source, the term Atelocerata may have replaced Mandibulata, be an infraphylum beneath Mandibulata, or may no longer be a valid category after closer, cladistics-based genetic study.
The Crustacea were generally considered the closest relatives of the Uniramia, and sometimes these were united as Mandibulata. However, the competing hypothesis — that Crustacea and Hexapoda form a monophyletic group, the Pancrustacea, to which the Myriapoda are the closest relatives — has support from molecular and fossil evidence. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32126 |
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, U of C, or Chicago) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1890, the school is located on a campus in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood.
The university is composed of the undergraduate college as well as various graduate programs and interdisciplinary committees organized into five academic research divisions. Beyond the arts and sciences, Chicago is well known for its professional schools, which include the Pritzker School of Medicine, the Booth School of Business, the Law School, the School of Social Service Administration, the Harris School of Public Policy, the Divinity School and the Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies, as well as the recently launched Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering. The university has additional campuses and centers in London, Paris, Beijing, Delhi, and Hong Kong, as well as in downtown Chicago.
University of Chicago scholars have played a major role in the development of many academic disciplines, including economics, law, literary criticism, mathematics, religion, sociology, and the behavioralism school of political science, establishing the Chicago schools in various fields. Chicago's Metallurgical Laboratory produced the world's first man-made, self-sustaining nuclear reaction in Chicago Pile-1 beneath the viewing stands of the university's Stagg Field. Advances in chemistry led to the "radiocarbon revolution" in the carbon-14 dating of ancient life and objects. The university research efforts include administration of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory, as well as the Marine Biological Laboratory. The university is also home to the University of Chicago Press, the largest university press in the United States. The Barack Obama Presidential Center is expected to be housed at the university and will include both the Obama presidential library and offices of the Obama Foundation.
The University of Chicago has produced many prominent alumni, faculty members and researchers. , 100 Nobel laureates have been affiliated with the university as students, faculty, or staff, giving it one of the highest concentrations of Nobel laureates in the world. As of 2018, UChicago affiliates also include 54 Rhodes Scholars, 26 Marshall Scholars, 9 Fields Medalists, 4 Turing Award winners, 52 MacArthur Fellows, 25 Pulitzer Prize winners, 20 National Humanities Medalists and 16 billionaire graduates.
The University of Chicago was incorporated as a coeducational institution in 1890 by the American Baptist Education Society, using $400,000 donated to the ABES to match a $600,000 donation from Baptist oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, and including land donated by Marshall Field. While the Rockefeller donation provided money for academic operations and long-term endowment, it was stipulated that such money could not be used for buildings. The Hyde Park campus was financed by donations from wealthy Chicagoans like Silas B. Cobb who provided the funds for the campus' first building, Cobb Lecture Hall, and matched Marshall Field's pledge of $100,000. Other early benefactors included businessmen Charles L. Hutchinson (trustee, treasurer and donor of Hutchinson Commons), Martin A. Ryerson (president of the board of trustees and donor of the Ryerson Physical Laboratory) Adolphus Clay Bartlett and Leon Mandel, who funded the construction of the gymnasium and assembly hall, and George C. Walker of the Walker Museum, a relative of Cobb who encouraged his inaugural donation for facilities.
The Hyde Park campus continued the legacy of the original university of the same name, which had closed in the 1880s after its campus was foreclosed on. What became known as the Old University of Chicago had been founded by a small group of Baptist educators in 1856 through a land endowment from Senator Stephen A. Douglas. After a fire, it closed in 1886. Alumni from the Old University of Chicago are recognized as alumni of the present University of Chicago. The university's depiction on its coat of arms of a phoenix rising from the ashes is a reference to the fire, foreclosure, and demolition of the Old University of Chicago campus. As an homage to this pre-1890 legacy, a single stone from the rubble of the original Douglas Hall on 34th Place was brought to the current Hyde Park location and set into the wall of the Classics Building. These connections have led the Dean of the College and University of Chicago and Professor of History John Boyer to conclude that the University of Chicago has, "a plausible genealogy as a pre–Civil War institution".
William Rainey Harper became the university's president on July 1, 1891 and the Hyde Park campus opened for classes on October 1, 1892. Harper worked on building up the faculty and in two years he had a faculty of 120, including eight former university or college presidents. Harper was an accomplished scholar (Semiticist) and a member of the Baptist clergy who believed that a great university should maintain the study of faith as a central focus. To fulfill this commitment, he brought the Old University of Chicago's Seminary to Hyde Park. This became the Divinity School in 1891, the first professional school at the University of Chicago.
Harper recruited acclaimed Yale baseball and football player Amos Alonzo Stagg from the Young Men's Christian Association training school at Springfield to coach the school's football program. Stagg was given a position on the faculty, the first such athletic position in the United States. While coaching at the University, Stagg invented the numbered football jersey, the huddle, and the lighted playing field. Stagg is the namesake of the university's Stagg Field.
The business school was founded in 1898, and the law school was founded in 1902. Harper died in 1906 and was replaced by a succession of three presidents whose tenures lasted until 1929. During this period, the Oriental Institute was founded to support and interpret archeological work in what was then called the Near East.
In the 1890s, the university, fearful that its vast resources would injure smaller schools by drawing away good students, affiliated with several regional colleges and universities: Des Moines College, Kalamazoo College, Butler University, and Stetson University. In 1896, the university affiliated with Shimer College in Mount Carroll, Illinois. Under the terms of the affiliation, the schools were required to have courses of study comparable to those at the university, to notify the university early of any contemplated faculty appointments or dismissals, to make no faculty appointment without the university's approval, and to send copies of examinations for suggestions. The University of Chicago agreed to confer a degree on any graduating senior from an affiliated school who made a grade of A for all four years, and on any other graduate who took twelve weeks additional study at the University of Chicago. A student or faculty member of an affiliated school was entitled to free tuition at the University of Chicago, and Chicago students were eligible to attend an affiliated school on the same terms and receive credit for their work. The University of Chicago also agreed to provide affiliated schools with books and scientific apparatus and supplies at cost; special instructors and lecturers without cost except for travel expenses; and a copy of every book and journal published by the University of Chicago Press at no cost. The agreement provided that either party could terminate the affiliation on proper notice. Several University of Chicago professors disliked the program, as it involved uncompensated additional labor on their part, and they believed it cheapened the academic reputation of the university. The program passed into history by 1910.
In 1929, the university's fifth president, 30-year-old legal philosophy scholar Robert Maynard Hutchins, took office. The university underwent many changes during his 24-year tenure. Hutchins reformed the undergraduate college's liberal-arts curriculum known as the Common Core, organized the university's graduate work into four divisions, and eliminated varsity football from the university in an attempt to emphasize academics over athletics. During his term, the University of Chicago Hospitals (now called the University of Chicago Medical Center) finished construction and enrolled their first medical students. Also, the philosophy oriented Committee on Social Thought, an institution distinctive of the university, was created.
Money that had been raised during the 1920s and financial backing from the Rockefeller Foundation helped the school to survive through the Great Depression. Nonetheless, in 1933, Hutchins proposed an unsuccessful plan to merge the University of Chicago and Northwestern University into a single university. During World War II, the university's Metallurgical Laboratory made ground-breaking contributions to the Manhattan Project. The university was the site of the first isolation of plutonium and of the creation of the first artificial, self-sustained nuclear reaction by Enrico Fermi in 1942.
It has been noted that the university did not provide standard oversight regarding Bruno Bettelheim and his tenure as director of the Orthogenic School for Disturbed Children from 1944 to 1973.
In the early 1950s, student applications declined as a result of increasing crime and poverty in the Hyde Park neighborhood. In response, the university became a major sponsor of a controversial urban renewal project for Hyde Park, which profoundly affected both the neighborhood's architecture and street plan. During this period the university, like Shimer College and 10 others, adopted an early entrant program that allowed very young students to attend college; also, students enrolled at Shimer were enabled to transfer automatically to the University of Chicago after their second year, having taken comparable or identical examinations and courses.
The university experienced its share of student unrest during the 1960s, beginning in 1962 when then-freshman Bernie Sanders helped lead a 15-day sit-in at the college's administration building in a protest over the university's off-campus rental policies. After continued turmoil, a university committee in 1967 issued what became known as the Kalven Report. The report, a two-page statement of the university's policy in "social and political action," declared that "To perform its mission in the society, a university must sustain an extraordinary environment of freedom of inquiry and maintain an independence from political fashions, passions, and pressures." The report has since been used to justify decisions such as the university's refusal to divest from South Africa in the 1980s and Darfur in the late 2000s.
In 1969, more than 400 students, angry about the dismissal of a popular professor, Marlene Dixon, occupied the Administration Building for two weeks. After the sit-in ended, when Dixon turned down a one-year reappointment, 42 students were expelled and 81 were suspended, the most severe response to student occupations of any American university during the student movement.
In 1978, Hanna Holborn Gray, then the provost and acting president of Yale University, became President of the University of Chicago, a position she held for 15 years.
In 1999, then-President Hugo Sonnenschein announced plans to relax the university's famed core curriculum, reducing the number of required courses from 21 to 15. When "The New York Times", "The Economist", and other major news outlets picked up this story, the university became the focal point of a national debate on education. The changes were ultimately implemented, but the controversy played a role in Sonnenschein's decision to resign in 2000.
From the mid-2000s, the university began a number of multimillion-dollar expansion projects. In 2008, the University of Chicago announced plans to establish the Milton Friedman Institute, which attracted both support and controversy from faculty members and The institute will cost around $200 million and occupy the buildings of the Chicago Theological Seminary. During the same year, investor David G. Booth donated $300 million to the university's Booth School of Business, which is the largest gift in the university's history and the largest gift ever to any business school. In 2009, planning or construction on several new buildings, half of which cost $100 million or more, was underway. Since 2011, major construction projects have included the Jules and Gwen Knapp Center for Biomedical Discovery, a ten-story medical research center, and further additions to the medical campus of the University of Chicago Medical Center. In 2014 the University launched the public phase of a $4.5 billion fundraising campaign. In September 2015, the University received $100 million from The Pearson Family Foundation to establish The Pearson Institute for the Study and Resolution of Global Conflicts and The Pearson Global Forum at the Harris School of Public Policy Studies.
On May 1, 2014, the University of Chicago was named one of fifty-five higher education institutions under investigation by the Office of Civil Rights "for possible violations of federal law over the handling of sexual violence and harassment complaints" by the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault.
In 2019, the university created its first school in three decades, the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering.
The main campus of the University of Chicago consists of in the Chicago neighborhoods of Hyde Park and Woodlawn, approximately eight miles (12 km) south of downtown Chicago. The northern and southern portions of campus are separated by the Midway Plaisance, a large, linear park created for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. In 2011, Travel+Leisure listed the university as one of the most beautiful college campuses in the United States.
The first buildings of the campus, which make up what is now known as the Main Quadrangles, were part of a master plan conceived by two University of Chicago trustees and plotted by Chicago architect Henry Ives Cobb. The Main Quadrangles consist of six quadrangles, each surrounded by buildings, bordering one larger quadrangle. The buildings of the Main Quadrangles were designed by Cobb, Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, Holabird & Roche, and other architectural firms in a mixture of the Victorian Gothic and Collegiate Gothic styles, patterned on the colleges of the University of Oxford. (Mitchell Tower, for example, is modeled after Oxford's Magdalen Tower, and the university Commons, Hutchinson Hall, replicates Christ Church Hall.) In celebration of the 2018 Illinois Bicentennial, the University of Chicago Quadrangles were selected as one of the Illinois 200 Great Places by the American Institute of Architects Illinois component (AIA Illinois).
After the 1940s, the campus's Gothic style began to give way to modern styles. In 1955, Eero Saarinen was contracted to develop a second master plan, which led to the construction of buildings both north and south of the Midway, including the Laird Bell Law Quadrangle (a complex designed by Saarinen); a series of arts buildings; a building designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe for the university's School of Social Service Administration, a building which is to become the home of the Harris School of Public Policy Studies by Edward Durrell Stone, and the Regenstein Library, the largest building on campus, a brutalist structure designed by Walter Netsch of the Chicago firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Another master plan, designed in 1999 and updated in 2004, produced the Gerald Ratner Athletics Center (2003), the Max Palevsky Residential Commons (2001), South Campus Residence Hall and dining commons (2009), a new children's hospital, and other construction, expansions, and restorations. In 2011, the university completed the glass dome-shaped Joe and Rika Mansueto Library, which provides a grand reading room for the university library and prevents the need for an off-campus book depository.
The site of Chicago Pile-1 is a National Historic Landmark and is marked by the Henry Moore sculpture "Nuclear Energy". Robie House, a Frank Lloyd Wright building acquired by the university in 1963, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site as well as a National Historic Landmark, as is room 405 of the George Herbert Jones Laboratory, where Glenn T. Seaborg and his team were the first to isolate plutonium. Hitchcock Hall, an undergraduate dormitory, is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The university also maintains facilities apart from its main campus. The university's Booth School of Business maintains campuses in Hong Kong, London, and the downtown Streeterville neighborhood of Chicago. The Center in Paris, a campus located on the left bank of the Seine in Paris, hosts various undergraduate and graduate study programs. In fall 2010, the university opened a center in Beijing, near Renmin University's campus in Haidian District. The most recent additions are a center in New Delhi, India, which opened in 2014, and a center in Hong Kong which opened in 2015.
The university is governed by a board of trustees. The Board of Trustees oversees the long-term development and plans of the university and manages fundraising efforts, and is composed of 55 members including the university President. Directly beneath the President are the Provost, fourteen Vice Presidents (including the Chief Financial Officer, Chief Investment Officer, and Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services), the Directors of Argonne National Laboratory and Fermilab, the Secretary of the university, and the Student Ombudsperson. , the Chairman of the Board of Trustees is Joseph Neubauer, and the President of the university is Robert Zimmer. In December 2013 it was announced that the Director of Argonne National Laboratory, Eric Isaacs, would become Provost. Isaacs was replaced as Provost in March 2016 by Daniel Diermeier.
The university's endowment was the 12th largest among American educational institutions and state university systems in 2013 and was valued at $8.2 billion. Part of President Zimmer's financial plan for the university has been an increase in accumulation of debt to finance large building projects. This has drawn both support and criticism from many in the university community.
The academic bodies of the University of Chicago consist of the College, five divisions of graduate research, six professional schools, and the Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies. The university also contains a library system, the University of Chicago Press, and the University of Chicago Medical Center, and oversees several laboratories, including Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), Argonne National Laboratory, and the Marine Biological Laboratory. The university is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission.
The university runs on a quarter system in which the academic year is divided into four terms: Summer (June–August), Autumn (September–December), Winter (January–March), and Spring (April–June). Full-time undergraduate students take three to four courses every quarter for approximately eleven weeks before their quarterly academic breaks. The school year typically begins in late September and ends in mid-June.
The University of Chicago has an extensive record of producing successful business leaders and billionaires. "ARWU" has consistently placed the University of Chicago among the top 10 universities in the world, and the 2020 "QS World University Rankings" placed the university in 10th place worldwide. The university's law and business schools rank among the top five professional schools in the United States. The business school is currently ranked first in the US by "US News & World Report" and first in the world by "The Economist", while the law school is ranked fourth by "US News & World Report" and first by "Above the Law".
Chicago has also been consistently recognized to be one of the top 15 university brands in the world, retaining the number three spot in the 2019 U.S. News Best Colleges Rankings. In a corporate study carried out by "The New York Times", the university's graduates were shown to be among the most valued in the world.
The College of the University of Chicago grants Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees in 51 academic majors and 33 minors. The college's academics are divided into five divisions: the Biological Sciences Collegiate Division, the Physical Sciences Collegiate Division, the Social Sciences Collegiate Division, the Humanities Collegiate Division, and the New Collegiate Division. The first four are sections within their corresponding graduate divisions, while the New Collegiate Division administers interdisciplinary majors and studies which do not fit in one of the other four divisions.
Undergraduate students are required to take a distribution of courses to satisfy the university's general education requirements, commonly known as the Common Core. In 2012–2013, the Core classes at Chicago were limited to 17 courses, and are generally led by a full-time professor (as opposed to a teaching assistant). As of the 2013–2014 school year, 15 courses and demonstrated proficiency in a foreign language are required under the Core. Undergraduate courses at the University of Chicago are known for their demanding standards, heavy workload and academic difficulty; according to "Uni in the USA", "Among the academic cream of American universities – Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, and the University of Chicago – it is UChicago that can most convincingly claim to provide the most rigorous, intense learning experience."
The university graduate schools and committees are divided into five divisions: Biological Sciences, Humanities, Physical Sciences, Social Sciences, and the Institute for Molecular Engineering. In the autumn quarter of 2015, the university enrolled 3,588 graduate students: 438 in the Biological Sciences Division, 801 in the Humanities Division, 1,102 in the Physical Sciences Division, 1,165 in the Social Sciences Division, and 52 in the Institute for Molecular Engineering.
The university is home to several committees for interdisciplinary scholarship, including the John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought.
The university contains seven professional schools: the Pritzker School of Medicine, the Booth School of Business, the University of Chicago Law School, the University of Chicago Divinity School, the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy Studies, and the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration. The Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies offers non-degree courses and certificates as well as degree programs.
The Law School is accredited by the American Bar Association, the Divinity School is accredited by the Commission on Accrediting of the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada, Pritzker is accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education.
The university runs a number of academic institutions and programs apart from its undergraduate and postgraduate schools. It operates the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools (a private day school for K-12 students and day care), and a public charter school with four campuses on the South Side of Chicago administered by the university's Urban Education Institute. In addition, the Hyde Park Day School, a school for students with learning disabilities, and the Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School, a residential treatment program for those with behavioral and emotional problems, maintains a location on the University of Chicago campus. Since 1983, the University of Chicago has maintained the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project, a mathematics program used in urban primary and secondary schools. The university runs a program called the Council on Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences, which administers interdisciplinary workshops to provide a forum for graduate students, faculty, and visiting scholars to present scholarly work in progress.
The university also operates the University of Chicago Press, the largest university press in the United States.
The University of Chicago Library system encompasses six libraries that contain a total of 11 million volumes, the 9th most among library systems in the United States. The university's main library is the Regenstein Library, which contains one of the largest collections of print volumes in the United States. The Joe and Rika Mansueto Library, built in 2011, houses a large study space and an automated book storage and retrieval system. The John Crerar Library contains more than 1.4 million volumes in the biological, medical and physical sciences and collections in general science and the philosophy and history of science, medicine, and technology. The university also operates a number of special libraries, including the D'Angelo Law Library, the Social Service Administration Library, and the Eckhart Library for mathematics and computer science. Harper Memorial Library is now a reading and study room.
In fiscal year 2015, the University of Chicago spent $421.1 million on research. It is classified by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as an institution with "highest research activity" and is a founding member of the Association of American Universities and was a member of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation from 1946 through June 29, 2016, when the group's name was changed to the Big Ten Academic Alliance. The University of Chicago is not a member of the rebranded consortium, but will continue to be a collaborator.
The university operates more than 140 research centers and institutes on campus. Among these are the Oriental Institute—a museum and research center for Near Eastern studies owned and operated by the university—and a number of National Resource Centers, including the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Chicago also operates or is affiliated with several research institutions apart from the university proper. The university manages Argonne National Laboratory, part of the United States Department of Energy's national laboratory system, and co-manages Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) , a nearby particle physics laboratory, as well as a stake in the Apache Point Observatory in Sunspot, New Mexico. Faculty and students at the adjacent Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago collaborate with the university. In 2013, the university formed an affiliation with the formerly independent Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass. Although formally unrelated, the National Opinion Research Center is located on Chicago's campus.
The University of Chicago has been the site of some important experiments and academic movements. In economics, the university has played an important role in shaping ideas about the free market and is the namesake of the Chicago school of economics, the school of economic thought supported by Milton Friedman and other economists. The university's sociology department was the first independent sociology department in the United States and gave birth to the Chicago school of sociology. In physics, the university was the site of the Chicago Pile-1 (the first controlled, self-sustaining man-made nuclear chain reaction, part of the Manhattan Project), of Robert Millikan's oil-drop experiment that calculated the charge of the electron, and of the development of radiocarbon dating by Willard F. Libby in 1947. The chemical experiment that tested how life originated on early Earth, the Miller–Urey experiment, was conducted at the university. REM sleep was discovered at the university in 1953 by Nathaniel Kleitman and Eugene Aserinsky.
The University of Chicago (Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics) operated the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin from 1897 until 2018, where the largest operating refracting telescope in the world and other telescopes are located.
The UChicago Arts program joins academic departments and programs in the Division of the Humanities and the college, as well as professional organizations including the Court Theatre, the Oriental Institute, the Smart Museum of Art, the Renaissance Society, University of Chicago Presents, and student arts organizations. The university has an artist-in-residence program and scholars in performance studies, contemporary art criticism, and film history. It has offered a doctorate in music composition since 1933 and cinema and media studies since 2000, a master of fine arts in visual arts (early 1970s), and a master of arts in the humanities with a creative writing track (2000). It has bachelor's degree programs in visual arts, music, and art history, and, more recently, cinema and media studies (1996) and theater and performance studies (2002). The college's general education core includes a "dramatic, musical, and visual arts" requirement, inviting students to study the history of the arts, stage desire, or begin working with sculpture. Several thousand major and non-major undergraduates enroll annually in creative and performing arts classes. UChicago is often considered the birthplace of improvisational comedy as the Compass Players student comedy troupe evolved into The Second City improv theater troupe in 1959. The Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts opened in October 2012, five years after a $35 million gift from alumnus David Logan and his wife Reva. The center includes spaces for exhibitions, performances, classes, and media production. The Logan Center was designed by Tod Williams and Billie Tsien. This building is entirely glass. The brick is a facade designed to keep the glass safe from the wind. The architects later removed sections of the bricks when pressure arose in the form of complaints that the views of the city were blocked.
In Fall 2018, the university enrolled 6,595 undergraduate students, 9,899 graduate students, and 616 non-degree students. The college class of 2022 is composed of 51% male students and 49% female students. 23% of the class identify as Asian, 15% as Hispanic, and 9% as Black. 15% of the class is international.
Admissions to the University of Chicago is highly selective. The middle 50% band of SAT scores for the undergraduate class of 2022 was 1490–1560 (98th-99th percentiles), the average MCAT score for students entering the Pritzker School of Medicine class of 2022 was 518 (96th percentile), the median GMAT score for students entering the full-time Booth MBA program class of 2021 was 730 (96th percentile), and the median LSAT score for entering students the Law School class of 2021 was 171 (98th percentile). For the class of 2024, the College of the University of Chicago had an acceptance rate of 6.2%.
In 2018, the University of Chicago attracted national headlines by becoming the first major research university to no longer require SAT/ACT scores from college applicants.
The University of Chicago hosts 19 varsity sports teams: 10 men's teams and 9 women's teams, all called the Maroons, with 502 students participating in the 2012–2013 school year.
The Maroons compete in the NCAA's Division III as members of the University Athletic Association (UAA). The university was a founding member of the Big Ten Conference and participated in the NCAA Division I men's basketball and football and was a regular participant in the men's basketball tournament. In 1935, the University of Chicago reached the Sweet Sixteen. In 1935, Chicago Maroons football player Jay Berwanger became the first winner of the Heisman Trophy. However, the university chose to withdraw from the Big Ten Conference in 1946 after University President Robert Maynard Hutchins de-emphasized varsity athletics in 1939 and dropped football. In 1969, Chicago reinstated football as a Division III team, resuming playing its home games at the new Stagg Field. UChicago is also the home of the ultimate frisbee team Chicago Junk.
Students at the University of Chicago operate more than 400 clubs and organizations known as Recognized Student Organizations (RSOs). These include cultural and religious groups, academic clubs and teams, and common-interest organizations. Notable extracurricular groups include the University of Chicago College Bowl Team, which has won 118 tournaments and 15 national championships, leading both categories internationally. The university's competitive Model United Nations team was the top-ranked team in North America in 2013–14, 2014–2015, 2015–2016, and again for the 2017–2018 season. The University's Model UN team is also the first to be in the top 5 for almost a decade, according to Best Delegate. Among notable student organizations are the nation's longest continuously running student film society Doc Films, the organizing committee for the University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt, the weekly student newspaper "The Chicago Maroon", the satirical "Chicago Shady Dealer", the nation's second-oldest continuously running student improvisational theater troupe "Off-Off Campus", and the investment club "The Blue Chips".
All Recognized Student Organizations, from the University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt to Model UN, in addition to academic teams, sports clubs, arts groups, and more are funded by The University of Chicago Student Government. Student Government consists of graduate and undergraduate students elected to represent members from their respective academic units. It is led by an Executive Committee, chaired by a President with the assistance of two Vice Presidents, one for Administration and the other for Student Life, elected together as a slate by the student body each spring. Its annual budget is greater than $2 million.
There are 16 Fraternities at the university: Alpha Delta Phi (Chicago Chapter), Alpha Epsilon Pi (Lambda Chapter), Alpha Phi Alpha (Theta Chapter), Delta Epsilon Psi (Alpha Kappa), Delta Kappa Epsilon (Delta Delta), Delta Tau Delta (Gamma Alpha), Delta Upsilon(Chicago Chapter), Kappa Alpha Psi (Iota Chapter), Lambda Phi Epsilon (Psi Chapter), Phi Delta Theta (Beta Chapter), Phi Gamma Delta (Chi Upsilon Chapter), Phi Iota Alpha (Chicago Colony Chapter), Psi Upsilon (Omega Chapter), Sigma Chi (Omicron Omicron Chapter), Sigma Phi Epsilon (Omicron Omicron Chapter) and Zeta Psi (Omega Alpha Chapter). There are Six Sororities are Alpha Kappa Alpha (Beta Chapter), Alpha Omicron Pi (Phi Chi Chapter), Delta Gamma (Eta Zeta Chapter), Delta Sigma Theta (Lambda Chapter), Kappa Alpha Theta (Epsilon Phi Chapter) and Pi Beta Phi (Kappa Chapter) at the University of Chicago, as well as one co-ed community service fraternity are Alpha Phi Omega(Gamma Sigma Chapter). Social fraternities and sororities are not recognized by the university as registered student organizations. Four of the sororities are members of the National Panhellenic Conference There is no Interfraternity Council on campus. , approximately 20 to 25 percent of students are members of fraternities or sororities. This is an increase from the numbers published in the year 2007 by the student activities office stating that one in ten undergraduates participated in Greek life.
On-campus undergraduate students at the University of Chicago participate in a house system in which each student is assigned to one of the university's 7 residence hall buildings and to a smaller community within their residence hall called a "House". There are 39 houses, with an average of 70 students in each House. Traditionally only first years were required to live in housing, starting with the Class of 2023, students are required to live in housing for the first 2 years of enrollment. About 60% of undergraduate students live on campus.
For graduate students, the university owns and operates 28 apartment buildings near campus.
Every May since 1987, the University of Chicago has held the University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt, in which large teams of students compete to obtain notoriously esoteric items from a list. Since 1963, the Festival of the Arts (FOTA) takes over campus for 7–10 days of exhibitions and interactive artistic endeavors. Every January, the university holds a week-long winter festival, Kuviasungnerk/Kangeiko, which includes early morning exercise routines and fitness workshops. The university also annually holds a summer carnival and concert called Summer Breeze that hosts outside musicians and is home to Doc Films, a student film society founded in 1932 that screens films nightly at the university. Since 1946, the university has organized the Latke-Hamantash Debate, which involves humorous discussions about the relative merits and meanings of latkes and hamantashen.
, there have been 100 Nobel laureates affiliated with the University of Chicago, 20 of whom were pursuing research or on faculty at the university at the time of the award announcement. Notable alumni and faculty affiliated with the university include 33 Nobel laureates in Economics. No university has had more affiliated Nobel laureates in Economics.
In addition, many Chicago alumni and scholars have won the Fulbright awards and 53 have matriculated as Rhodes Scholars.
In 2019, the University of Chicago claimed 188,000 alumni. While the university's first president, William Rainey Harper stressed the importance of perennial theory over practicality in his institution's curriculum, this has not stopped the alumni of Chicago from being among the wealthiest in the world.
In business, notable alumni include Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Oracle Corporation founder and the third richest man in America Larry Ellison, Goldman Sachs and MF Global CEO as well as former Governor of New Jersey Jon Corzine, McKinsey & Company founder and author of the first management accounting textbook James O. McKinsey, co-founder of the Blackstone Group Peter G. Peterson, co-founder of AQR Capital Management Cliff Asness, founder of Dimensional Fund Advisors David Booth, founder of The Carlyle Group David Rubenstein, former COO of Goldman Sachs Andrew Alper, billionaire investor and founder of Oaktree Capital Management Howard Marks (investor), Bloomberg L.P. CEO Daniel Doctoroff, Credit Suisse CEO Brady Dougan, Morningstar, Inc. founder and CEO Joe Mansueto, Chicago Cubs owner and chairman Thomas S. Ricketts, and NBA commissioner Adam Silver.
Notable alumni in the field of law, government and politics include Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, President of the Supreme Court of Israel Shimon Agranat, Attorney General and federal judge Robert Bork, Attorneys General Ramsey Clark, John Ashcroft and Edward Levi, Prime Minister of Canada William Lyon Mackenzie King, 33rd Prime Minister of New Zealand Geoffrey Palmer (politician), 11th Prime Minister of Poland Marek Belka, Governor of the Bank of Japan Masaaki Shirakawa, Obama campaign advisor and top political advisor to President Bill Clinton David Axelrod, the founder of modern community organizing Saul Alinsky, Prohibition agent Eliot Ness, current Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot, the first female African-American Senator Carol Moseley Braun, United States Senator from Vermont and 2016 Democratic Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders, former World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, and Amien Rais (Ph.D. 1984) – professor; former chairman of the People's Consultative Assembly of the Republic of Indonesia.
Notable alumni, who are leaders in higher education, have emerged from almost all parts of the university: college president and chancellor Rebecca Chopp; current president of Middlebury College Laurie L. Patton; Master of Clare College, Cambridge and Vice-Chancellor of University of Cambridge Eric Ashby, Baron Ashby; president of Princeton University Christopher L. Eisgruber; former president of Morehouse College Robert M. Franklin, Jr.; President of the Open University of Israel Jacob Metzer; and president of Shimer College Susan Henking.
In journalism, notable alumni include "New York Times" columnist and commentator on "PBS News Hour" David Brooks, "Washington Post" columnist David Broder, "Washington Post" publisher Katharine Graham, reporter and commentator Virginia Graham, investigative journalist and political writer Seymour Hersh, "The Progressive" columnist Milton Mayer, four-time Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Rick Atkinson, statistical analyst and "FiveThirtyEight" founder and creator Nate Silver, and CBS News correspondent Rebecca Jarvis.
In literature, author of the New York Times bestseller "Before I Fall" Lauren Oliver, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Philip Roth; Canadian-born Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize for Literature winning writer Saul Bellow; political philosopher, literary critic and author of the New York Times bestseller "The Closing of the American Mind" Allan Bloom; author of "The Big Country" and Matt Helm spy novels Donald Hamilton; "The Good War" author Studs Terkel; writer, essayist, filmmaker, teacher, and political activist Susan Sontag; analytic philosopher and Stanford University Professor of Comparative literature Richard Rorty; cultural commentator, author, and president of St. Stephen's College (now Bard College) Bernard Iddings Bell; and novelist and satirist Kurt Vonnegut are notable alumni.
In the arts and entertainment, minimalist composer Philip Glass, dancer, choreographer and leader in the field of dance anthropology Katherine Dunham, Bungie founder and developer of the "Halo" video game series Alex Seropian, Serial host Sarah Koenig, actor Ed Asner, actress Anna Chlumsky, Pulitzer Prize for Criticism winning film critic and the subject of the 2014 documentary film "Life Itself" Roger Ebert, director, writer, and comedian Mike Nichols, film director and screenwriter Philip Kaufman, and photographer and writer Carl Van Vechten, photographer and writer, are graduates.
In science, alumni include astronomers Carl Sagan, a prominent contributor to the scientific research of extraterrestrial life, and Edwin Hubble, known for "Hubble's Law", NASA astronaut John M. Grunsfeld, geneticist James Watson, best known as one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA, experimental physicist Luis Alvarez, popular environmentalist David Suzuki, balloonist Jeannette Piccard, biologists Ernest Everett Just and Lynn Margulis, computer scientist Richard Hamming, the creator of the Hamming Code, lithium-ion battery developer John B. Goodenough, mathematician and Fields Medal recipient Paul Joseph Cohen, geochemist Clair Cameron Patterson, who developed the uranium-lead dating method into lead-lead dating, geologist and geophysicist M. King Hubbert, known for the Hubbert curve and Hubbert peak theory, the main components of peak oil, and "Queen of Carbon" Mildred Dresselhaus. Nuclear physicist and researcher Stanton Friedman, who worked on some early projects involving nuclear-powered spacecraft propulsion systems, is also a graduate (M.Sc). Ray Solomonoff, one of the founders of the field of machine learning as well as Kolmogorov complexity, got a BS and MS in Physics in 1951, studying under Rudolf Carnap.
In economics, notable Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences winners Milton Friedman, a major advisor to Republican U.S. President Ronald Reagan, Conservative British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet, George Stigler, Nobel laureate and proponent of regulatory capture theory, Herbert A. Simon, responsible for the modern interpretation of the concept of organizational decision-making, Paul Samuelson, the first American to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, and Eugene Fama, known for his work on portfolio theory, asset pricing and stock market behavior, are all graduates. American economist, social theorist, political philosopher, and author Thomas Sowell is also an alumnus. Brazil's Minister of the Economy Paulo Guedes received his Ph.D. from UChicago in 1978.
Other prominent alumni include anthropologists David Graeber and Donald Johanson, who is best known for discovering the fossil of a female hominid australopithecine known as "Lucy" in the Afar Triangle region, psychologist John B. Watson, American psychologist who established the psychological school of behaviorism, communication theorist Harold Innis, chess grandmaster Samuel Reshevsky, and conservative international relations scholar and White House Coordinator of Security Planning for the National Security Council Samuel P. Huntington.
American Civil Rights Movement leaders Vernon Johns, considered by some to be the founder of the American Civil Rights Movement, American educator, socialist and cofounder of the Highlander Folk School Myles Horton, civil rights attorney and chairman of the Fair Employment Practices Committee Earl B. Dickerson, Tuskegee Airmen commander Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., and African-American history scholar and journalist Carter G. Woodson are all alumni.
Three students from the university have been prosecuted in notable court cases: the infamous thrill killers Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb and high school science teacher John T. Scopes who was tried in the Scopes Monkey Trial for teaching evolution.
Notable faculty in economics include Frank Knight, Milton Friedman, George Stigler, James Heckman, Gary Becker, Robert Fogel, Robert Lucas, Jr. and Eugene Fama. Additionally, the John Bates Clark Medal, which is rewarded annually to the best economist under the age of 40, has also been awarded to 4 current members of the university faculty.
Notable faculty in physics have included the speed of light calculator A. A. Michelson, elementary charge calculator Robert A. Millikan, discoverer of the Compton Effect Arthur H. Compton, the creator of the first nuclear reactor Enrico Fermi, "the father of the hydrogen bomb" Edward Teller, "one of the most brilliant and productive experimental physicists of the twentieth century" Luis Walter Alvarez, Murray Gell-Mann who introduced the quark, second female Nobel laureate Maria Goeppert-Mayer, the youngest American winner of the Nobel Prize Tsung-Dao Lee, and astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar.
In law, former U.S. President Barack Obama, the most cited legal scholar of the 20th century Richard Posner, Supreme Court justices Elena Kagan, Antonin Scalia and John Paul Stevens, and Nobel laureate in Economics Ronald Coase have served on the faculty. Other distinguished scholars who have served on the faculty include Karl Llewellyn, Edward Levi and Cass Sunstein.
Philosophers John Dewey who founded functional psychology, George H. Mead who is considered to be one of the founders of social psychology and the American sociological tradition in general, Leo Strauss, prominent philosopher and the founder of the Straussian School in philosophy, noted analyzer of power Hannah Arendt, and Nobel Prize in Literature winning thinker Bertrand Russell, as well as writers T.S. Eliot, Ralph Ellison and J.M. Coetzee have all served on the faculty.
Past faculty have also included egyptologist James Henry Breasted, biochemist and National Women's Hall of Fame member Florence B. Seibert, mathematician Alberto Calderón, one of the leading figures of the Austrian School of Economics and Nobel prize winner Friedrich Hayek, meteorologist Ted Fujita, chemists Glenn T. Seaborg, the developer of the actinide concept and Nobel Prize winner Yuan T. Lee, Nobel Prize winning novelist Saul Bellow, political philosopher and author Allan Bloom, conservative political philosopher and historian Richard M. Weaver, cancer researchers Charles Brenton Huggins and Janet Rowley, biologist Susan Lindquist, astronomer Gerard Kuiper, one of the most important figures in the early development of the discipline of linguistics Edward Sapir, and the founder of McKinsey & Co., James O. McKinsey.
Current faculty include the philosophers Jean-Luc Marion, James F. Conant, and Robert Pippin, anthropologist Marshall Sahlins, historians Dipesh Chakrabarty, David Nirenberg and Kenneth Pomeranz, linguistic anthropology Michael Silverstein, paleontologists Neil Shubin and Paul Sereno, evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne, Nobel Prize winning physicist James Cronin, Nobel Prize winning economists Eugene Fama, James Heckman, Lars Peter Hansen, Roger Myerson, Richard Thaler, and Robert Lucas, Jr., Freakonomics author and noted economist Steven Levitt, erstwhile governor of India's central bank Raghuram Rajan, former Chairman of President Barack Obama's Council of Economic Advisors Austan Goolsbee, Kyoto Prize winner Martha Nussbaum, Shakespeare scholar David Bevington, and political scientists John Mearsheimer and Robert Pape. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32127 |
Uniformitarianism
Uniformitarianism, also known as the Doctrine of Uniformity or the Uniformitarian Principle, is the assumption that the same natural laws and processes that operate in our present-day scientific observations have always operated in the universe in the past and apply everywhere in the universe. It refers to invariance in the metaphysical principles underpinning science, such as the constancy of cause and effect throughout space-time, but has also been used to describe spatiotemporal invariance of physical laws. Though an unprovable postulate that cannot be verified using the scientific method, some consider that uniformitarianism should be a required first principle in scientific research. Other scientists disagree and consider that nature is not absolutely uniform, even though it does exhibit certain regularities.
In geology, uniformitarianism has included the gradualistic concept that "the present is the key to the past" and that geological events occur at the same rate now as they have always done, though many modern geologists no longer hold to a strict gradualism. Coined by William Whewell, it was originally proposed in contrast to catastrophism by British naturalists in the late 18th century, starting with the work of the geologist James Hutton in his many books including "Theory of the Earth". Hutton's work was later refined by scientist John Playfair and popularised by geologist Charles Lyell's "Principles of Geology" in 1830. Today, Earth's history is considered to have been a slow, gradual process, punctuated by occasional natural catastrophic events.
The earlier conceptions likely had little influence on 18th-century European geological explanations for the formation of Earth. Abraham Gottlob Werner (1749–1817) proposed Neptunism, where strata represented deposits from shrinking seas precipitated onto primordial rocks such as granite. In 1785 James Hutton proposed an opposing, self-maintaining infinite cycle based on natural history and not on the Biblical account.
Hutton then sought evidence to support his idea that there must have been repeated cycles, each involving deposition on the seabed, uplift with tilting and erosion, and then moving undersea again for further layers to be deposited. At Glen Tilt in the Cairngorm mountains he found granite penetrating metamorphic schists, in a way which indicated to him that the presumed primordial rock had been molten after the strata had formed. He had read about angular unconformities as interpreted by Neptunists, and found an unconformity at Jedburgh where layers of greywacke in the lower layers of the cliff face have been tilted almost vertically before being eroded to form a level plane, under horizontal layers of Old Red Sandstone. In the spring of 1788 he took a boat trip along the Berwickshire coast with John Playfair and the geologist Sir James Hall, and found a dramatic unconformity showing the same sequence at Siccar Point. Playfair later recalled that "the mind seemed to grow giddy by looking so far into the abyss of time", and Hutton concluded a 1788 paper he presented at the Royal Society of Edinburgh, later rewritten as a book, with the phrase "we find no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end".
Both Playfair and Hall wrote their own books on the theory, and for decades robust debate continued between Hutton's supporters and the Neptunists. Georges Cuvier's paleontological work in the 1790s, which established the reality of extinction, explained this by local catastrophes, after which other fixed species repopulated the affected areas. In Britain, geologists adapted this idea into "diluvial theory" which proposed repeated worldwide annihilation and creation of new fixed species adapted to a changed environment, initially identifying the most recent catastrophe as the biblical flood.
From 1830 to 1833 Charles Lyell's multi-volume "Principles of Geology" was published. The work's subtitle was "An attempt to explain the former changes of the Earth's surface by reference to causes now in operation". He drew his explanations from field studies conducted directly before he went to work on the founding geology text, and developed Hutton's idea that the earth was shaped entirely by slow-moving forces still in operation today, acting over a very long period of time. The terms "uniformitarianism" for this idea, and "catastrophism" for the opposing viewpoint, were coined by William Whewell in a review of Lyell's book. "Principles of Geology" was the most influential geological work in the middle of the 19th century.
Geoscientists support diverse systems of Earth history, the nature of which rest on a certain mixture of views about process, control, rate, and state which are preferred. Because geologists and geomorphologists tend to adopt opposite views over process, rate and state in the inorganic world, there are eight different systems of beliefs in the development of the terrestrial sphere. All geoscientists stand by the principle of uniformity of law. Most, but not all, are directed by the principle of simplicity. All make definite assertions about the quality of rate and state in the inorganic realm.
According to Reijer Hooykaas (1963), Lyell's uniformitarianism is a family of four related propositions, not a single idea:
None of these connotations requires another, and they are not all equally inferred by uniformitarians.
Gould explained Lyell's propositions in "Time's Arrow, Time's Cycle" (1987), stating that Lyell conflated two different types of propositions: a pair of methodological assumptions with a pair of substantive hypotheses. The four together make up Lyell's uniformitarianism.
The two methodological assumptions below are accepted to be true by the majority of scientists and geologists. Gould claims that these philosophical propositions must be assumed before you can proceed as a scientist doing science. "You cannot go to a rocky outcrop and observe either the constancy of nature's laws or the working of unknown processes. It works the other way around." You first assume these propositions and "then you go to the outcrop."
The substantive hypotheses were controversial and, in some cases, accepted by few. These hypotheses are judged true or false on empirical grounds through scientific observation and repeated experimental data. This is in contrast with the previous two philosophical assumptions that come before one can do science and so cannot be tested or falsified by science.
Stephen Jay Gould's first scientific paper, "Is uniformitarianism necessary?" (1965), reduced these four assumptions to two. He dismissed the first principle, which asserted spatial and temporal invariance of natural laws, as no longer an issue of debate. He rejected the third (uniformity of rate) as an unjustified limitation on scientific inquiry, as it constrains past geologic rates and conditions to those of the present. So, Lyellian uniformitarianism was unnecessary.
Uniformitarianism was proposed in contrast to catastrophism, which states that the distant past "consisted of epochs of paroxysmal and catastrophic action interposed between periods of comparative tranquility" Especially in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, most geologists took this interpretation to mean that catastrophic events are not important in geologic time; one example of this is the debate of the formation of the Channeled Scablands due to the catastrophic Missoula glacial outburst floods. An important result of this debate and others was the re-clarification that, while the same principles operate in geologic time, catastrophic events that are infrequent on human time-scales can have important consequences in geologic history. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32128 |
Universal Decimal Classification
The Universal Decimal Classification (UDC) is a bibliographic and library classification representing the systematic arrangement of all branches of human knowledge organized as a coherent system in which knowledge fields are related and inter-linked. The UDC is an analytico-synthetic and faceted classification system featuring detailed vocabulary and syntax that enables powerful content indexing and information retrieval in large collections. Since 1991, the UDC has been owned and managed by the UDC Consortium, a non-profit international association of publishers with headquarters in The Hague (Netherlands).
Unlike other library classification schemes that have started their life as national systems, the UDC was conceived and maintained as an international scheme. Its translation in world languages started at the beginning of the 20th century and has since been published in various printed editions in over 40 languages. UDC Summary, an abridged Web version of the scheme is available in over 50 languages. The classification has been modified and extended over the years to cope with increasing output in all areas of human knowledge, and is still under continuous review to take account of new developments.
Albeit originally designed as an indexing and retrieval system, due to its logical structure and scalability, UDC has become one of the most widely used knowledge organization systems in libraries, where it is used for either shelf arrangement, content indexing or both. UDC codes can describe any type of document or object to any desired level of detail. These can include textual documents and other media such as films, video and sound recordings, illustrations, maps as well as realia such as museum objects.
The UDC was developed by the Belgian bibliographers Paul Otlet and Henri La Fontaine at the end of the 19th century. In 1895, they created the Universal Bibliographic Repertory ("Répertoire Bibliographique Universel") (RBU) which was intended to become a comprehensive classified index to all published information. The idea that the RBU should take the form of a card catalogue came from the young American zoologist Herbert Haviland Field, who was at the time himself setting up a bibliographical agency in Zurich, the Concilium Bibliographicum. A means of arranging the entries would be needed, and Otlet, having heard of the Dewey Decimal Classification, wrote to Melvil Dewey and obtained permission to translate it into French. The idea outgrew the plan of mere translation, and a number of radical innovations were made, adapting the purely enumerative classification (in which all the subjects envisaged are already listed and coded) into one which allows for synthesis (that is, the construction of compound numbers to denote interrelated subjects that could never be exhaustively foreseen); various possible relations between subjects were identified, and symbols assigned to represent them. In its first edition in French "Manuel du Répertoire bibliographique universel" (1905), the UDC already included many features that were revolutionary in the context of knowledge classifications: tables of generally applicable (aspect-free) concepts—called common auxiliary tables; a series of special auxiliary tables with specific but re-usable attributes in a particular field of knowledge; an expressive notational system with connecting symbols and syntax rules to enable coordination of subjects and the creation of a documentation language proper.
The Universal Bibliographic Repertory itself has developed into a remarkable information resource. In the period before World War I it grew to more than 11 million records. The catalogue and its content organized by UDC can still be seen in Mundaneum in Mons, Belgium (in 2013 recommended for inclusion in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register).
UDC is used in around 150,000 libraries in 130 countries and in many bibliographical services which require detailed content indexing. In a number of countries it is the main classification system for information exchange and is used in all types of libraries: public, school, academic and special libraries.
UDC is also used in national bibliographies of around 30 countries. Examples of large databases indexed by UDC include:
UDC has traditionally been used for the indexing of scientific articles which was an important source of information of scientific output in the period predating electronic publishing. Collections of research articles in many countries covering decades of scientific output contain UDC codes. Examples of journal articles indexed by UDC:
The design of UDC lends itself to machine readability, and the system has been used both with early automatic mechanical sorting devices, and modern library OPACs. Since 1993, a standard version of UDC has been maintained and distributed in a database format: UDC Master Reference File (UDC MRF) which is updated and released regularly. The 2011 version of the MRF (released in 2012) contains over 70,000 classes. In the past full printed editions used to have around 220,000 subdivisions.
A notation is a code commonly used in classification schemes to represent a class, i.e. a subject and its position in the hierarchy, to enable mechanical sorting and filing of subjects. UDC uses Arabic numerals arranged decimally. Every number is thought of as a decimal fraction with the initial decimal point omitted, which determines the filing order. An advantage of decimal notational systems is that they are infinitely extensible, and when new subdivisions are introduced, they need not disturb the existing allocation of numbers. For ease of reading, a UDC notation is usually punctuated after every third digit:
In UDC the notation has two features that make the scheme easier to browse and work with:
UDC is an analytico-synthetic and faceted classification. It allows an unlimited combination of attributes of a subject and relationships between subjects to be expressed. UDC codes from different tables can be combined to present various aspects of document content and form, e.g. 94(410)"19"(075) History "(main subject)" of United Kingdom "(place)" in 20th century "(time)", a textbook "(document form)". Or: 37:2 Relationship between Education and Religion. Complex UDC expressions can be accurately parsed into constituent elements.
UDC is also a disciplinary classification covering the entire universe of knowledge. This type of classification can also be described as "aspect" or "perspective", which means that concepts are subsumed and placed under the field in which they are studied. Thus, the same concept can appear in different fields of knowledge. This particular feature is usually implemented in UDC by re-using the same concept in various combinations with the main subject, e.g. a code for language in common auxiliaries of language is used to derive numbers for ethnic grouping, individual languages in linguistics and individual literatures. Or, a code from the auxiliaries of place, e.g. "(410) United Kingdom", uniquely representing the concept of United Kingdom can be used to express "911(410) Regional geography of United Kingdom" and "94(410) History of United Kingdom".
Concepts are organized in two kinds of tables in UDC:
The vacant class 4 is the result of a planned schedule expansion. This class was freed by moving linguistics into class 8 in the 1960s to make space for future developments in the rapidly expanding fields of knowledge; primarily natural sciences and technology.
"Common auxiliaries" are aspect-free concepts that can be used in combination with any other UDC code from the main classes or with other common auxiliaries. They have unique notational representations that makes them stand out in complex expressions. Common auxiliary numbers always begin with a certain symbol known as a facet indicator, e.g. = (equal sign) always introduces concepts representing the language of a document; (0...) numbers enclosed in parentheses starting with zero always represent a concept designating document form. Thus (075) Textbook and =111 English can be combined to express, e.g.(075)=111 Textbooks in English, and when combined with numbers from the main UDC tables they can be used as follows: 2(075)=111 Religion textbooks in English, 51(075)=111 Mathematics textbooks in English etc.
In order to preserve the precise meaning and enable accurate parsing of complex UDC expressions, a number of connecting symbols are made available to relate and extend UDC numbers. These are:
UDC classes in this outline are taken from the Multilingual Universal Decimal Classification Summary (UDCC Publication No. 088) released by the UDC Consortium under the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3.0 license (first release 2009, subsequent update 2012).
00 Prolegomena. Fundamentals of knowledge and culture. Propaedeutics
101 Nature and role of philosophy
The UDC tables for religion are fully faceted. Indicated in italics below, are special auxiliary numbers that can be used to express attributes (facets) of any specific faith. Any special number can be combined with any religion e.g. "-5 Worship" can be used to express e.g. "26-5 Worship in Judaism", "27-5 Worship in Christianity", "24-5 Worship in Buddhism". The complete special auxiliary tables contain around 2000 subdivisions of various attributes that can be attached to express various aspects of individual faiths to a great level of specificity allowing equal level of detail for every religion.
303 Methods of the social sciences
This section is currently vacant.
502/504 Environmental science. Conservation of natural resources. Threats to the environment and protection against them
Class 6 occupies the largest proportion of UDC schedules. It contains over 44,000 subdivisions. Each specific field of technology or industry usually contains more than one special auxiliary table with concepts needed to express operations, processes, materials and products. As a result, UDC codes are often created through the combination of various attributes. Equally, some parts of this class enumerate concepts to a great level of detail e.g. "621.882.212 Hexagon screws with additional shapes. Including: Flank screws. Collar screws. Cap screws"
"7.01/.09 Special auxiliary subdivision for the arts"
Tables for class 8 are fully faceted and details are expressed through combination with common auxiliaries of language (Table 1c) and a series of special auxiliary tables to indicate other facets or attributes in Linguistics or Literature. As a result, this class allows for great specificity in indexing although the schedules themselves occupy very little space in UDC. The subdivisions of e.g. "811 Languages" or "821 Literature" are derived from common auxiliaries of language =1/=9 (Table 1c) by substituting a point for the equals sign, e.g. 811.111 English language (as a subject of a linguistic study) and "821.111 English literature" derives from "=111 English language". Common auxiliaries of place and time are also frequently used in this class to express place and time facets of Linguistics or Literature, e.g. "821.111(71)"18" English literature of Canada in 19th century"
Tables for Geography and History in UDC are fully faceted and place, time and ethnic grouping facets are expressed through combination with common auxiliaries of place (Table 1d), ethnic grouping (Table 1f) and time (Table 1g)
=1/=9 Languages (natural and artificial)
"(0.02/.08) Special auxiliary subdivision for document form"
(1) Place and space in general. Localization. Orientation
"They are derived mainly from the common auxiliaries of language =... (Table 1c) and so may also usefully distinguish linguistic-cultural groups, e.g. =111 English is used to represent (=111) English speaking peoples"
"0/2" Dates and ranges of time (CE or AD) in conventional Christian (Gregorian) reckoning
-02 Common auxiliaries of properties
Special classifications based on or used in combination with UDC
Other faceted classifications:
Other library classifications | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32129 |
Ultima (series)
Ultima is a series of open world fantasy role-playing video games from Origin Systems, Inc. "Ultima" was created by Richard Garriott. The series is one of the most significant in computer game history and is considered, alongside "Wizardry" and "Might and Magic", to be one of the establishers of the CRPG genre. Several games of the series are considered seminal entries in their genre, and each installment introduced new innovations which then were widely copied by other games. Electronic Arts owns the brand.
The games take place for the most part in a world called Britannia; the constantly recurring hero is the Avatar, first named so in "Ultima IV". They are primarily within the scope of fantasy fiction but contain science fiction elements as well.
The main "Ultima" series consists of nine installments (the seventh title is further divided into two parts) grouped into three trilogies, or "Ages": The Age of Darkness ("Ultima I-III"), The Age of Enlightenment ("Ultima IV-VI"), and The Age of Armageddon ("Ultima VII-IX"). The last is also sometimes referred to as "The Guardian Saga" after its chief antagonist. The first trilogy is set in a fantasy world named Sosaria, but during the cataclysmic events of The Age of Darkness, it is sundered and three quarters of it vanish. What is left becomes known as Britannia, a realm ruled by the benevolent Lord British, and is where the later games mostly take place. The protagonist in all the games is a canonically male resident of Earth who is called upon by Lord British to protect Sosaria and, later, Britannia from a number of dangers. Originally, the player character was referred to as "the Stranger", but by the end of "Ultima IV" he becomes universally known as the Avatar.
In "" (1981), the Stranger is first summoned to Sosaria to defeat the evil wizard Mondain who aims to enslave it. Since Mondain possesses the Gem of Immortality, which makes him invulnerable, the Stranger locates a time machine, travels back in time to kill Mondain before he creates the Gem, and shatters the incomplete artifact.
"" (1982) details Mondain's secret student and lover Minax's attempt to avenge him. When Minax launches an attack on the Stranger's homeworld of Earth, her actions cause doorways to open to various times and locations throughout Earth's history, and brings forth legions of monsters to all of them. The Stranger, after obtaining the Quicksword that alone can harm her, locates the evil sorceress at Castle Shadowguard at the origin of time and defeats her.
"" (1983) reveals that Mondain and Minax had an offspring, the eponymous Exodus, "neither human, nor machine", according to the later games (it is depicted as a computer at the conclusion of the game, and it appears to be a demonic, self-aware artificial intelligence). Some time after Minax's death, Exodus starts its own attack on Sosaria and the Stranger is summoned once again to destroy it. "Exodus" was the first installment of the series featuring a player party system, which was used in many later games.
"" (1985) marked a turning point in the series from the traditional "hero vs. villain" plots, instead introducing a complex alignment system based upon the Eight Virtues derived from the combinations of the Three Principles of Love, Truth and Courage. Although Britannia now prospers under Lord British's rule, he fears for his subjects' spiritual well-being and summons the Stranger again to become a spiritual leader of Britannian people by example. Throughout the game, the Stranger's actions determine how close he comes to this ideal. Upon achieving enlightenment in every Virtue, he can reach the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom and becomes the "Avatar", the embodiment of Britannia's virtues.
In "" (1988), the Avatar returns to Britannia to find that after Lord British had been lost in the Underworld, Lord Blackthorn, who rules in his stead, was corrupted by the Shadowlords and enforces a radically twisted vision of the Virtues, deviating considerably from their original meaning. The Avatar and his companions proceed to rescue the true king, overthrow the tyrant, and restore the Virtues in their true form.
"" (1990) details the invasion of Britannia by Gargoyles, which the Avatar and his companions have to repel. Over the course of the game, it is revealed that the Gargoyles have valid reasons to loathe the Avatar. Exploring the themes of racism and xenophobia, the game tasks the Avatar with understanding and reconciling two seemingly opposing cultures.
"" (1992) sees the Avatar entangled in the plan of an ostensibly virtuous and benevolent organization named the Fellowship (inspired by Scientology) to create a gateway for the evil entity known as the Guardian to enter Britannia. Though all of the main line of "Ultima" games are arranged into trilogies, Richard Garriott later revealed that "Ultima VII" was the first game where he did any sort of planning ahead for future games in the series. He elaborated that "the first three didn't have much to do with each other, they were 'Richard Garriott learns to program'; IV through VI were a backwards-designed trilogy, in the sense that I tied them together as I wrote them; but VII-IX, the story of the Guardian, were a preplanned trilogy, and we had a definite idea of where we wanted to go." An expansion pack was released named "Forge of Virtue" that added a newly arisen volcanic island to the map that the Avatar was invited to investigate. The tie-in storyline was limited to this island, where a piece of Exodus (his data storage unit) had resurfaced. To leave the island again, the Avatar had to destroy this remnant of Exodus. In the process of doing so, he also created The Black Sword, an immensely powerful weapon possessed by a demon.
"" (1993) was released as the second part of "Ultima VII" because it used the same game engine as "Ultima VII". According to interviews, Richard Garriott felt it therefore did not warrant a new number. Production was rushed due to deadlines set to the developers, and the storyline was cut short; remains of the original, longer storyline can be found in the database. Following the Fellowship's defeat, its founder Batlin flees to the Serpent Isle, pursued by the Avatar and companions. Serpent Isle is revealed as another fragment of former Sosaria, and its history which is revealed throughout the game provides many explanations and ties up many loose ends left over from the Age of Darkness era. Magical storms herald the unraveling of the dying world's very fabric, and the game's mood is notably melancholic, including the voluntary sacrificial death of a long-standing companion of the Avatar, Dupre. By the end of the game, the Avatar is abducted by the Guardian and thrown into another world, which becomes the setting for the next game in the series. "" was an expansion pack for "Ultima VII Part 2" where the Avatar travels back in time to plant a silver seed, thus balancing the forces that hold the Serpent Isle together. Like "Forge of Virtue", the expansion contained an isolated sub-quest that was irrelevant to the main game's storyline, but provided the Avatar with a plethora of useful and powerful artifacts.
In "" (1994), the Avatar finds himself exiled by the Guardian to a world called "Pagan". The Britannic Principles and Virtues are unknown here. Pagan is ruled by the Elemental Titans, god-like servants of the Guardian. The Avatar defeats them with their own magic, ascending to demi-godhood himself, and finally returns to Britannia. A planned expansion pack, "The Lost Vale", was canceled after "Ultima VIII" failed to meet sales expectations.
"" (1999), the final installment of the series, sees Britannia conquered and its Virtues corrupted by the Guardian. The Avatar has to cleanse and restore them. The Guardian is revealed to be the evil part of the Avatar himself, expelled from him when he became the Avatar. To stop it, he has to merge with it, destroying himself as a separate entity. The featured a more apocalyptic ending, with the Guardian and Lord British killed, Britannia destroyed, and the Avatar ascending to a higher plane of existence.
"" was released in 1979, and is sometimes considered a precursor to the "Ultima" series.
Sierra On-Line also produced "" in 1983. The maze game has nothing in common with the others, but is highly sought after by collectors due to extreme rarity.
The "Worlds of Ultima" series is a spin-off of "Ultima VI" using the same game engine, following the Avatar's adventures after the game's conclusion:
The second spin-off series, "Ultima Underworld", consisted of two games:
A group of volunteer programmers created "" in 2006, a remake of "Ultima V" using the "Dungeon Siege" engine.
And another group of volunteer programmers created "Ultima VI Project" in 2010, a remake of "Ultima VI" using also the "Dungeon Siege" engine.
Console versions of "Ultima" have allowed further exposure to the series, especially in Japan where the games have been bestsellers and were accompanied by several tie-in products including "Ultima" cartoons and manga. In most cases, gameplay and graphics have been changed significantly.
"Ultima Online" (1997), a MMORPG spin-off of the main series, has become an unexpected hit, making it one of the earliest and longest-running successful MMORPGs of all time. Its lore retconned the ending of "Ultima I", stating that when the Stranger shattered the Gem of Immortality, he discovered that it was tied to the world itself, therefore its shards each contained a miniature version of Britannia. The player characters in "Ultima Online" exist on these "shards". Eight expansion packs for "UO" have been released ("", "", "", "", "", "", "" and "") . The aging "UO" graphic engine was renewed in 2007 with the official "" client. "Ultima Online 2", later renamed to "" and canceled in 2001, would have introduced steampunk elements to the game world, following Lord British's unsuccessful attempt to merge past, present, and future shards together.
"UO" spawned two sequel efforts that were canceled before release: "" (canceled in 2001, though the game's storyline was published in the Technocrat War trilogy) and "" (canceled in 2004). "" (2004) would have continued the story of "Ultima IX". Now merged with the Guardian, the Avatar creates a world of Alucinor inside his mind, where the players were supposed to pursue the Eight Virtues in order to strengthen him and weaken the Guardian. "Ultima X" was developed without participation of the original creator Richard Garriott and he no longer owns the rights to the series. However, he still owns the rights to several of the game characters so it is impossible for either him or Electronic Arts to produce a new "Ultima" title without getting permission from each other.
"Lord of Ultima" was a free-to-play browser-based MMORTS released in 2010 by EA Phenomic. It was the first release in the "Ultima" series since "Ultima Online", and also the first title to have no involvement from series creator Garriott or founding company Origin. It has been criticized for having slow-paced gameplay and very weak connections to the Ultima franchise lore.
EA announced on February 12, 2014 that "Lord of Ultima" would be shut down and taken offline as of May 12, 2014.
Announced in summer 2012, "Ultima Forever" was a free-to-play online action role-playing game. In contrast to "Lord of Ultima", "Ultima Forever" returns to the lore of the original game series.
As of August 29, 2014. Ultima Forever's servers were shut down.
Several novels were released under the "Ultima" name, including:
In Japan, an "Ultima" soundtrack CD, two kinds of wrist watches, a tape dispenser, a pencil holder, a board game, a jacket, and a beach towel were released. There was also an "Ultima" anime cartoon.
Three manga comics were released in Japan:
"Ultima" game boxes often contained so-called "feelies"; e.g. from "Ultima II" on, every game in the main series came with a cloth map of the game world. Starting with "Ultima IV", small trinkets like pendants, coins and magic stones were found in the boxes. Made of metal or glass, they usually represented an important object also found within the game itself.
Not liking how games were sold in zip lock bags with a few pages printed out for instructions, Richard Garriott insisted "Ultima II" be sold in a box, with a cloth map, and a manual. Sierra was the only company at that time willing to agree to this, and thus he signed with them.
In the Atari 8bit version of "Ultima IV" one of the floppy disks had an unformatted track. In its absence the player would lose on every fight, which would not be obvious as a copy protection effect right away as one could assume that this was just due to either lack of experience or proper equipment. The protection mechanism was subtle enough to be overlooked by the German distributor which originally delivered Atari 8bit packages with floppies that were formatted regularly, and thus these paid copies acted like unlicensed copies, causing players to lose every battle.
In "Ultima V", there were one or two instances where ostensibly insignificant information found in the accompanying booklet were asked by person(s) encountered in the game. The game also used runic script in some places and a special language for spell names, for both of which the necessary translation tables / explanations were provided in the booklet. These can be seen as subtle copy-protection measures, well fitted for the context of history and fantasy so that a casual player didn't take them for copy protection.
"Ultima VI" introduced a more systematic use of copy protection in the form of in-game questions, preventing the player from progressing any further if the questions were answered incorrectly. In "Ultima VII", this practice was continued, although in both games the player had an unlimited number of tries to answer the questions correctly. Answers could be obtained by consulting the manual or cloth map, although the manual released with the "Ultima Collection" contained all copy protection answers for every game.
In "Ultima VII Part 2: Serpent Isle", the copy protection was changed slightly. Players were asked questions at two points in the game, and if they could not answer after two attempts, all NPCs said nothing but altered versions of famous quotes, such as "My kingdom for a hammer!", "Honor thy father and thy hoe, babycakes" and "Oh my, twig, I don't think we're in Britannia anymore". Everything would also be labeled "Oink!", preventing the game from being played. From Ultima VIII onward, copy protection questions were discontinued.
Originally, the world of "Ultima" was made up of four continents. These were Lord British's Realm, ruled by Lord British and the Lost King; The Lands of Danger and Despair, ruled by Lord Shamino and the King of the White Dragon; The Lands of the Dark Unknown, ruled by Lord Olympus and the King of the Black Dragon; and The Lands of the Feudal Lords, ruled by the lords of Castle Rondorin and Castle Barataria.
After the defeat of Mondain and the shattering of his Gem of Immortality in "Ultima I", there was a cataclysm that changed the structure of the world. Three of the four continents seemingly disappeared, leaving only Lord British's realm in the world. This remaining continent was referred from then on as "Sosaria". The Lands of Danger and Despair were later rediscovered as the Serpent Isle, which had been moved to a different dimension or plane, so it seems likely that the other two continents still exist. "Ultima II" shows Castle Barataria on Planet X, suggesting that the Lands of the Feudal Lords became this planet; "Ultima Online: Samurai Empire" posits that the Lands of the Feudal Lords was transformed into the Tokuno Islands by the cataclysm.
After the defeat of Exodus in "Ultima III", Sosaria became Britannia in order to honor its ruler, Lord British. Serpent Isle remained connected with Britannia via a gate in the polar region. The Fellowship leader, Batlin, fled here after the Black Gate was destroyed in "Ultima VII", preventing the Guardian's first invasion. Ninety percent of the island's population was destroyed by evil Banes released by Batlin in a foolish attempt to capture them for his own use in "Ultima VII Part 2".
In Ultima, the player takes the role of the Avatar, who embodies eight virtues. First introduced in , the Three Principles and the Eight Virtues marked a reinvention of the game focus from a traditional role-playing model into an ethically framed one. Each virtue is associated with a party member, one of Britannia's cities, and one of the eight other planets in Britannia's solar system. Each virtue also has a mantra and each principle a word of power that the player must learn. The Eight Virtues explored in "Ultima" are Honesty, Compassion, Valor, Justice, Sacrifice, Honor, Spirituality, and Humility. These Eight Virtues are based on the Three Principles of Truth, Love, and Courage. The Principles are derived from the One True Axiom, the combination of all Truth, all Love, and all Courage, which is Infinity.
The virtues were first introduced in "" (1985), where the goal of the game is to practice them and become a moral exemplar. Virtues and their variations are present in all later installments. Richard Garriott's motives in designing the virtue system were to build on the fact that games were provoking thought in the player, even unintentionally. As a designer, he "wasn't interested in teaching any specific lesson; instead, his next game would be about making people think about the consequences of their actions." The original virtue system in Ultima was partially inspired by the 16 ways of purification (sanskara) and character traits (samskara) which lead to Avatarhood in Hinduism. He also drew on his interpretation of characters from "The Wizard of Oz", with the Scarecrow representing truth, the Tin Woodsman representing love, and the Cowardly Lion representing courage.
The Virtues have become a frequent theme in the Ultima games following "", with many different variants used throughout the series. "" saw Lord Blackthorn turn the virtue system into a rigid and draconian set of laws. The rigid system of Blackthorn unintentionally causes the Virtues to actually achieve their polar opposites, in part due to the influence of the Shadowlords. This shows that the Virtues always come from one's own self, and that codifying ethics into law does not automatically make evil people good. "" confronted the Avatar with the fact that, from another point of view, the Avatar's quests for Virtue may not appear virtuous at all, presenting an alternative set of virtues. In "", an order known as the Fellowship displaced the Virtues with its own seemingly benevolent belief system, casting Britannia into disarray; and in "", the Virtues had been inverted into their opposite anti-virtues.
Ultima's virtue system was considered a new frontier in game design, and has become "an industry standard, especially within role-playing games." The original system from "Ultima IV" has influenced moral systems in games such as "Black & White", "" and the "Fable" series. However, Ultima can only be won by being virtuous, while other games typically offer a choice to be vicious. Mark Hayse specifically praises Ultima's virtue system for its subtlety. The game emphasizes the importance of virtue, but leaves the practice ambiguous with no explicit point values and limited guidance. This makes the virtue system more of a "philosophical journey" than an ordinary game puzzle.
The "Ultima" series of computer games employed several different artificial scripts. The people of Britannia, the fantasy world where the games are set, speak English, and most of the day-to-day things are written in Latin alphabet. However, there still are other scripts, which are used by tradition.
Britannian runes are the most commonly seen script. In many of the games of the series, most signs are written in runic. The runes are based on Germanic runes, but closer to Dwarven runes in Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings", which creator Richard Garriott has stated he has read. They gained steadier use since "", which was the first game in the series to use a runic font for in-game signs. Runes in earlier games were mostly found in hard copy materials, such as maps and the decorative covers of booklets. Runes appear less in "" and in later games.
Gargish is the language of the gargoyles of Britannia and the language used in spellcasting within the game. Unlike the runic script, which is usually used simply as a visual cipher for English, the Gargish script encodes a genuine constructed language, based on (but expanding greatly upon) the magical words of power that first saw use in "", as well as the mantras for each of the Shrines of Virtue, which had remained consistent since "". The lexicon mostly comprises deformed or truncated Latinate stems ("flam" "fire" ← Latin "flamma"; "lap" "stone" ← Latin "lapis"; "leg" "to read" ← Latin "legō"), but other origins are also apparent ("uis" "wisdom" ← English "wise"; "kas" "helmet" ← French "casque"). But the grammar is "de novo" and bears little resemblance to Latin, being largely analytic in structure instead. Gargish uses suffixes to denote grammatical tense and aspect, and also in some forms of derivation. The Gargish alphabet is featured in "", though it is seen only in specific game contexts. "" and onward does not feature anything written in the alphabet, with the sole exception of some books to be found in the gargoyle colony in the underwater city of Ambrosia in "". The Gargish language and alphabet were designed by Herman Miller.
The Ophidian alphabet, featured in "Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle", was used by the Ophidian civilization that inhabited the Serpent Isle. It is based on various snake forms. Ophidian lettering was quite difficult to read, so the game included a "Translation" spell that made the letters look like Latin letters.
In 1996, "Next Generation" ranked the "Ultima" series as collectively the 55th top game of all time, commenting that, "While the graphics and playing style change with the technological leaps of the day, [it] has been the most consistent source of roleplaying excitement in history." In 1999, "Next Generation" listed the "Ultima" series as number 18 on their "Top 50 Games of All Time", commenting that, "Most PC RPGs are about hacking and slashing through anything that moves, usually while crawling through a dungeon. The "Ultima" series, however, has always been firmly grounded in a world where a character's virtues are as important as their armor class in determining success." In 2000, Britannia was included in GameSpot's list of the ten best game worlds, called "the oldest and one of the most historically rich gameworlds."
By 1990, total sales of Pony Canyon's Japanese versions of the "Ultima" series had reached nearly 100,000 copies on computers, and over 300,000 units on the Famicom.
Many innovations of the early "Ultimas" – in particular "" (1983) – eventually became standard among later RPGs, such as the use of tiled graphics and party-based combat, its mix of fantasy and science-fiction elements, and the introduction of time travel as a plot device. In turn, some of these elements were inspired by "Wizardry", specifically the party-based combat. "Exodus" was also revolutionary in its use of a written narrative to convey a larger story than the typically minimal plots that were common at the time. Most video games – including Garriott's own "Ultima I" and "II" and "Akalabeth" – tended to focus primarily on things like combat without venturing much further. In addition, Garriott would introduce in "Ultima IV" a theme that would persist throughout later "Ultimas" – a system of chivalry and code of conduct in which the player, or "Avatar", is tested periodically (in both obvious and unseen ways) and judged according to his or her actions. This system of morals and ethics was unique, in that in other video games players could for the most part act and do as they wished without having to consider the consequences of their actions.
"Ultima III" would go on to be released for many other platforms and influence the development of such RPGs as "Excalibur" and "Dragon Quest"; and many consider the game to be the first modern CRPG.
On June 30, 2020, Garriott said he was turned down by EA for any attempts to revive or remaster the Ultima series.
Richard Garriott's new company Portalarium developed an RPG/MMORPG that Garriott has described as a clear spiritual successor of the "Ultima" series. On March 8, 2013, Portalarium launched a Kickstarter campaign for "". "Forsaken Virtues" is the first of five full-length episodic installments in "Shroud of the Avatar" and was designed as a "Selective Multiplayer Game". This allowed the player to determine his or her level of multiplayer involvement that ranges from MMO to single player offline. Despite original plans to launch in Summer 2017, with Episodes 2 through 5 estimated for subsequent yearly releases, the first episode would ultimately be released on March 27, 2018 to mixed reception. Further episodes have not yet been released. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32131 |
Urethra
The urethra (from Greek οὐρήθρα – "ourḗthrā") is a tube that connects the urinary bladder to the urinary meatus for the removal of urine from the body of both females and males. In human females and other primates, the urethra connects to the urinary meatus above the vagina, whereas in marsupials, the female's urethra empties into the urogenital sinus.
Females use their urethra only for urinating, but males use their urethra for both urination and ejaculation. The external urethral sphincter is a striated muscle that allows voluntary control over urination. The internal sphincter, formed by the involuntary smooth muscles lining the bladder neck and urethra, receives its nerve supply by the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system. The internal sphincter is present both in males and females.
The urethra is a fibrous and muscular tube which connects the urinary bladder to the external urethral meatus. Its length differs between the sexes, because it passes through the penis in males.
In the human male, the urethra is on average long and opens at the end of the external urethral meatus.
The urethra is divided into four parts in men, named after the location:
There is inadequate data for the typical length of the male urethra; however, a study of 109 men showed an average length of 22.3 cm (SD = 2.4 cm), ranging from 15 cm to 29 cm.
In the human female, the urethra is about 4 cm long, and exits the body between the clitoris and the vagina, extending from the internal to the external urethral orifice. The meatus is located below the clitoris. It is placed behind the symphysis pubis, embedded in the anterior wall of the vagina, and its direction is obliquely downward and forward; it is slightly curved with the concavity directed forward. The proximal 2/3rds is lined by transitional epithelium cells while distal 1/3rd is lined by stratified squamous epithelium cells.
Between the superior and inferior fascia of the urogenital diaphragm, the female urethra is surrounded by the urethral sphincter.
The cells lining the urethra (the epithelium) start off as transitional cells as it exits the bladder, which are variable layers of flat to cuboidal cells that change shape depending on whether they are compressed by the contents of the urethra. Further along the urethra there are pseudostratified columnar and stratified columnar epithelia. The lining becomes multiple layers of flat cells near the end of the urethra, which is the same as the external skin around it.
There are small mucus-secreting urethral glands, as well as bulbo-urethral glands of Cowper, that secret mucous acting to lubricate the urethra.
The urethra consists of three coats: muscular, erectile, and mucous, the muscular layer being a continuation of that of the bladder.
Somatic (conscious) innervation of the external urethral sphincter is supplied by the pudendal nerve.
In the developing embryo, at the hind end lies a cloaca. This, over the fourth to the seventh week, divides into a urogenital sinus and the beginnings of the anal canal, with a wall forming between these two inpouchings called the urorectal septum. The urogenital sinus divides into three parts, with the middle part forming the urethra; the upper part is largest and becomes the urinary bladder, and the lower part then changes depending on the biological sex of the embryo. The cells lining the urethra (the epithelium) come from endoderm, whereas the connective tissue and smooth muscle parts are derived from mesoderm.
After the third month, urethra also contributes to the development of associated structures depending on the biological sex of the embryo. In the male, the epithelium multiples to form the prostate. In the female, the upper part of the urethra forms the urethra and paraurethral glands.
The urethra is the vessel through which urine passes after leaving the bladder. During urination, the smooth muscle lining the urethra relaxes in concert with bladder contraction(s) to forcefully expel the urine in a pressurized stream. Following this, the urethra re-establishes muscle tone by contracting the smooth muscle layer, and the bladder returns to a relaxed, quiescent state. Urethral smooth muscle cells are mechanically coupled to each other to coordinate mechanical force and electrical signaling in an organized, unitary fashion.
The male urethra is the conduit for semen during sexual intercourse. Urine is removed before ejaculation by pre-ejaculate fluid – called Cowper's fluid – from the bulbourethral gland.
As the urethra is an open vessel with a lumen, investigations of the genitourinary tract may involve the urethra. Endoscopy of the bladder may be conducted by the urethra, called cystoscopy.
During a hospital stay or surgical procedure, a catheter may be inserted through the urethra to drain urine from the bladder. The length of a male's urethra, and the fact it contains a prominent bend, makes catheterization more difficult. The integrity of the urethra can be determined by a procedure known as retrograde urethrogram.
The word "urethra" comes from the Ancient Greek stem "uro" relating to urination, with the structure described as early as the time of Hippocrates. Confusingly however, at the time it was called "ureter". Thereafter, terms "ureter" and "urethra" were variably used to refer to each other thereafter for more than a millennia. It was only in the 1550s that anatomists such as Bartolomeo Eustacchio and Jacques Dubois began to use the terms to specifically and consistently refer to what is in modern English called the ureter and the urethra. Following this, in the 19th and 20th centuries multiple terms relating to the structures such as urethritis and urethrography, were coined.
Kidney stones have been identified and recorded about as long as written historical records exist. The urinary tract as well as its function to drain urine from the kidneys, has been described by Galen in the second century AD. Surgery to the urethra to remove kidney stones has been described since at least the first century AD by Aulus Cornelius Celsus. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32133 |
United States Virgin Islands
The United States Virgin Islands (abbreviated USVI; also called the U.S. Virgin Islands or American Virgin Islands), officially the Virgin Islands of the United States, are a group of Caribbean islands and an unincorporated and organized territory of the United States. The islands are geographically part of the Virgin Islands archipelago and are located in the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles to the east of Puerto Rico and west of the British Virgin Islands.
The U.S. Virgin Islands consists of the main islands of Saint Croix, Saint John, and Saint Thomas, and many other surrounding minor islands. The total land area of the territory is . The territory's capital is Charlotte Amalie on the island of St. Thomas.
Previously known as the Danish West Indies of the Kingdom of Denmark–Norway (from 1754 to 1814) and the independent Kingdom of Denmark (from 1814 to 1917), they and their populations were sold to the United States by Denmark for $25,000,000 in the 1917 Treaty of the Danish West Indies. They are classified by the United Nations as a Non-Self-Governing Territory, and are currently an organized, unincorporated United States territory. The U.S. Virgin Islands are organized under the 1954 Revised Organic Act of the Virgin Islands and have since held five constitutional conventions.
In 2010, the population was 106,405, with current estimates putting the population at 107,000 (July 2018), most of them being of Afro-Caribbean descent. Tourism and related categories are the primary economic activities.
The islands were named "Santa Úrsula y las Once Mil Vírgenes" by Christopher Columbus in 1493 after the legend of Saint Ursula and the 11,000 virgins. The name was later shortened to "the Virgin Islands."
The U.S. Virgin Islands were originally inhabited by the Ciboney and Arawaks, with some scholars thinking that the islands were inhabited from as early as 1000 BC. The Caribs arrived circa 1500 AD.
Christopher Columbus, on his second voyage in 1493, is thought to have been the first European to see the islands, giving them their current name. The Spanish later settled in 1555, with English and French settlers arriving on St. Croix from 1625. There followed a complex period in which the islands were disputed between Spain, France, Britain and also the Netherlands.
Denmark also took an interest in the islands, and the Danish West India Company settled on St. Thomas in 1672 and St. John in 1694, later purchasing St. Croix from France in 1733. The islands became royal Danish colonies in 1754, named the Danish West Indian Islands (). The islands proved ideal for sugar plantations - sugarcane, produced by slaves from Africa, drove the islands' economy during the 18th and early 19th centuries. Other plantation crops included cotton and indigo dye. During the 17th–18th centuries, a sizable Jewish community also began to settle on the islands.
In 1733, St. John was the site of one of the first significant slave rebellions in the New World when Akan-Akwamu slaves from the Gold Coast (modern Ghana) took over the island for six months. The Danish were able to defeat the enslaved Africans with help from the French in Martinique. Instead of allowing themselves to be recaptured, more than a dozen of the ringleaders shot themselves before the French forces could capture them. It is estimated that by 1775, slaves outnumbered the Danish settlers by a ratio of 8:1.
After another slave rebellion occurred on Saint Croix, slavery was abolished by governor Peter von Scholten on July 3, 1848, now celebrated as Emancipation Day. Over the following years, strict labor laws were implemented several times, leading to the 1878 St. Croix labor riot.
With the plantations no longer as profitable, Danish settlers began to abandon their estates, causing a significant drop in population and the overall economy. Additionally, the 1867 hurricane and earthquake and tsunami further impacted the economy. For the remainder of the period of Danish rule, the islands were not economically viable and significant transfers had to be made from the Danish state budget to the authorities in the islands.
The United States began to take an interest in the islands, and in 1867, a treaty to sell St. Thomas and St. John to the U.S. was agreed but never effected. A number of reforms aimed at reviving the islands' economy were attempted, but none had great success. A second draft treaty to sell the islands to the United States was negotiated in 1902 but was defeated in the upper house of the Danish parliament in a tie vote (because the opposition carried a 97-year-old life member into the chamber).
The onset of World War I brought the reform period to a close and again left the islands isolated. During the submarine warfare phases of the war, the United States, fearing that the islands might be seized by Germany as a submarine base, again approached Denmark about buying them. After a few months of negotiations, a selling price of $25 million in United States gold coin was agreed, equivalent to $ million in dollars. At the same time, the economics of continued possession weighed heavily on the minds of Danish decision makers, and a consensus in favor of selling emerged in the Danish parliament.
The Treaty of the Danish West Indies was signed in August 1916, with a referendum on the sale held in Denmark in December 1916 in which voters approved the decision to sell. The deal was finalized on January 17, 1917, when the United States and Denmark exchanged their respective treaty ratifications. The United States took possession of the islands on March 31, 1917 and the territory was renamed the "Virgin Islands of the United States." Every year, Transfer Day is recognized as a holiday, to commemorate the acquisition of the islands by the United States.
U.S. citizenship was granted to many inhabitants of the islands in 1927 and 1932. The U.S. dollar was adopted in the territory in 1934 and from 1935 to 1939 the islands were a part of the United States customs area. The 1936 Organic Act and the 1954 Revised Organic Act established the local government. In 1970 Virgin Islanders elected their first governor, Melvin H. Evans, and from 1976 the islands began work on creating their own constitution. Tourism began to develop, over time becoming the most important sector of the Islands' economy.
Water Island, a small island to the south of St. Thomas, was initially administered by the US federal government and did not become a part of the United States Virgin Islands territory until 1996, when of land was transferred to the territorial government. The remaining of the island were purchased from the United States Department of the Interior in May 2005 for $10, a transaction that marked the official change in jurisdiction.
In 1966, Hess Oil began construction on an oil refinery. Until February 2012, the Hovensa plant located on St. Croix was one of the world's largest petroleum refineries, refining , and contributed about 20% of the territory's GDP. The refinery ceased operation in 2012, and the facility stopped exporting petroleum products in 2014. In the final year of full refinery operations, the value of exported petroleum products was $12.7 billion (2011 fiscal year). Since refining ended, the 34-million-barrel tank farm has operated as a crude oil and petrochemical storage facility for third-party customers. The refinery's closure provoked a local economic crisis. Following the acquisition of the 1,500-acre complex by ArcLight Capital Partners, LLC, in 2016, Limetree Bay Ventures, LLC, was formed, and is currently executing a project to refurbish and restart the refinery, with a processing capability of up to .
Hurricane Hugo struck the U.S. Virgin Islands in 1989, causing catastrophic physical and economic damage, particularly on the island of St. Croix. The territory was again struck by Hurricane Marilyn in 1995, killing eight people and causing more than $2 billion in damage. The islands were again struck by Hurricanes Bertha, Georges, Lenny, and Omar in 1996, 1998, 1999, and 2008, respectively, but damage was not as severe in those storms.
In September 2017, Category 5 Hurricane Irma caused catastrophic damage, particularly to St. John and St. Thomas.
Just two weeks later, Category 5 Hurricane Maria ravaged St. Croix. Sustained winds at the Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge on St. Croix reached and gusted to . Even stronger winds likely occurred somewhere across the island's west end. The British Virgin Islands and the other two U.S. Virgin Islands St. John and St. Thomas were far enough northeast to avoid the worst from Maria. A wind gust to 86 mph was reported at St. Thomas. Weather stations on St. Croix recorded 5 and 10 inches of rain from the hurricane, and estimates for St. John and St. Thomas were somewhat less. The hurricane killed two people, both in their homes: one person drowned and another was trapped by a mudslide. A third person had a fatal heart attack during the hurricane. The hurricane caused extensive and severe damage to St. Croix. After both hurricanes, the office of V.I. congresswoman Stacey Plaskett stated that 90% of buildings in the Virgin Islands were damaged or destroyed and 13,000 of those buildings had lost their roofs. The Luis Hospital suffered roof damage and flooding, but remained operational.
The U.S. Virgin Islands are in the Atlantic Ocean, about east of Puerto Rico and immediately west of the British Virgin Islands. They share the Virgin Islands Archipelago with the Puerto Rican Virgin Islands of Vieques and Culebra (administered by Puerto Rico), and the British Virgin Islands.
The territory consists of three main islands: St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix, as well as several dozen smaller islands. The main islands have nicknames often used by locals: "Twin City" (St. Croix), "Rock City" (St. Thomas), and "Love City" (St. John). The combined land area of the islands is roughly twice the size of Washington, D.C.
The U.S. Virgin Islands are known for their white sand beaches, including Magens Bay and Trunk Bay, and deepwater harbors along the Anegada Passage, including Charlotte Amalie (the capital) and Christiansted. Like most Caribbean islands, most of the islands of the Virgin Islands, including St. Thomas and St. John, are volcanic in origin and hilly. The highest point is Crown Mountain on St. Thomas at .
St. Croix, the largest of the U.S. Virgin Islands, lies to the south and has a flatter terrain due to being coral in origin. The National Park Service manages more than half of St. John, nearly all of Hassel Island, and many acres of coral reef.
There are several national parks, such as the Virgin Islands National Park, Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument, Buck Island Reef National Monument, Christiansted National Historic Site, and Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve.
The U.S. Virgin Islands lie on the boundary of the North American plate and the Caribbean Plate. Natural hazards include earthquakes, hurricanes and tsunamis.
The United States Virgin Islands enjoy a tropical climate, with little seasonal change throughout the year. Rainfall is concentrated in the high sun period (May through October), while in the winter the northeast trade winds prevail. Summer and winter high temperatures differ by or less on average.
The U.S. Virgin Islands are an organized, unincorporated United States territory. Although they are U.S. citizens, U.S. Virgin Islanders residing in the territory are ineligible to vote for the president of the United States. People born in the U.S. Virgin Islands derive their U.S. citizenship from congressional statute.
The U.S. Democratic and Republican parties allow U.S. Virgin Islands citizens to vote in their presidential primary elections for delegates to the respective national conventions. The main political parties in the U.S. Virgin Islands themselves are the Democratic Party of the Virgin Islands, the Independent Citizens Movement, and the Republican Party of the Virgin Islands. Additional candidates run as independents.
At the national level, the U.S. Virgin Islands elect a delegate to Congress from their at-large . The elected delegate, while able to vote in committee, cannot participate in floor votes. The current House of Representatives delegate is Stacey Plaskett, a Democrat. Like other territories, the U.S. Virgin Islands does not have U.S. Senators.
At the territorial level, fifteen senators—seven from the district of St. Croix, seven from the district of St. Thomas and St. John, and one senator at-large who must be a resident of St. John—are elected for two-year terms to the unicameral Virgin Islands Legislature. There is no limit as to the number of terms they can serve.
The U.S. Virgin Islands have elected a territorial governor every four years since 1970. Previous governors were appointed by the president of the United States.
The U.S. Virgin Islands have a District Court, Superior Court and the Supreme Court. The District Court is responsible for federal law, while the Superior Court is responsible for U.S. Virgin Islands law at the trial level and the Supreme Court is responsible for appeals from the Superior Court for all appeals filed on or after January 29, 2007. Appeals filed prior to that date are heard by the Appellate Division of the District Court. Appeals from the federal District Court are heard by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. District Court judges are appointed by the U.S. president, while Superior Court and Supreme Court judges are appointed by the governor.
On October 21, 1976, President Gerald Ford signed authorizing the people of the United States Virgin Islands to organize a government pursuant to a constitution, which would be automatically approved if Congress did not act within 60 days.
In 2004, an Act was passed by the legislature of the Virgin Islands calling for a fifth constitutional convention, and 30 delegates to the convention were elected in 2007. On May 26, 2009 the convention adopted a proposed Constitution of the Virgin Islands. However, in June 2009, Governor John de Jongh, Jr. rejected the resulting constitutional draft, saying the terms of the document would "violate federal law, fail to defer to federal sovereignty and disregard basic civil rights." A lawsuit filed by members of the Convention to force Governor de Jongh to forward the document to President Barack Obama was ultimately successful. President Obama forwarded the proposal to Congress in May 2010, along with a report noting concerns raised by the United States Department of Justice that the powers sought exceeded what would be considered allowable under territorial status and restating the issues noted by Governor de Jongh. A U.S. Congressional resolution disapproving of the proposed constitution and requesting that the Fifth Constitutional Convention reconvene to consider changes to address these issues was signed into law () by President Obama on June 30, 2010.
Months later, a federal lawsuit was filed in the federal District Court of the Virgin Islands. The lawsuit claimed that the United States had to provide U.S. Virgin Islanders with the ability to be represented in Congress and vote for U.S. President. It alleged that racial discrimination present in an all-white and segregated U.S. Congress of 1917 was the impetus to deny the right to vote to a majority non-white constituency. The case was ultimately dismissed on August 16, 2012.
The Fifth Constitutional Convention of the U.S. Virgin Islands met in October 2012 but was not able to produce a revised Constitution before its October 31 deadline.
As of early 2017, the territory still did not have its own constitution.
Administratively, the U.S. Virgin Islands are divided into two (2) districts: the Saint Thomas & Saint John district, and the Saint Croix district. However, the U.S. Census Bureau divides each of the 3 main islands into 3 separate statistical entities (which are further divided into twenty (20) sub-districts). Below is the U.S. Census Bureau's division model.
Each of the 3 main islands of the U.S. Virgin Islands is counted as a county-equivalent by the U.S. Census Bureau, with the following FIPS codes: 78010 for Saint Croix, 78020 for Saint John, and 78030 for Saint Thomas.
While a Danish possession, the Islands were divided into "quarters" (five on St. John and nine on St. Croix) which were further divided into many dozens of "estates". Estate names are still used to write addresses; estates and quarters are used in describing real estate, especially on St. John and St. Croix. More densely populated towns such as Frederiksted and Christiansted on St. Croix were historically referred to as "districts", in contrast to the surrounding plantation land.
A 1993 referendum on status attracted only 31.4% turnout, and so its results (in favor of the status quo) were considered void. No further referenda have been scheduled since.
In 2016, the United Nations's Special Committee on Decolonisation recommended to the UN's General Assembly that this larger body should assist in "decolonization" and help the people of the territory to "determine freely their future political status". Specifically, the Special Committee recommended that the "views of the people of the United States Virgin Islands in respect of their right to self-determination should be ascertained" and that the UN should "actively pursue a public awareness campaign aimed at assisting the people of the United States Virgin Islands with their inalienable right to self-determination and in gaining a better understanding of the options for self-determination".
Law enforcement services are provided by the United States Virgin Islands Police Department (USVIPD).
Defense is the responsibility of the United States. There are some military facilities and personnel on the islands, supported by the U.S. government:
Although a public airport, Henry E. Rohlsen Airport has serviced aircraft from the United States Air Force, as well as the United States Army.
Tourism is the Islands' biggest industry; with 2.5-3 million annual visitors, the sector is responsible for about 60% of the GDP. Other major sectors are the public sector, some limited agriculture, and small scale manufacturing, most notably rum production.
A 2012 Economic report from the U.S. Census Bureau indicated a total of 2,414 business establishments generating $6.8 billion in sales, employing 32,465 people and paying $1.1 billion in payroll per year. Between 2007 and 2012, sales declined by $12.6 billion, or 64.9 percent. (In 2007, total sales were $19.5 billion and the number employed was 35,300.)
According to a report on the first half of 2016 by the VI Bureau of Economic Research, the unemployment rate was 11.5 percent. In May 2016 the islands' Bureau of Economic Research indicated that there were 37,613 non-agricultural wage and salary jobs in the islands. This report states that the "leisure and hospitality sector" employed an average of 7,333 people. The retail trade sector, which also serves many tourists, averaged another 5,913 jobs. Other categories which also include some tourism jobs include Arts and Entertainment (792 jobs), Accommodation and Food (6,541 jobs), Accommodation (3755 jobs), Food Services and Drink (2,766 jobs). A large percentage of the 37,613 non-farm workers are employed in dealing with tourists. Serving the local population is also part of the role of these sectors.
In a May 2016 report, some 11,000 people were categorized as being involved in some aspect of agriculture in the first half of 2016, but this category makes up a small part of the total economy. At that time, there were approximately 607 manufacturing jobs and 1,487 natural resource and construction jobs. The single largest employer was the government. In mid-February 2017, the USVI was facing a financial crisis due to a very high debt level of $2 billion and a structural budget deficit of $110 million. Since January 2017, the U.S. Virgin Islands government has been unable to raise financing from the bond market at favorable instance rates, and as of June 2019 have not issued any new bonds since then.
The median income for a household in the territory was $24,704, and the median income for a family was $28,553 according to the 2010 Census. Males had a median income of $28,309 versus $22,601 for females. The per capita income for the territory was $13,139. The average private sector salary was $34,088 and the average public sector salary was $52,572. About 28.7% of families and 32.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 41.7% of those less than 18 years old and 29.8% of those 65 or more years old. Nearly 70% of adults had at least a high school diploma and 19.2% had a bachelor's degree or higher.
Analysts reviewing the economy often point to the closure of the HOVENSA oil refinery, the islands' largest private sector employer, in early 2012 as having a major negative impact on the territory's economy. In late 2013 the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Research and Statistics Group pointed out that manufacturing employment dropped by 50% in May 2012 and by another 4% by November 2012, and that the GDP fell by 13%, "mainly due to an 80% drop-off in exports (mostly refined petroleum)". On the other hand, tourism and some other service industries were growing. As well, the 2010 census indicated that a relatively high share of the adult population is in the labor force: 66%, versus 65% on the mainland and well below 50% in Puerto Rico.
A May 2016 report by Bloomberg expressed concern about the islands' tax-supported debt load. By January 23, 2017 this had increased to $2 billion. That translated to a per capita debt of $19,000, which was higher than the per capita debt in Puerto Rico which was undergoing a severe financial crisis at the time. A Debtwire analyst writing in Forbes indicated that nothing short of a miracle would prevent a financial collapse. Another area of concern was the structural budget deficit which was at $110 million in mid February 2017. The government instituted a new law in March 2017 with new or increased taxes on rum, beer, tobacco products and sugary drinks, as well as internet purchases and timeshare unit owners.
Tourism, trade, and other service-oriented industries are the primary economic activities, accounting for nearly 60% of the GDP. Approximately 2.5 million tourists per year visit, most arriving on cruise ships. Such visitors do not spend large amounts of money ($146.70 each on average) but as a group, they contributed $339.8 million to the economy in 2012.
However, the travel industry warned in late 2014 that work needs to be done for USVI tourism practices to meet 21st century demands.
Additionally, the islands frequently are a starting point for private yacht charters to the neighboring British Virgin Islands. Euromonitor indicates that over 50% of the workforce is employed in some tourism-related work.
The manufacturing sector consists of mainly rum distilling. The agricultural sector is small, with most food being imported. International business and financial services are a small but growing component of the economy. Most energy is also generated from imported oil, leading to electricity costs four to five times higher than the U.S. mainland. The Virgin Islands were the highest oil consumers per capita in the world in 2007. The Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority also uses imported energy to operate its desalination facilities to provide fresh water.
The "CIA World Factbook" lists the value of federal programs and grants — $241.4 million in 2013, 19.7% of the territory's total revenues — and that "the economy remains relatively diversified. Along with the tourist industry, it appears that rum exports, trade, and services will be major income sources in future years".
The U.S. Virgin Islands are an independent customs territory from the mainland United States and operate largely as a free port. U.S. citizens thus do not have to clear customs when arriving in the U.S. Virgin Islands, but do when traveling to the mainland. Local residents are not subject to US federal income taxes on U.S. Virgin Islands source income; they pay taxes to the territory equal to what their federal taxes would be if they lived in a state.
The Henry E. Rohlsen Airport serves St. Croix and the Cyril E. King International Airport serves St. Thomas and St. John.
The U.S. Virgin Islands is the only U.S. jurisdiction that drives on the left. This was inherited from what was then-current practice on the islands at the time of the 1917 transfer of the territory to the United States from Denmark. However, because most cars in the territory are imported from the mainland United States, the cars in the territory are left-hand drive. However, not all U.S. vehicle regulations are in force, and there are vehicles on the road that cannot be sold in the mainland U.S. Additionally, headlights use the U.S. pattern which casts light to the right, tending to blind oncoming drivers. Traffic signals are located on the opposite side of the road than they are in the U.S. mainland, and many standard road signs have been altered to fit the left-side driving.
As in other U.S. territories, U.S. Virgin Islands mail service is handled by the United States Postal Service, using the two-character state code "VI" for domestic mail delivery.
ZIP codes are in the 008xx range.
, specifically assigned codes include 00801–00805 (St Thomas),
00820–00824 (Christiansted),
00830–00831 (St. John),
00840–00841 (Frederiksted),
and 00850–00851 (Kingshill).
The islands are part of the North American Numbering Plan, using area code 340, and island residents and visitors are able to call most toll-free U.S. numbers.
The U.S. Virgin Islands are located in the Atlantic Standard Time zone and do not participate in daylight saving time. When the mainland United States is on Standard Time, the U.S. Virgin Islands are one hour ahead of Eastern Standard Time. When the mainland United States is on daylight saving time, Eastern Daylight Time is the same as Atlantic Standard Time.
In 2010, the census put the population of the U.S. Virgin Islands at 106,405. Current estimates putting the population at 107,000 (July 2018). In 2010 there are 40,648 households, and 26,636 families.
In 2010, there were 40,648 households out of which 34.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 33.2% were married couples living together, 24.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.5% were non-families. 30.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.64 and the average family size was 3.34.
In the territory, the population in 2010 was distributed with 31.6% under the age of 18, 8.0% from 18 to 24, 27.1% from 25 to 44, 24.9% from 45 to 64, and 8.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females, there were 91.4 males. For every 100 females ages 18 and up, there were 87.7 males. The annual population growth is −0.12%.
The literacy rate for the adult population was 94.9% in 2010.
The racial makeup of the U.S. Virgin Islands was:
Many residents can trace their ancestry to other Caribbean islands, especially Puerto Rico and the Lesser Antilles. The territory is largely Afro-Caribbean in origin.
English is currently the dominant language. Spanish is spoken by about 17% of the population, and other languages are spoken by 11% of the population.
English has been the predominant language since 1917, when the islands were transferred from Denmark to the United States. Under Danish rule, the official language was Danish, but it was solely the language of administration and spoken by Danes, a tiny minority of the overall population that primarily occupied administrative roles in colonial Danish West Indian society. However, place names and surnames of Denmark-Norway origin are still commonly found throughout the islands.
Although the U.S. Virgin Islands was a Danish possession during most of its colonial history, Danish never was a spoken language among the populace, black or non-Danish white, as the majority of plantation and slave owners were of Dutch, English, Scottish, Irish, or Spanish descent. Even during Danish ownership, Dutch, another Germanic language like Danish, was more common, at least during some of those 245 years, specifically on St. Thomas and St. John, where the majority of the European settlers are Dutch. In St. Croix, English was the dominant language. St. Croix was owned by the French until 1733 when the island was sold to the Danish West Indian and Guinea Company. By 1741, there were five times as many English on the island as Danes. English Creole emerged on St. Croix more so than Dutch Creole, which was more popular on St. Thomas and St. John. Other languages spoken in the Danish West Indies included Irish, Scots, Spanish, and French, as well as Virgin Islands English Creole.
Virgin Islands Creole English, an English-based creole locally known as "dialect", is spoken in informal situations. The form of Virgin Islands Creole spoken on St. Croix, known as "Crucian", is slightly different from that spoken on St. Thomas and St. John. Because the U.S. Virgin Islands are home to thousands of immigrants from across the Caribbean, Spanish and various French creole languages are also widely spoken. Spanish is mostly spoken by Puerto Ricans; Puerto Rican migration was prevalent in the 1930s, 40s and 50s, when many Puerto Ricans relocated to Saint Croix for work after the collapse of the sugar industry. In addition, the U.S. Navy purchase of two-thirds of the nearby Puerto Rican island of Vieques during World War II resulted in the displacement of thousands of "Viequenses", many of whom relocated to Saint Croix because of its similar size and geography. Puerto Ricans in Saint Croix, most of whom have lived on the island for more than a generation, have kept their culture alive while integrating it into the native Crucian culture and society. For example, in informal situations, many Puerto Ricans in Saint Croix speak a unique Spanglish-like combination of Puerto Rican Spanish and the local Crucian dialect of creole English.
As of the 2000 census, 25.3% of persons over the age of five speak a language other than English at home. Spanish is spoken by 16.8% of the population and French is spoken by 6.6%.
Christianity is the dominant religion in the U.S. Virgin Islands. According to Pew Research Center, 94.8% of the population was Christian in 2010. The largest Christian denominations in the 2010 census were Baptist, Roman Catholic, and Episcopalian.
Owing to both their Danish past and American present, Protestantism on the islands has long been widespread. It was first introduced when Lutheranism was brought to the islands in the Danish colonization. The Danish crown also allowed other religious traditions on the islands including Anglicanism, Roman Catholicism, the Moravian Church and other Protestant groups. Historically, St. Thomas and St. Croix are known for missionary efforts undertaken by the Moravian missionaries. They were allowed on the islands by the Danish royal court, but came under scrutiny when they denounced slavery. A number of neo-Protestant traditions including Pentecostalism, various evangelical Protestants and the Seventh-day Adventists arrived later with the switch of allegiance from Denmark to the United States.
There is also a strong Roman Catholic presence. Rastafari is also prevalent. St. Thomas is home to one of the oldest Jewish communities in the Western Hemisphere, as Sephardi Jews began to settle the island in the 18th century as traders and merchants. The St. Thomas Synagogue in Charlotte Amalie is the second-oldest synagogue on American soil, and oldest in terms of continuous usage.
In 2010, the national average life expectancy was 79.61 years. It was 76.57 years for men and 82.83 for women.
The United States Virgin Islands Department of Education serves as the territory's education agency, and has two school districts: St. Thomas-St. John School District and St. Croix School District.
The University of the Virgin Islands provides higher education leading to associate's, bachelor's, and master's degrees, with campuses on St. Thomas and St. Croix.
The culture of the Virgin Islands reflects the various people that have inhabited the present-day U.S. Virgin Islands and British Virgin Islands, which despite their political separation have kept close cultural ties. The culture derives chiefly from West African, European and American traditions, in addition to the influences from the immigrants from the Arab world, India and other Caribbean islands. The islands were strongly influenced by the British, Dutch, French and Danish during the long periods the islands were under these powers.
The islands have a number of AM and FM radio stations (mostly on St. Thomas and St. Croix) broadcasting music, religious, and news programming. (See List of radio stations in US Territories.) Full- and low-power television stations are split between St. Thomas and St. Croix. (See List of television stations in the U.S. Virgin Islands.) Newspapers include:
Virgin Islands government employees are also given administrative leave for St. Croix carnival events in January and St. Thomas carnival events in April/May.
109. https://driverabroad.com/countries/driving-in-caribbean-islands/virgin-islands-us/ | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32135 |
Geography of the United States Virgin Islands
The United States Virgin Islands are a group of several dozen islands and cays located in the Caribbean, about southeast of Florida, north of Venezuela, east of Puerto Rico, and immediately west and south of the British Virgin Islands.
The U.S. Virgin Islands lie near the boundary of the North American Plate and the Caribbean Plate, roughly south of the Puerto Rico Trench and near the Anegada Passage, a key shipping lane. Together with the British Virgin Islands, Vieques, and Culebra, they make up the Virgin Islands archipelago.
The hilly, volcanic islands of Saint Thomas () and Saint John () border the North Atlantic Ocean to the north and the Caribbean Sea to the south. The larger island of Saint Croix () lies to the south across the Virgin Islands Trough and is entirely in the Caribbean Sea.
Charlotte Amalie, Saint Thomas is one of the best natural, deepwater harbors in the Caribbean. The Islands have many well-known beaches, including Magens Bay (Saint Thomas) and Trunk Bay (Saint John), and coral reefs, including the Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument and the Buck Island Reef National Monument. More than half of Saint John and nearly all of Hassel Island are owned by the U.S. National Park Service.
Geographic coordinates (capital Charlotte Amalie):
Islands:
Saint Croix, Saint Thomas, Saint John, Water Island, many other islands
Area:
Maritime claims:
Land use:
Irrigated land:
1 km²
Natural hazards:frequent and severe droughts and floods; occasional earthquakes; rare tsunamis
Environment—current issues:
lack of natural freshwater resources
The islands' terrain is mostly hilly to rugged and mountainous with little level land. Crown Mountain, on Saint Thomas, is the highest point in the U.S. Virgin Islands at 1,555 ft (474 m). Sea level is the lowest point. It has a coastline of . The territory is known for its beaches and plentiful sunshine.
The U.S. Virgin Islands enjoy a tropical climate, moderated by easterly trade winds and with relatively low humidity. Temperatures vary little throughout the year.
In the capital, Charlotte Amalie, typical daily maximum temperatures are around in the summer and in the winter. Typical daily minimum temperatures are around in the summer and in the winter. Water temperatures are around in the summer and in the winter. Rainfall averages about per year. Rainfall can be quite variable, but the wettest months on average are September to November and the driest months on average are February and March.
The islands are subject to tropical storms and hurricanes, with the hurricane season running from June to November. In recent history, substantial damage was caused by Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria in 2017, Hurricane Hugo in 1989 and Hurricane Marilyn in 1995. The islands were also struck by Hurricane Bertha in 1996, Hurricane Georges in 1998, Hurricane Lenny in 1999, Tropical Storm Jeanne in 2004, Hurricane Omar in 2008, Hurricane Earl in 2010, Tropical Storm Otto in 2010, and Tropical Storm Tomas in 2010, but damage was less severe in those storms. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32137 |
Politics of the United States Virgin Islands
Politics of the United States Virgin Islands takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic dependency, whereby the Governor is the head of the local government, and of a multi-party system. United States Virgin Islands are an unincorporated and organized territory of the United States, administered by the Office of Insular Affairs of the United States Department of the Interior. Executive power is exercised by the local government of the Virgin Islands. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
Virgin Islands residents are U.S. citizens but the territory has no electoral votes to cast for the president or vice president of the U.S. The territory participates in the nominating processes (caucuses). Citizens cannot elect voting members of Congress. However, in the U.S. House of Representatives, they are represented by a delegate, who can vote in congressional committees but not in the House itself. Such delegates can speak on the U.S. House floor, introduce bills and offer amendments but cannot vote during business as the Committee as the Whole or on final passage of legislation. The USVI has been allowed to have non-voting representation since 1972. The current Delegate to the United States House of Representatives from the U.S. Virgin Islands is Stacey Plaskett.
Virgin Islands residents can vote fully in all elections if they become a resident of one of the 50 U.S. states. If residents of one of the 50 states become residents of the Virgin Islands, they can no longer vote for President or for voting members of Congress.
A federal lawsuit since 2011 in the District Court of the Virgin Islands and now before the Washington, D.C., Circuit Court is currently pending to provide Virgin Islanders with the fundamental right to be represented in Congress and vote for U.S. President. The federal case is Civil No. 3:11-cv-110, Charles v. U.S. Federal Elections Commission. A similar case was filed in the Superior Court of the Virgin Islands against the local Board of Elections. The cases allege it was racial discrimination present in an all-white and segregated Congress of 1917 that was the impetus to deny the right to vote to a majority non-white constituency. The local case is also pending a decision.
The Revised Organic Act of the Virgin Islands of 1954 is the current Organic Act defining the government of the United States Virgin Islands, which were acquired by the United States through the Treaty of the Danish West Indies of 1916. It replaced the Organic Act of the Virgin Islands of 1936 and earlier temporary provisions.
The Virgin Islands Elective Governor Act made the Governor an elected office, and further amendments in 1984 removed the right to indictment for certain crimes and the jurisdiction of the admiralty courts.
There have been several attempts at a constitution. The most recent attempt was the Fifth Constitutional Convention of the U.S. Virgin Islands which passed a proposed constitution in May 2009 but was rejected by Congress in June 2010.
The governor and the lieutenant governor are elected on the same ticket by popular vote for four-year terms.
The Virgin Islands's territorial legislature is the 15-member Legislature of the Virgin Islands. The body is unicameral and comprises seven Senators from the district of Saint Croix, seven Senators from the district of Saint Thomas and Saint John, and one Senator at-large (who must be a resident of Saint John). They are elected for a two-year term to the territorial legislature. There is no limit as to the number of terms they can serve.
The U.S. Virgin Islands has a District Court, a Supreme Court and a Superior Court.
Judges on the District Court are appointed by the President for ten year terms, subject to Senate confirmation. They may serve more than one term. This is a federal court, established in 1936, with jurisdiction over the US Virgin Islands, with diversity jurisdiction and bankruptcy jurisdiction. Appeals of this court's decisions are heard by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. One courthouse is located in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, and one is in Christiansted, St. Croix.
Judges of the USVI Supreme Court and Superior Court are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the legislative body. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32139 |
Economy of the United States Virgin Islands
The economy of the United States Virgin Islands is primarily dependent upon tourism, trade, and other services, accounting for nearly 60% of the Virgin Island's GDP and about half of total civilian employment. Close to two million tourists per year visit the islands. The government is the single largest employer. The agriculture sector is small, with most food being imported. The manufacturing sector consists of rum distilling, electronics, pharmaceuticals, and watch assembly. Rum production is significant. Shipments during a six-month period of fiscal year 2016 totaled 8,136.6 million proof gallons.
In mid February 2017, the USVI was facing a financial crisis due to a very high debt level of $2 billion and a structural budget deficit of $110 million. The government introduced a "sin tax" bill that would introduce or increase taxes on rum, beer, tobacco products and sugary drinks, as well as internet purchases and timeshare unit owners. Governor Kenneth Mapp issued an order that restricted the use of government-owned vehicles, put a freeze on non-essential hiring, suspended wage negotiations, and froze non-essential travel paid for by the GVI. He also suspended negotiated wage increases, including those ordered by the U.S. Appeals Court.
This US territory uses US currency and its fiscal year is 1 October - 30 September.
During the slave days of what was then the Danish West Indies, the islands cultivated cash crops to earn money. On July 3, 1848, after a rebellion the previous day, the governor Peter von Scholten granted the slaves emancipation, which was against the wishes of Danish Crown. Although some plantation owners refused to accept the abolition, some 5,000 blacks were freed while another 17,000 remained enslaved. In that era, slaves labored mainly on sugar plantations. Other crops included cotton and indigo. Over the following years, strict labor laws were implemented several times, leading planters to abandon their estates, causing a significant drop in population and the overall economy. In the late 1800, numerous natural disasters added to worsen the situation.
After the US purchased the islands from Denmark in 1917, the situation began to improve, though very slowly. By 1970, the economy had been boosted due to tourism and manufacturing. Tourism started to increase more significantly in the 1990s. New hotels, restaurants, and shops began to be built; this led to more jobs and an influx of immigrants which increased the population.
The HOVENSA oil refinery stopped exporting petroleum products in 2014. In the final
year of full refinery operations, the value of exported petroleum products was $12.7 billion (2011 fiscal year).
The islands also receive cover-over revenues, which generated approximately $100 million for the Virgin Islands in 2008. Federal excise taxes collected on rum and other distilled spirits are rebated, or covered over, to the government of the Virgin Islands. In 2013, federal programs and grants of $241.4 million contributed 19.7% of the territory’s total revenues.
Major banks have branches on St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix. These include Citibank, Banco Popular de Puerto Rico, The Bank of Nova Scotia, First Bank and Virgin Islands Community Bank.
Major airlines travel to and from St. Thomas and St. Croix.
The tourism industry is the main industry, generating a substantial portion of the GDP and much of the islands' employment. Nearly 3 million tourists per year visit (2013 data), most arriving on cruise ships. Some 93 percent of tourists are from other areas of the US.
An industry (World Travel & Tourism Council) publication indicates that money spent by foreign visitors totaled $1,318.7 million. According to this report, Travel & Tourism generated 5,000 jobs directly in 2014, being 10.8% of total employment and 11.3 percent of the GDP. (This includes employment by hotels, travel agents, airlines and other passenger transportation services. It also includes the activities of the restaurant and leisure industries directly supported by tourists.) The total contribution of Travel & Tourism to GDP (including wider effects from investment) was 12,000 jobs in 2014 (27.0% of total employment and 29.9 percent of the total GDP).
These figures on employment are lower than the estimated by some other agencies' for the tourism industry based on their own research. (However, agencies differ as to the types of jobs they classify as being in tourism.) For example, Euromonitor indicates that over 50 percent of the workforce is employed in some tourism-related work.
The latest data (May 2016) from the islands' Bureau of Economic Research indicates that there were 37,613 non-agricultural wage and salary jobs in the islands. This report states that the "leisure and hospitality sector" employed an average of 7,333 people. However, the retail trade sector, which also serves many tourists, averaged another 5,913 jobs. Other categories which also include some tourism jobs include Arts and Entertainment (792 jobs), Accommodation & Food (6,541 jobs), Accommodation (3755 jobs), Food Services & Drink (2,766 jobs). When those are totaled, it is clear that a large percentage of the 37,613 non-farm workers are employed in dealing with tourists; of course, serving the local population is also part of the role of these sectors.
According to the CIA's research, the service sector - tourism, trade, and other services - were the primary economic activities, accounting for most the Virgin Island's GDP and about 80 percent of the employment in 2003. (More recent data is not available from this source.) The primary industries in 2013 were tourism, watch assembly, rum distilling, construction, pharmaceuticals and electronics. The local workforce totaled 50,580. The last watch assembly facilities, however, closed in 2015.
The report from the VI Bureau of Economic Research calculates that the labor force totaled 48,278 in the first half of 2016, with 42,752 persons classified as civilians. The unemployment rate was 11.5%. Some 29 percent were employed by the public sector, making it the largest employer.
The May 2016 report does not discuss the massive debt and provides this outlook: "The economy will continue on its present course of mild improvements with the major contributions coming from tourism, manufacture and construction In addition, several initiatives are being undertaken by Government ... will assist in the recovery. However, a strong recovery of private sector demand, including consumer and investment spending, is required to give momentum to the recovery that brings the economy back to its pre-recession growth."
Manufacturing industries developed significantly in the 1970s, especially on St. Croix island. Most industries depend of tax concessions and the financial advantages they derive from being a U.S. territory. An alumina factory processed bauxite until December 2009. The Hovensa oil refinery produced , and closed down in February 2012. Analysts reviewing the economy often point to the closure of the Hovensa oil refinery which had been the islands’ largest private sector employer. This certainly did affect the local economy, leaving 2,200 people jobless. In the final year of full refinery operations, the value of exported petroleum products was $12.7 billion. The islands' exports dropped after the 2012 closing of the refinery, from $3.339 billion to $2.627 billion. However, imports dropped as well, from $3.056 billion to $2.694 billion.
In late 2013, the Reserve Bank of New York’s Research and Statistics Group pointed out that manufacturing employment dropped by 50 percent in May 2012, and by another 4 percent by November 2012, and that the GDP fell by 13 percent, "mainly due to an 80 percent drop-off in exports (mostly refined petroleum)". On the other hand, tourism and some other service industries were growing in 2013.
The CIA's World Factbook stated that in 2013, "the economy remains relatively diversified. Along with a vibrant tourism industry, rum exports, trade, and services will be major income sources in future years". A New York based research group made the following comment in late 2013: "Looking ahead, we note that the tropical weather and picturesque beaches will continue to draw tourists, and natural resources bode well for rum production. However, the group also added that "it may also be worthwhile to look at the physical infrastructure and human capital built up over the years, with an eye toward using it for other types of productive economic activity".
The latest (May 2016) report indicated that there were an average 607 manufacturing jobs. By comparison, there were 1,487 natural resource and construction jobs and nearly 11,000 people worked in some aspect of agriculture in the first half of fiscal year 2016.
With the help of funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the Virgin Islands Next Generation Network (a government-owned subsidiary) began bringing broadband internet access to the territory, in an effort to stimulate the technology sector and business generally. Today, broadband service is readily available via wireless and cable. Cellular phone service is also
widely available on all four islands from several providers.
A May 2016 report by Bloomberg expressed concern about the islands debt load."In terms of the debt load, on a per-capita basis, on an income basis, it’s high,” said Marcy Block, a Fitch analyst. The government believes it will be able to replay the loans. In part that is "because of the way the bonds are structured. Many securities are backed by specific revenue streams, like excise taxes tied to rum production by Diageo Plc and Cruzan International Inc., that go straight from the U.S. Treasury to an escrow agent. Even bonds backed by gross receipt taxes, which offering documents say are “secured by its full faith and credit and taxing power,” also give the trustee a lien on the levies."
Some news media were reporting a financial crisis by January or February 2017. The USVI’s overall tax-supported debt was $2 billion on January 23, which is very high considering the moderate population. That translated to a per capita debt of $19,000, which was worse than the per capita debt in Puerto Rico which was undergoing a severe financial crisis at the time. A Debtwire analyst writing in Forbes indicated that nothing short of a miracle would prevent a financial collapse.
By February 15, 2017, the GVI was short $110 million in its current budget (structural deficit). Governor Kenneth Mapp issued an executive order that limited the use of government-owned vehicles, puts a freeze on non-essential hiring, suspended wage negotiations, and froze non-essential travel paid for by the GVI. Some jobs are exempt from the hiring freeze: positions of civil servants whose salaries are paid through federal funds, human service workers, teachers, and those working in agencies under federal consent decrees like police and corrections officers. A report from Government House Government House indicated that these steps were necessary "given that cash revenues flowing into the treasury are insufficient to meet current expenses".
On February 16, Dept. of Finance Commissioner and Public Finance Authority Executive Director, Valdamier Collens said the government had only two days of cash on hand, instead of the typical 15 or 16 days in recent months. The government introduced a bill labelled as a "sin tax", with a plan to introduce or to increase taxes. Commodities affected would include rum, tobacco products, beer and sugary drinks, as well as timeshare unit owners and internet purchases. "If we are able to pass measures that investors will view as we are addressing our structural deficit, that would bode well to the investors, but they’re not going to jump out tomorrow and say, ‘Oh, come back to the market’," Collens said.
A coalition consisting of the Chambers of Commerce in the St Croix and St Thomas districts, the USVI Hotel and Tourism Association and American Resort Development Association issued a joint statement on February 14, 2017 asking Governor Kenneth Mapp to withdraw the sin tax bill. The group believes that the additional tax would be a "crushing blow" to business. It recommended an alternative: work "with the private sector to develop the ideas already presented to help alleviate the financial crisis". Mapp's response to the coalition included his understanding of the group's recommended strategies:
"For example, the chambers are asking that we slash the salaries of all government workers by 30 percent, that we increase property taxes on residential and commercial property and that we impose an income tax surcharge on the salaries of all workers in the Territory," he said. "These draconian recommendations of the Chambers of Commerce to avoid the imposition of a 25 cents tax on a bottle of beer or a 50 cents tax on a bottle of rum. It’s now time to put our people ... first."
The CIA's research concluded that the islands hosted nearly 3 million tourists per year (2014 estimate), mostly from visiting cruise ships. However, the more recent May 2016 estimate for the number of arrivals by the VI Bureau of Economic Research totals 1,208,295 by cruise ship and 403,876 people by air. Not all of the latter would have been tourists, of course.
The government's budget in 2013 consisted of $1.223 billion in revenues and $1.551 billion in expenditures. Federal programs and grants of $241.4 million contributed 19.7% of the territory’s total revenues in 2013.
The following data was compiled from the reports published by the CIA and the VI Bureau of Economic Research. All of the information pre-dated the financial crisis of early 2017 which may have had an effect on several economic categories.
45.9% of GDP (2014)
13% (2014)
11.5% (first half of 2016) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32140 |
Telecommunications in the United States Virgin Islands
Communications in the United States Virgin Islands
The following statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.
Telephones - main lines in use: 74,200 (2008)
Telephones - mobile cellular: 80,300 (2005)
The islands are served by Claro Puerto Rico, and mainland U.S. carriers AT&T Mobility, Sprint Nextel, and T-Mobile USA. Although Verizon Wireless serves nearby Puerto Rico as domestic service, calls from the USVI are considered roaming and are charged nearly two dollars per minute, far more than calls made while roaming in Canada or Europe. Text messages (SMS), however, are treated as domestic, while multimedia messages (MMS) are unavailable for Verizon customers.
Telephone system:
Country code / area code +1-340
Radio broadcast stations:
24 radio stations broadcasting (2009)
Radios:
107,000 (2003)
Television broadcast stations:
about a dozen television broadcast stations including 1 public TV station; multi-channel cable and satellite TV services are available (2009)
Televisions:
68,000 (1997)
The U.S. Virgin Islands' country code top-level domain is .vi.
Internet hosts: 8,933 (2010)
Internet users: 30,000 (2008)
Locally owned and operated Internet Service Provider: SM@RTNET www.smartnet.vi
Providing Internet service via fixed wireless and Fiber Optics. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32141 |
Universal precautions
Universal precautions refers to the practice, in medicine, of avoiding contact with patients' bodily fluids, by means of the wearing of nonporous articles such as medical gloves, goggles, and face shields. The infection control techniques were essentially good hygiene habits, such as hand washing and the use of gloves and other barriers, the correct handling of hypodermic needles, scalpels, and aseptic techniques. Following the AIDS outbreak in the 1980s the US CDC formally introduced them in 1985–88. Every patient was treated as if infected and therefore precautions were taken to minimize risk.
In 1987, the practice of universal precautions was adjusted by a set of rules known as body substance isolation. In 1996, both practices were replaced by the latest approach known as standard precautions. Use of personal protective equipment is now recommended in all health care settings.
Universal precautions are an infection control practice. Under universal precautions all patients were considered to be possible carriers of blood-borne pathogens. The guideline recommended wearing gloves when collecting or handling blood and body fluids contaminated with blood, wearing face shields when there was danger of blood splashing on mucous membranes and disposing of all needles and sharp objects in puncture-resistant containers.
Universal precautions were introduced in the US by CDC in the wake of the AIDS epidemic between 1985 and 1988.
In 1987, the practice of universal precautions was adjusted by a set of rules known as body substance isolation. In 1996, both practices were replaced by the latest approach known as standard precautions.
Universal precautions were designed for doctors, nurses, patients, and healthcare workers who came into contact with patients and their bodily fluids. This included staff and others who might not come into direct contact with patients.
Universal precautions were typically practiced in any environment where workers were exposed to bodily fluids, such as Blood, Semen, Vaginal secretions, Synovial fluid, Amniotic fluid, Cerebrospinal fluid, Pleural fluid, Peritoneal fluid, Pericardial fluid, Feces and Urine.
Bodily fluids which did not require such precautions included Nasal secretions, Vomitus, Perspiration, Sputum and Saliva.
Since pathogens fall into two broad categories, bloodborne (carried in the body fluids) and airborne, personal protective equipment included, but was not limited to barrier gowns, gloves, masks, eyewear like goggles or glasses and face shields.
Additional precautions were used in addition to universal precautions for patients who were known or suspected to have an infection, and varied depending on the suspected transmission. Additional precautions were not needed for blood-borne infections, unless there were complicating factors.
Conditions demanding additional precautions were prion diseases (e.g., Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease), diseases with air-borne transmission (e.g., tuberculosis), diseases with droplet transmission (e.g., mumps, rubella, influenza, pertussis) and transmission by direct or indirect contact with dried skin (e.g., colonisation with MRSA) or contaminated surfaces or any combination of the above.
As of 2010 research around stigma and discrimination in health-related settings has implicated universal precautions as a means by which health care workers discriminate against patients. Particularly the employment of universal precautions when working with people with HIV and/or hepatitis C has been demonstrated to be inconsistent and implicated with feelings of stigmatization reported by those populations. Health-cased social research in 2004 revealed that by not applying universal precautions universally, as is the purpose, health professionals are instead making judgements based on an individual's health status. It is speculated that this differential approach to care stems from stigma towards HIV and hepatitis C, rooted largely in fears and misconceptions around transmission and assumptions about patient lifestyle and risk. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32145 |
Uniform Resource Identifier
A Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) is a string of characters that unambiguously identifies a particular resource. To guarantee uniformity, all URIs follow a predefined set of syntax rules, but also maintain extensibility through a separately defined hierarchical naming scheme (e.g. codice_1).
Such identification enables interaction with representations of the resource over a network, typically the World Wide Web, using specific protocols. Schemes specifying a concrete syntax and associated protocols define each URI. The most common form of URI is the Uniform Resource Locator (URL), frequently referred to informally as a "web address". More rarely seen in usage is the Uniform Resource Name (URN), which was designed to complement URLs by providing a mechanism for the identification of resources in particular namespaces.
A Uniform Resource Name (URN) is a URI that identifies a resource by name in a particular namespace. A URN may be used to talk about a resource without implying its location or how to access it. For example, in the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) system, "ISBN 0-486-27557-4" identifies a specific edition of Shakespeare's play "Romeo and Juliet". The URN for that edition would be "urn:isbn:0-486-27557-4". However, it gives no information as to where to find a copy of that book.
A Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is a URI that specifies the means of acting upon or obtaining the representation of a resource, i.e. specifying both its primary access mechanism and network location. For example, the URL codice_2 refers to a resource identified as codice_3, whose representation, in the form of HTML and related code, is obtainable via the Hypertext Transfer Protocol ("http:") from a network host whose domain name is codice_4.
A URN may be compared to a person's name, while a URL may be compared to their street address. In other words, a URN identifies an item and a URL provides a method for finding it.
Technical publications, especially standards produced by the IETF and by the W3C, normally reflect a view outlined in a W3C Recommendation of 2001, which acknowledges the precedence of the term URI rather than endorsing any formal subdivision into URL and URN.
As such, a URL is simply a URI that happens to point to a resource over a network. However, in non-technical contexts and in software for the World Wide Web, the term "URL" remains widely used. Additionally, the term "web address" (which has no formal definition) often occurs in non-technical publications as a synonym for a URI that uses the "http" or "https" schemes. Such assumptions can lead to confusion, for example, in the case of XML namespaces that have a visual similarity to resolvable URIs.
Specifications produced by the WHATWG prefer "URL" over "URI", and so newer HTML5 APIs use "URL" over "URI".
While most URI schemes were originally designed to be used with a particular protocol, and often have the same name, they are semantically different from protocols. For example, the scheme "http" is generally used for interacting with web resources using HTTP, but the scheme "file" has no protocol.
Each URI begins with a scheme name that refers to a specification for assigning identifiers within that scheme. As such, the URI syntax is a federated and extensible naming system wherein each scheme's specification may further restrict the syntax and semantics of identifiers using that scheme. The URI generic syntax is a superset of the syntax of all URI schemes. It was first defined in , published in August 1998, and finalized in , published in January 2005.
The "URI generic syntax" consists of a hierarchical sequence of five "components":
URI = scheme:path[?query][#fragment]
where the authority component divides into three "subcomponents":
authority = [userinfo@]host[:port]
This is represented in a syntax diagram as:
The URI comprises:
Strings of data octets within a URI are represented as characters. Permitted characters within a URI are the ASCII characters for the lowercase and uppercase letters of the modern English alphabet, the Arabic numerals, hyphen, period, underscore, and tilde. Octets represented by any other character must be percent-encoded.
Of the ASCII character set, the characters codice_30 are reserved for use as delimiters of the generic URI components and must be percent-encoded – for example, codice_31 for a question mark. The characters codice_32 are permitted by generic URI syntax to be used unencoded in the user information, host, and path as delimiters. Additionally, codice_5 and codice_18 may appear unencoded within the path, query, and fragment; and codice_27 and codice_23 may appear unencoded as data within the query or fragment.
The following figure displays example URIs and their component parts.
A "URI reference" is either a URI, or a "relative reference" when it does not begin with a scheme component followed by a colon (codice_5). A path segment that contains a colon character (e.g., codice_38) cannot be used as the first path segment of a relative reference if its path component does not begin with a slash (codice_23), as it would be mistaken for a scheme component. Such a path segment must be preceded by a dot path segment (e.g., codice_40).
Web document markup languages frequently use URI references to point to other resources, such as external documents or specific portions of the same logical document:
https://example.com/path/resource.txt#fragment
//example.com/path/resource.txt
/path/resource.txt
path/resource.txt
../resource.txt
./resource.txt
resource.txt
An "absolute URI" is a URI with no fragment component.
"Resolving" a URI reference against a "base URI" results in a "target URI". This implies that the base URI exists and is an absolute URI. The base URI can be obtained, in order of precedence, from:
Within a representation with a well defined base URI of
http://a/b/c/d;p?q
a relative reference is resolved to its target URI as follows:
"g:h" -> "g:h"
"g" -> "http://a/b/c/g"
"./g" -> "http://a/b/c/g"
"g/" -> "http://a/b/c/g/"
"/g" -> "http://a/g"
"//g" -> "http://g"
"?y" -> "http://a/b/c/d;p?y"
"g?y" -> "http://a/b/c/g?y"
"#s" -> "http://a/b/c/d;p?q#s"
"g#s" -> "http://a/b/c/g#s"
"g?y#s" -> "http://a/b/c/g?y#s"
";x" -> "http://a/b/c/;x"
"g;x" -> "http://a/b/c/g;x"
"g;x?y#s" -> "http://a/b/c/g;x?y#s"
"" -> "http://a/b/c/d;p?q"
"." -> "http://a/b/c/"
"./" -> "http://a/b/c/"
".." -> "http://a/b/"
"../" -> "http://a/b/"
"../g" -> "http://a/b/g"
"../.." -> "http://a/"
"../../" -> "http://a/"
"../../g" -> "http://a/g"
URIs and URLs have a shared history. In 1994, Tim Berners-Lee's proposals for hypertext implicitly introduced the idea of a URL as a short string representing a resource that is the target of a hyperlink. At the time, people referred to it as a "hypertext name" or "document name".
Over the next three and a half years, as the World Wide Web's core technologies of HTML, HTTP, and web browsers developed, a need to distinguish a string that provided an address for a resource from a string that merely named a resource emerged. Although not yet formally defined, the term "Uniform Resource Locator" came to represent the former, and the more contentious "Uniform Resource Name" came to represent the latter.
During the debate over defining URLs and URNs, it became evident that the concepts embodied by the two (2) terms were merely aspects of the fundamental, overarching, notion of resource "identification". In June 1994, the IETF published Berners-Lee's , the first "Request for Comments" that acknowledged the existence of URLs and URNs. Most importantly, it defined a formal syntax for "Universal Resource Identifiers" (i.e. URL-like strings whose precise syntaxes and semantics depended on their schemes). In addition, the RFC attempted to summarize the syntaxes of URL schemes in use at the time. It acknowledged -- "but did not standardize" -- the existence of relative URLs and fragment identifiers.
In December 1994, formally defined relative and absolute URLs, refined the general URL syntax, defined how to resolve relative URLs to absolute form, and better enumerated the URL schemes then in use. The agreed definition and syntax of URNs had to wait until the publication of in May 1997.
The publication of in August 1998 saw the URI syntax become a separate specification and most of the parts of RFCs 1630 and 1738 relating to URIs and URLs in general were revised and expanded by the IETF. The new RFC changed the meaning of "U" in "URI" to "Uniform" from "Universal".
In December 1999, provided a minor update to RFC 2396, allowing URIs to accommodate IPv6 addresses. A number of shortcomings discovered in the two specifications led to a community effort, coordinated by RFC 2396 co-author Roy Fielding, that culminated in the publication of in January 2005. While obsoleting the prior standard, it did not render the details of existing URL schemes obsolete; RFC 1738 continues to govern such schemes except where otherwise superseded. for example, refines the codice_9 scheme. Simultaneously, the IETF published the content of RFC 3986 as the full standard STD 66, reflecting the establishment of the URI generic syntax as an official Internet protocol.
In 2001, the W3C's Technical Architecture Group (TAG) published a guide to best practices and canonical URIs for publishing multiple versions of a given resource. For example, content might differ by language or by size to adjust for capacity or settings of the device used to access that content.
In August 2002, pointed out that the term "URL" had, despite widespread public use, faded into near obsolescence, and serves only as a reminder that some URIs act as addresses by having schemes implying network accessibility, regardless of any such actual use. As URI-based standards such as Resource Description Framework make evident, resource identification need not suggest the retrieval of resource representations over the Internet, nor need they imply network-based resources at all.
The Semantic Web uses the HTTP URI scheme to identify both documents and concepts in the real world, a distinction which has caused confusion as to how to distinguish the two. The TAG published an e-mail in 2005 on how to solve the problem, which became known as the "httpRange-14 resolution". The W3C subsequently published an Interest Group Note titled "Cool URIs for the Semantic Web", which explained the use of content negotiation and the HTTP 303 response code for redirections in more detail.
In XML, a namespace is an abstract domain to which a collection of element and attribute names can be assigned. The namespace name is a character string which must adhere to the generic URI syntax. However, the name is generally not considered to be a URI, because the URI specification bases the decision not only on lexical components, but also on their intended use. A namespace name does not necessarily imply any of the semantics of URI schemes; for example, a namespace name beginning with "http:" may have no connotation to the use of the HTTP.
Originally, the namespace name could match the syntax of any non-empty URI reference, but the use of relative URI references was deprecated by the W3C. A separate W3C specification for namespaces in XML 1.1 permits internationalized resource identifier (IRI) references to serve as the basis for namespace names in addition to URI references. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32146 |
Union of International Associations
The Union of International Associations (UIA) is a non-profit non-governmental research institute and documentation center based in Brussels, Belgium, and operating under United Nations mandate. It was founded in 1907 under the name Central Office of International Associations by Henri La Fontaine, the 1913 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and Paul Otlet, a founding father of what is now called information science.
The UIA is an independent research institute and a repository for current and historical information on the work of global civil society. It serves two main purposes: to document and promote public awareness of the work of international organizations (both INGOs and IGOs), international meetings, and world problems. The UIA also supports and facilitates the work of international associations through training and networking opportunities.
It has consultative status with ECOSOC and UNESCO.
The two founders started work setting up the Central Office of International Organisations and then conducting a survey of international organisations with headquarters in Belgium. Then with the help of the sociologist Cyril van Overbergh they extend this research to organisations based elsewhere. After collaborating with Alfred Fried on the production of "Annuaire de la Vie Internationale" they produced their own edition without him. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32147 |
Quarter (United States coin)
The quarter, short for quarter dollar, is a United States coin worth 25 cents, one-quarter of a dollar. It has a diameter of .955 inch (24.26 mm) and a thickness of .069 inch (1.75 mm). The coin sports the profile of George Washington on its obverse, and its reverse design has changed frequently. It has been produced on and off since 1796 and consistently since 1831.
The choice of a quarter-dollar as a denomination—as opposed to the more common elsewhere—originated with the practice of dividing Spanish milled dollars into eight wedge-shaped segments, which gave rise to the name "piece of eight" for that coin. "Two bits" (that is, two eighths of a piece of eight) is a common nickname for a quarter.
The current clad version is two layers of cupronickel, 75% copper and 25% nickel, on a core of pure copper. The total composition of the coin is 8.33% nickel, with the remainder copper. It weighs 0.2000 avoirdupois oz, 1/80 of a pound, 0.1823 troy oz, (5.670 grams). The diameter is 0.955 inches (24.26 mm), and the width of 0.069 inches (1.75 mm). The coin has a 0.069-inch (1.75 mm) reeded (or milled) edge. Owing to the introduction of the clad quarter in 1965, it was occasionally called a "Johnson Sandwich" after Lyndon B. Johnson, the US President at the time. As of 2011, it cost 11.14 cents to produce each coin. The U.S. Mint began producing silver quarters again in 1992 for inclusion in the annual Silver Proof set. Early quarters (before 1828) were slightly larger in diameter and thinner than the current coin.
The current regular issue coin is the Washington quarter, featuring George Washington on the obverse. The reverse featured an eagle prior to the 1999 50 State Quarters Program. The Washington quarter was designed by John Flanagan. It was initially issued as a circulating commemorative, but was made a regular issue coin in 1934.
In 1999, the 50 State quarters program of circulating commemorative quarters began. These have a modified Washington obverse and a different reverse for each state, ending the former Washington quarter's production completely. On January 23, 2007, the House of Representatives passed extending the state quarter program one year to 2009, to include the District of Columbia and the five inhabited US territories: Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the United States Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The bill passed through the Senate and was signed into legislation by President George W. Bush as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, , on December 27, 2007. The typeface used in the state quarter series varies a bit from one state to another, but is generally derived from Albertus.
On June 4, 2008, a bill titled "America's Beautiful National Parks Quarter Dollar Coin Act of 2008", , was introduced to the House of Representatives. On December 23, 2008, President Bush signed the bill into law as . The America the Beautiful quarters program began in 2010 and will continue for 12 years.
Numismatic quarters
Bullion quarters
Silver quarters weigh 6.25 grams and are composed of 90% silver, 10% copper, with a total silver weight of 0.1808479 troy ounce pure silver. They were issued from 1932 through 1964.
The current rarities for the Washington quarter "silver series" are:
Branch mintmarks are D = Denver, S = San Francisco. Coins without mintmarks are all made at the main Mint in Philadelphia. This listing is for business strikes, not proofs:
The 1940-D, 1936-D and the 1935-D coins, as well as many others in the series, are considerably more valuable than other quarters. This is not due to their mintages, but rather because they are harder to find in high grades (a situation referred to as "condition rarity"). Many of these coins are worth only melt value in low grades. Other coins in the above list are expensive because of their extremely low mintages, such as the 1932 Denver and San Francisco issues. The overstruck mintmark issues are also scarce and expensive, especially in the higher grades; even so they may not have the same popularity as overdates found in pre-Washington quarter series.
The 1934 Philadelphia strike appears in two versions: one with a light motto [for "In God We Trust"], which is the same as that used on the 1932 strikings, and the other a heavy motto seen after the dies were reworked. Except in the highest grades, the difference in value between the two is minor.
The "silver series" of Washington quarters spans from 1932 to 1964; during many years in the series it will appear that certain mints did not mint Washington quarters for that year. No known examples of quarters were made in 1933, San Francisco abstained in 1934 and 1949, and stopped after 1955, until it resumed in 1968 by way of making proofs. Denver did not make quarters in 1938. Proof examples from 1936 to 1942 and 1950 to 1967 were struck at the Philadelphia Mint; in 1968 proof production was shifted to the San Francisco Mint.
The mint mark on the coin is located on the reverse beneath the wreath on which the eagle is perched, and will either carry the mint mark "D" for the Denver Mint, "S" for the San Francisco Mint, or be blank if minted at the Philadelphia Mint.
The copper-nickel clad Washington quarter was first issued in 1965 and as part of the switch, the Denver mintmark was added in 1968, which did not reappear on any US coin denomination until 1968. During the early 1960s, the Federal government had been flooding the market with silver to keep the price down, and therefore keep US coins' intrinsic values from exceeding their face values. This was causing the level of silver in the US Reserves to reach dangerously low levels. Silver was estimated to only last another 3–5 years at the rate the Mint was manufacturing coins, so the US Congress authorized the Mint to research alternative materials for the silver denominations (dime, quarter dollar, half dollar, and dollar). The material chosen was a 75% copper/ 25% nickel cupronickel alloy (identical to that in the five-cent coin) clad to a core of "commercially pure" (99.5%) copper.
For the first three years of clad production, in lieu of proof sets, specimen sets were specially sold as "Special Mint Sets" minted at the San Francisco mint in 1965, 1966, and 1967 (Deep Cameo versions of these coins are highly valued because of their rarity).
Currently, there are few examples in the clad series that are valued as highly as the silver series but there are certain extraordinary dates or variations. The deep cameo versions of proofs from 1965 to 1971 and 1981 Type 2 are highly valued because of their scarcity, high grade examples of quarters from certain years of the 1980s (such as 1981–1987) because of scarcity in high grades due to high circulation and in 1982 and 1983 no mint sets were produced making it harder to find mint state examples, and any coin from 1981–1994 graded in MS67 is worth upwards of $1000.
The mint mark on the coin is currently located on the obverse at the bottom right hemisphere under the supposed date. In 1965–1967 cupro-nickel coins bore no mint mark; quarters minted in 1968–1979 were stamped with a "D" for the Denver mint, an "S" for the San Francisco mint (proof coins only), or blank for Philadelphia. Starting in 1980, the Philadelphia mint was allowed to add its mint mark to all coins except the one-cent piece. Twenty-five-cent pieces minted from 1980 onwards are stamped with "P" for the Philadelphia mint, "D" for the Denver mint, or "S" for San Francisco mint. Until 2012 the "S" mint mark was used only on proof coins, but beginning with the El Yunque (Puerto Rico) design in the America the Beautiful quarters program, the US Mint began selling (at a premium) uncirculated 40-coin rolls and 100-coin bags of quarters with the San Francisco mint mark. These coins were not included in the 2012 or later uncirculated sets or the three-coin ATB quarter sets (which consisted of an uncirculated "P" and "D" and proof "S" specimen) and no "S" mint-marked quarters are being released into circulation, so that mintages will be determined solely by direct demand for the "S" mint-marked coins.
In 2019, the West Point Mint released 2 million of each of the five designs that year with a "W" mint mark for general circulation, in a move intended to spur coin collecting. This was continued in 2020. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32150 |
Ural Mountains
The Ural Mountains (; ; , "Ural tauźarı") or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the river Ural and northwestern Kazakhstan.
The mountain range forms part of the conventional boundary between the continents of Europe and Asia. Vaygach Island and the islands of Novaya Zemlya form a further continuation of the chain to the north into the Arctic Ocean.
The mountains lie within the Ural geographical region and significantly overlap with the Ural Federal District and with the Ural economic region. They have rich resources, including metal ores, coal, and precious and semi-precious stones. Since the 18th century the mountains have contributed significantly to the mineral sector of the Russian economy.
As attested by Sigismund von Herberstein, in the 16th century Russians called the range by a variety of names derived from the Russian words for rock (stone) and belt. The modern Russian name for the Urals (Урал, "Ural"), first appearing in the 16th–17th century when the Russian conquest of Siberia was in its heroic phase, was initially applied to its southern parts and gained currency as the name of the entire range during the 18th century. It might have been a borrowing from either Turkic "stone belt" (Bashkir, where the same name is used for the range), or Ob-Ugric. From the 13th century, in Bashkortostan there has been a legend about a hero named Ural. He sacrificed his life for the sake of his people and they poured a stone pile over his grave, which later turned into the Ural Mountains. Possibilities include Bashkir "үр" "elevation; upland" and Mansi "ур ала" "mountain peak, top of the mountain", V.N. Tatischev believes that this oronym is set to "belt" and associates it with the Turkic verb oralu- "gird". I.G. Dobrodomov suggests a transition from Aral to Ural explained on the basis of ancient Bulgar-Chuvash dialects. Geographer E.V. Hawks believes that the name goes back to the Bashkir folklore Ural-Batyr. The Evenk geographical term "era" "mountain" has also been theorized. Finno-Ugrist scholars consider Ural deriving from the Ostyak word "urr" meaning "chain of mountains". Turkologists, on the other hand, have achieved majority support for their assertion that 'ural' in Tatar means a belt, and recall that an earlier name for the range was 'stone belt'.
As Middle-Eastern merchants traded with the Bashkirs and other people living on the western slopes of the Ural as far north as Great Perm, since at least the 10th century medieval mideastern geographers had been aware of the existence of the mountain range in its entirety, stretching as far as to the Arctic Ocean in the north. The first Russian mention of the mountains to the east of the East European Plain is provided by the Primary Chronicle, when it describes the Novgorodian expedition to the upper reaches of the Pechora in 1096. During the next few centuries Novgorodians engaged in fur trading with the local population and collected tribute from Yugra and Great Perm, slowly expanding southwards. The rivers Chusovaya and Belaya were first mentioned in the chronicles of 1396 and 1468, respectively. In 1430 the town of Solikamsk (Kama Salt) was founded on the Kama at the foothills of the Ural, where salt was produced in open pans. Ivan III of Moscow captured Perm, Pechora and Yugra from the declining Novgorod Republic in 1472. With the excursions of 1483 and 1499–1500 across the Ural Moscow managed to subjugate Yugra completely.
Nevertheless, around that time early 16th century Polish geographer Maciej of Miechów in his influential "Tractatus de duabus Sarmatiis" (1517) argued that there were no mountains in Eastern Europe at all, challenging the point of view of some authors of Classical antiquity, popular during the Renaissance. Only after Sigismund von Herberstein in his Notes on Muscovite Affairs (1549) had reported, following Russian sources, that there are mountains behind the Pechora and identified them with the Riphean Mountains and Hyperboreans of ancient authors, did the existence of the Ural, or at least of its northern part, become firmly established in the Western geography. The Middle and Southern Ural were still largely unavailable and unknown to the Russian or Western European geographers.
In the 1550s, after the Tsardom of Russia had defeated the Khanate of Kazan and proceeded to gradually annex the lands of the Bashkirs, the Russians finally reached the southern part of the mountain chain. In 1574 they founded Ufa. The upper reaches of the Kama and Chusovaya in the Middle Ural, still unexplored, as well as parts of Transuralia still held by the hostile Siberian Khanate, were granted to the Stroganovs by several decrees of the tsar in 1558–1574. The Stroganovs' land provided the staging ground for Yermak's incursion into Siberia. Yermak crossed the Ural from the Chusovaya to the Tagil around 1581. In 1597 Babinov's road was built across the Ural from Solikamsk to the valley of the Tura, where the town of Verkhoturye (Upper Tura) was founded in 1598. Customs was established in Verkhoturye shortly thereafter and the road was made the only legal connection between European Russia and Siberia for a long time. In 1648 the town of Kungur was founded at the western foothills of the Middle Ural. During the 17th century the first deposits of iron and copper ores, mica, gemstones and other minerals were discovered in the Ural.
Iron and copper smelting works emerged. They multiplied particularly quickly during the reign of Peter I of Russia. In 1720–1722 he commissioned Vasily Tatishchev to oversee and develop the mining and smelting works in the Ural. Tatishchev proposed a new copper smelting factory in Yegoshikha, which would eventually become the core of the city of Perm and a new iron smelting factory on the Iset, which would become the largest in the world at the time of construction and give birth to the city of Yekaterinburg. Both factories were actually founded by Tatishchev's successor, Georg Wilhelm de Gennin, in 1723. Tatishchev returned to the Ural on the order of Empress Anna to succeed de Gennin in 1734–1737. Transportation of the output of the smelting works to the markets of European Russia necessitated the construction of the Siberian Route from Yekaterinburg across the Ural to Kungur and Yegoshikha (Perm) and further to Moscow, which was completed in 1763 and rendered Babinov's road obsolete. In 1745 gold was discovered in the Ural at Beryozovskoye and later at other deposits. It has been mined since 1747.
The first ample geographic survey of the Ural Mountains was completed in the early 18th century by the Russian historian and geographer Vasily Tatishchev under the orders of Peter I. Earlier, in the 17th century, rich ore deposits were discovered in the mountains and their systematic extraction began in the early 18th century, eventually turning the region into the largest mineral base of Russia.
One of the first scientific descriptions of the mountains was published in 1770–71. Over the next century, the region was studied by scientists from a number of countries, including Russia (geologist Alexander Karpinsky, botanist Porfiry Krylov and zoologist Leonid Sabaneyev), the United Kingdom (geologist Sir Roderick Murchison), France (paleontologist Édouard de Verneuil), and Germany (naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, geologist Alexander Keyserling). In 1845, Murchison, who had according to "Encyclopædia Britannica" "compiled the first geologic map of the Ural in 1841", published "The Geology of Russia in Europe and the Ural Mountains" with de Verneuil and Keyserling.
The first railway across the Ural had been built by 1878 and linked Perm to Yekaterinburg via Chusovoy, Kushva and Nizhny Tagil. In 1890 a railway linked Ufa and Chelyabinsk via Zlatoust. In 1896 this section became a part of the Trans-Siberian Railway. In 1909 yet another railway connecting Perm and Yekaterinburg passed through Kungur by the way of the Siberian Route. It has eventually replaced the Ufa – Chelyabinsk section as the main trunk of the Trans-Siberian railway.
The highest peak of the Ural, Mount Narodnaya, (elevation 1,895 m (6,217 ft)) was identified in 1927.
During the Soviet industrialization in the 1930s the city of Magnitogorsk was founded in the South-Eastern Ural as a center of iron smelting and steelmaking. During the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941–1942, the mountains became a key element in Nazi planning for the territories which they expected to conquer in the USSR. Faced with the threat of having a significant part of the Soviet territories occupied by the enemy, the government evacuated many of the industrial enterprises of European Russia and Ukraine to the eastern foothills of the Ural, considered a safe place out of reach of the German bombers and troops. Three giant tank factories were established at the Uralmash in Sverdlovsk (as Yekaterinburg used to be known), Uralvagonzavod in Nizhny Tagil, and Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant in Chelyabinsk. After the war, in 1947–1948, Chum – Labytnangi railway, built with the forced labor of Gulag inmates, crossed the Polar Ural.
Mayak, 150 km southeast of Yekaterinburg, was a center of the Soviet nuclear industry and site of the Kyshtym disaster.
The Ural Mountains extend about from the Kara Sea to the Kazakh Steppe along the border of Kazakhstan. Vaygach Island and the island of Novaya Zemlya form a further continuation of the chain on the north. Geographically this range marks the northern part of the border between the continents of Europe and Asia. Its highest peak is Mount Narodnaya, approximately in elevation.
By topography and other natural features, the Urals are divided, from north to south, into the Polar (or Arctic), Nether-Polar (or Sub-Arctic), Northern, Central and Southern parts.
The Polar Urals extend for about from Mount Konstantinov Kamen in the north to the river Khulga in the south; they have an area of about and a strongly dissected relief. The maximum height is at Payer Mountain and the average height is .
The mountains of the Polar Ural have exposed rock with sharp ridges, though flattened or rounded tops are also found.
The Nether-Polar Ural are higher, and up to wider than the Polar Urals. They include the highest peaks of the range: Mount Narodnaya (), Mount Karpinsky () and Manaraga (). They extend for more than south to the Shchugor. The many ridges are sawtooth shaped and dissected by river valleys. Both Polar and Nether-Polar Urals are typically Alpine; they bear traces of Pleistocene glaciation, along with permafrost and extensive modern glaciation, including 143 extant glaciers.
The Northern Ural consist of a series of parallel ridges up to in height and longitudinal hollows. They are elongated from north to south and stretch for about from the river Usa. Most of the tops are flattened, but those of the highest mountains, such as Telposiz, and Konzhakovsky Stone, have a dissected topography. Intensive weathering has produced vast areas of eroded stone on the mountain slopes and summits of the northern areas.
The Central Ural are the lowest part of the Ural, with smooth mountain tops, the highest mountain being (Basegi); they extend south from the river Ufa.
The relief of the Southern Ural is more complex, with numerous valleys and parallel ridges directed south-west and meridionally. The range includes the Ilmensky Mountains separated from the main ridges by the Miass. The maximum height is (Mount Yamantau) and the width reaches . Other notable peaks lie along the Iremel mountain ridge (Bolshoy Iremel and Maly Iremel). The Southern Urals extend some up to the sharp westward bend of the river Ural and terminate in the wide Mughalzhar Hills.
The Urals are among the world's oldest extant mountain ranges. For its age of 250 to 300 million years, the elevation of the mountains is unusually high. They formed during the Uralian orogeny due to the collision of the eastern edge of the supercontinent Laurussia with the young and rheologically weak continent of Kazakhstania, which now underlies much of Kazakhstan and West Siberia west of the Irtysh, and intervening island arcs. The collision lasted nearly 90 million years in the late Carboniferous – early Triassic. Unlike the other major orogens of the Paleozoic (Appalachians, Caledonides, Variscides), the Urals have not undergone post-orogenic extensional collapse and are unusually well preserved for their age, being underlaid by a pronounced crustal root. East and south of the Urals much of the orogen is buried beneath later Mesozoic and Cenozoic sediments. The adjacent Pay-Khoy Ridge to the north and Novaya Zemlya are not a part of the Uralian orogen and formed later.
Many deformed and metamorphosed rocks, mostly of Paleozoic age, surface within the Urals. The sedimentary and volcanic layers are folded and faulted. The sediments to the west of the Ural Mountains are formed of limestone, dolomite and sandstone left from ancient shallow seas. The eastern side is dominated by basalts.
The western slope of the Ural Mountains has predominantly karst topography, especially in the Sylva basin, which is a tributary of the Chusovaya. It is composed of severely eroded sedimentary rocks (sandstones and limestones) that are about 350 million years old. There are many caves, sinkholes and underground streams. The karst topography is much less developed on the eastern slopes. The eastern slopes are relatively flat, with some hills and rocky outcrops and contain alternating volcanic and sedimentary layers dated to the middle Paleozoic Era. Most high mountains consist of weather-resistant rocks such as quartzite, schist and gabbro that are between 570 and 395 million years old. The river valleys are underlain by limestone.
The Ural Mountains contain about 48 species of economically valuable ores and economically valuable minerals. Eastern regions are rich in chalcopyrite, nickel oxide, gold, platinum, chromite and magnetite ores, as well as in coal (Chelyabinsk Oblast), bauxite, talc, fireclay and abrasives. The Western Urals contain deposits of coal, oil, natural gas (Ishimbay and Krasnokamsk areas) and potassium salts. Both slopes are rich in bituminous coal and lignite, and the largest deposit of bituminous coal is in the north (Pechora field). The specialty of the Urals is precious and semi-precious stones, such as emerald, amethyst, aquamarine, jasper, rhodonite, malachite and diamond. Some of the deposits, such as the magnetite ores at Magnitogorsk, are already nearly depleted.
Many rivers originate in the Ural Mountains. The western slopes south of the border between the Komi Republic and Perm Krai and the eastern slopes south of approximately 54°30'N drain into the Caspian Sea via the Kama and Ural basins. The tributaries of the Kama include the Vishera, Chusovaya, and Belaya and originate on both the eastern and western slopes. The rest of the Urals drain into the Arctic Ocean, mainly via the Pechora basin in the west, which includes the Ilych, Shchugor, and the Usa, and via the Ob basin in the east, which includes the Tobol, Tavda, Iset, Tura and Severnaya Sosva. The rivers are frozen for more than half the year. Generally, the western rivers have higher flow volume than the eastern ones, especially in the Northern and Nether-Polar regions. Rivers are slower in the Southern Urals. This is because of low precipitation and the relatively warm climate resulting in less snow and more evaporation.
The mountains contain a number of deep lakes. The eastern slopes of the Southern and Central Urals have most of these, among the largest of which are the Uvildy, Itkul, Turgoyak, and Tavatuy lakes. The lakes found on the western slopes are less numerous and also smaller. Lake Bolshoye Shchuchye, the deepest lake in the Polar Urals, is deep. Other lakes, too, are found in the glacial valleys of this region. Spas and sanatoriums have been built to take advantage of the medicinal muds found in some of the mountain lakes.
The climate of the Urals is continental. The mountain ridges, elongated from north to south, effectively absorb sunlight thereby increasing the temperature. The areas west of the Ural Mountains are warmer in winter than the eastern regions because the former are warmed by Atlantic winds whereas the eastern slopes are chilled by Siberian air masses. The average January temperatures increase in the western areas from in the Polar to in the Southern Urals and the corresponding temperatures in July are and . The western areas also receive more rainfall than the eastern ones by per year. This is because the mountains trap clouds from the Atlantic Ocean. The highest precipitation, approximately , is in the Northern Urals with up to snow. The eastern areas receive from in the north to in the south. Maximum precipitation occurs in the summer: the winter is dry because of the Siberian High.
The landscapes of the Urals vary with both latitude and longitude and are dominated by forests and steppes. The southern area of the Mughalzhar Hills is a semidesert. Steppes lie mostly in the southern and especially south-eastern Urals. Meadow steppes have developed on the lower parts of mountain slopes and are covered with zigzag and mountain clovers, "Serratula gmelinii", dropwort, meadow-grass and "Bromus inermis", reaching the height of 60–80 cm. Much of the land is cultivated. To the south, the meadow steppes become more sparse, dry and low. The steep gravelly slopes of the mountains and hills of the eastern slopes of the Southern Urals are mostly covered with rocky steppes. River valleys contain willow, poplar and caragana shrubs.
Forest landscapes of the Urals are diverse, especially in the southern part. The western areas are dominated by dark coniferous taiga forests which change to mixed and deciduous forests in the south. The eastern mountain slopes have light coniferous taiga forests. The Northern Urals are dominated by conifers, namely Siberian fir, Siberian pine, Scots pine, Siberian spruce, Norway spruce and Siberian larch, as well as by silver and downy birches. The forests are much sparser in the Polar Urals. Whereas in other parts of the Ural Mountains they grow up to an altitude of 1000 m, in the Polar Urals the tree line is at 250–400 m. The polar forests are low and are mixed with swamps, lichens, bogs and shrubs. Dwarf birch, mosses and berries (blueberry, cloudberry, black crowberry, etc.) are abundant. The forests of the Southern Urals are the most diverse in composition: here, together with coniferous forests are also abundant broadleaf tree species such as English oak, Norway maple and elm. The Virgin Komi Forests in the northern Urals are recognized as a World Heritage site.
The Ural forests are inhabited by animals typical of Siberia, such as elk, brown bear, fox, wolf, wolverine, lynx, squirrel, and sable (north only). Because of the easy accessibility of the mountains there are no specifically mountainous species. In the Middle Urals, one can see a rare mixture of sable and pine marten named kidus. In the Southern Urals, badger and black polecat are common. Reptiles and amphibians live mostly in the Southern and Central Ural and are represented by the common viper, lizards and grass snakes. Bird species are represented by capercaillie, black grouse, hazel grouse, spotted nutcracker, and cuckoos. In summers, the South and Middle Urals are visited by songbirds, such as nightingale and redstart.
The steppes of the Southern Urals are dominated by hares and rodents such as hamsters, susliks, and jerboa. There are many birds of prey such as lesser kestrel and buzzards. The animals of the Polar Urals are few and are characteristic of the tundra; they include Arctic fox, lemming, and reindeer. The birds of these areas include rough-legged buzzard, snowy owl, tundra partridge, and rock ptarmigan.
The continuous and intensive economic development of the last centuries has affected the fauna, and wildlife is much diminished around all industrial centers. During World War II, hundreds of factories were evacuated from Western Russia before the German occupation, flooding the Urals with industry. The conservation measures include establishing national wildlife parks. There are nine strict nature reserves in the Urals: the Ilmen, the oldest one, mineralogical reserve founded in 1920 in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Pechora-Ilych in the Komi Republic, Bashkir and its former branch Shulgan-Tash in Bashkortostan, Visim in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Southern Ural in Bashkortostan, Basegi in Perm Krai, Vishera in Perm Krai and Denezhkin Kamen in Sverdlovsk Oblast.
The area has also been severely damaged by the plutonium-producing facility Mayak opened in Chelyabinsk-40 (later called Chelyabinsk-65, Ozyorsk), in the Southern Ural, after World War II. Its plants went into operation in 1948 and, for the first ten years, dumped unfiltered radioactive waste into the river Techa and Lake Karachay. In 1990, efforts were underway to contain the radiation in one of the lakes, which was estimated at the time to expose visitors to 500 millirem per day. As of 2006, 500 mrem in the natural environment was the upper limit of exposure considered safe for a member of the general public in an entire year (though workplace exposure over a year could exceed that by a factor of 10). Over of land were contaminated in 1957 from a storage tank explosion, only one of several serious accidents that further polluted the region. The 1957 accident expelled 20 million curies of radioactive material, 90% of which settled into the land immediately around the facility. Although some reactors of Mayak were shut down in 1987 and 1990, the facility keeps producing plutonium.
The Urals have been viewed by Russians as a "treasure box" of mineral resources, which were the basis for its extensive industrial development. In addition to iron and copper the Urals were a source of gold, malachite, alexandrite, and other gems such as those used by the court jeweller Fabergé. As Russians in other regions gather mushrooms or berries, Uralians gather mineral specimens and gems. Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak (1852–1912) Pavel Bazhov (1879–1950), as well as Aleksey Ivanov and Olga Slavnikova, post-Soviet writers, have written of the region.
The region served as a military stronghold during Peter the Great's Great Northern War with Sweden, during Stalin's rule when the Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Complex was built and Russian industry relocated to the Urals during the Nazi advance at the beginning of World War II, and as the center of the Soviet nuclear industry during the Cold War. Extreme levels of air, water, and radiological contamination and pollution by industrial wastes resulted. Population exodus resulted, and economic depression at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union, but in post-Soviet times additional mineral exploration, particularly in the northern Urals, has been productive and the region has attracted industrial investment. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32152 |
Upwords
Upwords (at one time branded as Scrabble Upwords in the United States and Canada, and Topwords Crucimaster, Betutorony, Palabras Arriba, Stapelwoord in other countries) is a board game invented by Elliot Rudell and originally published by the Milton Bradley Company, now a division of Hasbro. Worldwide marketing rights to UPWORDS have been licensed to Spin Master Inc. by Rudell Design, LLC as of 2018. "Upwords" is similar to "Scrabble", or "Words With Friends", in that players build words using letter tiles on a gridded gameboard. The point of difference is that in "Upwords" letters can be stacked on top of other letters already on the gameboard to create new words. The higher the stack of letters, the more points are scored. This typically makes words built in later turns of the game more valuable than earlier words, increasing play intensity and adding a level of strategy unique to "Upwords". The memorization of two-letter words is considered a useful skill in this game.
Unlike "Scrabble", which is manufactured in the U.S. and Canada by Hasbro, and elsewhere in the world by Mattel, "Upwords" is solely controlled by Spin Master. As of August 2019 the game is being relaunched and will be available in other countries around the world. In the past and while under license from Hasbro, Upwords was available in about twenty languages. There have been national tournaments played in Hungary and Turkey.
Each player draws a tile; the one with the letter nearest to A will be the first to play. The tiles are returned to the draw pile.
Each player draws seven tiles to start the game. The first player forms a word with one or more of their tiles. The word must cover one or more of the four central squares. The player then draws more tiles to replace those played. Play continues to the left.
Subsequent players may put tiles on the board adjacent to and/or on top of the tiles already played, as long as all words formed are found in the dictionary being used and the rules below are followed. All words must read horizontally from left to right, or vertically from top to bottom.
All tiles played on a turn must form part of one continuous straight line of tiles across or down.
For example, if the word CATER is on the board, a player could put a B and E in front of CATER and then put an L on top of the C and a D on top of the R to build BELATED.
Restrictions on words are as follows:
Restrictions on stacking tiles are as follows:
A player may choose to pass at any time, or discard one tile and draw a replacement instead of playing.
Once the draw pile is exhausted, the game ends when one player has used all of his/her tiles, or every player passes in a single round.
Any word with no stacked letters scores two points per tile, while a word containing stacked letters scores one point for every tile it contains. In the CATER/BELATED example above, CATER would score 10 points, while BELATED would score nine. Two bonus points are awarded for using the "Qu" tile in a one-level word, and 20 for using all seven tiles in one turn.
Players lose five points for every unused tile they hold at the end of the game.
Originally, "Upwords" was played on an 8×8 square board, with 64 letter tiles. Hasbro Europe later expanded the gameboard to a 10×10 matrix and 100 tiles, to accommodate the longer words frequently used in foreign languages such as German and Dutch. The 10×10 matrix is currently employed in worldwide versions of the game. The board is purposely smaller (has fewer tile positions) than "Scrabble" to encourage and even force the stacking up of letters upon letters. It does not have special squares such as "triple word scores" and "double letter scores" that require additional scoring calculations.
In the early 1990s, Hasbro licensed electronic marketing rights to Microsoft, briefly making the game available electronically. Microsoft no longer has rights to "Upwords".
In 2013, "Upwords" was developed by indie software developers Lonely Star Software, under license from Hasbro. Lonely Star Software continues to offer Upwords for smartphone and tablet play, under direct license from Rudell Design. The game was first released as an app for iOS devices. On 27 March 2014, Lonely Star released the app for Android platform devices.
Besides an updated version of Upwords that offers a 10x10 grid and 100 tiles, "Upwords" remains available in its "classic" 8×8 version, distributed by Winning Moves. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32157 |
University for Peace
The University for Peace (UPEACE) is an intergovernmental organization with university status, established by treaty at the United Nations General Assembly in 1980 and having its main campus in Costa Rica. Its stated mission is "to provide humanity with an international institution of higher education for peace with the aim of promoting among all human beings the spirit of understanding, tolerance and peaceful coexistence, to stimulate cooperation among peoples and to help lessen obstacles and threats to world peace and progress, in keeping with the noble aspirations proclaimed in the Charter of the United Nations."
The current Rector of UPEACE is Dr. Francisco Rojas Aravena.
The creation of the University for Peace was set in motion by a treaty and endorsed by resolution 34/111 of 14 December 1979 of the United Nations General Assembly. By this Resolution, the UN General Assembly established an international commission which, in collaboration with the Government of Costa Rica, was requested to prepare the organization, structure and setting in motion of the University for Peace. Thereafter, by Resolution 35/55 of 5 December 1980, the UN General Assembly endorsed the treaty establishing the University for Peace by adopting the International Agreement for the Establishment of the University for Peace (UPEACE) along with the Charter of the University for Peace. The University has the unique status of not only being a dedicated institution for higher education in Peace and Conflict studies, but also an international treaty body organization mandated by the United Nations General Assembly.
It offers master's degree and doctoral programmes at its main headquarters in San José, Costa Rica, and carries out various activities related to the international peace and security objectives of the United Nations (UN) through centres and offices located in Rome, Addis Ababa, New York, Honduras, Geneva, Bonn, The Hague, Manila and Beijing, and through partnership arrangements with numerous other institutions worldwide (see Special Programmes below).
The University for Peace is part of the academic wing of the UN system, and has observer status at the UN General Assembly, while maintaining its independence in academic, financial and management matters. The UN Secretary-General is the Honorary President of UPEACE. The UN General Assembly maintains a constant interest in the activities of UPEACE, and in periodic resolutions calls on the UN Secretary-General to report to it on its activities. Accordingly, the UN Secretary-General reports to the General Assembly of the UN periodically on the progress of UPEACE.
The Council of the University for Peace is the supreme authority of the University. It is composed of five "ex-officio" members viz. the Rector, two representatives designated by the UN Secretary-General and by the Director-General of the UNESCO, the Rector of the United Nations University, two representatives designated by the Government of the host country and the Chancellor of UPEACE. In addition, the Council comprises ten representatives of the academic community or other persons eminent in the field of peace and security appointed by the Secretary-General of the UN in consultation with the Director-General of the UNESCO.
The University has "unique world-wide authorization to award academic degrees, recognized by all countries which are members of the General Assembly". In addition, its MA programs in the Department of Environment, Peace and Development, received official accreditation from SINAES (the national Costa Rican accreditation body) in 2014. Similarly, the MA programme in International Law and Human Rights, and the MA programme in International Law and the Settlement of Disputes received accreditation from SINAES in June 2016.
The University for Peace (UPEACE) has its headquarters in Costa Rica, a country distinguished by a long tradition of democracy. Costa Rica abolished its army in 1948, the former President, Oscar Arias Sánchez was awarded The Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 and the country continues to develop strong efforts for natural conservation. The main campus of the University - the Rodrigo Carazo Campus - is located 30 km Southwest of San Jose, within a natural reserve composed of a secondary forest and the last remnant of primary forest (200 ha) in the Central Valley of Costa Rica. Hence, this protected area is very rich in fauna. It shelters mammals such as monkeys and deer; reptiles; and over 300 species of birds, as well as approximately 100 varieties of trees. The University's installations and protected area make up 303 ha.
The closest town to the mountain on which the University is perched, is Ciudad Colon. Most of the students, staff and faculty members of the University reside in Ciudad Colon, making it one of the most multi-cultural places in the world for its size.
The Rodrigo Carazo campus of the University for Peace is the principal location for the activities of the University. Most of its Masters programmes and its recently announced Doctoral programme are administered from this campus. Students coming from several countries study in a highly multi-cultural environment on the campus. The University boasts of a highly accomplished faculty, that comprises a mix of both resident and visiting faculty members. Because of the structure of the programmes and its unique global status, the University has an academic calendar that enables bringing on board the most highly acclaimed academicians and practitioners from around the world. The University has also started administering distance education courses, including an online Masters Programme from the main campus.
The University also carries out hands-on training beyond its Masters and Doctoral Programmes aimed at practitioners and policy makers rather than graduate students. The University has established two Centres for this purpose that are located on the main campus. The UPEACE Centre for Executive Education delivers dynamic training courses to leaders from around the world. The Centre reaches out to nonprofit leaders, business executives, educators at all levels, UN staff, students and other professional audiences. According to the Centre's website, the approach to all its courses is innovative, interactive, and participant-centered, using case-studies and field trips when appropriate. The Centre aims to develop key leadership skills by incorporating the crosscutting themes of Intercultural Communication, Negotiation and Conflict Resolution and Teambuilding.
The University has also established the UPEACE Human Rights Centre which was created within the contours of the broader mission of the University to provide humanity with an international institution of higher education for peace and with the aim of promoting among all human beings the spirit of understanding, tolerance and peaceful coexistence, to stimulate cooperation among peoples and to help lessen obstacles and threats to world peace and progress, in keeping with the noble aspirations proclaimed in the Charter of the United Nations. In particular, the work of the UPEACE Human Rights Centre seeks to promote understanding, respect and enjoyment of universal human rights. The Centre carries out this objective through human rights education, training, research, capacity building and awareness raising activities. The website of the UPEACE Human Rights Centre states that the Centre takes a practice based approach to the respect, protection and fulfillment of human rights and promotes the integration of theory and practice. The Centre also takes a multi-disciplinary approach to human rights and attaches equal importance to all human rights. Over the last few years, the UPEACE Human Rights Centre has conducted several training courses for policy makers, staff members of the UN and other inter-governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, practitioners, academics and civil servants.
The Headquarters and main campus of UPEACE also hosts the International Secretariat of the Earth Charter Initiative, whose stated mission is "to promote the transition to sustainable ways of living and a global society founded on a shared ethical framework that includes respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, universal human rights, respect for diversity, economic justice, democracy, and a culture of peace." This mission is carried out using 'The Earth Charter' as the principal guiding framework. The Earth Charter is an international declaration of fundamental values and principles considered useful by its supporters for building a just, sustainable, and peaceful global society in the 21st century. In 2012, the Earth Charter Initiative and UPEACE were jointly awarded the UNESCO Chair on Education for Sustainable Development and the Earth Charter. The work related to this UNESCO Chair will be carried out at the newly constructed 'Earth Charter Center for Education for Sustainable Development' at the UPEACE main campus.
In addition to the activities at the Costa Rica Headquarters Campus, UPEACE works with an increasing number of partners in various parts of the world to ensure that the UPEACE mission is extended to reach as many individuals and institutions as possible.
Africa
As a result of extensive international consultations, which have underlined the importance of according a high priority to activities in Africa, the University for Peace (UPEACE) officially launched its Africa Programme in January 2002.
The University for Peace (UPEACE) established its Africa Programme in 2002 on the basis of extensive consultations in the continent which aimed at developing a programme that responded to the true needs, aspirations and obstacles for education for building peace in Africa. From its inception, the programme focused on the necessity to stimulate and strengthen the capacity in Africa to teach, train and conduct research in areas of peace and conflict studies.
The first five years of the programme focused on the development of curricula and teaching materials and the delivery of a range of short courses, workshops, conferences and seminars in various parts of Africa. Within this period, the programme attracted close to one thousand participants from Academia, Policy makers and civil society organisations.
In a second five-year plan, which came out of a consultative meeting held in March 2007 with partners, the programme will additionally, work with a number of Partner Universities to develop full-fledged master's degree programmes to be based at African Universities. The principal aim of this endeavour is to further strengthen the African capacity and build a wide expertise for a better understanding of conflicts in Africa, their prevention and the creation of the environment favourable to lasting peace and development in the region.
Europe
In January 2012, UPEACE created a new Centre at The Hague, Netherlands (UPEACE The Hague), which is housed at the Academy Building of the Peace Palace, next to The Hague Academy of International Law. UPEACE The Hague will focus on education and research at the forefront of peace studies, closely cooperating with academic and policy-oriented institutions in The Hague region. UPEACE The Hague will initially advance three fields where it can be innovative and complementary: Peace & Conflict Studies, Water & Peace, and Urban Peace & Security. In addition, UPEACE The Hague will strengthen peace education in The Hague region by organising professional trainings, lectures, seminars, and workshops. Educational and research programmes will be characterised by the interaction between theory and practice, also contributing to policy innovations, and will therefore be appealing to both academics and professionals.
The Geneva Office of UPEACE, established in 2001, has continued to support the development of the overall activities of the University, in particular its regional programmes in Africa and Central Asia. The key focus of work undertaken by the Geneva office is contributing to the development of programme activities of the University in Africa and the Middle East, engaging with the academic community in Geneva to establish joint teaching and training courses on issues of particular relevance to the expertise available within the international community in Geneva and facilitation of relations within Europe and with the United Nations system, national delegations, donor community and academic institutions.
In November 2015 University for Peace started its work in Rome (Italy - www.unipaceroma.org), thanks to a cooperation agreement with prof. eng. Gianni Cara, already responsible for Europe for 'World Organization for Peace', and serious about teaching: 'For economic growth to lead to the realization of human rights, any growth strategy must be part of a comprehensive set of policies and Institutions consciously designed to convert resources into rights, or into awareness and competences to bridge the gap and to help ensure that economic growth is translated into the wider enjoyment of human rights for all. These are the main targets for our programs: 1) Facilitating the establishment of temporary/permanent mechanisms for dialogue and engagement at national and local level on development processes, particularly important in some areas of the planet; 2) Introducing innovation and digital shift in training, which can become, as usually they are, the most powerful personal growth driver'.
Asia
The Asia Leaders Programme, a Dual Campus Master Programme, is a shared initiative between the Nippon Foundation and the University for Peace, in collaboration with Ateneo de Manila University, which aims to provide students from Japan and other Asian countries with an opportunity to pursue a peace studies post graduate degree with a content-based language-training module. This offers the support for individuals who do not have a proficient command of English to work in this increasingly common international language and to become comfortable in their professional abilities as they gain academic skills. As part of the programme, students also have the opportunity to apply their academic and practical knowledge through a four-month internship at the end of the Master courses.
Affiliated institutions
Article 4 of the Charter of the University for Peace reads: "the University may enter into association or conclude agreements with Governments and intergovernmental and other organizations and institutions in the field of education." The University for Peace signed agreements with the governments of Serbia (formerly Yugoslavia), Colombia and Uruguay to open centres in those three countries. These centres have the necessary legal status to enjoy autonomy and academic freedom, while keeping its humanistic purpose within the framework of both the Charter of the University for Peace and the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The European Centre for Peace and Development (ECPD) in Belgrade, Serbia; the World Centre for Training and Research in Conflict Resolution (WCCR) in Bogotá, Colombia; and the World Centre for Research for Peace (CMIP) in Montevideo, Uruguay, have developed close links with their respective governments while being key UPEACE partners in areas of common interest. UPEACE keeps operational agreements with them and lends its logos when necessary in order to undertake joint activities within the framework of UPEACE's and the Centres’ mission. These activities, as with other partners, involve the cooperating parties working together at all stages of jointly agreed-upon projects.
UPEACE has been offering master's degree programmes at its Costa Rica campus for students from all parts of the world since its establishment. The following programmes are currently offered (academic year 2019-2020):
UPEACE offers graduate and advance undergraduate students from other institutions the opportunity to enrol in UPEACE's Study Abroad Programme (SAP) in three ways:
Apart from its online MA in Sustainable Peace in the Contemporary World, UPEACE offers a series of individual online courses that can be taken for academic credits or for certificates.
The university's "Doctoral Programme in Peace & Conflict Studies" commenced in fall of 2012. According to the website of the University for Peace, "this Doctoral Programme is designed to respond to a growing demand for academic and professional training that addresses the complex and multidimensional issues of peace and conflict in societies." The programme offers a broad range of research foci and specializations including, though not limited to, Environmental Security and Peace, Gender and Peace Building, International Law and Human Rights, International Law and the Settlement of Disputes, International Peace Studies, Media, Peace and Conflict Studies, Natural Resources and Peace, Peace Education, Responsible Management and Sustainable Development, and Sustainable Urban Governance and Peace. The programme offers two tracks for achieving the doctorate: a research track and a professional track.
Students at UPEACE receive a high quality education in a unique atmosphere with a focus on multicultural perspectives, rigorous theory and practical applications. Thousands of students from over 100 countries have received graduate degrees from UPEACE. UPEACE alumni are working in peace related activities in their home countries and internationally, often in the front lines of conflict situations, for non-governmental organizations, academic and intergovernmental institutions, including the UN system. The University maintains a strong alumni network, all of whom get equipped with the necessary skills to pursue their chosen career paths at UPEACE. UPEACE aims to instill in their students a ‘sense of hope’ that forever ‘changes their lives’ and world vision in order to transform conflicts and promote sustainable peace and security. Notable UPEACE alumni include: Suzanne Hunt (2004) of X-Prize Foundation and Carbon War Room; Dan Juma (2006) former Deputy Director of Kenya Human Rights Commission; Hovig Etyemezian (2005) Director of the UNHCR Office in Mauritania; and Nick Martin (2006) Founder and President of TechChange.
"The Peace and Conflict Review" is a free, fully peer reviewed open source academic journal published by the University for Peace. Articles featured in the review cover aspects of peace and violent conflict with a view to informing students, policymakers, non-governmental organizations and other interested parties of relevant analysis, empirical findings, policy options, and areas for further research. A number of interdisciplinary and multicultural papers are published every year, as well as some review articles of books and conference proceedings. Submissions can be sent online.
"The Peace & Conflict Monitor" is an online forum for informed debate and peace journalism. Drawing on contributions from the students, researchers, and journalists who make up the majority of its wide readership, the PCM offers unique perspectives on current events from around the world.
"Africa Peace and Conflict Journal" is an academic journal focused on African issues related to peace and security and is published by the UPEACE Africa office. The aim of the APCJ peer review process is to be rigorous and free of bias, ensuring that only high-quality, innovative work is published. The interdisciplinary emphasis of APCJ seeks to encourage the building of the field, combining the disciplines of peace and conflict studies, development, and human and social security in Africa.
The U.S. Association for the University for Peace is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization established in 2006 to advance the University for Peace and the practice of education for peace in the United States. UPEACE/US projects include DCPEACE, an initiative to empower teachers, youth, and families with the skills and knowledge necessary to effectively serve as peacebuilders in their communities and PeaceRooms, a program that connect classrooms of middle school students from Costa Rica and Washington D.C. through the use of innovative virtual networking technology for the purpose of developing core concepts of global citizenship and peace education.UPEACE/US website
The UPEACE Sharing Knowledge for Peace Program (SKP) is a distance learning initiative which ensures that those unable to attend courses in Costa Rica or in one of the other UPEACE locations are reached through state-of-the-art dissemination methods.
In 2017 the ECPD appointed London-based music producer Danny Briottet (founder of the group Renegade Soundwave ) Director of Music Programmes, as the organisation extends its aim to involve young people in the Balkan region and elsewhere in its work. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32160 |
Urinary tract infection
A urinary tract infection (UTI) is an infection that affects part of the urinary tract. When it affects the lower urinary tract it is known as a bladder infection (cystitis) and when it affects the upper urinary tract it is known as a kidney infection (pyelonephritis). Symptoms from a lower urinary tract infection include pain with urination, frequent urination, and feeling the need to urinate despite having an empty bladder. Symptoms of a kidney infection include fever and flank pain usually in addition to the symptoms of a lower UTI. Rarely the urine may appear bloody. In the very old and the very young, symptoms may be vague or non-specific.
The most common cause of infection is "Escherichia coli", though other bacteria or fungi may sometimes be the cause. Risk factors include female anatomy, sexual intercourse, diabetes, obesity, and family history. Although sexual intercourse is a risk factor, UTIs are not classified as sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Kidney infection, if it occurs, usually follows a bladder infection but may also result from a blood-borne infection. Diagnosis in young healthy women can be based on symptoms alone. In those with vague symptoms, diagnosis can be difficult because bacteria may be present without there being an infection. In complicated cases or if treatment fails, a urine culture may be useful.
In uncomplicated cases, UTIs are treated with a short course of antibiotics such as nitrofurantoin or trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole. Resistance to many of the antibiotics used to treat this condition is increasing. In complicated cases, a longer course or intravenous antibiotics may be needed. If symptoms do not improve in two or three days, further diagnostic testing may be needed. Phenazopyridine may help with symptoms. In those who have bacteria or white blood cells in their urine but have no symptoms, antibiotics are generally not needed, although during pregnancy is an exception. In those with frequent infections, a short course of antibiotics may be taken as soon as symptoms begin or long-term antibiotics may be used as a preventive measure.
About 150million people develop a urinary tract infection in a given year. They are more common in women than men. In women, they are the most common form of bacterial infection. Up to 10% of women have a urinary tract infection in a given year, and half of women have at least one infection at some point in their lifetime. They occur most frequently between the ages of 16 and 35years. Recurrences are common. Urinary tract infections have been described since ancient times with the first documented description in the Ebers Papyrus dated to c. 1550 BC.
Lower urinary tract infection is also referred to as a bladder infection. The most common symptoms are burning with urination and having to urinate frequently (or an urge to urinate) in the absence of vaginal discharge and significant pain. These symptoms may vary from mild to severe and in healthy women last an average of sixdays. Some pain above the pubic bone or in the lower back may be present. People experiencing an upper urinary tract infection, or pyelonephritis, may experience flank pain, fever, or nausea and vomiting in addition to the classic symptoms of a lower urinary tract infection. Rarely, the urine may appear bloody or contain visible pus in the urine.
In young children, the only symptom of a urinary tract infection (UTI) may be a fever. Because of the lack of more obvious symptoms, when females under the age of two or uncircumcised males less than a year exhibit a fever, a culture of the urine is recommended by many medical associations. Infants may feed poorly, vomit, sleep more, or show signs of jaundice. In older children, new onset urinary incontinence (loss of bladder control) may occur. About 1 in 400 infants of 1 to 3 months of age with a UTI also have bacterial meningitis.
Urinary tract symptoms are frequently lacking in the elderly. The presentations may be vague with incontinence, a change in mental status, or fatigue as the only symptoms, while some present to a health care provider with sepsis, an infection of the blood, as the first symptoms. Diagnosis can be complicated by the fact that many elderly people have preexisting incontinence or dementia.
It is reasonable to obtain a urine culture in those with signs of systemic infection that may be unable to report urinary symptoms, such as when advanced dementia is present. Systemic signs of infection include a fever or increase in temperature of more than from usual, chills, and an increased white blood cell count.
Uropathogenic "E. coli" from the gut is the cause of 80–85% of community-acquired urinary tract infections, with "Staphylococcus saprophyticus" being the cause in 5–10%. Rarely they may be due to viral or fungal infections. Healthcare-associated urinary tract infections (mostly related to urinary catheterization) involve a much broader range of pathogens including: "E. coli" (27%), "Klebsiella" (11%), "Pseudomonas" (11%), the fungal pathogen "Candida albicans" (9%), and "Enterococcus" (7%) among others. Urinary tract infections due to "Staphylococcus aureus" typically occur secondary to blood-borne infections. "Chlamydia trachomatis" and "Mycoplasma genitalium" can infect the urethra but not the bladder. These infections are usually classified as a urethritis rather than urinary tract infection.
In young sexually active women, sexual activity is the cause of 75–90% of bladder infections, with the risk of infection related to the frequency of sex. The term "honeymoon cystitis" has been applied to this phenomenon of frequent UTIs during early marriage. In post-menopausal women, sexual activity does not affect the risk of developing a UTI. Spermicide use, independent of sexual frequency, increases the risk of UTIs. Diaphragm use is also associated. Condom use without spermicide or use of birth control pills does not increase the risk of uncomplicated urinary tract infection.
Women are more prone to UTIs than men because, in females, the urethra is much shorter and closer to the anus. As a woman's estrogen levels decrease with menopause, her risk of urinary tract infections increases due to the loss of protective vaginal flora. Additionally, vaginal atrophy that can sometimes occur after menopause is associated with recurrent urinary tract infections.
Chronic prostatitis in the forms of chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome and chronic bacterial prostatitis (not acute bacterial prostatitis or asymptomatic inflammatory prostatitis) may cause recurrent urinary tract infections in males. Risk of infections increases as males age. While bacteria is commonly present in the urine of older males this does not appear to affect the risk of urinary tract infections.
Urinary catheterization increases the risk for urinary tract infections. The risk of bacteriuria (bacteria in the urine) is between three and six percent per day and prophylactic antibiotics are not effective in decreasing symptomatic infections. The risk of an associated infection can be decreased by catheterizing only when necessary, using aseptic technique for insertion, and maintaining unobstructed closed drainage of the catheter.
Male scuba divers using condom catheters and female divers using external catching devices for their dry suits are also susceptible to urinary tract infections.
A predisposition for bladder infections may run in families. This is believed to be related to genetics. Other risk factors include diabetes, being uncircumcised, and having a large prostate. In children UTIs are associated with vesicoureteral reflux (an abnormal movement of urine from the bladder into ureters or kidneys) and constipation.
Persons with spinal cord injury are at increased risk for urinary tract infection in part because of chronic use of catheter, and in part because of voiding dysfunction. It is the most common cause of infection in this population, as well as the most common cause of hospitalization. Additionally, use of cranberry juice or cranberry supplement appears to be ineffective in prevention and treatment in this population.
The bacteria that cause urinary tract infections typically enter the bladder via the urethra. However, infection may also occur via the blood or lymph. It is believed that the bacteria are usually transmitted to the urethra from the bowel, with females at greater risk due to their anatomy. After gaining entry to the bladder, "E. Coli" are able to attach to the bladder wall and form a biofilm that resists the body's immune response.
"Escherichia coli" is the single most common microorganism, followed by "Klebsiella" and "Proteus" spp., to cause urinary tract infection. "Klebsiella" and "Proteus" spp., are frequently associated with stone disease. The presence of Gram positive bacteria such as "Enterococcus" and "Staphylococcus" increased.
The increased resistance of urinary pathogens to quinolone antibiotics has been reported worldwide and might be the consequence of overuse and misuse of quinolones.
In straightforward cases, a diagnosis may be made and treatment given based on symptoms alone without further laboratory confirmation. In complicated or questionable cases, it may be useful to confirm the diagnosis via urinalysis, looking for the presence of urinary nitrites, white blood cells (leukocytes), or leukocyte esterase. Another test, urine microscopy, looks for the presence of red blood cells, white blood cells, or bacteria. Urine culture is deemed positive if it shows a bacterial colony count of greater than or equal to 103 colony-forming units per mL of a typical urinary tract organism. Antibiotic sensitivity can also be tested with these cultures, making them useful in the selection of antibiotic treatment. However, women with negative cultures may still improve with antibiotic treatment. As symptoms can be vague and without reliable tests for urinary tract infections, diagnosis can be difficult in the elderly.
A urinary tract infection may involve only the lower urinary tract, in which case it is known as a bladder infection. Alternatively, it may involve the upper urinary tract, in which case it is known as pyelonephritis. If the urine contains significant bacteria but there are no symptoms, the condition is known as asymptomatic bacteriuria. If a urinary tract infection involves the upper tract, and the person has diabetes mellitus, is pregnant, is male, or immunocompromised, it is considered complicated. Otherwise if a woman is healthy and premenopausal it is considered uncomplicated. In children when a urinary tract infection is associated with a fever, it is deemed to be an upper urinary tract infection.
To make the diagnosis of a urinary tract infection in children, a positive urinary culture is required. Contamination poses a frequent challenge depending on the method of collection used, thus a cutoff of 105CFU/mL is used for a "clean-catch" mid stream sample, 104CFU/mL is used for catheter-obtained specimens, and 102CFU/mL is used for suprapubic aspirations (a sample drawn directly from the bladder with a needle). The use of "urine bags" to collect samples is discouraged by the World Health Organization due to the high rate of contamination when cultured, and catheterization is preferred in those not toilet trained. Some, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends renal ultrasound and voiding cystourethrogram (watching a person's urethra and urinary bladder with real time x-rays while they urinate) in all children less than two years old who have had a urinary tract infection. However, because there is a lack of effective treatment if problems are found, others such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence only recommends routine imaging in those less than six months old or who have unusual findings.
In women with cervicitis (inflammation of the cervix) or vaginitis (inflammation of the vagina) and in young men with UTI symptoms, a "Chlamydia trachomatis" or "Neisseria gonorrhoeae" infection may be the cause. These infections are typically classified as a urethritis rather than a urinary tract infection. Vaginitis may also be due to a yeast infection. Interstitial cystitis (chronic pain in the bladder) may be considered for people who experience multiple episodes of UTI symptoms but urine cultures remain negative and not improved with antibiotics. Prostatitis (inflammation of the prostate) may also be considered in the differential diagnosis.
Hemorrhagic cystitis, characterized by blood in the urine, can occur secondary to a number of causes including: infections, radiation therapy, underlying cancer, medications and toxins. Medications that commonly cause this problem include the chemotherapeutic agent cyclophosphamide with rates of 2 to 40%. Eosinophilic cystitis is a rare condition where eosinophiles are present in the bladder wall. Signs and symptoms are similar to a bladder infection. Its cause is not entirely clear; however, it may be linked to food allergies, infections, and medications among others.
A number of measures have not been confirmed to affect UTI frequency including: urinating immediately after intercourse, the type of underwear used, personal hygiene methods used after urinating or defecating, or whether a person typically bathes or showers. There is similarly a lack of evidence surrounding the effect of holding one's urine, tampon use, and douching. In those with frequent urinary tract infections who use spermicide or a diaphragm as a method of contraception, they are advised to use alternative methods. In those with benign prostatic hyperplasia urinating in a sitting position appears to improve bladder emptying which might decrease urinary tract infections in this group.
Using urinary catheters as little and as short of time as possible and appropriate care of the catheter when used prevents catheter-associated urinary tract infections.
They should be inserted using sterile technique in hospital however non-sterile technique may be appropriate in those who self catheterize. The urinary catheter set up should also be kept sealed. Evidence does not support a significant decrease in risk when silver-alloy catheters are used.
For those with recurrent infections, taking a short course of antibiotics when each infection occurs is associated with the lowest antibiotic use. A prolonged course of daily antibiotics is also effective. Medications frequently used include nitrofurantoin and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (TMP/SMX). Methenamine is another agent used for this purpose as in the bladder where the acidity is low it produces formaldehyde to which resistance does not develop. Some recommend against prolonged use due to concerns of antibiotic resistance.
In cases where infections are related to intercourse, taking antibiotics afterwards may be useful. In post-menopausal women, topical vaginal estrogen has been found to reduce recurrence. As opposed to topical creams, the use of vaginal estrogen from pessaries has not been as useful as low dose antibiotics. Antibiotics following short term urinary catheterization decreases the subsequent risk of a bladder infection. A number of vaccines are in development as of 2018.
The evidence that preventive antibiotics decrease urinary tract infections in children is poor. However recurrent UTIs are a rare cause of further kidney problems if there are no underlying abnormalities of the kidneys, resulting in less than a third of a percent (0.33%) of chronic kidney disease in adults. Whether routine circumcision prevents UTIs has not been well studied as of 2011.
Some research suggests that cranberry (juice or capsules) may decrease the number of UTIs in those with frequent infections. A Cochrane review concluded that the benefit, if it exists, is small. Long-term tolerance is also an issue with gastrointestinal upset occurring in more than 30%. Cranberry juice is thus not currently recommended for this indication. As of 2015, probiotics require further study to determine if they are beneficial. The role of the urinary microbiome in maintaining urinary tract health is not well understood as of 2015.
The mainstay of treatment is antibiotics. Phenazopyridine is occasionally prescribed during the first few days in addition to antibiotics to help with the burning and urgency sometimes felt during a bladder infection. However, it is not routinely recommended due to safety concerns with its use, specifically an elevated risk of methemoglobinemia (higher than normal level of methemoglobin in the blood). Acetaminophen (paracetamol) may be used for fevers. There is no good evidence for the use of cranberry products for treating current infections.
Those who have bacteria in the urine but no symptoms should not generally be treated with antibiotics. This includes those who are old, those with spinal cord injuries, and those who have urinary catheters. Pregnancy is an exception and it is recommended that women take 7days of antibiotics. If not treated it causes up to 30% of mothers to develop pyelonephritis and increases risk of low birth weight and preterm birth. Some also support treatment of those with diabetes mellitus and treatment before urinary tract procedures which will likely cause bleeding.
Uncomplicated infections can be diagnosed and treated based on symptoms alone. Antibiotics taken by mouth such as trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (TMP/SMX), nitrofurantoin, or fosfomycin are typically first line. Cephalosporins, amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, or a fluoroquinolone may also be used. However, antibiotic resistance to fluoroquinolones among the bacteria that cause urinary infections has been increasing. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends against the use of fluoroquinolones, including a Boxed Warning, when other options are available due to higher risks of serious side effects, such as tendinitis, tendon rupture and worsening of myasthenia gravis. These medications substantially shorten the time to recovery with all being equally effective. A three-day treatment with trimethoprim, TMP/SMX, or a fluoroquinolone is usually sufficient, whereas nitrofurantoin requires 5–7days. Fosfomycin may be used as a single dose but is not as effective.
Fluoroquinolones are not recommended as a first treatment. The Infectious Diseases Society of America states this due to the concern of generating resistance to this class of medication. Amoxicillin-clavulanate appears less effective than other options. Despite this precaution, some resistance has developed to all of these medications related to their widespread use. Trimethoprim alone is deemed to be equivalent to TMP/SMX in some countries. For simple UTIs, children often respond to a three-day course of antibiotics. Women with recurrent simple UTIs are over 90% accurate in identifying new infections. They may benefit from self-treatment upon occurrence of symptoms with medical follow-up only if the initial treatment fails.
Complicated UTIs are more difficult to treat and usually requires more aggressive evaluation, treatment and follow-up. It may require identifying and addressing the underlying complication. Increasing antibiotic resistance is causing concern about the future of treating those with complicated and recurrent UTI.
Pyelonephritis is treated more aggressively than a simple bladder infection using either a longer course of oral antibiotics or intravenous antibiotics. Seven days of the oral fluoroquinolone ciprofloxacin is typically used in areas where the resistance rate is less than 10%. If the local resistance rates are greater than 10%, a dose of intravenous ceftriaxone is often prescribed. Trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole or amoxicillin/clavulanate orally for 14 days is another reasonable option. In those who exhibit more severe symptoms, admission to a hospital for ongoing antibiotics may be needed. Complications such as urinary obstruction from a kidney stone may be considered if symptoms do not improve following two or three days of treatment.
With treatment, symptoms generally improve within 36hours. Up to 42% of uncomplicated infections may resolve on their own within a few days or weeks.
Urinary tract infections are the most frequent bacterial infection in women. They occur most frequently between the ages of 16 and 35years, with 10% of women getting an infection yearly and more than 40–60% having an infection at some point in their lives. Recurrences are common, with nearly half of people getting a second infection within a year. Urinary tract infections occur four times more frequently in females than males. Pyelonephritis occurs between 20–30 times less frequently. They are the most common cause of hospital acquired infections accounting for approximately 40%. Rates of asymptomatic bacteria in the urine increase with age from two to seven percent in women of child-bearing age to as high as 50% in elderly women in care homes. Rates of asymptomatic bacteria in the urine among men over 75 are between 7–10%. Asymptomatic bacteria in the urine occurs in 2% to 10% of pregnancies.
Urinary tract infections may affect 10% of people during childhood. Among children, urinary tract infections are most common in uncircumcised males less than three months of age, followed by females less than one year. Estimates of frequency among children, however, vary widely. In a group of children with a fever, ranging in age between birth and two years, two to 20% were diagnosed with a UTI.
In the United States, urinary tract infections account for nearly seven million office visits, a million emergency department visits, and one hundred thousand hospitalizations every year. The cost of these infections is significant both in terms of lost time at work and costs of medical care. In the United States the direct cost of treatment is estimated at 1.6billionUSD yearly.
Urinary tract infections have been described since ancient times with the first documented description in the Ebers Papyrus dated to c. 1550 BC. It was described by the Egyptians as "sending forth heat from the bladder". Effective treatment did not occur until the development and availability of antibiotics in the 1930s before which time herbs, bloodletting and rest were recommended.
Urinary tract infections are more concerning in pregnancy due to the increased risk of kidney infections. During pregnancy, high progesterone levels elevate the risk of decreased muscle tone of the ureters and bladder, which leads to a greater likelihood of reflux, where urine flows back up the ureters and towards the kidneys. While pregnant women do not have an increased risk of asymptomatic bacteriuria, if bacteriuria is present they do have a 25–40% risk of a kidney infection. Thus if urine testing shows signs of an infection—even in the absence of symptoms—treatment is recommended. Cephalexin or nitrofurantoin are typically used because they are generally considered safe in pregnancy. A kidney infection during pregnancy may result in premature birth or pre-eclampsia (a state of high blood pressure and kidney dysfunction during pregnancy that can lead to seizures). Some women have UTIs that keep coming back in pregnancy and currently there is not enough research on how to best treat these infections. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32161 |
USS Greeneville
USS "Greeneville" is a fast attack submarine, and the only vessel of the United States Navy to be named after Greeneville, Tennessee. The contract to build the boat was awarded to Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company in Newport News, Virginia, on 14 December 1988, and her keel was laid down on 28 February 1992. She was launched on 17 September 1994, sponsored by Tipper Gore, and commissioned on 16 February 1996.
"Greeneville" collided with a Japanese fishing vessel, "Ehime Maru", off the coast of Oahu in February 2001.
She was named after Greeneville, the home of 17th United States President Andrew Johnson, after local residents, businesses such as Greeneville Metal Manufacturing, which builds submarine components, and government officials began a campaign for a submarine to be named after their town, rather than a large metropolitan area.
On 9 February 2001, while conducting an emergency main ballast tank blow off the coast of Oahu while hosting several civilian "distinguished visitors", mainly donors to the Battleship "Missouri" Memorial, "Greeneville" struck the 191-foot (58 m) Japanese fishery high school training ship "Ehime Maru" (えひめ丸), causing the fishing boat to sink in less than ten minutes with the death of nine crew members, including four high school students. The commander of "Greeneville", Commander Scott Waddle, accepted full responsibility for the incident. However, after he faced a court of inquiry, it was decided a full court-martial would be unnecessary and Commander Waddle's request to retire was approved for 1 October 2001 with an honorable discharge.
On 27 August 2001, "Greeneville" ran aground while entering port in Saipan on a routine Western Pacific deployment. The boat's underside, rudder, and propulsion train suffered minor damage; repairs required drydocking and a significant delay in the remainder of her deployment. The boat's commanding officer, Commander David Bogdan, was relieved of command, and the navigator and assistant navigator were also removed from their duties. In addition, the navigator and the sub's executive officer, Lieutenant Commander Gerald Pfieffer, were found guilty of "hazarding a vessel" during an admiral's mast, conducted by Rear Admiral Joseph Enright, Commander, Submarine Group Seven.
On 27 January 2002, less than a year after colliding with "Ehime Maru" and five months after running aground, "Greeneville" collided with during a personnel transfer off the coast of Oman, opening a 5 by 18 inch (130 by 460 mm) hole in one of "Ogden"s fuel tanks and spilling several thousand gallons of fuel. After the collision, both vessels left the area under their own power.
Following the investigation regarding the collision with "Ogden", Commander Lindsay R. Hankins was permitted to remain in command of the "Greeneville". Despite the fact the "Ogden"s commanding officer was fired, Hankins went on to have a successful command tour with his XO LCDR Mark D. Pyle. Capt. Hankins went on to be awarded the coveted Vice Admiral James Bond Stockdale Award for Inspirational Leadership. LCDR Pyle also went on to have the honor of being bestowed with the John Paul Jones award, which recognizes outstanding leadership.
On 9 July 2004, when Commander Lorin Selby relieved Hankins as commanding officer of "Greeneville", Captain Cecil Haney, Commodore, Submarine Squadron One, stated that "The performance of USS "Greeneville" during Captain Hankins' tour has been nothing but remarkable. It has been marked by top grades in both tactical and engineering readiness. Lee Hankins was handpicked by our leadership for the job as CO of "Greeneville". They got it right." Hankins was selected for promotion to Captain in 2005 and served as Commodore of Submarine Squadron One (COMSUBRON 1) based in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Captain Hankins later served as the Chief of Staff for the Commander, Submarine Forces Pacific.
Between 25 and 27 March 2006, a series of anti-submarine warfare exercises were held in Hawaiian waters that included "Greeneville"; Carrier Strike Group Nine; the nuclear-powered attack submarines , , , and , as well as land-based P-3 Orion aircraft from patrol squadrons VP-4, VP-9, and VP-47.
In October 2007, "Greeneville" left her home port of Pearl Harbor to conduct a Depot Modernization Period at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, ME. She returned to Pearl Harbor, HI in July 2009. In early 2011, "Greeneville" returned from a Western Pacific deployment under the command of CDR Carullo.
Awarded the 2016 "Battle E" award from Submarine Squadron One after a successful western Pacific deployment. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32163 |
Unitarianism
Unitarianism (from Latin "unitas" "unity, oneness", from "unus" "one") is a Christian theological movement named for its belief that the God in Christianity is one person, as opposed to the Trinity (tri- from Latin "tres" "three") which in most other branches of Christianity defines God as one being in three persons: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Unitarian Christians, therefore, believe that Jesus was inspired by God in his moral teachings, and he is a savior, but he was not a deity or God incarnate. As is typical of dissenters, Unitarianism does not constitute one single Christian denomination, but rather refers to a collection of both existing and extinct Christian groups, whether historically related to each other or not, which share a common theological concept of the oneness nature of God. Unitarian communities have developed in Britain, South Africa, India, Canada, the United States, Jamaica, Nigeria, and Japan.
Unitarianism is also known for the rejection of several other Western Christian doctrines, including the doctrines of original sin, predestination, and the infallibility of the Bible. In J. Gordon Melton's "Encyclopedia of American Religions", the Unitarian tradition is classified among "the 'liberal' family of churches". Unitarians place emphasis on the ultimate role of reason in interpreting scriptures, and thus freedom of conscience and freedom of the pulpit are core values in the tradition.
The movement is tied to the more radical critiques of the Reformation. Unitarians began almost simultaneously in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and in Transylvania in the mid-16th century. Among the adherents were a significant number of Italians who took refuge in Poland. In the 17th century, significant repression in Poland led many Unitarians to flee or be killed for their faith, notably Katarzyna Weiglowa. From the 16th to 18th centuries, Unitarians in Britain often faced significant political persecution, including John Biddle, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Theophilus Lindsey. In England, the first Unitarian Church was established in 1774 on Essex Street, London, where today's British Unitarian headquarters is still located.
In the United States, different schools of Unitarian theology first spread in New England and the mid-Atlantic states. The first official acceptance of the Unitarian faith on the part of a congregation in America was by King's Chapel in Boston, from where James Freeman began teaching Unitarian doctrine in 1784, and was appointed rector and revised the prayer book according to Unitarian doctrines in 1786.
Unitarianism is a proper noun and follows the same English usage as other theologies that have developed within a religious movement (Calvinism, Anabaptism, Adventism, Wesleyanism, Lutheranism, etc.). The term existed shortly before it became the name of a religious movement, thus occasionally it is used as a common noun that would describe any understanding of Jesus Christ that denies the Trinity or which believes that God is only one person. In that case, it would be a nontrinitarian belief system not necessarily associated with the Unitarian religious movement. For example, the Unitarian movement has never accepted the Godhood of Jesus, and therefore does not include those "nontrinitarian" belief systems that do, such as Oneness Pentecostalism, United Pentecostal Church International and the True Jesus Church and the writings of Michael Servetus, all of which maintain that Jesus is God as a single person. Although these groups are unitarians in the common sense, they are not in the proper sense. To avoid confusion, this article is about Unitarianism as a religious movement (proper noun). For the generic form of unitarianism (the Christology), see Nontrinitarianism. Recently some religious groups have adopted the 19th-century term "biblical unitarianism" to distinguish their theology from Unitarianism. These likewise have no direct relation to the Unitarian movement.
The term "Unitarian" is sometimes applied today to those who belong to a Unitarian church but do not hold a Unitarian theological belief. In the past, the vast majority of members of Unitarian churches were Unitarians also in theology. Over time, however, some Unitarians and Unitarian Universalists moved away from the traditional Christian roots of Unitarianism. For example, in the 1890s the American Unitarian Association began to allow non-Christian and non-theistic churches and individuals to be part of their fellowship. As a result, people who held no Unitarian belief began to be called "Unitarians" because they were members of churches that belonged to the American Unitarian Association. After several decades, the non-theistic members outnumbered the theological Unitarians. A similar, though proportionally much smaller, phenomenon has taken place in the Unitarian churches in the United Kingdom, Canada, and other countries, which remain more theistically based. Unitarian theology, therefore, is distinguishable from the belief system of modern Unitarian and Unitarian Universalist churches and fellowships. This article includes information about Unitarianism as a theology and about the development of theologically Unitarian churches. For a more specific discussion of Unitarianism as it evolved into a pluralistic liberal religious movement, see Unitarian Universalism (and its national groups the Unitarian Universalist Association in the United States, the Canadian Unitarian Council in Canada, the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches in the United Kingdom, and the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists).
Unitarianism, both as a theology and as a denominational family of churches, was defined and developed in Poland, Transylvania, England, Wales and the United States. Although common beliefs existed among Unitarians in each of these regions, they initially grew independently from each other. Only later did they influence one another and accumulate more similarities.
The "Ecclesia minor" or "Minor Reformed Church of Poland", better known today as the Polish Brethren, was born as the result of a controversy that started on January 22, 1556, when Piotr of Goniądz (Peter Gonesius), a Polish student, spoke out against the doctrine of the Trinity during the general synod of the Reformed (Calvinist) churches of Poland held in the village of Secemin. After nine years of debate, in 1565, the anti-Trinitarians were excluded from the existing synod of the Polish Reformed Church (henceforth the "Ecclesia maior") and they began to hold their own synods as the "Ecclesia minor". Though frequently called "Arians" by those on the outside, the views of Fausto Sozzini (Faustus Socinus) became the standard in the church, and these doctrines were quite removed from Arianism. So important was Socinus to the formulation of their beliefs that those outside Poland usually referred to them as Socinians. The Polish Brethren were disbanded in 1658 by the Sejm (Polish Parliament). They were ordered to convert to Roman Catholicism or leave Poland. Most of them went to Transylvania or Holland, where they embraced the name "Unitarian." Between 1665 and 1668 a grandson of Socinus, Andrzej Wiszowaty Sr., published "Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum quos Unitarios vocant" ("Library of the Polish Brethren who are called Unitarians" 4 vols. 1665–69).
The Unitarian Church in Transylvania was first recognized by the Edict of Torda, issued by the Transylvanian Diet under Prince John II Sigismund Zápolya (January 1568), and was first led by Ferenc Dávid (a former Calvinist bishop, who had begun preaching the new doctrine in 1566). The term "Unitarian" first appeared as "unitaria religio" in a document of the Diet of Lécfalva, Transylvania, on 25 October 1600, though it was not widely used in Transylvania until 1638, when the formal "recepta Unitaria Religio" was published.
The word "Unitarian" had been circulating in private letters in England, in reference to imported copies of such publications as the "Library of the Polish Brethren who are called Unitarians" (1665). Henry Hedworth was the first to use the word "Unitarian" in print in English (1673), and the word first appears in a title in Stephen Nye's "A brief history of the Unitarians, called also Socinians" (1687). The movement gained popularity in England in the wake of the Enlightenment and began to become a formal denomination in 1774 when Theophilus Lindsey organised meetings with Joseph Priestley, founding the first avowedly Unitarian congregation in the country. This occurred at Essex Street Church in London. Official toleration came in 1813.
The first official acceptance of the Unitarian faith on the part of a congregation in America was by King's Chapel in Boston, which settled James Freeman (1759–1835) in 1782, and revised the Prayer Book into a mild Unitarian liturgy in 1785. In 1800, Joseph Stevens Buckminster became minister of the Brattle Street Church in Boston, where his brilliant sermons, literary activities, and academic attention to the German "New Criticism" helped shape the subsequent growth of Unitarianism in New England. Unitarian Henry Ware (1764–1845) was appointed as the Hollis professor of divinity at Harvard College, in 1805. Harvard Divinity School then shifted from its conservative roots to teach Unitarian theology (see Harvard and Unitarianism). Buckminster's close associate William Ellery Channing (1780–1842) was settled over the Federal Street Church in Boston, 1803, and in a few years he became the leader of the Unitarian movement. A theological battle with the Congregational Churches resulted in the formation of the American Unitarian Association at Boston in 1825.
Unitarians believe that mainline Christianity does not adhere to strict monotheism, but that Unitarians do by maintaining that Jesus was a great man and a prophet of God, perhaps even a supernatural being, but not God himself. They believe Jesus did not claim to be God and that his teachings did not suggest the existence of a triune God. Unitarians believe in the moral authority but not necessarily the divinity of Jesus. Their theology is thus opposed to the trinitarian theology of other Christian denominations.
Unitarian Christology can be divided according to whether or not Jesus is believed to have had a pre-human existence. Both forms maintain that God is one being and one "person" and that Jesus is the (or a) Son of God, but generally not God himself.
In the early 19th century, Unitarian Robert Wallace identified three particular classes of Unitarian doctrines in history:
Unitarianism is considered a factor in the decline of classical deism because there were people who increasingly preferred to identify themselves as Unitarians rather than deists.
Several tenets of Unitarianism overlap with the predominant Muslim view of Jesus and Islamic understanding of monotheism.
The Christology commonly called "Socinian" (after Fausto Sozzini, one of the founders of Unitarian theology) refers to the belief that Jesus Christ began his life when he was born as a human. In other words, the teaching that Jesus pre-existed his human body is rejected. There are various views ranging from the belief that Jesus was simply a human (psilanthropism) who, because of his greatness, was adopted by God as his Son (adoptionism) to the belief that Jesus literally became the son of God when he was conceived by the Holy Spirit.
This Christology existed in some form or another prior to Sozzini. Theodotus of Byzantium, Artemon and Paul of Samosata denied the pre-existence of Christ. These ideas were continued by Marcellus of Ancyra and his pupil Photinus in the 4th century AD. In the Radical Reformation and Anabaptist movements of the 16th century this idea resurfaced with Sozzini's uncle, Lelio Sozzini. Having influenced the Polish Brethren to a formal declaration of this belief in the Racovian Catechism, Fausto Sozzini involuntarily ended up giving his name to this Christological position, which continued with English Unitarians such as John Biddle, Thomas Belsham, Theophilus Lindsey, Joseph Priestley, and James Martineau. In America, most of the early Unitarians were "Arian" in Christology (see below), but among those who held to a "Socinian" view was James Freeman.
Regarding the virgin birth of Jesus among those who denied the preexistence of Christ, some held to it and others did not. Its denial is sometimes ascribed to the Ebionites; however, Origen ("Contra Celsum" v.61) and Eusebius ("HE" iii.27) both indicate that some Ebionites did accept the virgin birth. On the other hand, Theodotus of Byzantium, Artemon, and Paul of Samosata all accepted the virgin birth. In the early days of Unitarianism, the stories of the virgin birth were accepted by most. There were a number of Unitarians who questioned the historical accuracy of the Bible, including Symon Budny, Jacob Palaeologus, Thomas Belsham, and Richard Wright, and this made them question the virgin birth story. Beginning in England and America in the 1830s, and manifesting itself primarily in Transcendentalist Unitarianism, which emerged from the German liberal theology associated primarily with Friedrich Schleiermacher, the psilanthropist view increased in popularity. Its proponents took an intellectual and humanistic approach to religion. They embraced evolutionary concepts, asserted the "inherent goodness of man", and abandoned the doctrine of biblical infallibility, rejecting most of the miraculous events in the Bible (including the virgin birth). Notable examples are James Martineau, Theodore Parker, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Frederic Henry Hedge. Famous American Unitarian William Ellery Channing was a believer in the virgin birth until later in his life, after he had begun his association with the Transcendentalists.
The Christology commonly called "Arian" holds that Jesus, before his human life, existed as the Logos, or the Word, a being created by God, who dwelt with God in heaven. There are many varieties of this form of Unitarianism, ranging from the belief that the Son was a divine spirit of the same nature as God before coming to earth, to the belief that he was an angel or other lesser spirit creature of a wholly different nature from God. Not all of these views necessarily were held by Arius, the namesake of this Christology. It is still Nontrinitarian because, according to this belief system, Jesus has always been beneath God, though higher than humans. Arian Christology was not a majority view among Unitarians in Poland, Transylvania or England. It was only with the advent of American Unitarianism that it gained a foothold in the Unitarian movement.
Among early Christian theologians who believed in a pre-existent Jesus who was subordinate to God the Father were Lucian of Antioch, Eusebius of Caesarea, Arius, Eusebius of Nicomedia, Asterius the Sophist, Eunomius, and Ulfilas, as well as Felix, Bishop of Urgell. Proponents of this Christology also associate it (more controversially) with Justin Martyr and Hippolytus of Rome. Antitrinitarian Michael Servetus did not deny the pre-existence of Christ, so he may have believed in it. (In his "Treatise Concerning the Divine Trinity" Servetus taught that the Logos (Word) was the reflection of Christ, and "that reflection of Christ was 'the Word with God" that consisted of God Himself, shining brightly in heaven, "and it was God Himself" and that "the Word was the very essence of God or the manifestation of God's essence, and there was in God no other substance or hypostasis than His Word, in a bright cloud where God then seemed to subsist. And in that very spot the face and personality of Christ shone bright.") Isaac Newton had Arian beliefs as well. Famous 19th-century Arian Unitarians include Andrews Norton and Dr. William Ellery Channing (in his earlier years).
Although there is no specific authority on convictions of Unitarian belief aside from rejection of the Trinity, the following beliefs are generally accepted:
Unitarians have liberal views of God, Jesus, the world and purpose of life as revealed through reason, scholarship, science, philosophy, scripture and other prophets and religions. They believe that reason and belief are complementary and that religion and science can co-exist and guide them in their understanding of nature and God. They also do not enforce belief in creeds or dogmatic formulas. Although there is flexibility in the nuances of belief or basic truths for the individual Unitarian Christian, general principles of faith have been recognized as a way to bind the group in some commonality.
Unitarian Christians reject the doctrine of some Christian denominations that God chooses to redeem or save only those certain individuals that accept the creeds of, or affiliate with, a specific church or religion, from a common ruin or corruption of the mass of humanity.
In 1938, "The Christian leader" attributed ""the" religion "of" Jesus, not "a" religion "about" Jesus" to Unitarians, though the phrase was used earlier by Congregationalist Rollin Lynde Hartt in 1924 and earlier still by US President Thomas Jefferson.
Worship within the Unitarian tradition accommodates a wide range of understandings of God, while the focus of the service may be simply the celebration of life itself. Each Unitarian congregation is at liberty to devise its own form of worship, though commonly, Unitarians will light their chalice (symbol of faith), have a story for all ages; and include sermons, prayers, hymns and songs. Some will allow attendees to publicly share their recent joys or concerns.
This section relates to Unitarian churches and organizations today which are still specifically Christian, whether within or outside Unitarian Universalism. Unitarian Universalism, conversely, refers to the embracing of non-Christian religions.
Some Unitarian Christian groups are affiliated with the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists (ICUU), founded in 1995. The ICUU has "full member" groups in Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, EUU, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Romania, South Africa, Spain. Sri Lanka and the United States. Brazil is a Provisional Member
The ICUU includes small "Associate Groups", including Congregazione Italiana Cristiano Unitariana, Turin (founded in 2004) and the Bét Dávid Unitarian Association, Oslo (founded 2005).
The largest Unitarian denomination worldwide today is also the oldest surviving Unitarian denomination (since 1565, first use of the term "Unitarian" 1600): the Unitarian Church of Transylvania (in Romania, which is in union with the Unitarian Church in Hungary). The church in Romania and Hungary still looks to the statement of faith, the "Summa Universae Theologiae Christianae secundum Unitarios" (1787), though today assent to this is not required. The modern Unitarian Church in Hungary (25,000 members) and the Transylvanian Unitarian Church (75,000 members) are affiliated with the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists (ICUU) and claim continuity with the historical Unitarian Christian tradition established by Ferenc Dávid in 1565 in Transylvania under John II Sigismund Zápolya. The Unitarian churches in Hungary and Transylvania are structured and organized along a church hierarchy that includes the election by the synod of a national bishop who serves as superintendent of the Church. Many Hungarian Unitarians embrace the principles of rationalist Unitarianism. Unitarian high schools exist only in Transylvania (Romania), including the John Sigismund Unitarian Academy in Cluj-Napoca (Kolozsvár), the Protestant Theological Institute of Cluj, and the Berde Mózes Unitárius Gimnázium in Cristuru Secuiesc (Székelykeresztúr); both teach Rationalist Unitarianism.
The Unitarian Christian Association (UCA) was founded in the United Kingdom in 1991 by Rev. Lancelot Garrard (1904–93) and others to promote specifically Christian ideas within the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches (GAUFCC), the national Unitarian body in Great Britain. Just as the UUCF and ICUU maintain formal links with the Unitarian Universalist Association in the US, so the UCA is an affiliate body of the GAUFCC in Great Britain.
The majority of Unitarian Christian publications are sponsored by an organization and published specifically for their membership. Generally, they do not serve as a tool for missionary work or encouraging conversions.
In India, three different schools of Unitarian thought influenced varying movements, including the Brahmo Samaj, the Unitarian Church of the Khasi Hills, and the Unitarian Christian Church of Chennai, in Madras, founded in 1795.
The Unitarian Christian Conference USA is a network of congregations and ministers in the United States identifying with the historic Unitarian Christian tradition. The Unitarian Christian Conference USA promotes the concept of the unity of God and the message and example of Jesus of Nazareth as a rational and enriching spiritual path for personal development and a guide for creating a world of justice, peace and human dignity.
The Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship (UUCF) was founded in 1945 and as such predates the consolidation of the American Unitarian Association (AUA) and Universalist Church of America (UCA) into the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) in 1961. UUCF continues as a subgroup of UUA serving the Christian members.
The American Unitarian Conference (AUC) was formed in 2000 and stands between UUA and ICUU in attachment to the Christian element of modern Unitarianism. The American Unitarian Conference is open to non-Christian Unitarians, being particularly popular with non-Christian theists and deists. As of 2009, The AUC has three congregations in the United States.
Unitarian Christian Ministries International was a Unitarian ministry incorporated in South Carolina until its dissolution in 2013 when it merged with the Unitarian Christian Emerging Church. The Unitarian Christian Emerging Church has recently undergone reorganization and today is known as the Unitarian Christian Church of America.
The Sydney Unitarian Church was founded 1850 under a Reverend Mr Stanley and was a vigorous denomination during the 19th century. The modern church, no longer unitarian Christian, has properties in Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne, and smaller congregations elsewhere in Australia and New Zealand.
The Unitarian movement in South Africa was founded in 1867 by David Faure, member of a well-known Cape family. He encountered advanced liberal religious thought while completing his studies at the University of Leiden in Holland for the ministry of the Dutch Reformed Church in Cape Town.
Biblical Unitarianism (or "Biblical Unitarianism" or "biblical unitarianism") identifies the Christian belief that the Bible teaches God is a singular person, the Father, and that Jesus is a distinct being, his son. A few denominations use this term to describe themselves, clarifying the distinction between them and those churches which, from the late 19th century, evolved into modern British Unitarianism and, primarily in the United States, Unitarian Universalism. In Italy the Biblical Unitarian Movement powered by the ideas of Sozzini and others is represented today by the churches associated with the Christian Church in Italy.
Notable Unitarians include classical composers Edvard Grieg and Béla Bartók; Ralph Waldo Emerson, Theodore Parker and Thomas Lamb Eliot in theology and ministry; Oliver Heaviside, Erasmus Darwin, Joseph Priestley, John Archibald Wheeler, Linus Pauling, Sir Isaac Newton and inventor Sir Francis Ronalds in science; George Boole in mathematics; Susan B. Anthony in civil government; Florence Nightingale in humanitarianism and social justice; John Bowring, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Elizabeth Gaskell in literature; Frank Lloyd Wright in the arts; Josiah Wedgwood, Richard Peacock and Samuel Carter MP in industry; Thomas Starr King in ministry and politics; and Charles William Eliot in education. Julia Ward Howe was a leader in the woman suffrage movement, the first ever woman to be elected to the Academy of Arts and Letters, and author of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, volumes of poetry, and other writing. Although raised a Quaker, Ezra Cornell, founder of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, attended the Unitarian church and was one of the founders of Ithaca's First Unitarian Church. Eramus Darwin Shattuck, a signatory to the Oregon State Constitution, founded the first Unitarian Church in Oregon in 1865.
Eleven Nobel Prizes have been awarded to Unitarians: Robert Millikan and John Bardeen (twice) in physics; Emily Green Balch, Albert Schweitzer and Linus Pauling for peace; George Wald and David H. Hubel in medicine; Linus Pauling in chemistry; and Herbert A. Simon in economics.
Four presidents of the United States were Unitarians: John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Millard Fillmore, and William Howard Taft. Adlai Stevenson II, the Democratic presidential nominee in 1952 and 1956, was a Unitarian; he was the last Unitarian to be nominated by a major party for president. Although a self-styled materialist, Thomas Jefferson was pro-Unitarian to the extent of suggesting that it would become the predominant religion in the United States.
In the United Kingdom, although Unitarianism was the religion of only a small minority of the population, its practitioners had an enormous impact on Victorian politics, not only in the larger cities – Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool – but in smaller communities such as Leicester, where there were so many Unitarian mayors that the Unitarian Chapel was known as the "Mayors' Nest". Numerous Unitarian families were highly significant in the social and political life of Britain from Victorian times to the middle of the 20th century. They included the Nettlefolds, Martineaus, Luptons, Kitsons, Chamberlains and Kenricks. In Birmingham, England, a Unitarian church – the Church of the Messiah – was opened in 1862. It became a cultural and intellectual centre of a whole society, a place where ideas about society were openly and critically discussed.
Other Unitarians include Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web Lancelot Ware, founder of Mensa, Sir Adrian Boult, the conductor, Ray Kurzweil, notable inventor and futurist, and C. Killick Millard, founder of the Dignity in Dying society to support voluntary euthanasia. Ram Mohan Roy, an Indian reformer of the 18th century, was a Unitarian who published a book called "Precepts of Jesus". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32164 |
Ubiquitin
Ubiquitin is a small (8.6 kDa) regulatory protein found in most tissues of eukaryotic organisms, i.e. it occurs "ubiquitously". It was discovered in 1975 by Gideon Goldstein and further characterized throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Four genes in the human genome code for ubiquitin: UBB, UBC, UBA52 and RPS27A.
The addition of ubiquitin to a substrate protein is called ubiquitination (or, less frequently, ubiquitylation or ubiquitinylation). Ubiquitination affects proteins in many ways: it can mark them for degradation via the proteasome, alter their cellular location, affect their activity, and promote or prevent protein interactions. Ubiquitination involves three main steps: activation, conjugation, and ligation, performed by ubiquitin-activating enzymes (E1s), ubiquitin-conjugating enzymes (E2s), and ubiquitin ligases (E3s), respectively. The result of this sequential cascade is to bind ubiquitin to lysine residues on the protein substrate via an isopeptide bond, cysteine residues through a thioester bond, serine and threonine residues through an ester bond, or the amino group of the protein's N-terminus via a peptide bond.
The protein modifications can be either a single ubiquitin protein (monoubiquitination) or a chain of ubiquitin (polyubiquitination). Secondary ubiquitin molecules are always linked to one of the seven lysine residues or the N-terminal methionine of the previous ubiquitin molecule. These 'linking' residues are represented by a "K" or "M" (the one-letter amino acid notation of lysine and methionine, respectively) and a number, referring to its position in the ubiquitin molecule as in K48, K29 or M1. The first ubiquitin molecule is covalently bound through its C-terminal carboxylate group to a particular lysine, cysteine, serine, threonine or N-terminus of the target protein. Poly-ubiquitination occurs when the C-terminus of another ubiquitin is linked to one of the seven lysine residues or the first methionine on the previously added ubiquitin molecule, creating a chain. This process repeats several times, leading to the addition of several ubiquitins. Only poly-ubiquitination on defined lysines, mostly on K48 and K29, is related to degradation by the proteasome (referred to as the "molecular kiss of death"), while other polyubiquitinations (e.g. on K63, K11, K6 and M1) and monoubiquitinations may regulate processes such as endocytic trafficking, inflammation, translation and DNA repair.
The discovery that ubiquitin chains target proteins to the proteasome, which degrades and recycles proteins, was honored with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2004.
Ubiquitin (originally, ubiquitous immunopoietic polypeptide) was first identified in 1975 as an 8.6 kDa protein of unknown function expressed in all eukaryotic cells. The basic functions of ubiquitin and the components of the ubiquitination pathway were elucidated in the early 1980s at the Technion by Aaron Ciechanover, Avram Hershko, and Irwin Rose for which the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded in 2004.
The ubiquitination system was initially characterised as an ATP-dependent proteolytic system present in cellular extracts. A heat-stable polypeptide present in these extracts, ATP-dependent proteolysis factor 1 (APF-1), was found to become covalently attached to the model protein substrate lysozyme in an ATP- and Mg2+-dependent process. Multiple APF-1 molecules were linked to a single substrate molecule by an isopeptide linkage, and conjugates were found to be rapidly degraded with the release of free APF-1. Soon after APF-1-protein conjugation was characterised, APF-1 was identified as ubiquitin. The carboxyl group of the C-terminal glycine residue of ubiquitin (Gly76) was identified as the moiety conjugated to substrate lysine residues.
Ubiquitin is a small protein that exists in all eukaryotic cells. It performs its myriad functions through conjugation to a large range of target proteins. A variety of different modifications can occur. The ubiquitin protein itself consists of 76 amino acids and has a molecular mass of about 8.6 kDa. Key features include its C-terminal tail and the 7 lysine residues. It is highly conserved throughout eukaryote evolution; human and yeast ubiquitin share 96% sequence identity.
Ubiquitin is encoded in mammals by 4 different genes. UBA52 and RPS27A genes code for a single copy of ubiquitin fused to the ribosomal proteins L40 and S27a, respectively. The UBB and UBC genes code for polyubiquitin precursor proteins.
Ubiquitin is believed to have descended from prokaryotic proteins similar to ThiS or MoaD. These prokaryotic proteins, despite having little sequence identity (ThiS has 14% identity to ubiquitin), share the same protein fold. These proteins also share sulfur chemistry with ubiquitin. MoaD, which is involved in molybdopterin biosynthesis, interacts with MoeB, which acts like an E1 ubiquitin-activating enzyme for MoaD, strengthening the link between these prokaryotic proteins and the ubiquitin system. A similar system exists for ThiS, with its E1-like enzyme ThiF. It is also believed that the "Saccharomyces cerevisiae" protein Urm-1, a ubiquitin-related modifier, is a "molecular fossil" that connects the evolutionary relation with the prokaryotic ubiquitin-like molecules and ubiquitin.
Ubiquitination (also known as ubiquitylation or ubiquitinylation) is an enzymatic post-translational modification in which a ubiquitin protein is attached to a substrate protein. This process most commonly binds the last amino acid of ubiquitin (glycine 76) to a lysine residue on the substrate. An isopeptide bond is formed between the carboxyl group (COO−) of the ubiquitin's glycine and the epsilon-amino group (ε-) of the substrate's lysine. Trypsin cleavage of a ubiquitin-conjugated substrate leaves a di-glycine "remnant" that is used to identify the site of ubiquitination. Ubiquitin can also be bound to other sites in a protein which are electron-rich nucleophiles, termed "non-canonical ubiquitination". This was first observed with the amine group of a protein's N-terminus being used for ubiquitination, rather than a lysine residue, in the protein MyoD and has been observed since in 22 other proteins in multiple species, including ubiquitin itself. There is also increasing evidence for nonlysine residues as ubiquitination targets using non-amine groups, such as the sulfhydryl group on cysteine, and the hydroxyl group on threonine and serine. The end result of this process is the addition of one ubiquitin molecule (monoubiquitination) or a chain of ubiquitin molecules (polyubiquitination) to the substrate protein.
Ubiquitination requires three types of enzyme: ubiquitin-activating enzymes, ubiquitin-conjugating enzymes, and ubiquitin ligases, known as E1s, E2s, and E3s, respectively. The process consists of three main steps:
In the ubiquitination cascade, E1 can bind with many E2s, which can bind with hundreds of E3s in a hierarchical way. Having levels within the cascade allows tight regulation of the ubiquitination machinery. Other ubiquitin-like proteins (UBLs) are also modified via the E1–E2–E3 cascade, although variations in these systems do exist.
E4 enzymes, or ubiquitin-chain elongation factors, are capable of adding pre-formed polyubiquitin chains to substrate proteins. For example, multiple monoubiquitylation of the tumor suppressor p53 by Mdm2 can be followed by addition of a polyubiquitin chain using p300 and CBP.
Ubiquitination affects cellular process by regulating the degradation of proteins (via the proteasome and lysosome), coordinating the cellular localization of proteins, activating and inactivating proteins, and modulating protein-protein interactions. These effects are mediated by different types of substrate ubiquitination, for example the addition of a single ubiquitin molecule (monoubiquitination) or different types of ubiquitin chains (polyubiquitination).
Monoubiquitination is the addition of one ubiquitin molecule to one substrate protein residue. Multi-monoubiquitination is the addition of one ubiquitin molecule to multiple substrate residues. The monoubiquitination of a protein can have different effects to the polyubiquitination of the same protein. The addition of a single ubiquitin molecule is thought to be required prior to the formation of polyubiquitin chains. Monoubiquitination affects cellular processes such as membrane trafficking, endocytosis and viral budding.
Polyubiquitination is the formation of a ubiquitin chain on a single lysine residue on the substrate protein. Following addition of a single ubiquitin moiety to a protein substrate, further ubiquitin molecules can be added to the first, yielding a polyubiquitin chain. These chains are made by linking the glycine residue of a ubiquitin molecule to a lysine of ubiquitin bound to a substrate. Ubiquitin has seven lysine residues and an N-terminus that serves as points of ubiquitination; they are K6, K11, K27, K29, K33, K48, K63 and M1, respectively. Lysine 48-linked chains were the first identified and are the best-characterised type of ubiquitin chain. K63 chains have also been well-characterised, whereas the function of other lysine chains, mixed chains, branched chains, M1-linked linear chains, and heterologous chains (mixtures of ubiquitin and other ubiquitin-like proteins) remains more unclear.
Lysine 48-linked polyubiquitin chains target proteins for destruction, by a process known as proteolysis. Multi-ubiquitin chains at least four ubiquitin molecules long must be attached to a lysine residue on the condemned protein in order for it to be recognised by the 26S proteasome. This is a barrel-shape structure comprising a central proteolytic core made of four ring structures, flanked by two cylinders that selectively allow entry of ubiquitinated proteins. Once inside, the proteins are rapidly degraded into small peptides (usually 3–25 amino acid residues in length). Ubiquitin molecules are cleaved off the protein immediately prior to destruction and are recycled for further use. Although the majority of protein substrates are ubiquitinated, there are examples of non-ubiquitinated proteins targeted to the proteasome. The polyubiquitin chains are recognised by a subunit of the proteasome: S5a/Rpn10. This is achieved by a ubiquitin interacting motif (UIM) found in a hydrophobic patch in the C-terminal region of the S5a/Rpn10 unit.
Lysine 63-linked chains are not associated with proteasomal degradation of the substrate protein. Instead, they allow the coordination of other processes such as endocytic trafficking, inflammation, translation, and DNA repair. In cells, lysine 63-linked chains are bound by the ESCRT-0 complex, which prevents their binding to the proteasome. This complex contains two proteins, Hrs and STAM1, that contain a UIM, which allows it to bind to lysine 63-linked chains.
Less is understood about atypical (non-lysine 48-linked) ubiquitin chains but research is starting to suggest roles for these chains. There is evidence to suggest that atypical chains linked by lysine 6, 11, 27, 29 and methionine 1 can induce proteasomal degradation.
Branched ubiquitin chains containing multiple linkage types can be formed. The function of these chains is unknown.
Differently linked chains have specific effects on the protein to which they are attached, caused by differences in the conformations of the protein chains. K29-, K33-, K63- and M1-linked chains have a fairly linear conformation; they are known as open-conformation chains. K6-, K11-, and K48-linked chains form closed conformations. The ubiquitin molecules in open-conformation chains do not interact with each other, except for the covalent isopeptide bonds linking them together. In contrast, the closed conformation chains have interfaces with interacting residues. Altering the chain conformations exposes and conceals different parts of the ubiquitin protein, and the different linkages are recognized by proteins that are specific for the unique topologies that are intrinsic to the linkage. Proteins can specifically bind to ubiquitin via ubiquitin-binding domains (UBDs). The distances between individual ubiquitin units in chains differ between lysine 63- and 48-linked chains. The UBDs exploit this by having small spacers between ubiquitin-interacting motifs that bind lysine 48-linked chains (compact ubiquitin chains) and larger spacers for lysine 63-linked chains. The machinery involved in recognising polyubiquitin chains can also differentiate between K63-linked chains and M1-linked chains, demonstrated by the fact that the latter can induce proteasomal degradation of the substrate.
The ubiquitination system functions in a wide variety of cellular processes, including:
Multi-monoubiquitination can mark transmembrane proteins (for example, receptors) for removal from membranes (internalisation) and fulfil several signalling roles within the cell. When cell-surface transmembrane molecules are tagged with ubiquitin, the subcellular localization of the protein is altered, often targeting the protein for destruction in lysosomes. This serves as a negative feedback mechanism, because often the stimulation of receptors by ligands increases their rate of ubiquitination and internalisation. Like monoubiquitination, lysine 63-linked polyubiquitin chains also has a role in the trafficking some membrane proteins.
The fougaro system (Greek; Fougaro, chimney) is a sub-organelle system in the nucleus that may be a mechanism to recycle or remove molecules from the cell to the external medium. The molecules or peptides are ubiquitinated before being released from the nucleus of the cells. The ubiquitinated molecules are released independently or associated with endosomal proteins such as Beclin.
Proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) is a protein involved in DNA synthesis. Under normal physiological conditions PCNA is sumoylated (a similar post-translational modification to ubiquitination). When DNA is damaged by ultra-violet radiation or chemicals, the SUMO molecule that is attached to a lysine residue is replaced by ubiquitin. Monoubiquitinated PCNA recruits polymerases that can carry out DNA synthesis with damaged DNA; but this is very error-prone, possibly resulting in the synthesis of mutated DNA. Lysine 63-linked polyubiquitination of PCNA allows it to perform a less error-prone mutation bypass known by the template switching pathway.
Ubiquitination of histone H2AX is involved in DNA damage recognition of DNA double-strand breaks. Lysine 63-linked polyubiquitin chains are formed on H2AX histone by the E2/E3 ligase pair, Ubc13-Mms2/RNF168. This K63 chain appears to recruit RAP80, which contains a UIM, and RAP80 then helps localize BRCA1. This pathway will eventually recruit the necessary proteins for homologous recombination repair.
Histones can be ubiquitinated and this is usually in the form of monoubiquitination (although polyubiquitinated forms do occur). Histone ubiquitination alters chromatin structure and allows the access of enzymes involved in transcription. Ubiquitin on histones also acts as a binding site for proteins that either activate or inhibit transcription and also can induce further post-translational modifications of the protein. These effects can all modulate the transcription of genes.
Deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs) oppose the role of ubiquination by removing ubiquitin from substrate proteins. They are cysteine proteases that cleave the amide bond between the two proteins. They are highly specific, as are the E3 ligases that attach the ubiquitin, with only a few substrates per enzyme. They can cleave both isopeptide (between ubiquitin and lysine) and peptide bonds (between ubiquitin and the N-terminus).
In addition to removing ubiquitin from substrate proteins, DUBs have many other roles within the cell. Ubiquitin is either expressed as multiple copies joined in a chain (polyubiquitin) or attached to ribosomal subunits. DUBs cleave these proteins to produce active ubiquitin. They also recycle ubiquitin that has been bound to small nucleophilic molecules during the ubiquitination process. Monoubiquitin is formed by DUBs that cleave ubiquitin from free polyubiquitin chains that have been previously removed from proteins.
Ubiquitin-binding domains (UBDs) are modular protein domains that non-covalently bind to ubiquitin, these motifs control various cellular events. Detailed molecular structures are known for a number of UBDs, binding specificity determines their mechanism of action and regulation, and how it regulates cellular proteins and processes.
The ubiquitin pathway has been implicated in the pathogenesis of a wide range of diseases and disorders including:
Ubiquitin is implicated in neurodegenerative diseases associated with proteostasis dysfunction, including Alzheimer's disease, motor neurone disease , Huntington's disease and Parkinson's disease. Transcript variants encoding different isoforms of ubiquilin-1 are found in lesions associated with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Higher levels of ubiquilin in the brain have been shown to decrease malformation of amyloid precursor protein (APP), which plays a key role in triggering Alzheimer's disease. Conversely, lower levels of ubiquilin-1 in the brain have been associated with increased malformation of APP. A frameshift mutation in ubiquitin B can result in a truncated peptide missing the C-terminal glycine. This abnormal peptide, known as UBB+1, has been shown to accumulate selectively in Alzheimer's disease and other tauopathies.
Ubiquitin and ubiquitin-like molecules extensively regulate immune signal transduction pathways at virtually all stages, including steady-state repression, activation during infection, and attenuation upon clearance. Without this regulation, immune activation against pathogens may be defective, resulting in chronic disease or death. Alternatively, the immune system may become hyperactivated and organs and tissues may be subjected to autoimmune damage.
On the other hand, viruses must block or redirect host cell processes including immunity to effectively replicate, yet many viruses relevant to disease have informationally limited genomes. Because of its very large number of roles in the cell, manipulating the ubiquitin system represents an efficient way for such viruses to block, subvert or redirect critical host cell processes to support their own replication.
The retinoic acid-inducible gene I (RIG-I) protein is a primary immune system sensor for viral and other invasive RNA in human cells. The RIG-I-like receptor (RLR) immune signaling pathway is one of the most extensively studied in terms of the role of ubiquitin in immune regulation.
Immunohistochemistry using antibodies to ubiquitin can identify abnormal accumulations of this protein inside cells, indicating a disease process. These protein accumulations are referred to as inclusion bodies (which is a general term for any microscopically visible collection of abnormal material in a cell). Examples include:
Post-translational modification of proteins is a generally used mechanism in eukaryotic cell signaling. Ubiquitination, or ubiquitin conjugation to proteins, is a crucial process for cell cycle progression and cell proliferation and development. Although ubiquitination usually serves as a signal for protein degradation through the 26S proteasome, it could also serve for other fundamental cellular processes, e.g. in endocytosis, enzymatic activation and DNA repair. Moreover, since ubiquitination functions to tightly regulate the cellular level of cyclins, its misregulation is expected to have severe impacts. First evidence of the importance of the ubiquitin/proteasome pathway in oncogenic processes was observed due to the high antitumor activity of proteasome inhibitors. Various studies have shown that defects or alterations in ubiquitination processes are commonly associated with or present in human carcinoma. Malignancies could be developed through loss of function mutation directly at the tumor suppressor gene, increased activity of ubiquitination, and/or indirect attenuation of ubiquitination due to mutation in related proteins.
The VHL (Von Hippel–Lindau) gene encodes a component of an E3 Ubiquitin Ligase. VHL complex targets member of the hypoxia-inducible transcription factor family (HIF) for degradation by interacting with the oxygen-dependent destruction domain under normoxic condition. HIF activates downstream targets such as the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), promoting angiogenesis. Mutations in VHL prevent degradation of HIF and thus lead to the formation of hypervascular lesions and renal tumors.
The "BRCA1" gene is another tumor suppressor gene in human which encodes the BRCA1 protein that is involved in response to DNA damage. The protein contains a RING motif with E3 Ubiquitin Ligase activity. BRCA1 could form dimer with other molecules, such as BARD1 and BAP1, for its ubiquitination activity. Mutations that affect the ligase function are often found and associated with various cancers.
As processes in cell cycle progression is the most fundamental processes for cellular growth and differentiation, and are the most common to be altered in human carcinomas, it is expected for cell cycle-regulatory proteins to be under tight regulation. The level of cyclins, as the name suggests, are high only at certain time point during cell cycle. This is achieved by continuous control of cyclins/CDKs levels through ubiquitination and degradation. When cyclin E is partnered with CDK2 and gets phosphorylated, an SCF-associated F-box protein Fbw7 recognizes the complex and thus targets it for degradation. Mutations in Fbw7 have been found in more than 30% of human tumors, characterizing it as a tumor suppressor protein.
Oncogenic types of the human papillomavirus (HPV) are known to hijack cellular ubiquitin-proteasome pathway for viral infection and replication. The E6 proteins of HPV will bind to the N-terminus of the cellular E6-AP E3 ubiquitin ligase, redirecting the complex to bind p53, a well-known tumor suppressor gene that inactivation is found in many types of cancer. Thus, p53 undergoes ubiquitination and proteasome-mediated degradation. Meanwhile, E7, another one of the early-expressed HPV genes, will bind to Rb, also a tumor suppressor gene, mediating its degradation. The loss of p53 and Rb in cells allows limitless cell proliferation to occur.
Gene amplification often occur in various tumor cases, including of "MDM2", a gene encodes for a RING E3 Ubiquitin ligase responsible for downregulation of p53 activity. MDM2 targets p53 for ubiquitination and proteasomal degradation thus keeping its level appropriate for normal cell condition. Overexpression of MDM2 causes loss of p53 activity and therefore allowing cells to have a limitless replicative potential.
Another gene that is a target of gene amplification is "SKP2". SKP2 is an F-box protein that roles in substrate recognition for ubiquitination and degradation. SKP2 targets p27Kip-1, an inhibitor of cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs). CDKs2/4 partner with the cyclinsE/D, respectively, family of cell cycle regulator to control cell cycle progression through the G1 phase. Low level of p27Kip-1 protein is often found in various cancers and is due to overactivation of ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis through overexpression of SKP2.
Efp, or estrogen-inducible RING-finger protein, is an E3 ubiquitin ligase that overexpression has been shown to be the major cause of estrogen-independent breast cancer. Efp's substrate is 14-3-3 protein which negatively regulates cell cycle.
The gene associated with colorectal cancer is the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC), which is a classic tumor suppressor gene. APC gene product targets beta-catenin for degradation via ubiquitination at the N-terminus, thus regulating its cellular level. Most colorectal cancer cases are found with mutations in the APC gene. However, in cases where APC gene is not mutated, mutations are found in the N-terminus of beta-catenin which renders it ubiquitination-free and thus increased activity.
As the most aggressive cancer originated in the brain, mutations found in patients with glioblastoma are related to the deletion of a part of the extracellular domain of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). This deletion causes CBL E3 ligase unable to bind the receptor for its recycling and degradation via a ubiquitin-lysosomal pathway. Thus, EGFR is constitutively active in the cell membrane and activates its downstream effectors that are involved in cell proliferation and migration.
The interplay between ubiquitination and phosphorylation has been an ongoing research interest since phosphorylation often serves as a marker where ubiquitination leads to degradation. Moreover, ubiquitination can also act to turn on/off the kinase activity of a protein. The critical role of phosphorylation is largely underscored in the activation and removal of autoinhibition in Cbl protein. Cbl is an E3 ubiquitin ligase with a RING finger domain that interacts with its tyrosine kinase binding (TKB) domain, preventing interaction of the RING domain with an E2 ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme. This intramolecular interaction is an autoinhibition regulation that prevents its role as a negative regulator of various growth factors and tyrosine kinase signaling and T-cell activation. Phosphorylation of Y363 relieves the autoinhibition and enhances binding to E2. Mutations that renders the Cbl protein dysfunctional due to the loss of its ligase/tumor suppressor function and maintenance of its positive signaling/oncogenic function have been shown to cause development of cancer.
Identification of E3 ligase substrates is critical to understand its implication in human diseases since deregulation of E3-substrate interactions are often served as major cause in many. To overcome the limitation of mechanism used to identify the substrates of the E3 Ubiquitin Ligase, a system called the 'Global Protein Stability (GPS) Profiling' was developed in 2008. This high-throughput system made use of reporter proteins fused with thousands of potential substrates independently. By inhibition of the ligase activity (through the making of Cul1 dominant negative thus renders ubiquitination not to occur), increased reporter activity shows that the identified substrates are being accumulated. This approach added a large number of new substrates to the list of E3 ligase substrates.
Blocking of specific substrate recognition by the E3 ligases, e.g. Bortezomib.
Finding a specific molecule that selectively inhibits the activity of a certain E3 ligase and/or the protein-protein interactions implicated in the disease remains as one of the important and expanding research area. Moreover, as ubiquitination is a multi-step process with various players and intermediate forms, consideration of the much complex interactions between components needs to be taken heavily into account while designing the small molecule inhibitors.
Although ubiquitin is the most-understood post-translation modifier, there is a growing family of ubiquitin-like proteins (UBLs) that modify cellular targets in a pathway that is parallel to, but distinct from, that of ubiquitin. Known UBLs include: small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO), ubiquitin cross-reactive protein (UCRP, also known as interferon-stimulated gene-15 ISG15), ubiquitin-related modifier-1 (URM1), neuronal-precursor-cell-expressed developmentally downregulated protein-8 (NEDD8, also called Rub1 in "S. cerevisiae"), human leukocyte antigen F-associated (FAT10), autophagy-8 (ATG8) and -12 (ATG12), Few ubiquitin-like protein (FUB1), MUB (membrane-anchored UBL), ubiquitin fold-modifier-1 (UFM1) and ubiquitin-like protein-5 (UBL5, which is but known as homologous to ubiquitin-1 [Hub1] in "S. pombe"). Whilst these proteins share only modest primary sequence identity with ubiquitin, they are closely related three-dimensionally. For example, SUMO shares only 18% sequence identity, but they contain the same structural fold. This fold is called "ubiquitin fold". FAT10 and UCRP contain two. This compact globular beta-grasp fold is found in ubiquitin, UBLs, and proteins that comprise a ubiquitin-like domain, e.g. the "S. cerevisiae" spindle pole body duplication protein, Dsk2, and NER protein, Rad23, both contain N-terminal ubiquitin domains.
These related molecules have novel functions and influence diverse biological processes. There is also cross-regulation between the various conjugation pathways, since some proteins can become modified by more than one UBL, and sometimes even at the same lysine residue. For instance, SUMO modification often acts antagonistically to that of ubiquitination and serves to stabilize protein substrates. Proteins conjugated to UBLs are typically not targeted for degradation by the proteasome but rather function in diverse regulatory activities. Attachment of UBLs might, alter substrate conformation, affect the affinity for ligands or other interacting molecules, alter substrate localization, and influence protein stability.
UBLs are structurally similar to ubiquitin and are processed, activated, conjugated, and released from conjugates by enzymatic steps that are similar to the corresponding mechanisms for ubiquitin. UBLs are also translated with C-terminal extensions that are processed to expose the invariant C-terminal LRGG. These modifiers have their own specific E1 (activating), E2 (conjugating) and E3 (ligating) enzymes that conjugate the UBLs to intracellular targets. These conjugates can be reversed by UBL-specific isopeptidases that have similar mechanisms to that of the deubiquitinating enzymes.
Within some species, the recognition and destruction of sperm mitochondria through a mechanism involving ubiquitin is responsible for sperm mitochondria's disposal after fertilization occurs.
Prokaryotic ubiquitin-like protein (Pup) is a functional analog of ubiquitin which has been found in the gram-positive bacterial phylum Actinobacteria. It serves the same function (targeting proteins for degradations), although the enzymology of ubiquitination and pupylation is different. In contrast to the three-step reaction of ubiquitination, pupylation requires two steps, therefore only two enzymes are involved in pupylation.
In 2017, homologs of Pup were reported in five phyla of gram-negative bacteria, in seven candidate bacterial phyla and in one archaeon The sequences of the Pup homologs are very different from the sequences of Pup in gram-positive bacteria and were termed UBact (for Ubiquitin bacterial), although the distinction has yet not been proven to be phylogenetically supported by a separate evolutionary origin and is without experimental evidence.
The finding of the Pup/UBact-proteasome system in both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria suggests that either the Pup/UBact-proteasome system evolved in bacteria prior to the split into gram positive and negative clades over 3000 million years ago[14] or, that these systems were acquired by different bacterial lineages through horizontal gene transfer(s) from a third, yet unknown, organism. In support of the second possibility, two "UBact" loci were found in the genome of an uncultured anaerobic methanotrophic Archaeon (ANME-1;locus CBH38808.1 and locus CBH39258.1).
ANUBL1; BAG1; BAT3/BAG6; C1orf131; DDI1; DDI2; FAU; HERPUD1; HERPUD2;
HOPS; IKBKB; ISG15; LOC391257; MIDN; NEDD8; OASL; PARK2;
RAD23A; RAD23B; RPS27A; SACS; 8U SF3A1; SUMO1; SUMO2; SUMO3;
SUMO4; TMUB1; TMUB2; UBA52; UBB; UBC; UBD; UBFD1;
UBL4; UBL4A; UBL4B; UBL7; UBLCP1; UBQLN1; UBQLN2; UBQLN3;
UBQLN4; UBQLNL; UBTD1; UBTD2; UHRF1; UHRF2;
Currently available prediction programs are: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32167 |
Unified Modeling Language
The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a general-purpose, developmental, modeling language in the field of software engineering that is intended to provide a standard way to visualize the design of a system.
The creation of UML was originally motivated by the desire to standardize the disparate notational systems and approaches to software design. It was developed by Grady Booch, Ivar Jacobson and James Rumbaugh at Rational Software in 1994–1995, with further development led by them through 1996.
In 1997, UML was adopted as a standard by the Object Management Group (OMG), and has been managed by this organization ever since. In 2005, UML was also published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) as an approved ISO standard. Since then the standard has been periodically revised to cover the latest revision of UML.
UML has been evolving since the second half of the 1990s and has its roots in the object-oriented programming methods developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The timeline (see image) shows the highlights of the history of object-oriented modeling methods and notation.
It is originally based on the notations of the Booch method, the object-modeling technique (OMT) and object-oriented software engineering (OOSE), which it has integrated into a single language.
Rational Software Corporation hired James Rumbaugh from General Electric in 1994 and after that the company became the source for two of the most popular object-oriented modeling approaches of the day: Rumbaugh's object-modeling technique (OMT) and Grady Booch's method. They were soon assisted in their efforts by Ivar Jacobson, the creator of the object-oriented software engineering (OOSE) method, who joined them at Rational in 1995.
Under the technical leadership of those three (Rumbaugh, Jacobson and Booch), a consortium called the UML Partners was organized in 1996 to complete the "Unified Modeling Language (UML)" specification, and propose it to the Object Management Group (OMG) for standardization. The partnership also contained additional interested parties (for example HP, DEC, IBM and Microsoft). The UML Partners' UML 1.0 draft was proposed to the OMG in January 1997 by the consortium. During the same month the UML Partners formed a group, designed to define the exact meaning of language constructs, chaired by Cris Kobryn and administered by Ed Eykholt, to finalize the specification and integrate it with other standardization efforts. The result of this work, UML 1.1, was submitted to the OMG in August 1997 and adopted by the OMG in November 1997.
After the first release a task force was formed to improve the language, which released several minor revisions, 1.3, 1.4, and 1.5.
The standards it produced (as well as the original standard) have been noted as being ambiguous and inconsistent.
As with database Chen, Bachman, and ISO ER diagrams, class models are specified to use "look-across" cardinalities, even though several authors (Merise, Elmasri & Navathe amongst others) prefer same-side or "look-here" for roles and both minimum and maximum cardinalities. Recent researchers (Feinerer, Dullea et al.) have shown that the "look-across" technique used by UML and ER diagrams is less effective and less coherent when applied to "n"-ary relationships of order strictly greater than 2.
Feinerer says: "Problems arise if we operate under the look-across semantics as used for UML associations. Hartmann investigates this situation and shows how and why different transformations fail.", and: "As we will see on the next few pages, the look-across interpretation introduces several difficulties which prevent the extension of simple mechanisms from binary to "n"-ary associations."
UML 2.0 major revision replaced version 1.5 in 2005, which was developed with an enlarged consortium to improve the language further to reflect new experience on usage of its features.
Although UML 2.1 was never released as a formal specification, versions 2.1.1 and 2.1.2 appeared in 2007, followed by UML 2.2 in February 2009. UML 2.3 was formally released in May 2010. UML 2.4.1 was formally released in August 2011. UML 2.5 was released in October 2012 as an "In progress" version and was officially released in June 2015. Formal version 2.5.1 was adopted in December 2017.
There are four parts to the UML 2.x specification:
Until UML 2.4.1, the latest versions of these standards were:
Since version 2.5, the UML Specification has been simplified (without Superstructure and Infrastructure), and the latest versions of these standards are now:
It continues to be updated and improved by the revision task force, who resolve any issues with the language.
UML offers a way to visualize a system's architectural blueprints in a diagram, including elements such as:
Although originally intended for object-oriented design documentation, UML has been extended to a larger set of design documentation (as listed above), and been found useful in many contexts.
UML is not a development method by itself; however, it was designed to be compatible with the leading object-oriented software development methods of its time, for example OMT, Booch method, Objectory and especially RUP that it was originally intended to be used with when work began at Rational Software.
It is important to distinguish between the UML model and the set of diagrams of a system. A diagram is a partial graphic representation of a system's model. The set of diagrams need not completely cover the model and deleting a diagram does not change the model. The model may also contain documentation that drives the model elements and diagrams (such as written use cases).
UML diagrams represent two different views of a system model:
UML models can be exchanged among UML tools by using the XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) format.
In UML, one of the key tools for behavior modeling is the use-case model, caused by OOSE. Use cases are a way of specifying required usages of a system. Typically, they are used to capture the requirements of a system, that is, what a system is supposed to do.
UML 2 has many types of diagrams, which are divided into two categories. Some types represent "structural" information, and the rest represent general types of "behavior", including a few that represent different aspects of "interactions". These diagrams can be categorized hierarchically as shown in the following class diagram:
These diagrams may all contain comments or notes explaining usage, constraint, or intent.
Structure diagrams emphasize the things that must be present in the system being modeled. Since structure diagrams represent the structure, they are used extensively in documenting the software architecture of software systems. For example, the component diagram describes how a software system is split up into components and shows the dependencies among these components.
Behavior diagrams emphasize what must happen in the system being modeled. Since behavior diagrams illustrate the behavior of a system, they are used extensively to describe the functionality of software systems. As an example, the activity diagram describes the business and operational step-by-step activities of the components in a system.
Interaction diagrams, a subset of behavior diagrams, emphasize the flow of control and data among the things in the system being modeled. For example, the sequence diagram shows how objects communicate with each other regarding a sequence of messages.
The Object Management Group (OMG) has developed a metamodeling architecture to define the UML, called the Meta-Object Facility. MOF is designed as a four-layered architecture, as shown in the image at right. It provides a meta-meta model at the top, called the M3 layer. This M3-model is the language used by Meta-Object Facility to build metamodels, called M2-models.
The most prominent example of a Layer 2 Meta-Object Facility model is the UML metamodel, which describes the UML itself. These M2-models describe elements of the M1-layer, and thus M1-models. These would be, for example, models written in UML. The last layer is the M0-layer or data layer. It is used to describe runtime instances of the system.
The meta-model can be extended using a mechanism called stereotyping. This has been criticized as being insufficient/untenable by Brian Henderson-Sellers and Cesar Gonzalez-Perez in "Uses and Abuses of the Stereotype Mechanism in UML 1.x and 2.0".
UML has been marketed for many contexts.
It has been treated, at times, as a design silver bullet, which leads to problems. UML misuse includes overuse (designing every part of the system with it, which is unnecessary) and assuming that novices can design with it.
It is considered a large language, with many constructs. Some people (including Jacobson) feel that UML's size hinders learning (and therefore, using) it. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32169 |
United States Military Academy
The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known as West Point, Army, Army West Point, The Academy, or simply The Point, is a four-year federal service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a fort that sits on strategic high ground overlooking the Hudson River with a scenic view, north of New York City. It is the oldest of the five American service academies.
The academy traces its roots to 1801, when President Thomas Jefferson directed that plans be set in motion to establish the United States Military Academy at West Point. The entire central campus is a national landmark and home to scores of historic sites, buildings, and monuments. The majority of the campus's Norman-style buildings are constructed from gray and black granite. The campus is a popular tourist destination, with a visitor center and the oldest museum in the United States Army.
Candidates for admission must apply directly to the academy and receive a nomination, usually from a member of Congress. Other nomination sources include the President and Vice President. Students are officers-in-training and are referred to as "cadets" or collectively as the "United States Corps of Cadets" (USCC). Tuition for cadets is fully funded by the Army in exchange for an active duty service obligation upon graduation. Approximately 1,300 cadets enter the Academy each July, with about 1,000 cadets graduating.
The academic program grants a bachelor of science degree with a curriculum that grades cadets' performance upon a broad academic program, military leadership performance, and mandatory participation in competitive athletics. Cadets are required to adhere to the Cadet Honor Code, which states that "a cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do." The academy bases a cadet's leadership experience as a development of all four pillars of performance: academics, character, physical, and military.
Most graduates are commissioned as second lieutenants in the Army. Foreign cadets are commissioned into the armies of their home countries. Since 1959, cadets have also been eligible for an interservice commission in one of the other armed services provided that they meet that service's eligibility standards. A small number of cadets do this.
The academy's traditions have influenced other institutions because of its age and unique mission. It was the first American college to have an accredited civil engineering program and the first to have class rings, and its technical curriculum became a model for engineering schools. West Point's student body has a unique rank structure and lexicon. All cadets reside on campus and dine together "en masse" on weekdays for breakfast and lunch. The academy fields 15 men's and 9 women's National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) sports teams. Cadets compete in one sport every fall, winter, and spring season at the intramural, club, or intercollegiate level. Its football team was a national power in the early and mid-20th century, winning three national championships. Its alumni and students are collectively referred to as "The Long Gray Line," and its ranks include two Presidents, the President of the Confederate States of America, presidents of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and the Philippines, numerous famous generals, and 76 Medal of Honor recipients.
The Continental Army first occupied West Point, New York, on 27 January 1778, and it is the oldest continuously operating Army post in the United States. Between 1778 and 1780, the Polish engineer and military hero Tadeusz Kościuszko oversaw the construction of the garrison defenses. The Great Hudson River Chain and high ground above the narrow "S" curve in the river enabled the Continental Army to prevent British Royal Navy ships from sailing upriver and thus dividing the Colonies. While the fortifications at West Point were known as Fort Arnold during the war, as commander, Benedict Arnold committed his act of treason, attempting to sell the fort to the British. After Arnold betrayed the patriot cause, the Army changed the name of the fortifications at West Point, New York, to Fort Clinton. With the peace after the American Revolutionary War, various ordnance and military stores were left deposited at West Point.
"Cadets" underwent training in artillery and engineering studies at the garrison since 1794. During the Quasi-War, Alexander Hamilton laid out plans for the establishment of a military academy at West Point and introduced "A Bill for Establishing a Military Academy" in the House of Representatives. In 1801, shortly after his inauguration as president, Thomas Jefferson directed that plans be set in motion to establish at West Point the United States Military Academy. He selected Jonathan Williams to serve as its first superintendent. Congress formally authorized the establishment and funding of the school with the Military Peace Establishment Act of 1802, which Jefferson signed on 16 March. The academy officially commenced operations on 4 July 1802. The academy graduated Joseph Gardner Swift, its first official graduate, in October 1802. He later returned as Superintendent from 1812 to 1814. In its tumultuous early years, the academy featured few standards for admission or length of study. Cadets ranged in age from 10 years to 37 years and attended between 6 months to 6 years. The impending War of 1812 caused the United States Congress to authorize a more formal system of education at the academy and increased the size of the Corps of Cadets to 250.
In 1817, Colonel Sylvanus Thayer became the Superintendent and established the curriculum, elements of which are still in use . Thayer instilled strict disciplinary standards, set a standard course of academic study, and emphasized honorable conduct. Known as the "Father of the Military Academy," he is honored with a monument on campus for the profound impact he had upon the academy. Founded as a school of engineering, for the first half of the 19th century, USMA produced graduates who gained recognition for engineering the bulk of the nation's initial railway lines, bridges, harbors and roads. The academy was the only engineering school in the country until the founding of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1824. It was so successful in its engineering curriculum that it significantly influenced every American engineering school founded prior to the Civil War.
The Mexican–American War brought the academy to prominence as graduates proved themselves in battle for the first time. Future Civil War commanders Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee first distinguished themselves in battle in Mexico. In all, 452 of 523 graduates who served in the war received battlefield promotions or awards for bravery. The school experienced a rapid modernization during the 1850s, often romanticized by the graduates who led both sides of the Civil War as the "end of the Old West Point era." New barracks brought better heat and gas lighting, while new ordnance and tactics training incorporated new rifle and musket technology and accommodated transportation advances created by the steam engine. With the outbreak of the Civil War, West Point graduates filled the general officer ranks of the rapidly expanding Union and Confederate armies. 294 graduates served as general officers for the Union, and 151 served as general officers for the Confederacy. Of all living graduates at the time of the war, 105 (10%) were killed, and another 151 (15%) were wounded. Nearly every general officer of note from either army during the Civil War was a graduate of West Point and a West Point graduate commanded the forces of one or both sides in every one of the 60 major battles of the war.
Immediately following the Civil War, the academy enjoyed unprecedented fame as a result of the role its graduates had played. However, the post-war years were a difficult time for the academy as it struggled to admit and reintegrate cadets from former confederate states. The first cadets from Southern states were re-admitted in 1868, and 1870 saw the admission of the first black cadet, James Webster Smith of South Carolina. Smith endured harsh treatment and was eventually dismissed for academic deficiency under controversial circumstances in 1874. As a result, Henry O. Flipper of Georgia became the first black graduate in 1877, graduating 50th in a class of 76. Two of the most notable graduates during this period were George Washington Goethals from the class of 1880, and John J. Pershing from the class of 1886. Goethals gained prominence as the chief engineer of the Panama Canal, and Pershing would become famous for his exploits against the famed Pancho Villa in Mexico and later for leading American Forces during World War I.
Besides the integration of southern-state and black cadets, the post-war academy also struggled with the issue of hazing. In its first 65 years, hazing was uncommon or non-existent beyond small pranks played upon the incoming freshmen, but took a harsher tone as Civil War veterans began to fill the incoming freshman classes. The upper class cadets saw it as their duty to "teach the plebes their manners." Hazing at the academy entered the national spotlight with the death of former cadet Oscar L. Booz on 3 December 1900. Congressional hearings, which included testimony by cadet Douglas MacArthur, investigated his death and the pattern of systemic hazing of freshmen. When MacArthur returned as superintendent, he made an effort to end the practice of hazing the incoming freshmen by placing Army sergeants in charge of training new cadets during freshman summer. The practice of hazing continued on some levels well into the late 20th century, but is no longer allowed in the present day.
The demand for junior officers during the Spanish–American War caused the class of 1899 to graduate early, and the Philippine–American War did the same for the class of 1901. This increased demand for officers led Congress to increase the size of the Corps of Cadets to 481 cadets in 1900. The period between 1900 and 1915 saw a construction boom as much of West Point's old infrastructure was rebuilt. Many of the academy's most famous graduates graduated during the 15-year period between 1900 and 1915: Douglas MacArthur (1903), Joseph Stilwell (1904), Henry "Hap" Arnold (1907), George S. Patton (1909), Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Omar Bradley (both 1915). The class of 1915 is known as "the class the stars fell on" for the exceptionally high percentage of general officers that rose from that class (59 of 164).
The outbreak of America's involvement in World War I caused a sharp increase in the demand for army officers, and the academy accelerated graduation of all four classes then in attendance to meet this requirement, beginning with the early graduation of the First Class on 20 April 1917, the Second Class in August 1917, and both the Third and Fourth Classes just before the Armistice of 11 November 1918, when only freshman cadets remained (those who had entered in the summer of 1918). In all, wartime contingencies and post-war adjustments resulted in ten classes, varying in length of study from two to four years, within a seven-year period before the regular course of study was fully resumed.
Douglas MacArthur became superintendent in 1919, instituting sweeping reforms to the academic process, including introducing a greater emphasis on history and humanities. He made major changes to the field training regimen and the Cadet Honor Committee was formed under his watch in 1922. MacArthur was a firm supporter of athletics at the academy, as he famously said "Upon the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds that, upon other fields, on other days, will bear the fruits of victory." West Point was first officially accredited in 1925, and in 1933 began granting bachelor of science degrees to all graduates. In 1935, the academy's authorized strength increased to 1,960 cadets.
As World War II engulfed Europe, Congress authorized an increase to 2,496 cadets in 1942 and began graduating classes early. The class of 1943 graduated six months early in January 1943, and the next four classes graduated after only three years. To accommodate this accelerated schedule, summer training was formally moved to a recently acquired piece of land southwest of main post. The site would later become Camp Buckner. The academy had its last serious brush with abolition or major reform during the war, when some members of Congress charged that even the accelerated curriculum allowed young men to "hide out" at West Point and avoid combat duty. A proposal was put forth to convert the academy to an officer's training school with a six-month schedule, but this was not adopted. West Point played a prominent role in WWII; four of the five five-star generals were alumni and nearly 500 graduates died. Immediately following the war in 1945, Maxwell Taylor (class of 1922) became superintendent. He expanded and modernized the academic program and abolished antiquated courses in fencing and horsemanship.
Unlike previous conflicts, the Korean War did not disrupt class graduation schedules. More than half of the Army leadership during the war was composed of West Point graduates. The Class of 1950, which graduated only two weeks prior to the war's outbreak, suffered some of the heaviest casualties of any 20th century class and became known sourly as "the class the crosses fell on." A total of 157 alumni perished in the conflict. Garrison H. Davidson became superintendent in 1956 and instituted several reforms that included refining the admissions process, changing the core curriculum to include electives, and increasing the academic degree standards for academy instructors. The 1960s saw the size of the Corps expand to 4,400 cadets while the barracks and academic support structure grew proportionally.
West Point was not immune to the social upheaval of American society during the Vietnam War. The first woman joined the faculty of the all-male institution amidst controversy in 1968. The Army granted its first honorable discharge in 1971 to a West Point cadet, Cary E. Donham, of Illinois, who applied for conscientious objector status in 1970. The academy struggled to fill its incoming classes as its graduates led troops in Southeast Asia, where 333 graduates died.
Following the 1973 end of American involvement in Vietnam, the strain and stigma of earlier social unrest dissolved and West Point enjoyed surging enrollments. On May 20, 1975, an amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill of 1976 opening the service academies to women was approved by the House of Representatives, 303–96. The Senate followed suit on June 6. President Ford signed the bill on October 7, 1975.
West Point admitted its first 119 female cadets in 1976. In 1979, Cadet, later General, Vincent K. Brooks became the first African American to lead the Corp of Cadets. Kristin Baker, ten years later, became the first female First Captain (a depiction of her is now on display in the Museum), the highest ranking senior cadet at the academy in 1989. Four other women have been appointed as First Captain: Grace H. Chung in 2003, Stephanie Hightower in 2005, Lindsey Danilack in 2013, and Simone Askew in 2017. Simone Askew was the first African American woman to lead the Corps. In the 21st century, women compose approximately 20% of entering new cadets.
In 1985, cadets were formally authorized to declare an academic major; all previous graduates had been awarded a general bachelor of science degree. Five years later there was a major revision of the "Fourth Class System", as the Cadet Leader Development System (CLDS) became the guidance for the development of all four classes. The class of 1990 was the first one to be issued a standard and mandatory computer to every member of the class at the beginning of Plebe year, the Zenith 248 SX. The academy was also an early adopter of the Internet in the mid-1990s, and was recognized in 2006 as one of the nation's "most wired" campuses.
At the height of the Cold War in October 1987, President Reagan visited the Academy and delivered a speech about ending the Evil Empire.
During the Gulf War, alumnus General Schwarzkopf was the commander of Allied Forces, and the American senior generals in Iraq, Generals Petraeus, Odierno and Austin, and Afghanistan, retired General Stanley McChrystal and General David Rodriguez, are also alumni. Following the September 11 attacks, applications for admission to the academy increased dramatically, security on campus was increased, and the curriculum was revamped to include coursework on terrorism and military drills in civilian environments. One graduate was killed during the 9/11 terrorist attacks and ninety graduates have died during operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the ongoing Global War on Terror. The Class of 2005 has been referred to as The Class of 9/11 as the attacks occurred during their first year at the academy, and they graduated 911 students. In 2008 gender-neutral lyrics were incorporated into West Point's "Alma Mater" and "The Corps" – replacing lines like "The men of the Corps" with "The ranks of the Corps." In December 2009, President Barack Obama delivered a major speech in Eisenhower Hall Theater outlining his policy for deploying 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan as well as setting a timetable for withdrawal. President Obama also provided the commencement address in 2014.
After the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy was lifted September 20, 2011, the academy began admitting and retaining openly gay cadets. By March 2012, cadets were forming a gay-straight alliance group called Spectrum. By March 2015, Spectrum had two faculty and 40 cadet members, a mixture of gay, straight, bi, and undecided. According to a Vanity Fair essay, the LGBT cadets were well accepted. After the ban on transgender service members was lifted in 2016, the Class of 2017 saw the first openly transgender graduate. However, she was denied a commission and was honorably discharged.
Brig. Gen. Diana Holland became West Point's first woman Commandant of Cadets in January 2016.
The academy is located approximately north of New York City on the western bank of the Hudson River. West Point, New York, is incorporated as a federal military reservation in Orange County and is adjacent to Highland Falls. Based on the significance both of the Revolutionary War fort ruins and of the military academy itself, the majority of the academy area was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960. In 1841, Charles Dickens visited the academy and said "It could not stand on more appropriate ground, and any ground more beautiful can hardly be." One of the most visited and scenic sites on post, Trophy Point, overlooks the Hudson River to the north, and is home to many captured cannon from past wars as well as the Stanford White-designed Battle Monument. Though the entire military reservation encompasses , the academic area of the campus, known as "central area" or "the cadet area", is entirely accessible to cadets or visitors by foot.
In 1902, the Boston architectural firm Cram, Goodhue, and Ferguson was awarded a major construction contract that set the predominantly neogothic architectural style still seen today. Most of the buildings of the central cadet area are in this style, as typified by the Cadet Chapel, completed in 1910. These buildings are nearly all constructed from granite that has a predominantly gray and black hue. The barracks that were built in the 1960s were designed to mimic this style. Other buildings on post, notably the oldest private residences for the faculty, are built in the Federal, Georgian, or English Tudor styles. A few buildings, such as Cullum Hall and the Old Cadet Chapel, are built in the Neoclassical style.
The academy grounds are home to numerous monuments and statues. The central cadet parade ground, the Plain, hosts the largest number, and includes the Washington Monument, Thayer Monument, Eisenhower Monument, MacArthur Monument, Kosciuszko Monument, and Sedgwick Monument. Patton Monument was first dedicated in front of the cadet library in 1950, but in 2004 it was placed in storage to make room for the construction of Jefferson Hall. With the completion of Jefferson Hall, Patton's statue was relocated and unveiled at a temporary location on 15 May 2009, where it will remain until the completion of the renovation of the old cadet library and Bartlett Hall. There is also a statue commemorating brotherhood and friendship from the École Polytechnique in the cadet central area just outside Nininger Hall. The remaining campus area is home to 27 other monuments and memorials.
The West Point Cemetery is the final resting place of many notable graduates and faculty, including George Armstrong Custer, Winfield Scott, William Westmoreland, Earl Blaik, Margaret Corbin, and eighteen Medal of Honor recipients. The cemetery is also the burial place of several recent graduates who have died during the ongoing conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many of the older grave sites have large and ornate grave markers, the largest belonging to Egbert Viele (class of 1847), chief engineer of Brooklyn's Prospect Park. The cemetery is also home to a monument to Revolutionary War heroine Margaret Corbin.
West Point is home to historic athletic facilities like Michie Stadium and Gillis Field House as well as modern facilities such as the Lichtenburg Tennis Center, Anderson Rugby Complex, and the Lou Gross Gymnastics Facility. Michie Stadium recently underwent a significant upgrade in facilities for the football team, and the academy installed a new artificial turf field in the summer of 2008.
The visitor's center is just outside the Thayer Gate in the village of Highland Falls and offers the opportunity to arrange for a guided tour. These tours, which are the only way the general public can access the academy grounds, leave the visitor's center several times a day. The old West Point Visitor's Center was housed in the now-demolished Ladycliff College library building. On September 9, 2016, West Point broke ground in order to begin construction of the new 31,000 square foot Malek West Point Visitors Center. It is being built on the location of the former visitor's center. The Malek West Point Visitors Center is named after Frederic Malek, USMA Class of 1959 and a 2014 Distinguished Graduate.
The West Point Museum is directly adjacent to the visitor's center, in the renovated Olmsted Hall on the grounds of the former Ladycliff College. Originally opened to the public in 1854, the West Point Museum is the oldest military museum in the country. During the summer months, the museum operates access to the Fort Putnam historic site on main post and access to the 282 acre Constitution Island. Some of the most notable items on display at the museum are George Washington's pistols, Napoleon's sword, a dagger carried by Hermann Göring when he was captured, a revolver that belonged to Göring, and a silver-plated party book, signed by Charles Lindbergh, Herbert Hoover and Mussolini, among others. Arguably, the most prized artifact on display is a gold-plated pistol that belonged to Adolf Hitler.
The commanding officer at the USMA is the Superintendent, equivalent to the president or chancellor of a civilian university. In recent years, the position of Superintendent has been held by a Lieutenant General (three star general). The 60th Superintendent, Lieutenant General Darryl A. Williams, took command on 1 July 2018. He is the first African American to command West Point. The academy is a direct reporting unit, and as such, the Superintendent reports directly to the Army Chief of Staff (CSA).
There are two other general officer positions at the academy. Brigadier General Curtis A. Buzzard is the Commandant of Cadets, equivalent to a dean of students at the civilian level. Brigadier General Cindy Jebb is the Dean of the Academic Board, equivalent to a provost at the civilian level. Brigadier General Diana Holland was the first female commandant. Brigadier General Jebb is the first female Dean. There are 13 academic departments at USMA, each with a colonel as the head of department. These 13 tenured colonels comprise the core of the Academic Board. These officers are titled "Professors USMA" or PUSMA. The academy is also overseen by the Board of Visitors (BOV). The BOV is a panel of Senators, Congressional Representatives, and presidential appointees who "shall inquire into the morale and discipline, curriculum, instruction, physical equipment, fiscal affairs, academic methods, and other matters relating to the academy that the board decides to consider." Currently the BOV is chaired by Representative John Shimkus and is composed of three Senators, five Representatives and six presidential appointees.
Candidates must be between 17 and 23 years old (waivers have been excepted for 24 year olds in rare cases where the candidate is in the military and deployed and therefore unable to attend before his or her 24th birthday), unmarried, and with no legal obligation to support a child. Above average high school and/or previous college grades, and strong performance on standardized testing is expected. The interquartile range on the old SAT was 1100–1360 and 68% ranked in the top fifth of their high school class.
To be eligible for appointment, candidates must also undergo a Candidate Fitness Assessment and a complete physical exam. Up to 60 students from foreign countries are present at USMA, educated at the expense of the sponsoring nation, with tuition assistance based on the GNP of their country. Of these foreign cadets the Code of Federal Regulations specifically permits one Filipino cadet designated by the President of the Philippines.
The actual application process consists of two main requirements: candidates apply to USMA for admission and separately provide a nomination. The majority of candidates receive a nomination from their United States Representative or Senator. Some receive a nomination from the Vice President or even the President of the United States.
The nomination process is not political. Applicants do not have to know their congressman to be nominated. The Academy applicant typically provides written essays and letters of recommendation. The applicant then submits to a formal interview. Admission to West Point is selective: 12.75% of applicants were admitted (total of 1292) to the Class of 2012.
Candidates may have previous college experience, but they may not transfer, meaning that regardless of previous college credit, they enter the academy as a fourth class cadet and undergo the entire four-year program. If a candidate is considered academically disqualified and not selected, he or she may receive an offer to attend to the United States Military Academy Preparatory School. Upon graduation from USMAPS, these candidates are appointed to the academy if they receive the recommendation of the USMAPS Commandant and meet medical admission requirements.
The West Point Association of Graduates (WPAOG) also offers scholarship support to people who are qualified but not selected. The scholarships usually cover around $7,000 to civilian universities; the students who receive these scholarships do so under the stipulation that they will be admitted to and attend West Point a year later. Those who do not must repay the AOG. Marion Military Institute, New Mexico Military Institute, Georgia Military College, Hargrave Military Academy, Greystone Preparatory School at Schreiner University, and Northwestern Preparatory School are approved programs that students attend on the AOG scholarship prior to admission to West Point.
West Point is a medium-sized, highly residential baccalaureate college, with a full-time, four-year undergraduate program that emphasizes instruction in the arts, sciences, and professions with no graduate program. There are forty-five academic majors, the most popular of which are foreign languages, management information systems, history, economics, and mechanical engineering. West Point is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. Military officers compose 75% of the faculty, while civilian professors make up the remaining 25%.
A cadet's class rank, which determines his or her Army branch and assignment upon graduation, is calculated as a combination of academic performance (55%), military leadership performance (30%), and physical fitness and athletic performance (15%).
The academy's teaching style forms part of the Thayer method, which was implemented by Sylvanus Thayer during his tour as Superintendent. This form of instruction emphasizes small classes with daily homework, and strives to make students actively responsible for their own learning by completing homework assignments prior to class and bringing the work to class to discuss collaboratively.
The academic program consists of a structured core of thirty-one courses balanced between the arts and sciences. The academy operates on the semester system, which it labels as "terms" (Term 1 is the fall semester; Term 2 is the spring semester). Although cadets choose their majors in the spring of their freshmen year, all cadets take the same course of instruction until the beginning of their second year. This core course of instruction consists of mathematics, information technology, chemistry, physics, engineering, history, physical geography, philosophy, leadership and general psychology, English composition and literature, foreign language, political science, international relations, economics, and constitutional law. Some advanced cadets may "validate" out of the base-level classes and take advanced or accelerated courses earlier as freshmen or sophomores. Regardless of major, all cadets graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree.
As all cadets are commissioned as second lieutenants upon graduation, military and leadership education is nested with academic instruction. Military training and discipline fall under the purview of the Office of the Commandant. Entering freshmen, or fourth class cadets, are referred to as New Cadets, and enter the academy on Reception Day or R-day, which marks the start of cadet basic training (CBT), known colloquially as Beast Barracks, or simply Beast. Most cadets consider Beast to be their most difficult time at the academy because of the transition from civilian to military life. Their second summer, cadets undergo cadet field training (CFT) at nearby Camp Buckner, where they train in more advanced field craft and military skills. During a cadet's third summer, they may serve as instructors for CBT or CFT. Rising Firstie (senior) cadets also spend one-month training at Camp Buckner, where they train for modern tactical situations that they will soon face as new platoon leaders. Cadets also have the opportunity during their second, third and fourth summers to serve in active army units and military schools around the world. The schools include Airborne, Air Assault, Sapper, Pathfinder, etc.
Active duty officers in the rank of captain or major serve as Company Tactical Officers (TAC Officers). The role of the TAC is to mentor, train, and teach the cadets proper standards of good order and discipline and be a good role model. There is one TAC for every cadet company. There is also one senior Non-Commissioned Officer to assist each TAC, known as TAC-NCOs.
The Department of Military Instruction (DMI) is responsible for all military arts and sciences education as well as planning and executing the cadet summer training. Within DMI there is a representative from each of the Army's branches. These "branch reps" serve as proponents for their respective branches and liaise with cadets as they prepare for branch selection and graduation.
The Department of Physical Education (DPE) administers the physical program, which includes both physical education classes, physical fitness testing, and competitive athletics. The head of DPE holds the title of Master of the Sword, dating back to the 19th century when DPE taught swordsmanship as part of the curriculum.
All cadets take a prescribed series of physical fitness courses such as military movement (applied gymnastics), boxing, survival swimming, and beginning in 2009, advanced combatives. Cadets can also take elective physical activity classes such as scuba, rock climbing, and aerobic fitness.
As with all soldiers in the Army, cadets also must pass the Army Physical Fitness Test twice per year. Additionally, every year, cadets must pass the Indoor Obstacle Course Test (IOCT), which DPE has administered in Hayes Gymnasium since 1944.
Since Douglas MacArthur's tenure as superintendent, every cadet has been required to participate in either an intercollegiate sport, a club sport, or an intramural (referred to as "company athletics") sport each semester.
Moral and ethical development occurs throughout the entirety of the cadet experience by living under the honor code and through formal leadership programs available at the academy. These include instruction in the values of the military profession through Professional Military Ethics Education (PME2), voluntary religious programs, interaction with staff and faculty role models, and an extensive guest-speaker program. The foundation of the ethical code at West Point is found in the academy's motto, "Duty, Honor, Country."
West Point's Cadet Honor Code reads simply that: "A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do." Cadets accused of violating the Honor Code face an investigative and hearing process. If they are found guilty by a jury of their peers, they face severe consequences ranging from being "turned back" (repeating an academic year) to separation from the academy. Cadets previously enforced collective censure by an unofficial sanction known as "silencing" by not speaking to cadets accused of violating the honor code, but the practice ended in 1973 after national scrutiny. In 1976, 151 junior cadets were found guilty of 'violating the honour code' in their exams.
Cadets are not referred to as freshmen, sophomores, juniors, or seniors. Instead they are officially called fourth class, third class, second class, and first class cadets. Colloquially, freshmen are "plebes", sophomores are "yearlings" or "yuks", juniors are "cows", and seniors are "firsties". Some of the origins of the class names are known, some are not. Plebeians were the lower class of ancient Roman society, while yearling is a euphemism for a year-old animal. The origin of cow is less known. There are a number of theories for the origin of the term "cow"; however the most prevalent and probably accurate one is that cadets in years past had no leave until the end of their yearling year, when they were granted a summer-long furlough. Their return as second classmen was heralded as "the cows coming home."
The Corps of Cadets is officially organized into a brigade. The senior ranking cadet, the Brigade Commander, is known traditionally as the "First Captain". The brigade is organized into four regiments. Within each regiment there are three battalions, each consisting of three companies. Companies are lettered A through I, with a number signifying which regiment it belongs to. For example, there are four "A" companies: A1, A2, A3, and A4. First class cadets hold the leadership positions within the brigade from the First Captain down to platoon leaders within the companies. Leadership responsibility decreases with the lower classes, with second class cadets holding the rank of cadet sergeant, third class cadets holding the rank of cadet corporal, and fourth class cadets as cadet privates.
Because of the academy's congressional nomination process, students come from all 50 states, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, the Mariana Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the US Virgin Islands. The academy is also authorized up to 60 international exchange cadets, who undergo the same four-year curriculum as fully integrated members of the Corps of Cadets. Cadets attend the United States Military Academy free of charge, with all tuition and board paid for by the Army in return for a service commitment of five years of active duty and three years of reserve status upon graduation. Starting on the first day of a cadet's second class year, non-graduates after that point are expected to fulfill their obligations in enlisted service. Cadets receive a monthly stipend of $1,017.00 for books, uniforms, and other necessities, as of 2015. From this amount, pay is automatically deducted for the cost of uniforms, books, supplies, services, meals, and other miscellaneous expenses. All remaining money after deductions is used by the individual cadets’ discretion. All cadets receive meals in the dining halls, and have access to internet on approved, issued devices. The student population was 4,389 cadets for the 2016–2017 academic year. The student body has recently been around 20% female.
All cadets reside on campus for their entire four years in one of the nine barracks buildings. Most cadets are housed with one roommate, but some rooms are designed for three cadets. Cadets are grouped into "companies" identified by alpha-numeric codes. All companies live together in the same barracks area. The commandant may decide to have cadets change companies at some point in their cadet career. This process is known as scrambling and the method of scrambling has changed several times in recent years. All 4,000 cadets dine together at breakfast and lunch in the Washington Hall during the weekdays. The cadet fitness center, Arvin Cadet Physical Development Center (usually just called "Arvin" by cadets and faculty), which was rebuilt in 2004, houses extensive physical fitness facilities and equipment for student use.
Each class of cadets elects representatives to serve as class president and fill several administrative positions. They also elect a ring and crest committee, which designs the class's crest, the emblem that signifies their class and it is embossed upon their class rings. Each class crest is required to contain the initials "USMA" and their class motto. The class motto is proposed by the class during cadet basic training and voted on by the class prior to the beginning of their freshman academic year. Class mottos typically have verbiage that rhymes or is phonetically similar with their class year.
Cadets today live and work within the framework of the Cadet Leader Development System (CLDS), which specifies the roles that a cadet plays throughout their four years at the academy. Cadets begin their USMA careers as trainees (new cadets), then advance in rank, starting as CDT Privates (freshmen) and culminating as CDT Officers (seniors). Freshmen have no leadership responsibilities, but have a host of duties to perform as they learn how to follow orders and operate in an environment of rigid rank structure, while seniors have significant leadership responsibilities and significantly more privileges that correspond to their rank.
Cadets have a host of extracurricular activities available, most run by the office of the Directorate of Cadet Activities (DCA). DCA sponsors or operates 113 athletic and non-sport clubs. Many cadets join several clubs during their time at the academy and find their time spent with their clubs a welcome respite from the rigors of cadet life. DCA is responsible for a wide range of activities that provide improved quality of life for cadets, including: three cadet-oriented restaurants, the Cadet Store, and the "Howitzer" and "Bugle Notes". "The Howitzer" is the annual yearbook, while "Bugle Notes", also known as the "plebe bible," is the manual of plebe knowledge. Plebe knowledge is a lengthy collection of traditions, songs, poems, anecdotes, and facts about the academy, the army, the "Old Corps", and the rivalry with Navy that all plebes must memorize during cadet basic training. During plebe year, plebes may be asked, and are expected to answer, any inquiry about plebe knowledge asked by upper class cadets. Other knowledge is historical in nature, including information as found in "Bugle Notes". However, some knowledge changes daily, such as "the days" (a running list of the number of days until important academy events), the menu in the mess hall for the day, or the lead stories in "The New York Times".
Each cadet class celebrates at least one special "class weekend" per academic year. Fourth class cadets participate in Plebe Parent Weekend during the first weekend of spring break. In February, third class cadets celebrate the winter season with Yearling Winter Weekend. In late January the second class cadets celebrate 500th Night, marking the remaining 500 days before graduation. First class cadets celebrate three different formal occasions. In late August, first class cadets celebrate Ring Weekend, in February they mark their last 100 days with 100th Night, and in May they have a full week of events culminating in their graduation. All of the "class weekends" involve a formal dinner and social dance, known in old cadet slang as a "hop," held at Eisenhower Hall. Grant Hall, formerly the cadet mess hall at West Point, is now a social center.
Since 1899, Army's mascot has officially been a mule because the animal symbolizes strength and perseverance. The academy's football team was nicknamed "The Black Knights of the Hudson" due to the black color of its uniforms. This nickname has since been officially shortened to "Black Knights." U.S. sports media use "Army" as a synonym for the academy. "On Brave Old Army Team" is the school's fight song. Army's chief sports rival is the Naval Academy due to its long-standing football rivalry and the interservice rivalry with the Navy in general. Fourth class cadets verbally greet upper-class cadets and faculty with "Beat Navy," while the tunnel that runs under Washington Road is named the "Beat Navy" tunnel. Army also plays the U.S. Air Force Academy for the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy. In the first half of the 20th century, Army and Notre Dame were football rivals, but that rivalry has since died out. Notre Dame beat Army 44 – 6 in 2016.
Army football began in 1890, when Navy challenged the cadets to a game of the relatively new sport. Navy defeated Army at West Point that year, but Army avenged the loss in Annapolis the following year. The rival academies still clash every December in what is traditionally the last regular-season Division I college-football game. The 2015 football season marked Navy's fourteenth consecutive victory over Army, the longest streak in the series since inception. The following year, Army won 21–17. Army's football team reached its pinnacle of success under coach Earl Blaik when Army won consecutive national championships in 1944, 1945 and 1946, and produced three Heisman trophy winners: Doc Blanchard (1945), Glenn Davis (1946) and Pete Dawkins (1958). Past NFL coaches Vince Lombardi and Bill Parcells were Army assistant coaches early in their careers. The football team plays its home games at Michie Stadium, where the playing field is named after Earl Blaik. Cadets' attendance is mandatory at football games and the Corps stands for the duration of the game. At all home games, one of the four regiments marches onto the field in formation before the team takes the field and leads the crowd in traditional Army cheers. From 1992 through 1996, Army won all of the games against Navy for the first time since the legendary days of Blanchard and Davis, and it introduced the fraternal group of players identifying themselves as the Fat Man Club, initiated by the offensive linemen of the Class of 1996. Between the 1998 and 2004 seasons, Army's football program was a member of Conference USA, but has since reverted to its former independent status.
Though football may receive a lot of media attention due to its annual rivalry game, West Point has a long history of athletics in other NCAA sports. Army is a member of the Division I Patriot League in most sports, while its men's ice hockey program competes in Atlantic Hockey. John P. Riley, Jr. was the hockey coach at West Point for more than 35 years. Every year, Army faces the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) Paladins in the annual West Point Weekend hockey game. This series was first conceived in 1923.
The men's lacrosse team has won eight national championships and appeared in the NCAA tournament sixteen times. In its early years, lacrosse was used by football players, like the "Lonesome End" Bill Carpenter, to stay in shape during the off-season. The 2005–06 women's basketball team went 20–11 and won the Patriot League tournament. They went to the 2006 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament as a 15th-ranked seed, where they lost to Tennessee, 102–54. It was the first March Madness tournament appearance for any Army basketball team. The head coach of that team, Maggie Dixon, died soon after the season at only 28 years of age. Bob Knight, formerly the winningest men's basketball coach in NCAA history, began his head coaching career at Army in the late 1960s before moving on to Indiana and Texas Tech. One of Knight's players at Army was Mike Krzyzewski, who later was head coach at Army before moving on to Duke, where he has won five national championships.
Approximately 15% of cadets are members of a club sport team. West Point fields a total of 24 club sports teams that have been very successful in recent years, winning national championships in judo, boxing, orienteering, pistol, triathlon, crew, cycling, and team handball.
The majority of the student body, about 65%, competes in intramural sports, known at the academy as "company athletics." DPE's Competitive Sports committee runs the club and company athletics sports programs and was recently named one of the "15 Most Influential Sports Education Teams in America" by the Institute for International Sport. The fall season sees competition in basketball, flag-football, team handball, soccer, ultimate disc, and wrestling; while the spring season sees competition in combative grappling, floor hockey, orienteering, flicker ball, and swimming. In the spring, each company also fields a team entry into the annual Sandhurst Competition, a military skills event conducted by the Department of Military Instruction.
Due to West Point's age and its unique mission of producing Army officers, it has many time-honored traditions. The list below are some of the traditions unique to or started by the academy.
The Cullum number is a reference and identification number assigned to each graduate. It was created by brevet Major General George W. Cullum (USMA Class of 1833) who, in 1850, began the monumental work of chronicling the biographies of every graduate. He assigned number one to the first West Point graduate, Joseph Gardner Swift, and then numbered all successive graduates in sequence. Before his death in 1892, General Cullum completed the first three volumes of a work that eventually comprised 10 volumes, titled "General Cullum's Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the United States Military Academy, and covering USMA classes from 1802 through 1850". From 1802 through the Class of 1977, graduates were listed by general order of Merit. Beginning with the Class of 1978, graduates were listed alphabetically, and then by date of graduation. Seven graduates have an "A" suffix after their Cullum Number. For various reasons these graduates were omitted from the original class roster, and a suffix letter was added to avoid renumbering the entire class and subsequent classes.
West Point began the collegiate tradition of the class ring, beginning with the class of 1835. The class of 1836 chose no rings, and the class of 1879 had cuff links in lieu of a class ring. Before 1917, cadets could design much of the ring individually, but now only the center stone can be individualized. One side of the ring bears the academy crest, while the other side bears the class crest and the center stone ring bears the words "West Point" and the class year. The academy library has a large collection of cadet rings on display. Senior cadets receive their rings during Ring Weekend in the early fall of their senior year. Immediately after senior cadets return to the barracks after receiving their rings, fourth class cadets take the opportunity to surround senior cadets from their company and ask to touch their rings. After reciting a poem known to cadets as the "Ring Poop", the senior usually grants the freshmen permission to touch the ring. In 2002, the Memorial Class ring donor program began. Donations of class rings are melted and merged. A portion of the original gold is infused with gold from preceding melts to become part of the rings for each 'Firstie' class.
West Point is home to the Sylvanus Thayer Award. Given annually by the academy since 1958, the award honors an outstanding citizen whose service and accomplishments in the national interest exemplify the academy's motto, "Duty, Honor, Country." Currently, the award guidelines state that the recipient not be a graduate of the academy. The award has been awarded to many notable American citizens, to include George H. W. Bush, Colin Powell, Tom Brokaw, Sandra Day O'Connor, Henry Kissinger, Ronald Reagan, Barry Goldwater, Carl Vinson, Barbara Jordan, William J. Perry, Bob Hope, Condoleezza Rice and Leon E. Panetta.
A monument to Civil War Union General John Sedgwick stands on the outskirts of the Plain. Sedgwick's bronze statue has spurs with rowels that freely rotate. Legend states that if a cadet is in danger of failing a class, they are to don their full-dress parade uniform the night before the final exam. The cadet visits the statue and spins the rowels at the stroke of midnight. Then the cadet runs back to the barracks as fast as he or she can. According to legend, if Sedgwick's ghost catches them, they will fail the exam. Otherwise the cadet will pass the exam and the course. Although being out of their rooms after midnight is officially against regulations, violations have been known to be overlooked for the sake of tradition.
As part of the run-up to the Navy football game, the Corps of Cadets plays the Goat-Engineer game. First played in 1907, it is a game between the "Goats" (the bottom half of the senior (Firstie) class academically), and the "Engineers" (the top half). The game is played with full pads and helmets using eight-man football rules. The location has changed over the years, with recent venues being Shea Stadium, Michie Stadium, and Daly Field. Legend states that Army will beat Navy if the goats win, and the opposite if the engineers win. In recent years, female cadets have begun playing a flag football contest, so there are now two Goat-Engineer games, played consecutively the same night.
From the earliest days of the academy, one form of punishment for cadets who commit regulatory infractions has been a process officially known as "punishment tours". This process is better known to the cadets as "hours" because as punishment, cadets must walk a specified number of hours in penalty. Cadets are "awarded" punishment tours based upon the severity of the infraction. Being late to class or having an unkempt room may result in as little as 5 hours while more severe misconduct infractions may result in upwards of 60 to 80 hours. In its most traditional form, punishment tours are "walked off" by wearing the dress gray uniform under arms and walking back and forth in a designated area of the cadet barracks courtyard, known as "Central Area." Cadets who get into trouble frequently and spend many weekends "walking off their hours" are known as "area birds." Cadets who walk more than 100 total hours in their career are affectionately known as "Century Men." An alternate form of punishment to walking hours is known as "fatigue tours," where assigned hours may be "worked off" by manual labor, such as cleaning the barracks. Certain cadets whose academics are deficient may also conduct "sitting tours," where they have to "sit hours" in a designated academic room in a controlled study environment, for which they receive half credit towards their reduction of tours. Cadets' uniforms are inspected before their tours begin each day. A small number of cadets may be relieved of their tours that day if their uniforms are exceptionally presentable. Another tradition associated with punishment tours is that any visiting head of state has the authority to grant "amnesty," releasing all cadets with outstanding hours from the remainder of their assigned tours.
In 1967 the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst presented West Point with a British Army officer's sword for use as a trophy in a military skills competition at West Point. In 2019 the Sandhurst competition spans two days, April 12 and 13, with teams from USMA, the ROTC programs, the Naval, Coast Guard, and the Air Force academies. International academies including the UK, Canada, and Australia have won the Sandhurst Military Skills Competition.
An unofficial motto of the academy's history department is "Much of the history we teach was made by people we taught." Graduates of the academy refer to themselves as "The Long Gray Line," a phrase taken from the academy's traditional hymn "The Corps." The academy has produced just under 65,000 alumni, including two Presidents of the United States: Ulysses S. Grant and Dwight D. Eisenhower; the president of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis; and three foreign heads of state: Anastasio Somoza Debayle of Nicaragua, Fidel V. Ramos of the Philippines, and José María Figueres of Costa Rica. Alumni currently serving in public office include Senator Jack Reed, Governor of Nebraska David Heineman, Governor of Louisiana John Bel Edwards, Congressmen Mark Green, Brett Guthrie and John Shimkus and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
The academy has produced many notable generals during its 212 years. During the Civil War, graduates included John Bell Hood, Stonewall Jackson, U. S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, George McClellan, Simon Bolivar Buckner, James Longstreet, George G. Meade, Phillip Sheridan, William Tecumseh Sherman, J.E.B. Stuart and Oliver O. Howard. George Armstrong Custer graduated last in his class of 1861. The Spanish–American War saw the first combat service of Lt. (later, Brigadier General) John "Gatling Gun" Parker, the first Army officer to employ machine guns in offensive fire support of infantry.
During World War I, the academy produced General of the Armies John J. Pershing, and Major Generals Charles T. Menoher and Mason Patrick. West Point was the alma mater of many notable World War II generals, Henry H. Arnold, Omar Bradley, Mark Wayne Clark, Robert L. Eichelberger, James M. Gavin, Leslie Groves, Douglas MacArthur, George S. Patton, Joseph Stilwell, Maxwell D. Taylor, James Van Fleet, Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright IV, and Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. the highest ranking General to be killed in combat during World War II, with many of these graduates also serving in commanding roles in the Korean War. During the Vietnam War, notable graduates general officers included Creighton Abrams, Hal Moore, and William Westmoreland. West Point also produced some famous generals and statesmen of recent note including John Abizaid, Stanley A. McChrystal, Wesley Clark, Alexander Haig, Barry McCaffrey, Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr., Brent Scowcroft, Lloyd Austin, and former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, retired General David Petraeus.
A total of 76 graduates have been awarded the Medal of Honor.
West Point has produced 18 NASA astronauts, including five who went to the Moon. Other noted alumni include Jim Kimsey, founder of AOL; Bob McDonald, CEO of Procter & Gamble who was later nominated to be the Secretary of Veteran Affairs; Alex Gorsky, CEO of Johnson & Johnson; Keith McLoughlin, President and CEO of Electrolux, Jeffrey W. Martin, CEO of Sempra Energy, and Alden Partridge, founder of Norwich University. West Point's contributions to sport include three Heisman Trophy winners: Glenn Davis, Doc Blanchard, and Pete Dawkins. West Point has produced many high government officials, including Brent Scowcroft, the National Security Advisor under presidents Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush, and Eric Shinseki, former Secretary of Veterans Affairs under President Barack Obama. West Point graduate Frank Medina organized and led the nationwide campaign that brought the Congressional Gold Medal to the 65th Infantry Regiment, also known as the Borinqueneers.
Among American universities, the academy is fifth on the list of total winners for Rhodes Scholarships, seventh for Marshall Scholarships and fourth on the list of Hertz Fellowships. The official alumni association of West Point is the West Point Association of Graduates (WPAOG or AOG), headquartered at Herbert Hall.
On May 26, 1937, the U.S. Post Office issued a 5-cent commemorative stamp honoring West Point, which features several of its buildings along with the West Point's motto, "DUTY • HONOR • COUNTRY", inscribed under its name near the top. In 2002, on the 200th anniversary of West Point's founding, the U.S. Postal Service released a 34-cent stamp in its honor.
As an active-duty U.S. Army installation, there are several regular Army units that provide support for the USMA and the West Point installation. The U.S. Army Garrison includes a Headquarters and Headquarters Company, Provost Marshal and Military Police, Religious Program Support, Keller Army Community Hospital, the West Point Dental Activity, the USMA Band (a regular Army band—USMA cadets are not members of the USMA band), and the Directorate of Human Resources (DHR). The DHR is the higher headquarters for: Military Personnel Division (MPD), Army Continuing Education System (ACES), Administrative Services Division (ASD) and the Army Substance Abuse Program (ASAP).
The 1st Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment (1–1 INF) and the 2d Army Aviation Detachment, both stationed on nearby Stewart Army Subpost, provide military training and aviation support to the USMA and the West Point Garrison. Additionally, active duty Army support, such as recent field artillery training conducted at Camp Buckner in July 2017, is sometimes provided by the 10th Mountain Division, based at Fort Drum, NY . | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32173 |
United States Minor Outlying Islands
The United States Minor Outlying Islands are a statistical designation defined by the International Organization for Standardization's ISO 3166-1 code. The entry code is . The minor outlying islands and groups of islands consist of eight United States insular areas in the Pacific Ocean (Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, Midway Atoll, Palmyra Atoll, and Wake Island) and one in the Caribbean Sea (Navassa Island).
The United States has a related territorial dispute with Colombia over administration of the "Bajo Nuevo Bank" and "Serranilla Bank". These islands are not included in the ISO designation.
Except for Palmyra Atoll, all of these islands are unincorporated, unorganized territories of the United States. , none of the islands have any permanent residents. The "U.S. Territory of Palmyra Island" is an incorporated territory, separated in 1959 from the rest of the former incorporated Territory of Hawaii when Hawaii became a state. The only human population consists of temporarily stationed scientific and military personnel. The 2000 census counted 315 people on Johnston Atoll and 94 people on Wake Island.
There has been no modern indigenous population, except at the 1940 census. In 1936 a colonization program began to settle Americans on Baker, Howland, and Jarvis, but all three islands were evacuated in 1942 as a result of World War II.
The islands are grouped together as a statistical convenience. They are not administered collectively, nor do they share a single cultural or political history beyond being uninhabited islands under the sovereignty of the United States. They are all outside of the customs territory of the United States and have no customs duties. Except for Midway Atoll, the Pacific islands are surrounded by large Exclusive Economic Zones and are within the bounds of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument.
They are collectively represented by the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code . The individual islands have ISO 3166-2 numerical codes.
The Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) ".um" has historically been assigned to the islands; however, the .um ccTLD was retired in January 2007.
ISO introduced the term "United States Minor Outlying Islands" in 1986. From 1974 until 1986, five of the islands (Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Palmyra Atoll and Kingman Reef) were grouped under the term United States Miscellaneous Pacific Islands, with ISO 3166 code . The code of Midway Atoll was , the code of Johnston Atoll was , and the code of Wake Island was . Prior to 1986, Navassa Island, along with several small islands in the Caribbean Sea—that are no longer under U.S. sovereignty—were grouped under the term United States Miscellaneous Caribbean Islands, with FIPS country code .
The populated Stewart Islands, called Sikaiana and now effectively controlled by the Solomon Islands, are not included in official lists of U.S. Minor Outlying Islands. In 1856, the Kingdom of Hawaii Privy Council and King Kamehameha IV voted to accept their voluntary cession. The Kingdom later became the Republic of Hawaii, all of which was annexed by the United States in 1898. In 1959, the resulting federal U.S. Territory of Hawaii, excluding only Palmyra Island and Midway Island, became a U.S. state. Residents of the Stewarts, who are Polynesian like the native Hawaiians rather than Melanesian, claimed to be citizens of the United States since the Stewarts were given to King Kamehameha IV in 1856 and were part of Hawaii at the time of the United States' annexation in 1898. The U.S. federal and Hawaii state governments informally accept the recent claim of the Solomon Islands over the Stewarts, and the United States makes no official claim of sovereignty.
Most of the islands in the U.S. Minor Outlying Islands are closed to the public—visitors to islands such as Jarvis Island need a permit; Palmyra Atoll is open to the public, but there is no easy way to reach it.
Airports in the United States Minor Outlying Islands provide critical emergency landing points across the vast Pacific Ocean for all types of aircraft, allow for important military presence in key strategic zones, and have limited scheduled commercial services. The following is a list of island airports with ICAO (IATA) codes:
Other airports include:
Three of the islands are listed with ports in the World Port Index, with World Port Number:
Baker Island, Howland Island and Jarvis Island each have a small boat landing place. Kingman Reef and Navassa Island have offshore anchorage only. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32176 |
United Nations Environment Programme
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP or UN Environment) is responsible for coordinating the UN's environmental activities and assisting developing countries in implementing environmentally sound policies and practices.
UNEP was founded in 1972 by Canadian businessman and philanthropist Maurice Strong, its first director, following the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (Stockholm Conference). Its mandate covers a wide range of areas, including the atmosphere, marine and terrestrial ecosystems, environmental governance, and green economic development. UNEP's activities include developing international environmental conventions; promoting environmental science and information; working with public and private stakeholders on developing and implementing policy; funding and implementing environmental development projects, such as reforestation and wetlands restoration; and formulating guidelines on issues such as the international trade in potentially harmful chemicals, transboundary air pollution, and contamination of international waterways. It also maintains a repository of scientific and environmental research.
As a member of the United Nations Development Group, UNEP aims to help the world meet the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Over the last thirty years, it has increasingly focused on climate change, helping create or implement environmental treaties and institutions, such as the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. In 1988, it joined the World Meteorological Organization to establish the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a leading authority on the science of climate change and options for adaptation and mitigation. UNEP is also one of several "Implementing Agencies" for the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the Multilateral Fund for the Implementation of the Montreal Protocol, and the International Cyanide Management Code.
As a programme of the United Nations, UN Environment is funded solely by voluntary contributions.
In the 1970s, the need for environmental governance at a global level was not universally accepted, particularly by developing nations. Some argued that environmental concerns were not a priority for nations in poverty. The leadership and of Canadian diplomat Maurice Strong convinced many of the developing nations' governments that they needed to prioritize this issue. In the words of Nigerian professor Adebayo Adedeji, "Mr. Strong, through the sincerity of his advocacy, soon made it clear that all of us, irrespective of the stage of our development, have a large stake in the matter."
The need of the developing laws such as the International Labour Organization(ILO), the Food and Agriculture Organization(FAO), and the World Health Organization(WHO), led to the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (the Stockholm Conference) to tackle the pollution caused by the industrial revolution during the 1960s and 1970s. In this conference, various topics including marine life, protection of resources, environment change, disasters related to nature, and biological change were discussed. This conference resulted in a Declaration on the Human Environment (Stockholm Declaration) and the establishment of an environmental management body, which later was named United Nations Environment Program(UNEP). UNEP was established by General Assembly Resolution 2997. Headquarters were established in Nairobi, Kenya with a staff of 300, including 100 professionals in a variety of fields, and with a five-year fund of more than US$100 million. At the time, US$40 million were pledged by The United States and the remainder by 50 other nations. The Voluntary Indicative Scale of Contribution (VISC) established in 2002 has the role to increase the supporters of the UNEP. The finances related to all programs of UNEP is voluntarily contributed by U.N. member states. The Environmental Fund, which all nations of UNEP invest in, is the core source of UNEP’ s programs. Between 1974 and 1986 UNEP produced more than 200 technical guidelines or manuals on environment including forest and water management, pest control, pollution monitoring, the relationship between chemical use and health, and management of industry.
The location of the headquarters proved to be a major controversy, with developed countries preferring Geneva, where several other UN offices are based, while developing countries preferred Nairobi, as that would be the first international organization headquartered in the Global South. At first, Mexico City, New Delhi, and Cairo were also competing to the organization, but they pulled out to support Nairobi in an act of "Third World solidarity". Many of the developing countries were "not particularly supportive of creating a new formal institution for environmental governance," but supported its creation as an act of "Southern solidarity". The location of UNEP in Nairobi was taken as "an explicitly political decision."
UNEP's former acting Executive Director Joyce Msuya took office in November 2018, following the resignation of Erik Solheim. Prior to that appointment, she was UNEP's Deputy Executive Director.
In December 1972, the UN General Assembly unanimously elected Maurice Strong to be the first head of UN Environment. Also Secretary General of both the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, which launched the world environment movement, and the 1992 Earth Summit, Strong has played a critical role in globalizing the environmental movement.
The position was then held for 17 years (1975–1992) by Dr. Mostafa Kamal Tolba, who was instrumental in bringing environmental considerations to the forefront of global thinking and action. Under his leadership, UN Environment's most widely acclaimed success—the historic 1987 agreement to protect the ozone layer—the Montreal Protocol was negotiated. He was succeeded by Elizabeth Dowdeswell (1992–1998), Klaus Töpfer (1998–2006), Achim Steiner (2006–2016), and Erik Solheim (2016–2018).
The United Nations Environment Assembly is UNEP's governing body. Created in June 2012 to replace the Governing Council, it currently has 193 members and meets every two years.
UNEP's structure includes eight substantive Divisions:
UNEP's main activities are related to:
Several awards programs have been established to recognize outstanding work in the environmental field. The Global 500 Roll of Honour was initiated in 1987 and ended in 2003. Its 2005 successor, Champions of the Earth, and a similar award, Young Champions of the Earth, are given annually to entrepreneurs, scientists, policy leaders, upcoming talent, individuals and organizations who make significant positive impacts on resources and the environment in their areas.
UNEP has registered several successes, such as the 1987 Montreal Protocol for limiting emissions of gases blamed for thinning the planet's protective ozone layer, and the 2012 Minamata Convention, a treaty to limit toxic mercury.
UNEP has sponsored the development of solar loan programmes, with attractive return rates, to buffer the initial deployment costs and entice consumers to consider and purchase solar PV systems. The most famous example is the solar loan programme sponsored by UN Environment helped 100,000 people finance solar power systems in India. Success in India's solar programme has led to similar projects in other parts of the developing world, including Tunisia, Morocco, Indonesia and Mexico.
UNEP sponsors the Marshlands project in the Middle East. In 2001, UN Environment alerted about the destruction of the Marshlands when it released satellite images showing that 90 percent of the Marshlands had been lost. The UN Environment "support for Environmental Management of the Iraqi Marshland" began in August 2004, to manage the Marshland area in an environmentally sound manner.
UN Environment has a programme for young people known as Tunza. Within this programme are other projects like the AEO for Youth.
International Environmental Education Programme (1975-1995)
For two decades, UNESCO and UNEP led the International Environmental Education Programme (1975-1995), which set out a vision for, and gave practical guidance on how to mobilize education for environmental awareness. In 1976, UNESCO launched an environmental education newsletter ‘Connect’ as the official organ of the UNESCO-UNEP International Environmental Education Programme (IEEP). It served as a clearinghouse to exchange information on Environmental Education (EE) in general and to promote the aims and activities of the IEEP in particular, as well as being a network for institutions and individuals interested and active in environment education until 2007.
Climate change
UNEP in 1989, years ago, predicted "entire nations could be wiped off the face of the Earth by rising sea levels if the global warming trend is not reversed by the year 2000."
UNEP in 2005, years ago, predicted "50 million people could become environmental refugees by 2010, fleeing the effects of climate change."'
Glaciers are shrinking at record rates and many could disappear within decades, the UN Environment Programme said on 16 March 2008. The scientists measuring the health of almost 30 glaciers around the world found that ice loss reached record levels in 2006. On average, the glaciers shrank by 4.9 feet in 2006, the most recent year for which data are available. The most severe loss was recorded at Norway's Breidalblikkbrea glacier, which shrank 10.2 feet in 2006. Glaciers lost an average of about a foot of ice a year between 1980 and 1999. But since the turn of the millennium the average loss has increased to about 20 inches.
Electric vehicles
At the fifth Magdeburg Environmental Forum held from 3–4 July 2008, in Magdeburg, Germany, UN Environment and car manufacturer Daimler called for the establishment of infrastructure for electric vehicles. At this international conference, 250 high-ranking representatives from the world of politics and non-government organizations discussed solutions for future road transportation under the motto of "Sustainable Mobility–the Post-2012 CO2 Agenda".
Circular economy
UN Environment is the co-chair and a founding partner (along with groups such as the Ellen MacArthur Foundation) for the Platform for Accelerating the Circular Economy, which is a public-private partnership of over 50 global organizations and governments seeking to support the rapid transition to a global Circular economy.
The world's only legal program which was established in 1974 for the purpose of protecting the oceans and seas at the regional level. More than 143 countries participate in 18 regional programs including Caribbean Region, East Asian Seas, Eastern African Region, Mediterranean Region, North-West Pacific Region, Western Africa Region, Caspian Sea, Black Sea Region, North-East Pacific Region, Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, ROPME Sea Area, South Asian Seas, South-Easy Pacific Region, Pacific Region, Artic Region, Antarctic Region, Baltic Sea, and North-East Atlantic Region. Each program consists of countries which share the same sea and they manage the sea at the regional level. The programs are controlled by secretariats or Regional Coordinating Units (RCUs) and Regional Activity Centers (RACs). UNEP realizes the protection of the seas by promoting international and regional conventions through education and training based on the assessment of how the region is polluted and how the pollution damages human body.
UNEP publishes many reports, atlases and newsletters. For instance, the fifth Global Environment Outlook (GEO-5) assessment is a comprehensive report on environment, development and human well-being, providing analysis and information for policy makers and the concerned public. One of many points in the GEO-5 warns that we are living far beyond our means. It notes that the human population is now so large that the amount of resources needed to sustain it exceeds what is available.
In June 2010, a report from UN Environment declared that a global shift towards a vegan diet was needed to save the world from hunger, fuel shortages and climate change. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32178 |
United Australia Party
The United Australia Party (UAP) was an Australian political party that was founded in 1931 and dissolved in 1945. The party won four federal elections in that time, usually governing in coalition with the Country Party. It provided two Prime Ministers of Australia – Joseph Lyons (1932–1939) and Robert Menzies (1939–1941).
The UAP was created in the aftermath of the 1931 split in the Australian Labor Party. Six economically conservative Labor MPs left the party to protest the Scullin Government's financial policies during the Great Depression. Led by Joseph Lyons, a former Premier of Tasmania, the defectors initially sat as independents, but then agreed to merge with the Nationalist Party and form a united opposition. Lyons was chosen as the new party's leader due to his popularity among the general public, with former Nationalist leader John Latham becoming his deputy. He led the UAP to a landslide victory at the 1931 federal election, where the party secured an outright majority in the House of Representatives and was able to form government in its own right.
After the 1934 election, the UAP entered into a coalition with the Country Party; it retained government at the 1937 election. After Lyons' death in April 1939, the UAP elected Robert Menzies as its new leader. This resulted in the Country Party leaving the coalition, but a new coalition agreement was reached in March 1940. The 1940 election resulted in a hung parliament and the formation of a minority government with support from two independents. In August 1941, Menzies was forced to resign as prime minister in favour of Arthur Fadden, the Country Party leader; he in turn survived only 40 days before losing a confidence motion and making way for a Labor government under John Curtin. Fadden continued on as Leader of the Opposition, with Billy Hughes replacing Menzies as UAP leader. Hughes resigned after the 1943 election, and Menzies subsequently returned as UAP leader and Leader of the Opposition. The UAP ceased to exist as a parliamentary party in February 1945, when its members joined the new Liberal Party of Australia.
Joseph Lyons began his political career as an Australian Labor Party politician and served as Premier of Tasmania. Lyons was elected to the Australian Federal Parliament in 1929 and served in Prime Minister James Scullin's Labor Cabinet. Lyons became acting Treasurer in 1930 and helped negotiate the government's strategies for dealing with the Great Depression. With Scullin temporarily absent in London, Lyons and acting Prime Minister James Fenton clashed with the Labor Cabinet and Caucus over economic policy, and grappled with the differing proposals of the Premier's Plan, Lang Labor, the Commonwealth Bank and British adviser Otto Niemeyer.
While Health Minister Frank Anstey supported Premier of New South Wales Jack Lang's bid to default on debt repayments, Lyons advocated orthodox fiscal management. When Labor reinstated the more radical Ted Theodore as Treasurer in 1931, Lyons and Fenton resigned from Cabinet.
The UAP was formed in 1931 by Labor dissidents and a conservative coalition as a response to the more radical economic proposals of Labor Party members to deal with the Great Depression in Australia. Lyons and Fenton's opposition to the economic policies of the Scullin Labor Government had attracted the support of prominent Australian conservatives, known as "the Group", whose number included future prime minister Robert Menzies. In parliament on 13 March 1931, though still a member of the ALP, Lyons supported a no confidence motion against the Scullin Labor government. Soon afterward, Lyons, Fenton and four other right-wing Labor MPs--Moses Gabb, Allan Guy, Charles McGrath and John Price—resigned from the ALP in protest of the Scullin government's economic policies. Five of the six Labor dissidents–all except Gabb–formed the "All for Australia League" and crossed over to the opposition benches. On 7 May, the All for Australia League, the Nationalist opposition (hitherto led by John Latham) and former Prime Minister Billy Hughes' Australian Party (a group of former Nationalists who had been expelled for crossing the floor and bringing down Stanley Bruce's Nationalist government in 1929), merged to form the UAP. Although the new party was dominated by former Nationalists, Lyons was chosen as the new party's leader, and thus became Leader of the Opposition, with Latham as his deputy. The Western Australia branch of the Nationalists, however, retained the Nationalist name.
Claiming that the Scullin government was incapable of managing the economy, it offered traditional deflationary economic policies in response to Australia's economic crisis. Though it was basically an upper- and middle-class conservative party, the presence of ex-Labor MPs with working-class backgrounds allowed the party to present a convincing image of national unity transcending class barriers. This was especially true of the party leader, Lyons. Indeed, he had been chosen as the merged party's leader because he was thought to be more electorally appealing than the aloof Latham, and was thus better suited to win over traditional Labor supporters to the UAP. Its slogan was "All for Australia and the Empire".
A further split, this time of left-wing NSW Labor MPs who supported the unorthodox economic policies of NSW Premier Jack Lang, cost the Scullin government its parliamentary majority. In November 1931, Lang Labor dissidents broke with the Scullin government and joined with the UAP opposition to pass a no-confidence motion, forcing an early election.
With the Labor Party split between Scullin's supporters and Langites, and with a very popular leader (Lyons had a genial manner and the common touch), the UAP won the elections in December 1931 in a massive landslide which saw the two wings of the Labor Party cut down to 18 seats between them, and Lyons became Prime Minister in January 1932. He took office at the helm of a UAP majority government. The UAP initially hoped to renew the non-Labor Coalition with the Country Party of Earle Page after coming up four seats short of a majority in its own right. However, the five MPs elected from the Emergency Committee of South Australia, which stood in place of the UAP and Country Party in South Australia, joined the UAP party room, giving the UAP a bare majority of two seats. When negotiations with Page broke down, Lyons formed an exclusively UAP government. In 1934, the UAP lost six seats, forcing Lyons to take the Country Party into his government in a full-fledged Coalition.
The Lyons government followed the conservative economic policies it had promised in opposition, and benefited politically from the gradual worldwide economic recovery as the 1930s went on.
Lyons favoured the tough economic measures of the "Premiers' Plan", pursued an orthodox fiscal policy and refused to accept NSW Premier Jack Lang's proposals to default on overseas debt repayments. A dramatic episode in Australian history followed Lyons' first electoral victory when NSW Premier Jack Lang refused to pay interest on overseas State debts. The Lyons government stepped in and paid the debts and then passed the Financial Agreement Enforcement Act to recover the money it had paid. In an effort to frustrate this move, Lang ordered State departments to pay all receipts directly to the Treasury instead of into Government bank accounts. The New South Wales Governor, Sir Philip Game, intervened on the basis that Lang had acted illegally in breach of the state Audit Act and sacked the Lang Government, who then suffered a landslide loss at the consequent 1932 state election.
Australia entered the Depression with a debt crisis and a credit crisis. According to author Anne Henderson of the Sydney Institute, Lyons held a steadfast belief in "the need to balance budgets, lower costs to business and restore confidence" and the Lyons period gave Australia "stability and eventual growth" between the drama of the Depression and the outbreak of the Second World War. A lowering of wages was enforced and industry tariff protections maintained, which together with cheaper raw materials during the 1930s saw a shift from agriculture to manufacturing as the chief employer of the Australian economy – a shift which was consolidated by increased investment by the commonwealth government into defence and armaments manufacture. Lyons saw restoration of Australia's exports as the key to economic recovery. A devalued Australian currency assisted in restoring a favourable balance of trade. Tariffs had been a point of difference between the Country Party and United Australia Party. The CP opposed high tariffs because they increased costs for farmers, while the UAP had support among manufacturers who supported tariffs. Lyons was therefore happy to be perceived as "protectionist". Australia agreed to give tariff preference to British Empire goods, following the 1932 Imperial economic conference. The Lyons Government lowered interest rates to stimulate expenditure. Another point of difference was the issue of establishing national unemployment insurance. Debate on this issue became strained with the Country Party opposing the plan. On this issue, deputy leader Robert Menzies and Country Party leader Earle Page would have a public falling out.
According to author Brian Carroll, Lyons had been underestimated when he assumed office in 1932 and as leader he demonstrated: "a combination of honesty, native shrewdness, tact, administrative ability, common sense, good luck and good humour that kept him in the job longer than any previous Prime Minister except Hughes". Lyons was assisted in his campaigning by his politically active wife, Enid Lyons. She had a busy official role from 1932 to 1939 and, following her husband's death, stood for Parliament herself, becoming Australia's first female Member of the House of Representatives, and later first woman in Cabinet, joining the Menzies Cabinet in 1951.
Defence issues became increasingly dominant in public affairs with the rise of fascism in Europe and militant Japan in Asia. The UAP largely supported the western powers in their policy of appeasement, however veteran UAP minister Billy Hughes was an exception and he embarrassed the government with his 1935 book "Australia and the War Today" which exposed a lack of preparation in Australia for what Hughes correctly supposed to be a coming war. Hughes was forced to resign, but the Lyons government tripled its defence budget.
On 7 April 1939, with the storm clouds of the Second World War gathering in Europe and the Pacific, Joseph Lyons became the first Prime Minister of Australia to die in office. Driving from Canberra to Sydney, en route to his home in Tasmania for Easter, he suffered a heart attack, dying soon after in hospital in Sydney, on Good Friday. The UAP's Deputy leader, Robert Menzies, had resigned in March, citing the coalition's failure to implement a plan for national insurance. In the absence of a UAP deputy, the Governor-General, Lord Gowrie, appointed Country Party leader Sir Earle Page as his temporary replacement, pending the selection of Lyons' successor by the UAP.
Robert Menzies defeated Hughes for the UAP leadership and became Prime Minister on 26 April 1939. Page refused to serve under Menzies, leaving the UAP with a minority government.
In addition to the office of Prime Minister, Menzies served as Treasurer. The First Menzies Ministry included the ageing former Prime Minister Billy Hughes and the young future Prime Minister Harold Holt. Menzies tried and failed to have the issue of national insurance examined by a committee of parliamentarians. Though no longer in formal coalition, his government survived because the Country Party preferred a UAP government to that of a Labor government.
The growing threat of war dominated politics through 1939. Menzies supported British policy against Hitler's Germany (negotiate for peace, but prepare for war) and – fearing Japanese intentions in the Pacific – established independent embassies in Tokyo and Washington to receive independent advice about developments. Menzies announced Australia's entry into World War Two on 3 September 1939 as a consequence of Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland. Australia was ill-prepared for war. A National Security Act was passed, the recruitment of a volunteer military force for service at home and abroad was announced, the 2nd Australian Imperial Force, and a citizen militia was organised for local defence.
Troubled by Britain's failure to increase defences at Singapore, Menzies was cautious in committing troops to Europe, nevertheless in 1940–41, Australian forces played prominent roles in the fighting in the Mediterranean theatre.
A special War Cabinet was created;– initially composed of Menzies and five senior ministers (RG Casey, GA Street, Senator McLeay, HS Gullet and World War I Prime Minister Billy Hughes). In January 1940, Menzies dispatched potential leadership rival Richard Casey to Washington as Australia's first "Minister to the United States". In a consequent by-election, the UAP suffered a heavy defeat and Menzies re-entered coalition negotiations with the Country Party. In March 1940, troubled negotiations were concluded with the Country Party to re-enter Coalition with the UAP. The replacement of Earle Page as leader by Archie Cameron allowed Menzies to reach accommodation. A new Coalition ministry was formed including a number of Country Party members.
With the 1940 election looming, Menzies lost his Chief of the General Staff and three loyal ministers in the Canberra air disaster. The Labor Party meanwhile experienced a split along pro and anti Communist lines over policy towards the Soviet Union for its co-operation with Nazi Germany in the invasion of Poland; this resulted in the formation of the Non-Communist Labor Party. The Communist Party of Australia (CPA) opposed and sought to disrupt Australia's war effort. Menzies banned the CPA after the fall of France in 1940, but by 1941 Stalin was forced to join the allied cause when Hitler reneged on the Pact and invaded the USSR. The USSR came to bear the brunt of the carnage of Hitler's war machine and the Communist Party in Australia lost its early war stigma as a result.
At the general election in September 1940, there was a large swing to Labor and the UAP-Country Party coalition lost its majority, continuing in office only because of the support of two independent MPs, Arthur Coles and Alexander Wilson. The UAP–Country Party coalition and the Labor parties won 36 seats each. Menzies proposed an all party unity government to break the impasse, but the Labor Party under John Curtin refused to join. Curtin agreed instead to take a seat on a newly created Advisory War Council in October 1940. New Country Party leader Arthur Fadden became Treasurer and Menzies unhappily conceded to allow Earle Page back into his ministry.
In January 1941, Menzies flew to Britain to discuss the weakness of Singapore's defences and sat with Winston Churchill's British War Cabinet. En route he inspected Singapore's defences – finding them alarmingly inadequate – and visited Australian troops in the Mid-East. He at times clashed with Churchill in the War Cabinet, and was unable to achieve significant assurances for increased commitment to Singapore's defences, but undertook morale boosting excursions to war affected cities and factories and was well received by the British press and generally raised awareness in Britain of Australia's contribution to its war effort. He Returned to Australia via Canada and the United States – addressing the Canadian parliament and lobbying President Roosevelt for more arms production. After four months, Menzies returned to Australia to face a lack of enthusiasm for his global travels and a war-time minority government under ever increasing strain.
In Menzies's absence, Curtin had co-operated with Fadden in preparing Australia for the expected Pacific War. With the threat of Japan imminent and with the Australian army suffering badly in the Greek and Crete campaigns, Menzies re-organised his ministry and announced multiple multi-party committees to advise on war and economic policy. Government critics however called for an all-party government.
In August, Cabinet decided that Menzies should travel back to Britain to represent Australia in the War Cabinet – but this time the Labor caucus refused to support the plan. Menzies announced to his Cabinet that he thought he should resign and advise the Governor General to invite Curtin to form Government. The Cabinet instead insisted he approach Curtin again to form a war cabinet. Unable to secure Curtin's support, and with an unworkable parliamentary majority, Menzies faced continuing problems with the administration of the war effort and the undermining of his leadership by members of his own coalition. Menzies resigned as prime minister on 29 August 1941, but initially stayed on as UAP leader.
Following Menzies' resignation, a joint UAP–Country Party meeting chose Fadden to be his successor as prime minister, even though the Country Party was the junior partner in the coalition. Menzies became Minister for Defence Co-ordination.
Australia marked two years of war on 7 September 1941 with a day of prayer, on which Prime Minister Fadden broadcast to the nation an exhortation to be united in the ‘supreme task of defeating the forces of evil in the world". With the Pacific on the brink of war, Opposition leader John Curtin offered friendship and co-operation to Fadden, but refused to join in an all-party wartime national government.
Coles and Wilson were angered at how Menzies had been treated, and on 3 October voted with the Opposition in the House of Representatives to reject Fadden's budget; Fadden promptly resigned. This became a rare moment in Parliament in which a sitting government is defeated in the House. This did not occur in Australia again for another 78 years. Under the prodding of Governor-General Lord Gowrie, who wanted to avoid calling an election given the dangerous international situation, Coles and Wilson threw their support to Labor. Gowrie then duly swore Curtin in as prime minister on 7 October 1941. Eight weeks later, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.
On 9 October, Menzies resigned as UAP leader, but not before calling for a partyroom meeting to determine whether the party should form a united opposition with the Country Party or go it alone. His preferred option was the latter, and he had intended to re-contest the leadership if he was successful. However, the party voted 19–12 to form a united opposition under the leadership of Fadden. Although the UAP had been in government for a decade, Menzies' resignation revealed a party almost completely bereft of leadership. With no obvious successor to Menzies, the UAP was forced to turn to the 79-year-old former prime minister Billy Hughes as its new leader. With Menzies out and the aged Hughes seen as a stop-gap leader, UAP members jostled for position.
Having spent all but eight months of its existence prior to 1941 in government, the UAP was ill-prepared for a role in opposition. Curtin proved a popular leader, rallying the nation in the face of the danger of invasion by the Japanese after Japan's entry into the war in December 1941. Even allowing for the advantages a sitting government has in wartime, the Labor government seemed more effective than its predecessor. Fadden and Hughes were unable to get the better of Curtin. By the time the writs were issued for the 1943 federal election, the Coalition had sunk into near paralysis. At the election, the Coalition suffered a massive defeat and was reduced to only 19 seats nationwide, including 12 for the UAP.
After this election defeat Menzies returned to the UAP leadership, and Fadden handed the post of opposition leader to him as well. However, as the Nationalists had a decade earlier, the party and its organisation now seemed moribund, particularly in NSW. UAP branches tended to become inactive between elections, and its politicians were seen as compromised by their reliance on large donations from business and financial organisations. In New South Wales, the party merged with the Commonwealth Party to form the Democratic Party, which merged with the Liberal Democratic Party the following year. In Queensland the state party was absorbed into the Queensland People's Party.
Menzies became convinced that the UAP was no longer viable, and a new anti-Labor party needed to be formed to replace it. He circulated a confidential memorandum expressing his wish for the UAP to be replaced:
The name United Australia Party has fallen into complete disregard. It no longer means anything. Many of my own strongest supporters in my own electorate decline to have anything to do with the Party as such. [...] To establish a new party under a new name, it is, I think, essential to recognise that the new groups and movements which sprang up in the six months before the election were all expressions of dissatisfaction with the existing set-up. [...] The time between now and the next election is already beginning to run out!
On 31 August 1945 the UAP was folded into the newly formed Liberal Party of Australia, with Menzies as leader. The new party was dominated by former UAP members; with few exceptions, the UAP party room became the Liberal party room.
The Liberal Party went on to become the dominant centre-right party in Australian politics. After an initial loss to Labor at the 1946 election, Menzies led the new non-Labor Coalition of the Liberal and Country parties to victory at the 1949 election against the incumbent Labor government led by Curtin's successor, Ben Chifley. The Coalition stayed in office for a record 23 years.
Note: the United Australia Party did not run candidates in South Australia in 1931. The Emergency Committee of South Australia was the main anti-Labor party, but five MPs elected under that banner joined the parliamentary UAP after the election. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32179 |
Joint Intelligence Committee (United Kingdom)
The Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) is an interagency deliberative body responsible for intelligence assessment, coordination, and oversight of the Secret Intelligence Service, Security Service, GCHQ, and Defence Intelligence. The JIC is supported by the Joint Intelligence Organisation under the Cabinet Office.
The JIC was founded on 7 July 1936 as a sub-committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence, the advisory peacetime defence planning agency. During World War II, it became the senior intelligence assessment body in the UK. In 1957 the JIC moved to the Cabinet Office, where its assessments staff prepare draft intelligence assessments for the committee to consider.
The JIC played a controversial role in compiling a dossier in which the UK government highlighted the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction in the run up to the Iraq War. There were allegations that the dossier was "sexed up" prior to publication in order to bolster the case for military action. Evidence that the wording of the dossier was "strengthened" was presented to the Hutton Inquiry, a judicial review set up to investigate the circumstances leading up to the death of an eminent government weapons expert, David Kelly, who had criticised the wording of the dossier in off-the-record briefings to journalists. Dr. Kelly committed suicide shortly after his identity was confirmed to the media by the government. JIC members John Scarlett and Sir Richard Dearlove (both then head of MI6, the Secret Intelligence Service) gave evidence to the Inquiry in which they argued that the words used in the dossier were consistent with their assessment of the intelligence available at the time.
Despite the work of the 1400 strong Iraq Survey Group in post-war Iraq, no evidence of actual WMD capability has so far been uncovered; according to its final report in September 2004. The US and UK Governments both announced investigations into the assessment of WMD intelligence in the run up to war. The British inquiry, headed by Lord Butler of Brockwell, in its report in July 2004, while critical of the British intelligence community, did not recommend that anyone should resign. Similarly, the US Senate Intelligence Committee, while critical of US intelligence officials, did not recommend any resignations in its report, also issued in July 2004.
The Committee is chaired by a permanent chairman, a member of the Senior Civil Service, and is supported by the Joint Intelligence Organisation which includes an assessments staff. The assessment staff is made up of experienced senior analysts drawn from across government and the military and conducts all-source analysis on subjects of interest to the committee. JIC papers draw input from across the intelligence and security agencies and other related bodies.
Membership comprises senior officials in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Ministry of Defence and United Kingdom Armed Forces, Home Office, Department for International Development, HM Treasury and the Cabinet Office.
The JIC is subject to oversight by the Intelligence and Security Committee. It is supported by the Joint Intelligence Organisation.
The JIC is responsible for:
The JIC has three functions:
The JIC drafts the annual Requirements and Priorities for collection and analysis, for approval by Ministers. These support the strategic national security objectives of the UK:
Ever since World War II, the chief of the London station of the United States Central Intelligence Agency has attended the JIC's weekly meetings. One former US intelligence officer has described this as the "highlight of the job" for the London CIA chief. Resident intelligence chiefs from Australia, Canada, and New Zealand may attend when certain issues are discussed.
Since founding, the Committee's Chair has been as follows: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32184 |
Complex system
A complex system is a system composed of many components which may interact with each other. Examples of complex systems are Earth's global climate, organisms, the human brain, infrastructure such as power grid, transportation or communication systems, social and economic organizations (like cities), an ecosystem, a living cell, and ultimately the entire universe.
Complex systems are systems whose behavior is intrinsically difficult to model due to the dependencies, competitions, relationships, or other types of interactions between their parts or between a given system and its environment. Systems that are "complex" have distinct properties that arise from these relationships, such as nonlinearity, emergence, spontaneous order, adaptation, and feedback loops, among others. Because such systems appear in a wide variety of fields, the commonalities among them have become the topic of their independent area of research. In many cases, it is useful to represent such a system as a network where the nodes represent the components and links to their interactions.
The term "complex systems" often refers to the study of complex systems, which is an approach to science that investigates how relationships between a system's parts give rise to its collective behaviors and how the system interacts and forms relationships with its environment. The study of complex systems regards collective, or system-wide, behaviors as the fundamental object of study; for this reason, complex systems can be understood as an alternative paradigm to reductionism, which attempts to explain systems in terms of their constituent parts and the individual interactions between them.
As an interdisciplinary domain, complex systems draws contributions from many different fields, such as the study of self-organization from physics, that of spontaneous order from the social sciences, chaos from mathematics, adaptation from biology, and many others. "Complex systems" is therefore often used as a broad term encompassing a research approach to problems in many diverse disciplines, including statistical physics, information theory, nonlinear dynamics, anthropology, computer science, meteorology, sociology, economics, psychology, and biology.
Complex systems are chiefly concerned with the behaviors and properties of "systems". A system, broadly defined, is a set of entities that, through their interactions, relationships, or dependencies, form a unified whole. It is always defined in terms of its "boundary", which determines the entities that are or are not part of the system. Entities lying outside the system then become part of the system's "environment".
A system can exhibit "properties" that produce "behaviors" which are distinct from the properties and behaviors of its parts; these system-wide or "global" properties and behaviors are characteristics of how the system interacts with or appears to its environment, or of how its parts behave (say, in response to external stimuli) by virtue of being within the system. The notion of "behavior" implies that the study of systems is also concerned with processes that take place over time (or, in mathematics, some other phase space parameterization). Because of their broad, interdisciplinary applicability, systems concepts play a central role in complex systems.
As a field of study, complex system is a subset of systems theory. General systems theory focuses similarly on the collective behaviors of interacting entities, but it studies a much broader class of systems, including non-complex systems where traditional reductionist approaches may remain viable. Indeed, systems theory seeks to explore and describe "all" classes of systems, and the invention of categories that are useful to researchers across widely varying fields is one of the systems theory's main objectives.
As it relates to complex systems, systems theory contributes an emphasis on the way relationships and dependencies between a system's parts can determine system-wide properties. It also contributes to the interdisciplinary perspective of the study of complex systems: the notion that shared properties link systems across disciplines, justifying the pursuit of modeling approaches applicable to complex systems wherever they appear. Specific concepts important to complex systems, such as emergence, feedback loops, and adaptation, also originate in systems theory.
"Systems exhibit complexity" means that their behaviors cannot be easily inferred from their properties. Any modeling approach that ignores such difficulties or characterizes them as noise, then, will necessarily produce models that are neither accurate nor useful. As yet no fully general theory of complex systems has emerged for addressing these problems, so researchers must solve them in domain-specific contexts. Researchers in complex systems address these problems by viewing the chief task of modeling to be capturing, rather than reducing, the complexity of their respective systems of interest.
While no generally accepted exact definition of complexity exists yet, there are many archetypal examples of complexity. Systems can be complex if, for instance, they have chaotic behavior (behavior that exhibits extreme sensitivity to initial conditions), or if they have emergent properties (properties that are not apparent from their components in isolation but which result from the relationships and dependencies they form when placed together in a system), or if they are computationally intractable to model (if they depend on a number of parameters that grows too rapidly with respect to the size of the system).
The interacting components of a complex system form a network, which is a collection of discrete objects and relationships between them, usually depicted as a graph of vertices connected by edges. Networks can describe the relationships between individuals within an organization, between logic gates in a circuit, between genes in gene regulatory networks, or between any other set of related entities.
Networks often describe the sources of complexity in complex systems. Studying complex systems as networks, therefore, enables many useful applications of graph theory and network science. Some complex systems, for example, are also complex networks, which have properties such as phase transitions and power-law degree distributions that readily lend themselves to emergent or chaotic behavior. The fact that the number of edges in a complete graph grows quadratically in the number of vertices sheds additional light on the source of complexity in large networks: as a network grows, the number of relationships between entities quickly dwarfs the number of entities in the network.
Complex systems often have nonlinear behavior, meaning they may respond in different ways to the same input depending on their state or context. In mathematics and physics, nonlinearity describes systems in which a change in the size of the input does not produce a proportional change in the size of the output. For a given change in input, such systems may yield significantly greater than or less than proportional changes in output, or even no output at all, depending on the current state of the system or its parameter values.
Of particular interest to complex systems are nonlinear dynamical systems, which are systems of differential equations that have one or more nonlinear terms. Some nonlinear dynamical systems, such as the Lorenz system, can produce a mathematical phenomenon known as chaos. Chaos, as it applies to complex systems, refers to the sensitive dependence on initial conditions, or "butterfly effect", that a complex system can exhibit. In such a system, small changes to initial conditions can lead to dramatically different outcomes. Chaotic behavior can, therefore, be extremely hard to model numerically, because small rounding errors at an intermediate stage of computation can cause the model to generate completely inaccurate output. Furthermore, if a complex system returns to a state similar to one it held previously, it may behave completely differently in response to the same stimuli, so chaos also poses challenges for extrapolating from experience.
Another common feature of complex systems is the presence of emergent behaviors and properties: these are traits of a system that are not apparent from its components in isolation but which result from the interactions, dependencies, or relationships they form when placed together in a system. Emergence broadly describes the appearance of such behaviors and properties, and has applications to systems studied in both the social and physical sciences. While emergence is often used to refer only to the appearance of unplanned organized behavior in a complex system, emergence can also refer to the breakdown of an organization; it describes any phenomena which are difficult or even impossible to predict from the smaller entities that make up the system.
One example of a complex system whose emergent properties have been studied extensively is cellular automata. In a cellular automaton, a grid of cells, each having one of the finitely many states, evolves according to a simple set of rules. These rules guide the "interactions" of each cell with its neighbors. Although the rules are only defined locally, they have been shown capable of producing globally interesting behavior, for example in Conway's Game of Life.
When emergence describes the appearance of unplanned order, it is spontaneous order (in the social sciences) or self-organization (in physical sciences). Spontaneous order can be seen in herd behavior, whereby a group of individuals coordinates their actions without centralized planning. Self-organization can be seen in the global symmetry of certain crystals, for instance the apparent radial symmetry of snowflakes, which arises from purely local attractive and repulsive forces both between water molecules and their surrounding environment.
Complex adaptive systems are special cases of complex systems that are adaptive in that they have the capacity to change and learn from experience. Examples of complex adaptive systems include the stock market, social insect and ant colonies, the biosphere and the ecosystem, the brain and the immune system, the cell and the developing embryo, the cities, manufacturing businesses and any human social group-based endeavor in a cultural and social system such as political parties or communities.
Complex systems may have the following features:
Although arguably, humans have been studying complex systems for thousands of years, the modern scientific study of complex systems is relatively young in comparison to established fields of science such as physics and chemistry. The history of the scientific study of these systems follows several different research trends.
In the area of mathematics, arguably the largest contribution to the study of complex systems was the discovery of chaos in deterministic systems, a feature of certain dynamical systems that is strongly related to nonlinearity. The study of neural networks was also integral in advancing the mathematics needed to study complex systems.
The notion of self-organizing systems is tied with work in nonequilibrium thermodynamics, including that pioneered by chemist and Nobel laureate Ilya Prigogine in his study of dissipative structures. Even older is the work by Hartree-Fock on the quantum chemistry equations and later calculations of the structure of molecules which can be regarded as one of the earliest examples of emergence and emergent wholes in science.
One complex system containing humans is the classical political economy of the Scottish Enlightenment, later developed by the Austrian school of economics, which argues that order in market systems is spontaneous (or emergent) in that it is the result of human action, but not the execution of any human design.
Upon this, the Austrian school developed from the 19th to the early 20th century the economic calculation problem, along with the concept of dispersed knowledge, which were to fuel debates against the then-dominant Keynesian economics. This debate would notably lead economists, politicians, and other parties to explore the question of computational complexity.
A pioneer in the field, and inspired by Karl Popper's and Warren Weaver's works, Nobel prize economist and philosopher Friedrich Hayek dedicated much of his work, from early to the late 20th century, to the study of complex phenomena, not constraining his work to human economies but venturing into other fields such as psychology, biology and cybernetics. Gregory Bateson played a key role in establishing the connection between anthropology and systems theory; he recognized that the interactive parts of cultures function much like ecosystems.
While the explicit study of complex systems dates at least to the 1970s, the first research institute focused on complex systems, the Santa Fe Institute, was founded in 1984. Early Santa Fe Institute participants included physics Nobel laureates Murray Gell-Mann and Philip Anderson, economics Nobel laureate Kenneth Arrow, and Manhattan Project scientists George Cowan and Herb Anderson. Today, there are over 50 institutes and research centers focusing on complex systems.
The traditional approach to dealing with complexity is to reduce or constrain it. Typically, this involves compartmentalization: dividing a large system into separate parts. Organizations, for instance, divide their work into departments that each deal with separate issues. Engineering systems are often designed using modular components. However, modular designs become susceptible to failure when issues arise that bridge the divisions.
As projects and acquisitions become increasingly complex, companies and governments are challenged to find effective ways to manage mega-acquisitions such as the Army Future Combat Systems. Acquisitions such as the FCS rely on a web of interrelated parts which interact unpredictably. As acquisitions become more network-centric and complex, businesses will be forced to find ways to manage complexity while governments will be challenged to provide effective governance to ensure flexibility and resiliency.
Over the last decades, within the emerging field of complexity economics, new predictive tools have been developed to explain economic growth. Such is the case with the models built by the Santa Fe Institute in 1989 and the more recent economic complexity index (ECI), introduced by the MIT physicist Cesar A. Hidalgo and the Harvard economist Ricardo Hausmann. Based on the ECI, Hausmann, Hidalgo and their team of The Observatory of Economic Complexity have produced GDP forecasts for the year 2020.
Focusing on issues of student persistence with their studies, Forsman, Moll and Linder explore the "viability of using complexity science as a frame to extend methodological applications for physics education research", finding that "framing a social network analysis within a complexity science perspective offers a new and powerful applicability across a broad range of PER topics".
One of Friedrich Hayek's main contributions to early complexity theory is his distinction between the human capacity to predict the behavior of simple systems and its capacity to predict the behavior of complex systems through modeling. He believed that economics and the sciences of complex phenomena in general, which in his view included biology, psychology, and so on, could not be modeled after the sciences that deal with essentially simple phenomena like physics. Hayek would notably explain that complex phenomena, through modeling, can only allow pattern predictions, compared with the precise predictions that can be made out of non-complex phenomena.
Complexity theory is rooted in chaos theory, which in turn has its origins more than a century ago in the work of the French mathematician Henri Poincaré. Chaos is sometimes viewed as extremely complicated information, rather than as an absence of order. Chaotic systems remain deterministic, though their long-term behavior can be difficult to predict with any accuracy. With perfect knowledge of the initial conditions and the relevant equations describing the chaotic system's behavior, one can theoretically make perfectly accurate predictions of the system, though in practice this is impossible to do with arbitrary accuracy. Ilya Prigogine argued that complexity is non-deterministic and gives no way whatsoever to precisely predict the future.
The emergence of complexity theory shows a domain between deterministic order and randomness which is complex. This is referred to as the "edge of chaos".
When one analyzes complex systems, sensitivity to initial conditions, for example, is not an issue as important as it is within chaos theory, in which it prevails. As stated by Colander, the study of complexity is the opposite of the study of chaos. Complexity is about how a huge number of extremely complicated and dynamic sets of relationships can generate some simple behavioral patterns, whereas chaotic behavior, in the sense of deterministic chaos, is the result of a relatively small number of non-linear interactions.
Therefore, the main difference between chaotic systems and complex systems is their history. Chaotic systems do not rely on their history as complex ones do. Chaotic behavior pushes a system in equilibrium into chaotic order, which means, in other words, out of what we traditionally define as 'order'. On the other hand, complex systems evolve far from equilibrium at the edge of chaos. They evolve at a critical state built up by a history of irreversible and unexpected events, which physicist Murray Gell-Mann called "an accumulation of frozen accidents". In a sense chaotic systems can be regarded as a subset of complex systems distinguished precisely by this absence of historical dependence. Many real complex systems are, in practice and over long but finite periods, robust. However, they do possess the potential for radical qualitative change of kind whilst retaining systemic integrity. Metamorphosis serves as perhaps more than a metaphor for such transformations.
A complex system is usually composed of many components and their interactions. Such a system can be represented by a network where nodes represent the components and links represent their interactions.
For example, the internet can be represented as a network composed of nodes (computers) and links (direct connections between computers). Its resilience to failures was studied using percolation theory.
Other examples are social networks, airline networks, biological networks and climate networks.
Networks can also fail and recover spontaneously. For modeling this phenomenon see Majdandzic et al.
Interacting complex systems can be modeled as networks of networks. For their breakdown and recovery properties see Gao et al.
The complex pattern of exposures between financial institutions has been shown to trigger financial instability.
The computational law of reachable optimality is established as a general form of computation for ordered systems and it reveals complexity computation is a compound computation of optimal choice and optimality driven reaching pattern over time underlying a specific and any experience path of an ordered system within the general limitation of system integrity.
The computational law of reachable optimality has four key components as described below.
1. Reachability of Optimality: Any intended optimality shall be reachable. Unreachable optimality has no meaning for a member in the ordered system and even for the ordered system itself.
2. Prevailing and Consistency: Maximizing reachability to explore best available optimality is the prevailing computation logic for all members in the ordered system and is accommodated by the ordered system.
3. Conditionality: Realizable tradeoff between reachability and optimality depends primarily upon the initial bet capacity and how the bet capacity evolves along with the payoff table update path triggered by bet behavior and empowered by the underlying law of reward and punishment. Precisely, it is a sequence of conditional events where the next event happens upon reached status quo from experience path.
4. Robustness: The more challenge a reachable optimality can accommodate, the more robust it is in terms of path integrity.
There are also four computation features in the law of reachable optimality.
1. Optimal Choice: Computation in realizing Optimal Choice can be very simple or very complex. A simple rule in Optimal Choice is to accept whatever is reached, Reward As You Go (RAYG). A Reachable Optimality computation reduces into optimizing reachability when RAYG is adopted. The Optimal Choice computation can be more complex when multiple NE strategies present in a reached game.
2. Initial Status: Computation is assumed to start at an interesting beginning even the absolute beginning of an ordered system in nature may not and need not present. An assumed neutral Initial Status facilitates an artificial or a simulating computation and is not expected to change the prevalence of any findings.
3. Territory: An ordered system shall have a territory where the universal computation sponsored by the system will produce an optimal solution still within the territory.
4. Reaching Pattern: The forms of Reaching Pattern in the computation space, or the Optimality Driven Reaching Pattern in the computation space, primarily depend upon the nature and dimensions of measure space underlying a computation space and the law of punishment and reward underlying the realized experience path of reaching. There are five basic forms of experience path we are interested in, persistently positive reinforcement experience path, persistently negative reinforcement experience path, mixed persistent pattern experience path, decaying scale experience path and selection experience path.
The compound computation in the selection experience path includes current and lagging interaction, dynamic topological transformation and implies both invariance and variance characteristics in an ordered system's experience path.
Also, the computation law of reachable optimality gives out the boundary between the complexity model, chaotic model, and determination model. When RAYG is the Optimal Choice computation, and the reaching pattern is a persistently positive experience path, persistently negative experience path, or mixed persistent pattern experience path, the underlying computation shall be a simple system computation adopting determination rules. If the reaching pattern has no persistent pattern experienced in the RAYG regime, the underlying computation hints there is a chaotic system. When the optimal choice computation involves non-RAYG computation, it's a complexity computation driving the compound effect. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37438 |
AAI RQ-7 Shadow
The AAI RQ-7 Shadow is an American unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) used by the United States Army, Australian Army, Swedish Army, and Italian Army for reconnaissance, surveillance, target acquisition and battle damage assessment. Launched from a trailer-mounted pneumatic catapult, it is recovered with the aid of arresting gear similar to jets on an aircraft carrier. Its gimbal-mounted, digitally stabilized, liquid nitrogen-cooled electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) camera relays video in real time via a C-band line-of-sight data link to the ground control station (GCS).
The US Army's 2nd Battalion, 13th Aviation Regiment at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, trains soldiers, Marines, and civilians in the operation and maintenance of the Shadow UAS. The Shadow is operated in the U.S. Army at brigade-level.
The RQ-7 Shadow is the result of a continued US Army search for an effective battlefield UAS after the cancellation of the Alliant RQ-6 Outrider aircraft. AAI Corporation followed up their RQ-2 Pioneer with the Shadow 200, a similar, more refined UAS. In late 1999, the army selected the Shadow 200 to fill the tactical UAS requirement, redesignating it the RQ-7. Army requirements specified a UAS that used an aviation gasoline engine, could carry an electro-optic/infrared imaging sensor turret, and had a minimum range of 31 miles (50 kilometers) with four-hour, on-station endurance. The Shadow 200 offered at least twice that range. The specifications also dictated that UAS would be able to land in an athletic field.
The RQ-7 Shadow 200 unmanned aircraft system is of a high-wing, constant chord pusher configuration with a twin-tailboom empennage and an inverted v-tail. The aircraft is powered by a AR741-1101 Wankel engine designed and manufactured by UAV Engines Ltd in the United Kingdom. Onboard electrical systems are powered by a GEC/Plessey 28 volt, direct current, 2 kW generator. Currently, the primary load of the aircraft is the Israeli Aircraft Industries POP300 Plug-in Optical Payload which consists of a forward-looking infrared camera, a daytime TV camera with a selectable near-infrared filter and a laser pointer. The aircraft has fixed tricycle landing gear. Takeoffs are assisted by a trailer-mounted pneumatic launcher which can accelerate the 170 kg (375 pound) aircraft to in . Landings are guided by a Tactical Automatic Landing System, developed by the Sierra Nevada Corporation, which consists of a ground-based micro-millimeter wavelength radar and a transponder carried on the aircraft. Once on the ground, a tailhook mounted on the aircraft catches an arresting wire connected to two disk brake drums which can stop the aircraft in less than .
The aircraft is part of a larger system which currently uses the M1152-series of Humvees for ground transport of all ground and air equipment. A Shadow 200 system consists of four aircraft, three of which are transported in the Air Vehicle Transporter (AVT). The fourth is transported in a specially designed storage container to be used as a spare. The AVT also tows the launcher. The AVT Support Vehicle and trailer contain extra equipment to launch and recover the aircraft, such as the Tactical Automatic Landing System. Maintenance equipment for the aircraft is stored in the Maintenance Section Multifunctional (MSM) vehicle and trailer as well as the M1165 MSM Support Vehicle and its associated trailer.
Two Humvee-mounted Ground Control Stations (GCS), also part of the Shadow 200 system, control the aircraft in flight. Each station has an associated Ground Data Terminal (GDT), which takes commands generated by the GCS and modulates them into radio waves received by the aircraft in flight. The GDT receives video imagery from the payload, as well as telemetry from the aircraft, and sends this information to the GCS. A trailer, towed by the M1165 GCS support vehicle, carries the GDT and houses a 10 kW Tactical Quiet Generator to provide power for its associated GCS. The Shadow 200 system also includes a Portable Ground Control Station (PGCS) and Portable Ground Data Terminal (PGDT), which are stripped-down versions of the GCS and GDT designed as a backup to the two GCSs.
A fielded Shadow 200 system requires 22 soldiers to operate it. Army modelling indicates that crew workload is highest at takeoff, and second-highest at landing.
The Shadow is restricted from operating in bad weather conditions, not being meant to fly through rain and with sensors that cannot see through clouds.
By July 2007, the Shadow platform accumulated 200,000 flight hours, doubling its previous record of 100,000 hours in 13 months. The system then surpassed 300,000 flight hours in April 2008, and by May 2010, the Shadow system had accumulated over 500,000 flight hours. As of 2011, the Shadow had logged over 709,000 hours. The Shadow platform has flown over 37,000 sorties in support of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan by US Army and Army National Guard units. On 6 August 2012, AAI announced that the Shadow had achieved 750,000 flight hours during more than 173,000 missions. More than 900,000 flight hours had been logged by Shadow UAVs by the end of June 2014.
The Shadow did not see service in the Afghanistan campaign of 2001–2002, but it did fly operational missions in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The operating conditions in Iraq proved hard on the UAVs, with heat and sand leading to engine failures, resulting in a high-priority effort to find fixes with changes in system technology and operating procedures. Shadow UAS have since flown more than 600,000 combat hours in support of the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In 2007, the United States Marine Corps began to transition from the RQ-2 Pioneer to the RQ-7 Shadow. VMU-1, VMU-2 completed their transition from the RQ-2 to the RQ-7 and ScanEagle while VMU-3 and VMU-4 were activated as Shadow and ScanEagle elements. VMU-3 was activated on 12 September 2008 and VMU-4 conducted its inaugural flight on 28 September 2010 in Yuma, Arizona. In October 2007, VMU-1 became the first Marine Corps squadron to see combat in Iraq. VMU-2 deployed a Shadow detachment to Afghanistan in 2009, with VMU-3 following in January 2010.
The Navy provided personnel for four Shadow platoons in support of army brigades deployed in Iraq. The first two platoons returned from 6-month tours in Iraq in January and February 2008. The Navy personnel went through the Army's training program at Fort Huachuca, Arizona.
The U.S. Army is implementing a plan to reform its aerial scout capabilities by scrapping its fleet of OH-58 Kiowa helicopters from 2015–2019 and replacing them with AH-64 Apache attack helicopters teamed with Shadow and MQ-1C Grey Eagle UAVs. Using unmanned assets to scout ahead would put the pilots of manned aircraft out of reach of potential harm. Reformed combat aviation brigades (CAB) would consist of a battalion of 24 Apaches for attack missions and an armed reconnaissance squadron of another 24 Apaches teamed with three Shadow platoons totaling 12 RQ-7s overall; it would also include a Grey Eagle company. The manned-unmanned teaming of Apaches and Unmanned Aircraft (UA) can meet 80 percent of aerial scout requirements. On 16 March 2015, the 1st Battalion, 501st Aviation Regiment was reflagged the 3rd Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment, making it the first of 10 Apache battalions to be converted to a heavy attack reconnaissance squadron by eliminating the Kiowa scout helicopter and having three RQ-7 Shadow platoons organically assigned; the attack battalions will also be aligned with an MQ-1C Gray Eagle company assigned to each division. Moving Shadows from brigade combat team level to the battalions themselves reduces lines of communication, distance issues, and allows operators and pilots to better train and work together.
In early July 2014, the U.S. Army sent RQ-7 Shadows to Baghdad as part of efforts to protect embassy personnel against Islamic State militant attacks, along with Apache attack helicopters which could use them through manned and unmanned teaming to share information and designate targets.
On 29 July 2018, the U.S. Marine conducted its final launch of the RQ-7B during RIMPAC exercises before retiring it. Since first deploying with Marines to Iraq in October 2007, the aircraft eventually equipped four tactical UAS squadrons, flying some 39,000 hours during 11 operational deployments. The Shadow was replaced by the RQ-21 Blackjack, which was first deployed in 2014.
In March 2019, the U.S. Army selected Martin UAV and AAI Corporation to "provide unmanned aircraft systems for platoons to try out as candidates to replace the Shadow tactical UAS." The companies signed an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract over a three year period. They will deliver systems to six platoons in order to evaluate them during combat and training rotations. The Army seeks better acoustics and runway independence as compared to the old Shadow. The Army is expected to decide "over the course of fiscal 2020" whether it will proceed in replacing Shadow.
The RQ-7A was the initial version of the Shadow 200 UAS developed by AAI. The first low-rate initial-production systems were delivered to the US Army in 2002 with the first full-scale production systems being delivered in September 2003. The RQ-7A was long and had a wingspan of with a max takeoff weight. The aircraft's endurance ranged between 4 and 5.5 hours depending on mission. The "A" model aircraft also had the AR741-1100 engine which could use either 87 octane automotive gasoline or 100LL aviation fuel. The "A" model also featured IAI's POP200 payload.
Production of Shadow aircraft shifted to a generally improved RQ-7B variant in the summer of 2004. The RQ-7B features new wings increased in length to . The new wings are not only more aerodynamically efficient, they are "wet" to increase fuel storage up to 44 liters for an endurance of up to 6 hours. The payload capability has been increased to . After reports from Iraq that engines were failing, in 2005, the Army's UAV project manager called for the use of 100LL, an aviation fuel, rather than the conventional 87 octane mogas. Avionics systems have been generally improved, and the new wing is designed to accommodate a communications relay package, which allows the aircraft to act as a relay station. This allows commanders or even the aircraft operators themselves to communicate via radio to the troops on ground in locations that would otherwise be "dead" to radio traffic.
The Shadow can operate up to from its brigade tactical operations center, and recognize tactical vehicles up to above the ground at more than slant range.
Other incremental improvements to the system include replacing the AR741-1100 engine with the AR741-1101 which increases reliability through the use of dual spark plugs as well as limiting the fuel to 100LL. Also, the older POP200 payload was replaced with the newer POP300 system. In February 2010, AAI began a fleet update program to improve the Shadow system. The improvements include installing the wiring harnesses and software updates for IAI's POP300D payload which includes a designator for guiding laser-guided bombs. Other improvements in the program will include an electronic fuel injection engine and fuel system to replace the AR741-1101's carburetted engine. The most visible improvement to the system will be a wider wing of in span which is designed to increase fuel capacity and allow for mission endurance of almost 9 hours. The new wings will also include hardpoints for external munitions.
A joint Army-Marine program is testing IED jamming on a Shadow at MCAS Yuma. Another joint effort is to view a ground area from 3,650 m (12,000 feet).
The Army is now proposing the upgraded Shadow 152A, which includes Soldier Radio Waveform software, which allows both the command post and their troops to see the images that the UAV is projecting, as long as they are on the same frequency. It also increases the distance and area of communication.
Preliminary TCDL testing conducted at Dugway Proving Ground was a success. This led to an estimated fielding date of May 2010 for TCDL. In March 2015, the first Shadow unit was equipped with the upgraded RQ-7BV2 Shadow version. New capabilities for the BV2 include the TCDL, encryption of video and control data-links, software that allows interoperability between other UAS platforms, integration of a common control station and control terminal for all Army UAS platforms, an electronic fuel-injection engine, and increased endurance to nine hours through a lengthened wingspan of , with weight increased to . Shadow systems are being upgraded at a rate of 2-3 per month, with all Army Shadows planned to become BV2s by 2019.
On 19 April 2010 the Army issued a "solicitation for sources sought" from defense contractors for a munition for the Shadow system with a deadline for proposals due no later than 10 May 2010. Although no specific munition has been chosen yet, some possible munitions include the Raytheon Pyros bomb, the General Dynamics 81 mm 4.5 kg (10-pound) air-dropped guided mortar, as well as the QuickMEDS system for delivering medical supplies to remote and stranded troops. The Army subsequently slowed work, and the Marine Corps then took the lead on arming the RQ-7 Shadow. Raytheon has conducted successful flight tests with the Small Tactical Munition, and Lockheed Martin has tested the Shadow Hawk glide weapon from an RQ-7. On 1 November 2012, General Dynamics successfully demonstrated their guided 81 mm Air Dropped Mortar, with three launches at 7,000 ft hitting within seven meters of the target grid.
As of August 2011, the Marine Corps has received official clearance to experiment with armed RQ-7s, and requires AAI to select a precision munition ready for deployment. AAI was awarded $10 million for this in December 2011, and claims a weapon has already been fielded by the Shadow. In 2014, Textron launched the Fury precision weapon from a Shadow 200.
By May 2015, the Marine Corps had run out of funding for weaponizing the RQ-7, and the Army had shown little interest in continuing the effort. The Army's stance is that the Shadow's primary capability is persistent surveillance, while there are many other ways to drop bombs on targets and adding that to the Shadow would add weight and decrease endurance.
A test version called STTB flew in summer 2011. AAI is developing a bigger version called M2 with a blended wing to include a 3-cylinder 60 hp Lycoming heavy fuel engine, and began flight testing in August 2012. The Shadow M2 has a conformal blended body that reduces drag, wingspan increased to , and is heavier. It can fly for 16 hours at altitudes up to ; its endurance and service ceiling are comparable to Group 4 UASs like the MQ-1 Predator, so the company is pitching the M2 as a budget-conscious alternative to larger unmanned aircraft. It has a greater payload to carry synthetic aperture radar (SAR), wide-area surveillance, navigation, signals intelligence, and electronic warfare packages. It also has the ability to be controlled beyond line-of-sight through a SATCOM link. Although the M2 uses the same internal components as the RQ-7B Shadow 200 and is compatible with existing support equipment and ground infrastructure, its greater weight necessitates changes to the existing launcher. The Shadow M2 uses 80-85 percent of the components of the Shadow V2, while allowing for an additional of capability with total airframe weight increased to .
In June 2017, Textron introduced the Nightwarden TUAS as a production-ready model of the developmental Shadow M2, the change in name due to significant improvements and enhancements to the system such as greater flexibility and combat capability, SATCOM features, and enhanced command-and-control. The aircraft has a range of , maximum speed of , endurance of 15 hours, can fly at an altitude of , and has a maximum takeoff weight of with a dual-payload bay with a capacity of .
AAI has also built a scaled-up Pioneer derivative known as the "Shadow 600". It also resembles a Pioneer, except that the outer panels of the wings are distinctively swept back, and it has a stronger Wankel engine, the UAV EL 801, with . A number of Shadow 600s are in service in several nations, including Romania.
AAI, in conjunction with Textron sister company Bell Helicopter, intends to modify two Shadows with a Carter rotor on top for vertical take-off and landing, eliminating the need for the recovery and pneumatic launcher systems, while increasing payload and endurance. , it is expected to fly in 2012. AAI also expected to use the SR/C technology for the Shadow Knight, a powered-rotor two-propeller surveillance aircraft for the US Navy MRMUAS program; however, the MRMUAS program was cancelled in 2012.
On 15 August 2011 a US Air Force C-130 cargo plane collided with a RQ-7 while on approach to FOB Sharana in Paktika Province, Afghanistan. The C-130 made an emergency landing with damage to two engines and one wing, while the RQ-7 was destroyed completely. The collision caused the cargo aircraft to be grounded for several months while being fixed, while the RQ-7 wreckage was never recovered. Early reports indicating that the mishap occurred when the C-130 took off without clearance were incorrect. The investigating board determined that the mishap was largely due to poor local air traffic control training and supervision.
On 3 April 2014 a Pennsylvania Army National Guard RQ-7 participating in training exercises at Fort Indiantown Gap crashed near an elementary school in Pennsylvania and was then hit by a civilian vehicle destroying the drone. No injuries were reported.
On 10 July 2019 an Army RQ-7 operated by the 25th Infantry Division (United States) crashed in the Waianae mountains near Schofield Barracks.
On 17 July 2019 The Wisconsin National Guard an RQ-7 Shadow drone lost its link to its operator at Volk Field during a training exercise. The drone went down into trees south of Interstate 90/94 between Oakdale and Camp Douglas. No injuries or damage were reported. The drone suffered "significant" damage.
Note: When outfitted with IE (Increased Endurance) Wings, the CRP (Communications Relay Package) and the 1102 engine, endurance time is increased to 9 hours, wing span is increased to approx. , and the service ceiling is 18,000 ft (only with authorization). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37439 |
Nitrous oxide
Nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas or nitrous, is a chemical compound, an oxide of nitrogen with the formula . At room temperature, it is a colourless non-flammable gas, with a slight metallic scent and taste. At elevated temperatures, nitrous oxide is a powerful oxidizer similar to molecular oxygen.
It is soluble in water.
Nitrous oxide has significant medical uses, especially in surgery and dentistry, for its anaesthetic and pain reducing effects. Its colloquial name "laughing gas", coined by Humphry Davy, is due to the euphoric effects upon inhaling it, a property that has led to its recreational use as a dissociative anaesthetic. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines, the safest and most effective medicines needed in a health system. It is also used as an oxidiser in rocket propellants, and in motor racing to increase the power output of engines.
Nitrous oxide occurs in small amounts in the atmosphere, but has been found to be a major scavenger of stratospheric ozone, with an impact comparable to that of CFCs. It is estimated that 30% of the in the atmosphere is the result of human activity, chiefly agriculture and industry. Being the third most important long-lived greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide substantially contributes to global warming.
Nitrous oxide may be used as an oxidizer in a rocket motor. This is advantageous over other oxidisers in that it is much less toxic, and due to its stability at room temperature is also easier to store and relatively safe to carry on a flight. As a secondary benefit, it may be decomposed readily to form breathing air. Its high density and low storage pressure (when maintained at low temperature) enable it to be highly competitive with stored high-pressure gas systems.
In a 1914 patent, American rocket pioneer Robert Goddard suggested nitrous oxide and gasoline as possible propellants for a liquid-fuelled rocket. Nitrous oxide has been the oxidiser of choice in several hybrid rocket designs (using solid fuel with a liquid or gaseous oxidiser). The combination of nitrous oxide with hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene fuel has been used by SpaceShipOne and others. It also is notably used in amateur and high power rocketry with various plastics as the fuel.
Nitrous oxide also may be used in a monopropellant rocket. In the presence of a heated catalyst, will decompose exothermically into nitrogen and oxygen, at a temperature of approximately . Because of the large heat release, the catalytic action rapidly becomes secondary, as thermal autodecomposition becomes dominant. In a vacuum thruster, this may provide a monopropellant specific impulse ("I") of as much as 180 s. While noticeably less than the "I" available from hydrazine thrusters (monopropellant or bipropellant with dinitrogen tetroxide), the decreased toxicity makes nitrous oxide an option worth investigating.
Nitrous oxide is said to deflagrate at approximately at a pressure of 309 psi (21 atmospheres). At 600 , for example, the required ignition energy is only 6 joules, whereas at 130 psi a 2,500-joule ignition energy input is insufficient.
In vehicle racing, nitrous oxide (often referred to as just "nitrous") allows the engine to burn more fuel by providing more oxygen during combustion. The increase in oxygen allows for an increase in the injection of fuel, allowing the engine to produce more engine power. The gas is not flammable at a low pressure/temperature, but it delivers more oxygen than atmospheric air by breaking down at elevated temperatures, about 570 degrees F (~300C). Therefore, it often is mixed with another fuel that is easier to deflagrate. Nitrous oxide is a strong oxidising agent, roughly equivalent to hydrogen peroxide, and much stronger than oxygen gas.
Nitrous oxide is stored as a compressed liquid; the evaporation and expansion of liquid nitrous oxide in the intake manifold causes a large drop in intake charge temperature, resulting in a denser charge, further allowing more air/fuel mixture to enter the cylinder. Sometimes nitrous oxide is injected into (or prior to) the intake manifold, whereas other systems directly inject, right before the cylinder (direct port injection) to increase power.
The technique was used during World War II by Luftwaffe aircraft with the GM-1 system to boost the power output of aircraft engines. Originally meant to provide the Luftwaffe standard aircraft with superior high-altitude performance, technological considerations limited its use to extremely high altitudes. Accordingly, it was only used by specialised planes such as high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, high-speed bombers and high-altitude interceptor aircraft. It sometimes could be found on Luftwaffe aircraft also fitted with another engine-boost system, MW 50, a form of water injection for aviation engines that used methanol for its boost capabilities.
One of the major problems of using nitrous oxide in a reciprocating engine is that it can produce enough power to damage or destroy the engine. Very large power increases are possible, and if the mechanical structure of the engine is not properly reinforced, the engine may be severely damaged, or destroyed, during this kind of operation. It is very important with nitrous oxide augmentation of petrol engines to maintain proper operating temperatures and fuel levels to prevent "pre-ignition", or "detonation" (sometimes referred to as "knock"). Most problems that are associated with nitrous oxide do not come from mechanical failure due to the power increases. Since nitrous oxide allows a much denser charge into the cylinder, it dramatically increases cylinder pressures. The increased pressure and temperature can cause problems such as melting the piston or valves. It also may crack or warp the piston or head and cause pre-ignition due to uneven heating.
Automotive-grade liquid nitrous oxide differs slightly from medical-grade nitrous oxide. A small amount of sulfur dioxide () is added to prevent substance abuse. Multiple washes through a base (such as sodium hydroxide) can remove this, decreasing the corrosive properties observed when is further oxidised during combustion into sulfuric acid, making emissions cleaner.
The gas is approved for use as a food additive (E number: E942), specifically as an aerosol spray propellant. Its most common uses in this context are in aerosol whipped cream canisters and cooking sprays.
The gas is extremely soluble in fatty compounds. In aerosol whipped cream, it is dissolved in the fatty cream until it leaves the can, when it becomes gaseous and thus creates foam. Used in this way, it produces whipped cream which is four times the volume of the liquid, whereas whipping air into cream only produces twice the volume. If air were used as a propellant, oxygen would accelerate rancidification of the butterfat, but nitrous oxide inhibits such degradation. Carbon dioxide cannot be used for whipped cream because it is acidic in water, which would curdle the cream and give it a seltzer-like "sparkling" sensation.
The whipped cream produced with nitrous oxide is unstable, however, and will return to a more liquid state within half an hour to one hour. Thus, the method is not suitable for decorating food that will not be served immediately.
During December 2016, some manufacturers reported a shortage of aerosol whipped creams in the United States due to an explosion at the Air Liquide nitrous oxide facility in Florida in late August. With a major facility offline, the disruption caused a shortage resulting in the company diverting the supply of nitrous oxide to medical clients rather than to food manufacturing. The shortage came during the Christmas and holiday season when canned whipped cream use is normally at its highest.
Similarly, cooking spray, which is made from various types of oils combined with lecithin (an emulsifier), may use nitrous oxide as a propellant. Other propellants used in cooking spray include food-grade alcohol and propane.
Nitrous oxide has been used in dentistry and surgery, as an anaesthetic and analgesic, since 1844. In the early days, the gas was administered through simple inhalers consisting of a breathing bag made of rubber cloth. Today, the gas is administered in hospitals by means of an automated relative analgesia machine, with an anaesthetic vaporiser and a medical ventilator, that delivers a precisely dosed and breath-actuated flow of nitrous oxide mixed with oxygen in a 2:1 ratio.
Nitrous oxide is a weak general anaesthetic, and so is generally not used alone in general anaesthesia, but used as a carrier gas (mixed with oxygen) for more powerful general anaesthetic drugs such as sevoflurane or desflurane. It has a minimum alveolar concentration of 105% and a blood/gas partition coefficient of 0.46. The use of nitrous oxide in anaesthesia, however, can increase the risk of postoperative nausea and vomiting.
Dentists use a simpler machine which only delivers an / mixture for the patient to inhale while conscious. The patient is kept conscious throughout the procedure, and retains adequate mental faculties to respond to questions and instructions from the dentist.
Inhalation of nitrous oxide is used frequently to relieve pain associated with childbirth, trauma, oral surgery and acute coronary syndrome (includes heart attacks). Its use during labour has been shown to be a safe and effective aid for birthing women. Its use for acute coronary syndrome is of unknown benefit.
In Britain and Canada, Entonox and Nitronox are used commonly by ambulance crews (including unregistered practitioners) as a rapid and highly effective analgesic gas.
Fifty per cent nitrous oxide can be considered for use by trained non-professional first aid responders in prehospital settings, given the relative ease and safety of administering 50% nitrous oxide as an analgesic. The rapid reversibility of its effect would also prevent it from precluding diagnosis.
Recreational inhalation of nitrous oxide, with the purpose of causing euphoria and/or slight hallucinations, began as a phenomenon for the British upper class in 1799, known as "laughing gas parties".
Starting in the nineteenth century, widespread availability of the gas for medical and culinary purposes allowed the recreational use to expand greatly throughout the world. In the United Kingdom, as of 2014, nitrous oxide was estimated to be used by almost half a million young people at nightspots, festivals and parties. The legality of that use varies greatly from country to country, and even from city to city in some countries.
Widespread recreational use of the drug throughout the UK was featured in the 2017 Vice documentary "Inside The Laughing Gas Black Market", in which journalist Matt Shea met with dealers of the drug who stole it from hospitals, although with nitrous oxide canisters being readily available online, the incidents of hospital theft are expected to be extremely rare.
A significant issue cited in London's press is the effect of nitrous oxide canister littering, which is highly visible and causes significant complaint from communities.
The major safety hazards of nitrous oxide come from the fact that it is a compressed liquefied gas, an asphyxiation risk and a dissociative anaesthetic.
While relatively non-toxic, nitrous oxide has a number of recognised ill effects on human health, whether through breathing it in or by contact of the liquid with skin or eyes.
Nitrous oxide is a significant occupational hazard for surgeons, dentists and nurses. Because nitrous oxide is minimally metabolised in humans (with a rate of 0.004%), it retains its potency when exhaled into the room by the patient, and can pose an intoxicating and prolonged exposure hazard to the clinic staff if the room is poorly ventilated. Where nitrous oxide is administered, a continuous-flow fresh-air ventilation system or scavenger system is used to prevent a waste-gas buildup.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health recommends that workers' exposure to nitrous oxide should be controlled during the administration of anaesthetic gas in medical, dental and veterinary operators. It set a recommended exposure limit (REL) of 25 ppm (46 mg/m3) to escaped anaesthetic.
Exposure to nitrous oxide causes short-term decreases in mental performance, audiovisual ability and manual dexterity. These effects coupled with the induced spatial and temporal disorientation could result in physical harm to the user from environmental hazards.
Like other NMDA receptor antagonists, was suggested to produce neurotoxicity in the form of Olney's lesions in rodents upon prolonged (several hour) exposure. New research has arisen suggesting that Olney's lesions do not occur in humans, however, and similar drugs such as ketamine are now believed not to be acutely neurotoxic. It has been argued that, because has a very short duration under normal circumstances, it is less likely to be neurotoxic than other NMDAR antagonists. Indeed, in rodents, short-term exposure results in only mild injury that is rapidly reversible, and neuronal death occurs only after constant and sustained exposure. Nitrous oxide also may cause neurotoxicity after extended exposure because of hypoxia. This is especially true of non-medical formulations such as whipped-cream chargers (also known as "whippets" or "nangs"), which never contain oxygen, since oxygen makes cream rancid.
Additionally, nitrous oxide depletes vitamin B levels. This can cause serious neurotoxicity if the user has preexisting vitamin B deficiency.
Nitrous oxide at 75% by volume reduces ischemia-induced neuronal death induced by occlusion of the middle cerebral artery in rodents, and decreases NMDA-induced Ca2+ influx in neuronal cell cultures, a critical event involved in excitotoxicity.
Occupational exposure to ambient nitrous oxide has been associated with DNA damage, due to interruptions in DNA synthesis. This correlation is dose-dependent and does not appear to extend to casual recreational use; however, further research is needed to confirm the duration and quantity of exposure needed to cause damage.
If pure nitrous oxide is inhaled without oxygen mixed in, this can eventually lead to oxygen deprivation resulting in loss of blood pressure, fainting and even heart attacks. This can occur if the user inhales large quantities continuously, as with a strap-on mask connected to a gas canister. It can also happen if the user engages in excessive breath-holding or uses any other inhalation system that cuts off a supply of fresh air.
Long-term exposure to nitrous oxide may cause vitamin B deficiency. It inactivates the cobalamin form of vitamin B by oxidation. Symptoms of vitamin B deficiency, including sensory neuropathy, myelopathy and encephalopathy, may occur within days or weeks of exposure to nitrous oxide anaesthesia in people with subclinical vitamin B deficiency.
Symptoms are treated with high doses of vitamin B, but recovery can be slow and incomplete.
People with normal vitamin B levels have stores to make the effects of nitrous oxide insignificant, unless exposure is repeated and prolonged (nitrous oxide abuse). Vitamin B levels should be checked in people with risk factors for vitamin B deficiency prior to using nitrous oxide anaesthesia.
Several experimental studies in rats indicate that chronic exposure of pregnant females to nitrous oxide may have adverse effects on the developing fetus.
At room temperature () the saturated vapour pressure is 50.525 bar, rising up to 72.45 bar at —the critical temperature. The pressure curve is thus unusually sensitive to temperature.
As with many strong oxidisers, contamination of parts with fuels have been implicated in rocketry accidents, where small quantities of nitrous/fuel mixtures explode due to "water hammer"-like effects (sometimes called "dieseling"—heating due to adiabatic compression of gases can reach decomposition temperatures). Some common building materials such as stainless steel and aluminium can act as fuels with strong oxidisers such as nitrous oxide, as can contaminants that may ignite due to adiabatic compression.
There also have been incidents where nitrous oxide decomposition in plumbing has led to the explosion of large tanks.
The pharmacological mechanism of action of in medicine is not fully known. However, it has been shown to directly modulate a broad range of ligand-gated ion channels, and this likely plays a major role in many of its effects. It moderately blocks NMDAR and β-subunit-containing nACh channels, weakly inhibits AMPA, kainate, GABA and 5-HT receptors, and slightly potentiates GABA and glycine receptors. It also has been shown to activate two-pore-domain channels. While affects quite a few ion channels, its anaesthetic, hallucinogenic and euphoriant effects are likely caused predominantly, or fully, via inhibition of NMDA receptor-mediated currents. In addition to its effects on ion channels, may act to imitate nitric oxide (NO) in the central nervous system, and this may be related to its analgesic and anxiolytic properties. Nitrous oxide is 30 to 40 times more soluble than nitrogen.
The effects of inhaling sub-anaesthetic doses of nitrous oxide have been known to vary, based on several factors, including settings and individual differences; however, from his discussion, Jay (2008) suggests that it has been reliably known to induce the following states and sensations:
A minority of users also will present with uncontrolled vocalisations and muscular spasms. These effects generally disappear minutes after removal of the nitrous oxide source.
In rats, stimulates the mesolimbic reward pathway by inducing dopamine release and activating dopaminergic neurons in the ventral tegmental area and nucleus accumbens, presumably through antagonisation of NMDA receptors localised in the system. This action has been implicated in its euphoric effects and, notably, appears to augment its analgesic properties as well.
It is remarkable, however, that in mice, blocks amphetamine-induced carrier-mediated dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens and behavioural sensitisation, abolishes the conditioned place preference (CPP) of cocaine and morphine, and does not produce reinforcing (or aversive) effects of its own. Effects of CPP of in rats are mixed, consisting of reinforcement, aversion and no change. In contrast, it is a positive reinforcer in squirrel monkeys, and is well known as a drug of abuse in humans. These discrepancies in response to may reflect species variation or methodological differences. In human clinical studies, was found to produce mixed responses, similarly to rats, reflecting high subjective individual variability.
In behavioural tests of anxiety, a low dose of is an effective anxiolytic, and this anti-anxiety effect is associated with enhanced activity of GABA receptors, as it is partially reversed by benzodiazepine receptor antagonists. Mirroring this, animals that have developed tolerance to the anxiolytic effects of benzodiazepines are partially tolerant to . Indeed, in humans given 30% , benzodiazepine receptor antagonists reduced the subjective reports of feeling "high", but did not alter psychomotor performance, in human clinical studies.
The analgesic effects of are linked to the interaction between the endogenous opioid system and the descending noradrenergic system. When animals are given morphine chronically, they develop tolerance to its pain-killing effects, and this also renders the animals tolerant to the analgesic effects of . Administration of antibodies that bind and block the activity of some endogenous opioids (not β-endorphin) also block the antinociceptive effects of . Drugs that inhibit the breakdown of endogenous opioids also potentiate the antinociceptive effects of . Several experiments have shown that opioid receptor antagonists applied directly to the brain block the antinociceptive effects of , but these drugs have no effect when injected into the spinal cord.
Conversely, α-adrenoceptor antagonists block the pain-reducing effects of when given directly to the spinal cord, but not when applied directly to the brain. Indeed, α-adrenoceptor knockout mice or animals depleted in norepinephrine are nearly completely resistant to the antinociceptive effects of . Apparently -induced release of endogenous opioids causes disinhibition of brainstem noradrenergic neurons, which release norepinephrine into the spinal cord and inhibit pain signalling. Exactly how causes the release of endogenous opioid peptides remains uncertain.
Nitrous oxide is a colourless, non-toxic gas with a faint, sweet odour.
Nitrous oxide supports combustion by releasing the dipolar bonded oxygen radical, and can thus relight a glowing splint.
The above reaction is the route adopted by the commercial chemical industry to produce azide salts, which are used as detonators.
The gas was first synthesised in 1772 by English natural philosopher and chemist Joseph Priestley who called it "phlogisticated nitrous air" (see phlogiston theory) or "inflammable nitrous air". Priestley published his discovery in the book "Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air (1775)", where he described how to produce the preparation of "nitrous air diminished", by heating iron filings dampened with nitric acid.
The first important use of nitrous oxide was made possible by Thomas Beddoes and James Watt, who worked together to publish the book "Considerations on the Medical Use and on the Production of Factitious Airs (1794)". This book was important for two reasons. First, James Watt had invented a novel machine to produce "Factitious Airs" (i.e. nitrous oxide) and a novel "breathing apparatus" to inhale the gas. Second, the book also presented the new medical theories by Thomas Beddoes, that tuberculosis and other lung diseases could be treated by inhalation of "Factitious Airs".
The machine to produce "Factitious Airs" had three parts: a furnace to burn the needed material, a vessel with water where the produced gas passed through in a spiral pipe (for impurities to be "washed off"), and finally the gas cylinder with a gasometer where the gas produced, "air", could be tapped into portable air bags (made of airtight oily silk). The breathing apparatus consisted of one of the portable air bags connected with a tube to a mouthpiece. With this new equipment being engineered and produced by 1794, the way was paved for clinical trials, which began in 1798 when Thomas Beddoes established the ""Pneumatic Institution for Relieving Diseases by Medical Airs"" in Hotwells (Bristol). In the basement of the building, a large-scale machine was producing the gases under the supervision of a young Humphry Davy, who was encouraged to experiment with new gases for patients to inhale. The first important work of Davy was examination of the nitrous oxide, and the publication of his results in the book: "Researches, Chemical and Philosophical (1800)". In that publication, Davy notes the analgesic effect of nitrous oxide at page 465 and its potential to be used for surgical operations at page 556. Davy coined the name "laughing gas" for nitrous oxide.
Despite Davy's discovery that inhalation of nitrous oxide could relieve a conscious person from pain, another 44 years elapsed before doctors attempted to use it for anaesthesia. The use of nitrous oxide as a recreational drug at "laughing gas parties", primarily arranged for the British upper class, became an immediate success beginning in 1799. While the effects of the gas generally make the user appear stuporous, dreamy and sedated, some people also "get the giggles" in a state of euphoria, and frequently erupt in laughter.
One of the earliest commercial producers in the U.S. was George Poe, cousin of the poet Edgar Allan Poe, who also was the first to liquefy the gas.
The first time nitrous oxide was used as an anaesthetic drug in the treatment of a patient was when dentist Horace Wells, with assistance by Gardner Quincy Colton and John Mankey Riggs, demonstrated insensitivity to pain from a dental extraction on 11 December 1844. In the following weeks, Wells treated the first 12 to 15 patients with nitrous oxide in Hartford, Connecticut, and, according to his own record, only failed in two cases. In spite of these convincing results having been reported by Wells to the medical society in Boston in December 1844, this new method was not immediately adopted by other dentists. The reason for this was most likely that Wells, in January 1845 at his first public demonstration to the medical faculty in Boston, had been partly unsuccessful, leaving his colleagues doubtful regarding its efficacy and safety. The method did not come into general use until 1863, when Gardner Quincy Colton successfully started to use it in all his "Colton Dental Association" clinics, that he had just established in New Haven and New York City. Over the following three years, Colton and his associates successfully administered nitrous oxide to more than 25,000 patients. Today, nitrous oxide is used in dentistry as an anxiolytic, as an adjunct to local anaesthetic.
Nitrous oxide was not found to be a strong enough anaesthetic for use in major surgery in hospital settings, however. Instead, diethyl ether, being a stronger and more potent anaesthetic, was demonstrated and accepted for use in October 1846, along with chloroform in 1847. When Joseph Thomas Clover invented the "gas-ether inhaler" in 1876, however, it became a common practice at hospitals to initiate all anaesthetic treatments with a mild flow of nitrous oxide, and then gradually increase the anaesthesia with the stronger ether or chloroform. Clover's gas-ether inhaler was designed to supply the patient with nitrous oxide and ether at the same time, with the exact mixture being controlled by the operator of the device. It remained in use by many hospitals until the 1930s. Although hospitals today use a more advanced anaesthetic machine, these machines still use the same principle launched with Clover's gas-ether inhaler, to initiate the anaesthesia with nitrous oxide, before the administration of a more powerful anaesthetic.
Colton's popularisation of nitrous oxide led to its adoption by a number of less than reputable quacksalvers, who touted it as a cure for consumption, scrofula, catarrh and other diseases of the blood, throat and lungs. Nitrous oxide treatment was administered and licensed as a patent medicine by the likes of C. L. Blood and Jerome Harris in Boston and Charles E. Barney of Chicago.
Reviewing various methods of producing nitrous oxide is published.
Nitrous oxide is prepared on an industrial scale by careful heating of ammonium nitrate at about 250 C, which decomposes into nitrous oxide and water vapour.
The addition of various phosphate salts favours formation of a purer gas at slightly lower temperatures. This reaction may be difficult to control, resulting in detonation.
The decomposition of ammonium nitrate is also a common laboratory method for preparing the gas. Equivalently, it can be obtained by heating a mixture of sodium nitrate and ammonium sulfate:
Another method involves the reaction of urea, nitric acid and sulfuric acid:
Direct oxidation of ammonia with a manganese dioxide-bismuth oxide catalyst has been reported: cf. Ostwald process.
Hydroxylammonium chloride reacts with sodium nitrite to give nitrous oxide. If the nitrite is added to the hydroxylamine solution, the only remaining by-product is salt water. If the hydroxylamine solution is added to the nitrite solution (nitrite is in excess), however, then toxic higher oxides of nitrogen also are formed:
Treating with and HCl also has been demonstrated:
Hyponitrous acid decomposes to NO and water with a half-life of 16 days at 25 °C at pH 1–3.
Nitrous oxide is a minor component of Earth's atmosphere, currently with a concentration of about 0.330 ppm. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37441 |
Alliant RQ-6 Outrider
The Alliant RQ-6 Outrider unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was designed to provide near-real-time reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition information to United States Marine Corps air/ground task forces, United States Army brigades, and deployed United States Navy units that was small enough for an entire system to be contained on two Humvees and trailer and transported on a single C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft.
The project began in 1996 and was cancelled in 1999.
The "R" is the Department of Defense designation for reconnaissance; "Q" means unmanned aircraft system. The "6" refers to its being the sixth of a series of purpose-built unmanned aircraft systems. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37442 |
Kannada
Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ; lesser known as Kanarese) is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by people of Karnataka in Southwestern India and by linguistic minorities in the states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Kerala and Goa; and also by Carnatican expats abroad. The language has roughly 44 million native speakers, who are called Kannadigas. Kannada is also spoken as a second and third language by over 12.9 million non-Kannada speakers in Karnataka, which adds up to 56.9 million speakers. It is one of the scheduled languages of India and the official and administrative language of the state of Karnataka. Kannada was the court language of some of the most powerful empires of South and Central India, such as the Chalukya dynasty, the Rashtrakuta dynasty, the Vijayanagara Empire and the Hoysala Empire.
The Kannada language is written using the Kannada script, which evolved from the 5th-century Kadamba script. Kannada is attested epigraphically for about one and a half millennia and literary Old Kannada flourished in the 6th-century Ganga dynasty and during the 9th-century Rashtrakuta Dynasty. Kannada has an unbroken literary history of over a thousand years. Kannada literature has been presented with 8 Jnanapith awards, the most for any Dravidian language and the second highest for any Indian language.
Based on the recommendations of the Committee of Linguistic Experts, appointed by the ministry of culture, the government of India designated Kannada a classical language of India. In July 2011, a center for the study of classical Kannada was established as part of the Central Institute of Indian Languages in Mysore to facilitate research related to the language.
Kannada is a Southern Dravidian language, and according to scholar Sanford B. Steever, its history can be conventionally divided into three periods: Old Kannada ("Halegannada") from 450–1200 CE, Middle Kannada ("Nadugannada") from 1200–1700, and Modern Kannada from 1700 to the present. Kannada is influenced to an appreciable extent by Sanskrit. Influences of other languages such as Prakrit and Pali can also be found in the Kannada language. The scholar Iravatham Mahadevan indicated that Kannada was already a language of rich oral tradition earlier than the 3rd century BCE, and based on the native Kannada words found in Prakrit inscriptions of that period, Kannada must have been spoken by a widespread and stable population. The scholar K. V. Narayana claims that many tribal languages which are now designated as Kannada dialects could be nearer to the earlier form of the language, with lesser influence from other languages.
The sources of influence on literary Kannada grammar appear to be three-fold: Pāṇini's grammar, non-Paninian schools of Sanskrit grammar, particularly "Katantra" and "Sakatayana" schools, and Prakrit grammar. Literary Prakrit seems to have prevailed in Karnataka since ancient times. The vernacular Prakrit speaking people may have come into contact with Kannada speakers, thus influencing their language, even before Kannada was used for administrative or liturgical purposes. Kannada phonetics, morphology, vocabulary, grammar and syntax show significant influence from these languages.
Some naturalised ("tadbhava") words of Prakrit origin in Kannada are: "baṇṇa" (colour) derived from "vaṇṇa", "hunnime" (full moon) from "puṇṇivā". Examples of naturalized Sanskrit words in Kannada are: "varṇa" (colour), "paurṇimā", and "rāya" from "rāja" (king).
Like the other non Aryan languages Kannada also has borrowed ("tatsama") words such as "dina" (day), "kopa" (anger), "surya" (sun), "mukha" (face), "nimiṣa" (minute) and "anna" (rice).
Purava Hale Gannada: This Kannada term literally translated means "Previous form of Old Kannada" was the language of Banavasi in the early Common Era, the Satavahana, Chutu Satakarni (Naga) and Kadamba periods and thus has a history of over 2500 years. The Ashoka rock edict found at Brahmagiri (dated to 230 BCE) has been suggested to contain words in identifiable Kannada.
In some 3rd–1st century BCE Tamil inscriptions, words of Kannada influence such as "nalliyooraa", "kavuDi" and "posil" have been introduced. The use of the vowel "a" as an adjective is not prevalent in Tamil but its usage is available in Kannada. Kannada words such as "gouDi-gavuDi" transform into Tamil's "kavuDi" for lack of the usage of "Ghosha svana" in Tamil. Hence the Kannada word 'gavuDi' becomes 'kavuDi' in Tamil. 'Posil' ('hosilu') was introduced into Tamil from Kannada and colloquial Tamil uses this word as 'Vaayil'. In a 1st-century CE Tamil inscription, there is a personal reference to "ayjayya", a word of Kannada origin. In a 3rd-century CE Tamil inscription there is usage of "oppanappa vIran". Here the honorific "appa" to a person's name is an influence from Kannada. Another word of Kannada origin is "taayviru" and is found in a 4th-century CE Tamil inscription. S. Settar studied the "sittanvAsal" inscription of first century CE as also the inscriptions at "tirupparamkunram", "adakala" and "neDanUpatti". The later inscriptions were studied in detail by Iravatham Mahadevan also. Mahadevan argues that the words "erumi", "kavuDi", "poshil" and "tAyiyar" have their origin in Kannada because Tamil cognates are not available. Settar adds the words "nADu" and "iLayar" to this list. Mahadevan feels that some grammatical categories found in these inscriptions are also unique to Kannada rather than Tamil. Both these scholars attribute these influences to the movements and spread of Jainas in these regions. These inscriptions belong to the period between the first century BCE and fourth century CE. These are some examples that are proof of the early usage of a few Kannada origin words in early Tamil inscriptions before the common era and in the early centuries of the common era.
In the 150 CE Prakrit book "Gaathaa Saptashati", written by Haala Raja, Kannada words like "tIr or Teer ("meaning "to be able)", "tuppa", "peTTu", "poTTu, poTTa, piTTu ("meaning "to strike), Pode (Hode)" have been used. On the Pallava Prakrit inscription of 250 CE of Hire Hadagali's Shivaskandavarman, the Kannada word "kOTe" transforms into "koTTa". In the 350 CE Chandravalli Prakrit inscription, words of Kannada origin like "punaaTa", "puNaDa" have been used. In one more Prakrit inscription of 250 CE found in Malavalli, Kannada towns like "vEgooraM" ("bEgooru"), "kundamuchchaMDi" find a reference.
Pliny the Elder (23 – 79 CE) was a naval and army commander in the early Roman Empire. He writes about pirates between Muziris and Nitrias (Netravati River). He also mentions Barace (Barcelore). Nitrias of Pliny and Nitran of Ptolemy refer to the Netravati River as also the modern port city of Mangaluru, upon its mouth. Many of these are Kannada origin names of places and rivers of the Karnataka coast of 1st century CE.
The Greek geographer Ptolemy (150 CE) mentions places such as Badiamaioi (Badami), Inde (Indi), Kalligeris (Kalkeri), Modogoulla (Mudagal), Petrigala (Pattadakal), Hippokoura (Huvina Hipparagi), Nagarouris (Nagur), Tabaso (Tavasi), Tiripangalida (Gadahinglai), Soubouttou or Sabatha (Savadi), Banaouase (Banavasi), Thogorum (Tagara), Biathana (Paithan), Sirimalaga (Malkhed), Aloe (Ellapur) and Pasage (Palasige) indicating prosperous trade between Egypt, Europe and Karnataka. He also mentions Pounnata (Punnata) and refers to beryls, i.e., the "Vaidhurya" gems of that country. He mentions Malippala (Malpe), a coastal town of Karnataka. In this work Larika and Kandaloi are identified as Rastrika and Kuntala. Ptolemy writes that "in the midst of the false mouth and the Barios, there is a city called Maganur" (Mangalore). He mentions inland centres of pirates called Oloikhora (Alavakheda). He mentions Ariake Sadinon, meaning Aryaka Satakarni, and Baithana as the capital of Siro(e) P(t)olmaios, i.e., Sri Pulimayi, clearly indicating his knowledge of the Satavahana kings. The word "Pulimayi" means "One with body of Tiger" in Kannada, which bears testimony to the possible Kannada origin of Satavahana kings.
A possibly more definite reference to Kannada is found in the 'Charition Mime' ascribed to the late 1st to early 2nd century CE. The farce, written by an unknown author, is concerned with a Greek lady named Charition who has been stranded on the coast of a country bordering the Indian Ocean. The king of this region, and his countrymen, sometimes use their own language, and the sentences they speak could be interpreted as Kannada, including "Koncha madhu patrakke haki" ("Having poured a little wine into the cup separately") and "paanam beretti katti madhuvam ber ettuvenu" ("Having taken up the cup separately and having covered it, I shall take wine separately."). The language employed in the papyrus indicates that the play is set in one of the numerous small ports on the western coast of India, between Karwar and Kanhangad (presently in Kerala). The character of the king in this farce refers to himself as 'the Nayaka of Malpe (Malpi-naik)'. B. A. Saletore identifies the site of this play as Odabhandeshwara or Vadabhandeshwara (ship-vessel-Ishwara or God), situated about a mile from Malpe, which was a Shaivite centre originally surrounded by a forest with a small river passing through it. He rejects M. Govinda Pai's opinion that it must have occurred at Udyavara (Odora in Greek), the capital of Alupas. Stavros J. Tsitsiridis mentions in his research work that "Charition" is not an exclusively prose or verse text, but a mixed form. The corrupt lines indicate that the text found at Oxyrhynchus (Egypt) has been copied, meaning that the original was even earlier in date. Wilamowitz (1907) and Andreassi (2001) say that for more precise dating of the original, some place the composition of the work as early as in the Hellenistic period (332–30 BCE), others at a later date, up to the early 2nd century CE.
The earliest examples of a full-length Kannada language stone inscription ("shilaashaasana") containing Brahmi characters with characteristics attributed to those of proto-Kannada in "Hale Kannada" ("lit" Old Kannada) script can be found in the Halmidi inscription, usually dated c. AD 450, indicating that Kannada had become an administrative language at that time. The Halmidi inscription provides invaluable information about the history and culture of Karnataka. The Kannada Lion balastrade inscription excavated at the Pranaveshwara temple complex at Talagunda near Shiralakoppa of Shivamogga district, dated to 370–380 CE is now considered the earliest Kannada inscriptions replacing the Halmidi inscription of 450 CE. The 5th century Tamatekallu inscription of Chitradurga and the Siragunda inscription from Chikkamagaluru Taluk of 500 AD are further examples. Recent reports indicate that the Old Kannada "Nishadi" inscription discovered on the Chandragiri hill, Shravanabelagola, is older than Halmidi inscription by about fifty to hundred years and may belong to the period AD 350–400. The noted archaeologist and art historian S. Shettar is of the opinion that an inscription of the Western Ganga King Kongunivarma Madhava (c. 350–370) found at Tagarthi (Tyagarthi) in Shikaripura taluk of Shimoga district is of 350 CE and is also older than the Halmidi inscription.
Current estimates of the total number of existing epigraphs written in Kannada range from 25,000 by the scholar Sheldon Pollock to over 30,000 by the Amaresh Datta of the Sahitya Akademi. Prior to the Halmidi inscription, there is an abundance of inscriptions containing Kannada words, phrases and sentences, proving its antiquity. The 543 AD Badami cliff inscription of Pulakesi I is an example of a Sanskrit inscription in old Kannada script.
Kannada inscriptions are not only discovered in Karnataka but also quite commonly in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. Some inscriptions were also found in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. The northernmost Kannada inscription of the Rashtrakutas of 964 CE is the Jura record found near Jabalpur in present-day Madhya Pradesh, belonging to the reign of Krishna III. This indicates the spread of the influence of the language over the ages, especially during the rule of large Kannada empires. Pyu sites of Myanmar yielded variety of Indian scripts including those written in a script especially
archaic, most resembling the Kadamba (Kannada-speaking Kadambas of 4th century CE Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh) form of common Kannada-Telugu script from Andhra Pradesh.
The earliest copper plates inscribed in Old Kannada script and language, dated to the early 8th century AD, are associated with Alupa King Aluvarasa II from Belmannu (the Dakshina Kannada district), and display the double crested fish, his royal emblem. The oldest well-preserved palm leaf manuscript in "Old Kannada" is that of "Dhavala". It dates to around the 9th century and is preserved in the Jain Bhandar, Mudbidri, Dakshina Kannada district. The manuscript contains 1478 leaves written using ink.
Some early Kadamba Dynasty coins bearing the Kannada inscription "Vira" and "Skandha" were found in Satara collectorate. A gold coin bearing three inscriptions of "Sri" and an abbreviated inscription of king Bhagiratha's name called "bhagi" (c. AD 390–420) in old Kannada exists. A Kadamba copper coin dated to the 5th century AD with the inscription "Srimanaragi" in Kannada script was discovered in Banavasi, Uttara Kannada district. Coins with Kannada legends have been discovered spanning the rule of the Western Ganga Dynasty, the Badami Chalukyas, the Alupas, the Western Chalukyas, the Rashtrakutas, the Hoysalas, the Vijayanagar Empire, the Kadamba Dynasty of Banavasi, the Keladi Nayakas and the Mysore Kingdom, the Badami Chalukya coins being a recent discovery. The coins of the Kadambas of Goa are unique in that they have alternate inscription of the king's name in Kannada and Devanagari in triplicate, a few coins of the Kadambas of Hangal are also available.
The oldest existing record of Kannada poetry in "Tripadi" metre is the Kappe Arabhatta record of AD 700. "Kavirajamarga" by King Nripatunga Amoghavarsha I (AD 850) is the earliest existing literary work in Kannada. It is a writing on literary criticism and poetics meant to standardise various written Kannada dialects used in literature in previous centuries. The book makes reference to Kannada works by early writers such as King Durvinita of the 6th century and Ravikirti, the author of the Airhole record of 636 AD. Since the earliest available Kannada work is one on grammar and a guide of sorts to unify existing variants of Kannada grammar and literary styles, it can be safely assumed that literature in Kannada must have started several centuries earlier. An early extant prose work, the "Vaddaradhane" (ವಡ್ಡಾರಾಧನೆ) by Shivakotiacharya of AD 900 provides an elaborate description of the life of Bhadrabahu of Shravanabelagola.
Kannada works from earlier centuries mentioned in the Kavirajamarga are not yet traced. Some ancient texts now considered extinct but referenced in later centuries are "Prabhrita" (AD 650) by Syamakundacharya, "Chudamani" (Crest Jewel—AD 650) by Srivaradhadeva, also known as Tumbuluracharya, which is a work of 96,000 verse-measures and a commentary on logic ("Tatwartha-mahashastra"). Other sources date "Chudamani" to the 6th century or earlier. The "Karnateshwara Katha", a eulogy for King Pulakesi II, is said to have belonged to the 7th century; the "Gajastaka", a work on elephant management by King Shivamara II, belonged to the 8th century, and the "Chandraprabha-purana" by Sri Vijaya, a court poet of King Amoghavarsha I, is ascribed to the early 9th century. Tamil Buddhist commentators of the 10th century AD (in the commentary on "Nemrinatham", a Tamil grammatical work) make references that show that Kannada literature must have flourished as early as the BC 4th century.
Around the beginning of the 9th century, Old Kannada was spoken from Kaveri to Godavari. The Kannada spoken between the rivers Varada and Malaprabha was the pure well of Kannada undefiled.
The late classical period gave birth to several genres of Kannada literature, with new forms of composition coming into use, including "Ragale" (a form of blank verse) and meters like "Sangatya" and "Shatpadi". The works of this period are based on Jain and Hindu principles. Two of the early writers of this period are Harihara and Raghavanka, trailblazers in their own right. Harihara established the "Ragale" form of composition while Raghavanka popularised the "Shatpadi" (six-lined stanza) meter. A famous Jaina writer of the same period is Janna, who expressed Jain religious teachings through his works.
The Vachana Sahitya tradition of the 12th century is purely native and unique in world literature, and the sum of contributions by all sections of society. Vachanas were pithy poems on that period's social, religious and economic conditions. More importantly, they held a mirror to the seed of social revolution, which caused a radical re-examination of the ideas of caste, creed and religion. Some of the important writers of Vachana literature include Basavanna, Allama Prabhu and Akka Mahadevi.
Emperor Nripatunga Amoghavarsha I of 850 CE recognised that the Sanskrit style of Kannada literature was "Margi" (formal or written form of language) and "Desi" (folk or spoken form of language) style was popular and made his people aware of the strength and beauty of their native language Kannada. In 1112 CE, Jain poet Nayasena of Mulugunda, Dharwad district, in his Champu work "Dharmamrita" (ಧರ್ಮಾಮೃತ), a book on morals, warns writers from mixing Kannada with Sanskrit by comparing it with mixing of clarified butter and oil. He has written it using very limited Sanskrit words which fit with idiomatic Kannada. In 1235 CE, Jain poet Andayya, wrote "Kabbigara Kava"- ಕಬ್ಬಿಗರ ಕಾವ (Poet's Defender), also called "Sobagina Suggi" (Harvest of Beauty) or "Madana-Vijaya and" "Kavana-Gella" (Cupid's Conquest)"," a "Champu" work in pure Kannada using only indigenous ("desya") Kannada words and the derived form of Sanskrit words – "tadbhavas", without the admixture of Sanskrit words. He succeeded in his challenge and proved wrong those who had advocated that it was impossible to write a work in Kannada without using Sanskrit words. Andayya may be considered as a protector of Kannada poets who were ridiculed by Sanskrit advocates. Thus Kannada is the only Dravidian language which is not only capable of using only native Kannada words and grammar in its literature (like Tamil), but also use Sanskrit grammar and vocabulary (like Telugu, Malayalam, Tulu, etc.) The Champu style of literature of mixing poetry with prose owes its origins to the Kannada language which was later incorporated by poets into Sanskrit and other Indian languages.
During the period between the 15th and 18th centuries, Hinduism had a great influence on Middle Kannada ("Nadugannada"- ನಡುಗನ್ನಡ) language and literature. Kumara Vyasa, who wrote the "Karnata Bharata Kathamanjari" (ಕರ್ಣಾಟ ಭಾರತ ಕಥಾಮಂಜರಿ), was arguably the most influential Kannada writer of this period. His work, entirely composed in the native "Bhamini Shatpadi" (hexa-meter), is a sublime adaptation of the first ten books of the Mahabharata.
During this period, the Sanskritic influence is present in most abstract, religious, scientific and rhetorical terms. During this period, several Hindi and Marathi words came into Kannada, chiefly relating to feudalism and militia.
Hindu saints of the Vaishnava sect such as Kanakadasa, Purandaradasa, Naraharitirtha, Vyasatirtha, Sripadaraya, Vadirajatirtha, Vijaya Dasa, Jagannatha Dasa, Prasanna Venkatadasa produced devotional poems in this period. Kanakadasa's "Ramadhanya Charite" (ರಾಮಧಾನ್ಯ ಚರಿತೆ ) is a rare work, concerning with the issue of class struggle. This period saw the advent of "Haridasa Sahitya" ("lit" Dasa literature) which made rich contributions to "Bhakti" literature and sowed the seeds of Carnatic music. Purandara Dasa is widely considered the "Father of Carnatic music".
The Kannada works produced from the 19th century make a gradual transition and are classified as "Hosagannada" or Modern Kannada. Most notable among the modernists was the poet Nandalike Muddana whose writing may be described as the "Dawn of Modern Kannada", though generally, linguists treat "Indira Bai" or "Saddharma Vijayavu" by Gulvadi Venkata Raya as the first literary works in Modern Kannada. The first modern movable type printing of "Canarese" appears to be the "Canarese Grammar" of Carey printed at Serampore in 1817, and the "Bible in Canarese" of John Hands in 1820. The first novel printed was John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress", along with other texts including "Canarese Proverbs", "The History of Little Henry and his Bearer" by Mary Martha Sherwood, Christian Gottlob Barth's "Bible Stories" and "a Canarese hymn book."
Modern Kannada in the 20th century has been influenced by many movements, notably "Navodaya", "Navya", "Navyottara", "Dalita" and "Bandaya". Contemporary Kannada literature has been highly successful in reaching people of all classes in society. Further, Kannada has produced a number of prolific and renowned poets and writers such as Kuvempu, Bendre, and V K Gokak. Works of Kannada literature have received eight Jnanpith awards, the highest number awarded to any Indian language.
Besides being the official and administrative language of the state of Karnataka, Kannada language is present in other areas:
There is also a considerable difference between the spoken and written forms of the language. Spoken Kannada tends to vary from region to region. The written form is more or less consistent throughout Karnataka. The Ethnologue reports "about 20 dialects" of Kannada. Among them are Kundagannada (spoken exclusively in Kundapura, Brahmavara, Bynduru and Hebri), Nadavar-Kannada (spoken by Nadavaru), Havigannada (spoken mainly by Havyaka Brahmins), Are Bhashe (spoken by Gowda community mainly in Madikeri and Sullia region of Dakshina Kannada), Malenadu Kannada (Sakaleshpur, Coorg, Shimoga, Chikmagalur), Sholaga, Gulbarga Kannada, Dharawad Kannada etc. All of these dialects are influenced by their regional and cultural background. The one million Komarpants in and around Goa speak their own dialect of Kannada, known as Halegannada. They are settled throughout Goa state, throughout Uttara Kannada district and Khanapur taluk of Belagavi district, Karnataka. The Halakki Vokkaligas of Uttara Kannada, Shimoga and Dakshina Kannada districts of Karnataka speak in their own dialect of Kannada called Halakki Kannada or Achchagannada. Their population estimate is about 75,000.
Ethnologue also classifies a group of four languages related to Kannada, which are, besides Kannada proper, Badaga, Holiya, Kurumba and Urali.
Nasik district of Maharashtra has a distinct tribe called 'Hatkar Kaanadi' people who speak a Kannada (Kaanadi) dialect with lot of old Kannada words. Per Chidananda Murthy, they are the native people of Nasik from ancient times which shows that North Maharashtra's Nasik area had Kannada population 1000 years ago.
Kannada speakers formed 0.12% of Nasik district's population as per 1961 census.
The Director of the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Udaya Narayana Singh, submitted a report in 2006 to the Indian government arguing for Kannada to be made a classical language of India. In 2008 the Indian government announced that Kannada was to be designated as one of the classical languages of India.
The language uses forty-nine phonemic letters, divided into three groups: "swaragalu" (vowels – thirteen letters); "vyanjanagalu" (consonants – thirty-four letters); and "yogavaahakagalu" (neither vowel nor consonant – two letters: "anusvara" and "visarga" ). The character set is almost identical to that of other Indian languages. The Kannada script is almost perfectly phonetic, but for the sound of a "half n" (which becomes a half m). The number of written symbols, however, is far more than the forty-nine characters in the alphabet, because different characters can be combined to form "compound" characters "(ottakshara)". Each written symbol in the Kannada script corresponds with one syllable, as opposed to one phoneme in languages like English. The Kannada script is syllabic.
Kannada–Kannada dictionary has existed in Kannada along with ancient works of Kannada grammar. The oldest available Kannada dictionary was composed by the poet 'Ranna' called 'Ranna Kanda' (ರನ್ನ ಕಂದ) in 996 ACE. Other dictionaries are 'Abhidhana Vastukosha' (ಅಭಿದಾನ ವಾಸ್ತುಕೋಶ) by Nagavarma (1045 ACE), 'Amarakoshada Teeku'(ಅಮರಕೋಶದ ತೀಕು) by Vittala (1300), 'Abhinavaabhidaana'(ಅಭಿನವಾಭಿದಾನ) by Abhinava Mangaraja (1398 ACE) and many more. A Kannada–English dictionary consisting of more than 70,000 words was composed by Ferdinand Kittel.
G. Venkatasubbaiah edited the first modern Kannada–Kannada dictionary, a 9,000-page, 8-volume series published by the Kannada Sahitya Parishat. He also wrote a Kannada–English dictionary and a "kliṣtapadakōśa" (ಕ್ಲಿಷ್ಟಪಾದಕೋಶ), a dictionary of difficult words.
Kannada has 34 consonants and 13 vowels.
Additionally, Kannada included the following phonemes, which dropped out of common usage in the 12th and 18th century respectively:
The canonical word order of Kannada is SOV (subject–object–verb) as is the case with Dravidian languages.
Kannada is a highly inflected language with three genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter or common) and two numbers (singular and plural). It is inflected for gender, number and tense, among other things. The most authoritative known book on old Kannada grammar is "Shabdhamanidarpana" by Keshiraja. The first available Kannada book, a treatise on poetics, rhetoric and basic grammar is the "Kavirajamarga" from 850 C.E.
The most influential account of Kannada grammar is Keshiraja's "Shabdamanidarpana" (c. AD 1260). The earlier grammatical works include portions of "Kavirajamarga" (a treatise on "alańkāra") of the 9th century, and "Kavyavalokana" and "Karnatakabhashabhushana" (both authored by Nagavarma II in the first half of the 12th century).
Compound bases, called "samāsa" in Kannada, are a set of two or more words compounded together. There are several types of compound bases, based on the rules followed for compounding. The types of compound bases or samāsas: tatpurusha, karmadhāraya, dvigu, bahuvreehi, anshi, dvandva, kriya and gamaka samāsa. Examples: "taṅgāḷi", "hemmara", "kannusanne".
In many ways the third-person pronouns are more like demonstratives than like the other pronouns. They are pluralized like nouns and whereas the first- and second-person pronouns have different ways to distinguish number.
The given sample text is Article 1 from the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights Declaration.
ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಮಾನವರೂ ಸ್ವತಂತ್ರರಾಗಿಯೇ ಹುಟ್ಟಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಹಾಗೂ ಘನತೆ ಮತ್ತು ಹಕ್ಕುಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಸಮಾನರಾಗಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ತಿಳಿವು ಮತ್ತು ಅಂತಃಕರಣಗಳನ್ನು ಪಡೆದವರಾದ್ದರಿಂದ, ಅವರು ಒಬ್ಬರಿಗೊಬ್ಬರು ಸಹೋದರ ಭಾವದಿಂದ ನಡೆದುಕೊಳ್ಳಬೇಕು.
Ellā mānavarū svatantrarāgiyē huttiddare. Hāgū ghanate mattu hakku gaḷalli samānarāgiddāre. Thilivu mattu antaḥkaraṇagaḷannu paḍedavarāddarinda avaru obbarigobbaru sahōdara bhāvadinda nadedhukollabeku.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37445 |
Latin square
In combinatorics and in experimental design, a Latin square is an "n" × "n" array filled with "n" different symbols, each occurring exactly once in each row and exactly once in each column. An example of a 3x3 Latin square is:
The name "Latin square" was inspired by mathematical papers by Leonhard Euler (1707–1783), who used Latin characters as symbols, but any set of symbols can be used: in the above example, the alphabetic sequence A, B, C can be replaced by the integer sequence 1, 2, 3. Euler began the general theory of Latin squares.
The Korean mathematician Choi Seok-jeong was the first to publish an example of Latin squares of order nine, in order to construct a magic square in 1700, predating Leonhard Euler by 67 years.
A Latin square is said to be "reduced" (also, "normalized" or "in standard form") if both its first row and its first column are in their natural order. For example, the Latin square above is not reduced because its first column is A, C, B rather than A, B, C.
Any Latin square can be reduced by permuting (that is, reordering) the rows and columns. Here switching the above matrix's second and third rows yields the following square:
This Latin square is reduced; both its first row and its first column are alphabetically ordered A, B, C.
If each entry of an "n" × "n" Latin square is written as a triple ("r","c","s"), where "r" is the row, "c" is the column, and "s" is the symbol, we obtain a set of "n"2 triples called the orthogonal array representation of the square. For example, the orthogonal array representation of the following Latin square is:
where for example the triple (2,3,1) means that in row 2 and column 3 there is the symbol 1. The definition of a Latin square can be written in terms of orthogonal arrays:
This means that the "n"2 ordered pairs ("r","c") are all the pairs ("i","j") with 1 ≤ "i", "j" ≤ "n" , once each. The same is true of the ordered pairs ("r","s") and the ordered pairs ("c","s").
The orthogonal array representation shows that rows, columns and symbols play rather similar roles, as will be made clear below.
Many operations on a Latin square produce another Latin square (for example, turning it upside down).
If we permute the rows, permute the columns, and permute the names of the symbols of a Latin square, we obtain a new Latin square said to be "isotopic" to the first. Isotopism is an equivalence relation, so the set of all Latin squares is divided into subsets, called "isotopy classes", such that two squares in the same class are isotopic and two squares in different classes are not isotopic.
Another type of operation is easiest to explain using the orthogonal array representation of the Latin square. If we systematically and consistently reorder the three items in each triple, another orthogonal array (and, thus, another Latin square) is obtained. For example, we can replace each triple ("r","c","s") by ("c","r","s") which corresponds to transposing the square (reflecting about its main diagonal), or we could replace each triple ("r","c","s") by ("c","s","r"), which is a more complicated operation. Altogether there are 6 possibilities including "do nothing", giving us 6 Latin squares called the conjugates (also parastrophes) of the original square.
Finally, we can combine these two equivalence operations: two Latin squares are said to be paratopic, also main class isotopic, if one of them is isotopic to a conjugate of the other. This is again an equivalence relation, with the equivalence classes called main classes, "species", or paratopy classes. Each main class contains up to 6 isotopy classes.
There is no known easily computable formula for the number of Latin squares with symbols . The most accurate upper and lower bounds known for large are far apart. One classic result is that
A simple and explicit formula for the number of Latin squares was published in 1992, but it is still not easily computable due to the exponential increase in the number of terms. This formula for the number of Latin squares is
formula_2
where is the set of all {0, 1} matrices, is the number of zero entries in matrix , and is the permanent of matrix .
The table below contains all known exact values. It can be seen that the numbers grow exceedingly quickly. For each , the number of Latin squares altogether is times the number of reduced Latin squares .
For each , each isotopy class contains up to Latin squares (the exact number varies), while each main class contains either 1, 2, 3 or 6 isotopy classes.
The number of structurally distinct Latin squares (i.e. the squares cannot be made identical by means of rotation, reflexion, and/or permutation of the symbols) for = 1 up to 7 is 1, 1, 1, 12, 192, 145164, 1524901344 respectively .
We give one example of a Latin square from each main class up to order 5.
formula_3
formula_4
formula_5
They present, respectively, the multiplication tables of the following groups:
For small squares it is possible to generate permutations and test whether the Latin square property is met. For larger squares, Jacobson and Matthews' algorithm allows sampling from a uniform distribution over the space of "n" × "n" Latin squares.
Many row-column designs are constructed by concatenating Latin squares.
Sets of Latin squares that are orthogonal to each other have found an application as error correcting codes in situations where communication is disturbed by more types of noise than simple white noise, such as when attempting to transmit broadband Internet over powerlines.
Firstly, the message is sent by using several frequencies, or channels, a common method that makes the signal less vulnerable to noise at any one specific frequency. A letter in the message to be sent is encoded by sending a series of signals at different frequencies at successive time intervals. In the example below, the letters A to L are encoded by sending signals at four different frequencies, in four time slots. The letter C, for instance, is encoded by first sending at frequency 3, then 4, 1 and 2.
formula_11
The encoding of the twelve letters are formed from three Latin squares that are orthogonal to each other. Now imagine that there's added noise in channels 1 and 2 during the whole transmission. The letter A would then be picked up as:
In other words, in the first slot we receive signals from both frequency 1 and frequency 2; while the third slot has signals from frequencies 1, 2 and 3. Because of the noise, we can no longer tell if the first two slots were 1,1 or 1,2 or 2,1 or 2,2. But the 1,2 case is the only one that yields a sequence matching a letter in the above table, the letter A.
Similarly, we may imagine a burst of static over all frequencies in the third slot:
Again, we are able to infer from the table of encodings that it must have been the letter A being transmitted. The number of errors this code can spot is one less than the number of time slots. It has also been proven that if the number of frequencies is a prime or a power of a prime, the orthogonal Latin squares produce error detecting codes that are as efficient as possible.
The problem of determining if a partially filled square can be completed to form a Latin square is NP-complete.
The popular Sudoku puzzles are a special case of Latin squares; any solution to a Sudoku puzzle is a Latin square.
Sudoku imposes the additional restriction that nine particular 3×3 adjacent subsquares must also contain the digits 1–9 (in the standard version). The more recent KenKen puzzles are also examples of Latin squares.
Latin squares have been used as the basis for several board games, notably the popular abstract strategy game Kamisado.
Latin squares are used in the design of agronomic research experiments to minimise experimental errors.
The Latin square also figures in the arms of the Statistical Society of Canada, being specifically mentioned in its blazon. Also, it appears in the logo of the International Biometric Society. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37447 |
Mariner 9
Mariner 9 (Mariner Mars '71 / Mariner-I) was a robotic space probe that contributed greatly to the exploration of Mars and was part of the NASA Mariner program. Mariner 9 was launched toward Mars on May 30, 1971 from LC-36B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, and reached the planet on November 14 of the same year, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit another planet – only narrowly beating the Soviet probes "Mars 2" (launched May 19) and "Mars 3" (launched May 28), which both arrived at Mars only weeks later.
After the occurrence of dust storms on the planet for several months following its arrival, the orbiter managed to send back clear pictures of the surface. Mariner 9 successfully returned 7329 images over the course of its mission, which concluded in October 1972.
Mariner 9 was designed to continue the atmospheric studies begun by Mariner 6 and 7, and to map over 70% of the Martian surface from the lowest altitude () and at the highest resolutions (from 1 kilometer per pixel to 100 meters per pixel) of any Mars mission up to that point. An infrared radiometer was included to detect heat sources in search of evidence of volcanic activity. It was to study temporal changes in the Martian atmosphere and surface. Mars' two moons were also to be analyzed. Mariner 9 more than met its objectives.
Under original plans, a dual mission was to be flown like Mariners 6–7, however the launch failure of Mariner 8 ruined this scheme and forced NASA planners to fall back on a simpler one-probe mission. NASA still held out hope that another Mariner probe and Atlas-Centaur could be readied before the 1971 Mars launch window closed. A few logistical problems emerged, including the lack of an available Centaur payload shroud of the correct configuration for the Mariner probes, however there was a shroud in NASA's inventory which could be modified. Convair also had an available Centaur stage on hand and could have an Atlas readied in time, but the idea was ultimately abandoned for lack of funding.
Mariner 9 was mated to Atlas-Centaur AC-23 on May 9 with investigation into Mariner 8's failure ongoing. The malfunction was traced to a problem in the Centaur's pitch control servoamplifier and because it was not clear if the spacecraft itself had been responsible, RFI testing was conducted on Mariner 9 to ensure the probe was not releasing interference that could cause problems with the Centaur's electronics. All testing came back negative and on May 22, a tested and verified rate gyro package arrived from Convair and was installed in the Centaur.
Liftoff took place on May 30 at 5:23 PM EST. All launch vehicle systems performed normally and the Mariner separated from the Centaur at 13 minutes and 18 seconds after launch.
Mariner 9 was the first spacecraft to orbit another planet. It carried an instrument payload similar to Mariners 6 and 7, but because of the need for a larger propulsion system to control the spacecraft in Martian orbit, it weighed more than Mariners 6 and 7 combined.
When Mariner 9 arrived at Mars on November 14, 1971, planetary scientists were surprised to find the atmosphere was thick with "a planet-wide robe of dust, the largest storm ever observed." The surface was totally obscured. Mariner 9's computer was thus reprogrammed from Earth to delay imaging of the surface for a couple of months until the dust settled. The main surface imaging did not get underway until mid-January 1972. However, surface-obscured images did contribute to the collection of Mars science, including understanding of the existence of several huge high-altitude volcanoes of the Tharsis Bulge that gradually became visible as the dust storm abated. This unexpected situation made a strong case for the desirability of studying a planet from orbit rather than merely flying past. It also highlighted the importance of flexible mission software. The Soviet Union's Mars 2 and Mars 3 probes, which arrived during the same dust storm, were unable to adapt to the unexpected conditions, which severely limited the amount of data that they were able to collect.
After 349 days in orbit, Mariner 9 had transmitted 7,329 images, covering 85% of Mars' surface, whereas previous flyby missions had returned less than one thousand images covering only a small portion of the planetary surface.
The images revealed river beds, craters, massive extinct volcanoes (such as Olympus Mons, the largest known volcano in the Solar System; Mariner 9 led directly to its reclassification from Nix Olympica), canyons (including the Valles Marineris, a system of canyons over about long), evidence of wind and water erosion and deposition, weather fronts, fogs, and more. Mars' small moons, Phobos and Deimos, were also photographed.
The findings from the Mariner 9 mission underpinned the later Viking program.
The enormous Valles Marineris canyon system is named after Mariner 9 in honor of its achievements.
After depleting its supply of attitude control gas, the spacecraft was turned off on October 27, 1972.
The ultraviolet spectrometer aboard Mariner 9 was constructed by the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado. The ultraviolet spectrometer team was led by Professor Charles Barth.
The Infrared Interferometer Spectrometer (IRIS) team was led by Dr. Rudolf A. Hanel from NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center (GSFC). The IRIS instrument was built by Texas Instruments, Dallas, Texas.
The Infrared Radiometer (IRR) team was led by Professor Gerald Neugebauer from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
To control for errors in the reception of the grayscale image data sent by Mariner 9 (caused by a low signal-to-noise ratio), the data had to be encoded before transmission using a so-called forward error-correcting code (FEC). Without FEC, noise would have made up roughly a quarter of a received image, while the FEC encoded the data in a redundant way which allowed for the reconstruction of most of the sent image data at reception.
Since the flown hardware was constrained with regards to weight, power consumption, storage, and computing power, some considerations had to be put into choosing an FEC, and it was decided to use a Hadamard code for Mariner 9. Each image pixel was represented as a six-bit binary value, which had 64 possible grayscale levels. Because of limitations of the transmitter, the maximum useful data length was about 30 bits. Instead of using a repetition code, a [32, 6, 16] Hadamard code was used, which is also a 1st-order Reed-Muller code. Errors of up to seven bits per each 32-bit word could be corrected using this scheme. Compared to a five-repetition code, the error correcting properties of this Hadamard code were much better, yet its data rate was comparable. The efficient decoding algorithm was an important factor in the decision to use this code. The circuitry used was called the "Green Machine", which employed the fast Fourier transform, increasing the decoding speed by a factor of three.
Mariner 9 remains a derelict satellite in Mars orbit. It is expected to remain in orbit until at least 2022, after which the spacecraft is projected to enter the Martian atmosphere and either burn up or crash into the planet's surface. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37449 |
Funeral home
A funeral home, funeral parlor or mortuary, is a business that provides interment and funeral services for the dead and their families. These services may include a prepared wake and funeral, and the provision of a chapel for the funeral.
Funeral homes arrange services in accordance with the wishes of surviving friends and family, whether immediate next of kin or an executor so named in a legal will. The funeral home often takes care of the necessary paperwork, permits, and other details, such as making arrangements with the cemetery, and providing obituaries to the news media. The funeral business has a history that dates to the age of the Egyptians who mastered the science of preservation. In recent years many funeral homes have started posting obituaries online and use materials submitted by families to create memorial websites.
There are certain common types of services in North America.
A traditional funeral service consists of a viewing (sometimes referred to as a visitation), a funeral service in a place of worship or the funeral home chapel and a graveside committal service.
Direct cremation consists of the funeral home receiving the body, preparing it for the crematory and filing the necessary legal paperwork.
Direct/immediate burial is the forgoing of a funeral ceremony for a prompt, simple burial.
Moving a body between mortuaries involves preparing it for shipment in a coffin strapped into an arbitrary or a combination unit (mac pac / airtray). This is common when it is to be buried in a different locality than where the person died.
When a body is brought to a funeral home, it is sometimes embalmed to delay decomposition or to make the viewing of the body more pleasant. The procedure typically involves removing sufficient blood material to accommodate the preservative chemicals and dyes, aspirating the internal organs and setting the facial features. Cosmetics are used with the consent of the family to improve the appearance of face and hands for a more natural look. If the face or hands are disfigured by accident, illness or decomposition, the embalmer may utilize restorative techniques to make them presentable for an "open casket" service. If this is not possible, or the family wishes, the funeral home can perform a "closed casket" service.
The funeral home often sets aside one or more large areas for people to gather at a visitation. This area may contain a space to display the body in a casket to visitors who may pay their respects. Funeral and memorial services may also take place at the funeral home. Many funeral homes offer prearrangement options for those who wish to plan their own funerals.
Several large multi-national corporations in this service field have received exposure from high-profile litigation. The Loewen Group, Inc., received a particularly large jury verdict in the State of Mississippi which was later found to be in error as the allegations against Loewen Group proved false. The Canadian-based company then brought suit against the United States alleging violations under N.A.F.T.A.. Houston based Service Corporation International has also had their share of legal troubles with the operations of both their funeral homes and cemeteries. In 2009 a class-action lawsuit was filed against SCI and Eden Memorial Park, one of the cemeteries the corporation manages, based on allegations that remains were being moved around to create additional space for future interments. A settlement of $80 million was reached in 2014. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37453 |
Overhand knot
The overhand knot, also known as a a knot and half knot, is one of the most fundamental knots, and it forms the basis of many others, including the simple noose, overhand loop, angler's loop, reef knot, fisherman's knot, and water knot. The overhand knot is a stopper, especially when used alone, and hence it is very secure, to the point of jamming badly. It should be used if the knot is intended to be permanent. It is often used to prevent the end of a rope from unraveling. An overhand knot becomes a trefoil knot, a true knot in the mathematical sense, by joining the ends.
There are a number of ways to tie the Overhand knot.
In heraldry, the overhand knot is known as a "Stafford knot", owing to a representation of it being used first as a heraldic badge by the Earls of Stafford, and later as a general symbol of Staffordshire.
As a defensive measure, hagfishes, which resemble eels, produce large volumes of thick slime when disturbed. A hagfish can remove the excess slime, which can suffocate it in a matter of minutes, by tying its own body into an overhand knot, then sliding the knot from its head down to the tail. This action scrapes the slime off the fish's body. Hagfish also tie their bodies into overhand knots in order to create leverage to rip off chunks of their prey's flesh, but do so "in reverse" (starting at the tail, and sliding the knot towards the head for mechanical advantage).
If the two loose ends of an overhand knot are joined together (without creating additional crossings), this becomes equivalent to the trefoil knot of mathematical knot theory.
If a flat ribbon or strip is tightly folded into a flattened overhand knot, it assumes a regular pentagonal shape. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37454 |
Service Corporation International
Service Corporation International is an American provider of funeral goods and services as well as cemetery property and services. It is headquartered in Neartown, Houston, Texas. SCI operates more than 1500 funeral homes and 400 cemeteries in 43 states, eight Canadian provinces, and Puerto Rico.
Robert L. Waltrip, a licensed funeral director who grew up in his family's funeral business, founded the company in 1962. SCI began as a small network of funeral homes and cemeteries in the Houston area.
As SCI grew its offshore presence, it continued to acquire businesses in North America—a marketplace that, by the late 1990s, had become extremely competitive among companies seeking to buy death care businesses. SCI, Alderwoods Group and Stewart Enterprises emerged from this period as the three largest companies in the industry. On December 31, 1999, SCI owned and operated 3,823 funeral service locations, 525 cemeteries, 198 crematoria and two insurance operations located in 20 countries on five continents.
In 1999, SCI also introduced Dignity Memorial, the first transcontinental brand of death care services and products in North America. By unifying its network of funeral homes and cemeteries under one brand name, SCI believed it could establish recognizable and communicable brand values.
In 2000, poor market conditions forced SCI to reevaluate operations. While foreign operations had once shown promise, nearly 70 percent of SCI's revenue was generated by operations in the United States and Canada. The company decided to divest many of its offshore businesses, in addition to many North American funeral homes and cemeteries. The UK arm now operates as Dignity plc.
Between 2002 and 2006, SCI reduced its net debt (total debt minus cash) by more than $1.0 billion, increased operating cash flow, and simplified its field management organization to enhance efficiency, performance, and accountability. It also changed business and sales processes, tightened internal controls following the protocols, strengthened corporate governance standards, and established a new training and development system. For its shareholders, SCI returned value through more than $335 million in share repurchases, and it resumed payment of a regular quarterly dividend in early 2005, the first since 1999.
In 2006, SCI merged with Alderwoods Group, its nearest competitor in terms of size. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) blocked the merger, citing concerns over consumer choice. After agreeing to divest funeral home and cemetery locations in several markets and end licensing agreements with other funeral homes, the FTC allowed the merger to continue. By 2007, the integration of Alderwoods's locations and operations was complete.
In 2009 SCI put in a bid to purchase Keystone North America for $208 million. The purchase was completed in 2010 and added about 200 locations.
In May 2013 SCI signed a $1.4 billion deal to purchase Stewart Enterprises, the second-largest death care company. In December 2013, the FTC imposed conditions on the acquisition, requiring the two companies to sell 53 funeral homes and 38 cemeteries in 59 local markets, and requiring the merged company to be subject to a ten-year period during which the FTC will review any attempt by the company to acquire funeral or cemetery assets in those local markets.
SCI operates the following brands in the United States and Canada:
SCI's network of funeral homes consists almost entirely of existing businesses that the company acquired. SCI tends to buy successful funeral homes that are firmly settled and already well known in their community. SCI then retains the funeral home's original name, often along with former owners who are kept on as management. A typical funeral home that is owned by SCI will not contain advertisements or logos for SCI, with the exception, perhaps, of employee pins on staff lapels. As a consequence, most North American consumers are unfamiliar with the company itself. Instead, SCI places strong emphasis on their Dignity Memorial brand. The "Dignity" logo can be seen throughout SCI's funeral homes and cemeteries, on staff, signage, paperwork, vehicles, etc.
Writing in an October 24, 2013 issue of "Bloomberg Businessweek", journalist Paul M. Barrett found, despite its lower overhead, SCI has higher prices than independent funeral home operators. Barrett quoted "data compiled" by a "'concierge' funeral planning service" Everest Funeral Package, which found that for "traditional funerals, SCI charges $6,256 on average (excluding casket and cemetery plot), 42 percent more than independents." In reply, SCI points to "overwhelmingly positive responses" on customer surveys, below market wages paid to staff and management, and states they provide "top value" at a variety of funeral price points.
In the late 1990s, SCI was involved in a controversy involving alleged violations of Texas State embalming laws. The proceedings took a political slant due to Robert Waltrip's friendship with the family of then-governor George W. Bush and Waltrip's campaign contributions to various members of the Bush family.
Referred to as "Funeralgate" or "Formaldegate" in the media, the controversy was widely publicized when Eliza May, a director with the Texas Funeral Service Commission (TFSC), was fired while investigating SCI. May alleged in a civil suit that she was fired because she refused to halt her investigation despite pressure to do so from Governor Bush.
May's lawyers subpoenaed President Bush to testify at the trial, but Texas Judge John K. Dietz threw out the subpoena on the grounds that the then-governor was not in a position to have enough specialized information to require his involvement.
The lawsuit was settled in 2001 for more than $200,000. SCI and the state of Texas were required to jointly pay the decision. On January 23, 2004, the TFSC fined SCI an additional $21,000 for administrative penalties.
In 2001, it was reported that employees of the Memorial Gardens cemetery near Ft. Lauderdale, Florida had oversold the cemetery, so bodies were buried in the wrong places, separating husbands from wives; vaults were cracked open by a backhoe; bodies were exhumed, with bones, skulls and shrouds thrown into nearby woods; bodies were stacked on top of each other; and remains were relocated without notifying relatives.
The allegations were particularly appalling to the Jewish cemetery's more religiously observant customers, "The Miami Herald" reported. Traditional Jewish law requires bodies to be buried intact and prohibits disturbing the dead. SCI reached a $14 million agreement with the Florida attorney general's office in 2003 that required it to repair plots and reorganize the cemeteries to ensure all graves were properly marked and the grounds could accommodate all plots sold. SCI also settled a separate class-action lawsuit on behalf of 350 families for $100 million.
On April 26, 2007, "'The Washington Post" reported that an SCI cemetery in Alexandria, Virginia, had improperly buried the remains of the stillborn daughter of Nsombi Hale in a grave too shallow (in a grave about 8 inches/20 cm deep). Nsombi Hale was filing suit against SCI.
After an internal investigation by SCI, attorneys working for SCI denied the charges against the company in a letter to Virginia funeral regulators,
and a few days later, the "Post" reported that Robert Ranghelli, one of the SCI employees who had corroborated the initial reports of improper handing of corpses, was fired for "exercising his first amendment rights/speaking with the media" after having been on administrative leave for several months following the initial reports in the newspaper.
On April 5, 2009, "The Washington Post" reported that the National Funeral Home, a facility owned by SCI in the Falls Church area of Fairfax County, Virginia, which also acts as a centralized embalming and dressing station for embalming and body preparation for other nearby SCI-owned operations (Arlington Funeral Home, Danzansky-Goldberg Memorial Chapel and Demaine Funeral Home), was storing naked bodies in various stages of decomposition in conditions described as "disgusting, degrading and humiliating". The story went on to report that as many as 200 bodies were stored on "makeshift gurneys in the garage" and "at least half a dozen veterans destined for the hallowed ground at Arlington National Cemetery were left in their coffins on a garage rack". The "Post" reported that documentation describing these conditions had been reported to the Virginia Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers.
A few days later, the "Post" reported that family members of a deceased Army veteran whose remains were stored in an unrefrigerated garage at National Funeral Home asked the Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney to investigate the actions of National and its parent company, SCI, as crimes.
The "Post" further reported that the family of retired U.S. Army Colonel Andrew DeGraff filed a lawsuit in Fairfax County alleging that SCI mishandled DeGraff's remains. According to the article, an SCI spokesman said that the company is conducting an internal investigation.
On September 14, 2009, a class-action lawsuit was filed against SCI and Eden Memorial Park, a Jewish cemetery managed by SCI in Mission Hills, charging that they were destroying graves to make room for new interments.
The "Los Angeles Times" reported that state officials found no evidence of mass grave disturbances. Russ Heimerich, a spokesman for the state Department of Consumer Affairs, said, "We have not seen any evidence of the kind of massive desecration that [is] being alleged...The kind of activity they're alleging [is] not easily hidden, especially on a willful, large-scale basis." The plaintiff's attorney rejected the findings of the state's investigation. The lawsuit remained ongoing as of late 2009.
Michael Avenatti, the plaintiff's attorney, said more than 800 families have joined the class action suit. Avenatti claims the state's investigation was shoddy, saying, “Investigators from the state were told by various groundskeepers over a year ago that they had been repeatedly told to throw bones away, and yet for some reason, the state didn’t adequately follow up.”
SCI denied all charges. After the lawsuit was filed, the Consumer Affairs Department reviewed five to six years of the cemetery's annual inspection records and found no indication that graves had been disturbed. According to the "Los Angeles Times" article, "The agency also asked the dozens of families that contacted officials to look for signs of disturbances -- shifted or cracked gravestones or anything else that appeared different from previous visits -- and didn’t receive a single call back, he said".
In January, 2012, the lawsuit against Eden Memorial Park was ruled to be a valid class action in Los Angeles Superior Court, with the trial scheduled to begin in May 2012.
In February 2014, a settlement in the amount of $80M was reached in this case.
In 2010, the SCI-owned Stanetsky Chapel, a Jewish funeral home in Brookline, MA, was charged by the State Board of Registration with serious violations of state law and regulations in connection with an incident where a woman was buried in the wrong grave, then disinterred without a legal permit being obtained and reburied in the correct grave with the woman's family not being notified of the mistake and the corrective procedure. As a result, in December 2011, the State Board announced a Consent Agreement and levied the biggest fine in its history, $18,000, against Stanetsky and SCI, and suspended the license of the Stanetsky general manager for a year. Other staff members involved in the incident were subject to punitive actions ranging from additional professional training to license revocation. The incident received widespread local media coverage. The Board's action was also published on the Board's website.
In a case first reported on April 7, 2005, the "Boston Globe" reported J.S. Waterman's & Sons, also owned by SCI, was found by the Board to have accidentally cremated the body of a stillborn infant in 2003. The infant's body was apparently placed on a gurney that held an adult woman's body that was scheduled for cremation. As a result of a civil suit brought by the infant's family, Waterman's was ordered to pay the parents $325,000, with a pending legal claim that the mortuary violated the state's consumer protection law that could triple the damages, the "Boston Globe" reported. The family's lawyer, Gordon T. Walker, said SCI could be hit with additional costs, as there is a pending claim that the company violated the state's consumer protection law. The civil verdict was made in Suffolk Superior Court on March 4. The jury awarded $75,000 because of emotional distress and $250,000 because they found the funeral home was negligent and intentionally inflicted emotional harm. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37459 |
State of matter
In physics, a state of matter is one of the distinct forms in which matter can exist. Four states of matter are observable in everyday life: solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. Many intermediate states are known to exist, such as liquid crystal, and some states only exist under extreme conditions, such as Bose–Einstein condensates, neutron-degenerate matter, and quark–gluon plasma, which only occur, respectively, in situations of extreme cold, extreme density, and extremely high energy. For a complete list of all exotic states of matter, see the list of states of matter.
Historically, the distinction is made based on qualitative differences in properties. Matter in the solid state maintains a fixed volume and shape, with component particles (atoms, molecules or ions) close together and fixed into place. Matter in the liquid state maintains a fixed volume, but has a variable shape that adapts to fit its container. Its particles are still close together but move freely. Matter in the gaseous state has both variable volume and shape, adapting both to fit its container. Its particles are neither close together nor fixed in place. Matter in the plasma state has variable volume and shape, and contains neutral atoms as well as a significant number of ions and electrons, both of which can move around freely.
The term phase is sometimes used as a synonym for state of matter, but a system can contain several immiscible phases of the same state of matter.
In a solid, constituent particles (ions, atoms, or molecules) are closely packed together. The forces between particles are so strong that the particles cannot move freely but can only vibrate. As a result, a solid has a stable, definite shape, and a definite volume. Solids can only change their shape by an outside force, as when broken or cut.
In crystalline solids, the particles (atoms, molecules, or ions) are packed in a regularly ordered, repeating pattern. There are various different crystal structures, and the same substance can have more than one structure (or solid phase). For example, iron has a body-centred cubic structure at temperatures below , and a face-centred cubic structure between 912 and . Ice has fifteen known crystal structures, or fifteen solid phases, which exist at various temperatures and pressures.
Glasses and other non-crystalline, amorphous solids without long-range order are not thermal equilibrium ground states; therefore they are described below as nonclassical states of matter.
Solids can be transformed into liquids by melting, and liquids can be transformed into solids by freezing. Solids can also change directly into gases through the process of sublimation, and gases can likewise change directly into solids through deposition.
A liquid is a nearly incompressible fluid that conforms to the shape of its container but retains a (nearly) constant volume independent of pressure. The volume is definite if the temperature and pressure are constant. When a solid is heated above its melting point, it becomes liquid, given that the pressure is higher than the triple point of the substance. Intermolecular (or interatomic or interionic) forces are still important, but the molecules have enough energy to move relative to each other and the structure is mobile. This means that the shape of a liquid is not definite but is determined by its container. The volume is usually greater than that of the corresponding solid, the best known exception being water, HO. The highest temperature at which a given liquid can exist is its critical temperature.
A gas is a compressible fluid. Not only will a gas conform to the shape of its container but it will also expand to fill the container.
In a gas, the molecules have enough kinetic energy so that the effect of intermolecular forces is small (or zero for an ideal gas), and the typical distance between neighboring molecules is much greater than the molecular size. A gas has no definite shape or volume, but occupies the entire container in which it is confined. A liquid may be converted to a gas by heating at constant pressure to the boiling point, or else by reducing the pressure at constant temperature.
At temperatures below its critical temperature, a gas is also called a vapor, and can be liquefied by compression alone without cooling. A vapor can exist in equilibrium with a liquid (or solid), in which case the gas pressure equals the vapor pressure of the liquid (or solid).
A supercritical fluid (SCF) is a gas whose temperature and pressure are above the critical temperature and critical pressure respectively. In this state, the distinction between liquid and gas disappears. A supercritical fluid has the physical properties of a gas, but its high density confers solvent properties in some cases, which leads to useful applications. For example, supercritical carbon dioxide is used to extract caffeine in the manufacture of decaffeinated coffee.
Like a gas, plasma does not have definite shape or volume. Unlike gases, plasmas are electrically conductive, produce magnetic fields and electric currents, and respond strongly to electromagnetic forces. Positively charged nuclei swim in a "sea" of freely-moving disassociated electrons, similar to the way such charges exist in conductive metal, where this electron "sea" allows matter in the plasma state to conduct electricity.
A gas is usually converted to a plasma in one of two ways, e.g., either from a huge voltage difference between two points, or by exposing it to extremely high temperatures. Heating matter to high temperatures causes electrons to leave the atoms, resulting in the presence of free electrons. This creates a so-called partially ionised plasma. At very high temperatures, such as those present in stars, it is assumed that essentially all electrons are "free", and that a very high-energy plasma is essentially bare nuclei swimming in a sea of electrons. This forms the so-called fully ionised plasma.
The plasma state is often misunderstood, and although not freely existing under normal conditions on Earth, it is quite commonly generated by either lightning, electric sparks, fluorescent lights, neon lights or in plasma televisions. The Sun's corona, some types of flame, and stars are all examples of illuminated matter in the plasma state.
A state of matter is also characterized by phase transitions. A phase transition indicates a change in structure and can be recognized by an abrupt change in properties. A distinct state of matter can be defined as any set of states distinguished from any other set of states by a phase transition. Water can be said to have several distinct solid states. The appearance of superconductivity is associated with a phase transition, so there are superconductive states. Likewise, ferromagnetic states are demarcated by phase transitions and have distinctive properties.
When the change of state occurs in stages the intermediate steps are called mesophases. Such phases have been exploited by the introduction of liquid crystal technology.
The state or "phase" of a given set of matter can change depending on pressure and temperature conditions, transitioning to other phases as these conditions change to favor their existence; for example, solid transitions to liquid with an increase in temperature. Near absolute zero, a substance exists as a solid. As heat is added to this substance it melts into a liquid at its melting point, boils into a gas at its boiling point, and if heated high enough would enter a plasma state in which the electrons are so energized that they leave their parent atoms.
Forms of matter that are not composed of molecules and are organized by different forces can also be considered different states of matter. Superfluids (like Fermionic condensate) and the quark–gluon plasma are examples.
In a chemical equation, the state of matter of the chemicals may be shown as (s) for solid, (l) for liquid, and (g) for gas. An aqueous solution is denoted (aq). Matter in the plasma state is seldom used (if at all) in chemical equations, so there is no standard symbol to denote it. In the rare equations that plasma is used it is symbolized as (p).
Glass is a non-crystalline or amorphous solid material that exhibits a glass transition when heated towards the liquid state. Glasses can be made of quite different classes of materials: inorganic networks (such as window glass, made of silicate plus additives), metallic alloys, ionic melts, aqueous solutions, molecular liquids, and polymers.
Thermodynamically, a glass is in a metastable state with respect to its crystalline counterpart. The conversion rate, however, is practically zero.
A plastic crystal is a molecular solid with long-range positional order but with constituent molecules retaining rotational freedom; in an orientational glass this degree of freedom is frozen in a quenched disordered state.
Similarly, in a spin glass magnetic disorder is frozen.
Liquid crystal states have properties intermediate between mobile liquids and ordered solids. Generally, they are able to flow like a liquid, but exhibiting long-range order. For example, the nematic phase consists of long rod-like molecules such as para-azoxyanisole, which is nematic in the temperature range . In this state the molecules flow as in a liquid, but they all point in the same direction (within each domain) and cannot rotate freely. Like a crystalline solid, but unlike a liquid, liquid crystals react to polarized light.
Other types of liquid crystals are described in the main article on these states. Several types have technological importance, for example, in liquid crystal displays.
Transition metal atoms often have magnetic moments due to the net spin of electrons that remain unpaired and do not form chemical bonds. In some solids the magnetic moments on different atoms are ordered and can form a ferromagnet, an antiferromagnet or a ferrimagnet.
In a ferromagnet—for instance, solid iron—the magnetic moment on each atom is aligned in the same direction (within a magnetic domain). If the domains are also aligned, the solid is a permanent magnet, which is magnetic even in the absence of an external magnetic field. The magnetization disappears when the magnet is heated to the Curie point, which for iron is .
An antiferromagnet has two networks of equal and opposite magnetic moments, which cancel each other out so that the net magnetization is zero. For example, in nickel(II) oxide (NiO), half the nickel atoms have moments aligned in one direction and half in the opposite direction.
In a ferrimagnet, the two networks of magnetic moments are opposite but unequal, so that cancellation is incomplete and there is a non-zero net magnetization. An example is magnetite (FeO), which contains Fe and Fe ions with different magnetic moments.
A quantum spin liquid (QSL) is a disordered state in a system of interacting quantum spins which preserves its disorder to very low temperatures, unlike other disordered states. It is not a liquid in physical sense, but a solid whose magnetic order is inherently disordered. The name "liquid" is due to an analogy with the molecular disorder in a conventional liquid. A QSL is neither a ferromagnet, where magnetic domains are parallel, nor an antiferromagnet, where the magnetic domains are antiparallel; instead, the magnetic domains are randomly oriented. This can be realized e.g. by geometrically frustrated magnetic moments that cannot point uniformly parallel or antiparallel. When cooling down and settling to a state, the domain must "choose" an orientation, but if the possible states are similar in energy, one will be chosen randomly. Consequently, despite strong short-range order, there is no long-range magnetic order.
Copolymers can undergo microphase separation to form a diverse array of periodic nanostructures, as shown in the example of the styrene-butadiene-styrene block copolymer shown at right. Microphase separation can be understood by analogy to the phase separation between oil and water. Due to chemical incompatibility between the blocks, block copolymers undergo a similar phase separation. However, because the blocks are covalently bonded to each other, they cannot demix macroscopically as water and oil can, and so instead the blocks form nanometre-sized structures. Depending on the relative lengths of each block and the overall block topology of the polymer, many morphologies can be obtained, each its own phase of matter.
Ionic liquids also display microphase separation. The anion and cation are not necessarily compatible and would demix otherwise, but electric charge attraction prevents them from separating. Their anions and cations appear to diffuse within compartmentalized layers or micelles instead of freely as in a uniform liquid.
Close to absolute zero, some liquids form a second liquid state described as superfluid because it has zero viscosity (or infinite fluidity; i.e., flowing without friction). This was discovered in 1937 for helium, which forms a superfluid below the lambda temperature of . In this state it will attempt to "climb" out of its container. It also has infinite thermal conductivity so that no temperature gradient can form in a superfluid. Placing a superfluid in a spinning container will result in quantized vortices.
These properties are explained by the theory that the common isotope helium-4 forms a Bose–Einstein condensate (see next section) in the superfluid state. More recently, Fermionic condensate superfluids have been formed at even lower temperatures by the rare isotope helium-3 and by lithium-6.
In 1924, Albert Einstein and Satyendra Nath Bose predicted the "Bose–Einstein condensate" (BEC), sometimes referred to as the fifth state of matter. In a BEC, matter stops behaving as independent particles, and collapses into a single quantum state that can be described with a single, uniform wavefunction.
In the gas phase, the Bose–Einstein condensate remained an unverified theoretical prediction for many years. In 1995, the research groups of Eric Cornell and Carl Wieman, of JILA at the University of Colorado at Boulder, produced the first such condensate experimentally. A Bose–Einstein condensate is "colder" than a solid. It may occur when atoms have very similar (or the same) quantum levels, at temperatures very close to absolute zero, .
A "fermionic condensate" is similar to the Bose–Einstein condensate but composed of fermions. The Pauli exclusion principle prevents fermions from entering the same quantum state, but a pair of fermions can behave as a boson, and multiple such pairs can then enter the same quantum state without restriction.
One of the metastable states of strongly non-ideal plasma is Rydberg matter, which forms upon condensation of excited atoms. These atoms can also turn into ions and electrons if they reach a certain temperature. In April 2009, "Nature" reported the creation of Rydberg molecules from a Rydberg atom and a ground state atom, confirming that such a state of matter could exist. The experiment was performed using ultracold rubidium atoms.
A "quantum Hall state" gives rise to quantized Hall voltage measured in the direction perpendicular to the current flow. A "quantum spin Hall state" is a theoretical phase that may pave the way for the development of electronic devices that dissipate less energy and generate less heat. This is a derivation of the Quantum Hall state of matter.
Photonic matter is a phenomenon where photons interacting with a gas develop apparent mass, and can interact with each other, even forming photonic "molecules". The source of mass is the gas, which is massive. This is in contrast to photons moving in empty space, which have no rest mass, and cannot interact.
A "quantum fog" of electrons and holes that flow around each other and even ripple like a liquid, rather than existing as discrete pairs.
Under extremely high pressure, as in the cores of dead stars, ordinary matter undergoes a transition to a series of exotic states of matter collectively known as degenerate matter, which are supported mainly by quantum mechanical effects. In physics, "degenerate" refers to two states that have the same energy and are thus interchangeable. Degenerate matter is supported by the Pauli exclusion principle, which prevents two fermionic particles from occupying the same quantum state. Unlike regular plasma, degenerate plasma expands little when heated, because there are simply no momentum states left. Consequently, degenerate stars collapse into very high densities. More massive degenerate stars are smaller, because the gravitational force increases, but pressure does not increase proportionally.
Electron-degenerate matter is found inside white dwarf stars. Electrons remain bound to atoms but are able to transfer to adjacent atoms. Neutron-degenerate matter is found in neutron stars. Vast gravitational pressure compresses atoms so strongly that the electrons are forced to combine with protons via inverse beta-decay, resulting in a superdense conglomeration of neutrons. Normally free neutrons outside an atomic nucleus will decay with a half life of just under 15 minutes, but in a neutron star, the decay is overtaken by inverse decay. Cold degenerate matter is also present in planets such as Jupiter and in the even more massive brown dwarfs, which are expected to have a core with metallic hydrogen. Because of the degeneracy, more massive brown dwarfs are not significantly larger. In metals, the electrons can be modeled as a degenerate gas moving in a lattice of non-degenerate positive ions.
In regular cold matter, quarks, fundamental particles of nuclear matter, are confined by the strong force into hadrons that consist of 2–4 quarks, such as protons and neutrons. Quark matter or quantum chromodynanamical (QCD) matter is a group of phases where the strong force is overcome and quarks are deconfined and free to move. Quark matter phases occur at extremely high densities or temperatures, and there are no known ways to produce them in equilibrium in the laboratory; in ordinary conditions, any quark matter formed immediately undergoes radioactive decay.
Strange matter is a type of quark matter that is suspected to exist inside some neutron stars close to the Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff limit (approximately 2–3 solar masses), although there is no direct evidence of its existence. In strange matter, part of the energy available manifests as strange quarks, a heavier analogue of the common down quark. It may be stable at lower energy states once formed, although this is not known.
Quark–gluon plasma is a very high-temperature phase in which quarks become free and able to move independently, rather than being perpetually bound into particles, in a sea of gluons, subatomic particles that transmit the strong force that binds quarks together. This is analogous to the liberation of electrons from atoms in a plasma. This state is briefly attainable in extremely high-energy heavy ion collisions in particle accelerators, and allows scientists to observe the properties of individual quarks, and not just theorize. Quark–gluon plasma was discovered at CERN in 2000. Unlike plasma, which flows like a gas, interactions within QGP are strong and it flows like a liquid.
At high densities but relatively low temperatures, quarks are theorized to form a quark liquid whose nature is presently unknown. It forms a distinct color-flavor locked (CFL) phase at even higher densities. This phase is superconductive for color charge. These phases may occur in neutron stars but they are presently theoretical.
Color-glass condensate is a type of matter theorized to exist in atomic nuclei traveling near the speed of light. According to Einstein's theory of relativity, a high-energy nucleus appears length contracted, or compressed, along its direction of motion. As a result, the gluons inside the nucleus appear to a stationary observer as a "gluonic wall" traveling near the speed of light. At very high energies, the density of the gluons in this wall is seen to increase greatly. Unlike the quark–gluon plasma produced in the collision of such walls, the color-glass condensate describes the walls themselves, and is an intrinsic property of the particles that can only be observed under high-energy conditions such as those at RHIC and possibly at the Large Hadron Collider as well.
Various theories predict new states of matter at very high energies. An unknown state has created the baryon asymmetry in the universe, but little is known about it. In string theory, a Hagedorn temperature is predicted for superstrings at about 1030 K, where superstrings are copiously produced. At Planck temperature (1032 K), gravity becomes a significant force between individual particles. No current theory can describe these states and they cannot be produced with any foreseeable experiment. However, these states are important in cosmology because the universe may have passed through these states in the Big Bang.
The gravitational singularity predicted by general relativity to exist at the center of a black hole is "not" a phase of matter; it is not a material object at all (although the mass-energy of matter contributed to its creation) but rather a property of spacetime at a location. It could be argued, of course, that all particles are properties of spacetime at a location, leaving a half-note of controversy on the subject.
A supersolid is a spatially ordered material (that is, a solid or crystal) with superfluid properties. Similar to a superfluid, a supersolid is able to move without friction but retains a rigid shape. Although a supersolid is a solid, it exhibits so many characteristic properties different from other solids that many argue it is another state of matter.
In a string-net liquid, atoms have apparently unstable arrangement, like a liquid, but are still consistent in overall pattern, like a solid. When in a normal solid state, the atoms of matter align themselves in a grid pattern, so that the spin of any electron is the opposite of the spin of all electrons touching it. But in a string-net liquid, atoms are arranged in some pattern that requires some electrons to have neighbors with the same spin. This gives rise to curious properties, as well as supporting some unusual proposals about the fundamental conditions of the universe itself.
A superglass is a phase of matter characterized, at the same time, by superfluidity and a frozen amorphous structure. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37461 |
Paul Molitor
Paul Leo Molitor (born August 22, 1956), nicknamed "Molly" and "The Ignitor", is an American former Major League Baseball (MLB) player and former manager of the Minnesota Twins, who is in the Baseball Hall of Fame. During his 21-year baseball career, he played for the Milwaukee Brewers (1978–1992), Toronto Blue Jays (1993–1995), and Minnesota Twins (1996–1998). He was known for his exceptional hitting and speed. He made seven All-Star Game appearances, and was the World Series MVP in 1993.
Molitor grew up in Minnesota and attended the University of Minnesota before beginning his MLB career. Molitor served as a coach for the Seattle Mariners and the Twins after his retirement as a player. In 2004, he was elected to the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, becoming one of the first players enshrined after spending a significant portion of his career as a designated hitter. He was a finalist for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. On November 3, 2014, Molitor was announced as the 13th manager of the Minnesota Twins. He managed the team for four seasons, and was fired in October 2018.
Molitor was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota. After graduating from Cretin High School, he was selected in the 28th round of the 1974 free agent draft as a pitcher by the St. Louis Cardinals, but opted instead to attend college at the University of Minnesota. He was a three-year starter for the Golden Gophers, earning All American honors as a shortstop for his sophomore and junior years. Between his junior and senior seasons, Molitor suffered a broken jaw. With his jaw wired shut for eight weeks, Molitor lost 40 pounds.
After his junior year in college, he was selected third overall in the 1977 Major League Baseball draft by the Milwaukee Brewers. He signed with the Brewers and began his professional career in Iowa, playing for the Class A Burlington Bees of the Midwest League. In 64 games with Burlington, Molitor hit for a .346 batting average, 8 home runs, 50 runs batted in (RBI) and 14 stolen bases.
Molitor began as a shortstop, then moved to second base when Robin Yount returned from a brief injury. He made his MLB debut in 1978, playing in 125 games and hitting .273 with 6 home runs, 45 RBIs and 30 stolen bases. In 1981, he spent time at center field and right field to avoid the injuries associated with infield play. Molitor was moved to third base before the 1982 season. Molitor was part of a young Milwaukee Brewers team that lost the 1982 World Series in seven games to the St. Louis Cardinals. Molitor batted .355 during the series. In Game 1, he had five hits, a World Series record. During the 1982 season, he hit .302 and led the American League (AL) with 136 runs scored. On May 12, he hit three home runs against the Royals in a 9-7 loss.
Molitor struggled with injuries for much of his early career, being placed on the disabled list six times between 1980 and 1986. In 1984, Molitor struggled with elbow problems, played in only 13 games and ultimately underwent surgery in an attempt to salvage his career. He played in 140 games in 1985, hitting .297 with 10 home runs and 48 RBIs. He followed that with a .281 average, 9 home runs and 55 RBI in 1986. That year he suffered a hamstring injury, returned for a few days, then reinjured it. He played in 105 games that season.
Molitor attracted national media attention in 1987 during his 39-game hitting streak. Near the end of the streak, columnist Mike Downey wrote that "the amazing thing about Paul Molitor's recent bat-o-rama is not that he has hit in 33 straight games but that he has played in 33 straight games." The streak ended with Molitor in the on-deck circle when Rick Manning got a game-ending hit to beat the Cleveland Indians on August 26, 1987. Fans booed Manning for driving in the winning run and thus depriving Molitor of one last chance to reach 40 games. The streak stands as the fifth-longest in modern-day baseball history, and remains the longest since Pete Rose's 44-game hit streak in 1978.
Although Molitor wanted to remain with Milwaukee when he became a free agent after the 1992 season, the franchise offered him a one-year contract with a $900,000 pay cut (to $2.5 million), while the Toronto Blue Jays offered a three-year, $13 million ($ in current dollar terms) deal, leading to his signing with the Blue Jays. Agent Ron Simon said, "I was also talking with Milwaukee, but it became clear to us that Milwaukee didn't have the same kind of interest in signing Molitor, perhaps because of their financial situation."
Molitor quickly became an offensive juggernaut. In 1993, Molitor led the AL in plate appearances (725) and hits (211) and hit .332 with 22 home runs and 111 RBI. Returning to the playoffs for the first time since 1982, he was a key part of the Blue Jays' second World Championship. Molitor hit 2 doubles, 2 triples, and 2 home runs in the Series, earning the World Series MVP Award and tied a World Series record by batting .500 (12-for-24) in the six-game series. In addition, after DHing all season, Molitor played Game 3 of the World Series at first base and Games 4 and 5 at third base in the games played at Philadelphia.
In 1994, a strike-shortened season, Molitor hit .341 and led the AL in games played (115) and singles (107). He also stole 20 bases that season without ever being caught, one short of Kevin McReynolds' 1988 major league record of 21. Molitor's average dropped to .270 in 1995, his lowest mark in more than ten years.
He left the Blue Jays after the season, and joined his hometown Minnesota Twins for the final three seasons of his career, where he acquired his 3,000th hit. He was the first player to reach the 3,000 hits plateau with a triple. Molitor was relishing the opportunity to play with Twins superstar Kirby Puckett, but Puckett developed career-ending glaucoma during spring training in 1996 and never played again. In 1996, Molitor became the second 40-year-old, after Hall of Famer Sam Rice, to have a 200-hit season, leading the league with 225, while also leading the league in singles with 167. Molitor also remains the last MLB player to drive in 100 or more runs in a season while hitting fewer than 10 home runs (9 HR, 113 RBIs).
Molitor hit .305 in 1997, his twelfth season to finish with a batting average higher than .300. In 1998, he hit .281 with 4 home runs, 69 RBI and 9 stolen bases. Other than his very brief 1984 season, the 1998 season was the first in Molitor's career in which he did not reach double-digit stolen base totals. He retired in December, saying, "My heart tells me I've done what I can do on the field and in this game", Molitor said. "I'm happy to leave it playing my last season in a Twins uniform... Now I'm going to redirect my efforts to find out what else the future holds."
After retiring as a player, Molitor remained with the Twins as a bench coach for three seasons. He was considered a leading candidate to manage the team when Tom Kelly retired after 2001, but he declined in part because the Twins were still being targeted for potential contraction. Molitor was a hitting coach with the Mariners in 2004. He then spent the 2005 to 2013 seasons in the Twins organization as a minor league baserunning and fielding instructor. Molitor joined the Twins coaching staff in 2014 to oversee baserunning, bunting, infield instruction, and positioning.
The Twins hired Molitor to fill their manager vacancy for the 2015 season, and introduced him in a press conference on November 4, 2014.
At the end of the 2017 season, the Twins announced that Molitor would receive a three-year contract extension through 2020. Molitor was rewarded for his efforts in leading the Twins back to the postseason after losing 103 games the season prior, the first team in history to achieve this feat, by being named American League Manager of the Year in November 2017. He became only the second person to be elected to the Hall of Fame as a player and win the Manager of the Year Award behind Frank Robinson, who was named AL Manager of the Year in 1989 while managing the Baltimore Orioles.
On October 2, 2018, the Twins fired Molitor as manager, but expressed that they had interest in having him continue to maintain a role with the team in some capacity. He finished with a record of 305 wins and 343 losses in 648 games.
Molitor's lifetime statistics include 2,683 games played, 1,782 runs scored, 3,319 hits, 234 home runs, 1,307 runs batted in, a .306 batting average, and 504 stolen bases. His 3,319 hits rank him ninth all-time. In addition, he batted .368 in five postseason series, and was an all-star seven times. Molitor recorded these statistics while missing nearly 500 games due to various injuries throughout his career. In 1999, Molitor ranked No. 99 on "The Sporting News"' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and he was nominated as a finalist for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. Molitor was elected to the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame in 1999.
On June 11, 1999, the Brewers retired Molitor's uniform number 4. During the ceremony at Milwaukee County Stadium, Molitor announced that if he went into the Hall of Fame, he would do so as a Brewer. On January 6, 2004, he was elected to the Hall in his first year of eligibility, with 85.2% of the votes. True to his word, he joined Robin Yount as the only Hall of Famers to be depicted on their plaques with Brewers caps. At the time of his induction, Molitor was the hitting coach for the Seattle Mariners.
Molitor is one of five players in major league history with at least 3,000 hits, a .300 lifetime batting average, and 500 stolen bases. The other four are Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Eddie Collins and Ichiro Suzuki. Only Ichiro and Molitor played beyond 1930. Molitor is the only player ever to accomplish those feats and hit at least 200 home runs. Molitor is also the first player in World Series history to have at least two home runs, two doubles, and two triples in one series (1993). He is a member of an exclusive club, hitting .300 or better in full seasons across three decades (1970s, 80s, and 90s). He hit better than .300 a dozen times in his career. Including Game 1 of the 1982 World Series, he recorded eight 5-hit games and four 200+ hit seasons in his 21 year major league career.
During the early years of his career, Molitor began using cocaine and marijuana. During the trial of a drug dealer in 1984, Molitor admitted that he had used drugs. Many years later, he said, "There are things you're not so proud of — failures, mistakes, dabbling in drugs, a young ballplayer in the party scene. Part of it was peer pressure. I was young and single, and hung around with the wrong people... You learn from it. You find a positive in it. It makes you appreciate the things that are good." He claims to have stopped using drugs in 1981, and has since visited schools to lecture about the dangers of drug use.
Molitor married Linda Kaplan in 1981, and before their 2003 divorce it was revealed he had fathered a son in an extramarital affair with Joanna Andreou and was paying child support. During his legal separation from Linda, he fathered another child with the woman who would become his second wife, Destini; they later had a third child together. During his Hall of Fame induction speech, Molitor mentioned his difficult family relationships; the divorce from Linda caused such hard feelings that his ex-wife and daughter almost did not attend his induction ceremony. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37462 |
Miller's knot
A miller's knot (also sack knot or bag knot) is a binding knot used to secure the opening of a sack or bag. Historically, large sacks often contained grains; thus the association of these knots with the miller's trade. Several knots are known interchangeably by these three names.
Constrictor makes a fiercer binding knot, but Miller's/Bag is suitable for most applications, and is easier to tie/untie. Miller's/Bag makes a great hitch, like the similar Ground-Line. Binding usage has force emanating from inside rope ring evenly, hitch usage has force input from one side, then reducing around.
As noted above, several other distinct knots have historically been known as miller's, sack, or bag knots; namely ABOK-1241, ABOK-1242, ABOK-1243 (Ground line hitch), ABOK-1674, ABOK-11 and their slipped versions. These fit the short description "two crossing turns – ends tucked under".
The following 3 knots do not fit the simple "two crossing turns – ends tucked under" definition but are very secure:
The common aspects of the most common bag knots are two crossing turns, and both ends tucked under some turns near the crossing point. Two ends, and two turns one can tuck under, gives a limited number of alternatives. All of these knots can also be made in a slipped form by starting with a bight and/or by completing the final tuck with a bight instead of the end.
To avoid ambiguity, versions of these knots that are not slipped are pictured below with the reference numbers found in "The Ashley Book of Knots".
This is to tie a Constrictor knot version of the miller's knot:
To tie the other variants:
Tying other knots that also may function very well as a bag knot but are slightly different from above descriptions: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37463 |
Constrictor knot
The constrictor knot is one of the most effective binding knots. Simple and secure, it is a harsh knot that can be difficult or impossible to untie once tightened. It is made similarly to a clove hitch but with one end passed under the other, forming an overhand knot under a riding turn. The double constrictor knot is an even more robust variation that features two riding turns.
First called "constrictor knot" in Clifford Ashley's 1944 work "The Ashley Book of Knots", this knot likely dates back much further. Although Ashley seemed to imply that he had invented the constrictor knot over 25 years before publishing "The Ashley Book of Knots", research indicates that he was not its only originator --but his Book of Knots does seem to be the source of subsequent knowledge & awareness of the knot. Ashley's publication of the knot did bring it to wider attention.
Although the description is not entirely without ambiguity, the constrictor knot is thought to have appeared under the name "gunner's knot" in the 1866 work "The Book of Knots", written under the pseudonym Tom Bowling. The knot is described in relation to the clove hitch, which he illustrated and called the "builder's knot". He wrote, "The Gunner's knot (of which we do not give a diagram) only differs from the builder's knot, by the ends of the cords being simply knotted before being brought from under the loop which crosses them." But Bowling is simply an extraction & translation of the knotting work contained in the huge French "Traite de L'Art de la Charpenterie", ca. 1840, which says "Le noeud de bombardier, que nous n'avons point figure', ne differe du noeud d'artificier qu'en ce que le outs du cordage sont croise's en noeud simple, avant de sortir de dessous la ganse qui les croise, fig.46." When J. T. Burgess copied from Bowling, he changed this text to merely state "when the ends are knotted, the builder's knot becomes the gunner's Knot." Although a clove hitch with knotted ends "is" a workable binding knot, Burgess was not actually describing the constrictor knot. In 1917, A. Hyatt Verrill illustrated Burgess' clove hitch variation in "Knots, Splices and Rope Work".
The constrictor knot was clearly described but not pictured as the "timmerknut" ("timber knot") in the 1916 Swedish book "Om Knutar" ("On Knots") by Hjalmar Öhrvall. Finnish scout leader Martta Ropponen presented the knot in her 1931 scouting handbook "Solmukirja" ("Knot Book"), the first published work known to contain an illustration of the constrictor knot. Cyrus L. Day relates that, "she had never seen it in Finland, she wrote to me in 1954, but had learned about it from a Spaniard named Raphael Gaston, who called it a whip knot, and told her it was used in the mountains of Spain by muleteers and herdsmen." The Finnish name "ruoskasolmu" ("whip knot") was a translation from Esperanto, the language Ropponen used to correspond with Gaston. But even this explicit occurrence of the constrictor remains in doubt, as the name "whip knot" is not applied to the constrictor in other works, and otherwise is used for the strangle knot, tied in the ends of whip tails.
The method shown below is the most basic way to tie the knot around a post (that is, using a working end).
There are also at least three methods to tie the constrictor knot in the bight and slip it over the end of an object to be bound.
Using both hands when the end of the object to tie to is available:
If one or both of the ends are folded in between the two loops and lead in the opposite direction, the knot becomes slipped.
Using one hand when the end of the object to tie to is available:
If the rope is to be stretched in tension, the grabbing at stage 2 may first tighten the top side rope, the bottom side rope may be pulled to tighten the knot itself, and the bottom rope side may be tightened by the knot at the next pole.
If one or both of the ends are folded and led in the opposite direction before the last loop is folded over the objects end, the knot becomes slipped and therefore easier to untie: It also makes it possible to stretch either side rope tight by pulling at the slip loops.
If a stronger and even more secure knot is required an extra riding turn can be added to the basic knot to form a double constrictor knot. It is particularly useful when tying the knot with very slippery twine, especially when waxed. Adding more than one extra riding turn does not add to its security and makes the knot more difficult to tighten evenly.
This variation is useful if it is known beforehand that the constrictor will need to be released. Depending on the knotting material and how tightly it is cinched, the slipped form can still be very difficult to release.
The slipped constrictor can also be tied in the bight and slipped over the object to constrict. Despite its advertised advantage (quick release), the slipped constrictor knot can also be hard to release when worked extremely tight in certain rope materials.
This variation is similar to the double constrictor knot but has the two riding turns crossing each other rather than riding along. It is unclear whether it is more secure than the double constrictor, and has the unhelpful aspect of being thicker at the bridge of the knot, with three rope diameters.
There are two types depending on which direction the two riding turns cross. When the bottom riding turn is along the grove of the ends wrapping around each other on their way out, it gives a slightly lower knot height and may be seen as a strangle knot with an extra riding turn across.
The constrictor knot is appropriate for situations where secure temporary or semi-permanent binding is needed. Made with small-stuff it is especially effective, as the binding force is concentrated over a smaller area. When tying over soft material such as the neck of a bag, take care to keep the wraps of the knot together. The constrictor knot can damage or disfigure items it is tied around. To exert extreme tension on the knot without injuring the hands, one can fashion handles using marlinespike hitches made around two rods.
Constrictor knots can be used for temporarily binding the fibres of a rope (or strand ends) together while splicing, or when cutting to length and before properly whipping the ends. Constrictor knots can also be quite effective as improvised hose clamps or cable ties. The knot has also been recommended as a surgical knot for ligatures in human and veterinary surgery, where it has been shown to be far superior to any of the knots commonly used for ligation. Noted master-rigger Brion Toss says of the constrictor: "To know the knot is to constantly find uses for it…"
A heavily tightened constrictor knot will likely jam. If the ends are long enough, one can sometimes untie it by pulling one end generally parallel to the bound object and a bit up away from it, and prying it into the opposite end's part to open the knot. Tools that can be forced between parts of the knot (such as picks and marlinespikes) may help.
If the ends have been trimmed short, or the knot is otherwise hopelessly jammed, it can be easily released by cutting the riding turn with a sharp knife. The knot will spring apart as soon as the riding turn is cut. If care is taken not to cut too deeply, the underlying wraps will protect the bound object from being damaged by the knife.
The constrictor and double constrictor are both extremely secure when tied tightly around convex objects with cord scaled for the task at hand. If binding around a not fully convex, or square-edged object, arrange the knot so the overhand knot portion is stretched across a convex portion, or a corner, with the riding turn squarely on top of it. In situations where the object leaves gaps under the knot and there are no corners, it is possible to finish the constrictor knot off with an additional overhand knot, in the fashion of a reef knot, to help stabilize it. Those recommendations aside, constrictor knots do function best on fully convex objects.
If the constricted object (such as a temporarily whipped rope) ends very close to where a constrictor binds it, a boa knot may prove a more stable solution. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37469 |
Trondheim
Trondheim (, , ; ), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem, is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. It has a population of 199,039 (27/02/2020), and is the third most populous municipality in Norway, although the fourth largest urban area. Trondheim lies on the south shore of Trondheim Fjord at the mouth of the River Nidelva. The city is dominated by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), the Foundation for Scientific and Industrial Research (SINTEF), St. Olavs University Hospital and other technology-oriented institutions.
The settlement was founded in 997 as a trading post, and it served as the capital of Norway during the Viking Age until 1217. From 1152 to 1537, the city was the seat of the Catholic Archdiocese of Nidaros; since then, it has remained the seat of the Lutheran Diocese of Nidaros and the Nidaros Cathedral. It was incorporated in 1838. The current municipality dates from 1964, when Trondheim merged with Byneset, Leinstrand, Strinda and Tiller.
The city functions as the seat of the County Mayor of Trøndelag county, but not as the administrative centre, which is Steinkjer. This is to make the county more efficient and not too centralized, as Trøndelag is the second largest county in Norway.
The city was originally given the name by Olav Tryggvason. It was for a long time called ' (), or ' in the Old Norse spelling. But it was also just called ' ("city") or, more specifically, ' ("the city in the district ", i.e. Trøndelag). In the late Middle Ages people started to call the city just '. In the Dano-Norwegian period, during the years as a provincial town in the united kingdoms of Denmark–Norway, the city name was spelled '.
Following the example set by the renaming of the capital ' to "Oslo", ' was reintroduced as the official name of the city for a brief period from 1 January 1930 until 6 March 1931. The name was restored in order to reaffirm the city's link with its glorious past, despite the fact that a 1928 referendum on the name of the city had resulted in 17,163 votes in favour of ' and only 1,508 votes in favour of Nidaros. Public outrage later in the same year, even taking the form of riots, forced the Storting to settle for the medieval city name "Trondheim". The name of the diocese was, however, changed from ' to " () in 1918.
Trondheim was briefly named " during the Second World War, as a German exonym.
Trondheim was named Kaupangen () by Viking King Olav Tryggvason in 997 CE. Shortly thereafter it came to be called "Nidaros". In the beginning it was frequently used as a military retainer (Old Norse: "hird"-man) of King Olav I. It was frequently used as the seat of the king, and was the capital of Norway until 1217.
People have been living in the region for thousands of years as evidenced by the rock carvings in central Norway, the Nøstvet and Lihult cultures and the Corded Ware culture. In ancient times, the Kings of Norway were hailed at Øretinget in Trondheim, the place for the assembly of all free men by the mouth of the River Nidelva. Harald Fairhair (865–933) was hailed as the king here, as was his son, Haakon I, called 'the Good'. The battle of "Kalvskinnet" took place in Trondheim in 1179: King Sverre Sigurdsson and his "Birkebeiner" warriors were victorious against Erling Skakke (a rival to the throne). Some scholars believe that the famous Lewis chessmen, 12th century chess pieces carved from walrus ivory found in the Hebrides and now at the British Museum, may have been made in Trondheim.
Trondheim was the seat of the Archbishop of Nidaros for Norway from 1152, who operated from the Archbishop's Palace. Due to the introduction of Lutheran Protestantism in 1537, the last Archbishop, Olav Engelbrektsson, had to flee from the city to the Netherlands, where he died in present-day Lier, Belgium.
The city has experienced several major fires. Since much of the city was made of wooden buildings, many of the fires caused severe damage. Great fires ravaged the city in 1598, 1651, 1681, 1708, twice in 1717, 1742, 1788, 1841 and 1842; however, these were only the worst cases and there have been several smaller fires in the city. The 1651 fire destroyed 90% of all buildings within the city limits. The fire in 1681 (the "Horneman Fire") led to an almost total reconstruction of the city, overseen by General Johan Caspar von Cicignon, originally from Luxembourg. Broad avenues like Munkegata were created, with no regard for property rights, in order to stop the next fire. At the time, the city had a population of under 10,000 inhabitants, with most living in the downtown area.
After the Treaty of Roskilde on 26 February 1658, Trondheim and the rest of Trøndelag, became Swedish territory for a brief period, but the area was reconquered 10 months later. The conflict was finally settled by the Treaty of Copenhagen on 27 May 1660.
During the Second World War, Trondheim was occupied by Nazi Germany from 9 April 1940, the first day of the invasion of Norway, until the end of the war in Europe, 8 May 1945. The German invasion force consisted of the German cruiser Admiral Hipper, 4 destroyers and 1700 Austrian Mountain troops. Other than a coastal battery opening fire, there was no resistance to the invasion on 9 April at 5 AM. On 14 and 17 April, British and French forces landed near Trondheim in a failed attempt to liberate Trondheim as part of the Namsos Campaign. During the occupation, Trondheim was the home of the notorious Norwegian Gestapo agent, Henry Rinnan, who operated from a nearby villa and infiltrated Norwegian Resistance groups. The city and its citizens were also subject to harsh treatment by the occupying powers, including imposition of martial law in October 1942. During this time the Germans turned the city and its environs into a major base for submarines (which included building the large submarine base and bunker DORA I), and also contemplated a scheme to build a new city for 300,000 inhabitants, "Nordstern" ("Northern Star"), centred southwest of Trondheim, near the wetlands of Øysand in the outskirts of Melhus municipality. This new metropolis was to be accompanied by a massively expanded version of the already existing naval base, which was intended to become the primary future stronghold of the German Kriegsmarine. Today, there are few physical remains of this enormous construction project.
The city of Trondheim was established on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). On 1 January 1864, part of Strinda (population: 1,229) was amalgamated with Trondheim. Then, on 1 January 1893, another part of Strinda (population: 4,097) was transferred to Trondheim. On 1 January 1952, the Lade area of Strinda (population: 2,230) was transferred to Trondheim. On 1 January 1964, a major municipal merger took place: the neighbouring municipalities of Leinstrand (population: 4,193), Byneset (population: 2,049), Strinda (population: 44,600), and Tiller (population: 3,595) were all merged with the city of Trondheim (population: 56,982), which nearly doubled the population of the municipality. On 1 January 2020, the neighboring Klæbu Municipality (population: 6,050) was merged with Trondheim Municipality.
The coat of arms dates back to the 13th century. To the left, there is an archbishop with his staff and mitre in a church archway. On the right, a crowned king holding scales in a castle archway. These two pictures rest on a base which forms an arch. Underneath that arch, are three male heads which symbolise the city's rank as Norway's first capital and the archbishop's place of residence. The scales symbolise justice and the motif is based on the political philosophy of the 13th century, where the balance of power between king and church was an important issue. The three heads at the bottom may symbolise the city council. The motif is unique in Norwegian municipal heraldry, but similar motifs are found in bishopric cities on the continent. The design of the coat-of-arms that was adopted in 1897, and is still used today, was made by Håkon Thorsen.
Trondheim is situated where the River Nidelva meets Trondheim Fjord with an excellent harbour and sheltered condition. The river used to be deep enough for most boats in the Middle Ages. An avalanche of mud and stones made it less navigable and partly ruined the harbour in the mid-17th century.
The municipality's top elevation is the Storheia hill, above sea level. At the summer solstice, the sun rises at 03:00 and sets at 23:40, but stays just below the horizon–there is no darkness (no need for artificial lighting outdoors) from 23 May to 19 July under cloud-free conditions. At the winter solstice, the sun rises at 10:01, stays very low above the horizon (at midday its altitude is slightly more than 3 degrees over the horizon), and sets at 14:31.
Trondheim city has an oceanic climate or humid continental climate, depending on the winter threshold used (0 °C or -3 °C). The part of the municipality further away from the fjord has colder winters. The part close to the fjord, such as the city centre, has milder winters. Trondheim is mostly sheltered from the strong south and southwesterly winds which can occur along the outer seaboard. Trondheim experiences moderate snowfall from November to March, but mixed with mild weather and rainfall. Based on the 1971–2000 average recorded at the airport, there are 14 days each winter with at least of snow cover on the ground and 22 days with a daily minimum temperature of or less. There is often more snow and later snowmelt in suburban areas at somewhat higher elevation, such as Byåsen and Heimdal, with good skiing conditions in Bymarka. Spring often sees much sunshine, but nights can be chilly. Temperatures have tended to be warmer in recent years. The Trøndelag area has seen average temperatures increase by almost in the last 25 years.
All the monthly record lows are from 1955 or older, with half of them from before 1920. The all-time high was recorded 22 July 1901, and the all-time low in February 1899. The most exceptional record is the May record low from 1900, 3.7 °C colder than the second coldest May night. The earliest weather stations were located closer to the city centre (Trondheim, 58 m), but from 1945 the only weather station has been located further form the centre and at a higher elevation (Voll, 127 m and Tyholt, 113 m) thus at a colder location. The lapse rate is approximately per , so the city centre at 10 m asl will be about warmer than Voll, while higher altitudes than Voll will be accordingly colder.
Three of the monthly record highs are from after 2000. From 1982 - 1993 the city had weather station at Tyholt (113 m) while Voll was not operational.
Temperatures have warmed in recent decades. The last overnight frost in June was in 1958, and the coldest night in May after year 2000 had low -2.7 °C.
A new sunrecorder was established by met.no in the city at Gløshaugen in late 2015, and recorded 1,592 sunhours in 2016, 1,576 sunhours in 2017, 1,705 sunhours in 2018 and 1649 sunhours in 2019. Earlier sunrecorders had blocking issues due to terrain.
The city has various wetland habitats. among which there is the "Gaulosen." The observation tower accommodates for birdwatching and providing information about birdlife.
Despite Trondheim being Norway's third largest city, wild animals can be seen. Otters and beavers thrive in Nidelva and Bymarka. Badgers and foxes are not uncommon sights. Moose and deer are common in the hills surrounding the city, and might wander into the city, especially in May when the one-year-olds are chased away by their mothers, or in late winter when food grows scarce in the snow-covered higher regions. From 2002 until 2017, a wolverine lived in Bymarka.
Most of Trondheim city centre is scattered with small speciality shops. However, the main shopping area is concentrated around the pedestrianised streets "Nordre gate" (), "Olav Tryggvasons gate" and Thomas Angells gate even though the rest of the city centre is provided with everything from old, well-established companies to new, hip and trendy shops.
In the mid- to late 1990s, the area surrounding the old drydock and ship construction buildings of the defunct Trondhjems mekaniske Værksted shipbuilding company at the Nedre Elvehavn was renovated and old industrial buildings were torn down to make way for condominiums. A shopping centre was also built, known as Solsiden (The Sunny Side). This is a popular residential and shopping area, especially for young people.
DORA 1 is a German submarine base that housed the 13th U-boat Flotilla during the Second World War occupation of Norway. Today the bunker houses various archives, among them the city archives, the university and state archives. More recently, DORA has been used as a concert venue.
Kristiansten Fortress, built 1681–1684, is located on a hill east in Trondheim. It repelled the invading Swedes in 1718, but was decommissioned in 1816 by Crown Prince Regent Charles John.
A statue of Olav Tryggvason, the founder of Trondheim, is located in the city's central square, mounted on top of an obelisk. The statue base is also a sun dial, but it is calibrated to UTC+1 so that the reading is inaccurate by one hour in the summer.
The islet Munkholmen is a popular tourist attraction and recreation site. The islet has served as a place of execution, a monastery, a fortress, prison, and a Second World War anti-aircraft gun station.
Stiftsgården is the royal residence in Trondheim, originally constructed in 1774 by Cecilie Christine Schøller. At 140 rooms constituting , it is possibly the largest wooden building in Northern Europe, and has been used by royals and their guests since 1800.
A statue of Leif Ericson is located at the seaside, close to the old Customs Building, the cruise ship facilities and the new swimming hall. The statue is a replica, the original being located at a Seattle marina.
The Nidaros Cathedral and the Archbishop's Palace are located side by side in the middle of the city centre. The cathedral, built from 1070 on, is the most important Gothic monument in Norway and was Northern Europe's most important Christian pilgrimage site during the Middle Ages, with pilgrimage routes leading to it from Oslo in southern Norway and from the Jämtland and Värmland regions of Sweden. Today, it is the northernmost medieval cathedral in the world, and the second largest in Scandinavia.
During the Middle Ages, and again after independence was restored in 1814, the Nidaros Cathedral was the coronation church of the Norwegian kings. King Haakon VII was the last monarch to be crowned there, in 1906. Starting with King Olav V in 1957, coronation was replaced by consecration. In 1991, the present King Harald V and Queen Sonja were consecrated in the cathedral. On 24 May 2002, their daughter Princess Märtha Louise married the writer Ari Behn in the cathedral.
The Pilgrim's Route ("Pilegrimsleden") to the site of Saint Olufs's tomb at Nidaros Cathedral, has recently been re-instated. Also known as St. Olav's Way, ("Sankt Olavs vei"), the main route, which is approximately long, starts in Oslo and heads North, along Lake Mjøsa, up the valley Gudbrandsdalen, over the mountain range Dovrefjell and down the Oppdal valley to end at Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim. There is a Pilgrim's Office in Oslo which gives advice to pilgrims and a Pilgrim Centre in Trondheim, under the aegis of the cathedral, which awards certificates to successful pilgrims upon the completion of their journey.
The Lutheran Church of Norway has 21 churches within the municipality of Trondheim. They are all a part of the Diocese of Nidaros, which is based in Trondheim at the Nidaros Cathedral. Many of the churches are several hundred years old, with a couple which were built almost 1,000 years ago.
The Roman Catholic Sankt Olav domkirke is the cathedral episcopal see of the exempt Territorial Prelature of Trondheim.
The Trondheim Museum of Arts has Norway's third largest public art collection, mainly Norwegian art from the last 150 years. The National Museum of Decorative Arts boasts a large collection of decorative arts and design, including a great number of tapestries from the Norwegian tapestry artist Hannah Ryggen, as well as Norway's only permanent exhibibition of Japanese arts and crafts. Sverresborg, also named Zion after King David's castle in Jerusalem, was a fortification built by Sverre Sigurdsson. It is now an open-air museum, consisting of more than 60 buildings. The castle was originally built in 1182–1183, but did not last for long as it was burned down in 1188. However, the Sverresaga indicates it had been restored by 1197.
Trondheim Science Museum () is a scientific hands-on experience center. The Museum of Natural History and Archaeology is part of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. There are also a variety of small history, science and natural history museums, such as the Trondheim Maritime Museum, the "Armoury", adjacent to the Archbishops's Palace, the music and musical instrument museum Ringve National Museum, Ringve Botanical Garden, the Trondheim Tramway Museum, and the Jewish Museum, co-located with the city's synagogue, which is among the northernmost in the world.
Rockheim (, The National Discovery Center for Pop and Rock) opened at the Pier in August 2010. It is located inside an old warehouse, but characterised by an easily recognisable roof in the shape of a box. "The box" is decorated by thousands of tiny lights that change in a variety of colours and patterns, and is a landmark in the cityscape - especially on dark winter evenings.
Vollan District Jail (Norwegian: "Vollan kretsfengsel") was a jail during the nazi occupation of Norway and was used to imprison both prisoners of war and criminals. Vollan was not considered a concentration camp. In a summary of prisoners of war in Norway, numerous prisoners were registered at Vollan. Once of its roles was as a transit camp for political prisoners. Many prisoners were taken from Vollan to Kristiansten Fortress and shot. The prisoners at Vollan were interrogated at the Mission Hotel in Trondheim. Some were also interrogated by Henry Rinnan and his gang. It was closed in 1971 after the opening of Trondheim Prison at Tunga.
Trondheim Prison (Norwegian: "Trondheim fengsel") is a prison that belongs to the Northern Region of the Norwegian Correctional Services. The prison can house 184 inmates.
It consists of four main departments:
The municipality is governed by a municipal council of elected representatives, which in turn elect a mayor.
On 1 January 2005, the city was reorganized from five boroughs into four, with each of these having separate social services offices. The current boroughs are Midtbyen (44,967 inhabitants), Østbyen (42,707 inhabitants), Lerkendal (46,603 inhabitants) and Heimdal (30,744) inhabitants. The Population statistics listed are as of 1 January 2008. Prior to 2005, Trondheim was divided into the boroughs "Sentrum", "Strinda", "Nardo", "Byåsen" and "Heimdal".
The city council "(Bystyret)" of Trondheim is made up of 67 representatives that are elected every four years. Prior to 2011, there were 85 city council members, but this number was reduced to 67 in 2011. The party breakdown of the council is as follows:
Trondheim is home to both the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) with its many technical lab facilities and disciplines, and BI-Trondheim, a satellite campus for the Norwegian Business School (BI). Both universities welcome a number of international students on a yearly basis and offer various scholarships.
St. Olavs University Hospital, a regional hospital for Central Norway, is located in downtown Trondheim. St. Olav's is a teaching hospital and cooperates closely with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) on both research and medical education.
SINTEF, the largest independent research organisation in Scandinavia, has 1,800 employees with 1,300 of these located in Trondheim. The Air Force Academy of the Royal Norwegian Air Force is located at Kuhaugen in Trondheim.
The Geological Survey of Norway is located at Lade in Trondheim and is a major geoscientific institution with 220 employees of which 70% are scientists.
There are 11 high schools in the city. Trondheim katedralskole ("Trondheim Cathedral School") was founded in 1152 and is the oldest upper secondary school (gymnasium) in Norway, while Charlottenlund videregående skole is the largest in Sør-Trøndelag with its 1,100 students and 275 employees. Brundalen Skole, has big festivals each year, and is building out to increase space.
Ila skole was founded in 1770 and is the oldest primary school in Trondheim.
Adresseavisen is the largest regional newspaper and the oldest active newspaper in Norway, having been established in 1767. The two headquarters of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) are located at in Trondheim, and in Oslo.
The student press of Trondheim features three types of media. Under Dusken is the student paper, Radio Revolt is the student radio, and Student-TV broadcasts videos online.
Radio stations established in Trondheim include Trøndelag-focused opt-out feeds of NRK P1 and NRK P1+, local versions of NRK Trafikk and P5 Hits, Radio Trondheim, and Radio 247. Along with Norway's national radio stations, they can be listened to on DAB+ across most of Trøndelag, as well as on internet radio.
The main regional theatre, Trøndelag Teater, is situated in Trondheim. Built in 1816, the theatre is the oldest theatre still in use in Scandinavia. The city also features an alternative theatre house Teaterhuset Avant Garden, and the theatre company Teater Fusentast.
Trondheim has a broad music scene, and is known for its strong communities committed to rock, jazz and classical music. The city's interest in Jazz and classical music are spearheaded by the music conservatory at NTNU which has been called one of the most innovative in the world, and the municipal music school, "Trondheim Kommunale Musikk- og Kulturskole". The Trondheim Symphony Orchestra and the Trondheim Soloists are well-known. The city also hosts a yearly Jazz festival, and is home to Trondheim Jazz Orchestra.
Classical artists hailing from Trondheim include violinist Arve Tellefsen, Elise Båtnes and Marianne Thorsen. Also the Nidaros Cathedral Boys' Choir.
Pop/rock artists and bands associated with Trondheim include Åge Aleksandersen, Margaret Berger, DumDum Boys, Lasse Marhaug, Gåte, Keep Of Kalessin, Lumsk, Motorpsycho, Kari Rueslåtten, the 3rd and the Mortal, TNT, Tre Små Kinesere, the Kids, Bokassa, Casino Steel (of the Boys), Atrox, Bloodthorn, Manes, child prodigy Malin Reitan and Aleksander With. The most popular punk scene is UFFA.
Georg Kajanus, creator of the bands Eclection, Sailor and DATA, was born in Trondheim. The music production team Stargate started out in Trondheim.
Trondheim is also home to Rockheim, the national museum of popular music, which is responsible for collecting, preserving and sharing Norwegian popular music from the 1950s to the present day.
Trondheim features a lively film scene, including three filmfests: Minimalen Short Film Fest and Kosmorama International Film Fest in March, and Trondheim Documentarfestival in November. Trondheim has two cinemas in the center of the city, Prinsen Kino and Nova kino Prinsen Kinosenter, Nova Kinosenter
Granåsen Ski Centre, a Nordic skiing venue located in Byåsen, regularly hosts World Cup competitions in ski jumping, biathlon and cross-country skiing, as well as the 1997 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships. Trondheim attempted but failed to become the Norwegian candidate for the 2018 Winter Olympics. Hiking and recreational skiing is available around the city, particularly in Bymarka, which can be reached by the tramway. Trondheim Golfklubb has a nine-hole golf course in Byåsen.
Rosenborg BK is one of the city's two premier football clubs and plays their home matches at Lerkendal Stadion. They have won the Norwegian Premier League 26 times between 1967 and 2018, have reached the UEFA Champions League group stage 12 times, and made it to the last 8 on one occasion. Ranheim Fotball is the city's second premier football club having been promoted from the Norwegian First Division to join Eliteserien in 2018, coming in at 7th place out of 16 in its first season. Byåsen IL plays in the women's handball league, and is a regular in the EHF Women's Champions League, playing their home games at Trondheim Spektrum.
Trondheim and Trøndelag is also regarded as the home of the basse game.
With students comprising almost a fifth of the population, the city of Trondheim is heavily influenced by student culture. Most noticeable is Studentersamfundet i Trondhjem, the city's student society. Its characteristic round, red building from 1929 sits at the head of the bridge crossing the river southwards from the city centre. As the largest university in Norway, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) is the host of some 36,000 students.
Student culture in Trondheim is characterised by a long-standing tradition of volunteer work. The student society is for example run by more than 1,200 volunteers. NTNUI, Norway's largest sports club, is among the other volunteer organisations that dominate student culture in Trondheim. Students in Trondheim are also behind two major Norwegian culture festivals, UKA and The International Student Festival in Trondheim (ISFiT). NTNU lists over 200 student organisations with registered web pages on its servers alone.
Trondheim culture is parodied on the Monty Python album "Another Monty Python Record" in the form of the fictitious Trondheim Hammer Dance.
Trondheim is also a key location in the "" universe, as it is a critical battleground for both factions.
Trondheim was the name of a planet in the Hundred Worlds of the Ender's Game book series.
Trondheim has an international airport, Trondheim Airport, Værnes, situated in Stjørdal, which is Norway's fourth largest airport in terms of passenger traffic. Værnes has non-stop connections to cities such as London, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Stockholm, among others. The domestic route Trondheim - Oslo is among the busiest air routes in Europe with around 2 million passengers annually.
Major railway connections are the northbound Nordland Line, the eastbound Meråker Line to Åre and Östersund in Sweden, and two southbound connections to Oslo, the Røros Line and Dovre Line.
The Coastal Express ships (Hurtigruten: Covering the Bergen–Kirkenes stretch of the coast) call at Trondheim, as do many cruise ships during the summer season. Since 1994 there is also a fast commuter boat service to Kristiansund, the closest coastal city to the southwest. Every morning the Hurtigruten ships have one southbound and one northbound arrival and departure in Trondheim.
A car ferry route from the port of Flakk in the northwest of the municipality, connects Trondheim with Fosen. Various bridge projects over the Trondheim Fjord to replace the ferry have been planned, but none have begun construction.
Trondheim also boasts the northernmost (since closure of Arkhangelsk tram in 2004) tramway line in the world: the Gråkallen Line, the last remaining segment of the Trondheim Tramway, is an route (which is mostly single-track outside the innermost parts of the city; except the stretch between Breidablikk and Nordre Hoem stations) which runs from the city centre, through the Byåsen district, and up to Lian, in the large recreation area Bymarka. Trondheim boasts the world's only bicycle lift, "Trampe".
The bus network, operated by AtB, runs throughout most of the city and its suburbs. A new metro line system went public August 3, 2019. The new transportation system covers the Trondheim area (Trondheim, Malvik, and Melhus). The three metro lines and the city lines that link the city across. The new public transport system becomes flexible, with buses running more often and accommodating more passengers. Fewer travelers must take a detour through the center of Trondheim.
In addition, the Nattbuss (Night Bus) service ensures cheap and effective transport for those enjoying nightlife in the city centre during the weekends. The Nattbus has other prices than ordinary buses. The European route E6 highway passes through the city centre of Trondheim in addition to a motorway bypass along the eastern rim of the city.
Trondheim is twinned with: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37472 |
Civil liberties
Civil liberties are guarantees and freedoms that liberal governments commit not to abridge, either by legislation or judicial interpretation, without due process. Though the scope of the term differs between countries, civil liberties may include the freedom of conscience, freedom of press, freedom of religion, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, the right to security and liberty, freedom of speech, the right to privacy, the right to equal treatment under the law and due process, the right to a fair trial, and the right to life. Other civil liberties include the right to own property, the right to defend oneself, and the right to bodily integrity. Within the distinctions between civil liberties and other types of liberty, distinctions exist between positive liberty/positive rights and negative liberty/negative rights.
Many contemporary states have a constitution, a bill of rights, or similar constitutional documents that enumerate and seek to guarantee civil liberties. Other states have enacted similar laws through a variety of legal means, including signing and ratifying or otherwise giving effect to key conventions such as the European Convention on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The existence of some claimed civil liberties is a matter of dispute, as are the extent of most civil rights. Controversial examples include property rights, reproductive rights, and civil marriage. The degree that democracies have involved themselves in needs to take into fact the influence of terrorism. Whether the existence of victimless crimes infringes upon civil liberties is a matter of dispute. Another matter of debate is the suspension or alteration of certain civil liberties in times of war or state of emergency, including whether and to what extent this should occur.
The formal concept of civil liberties is often dated back to Magna Carta, an English legal charter agreed in 1215 which in turn was based on pre-existing documents, namely the Charter of Liberties.
The Constitution of People's Republic of China (which applies only to mainland China, not to Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan), especially its Fundamental Rights and Duties of Citizens, claims to protect many civil liberties.
Taiwan, which is separated from China, has its own Constitution.
The Fundamental Rights—embodied in Part III of the constitution—guarantee liberties such that all Indians can lead their lives in peace as citizens of India. The six fundamental rights are right to equality, right to freedom, right against exploitation, right to freedom of religion, cultural and educational rights and right to constitutional remedies.
These include individual rights common to most liberal democracies, incorporated in the fundamental law of the land and are enforceable in a court of law. Violations of these rights result in punishments as prescribed in the Indian Penal Code, subject to discretion of the judiciary. These rights are neither absolute nor immune from constitutional amendments. They have been aimed at overturning the inequalities of pre-independence social practices. Specifically, they resulted in abolishment of un-touchability and prohibit discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth. They forbid human trafficking and unfree labour. They protect cultural and educational rights of ethnic and religious minorities by allowing them to preserve their languages and administer their own educational institutions.
All people, irrespective of race, religion, caste or sex, have the right to approach the High Courts or the Supreme Court for the enforcement of their fundamental rights. It is not necessary that the aggrieved party has to be the one to do so. In public interest, anyone can initiate litigation in the court on their behalf. This is known as "Public interest litigation". High Court and Supreme Court judges can also act on their own on the basis of media reports.
The Fundamental Rights emphasize equality by guaranteeing to all citizens the access and use of public institutions and protections, irrespective of their background. The rights to life and personal liberty apply for persons of any nationality, while others, such as the freedom of speech and expression are applicable only to the citizens of India (including non-resident Indian citizens). The right to equality in matters of public employment cannot be conferred to overseas citizens of India.
Fundamental Rights primarily protect individuals from any arbitrary State actions, but some rights are enforceable against private individuals too. For instance, the constitution abolishes untouchability and prohibits "begar". These provisions act as a check both on State action and actions of private individuals. Fundamental Rights are not absolute and are subject to reasonable restrictions as necessary for the protection of national interest. In the "Kesavananda Bharati vs. state of Kerala" case, the Supreme Court ruled that all provisions of the constitution, including Fundamental Rights can be amended. However, the Parliament cannot alter the basic structure of the constitution like secularism, democracy, federalism, separation of powers. Often called the "Basic structure doctrine", this decision is widely regarded as an important part of Indian history. In the 1978 "Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India" case, the Supreme Court extended the doctrine's importance as superior to any parliamentary legislation. According to the verdict, no act of parliament can be considered a law if it violated the basic structure of the constitution. This landmark guarantee of Fundamental Rights was regarded as a unique example of judicial independence in preserving the sanctity of Fundamental Rights.
The Fundamental Rights can only be altered by a constitutional amendment, hence their inclusion is a check not only on the executive branch, but also on the Parliament and state legislatures. The imposition of a state of emergency may lead to a temporary suspension of the rights conferred by Article 19 (including freedoms of speech, assembly and movement, etc.) to preserve national security and public order. The President can, by order, suspend the constitutional written remedies as well.
Since 1947, Japan, a country with a constitutional monarchy and known for its socially “conservative society where change is gradual,” has a constitution with a seemingly strong bill of rights at its core (). In many ways, it resembles the U.S. Constitution prior to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and that is because it came into life during the Allied occupation of Japan. This constitution may have felt like a foreign imposition to the governing elites, but not to the ordinary people "who lacked faith in their discredited leaders and supported meaningful change." In the abstract, the constitution strives to secure fundamental individual liberties and rights, which are covered pointedly in articles 10 to 40. Most salient of the human dignity articles is article 25, section 1, which guarantees that all
Despite the adoption of this liberal constitution, often referred as the "Postwar Constitution" (戦後憲法, Sengo-Kenpō) or the "Peace Constitution" (平和憲法, Heiwa-Kenpō), the Japanese governing elites have struggled to usher in an inclusive, open and Pluralist society. Even after the end of World War II and the departure of the Allied government of occupation in 1952, Japan has been the target of international criticism for failing to admit to war crimes, institutional religious discrimination and maintaining a weak freedom of the press, the treatment of children, minorities, foreigners, and women, its punitive criminal justice system, and more recently, the systematic bias against LGBT people.
The first Japanese attempt to a bill of rights was in the 19th century Meiji constitution (1890), which took both the Prussian (1850) and British constitutions as basic models. However, it had but a meager influence in the practice of the rule of law as well as in people's daily living. So, the short and deliberately gradual history of struggles for personal rights and protection against government/society's impositions has yet to transform Japan into a champion of universal and individual freedom. According to constitutional scholar, Shigenori Matsui,
Despite the divergences between Japan's social culture and the Liberal Constitutionalism that it purports to have adopted, the country has moved toward closing the gap between the notion and the practice of the law. The trend is more evident in the long term. Among several examples, the Diet (bicameral legislature) ratified the International Bill of Human Rights in 1979 and then it passed the Law for Equal Opportunity in Employment for Men and Women in 1985, measures that were heralded as major steps toward a democratic and participatory society. In 2015, moreover, it reached an agreement with Korea to compensate for abuses related to the so-called “women of comfort” that took place during the Japanese occupation of the peninsula. However, human rights group, and families of the survivors condemned the agreement as patronizing and insulting.
On its official site, the Japanese government has identified various human rights problems. Among these are child abuses (e.g., bullying, corporal punishment, child sexual abuse, child prostitution, and child pornography), frequent neglect and ill-treatment of elderly persons and individuals with disabilities, Dowa claims (discrimination against the Burakumin), Ainu people (indigenous people in Japan), foreign nationals, HIV/AIDS carriers, Hansen's disease patients, persons released from prison after serving their sentence, crime victims, people whose human rights are violated using the Internet, the homeless, individuals with gender
identity disorders, and women. Also, the government lists systematic problems with gender biases and the standard reference to sexual preferences for jobs and other functions in society.
Human rights organizations, national and foreign, expand the list to include human rights violations that relate to government policies, as in the case of daiyo kangoku system (substitute prison) and the methods of interrogating crime suspects. The effort of these agencies and ordinary people seem to pay off. In 2016, the U.S. Department of State released a report stating that Japan's human right record is showing signs of improvement.
Whilst Australia does not have an enshrined Bill of Rights or similar binding legal document, civil liberties are assumed as protected through a series of rules and conventions. Australia had primary involvement in and was a key signatory to the UN Universal Declaration on Human Rights (1948)
The Constitution of Australia (1900) does offer very limited protection of rights:
Certain High Court interpretations of the Constitution have allowed for implied rights such as freedom of speech and the right to vote to be established, however others such as freedom of assembly and freedom of association are yet to be identified.
Refugee issues
Within the past decade Australia has experienced increasing contention regarding its treatment of those seeking asylum. Although Australia is a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention (1951), successive governments have demonstrated an increasing tightening of borders; particularly against those who seek passage via small water vessels.
The Abbott Government (2013) like its predecessors (the Gillard and Howard Governments) has encountered particular difficulty curbing asylum seekers via sea, increasingly identified as "illegal immigration". The recent involvement of the Australian Navy in refugee rescue operations has many human rights groups such as Amnesty International concerned over the "militarisation" of treatment to the refugee and the issue of their human rights in Australia. The current "turn-back" policy is particularly divisive, as it involves placing refugees in government lifeboats and turning them towards Indonesia. Despite opposition however, the Abbott government's response has so far seen a reduction in the number of potential refugees undertaking the hazardous cross to Australia, which is argued by the government as an indicator for its policy success.
The European Convention on Human Rights, to which almost all European countries belong (apart from Belarus), enumerates a number of civil liberties and is of varying constitutional force in different European states.
Following the Velvet Revolution, a constitutional overhaul took place in Czechoslovakia. In 1991, the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Basic Freedoms was adopted, having the same legal standing as the Constitution. The Czech Republic has kept the Charter in its entirety following the dissolution of Czechoslovakia as Act No. 2/1993 Coll. (Constitution being No. 1).
France's 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen listed many civil liberties and is of constitutional force.
The German constitution, the "Grundgesetz" (lit. "Base Law"), starts with an elaborate listing of civil liberties and states in sec. 1 "The dignity of man is inviolable. To respect and protect it shall be the duty of all public authority." Following the "Austrian System", the people have the right to appeal to the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany ("Bundesverfassungsgericht") if they feel their civil rights are being violated. This procedure has shaped German law considerably over the years.
Civil liberties in the United Kingdom date back to Magna Carta in 1215 and 17th century common law and statute law, such as the 1628 Petition of Right, the Habeas Corpus Act 1679 and the Bill of Rights 1689. Parts of these laws remain in statute today and are supplemented by other legislation and conventions that collectively form the uncodified Constitution of the United Kingdom. In addition, the United Kingdom is a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights which covers both human rights and civil liberties. The Human Rights Act 1998 incorporates the great majority of Convention rights directly into UK law.
In June 2008 the then Shadow Home Secretary David Davis resigned his parliamentary seat over what he described as the "erosion of civil liberties" by the then Labour government, and was re-elected on a civil liberties platform (although he was not opposed by candidates of other major parties). This was in reference to anti-terrorism laws and in particular the extension to pre-trial detention, that is perceived by many to be an infringement of "habeas corpus" established in Magna Carta.
The Constitution of the Russian Federation guarantees in theory many of the same rights and civil liberties as the U.S. except to bear arms, i.e.: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of association and assembly, freedom to choose language, to due process, to a fair trial, privacy, freedom to vote, right for education, etc. However, human rights groups like Amnesty International have warned that Vladimir Putin has seriously curtailed freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and freedom of association amidst growing authoritarianism.
The Constitution of Canada includes the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms which guarantees many of the same rights as the U.S. constitution, with the notable exceptions of protection against establishment of religion. However, the Charter does protect freedom of religion. The Charter also omits any mention of, or protection for, property.
The United States Constitution, especially its Bill of Rights, protects civil liberties. The passage of the Fourteenth Amendment further protected civil liberties by introducing the Privileges or Immunities Clause, Due Process Clause, and Equal Protection Clause. Human rights within the United States are often called civil rights, which are those rights, privileges and immunities held by all people, in distinction to "political" rights, which are the rights that inhere to those who are entitled to participate in elections, as candidates or voters. Before universal suffrage, this distinction was important, since many people were ineligible to vote but still were considered to have the fundamental freedoms derived from the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This distinction is less important now that Americans enjoy near universal suffrage, and civil liberties are now taken to include the political rights to vote and participate in elections. Because Indian tribal governments retain sovereignty over tribal members, the U.S. Congress in 1968 enacted a law that essentially applies most of the protections of the Bill of Rights to tribal members, to be enforced mainly by tribal courts.
The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 was signed into effect by President Ronald Reagan on August 10, 1988. The act was passed by Congress to issue a public apology for those of Japanese ancestry who lost their property and liberty due to discriminatory actions by the United States Government during the internment period.
This act also provided many other benefits within various sectors of the government. Within the treasury it established a civil liberties public education fund. It directed the Attorney General to identify and locate each individual affected by this act and to pay them $20,000 from the civil liberties public education fund. It also established a board of directors who is responsible for making disbursements from this fund. Finally, it required that all documents and records that are created or received by the commission be kept by the Archivist of the United States. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37476 |
Jamie Zawinski
James Werner Zawinski (born November 3, 1968), commonly known as jwz, is an American computer programmer with contributions to the free software projects Mozilla and XEmacs, and early versions of the Netscape Navigator web browser. He maintains the XScreenSaver project which provides screenblanking for Mac OS X and for Unix and Unix-like computer operating systems using the X Window System.
Zawinski is currently the proprietor of the DNA Lounge, a nightclub in San Francisco.
Zawinski's early career included stints with Scott Fahlman's Lisp research group at Carnegie Mellon University, Expert Technologies, Inc. and Robert Wilensky and Peter Norvig's group at Berkeley. In the early 1990s, he was hired by Richard P. Gabriel's Lucid Inc. where he was eventually put to work on Lucid's Energize C++ IDE. Lucid decided to use GNU Emacs as the text editor for their IDE due to its free license, popularity, and extensibility. Zawinski and the other programmers made fundamental changes to GNU Emacs to add new functionality. Tensions over how to merge these patches into the main tree eventually led to the fork of the project into GNU Emacs and XEmacs.
Zawinski, with Marc Andreessen's help, worked on the early releases of Netscape Navigator, particularly the 1.0 release of the Unix version.
He became quite well known in the early days of the World Wide Web through an easter egg in the Netscape browser: typing "about:jwz" into the address box would take the user to his home page (a similar trick worked for other Netscape staffers). In addition, Zawinski says he came up with the name "Mozilla" in a staff meeting.
In 2000, Zawinski starred in the 60-minute-long PBS documentary "Code Rush". The footage was taken during 1998 while Zawinski was still working for Netscape in which he is portrayed as a pivotal person in the company. In addition, he underlined his preference for the night scene which led him to buy a nightclub.
Zawinski was a major proponent of opening the source code of the Mozilla browser and a key person in the creation of the Mozilla project, but became disappointed with the project when others decided to rewrite the code instead of incrementally improving it. When Netscape was acquired by AOL he wrote a bulletin explaining the nature of the Free Software Mozilla code. He resigned from Netscape Communications Corporation on April 1, 1999.
His current occupation is managing his DNA Lounge nightclub in San Francisco.
"Zawinski's law of software envelopment" (also known as "Zawinski's law") comments on the phenomenon of software bloating with popular features:
Zawinski himself called it the "Law of Software Envelopment". Eric S. Raymond commented that while this law goes against the minimalist philosophy of Unix (a set of "small, sharp tools"), it actually addresses the real need of end users to keep together tools for interrelated tasks, even though for a coder implementation of these tools clearly consists of independent jobs.
Zawinski first attained prominence as a Lisp programmer, but most of his projects were written in Perl and C. He has criticized several language and library deficiencies he encountered while programming in Java, specifically the overhead of certain classes but also a lack of features such as C-like assertions and typedefs. Despite the positive aspects, ultimately Zawinski returned to programming in C "since it's still the only way to ship portable programs".
In his post-Netscape life, he continued to proselytize against C++. In Peter Seibel's book "Coders at Work: Reflections on the Craft of Programming", Zawinski calls C++ an "abomination". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37479 |
Intranet
An intranet is a computer network for sharing information, collaboration tools, operational systems, and other computing services within an organization, usually to the exclusion of access by outsiders. The term is used in contrast to public networks, such as the Internet, but uses most of the same technology based on the Internet Protocol Suite.
A company-wide intranet can constitute an important focal point of internal communication and collaboration, and provide a single starting point to access internal and external resources. In its simplest form, an intranet is established with the technologies for local area networks (LANs) and wide area networks (WANs). Many modern intranets have search engines, user profiles, blogs, mobile apps with notifications, and events planning within their infrastructure.
An intranet is sometimes contrasted to an extranet. While an intranet is generally restricted to employees of the organization, extranets may also be accessed by customers, suppliers, or other approved parties. Extranets extend a private network onto the Internet with special provisions for authentication, authorization and accounting (AAA protocol).
Increasingly, intranets are being used to deliver tools, e.g. "collaboration" (to facilitate working in groups and teleconferencing) or sophisticated corporate directories, sales and customer relationship management tools, project management etc.,
Intranets are also being used as corporate culture-change platforms. For example, large numbers of employees discussing key issues in an intranet forum application could lead to new ideas in management, productivity, quality, and other corporate issues.
In large intranets, website traffic is often similar to public website traffic and can be better understood by using web metrics software to track overall activity. User surveys also improve intranet website effectiveness.
Larger businesses allow users within their intranet to access public internet through firewall servers. They have the ability to screen messages coming and going, keeping security intact. When part of an intranet is made accessible to customers and others outside the business, it becomes part of an extranet. Businesses can send private messages through the public network, using special encryption/decryption and other security safeguards to connect one part of their intranet to another.
Intranet user-experience, editorial, and technology teams work together to produce in-house sites. Most commonly, intranets are managed by the communications, HR or CIO departments of large organizations, or some combination of these.
Because of the scope and variety of content and the number of system interfaces, intranets of many organizations are much more complex than their respective public websites. Intranets and their use are growing rapidly. According to the Intranet design annual 2007 from Nielsen Norman Group, the number of pages on participants' intranets averaged 200,000 over the years 2001 to 2003 and has grown to an average of 6 million pages over 2005–2007.
"Workforce productivity": Intranets can help users to locate and view information faster and use applications relevant to their roles and responsibilities. With the help of a web browser interface, users can access data held in any database the organization wants to make available, anytime and — subject to security provisions — from anywhere within the company workstations, increasing the employees ability to perform their jobs faster, more accurately, and with confidence that they have the right information. It also helps to improve the services provided to the users.
"Time": Intranets allow organizations to distribute information to employees on an "as-needed" basis; Employees may link to relevant information at their convenience, rather than being distracted indiscriminately by email.
"Communication": Intranets can serve as powerful tools for communication within an organization, vertically strategic initiatives that have a global reach throughout the organization. The type of information that can easily be conveyed is the purpose of the initiative and what the initiative is aiming to achieve, who is driving the initiative, results achieved to date, and whom to speak to for more information. By providing this information on the intranet, staff have the opportunity to keep up-to-date with the strategic focus of the organization. Some examples of communication would be chat, email, and/or blogs. A great real-world example of where an intranet helped a company communicate is when Nestle had a number of food processing plants in Scandinavia. Their central support system had to deal with a number of queries every day. When Nestle decided to invest in an intranet, they quickly realized the savings. McGovern says the savings from the reduction in query calls was substantially greater than the investment in the intranet.
"Web publishing" allows cumbersome corporate knowledge to be maintained and easily accessed throughout the company using hypermedia and Web technologies. Examples include: employee manuals, benefits documents, company policies, business standards, news feeds, and even training, can be accessed using common Internet standards (Acrobat files, Flash files, CGI applications). Because each business unit can update the online copy of a document, the most recent version is usually available to employees using the intranet.
"Business operations and management": Intranets are also being used as a platform for developing and deploying applications to support business operations and decisions across the internetworked enterprise.
"Workflow": a collective term that reduces delay, such as automating meeting scheduling and vacation planning
"Cost-effectiveness": Users can view information and data via web-browser rather than maintaining physical documents such as procedure manuals, internal phone list and requisition forms. This can potentially save the business money on printing, duplicating documents, and the environment as well as document maintenance overhead. For example, the HRM company PeopleSoft "derived significant cost savings by shifting HR processes to the intranet". McGovern goes on to say the manual cost of enrolling in benefits was found to be US$109.48 per enrollment. "Shifting this process to the intranet reduced the cost per enrollment to $21.79; a saving of 80 percent". Another company that saved money on expense reports was Cisco. "In 1996, Cisco processed 54,000 reports and the amount of dollars processed was USD19 million".
"Enhance collaboration": Information is easily accessible by all authorised users, which enables teamwork. Being able to communicate in real-time through integrated third party tools, such as an instant messenger, promotes the sharing of ideas and removes blockages to communication to help boost a business' productivity.
"Cross-platform capability": Standards-compliant web browsers are available for Windows, Mac, and UNIX.
"Built for one audience": Many companies dictate computer specifications which, in turn, may allow Intranet developers to write applications that only have to work on one browser (no cross-browser compatibility issues). Being able to specifically address one's "viewer" is a great advantage. Since intranets are user-specific (requiring database/network authentication prior to access), users know exactly who they are interfacing with and can personalize their intranet based on role (job title, department) or individual ("Congratulations Jane, on your 3rd year with our company!").
"Promote common corporate culture": Every user has the ability to view the same information within the intranet.
"Immediate updates": When dealing with the public in any capacity, laws, specifications, and parameters can change. Intranets make it possible to provide one's audience with "live" changes so they are kept up-to-date, which can limit a company's liability.
"Supports a distributed computing architecture"': The intranet can also be linked to a company's management information system, for example a time keeping system.
"Employee Engagement": Since "involvement in decision making" is one of the main drivers of employee engagement, offering tools (like forums or surveys) that foster peer-to-peer collaboration and employee participation can make employees feel more valued and involved.
Most organizations devote considerable resources into the planning and implementation of their intranet as it is of strategic importance to the organization's success. Some of the planning would include topics such as determining the purpose and goals of the intranet, identifying persons or departments responsible for implementation and management and devising functional plans, page layouts and designs.
The appropriate staff would also ensure that implementation schedules and phase-out of existing systems were organized, while defining and implementing security of the intranet and ensuring it lies within legal boundaries and other constraints. In order to produce a high-value end product, systems planners should determine the level of interactivity (e.g. wikis, on-line forms) desired.
Planners may also consider whether the input of new data and updating of existing data is to be centrally controlled or devolve. These decisions sit alongside to the hardware and software considerations (like content management systems), participation issues (like good taste, harassment, confidentiality), and features to be supported.
Intranets are often static sites; they are a shared drive, serving up centrally stored documents alongside internal articles or communications (often one-way communication). By leveraging firms which specialise in 'social' intranets, organisations are beginning to think of how their intranets can become a 'communication hub' for their entire team.
The actual implementation would include steps such as securing senior management support and funding., conducting a business requirement analysis and identifying users' information needs.
From the technical perspective, there would need to be a co-ordinated installation of the web server and user access network, the required user/client applications and the creation of document framework (or template) for the content to be hosted.
The end-user should be involved in testing and promoting use of the company intranet, possibly through a parallel adoption methodology or pilot programme. In the long term, the company should carry out ongoing measurement and evaluation, including through benchmarking against other company services.
Some aspects are non-static.
An intranet structure needs key personnel committed to maintaining the intranet and keeping content current. For feedback on the intranet, social networking can be done through a forum for users to indicate what they want and what they do not like.
A short item in "Top Five Intranet Trends for 2019" was titled "Data Privacy concerns come to the intranet." Part of the force behind this is the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation which went into effect May 2018.
An enterprise private network is a computer network built by a business to interconnect its various company sites (such as production sites, offices and shops) in order to share computer resources.
Beginning with the digitalisation of telecommunication networks, started in the 1970s in the US by AT&T, and propelled by the growth in computer systems availability and demands, enterprise networks have been built for decades without the need to append the term "private" to them. The networks were operated over telecommunication networks and, as for voice communications, a certain amount of security and secrecy was expected and delivered.
But with the Internet in the 1990s came a new type of network, virtual private networks, built over this public infrastructure, using encryption to protect the data traffic from eaves-dropping. So the enterprise networks are now commonly referred to as "enterprise private networks" in order to clarify that these are private networks, in contrast to public networks. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37481 |
Rutger Hauer
Rutger Oelsen Hauer (; 23 January 1944 – 19 July 2019) was a Dutch actor. In 1999, he was named by the Dutch public as the Best Dutch Actor of the Century.
Hauer's career began in 1969 with the title role in the Dutch television series "Floris" and surged with his leading role in "Turkish Delight" (1973), which in 1999 was named the Best Dutch Film of the Century. After gaining international recognition with "Soldier of Orange" (1977) and "Spetters" (1980), he moved into American films such as "Nighthawks" (1981) and "Blade Runner" (1982), starring in the latter as self-aware android Roy Batty. His performance in "Blade Runner" led to roles in "The Osterman Weekend" (1983), "Ladyhawke" (1985), "The Hitcher" (1986), "The Legend of the Holy Drinker" (1988), and "Blind Fury" (1989), among other films.
From the 1990s on, Hauer moved into low-budget films, and supporting roles in major films such as "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (1992), "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" (2002), and "The Rite" (2011). Hauer also became well known for his work in commercials. Towards the end of his career, he made a return to Dutch cinema, and won the 2012 Rembrandt Award for Best Actor for his lead role in "The Heineken Kidnapping". Outside of acting, he supported environmentalist causes and founded the Rutger Hauer Starfish Association, an AIDS awareness organization. He was made a knight in the Order of the Netherlands Lion in 2013.
Hauer was born in Breukelen, in the Province of Utrecht, on 23 January 1944, while the Netherlands was under German occupation during World War II. He stated in a 1981 interview, "I was born in the middle of the war, and I think for that reason I have deep roots in pacifism. Violence frightens me." His parents were Teunke (née Mellema) and Arend Hauer, both actors who operated an acting school in nearby Amsterdam. He had three sisters. According to Hauer, his parents were more interested in their art than their children. He did not have a close relationship with his father, and writer Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema later became a father figure to Hauer after they met during the filming of "Soldier of Orange".
Hauer attended a Rudolf Steiner school, as his parents wanted him to develop his creativity. At the age of 15, he left school to join the Dutch merchant navy. He spent a year travelling the world aboard a freighter, but was unable to become a captain due to his colourblindness. Returning home, he worked odd jobs while finishing his high school diploma at night. He then entered the Academy for Theater and Dance in Amsterdam for acting classes, but soon dropped out to join the Royal Netherlands Army. He received training as a combat medic, but left the service after a few months as he opposed the use of deadly weapons. He subsequently returned to acting school and graduated in 1967.
Hauer had his first acting role at the age of 11, as Eurysakes in the play "Ajax". After graduating from the Academy for Theater and Dance, he became a stage actor with the . Hauer made his screen debut in 1969 when Paul Verhoeven cast him in the lead role of the television series "Floris", a Dutch medieval action drama. The role made him famous in his native country, and Hauer reprised his role for the 1975 German remake "Floris von Rosemund".
Hauer's career changed course when Verhoeven cast him in "Turkish Delight" (1973). The film found box office favour abroad and at home, and Hauer looked to appear in more international films. Within two years, Hauer made his English-language debut in the British film "The Wilby Conspiracy" (1975). Set in South Africa, the film was an action-drama with a focus on apartheid. Hauer's supporting role, however, was barely noticed in Hollywood, and he returned to Dutch films for several years. During this period, he made "Katie Tippel" (1975) and worked again with Verhoeven on "Soldier of Orange" (1977), and "Spetters" (1980). These two films paired Hauer with fellow Dutch actor Jeroen Krabbé. At the 1981 Netherlands Film Festival, Hauer received the Golden Calf for Best Actor for his overall body of work.
Hauer made his American debut in the Sylvester Stallone film "Nighthawks" (1981) as a psychopathic and cold-blooded terrorist named Wulfgar. Unafraid of controversial roles, he portrayed Albert Speer in the 1982 American Broadcasting Company production "Inside the Third Reich". The same year, Hauer appeared in arguably his most famous and acclaimed role as the eccentric and violent but sympathetic antihero Roy Batty in Ridley Scott's 1982 science fiction thriller "Blade Runner", in which he delivered the famous tears in rain monologue. Hauer wrote some of the speech himself, the night before shooting, "cutting away swathes of the original script before adding the speech’s poignant final line". He went on to play the adventurer courting Theresa Russell in "Eureka" (1983), the investigative reporter opposite John Hurt in "The Osterman Weekend" (1983), the hardened Landsknecht mercenary Martin in "Flesh & Blood" (1985), and the knight paired with Michelle Pfeiffer in "Ladyhawke" (1985).
He appeared in "The Hitcher" (1986), in which he played a mysterious hitchhiker tormenting a lone motorist and murdering anyone in his way. He received the 1987 Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the television film "Escape from Sobibor". At the height of Hauer's fame, he was set to be cast as RoboCop (1987), but Verhoeven, the film's director, considered his frame as too large to move comfortably in the character's suit. Also in 1987, Hauer starred as Nick Randall in "" as the descendant of the character played by Steve McQueen in the television series of the same name.
In 1988, he played a homeless man in Ermanno Olmi's "The Legend of the Holy Drinker". This performance won Hauer the Best Actor award at the 1989 Seattle International Film Festival. Hauer was chosen to portray a blind martial artist superhero in Phillip Noyce's action film "Blind Fury" (1989). He initially struggled with the implausibility of the character, but learned to "unfocus my eyes, to react to smells and sounds" after meeting with blind judo practitioner Lynn Manning during his research for the role. Hauer returned to science fiction in 1989 with "The Blood of Heroes", in which he played a gladiator in a post-apocalyptic world.
By the 1990s, Hauer was well known for his humorous Guinness commercials as well as his screen roles, which had increasingly involved low-budget films, such as "Split Second" (1992), "The Beans of Egypt, Maine" (1994), "Omega Doom" (1996) and "New World Disorder" (1999). In 1992, he appeared in the horror-comedy film "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" as the main antagonist vampire, Lothos. He also appeared in the Kylie Minogue music video "On a Night Like This" (2000). During this time, Hauer acted in several British, Canadian and American television productions, including "" (1994) as Earhart's navigator Fred Noonan, "Fatherland" (1994), "Hostile Waters" (1997), "" (1997), "Merlin" (1998), "The 10th Kingdom" (2000), "Smallville" (2003), "Alias" (2003), and "Salem's Lot" (2004).
Hauer played an assassin in "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" (2003), a villainous cardinal with influential power in "Sin City" (2005) and a devious corporate executive running Wayne Enterprises in "Batman Begins" (2005). Also in 2005, he played the title role in Patrick Lussier's film "". Seven years later, he portrayed the vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing in Dario Argento's "Dracula 3D". Hauer hosted the British reality television documentary "Shock Treatment" in 2005, and featured in "" (2007) as Real Madrid coach Rudi Van der Merwe. He also recorded voice-overs for the British advertising campaign for the Danish butter brand Lurpak.
In 2008, Hauer received the Golden Calf Culture Prize for his contributions to Dutch cinema. The award recognised his work as an actor as well as his efforts to aid the development of young filmmakers and actors, through initiatives such as the . In 2009, his role in avant-garde filmmaker Cyrus Frisch's "Dazzle" received positive reviews; it was described in Dutch press as "the most relevant Dutch film of the year". The same year, Hauer starred in the title role of "Barbarossa", an Italian film directed by Renzo Martinelli. In April 2010, he was cast in the live action adaptation of the short and fictitious "Grindhouse" trailer "Hobo With a Shotgun" (2011). Hauer played Freddie Heineken in "The Heineken Kidnapping" (2011), for which he received the 2012 Rembrandt Award for Best Actor. Also in 2011, Hauer appeared in the supernatural horror film "The Rite" as an undertaker named Istvan, the protagonist's father.
From 2013 to 2014, Hauer featured as Niall Brigant in HBO's "True Blood". In 2015, he starred as Ravn in "The Last Kingdom" and as Kingsley in "Galavant". In 2016, he joined the film jury for ShortCutz Amsterdam, an annual film festival promoting short films in Amsterdam. Hauer voiced the role of Daniel Lazarski in the 2017 video game "Observer", set in a post-apocalyptic Poland. Lazarski is a member of a special elite police unit that can hack into minds and interact with memories within. Hauer also provided the voice of Master Xehanort in the 2019 video game "Kingdom Hearts III", replacing the late Leonard Nimoy.
Hauer was an environmentalist. He supported the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and was a member of its board of advisors. He also established an AIDS awareness organization called the Rutger Hauer Starfish Association. In April 2007, he published his autobiography, "All Those Moments: Stories of Heroes, Villains, Replicants, and Blade Runners" (co-written with Patrick Quinlan), in which he discussed many of his acting roles. Proceeds from the book go to the Rutger Hauer Starfish Association.
Hauer was twice married. From his marriage with his first wife, Heidi Merz, came his only child, (born 1966), an actress who gave birth to Hauer's grandson in 1987. He had been together with his second wife, Ineke ten Cate, since 1968, and they married in a private ceremony on 22 November 1985. Although born in Utrecht, Hauer had strong links to Friesland. His second wife was the daughter of , the editor-in-chief of the Friesland-based newspaper "Leeuwarder Courant", and Hauer once stated in an interview with the "Algemeen Dagblad" that he "needed to feel the Frisian clay under [his] feet".
Hauer died on 19 July 2019 at his home in Beetsterzwaag, following an unspecified illness. He was 75. A private funeral service was held on 24 July. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37500 |
Garnet
Garnets () are a group of silicate minerals that have been used since the Bronze Age as gemstones and abrasives.
All species of garnets possess similar physical properties and crystal forms, but differ in chemical composition. The different species are pyrope, almandine, spessartine, grossular (varieties of which are hessonite or cinnamon-stone and tsavorite), uvarovite and andradite. The garnets make up two solid solution series: pyrope-almandine-spessartine (pyralspite) and uvarovite-grossular-andradite (ugrandite).
The word "garnet" comes from the 14th‑century Middle English word "gernet", meaning 'dark red'. It is borrowed from Old French "grenate" from Latin "granatus," from "granum" ('grain, seed'). This is possibly a reference to "mela granatum" or even "pomum granatum" ('pomegranate', "Punica granatum"), a plant whose fruits contain abundant and vivid red seed covers (arils), which are similar in shape, size, and color to some garnet crystals.
Garnet species are found in many colours including red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, brown, black and colourless, with reddish shades most common.
Garnet species' light transmission properties can range from the gemstone-quality transparent specimens to the opaque varieties used for industrial purposes as abrasives. The mineral's luster is categorized as vitreous (glass-like) or resinous (amber-like).
Garnets are nesosilicates having the general formula "X"3"Y"2()3. The "X" site is usually occupied by divalent cations (Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn)2+ and the "Y" site by trivalent cations (Al, Fe, Cr)3+ in an octahedral/tetrahedral framework with [SiO4]4− occupying the tetrahedra. Garnets are most often found in the dodecahedral crystal habit, but are also commonly found in the trapezohedron habit as well as the hexoctahedral habit. They crystallize in the cubic system, having three axes that are all of equal length and perpendicular to each other, but are never actually cubic because despite being isometric because the {100} and {111} families of planes are depleted. Garnets do not have any cleavage planes, so when they fracture under stress, sharp, irregular (conchoidal) pieces are formed
Because the chemical composition of garnet varies, the atomic bonds in some species are stronger than in others. As a result, this mineral group shows a range of hardness on the Mohs scale of about 6.0 to 7.5. The harder species like almandine are often used for abrasive purposes.
For gem identification purposes, a pick-up response to a strong neodymium magnet separates garnet from all other natural transparent gemstones commonly used in the jewelry trade. Magnetic susceptibility measurements in conjunction with refractive index can be used to distinguish garnet species and varieties, and determine the composition of garnets in terms of percentages of end-member species within an individual gem.
Almandine, sometimes incorrectly called almandite, is the modern gem known as carbuncle (though originally almost any red gemstone was known by this name). The term "carbuncle" is derived from the Latin meaning "live coal" or burning charcoal. The name "Almandine" is a corruption of Alabanda, a region in Asia Minor where these stones were cut in ancient times. Chemically, almandine is an iron-aluminium garnet with the formula Fe3Al2(SiO4)3; the deep red transparent stones are often called precious garnet and are used as gemstones (being the most common of the gem garnets). Almandine occurs in metamorphic rocks like mica schists, associated with minerals such as staurolite, kyanite, andalusite, and others. Almandine has nicknames of Oriental garnet, almandine ruby, and carbuncle.
Pyrope (from the Greek "pyrōpós" meaning "firelike") is red in color and chemically an aluminium silicate with the formula Mg3Al2(SiO4)3, though the magnesium can be replaced in part by calcium and ferrous iron. The color of pyrope varies from deep red to black. Pyrope and spessartine gemstones have been recovered from the Sloan diamondiferous kimberlites in Colorado, from the Bishop Conglomerate and in a Tertiary age lamprophyre at Cedar Mountain in Wyoming.
A variety of pyrope from Macon County, North Carolina is a violet-red shade and has been called "rhodolite", Greek for "rose". In chemical composition it may be considered as essentially an isomorphous mixture of pyrope and almandine, in the proportion of two parts pyrope to one part almandine. Pyrope has tradenames some of which are misnomers; "Cape ruby", "Arizona ruby", "California ruby", "Rocky Mountain ruby", and "Bohemian garnet" from the Czech Republic. Another intriguing find is the blue color-changing garnets from Madagascar, a pyrope-spessartine mix. The color of these blue garnets is not like sapphire blue in subdued daylight but more reminiscent of the grayish blues and greenish blues sometimes seen in spinel. However, in white LED light, the color is equal to the best cornflower blue sapphire, or D block tanzanite; this is due to the blue garnet's ability to absorb the yellow component of the emitted light.
Pyrope is an indicator mineral for high-pressure rocks. The garnets from mantle-derived rocks, peridotites, and eclogites commonly contain a pyrope variety.
Spessartine or spessartite is manganese aluminium garnet, Mn3Al2(SiO4)3. Its name is derived from Spessart in Bavaria. It occurs most often in granite pegmatite and allied rock types and in certain low grade metamorphic phyllites. Spessartine of an orange-yellow is found in Madagascar. Violet-red spessartines are found in rhyolites in Colorado and Maine.
Blue pyrope–spessartine garnets were discovered in the late 1990s in Bekily, Madagascar. This type has also been found in parts of the United States, Russia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Turkey. It changes color from blue-green to purple depending on the color temperature of viewing light, as a result of the relatively high amounts of vanadium (about 1 wt.% V2O3).
Other varieties of color-changing garnets exist. In daylight, their color ranges from shades of green, beige, brown, gray, and blue, but in incandescent light, they appear a reddish or purplish/pink color.
This is the rarest type of garnet. Because of its color-changing quality, this kind of garnet resembles Alexandrite.
Andradite is a calcium-iron garnet, Ca3Fe2(SiO4)3, is of variable composition and may be red, yellow, brown, green or black. The recognized varieties are topazolite (yellow or green), demantoid (green) and melanite (black). Andradite is found both in deep-seated igneous rocks like syenite as well as serpentines, schists, and crystalline limestone. Demantoid has been called the "emerald of the Urals" from its occurrence there, and is one of the most prized of garnet varieties. Topazolite is a golden-yellow variety and melanite is a black variety.
Grossular is a calcium-aluminium garnet with the formula Ca3Al2(SiO4)3, though the calcium may in part be replaced by ferrous iron and the aluminium by ferric iron. The name grossular is derived from the botanical name for the gooseberry, "grossularia", in reference to the green garnet of this composition that is found in Siberia. Other shades include cinnamon brown (cinnamon stone variety), red, and yellow. Because of its inferior hardness to zircon, which the yellow crystals resemble, they have also been called "hessonite" from the Greek meaning inferior. Grossular is found in skarns, contact metamorphosed limestones with vesuvianite, diopside, wollastonite and wernerite.
Grossular garnet from Kenya and Tanzania has been called tsavorite. Tsavorite was first described in the 1960s in the area of Kenya, from which the gem takes its name.
Uvarovite is a calcium chromium garnet with the formula Ca3Cr2(SiO4)3. This is a rather rare garnet, bright green in color, usually found as small crystals associated with chromite in peridotite, serpentinite, and kimberlites. It is found in crystalline marbles and schists in the Ural mountains of Russia and Outokumpu, Finland. Uvarovite is named for Count Uvaro, a Russian imperial statesman.
Knorringite is a magnesium-chromium garnet species with the formula Mg3Cr2(SiO4)3. Pure endmember knorringite never occurs in nature. Pyrope rich in the knorringite component is only formed under high pressure and is often found in kimberlites. It is used as an indicator mineral in the search for diamonds.
The crystallographic structure of garnets has been expanded from the prototype to include chemicals with the general formula "A"3"B"2("C" O4)3. Besides silicon, a large number of elements have been put on the "C" site, including , , , and .
Yttrium aluminium garnet (YAG), Y3Al2(AlO4)3, is used for synthetic gemstones. Due to its fairly high refractive index, YAG was used as a diamond simulant in the 1970s until the methods of producing the more advanced simulant cubic zirconia in commercial quantities were developed. When doped with neodymium (Nd3+), these YAl-garnets may be used as the lasing medium in lasers.
Interesting magnetic properties arise when the appropriate elements are used. In yttrium iron garnet (YIG), 32(Fe4)3, the five iron(III) ions occupy two octahedral and three tetrahedral sites, with the yttrium(III) ions coordinated by eight oxygen ions in an irregular cube. The iron ions in the two coordination sites exhibit different spins, resulting in magnetic behavior. YIG is a ferrimagnetic material having a Curie temperature of 550 K.
Another example is gadolinium gallium garnet, 32(GaO4)3 which is synthesized for use as a substrate for liquid-phase epitaxy of magnetic garnet films for bubble memory and magneto-optical applications.
The mineral garnet is commonly found in metamorphic and to a lesser extent, igneous rocks. Most natural garnets are compositionally zoned and contain inclusions. Its crystal lattice structure is stable at high pressures and temperatures and is thus found in green-schist facies metamorphic rocks including gneiss, hornblende schist, and mica schist. The composition that is stable at the pressure and temperature conditions of Earth's mantle is pyrope, which is often found in peridotites and kimberlites, as well as the serpentines that form from them. Garnets are unique in that they can record the pressures and temperatures of peak metamorphism and are used as geobarometers and geothermometers in the study of geothermobarometry which determines "P-T Paths", Pressure-Temperature Paths. Garnets are used as an index mineral in the delineation of isograds in metamorphic rocks. Compositional zoning and inclusions can mark the change from growth of the crystals at low temperatures to higher temperatures. Garnets that are not compositionally zoned more than likely experienced ultra high temperatures (above 700 °C) that led to diffusion of major elements within the crystal lattice, effectively homogenizing the crystal or they were never zoned. Garnets can also form metamorphic textures that can help interpret structural histories.
In addition to being used to devolve conditions of metamorphism, garnets can be used to date certain geologic events. Garnet has been developed as a U-Pb geochronometer, to date the age of crystallization as well as a thermochronometer in the (U-Th)/He system to date timing of cooling below a closure temperature.
Garnets can be chemically altered and most often alter to serpentine, talc, and chlorite.
Red garnets were the most commonly used gemstones in the Late Antique Roman world, and the Migration Period art of the "barbarian" peoples who took over the territory of the Western Roman Empire. They were especially used inlaid in gold cells in the cloisonné technique, a style often just called garnet cloisonné, found from Anglo-Saxon England, as at Sutton Hoo, to the Black Sea. Thousands of Tamraparniyan gold, silver and red garnet shipments were made in the old world, including to Rome, Greece, the Middle East, Serica and Anglo Saxons; recent findings such as the Staffordshire Hoard and the pendant of the Winfarthing Woman skeleton of Norfolk confirm an established gem trade route with South India and Tamraparni (ancient Sri Lanka), known from antiquity for its production of gemstones.
Pure crystals of garnet are still used as gemstones. The gemstone varieties occur in shades of green, red, yellow, and orange. In the US it is known as the birthstone for January. It is the state mineral of Connecticut, New York's gemstone, and star garnet (garnet with rutile asterisms) is the state gemstone of Idaho.
Garnet sand is a good abrasive, and a common replacement for silica sand in sand blasting. Alluvial garnet grains which are rounder are more suitable for such blasting treatments. Mixed with very high pressure water, garnet is used to cut steel and other materials in water jets. For water jet cutting, garnet extracted from hard rock is suitable since it is more angular in form, therefore more efficient in cutting.
Garnet paper is favored by cabinetmakers for finishing bare wood.
Garnet sand is also used for water filtration media.
As an abrasive, garnet can be broadly divided into two categories; blasting grade and water jet grade. The garnet, as it is mined and collected, is crushed to finer grains; all pieces which are larger than 60 mesh (250 micrometers) are normally used for sand blasting. The pieces between 60 mesh (250 micrometers) and 200 mesh (74 micrometers) are normally used for water jet cutting. The remaining garnet pieces that are finer than 200 mesh (74 micrometers) are used for glass polishing and lapping. Regardless of the application, the larger grain sizes are used for faster work and the smaller ones are used for finer finishes.
There are different kinds of abrasive garnets which can be divided based on their origin. The largest source of abrasive garnet today is
garnet-rich beach sand which is quite abundant on Indian and Australian coasts and the main producers today are Australia and India.
This material is particularly popular due to its consistent supplies, huge quantities and clean material. The common problems with this material are the presence of ilmenite and chloride compounds. Since the material has been naturally crushed and ground on the beaches for past centuries, the material is normally available in fine sizes only. Most of the garnet at the Tuticorin beach in south India is 80 mesh, and ranges from 56 mesh to 100 mesh size.
"River garnet" is particularly abundant in Australia. The river sand garnet occurs as a placer deposit.
"Rock garnet" is perhaps the garnet type used for the longest period of time. This type of garnet is produced in America, China and western India. These crystals are crushed in mills and then purified by wind blowing, magnetic separation, sieving and, if required, washing. Being freshly crushed, this garnet has the sharpest edges and therefore performs far better than other kinds of garnet. Both the river and the beach garnet suffer from the tumbling effect of hundreds of thousands of years which rounds off the edges. Gore Mountain Garnet from Warren County, New York, USA is a significant source of rack garnet for use as an industrial abrasive.
Garnet is the birthstone of January. It is also the birthstone of Aquarius in tropical astrology.
New York has garnet as its state gemstone, Connecticut has almandine garnet as its state gemstone, Idaho has star garnet as its state gemstone, and Vermont has grossular garnet as its state gemstone. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37506 |
Magma
Magma (from Ancient Greek μάγμα ("mágma") meaning "thick unguent") is the molten or semi-molten natural material from which all igneous rocks are formed. Magma is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and evidence of magmatism has also been discovered on other terrestrial planets and some natural satellites. Besides molten rock, magma may also contain suspended crystals and gas bubbles. Magma is produced by melting of the mantle or the crust at various tectonic settings, including subduction zones, continental rift zones, mid-ocean ridges and hotspots. Mantle and crustal melts migrate upwards through the crust where they are thought to be stored in magma chambers or trans-crustal crystal-rich mush zones. During their storage in the crust, magma compositions may be modified by fractional crystallization, contamination with crustal melts, magma mixing, and degassing. Following their ascent through the crust, magmas may feed a volcano or solidify underground to form an intrusion (e.g., an igneous dike or a sill). While the study of magma has historically relied on observing magma in the form of lava flows, magma has been encountered in situ three times during geothermal drilling projects—twice in Iceland (see Magma usage for energy production), and once in Hawaii.
Most magmatic liquids are rich in silica. Silicate melts are composed mainly of silicon, oxygen, aluminium, iron, magnesium, calcium, sodium, and potassium. The physical behaviours of melts depend upon their atomic structures as well as upon temperature and pressure and composition.
Viscosity is a key melt property in understanding the behaviour of magmas. More silica-rich melts are typically more polymerized, with more linkage of silica tetrahedra, and so are more viscous. Dissolution of water drastically reduces melt viscosity. Higher-temperature melts are less viscous. Furthermore, silicate melt (the liquid phase of magma) is viscoelastic, meaning it flows like a liquid under low stresses, but once the applied stress exceeds a critical value the melt can not dissipate the stress fast enough through relaxation alone, resulting in transient fracture propagation. Once stresses are reduced below the critical threshold, the melt viscously relaxes once more and heals the fracture.
Generally speaking, more mafic magmas, such as those that form basalt, are hotter and less viscous than more silica-rich magmas, such as those that form rhyolite. Low viscosity leads to gentler, less explosive eruptions.
Characteristics of several different magma types are as follows:
Temperatures of most magmas are in the range 700 °C to 1300 °C (or 1300 °F to 2400 °F), but very rare carbonatite magmas may be as cool as 490 °C, and komatiite magmas may have been as hot as 1600 °C. At any given pressure and for any given composition of rock, a rise in temperature past the solidus will cause melting. Within the solid earth, the temperature of a rock is controlled by the geothermal gradient and the radioactive decay within the rock. The geothermal gradient averages about 25 °C/km with a wide range from a low of 5–10 °C/km within oceanic trenches and subduction zones to 30–80 °C/km under mid-ocean ridges and volcanic arc environments.
It is usually very difficult to change the bulk composition of a large mass of rock, so composition is the basic control on whether a rock will melt at any given temperature and pressure. The composition of a rock may also be considered to include "volatile" phases such as water and carbon dioxide.
The presence of volatile phases in a rock under pressure can stabilize a melt fraction. The presence of even 0.8% water may reduce the temperature of melting by as much as 100 °C. Conversely, the loss of water and volatiles from a magma may cause it to essentially freeze or solidify.
Also a major portion of almost all magma is silica, which is a compound of silicon and oxygen. Magma also contains gases, which expand as the magma rises. Magma that is high in silica resists flowing, so expanding gases are trapped in it. Pressure builds up until the gases blast out in a violent, dangerous explosion. Magma that is relatively poor in silica flows easily, so gas bubbles move up through it and escape fairly gently.
Melting of solid rocks to form magma is controlled by three physical parameters: temperature, pressure, and composition. The most common mechanisms of magma generation in the mantle are decompression melting, heating (e.g., by interaction with a hot mantle plume), and lowering of the solidus (e.g., by compositional changes such as the addition of water). Mechanisms are discussed further in the entry for igneous rock.
When rocks melt, they do so slowly and gradually because most rocks are made of several minerals, which all have different melting points; moreover, the physical and chemical relationships controlling the melting are complex. As a rock melts, for example, its volume changes. When enough rock is melted, the small globules of melt (generally occurring between mineral grains) link up and soften the rock. Under pressure within the earth, as little as a fraction of a percent of partial melting may be sufficient to cause melt to be squeezed from its source. Melts can stay in place long enough to melt to 20% or even 35%, but rocks are rarely melted in excess of 50%, because eventually the melted rock mass becomes a crystal-and-melt mush that can then ascend "en masse" as a diapir, which may then cause further decompression melting.
The degree of partial melting is critical to determination of the characteristics of the magma it produces, and the likelihood that a melt forms reflects the degrees to which incompatible and compatible elements are involved. Incompatible elements commonly include potassium, barium, caesium, and rubidium.
Rock types produced by small degrees of partial melting in the Earth's mantle are typically alkaline (Ca, Na), potassic (K) or peralkaline (in which the aluminium to silica ratio is high). Typically, primitive melts of this composition form lamprophyre, lamproite, kimberlite and sometimes nepheline-bearing mafic rocks such as alkali basalts and essexite gabbros or even carbonatite.
Pegmatite may be produced by low degrees of partial melting of the crust. Some granite-composition magmas are eutectic (or cotectic) melts, and they may be produced by low to high degrees of partial melting of the crust, as well as by fractional crystallization. At high degrees of partial melting of the crust, granitoids such as tonalite, granodiorite and monzonite can be produced, but other mechanisms are typically important in producing them.
When rock melts, the liquid is a "primary melt". Primary melts have not undergone any differentiation and represent the starting composition of a magma. In nature it is rare to find primary melts. The leucosomes of migmatites are examples of primary melts. Primary melts derived from the mantle are especially important, and are known as "primitive melts" or primitive magmas. By finding the primitive magma composition of a magma series it is possible to model the composition of the mantle from which a melt was formed, which is important in understanding evolution of the mantle.
When it is impossible to find the primitive or primary magma composition, it is often useful to attempt to identify a parental melt. A parental melt is a magma composition from which the observed range of magma chemistries has been derived by the processes of igneous differentiation. It need not be a primitive melt.
For instance, a series of basalt flows are assumed to be related to one another. A composition from which they could reasonably be produced by fractional crystallization is termed a "parental melt". Fractional crystallization models would be produced to test the hypothesis that they share a common parental melt.
At high degrees of partial melting of the mantle, komatiite and picrite are produced.
Magma develops within the mantle or crust where the temperature and pressure conditions favor the molten state. After its formation, magma buoyantly rises toward the Earth's surface. As it migrates through the crust, magma may collect and reside in magma chambers (though recent work suggests that magma may be stored in trans-crustal crystal-rich mush zones rather than dominantly liquid magma chambers ). Magma can remain in a chamber until it cools and crystallizes forming igneous rock, it erupts as a volcano, or moves into another magma chamber.There are two known processes by which magma changes: by crystallization within the crust or mantle to form a pluton, or by volcanic eruption to become lava or tephra.
When magma cools it begins to form solid mineral phases. Some of these settle at the bottom of the magma chamber forming cumulates that might form mafic layered intrusions. Magma that cools slowly within a magma chamber usually ends up forming bodies of plutonic rocks such as gabbro, diorite and granite, depending upon the composition of the magma. Alternatively, if the magma is erupted it forms volcanic rocks such as basalt, andesite and rhyolite (the extrusive equivalents of gabbro, diorite and granite, respectively).
During a volcanic eruption the magma that leaves the underground is called lava. Lava cools and solidifies relatively quickly compared to underground bodies of magma. This fast cooling does not allow crystals to grow large, and a part of the melt does not crystallize at all, becoming glass. Rocks largely composed of volcanic glass include obsidian, scoria and pumice.
Before and during volcanic eruptions, volatiles such as CO2 and H2O partially leave the melt through a process known as exsolution. Magma with low water content becomes increasingly viscous. If massive exsolution occurs when magma heads upwards during a volcanic eruption, the resulting eruption is usually explosive.
The Iceland Deep Drilling Project, while drilling several 5,000m holes in an attempt to harness the heat in the volcanic bedrock below the surface of Iceland, struck a pocket of magma at 2,100m in 2009. Because this was only the third time in recorded history that magma had been reached, IDDP decided to invest in the hole, naming it IDDP-1.
A cemented steel case was constructed in the hole with a perforation at the bottom close to the magma. The high temperatures and pressure of the magma steam were used to generate 36MW of power, making IDDP-1 the world's first magma-enhanced geothermal system. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37508 |
Adjective
In linguistics, an adjective (abbreviated ) is a word that modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun.
Adjectives are one of the main parts of speech of the English language, although historically they were classed together with nouns. Certain words that were traditionally considered to be adjectives, including "the", "this", "my", etc., are today usually classed separately, as determiners.
"Adjective" comes from Latin "", a calque of . In the grammatical tradition of Latin and Greek, because adjectives were inflected for gender, number, and case like nouns (a process called declension), they were considered a type of noun. The words that are today typically called nouns were then called "substantive nouns" (). The terms "noun substantive" and "noun adjective" were formerly used in English but are now obsolete.
Depending on the language, an adjective can precede a corresponding noun on a prepositive basis or it can follow a corresponding noun on a postpositive basis. Structural, contextual, and style considerations can impinge on the pre- or post- position of an adjective in a given instance of its occurrence. In English, occurrences of adjectives generally can be classified into one of three categories:
Adjectives feature as a part of speech (word class) in most languages. In some languages, the words that serve the semantic function of adjectives are categorized together with some other class, such as nouns or verbs. In the phrase "a Ford car", "Ford" is unquestionably a noun but its function is adjectival: to modify "car". In some languages adjectives can function as nouns: for example, the Spanish phrase "" means "a red [one]".
As for "confusion" with verbs, rather than an adjective meaning "big", a language might have a verb that means "to be big" and could then use an attributive verb construction analogous to "big-being house" to express what in English is called a "big house". Such an analysis is possible for the grammar of Standard Chinese, for example.
Different languages do not use adjectives in exactly the same situations. For example, where English uses """to be "hungry"" ("hungry" being an adjective), Dutch, French, and Spanish use "", "", and "" respectively (literally "to have hunger", the words for "hunger" being nouns). Similarly, where Hebrew uses the adjective (, roughly "in need of"), English uses the verb "to need".
In languages that have adjectives as a word class, it is usually an open class; that is, it is relatively common for new adjectives to be formed via such processes as derivation. However, Bantu languages are well known for having only a small closed class of adjectives, and new adjectives are not easily derived. Similarly, native Japanese adjectives ("i"-adjectives) are considered a closed class (as are native verbs), although nouns (an open class) may be used in the genitive to convey some adjectival meanings, and there is also the separate open class of adjectival nouns ("na"-adjectives).
Many languages (including English) distinguish between adjectives, which qualify nouns and pronouns, and adverbs, which mainly modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. Not all languages make this exact distinction; many (including English) have words that can function as either. For example, in English, "fast" is an adjective in "a "fast" car" (where it qualifies the noun "car") but an adverb in "he drove "fast"" (where it modifies the verb "drove").
In Dutch and German, adjectives and adverbs are usually identical in form and many grammarians do not make the distinction, but patterns of inflection can suggest a difference:
A German word like ("clever(ly)") takes endings when used as an attributive adjective but not when used adverbially. (It also takes no endings when used as a predicative adjective: , "he is clever".) Whether these are distinct parts of speech or distinct usages of the same part of speech is a question of analysis. It can be noted that, while German linguistic terminology distinguishes from , German refers to both as ("property words").
Linguists today distinguish determiners from adjectives, considering them to be two separate parts of speech (or "lexical categories"). But formerly determiners were considered to be adjectives in some of their uses. Determiners are words that are neither nouns nor pronouns, yet reference a thing already in context. They generally do this by indicating definiteness ("a" vs. "the"), quantity ("one" vs. "some" vs. "many"), or another such property.
An adjective acts as the head of an "adjective phrase" or "adjectival phrase" (AP). In the simplest case, an adjective phrase consists solely of the adjective; more complex adjective phrases may contain one or more adverbs modifying the adjective (""very" strong"), or one or more complements (such as "worth "several dollars"", "full "of toys"", or "eager "to please""). In English, attributive adjective phrases that include complements typically follow the noun that they qualify ("an evildoer "devoid of redeeming qualities"").
In many languages (including English) it is possible for nouns to modify other nouns. Unlike adjectives, nouns acting as modifiers (called "attributive nouns" or "noun adjuncts") usually are not predicative; a beautiful park is beautiful, but a car park is not "car". The modifier often indicates origin (""Virginia" reel"), purpose (""work" clothes"), semantic patient (""man" eater") or semantic subject (""child" actor"); however, it may generally indicate almost any semantic relationship. It is also common for adjectives to be derived from nouns, as in "boyish", "birdlike", "behavioral (behavioural)", "famous", "manly", "angelic", and so on.
In Australian Aboriginal languages, the distinction between adjectives and nouns is typically thought weak, and many of the languages only use nouns--or nouns with a limited set of adjective-deriving affixes--to modify other nouns. In languages that have a subtle adjective-noun distinction, one way to tell them apart is that a modifying adjective can come to stand in for an entire elided noun phrase, while a modifying noun cannot. For example, in Bardi, the adjective "moorrooloo" 'little' in the phrase "moorrooloo" "baawa" ‘little child’ can stand on its own to mean 'the little one,' while the attributive noun "aamba" 'man' in the phrase "aamba baawa" 'male child' cannot stand for the whole phrase to mean 'the male one.' In other languages, like Warlpiri, nouns and adjectives are lumped together beneath the nominal umbrella because of their shared syntactic distribution as arguments of predicates. The only thing distinguishing them is that some nominals seem to semantically denote entities (typically nouns in English) and some nominals seem to denote attributes (typically adjectives in English).
Many languages have special verbal forms called participles that can act as noun modifiers (alone or as the head of a phrase). Sometimes participles develop into pure adjectives. Examples in English include "relieved" (the past participle of the verb "relieve", used as an adjective in sentences such as "I am so "relieved" to see you"), "spoken" (as in "the "spoken" word"), and "going" (the present participle of the verb "go", used as an adjective in such phrases as "the "going" rate").
Other constructs that often modify nouns include prepositional phrases (as in "a rebel "without a cause""), relative clauses (as in "the man "who wasn't there""), and infinitive phrases (as in "a cake "to die for""). Some nouns can also take complements such as content clauses (as in "the idea "that I would do that""), but these are not commonly considered modifiers. For more information about possible modifiers and dependents of nouns, see Components of noun phrases.
In many languages, attributive adjectives usually occur in a specific order. In general, the adjective order in English can be summarised as: opinion, size, age or shape, colour, origin, material, purpose. This sequence (with age preceding shape) is sometimes referred to by the mnemonic OSASCOMP. Other language authorities, like the "Cambridge Dictionary", state that shape precedes rather than follows age.
Determiners—articles, numerals and other limiters (e.g. "three" blind mice)—come before attributive adjectives in English. Although certain combinations of determiners can appear before a noun, they are far more circumscribed than adjectives in their use—typically, only a single determiner would appear before a noun or noun phrase (including any attributive adjectives).
This means that, in English, adjectives pertaining to size precede adjectives pertaining to age ("little old", not "old little"), which in turn generally precede adjectives pertaining to colour ("old white", not "white old"). So, one would say "One (quantity) nice (opinion) little (size) old (age) round (shape) ["or" round old] white (colour) brick (material) house." When several adjectives of the same type are used together, they are ordered from general to specific, like "lovely intelligent person" or "old medieval castle".
This order may be more rigid in some languages than others; in some, like Spanish, it may only be a default ("unmarked") word order, with other orders being permissible. Other languages, such as Tagalog, follow their adjectival orders as rigidly as English.
The normal adjectival order of English may be overridden in certain circumstances, especially when one adjective is being fronted. In addition, the usual order of adjectives in English would result in the phrase "the bad big wolf" (opinion before size), but instead, the usual phrase is "the big bad wolf", perhaps because the ablaut reduplication rule that high vowels precede low vowels overrides the normal order of adjectives.
Owing partially to borrowings from French, English has some adjectives that follow the noun as postmodifiers, called postpositive adjectives, as in "time immemorial" and "attorney general". Adjectives may even change meaning depending on whether they precede or follow, as in "proper": "They live in a proper town" (a real town, not a village) vs. "They live in the town proper" (in the town itself, not in the suburbs). All adjectives can follow nouns in certain constructions, such as "tell me something new".
In many languages, some adjectives are "comparable" and the measure of comparison is called "degree". For example, a person may be "polite", but another person may be ""more" polite", and a third person may be the ""most" polite" of the three. The word "more" here modifies the adjective "polite" to indicate a comparison is being made, and "most" modifies the adjective to indicate an absolute comparison (a "superlative").
Among languages that allow adjectives to be compared, different means are used to indicate comparison. Some languages do not distinguish between comparative and superlative forms. Other languages allow adjectives to be compared but do not have a special comparative form of the adjective. In such cases, as in some Australian Aboriginal languages, case-marking, such as the ablative case may be used to indicate one entity has more of an adjectival quality than (i.e. "from" --hence ABL) another. Take the following example in Bardi:
In English, many adjectives can be inflected to comparative and superlative forms by taking the suffixes "-er" and "-est" (sometimes requiring additional letters before the suffix; see forms for "far" below), respectively:
Some adjectives are "irregular" in this sense:
Some adjectives can have both "regular" and "irregular" variations:
also
Another way to convey comparison is by incorporating the words "more" and "most". There is no simple rule to decide which means is correct for any given adjective, however. The general tendency is for simpler adjectives and those from Anglo-Saxon to take the suffixes, while longer adjectives and those from French, Latin, or Greek do not—but sometimes "sound" of the word is the deciding factor.
Many adjectives do not naturally lend themselves to comparison. For example, some English speakers would argue that it does not make sense to say that one thing is "more ultimate" than another, or that something is "most ultimate", since the word "ultimate" is already absolute in its semantics. Such adjectives are called "non-comparable" or "absolute". Nevertheless, native speakers will frequently play with the raised forms of adjectives of this sort. Although "pregnant" is logically non-comparable (either one is pregnant or not), one may hear a sentence like "She looks more and more pregnant each day". Likewise "extinct" and "equal" appear to be non-comparable, but one might say that a language about which nothing is known is "more extinct" than a well-documented language with surviving literature but no speakers, while George Orwell wrote, "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others". These cases may be viewed as evidence that the base forms of these adjectives are not as absolute in their semantics as is usually thought.
Comparative and superlative forms are also occasionally used for other purposes than comparison. In English comparatives can be used to suggest that a statement is only tentative or tendential: one might say "John is more the shy-and-retiring type," where the comparative "more" is not really comparing him with other people or with other impressions of him, but rather, could be substituting for "on the whole". In Italian, superlatives are frequently used to put strong emphasis on an adjective: means "most beautiful", but is in fact more commonly heard in the sense "extremely beautiful".
Attributive adjectives and other noun modifiers may be used either "restrictively" (helping to identify the noun's referent, hence "restricting" its reference) or "non-restrictively" (helping to describe a noun ). For example:
In some languages, such as Spanish, restrictiveness is consistently marked; for example, in Spanish means "the difficult task" in the sense of "the task that is difficult" (restrictive), whereas means "the difficult task" in the sense of "the task, which is difficult" (non-restrictive). In English, restrictiveness is not marked on adjectives but is marked on relative clauses (the difference between "the man "who recognized me" was there" and "the man, "who recognized me", was there" being one of restrictiveness).
In some languages, adjectives alter their form to reflect the gender, case and number of the noun that they describe. This is called agreement or concord. Usually it takes the form of inflections at the end of the word, as in Latin:
In Celtic languages, however, initial consonant lenition marks the adjective with a feminine singular noun, as in Irish:
Often, distinction is made here between attributive and predicative usage. In English, adjectives never agree, whereas in French, they always agree. In German, they agree only when they are used attributively, and in Hungarian, they agree only when they are used predicatively: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37512 |
Adverb
An adverb is a word or an expression that modifies a verb, adjective, determiner, clause, preposition, or sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc., answering questions such as "how?", "in what way?", "when?", "where?", and "to what extent?". This is called the adverbial function, and may be performed by single words (adverbs) or by multi-word adverbial phrases and adverbial clauses.
Adverbs are traditionally regarded as one of the parts of speech. However, modern linguists note that the term "adverb" has come to be used as a kind of "catch-all" category, used to classify words with various different types of syntactic behavior, not necessarily having much in common except that they do not fit into any of the other available categories (noun, adjective, preposition, etc.)
The English word "adverb" derives (through French) from Latin "adverbium", from "ad-" ("to"), "verbum" ("word", "verb"), and the nominal suffix "-ium". The term implies that the principal function of adverbs is to act as modifiers of verbs or verb phrases. An adverb used in this way may provide information about the manner, place, time, frequency, certainty, or other circumstances of the activity denoted by the verb or verb phrase. Some examples:
Adverbs can also be used as modifiers of adjectives, and of other adverbs, often to indicate degree. Examples:
They can also modify determiners, prepositional phrases, or whole clauses or sentences, as in the following examples:
Adverbs thus perform a wide range of modifying functions. The major exception is the function of modifier of nouns, which is performed instead by adjectives (compare "she sang loudly" with "her loud singing disturbed me"; here the verb "sang" is modified by the adverb "loudly", whereas the noun "singing" is modified by the adjective "loud"). However, because some adverbs and adjectives are homonyms, their respective functions are sometimes conflated:
The word "even" in the first sentence is an adjective, since it is a prepositive modifier that modifies the noun "numbers". The word "even" in the second sentence is a prepositive adverb that modifies the verb "drank."
Although it is possible for an adverb to precede or to follow a noun or a noun phrase, the adverb nonetheless does "not" modify either in such cases, as in:
In the first sentence, "Internationally" is a prepositive adverb that modifies the clause, "there is ..." In the second sentence, "internationally" is a postpositive adverb that modifies the clause, "There is ..." By contrast, the third sentence contains "international" as a prepositive adjective that modifies the noun, "shortage."
Adverbs can sometimes be used as predicative expressions; in English, this applies especially to adverbs of location:
When the function of an adverb is performed by an expression consisting of more than one word, it is called an adverbial phrase or adverbial clause, or simply an adverbial.
In English, adverbs of manner (answering the question "how?") are often formed by adding "-ly" to adjectives, but flat adverbs (such as in "drive fast", "drive slow", and "drive friendly") have the same form as the corresponding adjective. Other languages often have similar methods for deriving adverbs from adjectives (French, for example, uses the suffix "-ment"), or else use the same form for both adjectives and adverbs, as in German and Dutch, where for example "schnell" or "snel", respectively, mean either "quick" or "quickly" depending on the context. Many other adverbs, however, are not related to adjectives in this way; they may be derived from other words or phrases, or may be single morphemes. Examples of such adverbs in English include "here, there, together, yesterday, aboard, very, almost", etc.
Where the meaning permits, adverbs may undergo comparison, taking comparative and superlative forms. In English this is usually done by adding "more" and "most" before the adverb ("more slowly, most slowly"), although there are a few adverbs that take inflected forms, such as "well", for which "better" and "best" are used.
For more information about the formation and use of adverbs in English, see . For other languages, see below, and the articles on individual languages and their grammars.
Adverbs are considered a part of speech in traditional English grammar, and are still included as a part of speech in grammar taught in schools and used in dictionaries. However, modern grammarians recognize that words traditionally grouped together as adverbs serve a number of different functions. Some describe adverbs as a "catch-all" category that includes all words that do not belong to one of the other parts of speech.
A logical approach to dividing words into classes relies on recognizing which words can be used in a certain context. For example, the only type of word that can be inserted in the following template to form a grammatical sentence is a noun:
When this approach is taken, it is seen that adverbs fall into a number of different categories. For example, some adverbs can be used to modify an entire sentence, whereas others cannot. Even when a sentential adverb has other functions, the meaning is often not the same. For example, in the sentences "She gave birth naturally" and "Naturally, she gave birth", the word "naturally" has different meanings: in the first sentence, as a verb-modifying adverb, it means "in a natural manner", while in the second sentence, as a sentential adverb, it means something like "of course".
Words like "very" afford another example. We can say "Perry is very fast", but not "Perry very won the race". These words can modify adjectives but not verbs. On the other hand, there are words like "here" and "there" that cannot modify adjectives. We can say "The sock looks good there" but not "It is a there beautiful sock". The fact that many adverbs can be used in more than one of these functions can confuse the issue, and it may seem like splitting hairs to say that a single adverb is really two or more words that serve different functions. However, this distinction can be useful, especially when considering adverbs like "naturally" that have different meanings in their different functions. Rodney Huddleston distinguishes between a "word" and a "lexicogrammatical-word".
Grammarians find difficulty categorizing negating words, such as the English "not". Although traditionally listed as an adverb, this word does not behave grammatically like any other, and it probably should be placed in a class of its own. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37513 |
Depleted uranium
Depleted uranium (DU; also referred to in the past as Q-metal, depletalloy or D-38) is uranium with a lower content of the fissile isotope U-235 than natural uranium. Natural uranium contains about 0.72% U-235, while the DU used by the U.S. Department of Defense contains 0.3% U-235 or less. Uses of DU take advantage of its very high density of 19.1 g/cm3 (68.4% denser than lead). The less radioactive and non-fissile uranium-238 constitutes the main component of depleted uranium.
Civilian uses include counterweights in aircraft, radiation shielding in medical radiation therapy and industrial radiography equipment, and containers for transporting radioactive materials. Military uses include armor plating and armor-piercing projectiles.
Most depleted uranium arises as a by-product of the production of enriched uranium for use as fuel in nuclear reactors and in the manufacture of nuclear weapons. Enrichment processes generate uranium with a higher-than-natural concentration of lower-mass-number uranium isotopes (in particular U-235, which is the uranium isotope supporting the fission chain reaction) with the bulk of the feed ending up as depleted uranium, in some cases with mass fractions of U-235 and U-234 less than a third of those in natural uranium. Since U-238 has a much longer half-life than the lighter isotopes, DU emits less alpha radiation than natural uranium. DU from nuclear reprocessing has different isotopic ratios from enrichment–by-product DU, from which it can be distinguished by the presence of U-236. As per an article in Al Jazeera, DU from American artillery is suspected to be one of the major causes of an increase in the general mortality rate in Iraq since 1991.
DU used in US munitions has 60% of the radioactivity of natural uranium. Most of the alpha radiation comes from U-238 and U-234 whereas beta radiation comes from thorium-234 and protactinium-234 that are formed within a few weeks. Trace transuranics (another indicator of the use of reprocessed material) have been reported to be present in some US tank armor.
The use of DU in munitions is controversial because of concerns about potential long-term health effects. Normal functioning of the kidney, brain, liver, heart, and numerous other systems can be affected by exposure to uranium, a toxic metal. It is only weakly radioactive because of the long radioactive half-life of uranium-238 (4468 million years) and the low amounts of uranium-234 (half-life about 246,000 years) and uranium-235 (half-life 700 million years). The biological half-life (the average time it takes for the human body to eliminate half the amount in the body) for uranium is about 15 days. The aerosol or spallation frangible powder produced by impact and combustion of depleted uranium munitions can potentially contaminate wide areas around the impact sites, leading to possible inhalation by human beings.
The actual level of acute and chronic toxicity of DU is also controversial. Several studies using cultured cells and laboratory rodents suggest the possibility of leukemogenic, genetic, reproductive, and neurological effects from chronic exposure. A 2005 epidemiology review concluded: "In aggregate the human epidemiological evidence is consistent with increased risk of birth defects in offspring of persons exposed to DU."
Enriched uranium was first manufactured in the early 1940s when the United States and Britain began their nuclear weapons programs. Later in the decade, France and the Soviet Union began their nuclear weapons and nuclear power programs. Depleted uranium was originally stored as an unusable waste product (uranium hexafluoride) in the hope that improved enrichment processes could extract additional quantities of the fissionable U-235 isotope. This re-enrichment recovery of the residual uranium-235 is now in practice in some parts of the world; e.g. in 1996 over 6000 metric tonnes were upgraded in a Russian plant.
It is possible to design civilian power-generating reactors using unenriched fuel, but only about 10% of those ever built (such as the CANDU reactor) utilize that technology. Thus most civilian reactors as well as all naval reactors and nuclear weapons production require fuel containing concentrated U-235 and generate depleted uranium.
In the 1970s, the Pentagon reported that the Soviet military had developed armor plating for Warsaw Pact tanks that NATO ammunition could not penetrate. The Pentagon began searching for material to make denser armor-piercing projectiles. After testing various metals, ordnance researchers settled on depleted uranium.
The US and NATO militaries used DU penetrator rounds in the 1991 Gulf War, the Bosnia war, bombing of Serbia, the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and 2015 airstrikes on ISIS in Syria. It is estimated that between 315 and 350 tons of DU were used in the 1991 Gulf War.
Natural uranium metal contains about 0.71% U-235, 99.28% U-238, and about 0.0054% U-234. The production of enriched uranium using isotope separation creates "depleted uranium" containing only 0.2% to 0.4% U-235. Because natural uranium begins with such a low percentage of U-235, enrichment produces large quantities of depleted uranium. For example, producing 1 kg of 5% enriched uranium requires 11.8 kg of natural uranium, and leaves about 10.8 kg of depleted uranium having only 0.3% U-235.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) defines "depleted uranium" as uranium with a percentage of the 235U isotope that is less than 0.711% by weight (see 10 CFR 40.4). The military specifications designate that the DU used by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) contain less than 0.3% 235U. In actuality, DoD uses only DU that contains approximately 0.2% 235U.
Depleted uranium is further produced by recycling spent nuclear fuel, in which case it contains traces of neptunium and plutonium. Quantities are so small that they are considered to be not of serious radiological significance (even) by ECRR.
Most depleted uranium is stored as uranium hexafluoride, a toxic crystalline solid, (D)UF6, in steel cylinders in open air storage yards close to enrichment plants. Each cylinder holds up to 12.7 tonnes (14 short tons) of UF6. In the U.S. 560,000 tonnes of depleted UF6 had accumulated by 1993. In 2008, 686,500 tonnes in 57,122 storage cylinders were located near Portsmouth, Ohio; Oak Ridge, Tennessee; and Paducah, Kentucky.
The storage of DUF6 presents environmental, health, and safety risks because of its chemical instability. When UF6 is exposed to water vapor in the air, it reacts with the moisture to produce UO2F2 (uranyl fluoride), a solid, and HF (hydrogen fluoride), a gas, both of which are highly soluble and toxic. The uranyl fluoride solid acts to plug the leak, limiting further escape of depleted UF6. Release of the hydrogen fluoride gas to the atmosphere is also slowed by the plug formation.
Like any other uranium compound, it is radioactive, and precautions should be taken. It is also highly toxic. Uranyl fluoride is corrosive and harmful upon inhalation, ingestion, or skin absorption. Ingestion or inhalation may be fatal. Effects of exposure may be delayed.
There have been several accidents involving uranium hexafluoride in the United States, including one in which 32 workers were exposed to a cloud of UF6 and its reaction products in 1986 at a Gore, Oklahoma commercial uranium conversion facility. One person died; while a few workers with higher exposure experienced short-term kidney damage (e.g., protein in the urine), none of them showed lasting damage from the exposure to uranium. The U.S. government has been converting depleted UF6 to solid uranium oxides for use or disposal. Such disposal of the entire DUF6 inventory could cost anywhere from $15 million to $450 million.
Depleted uranium is very dense; at 19,050 kg/m³, it is 1.67 times as dense as lead, only slightly less dense than tungsten and gold, and 84% as dense as osmium or iridium, which are the densest known substances under standard (i.e., Earth-surface) pressures. Consequently, a DU projectile of given mass has a smaller diameter than an equivalent lead projectile, with less aerodynamic drag and deeper penetration because of a higher pressure at point of impact. DU projectile ordnance is often inherently incendiary because uranium is flammable.
Because of its high density, depleted uranium can also be used in tank armor, sandwiched between sheets of steel armor plate. For instance, some late-production M1A1HA and M1A2 Abrams tanks built after 1998 have DU modules integrated into their Chobham armor, as part of the armor plating in the front of the hull and the front of the turret, and there is a program to upgrade the rest.
Depleted uranium can be used as a tamper, or neutron reflector, in fission bombs. A high density tamper like DU makes for a longer-lasting, more energetic, and more efficient explosion.
Most military use of depleted uranium has been as 30 mm ordnance, primarily the 30 mm PGU-14/B armour-piercing incendiary round from the GAU-8 Avenger cannon of the A-10 Thunderbolt II used by the United States Air Force. 25 mm DU rounds have been used in the M242 gun mounted on the U.S. Army's Bradley Fighting Vehicle and the Marine Corps's LAV-25.
The U.S. Marine Corps uses DU in the 25 mm PGU-20 round fired by the GAU-12 Equalizer cannon of the AV-8B Harrier, and also in the 20 mm M197 gun mounted on AH-1 Cobra helicopter gunships. The United States Navy's Phalanx CIWS's M61 Vulcan Gatling gun used 20 mm armor-piercing penetrator rounds with discarding plastic sabots and a core made using depleted uranium, later changed to tungsten.
Another use of depleted uranium is in kinetic energy penetrators, anti-armor rounds such as the 120 mm sabot rounds fired from the British Challenger 1, Challenger 2, M1A1 and M1A2 Abrams. Kinetic energy penetrator rounds consist of a long, relatively thin penetrator surrounded by a discarding sabot. Staballoys are metal alloys of depleted uranium with a very small proportion of other metals, usually titanium or molybdenum. One formulation has a composition of 99.25% by mass of depleted uranium and 0.75% by mass of titanium. Staballoys are approximately 1.67 times as dense as lead and are designed for use in kinetic energy penetrator armor-piercing ammunition. The US Army uses DU in an alloy with around 3.5% titanium.
Depleted uranium is favored for the penetrator because it is self-sharpening and flammable. On impact with a hard target, such as an armored vehicle, the nose of the rod fractures in such a way that it remains sharp. The impact and subsequent release of heat energy causes it to ignite. When a DU penetrator reaches the interior of an armored vehicle, it catches fire, often igniting ammunition and fuel, killing the crew and possibly causing the vehicle to explode. DU is used by the U.S. Army in 120 mm or 105 mm cannons employed on the M1 Abrams tank. The Russian military has used DU ammunition in tank main gun ammunition since the late 1970s, mostly for the 115 mm guns in the T-62 tank and the 125 mm guns in the T-64, T-72, T-80, and T-90 tanks.
The DU content in various ammunition is 180 g in 20 mm projectiles, 200 g in 25 mm ones, 280 g in 30 mm, 3.5 kg in 105 mm, and 4.5 kg in 120 mm penetrators. DU was used during the mid-1990s in the U.S. to make hand grenades, and land mines, but those applications have been discontinued, according to Alliant Techsystems. The US Navy used DU in its 20 mm Phalanx CIWS guns, but switched in the late 1990s to armor-piercing tungsten.
Only the US and the UK have acknowledged using DU weapons. 782,414 DU rounds were fired during the 1991 war in Iraq, mostly by US forces. According to an international legal team preparing a lawsuit against NATO, 10–15 tons of depleted uranium was used during the 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia. In a three-week period of conflict in Iraq during 2003, it was estimated that over 1000 tons of depleted uranium munitions were used. More than 300,000 DU rounds were fired during the 2003 war, the vast majority by US troops.
According to 2005 research, at least some of the most promising tungsten alloys that have been considered as replacement for depleted uranium in penetrator ammunitions, such as tungsten-cobalt or tungsten-nickel-cobalt alloys, also possess carcinogenic properties: rats implanted with a pellet of such alloys developed lethal rhabdomyosarcoma within a few weeks.
In 1996, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) gave an advisory opinion on the ""legality of the threat or use of nuclear weapons"". This made it clear, in paragraphs 54, 55 and 56, that international law on poisonous weapons—the Second Hague Declaration of 29 July 1899, Hague Convention IV of 18 October 1907 and the Geneva Protocol of 17 June 1925—did not cover nuclear weapons, because their prime or exclusive use was not to poison or asphyxiate. This ICJ opinion was about nuclear weapons, but the sentence "The terms have been understood, in the practice of States, in their ordinary sense as covering weapons whose prime, or even exclusive, effect is to poison or asphyxiate," also removes depleted uranium weaponry from coverage by the same treaties as their primary use is not to poison or asphyxiate, but to destroy materiel and kill soldiers through kinetic energy.
The Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities of the United Nations Human Rights Commission, passed two motions — the first in 1996 and the second in 1997. They listed weapons of mass destruction, or weapons with indiscriminate effect, or of a nature to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering and urged all states to curb the production and the spread of such weapons. Included in the list was weaponry containing depleted uranium. The committee authorized a working paper, in the context of human rights and humanitarian norms, of the weapons.
The requested UN working paper was delivered in 2002 by Y. K. J. Yeung Sik Yuen in accordance with Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights resolution 2001/36. He argues that the use of DU in weapons, along with the other weapons listed by the Sub‑Commission, may breach one or more of the following treaties: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Charter of the United Nations, the Genocide Convention, the United Nations Convention Against Torture, the Geneva Conventions including Protocol I, the Convention on Conventional Weapons of 1980, and the Chemical Weapons Convention. Yeung Sik Yuen writes in Paragraph 133 under the title ""Legal compliance of weapons containing DU as a new weapon"":
Louise Arbour, chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia led a committee of staff lawyers to investigate possible treaty prohibitions against the use of DU in weapons. Their findings were that:
A number of anti-war activists specializing in international humanitarian law have questioned the legality of the continued use of depleted uranium weapons, highlighting that the effects may breach the principle of distinction (between civilians and military personnel). Some states and the International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons, a coalition of more than 155 non-governmental organizations, have asked for a ban on the production and military use of depleted uranium weapons.
The European Parliament has repeatedly passed resolutions requesting an immediate moratorium on the further use of depleted uranium ammunition, but France and Britain – the only European states that are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council – have consistently rejected calls for a ban, maintaining that its use continues to be legal, and that the health risks are unsubstantiated.
In 2007, France, Britain, the Netherlands, and the Czech Republic voted against a United Nations General Assembly resolution to hold a debate in 2009 about the effects of the use of armaments and ammunitions containing depleted uranium. All other European Union nations voted in favour or abstained. The ambassador from the Netherlands explained his negative vote as being due to the reference in the preamble to the resolution "to potential harmful effects of the use of depleted uranium munitions on human health and the environment [which] cannot, in our view, be supported by conclusive scientific studies conducted by relevant international organizations." None of the other permanent members of the United Nations Security Council supported the resolution as China was absent for the vote, Russia abstained and the United States voted against the resolution.
In September 2008, and in response to the 2007 General Assembly resolution, the UN Secretary General published the views of 15 states alongside those of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and World Health Organization (WHO). The IAEA and WHO evidence differed little from previous statements on the issue. The report was largely split between states concerned about depleted uranium's use, such as Finland, Cuba, Japan, Serbia, Argentina, and predominantly NATO members, who do not consider the use of depleted uranium munitions problematic.
In December 2008, 141 states supported a resolution requesting that three UN agencies: United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), WHO and IAEA update their research on the impact of uranium munitions by late 2010 – to coincide with the General Assembly's 65th Session, four voted against, 34 abstained and 13 were absent As before Britain and France voted against the resolution. All other European Union nations voted in favour or abstained: the Netherlands, which voted against a resolution in 2007, voted in favour, as did Finland and Norway, both of which had abstained in 2007, while the Czech Republic, which voted against the resolution in 2007, abstained. The two other states that voted against the resolution were Israel and the United States (both of which voted against in 2007), while as before China was absent for the vote, and Russia abstained.
On 21 June 2009, Belgium became the first country in the world to ban: "inert ammunition and armour that contains depleted uranium or any other industrially manufactured uranium." The move followed a unanimous parliamentary vote on the issue on 22 March 2007. The text of the 2007 law allowed for two years to pass until it came into force. In April 2009, the Belgian Senate voted unanimously to restrict investments by Belgian banks into the manufacturers of depleted uranium weapons.
In September 2009, the Latin American Parliament passed a resolution calling for a regional moratorium on the use, production and procurement of uranium weapons. It also called on the Parlatino's members to work towards an international uranium weapons treaty.
In December 2010, 148 states supported a United Nations' General Assembly resolution calling for the states that use depleted uranium weapons in conflict to reveal where the weapons have been fired when asked to do so by the country upon whose territory they have been used.
In April 2011, the Congress of Costa Rica passed a law prohibiting uranium weapons in its territories, becoming the second country in the world to do so. In November 2010 the Irish Senate passed a bill seeking to outlaw depleted uranium weapons, but it lapsed before approval by the Dáil.
In December 2012, 155 states supported a United Nations' General Assembly resolution that recalled that, because of the ongoing uncertainties over the long-term environmental impacts of depleted uranium identified by the United Nations Environment Programme, states should adopt a precautionary approach to its use.
In December 2014, 150 states supported a United Nations' General Assembly resolution encouraging states to provide assistance to states affected by the use of depleted uranium weapons, in particular in identifying and managing contaminated sites and material. In contrast to the previous biennial resolutions, Germany moved to an abstention from supporting to the resolutions. Prior to the vote, in a report to the United Nations Secretary General requested by 2012's resolution published in June 2014, Iraq had called for a global treaty ban on depleted uranium weapons.
Depleted uranium has a very high density and is primarily used as shielding material for other radioactive material, and as ballast. Examples include sailboat keels, as counterweights and as shielding in industrial radiography cameras.
Industrial radiography cameras include a very high activity gamma radiation source (typically Ir-192 with an activity above 10 TBq). Depleted uranium is often used in the cameras as a shield to protect individuals from the gamma source. Typically, the uranium shield is supported and enclosed in polyurethane foam for thermal, mechanical and oxidation protection.
Consumer product uses have included incorporation into dental porcelain, used for false teeth to simulate the fluorescence of natural teeth, and uranium-bearing reagents used in chemistry laboratories (e.g. uranyl acetate, used in analytical chemistry and as a stain in electron microscopy). Uranium (both depleted uranium and natural uranium) was widely used as a coloring matter for porcelain and glass in the 19th and early-to-mid-20th century. The practice was largely discontinued in the late 20th century. In 1999, concentrations of 10% depleted uranium were being used in "jaune no.17" a yellow enamel powder that was being produced in France by Cristallerie de Saint-Paul, a manufacturer of enamel pigments. The depleted uranium used in the powder was sold by Cogéma's Pierrelatte facility. In February 2000, Cogema discontinued the sale of depleted uranium to producers of enamel and glass.
Aircraft that contain depleted uranium trim weights for stabilizing wings and control surfaces (such as the Boeing 747-100) may contain between 400 and 1,500 kg of DU. This application is controversial because the DU might enter the environment if the aircraft crashes. The metal can also oxidize to a fine powder in a fire. Its use has been phased out in many newer aircraft. Boeing and McDonnell-Douglas discontinued using DU counterweights in the 1980s. Depleted uranium was released during the crash of El Al Flight 1862 on 4 October 1992, in which 152 kg was lost, but a case study concluded that there was no evidence to link depleted uranium from the plane to any health problems. Counterweights manufactured with cadmium plating are considered non-hazardous while the plating is intact.
US Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulations at 10 CFR 40.25 establish a general license for the use of depleted uranium contained in industrial products or devices for mass-volume applications. This general license allows anyone to possess or use depleted uranium for authorized purposes. Generally, a registration form is required, along with a commitment to not abandon the material. Agreement states may have similar, or more stringent, regulations.
"Pen Duick VI", a boat designed by and used for racing, was equipped with a keel of depleted uranium. The benefit is that, because of the very high density of uranium, the keel could be thinner for a given weight, and so have less resistance than a normal keel. It was later replaced by a standard lead keel.
Depleted uranium has been used in a number of sampling calorimeters (such as in the D0 and ZEUS detectors) because of its high density and natural radioactivity.
Normal functioning of the kidney, brain, liver, heart, and numerous other systems can be affected by uranium exposure because, in addition to being weakly radioactive, uranium is a toxic metal, although less toxic than other heavy metals, such as arsenic and mercury. It is weakly radioactive but is 'persistently' so because of its long half-life. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry states that: "to be exposed to radiation from uranium, you have to eat, drink, or breathe it, or get it on your skin." If DU particles do enter an individual, the type of danger presented—toxic vs. radiological—and the organ most likely to be affected depend on the solubility of the particles.
In military conflicts involving DU munitions, the major concern is inhalation of DU particles in aerosols arising from the impacts of DU-enhanced projectiles with their targets. When depleted uranium munitions penetrate armor or burn, they create depleted uranium oxides in the form of dust that can be inhaled or contaminate wounds. The Institute of Nuclear Technology-Radiation Protection of Attiki, Greece, has noted that "the aerosol produced during impact and combustion of depleted uranium munitions can potentially contaminate wide areas around the impact sites or can be inhaled by civilians and military personnel". The utilisation of DU in incendiary ammunition is controversial because of potential adverse health effects and its release into the environment.
The U.S. Department of Defense claims that no human cancer of any type has been seen as a result of exposure to either natural or depleted uranium. Militaries have long had risk-reduction procedures for their troops to follow, and studies are in consistent agreement that veterans who used DU-enhanced munitions have not suffered, so far, from an increased risk of cancer (see the Gulf War and Balkans sections below). The effects of DU on civilian populations are, however, a topic of intense and ongoing controversy.
As early as 1997, British Army doctors warned the Ministry of Defence that exposure to depleted uranium increased the risk of developing lung, lymph and brain cancer, and recommended a series of safety precautions. According to a report issued summarizing the advice of the doctors, "Inhalation of insoluble uranium dioxide dust will lead to accumulation in the lungs with very slow clearance—if any. … Although chemical toxicity is low, there may be localised radiation damage of the lung leading to cancer." The report warns that "All personnel … should be aware that uranium dust inhalation carries a long-term risk … [the dust] has been shown to increase the risks of developing lung, lymph and brain cancers." In 2003, the Royal Society called, again, for urgent attention to be paid to the possible health and environmental impact of depleted uranium, and added its backing to the United Nations Environment Programme's call for a scientific assessment of sites struck with depleted uranium. In early 2004, the UK Pensions Appeal Tribunal Service attributed birth defect claims from a February 1991 Gulf War combat veteran to depleted uranium poisoning. Also, a 2005 epidemiology review concluded: "In aggregate the human epidemiological evidence is consistent with increased risk of birth defects in offspring of persons exposed to DU." Studies using cultured cells and laboratory rodents continue to suggest the possibility of leukemogenic, genetic, reproductive, and neurological effects from chronic exposure.
The chemical toxicity of depleted uranium is identical to that of natural uranium and about a million times greater "in vivo" than DU's radiological hazard, with the kidney considered to be the main target organ. Health effects of DU are determined by factors such as the extent of exposure and whether it was internal or external. Three main pathways exist by which internalization of uranium may occur: inhalation, ingestion, and embedded fragments or shrapnel contamination. Properties such as phase (e.g. particulate or gaseous), oxidation state (e.g. metallic or ceramic), and the solubility of uranium and its compounds influence their absorption, distribution, translocation, elimination and the resulting toxicity. For example, metallic uranium is less toxic compared to hexavalent uranium(VI) uranyl compounds such as uranium trioxide.
Uranium is pyrophoric when finely divided. It will corrode under the influence of air and water producing insoluble uranium(IV) and soluble uranium(VI) salts. Soluble uranium salts are toxic. Uranium slowly accumulates in several organs, such as the liver, spleen, and kidneys. The World Health Organization has established a daily "tolerated intake" of soluble uranium salts for the general public of 0.5 µg/kg body weight, or 35 µg for a 70 kg adult.
Epidemiological studies and toxicological tests on laboratory animals point to it as being immunotoxic, teratogenic, neurotoxic, with carcinogenic and leukemogenic potential. A 2005 report by epidemiologists concluded: "the human epidemiological evidence is consistent with increased risk of birth defects in offspring of persons exposed to DU."
Early studies of depleted uranium aerosol exposure assumed that uranium combustion product particles would quickly settle out of the air and thus could not affect populations more than a few kilometers from target areas, and that such particles, if inhaled, would remain undissolved in the lung for a great length of time and thus could be detected in urine. Violently burning uranium droplets produce a gaseous vapor comprising about half of the uranium in their original mass. Uranyl ion contamination in uranium oxides has been detected in the residue of DU munitions fires.
Approximately 90 micrograms of natural uranium, on average, exist in the human body as a result of normal intake of water, food and air. Most is in the skeleton. The biochemistry of depleted uranium is the same as natural uranium.
The primary radiation danger from pure depleted uranium is due to alpha particles, which do not travel far through air, and do not penetrate clothing. However, in a matter of a month or so, a sample of pure depleted uranium will generate small amounts of thorium-234 and protactinium-234, which emit the more penetrating beta particles at almost the same rate as the uranium emits alpha rays. This is because uranium-238 decays directly to thorium-234, which with a half-life of 24 days decays to protactinium-234, which in turn decays in a matter of hours to the long-lived uranium-234. A quasi-steady state is therefore reached within a few multiples of 24 days.
Available evidence suggests that the radiation risk is small relative to the chemical hazard.
Surveying the veteran-related evidence pertaining to the Gulf War, a 2001 editorial in the "BMJ" concluded that it was not possible to justify claims of radiation-induced lung cancer and leukaemia in veterans of that conflict. While agreeing with the editorial's conclusion, a reply noted that its finding in the negative was guaranteed, given that "global dose estimates or results of mathematical modelling are too inaccurate to be used as dose values for an individual veteran", and that, as of April 2001, no practical method of measuring the expected small doses that each individual veteran would receive had been suggested. The author of the reply, a radiation scientist, went on to suggest a method that had been used several times before, including after the 1986 Chernobyl accident. Despite the widespread use of DU in the Iraq War, at least a year after the conflict began, testing for UK troops was still only in the discussion phase.
The Royal Society DU Working Group concluded in 2002 that there were "very low" health risks associated with the use of depleted uranium, though also ventured that, "[i]n extreme conditions and under worst-case assumptions" lung and kidney damage could occur, and that in "worst-case scenarios high local levels of uranium could occur in food or water that could have adverse effects on the kidney". In 2003, the Royal Society issued another urgent call to investigate the actual health and environmental impact of depleted uranium. The same year, a cohort study of Gulf War veterans found no elevated risks of cancer generally, nor of any specific cancers in particular, though recommended follow up studies.
According to the World Health Organization, a radiation dose from it would be about 60% of that from purified natural uranium with the same mass; the radiological dangers are lower because of its longer half-life and the removal of the more radioactive isotopes.
Since 1991, the year the Gulf War ended, veterans and their families voiced concern about subsequent health problems. In 1999, an assessment of the first 1,000 veterans involved in the Ministry of Defence's Gulf War medical assessment programme found "no evidence" of a single illness, physical or mental, that would explain the pattern of symptoms observed in the group. Nevertheless, in 1999, MEDACT petitioned for the WHO to conduct an investigation into illnesses in veterans and Iraqi civilians. A major 2006 review of peer-reviewed literature by a US Institute of Medicine committee concluded that, "[b]ecause the symptoms vary greatly among individuals", they do not point to a syndrome unique to Gulf War veterans, though their report conceded that the lack of objective pre-deployment health data meant definitive conclusions were effectively impossible. Simon Wessely praised the IOM's review, and noted that, despite its central conclusion that no novel syndrome existed, its other findings made it "equally clear that service in the Gulf war did aversely affect health in some personnel". Aside from the lack of baseline data to guide analysis of the veterans' postwar health, because no detailed health screening was carried out when the veterans entered service, another major stumbling block with some studies, like the thousand-veteran one, is that the subjects are self-selected, rather than a random sample, making general conclusions impossible.
Increased rates of immune system disorders and other wide-ranging symptoms, including chronic pain, fatigue and memory loss, have been reported in over one quarter of combat veterans of the 1991 Gulf War. Combustion products from depleted uranium munitions are being considered as one of the potential causes by the Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses, as DU was used in 30 mm and 25 mm cannon rounds on a large scale for the first time in the Gulf War. Veterans of the conflicts in the Persian Gulf, Bosnia and Kosovo have been found to have up to 14 times the usual level of chromosome abnormalities in their genes. Serum-soluble genotoxic teratogens produce congenital disorders, and in white blood cells causes immune system damage.
Human epidemiological evidence is consistent with increased risk of birth defects in the offspring of persons exposed to DU. A 2001 study of 15,000 February 1991 U.S. Gulf War combat veterans and 15,000 control veterans found that the Gulf War veterans were 1.8 (fathers) to 2.8 (mothers) times as likely to have children with birth defects. After examination of children's medical records two years later, the birth defect rate increased by more than 20%:
In early 2004, the UK Pensions Appeal Tribunal Service attributed birth defect claims from a February 1991 Gulf War combat veteran to depleted uranium poisoning. Looking at the risk of children of UK Gulf War veterans suffering genetic diseases such as congenital malformations, commonly called "birth defects", one study found that the overall risk of any malformation was 50% higher in Gulf War veterans as compared to other veterans.
The U.S. Army has commissioned ongoing research into potential risks of depleted uranium and other projectile weapon materials like tungsten, which the U.S. Navy has used in place of DU since 1993. Studies by the U.S. Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute conclude that moderate exposures to either depleted uranium or uranium present a significant toxicological threat.
In 2003, Professor Brian Spratt FRS, chairman of the Royal Society's working group on depleted uranium, said: "The question of who carries out the initial monitoring and clean-up is a political rather than scientific question," and "the coalition needs to acknowledge that depleted uranium is a potential hazard and make in-roads into tackling it by being open about where and how much depleted uranium has been deployed."
A 2008 review of all relevant articles appearing in the peer-reviewed journals on MEDLINE through to the end of 2007, including multiple cohort studies of veterans, found no consistent evidence of excess risks of neoplasms that could have some link to DU, and that "[t]he overall incidence of cancers is not increased in the cohort studies of Gulf war and Balkans veterans".
Though a more comprehensive assessment is possible, a 2011 update on a cancer scare regarding Italian soldiers who had served in the Balkans found lower than expected incidence rates for all cancers, a finding "consistent with lacking evidence of an increased cancer incidence among troops of other countries deployed in the areas of Iraq, Bosnia, and Kosovo, where armour-penetrating depleted uranium shells have been used."
One particular subgroup of veterans that may be at higher risk comprises those who have internally retained fragments of DU from shrapnel wounds. A laboratory study on rats produced by the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute showed that, after a study period of 6 months, rats treated with depleted uranium coming from implanted pellets, comparable to the average levels in the urine of Desert Storm veterans with retained DU fragments, had developed a significant tendency to lose weight with respect to the control group.
Substantial amounts of uranium were accumulating in their brains and central nervous systems, and showed a significant reduction of neuronal activity in the hippocampus in response to external stimuli. The conclusions of the study show that brain damage from chronic uranium intoxication is possible at lower doses than previously thought. Results from computer-based neurocognitive tests performed in 1997 showed an association between uranium in the urine and "problematic performance on automated tests assessing performance efficiency and accuracy."
Since 2001, medical personnel working for the Iraqi state health service controlled by Saddam Hussein at the Basra hospital in southern Iraq have reported a sharp increase in the incidence of child leukemia and genetic malformation among babies born in the decade following the Gulf War. Iraqi doctors attributed these malformations to possible long-term effects of DU, an opinion that was echoed by several newspapers. In 2004, Iraq had the highest mortality rate due to leukemia of any country. In 2003, the Royal Society called for Western militaries to disclose where and how much DU they had used in Iraq so that rigorous, and hopefully conclusive, studies could be undertaken out in affected areas. The International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons (ICBUW) likewise urged that an epidemiological study be made in the Basra region, as asked for by Iraqi doctors, but no peer-reviewed study has yet been undertaken in Basra.
A medical survey, "Cancer, Infant Mortality and Birth Sex Ratio in Fallujah, Iraq 2005–2009" published in July 2010, states that the "…increases in cancer and birth defects…are alarmingly high" and that infant mortality 2009/2010 has reached 13.6%. The group compares the dramatic increase, five years after wartime exposure in 2004, with the lymphoma that Italian peacekeepers developed after the Balkan wars and the increased cancer risk in certain parts of Sweden because of the Chernobyl fallout. The origin and time of introduction of the carcinogenic agent causing the genetic stress the group will address in a separate report. The report mentions depleted uranium as one "potentially relevant exposure" but makes no conclusions on the source.
Four studies in the second half of 2012—one of which described the people of Fallujah as having "the highest rate of genetic damage in any population ever studied"—renewed calls for the US and UK to investigate the possible links between their military assault on the city in 2004 and the explosion in deformities, cancers, and other serious health problems. Despite the known use of depleted uranium by allied forces, no depleted uranium has been found in soil samples taken from Fallujah.
In 2001, the World Health Organization reported that data from Kosovo was inconclusive and called for further studies. That same year, governments of several European countries, particularly Italy, reported an increase in illnesses and developments of cancers among veterans that served in Balkan peacekeeping missions.
A 2003 study by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Bosnia and Herzegovina stated that low levels of contaminant were found in drinking water and air particulate at DU penetrator impact points. The levels were stated as not a cause for alarm. Yet, Pekka Haavisto, chairman of the UNEP DU projects stated, "The findings of this study stress again the importance of appropriate clean-up and civil protection measures in a post-conflict situation."
A team of Italian scientists from the University of Siena reported in 2005 that, although DU was "clearly" added to the soil in the study area, "the phenomenon was very limited spatially and the total uranium concentrations fell within the natural range of the element in soils. Moreover, the absolute uranium concentrations indicate that there was no contamination of the earthworm species studied."
In 2018, Serbia set up a commission of inquiry into the consequences of the use of depleted uranium during the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in southern Serbia and its link to the rise of diseases and tumors among citizens, particularly in young children children born after 1999.
Between 1995 and 1996, U.S. Marine AV-8B Harrier jets accidentally fired more than 1500 DU rounds at the Tori Shima gunnery range but the military did not notify the Japanese government until January 1997.
Depleted uranium has been named as a possible contributing factor to a high incidence of birth defects and cancer near the Salto di Quirra weapons testing range on the Italian island of Sardinia.
The Canadian Uranium Medical Research Centre obtained urine samples from bombed civilian areas in Jalalabad that showed concentrations of 80–400 ng/L of undepleted uranium, far higher than the typical concentration in the British population of ≈5 ng/L.
Studies in 2005 and earlier have concluded that DU ammunition has no measurable detrimental health effects.
A 1999 literature review conducted by the Rand Corporation stated: "No evidence is documented in the literature of cancer or any other negative health effect related to the radiation received from exposure to depleted or natural uranium, whether inhaled or ingested, even at very high doses," and a RAND report authored by the U.S. Defense department undersecretary charged with evaluating DU hazards considered the debate to be more political than scientific.
A 2001 oncology study concluded that "the present scientific consensus is that DU exposure to humans, in locations where DU ammunition was deployed, is very unlikely to give rise to cancer induction". Former NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson stated in 2001 that "the existing medical consensus is clear. The hazard from depleted uranium is both very limited, and limited to very specific circumstances".
A 2002 study from the Australian defense ministry concluded that "there has been no established increase in mortality or morbidity in workers exposed to uranium in uranium processing industries... studies of Gulf War veterans show that, in those who have retained fragments of depleted uranium following combat related injury, it has been possible to detect elevated urinary uranium levels, but no kidney toxicity or other adverse health effects related to depleted uranium after a decade of follow-up." Pier Roberto Danesi, then-director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Seibersdorf +Laboratory, stated in 2002 that "There is a consensus now that DU does not represent a health threat".
The IAEA reported in 2003 that, "based on credible scientific evidence, there is no proven link between DU exposure and increases in human cancers or other significant health or environmental impacts," although "Like other heavy metals, DU is potentially poisonous. In sufficient amounts, if DU is ingested or inhaled it can be harmful because of its chemical toxicity. High concentration could cause kidney damage." The IAEA concluded that, while depleted uranium is a potential carcinogen, there is no evidence that it has been carcinogenic in humans.
A 2005 study by Sandia National Laboratories' Al Marshall used mathematical models to analyze potential health effects associated with accidental exposure to depleted uranium during the 1991 Gulf War. Marshall's study concluded that the reports of cancer risks from DU exposure are not supported by his analysis nor by veteran medical statistics. Marshall also examined possible genetic effects due to radiation from depleted uranium. Chemical effects, including potential reproductive issues, associated with depleted uranium exposure were discussed in some detail in a subsequent journal paper.
Elevated radiation levels consistent with very low level atmospheric depleted uranium contamination have been found in air samples taken by the UK Atomic Weapons Establishment at several monitoring sites in Britain. These elevated readings appear to coincide with Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan, and the Shock and Awe bombing campaign at the start of the Second Gulf War.
On 4 October 1992, an El Al Boeing 747-F cargo aircraft (Flight 1862) crashed into an apartment building in Amsterdam. Local residents and rescue workers complained of various unexplained health issues, which were being attributed to the release of hazardous materials during the crash and subsequent fires. Authorities conducted an epidemiological study in 2000 of those believed to be affected by the accident. The study concluded that there was no evidence to link depleted uranium (used as counterbalance weights on the elevators of the plane) to any of the reported health complaints.
About 95% of the depleted uranium produced until now is stored as uranium hexafluoride, (D)UF6, in steel cylinders in open air yards close to enrichment plants. Each cylinder contains up to 12.7 tonnes (or 14 US tons) of UF6. In the U.S. alone, 560,000 tonnes of depleted UF6 had accumulated by 1993. In 2005, 686,500 tonnes in 57,122 storage cylinders were located near Portsmouth, Ohio, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Paducah, Kentucky.
The long-term storage of DUF6 presents environmental, health, and safety risks because of its chemical instability. When UF6 is exposed to moist air, it reacts with the water in the air and produces UO2F2 (uranyl fluoride) and HF (hydrogen fluoride), both of which are highly soluble and toxic. Storage cylinders must be regularly inspected for signs of corrosion and leaks. The estimated lifetime of the steel cylinders is measured in decades.
There have been several accidents involving uranium hexafluoride in the United States.
The vulnerability of DUF6 storage cylinders to terrorist attack is apparently not the subject of public reports. However, the U.S. government has been converting DUF6 to solid uranium oxides for disposal.
Disposing of the whole DUF6 inventory could cost anywhere from 15 to 450 million dollars.
Scientific bodies | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37514 |
Shaped charge
A shaped charge is an explosive charge shaped to focus the effect of the explosive's energy. Various types are used to cut and form metal, initiate nuclear weapons, penetrate armor, and perforate wells in the oil and gas industry.
A typical modern shaped charge, with a metal liner on the charge cavity, can penetrate armor steel to a depth of seven or more times the diameter of the charge (charge diameters, CD), though greater depths of 10 CD and above have been achieved. Contrary to a widespread misconception (possibly resulting from the acronym HEAT, short for high-explosive anti-tank warhead) the shaped charge does not depend in any way on heating or melting for its effectiveness; that is, the jet from a shaped charge does not melt its way through armor, as its effect is purely kinetic in nature – however the process does create significant heat and often has a significant secondary incendiary effect "after" penetration.
The Munroe or Neumann effect is the focusing of blast energy by a hollow or void cut on a surface of an explosive. The earliest mention of hollow charges occurred in 1792. Franz Xaver von Baader (1765–1841) was a German mining engineer at that time; in a mining journal, he advocated a conical space at the forward end of a blasting charge to increase the explosive's effect and thereby save powder. The idea was adopted, for a time, in Norway and in the mines of the Harz mountains of Germany, although the only available explosive at the time was gunpowder, which is not a high explosive and hence incapable of producing the shock wave that the shaped-charge effect requires.
The first true hollow charge effect was achieved in 1883, by Max von Foerster (1845–1905), chief of the nitrocellulose factory of Wolff & Co. in Walsrode, Germany. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37515 |
Anti-tank guided missile
An anti-tank guided missile (ATGM), anti-tank missile, anti-tank guided weapon (ATGW) or anti-armor guided weapon is a guided missile primarily designed to hit and destroy heavily armored military vehicles.
ATGMs range in size from shoulder-launched weapons, which can be transported by a single soldier, to larger tripod-mounted weapons, which require a squad or team to transport and fire, to vehicle and aircraft mounted missile systems.
The introduction to the modern battlefield of smaller, man-portable ATGMs with larger warheads has given infantry the ability to defeat light and medium tanks at great ranges, though main battle tanks (MBTs) using composite and reactive armors have proven to be resistant to smaller ATGMs. Earlier infantry anti-tank weapons, such as anti-tank rifles, anti-tank rockets and magnetic anti-tank mines, had limited armor-penetration abilities or required a soldier to approach the target closely. As of 2016, ATGMs were used by over 130 countries and many non-state actors around the world.
Germany developed a design for a wire-guided anti tank missile derived from the Ruhrstahl X-4 air to air missile concept in the closing years of World War II. Known as the X-7, it was probably never used in combat and allegedly had serious guidance to target issues. It never entered service, though a few were produced.
The SS.10 is the first anti-tank missile to be widely used. It entered service in the French Army in 1955. It was also the first anti-tank missile used by the US Army and Israeli Defense Forces.
The Malkara missile (from an Aboriginal word for "shield") was one of the earliest anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs). It was jointly developed by Australia and the United Kingdom between 1951 and 1954, and was in service from 1958 until gradually replaced by the Vickers Vigilant missile in the late 1960s. It was intended to be light enough to deploy with airborne forces, yet powerful enough to knock out any tank then in service (it used a 26 kg HESH warhead).
First-generation manually command guided MCLOS missiles require input from an operator using a joystick or similar device to steer the missile to the target. The disadvantage is that the operator must keep the sight's cross hairs on the target and then steer the missile into the cross hairs—i.e. the line-of-sight. To do this, the operator must be well trained (spending hundreds of hours on a simulator) and must remain stationary and in view of the target during the flight time of the missile. Because of this, the operator is vulnerable while guiding the missile. The first system to become operational and to see combat was the French Nord SS.10 during the early 1950s.
Second-generation semi-automatically command guided SACLOS missiles require the operator to only keep the sights on the target until impact. Automatic guidance commands are sent to the missile through wires or radio, or the missile relies on laser marking or a TV camera view from the nose of the missile. Examples are the Russian 9M133 Kornet, Israeli LAHAT and the American Hellfire I missiles. The operator must remain stationary during the missile's flight.
Third-generation guidance systems rely on a laser, electro-optical imager (IIR) seeker or a W band radar seeker in the nose of the missile. Once the target is identified, the missile needs no further guidance during flight; it is "fire-and-forget", and the missile operator is free to retreat. However, fire-and-forget missiles are more subject to electronic countermeasures than MCLOS and SACLOS missiles. Examples include the German PARS 3 LR and the Israeli Spike.
Most modern ATGMs have shaped charge HEAT warheads, designed specifically for penetrating tank armor. Tandem-charge missiles attempt to defeat ERA. The small initial charge sets off the ERA while the follow-up main charge attempts to penetrate the main armor. Top-attack weapons such as the U.S. Javelin, and the Swedish Bill are designed to strike vehicles from above, where their armor is usually much weaker.
Countermeasures against ATGMs include spaced, perforated, and composite armors, explosive reactive armor, jammers like the Russian Shtora, and active protection systems (APS) like the Israeli Trophy and the Russian Arena.
Armor systems have continued in development alongside ATGMs, and the most recent generations of armor are specifically tested to be effective against ATGM strikes, either by deforming the missile warhead or fuzing to prevent proper denotation (such as in slat armor) or using some form of reactive armor to 'attack' the missile upon impact, disrupting the shaped charge that makes the warhead effective. Both come with the downside of significant weight and bulk. Reactive armor works best when a vehicle is specifically designed with the system integrated and while developments continue to make armor lighter, any vehicle that includes such a system necessitates a powerful engine and often will still be relatively slow. Inclusion of such armor in older vehicles as a part of a re-design is possible, as in the numerous types derived from the T-72. Slat armor is lighter and as such can be added to many vehicles after construction but still adds both bulk and weight. Particularly for vehicles that are designed to be transported by cargo aircraft, slat armor has to be fitted in the field after deployment. Either approach can never offer complete coverage over the vehicle, leaving tracks or wheels particularly vulnerable to attack.
Jamming is potentially an effective countermeasure to specific missiles that are radar guided, however, as a general purpose defense, it is of no use against unguided anti-tank weapons, and as such it is almost never the only defense. If jamming is used continually, it can be extremely difficult for a missile to acquire the target, locking on to the much larger return from the jammer, with the operator unlikely noticing the difference without a radar screen to see the return. However, any missile that has a back up tracking system can defeat jamming.
Active protection systems show a great deal of promise, both in counteracting ATGMs and unguided weapons. Compared to armor systems, they are very lightweight, can be fitted to almost any vehicle with the internal space for the control system and could, in the future, be a near-perfect defense against any missiles. The weaknesses of the systems include potential developments in missile design such as radar or IR decoys, which would drastically reduce their chance to intercept a missile, as well as technical challenges such as dealing with multiple missiles at once and designing a system that can cover a vehicle from any angle of attack. While these may be answered and allow for lightweight, highly maneuverable vehicles that are strongly defended against missiles and rockets that are extremely well suited for urban and guerrilla warfare. However, such a system is unlikely to be as effective against kinetic energy projectiles, making it a poor choice for fighting against tanks.
Traditionally, before "fire-and-forget" ATGMs were used, the most effective countermeasure was to open fire at the location where the missile was fired from, to either kill the operator or force them to take cover, thus sending the missile off course. Smoke screens can also be deployed from an MBT's smoke discharger, and used to obscure an ATGM operator's line of sight. While fire-and-forget missiles have definitive advantages in terms of guidance and operator safety, and include abilities such as top attack mode, older missiles continue in use, both in the front line armies of less developed countries, and in reserve service the world over, due to their lower cost or existing stockpiles of less advanced weapons. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37517 |
Hoysala architecture
Hoysala architecture is the building style in Hindu temple architecture developed under the rule of the Hoysala Empire between the 11th and 14th centuries, in the region known today as Karnataka, a state of India. Hoysala influence was at its peak in the 13th century, when it dominated the Southern Deccan Plateau region. Large and small temples built during this era remain as examples of the Hoysala architectural style, including the Chennakesava Temple at Belur, the Hoysaleswara Temple at Halebidu, and the Kesava Temple at Somanathapura. Other examples of Hoysala craftsmanship are the temples at Belavadi, Amruthapura, Hosaholalu, Mosale, Arasikere, Basaralu, Kikkeri and Nuggehalli. Study of the Hoysala architectural style has revealed a negligible Indo-Aryan influence while the impact of Southern Indian style is more distinct.
Temples built prior to Hoysala independence in the mid-12th century reflect significant Western Chalukya influences, while later temples retain some features salient to Western Chalukya architecture but have additional inventive decoration and ornamentation, features unique to Hoysala artisans. Some three hundred temples are known to survive in present-day Karnataka state and many more are mentioned in inscriptions, though only about seventy have been documented. The greatest concentration of these are in the Malnad (hill) districts, the native home of the Hoysala kings.
Hoysala architecture is classified by the influential scholar Adam Hardy as part of the "Karnata Dravida" tradition, a trend within Dravidian architecture in the Deccan that is distinct from the Tamil style of further south. Other terms for the tradition are Vesara, and Chalukya architecture, divided into early Badami Chalukya architecture and the Western Chalukya architecture which immediately preceded the Hoysalas. The whole tradition covers a period of about seven centuries began in the 7th century under the patronage of the Chalukya dynasty of Badami, developed further under the Rashtrakutas of Manyakheta during the 9th and 10th centuries and the Western Chalukyas (or Later Chalukyas) of Basavakalyan in the 11th and 12th centuries. Its final development stage and transformation into an independent style was during the rule of the Hoysalas in the 12th and 13th centuries. Medieval inscriptions displayed prominently at temple locations give information about donations made toward the maintenance of the temple, details of consecration and on occasion, even architectural details.
Hinduism is a combination of secular and sacred beliefs, rituals, daily practices and traditions that has evolved over the course of over two thousand years and embodies complex symbolism combining the natural world with philosophy.
Hindu temples began as simple shrines housing a deity and by the time of the Hoysalas had evolved into well-articulated edifices in which worshippers sought transcendence of the daily world. Hoysala temples were not limited to any specifically organised tradition of Hinduism and encouraged pilgrims of different Hindu devotional movements. The Hoysalas usually dedicated their temples to Shiva or to Vishnu (two of the popular Hindu gods), but they occasionally built some temples dedicated to the Jain faith as well. Worshippers of Shiva are called Shaivas and worshippers of Vishnu are called Vaishnavas. While King Vishnuvardhana and his descendants were Vaishnava by faith, records show that the Hoysalas maintained religious harmony by building as many temples dedicated to Shiva as they did to Vishnu.
Most of these temples have secular features with broad themes depicted in their sculptures. This can be seen in the famous Chennakesava Temple at Belur dedicated to Vishnu and in the Hoysaleswara temple at Halebidu dedicated to Shiva. The Kesava temple at Somanathapura is different in that its ornamentation is strictly Vaishnava. Generally Vaishnava temples are dedicated to Keshava (or to Chennakeshava, meaning "Beautiful Vishnu") while a small number are dedicated to Lakshminarayana and Lakshminarasimha (Narayana and Narasimha both being Avatars, or physical manifestations, of Vishnu) with Lakshmi, consort of Vishnu, seated at his feet. Temples dedicated to Vishnu are always named after the deity.
The Shaiva temples have a Shiva linga, symbol of fertility and the universal symbol of Shiva, in the shrine. The names of Shiva temples can end with the suffix "eshwara" meaning "Lord of". The name "Hoysaleswara", for instance, means "Lord of Hoysala". The temple can also be named after the devotee who commissioned the construction of the temple, an example being the Bucesvara temple at Koravangala, named after the devotee Buci. The most striking sculptural decorations are the horizontal rows of mouldings with detailed relief, and intricately carved images of gods, goddesses and their attendants on the outer temple wall panels.
The Doddagaddavalli Lakshmi Devi ("Goddess of Wealth") Temple is an exception as it is dedicated to neither Vishnu nor Shiva. The defeat of the Jain Western Ganga Dynasty (of present-day south Karnataka) by the Cholas in the early 11th century and the rising numbers of followers of Vaishnava Hinduism and Virashaivism in the 12th century was mirrored by a decreased interest in Jainism. However, two notable locations of Jain worship in the Hoysala territory were Shravanabelagola and Kambadahalli. The Hoysalas built Jain temples to satisfy the needs of its Jain population, a few of which have survived in Halebidu containing icons of Jain tirthankaras. They constructed stepped wells called "Pushkarni" or "Kalyani", the ornate tank at Hulikere being an example. The tank has twelve minor shrines containing Hindu deities.
The two main deities found in Hoysala temple sculpture are Shiva and Vishnu in their various forms and avatars (incarnations). Shiva is usually shown with four arms holding a trident and a small drum among other emblems that symbolise objects worshiped independently of the divine image with which they are associated. Any male icon portrayed in this way is Shiva although a female icon may sometimes be portrayed with these attributes as Shiva's consort, Parvati. Various depictions of Lord Shiva exist: showing him naked (fully or partially), in activities such as slaying a demon (Andhaka) or dancing on the head of a slain elephant (Gajasura) and holding its skin up behind his back. He is often accompanied by his consort Parvati or shown with Nandi the bull. He may be represented as Bhairava, another of Shiva's many manifestations.
A male figure depicted holding certain objects such as a conch (symbol of eternal, heavenly space) and a wheel (eternal time and destructive power) is Vishnu. If a female figure is depicted holding these objects, she is seen as his consort, Lakshmi. In all the depictions Vishnu is holding four objects: a conch, a wheel, a lotus and a Kaumodaki (mace). These can be held in any of the icon's hands, making possible twenty-four different forms of Vishnu, each with a unique name. Apart from these, Vishnu is depicted in any of his "ten avataras", which include Vishnu sitting on Anantha (the celestial snake and keeper of life energy also known as Shesha), Vishnu with Lakshmi seated on his lap (Lakshminarayana), with the head of a lion disembowelling a demon on his lap (Lakshminarasimha), with head of a boar walking over a demon (Varaha), in the Krishna avatar (as Venugopala or the cow herder playing the Venu (flute), dancing on the head of the snake Kaliya, lifting a hill such as Govardhana), with his feet over head of a small figure ("Vamana"), along with Indra riding an elephant, with Lakshmi seated on Garuda, and the eagle (stealing the parijata tree).
The focus of a temple is the centre or sanctum sanctorum (garbhagriha) where the image of the deity resides, so temple architecture is designed to move the devotee from outside to the garbhagriha through ambulatory passageways for circumambulation and halls or chambers ("mantapas") that become increasingly sacred as the deity is approached.
Hoysala temples have distinct parts that are merged to form a unified organic whole, in contrast to the temples of Tamil country where different parts of a temple stand independently. Although superficially unique, Hoysala temples resemble each other structurally. They are characterised by a complex profusion of sculpture decorating all the temple parts chiselled of soft soapstone (chloritic schist), a good material for intricate carving, executed mostly by local craftsmen, and exhibit architectural features that distinguish them from other temple architectures of South India.
Most Hoysala temples have a plain covered entrance porch supported by lathe turned (circular or bell-shaped) pillars which were sometimes further carved with deep fluting and moulded with decorative motifs. The temples may be built upon a platform raised by about a metre called a "jagati". The "jagati", apart from giving a raised look to the temple, serves as a "pradakshinapatha" or "circumambulation path" for circumambulation around the temple, as the "garbagriha" (inner sanctum) provides no such feature. Such temples will have an additional set of steps leading to an open "mantapa" (open hall) with parapet walls. A good example of this style is the Kesava Temple at Somanathapura. The "jagati" which is in unity with the rest of the temple follows a star-shaped design and the walls of the temple follow a zig-zag pattern, a Hoysala innovation.
Devotees can first complete a ritual circumambulation on the "jagati" starting from the main entrance by walking in a clockwise direction (towards the left) before entering the "mantapa", following the sculptural clockwise-sequenced reliefs on the outer temple walls depicting a sequence of epic scenes from the Hindu epics. Temples that are not built on a "jagati" can have steps flanked by elephant balustrades (parapets) that lead to the "mantapa" from ground level. An example of a temple that does not exhibit the raised platform is the "Bucesvara" temple in Korvangla, Hassan District. In temples with two shrines ("dvikuta"), the "vimanas" (the shrines or cellae) may be placed either next to each other or on opposite sides. The Lakshmidevi temple at Doddagaddavalli is unique to Hoysala architecture as it has four shrines around a common centre and a fifth shrine within the same complex for the deity Bhairava (a form of Shiva). In addition, four minor shrines exist at each corner of the courtyard ("prakaram").
The "mantapa" is the hall where groups of people gather during prayers. The entrance to the "mantapa" normally has a highly ornate overhead lintel called a "makaratorana" ("makara" is an imaginary beast and "torana" is an overhead decoration). The open "mantapa" which serves the purpose of an outer hall (outer "mantapa") is a regular feature in larger Hoysala temples leading to an inner small closed "mantapa" and the shrine(s). The open "mantapas" which are often spacious have seating areas ("asana") made of stone with the "mantapa's" parapet wall acting as a back rest. The seats may follow the same staggered square shape of the parapet wall. The ceiling here is supported by numerous pillars that create many bays. The shape of the open "mantapa" is best described as staggered-square and is the style used in most Hoysala temples. Even the smallest open "mantapa" has 13 bays. The walls have parapets that have half pillars supporting the outer ends of the roof which allow plenty of light making all the sculptural details visible. The "mantapa" ceiling is generally ornate with sculptures, both mythological and floral. The ceiling consists of deep and domical surfaces and contains sculptural depictions of banana bud motifs and other such decorations.
If the temple is small it will consist of only a closed "mantapa" (enclosed with walls extending all the way to the ceiling) and the shrine. The closed "mantapa", well decorated inside and out, is larger than the vestibule connecting the shrine and the "mantapa" and has four lathe-turned pillars to support the ceiling, which may be deeply domed. The four pillars divide the hall into nine bays. The nine bays result in nine decorated ceilings. Pierced stone screens ("Jali" or Latticework) that serve as windows in the "navaranga" (hall) and "Sabhamantapa" (congregation hall) is a characteristic Hoysala stylistic element.
A porch adorns the entrance to a closed "mantapa", consisting of an awning supported by two half-pillars (engaged columns) and two parapets, all richly decorated. The closed "mantapa" is connected to the shrine(s) by a vestibule, a square area that also connects the shrines. Its outer walls are decorated, but as the size the vestibule is not large, this may not be a conspicuous part of the temple. The vestibule also has a short tower called the "sukanasi" or "nose" upon which is mounted the Hoysala emblem. In Belur and Halebidu, these sculptures are quite large and are placed at all doorways.
The outer and inner "mantapa" (open and closed) have circular lathe-turned pillars having four brackets at the top. Over each bracket stands sculptured figure(s) called "salabhanjika" or "madanika". The pillars may also exhibit ornamental carvings on the surface and no two pillars are alike. This is how Hoysala art differs from the work of their early overlords, the Western Chalukyas, who added sculptural details to the circular pillar base and left the top plain. The lathe-turned pillars are 16, 32, or 64-pointed; some are bell-shaped and have properties that reflect light. The Parsvanatha Basadi at Halebidu is a good example. According to Brown, the pillars with four monolithic brackets above them carry images of "salabhanjikas" and "madanikas" (sculpture of a woman, displaying stylised feminine features). This is a common feature of Chalukya-Hoysala temples. According to Sastri, the shape of the pillar and its capital, the base of which is square and whose shaft is a monolith that is lathe turned to render different shapes, is a "remarkable feature" of Hoysala art.
The "vimana", also called the cella, contains the most sacred shrine wherein resides the image of the presiding deity. The "vimana" is often topped by a tower which is quite different on the outside than on the inside. Inside, the vimana is plain and square, whereas outside it is profusely decorated and can be either stellate ("star-shaped") or shaped as a staggered square, or feature a combination of these designs, giving it many projections and recesses that seem to multiply as the light falls on it. Each projection and recess has a complete decorative articulation that is rhythmic and repetitive and composed of blocks and mouldings, obscuring the tower profile. Depending on the number of shrines (and hence on the number of towers), the temples are classified as "ekakuta" (one), "dvikuta" (two), "trikuta" (three), "chatushkuta" (four) and "panchakuta" (five). Most Hoysala temples are "ekakuta", "dvikuta" or "trikuta", the Vaishnava ones mostly being "trikuta". There are cases where a temple is "trikuta" but has only one tower over the main shrine (in the middle). So the terminology "trikuta" may not be literally accurate. In temples with multiple disconnected shrines, such as the twin temples at Mosale, all essential parts are duplicated for symmetry and balance.
The highest point of the temple ("kalasa") has the shape of a water pot and stands on top of the tower. This portion of the "vimana" is often lost due to age and has been replaced with a metallic pinnacle. Below the "kalasa" is a large, highly- sculptured structure resembling a dome which is made from large stones and looks like a helmet. It may be 2 m by 2 m in size and follows the shape of the shrine. Below this structure are domed roofs in a square plan, all of them much smaller and crowned with small "kalasas". They are mixed with other small roofs of different shapes and are ornately decorated. The tower of the shrine usually has three or four tiers of rows of decorative roofs while the tower on top of the "sukanasi" has one less tier, making the tower look like an extension of the main tower (Foekema calls it the "nose"). One decorated roof tier runs on top of the wall of a closed "mantapa" above the heavy eaves of an open "mantapa" and above the porches.
Below the superstructure of the "vimana" are temple "eaves" projecting half a meter from the wall. Below the eaves two different decorative schemes may be found, depending on whether a temple was built in the early or the later period of the empire. In the early temples built prior to the 13th century, there is one eave and below this are decorative miniature towers. A panel of Hindu deities and their attendants are below these towers, followed by a set of five different mouldings forming the base of the wall. In the later temples there is a second eave running about a metre below the upper eaves with decorative miniature towers placed between them. The wall images of gods are below the lower eaves, followed by six different mouldings of equal size. This is broadly termed "horizontal treatment". The six mouldings at the base are divided in two sections. Going from the very base of the wall, the first horizontal layer contains a procession of elephants, above which are horsemen and then a band of foliage. The second horizontal section has depictions of the Hindu epics and "Puranic" scenes executed with detail. Above this are two friezes of "yalli"s or "makara"s (imaginary beasts) and "hamsas" (swans). The "vimana" (tower) is divided into three horizontal sections and is even more ornate than the walls.
In Hoysala art Hardy identifies two conspicuous departures from the more austere Western (Later) Chalukya art:ornamental elaboration and a profusion of iconography with figure sculptures, both of which are found in abundance even on the superstructure over the shrine. Their medium, the soft chlorite schist (Soapstone) enabled a virtuoso carving style. Hoysala artists are noted for their attention to sculptural detail be it in the depiction of themes from the Hindu epics and deities or in their use of motifs such as "yalli", "kirtimukha" (gargoyles), aedicula (miniature decorative towers) on pilaster, "makara" (aquatic monster), birds ("hamsa"), spiral foliage, animals such as lions, elephants and horses, and even general aspects of daily life such as hair styles in vogue.
"Salabhanjika", a common form of Hoysala sculpture, is an old Indian tradition going back to Buddhist sculpture. "Sala" is the sala tree and "bhanjika" is the chaste maiden. In the Hoysala idiom, "madanika" figures are decorative objects put at an angle on the outer walls of the temple near the roof so that worshipers circumambulating the temple can view them.
The "sthamba buttalikas" are pillar images that show traces of Chola art in the Chalukyan touches. Some of the artists working for the Hoysalas may have been from Chola country, a result of the expansion of the empire into Tamil-speaking regions of Southern India. The image of "mohini" on one of the pillars in the "mantapa" (closed hall) of the Chennakeshava temple is an example of Chola art.
General life themes are portrayed on wall panels such as the way horses were reined, the type of stirrup used, the depiction of dancers, musicians, instrumentalists, and rows of animals such as lions and elephants (where no two animals are identical). Perhaps no other temple in the country depicts the Ramayana and Mahabharata epics more effectively than the Hoysaleshwara temple at Halebidu.
Erotica was a subject the Hoysala artist handled with discretion. There is no exhibitionism in this, and erotic themes were carved into recesses and niches, generally miniature in form, making them inconspicuous. These erotic representations are associated with the "Shakta" practice.
Apart from these sculptures, entire sequences from the Hindu epics (commonly the Ramayana and the Mahabharata) have been sculpted in a clockwise direction starting at the main entrance. The right to left sequence is the same direction taken by the devotees in their ritual circumambulation as they wind inward toward the inner sanctum. Depictions from mythology such as the epic hero Arjuna shooting fish, the elephant-headed god Ganesha, the Sun god Surya, the weather and war god Indra, and Brahma with Sarasvati are common. Also frequently seen in these temples is Durga, with several arms holding weapons given to her by other gods, in the act of killing a buffalo (a demon in a buffalo's form) and Harihara (a fusion of Shiva and Vishnu) holding a conch, wheel, and trident. Many of these friezes were signed by the artisans, the first known instance of signed artwork in India.
According to Settar, surveys in modern times have indicated that 1000–1500 structures were built by the Hoysalas, of which about a hundred temples have survived to date. The Hoysala style is an offshoot of the Western Chalukya style, which was popular in the 10th and 11th centuries. It is distinctively Dravidian, and according to Brown, owing to its features, Hoysala architecture qualifies as an independent style. While the Hoysalas introduced innovative features into their architecture, they also borrowed features from earlier builders of "Karnata" like the Kadambas, Western Chalukyas. These features included the use of chloritic schist or soapstone as a basic building material.
Other features were the stepped style of "vimana" tower called the "Kadamba shikhara", which was inherited from the Kadambas. Hoysala sculptors made use of the effect of light and shade on carved walls, which poses a challenge for photography of the temples. The artistry of the Hoysalas in stone has been compared to the finesse of an ivory worker or a goldsmith. The abundance of jewellery worn by the sculpted figures and the variety of hairstyles and headdresses depicted give a fair idea of the lifestyles of the Hoysala times.
While medieval Indian artisans preferred to remain anonymous, Hoysala artisans signed their works, which has given researchers details about their lives, families, guilds, etc. Apart from the architects and sculptors, people of other guilds such as goldsmiths, ivory carvers, carpenters, and silversmiths also contributed to the completion of temples. The artisans were from diverse geographical backgrounds and included famous locals. Prolific architects included Amarashilpi Jakanachari, a native of Kaidala in Tumkur district, who also built temples for the Western Chalukyas. Ruvari Malithamma built the Kesava Temple at Somanathapura and worked on forty other monuments, including the Amruteshwara temple at Amruthapura. Malithamma specialised in ornamentation, and his works span six decades. His sculptures were typically signed in shorthand as "Malli" or simply "Ma".
Dasoja and his son Chavana from Balligavi were the architects of Chennakesava Temple at Belur; Kedaroja was the chief architect of the Hoysaleswara Temple at Halebidu. Their influence is seen in other temples built by the Hoysalas as well. Names of other locals found in inscriptions are Maridamma, Baicoja, Caudaya, Nanjaya and Bama, Malloja, Nadoja, Siddoja, Masanithamma, Chameya and Rameya. Artists from Tamil country included Pallavachari and Cholavachari. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37521 |
Hoysala Empire
The Hoysala Empire was a Kannadiga power originating from the Indian subcontinent, that ruled most of what is now Karnataka, India, between the 10th and the 14th centuries. The capital of the Hoysalas was initially located at Belur but was later moved to Halebidu.
The Hoysala rulers were originally from Malenadu, an elevated region in the Western Ghats. In the 12th century, taking advantage of the internecine warfare between the Western Chalukya Empire and Kalachuris of Kalyani, they annexed areas of present-day Karnataka and the fertile areas north of the Kaveri delta in present-day Tamil Nadu. By the 13th century, they governed most of Karnataka, minor parts of Tamil Nadu and parts of western Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in the Deccan Plateau.
The Hoysala era was an important period in the development of art, architecture, and religion in South India. The empire is remembered today primarily for Hoysala architecture. Over a hundred surviving temples are scattered across Karnataka.
Well known temples "which exhibit an amazing display of sculptural exuberance" include the Chennakeshava Temple, Belur, the Hoysaleswara Temple, Halebidu, and the Chennakesava Temple, Somanathapura. The Hoysala rulers also patronised the fine arts, encouraging literature to flourish in Kannada and Sanskrit.
Kannada folklore tells a tale of a young man, Sala, who saved his Jain guru, Sudatta, by striking dead a tiger he encountered near the temple of the goddess Vasantika at Angadi, now called Sosevuru. The word "strike" literally translates to "hoy" in Old Kannada, hence the name "Hoy-sala". This legend first appeared in the Belur inscription of Vishnuvardhana (1117), but owing to several inconsistencies in the Sala story it remains in the realm of folklore. The legend may have come into existence or gained popularity after King Vishnuvardhana's victory over the Cholas at Talakadu as the Hoysala emblem depicts the fight between the mythical warrior Sala and a tiger, the tiger being the emblem of the Cholas.
Early inscriptions, dated 1078 and 1090, have implied that the Hoysalas were descendants of the Yadava by referring to the Yadava "vamsa" (clan) as the "Hoysala "vamsa"". But there are no early records directly linking the Hoysalas to the Yadavas of North India.
Historians refer to the founders of the dynasty as natives of Malenadu based on numerous inscriptions calling them "Maleparolganda" or "Lord of the Male (hills) chiefs" ("Malepas"). This title in the Kannada language was proudly used by the Hoysala kings as their royal signature in their inscriptions. Literary sources from that time in Kannada ("Jatakatilaka") and Sanskrit ("Gadyakarnamrita") have also helped confirm they were natives of the region known today as Karnataka.
The first Hoysala family record is dated 950 and names Arekalla as the chieftain, followed by Maruga and Nripa Kama I (976). The next ruler, Munda (1006–1026), was succeeded by Nripa Kama II who held such titles as "Permanadi" that show an early alliance with the Western Ganga dynasty. From these modest beginnings, the Hoysala dynasty began its transformation into a strong subordinate of the Western Chalukya Empire. Through Vishnuvardhana's expansive military conquests, the Hoysalas achieved the status of a real kingdom for the first time. He wrested Gangavadi from the Cholas in 1116 and moved the capital from Belur to Halebidu.
Vishnuvardhana's ambition of creating an independent empire was fulfilled by his grandson Veera Ballala II, who freed the Hoysalas from subordination in 1187–1193. Thus the Hoysalas began as subordinates of the Western Chalukya Empire and gradually established their own empire in Karnataka with such strong Hoysala kings as Vishnuvardhana, Veera Ballala II and later Veera Ballala III. During this time, the Deccan Plateau saw a four-way struggle for hegemony – Pandyan, Kakatiya and Seuna being the other kingdoms. Veera Ballala II defeated the aggressive Pandya when they invaded the Chola kingdom. He assumed the title "Establisher of the Chola Kingdom" ("Cholarajyapratishtacharya"), "Emperor of the south" ("Dakshina Chakravarthi") and "Hoysala emperor" ("Hoysala Chakravarthi"). He founded the city of Bangalore according to Kannada folklore.
The Hoysalas extended their foothold in areas known today as Tamil Nadu around 1225, making the city of Kannanur Kuppam near Srirangam a provincial capital and giving them control over South Indian politics that began a period of Hoysala hegemony in the southern Deccan. Vira Narasimha II's son Vira Someshwara earned the honorific "uncle" ("Mamadi") from the Pandyas and Cholas. The Hoysala influence spread over Pandya kingdom also. Toward the end of the 13th century, Veera Ballala III recaptured territory in the Tamil country which had been lost to the Pandya uprising, thus uniting the northern and southern portions of the kingdom.
Major political changes were taking place in the Deccan region in the early 14th century when significant areas of northern India were under Muslim rule. Alauddin Khalji, the Sultan of Delhi, was determined to bring South India under his domain and sent his commander, Malik Kafur, on a southern expedition to plunder the Seuna capital Devagiri in 1311. The Seuna empire was subjugated by 1318 and the Hoysala capital Halebidu was sacked twice, in 1311 and 1327.
By 1336, the Sultan had conquered the Pandyas of Madurai, the Kakatiyas of Warangal and the tiny kingdom of Kampili. The Hoysalas were the only remaining Hindu empire who resisted the invading armies. Veera Ballala III stationed himself at Tiruvannamalai and offered stiff resistance to invasions from the north and the Madurai Sultanate to the south. Then, after nearly three decades of resistance, Veera Ballala III was killed at the battle of Madurai in 1343, and the sovereign territories of the Hoysala empire were merged with the areas administered by Harihara I in the Tungabhadra River region. This new Hindu kingdom resisted the northern invasions and would later prosper and come to be known as the Vijayanagara Empire.
The Hoysala administration supported itself through revenues from an agrarian economy. The kings gave grants of land as rewards for service to beneficiaries who then became landlords to tenants producing agricultural goods and forest products. There were two types of landlords ("gavunda"); "gavunda" of people ("praja gavunda") was lower in status than the wealthy lord of "gavundas" ("prabhu gavunda"). The highlands ("malnad" regions) with its temperate climate was suitable for raising cattle and the planting of orchards and spices. Paddy and corn were staple crops in the tropical plains ("Bailnad"). The Hoysalas collected taxes on irrigation systems including tanks, reservoirs with sluices, canals and wells which were built and maintained at the expense of local villagers. Irrigation tanks such as "Vishnusagara", "Shantisagara", "Ballalarayasagara" were created at the expense of the state.
Importing horses for use as general transportation and in army cavalries of Indian kingdoms was a flourishing business on the western seaboard. The forests were harvested for rich woods such as teak which was exported through ports located in the area of present-day Kerala. Song dynasty records from China mention the presence of Indian merchants in ports of South China, indicating active trade with overseas kingdoms. South India exported textiles, spices, medicinal plants, precious stones, pottery, salt made from salt pans, jewels, gold, ivory, rhino horn, ebony, aloe wood, perfumes, sandalwood, camphor and condiments to China, Dhofar, Aden, and Siraf (the entryport to Egypt, Arabia and Persia). Architects ("Vishwakarmas"), sculptors, quarry workers, goldsmiths and other skilled craftsmen whose trade directly or indirectly related to temple construction were also prosperous due to the vigorous temple building activities.
The village assembly was responsible for collecting government land taxes. Land revenue was called "Siddhaya" and included the original assessment ("Kula") plus various cesses. Taxes were levied on professions, marriages, goods in transit on chariots or carriages, and domesticated animals. Taxes on commodities (gold, precious stones, perfumes, sandalwood, ropes, yarn, housing, hearths, shops, cattle pans, sugarcane presses) as well as produce (black pepper, betel leaves, ghee, paddy, spices, palm leaves, coconuts, sugar) are noted in village records. The village assembly could levy a tax for a specific purpose such as construction of a water tank.
In its administrative practices, the Hoysala Empire followed some of the well-established and proven methods of its predecessors covering administrative functions such as cabinet organisation and command, the structure of local governing bodies and the division of territory. Records show the names of many high-ranking positions reporting directly to the king. Senior ministers were called "Pancha Pradhanas", ministers responsible for foreign affairs were designated "Sandhivigrahi" and the chief treasurer was "Mahabhandari" or "Hiranyabhandari". "Dandanayakas" were in charge of armies and the chief justice of the Hoysala court was the "Dharmadhikari".
The kingdom was divided into provinces named "Nadu", "Vishaya", "Kampana" and "Desha", listed in descending order of geographical size. Each province had a local governing body consisting of a minister ("Mahapradhana") and a treasurer ("Bhandari") that reported to the ruler of that province ("Dandanayaka"). Under this local ruler were officials called "Heggaddes" and "Gavundas" who hired and supervised the local farmers and labourers recruited to till the land. Subordinate ruling clans such as Alupas continued to govern their respective territories while following the policies set by the empire.
An elite and well-trained force of bodyguards known as "Garudas" protected the members of the royal family at all times. These servants moved closely yet inconspicuously by the side of their master, their loyalty being so complete that they committed suicide after his death. Hero stones ("virgal") erected in memory of these bodyguards are called Garuda pillars. The Garuda pillar at the Hoysaleswara temple in Halebidu was erected in honor of Kuvara Lakshma, a minister and bodyguard of King Veera Ballala II.
King Vishnuvardhana's coins had the legends "victor at Nolambavadi" ("Nolambavadigonda"), "victor at Talakad" ("Talakadugonda"), "chief of the Malepas" ("Maleparolganda"), "Brave of Malepa" ("malapavira") in Hoysala style Kannada script. Their gold coin was called "Honnu" or "Gadyana" and weighed 62 grains of gold. "Pana" or "Hana" was a tenth of the "Honnu", "Haga" was a fourth of the "Pana" and "Visa" was fourth of "Haga". There were other coins called "Bele" and "Kani".
The defeat of the Jain Western Gangas by the Cholas in the early 11th century and the rising numbers of followers of Vaishnavism and Lingayatism in the 12th century was mirrored by a decreased interest in Jainism. Two notable locations of Jain worship in the Hoysala territory were Shravanabelagola and Panchakuta Basadi, Kambadahalli. The decline of Buddhism in South India began in the eighth century with the spread of Adi Shankara's Advaita Vedanta. The only places of Buddhist worship during the Hoysala time were at Dambal and Balligavi. Shantala Devi, queen of Vishnuvardhana, was a Jain but nevertheless commissioned the Hindu Kappe Chennigaraya temple in Belur, evidence that the royal family was tolerant of all religions.
During the rule of the Hoysalas, three important religious developments took place in present-day Karnataka inspired by three philosophers, Basava, Madhvacharya and Ramanuja.
While the origin of Lingayatism is debated, the movement grew through its association with Basava in the 12th century.
Madhvacharya was critical of the teachings of Adi Shankara and argued the world is real and not an illusion. His Dvaita Vedanta gained popularity, enabling him to establish eight mathas in Udupi. Ramanuja, head of the Vaishnava monastery in Srirangam, preached the way of devotion ("bhakti marga") and wrote "Sribhashya", a critique on Adi Shankara's Advaita.
The effect of these religious developments on culture, literature, poetry and architecture in South India was profound. Important works of literature and poetry based on the teachings of these philosophers were written during the coming centuries. The Saluva, Tuluva and Aravidu dynasties of the Vijayanagara Empire were followers of Vaishnavism and a Vaishnava temple with an image of Ramanuja exists in the Vitthalapura area of Vijayanagara. Scholars in the later Kingdom of Mysore wrote Vaishnavite works upholding the teachings of Ramanuja. King Vishnuvardhana built many temples after his conversion from Jainism to Vaishnavism. The later saints of Madhvacharya's order, Jayatirtha, Vyasatirtha, Sripadaraja, Vadiraja Tirtha and devotees ("dasa") such as Vijaya Dasa, Gopaladasa and others from the Karnataka region spread his teachings far and wide. His teachings inspired later philosophers like Vallabha in Gujarat and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in Bengal. Another wave of devotion ("bhakti") in the 17th century–18th century found inspiration in his teachings.
Hoysala society in many ways reflected the emerging religious, political and cultural developments of those times. During this period, the society became increasingly sophisticated. The status of women was varied. Some royal women were involved in administrative matters as shown in contemporary records describing Queen Umadevi's administration of Halebidu in the absence of Veera Ballala II during his long military campaigns in northern territories. She also fought and defeated some antagonistic feudal rebels. Records describe the participation of women in the fine arts, such as Queen Shantala Devi's skill in dance and music, and the 12th century vachana sahitya poet and Lingayati mystic Akka Mahadevi's devotion to the "bhakti" movement is well known. Temple dancers ("Devadasi") were common and some were well educated and accomplished in the arts. These qualifications gave them more freedom than other urban and rural women who were restricted to daily mundane tasks. The practice of sati in a voluntary form was prevalent and prostitution was socially acceptable. As in most of India, a caste system was conspicuously present.
Trade on the west coast brought many foreigners to India including Arabs, Jews, Persians, Han Chinese and people from the Malay Peninsula. Migration of people within Southern India as a result of the expansion of the empire produced an influx of new cultures and skills. In South India, towns were called "Pattana" or "Pattanam" and the marketplace, "Nagara" or "Nagaram", the marketplace serving as the nuclei of a city. Some towns such as Shravanabelagola developed from a religious settlement in the 7th century to an important trading center by the 12th century with the arrival of rich traders, while towns like Belur attained the atmosphere of a regal city when King Vishnuvardhana built the Chennakesava Temple there. Large temples supported by royal patronage served religious, social, and judiciary purposes, elevating the king to the level of "God on earth".
Temple building served a commercial as well as a religious function and was not limited to any particular sect of Hinduism. Shaiva merchants of Halebidu financed the construction of the Hoysaleswara temple to compete with the Chennakesava temple built at Belur, elevating Halebidu to an important city as well. Hoysala temples however were secular and encouraged pilgrims of all Hindu sects, the Kesava temple at Somanathapura being an exception with strictly Vaishnava sculptural depictions. Temples built by rich landlords in rural areas fulfilled fiscal, political, cultural and religious needs of the agrarian communities. Irrespective of patronage, large temples served as establishments that provided employment to hundreds of people of various guilds and professions sustaining local communities as Hindu temples began to take on the shape of wealthy Buddhist monasteries.
Although Sanskrit literature remained popular during the Hoysala rule, royal patronage of local Kannada scholars increased. In the 12th century some works were written in the "Champu" style, but distinctive Kannada metres became more widely accepted. The "Sangatya" metre used in compositions, "Shatpadi" (six line), "tripadi" (three line) metres in verses and "ragale" (lyrical poems) became fashionable. Jain works continued to extol the virtues of Tirthankaras (Jain saviour figures).
The Hoysala court supported scholars such as Janna, Rudrabhatta, Harihara and his nephew Raghavanka, whose works are enduring masterpieces in Kannada. In 1209, the Jain scholar Janna wrote "Yashodharacharite", the story of a king who intends to perform a ritual sacrifice of two young boys to a local deity, Mariamma. Taking pity on the boys, the king releases them and gives up the practice of human sacrifice. In honour of this work, Janna received the title "Emperor among poets" ("Kavichakravarthi") from King Veera Ballala II.
Rudrabhatta, a Smarta Brahmin, was the earliest well-known Brahminical writer. HIs patron was Chandramouli, a minister of King Veera Ballala II. Based on the earlier work "Vishnu Purana", he wrote "Jagannatha Vijaya" in the "Champu" style relating the life of Krishna leading up to his fight with the demon Banasura.
Harihara, (also known as Harisvara) a Lingayati writer and the patron of King Narasimha I, wrote the "Girijakalyana" in the old Jain "Champu" style which describes the marriage of Shiva and Parvati in ten sections. He was one of the earliest Virashaiva writers who was not part of the "vachana" literary tradition. He came from a family of accountants ("Karanikas") from Halebidu and spent many years in Hampi writing more than one hundred "ragales" (poems in blank verse) in praise of Virupaksha (a form of Shiva). Raghavanka was the first to introduce the "Shatpadi" metre into Kannada literature in his "Harishchandra kavya" which is considered a classic even though it occasionally violates strict rules of Kannada grammar.
In Sanskrit, the philosopher Madhvacharya wrote the "Rigbhshya" on the Brahma Sutras (a logical explanation of Hindu scriptures, the Vedas) as well as many polemical works rebutting the doctrines of other schools. He relied more on the Puranas than the Vedas for logical proof of his philosophy. Another famous writing was "Rudraprshnabhashya" by Vidyatirtha.
The modern interest in the Hoysalas is due to their patronage of art and architecture rather than their military conquests. The brisk temple building throughout the kingdom was accomplished despite constant threats from the Pandyas to the south and the Seunas Yadavas to the north. Their architectural style, an offshoot of the Western Chalukya style, shows distinct Dravidian influences. The Hoysala architecture style is described as "Karnata Dravida" as distinguished from the traditional "Dravida", and is considered an independent architectural tradition with many unique features.
A feature of Hoysala temple architecture is its attention to exquisite detail and skilled craftsmanship. The tower over the temple shrine ("vimana") is delicately finished with intricate carvings, showing attention to the ornate and elaborately detailed rather than to a tower form and height. The stellate design of the base of the shrine with its rhythmic projections and recesses is carried through the tower in an orderly succession of decorated tiers. Hoysala temple sculpture replicates this emphasis on delicacy and craftsmanship in its focus on depicting feminine beauty, grace and physique. The Hoysala artists achieved this with the use of Soapstone (Chloritic schist), a soft stone as basic building and sculptural material.
The Chennakesava Temple at Belur (1117), the Hoysaleswara temple at Halebidu (1121), the Chennakesava Temple at Somanathapura (1279), the temples at Arasikere (1220), Amruthapura (1196), Belavadi (1200), Nuggehalli (1246), Hosaholalu (1250), Aralaguppe (1250), Korvangla (1173), Haranhalli (1235), Mosale and Basaralu (1234) are some of the notable examples of Hoysala art. While the temples at Belur and Halebidu are the best known because of the beauty of their sculptures, the Hoysala art finds more complete expression in the smaller and lesser known temples. The outer walls of all these temples contain an intricate array of stone sculptures and horizontal friezes (decorative mouldings) that depict the Hindu epics. These depictions are generally clockwise in the traditional direction of circumambulation ("pradakshina"). The temple of Halebidu has been described as an outstanding example of Hindu architecture and an important milestone in Indian architecture. The temples of Belur and Halebidu are a proposed UNESCO world heritage sites.
The support of the Hoysala rulers for the Kannada language was strong, and this is seen even in their epigraphs, often written in polished and poetic language, rather than prose, with illustrations of floral designs in the margins. According to historian Sheldon Pollock, the Hoysala era saw the complete displacement of Sanskrit, with Kannada dominating as the courtly language. Temples served as local schools where learned Brahmins taught in Sanskrit, while Jain and Buddhist monasteries educated novice monks. Schools of higher learning were called "Ghatikas". The local Kannada language was widely used in the rising number of devotional movements to express the ecstatic experience of closeness to the deity ("vachanas" and "devaranama"). Literary works were written in it on palm leaves which were tied together. While in past centuries Jain works had dominated Kannada literature, Shaiva and early Brahminical works became popular during the Hoysala reign. Writings in Sanskrit included poetry, grammar, lexicon, manuals, rhetoric, commentaries on older works, prose fiction and drama. Inscriptions on stone ("Shilashasana") and copper plates ("Tamarashasana") were written mostly in Kannada but some were in Sanskrit or were bilingual. The sections of bilingual inscriptions stating the title, genealogy, origin myths of the king and benedictions were generally done in Sanskrit. Kannada was used to state terms of the grants, including information on the land, its boundaries, the participation of local authorities, rights and obligations of the grantee, taxes and dues, and witnesses. This ensured the content was clearly understood by the local people without ambiguity. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37522 |
Shravanabelagola
Shravanabelagola () is a town located near Channarayapatna of Hassan district in the Indian state of Karnataka and is 144 km from Bangalore. The Gommateshwara Bahubali statue at Shravanabelagola is one of the most important tirthas (pilgrimage destinations) in Jainism, one that reached a peak in architectural and sculptural activity under the patronage of Western Ganga dynasty of Talakad. Chandragupta Maurya is said to have died here in 298 BCE after he became a Jain monk and assumed an ascetic life style.
Shravanabelagola is located at 11 km to the south-east of Channarayapatna in the Channarayapatna taluk of Hassan district of Karnataka. It is at a distance of 51 km south-east of Hassan, Karnataka, the district centre. It is situated at a distance of 12 km to the south from the Bangalore-Mangalore road (NH-75), 18 km from Hirisave, 78 km from Halebidu, 89 km from Belur, 83 km from Mysuru, 144 km from Bangalore, the capital of Karnataka and 222 km from Mangalore.
The sacred places are spread over two hills, Chandragiri and Vindyagiri, also among the village at the foothill.
"Shravanabelagola" "White Pond of the Shravana" is named with reference to the colossal image of Gommaṭa - the prefix "Śravaṇa" serves to distinguish it from other Belagolas with the prefixes Hale- and Kodi-, while "Beḷagoḷa" "white pond" is an allusion to the pond in the middle of the town. The Sanskrit equivalents "Śvetasarovara", "Dhavalasarovara" and "Dhavalasarasa" used in the inscriptions that support this meaning.
Some inscriptions mention the name of the place as Beḷgoḷa, which has given rise to another derivation from the plant "Solanum ferox" (hairy-fruited eggplant). This derivation is in allusion to a tradition which says that a pious old woman completely anointed the colossal image with the milk brought by her in a "gullakayi" or eggplant. The place is also designated as "Devara Beḷgoḷa" "White Pond of the God" and "Gommaṭapuram" "city of Gommaṭa" in some epigraphs.
Shravanabelagola has two hills, Chandragiri and Vindhyagiri. "Acharya" Bhadrabahu and his pupil Chandragupta Maurya are believed to have meditated there. Chandragupta Basadi, which was dedicated to Chandragupta Maurya, was originally built there by Ashoka in the third century BC. Chandragiri also has memorials to numerous monks and Śrāvakas who have meditated there since the fifth century AD, including the last king of the Rashtrakuta dynasty of Manyakheta. Chandragiri also has a famous temple built by Chavundaraya.
The 58-feet tall monolithic statue of Gommateshwara is located on Vindyagiri Hill. It is considered to be the world's largest monolithic statue. The base of the statue has an inscriptions in Prakrit, dating from 981 AD. The inscription praises the king who funded the effort and his general, Chavundaraya, who erected the statue for his mother. Every twelve years, thousands of devotees congregate here to perform the Mahamastakabhisheka, a spectacular ceremony in which the statue is anointed with Water, Turmeric, Rice flour, Sugar cane juice, Sandalwood paste, saffron, and gold and silver flowers. Recently Mahamastakabhisheka was held in 2018 during feb month. The next Mahamastakabhisheka will be held in 2030. The statue is referred to as "Gommateshwara" by Kannadigas, but the Jains refer to the same as "Bahubali".
Shravanabelagola, nestled by the Vindhyagiri and Chandragiri Hills, protected by the monolith Bhagwan Bahubali, and home to over 2,300 years of Jain heritage, is a veritable picture postcard of our history and heritage spanning the centuries. In the town of Shravanabelagola, stands a colossal rock-cut statue of Lord Gommateshwara Shri Bahubali. About eight hundred odd inscriptions which the Karnataka Archeological Department has collected at the place are mostly Jaina and cover a very extended period from 600 to 1830 A.D. Some refer even to the remote time of Chandragupta Maurya and also relate the story of the first settlement of Jains at Shravanabelagola. That this village was an acknowledged seat of learning is proved from the fact that a priest from here named Akalanka was in 788 A.D. summoned to the court of Himasitala at Kanchi where having confuted the Buddhists in public disputation, he was instrumental in gaining their expulsion from the South of India to Ceylon.
More than 800 inscriptions have been found at Shravanabelagola, dating to various times from 600 AD to 1830 AD. A large number of these are found in the Chandragiri and the rest can be seen in the Vindhyagiri Hill and the town. Most of the inscriptions at the Chandragiri date back before the 10th century. These inscriptions include texts in the Kannada. The second volume of Epigraphia Carnatica, written by B. Lewis Rice, is dedicated to the inscriptions found here. It is said to be the oldest Konkani inscription. The inscriptions are written in "Purvahalagannada" (Ancient Kannada) and "Halegannada" (Old Kannada) characters. Some of these inscriptions mention the rise and growth in power of the Western Ganga Dynasty, the Rashtrakutas, the Hoysala Empire, the Vijayanagara Empire and the Wodeyar dynasty. These inscriptions have helped modern scholars to understand the nature and development of the Kannada language and its literature.
On August 5, 2007, the statue at Shravanabelagola was voted by the readers of "Times of India" as the first of the Seven Wonders of India. 49% votes went in favor of the statue.
1. Akkana Basadi: This was built in 1181 A.D. Akkana Basadi has 23rd Tirthankara Parshwanath as main deity of the temple.
2. Chandragupta basadi: This was established in the 9th century. The middle cell of this temple has the figure of Parshvanatha, the one to the right the figure of Padmavathi and the one to the left the figure of Kushmandini, all in a seated posture.
3. Shantinatha Basadi:This temple is dedicated to Shantinatha. It was built around 1200 A.D.
4. Parshwanatha Basadi: This is a beautiful structure with decorated outer walls. The image of Parshwanatha is the tallest on the hill which is 18 feet in height. The manastambha (pillar) is sculptured on all four sides which contains the figure of Padmavathi on the south, Yaksha on the east, seated Kushmandini on the north and a galloping horseman on the west. The pillars in the navaranga are of round Ganga type with bell, vase and wheel mouldings.
5. Kattlae Basadi: This is situated to the left of Parshwanatha Basadi and in fact this is the biggest of all the Basadis on this hill. Kattlae Basadi has first Jain Tirthankara Rishabhnatha as main deity of the temple. Here one finds the image of Adinatha Thirthankara and also of Pampavathi in the Kaisale.
6. Chandraprabha Basadi: It is dedicated to the worship of the 8th Tirthankara, Chandraprabha. The images of Shyama and Jwalamalini, Yaksha and Yakshi are to be found.The basadi is a brick structure raised over a stone base. This temple might be one of the oldest on the hill and its date would be about 800 A.D. It is said to have been constructed by the Ganga King Shivamara II.
7. Suparshwanatha Basadi: Seven headed serpent is carved over the head of the Suparshvanatha image.
8. Chamundaraya Basadi: is the finest and one of the largest temples on the hill. It is also known as Chavundaraya Basadi. It is dedicated to Neminatha, the 22nd Tirthankara. The sukhanasi consists of good figures of Sarvahna and Kushmandini, the yaksha and yakshi of Neminatha. It is dated back to 982 A.D.
The Mahamastakabhisheka (Grand Consecration/The Great Indian Festival), refers to the "abhiṣheka" (anointment) of the Jain images when held on a large scale. The most famous of such consecrations is the anointment of the Bahubali Gommateshwara Statue located at Shravanabelagola. It is an important Jain festival held once in every 12 years. It is an integral part of the ancient and composite Jain tradition. The festival is held in veneration of a high monolithic statue of the Siddha Bahubali. The anointing last took place in February 2018, and the next ceremony is going to take place in 2030. During this festival, the statue is then bathed and anointed with libations such as milk, sugarcane juice, and saffron paste, and sprinkled with powders of sandalwood, turmeric, and vermilion.
The event has been attended by multiple political personalities including Krishna-Rajendra Wodeyar in 1910, and Narendra Modi and Ramnath Kovind in 2018.
Shravanabelagola is the seat of the ancient Bhattaraka Matha, belonging to the Desiya Gana lineage of Mula Sangh, from the Digambara monastic tradition. The Bhattarakas are all named Charukeerti. Bahubali College of Engineering is an educational institute at Śravaṇa Beḷgoḷa.
Halebidu is also part of route followed by luxury tourist train - Golden Chariot.
The Govt of Karnataka showcased the statue of Lord Gometashwara at the Republic Day (India) Parade of 2005 and it received the first prize from the then President of India Hon'ble Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37524 |
Alfa Romeo
Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. () is an Italian premium car manufacturer, was founded on 24 June 1910, as "Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili", and so the acronym for it is "A.L.F.A", in Milano, Italy. "Anonima" means "anonymous", and it was a legal form of company at the time, as it was founded by anonymous investors. In the initial set-up phase, in order to have a building to produce cars, the company bought the factory building of Darraq french company in Milan, which was closing up and selling all assets because it was going to fail. The brand is known for sporty vehicles and has been involved in car racing since 1911.
The first car produced by the company was the 1910 24 HP, designed by Giuseppe Merosi. A.L.F.A. ventured into motor racing, with drivers Franchini and Ronzoni competing in the 1911 Targa Florio with two 24-hp models. In August 1915, the company came under the direction of Neapolitan entrepreneur Nicola Romeo, who converted the factory to produce military hardware for the Italian and Allied war efforts. In 1920, the name of the company was changed to Alfa Romeo with the Torpedo 20–30 HP the first car to be so badged.
In 1921, the Banca Italiana di Sconto, which backed the Ing. Nicola Romeo & Co, went bankrupt and the government needed to support the industrial companies involved, among which was Alfa Romeo, through the "Consorzio per Sovvenzioni sui Valori Industriali". In 1925, the railway activities were separated from the Romeo company, and in 1928 Nicola Romeo left. In 1933, the state ownership was reorganized under the banner of the italian state indutrial organization Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale (IRI), which then had effective control. The company struggled to return to profitability after the Second World War, and turned to mass-producing small vehicles rather than hand-building luxury models. In 1954, it developed the Alfa Romeo Twin Cam engine, which would remain in production until 1994. The Istituto per la Ricostruzione (IRI), the state conglomerate that controls Finmeccanica sold the marque to the Fiat Group in 1986 due to the marque being unprofitable.
Alfa Romeo has competed successfully in Grand Prix motor racing, Formula One, sportscar racing, touring car racing, and rallies. It has competed both as a constructor and an engine supplier, via works entries (usually under the name Alfa Corse or Autodelta), and private entries. The first racing car was made in 1913, three years after the foundation of the company, and Alfa Romeo won the inaugural world championship for Grand Prix cars in 1925. The race victories gave a sporty image to the marque, and Enzo Ferrari founded the Scuderia Ferrari racing team in 1929 as an Alfa Romeo racing team, before becoming independent in 1939. It has had the most wins of any marque in the world.
The company's name is a combination of the original name, "A.L.F.A." ("Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili"), and the last name of entrepreneur Nicola Romeo, who took control of the company in 1915.
The company that became Alfa Romeo was founded as Società Anonima Italiana Darracq (SAID) in 1906 by the French automobile firm of Alexandre Darracq, with some Italian investors. One of them, Cavaliere Ugo Stella, an aristocrat from Milan, became chairman of the SAID in 1909. The firm's initial location was in Naples, but even before the construction of the planned factory had started, Darracq decided late in 1906 that Milan would be more suitable and accordingly a tract of land was acquired in the Milan suburb of Portello, where a new factory of was constructed. In late 1909, the Italian Darracq cars were selling slowly and Stella, with the other Italian co-investors, founded a new company named A.L.F.A. (Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili), initially still in partnership with Darracq. The first non-Darracq car produced by the company was the 1910 24 HP, designed by Giuseppe Merosi, hired in 1909 for designing new cars more suited to the Italian market. Merosi would go on to design a series of new A.L.F.A. cars, with more powerful engines such as the 40–60 HP. A.L.F.A. ventured into motor racing, with drivers Franchini and Ronzoni competing in the 1911 Targa Florio with two 24-hp models. In 1914, an advanced Grand Prix car was designed and built, the GP1914, with a four-cylinder engine, double overhead camshafts, four valves per cylinder, and twin ignition. However, the onset of the First World War halted automobile production at A.L.F.A. for three years.
In August 1915, the company came under the direction of Neapolitan entrepreneur Nicola Romeo, who converted the factory to produce military hardware for the Italian and Allied war efforts. Munitions, aircraft engines and other components, compressors, and generators based on the company's existing car engines were produced in a vastly enlarged factory during the war. After the war, Romeo invested his war profits in acquiring locomotive and railway carriage plants in Saronno (Costruzioni Meccaniche di Saronno), Rome (Officine Meccaniche di Roma), and Naples (Officine Ferroviarie Meridionali), which were added to his A.L.F.A. ownership.
Car production had not been considered at first, but resumed in 1919 since parts for the completion of 105 cars had remained at the A.L.F.A. factory since 1915. In 1920, the name of the company was changed to Alfa Romeo with the Torpedo 20–30 HP the first car to be so badged. Their first success came in 1920 when Giuseppe Campari won at Mugello and continued with second place in the Targa Florio driven by Enzo Ferrari. Giuseppe Merosi continued as head designer, and the company continued to produce solid road cars as well as successful race cars (including the 40–60 HP and the RL Targa Florio).
In 1923 Vittorio Jano was lured from Fiat, partly due to the persuasion of a young Alfa racing driver named Enzo Ferrari, to replace Merosi as chief designer at Alfa Romeo. The first Alfa Romeo under Jano was the P2 Grand Prix car, which won Alfa Romeo the inaugural world championship for Grand Prix cars in 1925. For road cars, Jano developed a series of small-to-medium-displacement 4-, 6-, and 8-cylinder inline engines based on the P2 unit that established the architecture of the company's engines, with light alloy construction, hemispherical combustion chambers, centrally located plugs, two rows of overhead valves per cylinder bank and dual overhead cams. Jano's designs proved both reliable and powerful.
Enzo Ferrari proved a better team manager than driver, and when the factory team was privatised, it became Scuderia Ferrari. When Ferrari left Alfa Romeo, he went on to build his own cars. Tazio Nuvolari often drove for Alfa, winning many races before the Second World War.
In 1928 Nicola Romeo left, and in 1933 Alfa Romeo was rescued by the government, which then had effective control. Alfa Romeo became an instrument of Mussolini's Italy, a national emblem. During this period it built bespoke vehicles for the wealthy, with bodies normally by Carrozzeria Touring or Pininfarina. This era peaked with the Alfa Romeo 2900B Type 35 racers.
The Alfa factory (converted during wartime to the production of Macchi C.202 Folgore engines: the Daimler-Benz 600 series built under license) was bombed during the Second World War, and struggled to return to profitability after the war. The luxury vehicles were out. Smaller, mass-produced vehicles began to be produced beginning with the 1954 model year, with the introduction of the Giulietta series of "berline" (saloons/sedans), coupes and open two-seaters. All three varieties shared what would become the Alfa Romeo overhead Twin Cam four-cylinder engine, initially displacing 1300 cc. This engine would eventually be enlarged to 2000 cc and would remain in production until 1995.
Once motorsports resumed after the Second World War, Alfa Romeo proved to be the car to beat in Grand Prix events. The introduction of the new formula (Formula One) for single-seat racing cars provided an ideal setting for Alfa Romeo's Tipo 158 Alfetta, adapted from a pre-war voiturette, and Giuseppe Farina won the first Formula One World Championship in 1950 in the 158. Juan Manuel Fangio secured Alfa's second consecutive championship in 1951.
In 1952, Alfa Romeo experimented with its first front-wheel drive compact car, "Project 13–61". It had the same transverse-mounted, forward-motor layout as the modern front-wheel drive automobile. Alfa Romeo made a second attempt in the late 1950s based on Project 13–61. It was to be called Tipo 103 and resembled the smaller version of its popular Alfa Romeo Giulia. However, due to the financial difficulties in post-war Italy, the Tipo 103 never saw production. Had Alfa Romeo produced it, it would have preceded the Mini as the first "modern" front-wheel drive compact car. In the mid-1950s, Alfa Romeo entered into an agreement with Brazil's Matarazzo Group to create a company called Fabral ("Fábrica Brasileira de Automóveis Alfa", "the Brazilian Alfa automobile factory") to build the Alfa Romeo 2000 there. After having received government approval, Matarazzo pulled out under pressure from Brazil's President Juscelino Kubitschek with the state-owned FNM company instead commenced building the car as the "FNM 2000" there in 1960.
During the 1960s, Alfa Romeo concentrated on motorsports using production-based cars, including the GTA (standing for Gran Turismo Allegerita), an aluminium-bodied version of the Bertone-designed coupe with a powerful twin-plug engine. Among other victories, the GTA won the inaugural Sports Car Club of America's Trans-Am championship in 1966. In the 1970s, Alfa Romeo concentrated on prototype sports car racing with the Tipo 33, with early victories in 1971. Eventually the Tipo 33TT12 gained the World Championship for Makes for Alfa Romeo in 1975 and the Tipo 33SC12 won the World Championship for Sports Cars in 1977.
As Alfa Romeo was a state-controlled company, they were often subject to political pressure. To help industrialize Italy's underdeveloped south, Alfa Romeo's new compact car was to be built at a new factory at Pomigliano d'Arco in Campania. Even the car's name, "Alfa Sud" (Alfa South), reflected where it was built. January 18, 1968, saw a new company named "Industria Napoletana Costruzioni Autoveicoli Alfa Romeo-Alfasud S.p.A." being formed, 90% of which belonged to Alfa Romeo and 10% to Governmnet controlled holding company Finmeccanica. This plant was built in the wake of France's 1968 protests and Italy's Hot Autumn and was never "properly started." The employees had mainly construction backgrounds and were not trained for factory work, while industrial relations were troublesome throughout. Absenteeism rates in the Pomigliano factory ran at 16.5 percent through the 1970s.
By the 1970s, Alfa Romeo was again in financial trouble, with the company running at about sixty percent of capacity in 1980. Since Alfa Romeo was controlled by the Italian government-owned Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale (IRI), a deal was made where about a quarter of worker's salaries were paid through state unemployment agencies to allow Alfa's plants to idle for two weeks every two months. An aging product lineup and very low productivity combined with near-permanent industrial unrest and Italy's high inflation rates kept Alfa Romeo firmly in the red. Other creative measures were attempted to shore up Alfa, including an ultimately unsuccessful joint venture with Nissan endorsed by Alfa's then-president, Ettore Massacesi, and Prime Minister Francesco Cossiga. By 1986, IRI was suffering heavy losses, and IRI president Romano Prodi put Alfa Romeo up for sale. Finmeccanica, the mechanical holdings arm of IRI and its predecessors owned Alfa Romeo since 1932. Prodi first approached fellow Italian manufacturer Fiat, which offered to start a joint venture with Alfa.
Fiat withdrew its plan for a joint venture with Alfa Romeo when Ford put in an offer to acquire part of Alfa Romeo and restructure the company, while increasing its stake over time. However, Fiat chose to put in a bid to acquire the entirety of Alfa Romeo and offer job guarantees to Italian workers, an offer that Ford was unwilling to match. It also did not hurt any of the parties involved that an acquisition by Fiat would keep Alfa Romeo in Italian hands. In 1986, the deal was concluded with Alfa Romeo merged with traditional rival Lancia into Fiat's Alfa Lancia Industriale S.p.A. Already in 1981, Alfa Romeo's then-President Ettore Massacesi had stated that Alfa would never use Fiat engines, the engines being, to a large extent, Alfa Romeo's identity, but would be happy to cooperate fully with everything else.
Models produced from the 1990 onwards combined Alfa's traditional virtues of avant-garde styling and sporting panache with the economic benefits of product rationalisation, and include a "GTA" version of the 147 hatchback, the Giugiaro-designed Brera, and a high-performance exotic called the 8C Competizione (named after one of Alfa's most successful prewar sports and racing cars, the 8C of the 1930s).
In 2005 Maserati was bought back from Ferrari and was now under Fiat's full control. The Fiat Group then created a sports and luxury division from Maserati and Alfa Romeo. There is a planned strategic relationship between these two; engines, platforms and possibly dealers are shared.
In the beginning of 2007, Fiat Auto S.p.A. was reorganized and four new automobile companies were created; Fiat Automobiles S.p.A., Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A., Lancia Automobiles S.p.A. and Fiat Light Commercial Vehicles S.p.A. These companies are fully owned by Fiat Group Automobiles S.p.A (from 2007 FCA Italy S.p.A.).
On 24 June 2010, Alfa Romeo celebrated 100 years from its foundation.
Alfa Romeo has been suffering from falling sales. In 2010, it sold a total of about 112,000 units, which was significantly lower than Fiat CEO Marchionne's global sales target of 300,000. The company set about to achieve a sales target of 170,000 units in 2011, including 100,000 Giulietta and 60,000 MiTo models, but it actually sold 130,000 units that year. Its medium-term target was 500,000 units by 2014 including 85,000 from the North American market. In 2017 Alfa Romeo increased production by 62 percent, building a total of 150,722 vehicles at the company's three factories.
Alfa Romeo was imported to the United States by Max Hoffman from the mid-1950s. The Giulietta Spider was developed on the request of Max Hoffman, who proposed an open top version of the Giulietta. In 1961 Alfa Romeo started exporting cars to the United States through its own dealer network.
In 1995, Alfa Romeo ceased exporting cars to the United States, the last model sold in that market being the 164 sedan.
On 5 May 2006, Alfa Romeo made its return to the US Market as announced by Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne after a series of rumours. North American sales resumed in October 2008, with the launch of the limited production 8C Competizione coupe with Alfa Romeo models being imported by Fiat's US subsidiary Chrysler. Also in 2008, Alfa Romeo and Chrysler were reported to be in discussions over the possibility of producing Alfa Romeo cars in some Chrysler manufacturing plants that had shutdown due to the company group's restructure and cost cutting. Instead, as reported by "The Wall Street Journal" in November 2009, Chrysler discontinued several Dodge and Jeep models while phasing in Alfa Romeo ones and the new Fiat 500.
The next significant milestones in Alfa Romeo's North American return occurred in 2014, with the launch of the more affordable two-seater 4C coupe. That year, Fiat Group Automobiles S.p.A. confirmed that its original agreement with Mazda Motor Corporation, for the speculated manufacturing of a new Alfa Romeo Spider based on the Mazda MX-5 had been terminated mutually in December 2014. The proposed model for this joint-venture became the Fiat 124 convertible launched in 2015. In 2015, Alfa Romeo's return to this market was further bolstered by the automaker's display of the new Giulia at the Los Angeles Auto Show. In February 2017, Chrysler featured its Alfa Romeo brand exclusively in three ads during Super Bowl LI.
Alfa Romeo's US importer, FCA US LLC, imports the 4C, Giulia and Stelvio.
Alfa Romeo has introduced many technological innovations over the years, and the company has often been among the first users of new technologies. Its trademark double overhead cam engine was used for the first time in the 1914 Grand Prix car, the first road car with such an engine, the 6C 1500 Sport, appeared in 1928.
Alfa Romeo tested one of the very first electronic fuel injection systems (Caproni-Fuscaldo) in the Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 with "Ala spessa" body in 1940 Mille Miglia. The engine had six electrically operated injectors, fed by a semi-high pressure circulating fuel pump system.
1969 models for the North American market had SPICA (Società Pompe Iniezione Cassani & Affini, a subsidiary of Alfa Romeo) mechanical fuel injection. According to Alfa Romeo, the engine's power output and performance were unchanged from the carburetted version. The SPICA system continued until the 1982 model year with the introduction of 2.0 liter Bosch electronic fuel injection. Many examples of SPICA powered Alfa's are found still running,
Mechanical variable valve timing was introduced in the Alfa Romeo Spider, sold in the U.S. in 1980. All Alfa Romeo Spider models from 1983 onward used electronic VVT.
The 105 series Giulia was quite an advanced car, using technologies such as all-wheel disc brakes, and a plastic radiator header tank. It had also the lowest drag coefficient (Cd) in its class The same trend continued with the Alfetta 2000 and GTV, which had quirks such as 50:50 weight distribution, standard fit alloy wheels and transaxle.
Newer innovations include complete CAD design process used in designing the Alfa Romeo 164 and a robotised/paddle control transmission called Selespeed used in the 156; the 156 was also the world's first passenger car to use Common rail diesel engine. The Multiair -an electro-hydraulic variable valve actuation technology used in MiTo was introduced in 2009. In 2016, the Alfa Romeo Giulia came with electrical brakes.
Many famous automotive design houses in Italy have accepted commissions to produce concepts and production vehicle shapes for Alfa Romeo. These include:
Construction techniques used by Alfa Romeo has been imitated by other car makers, and in this way the Alfa Romeo body designs have often been very influential. The following is a list of innovations, and where appropriate, examples of imitation by other car manufacturers:
Several concept cars have been made by Alfa Romeo:
The "Berlina Aerodinamica Tecnica" prototype cars were designed by Bertone as an exercise in determining whether streamlining and wind-tunnel driven designs would result in high performance on a standard chassis, and whether the resulting vehicles would be palatable to public. Alfa 1900 Sprint were the basis of the B.A.T. 5, 7 and 9. The later B.A.T. 11 was based on the 8C Competizione.
The Tipo 33 racing car, with its high-revving 2000 cc V8 engine became the basis for a number of different concept cars during the 1960s and 1970s, two of which ultimately resulted in production vehicles. Most made their appearances at the Auto Salon Genève. Here is a brief list:
In general, concept cars for Alfa Romeo have generally become production vehicles, after some modification to make them suitable for manufacture, and to provide driver and passenger safety. The Zagato SZ, GTV and Spider, Brera and 159 are all good examples of Alfa Romeo's stylistic commitment in this direction.
Alfa Romeo's logo incorporates two heraldic devices traditionally associated with its birthplace, the city of Milan: a red cross, from the emblem of Milan, and the "biscione", a big grass snake swallowing a child—emblem of the House of Visconti, rulers of the city in the 14th century.
The logo was originally designed in 1910 by a young Italian draughtsman from the A.L.F.A technical office, Romano Cattaneo.
In June 1910 the Società Anonima Darracq became Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili, and was readying its first model, the 24 HP. The board asked chief engineer Giuseppe Merosi to devise a badge for the radiator shell of the new car; Merosi turned to his collaborators. One of them, Cattaneo, was inspired by the coat of arms he had seen on the gates of Castello Sforzesco to include the "biscione" in the logo. Merosi liked the idea, and together with Cattaneo came up with a sketch, then approved by managing director Ugo Stella; Cattaneo was entrusted with doing the final design.
The original badge was round, of enamelled brass, measuring in diameter, and carried already all the present day accoutrements: the red cross on a white field of Milan on the left, a green "biscione" on a light blue field on the right, all surrounded by a blue ring inscribed with the words "ALFA" at the top and "MILANO" at the bottom. In honour of the King of Italy, the two words were separated by two figure-eight knots—named Savoy knots in Italian, and symbols of the then-reigning House of Savoy. Originally solid brass, the lettering was changed to white enamel in 1913. In 1918, after the company had been bought by Nicola Romeo, the wording "ALFA" was replaced with "ALFA-ROMEO".
In 1925, to commemorate the victory of the Alfa Romeo P2 in the inaugural World Manufacturers' Championship of 1925, a silver metal laurel wreath was added around the badge, used (in varying form) until 1982. The addition of the wreath had enlarged the badge to diameter; in 1930 it was reduced back to .
In 1946, after the abolition of the monarchy and proclamation of the Italian Republic, the figure-eight knots of the Savoy were replaced with two curvy lines. Concurrently the badge was completely redesigned, and further reduced in size to , a diameter unchanged ever since. Made of stamped steel, the new badge bore the traditional elements—the scripts, the cross, a newly stylized "biscione" and a thin laurel wreath—embossed in antique silver, over a uniform Alfa Red background, which had replaced the blue, white and light blue fields. This red-and-metal badge was used until 1950, when the company switched back to a traditionally enamelled and coloured one; in 1960 the badge was changed from brass to plastic, without substantial differences in design.
At the beginning of the 1970s the all-new Alfa Romeo Pomigliano d'Arco plant (near Naples) was completed. When in 1972 the Alfasud produced there became the first Alfa Romeo passenger car manufactured outside Milan, the word "Milano", the curved lines and the hyphen between "Alfa" and "Romeo" were eliminated from the badge on all Alfa Romeos. At the same time it was redesigned, most notably acquiring a modernised "biscione" and type face.
After a mild restyling in 1982, which deleted the wreath and changed lettering and all chrome details to gold, this iteration of the badge remained in use until 2015.
On 24 June 2015, 105th anniversary of the company, a new logo was unveiled at a press event at the Alfa Romeo Museum; together with the Alfa Romeo Giulia as part of the brand's relaunch plan. The redesign was carried out by Robilant Associati, who had previously reworked several other Fiat Group logos—including Fiat Automobiles' and Lancia's.
The logo colors have been reduced from four to three: the green of the "biscione", the red of the cross, and the dark blue of the surrounding ring. Other changes are a new serif type face, and the absence of the split white and light blue fields, replaced by a single silver textured background.
Since 1923, the "quadrifoglio" logo (also called the 'cloverleaf') has been the symbol of Alfa Romeo racing cars and since WWII, it has also been used to designate the higher trim models of the range. The "quadrifoglio" is usually placed on the side panels of the car, above or behind the front wheels—on the front wings in the case of modern vehicles. The logo consists of a green cloverleaf with four leaves, contained with a white triangle.
The "quadrifoglio" has been used on Alfa Romeo cars since the death of Ugo Sivocci in 1923. As a friend of Enzo Ferrari, Sivocci was hired by Alfa Romeo in 1920 to drive in the four-man works team—Alfa Corse—with Antonio Ascari, Giuseppe Campari, and Enzo Ferrari. Sivocci was thought to have enormous experience, but often hampered by bad luck and considered the eternal second-placer. To banish his bad luck, when the Targa Florio came around, the driver painted a white square with a green four-leaf clover (the "quadrifoglio") in the centre of the grille of his car. Sivocci had immediate success, crossing the finish line first. The "quadrifoglio" subsequently became the symbol of the racing Alfa Romeos with the victory at the Targa Florio. Almost as if to prove the magic effects of this symbol, Sivocci was killed while testing Merosi's new P1 at Monza, a few months after winning the Targa Florio. The Salerno driver's P1, which went off the track on a bend, did not have the "quadrifoglio". Since this period in 1923, the bodies of Alfa Romeo racing cars have been adorned with the "quadrifoglio" as a lucky charm. The white square was replaced with a triangle in memory of Ugo Sivocci.
The first road car to bear the "quadrifoglio" was the 1963 Alfa Romeo Giulia TI Super, a variant of the Giulia saloon car devised for competition but put regularly on sale; it had green four-leaf clovers on its front wings, without the triangle.
In the 1970s "Quadrifoglio Verde" or "Green Cloverleaf" became the trim level for each model's sportiest variant, equipped with the most powerful engine. The Alfasud, Sprint, 33, 75, 164 and 145 all had Quadrifoglio Verde versions.
Also in the 1970s and through the 1980s golden four-leaf clover badges were used to denote the most luxurious and well-equipped variants of Alfa Romeo cars, named "Quadrifoglio Oro" or "Gold Cloverleaf".
The Alfasud, Alfetta, Alfa 6, 90 and 33 had Quadrifoglio Oro versions.
In recent times the "quadrifoglio" was revived on the 2007 Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione and Spider sports cars. With the current Alfa Romeo MiTo and Giulietta the Quadrifoglio Verde was reinstated as the sportiest trim level in the range, and green four-leaf clovers on the front wings are once again the hallmark of high-performance Alfa Romeos.
Alfa Romeo's 2016 sport sedan, the all-new Giulia, was launched first in Quadrifoglio trim before the release of the base models. Starting with the high-end model wearing that historic signature emblem.
Alfa Romeo has been involved with motor racing since 1911, when it entered two 24 HP models in Targa Florio competition. Alfa Romeo won the first World Manufacturers' Championship in 1925 and the first AIACR European Championship in 1931 and it scored wins at many races and motoring events such as Targa Florio, Mille Miglia and Le Mans. Great success continued with Formula One, when Alfa Romeo won the first World Formula One Championship in 1950 and won the second Formula One Championship in 1951. The company also won international championships in Prototypes, Touring and Fast Touring categories in the 1960s and 1970s. Private drivers also entered some rally competitions, with good results. Alfa Romeo has competed both as a constructor and an engine supplier, via works entries Alfa Corse, Autodelta and private entries. Alfa Romeo's factory racing team was outsourced to Enzo Ferrari's Scuderia Ferrari between 1933 and 1938. Drivers included Tazio Nuvolari, who won the 1935 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring.
Alfa Romeo have been in a technical partnership with the Sauber F1 Team since 2018 and are competing in the 2020 Formula One World Championship as Alfa Romeo Racing.
Alfa Romeo has won 5 FIA European Formula 3 Championships and 5 FIA European Formula 3 Cups with the support from the Alfa Romeo Stable Euroracing who created motor for the Formula 3 championship, and with the support of Italian motor company Novamotor which work in the Formula 3 competition
In the 1960s, the main Alfa Romeo factory was moved from inside Milan to a very large and nearby area extending over the municipalities of Arese, Lainate and Garbagnate Milanese. However, since then the fatory was moved to Arese, as the offices and the main entrance of the area were located there.
In the late 1960s, a number of European automobile manufacturers established facilities in South Africa to assemble right hand drive vehicles. Fiat and other Italian manufacturers established factories along with these other manufacturers, Alfa-Romeos were assembled in Brits, outside Pretoria in the Transvaal Province of South Africa. With the imposition of sanctions by Western powers in the 1970s and 1980s, South Africa became self-sufficient, and in car production came to rely more and more on the products from local factories. This led to a remarkable set of circumstances where between 1972 and 1989, South Africa had the greatest number of Alfa Romeos on the road outside of Italy. Another astonishing fact is that the Alfa Romeos Brits plant was used from March 1983 until 1985 to build Daihatsu Charades for local consumption, but also for export to Italy in order to skirt Italian limits on Japanese imports.
In late 1985, with the impending Fiat takeover and an international boycott of the South African Apartheid government, Alfa Romeo withdrew from the market and closed the plant.
During the 1990s, Alfa Romeo moved car production to other districts in Italy. The Pomigliano d’Arco plant produced the 155, followed by the 145 and the 146, while the Arese plant manufactured the SZ and RZ sports cars, the 164, the new Spider and the GTV. The 156 was launched in 1997, and became quite successful for Alfa Romeo; in 1998 it was voted "Car of the Year". The same year a new flagship, the 166 (assembled in Rivalta, near Turin) was launched. At the beginning of the third millennium, the 147 was released, which won the prestigious title of "Car of the Year 2001". In 2003 the Arese factory was closed while only having some offices and the Alfa Romeo Historical Museum.
The Giulietta is a five-door, small family car officially revealed at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show. It replaced the 147.
The 4C is a small, lightweight rear wheel drive two seater sports car available in coupe and convertible body styles. The car was unveiled as concept car at the 81st Geneva Motor Show in 2011. The production version was launched to the European market at the 83rd Geneva Motor show in 2013 and was launched to the American market at the Los Angeles Motor show at the end of November 2013.
The new Giulia was unveiled to the press at the Museo Storico Alfa Romeo in Arese, on 24 June 2015. This coincided with the company's 105th anniversary and saw the introduction of a revised logo. Sales were about 34,000 examples per year (2018), then fell to 20,000 per year (2019).
The Stelvio was unveiled at the 2016 Los Angeles Auto Show. The Stelvio is Alfa Romeo's first production SUV that competes in the same category as the Porsche Macan, Jaguar F-Pace, Audi Q5, Mercedes-Benz GLC and BMW X3. It is current top Alfa sales with less than 40,000 examples per year (2019).
In the 1960s, Alfa Romeo became famous for its small cars and models specifically designed for the Italian police and Carabinieri (arm of the Italian armed forces seconded only partly for civilian policing purposes); among them the "Giulia Super" and the 2600 Sprint GT. The colours of the Alfa Romeos used by the Polizia were/are green/blue with white stripes and writing, known as "Pantera" (Panther), enhancing the aggressive look of the cars (particularly the Giulia series), while the Carabinieri Alfas are dark blue with white roofs and red stripes, known as the "Gazzella" (Gazelle) denoting the speed and agility of these "Pattuglie" (patrol cars). However, the term "Pantera" became used interchangeably and the image helped create a no-nonsense, determined and respected perception by the general public of the men that drove these cars, true to their history.
Since then, Alfa Romeos remain the chosen mount of the Carabinieri, Polizia Autostradale (highway police), Guardia di Finanza (fiscal law enforcement) and the conventional police service (Polizia). Successively, the following Alfa Romeo cars have found favour for Italian police and government employment
Since the 1960s, the Italian Prime Minister has used Alfa Romeos (and lately the new Maserati Quattroporte) as preferred government limousines. The 164 and 166 have found particular employment in the last two decades.
In 1930 Alfa Romeo presented a light truck in addition to heavy LCVs based on Büssing constructions. In the Second World War Alfa Romeo also built trucks for the Italian army ("35 tons anywhere") and later also for the German Wehrmacht. After the war, commercial motor vehicle production was resumed.
In co-operation with FIAT and Saviem starting from the 1960s different light truck models were developed.
The production of heavy LCVs in Italy was terminated in 1967. Heavy trucks continued to be built for a few years in Brazil by Alfa Romeo subsidiary Fábrica Nacional de Motores under the name FNM. The last Alfa Romeo vans were the Alfa Romeo AR6 and AR8, rebadged versions of Iveco Daily and Fiat Ducato. The company also produced trolleybuses for many systems in Italy, Latin America, Sweden, Greece, Germany, Turkey and South Africa. Later, Alfa Romeo concentrated only on passenger car manufacturing.
Although Alfa Romeo is best known as automobile manufacturer it has also produced commercial vehicles of various size, railway locomotives, tractors, buses, trams, compressors, generators, an electric cooker, marine and aircraft engines.
An Alfa engine was first used on an aircraft in 1910 on the Santoni-Franchini biplane. In 1932 Alfa Romeo built its first real aircraft engine, the D2 (240 bhp), fitted to Caproni 101 D2. In the 1930s when Alfa Romeo engines were used for aircraft on a larger scale; the Savoia Marchetti SM.74, Savoia-Marchetti SM.75, Savoia-Marchetti SM.79, Savoia Marchetti SM.81 and Cant Z506B Airone all used Alfa Romeo manufactured engines. In 1931, a competition was arranged where Tazio Nuvolari drove his Alfa Romeo 8C 3000 Monza against a Caproni Ca.100 airplane. Alfa Romeo built various aircraft engines during the Second World War; the best known was the RA.1000 RC 41-I Monsone, a licensed version of the Daimler-Benz DB 601. This engine made it possible to build efficient fighter aircraft like the Macchi C.202 Folgore for the Italian army. After the Second World War Alfa Romeo produced engines for Fiat, Aerfer and Ambrosini. In the 1960s Alfa Romeo mainly focused upgrading and maintaining Curtiss-Wright, Pratt & Whitney, Rolls-Royce and General Electric aircraft engines. Alfa Romeo also built Italy's first turbine engine, installed to the Beechcraft King Air. Alfa Romeo's Avio division was sold to Aeritalia in 1988, from 1996 it was part of Fiat Avio. Alfa Avio was also part of developing team to the new T700-T6E1 engine to the NHI NH90 helicopter.
Alfa Romeo also produced marine engines. The first marine engine was produced in 1929. Later, for three consecutive years: 1937-1938-1939 with remarkable affirmations, Alfa Romeo demonstrated its constructive efficiency by contributing to the development of marine engines.
During the years Alfa Romeo has been marketed with different slogans like: "The family car that wins races" used in the 1950s in Alfa Romeo 1900 marketing campaign, "racing since 1911" used on most 1960s Alfa advertisements, In the 1970s the Alfa Romeo 1750 GTV was marketed as "if this kind of handling is good enough for our racing cars, it's good enough for you." The Giulia Sprint GTA was marketed as "The car you drive to work is a champion".
More recent slogans used are "Mediocrity is a sin", "Driven by Passion", "Cuore Sportivo", "Beauty is not enough" and present day "Without heart we would be mere machines". Also other more recent ones are: "It's not a car, it's an Alfa Romeo.", one of them after a couple argue in Italian.
As part of its marketing policy, Alfa Romeo sponsors a number of sporting events, such as the Mille Miglia rally. It has sponsored the SBK Superbike World Championship and Ducati Corse since 2007, and the Goodwood Festival of Speed for many years, and was one of the featured brands in 2010 when Alfa Romeo celebrated its 100th anniversary. The Alfa Romeo Giulietta has been used since Monza 2010 race as the safety car in Superbike World Championship events. Alfa Romeo has been also shirt sponsor of Eintracht Frankfurt football club in period between 2013 and 2016.
In 2002, "Alfa Romeo I", the first Alfa Romeo super maxi yacht was launched. It finished first in at least 74 races including the 2002 Sydney—Hobart Race. "Alfa Romeo II", commissioned in 2005, measures LOA. It set a new elapsed-time record for monohulls in the 2009 Transpac race, of 5 days, 14 hours, 36 minutes, 20 seconds It finished first in at least 140 races. In mid-2008 "Alfa Romeo III" was launched for competitive fleet racing under the IRC rule. "Alfa Romeo III" measures LOA and features interior design styled after the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione.
The BBC motoring show "Top Gear" repeatedly argued the significance of owning an Alfa Romeo car as a car enthusiast, stating that "You can't be a true petrolhead if you have never owned/or wanted to own an Alfa Romeo". Presenters Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May continuously praised Alfas for their beauty and driving characteristics even though Italian cars had a long-term bad reputation for unreliability. They argued that you (the owner) build a personal relationship with the car despite all of its mechanical faults. Both Clarkson and May have previously owned Alfas (a GTV6 for Clarkson and an Alfa 164 for May) and both have stated that they regretted selling their Alfas the most.
As part of its U.S. relaunch, Alfa Romeo ran three commercials during Super Bowl LI; the brand was the sole marque advertised by FCA during the game, after exclusively focusing on its Jeep brand at Super Bowl 50.
In February 2013, Alfa Romeo sponsored University of St Andrews FS fashion show which saw luxury fashion designer Luke Archer and milliner George Jenkins win with their Alfa Romeo inspired garments. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37527 |
Commander Keen
Commander Keen is a series of side-scrolling platform video games developed primarily by id Software. The series consists of six main episodes, a "lost" episode, and a final game; all but the final game were originally released for MS-DOS in 1990 and 1991, while the 2001 "Commander Keen" was released for the Game Boy Color. The series follows the eponymous Commander Keen, the secret identity of the eight-year-old genius Billy Blaze, as he defends the Earth and the galaxy from alien threats with his homemade spaceship, rayguns, and pogo stick. The first three episodes were developed by Ideas from the Deep, the precursor to id, and published by Apogee Software as the shareware title "Commander Keen in Invasion of the Vorticons"; the "lost" episode 3.5 "Commander Keen in Keen Dreams" was developed by id and published as a retail title by Softdisk; episodes four and five were released by Apogee as the shareware "Commander Keen in Goodbye, Galaxy"; and the simultaneously developed episode six was published in retail by FormGen as "Commander Keen in Aliens Ate My Babysitter". Ten years later, a homage and sequel to the series was developed by David A. Palmer Productions and published by Activision as "Commander Keen". Another game was announced in 2019 as under development by ZeniMax Online Studios.
"Invasion of the Vorticons" was the only game developed by Ideas from the Deep, and was based on programmer John Carmack's creation of adaptive tile refresh, a technique that allowed IBM-compatible general-purpose computers to replicate the smooth scrolling of video game consoles such as the Nintendo Entertainment System. The game's success caused designer Tom Hall, programmers John Carmack and John Romero, and artist Adrian Carmack to found id Software. Their obligations to Softdisk, where they had worked during development of the game, led to the creation of "Keen Dreams" as a prototype for the second trilogy of episodes. The final episode was split off during development into a stand-alone retail title, and plans for a third trilogy were cancelled after the success of "Wolfenstein 3D" (1992) and development focus on 3D first-person shooters such as "Doom" (1993). The final "Keen" game ten years later had oversight but little development work from id.
Critical reception and the series' legacy has focused on the two main trilogies of episodes, with "Vorticons" having large success as a shareware game and impacting the success of Apogee (now 3D Realms) and its shareware model. The second trilogy sold fewer copies, which was blamed by id and Apogee on its split into two parts, and the 2001 game received mixed reviews. The MS-DOS games have been re-released in several compilation packages, and all but the sixth episode are still sold through modern emulation releases on platforms such as Steam. References to the series have been made by dozens of other games, especially to the Dopefish, an enemy in the fourth episode, which has been termed one of the video game industry's biggest in-jokes. An active modding community has grown around the series, producing editing tools and unofficial sequels.
After the release of "Goodbye, Galaxy" and "Aliens Ate My Babysitter" in 1991, id Software planned to make a third set of episodes for the following December, titled "Commander Keen in The Universe is Toast!". Beyond the proposed title and release date, shown in the epilogue of the two games, no design work was completed before the game was cancelled due to the success of id's "Wolfenstein 3D" (1992) and development focus on 3D first-person shooters such as "Doom" (1993). John Carmack noted in 1999, when referencing the project that became the Game Boy Color game, that the original developers of "Keen" were unlikely to ever work together again on another game.
In addition to the initial releases of the games, several compilation releases have been published: the "id Anthology" compilation in 1996, which includes all seven episodes developed by id or Ideas from the Deep; a compilation release by Apogee in 1998 of the five episodes of "Invasion of the Vorticons" and "Goodbye, Galaxy"; and the "3D Realms Anthology" in 2014, which also includes "Vorticons" and "Galaxy". The Apogee-published episodes have also been released for modern computers through a DOS emulator, and sold through Steam since 2007 as the "Commander Keen Complete Pack".
All of the games in the "Commander Keen" series are side-scrolling platform video games: the majority of the game features the player-controlled Commander Keen viewed from the side while moving on a two-dimensional plane. The player can move left and right and can jump; in every episode besides "Keen Dreams" they can also use a pogo stick to bounce continuously and jump higher than they can normally with the correct timing. The levels are composed of platforms on which Keen can stand, and some platforms allow Keen to jump up through them from below. Beginning with episode two, "The Earth Explodes", there are also moving platforms as well as switches which extend bridges over gaps in the floor. "Keen Dreams" and later games add fireman's poles that Keen can climb up or down, and with the exception of the 2001 "Commander Keen" also show the platforms viewed from slightly above so as to give a pseudo-3D effect. Throughout the series, once entered, the only way to exit a level is to reach the end, though for "Keen Dreams" and episodes four through six the player can save and return to the middle of a level, rather than only between levels like the other games. In between levels the player travels on a two-dimensional map, viewed from above; from the map the player can enter levels by approaching the entrance. Some levels are optional and can be bypassed, while others are secret and can only be reached by following specific procedures.
The episodes all contain a different set of enemies in their levels, which the player must kill, stun, or avoid. These enemies are typically aliens or robots. Levels can also include hazards, such as electricity or spikes; touching a hazard or most enemies causes Keen to lose a life, and the game is ended if all of Keen's lives are lost. "Invasion of the Vorticons" features a raygun that Keen can use ammo for to kill enemies; "Keen Dreams" exchanges this for flower power pellets that temporarily stun enemies when thrown, episodes four through six use a stun gun that permanently stuns enemies, and the 2001 "Commander Keen" has a stun gun that temporarily stuns enemies unless they are then killed with a pogo jump. The player can also find food items throughout the levels which grant points, with an extra life awarded with enough points. There are also colored keycards which grant access to locked parts of levels, collectable items that award an extra life beginning with episode four, and items that grant an instant extra life.
In the first episode, "Marooned on Mars", eight-year-old Billy Blaze, a child genius, builds a spaceship (the "Beans with Bacon Megarocket") and puts on his older brother's football helmet to become Commander Keen. One night while his parents are out of the house he flies to Mars to explore; while away from the ship the Vorticons steal four vital components and hide them in Martian cities. Keen journeys through Martian cities and outposts to find the components, despite the efforts of Martians and robots; the final component is guarded by a Vorticon. Keen returns to Earth—discovering a Vorticon mothership in orbit—and beats his parents home. In "The Earth Explodes" he travels through the mothership and disables its weapons, at the end discovering that the Vorticons are being mind-controlled by the mysterious Grand Intellect, who is actually behind the attack on Earth. In "Keen Must Die" he fights through the cities and outposts of the Vorticon home planet to reach the Grand Intellect, who is revealed to be his school rival Mortimer McMire, who he then defeats.
In "Keen Dreams", which is set outside of the main continuity, Keen falls asleep after dinner and wakes up in his pajamas in bed on top of a hill. After being told by potato soldiers that he is now the slave of King Boobus Toober, and being asked by another child to save them, he journeys through the vegetable-themed land to defeat the King, waking up in his bed at home afterwards. The main series of games continues in "Secret of the Oracle", where Keen builds a faster-than-light radio and overhears plans by a race of aliens known as the Shikadi to destroy the galaxy. He flies off to the Oracle on the planet of Gnosticus IV, only to discover that the Gnosticenes that run the Oracle have been kidnapped by the Shikadi. Keen fights through the outposts and temples of the Shadowlands, rescuing the Gnosticenes, and the Oracle then tells Keen that the Shikadi are "shadow beings from the far side of the galaxy" who are building an Armageddon Machine at Korath III to blow up the galaxy and rebuild it as they wish afterwards.
In "The Armageddon Machine", Keen infiltrates the titular space station to disable it, destroying the subsystems of the machine located in each level. When he finishes, he finds that the "Gannalech" that was leading the Shikadi was the Grand Intellect McMire, who had escaped Keen in "Vorticons" by leaving behind an android in his place. A note left behind for Keen tells him that McMire plans to instead destroy the Universe. "Aliens Ate My Babysitter" is set around the same time, though it is unclear whether it is actually after the events of "Goodbye, Galaxy"; in it, the alien Bloogs of Fribbulus Xax kidnap Keen's babysitter and plan to eat her. Keen finds his way to her, and she reveals that she is McMire's sister, and that McMire was behind her kidnapping as a way to distract Keen while he plotted to destroy the universe. While the planned trilogy that would cover that plot, "The Universe is Toast", was never developed, the Game Boy Color "Commander Keen" has a sub-space anomaly disrupting life on Earth as an effect of a plot by the Bloogs, Shikadi, and Droidicus, led by McMire, to destroy the universe. Keen fights his way through the three races' planets to find the plasma crystals powering the Omegamatic station, only for McMire to escape after taunting Keen a final time.
In September 1990, John Carmack, a game programmer for the "Gamer's Edge" video game subscription service and disk magazine at Softdisk in Shreveport, Louisiana, developed a way to create graphics which could smoothly scroll in any direction in a computer game. At the time, IBM-compatible general-purpose computers were not able to replicate the common feat of video game consoles such as the Nintendo Entertainment System, which were capable of redrawing the entire screen fast enough for a side-scrolling video game due to their specialized hardware. Carmack created adaptive tile refresh: a way to slide the majority of the visible screen to the side both horizontally and vertically when the player moved as if it had not changed, and only redraw the newly-visible portions of the screen. Other games had previously redrawn the whole screen in chunks, or like Carmack's earlier games were limited to scrolling in one direction. He discussed the idea with coworker Tom Hall, who encouraged him to demonstrate it by recreating the first level of the recent "Super Mario Bros. 3" on a computer. The pair did so in a single overnight session, with Hall recreating the graphics of the game—replacing the player character of Mario with Dangerous Dave, a character from an eponymous previous Gamer's Edge game—while Carmack optimized the code. The next morning on September 20, the resulting game, "Dangerous Dave in Copyright Infringement", was shown to their other coworker John Romero. Romero recognized Carmack's idea as a major accomplishment: Nintendo was one of the most successful companies in Japan, largely due to the success of their "Mario" franchise, and the ability to replicate the gameplay of the series on a computer could have large implications.
Romero felt that the potential of Carmack's idea should not be "wasted" on Softdisk; while the other members of the Gamer's Edge team more or less agreed, he especially felt that their talents in general were wasted on the company, which needed the money their games brought in but in his opinion neither understood nor appreciated video game design as distinct from general software programming. The manager of the team and fellow programmer, Jay Wilbur, recommended that they take the demo to Nintendo itself, to position themselves as capable of building a PC version of "Super Mario Bros." for the company. The group—composed of Carmack, Romero, Hall, and Wilbur, along with Lane Roathe, the editor for Gamer's Edge, decided to build a full demo game for their idea to send to Nintendo. As they lacked the computers to build the project at home, and could not work on it at Softdisk, they "borrowed" their work computers over the weekend, taking them in their cars to a house shared by Carmack, Wilbur, and Roathe, and made a copy of the first level of the game over the next 72 hours. They credited the game to Ideas from the Deep, a name Romero had previously used for some Softdisk projects. The response from Nintendo a few weeks later was not as hoped for, however; while Nintendo was impressed with their efforts, they wanted the "Mario" series to remain exclusive to Nintendo consoles.
Around the same time as the group was rejected by Nintendo, Romero was approached by Scott Miller of Apogee Software, who wanted him to publish more levels for his previous "Pyramids of Egypt—"an adventure game where the player navigates mazes while avoiding Egyptian-themed traps and monsters—through Apogee's shareware model. Miller was pioneering a model of game publishing where part of a game would be released for free, with the remainder of the game available for purchase from Apogee. Romero said he could not, as "Pyramids of Egypt" was owned by Softdisk, but that it did not matter as the game he was now working on was much better, and sent Miller the "Mario" demo. Miller was impressed, and the team agreed to create a new game for Apogee before Christmas of 1990—only a few months away—split into three parts to match Apogee's shareware model of giving away the first part for free to attract interest in the whole. Hall suggested a console-style platformer in the vein of "Super Mario Bros.", as they had the technology made for it; he further recommended a science fiction theme, and developed a short introduction that convinced the team to make "Commander Keen in Invasion of the Vorticons".
The Ideas from the Deep team could not afford to leave their jobs to work on the game full-time, so they continued to work at Softdisk, spending their time on the Gamer's Edge games during the day and on "Commander Keen" at night and weekends using Softdisk computers. The group split into different roles: Hall became the game designer and creative director, John Carmack and Romero were the programmers, and Wilbur the manager. They invited artist Adrian Carmack from Softdisk to join them late in development, while Roathe was soon removed from the group. Ideas from the Deep spent nearly every waking moment when they were not working at Softdisk from October through December 1990 working on "Commander Keen", with Wilbur forcing them to eat and take breaks.
The game's design was largely driven by Tom Hall: Romero and especially John Carmack were focused almost exclusively on the programming; Wilbur was not involved in the game's design; and Adrian Carmack joined late in development and found the project's "cute" art style, till then mostly created by Hall, far-removed from his preferred, darker, style. Hall's personal experiences and philosophies, therefore, strongly impacted the game: Keen's red shoes and Green Bay Packers football helmet were items Hall wore as a child, dead enemies left behind corpses due to his belief that child players should be taught that death had permanent consequences, and enemies were based loosely on his reading of Sigmund Freud's psychological theories, such as that of the id. Other influences on Hall for the game were "Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century" and other Chuck Jones cartoons, and "The Available Data on the Worp Reaction", a short story about a child constructing a spaceship. Keen's "Bean-with-Bacon" spaceship was taken from a George Carlin skit about using bay leaves as deodorant so as to smell like soup. Keen was intended to be a reflection of Hall as he had wanted to be as a child. The team separated the game from its "Super Mario Bros." roots by adding non-linear exploration and additional mechanics like the pogo stick. A suggestion from Miller that part of the popularity of "Super Mario Bros" was the presence of secrets and hidden areas in the game led Hall to add several secrets, such as an entire hidden level in the first episode, and the "Galactic Alphabet". The level maps were designed using a custom-made program called Tile Editor (TEd), which was first created for "Dangerous Dave" and was used for the entire "Keen" series as well as several other games.
As the game neared completion, Miller began to market the game to players. Strongly encouraged by the updates the team was sending him, he began heavily advertising the game in all of the bulletin board systems (BBS) and game magazines he had access to. The game was completed in early December 1990, and on the afternoon of December 14 Miller began uploading the completed first episode to BBSs, with the other two episodes listed as available for purchase as a mailed plastic bag with floppy disks for US$30. After the arrival of the first royalty check from Apogee, the team planned to quit Softdisk and start their own company. When their boss and owner of Softdisk Al Vekovius confronted them on their plans, as well as their use of company resources to develop the game, the team made no secret of their intentions. Vekovius initially proposed a joint venture between the team and Softdisk, which fell apart when the other employees of the firm threatened to quit in response, and after a few weeks of negotiation the team agreed to produce a series of games for Gamer's Edge, one every two months.
Ideas from the Deep, now founded as id Software, used some of these games to prototype ideas for their own games, including in late spring of 1991 "Keen Dreams", which they used to develop new systems for their next set of major episodes of the series. They did not initially want to do a "Keen" game for Softdisk, but eventually decided that doing so would let them fulfill their obligations while also helping to improve the next full set of games for Apogee. The team reprised their roles from the first game, and prototyped an increase in graphical quality with parallax scrolling to make the background move at a different speed than the foreground, a pseudo-3D view rather than a side-on view, ramps rather than solely flat surfaces, support for sound cards, and changes to the design based on player feedback. The game's plot, as a result, was designed to be a standalone game outside of the continuity of the main series, and not a true sequel. Once the parallax scrolling and design changes were completed, "Keen Dreams" was completed in less than a month even as the team simultaneously worked on another game.
Beginning development in the June 1991, the team again reprised their roles for "Goodbye, Galaxy". Hall had received feedback from parents who did not like that the enemies in "Vorticons" left behind corpses instead of disappearing like in other games; he did not want the violence to have no effects, and so in "Dreams" had replaced the raygun with pellets that temporarily stunned enemies. He was not satisfied with this change, and while considering ways to remove Keen's parents during the introduction for "Goodbye, Galaxy", came up with a stun gun which would leave behind permanently stunned enemies. Additionally, music, which was missing in prior "Keen" games, was added to "Goodbye, Galaxy", composed by Bobby Prince. The game, episodes four though six, was intended to be published as a set named "Goodbye, Galaxy" in the same manner as the first one: released through Apogee, with episode four released for free in order to spur interest in purchasing the other two episodes. By August they had completed a beta version of episode four, "Secret of the Oracle", and Romero sent it off to a fan he had met from Canada, Mark Rein, who had offered to play-test the game. Romero was impressed with the list of bugs that Rein sent back, as well as with his business sense, and proposed bringing him in to the company as a probationary president for six months in order to help expand their business. Within a few weeks of being hired, Rein made a deal to get id into the commercial market: to take the sixth episode and make it a stand-alone game, published as a retail title through FormGen instead of part of a shareware trilogy. Id signed the deal, but Scott Miller of Apogee was dismayed; he felt that not having a full trilogy for the shareware game would hurt sales.
Also in August 1991, the team moved from Shreveport to Hall's hometown of Madison, Wisconsin, leaving behind Wilbur, who was unwilling to leave a stable job at Softdisk to fully join in with the startup, but picking up programmer Jason Blochowiak, who was working at the time at Softdisk. There, they worked on "Goodbye, Galaxy", their remaining Softdisk games, and the now standalone "Commander Keen in Aliens Ate My Babysitter" between August and December. Despite being listed numerically as the sixth episode, due to it having a different publisher and schedule "Aliens Ate My Babysitter" was developed after "Secret of the Oracle" but before "The Armageddon Machine"; the fifth episode, however, was created within one month. Another trilogy of episodes, titled "The Universe Is Toast", was planned for December 1992; id worked on it for a couple of weeks, before shifting focus to "Wolfenstein 3D" (1992). Hall proposed reviving the project after "Wolfenstein" was completed, but the team moved on to "Doom" (1993) instead. Id did not return to the series afterwards, instead continuing to focus on 3D first-person shooters.
In October 1999 during an online question and answer session, John Carmack, while discussing that the original founders of id Software were unlikely to ever work together on a game again, mentioned that he was considering the idea of making a "Commander Keen" game for the Game Boy Color handheld game console. Activision formally announced at the start of May 2001 that a new "Commander Keen" game had been developed by David A. Palmer Productions, and would be released at the end of the month. An interview the following week with founder David A. Palmer explained that the original idea for the game came from id, who approached Activision to produce it; Activision in turn recommended Palmer as the developer for the project as they had been attempting to get an agreement with id and Activision for several years for his studio to make a Game Boy Color version of several of their games. While Palmer was the developer for the game, id collaborated with the studio, with id having approval over game design elements and artist Adrian Carmack making some tile artwork for the game.
"Commander Keen in Invasion of the Vorticons" was an immediate hit for Apogee: the company's previous sales levels had been around US$7,000 per month, but by Christmas "Keen" already had sales of almost US$30,000. Miller described the game as "a little atom bomb" to magazine editors and BBS controllers when asked about it, and recruited his mother and hired his first employee to handle sales and phone calls from interested players. By June 1991, the game was bringing in over US$60,000 per month. Chris Parker of "PC Magazine" later in 1991 referred to the game's release as a "tremendous success". A contemporary review by Barry Simon of "PC Magazine" praised the game's graphical capabilities as having a "Nintendo feel", though he termed the graphics as "well drawn" but "not spectacular" in terms of resolution. He noted that the game was very much an arcade game that players would not purchase for "its scintillating plot or ground-breaking originality", but said that all three episodes were very fun to play and that the scrolling graphics set it apart from similar games. A short summary of the trilogy in 1992 by "PC World" termed it "one of the most spectacular games available" and praised the "superb" sound and graphics, and a similar summary in "CQ Amateur Radio" described it as "Nintendo comes to the PC" and the "best action/adventure game" the reviewer had ever seen.
After its release in December 1991, "Goodbye, Galaxy" met with sales "about a third" of the original trilogy. Scott Miller of Apogee blamed the falling sales on the lack of a third episode, which he felt undercut the shareware model of the game. Tom Hall has also claimed that the split hurt the sales of the shareware episodes, though he has said that "they still did decently, though". "PC Zone", in its first issue in 1993, quoted shareware distributors as saying "Goodbye, Galaxy" was one of the top shareware sellers of 1992, behind "Wolfenstein 3D". IGN has also referred to the pair of episodes as "Apogee's hottest sellers". Hall has claimed "The Armageddon Machine" as the best "Commander Keen" episode and his favorite. "Aliens Ate My Babysitter" also did not sell as well as hoped for by id, which the team partially blamed on what they felt was terrible box art done by a company that had previously designed packaging for Lipton tea. Despite this, the sales were strong enough that id agreed to use FormGen as a retail publisher for at least two more games. "PC Zone" also stated that the sales of "Aliens" through shareware distributors was one of the highest in the shareware market in 1993.
The 2001 "Commander Keen" received mixed reviews from critics. The graphics were both praised and criticized; reviewers praised the art style and the "bright and colorful" graphics, but disparaged the "busy" backgrounds and lackluster animations as making the game feel "choppy", and complained that the graphical updates did not reflect the ten years since the last releases. The gameplay similarly received mixed opinions; reviewers were split between praising the difficult, "old school" gameplay as a successful adaptation of the originals and dismissing the "aging" gameplay as sound but not comparing well to more recent games. Reviewers concluded that the game was an "acquired taste" best suited for fans of the original series or younger players.
In October 1992, the Shareware Industry Awards gave the "Commander Keen" series the "Best Entertainment Software and Best Overall" award. A review of the entire "Commander Keen" series in 1993 by Sandy Petersen in the first "Eye of the Monitor" column for "Dragon" described the series as action games with "hilarious graphics". Acknowledging its debt to "Super Mario Bros.", he called it, especially "Goodbye, Galaxy", "one of the best games of its type" and praised it for not being "mindlessly hard", instead requiring some thought to play through, and especially for the humor in the graphics and gameplay. According to Steam Spy, as of June 2016 there are approximately 200,000 owners of the 2007 "Commander Keen Complete Pack" on Steam, and approximately 80,000 owners of the "Keen Dreams" release.
Ideas from the Deep's first royalty check from Apogee in January 1991 convinced them that they no longer needed their day jobs at Softdisk but could devote themselves full-time to their own ideas, leading to the founding of id Software in February. In the summer of 1991, id hosted a seminar for game developers with the intention of licensing the "Commander Keen" engine; they did so, forming the spiritual predecessor to both QuakeCon and id's standard of licensing their game engines.
One of the enemies created for "Secret of the Oracle", the Dopefish, has since the game's release become one of the video game industry's biggest in-jokes, making cameo appearances in other games. The Dopefish, which Hall describes as "just a stupid green fish", is described in "Secret of the Oracle" as "the second-dumbest creature in the universe". It has appeared in dozens of other games since its initial appearance, as references, images, or the phrase "Dopefish Lives".
The Standard Galactic Alphabet, a writing system used to depict alien languages in the galaxy throughout the series, is used for textual signs and directions and was created by Tom Hall beginning with "Invasion of the Vorticons" as a way to pass hidden messages to players. The Standard Galactic Alphabet also appears in the game "Minecraft" as the script for the magic enchantment system. In January 2018, John Romero and Tom Hall stated on Twitter that Billy Blaze is the grandson of "Wolfenstein" protagonist William "B.J." Blazkowicz and the father of Doomguy from "Doom".
Commander Keen himself has appeared or has been referenced in many other video games over the years, including "", "Duke Nukem", "Bio Menace and more recently in Doom (2016)".
A number of fan-made "Commander Keen" games have been created since the publication of the original titles, with a fan website, the Public Commander Keen Forum, devoted to their creation, announcement, and discussion. Since the release of utilities to modify the levels and graphics in the original "Keen" series in 2002, more than fifty mods have been made, most of which feature Commander Keen as the protagonist. These mods include "Commander Genius", an engine, released for multiple platforms, which interprets the episodes as a "retro-evolved" game, with re-polished graphics, a multiplayer compatibility, and a level editor, ports and remakes on different platforms, and "The Universe Is Toast!" mod, an unofficial sequel trilogy of games.
In January 2013, Tom Hall began development of "Worlds of Wander", a tool for creating platform games, and the following month began a Kickstarter campaign for the tool and associated game, "Secret Spaceship Club", which he described as a spiritual successor to "Commander Keen". The project was unsuccessful in reaching its goal, though Hall said that he planned to continue working on it in his spare time. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37529 |
Tornado
A tornado is a rapidly rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. The windstorm is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology to name a weather system with a low-pressure area in the center around which, from an observer looking down toward the surface of the earth, winds blow counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern. Tornadoes come in many shapes and sizes, and they are often visible in the form of a condensation funnel originating from the base of a cumulonimbus cloud, with a cloud of rotating debris and dust beneath it. Most tornadoes have wind speeds less than , are about across, and travel a few miles (several kilometers) before dissipating. The most extreme tornadoes can attain wind speeds of more than , are more than in diameter, and stay on the ground for dozens of miles (more than 100 km).
Various types of tornadoes include the multiple vortex tornado, landspout, and waterspout. Waterspouts are characterized by a spiraling funnel-shaped wind current, connecting to a large cumulus or cumulonimbus cloud. They are generally classified as non-supercellular tornadoes that develop over bodies of water, but there is disagreement over whether to classify them as true tornadoes. These spiraling columns of air frequently develop in tropical areas close to the equator and are less common at high latitudes. Other tornado-like phenomena that exist in nature include the gustnado, dust devil, fire whirl, and steam devil.
Tornadoes occur most frequently in North America (particularly in central and southeastern regions of the United States colloquially known as tornado alley), Southern Africa, northwestern and southeast Europe, western and southeastern Australia, New Zealand, Bangladesh and adjacent eastern India, and southeastern South America. Tornadoes can be detected before or as they occur through the use of Pulse-Doppler radar by recognizing patterns in velocity and reflectivity data, such as hook echoes or debris balls, as well as through the efforts of storm spotters.
There are several scales for rating the strength of tornadoes. The Fujita scale rates tornadoes by damage caused and has been replaced in some countries by the updated Enhanced Fujita Scale. An F0 or EF0 tornado, the weakest category, damages trees, but not substantial structures. An F5 or EF5 tornado, the strongest category, rips buildings off their foundations and can deform large skyscrapers. The similar TORRO scale ranges from T0 for extremely weak tornadoes to T11 for the most powerful known tornadoes. Doppler radar data, photogrammetry, and ground swirl patterns (trochoidal marks) may also be analyzed to determine intensity and assign a rating.
The word "tornado" comes from the Spanish word tornado (past participle of to turn, or to have torn). Tornadoes' opposite phenomena are the widespread, straight-line derechoes (, from , "straight"). A tornado is also commonly referred to as a "twister" or the old-fashioned colloquial term "cyclone". The term "cyclone" is used as a synonym for "tornado" in the often-aired 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz". The term "twister" is also used in that film, along with being the title of the 1996 tornado-related film "Twister". In the film, Preacher, one of Jo's crew members, calls the strongest kind of tornado, the F5/EF5, the "Finger of God", due to the F5/EF5 having the power to kill people, like God casting His final judgement on them on whether they live or die from the tornado.
A tornado is "a violently rotating column of air, in contact with the ground, either pendant from a cumuliform cloud or underneath a cumuliform cloud, and often (but not always) visible as a funnel cloud". For a vortex to be classified as a tornado, it must be in contact with both the ground and the cloud base. The term is not precisely defined; for example, there is disagreement as to whether separate touchdowns of the same funnel constitute separate tornadoes. "Tornado" refers to the vortex of wind, not the condensation cloud.
A tornado is not necessarily visible; however, the intense low pressure caused by the high wind speeds (as described by Bernoulli's principle) and rapid rotation (due to cyclostrophic balance) usually cause water vapor in the air to condense into cloud droplets due to adiabatic cooling. This results in the formation of a visible funnel cloud or condensation funnel.
There is some disagreement over the definition of a funnel cloud and a condensation funnel. According to the "Glossary of Meteorology", a funnel cloud is any rotating cloud pendant from a cumulus or cumulonimbus, and thus most tornadoes are included under this definition. Among many meteorologists, the 'funnel cloud' term is strictly defined as a rotating cloud which is not associated with strong winds at the surface, and condensation funnel is a broad term for any rotating cloud below a cumuliform cloud.
Tornadoes often begin as funnel clouds with no associated strong winds at the surface, and not all funnel clouds evolve into tornadoes. Most tornadoes produce strong winds at the surface while the visible funnel is still above the ground, so it is difficult to discern the difference between a funnel cloud and a tornado from a distance.
Occasionally, a single storm will produce more than one tornado, either simultaneously or in succession. Multiple tornadoes produced by the same storm cell are referred to as a "tornado family". Several tornadoes are sometimes spawned from the same large-scale storm system. If there is no break in activity, this is considered a tornado outbreak (although the term "tornado outbreak" has various definitions). A period of several successive days with tornado outbreaks in the same general area (spawned by multiple weather systems) is a tornado outbreak sequence, occasionally called an extended tornado outbreak.
Most tornadoes take on the appearance of a narrow funnel, a few hundred yards (meters) across, with a small cloud of debris near the ground. Tornadoes may be obscured completely by rain or dust. These tornadoes are especially dangerous, as even experienced meteorologists might not see them. Tornadoes can appear in many shapes and sizes.
Small, relatively weak landspouts may be visible only as a small swirl of dust on the ground. Although the condensation funnel may not extend all the way to the ground, if associated surface winds are greater than , the circulation is considered a tornado. A tornado with a nearly cylindrical profile and relative low height is sometimes referred to as a "stovepipe" tornado. Large tornadoes which appear at least as wide as their cloud-to-ground height can look like large wedges stuck into the ground, and so are known as "wedge tornadoes" or "wedges". The "stovepipe" classification is also used for this type of tornado if it otherwise fits that profile. A wedge can be so wide that it appears to be a block of dark clouds, wider than the distance from the cloud base to the ground. Even experienced storm observers may not be able to tell the difference between a low-hanging cloud and a wedge tornado from a distance. Many, but not all major tornadoes are wedges.
Tornadoes in the dissipating stage can resemble narrow tubes or ropes, and often curl or twist into complex shapes. These tornadoes are said to be "roping out", or becoming a "rope tornado". When they rope out, the length of their funnel increases, which forces the winds within the funnel to weaken due to conservation of angular momentum. Multiple-vortex tornadoes can appear as a family of swirls circling a common center, or they may be completely obscured by condensation, dust, and debris, appearing to be a single funnel.
In the United States, tornadoes are around across on average and travel on the ground for . However, there is a wide range of tornado sizes. Weak tornadoes, or strong yet dissipating tornadoes, can be exceedingly narrow, sometimes only a few feet or couple meters across. One tornado was reported to have a damage path only long. On the other end of the spectrum, wedge tornadoes can have a damage path a mile (1.6 km) wide or more. A tornado that affected Hallam, Nebraska on May 22, 2004, was up to wide at the ground, and a tornado in El Reno, Oklahoma on May 31, 2013 was approximately wide, the widest on record.
In terms of path length, the Tri-State Tornado, which affected parts of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana on March 18, 1925, was on the ground continuously for . Many tornadoes which appear to have path lengths of or longer are composed of a family of tornadoes which have formed in quick succession; however, there is no substantial evidence that this occurred in the case of the Tri-State Tornado. In fact, modern reanalysis of the path suggests that the tornado may have begun further west than previously thought.
Tornadoes can have a wide range of colors, depending on the environment in which they form. Those that form in dry environments can be nearly invisible, marked only by swirling debris at the base of the funnel. Condensation funnels that pick up little or no debris can be gray to white. While traveling over a body of water (as a waterspout), tornadoes can turn white or even blue. Slow-moving funnels, which ingest a considerable amount of debris and dirt, are usually darker, taking on the color of debris. Tornadoes in the Great Plains can turn red because of the reddish tint of the soil, and tornadoes in mountainous areas can travel over snow-covered ground, turning white.
Lighting conditions are a major factor in the appearance of a tornado. A tornado which is "back-lit" (viewed with the sun behind it) appears very dark. The same tornado, viewed with the sun at the observer's back, may appear gray or brilliant white. Tornadoes which occur near the time of sunset can be many different colors, appearing in hues of yellow, orange, and pink.
Dust kicked up by the winds of the parent thunderstorm, heavy rain and hail, and the darkness of night are all factors that can reduce the visibility of tornadoes. Tornadoes occurring in these conditions are especially dangerous, since only weather radar observations, or possibly the sound of an approaching tornado, serve as any warning to those in the storm's path. Most significant tornadoes form under the storm's "updraft base", which is rain-free, making them visible. Also, most tornadoes occur in the late afternoon, when the bright sun can penetrate even the thickest clouds. Night-time tornadoes are often illuminated by frequent lightning.
There is mounting evidence, including Doppler on Wheels mobile radar images and eyewitness accounts, that most tornadoes have a clear, calm center with extremely low pressure, akin to the eye of tropical cyclones. Lightning is said to be the source of illumination for those who claim to have seen the interior of a tornado.
Tornadoes normally rotate cyclonically (when viewed from above, this is counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern). While large-scale storms always rotate cyclonically due to the Coriolis effect, thunderstorms and tornadoes are so small that the direct influence of the Coriolis effect is unimportant, as indicated by their large Rossby numbers. Supercells and tornadoes rotate cyclonically in numerical simulations even when the Coriolis effect is neglected. Low-level mesocyclones and tornadoes owe their rotation to complex processes within the supercell and ambient environment.
Approximately 1 percent of tornadoes rotate in an anticyclonic direction in the northern hemisphere. Typically, systems as weak as landspouts and gustnadoes can rotate anticyclonically, and usually only those which form on the anticyclonic shear side of the descending rear flank downdraft (RFD) in a cyclonic supercell. On rare occasions, anticyclonic tornadoes form in association with the mesoanticyclone of an anticyclonic supercell, in the same manner as the typical cyclonic tornado, or as a companion tornado either as a satellite tornado or associated with anticyclonic eddies within a supercell.
Tornadoes emit widely on the acoustics spectrum and the sounds are caused by multiple mechanisms. Various sounds of tornadoes have been reported, mostly related to familiar sounds for the witness and generally some variation of a whooshing roar. Popularly reported sounds include a freight train, rushing rapids or waterfall, a nearby jet engine, or combinations of these. Many tornadoes are not audible from much distance; the nature of and the propagation distance of the audible sound depends on atmospheric conditions and topography.
The winds of the tornado vortex and of constituent turbulent eddies, as well as airflow interaction with the surface and debris, contribute to the sounds. Funnel clouds also produce sounds. Funnel clouds and small tornadoes are reported as whistling, whining, humming, or the buzzing of innumerable bees or electricity, or more or less harmonic, whereas many tornadoes are reported as a continuous, deep rumbling, or an irregular sound of "noise".
Since many tornadoes are audible only when very near, sound is not to be thought of as a reliable warning signal for a tornado. Tornadoes are also not the only source of such sounds in severe thunderstorms; any strong, damaging wind, a severe hail volley, or continuous thunder in a thunderstorm may produce a roaring sound.
Tornadoes also produce identifiable inaudible infrasonic signatures.
Unlike audible signatures, tornadic signatures have been isolated; due to the long distance propagation of low-frequency sound, efforts are ongoing to develop tornado prediction and detection devices with additional value in understanding tornado morphology, dynamics, and creation. Tornadoes also produce a detectable seismic signature, and research continues on isolating it and understanding the process.
Tornadoes emit on the electromagnetic spectrum, with sferics and E-field effects detected. There are observed correlations between tornadoes and patterns of lightning. Tornadic storms do not contain more lightning than other storms and some tornadic cells never produce lightning at all. More often than not, overall cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning activity decreases as a tornado touches the surface and returns to the baseline level when the tornado dissipates. In many cases, intense tornadoes and thunderstorms exhibit an increased and anomalous dominance of positive polarity CG discharges. Electromagnetics and lightning have little or nothing to do directly with what drives tornadoes (tornadoes are basically a thermodynamic phenomenon), although there are likely connections with the storm and environment affecting both phenomena.
Luminosity has been reported in the past and is probably due to misidentification of external light sources such as lightning, city lights, and power flashes from broken lines, as internal sources are now uncommonly reported and are not known to ever have been recorded. In addition to winds, tornadoes also exhibit changes in atmospheric variables such as temperature, moisture, and pressure. For example, on June 24, 2003 near Manchester, South Dakota, a probe measured a 100 mbar (hPa) (2.95 inHg) pressure decrease. The pressure dropped gradually as the vortex approached then dropped extremely rapidly to 850 mbar (hPa) (25.10 inHg) in the core of the violent tornado before rising rapidly as the vortex moved away, resulting in a V-shape pressure trace. Temperature tends to decrease and moisture content to increase in the immediate vicinity of a tornado.
Tornadoes often develop from a class of thunderstorms known as supercells. Supercells contain mesocyclones, an area of organized rotation a few miles up in the atmosphere, usually across. Most intense tornadoes (EF3 to EF5 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale) develop from supercells. In addition to tornadoes, very heavy rain, frequent lightning, strong wind gusts, and hail are common in such storms.
Most tornadoes from supercells follow a recognizable life cycle. That begins when increasing rainfall drags with it an area of quickly descending air known as the rear flank downdraft (RFD). This downdraft accelerates as it approaches the ground, and drags the supercell's rotating mesocyclone towards the ground with it.
As the mesocyclone lowers below the cloud base, it begins to take in cool, moist air from the downdraft region of the storm. The convergence of warm air in the updraft and cool air causes a rotating wall cloud to form. The RFD also focuses the mesocyclone's base, causing it to draw air from a smaller and smaller area on the ground. As the updraft intensifies, it creates an area of low pressure at the surface. This pulls the focused mesocyclone down, in the form of a visible condensation funnel. As the funnel descends, the RFD also reaches the ground, fanning outward and creating a gust front that can cause severe damage a considerable distance from the tornado. Usually, the funnel cloud begins causing damage on the ground (becoming a tornado) within a few minutes of the RFD reaching the ground.
Initially, the tornado has a good source of warm, moist air flowing inward to power it, and it grows until it reaches the "mature stage". This can last from a few minutes to more than an hour, and during that time a tornado often causes the most damage, and in rare cases can be more than one mile (1.6 km) across. The low pressured atmosphere at the base of the tornado is essential to the endurance of the system. Meanwhile, the RFD, now an area of cool surface winds, begins to wrap around the tornado, cutting off the inflow of warm air which previously fed the tornado.
As the RFD completely wraps around and chokes off the tornado's air supply, the vortex begins to weaken, and become thin and rope-like. This is the "dissipating stage", often lasting no more than a few minutes, after which the tornado ends. During this stage the shape of the tornado becomes highly influenced by the winds of the parent storm, and can be blown into fantastic patterns. Even though the tornado is dissipating, it is still capable of causing damage. The storm is contracting into a rope-like tube and, due to conservation of angular momentum, winds can increase at this point.
As the tornado enters the dissipating stage, its associated mesocyclone often weakens as well, as the rear flank downdraft cuts off the inflow powering it. Sometimes, in intense supercells, tornadoes can develop cyclically. As the first mesocyclone and associated tornado dissipate, the storm's inflow may be concentrated into a new area closer to the center of the storm and possibly feed a new mesocyclone. If a new mesocyclone develops, the cycle may start again, producing one or more new tornadoes. Occasionally, the old (occluded) mesocyclone and the new mesocyclone produce a tornado at the same time.
Although this is a widely accepted theory for how most tornadoes form, live, and die, it does not explain the formation of smaller tornadoes, such as landspouts, long-lived tornadoes, or tornadoes with multiple vortices. These each have different mechanisms which influence their development—however, most tornadoes follow a pattern similar to this one.
A "multiple-vortex tornado" is a type of tornado in which two or more columns of spinning air rotate about their own axis and at the same time revolve around a common center. A multi-vortex structure can occur in almost any circulation, but is very often observed in intense tornadoes. These vortices often create small areas of heavier damage along the main tornado path. This is a phenomenon that is distinct from a satellite tornado, which is a smaller tornado which forms very near a large, strong tornado contained within the same mesocyclone. The satellite tornado may appear to "orbit" the larger tornado (hence the name), giving the appearance of one, large multi-vortex tornado. However, a satellite tornado is a distinct circulation, and is much smaller than the main funnel.
A "waterspout" is defined by the National Weather Service as a tornado over water. However, researchers typically distinguish "fair weather" waterspouts from tornadic (i.e. associated with a mesocyclone) waterspouts. Fair weather waterspouts are less severe but far more common, and are similar to dust devils and landspouts. They form at the bases of cumulus congestus clouds over tropical and subtropical waters. They have relatively weak winds, smooth laminar walls, and typically travel very slowly. They occur most commonly in the Florida Keys and in the northern Adriatic Sea. In contrast, tornadic waterspouts are stronger tornadoes over water. They form over water similarly to mesocyclonic tornadoes, or are stronger tornadoes which cross over water. Since they form from severe thunderstorms and can be far more intense, faster, and longer-lived than fair weather waterspouts, they are more dangerous. In official tornado statistics, waterspouts are generally not counted unless they affect land, though some European weather agencies count waterspouts and tornadoes together.
A "landspout", or "dust-tube tornado", is a tornado not associated with a mesocyclone. The name stems from their characterization as a "fair weather waterspout on land". Waterspouts and landspouts share many defining characteristics, including relative weakness, short lifespan, and a small, smooth condensation funnel which often does not reach the surface. Landspouts also create a distinctively laminar cloud of dust when they make contact with the ground, due to their differing mechanics from true mesoform tornadoes. Though usually weaker than classic tornadoes, they can produce strong winds which could cause serious damage.
A "gustnado", or "gust front tornado", is a small, vertical swirl associated with a gust front or downburst. Because they are not connected with a cloud base, there is some debate as to whether or not gustnadoes are tornadoes. They are formed when fast moving cold, dry outflow air from a thunderstorm is blown through a mass of stationary, warm, moist air near the outflow boundary, resulting in a "rolling" effect (often exemplified through a roll cloud). If low level wind shear is strong enough, the rotation can be turned vertically or diagonally and make contact with the ground. The result is a gustnado. They usually cause small areas of heavier rotational wind damage among areas of straight-line wind damage.
A "dust devil" (also known as a whirlwind) resembles a tornado in that it is a vertical swirling column of air. However, they form under clear skies and are no stronger than the weakest tornadoes. They form when a strong convective updraft is formed near the ground on a hot day. If there is enough low level wind shear, the column of hot, rising air can develop a small cyclonic motion that can be seen near the ground. They are not considered tornadoes because they form during fair weather and are not associated with any clouds. However, they can, on occasion, result in major damage.
Small-scale, tornado-like circulations can occur near any intense surface heat source. Those that occur near intense wildfires are called "fire whirls". They are not considered tornadoes, except in the rare case where they connect to a pyrocumulus or other cumuliform cloud above. Fire whirls usually are not as strong as tornadoes associated with thunderstorms. They can, however, produce significant damage.
A "steam devil" is a rotating updraft between 50 and 200 meters wide that involves steam or smoke. These formations do not involve high wind speeds, only completing a few rotations per minute. Steam devils are very rare. They most often form from smoke issuing from a power plant's smokestack. Hot springs and deserts may also be suitable locations for a tighter, faster-rotating steam devil to form. The phenomenon can occur over water, when cold arctic air passes over relatively warm water.
The Fujita scale and the Enhanced Fujita Scale rate tornadoes by damage caused. The Enhanced Fujita (EF) Scale was an update to the older Fujita scale, by expert elicitation, using engineered wind estimates and better damage descriptions. The EF Scale was designed so that a tornado rated on the Fujita scale would receive the same numerical rating, and was implemented starting in the United States in 2007. An EF0 tornado will probably damage trees but not substantial structures, whereas an EF5 tornado can rip buildings off their foundations leaving them bare and even deform large skyscrapers. The similar TORRO scale ranges from a T0 for extremely weak tornadoes to T11 for the most powerful known tornadoes. Doppler weather radar data, photogrammetry, and ground swirl patterns (cycloidal marks) may also be analyzed to determine intensity and award a rating.
Tornadoes vary in intensity regardless of shape, size, and location, though strong tornadoes are typically larger than weak tornadoes. The association with track length and duration also varies, although longer track tornadoes tend to be stronger. In the case of violent tornadoes, only a small portion of the path is of violent intensity, most of the higher intensity from subvortices.
In the United States, 80% of tornadoes are EF0 and EF1 (T0 through T3) tornadoes. The rate of occurrence drops off quickly with increasing strength—less than 1% are violent tornadoes (EF4, T8 or stronger). Outside Tornado Alley, and North America in general, violent tornadoes are extremely rare. This is apparently mostly due to the lesser number of tornadoes overall, as research shows that tornado intensity distributions are fairly similar worldwide. A few significant tornadoes occur annually in Europe, Asia, southern Africa, and southeastern South America.
The United States has the most tornadoes of any country, nearly four times more than estimated in all of Europe, excluding waterspouts. This is mostly due to the unique geography of the continent. North America is a large continent that extends from the tropics north into arctic areas, and has no major east-west mountain range to block air flow between these two areas. In the middle latitudes, where most tornadoes of the world occur, the Rocky Mountains block moisture and buckle the atmospheric flow, forcing drier air at mid-levels of the troposphere due to downsloped winds, and causing the formation of a low pressure area downwind to the east of the mountains. Increased westerly flow off the Rockies force the formation of a dry line when the flow aloft is strong, while the Gulf of Mexico fuels abundant low-level moisture in the southerly flow to its east. This unique topography allows for frequent collisions of warm and cold air, the conditions that breed strong, long-lived storms throughout the year. A large portion of these tornadoes form in an area of the central United States known as Tornado Alley. This area extends into Canada, particularly Ontario and the Prairie Provinces, although southeast Quebec, the interior of British Columbia, and western New Brunswick are also tornado-prone. Tornadoes also occur across northeastern Mexico.
The United States averages about 1,200 tornadoes per year, followed by Canada, averaging 62 reported per year. NOAA's has a higher average 100 per year in Canada. The Netherlands has the highest average number of recorded tornadoes per area of any country (more than 20, or 0.0013 per sq mi (0.00048 per km2), annually), followed by the UK (around 33, or 0.00035 per sq mi (0.00013 per km2), per year), although those are of lower intensity, briefer and cause minor damage.
Tornadoes kill an average of 179 people per year in Bangladesh, the most in the world. Reasons for this include the region's high population density, poor construction quality, and lack of tornado safety knowledge. Other areas of the world that have frequent tornadoes include South Africa, the La Plata Basin area, portions of Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and far eastern Asia.
Tornadoes are most common in spring and least common in winter, but tornadoes can occur any time of year that favorable conditions occur. Spring and fall experience peaks of activity as those are the seasons when stronger winds, wind shear, and atmospheric instability are present. Tornadoes are focused in the right front quadrant of landfalling tropical cyclones, which tend to occur in the late summer and autumn. Tornadoes can also be spawned as a result of eyewall mesovortices, which persist until landfall.
Tornado occurrence is highly dependent on the time of day, because of solar heating. Worldwide, most tornadoes occur in the late afternoon, between 3 pm and 7 pm local time, with a peak near 5 pm. Destructive tornadoes can occur at any time of day. The Gainesville Tornado of 1936, one of the deadliest tornadoes in history, occurred at 8:30 am local time.
The United Kingdom has the highest incidence of tornadoes per unit area of land in the world. Unsettled conditions and weather fronts transverse the British Isles at all times of the years, and are responsible for spawning the tornadoes, which consequently form at all times of the year. The United Kingdom has at least 34 tornadoes per year and possibly as many as 50. Most tornadoes in the United Kingdom are weak, but they are occasionally destructive. For example, the Birmingham tornado of 2005 and the London tornado of 2006 both registered F2 on the Fujita scale and both caused significant damage and injury.
Associations with various climate and environmental trends exist. For example, an increase in the sea surface temperature of a source region (e.g. Gulf of Mexico and Mediterranean Sea) increases atmospheric moisture content. Increased moisture can fuel an increase in severe weather and tornado activity, particularly in the cool season.
Some evidence does suggest that the Southern Oscillation is weakly correlated with changes in tornado activity, which vary by season and region, as well as whether the ENSO phase is that of El Niño or La Niña. Research has found that fewer tornadoes and hailstorms occur in winter and spring in the U.S. central and southern plains during El Niño, and more occur during La Niña, than in years when temperatures in the Pacific are relatively stable. Ocean conditions could be used to forecast extreme spring storm events several months in advance.
Climatic shifts may affect tornadoes via teleconnections in shifting the jet stream and the larger weather patterns. The climate-tornado link is confounded by the forces affecting larger patterns and by the local, nuanced nature of tornadoes. Although it is reasonable to suspect that global warming may affect trends in tornado activity, any such effect is not yet identifiable due to the complexity, local nature of the storms, and database quality issues. Any effect would vary by region.
Rigorous attempts to warn of tornadoes began in the United States in the mid-20th century. Before the 1950s, the only method of detecting a tornado was by someone seeing it on the ground. Often, news of a tornado would reach a local weather office after the storm. However, with the advent of weather radar, areas near a local office could get advance warning of severe weather. The first public tornado warnings were issued in 1950 and the first tornado watches and convective outlooks came about in 1952. In 1953, it was confirmed that hook echoes were associated with tornadoes. By recognizing these radar signatures, meteorologists could detect thunderstorms probably producing tornadoes from several miles away.
Today most developed countries have a network of weather radars, which serves as the primary method of detecting hook signatures that are likely associated with tornadoes. In the United States and a few other countries, Doppler weather radar stations are used. These devices measure the velocity and radial direction (towards or away from the radar) of the winds within a storm, and so can spot evidence of rotation in storms from over away. When storms are distant from a radar, only areas high within the storm are observed and the important areas below are not sampled. Data resolution also decreases with distance from the radar. Some meteorological situations leading to tornadogenesis are not readily detectable by radar and tornado development may occasionally take place more quickly than radar can complete a scan and send the batch of data. Doppler radar systems can detect mesocyclones within a supercell thunderstorm. This allows meteorologists to predict tornado formations throughout thunderstorms.
In the mid-1970s, the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) increased its efforts to train storm spotters so they could spot key features of storms that indicate severe hail, damaging winds, and tornadoes, as well as storm damage and flash flooding. The program was called Skywarn, and the spotters were local sheriff's deputies, state troopers, firefighters, ambulance drivers, amateur radio operators, civil defense (now emergency management) spotters, storm chasers, and ordinary citizens. When severe weather is anticipated, local weather service offices request these spotters to look out for severe weather and report any tornadoes immediately, so that the office can warn of the hazard.
Spotters usually are trained by the NWS on behalf of their respective organizations, and report to them. The organizations activate public warning systems such as sirens and the Emergency Alert System (EAS), and they forward the report to the NWS.
There are more than 230,000 trained Skywarn weather spotters across the United States.
In Canada, a similar network of volunteer weather watchers, called Canwarn, helps spot severe weather, with more than 1,000 volunteers. In Europe, several nations are organizing spotter networks under the auspices of Skywarn Europe and the Tornado and Storm Research Organisation (TORRO) has maintained a network of spotters in the United Kingdom since 1974.
Storm spotters are required because radar systems such as NEXRAD detect signatures which suggest the presence of tornadoes, rather than tornadoes as such. Radar may give a warning before there is any visual evidence of a tornado or an imminent one, but ground truth from an observer can give definitive information. The spotter's ability to see what radar can't is especially important as distance from the radar site increases, because the radar beam becomes progressively higher in altitude further away from the radar, chiefly due to curvature of Earth, and the beam also spreads out.
Storm spotters are trained to discern whether or not a storm seen from a distance is a supercell. They typically look to its rear, the main region of updraft and inflow. Under that updraft is a rain-free base, and the next step of tornadogenesis is the formation of a rotating wall cloud. The vast majority of intense tornadoes occur with a wall cloud on the backside of a supercell.
Evidence of a supercell is based on the storm's shape and structure, and cloud tower features such as a hard and vigorous updraft tower, a persistent, large overshooting top, a hard anvil (especially when backsheared against strong upper level winds), and a corkscrew look or striations. Under the storm and closer to where most tornadoes are found, evidence of a supercell and the likelihood of a tornado includes inflow bands (particularly when curved) such as a "beaver tail", and other clues such as strength of inflow, warmth and moistness of inflow air, how outflow- or inflow-dominant a storm appears, and how far is the front flank precipitation core from the wall cloud. Tornadogenesis is most likely at the interface of the updraft and rear flank downdraft, and requires a balance between the outflow and inflow.
Only wall clouds that rotate spawn tornadoes, and they usually precede the tornado between five and thirty minutes. Rotating wall clouds may be a visual manifestation of a low-level mesocyclone. Barring a low-level boundary, tornadogenesis is highly unlikely unless a rear flank downdraft occurs, which is usually visibly evidenced by evaporation of cloud adjacent to a corner of a wall cloud. A tornado often occurs as this happens or shortly afterwards; first, a funnel cloud dips and in nearly all cases by the time it reaches halfway down, a surface swirl has already developed, signifying a tornado is on the ground before condensation connects the surface circulation to the storm. Tornadoes may also develop without wall clouds, under flanking lines and on the leading edge. Spotters watch all areas of a storm, and the cloud base and surface.
The tornado which holds most records in history was the Tri-State Tornado, which roared through parts of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana on March 18, 1925. It was likely an F5, though tornadoes were not ranked on any scale in that era. It holds records for longest path length (), longest duration (about 3.5 hours), and fastest forward speed for a significant tornado () anywhere on Earth. In addition, it is the deadliest single tornado in United States history (695 dead). The tornado was also the costliest tornado in history at the time (unadjusted for inflation), but in the years since has been surpassed by several others if population changes over time are not considered. When costs are normalized for wealth and inflation, it ranks third today.
The deadliest tornado in world history was the Daultipur-Salturia Tornado in Bangladesh on April 26, 1989, which killed approximately 1,300 people. Bangladesh has had at least 19 tornadoes in its history that killed more than 100 people, almost half of the total in the rest of the world.
The most extensive tornado outbreak on record was the 2011 Super Outbreak, which spawned 360 confirmed tornadoes over the southeastern United States, 216 of them within a single 24-hour period. The previous record was the 1974 Super Outbreak which spawned 148 tornadoes.
While direct measurement of the most violent tornado wind speeds is nearly impossible, since conventional anemometers would be destroyed by the intense winds and flying debris, some tornadoes have been scanned by mobile Doppler radar units, which can provide a good estimate of the tornado's winds. The highest wind speed ever measured in a tornado, which is also the highest wind speed ever recorded on the planet, is 301 ± 20 mph (484 ± 32 km/h) in the F5 Bridge Creek-Moore, Oklahoma, tornado which killed 36 people. The reading was taken about above the ground.
Storms that produce tornadoes can feature intense updrafts, sometimes exceeding . Debris from a tornado can be lofted into the parent storm and carried a very long distance. A tornado which affected Great Bend, Kansas, in November 1915, was an extreme case, where a "rain of debris" occurred from the town, a sack of flour was found away, and a cancelled check from the Great Bend bank was found in a field outside of Palmyra, Nebraska, to the northeast. Waterspouts and tornadoes have been advanced as an explanation for instances of raining fish and other animals.
Though tornadoes can strike in an instant, there are precautions and preventative measures that can be taken to increase the chances of survival. Authorities such as the Storm Prediction Center advise having a pre-determined plan should a tornado warning be issued. When a warning is issued, going to a basement or an interior first-floor room of a sturdy building greatly increases chances of survival. In tornado-prone areas, many buildings have underground storm cellars, which have saved thousands of lives.
Some countries have meteorological agencies which distribute tornado forecasts and increase levels of alert of a possible tornado (such as tornado watches and warnings in the United States and Canada). Weather radios provide an alarm when a severe weather advisory is issued for the local area, mainly available only in the United States. Unless the tornado is far away and highly visible, meteorologists advise that drivers park their vehicles far to the side of the road (so as not to block emergency traffic), and find a sturdy shelter. If no sturdy shelter is nearby, getting low in a ditch is the next best option. Highway overpasses are one of the worst places to take shelter during tornadoes, as the constricted space can be subject to increased wind speed and funneling of debris underneath the overpass.
Folklore often identifies a green sky with tornadoes, and though the phenomenon may be associated with severe weather, there is no evidence linking it specifically with tornadoes. It is often thought that opening windows will lessen the damage caused by the tornado. While there is a large drop in atmospheric pressure inside a strong tornado, it is unlikely that the pressure drop would be enough to cause the house to explode. Opening windows may actually increase the severity of the tornado's damage. A violent tornado can destroy a house whether its windows are open or closed.
Another commonly held misconception is that highway overpasses provide adequate shelter from tornadoes. This belief is partly inspired by widely circulated video captured during the 1991 tornado outbreak near Andover, Kansas, where a news crew and several other people take shelter under an overpass on the Kansas Turnpike and safely ride out a tornado as it passes by. However, a highway overpass is a dangerous place during a tornado, and the subjects of the video remained safe due to an unlikely combination of events: the storm in question was a weak tornado, the tornado did not directly strike the overpass, and the overpass itself was of a unique design. Due to the Venturi effect, tornadic winds are accelerated in the confined space of an overpass. Indeed, in the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak of May 3, 1999, three highway overpasses were directly struck by tornadoes, and at each of the three locations there was a fatality, along with many life-threatening injuries. By comparison, during the same tornado outbreak, more than 2,000 homes were completely destroyed and another 7,000 damaged, and yet only a few dozen people died in their homes.
An old belief is that the southwest corner of a basement provides the most protection during a tornado. The safest place is the side or corner of an underground room opposite the tornado's direction of approach (usually the northeast corner), or the central-most room on the lowest floor. Taking shelter in a basement, under a staircase, or under a sturdy piece of furniture such as a workbench further increases chances of survival.
There are areas which people believe to be protected from tornadoes, whether by being in a city, near a major river, hill, or mountain, or even protected by supernatural forces. Tornadoes have been known to cross major rivers, climb mountains, affect valleys, and have damaged several city centers. As a general rule, no area is safe from tornadoes, though some areas are more susceptible than others.
Meteorology is a relatively young science and the study of tornadoes is newer still. Although researched for about 140 years and intensively for around 60 years, there are still aspects of tornadoes which remain a mystery. Scientists have a fairly good understanding of the development of thunderstorms and mesocyclones, and the meteorological conditions conducive to their formation. However, the step from supercell, or other respective formative processes, to tornadogenesis and the prediction of tornadic vs. non-tornadic mesocyclones is not yet well known and is the focus of much research.
Also under study are the low-level mesocyclone and the stretching of low-level vorticity which tightens into a tornado, in particular, what are the processes and what is the relationship of the environment and the convective storm. Intense tornadoes have been observed forming simultaneously with a mesocyclone aloft (rather than succeeding mesocyclogenesis) and some intense tornadoes have occurred without a mid-level mesocyclone.
In particular, the role of downdrafts, particularly the rear-flank downdraft, and the role of baroclinic boundaries, are intense areas of study.
Reliably predicting tornado intensity and longevity remains a problem, as do details affecting characteristics of a tornado during its life cycle and tornadolysis. Other rich areas of research are tornadoes associated with mesovortices within linear thunderstorm structures and within tropical cyclones.
Scientists still do not know the exact mechanisms by which most tornadoes form, and occasional tornadoes still strike without a tornado warning being issued. Analysis of observations including both stationary and mobile (surface and aerial) in-situ and remote sensing (passive and active) instruments generates new ideas and refines existing notions. Numerical modeling also provides new insights as observations and new discoveries are integrated into our physical understanding and then tested in computer simulations which validate new notions as well as produce entirely new theoretical findings, many of which are otherwise unattainable. Importantly, development of new observation technologies and installation of finer spatial and temporal resolution observation networks have aided increased understanding and better predictions.
Research programs, including field projects such as the VORTEX projects (Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment), deployment of TOTO (the TOtable Tornado Observatory), Doppler on Wheels (DOW), and dozens of other programs, hope to solve many questions that still plague meteorologists. Universities, government agencies such as the National Severe Storms Laboratory, private-sector meteorologists, and the National Center for Atmospheric Research are some of the organizations very active in research; with various sources of funding, both private and public, a chief entity being the National Science Foundation. The pace of research is partly constrained by the number of observations that can be taken; gaps in information about the wind, pressure, and moisture content throughout the local atmosphere; and the computing power available for simulation.
Solar storms similar to tornadoes have been recorded, but it is unknown how closely related they are to their terrestrial counterparts. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37530 |
Indian Institute of Science
The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is a public, deemed, research university for higher education and research in science, engineering, design, and management. It is located in Bangalore city, in the Indian state of Karnataka. The institute was established in 1909 with active support from Jamsetji Tata and Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV and thus is also locally known as the ""Tata Institute"". It was granted the deemed to be university status in 1958 and the Institute of Eminence status in 2018.
In 2019, IISc launched its brand statement: "Discover and Innovate; Transform and Transcend; Serve and Lead".
After an accidental meeting between Jamsetji Tata and Swami Vivekananda, on a ship in 1893 where they discussed Tata's plan of bringing the steel industry to India, Tata wrote to Vivekananda five years later: "I trust, you remember me as a fellow-traveller on your voyage from Japan to Chicago. I very much recall at this moment your views on the growth of the ascetic spirit in India... I recall these ideas in connection with my scheme of Research Institute of Science for India, of which you have doubtless heard or read."
Impressed by Vivekananda's views on science and leadership abilities, Tata wanted him to guide his campaign. Vivekananda endorsed the project with enthusiasm, and Tata, with the aim of advancing the scientific capabilities of the country, constituted a Provisional Committee to prepare a plan for setting up of an Institute of research and higher education. The committee presented a draft proposal to Lord Curzon on 31 December 1898. Subsequently, Sir William Ramsay, a Nobel Laureate, was called on to propose a suitable place for such an institution who suggested Bangalore as the best location.
The land and other facilities for the institution were donated on behalf of the state of Mysore by Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV, and Tata himself. The Karnataka donated about of land. (now valued about Rs 200 billion). Tata gave several buildings towards the creation of IISc. State of Karnataka also contributed Rs 500000 (now valued 12.5 million) towards capital expenditure and Rs 50000 (now valued 1.25 million) for annual expense. The 7th Nizam of Hyderabad- Mir Osman Ali Khan made a big contribution in terms of money which amounted to 3 lakh Rupees over a period of 31 years.
The constitution of the Institute was approved by the Viceroy, Lord Minto, and the necessary Vesting Order to enable it to function was signed on 27 May 1909. Early in 1911, the Maharaja of Mysore laid the foundation stone of the Institute, and on 24 July, the first batch of students were admitted to the Departments of General and Applied Chemistry under Norman Rudolf and Electro-Technology under Alferd Hay. Within two months, the Department of Organic Chemistry was opened. In 1958 the institute was granted the deemed university status by the UGC.
At the time of the inception of IISc in 1909, Morris Travers, Sir William Ramsay's co-worker in the discovery of the noble gases, became its first Director. For Travers, this was a natural continuation of his work on the Institute, since he had played a role in its founding. The first Indian Director was the Nobel Laureate Sir C.V. Raman. Raman was the Indian Science-based Nobel Laureate. The current Director is Anurag Kumar.
The Institute was the first to introduce Masters programs in Engineering. It has also started integrated doctoral programs in Biological, Chemical, Physical and Mathematical Sciences for natural science graduates.
In 2018, IISc was one of the first six institutes to be awarded the Institute of Eminence status.
The IISc campus is located in the north of Bengaluru, about 6 kilometers from Bangalore City Railway Station and Kempegowda Bus Station, on the way to Yeshwantpur. The Institute is about 35 kilometers from Kempegowda International Airport. A number of other research institutes, Raman Research Institute, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Wood Research Institute and Central Power Research Institute (CPRI), are close to IISc. Most of these institutes are connected to IISc by a regular shuttle bus service.
The campus houses more than 40 departments marked by routes such as the Gulmohar Marg, the Mahogany Marg, the Badami Marg, the Tala Marg, the Ashoka Marg, the Nilgiri Marg, the Silver Oak Marg, the Amra Marg and the Arjuna Marg. The Institute is fully residential and is spread over 400 acres of land in the heart of Bengaluru city. The campus features six canteens (cafeterias), a gymkhana (gymnasium and sports complex), a football ground and a cricket ground, four dining messes (halls), one multi cuisine restaurant, nine men's and five women's hostels (dormitories), an air strip, a library, two shopping centers and residences of the faculty members and other staff, besides other amenities.
The IISc campus harbors both exotic and indigenous plant species with about 110 species of woody plants. The roads on the campus are named after the dominant avenue tree species.
The architecture of the main building, which today houses the administration and the Faculty Hall, is classical in style, fronted by a grey, handsome tower. In front of it stands the work of Gilbert Bayes, a monument erected in the memory of J. N. Tata. At its feet is an inscription that serves to remind future generations of the generosity of Jamsetji Tata and the persistence with which he worked for the welfare of India. The building, as one of the prominent landmarks of Bengaluru, was designed by C. F. Stevens and Company of Bombay in 1912–13.
The buildings for the metallurgy and aerospace departments were designed by the German architect Otto Königsberger in 1940.
A second campus is in Challakere, on lot of land. Infrastructure developed here includes the Talent Development Centre, Skill Development Centre funded by HAL under CSR Act, Solar Power Research Center and a Climate Observatory. The Centre for Sustainable Technologies has commenced its activities here under the project "C-BELT" i.e., the Centre for Bio-energy and Low-Carbon Technologies.
QS World University rankings ranked IISc second in the world in terms of citations per faculty, IISc was ranked 301–350 in the world by the "Times Higher Education World University Rankings" of 2020, the top institute in India, as well as 29th in the 2019 Asia ranking. The "QS World University Rankings" of 2019 ranked IISc 170 in the world, as well as 51 in Asia and 10 among BRICS nations. In 2019, it ranked 353rd among the universities around the world by "SCImago Institutions Rankings". The "Academic Ranking of World Universities" ranked it 401–500 in the world in 2019. It was ranked top university (1st place) in India by the "National Institutional Ranking Framework" university ranking for 2018 and 2019, and overall ranking for 2018. In the 2020 NIRF ranking released on June 11, 2020, IISc was ranked in the second position in the Overall category.
For academic purposes, departments and centres in the Institute are broadly assigned to either the Science Faculty or the Engineering Faculty. For administrative purposes (such as faculty recruitment, assessment and promotion), departments and centres are classified into six divisions, each headed by a Chairperson. Each department or centre is administered by a Chairperson.
The following centres are directly under the director (without a divisional chairman):
Autonomous Societies and Centres based in the Institute:
Research students constitute more than 70% of the students on the campus. PhD degrees offered in 40 different disciplines. Research programs leading to doctoral degrees are the main thrust in many departments. The program has a limited amount of course work, essentially to prepare the student to carry out the research, but the main emphasis is on the thesis work. The annual intake of research students is approximately 250 with several candidates sponsored from educational institutions and industries. The research students constitute the largest group (50%) on the campus.
The Integrated PhD program is designed to offer opportunities to 3-year BSc graduates for pursuing advanced research in areas of biological, chemical, mathematical, and physical Sciences, leading to the PhD degree.
Master's degrees offered by the institute are classified into two categories: degrees by coursework (MTech, M.Mgt., and M.Des.) and degrees by research [MTech (research)].
The two-year MTech program is available in almost all engineering departments. Most MTech programs have a set of hard core courses specified as an essential requirement whereas students can take rest of the credits from many courses available in their parent or other departments and also do a dissertation work on the topic of their choice.
The Department of Management Studies offers a Master of Management program exclusively for engineering graduates. The Center for Product Design and Manufacturing offers the Master of Design (M.Des.) course. Started in 1996, the M.Des. program is a two-year, full-time postgraduate program.
An undergraduate programme is of age limit where for students who had completed Class XII, during the Centenary Celebrations in 2009. The first batch of students was admitted in 2011. The program offers a four-year Bachelor of Science (Research) and a five-year integrated Master of Science course in six disciplines: Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Material Science, Mathematics, and Physics. The course aims at exposing the students to the inter-disciplinary nature in which scientific research is done in many upcoming fields.
Apart from the main library, the Institute also has independent departmental libraries. The library moved into the present premises in January 1965, built out of grants provided by University Grants Commission (UGC), in commemoration of the golden jubilee celebrations of the Institute in 1959. In 1995, the library was renamed as "J. R. D. Tata Memorial Library". The National Board for Higher Mathematics (NBHM) has recognised this library as Regional Center for Mathematics for the south region and continued to award a special grant towards subscription of Journals in Mathematics.
The annual budget of the library is over Rs. 100 million (almost US$2,500,000) of which subscription towards periodicals alone is about Rs. 90 million. The library currently receives over 1,734 periodical titles, of which 1381 are subscribed, while the remaining titles are received as gratis or on an exchange basis. About 600 titles are accessible through the library subscription. In addition, over 10,000 journals are accessible online, thanks to INDEST subscription. The total holdings of the library exceed 411,000 documents.
The Computer Centre, established in 1970 as a central computing facility, became Supercomputer Education and Research Centre (SERC) in 1990 to provide computing facility to the faculty and students of the Institute. SERC was created and fully funded by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) to commemorate the platinum jubilee of the Institute. It houses India's first petascale supercomputer Cray XC40 and also the fastest supercomputer in India.
Apart from functioning as a central computing facility of IISc, the SERC is engaged in education and research programs in areas relating to supercomputer development and application. The Centre is also involved in several sponsored research projects in collaboration with several high-profile government and private agencies.
Two former directors, C. V. Raman and C. N. R. Rao, have been awarded India's highest civilian honour Bharat Ratna. Four former directors, Sir A. G. Bourne, Sir Martin O. Forster, C. V. Raman and J. C. Ghosh, have been knighted. Among the IISc alumni, there are three Rhodes Scholars, several Fellows of the Royal Society, and thousands of members of Indian and foreign Academy of Sciences. Hundreds of IISc faculty members have also received the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology awarded to Indians who have made outstanding contributions under 45 years of age. In spite of these achievements, no alumnus or serving faculty member of IISc has won either a Nobel Prize or a Fields Medal, although C. V. Raman did win a Nobel Prize before becoming the Institute's first Indian director.
The Indian Institute of Science collaborates with various government organisations like the Indian Ordnance Factories, DRDO, the ISRO, Bharat Electronics Limited, Aeronautical Development Agency, National Aerospace Laboratories, CSIR, Department of IT (Government of India), Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, etc. IISc also works in collaboration with private industry and research labs. A few organisations have been incubated by the Society for Innovation and Development (SID) on campus, including Morphing Machines and SandI, while Gamma Porite is currently under incubation. IISc actively promotes and supports ventures by the faculty, the students and alumni. Strand Life Sciences and Ittiam are some success stories of this initiative. In March 2016, a science start-up, incubated at the IISc, built the world's first food-grade DNA/RNA stain. This might cut the time taken to diagnose conditions such as HIV to a day, from 45 days at present.
Pravega is the annual science, technology and cultural festival of Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Started in 2013 by the undergraduates of IISc, the fest is usually held on the third weekend of January.
Vijyoshi, an annual national science camp for secondary school and undergraduate students, is hosted by IISc.
IISc also has active sports teams, major ones being in cricket, football, badminton and volleyball. They participate each year in the IISM (inter IISER sports meet) and a number of other tournaments and events.
On 28 December 2005, two unknown men started firing indiscriminately inside the IISc campus. Munish Chander Puri, a professor from IIT Delhi, died in the attack. Four others were injured.
IISc has a parent alumni association (AA) in Bangalore and several branches elsewhere including USA (IISCAANA). Of recent parent association is involved in several disputes. One of the reasons appears to be efforts by some to allow Non-IISc degree holders to become a part of the AA. Similar situation is created in IISCAANA
by allowing several non-IISc members to be active in the team. IIScAANA allows those who did not complete degree to become members by adding a clause
'completed at least one semester of course work in IISc' for membership eligibility. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37533 |
Hyderabad
Hyderabad ( ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and "de jure" capital of Andhra Pradesh. Occupying along the banks of the Musi River, located on the Deccan Plateau in the northern part of South India. At an average altitude of , much of Hyderabad is situated on hilly terrain around artificial lakes, including Hussain Sagar lake—predating the city's founding—north of the city centre. Hyderabad City has a population of about , with about in Hyderabad Metropolitan Region, making it the fourth-most populous city and sixth-most populous urban agglomeration in India. With an output of 74 billion, Hyderabad is the fifth-largest contributor to India's overall gross domestic product.
In 1591 Qutb Shahi ruler Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah established Hyderabad to extend the capital beyond the fortified Golconda. In 1687 the city was annexed by the Mughals. In 1724 Mughal governor Nizam Asaf Jah I declared his sovereignty and founded the Asaf Jahi dynasty, also known as the Nizams. Hyderabad served as the imperial capital of the Asaf Jahi from 1769 to 1948. As capital of the princely state of Hyderabad, the city housed the British Residency and cantonment until Indian independence in 1947. Hyderabad was invaded and integrated into the Indian Union in 1948 and continued as a capital of Hyderabad State (1948–56), and when the States Reorganisation Act of 1956 was introduced Hyderabad was made the capital of the united Andhra Pradesh. In 2014 Telangana state was formed after the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. Hyderabad City became a joint capital of the two states, a transitional arrangement scheduled to end in 2024. Since 1956, the city has housed the winter office of the President of India.
Relics of the Qutb Shahi and Nizam rules remain visible today; the Charminar has come to symbolise the city. By the end of early modern era, the Mughal Empire declined in the Deccan and the Nizams' patronage had attracted men of letters from different parts of the world. The amalgamation of local and migrated artisans had originated a distinctive culture, and the city emerged as the foremost centre of oriental culture. Painting, handicraft, jewellery, literature, dialect and clothing are prominent still today. Through its cuisine, the city is listed as a UNESCO creative city of gastronomy. The Telugu film industry based in the city is the country's second-largest producer of motion pictures.
Until the Hyderabad was known for the pearl industry and was nicknamed the "City of Pearls", and was the only Golconda Diamonds trading centre in the world. Many of the city's historical and traditional bazaars remain open. Hyderabad's central location between the Deccan Plateau and the Western Ghats, and industrialisation throughout the attracted major Indian research, manufacturing, educational and financial institutions. Since the 1990s, the city has emerged as an Indian hub of pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. The formation of special economic zones and HITEC City dedicated to information technology has encouraged leading multinationals to set up operations in Hyderabad.
According to John Everett-Heath, the author of "Oxford Concise Dictionary of World Place Names", "Hyderabad" means "Haydar's city" or "lion city", from "haydar" (lion) and "ābād" (city), and was named to honour the Caliph Ali Ibn Abi Talib, who was also known as Haydar because of his lion-like valour in battles. Andrew Petersen, a scholar of Islamic architecture, says the city was originally called "Baghnagar" (city of gardens). One popular theory suggests that the founder of the city, Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah of the Golconda Sultanate, named it after Bhagmati, a local "nautch" (dancing) girl with whom he had fallen in love. She converted to Islam and adopted the title "Hyder Mahal". The city was named as "Hyderabad" in her honour. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37534 |
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