text stringlengths 10 951k | source stringlengths 39 44 |
|---|---|
QCD (disambiguation)
QCD, or Quantum chromodynamics, is the theory of the strong interaction between quarks and gluons.
QCD may also refer to: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=25327 |
Quartet
In music, a quartet or quartette (, , , , ) is an ensemble of four singers or instrumental performers; or a musical composition for four voices or instruments.
In Classical music, one of the most common combinations of four instruments in chamber music is the string quartet. String quartets most often consist of two violins, a viola, and a cello. The particular choice and number of instruments derives from the registers of the human voice: soprano, alto, tenor and bass. In the string quartet, two violins play the soprano and alto vocal registers, the viola plays the tenor register and the cello plays the bass register.
Composers of notable string quartets include Joseph Haydn (68 compositions), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (23), Ludwig van Beethoven (16), Franz Schubert (15), Felix Mendelssohn (6), Johannes Brahms (3), Antonín Dvořák (14), Alexander Borodin (2), Béla Bartók (6), Elizabeth Maconchy (13), Darius Milhaud (18), Heitor Villa-Lobos (17), and Dmitri Shostakovich (15). The Italian composer Luigi Boccherini (1743–1805), wrote 91 string quartets.
Less often, string quartets are written for other combinations of the standard string ensemble. These include quartets for one violin, two violas, and one cello, notably by Carl Stamitz (6 compositions) and others; and for one violin, one viola, and two cellos, by Johann Georg Albrechtsberger and others.
Another common standard classical quartet is the piano quartet, consisting of violin, viola, cello, and piano. Romantic composers Beethoven, Brahms, and Mendelssohn each wrote three important compositions in this form, and Mozart, Dvořák, and Gabriel Fauré each wrote two.
Wind quartets are scored either the same as a string quartet with the wind instrument replacing the first violin (i.e. scored for wind, violin, viola and cello) or are groups of four wind instruments. Among the latter, the SATB format woodwind quartet of flute, oboe, clarinet, and bassoon is relatively common.
An example of a wind quartet featuring four of the same types of wind instruments is the saxophone quartet, consisting of soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone and baritone saxophone or (SATB). Often a second alto may be substituted for the soprano part (AATB) or a bass saxophone may be substituted for the baritone.
Compositions for four singers have been written for quartets a cappella; accompanied by instruments, such as a piano; and accompanied by larger vocal forces, such as a choir. Brahms and Schubert wrote numerous pieces for four voices that were once popular in private salons, although they are seldom performed today. Vocal quartets also feature within larger classical compositions, such as opera, choral works, and symphonic compositions. The final movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and the Verdi Requiem are two examples of renowned concert works that include vocal quartets.
Typically, a vocal quartet is composed of:
The baroque quartet is a form of music composition similar to the trio sonata, but with four music parts performed by three solo melodic instruments and basso continuo. The solo instruments could be strings or wind instruments.
Examples of baroque quartets are Telemann's Paris quartets.
Quartets are popular in jazz and jazz fusion music. Jazz quartet ensembles are often composed of a horn, classically clarinet (or saxophone, trumpet, etc.), a chordal instrument (e.g., electric guitar, piano, Hammond organ, etc.), a bass instrument (e.g., double bass, tuba or bass guitar) and a drum kit. This configuration is sometimes modified by using a second horn replacing the chordal instrument, such as a trumpet and saxophone with string bass and drum kit, or by using two chordal instruments (e.g., piano and electric guitar).
In 20th century Western popular music, the term "vocal quartet" usually refers to ensembles of four singers of the same gender. This is particularly common for barbershop quartets and Gospel quartets.
Some well-known female US vocal quartets include The Carter Sisters; The Forester Sisters; The Chiffons; The Chordettes; The Lennon Sisters; and En Vogue. Some well-known male US vocal quartets include The Oak Ridge Boys; The Statler Brothers; The Ames Brothers; The Chi-Lites; Crosby Stills Nash & Young; The Dixie Hummingbirds; The Four Aces; Four Freshmen; The Four Seasons; The Four Tops; The Cathedral Quartet; Ernie Haase and Signature Sound; The Golden Gate Quartet; The Hilltoppers; The Jordanaires; and Mills Brothers. The only known U.S. drag quartet is The Kinsey Sicks. Some mixed-gender vocal quartets include The Pied Pipers; The Mamas & the Papas; The Merry Macs; and The Weavers.
The quartet lineup also is very common in pop and rock music. A standard quartet formation in pop and rock music is an ensemble consisting of two electric guitars, a bass guitar, and a drum kit. This configuration is sometimes modified by using a keyboard instrument (e.g., organ, piano, synthesizer) or a soloing instrument (e.g., saxophone) in place of the second electric guitar.
A Russian folk-instrument quartet commonly consists of a bayan, a prima balalaika, a prima or alto domra, and a contrabass balalaika (e.g., Quartet Moskovskaya Balalaika). Configurations without a bayan include a prima domra, a prima balalaika, an alto domra, and a bass balalaika (Quartet Skaz); or two prima domras, a prima balalaika, and a bass balalaika. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=25330 |
Quantum entanglement
Quantum entanglement is a physical phenomenon that occurs when a pair or group of particles is generated, interact, or share spatial proximity in a way such that the quantum state of each particle of the pair or group cannot be described independently of the state of the others, including when the particles are separated by a large distance. The topic of quantum entanglement is at the heart of the disparity between classical and quantum physics: entanglement is a primary feature of quantum mechanics lacking in classical mechanics.
Measurements of physical properties such as position, momentum, spin, and polarization performed on entangled particles can, in some cases, be found to be perfectly correlated. For example, if a pair of entangled particles is generated such that their total spin is known to be zero, and one particle is found to have clockwise spin on a first axis, then the spin of the other particle, measured on the same axis, will be found to be counterclockwise. However, this behavior gives rise to seemingly paradoxical effects: any measurement of a property of a particle results in an irreversible wave function collapse of that particle and will change the original quantum state. In the case of entangled particles, such a measurement will affect the entangled system as a whole.
Such phenomena were the subject of a 1935 paper by Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky, and Nathan Rosen, and several papers by Erwin Schrödinger shortly thereafter, describing what came to be known as the EPR paradox. Einstein and others considered such behavior to be impossible, as it violated the local realism view of causality (Einstein referring to it as "spooky action at a distance") and argued that the accepted formulation of quantum mechanics must therefore be incomplete.
Later, however, the counterintuitive predictions of quantum mechanics were verified experimentally in tests in which polarization or spin of entangled particles were measured at separate locations, statistically violating Bell's inequality. In earlier tests, it couldn't be absolutely ruled out that the test result at one point could have been subtly transmitted to the remote point, affecting the outcome at the second location. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=25336 |
Quasi-War
The Quasi-War () was an undeclared war fought almost entirely at sea between the United States and France from 1798 to 1800, which broke out during the beginning of John Adams's presidency. After the French Monarchy was abolished in September 1792, the United States refused to continue repaying its large debt to France, which had supported the U.S. during its own War for Independence. The U.S. claimed that the debt had been owed to a previous regime. France was also outraged over the Jay Treaty and that the United States was actively trading with Britain, with whom France was at war. In response, France authorized privateers to conduct attacks on American shipping, seizing numerous merchant ships and ultimately leading the U.S. to retaliate.
The war was called "quasi" because it was undeclared. It involved two years of hostilities at sea, in which both navies and privateers attacked the other's shipping in the West Indies. Many of the battles involved famous naval officers such as Stephen Decatur, Silas Talbot and William Bainbridge. The unexpected fighting ability of the newly re-established U.S. Navy, which concentrated on attacking the French West Indian privateers, together with the growing weaknesses and final overthrow of the ruling French Directory, led the French foreign minister, Talleyrand, to reopen negotiations with the U.S. At the same time, Adams feuded with Alexander Hamilton over control of the Adams administration. Adams took sudden and unexpected action, rejecting the anti-French hawks in his own party and offering peace to France. In 1800 he sent William Vans Murray to France to negotiate peace; the Federalists cried betrayal. Hostilities ended with the signing of the Convention of 1800.
When the United States won its independence it no longer had Britain's protection and therefore had the task of protecting its own ships and interests at sea. There were few American ships capable of defending the American coastline while trying to protect its merchant ships at sea. The Kingdom of France was a crucial ally of the United States in the American Revolutionary War. In March 1778, France signed a treaty of alliance with the rebelling colonists against Great Britain and had loaned the new Republic large sums of money. However, Louis XVI of France was deposed in September 1792. The monarchy was abolished.
In 1794 the American government reached an agreement with Great Britain in the Jay Treaty, which was ratified the following year. It resolved several points of contention between the United States and Britain that had lingered since the end of the American Revolution. The treaty encouraged bilateral trade and enabled expanded trade between the United States and Britain, stimulating the American economy. From 1794 to 1801, the value of American exports nearly tripled, from US$33 million to $94 million. But the Jeffersonian Democratic-Republicans, who were pro-France, always denigrated the Jay Treaty.
The United States declared neutrality in the conflict between Great Britain and revolutionary France; and Congress passed legislation for a trade deal with Great Britain. When the U.S. refused to continue repaying its debt, saying that the debt was owed to the previous government, not to the French First Republic, French outrage led to a series of responses. First, France authorized privateers to seize U.S. ships trading with Great Britain, and taking them back to port as prizes to be sold. Next, the French government refused to receive Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, the new U.S. Minister, when he arrived in Paris in December 1796, severing diplomatic relations. In President John Adams's annual message to Congress at the close of 1797, he reported on France's refusal to negotiate a settlement and spoke of the need "to place our country in a suitable posture of defense". Adams offered Washington a commission as lieutenant-general on July 4, 1798, and as commander-in-chief of the armies raised for service in that conflict. In April 1798, President Adams informed Congress of the "XYZ Affair", in which French agents demanded a large bribe before engaging in substantive negotiations with United States diplomats.
Meanwhile, French privateers inflicted substantial losses on American shipping. On 21 February 1797, Secretary of State Timothy Pickering told Congress that during the previous eleven months, France had seized 316 U.S. merchant ships. French marauders cruised the length of the Atlantic seaboard virtually unopposed. The United States government had nothing to combat them, as it had abolished the navy at the end of the Revolutionary War, and its last warship was sold in 1785. The United States had only a flotilla of small Revenue-Marine cutters and a few neglected coastal forts.
Increased depredations by French privateers led to the government in 1798 establishing the Department of Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps to defend the expanding American merchant fleet. Benjamin Stoddert was appointed as Secretary of Navy. Congress authorized the president to acquire, arm, and man not more than twelve ships of up to twenty-two guns each. Several merchantmen were immediately purchased and refitted as ships of war.
Congress rescinded the treaties with France on 7 July 1798, and two days later Congress passed legislation authorizing the use of military force against French warships in American waters.
On 16 July, Congress appropriated funds "to build and equip the three remaining frigates begun under the Act of 1794":
, launched at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on 15 August 1799; , launched at Gosport Shipyard, Virginia, on 2 December 1799; and , launched at New York, New York, on 10 April 1800. To make the most effective use of his limited resources, Secretary Stoddert established a policy that American forces would be concentrated on attacks against French forces in the Caribbean, where France still had colonies, though at times he had to grant merchant ships' requests for escorts.
The naval engagements of the Quasi-War primarily consisted of single-ship actions off the coast of the United States and in the Caribbean. At the beginning of the conflict, the U.S. Navy operated with a battle fleet of about , which patrolled the southern coast of the United States and throughout the Caribbean hunting down French privateers. French privateers generally resisted, as did , which was captured on 7 July 1798, by outside Egg Harbor, New Jersey. On 20 November, a pair of French frigates, "Insurgente" and "Volontaire", captured the schooner , commanded by Lieutenant William Bainbridge; "Retaliation" would be recaptured on 28 June 1799.
On 9 February 1799, the frigate captured the French Navy's frigate "L'Insurgente" and severely damaged the frigate "La Vengeance", largely due to . By 1 July, under the command of Stephen Decatur, had been refitted and repaired and embarked on its mission to patrol the South Atlantic coast and West Indies in search of French ships which were preying on American merchant vessels.
On 1 January 1800, a convoy of American merchant ships and their escort, United States naval schooner , engaged a squadron of armed barges manned by French-allied Haitians known as picaroons off the coast of present-day Haiti. On 1 February, the American frigate unsuccessfully tried to capture the French frigate "La Vengeance" off the coast of Saint Kitts. In early May, Captain Silas Talbot organized a naval expedition to Puerto Plata on the island of Hispaniola in order to harass French shipping. The Talbot's expedition captured the Spanish coastal fort at Puerto Plata and a French corvette. Following the French invasion of Curaçao in July, the American sloops and began a blockade of the island in September that led to a French withdrawal. On 12 October, the frigate captured the corvette . On 25 October, the defeated the French brig "Flambeau" near the island of Dominica in the Caribbean Sea. "Enterprise" also captured eight privateers and freed eleven U.S. merchant ships from captivity, while captured the French privateers "Deux Amis" and "Diane" and liberated numerous American merchant ships.
American naval losses may have been light, but the French had successfully seized many American merchant ships by the war's end in 1800 – more than 2,000, according to one source.
Revenue cutters in the service of the American Revenue-Marine also took part in the conflict. The cutter USRC "Pickering", commanded by Edward Preble, made two cruises to the West Indies and captured ten prizes. Preble turned command of "Pickering" over to Benjamin Hillar, who captured the much larger and more heavily armed French privateer "lEgypte Conquise" after a nine-hour battle. In September 1800, Hillar, "Pickering", and her entire crew were lost at sea in a storm. Preble next commanded the frigate , which he sailed around Cape Horn into the Pacific to protect U.S. merchantmen in the East Indies. He recaptured several U.S. ships that had been seized by French privateers.
Although they were fighting the same enemy, the Royal Navy and the United States Navy did not cooperate operationally or share operational plans. There were no mutual understandings about deployment between their forces. However, the British sold naval stores and munitions to the U.S. government, and the two navies shared a signal system so they could recognize the other's warships at sea and allowed their merchantmen to join each other's convoys for safety.
By late 1800, the United States Navy and the Royal Navy, combined with a more conciliatory diplomatic stance by the government of First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte, had reduced the activity of the French privateers and warships. The Convention of 1800, signed on 30 September, ended the Quasi-War. It affirmed the rights of Americans as neutrals upon the sea and abrogated the alliance with France of 1778. However, it failed to provide compensation for the $20 million "French Spoliation Claims" of the United States. The agreement between the two nations implicitly ensured that the United States would remain neutral toward France in the wars of Napoleon and ended the "entangling" French alliance. This alliance had been viable only between 1778 and 1783. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=25343 |
Quality management system
A quality management system (QMS) is a collection of business processes focused on consistently meeting customer requirements and enhancing their satisfaction. It is aligned with an organization's purpose and strategic direction (ISO9001:2015). It is expressed as the organizational goals and aspirations, policies, processes, documented information and resources needed to implement and maintain it. Early quality management systems emphasized predictable outcomes of an industrial product production line, using simple statistics and random sampling. By the 20th century, labor inputs were typically the most costly inputs in most industrialized societies, so focus shifted to team cooperation and dynamics, especially the early signaling of problems via a continual improvement cycle. In the 21st century, QMS has tended to converge with sustainability and transparency initiatives, as both investor and customer satisfaction and perceived quality is increasingly tied to these factors. Of QMS regimes, the ISO 9000 family of standards is probably the most widely implemented worldwide – the ISO 19011 audit regime applies to both, and deals with quality and sustainability and their integration.
Other QMS, e.g. Natural Step, focus on sustainability issues and assume that other quality problems will be reduced as result of the systematic thinking, transparency, documentation and diagnostic discipline.
The term "Quality Management System" and the initialism "QMS" were invented in 1991 by Ken Croucher, a British management consultant working on designing and implementing a generic model of a QMS within the IT industry.
The concept of a quality as we think of it now first emerged from the Industrial Revolution. Previously goods had been made from start to finish by the same person or team of people, with handcrafting and tweaking the product to meet 'quality criteria'. Mass production brought huge teams of people together to work on specific stages of production where one person would not necessarily complete a product from start to finish. In the late 19th century pioneers such as Frederick Winslow Taylor and Henry Ford recognized the limitations of the methods being used in mass production at the time and the subsequent varying quality of output. Birland established Quality Departments to oversee the quality of production and rectifying of errors, and Ford emphasized standardization of design and component standards to ensure a standard product was produced. Management of quality was the responsibility of the Quality department and was implemented by Inspection of product output to 'catch' defects.
Application of statistical control came later as a result of World War production methods, which were advanced by the work done of W. Edwards Deming, a statistician, after whom the Deming Prize for quality is named. Joseph M. Juran focused more on managing for quality. The first edition of Juran's Quality Control Handbook was published in 1951. He also developed the "Juran's trilogy", an approach to cross-functional management that is composed of three managerial processes: quality planning, quality control, and quality improvement. These functions all play a vital role when evaluating quality.
Quality, as a profession and the managerial process associated with the quality function, was introduced during the second half of the 20th century and has evolved since then. Over this period, few other disciplines have seen as many changes as the quality profession.
The quality profession grew from simple control to engineering, to systems engineering. Quality control activities were predominant in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. The 1970s were an era of quality engineering and the 1990s saw quality systems as an emerging field. Like medicine, accounting, and engineering, quality has achieved status as a recognized profession
As Lee and Dale (1998) state, there are many organizations that are striving to assess the methods and ways in which their overall productivity, the quality of their products and services and the required operations to achieve them are done.
The two primary, state of the art, guidelines for medical device manufacturer QMS and related services today are the ISO 13485 standards and the US FDA 21 CFR 820 regulations. The two have a great deal of similarity, and many manufacturers adopt QMS that is compliant with both guidelines.
ISO 13485 are harmonized with the European Union medical devices directive (93/42/EEC) as well as the IVD and AIMD directives. The ISO standard is also incorporated in regulations for other jurisdictions such as Japan (JPAL) and Canada (CMDCAS).
Quality System requirements for medical devices have been internationally recognized as a way to assure product safety and efficacy and customer satisfaction since at least 1983 and were instituted as requirements in a final rule published on October 7, 1996. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had documented design defects in medical devices that contributed to recalls from 1983 to 1989 that would have been prevented if Quality Systems had been in place. The rule is promulgated at 21 CFR 820.
According to current Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), medical device manufacturers have the responsibility to use good judgment when developing their quality system and apply those sections of the FDA Quality System (QS) Regulation that are applicable to their specific products and operations, in Part 820 of the QS regulation. As with GMP, operating within this flexibility, it is the responsibility of each manufacturer to establish requirements for each type or family of devices that will result in devices that are safe and effective, and to establish methods and procedures to design, produce, and distribute devices that meet the quality system requirements.
The FDA has identified in the QS regulation the 7 essential subsystems of a quality system. These subsystems include:
all overseen by management and quality audits.
Because the QS regulation covers a broad spectrum of devices and production processes, it allows some leeway in the details of quality system elements. It is left to manufacturers to determine the necessity for, or extent of, some quality elements and to develop and implement procedures tailored to their particular processes and devices. For example, if it is impossible to mix up labels at a manufacturer because there is only one label to each product, then there is no necessity for the manufacturer to comply with all of the GMP requirements under device labeling.
Drug manufactures are regulated under a different section of the Code of Federal Regulations:
The International Organization for Standardization's ISO 9001:2015 series describes standards for a QMS addressing the principles and processes surrounding the design, development, and delivery of a general product or service. Organizations can participate in a continuing certification process to ISO 9001:2008 to demonstrate their compliance with the standard, which includes a requirement for continual (i.e. planned) improvement of the QMS, as well as more foundational QMS components such as failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA).
(ISO 9000:2005 provides information on the fundamentals and vocabulary used in quality management systems. ISO 9004:2009 provides guidance on quality management approach for the sustained success of an organization. Neither of these standards can be used for certification purposes as they provide guidance, not requirements).
The Baldrige Performance Excellence Program educates organizations in improving their performance and administers the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. The Baldrige Award recognizes U.S. organizations for performance excellence based on the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. The Criteria address critical aspects of management that contribute to performance excellence: leadership; strategy; customers; measurement, analysis, and knowledge management; workforce; operations; and results.
The European Foundation for Quality Management's EFQM Excellence Model supports an award scheme similar to the Baldrige Award for European companies.
In Canada, the National Quality Institute presents the 'Canada Awards for Excellence' on an annual basis to organizations that have displayed outstanding performance in the areas of Quality and Workplace Wellness, and have met the Institute's criteria with documented overall achievements and results.
The European Quality in Social Service (EQUASS) is a sector-specific quality system designed for the social services sector and addresses quality principles that are specific to service delivery to vulnerable groups, such as empowerment, rights, and person-centredness.
The Alliance for Performance Excellence is a network of state and local organizations that use the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence at the grassroots level to improve the performance of local organizations and economies. browsers can find Alliance members in their state and get the latest news and events from the Baldrige community.
A QMS process is an element of an organizational QMS. The ISO 9001:2000 standard requires organizations seeking compliance or certification to define the processes which form the QMS and the sequence and interaction of these processes. Butterworth-Heinemann and other publishers have offered several books which provide step-by-step guides to those seeking the quality certifications of their products,
Examples of such processes include:
ISO9001 requires that the performance of these processes be measured, analyzed and continually improved, and the results of this form an input into the management review process. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=25345 |
QSIG
QSIG is an ISDN based signaling protocol for signaling between private branch exchanges (PBXs) in a private integrated services network (PISN). It makes use of the connection-level Q.931 protocol and the application-level ROSE protocol. ISDN "proper" functions as the physical link layer.
QSIG was originally developed by Ecma International, adopted by ETSI and is defined by a set of ISO standard documents, so is not owned by any company. This allows interoperability between communications platforms provided by disparate vendors.
QSIG has two layers, called BC (basic call) and GF (generic function). QSIG BC describes how to set up calls between PBXs. QSIG GF provides supplementary services for large-scale corporate, educational, and government networks, such as line identification, call intrusion and call forwarding. Thus for a large or very distributed company that requires multiple PBXs, users can receive the same services across the network and be unaware of the switch that their telephone is connected to. This greatly eases the problems of management of large networks.
QSIG will likely never rival each vendor's private network protocols, but it does provide an option for a higher level of integration than that of the traditional choices.
Note: This list is not complete. See the "source" after the list for more information.
Source : ECMA - list of standards (search the list for PISN to find all QSIG related standards at ECMA)
QSIG basically uses ROSE to invoke specific supplementary service at the remote PINX. These ROSE operations are coded in a Q.931 FACILITY info element. Here a list of QSIG opcodes:
Source : European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI)
Source : International Telecommunications Union (ITU) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=25349 |
Quasicrystal
A quasiperiodic crystal, or quasicrystal, is a structure that is ordered but not periodic. A quasicrystalline pattern can continuously fill all available space, but it lacks translational symmetry. While crystals, according to the classical crystallographic restriction theorem, can possess only two-, three-, four-, and six-fold rotational symmetries, the Bragg diffraction pattern of quasicrystals shows sharp peaks with other symmetry orders—for instance, five-fold.
Aperiodic tilings were discovered by mathematicians in the early 1960s, and, some twenty years later, they were found to apply to the study of natural quasicrystals. The discovery of these aperiodic forms in nature has produced a paradigm shift in the fields of crystallography. In crystallography the quasicrystals were predicted in 1981 by a five-fold symmetry study of Alan Lindsay Mackay, — that also brought in 1982, with the crystallographic Fourier transform of a Penrose tiling, the possibility of identifying quasiperiodic order in a material through diffraction.
Quasicrystals had been investigated and observed earlier, but, until the 1980s, they were disregarded in favor of the prevailing views about the atomic structure of matter. In 2009, after a dedicated search, a mineralogical finding, icosahedrite, offered evidence for the existence of natural quasicrystals.
Roughly, an ordering is non-periodic if it lacks translational symmetry, which means that a shifted copy will never match exactly with its original. The more precise mathematical definition is that there is never translational symmetry in more than "n" – 1 linearly independent directions, where "n" is the dimension of the space filled, e.g., the three-dimensional tiling displayed in a quasicrystal may have translational symmetry in two directions. Symmetrical diffraction patterns result from the existence of an indefinitely large number of elements with a regular spacing, a property loosely described as long-range order. Experimentally, the aperiodicity is revealed in the unusual symmetry of the diffraction pattern, that is, symmetry of orders other than two, three, four, or six.
In 1982 materials scientist Dan Shechtman observed that certain aluminium-manganese alloys produced the unusual diffractograms which today are seen as revelatory of quasicrystal structures. Due to fear of the scientific community's reaction, it took him two years to publish the results for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2011.
On 25 October 2018, Luca Bindi and Paul Steinhardt were awarded the Aspen Institute 2018 Prize for collaboration and scientific research between Italy and the United States.
In 1961, Hao Wang asked whether determining if a set of tiles admits a tiling of the plane is an algorithmically unsolvable problem or not. He conjectured that it is solvable, relying on the hypothesis that every set of tiles that can tile the plane can do it "periodically" (hence, it would suffice to try to tile bigger and bigger patterns until obtaining one that tiles periodically). Nevertheless, two years later, his student Robert Berger constructed a set of some 20,000 square tiles (now called "Wang tiles") that can tile the plane but not in a periodic fashion. As further aperiodic sets of tiles were discovered, sets with fewer and fewer shapes were found. In 1976 Roger Penrose discovered a set of just two tiles, now referred to as Penrose tiles, that produced only non-periodic tilings of the plane. These tilings displayed instances of fivefold symmetry. One year later Alan Mackay showed experimentally that the diffraction pattern from the Penrose tiling had a two-dimensional Fourier transform consisting of sharp 'delta' peaks arranged in a fivefold symmetric pattern. Around the same time, Robert Ammann created a set of aperiodic tiles that produced eightfold symmetry.
Mathematically, quasicrystals have been shown to be derivable from a general method that treats them as projections of a higher-dimensional lattice. Just as circles, ellipses, and hyperbolic curves in the plane can be obtained as sections from a three-dimensional double cone, so too various (aperiodic or periodic) arrangements in two and three dimensions can be obtained from postulated hyperlattices with four or more dimensions. Icosahedral quasicrystals in three dimensions were projected from a six-dimensional hypercubic lattice by Peter Kramer and Roberto Neri in 1984. The tiling is formed by two tiles with rhombohedral shape.
Shechtman first observed ten-fold electron diffraction patterns in 1982, as described in his notebook. The observation was made during a routine investigation, by electron microscopy, of a rapidly cooled alloy of aluminium and manganese prepared at the US National Bureau of Standards (later NIST).
In the summer of the same year Shechtman visited Ilan Blech and related his observation to him. Blech responded that such diffractions had been seen before. Around that time, Shechtman also related his finding to John Cahn of NIST who did not offer any explanation and challenged him to solve the observation. Shechtman quoted Cahn as saying: "Danny, this material is telling us something and I challenge you to find out what it is".
The observation of the ten-fold diffraction pattern lay unexplained for two years until the spring of 1984, when Blech asked Shechtman to show him his results again. A quick study of Shechtman's results showed that the common explanation for a ten-fold symmetrical diffraction pattern, the existence of twins, was ruled out by his experiments. Since periodicity and twins were ruled out, Blech, unaware of the two-dimensional tiling work, was looking for another possibility: a completely new structure containing cells connected to each other by defined angles and distances but without translational periodicity. Blech decided to use a computer simulation to calculate the diffraction intensity from a cluster of such a material without long-range translational order but still not random. He termed this new structure multiple polyhedral.
The idea of a new structure was the necessary paradigm shift to break the impasse. The "Eureka moment" came when the computer simulation showed sharp ten-fold diffraction patterns, similar to the observed ones, emanating from the three-dimensional structure devoid of periodicity. The multiple polyhedral structure was termed later by many researchers as icosahedral glass but in effect it embraces "any arrangement of polyhedra connected with definite angles and distances" (this general definition includes tiling, for example).
Shechtman accepted Blech's discovery of a new type of material and it gave him the courage to publish his experimental observation. Shechtman and Blech jointly wrote a paper entitled "The Microstructure of Rapidly Solidified Al6Mn" and sent it for publication around June 1984 to the "Journal of Applied Physics" (JAP). The JAP editor promptly rejected the paper as being better fit for a metallurgical readership. As a result, the same paper was re-submitted for publication to the "Metallurgical Transactions A", where it was accepted. Although not noted in the body of the published text, the published paper was slightly revised prior to publication.
Meanwhile, on seeing the draft of the Shechtman–Blech paper in the summer of 1984, John Cahn suggested that Shechtman's experimental results merit a fast publication in a more appropriate scientific journal. Shechtman agreed and, in hindsight, called this fast publication "a winning move”. This paper, published in the "Physical Review Letters" (PRL), repeated Shechtman's observation and used the same illustrations as the original Shechtman–Blech paper in the "Metallurgical Transactions A". The PRL paper, the first to appear in print, caused considerable excitement in the scientific community.
Next year Ishimasa "et al." reported twelvefold symmetry in Ni-Cr particles. Soon, eightfold diffraction patterns were recorded in V-Ni-Si and Cr-Ni-Si alloys. Over the years, hundreds of quasicrystals with various compositions and different symmetries have been discovered. The first quasicrystalline materials were thermodynamically unstable—when heated, they formed regular crystals. However, in 1987, the first of many stable quasicrystals were discovered, making it possible to produce large samples for study and opening the door to potential applications.
Almost concurrently Paul Steinhardt (Princeton University) hypothesized the possibility to find a quasicrystal in nature, developing a method of recognition, published on Physical Review Letters in 2001, inviting all the mineralogical collections of the world to identify any badly cataloged crystals. In 2007 Steinhardt received a reply by Luca Bindi (University of Florence) that stated to have found an almost perfect match crystal in Florence Mineralogical Collection with quasicrystal characteristics, originally coming from Khatyrka. So in 2008 the crystal samples were sent to Princeton University for other tests and on 2009 New Year's Eve Steinhardt obtained the smoking gun, the final evidence, communicating the great discovery to Luca Bindi. After other studies was stated that the found quasicrystal was extraterrestrial and 4,57 mld old. In 2011 Bindi, Steinhardt and a team of specialists did an expedition in the desolate lands around the Kathyrka river, in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug managing to find other natural quasicrystal samples. This natural quasicrystal exhibits high crystalline quality, equalling the best artificial examples. The natural quasicrystal phase, with a composition of Al63Cu24Fe13, was named icosahedrite and it was approved by the International Mineralogical Association in 2010. Furthermore, analysis indicates it may be meteoritic in origin, possibly delivered from a carbonaceous chondrite asteroid.
A further study of Khatyrka meteorites revealed micron-sized grains of another natural quasicrystal, which has a ten-fold symmetry and a chemical formula of Al71Ni24Fe5. This quasicrystal is stable in a narrow temperature range, from 1120 to 1200 K at ambient pressure, which suggests that natural quasicrystals are formed by rapid quenching of a meteorite heated during an impact-induced shock.
In 1972 de Wolf and van Aalst reported that the diffraction pattern produced by a crystal of sodium carbonate cannot be labeled with three indices but needed one more, which implied that the underlying structure had four dimensions in reciprocal space. Other puzzling cases have been reported, but until the concept of quasicrystal came to be established, they were explained away or denied. However, at the end of the 1980s the idea became acceptable, and in 1992 the International Union of Crystallography altered its definition of a crystal, broadening it as a result of Shechtman's findings, reducing it to the ability to produce a clear-cut diffraction pattern and acknowledging the possibility of the ordering to be either periodic or aperiodic. Now, the symmetries compatible with translations are defined as "crystallographic", leaving room for other "non-crystallographic" symmetries. Therefore, aperiodic or quasiperiodic structures can be divided into two main classes: those with crystallographic point-group symmetry, to which the incommensurately modulated structures and composite structures belong, and those with non-crystallographic point-group symmetry, to which quasicrystal structures belong.
Originally, the new form of matter was dubbed "Shechtmanite". The term "quasicrystal" was first used in print by Steinhardt and Levine shortly after Shechtman's paper was published.
The adjective "quasicrystalline" had already been in use, but now it came to be applied to any pattern with unusual symmetry. 'Quasiperiodical' structures were claimed to be observed in some decorative tilings devised by medieval Islamic architects. For example, Girih tiles in a medieval Islamic mosque in Isfahan, Iran, are arranged in a two-dimensional quasicrystalline pattern. These claims have, however, been under some debate.
Shechtman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2011 for his work on quasicrystals. "His discovery of quasicrystals revealed a new principle for packing of atoms and molecules," stated the Nobel Committee and pointed that "this led to a paradigm shift within chemistry." In 2014, Post of Israel issued a stamp dedicated to quasicrystals and the 2011 Nobel Prize.
Earlier in 2009, it was found that thin-film quasicrystals can be formed by self-assembly of uniformly shaped, nano-sized molecular units at an air-liquid interface. It was later demonstrated that those units can be not only inorganic, but also organic.
In 2018, chemists from Brown University announced the successful creation of a self-constructing lattice structure based on a strangely shaped quantum dot. While single-component quasicrystal lattices have been previously predicted mathematically and in computer simulations, they had not been demonstrated prior to this.
There are several ways to mathematically define quasicrystalline patterns. One definition, the "cut and project" construction, is based on the work of Harald Bohr (mathematician brother of Niels Bohr). The concept of an almost periodic function (also called a quasiperiodic function) was studied by Bohr, including work of Bohl and Escanglon.
He introduced the notion of a superspace. Bohr showed that quasiperiodic functions arise as restrictions of high-dimensional periodic functions to an irrational slice (an intersection with one or more hyperplanes), and discussed their Fourier point spectrum. These functions are not exactly periodic, but they are arbitrarily close in some sense, as well as being a projection of an exactly periodic function.
In order that the quasicrystal itself be aperiodic, this slice must avoid any lattice plane of the higher-dimensional lattice. De Bruijn showed that Penrose tilings can be viewed as two-dimensional slices of five-dimensional hypercubic structures. Equivalently, the Fourier transform of such a quasicrystal is nonzero only at a dense set of points spanned by integer multiples of a finite set of basis vectors (the projections of the primitive reciprocal lattice vectors of the higher-dimensional lattice).
The intuitive considerations obtained from simple model aperiodic tilings are formally expressed in the concepts of Meyer and Delone sets. The mathematical counterpart of physical diffraction is the Fourier transform and the qualitative description of a diffraction picture as 'clear cut' or 'sharp' means that singularities are present in the Fourier spectrum. There are different methods to construct model quasicrystals. These are the same methods that produce aperiodic tilings with the additional constraint for the diffractive property. Thus, for a substitution tiling the eigenvalues of the substitution matrix should be Pisot numbers. The aperiodic structures obtained by the cut-and-project method are made diffractive by choosing a suitable orientation for the construction; this is a geometric approach that has also a great appeal for physicists.
Classical theory of crystals reduces crystals to point lattices where each point is the center of mass of one of the identical units of the crystal. The structure of crystals can be analyzed by defining an associated group. Quasicrystals, on the other hand, are composed of more than one type of unit, so, instead of lattices, quasilattices must be used. Instead of groups, groupoids, the mathematical generalization of groups in category theory, is the appropriate tool for studying quasicrystals.
Using mathematics for construction and analysis of quasicrystal structures is a difficult task for most experimentalists. Computer modeling, based on the existing theories of quasicrystals, however, greatly facilitated this task. Advanced programs have been developed allowing one to construct, visualize and analyze quasicrystal structures and their diffraction patterns. The aperiodic nature quasicrystals can also make theoretical studies of physical properties, such as electronic structure, difficult due to the absence of Bloch's theorem. However, spectra of quasicrystals can still be computed with error control.
Study of quasicrystals may shed light on the most basic notions related to the quantum critical point observed in heavy fermion metals. Experimental measurements on the gold-aluminium-ytterbium quasicrystal have revealed a quantum critical point defining the divergence of the magnetic susceptibility as temperature tends to zero. It is suggested that the electronic system of some quasicrystals is located at a quantum critical point without tuning, while quasicrystals exhibit the typical scaling behaviour of their thermodynamic properties and belong to the well-known family of heavy fermion metals.
Since the original discovery by Dan Shechtman, hundreds of quasicrystals have been reported and confirmed. Undoubtedly, the quasicrystals are no longer a unique form of solid; they exist
universally in many metallic alloys and some polymers. Quasicrystals are found most often in aluminium alloys (Al-Li-Cu, Al-Mn-Si, Al-Ni-Co, Al-Pd-Mn, Al-Cu-Fe, Al-Cu-V, etc.), but numerous other compositions are also known (Cd-Yb, Ti-Zr-Ni, Zn-Mg-Ho, Zn-Mg-Sc, In-Ag-Yb, Pd-U-Si, etc.).
Two types of quasicrystals are known. The first type, polygonal (dihedral) quasicrystals, have an axis of 8, 10, or 12-fold local symmetry (octagonal, decagonal, or dodecagonal quasicrystals, respectively). They are periodic along this axis and quasiperiodic in planes normal to it. The second type, icosahedral quasicrystals, are aperiodic in all directions.
Quasicrystals fall into three groups of different thermal stability:
Except for the Al–Li–Cu system, all the stable quasicrystals are almost free of defects and disorder, as evidenced by X-ray and electron diffraction revealing peak widths as sharp as those of perfect crystals such as Si. Diffraction patterns exhibit fivefold, threefold, and twofold symmetries, and reflections are arranged quasiperiodically in three dimensions.
The origin of the stabilization mechanism is different for the stable and metastable quasicrystals. Nevertheless, there is a common feature observed in most quasicrystal-forming liquid alloys or their undercooled liquids: a local icosahedral order. The icosahedral order is in equilibrium in the "liquid state" for the stable quasicrystals, whereas the icosahedral order prevails in the "undercooled liquid state" for the metastable quasicrystals.
A nanoscale icosahedral phase was formed in Zr-, Cu- and Hf-based bulk metallic glasses alloyed with noble metals.
Most quasicrystals have ceramic-like properties including high thermal and electrical resistance, hardness and brittleness, resistance to corrosion, and non-stick
properties. Many metallic quasicrystalline substances are impractical for most applications due to their thermal instability; the Al-Cu-Fe ternary system and the Al-Cu-Fe-Cr and Al-Co-Fe-Cr quaternary systems, thermally stable up to 700 °C, are notable exceptions.
Quasicrystalline substances have potential applications in several forms.
Metallic quasicrystalline coatings can be applied by plasma-coating or magnetron sputtering. A problem that must be resolved is the tendency for cracking due to the materials' extreme brittleness. The cracking could be suppressed by reducing sample dimensions or coating thickness. Recent studies show typically brittle quasicrystals can exhibit remarkable ductility of over 50% strains at room temperature and sub-micrometer scales (<500 nm).
An application was the use of low-friction Al-Cu-Fe-Cr quasicrystals as a coating for frying pans. Food did not stick to it as much as to stainless steel making the pan moderately non-stick and easy to clean; heat transfer and durability were better than PTFE non-stick cookware and the pan was free from perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA); the surface was very hard, claimed to be ten times harder than stainless steel, and not harmed by metal utensils or cleaning in a dishwasher; and the pan could withstand temperatures of without harm. However, cooking with a lot of salt would etch the quasicrystalline coating used, and the pans were eventually withdrawn from production. Shechtman had one of these pans.
The Nobel citation said that quasicrystals, while brittle, could reinforce steel "like armor". When Shechtman was asked about potential applications of quasicrystals he said that a precipitation-hardened stainless steel is produced that is strengthened by small quasicrystalline particles. It does not corrode and is extremely strong, suitable for razor blades and surgery instruments. The small quasicrystalline particles impede the motion of dislocation in the material.
Quasicrystals were also being used to develop heat insulation, LEDs, diesel engines, and new materials that convert heat to electricity. Shechtman suggested new applications taking advantage of the low coefficient of friction and the hardness of some quasicrystalline materials, for example embedding particles in plastic to make strong, hard-wearing, low-friction plastic gears. The low heat conductivity of some quasicrystals makes them good for heat insulating coatings.
Other potential applications include selective solar absorbers for power conversion, broad-wavelength reflectors, and bone repair and prostheses applications where biocompatibility, low friction and corrosion resistance are required. Magnetron sputtering can be readily applied to other stable quasicrystalline alloys such as Al-Pd-Mn.
While saying that the discovery of icosahedrite, the first quasicrystal found in nature, was important, Shechtman saw no practical applications. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=25350 |
Recreation
Recreation is an activity of leisure, leisure being discretionary time. The "need to do something for recreation" is an essential element of human biology and psychology. Recreational activities are often done for enjoyment, amusement, or pleasure and are considered to be "fun".
The term "recreation" appears to have been used in English first in the late 14th century, first in the sense of "refreshment or curing of a sick person", and derived turn from Latin ("re": "again", "creare": "to create, bring forth, beget").
Humans spend their time in activities of daily living, work, sleep, social duties, and leisure, the latter time being free from prior commitments to physiologic or social needs, a prerequisite of recreation. Leisure has increased with increased longevity and, for many, with decreased hours spent for physical and economic survival, yet others argue that time pressure has increased for modern people, as they are committed to too many tasks. Other factors that account for an increased role of recreation are affluence, population trends, and increased commercialization of recreational offerings. While one perception is that leisure is just "spare time", time not consumed by the necessities of living, another holds that leisure is a force that allows individuals to consider and reflect on the values and realities that are missed in the activities of daily life, thus being an essential element of personal development and civilization. This direction of thought has even been extended to the view that leisure is the purpose of work, and a reward in itself, and "leisure life" reflects the values and character of a nation. Leisure is considered a human right under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Recreation is difficult to separate from the general concept of play, which is usually the term for children's recreational activity. Children may playfully imitate activities that reflect the realities of adult life. It has been proposed that play or recreational activities are outlets of or expression of excess energy, channeling it into socially acceptable activities that fulfill individual as well as societal needs, without need for compulsion, and providing satisfaction and pleasure for the participant. A traditional view holds that work is supported by recreation, recreation being useful to "recharge the battery" so that work performance is improved.
Work, an activity generally performed out of economic necessity and useful for society and organized within the economic framework, however can also be pleasurable and may be self-imposed thus blurring the distinction to recreation. Many activities in entertainment are work for one person and recreation for another. Over time, a recreational activity may become work, and vice versa. Thus, for a musician, playing an instrument may be at one time a profession, and at another a recreation.
Similarly, it may be difficult to separate education from recreation as in the case of recreational mathematics.
Recreation has many health benefits, and, accordingly, Therapeutic Recreation has been developed to take advantage of this effect. The National Council for Therapeutic Recreation Certification (NCTRC) is the nationally recognized credentialing organization for the profession of Therapeutic Recreation. Professionals in the field of Therapeutic Recreation who are certified by the NCTRC are called "Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialists". The job title "Recreation Therapist" is identified in the U.S. Dept of Labor's Occupation Outlook. Such therapy is applied in rehabilitation, psychiatric facilities for youth and adults, and in the care of the elderly, the disabled, or people with chronic diseases. Recreational physical activity is important to reduce obesity, and the risk of osteoporosis and of cancer, most significantly in men that of colon and prostate, and in women that of the breast; however, not all malignancies are reduced as outdoor recreation has been linked to a higher risk of melanoma. Extreme adventure recreation naturally carries its own hazards.
Recreation is an essential part of human life and finds many different forms which are shaped naturally by individual interests but also by the surrounding social construction. Recreational activities can be communal or solitary, active or passive, outdoors or indoors, healthy or harmful, and useful for society or detrimental. A significant section of recreational activities are designated as hobbies which are activities done for pleasure on a regular basis. Some recreational activities – such as gambling, recreational drug use, or delinquent activities – may violate societal norms and laws. A list of typical activities could be almost endless
Participatory dance whether it be a folk dance, a social dance, a group dance such as a line, circle, chain or square dance, or a partner dance such as is common in western Western ballroom dancing, is undertaken primarily for a common purpose, such as entertainment, social interaction or exercise, of participants rather than onlookers. The many forms of dance provide recreation for all age groups and cultures.
Any structured form of play could become a game. Games are played sometimes purely for recreation, sometimes for achievement or monetary rewards as well. They can be played alone, in teams, or online; by amateurs or by professionals as part of their work for entertainment of the audience. The games could be Board games, Puzzles, computer or Video games.
Writing may involve letters, journals and weblogs.
In the US, about half of all adults read one or more books for pleasure each year. About 5% read more than 50 books per year.Elocution is another way to use literature for recreation.
Music is composed and performed for many purposes, ranging from recreation, religious or ceremonial purposes, or for entertainment. When music was only available through sheet music scores, such as during the Classical and Romantic eras in Europe, music lovers would buy the sheet music of their favourite pieces and songs so that they could perform them at home on their instruments.
Bricolage and DIY are some of the terms describing the building, modifying, or repairing things without the direct aid of experts or professionals. Academic research has described DIY as behaviors where "individuals engage raw and semi-raw materials and parts to produce, transform, or reconstruct material possessions, including those drawn from the natural environment (e.g., landscaping)". DIY behavior can be triggered by various motivations previously categorized as marketplace motivations (economic benefits, lack of product availability, lack of product quality, need for customization), and identity enhancement (craftsmanship, empowerment, community seeking, uniqueness). Typical interests enjoyed by the maker culture include engineering-oriented pursuits such as home improvement, electronics, robotics, 3-D printing, and the use of Computer Numeric Control tools, as well as more traditional activities such as metalworking, woodworking, and, mainly, its predecessor, traditional arts and crafts. The subculture stresses a cut-and-paste approach to standardized hobbyist technologies, and encourages cookbook re-use of designs published on websites and maker-oriented publications. There is a strong focus on using and learning practical skills and applying them to reference designs. There is also growing work on equity and the maker culture.
Recreation engaged in out of doors, most commonly in natural settings. The activities themselves — such as fishing, hunting, backpacking, and horseback riding — characteristically dependent on the environment practiced in. While many of these activities can be classified as sports, they do not all demand that a participant be an athlete. Competition generally is less stressed than in individual or team sports organized into opposing squads in pursuit of a trophy or championship. When the activity involves exceptional excitement, physical challenge, or risk, it is sometimes referred to as "adventure recreation" or "adventure training", rather than an extreme sport.
Other traditional examples of outdoor recreational activities include hiking, camping, mountaineering, cycling, canoeing, caving, kayaking, rafting, rock climbing, running, sailing, skiing, sky diving and surfing. As new pursuits, often hybrids of prior ones, emerge, they gain their own identities, such as coasteering, canyoning, fastpacking, and plogging.
Many recreational activities are organized, typically by public institutions, voluntary group-work agencies, private groups supported by membership fees, and commercial enterprises. Examples of each of these are the National Park Service, the YMCA, the Kiwanis, and Walt Disney World. Public space such as parks and beaches are essential venues for many recreational activities and Tourism has recognized that many visitors are specifically attracted by recreational offerings. In particular, beach and waterfront promenades such as the beach area of Venice Beach in California, the Promenade de la Croisette in Cannes, the Promenade des Anglais in Nice or the lungomare of Barcola with Miramare Castle in Trieste are important recreational areas for the city population on the one hand and on the other also important tourist destinations with all advantages and disadvantages for the locals.
In support of recreational activities government has taken an important role in their creation, maintenance, and organization, and whole industries have developed merchandise or services. Recreation-related business is an important factor in the economy; it has been estimated that the outdoor recreation sector alone contributes $730 billion annually to the U.S. economy and generates 6.5 million jobs. Research has shown that practicing creative leisure activities is interrelated with the emotional creativity.
A recreation center is a place for recreational activities usually administered by a municipal government agency. Swimming, basketball, weightlifting, volleyball and kids' play areas are very common.
A recreation specialist would be expected to meet the recreational needs of a community or assigned interest group. Educational institutions offer courses that lead to a degree as a Bachelor of Arts in recreation management. People with such degrees often work in parks and recreation centers in towns, on community projects and activities. Networking with instructors, budgeting, and evaluation of continuing programs are common job duties.
In the United States, most states have a professional organization for continuing education and certification in recreation management. The National Recreation and Park Association administers a certification program called the CPRP (Certified Park and Recreation Professional) that is considered a national standard for professional recreation specialist practices.
Since the beginning of the 2000s, there are more and more online booking / ticketing platforms for recreational activities that emerged. Many of them leveraged the ever-growing prevalence of internet, mobile devices and e-payments to build comprehensive online booking solutions. The first successful batch includes tourist recreation activities platform like TripAdvisor that went public. More examples of recreational activities booking platform includes Klook and KKDay that came to the market after 2010s. For recreational activities within the home city of people, there are bigger breakthrough in China like DianPing, Reubird and FunNow. The emergence of these platforms infers the rising needs for recreation and entertainment from the growing urban citizens worldwide. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=25381 |
Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider, also known as Lara Croft: Tomb Raider between 2001 and 2007, is a media franchise that originated with an action-adventure video game series created by British gaming company Core Design. Formerly owned by Eidos Interactive, then by Square Enix after their acquisition of Eidos in 2009, the franchise focuses on fictional British archaeologist Lara Croft, who travels around the world searching for lost artefacts and infiltrating dangerous tombs and ruins. Gameplay generally focuses on exploration of environments, solving puzzles, navigating hostile environments filled with traps, and fighting enemies. Additional media has been developed for the franchise in the form of film adaptations, comics and novels.
Development of "Tomb Raider", the first video game, began in 1994; it was released in October 1996. Its critical and commercial success prompted Core Design to develop a new game annually for the next four years, which put a strain on staff. The sixth game, "", faced difficulties during development and was considered a failure at release. This prompted Eidos to switch development duties to Crystal Dynamics, which has been the series' primary developer since. Other developers have contributed to spin-off titles and ports of mainline entries.
"Tomb Raider" games have sold over 75 million copies worldwide. The series has generally met with critical acclaim, and is noted as one of the pioneers of the action-adventure genre. Lara Croft has become one of the most recognisable video game protagonists, winning accolades and earning places on the Walk of Game and "Guinness World Records". Alongside being praised for pioneering female characters in video games, she has been the subject of controversy due to her sex appeal being used for marketing.
The first six "Tomb Raider" games were developed by Core Design, a British video game development company owned by Eidos Interactive. After the sixth game in the series released to a lukewarm reception in 2003, development was transferred to American studio Crystal Dynamics, who have handled the main series since. Since 2001, other developers have contributed either to ports of mainline games or with the development of spin-off titles.
The first entry in the series "Tomb Raider" was released in 1996 for personal computers (PC), PlayStation and Sega Saturn consoles. The Saturn and PlayStation versions were released in Japan in 1997. Its sequel, "Tomb Raider II", launched in 1997, again for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation. A month before release, Eidos finalised a deal with Sony Computer Entertainment to keep the console version of "Tomb Raider II" and future games exclusive to PlayStation until the year 2000. The PlayStation version was released in Japan in 1998. "Tomb Raider III" launched in 1998. As with "Tomb Raider II", the PlayStation version released in Japan the following year. The fourth consecutive title in the series, "", released in 1999. In 2000, with the end of the PlayStation exclusivity deal, the game also released on the Dreamcast. In Japan, both console versions released the following year. "Tomb Raider Chronicles" released in 2000 on the same platforms as "The Last Revelation", with the PlayStation version's Japanese release as before coming the following year.
After a three-year gap, "" was released on the Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 2 (PS2) in 2003. The PlayStation 2 version was released in Japan that same year. The next entry, "Tomb Raider Legend", was released worldwide in 2006 for the Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Xbox 360, PlayStation Portable (PSP), GameCube, Game Boy Advance (GBA) and Nintendo DS. The Xbox 360, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable versions were released in Japan the same year. A year later, a remake of the first game titled "" was released worldwide in 2007 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Xbox, Xbox 360 and the Wii. The next entry, "", was released in 2008 on the Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 (PS3), PlayStation 2, Xbox 360, Wii and DS. The PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Xbox 360 and Wii versions were released in Japan in 2009.
In 2011, "The Tomb Raider Trilogy" was released for PlayStation 3 as a compilation release that included "Anniversary" and "Legend" remastered in HD resolution, along with the PlayStation 3 version of "Underworld". The disc includes avatars for PlayStation Home, a Theme Pack, new Trophies, Developer's Diary videos for the three games, and trailers for "Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light" as bonus content.
A reboot of the series, titled "Tomb Raider", was released worldwide in 2013 for the Microsoft, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Its sequel, "Rise of the Tomb Raider", was released in 2015 on the Xbox 360 and Xbox One. The game was part of a timed exclusivity deal with Microsoft. Versions for the PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Windows were released in 2016. In November 2017, Square Enix announced that "Shadow of the Tomb Raider" would be revealed in 2018. In March 2018, "Shadow of the Tomb Raider" was confirmed by Square Enix. It was released worldwide on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows on 14 September 2018. An arcade game based on this incarnation was announced in 2018, to be released by Bandai Namco Amusements.
The first spin-off title in the series was a game for the Game Boy Color (GBC) titled "Tomb Raider", developed by Core Design and released in 2000. Its sequel, "", was released in 2001 for the GBC. In 2002, a new game for the Game Boy Advance called "", was developed by Ubi Soft Milan and published by Ubi Soft. In 2003, four "Tomb Raider" titles for mobile phones were released. A platform-puzzler for mobile devices, "Lara Croft Go", was released in 2015.
Beginning in 2010, a subseries titled "Lara Croft" was in development, with different gameplay than the main series and existing in its own continuity. The first game, "Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light", was released in 2010 as a downloadable title for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. It was followed by "Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris", released for retail and download in 2014 for PC, PS4 and Xbox One. An entry for mobile devices, an endless runner platformer titled "", was released in 2015.
"The Angel of Darkness" was originally the first game in a trilogy, with its sequel titled "The Lost Dominion". While "The Lost Dominion" was undergoing preliminary development, the negative reception of "The Angel of Darkness" caused the trilogy to be scrapped. With Eidos' approval, Core Design began development of an updated edition of the first game for the PSP called "Tomb Raider: The Anniversary Edition" in late 2005, with a projected release date of Christmas 2006. Development continued while Core Design staff were working on the platformer "Free Running". When Core Design was sold to Rebellion Developments, Eidos requested the project's cancellation. It was suggested by staff that Eidos did not want to let outside developers handle the franchise.
Lara Croft is the main protagonist and playable character of the series: she travels the world in search of forgotten artifacts and locations, frequently connected to supernatural powers. While her biography has changed throughout the series, her shared traits are her origins as the only daughter and heir of the aristocratic Croft family. She is portrayed as intelligent, athletic, elegant, fluent in multiple languages, and determined to fulfill her own goals at any cost. She has brown eyes and brown hair worn in a braid or ponytail. The character's classic outfit consists of a turquoise singlet, light brown shorts, calf-high boots, and tall white socks. Recurring accessories include fingerless gloves, a backpack, a utility belt with holsters on either side, and twin pistols. Later games have multiple new outfits for her.
Lara Croft has been voiced by five actresses in the video game series: Shelley Blond, Judith Gibbens, Jonell Elliot, Keeley Hawes, and Camilla Luddington. In other media, Croft was voiced by Minnie Driver in the animated series and portrayed by Angelina Jolie and Alicia Vikander in feature films. Multiple models and body doubles have portrayed Croft in promotional material up until the reboot in 2013. Eight different real-life models have portrayed her at promotional events.
The circumstances of her first adventures, along with the drive behind her adventures, differ depending on the continuity. In the original continuities, she is on a plane that crashes in the Himalayas: her journey back to civilization against the odds help to begin her journey towards her adult life as an adventuress and treasure hunter. In the original continuity, after her ordeal in the Himalayas, she left behind her privileged life and made a living writing about her exploits as an adventurer, mercenary, and cat burglar. Shortly after these books she was disowned by her family. In "The Last Revelation", Lara was caught in a collapsing pyramid at the game's end, leaving her fate unknown: this was because the staff, exhausted from four years of non-stop development, wanted to move on from the character. "Chronicles" was told through a series of flashbacks at a wake for Lara, while "The Angel of Darkness" was set an unspecified time after "The Last Revelation", with Lara revealed to have survived. The circumstances of her survival were originally part of the game, but were cut due to time constraints and the pushing of the publisher Eidos.
In the "Legends" continuity, her mother Amelia was involved in the crash, and she is partially driven by the need to discover the truth behind her mother's disappearance and vindicate her father's theories about Amelia's disappearance. This obsession with the truth is present in "Anniversary", and ends up bringing the world to the brink of destruction during the events of "Underworld". Her father is referred to as Lord Henshingly Croft in the original games and Lord Richard Croft in the "Legends" continuity. The "Lara Croft" subseries take place within their own separate continuity, devoting itself to adventures similar to earlier games while the main series goes in a different stylistic direction.
In the 2013 reboot continuity, Lara's mother vanished at an early age, and her father became obsessed with finding the secrets of immortality, eventually resulting in an apparent suicide. Lara distanced herself from her father's memory, believing like many others that his obsession had caused him to go mad. After studying at university, Lara gets an opportunity to work on an archaeology program, in the search for the mythic kingdom of Yamatai. The voyage to find the kingdom results in a shipwreck on an island, which is later discovered to be Yamatai, however the island is also home to savage bandits, who were victims of previous wrecks. Lara's attempts to find a way off the island lead her to discover that the island itself is stopping them from leaving, which she discovered is linked to the still living soul of the Sun Queen Himiko. Lara must find a way to banish the spirit of the sun queen in order to get home. The aftermath of the events of the game causes Lara to see that her father was right, and that she had needlessly distanced herself from him. She decides to finish his work, and uncover the mysteries of the world.
The gameplay of "Tomb Raider" is primarily based around an action-adventure framework, with Lara navigating environments and solving mechanical and environmental puzzles, in addition to fighting enemies and avoiding traps. These puzzles, primarily set within ancient tombs and temples, can extend across multiple rooms and areas within a level. Lara can swim through water, a rarity in games at the time that has continued through the series. According to original software engineer and later studio manager Gavin Rummery, the original set-up of interlinking rooms was inspired by Egyptian multi-roomed tombs, particularly the tomb of Tutankhamun. The feel of the gameplay was intended to evoke that of the 1989 video game "Prince of Persia". In the original games, Lara utilised a "bulldozer" steering set-up, with two buttons pushing her forward and back and two buttons steering her left and right, and in combat Lara automatically locked onto enemies when they came within range. The camera automatically adjusts depending on Lara's action, but defaults to a third-person perspective in most instances. This basic formula remained unchanged through the first series of games. "Angel of Darkness" added stealth elements.
For "Legend", the control scheme and character movement was redesigned to provide a smooth and fluid experience. One of the key elements present was how buttons for different actions cleanly transitioned into different actions, along with these moves being incorporated into combat to create effects such as stunning or knocking down enemies. Quick-time events were added into certain segments within each level, and many of the puzzles were based around sophisticated in-game physics. "Anniversary", while going through the same locales of the original game, was rebuilt using the gameplay and environmental puzzles of "Legend". For "Underworld", the gameplay was redesigned around a phrase the staff had put to themselves: "What Could Lara Do?". Using this set-up, they created a greater variety of moves and greater interaction with the environment, along with expanding and improving combat.
The gameplay underwent another major change for the 2013 reboot. Gameplay altered from progression through linear levels to navigating an open world, with hunting for supplies and upgrading equipment and weapons becoming a key part of gameplay, yet tombs were mostly optional and platforming was less present in comparison to combat. The combat was redesigned to be similar to the "Uncharted" series: the previous reticle-based lock-on mechanics were replaced by a free-roaming aim. "Rise of the Tomb Raider" built on the 2013 reboot's foundation, adding dynamic weather systems, reintroducing swimming, and increasing the prevalence of non-optional tombs with more platforming elements.
The concept for "Tomb Raider" originated in 1994 at Core Design, a British game development studio. One of the people involved in its creation was Toby Gard, who was mostly responsible for creating the character of Lara Croft. Gard originally envisioned the character as a man: company co-founder Jeremy Heath-Smith was worried the character would be seen as derivative of Indiana Jones, so Gard changed the character's gender. Her design underwent multiple revisions and redrafts during early development. The game proved an unexpected commercial success, reversing Eidos' then-bleak financial situation. After the success of "Tomb Raider", work began on a sequel. Gard was no longer given full creative control, and it was stated by development staff that he was both saddened and disappointed by the use of Lara Croft's sex appeal in marketing. Gard left Core Design in 1997 to found his own gaming company Confounding Factor, and was replaced by Stuart Atkinson. "Tomb Raider II" proved a larger commercial success than the original.
Over the next three years, Core Design was committed to delivering a "Tomb Raider" game annually, putting considerable strain on staff. For this reason, and the feeling that they had exhausted the series' potential, the developers tried to kill the character off. This did not work, and while a fifth game was created, the team stated that they were not fully invested in its development. During development on the fifth game, the team split into two divisions, with one division working on the next-generation sequel "The Angel of Darkness". During this period, multiple handheld titles were developed by both Core Design and third-party developers. The production of "The Angel of Darkness" was beset by problems from an early stage, with the team wanting to create a grander game to compete with contemporary action-adventure games. Under pressure from Eidos, key sections of the game needed to be cut, and it was released before the team felt it was ready. The game received negative reactions from critics, and was cited by Paramount as the reason for the second "Tomb Raider" film underperforming.
After the critical backlash of "The Angel of Darkness", Eidos decided to take production of the "Tomb Raider" series out of Core Design's hands and give it to another subsidiary studio. Production of the next game was given to Crystal Dynamics, a studio that had made its name with the "Legacy of Kain" series. Eidos CEO Ian Livingstone stated that while the critical failure of "The Angel of Darkness" was a major reason for taking the series away from Core Design, the decision was motivated by their inordinate struggles with developing for the PlayStation 2, and by how many members of the Core team had complained that they were "burnt out" on "Tomb Raider". He added that "For a UK company, moving the development of its prized asset from Derby to California was a big decision to make but, as it turned out, absolutely the right one to make." One of the main priorities for both Eidos and Crystal Dynamics was to regain the fanbase's trust in the brand, along with helping the series reclaim the status and selling power it had before "The Angel of Darkness" release. Their main goal was to put Lara back inside tombs, with their physics-based engine enabling more intricate puzzles. After "Legend" was finished, the team decided to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the series by remaking the original game, rebuilding the environments and redesigning the story to fit in with the events and gameplay of "Legend". Alongside the development of "Anniversary", an entry for seventh-generation hardware was in development, although it used established gaming architecture from "Legend" and this caused problems for the development team. In 2009, the year after the release of "Underworld", Eidos was bought by Square Enix and later renamed Square Enix Europe, giving Square Enix ownership of the "Tomb Raider" franchise.
Alongside "Underworld", the team decided to create a new subseries that featured the character of Lara Croft while not using the "Tomb Raider" moniker and using the aesthetics of the "Legend" continuity. During this period, a second development team was working on a second reboot of the series and character, which would put emphasis on a darker and gritter interpretation of the character. Another priority was presenting Lara as a more human character, putting her in vulnerable situations, and showing how she begins her journey to becoming a "tomb raider" through both narrative and gameplay. A sequel, eventually revealed as "Rise of the Tomb Raider", was confirmed as being in development a few months after the reboot's release. In response to criticisms about a lack of classic tombs, more optional and story-based tombs were incorporated into the game. It continued the team's new portrayal of Lara, showing more sides to her character and her growing obsession with discovering the truth. In addition to this, the "Lara Croft" subseries was continued in multiple titles: the console game "Temple of Osiris", and mobile title "Relic Run". In addition, the mobile puzzle game "Lara Croft Go" was created to both give a different gameplay experience and evoke classic "Tomb Raider" games.
The original "Tomb Raider" theme was composed by Nathan McCree. He created the original theme music after having discussions with Gard about the character of Lara Croft. Having decided to use Classical English music as an inspiration, he decided to create something simple for the theme song. Its simplicity made rearrangements and orchestrations easy. For his work on the first three "Tomb Raider" games, he was given fairly minimal briefs, and for "Tomb Raider III" he was working on the game as a freelancer as he had left the company. For "The Last Revelation", Peter Connelly replaced Nathan McCree as the main composer, using McCree's music as a basis for his work. He composed the opening theme for "The Last Revelation", saying that the opening melody came to him out of the blue, and added Egyptian motifs to fit in with the game's setting. "Chronicles" was originally going to have a sizeable original opening theme, but due to time constraints the majority of it ended up being discarded, much to Connelly's later regret. Only the opening segment survived. The music for "Angel of Darkness", composed by Connelly and Martin Iveson, was the one element of production that did not encounter problems, as recording was finished before the major content cuts happened. Scored using a full orchestra as opposed to the synthesised instruments of previous titles, it was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra.
For "Legend", Troels Brun Folmann composed the music and managed the sound effects. Alongside composing a large amount of music for the game, he created micro-scores for small segments within gameplay. Folmann returned to score "Anniversary", doing re-orchestrations of the original score, along with expanding them. For "Underworld", Folmann handled the main theme while Colin O'Malley handled the rest of the soundtrack, which featured far less looping music than "Legend". The 2013 reboot was scored by Jason Graves, who had become known through his work on the "Dead Space" franchise. Along with his orchestral style, he created a special instrument to create discordant sounds within the music, and musical elements from around the globe to represent the inhabitants of the game's island location. For "Rise of the Tomb Raider", the composer was Bobby Tahouri, who had previously worked as assistant composer on video games and theatrical films. "Guardian of Light" used no original music, instead using extracts from the music of "Legend", "Anniversary" and "Underworld". The music for "Temple of Osiris" was written by Will Roget II, who had originally worked on licensed video games including "". "Temple of Osiris" was the first title in the "Lara Croft" subseries to have an original score, using Egyptian and Middle Eastern musical elements while creating a new main theme that could be used in future "Lara Croft" games.
The first "Tomb Raider" used a custom-built game engine, as other equivalent engines available to Core Design at the time were not versatile enough to realise the team's vision. The engine was designed by Paul Douglas, who handled the game's artificial intelligence (AI) and the three-dimensional (3D) graphics. The choice of a 3D game was influenced by the team's opinion that the game type was under-represented when compared to first-person shooters such as "Doom". Its 3D style meant multiple elements were difficult to implement, including the AI and camera control. Another noted aspect was the multi-layered levels, as compared to equivalent 3D action-adventure games of the time which were limited to a flat-floor system. Lara's movements were hand-animated and coordinated rather than created using motion capture. The reason for this was that the team wanted uniformity in her movement, which was not possible with motion capture technology of the time. For "Tomb Raider II", minor upgrades were made to the engine, with the main improvements being to the AI and smoothing out Lara's model. "Tomb Raider III" underwent major revisions, including rewrites to the graphics engine and improvements in the lighting and AI systems. The engine was given a major overhaul for "The Last Revelation". The first five games make use of full-motion video cutscenes. For the first three games, they were primarily used as transitional periods depicting Lara moving from one level to another or one location to another. For "Chronicles", fairly minor revisions were made.
For "Angel of Darkness", a new engine was built from scratch, but due to being unfamiliar and unused to the technology of the PS2, the team encountered multiple problems such as needing to remove areas and characters due to polygon restrictions. Due to the deadlines imposed, the team were forced to cut corners, meaning that the game reached store shelves in a poor condition. For "Legend", the staff at Crystal Dynamics created a proprietary engine from the ground up, named the Crystal Engine. The engine and the game's content were developed in parallel, leading to scheduling and workload difficulties. "Anniversary" used the same engine as "Legend". "Underworld" used a new engine built specifically for the game, although its basic codebase was shared with "Legend". In "Underworld", Lara's movements were animated using full motion capture, with Olympic gymnast Heidi Moneymaker providing the character's animations. For the 2013 reboot, a new engine called Foundation was created for the game. Motion capture was again used for the 2013 reboot. An updated version of the Foundation engine was used again for "Rise of the Tomb Raider". For both games in the new reboot, Lara's hair movements were made more realistic using a technology called TressFX in "Tomb Raider" and PureHair "Rise of the Tomb Raider".
Both the character of Lara Croft and the concepts behind the "Tomb Raider" franchise have evolved thematically and in popularity since the first game's release in 1996. The success of the game series led to several commercial tie-ins that further catapulted to cultural icon status, including feature spin-off games, feature films, and comics.
Upon release, "Tomb Raider" became an unexpected success, reaching the top of sales charts and remaining for a time. It went on to sell over 7 million units worldwide. "Tomb Raider II" was a greater commercial success, with debut sales higher than the first game and total worldwide sales of 8 million units. Despite varying critical receptions, series sales continued to be strong until the release of "Chronicles", which sold 1.5 million units. While "The Angel of Darkness" met with initial strong sales, it failed to meet expectations. Since the release of "Legend", the series has picked up in sales and popularity. The 2013 reboot sold 11 million units, becoming the most commercially successful "Tomb Raider" title to date. As of 2019, the series has sold over 75 million units worldwide. In addition to the games' success, the grossed $275 million, making it the highest-grossing video game adaptation until being overtaken in 2010 by "". Additionally, the first "Tomb Raider" comic book issue was the best-selling comic book of 1999 and the 2001 film adaptation had the biggest opening weekend (US$47.7m) for an action film with a female lead since "Aliens" in 1986.
Multiple video game journalists, including "Electronic Gaming Monthly"s Crispin Boyer in 1997 and Eurogamer's Martyn Carroll in 2008, have cited the series as a pioneer in the medium, both laying the foundations for and popularising action-adventure and platforming games. Carrol credited the series for bringing video gaming out into the cultural mainstream. In a different article, Eurogamer cited "The Angel of Darkness" as a pioneer of mixing different video game genres. The public's reactions to the series over the years have conversely had a profound effect upon the series' direction and identity, as noted in a 2008 review of the series' history by "Develop". In 2006, "Tomb Raider" was voted one of Britain's top 10 designs in the Great British Design Quest organised by the BBC and the Design Museum. The game appeared in a list of British design icons which included Concorde, Mini, World Wide Web, "Grand Theft Auto", K2 telephone box, London tube map, AEC Routemaster bus, and the Supermarine Spitfire.
The character of Lara Croft has similarly enjoyed popularity, standing out during her initial appearance in the male-dominated video game market, and continuing to stand out throughout the series' history. After her debut in 1996, Lara Croft was featured on the front cover of British culture magazine "The Face", a position previously held by real-life celebrities. She similarly was featured in Irish rock band U2's PopMart Tour. The character was inducted onto the Walk of Game in 2006, and earned multiple mentions in the "Guinness World Records": she was recognised as the "most successful human video game heroine" in 2006, and earned six awards in 2010. As part of the latter honours, "Guinness World Records" editor Gaz Deaves said that the character "epitomises all that's great about video gaming". In an article for 1UP.com, Jeremy Parish said that Lara's sex appeal was the main draw for early fans, a facet Eidos exploited for marketing and attempted to emulate in other products. He cited other writers' statements that her popularity stemmed from player empathy with her ability to survive tough situations, alongside contrasting against weaker female characters such as Princess Peach. However, alongside this praise, she has divided opinion as to her character design and consequent sexuality: particularly among feminist critics, she is both hailed as an empowering figure for women, and a negative role model due to her improbable proportions. Later, apparently more "realistic" redesigns lessened these criticisms to a degree. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30361 |
Transition metal
In chemistry, the term transition metal (or transition element) has three possible definitions:
English chemist Charles Bury (1890–1968) first used the word "transition" in this context in 1921, when he referred to a "transition series of elements" during the change of an inner layer of electrons (for example "n" = 3 in the 4th row of the periodic table) from a stable group of 8 to one of 18, or from 18 to 32. These elements are now known as the d-block.
In the "d"-block, the atoms of the elements have between one and ten "d" electrons.
The elements of groups 4–11 are generally recognized as transition metals, justified by their typical chemistry, i.e. a large range of complex ions in various oxidation states, colored complexes, and catalytic properties either as the element or as ions (or both). Sc and Y in group 3 are also generally recognized as transition metals. However, the elements La–Lu and Ac–Lr and group 12 attract different definitions from different authors.
Zinc, cadmium, and mercury are generally excluded from the transition metals, as they have the electronic configuration [ ]"d"10s2, with no incomplete "d" shell. In the oxidation state +2, the ions have the electronic configuration [ ]…d10. Although these elements can exist in other oxidation states, including the +1 oxidation state, as in the diatomic ion , they still have a complete "d" shell in these oxidation states. The group 12 elements Zn, Cd and Hg may therefore, under certain criteria, be classed as post-transition metals in this case. However, it is often convenient to include these elements in a discussion of the transition elements. For example, when discussing the crystal field stabilization energy of first-row transition elements, it is convenient to also include the elements calcium and zinc, as both and have a value of zero, against which the value for other transition metal ions may be compared. Another example occurs in the Irving–Williams series of stability constants of complexes.
The recent (though disputed and so far not reproduced independently) synthesis of mercury(IV) fluoride () has been taken by some to reinforce the view that the group 12 elements should be considered transition metals, but some authors still consider this compound to be exceptional. Copernicium is expected to be able to use its d-electrons for chemistry as its 6d subshell is destabilised by strong relativistic effects due to its very high atomic number, and as such is expected to have transition-metal-like behaviour when it shows higher oxidation states than +2 (which are not definitely known for the lighter group 12 elements).
Although meitnerium, darmstadtium, and roentgenium are within the d-block and are expected to behave as transition metals analogous to their lighter congeners iridium, platinum, and gold, this has not yet been experimentally confirmed.
Early transition metals are on the left side of the periodic table from group 3 to group 7. Late transition metals are on the right side of the d-block, from group 8 to 11 (and 12 if it is counted as transition metals).
The general electronic configuration of the "d"-block elements is [Inert gas] ("n" − 1)"d"1–10"n s"0–2. The period 6 and 7 transition metals also add ("n" − 2)"f"0–14 electrons, which are omitted from the tables below.
The Madelung rule predicts that the typical electronic structure of transition metal atoms can be written as [inert gas]"ns"2("n" − 1)"dm" where the inner "d" orbital is predicted to be filled after the valence-shell's "s" orbital is filled. This rule is however only approximate – it only holds for some of the transition elements, and only then in their neutral ground state.
The "d"-sub-shell is the next-to-last sub-shell and is denoted as -sub-shell. The number of s electrons in the outermost s sub-shell is generally one or two except palladium (Pd), with no electron in that "s"-sub shell in its ground state. The "s"-sub-shell in the valence shell is represented as the "ns" sub-shell, e.g. 4s. In the periodic table, the transition metals are present in eight groups (4 to 11), with some authors including some elements in groups 3 or 12.
The elements in group 3 have an "ns"2("n" − 1)"d"1 configuration. The first transition series is present in the 4th period, and starts after Ca ("Z" = 20) of group-2 with the configuration [Ar]4"s"2, or scandium (Sc), the first element of group 3 with atomic number "Z" = 21 and configuration [Ar]4"s"23"d"1, depending on the definition used. As we move from left to right, electrons are added to the same "d"-sub-shell till it is complete. The element of group 11 in the first transition series is copper (Cu) with an atypical configuration [Ar]4"s"13"d"10. Despite the filled d subshell in metallic copper it nevertheless forms a stable ion with an incomplete d subshell. Since the electrons added fill the orbitals, the properties of the "d"-block elements are quite different from those of "s" and "p" block elements in which the filling occurs either in "s" or in "p"-orbitals of the valence shell.
The electronic configuration of the individual elements present in all the d-block series are given below:
A careful look at the electronic configuration of the elements reveals that there are certain exceptions, for example Cr and Cu. These are either because of the symmetry or nuclear-electron and electron-electron force.
The orbitals that are involved in the transition metals are very significant because they influence such properties as magnetic character, variable oxidation states, formation of colored compounds etc. The valence and orbitals have very little contribution in this regard since they hardly change in the moving from left to the right in a transition series.
In transition metals, there is a greater horizontal similarities in the properties of the elements in a period in comparison to the periods in which the "d"-orbitals are not involved. This is because in a transition series, the valence shell electronic configuration of the elements do not change. However, there are some group similarities as well.
There are a number of properties shared by the transition elements that are not found in other elements, which results from the partially filled "d" shell. These include
Most transition metals can be bound to a variety of ligands, allowing for a wide variety of transition metal complexes.
Colour in transition-series metal compounds is generally due to electronic transitions of two principal types.
A metal-to-ligand charge transfer (MLCT) transition will be most likely when the metal is in a low oxidation state and the ligand is easily reduced.
In general charge transfer transitions result in more intense colours than d-d transitions.
In centrosymmetric complexes, such as octahedral complexes, "d"-"d" transitions are forbidden by the Laporte rule and only occur because of vibronic coupling in which a molecular vibration occurs together with a "d-d" transition. Tetrahedral complexes have somewhat more intense colour because mixing "d" and "p" orbitals is possible when there is no centre of symmetry, so transitions are not pure "d-d" transitions. The molar absorptivity (ε) of bands caused by "d-d" transitions are relatively low, roughly in the range 5-500 M−1cm−1 (where M = mol dm−3). Some "d"-"d" transitions are spin forbidden. An example occurs in octahedral, high-spin complexes of manganese(II),
which has a "d"5 configuration in which all five electron has parallel spins; the colour of such complexes is much weaker than in complexes with spin-allowed transitions. Many compounds of manganese(II) appear almost colourless. The spectrum of shows a maximum molar absorptivity of about 0.04 M−1cm−1 in the visible spectrum.
A characteristic of transition metals is that they exhibit two or more oxidation states, usually differing by one. For example, compounds of vanadium are known in all oxidation states between −1, such as , and +5, such as .
Main group elements in groups 13 to 18 also exhibit multiple oxidation states. The "common" oxidation states of these elements typically differ by two instead of one. For example, compounds of gallium in oxidation states +1 and +3 exist in which there is a single gallium atom. No compound of Ga(II) is known: any such compound would have an unpaired electron and would behave as a free radical and be destroyed rapidly. The only compounds in which gallium has a formal oxidation state of +2 are dimeric compounds, such as , which contain a Ga-Ga bond formed from the unpaired electron on each Ga atom. Thus the main difference in oxidation states, between transition elements and other elements is that oxidation states are known in which there is a single atom of the element and one or more unpaired electrons.
The maximum oxidation state in the first row transition metals is equal to the number of valence electrons from titanium (+4) up to manganese (+7), but decreases in the later elements. In the second row, the maximum occurs with ruthenium (+8), and in the third row, the maximum occurs with iridium (+9). In compounds such as and , the elements achieve a stable configuration by covalent bonding.
The lowest oxidation states are exhibited in metal carbonyl complexes such as (oxidation state zero) and (oxidation state −2) in which the 18-electron rule is obeyed. These complexes are also covalent.
Ionic compounds are mostly formed with oxidation states +2 and +3. In aqueous solution, the ions are hydrated by (usually) six water molecules arranged octahedrally.
Transition metal compounds are paramagnetic when they have one or more unpaired "d" electrons. In octahedral complexes with between four and seven "d" electrons both high spin and low spin states are possible. Tetrahedral transition metal complexes such as are high spin because the crystal field splitting is small so that the energy to be gained by virtue of the electrons being in lower energy orbitals is always less than the energy needed to pair up the spins. Some compounds are diamagnetic. These include octahedral, low-spin, "d"6 and square-planar "d"8 complexes. In these cases, crystal field splitting is such that all the electrons are paired up.
Ferromagnetism occurs when individual atoms are paramagnetic and the spin vectors are aligned parallel to each other in a crystalline material. Metallic iron and the alloy alnico are examples of ferromagnetic materials involving transition metals. Anti-ferromagnetism is another example of a magnetic property arising from a particular alignment of individual spins in the solid state.
The transition metals and their compounds are known for their homogeneous and heterogeneous catalytic activity. This activity is ascribed to their ability to adopt multiple oxidation states and to form complexes. Vanadium(V) oxide (in the contact process), finely divided iron (in the Haber process), and nickel (in catalytic hydrogenation) are some of the examples. Catalysts at a solid surface (nanomaterial-based catalysts) involve the formation of bonds between reactant molecules and atoms of the surface of the catalyst (first row transition metals utilize 3d and 4s electrons for bonding). This has the effect of increasing the concentration of the reactants at the catalyst surface and also weakening of the bonds in the reacting molecules (the activation energy is lowered). Also because the transition metal ions can change their oxidation states, they become more effective as catalysts.
An interesting type of catalysis occurs when the products of a reaction catalyse the reaction producing more catalyst (autocatalysis). One example is the reaction of oxalic acid with acidified potassium permanganate (or manganate (VII)). Once a little Mn2+ has been produced, it can react with MnO4− forming Mn3+. This then reacts with C2O4− ions forming Mn2+ again.
As implied by the name, all transition metals are metals and thus conductors of electricity.
In general, transition metals possess a high density and high melting points and boiling points. These properties are due to metallic bonding by delocalized d electrons, leading to cohesion which increases with the number of shared electrons. However the group 12 metals have much lower melting and boiling points since their full d subshells prevent d–d bonding, which again tends to differentiate them from the accepted transition metals. Mercury has a melting point of and is a liquid at room temperature. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30364 |
Torr
The torr (symbol: Torr) is a unit of pressure based on an absolute scale, defined as exactly of a standard atmosphere (101325 Pa). Thus one torr is exactly (≈ ).
Historically, one torr was intended to be the same as one "millimeter of mercury", but subsequent redefinitions of the two units made them slightly different (by less than ). The torr is not part of the International System of Units (SI), but it is often combined with the metric prefix milli to name one millitorr (mTorr) or 0.001 Torr.
The unit was named after Evangelista Torricelli, an Italian physicist and mathematician who discovered the principle of the barometer in 1644.
The unit name "torr" is written in lower case, while its symbol ("Torr") is always written with upper-case initial; including in combinations with prefixes and other unit symbols, as in "mTorr" (millitorr) or "Torr⋅L/s" (torr-litres per second). The symbol (uppercase) should be used with prefix symbols (thus, mTorr and millitorr are correct, but mtorr and milliTorr are not).
The torr is sometimes incorrectly denoted by the symbol "T", which is the SI symbol for the tesla, the unit measuring the strength of a magnetic field. Although frequently encountered, the alternative spelling "Tor" is incorrect.
Torricelli attracted considerable attention when he demonstrated the first mercury barometer to the general public. He is credited with giving the first modern explanation of atmospheric pressure. Scientists at the time were familiar with small fluctuations in height that occurred in barometers. When these fluctuations were explained as a manifestation of changes in atmospheric pressure, the science of meteorology was born.
Over time, 760 millimeters of mercury at 0 °C came to be regarded as the standard atmospheric pressure. In honour of Torricelli, the torr was defined as a unit of pressure equal to one millimeter of mercury at 0 °C. However, since the acceleration due to gravity – and thus the weight of a column of mercury – is a function of elevation and latitude (due to the rotation and non-sphericity of the Earth), this definition is imprecise and varies by location.
In 1954, the definition of the "atmosphere" was revised by the (10th CGPM) to the currently accepted definition: one atmosphere is equal to . The torr was then redefined as of one atmosphere. This yields a precise definition that is unambiguous and independent of measurements of the density of mercury or the acceleration due to gravity on Earth.
"Manometric units" are units such as "millimeters of mercury" or "centimeters of water" that depend on an assumed density of a fluid and an assumed acceleration due to gravity. The use of these units is discouraged. Nevertheless, manometric units are routinely used in medicine and physiology, and they continue to be used in areas as diverse as weather reporting and scuba diving.
The millimeter of mercury by definition is ( × × ), which is approximated with known accuracies of density of mercury and standard gravity.
The torr is defined as of one standard atmosphere, while the atmosphere is defined as pascals. Therefore, 1 Torr is equal to Pa. The decimal form of this fraction () is an infinitely long, periodically repeating decimal (repetend length: 18).
The relationship between the torr and the millimeter of mercury is:
The difference between one millimeter of mercury and one torr, as well as between one atmosphere (101.325 kPa) and 760 mmHg (), is less than one part in seven million (or less than ). This small difference is negligible for most applications outside metrology.
Other units of pressure include:
These four pressure units are used in different settings. For example, the bar is used in meteorology to report atmospheric pressures. The torr is used in high-vacuum physics and engineering. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30366 |
Trigonometric functions
In mathematics, the trigonometric functions (also called circular functions, angle functions or goniometric functions) are real functions which relate an angle of a right-angled triangle to ratios of two side lengths. They are widely used in all sciences that are related to geometry, such as navigation, solid mechanics, celestial mechanics, geodesy, and many others. They are among the simplest periodic functions, and as such are also widely used for studying periodic phenomena, through Fourier analysis.
The most widely used trigonometric functions are the sine, the cosine, and the tangent. Their reciprocals are respectively the cosecant, the secant, and the cotangent, which are less used in modern mathematics.
The oldest definitions of trigonometric functions, related to right-angle triangles, define them only for acute angles. For extending these definitions to functions whose domain is the whole projectively extended real line, one can use geometrical definitions using the standard unit circle (a circle with radius 1 unit). Modern definitions express trigonometric functions as infinite series or as solutions of differential equations. This allows extending the domain of the sine and the cosine functions to the whole complex plane, and the domain of the other trigonometric functions to the complex plane from which some isolated points are removed.
"In this section, the same upper-case letter denotes a vertex of a triangle and the measure of the corresponding angle; the same lower case letter denotes an edge of the triangle and its length."
Given an acute angle = of a right-angled triangle, the hypotenuse is the side that connects the two acute angles. The side "adjacent" to is the side of the triangle that connects to the right angle. The third side is said "opposite" to .
If the angle is given, then all sides of the right-angled triangle are well defined up to a scaling factor. This means that the ratio of any two side lengths depends only on . These six ratios define thus six functions of , which are the trigonometric functions. More precisely, the six trigonometric functions are:
In a right angled triangle, the sum of the two acute angles is a right angle, that is 90° or formula_7 radians.
In geometric applications, the argument of a trigonometric function is generally the measure of an angle. For this purpose, any angular unit is convenient, and angles are most commonly measured in degrees.
When using trigonometric function in calculus, their argument is generally not an angle, but rather a real number. In this case, it is more suitable to express the argument of the trigonometric as the length of the arc of the unit circle delimited by an angle with the center of the circle as vertex. Therefore, one uses the radian as angular unit: a radian is the angle that delimits an arc of length on the unit circle. A complete turn is thus an angle of radians.
A great advantage of radians is that many formulas are much simpler when using them, typically all formulas relative to derivatives and integrals.
This is thus a general convention that, when the angular unit is not explicitly specified, "the arguments of trigonometric functions are always expressed in radians."
The six trigonometric functions can be defined as coordinate values of points on the Euclidean plane that are related to the unit circle, which is the circle of radius one centered at the origin of this coordinate system. While right-angled triangle definitions permit the definition of the trigonometric functions for angles between and formula_8 radian the unit circle definitions allow to extend the domain of the trigonometric functions to all positive and negative real numbers.
Rotating a ray from the direction of the positive half of the "x"-axis by an angle (counterclockwise for formula_9 and clockwise for formula_10) yields intersection points of this ray (see the figure) with the unit and, by extending the ray to a line if necessary, with the and with the The tangent line to the unit circle in point , which is orthogonal to this ray, intersects the "y"- and "x"-axis in points formula_11 and formula_12. The coordinate values of these points give all the existing values of the trigonometric functions for arbitrary real values of in the following manner.
The trigonometric functions and are defined, respectively, as the "x"- and "y"-coordinate values of point , i.e.,
In the range formula_15 this definition coincides with the right-angled triangle definition by taking the right-angled triangle to have the unit radius as hypotenuse, and since for all points formula_16 on the unit circle the equation formula_17 holds, this definition of cosine and sine also satisfies the Pythagorean identity
The other trigonometric functions can be found along the unit circle as
By applying the Pythagorean identity and geometric proof methods, these definitions can readily be shown to coincide with the definitions of tangent, cotangent, secant and cosecant in terms of sine and cosine, that is
As a rotation of an angle of formula_24 does not change the position or size of a shape, the points , , , , and are the same for two angles whose difference is an integer multiple of formula_25. Thus trigonometric functions are periodic functions with period formula_25. That is, the equalities
hold for any angle and any integer . The same is true for the four other trigonometric functions. Observing the sign and the monotonicity of the functions sine, cosine, cosecant, and secant in the four quadrants, shows that is the smallest value for which they are periodic, i.e., is the fundamental period of these functions. However, already after a rotation by an angle formula_29 the points and return to their original position, so that the tangent function and the cotangent function have a fundamental period of . That is, the equalities
hold for any angle and any integer .
The algebraic expressions for the most important angles are as follows:
Writing the numerators as square roots of consecutive non-negative integers, with a denominator of 2, provides an easy way to remember the values.
Such simple expressions generally do not exist for other angles which are rational multiples of a straight angle.
For an angle which, measured in degrees, is a multiple of three, the sine and the cosine may be expressed in terms of square roots, see Trigonometric constants expressed in real radicals. These values of the sine and the cosine may thus be constructed by ruler and compass.
For an angle of an integer number of degrees, the sine and the cosine may be expressed in terms of square roots and the cube root of a non-real complex number. Galois theory allows proving that, if the angle is not a multiple of 3°, non-real cube roots are unavoidable.
For an angle which, measured in degrees, is a rational number, the sine and the cosine are algebraic numbers, which may be expressed in terms of th roots. This results from the fact that the Galois groups of the cyclotomic polynomials are cyclic.
For an angle which, measured in degrees, is not a rational number, then either the angle or both the sine and the cosine are transcendental numbers. This is a corollary of Baker's theorem, proved in 1966.
The following table summarizes the simplest algebraic values of trigonometric functions. The symbol represents the point at infinity on the projectively extended real line; it is not signed, because, when it appears in the table, the corresponding trigonometric function tends to on one side, and to on the other side, when the argument tends to the value in the table.
Trigonometric functions are differentiable. This is not immediately evident from the above geometrical definitions. Moreover, the modern trend in mathematics is to build geometry from calculus rather than the converse. Therefore, except at a very elementary level, trigonometric functions are defined using the methods of calculus.
For defining trigonometric functions inside calculus, there are two equivalent possibilities, either using power series or differential equations. These definitions are equivalent, as starting from one of them, it is easy to retrieve the other as a property. However the definition through differential equations is somehow more natural, since, for example, the choice of the coefficients of the power series may appear as quite arbitrary, and the Pythagorean identity is much easier to deduce from the differential equations.
Sine and cosine are the unique differentiable functions such that
Differentiating these equations, one gets that both sine and cosine are solutions of the differential equation
Applying the quotient rule to the definition of the tangent as the quotient of the sine by the cosine, one gets that the tangent function verifies
Applying the differential equations to power series with indeterminate coefficients, one may deduce recurrence relations for the coefficients of the Taylor series of the sine and cosine functions. These recurrence relations are easy to solve, and give the series expansions
The radius of convergence of these series is infinite. Therefore, the sine and the cosine can be extended to entire functions (also called "sine" and "cosine"), which are (by definition) complex-valued functions that are defined and holomorphic on the whole complex plane.
Being defined as fractions of entire functions, the other trigonometric functions may be extended to meromorphic functions, that is functions that are holomorphic in the whole complex plane, except some isolated points called poles. Here, the poles are the numbers of the form formula_42 for the tangent and the secant, or formula_43 for the cotangent and the cosecant, where is an arbitrary integer.
Recurrences relations may also be computed for the coefficients of the Taylor series of the other trigonometric functions. These series have a finite radius of convergence. Their coefficients have a combinatorial interpretation: they enumerate alternating permutations of finite sets.
More precisely, defining
one has the following series expansions:
There is a series representation as partial fraction expansion where just translated reciprocal functions are summed up, such that the poles of the cotangent function and the reciprocal functions match:
This identity can be proven with the Herglotz trick.
Combining the th with the th term lead to absolutely convergent series:
The following infinite product for the sine is of great importance in complex anaylsis:
For the proof of this expansion, see Sine. From this, it can be deduced that
Euler's formula relates sine and cosine to the exponential function:
This formula is commonly considered for real values of , but it remains true for all complex values.
"Proof": Let formula_53 and formula_54 One has formula_55 for . The quotient rule implies thus that formula_56. Therefore, formula_57 is a constant function, which equals , as formula_58 This proves the formula.
One has
Solving this linear system in sine and cosine, one can express them in terms of the exponential function:
When is real, this may be rewritten as
Most trigonometric identities can be proved by expressing trigonometric functions in terms of the complex exponential function by using above formulas, and then using the identity formula_62 for simplifying the result.
One can also define the trigonometric functions using various functional equations.
For example, the sine and the cosine form the unique pair of continuous functions that satisfy the difference formula
and the added condition
The sine and cosine of a complex number formula_65 can be expressed in terms of real sines, cosines, and hyperbolic functions as follows:
By taking advantage of domain coloring, it is possible to graph the trigonometric functions as complex-valued functions. Various features unique to the complex functions can be seen from the graph; for example, the sine and cosine functions can be seen to be unbounded as the imaginary part of formula_67 becomes larger (since the color white represents infinity), and the fact that the functions contain simple zeros or poles is apparent from the fact that the hue cycles around each zero or pole exactly once. Comparing these graphs with those of the corresponding Hyperbolic functions highlights the relationships between the two.
Many identities interrelate the trigonometric functions. This section contains the most basic ones; for more identities, see List of trigonometric identities. These identities may be proved geometrically from the unit-circle definitions or the right-angled-triangle definitions (although, for the latter definitions, care must be taken for angles that are not in the interval , see Proofs of trigonometric identities). For non-geometrical proofs using only tools of calculus, one may use directly the differential equations, in a way that is similar to that of the above proof of Euler's identity. One can also use Euler's identity for expressing all trigonometric functions in terms of complex exponentials and using properties of the exponential function.
The cosine and the secant are even functions; the other trigonometric functions are odd functions. That is:
All trigonometric functions are periodic functions of period . This is the smallest period, except for the tangent and the cotangent, which have as smallest period. This means that, for every integer , one has
The Pythagorean identity, is the expression of the Pythagorean theorem in terms of trigonometric functions. It is
The sum and difference formulas allow expanding the sine, the cosine, and the tangent of a sum or a difference of two angles in terms of sines and cosines and tangents of the angles themselves. These can be derived geometrically, using arguments that date to Ptolemy. One can also produce them algebraically using Euler's formula.
When the two angles are equal, the sum formulas reduce to simpler equations known as the double-angle formulae.
These identities can be used to derive the product-to-sum identities.
By setting formula_74 and formula_75 this allows expressing all trigonometric functions of formula_76 as a rational fraction of formula_77:
Together with
this is the tangent half-angle substitution, which allows reducing the computation of integrals and antiderivatives of trigonometric functions to that of rational fractions.
The derivatives of trigonometric functions result from those of sine and cosine by applying quotient rule. The values given for the antiderivatives in the following table can be verified by differentiating them. The number is a constant of integration.
The trigonometric functions are periodic, and hence not injective, so strictly speaking, they do not have an inverse function. However, on each interval on which a trigonometric function is monotonic, one can define an inverse function, and this defines inverse trigonometric functions as multivalued functions. To define a true inverse function, one must restrict the domain to an interval where the function is monotonic, and is thus bijective from this interval to its image by the function. The common choice for this interval, called the set of principal values, is given in the following table. As usual, the inverse trigonometric functions are denoted with the prefix "arc" before the name or its abbreviation of the function.
The notations sin−1, cos−1, etc. are often used for arcsin and arccos, etc. When this notation is used, inverse functions could be confused with multiplicative inverses. The notation with the "arc" prefix avoids such a confusion, though "arcsec" for arcsecant can be confused with "arcsecond".
Just like the sine and cosine, the inverse trigonometric functions can also be expressed in terms of infinite series. They can also be expressed in terms of complex logarithms. See Inverse trigonometric functions for details.
In this sections denote the three (interior) angles of a triangle, and denote the lengths of the respective opposite edges. They are related by various formulas, which are named by the trigonometric functions they involve.
The law of sines states that for an arbitrary triangle with sides , , and and angles opposite those sides , and :
where is the area of the triangle,
or, equivalently,
where is the triangle's circumradius.
It can be proven by dividing the triangle into two right ones and using the above definition of sine. The law of sines is useful for computing the lengths of the unknown sides in a triangle if two angles and one side are known. This is a common situation occurring in "triangulation", a technique to determine unknown distances by measuring two angles and an accessible enclosed distance.
The law of cosines (also known as the cosine formula or cosine rule) is an extension of the Pythagorean theorem:
or equivalently,
In this formula the angle at is opposite to the side . This theorem can be proven by dividing the triangle into two right ones and using the Pythagorean theorem.
The law of cosines can be used to determine a side of a triangle if two sides and the angle between them are known. It can also be used to find the cosines of an angle (and consequently the angles themselves) if the lengths of all the sides are known.
The following all form the law of tangents
The explanation of the formulae in words would be cumbersome, but the patterns of sums and differences, for the lengths and corresponding opposite angles, are apparent in the theorem.
If
and
then the following all form the law of cotangents
It follows that
In words the theorem is: the cotangent of a half-angle equals the ratio of the semi-perimeter minus the opposite side to the said angle, to the inradius for the triangle.
The trigonometric functions are also important in physics. The sine and the cosine functions, for example, are used to describe simple harmonic motion, which models many natural phenomena, such as the movement of a mass attached to a spring and, for small angles, the pendular motion of a mass hanging by a string. The sine and cosine functions are one-dimensional projections of uniform circular motion.
Trigonometric functions also prove to be useful in the study of general periodic functions. The characteristic wave patterns of periodic functions are useful for modeling recurring phenomena such as sound or light waves.
Under rather general conditions, a periodic function can be expressed as a sum of sine waves or cosine waves in a Fourier series. Denoting the sine or cosine basis functions by , the expansion of the periodic function takes the form:
For example, the square wave can be written as the Fourier series
In the animation of a square wave at top right it can be seen that just a few terms already produce a fairly good approximation. The superposition of several terms in the expansion of a sawtooth wave are shown underneath.
While the early study of trigonometry can be traced to antiquity, the trigonometric functions as they are in use today were developed in the medieval period. The chord function was discovered by Hipparchus of Nicaea (180–125 BCE) and Ptolemy of Roman Egypt (90–165 CE). The functions of sine and versine (1 - cosine) can be traced back to the "jyā" and "koti-jyā" functions used in Gupta period Indian astronomy ("Aryabhatiya", "Surya Siddhanta"), via translation from Sanskrit to Arabic and then from Arabic to Latin. (See Aryabhata's sine table.)
All six trigonometric functions in current use were known in Islamic mathematics by the 9th century, as was the law of sines, used in solving triangles. With the exception of the sine (which was adopted from Indian mathematics), the other five modern trigonometric functions were discovered by Arabic mathematicians, including the cosine, tangent, cotangent, secant and cosecant. Al-Khwārizmī (c. 780–850) produced tables of sines, cosines and tangents. Circa 830, Habash al-Hasib al-Marwazi discovered the cotangent, and produced tables of tangents and cotangents. Muhammad ibn Jābir al-Harrānī al-Battānī (853–929) discovered the reciprocal functions of secant and cosecant, and produced the first table of cosecants for each degree from 1° to 90°. The trigonometric functions were later studied by mathematicians including Omar Khayyám, Bhāskara II, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, Jamshīd al-Kāshī (14th century), Ulugh Beg (14th century), Regiomontanus (1464), Rheticus, and Rheticus' student Valentinus Otho.
Madhava of Sangamagrama (c. 1400) made early strides in the analysis of trigonometric functions in terms of infinite series. (See Madhava series and Madhava's sine table.)
The terms "tangent" and "secant" were first introduced by the Danish mathematician Thomas Fincke in his book "Geometria rotundi" (1583).
The 16th century French mathematician Albert Girard made the first published use of the abbreviations "sin", "cos", and "tan" in his book "Trigonométrie".
In a paper published in 1682, Leibniz proved that is not an algebraic function of .
Leonhard Euler's "Introductio in analysin infinitorum" (1748) was mostly responsible for establishing the analytic treatment of trigonometric functions in Europe, also defining them as infinite series and presenting "Euler's formula", as well as near-modern abbreviations ("sin.", "cos.", "tang.", "cot.", "sec.", and "cosec.").
A few functions were common historically, but are now seldom used, such as the chord, the versine (which appeared in the earliest tables), the coversine, the haversine, the exsecant and the excosecant. The list of trigonometric identities shows more relations between these functions.
The word "sine" derives from Latin "sinus", meaning "bend; bay", and more specifically "the hanging fold of the upper part of a toga", "the bosom of a garment", which was chosen as the translation of what was interpreted as the Arabic word "jaib", meaning "pocket" or "fold" in the twelfth-century translations of works by Al-Battani and al-Khwārizmī into Medieval Latin.
The choice was based on a misreading of the Arabic written form "j-y-b" (), which itself originated as a transliteration from Sanskrit ', which along with its synonym ' (the standard Sanskrit term for the sine) translates to "bowstring", being in turn adopted from Ancient Greek "string".
The word "tangent" comes from Latin "tangens" meaning "touching", since the line "touches" the circle of unit radius, whereas "secant" stems from Latin "secans"—"cutting"—since the line "cuts" the circle.
The prefix "co-" (in "cosine", "cotangent", "cosecant") is found in Edmund Gunter's "Canon triangulorum" (1620), which defines the "cosinus" as an abbreviation for the "sinus complementi" (sine of the complementary angle) and proceeds to define the "cotangens" similarly. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30367 |
Thermochemistry
Thermochemistry is the study of the heat energy which is associated with chemical reactions and/or physical transformations. A reaction may release or absorb energy, and a phase change may do the same, such as in melting and boiling. Thermochemistry focuses on these energy changes, particularly on the system's energy exchange with its a surroundings. Thermochemistry is useful in predicting reactant and product quantities throughout the course of a given reaction. In combination with entropy determinations, it is also used to predict whether a reaction is spontaneous or non-spontaneous, favorable or unfavorable.
Endothermic reactions absorb heat, while exothermic reactions release heat. Thermochemistry coalesces the concepts of thermodynamics with the concept of energy in the form of chemical bonds. The subject commonly includes calculations of such quantities as heat capacity, heat of combustion, heat of formation, enthalpy, entropy, free energy, and calories.
Thermochemistry rests on two generalizations. Stated in modern terms, they are as follows:
These statements preceded the first law of thermodynamics (1845) and helped in its formulation.
Lavoisier, Laplace and Hess also investigated specific heat and latent heat, although it was Joseph Black who made the most important contributions to the development of latent energy changes.
Gustav Kirchhoff showed in 1858 that the variation of the heat of reaction is given by the difference in heat capacity between products and reactants: dΔH / dT = ΔCp. Integration of this equation permits the evaluation of the heat of reaction at one temperature from measurements at another temperature.
The measurement of heat changes is performed using calorimetry, usually an enclosed chamber within which the change to be examined occurs. The temperature of the chamber is monitored either using a thermometer or thermocouple, and the temperature plotted against time to give a graph from which fundamental quantities can be calculated. Modern calorimeters are frequently supplied with automatic devices to provide a quick read-out of information, one example being the differential scanning calorimeter (DSC).
Several thermodynamic definitions are very useful in thermochemistry. A system is the specific portion of the universe that is being studied. Everything outside the system is considered the surroundings or environment. A system may be:
A system undergoes a process when one or more of its properties changes. A process relates to the change of state. An isothermal (same-temperature) process occurs when temperature of the system remains constant. An isobaric (same-pressure) process occurs when the pressure of the system remains constant. A process is adiabatic when no heat exchange occurs. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30369 |
London Eye
The London Eye, or the Millennium Wheel, is a cantilevered observation wheel on the South Bank of the River Thames in London. It is Europe's tallest cantilevered observation wheel, and is the most popular paid tourist attraction in the United Kingdom with over 3 million visitors annually, and has made many appearances in popular culture.
The structure is tall and the wheel has a diameter of . When it opened to the public in 2000 it was the world's tallest Ferris wheel. Its height was surpassed by the Star of Nanchang in 2006, the Singapore Flyer in 2008, and the High Roller (Las Vegas) in 2014. Supported by an A-frame on one side only, unlike the taller Nanchang and Singapore wheels, the Eye is described by its operators as "the world's tallest cantilevered observation wheel".
The London Eye used to offer the highest public viewing point in London until it was superseded by the observation deck on the 72nd floor of The Shard, which opened to the public on 1 February 2013.
The London Eye adjoins the western end of Jubilee Gardens (previously the site of the former Dome of Discovery), on the South Bank of the River Thames between Westminster Bridge and Hungerford Bridge beside County Hall, in the London Borough of Lambeth.
In March 2020 the London Eye celebrated its 20th birthday by turning its pods into experiences in partnership with its sponsor lastminute.com. The special experiences included a pub in a capsule, a west end theatre pod and a garden party with flower arrangements to represent the eight London Royal parks.
The London Eye was designed by the husband-and-wife team of Julia Barfield and David Marks of Marks Barfield Architects.
Mace was responsible for construction management, with Hollandia as the main steelwork contractor and Tilbury Douglas as the civil contractor. Consulting engineers Tony Gee & Partners designed the foundation works while Beckett Rankine designed the marine works.
Nathaniel Lichfield and Partners assisted The Tussauds Group in obtaining planning and listed building consent to alter the wall on the South Bank of the Thames. They also examined and reported on the implications of a Section 106 agreement attached to the original contract, and also prepared planning and listed building consent applications for the permanent retention of the attraction, which involved the co-ordination of an Environmental Statement and the production of a planning supporting statement detailing the reasons for its retention.
The rim of the Eye is supported by tensioned steel cables and resembles a huge spoked bicycle wheel. The lighting was re-done with LED lighting from Color Kinetics in December 2006 to allow digital control of the lights as opposed to the manual replacement of gels over fluorescent tubes.
The wheel was constructed in sections which were floated up the Thames on barges and assembled lying flat on piled platforms in the river. Once the wheel was complete it was lifted into an upright position by a strand jack system made by Enerpac. It was first raised at 2 degrees per hour until it reached 65 degrees, then left in that position for a week while engineers prepared for the second phase of the lift. The project was European with major components coming from six countries: the steel was supplied from the UK and fabricated in The Netherlands by the Dutch company Hollandia, the cables came from Italy, the bearings came from Germany (FAG/Schaeffler Group), the spindle and hub were cast in the Czech Republic, the capsules were made by Poma in France (and the glass for these came from Italy), and the electrical components from the UK.
The London Eye was formally opened by the Prime Minister Tony Blair on 31 December 1999, but did not open to the paying public until 9 March 2000 because of a capsule clutch problem.
The London Eye was originally intended as a temporary attraction, with a five-year lease. In December 2001, operators submitted an application to Lambeth Council to give the London Eye permanent status, and the application was granted in July 2002.
On 5 June 2008 it was announced that 30 million people had ridden the London Eye since it opened.
The wheel's 32 sealed and air-conditioned ovoidal passenger capsules, designed and supplied by Poma, are attached to the external circumference of the wheel and rotated by electric motors. The capsules are numbered from 1 to 33, excluding number 13 for superstitious reasons. Each of the capsules represents one of the London Boroughs, and holds up to 25 people, who are free to walk around inside the capsule, though seating is provided. The wheel rotates at per second (about 0.9 km/h or 0.6 mph) so that one revolution takes about 30 minutes. It does not usually stop to take on passengers; the rotation rate is slow enough to allow passengers to walk on and off the moving capsules at ground level. It is, however, stopped to allow disabled or elderly passengers time to embark and disembark safely.
In 2009 the first stage of a £12.5 million capsule upgrade began. Each capsule was taken down and floated down the river to Tilbury Docks in Essex.
On 2 June 2013 a passenger capsule was named the Coronation Capsule to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.
Marks Barfield (the lead architects), The Tussauds Group, and British Airways were the original owners of the London Eye. Tussauds bought out British Airways in 2005 and then Marks Barfield in 2006 to become sole owner.
In May 2007, the Blackstone Group purchased The Tussauds Group which was then the owner of the Eye; Tussauds was merged with Blackstone's Merlin Entertainments and disappeared as an entity. British Airways continued its brand association, but from the beginning of 2008 the name British Airways was dropped from the logo.
On 12 August 2009, the London Eye saw another rebrand, this time being called "The Merlin Entertainments London Eye" to showcase Merlin Entertainments' ownership. A new logo was designed for the attraction—this time taking the form of an eye made out of London's famous landmarks. This coincided with the launch of Merlin Entertainments 4D Experience preflight show underneath the ticket centre in County Hall. The refurbished ticket hall and 4D cinema experience were designed by architect Kay Elliott working with Merlin Studios project designer Craig Sciba. Merlin Studios later appointed Simex-Iwerks as the 4D theatre hardware specialists. The film was written and directed by 3D director Julian Napier and 3D produced by Phil Streather.
In January 2011, a lighting-up ceremony marked the start of a three-year deal between EDF Energy and Merlin Entertainments. On 1 August 2014 the logo was reverted to the previous "The Merlin Entertainments London Eye" version, with the name becoming simply "The London Eye".
Coca-Cola began to sponsor the London Eye from January 2015. On the day the sponsorship was announced the London Eye was lit in red.
On 14 November 2019 it was announced that lastminute.com would be the sponsor starting in February 2020, replacing Coca-Cola and that the wheel would be lit in the lastminute.com hot pink brand corporate colours for three years. To mark the start of the partnership, lastminute.com invited grammy award winning singer Meghan Trainor to perform at a launch party on a boat on the Thames overlooking the London Eye.
In March 2020, lastminute.com and the London Eye announced that the wheel would turn blue every Thursday at 8pm in support of the NHS as part of the ‘Clap for our Carers’ campaign created during the 2020 coronavirus outbreak.
On 20 May 2005, there were reports of a leaked letter showing that the South Bank Centre (SBC)—owners of part of the land on which the struts of the Eye are located—had served a notice to quit on the attraction along with a demand for an increase in rent from £64,000 per year to £2.5 million, which the operators rejected as unaffordable.
On 25 May 2005, London mayor Ken Livingstone vowed that the landmark would remain in London. He also pledged that if the dispute was not resolved he would use his powers to ask the London Development Agency to issue a compulsory purchase order. The land in question is a small part of the Jubilee Gardens, which was given to the SBC for £1 when the Greater London Council was broken up.
The South Bank Centre and the British Airways London Eye agreed on a 25-year lease on 8 February 2006 after a judicial review over the rent dispute. The lease agreement meant that the South Bank Centre, a publicly funded charity, would receive at least £500,000 a year from the attraction, the status of which is secured for the foreseeable future. Tussauds also announced the acquisition of the entire one-third interests of British Airways and Marks Barfield in the Eye as well as the outstanding debt to BA. These agreements gave Tussauds 100% ownership and resolved the debt from the Eye's construction loan from British Airways, which stood at more than £150 million by mid-2005 and had been charging an interest rate of 25% per annum.
Sir Richard Rogers, winner of the 2007 Pritzker Architecture Prize, wrote of the London Eye in a book about the project:"Big City Review" wrote that:
The nearest London Underground station is Waterloo, although Charing Cross, Embankment, and Westminster are also within easy walking distance.
Connection with National Rail services is made at London Waterloo station and London Waterloo East station.
London River Services operated by Thames Clippers and City Cruises stop at the London Eye Pier. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30372 |
Taekwondo
Taekwondo, Tae Kwon Do or Taekwon-Do (Korean , , ) is a Korean martial art, characterized by its emphasis on head-height kicks, jumping spinning kicks, and fast kicking techniques with kicks and striking being above waist height only.
Taekwondo is a combative sport and was developed during the 1940s and 1950s by Korean martial artists with experience in martial arts such as karate, Chinese martial arts, and indigenous Korean martial arts traditions such as Taekkyon, Subak, and Gwonbeop. The oldest governing body for Taekwondo is the Korea Taekwondo Association (KTA), formed in 1959 through a collaborative effort by representatives from the nine original kwans, or martial arts schools, in Korea. The main international organisational bodies for Taekwondo today are the International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF), founded by Choi Hong Hi in 1966, and the partnership of the Kukkiwon and World Taekwondo (WT, formerly WTF), founded in 1972 and 1973 respectively by the Korea Taekwondo Association. "Gyeorugi" (), a type of full-contact sparring, has been an Olympic event since 2000. The governing body for Taekwondo in the Olympics and Paralympics is World Taekwondo.
Beginning in 1945, shortly after the end of World War II and Japanese Occupation, new martial arts schools called "kwans" opened in Seoul. These schools were established by Korean martial artists with backgrounds in (mostly) Japanese and Chinese martial arts. At the time, indigenous disciplines (such as Taekkyeon) were all but forgotten, due to years of decline and repression by the Japanese colonial government. The umbrella term "traditional Taekwondo" typically refers to the martial arts practiced by the kwans during the 1940s and 1950s, though in reality the term "Taekwondo" had not yet been coined at that time, and indeed each "kwan" (school) was practicing its own unique fighting style.
In 1952, South Korean President Syngman Rhee witnessed a martial arts demonstration by ROK Officer Choi Hong-hi and Nam Tae-hi from the 29th Infantry Division. He misrecognized the technique on display as Taekkyeon, and urged martial arts to be introduced to the army under a single system. Beginning in 1955 the leaders of the kwans began discussing in earnest the possibility of creating a unified Korean martial art. Until then, Tang Soo Do was used to name Korean Karate, using the Korean hanja pronunciation of the Japanese kanji (唐手道). The name "Tae Soo Do" (跆手道) was also used to describe a unified style Korean martial arts. This name consists of the hanja "tae" "to stomp, trample", "su" "hand" and "do" "way, discipline".
Choi Hong Hi advocated the use of the name "Tae Kwon Do", i.e. replacing "su" "hand" by "kwon" (Revised Romanization: "gwon"; McCune–Reischauer: "kkwŏn") "fist", the term also used for "martial arts" in Chinese (pinyin "quán"). The name was also the closest to the pronunciation of Taekkyeon, in accordance with the views of the president. The new name was initially slow to catch on among the leaders of the kwans. During this time Taekwondo was also adopted for use by the South Korean military, which increased its popularity among civilian martial arts schools.
In 1959 the Korea Taekwondo Association (then-Korea Tang Soo Do Association) was established to facilitate the unification of Korean martial arts. General Choi, of the Oh Do Kwan, wanted all the other member kwans of the KTA to adopt his own Chan Hon-style of Taekwondo, as a unified style. This was, however, met with resistance as the other kwans instead wanted a unified style to be created based on inputs from all the kwans, to serve as a way to bring on the heritage and characteristics of all of the styles, not just the style of a single kwan. As a response to this, along with disagreements about teaching Taekwondo in North Korea and unifying the whole Korean Peninsula, Choi broke with the KTA in 1966, in order to establish the International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF)— a separate governing body devoted to institutionalizing his own style of Taekwondo in Canada.
Initially, the South Korean president, having close ties to General Choi, gave General Choi's ITF limited support. However, the South Korean government wished to avoid North Korean influence on the martial art. Conversely, ITF president Choi Hong Hi sought support for his style of Taekwondo from all quarters, including North Korea. In response, in 1972 South Korea withdrew its support for the ITF. The ITF continued to function as an independent federation, then headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Choi continued to develop the ITF-style, notably with the 1983 publication of his "Encyclopedia of Taekwondo". After Choi's retirement, the ITF split in 2001 and then again in 2002 to create three separate federations each of which continues to operate today under the same name.
In 1972 the KTA and the South Korean government's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism established the Kukkiwon as the new national academy for Taekwondo. Kukkiwon now serves many of the functions previously served by the KTA, in terms of defining a government-sponsored unified style of Taekwondo. In 1973 the KTA and Kukkiwon supported the establishment of the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF, renamed to World Taekwondo in 2017 due to confusion with the initialism) to promote the sportive side of Kukki-Taekwondo. WT competitions employ Kukkiwon-style Taekwondo. For this reason, Kukkiwon-style Taekwondo is often referred to as WT-style Taekwondo, sport-style Taekwondo, or Olympic-style Taekwondo, though in reality the style is defined by the Kukkiwon, not the WT.
Since 2000, Taekwondo has been one of only two Asian martial arts (the other being judo) that are included in the Olympic Games. It started as a demonstration event at the 1988 games in Seoul, a year after becoming a medal event at the Pan Am Games, and became an official medal event at the 2000 games in Sydney. In 2010, Taekwondo was accepted as a Commonwealth Games sport.
Taekwondo is characterized by its emphasis on head-height kicks, jumping and spinning kicks, and fast kicking techniques. In fact, World Taekwondo sparring competitions award additional points for strikes that incorporate spinning kicks, kicks to the head, or both. To facilitate fast, turning kicks, Taekwondo generally adopts stances that are narrower and taller than the broader, wide stances used by martial arts such as karate. The tradeoff of decreased stability is believed to be worth the commensurate increase in agility, particularly in Kukkiwon-style Taekwondo.
The emphasis on speed and agility is a defining characteristic of Taekwondo and has its origins in analyses undertaken by Choi Hong Hi. The results of that analysis are known by ITF practitioners as Choi's "Theory of Power". Choi based his understanding of power on biomechanics and Newtonian physics as well as Chinese martial arts. For example, Choi observed that the kinetic energy of a strike increases quadratically with the speed of the strike, but increases only linearly with the mass of the striking object. In other words, speed is more important than size in terms of generating power. This principle was incorporated into the early design of Taekwondo and is still used.
Choi also advocated a "relax/strike" principle for Taekwondo; in other words, between blocks, kicks, and strikes the practitioner should relax the body, then tense the muscles only while performing the technique. It is believed that the relax/strike principle increases the power of the technique, by conserving the body's energy. He expanded on this principle with his advocacy of the "sine wave" technique. This involves raising one's centre of gravity between techniques, then lowering it as the technique is performed, producing the up-and-down movement from which the term "sine wave" is derived.
The "sine wave" is generally practiced, however, only in schools that follow ITF-style Taekwondo. Kukkiwon-style Taekwondo, for example, does not employ the sine wave and advocates a more uniform height during movements, drawing power mainly from the rotation of the hip.
The components of the Theory of Power include:
While organizations such as ITF or Kukkiwon define the general style of Taekwondo, individual clubs and schools tend to tailor their Taekwondo practices. Although each Taekwondo club or school is different, a student typically takes part in most or all of the following:
Though weapons training is not a formal part of most Taekwondo federation curricula, individual schools will often incorporate additional training with staffs, knives, sticks, etc.
A Taekwondo practitioner typically wears a uniform ("dobok" 도복/道服), often white but sometimes black (or other colors), with a belt tied around the waist. White uniforms are considered the traditional color and are usually encouraged for use at formal ceremonies such as belt tests and promotions. Colored uniforms are often reserved for special teams (such as demonstration teams or leadership teams) or higher-level instructors. There are at least three major styles of "dobok", with the most obvious differences being in the style of jacket:
White uniforms in the Kukkiwon/WT tradition will typically be white throughout the jacket (black trim along the collars only for dan grades), while ITF-style uniforms are usually trimmed with a black border along the collar and bottom of the jacket (for dan grades). The belt color and any insignia thereon indicate the student's rank. Different clubs and schools use different color schemes for belts. In general, the darker the color, the higher the rank. Taekwondo is traditionally performed in bare feet, although martial arts training shoes may sometimes be worn.
When sparring, padded equipment is usually worn. In the ITF tradition, typically only the hands and feet are padded. For this reason, ITF sparring often employs only light-contact sparring. In the Kukkiwon/WT tradition, full-contact sparring is facilitated by the employment of more extensive equipment: padded helmets called homyun are always worn, as are padded torso protectors called hogu; feet, shins, groins, hands, and forearms protectors are also worn.
The school or place where instruction is given is called the "dojang" (도장, 道場). Specifically, the term "dojang" refers to the area within the school in which martial arts instruction takes place; the word "dojang" is sometimes translated as "gymnasium". In common usage, the term "dojang" is often used to refer to the school as a whole. Modern "dojangs" often incorporate padded flooring, often incorporating red-and-blue patterns in the flooring to reflect the colors of the taegeuk symbol. Some "dojangs" have wooden flooring instead. The "dojang" is usually decorated with items such as flags, banners, belts, instructional materials, and traditional Korean calligraphy.
There are a number of major Taekwondo styles as well as a few niche styles. Most styles are associated with a governing body or federation that defines the style. The major technical differences among Taekwondo styles and organizations generally revolve around:
The term "traditional Taekwondo" typically refers to martial arts practised in Korea during the 1940s and 1950s by the nine original kwans, or martial arts schools, after the conclusion of the Japanese occupation of Korea at the end of World War II. The term "Taekwondo" had not yet been coined, and in reality, each of the nine original kwans practised its own style of martial art. The term "traditional Taekwondo" serves mostly as an umbrella term for these various styles, as they themselves used various other names such as Tang Soo Do (Chinese Hand Way), Kong Soo Do (Empty Hand Way) and Tae Soo Do (Foot Hand Way). Traditional Taekwondo is still practised today but generally under other names, such as Tang Soo Do and Soo Bahk Do. In 1959, the name Taekwondo was agreed upon by the nine original kwans as a common term for their martial arts. As part of the unification process, The Korea Taekwondo Association (KTA) was formed through a collaborative effort by representatives from all the kwans, and the work began on a common curriculum, which eventually resulted in the Kukkiwon and the Kukki Style of Taekwondo. The original kwans that formed KTA continues to exist today, but as independent fraternal membership organizations that support the World Taekwondo and Kukkiwon. The kwans also function as a channel for the issuing of Kukkiwon dan and poom certification (black belt ranks) for their members. The official curriculum of those kwans that joined the unification is that of the Kukkiwon, with the notable exception of half the Oh Do Kwan which joined the ITF instead and therefore uses the Chan Hon curriculum.
International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF)-style Taekwondo, more accurately known as Chang Hon-style Taekwondo, is defined by Choi Hong Hi's "Encyclopedia of Taekwon-Do" published in 1983.
In 1990, the Global Taekwondo Federation (GTF) split from the ITF due to the political controversies surrounding the ITF; the GTF continues to practice ITF-style Taekwondo, however, with additional elements incorporated into the style. Likewise, the ITF itself split in 2001 and again in 2002 into three separate federations, headquartered in Austria, the United Kingdom, and Spain respectively.
The GTF and all three ITFs practice Choi's ITF-style Taekwondo. In ITF-style Taekwondo, the word used for "forms" is "tul"; the specific set of tul used by the ITF is called "Chang Hon". Choi defined 24 "Chang Hon" tul. The names and symbolism of the Chang Hon tul refer to elements of Korean history, culture and religious philosophy. The GTF-variant of ITF practices an additional six tul.
Within the ITF Taekwondo tradition there are two sub-styles:
Some ITF schools adopt the sine wave style, while others do not. Essentially all ITF schools do, however, use the patterns (tul) defined in the Encyclopedia, with some exceptions related to the forms "Juche" and "Ko-Dang".
In 1969, Haeng Ung Lee, a former Taekwondo instructor in the South Korean military, relocated to Omaha, Nebraska and established a chain of martial arts schools in the United States under the banner of the American Taekwondo Association (ATA). Like Jhoon Rhee Taekwondo, ATA Taekwondo has its roots in traditional Taekwondo. The style of Taekwondo practised by the ATA is called "Songahm" Taekwondo. The ATA went on to become one of the largest chains of Taekwondo schools in the United States.
The ATA established international spin-offs called the Songahm Taekwondo Federation (STF) and the World Traditional Taekwondo Union (WTTU) to promote the practice of Songahm Taekwondo internationally. In 2015, all the spin-offs were reunited under the umbrella of ATA International.
In 1962 Jhoon Rhee relocated to the United States and established a chain of martial arts schools primarily in the Washington, D.C. area that practised traditional Taekwondo. In the 1970s, at the urging of Choi Hong Hi, Rhee adopted ITF-style Taekwondo within his chain of schools, but like the GTF later departed from the ITF due to the political controversies surrounding Choi and the ITF. Rhee went on to develop his own style of Taekwondo called Jhoon Rhee-style Taekwondo, incorporating elements of both traditional and ITF-style Taekwondo as well as original elements. (Note that Jhoon Rhee-style Taekwondo is distinct from the similarly named Rhee Taekwon-Do, based in Australia and New Zealand).
Jhoon Rhee-style Taekwondo is still practised primarily in the United States and eastern Europe.
In 1972 the Korea Taekwondo Association (KTA) Central Dojang opened in Seoul; in 1973 the name was changed to Kukkiwon. Under the sponsorship of the South Korean government's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism the Kukkiwon became the new national academy for Taekwondo, thereby establishing a new "unified" style of Taekwondo. In 1973 the KTA established the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF, now called World Taekwondo, WT) to promote the sportive side of Kukki-Taekwondo. The International Olympic Committee recognized the WT and Taekwondo sparring in 1980. For this reason, the Kukkiwon-defined style of Taekwondo is sometimes referred to as "Sport-style" Taekwondo, "Olympic-style" Taekwondo, or "WT-style" Taekwondo, but the style itself is defined by the Kukkiwon, not by the WT, and the WT competition ruleset itself only allows the use of a very small number of the total number of techniques included in the style. Therefore, the correct term for the South Korean government sponsored style of Taekwondo associated with the Kukkiwon, is Kukki Taekwondo, meaning "national Taekwondo" in Korean.
The color belts range from white to junior black belt (half black, half red) or plain red. The order and colours used may vary between schools, but a common order is white, yellow, green, blue, red, black. However, other variations with a higher number of colours is also commonly seen. A usual practice, when employing only four coloured belts, is to stay at each belt color for the duration of two gup ranks, making a total of eight gup ranks between white belt and 1st. dan black belt. In order to make a visual difference between the first and second gup rank of given belt color, a stripe in the same color as the next belt color is added to the second cup rank in some schools.
In Kukki-style Taekwondo, the word used for "forms" is "poomsae." In 1967 the KTA established a new set of forms called the "Palgwae" poomsae, named after the eight trigrams of the I Ching. In 1971 however (after additional kwans had joined the KTA), the KTA and Kukkiwon adopted a new set of color-belt forms instead, called the "Taegeuk" poomsae. Black belt forms are called "yudanja" poomsae. While ITF-style forms refer to key elements of Korean history, Kukki-style forms refer instead to elements of sino-Korean philosophy such as the I Ching and the taegeuk.
WT-sanctioned tournaments allow any person, regardless of school affiliation or martial arts style, to compete in WT events as long as he or she is a member of the WT Member National Association in his or her nation; this allows essentially anyone to compete in WT-sanctioned competitions.
As previously mentioned, in 1990 the Global Taekwondo Federation (GTF) split from the International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF) to form its own style of Taekwondo based on ITF-style. Essentially this can be considered a variation of ITF-style.
Also in 1990, martial artist and actor Chuck Norris, an alumnus of Hwang Kee's Moo Duk Kwan organization, established a hybrid martial art system called Chun Kuk Do. Chun Kuk Do shares many techniques, forms and names with Tang Soo Do and Taekwondo, and so can be considered a variation of traditional Taekwondo. Similarly, Lim Ching Sing's Hup Kwon Do and Kwang-jo Choi's Choi Kwang Do also derive from Taekwondo.
Additionally, there are "hybrid" martial arts that combine Taekwondo with other styles. These include:
Three Korean terms may be used with reference to Taekwondo forms or patterns. These forms are equivalent to "kata" in karate.
A hyeong is a systematic, prearranged sequence of martial techniques that is performed either with or without the use of a weapon. In "dojangs" (Taekwondo training gymnasiums) hyeong are used primarily as a form of interval training that is useful in developing mushin, proper kinetics and mental and physical fortitude. Hyeong may resemble combat, but are artistically non-combative and woven together so as to be an effective conditioning tool. One's aptitude for a particular hyeong may be evaluated in competition. In such competitions, hyeong are evaluated by a panel of judges who base the score on many factors including energy, precision, speed, and control. In Western competitions, there are two general classes of hyeong: creative and standard. Creative hyeong are created by the performer and are generally acrobatic in nature and do not necessarily reflect the kinetic principles intrinsic in any martial system.
Different Taekwondo styles and associations (ATA, ITF, GTF, WT, etc.) use different Taekwondo forms. Even within a single association, different schools in the association may use slightly different variations on the forms or use different names for the same form (especially in older styles of Taekwondo). This is especially true for beginner forms, which tend to be less standardized than mainstream forms.
Taekwondo ranks vary from style to style and are not standardized. Typically, these ranks are separated into "junior" and "senior" sections, colloquially referred to as "color belts" and "black belts":
Some styles incorporate an additional rank between the geup and dan levels, called the "bo-dan" rank—essentially, a candidate rank for black belt promotion. Additionally, the Kukkiwon/WT-style of Taekwondo recognizes a "poom" rank for practitioners under the age of 15: these practitioners have passed dan-level tests but will not receive dan-level rank until age 15. At age 15, their poom rank is considered to transition to equivalent dan rank automatically. In some schools, holders of the poom rank wear a half-red/half-black belt rather than a solid black belt.
To advance from one rank to the next, students typically complete "promotion tests" in which they demonstrate their proficiency in the various aspects of the art before their teacher or a panel of judges. Promotion tests vary from school to school, but may include such elements as the execution of patterns, which combine various techniques in specific sequences; the breaking of boards to demonstrate the ability to use techniques with both power and control; sparring and self-defense to demonstrate the practical application and control of techniques; physical fitness usually with push-ups and sit-ups; and answering questions on terminology, concepts, and history to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the art. For higher "dan" tests, students are sometimes required to take a written test or submit a research paper in addition to taking the practical test.
Promotion from one "geup" to the next can proceed rapidly in some schools since schools often allow "geup" promotions every two, three, or four months. Students of "geup" rank learn the most basic techniques first, and then move on to more advanced techniques as they approach first "dan". Many of the older and more traditional schools often take longer to allow students to test for higher ranks than newer, more contemporary schools, as they may not have the required testing intervals. In contrast, promotion from one "dan" to the next can take years. In fact, some styles impose age or time-in-rank limits on dan promotions. For example, the number of years between one dan promotion to the next may be limited to a minimum of the practitioner's current dan-rank, so that (for example) a 5th dan practitioner must wait 5 years to test for 6th dan.
Black belt ranks may have titles associated with them, such as "master" and "instructor", but Taekwondo organizations vary widely in rules and standards when it comes to ranks and titles. What holds true in one organization may not hold true in another, as is the case in many martial art systems. For example, achieving first "dan ( black belt)" ranking with three years' training might be typical in one organization but considered too quick in another organization, and likewise for other ranks. Similarly, the title for a given "dan" rank in one organization might not be the same as the title for that "dan" rank in another organization.
In the International Taekwon-Do Federation, instructors holding 1st to 3rd "dan" are called "Boosabum" (assistant instructor), those holding 4th to 6th "dan" are called "Sabum" (instructor), those holding 7th to 8th "dan" are called "Sahyun" (master), and those holding 9th "dan" are called "Saseong" (grandmaster). This system does not, however, necessarily apply to other Taekwondo organizations.
In the American Taekwondo Association, instructor designations are separate from rank. Black belts may be designated as an instructor trainee (red, white and blue collar), specialty trainer (red and black collar), certified trainer (black-red-black collar) and certified instructor (black collar). After a one-year waiting period, instructors who hold the sixth dan are eligible for the title of Master. Seventh dan black belts are eligible for the title Senior Master and eighth dan black belts are eligible for the title Chief Master.
In WT/Kukki-Taekwondo, instructors holding 1st. to 3rd. "dan" are considered assistant instructors (kyosa-nim), are not yet allowed to issue ranks, and are generally thought of as still having much to learn. Instructors who hold a 4th. to 6th. "dan" are considered master instructors (sabum-nim), and is allowed to grade students to color belt ranks from 4th. dan, and to black belt/dan-ranks from 6th. dan. Those who hold a 7th–9th "dan" are considered Grandmasters. These ranks also holds an age requirement of 40+. In this style, a 10th dan rank is sometimes awarded posthumously for practitioners with a lifetime of demonstrable contributions to the practice of Taekwondo.
The oldest Korean martial arts were an amalgamation of unarmed combat styles developed by the three rival Korean Kingdoms of Goguryeo, Silla, and Baekje, where young men were trained in unarmed combat techniques to develop strength, speed, and survival skills. The most popular of these techniques were ssireum, subak, and Taekkyon. The Northern Goguryeo kingdom was a dominant force in Northern Korea and North Eastern China prior to the 1st century CE, and again from the 3rd century to the 6th century. Before the fall of the Goguryeo Dynasty in the 6th century, the Silla Kingdom asked for help in training its people for defence against pirate invasions. During this time a few select Silla warriors were given training in Taekkyon by the early masters from Goguryeo. These Silla warriors then became known as Hwarang or "blossoming knights." The Hwarang set up a military academy for the sons of royalty in Silla called Hwarang-do {花郎徒}, which means "flower-youth corps." The Hwarang studied Taekkyon, history, Confucian philosophy, ethics, Buddhist morality, social skills, and military tactics. The guiding principles of the Hwarang warriors were based on Won Gwang's five codes of human conduct and included loyalty, filial duty, trustworthiness, valour, and justice.
In spite of Korea's rich history of ancient and martial arts, Korean martial arts faded during the late Joseon Dynasty. Korean society became highly centralized under Korean Confucianism, and martial arts were poorly regarded in a society whose ideals were epitomized by its scholar-kings. Formal practices of traditional martial arts such as subak and Taekkyon were reserved for sanctioned military uses. However, Taekkyon persisted into the 19th century as a folk game during the May-Dano festival, and was still taught as the formal military martial art throughout the Joseon Dynasty.
Early progenitors of Taekwondo—the founders of the nine original kwans—who were able to study in Japan were exposed to Japanese martial arts, including karate, judo, and kendo, while others were exposed to the martial arts of China and Manchuria, as well as to the indigenous Korean martial art of Taekkyon. Hwang Kee founder of Moo Duk Kwan, further incorporated elements of Korean Gwonbeop from the Muye Dobo Tongji into the style that eventually became Tang Soo Do.
The historical influences of Taekwondo is controversial with a split between two schools of thought: traditionalism and revisionism. Traditionalism holds that the origins of Taekwondo can be traced through Korean martial arts while revisionism, which has become the prevailing theory, argues that Taekwondo is rooted in Karate. Traditionalism has mainly been supported by the Korean government as a concerted effort to divorce Korean martial arts from their Japanese past to give Korean a "legitimate cultural past".
Different styles of Taekwondo adopt different philosophical underpinnings. Many of these underpinnings however refer back to the Five Commandments of the Hwarang as a historical referent. For example, Choi Hong Hi expressed his philosophical basis for Taekwondo as the Five Tenets of Taekwondo:
These tenets are further articulated in a Taekwondo oath, also authored by Choi:
Modern ITF organizations have continued to update and expand upon this philosophy.
The World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) also refers to the commandments of the Hwarang in the articulation of its Taekwondo philosophy. Like the ITF philosophy, it centers on the development of a peaceful society as one of the overarching goals for the practice of Taekwondo. The WT's stated philosophy is that this goal can be furthered by adoption of the Hwarang spirit, by behaving rationally ("education in accordance with the reason of heaven"), and by recognition of the philosophies embodied in the taegeuk (the yin and the yang, i.e., "the unity of opposites") and the sam taegeuk (understanding change in the world as the interactions of the heavens, the Earth, and Man). The philosophical position articulated by the Kukkiwon is likewise based on the Hwarang tradition.
Taekwondo competition typically involves sparring, breaking, and patterns; some tournaments also include special events such as demonstration teams and self-defense ("hosinsul"). In Olympic Taekwondo competition, however, only sparring (using WT competition rules) is performed.
There are two kinds of competition sparring: point sparring, in which all strikes are light contact and the clock is stopped when a point is scored; and Olympic sparring, where all strikes are full contact and the clock continues when points are scored. Sparring involves a Hogu, or a chest protector, which muffles any kick's damage to avoid serious injuries. Helmets and other gear are provided as well. Though other systems may vary, a common point system works like this: One point for a regular kick to the Hogu, two for a turning behind the kick, three for a back kick, and four for a spinning kick to the head.
Under World Taekwondo (WT, formerly WTF) and Olympic rules, sparring is a full-contact event, employing a continuous scoring system where the fighters are allowed to continue after scoring each technique, taking place between two competitors in either an area measuring 8 meters square or an octagon of similar size. Competitors are matched within gender and weight division—eight divisions for World Championships that are condensed to four for the Olympics. A win can occur by points, or if one competitor is unable to continue (knockout). However, there are several decisions that can lead to a win, as well, including superiority, withdrawal, disqualification, or even a referee's punitive declaration. Each match consists of three two-minute rounds, with one minute rest between rounds, though these are often abbreviated or shortened for some junior and regional tournaments. Competitors must wear a hogu, head protector, shin pads, foot socks, forearm guards, hand gloves, a mouthpiece, and a groin cup. Tournaments sanctioned by national governing bodies or the WT, including the Olympics and World Championship, use electronic hogus, electronic foot socks, and electronic head protectors to register and determine scoring techniques, with human judges used to assess and score technical (spinning) techniques and score punches.
Points are awarded for permitted techniques delivered to the legal scoring areas as determined by an electronic scoring system, which assesses the strength and location of the contact. The only techniques allowed are kicks (delivering a strike using an area of the foot below the ankle), punches (delivering a strike using the closed fist), and pushes. In some smaller tournaments, and in the past, points were awarded by three corner judges using electronic scoring tallies. All major national and international tournaments have moved fully (as of 2017) to electronic scoring, including the use of electronic headgear. This limits corner judges to scoring only technical points and punches. Some believe that the new electronic scoring system reduces controversy concerning judging decisions, but this technology is still not universally accepted., In particular, the move to electronic headgear has replaced controversy over judging with controversy over how the technology has changed the sport. Because the headgear is not able to determine if a kick was a correct Taekwondo technique, and the pressure threshold for sensor activation for headgear is kept low for safety reasons, athletes who improvised ways of placing their foot on their opponents head were able to score points, regardless of how true to Taekwondo those techniques were.
Techniques are divided into three categories: scoring techniques (such as a kick to the hogu), permitted but non-scoring techniques (such as a kick that strikes an arm), and not-permitted techniques (such as a kick below the waist).
The referee can give penalties at any time for rule-breaking, such as hitting an area not recognized as a target, usually the legs or neck. Penalties, called "Gam-jeom" are counted as an addition of one point for the opposing contestant. Following 10 "Gam-jeom" a player is declared the loser by referee's punitive declaration
At the end of three rounds, the competitor with most points wins the match. In the event of a tie, a fourth "sudden death" overtime round, sometimes called a "Golden Point", is held to determine the winner after a one-minute rest period. In this round, the first competitor to score a point wins the match. If there is no score in the additional round, the winner is decided by superiority, as determined by the refereeing officials or number of fouls committed during that round.
If a competitor has a 20-point lead at the end of the second round or achieves a 20-point lead at any point in the third round, then the match is over and that competitor is declared the winner.
In addition to sparring competition, World Taekwondo sanctions competition in poomsae or forms, although this is not an Olympic event. Single competitors perform a designated pattern of movements, and are assessed by judges for accuracy (accuracy of movements, balance, precision of details) and presentation (speed and power, rhythm, energy), both of which receive numerical scores, with deductions made for errors. Pair and team competition is also recognized, where two or more competitors perform the same form at the same time. In addition to competition with the traditional forms, there is experimentation with freestyle forms that allow more creativity.
The World Taekwondo Federation directly sanctions the following competitions:
The International Taekwon-Do Federation's sparring rules are similar to the WT's rules but differ in several aspects.
Competitors do not wear the "hogu" (although they are required to wear approved foot and hand protection equipment, as well as optional head guards). This scoring system varies between individual organisations within the ITF; for example, in the TAGB, punches to the head or body score 1 point, kicks to the body score 2 points, and kicks to the head score 3 points.
A continuous point system is utilized in ITF competition, where the fighters are allowed to continue after scoring a technique. Excessive contact is generally not allowed according to the official ruleset, and judges penalize any competitor with disqualification if they injure their opponent and he can no longer continue (although these rules vary between ITF organizations). At the end of two minutes (or some other specified time), the competitor with more scoring techniques wins.
Fouls in ITF sparring include: attacking a fallen opponent, leg sweeping, holding/grabbing, or intentional attack to a target other than the opponent.
ITF competitions also feature performances of patterns, breaking, and 'special techniques' (where competitors perform prescribed board breaks at great heights).
Some organizations deliver multi-discipline competitions, for example the British Student Taekwondo Federation's inter-university competitions, which have included separate WT rules sparring, ITF rules sparring, Kukkiwon patterns and Chang-Hon patterns events run in parallel since 1992.
American Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) competitions are very similar, except that different styles of pads and gear are allowed.
Apart from WT and ITF tournaments, major Taekwondo competitions (all featuring WT Taekwondo only) include:
Taekwondo is also an optional sport at the Commonwealth Games.
The following weight divisions are in effect due to the WTF and ITF tournament rules and regulations:
In Taekwondo schools—even outside Korea—Korean language commands and vocabulary are often used. Korean numerals may be used as prompts for commands or for counting repetition exercises. Different schools and associations will use different vocabulary, however, and may even refer to entirely different techniques by the same name. As one example, in Kukkiwon/WT-style Taekwondo, the term "ap seogi" refers to an upright walking stance, while in ITF/Chang Hon-style Taekwondo "ap seogi" refers to a long, low, front stance. Korean vocabulary commonly used in Taekwondo schools includes: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30374 |
Targum
The targumim (singular targum, ; interpretation, translation, version) were originally spoken translations of the Jewish scriptures (also called the Tanakh) that a "meturgeman" (professional interpreter) would give in the common language of the listeners when that was not Hebrew. This had become necessary near the end of the 1st century BCE, as the common language was Aramaic and Hebrew was used for little more than schooling and worship. The "meturgeman" frequently expanded his translation with paraphrases, explanations and examples so that it became a kind of sermon.
Writing down the targum was initially prohibited; nevertheless, some targumatic writings appeared as early as the middle of the first century CE. They were not then recognized as authoritative by the religious leaders. Some subsequent Jewish traditions (beginning with the Babylonian Jews) accepted the written targumim as authoritative translation of the Hebrew scriptures into Aramaic. Today, the common meaning of "targum" is a written Aramaic translation of the Bible. Only Yemenite Jews continue to use the targumim liturgically.
As translations, the targumim largely reflect midrashic interpretation of the Tanakh from the time they were written and are notable for favoring allegorical readings over anthropomorphisms. (Maimonides, for one, notes this often in "The Guide for the Perplexed".) That is true both for those "targumim" that are fairly literal as well as for those that contain many midrashic expansions. In 1541, Elia Levita wrote and published "Sefer Meturgeman," explaining all the Aramaic words found in the Targum.
Targumim are used today as sources in text-critical editions of the Bible (BHS refers to them with the abbreviation 𝔗).
The noun "Targum" is derived from the early semitic quadriliteral root "trgm", and the Akkadian term "targummanu" refers to "translator, interpreter". It occurs in the Hebrew Bible in Ezra 4:7 "... and the writing of the letter was written in the Syrian tongue and interpreted ("tirgam") in the Syrian tongue." Besides denoting the translations of the Bible, the term Targum also denote the oral rendering of Bible lections in synagogue, while the translator of the Bible was simply called "hammeturgem" (he who translates). Other than the meaning "translate" the verb "Tirgem" also means "to explain". The word "Targum" refers to "translation" and argumentation or "explanation".
The two most important targumim for liturgical purposes are:
These two targumim are mentioned in the Babylonian Talmud as "targum dilan" ("our Targum"), giving them official status. In the synagogues of talmudic times, Targum Onkelos was read alternately with the Torah, verse by verse, and Targum Jonathan was read alternately with the selection from Nevi'im (i.e., the Haftarah). This custom continues today in Yemenite Jewish synagogues. The Yemenite Jews are the only Jewish community to continue the use of Targum as liturgical text, as well as to preserve a living tradition of pronunciation for the Aramaic of the targumim (according to a Babylonian dialect).
Besides its public function in the synagogue, the Babylonian Talmud also mentions "targum" in the context of a personal study requirement: "A person should always review his portions of scripture along with the community, reading the scripture twice and the "targum" once" (Berakhot 8a–b). This too refers to Targum Onkelos on the public Torah reading and to Targum Jonathan on the haftarot from Nevi'im.
Medieval biblical manuscripts of the Tiberian mesorah sometimes contain the Hebrew text interpolated, verse-by-verse, with the "targumim". This scribal practice has its roots both in the public reading of the Targum and in the private study requirement.
The two "official" "targumim" are considered eastern (Babylonian). Nevertheless, scholars believe they too originated in the Land of Israel because of a strong linguistic substratum of Western Aramaic. Though these "targumim" were later "orientalised", the substratum belying their origins still remains.
When most Jewish communities had ceased speaking Aramaic, in the 10th century CE, the public reading of Targum along with the Torah and Haftarah was abandoned in most communities, Yemen being a well-known exception.
The private study requirement to review the Targum was never entirely relaxed, even when Jewish communities had largely ceased speaking Aramaic, and the Targum never ceased to be a major source for Jewish exegesis. For instance, it serves as a major source in the Torah commentary of Shlomo Yitzhaki, "Rashi", and has always been the standard fare for Ashkenazi (French, central European, and German) Jews onward.
For these reasons, Jewish editions of the Tanakh which include commentaries still almost always print the Targum alongside the text, in all Jewish communities. Nevertheless, later halakhic authorities argued that the requirement to privately review the "targum" might also be met by reading a translation in the current vernacular in place of the official Targum, or else by studying an important commentary containing midrashic interpretation (especially that of Rashi).
The Talmud explicitly states that no official "targumim" were composed besides these two on Torah and Nevi'im alone, and that there is no official "targum" to Ketuvim ("The Writings"). The Talmud (Megilah 3a) states The Targum of the Pentateuch was composed by Onkelos the proselyte from the mouths of R. Eleazar and R. Joshua. The Targum of the Prophets was composed by Jonathan ben Uzziel under the guidance of Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi (Jonathan b. Uzziel was a disciple of Hillel, so he had traditions handed down from them-Maharsha), and the land of Israel [thereupon] quaked over an area of four hundred parasangs by four hundred parasangs, and a Bath Kol (heavenly voice) came forth and exclaimed, Who is this that has revealed My secrets to mankind? Jonathan b. Uzziel thereupon arose and said, It is I who have revealed Thy secrets to mankind. It is fully known to Thee that I have not done this for my own honour or for the honour of my father's house, but for Thy honour l have done it, that dissension may not increase in Israel. He further sought to reveal [by] a targum [the inner meaning] of the Hagiographa, but a Bath Kol went forth and said, Enough! What was the reason? Because the date of the Messiah is foretold in it". [A possible reference to the end of the book of Daniel.] But did Onkelos the proselyte compose the targum to the Pentateuch? Has not R. Ika said, in the name of R. Hananel who had it from Rab: What is meant by the text, Neh. VIII,8 "And they read in the book, in the law of God, with an interpretation. and they gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading? And they read in the book, in the law of God: this indicates the [Hebrew] text; with an interpretation: this indicates the targum..." (which shows that the targum dates back to the time of Ezra).
Nevertheless, most books of Ketuvim (with the exceptions of Daniel and Ezra-Nehemiah, which both contain Aramaic portions) have "targumim", whose origin is mostly western (Land of Israel) rather than eastern (Babylonia). But for lack of a fixed place in the liturgy, they were poorly preserved and less well known. From Palestine, the tradition of "targum" to Ketuvim made its way to Italy, and from there to medieval Ashkenaz and Sepharad. The targumim of Psalms, Proverbs, and Job are generally treated as a unit, as are the targumim of the five scrolls (Esther has a longer "Second Targum" as well.) The targum of Chronicles is quite late, possibly medieval, and is attributed to a Rabbi Joseph.
There are also a variety of western "targumim" on the Torah, each of which was traditionally called "Targum Yerushalmi" ("Jerusalem Targum"), and written in Western Aramaic. An important one of these was mistakenly labeled "Targum Jonathan" in later printed versions (though all medieval authorities refer to it by its correct name). The error crept in because of an abbreviation: the printer interpreted the abbreviation "T Y" (ת"י) to stand for "Targum Yonathan" (תרגום יונתן) instead of the correct "Targum Yerushalmi" (תרגום ירושלמי). Scholars refer to this "targum" as Targum Pseudo-Jonathan. To attribute this "targum" to Jonathan ben Uzziel flatly contradicts the talmudic tradition (Megillah 3a), which quite clearly attributes the "targum" to Nevi'im "alone" to him, while stating that there is "no" official "targum" to Ketuvim. In the same printed versions, a similar fragment "targum" is correctly labeled as "Targum Yerushalmi".
The Western Targumim on the Torah, or Palestinian Targumim as they are also called, consist of three manuscript groups: Targum Neofiti I, Fragment Targums, and Cairo Geniza Fragment Targums.
Of these Targum Neofiti I is by far the largest. It consist of 450 folios covering all books of the Pentateuch, with only a few damaged verses. The history of the manuscript begins 1587 when the censor Andrea de Monte (d. 1587) bequeathed it to Ugo Boncompagni—which presents an oddity, since Boncompagni, better known as Pope Gregory XIII, died in 1585. The route of transmission may instead be by a certain "Giovan Paolo Eustachio romano neophito." Before this de Monte had censored it by deleting most references to idolatry. In 1602 Boncompagni's estate gave it to the Collegium Ecclesiasticum Adolescentium Neophytorum (or Pia Domus Neophytorum, a college for converts from Judaism and Islam) until 1886, when the Vatican bought it along with other manuscripts when the Collegium closed (which is the reason for the manuscripts name and its designation). Unfortunately, it was then mistitled as a manuscript of Targum Onkelos until 1949, when Alejandro Díez Macho noticed that it differed significantly from Targum Onkelos. It was translated and published during 1968–79, and has since been considered the most important of the Palestinian Targumim, as it is by far the most complete and, apparently, the earliest as well.
The Fragment Targums (formerly known as Targum Yerushalmi II) consist of many fragments that have been divided into ten manuscripts. Of these P, V and L were first published in 1899 by M Ginsburger, A, B, C, D, F and G in 1930 by P Kahle and E in 1955 by A Díez Macho. Unfortunately, these manuscripts are all too fragmented to confirm what their purpose were, but they seem to be either the remains of a single complete targum or short variant readings of another targum. As a group, they often share theological views and with Targum Neofiti, which has led to the belief that they could be variant readings of that targum.
The Cairo Genizah Fragment Targums originate from the Ben-Ezra Synagogues genizah in Cairo. They share similarities with The Fragment Targums in that they consist of many fragmented manuscripts that have been collected in one targum-group. The manuscripts A and E are the oldest among the Palestinian Targum and have been dated to around the seventh century. Manuscripts C, E, H and Z contain only passages from Genesis, A from Exodus while MS B contain verses from both as well as from Deuteronomium.
The Samaritan community has their own Targum to their text of the Torah. Other Targumim were also discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The Peshitta is the traditional Bible of Syriac-speaking Christians (who speak several different dialects of Aramaic). The translation of the Peshitta is usually thought to be between 1 and 300 CE.
Tadmor, H., 1991. "On the role of Aramaic in the Assyrian empire", in M. Mori, H. Ogawa and M. Yoshikawa (eds.), Near Eastern Studies Dedicated to H.I.H. Prince Takahito Mikasa on the Occasion of his Seventy-Fifth Birthday, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, pp. 419–426 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30377 |
Tosefta
The Tosefta (Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: תוספתא "supplement, addition") is a compilation of the Jewish oral law from the late 2nd century, the period of the Mishnah.
In many ways, the Tosefta acts as a supplement to the Mishnah ("tosefta" means "supplement, addition"). The Mishnah () is the basic compilation of the Oral law of Judaism; according to the tradition, it was compiled in 189 CE. The Tosefta closely corresponds to the Mishnah, with the same divisions for "sedarim" ("orders") and "masekhot" ("tractates"). It is mainly written in Mishnaic Hebrew, with some Aramaic.
At times the text of the Tosefta agrees nearly verbatim with the Mishnah. At others there are significant differences. The Tosefta often attributes laws that are anonymous in the Mishnah to named Tannaim. It also augments the Mishnah with additional glosses and discussions. It offers additional aggadic and midrashic material, and it sometimes contradicts the Mishnah in the ruling of Jewish law, or in attributing in whose name a law was stated.
According to rabbinic tradition, the Tosefta was redacted by Ḥiya bar Abba and one of his students, Hoshaiah. Whereas the Mishna was considered authoritative, the Tosefta was supplementary. The Talmud often utilizes the traditions found in the Tosefta to examine the text of the Mishnah.
The traditional view is that the Tosefta should be dated to a period concurrent with or shortly after the redaction of the Mishnah. This view pre-supposes that the Tosefta was produced in order to record variant material not included in the Mishnah.
Modern scholarship can be roughly divided into two camps. Some, such as Jacob N. Epstein, theorize that the Tosefta as we have it developed from a proto-Tosefta recension which formed much of the basis for later Amoraic debate. Others, such as Hanokh Albeck, theorize that the Tosefta is a later compendium of several baraitot collections which were in use during the Amoraic period.
More recent scholarship, such as that of Yaakov Elman, concludes that since the Tosefta, as we know it, must be dated linguistically as an example of Middle Hebrew 1, it was most likely compiled in early Amoraic times from oral transmission of baraitot. has found that the Tosefta draws on relatively early Tannaitic source material and that parts of the Tosefta predate the Mishnah.
Alberdina Houtman and colleagues theorize that while the Mishnah was compiled in order to establish an authoritative text on halakhic tradition, a more conservative party opposed the exclusion of the rest of tradition and produced the Tosefta to avoid the impression that the written Mishnah was equivalent to the entire oral Torah. The original intention was that the two texts would be viewed on equal standing, but the succinctness of the Mishnah and the power and influence of Judah ha-Nasi made it more popular among most students of tradition.
Ultimately, the state of the source material is such to allow divergent opinions to exist. These opinions serve to show the difficulties in establishing a clear picture of the origins of the Tosefta.
Rabbi Sherira Gaon (987 CE), in a letter written to the heads of the Jewish community in Kairuan (Tunisia), has disclosed somewhat about the authority of the Tosefta in relation to the Mishnah. There, he writes:
Rabbi Sherira Gaon then brings down the reverse of this example: "Or, let us suppose that Rebbe [Yehuda Ha-Nassi] in the Mishnah records a dispute between R. Meir and R. Yosi. However, R. Ḥiya prefers R. Meir's argument, and therefore records it in a Baraita without mentioning R. Yosi's opposing view. In such a case, we do not accept [R. Ḥiya's] decision."
Three manuscripts exist of the Tosefta, they are:
The "Editio Princeps" was printed in Venice in 1521 as an addendum to Isaac Alfasi's "Halakhot".
All four of these sources, together with many Cairo Geniza fragments, have been published online by Bar Ilan University in the form of a searchable database.
Two critical editions have been published. The first was that of Moses Samuel Zuckermandl in 1882, which relied heavily on the Erfurt manuscript of the Tosefta. Zuckermandl's work has been characterized as "a great step forward" for its time. This edition was reprinted in 1970 by Rabbi Saul Lieberman, with additional notes and corrections.
In 1955 Saul Lieberman first began publishing his monumental "Tosefta ki-Feshutah". Between 1955 and 1973, ten volumes of the new edition were published, representing the text and the commentaries on the entire orders of Zera'im, Mo'ed and Nashim. In 1988, three volumes were published posthumously on the order of Nezikin, including tractates Bava Kama, Bava Metzia, and Bava Batra. Lieberman's work has been called the "pinnacle of modern Tosefta studies."
Major commentaries on the Tosefta include those by:
The Tosefta has been translated into English by Rabbi Jacob Neusner and his students in the commentary cited above, also published separately as "The Tosefta: translated from the Hebrew" (6 vols, 1977–86).
Eli Gurevich's English translation and detailed commentary on the Tosefta is in the progress of being written. It can be downloaded for free from his website Tosefta Online - English Translation and Commentary on the Tosefta by Eliyahu Gurevich. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30378 |
The Evolution of Cooperation
The Evolution of Cooperation is a 1984 book by political scientist Robert Axelrod that expanded a highly influential paper of the same name, and popularized the study upon which the original paper had been based. Since 2006, reprints of the book have included a foreword by Richard Dawkins and been marketed as a revised edition.
"The Evolution of Cooperation" is a 1981 paper by Axelrod and evolutionary biologist W. D. Hamilton in the scientific literature, which became the most cited publication in the field of political science.
Evolution of cooperation is a general term for investigation into how cooperation can emerge and persist (also known as cooperation theory) as elucidated by the application of game theory. Traditional game theory did not explain some forms of cooperation well. The academic literature concerned with those forms of cooperation not easily handled in traditional game theory, with special consideration of evolutionary biology, largely took its modern form as a result of Axelrod's and Hamilton's influential 1981 paper and the book that followed.
The idea that human behavior can be usefully analyzed mathematically gained great credibility following the application of operations research in World War II to improve military operations. One famous example involved how the Royal Air Force hunted submarines in the Bay of Biscay.
It had seemed to make sense to patrol the areas where submarines were most frequently seen. Then it was pointed out that "seeing the most submarines" depended not only on the number of submarines present, but also on the number of eyes looking; i.e., patrol density. Making an allowance for patrol density showed that patrols were more "efficient" – that is, found more submarines per patrol – in other areas. Making appropriate adjustments increased the overall effectiveness.
Accounts of the success of operations research during the war, publication in 1944 of John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern's "Theory of Games and Economic Behavior" on the use of game theory for developing and analyzing optimal strategies for military and other uses, and publication of John William's "The Compleat Strategyst", a popular exposition of game theory, led to a greater appreciation of mathematical analysis of human behavior.
But game theory had a little crisis: it could not find a strategy for a simple game called "The Prisoner's Dilemma" (PD) where two players have the option to cooperate for mutual gain, but each also takes a risk of being suckered.
The prisoner's dilemma game (invented around 1950 by Merrill M. Flood and Melvin Dresher) takes its name from the following scenario: you and a criminal associate have been busted. Fortunately for you, most of the evidence was shredded, so you are facing only a year in prison. But the prosecutor wants to nail someone, so he offers you a deal: if you squeal on your associate – which will result in his getting a five-year stretch – the prosecutor will see that six months is taken off of your sentence. Which sounds good, until you learn your associate is being offered the same deal – which would get "you" five years.
So what do you do? The best that you and your associate can do together is to not squeal: that is, to cooperate (with each other, not the prosecutor!) in a mutual bond of silence, and do your year. But wait: if your associate cooperates, can you do better by squealing ("defecting") to get that six-month reduction? It's tempting, but then he's also tempted. And if you both squeal, oh, no, it's four and half years each. So perhaps you should cooperate – but wait, that's being a sucker yourself, as your associate will undoubtedly defect, and you won't even get the six months off. So what is the best strategy to minimize your incarceration (aside from going straight in the first place)?
To cooperate, or not cooperate? This simple question (and the implicit question of whether to trust, or not), expressed in an extremely simple game, is a crucial issue across a broad range of life. Why shouldn't a shark eat the little fish that has just cleaned it of parasites: in any given exchange who would know? Fig wasps collectively limit the eggs they lay in fig trees (otherwise, the trees would suffer). But why shouldn't any one fig wasp cheat and leave a few more eggs than her rivals? At the level of human society, why shouldn't each of the villagers that share a common but finite resource try to exploit it more than the others? At the core of these and myriad other examples is a conflict formally equivalent to the Prisoner's Dilemma. Yet sharks, fig wasps, and villagers all cooperate. It has been a vexatious problem in evolutionary studies to explain how such cooperation should evolve, let alone persist, in a world of self-maximizing egoists.
Charles Darwin's theory of how evolution works ("By Means of Natural Selection") is explicitly competitive ("survival of the fittest"), Malthusian ("struggle for existence"), even gladiatorial ("nature, red in tooth and claw"). Species are pitted against species for shared resources,
similar species with similar needs and niches even more so, and individuals within species most of all. All this comes down to one factor: out-competing all rivals and predators in producing progeny.
Darwin's explanation of how preferential survival of the slightest benefits can lead to advanced forms is the most important explanatory principle in biology, and extremely powerful in many other fields. Such success has reinforced notions that life is in all respects a war of each against all, where every "individual" has to look out for himself, that your gain is my loss.
In such a struggle for existence altruism (voluntarily yielding a benefit to a non-relative) and even cooperation (working with another for a mutual benefit) seem so antithetical to self-interest as to be the very kind of behavior that should be selected against. Yet cooperation and seemingly even altruism have evolved and persist, including even interspecific cooperation and naturalists have been hard pressed to explain why.
The popularity of the evolution of cooperation – the reason it is not an obscure technical issue of interest to only a small number of specialists – is in part because it mirrors a larger issue where the realms of political philosophy, ethics, and biology intersect: the ancient issue of individual interests versus group interests. On one hand, the so-called "Social Darwinians" (roughly, those who would use the "survival of the fittest" of Darwinian evolution to justify the cutthroat competitiveness of laissez-faire capitalism)
declaim that the world is an inherently competitive "dog eat dog" jungle, where every "individual" has to look out for himself. The writer Ayn Rand damned "altruism" and declared selfishness a virtue.
The Social Darwinists' view is derived from Charles Darwin's interpretation of evolution by natural selection, which is explicitly competitive ("survival of the fittest"), Malthusian ("struggle for existence"), even gladiatorial ("red in tooth and claw"), and permeated by the Victorian laissez-faire ethos of Darwin and his disciples (such as T. H. Huxley and Herbert Spencer). What they read into the theory was then read out by Social Darwinians as scientific justification for their social and economic views (such as poverty being a natural condition and social reform an unnatural meddling).
Such views of evolution, competition, and the survival of the fittest are explicit in the ethos of modern capitalism, as epitomized by industrialist Andrew Carnegie in "The Gospel of Wealth":
[W]hile the law [of competition] may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it ensures the survival of the fittest in every department. We accept and welcome, therefore, as conditions to which we must accommodate ourselves, great inequality of environment; the concentration of business, industrial and commercial, in the hands of the few; and the law of competition between these, as being not only beneficial, but essential to the future progress of the race.
While the validity of extrapolating moral and political views from science is questionable, the significance of such views in modern society is undoubtable.
On the other hand, other philosophers have long observed that cooperation in the form of a "social contract" is necessary for human society, but saw no way of attaining that short of a coercive authority.
As Thomas Hobbes wrote in "Leviathan":
[T]here must be some coercive power to compel men equally to the performance of their covenants by the terror of some punishment greater than the benefit they expect by the breach of their covenant...
And Jean Jacques Rousseau in "The Social Contract":
[The social contract] can arise only where several persons come together: but, as the force and liberty of each man are the chief instruments of his self-preservation, how can he pledge them without harming his own interests, and neglecting the care he owes himself?
Even Herman Melville, in "Moby-Dick", has the cannibal harpooner Queequeg explain why he has saved the life of someone who had been jeering him as so:
"It's a mutual, joint-stock world, in all meridians. We cannibals must help these Christians."
The original role of government is to provide the coercive power to enforce the social contract (and in commercial societies, contracts and covenants generally). Where government does not exist or cannot reach it is often deemed the role of religion to promote prosocial and moral behavior, but this tends to depend on threats of hell-fire (what Hobbes called "the terror of some power"); such inducements seem more mystical than rational, and philosophers have been hard-pressed to explain why self-interest should yield to morality, why there should be any duty to be "good".
Yet cooperation, and even altruism and morality, are prevalent, even in the absence of coercion, even though it seems that a properly self-regarding individual should reject all such social strictures and limitations. As early as 1890 the Russian naturalist Petr Kropotkin observed that the species that survived were where the individuals cooperated, that "mutual aid" (cooperation) was found at all levels of existence. By the 1960s biologists and zoologists were noting many instances in the real "jungle" where real animals – presumably unfettered by conscience and not corrupted by altruistic liberals – and even microbes (see microbial cooperation) were cooperating.
Darwin's theory of natural selection is a profoundly powerful explanation of how evolution works; its undoubted success strongly suggests an inherently antagonistic relationship between unrelated individuals. Yet cooperation is prevalent, seems beneficial, and even seems to be essential to human society. Explaining this seeming contradiction, and accommodating cooperation, and even altruism, within Darwinian theory is a central issue in the theory of cooperation.
Darwin's explanation of how evolution works is quite simple, but the implications of how it might explain complex phenomena are not at all obvious; it has taken over a century to elaborate (see modern synthesis). Explaining how altruism – which by definition reduces personal fitness – can arise by natural selection is a particular problem, and the central theoretical problem of sociobiology.
A possible explanation of altruism is provided by the theory of group selection (first suggested by Darwin himself while grappling with issue of social insects) which argues that natural selection can act on groups: groups that are more successful – for any reason, including learned behaviors – will benefit the individuals of the group, even if they are not related. It has had a powerful appeal, but has not been fully persuasive, in part because of difficulties regarding cheaters that participate in the group without contributing. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30384 |
The Machinery of Freedom
The Machinery of Freedom is a nonfiction book by David D. Friedman which advocates an anarcho-capitalist society from a utilitarian/consequentialist perspective.
The book was published in 1973, with a second edition in 1989 and a third edition in 2014.
The book aims to show that law and its enforcement do not require a state, but it can be sustained by non-coercive private enterprise and charity. It explores the consequences of libertarian thought, describes examples of stateless societies (such as the Icelandic Commonwealth) and offers the author's personal statement about why he became a libertarian. Topics addressed in the book include polycentric law and the provision of public goods such as military defense in a stateless society. Friedman argues that a stateless legal system would be beneficial for society as a whole, including the poor.
While some books supporting similar libertarian and anarcho-capitalist views offer support in terms of morality or natural rights, Friedman (although he explicitly denies being a utilitarian) here argues largely in terms of the effects of his proposed policies.
Friedman conjectures that anything done by government costs at least twice as much as a privately provided equivalent. He offers examples as evidence such as a comparison of the cost of the United States Postal Service's costs for package delivery with the costs of private carriers and the cost of the Soviet government versus market based services in the West.
The Institute of Public Affairs, a libertarian think tank located in Australia, included "The Machinery of Freedom" in a list of the "Top 20 books you must read before you die" in 2006.
"Liberty" magazine named the book among "The Top Ten Best Libertarian Books", praising Friedman for tackling the problems related to private national defense systems and attempting to solve them. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30385 |
Tom Stoppard
Sir Tom Stoppard (born Tomáš Straussler; 3 July 1937) is a Czech-born British playwright and screenwriter. He has written prolifically for TV, radio, film and stage, finding prominence with plays such as "Arcadia", "The Coast of Utopia", "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour", "Professional Foul", "The Real Thing", "Travesties", "The Invention of Love", and "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead". He co-wrote the screenplays for "Brazil", "The Russia House", and "Shakespeare in Love", and has received an Academy Award and four Tony Awards. His work covers the themes of human rights, censorship and political freedom, often delving into the deeper philosophical thematics of society. Stoppard has been a key playwright of the National Theatre and is one of the most internationally performed dramatists of his generation. In 2008, "The Daily Telegraph" ranked him number 11 in their list of the "100 most powerful people in British culture".
Born in Czechoslovakia, Stoppard left as a child refugee, fleeing imminent Nazi occupation. He settled with his family in Britain after the war, in 1946, having spent the three years prior (1943–1946) in a boarding school in Darjeeling in the Indian Himalayas. After being educated at schools in Nottingham and Yorkshire, Stoppard became a journalist, a drama critic and then, in 1960, a playwright.
It was announced in June 2019 that he had written a new play, "Leopoldstadt", set in the Jewish community of early 20th-century Vienna. The play premiered in January 2020 at Wyndham's Theatre with Patrick Marber directing.
Stoppard was born Tomáš Straussler, in Zlín, a city dominated by the shoe manufacturing industry, in the Moravia region of Czechoslovakia. He is the son of Martha Becková and Eugen Straussler, a doctor employed by the Bata shoe company. His parents were non-observant Jews, members of a long-established community. Just before the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, the town's patron, Jan Antonín Baťa, transferred his Jewish employees, mostly physicians, to branches of his firm outside Europe. On 15 March 1939, the day the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia, the Straussler family fled to Singapore, where Baťa had a factory.
Before the Japanese occupation of Singapore (February 1942), Stoppard, his brother, and their mother were sent on to Australia. Stoppard's father remained in Singapore as a British army volunteer, knowing that, as a doctor, he would be needed in its defence. Stoppard was four years old when his father died. In the book "Tom Stoppard in Conversation", Stoppard tells how his father died in Japanese captivity, a prisoner of war but has said that he subsequently discovered that Straussler was reported to have drowned on board a ship bombed by Japanese forces whilst trying to flee Singapore in 1942.
In 1941, when Tomáš was five, the three were evacuated to Darjeeling, India. The boys attended Mount Hermon School, an American multi-racial school, where Tomáš became Tom and his brother Petr became Peter.
In 1945, his mother, Martha, married British army major Kenneth Stoppard, who gave the boys his English surname and, in 1946, moved the family to England. Stoppard's stepfather believed strongly that "to be born an Englishman was to have drawn first prize in the lottery of life" —a quote from Cecil Rhodes —telling his 9-year-old stepson: "Don't you realise that I made you British?" setting up Stoppard's desire as a child to become "an honorary Englishman". "I fairly often find I'm with people who forget I don't quite belong in the world we're in", he says. "I find I put a foot wrong—it could be pronunciation, an arcane bit of English history—and suddenly I'm there naked, as someone with a pass, a press ticket." This is reflected in his characters, he notes, who are "constantly being addressed by the wrong name, with jokes and false trails to do with the confusion of having two names". Stoppard attended the Dolphin School in Nottinghamshire, and later completed his education at Pocklington School in East Riding, Yorkshire, which he hated.
Stoppard left school at seventeen and began work as a journalist for the "Western Daily Press" in Bristol, never receiving a university education. Years later, he came to regret not going to university, but at the time he loved his work as a journalist and felt passionately about his career. He worked at the paper from 1954 until 1958, when the "Bristol Evening World" offered Stoppard the position of feature writer, humour columnist, and secondary drama critic, which took Stoppard into the world of theatre. At the Bristol Old Vic, at the time a well-regarded regional repertory company, Stoppard formed friendships with director John Boorman and actor Peter O'Toole early in their careers. In Bristol, he became known more for his strained attempts at humour and unstylish clothes than for his writing.
Stoppard wrote short radio plays in 1953–54 and by 1960 he had completed his first stage play, "A Walk on the Water", which was later re-titled "Enter a Free Man" (1968).
He noted that the work owed much to Robert Bolt's "Flowering Cherry" and Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman". Within a week after sending "A Walk on the Water" to an agent, Stoppard received his version of the "Hollywood-style telegrams that change struggling young artists' lives." His first play was optioned, staged in Hamburg, then broadcast on British Independent Television in 1963. From September 1962 until April 1963, Stoppard worked in London as a drama critic for "Scene" magazine, writing reviews and interviews both under his name and the pseudonym William Boot (taken from Evelyn Waugh's "Scoop"). In 1964, a Ford Foundation grant enabled Stoppard to spend 5 months writing in a Berlin mansion, emerging with a one-act play titled "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Meet King Lear", which later evolved into his Tony-winning play "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead". In the following years, Stoppard produced several works for radio, television and the theatre, including ""M" is for Moon Among Other Things" (1964), "A Separate Peace" (1966) and "If You're Glad I'll Be Frank" (1966). On 11 April 1967 – following acclaim at the 1966 Edinburgh Festival – the opening of "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" in a National Theatre production at the Old Vic made Stoppard an overnight success. "Jumpers" (1972) places a professor of moral philosophy in a murder mystery thriller alongside a slew of radical gymnasts, and "Travesties" (1974) explored the 'Wildean' possibilities arising from the fact that Vladimir Lenin, James Joyce, and Tristan Tzara had all been in Zurich during the First World War. In his early years, he also wrote extensively for BBC radio, often introducing surrealist themes. He has also adapted many of his stage works for radio, film and television winning extensive awards and honours from the start of his career. His latest original radio production, "Darkside" (2013), has been written for BBC Radio 2 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Pink Floyd's album, "The Dark Side of the Moon".
Stoppard has written one novel, "Lord Malquist and Mr Moon" (1966), set in contemporary London. Its cast includes the 18th-century figure of the dandified Malquist and his ineffectual Boswell, Moon, and also cowboys, a lion (banned from the Ritz) and a donkey-borne Irishman claiming to be the Risen Christ.
In the 1980s, in addition to writing his own works, Stoppard translated many plays into English, including works by Sławomir Mrożek, Johann Nestroy, Arthur Schnitzler, and Václav Havel. It was at this time that Stoppard became influenced by the works of Polish and Czech absurdists. He has been co-opted into the Outrapo group, a far-from-serious French movement to improve actors' stage technique through science.
Stoppard has also co-written screenplays including "Shakespeare in Love" and "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade". Steven Spielberg states that though Stoppard was uncredited for the latter, "he was responsible for almost every line of dialogue in the film". Stoppard also worked on "", though again Stoppard received no official or formal credit in this role. He worked in a similar capacity with Tim Burton on his film "Sleepy Hollow".
In 2008, Stoppard was voted number 76 on the Time 100, "Time" magazine's list of the most influential people in the world.
Stoppard serves on the advisory board of the magazine "Standpoint", and was instrumental in its foundation, giving the opening speech at its launch. He is also a patron of the Shakespeare Schools Festival, a charity that enables school children across the UK to perform Shakespeare in professional theatres.
In July 2013 Stoppard was awarded the PEN Pinter Prize for "determination to tell things as they are."
Stoppard was appointed president of the London Library in 2002 and Vice-President in 2017 following the election of Sir Tim Rice as President.
In July 2017, Stoppard was elected an Honorary Fellow of the British Academy (HonFBA), the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and social sciences.
Stoppard was appointed Cameron Mackintosh Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre, St Catherine’s College, Oxford, for the academic year 2017–2018.
"Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" (1966–67) was Stoppard's first major play to gain recognition. The story of "Hamlet" as told from the viewpoint of two courtiers echoes Beckett in its double act repartee, existential themes and language play. "Stoppardian" became a term describing works using wit and comedy while addressing philosophical concepts. Critic Dennis Kennedy notes "It established several characteristics of Stoppard's dramaturgy: his word-playing intellectuality, audacious, paradoxical, and self-conscious theatricality, and preference for reworking pre-existing narratives... Stoppard's plays have been sometimes dismissed as pieces of clever showmanship, lacking in substance, social commitment, or emotional weight. His theatrical surfaces serve to conceal rather than reveal their author's views, and his fondness for towers of paradox spirals away from social comment. This is seen most clearly in his comedies "The Real Inspector Hound" (1968) and "After Magritte" (1970), which create their humour through highly formal devices of reframing and juxtaposition." Stoppard himself went so far as to declare "I must stop compromising my plays with this whiff of social application. They must be entirely untouched by any suspicion of usefulness." He acknowledges that he started off "as a language nerd", primarily enjoying linguistic and ideological playfulness, feeling early in his career that journalism was far better suited for presaging political change, than playwriting.
The accusations of favouring intellectuality over political commitment or commentary were met with a change of tack, as Stoppard produced increasingly socially engaged work. From 1977, he became personally involved with human-rights issues, in particular with the situation of political dissidents in Central and Eastern Europe. In February 1977, he visited the Soviet Union and several Eastern European countries with a member of Amnesty International. In June, Stoppard met Vladimir Bukovsky in London and travelled to Czechoslovakia (then under communist control), where he met dissident playwright and future president Václav Havel, whose writing he greatly admires. Stoppard became involved with "Index on Censorship", Amnesty International, and the Committee Against Psychiatric Abuse and wrote various newspaper articles and letters about human rights. He was also instrumental in translating Havel's works into English. "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour" (1977), 'a play for actors and orchestra' was based on a request by composer André Previn; inspired by a meeting with a Russian exile. This play as well as "Dogg's Hamlet, Cahoot's Macbeth" (1979), "The Coast of Utopia" (2002), "Rock 'n' Roll" (2006), and two works for television "Professional Foul" (1977) and "Squaring the Circle" (1984) all concern themes of censorship, rights abuses, and state repression.
Stoppard's later works have sought greater inter-personal depths, whilst maintaining their intellectual playfulness. Stoppard acknowledges that around 1982 he moved away from the "argumentative" works and more towards plays of the heart, as he became "less shy" about emotional openness. Discussing the later integration of heart and mind in his work, he commented "I think I was too concerned when I set off, to have a firework go off every few seconds... I think I was always looking for the entertainer in myself and I seem to be able to entertain through manipulating language... [but] it's really about human beings, it's not really about language at all." "The Real Thing" (1982) uses a meta-theatrical structure to explore the suffering that adultery can produce and "The Invention of Love" (1997) also investigates the pain of passion. "Arcadia" (1993) explores the meeting of chaos theory, historiography, and landscape gardening.
He was inspired by a Trevor Nunn production of Gorky's "Summerfolk" to write a trilogy of "human" plays: "The Coast of Utopia" ("Voyage", "Shipwreck", and "Salvage", 2002).
Stoppard has commented that he loves the medium of theatre for how 'adjustable' it is at every point, how unfrozen it is, continuously growing and developing through each rehearsal, free from the text. His experience of writing for film is similar, offering the liberating opportunity to 'play God', in control of creative reality. It often takes four to five years from the first idea of a play to staging, taking pains to be as profoundly accurate in his research as he can be.
Stoppard has been married three times. His first marriage was to Josie Ingle (1965–1972), a nurse; his second marriage was to Miriam Stern (1972–92), whom he left to begin a relationship with actress Felicity Kendal. He has two sons from each of his first two marriages: Oliver Stoppard, Barnaby Stoppard, the actor Ed Stoppard, and Will Stoppard, who is married to violinist Linzi Stoppard. In 2014 he married Sabrina Guinness.
Stoppard's mother died in 1996. The family had not talked about their history and neither brother knew what had happened to the family left behind in Czechoslovakia. In the early 1990s, with the fall of communism, Stoppard found out that all four of his grandparents had been Jewish and had died in Terezin, Auschwitz and other camps, along with three of his mother's sisters. In 1998, following the deaths of his parents he returned to Zlín for the first time in over 50 years. He has expressed grief both for a lost father and a missing past, but he has no sense of being a survivor, at whatever remove. "I feel incredibly lucky not to have had to survive or die. It's a conspicuous part of what might be termed a charmed life."
In 1979, the year of Margaret Thatcher's election, Stoppard noted to Paul Delaney: "I'm a conservative with a small c. I am a conservative in politics, literature, education and theatre." In 2007, Stoppard described himself as a "timid libertarian". The Tom Stoppard Prize () was created in 1983 under the Charter 77 Foundation and is awarded to authors of Czech origin.
With Kevin Spacey, Jude Law and others, Stoppard joined protests against the regime of Alexander Lukashenko in March 2011, showing their support for the Belarusian democracy movement.
In 2014, Stoppard publicly backed "Hacked Off" and its campaign towards press self-regulation by "safeguarding the press from political interference while also giving vital protection to the vulnerable."
Stoppard sat for sculptor Alan Thornhill, and a bronze head is now in public collection, situated with the Stoppard papers in the reading room of the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. The terracotta remains in the collection of the artist in London. The correspondence file relating to the Stoppard bust is held in the archive of the Henry Moore Foundation's Henry Moore Institute in Leeds.
Stoppard also sat for the sculptor and friend Angela Conner, and his bronze portrait bust is on display in the grounds of Chatsworth House.
The papers of Tom Stoppard are housed at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. The archive was first established by Stoppard in 1991 and continues to grow. The collection consists of typescript and handwritten drafts, revision pages, outlines, and notes; production material, including cast lists, set drawings, schedules, and photographs; theatre programs; posters; advertisements; clippings; page and galley proofs; dust jackets; correspondence; legal documents and financial papers, including passports, contracts, and royalty and account statements; itineraries; appointment books and diary sheets; photographs; sheet music; sound recordings; a scrapbook; artwork; minutes of meetings; and publications. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30387 |
Thylacine
The thylacine ( , or , also ;) ("Thylacinus cynocephalus"), now extinct, is one of the largest known carnivorous marsupials, evolving about 4 million years ago. The last known live animal was captured in 1933 in Tasmania. It is commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger because of its striped lower back, or the Tasmanian wolf because of its canid-like characteristics. It was native to Tasmania, New Guinea, and the Australian mainland.
The thylacine was relatively shy and nocturnal, with the general appearance of a medium-to-large-size dog, except for its stiff tail and abdominal pouch similar to a kangaroo's, and dark transverse stripes that radiated from the top of its back, reminiscent of a tiger. The thylacine was a formidable apex predator, though exactly how large its prey animals were is disputed. Because of convergent evolution it displayed a form and adaptations similar to the tiger and wolf of the Northern Hemisphere, despite being unrelated. Its closest living relative is either the Tasmanian devil or the numbat. The thylacine was one of only two marsupials to have a pouch in both sexes: the other is the water opossum. The pouch of the male thylacine served as a protective sheath covering the external reproductive organs.
The thylacine had become extinct on the Australian mainland before British settlement of the continent, but it survived on the island of Tasmania along with several other endemic species, including the Tasmanian devil. Intensive hunting encouraged by bounties is generally blamed for its extinction, but other contributing factors may have been disease, the introduction of dogs, and human encroachment into its habitat.
Numerous examples of thylacine engravings and rock art have been found dating back to at least 1000 BC. Petroglyph images of the thylacine can be found at the Dampier Rock Art Precinct on the Burrup Peninsula in Western Australia.
By the time the first European explorers arrived, the animal was already extinct in mainland Australia and rare in Tasmania. Europeans may have encountered it in Tasmania as far back as 1642 when Abel Tasman first arrived in Tasmania. His shore party reported seeing the footprints of "wild beasts having claws like a "Tyger"". Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne, arriving with the "Mascarin" in 1772, reported seeing a "tiger cat". Positive identification of the thylacine as the animal encountered cannot be made from this report since the tiger quoll ("Dasyurus maculatus") is similarly described.
The first definitive encounter was by French explorers on 13 May 1792, as noted by the naturalist Jacques Labillardière, in his journal from the expedition led by D'Entrecasteaux. In 1805 William Paterson, the Lieutenant Governor of Tasmania, sent a detailed description for publication in the "Sydney Gazette". He also sent a description of the Thylacine in a letter to Joseph Banks dated 30 March 1805.
The first detailed scientific description was made by Tasmania's Deputy Surveyor-General, George Harris in 1808, five years after first European settlement of the island. Harris originally placed the thylacine in the genus "Didelphis", which had been created by Linnaeus for the American opossums, describing it as "Didelphis cynocephala", the "dog-headed opossum". Recognition that the Australian marsupials were fundamentally different from the known mammal genera led to the establishment of the modern classification scheme, and in 1796, Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire created the genus "Dasyurus" where he placed the thylacine in 1810. To resolve the mixture of Greek and Latin nomenclature, the species name was altered to "cynocephalus". In 1824, it was separated out into its own genus, "Thylacinus", by Temminck. The common name derives directly from the genus name, originally from the Greek θύλακος ("thýlakos"), meaning "pouch" or "sack".
The modern thylacine probably appeared about 2 million years ago, during the Early Pleistocene: Pliocene-aged specimens from the Pliocene-aged Chinchilla Fauna, described as "Thylacinus rostralis" by Charles De Vis in 1894, is now attributed to this species. Species of the family Thylacinidae date back to the beginning of the Miocene; since the early 1990s, at least seven fossil species have been uncovered at Riversleigh, part of Lawn Hill National Park in northwest Queensland. Dickson's thylacine ("Nimbacinus dicksoni") is the oldest of the seven discovered fossil species, dating back to 23 million years ago. This thylacinid was much smaller than its more recent relatives. The largest species, the powerful thylacine ("Thylacinus potens") which grew to the size of a wolf, was the only species to survive into the late Miocene. In late Pleistocene and early Holocene times, the modern thylacine was widespread (although never numerous) throughout Australia and New Guinea.
An example of convergent evolution, the thylacine showed many similarities to the members of the dog family, Canidae, of the Northern Hemisphere: sharp teeth, powerful jaws, raised heels and the same general body form. Since the thylacine filled the same ecological niche in Australia as the dog family did elsewhere, it developed many of the same features. Despite this, as a marsupial it is unrelated to any of the Northern Hemisphere placental mammal predators.
The thylacine is a basal member of the Dasyuromorphia along with numbats, dunnarts, wambengers, and quolls. The cladogram follows:
The only recorded species of "Thylacinus", a genus that resembles the dogs and foxes of the family Canidae, the animal was a predatory marsupial that existed on mainland Australia during the Holocene epoch and observed by Europeans on the island of Tasmania; the species is known as the Tasmanian tiger for the striped markings of the pelage. Descriptions of the thylacine come from preserved specimens, fossil records, skins and skeletal remains, and black and white photographs and film of the animal both in captivity and from the field. The thylacine resembled a large, short-haired dog with a stiff tail which smoothly extended from the body in a way similar to that of a kangaroo. The mature thylacine ranged from long, plus a tail of around . Adults stood about at the shoulder and weighed . There was slight sexual dimorphism with the males being larger than females on average.
Thylacines, uniquely for marsupials, have largely cartilaginous epipubic bones with a highly reduced osseous element. This has been once considered a synapomorphy with sparassodonts, though it is now thought that both groups reduced their epipubics independently. Its yellow-brown coat featured 15 to 20 distinctive dark stripes across its back, rump and the base of its tail, which earned the animal the nickname "tiger". The stripes were more pronounced in younger specimens, fading as the animal got older. One of the stripes extended down the outside of the rear thigh. Its body hair was dense and soft, up to in length. Colouration varied from light fawn to a dark brown; the belly was cream-coloured.
Its rounded, erect ears were about long and covered with short fur. The early scientific studies suggested it possessed an acute sense of smell which enabled it to track prey, but analysis of its brain structure revealed that its olfactory bulbs were not well developed. It is likely to have relied on sight and sound when hunting instead.
The thylacine was able to open its jaws to an unusual extent: up to 80 degrees. This capability can be seen in part in David Fleay's short black-and-white film sequence of a captive thylacine from 1933. The jaws were muscular, and had 46 teeth, but studies show the Thylacine jaw was too weak to kill sheep. The tail vertebrae were fused to a degree, with resulting restriction of full tail movement. Fusion may have occurred as the animal reached full maturity. The tail tapered towards the tip. In juveniles, the tip of the tail had a ridge. The female thylacine had a pouch with four teats, but unlike many other marsupials, the pouch opened to the rear of its body. Males had a scrotal pouch, unique amongst the Australian marsupials, into which they could withdraw their scrotal sac for protection.
Thylacine footprints could be distinguished from other native or introduced animals; unlike foxes, cats, dogs, wombats or Tasmanian devils, thylacines had a very large rear pad and four obvious front pads, arranged in almost a straight line. The hindfeet were similar to the forefeet but had four digits rather than five. Their claws were non-retractable. More detail can be seen in a cast taken from a freshly dead thylacine. The cast shows the plantar pad in more detail and shows that the plantar pad is tri-lobal in that it exhibits three distinctive lobes. It is a single plantar pad divided by three deep grooves. The distinctive plantar pad shape along with the asymmetrical nature of the foot makes it quite different from animals such as dogs or foxes. This cast dates back to the early 1930s and is part of the Museum of Victoria's thylacine collection.
The thylacine was noted as having a stiff and somewhat awkward gait, making it unable to run at high speed. It could also perform a bipedal hop, in a fashion similar to a kangaroo—demonstrated at various times by captive specimens. Guiler speculates that this was used as an accelerated form of motion when the animal became alarmed. The animal was also able to balance on its hind legs and stand upright for brief periods.
Observers of the animal in the wild and in captivity noted that it would growl and hiss when agitated, often accompanied by a threat-yawn. During hunting it would emit a series of rapidly repeated guttural cough-like barks (described as "yip-yap", "cay-yip" or "hop-hop-hop"), probably for communication between the family pack members. It also had a long whining cry, probably for identification at distance, and a low snuffling noise used for communication between family members. Some observers described it having a strong and distinctive smell, others described a faint, clean, animal odour, and some no odour at all. It is possible that the thylacine, like its relative, the Tasmanian devil, gave off an odour when agitated.
The thylacine probably preferred the dry eucalyptus forests, wetlands, and grasslands of mainland Australia. Indigenous Australian rock paintings indicate that the thylacine lived throughout mainland Australia and New Guinea. Proof of the animal's existence in mainland Australia came from a desiccated carcass that was discovered in a cave in the Nullarbor Plain in Western Australia in 1990; carbon dating revealed it to be around 3,300 years old. Recently examined fossilised footprints also suggest historical distribution of the species on Kangaroo Island.
In Tasmania it preferred the woodlands of the midlands and coastal heath, which eventually became the primary focus of British settlers seeking grazing land for their livestock. The striped pattern may have provided camouflage in woodland conditions, but it may have also served for identification purposes. The animal had a typical home range of between . It appears to have kept to its home range without being territorial; groups too large to be a family unit were sometimes observed together.
Little is known about the behaviour of the thylacine. A few observations were made of the animal in captivity, but only limited, anecdotal evidence exists of the animal's behaviour in the wild. Most observations were made during the day whereas the thylacine was naturally nocturnal. Those observations, made in the twentieth century, may have been atypical as they were of a species already under the stresses that would soon lead to its extinction. Some behavioural characteristics have been extrapolated from the behaviour of its close relative, the Tasmanian devil.
The thylacine was a nocturnal and crepuscular hunter, spending the daylight hours in small caves or hollow tree trunks in a nest of twigs, bark or fern fronds. It tended to retreat to the hills and forest for shelter during the day and hunted in the open heath at night. Early observers noted that the animal was typically shy and secretive, with awareness of the presence of humans and generally avoiding contact, though it occasionally showed inquisitive traits. At the time, much stigma existed in regard to its "fierce" nature; this is likely to be due to its perceived threat to agriculture.
There is evidence for at least some year-round breeding (cull records show joeys discovered in the pouch at all times of the year), although the peak breeding season was in winter and spring. They would produce up to four joeys per litter (typically two or three), carrying the young in a pouch for up to three months and protecting them until they were at least half adult size. Early pouch young were hairless and blind, but they had their eyes open and were fully furred by the time they left the pouch. After leaving the pouch, and until they were developed enough to assist, the juveniles would remain in the lair while their mother hunted. Thylacines only once bred successfully in captivity, in Melbourne Zoo in 1899. Their life expectancy in the wild is estimated to have been 5 to 7 years, although captive specimens survived up to 9 years.
In 2018, Newton et al. collected and CT-scanned all known preserved thylacine pouch young specimens to digitally reconstruct its development throughout its entire window of growth in the mother's pouch. This study revealed new information on the biology of the thylacine, including the growth of its limbs and when it developed its 'dog-like' appearance. It was found that two of the thylacine young in the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) were misidentified and of another species, reducing the number of known pouch young specimens to 11 worldwide.
The thylacine was carnivorous. Prey is believed to have included kangaroos, wallabies and wombats, birds and small animals such as potoroos and possums. One prey animal may have been the once common Tasmanian emu. The emu was a large, flightless bird which shared the habitat of the thylacine and was hunted to extinction by humans around 1850, possibly coinciding with the decline in thylacine numbers. Both dingoes and foxes have been noted to hunt the emu on the mainland. European settlers believed the thylacine to prey upon farmers' sheep and poultry. Throughout the 20th century, the thylacine was often characterised as primarily a blood drinker; according to Robert Paddle, the story's popularity seems to have originated from a single second-hand account heard by Geoffrey Smith (1881–1916) in a shepherd's hut.
There is some controversy over the preferred prey size of the thylacine. A 2011 study by the University of New South Wales using advanced computer modelling indicated that the thylacine had surprisingly feeble jaws. Animals usually take prey close to their own body size, but an adult thylacine of around was found to be incapable of handling prey much larger than . Thus, some researchers believe thylacines only ate small animals such as bandicoots and possums, putting them into direct competition with the Tasmanian devil and the tiger quoll. However, an earlier study showed that the thylacine had a bite force quotient of 166, similar to that of most quolls; in modern mammalian predators, such a high bite force is almost always associated with predators which routinely take prey as large, or larger than, themselves. If the thylacine was indeed specialised for small prey, this specialisation likely made it susceptible to small disturbances to the ecosystem.
Analysis of the skeletal frame and observations of the thylacine in captivity suggest that it preferred to single out a target animal and pursue that animal until it was exhausted: a pursuit predator. However, trappers reported it as an ambush predator: the animal may have hunted in small family groups, with the main group herding prey in the general direction of an individual waiting in ambush. Although the living grey wolf is widely seen as the thylacine's counterpart, the thylacine may have been more of an ambush predator as opposed to a pursuit predator. In fact, the predatory behaviour of the thylacine was probably closer to ambushing felids than to large pursuit canids. Its stomach was muscular, and could distend to allow the animal to eat large amounts of food at one time, probably an adaptation to compensate for long periods when hunting was unsuccessful and food scarce.
In captivity, thylacines were fed a wide variety of foods, including dead rabbits and wallabies as well as beef, mutton, horse, and occasionally poultry. There is a report of a captive thylacine which refused to eat dead wallaby flesh or to kill and eat a live wallaby offered to it, but "ultimately it was persuaded to eat by having the smell of blood from a freshly killed wallaby put before its nose."
In 2017, Berns and Ashwell published comparative cortical maps of thylacine and Tasmanian devil brains, showing that the thylacine had a larger, more modularised basal ganglion. The authors associated these differences with the thylacine's predatory lifestyle. The same year, White, Mitchell and Austin published a large-scale analysis of thylacine mitochondrial genomes, showing that they had split into Eastern and Western populations on the mainland prior to the Last Glacial Maximum and had low genetic diversity by the time of European arrival.
By the beginning of the 20th century, the increasing rarity of thylacines led to increased demand for captive specimens by zoos around the world. Despite export of breeding pairs, these were unsuccessful and the last thylacine outside Australia died at London Zoo in 1931.
Australia lost more than 90% of its larger terrestrial vertebrates by around 40 thousand years ago, with the notable exceptions of the kangaroo and the thylacine. A 2010 paper examining this issue showed that humans were likely to be one of the major factors in the extinction of many species in Australia although the authors of the research warned that one-factor explanations might be oversimplistic. The thylacine itself likely neared extinction throughout most of its range in mainland Australia by about 2,000 years ago.
However, reliable accounts of thylacine survival in South Australia (though confined to the "thinly settled districts" and Flinders Ranges) and New South Wales (Blue Mountains) exist from as late as the 1830s, from both indigenous and European sources.
A study proposes that the arrival of the dingoes may have led to the extinction of the Tasmanian devil, the thylacine, and the Tasmanian nativehen in mainland Australia because the dingo might have competed with the thylacine and devil in preying on the native hen. However, the study also proposes that an increase in the human population that gathered pace around 4,000 years ago may have led to this.
However, a counter-argument is that the two species were not in direct competition with one another because the dingo primarily hunts during the day, whereas it is thought that the thylacine hunted mostly at night. Nonetheless, recent morphological examinations of dingo and thylacine skulls show that although the dingo had a weaker bite, its skull could resist greater stresses, allowing it to pull down larger prey than the thylacine. The thylacine was less versatile in its diet than the omnivorous dingo. Their ranges appear to have overlapped because thylacine subfossil remains have been discovered near those of dingoes. The adoption of the dingo as a hunting companion by the indigenous peoples would have put the thylacine under increased pressure.
Although the thylacine was extinct on mainland Australia, it survived into the 1930s on the island state of Tasmania. At the time of the first European settlement, the heaviest distributions were in the northeast, northwest and north-midland regions of the state. They were rarely sighted during this time but slowly began to be credited with numerous attacks on sheep. This led to the establishment of bounty schemes in an attempt to control their numbers. The Van Diemen's Land Company introduced bounties on the thylacine from as early as 1830, and between 1888 and 1909 the Tasmanian government paid £1 per head for dead adult thylacines and ten shillings for pups. In all, they paid out 2,184 bounties, but it is thought that many more thylacines were killed than were claimed for. Its extinction is popularly attributed to these relentless efforts by farmers and bounty hunters.
However, it is likely that multiple factors led to its decline and eventual extinction, including competition with wild dogs introduced by European settlers, erosion of its habitat, the concurrent extinction of prey species, and a distemper-like disease that affected many captive specimens at the time. A study from 2012 also found that were it not for an epidemiological influence, the extinction of thylacine would have been at best prevented, at worst postponed. "The chance of saving the species, through changing public opinion, and the re-establishment of captive breeding, could have been possible. But the marsupi-carnivore disease, with its dramatic effect on individual thylacine longevity and juvenile mortality, came far too soon, and spread far too quickly."
Whatever the reason, the animal had become extremely rare in the wild by the late 1920s. Despite the fact that the thylacine was believed by many to be responsible for attacks on sheep, in 1928 the Tasmanian Advisory Committee for Native Fauna recommended a reserve similar to the Savage River National Park to protect any remaining thylacines, with potential sites of suitable habitat including the Arthur-Pieman area of western Tasmania.
The last known thylacine to be killed in the wild was shot in 1930 by Wilf Batty, a farmer from Mawbanna in the state's northwest. The animal, believed to have been a male, had been seen around Batty's house for several weeks.
Work in 2012 examined the relationship of the genetic diversity of the thylacines before their extinction. The results indicated that the last of the thylacines in Australia, on top of the threats from dingoes, had limited genetic diversity, due to their complete geographic isolation from mainland Australia. Further investigations in 2017 showed evidence that this decline in genetic diversity started long before the arrival of humans in Australia, possibly starting as early as 70–120 thousand years ago.
The last captive thylacine, later referred to as "Benjamin", was trapped in the Florentine Valley by Elias Churchill in 1933, and sent to the Hobart Zoo where it lived for three years. The thylacine died on 7 September 1936. It is believed to have died as the result of neglect—locked out of its sheltered sleeping quarters, it was exposed to a rare occurrence of extreme Tasmanian weather: extreme heat during the day and freezing temperatures at night. This thylacine features in the last known motion picture footage of a living specimen: 62 seconds of black-and-white footage showing the thylacine in its enclosure in a clip taken in 1933, by naturalist David Fleay. In the film footage, the thylacine is seen seated, walking around the perimeter of its enclosure, yawning, sniffing the air, scratching itself (in the same manner as a dog), and lying down. Fleay was bitten on the buttock whilst shooting the film.
Frank Darby, who claimed to have been a keeper at Hobart Zoo, suggested "Benjamin" as having been the animal's pet name in a newspaper article of May 1968. No documentation exists to suggest that it ever had a pet name, and Alison Reid ("de facto" curator at the zoo) and Michael Sharland (publicist for the zoo) denied that Frank Darby had ever worked at the zoo or that the name "Benjamin" was ever used for the animal. Darby also appears to be the source for the claim that the last thylacine was a male. Robert Paddle was unable to uncover any records of any Frank Darby having been employed by Beaumaris/Hobart Zoo during the time that Reid or her father was in charge and noted several inconsistencies in the story Darby told during his interview in 1968.
The sex of the last captive thylacine has been a point of debate since its death at the Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart, Tasmania. In 2011, a detailed examination of a single frame from the motion film footage confirmed that the thylacine was male. When frame III is enlarged the scrotum can be seen, confirming the thylacine to be male. By enhancing the frame, the outline of the individual testes is discernable.
After the thylacine's death the zoo expected that it would soon find a replacement, and "Benjamin"'s death was not reported on in the media at the time. Although there had been a conservation movement pressing for the thylacine's protection since 1901, driven in part by the increasing difficulty in obtaining specimens for overseas collections, political difficulties prevented any form of protection coming into force until 1936. Official protection of the species by the Tasmanian government was introduced on 10 July 1936, 59 days before the last known specimen died in captivity.
A thylacine was reportedly shot and photographed at Mawbanna in 1938. A 1957 sighting from a helicopter could not be confirmed on the ground. An animal killed in Sandy Cape at night in 1961 was tentatively identified as a thylacine. The results of subsequent searches indicated a strong possibility of the survival of the species in Tasmania into the 1960s. Searches by Dr. Eric Guiler and David Fleay in the northwest of Tasmania found footprints and scats that may have belonged to the animal, heard vocalisations matching the description of those of the thylacine, and collected anecdotal evidence from people reported to have sighted the animal.
Despite the searches, no conclusive evidence was found to point to its continued existence in the wild. Between 1967 and 1973, zoologist Jeremy Griffith and dairy farmer James Malley conducted what is regarded as the most intensive search ever carried out, including exhaustive surveys along Tasmania's west coast, installation of automatic camera stations, prompt investigations of claimed sightings, and in 1972 the creation of the Thylacine Expeditionary Research Team with Dr. Bob Brown, which concluded without finding any evidence of the thylacine's existence.
The thylacine held the status of endangered species until the 1980s. International standards at the time stated that an animal could not be declared extinct until 50 years had passed without a confirmed record. Since no definitive proof of the thylacine's existence in the wild had been obtained for more than 50 years, it met that official criterion and was declared extinct by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 1982 and by the Tasmanian government in 1986. The species was removed from Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in 2013.
The Department of Conservation and Land Management recorded 203 reports of sightings of the Thylacine in Western Australia from 1936 to 1998. On the mainland, sightings are most frequently reported in Southern Victoria.
In 1982, a researcher with the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service, Hans Naarding, observed what he believed to be a thylacine for three minutes during the night at a site near Arthur River in northwestern Tasmania. The sighting led to an extensive year-long government-funded search. In 1985, Aboriginal tracker Kevin Cameron produced five photographs which appear to show a digging thylacine, which he stated he took in Western Australia.
In January 1995, a Parks and Wildlife officer reported observing a thylacine in the Pyengana region of northeastern Tasmania in the early hours of the morning. Later searches revealed no trace of the animal. In 1997, it was reported that locals and missionaries near Mount Carstensz in Western New Guinea had sighted thylacines. The locals had apparently known about them for many years but had not made an official report. In February 2005 Klaus Emmerichs, a German tourist, claimed to have taken digital photographs of a thylacine he saw near the Lake St Clair National Park, but the authenticity of the photographs has not been established. The photos were published in April 2006, fourteen months after the sighting. The photographs, which showed only the back of the animal, were said by those who studied them to be inconclusive as evidence of the thylacine's continued existence.
In light of two detailed sightings around 1983 from the remote Cape York Peninsula of mainland Australia, scientists led by Bill Laurance announced plans in 2017 to survey the area for thylacines using camera traps.
In 2017, 580 camera traps were deployed in North Queensland by James Cook University after two people - an experienced outdoorsman and a former Park Ranger - reported having seen a thylacine there in the 1980s but being too embarrassed to tell anyone at the time.
According to the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment, there have been eight unconfirmed thylacine sighting reports between 2016 and 2019, with the latest unconfirmed visual sighting on 25 February 2018.
Since the disappearance and effective extinction of the thylacine, speculation, and searches for a living specimen has become a topic of interest to some members of the cryptozoology subculture. The search for the animal has been the subject of books and articles, with many reported sightings that are largely regarded as dubious. According to writer Errol Fuller, the most likely record of the species persistence was proposed by Athol Douglas in the journal "Cryptozoology", where Douglas challenges the carbon dating of the specimen found at Mundrabilla in South Australia as 4,500 years old; Douglas proposed instead that the well-preserved thylacine carcass was several months old when discovered. The dating of the specimen has not been reassessed.
In 1983, the American media mogul Ted Turner offered a $100,000 reward for proof of the continued existence of the thylacine. A letter sent in response to an inquiry by a thylacine-searcher, Murray McAllister in 2000, indicated that the reward had been withdrawn. In March 2005, Australian news magazine "The Bulletin", as part of its 125th anniversary celebrations, offered a $1.25 million reward for the safe capture of a live thylacine. When the offer closed at the end of June 2005, no one had produced any evidence of the animal's existence. An offer of $1.75 million has subsequently been offered by a Tasmanian tour operator, Stewart Malcolm. Trapping is illegal under the terms of the thylacine's protection, so any reward made for its capture is invalid, since a trapping license would not be issued.
The Australian Museum in Sydney began a cloning project in 1999. The goal was to use genetic material from specimens taken and preserved in the early 20th century to clone new individuals and restore the species from extinction. Several molecular biologists have dismissed the project as a public relations stunt and its chief proponent, Mike Archer, received a 2002 nomination for the Australian Skeptics Bent Spoon Award for "the perpetrator of the most preposterous piece of paranormal or pseudo-scientific piffle."
In late 2002, the researchers had some success as they were able to extract replicable DNA from the specimens. On 15 February 2005, the museum announced that it was stopping the project after tests showed the DNA retrieved from the specimens had been too badly degraded to be usable. In May 2005, Archer, the University of New South Wales Dean of Science at the time, former director of the Australian Museum and evolutionary biologist, announced that the project was being restarted by a group of interested universities and a research institute.
In 2008, researchers Andrew J. Pask and Marilyn B. Renfree from the University of Melbourne and Richard R. Behringer from the University of Texas at Austin reported that they managed to restore functionality of a gene "Col2A1 enhancer" obtained from 100-year-old ethanol-fixed thylacine tissues from museum collections. The genetic material was found working in transgenic mice. The research enhanced hopes of eventually restoring the population of thylacines. That same year, another group of researchers successfully sequenced the complete thylacine mitochondrial genome from two museum specimens. Their success suggests that it may be feasible to sequence the complete thylacine nuclear genome from museum specimens. Their results were published in the journal "Genome Research" in 2009.
The palaeontologist Mike Archer reported about the possibilities of resurrecting the thylacine and the gastric-brooding frog at TED2013. Stewart Brand spoke at TED2013 about the ethics and possibilities of de-extinction, and made reference to thylacine in his talk.
A draft genome sequence of the thylacine was produced by Feigin et al. 2017 using the DNA extracted from an ethanol-preserved pouch young specimen provided by Museums Victoria. Researchers used the genome to study aspects of the thylacine's evolution and natural history, including the genetic basis of its convergence with canids, clarifying its evolutionary relationships with other marsupials and examining changes in its population size over time.
Also in 2017 a reference library of 159 micrographic images of thylacine hair was jointly produced by CSIRO and Where Light Meets Dark, using scanning electron microscopy, metal-coated scanning electron microscopy, confocal laser scanning microscopy and optical light microscopy.
In 2018 Rehberg published a study into the appearance of thylacine stripes using infrared flash camera trap photography.
Since 1996, 7 September (the date in 1936 on which the last known thylacine died) has been commemorated in Australia as National Threatened Species Day.
The best known illustrations of "Thylacinus cynocephalus" were those in Gould's "The Mammals of Australia" (1845–63), often copied since its publication and the most frequently reproduced, and given further exposure by Cascade Brewery's appropriation for its label in 1987. The government of Tasmania published a monochromatic reproduction of the same image in 1934, the author Louisa Anne Meredith also copied it for "Tasmanian Friends and Foes" (1881).
The thylacine has been used extensively as a symbol of Tasmania. The animal is featured on the official Tasmanian coat of arms. It is used in the official logos for the Tasmanian government and the City of Launceston. It is also used on the University of Tasmania's ceremonial mace and the badge of the submarine . Since 1998, it has been prominently displayed on Tasmanian vehicle number plates.
The plight of the thylacine was featured in a campaign for The Wilderness Society entitled "We used to hunt thylacines". In video games, boomerang-wielding "Ty the Tasmanian Tiger" is the star of his own trilogy. Characters in the early 1990s cartoon "Taz-Mania" included the neurotic Wendell T. Wolf, the last surviving Tasmanian wolf. "Tiger Tale" is a children's book based on an Aboriginal myth about how the thylacine got its stripes. The thylacine character Rolf is featured in the extinction musical "Rockford's Rock Opera". The thylacine is the mascot for the Tasmanian cricket team, and has appeared in postage stamps from Australia, Equatorial Guinea, and Micronesia.
"The Hunter" is a novel by Julia Leigh about an Australian hunter who sets out to find the last thylacine. The novel has been adapted into a 2011 film by the same name directed by Daniel Nettheim, and starring Willem Dafoe. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30388 |
Theodor W. Adorno
Theodor W. Adorno (; ; born Theodor Ludwig Wiesengrund; September 11, 1903 – August 6, 1969) was a German philosopher, sociologist, psychologist, musicologist, and composer known for his critical theory of society.
He was a leading member of the Frankfurt School of critical theory, whose work has come to be associated with thinkers such as Ernst Bloch, Walter Benjamin, Max Horkheimer, Erich Fromm, and Herbert Marcuse, for whom the works of Freud, Marx, and Hegel were essential to a critique of modern society. As a critic of both fascism and what he called the culture industry, his writings—such as "Dialectic of Enlightenment" (1947), "Minima Moralia" (1951) and "Negative Dialectics" (1966)—strongly influenced the European New Left.
Amidst the vogue enjoyed by existentialism and positivism in early 20th-century Europe, Adorno advanced a dialectical conception of natural history that critiqued the twin temptations of ontology and empiricism through studies of Kierkegaard and Husserl. As a classically trained pianist whose sympathies with the twelve-tone technique of Arnold Schoenberg resulted in his studying composition with Alban Berg of the Second Viennese School, Adorno's commitment to avant-garde music formed the backdrop of his subsequent writings and led to his collaboration with Thomas Mann on the latter's novel "Doctor Faustus", while the two men lived in California as exiles during the Second World War. The reputation of his work on music, however, has sharply declined over time. Working for the newly relocated Institute for Social Research, Adorno collaborated on influential studies of authoritarianism, antisemitism and propaganda that would later serve as models for sociological studies the Institute carried out in post-war Germany.
Upon his return to Frankfurt, Adorno was involved with the reconstitution of German intellectual life through debates with Karl Popper on the limitations of positivist science, critiques of Heidegger's language of authenticity, writings on German responsibility for the Holocaust, and continued interventions into matters of public policy. As a writer of polemics in the tradition of Nietzsche and Karl Kraus, Adorno delivered scathing critiques of contemporary Western culture. Adorno's posthumously published "Aesthetic Theory", which he planned to dedicate to Samuel Beckett, is the culmination of a lifelong commitment to modern art which attempts to revoke the "fatal separation" of feeling and understanding long demanded by the history of philosophy and explode the privilege aesthetics accords to content over form and contemplation over immersion.
Theodor W. Adorno (alias: Theodor Adorno-Wiesengrund) was born as Theodor Ludwig Wiesengrund in Frankfurt am Main on September 11, 1903, the only child of Oscar Alexander Wiesengrund (1870–1946) and Maria Calvelli-Adorno della Piana (1865–1952). His mother, a devout Catholic from Corsica, was once a professional singer, while his father, an assimilated Jew who had converted to Protestantism, ran a successful wine-export business. Proud of her origins, Maria wanted her son's paternal surname to be supplemented by the addition of her own name, Adorno. Thus his earliest publications carried the name Theodor Wiesengrund-Adorno; upon his application for US citizenship, his name was modified to Theodor W. Adorno.
His childhood was marked by the musical life provided by his mother and aunt: Maria was a singer who could boast of having performed in Vienna at the Imperial Court, while her sister, Agathe, who lived with them, had made a name for herself as both a singer and pianist. He was not only a precocious child but, as he recalled later in life, a child prodigy who could play pieces by Beethoven on the piano by the time he was twelve.
At the age of six, he attended the Deutschherren middle school, before transferring to the Kaiser-Wilhelm Gymnasium, where he studied from 1913 to 1921. Prior to his graduation at the top of his class, Adorno was already swept up by the revolutionary mood of the time, as is evidenced by his reading of Georg Lukács's "The Theory of the Novel" that year, as well as by his fascination with Ernst Bloch's "The Spirit of Utopia", of which he would later write:
Adorno's intellectual nonconformism was also shaped by the repugnance he felt towards the nationalism which swept through the Reich during the First World War. Along with future collaborators Walter Benjamin, Max Horkheimer and Bloch, Adorno was profoundly disillusioned by the ease with which Germany's intellectual and spiritual leaders—among them Max Weber, Max Scheler, Georg Simmel, as well as his friend Siegfried Kracauer—came out in support of the war. The younger generation's distrust for traditional knowledge arose from the way in which this tradition had discredited itself. Over time, Oscar Wiesengrund's firm established close professional and personal ties with the factory of Karplus & Herzberger in Berlin. The eldest daughter of the Karplus family, Margarete, or Gretel, moved in the intellectual circles of Berlin, where she was acquainted with Benjamin, Bertolt Brecht and Bloch, each of whom Adorno would become familiar with during the mid-1920s; after fourteen years, Gretel Karplus and Adorno were married in 1937.
At the end of his schooldays, Adorno not only benefited from the rich concert offerings of Frankfurt—where one could hear performances of works by Schoenberg, Schreker, Stravinsky, Bartók, Busoni, Delius and Hindemith—but also began studying music composition at the Hoch Conservatory while taking private lessons with well-respected composers Bernhard Sekles and Eduard Jung. At around the same time, he befriended Siegfried Kracauer, the "Frankfurter Zeitung"s literary editor, of whom he would later write:
Leaving gymnasium to study philosophy, psychology and sociology at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt, Adorno continued his readings with Kracauer, turning now to Hegel and Kierkegaard, and began publishing concert reviews and pieces of music for distinguished journals like the "Zeitschrift für Musik", the "Neue Blätter für Kunst und Literatur" and later for the "Musikblätter des Anbruch". In these articles Adorno championed avant-garde music at the same time as he critiqued the failings of musical modernity, as in the case of Stravinsky's "The Soldier's Tale", which in 1923 he called a "dismal Bohemian prank". In these early writings he was unequivocal in his condemnation of performances that either sought or pretended to achieve a transcendence that Adorno, in line with many intellectuals of the time, regarded as impossible: "No cathedral", he wrote, "can be built if no community desires one." In the summer of 1924 Adorno received his doctorate with a study of Edmund Husserl under the direction of the unorthodox neo-Kantian Hans Cornelius. Before his graduation Adorno had already met his most important intellectual collaborators, Horkheimer and Benjamin. Through Cornelius's seminars, Adorno met Horkheimer, through whom he was then introduced to Friedrich Pollock.
During the summer of 1924, the Viennese composer Alban Berg's "Three Fragments from Wozzeck", op. 7, premiered in Frankfurt, at which time Adorno introduced himself to Berg and both agreed the young philosopher and composer would study with Berg in Vienna. Upon moving to Vienna in February 1925, Adorno immersed himself in the musical culture that had grown up around Schoenberg: in addition to his twice-weekly sessions with Berg, Adorno continued his studies on piano with Eduard Steuermann and befriended the violinist Rudolf Kolisch. In Vienna he and Berg attended public lectures by the satirist Karl Kraus, and he met Lukács, who had been living in Vienna after the failure of the Hungarian Soviet Republic. Berg, whom Adorno called "my master and teacher", was among the most prescient of his young pupil's early friends:
After leaving Vienna, Adorno traveled through Italy, where he met with Kracauer, Benjamin, and the economist Alfred Sohn-Rethel, with whom he developed a lasting friendship, before returning to Frankfurt. In December 1926 Adorno's "Two Pieces for String Quartet", op. 2, were performed in Vienna, which provided a welcome interruption from his preparations for the habilitation. After writing the "Piano Pieces in strict twelve-tone technique", as well as songs later integrated into the "Six Bagatelles for Voice and Piano", op. 6, Adorno presented his habilitation manuscript, "The Concept of the Unconscious in the Transcendental Theory of the Psyche" ("Der Begriff des Unbewußten in der transzendentalen Seelenlehre"), to Cornelius in November 1927. Cornelius advised Adorno to withdraw his application on the grounds that the manuscript was too close to his own way of thinking. In the manuscript Adorno attempted to underline the epistemological status of the unconscious as it emerged from Freud's early writings. Against the function of the unconscious in both Nietzsche and Spengler, Adorno argued that Freud's notion of the unconscious serves as a "sharp weapon ... against every attempt to create a metaphysics of the instincts and to deify full, organic nature." Undaunted by his academic prospects, Adorno threw himself once again into composition. In addition to publishing numerous reviews of opera performances and concerts, Adorno's "Four Songs for Medium Voice and Piano", op. 3, were performed in Berlin in January 1929. Between 1928 and 1930 Adorno took on a greater role within the editorial committee of the "Musikblätter des Anbruch". In a proposal for transforming the journal, he sought to use "Anbruch" for championing radical modern music against what he called the "stabilized music" of Pfitzner, the later Richard Strauss, as well as the neoclassicism of Stravinsky and Hindemith. During this period he published the essays "Night Music", "On Twelve-Tone Technique" and "Reaction and Progress". Yet his reservations about twelve-tone orthodoxy became steadily more pronounced. According to Adorno, twelve-tone technique's use of atonality can no more be regarded as an authoritative canon than can tonality be relied on to provide instructions for the composer.
At this time Adorno struck up a correspondence with the composer Ernst Krenek, discussing problems of atonality and twelve-tone technique. In a 1934 letter he sounded a related criticism of Schoenberg:
At this point Adorno reversed his earlier priorities: now his musical activities came second to the development of a philosophical theory of aesthetics. Thus, in the middle of 1929 he accepted Paul Tillich's offer to present an habilitation on Kierkegaard, which Adorno eventually submitted under the title "The Construction of the Aesthetic". At the time, Kierkegaard's philosophy exerted a strong influence, chiefly through its claim to pose an alternative to Idealism and Hegel's philosophy of history. Yet when Adorno turned his attention to Kierkegaard, watchwords like "anxiety," "inwardness" and "leap"—instructive for existentialist philosophy—were detached from their theological origins and posed, instead, as problems for aesthetics. As the work proceeded—and Kierkegaard's overcoming of Hegel's idealism was revealed to be a mere interiorization—Adorno excitedly remarked in a letter to Berg that he was writing without looking over his shoulder at the faculty who would soon evaluate his work. Receiving favourable reports from Professors Tillich and Horkheimer, as well as Benjamin and Kracauer, the University conferred on Adorno the "venia legendi" in February 1931; on the very day his revised study was published, 23 March 1933, Hitler seized dictatorial powers.
Several months after qualifying as a lecturer in philosophy, Adorno delivered an inaugural lecture at the Institute for Social Research, an independent organization that had recently appointed Horkheimer as its director and, with the arrival of the literary scholar Leo Lowenthal, social psychologist Erich Fromm and philosopher Herbert Marcuse, sought to exploit recent theoretical and methodological advances in the social sciences. His lecture, "The Actuality of Philosophy," created a scandal. In it Adorno not only deviated from the theoretical program Horkheimer had laid out a year earlier but challenged philosophy's very capacity for comprehending reality as such: "For the mind," Adorno announced, "is indeed not capable of producing or grasping the totality of the real, but it may be possible to penetrate the detail, to explode in miniature the mass of merely existing reality." In line with Benjamin's "The Origin of German Tragic Drama" and preliminary sketches of the Arcades Project, Adorno likened philosophical interpretation to experiments that should be conducted "until they arrive at figurations in which the answers are legible, while the questions themselves vanish." Having lost its position as the Queen of the Sciences, philosophy must now radically transform its approach to objects so that it might "construct keys before which reality springs open."
Following Horkheimer's taking up the directorship of the Institute, a new journal, "Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung", was produced to publish the research of Institute members both before and after its relocation to the United States. Though Adorno was not an Institute member, the journal published many of his essays, including "The Social Situation of Music" (1932), "On Jazz" (1936), "On the Fetish-Character in Music and the Regression of Listening" (1938) and "Fragments on Wagner" (1938). In his new role as social theorist, Adorno's philosophical analysis of cultural phenomena heavily relied on the language of historical materialism, as concepts like reification, false consciousness and ideology came to play an ever more prominent role in his work. At the same time, however, and owing to both the presence of another prominent sociologist at the Institute, Karl Mannheim, as well as the methodological problem posed by treating objects—like "musical material"—as ciphers of social contradictions, Adorno was compelled to abandon any notion of "value-free" sociology in favour of a form of ideology critique that held on to an idea of truth. Before his emigration in autumn 1934, Adorno began work on a "Singspiel" based on Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" titled "The Treasure of Indian Joe", which he never completed; by the time he fled Hitler's Germany Adorno had already written over 100 opera or concert reviews and 50 critiques of music composition.
As the Nazi party became the largest party in the Reichstag, Horkheimer's 1932 observation proved typical for his milieu: "Only one thing is certain", he wrote, "the irrationality of society has reached a point where only the gloomiest predictions have any plausibility." In September Adorno's right to teach was revoked; in March, as the swastika was run up the flagpole of town hall, the Frankfurt criminal police searched the institute's offices. Adorno's house on Seeheimer Strasse was similarly searched in July and his application for membership in the Reich Chamber of Literature denied on the grounds that membership was limited to "persons who belong to the German nation by profound ties of character and blood. As a non-Aryan," he was informed, "you are unable to feel and appreciate such an obligation." Soon afterwards Adorno was forced into 15 years of exile.
After the possibility of transferring his habilitation to the University of Vienna came to nothing, Adorno considered relocating to Britain upon his father's suggestion. With the help of the Academic Assistance Council, Adorno registered as an advanced student at Merton College, Oxford, in June 1934. During the next four years at Oxford, Adorno made repeated trips to Germany to see both his parents and Gretel, who was still working in Berlin. Under the direction of Gilbert Ryle, Adorno worked on a dialectical critique of Husserl's epistemology. By this time, the Institute for Social Research had relocated to New York City and begun making overtures to Adorno. After months of strained relations, Horkheimer and Adorno reestablished their essential theoretical alliance during meetings in Paris. Adorno continued writing on music, publishing "The Form of the Phonograph Record" and "Crisis of Music Criticism" with the Viennese musical journal "23", "On Jazz" in the Institute's "Zeitschrift", "Farewell to Jazz" in "Europäische Revue". But Adorno's attempts to break out of the sociology of music were twice thwarted: neither the study of Mannheim he had been working on for years nor extracts from his study of Husserl were accepted by the "Zeitschrift". Impressed by Horkheimer's book of aphorisms, "Dawn and Decline", Adorno began working on his own book of aphorisms, what later became "Minima Moralia". While at Oxford, Adorno suffered two great losses: his Aunt Agathe died in June 1935, and Berg died in December of the same year. To the end of his life, Adorno never abandoned the hope of completing Berg's unfinished opera Lulu.
At this time Adorno was in intense correspondence with Walter Benjamin about the latter's "Arcades Project". After receiving an invitation from Horkheimer to visit the Institute in New York, Adorno sailed for New York on June 9, 1937, and stayed for two weeks. While he was in New York, Horkheimer's essays "The Latest Attack on Metaphysics" and "Traditional and Critical Theory," which would soon become instructive for the Institute's self-understanding, were the subject of intense discussion. Soon after his return to Europe, Gretel moved to Britain, where she and Adorno were married on September 8, 1937; a little over a month later, Horkheimer telegrammed from New York with news of a position Adorno could take with the Princeton Radio Project, then under the directorship of the Austrian sociologist Paul Lazarsfeld. Yet Adorno's work continued with studies of Beethoven and Richard Wagner (published in 1939 as "Fragments on Wagner"), drafts of which he read to Benjamin during their final meeting, in December on the Italian Riviera. According to Benjamin, these drafts were astonishing for "the precision of their materialist deciphering" as well as the way in which "musical facts ... had been made socially transparent in a way that was completely new to me." In his Wagner study, the thesis later to characterize "Dialectic of Enlightenment"—man's domination of nature—first emerges. Adorno sailed for New York on February 16, 1938. Soon after settling into his new home on Riverside Drive, Adorno met with Lazarsfeld in Newark, New Jersey, to discuss the Project's plans for investigating the impact of broadcast music.
Although he was expected to embed the Project's research within a wider theoretical context, it soon became apparent that the Project was primarily concerned with data collection to be used by administrators for establishing whether groups of listeners could be targeted by broadcasts specifically aimed at them. Expected to make use of devices with which listeners could press a button to indicate whether they liked or disliked a particular piece of music, Adorno bristled with distaste and astonishment: "I reflected that culture was simply the condition that precluded a mentality that tried to measure it." Thus Adorno suggested using individual interviews to determine listener reactions and, only three months after meeting Lazarsfeld, completed a 160-page memorandum on the Project's topic, "Music in Radio." Adorno was primarily interested in how the musical material was affected by its distribution through the medium of radio and thought it imperative to understand how music was affected by its becoming part of daily life. "The meaning of a Beethoven symphony," he wrote, "heard while the listener is walking around or lying in bed is very likely to differ from its effect in a concert-hall where people sit as if they were in church." In essays published by the Institute's "Zeitschrift", Adorno dealt with the atrophy of musical culture that had become instrumental in accelerating tendencies—toward conformism, trivialization and standardization—already present in the larger culture. Unsurprisingly, Adorno's studies found little resonance among members of the project. At the end of 1939, when Lazarsfeld submitted a second application for funding, the musical section of the study was left out. Yet during the two years during which he worked on the Project, Adorno was prolific, publishing "The Radio Symphony", "A Social Critique of Radio Music", and "On Popular Music", texts that, along with the draft memorandum and other unpublished writings, are found in Robert Hullot-Kentor's translation, "Current of Music". In light of this situation, Horkheimer soon found a permanent post for Adorno at the Institute.
In addition to helping with the "Zeitschrift", Adorno was expected to be the Institute's liaison with Benjamin, who soon passed on to New York the study of Charles Baudelaire he hoped would serve as a model of the larger "Arcades Project". In correspondence, the two men discussed the difference in their conceptions of the relationship between critique and artworks that had become manifest through Benjamin's "The Work of Art in the Age of its Technical Reproducibility". At around the same time Adorno and Horkheimer began planning for a joint work on "dialectical logic", which would later become "Dialectic of Enlightenment". Alarmed by reports from Europe, where Adorno's parents suffered increasing discrimination and Benjamin was interned in Colombes, they entertained few delusions about their work's practical effects. "In view of what is now threatening to engulf Europe," Horkheimer wrote, "our present work is essentially destined to pass things down through the night that is approaching: a kind of message in a bottle." As Adorno continued his work in New York with radio talks on music and a lecture on Kierkegaard's doctrine of love, Benjamin fled Paris and attempted to make an illegal border crossing. After learning that his Spanish visa was invalid and fearing deportation back to France, Benjamin took an overdose of morphine tablets. In light of recent events, the Institute set about formulating a theory of antisemitism and fascism. On one side were those who supported Franz Leopold Neumann's thesis according to which National Socialism was a form of "monopoly capitalism"; on the other were those who supported Friedrich Pollock's "state capitalist theory." Horkheimer's contributions to this debate, in the form of the essays "The Authoritarian State", "The End of Reason", and "The Jews and Europe", served as a foundation for what he and Adorno planned to do in their book on dialectical logic.
In November 1941 Adorno followed Horkheimer to what Thomas Mann called "German California", setting up house in a Pacific Palisades neighborhood of German émigrés that included Bertolt Brecht and Schoenberg. Adorno arrived with a draft of his "Philosophy of New Music", a dialectical critique of twelve-tone music that Adorno felt, while writing it, was a departure from the theory of art he had spent the previous decades elaborating. Horkheimer's reaction to the manuscript was wholly positive: "If I have ever in the whole of my life felt enthusiasm about anything, then I did on this occasion," he wrote after reading the manuscript. The two set about completing their joint work, which transformed from a book on dialectical logic to a rewriting of the history of rationality and the Enlightenment. First published in a small mimeographed edition in May 1944 as "Philosophical Fragments", the text waited another three years before achieving book form when it was published with its definitive title, "Dialectic of Enlightenment", by the Amsterdam publisher Querido Verlag. This "reflection on the destructive aspect of progress" proceeded through the chapters that treated rationality as both the liberation from and further domination of nature, interpretations of both Homer's "Odyssey" and the Marquis de Sade, as well as analyses of the culture industry and antisemitism.
With their joint work completed, the two turned their attention to studies on antisemitism and authoritarianism in collaboration with the Nevitt Sanford-led Public Opinion Study Group and the American Jewish Committee. In line with these studies, Adorno produced an analysis of the Californian radio preacher Martin Luther Thomas. Fascist propaganda of this sort, Adorno wrote, "simply takes people for what they are: genuine children of today's standardized mass culture who have been robbed to a great extent of their autonomy and spontaneity". The result of these labors, the 1950 study "The Authoritarian Personality", was pioneering in its combination of quantitative and qualitative methods of collecting and evaluating data as well as its development of the F-scale personality test.
After the USA entered the war in 1941, the situation of the émigrés, now classed "enemy aliens", became increasingly restricted. Forbidden from leaving their homes between 8pm and 6am and from going more than five miles from their houses, émigrés like Adorno, who was not naturalized until November 1943, were severely restricted in their movements.
In addition to the aphorisms that conclude "Dialectic of Enlightenment", Adorno put together a collection of aphorisms in honor of Horkheimer's 50th birthday that were later published as "Minima Moralia: Reflections from Damaged Life". These fragmentary writings, inspired by a renewed reading of Nietzsche, treated issues like emigration, totalitarianism, and individuality, as well as everyday matters such as giving presents, dwelling and the impossibility of love. In California Adorno made the acquaintance of Charlie Chaplin and became friends with Fritz Lang and Hanns Eisler, with whom he completed a study of film music in 1944. In this study the authors pushed for the greater usage of avant-garde music in film, urging that music be used to supplement, not simply accompany, films' visual aspect. Adorno also assisted Thomas Mann with his novel "Doktor Faustus" after the latter asked for his help. "Would you be willing," Mann wrote, "to think through with me how the work—I mean Leverkühn's work—might look; how you would do it if you were in league with the Devil?"
At the end of October 1949, Adorno left America for Europe just as "The Authoritarian Personality" was being published. Before his return, Adorno had reached an agreement with a Tübingen publisher to print an expanded version of "Philosophy of New Music" and completed two compositions: "Four Songs for Voice and Piano by Stefan George, op.7", and "Three Choruses for Female Voices from the Poems of Theodor Däubler, op. 8".
Upon his return, Adorno helped shape the political culture of West Germany. Until his death in 1969, twenty years after his return, Adorno contributed to the intellectual foundations of the Federal Republic, as a professor at Frankfurt University, critic of the vogue enjoyed by Heideggerian philosophy, partisan of critical sociology, and teacher of music at the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music. Adorno resumed his teaching duties at the university soon after his arrival, with seminars on "Kant's Transcendental Dialectic", aesthetics, Hegel, "Contemporary Problems in the Theory of Knowledge", and "The Concept of Knowledge". Adorno's surprise at his students' passionate interest in intellectual matters did not, however, blind him to continuing problems within Germany: The literary climate was dominated by writers who had remained in Germany during Hitler's rule, the government re-employed people who had been active in the Nazi apparatus and people were generally loath to own up to their own collaboration or the guilt they thus incurred. Instead, the ruined city of Frankfurt continued as if nothing had happened, holding on to ideas of the true, the beautiful, and the good despite the atrocities, hanging on to a culture that had itself been lost in rubble or killed off in the concentration camps. All the enthusiasm Adorno's students showed for intellectual matters could not erase the suspicion that, in the words of Max Frisch, culture had become an "alibi" for the absence of political consciousness. Yet the foundations for what would come to be known as "The Frankfurt School" were soon laid: Horkheimer resumed his chair in social philosophy and the Institute for Social Research, rebuilt, became a lightning rod for critical thought.
Starting with his 1947 essay "Wagner, Nietzsche and Hitler", Adorno produced a series of influential works to describe psychological fascist traits. One of these works was "The Authoritarian Personality" (1950), published as a contribution to the "Studies in Prejudice" performed by multiple research institutes in the US, and consisting of a 'qualitative interpretations' that uncovered the authoritarian character of test persons through indirect questions. The books have had a major influence on sociology and remain highly discussed and debated. In 1951 he continued on the topic with his essay "Freudian Theory and the Pattern of Fascist Propaganda", in which he said that "Psychological dispositions do not actually cause fascism; rather, fascism defines a psychological area which can be successfully exploited by the forces which promote it for entirely non-psychological reasons of self-interest."
In 1952 Adorno participated in a group experiment, revealing residual National Socialist attitudes among the recently democratized Germans. He then published two influential essays, "The Meaning of Working Through the Past" (1959), and "Education after Auschwitz" (1966), in which he argued on the survival of the uneradicated National Socialism in the mind-sets and institutions of the post-1945 Germany, and that there is still a real risk that it could rise again. Later on, however, Jean Améry—who had been tortured at Auschwitz—would sharply object that Adorno, rather than addressing such political concerns, was exploiting Auschwitz for his metaphysical phantom "absolute negativity" ("absolute Negativität"), using a language intoxicated by itself ("von sich selber bis zur Selbstblendung entzückte Sprache").
In September 1951 Adorno returned to the United States for a six-week visit, during which he attended the opening of the Hacker Psychiatry Foundation in Beverly Hills, met Leo Lowenthal and Herbert Marcuse in New York and saw his mother for the last time. After stopping in Paris, where he met Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, Michel Leiris and René Leibowitz, Adorno delivered a lecture entitled "The Present State of Empirical Social Research in Germany" at a conference on opinion research. Here he emphasized the importance of data collection and statistical evaluation while asserting that such empirical methods have only an auxiliary function and must lead to the formation of theories which would "raise the harsh facts to the level of consciousness."
With Horkheimer as dean of the Arts Faculty, then rector of the university, responsibilities for the Institute's work fell upon Adorno. At the same time, however, Adorno renewed his musical work: with talks at the Kranichsteiner Musikgesellschaft, another in connection with a production of Ernst Krenek's opera "Leben des Orest", and a seminar on "Criteria of New Music" at the Fifth International Summer Course for New Music at Kranichstein. Adorno also became increasingly involved with the publishing house of Peter Suhrkamp, inducing the latter to publish Benjamin's "Berlin Childhood Around 1900", Kracauer's writings and a two-volume edition of Benjamin's writings. Adorno's own recently published "Minima Moralia" was not only well received in the press, but also met with great admiration from Thomas Mann, who wrote to Adorno from America in 1952:
Yet Adorno was no less moved by other public events: protesting the publication of Heinrich Mann's novel "Professor Unrat" with its film title, "The Blue Angel"; declaring his sympathy with those who protested the scandal of big-game hunting and penning a defense of prostitutes.
Because Adorno's American citizenship would have been forfeited by the middle of 1952 had he continued to stay outside the country, he returned once again to Santa Monica to survey his prospects at the Hacker Foundation. While there he wrote a content analysis of newspaper horoscopes (now collected in "The Stars Down to Earth"), and the essays "Television as Ideology" and "Prologue to Television"; even so, he was pleased when, at the end of ten months, he was enjoined to return as co-director of the Institute.
Back in Frankfurt, he renewed his academic duties and, from 1952 to 1954, completed three essays: "Notes on Kafka", "Valéry Proust Museum", and an essay on Schoenberg following the composer's death, all of which were included in the 1955 essay collection "Prisms". In response to the publication of Thomas Mann's "The Black Swan", Adorno penned a long letter to the author, who then approved its publication in the literary journal "Akzente". A second collection of essays, "Notes to Literature", appeared in 1958. After meeting Samuel Beckett while delivering a series of lectures in Paris the same year, Adorno set to work on "Trying to Understand Endgame," which, along with studies of Proust, Valéry, and Balzac, formed the central texts of the 1961 publication of the second volume of his "Notes to Literature". Adorno's entrance into literary discussions continued in his June 1963 lecture at the annual conference of the Hölderlin Society. At the Philosophers' Conference of October 1962 in Münster, at which Habermas wrote that Adorno was "A writer among bureaucrats", Adorno presented "Progress".
Although the "Zeitschrift" was never revived, the Institute nevertheless published a series of important sociological books, including "Sociologica" (1955), a collection of essays, "Gruppenexperiment" (1955), "Betriebsklima", a study of work satisfaction among workers in Mannesmann, and "Soziologische Exkurse", a textbook-like anthology intended as an introductory work about the discipline.
Throughout the fifties and sixties, Adorno became a public figure, not simply through his books and essays, but also through his appearances in radio and newspapers. In talks, interviews and round-table discussions broadcast on Hessen Radio, South-West Radio and Radio Bremen, Adorno discussed topics as diverse as "The Administered World" (September 1950), "What is the Meaning of 'Working Through the Past?"' (February 1960) to "The Teaching Profession and its Taboos" (August 1965). Additionally, he frequently wrote for "Frankfurter Allgemeine", "Frankfurter Rundschau" and the weekly "Die Zeit".
At the invitation of Wolfgang Steinecke, Adorno took part in the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music in Kranichstein from 1951 to 1958. Yet conflicts between the so-called Darmstadt school, which included composers like Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luigi Nono, Bruno Maderna, Karel Goeyvaerts, Luciano Berio and Gottfried Michael Koenig, soon arose, receiving explicit expression in Adorno's 1954 lecture, "The Aging of the New Music", where he argued that atonality's freedom was being restricted to serialism in much the same way as it was once restricted by twelve-tone technique. With his friend Eduard Steuermann, Adorno feared that music was being sacrificed to stubborn rationalization. During this time Adorno not only produced a significant series of notes on Beethoven (which was never completed and only published posthumously), but also published "Mahler: A Musical Physiognomy" in 1960. In his 1961 return to Kranichstein, Adorno called for what he termed a "musique informelle", which would possess the ability "really and truly to be what it is, without the ideological pretense of being something else. Or rather, to admit frankly the fact of non-identity and to follow through its logic to the end."
At the same time Adorno struck up relationships with contemporary German-language poets such as Paul Celan and Ingeborg Bachmann. Adorno's 1949 dictum—"To write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric"—posed the question of what German culture could mean after Auschwitz; his own continual revision of this dictum—in "Negative Dialectics", for example, he wrote that "Perennial suffering has as much right to expression as a tortured man has to scream"; while in "Commitment," he wrote in 1962 that the dictum "expresses in negative form the impulse which inspires committed literature"—was part of post-war Germany's struggle with history and culture. Adorno additionally befriended the writer and poet Hans Magnus Enzensberger as well as the film-maker Alexander Kluge.
In 1963, Adorno was elected to the post of chairman of the German Sociological Society, where he presided over two important conferences: in 1964, on "Max Weber and Sociology" and in 1968 on "Late Capitalism or Industrial Society". A debate launched in 1961 by Adorno and Karl Popper, later published as the "Positivist Dispute in German Sociology", arose out of disagreements at the 1959 14th German Sociology Conference in Berlin.
Adorno's critique of the dominant climate of post-war Germany was also directed against the pathos that had grown up around Heideggerianism, as practiced by writers like Karl Jaspers and Otto Friedrich Bollnow, and which had subsequently seeped into public discourse. His 1964 publication of "The Jargon of Authenticity" took aim at the halo such writers had attached to words like "angst", "decision" and "leap". After seven years of work, Adorno completed "Negative Dialectics" in 1966, after which, during the summer semester of 1967 and the winter semester of 1967–68, he offered regular philosophy seminars to discuss the book chapter by chapter. Among the students at these seminars were the Americans Angela Davis and Irving Wohlfarth. One objection which would soon take on ever greater importance, was that critical thought must adopt the standpoint of the oppressed, to which Adorno replied that negative dialectics was concerned "with the dissolution of standpoint thinking itself."
At the time of "Negative Dialectics" publication, the fragility of West German democracy led to increasing student protests. Monopolistic trends in the media, an educational crisis in the universities, the Shah of Iran's 1967 state visit, German support for the war in Vietnam and the emergency laws combined to create a highly unstable situation. Like many of his students, Adorno too opposed the emergency laws, as well as the war in Vietnam, which, he said, proved the continued existence of the "world of torture that had begun in Auschwitz". The situation only deteriorated with the police shooting of Benno Ohnesorg at a protest against the Shah's visit. This death, as well as the subsequent acquittal of the responsible officer, were both commented upon in Adorno's lectures. As politicization increased, rifts developed within both the Institute's relationship with its students as well as within the Institute itself. Soon Adorno himself would become an object of the students' ire. At the invitation of Peter Szondi, Adorno was invited to the Free University of Berlin to give a lecture on Goethe's "Iphigenie in Tauris". After a group of students marched to the lectern, unfurling a banner that read "Berlin's left-wing fascists greet Teddy the Classicist," a number of those present left the lecture in protest after Adorno refused to abandon his talk in favour of discussing his attitude on the current political situation. Adorno shortly thereafter participated in a meeting with the Berlin Sozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund (SDS) and discussed "Student Unrest" with Szondi on West German Radio. But as 1968 progressed, Adorno became increasingly critical of the students' disruptions to university life. His isolation was only compounded by articles published in the magazine "alternative", which, following the lead of Hannah Arendt's articles in "Merkur", claimed Adorno had subjected Benjamin to pressure during his years of exile in Berlin and compiled Benjamin's "Writings" and "Letters" with a great deal of bias. In response, Benjamin's longtime friend Gershom Scholem, wrote to the editor of "Merkur" to express his disapproval of the "in part, shameful, not to say disgraceful" remarks by Arendt.
Relations between students and the West German state continued deteriorating. In spring 1968, a prominent SDS spokesman, Rudi Dutschke, was gunned down in the streets; in response, massive demonstrations took place, directed in particular against the Springer Press, which had led a campaign to vilify the students. An open appeal published in "Die Zeit", signed by Adorno, called for an inquiry into the social reasons that gave rise to this assassination attempt as well as an investigation into the Springer Press' manipulation of public opinion. At the same time, however, Adorno protested against disruptions of his own lectures and refused to express his solidarity with their political goals, maintaining instead his autonomy as a theoretician. Adorno rejected the so-called unity of theory and praxis advocated by the students and argued that the students' actions were premised upon a mistaken analysis of the situation. The building of barricades, he wrote to Marcuse, is "ridiculous against those who administer the bomb."
In September 1968 Adorno went to Vienna for the publication of "Alban Berg: Master of the Smallest Link". Upon his return to Frankfurt, events prevented his concentrating upon the book on aesthetics he wished to write: "Valid student claims and dubious actions," he wrote to Marcuse, "are all so mixed up together that all productive work and even sensible thought are scarcely possible any more." After striking students threatened to strip the Institute's sociology seminar rooms of their furnishings and equipment, the police were brought in to close the building.
Adorno began writing an introduction to a collection of poetry by Rudolf Borchardt, which was connected with a talk entitled "Charmed Language," delivered in Zurich, followed by a talk on aesthetics in Paris where he met Beckett again. Beginning in October 1966, Adorno took up work on "Aesthetic Theory". In June 1969 he completed "Catchwords: Critical Models". During the winter semester of 1968–69 Adorno was on sabbatical leave from the university and thus able to dedicate himself to the completion of his book of aesthetics.
For the summer semester Adorno planned a lecture course entitled "An Introduction to Dialectical Thinking," as well as a seminar on the dialectics of subject and object. But at the first lecture Adorno's attempt to open up the lecture and invite questions whenever they arose degenerated into a disruption from which he quickly fled: after a student wrote on the blackboard "If Adorno is left in peace, capitalism will never cease," three women students approached the lectern, bared their breasts and scattered flower petals over his head. Yet Adorno continued to resist blanket condemnations of the protest movement which would have only strengthened the conservative thesis according to which political irrationalism was the result of Adorno's teaching. After further disruptions to his lectures, Adorno canceled the lectures for the rest of the seminar, continuing only with his philosophy seminar. In the summer of 1969, weary from these activities, Adorno returned once again to Zermatt, Switzerland, at the foot of Matterhorn to restore his strength. On August 6 he died of a heart attack.
Like most theorists of the Frankfurt School, Adorno was influenced by the works of Hegel, Marx and Freud. Their major theories fascinated many left-wing intellectuals in the first half of the 20th century. Lorenz Jäger speaks critically of Adorno's "Achilles' heel" in his political biography: that Adorno placed "almost unlimited trust in finished teachings, in Marxism, psychoanalysis, and the teachings of the Second Viennese School."
Adorno's adoption of Hegelian philosophy can be traced back to his inaugural lecture in 1931, in which he postulated: "only dialectically does philosophical interpretation seem possible to me" ("Gesammelte Schriften" 1: 338). Hegel rejected the idea of separating methods and content, because thinking is always thinking of something; dialectics for him is "the comprehended movement of the object itself." Like Gerhard Schweppenhäuser, Adorno adopted this claim as his own, and based his thinking on one of the Hegelian basic categories, the determinate negation, according to which something is not abstractly negated and dissolved into zero, but is preserved in a new, richer concept through its opposite.
Adorno understood his "Three Studies of Hegel" as "preparation of a changed definition of dialectics" and that they stop "where the start should be" ("Gesammelte Schriften" 5: 249 f.). Adorno dedicated himself to this task in one of his later major works, the "Negative Dialectics" (1966). The title expresses "tradition and rebellion in equal measure." Drawing from Hegelian reason's speculative dialectic, Adorno developed his own "negative" dialectic of the "non-identical."
Marx's "Critique of Political Economy" clearly shaped Adorno's thinking. As described by Jürgen Habermas, Marxist critique is, for Adorno, a "silent orthodoxy, whose categories [are revealed] in Adorno's cultural critique, although their influence is not explicitly named." Marx's influence on Adorno first came by way of György Lukács's "History and Class Consciousness" ("Geschichte und Klassenbewußtsein"); from this text, Adorno took the Marxist categories of commodity fetishism and reification. These are closely related to Adorno's concept of trade, which stands in the center of his philosophy, not exclusively restricted to economic theory. Adorno's "exchange society" "(Tauschgesellschaft"), with its "insatiable and destructive appetite for expansion," is easily decoded as a description of capitalism. Furthermore, the Marxist concept of ideology is central for Adorno.
Class theory, which appears less frequently in Adorno's work, also has its origins in Marxist thinking. Adorno made explicit reference to class in two of his texts: the first, the subchapter "Classes and Strata" ("Klassen und Schichten"), from his "Introduction to the Sociology of Music"; the second, an unpublished 1942 essay, "Reflections on Class Theory", published postmortem in his "Collected Works".
Psychoanalysis is a constitutive element of critical theory. Adorno read Sigmund Freud's work early on, although, unlike Horkheimer, he had never experienced psychoanalysis in practice. He first read Freud while working on his initial (withdrawn) habilitation thesis, "The Concept of the Unconscious in the Transcendental Theory of Mind" (1927). In it Adorno argued that "the healing of all neuroses is synonymous with the complete understanding of the meaning of their symptoms by the patient". In his essay "On the Relationship between Sociology and Psychology" (1955), he justified the need to "supplement the theory of society with psychology, especially analytically oriented social psychology" in the face of fascism. Adorno emphasized the necessity of researching prevailing psychological drives in order to explain the cohesion of a repressive society acting against fundamental human interests.
Adorno always remained a supporter and defender of Freudian orthodox doctrine, "psychoanalysis in its strict form". From this position, he attacked Erich Fromm and later Karen Horney because of their revisionism. He expressed reservations about sociologized psychoanalysis as well as about its reduction to a therapeutic procedure.
Adorno's work sets out from a central insight he shares with all early 20th century avant-garde art: the recognition of what is primitive in ourselves and the world itself. Neither Picasso's fascination with African sculpture nor Mondrian's reduction of painting to its most elementary component—the line—is comprehensible outside this concern with primitivism Adorno shared with the century's most radical art. At that time, the Western world, beset by world-wars, colonialist consolidation and accelerating commodification, sank into the very barbarism civilization had prided itself in overcoming. According to Adorno, society's self-preservation had become indistinguishable from societally sanctioned self-sacrifice: of "primitive" peoples, primitive aspects of the ego and those primitive, mimetic desires found in imitation and sympathy. Adorno's theory proceeds from an understanding of this primitive quality of reality which seeks to counteract whatever aims either to repress this primitive aspect or to further those systems of domination set in place by this return to barbarism. From this perspective, Adorno's writings on politics, philosophy, music and literature are a lifelong critique of the ways in which each tries to justify self-mutilation as the necessary price of self-preservation. According to Adorno's translator Robert Hullot-Kentor, the central motive of Adorno's work thus consists in determining "how life could be more than the struggle for self-preservation". In this sense, the principle of self-preservation, Adorno writes in "Negative Dialectics", is nothing but "the law of doom thus far obeyed by history." At its most basic, Adorno's thought is motivated by a fundamental critique of this law.
Adorno was chiefly influenced by Max Weber's critique of disenchantment, Georg Lukács's Hegelian interpretation of Marxism, as well as Walter Benjamin's philosophy of history. Adorno, along with the other major Frankfurt School theorists Max Horkheimer and Herbert Marcuse, argued that advanced capitalism had managed to contain or liquidate the forces that would bring about its collapse and that the revolutionary moment, when it would have been possible to transform it into socialism, had passed. As he put it at the beginning of his "Negative Dialectics" (1966), philosophy is still necessary because the time to realise it was missed. Adorno argued that capitalism had become more entrenched through its attack on the objective basis of revolutionary consciousness and through liquidation of the individualism that had been the basis of critical consciousness. Adorno, as well as Horkheimer, critiqued all forms of positivism as responsible for technocracy and disenchantment and sought to produce a theory that both rejected positivism and avoided reinstating traditional metaphysics. Adorno and Horkheimer have been criticized for over-applying the term "positivism," especially in their interpretations of Ludwig Wittgenstein and Karl Popper as positivists.
Adorno criticized jazz and popular music, viewing it as part of the culture industry, that contributes to the present sustainability of capitalism by rendering it "aesthetically pleasing" and "agreeable".
In his early essays for the Vienna-based journal "Anbruch", Adorno claimed that musical progress is proportional to the composer's ability to constructively deal with the possibilities and limitations contained within what he called the "musical material." For Adorno, twelve-tone serialism constitutes a decisive, historically developed method of composition. The objective validity of composition, according to him, rests with neither the composer's genius nor the work's conformity with prior standards, but with the way in which the work coherently expresses the dialectic of the material. In this sense, the contemporary absence of composers of the status of Bach or Beethoven is not the sign of musical regression; instead, new music is to be credited with laying bare aspects of the musical material previously repressed: The musical material's liberation from number, the harmonic series and tonal harmony. Thus, historical progress is achieved only by the composer who "submits to the work and seemingly does not undertake anything active except to follow where it leads." Because historical experience and social relations are embedded within this musical material, it is to the analysis of such material that the critic must turn. In the face of this radical liberation of the musical material, Adorno came to criticize those who, like Stravinsky, withdrew from this freedom by taking recourse to forms of the past as well as those who turned twelve-tone composition into a technique which dictated the rules of composition.
Adorno saw the culture industry as an arena in which critical tendencies or potentialities were eliminated. He argued that the culture industry, which produced and circulated cultural commodities through the mass media, manipulated the population. Popular culture was identified as a reason why people become passive; the easy pleasures available through consumption of popular culture made people docile and content, no matter how terrible their economic circumstances. "Capitalist production so confines them, body and soul, that they fall helpless victims to what is offered them." The differences among cultural goods make them appear different, but they are in fact just variations on the same theme. He wrote that "the same thing is offered to everybody by the standardized production of consumption goods" but this is concealed under "the manipulation of taste and the official culture's pretense of individualism". By doing so, the culture industry appeals to every single consumer in a unique and personalized way, all while maintaining minimal costs and effort on their behalf. Consumers purchase the illusion that every commodity or product is tailored to the individual's personal preference, by incorporating subtle modifications or inexpensive "add-ons" in order to keep the consumer returning for new purchases, and therefore more revenue for the corporation system. Adorno conceptualized this phenomenon as "pseudo-individualisation" and the "always-the-same".
Adorno's analysis allowed for a critique of mass culture from the left which balanced the critique of popular culture from the right. From both perspectives—left and right—the nature of cultural production was felt to be at the root of social and moral problems resulting from the consumption of culture. However, while the critique from the right emphasized moral degeneracy ascribed to sexual and racial influences within popular culture, Adorno located the problem not with the content, but with the objective realities of the production of mass culture and its effects, e.g. as a form of reverse psychology. Thinkers influenced by Adorno believe that today's society has evolved in a direction foreseen by him, especially in regard to the past (Auschwitz), morals, or the Culture Industry. The latter has become a particularly productive, yet highly contested term in cultural studies. Many of Adorno's reflections on aesthetics and music have only just begun to be debated, as a collection of essays on the subject, many of which had not previously been translated into English, has only recently been collected and published as "Essays on Music".
Adorno's work in the years before his death was shaped by the idea of "negative dialectics", set out especially in his book of that title. A key notion in the work of the Frankfurt School since "Dialectic of Enlightenment" had been the idea of thought becoming an instrument of domination that subsumes all objects under the control of the (dominant) subject, especially through the notion of identity, i.e. of identifying as real in nature and society only that which harmonized or fit with dominant concepts, and regarding as unreal or non-existent everything that did not. Adorno's "negative dialectics" was an attempt to articulate a non-dominating thought that would recognize its limitations and accept the non-identity and reality of that which could not be subsumed under the subject's concepts. Indeed, Adorno sought to ground the critical bite of his sociological work in his critique of identity, which he took to be a reification in thought of the commodity form or exchange relation which always presumes a false identity between different things. The potential to criticise arises from the gap between the concept and the object, which can never go into the former without remainder. This gap, this non-identity in identity, was the secret to a critique of both material life and conceptual reflection.
Adorno's reputation as a musicologist has been in steady decline since his death. His sweeping criticisms of jazz and championing of the Second Viennese School in opposition to Stravinsky have caused him to fall out of favour. The distinguished American scholar Richard Taruskin declared Adorno to be "preposterously over-rated." The eminent pianist and critic Charles Rosen saw Adorno's book "The Philosophy of New Music" as "largely a fraudulent presentation, a work of polemic that pretends to be an objective study." Even a fellow Marxist such as the historian and jazz critic Eric Hobsbawm saw Adorno's writings as containing "some of the stupidest pages ever written about jazz". The British philosopher Roger Scruton saw Adorno as producing "reams of turgid nonsense devoted to showing that the American people are just as alienated as Marxism requires them to be, and that their cheerful life-affirming music is a 'fetishized' commodity, expressive of their deep spiritual enslavement to the capitalist machine." Irritation with Adorno's tunnel vision started even while he was alive. He may have championed Schoenberg, but the composer notably failed to return the compliment: "I have never been able to bear the fellow [...] It is disgusting, by the way, how he treats Stravinsky." On the other hand, the scholar Slavoj Žižek has written a foreword to Adorno's "In Search of Wagner", where Žižek attributes an "emancipatory impulse" to the same book, although Žižek suggests that fidelity to this impulse demands "a betrayal of the explicit theses of Adorno's Wagner study."
Adorno states that a start to understand the recognition in respect of any particular song hit may be made by drafting a scheme which divides the experience of recognition into its different components. All the factors people enumerate are interwoven to a degree that would be impossible to separate from one another in reality. Adorno's scheme is directed towards the different objective elements involved in the experience of recognition, than the actual experience felt for the individual.
Adorno posits social totality as an automatic system. According to Horst Müller's "Kritik der kritischen Theorie" ("Critique of Critical Theory"), this assumption is consistent with Adorno's idea of society as a self-regulating system, from which one must escape (but from which nobody "can" escape). For him it was existent, but inhuman. Müller argues against the existence of such a system and claims that critical theory provides no practical solution for societal change. He concludes that Jürgen Habermas, in particular, and the Frankfurt School in general, misconstrue Marx.
The phenomenon of standardization is "a concept used to characterize the formulaic products of capitalist-driven mass media and mass culture that appeal to the lowest common denominator in pursuit of maximum profit". According to Adorno we inhabit a media culture driven society which has product consumption as one of its main characteristics. Mass media is employed to deliver messages about products and services to consumers in order to convince these individuals to purchase the commodity they are advertising. Standardization consists of the production of large amounts of commodities to then pursue consumers in order to gain the maximum profit possible.
They do this, as mentioned above, by individualizing products to give the illusion to consumers that they are in fact purchasing a product or service that was specifically designed for them. Adorno highlights the issues created with the construction of popular music, where different samples of music used in the creation of today's chart-topping songs are put together in order to create, re-create, and modify numerous tracks by using the same variety of samples from one song to another. He makes a distinction between "Apologetic music" and "Critical music". Apologetic music is defined as the highly produced and promoted music of the "pop music" industry: music that is composed of variable parts and interchanged to create several different songs. "The social and psychological functions of popular music [are that it] acts like a social cement" "to keep people obedient and subservient to the status quo of existing power structures."
Serious music, according to Adorno, achieves excellence when its whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The example he gives is that of Beethoven's symphonies: "[his] greatness shows itself in the complete subordination of the accidentally private melodic elements to the form as a whole."
Standardization not only refers to the products of the culture industry but to the consumers as well: many times every day consumers are bombarded by media advertising. Consumers are pushed and shoved into consuming products and services presented to them by the media system. The masses have become conditioned by the culture industry, which makes the impact of standardization much more important. By not realizing the impact of social media and commercial advertising, the individual is caught in a situation where conformity is the norm. "During consumption the masses become characterized by the commodities which they use and exchange among themselves."
As a pioneer of a self-reflexive sociology who prefigured Bourdieu's ability to factor in the effect of reflection on the societal object, Adorno realized that some criticism (including deliberate disruption of his classes in the 1960s) could never be answered in a dialogue between equals if, as he seems to have believed, what the naive ethnographer or sociologist thinks of a human essence is always changing over time.
As Adorno believed that sociology needs to be self-reflective and self-critical, he also believed that the language the sociologist uses, like the language of the ordinary person, is a political construct in large measure that uses, often unreflectingly, concepts installed by dominant classes and social structures (such as our notion of "deviance" which includes both genuinely deviant individuals and "hustlers" operating below social norms because they lack the capital to operate above: for an analysis of this phenomenon, cf. Pierre Bourdieu's book "The Weight of the World"). He felt that those at the top of the Institute needed to be the source primarily of theories for evaluation and empirical testing, as well as people who would process the "facts" discovered...including revising theories that were found to be false. For example, in an essay published in Germany on Adorno's return from the US, and reprinted in the "Critical Models" essays collection (), Adorno praised the egalitarianism and openness of US society based on his sojourn in New York and the Los Angeles area between 1935 and 1955: "Characteristic for the life in America [...]is a moment of peacefulness, kindness and generosity". ("Dem amerikanischen Leben eignet [...] ein Moment von Friedlichkeit, Gutartigkeit und Großzügigkeit".)
One example of the clash of intellectual culture and Adorno's methods can be found in Paul Lazarsfeld, the American sociologist for whom Adorno worked in the late 1930s after fleeing Hitler. As Rolf Wiggershaus recounts in "The Frankfurt School, Its History, Theories and Political Significance" (MIT 1995), Lazarsfeld was the director of a project, funded and inspired by David Sarnoff (the head of RCA), to discover both the sort of music that listeners of radio liked and ways to improve their "taste", so that RCA could profitably air more classical music. Lazarsfeld, however, had trouble both with the prose style of the work Adorno handed in and what Lazarsfeld thought was Adorno's "lack of discipline in ... presentation".
Adorno himself provided the following personal anecdote:
While even German readers can find Adorno's work difficult to understand, an additional problem for English readers is that his German idiom is particularly difficult to translate into English. A similar difficulty of translation is true of Hegel, Heidegger, and a number of other German philosophers and poets. As a result, some early translators tended toward over-literalness. In recent years, Edmund Jephcott and Stanford University Press have published new translations of some of Adorno's lectures and books, including "Introduction to Sociology", "Problems of Moral Philosophy" and his transcribed lectures on Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason" and Aristotle's "Metaphysics", and a new translation of the "Dialectic of Enlightenment". Professor Henry Pickford, of the University of Colorado at Boulder, has translated many of Adorno's works such as "The Meaning of Working Through the Past." A new translation has also appeared of "Aesthetic Theory" and the "Philosophy of New Music" by Robert Hullot-Kentor, from the University of Minnesota Press. Hullot-Kentor is also currently working on a new translation of "Negative Dialectics". Adorno's correspondence with Alban Berg, "Towards a Theory of Musical Reproduction", and the letters to Adorno's parents, have been translated by Wieland Hoban and published by Polity Press. These fresh translations are slightly less literal in their rendering of German sentences and words, and are more accessible to English readers. The Group Experiment, which had been unavailable to English readers, is now available in an accessible translation by Jeffrey K. Olick and Andrew J. Perrin on Harvard University Press, along with introductory material explaining its relation to the rest of Adorno's work and 20th-century public opinion research. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30391 |
Thermophile
A thermophile is an organism—a type of extremophile—that thrives at relatively high temperatures, between . Many thermophiles are archaea. Thermophilic eubacteria are suggested to have been among the earliest bacteria.
Thermophiles are found in various geothermally heated regions of the Earth, such as hot springs like those in Yellowstone National Park (see image) and deep sea hydrothermal vents, as well as decaying plant matter, such as peat bogs and compost.
Thermophiles can survive at high temperatures, whereas other bacteria would be damaged and sometimes killed if exposed to the same temperatures.
The enzymes in thermophiles function at high temperatures. Some of these enzymes are used in molecular biology, for example the taq polymerase used in PCR.
"Thermophile" is derived from the ("thermotita"), meaning heat, and ("philia"), love.
Thermophiles can be classified in various ways. One classification sorts these organisms according to their optimal growth temperatures:
In a related classification, thermophiles are sorted as follows:
Many of the hyperthermophilic Archaea require elemental sulfur for growth. Some are anaerobes that use the sulfur instead of oxygen as an electron acceptor during cellular respiration. Some are lithotrophs that oxidize sulphur to create sulfuric acid as an energy source, thus requiring the microorganism to be adapted to very low pH (i.e., it is an acidophile as well as thermophile). These organisms are inhabitants of hot, sulfur-rich environments usually associated with volcanism, such as hot springs, geysers, and fumaroles. In these places, especially in Yellowstone National Park, zonation of microorganisms according to their temperature optima occurs. Often, these organisms are colored, due to the presence of photosynthetic pigments.
Thermophiles can be discriminated from mesophiles from genomic features. For example, the GC-content levels in the coding regions of some signatures genes were consistently identified as correlated with the temperature range condition when the association analysis was applied to mesophilic and thermophilic organisms regardless of their phylogeny, oxygen requirement, salinity, or habitat conditions.
"Sulfolobus solfataricus" and "Sulfolobus acidocaldarius" are hyperthermophilic archaea. When these organisms are exposed to the DNA damaging agents UV irradiation, bleomycin or mitomycin C, species-specific cellular aggregation is induced. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30393 |
Tennessee
Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a state in the southeastern United States. Tennessee is the 36th largest by area and the 16th most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by eight states, with Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina to the east, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi to the south, Arkansas to the west, and Missouri to the northwest. The Appalachian Mountains dominate the eastern part of the state, and the Mississippi River forms its western border. Nashville is the state's capital and largest city, with a 2019 population of 670,820 and a 2019 metro population of 1,934,317. Tennessee's second largest city is Memphis, which had a population of 651,073 and metro population of 1,346,045 in 2019.
The state of Tennessee is rooted in the Watauga Association, a 1772 frontier pact generally regarded as the first constitutional government west of the Appalachians. What is now Tennessee was initially part of North Carolina, and later part of the Southwest Territory. Tennessee was admitted to the Union as the 16th state on June 1, 1796. Tennessee was the last state to leave the Union and join the Confederacy at the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861. Occupied by Union forces from 1862, it was the first state to be readmitted to the Union at the end of the war.
Tennessee furnished more soldiers for the Confederate Army than any other state besides Virginia, and more soldiers for the Union Army than the rest of the Confederacy combined. Beginning during Reconstruction, it had competitive party politics, but a Democratic takeover in the late 1880s resulted in passage of disenfranchisement laws that excluded most blacks and many poor whites from voting. This sharply reduced competition in politics in the state until after passage of civil rights legislation in the mid-20th century. In the 20th century, Tennessee transitioned from an agrarian economy to a more diversified economy, aided by massive federal investment in the Tennessee Valley Authority and, in the early 1940s, the city of Oak Ridge. This city was established just outside of Knoxville to house the Manhattan Project's uranium enrichment facilities, helping to build the world's first atomic bombs, two of which were dropped on Imperial Japan near the end of World War II. After the war, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory became and remains a key center for scientific research. In 2016, the element tennessine was named for the state, largely in recognition of the roles played by Oak Ridge, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Tennessee in the element’s discovery.
Tennessee's major industries include agriculture, manufacturing, and tourism. Poultry, soybeans, and cattle are the state's primary agricultural products, and major manufacturing exports include chemicals, transportation equipment, and electrical equipment. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the nation's most visited national park, is located in the eastern part of the state, and a section of the Appalachian Trail roughly follows the Tennessee–North Carolina border. Other major tourist attractions include the Tennessee Aquarium and Chattanooga Choo-Choo Hotel in Chattanooga; Dollywood in Pigeon Forge; Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies and Ober Gatlinburg in Gatlinburg; the Parthenon, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, and Ryman Auditorium in Nashville; the Jack Daniel's Distillery in Lynchburg; Elvis Presley's Graceland residence and tomb, the Memphis Zoo, the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis; and Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol.
The earliest variant of the name that became "Tennessee" was recorded by Captain Juan Pardo, the Spanish explorer, when he and his men passed through an American Indian village named "Tanasqui" in 1567 while traveling inland from South Carolina. In the early 18th century, British traders encountered a Cherokee town named Tanasi (or "Tanase") in present-day Monroe County, Tennessee. The town was located on a river of the same name (now known as the Little Tennessee River), and appears on maps as early as 1725. It is not known whether this was the same town as the one encountered by Juan Pardo, although recent research suggests that Pardo's "Tanasqui" was located at the confluence of the Pigeon River and the French Broad River, near modern Newport.
The meaning and origin of the word are uncertain. Some accounts suggest it is a Cherokee modification of an earlier Yuchi word. It has been said to mean "meeting place", "winding river", or "river of the great bend". According to ethnographer James Mooney, the name "can not be analyzed" and its meaning is lost.
The modern spelling, "Tennessee", is attributed to James Glen, the governor of South Carolina, who used this spelling in his official correspondence during the 1750s. The spelling was popularized by the publication of Henry Timberlake's "" in 1765. In 1788, North Carolina created "Tennessee County", the third county to be established in what is now Middle Tennessee. (Tennessee County was the predecessor to present-day Montgomery and Robertson counties.) When a constitutional convention met in 1796 to organize a new state out of the Southwest Territory, it adopted "Tennessee" as the name of the state.
Tennessee is known as The Volunteer State, a nickname some claimed was earned during the War of 1812 because of the prominent role played by volunteer soldiers from Tennessee, especially during the Battle of New Orleans. Other sources differ on the origin of the state nickname; according to "The Columbia Encyclopedia", the name refers to volunteers for the Mexican–American War from 1846 to 1848. This explanation is more likely, because President Polk's call for 2,600 nationwide volunteers at the beginning of the Mexican–American War resulted in 30,000 volunteers from Tennessee alone, largely in response to the death of Davy Crockett and appeals by former Tennessee Governor and then Texas politician, Sam Houston.
Tennessee borders eight other states: Kentucky and Virginia to the north; North Carolina to the east; Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi on the south; Arkansas and Missouri on the Mississippi River to the west. Tennessee is tied with Missouri as the state bordering the most other states. The state is trisected by the Tennessee River.
The highest point in the state is Clingmans Dome at . Clingmans Dome, which lies on Tennessee's eastern border, is the highest point on the Appalachian Trail, and is the third highest peak in the United States east of the Mississippi River. The state line between Tennessee and North Carolina crosses the summit. The state's lowest point is the Mississippi River at the Mississippi state line: . The geographical center of the state is located in Murfreesboro.
The state of Tennessee is geographically, culturally, economically, and legally divided into three Grand Divisions: East Tennessee, Middle Tennessee, and West Tennessee. The state constitution allows no more than two justices of the five-member Tennessee Supreme Court to be from one Grand Division and a similar rule applies to certain commissions and boards.
Tennessee features six principal physiographic regions: the Blue Ridge, the Appalachian Ridge and Valley Region, the Cumberland Plateau, the Highland Rim, the Nashville Basin, and the Gulf Coastal Plain. Tennessee is home to the most caves in the United States, with more than ten thousand documented.
About half the state is in the Tennessee Valley drainage basin of the Tennessee River. Approximately the northern half of Middle Tennessee, including Nashville and Clarksville, and a small portion of East Tennessee is in the Cumberland River basin. A small part of north-central Tennessee in Sumner, Macon, and Clay counties is in the Green River watershed. All three of these basins are tributaries of the Ohio River watershed. Most of West Tennessee is in the Lower Mississippi River watershed. The entirety of the state is in the Mississippi River watershed, except for a small area in Bradley and Polk counties traversed by the Conasauga River, which is part of the Mobile Bay watershed.
The Blue Ridge area lies on the eastern edge of Tennessee, which borders North Carolina. This region of Tennessee is characterized by the high mountains and rugged terrain of the western Blue Ridge Mountains, which are subdivided into several subranges, namely the Great Smoky Mountains, the Bald Mountains, the Unicoi Mountains, the Unaka Mountains and Roan Highlands, and the Iron Mountains.
The average elevation of the Blue Ridge area is above sea level. Clingmans Dome, the state's highest point, is located in this region. The Blue Ridge area was never more than sparsely populated, and today much of it is protected by the Cherokee National Forest, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and several federal wilderness areas and state parks.
Stretching west from the Blue Ridge for approximately is the Ridge and Valley region, in which numerous tributaries join to form the Tennessee River in the Tennessee Valley. This area of Tennessee is covered by fertile valleys separated by wooded ridges, such as Bays Mountain and Clinch Mountain. The western section of the Tennessee Valley, where the depressions become broader and the ridges become lower, is called the Great Valley. In this valley are numerous towns and two of the region's three urban areas, Knoxville, the third largest city in the state, and Chattanooga, the fourth largest city in the state. The third urban area, the Tri-Cities, comprising Bristol, Johnson City, and Kingsport and their environs, is located to the northeast of Knoxville.
The Cumberland Plateau rises to the west of the Tennessee Valley; this area is covered with flat-topped mountains separated by sharp valleys. The elevation of the Cumberland Plateau ranges from above sea level.
East Tennessee has several important transportation links with Middle and West Tennessee, as well as the rest of the nation and the world, including several major airports and interstates. Knoxville's McGhee Tyson Airport (TYS) and Chattanooga's Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport (CHA), as well as the Tri-Cities' Tri-Cities Regional Airport (TRI), provide air service to numerous destinations. I-24, I-81, I-40, I-75, and I-26 along with numerous state highways and other important roads, traverse the Grand Division and connect Chattanooga, Knoxville, and the Tri-Cities, along with other cities and towns such as Cleveland, Athens, and Sevierville.
West of the Cumberland Plateau is the Highland Rim, an elevated plain that surrounds the Nashville Basin. The northern section of the Highland Rim, known for its high tobacco production, is sometimes called the Pennyroyal Plateau; it is located primarily in Southwestern Kentucky. The Nashville Basin is characterized by rich, fertile farm country and great diversity of natural wildlife.
Middle Tennessee was a common destination of settlers crossing the Appalachians from Virginia in the late 18th century and early 19th century. An important trading route called the Natchez Trace, created and used for many generations by American Indians, connected Middle Tennessee to the lower Mississippi River town of Natchez. The route of the Natchez Trace was used as the basis for a scenic highway called the Natchez Trace Parkway.
Some of the last remaining large American chestnut trees grow in this region. They are being used to help breed blight-resistant trees.
Middle Tennessee is one of the primary state population and transportation centers along with the heart of state government. Nashville (the capital), Clarksville, and Murfreesboro are its largest cities. Interstates 24, 40, 65, and 840 service the Division, with the first three meeting in Nashville.
West of the Highland Rim and Nashville Basin is the Gulf Coastal Plain, which includes the Mississippi embayment. The Gulf Coastal Plain is, in terms of area, the predominant land region in Tennessee. It is part of the large geographic land area that begins at the Gulf of Mexico and extends north into southern Illinois. In Tennessee, the Gulf Coastal Plain is divided into three sections that extend from the Tennessee River in the east to the Mississippi River in the west.
The easternmost section, about in width, consists of hilly land that runs along the western bank of the Tennessee River. To the west of this narrow strip of land is a wide area of rolling hills and streams that stretches all the way to the Mississippi River; this area is called the Tennessee Bottoms or bottom land. In Memphis, the Tennessee Bottoms end in steep bluffs overlooking the river. To the west of the Tennessee Bottoms is the Mississippi Alluvial Plain, less than above sea level. This area of lowlands, flood plains, and swamp land is sometimes referred to as the Delta region. Memphis is the economic center of West Tennessee.
Most of West Tennessee remained Indian land until the Chickasaw Cession of 1818, when the Chickasaw ceded their land between the Tennessee River and the Mississippi River. The portion of the Chickasaw Cession that lies in Kentucky is known today as the Jackson Purchase.
Areas under the control and management of the National Park Service include the following:
Fifty-four state parks, covering some as well as parts of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Cherokee National Forest, and Cumberland Gap National Historical Park are in Tennessee. Sportsmen and visitors are attracted to Reelfoot Lake, originally formed by the 1811–12 New Madrid earthquakes; stumps and other remains of a once dense forest, together with the lotus bed covering the shallow waters, give the lake an eerie beauty.
Most of the state has a humid subtropical climate, with the exception of some of the higher elevations in the Appalachians, which are classified as having a mountain temperate or humid continental climate due to cooler temperatures. The Gulf of Mexico is the dominant factor in the climate of Tennessee, with winds from the south being responsible for most of the state's annual precipitation. Generally, the state has hot summers and mild to cool winters with generous precipitation throughout the year, with highest average monthly precipitation generally in the winter and spring months, between December and April. The driest months, on average, are August to October. On average the state receives of precipitation annually. Snowfall ranges from in West Tennessee to over in the highest mountains in East Tennessee.
Summers in the state are generally hot and humid, with most of the state averaging a high of around during the summer months. Winters tend to be mild to cool, increasing in coolness at higher elevations. Generally, for areas outside the highest mountains, the average overnight lows are near freezing for most of the state. The highest recorded temperature is at Perryville on August 9, 1930, while the lowest recorded temperature is at Mountain City on December 30, 1917.
While the state is far enough from the coast to avoid any direct impact from a hurricane, the location of the state makes it likely to be impacted from the remnants of tropical cyclones which weaken over land and can cause significant rainfall, such as Tropical Storm Chris in 1982 and Hurricane Opal in 1995. The state averages about fifty days of thunderstorms per year, some of which can be severe with large hail and damaging winds. Tornadoes are possible throughout the state, with West and Middle Tennessee the most vulnerable. Occasionally, strong or violent tornadoes occur, such as the devastating April 2011 tornadoes that killed twenty people in North Georgia and Southeast Tennessee. On average, the state has 15 tornadoes per year. Tornadoes in Tennessee can be severe, and Tennessee leads the nation in the percentage of total tornadoes which have fatalities. Winter storms are an occasional problem, such as the infamous Blizzard of 1993, although ice storms are a more likely occurrence. Fog is a persistent problem in parts of the state, especially in East Tennessee.
The capital and largest city is Nashville, though Knoxville, Kingston, and Murfreesboro have all served as state capitals in the past. Nashville's 13-county metropolitan area has been the state's largest since c. 1990. Memphis was the largest city in the state until 2018 when it was surpassed by Nashville. Chattanooga and Knoxville, both in the east near the Great Smoky Mountains, are about a third that size. The city of Clarksville is a fifth significant population center, northwest of Nashville. Murfreesboro is the sixth-largest city in Tennessee, consisting of 146,900 residents.
The area now known as Tennessee was first inhabited by Paleo-Indians nearly 12,000 years ago. The names of the cultural groups who inhabited the area between first settlement and the time of European contact are unknown, but several distinct cultural phases have been named by archaeologists, including Archaic (8000–1000 BC), Woodland (1000 BC1000 AD), and Mississippian (1000–1600 AD), whose chiefdoms were the cultural predecessors of the Muscogee people who inhabited the Tennessee River Valley before Cherokee migration into the river's headwaters.
The first recorded European excursions into what is now called Tennessee were three expeditions led by Spanish explorers, namely Hernando de Soto in 1540, Tristan de Luna in 1559, and Juan Pardo in 1567. Pardo recorded the name "Tanasqui" from a local Indian village, which evolved to the state's current name. At that time, Tennessee was inhabited by tribes of Muscogee and Yuchi people. Possibly because of European diseases devastating the Indian tribes, which would have left a population vacuum, and also from expanding European settlement in the north, the Cherokee moved south from the area now called Virginia. As European colonists spread into the area, the Indian populations were forcibly displaced to the south and west, including all Muscogee and Yuchi peoples, the Chickasaw and Choctaw, and ultimately, the Cherokee in 1838.
The first British settlement in what is now Tennessee was built in 1756 by settlers from the colony of South Carolina at Fort Loudoun, near present-day Vonore. Fort Loudoun became the westernmost British outpost to that date. The fort was designed by John William Gerard de Brahm and constructed by forces under British Captain Raymond Demeré. After its completion, Captain Raymond Demeré relinquished command on August 14, 1757, to his brother, Captain Paul Demeré. Hostilities erupted between the British and the neighboring Overhill Cherokees, and a siege of Fort Loudoun ended with its surrender on August 7, 1760. The following morning, Captain Paul Demeré and a number of his men were killed in an ambush nearby, and most of the rest of the garrison was taken prisoner.
In the 1760s, long hunters from Virginia explored much of East and Middle Tennessee, and the first permanent European settlers began arriving late in the decade. The majority of 18th century settlers were English or of primarily English descent but nearly 20% of them were also Scotch-Irish. These settlers formed the Watauga Association, a community built on lands leased from the Cherokee peoples.
During the American Revolutionary War, Fort Watauga at Sycamore Shoals (in present-day Elizabethton) was attacked (1776) by Dragging Canoe and his warring faction of Cherokee who were aligned with the British Loyalists. These renegade Cherokee were referred to by settlers as the Chickamauga. They opposed North Carolina's annexation of the Washington District and the concurrent settling of the Transylvania Colony further north and west. The lives of many settlers were spared from the initial warrior attacks through the warnings of Dragging Canoe's cousin, Nancy Ward. The frontier fort on the banks of the Watauga River later served as a 1780 staging area for the Overmountain Men in preparation to trek over the Appalachian Mountains, to engage, and to later defeat the British Army at the Battle of Kings Mountain in South Carolina.
Three counties of the Washington District (now part of Tennessee) broke off from North Carolina in 1784 and formed the State of Franklin. Efforts to obtain admission to the Union failed, and the counties (now numbering eight) had re-joined North Carolina by 1789. North Carolina ceded the area to the federal government in 1790, after which it was organized into the Southwest Territory. In an effort to encourage settlers to move west into the new territory, in 1787 the mother state of North Carolina ordered a road to be cut to take settlers into the Cumberland Settlements—from the south end of Clinch Mountain (in East Tennessee) to French Lick (Nashville). The Trace was called the "North Carolina Road" or "Avery's Trace", and sometimes "The Wilderness Road" (although it should not be confused with Daniel Boone's "Wilderness Road" through the Cumberland Gap).
Tennessee was admitted to the Union on June 1, 1796 as the 16th state. It was the first state created from territory under the jurisdiction of the United States federal government. Apart from the former Thirteen Colonies only Vermont and Kentucky predate Tennessee's statehood, and neither was ever a federal territory. The Constitution of the State of Tennessee, Article I, Section 31, states that the beginning point for identifying the boundary is the extreme height of the Stone Mountain, at the place where the line of Virginia intersects it, and basically runs the extreme heights of mountain chains through the Appalachian Mountains separating North Carolina from Tennessee past the Native American towns of Cowee and Old Chota, thence along the main ridge of the said mountain (Unicoi Mountain) to the southern boundary of the state; all the territory, lands and waters lying west of said line are included in the boundaries and limits of the newly formed state of Tennessee. Part of the provision also stated that the limits and jurisdiction of the state would include future land acquisition, referencing possible land trade with other states, or the acquisition of territory from west of the Mississippi River.
As more white settlers moved into Tennessee, they came into increasing conflict with Native American tribes. During the administration of U.S. President Martin Van Buren, nearly 17,000 Cherokees, along with approximately 2,000 black slaves owned by Cherokees, were uprooted from their homes between 1838 and 1839 and were forced by the U.S. military to march from "emigration depots" in Eastern Tennessee, such as Fort Cass, toward the more distant Indian Territory west of Arkansas, now the state of Oklahoma. During this relocation an estimated 4,000 Cherokees died along the way west. In the Cherokee language, the event is called "Nunna daul Isunyi","the Trail Where We Cried". The Cherokees were not the only Native Americans forced to emigrate as a result of the Indian removal efforts of the United States, and so the phrase "Trail of Tears" is sometimes used to refer to similar events endured by other American Indian peoples, especially among the "Five Civilized Tribes". The phrase originated as a description of the earlier emigration of the Choctaw nation.
In February 1861, secessionists in Tennessee's state government—led by Governor Isham Harris—sought voter approval for a convention to sever ties with the United States, but Tennessee voters rejected the referendum by a 54–46% margin. The strongest opposition to secession came from East Tennessee, which later tried to form a separate Union-aligned state. Following the Confederate attack upon Fort Sumter in April and Lincoln's call for troops from Tennessee and other states in response, Governor Isham Harris began military mobilization, submitted an ordinance of secession to the General Assembly, and made direct overtures to the Confederate government. The Tennessee legislature ratified an agreement to enter a military league with the Confederate States on May 7, 1861. On June 8, 1861, with people in Middle Tennessee having significantly changed their position, voters approved a second referendum calling for secession, becoming the last state to do so.
Many major battles of the American Civil War were fought in Tennessee—most of them Union victories. Ulysses S. Grant and the U.S. Navy captured control of the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers in February 1862. They held off the Confederate counterattack at Shiloh in April. Memphis fell to the Union in June, following a naval battle on the Mississippi River in front of the city. The Capture of Memphis and Nashville gave the Union control of the western and middle sections. This control was confirmed at the Battle of Murfreesboro in early January 1863 and by the subsequent Tullahoma Campaign.
Despite the strength of Unionist sentiment in East Tennessee (with the exception of Sullivan County, which was heavily pro-Confederate), Confederates held the area. The Confederates, led by General James Longstreet, did attack General Burnside's Fort Sanders at Knoxville and lost. It was a big blow to East Tennessee Confederate momentum, but Longstreet won the Battle of Bean's Station a few weeks later. The Confederates besieged Chattanooga during the Chattanooga Campaign in early fall 1863, but were driven off by Grant in November. Many of the Confederate defeats can be attributed to the poor strategic vision of General Braxton Bragg, who led the Army of Tennessee from Perryville, Kentucky to another Confederate defeat at Chattanooga.
The last major battles came when the Confederates invaded Middle Tennessee in November 1864 and were checked at Franklin, then completely dispersed by George Thomas at Nashville in December. Meanwhile, the civilian Andrew Johnson was appointed military governor of the state by President Abraham Lincoln.
When the Emancipation Proclamation was announced, Tennessee was largely held by Union forces. Thus, Tennessee was not among the states enumerated in the Proclamation, and the Proclamation did not free any slaves there. Nonetheless, enslaved African Americans escaped to Union lines to gain freedom without waiting for official action. Old and young, men, women and children camped near Union troops. Thousands of former slaves ended up fighting on the Union side, nearly 200,000 in total across the South.
Tennessee's legislature approved an amendment to the state constitution prohibiting slavery on February 22, 1865. Voters in the state approved the amendment in March. It also ratified the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (abolishing slavery in every state) on April 7, 1865.
In 1864, Andrew Johnson, a War Democrat from Tennessee, was elected Vice President under Abraham Lincoln. He became President after Lincoln's assassination in 1865. Under Johnson's lenient re-admission policy, Tennessee was the first of the seceding states to have its elected members readmitted to the U.S. Congress, on July 24, 1866. Because Tennessee had ratified the Fourteenth Amendment, it was the only one of the formerly secessionist states that did not have a military governor during the Reconstruction period.
After the formal end of Reconstruction, the struggle over power in Southern society continued. Through violence and intimidation against freedmen and their allies, White Democrats regained political power in Tennessee and other states across the South in the late 1870s and 1880s. Over the next decade, the state legislature passed increasingly restrictive laws to control African Americans. In 1889 the General Assembly passed four laws described as electoral reform, with the cumulative effect of essentially disfranchising most African Americans in rural areas and small towns, as well as many poor Whites. Legislation included implementation of a poll tax, timing of registration, and recording requirements. Tens of thousands of taxpaying citizens were without representation for decades into the 20th century. Disfranchising legislation accompanied Jim Crow laws passed in the late 19th century, which imposed segregation in the state. In 1900, African Americans made up nearly 24% of the state's population, and numbered 480,430 citizens who lived mostly in the central and western parts of the state.
In 1897, Tennessee celebrated its centennial of statehood (though one year late of the 1896 anniversary) with a great exposition in Nashville. A full-scale replica of the Parthenon was constructed for the celebration, located in what is now Nashville's Centennial Park.
On August 18, 1920, Tennessee became the thirty-sixth and final state necessary to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which provided women the right to vote. Disenfranchising voter registration requirements continued to keep most African Americans and many poor whites, both men and women, off the voter rolls.
The need to create work for the unemployed during the Great Depression, a desire for rural electrification, the need to control annual spring flooding and improve shipping capacity on the Tennessee River were all factors that drove the federal creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in 1933. Through the power of the TVA projects, Tennessee quickly became the nation's largest public utility supplier.
During World War II, the availability of abundant TVA electrical power led the Manhattan Project to locate one of the principal sites for production and isolation of weapons-grade fissile material in East Tennessee. The planned community of Oak Ridge was built from scratch to provide accommodations for the facilities and workers. These sites are now Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the Y-12 National Security Complex, and the East Tennessee Technology Park.
Despite recognized effects of limiting voting by poor whites, successive legislatures expanded the reach of the disfranchising laws until they covered the state. Political scientist V. O. Key, Jr. argued in 1949:
...the size of the poll tax did not inhibit voting as much as the inconvenience of paying it. County officers regulated the vote by providing opportunities to pay the tax (as they did in Knoxville), or conversely by making payment as difficult as possible. Such manipulation of the tax, and therefore the vote, created an opportunity for the rise of urban bosses and political machines. Urban politicians bought large blocks of poll tax receipts and distributed them to blacks and whites, who then voted as instructed.
In 1953 state legislators amended the state constitution, removing the poll tax. In many areas both blacks and poor whites still faced subjectively applied barriers to voter registration that did not end until after passage of national civil rights legislation, including the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Tennessee celebrated its bicentennial in 1996. With a yearlong statewide celebration entitled "Tennessee 200", it opened a new state park (Bicentennial Mall) at the foot of Capitol Hill in Nashville.
The state has had major disasters, such as the Great Train Wreck of 1918, one of the worst train accidents in U.S. history, and the "Sultana" explosion on the Mississippi River near Memphis, the deadliest maritime disaster in U.S. history.
In 2002, businessman Phil Bredesen was elected to become the 48th governor in January 2003. Also in 2002, Tennessee amended the state constitution to allow for the establishment of a lottery. Tennessee's Bob Corker was the only freshman Republican elected to the United States Senate in the 2006 midterm elections. The state constitution was amended to reject same-sex marriage. In January 2007, Ron Ramsey became the first Republican elected as Speaker of the State Senate since Reconstruction, as a result of the realignment of the Democratic and Republican parties in the South since the late 20th century, with Republicans now elected by conservative voters, who previously had supported Democrats.
In 2010, during the 2010 midterm elections, Bill Haslam was elected to succeed Bredesen, who was term-limited, to become the 49th Governor of Tennessee in January 2011. In April and May 2010, flooding in Middle Tennessee devastated Nashville and other parts of Middle Tennessee. In 2011, parts of East Tennessee, including Hamilton and Bradley counties, were devastated by the April 2011 tornado outbreak.
In 2018, Republican businessman Bill Lee was elected to succeed term-limited Haslam, and he became the 50th Governor of Tennessee.
The United States Census Bureau estimates that the population of Tennessee was 6,829,174 on July 1, 2019, an increase of 483,069 people since the 2010 United States Census, or 7.61%. This includes a natural increase since the last census of 124,385 (584,236 births minus 459,851 deaths), and an increase from net migration of 244,537 people into the state. Immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 66,412, and migration within the country produced a net increase of 178,125.
Twenty percent of Tennesseans were born outside the South in 2008, compared to a figure of 13.5% in 1990. In recent years, Tennessee has received an influx of people relocating from California, Florida, New York, New Jersey and the New England States for the low cost of living, and the booming healthcare and automobile industries. Metropolitan Nashville is one of the fastest-growing areas in the country due in part to these factors.
The center of population of Tennessee is located in Rutherford County, in the city of Murfreesboro.
In 2010, 4.6% of the total population was of Hispanic or Latino origin (they may be of any race), up from 2.2% in 2000. Between 2000 and 2010, the Hispanic population in Tennessee grew by 134.2%, the third highest of any state. That same year Non-Hispanic whites were 75.6% of the population, compared to 63.7% of the population nationwide.
In 2010, approximately 4.4% of Tennessee's population was foreign-born, an increase of about 118.5% since 2000. Of the foreign-born population, approximately 31.0% were naturalized citizens and 69.0% non-citizens. The foreign-born population was approximately 49.9% from Latin America, 27.1% from Asia, 11.9% from Europe, 7.7% from Africa, 2.7% from Northern America, and 0.6% from Oceania.
In 2010, the five most common self-reported ethnic groups in the state were: American (26.5%), English (8.2%), Irish (6.6%), German (5.5%), and Scotch-Irish (2.7%). Most Tennesseans who self-identify as having American ancestry are of English and Scotch-Irish ancestry. An estimated 21–24% of Tennesseans are of predominantly English ancestry. In the 1980 census 1,435,147 Tennesseans claimed "English" or "mostly English" ancestry out of a state population of 3,221,354 making them 45% of the state at the time.
According to the 2010 census, 6.4% of Tennessee's population were reported as under age5, 23.6% under 18, and 13.4% were 65 or older.
On June 19, 2010, the Tennessee Commission of Indian Affairs granted state recognition to six Native American tribes, which was later repealed by the state's Attorney General because the action by the commission was illegal. The tribes were as follows:
As of 2011, 36.3% of Tennessee's population younger than age1 were minorities.
"Note: Births in table do not add up, because Hispanics are counted both by their ethnicity and by their race, giving a higher overall number."
The religious affiliations of the people of Tennessee as of 2014:
The largest denominations by number of adherents in 2010 were the Southern Baptist Convention with 1,483,356; the United Methodist Church with 375,693; the Roman Catholic Church with 222,343; and the Churches of Christ with 214,118.
As of January 1, 2009, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) reported 43,179 members, 10 stakes, 92 Congregations (68 wards and 24 branches), two missions, and two temples in Tennessee.
Tennessee is home to several Protestant denominations, such as the National Baptist Convention (headquartered in Nashville); the Church of God in Christ and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church (both headquartered in Memphis); the Church of God and The Church of God of Prophecy (both headquartered in Cleveland). The Free Will Baptist denomination is headquartered in Antioch; its main Bible college is in Nashville. The Southern Baptist Convention maintains its general headquarters in Nashville. Publishing houses of several denominations are located in Nashville.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, in 2011 Tennessee's real gross state product was $233.997 billion.
In 2003, the per capita personal income was $28,641, 36th in the nation, and 91% of the national per capita personal income of $31,472. In 2004, the median household income was $38,550, 41st in the nation, and 87% of the national median of $44,472.
For 2012, the state held an asset surplus of $533 million, one of only eight states in the nation to report a surplus.
Major outputs for the state include textiles, cotton, cattle, and electrical power. Tennessee has more than 82,000 farms, roughly 59 percent of which accommodate beef cattle. Although cotton was an early crop in Tennessee, large-scale cultivation of the fiber did not begin until the 1820s with the opening of the land between the Tennessee and Mississippi Rivers. The upper wedge of the Mississippi Delta extends into southwestern Tennessee, and it was in this fertile section that cotton took hold. Soybeans are also heavily planted in West Tennessee, focusing on the northwest corner of the state.
Large corporations with headquarters in Tennessee include FedEx, AutoZone and International Paper, all based in Memphis; Pilot Corporation and Regal Entertainment Group, based in Knoxville; Eastman Chemical Company, based in Kingsport; Hospital Corporation of America and Caterpillar Financial, based in Nashville; and Unum, based in Chattanooga.
Tennessee is also a major hub for the automotive industry. Three automobile manufacturers have factories in Tennessee: Nissan in Smyrna, General Motors in Spring Hill, and Volkswagen in Chattanooga. Nissan moved its North American corporate headquarters from California to Franklin, Tennessee in 2005, and Mitsubishi Motors did the same in 2019.
Other major manufacturers include a $2 billion polysilicon production facility owned by Wacker Chemie in Bradley County and a $1.2 billion polysilicon production facility owned by Hemlock Semiconductor in Clarksville.
Tennessee is a right to work state, as are most of its Southern neighbors. Unionization has historically been low and continues to decline as in most of the U.S. generally. As of August 2019, the state has an unemployment rate of 3.5%, which is ranked 28th in the country. As of 2015, 16.7% of the population of Tennessee lives below the poverty line, which is higher than the national average of 14.7%.
Tennessee has a reputation as low-tax state and is usually ranked as one of the five states with the lowest tax burden on residents. It is one of nine states that do not have a general income tax; the sales tax is the primary means of funding the government. The Hall income tax is a tax imposed on most dividends and interest. The tax rate was 6% from 1937 to 2016, but is in the process of being completely phased out by January 1, 2021. The first $1,250 of individual income and $2,500 of joint income is exempt from this tax.
The state's sales and use tax rate for most items is 7%, the second-highest in the nation, along with Mississippi, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Indiana. Food is taxed at a lower rate of 4%, but candy, dietary supplements and prepared food are taxed at 7%. Local sales taxes are collected in most jurisdictions at rates varying from 1.5% to 2.75%, bringing the total sales tax to between 8.5% and 9.75%, with an average rate of about 9.5%, the nation's highest average sales tax. Intangible property tax is assessed on the shares of stock of stockholders of any loan, investment, insurance, or for-profit cemetery companies. The assessment ratio is 40% of the value times the jurisdiction's tax rate. Since January 1, 2016, Tennessee has had no inheritance tax.
While sales tax remains the main source of state government funding, property taxes are the primary source of revenue for local governments.
Tourism contributes billions of dollars every year to the state's economy, and Tennessee is ranked among the Top 10 destinations in the nation. In 2014 a record 100 million people visited the state resulting in $17.7 billion in tourism related spending within the state, an increase of 6.3% over 2013; tax revenue from tourism equaled $1.5 billion. Each county in Tennessee saw at least $1 million from tourism while 19 counties received at least $100 million (Davidson, Shelby, and Sevier counties were the top three). Tourism-generated jobs for the state reached 152,900, a 2.8% increase. International travelers to Tennessee accounted for $533 million in spending.
In 2013 tourism within the state from local citizens accounted for 39.9% of tourists, the second highest originating location for tourists to Tennessee is the state of Georgia, accounting for 8.4% of tourists. Forty-four percent of stays in the state were "day trips", 25% stayed one night, 15% stayed two nights, and 11% stayed four or more nights. The average stay was 2.16 nights, compared to 2.03 nights for the U.S. as a whole. The average person spent $118 per day: 29% on transportation, 24% on food, 17% on accommodation, and 28% on shopping and entertainment.
Tennessee is home to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the most visited national park in the United States. The park anchors a large tourism industry based primarily in nearby Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, which consists of such attractions as Dollywood, the most visited ticketed attraction in Tennessee, Ober Gatlinburg, and Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies. Major attractions in Memphis include Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley, Beale Street, the National Civil Rights Museum, the Memphis Zoo, and the Stax Museum of American Soul Music. Nashville contains many attractions related to its musical heritage, including Lower Broadway, the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Ryman Auditorium, Grand Ole Opry, and the Gaylord Opryland Resort. Other major attractions in Nashville include the Tennessee State Museum, Parthenon, and the Belle Meade Plantation. Major attractions in Chattanooga include Lookout Mountain, the Chattanooga Choo-Choo Hotel, Ruby Falls, and the Tennessee Aquarium, the largest freshwater aquarium in the United States. Other major attractions include the American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge, the Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Jack Daniel's Distillery in Lynchburg, and the Hiwassee and Ocoee rivers in Polk County.
Four Civil War battlefields in Tennessee are preserved by the National Park Service: Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, Stones River National Battlefield, Shiloh National Military Park, and Fort Donelson National Battlefield. Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area is within the Cumberland Mountains in northeastern Tennessee. Other major attractions preserved by the National Park Service include Cumberland Gap National Historical Park and Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail.
Tennessee's electric utilities are regulated monopolies, as in many other states. As of 2019, the Tennessee Valley Authority owned over 90% of generating capacity. Nuclear power is the largest source of electricity generation in Tennessee, producing about 43.7% of its power in 2019. The same year, 22.9% of the power was produced by coal, 20.3% from natural gas, 12.1% from hydroelectric power, and 1.6% from other renewables. About 56% of the electricity generated in Tennessee produces no greenhouse gas emissions. Tennessee is a net consumer of electricity, receiving power from other TVA facilities in neighboring states such as the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in northern Alabama.
Tennessee is home to the two newest civilian nuclear power reactors in the United States, at Watts Bar Nuclear Plant in Rhea County. Unit 1 began operation in 1996 and Unit 2 began operation in 2016, making it the first and only new nuclear power reactor to begin operation in the United States in the 21st century. Tennessee was also an early leader in hydroelectric power, first with the now defunct Chattanooga and Tennessee Electric Power Company; later, the United States Army Corps of Engineers and the TVA constructed several hydroelectric dams on Tennessee rivers. Today, Tennessee is the third-largest hydroelectric power-producing state east of the Rocky Mountains.
Tennessee has very little petroleum and natural gas reserves, but is home to one oil refinery, in Memphis. Bituminous coal is mined in small quantities in the Cumberland Plateau and Cumberland Mountains. There are sizable reserves of lignite coal in West Tennessee that remain untapped. Coal production in Tennessee peaked in 1972, and today less than 0.1% of coal production in the United States comes from Tennessee mines.
Tennessee is the leading producer of ball clay in the United States. Other major mineral products produced in Tennessee include sand, gravel, crushed stone, Portland cement, marble, sandstone, common clay, lime, and zinc. The Copper Basin, in Tennessee's southeastern corner in Polk County, was one of the most productive copper mining districts in the United States between the 1840s and 1980s. Mines in the basin supplied about 90% of the copper used by the Confederacy during the Civil War, and also marketed chemical byproducts of the mining, including sulfuric acid. Mining activities in the basin resulted in a major environmental disaster, which left the landscape in the basin barren for more than a century. Iron ore was another major mineral mined in Tennessee until the early 20th century. Tennessee was also a top producer of phosphate until the early 1990s.
Tennessee has played a critical role in the development of many forms of American popular music, including rock and roll, blues, country, and rockabilly. Beale Street in Memphis is considered by many to be the birthplace of the blues, with musicians such as W. C. Handy performing in its clubs as early as 1909. Memphis is also home to Sun Records, where musicians such as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, and Charlie Rich began their recording careers, and where rock and roll took shape in the 1950s. The 1927 Victor recording sessions in Bristol generally mark the beginning of the country music genre and the rise of the Grand Ole Opry in the 1930s helped make Nashville the center of the country music recording industry. Three brick-and-mortar museums recognize Tennessee's role in nurturing various forms of popular music: the Memphis Rock N' Soul Museum, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, and the International Rock-A-Billy Museum in Jackson. Moreover, the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, an online site recognizing the development of rockabilly in which Tennessee played a crucial role, is based in Nashville.
Notable writers with ties to Tennessee include Cormac McCarthy, Peter Taylor, James Agee, Francis Hodgson Burnett, Thomas S. Stribling, Ida B. Wells, Nikki Giovanni, Shelby Foote, Ann Patchett, Ishmael Reed, and Randall Jarrell.
Tennessee is home to four major professional sports franchises: the Tennessee Titans have played in the National Football League since 1997, the Memphis Grizzlies have played in the National Basketball Association since 2001, the Nashville Predators have played in the National Hockey League since 1998, and Nashville SC has played in Major League Soccer since 2020.
The state is also home to 13 teams playing in minor leagues. Nine Minor League Baseball teams call the state their home. The Memphis Redbirds and Nashville Sounds, each of the Pacific Coast League, compete at the Triple-A level, the highest before Major League Baseball. The Chattanooga Lookouts, Jackson Generals, and Tennessee Smokies play in the Double-A Southern League. The Elizabethton Twins, Greeneville Reds, Johnson City Cardinals, and Kingsport Mets are Rookie League teams of the Appalachian League.
The Knoxville Ice Bears are a minor league ice hockey team of the Southern Professional Hockey League. Memphis 901 FC, a soccer team, joined the USL Championship in 2019. Chattanooga Red Wolves SC became an inaugural member of the third-level USL League One in 2019. Chattanooga FC began play in the National Independent Soccer Association in 2020.
In Knoxville, the Tennessee Volunteers college team has played in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association since the conference was formed in 1932. The football team has won 13 SEC championships and 28 bowls, including four Sugar Bowls, three Cotton Bowls, an Orange Bowl and a Fiesta Bowl. Meanwhile, the men's basketball team has won four SEC championships and reached the NCAA Elite Eight in 2010. In addition, the women's basketball team has won a host of SEC regular-season and tournament titles along with eight national titles.
In Nashville, the Vanderbilt Commodores are also charter members of the SEC. The Tennessee–Vanderbilt football rivalry began in 1892, having since played more than a hundred times. In June 2014, the Vanderbilt Commodores baseball team won its first men's national championship by winning the 2014 College World Series.
The state is home to 10 other NCAA Division I programs. Two of these participate in the top level of college football, the Football Bowl Subdivision. The Memphis Tigers are members of the American Athletic Conference, and the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders from Murfreesboro play in Conference USA. In addition to the Commodores, Nashville is also home to the Belmont Bruins and Tennessee State Tigers, both members of the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC), and the Lipscomb Bisons, members of the Atlantic Sun Conference. Tennessee State plays football in Division I's second level, the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), while Belmont and Lipscomb do not have football teams. Belmont and Lipscomb have an intense rivalry in men's and women's basketball known as the Battle of the Boulevard, with both schools' men's and women's teams playing two games each season against each other (a rare feature among non-conference rivalries). The OVC also includes the Austin Peay Governors from Clarksville, the UT Martin Skyhawks from Martin, and the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles from Cookeville. These three schools, along with fellow OVC member Tennessee State, play each season in football for the Sgt. York Trophy. The Chattanooga Mocs and Johnson City's East Tennessee State Buccaneers are full members, including football, of the Southern Conference.
Tennessee is also home to Bristol Motor Speedway which features NASCAR Cup Series racing two weekends a year, routinely selling out more than 160,000 seats on each date; it also was the home of the Nashville Superspeedway, which held Nationwide and IndyCar races until it was shut down in 2012. Tennessee's only graded stakes horse race, the Iroquois Steeplechase, is also held in Nashville each May.
The FedEx St. Jude Classic is a PGA Tour golf tournament held at Memphis since 1958. The U.S. National Indoor Tennis Championships has been held at Memphis since 1976 (men's) and 2002 (women's).
Interstate 40 crosses the state in an east–west orientation. Its branch interstate highways include I-240 in Memphis; I-440 in Nashville; I-840 in Nashville; I-140 from Knoxville to Alcoa; and I-640 in Knoxville. I-26, although technically an east–west interstate, runs from the North Carolina border below Johnson City to its terminus at Kingsport. I-24 is an east–west interstate that runs from Chattanooga to Clarksville. In a north–south orientation are highways I-55, I-65, I-75, and I-81. Interstate 65 crosses the state through Nashville, while Interstate 75 serves Chattanooga and Knoxville and Interstate 55 serves Memphis. Interstate 81 enters the state at Bristol and terminates at its junction with I-40 near Dandridge. I-155 is a branch highway from I-55. The only spur highway of I-75 in Tennessee is I-275, which is in Knoxville. An extension of I-69 is proposed to travel through the western part of the state, from South Fulton to Memphis. A branch interstate, I-269 also exists from Millington to Collierville.
Major airports within the state include Memphis International Airport (MEM), Nashville International Airport (BNA), McGhee Tyson Airport (TYS) outside of Knoxville in Blount County, Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport (CHA), Tri-Cities Regional Airport (TRI), and McKellar-Sipes Regional Airport (MKL), in Jackson. Because Memphis International Airport is the major hub for FedEx Corporation, it is the world's largest air cargo operation.
For passenger rail service, Memphis and Newbern, are served by the Amtrak City of New Orleans line on its run between Chicago, Illinois, and New Orleans, Louisiana. Nashville is served by the Music City Star commuter rail service.
Cargo services in Tennessee are primarily served by CSX Transportation, which has a hump yard in Nashville called Radnor Yard. Norfolk Southern Railway operates lines in East Tennessee, through cities including Knoxville and Chattanooga, and operates a classification yard near Knoxville, the John Sevier Yard. BNSF operates a major intermodal facility in Memphis.
Similar to the United States Federal Government, Tennessee's government has three parts. The Executive Branch is led by Tennessee's governor, who holds office for a four-year term and may serve a maximum of two consecutive terms. The governor is the only official who is elected statewide. Unlike most states, the state does not elect the lieutenant governor directly; the Tennessee Senate elects its Speaker, who serves as lieutenant governor. The governor is supported by 22 cabinet-level departments, most headed by a commissioner who serves at the pleasure of the governor:
The Executive Branch also includes several agencies, boards and commissions, some of which are under the auspices of one of the cabinet-level departments.
The bicameral Legislative Branch, known as the Tennessee General Assembly, consists of the 33-member Senate and the 99-member House of Representatives. Senators serve four-year terms, and House members serve two-year terms. Each chamber chooses its own speaker. The speaker of the state Senate also holds the title of lieutenant governor. Constitutional officials in the legislative branch are elected by a joint session of the legislature.
The highest court in Tennessee is the state Supreme Court. It has a chief justice and four associate justices. No more than two justices can be from the same Grand Division. The Supreme Court of Tennessee also appoints the Attorney General, a practice not found in any of the other 49 states. Both the Court of Appeals and the Court of Criminal Appeals have 12 judges. A number of local, circuit, and federal courts provide judicial services.
Tennessee's current state constitution was adopted in 1870. The state had two earlier constitutions. The first was adopted in 1796, the year Tennessee joined the union, and the second was adopted in 1834. The 1870 Constitution outlaws martial law within its jurisdiction. This may be a result of the experience of Tennessee residents and other Southerners during the period of military control by Union (Northern) forces of the U.S. government after the American Civil War.
Tennessee politics, like that of most U.S. states, are dominated by the Republican and the Democratic parties. Historian Dewey W. Grantham traces divisions in the state to the period of the American Civil War; for decades afterward, the eastern third of the state was heavily Republican and the western two thirds mostly voted Democratic. This division was related to the state's pattern of farming, plantations and slaveholding. The eastern section was made up of yeoman farmers, but Middle and West Tennessee farmers cultivated crops such as tobacco and cotton which were dependent on the use of slave labor. These areas became defined as Democratic after the war.
During Reconstruction, freedmen and former free people of color were granted the right to vote; most joined the Republican Party. Numerous African Americans were elected to local offices, and some to state office. Following Reconstruction, Tennessee continued to have competitive party politics, but in the 1880s, the white-dominated state government passed four laws, the last of which imposed a poll tax requirement for voter registration. These served to disenfranchise most African Americans, and their power in state and local politics was markedly reduced. In 1900 African Americans comprised 23.8 percent of the state's population, concentrated in Middle and West Tennessee. In the early 1900s, the state legislature approved a form of commission government for cities based on at-large voting for a few positions on a Board of Commission; several cities adopted this as another means to limit African-American political participation. In 1913 the state legislature enacted a bill enabling cities to adopt this structure without legislative approval.
After disenfranchisement of blacks, the Republican Party in Tennessee became a primarily white sectional party supported only in the eastern part of the state. In the 20th century, except for two nationwide Republican landslides of the 1920s (in 1920, when Tennessee narrowly supported Warren G. Harding over Ohio Governor James Cox, and in 1928, when it more decisively voted for Herbert Hoover over New York Governor Al Smith), the state was part of the Democratic Solid South until the 1950s. In that postwar decade, it twice voted for Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower, former Allied Commander of the Armed Forces during World War II. Since then, more of the state's voters have shifted to supporting Republicans, and Democratic presidential candidates have carried Tennessee only four times.
By 1960 African Americans comprised 16.45% of the state's population. It was not until after the mid-1960s and passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that they were able to vote in full again, but new devices, such as at-large commission city governments, had been adopted in several jurisdictions to limit their political participation. Former Gov. Winfield Dunn and former U.S. Sen. Bill Brock wins in 1970 helped make the Republican Party competitive among whites for the statewide victory. Tennessee has selected governors from different parties since 1970.
In the early 21st century, Republican voters control most of the state, especially in the more rural and suburban areas outside of the cities; Democratic strength is mostly confined to the urban cores of the four major cities, and is particularly strong in the cities of Nashville and Memphis. The latter area includes a large African-American population. Historically, Republicans had their greatest strength in East Tennessee before the 1960s. Tennessee's 1st and 2nd congressional districts, based in the Tri-Cities and Knoxville, respectively, are among the few historically Republican districts in the South. Those districts' residents supported the Union over the Confederacy during the Civil War; they identified with the GOP after the war and have stayed with that party ever since. The first has been in Republican hands continuously since 1881, and Republicans (or their antecedents) have held it for all but four years since 1859. The second has been held continuously by Republicans or their antecedents since 1859.
In the 2000 presidential election, Vice President Al Gore, a Democratic U.S. Senator from Tennessee, failed to carry his home state, an unusual occurrence but indicative of strengthening Republican support. Republican George W. Bush received increased support in 2004, with his margin of victory in the state increasing from 4% in 2000 to 14% in 2004. Democratic presidential nominees from Southern states, such as Lyndon B. Johnson, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton, usually fare better than their Northern counterparts do in Tennessee, especially among split-ticket voters outside the metropolitan areas.
Tennessee sends nine members to the U.S. House of Representatives, of whom there are seven Republicans and two Democrats. Lieutenant Governor Ron Ramsey is the first Republican speaker of the state Senate in 140 years. In the 2008 elections, the Republican party gained control of both houses of the Tennessee state legislature for the first time since Reconstruction. In 2008, some 30% of the state's electorate identified as independents.
The "Baker v. Carr" (1962) decision of the U.S. Supreme Court established the principle of "one man, one vote", requiring state legislatures to redistrict to bring Congressional apportionment in line with decennial censuses. It also required both houses of state legislatures to be based on population for representation and not geographic districts such as counties. This case arose out of a lawsuit challenging the longstanding rural bias of apportionment of seats in the Tennessee legislature. After decades in which urban populations had been underrepresented in many state legislatures, this significant ruling led to an increased (and proportional) prominence in state politics by urban and, eventually, suburban, legislators and statewide officeholders in relation to their population within the state. The ruling also applied to numerous other states long controlled by rural minorities, such as Alabama, Vermont, and Montana.
The state of Tennessee maintains four dedicated law enforcement entities: the Tennessee Highway Patrol, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA), the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI), and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC).
The Highway Patrol is the primary law enforcement entity that concentrates on highway safety regulations and general non-wildlife state law enforcement and is under the jurisdiction of the Tennessee Department of Safety. The TWRA is an independent agency tasked with enforcing all wildlife, boating, and fisheries regulations outside of state parks. The TBI maintains state-of-the-art investigative facilities and is the primary state-level criminal investigative department. Tennessee State Park Rangers are responsible for all activities and law enforcement inside the Tennessee State Parks system.
Local law enforcement is divided between County Sheriff's Offices and Municipal Police Departments. Tennessee's Constitution requires that each County have an elected Sheriff. In 94 of the 95 counties the Sheriff is the chief law enforcement officer in the county and has jurisdiction over the county as a whole. Each Sheriff's Office is responsible for warrant service, court security, jail operations and primary law enforcement in the unincorporated areas of a county as well as providing support to the municipal police departments. Incorporated municipalities are required to maintain a police department to provide police services within their corporate limits.
The three counties in Tennessee to adopt metropolitan governments have taken different approaches to resolving the conflict that a Metro government presents to the requirement to have an elected Sheriff.
Gun laws in Tennessee regulate the sale, possession, and use of firearms and ammunition. Concealed carry and open-carry of a handgun is permitted with a Tennessee handgun carry permit or an equivalent permit from a reciprocating state. As of July 1, 2014, a permit is no longer required to possess a loaded handgun in a motor vehicle.
Capital punishment has existed in Tennessee at various times since statehood. Before 1913, the method of execution was hanging. From 1913 to 1915, there was a hiatus on executions but they were reinstated in 1916 when electrocution became the new method. From 1972 to 1978, after the Supreme Court ruled ("Furman v. Georgia") capital punishment unconstitutional, there were no further executions. Capital punishment was restarted in 1978, although those prisoners awaiting execution between 1960 and 1978 had their sentences mostly commuted to life in prison. From 1916 to 1960 the state executed 125 inmates. For a variety of reasons there were no further executions until 2000. Since 2000, Tennessee has executed seven prisoners. Tennessee has 59 prisoners on death row (as of October 2018).
Lethal injection was approved by the legislature in 1998, though those who were sentenced to death before January 1, 1999, may request electrocution. In May 2014, the Tennessee General Assembly passed a law allowing the use of the electric chair for death row executions when lethal injection drugs are not available.
The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians is the only federally recognized Native American Indian tribe in the state. It owns in Henning, which was placed into federal trust by the tribe in 2012. This is governed directly by the tribe.
Tennessee has a rich variety of public, private, charter, and specialized education facilities ranging from pre-school through university.
Public higher education is under the oversight of the Tennessee Higher Education Commission which provides guidance to two public university systems—the University of Tennessee system and the Tennessee Board of Regents. In addition a number of private colleges and universities are located throughout the state.
Public primary and secondary education systems are operated by county, city, or special school districts to provide education at the local level. These school districts operate under the direction of the Tennessee Department of Education. Private schools are found in many counties.
Over 250 public and private museums are located in Tennessee, including renowned museums such as the Brooks Museum, Pink Palace Museum and Planetarium, Country Music Hall of Fame, and Discovery Park of America.
State symbols, found in Tennessee Code Annotated; Title 4, Chapter 1, Part 3, include: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30395 |
Torque
Torque, moment, moment of force, rotational force or "turning effect" is the rotational equivalent of linear force. The concept originated with the studies by Archimedes of the usage of levers. Just as a linear force is a push or a pull, a torque can be thought of as a twist to an object around a specific axis. Another definition of torque is the product of the magnitude of the force and the perpendicular distance of the line of action of force from the axis of rotation. The symbol for torque is typically formula_1, the lowercase Greek letter "tau". When being referred to as moment of force, it is commonly denoted by "M".
In three dimensions, the torque is a pseudovector; for point particles, it is given by the cross product of the position vector (distance vector) and the force vector. The magnitude of torque of a rigid body depends on three quantities: the force applied, the "lever arm vector" connecting the point about which the torque is being measured to the point of force application, and the angle between the force and lever arm vectors. In symbols:
where
The SI unit for torque is N⋅m. For more on the units of torque, see Units.
James Thomson, the brother of Lord Kelvin, introduced the term "torque" into English scientific literature in 1884. However, torque is referred to using different vocabulary depending on geographical location and field of study. This article follows the definition used in US physics in its usage of the word "torque". In the UK and in US mechanical engineering, torque is referred to as "moment of force", usually shortened to "moment". These terms are interchangeable in US physics and UK physics terminology, unlike in US mechanical engineering, where the term "torque" is used for the closely related "resultant moment of a couple".
In US mechanical engineering, "torque" is defined mathematically as the rate of change of angular momentum of an object (in physics it is called "net torque"). The definition of torque states that one or both of the angular velocity or the moment of inertia of an object are changing. "Moment" is the general term used for the tendency of one or more applied forces to rotate an object about an axis, but not necessarily to change the angular momentum of the object (the concept which is called "torque" in physics).
For example, a rotational force applied to a shaft causing acceleration, such as a drill bit accelerating from rest, results in a moment called a "torque". By contrast, a lateral force on a beam produces a moment (called a bending moment), but since the angular momentum of the beam is not changing, this bending moment is not called a "torque". Similarly with any force couple on an object that has no change to its angular momentum, such moment is also not called a "torque".
A force applied perpendicularly to a lever multiplied by its distance from the lever's fulcrum (the length of the lever arm) is its torque. A force of three newtons applied two metres from the fulcrum, for example, exerts the same torque as a force of one newton applied six metres from the fulcrum. The direction of the torque can be determined by using the right hand grip rule: if the fingers of the right hand are curled from the direction of the lever arm to the direction of the force, then the thumb points in the direction of the torque.
More generally, the torque on a point particle (which has the position r in some reference frame) can be defined as the cross product:
where r is the particle's position vector relative to the fulcrum, and F is the force acting on the particle. The magnitude "τ" of the torque is given by
where "r" is the distance from the axis of rotation to the particle, "F" is the magnitude of the force applied, and "θ" is the angle between the position and force vectors. Alternatively,
where "F"⊥ is the amount of force directed perpendicularly to the position of the particle. Any force directed parallel to the particle's position vector does not produce a torque.
It follows from the properties of the cross product that the "torque vector" is perpendicular to both the "position" and "force" vectors. Conversely, the "torque vector" defines the plane in which the "position" and "force" vectors lie. The resulting "torque vector" direction is determined by the right-hand rule.
The net torque on a body determines the rate of change of the body's angular momentum,
where L is the angular momentum vector and "t" is time.
For the motion of a point particle,
where is the moment of inertia and ω is the orbital angular velocity pseudovector. It follows that
where α is the angular acceleration of the particle, and "p"|| is the radial component of its linear momentum. This equation is the rotational analogue of Newton's Second Law for point particles, and is valid for any type of trajectory. Note that although force and acceleration are always parallel and directly proportional, the torque τ need not be parallel or directly proportional to the angular acceleration α. This arises from the fact that although mass is always conserved, the moment of inertia in general is not.
The definition of angular momentum for a single point particle is:
where p is the particle's linear momentum and r is the position vector from the origin. The time-derivative of this is:
This result can easily be proven by splitting the vectors into components and applying the product rule. Now using the definition of force formula_15 (whether or not mass is constant) and the definition of velocity formula_16
The cross product of momentum formula_18 with its associated velocity formula_19 is zero because velocity and momentum are parallel, so the second term vanishes.
By definition, torque τ = r × F. Therefore, torque on a particle is "equal" to the
first derivative of its angular momentum with respect to time.
If multiple forces are applied, Newton's second law instead reads , and it follows that
This is a general proof for point particles.
The proof can be generalized to a system of point particles by applying the above proof to each of the point particles and then summing over all the point particles. Similarly, the proof can be generalized to a continuous mass by applying the above proof to each point within the mass, and then integrating over the entire mass.
Torque has the dimension of force times distance, symbolically . Official SI literature suggests using the unit "newton metre" (N⋅m). The unit "newton metre" is properly denoted N⋅m.
The SI unit for energy or work is the joule.
The traditional Imperial and U.S. customary units for torque are pound feet (lb-ft) or for small values inch pound (in-lb).
A very useful special case, often given as the definition of torque in fields other than physics, is as follows:
The construction of the "moment arm" is shown in the figure to the right, along with the vectors r and F mentioned above. The problem with this definition is that it does not give the direction of the torque but only the magnitude, and hence it is difficult to use in three-dimensional cases. If the force is perpendicular to the displacement vector r, the moment arm will be equal to the distance to the centre, and torque will be a maximum for the given force. The equation for the magnitude of a torque, arising from a perpendicular force:
For example, if a person places a force of 10 N at the terminal end of a wrench that is 0.5 m long (or a force of 10 N exactly 0.5 m from the twist point of a wrench of any length), the torque will be 5 N⋅m – assuming that the person moves the wrench by applying force in the plane of movement and perpendicular to the wrench.
For an object to be in static equilibrium, not only must the sum of the forces be zero, but also the sum of the torques (moments) about any point. For a two-dimensional situation with horizontal and vertical forces, the sum of the forces requirement is two equations: Σ"H" = 0 and Σ"V" = 0, and the torque a third equation: Σ"τ" = 0. That is, to solve statically determinate equilibrium problems in two-dimensions, three equations are used.
When the net force on the system is zero, the torque measured from any point in space is the same. For example, the torque on a current-carrying loop in a uniform magnetic field is the same regardless of your point of reference. If the net force formula_23 is not zero, and formula_24 is the torque measured from formula_25, then the torque measured from formula_26 is …
formula_27
Torque forms part of the basic specification of an engine: the power output of an engine is expressed as its torque multiplied by its rotational speed of the axis. Internal-combustion engines produce useful torque only over a limited range of rotational speeds (typically from around 1,000–6,000 rpm for a small car). One can measure the varying torque output over that range with a dynamometer, and show it as a torque curve.
Steam engines and electric motors tend to produce maximum torque close to zero rpm, with the torque diminishing as rotational speed rises (due to increasing friction and other constraints). Reciprocating steam-engines and electric motors can start heavy loads from zero rpm without a clutch.
If a force is allowed to act through a distance, it is doing mechanical work. Similarly, if torque is allowed to act through a rotational distance, it is doing work. Mathematically, for rotation about a fixed axis through the center of mass, the work "W" can be expressed as
where "τ" is torque, and "θ"1 and "θ"2 represent (respectively) the initial and final angular positions of the body.
The work done by a variable force acting over a finite linear displacement formula_29 is given by integrating the force with respect to an elemental linear displacement formula_30
However, the infinitesimal linear displacement formula_30 is related to a corresponding angular displacement formula_33 and the radius vector formula_34 as
Substitution in the above expression for work gives
The expression formula_37 is a scalar triple product given by formula_38. An alternate expression for the same scalar triple product is
But as per the definition of torque,
Corresponding substitution in the expression of work gives,
Since the parameter of integration has been changed from linear displacement to angular displacement, the limits of the integration also change correspondingly, giving
If the torque and the angular displacement are in the same direction, then the scalar product reduces to a product of magnitudes; i.e., formula_43 giving
It follows from the work-energy theorem that "W" also represents the change in the rotational kinetic energy "E"r of the body, given by
where "I" is the moment of inertia of the body and "ω" is its angular speed.
Power is the work per unit time, given by
where "P" is power, "τ" is torque, "ω" is the angular velocity, and ⋅ represents the scalar product.
Algebraically, the equation may be rearranged to compute torque for a given angular speed and power output. Note that the power injected by the torque depends only on the instantaneous angular speed – not on whether the angular speed increases, decreases, or remains constant while the torque is being applied (this is equivalent to the linear case where the power injected by a force depends only on the instantaneous speed – not on the resulting acceleration, if any).
In practice, this relationship can be observed in bicycles: Bicycles are typically composed of two road wheels, front and rear gears (referred to as sprockets) meshing with a circular chain, and a derailleur mechanism if the bicycle's transmission system allows multiple gear ratios to be used (i.e. multi-speed bicycle), all of which attached to the frame. A cyclist, the person who rides the bicycle, provides the input power by turning pedals, thereby cranking the front sprocket (commonly referred to as chainring). The input power provided by the cyclist is equal to the product of cadence (i.e. the number of pedal revolutions per minute) and the torque on spindle of the bicycle's crankset. The bicycle's drivetrain transmits the input power to the road wheel, which in turn conveys the received power to the road as the output power of the bicycle. Depending on the gear ratio of the bicycle, a (torque, rpm)input pair is converted to a (torque, rpm)output pair. By using a larger rear gear, or by switching to a lower gear in multi-speed bicycles, angular speed of the road wheels is decreased while the torque is increased, product of which (i.e. power) does not change.
Consistent units must be used. For metric SI units, power is watts, torque is newton metres and angular speed is radians per second (not rpm and not revolutions per second).
Also, the unit newton metre is dimensionally equivalent to the joule, which is the unit of energy. However, in the case of torque, the unit is assigned to a vector, whereas for energy, it is assigned to a scalar. This means that the dimensional equivalence of the newton metre and the joule may be applied in the former, but not in the latter case. This problem is addressed in which treats radians as a base unit rather than a dimensionless unit.
A conversion factor may be necessary when using different units of power or torque. For example, if rotational speed (revolutions per time) is used in place of angular speed (radians per time), we multiply by a factor of 2 radians per revolution. In the following formulas, "P" is power, "τ" is torque, and "ν" (Greek letter nu) is rotational speed.
Showing units:
Dividing by 60 seconds per minute gives us the following.
where rotational speed is in revolutions per minute (rpm).
Some people (e.g., American automotive engineers) use horsepower (imperial mechanical) for power, foot-pounds (lbf⋅ft) for torque and rpm for rotational speed. This results in the formula changing to:
The constant below (in foot pounds per minute) changes with the definition of the horsepower; for example, using metric horsepower, it becomes approximately 32,550.
Use of other units (e.g., BTU per hour for power) would require a different custom conversion factor.
For a rotating object, the "linear distance" covered at the circumference of rotation is the product of the radius with the angle covered. That is: linear distance = radius × angular distance. And by definition, linear distance = linear speed × time = radius × angular speed × time.
By the definition of torque: torque = radius × force. We can rearrange this to determine force = torque ÷ radius. These two values can be substituted into the definition of power:
The radius "r" and time "t" have dropped out of the equation. However, angular speed must be in radians, by the assumed direct relationship between linear speed and angular speed at the beginning of the derivation. If the rotational speed is measured in revolutions per unit of time, the linear speed and distance are increased proportionately by 2 in the above derivation to give:
If torque is in newton metres and rotational speed in revolutions per second, the above equation gives power in newton metres per second or watts. If Imperial units are used, and if torque is in pounds-force feet and rotational speed in revolutions per minute, the above equation gives power in foot pounds-force per minute. The horsepower form of the equation is then derived by applying the conversion factor 33,000 ft⋅lbf/min per horsepower:
because formula_54
The Principle of Moments, also known as Varignon's theorem (not to be confused with the geometrical theorem of the same name) states that the sum of torques due to several forces applied to "a single" point is equal to the torque due to the sum (resultant) of the forces. Mathematically, this follows from:
From this it follows that if a pivoted beam of zero mass is balanced with two opposed forces then:
Torque can be multiplied via three methods: by locating the fulcrum such that the length of a lever is increased; by using a longer lever; or by the use of a speed reducing gearset or gear box. Such a mechanism multiplies torque, as rotation rate is reduced. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30400 |
Theory of computation
In theoretical computer science and mathematics, the theory of computation is the branch that deals with how efficiently problems can be solved on a model of computation, using an algorithm. The field is divided into three major branches: automata theory and formal languages, computability theory, and computational complexity theory, which are linked by the question: ""What are the fundamental capabilities and limitations of computers?"."
In order to perform a rigorous study of computation, computer scientists work with a mathematical abstraction of computers called a model of computation. There are several models in use, but the most commonly examined is the Turing machine. Computer scientists study the Turing machine because it is simple to formulate, can be analyzed and used to prove results, and because it represents what many consider the most powerful possible "reasonable" model of computation (see Church–Turing thesis). It might seem that the potentially infinite memory capacity is an unrealizable attribute, but any decidable problem solved by a Turing machine will always require only a finite amount of memory. So in principle, any problem that can be solved (decided) by a Turing machine can be solved by a computer that has a finite amount of memory.
The theory of computation can be considered the creation of models of all kinds in the field of computer science. Therefore, mathematics and logic are used. In the last century it became an independent academic discipline and was separated from mathematics.
Some pioneers of the theory of computation were Ramon Llull, Alonzo Church, Kurt Gödel, Alan Turing, Stephen Kleene, Rózsa Péter, John von Neumann and Claude Shannon.
Automata theory is the study of abstract machines (or more appropriately, abstract 'mathematical' machines or systems) and the computational problems that can be solved using these machines. These abstract machines are called automata. Automata comes from the Greek word (Αυτόματα) which means that something is doing something by itself.
Automata theory is also closely related to formal language theory, as the automata are often classified by the class of formal languages they are able to recognize. An automaton can be a finite representation of a formal language that may be an infinite set. Automata are used as theoretical models for computing machines, and are used for proofs about computability.
Language theory is a branch of mathematics concerned with describing languages as a set of operations over an alphabet. It is closely linked with automata theory, as automata are used to generate and recognize formal languages. There are several classes of formal languages, each allowing more complex language specification than the one before it, i.e. Chomsky hierarchy, and each corresponding to a class of automata which recognizes it. Because automata are used as models for computation, formal languages are the preferred mode of specification for any problem that must be computed.
Computability theory deals primarily with the question of the extent to which a problem is solvable on a computer. The statement that the halting problem cannot be solved by a Turing machine is one of the most important results in computability theory, as it is an example of a concrete problem that is both easy to formulate and impossible to solve using a Turing machine. Much of computability theory builds on the halting problem result.
Another important step in computability theory was Rice's theorem, which states that for all non-trivial properties of partial functions, it is undecidable whether a Turing machine computes a partial function with that property.
Computability theory is closely related to the branch of mathematical logic called recursion theory, which removes the restriction of studying only models of computation which are reducible to the Turing model. Many mathematicians and computational theorists who study recursion theory will refer to it as computability theory.
Complexity theory considers not only whether a problem can be solved at all on a computer, but also how efficiently the problem can be solved. Two major aspects are considered: time complexity and space complexity, which are respectively how many steps does it take to perform a computation, and how much memory is required to perform that computation.
In order to analyze how much time and space a given algorithm requires, computer scientists express the time or space required to solve the problem as a function of the size of the input problem. For example, finding a particular number in a long list of numbers becomes harder as the list of numbers grows larger. If we say there are "n" numbers in the list, then if the list is not sorted or indexed in any way we may have to look at every number in order to find the number we're seeking. We thus say that in order to solve this problem, the computer needs to perform a number of steps that grows linearly in the size of the problem.
To simplify this problem, computer scientists have adopted Big O notation, which allows functions to be compared in a way that ensures that particular aspects of a machine's construction do not need to be considered, but rather only the asymptotic behavior as problems become large. So in our previous example we might say that the problem requires formula_1 steps to solve.
Perhaps the most important open problem in all of computer science is the question of whether a certain broad class of problems denoted NP can be solved efficiently. This is discussed further at Complexity classes P and NP, and P versus NP problem is one of the seven Millennium Prize Problems stated by the Clay Mathematics Institute in 2000. The Official Problem Description was given by Turing Award winner Stephen Cook.
Aside from a Turing machine, other equivalent (See: Church–Turing thesis) models of computation are in use.
In addition to the general computational models, some simpler computational models are useful for special, restricted applications. Regular expressions, for example, specify string patterns in many contexts, from office productivity software to programming languages. Another formalism mathematically equivalent to regular expressions, Finite automata are used in circuit design and in some kinds of problem-solving. Context-free grammars specify programming language syntax. Non-deterministic pushdown automata are another formalism equivalent to context-free grammars. Primitive recursive functions are a defined subclass of the recursive functions.
Different models of computation have the ability to do different tasks. One way to measure the power of a computational model is to study the class of formal languages that the model can generate; in such a way to the Chomsky hierarchy of languages is obtained.
(There are many textbooks in this area; this list is by necessity incomplete.) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30402 |
Turing machine
A Turing machine is a mathematical model of computation that defines an abstract machine, which manipulates symbols on a strip of tape according to a table of rules. Despite the model's simplicity, given any computer algorithm, a Turing machine capable of simulating that algorithm's logic can be constructed.
The machine operates on an infinite memory tape divided into discrete "cells". The machine positions its "head" over a cell and "reads" or "scans" the symbol there. Then, as per the symbol and its present place in a "finite table" of user-specified instructions, the machine (i) writes a symbol (e.g., a digit or a letter from a finite alphabet) in the cell (some models allow symbol erasure or no writing), then (ii) either moves the tape one cell left or right (some models allow no motion, some models move the head), then (iii) (as determined by the observed symbol and the machine's place in the table) either proceeds to a subsequent instruction or halts the computation.
The Turing machine was invented in 1936 by Alan Turing, who called it an "a-machine" (automatic machine). With this model, Turing was able to answer two questions in the negative: (1) does a machine exist that can determine whether any arbitrary machine on its tape is "circular" (e.g., freezes, or fails to continue its computational task); similarly, (2) does a machine exist that can determine whether any arbitrary machine on its tape ever prints a given symbol. Thus by providing a mathematical description of a very simple device capable of arbitrary computations, he was able to prove properties of computation in general—and in particular, the uncomputability of the "Entscheidungsproblem" ('decision problem').
Thus, Turing machines prove fundamental limitations on the power of mechanical computation. While they can express arbitrary computations, their minimalist design makes them unsuitable for computation in practice: real-world computers are based on different designs that, unlike Turing machines, use random-access memory.
Turing completeness is the ability for a system of instructions to simulate a Turing machine. A programming language that is Turing complete is theoretically capable of expressing all tasks accomplishable by computers; nearly all programming languages are Turing complete if the limitations of finite memory are ignored.
A Turing machine is a general example of a central processing unit (CPU) that controls all data manipulation done by a computer, with the canonical machine using sequential memory to store data. More specifically, it is a machine (automaton) capable of enumerating some arbitrary subset of valid strings of an alphabet; these strings are part of a recursively enumerable set. A Turing machine has a tape of infinite length on which it can perform read and write operations.
Assuming a black box, the Turing machine cannot know whether it will eventually enumerate any one specific string of the subset with a given program. This is due to the fact that the halting problem is unsolvable, which has major implications for the theoretical limits of computing.
The Turing machine is capable of processing an unrestricted grammar, which further implies that it is capable of robustly evaluating first-order logic in an infinite number of ways. This is famously demonstrated through lambda calculus.
A Turing machine that is able to simulate any other Turing machine is called a universal Turing machine (UTM, or simply a universal machine). A more mathematically oriented definition with a similar "universal" nature was introduced by Alonzo Church, whose work on lambda calculus intertwined with Turing's in a formal theory of computation known as the Church–Turing thesis. The thesis states that Turing machines indeed capture the informal notion of effective methods in logic and mathematics, and provide a precise definition of an algorithm or "mechanical procedure". Studying their abstract properties yields many insights into computer science and complexity theory.
In his 1948 essay, "Intelligent Machinery", Turing wrote that his machine consisted of:
The Turing machine mathematically models a machine that mechanically operates on a tape. On this tape are symbols, which the machine can read and write, one at a time, using a tape head. Operation is fully determined by a finite set of elementary instructions such as "in state 42, if the symbol seen is 0, write a 1; if the symbol seen is 1, change into state 17; in state 17, if the symbol seen is 0, write a 1 and change to state 6;" etc. In the original article ("On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem", see also ), Turing imagines not a mechanism, but a person whom he calls the "computer", who executes these deterministic mechanical rules slavishly (or as Turing puts it, "in a desultory manner").
More explicitly, a Turing machine consists of:
In the 4-tuple models, erasing or writing a symbol (aj1) and moving the head left or right (dk) are specified as separate instructions. The table tells the machine to (ia) erase or write a symbol "or" (ib) move the head left or right, "and then" (ii) assume the same or a new state as prescribed, but not both actions (ia) and (ib) in the same instruction. In some models, if there is no entry in the table for the current combination of symbol and state, then the machine will halt; other models require all entries to be filled.
Every part of the machine (i.e. its state, symbol-collections, and used tape at any given time) and its actions (such as printing, erasing and tape motion) is "finite", "discrete" and "distinguishable"; it is the unlimited amount of tape and runtime that gives it an unbounded amount of storage space.
Following , a (one-tape) Turing machine can be formally defined as a 7-tuple formula_1 where
A relatively uncommon variant allows "no shift", say N, as a third element of the set of directions formula_14.
The 7-tuple for the 3-state busy beaver looks like this (see more about this busy beaver at Turing machine examples):
Initially all tape cells are marked with formula_22.
In the words of van Emde Boas (1990), p. 6: "The set-theoretical object [his formal seven-tuple description similar to the above] provides only partial information on how the machine will behave and what its computations will look like."
For instance,
Definitions in literature sometimes differ slightly, to make arguments or proofs easier or clearer, but this is always done in such a way that the resulting machine has the same computational power. For example, the set could be changed from formula_14 to formula_24, where "N" ("None" or "No-operation") would allow the machine to stay on the same tape cell instead of moving left or right. This would not increase the machine's computational power.
The most common convention represents each "Turing instruction" in a "Turing table" by one of nine 5-tuples, per the convention of Turing/Davis (Turing (1936) in "The Undecidable", p. 126-127 and Davis (2000) p. 152):
Other authors (Minsky (1967) p. 119, Hopcroft and Ullman (1979) p. 158, Stone (1972) p. 9) adopt a different convention, with new state qm listed immediately after the scanned symbol Sj:
For the remainder of this article "definition 1" (the Turing/Davis convention) will be used.
In the following table, Turing's original model allowed only the first three lines that he called N1, N2, N3 (cf. Turing in "The Undecidable", p. 126). He allowed for erasure of the "scanned square" by naming a 0th symbol S0 = "erase" or "blank", etc. However, he did not allow for non-printing, so every instruction-line includes "print symbol Sk" or "erase" (cf. footnote 12 in Post (1947), "The Undecidable", p. 300). The abbreviations are Turing's ("The Undecidable", p. 119). Subsequent to Turing's original paper in 1936–1937, machine-models have allowed all nine possible types of five-tuples:
Any Turing table (list of instructions) can be constructed from the above nine 5-tuples. For technical reasons, the three non-printing or "N" instructions (4, 5, 6) can usually be dispensed with. For examples see Turing machine examples.
Less frequently the use of 4-tuples are encountered: these represent a further atomization of the Turing instructions (cf. Post (1947), Boolos & Jeffrey (1974, 1999), Davis-Sigal-Weyuker (1994)); also see more at Post–Turing machine.
The word "state" used in context of Turing machines can be a source of confusion, as it can mean two things. Most commentators after Turing have used "state" to mean the name/designator of the current instruction to be performed—i.e. the contents of the state register. But Turing (1936) made a strong distinction between a record of what he called the machine's "m-configuration", and the machine's (or person's) "state of progress" through the computation - the current state of the total system. What Turing called "the state formula" includes both the current instruction and "all" the symbols on the tape:
Earlier in his paper Turing carried this even further: he gives an example where he placed a symbol of the current "m-configuration"—the instruction's label—beneath the scanned square, together with all the symbols on the tape ("The Undecidable", p. 121); this he calls "the "complete configuration"" ("The Undecidable", p. 118). To print the "complete configuration" on one line, he places the state-label/m-configuration to the "left" of the scanned symbol.
A variant of this is seen in Kleene (1952) where Kleene shows how to write the Gödel number of a machine's "situation": he places the "m-configuration" symbol q4 over the scanned square in roughly the center of the 6 non-blank squares on the tape (see the Turing-tape figure in this article) and puts it to the "right" of the scanned square. But Kleene refers to "q4" itself as "the machine state" (Kleene, p. 374-375). Hopcroft and Ullman call this composite the "instantaneous description" and follow the Turing convention of putting the "current state" (instruction-label, m-configuration) to the "left" of the scanned symbol (p. 149).
Example: total state of 3-state 2-symbol busy beaver after 3 "moves" (taken from example "run" in the figure below):
This means: after three moves the tape has ... 000110000 ... on it, the head is scanning the right-most 1, and the state is A. Blanks (in this case represented by "0"s) can be part of the total state as shown here: B01; the tape has a single 1 on it, but the head is scanning the 0 ("blank") to its left and the state is B.
"State" in the context of Turing machines should be clarified as to which is being described: ("i") the current instruction, or ("ii") the list of symbols on the tape together with the current instruction, or ("iii") the list of symbols on the tape together with the current instruction placed to the left of the scanned symbol or to the right of the scanned symbol.
Turing's biographer Andrew Hodges (1983: 107) has noted and discussed this confusion.
To the right: the above table as expressed as a "state transition" diagram.
Usually large tables are better left as tables (Booth, p. 74). They are more readily simulated by computer in tabular form (Booth, p. 74). However, certain concepts—e.g. machines with "reset" states and machines with repeating patterns (cf. Hill and Peterson p. 244ff)—can be more readily seen when viewed as a drawing.
Whether a drawing represents an improvement on its table must be decided by the reader for the particular context. See Finite state machine for more.
The reader should again be cautioned that such diagrams represent a snapshot of their table frozen in time, "not" the course ("trajectory") of a computation "through" time and space. While every time the busy beaver machine "runs" it will always follow the same state-trajectory, this is not true for the "copy" machine that can be provided with variable input "parameters".
The diagram "Progress of the computation" shows the three-state busy beaver's "state" (instruction) progress through its computation from start to finish. On the far right is the Turing "complete configuration" (Kleene "situation", Hopcroft–Ullman "instantaneous description") at each step. If the machine were to be stopped and cleared to blank both the "state register" and entire tape, these "configurations" could be used to rekindle a computation anywhere in its progress (cf. Turing (1936) "The Undecidable", pp. 139–140).
Many machines that might be thought to have more computational capability than a simple universal Turing machine can be shown to have no more power (Hopcroft and Ullman p. 159, cf. Minsky (1967)). They might compute faster, perhaps, or use less memory, or their instruction set might be smaller, but they cannot compute more powerfully (i.e. more mathematical functions). (Recall that the Church–Turing thesis "hypothesizes" this to be true for any kind of machine: that anything that can be "computed" can be computed by some Turing machine.)
A Turing machine is equivalent to a single-stack pushdown automaton (PDA) that has been made more flexible and concise by relaxing the last-in-first-out requirement of its stack. In addition, a Turing machine is also equivalent to a two-stack PDA with standard last-in-first-out semantics, by using one stack to model the tape left of the head and the other stack for the tape to the right.
At the other extreme, some very simple models turn out to be Turing-equivalent, i.e. to have the same computational power as the Turing machine model.
Common equivalent models are the multi-tape Turing machine, multi-track Turing machine, machines with input and output, and the "non-deterministic" Turing machine (NDTM) as opposed to the "deterministic" Turing machine (DTM) for which the action table has at most one entry for each combination of symbol and state.
Read-only, right-moving Turing machines are equivalent to DFAs (as well as NFAs by conversion using the NDFA to DFA conversion algorithm).
For practical and didactical intentions the equivalent register machine can be used as a usual assembly programming language.
An interesting question is whether the computation model represented by concrete programming languages is Turing equivalent. While the computation of a real computer is based on finite states and thus not capable to simulate a Turing machine, programming languages themselves do not necessarily have this limitation. Kirner et al., 2009 have shown that among the general-purpose programming languages some are Turing complete while others are not. For example, ANSI C is not Turing-equivalent, as all instantiations of ANSI C (different instantiations are possible as the standard deliberately leaves certain behaviour undefined for legacy reasons) imply a finite-space memory. This is because the size of memory reference data types, called "pointers", is accessible inside the language. However, other programming languages like Pascal do not have this feature, which allows them to be Turing complete in principle.
It is just Turing complete in principle, as memory allocation in a programming language is allowed to fail, which means the programming language can be Turing complete when ignoring failed memory allocations, but the compiled programs executable on a real computer cannot.
Early in his paper (1936) Turing makes a distinction between an "automatic machine"—its "motion ... completely determined by the configuration" and a "choice machine":
Turing (1936) does not elaborate further except in a footnote in which he describes how to use an a-machine to "find all the provable formulae of the [Hilbert] calculus" rather than use a choice machine. He "suppose[s] that the choices are always between two possibilities 0 and 1. Each proof will then be determined by a sequence of choices i1, i2, ..., in (i1 = 0 or 1, i2 = 0 or 1, ..., in = 0 or 1), and hence the number 2n + i12n-1 + i22n-2 + ... +in completely determines the proof. The automatic machine carries out successively proof 1, proof 2, proof 3, ..." (Footnote ‡, "The Undecidable", p. 138)
This is indeed the technique by which a deterministic (i.e., a-) Turing machine can be used to mimic the action of a nondeterministic Turing machine; Turing solved the matter in a footnote and appears to dismiss it from further consideration.
An oracle machine or o-machine is a Turing a-machine that pauses its computation at state "o" while, to complete its calculation, it "awaits the decision" of "the oracle"—an unspecified entity "apart from saying that it cannot be a machine" (Turing (1939), "The Undecidable", p. 166–168).
As Turing wrote in "The Undecidable", p. 128 (italics added):
This finding is now taken for granted, but at the time (1936) it was considered astonishing. The model of computation that Turing called his "universal machine"—"U" for short—is considered by some (cf. Davis (2000)) to have been the fundamental theoretical breakthrough that led to the notion of the stored-program computer.
In terms of computational complexity, a multi-tape universal Turing machine need only be slower by logarithmic factor compared to the machines it simulates. This result was obtained in 1966 by F. C. Hennie and R. E. Stearns. (Arora and Barak, 2009, theorem 1.9)
It is often said that Turing machines, unlike simpler automata, are as powerful as real machines, and are able to execute any operation that a real program can. What is neglected in this statement is that, because a real machine can only have a finite number of "configurations", this "real machine" is really nothing but a finite state machine. On the other hand, Turing machines are equivalent to machines that have an unlimited amount of storage space for their computations.
There are a number of ways to explain why Turing machines are useful models of real computers:
A limitation of Turing machines is that they do not model the strengths of a particular arrangement well. For instance, modern stored-program computers are actually instances of a more specific form of abstract machine known as the random-access stored-program machine or RASP machine model. Like the universal Turing machine, the RASP stores its "program" in "memory" external to its finite-state machine's "instructions". Unlike the universal Turing machine, the RASP has an infinite number of distinguishable, numbered but unbounded "registers"—memory "cells" that can contain any integer (cf. Elgot and Robinson (1964), Hartmanis (1971), and in particular Cook-Rechow (1973); references at random access machine). The RASP's finite-state machine is equipped with the capability for indirect addressing (e.g., the contents of one register can be used as an address to specify another register); thus the RASP's "program" can address any register in the register-sequence. The upshot of this distinction is that there are computational optimizations that can be performed based on the memory indices, which are not possible in a general Turing machine; thus when Turing machines are used as the basis for bounding running times, a 'false lower bound' can be proven on certain algorithms' running times (due to the false simplifying assumption of a Turing machine). An example of this is binary search, an algorithm that can be shown to perform more quickly when using the RASP model of computation rather than the Turing machine model.
Another limitation of Turing machines is that they do not model concurrency well. For example, there is a bound on the size of integer that can be computed by an always-halting nondeterministic Turing machine starting on a blank tape. (See article on unbounded nondeterminism.) By contrast, there are always-halting concurrent systems with no inputs that can compute an integer of unbounded size. (A process can be created with local storage that is initialized with a count of 0 that concurrently sends itself both a stop and a go message. When it receives a go message, it increments its count by 1 and sends itself a go message. When it receives a stop message, it stops with an unbounded number in its local storage.)
In the early days of computing, computer use was typically limited to batch processing, i.e., non-interactive tasks, each producing output data from given input data. Computability theory, which studies computability of functions from inputs to outputs, and for which Turing machines were invented, reflects this practice.
Since the 1970s, interactive use of computers became much more common. In principle, it is possible to model this by having an external agent read from the tape and write to it at the same time as a Turing machine, but this rarely matches how interaction actually happens; therefore, when describing interactivity, alternatives such as I/O automata are usually preferred.
They were described in 1936 by Alan Turing.
Robin Gandy (1919–1995)—a student of Alan Turing (1912–1954), and his lifelong friend—traces the lineage of the notion of "calculating machine" back to Charles Babbage (circa 1834) and actually proposes "Babbage's Thesis":
Gandy's analysis of Babbage's Analytical Engine describes the following five operations (cf. p. 52–53):
Gandy states that "the functions which can be calculated by (1), (2), and (4) are precisely those which are Turing computable." (p. 53). He cites other proposals for "universal calculating machines" including those of Percy Ludgate (1909), Leonardo Torres y Quevedo (1914), Maurice d'Ocagne (1922), Louis Couffignal (1933), Vannevar Bush (1936), Howard Aiken (1937). However:
With regard to Hilbert's problems posed by the famous mathematician David Hilbert in 1900, an aspect of problem #10 had been floating about for almost 30 years before it was framed precisely. Hilbert's original expression for #10 is as follows:
By 1922, this notion of "Entscheidungsproblem" had developed a bit, and H. Behmann stated that
By the 1928 international congress of mathematicians, Hilbert "made his questions quite precise. First, was mathematics "complete" ... Second, was mathematics "consistent" ... And thirdly, was mathematics "decidable"?" (Hodges p. 91, Hawking p. 1121). The first two questions were answered in 1930 by Kurt Gödel at the very same meeting where Hilbert delivered his retirement speech (much to the chagrin of Hilbert); the third—the Entscheidungsproblem—had to wait until the mid-1930s.
The problem was that an answer first required a precise definition of ""definite general applicable prescription"", which Princeton professor Alonzo Church would come to call "effective calculability", and in 1928 no such definition existed. But over the next 6–7 years Emil Post developed his definition of a worker moving from room to room writing and erasing marks per a list of instructions (Post 1936), as did Church and his two students Stephen Kleene and J. B. Rosser by use of Church's lambda-calculus and Gödel's recursion theory (1934). Church's paper (published 15 April 1936) showed that the Entscheidungsproblem was indeed "undecidable" and beat Turing to the punch by almost a year (Turing's paper submitted 28 May 1936, published January 1937). In the meantime, Emil Post submitted a brief paper in the fall of 1936, so Turing at least had priority over Post. While Church refereed Turing's paper, Turing had time to study Church's paper and add an Appendix where he sketched a proof that Church's lambda-calculus and his machines would compute the same functions.
And Post had only proposed a definition of calculability and criticized Church's "definition", but had proved nothing.
In the spring of 1935, Turing as a young Master's student at King's College Cambridge, UK, took on the challenge; he had been stimulated by the lectures of the logician M. H. A. Newman "and learned from them of Gödel's work and the Entscheidungsproblem ... Newman used the word 'mechanical' ... In his obituary of Turing 1955 Newman writes:
Gandy states that:
While Gandy believed that Newman's statement above is "misleading", this opinion is not shared by all. Turing had a lifelong interest in machines: "Alan had dreamt of inventing typewriters as a boy; [his mother] Mrs. Turing had a typewriter; and he could well have begun by asking himself what was meant by calling a typewriter 'mechanical'" (Hodges p. 96). While at Princeton pursuing his PhD, Turing built a Boolean-logic multiplier (see below). His PhD thesis, titled "Systems of Logic Based on Ordinals", contains the following definition of "a computable function":
When Turing returned to the UK he ultimately became jointly responsible for breaking the German secret codes created by encryption machines called "The Enigma"; he also became involved in the design of the ACE (Automatic Computing Engine), "[Turing's] ACE proposal was effectively self-contained, and its roots lay not in the EDVAC [the USA's initiative], but in his own universal machine" (Hodges p. 318). Arguments still continue concerning the origin and nature of what has been named by Kleene (1952) Turing's Thesis. But what Turing "did prove" with his computational-machine model appears in his paper "On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem" (1937):
Turing's example (his second proof): If one is to ask for a general procedure to tell us: "Does this machine ever print 0", the question is "undecidable".
In 1937, while at Princeton working on his PhD thesis, Turing built a digital (Boolean-logic) multiplier from scratch, making his own electromechanical relays (Hodges p. 138). "Alan's task was to embody the logical design of a Turing machine in a network of relay-operated switches ..." (Hodges p. 138). While Turing might have been just initially curious and experimenting, quite-earnest work in the same direction was going in Germany (Konrad Zuse (1938)), and in the United States (Howard Aiken) and George Stibitz (1937); the fruits of their labors were used by both the Axis and Allied militaries in World War II (cf. Hodges p. 298–299). In the early to mid-1950s Hao Wang and Marvin Minsky reduced the Turing machine to a simpler form (a precursor to the Post–Turing machine of Martin Davis); simultaneously European researchers were reducing the new-fangled electronic computer to a computer-like theoretical object equivalent to what was now being called a "Turing machine". In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the coincidentally parallel developments of Melzak and Lambek (1961), Minsky (1961), and Shepherdson and Sturgis (1961) carried the European work further and reduced the Turing machine to a more friendly, computer-like abstract model called the counter machine; Elgot and Robinson (1964), Hartmanis (1971), Cook and Reckhow (1973) carried this work even further with the register machine and random-access machine models—but basically all are just multi-tape Turing machines with an arithmetic-like instruction set.
Today, the counter, register and random-access machines and their sire the Turing machine continue to be the models of choice for theorists investigating questions in the theory of computation. In particular, computational complexity theory makes use of the Turing machine: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30403 |
Trail riding
Trail riding is riding outdoors on trails, bridle paths, and forest roads, but not on roads regularly used by motorised traffic. A trail ride can be of any length, including a long distance, multi-day trip. It originated with horse riding, and in North America, the equestrian form is usually called "trail riding," or, less often "hacking." In the UK and Europe, the practice is usually called horse or pony trekking.
The modern term also encompasses mountain biking, mixed terrain cycle-touring, and the use of motorcycles and other motorized all-terrain vehicles. It may be informal activities of an individual or small group, or larger events organized by a club. Some equestrian trail rides in the USA are directed by professional guides or outfitters, particularly at guest ranches. In some parts of the world, trail riding (of whatever kind) is limited by law to recognized, and sometimes function-specific, trails that are waymarked. In other places, trails may be less maintained and more natural. Trail riding can include other activities, such as camping, hunting, fishing, orienteering and backpacking.
Often, horses under saddle are subject to the same regulations as pedestrians or hikers where those requirements differ from those for cyclists. In most states, horses are classified as livestock and thus restricted from areas such as the right of way of the interstate highway system, though generally permitted to travel along the side of other roadways, especially in rural areas.
Rail trails, which are redeveloped disused railways converted into multi-use trails, often provide invaluable trail riding areas in many parts of the world. A bridle path, also called a bridleway, equestrian trail, horse riding path, bridle road, or horse trail, is a trail or a thoroughfare that is used by people riding on horses, though such trails often now serve a wider range of users, including equestrians, hikers, and cyclists. Such paths are either impassable for motorized vehicles, or vehicles are banned. The laws relating to allowable uses vary from country to country.
In England and Wales a bridle path now refers to a route which can be legally used by horse riders in addition to walkers, and since 1968, by cyclists. In the US, the term bridle path is used colloquially for trails or paths used primarily for people making day treks on horses, and used primarily on the east coast, whereas out west the equivalent term is simply trail. The United States has few if any formal designations for bridle paths, though horses are generally allowed on most state and federal trails, roads and public routes except where specifically restricted, although rules differ among locations.
There is some criticism of trail riding when excess or improper use of trails may lead to erosion, the spread of invasive plants, conflict with hikers, or harassment of wildlife. Off-road or trail activity is usually not permitted, as such activity may also raise the risk of soil erosion, spread weeds, and cause other damage. However, many responsible equestrians, mountain bikers, and off-road motorcyclists, especially those who get involved in these sports by joining an organized club, perform hours of trail maintenance every year. Many organizations also sponsor educational events to teach newcomers about safety, responsible land stewardship and how to improve riding techniques.
Many long-distance trails throughout the world have sections suitable for horse riding, some suitable throughout their length, and some have been developed primarily for horse riding. Within the United States National Trail Classification System, equestrian trails include simple day-use bridle paths and others built to accommodate long strings of pack animals on journeys lasting many days. Some trails managed by the U. S. Forest Service and other governmental entities may restrict access of horses, or restrict access during certain times of the year. Access to trails and pathways on private land is generally left to the discretion of the landowner, subject to the general trespass laws of each of the 50 states.
The term pleasure riding may encompass trail riding. This refers to a form of equestrianism that encompasses many forms of recreational riding for personal enjoyment, without any element of competition. Pleasure riding is called "hacking" in United Kingdom, and in parts of the eastern United States and Canada. In other parts of the United States, particularly the American west, the term trail riding is used interchangeably with pleasure riding when on natural trails or public lands. Many horses are suitable for pleasure riding, including grade horses and other animals of ordinary quality and good disposition. Such horses are sometimes called hacks, particularly in those areas where pleasure riding is known as hacking. In recreational trail riding, having fun and enjoying time spent in natures rather than speed and form are the goals.
There are competitive events that occur on natural trails to test the endurance or trail riding ability of a horse. The level of difficulty varies by distance, trail, and terrain. Endurance riding encompasses races of varying lengths, usually from to , where the first horse to cross the finish line and be deemed "fit to continue" by passing a veterinary examination is the winner. Competitive trail riding is another distance competition that differs from endurance races, as the first horse to cross the line does not necessarily win, but rather the competitors are required to finish within a minimum and a maximum time with their horse in the best condition and with additional scoring for horsemanship and care of the animal.
There are competitive events at horse shows, called trail classes, which test the horse and rider's ability to handle obstacles resembling those commonly found on trails, such as opening and closing gates, crossing logs, and navigating forward, backwards and to the side. There are also judged trail rides, which occur on a natural trail, but assess trail-class-style points based on the ability of the horse and rider to navigate specific natural and man-made obstacles encountered along the trail.
Mountain bikes are typically ridden on mountain trails, fire roads, logging roads, and other unpaved trails. These types of terrain commonly include rocks, washouts, ruts, loose sand, loose gravel, roots, and steep slopes. Mountain bikes are built to handle this terrain and the obstacles that are found in it, like logs, vertical drop offs, and small boulders. Mountain bikes, therefore, are more sturdily constructed than regular bicycles, have larger knobby tires, more powerful brakes, and the lower gear ratios needed for steep grades with poor traction.
Trail riding on a mountain bike can be:
Off-road bicycle trails are generally function-specific and most commonly waymarked along their route. They may take the form of single routes or form part of larger complexes, known as trail centres. Off-road trails often incorporate a mix of challenging terrain, singletrack, smooth fireroads, and even paved paths. Trails with an easy or moderate technical complexity are generally deemed cross-country trails, while trails difficult even to experienced riders are more often dubbed all-mountain, freeride, or downhill. Downhilling is particularly popular at ski resorts such as Mammoth Mountain in California, USA or Whistler Blackcomb in British Columbia, Canada, where ski lifts are used to get bikes and riders to the top of the mountain.
Long rides on hiking and mountain paths have some resemblance to cycle touring but the latter usually take place on tarmac. However, mixed terrain cycle-touring, nicknamed "rough riding" in Canada and the US and "rough stuff" in Europe, is a form of trail riding, because it involves cycling over a variety of surfaces and topography, on a single route, either using a mountain bike or hybrid bike. A new style of travel called adventure cycle-touring or expedition touring involves exploring remote regions of the world on sturdy bicycles carrying lightweight gear. This type of trail riding is in fact a form of backpacking.
Mount Tamalpais, California, USA, and the surrounding areas in Marin County, California are recognized as the birthplace of mountain biking. In the 1970s, mountain biking pioneers such as Gary Fisher, Otis Guy, Charlie Kelly and Joe Breeze were active. The 2006 film chronicled their story, solidifying Mount Tamalpais' legendary status as a trail riding destination.
There has been considerable controversy around trail access for mountain bikes, both in terms of environmental impact and the safety of other trail users. As a result, bicycles are generally restricted from narrow, single-track trails, though bicycles are allowed on most fire roads. However, mountain bikers in the United States generally have access to multi-use trails.
In England and Wales, bridle paths and some other rights of way, such as byways and 'Roads used as paths' (RUPP), are open to cyclists, but footpaths are not. However, in Scotland there is no legal distinction between footpaths and bridleways, and it is generally accepted that cyclists and horseriders may follow rights of way with suitable surfaces. Rights of way are somewhat limited in Northern Ireland.
There are long-distance routes throughout Europe, including some through the Swiss Alps that involve crossing high Alpine passes. There are also extensive routes through France that include both steep, rocky, alpine terrain and minor country roads or off-road on a variety of surfaces, from wide forest roads to narrow, muddy woodland tracks.
Extreme trail riding, such as Megavalanche are mountainbike downhill marathon style events combining gravity-assisted sections with those that emphasize the riders' levels of fitness, endurance, and nerve. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30404 |
Terry Gilliam
Terrence Vance Gilliam (; born 22 November 1940) is an American-born British screenwriter, film director, animator, actor, comedian and former member of the Monty Python comedy troupe.
Gilliam has directed 13 feature films, including "Time Bandits" (1981), "Brazil" (1985), "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" (1988), "The Fisher King" (1991), "12 Monkeys" (1995), "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" (1998), "The Brothers Grimm" (2005), "Tideland" (2005), and "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" (2009). The only "Python" not born in Britain, he became a naturalised British subject in 1968 and formally renounced his American citizenship in 2006.
Gilliam was born in Minnesota, but spent his high school and college years in Los Angeles. He started his career as an animator and strip cartoonist. He joined Monty Python as the animator of their works, but eventually became a full member and was given acting roles. He became a feature film director in the 1970s. Most of his films explore the theme of imagination and its importance to life, express his opposition to bureaucracy and authoritarianism, and feature characters facing dark or paranoid situations. His own scripts feature black comedy and tragicomedic elements, as well as surprise endings.
In 1988, Gilliam and the other Monty Python members received the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema. In 2009, Gilliam received the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement.
Gilliam was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the son of Beatrice (née Vance) and James Hall Gilliam. His father was a travelling salesman for Folgers before becoming a carpenter. Soon after, they moved to nearby Medicine Lake, Minnesota.
The family moved to the Los Angeles neighbourhood of Panorama City in 1952. Gilliam attended Birmingham High School, where he was the president of his class and senior prom king. He was voted "Most Likely to Succeed" and achieved straight A's. During high school, he began to avidly read "Mad" magazine, then edited by Harvey Kurtzman, which would later influence Gilliam's work.
Gilliam graduated from Occidental College in 1962 with a Bachelor of Arts in political science.
Gilliam told Salman Rushdie about defining experiences in the 1960s that, he said, set the foundations for his views on the world:
Gilliam began his career as an animator and strip cartoonist. One of his early photographic strips for "Help!" magazine featured future Python cast member John Cleese. When "Help!" folded, Gilliam went to Europe, jokingly announcing in the very last issue that he was "being transferred to the European branch" of the magazine, which, of course, did not exist. Moving to England, he animated sequences for the children's series "Do Not Adjust Your Set" which ran from 1967 to 1969, and which also featured Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin.
Gilliam was a part of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" from its outset, credited at first as an animator (his name was listed separately after the other five in the closing credits) and later as a full member. His cartoons linked the show's sketches together and defined the group's visual language in other media, such as LP and book covers and the title sequences of their films. His animations mix his own art, characterised by soft gradients and odd, bulbous shapes, with backgrounds and moving cutouts from antique photographs, mostly from the Victorian era.
In 1978, Gilliam published "Animations of Mortality", an illustrated, tongue-in-cheek, semi-autobiographical how-to guide to his animation techniques and the visual language in them. Roughly 15 years later, between the release of the CD-ROM game "Monty Python's Complete Waste of Time" in 1994, which used many of Gilliam's animation templates, and the making of Gilliam's film "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" (1998), Gilliam was in negotiations with Enteractive, a software company, to tentatively release in the autumn of 1996 a CD-ROM under the same title as his 1978 book, containing all of his thousands of 1970s animation templates as license-free clip arts for people to create their own flash animations, but the project hovered in limbo for years, probably because Enteractive was about to downsize greatly in mid-1996 and changed its focus from CD-ROM multimedia presentations to internet business solutions and web hosting in 1997 (in the introduction to their 2004 book "Terry Gilliam: Interviews", David Sterrit and Lucille Rhodes claimed that the internet had overwhelmed the "computer-communications market" and gave this as the reason that the "Animations of Mortality" CD-ROM never materialised). Around the time of Gilliam's film "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" (2009), the project had changed into the idea of releasing his 1970s animation templates as a license-free download of Adobe After Effects or similar files.
Besides creating the animations, Gilliam also appeared in several sketches, though he rarely had main roles and did considerably less acting in the sketches. He did, however, have some notable sketch roles, such as Cardinal Fang of the Spanish Inquisition; the bespectacled commenter who said, "I can't add anything to that!" in the sketch "Election Night Special"; Kevin Garibaldi, the brat on the couch shouting "I want more beans!" in the sketch "Most Awful Family in Britain 1974" (episode 45); the Screaming Queen in a cape and mask in “The Visitors”; and Percy Bysshe Shelley in “Ant Poetry Reading”. More frequently, he played parts that no one else wanted to play, generally because they required a lot of makeup or uncomfortable costumes, such as a recurring knight in armour who ended sketches by walking on and hitting one of the other characters over the head with a plucked chicken. He took a number of roles in the films, including both Patsy and The Old Man From Scene 24 in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (which he co-directed with Terry Jones; Gilliam was responsible for photography, while Jones guided the actors' performances) and the jailer in "Monty Python's Life of Brian". He also designed the covers of most of the Monty Python albums, including "Another Monty Python Record", "The Monty Python Matching Tie and Handkerchief", "Monty Python Live at Drury Lane", and all of their film soundtrack albums. Katy Hepburn, a freelance designer and graduate of the Royal College of Art in London, also worked with Gilliam.
With the gradual breakup of the Python troupe between "Life of Brian" in 1979 and "The Meaning of Life" in 1983, Gilliam became a screenwriter and director, building upon the experience he had acquired during the making of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". He says he used to think of his films in terms of trilogies, starting with "Time Bandits": the "Trilogy of Imagination" (written by Gilliam) about "the ages of man" in "Time Bandits" (1981), "Brazil" (1985), and "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" (1988). All are about the "craziness of our awkwardly ordered society and the desire to escape it through whatever means possible." All three movies focus on these struggles and attempts to escape them through imagination; "Time Bandits" through the eyes of a child, "Brazil" through the eyes of a man in his thirties, and "Munchausen", through the eyes of an elderly man.
In the 1990s, Gilliam directed a trilogy of Americana: "The Fisher King" (1991), "12 Monkeys" (1995), and "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" (1998), which played on North American soil and, while still surreal, had fewer fantastical plots than his previous trilogy.
As for his philosophical background in screenwriting and directing, Gilliam said on the TV show "First Hand" on RoundhouseTV, "There's so many film schools, so many media courses which I actually am opposed to. Because I think it's more important to be educated, to read, to learn things, because if you're gonna be in the media and if you'll have to say things, you have to "know" things. If you only know about cameras and 'the media', what're you gonna be talking about except cameras and the media? So it's better learning about philosophy and art and architecture [and] literature, these are the things to be concentrating on it seems to me. Then, you can "fly...!""
Gilliam's films are usually imaginative fantasies. His long-time co-writer Charles McKeown commented, "the theme of imagination, and the importance of imagination, to how you live and how you think and so on ... that's very much a Terry theme." Most of Gilliam's movies include plotlines that seem to occur partly or completely in the characters' imaginations, raising questions about the definition of identity and sanity. He often shows his opposition to bureaucracy and authoritarian regimes. He also distinguishes "higher" and "lower" layers of society, with a disturbing and ironic style. His movies usually feature a fight or struggle against a great power which may be an emotional situation, a human-made idol, or even the person himself, and the situations do not always end happily. There is often a dark, paranoid atmosphere and unusual characters who used to be normal members of society. His scripts feature black comedy and often end with a dark tragicomic twist.
Gilliam is fascinated with the Baroque period because of the pronounced struggle between spirituality and rationality in that era. There is often a rich baroqueness and dichotomous eclecticism about his movies, with, for instance, high-tech computer monitors equipped with low-tech magnifying lenses in "Brazil" and a red knight covered with flapping bits of cloth in "The Fisher King". He also is given to incongruous juxtapositions of beauty and ugliness or antique and modern. Regarding Gilliam's theme of modernity's struggle between spirituality and rationality whereas the individual may become dominated by a tyrannical, soulless machinery of disenchanted society, the film critic Keith James Hamel observed a specific affinity of Gilliam's movies with the writings of the economic historian Arnold Toynbee and the sociologist Max Weber, specifically the latter's concept of the "iron cage" of rationality.
Gilliam's films have a distinctive look, not only in "mise-en-scène" but even more so in photography, often recognisable from just a short clip; to create a surreal atmosphere of psychological unrest and a world out of balance, he frequently uses unusual camera angles, particularly low-angle shots, high-angle shots, and Dutch angles. Roger Ebert said that "his world is always hallucinatory in its richness of detail". Most of his movies are shot almost entirely with rectilinear ultra-wide-angle lenses with focal lengths of 28mm or less to achieve a distinctive style defined by extreme perspective distortion and extremely deep focus. Gilliam's long-time director of photography Nicola Pecorini has said, "with Terry and me, a long lens means something between a 40mm and a 65mm." This attitude markedly differs from the common definition in photography, by which 40 to 65 mm is the focal length of a normal lens, resembling the natural human field of view, unlike Gilliam's signature style, defined by extreme perspective distortion due to his usual choice of focal length. The 14 mm lens has become informally known as "The Gilliam" among filmmakers because of his frequent use of it at least since "Brazil". Gilliam has explained his preference for using wide-angle lenses in his films:
In another interview, Gilliam mentioned, in relation to the 9.8 mm Kinoptic lens he had first used on "Brazil", that wide-angle lenses make small film sets "look big". The widest lens he has used so far is an 8 mm Zeiss lens employed in filming "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus".
Gilliam has made a few extremely expensive movies beset with production problems. After the lengthy quarrelling with Universal Studios over "Brazil", Gilliam's next picture, "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen", cost around US$46 million, and then earned only about US$8 million in US ticket sales. The film saw no wide domestic release from Columbia Pictures, which was in the process of being sold at the time.
In the mid-1990s, Gilliam and Charles McKeown developed a script for "Time Bandits 2", a project that was never produced because several of the original actors had died. Gilliam also attempted to direct a version of Charles Dickens's "A Tale of Two Cities", which collapsed due to disagreements over its budget and the choice of a lead actor.
Gilliam attempted twice to adapt Alan Moore's "Watchmen" comics into a film, in 1989 and 1996. Both attempts were unsuccessful.
In 1999, Gilliam attempted to film "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote", budgeted at US$32.1 million, among the highest-budgeted films to use only European financing; but in the first week of shooting, the actor playing Don Quixote (Jean Rochefort) suffered a herniated disc, and a flood severely damaged the set. The film was cancelled, resulting in an insurance claim of US$15 million. Despite the cancellation, the aborted project did yield the documentary "Lost in La Mancha", produced from film from a second crew that had been hired by Gilliam to document the making of "Quixote". After the cancellation, both Gilliam and the film's co-lead, Johnny Depp, wanted to revive the project. The insurance company involved in the failed first attempt withheld the rights to the screenplay for several years but the production was restarted in 2008.
From 2002 to 2006, Gilliam tried to get funding for an adaptation of "Good Omens", by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, with Robin Williams and Johnny Depp rumored as possible stars, but movie studios found the apocalyptic theme unacceptable in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks, and funding never materialized.
More recently, unforeseeable problems again befell a Gilliam project when the actor Heath Ledger died in New York City during the filming of "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus".
Gilliam's first successful feature, "Time Bandits" (1981), earned more than eight times its original budget in the United States alone. "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" (1988), although it was a flop at the box office, was nominated for four Academy Awards and won three BAFTA Awards, among several other Prizes in Europe. "The Fisher King" (1991), his first film not to feature a member of the Monty Python troupe, had a budget of $24 million and grossed more than $41 million at United States box office. "12 Monkeys" grossed more than US$168 million worldwide. "The Brothers Grimm", despite a mixed critical reception, grossed over US$105 million worldwide. "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus", with a budget of $30 million, has been an international success at the box office, grossing over $60 million in worldwide theatrical release.
According to Box Office Mojo, his films have grossed an average of $21,602,510.
Since his first feature, Gilliam has shown a propensity to work with particular actors in numerous productions. Up until the 1990s, each of Gilliam's non-Python films has featured at least one of his fellow Monty Python alumni (particularly Palin, Cleese, and Idle), and for his finished projects Gilliam has worked with the following actors at least twice (in order of first film appearance):
Other recurring collaborators include Gilliam's cinematographers Roger Pratt ("Brazil", "The Fisher King", "12 Monkeys") and Nicola Pecorini ("Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas", "The Brothers Grimm", "Tideland", "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus", "The Zero Theorem", "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote"), and his co-writer McKeown ("Brazil", "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen", "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus").
J. K. Rowling, the author of the "Harry Potter" series, is a fan of Gilliam's work. Consequently, he was Rowling's first choice to direct "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" in 2000, but Warner Bros. ultimately chose Chris Columbus for the job. In response to this decision, Gilliam said that "I was the perfect guy to do "Harry Potter". I remember leaving the meeting, getting in my car, and driving for about two hours along Mulholland Drive just so angry. I mean, Chris Columbus' versions are terrible. Just dull. Pedestrian." In 2006, Gilliam said that he found Alfonso Cuarón's "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" to be "really good... much closer to what I would've done." In retrospect, however, Gilliam has stated that he wouldn't have liked to direct any "Potter" film. In a 2005 interview with "Total Film", he said that he would not enjoy working on such an expensive project because of interference from studio executives.
In "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1", director David Yates paid homage to Gilliam's 1985 film "Brazil", portraying the Death Eater–infiltrated Ministry of Magic in a fashion reminiscent of Gilliam's totalitarian bureaucracy.
In 2002, Gilliam directed a series of television advertisements called “Secret Tournament”. Part of Nike's 2002 FIFA World Cup campaign, the advertisements feature a secret three-on-three tournament between the world's best football players, including Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Thierry Henry, who are inside a huge tanker ship. The advertisements are accompanied with a remixed version of the Elvis Presley song "A Little Less Conversation".
In 2006, Gilliam directed the stage show "Slava's Diabolo", created and staged by the Russian clown artist Slava Polunin. The show combined Polunin's clown style, characterised by deep nonverbal expression and interaction with the audience, with Gilliam's rich visuals and surrealistic imagery. The show premiered at the Noga Hall of the Gesher Theatre in Jaffa, Israel.
"The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus", directed and co-written by Gilliam, was released in 2009. In January 2007, Gilliam announced that he had been working on a new project with his writing partner Charles McKeown. One day later, the fansite "Dreams" reported that the new project was titled "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus". In October 2007, "Dreams" confirmed that this would be Gilliam's next project and was slated to star Christopher Plummer and Tom Waits. Production began in December 2007 in London.
On 22 January 2008, production of the film was disrupted following the death of Heath Ledger in New York City. "Variety" reported that Ledger's involvement had been a "key factor" in the film's financing. Production was suspended indefinitely by 24 January, but in February the actors Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell signed on to continue Ledger's role, transforming into multiple incarnations of his character in the "magical" world of the film. Thanks to this arrangement the principal photography was completed on 15 April 2008, on schedule. Editing was completed in November 2008. According to the official "ParnassusFilm" Twitter channel launched on 30 March 2009, the film's post-production FX work finished on 31 March. During the filming, Gilliam was accidentally hit by a bus and suffered a broken back.
The film had successful screenings including a premiere at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival. The UK release for the film was scheduled for 6 June 2009 but was pushed back to 16 October 2009. The USA release was on 25 December 2009. Eventually, this $30 million-budgeted film had grossed more than $60 million in worldwide theatrical release and received two Academy Award nominations.
The film's end credit states that the film is dedicated to the memories of Ledger and William Vince. Depp, Farrell, and Law donated their proceeds from the film to Ledger's daughter.
In July 2012, Gilliam revealed plans for a film which would be shot in Bucharest, Romania. He denied that it would be "Don Quixote" but refused to give any further details. The actor David Walliams reportedly entered into talks with Gilliam to play a part in it and was told that he'd have to "be willing to work with Johnny Depp and fly to Bucharest where the movie is to be filmed." Depp, to that point, had made no mention of his involvement but was seen in Bucharest around the same time in mid-July as Romanian news outlets reported Gilliam was staying in the city for negotiations on studio work with the Romanian film production company MediaPro Studios. On 13 August 2012, this project was announced to be "The Zero Theorem", set to start shooting in Bucharest on 22 October, produced by Dean Zanuck (son of the late Richard D. Zanuck, who was originally to produce the film in 2009), with worldwide sales handled by Voltage Pictures, Toronto, and starring the Academy Award–winner Christoph Waltz in the lead (replacing Billy Bob Thornton, who had been attached to the project in 2009). "The Zero Theorem" premiered at the 70th Venice International Film Festival on 2 September 2013.
Gilliam made his opera debut at London's English National Opera (ENO) in May 2011, directing "The Damnation of Faust", by Hector Berlioz. The production received positive reviews in the British press On 16 September 2012, the production opened at the Vlaamse Opera in Ghent, Belgium, in the opera's original French-language version and received praise from critics and audiences alike. After a number of performances in Ghent, the production moved to the opera house in Antwerp for sold-out run of performances.
In June 2014, Gilliam followed up on his success with "Faust" with a new ENO production of another opera by Berlioz, the rarely performed "Benvenuto Cellini".
Gilliam has several projects in various states of development, including an adaptation of Neil Gaiman's and Terry Pratchett's comic fantasy novel "Good Omens". Other projects Gilliam has been trying to get off the ground since the 1990s are an adaptation of Charles Dickens's "A Tale of Two Cities" (starring Mel Gibson); an adaptation of Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court", which has been adapted as films several times before; and a script entitled "The Defective Detective", which Gilliam wrote with Richard LaGravenese (who wrote "The Fisher King"). While promoting the US theatrical release of "The Zero Theorem", Gilliam revealed he and LaGravenese were meeting to see if "The Defective Detective" script could be made into a miniseries. If this comes together, it would be the first time Gilliam has ever directed for television. Stanley Kubrick had Gilliam in mind to direct a sequel to "Dr. Strangelove" (1964). Gilliam also turned down offers to direct such films as "Enemy Mine" (1985), "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" (1988), "Forrest Gump" (1994) and "Braveheart" (1995). He was even considered to direct "The Truman Show" (1998). Gilliam confirmed in a 2018 interview that he turned down the offer to direct one of the sequels to "Alien" (1979), though he did not specify which one of them.
It was rumoured that Gilliam may direct or be involved in the production of the animated band Gorillaz movie. In a September 2006 interview with "Uncut", Damon Albarn was reported to have said, "we're making a film. We've got Terry Gilliam involved." However, in a more recent interview with Gorillaz-Unofficial, Jamie Hewlett, the co-creator of the band, stated that since the time of the previous interview, Damon's and his own interest in the film had lessened. In an August 2008 "Observer" interview, Gorillaz band members Albarn and Hewlett revealed the nature and title of the project, "Journey to the West", a film adaptation of the , based on a 16th-century Chinese adventure story also known as "Monkey". In January 2008, while on set of "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus", Gilliam stated that he was looking forward to the project, "But I'm still waiting to see a script!"
After regaining the rights to the screenplay of "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote", Gilliam restarted preproduction in 2008, with Johnny Depp still attached to the project. The film was to be reshot completely, with Rochefort's role recast. Michael Palin reportedly entered into talks with Gilliam about stepping in for Rochefort and playing Don Quixote. However, Gilliam revealed on the Canadian talk show "The Hour" on 17 December 2009 that Robert Duvall had been cast to play Quixote, before the film was postponed once again. In January 2014, Gilliam wrote on Facebook that "Dreams of Don Quixote have begun again". At the Cannes Film Festival in 2016, it was confirmed that "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote" was going to be made, with Michael Palin and Adam Driver in starring roles. In March 2017, filming finally began, with Driver and Jonathan Pryce starring. On 4 June 2017, Gilliam announced that the shooting of the film was complete.
The film premiered on 19 May 2018 as the closing film of the 2018 Cannes Film Festival (where it received a standing ovation), and was released in French theatres the same day.
On 16 December 2010, "Variety" reported that Gilliam was to "godfather" a film called "1884", described as an animated steampunk parody of George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four", with several former Pythons lending their voices to the project; Gilliam was to be credited as "creative advisor".
During the second half of 2011, Gilliam and Paul Auster wrote a screenplay for a film adaptation of Auster's novel "Mr. Vertigo". In June 2018, Gilliam announced at the Brussels International Film Festival that he was working again on "Mr. Vertigo", and that it might be his next film, and that he had Ralph Fiennes attached to star in it.
As of 2014 he was in talks to make his first animated feature film with Laika, the studio behind "Coraline" and "ParaNorman".
In October 2015, in a webchat hosted by "The Guardian", Gilliam announced that he was working on "a TV series based on "Time Bandits"" and "another based on a script by Richard LaGravanese and I wrote after "Fisher King", called "The Defective Detective"".
Gilliam has been involved with a number of charitable and humanitarian causes. In 2009, he became a board member of Videre Est Credere (Latin for "to see is to believe"), a UK human rights charity. Videre describes itself as giving "local activists the equipment, training and support needed to safely capture compelling video evidence of human rights violations. This captured footage is verified, analysed and then distributed to those who can create change." He participates alongside movie producer Uri Fruchtmann, music producer Brian Eno and executive director of Greenpeace UK John Sauven.
Gilliam has been married to British makeup and costume designer Maggie Weston since 1973. She worked on "Monty Python's Flying Circus", many of the Python movies, and Gilliam's movies up to "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen". They have three children, Amy Rainbow Gilliam (born 1978), Holly Dubois Gilliam (born in October 1980), and Harry Thunder Gilliam (born on 3 April 1988), who have also appeared in or worked on several of his films.
In 1968, Gilliam obtained British citizenship. He held dual American and British citizenship for the next 38 years, until he renounced his American citizenship in January 2006. In an interview with "Der Tagesspiegel", he described the action as a protest against then-President George W. Bush, and in an earlier interview with "The A.V. Club", he also indicated that it was related to concerns about future tax liability for his wife and children. As a result of renouncing his citizenship, Gilliam was permitted to spend 30 days each year in the US over the next 10 years, "less than any European".
He maintains a residence in Italy near the Umbria–Tuscany border. He has been instrumental in establishing the annual Umbria Film Festival, held in the nearby town of Montone. Gilliam also resides in Highgate, London.
On 8 September 2015, "Variety" mistakenly published a false obituary claiming that Gilliam had died.
In May 2018, Gilliam suffered a perforated medullary artery that was erroneously reported in the media as a stroke. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30410 |
Tetromino
A tetromino is a geometric shape composed of four squares, connected orthogonally (i.e. at the edges and not the corners). This, like dominoes and pentominoes, is a particular type of polyomino. The corresponding polycube, called a tetracube, is a geometric shape composed of four cubes connected orthogonally.
A popular use of tetrominoes is in the video game "Tetris", which refers to them as tetriminos. The tetrominoes used in the game are specifically the one-sided tetrominoes. The video game "Fez" features extensive usage of "Tetris"-style tetrominos that are sometimes concatenated into chains, as part of the game's code language that players must decipher to solve puzzles. In "Fez" tetrominos represent sequences of controller button presses. Tetrominoes also appeared in "" but were called tetrads instead.
Polyominos are formed by joining unit squares along their edges. A free polyomino is a polyomino considered up to congruence. That is, two free polyominos are the same if there is a combination of translations, rotations, and reflections that turns one into the other. A free tetromino is a free polyomino made from four squares. There are five free tetrominoes.
The free tetrominoes have the following symmetry:
Straight: vertical and horizontal reflection symmetry, and two points of rotational symmetry
Square: vertical and horizontal reflection symmetry, and four points of rotational symmetry
T: vertical reflection symmetry only
L: no symmetry
Skew: two points of rotational symmetry only
One-sided tetrominoes are tetrominoes that may be translated and rotated but not reflected. They are used by, and are overwhelmingly associated with, Tetris. There are seven distinct one-sided tetrominoes. These tetrominoes are named by the letter of the alphabet they most closely resemble. The "I", "O", and "T" tetrominoes have reflectional symmetry, so it does not matter whether they are considered as free tetrominoes or one-sided tetrominoes. The remaining four tetrominoes, "J", "L", "S", and "Z", exhibit a phenomenon called chirality. J and L are reflections of each other, and S and Z are reflections of each other.
As free tetrominoes, J is equivalent to L, and S is equivalent to Z. But in two dimensions and without reflections, it is not possible to transform J into L or S into Z.
The fixed tetrominoes allow only translation, not rotation or reflection. There are two distinct fixed I-tetrominoes, four J, four L, one O, two S, four T, and two Z, for a total of 19 fixed tetrominoes:
A single set of free tetrominoes or one-sided tetrominoes cannot fit in a rectangle. This can be shown with a proof similar to the mutilated chessboard argument. A 5x4 rectangle with a checkerboard pattern has 20 squares, containing 10 light squares and 10 dark squares, but a complete set of free tetrominoes has 11 dark squares and 9 light squares. This is due to the T tetromino having 3 dark squares and one light square, while all other tetrominos each have 2 dark squares and 2 light squares. Similarly, a 7x4 rectangle has 28 squares, containing 14 squares of each shade, but the set of one-sided tetrominoes has 15 dark squares and 13 light squares. By extension, any odd number of sets for either type cannot fit in a rectangle. Additionally, the 19 fixed tetrominoes cannot fit in a 4x19 rectangle. This was discovered by exhausting all possibilities in a computer search.
However, if one row of a 5x4 rectangle or 7x4 rectangle is shifted by one square on the longer side, a complete set of free tetrominoes or one-sided tetrominoes can fit in these modified rectangles, respectively. Additionally, the 19 fixed tetrominoes can fit in an 11x7 rectangle with the center square removed.
Two sets of free or one-sided tetrominoes can fit into a rectangle in different ways, as shown below:
The name "tetromino" is a combination of the prefix "tetra-" "four" (from Ancient Greek ), and "domino". The name was introduced by Solomon W. Golomb in 1953 along with other nomenclature related to polyominos.
Each of the five free tetrominoes has a corresponding tetracube, which is the tetromino extruded by one unit.
J and L are the same tetracube, as are S and Z, because one may be rotated around an axis parallel to the tetromino's plane to form the other. Three more tetracubes are possible, all created by placing a unit cube on the bent tricube:
The tetracubes can be packed into two-layer 3D boxes in several different ways, based on the dimensions of the box and criteria for inclusion. They are shown in both a pictorial diagram and a text diagram. For boxes using two sets of the same pieces, the pictorial diagram depicts each set as a lighter or darker shade of the same color. The text diagram depicts each set as having a capital or lower-case letter. In the text diagram, the top layer is on the left, and the bottom layer is on the right.
1.) 2x4x5 box filled with two sets of free tetrominos:
Z Z T t I l T T T i
L Z Z t I l l l t i
L z z t I o o z z i
L L O O I o o O O i
2.) 2x2x10 box filled with two sets of free tetrominoes:
L L L z z Z Z T O O o o z z Z Z T T T l
L I I I I t t t O O o o i i i i t l l l
3.) 2x4x4 box filled with one set of all tetracubes:
S T T T S Z Z B
S S T B Z Z B B
O O L D L L L D
O O D D I I I I
4.) 2x2x8 box filled with one set of all tetracubes:
D Z Z L O T T T D L L L O B S S
D D Z Z O B T S I I I I O B B S
5.) 2x2x7 box filled with tetracubes, with mirror-image pieces removed:
L L L Z Z B B L C O O Z Z B
C I I I I T B C C O O T T T | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30411 |
List of highest-grossing films in the United States and Canada
The following is a list of the highest-grossing films in the United States and Canada, a market known in the film industry as the "North American box office" and the "domestic box office", and where "gross" is defined in US dollars.
This is a list of the highest-grossing films in the U.S. and Canada, a market known in the film industry as the North American box office, or as the domestic box office within the U.S. itself. The chart is ranked by lifetime gross, and for comparison, the figures adjusted for the effects of inflation are also listed, using the U.S. consumer price index; a film's earnings from its initial release are also included to provide a basis for comparison between films released around the same time.
This chart ranks films by gross adjusted for ticket price inflation to 2019 levels, based on data from Box Office Mojo. It was compiled by multiplying the average ticket price in the current year by an estimate of the total number of admissions. Where the number of admissions in unknown, they are estimated by dividing the nominal gross by the average ticket price in the year of release to provide an estimate (taking re-releases into account). Admissions better reflect the popularity of older films, since they are less susceptible to the effects of inflation.
Many of the films on this list were released prior to the availability of home video and have had multiple releases.
No one yet has calculated a truly precise and definite referential adjusted gross for a film, since doing so would have to take into account most (or all) of the following:
Further explanation of issues with calculating an adjusted gross can be found in the article for List of highest-grossing films.
This is a list of highest-grossing franchises and film series in the U.S. and Canada.
This chart was compiled based on data from Box Office Mojo, by dividing the gross by the average ticket price to calculate an estimate of the total number of admissions. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30417 |
The Marriage of Figaro
The Marriage of Figaro (, ), K. 492, is an opera buffa (comic opera) in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna on 1 May 1786. The opera's libretto is based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, "La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro" ("The Mad Day, or The Marriage of Figaro"), which was first performed in 1784. It tells how the servants Figaro and Susanna succeed in getting married, foiling the efforts of their philandering employer Count Almaviva to seduce Susanna and teaching him a lesson in fidelity.
The opera is a cornerstone of the repertoire and appears consistently among the top ten in the Operabase list of most frequently performed operas.
Beaumarchais's earlier play "The Barber of Seville" had already made a successful transition to opera in a version by Paisiello. Beaumarchais's "Mariage de Figaro" was at first banned in Vienna; Emperor Joseph II stated that "since the piece contains much that is objectionable, I therefore expect that the Censor shall either reject it altogether, or at any rate have such alterations made in it that he shall be responsible for the performance of this play and for the impression it may make", after which the Austrian Censor duly forbade performing the German version of the play. Mozart's librettist managed to get official approval from the emperor for an operatic version which eventually achieved great success.
The opera was the first of three collaborations between Mozart and Da Ponte; their later collaborations were "Don Giovanni" and "Così fan tutte". It was Mozart who originally selected Beaumarchais's play and brought it to Da Ponte, who turned it into a libretto in six weeks, rewriting it in poetic Italian and removing all of the original's political references. In particular, Da Ponte replaced Figaro's climactic speech against inherited nobility with an equally angry aria against unfaithful wives. The libretto was approved by the Emperor before any music was written by Mozart.
The Imperial Italian opera company paid Mozart 450 florins for the work; this was three times his (low) yearly salary when he had worked as a court musician in Salzburg. Da Ponte was paid 200 florins.
"Figaro" premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna on 1 May 1786, with a cast listed in the "Roles" section below. Mozart himself conducted the first two performances, conducting seated at the keyboard, the custom of the day. Later performances were conducted by Joseph Weigl. The first production was given eight further performances, all in 1786.
Although the total of nine performances was nothing like the frequency of performance of Mozart's later success, "The Magic Flute", which for months was performed roughly every other day, the premiere is generally judged to have been a success. The applause of the audience on the first night resulted in five numbers being encored, seven on 8 May. Joseph II, who, in addition to his empire, was in charge of the Burgtheater, was concerned by the length of the performance and directed his aide as follows:
To prevent the excessive duration of operas, without however prejudicing the fame often sought by opera singers from the repetition of vocal pieces, I deem the enclosed notice to the public (that no piece for more than a single voice is to be repeated) to be the most reasonable expedient. You will therefore cause some posters to this effect to be printed.
The requested posters were printed up and posted in the Burgtheater in time for the third performance on 24 May.
The newspaper "Wiener Realzeitung" carried a review of the opera in its issue of 11 July 1786. It alludes to interference probably produced by paid hecklers, but praises the work warmly:
Mozart's music was generally admired by connoisseurs already at the first performance, if I except only those whose self-love and conceit will not allow them to find merit in anything not written by themselves.
The "public", however ... did not really know on the first day where it stood. It heard many a "bravo" from unbiased connoisseurs, but obstreperous louts in the uppermost storey exerted their hired lungs with all their might to deafen singers and audience alike with their "St!" and "Pst"; and consequently opinions were divided at the end of the piece.
Apart from that, it is true that the first performance was none of the best, owing to the difficulties of the composition.
But now, after several performances, one would be subscribing either to the "cabal" or to "tastelessness" if one were to maintain that Herr "Mozart's" music is anything but a masterpiece of art.
It contains so many beauties, and such a wealth of ideas, as can be drawn only from the source of innate genius.
The Hungarian poet Ferenc Kazinczy was in the audience for a May performance, and later remembered the powerful impression the work made on him:
[Nancy] Storace [see below], the beautiful singer, enchanted eye, ear, and soul. – Mozart directed the orchestra, playing his fortepiano; but the joy which this music causes is so far removed from all sensuality that one cannot speak of it. Where could words be found that are worthy to describe such joy?
Joseph Haydn appreciated the opera greatly, writing to a friend that he heard it in his dreams. In summer 1790 Haydn attempted to produce the work with his own company at Eszterháza, but was prevented from doing so by the death of his patron, Nikolaus Esterházy.
The Emperor requested a special performance at his palace theater in Laxenburg, which took place in June 1786.
The opera was produced in Prague starting in December 1786 by the Pasquale Bondini company. This production was a tremendous success; the newspaper "Prager Oberpostamtszeitung" called the work "a masterpiece", and said "no piece (for everyone here asserts) has ever caused such a sensation." Local music lovers paid for Mozart to visit Prague and hear the production; he listened on 17 January 1787, and conducted it himself on the 22nd. The success of the Prague production led to the commissioning of the next Mozart/Da Ponte opera, "Don Giovanni", premiered in Prague in 1787 (see Mozart and Prague).
The work was not performed in Vienna during 1787 or 1788, but starting in 1789 there was a revival production. For this occasion Mozart replaced both arias of Susanna with new compositions, better suited to the voice of Adriana Ferrarese del Bene who took the role. To replace "" he wrote "" – "[come and fly] To the desire of [the one] who adores you" (K. 577) in July 1789, and to replace "" he wrote "" – "A joyous emotion", (K. 579), probably in mid-1790. The opera premiered in London in 1789 at the Covent Garden Theatre and an English translated version was performed in Philadelphia in 1793.
The voice types which appear in this table are those listed in the critical edition published in the "Neue Mozart-Ausgabe". In modern performance practice, Cherubino and Marcellina are usually assigned to mezzo-sopranos, and Figaro to a bass-baritone.
"The Marriage of Figaro" continues the plot of "The Barber of Seville" several years later, and recounts a single "day of madness" () in the palace of Count Almaviva near Seville, Spain. Rosina is now the Countess; Dr. Bartolo is seeking revenge against Figaro for thwarting his plans to marry Rosina himself; and Count Almaviva has degenerated from the romantic youth of "Barber" into a scheming, bullying, skirt-chasing baritone. Having gratefully given Figaro a job as head of his servant-staff, he is now persistently trying to exercise his "droit du seigneur" – his right to bed a servant girl on her wedding night – with Figaro's bride-to-be, Susanna, who is the Countess's maid. He keeps finding excuses to delay the civil part of the wedding of his two servants, which is arranged for this very day. Figaro, Susanna, and the Countess conspire to embarrass the Count and expose his scheming. He retaliates by trying to compel Figaro legally to marry a woman old enough to be his mother, but it turns out at the last minute that she really is his mother. Through Figaro's and Susanna's clever manipulations, the Count's love for his Countess is finally restored.
The overture is in the key of D major; the tempo marking is "presto"; i.e. very fast. The work is well known and often played independently as a concert piece.
"A partly furnished room, with a chair in the centre."
Figaro happily measures the space where the bridal bed will fit while Susanna tries on her wedding bonnet in front of a mirror (in the present day, a more traditional French floral wreath or a modern veil are often substituted, often in combination with a bonnet, so as to accommodate what Susanna happily describes as her wedding ). (Duet: "" – "Five, ten, twenty"). Figaro is quite pleased with their new room; Susanna far less so (Duettino: "" – "If the Countess should call you during the night"). She is bothered by its proximity to the Count's chambers: it seems he has been making advances toward her and plans on exercising his "droit du seigneur", the purported feudal right of a lord to bed a servant girl on her wedding night before her husband can sleep with her. The Count had the right abolished when he married Rosina, but he now wants to reinstate it. The Countess rings for Susanna and she rushes off to answer. Figaro, confident in his own resourcefulness, resolves to outwit the Count (Cavatina: "Se vuol ballare signor contino" – "If you want to dance, sir count").
Figaro departs, and Dr. Bartolo arrives with Marcellina, his old housekeeper. Figaro had previously borrowed a large sum of money from her, and, in lieu of collateral, had promised to marry her if unable to repay at the appointed time; she now intends to enforce that promise by suing him. Bartolo, seeking revenge against Figaro for having facilitated the union of the Count and Rosina (in "The Barber of Seville"), agrees to represent Marcellina "pro bono", and assures her, in comical lawyer-speak, that he can win the case for her (aria: "" – "Vengeance").
Bartolo departs, Susanna returns, and Marcellina and Susanna exchange very politely delivered sarcastic insults (duet: "" – "After you, brilliant madam"). Susanna triumphs in the exchange by congratulating her rival on her impressive age. The older woman departs in a fury.
Cherubino then arrives and, after describing his emerging infatuation with all women, particularly with his "beautiful godmother" the Countess (aria: "" – "I don't know anymore what I am"), asks for Susanna's aid with the Count. It seems the Count is angry with Cherubino's amorous ways, having discovered him with the gardener's daughter, Barbarina, and plans to punish him. Cherubino wants Susanna to ask the Countess to intercede on his behalf. When the Count appears, Cherubino hides behind a chair, not wanting to be seen alone with Susanna. The Count uses the opportunity of finding Susanna alone to step up his demands for favours from her, including financial inducements to sell herself to him. As Basilio, the music teacher, arrives, the Count, not wanting to be caught alone with Susanna, hides behind the chair. Cherubino leaves that hiding place just in time, and jumps onto the chair while Susanna scrambles to cover him with a dress.
When Basilio starts to gossip about Cherubino's obvious attraction to the Countess, the Count angrily leaps from his hiding place (terzetto: "" – "What do I hear!"). He disparages the "absent" page's incessant flirting and describes how he caught him with Barbarina under the kitchen table. As he lifts the dress from the chair to illustrate how he lifted the tablecloth to expose Cherubino, he finds ... the self same Cherubino! The count is furious, but is reminded that the page overheard the Count's advances on Susanna, something that the Count wants to keep from the Countess. The young man is ultimately saved from punishment by the entrance of the peasants of the Count's estate, a preemptive attempt by Figaro to commit the Count to a formal gesture symbolizing his promise that Susanna would enter into the marriage unsullied. The Count evades Figaro's plan by postponing the gesture. The Count says that he forgives Cherubino, but he dispatches him to his own regiment in Seville for army duty, effective immediately. Figaro gives Cherubino mocking advice about his new, harsh, military life from which all luxury, and especially women, will be totally excluded (aria: "Non più andrai" – "No more gallivanting").
"A handsome room with an alcove, a dressing room on the left, a door in the background (leading to the servants' quarters) and a window at the side."
The Countess laments her husband's infidelity (aria: "Porgi, amor, qualche ristoro" – "Grant, love, some comfort"). Susanna comes in to prepare the Countess for the day. She responds to the Countess's questions by telling her that the Count is not trying to seduce her; he is merely offering her a monetary contract in return for her affection. Figaro enters and explains his plan to distract the Count with anonymous letters warning him of adulterers. He has already sent one to the Count (via Basilio) that indicates that the Countess has a rendezvous of her own that evening. They hope that the Count will be too busy looking for imaginary adulterers to interfere with Figaro and Susanna's wedding. Figaro additionally advises the Countess to keep Cherubino around. She should dress him up as a girl and lure the Count into an illicit rendezvous where he can be caught red-handed. Figaro leaves.
Cherubino arrives, sent in by Figaro and eager to co-operate. Susanna urges him to sing the song he wrote for the Countess (aria: "Voi che sapete che cosa è amor" – "You ladies who know what love is, is it what I'm suffering from?"). After the song, the Countess, seeing Cherubino's military commission, notices that the Count was in such a hurry that he forgot to seal it with his signet ring (which would be necessary to make it an official document).
Susanna and the Countess then begin with their plan. Susanna takes off Cherubino's cloak, and she begins to comb his hair and teach him to behave and walk like a woman (aria of Susanna: "Venite, inginocchiatevi" – "Come, kneel down before me"). Then she leaves the room through a door at the back to get the dress for Cherubino, taking his cloak with her.
While the Countess and Cherubino are waiting for Susanna to come back, they suddenly hear the Count arriving. Cherubino hides in the closet. The Count demands to be allowed into the room and the Countess reluctantly unlocks the door. The Count enters and hears a noise from the closet. He tries to open it, but it is locked. The Countess tells him it is only Susanna, trying on her wedding dress. At this moment, Susanna re-enters unobserved, quickly realizes what's going on, and hides behind a couch (Trio: "Susanna, or via, sortite" – "Susanna, come out!"). The Count shouts for her to identify herself by her voice, but the Countess orders her to be silent. Furious and suspicious, the Count leaves, with the Countess, in search of tools to force the closet door open. As they leave, he locks all the bedroom doors to prevent the intruder from escaping. Cherubino and Susanna emerge from their hiding places, and Cherubino escapes by jumping through the window into the garden. Susanna then takes Cherubino's former place in the closet, vowing to make the Count look foolish (duet: "Aprite, presto, aprite" – "Open the door, quickly!").
The Count and Countess return. The Countess, thinking herself trapped, desperately admits that Cherubino is hidden in the closet. The enraged Count draws his sword, promising to kill Cherubino on the spot, but when the door is opened, they both find to their astonishment only Susanna (Finale: "Esci omai, garzon malnato" – "Come out of there, you ill-born boy!"). The Count demands an explanation; the Countess tells him it is a practical joke, to test his trust in her. Shamed by his jealousy, the Count begs for forgiveness. When the Count presses about the anonymous letter, Susanna and the Countess reveal that the letter was written by Figaro, and then delivered by Basilio. Figaro then arrives and tries to start the wedding festivities, but the Count berates him with questions about the anonymous note. Just as the Count is starting to run out of questions, Antonio the gardener arrives, complaining that a man has jumped out of the window and damaged his carnations while running away. Antonio adds that he tentatively identified the running man as Cherubino, but Figaro claims it was he himself who jumped out of the window, and pretends to have injured his foot while landing. Figaro, Susanna, and the Countess attempt to discredit Antonio as a chronic drunkard whose constant inebriation makes him unreliable and prone to fantasy, but Antonio brings forward a paper which, he says, was dropped by the escaping man. The Count orders Figaro to prove he was the jumper by identifying the paper (which is, in fact, Cherubino's appointment to the army). Figaro is at a loss, but Susanna and the Countess manage to signal the correct answers, and Figaro triumphantly identifies the document. His victory is, however, short-lived: Marcellina, Bartolo, and Basilio enter, bringing charges against Figaro and demanding that he honor his contract to marry Marcellina, since he cannot repay her loan. The Count happily postpones the wedding in order to investigate the charge.
"A rich hall, with two thrones, prepared for the wedding ceremony."
The Count mulls over the confusing situation. At the urging of the Countess, Susanna enters and gives a false promise to meet the Count later that night in the garden (duet: "Crudel! perchè finora" – "Cruel girl, why did you make me wait so long"). As Susanna leaves, the Count overhears her telling Figaro that he has already won the case. Realizing that he is being tricked (recitative and aria: "Hai già vinta la causa! ... Vedrò, mentr'io sospiro" – "You've already won the case!" ... "Shall I, while sighing, see"), he resolves to punish Figaro by forcing him to marry Marcellina.
Figaro's hearing follows, and the Count's judgment is that Figaro must marry Marcellina. Figaro argues that he cannot get married without his parents' permission, and that he does not know who his parents are, because he was stolen from them when he was a baby. The ensuing discussion reveals that Figaro is Rafaello, the long-lost illegitimate son of Bartolo and Marcellina. A touching scene of reconciliation occurs. During the celebrations, Susanna enters with a payment to release Figaro from his debt to Marcellina. Seeing Figaro and Marcellina in celebration together, Susanna mistakenly believes that Figaro now prefers Marcellina to her. She has a tantrum and slaps Figaro's face. Marcellina explains, and Susanna, realizing her mistake, joins the celebration. Bartolo, overcome with emotion, agrees to marry Marcellina that evening in a double wedding (sextet: "Riconosci in questo amplesso" – "Recognize in this embrace").
All leave, before Barbarina, Antonio's daughter, invites Cherubino back to her house so they can disguise him as a girl. The Countess, alone, ponders the loss of her happiness (aria: "Dove sono i bei momenti" – "Where are they, the beautiful moments"). Meanwhile, Antonio informs the Count that Cherubino is not in Seville, but in fact at his house. Susanna enters and updates her mistress regarding the plan to trap the Count. The Countess dictates a love letter for Susanna to send to the Count, which suggests that he meet her (Susanna) that night, "under the pines". The letter instructs the Count to return the pin which fastens the letter (duet: "Sull'aria...che soave zeffiretto" – "On the breeze... What a gentle little zephyr").
A chorus of young peasants, among them Cherubino disguised as a girl, arrives to serenade the Countess. The Count arrives with Antonio and, discovering the page, is enraged. His anger is quickly dispelled by Barbarina, who publicly recalls that he had once offered to give her anything she wants in exchange for certain favors, and asks for Cherubino's hand in marriage. Thoroughly embarrassed, the Count allows Cherubino to stay.
The act closes with the double wedding, during the course of which Susanna delivers her letter to the Count (Finale: "Ecco la marcia" – "Here is the procession"). Figaro watches the Count prick his finger on the pin, and laughs, unaware that the love-note is an invitation for the Count to tryst with Figaro's own bride Susanna. As the curtain drops, the two newlywed couples rejoice.
"The garden, with two pavilions. Night."
Following the directions in the letter, the Count has sent the pin back to Susanna, giving it to Barbarina. However, Barbarina has lost it (aria: "L'ho perduta, me meschina" – "I have lost it, poor me"). Figaro and Marcellina see Barbarina, and Figaro asks her what she is doing. When he hears the pin is Susanna's, he is overcome with jealousy, especially as he recognises the pin to be the one that fastened the letter to the Count. Thinking that Susanna is meeting the Count behind his back, Figaro complains to his mother, and swears to be avenged on the Count and Susanna, and on all unfaithful wives. Marcellina urges caution, but Figaro will not listen. Figaro rushes off, and Marcellina resolves to inform Susanna of Figaro's intentions. Marcellina sings an aria lamenting that male and female wild beasts get along with each other, but rational humans can't (aria: "Il capro e la capretta" – "The billy-goat and the she-goat"). (This aria and Basilio's ensuing aria are usually omitted from performances due to their relative unimportance, both musically and dramatically; however, some recordings include them.)
Motivated by jealousy, Figaro tells Bartolo and Basilio to come to his aid when he gives the signal. Basilio comments on Figaro's foolishness and claims he was once as frivolous as Figaro was. He tells a tale of how he was given common sense by "Donna Flemma" ("Dame Prudence") and learned the importance of not crossing powerful people. (aria: "In quegli anni" – "In those years"). They exit, leaving Figaro alone. Figaro muses bitterly on the inconstancy of women (recitative and aria: "Tutto è disposto ... Aprite un po' quegli occhi" – "Everything is ready ... Open those eyes a little"). Susanna and the Countess arrive, each dressed in the other's clothes. Marcellina is with them, having informed Susanna of Figaro's suspicions and plans. After they discuss the plan, Marcellina and the Countess leave, and Susanna teases Figaro by singing a love song to her beloved within Figaro's hearing (aria: "Deh vieni, non-tardar" – "Oh come, don't delay"). Figaro is hiding behind a bush and, thinking the song is for the Count, becomes increasingly jealous.
The Countess arrives in Susanna's dress. Cherubino shows up and starts teasing "Susanna" (really the Countess), endangering the plan. (Finale: "Pian pianin le andrò più presso" – "Softly, softly I'll approach her") The Count gets rid of him by striking out in the dark. His punch actually ends up hitting Figaro, but the point is made and Cherubino runs off.
The Count now begins making earnest love to "Susanna" (really the Countess), and gives her a jeweled ring. They go offstage together, where the Countess dodges him, hiding in the dark. Onstage, meanwhile, the real Susanna enters, wearing the Countess' clothes. Figaro mistakes her for the real Countess, and starts to tell her of the Count's intentions, but he suddenly recognizes his bride in disguise. He plays along with the joke by pretending to be in love with "my lady", and inviting her to make love right then and there. Susanna, fooled, loses her temper and slaps him many times. Figaro finally lets on that he has recognized Susanna's voice, and they make peace, resolving to conclude the comedy together ("Pace, pace, mio dolce tesoro" – "Peace, peace, my sweet treasure").
The Count, unable to find "Susanna", enters frustrated. Figaro gets his attention by loudly declaring his love for "the Countess" (really Susanna). The enraged Count calls for his people and for weapons: his servant is seducing his wife. (Ultima scena: "Gente, gente, all'armi, all'armi" – "Gentlemen, to arms!") Bartolo, Basilio and Antonio enter with torches as, one by one, the Count drags out Cherubino, Barbarina, Marcellina and the "Countess" from behind the pavilion.
All beg him to forgive Figaro and the "Countess", but he loudly refuses, repeating "no" at the top of his voice, until finally the real Countess re-enters and reveals her true identity. The Count, seeing the ring he had given her, realizes that the supposed Susanna he was trying to seduce was actually his wife. Ashamed and remorseful, he kneels and pleads for forgiveness himself ("Contessa perdono!" – "Countess, forgive me!"). The Countess, more kind than he ("Più docile io sono" – "I am more mild"), forgives her husband and all are contented.
"The Marriage of Figaro" is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings; the "recitativi secchi" are accompanied by a keyboard instrument, usually a fortepiano or a harpsichord, often joined by a cello. The instrumentation of the "recitativi secchi" is not given in the score, so it is up to the conductor and the performers. A typical performance usually lasts around 3 hours.
Two arias from act 4 are often omitted: one in which Marcellina regrets that people (unlike animals) abuse their mates (""), and one in which Don Basilio tells how he saved himself from several dangers in his youth, by using the skin of a donkey for shelter and camouflage ("").
Mozart wrote two replacement arias for Susanna when the role was taken over by Adriana Ferrarese in the 1789 revival. The replacement arias, "Un moto di gioia" (replacing "Venite, inginocchiatevi" in act 2) and "Al desio di chi t'adora" (replacing "Deh vieni, non tardar" in act 4), in which the two clarinets are replaced with basset horns, are normally not used in modern performances. A notable exception was a series of performances at the Metropolitan Opera in 1998 with Cecilia Bartoli as Susanna.
Lorenzo Da Ponte wrote a preface to the first published version of the libretto, in which he boldly claimed that he and Mozart had created a new form of music drama:
In spite ... of every effort ... to be brief, the opera will not be one of the shortest to have appeared on our stage, for which we hope sufficient excuse will be found in the variety of threads from which the action of this play "[i.e. Beaumarchais's]" is woven, the vastness and grandeur of the same, the multiplicity of the musical numbers that had to be made in order not to leave the actors too long unemployed, to diminish the vexation and monotony of long recitatives, and to express with varied colours the various emotions that occur, but above all in our desire to offer as it were a new kind of spectacle to a public of so refined a taste and understanding.
Charles Rosen (in "The Classical Style") proposes to take Da Ponte's words quite seriously, noting the "richness of the ensemble writing", which carries forward the action in a far more dramatic way than recitatives would. Rosen also suggests that the musical language of the classical style was adapted by Mozart to convey the drama: many sections of the opera musically resemble sonata form; by movement through a sequence of keys, they build up and resolve musical tension, providing a natural musical reflection of the drama. As Rosen writes:
The synthesis of accelerating complexity and symmetrical resolution which was at the heart of Mozart's style enabled him to find a musical equivalent for the great stage works which were his dramatic models. "The Marriage of Figaro" in Mozart's version is the dramatic equal, and in many respects the superior, of Beaumarchais's work.
This is demonstrated in the closing numbers of all four acts: as the drama escalates, Mozart eschews "recitativi" altogether and opts for increasingly sophisticated writing, bringing his characters on stage, revelling in a complex weave of solo and ensemble singing in multiple combinations, and climaxing in seven- and eight-voice tutti for acts 2 and 4.
Mozart cleverly uses the sound of two horns playing together to represent cuckoldry, in the act 4 aria "". Verdi later used the same device in Ford's aria in "Falstaff".
Johannes Brahms said "In my opinion, each number in "Figaro" is a miracle; it is totally beyond me how anyone could create anything so perfect; nothing like it was ever done again, not even by Beethoven."
A musical phrase from the act 1 trio of "The Marriage of Figaro" (where Basilio sings "") was later reused, by Mozart, in the overture to his opera "Così fan tutte". Mozart also quotes Figaro's aria "Non più andrai" in the second act of his opera "Don Giovanni"; it is also used as a military march. Further, Mozart used it in 1791 in his Five Contredanses, K. 609, No. 1. Mozart reused the music of the "Agnus Dei" of his earlier ("Coronation Mass") for the Countess's "", in C major instead of the original F major. Mozart also reused the motif that begins his early bassoon concerto in another aria sung by the Countess, "Porgi, amor". Franz Liszt quoted the opera in his "Fantasy on Themes from Mozart's Figaro and Don Giovanni".
In 1819, Henry R. Bishop wrote an adaptation of the opera in English, translating from Beaumarchais's play and re-using some of Mozart's music, while adding some of his own.
In his 1991 opera, "The Ghosts of Versailles", which includes elements of Beaumarchais's third "Figaro" play ("La Mère coupable") and in which the main characters of "The Marriage of Figaro" also appear, John Corigliano quotes Mozart's opera, especially the overture, several times.
Notes
Sources | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30418 |
The Clash
The Clash were an English rock band formed in London in 1976 as a key player in the original wave of British punk rock. They also contributed to the and new wave movements that emerged in the wake of punk and employed elements of a variety of genres including reggae, dub, funk, ska, and rockabilly. For most of their recording career, the Clash consisted of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Joe Strummer, lead guitarist and vocalist Mick Jones, bassist Paul Simonon, and drummer Nicky "Topper" Headon. Headon left the group in 1982 and internal friction led to Jones' departure the following year. The group continued with new members, but finally disbanded in early 1986.
The Clash achieved commercial success in the United Kingdom with the release of their self-titled debut album, "The Clash", in 1977. Their third album, "London Calling", released in the UK in December 1979, earned them popularity in the United States when it was released there the following month. It was declared the best album of the 1980s a decade later by "Rolling Stone". In 1982, they reached new heights of success with the release of "Combat Rock", which spawned the US top 10 hit "Rock the Casbah", helping the album to achieve a 2× Platinum certification there. A final album, "Cut the Crap", was released in 1985.
In January 2003, shortly after the death of Joe Strummer, the band—including original drummer Terry Chimes—were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2004, "Rolling Stone" ranked the Clash number 28 on its list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time".
Before the Clash's founding, the band's future members were active in different parts of the London music scene.
John Graham Mellor sang and played rhythm guitar in the pub rock act The 101ers, which formed in 1974. By the time the Clash came together two years later, he had already abandoned his original stage name, "Woody" Mellor, in favour of "Joe Strummer", a reference to his rudimentary strumming skills on the ukulele as a busker in the London Underground.
Mick Jones played guitar in protopunk band London SS, which rehearsed for much of 1975 without ever playing a live show and recording only a single demo. London SS were managed by Bernard Rhodes, a sometime associate of impresario Malcolm McLaren and a friend of the members of the McLaren-managed band, the Sex Pistols. Jones and his bandmates became friendly with Sex Pistols Glen Matlock and Steve Jones, who would assist them as they tried out potential new members. Among those who auditioned for London SS without making the cut were Paul Simonon, who tried out as a vocalist, and drummer Terry Chimes. Nicky Headon drummed with the band for a week, then quit.
After London SS broke up in early 1976, Rhodes continued as Jones' manager. In February, Jones saw the Sex Pistols perform for the first time: "You knew straight away that was it, and this was what it was going to be like from now on. It was a new scene, new values—so different from what had happened before. A bit dangerous." At the instigation of Rhodes, Jones contacted Simonon in March, suggesting he learn an instrument so he could join the new band Jones was organising. Soon Jones, Simonon on bass, Keith Levene on guitar and "whoever we could find really to play the drums" were rehearsing. Chimes was asked to audition for the new band and got the job, although he soon quit.
The band was still searching for a lead singer. Chimes recalls one Billy Watts (who "seemed to be, like, nineteen or eighteen then, as we all were") handling the duties for a time. Rhodes had his eye on Strummer, with whom he made exploratory contact. Jones and Levene had both seen him perform and were impressed as well. Strummer, for his part, was primed to make the switch. In April, he had taken in the opening act for one of his band's gigs—the Sex Pistols. Strummer later explained:I knew something was up, so I went out in the crowd which was fairly sparse. And I saw the future—with a snotty handkerchief—right in front of me. It was immediately clear. Pub rock was, "Hello, you bunch of drunks, I'm gonna play these boogies and I hope you like them." The Pistols came out that Tuesday evening and their attitude was, "Here's our tunes, and we couldn't give a flying fuck whether you like them or not. In fact, we're gonna play them even if you fucking hate them."On 30 May, Rhodes and Levene met surreptitiously with Strummer after a 101'ers gig. Strummer was invited to meet up at the band's rehearsal location on Davis Road. After Strummer turned up, Levene grabbed his guitar, stood several inches away from Strummer, looked him in the eye and then began playing "Keys to Your Heart", one of Strummer's own tunes.
Rhodes gave him 48 hours to decide whether he wanted to join the new band that would "rival the Pistols." Within 24 hours, Strummer agreed. Simonon later remarked, "Once we had Joe on board it all started to come together." Strummer introduced the band to his old school friend Pablo LaBritain, who sat in on drums during Strummer's first few rehearsals with the group. LaBritain's stint with the band did not last long (he subsequently joined 999), and Terry Chimes—whom Jones later referred to as "one of the best drummers" in their circle—became the band's regular drummer.
In "Westway to the World", Jones also says, "I don't think Terry was officially hired or anything. He had just been playing with us." Chimes did not take to Strummer at first: "He was like twenty-two or twenty-three or something that seemed 'old' to me then. And he had these retro clothes and this croaky voice". Simonon came up with the band's name after they had briefly dubbed themselves the Weak Heartdrops and the Psychotic Negatives. He later explained the name's origin: "It really came to my head when I started reading the newspapers and a word that kept recurring was the word 'clash', so I thought 'the Clash, what about that,' to the others. And they and Bernard, they went for it."
After rehearsing with Strummer for less than a month, the Clash made their debut on 4 July 1976, supporting the Sex Pistols at the Black Swan in Sheffield. The band apparently wanted to make it on-stage before their rivals in the Damned—another London SS spinoff—made their own scheduled debut two days later. The Clash would not play in front of an audience again for another five weeks. Levene was becoming disaffected with his position in the group. At the Black Swan, he approached the Sex Pistols' lead singer, John Lydon (then going by Johnny Rotten), and suggested they form a band together if the Pistols broke up.
Hours after their debut, the band members along with most of the Sex Pistols and much of the rest of London's "inner circle" of punks showed up at Dingwalls club to attend a concert by New York's leading punk rock band, the Ramones. Afterward "came the first example of the rivalry-induced squabbling that was to dog the punk scene and undermine any attempts to promote a spirit of unity among the bands involved." Simonon got into a scuffle with J.J. Burnel, the bass player of the Stranglers. A slightly older band, the Stranglers were publicly identified with the punk scene, but were not part of the "inner circle" centred on the Sex Pistols.
With Rhodes insisting that the band not perform live again until they were much tighter, the Clash rehearsed intensely over the following month. Strummer later described how seriously the band devoted itself to forging a distinct identity: "We were almost Stalinist in the way that you had to shed all your friends, or everything that you'd known, or every way that you'd played before." Strummer and Jones shared most of the writing duties—"Joe would give me the words and I would make a song out of them", Jones later said. Sometimes they would meet in the office over their Camden rehearsal studio to collaborate directly. According to a later description of Strummer's, "Bernie [Rhodes] would say, 'An issue, an issue. Don't write about love, write about what's affecting you, what's important."
Strummer took the lead vocals on the majority of songs; in some cases he and Jones shared the lead. Once the band began recording, Jones would rarely have a solo lead on more than one song per album, though he would be responsible for two of the group's biggest hits. On 13 August, the Clash—sporting a paint-spattered "Jackson Pollock" look—played before a small, invitation-only audience in their Camden studio. Among those in attendance was "Sounds" critic Giovanni Dadamo. His review described the band as a "runaway train ... so powerful, they're the first new group to come along who can really scare the Sex Pistols shitless".
On 29 August, the Clash and Manchester's Buzzcocks opened for the Sex Pistols at The Screen on the Green, the Clash's first public performance since 4 July. The triple bill is seen as pivotal to the British punk scene's crystallisation into a movement, though "NME" reviewer Charles Shaar Murray wrote, "The Clash are the sort of garage band that should be speedily returned to the garage, preferably with the motor still running". Strummer later credited Murray's comments with inspiring the band's composition "Garageland".
In early September, Levene was fired from the Clash. Strummer would claim that Levene's dwindling interest in the band owed to his supposedly extravagant use of speed, a charge Levene has denied. Levene and Lydon would form Public Image Ltd. in 1978. On 21 September, the Clash performed publicly for the first time without Levene at another seminal concert: the 100 Club Punk Special, sharing the bill with the Sex Pistols, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Subway Sect. Chimes left in late November; he was briefly replaced by Rob Harper as the Clash toured in support of the Sex Pistols during December's Anarchy Tour.
By the turn of the year, punk had become a major media phenomenon in the UK. On 25 January 1977, the Clash signed to CBS Records for £100,000, a remarkable amount for a band that had played a total of about thirty gigs and almost none as a headliner. As Clash historian Marcus Gray describes, the "band members found themselves having to justify [the deal] to both the music press and to fans who picked up on the critics' muttered asides about the Clash having 'sold out' to the establishment." Mark Perry, founder of the leading London punk periodical, "Sniffin' Glue", let loose with what he would later call his "big quote": "Punk died the day the Clash signed to CBS." As one band associate described it, the deal "was later used as a classic example of the kind of contract that no group should ever sign—the group had to pay for their own tours, recordings, remixes, artwork, expenses ..."
Mickey Foote, who worked as a technician at their concerts, was hired to produce the Clash's debut album, and Terry Chimes was drafted back for the recording. The band's first single, "White Riot", was released in March 1977 and reached number 34. The album, "The Clash", came out the following month. Filled with fiery punk tracks, it also presaged the many eclectic turns the band would take with its cover of the reggae song "Police and Thieves". "Amidst the Sex Pistols' inertia in the first half of 1977, the Clash found themselves as the flag-wavers of the punk rock consciousness", according to music journalist and former punk musician John Robb. Though the album charted well in the UK, climbing quickly to number 12, CBS refused to give it a US release, believing that its raw, barely produced sound would make it unmarketable there. A North American version of the album, with a modified track listing, was eventually released in the US two years later in 1979, after the UK original became the best-selling import album of the year in the United States.
Chimes, whose career aspirations owed little to the punk ethos, had left the band again soon after the recording sessions. He later said, "The point was I wanted one kind of life and they wanted another and, like, why are we working together, if we want completely different things?" As a result, only Simonon, Jones and Strummer were featured on the album's cover, and Chimes was credited as "Tory Crimes". Strummer later described what followed: "We must have tried every drummer that then had a kit. I mean every drummer in London. I think we counted 205. And that's why we were lost until we found Topper Headon." Headon, who had played briefly with Jones's London SS, was nicknamed "Topper" by Simonon, who felt he resembled the "Topper" comic book character Mickey the Monkey. An excellent musician, Headon could also play piano, bass and guitar. The day after he signed up, he declared, "I really wanted to join the Clash. I want to give them even more energy than they've got—if that's possible"; interviewed over two decades later, he said his original plan was to stay briefly, gain a name for himself, and then move on to a better gig. In any event, Strummer later observed, "Finding someone who not only had the chops, but the strength and the stamina to do it was just the breakthrough for us".
In May, the band set out on the White Riot Tour, headlining a punk package that included the Buzzcocks, Subway Sect, the Slits and the Prefects. The day after a Newcastle gig, Strummer and Headon were arrested for stealing pillowcases from their hotel room. That same month, CBS released "Remote Control" as the debut LP's second single, defying the wishes of the band, who saw it as one of the album's weakest tracks. Headon's first recording with the band was the single "Complete Control", which addressed the band's anger at their record label's behaviour. It was co-produced by famed reggae artist Lee "Scratch" Perry, though Foote was summoned to "ground things" a bit and the result was pure punk rock. Released in September 1977—"NME" noted how CBS allowed the group to "bait their masters"—it rose to number 28 on the British chart and has gone on to be cited as one of punk's greatest singles. In February 1978, the band came out with the single "Clash City Rockers". June saw the release of "(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais", which surprised fans with its reggae rhythm and arrangement.
Before the Clash began recording their second album, CBS requested that they adopt a cleaner sound than its predecessor in order to reach American audiences. Sandy Pearlman, known for his work with Blue Öyster Cult, was hired to produce the record. Simonon later recalled, "[R]ecording that album was just the most boring situation ever. It was just so nitpicking, such a contrast to the first album ... it ruined any spontaneity." Strummer agreed that "it wasn't our easiest session." Although some listeners complained about its relatively mainstream production style, "Give 'Em Enough Rope" received largely positive reviews upon its November release. It hit number 2 in the UK, but it was not the American breakthrough CBS had hoped for, reaching only number 128 on the "Billboard" chart. The album's first UK single, the hard rocking "Tommy Gun", rose to number 19, the highest chart position for a Clash single to date. In support of the album, the band toured the UK supported by the Slits and the Innocents. The series of concerts—there were more than thirty, from Edinburgh to Portsmouth—was promoted as the Sort It Out Tour. The band subsequently undertook its first, largely successful tour of North America in February 1979.
In August and September 1979, the Clash recorded "London Calling". Produced by Guy Stevens, a former A&R executive who had worked with Mott the Hoople and Traffic, the double album was a mix of punk rock, reggae, ska, rockabilly, traditional rock and roll and other elements possessed of an energy that had hardly flagged since the band's early days and more polished production. The title of the track also happened to be heavily influenced by the BBC World Service call signal and the panic that resulted in the Three Mile Island nuclear scare. It is regarded as one of the greatest rock albums ever recorded. Its final track, a relatively straightforward rock and roll number sung by Mick Jones called "Train in Vain", was included at the last minute and thus did not appear in the track listing on the cover. It became their first US Top 40 hit, peaking at number 23 on the "Billboard" chart. In the UK, where "Train in Vain" was not released as a single, "London Calling"'s title track, stately in beat but unmistakably punk in message and tone, rose to number 11—the highest position any Clash single reached in the UK before the band's break-up.
Released in December, "London Calling" hit number 9 on the British chart; in the United States, where it was issued in January 1980, it reached number 27. The cover of the album, based on the cover of Elvis Presley's self-titled 1956 debut LP, became one of the best known in the history of rock. Its image, by photographer Pennie Smith, of Simonon smashing his bass guitar was later cited as the "best rock 'n roll photograph of all time" by "Q" magazine. During this period, the Clash began to be regularly billed as "The Only Band That Matters". Musician Gary Lucas, then employed by CBS Records' creative services department, claims to have coined the tagline. The epithet was soon widely adopted by fans and music journalists.
Around the turn of the year, the band members attended a special private screening of a new film, "Rude Boy"; part fiction, part rockumentary, it tells the story of a Clash fan who leaves his job in a Soho sex shop to become a roadie for the group. The movie—named after the rude boy subculture—includes footage of the band on tour, at a London Rock Against Racism concert, and in the studio recording "Give 'Em Enough Rope." The band was so disenchanted with it that they had Better Badges make buttons that declared "I don't want RUDE BOY Clash Film". On 27 February 1980, it premiered at the 30th Berlin International Film Festival, where it won an honourable mention.
The Clash had planned to record and release a single every month in 1980. CBS balked at this idea, and the band came out with only one single—an original reggae tune, "Bankrobber", in August—before the December release of the 3-LP, 36-song "Sandinista!" The album again reflected a broad range of musical styles, including extended dubs and the one of the first forays into rap by a major rock band, following Ant Rap by Adam and the Ants which was released a month earlier. Produced by the band members with the participation of Jamaican reggae artist Mikey Dread, "Sandinista!" was their most controversial album to date, both politically and musically. Critical opinion was divided, often within individual reviews. "Trouser Press"'s Ira Robbins described half the album as "great", half as "nonsense" and worse. In the "New Rolling Stone Record Guide", Dave Marsh argued, ""Sandinista!" is nonsensically cluttered. Or rather "seems" nonsensically cluttered. One of the Clash's principal concerns ... is to avoid being stereotyped." The album fared reasonably well in America, charting at number 24.
In 1981, the band came out with a single, "This Is Radio Clash", that further demonstrated their ability to mix diverse influences such as dub and hip hop. They set to work on their fifth album in September, originally planning it as a 2-LP set with the title "Rat Patrol from Fort Bragg". Jones produced one cut, but the other members were dissatisfied. Production duties were handed to Glyn Johns, and the album was reconceived as a single LP, and released as "Combat Rock" in May 1982. Though filled with offbeat songs, experiments with sound collage, and a spoken word vocal by Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, it contained two "radio friendly" tracks. The leadoff single in the US was "Should I Stay or Should I Go", released in June 1982. Another Jones feature in a rock and roll style similar to "Train in Vain", it received heavy airplay on AOR stations. The follow-up, "Rock the Casbah", put lyrics addressing the Iranian clampdown on imports of Western music to a bouncy dance rhythm. (The singles were released in the opposite order in the UK, where they were both preceded by "Know Your Rights".) The music for "Rock the Casbah" was composed by Headon, who performed not only the percussion but also the piano and bass heard on the recorded version. It was the band's biggest US hit ever, charting at number 8, and the video was put into heavy rotation by MTV. The album itself was the band's most successful, hitting number 2 in the UK and number 7 in the US.
After "Combat Rock", the Clash began to disintegrate. Headon was asked to leave the band just before the album's release because heroin addiction was damaging his health and drumming. Chimes was brought back to drum for the next few months. The loss of Headon, well-liked by the others, exposed growing friction within the band. Jones and Strummer began to feud. The band opened for the Who on a leg of their final tour in the US, including a show at New York's Shea Stadium.
Though the Clash continued to tour, tension continued to increase. In early 1983, Chimes left the band after the Combat Rock Tour because of in-fighting and turmoil. He was replaced by Pete Howard for the US Festival in San Bernardino, California, which the Clash co-headlined, along with David Bowie and Van Halen. The band argued with the event's promoters over inflated ticket prices, threatening to pull out unless a large donation was made to a local charity. The group ultimately performed on 28 May, the festival's New Music Day, which drew a crowd of 140,000. After the show, members of the band brawled with security staff. This was Jones' last appearance with the group: in September 1983, he was fired. Shortly thereafter, he became a founding member of General Public, but left that band as they were recording their first album.
Nick Sheppard, formerly of the Bristol-based band the Cortinas, and Vince White were recruited as the Clash's new guitarists. Howard continued as the drummer. The reconstituted band played its first shows in January 1984 with a batch of new material and launched into the self-financed Out of Control Tour, travelling widely over the winter and into early summer. At a striking miners' benefit show ("Scargill's Christmas Party") in December 1984, they announced that a new album would be released early in the new year.
The recording sessions for "Cut the Crap" were chaotic, with manager Bernard Rhodes and Strummer working in Munich. Most of the music was played by studio musicians, with Sheppard and later White flying in to provide guitar parts. Struggling with Rhodes for control of the band, Strummer returned home. The band went on a busking tour of public spaces in cities throughout the UK, playing acoustic versions of their hits and popular cover tunes.
After a concert in Athens, Strummer went to Spain to clear his mind. While he was abroad, the first single from "Cut the Crap", the mournful "This Is England", was released to mostly negative reviews. "CBS had paid an advance for it so they had to put it out", Strummer later explained. "I just went, 'Well fuck this', and fucked off to the mountains of Spain to sit sobbing under a palm tree, while Bernie had to deliver a record." However, critic Dave Marsh later championed "This Is England" as one of the top 1001 rock singles of all time. The single has also received retroactive praise from "Q" magazine and others.
"This Is England", much like the rest of the album that came out later that year, had been drastically re-engineered by Rhodes, with synths and football-style chants added to Strummer's incomplete recordings. Although Howard was an adept drummer, drum machines were used for virtually all of the percussion tracks. For the remainder of his life, Strummer largely disowned the album, although he did profess that "I really like 'This Is England' and [album track] 'North and South' is a vibe." In early 1986, the Clash disbanded. Strummer later described the group's end: "When the Clash collapsed, we were tired. There had been a lot of intense activity in five years. Secondly, I felt we'd run out of idea gasoline. And thirdly, I wanted to shut up and let someone else have a go at it."
This period of disintegration, featuring interviews with members of the Clash, is the subject matter of Danny Garcia's book and film, "The Rise and Fall of the Clash".
After the break-up, Strummer contacted Jones in an effort to reform the Clash. Jones, however, had already formed a new band, Big Audio Dynamite (B.A.D.), that had released its debut late in 1985. The two did work together on their respective 1986 projects. Jones helped out with the two songs Strummer wrote and performed for the "Sid and Nancy" soundtrack. Strummer, in turn, cowrote a number of the tracks on the second B.A.D. album, "No. 10, Upping St.", which he also co-produced. With Jones committed to B.A.D., Strummer moved on to various solo projects and screen acting work. Simonon formed a band called Havana 3am. Headon recorded a solo album, before once again spiraling into drug abuse. Chimes drummed with a succession of different acts.
On 2 March 1991, a reissue of "Should I Stay or Should I Go" gave the Clash its first and only number 1 UK single. That same year, Strummer reportedly cried when he learned that "Rock the Casbah" had been adopted as a slogan by US bomber pilots in the Gulf War.
In 1999, Strummer, Jones and Simonon cooperated in compiling of the live album "" and video documentary "". On 7 November 2002, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced that the Clash would be inducted the following March. On 15 November, Jones and Strummer shared the stage, performing three Clash songs during a London benefit show by Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros. Strummer, Jones and Headon wanted to play a reunion show to coincide with their induction into the Hall of Fame. Simonon did not want to participate because he believed that playing at the high-priced event would not have been in the spirit of the Clash. Strummer's sudden death from a congenital heart defect on 22 December 2002 ended any possibility of a full reunion. In March 2003, the Hall of Fame induction took place; the band members inducted were Strummer, Jones, Simonon, Chimes and Headon.
In early 2008, Carbon/Silicon, a new band founded by Mick Jones and his former London SS bandmate Tony James, entered into a six-week residency at London's Inn on the Green. On opening night, 11 January, Headon joined the band for the Clash's "Train in Vain". An encore followed with Headon playing drums on "Should I Stay or Should I Go". This was the first time since 1982 that Headon and Jones had performed together on stage.
Jones and Headon reunited in September 2009 to record the 1970s Clash B-side "Jail Guitar Doors" with Billy Bragg. The song is the namesake of a charity founded by Bragg which gives musical instruments and lessons to prison inmates. Jones, Headon, and Bragg were backed by former inmates during the session, which was filmed for a documentary about the charity, "Breaking Rocks." Simonon and Jones were featured on the title track of the Gorillaz album "Plastic Beach" in 2010. This reunion marked the first time the two performers had worked together in over twenty years. They later joined Gorillaz on their world tour for the remainder of 2010.
In July 2012, Strummer's daughters, Jazz and Lola, gave a rare interview to discuss the upcoming tenth anniversary of their father's passing, his legacy and the possibility of a Clash reunion had their father lived. Jazz said "There was talk about the Clash reforming before he died. But there had been talk for years and years about them reforming. They had been offered stupid amounts of money to do it, but they were very good at keeping the moral high ground and saying no. But I think if Dad hadn't died, it would have happened. It felt like it was in the air."
On 9 September 2013 in the UK (and a day later in the US), the Clash released "Sound System", a twelve-disc box set featuring their studio albums completely re-mastered on eight discs with an additional three discs featuring demos, non-album singles, rarities and B-sides, a DVD with previously unseen footage by both Don Letts and Julien Temple, original promo videos and live footage, an owner's manual booklet, reprints of the band's original 'Armagideon Times' fanzine as well as a brand new edition curated and designed by Paul Simonon and merchandise including dog tags, badges, stickers and an exclusive Clash poster. Both Mick Jones and Paul Simonon oversaw the project including the re-masters. The box set came in a package shaped as an 80s ghetto blaster. The box set was accompanied by "5 Album Studio Set", which contains only the first five studio albums (excluding "Cut the Crap"), and "The Clash Hits Back", a 33-track, two-CD best of collection sequenced to copy the set played by the band at the Brixton Fair Deal (now the Academy) on 19 July 1982.
In a 3 September 2013 interview with "Rolling Stone", Mick Jones discussed the band reuniting saying it likely would have never happened. Jones said "There were a few moments at the time I was up for it (Hall of Fame reunion in 2003), Joe was up for it. Paul wasn't. And neither, probably, was Topper, who didn't wind up even coming in the end. It didn't look like a performance was going to happen anyway. I mean, you usually play at that ceremony when you get in. Joe had passed by that point, so we didn't. We were never in agreement. It was never at a point where all of us wanted to do it at the same time. Most importantly for us, we became friends again after the group broke up, and continued that way for the rest of the time. That was more important to us than the band". Jones also stated that the "Sound System" box set was the last time he will ever be involved in the band's releases. "I'm not even thinking about any more Clash releases. This is it for me, and I say that with an exclamation mark." Jones said.
On 6 September 2013, the three surviving members of the classic lineup (Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Topper Headon) reunited again for an exclusive BBC Radio 6 Music show to promote their legacy and the release of "Sound System".
In an October 2013 interview with BBC 6Music, Jones confirmed that Strummer did have intentions of a Clash reunion and in fact new music was being written for a possible album. In the months prior to Strummer's death, Jones and Strummer began working on new music for what he thought would be the next Mescaleros album. Jones said "We wrote a batch – we didn't use to write one, we used to write a batch at a time – like gumbo. The idea was he was going to go into the studio with the Mescaleros during the day and then send them all home. I'd come in all night and we'd all work all night." Jones said months had passed following their work together when he ran into Strummer at an event. Jones was curious as to what would become of the songs he and Strummer were working on and Strummer informed him that they were going to be used for the next Clash album.
The Clash's music was often charged with left-wing ideological sentiments. Strummer, in particular, was a committed socialist. The Clash are credited with pioneering the advocacy of radical politics in punk rock, and were dubbed the "Thinking Man's Yobs" by "NME". Like many early punk bands, the Clash protested against monarchy and aristocracy; however, unlike many of their peers, they rejected nihilism. Instead, they found solidarity with a number of contemporary liberation movements and were involved with such groups as the Anti-Nazi League. On 30 April 1978, the Clash played the Rock Against Racism concert in London's Victoria Park for a crowd of 50–100,000 people; Strummer wore a T-shirt identifying two left-wing terrorist groups: the words "Brigade Rosse"—Italy's Red Brigades—appeared alongside the insignia of West Germany's Red Army Faction.
Their politics were made explicit in the lyrics of such early recordings as "White Riot", which encouraged disaffected white youths to riot like their black counterparts; "Career Opportunities", which addressed the alienation of low-paid, routinised jobs and discontent over the lack of alternatives; and "London's Burning", about the bleakness and boredom of life in the inner city. Artist Caroline Coon, who was associated with the punk scene, argued that "[t]hose tough, militaristic songs were what we needed as we went into Thatcherism". The scope of the band's political interests widened on later recordings.
The title of "Sandinista!" celebrated the left-wing rebels who had recently overthrown Nicaraguan despot Anastasio Somoza Debayle, and the album was filled with songs driven by other political issues extending far beyond British shores: "Washington Bullets" addressed covert military operations around the globe, while "The Call-Up" was a meditation on US draft policies. "Combat Rock"s "Straight to Hell" is described by scholars Simon Reynolds and Joy Press as an "around-the-world-at-war-in-five-verses guided tour of hell-zones where boy-soldiers had languished."
The band's political sentiments were reflected in their resistance to the music industry's usual profit motivations; even at their peak, tickets to shows and souvenirs were reasonably priced. The group insisted that CBS sell their double and triple album sets "London Calling" and "Sandinista!" for the price of a single album each (then £5), succeeding with the former and compromising with the latter by agreeing to sell it for £5.99 and forfeit all their performance royalties on its first 200,000 sales. These "VFM" (value for money) principles meant that they were constantly in debt to CBS, and only started to break even around 1982.
The Clash are mainly described as a punk rock band. According to Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic, "the Sex Pistols may have been the first British punk rock band, but the Clash were the definitive British punk rockers". Later in the band's career, the Clash started to use elements of many genres of music, including reggae, rockabilly, dub, and R&B. With their album "London Calling", the band expanded their breadth of musical styles in the first double album of the "" period. The Clash's music has also been described as experimental rock and new wave. They have also used reggae since their beginnings. They have covered reggae songs and even written their own. They even used lovers rock on the London Calling album.
In 2004, "Rolling Stone" ranked the Clash number 28 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, and in 2010, the band was ranked 22nd on VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. According to "The Times", the Clash's debut, alongside "Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols", is "punk's definitive statement" and "London Calling" "remains one of the most influential rock albums". In "Rolling Stone"s 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, "London Calling" ranked number 8, the highest entry by a punk band. "The Clash" was number 77 and "Sandinista!" was number 404. In the magazine's 2004 list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, "London Calling" ranked number 15, again the highest for any song by a punk band. Four other Clash songs made the list: "Should I Stay Or Should I Go" (228), "Train in Vain" (292), "Complete Control" (361), and "White Man in Hammersmith Palais" (430). "London Calling" ranked number 48 in the magazine's 2008 list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time.
Jake Burns of Stiff Little Fingers, the first major punk band from Northern Ireland, explained the record's impact:
[T]he big watershed was the Clash album—that was go out, cut your hair, stop mucking about time, y'know. Up to that point we'd still been singing about bowling down California highways. I mean, it meant nothing to me. Although the Damned and the Pistols were great, they were only exciting musically; lyrically, I couldn't really make out a lot if it ... [T]o realise that [the Clash] were actually singing about their own lives in West London was like a bolt out of the blue.
The Clash also inspired many musicians who were only loosely associated, if at all, with punk. The band's embrace of ska, reggae and England's Jamaican subculture helped provide the impetus for the 2 Tone movement that emerged amid the fallout of the punk explosion. Other musicians who began performing while the Clash were active and acknowledged their debt to the band include Billy Bragg and Aztec Camera. U2's the Edge has compared the Clash's inspirational effect to that of the Ramones—both gave young rock musicians at large the "sense that the door of possibility had swung open." He wrote, "The Clash, more than any other group, kick-started a thousand garage bands across Ireland and the UK ... [S]eeing them perform was a life-changing experience." Bono has described the Clash as "the greatest rock band. They wrote the rule book for U2."
While the Sex Pistols’ debut gig at Manchester’s Lesser Free Trade Hall has been acknowledged as the starting point of that city’s punk scene, The Clash’s first gig at Eric’s, supported by The Specials, served as a similar watershed for Liverpool. The gig was witnessed by Jayne Casey, Julian Cope, Pete Wylie, Pete Burns, Bill Drummond, Holly Johnson, Will Sergeant, Budgie, and Ian McCulloch, who went on to form Big in Japan, The Teardrop Explodes and Echo & The Bunnymen amongst other bands.
In later years, the Clash's influence can be heard in American political punk bands such as Rancid, Anti-Flag, Bad Religion, NOFX, Green Day, and Rise Against as well as in the political hard rock of early Manic Street Preachers. California's Rancid, in particular, are known as "incurable Clash zealots". The title track of the band's album "Indestructible" proclaims, "I'll keep listening to that great Joe Strummer!" Outside of rock music, Chuck D has credited the Clash as an inspiration for Public Enemy, in particular for the way their use of socially and politically conscious lyrics gained attention from the music press: "They talked about important subjects, so therefore journalists printed what they said, which was very pointed... We took that from the Clash, because we were very similar in that regard. Public Enemy just did it 10 years later". In 2019 Chuck D narrated "Stay Free: The Story of The Clash", an eight-part podcast series produced by Spotify and BBC Studios.
According to biographer Antonio Ambrosio, The Clash's involvement with Jamaican musical and production styles has inspired similar cross-cultural efforts by bands such as Bad Brains, Massive Attack, 311, Sublime and No Doubt. Jakob Dylan of the Wallflowers lists "London Calling" as the record that "changed his life". Bands identified with the garage rock revival of the late 1990s and 2000s such as Sweden's the Hives, Australia's the Vines, Britain's the Libertines, and America's the White Stripes and the Strokes evince the Clash's influence. Among the many latter-day British acts identified as having been inspired by the Clash are Babyshambles, the Futureheads, the Charlatans, and Arctic Monkeys. Before M.I.A. had an international hit in 2008 with "Paper Planes", which is built around a sample from "Straight to Hell", she referenced "London Calling" on 2003's "Galang". A cover of "The Guns of Brixton" by German punk band Die Toten Hosen was released as a single in 2006. A version by reggae legend Jimmy Cliff with Tim Armstrong from Rancid was scheduled for release in November 2011. American-Irish punk band Dropkick Murphys released a cover of the song on "Anti Heroes vs Dropkick Murphys" in 1997.
In June 2009 Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band opened their concert in Hyde Park, London, with 'London Calling'. The concert was later released on DVD as "". Bruce Springsteen, Little Steven, Dave Grohl and Elvis Costello performed the same song at the Grammys in 2003 as a tribute to Joe Strummer who died the year before. In 2009 Springsteen & the E Street Band even covered Strummer's "Coma Girl" while in 2014 and along with Tom Morello, they opened some of their shows on the High Hopes Tour with "Clampdown".
The band has also had a notable impact on music in the Spanish-speaking world. In 1997, a Clash tribute album featuring performances by Buenos Aires punk bands was released. Many rock en español bands such as Todos Tus Muertos, Café Tacuba, Maldita Vecindad, Los Prisioneros, Tijuana No, and Attaque 77 are indebted to the Clash. Argentina's Los Fabulosos Cadillacs covered "Should stay or should I go!", "London Calling"s "Revolution Rock" and "The Guns of Brixton" and invited Mick Jones to sing on their song "Mal Bicho". The Clash's influence is similarly reflected in Paris-founded Mano Negra's politicised lyrics and fusion of musical styles.
The band's 1982 hit, "Should I Stay or Should I Go", is featured in multiple episodes of the 2016 Netflix sci-fi drama series, "Stranger Things", which is set in 1983.
"London Town" a film in which tells the story of a Clash-obsessed teenager who crosses paths with Joe Strummer by happenstance in 1979 and finds his life changing as a result, was released in 2016. The film received mixed reviews and featured timeline inaccuracies along with wrong song lyrics performed by the actors in the film. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30423 |
Total internal reflection
Total internal reflection (TIR) is the optical phenomenon in which the surface of the water in a fish-tank (for example) when viewed from below the water level, reflects the underwater scene like a mirror, with no loss of brightness (Fig.1). In general, TIR occurs when waves in one medium reach the boundary with another medium at a sufficiently slanting angle, provided that the second ("external") medium is transparent to the waves and allows them to travel faster than in the first ("internal") medium. TIR occurs not only with electromagnetic waves such as light and microwaves, but also with other types of waves, including sound and water waves. In the case of a narrow train of waves, such as a laser beam (Fig.2), we tend to describe the reflection in terms of "rays" rather than waves. In a medium whose properties are independent of direction, such as air, water, or glass, each "ray" is perpendicular to the associated wavefronts.
Refraction is generally accompanied by "partial" reflection. When waves are refracted from a medium of lower propagation speed to a medium of higher propagation speed (e.g., from water to air), the "angle of refraction" (between the refracted ray and the line perpendicular to the refracting surface) is greater than the "angle of incidence" (between the incident ray and the perpendicular). As the angle of incidence approaches a certain limit, called the "critical angle", the angle of refraction approaches 90°, at which the refracted ray becomes parallel to the surface. As the angle of incidence increases beyond the critical angle, the conditions of refraction can no longer be satisfied; so there is no refracted ray, and the partial reflection becomes total. For visible light, the critical angle is about 49° for incidence at the water-to-air boundary, and about 42° for incidence at the common glass-to-air boundary.
Details of the mechanism of TIR give rise to more subtle phenomena. While total reflection, by definition, involves no continuing flow of power "across" the interface between the two media, the external medium carries a so-called "evanescent wave", which travels "along" the interface with an amplitude that falls off exponentially with distance from the interface. The "total" reflection is indeed total if the external medium is lossless (perfectly transparent), continuous, and of infinite extent, but can be conspicuously "less" than total if the evanescent wave is absorbed by a lossy external medium ("attenuated total reflectance"), or diverted by the outer boundary of the external medium or by objects embedded in that medium ("frustrated" TIR). Unlike "partial" reflection between transparent media, total internal reflection is accompanied by a non-trivial phase shift (not just zero or 180°) for each component of polarization (perpendicular or parallel to the plane of incidence), and the shifts vary with the angle of incidence. The explanation of this effect by Augustin-Jean Fresnel, in 1823, added to the evidence in favor of the wave theory of light.
The phase shifts are utilized by Fresnel's invention, the Fresnel rhomb, to modify polarization. The efficiency of the reflection is exploited by optical fibers (used in telecommunications cables and in image-forming fiberscopes), and by reflective prisms, such as erecting prisms for binoculars.
Although total internal reflection can occur with any kind of wave that can be said to have oblique incidence, including (e.g.) microwaves and sound waves, it is most familiar in the case of light waves.
Total internal reflection of light can be demonstrated using a semicircular-cylindrical block of common glass or acrylic glass. In Fig.3, a "ray box" projects a narrow beam of light (a "ray") radially inward. The semicircular cross-section of the glass allows the incoming ray to remain perpendicular to the curved portion of the air/glass surface, and thence to continue in a straight line towards the flat part of the surface, although its angle with the flat part varies.
Where the ray meets the flat glass-to-air interface, the angle between the ray and the normal (perpendicular) to the interface is called the "angle of incidence". If this angle is sufficiently small, the ray is "partly" reflected but mostly transmitted, and the transmitted portion is refracted away from the normal, so that the "angle of refraction" (between the refracted ray and the normal to the interface) is greater than the angle of incidence. For the moment, let us call the angle of incidence "θ" and the angle of refraction "θ"t (where "t" is for "transmitted", reserving "r" for "reflected"). As "θ" increases and approaches a certain "critical angle", denoted by "θ"c (or sometimes "θ"cr), the angle of refraction approaches 90° (that is, the refracted ray approaches a tangent to the interface), and the refracted ray becomes fainter while the reflected ray becomes brighter. As "θ" increases beyond "θ"c, the refracted ray disappears and only the reflected ray remains, so that all of the energy of the incident ray is reflected; this is total internal reflection (TIR). In brief:
The critical angle is the smallest angle of incidence that yields total reflection. For light waves incident from an "internal" medium with a single refractive index , to an "external" medium with a single refractive index , the critical angle is given by formula_1, and is defined if . For some other types of waves, it is more convenient to think in terms of propagation velocities rather than refractive indices. The explanation of the critical angle in terms of velocities is more general and will therefore be discussed first.
When a wavefront is refracted from one medium to another, the incident (incoming) and refracted (outgoing) portions of the wavefront meet at a common line on the refracting surface (interface). Let this line, denoted by "L", move at velocity across the surface, where is measured normal to "L" (Fig.4). Let the incident and refracted wavefronts propagate with normal velocities formula_2 and formula_3 (respectively), and let them make the dihedral angles "θ"1 and "θ"2 (respectively) with the interface. From the geometry, formula_2 is the component of in the direction normal to the incident wave, so that formula_5. Similarly, formula_6. Solving each equation for and equating the results, we obtain the general law of refraction for waves:
But the dihedral angle between two planes is also the angle between their normals. So "θ"1 is the angle between the normal to the incident wavefront and the normal to the interface, while "θ"2 is the angle between the normal to the refracted wavefront and the normal to the interface; and Eq.() tells us that the sines of these angles are in the same ratio as the respective velocities.
This result has the form of "Snell's law", except that we have not yet said that the ratio of velocities is constant, nor identified "θ"1 and "θ"2 with the angles of incidence and refraction (called "θ" and "θ"t above). However, if we now suppose that the properties of the media are "isotropic" (independent of direction), two further conclusions follow: first, the two velocities, and hence their ratio, are independent of their directions; and second, the wave-normal directions coincide with the "ray" directions, so that "θ"1 and "θ"2 coincide with the angles of incidence and refraction as defined above.
Obviously the angle of refraction cannot exceed 90°. In the limiting case, we put and in Eq.(), and solve for the critical angle:
In deriving this result, we retain the assumption of isotropic media in order to identify "θ"1 and "θ"2 with the angles of incidence and refraction.
For electromagnetic waves, and especially for light, it is customary to express the above results in terms of "refractive indices". The refractive index of a medium with normal velocity formula_2 is defined as formula_8, where "c" is the speed of light in a vacuum. Hence formula_9. Similarly, formula_10. Making these substitutions in Eqs.()and(), we obtain
and
Eq.() is the law of refraction for general media, in terms of refractive indices, provided that "θ"1 and "θ"2 are taken as the dihedral angles; but if the media are "isotropic", then and become independent of direction while "θ"1 and "θ"2 may be taken as the angles of incidence and refraction for the rays, and Eq.() follows. So, for isotropic media, Eqs.()and() together describe the behavior in Fig.5.
According to Eq.(), for incidence from water () to air (), we have , whereas for incidence from common glass or acrylic () to air (), we have .
The arcsin function yielding "θ"c is defined only if formula_11. Hence, for isotropic media, total internal reflection cannot occur if the second medium has a higher refractive index (lower normal velocity) than the first. For example, there cannot be TIR for incidence from air to water; rather, the critical angle for incidence from water to air is the angle of refraction at grazing incidence from air to water (Fig.6).
The medium with the higher refractive index is commonly described as optically "denser", and the one with the lower refractive index as optically "rarer". Hence it is said that total internal reflection is possible for "dense-to-rare" incidence, but not for "rare-to-dense" incidence.
When standing beside an aquarium with one's eyes below the water level, one is likely to see fish or submerged objects reflected in the water-air surface (Fig.1). The brightness of the reflected image — just as bright as the "direct" view — can be startling.
A similar effect can be observed by opening one's eyes while swimming just below the water's surface. If the water is calm, the surface outside the critical angle (measured from the vertical) appears mirror-like, reflecting objects below. The region above the water cannot be seen except overhead, where the hemispherical field of view is compressed into a conical field known as "Snell's window", whose angular diameter is twice the critical angle (cf. Fig.6). The field of view above the water is theoretically 180° across, but seems less because as we look closer to the horizon, the vertical dimension is more strongly compressed by the refraction; e.g., by Eq.(), for air-to-water incident angles of 90°, 80°, and 70°, the corresponding angles of refraction are 48.6° ("θcr" in Fig.6), 47.6°, and 44.8°, indicating that the image of a point 20° above the horizon is 3.8° from the edge of Snell's window while the image of a point 10° above the horizon is only 1° from the edge.
Fig.7, for example, is a photograph taken near the bottom of the shallow end of a swimming pool. What looks like a broad horizontal stripe on the right-hand wall consists of the lower edges of a row of orange tiles, and their reflections; this marks the water level, which can then be traced across the other wall. The swimmer has disturbed the surface above her, scrambling the lower half of her reflection, and distorting the reflection of the ladder (to the right). But most of the surface is still calm, giving a clear reflection of the tiled bottom of the pool. The space above the water is not visible except at the top of the frame, where the handles of the ladder are just discernible above the edge of Snell's window — within which the reflection of the bottom of the pool is only partial, but still noticeable in the photograph. One can even discern the color-fringing of the edge of Snell's window, due to variation of the refractive index, hence of the critical angle, with wavelength (see "Dispersion").
The critical angle influences the angles at which gemstones are cut. The round "brilliant" cut, for example, is designed to refract light incident on the front facets, reflect it twice by TIR off the back facets, and transmit it out again through the front facets, so that the stone looks bright. Diamond (Fig.8) is especially suitable for this treatment, because its high refractive index (about 2.42) and consequently small critical angle (about 24.5°) yield the desired behavior over a wide range of viewing angles. Cheaper materials that are similarly amenable to this treatment include cubic zirconia (index≈2.15) and moissanite (non-isotropic, hence doubly refractive, with an index ranging from about 2.65 to 2.69, depending on direction and polarization); both of these are therefore popular as diamond simulants.
Mathematically, waves are described in terms of time-varying fields, a "field" being a function of location in space. A propagating wave requires an "effort" field and a "flow" field, the latter being a vector (if we are working in two or three dimensions). The product of effort and flow is related to power (see "System equivalence"). For example, for sound waves in a non-viscous fluid, we might take the effort field as the pressure (a scalar), and the flow field as the fluid velocity (a vector). The product of these two is intensity (power per unit area). For electromagnetic waves, we shall take the effort field as the electric field and the flow field as the magnetizing field . Both of these are vectors, and their vector product is again the intensity (see "Poynting vector").
When a wave in (say) medium 1 is reflected off the interface between medium 1 and medium 2, the flow field in medium 1 is the vector sum of the flow fields due to the incident and reflected waves. If the reflection is oblique, the incident and reflected fields are not in opposite directions and therefore cannot cancel out at the interface; even if the reflection is total, either the normal component or the tangential component of the combined field (as a function of location and time) must be non-zero adjacent to the interface. Furthermore, the physical laws governing the fields will generally imply that one of the two components is "continuous" across the interface (that is, it does not suddenly change as we cross the interface); for example, for electromagnetic waves, one of the interface conditions is that the tangential component of is continuous if there is no surface current. Hence, even if the reflection is total, there must be some penetration of the flow field into medium 2; and this, in combination with the laws relating the effort and flow fields, implies that there will also be some penetration of the effort field. The same continuity condition implies that the variation ("waviness") of the field in medium 2 will be synchronized with that of the incident and reflected waves in medium 1.
But, if the reflection is total, the spatial penetration of the fields into medium 2 must be limited somehow, or else the total extent and hence the total energy of those fields would continue to increase, draining power from medium 1. Total reflection of a continuing wavetrain permits some energy to be stored in medium 2, but does not permit a "continuing" transfer of power from medium 1 to medium 2.
Thus, using mostly qualitative reasoning, we can conclude that total internal reflection must be accompanied by a wavelike field in the "external" medium, traveling along the interface in synchronism with the incident and reflected waves, but with some sort of limited spatial penetration into the "external" medium; such a field may be called an "evanescent wave".
Fig.9 shows the basic idea. The incident wave is assumed to be plane and sinusoidal. The reflected wave, for simplicity, is not shown. The evanescent wave travels to the right in lock-step with the incident and reflected waves, but its amplitude falls off with increasing distance from the interface.
If reflection is to be total, there must be no diversion of the evanescent wave. Suppose, for example, that electromagnetic waves incident from glass to air at a certain angle of incidence are subject to TIR. And suppose that we have a third medium whose refractive index is sufficiently high that, if the third medium were to replace the second (air), we would get a standard transmitted wavetrain for the same angle of incidence. Then, if the third medium is brought within a few wavelengths of the first, where the evanescent wave has significant amplitude, the evanescent wave is effectively refracted into the third medium, giving non-zero transmission into the third medium, and therefore less than total reflection back into the first medium. As the amplitude of the evanescent wave decays across the air gap, the transmitted waves is attenuated, so that there is less transmission, and therefore more reflection, than there would be with no gap; but as long as there is "some" transmission, the reflection is less than total. This phenomenon is called "frustrated total internal reflection", abbreviated "frustrated TIR" or "FTIR".
Frustrated TIR can be observed by looking into the top of a glass of water held in one's hand (Fig.10). If the glass is held loosely, contact may not be sufficiently close and widespread to produce a noticeable effect. But if it is held more tightly, the ridges of one's fingerprints interact strongly with the evanescent waves, allowing the ridges to be seen through the otherwise totally reflecting glass-air surface.
The same effect can be demonstrated with microwaves, using paraffin wax as the "internal" medium. In this case the permitted gap width might be (e.g.) 1cm or several cm, which is easily observable and adjustable.
The term "frustrated TIR" also applies to the case in which the evanescent wave is scattered by an object sufficiently close to the reflecting interface. This effect, together with the strong dependence of the amount of scattered light on the distance from the interface, is exploited in "total internal reflection microscopy".
The mechanism of FTIR is called "evanescent-wave coupling", and is somewhat analogous to quantum tunneling. Due to the wave nature of matter, an electron has a non-zero probability of "tunneling" through a barrier, even if classical mechanics would say that its energy is insufficient. Similarly, due to the wave nature of light, a photon has a non-zero probability of crossing a gap, even if ray optics would say that its approach is too oblique.
Another reason why internal reflection may be less than total, even beyond the critical angle, is that the external medium may be "lossy" (less than perfectly transparent). In that case, the external medium will absorb energy from the evanescent wave, so that the maintenance of the evanescent wave will draw power from the incident wave. The consequent less-than-total reflection is called "attenuated total reflectance" (ATR). This effect, and especially the frequency-dependence of the absorption, can be used to study the composition of an unknown external medium.
In a uniform plane sinusoidal electromagnetic wave, the electric field has the form
where is the (constant) complex amplitude vector, is the imaginary unit, is the wave vector (whose magnitude is the angular wavenumber), is the position vector, "ω" is the angular frequency, is time, and it is understood that the "real part" of the expression is the physical field. The magnetizing field has the same form with the same and "ω". The value of the expression is unchanged if the position varies in a direction normal to ; hence "is normal to the wavefronts".
If "ℓ" is the component of in the direction of the field () can be written formula_13. If the argument of formula_14 is to be constant, "ℓ" must increase at the velocity formula_15 known as the "phase velocity". This in turn is equal to formula_16 where is the phase velocity in the reference medium (taken as a vacuum) and is the local refractive index w.r.t. the reference medium. Solving for gives formula_17 i.e.
where formula_18 is the wavenumber in a vacuum.
From (), the electric field in the "external" medium has the form
where is the wave vector for the transmitted wave (we assume isotropic media, but the transmitted wave is not "yet" assumed to be evanescent).
In Cartesian coordinates , let the region have refractive index and let the region have refractive index . Then the plane is the interface, and the axis is normal to the interface (Fig.11). Let and (in bold roman type) be the unit vectors in the and directions, respectively. Let the plane of incidence (containing the incident wave-normal and the normal to the interface) be the plane (the plane of the page), with the angle of incidence "θ" measured from towards . Let the angle of refraction, measured in the same sense, be "θ"t ("t" for "transmitted", reserving "r" for "reflected").
From (), the transmitted wave vector has magnitude . Hence, from the geometry,
where the last step uses Snell's law. Taking the dot product with the position vector, we get
so that Eq.() becomes
In the case of TIR, the angle "θ"t does not exist in the usual sense. But we can still interpret () for the transmitted (evanescent) wave, by allowing to be "complex". This becomes necessary when we write in terms of and thence in terms of using Snell's law:
For "θ" greater than the critical angle, the value under the square-root symbol is negative, so that
To determine which sign is applicable, we substitute () into (), obtaining
where the undetermined sign is the opposite of that in (). For an "evanescent" transmitted wave — that is, one whose amplitude decays as increases — the undetermined sign in () must be "minus", so the undetermined sign in () must be "plus".
With the correct sign, the result () can be abbreviated
where
and is the wavenumber in a vacuum, i.e. formula_24.
So the evanescent wave is a plane sinewave traveling in the direction, with an amplitude that decays exponentially in the direction (cf. Fig.9). It is evident that the energy stored in this wave likewise travels in the direction and does not cross the interface. Hence the Poynting vector generally has a component in the direction, but its component averages to zero (although its instantaneous component is not "identically" zero).
Eq.() indicates that the amplitude of the evanescent wave falls off by a factor as the coordinate (measured from the interface) increases by the distance formula_25 commonly called the "penetration depth" of the evanescent wave. Taking reciprocals of the first equation of (), we find that the penetration depth is
where "λ"0 is the wavelength in a vacuum, i.e. formula_27. Dividing the numerator and denominator by yields
where formula_29 is the wavelength in the second (external) medium. Hence we can plot in units of "λ"2, as a function of the angle of incidence, for various values of formula_30 (Fig.12). As "θ" decreases towards the critical angle, the denominator approaches zero, so that increases without limit — as is to be expected, because as soon as "θ" is "less" than critical, uniform plane waves are permitted in the external medium. As "θ" approaches 90° (grazing incidence), approaches a minimum
For incidence from water to air, or common glass to air, is not much different from . But is larger at smaller angles of incidence (Fig.12), and the amplitude may still be significant at distances of several times ; for example, because is just greater than 0.01, the evanescent wave amplitude within a distance of the interface is at least 1% of its value at the interface. Hence, speaking loosely, we tend to say that the evanescent wave amplitude is significant within "a few wavelengths" of the interface.
Between 1817 and 1823, Augustin-Jean Fresnel discovered that total internal reflection is accompanied by a non-trivial phase shift (that is, a phase shift that is not restricted to 0° or 180°), as the Fresnel reflection coefficient acquires a non-zero imaginary part. We shall now explain this effect for electromagnetic waves in the case of linear, homogeneous, isotropic, non-magnetic media. The phase shift turns out to be an "advance", which grows as the incidence angle increases beyond the critical angle, but which depends on the polarization of the incident wave.
In equations (), (), (), (), and (), we advance the phase by the angle "ϕ" if we replace by (that is, if we replace by ), with the result that the (complex) field is multiplied by . So a phase "advance" is equivalent to multiplication by a complex constant with a "negative" argument. This becomes more obvious when (e.g.) the field () is factored as formula_32 where the last factor contains the time-dependence.
To represent the polarization of the incident, reflected, or transmitted wave, the electric field adjacent to an interface can be resolved into two perpendicular components, known as the "s" and "p" components, which are parallel to the "surface" and the "plane" of incidence, respectively; in other words, the "s" and "p" components are respectively "square" and "parallel" to the plane of incidence.
For each component of polarization, the incident, reflected, or transmitted electric field in Eq.() has a certain direction, and can be represented by its (complex) scalar component in that direction. The reflection or transmission coefficient can then be defined as a "ratio" of complex components at the same point, or at infinitesimally separated points on opposite sides of the interface. But, in order to fix the "signs" of the coefficients, we must choose positive senses for the "directions". For the "s" components, the obvious choice is to say that the positive directions of the incident, reflected, and transmitted fields are all the same (e.g., the direction in Fig.11). For the "p" components, this article adopts the convention that the positive directions of the incident, reflected, and transmitted fields are inclined towards the same medium (that is, towards the same side of the interface, e.g. like the red arrows in Fig.11). But the reader should be warned that some books use a different convention for the "p" components, causing a different sign in the resulting formula for the reflection coefficient.
For the "s" polarization, let the reflection and transmission coefficients be and respectively. For the "p" polarization, let the corresponding coefficients be and . Then, for "linear, homogeneous, isotropic, non-magnetic" media, the coefficients are given by:
Now we suppose that the transmitted wave is evanescent. With the correct sign (+), substituting () into () gives
where
that is, is the index of the "internal" medium relative to the "external" one, or the index of the internal medium if the external one is a vacuum. So the magnitude of is 1, and the "argument" of is
which gives a phase "advance" of
Making the same substitution in (), we find that has the same denominator as with a positive real numerator (instead of a complex conjugate numerator) and therefore has "half" the argument of so that "the phase advance of the evanescent wave is half that of the reflected wave".
With the same choice of sign, substituting () into () gives
whose magnitude is 1, and whose argument is
which gives a phase "advance" of
Making the same substitution in (), we again find that the phase advance of the evanescent wave is "half" that of the reflected wave.
Equations () and () apply when where "θ" is the angle of incidence and "θ"c is the critical angle . These equations show that
For the reflection coefficients are given by equations () and (), and are "real", so that the phase shift is either 0° (if the coefficient is positive) or 180° (if the coefficient is negative).
In (), if we put formula_38 (Snell's law) and multiply the numerator and denominator by , we obtain
which is positive for all angles of incidence with a transmitted ray (since ), giving a phase shift of zero.
If we do likewise with (), the result is easily shown to be equivalent to
which is negative for small angles (that is, near normal incidence), but changes sign at "Brewster's angle", where "θ" and "θ"t are complementary. Thus the phase shift is 180° for small "θ" but switches to 0° at Brewster's angle. Combining the complementarity with Snell's law yields as Brewster's angle for dense-to-rare incidence.
Equations () and () are known as "Fresnel's sine law" and "Fresnel's tangent law". Both reduce to 0/0 at normal incidence, but yield the correct results in the limit as . That they have opposite signs as we approach normal incidence is an obvious disadvantage of the sign convention used in this article; the corresponding advantage is that they have the same signs at grazing incidence.
That completes the information needed to plot and for all angles of incidence. This is done in Fig.13, with in red and in blue, for three refractive indices. On the angle-of-incidence scale (horizontal axis), Brewster's angle is where (red) falls from 180° to 0°, and the critical angle is where both and (red and blue) start to rise again. To the left of the critical angle is the region of "partial" reflection, where both reflection coefficients are real (phase 0° or 180°) with magnitudes less than 1. To the right of the critical angle is the region of "total" reflection, where both reflection coefficients are complex with magnitudes equal to 1. In that region, the black curves show the phase advance of the "p" component relative to the "s" component:
It can be seen that a refractive index of 1.45 is not enough to give a 45° phase difference, whereas a refractive index of 1.5 is enough (by a slim margin) to give a 45° phase difference at two angles of incidence: about 50.2° and 53.3°.
This 45° relative shift is employed in Fresnel's invention, now known as the Fresnel rhomb, in which the angles of incidence are chosen such that the two internal reflections cause a total relative phase shift of 90° between the two polarizations of an incident wave. This device performs the same function as a birefringent quarter-wave plate, but is more achromatic (that is, the phase shift of the rhomb is less sensitive to wavelength). Either device may be used, for instance, to transform linear polarization to circular polarization (which Fresnel also discovered) and vice versa.
In Fig.13, is computed by a final subtraction; but there are other ways of expressing it. Fresnel himself, in 1823, gave a formula for . Born and Wolf (1970, p.50) derive an expression for and find its maximum analytically.
For TIR of a beam with finite width, the variation in the phase shift with the angle of incidence gives rise to the "Goos–Hänchen effect", which is a lateral shift of the reflected beam within the plane of incidence. This effect applies to linear polarization in the "s" or "p" direction. The "Imbert–Fedorov effect" is an analogous effect for circular or elliptical polarization, and produces a shift perpendicular to the plane of incidence.
Optical fibers exploit total internal reflection to carry signals over long distances with little attenuation. They are used in telecommunication cables, and in image-forming fiberscopes such as colonoscopes.
In the catadioptric Fresnel lens, invented by Augustin-Jean Fresnel for use in lighthouses, the outer prisms use TIR to deflect light from the lamp through a greater angle than would be possible with purely refractive prisms, but with less absorption of light (and less risk of tarnishing) than with conventional mirrors.
Other reflecting prisms that use TIR include the following (with some overlap between the categories):
Polarizing prisms: Although the Fresnel rhomb, which converts between linear and elliptical polarization, is not birefringent (doubly refractive), there are other kinds of prisms that combine birefringence with TIR in such a way that light of a particular polarization is totally reflected while light of the orthogonal polarization is at least partly transmitted. Examples include the Nicol prism, Glan–Thompson prism, Glan–Foucault prism (or "Foucault prism"), and Glan–Taylor prism.
Refractometers, which measure refractive indices, often use the critical angle.
Rain sensors for automatic windscreen/windshield wipers have been implemented using the principle that total internal reflection will guide an infrared beam from a source to a detector if the outer surface of the windshield is dry, but any water drops on the surface will divert some of the light.
Edge-lit LED panels, used (e.g.) for backlighting of LCD computer monitors, exploit TIR to confine the LED light to the acrylic glass pane, except that some of the light is scattered by etchings on one side of the pane, giving an approximately uniform luminous emittance.
Total internal reflection microscopy (TIRM) uses the evanescent wave to illuminate small objects close to the reflecting interface. The consequent scattering of the evanescent wave (a form of frustrated TIR), makes the objects appear bright when viewed from the "external" side. In the "total internal reflection fluorescence microscope" (TIRFM), instead of relying on simple scattering, we choose an evanescent wavelength short enough to cause fluorescence (Fig.15). The high sensitivity of the illumination to the distance from the interface allows measurement of extremely small displacements and forces.
A beam-splitter cube uses frustrated TIR to divide the power of the incoming beam between the transmitted and reflected beams.
Optical modulation can be accomplished by means of frustrated TIR with a variable gap. As the transmission coefficient is highly sensitive to the gap width (the function being approximately exponential until the gap is almost closed), this technique can achieve a large dynamic range.
Optical fingerprinting devices have used frustrated TIR to record images of persons' fingerprints without the use of ink (cf. Fig.11).
Gait analysis can be performed by using frustrated TIR with a high-speed camera, to capture and analyze footprints.
A gonioscope, used in optometry and ophthalmology for the diagnosis of glaucoma, "suppresses" TIR in order to look into the angle between the iris and the cornea. This view is usually blocked by TIR at the cornea-air interface. The gonioscope replaces the air with a higher-index medium, allowing transmission at oblique incidence, typically followed by reflection in a "mirror", which itself may be implemented using TIR.
The surprisingly comprehensive and largely correct explanations of the rainbow by Theodoric of Freiberg (written 1304–1310) and Kamāl al-Dīn al-Fārisī (), although sometimes mentioned in connection with total internal reflection (TIR), are of dubious relevance because the internal reflection of sunlight in a spherical raindrop is "not" total. But, according to Carl Benjamin Boyer, Theodoric's treatise on the rainbow also classified optical phenomena under five causes, the last of which was "a total reflection at the boundary of two transparent media". Theodoric's work was forgotten until it was rediscovered by Giovanni Battista Venturi in 1814.
Theodoric having fallen into obscurity, the discovery of TIR was generally attributed to Johannes Kepler, who published his findings in his "Dioptrice" in 1611. Although Kepler failed to find the true law of refraction, he showed by experiment that for air-to-glass incidence, the incident and refracted rays rotated in the same sense about the point of incidence, and that as the angle of incidence varied through ±90°, the angle of refraction (as we now call it) varied through ±42°. He was also aware that the incident and refracted rays were interchangeable. But these observations did not cover the case of a ray incident from glass to air at an angle beyond 42°, and Kepler promptly concluded that such a ray could only be "reflected".
René Descartes rediscovered the law of refraction and published it in his "Dioptrique" of 1637. In the same work he mentioned the senses of rotation of the incident and refracted rays and the condition of TIR. But he neglected to discuss the limiting case, and consequently failed give an expression for the critical angle, although he could easily have done so.
Christiaan Huygens, in his "Treatise on Light" (1690), paid much attention to the threshold at which the incident ray is "unable to penetrate into the other transparent substance". Although he gave neither a name nor an algebraic expression for the critical angle, he gave numerical examples for glass-to-air and water-to-air incidence, noted the large change in the angle of refraction for a small change in the angle of incidence near the critical angle, and cited this as the cause of the rapid increase in brightness of the reflected ray as the refracted ray approaches the tangent to the interface. Huygens' insight is confirmed by modern theory: in Eqs.() and () above, there is nothing to say that the reflection coefficients increase exceptionally steeply as "θ"t approaches 90°, except that, according to Snell's law, "θ"t itself is an increasingly steep function of "θ".
Huygens offered an explanation of TIR within the same framework as his explanations of the laws of rectilinear propagation, reflection, ordinary refraction, and even the extraordinary refraction of "Iceland crystal" (calcite). That framework rested on two premises: first, every point crossed by a propagating wavefront becomes a source of secondary wavefronts ("Huygens' principle"); and second, given an initial wavefront, any subsequent position of the wavefront is the envelope (common tangent surface) of all the secondary wavefronts emitted from the initial position. All cases of reflection or refraction by a surface are then explained simply by considering the secondary waves emitted from that surface. In the case of refraction from a medium of slower propagation to a medium of faster propagation, there is a certain obliquity of incidence beyond which it is impossible for the secondary wavefronts to form a common tangent in the second medium; this is what we now call the critical angle. As the incident wavefront approaches this critical obliquity, the refracted wavefront becomes concentrated against the refracting surface, augmenting the secondary waves that produce the reflection back into the first medium.
Huygens' system even accommodated "partial" reflection at the interface between different media, albeit vaguely, by analogy with the laws of collisions between particles of different sizes. However, as long as the wave theory continued to assume longitudinal waves, it had no chance of accommodating polarization, hence no chance of explaining the polarization-dependence of extraordinary refraction, or of the partial reflection coefficient, or of the phase shift in TIR.
Isaac Newton rejected the wave explanation of rectilinear propagation, believing that if light consisted of waves, it would "bend and spread every way" into the shadows. His corpuscular theory of light explained rectilinear propagation more simply, and it accounted for the ordinary laws of refraction and reflection, including TIR, on the hypothesis that the corpuscles of light were subject to a force acting perpendicular to the interface. In this model, for dense-to-rare incidence, the force was an attraction back towards the denser medium, and the critical angle was the angle of incidence at which the normal velocity of the approaching corpuscle was just enough to reach the far side of the force field; at more oblique incidence, the corpuscle would be turned back. Newton gave what amounts to a formula for the critical angle, albeit in words: "as the Sines are which measure the Refraction, so is the Sine of Incidence at which the total Reflexion begins, to the Radius of the Circle".
Newton went beyond Huygens in two ways. First, not surprisingly, Newton pointed out the relationship between TIR and "dispersion": when a beam of white light approaches a glass-to-air interface at increasing obliquity, the most strongly-refracted rays (violet) are the first to be "taken out" by "total Reflexion", followed by the less-refracted rays. Second, he observed that total reflection could be "frustrated" (as we now say) by laying together two prisms, one plane and the other slightly convex; and he explained this simply by noting that the corpuscles would be attracted not only to the first prism, but also to the second.
In two other ways, however, Newton's system was less coherent. First, his explanation of "partial" reflection depended not only on the supposed forces of attraction between corpuscles and media, but also on the more nebulous hypothesis of "Fits of easy Reflexion" and "Fits of easy Transmission". Second, although his corpuscles could conceivably have "sides" or "poles", whose orientations could conceivably determine whether the corpuscles suffered ordinary or extraordinary refraction in "Island-Crystal", his geometric description of the extraordinary refraction was theoretically unsupported and empirically inaccurate.
William Hyde Wollaston, in the first of a pair of papers read to the Royal Society of London in 1802, reported his invention of a refractometer based on the critical angle of incidence from an internal medium of known "refractive power" (refractive index) to an external medium whose index was to be measured. With this device, Wollaston measured the "refractive powers" of numerous materials, some of which were too opaque to permit direct measurement of an angle of refraction. Translations of his papers were published in France in 1803, and apparently came to the attention of Pierre-Simon Laplace.
According to Laplace's elaboration of Newton's theory of refraction, a corpuscle incident on a plane interface between two homogeneous isotropic media was subject to a force field that was symmetrical about the interface. If both media were transparent, total reflection would occur if the corpuscle were turned back before it exited the field in the second medium. But if the second medium were opaque, reflection would not be total unless the corpuscle were turned back before it left the "first" medium; this required a larger critical angle than the one given by Snell's law, and consequently impugned the validity of Wollaston's method for opaque media. Laplace combined the two cases into a single formula for the relative refractive index in terms of the critical angle (minimum angle of incidence for TIR). The formula contained a parameter which took one value for a transparent external medium and another value for an opaque external medium. Laplace's theory further predicted a relationship between refractive index and density for a given substance.
In 1807, Laplace's theory was tested experimentally by his protégé, Étienne-Louis Malus. Taking Laplace's formula for the refractive index as given, and using it to measure the refractive index of bees' wax in the liquid (transparent) state and the solid (opaque) state at various temperatures (hence various densities), Malus verified Laplace's relationship between refractive index and density.
But Laplace's theory implied that if the angle of incidence exceeded his modified critical angle, the reflection would be total even if the external medium was absorbent. Clearly this was wrong: in Eqs.() above, there is no threshold value of the angle "θ" beyond which "κ" becomes infinite; so the penetration depth of the evanescent wave (1/"κ") is always non-zero, and the external medium, if it is at all lossy, will attenuate the reflection. As to why Malus apparently observed such an angle for opaque wax, we must infer that there was a certain angle beyond which the attenuation of the reflection was so small that ATR was visually indistinguishable from TIR.
Fresnel came to the study of total internal reflection through his research on polarization. In 1811, François Arago discovered that polarized light was apparently "depolarized" in an orientation-dependent and color-dependent manner when passed through a slice of doubly-refractive crystal: the emerging light showed colors when viewed through an analyzer (second polarizer). "Chromatic polarization", as this phenomenon came to be called, was more thoroughly investigated in 1812 by Jean-Baptiste Biot. In 1813, Biot established that one case studied by Arago, namely quartz cut perpendicular to its optic axis, was actually a gradual rotation of the plane of polarization with distance.
In 1816, Fresnel offered his first attempt at a "wave-based" theory of chromatic polarization. Without (yet) explicitly invoking transverse waves, his theory treated the light as consisting of two perpendicularly polarized components. In 1817 he noticed that plane-polarized light seemed to be partly depolarized by total internal reflection, if initially polarized at an acute angle to the plane of incidence. By including total internal reflection in a chromatic-polarization experiment, he found that the apparently depolarized light was a mixture of components polarized parallel and perpendicular to the plane of incidence, and that the total reflection introduced a phase difference between them. Choosing an appropriate angle of incidence (not yet exactly specified) gave a phase difference of 1/8 of a cycle. Two such reflections from the "parallel faces" of "two coupled prisms" gave a phase difference of 1/4 of a cycle. In that case, if the light was initially polarized at 45° to the plane of incidence and reflection, it appeared to be "completely" depolarized after the two reflections. These findings were reported in a memoir submitted and read to the French Academy of Sciences in November 1817.
In 1821, Fresnel derived formulae equivalent to his sine and tangent laws Eqs.() and (), above by modeling light waves as transverse elastic waves with vibrations perpendicular to what had previously been called the plane of polarization. He promptly confirmed by experiment that the equations correctly predicted the direction of polarization of the reflected beam when the incident beam was polarized at 45° to the plane of incidence, for light incident from air onto glass or water. The experimental confirmation was reported in a "postscript" to the work in which Fresnel expounded his mature theory of chromatic polarization, based on transverse waves. Details of the derivation were given later, in a memoir read to the Academy in January 1823. The derivation combined conservation of energy with continuity of the "tangential" vibration at the interface, but failed to allow for any condition on the "normal" component of vibration.
Meanwhile, in a memoir submitted in December 1822, Fresnel coined the terms "linear polarization", "circular polarization", and "elliptical polarization". For "circular" polarization, the two perpendicular components were a quarter-cycle (±90°) out of phase.
The new terminology was useful in the memoir of January 1823, containing the detailed derivations of the sine and tangent laws: in that same memoir, Fresnel found that for angles of incidence greater than the critical angle, the resulting reflection coefficients were complex with unit magnitude. Noting that the magnitude represented the amplitude ratio as usual, he guessed that the argument represented the phase shift, and verified the hypothesis by experiment. The verification involved
This procedure was necessary because, with the technology of the time, one could not measure the "s" and "p" phase-shifts directly, and one could not measure an arbitrary degree of ellipticality of polarization, such as might be caused by the difference between the phase shifts. But one could verify that the polarization was "circular", because the brightness of the light was then insensitive to the orientation of the analyzer.
For glass with a refractive index of 1.51, Fresnel calculated that a 45° phase difference between the two reflection coefficients (hence a 90° difference after two reflections) required an angle of incidence of 48°37' or 54°37'. He cut a rhomb to the latter angle and found that it performed as expected. Thus the specification of the Fresnel rhomb was completed. Similarly, Fresnel calculated and verified the angle of incidence that would give a 90° phase difference after "three" reflections at the same angle, and "four" reflections at the same angle. In each case there were two solutions, and in each case he reported that the larger angle of incidence gave an accurate circular polarization (for an initial linear polarization at 45° to the plane of reflection). For the case of three reflections he also tested the smaller angle, but found that it gave some coloration due to the proximity of the critical angle and its slight dependence on wavelength. (Compare Fig.13 above, which shows that the phase difference is more sensitive to the refractive index for smaller angles of incidence.)
For added confidence, Fresnel predicted and verified that four total internal reflections at 68°27' would give an accurate circular polarization if two of the reflections had water as the external medium while the other two had air, but not if the reflecting surfaces were all wet or all dry.
Fresnel's deduction of the phase shift in TIR is thought to have been the first occasion on which a physical meaning was attached to the argument of a complex number. Although this reasoning was applied without the benefit of knowing that light waves were electromagnetic, it passed the test of experiment, and survived remarkably intact after James Clerk Maxwell changed the presumed nature of the waves. Meanwhile, Fresnel's success inspired James MacCullagh and Augustin-Louis Cauchy, beginning in 1836, to analyze reflection from metals by using the Fresnel equations with a complex refractive index. The imaginary part of the complex index represents absorption.
The term "critical angle", used for convenience in the above narrative, is anachronistic: it apparently dates from 1873.
In the 20th century, quantum electrodynamics reinterpreted the amplitude of an electromagnetic wave in terms of the probability of finding a photon. In this framework, partial transmission and frustrated TIR concern the probability of a photon crossing a boundary, and attenuated total reflectance concerns the probability of a photon being absorbed on the other side.
Research into the more subtle aspects of the phase shift in TIR, including the Goos–Hänchen and Imbert–Fedorov effects and their quantum interpretations, has continued into the 21st century. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30426 |
The Inklings
The Inklings were an informal literary discussion group associated with the University of Oxford for nearly two decades between the early 1930s and late 1949. The Inklings were literary enthusiasts who praised the value of narrative in fiction and encouraged the writing of fantasy.
The more regular members of the Inklings, many of them academics at the University, included:
More infrequent visitors included:
Guests included:
"Properly speaking," wrote Warren Lewis, "the Inklings was neither a club nor a literary society, though it partook of the nature of both. There were no rules, officers, agendas, or formal elections." As was typical for university literary groups in their time and place, the Inklings were all male.
Readings and discussions of the members' unfinished works were the principal purposes of meetings. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings", Lewis's "Out of the Silent Planet", and Williams's "All Hallows' Eve" were among the novels first read to the Inklings. Tolkien's fictional Notion Club (see "Sauron Defeated") was based on the Inklings. Meetings were not all serious; the Inklings amused themselves by having competitions to see who could read the notoriously bad prose of Amanda McKittrick Ros for the longest without laughing.
The name was associated originally with a society of Oxford University's University College, initiated by the then undergraduate Edward Tangye Lean circa 1931, for the purpose of reading aloud unfinished compositions. The society consisted of students and dons, among them Tolkien and Lewis. When Lean left Oxford during 1933, the society ended, and Tolkien and Lewis transferred its name to their group at Magdalen College. On the association between the two 'Inklings' societies, Tolkien later said "although our habit was to read aloud compositions of various kinds (and lengths!), this association and its habit would in fact have come into being at that time, whether the original short-lived club had ever existed or not."
Until late 1949, Inklings readings and discussions usually occurred during Thursday evenings in C. S. Lewis's college rooms at Magdalen College. The Inklings and friends were also known to informally gather on Tuesdays at midday at a local public house, The Eagle and Child, familiarly and alliteratively known in the Oxford community as The Bird and Baby, or simply The Bird. The publican, Charlie Blagrove, permitted Lewis and friends the use of his private parlour for privacy; the wall and door separating it from the public bar were removed in 1962. Later pub meetings were at The Lamb and Flag across the street, and in earlier years the Inklings also met irregularly in yet other pubs, but The Eagle and Child is the best known.
The Marion E. Wade Center, located at Wheaton College, Illinois, is devoted to the work of seven British authors including four Inklings and Dorothy L. Sayers. Overall, the Wade Center has more than 11,000 volumes including first editions and critical works. Other holdings on the seven foremost authors (G. K. Chesterton, George MacDonald, and Inklings Owen Barfield, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams) include letters, manuscripts, audio and video tapes, artwork, dissertations, periodicals, photographs, and related materials. Wheaton also has a creative writing critique group inspired by the Inklings called "WhInklings".
The Mythopoeic Society is a literary organization devoted to the study of mythopoeic literature, particularly the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and Charles Williams, founded in 1967 and incorporated as a non-profit organization in 1971.
A resurrection of the Inklings in Oxford was made in 2006; the group still meets every Sunday evening, currently at St Cross College nearby the Eagle and Child. It has similar aims and methods to the original group, albeit with somewhat gentler criticism. Also at Oxford, the C.S. Lewis Society promotes interest in the works of Lewis, Tolkien, Williams, Barfield, Sayers, and other notable Christian authors, with weekly lectures delivered by guest speakers during term time. Founded in 1982, the society, which is associated with the University of Oxford, meets during full term at Pusey House.
Named after the Inklings is The Inklings Society based in Aachen, and their yearbook, "Inklings Jahrbuch für Literatur und Ästhetik", published from 1983 by "Brendow", Moers. The yearbook contains scholarly articles and reviews, dealing with Inklings members in particular, but also with fantasy literature and mythopoeia in general.
The undergraduate literary and art magazine at Miami University in Oxford, OH, is named "Inklings". They also meet on Thursday nights.
After author/singer/songwriter Andrew Peterson's first visit to the Oxford home of C. S. Lewis, he returned to Nashville with a conviction that community nourishes good and lasting work. The Rabbit Room, the name of the back room of the pub where the Oxford Inklings (including Lewis, Tolkien, and Charles Williams) engaged in convivial talk, began as a simple blog of contributing authors, songwriters, artists, and pastors.
In "Swan Song" (1947) by Edmund Crispin a discussion takes place between Professor Gervase Fen and others in the front parlour of the Eagle and Child.
In the TV programme "Lewis", there is an episode called "Allegory of Love" in which a reborn version of the Inklings features.
The Inklings also reappear in Lewis "Magnus Opus" in 2016.
"The Late Scholar" (2013) by Jill Paton Walsh is a sequel, set in 1951, to the Lord Peter Wimsey novels of Dorothy L. Sayers. Peter Wimsey, now 17th Duke of Denver, is investigating a mystery in the fictional St Severin's College, Oxford with his friend Charles Parker, now an assistant chief constable.
Three of the founding members of the Inklings - Tolkien, Lewis, and Williams - are the main characters of James A. Owen's fantasy series, "The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica". (Warren Lewis and Hugo Dyson are recurring minor characters throughout the series.) The existence and founding of the organization is also alluded to, in the third novel, "The Indigo King". (The timeline of the books is different from the historical timeline at points, but these are dealt with partway through the series by the explanation that the books take place in an alternate history to our own.) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30428 |
Treaty
A treaty is a formal written agreement entered into by actors in international law, namely sovereign states and international organizations. A treaty may also be known as an international agreement, protocol, covenant, convention, pact, or exchange of letters, among other terms. Regardless of terminology, only instruments that are binding upon the parties are considered treaties subject to international law.
Treaties can be loosely compared to contracts, in that the parties willingly assume binding obligations among themselves, and any party that breaches its obligations can be held liable under international law. Treaties vary significantly in substance and complexity, and may govern a wide variety of matters, such as territorial boundaries, trade and commerce, political alliances, and more.
International law on treaties have mostly been codified by the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, which sets forth the rules and procedures for creating, enforcing, amending, and interpreting treaties. As one of the earliest manifestations of international relations, treaties are recognized as a primary source of international law.
A treaty is an official, express written agreement that states use to legally bind themselves. A treaty is an official document that expresses that agreement in words; it is also the objective outcome of a ceremonial occasion which acknowledges the parties and their defined relationships. There is no prerequisite of academic accreditation or cross-professional contextual knowledge required to publish a treaty.
Since the late 19th century, most treaties have followed a fairly consistent format. A treaty typically begins with a preamble describing the "High Contracting Parties" and their shared objectives in executing the treaty, as well as summarizing any underlying events (such as the aftermath of a war in the case of a peace treaty). Modern preambles are sometimes structured as a single very long sentence formatted into multiple paragraphs for readability, in which each of the paragraphs begins with a gerund (desiring, recognizing, having, etc.).
The High Contracting Parties; referred to as either the official title of the head of state (but not including the personal name), e.g. "His Majesty The King of X" or "His Excellency The President of Y", or alternatively in the form of "" Government of Z""; are enumerated, and along with the full names and titles of their plenipotentiary representatives, and a boilerplate clause about how their representatives have communicated (or exchanged) their full powers (i.e., the official documents appointing them to act on behalf of their respective high contracting party) and found them in good or proper form. However, under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties if the representative is the head of state, head of government or minister of foreign affairs, no special document is needed, as holding such high office is sufficient.
The end of the preamble and the start of the actual agreement is often signaled by the words "have agreed as follows".
After the preamble comes numbered articles, which contain the substance of the parties' actual agreement. Each article heading usually encompasses a paragraph. A long treaty may further group articles under chapter headings.
Modern treaties, regardless of subject matter, usually contain articles governing where the final authentic copies of the treaty will be deposited and how any subsequent disputes as to their interpretation will be peacefully resolved.
The end of a treaty, the eschatocol (or closing protocol), is often signaled by a clause like "in witness whereof" or "in faith whereof", the parties have affixed their signatures, followed by the words "DONE at", then the site(s) of the treaty's execution and the date(s) of its execution. The date is typically written in its most formal, non-numerical form. For example, the Charter of the United Nations was "DONE at the city of San Francisco the twenty-sixth day of June, one thousand nine hundred and forty-five". If the treaty is executed in multiple copies in different languages, that fact is always noted and is followed by a stipulation that the versions in different languages are equally authentic.
The signatures of the parties' representatives follow at the very end. When the text of a treaty is later reprinted, such as in a collection of treaties currently in effect, an editor will often append the dates on which the respective parties ratified the treaty and on which it came into effect for each party.
Bilateral treaties are concluded between two states or entities. It is possible for a bilateral treaty to have more than two parties; for example, each of the bilateral treaties between Switzerland and the European Union (EU) has seventeen parties: The parties are divided into two groups, the Swiss ("on the one part") and the EU and its member states ("on the other part"). The treaty establishes rights and obligations between the Swiss and the EU and the member states severally—it does not establish any rights and obligations amongst the EU and its member states.
A multilateral treaty is concluded among several countries, establishing rights and obligations between each party and every other party. Multilateral treaties may be regional or may involve states across the world. Treaties of "mutual guarantee" are international compacts, e.g., the Treaty of Locarno which guarantees each signatory against attack from another.
Reservations are essentially to a state's acceptance of a treaty. Reservations are unilateral statements purporting to exclude or to modify the legal obligation and its effects on the reserving state. These must be included at the time of signing or ratification, i.e. "a party cannot add a reservation after it has already joined a treaty". Article 19 of the Vienna Convention on the law of Treaties in 1969.
Originally, international law was unaccepting of treaty reservations, rejecting them unless all parties to the treaty accepted the same reservations. However, in the interest of encouraging the largest number of states to join treaties, a more permissive rule regarding reservations has emerged. While some treaties still expressly forbid any reservations, they are now generally permitted to the extent that they are not inconsistent with the goals and purposes of the treaty.
When a state limits its treaty obligations through reservations, other states party to that treaty have the option to accept those reservations, object to them, or object and oppose them. If the state accepts them (or fails to act at all), both the reserving state and the accepting state are relieved of the reserved legal obligation as concerns their legal obligations to each other (accepting the reservation does not change the accepting state's legal obligations as concerns other parties to the treaty). If the state opposes, the parts of the treaty affected by the reservation drop out completely and no longer create any legal obligations on the reserving and accepting state, again only as concerns each other. Finally, if the state objects and opposes, there are no legal obligations under that treaty between those two state parties whatsoever. The objecting and opposing state essentially refuses to acknowledge the reserving state is a party to the treaty at all.
There are three ways an existing treaty can be amended. First, a formal amendment requires State parties to the treaty to go through the ratification process all over again. The re-negotiation of treaty provisions can be long and protracted, and often some parties to the original treaty will not become parties to the amended treaty. When determining the legal obligations of states, one party to the original treaty and one party to the amended treaty, the states will only be bound by the terms they both agreed upon. Treaties can also be amended informally by the treaty executive council when the changes are only procedural, technical change in customary international law can also amend a treaty, where state behavior evinces a new interpretation of the legal obligations under the treaty. Minor corrections to a treaty may be adopted by a procès-verbal; but a procès-verbal is generally reserved for changes to rectify obvious errors in the text adopted, i.e. where the text adopted does not correctly reflect the intention of the parties adopting it.
In international law and international relations, a protocol is generally a treaty or international agreement that supplements a previous treaty or international agreement. A protocol can amend the previous treaty, or add additional provisions. Parties to the earlier agreement are not required to adopt the protocol. Sometimes this is made clearer by calling it an "optional protocol", especially where many parties to the first agreement do not support the protocol.
Some examples: the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) established a framework for the development of binding greenhouse gas emission limits, while the Kyoto Protocol contained the specific provisions and regulations later agreed upon.
Treaties may be seen as 'self-executing', in that merely becoming a party puts the treaty and all of its obligations in action. Other treaties may be non-self-executing and require 'implementing legislation'—a change in the domestic law of a state party that will direct or enable it to fulfill treaty obligations. An example of a treaty requiring such legislation would be one mandating local prosecution by a party for particular crimes.
The division between the two is often not clear and is often politicized in disagreements within a government over a treaty, since a non-self-executing treaty cannot be acted on without the proper change in domestic law. If a treaty requires implementing legislation, a state may be in default of its obligations by the failure of its legislature to pass the necessary domestic laws.
The language of treaties, like that of any law or contract, must be interpreted when the wording does not seem clear or it is not immediately apparent how it should be applied in a perhaps unforeseen circumstance. The Vienna Convention states that treaties are to be interpreted "in good faith" according to the "ordinary meaning given to the terms of the treaty in their context and in the light of its object and purpose". International legal experts also often invoke the 'principle of maximum effectiveness,' which interprets treaty language as having the fullest force and effect possible to establish obligations between the parties.
No one party to a treaty can impose its particular interpretation of the treaty upon the other parties. Consent may be implied, however, if the other parties fail to explicitly disavow that initially unilateral interpretation, particularly if that state has acted upon its view of the treaty without complaint. Consent by all parties to the treaty to a particular interpretation has the legal effect of adding another clause to the treaty – this is commonly called an 'authentic interpretation'.
International tribunals and arbiters are often called upon to resolve substantial disputes over treaty interpretations. To establish the meaning in context, these judicial bodies may review the preparatory work from the negotiation and drafting of the treaty as well as the final, signed treaty itself.
One significant part of treaty-making is that signing a treaty implies a recognition that the other side is a sovereign state and that the agreement being considered is enforceable under international law. Hence, nations can be very careful about terming an agreement to be a treaty. For example, within the United States, agreements between states are compacts and agreements between states and the federal government or between agencies of the government are memoranda of understanding.
Another situation can occur when one party wishes to create an obligation under international law, but the other party does not. This factor has been at work with respect to discussions between North Korea and the United States over security guarantees and nuclear proliferation.
The definition of the English word 'Treaty' varies depending on the professional context(s).
Treaties are not necessarily permanently binding upon the signatory parties. As obligations in international law are traditionally viewed as arising only from the consent of states, many treaties expressly allow a state to withdraw as long as it follows certain procedures of notification. For example, the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs provides that the treaty will terminate if, as a result of denunciations, the number of parties falls below 40. Many treaties expressly forbid withdrawal. Article 56 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties provides that where a treaty is silent over whether or not it can be denounced there is a rebuttable presumption that it cannot be unilaterally denounced unless:
The possibility of withdrawal depends on the terms of the treaty and its "travaux preparatory. "It has, for example, been held that it is not possible to withdraw from the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. When North Korea declared its intention to do this the Secretary-General of the United Nations, acting as registrar, said that original signatories of the ICCPR had not overlooked the possibility of explicitly providing for withdrawal, but rather had deliberately intended not to provide for it. Consequently, withdrawal was not possible.
In practice, because of sovereignty, any state can purport to withdraw from any treaty at any time, and cease to abide by its terms. The question of whether this is lawful can be regarded as the success or failure to anticipate community acquiescence or enforcement, that is, how other states will react; for instance, another state might impose sanctions or go to war over a treaty violation.
If a state party's withdrawal is successful, its obligations under that treaty are considered terminated, and withdrawal by one party from a bilateral treaty terminates the treaty. When a state withdraws from a multilateral treaty, that treaty will still otherwise remain in force among the other parties, unless, it otherwise should or could be interpreted as agreed upon between the remaining states parties to the treaty.
If a party has materially violated or breached its treaty obligations, the other parties may invoke this breach as grounds for temporarily suspending their obligations to that party under the treaty. A material breach may also be invoked as grounds for permanently terminating the treaty itself.
A treaty breach does not automatically suspend or terminate treaty relations, however. It depends on how the other parties regard the breach and how they resolve to respond to it. Sometimes treaties will provide for the seriousness of a breach to be determined by a tribunal or other independent arbiter. An advantage of such an arbiter is that it prevents a party from prematurely and perhaps wrongfully suspending or terminating its own obligations due to another's an alleged material breach.
Treaties sometimes include provisions for self-termination, meaning that the treaty is automatically terminated if certain defined conditions are met. Some treaties are intended by the parties to be only temporarily binding and are set to expire on a given date. Other treaties may self-terminate if the treaty is meant to exist only under certain conditions.
A party may claim that a treaty should be terminated, even absent an express provision, if there has been a fundamental change in circumstances. Such a change is sufficient if unforeseen, if it undermined the “essential basis” of consent by a party if it radically transforms the extent of obligations between the parties, and if the obligations are still to be performed. A party cannot base this claim on change brought about by its own breach of the treaty. This claim also cannot be used to invalidate treaties that established or redrew political boundaries.
There are several reasons an otherwise valid and agreed upon treaty may be rejected as a binding international agreement, most of which involve problems created at the formation of the treaty. For example, the serial Japan-Korea treaties of 1905, 1907 and 1910 were protested; and they were confirmed as "already null and void" in the 1965 Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea.
A party's consent to a treaty is invalid if it had been given by an agent or body without power to do so under that state's domestic laws. States are reluctant to inquire into the internal affairs and processes of other states, and so a "manifest violation" is required such that it would be "objectively evident to any State dealing with the matter". A strong presumption exists internationally that a head of state has acted within his proper authority. It seems that no treaty has ever actually been invalidated on this provision.
Consent is also invalid if it is given by a representative who ignored restrictions he is subject to by his sovereign during the negotiations if the other parties to the treaty were notified of those restrictions prior to his signing.
According to the preamble in The Law of Treaties, treaties are a source of international law. If an act or lack thereof is condemned under international law, the act will not assume international legality even if approved by internal law. This means that in case of a conflict with domestic law, international law will always prevail.
Articles 46–53 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties set out the only ways that treaties can be invalidated—considered unenforceable and void under international law. A treaty will be invalidated due to either the circumstances by which a state party joined the treaty or due to the content of the treaty itself. Invalidation is separate from withdrawal, suspension, or termination (addressed above), which all involve an alteration in the consent of the parties of a previously valid treaty rather than the invalidation of that consent in the first place.
A governmental leader's consent may be invalidated if there was an erroneous understanding of a fact or situation at the time of conclusion, which formed the "essential basis" of the state's consent. Consent will not be invalidated if the misunderstanding was due to the state's own conduct, or if the truth should have been evident.
Consent will also be invalidated if it was induced by the fraudulent conduct of another party, or by the direct or indirect "corruption" of its representative by another party to the treaty. Coercion of either a representative or the state itself through the threat or use of force, if used to obtain the consent of that state to a treaty, will invalidate that consent.
A treaty is null and void if it is in violation of a peremptory norm. These norms, unlike other principles of customary law, are recognized as permitting no violations and so cannot be altered through treaty obligations. These are limited to such universally accepted prohibitions as those against the aggressive use of force, genocide and other crimes against humanity, piracy, hostilities directed at civilian population, racial discrimination and apartheid, slavery and torture, meaning that no state can legally assume an obligation to commit or permit such acts.
The United Nations Charter states that treaties must be registered with the UN to be invoked before it or enforced in its judiciary organ, the International Court of Justice. This was done to prevent the proliferation of secret treaties that occurred in the 19th and 20th centuries. Section 103 of the Charter also states that its members' obligations under it outweigh any competing obligations under other treaties.
After their adoption, treaties, as well as their amendments, have to follow the official legal procedures of the United Nations, as applied by the Office of Legal Affairs, including signature, ratification and entry into force.
In function and effectiveness, the UN has been compared to the pre-Constitutional United States Federal government by some, giving a comparison between modern treaty law and the historical Articles of Confederation.
The constitution of Australia allows the executive government to enter into treaties, but the practice is for treaties to be tabled in both houses of parliament at least 15 days before signing. Treaties are considered a source of Australian law but sometimes require an act of parliament to be passed depending on their nature. Treaties are administered and maintained by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which advised that the "general position under Australian law is that treaties which Australia has joined, apart from those terminating a state of war, are not directly and automatically incorporated into Australian law. Signature and ratification do not, of themselves, make treaties operate domestically. In the absence of legislation, treaties cannot impose obligations on individuals nor create rights in domestic law. Nevertheless, international law, including treaty law, is a legitimate and important influence on the development of the common law and may be used in the interpretation of statutes." Treaties can be implemented by executive action, and often, existing laws are sufficient to ensure a treaty is honored.
Australian treaties generally fall under the following categories: extradition, postal agreements and money orders, trade and international conventions.
The federal constitution of Brazil states that the power to enter into treaties is vested in the president of Brazil and that such treaties must be approved by the Congress of Brazil (Articles 84, Clause VIII, and 49, Clause I). In practice, that has been interpreted as meaning that the executive branch is free to negotiate and sign a treaty but that its ratification by the president requires the prior approval of Congress. Additionally, the Supreme Federal Court has ruled that after ratification and entry into force, a treaty must be incorporated into domestic law by means of a presidential decree published in the federal register for it to be valid in Brazil and applicable by the Brazilian authorities.
The court has established that treaties are subject to constitutional review and enjoy the same hierarchical position as ordinary legislation ("leis ordinárias", or "ordinary laws", in Portuguese). A more recent ruling by the Supreme Court of Brazil in 2008 has altered that somewhat by stating that treaties containing human rights provisions enjoy a status above that of ordinary legislation, subject to only the constitution itself. Additionally, the 45th Amendment to the constitution makes human rights treaties approved by Congress by a special procedure enjoy the same hierarchical position as a constitutional amendment. The hierarchical position of treaties in relation to domestic legislation is of relevance to the discussion on whether and how the latter can abrogate the former and vice versa.
The constitution does not have a supremacy clause with the same effects as the one in the US constitution, which is of interest to the discussion on the relation between treaties and legislation of the states of Brazil.
In India, subjects are divided into three lists: union, state and concurrent. In the normal legislation process, the subjects on the union list must be legislated by the Parliament of India. For subjects on the state list, only the respective state legislature can legislate. For subjects on the concurrent list, both governments can make laws. However, to implement international treaties, Parliament can legislate on any subject and even override the general division of subject lists.
In the United States, the term "treaty" has a different, more restricted legal sense than in international law. US law distinguishes what it calls "treaties" from "executive agreements", which are either "congressional-executive agreements" or "sole executive agreements". The classes are all equally treaties under international law; they are distinct only in internal US law.
The distinctions are primarily concerning their method of approval. Treaties require advice and consent by two-thirds of the Senators present, but sole executive agreements may be executed by the President acting alone. Some treaties grant the President the authority to fill in the gaps with executive agreements, rather than additional treaties or protocols. Finally, congressional-executive agreements require majority approval by both the House and the Senate before or after the treaty is signed by the President.
Currently, international agreements are ten times more likely to be executed by executive agreement. Despite the relative ease of executive agreements, the President still often chooses to pursue the formal treaty process over an executive agreement to gain congressional support on matters that require the Congress to pass implementing legislation or appropriate funds as well as for agreements that impose long-term, complex legal obligations on the US. For example, the deal by the United States, Iran, and other countries is not a treaty.
See the article on the Bricker Amendment for the history of the relationship between treaty powers and Constitutional provisions.
The US Supreme Court ruled in the Head Money Cases that "treaties" do not have a privileged position over Acts of Congress and can be repealed or modified, for the purposes of US law, by any subsequent Act of Congress, just like any other regular law. The court also ruled in "Reid v. Covert" that treaty provisions that conflict with the US Constitution are null and void under US law.
Treaties formed an important part of European colonization and, in many parts of the world, Europeans attempted to legitimize their sovereignty by signing treaties with indigenous peoples. In most cases, these treaties were in extremely disadvantageous terms to the native people, who often did not appreciate the implications of what they were signing.
In some rare cases, such as with Ethiopia and Qing Dynasty China, the local governments were able to use the treaties to at least mitigate the impact of European colonization. This involved learning the intricacies of European diplomatic customs and then using the treaties to prevent power from overstepping their agreement or by playing different powers against each other.
In other cases, such as New Zealand with the Māori and Canada with its First Nations people, treaties allowed native peoples to maintain a minimum amount of autonomy. Such treaties between colonizers and indigenous peoples are an important part of political discourse in the late 20th and early 21st century, the treaties being discussed have international standing as has been stated in a treaty study by the UN.
In the case of Indigenous Australians, no treaty was ever entered into with the Indigenous peoples entitling the Europeans to land ownership, mostly adopting the doctrine of "terra nullius" (with the exception of South Australia). This concept was later overturned by "Mabo v Queensland", which established the concept of native title in Australia well after colonization was already a "fait accompli".
On 10 December 2019, the Victorian First Peoples' Assembly met for the first time in the Upper House of the Parliament of Victoria in Melbourne. The main aim of the Assembly is to work out the rules by which individual treaties would be negotiated between the Victorian Government and individual Aboriginal Victorian peoples. It will also establish an independent Treaty Authority, which will oversee the negotiations between the Aboriginal groups and the Victorian Government and ensure fairness.
Prior to 1871, the government of the United States regularly entered into treaties with Native Americans but the Indian Appropriations Act of March 3, 1871 (ch. 120, 16 Stat. 563) had a rider () attached that effectively ended the President's treaty-making by providing that no Indian nation or tribe shall be acknowledged as an independent nation, tribe, or power with whom the United States may contract by treaty. The federal government continued to provide similar contractual relations with the Indian tribes after 1871 by agreements, statutes, and executive orders. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30432 |
Transaction Processing Facility
Transaction Processing Facility (TPF) is an IBM real-time operating system for mainframe computers descended from the IBM System/360 family, including zSeries and System z9.
TPF delivers fast, high-volume, high-throughput transaction processing, handling large, continuous loads of essentially simple transactions across large, geographically dispersed networks.
While there are other industrial-strength transaction processing systems, notably IBM's own CICS and IMS, TPF's specialty is extreme volume, large numbers of concurrent users, and very fast response times. For example, VISA credit card transaction processing during the peak holiday shopping season.
The TPF passenger reservation application PARS, or its international version IPARS, is used by many airlines.
One of TPF's major optional components is a high performance, specialized database facility called "TPF Database Facility" (TPFDF).
A close cousin of TPF, the transaction monitor ALCS, was developed by IBM to integrate TPF services into the more common mainframe operating system MVS, now z/OS.
TPF evolved from the Airlines Control Program (ACP), a free package developed in the mid-1960s by IBM in association with major North American and European airlines. In 1979, IBM introduced TPF as a replacement for ACP — and as a priced software product. The new name suggests its greater scope and evolution into non-airline related entities.
TPF was traditionally an IBM System/370 assembly language environment for performance reasons, and many TPF assembler applications persist. However, more recent versions of TPF encourage the use of C. Another programming language called SabreTalk was born and died on TPF.
IBM announced the delivery of the current release of TPF, dubbed z/TPF V1.1, in September 2005. Most significantly, z/TPF adds 64-bit addressing and mandates use of the 64-bit GNU development tools.
The GCC compiler and the DIGNUS Systems/C++ and Systems/C are the only supported compilers for z/TPF. The Dignus compilers offer reduced source code changes when moving from TPF 4.1 to z/TPF.
Current users include Sabre (reservations), VISA Inc. (authorizations), American Airlines, American Express (authorizations), [DXC Technology] SHARES (reservations - formerly EDS, HPES), Holiday Inn (central reservations), Amtrak, Marriott International, Travelport (Galileo, Apollo, Worldspan, Axess Japan GDS), Citibank, Air Canada, Trenitalia (reservations), Delta Air Lines (reservations and operations) and Japan Airlines.
TPF is capable of running on a multiprocessor, that is, on systems in which there is more than one CPU. Within the LPAR, the CPUs are referred to as "instruction streams" or simply I-streams. When running on a LPAR with more than one I-stream, TPF is said to be running tightly coupled. TPF adheres to SMP concepts; no concept of NUMA-based distinctions between memory addresses exist.
The depth of the "CPU ready list" is measured as any incoming transaction is received, and queued for the I-stream with the lowest demand, thus maintaining continuous load balancing among available processors. In cases where loosely coupled configurations are populated by multiprocessor CPCs ("Central Processing Complex", i.e. the physical machine packaged in one "system cabinet"), SMP takes place within the CPC as described here, whereas sharing of inter-CPC resources takes place as described under Loosely coupled, below.
In the TPF architecture, all memory (except for a 4KB-sized "prefix area") is shared among all I-streams. In instances where memory-resident data must or should be kept separated by I-stream, the programmer typically allocates a storage area into a number of "subsections" equal to the number of I-streams, then accesses the desired I-stream associated area by taking the base address of the allocated area, and adding to it the product of the I-stream relative number times the size of each subsection.
TPF is capable of supporting multiple mainframes (of any size themselves — be it single I-stream to multiple I-stream) connecting to and operating on a common database. Currently, 32 IBM mainframes may share the TPF database; if such a system were in operation, it would be called 32-way loosely coupled. The simplest loosely coupled system would be two IBM mainframes sharing one DASD (Direct Access Storage Device). In this case, the control program would be equally loaded into core and each program or record on DASD could be potentially accessed by either mainframe.
In order to serialize accesses between data records on a loosely coupled system, a practice known as record locking must be used. This means that when one mainframe processor obtains a hold on a record, the mechanism must prevent all other processors from obtaining the same hold and communicate to the requesting processors that they are waiting. Within any tightly coupled system, this is easy to manage between I-streams via the use of the Record Hold Table. However, when the lock is obtained offboard of the TPF processor in the DASD control unit, an external process must be used. Historically, the record locking was accomplished in the DASD control unit via an RPQ known as LLF (Limited Locking Facility) and later ELLF (extended). LLF and ELLF were both replaced by the Multipathing Lock Facility (MPLF). To run, clustered (loosely coupled) z/TPF requires either MPLF in all disk control units or an alternative locking device called a Coupling Facility.
Records that absolutely must be managed by a record locking process are those which are processor shared. In TPF, most record accesses are done by using record type and ordinal. So if you had defined a record type in the TPF system of 'FRED' and gave it 100 records or ordinals, then in a processor shared scheme, record type 'FRED' ordinal '5' would resolve to exactly the same file address on DASD — clearly necessitating the use of a record locking mechanism.
All processor shared records on a TPF system will be accessed via exactly the same file address which will resolve to exactly the same location.
A processor unique record is one that is defined such that each processor expected to be in the loosely coupled complex has a record type of 'FRED' and perhaps 100 ordinals. However, if a user on any 2 or more processors examines the file address that record type 'FRED', ordinal '5' resolves to, they will note a different physical address is used.
TPF is not a general-purpose operating system (GPOS). TPF's specialized role is to process transaction input messages, then return output messages on a 1:1 basis at extremely high volume with short maximum elapsed time limits.
TPF has no built-in graphical user interface functionality, and TPF has never offered direct graphical display facilities: to implement it on the host would be considered an unnecessary and potentially harmful diversion of real-time system resources. TPF's user interface is command-line driven with simple text display terminals that scroll upwards, and there are no mouse-driven cursors, windows, or icons on a TPF Prime CRAS ("Computer room agent set" — which is best thought of as the "operator's console"). Character messages are intended to be the mode of communications with human users; all work is accomplished via the use of the command line, similar to UNIX without X. There are several products available which connect to Prime CRAS and provide graphical interface functions to the TPF operator, such as "TPF Operations Server". "Graphical interfaces for end users, if desired, must be provided by external systems". Such systems perform analysis on character content (see Screen scrape) and convert the message to/from the desired graphical form, depending on its context.
Being a specialized purpose operating system, TPF does not host a compiler/assembler, text editor, nor implement the concept of a desktop as one might expect to find in a GPOS. TPF application source code is commonly stored in external systems, and likewise built "offline". Starting with z/TPF 1.1, Linux is the supported build platform; executable programs intended for z/TPF operation must observe the ELF format for s390x-ibm-linux.
Using TPF requires a knowledge of its "Command Guide" since there is no support for an online command "directory" or "man"/help facility to which users might be accustomed. Commands created and shipped by IBM for the system administration of TPF are called "functional messages" -- commonly referred to as "Z-messages", as they are all prefixed with the letter "Z". Other letters are reserved so that customers may write their own commands.
TPF implements debugging in a "distributed client-server" mode; which is necessary because of the system's "headless", multi-processing nature: pausing the entire system in order to trap a single task would be highly counter-productive. Debugger packages have been developed by 3rd party vendors who took very different approaches to the "break/continue" operations required at the TPF "host", implementing unique communications protocols used in traffic between the human developer running the "debugger client" & server-side "debug controller", as well as the form and function of debugger program operations at the client side. Two examples of 3rd party debugger packages are "Step by Step Trace" from Bedford Associates and "CMSTPF", "TPF/GI", & "zTPFGI" from TPF Software, Inc.. Neither package is wholly compatible with the other, nor with IBM's own offering. IBM's debugging client offering is packaged in an IDE called "IBM TPF Toolkit".
TPF is highly optimized to permit messages from the supported network to either be switched out to another location, routed to an application (specific set of programs) or to permit extremely efficient accesses to database records.
Historically, all data on the TPF system had to fit in fixed record (and core block) sizes of 381, 1055 and 4K bytes. This was due in part to the physical record sizes of blocks located on DASD. Much overhead was saved by freeing up any part of the operating system from breaking large data entities into smaller ones during file operations, and reassembling same during read operations. Since IBM hardware does I/O via the use of channels and channel programs, TPF would generate very small and efficient channel programs to do its I/O — all in the name of speed. Since the early days also placed a premium on the size of storage media — be it memory or disk, TPF applications evolved into doing very powerful things while using very little resource.
Today, much of these limitations are removed. In fact, only because of legacy support are smaller-than-4K DASD records still used. With the advances made in DASD technology, a read/write of a 4K record is just as efficient as a 1055 byte record. The same advances have increased the capacity of each device so that there is no longer a premium placed on the ability to pack data into the smallest model as possible.
TPF also had its program segments allocated as 381, 1055 and 4K byte-sized records at different points in its history. Each segment consisted of a single record; with a typically comprehensive application requiring perhaps tens or even hundreds of segments. For the first forty years of TPF's history, these segments were never link-edited. Instead, the relocatable object code (direct output from the assembler) was laid out in memory, had its "internally" (self-referential) relocatable symbols resolved, then the entire image was written to file for later loading into the system. This created a challenging programming environment in which "segments related to one another could not directly address each other", with control transfer between them implemented as the ENTER/BACK "system service".
In ACP/TPF's earliest days (circa 1965), memory space was severely limited, which gave rise to a distinction between file-resident and core-resident programs -- only the most frequently used application programs were written into memory and never removed (core-residency); the rest were stored on file and read in on demand, with their backing memory buffers released post-execution.
The introduction of C language to TPF at version 3.0 was first implemented conformant to segment conventions, including the absence of linkage editing. This scheme quickly demonstrated itself to be impractical for anything other than the simplest of C programs. At TPF 4.1, truly and fully linked load modules were introduced to TPF. These were compiled with the z/OS C/C++ compiler using TPF-specific header files and linked with IEWL, resulting in a z/OS-conformant load module, which in no manner could be considered a traditional TPF segment. The TPF loader was extended to read the z/OS-unique "load module" file format, then lay out file-resident load modules' sections into memory; meanwhile, assembly language programs remained confined to TPF's "segment" model, creating an obvious disparity between applications written in assembler and those written in higher level languages (HLL).
At z/TPF 1.1, all source language types were conceptually unified and fully link-edited to conform to the ELF specification. The "segment" concept became obsolete, meaning that "any" program written in "any" source language -- including Assembler -- may now be of any size. Furthermore, external references became possible, and separate source code programs that had once been "segments" could now be directly linked together into a shared object. A value point is that critical legacy applications can benefit from improved efficiency through simple "repackaging" -- calls made between members of a single shared object module now have a much shorter pathlength at run time as compared to calling the system's "ENTER/BACK" service. Members of the same shared object may now share writeable data regions directly thanks to copy-on-write functionality also introduced at z/TPF 1.1; which coincidentally reinforces TPF's reentrancy requirements.
The concepts of file- and core- residency were also made obsolete, due to a z/TPF design point which sought to have all programs resident in memory at all times.
Since z/TPF had to maintain a call stack for high-level language programs, which gave HLL programs the ability to benefit from stack-based memory allocation, it was deemed beneficial to extend the call stack to assembly language programs on an optional basis, which can ease memory pressure and ease recursive programming.
All z/TPF executable programs are now packaged as ELF shared objects.
Historically and in step with the previous, core blocks— memory— were also 381, 1055 and 4 K bytes in size. Since ALL memory blocks had to be of this size, most of the overhead for obtaining memory found in other systems was discarded. The programmer merely needed to decide what size block would fit the need and ask for it. TPF would maintain a list of blocks in use and simply hand the first block on the available list.
Physical memory was divided into sections reserved for each size so a 1055 byte block always came from a section and returned there, the only overhead needed was to add its address to the appropriate physical block table's list. No compaction or data collection was required.
As applications got more advanced demands for memory increased, and once C became available memory chunks of indeterminate or large size were required. This gave rise to the use of heap storage and some memory management routines. To ease the overhead, TPF memory was broken into frames— 4 KB in size (1 MB with z/TPF). If an application needs a certain number of bytes, the number of contiguous frames required to fill that need are granted. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30433 |
Theory of everything
A theory of everything (TOE or ToE), final theory, ultimate theory, or master theory is a hypothetical single, all-encompassing, coherent theoretical framework of physics that fully explains and links together all physical aspects of the universe. Finding a TOE is one of the major unsolved problems in physics. String theory and M-theory have been proposed as theories of everything. Over the past few centuries, two theoretical frameworks have been developed that, together, most closely resemble a TOE. These two theories upon which all modern physics rests are general relativity and quantum mechanics. General relativity is a theoretical framework that only focuses on gravity for understanding the universe in regions of both large scale and high mass: stars, galaxies, clusters of galaxies, etc. On the other hand, quantum mechanics is a theoretical framework that only focuses on three non-gravitational forces for understanding the universe in regions of both small scale and low mass: sub-atomic particles, atoms, molecules, etc. Quantum mechanics successfully implemented the Standard Model that describes the three non-gravitational forces -- strong nuclear, weak nuclear, and electromagnetic force -- as well as all observed elementary particles.
Physicists have experimentally confirmed virtually every prediction made by general relativity and quantum mechanics when in their appropriate domains of applicability. Nevertheless, general relativity and quantum mechanics are mutually incompatible – they cannot both be right. Since the usual domains of applicability of general relativity and quantum mechanics are so different, most situations require that only one of the two theories be used. As it turns out, this incompatibility between general relativity and quantum mechanics is only an issue in regions of extremely small scale - the Planck scale - such as those that exist within a black hole or during the beginning stages of the universe (i.e., the moment immediately following the Big Bang). To resolve the incompatibility, a theoretical framework revealing a deeper underlying reality, unifying gravity with the other three interactions, must be discovered to harmoniously integrate the realms of general relativity and quantum mechanics into a seamless whole: the TOE is a single theory that, in principle, is capable of describing all phenomena in the universe.
In pursuit of this goal, quantum gravity has become one area of active research. One example is string theory, which evolved into a candidate for the TOE, but not without drawbacks (most notably, its lack of currently testable predictions) and controversy. String theory posits that at the beginning of the universe (up to 10−43 seconds after the Big Bang), the four fundamental forces were once a single fundamental force. According to string theory, every particle in the universe, at its most microscopic level (Planck length), consists of varying combinations of vibrating strings (or strands) with preferred patterns of vibration. String theory further claims that it is through these specific oscillatory patterns of strings that a particle of unique mass and force charge is created (that is to say, the electron is a type of string that vibrates one way, while the up quark is a type of string vibrating another way, and so forth).
Initially, the term "theory of everything" was used with an ironic reference to various overgeneralized theories. For example, a grandfather of Ijon Tichy – a character from a cycle of Stanisław Lem's science fiction stories of the 1960s – was known to work on the "General Theory of Everything". Physicist Harald Fritzsch used the term in his 1977 lectures in Varenna. Physicist John Ellis claims to have introduced the term into the technical literature in an article in "Nature" in 1986. Over time, the term stuck in popularizations of theoretical physics research.
Ancient Babylonian astronomers studied the pattern of the Seven Classical Planets against the background of stars, with their interest being to relate celestial movement to human events (astrology), and the goal being to predict events by recording events against a time measure and then look for recurrent patterns. The debate between the universe having either a beginning or eternal cycles can be traced back to ancient Babylonia.
The natural philosophy of atomism appeared in several ancient traditions. In ancient Greek philosophy, the pre-Socratic philosophers speculated that the apparent diversity of observed phenomena was due to a single type of interaction, namely the motions and collisions of atoms. The concept of 'atom' proposed by Democritus was an early philosophical attempt to unify phenomena observed in nature. The concept of 'atom' also appeared in the Nyaya-Vaisheshika school of ancient Indian philosophy, and the Ashʿari school of early Islamic philosophy.
Archimedes was possibly the first philosopher to have described nature with axioms (or principles) and then deduce new results from them. Any "theory of everything" is similarly expected to be based on axioms and to deduce all observable phenomena from them. The scientific method emphasizing precise observation and controlled experimentation was largely developed in the science of the Islamic world, by Arabic alchemists and particularly the Arab physicist Ibn al-Haytham, who proposed that rays of light were streams of tiny particles travelling in straight lines at a finite velocity. Arabic alchemists proposed the theory of corpuscularianism, where unified sulfur and mercury corpuscles (particles), differing in purity, size, and relative proportions, form the basis of a much more complicated process.
Following earlier atomistic thought, the mechanical philosophy of the 17th century posited that all forces could be ultimately reduced to contact forces between the atoms, then imagined as tiny solid particles.
In the late 17th century, Isaac Newton's description of the long-distance force of gravity implied that not all forces in nature result from things coming into contact. Newton's work in his "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy" dealt with this in a further example of unification, in this case unifying Galileo's work on terrestrial gravity, Kepler's laws of planetary motion and the phenomenon of tides by explaining these apparent actions at a distance under one single law: the law of universal gravitation.
In 1814, building on these results, Laplace famously suggested that a sufficiently powerful intellect could, if it knew the position and velocity of every particle at a given time, along with the laws of nature, calculate the position of any particle at any other time:
Laplace thus envisaged a combination of gravitation and mechanics as a theory of everything. Modern quantum mechanics implies that uncertainty is inescapable, and thus that Laplace's vision has to be amended: a theory of everything must include gravitation and quantum mechanics. Even ignoring quantum mechanics, chaos theory is sufficient to guarantee that the future of any sufficiently complex mechanical or astronomical system is unpredictable.
In 1820, Hans Christian Ørsted discovered a connection between electricity and magnetism, triggering decades of work that culminated in 1865, in James Clerk Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, it gradually became apparent that many common examples of forces – contact forces, elasticity, viscosity, friction, and pressure – result from electrical interactions between the smallest particles of matter.
In his experiments of 1849–50, Michael Faraday was the first to search for a unification of gravity with electricity and magnetism. However, he found no connection.
In 1900, David Hilbert published a famous list of mathematical problems. In Hilbert's sixth problem, he challenged researchers to find an axiomatic basis to all of physics. In this problem he thus asked for what today would be called a theory of everything.
In the late 1920s, the new quantum mechanics showed that the chemical bonds between atoms were examples of (quantum) electrical forces, justifying Dirac's boast that "the underlying physical laws necessary for the mathematical theory of a large part of physics and the whole of chemistry are thus completely known".
After 1915, when Albert Einstein published the theory of gravity (general relativity), the search for a unified field theory combining gravity with electromagnetism began with a renewed interest. In Einstein's day, the strong and the weak forces had not yet been discovered, yet, he found the potential existence of two other distinct forces -gravity and electromagnetism- far more alluring. This launched his thirty-year voyage in search of the so-called "unified field theory" that he hoped would show that these two forces are really manifestations of one grand underlying principle. During these last few decades of his life, this quixotic quest isolated Einstein from the mainstream of physics. Understandably, the mainstream was instead far more excited about the newly emerging framework of quantum mechanics. Einstein wrote to a friend in the early 1940s, "I have become a lonely old chap who is mainly known because he doesn't wear socks and who is exhibited as a curiosity on special occasions." Prominent contributors were Gunnar Nordström, Hermann Weyl, Arthur Eddington, David Hilbert, Theodor Kaluza, Oskar Klein (see Kaluza–Klein theory), and most notably, Albert Einstein and his collaborators. Einstein intensely searched for, but ultimately failed to find, a unifying theory. (But see:Einstein–Maxwell–Dirac equations.) More than a half a century later, Einstein's dream of discovering a unified theory has become the Holy Grail of modern physics.
In the twentieth century, the search for a unifying theory was interrupted by the discovery of the strong and weak nuclear forces (or interactions), which differ both from gravity and from electromagnetism. A further hurdle was the acceptance that in a TOE, quantum mechanics had to be incorporated from the start, rather than emerging as a consequence of a deterministic unified theory, as Einstein had hoped.
Gravity and electromagnetism could always peacefully coexist as entries in a list of classical forces, but for many years it seemed that gravity could not even be incorporated into the quantum framework, let alone unified with the other fundamental forces. For this reason, work on unification, for much of the twentieth century, focused on understanding the three "quantum" forces: electromagnetism and the weak and strong forces. The first two were combined in 1967–68 by Sheldon Glashow, Steven Weinberg, and Abdus Salam into the "electroweak" force.
Electroweak unification is a broken symmetry: the electromagnetic and weak forces appear distinct at low energies because the particles carrying the weak force, the W and Z bosons, have non-zero masses of and , whereas the photon, which carries the electromagnetic force, is massless. At higher energies Ws and Zs can be created easily and the unified nature of the force becomes apparent.
While the strong and electroweak forces peacefully coexist in the Standard Model of particle physics, they remain distinct. So far, the quest for a theory of everything is thus unsuccessful on two points: neither a unification of the strong and electroweak forces – which Laplace would have called 'contact forces' – nor a unification of these forces with gravitation has been achieved.
A Theory of Everything would unify all the fundamental interactions of nature: gravitation, strong interaction, weak interaction, and electromagnetism. Because the weak interaction can transform elementary particles from one kind into another, the TOE should also yield a deep understanding of the various different kinds of possible particles. The usual assumed path of theories is given in the following graph, where each unification step leads one level up:
In this graph, electroweak unification occurs at around 100 GeV, grand unification is predicted to occur at 1016 GeV, and unification of the GUT force with gravity is expected at the Planck energy, roughly 1019 GeV.
Several Grand Unified Theories (GUTs) have been proposed to unify electromagnetism and the weak and strong forces. Grand unification would imply the existence of an electronuclear force; it is expected to set in at energies of the order of 1016 GeV, far greater than could be reached by any possible Earth-based particle accelerator. Although the simplest GUTs have been experimentally ruled out, the general idea, especially when linked with supersymmetry, remains a favorite candidate in the theoretical physics community. Supersymmetric GUTs seem plausible not only for their theoretical "beauty", but because they naturally produce large quantities of dark matter, and because the inflationary force may be related to GUT physics (although it does not seem to form an inevitable part of the theory). Yet GUTs are clearly not the final answer; both the current standard model and all proposed GUTs are quantum field theories which require the problematic technique of renormalization to yield sensible answers. This is usually regarded as a sign that these are only effective field theories, omitting crucial phenomena relevant only at very high energies.
The final step in the graph requires resolving the separation between quantum mechanics and gravitation, often equated with general relativity. Numerous researchers concentrate their efforts on this specific step; nevertheless, no accepted theory of quantum gravity – and thus no accepted theory of everything – has emerged yet. It is usually assumed that the TOE will also solve the remaining problems of GUTs.
In addition to explaining the forces listed in the graph, a TOE may also explain the status of at least two candidate forces suggested by modern cosmology: an inflationary force and dark energy. Furthermore, cosmological experiments also suggest the existence of dark matter, supposedly composed of fundamental particles outside the scheme of the standard model. However, the existence of these forces and particles has not been proven.
Since the 1990s, some physicists such as Edward Witten believe that 11-dimensional M-theory, which is described in some limits by one of the five perturbative superstring theories, and in another by the maximally-supersymmetric 11-dimensional supergravity, is the theory of everything. However, there is no widespread consensus on this issue.
A surprising property of string/M-theory is that extra dimensions are required for the theory's consistency. In this regard, string theory can be seen as building on the insights of the Kaluza–Klein theory, in which it was realized that applying general relativity to a five-dimensional universe (with one of them small and curled up) looks from the four-dimensional perspective like the usual general relativity together with Maxwell's electrodynamics. This lent credence to the idea of unifying gauge and gravity interactions, and to extra dimensions, but did not address the detailed experimental requirements. Another important property of string theory is its supersymmetry, which together with extra dimensions are the two main proposals for resolving the hierarchy problem of the standard model, which is (roughly) the question of why gravity is so much weaker than any other force. The extra-dimensional solution involves allowing gravity to propagate into the other dimensions while keeping other forces confined to a four-dimensional spacetime, an idea that has been realized with explicit stringy mechanisms.
Research into string theory has been encouraged by a variety of theoretical and experimental factors. On the experimental side, the particle content of the standard model supplemented with neutrino masses fits into a spinor representation of SO(10), a subgroup of E8 that routinely emerges in string theory, such as in heterotic string theory or (sometimes equivalently) in F-theory. String theory has mechanisms that may explain why fermions come in three hierarchical generations, and explain the mixing rates between quark generations. On the theoretical side, it has begun to address some of the key questions in quantum gravity, such as resolving the black hole information paradox, counting the correct entropy of black holes and allowing for topology-changing processes. It has also led to many insights in pure mathematics and in ordinary, strongly-coupled gauge theory due to the Gauge/String duality.
In the late 1990s, it was noted that one major hurdle in this endeavor is that the number of possible four-dimensional universes is incredibly large. The small, "curled up" extra dimensions can be compactified in an enormous number of different ways (one estimate is 10500 ) each of which leads to different properties for the low-energy particles and forces. This array of models is known as the string theory landscape.
One proposed solution is that many or all of these possibilities are realised in one or another of a huge number of universes, but that only a small number of them are habitable. Hence what we normally conceive as the fundamental constants of the universe are ultimately the result of the anthropic principle rather than dictated by theory. This has led to criticism of string theory, arguing that it cannot make useful (i.e., original, falsifiable, and verifiable) predictions and regarding it as a pseudoscience. Others disagree, and string theory remains an active topic of investigation in theoretical physics.
Current research on loop quantum gravity may eventually play a fundamental role in a TOE, but that is not its primary aim. Also loop quantum gravity introduces a lower bound on the possible length scales.
There have been recent claims that loop quantum gravity may be able to reproduce features resembling the Standard Model. So far only the first generation of fermions (leptons and quarks) with correct parity properties have been modelled by Sundance Bilson-Thompson using preons constituted of braids of spacetime as the building blocks. However, there is no derivation of the Lagrangian that would describe the interactions of such particles, nor is it possible to show that such particles are fermions, nor that the gauge groups or interactions of the Standard Model are realised. Utilization of quantum computing concepts made it possible to demonstrate that the particles are able to survive quantum fluctuations.
This model leads to an interpretation of electric and colour charge as topological quantities (electric as number and chirality of twists carried on the individual ribbons and colour as variants of such twisting for fixed electric charge).
Bilson-Thompson's original paper suggested that the higher-generation fermions could be represented by more complicated braidings, although explicit constructions of these structures were not given. The electric charge, colour, and parity properties of such fermions would arise in the same way as for the first generation. The model was expressly generalized for an infinite number of generations and for the weak force bosons (but not for photons or gluons) in a 2008 paper by Bilson-Thompson, Hackett, Kauffman and Smolin.
Among other attempts to develop a theory of everything is the theory of causal fermion systems, giving the two current physical theories (general relativity and quantum field theory) as limiting cases.
Another theory is called Causal Sets. As some of the approaches mentioned above, its direct goal isn't necessarily to achieve a TOE but primarily a working theory of quantum gravity, which might eventually include the standard model and become a candidate for a TOE. Its founding principle is that spacetime is fundamentally discrete and that the spacetime events are related by a partial order. This partial order has the physical meaning of the causality relations between relative past and future distinguishing spacetime events.
Outside the previously mentioned attempts there is Garrett Lisi's E8 proposal. This theory attempts to construct general relativity and the standard model within the Lie group E8. The theory doesn't provide a novel quantization procedure and the author suggests its quantization might follow the Loop Quantum Gravity approach above mentioned.
Causal dynamical triangulation does not assume any pre-existing arena (dimensional space), but rather attempts to show how the spacetime fabric itself evolves.
Christoph Schiller's Strand Model attempts to account for the gauge symmetry of the Standard Model of particle physics, U(1)×SU(2)×SU(3), with the three Reidemeister moves of knot theory by equating each elementary particle to a different tangle of one, two, or three strands (selectively a long prime knot or unknotted curve, a rational tangle, or a braided tangle respectively).
Another attempt may be related to ER=EPR, a conjecture in physics stating that entangled particles are connected by a wormhole (or Einstein–Rosen bridge).
At present, there is no candidate theory of everything that includes the standard model of particle physics and general relativity and that, at the same time, is able to calculate the fine structure constant or the mass of the electron. Most particle physicists expect that the outcome of the ongoing experiments – the search for new particles at the large particle accelerators and for dark matter – are needed in order to provide further input for a TOE.
In parallel to the intense search for a TOE, various scholars have seriously debated the possibility of its discovery.
A number of scholars claim that Gödel's incompleteness theorem suggests that any attempt to construct a TOE is bound to fail. Gödel's theorem, informally stated, asserts that any formal theory sufficient to express elementary arithmetical facts and strong enough for them to be proved is either inconsistent (both a statement and its denial can be derived from its axioms) or incomplete, in the sense that there is a true statement that can't be derived in the formal theory.
Stanley Jaki, in his 1966 book "The Relevance of Physics", pointed out that, because any "theory of everything" will certainly be a consistent non-trivial mathematical theory, it must be incomplete. He claims that this dooms searches for a deterministic theory of everything.
Freeman Dyson has stated that "Gödel's theorem implies that pure mathematics is inexhaustible. No matter how many problems we solve, there will always be other problems that cannot be solved within the existing rules. […] Because of Gödel's theorem, physics is inexhaustible too. The laws of physics are a finite set of rules, and include the rules for doing mathematics, so that Gödel's theorem applies to them."
Stephen Hawking was originally a believer in the Theory of Everything, but after considering Gödel's Theorem, he concluded that one was not obtainable. "Some people will be very disappointed if there is not an ultimate theory that can be formulated as a finite number of principles. I used to belong to that camp, but I have changed my mind."
Jürgen Schmidhuber (1997) has argued against this view; he points out that Gödel's theorems are irrelevant for computable physics. In 2000, Schmidhuber explicitly constructed limit-computable, deterministic universes whose pseudo-randomness based on undecidable, Gödel-like halting problems is extremely hard to detect but does not at all prevent formal TOEs describable by very few bits of information.
Related critique was offered by Solomon Feferman, among others. Douglas S. Robertson offers Conway's game of life as an example: The underlying rules are simple and complete, but there are formally undecidable questions about the game's behaviors. Analogously, it may (or may not) be possible to completely state the underlying rules of physics with a finite number of well-defined laws, but there is little doubt that there are questions about the behavior of physical systems which are formally undecidable on the basis of those underlying laws.
Since most physicists would consider the statement of the underlying rules to suffice as the definition of a "theory of everything", most physicists argue that Gödel's Theorem does "not" mean that a TOE cannot exist. On the other hand, the scholars invoking Gödel's Theorem appear, at least in some cases, to be referring not to the underlying rules, but to the understandability of the behavior of all physical systems, as when Hawking mentions arranging blocks into rectangles, turning the computation of prime numbers into a physical question. This definitional discrepancy may explain some of the disagreement among researchers.
No physical theory to date is believed to be precisely accurate. Instead, physics has proceeded by a series of "successive approximations" allowing more and more accurate predictions over a wider and wider range of phenomena. Some physicists believe that it
is therefore a mistake to confuse theoretical models with the true nature of reality, and
hold that the series of approximations will never terminate in the "truth". Einstein himself
expressed this view on occasions. Following this view, we may reasonably hope for "a" theory of everything which self-consistently incorporates all currently known forces, but we should not expect it to be the final answer.
On the other hand, it is often claimed that, despite the apparently ever-increasing complexity of the mathematics of each new theory, in a deep sense associated with their underlying gauge symmetry and the number of dimensionless physical constants, the theories are becoming simpler. If this is the case, the process of simplification cannot continue indefinitely.
There is a philosophical debate within the physics community as to whether a theory of everything deserves to be called "the" fundamental law of the universe. One view is the hard reductionist position that the TOE is the fundamental law and that all other theories that apply within the universe are a consequence of the TOE. Another view is that emergent laws, which govern the behavior of complex systems, should be seen as equally fundamental. Examples of emergent laws are the second law of thermodynamics and the theory of natural selection. The advocates of emergence argue that emergent laws, especially those describing complex or living systems are independent of the low-level, microscopic laws. In this view, emergent laws are as fundamental as a TOE.
The debates do not make the point at issue clear. Possibly the only issue at stake is the right to apply the high-status term "fundamental" to the respective subjects of research. A well-known debate over this took place between Steven Weinberg and Philip Anderson.
Although the name "theory of everything" suggests the determinism of Laplace's quotation, this gives a very misleading impression. Determinism is frustrated by the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanical predictions, by the extreme sensitivity to initial conditions that leads to mathematical chaos, by the limitations due to event horizons, and by the extreme mathematical difficulty of applying the theory. Thus, although the current standard model of particle physics "in principle" predicts almost all known non-gravitational phenomena, in practice only a few quantitative results have been derived from the full theory (e.g., the masses of some of the simplest hadrons), and these results (especially the particle masses which are most relevant for low-energy physics) are less accurate than existing experimental measurements. The TOE would almost certainly be even harder to apply for the prediction of experimental results, and thus might be of limited use.
A motive for seeking a TOE, apart from the pure intellectual satisfaction of completing a centuries-long quest, is that prior examples of unification have predicted new phenomena, some of which (e.g., electrical generators) have proved of great practical importance. And like in these prior examples of unification, the TOE would probably allow us to confidently define the domain of validity and residual error of low-energy approximations to the full theory.
The theories generally do not account for the apparent phenomena of consciousness or free will, which are instead often the subject of philosophy and religion.
Frank Close regularly argues that the layers of nature may be like the layers of an onion, and that the number of layers might be infinite. This would imply an infinite sequence of physical theories.
Weinberg points out that calculating the precise motion of an actual projectile in the Earth's atmosphere is impossible. So how can we know we have an adequate theory for describing the motion of projectiles? Weinberg suggests that we know "principles" (Newton's laws of motion and gravitation) that work "well enough" for simple examples, like the motion of planets in empty space. These principles have worked so well on simple examples that we can be reasonably confident they will work for more complex examples. For example, although general relativity includes equations that do not have exact solutions, it is widely accepted as a valid theory because all of its equations with exact solutions have been experimentally verified. Likewise, a TOE must work for a wide range of simple examples in such a way that we can be reasonably confident it will work for every situation in physics. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30436 |
Tutankhamun
Tutankhamun (, ), Egyptological pronunciation Tutankhamen (British ) ( 1342c. 1325 BC), was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh who was the last of his royal family to rule during the end of the 18th dynasty (ruled c. 1334 – 1325 BC in the conventional chronology) during the New Kingdom of Egyptian history. His father was the pharaoh Akhenaten, believed to be the mummy found in the tomb KV55. His mother is his father's sister, identified through DNA testing as an unknown mummy referred to as; "The Younger Lady" who was found in KV35.
Tutankhamun took the throne at eight or nine years of age under the unprecedented viziership of his eventual successor, Ay, to whom he may have been related. He married his half sister Ankhesenamun. During their marriage they lost two daughters, one at 5–6 months of pregnancy and the other shortly after birth at full-term. His names—"Tutankhaten" and "Tutankhamun"—are thought to mean "Living image of Aten" and "Living image of Amun", with Aten replaced by Amun after Akhenaten's death. There are Egyptologists that believe the translation may be more like; "The-life-of-Aten-is-pleasing" or "One-perfect-of-life-is-Aten".
Tutankhamun restored the Ancient Egyptian religion after its dissolution by his father, enriched and endowed the priestly orders of two important cults and began restoring old monuments damaged during the previous Amarna period. He moved his father's remains to the Valley of the Kings as well as moving the capitol from Akhetaten to Thebes. Tutankhamun was physically disabled with a deformity of his left foot along with bone necrosis that required the use of a cane, several of which were found in his tomb as well as body armor and bows, having been trained in archery. He had other health issues including scoliosis and had contracted several strains of malaria.
The 1922 discovery by Howard Carter of Tutankhamun's nearly intact tomb, in excavations funded by Lord Carnarvon, received worldwide press coverage. With over 5,000 artifacts, it sparked a renewed public interest in ancient Egypt, for which Tutankhamun's mask, now in the Egyptian Museum, remains a popular symbol. The deaths of a few involved in the discovery of Tutankhamun's mummy have been popularly attributed to the curse of the pharaohs. He has, since the discovery of his intact tomb, been referred to colloquially as "King Tut".
Some of his treasure has traveled worldwide with unprecedented response. The Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities allowed tours beginning in 1962 with the exhibit at the Louvre in Paris, followed by the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art in Tokyo, Japan. The exhibits drew in millions of visitors. The 1972–1979 exhibit was shown in United States, Soviet Union, Japan, France, Canada, and West Germany. There were no international exhibitions again until 2005–2011. This exhibit featured Tutankhamun's predecessors from the 18th dynasty, including Hatshepsut and Akhenaten, but did not include the golden death mask. The treasures 2019–2022 tour began in Los Angeles and will end in 2022 at the new Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo, which, for the first time, will be displaying the full Tutankhamun collection, gathered from all of Egypt's museums and storerooms.
Tutankhamun was the son of Akhenaten (originally named Amenhotep IV) who is believed to be the mummy found in tomb KV55. His mother is one of Akhenaten's sisters. At birth he was named Tutankhaten, a name reflecting the Atenist beliefs of his father. His wet nurse was a woman called Maia, known from her tomb at Saqqara.
While some suggestions have been made that Tutankhamun's mother was Meketaten, (the second daughter of Akhenaten and Nefertiti) based on a relief from the Royal Tomb at Amarna, given that she was about 10 years old at the time of her death, this has been deemed unlikely. Another interpretation of the relief names Nefertiti as his mother.
In 2008 genetic analysis was carried out on the mummified remains of Tutankhamun and others thought or known to be New Kingdom royalty by a team from University of Cairo. The results indicated that his father was the KV55 mummy, identified as Akhenaten, and that his mother was the KV35 Younger Lady, who was found to be a full sister of her husband. This means that the KV35 Younger Lady cannot be identified as Nefertiti as she was not known to be a sister of Akhenaten. The team reported it was over 99.99 percent certain that Amenhotep III was the father of the individual in KV55, who was in turn the father of Tutankhamun. The validity and reliability of the genetic data from mummified remains has been questioned due to possible degradation due to decay. Researchers such as Marc Gabolde and Aidan Dodson claim that Nefertiti was indeed Tutankhamun's mother. In this interpretation of the DNA results the genetic closeness is not due to a brother-sister pairing but the result of three generations of first cousin marriage, making Nefertiti a first cousin of Akhenaten.
When Tutankhamun became king, he married his half-sister, Ankhesenpaaten, who later changed her name to Ankhesenamun. They had two daughters, neither of whom survived infancy. While only an incomplete genetic profile was obtained from the two mummified foetuses, it was enough to confirm that Tutankhamun was their father. Likewise, only partial data for the two female mummies from KV21 has been obtained so far. KV21A has been suggested as the mother of the foetuses but the data is not statistically significant enough to allow her to be securely identified as Ankhesenamun. Computed tomography studies published in 2011 revealed that one daughter was born prematurely at 5–6 months of pregnancy and the other at full-term, 9 months. Tutankhamun's death marked the end of the royal line of the 18th dynasty.
Tutankhamun was between eight and nine years of age when he ascended the throne and became Pharaoh, taking the throne name Nebkheperure. He reigned for about 9 years. During Tutankhamun's reign the position of Vizier had been split between Upper and Lower Egypt. The principal vizier for Upper Egypt was Usermontju. Another figure named Pentju was also vizier but it is unclear of which lands. It is not entirely known if Ay, Tutankhamun's successor, actually held this position. A gold foil fragment from KV58 seems to indicate, but not certainly, that Ay was referred to as a Priest of Maat along with an epithet of "vizier, doer of maat." The epithet does not fit the usual description used by the regular vizier but might indicate an informal title. It might be that Ay used the title of vizier in an unprecedented manner.
An Egyptian priest named Manetho wrote a comprehensive history of ancient Egypt where he refers to a king named Orus who ruled for 36 years and had a daughter named Acencheres who reigned twelve years and her brother Rathotis who ruled for only nine years. While the list gets confusing at this point, it is generally accepted that these represent the Amarna period rulers including Tutankhamun and Akhenaten.
Kings were venerated after their deaths through mortuary cults and associated temples. Tutankhamun was one of the few kings worshiped in this manner during his lifetime. A stela discovered at Karnak and dedicated to Amun-Ra and Tutankhamun indicates that the king could be appealed to in his deified state for forgiveness and to free the petitioner from an ailment caused by sin. Temples of his cult were built as far away as in Kawa and Faras in Nubia. The title of the sister of the Viceroy of Kush included a reference to the deified king, indicative of the universality of his cult.
In order for the pharaoh, who held divine office, to be linked to the people and the gods, special epithets were created for them at their accession to the throne. The ancient Egyptian titulary also served to demonstrate one's qualities and link them to the terrestrial realm. The five names were developed over the centuries beginning with the Horus Name. Tutankhamun's original nomen was "Tutankhaten" which did not have a Nebty name or a Gold Falcon name associated with it as nothing has been found with the full five name protocol. "Tutankhaten" was believed to mean ""Living-image-of-Aten"" as far back as 1877 however, not all Egyptologists agree with this interpretation. English Egyptologist Battiscombe Gunn believed that the older interpretation did not fit with Akhenaten's theology. Gunn believed that such an name would have been blasphemous. He saw "tut" as a verb and not a noun and gave his translation in 1926 as "The-life-of-Aten-is-pleasing". Professor Gerhard Fecht also believed the word "tut" was a verb. He noted that Akhenaten used "tit" as a word for 'image', not "tut". Fecht translated the verb "tut" as ""To be perfect/complete"". Using Aten as the subject, Fecht's full translation was ""One-perfect-of-life-is-Aten"". The Hermopolis Block (two carved block fragments discovered in Ashmunein) has a unique spelling of the first nomen written as "Tutankhuaten"; it uses "ankh" as a verb, which does support the older translation of "Living-image-of-Aten".
Once crowned and after "Taking council" with the god Amun, Tutankhamun made several endowments that enriched and added to the priestly numbers of the cults of Amun and Ptah. He commissioned new statues of the deities from the best metals and stone and had new processional barques made of the finest cedar from Lebanon and had them embellished with gold and silver. The priests and all of the attending dancers, singers and attendants had their positions restored and a decree of royal protection granted to insure their future stability.
Tutankhamun's second year as pharaoh began the return to the old Egyptian order. Both he and his queen removed 'Aten' from their names, replacing it with Amun and moved the capital from Akhetaten to Thebes. He renounced the god Aten, relegating it to obscurity and returned Egyptian religion to its polytheistic form. His first act as a pharaoh was to remove his father's mummy from his tomb at Akhetaten and rebury it in the Valley of the Kings. This helped strengthen his reign. Tutankhamun rebuilt the stelae, shrines and buildings at Karnak. He added works to Luxor as well as beginning the restoration of other temples throughout Egypt that were pillaged by Akhenaten.
The country was economically weak and in turmoil following the reign of Akhenaten. Diplomatic relations with other kingdoms had been neglected, and Tutankhamun sought to restore them, in particular with the Mitanni. Evidence of his success is suggested by the gifts from various countries found in his tomb. Despite his efforts for improved relations, battles with Nubians and Asiatics were recorded in his mortuary temple at Thebes. His tomb contained body armor, folding stools appropriate for military campaigns, and bows, and he was trained in archery. However, given his youth and physical disabilities, which seemed to require the use of a cane in order to walk, most historians speculate that he did not personally take part in these battles.
Given his age, the king probably had advisers which presumably included Ay (who succeeded Tutankhamun) and General Horemheb, Ay's possible son in law and successor. Horemheb records that the king appointed him "lord of the land" as hereditary prince to maintain law. He also noted his ability to calm the young king when his temper flared.
In his third regnal year Tutankhamun reversed several changes made during his father's reign. He ended the worship of the god Aten and restored the god Amun to supremacy. The ban on the cult of Amun was lifted and traditional privileges were restored to its priesthood. The capital was moved back to Thebes and the city of Akhetaten was abandoned. As part of his restoration, the king initiated building projects, in particular at Karnak in Thebes, where he laid out the sphinx avenue leading to the temple of Mut. The sphinxes were originally made for Akhenaten and Nefertiti; they were given new ram heads and small statues of the king. At Luxor temple he completed the decoration of the entrance colonnade of Amenhotep III. Monuments defaced under Akhenaten were restored, and new cult images of the god Amun were created. The traditional festivals were now celebrated again, including those related to the Apis Bull, Horemakhet, and Opet. His Restoration Stela erected in front of Karnak temple says:
A building called the Temple-of-Nebkheperure-Beloved-of-Amun-Who-Puts-Thebes-in-Order, which may be identical to a building called Temple-of-Nebkheperre-in-Thebes, a possible mortuary temple, used recycled talatat from Akhenaten's east Karnak Aten temples indicating that the dismantling of these temples was already underway.
Many of Tutankhamun's construction projects were uncompleted at the time of his death and were completed by or usurped by his successors, especially Horemheb. The sphinx avenue was completed by his successor Ay and the whole was usurped by Horemheb. The Restoration Stele was usurped by Horemheb; pieces of the Temple-of-Nebkheperure-in-Thebes were recycled into Horemheb's own building projects.
Tutankhamun was slight of build, and roughly tall. He had large front incisors and an overbite characteristic of the Thutmosid royal line to which he belonged. Analysis of the clothing found in his tomb, particularly the dimensions of his loincloths and belts indicates that he had a narrow waist and rounded hips. In attempts to explain both his unusual depiction in art and his early death it has been theorised that Tutankhamun suffered from gynecomastia, Marfan syndrome, Wilson–Turner X-linked intellectual disability syndrome, Fröhlich syndrome (adiposogenital dystrophy), Klinefelter syndrome, androgen insensitivity syndrome, aromatase excess syndrome in conjunction with sagittal craniosynostosis syndrome, Antley–Bixler syndrome or one of its variants. It has also been suggested that he suffered from inherited temporal lobe epilepsy in a bid to explain the religiosity of his great-grandfather Thutmose IV and father Akhenaten and their early deaths. However, caution has been urged in this diagnosis.
In January 2005 Tutankhamun's mummy was CT scanned. The results showed that Tutankhamun had a partially cleft hard palate and possibly a mild case of scoliosis. The scan also showed his right foot was flat with hypophalangism, while his left foot was clubbed and suffered bone necrosis of the second and third metatarsals (Freiberg disease or Köhler disease II). The affliction may have forced Tutankhamun to walk with the use of a cane, many of which were found in his tomb. Genetic testing through STR analysis rejected the hypothesis of gynecomastia and craniosynostoses (e.g., Antley–Bixler syndrome) or Marfan syndrome. Genetic testing for STEVOR, AMA1, or MSP1 genes specific for "Plasmodium falciparum" revealed indications of malaria tropica in 4 mummies, including Tutankhamun's. This is currently the oldest known genetic proof of the ailment. The team discovered DNA from several strains of the parasite, indicating that he was repeatedly infected with the most severe strain of malaria. His malaria infections may have caused a fatal immune response in the body or triggered circulatory shock. The CT scan also showed that he had suffered a compound left leg fracture. This injury being the result of modern damage was ruled out based on the ragged edges of the fracture; modern damage features sharp edges. Embalming substances were present within the fracture indicating that it was associated with an open wound; no signs of healing were present.
There are no surviving records of the circumstances of Tutankhamun's death; it has been the subject of considerable debate and major studies.
Ultimately it has been determined that his death was likely the result of the combination of his multiple weakening disorders, a leg fracture, perhaps as the result of a fall, and a severe malarial infection. The placement of the mummy's embalming incision is unique. This, combined with the two levels of resin inside his skull, have led to suggestions that an initial mummification was carried out by an inexperienced embalmer.
Murder by a blow to the head was theorised as a result of the 1968 which showed two bone fragments inside the skull. This theory was disproved by further analysis of the and the CT scan. The inter-cranial bone fragments were determined to be the result of the modern unwrapping of the mummy as they are loose and not adherent to the embalming resin. No evidence of bone thinning or calcified membranes, which could be indicative of a fatal blow to the head, were found. It has also been suggested that the young king was killed in a chariot accident due to a pattern of crushing injuries, including the fact that the front part of his chest wall and ribs are missing. However, the missing ribs are unlikely to be a result of an injury suffered at the time of death; photographs taken at the conclusion of Carter's excavation in 1926 show that the chest wall of the king was intact, still wearing a beaded collar with falcon-headed terminals. The absence of both the collar and chest wall was noted in the 1968 and further confirmed by the CT scan. It is likely that the front part of his chest was removed by robbers during the theft of the beaded collar; the intricate beaded skullcap the king was pictured wearing in 1926 was also missing by 1968.
A facial reconstruction of Tutankhamun was carried out in 2005 by the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities and "National Geographic". Three separate teams – Egyptian, French, and American – worked separately to approximate the face of the boy king. While the Egyptian and French teams knew their subject was Tutankhamun, the American team worked blind. All teams produced very similar results, but it was that of the French team that was ultimately cast in silicone.
Tutankhamun was buried in a tomb that was unusually small considering his status. His death may have occurred unexpectedly, before the completion of a grander royal tomb, causing his mummy to be buried in a tomb intended for someone else. This would preserve the observance of the customary 70 days between death and burial. His tomb was robbed at least twice in antiquity, but based on the items taken (including perishable oils and perfumes) and the evidence of restoration of the tomb after the intrusions, these robberies likely took place within several months at most of the initial burial. The location of the tomb was lost because it had come to be buried by debris from subsequent tombs, and workers' houses were built over the tomb entrance.
The concession rights for excavating the Valley of the Kings was held by Theodore Davis from 1905 until 1914. In that time he had unearthed ten tombs including the nearly intact but non-royal tomb of Queen Tiye's parents, Yuya and Tjuyu. As he continued working there in the later years, he uncovered nothing of major significance. Davis did find several objects in KV58 referring to Tutankhamun which included knobs and handles bearing his name most significantly the embalming cache of the king (KV54). He believed this to be the pharaoh's lost tomb and published his findings as such with the line; "I fear the Valley of the Tombs is exhausted". In 1907 Howard Carter was invited by William Garstin and Gaston Maspero to excavate for George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon in the Valley. The Earl of Carnarvon and Carter had hoped this would lead to their gaining the concession when Davis gave it up but had to be satisfied with excavations in different parts of the Theban necropolis for seven more years.
After a systematic search, beginning in 1915, Carter discovered the actual tomb of Tutankhamun (KV62) in November 1922. By February 1923 the antechamber had been cleared of everything but two sentinel statues. A day and time were selected to unseal the tomb with about twenty appointed witnesses that included Lord Carnarvon, several Egyptian officials, museum representatives and the staff of the Government Press Bureau. On 17 February 1923 at just after two o'clock, the seal was broken.
There were 5,398 items found in the tomb, including a solid gold coffin, face mask, thrones, archery bows, trumpets, a lotus chalice, food, wine, sandals, and fresh linen underwear. Howard Carter took 10 years to catalog the items. Recent analysis suggests a dagger recovered from the tomb had an iron blade made from a meteorite; study of artifacts of the time including other artifacts from Tutankhamun's tomb could provide valuable insights into metalworking technologies around the Mediterranean at the time.
Almost 80% of Tutankhamun's burial equipment originated from the female pharaoh Neferneferuaten's funerary goods, including the Mask of Tutankhamun. In 2015, English Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves published evidence showing that an earlier cartouche on Tutankhamun's famous gold mask read "Ankhkheperure mery-Neferkheperure" (Ankhkheperure beloved of Akhenaten); therefore, the mask was originally made for Nefertiti, Akhenaten's chief queen, who used the royal name Ankhkheperure when she most likely assumed the throne after her husband's death. Neferneferuaten may have been deposed in a struggle for power and possibly deprived of a royal burial, or she was buried with a different set of Akhenaten's funerary equipment by Tutankhamun's officials, since Tutankhamun succeeded her as king. Neferneferuaten was likely succeeded by Tutankhamun based on the presence of her funerary goods in his tomb.
On 4 November 2007, 85 years to the day after Carter's discovery, Tutankhamun's mummy was placed on display in his underground tomb at Luxor, when the linen-wrapped mummy was removed from its golden sarcophagus to a climate-controlled glass box. The case was designed to prevent the heightened rate of decomposition caused by the humidity and warmth from tourists visiting the tomb. In 2009 the tomb was closed for restoration by the ministry of antiquities and the Getty Conservation Institute. While the closure was originally planned for five years to restore the walls affected by humidity, the 2011 Egyptian revolution set the project back. The tomb re-opened in February 2019.
For many years, rumors of a "curse of the pharaohs" (probably fueled by newspapers seeking sales at the time of the discovery) persisted, emphasizing the early death of some of those who had entered the tomb. The most prominent was George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, who died on 5 April 1923, five months after the discovery of the first step leading down to the tomb on 4 November 1922.
The cause of Carnarvon's death was pneumonia supervening on [facial] erysipelas (a streptococcal infection of the skin and underlying soft tissue). The Earl had been in an automobile accident in 1901 making him very unhealthy and frail. His doctor recommended a warmer climate so in 1903 the Carnarvons traveled to Egypt where the Earl became interested in Egyptology. Along with the stresses of the excavation, Carnarvon was already in a weakened state when an infection lead to pneumonia.
A study showed that of the 58 people who were present when the tomb and sarcophagus were opened, only eight died within a dozen years; Howard Carter died of lymphoma in 1939 at the age of 64. The last survivors included Lady Evelyn Herbert, Lord Carnarvon's daughter who was among the first people to enter the tomb after its discovery in November 1922, who lived for a further 57 years and died in 1980, and American archaeologist J.O. Kinnaman who died in 1961, 39 years after the event.
Tutankhamun's fame is primarily the result of his well-preserved tomb and the global exhibitions of his associated artifacts. As Jon Manchip White writes, in his foreword to the 1977 edition of Carter's "The Discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamun", "The pharaoh who in life was one of the least esteemed of Egypt's Pharaohs has become in death the most renowned".
The discoveries in the tomb were prominent news in the 1920s. Tutankhamen came to be called by a modern neologism, "King Tut". Ancient Egyptian references became common in popular culture, including Tin Pan Alley songs; the most popular of the latter was "Old King Tut" by Harry Von Tilzer from 1923, which was recorded by such prominent artists of the time as Jones & Hare and Sophie Tucker. "King Tut" became the name of products, businesses, and the pet dog of U.S. President Herbert Hoover.
Tutankhamun's artifacts have traveled the world with unprecedented visitorship. The exhibitions began in 1962 when Algeria won its independence from France. With the ending of that conflict, the Louvre Museum in Paris was quickly able to arrange an exhibition of Tutankhamun's treasures through Christiane Desroches Noblecourt. The French Egyptologist was already in Egypt as part of a UNESCO appointment. The French exhibit drew 1.2 million visitors. Noblecourt had also convinced the Egyptian Minister of Culture to allow British photographer George Rainbird to re-photograph the collection in color. The new color photos as well as the Louvre exhibition began a Tutankhamun revival.
In 1965 the Tutankhamun exhibit traveled to Tokyo, Japan where it garnered more visitors than the future New York exhibit in 1979. The exhibit was held at the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art with almost 1.75 million visitors. The attraction exceeded all other exhibitions of Tutankhamun's treasures for the next 60 years. "The Treasures of Tutankhamun" tour ran from 1972 to 1979. This exhibition was first shown in London at the British Museum from 30 March until 30 September 1972. More than 1.6 million visitors saw the exhibition. The exhibition moved on to many other countries, including the United States, Soviet Union, Japan, France, Canada, and West Germany. The Metropolitan Museum of Art organized the U.S. exhibition, which ran from 17 November 1976 through 15 April 1979. More than eight million attended.
In 2005, Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, in partnership with Arts and Exhibitions International and the National Geographic Society, launched a tour of Tutankhamun treasures and other 18th Dynasty funerary objects, this time called "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs". It featured the same exhibits as "Tutankhamen: The Golden Hereafter" in a slightly different format. It was expected to draw more than three million people but exceeded that with almost four million people attending just the first four tour stops. The exhibition started in Los Angeles, then moved to Fort Lauderdale, Chicago, Philadelphia and London before finally returning to Egypt in August 2008. An encore of the exhibition in the United States ran at the Dallas Museum of Art. After Dallas the exhibition moved to the de Young Museum in San Francisco, followed by the Discovery Times Square Exposition in New York City. The exhibition visited Australia for the first time, opening at the Melbourne Museum for its only Australian stop before Egypt's treasures returned to Cairo in December 2011.
The exhibition included 80 exhibits from the reigns of Tutankhamun's immediate predecessors in the 18th dynasty, such as Hatshepsut, whose trade policies greatly increased the wealth of that dynasty and enabled the lavish wealth of Tutankhamun's burial artifacts, as well as 50 from Tutankhamun's tomb. The exhibition did not include the gold mask that was a feature of the 1972–1979 tour, as the Egyptian government has decided that damage which occurred to previous artifacts on tours precludes this one from joining them.
In 2018 it was announced that the largest collection of Tutankhamun artifacts, amounting to forty percent of the entire collection, would be leaving Egypt again in 2019 for an international tour entitled; "King Tut: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh". The 2019-2022 tour began with an exhibit called; “Tutankhamun, Pharaoh’s Treasures,” which launched in Los Angeles and then traveled to Paris. The exhibit featured at the Grande Halle de la Villette in Paris ran from March to September 2019. The exhibit featured one hundred and fifty gold coins, along with various pieces of jewelry, sculpture and carvings, as well as the renowned gold mask of Tutankhamun. Promotion of the exhibit filled the streets of Paris with posters of the event. The full international tour ends with the opening of the new Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo where the treasures will be permanently housed. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30437 |
Totalitarianism
Totalitarianism is a term for a political system or form of government that prohibits opposition parties, restricts individual opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high degree of control over public and private life. It is regarded as the most extreme and complete form of authoritarianism. In totalitarian states, political power has often been held by autocrats who employ all-encompassing campaigns in which propaganda is broadcast by state-controlled mass media.
Totalitarian regimes are often characterized by extensive political repression, a complete lack of democracy, widespread personality cultism, absolute control over the economy, massive censorship, mass surveillance, limited freedom of movement (most notably freedom to leave the country) and widespread use of state terrorism. Other aspects of a totalitarian regime include the use of concentration camps, repressive secret police, religious persecution or state atheism, the common practice of executions, fraudulent elections (if they take place), possible possession of weapons of mass destruction and potentially state-sponsored mass murder and genocides. Historian Robert Conquest describes a totalitarian state as one which recognizes no limit on its authority in any sphere of public or private life and it extends that authority to whatever length is feasible.
The concept was first developed in the 1920s by both Weimar jurist and later Nazi academic Carl Schmitt and concurrently the Italian fascists. Italian fascist Benito Mussolini said: "Everything within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state". Schmitt used the term "Totalstaat" in his influential 1927 work "The Concept of the Political" on the legal basis of an all-powerful state. The term gained prominence in Western anti-communist political discourse during the Cold War era as a tool to convert pre-World War II anti-fascism into post-war anti-communism.
Totalitarian regimes are different from other authoritarian regimes. The latter denotes a state in which the single power holder—an individual "dictator", a committee or a junta or an otherwise small group of political elite—monopolizes political power. "[The] authoritarian state [...] is only concerned with political power and as long as it is not contested it gives society a certain degree of liberty". Authoritarianism "does not attempt to change the world and human nature". In contrast, a totalitarian regime attempts to control virtually all aspects of the social life, including the economy, education, art, science, private life and morals of citizens. Some totalitarian governments may promote an elaborate ideology: "The officially proclaimed ideology penetrates into the deepest reaches of societal structure and the totalitarian government seeks to completely control the thoughts and actions of its citizens". It also mobilizes the whole population in pursuit of its goals. Carl Joachim Friedrich writes that "a totalist ideology, a party reinforced by a secret police, and monopoly control of [...] industrial mass society" are the three features of totalitarian regimes that distinguish them from other autocracies.
The notion that "totalitarianism" is total political power which is exercised by the state was formulated in 1923 by Giovanni Amendola, who described Italian Fascism as a system which was fundamentally different from conventional dictatorships. The term was later assigned a positive meaning in the writings of Giovanni Gentile, Italy's most prominent philosopher and leading theorist of fascism. He used the term "totalitario" to refer to the structure and goals of the new state, which was to provide the "total representation of the nation and total guidance of national goals". He described totalitarianism as a society in which the ideology of the state had influence, if not power, over most of its citizens. According to Benito Mussolini, this system politicizes everything spiritual and human: "Everything within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state".
One of the first people to use the term "totalitarianism" in the English language was the Austrian writer Franz Borkenau in his 1938 book "The Communist International", in which he commented that it united the Soviet and German dictatorships more than it divided them. The label "totalitarian" was twice affixed to the Hitler regime during Winston Churchill's speech of October 5, 1938, before the House of Commons in opposition to the Munich Agreement, by which France and Great Britain consented to Nazi Germany's annexation of the Sudetenland. Churchill was then a backbencher MP representing the Epping constituency. In a radio address two weeks later, Churchill again employed the term, this time applying the concept to "a Communist or a Nazi tyranny".
José María Gil-Robles y Quiñones, the leader of the historic Spanish reactionary party called the Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right (CEDA) declared his intention to "give Spain a true unity, a new spirit, a totalitarian polity" and went on to say: "Democracy is not an end but a means to the conquest of the new state. When the time comes, either parliament submits or we will eliminate it". General Francisco Franco was determined not to have competing right-wing parties in Spain and, in April 1937, CEDA was dissolved. Later Gil-Robles went into exile.
George Orwell made frequent use of the word "totalitarian" and its cognates in multiple essays published in 1940, 1941 and 1942. In his essay "Why I Write", he wrote: "The Spanish war and other events in 1936–37 turned the scale and thereafter I knew where I stood. Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it".
During a 1945 lecture series entitled "The Soviet Impact on the Western World" (published as a book in 1946), the pro-Soviet British historian E. H. Carr claimed: "The trend away from individualism and towards totalitarianism is everywhere unmistakable" and that Marxism–Leninism was by far the most successful type of totalitarianism as proved by Soviet industrial growth and the Red Army's role in defeating Germany. Only the "blind and incurable" could ignore the trend towards totalitarianism, said Carr.
In "The Open Society and Its Enemies" (1945) and "The Poverty of Historicism" (1961), Karl Popper articulated an influential critique of totalitarianism: in both works, he contrasted the "open society" of liberal democracy with totalitarianism and argued that the latter is grounded in the belief that history moves toward an immutable future in accordance with knowable laws.
In "The Origins of Totalitarianism", Hannah Arendt argued that Nazi and Communist regimes were new forms of government and not merely updated versions of the old tyrannies. According to Arendt, the source of the mass appeal of totalitarian regimes is their ideology, which provides a comforting, single answer to the mysteries of the past, present and future. For Nazism, all history is the history of race struggle and for Marxism-Leninism all history is the history of class struggle. Once that premise is accepted, all actions of the state can be justified by appeal to nature or the law of history, justifying their establishment of authoritarian state apparatus.
In addition to Arendt, many scholars from a variety of academic backgrounds and ideological positions have closely examined totalitarianism. Among the most noted commentators on totalitarianism are Raymond Aron, Lawrence Aronsen, Franz Borkenau, Karl Dietrich Bracher, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Robert Conquest, Carl Joachim Friedrich, Eckhard Jesse, Leopold Labedz, Walter Laqueur, Claude Lefort, Juan Linz, Richard Löwenthal, Karl Popper, Richard Pipes, Leonard Schapiro and Adam Ulam. Each one of these describes totalitarianism in slightly different ways, but they all agree that totalitarianism seeks to mobilize entire populations in support of an official party ideology and is intolerant of activities which are not directed towards the goals of the party, entailing repression or state control of business, labour unions, non-profit organizations, religious organizations, and minor political parties. At the same time, many scholars from a variety of academic backgrounds and ideological positions criticised the theorists of totalitarianism. Among the most noted are Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice Merlau-Ponty, Benjamin Barber and Louis Althusser. They thought that totalitarianism was connected to Western ideologies and associated with evaluation rather than analysis.
The concept became prominent in Western anti-communist political discourse during the Cold War era as a tool to convert pre-war anti-fascism into postwar anti-communism.
The political scientists Carl Friedrich and Zbigniew Brzezinski in 1956 were primarily responsible for expanding the usage of the term in university social science and professional research, reformulating it as a paradigm for the Soviet Union as well as fascist regimes. Friedrich and Brzezinski argue that a totalitarian system has the following six, mutually supportive, defining characteristics:
In the book titled "Democracy and Totalitarianism" (1968), French analyst Raymond Aron has outlined 5 criteria for a regime to be considered as totalitarian:
Totalitarian regimes in Germany, Italy and the Soviet Union had initial origins in the chaos that followed in the wake of World War I and allowed totalitarian movements to seize control of the government while the sophistication of modern weapons and communications enabled them to effectively establish what Friedrich and Brzezinski called a "totalitarian dictatorship". Some social scientists have criticized Friedrich and Brzezinski's anti-totalitarian approach, arguing that the Soviet system, both as a political and as a social entity, was in fact better understood in terms of interest groups, competing elites, or even in class terms (using the concept of the "nomenklatura" as a vehicle for a new ruling class). These critics pointed to evidence of the widespread dispersion of power, at least in the implementation of policy, among sectoral and regional authorities. For some followers of this pluralist approach, this was evidence of the ability of the regime to adapt to include new demands. However, proponents of the totalitarian model claimed that the failure of the system to survive showed not only its inability to adapt, but the mere formality of supposed popular participation.
The German historian Karl Dietrich Bracher, whose work is primarily concerned with Nazi Germany, argues that the "totalitarian typology" as developed by Friedrich and Brzezinski is an excessively inflexible model and failed to consider the "revolutionary dynamic" that Bracher asserts is at the heart of totalitarianism. Bracher maintains that the essence of totalitarianism is the total claim to control and remake all aspects of society combined with an all-embracing ideology, the value on authoritarian leadership and the pretence of the common identity of state and society, which distinguished the totalitarian "closed" understanding of politics from the "open" democratic understanding. Unlike the Friedrich-Brzezinski definition, Bracher argued that totalitarian regimes did not require a single leader and could function with a collective leadership, which led the American historian Walter Laqueur to argue that Bracher's definition seemed to fit reality better than the Friedrich-Brzezinski definition. Bracher's typologies came under attack from Werner Conze and other historians, who felt that Bracher ‘lost sight of the historical material' and used 'universal, ahistorical concepts'.
In his 1951 book "The True Believer", Eric Hoffer argues that mass movements like Stalinism, fascism and Nazism had a common trait in picturing Western democracies and their values as decadent, with people "too soft, too pleasure-loving and too selfish" to sacrifice for a higher cause, which for them implies an inner moral and biological decay. He further claims that those movements offered the prospect of a glorious future to frustrated people, enabling them to find a refuge from the lack of personal accomplishments in their individual existence. The individual is then assimilated into a compact collective body and "fact-proof screens from reality" are established.
The above stance may be connected to a religious fear for Communists. Paul Hanebrink has argued that many European Christians started to fear Communist regimes after the rise of Hitler: "For many European Christians, Catholic and Protestant alike, the new postwar ‘culture war’ crystallized as a struggle against communism. Across interwar Europe, Christians demonized the Communist regime in Russia as the apotheosis of secular materialism and a militarized threat to Christian social and moral order." For him, Christians saw Communist regimes as threat to their moral order and hoped to lead European nations back to their Christian roots by creating an anti-totalitarian census, which defined Europe in the early Cold War.
In the 1990s, François Furet used the term "totalitarian twins" to link Stalinism and Nazism. Eric Hobsbawm criticized Furet for his temptation to stress a common ground between two systems of different ideological roots.
In the field of Soviet history, the totalitarian concept has been disparaged by the revisionist school, some of whose more prominent members were Sheila Fitzpatrick, Jerry F. Hough, William McCagg, Robert W. Thurston and J. Arch Getty. Though their individual interpretations differ, the revisionists have argued that the Soviet state under Joseph Stalin was institutionally weak, that the level of terror was much exaggerated and that—to the extent, it occurred—it reflected the weaknesses rather than the strengths of the Soviet state. Fitzpatrick argued that the Stalinist purges in the Soviet Union provided an increased social mobility and therefore a chance for a better life.
Writing in 1987, Walter Laqueur said that the revisionists in the field of Soviet history were guilty of confusing popularity with morality and of making highly embarrassing and not very convincing arguments against the concept of the Soviet Union as a totalitarian state. Laqueur argued that the revisionists' arguments with regard to Soviet history were highly similar to the arguments made by Ernst Nolte regarding German history. Laqueur asserted that concepts such as modernization were inadequate tools for explaining Soviet history while totalitarianism was not.
Laqueur's argument has been criticized by modern revisionist historians, such as Paul Buhle, who claim that Laqueur wrongly equates Cold-war revisionism with the German revisionism. The latter reflected a "revanchist, military-minded conservative nationalism". Moreover, Michael Parenti and James Petras have suggested that the totalitarianism concept has been politically employed and used for anti-communist purposes. More recently, Enzo Traverso has attacked the creators of the concept of totalitarianism as having invented it to designate the enemies of the West. Thus, calling Stalin totalitarian instead of authoritarian has been asserted to be a high-sounding but specious excuse for Western self-interest, just as surely as the counterclaim—that alleged debunking of the totalitarian concept may just be a high-sounding but specious excuse for Russian self-interest. For Domenico Losurdo, totalitarianism is a polysemic concept with origins in Christian theology, and that applying it to the political sphere requires an operation of abstract schematism which makes use of isolated elements of historical reality to place fascist regimes and the USSR in the dock together, serving the anti-communism of Cold War-era intellectuals rather than reflecting intellectual research. Other scholars, such as F. William Engdahl, Sheldon Wolin and Slavoj Žižek, have linked totalitarianism to capitalism and liberalism and used concepts, such as totalitarian democracy, inverted totalitarianism or totalitarian capitalism.
In the 2010s, Vladimir Tismaneanu, Richard Shorten and Aviezer Tucker argued that totalitarian ideologies can take different forms in different political systems, but all of them focus on utopianism, scientism or political violence. They think that both Nazism and Soviet Communism emphasised the role of specialisation in modern societies and saw polymathy as "a thing of the past"; both claimed to have statistical scientific support for their claims, which led to a strict "ethical" control of culture, psychological violence and persecution of entire groups. Their arguments have been criticised by other scholars due to their partiality and anachronism. For instance, Juan Francisco Fuentes treats totalitarianism as an "invented tradition" and the use of the notion of "modern despotism" as a "reverse anachronism". For Fuentes, "the anachronistic use of totalitarian/totalitarianism involves the will to reshape the past in the image and likeness of the present."
Other studies try to link modern technological changes with totalitarianism. According to Shoshana Zuboff, economic pressures of modern surveillance capitalism are driving the intensification of connection and monitoring online with spaces of social life becoming open to saturation by corporate actors, directed at the making of profit and/or the regulation of action. Toby Ord has found Orwell’s fears of totalitarianism as a notable early precursor to modern notions of anthropogenic "existential risk", the concept that, due in part to technological changes, a future catastrophe could permanently destroy the potential of Earth-originating intelligent life (here, by creating a permanent technological dystopia)." "The Economist" has described China's developed Social Credit System to screen and rank its citizens based on their personal behavior as "totalitarian". Opponents of China's ranking system say that it is intrusive and is just another way for a one-party state to control the population. Supporters say that it will make for a more civilized and law-abiding society. Other emerging technologies that have been postulated to empower future totalitarianism, include brain-reading, contact tracing and various applications of artificial intelligence. Philosopher Nick Bostrom has noted a possible trade-off: some existential risks might be mitigated by a powerful permanent world government, but such power could in turn enhance any existential risks associated with permanent dictatorship.
Non-political aspects of the culture and motifs of totalitarian countries have themselves often been labeled innately "totalitarian". For example, Theodore Dalrymple, a British author, physician and political commentator, has written for "City Journal" that brutalist structures are an expression of totalitarianism given that their grand, concrete-based design involves destroying gentler, more-human places such as gardens. In 1949, author George Orwell described the Ministry of Truth in "Nineteen Eighty-Four" as an "enormous, pyramidal structure of white concrete, soaring up terrace after terrace, three hundred metres into the air". Columnist Ben Macintyre of "The Times" wrote that it was "a prescient description of the sort of totalitarian architecture that would soon dominate the Communist bloc". In contrast to these views, several authors have seen brutalism and socialist realism as modernist art forms, which brought an ethos and sensibility in art.
Another example of totalitarianism in architecture is the Panopticon, a type of institutional building designed by English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham in the late eighteenth century. The concept of the design is to allow a watchman to observe (-opticon) all (pan-) inmates of an institution without their being able to tell whether or not they are being watched. It was invoked by Michel Foucault in "Discipline and Punish" as a metaphor for "disciplinary" societies and their pervasive inclination to observe and normalize. Foucault's Panopticon theory has been criticised by David W. Garland for providing little theoretical basis for the possibility of resistance within this "totalitarian" prison. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30439 |
Thomas Gray
Thomas Gray (26 December 1716 – 30 July 1771) was an English poet, letter-writer, classical scholar, and professor at Pembroke College, Cambridge. He is widely known for his "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard," published in 1751.
Gray was an extremely self-critical writer who published only 13 poems in his lifetime, despite being very popular. He was even offered the position of Poet Laureate in 1757, though he declined. His writing is conventionally considered to be pre-Romantic but recent critical developments deny such teleological classification.
Thomas Gray was born in Cornhill, London. His father, Philip Gray, was a scrivener and his mother, Dorothy Antrobus, was a milliner. He was the fifth of twelve children, and the only one to survive infancy. He lived with his mother after she left his abusive and mentally unwell father.
Gray's mother paid for him to go to Eton College, where his uncles Robert and William Antrobus worked. Robert became Gray's first teacher and helped inspire in Gray a love for botany and observational science. Gray's other uncle, William, became his tutor. He recalled his schooldays as a time of great happiness, as is evident in his "". Gray was a delicate and scholarly boy who spent his time reading and avoiding athletics. He lived in his uncle's household rather than at college. He made three close friends at Eton: Horace Walpole, son of the Prime Minister Robert Walpole; Thomas Ashton; and Richard West, son of another Richard West who was briefly Lord Chancellor of Ireland. The four prided themselves on their sense of style, sense of humour, and appreciation of beauty. They were called the "quadruple alliance".
In 1734, Gray went up to Peterhouse, Cambridge. He found the curriculum dull. He wrote letters to friends listing all the things he disliked: the masters ("mad with Pride") and the Fellows ("sleepy, drunken, dull, illiterate Things"). Intended by his family for the law, he spent most of his time as an undergraduate reading classical and modern literature, and playing Vivaldi and Scarlatti on the harpsichord for relaxation.
In 1738, he accompanied his old school-friend Walpole on his Grand Tour of Europe, possibly at Walpole's expense. The two fell out and parted in Tuscany because Walpole wanted to attend fashionable parties and Gray wanted to visit all the antiquities. They were reconciled a few years later. It was Walpole who later helped publish Gray's poetry. When Gray sent his most famous poem, "Elegy," to Walpole, Walpole sent off the poem as a manuscript and it appeared in different magazines. Gray then published the poem himself and received the credit he was due.
Gray began seriously writing poems in 1742, mainly after the death of his close friend Richard West, which inspired "Sonnet on the Death of Richard West". He moved to Cambridge and began a self-directed programme of literary study, becoming one of the most learned men of his time. He became a Fellow first of Peterhouse, and later of Pembroke College, Cambridge. According to Britannica, Gray moved to Pembroke after the students at Peterhouse played a prank on him.
Gray spent most of his life as a scholar in Cambridge, and only later in his life did he begin travelling again. Although he was one of the least productive poets (his collected works published during his lifetime amount to fewer than 1,000 lines), he is regarded as the foremost English-language poet of the mid-18th century. In 1757, he was offered the post of Poet Laureate, which he refused. Gray was so self-critical and fearful of failure that he published only thirteen poems during his lifetime. He once wrote that he feared his collected works would be "mistaken for the works of a flea." Walpole said that "He never wrote anything easily but things of Humour." Gray came to be known as one of the "Graveyard poets" of the late 18th century, along with Oliver Goldsmith, William Cowper, and Christopher Smart. Gray perhaps knew these men, sharing ideas about death, mortality, and the finality and sublimity of death.
In 1762, the Regius chair of Modern History at Cambridge, a sinecure which carried a salary of £400, fell vacant after the death of Shallet Turner, and Gray's friends lobbied the government unsuccessfully to secure the position for him. In the event, Gray lost out to Lawrence Brockett, but he secured the position in 1768 after Brockett's death.
It is believed by a number of writers that Gray began writing arguably his most celebrated piece, the "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard", in the graveyard of St Giles' parish church in Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire (though this claim is not exclusive), in 1742. After several years of leaving it unfinished, he completed it in 1750 (see elegy for the form). The poem was a literary sensation when published by Robert Dodsley in February 1751 (see 1751 in poetry). Its reflective, calm, and stoic tone was greatly admired, and it was pirated, imitated, quoted, and translated into Latin and Greek. It is still one of the most popular and frequently quoted poems in the English language. In 1759, during the Seven Years War, before the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, British General James Wolfe is said to have recited it to one of his officers, adding, "I would prefer being the author of that Poem to the glory of beating the French to-morrow."
The "Elegy" was recognised immediately for its beauty and skill. It contains many phrases which have entered the common English lexicon, either on their own or as quoted in other works. These include:
[[File:William Blake - The Poems of Thomas Gray, Design 105, "Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard." - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|[[William Blake]]'s illustration for Thomas Gray]]
"Elegy" contemplates such themes as death and afterlife. These themes foreshadowed the upcoming Gothic movement. It is suggested that perhaps Gray found inspiration for his poem by visiting the grave-site of his aunt, Mary Antrobus. The aunt was buried at the graveyard by the St. Giles' churchyard, which he and his mother would visit. This is the same grave-site where Gray himself was later buried.
Gray also wrote light verse, including "[[s: Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes|Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes]]", a mock elegy concerning [[Horace Walpole]]'s cat. After setting the scene with the couplet "What female heart can gold despise? What cat's averse to fish?", the poem moves to its multiple proverbial conclusion: "a fav'rite has no friend", "[k]now one false step is ne'er retrieved" and "nor all that glisters, gold". (Walpole later displayed the fatal china vase (the tub) on a pedestal at his house in [[Strawberry Hill House|Strawberry Hill]].)
Gray's surviving letters also show his sharp observation and playful sense of humour. He is well known for his phrase, "where [[wikt:ignorance is bliss|ignorance is bliss]], 'tis folly to be wise." The phrase, from "[[s: Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College|Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College]]", is possibly one of the most misconstrued phrases in English literature. Gray is not promoting ignorance, but is reflecting with nostalgia on a time when he was allowed to be ignorant, his youth ([[1742 in poetry|1742]]). It has been asserted that the Ode also abounds with images which find "a mirror in every mind". This was stated by Samuel Johnson who said of the poem, "I rejoice to concur with the common reader ... The Church-yard abounds with images which find a mirror in every mind, and with sentiments to which every bosom returns an echo". Indeed, Gray's poem follows the style of the mid-century literary endeavour to write of "universal feelings." Samuel Johnson also said of Gray that he spoke in "two languages". He spoke in the language of "public" and "private" and according to Johnson, he should have spoken more in his private language as he did in his "Elegy" poem.
[[File:The hours zoom in 4.jpg|thumb|"[[The Hours (picture)|The Hours]]" by [[Maria Cosway]], an illustration to Gray's poem "Ode on the Spring", referring to the lines "Lo! where the rosy-bosomed Hours, Fair Venus' train, appear"]]
Gray considered his two [[Pindar|Pindaric odes]], "The Progress of Poesy" and "[[The Bard (poem)|The Bard]]", as his best works. Pindaric odes are to be written with fire and passion, unlike the calmer and more reflective Horatian odes such as "Ode on a distant Prospect of Eton College". "The Bard" tells of a wild Welsh poet cursing the Norman king [[Edward I of England|Edward I]] after his conquest of Wales and prophesying in detail the downfall of the [[House of Plantagenet]]. It is melodramatic, and ends with the bard hurling himself to his death from the top of a mountain.
When his duties allowed, Gray travelled widely throughout Britain to places such as Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Scotland and most notably the Lake District (see his "Journal of a Visit to the Lake District" in 1769) in search of [[picturesque]] landscapes and ancient monuments. These elements were not generally valued in the early 18th century, when the popular taste ran to [[classicism|classical]] styles in architecture and literature, and most people liked their scenery tame and well-tended. The [[Gothic fiction|Gothic]] details that appear in his "Elegy" and "The Bard" are a part of the first foreshadowing of the [[Romantic movement]] that dominated the early 19th century, when [[Wordsworth|William Wordsworth]] and the other [[Lake poets]] taught people to value the picturesque, the sublime, and the Gothic. Gray combined traditional forms and poetic diction with new topics and modes of expression, and may be considered as a classically focused precursor of the [[Romanticism|romantic]] revival.
Gray's connection to the [[Romantic poets]] is vexed. In the prefaces to the 1800 and 1802 editions of Wordsworth's and [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]]'s "[[Lyrical Ballads]]", Wordsworth singled out Gray's "Sonnet on the Death of Richard West" to exemplify what he found most objectionable in poetry, declaring it was
"Gray, who was at the head of those who, by their reasonings, have attempted to widen the space of separation betwixt prose and metrical composition, and was more than any other man curiously elaborate in the structure of his own poetic diction." Gray wrote in a letter to West, that "the language of the age is never the language of poetry."
[[File:Graygrave.jpg|thumb|right|Plaque adjacent to the tomb of Thomas Gray in Stoke Poges Churchyard]]
Gray died on 30 July 1771 in Cambridge, and was buried beside his mother in the churchyard of St Giles' church in [[Stoke Poges]], the reputed (though desputed) setting for his famous "Elegy". His grave can still be seen there.
[[Category:1716 births]]
[[Category:1771 deaths]]
[[Category:Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge]]
[[Category:English literary critics]]
[[Category:18th-century English poets]]
[[Category:Fellows of Pembroke College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Fellows of Peterhouse, Cambridge]]
[[Category:People educated at Eton College]]
[[Category:Sonneteers]]
[[Category:Burials in Buckinghamshire]]
[[Category:18th-century English writers]]
[[Category:18th-century male writers]]
[[Category:English male poets]]
[[Category:English male non-fiction writers]] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30440 |
Taylor series
In mathematics, the Taylor series of a function is an infinite sum of terms that are expressed in terms of the function's derivatives at a single point. For most common functions, the function and the sum of its Taylor series are equal near this point. Taylor's series are named after Brook Taylor who introduced them in 1715.
If zero is the point where the derivatives are considered, a Taylor series is also called a Maclaurin series, after Colin Maclaurin, who made extensive use of this special case of Taylor series in the 18th century.
The partial sum formed by the first terms of a Taylor series is a polynomial of degree that is called the th Taylor polynomial of the function. Taylor polynomials are approximations of a function, which become generally better when increases. Taylor's theorem gives quantitative estimates on the error introduced by the use of such approximations. If the Taylor series of a function is convergent, its sum is the limit of the infinite sequence of the Taylor polynomials. A function may be not equal to the sum of its Taylor series, even if its Taylor series is convergent. A function is analytic at a point if it is equal to the sum of its Taylor series in some open interval (or open disc in the complex plane) containing . This implies that the function is analytic at every point of the interval (or disk).
The Taylor series of a real or complex-valued function that is infinitely differentiable at a real or complex number is the power series
where denotes the factorial of . In the more compact sigma notation, this can be written as
where denotes the th derivative of evaluated at the point . (The derivative of order zero of is defined to be itself and and are both defined to be 1.)
When , the series is also called a Maclaurin series.
The Taylor series for any polynomial is the polynomial itself.
The Maclaurin series for is the geometric series
so the Taylor series for at is
By integrating the above Maclaurin series, we find the Maclaurin series for , where denotes the natural logarithm:
The corresponding Taylor series for at is
and more generally, the corresponding Taylor series for at an arbitrary nonzero point is:
The Taylor series for the exponential function at is
The above expansion holds because the derivative of with respect to is also , and equals 1. This leaves the terms in the numerator and in the denominator for each term in the infinite sum.
The Greek philosopher Zeno considered the problem of summing an infinite series to achieve a finite result, but rejected it as an impossibility; the result was Zeno's paradox. Later, Aristotle proposed a philosophical resolution of the paradox, but the mathematical content was apparently unresolved until taken up by Archimedes, as it had been prior to Aristotle by the Presocratic Atomist Democritus. It was through Archimedes's method of exhaustion that an infinite number of progressive subdivisions could be performed to achieve a finite result. Liu Hui independently employed a similar method a few centuries later.
In the 14th century, the earliest examples of the use of Taylor series and closely related methods were given by Madhava of Sangamagrama. Though no record of his work survives, writings of later Indian mathematicians suggest that he found a number of special cases of the Taylor series, including those for the trigonometric functions of sine, cosine, tangent, and arctangent. The Kerala School of Astronomy and Mathematics further expanded his works with various series expansions and rational approximations until the 16th century.
In the 17th century, James Gregory also worked in this area and published several Maclaurin series. It was not until 1715 however that a general method for constructing these series for all functions for which they exist was finally provided by Brook Taylor, after whom the series are now named.
The Maclaurin series was named after Colin Maclaurin, a professor in Edinburgh, who published the special case of the Taylor result in the 18th century.
If is given by a convergent power series in an open disc (or interval in the real line) centred at in the complex plane, it is said to be analytic in this disc. Thus for in this disc, is given by a convergent power series
Differentiating by the above formula times, then setting gives:
and so the power series expansion agrees with the Taylor series. Thus a function is analytic in an open disc centred at if and only if its Taylor series converges to the value of the function at each point of the disc.
If is equal to its Taylor series for all in the complex plane, it is called entire. The polynomials, exponential function , and the trigonometric functions sine and cosine, are examples of entire functions. Examples of functions that are not entire include the square root, the logarithm, the trigonometric function tangent, and its inverse, arctan. For these functions the Taylor series do not converge if is far from . That is, the Taylor series diverges at if the distance between and is larger than the radius of convergence. The Taylor series can be used to calculate the value of an entire function at every point, if the value of the function, and of all of its derivatives, are known at a single point.
Uses of the Taylor series for analytic functions include:
Pictured on the right is an accurate approximation of around the point . The pink curve is a polynomial of degree seven:
The error in this approximation is no more than . In particular, for , the error is less than 0.000003.
In contrast, also shown is a picture of the natural logarithm function and some of its Taylor polynomials around . These approximations converge to the function only in the region ; outside of this region the higher-degree Taylor polynomials are "worse" approximations for the function. This is similar to Runge's phenomenon.
The "error" incurred in approximating a function by its th-degree Taylor polynomial is called the "remainder" or "residual" and is denoted by the function . Taylor's theorem can be used to obtain a bound on the size of the remainder.
In general, Taylor series need not be convergent at all. And in fact the set of functions with a convergent Taylor series is a meager set in the Fréchet space of smooth functions. And even if the Taylor series of a function does converge, its limit need not in general be equal to the value of the function . For example, the function
is infinitely differentiable at , and has all derivatives zero there. Consequently, the Taylor series of about is identically zero. However, is not the zero function, so does not equal its Taylor series around the origin. Thus, is an example of a non-analytic smooth function.
In real analysis, this example shows that there are infinitely differentiable functions whose Taylor series are "not" equal to even if they converge. By contrast, the holomorphic functions studied in complex analysis always possess a convergent Taylor series, and even the Taylor series of meromorphic functions, which might have singularities, never converge to a value different from the function itself. The complex function , however, does not approach 0 when approaches 0 along the imaginary axis, so it is not continuous in the complex plane and its Taylor series is undefined at 0.
More generally, every sequence of real or complex numbers can appear as coefficients in the Taylor series of an infinitely differentiable function defined on the real line, a consequence of Borel's lemma. As a result, the radius of convergence of a Taylor series can be zero. There are even infinitely differentiable functions defined on the real line whose Taylor series have a radius of convergence 0 everywhere.
A function cannot be written as a Taylor series centred at a singularity; in these cases, one can often still achieve a series expansion if one allows also negative powers of the variable ; see Laurent series. For example, can be written as a Laurent series.
There is, however, a generalization of the Taylor series that does converge to the value of the function itself for any bounded continuous function on , using the calculus of finite differences. Specifically, one has the following theorem, due to Einar Hille, that for any ,
Here is the th finite difference operator with step size . The series is precisely the Taylor series, except that divided differences appear in place of differentiation: the series is formally similar to the Newton series. When the function is analytic at , the terms in the series converge to the terms of the Taylor series, and in this sense generalizes the usual Taylor series.
In general, for any infinite sequence , the following power series identity holds:
So in particular,
The series on the right is the expectation value of , where is a Poisson-distributed random variable that takes the value with probability . Hence,
The law of large numbers implies that the identity holds.
Several important Maclaurin series expansions follow. All these expansions are valid for complex arguments .
The exponential function formula_17 (with base ) has Maclaurin series
It converges for all .
The natural logarithm (with base ) has Maclaurin series
They converge for formula_20. (In addition, the series for converges for , and the series for converges for .)
The geometric series and its derivatives have Maclaurin series
All are convergent for formula_20. These are special cases of the binomial series given in the next section.
The binomial series is the power series
whose coefficients are the generalized binomial coefficients
(If , this product is an empty product and has value 1.) It converges for formula_20 for any real or complex number .
When , this is essentially the infinite geometric series mentioned in the previous section. The special cases and give the square root function and its inverse:
When only the linear term is retained, this simplifies to the binomial approximation.
The usual trigonometric functions and their inverses have the following Maclaurin series:
All angles are expressed in radians. The numbers appearing in the expansions of are the Bernoulli numbers. The in the expansion of are Euler numbers.
The hyperbolic functions have Maclaurin series closely related to the series for the corresponding trigonometric functions:
The numbers appearing in the series for are the Bernoulli numbers.
Several methods exist for the calculation of Taylor series of a large number of functions. One can attempt to use the definition of the Taylor series, though this often requires generalizing the form of the coefficients according to a readily apparent pattern. Alternatively, one can use manipulations such as substitution, multiplication or division, addition or subtraction of standard Taylor series to construct the Taylor series of a function, by virtue of Taylor series being power series. In some cases, one can also derive the Taylor series by repeatedly applying integration by parts. Particularly convenient is the use of computer algebra systems to calculate Taylor series.
In order to compute the 7th degree Maclaurin polynomial for the function
one may first rewrite the function as
The Taylor series for the natural logarithm is (using the big O notation)
and for the cosine function
The latter series expansion has a zero constant term, which enables us to substitute the second series into the first one and to easily omit terms of higher order than the 7th degree by using the big notation:
Since the cosine is an even function, the coefficients for all the odd powers have to be zero.
Suppose we want the Taylor series at 0 of the function
We have for the exponential function
and, as in the first example,
Assume the power series is
Then multiplication with the denominator and substitution of the series of the cosine yields
Collecting the terms up to fourth order yields
The values of formula_40 can be found by comparison of coefficients with the top expression for formula_17, yielding:
Here we employ a method called "indirect expansion" to expand the given function. This method uses the known Taylor expansion of the exponential function. In order to expand as a Taylor series in , we use the known Taylor series of function :
Thus,
Classically, algebraic functions are defined by an algebraic equation, and transcendental functions (including those discussed above) are defined by some property that holds for them, such as a differential equation. For example, the exponential function is the function which is equal to its own derivative everywhere, and assumes the value 1 at the origin. However, one may equally well define an analytic function by its Taylor series.
Taylor series are used to define functions and "operators" in diverse areas of mathematics. In particular, this is true in areas where the classical definitions of functions break down. For example, using Taylor series, one may extend analytic functions to sets of matrices and operators, such as the matrix exponential or matrix logarithm.
In other areas, such as formal analysis, it is more convenient to work directly with the power series themselves. Thus one may define a solution of a differential equation "as" a power series which, one hopes to prove, is the Taylor series of the desired solution.
The Taylor series may also be generalized to functions of more than one variable with
For example, for a function formula_46 that depends on two variables, and , the Taylor series to second order about the point is
where the subscripts denote the respective partial derivatives.
A second-order Taylor series expansion of a scalar-valued function of more than one variable can be written compactly as
where is the gradient of evaluated at and is the Hessian matrix. Applying the multi-index notation the Taylor series for several variables becomes
which is to be understood as a still more abbreviated multi-index version of the first equation of this paragraph, with a full analogy to the single variable case.
In order to compute a second-order Taylor series expansion around point of the function
one first computes all the necessary partial derivatives:
Evaluating these derivatives at the origin gives the Taylor coefficients
Substituting these values in to the general formula
produces
Since is analytic in , we have
The trigonometric Fourier series enables one to express a periodic function (or a function defined on a closed interval ) as an infinite sum of trigonometric functions (sines and cosines). In this sense, the Fourier series is analogous to Taylor series, since the latter allows one to express a function as an infinite sum of powers. Nevertheless, the two series differ from each other in several relevant issues: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30448 |
TECO (text editor)
TECO (Tee'koh / ), Text Editor & Corrector is both a character-oriented text editor and a programming language, that was developed in 1962 for use on Digital Equipment Corporation computers, and has since become available on PCs and Unix. Dan Murphy developed TECO while a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
According to Murphy, the initial acronym was "Tape Editor and Corrector" because "punched paper tape was the only medium for the storage of program source on our PDP-1. There was no hard disk, floppy disk, magnetic tape (magtape), or network." By the time TECO was made available for general use, the name had become "Text Editor and Corrector," since even the PDP-1 version
by then supported other media. It was subsequently modified by many other people and is a direct ancestor of Emacs, which was originally implemented in TECO macros.
TECO is not only an editor but also an interpreted programming language for text manipulation. Arbitrary programs (called "macros") for searching and modifying text give it great power. Unlike regular expressions, however, the language was imperative, though some versions had an "or" operator in string search.
TECO does not really have syntax; each character in a program is an imperative command, dispatched to its corresponding routine. That routine may read further characters from the program stream (giving the effect of string arguments), change the position of the "program counter" (giving the effect of control structures), or push values onto a value stack (giving the effect of nested parentheses). But there is nothing to prevent operations like jumping into the middle of a comment, since there is no syntax and no parsing.
TECO ignores case and whitespace (except tab, which is an insertion command).
An essay on computer programming, Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal, suggested that a common game for TECO fans was to enter their name as a command sequence, and then try to work out what would happen. The same essay in describing TECO coined the acronym "YAFIYGI", meaning "You Asked For It You Got It" (like WYSIWYG).
Richard Stallman's Emacs editor was originally implemented in TECO. TECO became more widely used following a Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) PDP-6 implementation developed at MIT's Project MAC in 1964. This implementation continuously displayed the edited text visually on a CRT screen, and was used as an interactive online editor. Later versions of TECO were capable of driving full-screen mode on various DEC RS232 video terminals such as the VT52 or VT100.
TECO was available for several operating systems and computers, including the PDP-1 computer, the PDP-8 (under OS/8), the Incompatible Timesharing System (ITS) on the PDP-6 and PDP-10, and TOPS-10 and TOPS-20 on the PDP-10. A version of TECO was provided with all DEC operating systems; the version available for RT11 was able to drive the GT40 graphics display while the version available for RSTS/E was implemented as a multi-user run-time system and could be used as the user's complete operating environment; the user never actually had to exit TECO. The VTEDIT (Video Terminal Editor) TECO macro was commonly used on RSTS/E and VAX systems with terminals capable of direct-cursor control (e.g. VT52 and VT100) to provide a full-screen visual editor similar in function to the contemporaneously developed Emacs.
Hewlett-Packard, having bought Compaq (who bought Digital Equipment Corporation), provides TECO with the OpenVMS operating system.
A descendant of the version DEC distributed for the PDP-10 is still available on the Internet, along with several partial implementations for the MS-DOS/Microsoft Windows environment.
TECO was originally developed at MIT in around 1963 by Daniel L. Murphy for use on two PDP-1 computers, belonging to different departments, both housed in MIT's Building 26. On these machines, the normal development process involved the use of a Friden Flexowriter to prepare source code offline on a continuous strip of punched paper tape. Programmers of the big IBM mainframes customarily punched their source code on cards, using key punches which printed human-readable dot-matrix characters along the top of every card at the same time as they punched each machine-readable character. Thus IBM programmers could read, insert, delete, and move lines of code by physically manipulating the cards in the deck. Punched paper tape offered no such amenities, leading to the development of online editing.
An early editor for the PDP-1 was named "Expensive Typewriter". Written by Stephen D. Piner, it was the most rudimentary imaginable line-oriented editor, lacking even search-and-replace capabilities. Its name was chosen as a wry poke at an earlier, rather bloated, editor called "Colossal Typewriter". Even in those days, online editing could save time in the debugging cycle. Another program written by the PDP-1 hackers was Expensive Desk Calculator, in a similar vein.
The original stated purpose of TECO was to make more efficient use of the PDP-1. As envisioned in the manual, rather than performing editing "expensively" by sitting at a console, one would simply examine the faulty text and prepare a "correction tape" describing the editing operations to be performed on the text. One would efficiently feed the source tape and the correction tape into the PDP-1 via its high-speed (200 characters per second) reader. Running TECO, it immediately would punch an edited tape with its high-speed (60 characters per second) punch. One could then immediately proceed to load and run the assembler, with no time wasted in online editing.
TECO's then-sophisticated searching operations were motivated by the fact that the offline Flexowriter printouts were not line-numbered. Editing locations therefore needed to be specified by context rather than by line number. The various looping and conditional constructs (which made TECO Turing-complete) were included in order to provide sufficient descriptive power for the correction tape. The terse syntax minimized the number of keystrokes needed to prepare the correction tape.
The correction tape was a program, and required debugging just like any other program. The pitfalls of even the simplest global search-and-replace soon became evident. In practice, TECO editing was performed online just as it had been with Expensive Typewriter (although TECO was certainly a more feature-complete editor than Expensive Typewriter, so editing was much more efficient with TECO). The original PDP-1 version had no screen display. The only way to observe the state of the text during the editing process was to type in commands that would cause the text (or portions thereof) to be typed out on the console typewriter.
By 1964, a special Version of TECO ("TECO-6") had been implemented on the PDP-6 at MIT. That version supported visual editing, using a screen display that showed the contents of the editing buffer in real time, updating as it changed. Amongst the creators of TECO-6 were Richard Greenblatt and Stewart Nelson.
At MIT, TECO development continued in the fall of 1971. Carl Mikkelsen had implemented a real-time edit mode loosely based on the TECO-6 graphic console commands, but working with the newly installed Datapoint-3300 CRT text displays. The TECO buffer implementation, however, was terribly inefficient for processing single character insert or delete functions—editing consumed 100% of the PDP-10. With Richard Greenblatt's support, in summer of 1972 Carl reimplemented the TECO buffer storage and reformed the macros as native PDP-10 code. As entering the real-time mode was by typing , this was known as control-R mode. At the same time, Rici Liknaitski added input-time macros (), which operated as the command string was read rather than when executed. Read-time macros made the TECO auxiliary text buffers, called Q-registers, more useful. Carl expanded the Q-register name space. With read-time macros, a large Q-register name space, and efficient buffer operations, the stage was set for binding each key to a macro. These edit macros evolved into Emacs.
The OS/8 CCL MUNG command invoked TECO to read and execute the specified .TE TECO macro. Optional command line parameters gave added adaptability.
During and shortly following the years of the punched card era, there were source programs that had begun as punched card-based. Comments were often a series of lines that included single marginal asterisks and top/bottom full lines of asterisks. Once the cards were transferred online, it was a chore to realign the marginal stars. TECO to the rescue...
The obscurity of the TECO programming language is described in the following quote from "Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal", a letter from Ed Post to Datamation, July 1983:
According to Craig Finseth, author of "The Craft of Text Editing", TECO has been described as a "write-only" language, implying that once a program is written in TECO, it is extremely difficult to comprehend what it did without appropriate documentation.
Despite its syntax, the TECO command language was tremendously powerful, and clones are still available for MS-DOS and for Unix.
TECO commands are characters (including control-characters), and the prompt is a single asterisk:
The escape key displays as a dollar sign, pressed once it delineates the end of a command requiring an argument and pressed twice initiates the execution of the entered commands:
Given a file named hello.c with the following contents:
one could use the following TECO session (noting that the prompt is "*" and "$" is how ESC is echoed) to change "Hello" into "Goodbye":
printf("Hello world!\n"); The line
printf("Goodbye world!\n"); The updated line
These two example programs are a simple interchange sort of the current text buffer, based on the 1st character of each line, taken from the PDP-11 TECO User's Guide. A "goto" and "structured" version are shown.
!START! j 0aua ! jump to beginning, load 1st char in register A !
0uz ! clear repeat flag ! | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30449 |
Topological space
In topology and related branches of mathematics, a topological space may be defined as a set of points, along with a set of neighbourhoods for each point, satisfying a set of axioms relating points and neighbourhoods. The definition of a topological space relies only upon set theory and is the most general notion of a mathematical space that allows for the definition of concepts such as continuity, connectedness, and convergence. Other spaces, such as manifolds and metric spaces, are specializations of topological spaces with extra structures or constraints. Being so general, topological spaces are a central unifying notion and appear in virtually every branch of modern mathematics. The branch of mathematics that studies topological spaces in their own right is called point-set topology or general topology.
Around 1735, Euler discovered the formula formula_1 relating the number of vertices, edges and faces of a convex polyhedron, and hence of a planar graph. The study and generalization of this formula, specifically by Cauchy and L'Huilier, is at the origin of topology. In 1827, Carl Friedrich Gauss published "General investigations of curved surfaces" which in section 3 defines the curved surface in a similar manner to the modern topological understanding: "A curved surface is said to possess continuous curvature at one of its points A, if the direction of all the straight lines drawn from A to points of the surface at an infinitely small distance from A are deflected infinitely little from one and the same plane passing through A."
Yet, "until Riemann’s work in the early 1850s, surfaces were always dealt with from a local point of view (as parametric surfaces) and topological issues were never considered." "Möbius and Jordan seem to be the first to realize that the main problem about the topology of (compact) surfaces is to find invariants (preferably numerical) to decide the equivalence of surfaces, that is, to decide whether two surfaces are homeomorphic or not."
The subject is clearly defined by Felix Klein in his "Erlangen Program" (1872): the geometry invariants of arbitrary continuous transformation, a kind of geometry. The term "topology" was introduced by Johann Benedict Listing in 1847, although he had used the term in correspondence some years earlier instead of previously used "Analysis situs". The foundation of this science, for a space of any dimension, was created by Poincaré. His first article on this topic appeared in 1894. In the 1930s, James Waddell Alexander II and Hassler Whitney first expressed the idea that a surface is a topological space that is locally like a Euclidean plane.
The utility of the notion of a topology is shown by the fact that there are several equivalent definitions of this structure. Thus one chooses the axiomatisation suited for the application. The most commonly used is that in terms of "open sets", but perhaps more intuitive is that in terms of "neighbourhoods" and so this is given first.
This axiomatization is due to Felix Hausdorff.
Let "X" be a set; the elements of "X" are usually called "points", though they can be any mathematical object. We allow "X" to be empty. Let N be a function assigning to each "x" (point) in "X" a non-empty collection N("x") of subsets of "X". The elements of N("x") will be called "neighbourhoods" of "x" with respect to N (or, simply, "neighbourhoods of x"). The function N is called a neighbourhood topology if the axioms below are satisfied; and then "X" with N is called a topological space.
The first three axioms for neighbourhoods have a clear meaning. The fourth axiom has a very important use in the structure of the theory, that of linking together the neighbourhoods of different points of "X".
A standard example of such a system of neighbourhoods is for the real line R, where a subset "N" of R is defined to be a "neighbourhood" of a real number "x" if it includes an open interval containing "x".
Given such a structure, a subset "U" of "X" is defined to be open if "U" is a neighbourhood of all points in "U". The open sets then satisfy the axioms given below. Conversely, when given the open sets of a topological space, the neighbourhoods satisfying the above axioms can be recovered by defining "N" to be a neighbourhood of "x" if "N" includes an open set "U" such that "x" ∈ "U".
A "topological space" is an ordered pair ("X", "τ"), where "X" is a set and "τ" is a collection of subsets of "X", satisfying the following axioms:
The elements of "τ" are called open sets and the collection "τ" is called a topology on "X".
Using de Morgan's laws, the above axioms defining open sets become axioms defining closed sets:
Using these axioms, another way to define a topological space is as a set "X" together with a collection "τ" of closed subsets of "X". Thus the sets in the topology "τ" are the closed sets, and their complements in "X" are the open sets.
There are many other equivalent ways to define a topological space: in other words the concepts of neighbourhood, or that of open or closed sets can be reconstructed from other starting points and satisfy the correct axioms.
Another way to define a topological space is by using the Kuratowski closure axioms, which define the closed sets as the fixed points of an operator on the power set of "X".
A net is a generalisation of the concept of sequence. A topology is completely determined if for every net in "X" the set of its accumulation points is specified.
A variety of topologies can be placed on a set to form a topological space. When every set in a topology "τ"1 is also in a topology "τ"2 and "τ"1 is a subset of "τ"2, we say that "τ"2 is "finer" than "τ"1, and "τ"1 is "coarser" than "τ"2. A proof that relies only on the existence of certain open sets will also hold for any finer topology, and similarly a proof that relies only on certain sets not being open applies to any coarser topology. The terms "larger" and "smaller" are sometimes used in place of finer and coarser, respectively. The terms "stronger" and "weaker" are also used in the literature, but with little agreement on the meaning, so one should always be sure of an author's convention when reading.
The collection of all topologies on a given fixed set "X" forms a complete lattice: if "F" = {"τ""α" | "α" ∈ "A"} is a collection of topologies on "X", then the meet of "F" is the intersection of "F", and the join of "F" is the meet of the collection of all topologies on "X" that contain every member of "F".
A function between topological spaces is called continuous if for every "x" in "X" and every neighbourhood "N" of "f"("x") there is a neighbourhood "M" of "x" such that . This relates easily to the usual definition in analysis. Equivalently, "f" is continuous if the inverse image of every open set is open. This is an attempt to capture the intuition that there are no "jumps" or "separations" in the function. A homeomorphism is a bijection that is continuous and whose inverse is also continuous. Two spaces are called "homeomorphic" if there exists a homeomorphism between them. From the standpoint of topology, homeomorphic spaces are essentially identical.
In category theory, Top, the category of topological spaces with topological spaces as objects and continuous functions as morphisms, is one of the fundamental categories. The attempt to classify the objects of this category (up to homeomorphism) by invariants has motivated areas of research, such as homotopy theory, homology theory, and K-theory.
A given set may have many different topologies. If a set is given a different topology, it is viewed as a different topological space. Any set can be given the discrete topology in which every subset is open. The only convergent sequences or nets in this topology are those that are eventually constant. Also, any set can be given the trivial topology (also called the indiscrete topology), in which only the empty set and the whole space are open. Every sequence and net in this topology converges to every point of the space. This example shows that in general topological spaces, limits of sequences need not be unique. However, often topological spaces must be Hausdorff spaces where limit points are unique.
Metric spaces embody a metric, a precise notion of distance between points.
Every metric space can be given a metric topology, in which the basic open sets are open balls defined by the metric. This is the standard topology on any normed vector space. On a finite-dimensional vector space this topology is the same for all norms.
There are many ways of defining a topology on R, the set of real numbers. The standard topology on R is generated by the open intervals. The set of all open intervals forms a base or basis for the topology, meaning that every open set is a union of some collection of sets from the base. In particular, this means that a set is open if there exists an open interval of non zero radius about every point in the set. More generally, the Euclidean spaces R"n" can be given a topology. In the usual topology on R"n" the basic open sets are the open balls. Similarly, C, the set of complex numbers, and C"n" have a standard topology in which the basic open sets are open balls.
Proximity spaces provide a notion of closeness of two sets.
Uniform spaces axiomatize ordering the distance between distinct points.
A topological space in which the "points" are functions is called a function space.
Cauchy spaces axiomatize the ability to test whether a net is Cauchy. Cauchy spaces provide a general setting for studying completions.
Convergence spaces capture some of the features of convergence of filters.
Grothendieck sites are categories with additional data axiomatizing whether a family of arrows covers an object. Sites are a general setting for defining sheaves.
Many sets of linear operators in functional analysis are endowed with topologies that are defined by specifying when a particular sequence of functions converges to the zero function.
Any local field has a topology native to it, and this can be extended to vector spaces over that field.
Every manifold has a natural topology since it is locally Euclidean. Similarly, every simplex and every simplicial complex inherits a natural topology from Rn.
The Zariski topology is defined algebraically on the spectrum of a ring or an algebraic variety. On R"n" or C"n", the closed sets of the Zariski topology are the solution sets of systems of polynomial equations.
A linear graph has a natural topology that generalises many of the geometric aspects of graphs with vertices and edges.
The Sierpiński space is the simplest non-discrete topological space. It has important relations to the theory of computation and semantics.
There exist numerous topologies on any given finite set. Such spaces are called finite topological spaces. Finite spaces are sometimes used to provide examples or counterexamples to conjectures about topological spaces in general.
Any set can be given the cofinite topology in which the open sets are the empty set and the sets whose complement is finite. This is the smallest T1 topology on any infinite set.
Any set can be given the cocountable topology, in which a set is defined as open if it is either empty or its complement is countable. When the set is uncountable, this topology serves as a counterexample in many situations.
The real line can also be given the lower limit topology. Here, the basic open sets are the half open intervals ["a", "b"). This topology on R is strictly finer than the Euclidean topology defined above; a sequence converges to a point in this topology if and only if it converges from above in the Euclidean topology. This example shows that a set may have many distinct topologies defined on it.
If Γ is an ordinal number, then the set Γ = [0, Γ) may be endowed with the order topology generated by the intervals ("a", "b"), [0, "b") and ("a", Γ) where "a" and "b" are elements of Γ.
Outer space of a free group "F""n" consists of the so-called "marked metric graph structures" of volume 1 on "F""n".
Every subset of a topological space can be given the subspace topology in which the open sets are the intersections of the open sets of the larger space with the subset. For any indexed family of topological spaces, the product can be given the product topology, which is generated by the inverse images of open sets of the factors under the projection mappings. For example, in finite products, a basis for the product topology consists of all products of open sets. For infinite products, there is the additional requirement that in a basic open set, all but finitely many of its projections are the entire space.
A quotient space is defined as follows: if "X" is a topological space and "Y" is a set, and if "f" : "X"→ "Y" is a surjective function, then the quotient topology on "Y" is the collection of subsets of "Y" that have open inverse images under "f". In other words, the quotient topology is the finest topology on "Y" for which "f" is continuous. A common example of a quotient topology is when an equivalence relation is defined on the topological space "X". The map "f" is then the natural projection onto the set of equivalence classes.
The Vietoris topology on the set of all non-empty subsets of a topological space "X", named for Leopold Vietoris, is generated by the following basis: for every "n"-tuple "U"1, ..., "U""n" of open sets in "X", we construct a basis set consisting of all subsets of the union of the "U""i" that have non-empty intersections with each "U""i".
The Fell topology on the set of all non-empty closed subsets of a locally compact Polish space "X" is a variant of the Vietoris topology, and is named after mathematician James Fell. It is generated by the following basis: for every "n"-tuple "U"1, ..., "U""n" of open sets in "X" and for every compact set "K", the set of all subsets of "X" that are disjoint from "K" and have nonempty intersections with each "U""i" is a member of the basis.
Topological spaces can be broadly classified, up to homeomorphism, by their topological properties. A topological property is a property of spaces that is invariant under homeomorphisms. To prove that two spaces are not homeomorphic it is sufficient to find a topological property not shared by them. Examples of such properties include connectedness, compactness, and various separation axioms. For algebraic invariants see algebraic topology.
For any algebraic objects we can introduce the discrete topology, under which the algebraic operations are continuous functions. For any such structure that is not finite, we often have a natural topology compatible with the algebraic operations, in the sense that the algebraic operations are still continuous. This leads to concepts such as topological groups, topological vector spaces, topological rings and local fields. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30450 |
Talking Heads
Talking Heads were an American rock band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991. The band was composed of David Byrne (lead vocals, guitar), Chris Frantz (drums), Tina Weymouth (bass), and Jerry Harrison (keyboards, guitar). Described by the critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine as "one of the most critically acclaimed bands of the '80s," the group helped to pioneer new wave music by integrating elements of punk, art rock, funk, and world music with avant-garde sensibilities and an anxious, clean-cut image.
Former art school students who became involved in the 1970s New York punk scene, Talking Heads released their 1977 debut album, "", to positive reviews. They collaborated with producer Brian Eno on a trio of experimental and critically acclaimed releases: "More Songs About Buildings and Food" (1978), "Fear of Music" (1979), and "Remain in Light" (1980). After a hiatus, Talking Heads hit their commercial peak in 1983 with the U.S. Top 10 hit "Burning Down the House" from the album "Speaking in Tongues" and released the concert film "Stop Making Sense", directed by Jonathan Demme. They released several more albums, including their best-selling LP "Little Creatures" (1985), before disbanding in 1991.
In 2002, Talking Heads were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Four of their albums appear in "Rolling Stone"s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and three of their songs ("Psycho Killer", "Life During Wartime", and "Once in a Lifetime") were included among the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll. Talking Heads were also number 64 on VH1's list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". In the 2011 update of "Rolling Stone"s "100 Greatest Artists of All Time", they were ranked number 100.
From 1971 to 1972, David Byrne was a member of a duo named Bizadi with Marc Kehoe. He performed various offbeat acts and developed an interest in performing. He attended the Rhode Island School of Design in the 1970–1971 term, and the Maryland Institute College of Art in the 1971–1972 term.
Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth were also alumni of the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island. There, Byrne and Frantz formed a band called "the Artistics" in 1973. Weymouth was Frantz's girlfriend and often provided transportation for the band. The Artistics dissolved the following year, and the three moved to New York, eventually sharing a communal loft.
Tina Weymouth became the band's bass player after they were unable to find one in New York City. Frantz encouraged Weymouth to learn to play bass by listening to Suzi Quatro albums. They played their first gig as "Talking Heads" opening for the Ramones at CBGB on June 5, 1975.
In a later interview, Weymouth recalled how the group chose the name Talking Heads: "A friend had found the name in the "TV Guide", which explained the term used by TV studios to describe a head-and-shoulder shot of a person talking as 'all content, no action'. It fit." Later that year, the trio recorded a series of demos for CBS, but the band was not signed to the label. The band quickly drew a following and was signed to Sire Records in November 1976. They released their first single in February the following year, "Love → Building on Fire". In March 1977, they added Jerry Harrison, formerly of Jonathan Richman's band the Modern Lovers, on keyboards, guitar, and backing vocals. During this time, Byrne asked Weymouth to audition three more times to keep her place in the band.
The first Talking Heads album, "", received acclaim and produced their first charted single, "Psycho Killer". Many connected the song to the serial killer known as the Son of Sam, who had been terrorizing New York City months earlier; however, Byrne said he had written the song years prior.
"More Songs About Buildings and Food" (1978) was Talking Heads' first collaboration with producer Brian Eno, who had previously worked with Roxy Music, David Bowie, John Cale and Robert Fripp; the title of Eno's 1977 song "King's Lead Hat" is an anagram of the band's name. Eno's unusual style meshed well with the group's artistic sensibilities, and they began to explore an increasingly diverse range of musical directions, from post-punk to psychedelic funk to African music. This recording also established the band's relationship with Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas. "More Songs About Buildings and Food" included a cover of Al Green's "Take Me to the River." This broke Talking Heads into the general public's consciousness and gave the band their first "Billboard" Top 30 hit.
The Eno–Talking Heads experimentation continued with 1979's "Fear of Music", which flirted with the darker stylings of post-punk rock, mixed with white funkadelia and subliminal references to the geopolitical instability of the late 1970s. Music journalist Simon Reynolds cited "Fear of Music" as representing the Eno-Talking Heads collaboration "at its most mutually fruitful and equitable". The single "Life During Wartime" produced the catchphrase "This ain't no party, this ain't no disco." The song refers to the Mudd Club and CBGB, two popular New York nightclubs of the time.
"Remain in Light" (1980) was heavily influenced by the afrobeat of Nigerian bandleader Fela Kuti, whose music Eno had introduced to the band. It explored West African polyrhythms, weaving these together with Arabic music from North Africa, disco funk, and "found" voices. These combinations foreshadowed Byrne's later interest in world music. In order to perform these more complex arrangements, the band toured with an expanded group, including Adrian Belew and Bernie Worrell, among others, first at the Heatwave festival in August, and later in their concert film "Stop Making Sense". During this period, Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz also formed a commercially successful splinter group, Tom Tom Club, influenced by the foundational elements of hip hop, and Harrison released his first solo album, "The Red and the Black". Likewise, Byrne—in collaboration with Eno—released "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts", which incorporated world music and found sounds, as well as including a number of other prominent international and post-punk musicians. All were released by Sire.
"Remain in Light"s lead single, "Once in a Lifetime", became a Top 20 hit in the UK, but initially failed to make an impression in the USA. It grew into a popular standard over the next few years on the strength of its music video, which was named one of "Time"'s "All-TIME Best Music Videos".
After releasing four albums in barely four years, the group went into hiatus, and nearly three years passed before their next release, although Frantz and Weymouth continued to record with the Tom Tom Club. In the meantime, Talking Heads released a live album "The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads", toured the United States and Europe as an eight-piece group, and parted ways with Eno, who went on to produce albums with U2.
1983 saw the release of "Speaking in Tongues", a commercial breakthrough that produced the band's only American Top 10 hit, "Burning Down the House". Once again, a striking video was inescapable owing to its heavy rotation on MTV. The following tour was documented in Jonathan Demme's "Stop Making Sense", which generated another live album of the same name. The tour in support of "Speaking in Tongues" was their last.
Three more albums followed: 1985's "Little Creatures" (which featured the hit singles "And She Was" and "Road to Nowhere"), 1986's "True Stories" (Talking Heads covering all the soundtrack songs of Byrne's musical comedy film, in which the band also appeared), and 1988's "Naked". "Little Creatures" offered a much more American pop-rock sound as opposed to previous efforts. Similar in genre, "True Stories" hatched one of the group's most successful hits, "Wild Wild Life", and the accordion-driven track "Radio Head", which became the etymon of the band of the same name. "Naked" explored politics, sex, and death, and showed heavy African influence with polyrhythmic styles like those seen on "Remain in Light". During that time, the group was falling increasingly under David Byrne's control and, after "Naked", the band went on "hiatus". In 1987 Talking Heads released a book by called "What the Songs Look Like : Contemporary Artists Interpret Talking Heads Songs" with Harper Collins that contained artwork by some of the top New York visual artists of the decade.
It took until December 1991 for an official announcement to be made that Talking Heads had broken up. On the break-up, Frantz said "We were shocked to find out about [Byrne's departure] via the "Los Angeles Times". As far as we're concerned, the band never really broke up. David just decided to leave." Their final release was "Sax and Violins", an original song that had appeared earlier that year on the soundtrack to Wim Wenders' "Until the End of the World". During this breakup period, Byrne continued his solo career, releasing "Rei Momo" in 1989 and "The Forest" in 1991. This period also saw a revived flourish from both Tom Tom Club ("Boom Boom Chi Boom Boom" and "Dark Sneak Love Action") and Harrison ("Casual Gods" and "Walk on Water"), who toured together in the summer of 1990.
Despite David Byrne's lack of interest in another album, Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz, and Jerry Harrison reunited for a one-off album called "No Talking, Just Head" under the name The Heads in 1996. The album featured a number of vocalists, including Debbie Harry of Blondie, Johnette Napolitano of Concrete Blonde, Andy Partridge of XTC, Gordon Gano of Violent Femmes, Michael Hutchence of INXS, Ed Kowalczyk of Live, Shaun Ryder of Happy Mondays, Richard Hell, and Maria McKee. The album was accompanied by a tour, which featured Johnette Napolitano as the vocalist. Byrne took legal action against the rest of the band to prevent them using the name "Talking Heads", something he saw as "a pretty obvious attempt to cash in on the Talking Heads name". They opted to record and tour as "The Heads". Likewise, Byrne continued his solo career.
Meanwhile, Harrison became a record producer of some note – his résumé includes the Violent Femmes' "The Blind Leading the Naked", the Fine Young Cannibals' "The Raw and the Cooked", General Public's "Rub It Better", Crash Test Dummies' "God Shuffled His Feet", Live's "Mental Jewelry", "Throwing Copper" and "The Distance to Here", No Doubt's song "New" from "Return of Saturn", and in 2010, work by The Black and White Years and Kenny Wayne Shepherd.
Frantz and Weymouth, who married in 1977, had been recording on the side as Tom Tom Club since 1981. Tom Tom Club's self-titled debut album sold almost as well as Talking Heads themselves, leading to the band appearing in "Stop Making Sense". They achieved several pop/rap hits during the dance-club cultural boom era of the early 1980s, particularly in the UK, where they still enjoy a strong fan following today. Their best-known single, "Genius of Love", has been sampled numerous times, notably on old school hip hop classic "It's Nasty (Genius of Love)" by Grandmaster Flash and on Mariah Carey's 1995 hit "Fantasy". They also have produced several artists, including Happy Mondays and Ziggy Marley. The Tom Tom Club continue to record and tour intermittently, although commercial releases have become sporadic since 1991.
The band played "Life During Wartime", "Psycho Killer", and "Burning Down the House" together on March 18, 2002, at the ceremony of their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, joined on stage by former touring members Bernie Worrell and Steve Scales. However, reuniting for a concert tour is unlikely. David Byrne states: "We did have a lot of bad blood go down. That's one reason, and another is that musically we're just miles apart." Weymouth, however, has been critical of Byrne, describing him as "a man incapable of returning friendship" and saying that he doesn't "love" her, Frantz, and Harrison.
AllMusic stated that Talking Heads, one of the most celebrated bands of the 1970s and 1980s, by their breakup "had recorded everything from art-funk to polyrhythmic worldbeat explorations and simple, melodic guitar pop". Talking Heads' art pop innovations have had a long-lasting impact. Along with other groups such as Devo, Ramones and Blondie, they helped define the new wave genre in the United States. Meanwhile, the more worldly popularities like 1980's "Remain in Light" helped bring African rock to the western world.
Talking Heads have been cited as an influence by many artists, including Eddie Vedder, Foals, The Weeknd, Vampire Weekend, Primus, Bell X1, The 1975, The Ting Tings, Nelly Furtado, Kesha, St. Vincent, and Radiohead, who took their name from the Talking Heads song "Radio Head" from the 1986 album "True Stories". The Italian filmmaker and director Paolo Sorrentino, in receiving the Oscar for his film "La Grande Bellezza" in 2014, thanked Talking Heads, among others, as his sources of inspiration.
Touring musicians | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30456 |
Transfinite induction
Transfinite induction is an extension of mathematical induction to well-ordered sets, for example to sets of ordinal numbers or cardinal numbers.
Let formula_1 be a property defined for all ordinals formula_2. Suppose that whenever formula_3 is true for all formula_4, then formula_1 is also true. Then transfinite induction tells us that formula_6 is true for all ordinals.
Usually the proof is broken down into three cases:
All three cases are identical except for the type of ordinal considered. They do not formally need to be considered separately, but in practice the proofs are typically so different as to require separate presentations. Zero is sometimes considered a limit ordinal and then may sometimes be treated in proofs in the same case as limit ordinals.
Transfinite recursion is similar to transfinite induction; however, instead of proving that something holds for all ordinal numbers, we construct a sequence of objects, one for each ordinal.
As an example, a basis for a (possibly infinite-dimensional) vector space can be created by choosing a vector formula_17 and for each ordinal α choosing a vector that is not in the span of the vectors formula_18. This process stops when no vector can be chosen.
More formally, we can state the Transfinite Recursion Theorem as follows:
As in the case of induction, we may treat different types of ordinals separately: another formulation of transfinite recursion is the following:
Note that we require the domains of "G"2, "G"3 to be broad enough to make the above properties meaningful. The uniqueness of the sequence satisfying these properties can be proved using transfinite induction.
More generally, one can define objects by transfinite recursion on any well-founded relation "R". ("R" need not even be a set; it can be a proper class, provided it is a set-like relation; i.e. for any "x", the collection of all "y" such that "yRx" is a set.)
Proofs or constructions using induction and recursion often use the axiom of choice to produce a well-ordered relation that can be treated by transfinite induction. However, if the relation in question is already well-ordered, one can often use transfinite induction without invoking the axiom of choice. For example, many results about Borel sets are proved by transfinite induction on the ordinal rank of the set; these ranks are already well-ordered, so the axiom of choice is not needed to well-order them.
The following construction of the Vitali set shows one way that the axiom of choice can be used in a proof by transfinite induction:
The above argument uses the axiom of choice in an essential way at the very beginning, in order to well-order the reals. After that step, the axiom of choice is not used again.
Other uses of the axiom of choice are more subtle. For example, a construction by transfinite recursion frequently will not specify a "unique" value for "A"α+1, given the sequence up to α, but will specify only a "condition" that "A"α+1 must satisfy, and argue that there is at least one set satisfying this condition. If it is not possible to define a unique example of such a set at each stage, then it may be necessary to invoke (some form of) the axiom of choice to select one such at each step. For inductions and recursions of countable length, the weaker axiom of dependent choice is sufficient. Because there are models of Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory of interest to set theorists that satisfy the axiom of dependent choice but not the full axiom of choice, the knowledge that a particular proof only requires dependent choice can be useful. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30461 |
Triple point
In thermodynamics, the triple point of a substance is the temperature and pressure at which the three phases (gas, liquid, and solid) of that substance coexist in thermodynamic equilibrium. It is that temperature and pressure at which the sublimation curve, fusion curve and the vaporisation curve meet. For example, the triple point of mercury occurs at a temperature of and a pressure of 0.2 mPa.
In addition to the triple point for solid, liquid, and gas phases, a triple point may involve more than one solid phase, for substances with multiple polymorphs. Helium-4 is a special case that presents a triple point involving two different fluid phases (lambda point).
The triple point of water was used to define the kelvin, the base unit of thermodynamic temperature in the International System of Units (SI). The value of the triple point of water was fixed by definition, rather than measured, but that changed with the 2019 redefinition of SI base units. The triple points of several substances are used to define points in the ITS-90 international temperature scale, ranging from the triple point of hydrogen (13.8033 K) to the triple point of water (273.16 K, 0.01 °C, or 32.018 °F).
The term "triple point" was coined in 1873 by James Thomson, brother of Lord Kelvin.
The single combination of pressure and temperature at which liquid water, solid ice, and water vapor can coexist in a stable equilibrium occurs at approximately and a partial vapor pressure of . At that point, it is possible to change all of the substance to ice, water, or vapor by making arbitrarily small changes in pressure and temperature. Even if the total pressure of a system is well above the triple point of water, provided that the partial pressure of the water vapor is 611.657 pascals, then the system can still be brought to the triple point of water. Strictly speaking, the surfaces separating the different phases should also be perfectly flat, to negate the effects of surface tension.
The gas–liquid–solid triple point of water corresponds to the minimum pressure at which liquid water can exist. At pressures below the triple point (as in outer space), solid ice when heated at constant pressure is converted directly into water vapor in a process known as sublimation. Above the triple point, solid ice when heated at constant pressure first melts to form liquid water, and then evaporates or boils to form vapor at a higher temperature.
For most substances the gas–liquid–solid triple point is also the minimum temperature at which the liquid can exist. For water, however, this is not true because the melting point of ordinary ice decreases as a function of pressure, as shown by the dashed green line in the phase diagram. At temperatures just below the triple point, compression at constant temperature transforms water vapor first to solid and then to liquid (water ice has lower density than liquid water, so increasing pressure leads to a liquefaction).
The triple point pressure of water was used during the Mariner 9 mission to Mars as a reference point to define "sea level". More recent missions use laser altimetry and gravity measurements instead of pressure to define elevation on Mars.
At high pressures, water has a complex phase diagram with 15 known phases of ice and several triple points, including 10 whose coordinates are shown in the diagram. For example, the triple point at 251 K (−22 °C) and 210 MPa (2070 atm) corresponds to the conditions for the coexistence of ice Ih (ordinary ice), ice III and liquid water, all at equilibrium. There are also triple points for the coexistence of three solid phases, for example ice II, ice V and ice VI at 218 K (−55 °C) and 620 MPa (6120 atm).
For those high-pressure forms of ice which can exist in equilibrium with liquid, the diagram shows that melting points increase with pressure. At temperatures above 273 K (0 °C), increasing the pressure on water vapor results first in liquid water and then a high-pressure form of ice. In the range , ice I is formed first, followed by liquid water and then ice III or ice V, followed by other still denser high-pressure forms.
Triple-point cells are used in the calibration of thermometers. For exacting work, triple-point cells are typically filled with a highly pure chemical substance such as hydrogen, argon, mercury, or water (depending on the desired temperature). The purity of these substances can be such that only one part in a million is a contaminant, called "six nines" because it is 99.9999% pure. When it is a water-based cell, a specific isotopic composition called VSMOW is used because variations in isotopic composition cause small changes in the triple point. Triple-point cells are so effective at achieving highly precise, reproducible temperatures, that an international calibration standard for thermometers called ITS–90 relies upon triple-point cells of hydrogen, neon, oxygen, argon, mercury, and water for delineating six of its defined temperature points.
This table lists the gas–liquid–solid triple points of several substances. Unless otherwise noted, the data come from the U.S. National Bureau of Standards (now NIST, National Institute of Standards and Technology). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30462 |
Taxonomy (biology)
In biology, taxonomy () is the science of naming, defining (circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms on the basis of shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped together into taxa (singular: taxon) and these groups are given a taxonomic rank; groups of a given rank can be aggregated to form a super-group of higher rank, thus creating a taxonomic hierarchy. The principal ranks in modern use are domain, kingdom, phylum (division is sometimes used in botany in place of phylum), class, order, family, genus, and species. The Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus is regarded as the founder of the current system of taxonomy, as he developed a system known as Linnaean taxonomy for categorizing organisms and binomial nomenclature for naming organisms.
With the advent of such fields of study as phylogenetics, cladistics, and systematics, the Linnaean system has progressed to a system of modern biological classification based on the evolutionary relationships between organisms, both living and extinct.
The exact definition of taxonomy varies from source to source, but the core of the discipline remains: the conception, naming, and classification of groups of organisms. As points of reference, recent definitions of taxonomy are presented below:
The varied definitions either place taxonomy as a sub-area of systematics (definition 2), invert that relationship (definition 6), or appear to consider the two terms synonymous. There is some disagreement as to whether biological nomenclature is considered a part of taxonomy (definitions 1 and 2), or a part of systematics outside taxonomy. For example, definition 6 is paired with the following definition of systematics that places nomenclature outside taxonomy:
A whole set of terms including taxonomy, systematic biology, systematics, biosystematics, scientific classification, biological classification, and phylogenetics have at times had overlapping meanings – sometimes the same, sometimes slightly different, but always related and intersecting. The broadest meaning of "taxonomy" is used here. The term itself was introduced in 1813 by de Candolle, in his "Théorie élémentaire de la botanique".
A taxonomic revision or taxonomic review is a novel analysis of the variation patterns in a particular taxon. This analysis may be executed on the basis of any combination of the various available kinds of characters, such as morphological, anatomical, palynological, biochemical and genetic. A monograph or complete revision is a revision that is comprehensive for a taxon for the information given at a particular time, and for the entire world. Other (partial) revisions may be restricted in the sense that they may only use some of the available character sets or have a limited spatial scope. A revision results in a conformation of or new insights in the relationships between the subtaxa within the taxon under study, which may result in a change in the classification of these subtaxa, the identification of new subtaxa, or the merger of previous subtaxa.
The term "alpha taxonomy" is primarily used today to refer to the discipline of finding, describing, and naming taxa, particularly species. In earlier literature, the term had a different meaning, referring to morphological taxonomy, and the products of research through the end of the 19th century.
William Bertram Turrill introduced the term "alpha taxonomy" in a series of papers published in 1935 and 1937 in which he discussed the philosophy and possible future directions of the discipline of taxonomy. … there is an increasing desire amongst taxonomists to consider their problems from wider viewpoints, to investigate the possibilities of closer co-operation with their cytological, ecological and genetics colleagues and to acknowledge that some revision or expansion, perhaps of a drastic nature, of their aims and methods, may be desirable … Turrill (1935) has suggested that while accepting the older invaluable taxonomy, based on structure, and conveniently designated "alpha", it is possible to glimpse a far-distant taxonomy built upon as wide a basis of morphological and physiological facts as possible, and one in which "place is found for all observational and experimental data relating, even if indirectly, to the constitution, subdivision, origin, and behaviour of species and other taxonomic groups". Ideals can, it may be said, never be completely realized. They have, however, a great value of acting as permanent stimulants, and if we have some, even vague, ideal of an "omega" taxonomy we may progress a little way down the Greek alphabet. Some of us please ourselves by thinking we are now groping in a "beta" taxonomy.
Turrill thus explicitly excludes from alpha taxonomy various areas of study that he includes within taxonomy as a whole, such as ecology, physiology, genetics, and cytology. He further excludes phylogenetic reconstruction from alpha taxonomy (pp. 365–366).
Later authors have used the term in a different sense, to mean the delimitation of species (not subspecies or taxa of other ranks), using whatever investigative techniques are available, and including sophisticated computational or laboratory techniques. Thus, Ernst Mayr in 1968 defined "beta taxonomy" as the classification of ranks higher than species.An understanding of the biological meaning of variation and of the evolutionary origin of groups of related species is even more important for the second stage of taxonomic activity, the sorting of species into groups of relatives ("taxa") and their arrangement in a hierarchy of higher categories. This activity is what the term classification denotes; it is also referred to as "beta taxonomy".
How species should be defined in a particular group of organisms gives rise to practical and theoretical problems that are referred to as the species problem. The scientific work of deciding how to define species has been called microtaxonomy. By extension, macrotaxonomy is the study of groups at the higher taxonomic ranks subgenus and above.
While some descriptions of taxonomic history attempt to date taxonomy to ancient civilizations, a truly scientific attempt to classify organisms did not occur until the 18th century. Earlier works were primarily descriptive and focused on plants that were useful in agriculture or medicine. There are a number of stages in this scientific thinking. Early taxonomy was based on arbitrary criteria, the so-called "artificial systems", including Linnaeus's system of sexual classification. Later came systems based on a more complete consideration of the characteristics of taxa, referred to as "natural systems", such as those of de Jussieu (1789), de Candolle (1813) and Bentham and Hooker (1862–1863). These were pre-evolutionary in thinking. The publication of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" (1859) led to new ways of thinking about classification based on evolutionary relationships. This was the concept of phyletic systems, from 1883 onwards. This approach was typified by those of Eichler (1883) and Engler (1886–1892). The advent of molecular genetics and statistical methodology allowed the creation of the modern era of "phylogenetic systems" based on cladistics, rather than morphology alone.
Naming and classifying our surroundings has probably been taking place as long as mankind has been able to communicate. It would always have been important to know the names of poisonous and edible plants and animals in order to communicate this information to other members of the family or group. Medicinal plant illustrations show up in Egyptian wall paintings from c. 1500 BC, indicating that the uses of different species were understood and that a basic taxonomy was in place.
Organisms were first classified by Aristotle (Greece, 384–322 BC) during his stay on the Island of Lesbos. He classified beings by their parts, or in modern terms "attributes", such as having live birth, having four legs, laying eggs, having blood, or being warm-bodied. He divided all living things into two groups: plants and animals. Some of his groups of animals, such as "Anhaima" (animals without blood, translated as invertebrates) and "Enhaima" (animals with blood, roughly the vertebrates), as well as groups like the sharks and cetaceans, are still commonly used today. His student Theophrastus (Greece, 370–285 BC) carried on this tradition, mentioning some 500 plants and their uses in his "Historia Plantarum". Again, several plant groups currently still recognized can be traced back to Theophrastus, such as "Cornus", "Crocus", and "Narcissus".
Taxonomy in the Middle Ages was largely based on the Aristotelian system, with additions concerning the philosophical and existential order of creatures. This included concepts such as the Great chain of being in the Western scholastic tradition, again deriving ultimately from Aristotle. Aristotelian system did not classify plants or fungi, due to the lack of microscope at the time, as his ideas were based on arranging the complete world in a single continuum, as per the "scala naturae" (the Natural Ladder). This, as well, was taken into consideration in the Great chain of being. Advances were made by scholars such as Procopius, Timotheos of Gaza, Demetrios Pepagomenos, and Thomas Aquinas. Medieval thinkers used abstract philosophical and logical categorizations more suited to abstract philosophy than to pragmatic taxonomy.
During the Renaissance, the Age of Reason, and the Enlightenment, categorizing organisms became more prevalent,
and taxonomic works became ambitious enough to replace the ancient texts. This is sometimes credited to the development of sophisticated optical lenses, which allowed the morphology of organisms to be studied in much greater detail. One of the earliest authors to take advantage of this leap in technology was the Italian physician Andrea Cesalpino (1519–1603), who has been called "the first taxonomist". His magnum opus "De Plantis" came out in 1583, and described more than 1500 plant species. Two large plant families that he first recognized are still in use today: the Asteraceae and Brassicaceae. Then in the 17th century John Ray (England, 1627–1705) wrote many important taxonomic works. Arguably his greatest accomplishment was "Methodus Plantarum Nova" (1682), in which he published details of over 18,000 plant species. At the time, his classifications were perhaps the most complex yet produced by any taxonomist, as he based his taxa on many combined characters. The next major taxonomic works were produced by Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (France, 1656–1708). His work from 1700, "Institutiones Rei Herbariae", included more than 9000 species in 698 genera, which directly influenced Linnaeus, as it was the text he used as a young student.
The Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) ushered in a new era of taxonomy. With his major works "Systema Naturae" 1st Edition in 1735, "Species Plantarum" in 1753, and "Systema Naturae" 10th Edition, he revolutionized modern taxonomy. His works implemented a standardized binomial naming system for animal and plant species, which proved to be an elegant solution to a chaotic and disorganized taxonomic literature. He not only introduced the standard of class, order, genus, and species, but also made it possible to identify plants and animals from his book, by using the smaller parts of the flower. Thus the Linnaean system was born, and is still used in essentially the same way today as it was in the 18th century. Currently, plant and animal taxonomists regard Linnaeus' work as the "starting point" for valid names (at 1753 and 1758 respectively). Names published before these dates are referred to as "pre-Linnaean", and not considered valid (with the exception of spiders published in "Svenska Spindlar"). Even taxonomic names published by Linnaeus himself before these dates are considered pre-Linnaean.
Whereas Linnaeus aimed simply to create readily identifiable taxa, the idea of the Linnaean taxonomy as translating into a sort of dendrogram of the animal and plant kingdoms was formulated toward the end of the 18th century, well before "On the Origin of Species" was published. Among early works exploring the idea of a transmutation of species were Erasmus Darwin's 1796 "Zoönomia" and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck's "Philosophie Zoologique" of 1809. The idea was popularized in the Anglophone world by the speculative but widely read "Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation", published anonymously by Robert Chambers in 1844.
With Darwin's theory, a general acceptance quickly appeared that a classification should reflect the Darwinian principle of common descent. Tree of life representations became popular in scientific works, with known fossil groups incorporated. One of the first modern groups tied to fossil ancestors was birds. Using the then newly discovered fossils of "Archaeopteryx" and "Hesperornis", Thomas Henry Huxley pronounced that they had evolved from dinosaurs, a group formally named by Richard Owen in 1842. The resulting description, that of dinosaurs "giving rise to" or being "the ancestors of" birds, is the essential hallmark of evolutionary taxonomic thinking. As more and more fossil groups were found and recognized in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, palaeontologists worked to understand the history of animals through the ages by linking together known groups. With the modern evolutionary synthesis of the early 1940s, an essentially modern understanding of the evolution of the major groups was in place. As evolutionary taxonomy is based on Linnaean taxonomic ranks, the two terms are largely interchangeable in modern use.
The cladistic method has emerged since the 1960s. In 1958, Julian Huxley used the term clade. Later, in 1960, Cain and Harrison introduced the term cladistic. The salient feature is arranging taxa in a hierarchical evolutionary tree, ignoring ranks. A taxon is called monophyletic, if it includes all the descendants of an ancestral form. Groups that have descendant groups removed from them are termed paraphyletic, while groups representing more than one branch from the tree of life are called polyphyletic. The "International Code of Phylogenetic Nomenclature" or "PhyloCode" is intended to regulate the formal naming of clades. Linnaean ranks will be optional under the "PhyloCode", which is intended to coexist with the current, rank-based codes.
Well before Linnaeus, plants and animals were considered separate Kingdoms. Linnaeus used this as the top rank, dividing the physical world into the plant, animal and mineral kingdoms. As advances in microscopy made classification of microorganisms possible, the number of kingdoms increased, five- and six-kingdom systems being the most common.
Domains are a relatively new grouping. First proposed in 1977, Carl Woese's three-domain system was not generally accepted until later. One main characteristic of the three-domain method is the separation of Archaea and Bacteria, previously grouped into the single kingdom Bacteria (a kingdom also sometimes called Monera), with the Eukaryota for all organisms whose cells contain a nucleus. A small number of scientists include a sixth kingdom, Archaea, but do not accept the domain method.
Thomas Cavalier-Smith, who has published extensively on the classification of protists, has recently proposed that the Neomura, the clade that groups together the Archaea and Eucarya, would have evolved from Bacteria, more precisely from Actinobacteria. His 2004 classification treated the archaeobacteria as part of a subkingdom of the kingdom Bacteria, i.e. he rejected the three-domain system entirely. Stefan Luketa in 2012 proposed a five "dominion" system, adding Prionobiota (acellular and without nucleic acid) and Virusobiota (acellular but with nucleic acid) to the traditional three domains.
Partial classifications exist for many individual groups of organisms and are revised and replaced as new information becomes available; however, comprehensive, published treatments of most or all life are rarer; recent examples are that of Adl et al., 2012 and 2019, which covers eukaryotes only with an emphasis on protists, and Ruggiero et al., 2015, covering both eukaryotes and prokaryotes to the rank of Order, although both exclude fossil representatives. A separate compilation (Ruggiero, 2014) covers extant taxa to the rank of family. Other, database-driven treatments include the Encyclopedia of Life, the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, the NCBI taxonomy database, the Interim Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genera, the Open Tree of Life, and the Catalogue of Life. The Paleobiology Database is a resource for fossils.
Biological taxonomy is a sub-discipline of biology, and is generally practiced by biologists known as "taxonomists", though enthusiastic naturalists are also frequently involved in the publication of new taxa. Because taxonomy aims to describe and organize life, the work conducted by taxonomists is essential for the study of biodiversity and the resulting field of conservation biology.
Biological classification is a critical component of the taxonomic process. As a result, it informs the user as to what the relatives of the taxon are hypothesized to be. Biological classification uses taxonomic ranks, including among others (in order from most inclusive to least inclusive): Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species, and Strain.
The "definition" of a taxon is encapsulated by its description or its diagnosis or by both combined. There are no set rules governing the definition of taxa, but the naming and publication of new taxa is governed by sets of rules. In zoology, the nomenclature for the more commonly used ranks (superfamily to subspecies), is regulated by the "International Code of Zoological Nomenclature" ("ICZN Code"). In the fields of phycology, mycology, and botany, the naming of taxa is governed by the "International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants" ("ICN").
The initial description of a taxon involves five main requirements:
However, often much more information is included, like the geographic range of the taxon, ecological notes, chemistry, behavior, etc. How researchers arrive at their taxa varies: depending on the available data, and resources, methods vary from simple quantitative or qualitative comparisons of striking features, to elaborate computer analyses of large amounts of DNA sequence data.
An "authority" may be placed after a scientific name. The authority is the name of the scientist or scientists who first validly published the name. For example, in 1758 Linnaeus gave the Asian elephant the scientific name "Elephas maximus", so the name is sometimes written as ""Elephas maximus" Linnaeus, 1758". The names of authors are frequently abbreviated: the abbreviation "L., for Linnaeus," is commonly used. In botany, there is, in fact, a regulated list of standard abbreviations (see list of botanists by author abbreviation). The system for assigning authorities differs slightly between botany and zoology. However, it is standard that if the genus of a species has been changed since the original description, the original authority's name is placed in parentheses.
In phenetics, also known as taximetrics, or numerical taxonomy, organisms are classified based on overall similarity, regardless of their phylogeny or evolutionary relationships. It results in a measure of evolutionary "distance" between taxa. Phenetic methods have become relatively rare in modern times, largely superseded by cladistic analyses, as phenetic methods do not distinguish common ancestral (or plesiomorphic) traits from new common (or apomorphic) traits. However, certain phenetic methods, such as neighbor joining, have found their way into cladistics, as a reasonable approximation of phylogeny when more advanced methods (such as Bayesian inference) are too computationally expensive.
Modern taxonomy uses database technologies to search and catalogue classifications and their documentation. While there is no commonly used database, there are comprehensive databases such as the "Catalogue of Life", which attempts to list every documented species. The catalogue listed 1.64 million species for all kingdoms as of April 2016, claiming coverage of more than three quarters of the estimated species known to modern science. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30463 |
Tyrannosaurus
Tyrannosaurus is a genus of coelurosaurian theropod dinosaur. The species Tyrannosaurus rex ("rex" meaning "king" in Latin), often called T. rex or colloquially T-Rex, is one of the most well-represented of the large theropods. "Tyrannosaurus" lived throughout what is now western North America, on what was then an island continent known as Laramidia. "Tyrannosaurus" had a much wider range than other tyrannosaurids. Fossils are found in a variety of rock formations dating to the Maastrichtian age of the upper Cretaceous period, 68 to 66 million years ago. It was the last known member of the tyrannosaurids, and among the last non-avian dinosaurs to exist before the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.
Like other tyrannosaurids, "Tyrannosaurus" was a bipedal carnivore with a massive skull balanced by a long, heavy tail. Relative to its large and powerful hind limbs, "Tyrannosaurus" forelimbs were short but unusually powerful for their size and had two clawed digits. The most complete specimen measures up to in length though "T. rex" could grow to lengths of over , up to tall at the hips, and according to most modern estimates to in weight. Although other theropods rivaled or exceeded "Tyrannosaurus rex" in size, it is still among the largest known land predators and is estimated to have exerted the strongest bite force among all terrestrial animals. By far the largest carnivore in its environment, "Tyrannosaurus rex" was most likely an apex predator, preying upon hadrosaurs, armored herbivores like ceratopsians and ankylosaurs, and possibly sauropods. Some experts have suggested the dinosaur was primarily a scavenger. The question of whether "Tyrannosaurus" was an apex predator or a pure scavenger was among the longest debates in paleontology. Most paleontologists today accept that "Tyrannosaurus" was both an active predator and a scavenger.
More than fifty major specimens of "Tyrannosaurus rex" have been identified, some of which are nearly complete skeletons. Soft tissue and proteins have been reported in at least one of these specimens. The abundance of fossil material has allowed significant research into many aspects of its biology, including its life history and biomechanics. The feeding habits, physiology and potential speed of "Tyrannosaurus rex" are a few subjects of debate. Its taxonomy is also controversial, as some scientists consider "Tarbosaurus bataar" from Asia to be a second "Tyrannosaurus" species while others maintain "Tarbosaurus" is a separate genus. Several other genera of North American tyrannosaurids have also been synonymized with "Tyrannosaurus".
As the archetypal theropod, "Tyrannosaurus" has been one of the best-known dinosaurs since the early 20th century, and has been featured in film, advertising, postal stamps, and many other media.
Teeth from what is now documented as a "Tyrannosaurus rex" were found in 1874 by Arthur Lakes near Golden, Colorado. In the early 1890s, John Bell Hatcher collected postcranial elements in eastern Wyoming. The fossils were believed to be from the large species "Ornithomimus grandis" (now "Deinodon") but are now considered "Tyrannosaurus rex" remains.
In 1892, Edward Drinker Cope found two vertebral fragments of large dinosaur. Cope believed the fragments belonged to an "agathaumid" (ceratopsid) dinosaur, and named them "Manospondylus gigas", meaning "giant porous vertebra", in reference to the numerous openings for blood vessels he found in the bone. The "M. gigas" remains were, in 1907, identified by Hatcher as those of a theropod rather than a ceratopsid.
Henry Fairfield Osborn recognized the similarity between "Manospondylus gigas" and "Tyrannosaurus rex" as early as 1917, by which time the second vertebra had been lost. Owing to the fragmentary nature of the "Manospondylus" vertebrae, Osborn did not synonymize the two genera, instead considering the older genus indeterminate. In June 2000, the Black Hills Institute found around 10% of a "Tyrannosaurus" skeleton (BHI 6248) at a site that might have been the original "M. gigas" locality.
Barnum Brown, assistant curator of the American Museum of Natural History, found the first partial skeleton of "Tyrannosaurus rex" in eastern Wyoming in 1900. Brown found another partial skeleton in the Hell Creek Formation in Montana in 1902, comprising approximately 34 fossilized bones. Writing at the time Brown said "Quarry No. 1 contains the femur, pubes, humerus, three vertebrae and two undetermined bones of a large Carnivorous Dinosaur not described by Marsh... I have never seen anything like it from the Cretaceous". Henry Fairfield Osborn, president of the American Museum of Natural History, named the second skeleton "Tyrannosaurus rex" in 1905. The generic name is derived from the Greek words "τύραννος" ("tyrannos", meaning "tyrant") and "σαῦρος" ("sauros", meaning "lizard"). Osborn used the Latin word "rex", meaning "king", for the specific name. The full binomial therefore translates to "tyrant lizard the king" or "King Tyrant Lizard", emphasizing the animal's size and perceived dominance over other species of the time.
Osborn named the other specimen "Dynamosaurus imperiosus" in a paper in 1905. In 1906, Osborn recognized that the two skeletons were from the same species and selected "Tyrannosaurus" as the preferred name. The original "Dynamosaurus" material resides in the collections of the Natural History Museum, London. In 1941, the "T. rex" type specimen was sold to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for $7,000. "Dynamosaurus" would later be honored by the 2018 description of another species of tyrannosaurid by Andrew McDonald and colleagues, "Dynamoterror dynastes", whose name was chosen in reference to the 1905 name, as it had been a "childhood favorite" of McDonald's.
From the 1910s through the end of the 1950s, Barnum's discoveries remained the only specimens of "Tyrannosaurus", as the Great Depression and wars kept many paleontologists out of the field.
Beginning in the 1960s, there was renewed interest in "Tyrannosaurus", resulting in recovery of 42 skeletons (5-80% complete by bone count) from Western North America. In 1967, Dr. William MacMannis located and recovered the skeleton named "MOR 008", which is 15% complete by bone count and has a reconstructed skull displayed at the Museum of the Rockies. The 1990s saw numerous discoveries, with nearly twice as many finds as in all previous years, including two of the most complete skeletons found to date: Sue and Stan.
Sue Hendrickson, an amateur paleontologist, discovered the most complete (approximately 85%) and largest "Tyrannosaurus" skeleton in the Hell Creek Formation on August 12, 1990. The specimen Sue, named after the discoverer, was the object of a legal battle over its ownership. In 1997, the litigation was settled in favor of Maurice Williams, the original land owner. The fossil collection was purchased by the Field Museum of Natural History at auction for $7.6 million, making it the most expensive dinosaur skeleton to date. From 1998 to 1999, Field Museum of Natural History staff spent over 25,000 hours taking the rock off the bones. The bones were then shipped to New Jersey where the mount was constructed, then shipped back to Chicago for the final assembly. The mounted skeleton opened to the public on May 17, 2000 in the Field Museum of Natural History. A study of this specimen's fossilized bones showed that Sue reached full size at age 19 and died at the age of 28, the longest estimated life of any tyrannosaur known.
Another "Tyrannosaurus", nicknamed Stan (BHI 3033), in honor of amateur paleontologist Stan Sacrison, was recovered from the Hell Creek Formation in 1992. Stan is the second most complete skeleton found, with 199 bones recovered representing 70% of the total. This tyrannosaur also had many bone pathologies, including broken and healed ribs, a broken (and healed) neck, and a substantial hole in the back of its head, about the size of a "Tyrannosaurus" tooth.
In 1998, Bucky Derflinger noticed one of toes exposed above ground, making Derflinger, who was 20 years old at the time, the youngest person to discover a "Tyrannosaurus". The specimen was a young adult, tall and long. Bucky is the first "Tyrannosaurus" to be found that preserved a furcula (wishbone). Bucky is permanently displayed at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis.
In the summer of 2000, crews organized by Jack Horner discovered five "Tyrannosaurus" skeletons near the Fort Peck Reservoir. In 2001, a 50% complete skeleton of a juvenile "Tyrannosaurus" was discovered in the Hell Creek Formation by a crew from the Burpee Museum of Natural History. Dubbed Jane (BMRP 2002.4.1), the find was thought to be the first known skeleton of a pygmy tyrannosaurid, "Nanotyrannus", but subsequent research revealed that it is more likely a juvenile "Tyrannosaurus", and the most complete juvenile example known; Jane is exhibited at the Burpee Museum of Natural History. In 2002, a skeleton named Wyrex, discovered by amateur collectors Dan Wells and Don Wyrick, had 114 bones and was 38% complete. The dig was concluded over 3 weeks in 2004 by the Black Hills Institute with the first live online "Tyrannosaurus" excavation providing daily reports, photos, and video.
In 2006, Montana State University revealed that it possessed the largest "Tyrannosaurus" skull yet discovered (from a specimen named MOR 008), measuring long. Subsequent comparisons indicated that the longest head was (from specimen LACM 23844) and the widest head was (from Sue).
Two isolated fossilized footprints have been tentatively assigned to "Tyrannosaurus rex". The first was discovered at Philmont Scout Ranch, New Mexico, in 1983 by American geologist Charles Pillmore. Originally thought to belong to a hadrosaurid, examination of the footprint revealed a large 'heel' unknown in ornithopod dinosaur tracks, and traces of what may have been a hallux, the dewclaw-like fourth digit of the tyrannosaur foot. The footprint was published as the ichnogenus "Tyrannosauripus pillmorei" in 1994, by Martin Lockley and Adrian Hunt. Lockley and Hunt suggested that it was very likely the track was made by a "Tyrannosaurus rex", which would make it the first known footprint from this species. The track was made in what was once a vegetated wetland mud flat. It measures long by wide.
A second footprint that may have been made by a "Tyrannosaurus" was first reported in 2007 by British paleontologist Phil Manning, from the Hell Creek Formation of Montana. This second track measures long, shorter than the track described by Lockley and Hunt. Whether or not the track was made by "Tyrannosaurus" is unclear, though "Tyrannosaurus" and "Nanotyrannus" are the only large theropods known to have existed in the Hell Creek Formation.
A set of footprints in Glenrock, Wyoming dating to the Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous and hailing from the Lance Formation were described by Scott Persons, Phil Currie and colleagues in 2016, and are believed to belong to either a juvenile "Tyrannosaurus rex" or the dubious tyrannosaurid "Nanotyrannus lancensis". From measurements and based on the positions of the footprints, the animal was believed to be traveling at a walking speed of around 2.8 to 5 miles per hour and was estimated to have a hip height of to . A follow-up paper appeared in 2017, increasing the speed estimations by 50-80%.
"Tyrannosaurus rex" was one of the largest land carnivores of all time. One of the largest and the most complete specimens, nicknamed Sue (FMNH PR2081), is located at the Field Museum of Natural History. Sue measured long, was tall at the hips, and according to the most recent studies, using a variety of techniques, estimated to have weighed between to . A specimen nicknamed Scotty (RSM P2523.8), located at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, is reported to measure in length. Using a mass estimation technique that extrapolates from the circumference of the femur, Scotty was estimated as the largest known specimen at in weight.
Not every adult "Tyrannosaurus" specimen recovered is as big. Historically average adult mass estimates have varied widely over the years, from as low as , to more than , with most modern estimates ranging between and .
The largest known "Tyrannosaurus rex" skull is in length. Large fenestrae (openings) in the skull reduced weight, as in all carnivorous theropods. In other respects "Tyrannosaurus"'s skull was significantly different from those of large non-tyrannosaurid theropods. It was extremely wide at the rear but had a narrow snout, allowing unusually good binocular vision. The skull bones were massive and the nasals and some other bones were fused, preventing movement between them; but many were pneumatized (contained a "honeycomb" of tiny air spaces) and thus lighter. These and other skull-strengthening features are part of the tyrannosaurid trend towards an increasingly powerful bite, which easily surpassed that of all non-tyrannosaurids. The tip of the upper jaw was U-shaped (most non-tyrannosauroid carnivores had V-shaped upper jaws), which increased the amount of tissue and bone a tyrannosaur could rip out with one bite, although it also increased the stresses on the front teeth.
The teeth of "Tyrannosaurus rex" displayed marked heterodonty (differences in shape). The premaxillary teeth, four per side at the front of the upper jaw, were closely packed, "D"-shaped in cross-section, had reinforcing ridges on the rear surface, were incisiform (their tips were chisel-like blades) and curved backwards. The "D"-shaped cross-section, reinforcing ridges and backwards curve reduced the risk that the teeth would snap when "Tyrannosaurus" bit and pulled. The remaining teeth were robust, like "lethal bananas" rather than daggers, more widely spaced and also had reinforcing ridges. Those in the upper jaw, twelve per side in mature individuals, were larger than their counterparts of the lower jaw, except at the rear. The largest found so far is estimated to have been long including the root when the animal was alive, making it the largest tooth of any carnivorous dinosaur yet found. The lower jaw was robust. Its front dentary bone bore thirteen teeth. Behind the tooth row, the lower jaw became notably taller. The upper and lower jaws of "Tyrannosaurus", like those of many dinosaurs, possessed numerous foramina, or small holes in the bone. Various functions have been proposed for these foramina, such as a crocodile-like sensory system or evidence of extra-oral structures such as scales or potentially lips.
The vertebral column of "Tyrannosaurus" consisted of ten neck vertebrae, thirteen back vertebrae and five sacral vertebrae. The number of tail vertebrae is unknown and could well have varied between individuals but probably numbered at least forty. Sue was mounted with forty-seven of such caudal vertebrae. The neck of "Tyrannosaurus rex" formed a natural S-shaped curve like that of other theropods. Compared to these, it was exceptionally short, deep and muscular to support the massive head. The second vertebra, the axis, was especially short. The remaining neck vertebrae were weakly opisthocoelous, i.e. with a convex front of the vertebral body and a concave rear. The vertebral bodies had single pleurocoels, pneumatic depressions created by air sacs, on their sides. The vertebral bodies of the torso were robust but with a narrow waist. Their undersides were keeled. The front sides were concave with a deep vertical trough. They had large pleurocoels. Their neural spines had very rough front and rear sides for the attachment of strong tendons. The sacral vertebrae were fused to each other, both in their vertebral bodies and neural spines. They were pneumatized. They were connected to the pelvis by transverse processes and sacral ribs. The tail was heavy and moderately long, in order to balance the massive head and torso and to provide space for massive locomotor muscles that attached to the thighbones. The thirteenth tail vertebra formed the transition point between the deep tail base and the middle tail that was stiffened by rather long front articulation processes. The underside of the trunk was covered by eighteen or nineteen pairs of segmented belly ribs.
The shoulder girdle was longer than the entire forelimb. The shoulder blade had a narrow shaft but was exceptionally expanded at its upper end. It connected via a long forward protrusion to the coracoid, which was rounded. Both shoulder blades were connected by a small furcula. The paired breast bones possibly were made of cartilage only.
The forelimb or arm was very short. The upper arm bone, the humerus, was short but robust. It had a narrow upper end with an exceptionally rounded head. The lower arm bones, the ulna and radius, were straight elements, much shorter than the humerus. The second metacarpal was longer and wider than the first, whereas normally in theropods the opposite is true. The forelimbs had only two clawed fingers, along with an additional splint-like small third metacarpal representing the remnant of a third digit.
The pelvis was a large structure. Its upper bone, the ilium, was both very long and high, providing an extensive attachment area for hindlimb muscles. The front pubic bone ended in an enormous pubic boot, longer than the entire shaft of the element. The rear ischium was slender and straight, pointing obliquely to behind and below.
In contrast to the arms, the hindlimbs were among the longest in proportion to body size of any theropod. In the foot, the metatarsus was "arctometatarsalian", meaning that the part of the third metatarsal near the ankle was pinched. The third metatarsal was also exceptionally sinuous. Compensating for the immense bulk of the animal, many bones throughout the skeleton were hollowed, reducing its weight without significant loss of strength.
The discovery of feathered dinosaurs led to debate regarding whether, and to what extent, "Tyrannosaurus" might have been feathered. Filamentous structures, which are commonly recognized as the precursors of feathers, have been reported in the small-bodied, basal tyrannosauroid "Dilong paradoxus" from the Early Cretaceous Yixian Formation of China in 2004. Because integumentary impressions of larger tyrannosauroids known at that time showed evidence of scales, the researchers who studied "Dilong" speculated that insulating feathers might have been lost by larger species due to their smaller surface-to-volume ratio. The subsequent discovery of the giant species "Yutyrannus huali", also from the Yixian, showed that even some large tyrannosauroids had feathers covering much of their bodies, casting doubt on the hypothesis that they were a size-related feature. A 2017 study reviewed known skin impressions of tyrannosaurids, including those of a "Tyrannosaurus" specimen nicknamed "Wyrex" (BHI 6230) which preserves patches of mosaic scales on the tail, hip, and neck. The study concluded that feather covering of large tyrannosaurids such as "Tyrannosaurus" was, if present, limited to the upper side of the trunk.
A conference abstract published in 2016 posited that theropods such as "Tyrannosaurus" had their upper teeth covered in lips, instead of bare teeth as seen in crocodilians. This was based on the presence of enamel, which according to the study needs to remain hydrated, an issue not faced by aquatic animals like crocodilians. A 2017 analytical study proposed that tyrannosaurids had large, flat scales on their snouts instead of lips.
"Tyrannosaurus" is the type genus of the superfamily Tyrannosauroidea, the family Tyrannosauridae, and the subfamily Tyrannosaurinae; in other words it is the standard by which paleontologists decide whether to include other species in the same group. Other members of the tyrannosaurine subfamily include the North American "Daspletosaurus" and the Asian "Tarbosaurus", both of which have occasionally been synonymized with "Tyrannosaurus". Tyrannosaurids were once commonly thought to be descendants of earlier large theropods such as megalosaurs and carnosaurs, although more recently they were reclassified with the generally smaller coelurosaurs.
In 1955, Soviet paleontologist Evgeny Maleev named a new species, "Tyrannosaurus bataar", from Mongolia. By 1965, this species had been renamed "Tarbosaurus bataar". Despite the renaming, many phylogenetic analyses have found "Tarbosaurus bataar" to be the sister taxon of "Tyrannosaurus rex", and it has often been considered an Asian species of "Tyrannosaurus". The discovery of the tyrannosaurid "Lythronax" further indicates that "Tarbosaurus" and "Tyrannosaurus" are closely related, forming a clade with fellow Asian tyrannosaurid "Zhuchengtyrannus", with "Lythronax" being their sister taxon. A further study from 2016 by Steve Brusatte, Thomas Carr and colleagues, also indicates that "Tyrannosaurus" may have been an immigrant from Asia, as well as a possible descendant of "Tarbosaurus".
In 2001, various tyrannosaurid teeth and a metatarsal unearthed in a quarry near Zhucheng, China were assigned by Chinese paleontologist Hu Chengzhi to the newly erected "Tyrannosaurus zhuchengensis". However, in a nearby site, a right maxilla and left jawbone were assigned to the newly erected tyrannosaurid genus "Zhuchengtyrannus" in 2011, and it is possible "T. zhuchengensis" is synonymous with "Zhuchengtyrannus". In any case, "T. zhuchengensis" is considered to be a "nomen dubium" as the holotype lacks diagnostic features below the level Tyrannosaurinae.
Below is the cladogram of Tyrannosauridae based on the phylogenetic analysis conducted by Loewen and colleagues in 2013.
Other tyrannosaurid fossils found in the same formations as "Tyrannosaurus rex" were originally classified as separate taxa, including "Aublysodon" and "Albertosaurus megagracilis", the latter being named "Dinotyrannus megagracilis" in 1995. These fossils are now universally considered to belong to juvenile "Tyrannosaurus rex". A small but nearly complete skull from Montana, long, may be an exception. This skull, Cleveland Museum of Natural History (CMNH) 7541, was originally classified as a species of "Gorgosaurus" ("G. lancensis") by Charles W. Gilmore in 1946. In 1988, the specimen was re-described by Robert T. Bakker, Phil Currie, and Michael Williams, then the curator of paleontology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, where the original specimen was housed and is now on display. Their initial research indicated that the skull bones were fused, and that it therefore represented an adult specimen. In light of this, Bakker and colleagues assigned the skull to a new genus, named "Nanotyrannus" for its apparently small adult size. The specimen is estimated to have been around long when it died. However, a detailed analysis of the specimen by Thomas Carr in 1999 showed that the specimen was, in fact, a juvenile, leading Carr and many other paleontologists to consider it a juvenile specimen of "Tyrannosaurus rex". A 2020 study by Woodward and colleagues showed the specimens referred to "Nanotyrannus" were all ontogenetically immature and found it probable that these specimens belonged to "Tyrannosaurus rex".
In 2001, a more complete juvenile tyrannosaur (nicknamed "Jane", catalog number BMRP 2002.4.1), belonging to the same species as the original "Nanotyrannus" specimen, was uncovered. This discovery prompted a conference on tyrannosaurs focused on the issues of "Nanotyrannus" validity, held at the Burpee Museum of Natural History in 2005. Several paleontologists who had previously published opinions that "N. lancensis" was a valid species, including Currie and Williams, saw the discovery of "Jane" as a confirmation that "Nanotyrannus" was, in fact, a juvenile "T. rex". Peter Larson continued to support the hypothesis that "Nanotyrannus lancensis" was a separate but closely related species, and also argued that "Stygivenator", which is generally considered to be a juvenile of "Tyrannosaurus rex", could be a younger specimen of "Nanotyrannus".
An early suggestion for distinction was based on "Nanotyrannus" possessing at least two more teeth in both jaws than other specimens referred to "Tyrannosaurus", but in his 1999 study of tyrannosaurid growth patterns, Carr showed that in "Gorgosaurus libratus", the number of teeth decreased as the animal grew, and he used this data to support the hypothesis that "N. lancensis" is simply a juvenile "T. rex". Tsujihi and colleagues, who studied growth in the related "Tarbosaurus bataar", found little to no decrease in tooth count during growth, even though they had juvenile specimens much younger than the "Nanotyrannus" specimens. These researchers also noted, however, that both "Tyrannosaurus" and "Gorgosaurus" show significant differences in tooth count between individuals of the same age group, and that tooth count may vary on an individual basis not related to growth.
Larson has also contended that, along with skull features, "Nanotyrannus" can also be distinguished from "Tyrannosaurus" by proportionally larger hands with phalanges on the third metacarpal and in the furcula morphology, as seen in an undescribed specimen. Limb proportion analysis published in 2016 suggested that "Nanotyrannus" specimens have differing levels of cursoriality, cited as a potential difference between "N. lancensis" and "T. rex". However, paleontologist Manabu Sakomoto has commented that this conclusion may be impacted by low sample size, and the discrepancy does not necessarily reflect taxonomic distinction. All of the differences claimed to support "Nanotyrannus" have turned out to be individually or ontogenetically variable features or products of distortion of the bones.
Carr studied CMNH 7541 again in a 2020 paper on the growth history of "Tyrannosaurus", finding that it fit within the expected ontogenetic variation of the taxon, and even displayed juvenile characteristics found in other specimens. It was classified as a juvenile, under 13 years old with a skull less than , united by 24 changes in the skull with older specimens, all 24 changes only occurring once during ontogeny. No significant sexual or phylogenetic variation was discernible among any of the 44 specimens studied, with Carr stating that characters of phylogenetic importance decrease throughout age at the same rate as growth occurs. Discussing the results of his 2020 study, Carr described how all specimens of "Nanotyrannus" formed a continual growth transition between the smallest juveniles and the subadults, unlike what would be expected if it were a distinct taxon where the specimens would group to the exclusion of "Tyrannosaurus". Carr concluded that "the 'nanomorphs' are not all that similar to each other and instead form an important bridge in the growth series of "T. rex" that captures the beginnings of the profound change from the shallow skull of juveniles to the deep skull that is seen in fully-developed adults."
The identification of several specimens as juvenile "Tyrannosaurus rex" has allowed scientists to document ontogenetic changes in the species, estimate the lifespan, and determine how quickly the animals would have grown. The smallest known individual (LACM 28471, the "Jordan theropod") is estimated to have weighed only , while the largest, such as FMNH PR2081 (Sue) most likely weighed about . Histologic analysis of "Tyrannosaurus rex" bones showed LACM 28471 had aged only 2 years when it died, while Sue was 28 years old, an age which may have been close to the maximum for the species.
Histology has also allowed the age of other specimens to be determined. Growth curves can be developed when the ages of different specimens are plotted on a graph along with their mass. A "Tyrannosaurus rex" growth curve is S-shaped, with juveniles remaining under until approximately 14 years of age, when body size began to increase dramatically. During this rapid growth phase, a young "Tyrannosaurus rex" would gain an average of a year for the next four years. At 18 years of age, the curve plateaus again, indicating that growth slowed dramatically. For example, only separated the 28-year-old Sue from a 22-year-old Canadian specimen (RTMP 81.12.1). A 2004 histological study performed by different workers corroborates these results, finding that rapid growth began to slow at around 16 years of age.
A study by Hutchinson and colleagues in 2011 corroborated the previous estimation methods in general, but their estimation of peak growth rates is significantly higher; it found that the "maximum growth rates for T. rex during the exponential stage are 1790 kg/year". Although these results were much higher than previous estimations, the authors noted that these results significantly lowered the great difference between its actual growth rate and the one which would be expected of an animal of its size. The sudden change in growth rate at the end of the growth spurt may indicate physical maturity, a hypothesis which is supported by the discovery of medullary tissue in the femur of a 16 to 20-year-old "Tyrannosaurus rex" from Montana (MOR 1125, also known as B-rex). Medullary tissue is found only in female birds during ovulation, indicating that B-rex was of reproductive age. Further study indicates an age of 18 for this specimen. In 2016, it was finally confirmed by Mary Higby Schweitzer and Lindsay Zanno and colleagues that the soft tissue within the femur of MOR 1125 was medullary tissue. This also confirmed the identity of the specimen as a female. The discovery of medullary bone tissue within "Tyrannosaurus" may prove valuable in determining the sex of other dinosaur species in future examinations, as the chemical makeup of medullary tissue is unmistakable. Other tyrannosaurids exhibit extremely similar growth curves, although with lower growth rates corresponding to their lower adult sizes.
An additional study published in 2020 by Woodward and colleagues, for the journal "Science Advances" indicates that during their growth from juvenile to adult, "Tyrannosaurus" was capable of slowing down its growth to counter environmental factors such as lack of food. The study, focusing on two juvenile specimens between 13 and 15 years old housed at the Burpee Museum in Illinois, indicates that the rate of maturation for "Tyrannosaurus" was dependent on resource abundance. This study also indicates that in such changing environments, "Tyrannosaurus" was particularly well-suited to an environment that shifted yearly in regards to resource abundance, hinting that other midsize predators might have had difficulty surviving in such harsh conditions and explaining the niche partitioning between juvenile and adult tyrannosaurs. The study further indicates that "Tyrannosaurus" and the dubious genus "Nanotyrannus" are synonymous, due to analysis of the growth rings in the bones of the two specimens studied.
Over half of the known "Tyrannosaurus rex" specimens appear to have died within six years of reaching sexual maturity, a pattern which is also seen in other tyrannosaurs and in some large, long-lived birds and mammals today. These species are characterized by high infant mortality rates, followed by relatively low mortality among juveniles. Mortality increases again following sexual maturity, partly due to the stresses of reproduction. One study suggests that the rarity of juvenile "Tyrannosaurus rex" fossils is due in part to low juvenile mortality rates; the animals were not dying in large numbers at these ages, and so were not often fossilized. This rarity may also be due to the incompleteness of the fossil record or to the bias of fossil collectors towards larger, more spectacular specimens. In a 2013 lecture, Thomas Holtz Jr. suggested that dinosaurs "lived fast and died young" because they reproduced quickly whereas mammals have long life spans because they take longer to reproduce. Gregory S. Paul also writes that "Tyrannosaurus" reproduced quickly and died young, but attributes their short life spans to the dangerous lives they lived.
As the number of known specimens increased, scientists began to analyze the variation between individuals and discovered what appeared to be two distinct body types, or "morphs", similar to some other theropod species. As one of these morphs was more solidly built, it was termed the 'robust' morph while the other was termed ''. Several morphological differences associated with the two morphs were used to analyze sexual dimorphism in "Tyrannosaurus rex", with the 'robust' morph usually suggested to be female. For example, the pelvis of several 'robust' specimens seemed to be wider, perhaps to allow the passage of eggs. It was also thought that the 'robust' morphology correlated with a reduced chevron on the first tail vertebra, also ostensibly to allow eggs to pass out of the reproductive tract, as had been erroneously reported for crocodiles.
In recent years, evidence for sexual dimorphism has been weakened. A 2005 study reported that previous claims of sexual dimorphism in crocodile chevron anatomy were in error, casting doubt on the existence of similar dimorphism between "Tyrannosaurus rex" sexes. A full-sized chevron was discovered on the first tail vertebra of Sue, an extremely robust individual, indicating that this feature could not be used to differentiate the two morphs anyway. As "Tyrannosaurus rex" specimens have been found from Saskatchewan to New Mexico, differences between individuals may be indicative of geographic variation rather than sexual dimorphism. The differences could also be age-related, with 'robust' individuals being older animals.
Only a single "Tyrannosaurus rex" specimen has been conclusively shown to belong to a specific sex. Examination of B-rex demonstrated the preservation of soft tissue within several bones. Some of this tissue has been identified as a medullary tissue, a specialized tissue grown only in modern birds as a source of calcium for the production of eggshell during ovulation. As only female birds lay eggs, medullary tissue is only found naturally in females, although males are capable of producing it when injected with female reproductive hormones like estrogen. This strongly suggests that B-rex was female, and that she died during ovulation. Recent research has shown that medullary tissue is never found in crocodiles, which are thought to be the closest living relatives of dinosaurs, aside from birds. The shared presence of medullary tissue in birds and theropod dinosaurs is further evidence of the close evolutionary relationship between the two.
Like many bipedal dinosaurs, "Tyrannosaurus rex" was historically depicted as a 'living tripod', with the body at 45 degrees or less from the vertical and the tail dragging along the ground, similar to a kangaroo. This concept dates from Joseph Leidy's 1865 reconstruction of "Hadrosaurus", the first to depict a dinosaur in a bipedal posture. In 1915, convinced that the creature stood upright, Henry Fairfield Osborn, former president of the American Museum of Natural History, further reinforced the notion in unveiling the first complete "Tyrannosaurus rex" skeleton arranged this way. It stood in an upright pose for 77 years, until it was dismantled in 1992.
By 1970, scientists realized this pose was incorrect and could not have been maintained by a living animal, as it would have resulted in the dislocation or weakening of several joints, including the hips and the articulation between the head and the spinal column. The inaccurate AMNH mount inspired similar depictions in many films and paintings (such as Rudolph Zallinger's famous mural "The Age of Reptiles" in Yale University's Peabody Museum of Natural History) until the 1990s, when films such as "Jurassic Park" introduced a more accurate posture to the general public. Modern representations in museums, art, and film show "Tyrannosaurus rex" with its body approximately parallel to the ground with the tail extended behind the body to balance the head.
When "Tyrannosaurus rex" was first discovered, the humerus was the only element of the forelimb known. For the initial mounted skeleton as seen by the public in 1915, Osborn substituted longer, three-fingered forelimbs like those of "Allosaurus". A year earlier, Lawrence Lambe described the short, two-fingered forelimbs of the closely related "Gorgosaurus". This strongly suggested that "Tyrannosaurus rex" had similar forelimbs, but this hypothesis was not confirmed until the first complete "Tyrannosaurus rex" forelimbs were identified in 1989, belonging to MOR 555 (the "Wankel rex"). The remains of Sue also include complete forelimbs. "Tyrannosaurus rex" arms are very small relative to overall body size, measuring only long, and some scholars have labelled them as vestigial. The bones show large areas for muscle attachment, indicating considerable strength. This was recognized as early as 1906 by Osborn, who speculated that the forelimbs may have been used to grasp a mate during copulation. It has also been suggested that the forelimbs were used to assist the animal in rising from a prone position.
Another possibility is that the forelimbs held struggling prey while it was killed by the tyrannosaur's enormous jaws. This hypothesis may be supported by biomechanical analysis. "Tyrannosaurus rex" forelimb bones exhibit extremely thick cortical bone, which has been interpreted as evidence that they were developed to withstand heavy loads. The biceps brachii muscle of an adult "Tyrannosaurus rex" was capable of lifting by itself; other muscles such as the brachialis would work along with the biceps to make elbow flexion even more powerful. The M. biceps muscle of "T. rex" was 3.5 times as powerful as the human equivalent. A "Tyrannosaurus rex" forearm had a limited range of motion, with the shoulder and elbow joints allowing only 40 and 45 degrees of motion, respectively. In contrast, the same two joints in "Deinonychus" allow up to 88 and 130 degrees of motion, respectively, while a human arm can rotate 360 degrees at the shoulder and move through 165 degrees at the elbow. The heavy build of the arm bones, strength of the muscles, and limited range of motion may indicate a system evolved to hold fast despite the stresses of a struggling prey animal. In the first detailed scientific description of "Tyrannosaurus" forelimbs, paleontologists Kenneth Carpenter and Matt Smith dismissed notions that the forelimbs were useless or that "Tyrannosaurus rex" was an obligate scavenger.
According to paleontologist Steven M. Stanley, the arms of "Tyrannosaurus rex" were used for slashing prey, especially by using its claws to rapidly inflict long, deep gashes to its prey, although this concept is disputed by others believing the arms were used for grasping a sexual partner.
As of 2014, it is not clear if "Tyrannosaurus" was endothermic (“warm-blooded”). "Tyrannosaurus", like most dinosaurs, was long thought to have an ectothermic ("cold-blooded") reptilian metabolism. The idea of dinosaur ectothermy was challenged by scientists like Robert T. Bakker and John Ostrom in the early years of the "Dinosaur Renaissance", beginning in the late 1960s. "Tyrannosaurus rex" itself was claimed to have been endothermic ("warm-blooded"), implying a very active lifestyle. Since then, several paleontologists have sought to determine the ability of "Tyrannosaurus" to regulate its body temperature. Histological evidence of high growth rates in young "Tyrannosaurus rex", comparable to those of mammals and birds, may support the hypothesis of a high metabolism. Growth curves indicate that, as in mammals and birds, "Tyrannosaurus rex" growth was limited mostly to immature animals, rather than the indeterminate growth seen in most other vertebrates.
Oxygen isotope ratios in fossilized bone are sometimes used to determine the temperature at which the bone was deposited, as the ratio between certain isotopes correlates with temperature. In one specimen, the isotope ratios in bones from different parts of the body indicated a temperature difference of no more than 4 to 5 °C (7 to 9 °F) between the vertebrae of the torso and the tibia of the lower leg. This small temperature range between the body core and the extremities was claimed by paleontologist Reese Barrick and geochemist William Showers to indicate that "Tyrannosaurus rex" maintained a constant internal body temperature (homeothermy) and that it enjoyed a metabolism somewhere between ectothermic reptiles and endothermic mammals. Other scientists have pointed out that the ratio of oxygen isotopes in the fossils today does not necessarily represent the same ratio in the distant past, and may have been altered during or after fossilization (diagenesis). Barrick and Showers have defended their conclusions in subsequent papers, finding similar results in another theropod dinosaur from a different continent and tens of millions of years earlier in time ("Giganotosaurus"). Ornithischian dinosaurs also showed evidence of homeothermy, while varanid lizards from the same formation did not. Even if "Tyrannosaurus rex" does exhibit evidence of homeothermy, it does not necessarily mean that it was endothermic. Such thermoregulation may also be explained by gigantothermy, as in some living sea turtles. Similar to contemporary alligators, dorsotemporal fenestra in Tyrannosaurus's skull may have aided thermoregulation.
In the March 2005 issue of "Science", Mary Higby Schweitzer of North Carolina State University and colleagues announced the recovery of soft tissue from the marrow cavity of a fossilized leg bone from a "Tyrannosaurus rex". The bone had been intentionally, though reluctantly, broken for shipping and then not preserved in the normal manner, specifically because Schweitzer was hoping to test it for soft tissue. Designated as the Museum of the Rockies specimen 1125, or MOR 1125, the dinosaur was previously excavated from the Hell Creek Formation. Flexible, bifurcating blood vessels and fibrous but elastic bone matrix tissue were recognized. In addition, microstructures resembling blood cells were found inside the matrix and vessels. The structures bear resemblance to ostrich blood cells and vessels. Whether an unknown process, distinct from normal fossilization, preserved the material, or the material is original, the researchers do not know, and they are careful not to make any claims about preservation. If it is found to be original material, any surviving proteins may be used as a means of indirectly guessing some of the DNA content of the dinosaurs involved, because each protein is typically created by a specific gene. The absence of previous finds may be the result of people assuming preserved tissue was impossible, therefore not looking. Since the first, two more tyrannosaurs and a hadrosaur have also been found to have such tissue-like structures. Research on some of the tissues involved has suggested that birds are closer relatives to tyrannosaurs than other modern animals.
In studies reported in "Science" in April 2007, Asara and colleagues concluded that seven traces of collagen proteins detected in purified "Tyrannosaurus rex" bone most closely match those reported in chickens, followed by frogs and newts. The discovery of proteins from a creature tens of millions of years old, along with similar traces the team found in a mastodon bone at least 160,000 years old, upends the conventional view of fossils and may shift paleontologists' focus from bone hunting to biochemistry. Until these finds, most scientists presumed that fossilization replaced all living tissue with inert minerals. Paleontologist Hans Larsson of McGill University in Montreal, who was not part of the studies, called the finds "a milestone", and suggested that dinosaurs could "enter the field of molecular biology and really slingshot paleontology into the modern world".
The presumed soft tissue was called into question by Thomas Kaye of the University of Washington and his co-authors in 2008. They contend that what was really inside the tyrannosaur bone was slimy biofilm created by bacteria that coated the voids once occupied by blood vessels and cells. The researchers found that what previously had been identified as remnants of blood cells, because of the presence of iron, were actually framboids, microscopic mineral spheres bearing iron. They found similar spheres in a variety of other fossils from various periods, including an ammonite. In the ammonite they found the spheres in a place where the iron they contain could not have had any relationship to the presence of blood. Schweitzer has strongly criticized Kaye's claims and argues that there is no reported evidence that biofilms can produce branching, hollow tubes like those noted in her study. San Antonio, Schweitzer and colleagues published an analysis in 2011 of what parts of the collagen had been recovered, finding that it was the inner parts of the collagen coil that had been preserved, as would have been expected from a long period of protein degradation. Other research challenges the identification of soft tissue as biofilm and confirms finding "branching, vessel-like structures" from within fossilized bone.
Scientists have produced a wide range of possible maximum running speeds for "Tyrannosaurus", mostly around , but as low as and as high as . Estimates that "Tyrannosaurus" had relatively larger leg muscles than any animal alive today indicate that fast running was possible at speeds of . Researchers have relied on various estimating techniques because, while there are many tracks of large theropods walking, none had the pattern of running.
A 2002 report used a mathematical model (validated by applying it to three living animals: alligators, chickens, and humans; and eight more species, including emus and ostriches) to gauge the leg muscle mass needed for fast running (over ). Scientists who think that "Tyrannosaurus" was able to run point out that hollow bones and other features that would have lightened its body may have kept adult weight to a mere or so, or that other animals like ostriches and horses with long, flexible legs are able to achieve high speeds through slower but longer strides. Proposed top speeds exceeded for "Tyrannosaurus", but were deemed infeasible because they would require exceptional leg muscles of approximately 40–86% of total body mass. Even moderately fast speeds would have required large leg muscles. If the muscle mass was less, only for walking or jogging would have been possible. Holtz noted that tyrannosaurids and some closely related groups had significantly longer distal hindlimb components (shin plus foot plus toes) relative to the femur length than most other theropods, and that tyrannosaurids and their close relatives had a tightly interlocked metatarsus (foot bones). The third metatarsal was squeezed between the second and fourth metatarsals to form a single unit called an arctometatarsus. This ankle feature may have helped the animal to run more efficiently. Together, these leg features allowed "Tyrannosaurus" to transmit locomotory forces from the foot to the lower leg more effectively than in earlier theropods.
Additionally, a 2020 study indicates that "Tyrannosaurus" and other tyrannosaurids were exceptionally efficient walkers. Studies by Dececchi "et al.", compared the leg proportions, body mass, and the gaits of more than 70 species of theropod dinosaurs including "Tyrannosaurus" and its relatives. The research team then applied a variety of methods to estimate each dinosaur's top speed when running as well as how much energy each dinosaur expended while moving at more relaxed speeds such as when walking. Among smaller to medium-sized species such as dromaeosaurids, longer legs appear to be an adaptation for faster running, in line with previous results by other researchers. But for theropods weighing over , top running speed is limited by body size, so longer legs instead were found to have correlated with low-energy walking. The results further indicate that smaller theropods evolved long legs as a means to both aid in hunting and escape from larger predators while larger theropods that evolved long legs did so to reduce the energy costs and increase foraging efficiency, as they were freed from the demands of predation pressure due to their role as apex predators. Compared to more basal groups of theropods in the study, tyrannosaurs like "Tyrannosaurus" itself showed a marked increase in foraging efficiency due to reduced energy expenditures during hunting or scavenging. This in turn likely resulted in tyrannosaurs having a reduced need for hunting forays and requiring less food to sustain themselves as a result. Additionally, the research, in conjunction with studies that show tyrannosaurs were more agile than other large bodied-theropods, indicates they were quite well-adapted to a long-distance stalking approach followed by a quick burst of speed to go for the kill. Analogies can be noted between tyrannosaurids and modern wolves as a result, supported by evidence that at least some tyrannosaurids were hunting in group settings.
A 2017 study estimated the top running speed of "Tyrannosaurus" as 17 mph (27 km/h), speculating that "Tyrannosaurus" exhausted its energy reserves long before reaching top speed, resulting in a parabola-like relationship between size and speed. Another 2017 study hypothesized that an adult "Tyrannosaurus" was incapable of running due to high skeletal loads. Using a calculated weight estimate of 7 tons, the model showed that speeds above 11 mph (18 km/h) would have probably shattered the leg bones of "Tyrannosaurus". The finding may mean that running was also not possible for other giant theropod dinosaurs like "Giganotosaurus", "Mapusaurus" and "Acrocanthosaurus".
However, studies by Eric Snively and colleagues"," published in 2019 indicate that "Tyrannosaurus" and other tyrannosaurids were more maneuverable than allosauroids and other theropods of comparable size due to low rotational inertia compared to their body mass combined with large leg muscles. As a result, it is hypothesized that "Tyrannosaurus" was capable of making relatively quick turns and could likely pivot its body more quickly when close to its prey, or that while turning, the theropod could "pirouette" on a single planted foot while the alternating leg was held out in a suspended swing during pursuit. The results of this study potentially could shed light on how agility could have contributed to the success of tyrannosaurid evolution.
A study conducted by Lawrence Witmer and Ryan Ridgely of Ohio University found that "Tyrannosaurus" shared the heightened sensory abilities of other coelurosaurs, highlighting relatively rapid and coordinated eye and head movements; an enhanced ability to sense low frequency sounds, which would allow tyrannosaurs to track prey movements from long distances; and an enhanced sense of smell. A study published by Kent Stevens concluded that "Tyrannosaurus" had keen vision. By applying modified perimetry to facial reconstructions of several dinosaurs including "Tyrannosaurus", the study found that "Tyrannosaurus" had a binocular range of 55 degrees, surpassing that of modern hawks. Stevens estimated that "Tyrannosaurus" had 13 times the visual acuity of a human and surpassed the visual acuity of an eagle, which is 3.6 times that of a person. Stevens estimated a limiting far point (that is, the distance at which an object can be seen as separate from the horizon) as far as away, which is greater than the that a human can see.
Thomas Holtz Jr. would note that high depth perception of "Tyrannosaurus" may have been due to the prey it had to hunt, noting that it had to hunt horned dinosaurs such as "Triceratops", armored dinosaurs such as "Ankylosaurus", and the duck-billed dinosaurs and their possibly complex social behaviors. He would suggest that this made precision more crucial for "Tyrannosaurus" enabling it to, "get in, get that blow in and take it down." In contrast, "Acrocanthosaurus" had limited depth perception because they hunted large sauropods, which were relatively rare during the time of "Tyrannosaurus".
"Tyrannosaurus" had very large olfactory bulbs and olfactory nerves relative to their brain size, the organs responsible for a heightened sense of smell. This suggests that the sense of smell was highly developed, and implies that tyrannosaurs could detect carcasses by scent alone across great distances. The sense of smell in tyrannosaurs may have been comparable to modern vultures, which use scent to track carcasses for scavenging. Research on the olfactory bulbs has shown that "Tyrannosaurus rex" had the most highly developed sense of smell of 21 sampled non-avian dinosaur species.
Somewhat unusually among theropods, "T. rex" had a very long cochlea. The length of the cochlea is often related to hearing acuity, or at least the importance of hearing in behavior, implying that hearing was a particularly important sense to tyrannosaurs. Specifically, data suggests that "Tyrannosaurus rex" heard best in the low-frequency range, and that low-frequency sounds were an important part of tyrannosaur behavior. A 2017 study by Thomas Carr and colleagues found that the snout of tyrannosaurids was highly sensitive, based on a high number of small openings in the facial bones of the related "Daspletosaurus" that contained sensory neurons. The study speculated that tyrannosaurs might have used their sensitive snouts to measure the temperature of their nests and to gently pick-up eggs and hatchlings, as seen in modern crocodylians.
A study by Grant R. Hurlburt, Ryan C. Ridgely and Lawrence Witmer obtained estimates for Encephalization Quotients (EQs), based on reptiles and birds, as well as estimates for the ratio of cerebrum to brain mass. The study concluded that "Tyrannosaurus" had the relatively largest brain of all adult non-avian dinosaurs with the exception of certain small maniraptoriforms ("Bambiraptor", "Troodon" and "Ornithomimus"). The study found that "Tyrannosaurus"'s relative brain size was still within the range of modern reptiles, being at most 2 standard deviations above the mean of non-avian reptile EQs. The estimates for the ratio of cerebrum mass to brain mass would range from 47.5 to 49.53 percent. According to the study, this is more than the lowest estimates for extant birds (44.6 percent), but still close to the typical ratios of the smallest sexually mature alligators which range from 45.9–47.9 percent. Other studies, such as those by Steve Brusatte, indicate the encephalization quotient of "Tyrannosaurus" was similar in range (2.0-2.4) to a chimpanzee (2.2-2.5), though this may be debatable as reptilian and mammalian encephalization quotients are not equivalent.
Suggesting that "Tyrannosaurus" may have been pack hunters, Philip J. Currie compared "T. rex" to related species "Tarbosaurus bataar" and "Albertosaurus sarcophagus", citing fossil evidence that may indicate pack behavior. A find in South Dakota where three "T. rex" skeletons were in close proximity suggested a pack. Because available prey such as "Triceratops" and "Ankylosaurus" had significant defenses, it may have been effective for "T. rex" to hunt in groups.
Currie's pack-hunting hypothesis has been criticized for not having been peer-reviewed, but rather was discussed in a television interview and book called "Dino Gangs". The Currie theory for pack hunting by "T. rex" is based mainly by analogy to a different species, "Tarbosaurus bataar", and that the supposed evidence for pack hunting in "T. bataar" itself had not yet been peer-reviewed. According to scientists assessing the "Dino Gangs" program, the evidence for pack hunting in "Tarbosaurus" and "Albertosaurus" is weak and based on skeletal remains for which alternate explanations may apply (such as drought or a flood forcing dinosaurs to die together in one place). Fossilized trackways from the Upper Cretaceous Wapiti Formation of northeastern British Columbia, Canada, left by three tyrannosaurids traveling in the same direction, may also indicate packs.
Evidence of intraspecific attack were found by Joseph Peterson and his colleagues in the juvenile "Tyrannosaurus" nicknamed Jane. Peterson and his team found that Jane's skull showed healed puncture wounds on the upper jaw and snout which they believe came from another juvenile "Tyrannosaurus". Subsequent CT scans of Jane's skull would further confirm the team's hypothesis, showing that the puncture wounds came from a traumatic injury and that there was subsequent healing. The team would also state that Jane's injuries were structurally different from the parasite-induced lesions found in Sue and that Jane's injuries were on her face whereas the parasite that infected Sue caused lesions to the lower jaw.
Most paleontologists accept that "Tyrannosaurus" was both an active predator and a scavenger like most large carnivores. By far the largest carnivore in its environment, "Tyrannosaurus rex" was most likely an apex predator, preying upon hadrosaurs, armored herbivores like ceratopsians and ankylosaurs, and possibly sauropods. A study in 2012 by Karl Bates and Peter Falkingham found that "Tyrannosaurus" had the most powerful bite of any terrestrial animal that has ever lived, finding an adult "Tyrannosaurus" could have exerted 35,000 to 57,000 N (7,868 to 12,814 lbf) of force in the back teeth. Even higher estimates were made by Mason B. Meers in 2003. This allowed it to crush bones during repetitive biting and fully consume the carcasses of large dinosaurs. Stephan Lautenschlager and colleagues calculated that "Tyrannosaurus" was capable of a maximum jaw gape of around 80 degrees, a necessary adaptation for a wide range of jaw angles to power the creature's strong bite.
A debate exists, however, about whether "Tyrannosaurus" was primarily a predator or a pure scavenger; the debate was assessed in a 1917 study by Lambe which argued "Tyrannosaurus" was a pure scavenger because the "Gorgosaurus" teeth showed hardly any wear. This argument may not be valid because theropods replaced their teeth quite rapidly. Ever since the first discovery of "Tyrannosaurus" most scientists have speculated that it was a predator; like modern large predators it would readily scavenge or steal another predator's kill if it had the opportunity.
Paleontologist Jack Horner has been a major proponent of the view that "Tyrannosaurus" was not a predator at all but instead was exclusively a scavenger. He has put forward arguments in the popular literature to support the pure scavenger hypothesis:
Other evidence suggests hunting behavior in "Tyrannosaurus". The eye sockets of tyrannosaurs are positioned so that the eyes would point forward, giving them binocular vision slightly better than that of modern hawks. It is not obvious why natural selection would have favored this long-term trend if tyrannosaurs had been pure scavengers, which would not have needed the advanced depth perception that stereoscopic vision provides. In modern animals, binocular vision is found mainly in predators.
A skeleton of the hadrosaurid "Edmontosaurus annectens" has been described from Montana with healed tyrannosaur-inflicted damage on its tail vertebrae. The fact that the damage seems to have healed suggests that the "Edmontosaurus" survived a tyrannosaur's attack on a living target, i.e. the tyrannosaur had attempted active predation. There is also evidence for an aggressive interaction between a "Triceratops" and a "Tyrannosaurus" in the form of partially healed tyrannosaur tooth marks on a "Triceratops" brow horn and squamosal (a bone of the neck frill); the bitten horn is also broken, with new bone growth after the break. It is not known what the exact nature of the interaction was, though: either animal could have been the aggressor. Since the "Triceratops" wounds healed, it is most likely that the "Triceratops" survived the encounter and managed to overcome the "Tyrannosaurus". In a battle against a bull "Triceratops", the "Triceratops" would likely defend itself by inflicting fatal wounds to the "Tyrannosaurus" using its sharp horns. Studies of Sue found a broken and healed fibula and tail vertebrae, scarred facial bones and a tooth from another "Tyrannosaurus" embedded in a neck vertebra, providing evidence for aggressive behavior. Studies on hadrosaur vertebrae from the Hell Creek Formation that were punctured by the teeth of what appears to be a late-stage juvenile "Tyrannosaurus" indicate that despite lacking the bone-crushing adaptations of the adults, young individuals were still capable of using the same bone-puncturing feeding technique as their adult counterparts.
"Tyrannosaurus" may have had infectious saliva used to kill its prey, as proposed by William Abler in 1992. Abler observed that the (tiny protuberances) on the cutting edges of the teeth are closely spaced, enclosing little chambers. These chambers might have trapped pieces of carcass with bacteria, giving "Tyrannosaurus" a deadly, infectious bite much like the Komodo dragon was thought to have. Jack Horner and Don Lessem, in a 1993 popular book, questioned Abler's hypothesis, arguing that "Tyrannosaurus"s tooth serrations as more like cubes in shape than the serrations on a Komodo monitor's teeth, which are rounded.
"Tyrannosaurus", and most other theropods, probably primarily processed carcasses with lateral shakes of the head, like crocodilians. The head was not as maneuverable as the skulls of allosauroids, due to flat joints of the neck vertebrae.
In 2001, Bruce Rothschild and others published a study examining evidence for stress fractures and tendon avulsions in theropod dinosaurs and the implications for their behavior. Since stress fractures are caused by repeated trauma rather than singular events they are more likely to be caused by regular behavior than other types of injuries. Of the 81 "Tyrannosaurus" foot bones examined in the study one was found to have a stress fracture, while none of the 10 hand bones were found to have stress fractures. The researchers found tendon avulsions only among "Tyrannosaurus" and "Allosaurus". An avulsion injury left a divot on the humerus of Sue the "T. rex", apparently located at the origin of the deltoid or teres major muscles. The presence of avulsion injuries being limited to the forelimb and shoulder in both "Tyrannosaurus" and "Allosaurus" suggests that theropods may have had a musculature more complex than and functionally different from those of birds. The researchers concluded that Sue's tendon avulsion was probably obtained from struggling prey. The presence of stress fractures and tendon avulsions in general provides evidence for a "very active" predation-based diet rather than obligate scavenging.
A 2009 study showed that smooth-edged holes in the skulls of several specimens might have been caused by "Trichomonas"-like parasites that commonly infect birds. Seriously infected individuals, including "Sue" and MOR 980 ("Peck's Rex"), might therefore have died from starvation after feeding became increasingly difficult. Previously, these holes had been explained by the bacterious bone infection Actinomycosis or by intraspecific attacks.
One study of "Tyrannosaurus" specimens with tooth marks in the bones attributable to the same genus was presented as evidence of cannibalism. Tooth marks in the humerus, foot bones and metatarsals, may indicate opportunistic scavenging, rather than wounds caused by combat with another "T. rex". Other tyrannosaurids may also have practiced cannibalism.
"Tyrannosaurus" lived during what is referred to as the Lancian faunal stage (Maastrichtian age) at the end of the Late Cretaceous. "Tyrannosaurus" ranged from Canada in the north to at least New Mexico in the south of Laramidia. During this time "Triceratops" was the major herbivore in the northern portion of its range, while the titanosaurian sauropod "Alamosaurus" "dominated" its southern range. "Tyrannosaurus" remains have been discovered in different ecosystems, including inland and coastal subtropical, and semi-arid plains.
Several notable "Tyrannosaurus" remains have been found in the Hell Creek Formation. During the Maastrichtian this area was subtropical, with a warm and humid climate. The flora consisted mostly of angiosperms, but also included trees like dawn redwood ("Metasequoia") and "Araucaria". "Tyrannosaurus" shared this ecosystem with ceratopsians "Leptoceratops", "Torosaurus", and "Triceratops", the hadrosaurid "Edmontosaurus annectens," the parksosaurid "Thescelosaurus", the ankylosaurs "Ankylosaurus" and "Denversaurus", the pachycephalosaurs "Pachycephalosaurus" and "Sphaerotholus", and the theropods "Ornithomimus", "Struthiomimus", "Acheroraptor", "Dakotaraptor", "Pectinodon" and "Anzu".
Another formation with "Tyrannosaurus" remains is the Lance Formation of Wyoming. This has been interpreted as a bayou environment similar to today's Gulf Coast. The fauna was very similar to Hell Creek, but with "Struthiomimus" replacing its relative "Ornithomimus". The small ceratopsian "Leptoceratops" also lived in the area.
In its southern range "Tyrannosaurus" lived alongside the titanosaur "Alamosaurus", the ceratopsians "Torosaurus," "Bravoceratops" and "Ojoceratops", hadrosaurs which consisted of a species of "Edmontosaurus, Kritosaurus" and a possible species of "Gryposaurus", the nodosaur "Glyptodontopelta", the oviraptorid "Ojoraptosaurus", possible species of the theropods "Troodon" and "Richardoestesia", and the pterosaur "Quetzalcoatlus". The region is thought to have been dominated by semi-arid inland plains, following the probable retreat of the Western Interior Seaway as global sea levels fell.
"Tyrannosaurus" may have also inhabited Mexico's Lomas Coloradas formation in Sonora. Though skeletal evidence is lacking, six shed and broken teeth from the fossil bed have been thoroughly compared with other theropod genera and appear to be identical to those of "Tyrannosaurus". If true, the evidence indicates the range of "Tyrannosaurus" was possibly more extensive than previously believed. It is possible that tyrannosaurs were originally Asian species, migrating to North America before the end of the Cretaceous period.
Since it was first described in 1905, "Tyrannosaurus rex" has become the most widely recognized dinosaur species in popular culture. It is the only dinosaur that is commonly known to the general public by its full scientific name (binomial name) and the scientific abbreviation "T. rex" has also come into wide usage. Robert T. Bakker notes this in "The Dinosaur Heresies" and explains that, "a name like ‘"Tyrannosaurus rex"’ is just irresistible to the tongue." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30467 |
Tollund Man
Tollund Man is a naturally mummified corpse of a man who lived during the 4th century BCE, during the period characterised in Scandinavia as the Pre-Roman Iron Age. He was found in 1950, preserved as a bog body, on the Jutland peninsula, in Denmark. The man's physical features were so well preserved that he was mistaken for a recent murder victim. Twelve years before Tollund Man's discovery, another bog body, Elling Woman, had been found in the same bog.
Though the cause of death was determined to be hanging, scholars believe the man was a human sacrifice, rather than an executed criminal, because of the arranged position of his body, and the fact that his eyes and mouth were closed.
On 6 May 1950, peat cutters (Viggo and Emil Hojgaard) in the Bjældskovdal peat bog, west of Silkeborg, Denmark discovered a corpse in the peat layer which appeared so fresh that they at first believed they had discovered a recent murder victim.
The Tollund Man lay away from firm ground, buried under of peat, his body arranged in a fetal position. He wore a pointed skin cap of sheepskin and wool, fastened under his chin by a hide thong, and a smooth hide belt around his waist. Additionally, a noose made of plaited animal hide was drawn tight around his neck and trailed down his back. Other than these, the body was naked. His hair was cropped so short as to be almost entirely hidden by his cap. There was short stubble (1 mm length) on his chin and upper lip, suggesting that he had not shaved on the day of his death.
C14 radiocarbon dating of Tollund Man indicated that he died in about 375–210 BCE. The preserved tender soft tissues of his body are the consequence of the acid in the peat, along with the lack of oxygen underneath the surface and the cold climate of the Nordic countries. The acid in the peat, needed for the preservation of a human body, is caused by a bryophyte named Sphagnum. Sphagnum fights against degradation due to resistant phenolic compounds contained in their cell walls. Due to the acidity of peat, bones are typically dissolved rather than preserved.
Examinations and X-rays showed that the man's head was undamaged, and his heart, lungs and liver were well preserved. The Silkeborg Museum estimated his age as approximately 40 years and height at , a relatively short stature even for the time. It is likely that the body had shrunk in the bog.
On the initial autopsy report in 1950, doctors concluded that Tollund Man died by hanging rather than strangulation. The rope left visible furrows in the skin beneath his chin and at the sides of his neck. There was no mark, however, at the back of the neck where the knot of the noose would have been located. After a re-examination in 2002, forensic scientists found further evidence to support these initial findings. Although the cervical vertebrae were undamaged (these vertebrae are often damaged as a result of hanging), radiography showed that the tongue was distended—an indication of death by hanging.
The stomach and intestines were examined and tests carried out on their contents. Scientists identified the man's last meal as porridge or gruel made from grains and seeds, both cultivated and wild. Approximately 40 kinds of seeds were identified, but the porridge was primarily composed of four types: barley, flax, false flax ("Camelina sativa") and knotgrass. From the stage of digestion it was concluded that the man had eaten 12 to 24 hours prior to his death. Porridges were common for people of this time. Because neither meat nor fresh fruit were found in the last meal, it is suggested that the meal was eaten in winter or early spring when these items were not available.
Both feet and the right thumb, being well conserved by the peat, were also preserved in formalin for later examination. In 1976, the Danish police made a fingerprint analysis, making Tollund Man's thumbprint one of the oldest prints on record.
The body is displayed at the Silkeborg Museum in Denmark, although only the head is original. Because conservation techniques for organic material were insufficiently advanced in the early 1950s for the entire body to be preserved, the forensic examiners suggested the head be severed and the rest of the body remain unpreserved. Subsequently, the body was desiccated and the tissue disappeared. In 1987, the Silkeborg Museum reconstructed the body using the skeletal remains as a base. As displayed today, the original head is attached to a replica of the body.
In Denmark, more than 500 bog bodies and skeletal remains dating to the Iron Age have been recovered. Specimens from Jutland include the relatively well-preserved Borremose bodies, Huldremose Woman, Grauballe Man on display at Moesgaard Museum near Aarhus, and the similarly conserved Haraldskær Woman. Approximately 30 of these bog bodies are housed and/or displayed in Danish museums for continued research.
Nobel Prize-winning Irish poet Seamus Heaney wrote a series of poems inspired by P.V. Glob's study of the mummified Iron Age bodies found in Jutland's peat bogs, finding contemporary political relevance in the relics of the ritualistic killings. Heaney's poem "The Tollund Man", published in his "Wintering Out" collection, compares the ritual sacrifice to those who died in the sectarian violence of "the Troubles". Heaney wrote an excerpt from the poem in the Tollund Man exhibit's guest book in 1973.
British author Margaret Drabble, in her 1989 novel, "A Natural Curiosity", uses her characters' obsession with the Tollund Man to provide a satirical criticism of Margaret Thatcher's modern England.
Tollund Man is featured in separate songs: "Tollund Man" (1995) by the American folk band The Mountain Goats and "Curse of the Tollund Man" (2004) by the English rock band The Darkness.
Tollund Man was mentioned in the episode "Mummy in the Maze" of the American television series "Bones" and was also mentioned in the 2016 movie "Sacrifice" in which a bog body was found in the Shetland Islands.
He is also the subject of the modern novel, "Meet Me At the Museum", by Anne Youngson. One of the primary characters is a fictional curator at the Silkeborg Museum, who writes letters to an English woman, musing on the life and death of the Tollund Man. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30468 |
Ted Turner
Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III (born November 19, 1938) is an American media proprietor, producer, and philanthropist. As a businessman, he is known as founder of the Cable News Network (CNN), the first 24-hour cable news channel. In addition, he founded WTBS, which pioneered the superstation concept in cable television, which later became TBS.
As a philanthropist, he is known for his $1 billion gift to support the United Nations, which created the United Nations Foundation, a public charity to broaden U.S. support for the UN. Turner serves as Chairman of the United Nations Foundation board of directors. Additionally, in 2001, Turner co-founded the Nuclear Threat Initiative with US Senator Sam Nunn (D-GA). NTI is a non-partisan organization dedicated to reducing global reliance on, and preventing the proliferation of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. He currently serves as Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors.
Turner's media empire began with his father's billboard business, Turner Outdoor Advertising, which he took over in 1963 after his father's suicide. It was worth $1 million. His purchase of an Atlanta UHF station in 1970 began the Turner Broadcasting System. CNN revolutionized news media, covering the Space Shuttle "Challenger" disaster in 1986 and the Persian Gulf War in 1991. Turner turned the Atlanta Braves baseball team into a nationally popular franchise and launched the charitable Goodwill Games. He helped revive interest in professional wrestling by buying World Championship Wrestling (WCW).
Turner's penchant for controversial statements earned him the nicknames "The Mouth of the South" and "Captain Outrageous". Turner has also devoted his assets to environmental causes. He was the largest private landowner in the United States until John C. Malone surpassed him in 2011. He uses much of his land for ranches to re-popularize bison meat (for his Ted's Montana Grill chain), amassing the largest herd in the world. He also created the environmental-themed animated series "Captain Planet and the Planeteers".
Turner was born on November 19, 1938 in Cincinnati, Ohio, the son of Florence (née Rooney) and Robert Edward Turner II, a billboard magnate. When he was nine, his family moved to Savannah, Georgia. He attended The McCallie School, a private boys' preparatory school in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Turner attended Brown University and was vice-president of the Brown Debating Union and captain of the sailing team. He became a member of Kappa Sigma. Turner initially majored in Classics. Turner's father wrote saying that his choice made him "appalled, even horrified", and that he "almost puked". Turner later changed his major to Economics, but before receiving a degree, he was expelled for having a female student in his dormitory room. Turner was awarded an honorary B.A. from Brown University in November 1989 when he returned to campus to keynote the National Association of College Broadcasters second annual conference.
After leaving Brown University, Turner returned to the South in late 1960 to become general manager of the Macon, Georgia branch of his father's business. Following his father's suicide in March 1963, Turner became president and chief executive of Turner Advertising Company when he was 24 and turned the firm into a global enterprise. He joined the Young Republicans, saying he "felt at ease among these budding conservatives and was merely following in Ed Turner's far-right footsteps", according to "It Ain't as Easy as It Looks".
During the Vietnam War era, Turner's business prospered; it had "virtual monopolies in Savannah, Macon, Columbus, and Charleston" and was the "largest outdoor advertising company in the Southeast", according to "It Ain't as Easy as It Looks". The book observed that Turner "discovered his father had sheltered a substantial amount of taxable income over the years by personally lending it back to the company" and "discovered that the billboard business could be a gold mine, a tax-depreciable revenue stream that threw off enormous amounts of cash with almost no capital investment".
In the late 1960s, Turner began buying Southern radio stations. In 1969, he sold his radio stations to buy a struggling television station in Atlanta, WJRJ, Channel 17. At the time, UHF stations did well only in markets without VHF stations, like Fresno, California, or in markets with only one station on VHF. Independent UHF stations were not ratings winners or that profitable even in larger markets, but Turner had the foresight that this would change as people wanted more than several choices. He changed the call sign to WTCG (standing for "Watch This Channel Grow"). Initially, the station ran old movies from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, along with theatrical cartoons and very old sitcoms and old drama shows. As better syndicated product fell off the VHF stations, Turner would acquire it for his station at a very low price. WTCG ran mostly second- and even third-hand programming of the time, including fare such as "Gilligan's Island", "I Love Lucy", "Star Trek", "Hazel", and "Bugs Bunny". WTCG acquired rights to telecast the Atlanta Braves baseball games in 1973. Turner also purchased UHF Channel 36 WRET (now WCNC) in Charlotte, North Carolina and ran it with a format similar to WTCG.
In 1976, the FCC allowed WTCG to use a satellite to transmit content to local cable TV providers around the nation. On December 17, 1976, the rechristened WTCG-TV Super-Station began to broadcast old movies, situation comedy reruns, cartoons, and sports nationwide to cable-TV subscribers. As cable systems developed, many carried his station to free their schedules, which increased his viewers and advertising. The number of subscribers eventually reached 2 million and Turner's net worth rose to $100 million. He bought a plantation in Jacksonboro, South Carolina, for $2 million.
In 1978, Turner struck a deal with a student-operated radio station at MIT, Technology Broadcasting System, to obtain the rights to the WTBS call sign for $50,000. Such a move allowed Turner to strengthen the branding of his "Super-Station" using the initials TBS. Turner Communications Group was renamed Turner Broadcasting System and WTCG was renamed WTBS.
In 1976, Turner bought the Atlanta Braves and Atlanta Hawks, partially to provide programming for WTCG. Using the rechristened WTBS superstation's status to beam Braves games into nearly every home in North America, Turner turned the Braves into a household name even before their run of success in the 1990s and early 2000s. At one point, he suggested to pitcher Andy Messersmith, who wore number 17, that he change his surname to "Channel" to promote the television station.
In 1986, Turner founded the Goodwill Games with the goal of easing tensions between capitalist and communist countries. Broadcasting the events of these games also provided his superstation the ability to provide Olympic-style sports programming.
Turner Field, first used for the 1996 Summer Olympics as Centennial Olympic Stadium and then converted into a baseball-only facility for the Braves, was named after him.
In 1978, he contacted media executive Reese Schonfeld with his plans to found a 24-hour news channel (Schonfeld had previously approached Turner with the same proposition in 1977 but was rebuffed). Schonfeld responded that it could be done with a staff of 300 if they used an all electronic newsroom and satellites for all transmissions. It would require an initial investment of $15 million–$20 million and several million dollars per month to operate. In 1979, Turner sold his North Carolina station, WRET, to fund the transaction and established its headquarters in lower-cost, non-union Atlanta. Schonfeld was appointed first president and chief executive of the then-named Cable News Network (CNN). CNN hired Jim Kitchell, former general manager of news at NBC as vice president of production and operations; Sam Zelman as vice president of news and executive producer; Bill MacPhail as head of sports, Ted Kavanau as director of personnel, and Burt Reinhardt as vice president of the network. In 1982, Schonfeld was succeeded as CEO by Turner after a dispute over Schonfeld's firing of Sandi Freeman; and was succeeded as president by CNN's executive vice president, Burt Reinhardt.
Turner famously stated: "We won't be signing off until the world ends. We'll be on, and we will cover the end of the world, live, and that will be our last event... we'll play the National Anthem only one time, on the 1st of June, and when the end of the world comes, we'll play "Nearer, My God, to Thee" before we sign off." Reportedly, Turner plans to make good on that promise. He commissioned a video recording of a military marching band playing the hymn. Turner would sometimes play the tape for reporters noting the reason he made it. In 2015, the video was found in CNN's database and leaked. The video was tagged in the database as "[Hold for release] till end of world confirmed".
In 1981, Turner Broadcasting System acquired Brut Productions from Faberge Inc.
After a failed attempt to acquire CBS, Turner purchased the film studio MGM/UA Entertainment Co. from Kirk Kerkorian in 1986 for $1.5 billion. Following the acquisition, Turner had enormous debt and sold parts of the acquisition; Kerkorian bought back MGM/UA Entertainment. The MGM/UA Studio lot in Culver City was sold to Lorimar/Telepictures. Turner kept MGM's pre-May 1986 and pre-merger film and TV library
Turner Entertainment Co. was established in August 1986 to oversee film and TV properties owned by Turner.
In 1988, Turner purchased Jim Crockett Promotions which he renamed World Championship Wrestling (WCW) which became the main competitor to Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation (WWF). In 2001, under AOL Time Warner, it was sold to the World Wrestling Federation.
Also in 1988, he introduced Turner Network Television (TNT) with "Gone with the Wind." TNT, initially showing older movies and television shows, added original programs and newer reruns. TNT used World Championship Wrestling (WCW) to attract a broader audience.
In 1989, Turner created the Turner Tomorrow Fellowship for fiction offering positive solutions to global problems. The winner, from 2500 entries worldwide, was Daniel Quinn's "Ishmael."
In 1992, the pre-May 1986 MGM library, which also included Warner Bros. properties including the early "Looney Tunes" and "Merrie Melodies" libraries and also the Fleischer Studios and Famous Studios "Popeye" cartoons from Paramount (and then United Artists), became the core of Cartoon Network. A year before, Turner's companies purchased Hanna-Barbera Productions (whose longtime parent, Taft/Great American Broadcasting, had been headquartered in Turner's original hometown of Cincinnati), beating out several other bidders including MCA Inc. (whose subsidiaries included Universal Pictures and Universal Parks & Resorts) and Hallmark Cards. With the 1996 Time Warner merger, the channel's archives gained the later Warner Bros. cartoon library as well as other Time Warner-owned cartoons.
In 1990, he created the Turner Foundation, which focuses on philanthropic grants in environment and population. In the same year he created Captain Planet, an environmental superhero. Turner produced two TV series with him as featured character.
In 1993, Turner and Russian journalist Eduard Sagalajev founded The Moscow Independent Broadcasting Corporation (MIBC). This corporation operated the sixth frequency in Russian television and founded the Russian channel TV-6. The company was later purchased by Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky and an unknown group of private persons. In 2007 the license for TV-6 had expired and there was no application for renewal.
Since its launch in late 1994, Turner Classic Movies (TCM) broadcast the older MGM, Warner Bros., and RKO libraries. In the mid-1980s, Turner became a force for the colorization of black-and-white films. In 1985, the film "Yankee Doodle Dandy" became the first black-and-white movie redistributed in color after computer coloring. Despite opposition by film aficionados, stars, and directors, the movie won over a section of the public, and Turner colorized most of the films he had owned. However, in the mid-1990s, the cost of colorization led Turner to abandon the idea. In contrast with TNT, TCM has shown the unaltered versions of films.
Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. merged with Time Warner, Inc. on October 10, 1996, with Turner as vice chairman and head of Time Warner and Turner's cable networks division. Turner was dropped as head of cable networks by CEO Gerald Levin but remained as Vice Chairman of Time Warner. He resigned as Time Warner vice chairman in 2003 and then from the board of directors in 2006.
On January 11, 2001, Time Warner was purchased by AOL to become AOL Time Warner, a merger which Turner initially supported. However, the burst of the dotcom bubble hurt the growth and profitability of the AOL division, which in turn dragged down the combined company's performance and stock price. At a board meeting in fall 2001, Turner's outburst against AOL Time Warner CEO Gerald Levin eventually led to Levin's announced resignation effective in early 2002, being replaced by Richard Parsons. In contrast to Levin, who as CEO isolated Turner from important company matters, Parsons invited Turner back to provide strategic advice, although Turner never received an operational role that he sought. The company dropped "AOL" from its name in October 2003. In December 2009, AOL was spun off from the Time Warner conglomerate as a separate company.
Turner was Time Warner's biggest individual shareholder. It is estimated he lost as much as $7 billion when the stock collapsed in the wake of the merger. When asked about buying back his former assets, he replied that he "can't afford them now". In June 2014 Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox made a bid for the company valuing it at $80 billion. The Time Warner board rejected the offer and it was formally withdrawn on August 5, 2014.
Turner has had a long-running feud with fellow cable magnate Rupert Murdoch for years. This originated in 1983 when a Murdoch-sponsored yacht collided with the yacht skippered by Turner, ""Condor"", during the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, causing it to run aground from the finish line. At the post-race dinner, Turner verbally assaulted Murdoch, afterward challenging him to a televised fistfight in Las Vegas.
In 2003, Turner challenged Murdoch to another fistfight, and later on accused Murdoch of being a "warmonger", for his support and backing of President George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq.
For most of his first decade as owner of the Braves, Turner was a very hands-on owner. This peaked in 1977, his second year as owner.
Turner was suspended for one year by Commissioner of Baseball Bowie Kuhn on January 3, 1977 for his actions while pursuing the signing of free agent outfielder Gary Matthews from the San Francisco Giants. Matthews signed a five-year, $1.875 million contract with the Braves on November 18, 1976. Kuhn's actions stemmed from remarks made by Turner to then-Giants owner Bob Lurie during the 1976 World Series. In addition, the Braves were also stripped of their first-round selections in the June 1978 draft of high school and college players. Turner, however, successfully appealed the suspension and Kuhn relented and reinstated the draft selections, one of which would turn out to be Bob Horner from Arizona State University.
On May 11, 1977, with the team mired in a 16-game losing streak, Turner sent manager Dave Bristol on a 10-day "scouting trip" and Turner himself took over as interim manager—the first owner/manager in the majors since Connie Mack. He ran the team for one game (a loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates) before National League president Chub Feeney ordered him to stop running the team. Feeney cited major league rules which bar managers and players from owning stock in their clubs. Turner appealed to Commissioner of Baseball Bowie Kuhn, and showed up to manage the Braves when they returned home. However, Kuhn turned down the appeal, citing Turner's "lack of familiarity with game operations."
In the mid-1980s Turner began leaving day-to-day operations to the baseball operations staff, and in 1995 the team (still under Turner's ownership) won the World Series.
The Atlanta Braves were sold by Time Warner (which had assumed control after the merger with Turner Broadcasting) to Liberty Media in 2007.
On September 19, 2006, in a Reuters Newsmaker conference, Turner said of Iran's nuclear position: "They're a sovereign state. We have 28,000. Why can't they have 10? We don't say anything about Israelthey've got 100 of them approximatelyor India or Pakistan or Russia."
A proponent of healthcare reform bills, Turner has said: "We’re the only first-world country that doesn't have universal healthcare and it's a disgrace."
In 2010, during the wake of both the devastating Deepwater Horizon environmental disaster and the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster that killed 29 miners in West Virginia, Turner stated on CNN that "I'm just wondering if God is telling us He doesn't want to drill offshore. And right before that, we had that coal mine disaster in West Virginia where we lost 29 miners... Maybe the Lord's tired of having the mountains of West Virginia, the tops knocked off of them so they may get more coal. I think maybe we ought to just leave the coal in the ground and go with solar and wind power and geothermals..."
Turner endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in the run-up for the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
In 1999, Turner made a joke about Polish mine detectors when asked about Pope John Paul II. After a harsh response from the Polish deputy foreign minister Radek Sikorski, Turner apologized.
Turner once called observers of Ash Wednesday "Jesus freaks", though he apologized, and dubbed opponents of abortion "bozos".
In 2008, Turner explained he not only regretted these statements but said he had made peace with organized religion and had worked with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod and the United Methodist Church to fight malaria. In a 2008 MSNBC interview, Turner stated that he no longer considers himself atheist or agnostic, and prays for sick friends, but keeps it short because "I don't want to load up the wires." However, in 2013 he declared himself still to be agnostic, saying that he still prays for friends when they are sick, because "it can't hurt anything".
In 2002, Turner accused Israel of terror: "The Palestinians are fighting with human suicide bombers, that's all they have. The Israelis ... they've got one of the most powerful military machines in the world. The Palestinians have nothing. So who are the terrorists? I would make a case that both sides are involved in terrorism." He apologized for that and the remarks in 2011 about the 9/11 hijackers, but also defended himself: "Look, I'm a very good thinker, but I sometimes grab the wrong word ... I mean, I don't type my speeches, then sit up there and read them off the teleprompter, you know. I wing it."
In a 2005 interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, by contrast, Turner found North Korea and Kim Jong-il worthy of praise: "I am absolutely convinced that the North Koreans are absolutely sincere. … You know, just because somebody's done something wrong in the past doesn't mean they can't do right in the future or the present. That happens all the, all the time. … in the pictures that I've seen of him [Kim Jong-il] on CNN, he didn't look too much different than most other people. … I saw a lot of people over there. They were thin and they were riding bicycles instead of driving in cars, but … I didn't see any brutality…"
Turner caused a stir in Montana in 2003 by funding a project to restore westslope cutthroat trout to Cherry Creek and Cherry Lake. The controversy stemmed from the poison antimycin used to kill the other fish in the stream to make way for the trout.
In 2008, Turner asserted on PBS's Charlie Rose television program that if steps are not taken to address global warming, most people would die and "the rest of us will be cannibals". Turner also said in the interview that he advocated Americans having no more than two children. In 2010, he stated that China's one-child policy should be implemented.
Turner claims to have predicted the demise of newspapers 30 years ago and has called print journalism an "obsolete way of distributing information". Turner also became more critical of media consolidation around 2004. He expressed some regret that he took advantage of the relaxed rules that allowed greater concentration of media ownership, and raised concerns about the quality of information and debate in an environment where the news is controlled by only a few corporations and individuals.
In the 1993 biography "It Ain't As Easy as It Looks" by Porter Bibb, Turner discussed his use of lithium and struggles with mental illness. The 1981 biography "Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way" by Christian Williams chronicles the founding of CNN. In 2008, Turner wrote "Call Me Ted," which documents his career and personal life.
Turner has been married and divorced three times: to Judy Nye (1960–64), Jane Shirley Smith (1965–88), and actress Jane Fonda (1991–2001). He has five children.
Through Turner Enterprises, he owns 15 ranches in Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and South Dakota. Totaling , his land-holdings across America make Turner one of the largest individual landowners in North America (by acreage).
In January, 2016, the Osage Nation bought Turner's 43,000 acre (170 km2) Bluestem Ranch in Osage County, Oklahoma. Turner had purchased the property in 2001 primarily to raise bison. Other important wildlife species on the property include whitetail deer, wild turkey and bobwhite quail.
Turner's biggest ranch is Vermejo Park Ranch in New Mexico. At , it is the largest privately owned, contiguous tract of land in the United States.
In 2010, Turner joined Warren Buffett's The Giving Pledge, vowing to donate the majority of his fortune to charity upon his death.
Turner sponsors the public forum debate of the National Forensic League.
In a television interview with Piers Morgan on May 3, 2012, Turner said he had four girlfriends, which he acknowledged was complicated but nonetheless easier than being married.
One of Turner's children, Robert Edward "Teddy" Turner IV, announced on January 23, 2013, that he intended to run in the South Carolina Republican primary for the open Congressional seat vacated by Tim Scott who was appointed to the US Senate. Turner's son came in 4th, receiving 7.90% of the vote.
In an interview on "CBS Sunday Morning" in 2018, Ted Turner revealed he is suffering from Lewy body dementia.
When Turner was 26, he entered sailing competitions at the Savannah Yacht Club and competed in Olympic trials in 1964. He first attempted to win the America's Cup in 1974, in a losing attempt at the defender's trials, aboard "Mariner". He appeared on the cover of "Sports Illustrated" on July 4, 1977, after being chosen to lead the 1977 America's Cup defense as skipper of the yacht "Courageous". He had been asked to join the America’s Cup defense group formed by Lee Loomis and Ted Hood. That group had Courageous and planned to build another yacht, Independence, to be designed and sailed by Hood. But Courageous proved to be the faster boat. On September 18, 1977, he successfully defended the America's Cup, defeating Australia 4-0. He was inducted into the America's Cup Hall of Fame in 1993, and the National Sailing Hall of Fame in 2011.
In the 1979 Fastnet race, in a storm that killed 15 participants, he skippered "Tenacious" to a corrected-time victory. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30475 |
Tanka
Originally, in the time of the "Man'yōshū" (latter half of the eighth century AD), the term "tanka" was used to distinguish "short poems" from the longer . In the ninth and tenth centuries, however, notably with the compilation of the "Kokinshū", the short poem became the dominant form of poetry in Japan, and the originally general word "waka" became the standard name for this form. Japanese poet and critic Masaoka Shiki revived the term "tanka" in the early twentieth century for his statement that "waka should be renewed and modernized". "Haiku" is also a term of his invention, used for his revision of standalone hokku, with the same idea.
Tanka consist of five units (often treated as separate lines when romanized or translated) usually with the following pattern of "on" (often treated as, roughly, the number of syllables per unit or line):
The 5-7-5 is called the , and the 7-7 is called the .
During the Kojiki and Nihonshoki periods the tanka retained a well defined form, but the history of the mutations of the tanka itself forms an important chapter in haiku history,
until the modern revival of tanka began with several poets who began to publish literary magazines, gathering their friends and disciples as contributors.
Yosano Tekkan and the poets that were associated with his "Myōjō" magazine were one example, but that magazine was fairly short-lived (Feb. 1900 Nov. 1908). A young high school student, Otori You (later known as Akiko Yosano), and Ishikawa Takuboku contributed to "Myōjō". In 1980 the "New York Times" published a representative work:
Masaoka Shiki's (1867–1902) poems and writing (as well as the work of his friends and disciples) have had a more lasting influence. The magazine "Hototogisu", which he founded, still publishes.
In the Meiji period (1868–1912), Shiki claimed the situation with waka should be rectified, and waka should be modernized in the same way as other things in the country. He praised the style of "Man'yōshū" as manly, as opposed to the style of "Kokin Wakashū", the model for waka for a thousand years, which he denigrated and called feminine. He praised Minamoto no Sanetomo, the third "shōgun" of the Kamakura shogunate, who was a disciple of Fujiwara no Teika and composed waka in a style much like that in the "Man'yōshū".
Following Shiki's death, in the Taishō period (1912–26), Mokichi Saitō and his friends began publishing a magazine, "Araragi", which praised the "Man'yōshū". Using their magazine they spread their influence throughout the country. Their modernization aside, in the court the old traditions still prevailed. The court continues to hold many "utakai" (waka reading parties) both officially and privately. The utakai that the Emperor holds on the first of the year is called "Utakai Hajime" and it is an important event for waka poets; the Emperor himself releases a single tanka for the public's perusal.
After World War II, waka began to be considered out-of-date, but since the late 1980s it has revived under the example of contemporary poets, such as Tawara Machi. With her 1987 bestselling collection "Salad Anniversary", the poet has been credited with revitalizing the tanka for modern audiences.
Today there are many circles of tanka poets. Many newspapers have a weekly tanka column, and there are many professional and amateur tanka poets; Makoto Ōoka's poetry column was published seven days a week for more than 20 years on the front page of "Asahi Shimbun." As a parting gesture, outgoing PM Jun'ichirō Koizumi wrote a tanka to thank his supporters.
The Japanese imperial family continue to write tanka for the New Year.
In ancient times, it was a custom between two writers to exchange waka instead of letters in prose. In particular, it was common between lovers. Reflecting this custom, five of the twenty volumes of the Kokin Wakashū gathered waka for love. In the Heian period the lovers would exchange waka in the morning when lovers met at the woman's home. The exchanged waka were called "Kinuginu" (後朝), because it was thought the man wanted to stay with his lover and when the sun rose he had almost no time to put on his clothes on which he had lain instead of a mattress (it being the custom in those days). Works of this period, "The Pillow Book" and "The Tale of Genji" provide us with such examples in the life of aristocrats. Murasaki Shikibu uses 795 waka in her "The Tale of Genji" as waka her characters made in the story. Some of these are her own, although most are taken from existing sources. Shortly, making and reciting waka became a part of aristocratic culture. They recited a part of appropriate waka freely to imply something on an occasion.
Much like with tea, there were a number of rituals and events surrounding the composition, presentation, and judgment of waka. There were two types of waka party that produced occasional poetry: "Utakai" and "Uta-awase". Utakai was a party in which all participants wrote a waka and recited them. Utakai derived from Shikai, Kanshi party and was held in occasion people gathered like seasonal party for the New Year, some celebrations for a newborn baby, a birthday, or a newly built house. "Utaawase" was a contest in two teams. Themes were determined and a chosen poet from each team wrote a waka for a given theme. The judge appointed a winner for each theme and gave points to the winning team. The team which received the largest sum was the winner. The first recorded Utaawase was held in around 885. At first, Utaawase was playful and mere entertainment, but as the poetic tradition deepened and grew, it turned into a serious aesthetic contest, with considerably more formality. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30476 |
Civic Platform
Civic Platform (, PO) is a liberal-conservative political party in Poland. Civic Platform came to power following the 2007 general election as the major coalition partner in Poland's government, with party leader Donald Tusk as Prime Minister of Poland. Tusk was re-elected as Prime Minister in the 2011 general election but stepped down three years later to assume the post of President of the European Council. Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz led the party in the 2015 general election but was defeated by the Law and Justice party. On 16 November 2015 Civic Platform government stepped down after exactly 8 years in power. In 2010 Civic Platform candidate Bronisław Komorowski was elected as President of Poland, but failed in running for re-election in 2015. PO is the second largest party in the Sejm, with 138 seats, and the Senate, with 40 seats. Civic Platform is a member of the European People's Party (EPP).
The party was formed in 2001 as a split from Solidarity Electoral Action (AWS), under the leadership of Andrzej Olechowski and Maciej Płażyński, with Donald Tusk of the Freedom Union (UW). In the 2001 general election, PO emerged as the largest opposition party, behind the ruling centre-left party Democratic Left Alliance (SLD). PO remained the second-largest party at the 2005 general election, but this time behind the national-conservative party Law and Justice (PiS). In 2007, Civic Platform overtook PiS, now established as the dominant parties, and formed a coalition government with the Polish People's Party. Following the Smolensk disaster of April 2010, Bronisław Komorowski became the first President from PO in the 2010 presidential election.
Since its creation, the party has shown stronger electoral performances in Warsaw, the west, and the north of Poland.
The Civic Platform was founded in 2001 as economically liberal, Christian-democratic split from existing parties. Founders Andrzej Olechowski, Maciej Płażyński, and Donald Tusk were sometimes jokingly called "the Three Tenors" by Polish media and commentators. Olechowski and Płażyński left the party during the 2001–2005 parliamentary term, leaving Tusk as the sole remaining founder, and current party leader.
In the 2001 general election the party secured 12.6% of the vote and 65 deputies in the Sejm, making it the largest opposition party to the government led by the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD).
In the 2002 local elections PO stood together with Law and Justice in 15 voivodeships (in 14 as POPiS, in Podkarpacie with another centre-right political parties). They stood separately only in Mazovia.
In 2005, PO led all opinion polls with 26% to 30% of public support. However, in the 2005 general election, in which it was led by Jan Rokita, PO polled only 24.1% and unexpectedly came second to the 27% garnered by Law and Justice (PiS). A centre-right coalition of PO and PiS (nicknamed:PO-PiS) was deemed most likely to form a government after the election. Yet the putative coalition parties had a falling out in the wake of the fiercely contested Polish presidential election of 2005.
Lech Kaczyński (PiS) won the second round of the presidential election on 23 October 2005 with 54% of the vote, ahead of Tusk, the PO candidate. Due to the demands of PiS for control of all the armed ministries (the Defence Ministry, the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and the office of the Prime Minister, PO and PiS were unable to form a coalition. Instead, PiS formed a coalition government with the support of the League of Polish Families (LPR) and Self-Defense of the Republic of Poland (SRP). PO became the opposition to this PiS-led coalition government.
The PiS-led coalition fell apart in 2007 amid corruption scandal with Andrzej Lepper and Tomasz Lipiec and internal leadership disputes. These events led to the new elections in 2007. In the 21 October 2007 parliamentary election, PO won 41.51% of the popular vote and 209 out of 460 seats (now 201) in the Sejm and 60 out of 100 seats (now 56) in the Senate of Poland. Civic Platform, now the largest party in both houses of parliament, subsequently formed a coalition with the Polish People's Party (PSL).
At the 2010 Polish presidential election, following the Smolensk air disaster which killed the incumbent Polish president Lech Kaczyński, Tusk decided not to present his candidature, considered an easy possible victory over PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński. During the PO primary elections, Bronisław Komorowski defeated the Oxford-educated, PiS defector Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski. At the polls, Komorowski defeated Jarosław Kaczyński, ensuring PO dominance over the current Polish political landscape.
In November 2010, local elections granted Civic Platform about 30.1 percent of the votes and PiS at 23.2 percent, an increase for the former and a drop for the latter compared to the 2006 elections.
PO succeeded in winning four consecutive elections (a record in post-communist Poland), and Tusk remains as kingmaker. PO's dominance is also a reflection of left-wing weakness and divisions on both sides of the political scene, with PiS suffering a splinter in Autumn 2010.
The 9 October 2011 parliamentary election was won by Civic Platform with 39.18% of the popular vote, 207 of 460 seats in the Sejm, 63 out of 100 seats in the Senate.
In the 2014 European elections, Civic Platform came first place nationally, achieving 32.13% of the vote and returning 19 MEPs.
In the 2014 local elections, PO achieved 179 seats, the highest single number.
In the 2015 presidential election, PO endorsed Bronisław Komorowski, a former member of PO from 2001 till 2010. He lost the election receiving 48.5% of the popular vote, while Andrzej Duda won with 51.5%.
In the 2015 parliamentary election, PO came second place after PiS, achieving 39.18% of the popular vote, 138 out of 460 seats in the Sejm, 34 out of 100 seats in the Senate.
In the 2018 local elections, PO achieved 26.97% of the votes, coming second after PiS.
In the 2019 European elections, PO participated in the European Coalition electoral alliance which achieved 38.47%, coming second after PiS.
As a centrist or centre-right political party, Civic Platform has been described as liberal-conservative, liberal, conservative-liberal, Christian democratic, conservative, neoliberal, and pro-European.
Civic Platform combines ordoliberal stances on the economy with social conservative stances on social and ethical issues, including opposition to abortion, same-sex marriage, soft drug decriminalisation, euthanasia, fetal stem cell research, removal of crosses and other religious symbols in schools and public places, and partially to wide availability of in vitro fertilisation. The party also wants to criminalise gambling and supports religious education in schools and civil unions. Other socially conservative stances of the party include voting to ban designer drugs and amending the penal code to introduce mandatory chemical castration of paedophiles.
Since 2007, when Civic Platform formed the government, the party has gradually moved from its liberal conservative stances, and many of its politicians hold more liberal positions on social issues. In 2013, the Civic Platform's government introduced public funding of "in vitro" fertilisation program. In 2017, the party supported a citizens' initiative for liberalisation of the abortion law. Civic Platform also supports civil unions for same-sex couples.
Despite declaring in the parliamentary election campaign the will to limit taxation in Poland, the Civic Platform has in fact increased it. The party refrained from implementing the flat tax, increasing instead the value-added tax from 22% to 23% in 2011. It has also increased the excise imposed on diesel oil, alcoholic beverages, tobacco and oil. The party has eliminated many tax exemptions.
In response to the climate crisis, the Civic Platform has promised to end the use of coal for energy in Poland by 2040.
Today, Civic Platform enjoys support amongst higher class constituencies. Professionals, academics, managers and businessmen vote for the party in large numbers. People with university degrees support the party more than less educated voters. PO voters tend to be those people who generally benefited from European integration and economic liberalisation since 1989 and are satisfied with their life standard. Many PO voters are social-liberals who value environmentalism, secularism and Europeanisation. Conservatives used to vote for the party before PO moved sharply to the left on economic (e.g., increase of taxes) and social issues (e.g., support for civil unions). Young people are another voting bloc that abandoned the party, after their economic and social situation did not improve significantly when PO was in government.
Areas that are more likely to vote for PO are in the west and north of the country, especially parts of the former Prussia before 1918. Many of these people previously used to vote for the Democratic Left Alliance when that party enjoyed support and influence. Large cities in the whole country prefer the party, rather than rural areas and smaller towns. This is caused by the diversity, secular and social liberalism urban voters tend to value. In urban areas, conservative principles are much less identified with by voters. Large cities in Poland have a better economic climate, which draws support to PO. Areas with higher concentration of minorities, such as Germans or Belarusians, support the party due to its smaller emphasis on patriotism and national conservatism. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23998 |
Paris, Texas
Paris is a city and county seat of Lamar County, Texas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city was 25,171. It is situated in Northeast Texas at the western edge of the Piney Woods, and northeast of the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex. Physiographically, these regions are part of the West Gulf Coastal Plain.
Following a tradition of American cities named "Paris" (named after France's capital), the city commissioned a replica of the Eiffel Tower in 1993 and installed it on site of the Love Civic Center, southeast of the town square. In 1998, presumably as a response to the 1993 construction of a tower in Paris, Tennessee, the city placed a giant red cowboy hat atop its tower. The current Eiffel Tower replica is at least the second one; an earlier replica constructed of wood was destroyed by a tornado.
Present-day Lamar County was part of Red River County during the Republic of Texas. By 1840, population growth necessitated the organization of a new county. George Washington Wright, who had served in the Third Congress of the Republic of Texas as a representative from Red River County, was a major proponent of the new county. The Fifth Congress established the new county on December 17, 1840, and named it after Mirabeau B. Lamar, who was the first Vice President and the second President of the Republic of Texas.
Lamar County was one of the 18 Texas counties that voted against secession on February 23, 1861.
In 1877, 1896, and 1916, major fires in the city forced considerable rebuilding. The 1916 fire destroyed almost half the town and caused an estimated $11 million in property damage. The fire ruined most of the central business district and swept through a residential area. The burned structures included the Federal Building and Post Office, the Lamar County Courthouse and Jail, City Hall, most commercial buildings, and several churches.
In 1893, black teenager Henry Smith was accused of murder, tortured, and then burned to death on a scaffold in front of thousands of spectators in Paris. In 1920, two black brothers from the Arthur family were tied to a flagpole and burned to death at the Paris fairgrounds. The city has prominent memorials to the Confederacy, but has no acknowledgement of these killings.
In 1943, the U.S. Supreme Court in "Largent v. Texas" struck down a Paris ordinance that prohibited a person from selling or distributing religious publications without first obtaining a city-issued permit. The Court ruled that the ordinance abridged freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Paris has long been a railroad center. The Texas and Pacific reached town in 1876; the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway (later merged into the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway) and the Frisco in 1887; the Texas Midland Railroad (later Southern Pacific) in 1894; and the Paris and Mount Pleasant (Pa-Ma Line) in 1910. Paris Union Station, built 1912, served Frisco], Santa Fe, and Texas Midland passenger trains until 1956. Today, the station is used by the Lamar County Chamber of Commerce and serves as the research library for the Lamar County Genealogical Society.
The city is home to several late-19th to mid-20th century stately homes. Among these is the Rufus Fenner Scott Mansion, designed by German architect J.L. Wees and constructed in 1910. The structure is solid concrete and steel with four floors. Rufus Scott was a prominent businessman known for shipping, imports, and banking. He was well known by local farmers, who bought aging transport mules from him. The Scott Mansion narrowly survived the fire of 1916. After the fire, Scott brought the architect Wees back to Paris to redesign the historic downtown area.
Camp Maxey is maintained by a Texas Army National Guard unit.
Paris was named the "Best Small Town in Texas" by Kevin Heubusch in his book "The New Rating Guide to Life in America's Small Cities" (1997).
Since 1869, "The Paris News" has served as the newspaper in the city of Paris. It circulates daily in the city and throughout Lamar County, as well as in neighboring Delta, Fannin, and Red River Counties in Texas and Choctaw County, Oklahoma.
Six radio stations are licensed in the city of Paris: KFYN, KZHN, KPLT (AM), KOYN, KBUS, KITX, and KPLT-FM.
Paris is served by KXII; the low-power translator station KXIP-LD (channel 12) is in Paris.
Race relations in Paris have a bloody history and have been deeply polarized, turbulent, and sometimes explosive.
In the late-19th and early-20th centuries, several lynchings were staged at the Paris Fairgrounds as public spectacles, with thousands of white spectators cheering as the victims were tortured and then immolated, dismembered, or otherwise murdered. Among the victims was Henry Smith, a teenager lynched in 1893 after the alleged rape and the murder of a 3 years old White girl.
115 years later, in 2008, an African-American man, Brandon McClelland, was run over and dragged to death under a vehicle. Two white men were arrested, but the prosecutor cited lack of evidence and declined to press charges, and no serious subsequent attempt to find other perpetrators was made. This caused unrest in the Paris African-American community. Following this incident, an attempt by the United States Department of Justice Justice Community Relations Service to initiate a dialog between the races in the town ended in failure when African-American complaints were mostly met by silent glares.
A 2009 protest rally over the case let to Texas State Police intervention to prevent groups shouting "white power!" and "black power!" from coming to blows.
In 2007, a 14-year-old African-American girl was sentenced by a local judge to up to 7 years in a youth prison for shoving a hall monitor at Paris High School. Three months earlier, the same judge had sentenced a 14-year-old white girl to probation for arson. This sentencing disparity occasioned nationwide controversy and the African-American girl was released after serving one year on orders of a special conservator appointed by the State of Texas to investigate problems with the state's juvenile-justice practices.
In 2009, some African-American workers at the Turner Industries plant in the city claimed that hangman's nooses, Confederate flags, and racist graffiti were regular features of plant culture. At the same time, the United States Department of Education was conducting an investigation into allegations that African-American students in Paris's schools are disciplined more harshly than white students for similar offenses.
In 2015, the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled after an investigation that African-American workers at the Sara Lee Corporation plant in Paris (closed in 2011) were deliberately disproportionately exposed to asbestos, black mold, and other toxins, and also were targets of racial slurs and racist graffiti.
Some Paris residents deny that the town has a race-relations problem.
Paris is located at (33.662508, −95.547692). According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which are land and (3.74%) are covered by water.
Paris has a humid subtropical climate ("Cfa" in the Köppen climate classification). It is located in "Tornado Alley", an area largely centered in the middle of the United States in which tornadoes occur frequently because of weather patterns and geography. Paris is in USDA plant hardiness zone 8a for winter temperatures. This is cooler than its southern neighbor Dallas, and while similar to Atlanta, Georgia, it has warmer summertime temperatures. Summertime average highs reach and in July and August, with associated lows of and . Winter temperatures drop to an average high of and low of in January. The highest temperature on record was , set in August 1936, and the record low was , set in 1930. Average precipitation is . Snow is not unusual, but is by no means predictable, and years can pass with no snowfall at all.
On April 2, 1982, Paris was hit by an F4 tornado that destroyed more than 1,500 homes, and left 10 people dead, 170 injured, and 3,000 homeless. The damage toll from this tornado was estimated at US$50 million in 1982.
As of the census of 2010, 25,171 people, 10,306 households, and 6,426 families resided in the city. The population density was 588.1 people per square mile (227.4/km²). The 11,883 housing units averaged 277.6 per square mile (107.3/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 70.3% White, 24.8% African American, 3.1% Native American, 1.1% Asian, and 4.1% from other races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 8.2% of the population.
Of the 10,306 households, 27.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.8% were married couples living together, 19.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 37.6% were not families. About 32.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 15.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.38 and the average family size was 3.01.
In the city, the population was distributed as 25.0% under the age of 18, 10.6% from 18 to 24, 24.1% from 25 to 44, 23.8% from 45 to 64, and 16.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37.1 years. For every 100 females, there were 87.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 82.9 males.
In 2000, the median income for a household in the city was $27,438, and for a family was $34,916. Males had a median income of $29,378 versus $20,080 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,137. About 16.5% of families and 20.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 29.0% of those under age 18 and 15.9% of those age 65 or over.
In the past, Paris was a major cotton exchange, and the county was developed as cotton plantations. While cotton is still farmed on the lands around Paris, it is no longer a major part of the economy.
Paris' one major hospital has two campuses: Paris Regional Medical Center South (formerly St. Joseph's Hospital) and Paris Regional Medical Center North (formerly McCuistion Regional Medical Center). It serves as the center of healthcare for much of Northeast Texas and Southeast Oklahoma. Both campuses are now operated jointly under the name of the Paris Regional Medical Center, a division of Essent Healthcare. Paris Regional Medical Center South Campus has recently closed and only the North Campus remains open. The health network is one of the largest employers in the Paris area.
Outside of healthcare, the largest employers are Kimberly-Clark and Campbell's Soup.
"Note: PRMC is Paris Regional Medical Center."
Elementary and secondary education is split among three main school districts:
Prairiland ISD also serves a small portion of the town, along with Blossom ISD.
In addition, Paris Junior College provides postsecondary education. It hosts the Texas Institute of Jewelry Technology, a well-respected school of gemology, horology, and jewelry. The Industrial Technology Division offers programs in air conditioning technology, refrigeration technology, agricultural technology, drafting and computer-aided design, electronics, electromechanical technology, and welding technology.
Texas A&M University-Commerce, a major university of over 12,000 students, is located in the neighboring city of Commerce, 40 minutes southwest of Paris.
The Paris Public Library serves Paris, as does the Lamar County Genealogical Society Library.
It is governed by a city council as specified in the city's charter adopted in 1948.
Paris is represented in the Texas Senate by Republican Kevin Eltife, District 1, and in the Texas House of Representatives by Republican Erwin Cain, District 3.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice operates the Paris District Parole Office in Paris.
At the federal level, the two U.S. Senators from Texas are Republicans John Cornyn and Ted Cruz. Paris is part of Texas's 4th congressional district, represented by Republican John Ratcliffe.
The United States Postal Service operates the Paris Post Office.
According to the Texas Transportation Commission, Paris is the second-largest city in Texas without a four-lane divided highway connecting to an interstate highway within the state. However, those traveling north of the city can go into the Midwest on a four-lane thoroughfare via US 271 across the Red River into Oklahoma, and then the Indian Nation Turnpike from Hugo to Interstate 40 at Henryetta, which in turn continues as a free four-lane highway via US 75 to Tulsa.
Paris is served by two taxicab companies. Cox Field provides general aviation services. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24001 |
Paraffin wax
Paraffin wax (or petroleum wax) is a soft colorless solid derived from petroleum, coal or shale oil that consists of a mixture of hydrocarbon molecules containing between twenty and forty carbon atoms. It is solid at room temperature and begins to melt above approximately , and its boiling point is above . Common applications for paraffin wax include lubrication, electrical insulation, and candles;
dyed paraffin wax can be made into crayons. It is distinct from kerosene and other petroleum products that are sometimes called paraffin.
Un-dyed, unscented paraffin candles are odorless and bluish-white. Paraffin wax was first created by Carl Reichenbach in Germany in 1830 and marked a major advancement in candlemaking technology, as it burned more cleanly and reliably than tallow candles and was cheaper to produce.
In chemistry, "paraffin" is used synonymously with "alkane", indicating hydrocarbons with the general formula C"n"H2"n"+2. The name is derived from Latin "parum" ("barely") + "affinis", meaning "lacking affinity" or "lacking reactivity", referring to paraffin's unreactive nature.
Paraffin wax is mostly found as a white, odorless, tasteless, waxy solid, with a typical melting point between about , and a density of around 900 kg/m3. It is insoluble in water, but soluble in ether, benzene, and certain esters. Paraffin is unaffected by most common chemical reagents but burns readily. Its heat of combustion is 42 MJ/kg.
Paraffin wax is an excellent electrical insulator, with a resistivity of between 1013 and 1017 ohm metre. This is better than nearly all other materials except some plastics (notably Teflon). It is an effective neutron moderator and was used in James Chadwick's 1932 experiments to identify the neutron.
Paraffin wax is an excellent material for storing heat, with a specific heat capacity of 2.14–2.9 J g−1 K−1 (joules per gram kelvin) and a heat of fusion of 200–220 J g−1. Paraffin wax phase-change cooling coupled with retractable radiators was used to cool the electronics of the Lunar Roving Vehicle during the manned missions to the Moon in the early 1970s. Wax expands considerably when it melts and this allows its use in wax element thermostats for industrial, domestic and, particularly, automobile purposes.
Paraffin wax was first created in 1830 by the German chemist Karl von Reichenbach when he tried to develop the means to efficiently separate and refine the waxy substances naturally occurring in petroleum. Paraffin represented a major advance in the candlemaking industry because it burned more cleanly and reliably and was cheaper to manufacture than any other candle fuel. Paraffin wax initially suffered from a low melting point; however, this shortcoming was later remedied by the addition of harder stearic acid. The production of paraffin wax enjoyed a boom in the early 20th century as a result of the growth of the meatpacking and oil industries which created paraffin and stearic acid as byproducts.
The feedstock for paraffin is slack wax, which is a mixture of oil and wax, a byproduct from the refining of lubricating oil.
The first step in making paraffin wax is to remove the oil (de-oiling or de-waxing) from the slack wax. The oil is separated by crystallization. Most commonly, the slack wax is heated, mixed with one or more solvents such as a ketone and then cooled. As it cools, wax crystallizes out of the solution, leaving only oil. This mixture is filtered into two streams: solid (wax plus some solvent) and liquid (oil and solvent). After the solvent is recovered by distillation, the resulting products are called "product wax" (or "press wax") and "foots oil". The lower the percentage of oil in the wax, the more refined it is considered (semi-refined versus fully refined). The product wax may be further processed to remove colors and odors. The wax may finally be blended together to give certain desired properties such as melt point and penetration. Paraffin wax is sold in either liquid or solid form.
In industrial applications, it is often useful to modify the crystal properties of the paraffin wax, typically by adding branching to the existing carbon backbone chain. The modification is usually done with additives, such as EVA copolymers, microcrystalline wax, or forms of polyethylene. The branched properties result in a modified paraffin with a higher viscosity, smaller crystalline structure, and modified functional properties. Pure paraffin wax is rarely used for carving original models for casting metal and other materials in the lost wax process, as it is relatively brittle at room temperature and presents the risks of chipping and breakage when worked. Soft and pliable waxes, like beeswax, may be preferred for such sculpture, but "investment casting waxes," often paraffin-based, are expressly formulated for the purpose.
In a histology or pathology laboratory, paraffin wax is used to impregnate tissue prior to sectioning thin samples of tissue. Water is removed from the tissue through ascending strengths of alcohol (75% to absolute) and the tissue is cleared in an organic solvent such as xylene. The tissue is then placed in paraffin wax for a number of hours and then set in a mold with wax to cool and solidify; sections are then cut on a microtome.
People can be exposed to paraffin in the workplace by breathing it in, skin contact, and eye contact. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has set a recommended exposure limit (REL) for paraffin wax fume exposure of 2 mg/m3 over an 8-hour workday. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24006 |
Pearl
A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carbonate (mainly aragonite or a mixture of aragonite and calcite) in minute crystalline form, which has deposited in concentric layers. The ideal pearl is perfectly round and smooth, but many other shapes, known as baroque pearls, can occur. The finest quality of natural pearls have been highly valued as gemstones and objects of beauty for many centuries. Because of this, "pearl" has become a metaphor for something rare, fine, admirable and valuable.
The most valuable pearls occur spontaneously in the wild, but are extremely rare. These wild pearls are referred to as "natural" pearls. "Cultured" or "farmed" pearls from pearl oysters and freshwater mussels make up the majority of those currently sold. Imitation pearls are also widely sold in inexpensive jewelry, but the quality of their iridescence is usually very poor and is easily distinguished from that of genuine pearls. Pearls have been harvested and cultivated primarily for use in jewelry, but in the past were also used to adorn clothing. They have also been crushed and used in cosmetics, medicines and paint formulations.
Whether wild or cultured, gem-quality pearls are almost always nacreous and iridescent, like the interior of the shell that produces them. However, almost all species of shelled mollusks are capable of producing pearls (technically "calcareous concretions") of lesser shine or less spherical shape. Although these may also be legitimately referred to as "pearls" by gemological labs and also under U.S. Federal Trade Commission rules, and are formed in the same way, most of them have no value except as curiosities.
The English word "pearl" comes from the French "perle", originally from the Latin "perna" meaning leg, after the ham- or mutton leg-shaped bivalve.
All shelled mollusks can, by natural processes, produce some kind of "pearl" when an irritating microscopic object becomes trapped within its mantle folds, but the great majority of these "pearls" are not valued as gemstones. Nacreous pearls, the best-known and most commercially significant, are primarily produced by two groups of molluskan bivalves or clams. A nacreous pearl is made from layers of nacre, by the same living process as is used in the secretion of the mother of pearl which lines the shell.
Natural (or wild) pearls, formed without human intervention, are very rare. Many hundreds of pearl oysters or mussels must be gathered and opened, and thus killed, to find even one wild pearl; for many centuries, this was the only way pearls were obtained, and why pearls fetched such extraordinary prices in the past. Cultured pearls are formed in pearl farms, using human intervention as well as natural processes.
One family of nacreous pearl bivalves – the pearl oyster – lives in the sea, while the other – a very different group of bivalves – lives in freshwater; these are the river mussels such as the freshwater pearl mussel. Saltwater pearls can grow in several species of marine pearl oysters in the family Pteriidae. Freshwater pearls grow within certain (but by no means all) species of freshwater mussels in the order Unionida, the families Unionidae and Margaritiferidae.
The unique luster of pearls depends upon the reflection, refraction, and diffraction of light from the translucent layers. The thinner and more numerous the layers in the pearl, the finer the luster. The iridescence that pearls display is caused by the overlapping of successive layers, which breaks up light falling on the surface. In addition, pearls (especially cultured freshwater pearls) can be dyed yellow, green, blue, brown, pink, purple, or black. The very best pearls have a metallic mirror-like luster.
Because pearls are made primarily of calcium carbonate, they can be dissolved in vinegar. Calcium carbonate is susceptible to even a weak acid solution because the crystals react with the acetic acid in the vinegar to form calcium acetate and carbon dioxide.
Freshwater and saltwater pearls may sometimes look quite similar, but they come from different sources.
Freshwater pearls form in various species of freshwater mussels, family Unionidae, which live in lakes, rivers, ponds and other bodies of fresh water. These freshwater pearl mussels occur not only in hotter climates, but also in colder more temperate areas such as Scotland (where they are protected under law). Most freshwater cultured pearls sold today come from China.
Saltwater pearls grow within pearl oysters, family Pteriidae, which live in oceans. Saltwater pearl oysters are usually cultivated in protected lagoons or volcanic atolls.
Pearls are formed inside the shell of certain mollusks as a defense mechanism against a potentially threatening irritant such as a parasite inside the shell, or an attack from outside that injures the mantle tissue. The mollusk creates a "pearl sac" to seal off the irritation. Pearls are thus the result of an immune response analogous in the human body to the capture of an antigen by a phagocyte (phagocytosis).
The mollusk's mantle (protective membrane) deposits layers of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) in the form of the mineral aragonite or a mixture of aragonite and calcite (polymorphs with the same chemical formula, but different crystal structures) held together by an organic horn-like compound called conchiolin. The combination of aragonite and conchiolin is called nacre, which makes up mother-of-pearl. The commonly held belief that a grain of sand acts as the irritant is in fact rarely the case. Typical stimuli include organic material, parasites, or even damage that displaces mantle tissue to another part of the mollusk's body. These small particles or organisms gain entry when the shell valves are open for feeding or respiration. In cultured pearls, the irritant is typically an introduced piece of the mantle epithelium, with or without a spherical bead (beaded or beadless cultured pearls).
Natural pearls are nearly 100% calcium carbonate and conchiolin. It is thought that natural pearls form under a set of accidental conditions when a microscopic intruder or parasite enters a bivalve mollusk and settles inside the shell. The mollusk, irritated by the intruder, forms a pearl sac of external mantle tissue cells and secretes the calcium carbonate and conchiolin to cover the irritant. This secretion process is repeated many times, thus producing a pearl. Natural pearls come in many shapes, with perfectly round ones being comparatively rare.
Typically, the build-up of a natural pearl consists of a brown central zone formed by columnar calcium carbonate (usually calcite, sometimes columnar aragonite) and a yellowish to white outer zone consisting of nacre (tabular aragonite). In a pearl cross-section such as the diagram, these two different materials can be seen. The presence of columnar calcium carbonate rich in organic material indicates juvenile mantle tissue that formed during the early stage of pearl development. Displaced living cells with a well-defined task may continue to perform their function in their new location, often resulting in a cyst. Such displacement may occur via an injury. The fragile rim of the shell is exposed and is prone to damage and injury. Crabs, other predators and parasites such as worm larvae may produce traumatic attacks and cause injuries in which some external mantle tissue cells are disconnected from their layer. Embedded in the conjunctive tissue of the mantle, these cells may survive and form a small pocket in which they continue to secrete calcium carbonate, their natural product. The pocket is called a pearl sac, and grows with time by cell division. The juvenile mantle tissue cells, according to their stage of growth, secrete columnar calcium carbonate from pearl sac's inner surface. In time, the pearl sac's external mantle cells proceed to the formation of tabular aragonite. When the transition to nacre secretion occurs, the brown pebble becomes covered with a nacreous coating. During this process, the pearl sac seems to travel into the shell; however, the sac actually stays in its original relative position the mantle tissue while the shell itself grows. After a couple of years, a pearl forms and the shell may be found by a lucky pearl fisher.
Cultured pearls are the response of the shell to a tissue implant. A tiny piece of mantle tissue (called a "graft") from a donor shell is transplanted into a recipient shell, causing a pearl sac to form into which the tissue precipitates calcium carbonate. There are a number of methods for producing cultured pearls: using freshwater or seawater shells, transplanting the graft into the mantle or into the gonad, and adding a spherical bead as a nucleus. Most saltwater cultured pearls are grown with beads. Trade names of cultured pearls are Akoya (), white or golden South sea, and black Tahitian. Most beadless cultured pearls are mantle-grown in freshwater shells in China, and are known as freshwater cultured pearls.
Cultured pearls can be distinguished from natural pearls by X-ray examination. Nucleated cultured pearls are often 'preformed' as they tend to follow the shape of the implanted shell bead nucleus. After a bead is inserted into the oyster, it secretes a few layers of nacre around the bead; the resulting cultured pearl can then be harvested in as few as twelve to eighteen months.
When a cultured pearl with a bead nucleus is X-rayed, it reveals a different structure to that of a natural pearl (see diagram). A beaded cultured pearl shows a solid center with no concentric growth rings, whereas a natural pearl shows a series of concentric growth rings. A beadless cultured pearl (whether of freshwater or saltwater origin) may show growth rings, but also a complex central cavity, witness of the first precipitation of the young pearl sac.
Some imitation pearls (also called shell pearls) are simply made of mother-of-pearl, coral or conch shell, while others are made from glass and are coated with a solution containing fish scales called "essence d'Orient". Although imitation pearls look the part, they do not have the same weight or smoothness as real pearls, and their luster will also dim greatly.
A well-equipped gem testing laboratory can distinguish natural pearls from cultured pearls by using gemological X-ray equipment to examine the center of a pearl. With X-rays it is possible to see the growth rings of the pearl, where the layers of calcium carbonate are separated by thin layers of conchiolin. The differentiation of natural pearls from non-beaded cultured pearls can be very difficult without the use of this X-ray technique.
Natural and cultured pearls can be distinguished from imitation pearls using a microscope. Another method of testing for imitations is to rub two pearls against each other. Imitation pearls are completely smooth, but natural and cultured pearls are composed of nacre platelets, making both feel slightly gritty.
Fine quality natural pearls are very rare jewels. Their values are determined similarly to those of other precious gems, according to size, shape, color, quality of surface, orient and luster.
Single natural pearls are often sold as collectors' items, or set as centerpieces in unique jewelry. Very few matched strands of natural pearls exist, and those that do often sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars. (In 1917, jeweler Pierre Cartier purchased the Fifth Avenue mansion that is now the New York Cartier store in exchange for a matched double strand of natural pearls Cartier had been collecting for years; at the time, it was valued at US$1 million.)
The introduction and advance of the cultured pearl hit the pearl industry hard. Pearl dealers publicly disputed the authenticity of these new cultured products, and left many consumers uneasy and confused about their much lower prices. Essentially, the controversy damaged the images of both natural and cultured pearls. By the 1950s, when a significant number of women in developed countries could afford their own cultured pearl necklace, natural pearls were reduced to a small, exclusive niche in the pearl industry.
Previously, natural pearls were found in many parts of the world. Present day natural pearling is confined mostly to seas off Bahrain. Australia also has one of the world's last remaining fleets of pearl diving ships. Australian pearl divers dive for south sea pearl oysters to be used in the cultured south sea pearl industry. The catch of pearl oysters is similar to the numbers of oysters taken during the natural pearl days. Hence significant numbers of natural pearls are still found in the Australian Indian Ocean waters from wild oysters. X-ray examination is required to positively verify natural pearls found today.
Keshi pearls, although they often occur by chance, are not considered natural. They are a byproduct of the culturing process, and hence do not happen without human intervention. They are quite small, typically only a few millimeters. Keshi pearls are produced by many different types of marine mollusks and freshwater mussels in China. Keshi pearls are actually a mistake in the cultured pearl seeding process. In seeding the cultured pearl, a piece of mantle muscle from a sacrificed oyster is placed with a bead of mother of pearl within the oyster. If the piece of mantle should slip off the bead, a pearl forms of baroque shape about the mantle piece which is entirely nacre. Therefore, a Keshi pearl could be considered superior to cultured pearls with a mother of pearl bead center. In the cultured pearl industry, the resources used to create a mistaken all nacre baroque pearl is a drain on the production of round cultured pearls. Therefore, they are trying to improve culturing technique so that keshi pearls do not occur. All nacre pearls may one day be limited to natural found pearls. Today many "keshi" pearls are actually intentional, with post-harvest shells returned to the water to regenerate a pearl in the existing pearl sac.
Tahitian pearls, frequently referred to as black pearls, are highly valued because of their rarity; the culturing process for them dictates a smaller volume output and they can never be mass-produced because, in common with most sea pearls, the oyster can only be nucleated with one pearl at a time, while freshwater mussels are capable of multiple pearl implants. Before the days of cultured pearls, black pearls were rare and highly valued for the simple reason that white pearl oysters rarely produced naturally black pearls, and black pearl oysters rarely produced any natural pearls at all.
Since the development of pearl culture technology, the black pearl oysters "Pinctada margaritifera" found in Tahiti and many other Pacific islands including the Cook Islands and Fiji are being extensively used for producing cultured pearls. The rarity of the black cultured pearl is now a "comparative" issue. The black cultured pearl is rare when compared to Chinese freshwater cultured pearls, and Japanese and Chinese akoya cultured pearls, and is more valuable than these pearls. However, it is more abundant than the South Sea pearl, which is more valuable than the black cultured pearl. This is simply because the black pearl oyster "Pinctada margaritifera" is far more abundant than the elusive, rare, and larger south sea pearl oyster "Pinctada maxima", which cannot be found in lagoons, but which must be dived for in a rare number of deep ocean habitats or grown in hatcheries.
Black pearls are very rarely black: they are usually shades of green, purple, aubergine, blue, grey, silver or peacock (a mix of several shades, like a peacock's feather).
Black cultured pearls from the black pearl oyster – "Pinctada margaritifera" – are not South Sea pearls, although they are often mistakenly described as black South Sea pearls. In the absence of an official definition for the pearl from the black oyster, these pearls are usually referred to as "black pearls".
The correct definition of a South Sea pearl – as described by CIBJO and GIA – is a pearl produced by the "Pinctada maxima" pearl oyster. South Sea pearls are the color of their host "Pinctada maxima" oyster – and can be white, silver, pink, gold, cream, and any combination of these basic colors, including overtones of the various colors of the rainbow displayed in the pearl nacre of the oyster shell itself.
South Sea pearls are the largest and rarest of the cultured pearls – making them the most valuable. Prized for their exquisitely beautiful 'orient' or lustre, South Sea pearls are now farmed in various parts of the world where the "Pinctada maxima" oysters can be found, with the finest South Sea pearls being produced by Paspaley along the remote coastline of North-Western Australia. White and silver colored South Sea pearls tend to come from the Broome area of Australia, while golden colored ones are more prevalent in the Philippines and Indonesia.
A farm in the Gulf of California, Mexico, is culturing pearls from the black lipped "Pinctada mazatlanica" oysters and the rainbow lipped "Pteria sterna" oysters. Also called Concha Nácar, the pearls from these rainbow lipped oysters fluoresce red under ultraviolet light.
Biologically speaking, under the right set of circumstances, almost any shelled mollusk can produce some kind of pearl. However, most of these molluskan pearls have no luster or iridescence. The great majority of mollusk species produce pearls which are not attractive, and are sometimes not even very durable, such that they usually have no value at all, except perhaps to a scientist or collector, or as a curiosity. These objects used to be referred to as "calcareous concretions" by some gemologists, even though a malacologist would still consider them to be pearls. Valueless pearls of this type are sometimes found in edible mussels, edible oysters, escargot snails, and so on. The GIA and CIBJO now simply use the term 'pearl' (or, where appropriate, the more descriptive term 'non-nacreous pearl') when referring to such items and, under Federal Trade Commission rules, various mollusk pearls may be referred to as 'pearls', without qualification.
A few species produce pearls that can be of interest as gemstones. These species include the bailer shell "Melo", the giant clam "Tridacna", various scallop species, Pen shells "Pinna", and the "Haliotis iris" species of abalone. Pearls of abalone, or paua, are mabe pearls, or blister pearls, unique to New Zealand waters and are commonly referred to as 'blue pearls'. They are admired for their incredible luster and naturally bright vibrant colors that are often compared to opal. Another example is the conch pearl (sometimes referred to simply as the 'pink pearl'), which is found very rarely growing between the mantle and the shell of the queen conch or pink conch, "Strombus gigas", a large sea snail or marine gastropod from the Caribbean Sea. These pearls, which are often pink in color, are a by-product of the conch fishing industry, and the best of them display a shimmering optical effect related to chatoyance known as 'flame structure'.
Somewhat similar gastropod pearls, this time more orange in hue, are (again very rarely) found in the horse conch "Triplofusus papillosus".
The second largest pearl known was found in the Philippines in 1934 and is known as the "Pearl of Lao Tzu". It is a naturally occurring, non-nacreous, calcareous concretion (pearl) from a giant clam. Because it did not grow in a pearl oyster it is not pearly; instead the surface is glossy like porcelain. Other pearls from giant clams are known to exist, but this is a particularly large one weighing 14 lb (6.4 kg).
The largest known pearl (also from a giant clam) is the Pearl of Puerto, also found in the Philippines by a fisherman from Puerto Princesa, Palawan Island. The enormous pearl is 30 cm wide (1 ft), 67 cm long (2.2 ft) and weighs 75 lb (34 kg).
The ancient chronicle Mahavamsa mentions the thriving pearl industry in the port of Oruwella in the Gulf of Mannar in Sri Lanka. It also records that eight varieties of pearls accompanied Prince Vijaya's embassy to the Pandyan king as well as king Devanampiya Tissa's embassy to Emperor Ashoka. Pliny the Elder (23–79AD) praised the pearl fishery of the Gulf as most productive in the world.
For thousands of years, seawater pearls were retrieved by divers in the Indian Ocean in areas such as the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Mannar. Evidence also suggest a prehistoric origin to pearl diving in these regions. Starting in the Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD), the Chinese hunted extensively for seawater pearls in the South China Sea. Tanka pearl divers of twelfth century China attached ropes to their waists in order to be safely brought back up to the surface.
When Spanish conquistadors arrived in the Western Hemisphere, they discovered that around the islands of Cubagua and Margarita, some 200 km north of the Venezuelan coast, was an extensive pearl bed (a bed of pearl oysters). One discovered and named pearl, La Peregrina pearl, was offered to Philip II of Spain and then gifted to his wife Mary I of England. According to Garcilasso de la Vega, who says that he saw La Peregrina at Seville in 1607, this was found at Panama in 1560 by a slave worker who was rewarded with his liberty, and his owner with the office of alcalde of Panama.
Margarita pearls are extremely difficult to find today and are known for their unique yellowish color.
Before the beginning of the 20th century, pearl hunting was the most common way of harvesting pearls. Divers manually pulled oysters from ocean floors and river bottoms and checked them individually for pearls. Not all mussels and oysters produce pearls. In a haul of three tons, only three or four oysters will produce perfect pearls.
Pearls were one of the attractions which drew Julius Caesar to Britain. They are, for the most part, freshwater pearls from mussels. Pearling was banned in the U.K. in 1998 due to the endangered status of river mussels. Discovery and publicity about the sale for a substantial sum of the Abernethy pearl in the River Tay had resulted in heavy exploitation of mussel colonies during the 1970s and 80s by weekend warriors. When it was permitted it was carried on mainly by Scottish Travellers who found pearls varied from river to river with the River Oykel in the Highlands being noted for the finest rose-pink pearls. There are two firms in Scotland that are licensed to sell pre-1998 freshwater pearls.
Today, the cultured pearls on the market can be divided into two categories. The first category covers the beaded cultured pearls, including akoya, South Sea and Tahiti. These pearls are gonad grown, and usually one pearl is grown at a time. This limits the number of pearls at a harvest period. The pearls are usually harvested after one year for akoya, 2–4 years for Tahitian and South Sea, and 2–7 years for freshwater. This perliculture process was first developed by the British biologist William Saville-Kent who passed the information along to Tatsuhei Mise and Tokichi Nishikawa from Japan.
The second category includes the non-beaded freshwater cultured pearls, like the Biwa or Chinese pearls. As they grow in the mantle, where on each wing up to 25 grafts can be implanted, these pearls are much more frequent and saturate the market completely. An impressive improvement in quality has taken place over ten years when the former rice-grain-shaped pebbles are compared with the near round pearls of today. Later, large near perfect round bead nucleated pearls up to 15mm in diameter have been produced with metallic luster.
The nucleus bead in a beaded cultured pearl is generally a polished sphere made from freshwater mussel shell. Along with a small piece of mantle tissue from another mollusk (donor shell) to serve as a catalyst for the pearl sac, it is surgically implanted into the gonad (reproductive organ) of a saltwater mollusk. In freshwater perliculture, only the piece of tissue is used in most cases, and is inserted into the fleshy mantle of the host mussel. South Sea and Tahitian pearl oysters, also known as "Pinctada maxima" and "Pinctada margaritifera", which survive the subsequent surgery to remove the finished pearl, are often implanted with a new, larger beads as part of the same procedure and then returned to the water for another 2–3 years of growth.
Despite the common misperception, Mikimoto did not discover the process of pearl culture. The accepted process of pearl culture was developed by the British Biologist William Saville-Kent in Australia and brought to Japan by Tokichi Nishikawa and Tatsuhei Mise. Nishikawa was granted the patent in 1916, and married the daughter of Mikimoto. Mikimoto was able to use Nishikawa's technology. After the patent was granted in 1916, the technology was immediately commercially applied to akoya pearl oysters in Japan in 1916. Mise's brother was the first to produce a commercial crop of pearls in the akoya oyster. Mitsubishi's Baron Iwasaki immediately applied the technology to the south sea pearl oyster in 1917 in the Philippines, and later in Buton, and Palau. Mitsubishi was the first to produce a cultured south sea pearl – although it was not until 1928 that the first small commercial crop of pearls was successfully produced.
The original Japanese cultured pearls, known as akoya pearls, are produced by a species of small pearl oyster, "Pinctada fucata martensii", which is no bigger than in size, hence akoya pearls larger than 10 mm in diameter are extremely rare and highly priced. Today, a hybrid mollusk is used in both Japan and China in the production of akoya pearls.
Cultured Pearls were sold in cans for the export market. These were packed in Japan by the I.C.P. Canning Factory (International Pearl Company L.T.D.) in Nagasaki Pref. Japan.
Mitsubishi commenced pearl culture with the South Sea pearl oyster in 1916, as soon as the technology patent was commercialized. By 1931 this project was showing signs of success, but was upset by the death of Tatsuhei Mise. Although the project was recommenced after Tatsuhei's death, the project was discontinued at the beginning of WWII before significant productions of pearls were achieved.
After WWII, new south sea pearl projects were commenced in the early 1950s at Kuri Bay and Port Essington in Australia, and Burma. Japanese companies were involved in all projects using technicians from the original Mitsubishi South Sea pre-war projects. Kuri Bay is now the location of one of the largest and most well-known pearl farms owned by Paspaley, the biggest producer of South Sea pearls in the world.
In 2010, China overtook Japan in akoya pearl production. Japan has all but ceased its production of akoya pearls smaller than 8 mm. Japan maintains its status as a pearl processing center, however, and imports the majority of Chinese akoya pearl production. These pearls are then processed (often simply matched and sorted), relabeled as product of Japan, and exported.
In the past two decades, cultured pearls have been produced using larger oysters in the south Pacific and Indian Ocean. The largest pearl oyster is the "Pinctada maxima", which is roughly the size of a dinner plate. South Sea pearls are characterized by their large size and warm luster. Sizes up to 14 mm in diameter are not uncommon. In 2013, Indonesia Pearl supplied 43 percent of South Sea Pearls international market. The other significant producers are Australia, Philippines, Myanmar and Malaysia.
In 1914, pearl farmers began growing cultured freshwater pearls using the pearl mussels native to Lake Biwa. This lake, the largest and most ancient in Japan, lies near the city of Kyoto. The extensive and successful use of the Biwa Pearl Mussel is reflected in the name "Biwa pearls", a phrase which was at one time nearly synonymous with freshwater pearls in general. Since the time of peak production in 1971, when Biwa pearl farmers produced six tons of cultured pearls, pollution has caused the virtual extinction of the industry. Japanese pearl farmers recently cultured a hybrid pearl mussel – a cross between Biwa Pearl Mussels and a closely related species from China, "Hyriopsis cumingi", in Lake Kasumigaura. This industry has also nearly ceased production, due to pollution. Currently, the Belpearl company based out of Kobe, Japan continues to purchase the remaining Kasumiga-ura pearls.
Japanese pearl producers also invested in producing cultured pearls with freshwater mussels in the region of Shanghai, China. China has since become the world's largest producer of freshwater pearls, producing more than 1,500 metric tons per year (in addition to metric measurements, Japanese units of measurement such as the kan and momme are sometimes encountered in the pearl industry).
Led by pearl pioneer John Latendresse and his wife Chessy, the United States began farming cultured freshwater pearls in the mid-1960s. "National Geographic" magazine introduced the American cultured pearl as a commercial product in their August 1985 issue. The Tennessee pearl farm has emerged as a tourist destination in recent years, but commercial production of freshwater pearls has ceased.
For many cultured pearl dealers and wholesalers, the preferred weight measure used for loose pearls and pearl strands is the momme. Momme is a weight measure used by the Japanese for centuries. Today, momme weight is still the standard unit of measure used by most pearl dealers to communicate with pearl producers and wholesalers. One momme corresponds to 1/1000 kan. Reluctant to give up tradition, the Japanese government formalized the kan measure in 1891 as being exactly 3.75 kilograms or 8.28 pounds. Hence, 1 momme = 3.75 grams or 3750 milligrams.
In the United States, during the 19th and 20th centuries, through trade with Japan in silk cloth the momme became a unit indicating the quality of silk cloth.
Though millimeter size range is typically the first factor in determining a cultured pearl necklace's value, the momme weight of pearl necklace will allow the buyer to quickly determine if the necklace is properly proportioned. This is especially true when comparing the larger south sea and Tahitian pearl necklaces.
The value of the pearls in jewelry is determined by a combination of the luster, color, size, lack of surface flaw and symmetry that are appropriate for the type of pearl under consideration. Among those attributes, luster is the most important differentiator of pearl quality according to jewelers.
All factors being equal, however, the larger the pearl the more valuable it is. Large, perfectly round pearls are rare and highly valued. Teardrop-shaped pearls are often used in pendants.
Pearls come in eight basic shapes: round, semi-round, button, drop, pear, oval, baroque, circled and double bouldered. Perfectly round pearls are the rarest and most valuable shape. Semi-rounds are also used in necklaces or in pieces where the shape of the pearl can be disguised to look like it is a perfectly round pearl. Button pearls are like a slightly flattened round pearl and can also make a necklace, but are more often used in single pendants or earrings where the back half of the pearl is covered, making it look like a larger, rounder pearl.
Drop and pear shaped pearls are sometimes referred to as teardrop pearls and are most often seen in earrings, pendants, or as a center pearl in a necklace. Baroque pearls have a different appeal; they are often highly irregular with unique and interesting shapes. They are also commonly seen in necklaces. Circled pearls are characterized by concentric ridges, or rings, around the body of the pearl.
In general, cultured pearls are less valuable than natural pearls, whereas imitation pearls have almost no value. One way that jewelers can determine whether a pearl is cultured or natural is to have a gemlab perform an X-ray examination of the pearl. If X-rays reveals a nucleus, the pearl is likely a bead-nucleated saltwater pearl. If no nucleus is present, but irregular and small dark inner spots indicating a cavity are visible, combined with concentric rings of organic substance, the pearl is likely a cultured freshwater. Cultured freshwater pearls can often be confused for natural pearls which present as homogeneous pictures which continuously darken toward the surface of the pearl. Natural pearls will often show larger cavities where organic matter has dried out and decomposed.
There is a special vocabulary used to describe the length of pearl necklaces. While most other necklaces are simply referred to by their physical measurement, pearl necklaces are named by how low they hang when worn around the neck. A "collar", measuring 10 to 13 inches or 25 to 33 cm in length, sits directly against the throat and does not hang down the neck at all; collars are often made up of multiple strands of pearls. "Pearl chokers", measuring 14 to 16 inches or 35 to 41 cm in length, nestle just at the base of the neck. A strand called a "princess length", measuring 17 to 19 inches or 43 to 48 cm in length, comes down to or just below the collarbone. A "matinee length", measuring 20 to 24 inches or 50 to 60 cm in length, falls just above the breasts. An "opera length", measuring 28 to 35 inches or 70 to 90 cm in length, will be long enough to reach the breastbone or sternum of the wearer; and longer still, a "pearl rope", measuring more than 45 inches or 115 cm in length, is any length that falls down farther than an "opera".
Necklaces can also be classified as uniform, or graduated. In a uniform strand of pearls, all pearls are classified as the same size, but actually fall in a range. A uniform strand of akoya pearls, for example, will measure within 0.5 mm. So a strand will never be 7 mm, but will be 6.5–7 mm. Freshwater pearls, Tahitian pearls, and South Sea pearls all measure to a full millimeter when considered uniform.
A graduated strand of pearls most often has at least 3 mm of differentiation from the ends to the center of the necklace. Popularized in the United States during the 1950s by the GIs bringing strands of cultured akoya pearls home from Japan, a 3.5 momme, 3 mm to 7 mm graduated strand was much more affordable than a uniform strand because most of the pearls were small.
Earrings and necklaces can also be classified on the grade of the color of the pearl: saltwater and freshwater pearls come in many different colors. While white, and more recently black, saltwater pearls are by far the most popular, other color tints can be found on pearls from the oceans. Pink, blue, champagne, green, and even purple saltwater pearls can be encountered, but to collect enough of these rare colors to form a complete string of the same size and same shade can take years.
The Hindu tradition describes the sacred Nine Pearls which were first documented in the Garuda Purana, one of the books of the Hindu mythology. Ayurveda contains references to pearl powder as a stimulant of digestion and to treat mental ailments. According to Marco Polo, the kings of Malabar wore a necklace of 108 rubies and pearls which was given from one generation of kings to the next. The reason was that every king had to say 108 prayers every morning and every evening. At least until the beginning of the 20th century it was a Hindu custom to present a completely new, undrilled pearl and pierce it during the wedding ceremony.
The Pearl, which can be transliterated to "Moti", a type of "Mani" from Sanskrit, is also associated with many Hindu deities, the most famous being the Kaustubha that Lord Vishnu wears on his chest.
According to Rebbenu Bachya, the word "Yahalom" in the verse Exodus 28:18 means "pearl" and was the stone on the Hoshen representing the tribe of Zebulun. This is generally disputed among scholars, particularly since the word in question in most manuscripts is actually "Yasepheh" – the word from which "jasper" derives; scholars think that refers to green jasper (the rarest and most prized form in early times) rather than red jasper (the most common form). "Yahalom" is usually translated by the Septuagint as an "onyx", but sometimes as "beryl" or as "jasper"; onyx only started being mined after the Septuagint was written, so the Septuagint's term "onyx" probably does not mean onyx – onyx is originally an Assyrian word meaning ring, and so could refer to anything used for making rings. "Yahalom" is similar to a Hebrew word meaning hit hard, so some people think that it means diamond. The variation in possibilities of meaning for this sixth stone in the Hoshen is reflected in different translations of the Bible – the King James Version translates the sixth stone as "diamond", the New International Version translates it as "emerald", and the Vulgate translates it as "jaspis" – meaning jasper. There is a wide range of views among traditional sources about which tribe the stone refers to.
In a Christian New Testament parable ("Matthew" 13:45–46), Jesus compared the Kingdom of Heaven to a "pearl of great price". "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly (fine) pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it."
The twelve gates of the New Jerusalem are reportedly each made of a single pearl in "Revelation" 21:21, that is, the Pearly Gates. "And the twelve gates were twelve pearls: every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass."
Holy things are compared to pearls in "Matthew" 7:6: "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you."
Pearls are also found in numerous references showing the wickedness and pride of a people, as in "Revelation" 18:16. "And saying, Alas, alas, that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, in purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls!"
The Quran often mentions that dwellers of paradise will be adorned with pearls:
22:23 God will admit those who believe and work righteous deeds, to Gardens beneath which rivers flow: they shall be adorned therein with bracelets of gold and pearls; and their garments there will be of silk.
35:33 Gardens of Eternity will they enter: therein will they be adorned with bracelets of gold, silver and pearls; and their garments there will be of silk.
52:24 Round about them will serve, [devoted] to them, youths [handsome] as pearls well-guarded.
The metaphor of a pearl appears in the longer Hymn of the Pearl, a poem respected for its high literary quality, and use of layered theological metaphor, found within one of the texts of Gnosticism.
The Pearl of Great Price is a book of scripture in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and some other Latter Day Saint denominations. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24007 |
Pope Benedict VI
Pope Benedict VI (; died June 974) was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 19 January 973 to his death in 974. His brief pontificate occurred in the political context of the establishment of the Holy Roman Empire, during the transition between the reigns of Otto I and Otto II, incorporating the struggle for power of Roman aristocratic families such as the Crescentii and Tusculani.
The son of a Roman of German ancestry named Hildebrand, Benedict was born in Rome in the region called "Sub Capitolio" (in what was the old 8th region of Augustan Rome, the ). Prior to becoming pope, he was the cardinal deacon of the church of Saint Theodore.
On the death of Pope John XIII in September 972, the majority of the electors who adhered to the imperial faction chose Benedict VII to be his successor. He was not consecrated until January 973, due to the need to gain the approval of the Holy Roman emperor, Otto I. Installed as pope under the protection of Otto I, Benedict was seen as a puppet of the emperor by the local Roman aristocracy who resented the emperor's dominance in Roman civil and ecclesiastical affairs.
Record of Benedict VII's reign as pope is scant. There is a letter dated to Benedict's reign from Pilgrim of Passau, asking for Benedict to confer on him the pallium, and make him a bishop so that he could continue his mission to convert the Hungarian people to Christianity. However, the response from Benedict is considered to be a forgery. Benedict VII is also known to have confirmed privileges assumed by certain monasteries and churches. At the request of King Lothair and Queen Emma of France, Benedict placed the monastery of Blandin under papal protection. There is also a papal bull from Benedict in which Frederick, archbishop of Salzburg, and his successors are named papal vicars in the former Roman provinces of Upper and Lower Pannonia and Noricum; however, the authenticity of this bull is also disputed.
Otto I died soon after Benedict VII's election in 973, and with the accession of Otto II, troubles with the nobility emerged in Germany. With the new emperor so distracted, a faction of the Roman nobility opposed to the interference of the Ottonian emperors in Roman affairs, took advantage of the opportunity to move against Benedict VI. Led by Crescentius the Elder and Cardinal-Deacon Franco Ferrucci, who had been the preferred candidate of the anti-Ottonian faction, Benedict was taken in June 974, and imprisoned in the Castel Sant'Angelo, at that time a stronghold of the Crescentii. Ferrucci was then proclaimed as the new pope, taking the name Boniface VII.
Hearing of the overthrow of Benedict VI, Otto II sent an imperial representative, Count Sicco, to demand his release. Unwilling to step down, Boniface ordered a priest named Stephen to murder Benedict whilst he was in prison, strangling him to death. Boniface VII is today considered an antipope, with Benedict VII as the legitimate successor of Benedict VI. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24012 |
Pope Benedict VII
Pope Benedict VII (; died October 983) was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from October 974 to his death.
Benedict was born in Rome, the son of David or Deodatus and nephew of Alberic II of Spoleto. He was also connected to the Conti family. Before his accession to the papacy, he served as bishop of Sutri.
Benedict VII was elected pope by the Roman clergy and people in October 974 under the influence of Sicco, envoy of Emperor Otto II. He ascended as a compromise candidate to replace Boniface VII, who had caused the death of Pope Benedict VI, usurped the pontificate, and in a month plundered the Vatican of its most valuable contents. He then escaped to Constantinople. The new pope's authority was opposed by Boniface VII and his supporters, and although the antipope himself was forced to flee, his party followed fiercely in his footsteps and compelled Benedict to call upon Otho II for help. Once he was firmly established on his throne by the emperor, he showed himself both desirous of checking the tide of simony which was rising high in the Church, and of advancing the cause of monasticism.
Benedict VII consecrated the priest James, who had been sent to him by the people of Carthage "to help the wretched province of Africa," which since the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb, had seen a steep decline in the number of bishops. Benedict VII visited the city of Orvieto with his nephew Filippo Alberici, who later settled there and became consul of the city in 1016. In 978 Benedict issued a bull defining the boundaries of the Diocese of Vic for Bishop Froia, thereby rescinding the bulls issued by Pope John XIII that had made Vic an archdiocese. In March 981, Benedict presided over a synod in St Peter's that prohibited simony. In September 981, he convened a Lateran synod.
Benedict VII died in 984, and was interred at Santa Croce in Gerusalemme. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24013 |
Pope Benedict IX
Pope Benedict IX (; c. 1012 – c. 1056), born Theophylactus of Tusculum in Rome, was bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States on three occasions between October 1032 and July 1048. Aged approximately 20 at his first election, he is one of the youngest popes in history. He is the only man to have been pope on more than one occasion and the only man ever to have sold the papacy.
Benedict was the nephew of his immediate predecessor, John XIX. In October 1032, his father obtained his election through bribery. However, his reputed dissolute activities provoked a revolt on the part of the Romans. Benedict was driven out of Rome and Sylvester III elected to succeed him. Some months later, Benedict and his supporters managed to expel Sylvester. Benedict then decided to abdicate in favor of his godfather, Gregory VI, provided he was reimbursed for his expenses. Benedict subsequently had second thoughts and returned, and attempted to depose Gregory. A number of prominent clergy appealed to King Henry III of Germany to restore order. Henry and his forces crossed the Brenner Pass into Italy, where he summoned the Council of Sutri to decide the matter. Benedict, Sylvester and Gregory were all deposed. Henry then had Clement II elected in December 1046.
While Benedict IX has a bad reputation as pope, R.L. Poole suggests that some of the accusations directed against him be understood in the context that they were perpetrated by virulent political enemies.
Benedict was the son of Count Alberic III of Tusculum. He was closely related to several popes, being the nephew of Benedict VIII and John XIX and a grandnephew of John XII. His father obtained the papal chair for him by bribing the Romans. According to Horace K. Mann, Benedict IX was about 20 when made pontiff in October 1032. Other sources state 11 or 12, based upon the unsubstantiated testimony of Rupert Glaber, a monk of St. Germanus at Auxerre.
Benedict IX's reign was incredibly scandalous, and factional strife continued. Ferdinand Gregorovius, a historian otherwise severely critical of papacy, wrote that in Benedict, "It seemed as if a demon from hell, in the disguise of a priest, occupied the chair of Peter and profaned the sacred mysteries of religion by his insolent courses." Horace K. Mann calls him "a disgrace to the Chair of Peter". He was the first pope rumoured to have been primarily homosexual. Pope Victor III, in his third book of Dialogues, referred to "his rapes, murders and other unspeakable acts of violence and sodomy. His life as a pope was so vile, so foul, so execrable, that I shudder to think of it."
According to Reginald Lane Poole, "In a time of acute political hostility accusations, as we know too well, are made and are believed, which in a calmer time would never have been suggested." He further suggests the credibility of such accusations was determined by probability rather than proof, and a reaction to the Tusculan hegemony. Poole observes that "we have to wait until he had discredited himself by his sale of the Papacy before we hear anything definite about his misdeeds; and the further we go in time and place, the worse his character becomes". Poole considers Benedict "a negligent Pope, very likely a profligate man", but notes that the picture presented of Benedict is drawn at a time when the party opposed to him was in the ascendant, and he had neither friends nor supporters.
Pope Benedict IX was briefly forced out of Rome in 1036, but returned with the help of Emperor Conrad II, who had expelled the bishops of Piacenza and Cremona from their sees. Bishop Benno of Piacenza accused Benedict of "many vile adulteries and murders". In September 1044, opposition to Benedict IX's dissolute lifestyle forced him out of the city again and elected Sylvester III to replace him.
Benedict IX's forces returned in April 1045 and expelled his rival, allowing Benedict to resume papacy. Doubting his own ability to maintain his position, and wishing to marry his cousin, Benedict decided to abdicate in May. He consulted his godfather, the pious priest John Gratian, about the possibility of resigning. He offered to give up the papacy into the hands of his godfather if he would reimburse him for his election expenses. John Gratian paid him the money and was recognized as pope in his stead, as Gregory VI. Peter Damian hailed the change with joy and wrote to the new pope, urging him to deal with the scandals of the church in Italy, singling out the wicked bishops of Pesaro, of Città di Castello and of Fano.
Benedict IX soon regretted his resignation and returned to Rome, taking the city and remaining on the throne until July 1046, although Gregory VI continued to be recognized as the true pope. At the time, Sylvester III also reasserted his claim. A number of influential clergy and laity implored Emperor Henry III to cross the Alps and restore order. Henry intervened, and at the Council of Sutri in December 1046, Benedict IX and Sylvester III were declared deposed while Gregory VI was encouraged to resign because the arrangement he had entered into with Benedict was considered simoniacal; that is, to have been paid for. A German, Clement II, was chosen to succeed Gregory VI. Benedict IX had not attended the council and did not accept his deposition. When Clement II died in October 1047, Benedict seized the Lateran Palace in November, again becoming pope, but was driven away by German troops in July 1048. To fill the power vacuum, the German-born Damasus II was elected pope and universally recognized as such. Benedict IX refused to appear on charges of simony in 1049 and was excommunicated.
Benedict IX's eventual fate is obscure, but he seems to have given up his claims to the papal throne. Leo IX may have lifted the ban on him. Benedict IX was buried in the Abbey of Grottaferrata c. 1056. According to the abbot, he was penitent and turned away from his sins as pontiff. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24015 |
Pope Benedict XI
Pope Benedict XI (; 1240 – 7 July 1304), born Nicola Boccasini (Niccolò of Treviso), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 22 October 1303 to his death in 1304.
Boccasini entered the Order of Preachers in his native Trevino. He studied at Venice and Milan before becoming a teacher in Venice and in other Dominican houses. He served two terms as Provincial Prior of Lombardy before being elected Master of the Order in 1296. Two years later he was made cardinal. He was appointed Bishop of Ostia, and served as papal legate first to Hungary, and then to France. He was with Pope Boniface VIII when Boniface was attacked by French forces at Anagni.
He was beatified with his cultus confirmed by Pope Clement XII in 1736. He is a patron of Treviso.
Niccolò Boccasini was born in Treviso to Boccasio, a municipal notary (died 1246), whose brother was a priest; and Ber(n)arda, who worked as a laundress for the Dominican friars of Treviso. Niccolò had a sister, Adelette. The family lived outside the walls of Treviso, in a suburb called S. Bartolommeo. In 1246, a Dominican friar left a sum of money in his will to Bernarda and her children, recently orphaned. A condition was that if Niccolò were to enter the Dominican Order he would receive half of the entire legacy. From the age of six, it seems, Niccolò was destined for the monkish life. His first teacher was his uncle, the priest of S. Andrea.
He entered the Order of Preachers in 1254, at the age of fourteen, taking the habit of a novice in his native Treviso. He was taken to Venice by his Prior and presented to the Provincial, who assigned him to the convent of SS. Giovanni e Paolo in Venice. For the next seven years or so, Niccolò pursued his basic education in Venice. Toward the end of this period, he served as tutor to the young sons of Romeo Quirini of Venice, whose brother was a Canon in the Cathedral of Treviso. In 1262, Niccolò was transferred to Milan, to the new "studium" of S. Eustorgio. He spent the next six years at S. Eustorgio. By the end of his term at S. Eustorgio he must have become a professed member of the Order of Preachers; the actual date, however, is unknown. As a professed brother he served in the responsible position as a lecturer in the "studium" in Venice, that is to say, he was in charge of the elementary education of the brothers in his convent. Each convent had its "lector". He served as "lector" for fourteen years, from 1268 to 1282, according to Bernardus Guidonis. In 1276 he is attested as being "lector" at the Dominican convent in his native Treviso, a post he was still holding in 1280. In February 1282 he is found at Genoa, again as "lector". He was not a professor, since he had never taken a university degree, being one of the last popes who was not a university graduate.
In 1286, at the meeting of the Provincial Chapter, which took place that year in Brescia, Fr. Niccolò was elected Provincial Prior of Lombardy. As Provincial of Lombardy, Fr. Niccolò's lifestyle changed considerably. Instead of being firmly attached to a single convent for years, he would instead become peripatetic, moving from one convent to another on visits of inspection, encouragement and correction. In Lombardy at the time there were some fifty-one convents. He also had responsibility as an Inquisitor, a task for which popes considered Franciscans and Dominicans especially suited. He also had the responsibility of convening the Provincial Chapters. In 1287, the Chapter was at Venice; in 1288, it was at Rimini; in 1289 at the General Chapter, which was held at Trier, Fr. Niccolò was released from the office of Provincial of Lombardy, having completed his three-year term. It is probable that, without office, he returned to a convent, possibly that of Treviso—though the evidence is scanty and based on wills and codicils. He was elected Provincial Prior of Lombardy again, however, at the Provincial Chapter held at Brescia in 1293. In 1294 it was held at Faventia, in 1295 at Verona, and in 1296 at Ferrara, where Fr. Niccolò's successor was elected, since he had a new assignment.
At the Capitulum Generale of the Order of Preachers, which was held at Strasbourg in 1296, Frater Niccolò of Treviso was elected Master of the Order of Preachers, and issued ordinances that forbade public questioning of the legitimacy of Pope Boniface VIII's papal election (which had taken place on Christmas Eve, 1295) on the part of any Dominican.
Boccasini was elevated to the cardinalate on 4 December 1298 by Boniface VIII, and assigned the title of Cardinal-Priest of Santa Sabina. He entered the Roman Curia on 25 March 1299 and thus began to receive his share of the profits of the Chamber of the College of Cardinals.
He was promoted to the rank of Cardinal-Bishop of the See of Ostia on 2 March 1300 and also received episcopal consecration. On 13 May 1301 he was appointed Apostolic Legate to Hungary. He made his official departure on 22 June 1301 and returned on 10 May 1303. He also served as papal legate to France.
When Pope Boniface VIII was seized at Anagni in September 1303, Boccasini was one of only two cardinals to defend the Pope in the Episcopal Palace itself. The other was Pedro Rodriguez, Bishop of Sabina. They were imprisoned for three days. On Monday 10 September they were liberated by forces led by Cardinal Luca Fieschi, and on 14 September the Pope and his retinue returned to Rome, with an escort organized by Cardinal Matteo Rosso Orsini.
The conclave to elect the successor of Boniface VIII was held in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran and the College of Cardinals desired an appropriate candidate who would not be hostile towards King Philip IV of France. After one ballot in a conclave that lasted a day, Boccasini was elected as pope.
He was quick to release King Philip IV from the excommunication that had been put upon him by Boniface VIII. Nevertheless, on 7 June 1304, Benedict XI excommunicated Philip IV's implacable minister Guillaume de Nogaret and all the Italians who had played a part in the seizure of his predecessor at Anagni. Benedict XI also arranged an armistice between Philip IV of France and Edward I of England.
After a brief pontificate that spanned a mere eight months, Benedict XI died suddenly at Perugia. As original reports had it, suspicion fell primarily on Nogaret with the suspicion that his sudden death was caused by poisoning. There is no direct evidence, however, to either support or disprove the contention that Nogaret poisoned the pope. Benedict XI's successor, Clement V was in France when elected and never journeyed to Rome. His successors resided principally in Avignon, inaugurating the period sometimes known as the Babylonian Captivity. He and the French popes who succeeded him were completely under the influence of the kings of France.
Benedict XI also celebrated two Consistories for the purpose of creating new cardinals. The first, on 18 December 1303, elevated Fr. Nicholas Alberti da Prato, OP, the Bishop of Spoleto; and Fr. William Macclesfield (Marlesfeld), OP, of Canterbury, Prior of the English Province of the Dominicans. On 19 February 1304 he elevated Walter Winterburn, OP, of Salisbury, the confessor of King Edward I of England, who did not want to part with him, and kept him in England for some time. By the time he arrived in Perugia on 28 November 1304, Pope Benedict was dead. Cardinal Winterburn died at Genoa on 24 September 1305. It cannot escape notice that all three new cardinals were members of the Dominican Order.
Benedict XI was the author of a volume of sermons and commentaries on the Gospel of Matthew, the Psalms, the Book of Job, and the Book of Revelation.
Cardinal Caesar Baronius (1538–1607) wrote that, on the Monday of Easter week in 1304, Benedict XI was celebrating Mass, but a pilgrim interrupted it, because he wanted the pope to hear his confession. Rather than telling him to find another time or another priest to have his confession, the Pope left the Mass to hear his confession and then returned to continue the Mass. This appears to be an anecdote, appropriate for a sermon recommending frequent confession, placed in an age when twice annual confession was the norm. It is unlikely that a pilgrim would attempt to interrupt a Mass, that a priest would interrupt a Mass for some other function, or that the protocols of the papal Court would permit such an unfettered close approach to the pontiff during a sacred service.
There is also a story that, at the General Chapter of the Dominicans at Lucca in May 1288, the Provincial of the Roman Province, Thomas de Luni predicted to Fr. Niccolò that he would someday be pope. On another occasion, when he was in Venice, a friar of Torcello predicted that he would be Provincial, Master General, Cardinal and Pope. This is a sort of flattery often used upon, and then anecdotally reported about ecclesiastical persons, after they have reached the height of their eminence. The thousands of times when the prediction does not turn out to be true are not reported. One need not place much significance in such tales.
Benedict XI earned a reputation for holiness and the faithful came to venerate him. His tomb gained a reputation for the amount of miracles that emerged from the site. Pope Clement XII approved his cultus on 24 April 1736 which acted as his formal beatification. Pope Benedict XIV extended his veneration to the Republic of Venice in 1748 after a request from the Venetians.
A note on the numbering: Pope Benedict X (1058–1059) is now considered an antipope by the Catholic Church. At the time of Benedict XI's election, however, Benedict X was still considered a legitimate pope, and thus the man the Catholic Church officially considers the tenth true Pope Benedict, Niccolo Boccasini, took the official number XI rather than X. This has advanced the numbering of all subsequent Popes Benedict by one digit. Popes Benedict XI-Benedict XVI are, from an official point of view, the 10th through 15th popes by that name. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24017 |
Pope Benedict XII
Pope Benedict XII (; 1285 – 25 April 1342), born Jacques Fornier, was head of the Catholic Church from 30 December 1334 to his death in April 1342. He was the third Avignon pope. Benedict was a careful pope who reformed monastic orders and opposed nepotism. Unable to remove his capital to Rome or Bologna, he started the great palace at Avignon. He decided against a notion of Pope John XXII by saying that souls may attain the "fulness of the beatific vision" before the Last Judgment. Whilst being a stalwart reformer, he attempted unsuccessfully to reunite the Orthodox Church and Catholic Church, almost 3 centuries after the Great Schism; he also failed to come to an understanding with Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor.
Little is known of the origins of Jacques Fournier. He is believed to have been born in Canté in the County of Foix around the 1280s to a family of modest means. He became a Cistercian monk and left the countryside to study at the University of Paris. In 1311 he was made Abbot of Fontfroide Abbey and quickly became known for his intelligence and organizational ability. In 1317 he was made Bishop of Pamiers. There he undertook a rigorous hunt for Cathar heretics, such as Guillaume Bélibaste, which won him praise from religious authorities, but alienated the local people.
His efforts against the Cathars of Montaillou in the Ariège were carefully recorded in the Fournier Register, which he took to Rome and deposited in the Vatican Library. His transcription was edited by Jean Duvernoy and has been documented by Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie's pioneering microhistory, "Montaillou, village occitan."
In 1326, upon the successful rooting out of the last – it was believed – heretics of the south, he was made Bishop of Mirepoix in the Ariège, and, a year later, in 1327, he was made a cardinal.
Fournier succeeded John XXII as pope, after being elected in the Conclave of 1334. The Conclave opened on 13 December, and it appeared that there might be a quick election. A two-thirds majority were prepared to elect Cardinal Jean-Raymond de Comminges, the Bishop of Porto, if he would only swear in advance to agree "not" to return the papacy to Rome. Comminges refused to make any promises in order to get elected. The Conclave therefore ground on through lengthy discussions. As Fournier himself said, "... in the discussion held over the election of a future pope, they could certainly have agreed on others more conspicuous for the repute of their great merits...", in other words, there were a number of possible candidates. The Cistercian cardinal, Jacques Fournier, was elected on the evening of 20 December 1334, after Vespers, on the eighth day of the Conclave.
Benedict XII was a reforming pope who did not carry out the policies of his predecessor. He chose to make peace with Holy Roman Emperor Louis IV, and as far as possible came to terms with the Franciscans, who were then at odds with the Roman See. He tried to curb the luxuries of the monastic orders, though without much success. He also ordered the construction of the Palais des Papes in Avignon.
Benedict spent most of his time working on questions of theology. He rejected many of the ideas developed by John XXII. In this regard, he promulgated an apostolic constitution, "Benedictus Deus", in 1336. This dogma defined the Church's belief that the souls of the departed go to their eternal reward immediately after death, as opposed to remaining in a state of unconscious existence until the Last Judgment. Though some claim that he campaigned against the Immaculate Conception, this is far from clear. He engaged in long theological debates with other noted figures of the age, such as William of Ockham and Meister Eckhart.
Though born a Frenchman, Benedict felt no patriotism towards France nor her king, Philip VI. From the start of his papacy, relations between him and Philip were frigid. After being informed of Philip's plan to invade Scotland, Benedict hinted that Edward III, King of England would most likely win, regardless.
Murphy, Cullen. "God's Jury, - The Inquisition and the Making of the Modern World". New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2012. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24018 |
Pope Benedict XIII
Pope Benedict XIII (; 2 February 1649 – 21 February 1730), born Pietro Francesco Orsini and later called Vincenzo Maria Orsini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 29 May 1724 to his death in 1730.
A Dominican friar, Orsini focused on his religious responsibilities as bishop rather than on papal administration. Orsini's lack of political expertise led him to increasingly rely on an unscrupulous secretary (Cardinal Niccolò Coscia) whose financial abuses ruined the papal treasury, causing great damage to the Church in Rome.
In the process towards sainthood, his cause for canonization opened in 1755, but it was soon closed. It was re-opened on 21 February 1931, but it was closed once again in 1940. It was opened once more on 17 January 2004, with the official process commencing in 2012 and concluding later in 2017. He now has the posthumous title of Servant of God.
He was born in Gravina in Puglia, the eldest of six sons of Ferdinando III Orsini, duke of Gravina, and Giovanna Frangipani della Tolfa, from Toritto. A member of the Orsini of Rome, he was the third and last member of that family to become Pope. At the age of eighteen he resigned his inheritance and entered the Dominican Order where he received the name of "Vincenzo Maria". He was ordained to the priesthood in February 1671.
Through the influence of his family, he was named, by Pope Clement X, Cardinal-Priest of San Sisto on 22 February 1672 (allegedly against his will). He also lectured in philosophy at Brescia. Later he was bishop of Manfredonia, bishop of Cesena and then archbishop of Benevento. After an earthquake in 1688 and another in 1702 he organized relief efforts for the victims. He remained a close friend of a local mystic, Serafina di Dio.
Upon the death of Pope Innocent XIII in 1724, a conclave was convoked to elect a successor. There were four divisions in the College of Cardinals and there were no clear candidates. At the conclave, Orsini was considered one of the papabili. Orsini was then proposed to be elected because he led a modest, austere life, considered to be a pastor. His lack of political expertise suggested that he would be neutral and malleable.
Orsini refused to be elected prior to the final ballot, explaining that he was unworthy of it. Eventually he was persuaded to accept by Agustín Pipia, Master of the Order of Preachers and on 29 May 1724, Orsini was elected pontiff. He chose the regnal name of "Benedict XIII" in honour of Pope Blessed Benedict XI because he was also of the Dominican Order.
On 4 June 1724, he was crowned by Benedetto Pamphili, the cardinal protodeacon. On the following 24 September, he took possession of the Basilica of St. John Lateran.
At first, he called himself Benedict XIV, but afterwards altered the title to Benedict XIII (the previous Benedict XIII having been considered an antipope).
Not a man of worldly matters, Benedict XIII made an effort to maintain his monastic lifestyle. He endeavoured to put a stop to the decadent lifestyles of the Italian priesthood and of the cardinalate. He also abolished the lottery in Rome and the Papal States, which only served to profit the neighboring states that maintained the public lottery. A man fond above all of asceticism and religious celebrations, he built several hospitals, but according to Cardinal Lambertini (later Pope Benedict XIV) "did not have any idea about how to rule".
In 1727 he inaugurated the famous Spanish Steps and founded the University of Camerino.
In 1728, Benedict's intervention settled a controversy, regarding the relics of St Augustine, that erupted in Pavia, Italy. He ultimately confirmed the authenticity of Augustine's bones, that had been discovered in 1695 in the Basilica San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro. (Stone, Harold Samuel (2002). "Augustine's Bones: A Microhistory." pp. 90–93)
The government of the Papal States was effectively held in Benedict XIII's stead by Cardinal Niccolò Coscia, who had been the pope's secretary when he was archbishop of Benevento, and who committed a long series of financial abuses to his own advantage, causing the ruin of the Papal treasury. Coscia and his associates effectively isolated Benedict from other advisors. According to Montesquieu, "All the money of Rome goes to Benevento... as the Beneventani direct [Benedict's] weakness".
In foreign relations, he struggled with both John V of Portugal and the Jansenists in France.
Benedict XIII beatified Bernardine of Feltre in 1728 and also beatified Peter Fourier on 20 January 1730. He also beatified Hyacintha of Mariscotti on 1 September 1726, Fidelis of Sigmaringen on 24 March 1729, Vincent de Paul on 13 August 1729 and John del Prado on 24 May 1728.
Through the process of equipollent canonization, Benedict XIII canonized Pope Gregory VII on 24 May 1728. He conferred sainthood upon Agnes of Montepulciano in 1726, Aloysius Gonzaga on 31 December 1726, Boris of Kiev in 1724, Francis Solano on 27 March 1726, Gleb in 1724, James of the Marches and Turibius of Mogroveio on 10 December 1726, John of Nepomuk on 19 March 1729, John of the Cross and Peregrine Laziosi on 27 December 1726, Margaret of Cortona on 16 May 1728 and Serapion of Algiers on 14 April 1728.
The pope named Peter Chrysologus as a Doctor of the Church in 1729.
Benedict XIII elevated 29 new cardinals into the cardinalate in a total of 12 consistories; one such new cardinal was Prospero Lambertini, who later became Pope Benedict XIV.
Benedict XIII, whose orders were descended from Scipione Rebiba, personally consecrated at least 139 bishops for various important European sees, including German, French, English and New World bishops. These bishops in turn consecrated bishops almost exclusively for their respective countries causing other episcopal lineages to die. As a result, more than 90% of present-day bishops trace their episcopal lineage through him to Cardinal Rebiba.
With the papal bull "Pretiosus" dated May 26, 1727 Benedict XIII granted to all Dominicans major houses of study and in particular to the Roman College of St. Thomas, the future Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, "Angelicum" the right of conferring academic degrees in theology to students outside the Order.
Benedict XIII was suddenly attacked by a catarrh caused by his officiating at the funeral service of Cardinal Marco Antonio Ansidei, of which he died on 21 February 1730 at the age of 81. His death was made public to the people the next day.
The pope was of middling size; his countenance was mild, his nose aquiline and he had a broad forehead. At the autopsy, it was discovered that his heart was remarkably large. His funeral ceremonies were performed at the Vatican, whence he was removed to the Santa Maria sopra Minerva where he was buried in a tomb completed by Pietro Bracci and others.
After the next papal election elevated Pope Clement XII to the pontificate, Clement excommunicated Benedict XIII's corrupt deputy, Cardinal Coscia. Coscia fled Rome and his punishment, but was later restored and took part in the conclaves of 1730 and 1740.
Pope Benedict XIV would later say of Benedict XIII: "We respectfully love that pontiff who backed his carriage rather than dispute the passage with a cartman." On that occasion Benedict XIII had exclaimed to his coachman: "Non ci far impicci"—"Do not involve us in a quarrel." On the other hand, this anonymous satirical comment on Benedict XIII's death was posted at the Pasquino:
The process for his beatification was opened in Tortona in 1755 under Pope Benedict XIV but it did not at all advance and so was stalled. On 21 February 1931, also in Tortona, the process was revitalized but the presumed doubts about the morality of the late pontiff's Cardinal Secretary of State, Niccolò Coscia, caused its closing in 1940.
The process was reopened on 17 January 2004. The official diocesan process commenced in Rome in early 2012 and the official opening of that process was held in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, presided by Agostino Vallini. The diocesan phase for the beatification process concluded on 24 February 2017 at the Basilica of Saint John Lateran with Vallini celebrating the conclusion of the inquest. He now has the posthumous title of Servant of God.
The current postulator of the cause is the Dominican priest Francesco Maria Ricci. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24019 |
Pope Benedict XIV
Pope Benedict XIV (; 31 March 1675 – 3 May 1758), born Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini, was head of the Catholic Church from 17 August 1740 to his death in 1758.
Perhaps one of the best scholars to sit on the papal throne, yet often overlooked, he promoted scientific learning, the baroque arts, reinvigoration of Thomism, and the study of the human form. Firmly committed to carrying out the decrees of the Council of Trent and authentic Catholic teaching, Benedict removed changes previously made to the Breviary, sought peacefully to reverse growing secularism in European courts, invigorated ceremonies with great pomp, and throughout his life and his reign published numerous theological and ecclesiastical treatises. In governing the Papal States, he reduced taxation on some products, but also raised taxes on others; he also encouraged agriculture and supported free trade within the Papal States. A scholar, he created the Sacred and Profane Museums, now part of the present Vatican Museum. Benedict XIV, to an extent can be considered a polymath due to his numerous studies of ancient literature, the publishing of ecclesiastical books and documents, his interest in the study of the human body, and his devotion to art and theology.
Horace Walpole described him as "loved by papists, esteemed by Protestants, a priest without insolence or interest, a prince without favorites, a pope without nepotism, an author without vanity, a man whom neither intellect nor power could corrupt."
Lambertini was born into a noble family of Bologna, the third of five children of Marcello Lambertini and Lucrezia Bulgarini. At the time of his birth, Bologna was the second largest city in the Papal States. His earliest studies were with tutors, and then he was sent to the Convitto del Porto, staffed by the Somaschi Fathers. At the age of thirteen, he began attending the Collegio Clementino in Rome, where he studied rhetoric, Latin, philosophy, and theology (1689–1692). During his studies as a young man, he often studied the works of St. Thomas Aquinas, who was his favorite author and saint. While he enjoyed studying at Collegio Clementino, his attention turned toward civil and canon law. Soon after, in 1694 at the age of nineteen, he received the degree of Doctor of Sacred Theology and Doctor Utriusque Juris (both ecclesiastical and civil law).
Lambertini became an assistant to Msgr. Alessandro Caprara, the Auditor of the Rota. After the election of Pope Clement XI in November 1700, he was made a consistorial advocate in 1701. Shortly after, he was created a Consultor of the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition, and then in 1708 Promoter of the Faith. As Promoter of the Faith, he achieved two major successes. The first was the canonization of Pope Pius V. The second was the composition of his treatise on the process of the beatification and canonization of saints.
In 1712 Lambertini was named Canon Theologus of the Chapter of the Vatican Basilica and member of the Sacred Congregation of Rites; in 1713 he was named monsignor; and in 1718 secretary of the Sacred Congregation of the Council.
On 12 June 1724, only two weeks after his election, Pope Benedict XIII appointed Lambertini titular bishop of Theodosia. Lambertini was consecrated a bishop in Rome, in the Pauline Chapel of the Vatican Palace, on 16 July 1724, by Pope Benedict XIII. The co-consecrators were Giovanni Francesco Nicolai, titular Archbishop of Myra (Vicar of the Vatican Basilica), and Nicola Maria Lercari, titular Archbishop of Nazianzus (Papal Maestro di Camera). In 1725, he served as the Canonist at the Roman Synod of Pope Benedict XIII.
In 1718, the Istituto delle scienze ed Arti Liberali in Bologna had begun construction of a chapel for everyday convenience dedicated to the Annunication of the Virgin Mary. In 1725, Bishop Prospero Lambertini of Theodosia, who was working in the Roman Curia but was mindful of his origins, ordered the chapel to be painted. He handed over the work to Carlo Salarolo, who had the walls of the chapel adorned. Lambertini also ordered and paid for the painting above the main altar, an image of the Virgin being greeted by the angel, the work of Marcantonio Franceschini.
He was made Bishop of Ancona on 27 January 1727, and was permitted to retain the title of Archbishop, as well as all the offices which he had already been granted. He was also allowed to continue as Abbot Commendatory of the Camaldolese monastery of S. Stefano di Cintorio (Cemeterio) in the diocese of Pisa. In 1731, the new bishop had the main altar and the choir of the cathedral restored and renovated. Once he became pope, Lambertini remembered his former diocese, sending an annual gift to the Church of Ancona, of sacred vessels of gold or silver, altar appointments, vestments, and other items.
Bishop Lambertini was created a Cardinal on 9 December 1726, though the public announcement of his promotion was postponed until 30 April 1728. He was assigned the titular church of "Santa Croce in Gerusalemme" on 10 May 1728. He participated in the 1730 conclave.
On 30 April 1731 Cardinal Lambertini was appointed Archbishop of Bologna by Pope Clement XII. During his time as archbishop, he composed an extensive treatise in three volumes, "De synodo dioecesana", on the subject of the diocesan synod, presenting a synthesis of the history, Canon Law, practices, and procedures for the holding of those important meetings of the clergy of each diocese. He was in fact preparing the ground for the holding of a synod of his own for the diocese of Bologna, an expectation he first announced in a "Notificazione" of 14 October 1732. When the first edition of the "De Synodo" was published in 1748, however, the synod still had not taken place. He continued in the office of Archbishop of Bologna even after he became Pope, not finally resigning until 14 January 1754.
After the death of Pope Clement XII on 6 February 1740, Cardinal Lambertini attended the papal conclave to choose a successor. The Conclave opened on 18 February, but Lambertini did not arrive until 5 March. He was not one of the 'papabili', not being one of the favorites of any of the factions (Imperialists, Spanish, French, Zelanti). The Conclave lasted for six months. At first Cardinal Ottoboni, the Dean of the Sacred College, was favored to be elected, but a number of cardinals were opposed to him because he was the protector of France in the Papal Curia. His death on 29 February 1740 eliminated him from consideration.
Cardinal Domenico Riviera of Urbino received a respectable number of votes for a while, and then, in July, Cardinal Pompeio Aldrovandi of Bologna. He had enemies, however, who assembled enough votes to ensure that he would never get the two-thirds needed to be elected. His greatest enemy, the Camerlengo Cardinal Annibale Albani, chose instead to support Cardinal Giacomo de Lanfredini of Florence, who worked in Rome in the Curia. In mid-August, Albani asked the leader of the Imperialist faction, Cardinal Niccolò del Giudice, to give a thought to Lambertini. After long deliberations, Lambertini was put forth to the cardinal electors as a compromise candidate, and it is reported that he said to the members of the College of Cardinals "If you wish to elect a saint, choose Gotti; a statesman, Aldrovandi; an honest man, me."Vincenzo Ludovico Gotti (1664–1742) was professor of philosophy at the College of Saint Thomas, and perhaps the leading Thomist of his time. Cardinal Aldrovandi was a canon lawyer.
This witticism appears to have assisted his cause, which also benefited from his reputation for deep learning, gentleness, wisdom, and conciliation in policy. On the evening of 17 August 1740, on the 255th ballot, he was elected pope and took the throne name of Benedict XIV in honour of Pope Benedict XIII. He was crowned on 21 August 1740. By 30 August 1740 the famous ephemeral baroque structures of the Festival of the Chinea and the triumphal arch of Benedict XIV were erected by Charles III of Spain, who was then King of Naples and a papal vassal.
Benedict XIV's papacy began in a time of great difficulties, fueled by anticlericalism and chiefly caused by the disputes between Catholic rulers and the papacy about governmental demands to nominate bishops rather than leaving the appointment to the Church. He managed to overcome most of these problems — the Holy See's disputes with the Kingdom of Naples, Sardinia, Spain, Venice, and Austria were settled.
The apostolic constitution "Pastoralis Romani Pontificis", which was Benedict's revision of the traditional "Coena Domini" anathematization, was promulgated on 30 March 1741. In it Benedict again excommunicated all members of Protestant sects, including Lutherans, Calvinists, Zwinglians, and Huguenots. It ordered that ecumenical councils not be resorted to by opponents of papal decisions. Its most offensive clause was §20:
We excommunicate all those who shall by themselves or others, directly or indirectly, under whatever title or pretext, presume to invade, destroy, occupy and detain, wholly or in part, the City of Rome, the Kingdom of Sicily, the islands of Sardinia and Corsica, the territories on this side of Lesina, the patrimony of St. Peter in Tuscany, the Duchy of Spoleto, the Counties of Venaissin, and Sabina, the March of Ancona, Massa Trebaria, Romagna, Campagna, and the maritime provinces and their territories and places, and the territories under special commission of the Arnulfi, and our cities of Bologna, Cesena, Rimini, Benevento, Perugia, Avignon, Citta di Castello, Todi, Ferrara, Comachio, and other cities, territories and places, or rights, belonging to the Roman Church, and mediately or immediately subject to the said Roman Church; and likewise those who presume to usurp de facto, to disturb, to retain, or in various ways to trouble, the supreme jurisdiction, belonging in them to Us and to the said Roman Church; and likewise their adherents, patrons, and protectors, or those who aid, counsel or abet them in any way whatsoever.
This clause, if applied, excommunicated the governments of Spain, France, and the Empire, in addition to lesser princes who held, without papal grant or investiture, territory claimed by the Papacy. The bull was smiled at even by Pope Benedict XIV who once said, "I like to leave the Vatican lightnings asleep." Its application to the Duchy of Parma by Pope Clement XIII in 1768 had major consequences, including the beginning of expulsions of Jesuits from European states.
At the beginning of his reign, the papal government was heavily in debt, to the amount of 56,000,000 scudi, and was running an annual deficit of more than 200,000 scudi. Benedict attempted to improve the finances of the Papal States, but even at his death the administration was still running a deficit. His greatest economy was the reduction in the size of the papal army, which had become ineffectual in terms of contemporary military practice, even in keeping order inside the Papal States; and he severely reduced the pay of both officers and soldiers. He instituted economies in his own household and in the bureaucracy, but these were insignificant in terms of the debt and deficit. In 1741, on the advice of Cardinal Aldovrandini (who had nearly been elected pope instead of Benedict), he instituted a new tax, a duty on stamped paper on legal documents; it did not produce the revenue expected, and it was abolished in 1743. He reduced taxes on imported cattle, oil, and raw silk, but imposed new taxes on lime, china clay, salt, wine, straw, and hay. In 1744 he raised taxes on land, house rents, feudal grants to barons, and pensions derived from prebends.
Despite these fiscal problems, the Papacy was able to buy two frigates in England, and in April 1745 Benedict personally christened a galley, named the Benedetta, which he had ordered constructed. He also ordered the modernization of the harbor of Anzio, but the work was so expensive that it had to be abandoned in 1752.
He encouraged agriculture and free trade and drastically cut the military budget, but was unable to completely reform the administration, still corrupt from previous papacies. At the University of Bologna he revived the practice of anatomical studies and established a chair of surgery. He had a clear view of ecclesiastical problems, had respect for differing opinions and an ability to distinguish between dogma and theory.
On 22 December 1741, Benedict XIV issued the Bull "Immensa Pastorum Principis" and sent an Apostolic Brief to the Bishops of Brazil and King John of Portugal, against the enslavement of the indigenous peoples of the Americas and other countries. It excommunicated any person who, for whatever motive, enslaved a native Brazilian. It did not address the case of black Africans. The Bull ordered the Jesuits to cease engaging in commerce, which was strictly forbidden by their own statutes, and meddling in politics. The bull went unenforced in Brazil.
The Apostolic Constitution "Sacramentum Poenitentiae" of 1741 assigned to the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition the responsibility of safeguarding the sanctity of the sacrament of penance.
On 18 May 1743, Benedict XIV signed a document addressed to the Archbishops and Bishops of the Kingdom of Poland regarding marriage, communicating his dissatisfaction with the dissolution of Christian marriages, even long-stable ones, by the Ecclesiastical Courts of Poland without due cause or in violation of canon law. Troubles arouse from what are called "clandestine marriages', a secret arrangement between partners, usually for the purpose of marrying a person of choice rather than entering into an "arranged marriage".
Benedict XIV was also responsible, along with Cardinal Passionei, for beginning the catalogue of the oriental manuscripts in the Vatican Library. The Pope added some 3,300 of his own books to the collection. In 1741 the collection of manuscripts relating to Chinese religion and history were left to the Vatican Library by bequest of Msgr. Fouchet, a one-time missionary. During his reign the library of Marchese Alessandro Capponi was acquired through bequest. The collection of the antiquarian Filippo Stosch of Florence also came to the Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana after his death, including a large collection of manuscripts that went back as far as the twelfth century.
In 1747 Benedict promulgated the bull "Postremo mense superioris anni", which summarised and restated certain aspects of Catholic teaching on infant baptism, in particular that 1) it is generally not licit to baptise a child of a Jewish family without parental consent, 2) it is licit to baptise a Jewish child in danger of death without parental consent, 3) once such a baptism had occurred (whether licit or not), the ecclesiastical authorities have a duty to remove the child from its parents' custody in order to provide it with a Christian education.
On 5 May 1749, Pope Benedict XIV declared a Holy Year, to begin on Christmas Eve, 1749 and to extend throughout the next year until Christmas 1750. During the month of April 1750, 43,000 meals were served to the poor at the Trinita Hospital. Later that year, the Pope banned card games.
Since his days as a Consultor at the Holy Office (Inquisition), Benedict had been involved in issues pertaining to the missions, both those seeking to convert non-Christians, and those seeking to reconcile heretics and schismatics to the Roman Church. One concern was the Coptic Christians in upper Egypt, where efforts to seek union with the Coptic Patriarch had not been successful. Numbers of Coptic priests and laity had entered into union with Rome, but had no bishop to serve their needs. In the Bull "Quemadmodum ingenti" of 4 August 1741, Benedict entrusted their care to the one Coptic bishop who was in union with Rome, the Patriarch Athanasius of Jerusalem, who was given extensive powers to supervise uniate Copts in Egypt.
In his encyclical, "Allatae Sunt", promulgated on 26 July 1755, and sent to missionaries working under the direction of the Congregation "de propaganda fide", Pope Benedict addressed the numerous problems arising in dealing with the clergy and laity belonging to various eastern rites, particularly the Armenian and Syriac rites. He reminded the missionaries that they were converting people from schism and heresy:
We also wanted to make clear to all the good will which the Apostolic See feels for Oriental Catholics in commanding them to observe fully their ancient rites which are not at variance with the Catholic religion or with propriety. The Church does not require schismatics to abandon their rites when they return to Catholic unity, but only that they forswear and detest heresy. Its great desire is for the preservation, not the destruction of different peoples—in short, that all may be Catholic rather than all become Latin.
Benedict XIV, however, echoing the words of Pope Gelasius I, universally banned the practice of females serving the priest at the altar, noting that the practice had spread to certain Oriental Rites.
He had a very active papacy, reforming the education of priests, the calendar of feasts of the Church, and many papal institutions. Perhaps the most important act of Benedict XIV's pontificate was the promulgation of his famous laws about missions in the two bulls, "Ex quo singulari" (11 July 1742), and "Omnium sollicitudinum" (12 September 1744). In these bulls he ruled on the custom of accommodating non-Christian words and usages to express Christian ideas and practices of the native cultures, which had been extensively done by the Jesuits in their Indian and Chinese missions. An example of this is the statues of ancestors – there had long been uncertainty whether honour paid to one's ancestors was unacceptable 'ancestor worship,' or if it was something more like the Catholic veneration of the saints. This question was especially pressing in the case of an ancestor known not to have been a Christian. The choice of a Chinese translation for the name of God had also been debated since the early 17th century. Benedict XIV denounced these practices in these two bulls. The consequence of this was that many of these converts left the Church.
During his papacy, Benedict XIV commissioned a team of architects, led by Nicola Salvi and Luigi Vanvitelli, to design a large palace that was to be 'more complex and with greater baroque style than the box of a palace Vanvitelli designed in Caserta'. The palace was to be built south of St. Peter's Basilica, but was never built, as the plans were quietly ignored by Benedict's successor, Clement XIII. They were brought up once more by Pius VI late in his papacy, but had to stop due to the possibility of invasion. On 15 December 1744, Benedict XIV blessed the baroque chapel (Chapel of St. John the Baptist) in Sant'Antonio dei Portoghesi in Rome, which featured mosaics on the sides, floor, and wall behind the altar made of semi-precious stones. The chapel, which had been commissioned by King John V of Portugal in 1740, was designed by Nicola Salvi and Luigi Vanvitelli. When complete, it was then shipped to Portugal to be placed in the Igreja de Sāo Roque, the Jesuit church in Lisbon.
Benedict XIV created 64 cardinals in seven consistories; among the new cardinals he elevated into the cardinalate was the Henry Benedict Stuart (1747). The pope also reserved one cardinal "in pectore" and revealed that name at a later time, therefore validating the creation.
The pope canonized seven saints during his pontificate including Camillus de Lellis and Fidelis of Sigmaringen. He also beatified several individuals such as Charlemagne and Niccolò Albergati.
Benedict XIV had suffered from kidney problems for years. His health worsened in 1758 and, after a battle with gout, he died on 3 May 1758 at the age of 83. His final words to those surrounding him on his deathbed were, "I leave you in the hands of God."
Following his funeral, he was interred in Saint Peter's Basilica and a large catafalque was erected in his honour. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24020 |
Place of articulation
In articulatory phonetics, the place of articulation (also point of articulation) of a consonant is the point of contact where an obstruction occurs in the vocal tract between an articulatory gesture, an active articulator (typically some part of the tongue), and a passive location (typically some part of the roof of the mouth). Along with the manner of articulation and the phonation, it gives the consonant its distinctive sound.
The terminology in this article has been developed for precisely describing all the consonants in all the world's spoken languages. No known language distinguishes all of the places described here so less precision is needed to distinguish the sounds of a particular language.
The human voice produces sounds in the following manner:
The "larynx" or "voice box" is a cylindrical framework of cartilage that serves to anchor the vocal folds. When the muscles of the vocal folds contract, the airflow from the lungs is impeded until the vocal folds are forced apart again by the increasing air pressure from the lungs. The process continues in a periodic cycle that is felt as a vibration (buzzing). In singing, the vibration frequency of the vocal folds determines the pitch of the sound produced. Voiced phonemes such as the pure vowels are, by definition, distinguished by the buzzing sound of this periodic oscillation of the vocal cords.
The lips of the mouth can be used in a similar way to create a similar sound, as any toddler or trumpeter can demonstrate. A rubber balloon, inflated but not tied off and stretched tightly across the neck produces a squeak or buzz, depending on the tension across the neck and the level of pressure inside the balloon. Similar actions with similar results occur when the vocal cords are contracted or relaxed across the larynx.
The passive place of articulation is the place on the more stationary part of the vocal tract where the articulation occurs and can be anywhere from the lips, upper teeth, gums, or roof of the mouth to the back of the throat. Although it is a continuum, there are several contrastive areas so languages may distinguish consonants by articulating them in different areas, but few languages contrast two sounds within the same area unless there is some other feature which contrasts as well. The following areas are contrastive:
The regions are not strictly separated. For instance, in some sounds in many languages, the surface of the tongue contacts a relatively large area from the back of the upper teeth to the alveolar ridge, which is common enough to have received its own name, ". Likewise, the alveolar and post-alveolar regions merge into each other, as do the hard and soft palate, the soft palate and the uvula, and all adjacent regions. Terms like "pre-velar" (intermediate between palatal and velar), "post-velar" (between velar and uvular), and "upper" vs. "lower" pharyngeal may be used to specify more precisely where an articulation takes place. However, although a language may contrast pre-velar and post-velar sounds, it does not also contrast them with palatal and uvular sounds (of the same type of consonant) so contrasts are limited to the number above, if not always their exact location.
The articulatory gesture of the active place of articulation involves the more mobile part of the vocal tract, typically some part of the tongue or lips. The following areas are known to be contrastive:
In bilabial consonants, both lips move so the articulatory gesture brings the lips together, but by convention, the lower lip is said to be active and the upper lip passive. Similarly, in linguolabial consonants the tongue contacts the upper lip with the upper lip actively moving down to meet the tongue; nonetheless, the tongue is conventionally said to be active and the lip passive if for no other reason than that the parts of the mouth below the vocal tract are typically active, and those above the vocal tract are typically passive.
In dorsal gestures, different parts of the body of the tongue contact different parts of the roof of the mouth, but it cannot be independently controlled so they are all subsumed under the term "dorsal". That is unlike coronal gestures involving the front of the tongue, which is more flexible.
The epiglottis may be active, contacting the pharynx, or passive, being contacted by the aryepiglottal folds. Distinctions made in these laryngeal areas are very difficult to observe and are the subject of ongoing investigation, and several still-unidentified combinations are thought possible.
The glottis acts upon itself. There is a sometimes fuzzy line between glottal, aryepiglottal, and epiglottal consonants and phonation, which uses these same areas.
Unlike the passive articulation, which is a continuum, there are five discrete active articulators: the lip ("labial consonants"), the flexible front of the tongue ("coronal consonants": laminal, apical, and subapical), the middle–back of the tongue ("dorsal consonants"), the root of the tongue together with the epiglottis ("pharyngeal" or "radical consonants"), and the glottis ("glottal consonants"). The articulators are discrete in that they can act independently of each other, and two or more may work together in what is called "coarticulation" (see below). The distinction, however, between the various coronal articulations, laminal, apical, and subapical is a continuum, without clear boundaries.
The following table shows the possible combinations of active and passive articulators.
The possible locations for sibilants as well as non-sibilants to occur are indicated in dashed red. For sibilants, there are additional complications involving tongue shape; see the article on sibilants for a chart of possible articulations.
A precise vocabulary of compounding the two places of articulation is sometimes seen. However, it is usually reduced to the passive articulation, which is generally sufficient. Thus "dorsal–palatal", "dorsal–velar", and "dorsal–uvular" are usually just called "palatal", "velar", and "uvular". If there is ambiguity, additional terms have been invented, so "subapical–palatal" is more commonly called "retroflex".
"NOTE:" Additional shades of passive articulation are sometimes specified using "pre-" or "post-", for example "prepalatal" (near the border between the postalveolar region and the hard palate; "prevelar" (at the back of the hard palate, also "post-palatal" or even "medio-palatal" for the middle of the hard palate); or "postvelar" (near the border of the soft palate and the uvula). They can be useful in the precise description of sounds that are articulated somewhat farther forward or back than a prototypical consonant; for this purpose, the "fronted" and "retracted" IPA diacritics can be used. However, no additional shade is needed to phonemically distinguish two consonants in a single language.
Consonants that have the same place of articulation, such as the alveolar sounds in English, are said to be "homorganic". Similarly, labial and velar are homorganic. A homorganic nasal rule, an instance of assimilation, operates in many languages, where a nasal consonant must be homorganic with a following stop. We see this with English "intolerable" but "implausible"; another example is found in Yoruba, where the present tense of "ba" "hide" is "mba" "is hiding", while the present of "sun" "sleep" is "nsun" "is sleeping".
The tongue contacts the mouth with a surface that has two dimensions: length and width. So far, only points of articulation along its length have been considered. However, articulation varies along its width as well. When the airstream is directed down the center of the tongue, the consonant is said to be "central". If, however, it is deflected off to one side, escaping between the side of the tongue and the side teeth, it is said to be "lateral". Nonetheless, for simplicity's sake the place of articulation is assumed to be the point along the length of the tongue, and the consonant may in addition be said to be central or lateral. That is, a consonant may be lateral alveolar, like English (the tongue contacts the alveolar ridge, but allows air to flow off to the side), or lateral palatal, like Castilian Spanish "ll" . Some Indigenous Australian languages contrast dental, alveolar, retroflex, and palatal laterals, and many Native American languages have lateral fricatives and affricates as well.
Some languages have consonants with two simultaneous places of articulation, which is called coarticulation. When these are doubly articulated, the articulators must be independently movable, and therefore there may be only one each from the major categories "labial, coronal, dorsal" and "pharyngeal".
The only common doubly articulated consonants are labial–velar stops like , and less commonly , which are found throughout Western Africa and Central Africa. Other combinations are rare but include labial–(post)alveolar stops , found as distinct consonants only in a single language in New Guinea, and a uvular–epiglottal stop, , found in Somali.
More commonly, coarticulation involves secondary articulation of an approximantic nature. Then, both articulations can be similar such as labialized labial or palatalized velar . That is the case of English , which is a velar consonant with secondary labial articulation.
Common coarticulations include these: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24021 |
Physical therapy
Physical therapy (PT), also known as physiotherapy, is one of the allied health professions that, by using evidence-based kinesiology, electrotherapy, shockwave modality, exercise prescription, joint mobilization and health education, treats conditions such as chronic or acute pain, soft tissue injuries, cartilage damage, arthritis, gait disorders and physical impairments typically of musculoskeletal, cardiopulmonary, neurological and endocrinological origins. Physical therapy is used to improve a patient's physical functions through physical examination, diagnosis, prognosis, physical intervention, rehabilitation and patient education. It is practiced by physical therapists (known as physiotherapists in many countries).
In addition to clinical practice, other activities encompassed in the physical therapy profession include research, education, consultation and administration. Physical therapy is provided as a primary care treatment or alongside, or in conjunction with, other medical services. In some jurisdictions, such as the United Kingdom, physical therapists have the power to prescribe medication.
Physical therapy addresses the illnesses, or injuries that limit a person's abilities to move and perform functional activities in their daily lives. PTs use an individual's history and physical examination to arrive at a diagnosis and establish a management plan and, when necessary, incorporate the results of laboratory and imaging studies like X-rays, CT-scan, or MRI findings. Electrodiagnostic testing (e.g., electromyograms and nerve conduction velocity testing) may also be used. PT management commonly includes prescription of or assistance with specific exercises, manual therapy, and manipulation, mechanical devices such as traction, education, electrophysical modalities which include heat, cold, electricity, sound waves, radiation, assistive devices, prostheses, orthoses, and other interventions. In addition, PTs work with individuals to prevent the loss of mobility before it occurs by developing fitness and wellness-oriented programs for healthier and more active lifestyles, providing services to individuals and populations to develop, maintain and restore maximum movement and functional ability throughout the lifespan. This includes providing therapeutic treatment in circumstances where movement and function are threatened by aging, injury, disease or environmental factors. Functional movement is central to what it means to be healthy.
Physical therapy is a professional career which has many specialties including musculoskeletal, orthopedics, cardiopulmonary, neurology, endocrinology, sports medicine, geriatrics, pediatrics, women's health, wound care and electromyography. Neurological rehabilitation is in particular a rapidly emerging field. PTs practice in many settings, such as private-owned physical therapy clinics, outpatient clinics or offices, health and wellness clinics, rehabilitation hospitals facilities, skilled nursing facilities, extended care facilities, private homes, education and research centers, schools, hospices, industrial and this workplaces or other occupational environments, fitness centers and sports training facilities.
Physical therapists also practice in the non-patient care roles such as health policy, health insurance, health care administration and as health care executives. Physical therapists are involved in the medical-legal field serving as experts, performing peer review and independent medical examinations.
Education varies greatly by country. The span of education ranges from some countries having little formal education to others having doctoral degrees and post-doctoral residencies and fellowships.
Physicians like Hippocrates and later Galen are believed to have been the first practitioners of physical therapy, advocating massage, manual therapy techniques and hydrotherapy to treat people in 460 BC. After the development of orthopedics in the eighteenth century, machines like the Gymnasticon were developed to treat gout and similar diseases by systematic exercise of the joints, similar to later developments in physical therapy.
The earliest documented origins of actual physical therapy as a professional group date back to Per Henrik Ling, "Father of Swedish Gymnastics," who founded the Royal Central Institute of Gymnastics (RCIG) in 1813 for manipulation, and exercise. The Swedish word for a physical therapist is sjukgymnast = someone involved in gymnastics for those who are ill. In 1887, PTs were given official registration by Sweden's National Board of Health and Welfare. Other countries soon followed. In 1894, four nurses in Great Britain formed the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy. The School of Physiotherapy at the University of Otago in New Zealand in 1913, and the United States' 1914 Reed College in Portland, Oregon, which graduated "reconstruction aides." Since the profession's inception, spinal manipulative therapy has been a component of the physical therapist practice.
Modern physical therapy was established towards the end of the 19th century due to events that had an effect on a global scale, which called for rapid advances in physical therapy. Soon following American orthopedic surgeons began treating children with disabilities and began employing women trained in physical education, and remedial exercise. These treatments were applied and promoted further during the Polio outbreak of 1916. During the First World War, women were recruited to work with and restore physical function to injured soldiers, and the field of physical therapy was institutionalized. In 1918 the term "Reconstruction Aide" was used to refer to individuals practicing physical therapy. The first school of physical therapy was established at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C., following the outbreak of World War I. Research catalyzed the physical therapy movement. The first physical therapy research was published in the United States in March 1921 in "The PT Review." In the same year, Mary McMillan organized the American Women's Physical Therapeutic Association (now called the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA). In 1924, the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation promoted the field by touting physical therapy as a treatment for polio.
Treatment through the 1940s primarily consisted of exercise, massage, and traction. Manipulative procedures to the spine and extremity joints began to be practiced, especially in the British Commonwealth countries, in the early 1950s. Around the time that polio vaccines were developed, physical therapists became a normal occurrence in hospitals throughout North America and Europe. In the late 1950s, physical therapists started to move beyond hospital-based practice to outpatient orthopedic clinics, public schools, colleges/universities health-centres, geriatric settings (skilled nursing facilities), rehabilitation centers and medical centers. Specialization for physical therapy in the U.S. occurred in 1974, with the Orthopaedic Section of the APTA being formed for those physical therapists specializing in orthopaedics. In the same year, the International Federation of Orthopaedic Manipulative Physical Therapists was formed, which has ever since played an important role in advancing manual therapy worldwide.
Educational criteria for physical therapy providers vary from state to state and from country to country, and among various levels of professional responsibility. Most U.S. states have physical therapy practice acts that recognize both physical therapists (PT) and physical therapist assistants (PTA) and some jurisdictions also recognize physical therapy technicians (PT Techs) or aides. Most countries have licensing bodies that require physical therapists to be a member of before they can start practicing as independent professionals.
Canadian physiotherapy programs are offered at 15 universities, often through the university's respective college of medicine. Each of Canada's physical therapy schools has transitioned from 3-year Bachelor of Science in Physical Therapy (BScPT) programs that required 2 years of prerequisite university courses (5-year bachelor's degree) to 2-year Master's of Physical Therapy (MPT) programs that require prerequisite bachelor's degrees. The last Canadian university to follow suit was the University of Manitoba which transitioned to the MPT program in 2012, making the MPT credential the new entry to practice standard across Canada. Existing practitioners with BScPT credentials are not required to upgrade their qualifications.
In the province of Quebec, prospective physiotherapists are required to have completed a college diploma in either health sciences, which lasts on average two years, or physical rehabilitation technology, which lasts at least three years, to apply to a physiotherapy program or program in university. Following admission, physical therapy students work on a bachelor of science with a major in physical therapy and rehabilitation. The B.Sc. usually requires three years to complete. Students must then enter graduate school to complete a master's degree in physical therapy, which normally requires one and a half to two years of study. Graduates who obtain their M.Sc. must successfully pass the membership examination to become member of the Ordre professionnel de la physiothérapie du Québec (OPPQ). Physiotherapists can pursue their education in such fields as rehabilitation sciences, sports medicine, kinesiology, and physiology.
In the province of Quebec, physical rehabilitation therapists are health care professionals who are required to complete a three-year college diploma program in physical rehabilitation therapy and be member of the "Ordre professionnel de la physiothérapie du Québec" (OPPQ) in order to practise legally in the country.
Most physical rehabilitation therapists complete their college diploma at Collège Montmorency, Dawson College, or Cégep Marie-Victorin, all situated in and around the Montreal area.
After completing their technical college diploma, graduates have the opportunity to pursue their studies at the university level to perhaps obtain a bachelor's degree in physiotherapy, kinesiology, exercise science, or occupational therapy. The Université de Montréal, the Université Laval and the Université de Sherbrooke are among the Québécois universities that admit physical rehabilitation therapists in their programs of study related to health sciences and rehabilitation in order to credit courses that were completed in college.
To date, there are no bridging programs available to facilitate upgrading from the BScPT to the MPT credential. However, research Master's of Science (MSc) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) programs are available at every university. Aside from academic research, practitioners can upgrade their skills and qualifications through continuing education courses and curriculums. Continuing education is a requirement of the provincial regulatory bodies.
The Canadian Alliance of Physiotherapy Regulators (CAPR) offers eligible program graduates to apply for the national Physiotherapy Competency Examination (PCE). Passing the PCE is one of the requirements in most provinces and territories to work as a licensed physiotherapist in Canada. CAPR has members which are physiotherapy regulatory organizations recognized in their respective provinces and territories:
The Canadian Physiotherapy Association offers a curriculum of continuing education courses in orthopaedics and manual therapy. The program consists of 5 levels (7 courses) of training with ongoing mentorship and evaluation at each level. The orthopaedic curriculum and examinations takes a minimum of 4 years to complete. However, upon completion of level 2, physiotherapists can apply to a unique 1-year course-based Master's program in advanced orthopaedics and manipulation at the University of Western Ontario to complete their training. This program accepts only 16 physiotherapists annually since 2007. Successful completion of either of these education streams and their respective examinations allows physiotherapists the opportunity to apply to the Canadian Academy of Manipulative Physiotherapy (CAMPT) for fellowship. Fellows of the Canadian Academy of manipulative Physiotherapists (FCAMPT) are considered leaders in the field, having extensive post-graduate education in orthopaedics and manual therapy. FCAMPT is an internationally recognized credential, as CAMPT is a member of the International Federation of Manipulative Physiotherapists (IFOMPT), a branch of the World Confederation of Physical Therapy (WCPT) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Physiotherapy degrees are offered at three universities: Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, Glasgow Caledonian University in Glasgow and Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh. Students can qualify as physiotherapists by completing a four-year Bachelor of Science degree or a two-year master's degree (if they already have an undergraduate degree in a related field).
In order to use the title 'Physiotherapist', a student must register with the Health and Care Professions Council, a UK wide regulatory body, on qualifying. Many physiotherapists are also members of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists (CSP), who provides insurance and professional support.
Physiotherapy or Physical therapy degree in India is offered as a regular course, by the Universities and Colleges affiliated to the State Universities. The graduation course in Physiotherapy is called BPT(Bachelor of Physiotherapy) and post graduation course is called MPT(Masters of Physiotherapy). There are many other Institutions that offers Diploma and certificate courses in Physiotherapy.
After qualifying graduate degree in physiotherapy, physiotherapists need to be registered in any Association to Practice. The physiotherapists who are well dedicated and want their professional assurance, IAP is an individual organization of membership professional representing more than 25000 member as physical therapists, physical therapist assistants, and students. IAP is an individual organization of membership professional representing more than 25000 member as physical therapists, physical therapist assistants, and students.
The primary physical therapy practitioner is the Physical Therapist (PT) who is trained and licensed to examine, evaluate, diagnose and treat impairment, functional limitations and disabilities in patients or clients. Physical therapist education curricula in the United States culminate in a Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) degree, with some practicing PTs holding a Master of Physical Therapy degree, and some with a Bachelor's degree. The Master of Physical Therapy and Master of Science in Physical Therapy degrees are no longer offered, and the entry-level degree is the Doctor of Physical Therapy degree, which typically takes 3 years after completing bachelor's degree. PTs who hold a Masters or bachelors in PT are encouraged to get their DPT because APTA's goal is for all PT's to be on a doctoral level. WCPT recommends physical therapist entry-level educational programs be based on university or university-level studies, of a minimum of four years, independently validated and accredited. Curricula in the United States are accredited by the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education (CAPTE). According to CAPTE, as of 2017 there are 31,380 students currently enrolled in 227 accredited PT programs in the United States while 12,945 PTA students are currently enrolled in 331 PTA programs in the United States. (Updated CAPTE statistics list that for 2015–2016, there were 30,419 students enrolled in 233 accredited PT programs in the United States.)
The physical therapist professional curriculum includes content in the clinical sciences (e.g., content about the cardiovascular, pulmonary, endocrine, metabolic, gastrointestinal, genitourinary, integumentary, musculoskeletal, and neuromuscular systems and the medical and surgical conditions frequently seen by physical therapists). Current training is specifically aimed to enable physical therapists to appropriately recognize and refer non-musculoskeletal diagnoses that may presently similarly to those caused by systems not appropriate for physical therapy intervention, which has resulted in direct access to physical therapists in many states.
Post-doctoral residency and fellowship education prevalence is increasing steadily with 219 residency, and 42 fellowship programs accredited in 2016. Residencies are aimed to train physical therapists in a specialty such as acute care, cardiovascular & pulmonary, clinical electrophysiology, faculty, geriatrics, neurology, orthopaedics, pediatrics, sports, women's health, and wound care, whereas fellowships train specialists in a subspecialty (e.g. critical care, hand therapy, and division 1 sports), similar to the medical model. Residency programs offer eligibility to sit for the specialist certification in their respective area of practice. For example, completion of an orthopedic physical therapy residency, allows its graduates to apply and sit for the clinical specialist examination in orthopedics, achieving the OCS designation upon passing the examination. Board certification of physical therapy specialists is aimed to recognize individuals with advanced clinical knowledge and skill training in their respective area of practice, and exemplifies the trend toward greater education to optimally treat individuals with movement dysfunction.
Physical therapist assistants may deliver treatment and physical interventions for patients and clients under a care plan established by and under the supervision of a physical therapist. Physical therapist assistants in the United States are currently trained under associate of applied sciences curricula specific to the profession, as outlined and accredited by CAPTE. As of August 2011, there were 276 accredited two-year (Associate degree) programs for physical therapist assistants In the United States of America. According to CAPTE, as of 2012 there are 10,598 students currently enrolled in 280 accredited PTA programs in the United States. Updated CAPTE statistics list that for 2015–2016, there are 12,726 students enrolled in 340 accredited PTA programs in the United States.
Curricula for the physical therapist assistant associate degree include:
Job duties and education requirements for Physical Therapy Technicians or Aides may vary depending on the employer, but education requirements range from high school diploma or equivalent to completion of a 2-year degree program. O-Net reports that 64% of PT Aides/Techs have a high school diploma or equivalent, 21% have completed some college but do not hold a degree, and 10% hold an associate degree.
Some jurisdictions allow physical therapists to employ technicians or aides or therapy assistants to perform designated routine tasks related to physical therapy under the direct supervision of a physical therapist. Some jurisdictions require physical therapy technicians or aides to be certified, and education and certification requirements vary among jurisdictions.
Physical therapy-related jobs in North America have shown rapid growth in recent years, but employment rates and average wages may vary significantly between different countries, states, provinces or regions. A study from 2013 states that 56.4% of physical therapists were globally satisfied with their jobs. Salary, interest in work, and fulfillment in job are important predictors of job satisfaction. In a Polish study, job burnout among the physical therapists was manifested by increased emotional exhaustion and decreased sense of personal achievement. Emotional exhaustion is significantly higher among physical therapists working with adults and employed in hospitals. Other factors that increased burnout include working in a hospital setting and having seniority from 15 to 19 years.
According to the United States Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were approximately 210,900 physical therapists employed in the United States in 2014, earning an average $84,020 annually in 2015, or $40.40 per hour, with 34% growth in employment projected by the year 2024. The Bureau of Labor Statistics also reports that there were approximately 128,700 Physical Therapist Assistants and Aides employed in the United States in 2014, earning an average $42,980 annually, or $20.66 per hour, with 40% growth in employment projected by the year 2024. To meet their needs, many healthcare and physical therapy facilities hire "travel physical therapists", who work temporary assignments between 8 and 26 weeks for much higher wages; about $113,500 a year. Bureau of Labor Statistics data on PTAs and Techs can be difficult to decipher, due to their tendency to report data on these job fields collectively rather than separately. O-Net reports that in 2015, PTAs in the United States earned a median wage of $55,170 annually or $26.52 hourly, and that Aides/Techs earned a median wage of $25,120 annually or $12.08 hourly in 2015. The American Physical Therapy Association reports vacancy rates for physical therapists as 11.2% in outpatient private practice, 10% in acute care settings, and 12.1% in skilled nursing facilities. The APTA also reports turnover rates for physical therapists as 10.7% in outpatient private practice, 11.9% in acute care settings, 27.6% in skilled nursing facilities.
The body of knowledge of physical therapy is large, and therefore physical therapists may specialize in a specific clinical area. While there are many different types of physical therapy, the American Board of Physical Therapy Specialties lists nine current specialist certifications, the ninth, Oncology, pending for its first examination in 2019. Most Physical Therapists practicing in a specialty will have undergone further training, such as an accredited residency program, although individuals are currently able to sit for their specialist examination after 2,000 hours of focused practice in their respective specialty population, in addition to requirements set by each respective specialty board.
Cardiovascular and pulmonary rehabilitation respiratory practitioners and physical therapists offer therapy for a wide variety of cardiopulmonary disorders or pre and post cardiac or pulmonary surgery. An example of cardiac surgery is coronary bypass surgery. Primary goals of this specialty include increasing endurance and functional independence. Manual therapy is used in this field to assist in clearing lung secretions experienced with cystic fibrosis. Pulmonary disorders, heart attacks, post coronary bypass surgery, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and pulmonary fibrosis, treatments can benefit from cardiovascular and pulmonary specialized physical therapists.
This specialty area includes electrotherapy/physical agents, electrophysiological evaluation (EMG/NCV), physical agents, and wound management.
Geriatric physical therapy covers a wide area of issues concerning people as they go through normal adult aging but is usually focused on the older adult. There are many conditions that affect many people as they grow older and include but are not limited to the following: arthritis, osteoporosis, cancer, Alzheimer's disease, hip and joint replacement, balance disorders, incontinence, etc. Geriatric physical therapists specialize in providing therapy for such conditions in older adults.
Integumentary physical therapy includes the treatment of conditions involving the skin and all its related organs. Common conditions managed include wounds and burns. Physical therapists may utilize surgical instruments, wound irrigations, dressings and topical agents to remove the damaged or contaminated tissue and promote tissue healing. Other commonly used interventions include exercise, edema control, splinting, and compression garments. The work done by physical therapists in the integumentary specialty do work similar to what would be done by medical doctors or nurses in the emergency room or triage.
Neurological physical therapy is a field focused on working with individuals who have a neurological disorder or disease. These can include stroke, chronic back pain, Alzheimer's disease, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT), ALS, brain injury, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, facial palsy and spinal cord injury. Common impairments associated with neurologic conditions include impairments of vision, balance, ambulation, activities of daily living, movement, muscle strength and loss of functional independence. The techniques involve in neurological physical therapy are wide-ranging and often require specialized training.
Neurological physiotherapy is also called neurophysiotherapy or neurological rehabilitation. It is recommended for neurophysiotherapists to collaborate with psychologists when providing physical treatment of movement disorders. This is especially important because combining physical therapy and psychotherapy can improve neurological status of the patients.
Orthopedic physical therapists diagnose, manage, and treat disorders and injuries of the musculoskeletal system including rehabilitation after orthopedic surgery. acute trauma such as sprains, strains, injuries of insidious onset such as tendinopathy, bursitis and deformities like scoliosis. This speciality of physical therapy is most often found in the out-patient clinical setting. Orthopedic therapists are trained in the treatment of post-operative orthopedic procedures, fractures, acute sports injuries, arthritis, sprains, strains, back and neck pain, spinal conditions, and amputations.
Joint and spine mobilization/manipulation, dry needling (similar to acupuncture), therapeutic exercise, neuromuscular techniques, muscle reeducation, hot/cold packs, and electrical muscle stimulation (e.g., cryotherapy, iontophoresis, electrotherapy) are modalities employed to expedite recovery in the orthopedic setting. Additionally, an emerging adjunct to diagnosis and treatment is the use of sonography for diagnosis and to guide treatments such as muscle retraining. Those who have suffered injury or disease affecting the muscles, bones, ligaments, or tendons will benefit from assessment by a physical therapist specialized in orthopedics.
Pediatric physical therapy assists in early detection of health problems and uses a variety of modalities to provide physical therapy for disorders in the pediatric population. These therapists are specialized in the diagnosis, treatment, and management of infants, children, and adolescents with a variety of congenital, developmental, neuromuscular, skeletal, or acquired disorders/diseases. Treatments focus mainly on improving gross and fine motor skills, balance and coordination, strength and endurance as well as cognitive and sensory processing/integration.
Physical therapists are closely involved in the care and wellbeing of athletes including recreational, semi-professional (paid) and professional (full-time employment) participants. This area of practice encompasses athletic injury management under 5 main categories:
Physical therapists who work for professional sport teams often have a specialized sports certification issued through their national registering organisation. Most Physical therapists who practice in a sporting environment are also active in collaborative sports medicine programs too (See also: athletic trainers).
At present community based Physiotherapy rehabilitation are the main areas where specially trained candidates of physiotherapists intervening disabled conditions and rehabilitating them.
They act as agents of change in Community setups by educating and transferring the basic skills and knowledge and giving treatments in the management of chronic and acute diseases and disabilities and rehabilitating them and coordinating group efforts taking administrative roles in Community Based Rehabilitation. Community Physiotherapy promotes concept of community responsibility of health and healthy living.
Community physiotherapy is practiced by specially trained and specialized physiotherapists.
Women's health physical therapy mostly addresses women's issues related to the female reproductive system, child birth, and post-partum. These conditions include lymphedema, osteoporosis, pelvic pain, prenatal and post-partum periods, and urinary incontinence. It also addresses incontinence, pelvic pain, and other disorders associated with pelvic floor dysfunction. Manual physical therapy has been demonstrated in multiple studies to increase rates of conception in women with infertility.
Physiotherapy in the field of oncology and palliative care is a continuously evolving and developing specialty, both in malignant and non-malignant diseases. Rehabilitation for both groups of patients is now recognized as an essential part of the clinical pathway, as early diagnoses and new treatments are enabling patients to live longer. it is generally accepted that patients should have access to an appropriate level of rehabilitation, so that they can function at a minimum level of dependency and optimize their quality of life, regardless of their life expectancy.
Physiotherapy is scientifically proven to be one of the most effective ways to treat and prevent pain and injury. It strengthens muscles and improves function.
It not only reduces or removes pain for a short time, but also reduces the risk for future back-pain re-occurrence. Based on the particular diagnosis, varied methods are practiced by physiotherapists to treat patients. They may follow pain management program, which helps get rid of inflammation and swelling for some.
A systematic review that included patients with brain injury, musculoskeletal conditions, cardiac conditions, or multiple pathologies found that the alliance between patient and therapist positively correlates with treatment outcome. Outcomes includes: ability to perform activities of daily living, manage pain, complete specific physical function tasks, depression, global assessment of physical health, treatment adherence, and treatment satisfaction.
Studies have explored four themes that may influence patient–therapist interactions: interpersonal and communication skills, practical skills, individualized patient-centered care, and organizational and environmental factors. Physical therapists need to be able to effectively communicate with their patients on a variety of levels. Patients have varying levels of health literacy so it is important for physical therapists to take that into account when discussing the patient's ailments as well as planned treatment. Research has shown that using communication tools tailored to the patient's health literacy leads to improved engagement with their practitioner and their clinical care. In addition, patients reported that shared decision-making will yield a positive relationship. Practical skills such as the ability to educate patients about their conditions, and professional expertise are perceived as valuable factors in patient care. Patients value the ability of a clinician to provide clear and simple explanations about their problems. Furthermore, patients value when physical therapists possess excellent technical skills that improve the patient effectively.
Environmental factors such as the location, equipment used, and parking are less important to the patient than the physical therapy clinical encounter itself.
Based on the current understanding, the most important factors that contribute to the patient–therapist interactions include that the physical therapist: spends an adequate amount of time with the patient, possesses strong listening and communication skills, treats the patient with respect, provides clear explanations of the treatment, and allows the patient to be involved in the treatment decisions.
Physical therapy has been found to be effective for improving outcomes, both in terms of pain and function, in multiple musculoskeletal conditions. A 2012 systematic review found evidence to support the use of spinal manipulation by physical therapists as a safe option to improve outcomes for lower back pain. According to randomized control trials, a combination of manual therapy and supervised exercise therapy by physiotherapists give functional benefits for patients with osteoarthritis of the knee, and may delay or even prevent the need for surgery. Another randomized controlled study has shown that surgical decompression treatment and physiotherapy are on par for lumbar spinal stenosis in improving symptoms and function. Several studies have suggested that physical therapy, particularly manual therapy techniques focused on the neck and the median nerve, combined with stretching exercises, may be equivalent or even preferable to surgery for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. A 2015 systematic review suggested that while spine manipulation and therapeutic massage are effective interventions for neck pain, electroacupuncture, strain-counterstrain, relaxation massage, heat therapy, and ultrasound therapy are not as effective, and thus not recommended.
Studies also show physical therapy is effective for patients with other conditions. A 2012 systematic review about the effectiveness of physiotherapy treatment in asthma patients concluded that physiotherapy treatment may improve quality of life, promote cardiopulmonary fitness and inspiratory pressure, as well as reduce symptoms and medication use. Physical therapy is sometimes provided to patients in the ICU, as early mobilization can help reduce ICU and hospital length of stay and improve long-term functional ability. A 2013 systematic review showed that early progressive mobilization for adult, intubated ICU patients on mechanical ventilation is safe and effective.
Telehealth (or telerehabilitation) is a developing form of physical therapy in response to the increasing demand for physical therapy treatment. Telehealth is online communication between the clinician and patient, either live or in pre-recorded sessions with mixed reviews when compared to usual, in-person care. The benefits of telehealth include improved accessibility in remote areas, cost efficiency, and improved convenience for the bedridden and home-restricted, physically disabled. Some considerations for telehealth include: limited evidence to prove effectiveness and compliance more than in-person therapy, licensing and payment policy issues, and compromised privacy. Studies are controversial as to the effectiveness of telehealth in patients with more serious conditions, such as stroke, multiple sclerosis, and lower back pain.
Definitions and licensing requirements in the United States vary among jurisdictions, as each state has enacted its own physical therapy practice act defining the profession within its jurisdiction, but the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) has also drafted a model definition in order to limit this variation, and the APTA is also responsible for accrediting physical therapy education curricula throughout the United States of America. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24022 |
Polygyny
Polygyny (; from Neoclassical Greek πολυγυνία from - "poly-" "many", and "gyne" "woman" or "wife") is the most common and accepted form of polygamy, entailing the marriage of a man with several women. Polyandry is another form of polygamy in which women practice having two or more husbands. Most countries that permit polygyny today are Muslim-majority countries.
In some countries where polygamy is illegal but polygyny is still a cultural norm, and sometimes even in countries where polygamy is legal, men sometimes have one or more mistresses. The status of a mistress is not that of a wife, and any children born of such relationships were or sometimes are considered illegitimate and subject to legal disadvantage. Higher incidences of adultery and prostitution are found in regions where the first marriage in a practicing polygynous society is postponed by males.
Today, polygyny is more widespread in Africa than in any other continent. Some scholars see the slave trade's impact on the male-to-female sex ratio as a key factor in the emergence and fortification of polygynous practices in regions of Africa. Generally in rural areas with growing populations, the higher the incidence of polygyny, the greater the delay of first marriage for young men. The higher the average polygyny rate, the greater the element of gerontocracy and social stratification.
Throughout the African "polygyny belt" stretching from Senegal in the west to Tanzania in the east, as many as a third to a half of married women are in polygynous unions, and polygyny is found especially in West Africa.
Historically, polygyny was partly accepted in ancient Hebrew society, in classical China, and in sporadic traditional Native American, African and Polynesian cultures. In the Indian subcontinent, it was known to have been practiced during ancient times. It was accepted in ancient Greece, until the Roman Empire and the Roman Catholic Church.
In North America, polygyny is practiced by some Mormon sects, such as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS Church).
Boserup (1970) was the first to propose that the high incidence of polygyny in sub-Saharan Africa is rooted in the sexual division of labor in hoe-farming and the large economic contribution of women.
In some regions of shifting cultivation where polygyny is most frequently recorded, labor is often starkly divided between genders. In many of these cases, the task of felling trees in preparation of new plots, the fencing of fields against wild animals, and sometimes the initial planting of crops, is usually done by men and older boys (along with hunting, fishing and the raising of livestock). Wives on the other hand, are responsible for other aspects of cultivating, processing and providing food for the family, and for performing domestic duties for the husband. Boserup notes that though the work completed by women calculates for a larger percentage of the tasks that form the basis of sub-Saharan life, women often do not receive the majority portion of the benefits that tag along with economic and agricultural success.
An elderly cultivator, with several wives and likely several young male children, benefits from having a much larger workforce within his household. By the combined efforts of his young sons and young wives, he may gradually expand his cultivation and become more prosperous. A man with a single wife has less help in cultivation and is likely to have little or no help for felling trees. According to Boserup's historical data, women living in such a structure also welcome one or more co-wives to share with them the burden of daily labor. However, the second wife will usually do the most tiresome work, almost as if she were a servant to the first wife, and will be inferior to the first wife in status. A 1930s study of the Mende in the West African state of Sierra Leone concluded that a plurality of wives is an agricultural asset since a large number of women makes it unnecessary to employ wage laborers. Polygyny is considered an economic advantage in many rural areas. In some cases, the economic role of the additional wife enables the husband to enjoy more leisure.
Anthropologist Jack Goody's comparative study of marriage around the world, using the Ethnographic Atlas, demonstrated a historical correlation between the practice of extensive shifting horticulture and polygyny in the majority of Sub-Saharan African societies. Drawing on the work of Ester Boserup, Goody notes that in some of the sparsely populated regions where shifting cultivation takes place in Africa, much of the work is done by women. This favored polygamous marriages in which men sought to monopolize the production of women "who are valued both as workers and as child bearers." Goody, however, observes that the correlation is imperfect, and also describes more traditionally male-dominated though relatively extensive farming systems such as those that exist in much of West Africa, particularly the savanna region, where more agricultural work is done by men, and polygamy is desired more for the production of male offspring whose labor in farming is valued.
Goody's observation regarding African male farming systems is discussed and supported by anthropologists Douglas R. White and Michael L. Burton in "Causes of Polygyny: Ecology, Economy, Kinship, and Warfare", where the authors note: "Goody (1973) argues against the female contributions hypothesis. He notes Dorjahn's (1959) comparison of East and West Africa, showing higher female agricultural contributions in East Africa and higher polygyny rates in West Africa, especially in the West African savanna, where one finds especially high male agricultural contributions. Goody says, "The reasons behind polygyny are sexual and reproductive rather than economic and productive" (1973:189), arguing that men marry polygynously to maximize their fertility and to obtain large households containing many young dependent males."
An analysis by James Fenske (2012) found that child mortality and ecologically-related economic shocks had a stronger association with rates of polygamy in Subsaharan Africa rather than female agricultural contributions (which are typically relatively small in the West African savanna and sahel, where polygyny rates are higher), finding that polygyny rates decrease significantly with child mortality rates.
Most research into the determinants of polygyny has focused on macro-level factors. Widespread polygyny is linked to the kinship groups that share descent from a common ancestor. Polygyny also served as "a dynamic principle of family survival, growth, security, continuity, and prestige", especially as a socially approved mechanism that increases the number of adult workers immediately and the eventual workforce of resident children.
According to scientific studies, the human mating system is considered to be moderately polygynous, based both on surveys of world populations, and on characteristics of human reproductive physiology.
Scholars have argued that in farming systems where men do most of the agriculture work, a second wife can be an economic burden rather than an asset. In order to feed an additional wife, the husband must either work harder himself or he must hire laborers to do part of the work. In such regions, polygyny is either non-existent or is a luxury which only a small minority of rich farmers can indulge.
A report by the secretariat of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) quotes: "one of the strongest appeals of polygyny to men in Africa is precisely its economic aspect, for a man with several wives commands more land, can produce more food for his household and can achieve a high status due to the wealth which he can command". According to Boserup, through the hard work, economic, and agricultural assistance of a man's many wives, a husband can afford to pay the bride price of a new wife and further his access to more land, meanwhile, expanding his progeny. According to Esther Boserup, over much of the continent of Africa, tribal rules of land tenure are still in force. This implies that members of a tribe which commands a certain territory have a native right to take land under cultivation for food production and in many cases also for the cultivation of cash crops. Under this tenure system, an additional wife is an economic asset that helps the family to expand its production.
The economist Michèle Tertilt concludes that countries that practice polygyny are less economically stable than those that practice monogamy. Polygynous countries usually have a higher fertility rate, fewer savings reserves, and a lower GDP. Fertility would decrease by 40%, savings would increase by 70%, and GDP would increase by 170% if polygyny was banned. Monogamous societies present a surge in economic productivity because monogamous men are able to save and invest their resources due to having fewer children. Polygynous societies have a higher concentration of men investing into methods of mating with women, whereas monogamous men invest more into their families and other related institutions.
Despite the expenses of polygynous marriages, men benefit from marrying multiple wives through the economic and social insurance that kinship ties produce. With a large network of in-laws, these men have the ties they need to compensate for other economic shortages.
Some analysts have posited that a high libido may be a factor in polygyny, although others have downplayed its significance. The sex drive as a factor in some Asian cultures was sometimes associated with wealthy men and those that were adjunct to an aristocracy, although such libidinal perceptions were at times discarded in favor of seeing polygyny as a factor of traditional life. For example, many Sub-Saharan African societies view polygyny as essential to expand their progeny and kinship, a practice of high cultural importance. In this case, it would be hard to determine whether the origins were that of high libido, as polygyny would be practiced regardless. Other explanations postulate that polygyny is a tool used to ward off inclinations towards infidelity. In Edith Boserup's 1970 article on the study of Sub-Saharan African polygyny, higher incidences of adultery and prostitution were recorded in regions were polygyny was practiced, but delayed by males.
Researchers have suggested that Vikings may have originally started sailing and raiding due to a need to seek out women from foreign lands. The concept was expressed in the 11th century by historian Dudo of Saint-Quentin in his semi-imaginary "History of The Normans". Rich and powerful Viking men tended to have many wives and concubines, and these polygynous relationships may have led to a shortage of eligible women for the average Viking male. Due to this, the average Viking man could have been forced to perform riskier actions to gain wealth and power to be able to find suitable women. Viking men would often buy or capture women and make them into their wives or concubines. The Annals of Ulster states that in 821 the Vikings plundered an Irish village and "carried off a great number of women into captivity".
Of the 1,231 societies listed in the 1980 Ethnographic Atlas, 186 were found to be monogamous; 453 had occasional polygyny; 588 had more frequent polygyny; and 4 had polyandry. Some research that show that males living in polygynous marriages may live 12 percent longer. Polygyny may be practiced where there is a lower male:female ratio; this may result from male infants having increased mortality from infectious diseases.
Other research shows that polygyny is widely practiced where societies are destabilized, more violent, more likely to invade neighbors and more likely to fail. This has been attributed to the inequality factor of polygyny, where if the richest and most powerful 10 percent of males have four wives each, the bottom 30 percent of males cannot marry. In the top 20 countries in the 2017 Fragile States Index, polygyny is widely practiced. In West Africa, more than one-third of women are married to a man who has more than one wife, and a study of 240,000 children in 29 African countries has also shown that, after controlling for other factors, children in polygynous families were more likely to die young. A 2019 study of 800 rural African ethnic groups published in the "Journal of Conflict Resolution" found that "young men who belong to polygynous groups feel that they are treated more unequally and are readier to use violence in comparison to those belonging to monogamous groups."
In a 2011 doctoral thesis, anthropologist Kyle R. Gibson reviewed three studies documenting 1,208 suicide attacks from 1981 to 2007 and found that countries with higher polygyny rates correlated with greater production of suicide terrorists. Political scientist Robert Pape has found that among Islamic suicide terrorists, 97 percent were unmarried and 84 percent were male (or if excluding the Kurdistan Workers' Party, 91 percent male), while a study conducted by the U.S. military in Iraq in 2008 found that suicide bombers were almost always single men without children aged 18 to 30 (with a mean age of 22), and were typically students or employed in blue-collar occupations. In addition to noting that countries where polygyny is widely practiced tend to have higher homicide rates and rates of rape, political scientists Valerie M. Hudson and Bradley Thayer have argued that because Islam is the only major religious tradition where polygyny is still largely condoned, the higher degrees of marital inequality in Islamic countries than most of the world causes them to have larger populations susceptible to suicide terrorism, and that promises of harems of virgins for martyrdom serves as a mechanism to mitigate in-group conflict within Islamic countries between alpha and non-alpha males by bringing esteem to the latter's families and redirecting their violence towards out-groups.
Inequality between husbands and wives are common in countries where polygyny is more frequently practiced because of limited education. In Africa polygyny was believed to be part of the way to build an empire. It was not until the post colonialism era in Africa that polygyny began to be viewed as unjust or taboo. According to Natali Exposito, "in a study of the Ngwa Igbo Clan in Nigeria identified five principal reasons for men to maintain more than one wife: because having more than one wife allows the Ngwa husband to (1) have the many children that he desires; (2) heighten his prestige and boost his ego among his peers; (3) enhance his status within the community; (4) ensure a sufficient availability of labor to perform the necessary farm work and the processing of commercial oil-palm produce; and (5) satisfy his sexual urges." Out of all of the reasons stated none are beneficial to the wives, but instead only beneficial to the husbands. In Egypt, feminists have fought for polygamy to be abolished, but it is viewed as a basic human right so the fight has been unsuccessful. In countries where polygyny is practiced less frequently, women have more equality in the marriage and are better able to communicate their opinions about family planning.
Women participating in polygynous marriages share common marital problems with women in a monogamous marriage; however, there are issues uniquely related to polygyny which affects their overall life satisfaction and have severe implications for women's health. Women practicing polygyny are susceptible to sexually transmitted diseases, infertility, and mental health complications. Among the Logoli of Kenya, the fear of AIDS or becoming infected with the HIV virus has informed women's decisions about entering polygynous marriages. Some view polygyny as a means to prevent men from taking random sexual partners and potentially introducing STDs into relationships. Interviews conducted with some of the Logoli tribe in Kenya suggested they feared polygynous marriages because of what they have witnessed in the lives of other women who are currently in such relationships. The observed experiences of some of the women in polygynous unions tend to be characterized by frequent jealousy, conflicts, competition, tensions, and psychological stresses. Some of the husbands fail to share love and other resources equally; and envy and hatred, and sometimes violent physical confrontations become the order of the day among co-wives and their children. This discourages women from entering a polygynous marriage. Research shows that competition and conflict can intensify to unbearable level for co-wives causing women to commit suicide due to psychological distress. Findings show that the wife order can affect life satisfaction. According to Bove and Valeggia, women who are senior wives often misuse their position to obtain healthcare benefits in countries one wife can become a recipient. The conflict between co-wives can attribute to the higher rates of mental health disorders such as anxiety, depression, and paranoia.
Various methods have been used to reduce the amount of jealousy and conflict among wives. These include sororal polygyny, in which the co-wives are sisters; and hut polygyny, in which each wife has her own residence and the husband visits them in rotation. A clear status hierarchy among wives is also sometimes used to avoid fighting by establishing unequivocally each wife's rights and obligations. Although there are several harmful aspects of this practice related to women, there are some reported personal and economic advantages for women such as sharing household and child rearing responsibilities. Also, wives share companionship and support with co-wives.
Studies of the Ngwa group in eastern Nigeria shows that on average, women in polygynous unions are 22-26% less fertile then women in monogamous unions. Data shows that the greater the intensity of polygyny, the lower the fertility of successive wives: 15 percent deficit for first wives; a 37% deficit for second wives; and a 46% deficit for third or more wives. Studies show that seems to exist because of the widening age gap between the successive order of wives and because of the decreasing exposure to coitus, if all coitus occurs in marriage.
Studies show there are two mechanisms that could lead to higher prevalence rates of HIV in men and women who are in polygynous unions: partners in polygynous unions have more extra-marital relationships and thus increase each other's exposure to HIV; women who are recruited into a polygynous union are more likely to be HIV positive than those who marry a monogamous husband. In addition to these two mechanisms, variation in HIV prevalence rates by union type is possibly due to individuals in polygynous unions are typically part of a sexual network with concurrent partnerships.
The ecological association between polygyny and HIV prevalence is shown to be negative at the sub-national level. HIV prevalence tends to be lower in countries where the practice of polygyny is common, and within countries it is lower in areas with higher levels of polygyny. Proposed explanations for the protective effect of polygyny include the distinctive structure of sexual networks produced by polygyny, the disproportionate recruitment of HIV positive women into marriages with a polygynous husband, and the lower coital frequency in conjugal dyads of polygynous marriages.
For example, studies in Malawi have shown that for men and women in polygynous marriages, the rate of HIV is between 10-15%. About 14% of Malawi's population is infected with HIV, which causes AIDS, according to official figures. There are approximately 78,000 AIDS-related deaths and 100,000 new infections every year in the country.
The long-established criticism against polygyny stemmed from Thomas Aquinas nearly eight centuries ago. He contended that polygyny is unjust to wives and children. He also argues that it creates rival stepchildren and forces them to compete for attention, food, and shelter. According to Aquinas, polygyny violates the “traditional” requirements of fidelity between husband and wife.
Polygyny has been criticized by feminists such as Professor John O. Ifediora, who believes that women should be equal to men and not subject to them in marriage. Professor Ifediora also believes that polygyny is a "hindrance to social and economic development" in the continent of Africa due to women's lack of financial control. Standard polygynist practices often leave women at a disadvantage if they make the decision to remove themselves from the polygynist lifestyle. To leave the marriage, women must repay their bride price. Though this is simple in thought, this is not simple in execution. To prevent their wives from leaving, husbands will often keep the bride price at high levels, which is often at an unpayable level for women. In most cases, women do not have access to their children if they decide to leave polygyny, nor are they allowed to take them, due to cultural ideas of ownership in relation to progeny.
In Africa, the Americas, and Southeast Asia in the Premodern Era, circa 600 BCE – 1600 CE, both monogamy and polygyny occurred. Polygyny occurred even in areas of where monogamy was prevalent. Wealth played a key role in the development of family life during these times. Wealth meant the more powerful men had a principal wife and several secondary wives, known as "resource polygyny". Local rulers of villages usually had the most wives as a sign of power and status. Conquerors of villages would often marry the daughters of the former leaders as a symbol of conquest. The practice of resource polygyny continued with the spread and expansion of Islam in Africa and Southeast Asia. Children born into these households were considered free. Children born to free or slave concubines were free, but had lesser status than those born to wives. Living arrangements varied between areas. In Africa, each wife usually had their own house, as well as property and animals. The idea that all property was owned by the husband originated in Europe and was not recognized in Africa. In many other parts of the world, wives lived together in seclusion, under one household. A "harem" (also known as a "forbidden area") was a special part of the house for the wives.
Polygynous marriage was preferred among the Logoli and other Abalulya sub ethnic groups. Taking additional wives was regarded as one of the fundamental indicators of a successfully established man. Large families enhanced the prestige of Logoli men. Logoli men with large families were also capable of obtaining justice, as they would be feared by people, who would not dare to use force to take their livestock or other goods from them. Interviews with some of the contemporary Logoli men and women who recently made polygynous marriages yielded data which suggest that marrying another wife is usually approached with considerable thought and deliberation by the man. It may or may not involve or require the consent of the other wives and prospective wife's parents. A type of "surrogate pregnancy" arrangement was reported to have been observed, in which some wives who are unable to bear children, find fulfillment in the children and family provided by a husband taking additional wives. Some of the men indicated that they were pressured by their parents to marry another wife, who could contribute additional income to the family. Some of the young polygynous men indicated that they were trapped in polygyny because of the large number of single women who needed and were willing to take them as husbands although they were already married. Most of those second and third wives were older women who had not yet married.
Customary law, one of the three legal systems in operation in Nigeria (the other two being Nigerian common law and Sharia law) allows for the legal marriage of more than one woman by a single man.
Unlike those marriages recognized by Sharia, there is no limit to the number of legal wives allowed under customary law. Currently polygyny is most common within royal and noble families within the country, and is largely practiced by the tribes native to its north and west. Although far less popular there, it is nonetheless also legal in Nigeria's east and south.
Polygyny varies according to a woman's age, religion and educational experience. Research conducted in the city of Ibadan, the second largest city in Nigeria, show that non-educated woman are significantly higher (58%) to be in a polygynous union compared to college educated women (4%). Followers of traditional African religions are expected to have as many wives as they can afford. Muslim men are allowed up to 4 women and only the basis he can care for and treat them equally. Christians are typically (and expected) to be monogamous.
Among the Ngwa group in Eastern Nigeria, studies show that 70% of polygynous marriages consist of illiterate men and women, compared to 53% in monogamous marriages.
While polygynous marriages are not legally recognized under the civil marriage laws of Malawi, customary law affords a generous amount of benefits to polygynous unions, ranging from inheritance rights to child custody. It has been estimated that nearly one in five women in Malawi live in polygynous relationships.
Efforts to abolish the practice and de facto recognition of polygyny have been widely apparent throughout the recent years in Malawi; led mainly by anti-AIDS organizations and feminist groups. An effort led in 2008 to outlaw polygyny in the country was fiercely opposed by Islamic religious leaders, citing the practice as a cultural, religious and pragmatic reality of the nation.
Polygyny in South Africa is typically seen among the Muslim community, although polygynous unions overall are not widely practiced in South Africa among all religious and ethnic groups. Polygynous marriages of individuals over the age of 15 accounts for approximately 30,000 (0.1%) people in 2001. Both Islamic law and cultural family laws create a system in which Muslim men are encouraged to take up to four wives. Several factors for this include infertility or long-term illness of the first wife, excessive wealth on the part of the husband enabling him to support widowed or divorced mothers, and the economic benefits of large families.
Despite the historical and cultural history of polygyny among Muslim South Africans, polygynous unions are officially illegal on the federal level in South Africa. After 1994, various laws such as the freedom of religion in the South African Constitution, the ratification of the UN's Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and a proposed Draft Bill on Muslim Marriages have tackled the issue of Islamic polygynous unions in South Africa.
Polygyny is legal in Somalia and most commonly seen throughout Muslim communities. According to the Muslim tradition, men can have up to four wives. For a man to gain additional wives in Somalia, it must be granted by the court and it has to be proven that the first wife is either imprisoned or infertile.
There are no legal restrictions against any polygynous marriages. As a result, polygyny is extensive throughout the country. There is an estimated report that over one-third of marriages in Mozambique. However, under Mozambican law the first wife of the marriage is only legally recognized. The Mozambican government has also granted equal protection of inheritance rights for all wives within polygynous marriages as documented by an OECD finding.
Polygyny is not legal in Australia. The Marriage Act of 1961 under section 94 states that any person who knowingly marries another whose marriage is legally ongoing carries out the act of bigamy. The penalty of bigamy is up to five years of imprisonment. The Full Court of the Family Court of Australia ruled on March 6, 2016 that it is illegal to have polygamous marriages. However, foreign marriages that have potential to be polygamous when it was started will be legally recognized in Australia. The court defined a potentially polygamous marriage as if the marriage is not yet polygamous, but if the country where the marriage marginally taken place permits polygamous marriages of either partner to the original marriage at a later date. Indigenous populations of Australia have been noted to engage in polygamous relationships.
Many majority-Muslim countries retain the traditional sharia, which interprets teachings of the Quran to permit polygamy with up to four wives. Exceptions to this include Albania, Tunisia, Turkey, and former USSR republics. Though about 70% of the population of Albania is historically Muslim, the majority is non-practicing. Turkey and Tunisia are countries with overwhelmingly Muslim populations that enforce secularist practices by law. In the former USSR republics, a prohibition against polygamy has been inherited from Soviet Law. In the 21st century, a revival of the practice of polygamy in the Muslim World has contributed to efforts to re-establish its legality and legitimacy in some countries and communities where it is illegal.
Proposals have been made to re-legalize polygamy in other ex-Soviet Muslim republics, such as Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan.
The original wife (or legal wife) was referred to as the 正室 zhèngshì /정실 (main room) both in China, Japan and Korea. 大婆 dàpó ("big woman/big wife") is the slang term. Both terms indicate the orthodox nature and hierarchy. The official wife was called "big mother" (大媽 dàmā), mother or aunt. The child of the concubine addressed the big mother as "aunt".
The written word for the second woman was "側室 cèshì /측실" and literally means "she who occupied the side room". This word was also used in both Korea and Japan. They were also called 妾 qiè/첩 in China and Korea. The common terms referring to the second woman, and the act of having the second woman respectively, are 二奶 ("èrnǎi"), literally "the second wife".
Polygamy in India is, in general, prohibited and the vast majority of marriages are legally monogamous. Polygyny among Christians was banned in the late 19th century, while The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 banned polygyny for Hindus. Currently, polygyny is only allowed among Muslims; but it is strongly discouraged by public policy. Muslims are subject to the terms of "The Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act of 1937", interpreted by the All India Muslim Personal Law Board. Prevalence of polygyny in India is very low: among married women, only 1.68% of Hindus, 2.45% of Muslims, 2.16% of Christians, and 1.16% of other religions live in polygynous marriages.
In mainland China, polygamy is illegal under Marriage Law passed in 1980. This replaced a similar 1950 prohibition. It is tolerated in Tibet.
Polygyny where wives are of equal status had always been illegal in China, and had been considered a crime in some dynasties. In family laws from Tang to Qing Dynasties, the status of a wife, concubines and maid-mistresses couldn't be altered. However, concubinage was supported by law until the end of the Qing/Ching dynasty of the imperial China (1911). In the past, Emperors could and often did have hundreds to thousands of concubines. Rich officials and merchants of the elite also took concubines in addition to legal wives. The first wife was the head or mother wife; other wives were under her headship if the husband was away. Concubines had a lower status than full wives, generally not being seen in public with their husband and not having rights to decisions in the house. Children from concubines were considered inferior to those of the wife and did not receive equal wealth/legacy from their father. However they were considered legitimate, therefore had many more rights to inheritance of status and wealth than illegitimate children conceived outside a marriage.
Polygamy was "de facto" widely practiced in the Republic of China from 1911 to 1949, before Kuomintang was defeated in the Civil War and retreated to Taiwan. Zhang Zongchang, a well-known warlord, notably declared he had three 'unknowns' - unknown number of rifles, unknown amount of money, and unknown number of concubines. 不知道自己有多少枪，不知道自己有多少钱，不知道自己有多少姨太太
Chinese men in Hong Kong could practice concubinage by virtue of the Qing Code. This ended with the passing of the Marriage Act of 1971. Kevin Murphy of the "International Herald Tribune" reported on the cross-border polygamy phenomenon in Hong Kong in 1995. In a research paper of Humboldt University of Berlin on sexology, Doctor Man-Lun Ng estimated about 300,000 men in China have mistresses. In 1995, 40% of extramarital affairs in Hong Kong involved a stable partner.
Period drama and historical novels frequently refer to the former culture of polygamy (usually polygyny). An example is the "Wuxia" novel "The Deer and the Cauldron" by Hong Kong writer Louis Cha, in which the protagonist Wei Xiaobao has seven wives (In new edition of the novel, Princess Jianning was assigned as the wife, while others are concubines).
A proposal to decriminalize polygamy was heard by the Kyrgyz parliament. It was supported by the Justice Minister, the country's ombudsman, and the Muslim Women's organization "Mutakalim," which had gathered 40,000 signatures in favour of polygamy. But, on March 26, 2007, parliament rejected the bill. President Kurmanbek Bakiyev is known to oppose legalizing polygyny. Despite his opposition, he legally has two wives: Tatyana, with whom he has two sons; and Nazgul Tolomusheva, who gave birth for son and daughter.
Due to an increase in the number of polygamous marriages, proposals were made in Tajikistan to re-legalize polygamy. Tajik women who want to be second wives particularly support decriminalizing polygyny. Mukhiddin Kabiri, the Deputy Chairman of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan, says that legislation is unlikely to stop the growth in polygyny. He criticizes the ruling élite for speaking out against the practice while taking more than one wife themselves.
Polgyny is legal. Yemen, a majority Muslim nation, follows Islamic tradition where polgyny is acceptable up to four wives only if the husband treats all wives justly. 7% of married women in Yemen are a part of polygamous relationship. Reports conducted in the country have shown that regions that are rural areas are more likely to have polygamous relationships than those in cities or coastal areas.
The Muslim communities of Bosnia and Herzegovina traditionally practiced polygamy but the practice was last observed in Cazinska Krajina in the early 1950s. Although illegal in the country, polygamy is encouraged by certain religious circles, and the number of practitioners has increased. This trend appears linked with the advent of fundamentalist Wahhabism in the Balkans.
The Bosniak population in neighbouring Raška, Serbia, has also been influenced by this trend in Bosnia. They have suggested creating an entire Islamic jurisdiction including polygamy, but these proposals have been rejected by Serbia. The top cleric, the Mufti of Novi Pazar, Muamer Zukorlić, has taken a second wife.
Factual polygamy and sexual relationships with several adult partners are not punishable in accordance with current revisions of Criminal Code of Russia and Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offenses. But multiple marriage can't be registered and officially recognised by Russian authorities because Family Code of Russia (section 14 and others) prohibits registration of marriage if one of person is in another registered marriage in Russia or another country. Polygamy is tolerated in predominantly Muslim republics such as Chechnya, Ingushetia, and Dagestan.
Russian politicians such as Ramzan Kadyrov and Boris Nemtsov actively advocated for polygynous marriage to gain legal recognition. Muslim leaders such as Talgat Tadzhuddin also pushed for the legal recognition of polygynous marriage.
Polygyny was legalized and documented in unrecognised Chechen Republic of Ichkeria but Russian authorities had annulled these polygynous marriages after they regained control over territory of Ichkeria. Later Ramzan Kadyrov, President of the Chechen Republic, has been quoted on radio as saying that the depopulation of Chechnya by war justifies legalizing polygamy. Kadyrov has been supported by Nafigallah Ashirov, the Chairman of the Council of Grand Muftis of Russia, who has said that polygamy is already widespread among Muslim communities of the country.
In Ingushetia in July, 1999 polygyny was officially recognised and allowed by edict of president of Ingushetia Ruslan Aushev and registration of polygyny marriages had been started allowing men to marry up to four wives as it relates to Muslim tradition. But this edict had been formally suspended soon by edict of President of Russia Boris Yeltsin. One year later this edict of Aushev had been cancelled by the Supreme Court of Ingushetia because of contradiction with Family Code of Russia.
Although non-Muslim Russian populations have historically practiced monogamy, Russian politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky offered to legalize polygyny to encourage population growth and correct the demographic crisis of Russians. Zhirinovsky first proposed to legalize polygyny in 1993, after Kadyrov's declaration that he would introduce an amendment to legalize polygyny for all Russian citizens.
The Russian population has a shortage of men, therefore it is not unlikely to have men who have numerous relationships with women which results in the fathering of multiple children. Occasionally, there are households that are open to polygynous relationships.
In the U.K, there are believed to be up to 20,000 polygamous marriages in Britain's Muslim's community, even though bigamy is an offence. All marriages that happen within the United Kingdom must be monogamous and meet the requirements of the relevant legislation to be perceived as legitimately substantial. For polygamous unions in the UK to be viewed as valid, the people must live in a country where a person is allowed to have more than one spouse and get married in a nation that permits it. There is evidence of unregistered polygamous marriages in the UK, performed through religious ceremonies, that is not perceived under UK law. In May 2016, a cross-bench member of the British House of Lords Baroness Cox introduced the Arbitration and Mediation Services (Equality) Bill. This Bill would ensure that individuals in polygamous marriages and religiously recognized marriages, that are not considered legal in the UK, were informed that could be without legal representation if they were caught by authorities.
Polygyny is illegal in the United States and Canada.
Mormon fundamentalism believes in the validity of selected fundamental aspects of Mormonism as taught and practiced in the nineteenth century. Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints' teachings include plural marriage, a form of polygyny first taught by Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement.
In the 21st century, several sources have claimed as many as 60,000 fundamentalist Latter-day Saints in the United States, with fewer than half of them living in polygamous households. Others have suggested that there may be as few as 20,000 Mormon fundamentalists with only 8,000 to 15,000 practicing polygamy. The largest Mormon fundamentalist groups are the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS Church) and the Apostolic United Brethren (AUB). The FLDS Church is estimated to have 10,000 members residing in the sister cities of Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona; Eldorado, Texas; Westcliffe, Colorado; Mancos, Colorado; Creston and Bountiful, British Columbia; Pringle, South Dakota and Montana.
Polygyny is also practiced by some Muslim immigrants to the US, especially those from Africa and Asia. NPR's All Things Considered estimated in 2008 that 50,000 to 100,000 American Muslims live in polygamous families.
The Hindu scriptures acknowledge numerous occasions of polygyny; it was the norm among kings, the nobility and the extremely wealthy. Pandu, the father of the Pandavas in Mahabharata, had two wives Kunti and Madri. Many other personalities including Rama had only one wife, and while this was regarded as morally exemplary, polygyny remained customary and acceptable among Hindus. It was legally abolished for Hindus in India by the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955.
Polygyny is not forbidden in the Old Testament and over 40 important figures had more than one wife, such as Esau, Elkanah, and Solomon. Moses had three wives; Zipporah, the daughter of Hobab and the "Cushite" woman. . However, does state that the king shall not have too many wives.
According to Michael Coogan, "[p]olygyny continued to be practiced well into the biblical period, and it is attested among Jews as late as the second century CE." The incidence was limited, however, and it was likely largely restricted to the wealthy. By the first century, both the expense and the practical problems associated with maintaining multiple wives were barriers to the practice, especially for the less wealthy. Since the 11th century, Ashkenazi Jews have followed Rabbenu Gershom's ban on polygyny (except in rare circumstances).
Some Mizrahi (Mideast) Jewish communities (particularly Yemenite Jews and Persian Jews) discontinued polygyny more recently, after they immigrated to countries where it was forbidden or illegal. Israel prohibits polygamy by law. In practice, however, the law is loosely enforced, primarily to avoid interference with Bedouin culture, where polygyny is practiced. Pre-existing polygynous unions among Jews from Arab countries (or other countries where the practice was not prohibited by their tradition and was not illegal) are not subject to this Israeli law. But Mizrahi Jews are not permitted to enter into new polygamous marriages in Israel. However polygamy may still occur in non-European Jewish communities that exist in countries where it is not forbidden, such as Jewish communities in Yemen and the Arab world.
Karaite Jews, who do not adhere to Rabbinic interpretations of the Torah, do not practice polygyny. Karaites interpret to mean that a man can only take a second wife if his first wife gives her consent and to mean that a man can only take a second wife if he is capable of maintaining the same level of marital duties due to his first wife: namely, food, clothing, and sexual gratification.
Polygamy is not forbidden in the Old Testament. The New Testament is largely silent on polygamy, however, some point to Jesus's repetition of the earlier scriptures, noting that a man and a wife "shall become one flesh". However, some look to Paul's writings to the Corinthians: "Do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, 'The two will become one flesh. Supporters of polygamy claim this indicates that the term refers to a physical, rather than spiritual, union.
Most Christian theologians argue that in and referring to Jesus explicitly states a man should have only one wife:
Jesus also tells the Parable of the Ten Virgins going to meet the bridegroom, without making any explicit criticism or other comment on the practice of polygamy.
The Bible states in the New Testament that polygamy should not be practiced by certain church leaders. 1 Timothy states that certain Church leaders should have but one wife: "A "bishop" then must be blameless, the husband of one wife ("mias gunaikos andra", lit. one-woman man), vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach" (chapter 3, verse 2; see also verse 12 regarding deacons having only one wife). Similar counsel is repeated in the first chapter of the Epistle to Titus.
Periodically, Christian reform movements that have aimed at rebuilding Christian doctrine based on the Bible alone ("sola scriptura") have at least temporarily accepted polygyny as a Biblical practice. For example, during the Protestant Reformation, in a document referred to simply as ""Der Beichtrat"" (or ""The Confessional Advice"" ), Martin Luther granted the Landgrave Philip of Hesse, who, for many years, had been living "constantly in a state of adultery and fornication", a dispensation to take a second wife. The double marriage was to be done in secret, however, to avoid public scandal. Some fifteen years earlier, in a letter to the Saxon Chancellor Gregor Brück, Luther stated that he could not "forbid a person to marry several wives, for it does not contradict Scripture." (""Ego sane fateor, me non posse prohibere, si quis plures velit uxores ducere, nec repugnat sacris literis."")
"On February 14, 1650, the parliament at Nürnberg decreed that, because so many men were killed during the Thirty Years' War, the churches for the following ten years could not admit any man under the age of 60 into a monastery. Priests and ministers not bound by any monastery were allowed to marry. Lastly, the decree stated that every man was allowed to marry up to ten women. The men were admonished to behave honorably, provide for their wives properly, and prevent animosity among them."
The Roman Catholic Church criticizes polygyny in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Under paragraph 2387 of "Other offenses against the dignity of marriage" of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, it states "is not in accord with the moral law." Additionally, paragraph 1645 of "The Goods and Requirements of Conjugal Love" states "The unity of marriage, distinctly recognized by our Lord, is made clear in the equal personal dignity which must be accorded to husband and wife in mutual and unreserved affection. Polygamy is contrary to conjugal love which is undivided and exclusive."
In Sub-Saharan Africa, there has often been a tension between the Christian insistence on monogamy and the traditional practice of polygamy. In some instances in recent times there have been moves for accommodation; in other instances, churches have resisted such moves strongly. African Independent Churches have sometimes referred to those parts of the Old Testament that describe polygamy in defending the practice.
There are small numbers of Roman Catholic theologians that claim polygyny can be an authentic form of marriage in certain regions such as Africa.
Under Islamic marital jurisprudence, Muslim men are allowed to practice polygyny, that is, they can have more than one wife at the same time, up to a total of four. Polyandry, the practice of a woman having more than one husband, is not permitted.
Based on verse 30:21 of Quran the ideal relationship is the comfort that a couple find in each other's embrace:
The polygyny that is allowed in the Quran is for special situations; however, it advises monogamy if a man fears he can't deal justly with them. This is based on verse 4:3 of Quran which says:
There are strict requirements to marrying more than one woman, as the man must treat them equally financially and in terms of support given to each wife, according to Islamic law.
Muslim women aren't allowed to marry more than one husband at once. However, in the case of a divorce or their husbands' death they can remarry after the completion of Iddah, as divorce is legal in Islamic law. A non-Muslim woman who flees from her non-Muslim husband and accepts Islam can remarry without divorce from her previous husband, as her marriage with non-Muslim husband is Islamically dissolved on her fleeing. A non-Muslim woman captured during war by Muslims, can also remarry, as her marriage with her non-Muslim husband is Islamically dissolved at capture by Muslim soldiers. This permission is given to such women in verse 4:24 of Quran. The verse also emphasizes on transparency, mutual agreement and financial compensation as prerequisites for matrimonial relationship as opposed to prostitution; it says:
Muhammad was monogamously married to Khadija, his first wife, for 25 years, until she died. After her death, he married multiple women, mostly widows, for social and political reasons. He had a total of nine wives, but not all at the same time, depending on the sources in his lifetime. The Qur'an does not give preference in marrying more than one wife. One reason cited for polygyny is that it allows a man to give financial protection to multiple women, who might otherwise not have any support (e.g. widows). However, the wife can set a condition, in the marriage contract, that the husband cannot marry another woman during their marriage. In such a case, the husband cannot marry another woman as long as he is married to his wife. According to traditional Islamic law, each of those wives keeps their property and assets separate; and are paid mahar and maintenance separately by their husband. Usually the wives have little to no contact with each other and lead separate, individual lives in their own houses, and sometimes in different cities, though they all share the same husband.
In most Muslim-majority countries, polygyny is legal with Kuwait being the only one where no restrictions are imposed on it. The practice is illegal in Muslim-majority Turkey, Tunisia, Albania, Kosovo and Central Asian countries.
Countries that allow polygyny typically also require a man to obtain permission from his previous wives before marrying another, and require the man to prove that he can financially support multiple wives. In Malaysia and Morocco, a man must justify taking an additional wife at a court hearing before he is allowed to do so. In Sudan, the government encouraged polygyny in 2001 to increase the population.
Buddhism does not regard marriage as a sacrament - it is a secular affair, and normally Buddhist monks do not participate in it (though in some sects priests do marry). Hence marriage receives no religious sanction. Forms of marriage, in consequence, vary from country to country.
Thailand legally recognized polygamy until 1955. Myanmar outlawed polygyny from 2015. In Sri Lanka, polyandry was legal in the kingdom of Kandy, but outlawed by British after conquering the kingdom in 1815. When the Buddhist texts were translated into Chinese, the concubines of others were added to the list of inappropriate partners. Polyandry in Tibet was common traditionally, as was polygyny, and having several wives or husbands was never regarded as having sex with inappropriate partners.
The Parabhava Sutta states that "a man who is not satisfied with one woman and seeks out other women is on the path to decline". Other fragments in the Buddhist scripture seem to treat polygamy unfavorably, leading some authors to conclude that Buddhism generally does not approve of it or alternatively regards it as a tolerated, but subordinate, marital model.
In zoology the term "polygyny" is used for a pattern of mating in which a male animal has more than one female mate in a breeding season. Males get their mates by defending the females directly or holding resources that the females want and need. This is known as resource defense polygyny and males of the bee species "Anthidium manicatum" (also known as the European wool carder bee) exhibit this behavior. Males claim patches of floral plants, ward off conspecific males and other resource competitors, and mate with the multiple females who forage in their territories. Males of many species attract females to their territory by either gathering in a lek or going out in search of dispersed females. In polygyny relationships in animals, the female is the one who provides most of the parental care for the offspring.
Polygyny in eusocial insects means that some insects living in colonies have not only one queen, but several queens. Solitary species of insects take part in this practice in order to maximize their reproductive success of the widely dispersed females, such as the bee species "Anthidium maculosum". Insects such as red flour beetles use polygyny to reduce inbreeding depression and thus maximize reproductive success.
There is primary polygyny (several queens join to found a new colony, but after the hatching of the first workers the queens fight each other until only one queen survives and the colony becomes monogynous) and secondary polygyny (a well-established colony continues to have several queens). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24025 |
Proteome
The proteome is the entire set of proteins that is, or can be, expressed by a genome, cell, tissue, or organism at a certain time. It is the set of expressed proteins in a given type of cell or organism, at a given time, under defined conditions. Proteomics is the study of the proteome.
The term has been applied to several different types of biological systems.
A cellular proteome is the collection of proteins found in a particular cell type under a particular set of environmental conditions such as exposure to hormone stimulation.
It can also be useful to consider an organism's complete proteome, which can be conceptualized as the complete set of proteins from all of the various cellular proteomes. This is very roughly the protein equivalent of the genome.
The term "proteome" has also been used to refer to the collection of proteins in certain sub-cellular biological systems. For example, all of the proteins in a virus can be called a "viral proteome". All of the proteins in a mitochondrion make up the mitochondrial proteome which has generated its own field of study "mitoproteomics".
The proteome can be used in order to comparatively analyze different cancer cell lines. Proteomic studies have been used in order to identify the likelihood of metastasis in bladder cancer cell lines KK47 and YTS1 and were found to have 36 unregulated and 74 down regulated proteins. The differences in protein expression can help identify novel cancer signaling mechanisms.
Biomarkers of cancer have been found by mass spectrometry based proteomic analyses. The use of proteomics or the study of the proteome is a step forward in personalized medicine to tailor drug cocktails to the patient's specific proteomic and genomic profile. The analysis of ovarian cancer cell lines showed that putative biomarkers for ovarian cancer include "α-enolase (ENOA), elongation factor Tu, mitochondrial (EFTU), glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (G3P), stress-70 protein, mitochondrial (GRP75), apolipoprotein A-1 (APOA1), peroxiredoxin (PRDX2) and annexin A (ANXA)".
Comparative proteomic analyses of 11 cell lines demonstrated the similarity between the metabolic processes of each cell line; 11,731 proteins were completely identified from this study. Housekeeping proteins tend to show greater variability between cell lines.
Resistance to certain cancer drugs is still not well understood. Proteomic analysis has been used in order to identify proteins that may have anti-cancer drug properties, specifically for the colon cancer drug irinotecan. Studies of adenocarcinoma cell line LoVo demonstrated that 8 proteins were unregulated and 7 proteins were down-regulated. Proteins that showed a differential expression were involved in processes such as transcription, apoptosis and cell proliferation/differentiation among others.
Proteomic analyses have been performed in different kinds of bacteria to assess their metabolic reactions to different conditions. For example, in bacteria such as "Clostridium" and "Bacillus", proteomic analyses were used in order to investigate how different proteins help each of these bacteria spores germinate after a prolonged period of dormancy. In order to better understand how to properly eliminate spores, proteomic analysis must be performed.
Marc Wilkins coined the term "proteome" in 1994 in a symposium on "2D Electrophoresis: from protein maps to genomes" held in Siena in Italy. It appeared in print in 1995, with the publication of part of his PhD thesis. Wilkins used the term to describe the entire complement of proteins expressed by a genome, cell, tissue or organism.
Assuming a one-to-one correspondence between genes and proteins would mean that there are at least 20,000 proteins corresponding to roughly 20,000 genes for humans. The proteome can be larger than the genome, especially in eukaryotes, as more than one protein can be produced from one gene due to alternative splicing (e.g. human proteome consists 92,179 proteins out of which 71,173 are splicing variants). On the other hand, not all genes are translated to proteins, and many known genes encode only RNA which is the final functional product. Moreover, complete proteome size varies depending on the kingdom of life. For instance, eukaryotes, bacteria, archaea and viruses have on average 15,145, 3,200, 2,358 and 42 proteins respectively encoded in their genomes.
The Plasma Proteome database contains information on 10,500 blood plasma proteins. Because the range in protein contents in plasma is very large, it is difficult to detect proteins that tend to be scarce when compared to abundant proteins. There is an analytical limit that may possibly be a barrier for the detections of proteins with ultra low concentrations.
There are different factors that are used to analyze the proteome. First, the protein width is determined by the different protein types and the protein depth is determined by the number of protein copies in particular tissues. There are different factors that can add variability to proteins. SAPs (single amino acid polymorphisms) and nsSNPs non-synonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms are key elements that can lead to different "protein species" or "proteomorphs".
The term dark proteome coined by Perdigão and colleagues, defines regions of proteins that have no detectable sequence homology to other proteins of known three-dimensional structure and therefore cannot be modeled by homology. For 546,000 Swiss-Prot proteins, 44–54% of the proteome in eukaryotes and viruses was found to be "dark", compared with only ∼14% in archaea and bacteria.
Currently, there is a project called the Human Proteome Map. Much like the human genome project, the human proteome map seeks to publish all protein sequencing data onto one database. Currently the data base has proteins coded by more than 17,000 human genes. The database contains proteomic analysis from different fetal and adult tissues along with different types of hematopoietic cells. Additionally, the databases neXtprot and UniProt contain human proteomic data and ways to analyze specific profiles.
Analyzing proteins proves to be more difficult than analyzing nucleic acid sequences. While there are only 4 nucleotides that make up DNA, there are at least 20 different amino acids that can make up a protein. Additionally, there is currently no known high throughput technology to make copies of a single protein. Numerous methods are available to study proteins, sets of proteins, or the whole proteome. In fact, proteins are often studied indirectly, e.g. using computational methods and analyses of genomes. Only a few examples are given below.
Proteomics, the study of the proteome, has largely been practiced through the separation of proteins by two dimensional gel electrophoresis. In the first dimension, the proteins are separated by isoelectric focusing, which resolves proteins on the basis of charge. In the second dimension, proteins are separated by molecular weight using SDS-PAGE. The gel is stained with Coomassie Brilliant Blue or silver to visualize the proteins. Spots on the gel are proteins that have migrated to specific locations.
Mass spectrometry is one of the key methods to study the proteome. Some important mass spectrometry methods include LTQ Orbit-Trap Mass Spectrometry, MALDI (Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization), and ESI (Electrospray Ionization). Peptide mass fingerprinting identifies a protein by cleaving it into short peptides and then deduces the protein's identity by matching the observed peptide masses against a sequence database. Tandem mass spectrometry, on the other hand, can get sequence information from individual peptides by isolating them, colliding them with a non-reactive gas, and then cataloguing the fragment ions produced.
In May 2014, a draft map of the human proteome was published in "Nature". This map was generated using high-resolution Fourier-transform mass spectrometry. This study profiled 30 histologically normal human samples resulting in the identification of proteins coded by 17,294 genes. This accounts for around 84% of the total annotated protein-coding genes.
Liquid chromatography is an important tool in the study of the proteome. It allows for very sensitive separation of different kinds of proteins based on their affinity for a matrix. Some newer methods for the separation and identification of proteins include the use of monolithic capillary columns, high temperature chromatography and capillary electrochromatography.
Western blotting can be used in order to quantify the abundance of certain proteins. By using antibodies specific to the protein of interest, it is possible to probe for the presence of specific proteins from a mixture of proteins.
Protein-fragment complementation assays are often used to detect protein–protein interactions. The yeast two-hybrid assay is the most popular of them but there are numerous variations, both used "in vitro" and "in vivo". Pull-down assays are a method to determine what kinds of proteins a protein interacts with. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24026 |
Pope John Paul I
Pope John Paul I (; ; born Albino Luciani ; 17 October 191228 September 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City from 26 August 1978 to his death 33 days later. He was the first pope to have been born in the 20th century. His reign is among the shortest in papal history, resulting in the most recent year of three popes, the first to occur since 1605. John Paul I remains the most recent Italian-born pope, the last in a succession of such popes that started with Clement VII in 1523.
He was declared a Servant of God by his successor, John Paul II, on 23 November 2003, the first step on the road to sainthood. Pope Francis confirmed his heroic virtue on 8 November 2017 and named him as Venerable.
Before the papal conclave that elected him, he expressed his desire not to be elected, telling those close to him that he would decline the papacy if elected, but, upon the cardinals' electing him, he felt an obligation to say yes. He was the first pontiff to have a double name, choosing "John Paul" in honour of his two immediate predecessors, John XXIII and Paul VI. He explained that he was indebted to John XXIII and to Paul VI for naming him a bishop and a cardinal, respectively. Furthermore, he was the first pope to add the regnal number "I", designating himself "the First".
His two immediate successors, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, later recalled the warm qualities of the late pontiff in several addresses. In Italy, he is remembered with the appellatives of "Il Papa del Sorriso" ("The Smiling Pope") and "Il Sorriso di Dio" ("The smile of God"). "Time" magazine and other publications referred to him as "The September Pope". He is also known in Italy as "Papa Luciani". In his hometown of Canale d'Agordo a museum built and named in his honor is dedicated to his life and brief papacy.
Albino Luciani was born on 17 October 1912 in Forno di Canale (now Canale d'Agordo) in Belluno, a province of the Veneto region in Northern Italy. He was the son of Giovanni Luciani (c. 1872–1952), a bricklayer, and Bortola Tancon (c. 1879–1947). Albino was followed by two brothers, Federico (1915–1916) and Edoardo (1917–2008), and a sister, Antonia (1920–2010). He was baptised on the day he was born by the midwife because he was considered to be in danger of death, and the solemn rites of baptism were formalised in the parish church two days later.
Luciani was a restless child, in 1922, aged 10, he was awestruck when a Capuchin friar came to his village to preach the Lenten sermons. From that moment he decided that he wanted to become a priest and went to his father to ask for his permission. His father agreed and said to him: "I hope that when you become a priest you will be on the side of the workers, for Christ Himself would have been on their side".
Luciani entered the minor seminary of Feltre in 1923, where his teachers found him "too lively", and later went on to the major seminary of Belluno. During his stay at Belluno, he attempted to join the Jesuits but was denied by the seminary's rector, Bishop Giosuè Cattarossi.
Ordained a priest on 7 July 1935, Luciani then served as a curate in his native Forno de Canale before becoming a professor and the vice-rector of the Belluno seminary in 1937. Among the different subjects, he taught dogmatic and moral theology, canon law and sacred art.
In 1941, Luciani started to work on a Doctorate of Sacred Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University. This required at least one year's attendance in Rome. However, the Belluno seminary's superiors wanted him to continue teaching during his doctoral studies. The situation was resolved by a special dispensation by Pope Pius XII on 27 March 1941. His thesis ("The origin of the human soul according to Antonio Rosmini") largely attacked Rosmini's theology and earned him his doctorate "magna cum laude" in 1947.
In 1947, he was named chancellor to Bishop Girolamo Bortignon, OFM Cap, of Belluno. In 1954, he was named the vicar general for the Belluno diocese. Luciani was nominated for the position of Bishop several times but he was passed down each time due to his poor health, stature and his resigned appearance. In 1949, he published a book titled "Catechesis in crumbs". This book, his first, was about teaching the truths of the faith in a simple way, directly and comprehensible to all people.
On 15 December 1958, Luciani was appointed Bishop of Vittorio Veneto by Pope John XXIII. He received his episcopal consecration later that month from Pope John XXIII himself, with Bishops Bortignon and Gioacchino Muccin serving as the co-consecrators. Luciani took possession of the diocese on 11 January 1959, with "Humilitas" ("Humility") as his episcopal motto. In his first address to his new diocese, he told the people that he sought to be "a bishop who is a teacher and a servant".
As a bishop, he participated in all the sessions of the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965). On 18 April 1962, Luciani issued a pastoral letter, entitled "Notes on the Council", in order to alert the faithful to the structure of the proceedings and the overall purpose of the Council, chiefly, the doctrinal and practical issues.
Between 1965 and 1969 he faced the schism of Montaner: almost all the residents of Montaner, a frazione of Sarmede, decided to renounce Catholicism and embrace the Orthodox religion, because they had great disagreement with their bishop Monsignor Luciani. The people did not agree with Luciani's decision to appoint John Gava as a new priest in 1966 since the people wanted their own choice, rather than the one Luciani had settled on. The people then wanted a compromise: make their choice the parish's vice-rector if not parish priest. But Monsignor Luciani said the small village needed only one priest, and that he was the sole authority on priestly selection. Continually, he recommended new priests, but each was denied by the people. Finally, he was escorted by the police and took the Eucharist from the Montaner church, leaving the church unblessed, and waiting for their next move.
In 1966, Luciani visited Burundi in East Africa.
On 15 December 1969, Luciani was appointed the new Patriarch of Venice by Pope Paul VI, taking possession of his new archdiocese the following February. That same month he received honorary citizenship of the town of Vittorio Veneto, where he had previously served as bishop.
At the Synod of Bishops held in Rome in 1971, to which he was personally invited by the pope, Luciani suggested to the bishops assembled that dioceses in countries that were heavily industrialised should relinquish around 1% of all their income to Third World nations to be given "not as alms, but something that is owed. Owed to compensate for the injustices that our consumer-oriented world is committing towards the 'world on the way to development' and to in some way make reparation for social sin, of which we must become aware".
Pope Paul VI created Luciani the Cardinal-Priest of San Marco in the consistory on 5 March 1973.
During his time as Patriarch of Venice, Luciani clashed with priests who supported the liberalisation of divorce in Italy, eventually suspending some of them. At the same time, he was opposed to the 1974 referendum restricting divorce after it had been liberalised, feeling that such a move would fail and simply point out a divided Church with declining influence.
In 1975, Luciani travelled to Germany in May. Later that year (6–21 November), he visited Brazil where he met with members of the clergy, including Cardinal Aloísio Lorscheider. Upon his return to Italy, he suffered an embolus in his right eye. A few months after that, Luciani also made a visit to Fatima. While there, he met with Sister Lucia dos Santos, the surviving visionary of three children who claimed to see apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary back in 1917, revered under the title of Our Lady of Fatima. When Cardinal Luciani met Sister Lucia, she referred to him as "Holy Father". This greeting shocked the humble cardinal. In January 1976, he published "Illustrissimi" ("To the Illustrious Ones"), a collection of letters penned by him in previous years, whimsically addressed to historical and literary figures such as Dickens, G. K. Chesterton, Maria Theresa of Austria, Saint Teresa of Avila, Goethe, Figaro, Pinocchio, the Pickwick Club, King David and Jesus. These letters written in very clear and simple, yet often witty language as a way of relating elements of the Gospel to modern life.
In 1975, he suggested that there be disciplinary punishment for priests who spoke out in favor of the Communist Party or other leftist groups.
In 1976, Luciani sold a gold cross and pectoral gold chain that Pope John XXIII had given to him (which once belonged to Pope Pius XII before him) to raise money for disabled children. He also urged fellow priests in Venice to sell their valuables to contribute to this cause and as a way for them to live simply and humbly.
As Patriarch of Venice, Luciani would establish family counseling clinics to assist the poor cope with marital, financial and sexual problems. He was seen as a champion of the poor and he even once ordered the sale of gold in churches to provide money to help handicapped children. He was also against worker priests—those who went to work in the factories and fields to labor with the laity—and he also criticised unions over strikes and workers' demonstrations.
Pope Paul VI died on 6 August 1978, ending a reign of fifteen years. Luciani had gone to the late pope's funeral and mingled with the crowds who wanted to view the body. The crowds were such that he thought he would not reach the body, but once he was recognised he was then led to another place and was offered a bench to kneel and pray.
Luciani was summoned to Rome for the conclave to elect the new pope. Luciani was not considered papabile at the time though mentioned upon occasion in several papers, but a few cardinals approached him with their opinion that he would make a fine pontiff. The electors did not want a Curial figure, as Paul VI had been, but a warm and pastoral figure like Pope John XXIII.
Luciani was elected on the fourth ballot of the August 1978 papal conclave. Luciani had previously said to his secretary, Father Diego Lorenzi and to Father Prospero Grech (later a cardinal himself), that he would decline the papacy if elected, and that he intended to vote for Aloísio Cardinal Lorscheider, whom he met in Brazil. Cardinal Jaime Sin of the Philippines told him: "You will be the new pope."
However, when he was asked by Cardinal Jean-Marie Villot if he accepted his election, Luciani replied, "May God forgive you for what you have done" but accepted election. After his election, when Cardinal Sin paid him homage, the new pope said: "You were a prophet, but my reign will be a short one". On the balcony of St Peter's Basilica, protodeacon Cardinal Pericle Felici announced that the cardinals had elected Albino Luciani, Patriarch of Venice, who had chosen the name Pope John Paul I. It was the first time that a pope chose a double name. He later explained that the double name was taken to gratefully honour his two immediate predecessors: John XXIII, who had named him a bishop, and Paul VI, who had named him Patriarch of Venice and Cardinal. He was also the first pope to designate himself "the First" with the name. (Pope Francis, elected in 2013, also took a previously-unused papal name but chose not to be called "the First".)
In the aftermath of the election, the pope confided to his brother Edoardo that his first thought was to call himself "Pius XIII" in honour of Pope Pius XI, but he gave up on the idea, worried that the traditionalist members of the Church might exploit this choice of regnal name.
Observers have suggested that his selection was a compromise to satisfy rumoured divisions among seemingly rival camps within the College of Cardinals:
During the days following the conclave, the cardinals were generally elated at the reaction to Pope John Paul I, some of them happily saying that they had elected "God's candidate". Argentine Cardinal Eduardo Francisco Pironio stated, "We were witnesses of a moral miracle." Mother Teresa, commenting about the new pope, "He has been the greatest gift of God, a sun beam of God's love shining in the darkness of the world." British primate Basil Cardinal Hume declared: "Once it had happened, it seemed totally and entirely right ... We felt as if our hands were being guided as we wrote his name on the paper".
A dramatic event, soon after the election, occurred when the leader of the delegation from the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Nikodim (Rotov) of Leningrad, collapsed and died after a ceremony on 5 September 1978. The new pope immediately came over and prayed for him.
After he became pope he had set six plans down which would dictate his pontificate:
After his election, John Paul I quickly made several decisions that would "humanise" the office of pope. He was the first modern pope to speak in the singular form, using 'I' instead of the royal "we", though the official records of his speeches were often rewritten in more formal style by aides, who reinstated the royal "we" in press releases and in "L'Osservatore Romano." He initially refused to use the "sedia gestatoria" until others convinced him of its need in order to allow himself to be seen by crowds. He was the last pope to use it. He was the first pope to refuse to be crowned. Instead of a coronation, he inaugurated his papacy with a "papal inauguration" where he received the papal pallium as the symbol of his position as Bishop of Rome.
The moral theology of John Paul I had been openly debated because of his opinions expressed on a number of issues, particularly birth control. It is debated whether John Paul I was liberal, conservative, or a moderate in matters of church doctrine, thus it is difficult to assess his views.
Luciani had mixed feelings in regard to the traditional stance on contraception. In 1968, as Bishop of Vittorio Veneto, he submitted a report to his predecessor as the Patriarch of Venice, Giovanni Urbani, that argued that the contraceptive pill should be permitted. It was agreed on by fellow Veneto bishops and was later submitted to Pope Paul VI. When "Humanae vitae" was released, Luciani defended that document. But he seemed to contradict that defence in a letter he wrote to his diocese four days after the release of the encyclical. In May 1978, Cardinal Luciani was invited to speak at a Milanese conference to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the encyclical. He refused to speak at the event or even attend it.
Raymond & Lauretta take a different view, saying that while serving as Patriarch of Venice, "Luciani was intransigent with his upholding of the teaching of the Church and severe with those, who through intellectual pride and disobedience paid no attention to the Church's prohibition of contraception, though while not condoning the sin, he was patient with those who sincerely tried and failed to live up to the Church's teaching."
In his letter to Carlo Goldoni from the book "Illustrissimi", Luciani took a critical perspective of abortion and argued that it violated God's law and that it went against the deepest aspirations of women, profoundly disturbing them.
In an interview before the death of Pope Paul VI in 1978 when asked for his reaction to the birth of the first test-tube baby Louise Brown, Luciani expressed concerns about the possibility that artificial insemination could lead to women being used as "baby factories" but he refused to condemn the parents.
It was his view that, "from every side the press is sending its congratulations to the English couple and best wishes to their baby girl. In imitation of God, who desires and loves human life, I too offer my best wishes to the baby girl. As for her parents, I do not have any right to condemn them; subjectively, if they have acted with the right intention and in good faith, they may even obtain great merit before God for what they have decided on and asked the doctors to carry out." Luciani added, "Getting down, however, to the act in itself, and good faith aside, the moral problem which is posed is: is extrauterine fertilization in vitro or in a test tube, licit?... I do not find any valid reasons to deviate from this norm, by declaring licit the separation of the transmission of life from the marriage act."
In 1969, Luciani was cautious of de facto relationships as a lesser evil to divorce. He said that unions like those shouldn't be the same as marriage but he added that "there are, in undeniably pathological family situations, painful cases. To remedy that, some propose a divorce, which, conversely, would aggravate this. But some remedy outside of divorce, you can't really find? Once the legitimate family is protected and made a place of honor, you will not be able to recognize with all appropriate precautions some civil effect to de facto unions."
In a 1974 interview while he was the Patriarch of Venice, Luciani upheld the traditional line: "A sexuality that is worthy of man must be a part of love for a person of a different sex with the added commitments of fidelity and indissolubility."
In a 1975 talk Luciani gave to a group of sisters, he expressed his views on the ordination of women into the priesthood:
John Paul I reiterated the official views of the church in regard to Marxism and Catholicism being incompatible and believed it to be a "weapon to disobey" the Christian faith. As Patriarch of Venice, he struggled at times with Marxist students who were demanding changes in Venetian policies. He also forbade those factions that were Marxist threatening the faith.
John Paul I was a friend to the Muslim people and as Patriarch of Venice said to Catholics that faithful Muslims had the "right to build a mosque" to practice their faith in the archdiocese. In November 1964 he explained the declaration of Dignitatis humanae: "There are 4,000 Muslims in Rome: they have the right to build a mosque. There is nothing to say: you have to let them do it".
Luciani stressed the need throughout his time as Bishop of Vittorio Veneto to answer the universal call to holiness as was an invitation in the Second Vatican Council. He believed that sainthood was something that all Catholics could achieve if they led a life of service to God. Luciani said that there were no barriers to sainthood and discussed this theme of the council in a homily on 6 January 1962: "We are called by God to be true saints". Luciani stressed the importance of this and said God invites Catholics and obligates them to sainthood. He also said that by professing love for God, Catholics say: "my God I want to be holy, I will strive to be holy".
During his brief pontificate, John Paul I spoke three times on the concept of God's mercy. In his General Audience address on 13 September 1978, the pope said that the entire point of mercy is "to surrender to God" through faith in Him, which goes about "transforming one's life" in the fight against sin, and the pursuit of holiness. The pope continued that "God has so much tenderness for us" in which "He begs me to repent" from sin so as to return to God's embrace. The pope concluded that "the Church too must be good; good to everyone" in its own outreach to the faithful.
John Paul I, in his Angelus address on 24 September 1978, spoke about the importance of doing good deeds through charitable and merciful acts in society, as to make the world more just, and to improve the overall conditions of society. The pope elaborated that it was important to "try to be good and to infect others with a goodness imbued with the meekness and love taught by Christ", while seeking to give our all in service to others. The pope further points out Christ's example on the Cross, in which he forgave and excused those who persecuted, referring to it as a sentiment which "would help society so much" if put into constant practice.
The pope also spoke about mercy in his address at the General Audience on 27 September 1978, in which he referred to God as "infinite good" capable of providing for our "eternal happiness" in His love for us. John Paul I continued that it may be "difficult to love others; we do not find them likeable, they have offended us and hurt us", though says that forgiveness between brothers and sisters is very important for unity and peace among people. Additionally, the pope referred to the seven corporal and spiritual acts of mercy, which he said acted as a guide for Christians, though highlighting the fact that "the list is not complete and it would be necessary to update it" as times change since global situations change. The pope concluded that justice adds to charity, which is linked to the theme of mercy.
Prior to his election, Luciani wrote an article on 25 July 1978 for "Il Gazettino di Venezia" analyzing some of the aspects of Josemaría Escrivá's teachings of Opus Dei. He stated that he was more of a radical figure who taught about the universal call to holiness. While others emphasised monastic spirituality applied to lay people, for Escrivá "it is the material work itself which must be turned into prayer and sanctity", thus providing a lay spirituality.
Luciani had attended all sessions of the Second Vatican Council (1962–65) while he was the Bishop of Vittorio Veneto. He had hoped that the council would highlight "Christian optimism" in terms of Christ's teachings against the culture of relativism. He denounced a fundamental ignorance of the "basic elements of the faith"—it was this point that he wished to focus on as opposed to secularism throughout the world.
In terms of global interpretation of the council, Luciani wrote: "The physiognomy and structure of the Catholic Church have been determined once and for all by the Lord and cannot be touched. If anything, superstructures can. Things that have not been determined by Christ, but were introduced by popes or councils or the faithful, can be changed, or eliminated today or tomorrow. Yesterday they might have introduced a certain number of dioceses, a certain way to lead missions, to educate priests, they might have chosen to follow certain cultural trends. Well, this can be changed and one can say "the Church that comes out of the Council is still the same as it was yesterday, but renewed". No one can ever say "We have a new Church, different from what it was".
In regard to religious freedom, Luciani wrote about the council's declaration, ""Dignitatis humanae"". In his writings, he said that there is only one true religion that must be followed and no other, affirming that Jesus Christ is the Truth, and that the truth will set one truly free. Though, he said that those that will not accept the one true Catholic Faith, for whatever reason, are indeed free to profess their own religion for various reasons. He makes a clear understanding of true and false liberty. He says that true freedom comes from God, that God makes man free. However, he does continue in repeating the teaching that error does not come from God, and although we are capable or err and sin, and that one who rejects truth cannot be forced to believe it, it is not a God given "right" to do error. He continues to say that religious freedom must be freely exercised by the individual. He writes that the choice of religion must be a free choice or else one's faith is not real or because they really believe. So he makes clear that for the purposes of keeping peace and order in a diverse society and accepting the free will of man, the freedom of an individual to profess their religion, within certain bounds, is indeed necessary.
On 12 September 1978, Cardinal Mario Casariego y Acevedo of Guatemala invited the pope to visit Guatemala in 1979. The pope was said to have thanked him for the invitation but did not provide a response. The week before this, the pope said he was unable to accept an invitation to the Latin American Episcopal Conference in Puebla, Mexico for October due to his schedule.
No saints were canonised nor people beatified in his brief term on the papal throne, but José Gras y Granollers, Juan Vicente Zengotitabenoga Lausen and Giuseppe Beschin were made Servants of God during his pontificate on 22 September 1978.
John Paul I was regarded as a skilled communicator and writer. His book "Illustrissimi," written while he was a cardinal, is a series of letters to a wide collection of historical and fictional persons. Among those still available are his letters to Jesus, King David, Figaro the Barber, Empress Maria Theresa and Pinocchio. Others 'written to' included Mark Twain, Charles Dickens and Christopher Marlowe. He was also well-read, and was known for reading several newspapers each morning, including one from the Veneto region, before beginning his day.
John Paul I impressed people with his personal warmth. There are reports that within the Vatican he was seen as an intellectual lightweight not up to the responsibilities of the papacy, although David Yallop ("In God's Name") says that this is the result of a whispering campaign by people in the Vatican who were opposed to Luciani's policies. In the words of John Cornwell, "they treated him with condescension"; one senior cleric discussing Luciani said "they have elected Peter Sellers." Critics contrasted his sermons mentioning Pinocchio to the learned intellectual discourses of Pius XII or Paul VI. Visitors spoke of his isolation and loneliness and the fact that he was the first pope in decades not to have previously held either a diplomatic role (like Pius XI and John XXIII) or Curial role (like Pius XII and Paul VI) in the Church.
His personal impact, however, was twofold: his image as a warm, gentle and kind man captivated the whole world. This image was immediately formed when he was presented to the crowd in St. Peter's Square following his election. The warmth of his presence made him a much-loved figure before he even spoke a word. The media in particular fell under his spell. He was a very skilled orator.
According to his aides, he was not the naive idealist his critics made him out to be. Cardinal Giuseppe Caprio, the substitute Papal Secretary of State, said that John Paul I quickly accepted his new role and performed it with confidence.
John Paul I had admitted that the prospect of the papacy had daunted him to the point that other cardinals had to encourage him to accept it. He refused to have the millennium-old traditional papal coronation or wear the papal tiara. He instead chose to have a simplified inauguration mass. John Paul I adopted as his motto the Latin word ('Humility'). In his notable Angelus of 27 August 1978 (delivered on the first full day of his papacy), he impressed the world with his natural friendliness.
Sister Margherita Marin, who worked in the Vatican during Luciani's papacy, said in comments made in late 2017 that the pope had admitted the sisters into his apartment chapel for morning Mass, unlike his predecessor Paul VI who had only admitted his secretaries. Marin also said that Luciani would speak the Venetian dialect with those Venetian sisters to make them more comfortable, and to better interact with them. The religious also noted that the pope's humor was evident to all those who spoke with him, and he would often joke with the sisters when seeing his picture in the papers: "But you see how they got me", in reference to the quality of his picture.
On 29 September 1978, 33 days into his papacy, John Paul I was found dead in his bed with reading material and a bedside lamp still lit. He had probably suffered a heart attack the night before.
John Paul I's funeral was held in Saint Peter's Square on 4 October 1978, celebrated by Cardinal Carlo Confalonieri. In his eulogy of the late pope, he described him as a flashing comet who briefly lit up the church. He then was laid to rest in the Vatican grottoes.
It was said that around 10 p.m. on the night of his death, the pope learned that several young neo-Fascists had fired upon a group of young people reading "L'Unità", the Communist newspaper, outside one of the party's offices in Rome. One boy was killed while another was seriously wounded. The pope lamented to John Magee, "Even the young are killing each other." He later retired to his room to read Thomas à Kempis' "The Imitation of Christ" in bed.
There are several conspiracy speculations related to his death.
The journalist and vice-postulator for Luciani's cause of canonization, Stefania Falasca, published a new book in 2017 titled "Pope Luciani, Chronicle of a Death", in which she revealed that John Paul I had complained of chest pains hours before his death, and the evening before, but paid no attention to it and ordered that his doctor not be called. Falasca confirmed, after interviewing the sisters who found him and documents from the Vatican Secret Archives, that Luciani died of a heart attack in late evening hours of 28 September.
The Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, in his preface for the book, describes the various conspiracies regarding Luciani's death as little more than "noir reconstructions". Parolin further says that the sudden death of the pope inspired "myriad theories, suspicions, [and] suppositions" based on opinion rather than fact.
Falasca noted the 2009 testimony of Sister Margherita Marin (b. 1941), one of the two sisters who found the pope dead in his bedroom on the morning of 29 September. John Paul I had made it a practice to have a morning coffee in the sacristy and then go into the chapel to pray before tending to the day's matters. Sister Vincenza had noted the pope had not touched the coffee she had left for him in the sacristy at 5:15am (after about ten minutes) and went looking for him but found him dead, and hastily summoned Marin who also went into the room. Marin testified that Luciani's hands were cold, and she was struck by the darkness of his nails. Sister Vincenza said: "He hasn't come out yet? Why not?” and knocked a few more times but heard silence, then opened the door and walked in. Marin remained in the hallway but heard the elder sister say: "Your Holiness, you shouldn't pull these jokes on me" because Sister Vincenza also had heart problems. Marin further testified that original information provided by the Vatican regarding who discovered the pope was wrong, since it had originally been claimed the discovery was by the pope's secretaries Lorenzi and Magee. Marin testified that "he was in bed with a slight smile" on his face. The reading light over the headboard was still on, with his two pillows under his back propping him up, with his legs outstretched and his arms on top of the bedsheets. Luciani was still in his pajamas with a few typewritten sheets in his hands. His head was slightly turned to the right and his eyes were partially closed; his glasses rested on his nose.
Luciani had suffered a severe pain in his chest for about five minutes around 7:30pm while sitting reciting the vespers in the chapel with Magee before dinner, but insisted against calling for Doctor Renato Buzzonetti. The latter, the book claimed, was informed of that episode after the pope's death. The book also revealed that, prior to the conclave that elected John Paul II, the cardinals had sent a series of written questions to the doctors who had embalmed Luciani either on 10 or 11 October to check if there had been any signs of traumatic injuries, so as to ascertain if he died naturally rather than suspiciously. Doctor Buzzonetti sent a detailed report to the Cardinal Secretary of State Agostino Casaroli on 9 October 1979 detailing that the episode of pain Luciani suffered was in the upper part of the sternal region.
Sister Margherita noted in late 2017 in comments made in Belluno that the pope had made a half-hour phone call on the evening of his death to the Cardinal Giovanni Colombo and said he wanted the Salesian rector major Egidio Viganò to agree to serve as Luciani's successor as Patriarch of Venice.
The process for the canonisation for John Paul I formally began in 1990 with the petition by 226 Brazilian bishops, including four cardinals. The petition was addressed directly to Pope John Paul II.
On 26 August 2002, Bishop Vincenzo Savio announced the start of the preliminary phase to collect documents and testimonies necessary to start the process of canonisation. On 8 June 2003 the Congregation for the Causes of Saints gave its assent to the work and on 17 June transferred the forum for the beatification process from Rome to Belluno-Feltre while also declaring the late pope as a Servant of God after declaring "nihil obstat" (no objections to the cause). On 23 November, on the Feast of Christ the King, the diocesan process formally opened in the Cathedral Basilica of Belluno with Cardinal José Saraiva Martins in charge and presiding over the inauguration. The diocesan inquiry for the cause subsequently concluded on 11 November 2006 in Belluno with all the evidence collected being sent to the C.C.S. which received their validation on 13 June 2008. On 13 June 2008, the Vatican began the "Roman" phase of the beatification process for John Paul I, in which they would assess the documents and witness testimonies collected during the diocesan inquiry.
The documents in regard to the cause were supposed to be delivered to the prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Cardinal Angelo Amato on 17 October 2012 (the hundred year anniversary of the late pope's birth), in a large Positio dossier (consisting of a biography and investigation into his virtues) to examine the pros and cons of the cause. This was delayed due to the cause's supporters wanting another check over all the documents. In a mass at Belluno on 20 July 2014, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone announced that the cause of beatification was set to advance. The cardinal highlighted that the Positio would be delivered in September 2014. But the dossier was not submitted to the C.C.S. until 17 October 2016; there were five volumes with around 3600 pages in total.
On 27 August 2015, Bishop Giuseppe Andrich announced that John Paul I would be beatified "soon". In a homily delivered during Mass in Canale d'Agordo, Luciani's home town, on the 37th anniversary of his election as Pope, Andrich said Church authorities had concluded the investigation into Luciani's heroic virtues. Following the conclusion of the "Positio" (3652 pages in total), they received several messages affirming personal experience of Luciani's holiness, including a handwritten card from Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. The testimony of a Pope or former Pope in considering a candidate for sainthood is extremely unusual. Benedict XVI apparently recommended waiving the requirement for miracles in Luciani's case.
To determine whether or not the late pontiff should be declared Venerable, theologians and the members of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints must determine if the late pope lived a life of heroic virtue. This meeting took place on 1 June 2017 in which theologians unanimously approved the fact that the late pope exercised virtues to a heroic degree. The cardinal and bishop members discussed the cause on 7 November 2017 and issued their unanimous approval.
Pope Francis named John Paul I as Venerable on 8 November 2017 after confirming his heroic virtue.
For Luciani to be beatified, the investigators have to certify at least one miracle attributed to his intercession. For canonisation there must be a second miracle, though the reigning pope may waive these requirements altogether, as is often done in the case of beatified popes.
It was reported in 2016 that a potential miracle attributed to the late pontiff's intercession occurred to a nun in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The postulation also drew upon the testimony of Giuseppe Denora di Altamura who claimed to have been cured of cancer by the intercession of the late pontiff. An official investigation into the alleged miracle commenced on 14 May 2007 and concluded on 30 May 2009 with the C.C.S. validating the process on 25 March 2010. Of course, the C.C.S. could not begin their thorough investigation into this case until the decree on his virtues was signed.
The supposed miracle attributed to his intercession was taken to a medical board in Rome on 24 April 2015 and the commission came to the conclusion that it was not a miracle that could be attributed to Luciani. This means that another miracle will need to be found before the cause can continue.
The postulator for the cause was Bishop Enrico dal Covolo from 2003 until 2016 when Cardinal Beniamino Stella was appointed to that position. Stefania Falasca is the current vice-postulator.
Pope John Paul I was the first pope to abandon coronation, and he was also the first pope to choose a double name (John Paul) for his papal name. His successor, Cardinal Karol Jozef Wojtyła, chose the same name. He was the first pope to have a Papal Inauguration and the last pope to use the "Sedia Gestatoria". He was the first Pope born in the 20th century, and the last Pope to die in the 20th century.
Cardinal Karol Wojtyła was elected John Paul I's successor as Pope on Monday, 16 October 1978. The next day he celebrated Mass together with the College of Cardinals in the Sistine Chapel. After the Mass, he delivered his first "Urbi et Orbi" (a traditional blessing) message, broadcast worldwide via radio. In it he pledged fidelity to the Second Vatican Council and paid tribute to his predecessor:
Benedict XVI spoke of the late pontiff on 28 September 2008 during his weekly Angelus address. Of the late pope, he said:
Pope Francis spoke of his predecessor in his 2016 book "The Name of God Is Mercy" in which Francis recalls how touched he was by his predecessor's writings. More than any of his predecessors mentioned in his book, Francis refers to Luciani the most. The pope referred to Luciani's remarks at the latter's general audience of 6 September 1978 and mentioned how profound that his words were upon him; of the remarks Luciani made, he said: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24027 |
Pope Paul VI
Pope Paul VI (; ; born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini, ; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 to his death in 1978. Succeeding John XXIII, he continued the Second Vatican Council which he closed in 1965, implementing its numerous reforms, and fostered improved ecumenical relations with Eastern Orthodox and Protestant churches, which resulted in many historic meetings and agreements.
Montini served in the Holy See's Secretariat of State from 1922 to 1954. While in the Secretariat of State, Montini and Domenico Tardini were considered as the closest and most influential advisors of Pius XII, who in 1954 named him Archbishop of Milan, the largest Italian diocese. Montini later became the Secretary of the Italian Bishops' Conference. John XXIII elevated him to the College of Cardinals in 1958, and after the death of John XXIII, Montini was considered one of his most likely successors. Upon his election to the papacy, Montini took the name Paul VI.
He re-convened the Second Vatican Council, which had automatically closed with the death of John XXIII. After the council had concluded its work, Paul VI took charge of the interpretation and implementation of its mandates, often walking a thin line between the conflicting expectations of various groups within Catholicism. The magnitude and depth of the reforms affecting all fields of Church life during his pontificate exceeded similar reform programmes of his predecessors and successors. Paul VI spoke repeatedly to Marian conventions and mariological meetings, visited Marian shrines and issued three Marian encyclicals. Following Ambrose of Milan, he named Mary as the Mother of the Church during the Second Vatican Council. Paul VI described himself as a humble servant for a suffering humanity and demanded significant changes from the rich in North America and Europe in favour of the poor in the Third World. His positions on birth control, promulgated famously in the 1968 encyclical "Humanae vitae", were often contested, especially in Western Europe and North America. The same opposition emerged in reaction to the political aspects of some of his teaching.
Following the standard procedures that lead to sainthood, Pope Benedict XVI declared that the late pontiff had lived a life of heroic virtue and conferred the title of Venerable upon him on 20 December 2012. Pope Francis beatified him on 19 October 2014 after the recognition of a miracle attributed to his intercession. His liturgical feast was celebrated on the date of his birth on 26 September until 2019 when it was changed to the date of his sacerdotal ordination on 29 May. Pope Francis canonised Paul VI on 14 October 2018.
Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini was born in the village of Concesio, in the province of Brescia, Lombardy, Italy, in 1897. His father, Giorgio Montini, was a lawyer, journalist, director of the Catholic Action, and member of the Italian Parliament. His mother, Giudetta Alghisi, was from a family of rural nobility. He had two brothers, Francesco Montini, who became a physician, and Lodovico Montini, who became a lawyer and politician. On 30 September 1897, he was baptised with the name Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini. He attended the "Cesare Arici" school, run by the Jesuits, and in 1916 received a diploma from the "Arnaldo da Brescia" public school in Brescia. His education was often interrupted by bouts of illness.
In 1916, he entered the seminary to become a Catholic priest. He was ordained priest on 29 May 1920 in Brescia and celebrated his first Holy Mass in Brescia in the Basilica of Santa Maria delle Grazie. Montini concluded his studies in Milan with a doctorate in Canon Law in the same year. Afterwards he studied at the Gregorian University, the University of Rome La Sapienza and, at the request of Giuseppe Pizzardo at the "Accademia dei Nobili Ecclesiastici". In 1922, at the age of twenty-five, again at the request of Giuseppe Pizzardo, Montini entered the Secretariat of State, where he worked under Pizzardo together with Francesco Borgongini-Duca, Alfredo Ottaviani, Carlo Grano, Domenico Tardini and Francis Spellman. Consequently, he never had an appointment as a parish priest. In 1925 he helped found the publishing house Morcelliana in Brescia, focused on promoting a 'Christian-inspired culture'.
Montini had just one foreign posting in the diplomatic service of the Holy See as Secretary in the office of the papal nuncio to Poland in 1923. Of the nationalism he experienced there he wrote: "This form of nationalism treats foreigners as enemies, especially foreigners with whom one has common frontiers. Then one seeks the expansion of one's own country at the expense of the immediate neighbours. People grow up with a feeling of being hemmed in. Peace becomes a transient compromise between wars." He described his experience in Warsaw as "useful, though not always joyful". When he became pope, the Communist government of Poland refused him permission to visit Poland on a Marian pilgrimage.
His organisational skills led him to a career in the Roman Curia, the papal civil service. In 1931, Pacelli appointed him to teach history at the Pontifical Academy for Diplomats In 1937, after his mentor Giuseppe Pizzardo was named a cardinal and was succeeded by Domenico Tardini, Montini was named Substitute for Ordinary Affairs under Cardinal Pacelli, the Secretary of State. His immediate supervisor was Domenico Tardini, with whom he got along well. Pacelli became Pope Pius XII in 1939 and confirmed Montini's appointment as Substitute under the new Cardinal Secretary of State Luigi Maglione. In that role, roughly that of a chief of staff, he met the pope every morning until 1954 and developed a rather close relationship with him. Of his service to two popes he wrote:
When war broke out, Maglione, Tardini, and Montini were the principal figures in the Secretariat of State of the Holy See. Montini was in charge of taking care of the "ordinary affairs" of the Secretariat of State, which took much of the mornings of every working day. In the afternoon he moved to the third floor into the Office of the Private Secretary of the Pontiff. Pius XII did not have a personal secretary. As did several popes before him, he delegated the secretarial functions he needed to the Secretariat of State. During the war years, thousands of letters from all parts of the world arrived at the desk of the pope, most of them asking for understanding, prayer, and help. Montini's task was to formulate the replies in the name of Pius XII, expressing his empathy, and understanding and providing help, where possible.
At the request of the pope, Montini created an information office regarding prisoners of war and refugees, which from 1939 until 1947 received almost ten million requests for information about missing persons and produced over eleven million replies. Montini was several times attacked by Benito Mussolini's government for meddling in politics, but the Holy See consistently defended him. When Maglione died in 1944, Pius XII appointed Tardini and Montini together as joint heads of Secretariat of State, each with the title of Pro-Secretary of State. Montini's admiration was almost filial when he described Pope Pius XII:
As Pro-Secretary of State, Montini coordinated the activities of assistance to the persecuted hidden in convents, parishes, seminaries, and in Catholic schools.
At the request of the pope, Montini established together with Ferdinando Baldelli and Otto Faller the Pontificia Commissione di Assistenza ("Pontifical Commission for Assistance"), which aided large number of Romans and refugees from everywhere with shelter, food and other material assistance. In Rome alone this organisation distributed almost two million portions of free food in the year 1944. The Papal Residence of Castel Gandolfo was opened to refugees, as was Vatican City in so far as space allowed. Some 15,000 persons lived in Castel Gandolfo alone, supported by the Pontificia Commissione di Assistenza. At the request of Pius XII, Montini was also involved in the re-establishment of Church Asylum, providing protection to hundreds of Allied soldiers, who had escaped from Axis prison camps, Jews, anti-Fascists, Socialists, Communists, and after the liberation of Rome, German soldiers, partisans, displaced persons and others. As pope in 1971, Montini turned the Pontificia Commissione di Assistenza into "Caritas Italiana".
After the death of the Benedictine Cardinal Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster, in 1954, Montini was appointed to succeed him as Archbishop of Milan, which made him the Secretary of the Italian Bishops Conference. Pope Pius XII presented the new Archbishop Giovanni Battista Montini "as his personal gift to Milan". He was consecrated bishop in Saint Peter's Basilica by Cardinal Eugène Tisserant, the Dean of the College of Cardinals, since Pius XII was forced to stay in bed due to his severe illness.
Pius XII delivered an address about Montini's appointment from his sick-bed over radio to those assembled in St. Peter's Basilica on 12 December 1954. Both Montini and the pope had tears in their eyes when Montini parted for his diocese, with its 1,000 churches, 2,500 priests and 3,500,000 souls. On 5 January 1955, Montini formally took possession of his Cathedral of Milan. After a period of settling in, Montini liked his new tasks as archbishop, connecting to all groups of faithful in Milan. He enjoyed meetings with intellectuals, artists and writers.
In his first months Montini showed his interest in working conditions and labour issues by personally contacting unions, associations and giving related speeches. Believing that churches are the only non-utilitarian buildings in modern society and a most necessary place of spiritual rest, he initiated the building of over 100 new churches for service and contemplation.
His public speeches were noticed not only in Milan but also in Rome and elsewhere. Some considered him a liberal, when he asked lay people to love not only Catholics but also schismatics, Protestants, Anglicans, the indifferent, Muslims, pagans, atheists. He gave a friendly welcome to a group of Anglican clergy visiting Milan in 1957 and a subsequently exchanged letters with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher.
Pope Pius XII revealed at the 1952 secret consistory that both Montini and Tardini had declined appointments to the cardinalate
and in fact Montini was never to be made a cardinal by Pius XII, who held no consistory and created no cardinals from the time he appointed Montini to Milan and his own death four years later. After Angelo Roncalli became Pope John XXIII, he made Montini a cardinal in December 1958.
Montini and Angelo Roncalli were considered to be friends, but when Roncalli, as Pope John XXIII announced a new Ecumenical Council, Cardinal Montini reacted with disbelief and said to Giulio Bevilacqua: "This old boy does not know what a hornets nest he is stirring up." He was appointed to the Central Preparatory Commission in 1961. During the council, Pope John XXIII asked him to live in the Vatican. He was a member of the Commission for Extraordinary Affairs but did not engage himself much in the floor debates on various issues. His main advisor was Monsignore Giovanni Colombo, whom he later appointed to be his successor in Milan The commission was greatly overshadowed by the insistence of John XXIII that the Council complete all its work in one single session before Christmas 1962, to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the Council of Trent, an insistence which may have also been influenced by the Pope's having recently been told that he had cancer.
During his period in Milan, Montini was widely seen as a progressive member of the Catholic hierarchy. He reformed pastoral care, adopting new approaches. He used his authority to ensure that the liturgical reforms of Pius XII were carried out at the local level and employed innovative methods to reach the people of Milan. For example, huge posters announced throughout the city that 1,000 voices would speak to them from 10 to 24 November 1957. More than 500 priests and many bishops, cardinals and lay people delivered 7,000 sermons in the period not only in churches but in factories, meeting halls, houses, courtyards, schools, offices, military barracks, hospitals, hotels and other places, wherever people congregated. His goal was the re-introduction of faith to a city without much religion. "If only we can say Our Father and know what this means, then we would understand the Christian faith."
Pius XII asked Archbishop Montini to Rome October 1957, where he gave the main presentation to the Second World Congress of Lay Apostolate. Previously as Pro-Secretary of State, he had worked hard to form a unified worldwide organisation of lay people of 58 nations, representing 42 national organisations. He presented them to Pius XII in Rome in 1951. The second meeting in 1957 gave Montini an opportunity to express the lay apostolate in modern terms: "Apostolate means love. We will love all, but especially those, who need help... We will love our time, our technology, our art, our sports, our world."
Although some cardinals seem to have viewed him as papabile, a likely candidate to become pope, and although he may consequently have received some votes in the 1958 conclave, Montini was not yet a cardinal, which made him an unlikely choice. Angelo Roncalli was elected pope on 28 October 1958 and took the name John XXIII. On 17 November 1958, L'Osservatore Romano announced a consistory for the creation of new cardinals. Montini's name led the list. When the pope raised Montini to the cardinalate on 15 December 1958, he became Cardinal-Priest of Ss. Silvestro e Martino ai Monti. He appointed him simultaneously to several Vatican congregations which resulted in many visits by Montini to Rome in the coming years.
On June 20, 1958, Saul Alinsky recalled meeting with then cardinal Montini: "I had three wonderful meetings with Montini and I am sure that you have heard from him since”. Alinsky also wrote as follows to George Shuster, two days before the papal conclave that elected John XXIII: "No, I don’t know who the next Pope will be, but if it’s to be Montini, the drinks will be on me for years to come."
As a Cardinal, Montini journeyed to Africa (1962), where he visited Ghana, Sudan, Kenya, Congo, Rhodesia, South Africa, and Nigeria. After this journey, John XXIII called Montini to a private audience for a debriefing on his trip which lasted for several hours. In fifteen other trips he visited Brazil (1960) and the USA (1960), including New York City, Washington DC, Chicago, the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. While a cardinal, he usually vacationed in Engelberg Abbey, a secluded Benedictine monastery in Switzerland.
Montini was generally seen as the most likely successor to Pope John XXIII because of his closeness to both Popes Pius XII and John XXIII, his pastoral and administrative background, and his insight and determination. John XXIII was not exactly a newcomer to the Vatican, since he had been an official of the Holy See in Rome and until his appointment to Venice was a papal diplomat, but returning to Rome at the age of 76 he may have felt outflanked by the professional Roman Curia at times; Montini knew its most inner workings well due to the fact that he had worked there for a generation.
Unlike the papabile cardinals Giacomo Lercaro of Bologna and Giuseppe Siri of Genoa, Montini was not identified with either the left or right, nor was he seen as a radical reformer. He was viewed as most likely to continue the Second Vatican Council, which already, without any tangible results, had lasted longer than John XXIII expected. John had a vision but "did not have a clear agenda. His rhetoric seems to have had a note of over-optimism, a confidence in progress, which was characteristic of the 1960s." When John XXIII died of stomach cancer on 3 June 1963, this triggered a conclave to elect a new pope.
Montini was elected pope on the sixth ballot of the papal conclave on 21 June and he took the name of "Paul VI". When the Dean of the College of Cardinals Eugène Tisserant asked if he accepted the election, Montini said ""Accepto, in nomine Domini"" ("I accept, in the name of the Lord"). At one point during the conclave on 20 June, it was said, Cardinal Gustavo Testa lost his temper and demanded that opponents of Montini halt their efforts to thwart his election. It was following Testa's outburst that Montini, fearful of causing a division, started to rise in order to dissuade the cardinals from voting for him. However, Cardinal Giovanni Urbani dragged Montini back to his seat, muttering, "Eminence, shut up!" Montini took the name "Paul" in honour of Paul the Apostle.
The white smoke first rose from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel at 11:22 am, Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani in his role as Protodeacon, announced to the public the successful election of Montini. When the new pope appeared on the central loggia, he gave the shorter episcopal blessing as his first Apostolic Blessing rather than the longer, traditional "Urbi et Orbi".
Of the papacy, Paul VI wrote in his journal: "The position is unique. It brings great solitude. 'I was solitary before, but now my solitude becomes complete and awesome.'"
Less than two years later, on 2 May 1965, Paul addressed a letter to the dean of the College of Cardinals anticipating that his health might make it impossible to function as pope. He wrote that "In case of infirmity, which is believed to be incurable or is of long duration and which impedes us from sufficiently exercising the functions of our apostolic ministry; or in the case of another serious and prolonged impediment", he would renounce his office "both as bishop of Rome as well as head of the same holy Catholic Church".
Paul VI did away with much of the regal splendor of the papacy. He was the last pope to date to be crowned on 30 June 1963; his successor Pope John Paul I substituted an inauguration for the papal coronation (which Paul had substantially modified, but which he left mandatory in his 1975 apostolic constitution "Romano Pontifici Eligendo"). At his coronation Paul wore a tiara that was a gift from the Archdiocese of Milan. At the end of the second session of the Second Vatican Council in 1963, Paul VI descended the steps of the papal throne in St. Peter's Basilica and ascended to the altar, on which he laid the tiara as a sign of the renunciation of human glory and power in keeping with the renewed spirit of the council. It was announced that the tiara would be sold and the money obtained would be given to charity. The purchasers arranged for it to be displayed as a gift to American Catholics in the crypt of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.
In 1968, with the motu proprio "Pontificalis Domus", he discontinued most of the ceremonial functions of the old Roman nobility at the court (reorganized as the household), save for the Prince Assistants to the Papal Throne. He also abolished the Palatine Guard and the Noble Guard, leaving the Pontifical Swiss Guard as the sole military order of the Vatican.
Paul VI decided to continue Vatican II (canon law dictates that a council is suspended at the death of a pope), and brought it to completion in 1965. Faced with conflicting interpretations and controversies, he directed the implementation of its reform goals.
During Vatican II, the Council Fathers avoided statements which might anger Christians of other faiths. Cardinal Augustin Bea, the President of the Christian Unity Secretariat, always had the full support of Paul VI in his attempts to ensure that the Council language was friendly and open to the sensitivities of Protestant and Orthodox Churches, whom he had invited to all sessions at the request of Pope John XXIII. Bea also was strongly involved in the passage of "Nostra aetate", which regulates the Church's relations with the Jewish faith and members of other religions.
After his election as Bishop of Rome, Paul VI first met with the priests in his new diocese. He told them that in Milan he started a dialogue with the modern world and asked them to seek contact with all people from all walks of life. Six days after his election he announced that he would continue Vatican II and convened the opening to take place on 29 September 1963. In a radio address to the world, Paul VI recalled the uniqueness of his predecessors, the strength of Pius XI, the wisdom and intelligence of Pius XII and the love of John XXIII. As "his pontifical goals" he mentioned the continuation and completion of Vatican II, the reform of the Canon Law and improved social peace and justice in the world. The Unity of Christianity would be central to his activities.
The pope re-opened the Ecumenical Council on 29 September 1963 giving it four key priorities:
He reminded the council fathers that only a few years earlier Pope Pius XII had issued the encyclical "Mystici corporis" about the mystical body of Christ. He asked them not to repeat or create new dogmatic definitions but to explain in simple words how the Church sees itself. He thanked the representatives of other Christian communities for their attendance and asked for their forgiveness if the Catholic Church is guilty for the separation. He also reminded the Council Fathers that many bishops from the east could not attend because the governments in the East did not permit their journeys.
Paul VI opened the third period on 14 September 1964, telling the Council Fathers that he viewed the text about the Church as the most important document to come out from the council. As the Council discussed the role of bishops in the papacy, Paul VI issued an explanatory note confirming the primacy of the papacy, a step which was viewed by some as meddling in the affairs of the Council American bishops pushed for a speedy resolution on religious freedom, but Paul VI insisted this to be approved together with related texts such as ecumenism. The Pope concluded the session on 21 November 1964, with the formal pronouncement of Mary as Mother of the Church.
Between the third and fourth sessions the pope announced reforms in the areas of Roman Curia, revision of Canon Law, regulations for mixed marriages involving several faiths, and birth control issues. He opened the final session of the council, concelebrating with bishops from countries where the Church was persecuted. Several texts proposed for his approval had to be changed. But all texts were finally agreed upon. The council was concluded on 8 December 1965, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
In the final session of the council, Paul VI announced that he would open the canonisation processes of his immediate predecessors: Pope Pius XII and Pope John XXIII.
According to Pope Paul VI, "the most characteristic and ultimate purpose of the teachings of the Council" is the universal call to holiness: "all the faithful of Christ of whatever rank or status, are called to the fullness of the Christian life and to the perfection of charity; by this holiness as such a more human manner of living is promoted in this earthly society." This teaching is found in Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, promulgated by Paul VI on 21 November 1964.
On 14 September 1965, he established the Synod of Bishops as a permanent institution of the Church and an advisory body to the papacy. Several meetings were held on specific issues during his pontificate, such as the Synod of Bishops on evangelisation in the modern world, which started 9 September 1974.
Pope Paul VI knew the Roman Curia well, having worked there for a generation from 1922 to 1954. He implemented his reforms in stages. On 1 March 1968, he issued a regulation, a process that had been initiated by Pius XII and continued by John XXIII. On 28 March, with "Pontificalis Domus", and in several additional Apostolic Constitutions in the following years, he revamped the entire Curia, which included reduction of bureaucracy, streamlining of existing congregations and a broader representation of non-Italians in the curial positions.
On 6 August 1966, Paul VI asked all bishops to submit their resignations to the pontiff by their 75th birthday. They were not required to do so but "earnestly requested of their own free will to tender their resignation from office". He extended this requirement to all cardinals in "Ingravescentem aetatem" on 21 November 1970, with the further provision that cardinals would relinquish their offices in the Roman Curia upon reaching their 80th birthday. These retirement rules enabled the Pope to fill several positions with younger prelates and reduce the Italian domination of the Roman Curia. His 1970 measures also revolutionised papal elections by restricting the right to vote in papal conclaves to cardinals who had not yet reached their 80th birthday, a class known since then as "cardinal electors". This reduced the power of the Italians and the Curia in the next conclave. Some senior cardinals objected to losing their voting privilege, without effect.
Paul VI's measures also limited the number of cardinal-electors to a maximum of 120, a rule disregarded on several occasions by his successors.
Some prelates questioned whether he should not apply these retirement rules to himself. When Pope Paul was asked towards the end of his papacy whether he would retire at age 80, he replied "Kings can abdicate, Popes cannot."
Reform of the liturgy, an aim of the 20th-century liturgical movement, mainly in France and Germany, was officially recognised as legitimate by Pius XII in his encyclical "Mediator Dei". During his pontificate, he eased regulations on the obligatory use of Latin in Catholic liturgies, permitting some use of vernacular languages during baptisms, funerals and other events. In 1951 and 1955, he revised the Easter liturgies, most notably that of the Easter Triduum. The Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) gave some directives in its document "Sacrosanctum Concilium" for a general revision of the Roman Missal. Within four years of the close of the council, Paul VI promulgated in 1969 the first postconciliar edition, which included three new Eucharistic Prayers in addition to the Roman Canon, until then the only anaphora in the Roman Rite. Use of vernacular languages was expanded by decision of episcopal conferences, not by papal command. In addition to his revision of the Roman Missal, Pope Paul VI issued instructions in 1964, 1967, 1968, 1969 and 1970, reforming other elements of the liturgy of the Roman Church.
These reforms were not universally welcomed. Questions were raised about the need to replace the 1962 Roman Missal, which, though decreed on 23 June 1962 became available only in 1963, a few months before the Second Vatican Council's "Sacrosanctum Concilium" decree ordered that it be altered; but attachment to it led to open ruptures, of which the most widely known is that of Marcel Lefebvre. Pope John Paul II granted bishops the right to authorise use of the 1962 Missal ("Quattuor abhinc annos" and "Ecclesia Dei") and in 2007 Pope Benedict XVI, while stating that the Mass of Paul VI and John Paul II "obviously is and continues to be the normal Form – the "Forma ordinaria" – of the Eucharistic Liturgy", gave general permission to priests of the Latin Church to use either the 1962 Missal or the post-Vatican II Missal both privately and, under certain conditions, publicly.
To Paul VI, a dialogue with all of humanity was essential not as an aim but as a means to find the truth. Dialogue according to Paul, is based on full equality of all participants. This equality is rooted in the common search for the truth. He said: "Those who have the truth, are in a position as not having it, because they are forced to search for it every day in a deeper and more perfect way. Those who do not have it, but search for it with their whole heart, have already found it."
In 1964, Paul VI created a Secretariat for non-Christians, later renamed the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and a year later a new Secretariat (later Pontifical Council) for Dialogue with Non-Believers. This latter was in 1993 incorporated by Pope John Paul II in the Pontifical Council for Culture, which he had established in 1982. In 1971, Paul VI created a papal office for economic development and catastrophic assistance. To foster common bonds with all persons of good will, he decreed an annual peace day to be celebrated on January first of every year. Trying to improve the condition of Christians behind the Iron Curtain, Paul VI engaged in dialogue with Communist authorities at several levels, receiving Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko and Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet Nikolai Podgorny in 1966 and 1967 in the Vatican. The situation of the Church in Hungary, Poland and Romania, improved during his pontificate.
Pope Paul VI became the first pope to visit six continents. He travelled more widely than any of his predecessors, earning the nickname "the Pilgrim Pope". He visited the Holy Land in 1964 and participated in Eucharistic Congresses in Bombay, India and Bogotá, Colombia. In 1966, he was twice denied permission to visit Poland for the 1,000th anniversary of the introduction of Christianity in Poland. In 1967, he visited the shrine of Our Lady of Fátima in Portugal on the fiftieth anniversary of the apparitions there. He undertook a pastoral visit to Uganda in 1969, the first by a reigning pope to Africa. On 27 November 1970 he was the target of an assassination attempt at Manila International Airport in the Philippines. He was only lightly stabbed by Benjamín Mendoza y Amor Flores, who was subdued by the pope's personal bodyguard and travel organiser, Monsignor Paul Marcinkus. Pope Paul VI became the first reigning pontiff to visit the Western hemisphere when he addressed the United Nations in New York City in October 1965. As the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War was escalating, Paul VI pleaded for peace before the UN:
Shortly after arriving at the airport in Manila, Philippines on 27 November 1970, the Pope, closely followed by President Ferdinand Marcos and personal aide Pasquale Macchi, who was private secretary to Pope Paul VI, were encountered suddenly by a crew-cut, cassock-clad man who tried to attack the Pope with a knife. Macchi pushed the man away; police identified the would-be assassin as Benjamin Mendoza y Amor, 35, of La Paz, Bolivia. Mendoza was an artist living in the Philippines. The Pontiff continued with his trip and thanked Marcos and Macchi, who both had moved to protect him during the attack.
Like his predecessor Pius XII, Paul VI put much emphasis on the dialogue with all nations of the world through establishing diplomatic relations. The number of foreign embassies accredited to the Vatican doubled during his pontificate. This was a reflection of a new understanding between Church and State, which had been formulated first by Pius XI and Pius XII but decreed by Vatican II. The pastoral constitution "Gaudium et spes" stated that the Catholic Church is not bound to any form of government and willing to co-operate with all forms. The Church maintained its right to select bishops on its own without any interference by the State.
Pope Paul VI sent one of 73 Apollo 11 Goodwill Messages to NASA for the historic first lunar landing. The message still rests on the lunar surface today. It has the words of the 8th Psalm and the pope wrote, "To the Glory of the name of God who gives such power to men, we ardently pray for this wonderful beginning."
Pope Paul VI made extensive contributions to Mariology (theological teaching and devotions) during his pontificate. He attempted to present the Marian teachings of the Church in view of her new ecumenical orientation. In his inaugural encyclical "Ecclesiam suam" (section below), the pope called Mary the ideal of Christian perfection. He regards "devotion to the Mother of God as of paramount importance in living the life of the Gospel."
Paul VI authored seven encyclicals.
"Ecclesiam suam" was given at St. Peter's, Rome, on the Feast of the Transfiguration, 6 August 1964, the second year of his Pontificate. It is considered an important document, identifying the Catholic Church with the Body of Christ. A later Council document "Lumen Gentium" stated that the Church subsists in the Body of Christ, raising questions as to the difference between "is" and "subsists in". Paul VI appealed to "all people of good will" and discussed necessary dialogues within the Church and between the Churches and with atheism.
The encyclical "Mense maio" (from 29 April 1965) focused on the Virgin Mary, to whom traditionally the month of May is dedicated as the Mother of God. Paul VI writes that Mary is rightly to be regarded as the way by which people are led to Christ. Therefore, the person who encounters Mary cannot help but encounter Christ.
On 3 September 1965, Paul VI issued "Mysterium fidei", on the mystery of the faith. He opposed relativistic notions which would have given the Eucharist a symbolic character only. The Church, according to Paul VI, has no reason to give up the deposit of faith in such a vital matter.
"Populorum progressio", released on 26 March 1967, dealt with the topic of "the development of peoples" and that the economy of the world should serve mankind and not just the few. It touches on a variety of traditional principles of Catholic social teaching: the right to a just wage; the right to security of employment; the right to fair and reasonable working conditions; the right to join a union and strike as a last resort; and the universal destination of resources and goods.
In addition, "Populorum progressio" opines that real peace in the world is conditional on justice. He repeats his demands expressed in Bombay in 1964 for a large-scale World Development Organization, as a matter of international justice and peace. He rejected notions to instigate revolution and force in changing economic conditions.
"Sacerdotalis caelibatus" (Latin for "Of the celibate priesthood"), promulgated on 24 June 1967, defends the Catholic Church's tradition of priestly celibacy in the West. This encyclical was written in the wake of Vatican II, when the Catholic Church was questioning and revising many long-held practices. Priestly celibacy is considered a discipline rather than dogma, and some had expected that it might be relaxed. In response to these questions, the Pope reaffirms the discipline as a long-held practice with special importance in the Catholic Church. The encyclical "Sacerdotalis caelibatus" from 24 June 1967, confirms the traditional Church teaching, that celibacy is an ideal state and continues to be mandatory for Catholic priests. Celibacy symbolises the reality of the kingdom of God amid modern society. The priestly celibacy is closely linked to the sacramental priesthood. However, during his pontificate Paul VI was permissive in allowing bishops to grant laicisation of priests who wanted to leave the sacerdotal state. John Paul II changed this policy in 1980 and the 1983 Code of Canon Law made it explicit that only the pope can in exceptional circumstances grant laicisation.
Of his seven encyclicals, Pope Paul VI is best known for his encyclical "Humanae vitae" ("Of Human Life", subtitled "On the Regulation of Birth"), published on 25 July 1968. In this encyclical he reaffirmed the Catholic Church's traditional view of marriage and marital relations and its condemnation of artificial birth control. There were two Papal committees and numerous independent experts looking into the latest advancement of science and medicine on the question of artificial birth control. which were noted by the Pope in his encyclical The expressed views of Paul VI reflected the teachings of his predecessors, especially Pius XI, Pius XII and John XXIII and never changed, as he repeatedly stated them in the first few years of his Pontificate.
To the pope as to all his predecessors, marital relations are much more than a union of two people. They constitute a union of the loving couple with a loving God, in which the two persons create a new person materially, while God completes the creation by adding the soul. For this reason, Paul VI teaches in the first sentence of "Humanae vitae" that the transmission of human life is a most serious role in which married people collaborate freely and responsibly with God the Creator. This divine partnership, according to Paul VI, does not allow for arbitrary human decisions, which may limit divine providence. The Pope does not paint an overly romantic picture of marriage: marital relations are a source of great joy, but also of difficulties and hardships. The question of human procreation exceeds in the view of Paul VI specific disciplines such as biology, psychology, demography or sociology. The reason for this, according to Paul VI, is that married love takes its origin from God, who "is love". From this basic dignity, he defines his position:
The reaction to the encyclical's continued prohibitions of artificial birth control was very mixed. In Italy, Spain, Portugal and Poland, the encyclical was welcomed. In Latin America, much support developed for the Pope and his encyclical. As World Bank President Robert McNamara declared at the 1968 Annual Meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group that countries permitting birth control practices would get preferential access to resources, doctors in La Paz, Bolivia called it insulting that money should be exchanged for the conscience of a Catholic nation. In Colombia, Cardinal archbishop Aníbal Muñoz Duque declared, if American conditionality undermines Papal teachings, we prefer not to receive one cent. The Senate of Bolivia passed a resolution stating that "Humanae vitae" could be discussed in its implications for individual consciences, but was of greatest significance because the papal document defended the rights of developing nations to determine their own population policies. The Jesuit Journal "Sic" dedicated one edition to the encyclical with supportive contributions.
Paul VI was concerned but not surprised by the negative reaction in Western Europe and the United States. He fully anticipated this reaction to be a temporary one: "Don't be afraid", he reportedly told Edouard Gagnon on the eve of the encyclical, "in twenty years time they'll call me a prophet." His biography on the Vatican's website notes his reaffirmations of priestly celibacy and the traditional teaching on contraception that "[t]he controversies over these two pronouncements tended to overshadow the last years of his pontificate". Pope John Paul II later reaffirmed and expanded upon "Humanae vitae" with the encyclical "Evangelium vitae".
By taking the name of Paul, the newly-elected Pope, showed his intention to take the Apostle Paul as a model for his papal ministry. In 1967, when he reorganised the Roman curia, Pope Paul renamed the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith as the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. Pope Paul was the first pope in history to make apostolic journeys to other continents and visited six continents. The Pope chose the theme of evangelism for the synod of bishops in 1974. From materials generated by that synod, he composed the 1975 apostolic exhortation on evangelisation, Evangelii nuntiandi.
After the council, Paul VI contributed in two ways to the continued growth of ecumenical dialogue. The separated brothers and sisters, as he called them, were not able to contribute to the council as invited observers. After the council, many of them took initiative to seek out their Catholic counterparts and the Pope in Rome, who welcomed such visits. But the Catholic Church itself recognised from the many previous ecumenical encounters, that much needed to be done within, to be an open partner for ecumenism. To those who are entrusted the highest and deepest truth and therefore, so Paul VI, believed that he had the most difficult part to communicate. Ecumenical dialogue, in the view of Paul VI, requires from a Catholic the whole person: one's entire reason, will, and heart. Paul VI, like Pius XII before him, was reluctant to give in on a lowest possible point. And yet, Paul felt compelled to admit his ardent Gospel-based desire to be everything to everybody and to help all people Being the successor of Peter, he felt the words of Christ, "Do you love me more" like a sharp knife penetrating to the marrow of his soul. These words meant to Paul VI love without limits, and they underscore the Church's fundamental approach to ecumenism.
Paul VI visited the Orthodox Patriarchs of Jerusalem and Constantinople in 1964 and 1967. He was the first pope since the ninth century to visit the East, labelling the Eastern Churches as sister Churches. He was also the first pope in centuries to meet the heads of various Eastern Orthodox faiths. Notably, his meeting with Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I in 1964 in Jerusalem led to rescinding the excommunications of the Great Schism, which took place in 1054.
This was a significant step towards restoring communion between Rome and Constantinople. It produced the Catholic-Orthodox Joint declaration of 1965, which was read out on 7 December 1965, simultaneously at a public meeting of the Second Vatican Council in Rome and at a special ceremony in Istanbul. The declaration did not end the schism, but showed a desire for greater reconciliation between the two churches. In May 1973, the Coptic Patriarch Shenouda III of Alexandria visited the Vatican, where he met three times with Pope Paul VI. A common declaration and a joint Creed issued after the visit proclaimed unity in a number of theological issues, though also that other theological differences "since the year 451" "cannot be ignored" while both traditions work to a greater unity.
Paul VI was the first pope to receive an Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, Michael Ramsey, in official audience as Head of Church, after the private audience visit of Archbishop Geoffrey Fisher to Pope John XXIII on 2 December 1960. Ramsey met Paul three times during his visit and opened the Anglican Centre in Rome to increase their mutual knowledge. He praised Paul VI and his contributions in the service of unity. Paul replied that "by entering into our house, you are entering your own house, we are happy to open our door and heart to you." The two Church leaders signed a common declaration, which put an end to the disputes of the past and outlined a common agenda for the future.
Cardinal Augustin Bea, the head of the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity, added at the end of the visit, "Let us move forward in Christ. God wants it. Humanity is waiting for it." Unmoved by a harsh condemnation by the Congregation of Faith on mixed marriages precisely at this time of the visit, Paul VI and Ramsey appointed a preparatory commission which was to put the common agenda into practice on such issues as mixed marriages. This resulted in a joint Malta declaration, the first joint agreement on the Creed since the Reformation. Paul VI was a good friend of the Anglican Church, which he described as "our beloved sister Church". This description was unique to Paul and not used by later popes.
In 1965, Paul VI decided on the creation of a joint working group with the World Council of Churches to map all possible avenues of dialogue and co-operation. In the following three years, eight sessions were held which resulted in many joint proposals. It was proposed to work closely together in areas of social justice and development and Third World Issues such as hunger and poverty. On the religious side, it was agreed to share together in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, to be held every year. The joint working group was to prepare texts which were to be used by all Christians. On 19 July 1968, the meeting of the World Council of Churches took place in Uppsala, Sweden, which Pope Paul called a sign of the times. He sent his blessing in an ecumenical manner: "May the Lord bless everything you do for the case of Christian Unity." The World Council of Churches decided on including Catholic theologians in its committees, provided they have the backing of the Vatican.
The Lutherans were the first Protestant Church offering a dialogue to the Catholic Church in September 1964 in Reykjavík, Iceland. It resulted in joint study groups of several issues. The dialogue with the Methodist Church began October 1965, after its representatives officially applauded remarkable changes, friendship and co-operation of the past five years. The Reformed Churches entered four years later into a dialogue with the Catholic Church. The President of the Lutheran World Federation and member of the central committee of the World Council of Churches Fredrik A. Schiotz stated during the 450th anniversary of the Reformation, that earlier commemorations were viewed almost as a triumph. Reformation should be celebrated as a thanksgiving to God, his truth and his renewed life. He welcomed the announcement of Pope Paul VI to celebrate the 1900th anniversary of the death of the Apostle Peter and Apostle Paul, and promised the participation and co-operation in the festivities.
Paul VI supported the new-found harmony and co-operation with Protestants on so many levels. When Cardinal Augustin Bea went to see him for permission for a joint Catholic-Protestant translation of the Bible with Protestant Bible societies, the pope walked towards him and exclaimed, "as far as the cooperation with Bible societies is concerned, I am totally in favour." He issued a formal approval on Pentecost 1967, the feast on which the Holy Spirit descended on the Christians, overcoming all linguistic difficulties, according to Christian tradition.
Paul VI beatified a total of 38 individuals in his pontificate and he canonised 84 saints in 21 causes. Among the beatifications included Maximilian Kolbe (1971) and the Korean Martyrs (1968). He canonised saints such as Nikola Tavelić (1970) and the Ugandan Martyrs (1964).
Pope Paul VI held six consistories between 1965 and 1977 that raised 143 men to the cardinalate in his fifteen years as pope:
The next three popes were created cardinals by him. His immediate successor, Albino Luciani, who took the name John Paul I, was created a cardinal in the consistory of 5 March 1973. Karol Józef Wojtyła (later Pope John Paul II) was created a cardinal in the consistory of 26 June 1967. Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) was created a cardinal in the small four-appointment consistory of 27 June 1977 that was the pope's last.
With the six consistories, Paul VI continued the internationalisation policies started by Pius XII in 1946 and continued by John XXIII. In his 1976 consistory, five of twenty cardinals originated from Africa, one of them a son of a tribal chief with fifty wives. Several prominent Latin Americans like Eduardo Francisco Pironio of Argentina; Luis Aponte Martinez of Puerto Rico, Eugênio de Araújo Sales and Aloisio Lorscheider from Brazil were also elevated by him. There were voices within the Church at the time saying that the European period of the Church was coming to a close, a view shared by Britain's Cardinal Basil Hume. At the same time, the members of the College of Cardinals lost some of their previous influences, after Paul VI decreed, that membership by bishops in committees and other bodies of the Roman Curia would not be limited to cardinals. The age limit of eighty years imposed by the Pope, a numerical increase of Cardinals by almost 100%, and a reform of the formal dress of the "Princes of the Church" further contributed to a service-oriented perception of Cardinals under his pontificate. The increased number of Cardinals from the Third World and the papal emphasis on related issues was nevertheless welcomed by many in Western Europe.
In 1976 Paul VI became the first pontiff in the modern era to deny the accusation of homosexuality. On 29 December 1975, the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a document entitled "Persona Humana: Declaration on Certain Questions concerning Sexual Ethics", that reaffirmed Church teaching that pre- or extramarital sex, homosexual activity, and masturbation are sinful acts. In response, Roger Peyrefitte, who had already written in two of his books that Paul VI had a longtime homosexual relationship, repeated his charges in a magazine interview with a French gay magazine that, when reprinted in Italian, brought the rumours to a wider public and caused an uproar. He said that the pope was a hypocrite who had a longtime sexual relationship with an actor. Widespread rumours identified the actor as Paolo Carlini, who had a small part in the Audrey Hepburn film "Roman Holiday" (1953). In a brief address to a crowd of approximately 20,000 in St Peters Square on 18 April, Paul VI called the charges "horrible and slanderous insinuations" and appealed for prayers on his behalf. Special prayers for the pope were said in all Italian Catholic churches in "a day of consolation". The charges have resurfaced periodically. In 1994, Franco Bellegrandi, a former Vatican honour chamberlain and correspondent for the Vatican newspaper "L'Osservatore Romano", alleged that Paul VI had been blackmailed and had promoted other gay men to positions of power within the Vatican. In 2006, the newspaper "L'Espresso" confirmed the blackmail story based on the private papers of police commander General Giorgio Manes. It reported that Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro had been asked to help.
Paul VI had been in good health prior to his pontifical election. His health following his papal election took a turn when he needed to undergo a serious operation to treat an enlarged prostate. The pope procrastinated in this but relented in November 1967; he was operated on a simple table in an improvised operating theatre in the papal apartments by a team led by Professor Pietro Valdoni. The Vatican was delicate in their description of what the pope underwent and referred to it as "the malaise from which the Holy Father had been suffering for weeks". As a result of the delay in having the operation, the pope had to wear a catheter for a period following the operation and still was by December.
The pope discussed business from his bed about 48 hours after the operation with Cardinal Amleto Cicognani and at that point was off intravenous feeding in favour of orange juice and hot broth. Cardinal Cicognani said the pope was "in good general condition" and that he spoke in a "clear and firm voice". The pope's two brothers also visited him at his bedside following a "tranquil night" for the pope. The doctors also reported the pope's condition to have been "excellent".
On 16 March 1978, former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro—a friend of Paul VI's from his FUCI student days—was kidnapped by a far-left Italian terrorist group known as the Red Brigades. The kidnapping kept the world and the pope in suspense for 55 days. On 20 April, Moro directly appealed to the pope to intervene as Pope Pius XII had intervened in the case of Professor Giuliano Vassalli in the same situation. The eighty-year-old Paul VI wrote a letter to the Red Brigades:
Some in the Italian government accused the pope of treating the Red Brigades too kindly. Paul VI continued looking for ways to pay ransom for Moro, but his efforts were fruitless. On 9 May, the bullet-riddled body of Aldo Moro was found in a car in Rome. Pope Paul VI later celebrated his State Funeral Mass.
Pope Paul VI left the Vatican to go to the papal summer residence, Castel Gandolfo, on 14 July 1978, visiting on the way the tomb of Cardinal Giuseppe Pizzardo, who had introduced him to the Vatican half a century earlier. Although he was sick, he agreed to see the new Italian President Sandro Pertini for over two hours. In the evening he watched a Western on TV, happy only when he saw "horses, the most beautiful animals that God had created." He had breathing problems and needed oxygen. On Sunday, at the Feast of the Transfiguration, he was tired, but wanted to say the Angelus. He was neither able nor permitted to do so and instead stayed in bed, his temperature rising.
From his bed he participated in Sunday Mass at 18:00. After communion, the pope suffered a massive heart attack, after which he continued to live for three hours. On 6 August 1978 at 21:41 Paul VI died in Castel Gandolfo. According to the terms of his will, he was buried in the "true earth" and therefore, he does not have an ornate sarcophagus but is buried in a grave beneath the floor of Saint Peter's Basilica, though in an area of the basilica's crypt near the tombs of other popes.
His position mirrors the statements attributed to Pius XI: "a Pope may suffer but he must be able to function" and by Pius XII. Pope Paul, reflecting on Hamlet, wrote the following in a private note in 1978:
His confessor, the Jesuit Paolo Dezza, said that "this pope is a man of great joy" and If Paul VI was not a saint, when he was elected Pope, he became one during his pontificate. I was able to witness not only with what energy and dedication he toiled for Christ and the Church but also and above all, how much he suffered for Christ and the Church. I always admired not only his deep inner resignation but also his constant abandonment to divine providence."
The diocesan process for beatification for Paul VI—titled then as a Servant of God—opened in Rome on 11 May 1993 under Pope John Paul II after the "nihil obstat" ("nothing against") was declared the previous 18 March. Cardinal Camillo Ruini opened the diocesan process in Rome. The title of Servant of God is the first of four steps toward possible canonisation. The diocesan process concluded its business on 18 March 1998.
On 20 December 2012, Pope Benedict XVI, in an audience with the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints Angelo Amato, declared that the late pontiff had lived a life of heroic virtue, which means that he could be called "Venerable".
On 12 December 2013, Vatican officials comprising a medical panel approved a supposed miracle that was attributed to the intercession of the late pontiff, which was the curing of an unborn child in California, U.S.A in the 1990s. This miracle was investigated in California from 7 July 2003 until 12 July 2004. It was expected that Pope Francis would approve the miracle in the near future, thus, warranting the beatification of the late pontiff. In February 2014, it was reported that the consulting Vatican theologians to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints recognised the miracle attributed to the late pontiff on 18 February. On 24 April 2014, it was reported in the Italian magazine "Credere" that the late pope could possibly be beatified on 19 October 2014. This report from the magazine further stated that several cardinals and bishops would meet on 5 May to confirm the miracle that had previously been approved, and then present it to Pope Francis who may sign the decree for beatification shortly after that. The Congregation for the Causes of Saints' cardinal and bishop members held that meeting and positively concluded that the healing was indeed a miracle that could be attributed to the late pope. The matter would then be presented by the Cardinal Prefect to the pope for approval.
The second miracle required for his canonisation was reported to have occurred in 2014 not long after his beatification occurred. The vice-postulator Antonio Lanzoni suggested that the canonisation could have been approved in the near future which would allow for the canonisation sometime in spring 2016; this did not materialise because the investigations were still ongoing at that stage. It was further reported in January 2017 that Pope Francis was considering canonising Paul VI either in that year, or in 2018 (marking 40 years since the late pope's death), without the second miracle required for sainthood. This too was proven false since the miracle from 2014 was being presented to the competent Vatican officials for assessment. His liturgical feast day is celebrated on the date of his birth, 26 September, rather than the day of his death as is usual since the latter falls on the Feast of the Transfiguration.
The final miracle needed for the late pope's canonisation was investigated in Verona and was closed on 11 March 2017. The miracle in question involves the healing of an unborn girl, Amanda Maria Paola (born 25 December 2014), after her parents (Vanna and Alberto) went to the Santuario delle Grazie in Brescia to pray for the late pope's intercession the previous 29 October, just ten days after Paul VI was beatified. The miracle regarding Amanda was the fact that she had survived for months despite the fact that the placenta was broken. On 23 September, a month before the beatification, Amanda's mother Vanna Pironato (aged 35) was hospitalised due to the premature rupture of the placenta, with doctors declaring her pregnancy to be at great risk. The documents regarding the alleged miracle are now in Rome awaiting approval; he shall be canonised should this healing be approved. Theologians advising the Congregation for the Causes of Saints voiced their approval to this miracle on 13 December 2017 (following the confirmation of doctors on 26 October) and have this direction on to the cardinal and bishop members of the C.C.S. who must vote on the cause also before taking it to Pope Francis for his approval. Brescian media reports the canonisation could take place in October 2018 to coincide with the synod on the youth. The cardinal and bishop members of the C.C.S. issued their unanimous approval to this miracle in their meeting held on 6 February 2018; La Stampa reported that the canonisation could be celebrated during the synod on the youth with a probable date of 21 October. Pope Francis confirmed that the canonisation would be approved and celebrated in 2018 in remarks made during a meeting with Roman priests on 14 February 2018. On 6 March 2018, the Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, speaking at a plenary meeting of the International Catholic Migration Commission in Rome, confirmed that Paul VI would be canonised in at the close of the synod on 28 October 2018. On 6 March, the pope confirmed the healing as a miracle, thereby approving Paul VI's canonisation; a consistory of cardinals on 19 May 2018 determined the official date for Paul VI's canonisation to be 14 October 2018.
The liturgical memorial is celebrated on 29 May, the day of his priestly ordination.
The pontificate of Paul VI continued the opening and internationalisation of the Church started under Pius XII. He implemented the reforms of John XXIII and Vatican II. Yet, unlike these popes, Paul VI faced criticism throughout his papacy from both traditionalists and liberals for steering a middle course during Vatican II and during the implementation of its reforms thereafter. He expressed a desire for peace during the Vietnam War.
On basic Church teachings, the pope was unwavering. On the tenth anniversary of "Humanae vitae", he reconfirmed this teaching. In his style and methodology, he was a disciple of Pius XII, whom he deeply revered. He suffered for the attacks on Pius XII for his alleged silences during the Holocaust. Pope Paul VI was said to have been less intellectually gifted than his predecessors: he was not credited with an encyclopaedic memory, nor a gift for languages, nor the brilliant writing style of Pius XII, nor did he have the charisma and outpouring love, sense of humor and human warmth of John XXIII. He took on himself the unfinished reform work of these two popes, bringing them diligently with great humility and common sense and without much fanfare to conclusion. In doing so, Paul VI saw himself following in the footsteps of the Apostle Paul, who, being torn to several directions, said, "I am attracted to two sides at once, because the Cross always divides."
Unlike his predecessors and successors, Paul VI refused to excommunicate opponents. He admonished but did not punish those with other views. The new theological freedoms which he fostered resulted in a pluralism of opinions and uncertainties among the faithful. New demands were voiced, which were taboo at the council: the reintegration of divorced Catholics, the sacramental character of the confession, and the role of women in the Church and its ministries. Conservatives complained, that "women wanted to be priests, priests wanted to get married, bishops became regional popes and theologians claimed absolute teaching authority. Protestants claimed equality, homosexuals and the divorced called for full acceptance." Changes such as the reorientation of the liturgy, alterations to the ordinary of the Mass, alterations to the liturgical calendar in the motu proprio "Mysterii Paschalis", and the relocation of the tabernacle were controversial among some Catholics.
While the total number of Catholics increased during the pontificate of Paul VI the number of priests did not keep up. In the United States at beginning of Paul's reign there were almost 1,600 priestly ordinations a year while that was nearly 900 a year at his death. The number of seminarians at the same time dropped by three quarters. More pronounced declines were evident in religious life where the number of sisters and brothers declined sharply. Infant baptisms began to decline almost at once after Paul's election and did not begin to recover until 1980. In the same period adult conversions to the Church declined by a third. While marriages increased annulments also increased but at a much greater rate. There was a 1322% increase in declarations of nullity between 1968 and 1970 alone. While 65% of US Catholics went to Sunday Mass in 1965 that had slipped to 40% by the time of Paul's death. Similar collapses occurred in other developed countries.
Paul VI did renounce many traditional symbols of the papacy and the Catholic Church; some of his changes to the papal dress were reversed by Pope Benedict XVI in the early 21st century. Refusing a Vatican army of colourful military uniforms from past centuries, he got rid of them. He became the first pope to visit five continents. Paul VI systematically continued and completed the efforts of his predecessors, to turn the Euro-centric Church into a Church of the world, by integrating the bishops from all continents in its government and in the Synods which he convened. His 6 August 1967 motu proprio "Pro Comperto Sane" opened the Roman Curia to the bishops of the world. Until then, only Cardinals could be leading members of the Curia.
Some critiqued Paul VI's decision; the newly created Synod of Bishops had an advisory role only and could not make decisions on their own, although the Council decided exactly that. During the pontificate of Paul VI, five such synods took place, and he is on record of implementing all their decisions. Related questions were raised about the new National Bishop Conferences, which became mandatory after Vatican II. Others questioned his Ostpolitik and contacts with Communism and the deals he engaged in for the faithful.
The pope clearly suffered from the responses within the Church to "Humanae vitae". While most regions and bishops supported the pontiff, a small but important part of them especially in the Netherlands, Canada, and Germany openly disagreed with the pope, which deeply wounded him for the rest of his life. When Patrick O'Boyle, the Cardinal Archbishop of Washington, DC, disciplined several priests for publicly dissenting from this teaching, the pope encouraged him. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24028 |
Peptide
Peptides (from Greek language πεπτός, "peptós" "digested"; derived from πέσσειν, "péssein" "to digest") are short chains of between two and fifty amino acids, linked by peptide bonds. Chains of less than ten or fifteen amino acids are called oligopeptides, and include dipeptides, tripeptides, and tetrapeptides.
A polypeptide is a longer, continuous, unbranched peptide chain of up to approximately fifty amino acids. Hence, peptides fall under the broad chemical classes of biological polymers and oligomers, alongside nucleic acids, oligosaccharides, polysaccharides, and others.
A polypeptide that contains more than approximately fifty amino acids is known as a protein. Proteins consist of one or more polypeptides arranged in a biologically functional way, often bound to ligands such as coenzymes and cofactors, or to another protein or other macromolecule such as DNA or RNA, or to complex macromolecular assemblies.
Amino acids that have been incorporated into peptides are termed residues. A water molecule is released during formation of each amide bond. All peptides except cyclic peptides have an N-terminal (amine group) and C-terminal (carboxyl group) residue at the end of the peptide (as shown for the tetrapeptide in the image).
Many kinds of peptides are known. They have been classified or categorized according to their sources and functions. According to the Handbook of Biologically Active Peptides, some groups of peptides include plant peptides, bacterial/antibiotic peptides, fungal peptides, invertebrate peptides, amphibian/skin peptides, venom peptides, cancer/anticancer peptides, vaccine peptides, immune/inflammatory peptides, brain peptides, endocrine peptides, ingestive peptides, gastrointestinal peptides, cardiovascular peptides, renal peptides, respiratory peptides, opiate peptides, neurotrophic peptides, and blood–brain peptides.
Some ribosomal peptides are subject to proteolysis. These function, typically in higher organisms, as hormones and signaling molecules. Some organisms produce peptides as antibiotics, such as microcins and bacteriocins.
Peptides frequently have post-translational modifications such as phosphorylation, hydroxylation, sulfonation, palmitoylation, glycosylation, and disulfide formation. In general, peptides are linear, although lariat structures have been observed. More exotic manipulations do occur, such as racemization of L-amino acids to D-amino acids in platypus venom.
Nonribosomal peptides are assembled by enzymes, not the ribosome. A common non-ribosomal peptide is glutathione, a component of the antioxidant defenses of most aerobic organisms. Other nonribosomal peptides are most common in unicellular organisms, plants, and fungi and are synthesized by modular enzyme complexes called "nonribosomal peptide synthetases".
These complexes are often laid out in a similar fashion, and they can contain many different modules to perform a diverse set of chemical manipulations on the developing product. These peptides are often cyclic and can have highly complex cyclic structures, although linear nonribosomal peptides are also common. Since the system is closely related to the machinery for building fatty acids and polyketides, hybrid compounds are often found. The presence of oxazoles or thiazoles often indicates that the compound was synthesized in this fashion.
Peptide fragments refer to fragments of proteins that are used to identify or quantify the source protein. Often these are the products of enzymatic degradation performed in the laboratory on a controlled sample, but can also be forensic or paleontological samples that have been degraded by natural effects.
The peptide families in this section are ribosomal peptides, usually with hormonal activity. All of these peptides are synthesized by cells as longer "propeptides" or "proproteins" and truncated prior to exiting the cell. They are released into the bloodstream where they perform their signaling functions.
Several terms related to peptides have no strict length definitions, and there is often overlap in their usage.
Peptides of defined length are named using IUPAC numerical multiplier prefixes. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24029 |
Positron emission tomography
Positron emission tomography (PET) is an imaging technique that uses radioactive substances to visualize and measure metabolic processes in the body. PET is mainly used in the area of medical imaging for detecting or measuring changes in physiological activities like metabolism, blood flow, regional chemical composition, and absorption, and therefore, also called a functional imaging technique.
Since this PET technique uses radioactive materials (also known as a tracer or radio-tracer) for imaging, it is generally categorized within the field of nuclear medicine. A tracer is injected into the body, which gets trapped within the tissues of interest. The unstable nucleus of radio-ligand emit positrons, which combine with neighbouring electrons to produce gamma rays in the opposite direction at 180 degrees to each other. These gamma rays are detected by the ring of detector placed within the donut-shaped body of the scanner. The energy and location of these gamma rays are recorded and used by a computer program to reconstruct three-dimensional (3D) images of tracer concentration within the body.
In modern PET computed tomography scanners, PET images are often reconstructed with the aid of a computed tomography X-ray scan performed on the patient during the same session, in the same machine. Different tracers are used for various imaging purposes, depending on the target process within the body. For example, [18F]FDG is commonly used to detect cancer, [18F]NaF is widely used for detecting bone formation, and [15O]H2O is used to measure blood flow.
One of the disadvantages of PET scanners is its operating cost. It can cost up to $8.2 million to set up a complete PET scan unit, and well over a million to obtain approximately 3000 scans per year, depending upon the local cost of living.
PET is both a medical and research tool used in pre-clinical and clinical settings. It is used heavily in the imaging of tumours and the search for metastases within the field of clinical oncology, and for the clinical diagnosis of certain diffuse brain diseases such as those causing various types of dementias. PET is a valuable research tool to learn and enhance our knowledge of the normal human brain, heart function, and support drug development. PET is also used in pre-clinical studies using animals. It allows repeated investigations into the same subjects over time, where subjects can act as their own control and substantially reduces the numbers of animals required for a given study. This approach allows research studies to reduce the sample size needed while increasing the statistical quality of its results.
Physiological processes lead to anatomical changes in the body. Since PET is capable of detecting biochemical processes as well as expression of some proteins, PET can provide molecular-level information much before any anatomic changes are visible. PET scanning does this by using radiolabelled molecular probes that have different rates of uptake depending on the type and function of tissue involved. Regional tracer uptake in various anatomic structures can be visualized and relatively quantified in terms of injected positron emitter within a PET scan.
PET imaging is best performed using a dedicated PET scanner. It is also possible to acquire PET images using a conventional dual-head gamma camera fitted with a coincidence detector. The quality of gamma-camera PET imaging is lower, and the scans take longer to acquire. However, this method allows a low-cost on-site solution to institutions with low PET scanning demand. An alternative would be to refer these patients to another center or relying on a visit by a mobile scanner.
Alternative methods of medical imaging include single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), x-ray computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and ultrasound. SPECT is an imaging technique similar to PET that uses radioligands to detect molecules in the body. SPECT is less expensive and provides inferior image quality than PET.
PET scanning with the tracer fluorine-18 (18F) fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG), called [18F]FDG PET, is widely used in clinical oncology. FDG is a glucose analog that is taken up by glucose-using cells and phosphorylated by hexokinase (whose mitochondrial form is significantly elevated in rapidly growing malignant tumours). Metabolic trapping of the radioactive glucose molecule allows the PET scan to be utilized. The concentrations of imaged FDG tracer indicate tissue metabolic activity as it corresponds to the regional glucose uptake. [18F]FDG is used to explore the possibility of cancer spreading to other body sites (cancer metastasis). These [18F]FDG PET scans for detecting cancer metastasis are the most common in standard medical care (representing 90% of current scans). The same tracer may also be used for the diagnosis of types of dementia. Less often, other radioactive tracers, usually but not always labelled with fluorine-18, are used to image the tissue concentration of different kinds of molecules of interest inside the body.
A typical dose of FDG used in an oncological scan has an effective radiation dose of 7.6 mSv. Because the hydroxyl group that is replaced by fluorine-18 to generate FDG is required for the next step in glucose metabolism in all cells, no further reactions occur in FDG. Furthermore, most tissues (with the notable exception of liver and kidneys) cannot remove the phosphate added by hexokinase. This means that FDG is trapped in any cell that takes it up until it decays, since phosphorylated sugars, due to their ionic charge, cannot exit from the cell. This results in intense radiolabeling of tissues with high glucose uptake, such as the normal brain, liver, kidneys, and most cancers, which have a higher glucose uptake than most normal tissue due to the Warburg effect. As a result, FDG-PET can be used for diagnosis, staging, and monitoring treatment of cancers, particularly in Hodgkin's lymphoma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and lung cancer.
A few other isotopes and radiotracers are slowly being introduced into oncology for specific purposes. For example, 11C-labelled metomidate (11C-metomidate), has been used to detect tumours of adrenocortical origin. Also, FDOPA PET/CT (or F-18-DOPA PET/CT), has proven to be a more sensitive alternative to finding and also localizing pheochromocytoma than the MIBG scan.
Cardiology, atherosclerosis and vascular disease study: [18F]FDG PET can help in identifying hibernating myocardium. However, the cost-effectiveness of PET for this role versus SPECT is unclear. [18F]FDG PET imaging of atherosclerosis to detect patients at risk of stroke is also feasible. Also, it can help test the efficacy of novel anti-atherosclerosis therapies.
Imaging infections with molecular imaging technologies can improve diagnosis and treatment follow-up. Clinically, PET has been widely used to image bacterial infections using fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) to identify the infection-associated inflammatory response. Three different PET contrast agents have been developed to image bacterial infections in vivo are [18F]maltose, [18F]maltohexaose, and [18F]2-fluorodeoxysorbitol (FDS). FDS has the added benefit of being able to target only Enterobacteriaceae.
In pre-clinical trials, a new drug can be radiolabel and injected into animals. Such scans are referred to as biodistribution studies. The information regarding drug uptake, retention and elimination over time can be obtained quickly and cost-effectively compare to the older technique of killing and dissecting the animals. Commonly, drug occupancy at a purported site of action can be inferred indirectly by competition studies between unlabeled drug and radiolabeled compounds known apriori to bind with specificity to the site. A single radioligand can be used this way to test many potential drug candidates for the same target. A related technique involves scanning with radioligands that compete with an endogenous (naturally occurring) substance at a given receptor to demonstrate that a drug causes the release of the natural substance.
A miniature PE tomograph has been constructed that is small enough for a fully conscious and mobile rat to wear on its head while walking around. This RatCAP (Rat Conscious Animal PET) allows animals to be scanned without the confounding effects of anesthesia. PET scanners designed specifically for imaging rodents, often referred to as microPET, as well as scanners for small primates, are marketed for academic and pharmaceutical research. The scanners are based on microminiature scintillators and amplified avalanche photodiodes (APDs) through a system that uses single-chip silicon photomultipliers.
In 2018 the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine became the first veterinary center to employ a small clinical PET-scanner as a pet-PET scan for clinical (rather than research) animal diagnosis. Because of cost as well as the marginal utility of detecting cancer metastases in companion animals (the primary use of this modality), veterinary PET scanning is expected to be rarely available in the immediate future.
PET imaging has been used for imaging muscles and bones. [18F]FDG is the most commonly used tracer for imaging muscles, and [18F]NaF is the most widely used tracer for imaging bones.
PET is a feasible technique for studying skeletal muscles during exercises like walking. Also, PET can provide muscle activation data about deep-lying muscles (such as the vastus intermedialis and the gluteus minimus) compared to techniques like electromyography, which can be used only on superficial muscles directly under the skin. However, a disadvantage is that PET provides no timing information about muscle activation because it has to be measured after the exercise is completed. This is due to the time it takes for FDG to accumulate in the activated muscles.
Together with [18F]NaF, PET for Bone Imaging has been in use for 60 years for measuring regional bone metabolism and blood flow using static and dynamic scans. Researchers have recently started using [18F]NaF to study bone metastasis as well.
PET scanning is non-invasive, but it does involve exposure to ionizing radiation.
18F-FDG, which is now the standard radiotracer used for PET neuroimaging and cancer patient management, has an effective radiation dose of 14 mSv.
The amount of radiation in [18F]FDG is similar to the effective dose of spending one year in the American city of Denver, Colorado (12.4 mSv/year). For comparison, radiation dosage for other medical procedures range from 0.02 mSv for a chest x-ray and 6.5–8 mSv for a CT scan of the chest. Average civil aircrews are exposed to 3 mSv/year, and the whole body occupational dose limit for nuclear energy workers in the USA is 50mSv/year. For scale, see Orders of magnitude (radiation).
For PET-CT scanning, the radiation exposure may be substantial—around 23–26 mSv (for a 70 kg person—dose is likely to be higher for higher body weights).
Radionuclides used in PET scanning are typically isotopes with short half-lives such as carbon-11 (~20 min), nitrogen-13 (~10 min), oxygen-15 (~2 min), fluorine-18 (~110 min), gallium-68 (~67 min), zirconium-89 (~78.41 hours), or rubidium-82(~1.27 min). These radionuclides are incorporated either into compounds normally used by the body such as glucose (or glucose analogues), water, or ammonia, or into molecules that bind to receptors or other sites of drug action. Such labelled compounds are known as radiotracers. PET technology can be used to trace the biologic pathway of any compound in living humans (and many other species as well), provided it can be radiolabeled with a PET isotope. Thus, the specific processes that can be probed with PET are virtually limitless, and radiotracers for new target molecules and processes are continuing to be synthesized; as of this writing there are already dozens in clinical use and hundreds applied in research. At present, by far the most commonly used radiotracer in clinical PET scanning is fluorodeoxyglucose (also called [18F]FDG or fludeoxyglucose), an analogue of glucose that is labeled with fluorine-18. This radiotracer is used in essentially all scans for oncology and most scans in neurology, and thus makes up the large majority of all of the radiotracer (> 95%) used in PET and PET-CT scanning.
Due to the short half-lives of most positron-emitting radioisotopes, the radiotracers have traditionally been produced using a cyclotron in close proximity to the PET imaging facility. The half-life of fluorine-18 is long enough that radiotracers labeled with fluorine-18 can be manufactured commercially at offsite locations and shipped to imaging centers. Recently rubidium-82 generators have become commercially available. These contain strontium-82, which decays by electron capture to produce positron-emitting rubidium-82.
To conduct the scan, a short-lived radioactive tracer isotope is injected into the living subject (usually into blood circulation). Each tracer atom has been chemically incorporated into a biologically active molecule. There is a waiting period while the active molecule becomes concentrated in tissues of interest; then the subject is placed in the imaging scanner. The molecule most commonly used for this purpose is F-18 labeled fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG), a sugar, for which the waiting period is typically an hour. During the scan, a record of tissue concentration is made as the tracer decays.
As the radioisotope undergoes positron emission decay (also known as positive beta decay), it emits a positron, an antiparticle of the electron with opposite charge. The emitted positron travels in tissue for a short distance (typically less than 1 mm, but dependent on the isotope), during which time it loses kinetic energy, until it decelerates to a point where it can interact with an electron. The encounter annihilates both electron and positron, producing a pair of annihilation (gamma) photons moving in approximately opposite directions. These are detected when they reach a scintillator in the scanning device, creating a burst of light which is detected by photomultiplier tubes or silicon avalanche photodiodes (Si APD). The technique depends on simultaneous or coincident detection of the pair of photons moving in approximately opposite directions (they would be exactly opposite in their center of mass frame, but the scanner has no way to know this, and so has a built-in slight direction-error tolerance). Photons that do not arrive in temporal "pairs" (i.e. within a timing-window of a few nanoseconds) are ignored.
The most significant fraction of electron–positron annihilations results in two 511 keV gamma photons being emitted at almost 180 degrees to each other; hence, it is possible to localize their source along a straight line of coincidence (also called the line of response, or LOR). In practice, the LOR has a non-zero width as the emitted photons are not exactly 180 degrees apart. If the resolving time of the detectors is less than 500 picoseconds rather than about 10 nanoseconds, it is possible to localize the event to a segment of a chord, whose length is determined by the detector timing resolution. As the timing resolution improves, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the image will improve, requiring fewer events to achieve the same image quality. This technology is not yet common, but it is available on some new systems.
The raw data collected by a PET scanner are a list of 'coincidence events' representing near-simultaneous detection (typically, within a window of 6 to 12 nanoseconds of each other) of annihilation photons by a pair of detectors. Each coincidence event represents a line in space connecting the two detectors along which the positron emission occurred (i.e., the line of response (LOR)).
Analytical techniques, much like the reconstruction of computed tomography (CT) and single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) data, are commonly used, although the data set collected in PET is much poorer than CT, so reconstruction techniques are more difficult. Coincidence events can be grouped into projection images, called sinograms. The sinograms are sorted by the angle of each view and tilt (for 3D images). The sinogram images are analogous to the projections captured by computed tomography (CT) scanners, and can be reconstructed in a similar way. The statistics of data thereby obtained are much worse than those obtained through transmission tomography. A normal PET data set has millions of counts for the whole acquisition, while the CT can reach a few billion counts. This contributes to PET images appearing "noisier" than CT. Two major sources of noise in PET are scatter (a detected pair of photons, at least one of which was deflected from its original path by interaction with matter in the field of view, leading to the pair being assigned to an incorrect LOR) and random events (photons originating from two different annihilation events but incorrectly recorded as a coincidence pair because their arrival at their respective detectors occurred within a coincidence timing window).
In practice, considerable pre-processing of the data is required—correction for random coincidences, estimation and subtraction of scattered photons, detector dead-time correction (after the detection of a photon, the detector must "cool down" again) and detector-sensitivity correction (for both inherent detector sensitivity and changes in sensitivity due to angle of incidence).
Filtered back projection (FBP) has been frequently used to reconstruct images from the projections. This algorithm has the advantage of being simple while having a low requirement for computing resources. Disadvantages are that shot noise in the raw data is prominent in the reconstructed images, and areas of high tracer uptake tend to form streaks across the image. Also, FBP treats the data deterministically—it does not account for the inherent randomness associated with PET data, thus requiring all the pre-reconstruction corrections described above.
Statistical, likelihood-based approaches:
Statistical, likelihood-based
iterative expectation-maximization algorithms such as the Shepp-Vardi algorithm
are now the preferred method of reconstruction. These algorithms compute an estimate of the likely distribution of annihilation events that led to the measured data, based on statistical principles. The advantage is a better noise profile and resistance to the streak artifacts common with FBP, but the disadvantage is higher computer resource requirements. A further advantage of statistical image reconstruction techniques is that the physical effects that would need to be pre-corrected for when using an analytical reconstruction algorithm, such as scattered photons, random coincidences, attenuation and detector dead-time, can be incorporated into the likelihood model being used in the reconstruction, allowing for additional noise reduction. Iterative reconstruction has also been shown to result in improvements in the resolution of the reconstructed images, since more sophisticated models of the scanner Physics can be incorporated into the likelihood model than those used by analytical reconstruction methods, allowing for improved quantification of the radioactivity distribution.
Research has shown that Bayesian methods that involve a Poisson likelihood function and an appropriate prior probability (e.g., a smoothing prior leading to total variation regularization or a Laplacian distribution leading to formula_1-based regularization in a wavelet or other domain), such as via Ulf Grenander's Sieve estimator
or via Bayes penalty methods
or via I.J. Good's roughness method may yield superior performance to expectation-maximization-based methods which involve a Poisson likelihood function but do not involve such a prior.
Attenuation correction: Quantitative PET Imaging requires attenuation correction. In these systems attenuation correction is based on a transmission scan using 68Ge rotating rod source.
transmission scans directly measure attenuation values at 511keV. Attenuation occurs when photons emitted by the radiotracer inside the body are absorbed by intervening tissue between the detector and the emission of the photon. As different LORs must traverse different thicknesses of tissue, the photons are attenuated differentially. The result is that structures deep in the body are reconstructed as having falsely low tracer uptake. Contemporary scanners can estimate attenuation using integrated x-ray CT equipment, in place of earlier equipment that offered a crude form of CT using a gamma ray (positron emitting) source and the PET detectors.
While attenuation-corrected images are generally more faithful representations, the correction process is itself susceptible to significant artifacts. As a result, both corrected and uncorrected images are always reconstructed and read together.
2D/3D reconstruction: Early PET scanners had only a single ring of detectors, hence the acquisition of data and subsequent reconstruction was restricted to a single transverse plane. More modern scanners now include multiple rings, essentially forming a cylinder of detectors.
There are two approaches to reconstructing data from such a scanner: 1) treat each ring as a separate entity, so that only coincidences within a ring are detected, the image from each ring can then be reconstructed individually (2D reconstruction), or 2) allow coincidences to be detected between rings as well as within rings, then reconstruct the entire volume together (3D).
3D techniques have better sensitivity (because more coincidences are detected and used) and therefore less noise, but are more sensitive to the effects of scatter and random coincidences, as well as requiring correspondingly greater computer resources. The advent of sub-nanosecond timing resolution detectors affords better random coincidence rejection, thus favoring 3D image reconstruction.
Time-of-flight (TOF) PET: For modern systems with a higher time resolution (roughly 3 nanoseconds) a technique called "Time-of-flight" is used to improve the overall performance. Time-of-flight PET makes use of very fast gamma-ray detectors and data processing system which can more precisely decide the difference in time between the detection of the two photons. Although it is technically impossible to localize the point of origin of the annihilation event exactly (currently within 10 cm) thus image reconstruction is still needed, TOF technique gives a remarkable improvement in image quality, especially signal-to-noise ratio.
PET scans are increasingly read alongside CT or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, with the combination (called "co-registration") giving both anatomic and metabolic information (i.e., what the structure is, and what it is doing biochemically). Because PET imaging is most useful in combination with anatomical imaging, such as CT, modern PET scanners are now available with integrated high-end multi-detector-row CT scanners (so-called "PET-CT"). Because the two scans can be performed in immediate sequence during the same session, with the patient not changing position between the two types of scans, the two sets of images are more precisely registered, so that areas of abnormality on the PET imaging can be more perfectly correlated with anatomy on the CT images. This is very useful in showing detailed views of moving organs or structures with higher anatomical variation, which is more common outside the brain.
At the Jülich Institute of Neurosciences and Biophysics, the world's largest PET-MRI device began operation in April 2009: a 9.4-tesla magnetic resonance tomograph (MRT) combined with a positron emission tomograph (PET). Presently, only the head and brain can be imaged at these high magnetic field strengths.
For brain imaging, registration of CT, MRI and PET scans may be accomplished without the need for an integrated PET-CT or PET-MRI scanner by using a device known as the N-localizer.
The minimization of radiation dose to the subject is an attractive feature of the use of short-lived radionuclides. Besides its established role as a diagnostic technique, PET has an expanding role as a method to assess the response to therapy, in particular, cancer therapy, where the risk to the patient from lack of knowledge about disease progress is much greater than the risk from the test radiation. Since the tracers are radioactive, the elderly and pregnant are unable to use it due to risks posed by radiation.
Limitations to the widespread use of PET arise from the high costs of cyclotrons needed to produce the short-lived radionuclides for PET scanning and the need for specially adapted on-site chemical synthesis apparatus to produce the radiopharmaceuticals after radioisotope preparation. Organic radiotracer molecules that will contain a positron-emitting radioisotope cannot be synthesized first and then the radioisotope prepared within them, because bombardment with a cyclotron to prepare the radioisotope destroys any organic carrier for it. Instead, the isotope must be prepared first, then afterward, the chemistry to prepare any organic radiotracer (such as FDG) accomplished very quickly, in the short time before the isotope decays. Few hospitals and universities are capable of maintaining such systems, and most clinical PET is supported by third-party suppliers of radiotracers that can supply many sites simultaneously. This limitation restricts clinical PET primarily to the use of tracers labelled with fluorine-18, which has a half-life of 110 minutes and can be transported a reasonable distance before use, or to rubidium-82 (used as rubidium-82 chloride) with a half-life of 1.27 minutes, which is created in a portable generator and is used for myocardial perfusion studies. Nevertheless, in recent years a few on-site cyclotrons with integrated shielding and "hot labs" (automated chemistry labs that are able to work with radioisotopes) have begun to accompany PET units to remote hospitals. The presence of the small on-site cyclotron promises to expand in the future as the cyclotrons shrink in response to the high cost of isotope transportation to remote PET machines. In recent years the shortage of PET scans has been alleviated in the US, as rollout of radiopharmacies to supply radioisotopes has grown 30%/year.
Because the half-life of fluorine-18 is about two hours, the prepared dose of a radiopharmaceutical bearing this radionuclide will undergo multiple half-lives of decay during the working day. This necessitates frequent recalibration of the remaining dose (determination of activity per unit volume) and careful planning with respect to patient scheduling.
The concept of emission and transmission tomography was introduced by David E. Kuhl, Luke Chapman and Roy Edwards in the late 1950s. Their work later led to the design and construction of several tomographic instruments at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1975 tomographic imaging techniques were further developed by Michel Ter-Pogossian, Michael E. Phelps, Edward J. Hoffman and others at Washington University School of Medicine.
Work by Gordon Brownell, Charles Burnham and their associates at the Massachusetts General Hospital beginning in the 1950s contributed significantly to the development of PET technology and included the first demonstration of annihilation radiation for medical imaging. Their innovations, including the use of light pipes and volumetric analysis, have been important in the deployment of PET imaging. In 1961, James Robertson and his associates at Brookhaven National Laboratory built the first single-plane PET scan, nicknamed the "head-shrinker."
One of the factors most responsible for the acceptance of positron imaging was the development of radiopharmaceuticals. In particular, the development of labeled 2-fluorodeoxy-D-glucose (2FDG) by the Brookhaven group under the direction of Al Wolf and Joanna Fowler was a major factor in expanding the scope of PET imaging. The compound was first administered to two normal human volunteers by Abass Alavi in August 1976 at the University of Pennsylvania. Brain images obtained with an ordinary (non-PET) nuclear scanner demonstrated the concentration of FDG in that organ. Later, the substance was used in dedicated positron tomographic scanners, to yield the modern procedure.
The logical extension of positron instrumentation was a design using two 2-dimensional arrays. PC-I was the first instrument using this concept and was designed in 1968, completed in 1969 and reported in 1972. The first applications of PC-I in tomographic mode as distinguished from the computed tomographic mode were reported in 1970. It soon became clear to many of those involved in PET development that a circular or cylindrical array of detectors was the logical next step in PET instrumentation. Although many investigators took this approach, James Robertson and Zang-Hee Cho were the first to propose a ring system that has become the prototype of the current shape of PET.
The PET-CT scanner, attributed to David Townsend and Ronald Nutt, was named by "Time" as the medical invention of the year in 2000.
As of August 2008, Cancer Care Ontario reports that the current average incremental cost to perform a PET scan in the province is Can$1,000–1,200 per scan. This includes the cost of the radiopharmaceutical and a stipend for the physician reading the scan.
In the United States, a PET scan is estimated to be ~$5,000, and most insurance companies don't pay for routine PET scans after cancer treatment due to the fact that these scans are often unnecessary and present potentially more risks than benefits.
In England, the NHS reference cost (2015–2016) for an adult outpatient PET scan is £798, and £242 for direct access services.
In Australia, as of July 2018, the Medicare Benefits Schedule Fee for whole body FDG PET ranges from A$953 to A$999, depending on the indication for the scan.
The overall performance of PET systems can be evaluated by quality control tools such as the Jaszczak phantom. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24032 |
Percival Lowell
Percival Lawrence Lowell (; March 13, 1855 – November 12, 1916) was an American businessman, author, mathematician, and astronomer who fueled speculation that there were canals on Mars. He founded the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona and formed the beginning of the effort that led to the discovery of Pluto 14 years after his death.
Percival Lowell was born on March 13, 1855, in Boston, Massachusetts, the first son of Augustus Lowell and Katherine Bigelow Lowell. A member of the Brahmin Lowell family, his siblings included the poet Amy Lowell, the educator and legal scholar Abbott Lawrence Lowell, and Elizabeth Lowell Putnam, an early activist for prenatal care. They were the great-grandchildren of John Lowell and, on their mother's side, the grandchildren of Abbott Lawrence.
Percival graduated from the Noble and Greenough School in 1872 and Harvard University in 1876 with distinction in mathematics. At his college graduation, he gave a speech, considered very advanced for its time, on the nebular hypothesis. He was later awarded honorary degrees from Amherst College and Clark University. After graduation he ran a cotton mill for six years.
In the 1880s, Lowell traveled extensively in the Far East. In August 1883, he served as a foreign secretary and counselor for a special Korean diplomatic mission to the United States. He lived in Korea for about two months. He also spent significant periods of time in Japan, writing books on Japanese religion, psychology, and behavior. His texts are filled with observations and academic discussions of various aspects of Japanese life, including language, religious practices, economics, travel in Japan, and the development of personality.
Books by Percival Lowell on the Orient include "Noto: An Unexplored Corner of Japan" (1891) and "Occult Japan, or the Way of the Gods" (1894), the latter from his third and final trip to the region. His time in Korea inspired "Chosön: The Land of the Morning Calm" (1886, Boston). The most popular of Lowell's books on the Orient, "The Soul of the Far East" (1888), contains an early synthesis of some of his ideas, that in essence, postulated that human progress is a function of the qualities of individuality and imagination. The writer Lafcadio Hearn called it a "colossal, splendid, godlike book." At his death he left with his assistant Wrexie Leonard an unpublished manuscript of a book entitled "Peaks and Plateaux in the Effect on Tree Life".
Lowell was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1892. He moved back to the United States in 1893. He became determined to study Mars and astronomy as a full-time career after reading Camille Flammarion's "La planète Mars". He was particularly interested in the canals of Mars, as drawn by Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli, who was director of the Milan Observatory. Beginning in the winter of 1893–94, using his wealth and influence, Lowell dedicated himself to the study of astronomy, founding the observatory which bears his name. He chose Flagstaff, Arizona Territory, as the home of his new observatory. At an altitude of over , with few cloudy nights, and far from city lights, Flagstaff was an excellent site for astronomical observations. This marked the first time an observatory had been deliberately located in a remote, elevated place for optimal seeing.
In 1904, Lowell received the Prix Jules Janssen, the highest award of the Société astronomique de France, the French astronomical society. For the last 23 years of his life, astronomy, Lowell Observatory, and his and others' work at his observatory were the focal points of his life.
World War I very much saddened Lowell, a dedicated pacifist. This, along with some setbacks in his astronomical work (described below), undermined his health and contributed to his death from a stroke on November 12, 1916, aged 61. Lowell is buried on Mars Hill near his observatory. Lowell claimed to "stick to the church" though at least one current author describes him as an agnostic.
For the next fifteen years he studied Mars extensively, and made intricate drawings of the surface markings as he perceived them. Lowell published his views in three books: "Mars" (1895), "Mars and Its Canals" (1906), and "Mars As the Abode of Life" (1908). With these writings, Lowell more than anyone else popularized the long-held belief that these markings showed that Mars sustained intelligent life forms.
His works include a detailed description of what he termed the 'non-natural features' of the planet's surface, including especially a full account of the 'canals,' single and double; the 'oases,' as he termed the dark spots at their intersections; and the varying visibility of both, depending partly on the Martian seasons. He theorized that an advanced but desperate culture had built the canals to tap Mars' polar ice caps, the last source of water on an inexorably drying planet.
While this idea excited the public, the astronomical community was skeptical. Many astronomers could not see these markings, and few believed that they were as extensive as Lowell claimed. As a result, Lowell and his observatory were largely ostracized. Although the consensus was that some actual features did exist which would account for these markings, in 1909 the sixty-inch Mount Wilson Observatory telescope in Southern California allowed closer observation of the structures Lowell had interpreted as canals, and revealed irregular geological features, probably the result of natural erosion.
The existence of canal-like features was definitively disproved in the 1960s by NASA's Mariner missions. Mariner 4, 6 and 7, and the Mariner 9 orbiter (1972), did not capture images of canals but instead showed a cratered Martian surface. Today, the surface markings taken to be canals are regarded as an optical illusion. Psychologist Matthew J. Sharps has argued that perception of the canals by Lowell and others could have been the result of a combination of psychological factors, including individual differences, Gestalt reconfiguration, and sociocognitive factors.
Although Lowell was better known for his observations of Mars, he also drew maps of the planet Venus. He began observing Venus in detail in mid-1896 soon after the Alvan Clark & Sons refracting telescope was installed at his new Flagstaff, Arizona observatory. Lowell observed the planet high in the daytime sky with the telescope's lens stopped down to 3 inches in diameter to reduce the effect of the turbulent daytime atmosphere. Lowell observed spoke-like surface features including a central dark spot, contrary to what was suspected then (and known now): that Venus has no surface features visible from Earth, being covered in an atmosphere that is opaque. It has been noted in a 2003 "Journal for the History of Astronomy" paper and in an article published in "Sky and Telescope" in July 2003 that Lowell's stopping down of the telescope created such a small exit pupil at the eyepiece, it may have become a giant ophthalmoscope giving Lowell an image of the shadows of blood vessels cast on the retina of his own eye.
Lowell's greatest contribution to planetary studies came during the last decade of his life, which he devoted to the search for Planet X, a hypothetical planet beyond Neptune. Lowell believed that the planets Uranus and Neptune were displaced from their predicted positions by the gravity of the unseen Planet X. Lowell started a search program in 1906. A team of human computers, led by Elizabeth Williams were employed to calculate predicted regions for the proposed planet. The program initially used a camera in aperture. The small field of view of the reflecting telescope rendered the instrument impractical for searching. From 1914 to 1916, a telescope on loan from Sproul Observatory was used to search for Planet X. Lowell did not discover Pluto but later Lowell Observatory (observatory code 690) would photograph Pluto in March and April 1915, without realizing at the time that it was not a star.
In 1930, Clyde Tombaugh, working at the Lowell Observatory, discovered Pluto near the location expected for Planet X. Partly in recognition of Lowell's efforts, a stylized P-L monogram (♇) – the first two letters of the new planet's name and also Lowell's initials – was chosen as Pluto's astronomical symbol. However, it would subsequently emerge that the Planet X theory was mistaken.
Pluto's mass could not be determined until 1978, when its satellite Charon was discovered. This confirmed what had been increasingly suspected: Pluto's gravitational influence on Uranus and Neptune is negligible, certainly not nearly enough to account for the discrepancies in their orbits. In 2006, Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet by the International Astronomical Union.
In addition, it is now known that the discrepancies between the predicted and observed positions of Uranus and Neptune were "not" caused by the gravity of an unknown planet. Rather, they were due to an erroneous value for the mass of Neptune. "Voyager 2"s 1989 encounter with Neptune yielded a more accurate value of its mass, and the discrepancies disappear when using this value.
Although Lowell's theories of the Martian canals, of surface features on Venus, and of Planet X are now discredited, his practice of building observatories at the position where they would best function has been adopted as a principle. He also established the program and setting which made the discovery of Pluto by Clyde Tombaugh possible. Lowell has been described by other planetary scientists as "the most influential popularizer of planetary science in America before Carl Sagan".
While eventually disproved, Lowell's vision of the Martian canals, as an artifact of an ancient civilization making a desperate last effort to survive, significantly influences the development of science fiction – starting with H. G. Wells' influential "The War of the Worlds", which made the further logical inference that creatures from a dying planet might seek to invade Earth.
The image of the dying Mars and its ancient culture was retained, in numerous versions and variations, in most science fiction works depicting Mars in the first half of the twentieth century (see Mars in fiction). Even when proven to be factually mistaken, the vision of Mars derived from his theories remains enshrined in works that remain in print and widely read as classics of science fiction.
Lowell's influence on science fiction remains strong. The canals figure prominently in "Red Planet" by Robert A. Heinlein (1949) and "The Martian Chronicles" by Ray Bradbury (1950). The canals, and even Lowell's mausoleum, heavily influence "The Gods of Mars" (1918) by Edgar Rice Burroughs as well as all other books in the Barsoom series.
Asteroid 1886 Lowell, discovered by Henry Giclas and Robert Schaldach in 1949, as well as crater "Lowell" on the Moon, and crater "Lowell" on Mars, were named after him. The Lowell Regio on Pluto was also named in his honor after its discovery by the "New Horizons" spacecraft in 2015. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24033 |
Project management
Project management is the practice of leading the work of a team to achieve goals and meet success criteria at a specified time. The primary challenge of project management is to achieve all of the project goals within the given constraints. This information is usually described in project documentation, created at the beginning of the development process. The primary constraints are scope, time, quality and budget. The secondary challenge is to optimize the allocation of necessary inputs and apply them to meet pre-defined objectives.
The objective of project management is to produce a complete project which complies with the client's objectives. In many cases the objective of project management is also to shape or reform the client's brief to feasibly address the client's objectives. Once the client's objectives are clearly established they should influence all decisions made by other people involved in the project – for example project managers, designers, contractors and sub-contractors. Ill-defined or too tightly prescribed project management objectives are detrimental to decision making.
A project is a temporary endeavor designed to produce a unique product, service or result with a defined beginning and end (usually time-constrained, and often constrained by funding or staffing) undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives, typically to bring about beneficial change or added value. The temporary nature of projects stands in contrast with business as usual (or operations), which are repetitive, permanent, or semi-permanent functional activities to produce products or services. In practice, the management of such distinct production approaches requires the development of distinct technical skills and management strategies.
Until 1900, civil engineering projects were generally managed by creative architects, engineers, and master builders themselves, for example, Vitruvius (first century BC), Christopher Wren (1632–1723), Thomas Telford (1757–1834) and Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806–1859). In the 1950s organizations started to systematically apply project-management tools and techniques to complex engineering projects.
As a discipline, project management developed from several fields of application including civil construction, engineering, and heavy defense activity. Two forefathers of project management are Henry Gantt, called the father of planning and control techniques, | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24042 |
Phase (waves)
In physics and mathematics, the phase of a periodic function formula_1 of some real variable formula_2 (such as time) is an angle representing the number of periods spanned by that variable. It is denoted formula_3 and expressed in such a scale that it varies by one full turn as the variable formula_2 goes through each period (and formula_5 goes through each complete cycle). It may be measured in any angular unit such as degrees or radians, thus increasing by 360° or formula_6 as the variable formula_2 completes a full period.
This convention is especially appropriate for a sinusoidal function, since its value at any argument formula_2 then can be expressed as the sine of the phase formula_3, multiplied by some factor (the amplitude of the sinusoid). (The cosine may be used instead of sine, depending on where one considers each period to start.)
Usually, whole turns are ignored when expressing the phase; so that formula_3 is also a periodic function, with the same period as formula_1, that repeatedly scans the same range of angles as formula_2 goes through each period. Then, formula_1 is said to be "at the same phase" at two argument values formula_14 and formula_15 (that is, formula_16) if the difference between them is a whole number of periods.
The numeric value of the phase formula_3 depends on the arbitrary choice of the start of each period, and on the interval of angles that each period is to be mapped to.
The term "phase" is also used when comparing a periodic function formula_1 with a shifted version formula_19 of it. If the shift in formula_2 is expressed as a fraction of the period, and then scaled to an angle formula_21 spanning a whole turn, one gets the phase shift, phase offset, or phase difference of formula_19 relative to formula_1. If formula_1 is a "canonical" function for a class of signals, like formula_25 is for all sinusoidal signals, then formula_21 is called the initial phase of formula_19.
Let formula_1 be a periodic signal (that is, a function of one real variable), and formula_29 be its period (that is, the smallest positive real number such that formula_30 for all formula_2). Then the phase of formula_1 at any argument formula_2 is
Here formula_35 denotes the fractional part of a real number, discarding its integer part; that is, formula_36; and formula_37 is an arbitrary "origin" value of the argument, that one considers to be the beginning of a cycle.
This concept can be visualized by imagining a clock with a hand that turns at constant speed, making a full turn every formula_29 seconds, and is pointing straight up at time formula_37. The phase formula_3 is then the angle from the 12:00 position to the current position of the hand, at time formula_2, measured clockwise.
The phase concept is most useful when the origin formula_37 is chosen based on features of formula_1. For example, for a sinusoid, a convenient choice is any formula_2 where the function's value changes from zero to positive.
The formula above gives the phase as an angle in radians between 0 and formula_6. To get the phase as an angle between formula_46 and formula_47, one uses instead
The phase expressed in degrees (from 0° to 360°, or from −180° to +180°) is defined the same way, except with "360°" in place of "2π".
With any of the above definitions, the phase formula_3 of a periodic signal is periodic too, with the same period formula_29:
The phase is zero at the start of each period; that is
Moreover, for any given choice of the origin formula_37, the value of the signal formula_1 for any argument formula_2 depends only on its phase at formula_2. Namely, one can write formula_59, where formula_60 is a function of an angle, defined only for a single full turn, that describes the variation of formula_1 as formula_2 ranges over a single period.
In fact, every periodic signal formula_1 with a specific waveform can be expressed as
where formula_65 is a "canonical" function of a phase angle in
0 to 2π, that describes just one cycle of that waveform; and formula_66 is a scaling factor for the amplitude. (This claim assumes that the starting time formula_37 chosen to compute the phase of formula_1 corresponds to argument 0 of formula_65.)
Since phases are angles, any whole full turns should usually be ignored when performing arithmetic operations on them. That is, the sum and difference of two phases (in degrees) should be computed by the formulas
respectively. Thus, for example, the sum of phase angles is 30° (, minus one full turn), and subtracting 50° from 30° gives a phase of 340° (, plus one full turn).
Similar formulas hold for radians, with formula_6 instead of 360.
The difference formula_73 between the phases of two periodic signals formula_1 and formula_19 is called the phase difference of formula_19 relative to formula_1. At values of formula_2 when the difference is zero, the two signals are said to be in phase, otherwise they are out of phase with each other.
In the clock analogy, each signal is represented by a hand (or pointer) of the same clock, both turning at constant but possibly different speeds. The phase difference is then the angle between the two hands, measured clockwise.
The phase difference is particularly important when two signals are added together by a physical process, such as two periodic sound waves emitted by two sources and recorded together by a microphone. This is usually the case in linear systems, when the superposition principle holds.
For arguments formula_2 when the phase difference is zero, the two signals will have the same sign and will be reinforcing each other. One says that constructive interference is occurring. At arguments formula_2 when the phases are different, the value of the sum depends on the waveform.
For sinusoidal signals, when the phase difference formula_81 is 180° (formula_82 radians), one says that the phases are opposite, and that the signals are in antiphase. Then the signals have opposite signs, and destructive interference occurs.
When the phase difference formula_81 is a quarter of turn (a right angle, or ), sinusoidal signals are sometimes said to be in quadrature.
If the frequencies are different, the phase difference formula_81 increases linearly with the argument formula_2. The periodic changes from reinforcement and opposition cause a phenomenon called beating.
The phase difference is especially important when comparing a periodic signal formula_1 with a shifted and possibly scaled version formula_19 of it. That is, suppose that formula_88 for some constants formula_89 and all formula_2. Suppose also that the origin for computing the phase of formula_19 has been shifted too. In that case, the phase difference formula_21 is a constant (independent of formula_2), called the phase shift or phase offset of formula_19 relative to formula_1. In the clock analogy, this situation corresponds to the two hands turning at the same speed, so that the angle between them is constant.
In this case, the phase shift is simply the argument shift formula_96, expressed as a fraction of the common period formula_29 (in terms of the modulo operation) of the two signals and then scaled to a full turn:
If formula_1 is a "canonical" representative for a class of signals, like formula_25 is for all sinusoidal signals, then the phase shift formula_21 called simply the initial phase of formula_19.
Therefore, when two periodic signals have the same frequency, they are always in phase, or always out of phase. Physically, this situation commonly occurs, for many reasons. For example, the two signals may be a periodic soundwave recorded by two microphones at separate locations. Or, conversely, they may be periodic soundwaves created by two separate speakers from the same electrical signal, and recorded by a single microphone. They may be a radio signal that reaches the receiving antenna in a straight line, and a copy of it that was reflected off a large building nearby.
A well-known example of phase difference is the length of shadows seen at different points of Earth. To a first approximation, if formula_5 is the length seen at time formula_2 at one spot, and formula_19 is the length seen at the same time at a longitude 30° west of that point, then the phase difference between the two signals will be 30° (assuming that, in each signal, each period starts when the shadow is shortest).
For sinusoidal signals (and a few other waveforms, like square or symmetric triangular), a phase shift of 180° is equivalent to a phase shift of 0° with negation of the amplitude. When two signals with these waveforms, same period, and opposite phases are added together, the sum formula_106 is either identically zero, or is a sinusoidal signal with the same period and phase, whose amplitude is the difference of the original amplitudes.
The phase shift of the co-sine function relative to the sine function is +90°. It follows that, for two sinusoidal signals formula_1 and formula_19 with same frequency and amplitudes formula_66 and formula_110, and formula_19 has phase shift +90° relative to formula_1, the sum formula_106 is a sinusoidal signal with the same frequency, with amplitude formula_114 and phase shift formula_115 from formula_1, such that
A real-world example of a sonic phase difference occurs in the warble of a Native American flute. The amplitude of different harmonic components of same long-held note on the flute come into dominance at different points in the phase cycle. The phase difference between the different harmonics can be observed on a spectrogram of the sound of a warbling flute.
Phase comparison is a comparison of the phase of two waveforms, usually of the same nominal frequency. In time and frequency, the purpose of a phase comparison is generally to determine the frequency offset (difference between signal cycles) with respect to a reference. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24047 |
Particle in a box
In quantum mechanics, the particle in a box model (also known as the infinite potential well or the infinite square well) describes a particle free to move in a small space surrounded by impenetrable barriers. The model is mainly used as a hypothetical example to illustrate the differences between classical and quantum systems. In classical systems, for example, a particle trapped inside a large box can move at any speed within the box and it is no more likely to be found at one position than another. However, when the well becomes very narrow (on the scale of a few nanometers), quantum effects become important. The particle may only occupy certain positive energy levels. Likewise, it can never have zero energy, meaning that the particle can never "sit still". Additionally, it is more likely to be found at certain positions than at others, depending on its energy level. The particle may never be detected at certain positions, known as spatial nodes.
The particle in a box model is one of the very few problems in quantum mechanics which can be solved analytically, without approximations. Due to its simplicity, the model allows insight into quantum effects without the need for complicated mathematics. It serves as a simple illustration of how energy quantizations (energy levels), which are found in more complicated quantum systems such as atoms and molecules, come about. It is one of the first quantum mechanics problems taught in undergraduate physics courses, and it is commonly used as an approximation for more complicated quantum systems.
The simplest form of the particle in a box model considers a one-dimensional system. Here, the particle may only move backwards and forwards along a straight line with impenetrable barriers at either end.
The walls of a one-dimensional box may be visualised as regions of space with an infinitely large potential energy. Conversely, the interior of the box has a constant, zero potential energy. This means that no forces act upon the particle inside the box and it can move freely in that region. However, infinitely large forces repel the particle if it touches the walls of the box, preventing it from escaping. The potential energy in this model is given as
where "L" is the length of the box, "xc" is the location of the center of the box and "x" is the position of the particle within the box. Simple cases include the centered box ("xc = 0 ") and the shifted box ("xc = L/2 ").
In quantum mechanics, the wavefunction gives the most fundamental description of the behavior of a particle; the measurable properties of the particle (such as its position, momentum and energy) may all be derived from the wavefunction.
The wavefunction formula_4 can be found by solving the Schrödinger equation for the system
where formula_6 is the reduced Planck constant, formula_7 is the mass of the particle, formula_8 is the imaginary unit and formula_9 is time.
Inside the box, no forces act upon the particle, which means that the part of the wavefunction inside the box oscillates through space and time with the same form as a free particle:
which is known as the dispersion relation for a free particle. Here one must notice that now, since the particle is not entirely free but under the influence of a potential (the potential "V" described above), the energy of the particle given above is not the same thing as formula_15 where "p" is the momentum of the particle, and thus the wavenumber "k" above actually describes the energy states of the particle, not the momentum states (i.e. it turns out that the momentum of the particle is not given by formula_16). In this sense, it is quite dangerous to call the number "k" a wavenumber, since it is not related to momentum like "wavenumber" usually is. The rationale for calling "k" the wavenumber is that it enumerates the number of crests that the wavefunction has inside the box, and in this sense it is a wavenumber. This discrepancy can be seen more clearly below, when we find out that the energy spectrum of the particle is discrete (only discrete values of energy are allowed) but the momentum spectrum is continuous (momentum can vary continuously) and in particular, the relation formula_17 for the energy and momentum of the particle does not hold. As said above, the reason this relation between energy and momentum does not hold is that the particle is not free, but there is a potential "V" in the system, and the energy of the particle is formula_18, where "T" is the kinetic and "V" the potential energy.
The size (or amplitude) of the wavefunction at a given position is related to the probability of finding a particle there by formula_19. The wavefunction must therefore vanish everywhere beyond the edges of the box. Also, the amplitude of the wavefunction may not "jump" abruptly from one point to the next. These two conditions are only satisfied by wavefunctions with the form
where
and
where "n" is a positive integer (1,2,3,4...). For a shifted box ("xc = L/2)", the solution is particularly simple. The simplest solutions, formula_23 or formula_24 both yield the trivial wavefunction formula_25, which describes a particle that does not exist anywhere in the system. Negative values of formula_26 are neglected, since they give wavefunctions identical to the positive formula_26 solutions except for a physically unimportant sign change. Here one sees that only a discrete set of energy values and wavenumbers "k" are allowed for the particle. Usually in quantum mechanics it is also demanded that the derivative of the wavefunction in addition to the wavefunction itself be continuous; here this demand would lead to the only solution being the constant zero function, which is not what we desire, so we give up this demand (as this system with infinite potential can be regarded as a nonphysical abstract limiting case, we can treat it as such and "bend the rules"). Note that giving up this demand means that the wavefunction is not a differentiable function at the boundary of the box, and thus it can be said that the wavefunction does not solve the Schrödinger equation at the boundary points formula_28 and formula_29 (but does solve everywhere else).
Finally, the unknown constant formula_10 may be found by normalizing the wavefunction so that the total probability density of finding the particle in the system is 1. It follows that
Thus, "A" may be any complex number with absolute value ; these different values of "A" yield the same physical state, so "A" = can be selected to simplify.
It is expected that the "eigenvalues", i.e., the energy formula_32 of the box should be the same regardless of its position in space, but formula_33 changes. Notice that formula_34 represents a phase shift in the wave function, This phase shift has no effect when solving the Schrödinger equation, and therefore does not affect the "eigenvalue".
If we defined the well as centred on the origin, we can rewrite the spacial part of the wave function succinctly as:
formula_35.
The momentum wavefunction is proportional to the Fourier transform of the position wavefunction. With formula_36 (note that the parameter describing the momentum wavefunction below is not exactly the special above, linked to the energy eigenvalues), the momentum wavefunction is given by
where sinc is the cardinal sine sinc function, . For the centered box (), the solution is real and particularly simple, since the phase factor on the right reduces to unity. (With care, it can be written as an even function of .)
It can be seen that the momentum spectrum in this wave packet is continuous, and one may conclude that for the energy state described by the wavenumber , the momentum can, when measured, also attain "other values" beyond formula_38.
Hence, it also appears that, since the energy is formula_39 for the "n"th eigenstate, the relation formula_40 does not strictly hold for the measured momentum ; the energy eigenstate formula_41 is not a momentum eigenstate, and, in fact, not even a superposition of two momentum eigenstates, as one might be tempted to imagine from equation () above: peculiarly, it has no well-defined momentum before measurement!
In classical physics, the particle can be detected anywhere in the box with equal probability. In quantum mechanics, however, the probability density for finding a particle at a given position is derived from the wavefunction as formula_42 For the particle in a box, the probability density for finding the particle at a given position depends upon its state, and is given by
Thus, for any value of "n" greater than one, there are regions within the box for which formula_44, indicating that "spatial nodes" exist at which the particle cannot be found.
In quantum mechanics, the average, or expectation value of the position of a particle is given by
For the steady state particle in a box, it can be shown that the average position is always formula_46, regardless of the state of the particle. For a superposition of states, the expectation value of the position will change based on the cross term which is proportional to formula_47.
The variance in the position is a measure of the uncertainty in position of the particle:
The probability density for finding a particle with a given momentum is derived from the wavefunction as formula_49. As with position, the probability density for finding the particle at a given momentum depends upon its state, and is given by
where, again, formula_36. The expectation value for the momentum is then calculated to be zero, and the variance in the momentum is calculated to be:
The uncertainties in position and momentum (formula_53 and formula_54) are defined as being equal to the square root of their respective variances, so that:
This product increases with increasing "n", having a minimum value for "n=1". The value of this product for "n=1" is about equal to 0.568 formula_6 which obeys the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, which states that the product will be greater than or equal to formula_57
Another measure of uncertainty in position is the information entropy of the probability distribution "H"x:
where "x0" is an arbitrary reference length.
Another measure of uncertainty in momentum is the information entropy of the probability distribution "Hp":
where γ is Euler's constant. The quantum mechanical entropic uncertainty principle states that for formula_61
For formula_61, the sum of the position and momentum entropies yields:
which satisfies the quantum entropic uncertainty principle.
The energies which correspond with each of the permitted wavenumbers may be written as
The energy levels increase with formula_66, meaning that high energy levels are separated from each other by a greater amount than low energy levels are. The lowest possible energy for the particle (its "zero-point energy") is found in state 1, which is given by
The particle, therefore, always has a positive energy. This contrasts with classical systems, where the particle can have zero energy by resting motionlessly. This can be explained in terms of the uncertainty principle, which states that the product of the uncertainties in the position and momentum of a particle is limited by
It can be shown that the uncertainty in the position of the particle is proportional to the width of the box. Thus, the uncertainty in momentum is roughly inversely proportional to the width of the box. The kinetic energy of a particle is given by formula_69, and hence the minimum kinetic energy of the particle in a box is inversely proportional to the mass and the square of the well width, in qualitative agreement with the calculation above.
If a particle is trapped in a two-dimensional box, it may freely move in the formula_70 and formula_71-directions, between barriers separated by lengths formula_72 and formula_73 respectively. For a centered box, the position wave function may be written including the length of the box as formula_74. Using a similar approach to that of the one-dimensional box, it can be shown that the wavefunctions and energies for a centered box are given respectively by
where the two-dimensional wavevector is given by
For a three dimensional box, the solutions are
where the three-dimensional wavevector is given by:
In general for an n-dimensional box, the solutions are
The n-dimensional momentum wave functions may likewise be represented by formula_82 and the momentum wave function for an n-dimensional centered box is then:
An interesting feature of the above solutions is that when two or more of the lengths are the same (e.g. formula_84), there are multiple wavefunctions corresponding to the same total energy. For example, the wavefunction with formula_85 has the same energy as the wavefunction with formula_86. This situation is called "degeneracy" and for the case where exactly two degenerate wavefunctions have the same energy that energy level is said to be "doubly degenerate". Degeneracy results from symmetry in the system. For the above case two of the lengths are equal so the system is symmetric with respect to a 90° rotation.
The wavefunction for a quantum-mechanical particle in a box whose walls have arbitrary shape is given by the Helmholtz equation subject to the boundary condition that the wavefunction vanishes at the walls. These systems are studied in the field of quantum chaos for wall shapes whose corresponding dynamical billiard tables are non-integrable.
Because of its mathematical simplicity, the particle in a box model is used to find approximate solutions for more complex physical systems in which a particle is trapped in a narrow region of low electric potential between two high potential barriers. These quantum well systems are particularly important in optoelectronics, and are used in devices such as the quantum well laser, the quantum well infrared photodetector and the quantum-confined Stark effect modulator. It is also used to model a lattice in the Kronig-Penney model and for a finite metal with the free electron approximation.
Conjugated polyene systems can be modeled using particle in a box. The conjugated system of electrons can be modeled as a one dimensional box with length equal to the total bond distance from one terminus of the polyene to the other. In this case each pair of electrons in each π bond corresponds to one energy level. The energy difference between two energy levels, nf and ni is:
formula_87
The difference between the ground state energy, n, and the first excited state, n+1, corresponds to the energy required to excite the system. This energy has a specific wavelength, and therefore color of light, related by:
formula_88
A common example of this phenomenon is in β-carotene. β-carotene (C40H56) is a conjugated polyene with an orange color and a molecular length of approximately 3.8 nm (though its chain length is only approximately 2.4 nm). Due to β-carotene's high level of conjugation, electrons are dispersed throughout the length of the molecule, allowing one to model it as a one-dimensional particle in a box. β-carotene has 11 carbon-carbon double bonds in conjugation; each of those double bonds contains two π-electrons, therefore β-carotene has 22 π-electrons. With two electrons per energy level, β-carotene can be treated as a particle in a box at energy level "n"=11. Therefore, the minimum energy needed to excite an electron to the next energy level can be calculated, "n"=12, as follows (recalling that the mass of an electron is 9.109 × 10−31 kg):
formula_89
formula_90
formula_91
Using the previous relation of wavelength to energy, recalling both Planck's constant "h" and the speed of light "c":
formula_92
formula_93
This indicates that β-carotene primarily absorbs light in the infrared spectrum, therefore it would appear white to a human eye. However the observed wavelength is 450 nm, indicating that the particle in a box is not a perfect model for this system.
The particle in a box model can be applied to quantum well lasers, which are laser diodes consisting of one semiconductor “well” material sandwiched between two other semiconductor layers of different material . Because the layers of this sandwich are very thin (the middle layer is typically about 100 Å thick), quantum confinement effects can be observed. The idea that quantum effects could be harnessed to create better laser diodes originated in the 1970s. The quantum well laser was patented in 1976 by R. Dingle and C. H. Henry.
Specifically, the quantum well’s behavior can be represented by the particle in a finite well model. Two boundary conditions must be selected. The first is that the wave function must be continuous. Often, the second boundary condition is chosen to be the derivative of the wave function must be continuous across the boundary, but in the case of the quantum well the masses are different on either side of the boundary. Instead, the second boundary condition is chosen to conserve particle flux asformula_94, which is consistent with experiment. The solution to the finite well particle in a box must be solved numerically, resulting in wave functions that are sine functions inside the quantum well and exponentially decaying functions in the barriers. This quantization of the energy levels of the electrons allows a quantum well laser to emit light more efficiently than conventional semiconductor lasers.
Due to their small size, quantum dots do not showcase the bulk properties of the specified semi-conductor but rather show quantised energy states. This effect is known as the quantum confinement and has led to numerous applications of quantum dots such as the quantum well laser.
Researchers at Princeton University have recently built a quantum well laser which is no bigger than a grain of rice. The laser is powered by a single electron which passes through two quantum dots; a double quantum dot. The electron moves from a state of higher energy, to a state of lower energy whilst emitting photons in the microwave region. These photons bounce off mirrors to create a beam of light; the laser.
The quantum well laser is heavily based on the interaction between light and electrons. This relationship is a key component in quantum mechanical theories which include the De Broglie Wavelength and Particle in a box. The double quantum dot allows scientists to gain full control over the movement of an electron which consequently results in the production of a laser beam.
Quantum dots are extremely small semiconductors (on the scale of nanometers). They display quantum confinement in that the electrons cannot escape the “dot”, thus allowing particle-in-a-box approximations to be applied. Their behavior can be described by three-dimensional particle-in-a-box energy quantization equations.
The energy gap of a quantum dot is the energy gap between its valence and conduction bands. This energy gap formula_95 is equal to the band gap of the bulk material formula_96 plus the energy equation derived from particle-in-a-box, which gives the energy for electrons and holes. This can be seen in the following equation, where formula_97 and formula_98 are the effective masses of the electron and hole, formula_99 is radius of the dot, and formula_100 is Planck's constant:
formula_101
Hence, the energy gap of the quantum dot is inversely proportional to the square of the “length of the box,” i.e. the radius of the quantum dot.
Manipulation of the band gap allows for the absorption and emission of specific wavelengths of light, as energy is inversely proportional to wavelength. The smaller the quantum dot, the larger the band gap and thus the shorter the wavelength absorbed.
Different semiconducting materials are used to synthesize quantum dots of different sizes and therefore emit different wavelengths of light. Materials that normally emit light in the visible region are often used and their sizes are fine-tuned so that certain colors are emitted. Typical substances used to synthesize quantum dots are cadmium (Cd) and selenium (Se). For example, when the electrons of two nanometer CdSe quantum dots relax after excitation, blue light is emitted. Similarly, red light is emitted in four nanometer CdSe quantum dots.
Quantum dots have a variety of functions including but not limited to fluorescent dyes, transistors, LEDs, solar cells, and medical imaging via optical probes.
One function of quantum dots is their use in lymph node mapping, which is feasible due to their unique ability to emit light in the near infrared (NIR) region. Lymph node mapping allows surgeons to track if and where cancerous cells exist.
Quantum dots are useful for these functions due to their emission of brighter light, excitation by a wide variety of wavelengths, and higher resistance to light than other substances.
The probability density does not go to zero at the nodes if relativistic effects are taken into account via Dirac equation. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24048 |
Peter F. Hamilton
Peter F. Hamilton (born 2 March 1960) is a British author. He is best known for writing space opera. As of the publication of his 10th novel in 2004, his works had sold over 2 million copies worldwide.
Peter F. Hamilton was born in Rutland, England on 2 March 1960. He did not attend university. He said in an interview, "I did science at school up to age eighteen, I stopped doing English, English literature, writing at sixteen, I just wasn't interested in those days."
After he started writing in 1987, he sold his first short story to "Fear Magazine" in 1988. His first novel, "Mindstar Rising", was published in 1993, followed by "A Quantum Murder" and "The Nano Flower". After this, he wrote a massive space opera, called "The Night's Dawn Trilogy". He has also written the Void Trilogy and the Commonwealth Saga. As of 2008, he still lives in Rutland, near Rutland Water, with his wife Kate, daughter Sophie, and son Felix. He is currently working on a new trilogy of books set in a new universe, collectively titled "Salvation". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24050 |
The Night's Dawn Trilogy
British author Peter F. Hamilton's The Night's Dawn Trilogy consists of three science fiction novels: "The Reality Dysfunction" (1996), "The Neutronium Alchemist" (1997), and "The Naked God" (1999). A collection of short stories, "A Second Chance at Eden", shares the same universe, and "The Confederation Handbook" documents that universe in non-fiction style.
In the "Night's Dawn" trilogy, humankind, although now united under an organization known as the Confederation, has been broken up into two major divisions, Adamists and Edenists. The economy is dominated by the Edenists, who maintain a powerful monopoly across the Confederation by harvesting 3He ("helium 3") from suitable gas giants. This resource is used by all Adamist starships as a primary fuel source. The use of the only other major energy source, antimatter, is illegal due to its devastating military potential, and its possession or production is a capital crime.
Adamists are the larger of the two groups, and consider themselves to be "normal" humans. They allow themselves to use some genetic-engineering improvements (referred to as "geneering"), but do not generally condone the use of "bitek" (organic/bio technology) in their culture. They are a vast group of people of various cultures and backgrounds, and realistically, the Adamist group encompasses any non-Edenist humans. The majority of Adamists, who are at least nominally religious, do not utilise bitek because it was banned by the Pope during the 21st century. Instead, they use nanotechnology, which they refer to as "nanonics". Nanonics perform many of the same physiological feats as bitek, and the two technologies are relatively compatible. Adamist starships use fusion-energy based drives, and much of the human economy therefore is based on the proliferation of 3He. The ZTT (Zero Tau Transit, "i.e." faster than light) drive allows Adamists to colonize star-systems, usually settling both planets and asteroid belts.
Edenists are, for the most part, a single culture. They are an idealized, egalitarian, utopian society which, while not believing or practicing religion, does not prohibit it. The majority of Edenists live in huge, multi-kilometre space stations called 'habitats' orbiting gas giants. Each individual habitat is a living organism, fully sentient, and is the perfect arbitrator of its community. Habitats cannot be bribed, are perfect impartial judges, and are aware of almost everything that occurs within them and immediately around them. The most important aspect of any Edenist is his/her use of "affinity". Affinity is an advanced form of mental communication similar to the present-day concepts of telepathy or entanglement. Edenist affinity allows them to transfer their memories into the habitat at the time of death. This is regarded as a form of immortality. However, no habitat has yet died of old age (nor will for millennia) and could in turn pass their memories and personality on to another habitat were they ever to die. Adamist religions reject this as an attempt to avoid God's judgment on the soul after death, and it is this which is the root cause of the schism between the Adamist and Edenist cultures.
Edenists have access to faster-than-light travel through large, fully sentient bitek creatures called "Voidhawks". They, along with their crews, make up a vast armada of Edenist merchant vessels operating throughout the Confederation as well as a large fraction of the Confederation Navy. Voidhawks are born and live in the vacuum of space. They are naturally attuned to the magnetic fields and energy fluctuations of space around them, and can generate and precisely control a distortion field to manipulate space around them. By manipulating space in this way, Voidhawks can open wormholes and jump long distances (many light years) instantaneously. Such jumps are known as "swallows". Another product of the distortion field is the ability to affect gravity in and near the Voidhawk. This is used to reduce the effect of high-g manoeuvering on Voidhawk crews. By using the full power of their distortion fields, Voidhawks can attain a speed and manoeuvrability unmatched by Adamist vessels (except those powered by illegal and highly dangerous antimatter).
Edenists heavily genetically modify their children, including the gene which allows affinity to develop from conception. They also use modified "servitors" which are often chimpanzees with affinity which carry out small tasks and leave Edenists to concentrate on more important matters. Edenists operate cloud scoops in gas giants in order to extract the rare isotope helium 3 which can be used for fusion energy.
The story of the Night's Dawn Trilogy is separated over three books: "The Reality Dysfunction" (1996), "The Neutronium Alchemist" (1997), and "The Naked God" (1999); but is also supported by "A Second Chance at Eden", a collection of short stories which provide insight into the history of Hamilton's universe.
The story is divided in many threads, based on primary, secondary and tertiary characters. These delve deeply into the rich and complex texture of the Universe providing a sense of verisimilitude, also exploring some of Hamilton's darker themes. These story lines include Dariat's struggles inside Valisk, and the Deadnights' voyage to their 'Saviour'.
In the 27th century humans have colonised nearly 900 worlds, have living, sentient starships as well as the conventional kind, and are also living in asteroid communities and in large, living space stations. Due to policies of 'ethnic streaming' by the colonisation authorities, worlds are generally united under a single government, with these governments collectively forming a Confederation. The Confederation includes both Adamists and Edenists, two alien races (the Tyrathca and the Kiint), and has an armed Navy (which acts primarily against smugglers, pirates and anti-matter production facilities, which are highly illegal) and a central 'house' based on the world of Avon. Earth is still an important world, with a massive population, exporting a massive number of colonists (both voluntarily and involuntarily), but virtually environmentally destroyed after years of technological abuse.
The opening sequence of the story revolves around a war between the planets Garissa and Omuta, both of which claim ownership of a tremendously valuable set of asteroids called the Dorados. Before Garissa is destroyed by illegal antimatter bombs called "planet busters", sent from Omuta, several Garissan ships are sent to attack Omuta with a superweapon called "the Alchemist". However, en route, the convoy is ambushed by Omutan-hired "blackhawks", a type of living starship and variant of the "voidhawk" which is far more versatile in combat than its conventional opponents. After a short, furious melee the Garissan ships are damaged and/or disabled, leaving them drifting through the void of space. Dr. Alkad Mzu, the designer of the Alchemist, is among the few survivors. As the possession and/or use of antimatter is a capital crime (indeed, the prevention of the use of antimatter was the reason for the creation of the Confederation), the ruling cabinet of Omuta are executed and their world placed under stringent sanctions for 30 years.
Syrinx, a young Edenist, is next introduced, leading life from a young age telepathically attached to a bitek starship called "Oenone". As she grows she learns more about the world with her sentient starship, becoming best friends (as is the normal bond between bitek starship and captain). After a mandatory stint in the armed forces, including an encounter with soon-to-be introduced Joshua Calvert in which he outsmarts her, Syrinx takes her ship and her crew into the realm of commercial shipping, becoming competitors with Calvert and his ship.
Introduced next is young would-be space captain Joshua Calvert. Joshua lives on Tranquillity, a huge, living space station, which exists in orbit around a gas giant. Thousands of years ago, the native race of Tranquillity's star mysteriously disappeared. Tranquillity was grown in order to investigate the Ruin Ring, the ruins of the unknown civilisation, which form an artificial circle around the gas giant. While exploring the Ruin Ring, Joshua finds a memory storage device. Containing huge amounts of information about the extinct aliens, the auction of the device fetches him enough money to refit his father's starship, the "Lady MacBeth", and once again use her for commercial shipping and trade.
On the tropical world of Lalonde, the newest colony in the Confederation, a group of Involuntary Transportees 'Ivets' from Earth (it becomes clear that the basic sentence for basically every convicted person on Earth is transportation, as its population is far too large to sustain prisoners) is made to work while voluntary colonists set out to make a new life for themselves - some eager, some forced to come along with their families. One such girl is Marie, who wants to return home, and so hitches a ride back to the capital of Lalonde after settlement, in an attempt to return to Earth. The leader of the Ivets - the cruel, sadistic Satanist, Quinn Dexter - despite his evil nature is an apt leader. He organizes a campaign of murder in order to steal enough money to return to Earth to take revenge on the Cult Leader who put him there. His campaign accelerates until he eventually captures the local lawman, and is going to torture him. However, simultaneously an Alien entity known as the Ly-cilph, a non-corporeal race from a distant galaxy, comes into contact with the dying man. The Ly-cilph, its only purpose being to gather knowledge, is amazed when it detects a flicker of energy leaving the man's body (apparently the essence of his consciousness, his soul) through a spatial distortion leading to an "energistic vacuum". The being unknowingly follows and finds itself trapped in a threshold between this dimension and the dimension of souls (the beyond), where human souls go to after death. This results in the souls of the dead, most demented after countless aeons of 'imprisonment' being able to return to our universe and to possess human bodies, if the owning soul gives permission - which they invariably do after sufficient torture. These newly reincarnated dead can harness superhuman powers - most notably the power to project "the white fire", the ability to alter form, and the ability to open the "channel" to allow souls to return to possess others. Quickly the possessed overrun the new settlement, claim spaceships and leave Lalonde to spread to the Confederation at large.
Calvert, having visited Lalonde, unwittingly gives the possessed Dexter (who later torments his possessing soul into returning him full access to his own body while keeping all of the possessors powers) a ride to the world of Norfolk. Dexter begins to infect the Norfolk locals while Calvert begins to trade in the extremely revered "Norfolk Tears", an alcoholic beverage, coming into opposition with Syrinx. Calvert begins an affair with a wealthy nobleman's daughter, Louise, who falls madly in love with him. The infection starts a short-lived military campaign by the local militia, which results in the total destruction of the social system, Louise and her sister fleeing for their lives.
Dr. Alkad Mzu, for years kept virtual prisoner on Tranquillity because of her knowledge of the Alchemist and her terrorist ambitions, escapes in a breathtaking sequence including using a Blackhawk to "swallow" inside the habitat to aid her escape.
Syrinx travels to the world of Atlantis, a world covered by water, inhabited by floating "islands" which themselves are sentient. But she discovers that the possession has also begun there. In the process she is captured and tortured badly, and suffers a psychotic breakdown.
In Tranquillity the scale of the infection begins to become apparent to the Confederation, which immediately bans all non-essential travel between worlds. A team of mercenaries is assembled and ferried to Lalonde to assess the scale of the possession and its true source, assisted by Calvert.
The team discovers the small Tyrathca settlement, a race of (socially) insect-like Aliens who have suffered great losses to attacks by possessed humans, passing by a small temple being constructed even though the Tyrathca race do not have religion. Later, they stumble across a group of non-possessed children and Father Horst, a Christian priest who led them to escape the settlement, and try to protect them from the attacks by the increasingly effective possessed humans, the weapons of the mercenaries of limited use, and their numbers insufficient to fend off the attackers. In a climactic final scene as Calvert fights a space battle above, the mercenaries valiantly sacrifice themselves defending the survivors from the hordes of the possessed until they are extracted by space plane.
The nature and breadth of infection becomes better known in the second novel, the possessers occupying several factions, including that of Al Capone (possessing a local citizen) on New California, Keira Salter on Valisk and Quinn Dexter as he travels from world to world, until finally reaching Earth.
Calvert and his group is tasked with finding Dr Mzu, who is believed to be searching for her doomsday weapon to complete her dream of slaying the Omutan people. The search takes her to the Disk-system which is now inhabited by the survivors of the Garissan genocide, and finally (with the aid of Calvert) to an uninhabited system to find the Alchemist starship which was damaged at the beginning of the first novel. The weapon is used to destroy a gas giant world, also destroying possessed starships controlled by the Capone organization.
Syrinx is psychologically reconstructed with the help of the founder of the Edenist culture.
Louise and her sister, aided by the possesser Fletcher Christian (one of the few possessers who are not universally sadistic or evil) find their way to Earth in search of Calvert. The possesser also reaches one of the Kulu colonies, resulting in the loss of a peninsula, which is transported by the local possessers into another dimension (this is what happens when the possessers reach a certain number on a planet or in a certain area).
The final book takes place (largely) with a mission to a far off system to discover the Tyrathca 'Sleeping God' (which was previously unknown, but learnt of in the first novel), which was discovered by the Tyrathca when they were travelling the galaxy, looking for new planets to populate. The Tyrathca praise it as a god, yet they are a species incapable of fiction, thus implying some true god-like ability. Syrinx and Calvert both participate, their ships and skills aiding each other considerably, to the Tyrathca home system then to the location of the "god".
Simultaneously Louise, on Earth, must fight Quinn Dexter who is subjugating the population.
The campaign to liberate the possessed peninsula becomes a bloody quagmire, with massive losses on both sides.
The Sleeping God is eventually revealed to be an entity created by an ancient, long departed culture, which was able to create a stable, naked quantum singularity. This singularity has untold knowledge and power, and talks with Calvert for some time, able to transplant its consciousness across time and space, to Earth and Louise, and to the point at which the possession began. Bestowed with the god's power Calvert is able to exorcise the infected across the Confederation through the use of a specially configured wormhole that consumes the entire confederation and all its inhabited worlds and habitats (including people and ships) and transports them into a remote area outside of the Milky Way Galaxy while also de-possessing all people who had been possessed, also Calvert is able to receive a unique viewpoint of the whole story from the start of the possession right up to the point where his fiancé Louise is about to stand alone against the evil Quinn Dexter.
When order starts to return to the Confederation and Joshua Calvert is questioned as to why he moved the human race to such an isolated space he justified himself by saying that this will allow humanity to avert another "reality dysfunction" as this isolation will force itself to look inwards and re-evaluate itself as a whole. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24052 |
Pope Boniface VIII
Pope Boniface VIII (; born Benedetto Caetani, c. 1230 – 11 October 1303) was pope from 24 December 1294 to his death in 1303. Caetani was of baronial origin with family connections to the papacy.
He succeeded Pope Celestine V, a Benedictine, who had resigned from the papal throne. Boniface spent his early career abroad in diplomatic roles. In the College of Cardinals, he discriminated not only against the Benedictines but also members of the Colonna family, some of whom had contested the validity of the 1294 papal conclave that elected him following the unusual resignation of Pope Celestine V. The dispute resulted in battles between troops of Boniface and his adversaries and the deliberate destruction and salting of the town of Palestrina, despite the pope's assurances that the surrendering city would be spared.
Boniface VIII put forward some of the strongest claims of any pope to temporal as well as spiritual power. He involved himself often with foreign affairs, including in France, Sicily, Italy and the First War of Scottish Independence. These views, and his chronic intervention in "temporal" affairs, led to many bitter quarrels with Albert I of Germany, Philip IV of France, and Dante Alighieri, who wrote his treatise "De Monarchia" to dispute Boniface's claims of papal supremacy and placed the pope in the Eighth Circle of Hell in his "Divine Comedy", among the simoniacs.
Boniface systematized canon law by collecting it in a new volume, "Liber Sextus" (1298), which continues to be important source material for canon lawyers. He organized the first Catholic "jubilee" year to take place in Rome in order to gain political clout over Philip IV of France or make up for loss of funds from him. Boniface had first entered into conflict with Philip IV of France in 1296 when the latter sought to reinforce the nascent nation state by imposing taxes on the clergy and barring them from administration of the law. The conflict escalated when the French arrested and convicted papal legate Bernard Saisset for insurrection. The pope issued a bull, "Ausculta Fili", in which he declared that both spiritual and temporal power were under the pope's jurisdiction, and that kings were subordinate to the power of the Roman pontiff. Philip disobeyed and had "Ausculta Fili" publicly burnt in Paris in 1302. Boniface excommunicated Philip and all others who prevented French clergy from traveling to the Holy See, after which the king sent his troops to attack the pope's residence in Anagni on 7 September 1303 and capture him. Boniface was held for three days and beaten badly.
Boniface died a month later, on 11 October 1303, of high fever and was buried in a special chapel. Philip IV pressured Pope Clement V of the Avignon Papacy into staging a posthumous trial of Boniface. He was accused of heresy and sodomy. Pope Clement V referred the process to the 1311 Council of Vienne, where two knights challenged the claim to a trial by combat. With no one willing to fight them, the Council declared the matter closed. His body was accidentally exhumed in 1605 and was found to be in relatively good condition, dispensing the legend that he had become frenzied, gnawing his hands and bashing his brains out against the wall.
Benedetto Caetani was born in Anagni, some southeast of Rome. He was a younger son of Roffredo Caetani (Podestà of Todi in 1274–1275), a member of a baronial family of the Papal States, the Caetani or "Gaetani dell'Aquila".
Through his mother, Emilia Patrasso di Guarcino, a niece of Pope Alexander IV (Rinaldo dei Conti di Segni—who was himself a nephew of Pope Gregory IX), he was not far distant from the seat of ecclesiastical power and patronage. His father's younger brother, Atenolfo, was Podestà di Orvieto.
Benedetto took his first steps into religious life when he was sent to the monastery of the Friars Minor in Velletri, where he was put under the care of his maternal uncle Fra Leonardo Patrasso. In 1252, when his paternal uncle Pietro Caetani became Bishop of Todi, in Umbria, Benedetto followed him to Todi and began his legal studies there.
He was granted a canonry at the cathedral in the family's stronghold of Anagni, with the permission of Pope Alexander IV. His uncle Pietro granted him a canonry in the Cathedral of Todi in 1260. He also came into possession of the small nearby castello of Sismano, a place with twenty-one fires (hearths, families). In later years Father Vitalis, the Prior of S. Egidio de S. Gemino in Narni testified that he knew him and conversed with him in Todi and that Benedetto was in a school run by Rouchetus, a Doctor of Laws, from that city.
Benedetto never forgot his roots in Todi, later describing the city as "the dwelling place of his early youth", the city which "nourished him while still of tender years", and as a place where he "held lasting memories". Later in life he repeatedly expressed his gratitude to Anagni, Todi, and his family.
In 1264 Benedetto entered the Roman Curia, perhaps with the office of Advocatus. He served as secretary to Cardinal Simon de Brion, the future Pope Martin IV, on a mission to France. Cardinal Simon had been appointed by Pope Urban IV (Jacques Pantaléon), between 25 and 27 April 1264, to engage in negotiations with Charles of Anjou, Comte de Provence, over the Crown of Naples and Sicily. On 1 May 1264 he was given permission to appoint two or three "tabelliones" (secretaries) for his mission, one of whom was Benedetto.
On 26 February 1265, only eleven days after his coronation, the new pope, Pope Clement IV wrote to Cardinal Simon, telling him to break off negotiations and travel immediately to Provence, where he would receive further instructions. On the same day, Clement wrote to Charles of Anjou, informing him that the pope had 35 conditions that Charles must agree to in accepting the crown; he also wrote to Henry III of England and his son Edmund that they had never been possessors of the Kingdom of Sicily. He also commended to the Cardinal the Sienese bankers who had been working for Urban IV to raise funds for Charles of Anjou, and that he should transfer to them some 7,000 pounds Tournois from the "decima" (ten percent tax) of France. On 20 March 1265, in order to expedite the business with Charles of Anjou, Cardinal Simon was authorized to provide benefices from cathedrals or otherwise within his province to five of his clerics. This may have been the occasion on which Benedetto Caetani acquired at least some of his French benefices. On 9 April 1265, on the petition of Cardinal Simon de Brion, the legation which had been assigned him by Pope Urban was declared "not" to have expired on the death of Urban IV. There would have been no point in making such a ruling if Cardinal Simon had already ceased to be Legate.
On 4 May 1265 Cardinal Ottobono Fieschi was appointed Apostolic Legate to England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland by the new Pope Clement IV. In fact, he was sent as the successor of Cardinal Guy Folques, who had been elected Clement IV on 5 February 1265. On 29 August 1265 the Cardinal was received at the French Court by King Louis IX. There he learned that Simon de Montfort and his son Henry had been killed at the Battle of Evesham earlier that month. Cardinal Ottobono did not reach Boulogne until October 1265. He was accompanied by Benedetto Caetani. He was in England until July 1268, working to suppress the remnants of Simon de Montfort's barons who were still in arms against King Henry III of England. To finance their rebellion, the barons had imposed a 10% tax on church property, which the Pope wanted back because the tithe was uncanonical. This drawback was a major concern of Cardinal Ottobono and his entourage. While in England, Benedetto Caetani became rector of St. Lawrence's church in Towcester, Northamptonshire.
Upon Benedetto's return from England, there is an eight-year period in which nothing is known about his life. This period, however, included the long vacancy of the papal throne from 29 November 1268 to February 1272, when Pope Gregory X accepted the papal throne. It also includes the time span when Pope Gregory and his cardinals went to France in 1273 for the second Council of Lyon, as well as the Eighth Crusade, led by Louis IX, in 1270. The Pope and some of the cardinals began their return to Italy at the end of November 1275. Pope Gregory celebrated Christmas in Arezzo and died there on 10 January 1276. In 1276, however, Benedetto was sent to France to supervise the collection of a tithe, which is perhaps when he held the office of Advocatus in the Roman Curia, and then was appointed a papal Notary in the late 1270s. During this time, Benedetto accumulated seventeen benefices, which he was permitted to keep when he was promoted. Some of these are enumerated in a bull by Pope Martin IV, in which he bestowed the deaconry of S. Nicolas in Carcere on Cardinal Benedetto Caetani.
At Orvieto, on 12 April 1281, Pope Martin IV created Benedetto Caetani cardinal deacon of Saint Nicholas in Carcere. In 1288 he was sent as Legate to Umbria to attempt to calm the strife between Guelphs and Ghibellines, which was taking the form of a war between the cities of Perugia and Foligno. In the winter of 1289, he was one of Pope Nicholas IV's advisors as he decided on a settlement of the disputes over the election or appointment of Portuguese bishops, in which King Denis played a major role. To give greater authority to the final mandate of the Pope, Cardinal Latino Orsini of Ostia, Cardinal Pietro Peregrosso of S. Marco, and Cardinal Benedetto of S. Nicola in Carcere appended their signatures and seals. Three years later, on 22 September 1291, Pope Nicholas IV (Girolamo Maschi d'Ascoli, O.Min.) promoted him to the Order of Cardinal Priests, with the title of SS. Silvester and Martin. Given the fact that there were only a dozen cardinals, Cardinal Benedetto was assigned the care ("commenda") of the deaconry of S. Agata, and his old deaconry of S. Nicola in Carcere. As cardinal, he served as papal legate in diplomatic negotiations to France, Naples, Sicily, and Aragon.
Pope Celestine V (who had been Brother Peter, the hermit of Mount Murrone near Sulmone) resigned on 13 December 1294 at Naples, where, much to the discomfort of a number of cardinals, he had established the papal court under the patronage of Charles II of Naples. He had continued to live like a monk there, even turning a room in the papal apartment into the semblance of a monastic cell. A contemporary, Bartholomew of Lucca, who was present in Naples in December 1294 and witnessed many of the events of the abdication and election, said that Benedetto Caetani was only one of several cardinals who pressured Celestine to resign. However, it is also on record that Celestine V resigned by his own design after consultation with experts, and that Benedetto merely showed that it was allowed by Church law. Either way, Celestine V vacated the throne and Benedetto Caetani was elected in his place as pope, taking the name Boniface VIII.
The 1294 papal conclave began on 23 December, ten days after Celestine's resignation. The regulations promulgated in the papal bull "Ubi periculum" by Pope Gregory X at the Second Council of Lyon in 1274 had not envisioned a papal resignation, but the cardinals waited the usual ten days from the papal resignation. This gave all twenty-two cardinals the chance to assemble at the Castel Nuovo in Naples, the site of the resignation. Hugh Aycelin presided over the papal conclave as the senior cardinal bishop. Benedetto Caetani was elected by ballot and accession on Christmas Eve, 24 December 1294, taking the name Boniface VIII. On the first (secret) ballot, he had a majority of the votes, and at the "accessio" a sufficient number joined his majority to form the required two-thirds. He was consecrated bishop of Rome in Rome by Cardinal Hugh Aycelin on 23 January 1295. He immediately returned the Papal Curia to Rome, where he was crowned at the Vatican Basilica on Sunday, 23 January 1295. One of his first acts as pontiff was to grant his predecessor residence in the Castle of Fumone in Ferentino, where he died the next year at the age of 81, attended by two monks of his order. Boniface VIII is occasionally discussed in academic literature as possibly implicated in the demise of his predecessor. In 1300, Boniface VIII formalized the custom of the Roman Jubilee, which afterwards became a source of both profit and scandal to the church. Boniface VIII founded Sapienza University of Rome in 1303.
In the field of canon law Boniface VIII had considerable influence. Earlier collections of canon law had been codified in the "Decretales Gregorii IX", published under the authority of Pope Gregory IX in 1234, but in the succeeding sixty years, numerous legal decisions were made by one pope after another. By Boniface's time a new and expanded edition was needed. In 1298 Boniface ordered published as a sixth part (or Book) these various papal decisions, including some 88 of his own legal decisions, as well as a collection of legal principles known as the "Regulæ Juris". His contribution came to be known as the "Liber Sextus". This material is still of importance to canon lawyers or canonists today, to interpret and analyze the canons and other forms of ecclesiastical law properly. The ""Regulae Iuris"" appear at the end of the "Liber Sextus (in VI°)", and now published as part of the five "Decretales" in the "Corpus Juris Canonici". They appear as simple aphorisms, such as "Regula VI: Nemo potest ad impossibile obligari." ('No one can be obligated for something impossible.') Other systems of law also have their own "Regulæ Juris", whether by the same name or something serving a similar function.
Boniface VIII was a pope who put forward some of the strongest claims of any Pope to temporal as well as spiritual power. He involved himself often with foreign affairs. In his Papal bull of 1302, "Unam sanctam", Boniface VIII stated that since the Church is one, since the Church is necessary for salvation, and since Christ appointed Peter to lead it, it is "absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman pontiff". These views, and his chronic intervention in "temporal" affairs, led to many bitter quarrels with Albert I of Germany, Philip IV of France, and Dante Alighieri, who wrote his treatise "De Monarchia" to dispute Boniface's claims of papal supremacy.
In 1297, Cardinal Jacopo Colonna disinherited his brothers Ottone, Matteo, and Landolfo of their lands. The latter three appealed to Pope Boniface VIII, who ordered Jacopo to return the land and furthermore to hand over the family's strongholds of Colonna, Palestrina, and other towns to the Papacy. Jacopo refused. Jacopo Colonna and his nephew, Pietro Colonna, had also seriously compromised themselves by maintaining highly questionable relations with the political enemies of the pope, James II of Aragon and Frederick III of Sicily. In May, Boniface removed them from the College of Cardinals and excommunicated them and their followers.
The Colonna family (aside from the three brothers allied with the Pope) declared that Boniface had been elected illegally following the unprecedented abdication of Pope Celestine V. The dispute led to open warfare, and in September Boniface appointed Landolfo to the command of his army to put down the revolt of Landolfo's relatives. By the end of 1298 Landolfo had captured Colonna, Palestrina and other towns and razed them to the ground after it surrendered peacefully under Boniface's assurances that it would be spared. Dante says it was got by treachery by "long promises and short performances" as Guido of Montefeltro counselled, but this account by the implacable Ghibelline has long since been discredited. Palestrina was razed to the ground, the plough driven through and salt strewn over its ruins. A new city — the Città Papale — later replaced it. Only the city's cathedral was spared.
To deal with the problem of the cardinals left to him by his predecessors, Boniface created new cardinals on five occasions during his reign. In the first creation, in 1295, only one cardinal was appointed, the Pope's nephew Benedetto Caetano. This was no surprise. Nor was the second creation, on 17 December 1295. Two more relatives were appointed, Francesco Caetano, the son of Boniface VIII's brother Peter; and Jacopo (Giacomo) Tomassi Caetani, OFM, a son of the Pope's sister, was made Cardinal Priest of S. Clemente. Giacomo Caetani Stefaneschi, a grand-nephew of Pope Nicholas III, was also appointed, along with Francesco Napoleone Orsini, a nephew of Pope Nicholas III. Three years later, on 4 December 1298, four new cardinals were named: Gonzalo Gudiel (Gundisalvus Rodericus Innojosa), Archbishop of Toledo, was appointed Bishop of Albano; Teodorico Ranieri, Archbishop-elect of Pisa and papal Chamberlain, became Cardinal Priest of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme; Niccolò Boccasini, OP, of Treviso, Master General of the Dominicans, became Cardinal Priest of Santa Sabina; and Riccardo Petroni of Siena, Vice-Chancellor of the Holy Roman Church, was named a Cardinal Deacon. A pattern begins to emerge, though one sees the pattern only in terms of negatives: of the ten new cardinals, only two are monks, and neither of them Benedictine (Celestine V had been excessively partial to Benedictines); and there are no Frenchmen (Celestine had named seven Frenchmen, under the influence of Charles II of Naples). Pope Boniface was distinctly changing the complexion of the membership of the Sacred College. Without the Colonnas, the influence of the King of France was greatly diminished.
On 2 March 1300, during the Great Jubilee, Boniface VIII created three more cardinals. The first was Leonardo Patrasso, Archbishop of Capua, who was Boniface VIII's uncle; he replaced the Archbishop of Toledo, who had died in 1299, as Cardinal Bishop of Albano. The second was Gentile Partino, OFM, Doctor of Theology and Lector of Theology in the Roman Curia, who was made Cardinal Priest of S. Martin in montibus. The third was Luca Fieschi, of the Counts of Lavagna, of Genoa, named Cardinal Deacon of S. Maria in Via Lata (the deaconry which had once belonged to Jacopo Colonna). A relative, a Franciscan; all three Italians.
In his last Consistory for the promotion of Cardinals, on 15 December 1302, Boniface VIII named two more cardinals: Pedro Rodríguez, bishop of Burgos, Spain, became Suburbicarian Bishop of Sabina; and Giovanni Minio da Morrovalle (or da Muro), OFM, Minister General of the Franciscans, was appointed Suburbicarian Bishop of Porto. A Franciscan, a Spaniard, no Benedictines, no French. In fact, there were only two French in the Sacred College at Boniface's death, only five regular clergy (only one Benedictine).
When Frederick III of Sicily attained his throne after the death of Peter III of Aragon, Boniface tried to dissuade him from accepting the throne of Sicily. When Frederick persisted, Boniface excommunicated him in 1296, and placed the island under interdict. Neither the king nor the people were moved. The conflict continued until the Peace of Caltabellotta in 1302, which saw Pedro's son Frederick III recognized as king of Sicily while Charles II was recognized as the king of Naples. To prepare for a Crusade, Boniface ordered Venice and Genoa to sign a truce; they fought each other for three more years, and turned down his offer to mediate peace.
Boniface also placed the city of Florence under an interdict and invited the ambitious Charles, Count of Valois to enter Italy in 1300 to end the feud of the Black and White Guelphs, the poet Dante Alighieri being in the party of the Whites. Boniface's political ambitions directly affected Dante when the pope invited Count Charles to intervene in the affairs of Florence. Charles's intervention allowed the Black Guelphs to overthrow the ruling White Guelphs, whose leaders, including the poet Dante, allegedly in Rome at the time to argue Florence's case before Boniface, were sentenced to exile. Dante settled his score with Boniface in the first canticle of the "Divine Comedy", the "Inferno", by damning the pope, placing him within the circles of Fraud, in the bolgia of the simoniacs. In the Inferno, Pope Nicholas III, mistaking the Poet for Boniface, is surprised to see the latter, supposing him to be ahead of his time.
The conflict between Boniface VIII and King Philip IV of France (1268–1314) came at a time of expanding nation states and the desire for the consolidation of power by the increasingly powerful monarchs. The increase in monarchical power and its conflicts with the Church of Rome were only exacerbated by the rise to power of Philip IV in 1285. In France, the process of centralizing royal power and developing a genuine national state began with the Capetian kings. During his reign, Philip surrounded himself with the best civil lawyers and decidedly expelled the clergy from all participation in the administration of the law. With the clergy beginning to be taxed in France and England to finance their ongoing wars against each other, Boniface took a hard stand against it. He saw the taxation as an assault on traditional clerical rights and ordered the bull "Clericis laicos" in February 1296, forbidding lay taxation of the clergy without prior papal approval. In the bull, Boniface states "they exact and demand from the same the half, tithe, or twentieth, or any other portion or proportion of their revenues or goods; and in many ways they try to bring them into slavery, and subject them to their authority. And also whatsoever emperors, kings, or princes, dukes, earls or barons...presume to take possession of things anywhere deposited in holy buildings...should incur sentence of excommunication." It was during the issuing of "Clericis laicos" that hostilities between Boniface and Philip began. Philip retaliated against the bull by denying the exportation of money from France to Rome, funds that the Church required to operate. Boniface had no choice but to contest Philip's demands, informing Philip that "God has set popes over kings and kingdoms."
Philip was convinced that the wealth of the Catholic Church in France should be used in part to support the state. He wanted to make war against the English. He countered the papal bull by decreeing laws prohibiting the export of gold, silver, precious stones, or food from France to the Papal States. These measures had the effect of blocking a main source of papal revenue. Philip also banished from France the papal agents who were raising funds for a new crusade in the Middle East. In the bull "Ineffabilis amor" of September 1296, Boniface retreated. He sanctioned voluntary contributions from the clergy for the necessary defense of the state and gave the king the right to determine that necessity. Philip rescinded his ordinances regarding the exports and even accepted Boniface as arbitrator in a dispute between himself and King Edward I of England. Boniface decided most of those issues in Philip's favor.
Boniface proclaimed 1300 a "jubilee" year, the first of many such jubilees to take place in Rome. He may have wanted to gather money from pilgrims to Rome as a substitute for the missing money from France, or it may be that he was seeking moral and political support against the hostile behavior of the French king and his henchmen. The event was a success; Rome had never received such crowds before. It is said that on one particular day some 30,000 people were counted. Giovanni Villani estimated that some 200,000 pilgrims came to Rome. Boniface and his aides managed the affair well, food was plentiful, and it was sold at moderate prices. It was an advantage to the pope that the great sums of money he collected could be used according to Boniface's own judgment.
After King Edward I of England invaded Scotland and forced the abdication of the Scottish King John Balliol, the deposed King was released into the custody of Pope Boniface on condition that he remain at a papal residence. The hard-pressed Scottish Parliament, then in the early stages of what came to be known as First Scottish War of Independence, condemned Edward I's invasion and occupation of Scotland and appealed to the Pope to assert a feudal overlordship over the country. The Pope assented, condemning Edward's invasions and occupation of Scotland in the papal bull "Scimus, Fili" (Latin for "We know, my son") of June 27, 1299. The bull ordered Edward to desist his attacks and start negotiations with the Scots. However, Edward ignored the bull; in 1301, a letter was composed in which the English rejected its authority, but it was never sent.
The feud between Boniface and Philip IV reached its peak in the early 14th century, when Philip began to launch a strong anti-papal campaign against Boniface. A quarrel arose between Philip's aides and a papal legate, Bernard Saisset. The legate was arrested on a charge of inciting an insurrection, was tried and convicted by the royal court, and committed to the custody of the archbishop of Narbonne, Giles Aycelin - one of his key ministers and allies, in 1301. In the bull "Ausculta Fili" ("Listen, [My] Son", December 1301) Boniface VIII appealed to Philip IV to listen modestly to the Vicar of Christ as the spiritual monarch over all earthly kings. He protested against the trial of churchmen before Philip's royal courts and the continued use of church funds for state purposes and he announced he would summon the bishops and abbots of France to take measures "for the preservation of the liberties of the Church". When the bull was presented to Philip IV, Robert II, Count of Artois, reportedly snatched it from the hands of Boniface's emissary and flung it into the fire.
In February 1302 the bull "Ausculta Fili" was officially burned at Paris before Philip IV and a great multitude. Nonetheless, on 4 March 1302, Pope Boniface sent cardinal Jean Lemoine as his legate to reassert papal control over the French clergy. To forestall the ecclesiastical council proposed by Boniface, Philip summoned the three estates of his realm to meet at Paris in April. At this first French Estates-General in history, all three classes – nobles, clergy, and commons – wrote separately to Rome in defense of the king and his temporal power. Some forty-five French prelates, despite Philip's prohibition, and the confiscation of their property, attended the council at Rome in October 1302.
Following that council, on 18 November 1302, Boniface issued the bull "Unam sanctam" ("One holy [catholic and apostolic Church]"). It declared that both spiritual and temporal power were under the pope's jurisdiction, and that kings were subordinate to the power of the Roman pontiff. The Pope also appointed Cardinal Jean le Moine as Apostolic Legate to King Philip, to attempt to find some resolution of the impasse that had developed; he was granted the specific power of absolving King Philip from excommunication.
On Maundy Thursday, 4 April 1303, the Pope again excommunicated all persons who were impeding French clerics from coming to the Holy See, "etiam si imperiali aut regali fulgeant dignitati." This included King Philip IV, though not by name. In response, Guillaume de Nogaret, Philip's chief minister, denounced Boniface as a heretical criminal to the French clergy. On 15 August 1303, the Pope suspended the right of all persons in the Kingdom of France to name anyone as Regent or Doctor, including the King. And in another document of the same day, he reserved to the Holy See the provision of all present and future vacancies in cathedral churches and monasteries, until King Philip should come to the Papal Court and make explanations of his behavior.
On 7 September 1303, an army led by King Philip's minister Nogaret and Sciarra Colonna attacked Boniface at his Palace in Anagni next to the Cathedral. The Pope responded with a bull dated 8 September 1303, in which Philip and Nogaret were excommunicated. The French Chancellor and the Colonnas demanded the Pope's resignation; Boniface VIII responded that he would "sooner die". In response, Colonna allegedly slapped Boniface, a "slap" historically remembered as the "schiaffo di Anagni" ("Anagni slap").
According to a modern interpreter, the 73-year-old Boniface was probably beaten and nearly executed, but was released from captivity after three days. He died a month later. The famous Florentine chronicler Giovanni Villani, wrote:
And when Sciarra and the others, his enemies, came to him, they mocked at him with vile words and arrested him and his household which had remained with him. Among others, William of Nogaret, who had conducted the negotiations for the king of France, scorned him and threatened him, saying that he would take him bound to Lyons on the Rhone, and there in a general council would cause him to be deposed and condemned... no man dared to touch [Boniface], nor were they pleased to lay hands on him, but they left him robed under light arrest and were minded to rob the treasure of the Pope and the Church. In this pain, shame and torment, the great Pope Boniface abode prisoner among his enemies for three days... the People of Anagni beholding their error and issuing from their blind ingratitude, suddenly rose in arms... and drove out Sciarra della Colonna and his followers, with loss to them of prisoners and slain, and freed the Pope and his household. Pope Boniface... departed immediately from Anagni with his court and came to Rome and St. Peter's to hold a council... but... the grief which had hardened in the heart of Pope Boniface, by reason of the injury which he had received, produced in him, once he had come to Rome, a strange malady so that he gnawed at himself as if he were mad, and in this state he passed from this life on the twelfth day of October in the year of Christ 1303, and in the Church of St. Peter near the entrance of the doors, in a rich chapel which was built in his lifetime, he was honorably buried.
He died of a violent fever on 11 October, in full possession of his senses and in the presence of eight cardinals and the chief members of the papal household, after receiving the sacraments and making the usual profession of faith.
The body of Boniface VIII was buried in 1303 in a special chapel that also housed the remains of Pope Boniface IV (A.D. 608-615), which had been moved by Boniface VIII from a tomb outside the Vatican Basilica in the portico.
The body was accidentally exhumed in 1605, and the results of the excavation recorded by Giacomo Grimaldi (1568-1623), Apostolic Notary and Archivist of the Vatican Basilica, and others. The body lay within three coffins, the outermost of wood, the middle of lead, and the innermost of pine. The corporal remains were described as being "unusually tall" measuring seven palms when examined by doctors. The body was found quite intact, especially the shapely hands, thus disproving another spiteful calumny, that he had died in a frenzy, gnawing his hands, beating his brains out against the wall. The body wore ecclesiastical vestments common for Boniface's lifetime: long stockings covered legs and thighs, and it was garbed also with the maniple, cassock, and pontifical habit made of black silk, as well as stole, chasuble, rings, and bejeweled gloves.
After this exhumation and examination, Boniface's body was moved to the Chapel of Pope Gregory and Andrew. His body now lies in the crypt (grotte) of St. Peter's in a large marble sarcophagus, inscribed BONIFACIVS PAPA VIII.
After the papacy had been removed to Avignon in 1309, Pope Clement V, under extreme pressure from King Philip IV, consented to a posthumous trial. He said, "[I]t was permissible for any persons who wanted to proceed against the memory of Boniface VIII to proceed." He gave a mandate to the Bishop of Paris, Guillaume de Baufet d'Aurillac, and to Guillaume Pierre Godin, OP, that the complainants should choose prosecutors and determine a day on which the Inquiry would begin in the presence of the Pope ("coram nobis Avinione"). The Pope signed his mandate at his current place of residence, the Priory of Grauselle near Malusan (Malausène) in the diocese of Vasio (Vaison), on 18 October 1309. Both the King of Aragon and the King of Castile immediately sent ambassadors to Pope Clement, complaining that scandal was being poured into the ears of the Faithful, when they heard that a Roman pontiff was being charged with a crime of heresy. They had a point, in that the persecution implied that a pope was not infallible in matters of faith and morals. Complaints also came from Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands.
On 27 April 1310, in what was certainly a peace gesture toward the French, Clement V pardoned Guillaume Nogaret for his offenses committed at Anagni against Boniface VIII and the Church, for which he had been excommunicated, with the condition that Nogaret personally go to the Holy Land in the next wave of soldiers and serve there in the military. By the end of Spring 1310, Clement was feeling the embarrassment and the pressure over the material being produced by Boniface's accusers. His patience was wearing thin. He issued a mandate on 28 June 1310, in which he complained about the quality of the testimony and the corruption of the various accusers and witnesses. Then he ordered the Quaesitores that future examinations should proceed under threat of excommunication for perjury. A process (judicial investigation) against the memory of Boniface was held by an ecclesiastical consistory at Priory Groseau, near Malaucène, which held preliminary examinations in August and September 1310. and collected testimonies that alleged many heretical opinions of Boniface VIII. This included the offence of sodomy, although there is no substantive evidence for this, and it is likely that this was the standard accusation Philip made against enemies. The same charge was brought against the Templars.
Before the actual trial could be held, Clement persuaded Philip to leave the question of Boniface's guilt to the Council of Vienne, which met in 1311. On 27 April 1311, in a public Consistory, with King Philip's agents present, the Pope formally excused the King for everything that he had said against the memory of Pope Boniface, on the grounds that he was speaking with good intentions. This statement was written down and published as a bull, and the bull contained the statement that the matter would be referred by the Pope to the forthcoming Council. The Pope then announced that he was reserving the whole matter to his own judgment.
The XV Ecumenical Council, the Council of Vienne, opened on 1 November 1311, with more than 300 bishops in attendance. When the Council met (so it is said), three cardinals appeared before it and testified to the orthodoxy and morality of the dead pope. Two knights, as challengers, threw down their gauntlets to maintain his innocence by trial by combat. No one accepted the challenge, and the Council declared the matter closed. Clement's order disbanding the Order of the Knights Templar was signed at the Council of Vienne on 2 May 1312.
The pope is said to have been short-tempered, kicking an envoy in the face on one occasion, and on another, throwing ashes in the eyes of an archbishop who was kneeling to receive them as a blessing atop his head.
Footnotes
Citations | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24060 |
Peroxisome
A peroxisome () is a membrane-bound organelle (formerly known as a microbody), found in the cytoplasm of virtually all eukaryotic cells. Peroxisomes are oxidative organelles. Frequently, molecular oxygen serves as a co-substrate, from which hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is then formed. Peroxisomes owe their name to hydrogen peroxide generating and scavenging activities. They perform key roles in lipid metabolism and the conversion of reactive oxygen species. Peroxisomes are involved in the catabolism of very long chain fatty acids, branched chain fatty acids, bile acid intermediates (in the liver), D-amino acids, and polyamines, the reduction of reactive oxygen species – specifically hydrogen peroxide. – and the biosynthesis of plasmalogens, i.e., ether phospholipids critical for the normal function of mammalian brains and lungs They also contain approximately 10% of the total activity of two enzymes (Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and 6-Phosphogluconate dehydrogenase) in the pentose phosphate pathway , which is important for energy metabolism. It is vigorously debated whether peroxisomes are involved in isoprenoid and cholesterol synthesis in animals. Other known peroxisomal functions include the glyoxylate cycle in germinating seeds ("glyoxysomes"), photorespiration in leaves, glycolysis in trypanosomes ("glycosomes"), and methanol and/or amine oxidation and assimilation in some yeasts.
Peroxisomes (microbodies) were first described by a Swedish doctoral student, J. Rhodin in 1954. They were identified as organelles by the Belgian cytologist Christian de Duve in 1967, De Duve and co-workers discovered that peroxisomes contain several oxidases involved in the production of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) as well as catalase involved in the decomposition of H2O2 to oxygen and water. Due to their role in peroxide metabolism, De Duve named them “peroxisomes”, replacing the formerly used morphological term “microbodies”. Later, it was described that firefly luciferase is targeted to peroxisomes in mammalian cells, allowing the discovery of the import targeting signal for peroxisomes, and triggering many advances in the peroxisome biogenesis field .
Peroxisomes are small (0.1-1 µm diameter) subcellular compartments (organelles) with a fine, granular matrix and surrounded by a single biomembrane which are located in the cytoplasm of a cell. Compartmentalization creates an optimized environment to promote various metabolic reactions within peroxisomes required to sustain cellular functions and viability of the organism.
The number, size and protein composition of peroxisomes are variable and depend on cell type and environmental conditions. For example, in baker's yeast ("S. cerevisiae"), it has been observed that, with good glucose supply, only a few, small peroxisomes are present. In contrast, when the yeasts were supplied with long-chain fatty acids as sole carbon source up to 20 to 25 large peroxisomes can be formed.
A major function of the peroxisome is the breakdown of very long chain fatty acids through beta oxidation. In animal cells, the long fatty acids are converted to medium chain fatty acids, which are subsequently shuttled to mitochondria where they eventually are broken down to carbon dioxide and water. In yeast and plant cells, this process is carried out exclusively in peroxisomes.
The first reactions in the formation of plasmalogen in animal cells also occur in peroxisomes. Plasmalogen is the most abundant phospholipid in myelin. Deficiency of plasmalogens causes profound abnormalities in the myelination of nerve cells, which is one reason why many peroxisomal disorders affect the nervous system. Peroxisomes also play a role in the production of bile acids important for the absorption of fats and fat-soluble vitamins, such as vitamins A and K. Skin disorders are features of genetic disorders affecting peroxisome function as a result .
The specific metabolic pathways that occur exclusively in mammalian peroxisomes are:
Peroxisomes contain oxidative enzymes, such as D-amino acid oxidase and uric acid oxidase. However the last enzyme is absent in humans, explaining the disease known as gout, caused by the accumulation of uric acid. Certain enzymes within the peroxisome, by using molecular oxygen, remove hydrogen atoms from specific organic substrates (labeled as R), in an oxidative reaction, producing hydrogen peroxide (H2O2, itself toxic):
Catalase, another peroxisomal enzyme, uses this H2O2 to oxidize other substrates, including phenols, formic acid, formaldehyde, and alcohol, by means of the peroxidation reaction:
This reaction is important in liver and kidney cells, where the peroxisomes detoxify various toxic substances that enter the blood. About 25% of the ethanol that humans consume by drinking alcoholic beverages is oxidized to acetaldehyde in this way. In addition, when excess H2O2 accumulates in the cell, catalase converts it to H2O through this reaction:
In higher plants, peroxisomes contain also a complex battery of antioxidative enzymes such as superoxide dismutase, the components of the ascorbate-glutathione cycle, and the NADP-dehydrogenases of the pentose-phosphate pathway. It has been demonstrated that peroxisomes generate superoxide (O2•−) and nitric oxide (•NO) radicals.
There is evidence now that those reactive oxygen species including peroxisomal H2O2 are also important signalling molecules in plants and animals and contribute to healthy ageing and age-related disorders in humans.
The peroxisome of plant cells is polarised when fighting fungal penetration. Infection causes a glucosinolate molecule to play an antifungal role to be made and delivered to the outside of the cell through the action of the peroxisomal proteins (PEN2 and PEN3).
Peroxisomes in mammals and humans also contribute to anti-viral defense. and the combat of pathogens
Peroxisomes can be derived from the endoplasmic reticulum under certain experimental conditions and replicate by membrane growth and division out of pre-existing organelles. Peroxisome matrix proteins are translated in the cytoplasm prior to import. Specific amino acid sequences (PTS or peroxisomal targeting signal) at the "C-terminus" (PTS1) or "N-terminus" (PTS2) of peroxisomal matrix proteins signals them to be imported into the organelle by a targeting factor. There are currently 36 known proteins involved in peroxisome biogenesis and maintenance, called peroxins , which participate in the process of peroxisome assembly in different organisms. In mammalian cells there are 13 characterized peroxins. In contrast to protein import into the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) or mitochondria, proteins do not need to be unfolded to be imported into the peroxisome lumen. The matrix protein import receptors, the peroxins PEX5 and PEX7, accompany their cargoes (containing a PTS1 or a PTS2 amino acid sequence, respectively) all the way to the peroxisome where they release the cargo into the peroxisomal matrix and then return to the cytosol – a step named "recycling". A special way of peroxisomal protein targeting is called piggy backing. Proteins that are transported by this unique method, do not have a canonical PTS, but rather bind on a PTS protein to be transported as a complex . A model describing the import cycle is referred to as the "extended shuttle mechanism". There is now evidence that ATP hydrolysis is required for the recycling of receptors to the cytosol. Also, ubiquitination is crucial for the export of PEX5 from the peroxisome, to the cytosol. The biogenesis of the peroxisomal membrane and the insertion of peroxisomal membrane proteins (PMPs) requires the peroxins PEX19, PEX3, and PEX16. PEX19 is a PMP receptor and chaperone, which binds the PMPs and routes them to the peroxisomal membrane, where it interacts with PEX3, a peroxisomal integral membrane protein. PMPs are then inserted into the peroxisomal membrane.
The degradation of peroxisomes is called pexophagy.
The diverse functions of peroxisomes require dynamic interactions and cooperation with many organelles involved in cellular lipid metabolism such as the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), mitochondria, lipid droplets, and lysosomes.
Peroxisomes interact with mitochondria in several metabolic pathways, including β-oxidation of fatty acids and the metabolism of reactive oxygen species. Both organelles are in close contact with the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and share several proteins, including organelle fission factors. Peroxisomes also interact with the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and cooperate in the synthesis of ether lipids (plasmalogens) which are important for nerve cells (see above). In filamentous fungi, peroxisomes move on microtubules by 'hitchhiking,' a process involving contact with rapidly moving early endosomes. Physical contact between organelles is often mediated by membrane contact sites, where membranes of two organelles are physically tethered to enable rapid transfer of small molecules, enable organelle communication and are crucial for coordination of cellular functions and hence human health. Alterations of membrane contacts have been observed in various diseases.
Peroxisomal disorders are a class of medical conditions that typically affect the human nervous system as well as many other organ systems. Two common examples are X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy and peroxisome biogenesis disorders.
"PEX" genes encode the protein machinery ("peroxins") required for proper peroxisome assembly, as described above. Membrane assembly and maintenance requires three of these (peroxins 3, 16, and 19) and may occur without the import of the matrix (lumen) enzymes. Proliferation of the organelle is regulated by Pex11p.
Genes that encode peroxin proteins include: PEX1, PEX2 (PXMP3), PEX3, PEX5, PEX6, PEX7, PEX9 , PEX10, PEX11A, PEX11B, PEX11G, PEX12, PEX13, PEX14, PEX16, PEX19, PEX26, PEX28, PEX30, and PEX31. Between organisms, PEX numbering and function can differ.
The protein content of peroxisomes varies across species or organism, but the presence of proteins common to many species has been used to suggest an endosymbiotic origin; that is, peroxisomes evolved from bacteria that invaded larger cells as parasites, and very gradually evolved a symbiotic relationship. However, this view has been challenged by recent discoveries. For example, peroxisome-less mutants can restore peroxisomes upon introduction of the wild-type gene.
Two independent evolutionary analyses of the peroxisomal proteome found homologies between the peroxisomal import machinery and the ERAD pathway in the endoplasmic reticulum , along with a number of metabolic enzymes that were likely recruited from the mitochondria. Recently, it has been suggested that the peroxisome may have had an actinobacterial origin , however, this is controversial.
Other organelles of the microbody family related to peroxisomes include glyoxysomes of plants and filamentous fungi, glycosomes of kinetoplastids, and Woronin bodies of filamentous fungi. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24062 |
Peter Handke
Peter Handke (; born 6 December 1942) is a Nobel laureate novelist, playwright, translator, poet, film director, and screenwriter from Austria. Handke was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2019.
In the late 1960s, he was recognized for the play "Publikumsbeschimpfung" ("Offending the Audience") and the novel "Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter" ("The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick"). Prompted by his mother's suicide in 1971, he reflected her life in the novel "Wunschloses Unglück" ("A Sorrow Beyond Dreams"). Handke was a member of the "Grazer Gruppe" (an association of authors) and the Grazer Autorenversammlung, and co-founded the Verlag der Autoren publishing house in Frankfurt. He collaborated with director Wim Wenders, leading to screenplays such as "Der Himmel über Berlin" ("Wings of Desire").
Handke has received other awards, including the 1973 Georg Büchner Prize, the 1987 Vilenica International Literary Prize, and the 2018 Austrian Nestroy Theatre Prize for Lifetime Achievement.
Handke was born in Griffen, then in the German Reich's province Gau Carinthia. His father, Erich Schönemann, was a bank clerk and German soldier whom Handke did not meet until adulthood. His mother Maria, a Carinthian Slovene, married Bruno Handke, a tram conductor and Wehrmacht soldier from Berlin, before Peter was born. The family lived in the Soviet-occupied Pankow district of Berlin from 1944 to 1948, where Maria Handke had two more children: Peter's half-sister and half-brother. Then the family moved to his mother's home town of Griffen. Peter experienced his stepfather as more and more violent due to alcoholism.
In 1954, Handke was sent to the Catholic "Marianum" boys' boarding school at Tanzenberg Castle in Sankt Veit an der Glan. There, he published his first writing in the school newspaper, "Fackel". In 1959, he moved to Klagenfurt, where he went to high school, and commenced law studies at the University of Graz in 1961.
Handke's mother took her own life in 1971, reflected in his novel "Wunschloses Unglück" ("A Sorrow Beyond Dreams").
After leaving Graz, Handke lived in Düsseldorf, Berlin, Kronberg, Paris, the U.S. (1978 to 1979) and Salzburg (1979 to 1988). Since 1990, he has resided in Chaville near Paris. He is the subject of the documentary film "" (2016), directed by . Since 2012, Handke has been a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. He is a member of the Serbian Orthodox church.
As of early November 2019, there was an official investigation by the relevant authorities on whether Handke may have automatically lost his Austrian citizenship upon obtaining a Yugoslav passport and nationality in the late 1990s.
While studying, Handke established himself as a writer, linking up with the "Grazer Gruppe" (the Graz Authors' Assembly), an association of young writers. The group published a magazine on literature, "", which published Handke's early works. Group members included Wolfgang Bauer and Barbara Frischmuth.
Handke abandoned his studies in 1965, after the German publishing house Suhrkamp Verlag accepted his novel " (The Hornets)" for publication. He gained international attention after an appearance at a meeting of avant-garde artists belonging to the Gruppe 47 in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1966. The same year, his play "Publikumsbeschimpfung" ("Offending the Audience") premiered at the in Frankfurt, directed by . Handke became one of the co-founders of the publishing house in 1969 with a new commercial concept, as it belonged to the authors. He co-founded the Grazer Autorenversammlung in 1973 and was a member until 1977.
Handke's first play, "Publikumsbeschimpfung" ("Offending the Audience"), which premiered in Frankfurt in 1966 and made him well known, was the first of several experimental plays without a conventional plot. In his second play, "Kaspar", he treated the story of Kaspar Hauser as "an allegory of conformist social pressures".
Handke has written scripts for films. He directed "Die linkshändige Frau" ("The Left-Handed Woman"), which was released in 1978. "Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide's" description of the film is that a woman demands that her husband leave and he complies. "Time passes... and the audience falls asleep." The film was nominated for the Golden Palm Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1978 and won the Gold Award for German Arthouse Cinema in 1980. Handke also won the 1975 German Film Award in Gold for his screenplay for "Falsche Bewegung" ("The Wrong Move"). He collaborated with director Wim Wenders in writing the screenplay for the 1987 film "Der Himmel über Berlin" ("Wings of Desire"), including the poem at its opening. Since 1975, Handke has been a jury member of the European literary award Petrarca-Preis.
Handke collaborated with director Wim Wenders on a film version of "Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter", wrote the script for "Falsche Bewegung" ("The Wrong Move") and co-wrote the screenplay for "Der Himmel über Berlin" ("Wings of Desire") and "Les Beaux Jours d'Aranjuez" ("The Beautiful Days of Aranjuez"). He also directed films, including adaptations from his novels "The Left-Handed Woman" after "Die linkshändige Frau", and "The Absence" after "Die Abwesenheit".
In 1996, Handke's travelogue "Eine winterliche Reise zu den Flüssen Donau, Save, Morawa und Drina oder Gerechtigkeit für Serbien" (published in English as "A Journey to the Rivers: Justice for Serbia") created controversy, as Handke portrayed Serbia as being among the victims of the Yugoslav Wars. In the same essay, Handke also criticised Western media for misrepresenting the causes and consequences of the war.
In 2013, Tomislav Nikolić, as the then President of Serbia, expressed gratitude saying that some people still remember those who suffered for Christianity, implying that Handke was victim of scorn for his views, to which Handke replied with explanation, "I was not anyone's victim, the Serbian people is victim." This was said during the ceremony at which Handke received the "Gold Medal of Merit of the Republic of Serbia".
In 2014, Handke called for the Nobel Prize in Literature to be abolished and dubbed it a "circus". In 2019, he was awarded the Nobel Prize "for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience."
In February 2020, Sima Avramović, the president of the commission for decorations of the Republic of Serbia, explained that Handke, for "special merits in representing Serbia and its citizens" as he "wholeheartedly defended the Serbian truth", is being decorated with the "Order of the Star of Karadjordje". The current President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, presented recipients on the occasion of the Serbian Statehood Day.
After his play "Voyage by Dugout" was staged in 1999, Handke was condemned by other writers: Susan Sontag proclaimed Handke to be "finished" in New York, Salman Rushdie declared him as a candidate for "Moron of the Year" due to his "idiocies", while Alain Finkielkraut said that he was an "ideological monster", and Slavoj Žižek stated that his "glorification of the Serbs is cynicism".
When Handke was awarded the International Ibsen Award in 2014, it caused some calls for the jury to resign. Jon Fosse, former recipient of the Ibsen Award, welcomed the decision of the Swedish Academy (Nobel Committee deciding on laureates in literature) to award Handke the Nobel Prize in literature, saying that he was a worthy recipient and deserved it.
For the writer's view on the breakup of Yugoslavia and Yugoslav wars, which have been described as pro-Serbian, such as support for the late Slobodan Milošević and Bosnian genocide denial, the decision of the Nobel Committee to award Handke a Nobel Prize in literature was denounced internationally by a variety of public and academic intellectuals, writers and journalists. The high-profile figures who decried the decision of the Swedish Academy, include individuals such as: Deborah Lipstadt, Holocaust historian, who in her letter published in the New York Times wrote that the Nobel committee has awarded Handke a platform which "he does not deserve and the public does not need him to have", adding that such platform could convince some that his "false claims must have some legitimacy", Jonathan Littell who said, "he might be a fantastic artist, but as a human being he is my enemy - he’s an asshole.", Miha Mazzini who said that "some artists sold their human souls for ideologies (Hamsun and Nazism), some for hate (Celine and his rabid antisemitism), some for money and power (Kusturica) but the one that offended me the most was Handke with his naivety for the Milošević regime (...) I found him cruel and totally self-absorbed in his naivety", Hari Kunzru who said that Handke is "a troubling choice for a Nobel committee" and that he is "a fine writer, who combines great insight with shocking ethical blindness", Salman Rushdie, who also criticized Handke's support for wartime Serbia in 1999, Slavoj Žižek, Aleksandar Hemon, Bora Ćosić, Martin Walser, and others. It was met with negative criticism in Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Croatia, and Turkey, resulting in public statements of disapproval. Expressing "deep regret", the decision was condemned by PEN International, PEN America, PEN England and Wales, PEN Norway, PEN Bosnia and Herzegovina, PEN Croatia. A group of demonstrators protested against the writer when he arrived to receive the prize.
Both the Swedish academy and Nobel Committee for Literature members defended their decision to award Handke the Nobel prize. Academy members Mats Malm and Eric M. Runesson wrote in the Swedish paper "Dagens Nyheter" that Handke had "definitely made provocative, inappropriate and unclear statements on political issues" but that they had "found nothing in what he has written that involves attacks on civil society or respect for the equal value of all people". Nobel for literature member Henrik Petersen described Handke as "radically unpolitical" in his writings and that this support for Serbs had been misunderstood, while Rebecka Kärde said: "When we give the award to Handke, we argue that the task of literature is other than to confirm and reproduce what society’s central view believes is morally right" adding that the author "absolutely deserves a Nobel Prize".
In contrast, all of Handke’s Balkan war-related works were included in the Nobel prize bibliography selection, which is described by Gordy and Maass, among others, as "tacit endorsement of genocide denial, revisionism and ultranationalism", and the committee response as "gaslighting not just the survivors of the genocide, but also the historians, war crimes investigators, and journalists".
Handke has written novels, plays, screenplays, essays and poems, often published by Suhrkamp. Many works were translated to English. His works are held by the German National Library, including: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24064 |
Population inversion
In science, specifically statistical mechanics, a population inversion occurs while a system (such as a group of atoms or molecules) exists in a state in which more members of the system are in higher, excited states than in lower, unexcited energy states. It is called an "inversion" because in many familiar and commonly encountered physical systems, this is not possible. This concept is of fundamental importance in laser science because the production of a population inversion is a necessary step in the workings of a standard laser.
To understand the concept of a population inversion, it is necessary to understand some thermodynamics and the way that light interacts with matter. To do so, it is useful to consider a very simple assembly of atoms forming a laser medium.
Assume there are a group of "N" atoms, each of which is capable of being in one of two energy states: either
The number of these atoms which are in the ground state is given by "N"1, and the number in the excited state "N"2. Since there are "N" atoms in total,
The energy difference between the two states, given by
determines the characteristic frequency formula_3 of light which will interact with the atoms; This is given by the relation
"h" being Planck's constant.
If the group of atoms is in thermal equilibrium, it can be shown from Maxwell–Boltzmann statistics that the ratio of the number of atoms in each state is given by the ratio of two Boltzmann distributions, the Boltzmann factor:
where "T" is the thermodynamic temperature of the group of atoms, and "k" is Boltzmann's constant.
We may calculate the ratio of the populations of the two states at room temperature ("T" ≈ 300 K) for an energy difference Δ"E" that corresponds to light of a frequency corresponding to visible light (ν ≈ 5×1014 Hz). In this case Δ"E" = "E"2 - "E"1 ≈ 2.07 eV, and "kT" ≈ 0.026 eV. Since "E"2 - "E"1 ≫ "kT", it follows that the argument of the exponential in the equation above is a large negative number, and as such "N"2/"N"1 is vanishingly small; i.e., there are almost no atoms in the excited state. When in thermal equilibrium, then, it is seen that the lower energy state is more populated than the higher energy state, and this is the normal state of the system. As "T" increases, the number of electrons in the high-energy state ("N"2) increases, but "N"2 never exceeds "N"1 for a system at thermal equilibrium; rather, at infinite temperature, the populations "N"2 and "N"1 become equal. In other words, a population inversion ("N"2/"N"1 > 1) can never exist for a system at thermal equilibrium. To achieve population inversion therefore requires pushing the system into a non-equilibrated state.
There are three types of possible interactions between a system of atoms and light that are of interest:
If light (photons) of frequency ν12 passes through the group of atoms, there is a possibility of the light being absorbed by electrons which are in the ground state, which will cause them to be excited to the higher energy state. The rate of absorption is proportional to the radiation density of the light, and also to the number of atoms currently in the ground state, "N"1.
If atoms are in the excited state, spontaneous decay events to the ground state will occur at a rate proportional to "N"2, the number of atoms in the excited state. The energy difference between the two states Δ"E"21 is emitted from the atom as a photon of frequency ν21 as given by the frequency-energy relation above.
The photons are emitted stochastically, and there is no fixed phase relationship between photons emitted from a group of excited atoms; in other words, spontaneous emission is incoherent. In the absence of other processes, the number of atoms in the excited state at time "t", is given by
where "N"2(0) is the number of excited atoms at time "t" = 0, and τ21 is the "mean lifetime" of the transition between the two states.
If an atom is already in the excited state, it may be agitated by the passage of a photon that has a frequency ν21 corresponding to the energy gap Δ"E" of the excited state to ground state transition. In this case, the excited atom relaxes to the ground state, and it produces a second photon of frequency ν21. The original photon is not absorbed by the atom, and so the result is two photons of the same frequency. This process is known as "stimulated emission".
Specifically, an excited atom will act like a small electric dipole which will oscillate with the external field provided. One of the consequences of this oscillation is that it encourages electrons to decay to the lowest energy state. When this happens due to the presence of the electromagnetic field from a photon, a photon is released in the same phase and direction as the "stimulating" photon, and is called stimulated emission.
The rate at which stimulated emission occurs is proportional to the number of atoms "N"2 in the excited state, and the radiation density of the light. The base probability of a photon causing stimulated emission in a single excited atom was shown by Albert Einstein to be exactly equal to the probability of a photon being absorbed by an atom in the ground state. Therefore, when the numbers of atoms in the ground and excited states are equal, the rate of stimulated emission is equal to the rate of absorption for a given radiation density.
The critical detail of stimulated emission is that the induced photon has the same frequency and phase as the incident photon. In other words, the two photons are coherent. It is this property that allows optical amplification, and the production of a laser system. During the operation of a laser, all three light-matter interactions described above are taking place. Initially, atoms are energized from the ground state to the excited state by a process called "pumping", described below. Some of these atoms decay via spontaneous emission, releasing incoherent light as photons of frequency, ν. These photons are fed back into the laser medium, usually by an optical resonator. Some of these photons are absorbed by the atoms in the ground state, and the photons are lost to the laser process. However, some photons cause stimulated emission in excited-state atoms, releasing another coherent photon. In effect, this results in "optical amplification".
If the number of photons being amplified per unit time is greater than the number of photons being absorbed, then the net result is a continuously increasing number of photons being produced; the laser medium is said to have a gain of greater than unity.
Recall from the descriptions of absorption and stimulated emission above that the rates of these two processes are proportional to the number of atoms in the ground and excited states, "N"1 and "N"2, respectively. If the ground state has a higher population than the excited state ("N"1 > "N"2), then the absorption process dominates, and there is a net attenuation of photons. If the populations of the two states are the same ("N"1 = "N"2), the rate of absorption of light exactly balances the rate of emission; the medium is then said to be "optically transparent".
If the higher energy state has a greater population than the lower energy state ("N"1 < "N"2), then the emission process dominates, and light in the system undergoes a net increase in intensity. It is thus clear that to produce a faster rate of stimulated emissions than absorptions, it is required that the ratio of the populations of the two states is such that
"N"2/"N"1 > 1; In other words, a population inversion is required for laser operation.
Many transitions involving electromagnetic radiation are strictly forbidden under quantum mechanics. The allowed transitions are described by so-called selection rules, which describe the conditions under which a radiative transition is allowed. For instance, transitions are only allowed if Δ"S" = 0, "S" being the total spin angular momentum of the system. In real materials other effects, such as interactions with the crystal lattice, intervene to circumvent the formal rules by providing alternate mechanisms. In these systems the forbidden transitions can occur, but usually at slower rates than allowed transitions. A classic example is phosphorescence where a material has a ground state with "S" = 0, an excited state with "S" = 0, and an intermediate state with "S" = 1. The transition from the intermediate state to the ground state by emission of light is slow because of the selection rules. Thus emission may continue after the external illumination is removed. In contrast fluorescence in materials is characterized by emission which ceases when the external illumination is removed.
Transitions which do not involve the absorption or emission of radiation are not affected by selection rules. Radiationless transition between levels, such as between the excited "S" = 0 and "S" = 1 states, may proceed quickly enough to siphon off a portion of the "S" = 0 population before it spontaneously returns to the ground state.
The existence of intermediate states in materials is essential to the technique of optical pumping of lasers (see below).
As described above, a population inversion is required for laser operation, but cannot be achieved in our theoretical group of atoms with two energy-levels when they are in thermal equilibrium. In fact, any method by which the atoms are directly and continuously excited from the ground state to the excited state (such as optical absorption) will eventually reach equilibrium with the de-exciting processes of spontaneous and stimulated emission. At best, an equal population of the two states, "N"1 = "N"2 = "N"/2, can be achieved, resulting in optical transparency but no net optical gain.
To achieve non-equilibrium conditions, an indirect method of populating the excited state must be used. To understand how this is done, we may use a slightly more realistic model, that of a "three-level laser". Again consider a group of "N" atoms, this time with each atom able to exist in any of three energy states, levels 1, 2 and 3, with energies "E"1, "E"2, and "E"3, and populations "N"1, "N"2, and "N"3, respectively.
We assume that "E"1 < "E"2 < "E"3; that is, the energy of level 2 lies between that of the ground state and level 3.
Initially, the system of atoms is at thermal equilibrium, and the majority of the atoms will be in the ground state, i.e., "N"1 ≈ "N", "N"2 ≈ "N"3 ≈ 0. If we now subject the atoms to light of a frequency formula_7, the process of optical absorption will excite electrons from the ground state to level 3. This process is called "pumping", and does not necessarily always directly involve light absorption; other methods of exciting the laser medium, such as electrical discharge or chemical reactions, may be used. The level 3 is sometimes referred to as the "pump level" or "pump band", and the energy transition "E"1 → "E"3 as the "pump transition", which is shown as the arrow marked P in the diagram on the right.
Upon pumping the medium, an appreciable number of atoms will transition to level 3, such that "N"3 > 0. To have a medium suitable for laser operation, it is necessary that these excited atoms quickly decay to level 2. The energy released in this transition may be emitted as a photon (spontaneous emission), however in practice the 3→2 transition (labeled R in the diagram) is usually "radiationless", with the energy being transferred to vibrational motion (heat) of the host material surrounding the atoms, without the generation of a photon.
An electron in level 2 may decay by spontaneous emission to the ground state, releasing a photon of frequency "ν"12 (given by "E"2 – "E"1 = "hν"12), which is shown as the transition L, called the "laser transition" in the diagram. If the lifetime of this transition, τ21 is much longer than the lifetime of the radiationless 3 → 2 transition τ32 (if τ21 ≫ τ32, known as a "favourable lifetime ratio"), the population of the "E"3 will be essentially zero ("N"3 ≈ 0) and a population of excited state atoms will accumulate in level 2 ("N"2 > 0). If over half the "N" atoms can be accumulated in this state, this will exceed the population of the ground state "N"1. A population inversion ("N"2 > "N"1 ) has thus been achieved between level 1 and 2, and optical amplification at the frequency ν21 can be obtained.
Because at least half the population of atoms must be excited from the ground state to obtain a population inversion, the laser medium must be very strongly pumped. This makes three-level lasers rather inefficient, despite being the first type of laser to be discovered (based on a ruby laser medium, by Theodore Maiman in 1960). A three-level system could also have a radiative transition between level 3 and 2, and a non-radiative transition between 2 and 1. In this case, the pumping requirements are weaker. In practice, most lasers are "four-level lasers", described below.
Here, there are four energy levels, energies "E"1, "E"2, "E"3, "E"4, and populations "N"1, "N"2, "N"3, "N"4, respectively. The energies of each level are such that "E"1 < "E"2 < "E"3 < "E"4.
In this system, the pumping transition P excites the atoms in the ground state (level 1) into the pump band (level 4). From level 4, the atoms again decay by a fast, non-radiative transition Ra into the level 3. Since the lifetime of the laser transition L is long compared to that of Ra (τ32 ≫ τ43), a population accumulates in level 3 (the "upper laser level"), which may relax by spontaneous or stimulated emission into level 2 (the "lower laser level"). This level likewise has a fast, non-radiative decay Rb into the ground state.
As before, the presence of a fast, radiationless decay transition results in the population of the pump band being quickly depleted ("N"4 ≈ 0). In a four-level system, any atom in the lower laser level "E"2 is also quickly de-excited, leading to a negligible population in that state ("N"2 ≈ 0). This is important, since any appreciable population accumulating in level 3, the upper laser level, will form a population inversion with respect to level 2. That is, as long as "N"3 > 0, then "N"3 > "N"2, and a population inversion is achieved. Thus optical amplification, and laser operation, can take place at a frequency of ν32 ("E"3-"E"2 = "h"ν32).
Since only a few atoms must be excited into the upper laser level to form a population inversion, a four-level laser is much more efficient than a three-level one, and most practical lasers are of this type. In reality, many more than four energy levels may be involved in the laser process, with complex excitation and relaxation processes involved between these levels. In particular, the pump band may consist of several distinct energy levels, or a continuum of levels, which allow optical pumping of the medium over a wide range of wavelengths.
Note that in both three- and four-level lasers, the energy of the pumping transition is greater than that of the laser transition. This means that, if the laser is optically pumped, the frequency of the pumping light must be greater than that of the resulting laser light. In other words, the pump wavelength is shorter than the laser wavelength. It is possible in some media to use multiple photon absorptions between multiple lower-energy transitions to reach the pump level; such lasers are called "up-conversion" lasers.
While in many lasers the laser process involves the transition of atoms between different electronic energy states, as described in the model above, this is not the only mechanism that can result in laser action. For example, there are many common lasers (e.g., dye lasers, carbon dioxide lasers) where the laser medium consists of complete molecules, and energy states correspond to vibrational and rotational modes of oscillation of the molecules. This is the case with water masers, that occur in nature.
In some media it is possible, by imposing an additional optical or microwave field, to use quantum coherence effects to reduce the likelihood of a ground-state to excited-state transition. This technique, known as lasing without inversion, allows optical amplification to take place without producing a population inversion between the two states.
Stimulated emission was first observed in the microwave region of the electromagnetic spectrum, giving rise to the acronym MASER for Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. In the microwave region, the Boltzmann distribution of molecules among energy states is such that, at room temperature all states are populated almost equally.
To create a population inversion under these conditions, it is necessary to selectively remove some atoms or molecules from the system based on differences in properties. For instance, in a hydrogen maser, the well-known 21cm wave transition in atomic hydrogen, where the lone electron flips its spin state from parallel to the nuclear spin to antiparallel, can be used to create a population inversion because the parallel state has a magnetic moment and the antiparallel state does not. A strong inhomogeneous magnetic field will separate out atoms in the higher energy state from a beam of mixed state atoms. The separated population represents a population inversion which can exhibit stimulated emissions. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24065 |
Paolo Uccello
Paolo Uccello ( , ; 1397 – 10 December 1475), born Paolo di Dono, was a Florentine painter and mathematician who was notable for his pioneering work on visual perspective in art. In his book "Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects", Giorgio Vasari wrote that Uccello was obsessed by his interest in perspective and would stay up all night in his study trying to grasp the exact vanishing point. While his contemporaries used perspective to narrate different or succeeding stories, Uccello used perspective to create a feeling of depth in his paintings. His best known works are the three paintings representing the battle of San Romano, which were wrongly entitled the "Battle of Sant'Egidio of 1416" for a long period of time.
Paolo worked in the Late Gothic tradition, emphasizing colour and pageantry rather than the classical realism that other artists were pioneering. His style is best described as idiosyncratic, and he left no school of followers. He has had some influence on twentieth-century art and literary criticism (e.g., in the "Vies imaginaires" by Marcel Schwob, "Uccello le poil" by Antonin Artaud and "O Mundo Como Ideia" by Bruno Tolentino).
The sources for Paolo Uccello’s life are few: Giorgio Vasari’s biography, written 75 years after Paolo’s death, and a few contemporary official documents. Due to the lack of sources, even his date of birth is questionable. It is believed that Uccello was born in Pratovecchio in 1397, and his tax declarations for some years indicate that he was born in 1397, but in 1446 he claimed to have been born in 1396. His father, Dono di Paolo, was a barber-surgeon from Pratovecchio near Arezzo; his mother, Antonia, was a high-born Florentine. His nickname "Uccello" came from his fondness for painting birds.
From 1412 until 1416 he was apprenticed to the famous sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti. Ghiberti was the designer of the doors of the Florence Baptistery and his workshop was the premier centre for Florentine art at the time. Ghiberti's late-Gothic, narrative style and sculptural composition greatly influenced Paolo. It was also around this time that Paolo began his lifelong friendship with Donatello. In 1414, Uccello was admitted to the painters' guild, "Compagnia di San Luca," and just one year later, in 1415, he joined the official painter's guild of Florence "Arte dei Medici e degli Speziali". Although the young Uccello had probably left Ghiberti's workshop by the mid 1420s, he stayed on good terms with his master and may have been privy to the designs for Ghiberti's second set of Baptistery doors, "The Gates of Paradise." These featured a battle scene "that might well have impressed itself in the mind of the young Uccello," and thus influenced "The Battle of San Romano".
According to Vasari, Uccello’s first painting was a Saint Anthony between the saints Cosmas and Damianus, a commission for the hospital of Lelmo. Next, he painted two figures in the convent of Annalena. Shortly afterwards, he painted three frescoes with scenes from "the life of Saint Francis" above the left door of the Santa Trinita church. For the Santa Maria Maggiore church, he painted a fresco of the Annunciation. In this fresco, he painted a large building with columns in perspective. According to Vasari, people found this to be a great and beautiful achievement because this was the first example of how lines could be expertly used to demonstrate perspective and size. As a result, this work became a model for artists who wished to craft illusions of space in order to enhance the realness of their paintings.
Paolo painted "the Lives of the Church Fathers" in the cloisters of the church of San Miniato, which sat on a hill overlooking Florence. According to Vasari, Paolo protested against the monotonous meals of cheese pies and cheese soup served by the abbot by running away, and returned to finish the job only after the abbot promised him a more varied diet.
Uccello was asked to paint a number of scenes of distempered animals for the house of the Medici. The scene most appreciated by Vasari was his depiction of a fierce lion fighting with a venom-spouting snake. Uccello loved to paint animals and he kept a wide variety of pictures of animals, especially birds, at home. This love for birds is what led to his nickname, Paolo Uccelli (Paul of the birds).
By 1424, Paolo was earning his own living as a painter. In that year, he proved his artistic maturity by painting episodes of the now-badly-damaged "Creation and the Fall" for the Green Cloister ("Chiostro Verde") of Santa Maria Novella in Florence. Again, this assignment allowed him to paint a large number of animals in a lively manner. He also succeeded in painting trees in their natural colours. This was a skill that was difficult for many of his predecessors, so Uccello also began to acquire a reputation for painting landscapes. He followed this with "Scenes from the Life of Noah", also for the Green Cloister. These scenes brought him great fame in Florence.
In 1425, Uccello travelled to Venice, where he worked on the mosaics for the façade of San Marco, which have all since been lost. During this time, he also painted some frescoes in the Prato Cathedral and Bologna. Some suggest he visited Rome with his friend Donatello before returning to Florence in 1431. After he returned, Uccello remained in Florence for most of the rest of his life, executing works for various churches and patrons, most notably the Duomo.
Despite his leave from Florence, interest in Uccello did not diminish. In 1432, the Office of Works asked the Florentine ambassador in Venice to enquire after Uccello’s reputation as an artist. In 1436, he was given the commission for the monochromatic fresco of "Sir John Hawkwood". This equestrian monument exemplified his keen interest in perspective. The condottiere and his horse are presented as if the fresco was a sculpture seen from below.
It is widely thought that he is the author of the frescoes "Stories of the Virgin" and "Story of Saint Stephen" in the Cappella dell'Assunta, Florence, so he likely visited nearby Prato sometime between 1435 and 1440. Later, in 1443, he painted the figures on the clock of the Duomo. In that same year and continuing into 1444, he designed a few stained glass windows for the same church. In 1444 he was also at work in Padua, and he travelled to Padua again in 1445 at Donatello’s invitation.
Back in Florence in 1446, he painted the "Green Stations of the Cross", again for the cloister of the church Santa Maria Novella. Around 1447–1454 he painted "Scenes of Monastic Life" for the church San Miniato al Monte, Florence.
Around the mid-1450s, he painted his three most famous paintings, the panels depicting "The Battle of San Romano" for the Palazzo Medici in Florence, commemorating the victory of the Florentine army over the Sienese in 1432. The extraordinarily foreshortened forms extending in many planes accentuate Uccello's virtuosity as a draftsman, and provides a controlled visual structure to the chaos of the battle scene.
By 1453, Uccello was married to Tommasa Malifici. This is known because, in that year Donato (named after Donatello), was born. Three years later, in 1456, his wife gave birth to their daughter, Antonia. Antonia Uccello (1456–1491) was a Carmelite nun, whom Giorgio Vasari called "a daughter who knew how to draw." She was even noted as a "pittoressa", a painter, on her death certificate. Her style and her skill remains a mystery as none of her work is extant.
From 1465 to 1469, Uccello was in Urbino with his son Donato working for the Confraternity of Corpus Domini, a brotherhood of laymen. During this time, he painted the predella for their new altarpiece with the "Miracle of the Profaned Host." (The main panel representing the "Communion of the Apostles" was commissioned to Justus van Ghent and finished in 1474). Uccello's predella is composed of six meticulous, naturalistic scenes related to the antisemitic myth of host desecration, which was based upon an event that supposedly occurred in Paris in 1290. It has been suggested that the subject of the main panel, on which Duke Frederick of Montefeltro of Urbino appears in the background conversing with an Asian, is related to the antisemitic intention of the predella. However, Federico did allow a small Jewish community to live in Urbino and not all of these scenes are unanimously attributed to Paolo Uccello.
In his Florentine tax return of August 1469, Uccello declared, “I find myself old and ailing, my wife is ill, and I can no longer work.” In the last years of his life, Paolo was a lonesome and forgotten man who was afraid of hardship in life. His last known work is "The Hunt", c. 1470. He made his testament on 11 November 1475 and died shortly afterwards on 10 December 1475 at the hospital of Florence, at the age of 78. He was buried in his father’s tomb in the Florentine church of Santo Spirito.
With his precise and analytical mind, Paolo Uccello tried to apply a scientific method to depict objects in three-dimensional space. In particular, some of his studies of the perspective foreshortening of the torus are preserved, and one standard display of drawing skill was his depiction of the mazzocchio. In the words of G. C. Argan: "Paolo's rigour is similar to the rigour of Cubists in the early 20th century, whose images were more "true" when they were less "true to life". Paolo constructs space through perspective, and historic event through the structure of space; if the resulting image is unnatural and unrealistic, so much the worse for nature and history." The perspective in his paintings has influenced many famous painters, such as Piero della Francesca, Albrecht Dürer and Leonardo da Vinci, to name a few.
Pope-Hennessy is far more conservative than the Italian authors: he attributes some of the works below to a "Prato Master" and a "Karlsruhe Master". Most of the dates in the list (taken from Borsi and Borsi) are derived from stylistic comparison rather than from documentation. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24067 |
Pope Pius II
Pope Pius II (, ), born Enea Silvio Bartolomeo Piccolomini (; 18 October 1405 – 14 August 1464) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 August 1458 to his death. He was born at Corsignano in the Sienese territory of a noble but impoverished family. His longest and most enduring work is the story of his life, the "Commentaries", which is the only revealed autobiography ever to have been written by a reigning pope.
Aeneas was born to Silvio, a soldier and member of the House of Piccolomini, and Vittoria Forteguerri, who had 18 children including several twins, though most died at a young age. He worked with his father in the fields for some years and at age 18 left to study at the universities of Siena and Florence. He settled in the former city as a teacher, but in 1431 accepted the post of secretary to Domenico Capranica, bishop of Fermo, then on his way to the Council of Basel (1431–39). Capranica was protesting against the new Pope Eugene IV's refusal of a cardinalate for him, which had been designated by Pope Martin V. Arriving at Basel after enduring a stormy voyage to Genoa and then a trip across the Alps, he successively served Capranica, who ran short of money, and then other masters.
In 1435 he was sent by Cardinal Albergati, Eugenius IV's legate at the council, on a secret mission to Scotland, the object of which is variously related even by himself. He visited England as well as Scotland, underwent many perils and vicissitudes in both countries, and left an account of each. The journey to Scotland proved so tempestuous that Piccolomini swore that he would walk barefoot to the nearest shrine of Our Lady from their landing port. This proved to be Dunbar; the nearest shrine was 10 miles distant at Whitekirk. The journey through the ice and snow left Aeneas afflicted with pain in his legs for the rest of his life. Only when he arrived at Newcastle, did he feel that he had returned to "a civilised part of the world and the inhabitable face of the Earth", Scotland and the far north of England being "wild, bare and never visited by the sun in winter". In Scotland, he fathered a child but it died.
Upon his return to Basel, Aeneas sided actively with the council in its conflict with the Pope, and, although still a layman, eventually obtained a share in the direction of its affairs. He refused the offer of the diaconate, as he shrank from the ecclesiastical state because of the obligation of continence which it imposed. Even the inducement to become one of the electors of a successor to Eugene IV could not overcome this reluctance. He supported the creation of the Antipope Felix V (Amadeus, Duke of Savoy) and participated in his coronation. Aeneas then was sent to Strasbourg where he fathered a child with a Breton woman called Elizabeth. The baby died 14 months later. Piccolomini served briefly as secretary to Felix, and in 1442 was sent as envoy to the Diet of Frankfort. From there he went to the court of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III in Vienna, who named him imperial poet, and offered him a position at court, where he obtained the patronage of the emperor's chancellor, Kaspar Schlick. Some identify the love adventure at Siena that Aeneas related in his romance "The Tale of the Two Lovers" with an escapade of the chancellor.
Aeneas' character had hitherto been that of an easy and democratic-minded man of the world with no pretense to strictness in morals or consistency in politics. He now began to be more regular in the former respect, and in the latter adopted a decided line by making his peace between the Empire and Rome. Being sent on a mission to Rome in 1445, with the ostensible object of inducing Pope Eugene to convoke a new council, he was absolved from ecclesiastical censures and returned to Germany under an engagement to assist the Pope. This he did most effectually by the diplomatic dexterity with which he smoothed away differences between the papal court of Rome and the German imperial electors. He played a leading role in concluding a compromise in 1447 by which the dying Pope Eugene accepted the reconciliation tendered by the German princes. As a result, the council and the antipope were left without support. He had already taken orders, and one of the first acts of Pope Eugene's successor, Pope Nicholas V (1447–1455), was to make him Bishop of Trieste. He later served as Bishop of Siena.
In 1450 Aeneas was sent as ambassador by the Emperor Frederick III to negotiate his marriage with Princess Eleonore of Portugal. In 1451 he undertook a mission to Bohemia and concluded a satisfactory arrangement with the Hussite leader George of Poděbrady. In 1452 he accompanied Frederick to Rome, where Frederick wedded Eleanor and was crowned emperor by the pope. In August 1455 Aeneas again arrived in Rome on an embassy to proffer the obedience of Germany to the new pope, Calixtus III. He brought strong recommendations from Frederick and Ladislaus V of Hungary (also King of Bohemia) for his nomination to the cardinalate, but delays arose from the Pope's resolution to promote his own nephews first, and he did not attain the object of his ambition until December of the following year. He did acquire temporarily the bishopric of Warmia (Ermeland).
Calixtus III died on 6 August 1458. On 10 August, the cardinals entered into a papal conclave. According to Aeneas' account, the wealthy cardinal Guillaume d'Estouteville of Rouen, though a Frenchman and of apparently exceptionable character, seemed certain to be elected. In a passage of his own history of his times, long excerpted from that work and printed clandestinely in the "Conclavi de' Pontifici Romani", Aeneas explained how he frustrated the ambitions of d'Estouteville. It seemed appropriate to Aeneas that the election should fall upon himself: although the sacred college included a few men of higher moral standards, he believed that his abilities made him most worthy of the papal tiara. It was the peculiar faculty of Aeneas to accommodate himself perfectly to whatever position he might be called upon to occupy, and he now believed that he could exploit this adaptability to assume the papacy with appropriate success and personal character. After a minimum of intrigue among the cardinals, he was able to secure enough votes for his candidacy after the second ballot to be elected unanimously. He was crowned Pope on 3 September 1458.
According to Michael de la Bédoyère, "The new Pope, Pius II, was expected to inaugurate an even more liberal and paganised era in the Vatican. He had led the dissipated life of a gentleman of the day and complained of the difficulty of practicing continency, a difficulty he did not surmount. But he had reformed and his reign was noted for his interest in the Crusade and his insistence that the doctrine holding General Councils of the Church to be superior to the Pope was heretical."
After allying himself with Ferdinand, the Aragonese claimant to the throne of Naples, his next important act was to convene a congress of the representatives of Christian princes at Mantua for joint action against the Turks. On 26 September 1459 he called for a new crusade against the Ottomans and on 14 January 1460 he proclaimed the official crusade that was to last for three years. His long progress to the place of assembly resembled a triumphal procession, and the Council of Mantua of 1459, a complete failure as regards its ostensible object of mounting a crusade, at least showed that the impotence of Christendom was not owing to the Pope. The Pope, however, influenced Vlad III Dracula, whom he held in high regard, in starting a war against Sultan Mehmed II of Turkey. This conflict at its peak involved the Wallachians trying to assassinate the Sultan (see The Night Attack).
On his return from the congress, Pius II spent a considerable time in his native district of Siena, where he was joined by his erstwhile host in Mantua Ludovico Gonzaga. Pius described his delight with country life in very pleasing language. Passages such as those and others where he marvels at landscapes and other natural beauties, or stories about his dog Musetta, were to be expurged from the first edition of his Commentaries published in 1584 as embarrassingly unfitting, coming from the pen of a pope. He was recalled to Rome by the disturbances occasioned by Tiburzio di Maso, who was ultimately seized and executed. In the struggle for the Kingdom of Naples between the supporters of the House of Aragon and the House of Anjou, the Papal States were at this time troubled by rebellious barons and marauding condottieri, whom he gradually, though momentarily, quelled. The Neapolitan War was also concluded by the success of the Pope's ally the Aragonese Ferdinand. In particular, the Pope engaged for most of his reign in what looked like a personal war against Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, Lord of Rimini, with the result of the almost complete submission of that condottiero. Pius II also tried mediation in the Thirteen Years' War of 1454–66 between Poland and the Teutonic Knights, but, when he failed to achieve success, cast an anathema over Polish and Prussians both. Pius II was also engaged in a series of disputes with King George of Bohemia and Archduke Sigismund of Austria (who was excommunicated for having arrested Nicholas of Cusa, Bishop of Brixen).
In July 1461, Pius II canonized Saint Catherine of Siena, and in October of the same year he gained what at first appeared to be a brilliant success by inducing the new king of France, Louis XI, to abolish the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges, by which the papal authority in France had been grievously impaired. But Louis XI had expected that Pius II would in return espouse the French cause in Naples, and when he found himself disappointed he virtually re-established the Pragmatic Sanction by royal ordinances. Pius II built a fortress in Tivoli called Rocca Pia in 1461. In September 1462, he confirmed the Diocese of Ljubljana, established in December 1462 by Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor.
The crusade for which the Congress of Mantua had been convoked made no progress. In November 1463, Pope Pius II tried to organize the crusade against the Ottomans, similar to what Nicholas V and Calixtus III had tried to do before him. Pius II invited all the Christian nobility to join, and the Venetians immediately answered the appeal. So did George Kastriot Skanderbeg the leader of Albanian resistance, who on 27 November 1463 declared war on the Ottomans and attacked their forces near Ohrid. Pius II's planned crusade envisioned assembling 20,000 soldiers in Taranto, and another 20,000 would be gathered by Skanderbeg. They would have been marshaled in Durazzo under Skanderbeg's leadership and would have formed the central front against the Ottomans. The Pope did his best: he addressed an eloquent letter to the Ottoman ruler, Mehmet II, urging him to become a Christian, a letter that probably never was sent. However, there are historians who believe that the mentioned letter was sent to the Sublime Porte. Not surprisingly, if it was delivered, the invitation was not successful. A public ceremony was staged to receive the relics of the head of Saint Andrew when it was brought from the East to Rome.
Pius II succeeded in reconciling the Emperor and the King of Hungary and derived great encouragement as well as pecuniary advantage from the discovery of mines of alum in the papal territory at Tolfa. However, France was estranged; the Duke of Burgundy broke his positive promises; Milan was engrossed with the attempt to seize Genoa; Florence cynically advised the Pope to let the Turks and the Venetians wear each other out. Pius II was unaware that he was nearing his end, and his malady probably prompted the feverish impatience with which on 18 June 1464 he assumed the cross and departed for Ancona to conduct the crusade in person.
Pius condemned slavery of newly-baptized Christians as a "great crime" in an address of 1462 to the local ruler of the Canary Islands. Pius instructed bishops to impose penalties on transgressors. Pius did not condemn the concept of trading in slaves, only the enslavement of those who were recently baptised, who represented a very small minority of those captured and taken to Portugal. Pope Urban VIII, in his bull dated 22 April 1639, described these grave warnings of Pius (7 October 1462, Apud Raynaldum in Annalibus Ecclesiasticis ad ann n. 42) as relating to "neophytes". According to British diplomatic papers, the letter was addressed to Bishop Rubeira and confirms Urban's observation that the condemnation relates to new converts being enslaved.
In spite of suffering from a fever, Pope Pius II left Rome for Ancona in the hope of increasing the morale of the crusading army. However, the crusading army melted away at Ancona for want of transport, and when at last the Venetian fleet arrived, the dying Pope could only view it from a window. He died two days later, on 14 August 1464, and was succeeded by Pope Paul II. Pius II's body was interred in the church of Sant'Andrea della Valle in Rome, while an empty cenotaph was built in St. Peter's Basilica. Later, the cenotaph was moved to Sant'Andrea as well.
Pius II was one of the most prominent authors of his period. His most important and longest work is his autobiography "Commentaries" in 13 books, first published in 1584 by Cardinal Francesco Bandini Piccolomini, a distant relative. Piccolomini altered it to some extent, removing words, phrases and whole passages that were unflattering to his relative. Piccolomini published it under the name of scribe Gobellinus, who was then misattributed as the author, a natural mistake because Pius II chose to write "Commentaries" from the third-person perspective.
Pius II was greatly admired as a poet by his contemporaries, but his reputation in "belles lettres" rests principally upon his "The Tale of the Two Lovers", which continues to be read, partly from its truth to nature, and partly from the singularity of an erotic novel being written by a future pope. He also composed some comedies, one of which (titled "Chrysis") alone is extant. All of these works are in Latin. Pius II was the author of numerous erotic poems. However, such scandalous material was written before his election and a deep personal change.
His "Epistles", which were collected by himself, are also an important source of historical information. The most valuable of his minor historical writings are his histories of Bohemia and of the Emperor Frederick III. He sketched biographical treatises on Europe and Asia, and in early and middle life produced numerous tracts on the political and theological controversies of his day, as well as on ethical subjects. The pontiff even wrote an exhaustive refutation of Islam.
His "Epistles" contain one of the best known descriptions of the enthronement ceremony of the Carinthian dukes on the Prince's Stone and the Duke's Chair. It is generally considered to be the source for Jean Bodin's description of the ceremony in his
"Six Livres de la République".
Pius was not an eminent scholar. His Latin was fluent, but he knew little Greek. Still, his writings have many good qualities.
Pope Pius II inaugurated an unusual urban project, perhaps the first city planning exercise in modern Europe. He refurbished his home town of Corsignano (province of Siena, Tuscany) and renamed it Pienza, after himself. A cathedral and palaces were built in the best style of the day to decorate the city. They survive to this day. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24069 |
Phoebe Hearst
Phoebe Elizabeth Apperson Hearst (December 3, 1842 – April 13, 1919) was an American philanthropist, feminist and suffragist. She was the mother of William Randolph Hearst and wife of George Hearst.
She was born Phoebe Elizabeth Apperson in St. Clair, Missouri, in Franklin County, the daughter of Drucilla (Whitmire) and Randolph Walker Apperson. In her early years, Phoebe studied to be a teacher. Her childhood consisted of helping her father with finances at his store, learning French, and playing the piano. George Hearst returned to St. Clair in 1860 to care for his dying mother and met Phoebe. When they married on June 15, 1862, she was 19.
Soon after their marriage, the couple left Missouri and moved to San Francisco, California, where Phoebe gave birth to their only child, William Randolph Hearst. As a very successful miner who later became a U.S. senator, George often left Phoebe alone during his work. She and her son were close and had many similar interests, including art and design. After Phoebe's death in 1919, William inherited a $10 million fortune.
In the 1880s, she became a major benefactor and director of the Golden Gate Kindergarten Association and the first president of the Century Club of California. In 1902, Hearst funded the construction of a building to provide teacher training and to house kindergarten classes and the association's offices. The association had 26 schools at the time of the San Francisco earthquake in 1906.
Hearst was a major benefactor of the University of California, Berkeley, and its first woman regent, serving on the board from 1897 until her death. That year, she contributed to the establishment of the National Congress of Mothers, which evolved eventually into the National Parent-Teacher Association. In 1900, she co-founded the all-girls National Cathedral School in Washington, DC. A nearby public elementary school bears her name. Hearst funded the Hearst Library in Anaconda, Montana, in 1898. She maintained it until 1904.
Hearst became a close friend of Dr. William Pepper, provost of the University of Pennsylvania, who was also a medical doctor who treated her for a heart condition. In 1896, in her first major act of museum philanthropy, she donated more than two hundred objects to the Penn Museum, many of them items such as Anasazi ceramics excavated from the Cliff Palace site of Mesa Verde, Colorado. Later, she also funded a Penn Museum expedition to Russia, and sent the Aztec specialist, Zelia Nuttall, to Moscow for this purpose.
In 1901, Phoebe Hearst founded the University of California Museum of Anthropology, renamed the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology in 1992. The original collection comprised 230,000 objects representing cultures and civilizations throughout history.
The museum now contains about 3.8 million objects. Throughout her lifetime and as provided in her will, Hearst donated over 60,000 objects to the museum. She also funded expeditions such as the Pepper-Hearst Expedition (1895–1897) on the coast of Florida, near Tarpon Springs. Most notable are the 1899 expeditions in Egypt by American archaeologist George A. Reisner and in Peru by German archaeologist Max Uhle. These ventures further contributed to the museum's collection. Among these are approximately 20,000 ancient Egyptian artifacts, the largest such collection west of Chicago. Hearst also realized the importance of preserving Native Californian culture. With her support, anthropologist Alfred L. Kroeber and his students, including Robert F. Heizer, documented Native Californian culture in the form of photographs, audio recordings, texts, and artifacts. This research helped to preserve approximately 250,000 Native Californian artifacts, the most extensive in the world. The museum collection is available to students and researchers for examination. A gallery located on the University of California Berkeley campus is available for public view.
Hearst was named to the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association as the second vice regent representing California. She held that position from 1889 to 1918, contributing much time and money to the restoration of George Washington's home at mount Vernon, furnishing it with Washington-owned objects and improving the visitor experience. The William Randolph Hearst Foundation continues to fund projects at Mount Vernon in her memory.
Hearst also donated money to the restoration of Pohick Church in Virginia.
Hearst chose a "different way" than radical feminists. While she believed in women having financial freedom, in her support for women's suffrage she did not strongly believe in women gaining political power. She thought women should have the right to vote "to protect homes and children." In 1895, when the Women's Congress resolved for the passage of a federal amendment, Hearst supported it "distantly". She officially declared herself in favor of suffrage in the summer of 1911, saying it would enable "the betterment of conditions affecting children and women particularly."
Hearst was raised a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian faith in the 1840s. In 1898 she declared her belief in the Baháʼí Faith, and helped play a key role in the spread of the religion in the United States. In November 1898, Hearst, with Lua Getsinger and others, briefly stopped off in Paris, on their way to Palestine, and was shocked to see May Bolles (later Maxwell), a well known American member of the Baháʼí Faith, bedridden with the chronic malady with which she had been afflicted. Hearst invited Bolles to travel to Palestine with her, believing that the change of air would be conducive to her health. Getsinger disclosed to Bolles the purpose of the journey: a pilgrimage to visit the then head of the Baháʼí Faith: ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. The group travelled to Akka and Haifa in Ottoman Palestine on pilgrimage, arriving on December 14, 1898. That group was the very first Westerners to make the pilgrimage and meet ʻAbdu'l-Baha. Hearst later wrote, "Those three days were the most memorable days of my life." In October 1912, she invited ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, who was travelling throughout the United States, to stay at her home for a long weekend, even though at that time she had become estranged from the Faith. During his stay, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá mentioned that anyone who tried to extort money or goods from others should not be considered a true Baháʼí. Mrs. Hearst had been a victim of such an incident, which had caused her estrangement.
She died at her home in Pleasanton, California, aged 76, on April 13, 1919, during the worldwide influenza epidemic of 1918-1919, and was buried at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, California. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24071 |
Pope Pius IV
Pope Pius IV (31 March 1499 – 9 December 1565), born Giovanni Angelo Medici, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 25 December 1559 to his death in 1565. Born in Milan, his family considered itself a branch of the House of Medici and used the same coat of arms. Although modern historians have found no proof of this connection, the Medici of Florence recognized the claims of the Medici of Milan in the early 16th century.
Pope Paul III appointed Medici Archbishop of Ragusa, and sent him on diplomatic missions to Germany and Hungary. He presided over the final session of the Council of Trent. His nephew, Cardinal Charles Borromeo, was a close adviser. As pope, Pius IV initiated a number of building projects in Rome, including one to improve the water supply.
Giovanni Angelo Medici was born in Milan on 31 March 1499 as the second of eleven children to Bernardino de' Medici and Clelia Serbelloni.
Giovanni Medici was the younger brother of condottiero Gian Giacomo Medici, and the maternal uncle of Charles Borromeo. Medici studied philosophy and medicine in Pavia.
After studying at Bologna and acquiring a reputation as a jurist he obtained his doctorate in both canon and civil law on 11 May 1525. Medici went in 1527 to Rome, and as a favourite of Pope Paul III was rapidly promoted to the governorship of several towns, the archbishopric of Ragusa (1545–1553), and the vice-legateship of Bologna.
In April 1549, Pope Paul III made Medici a cardinal. Under Papal authority, he was sent on diplomatic missions to Germany and also to Hungary.
On the death of Pope Paul IV, he was elected pope on 25 December 1559, taking the name Pius IV, and installed on 6 January 1560. His first public acts of importance were to grant a general pardon to the participants in the riot after the death of his predecessor, and to bring to trial the nephews of his predecessor. One, Cardinal Carlo Carafa, was strangled, and Duke Giovanni Carafa of Paliano, with his nearest associates, was beheaded.
On 18 January 1562 the Council of Trent, which had been suspended by Pope Julius III, was convened by Pius IV for the third and final time. Great skill and caution were necessary to effect a settlement of the questions before it, inasmuch as the three principal nations taking part in it, though at issue with regard to their own special demands, were prepared to unite their forces against the demands of Rome. Pius IV, however, aided by Cardinal Morone and Charles Borromeo, proved himself equal to the emergency, and by judicious management – and concession – brought the council to a termination satisfactory to the disputants and favourable to the pontifical authority. Its definitions and decrees were confirmed by a papal bull (""Benedictus Deus"") dated 26 January 1564; and, though they were received with certain limitations by France and Spain, the famous Creed of Pius IV, or Tridentine Creed, became an authoritative expression of the Catholic faith. The more marked manifestations of stringency during his pontificate appear to have been prompted rather than spontaneous, his personal character inclining him to moderation and ease.
Thus, a warning, issued in 1564, summoning Jeanne d'Albret, the Queen of Navarre, before the Inquisition on a charge of Calvinism, was withdrawn by him in deference to the indignant protest of Charles IX of France. In the same year he published a bull granting the use of the cup to the laity of Austria and Bohemia. One of his strongest passions appears to have been that of building, which somewhat strained his resources in contributing to the adornment of Rome (including the new Porta Pia and Via Pia, named after him, and the northern extension ("Addizione") of the rione of Borgo), and in carrying on the work of restoration, erection, and fortification in various parts of the ecclesiastical states.
On the other hand, others bemoaned the austere Roman culture during his papacy; Giorgio Vasari in 1567 spoke of a time when "the grandeurs of this place reduced by stinginess of living, dullness of dress, and simplicity in so many things; Rome is fallen into much misery, and if it is true that Christ loved poverty and the City wishes to follow in his steps she will quickly become beggarly...".
Pius IV created 46 cardinals in four consistories during his pontificate, and elevated three nephews to the cardinalate, including Carlo Borromeo. The pope also made Ugo Boncompagni, who would later be elected Pope Gregory XIII, a cardinal.
A conspiracy against Pius IV, headed by Benedetto Accolti the Younger (who died in 1549), the son of a cardinal, was discovered and crushed in 1565.
During the reign of Pius IV, Michelangelo rebuilt the basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli (in Diocletian's Baths) and the eponymous Villa Pia, now known as Casina Pio IV. in the Vatican Gardens designed by Pirro Ligorio. It is now the headquarters of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.
Pius IV also ordered public construction to improve the water supply of Rome.
Pius IV died on 9 December 1565. He was buried in Santa Maria degli Angeli. His successor was Pius V. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24072 |
Pope Pius III
Pope Pius III (9 May 1439 – 18 October 1503), born Francesco Todeschini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 22 September 1503 to his death. He had one of the shortest pontificates in papal history.
Francesco was the nephew of Pope Pius II, who granted him the use of the family name "Piccolomini", and appointed the twenty-one-year old Francesco as Archbishop of Siena. He served as papal legate in a number of places. In 1503, the frail, now Cardinal Piccolomini was elected pope as a compromise candidate between the Borgia and della Rovere factions. Although he announced plans for reforms, he died less than a month later.
Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini, a member of the House of Piccolomini was born in Sarteano on 9 May 1439, as the fourth child of Nanno Todeschini and Laudomia Piccolomini, the sister of Enea Silvio Bartolomeo (Aeneas Silvius) Piccolomini who was Pope Pius II. He had three brothers, Antonio, Giacomo and Andrea. His eldest brother Antonio was made Duke of Amalfi during the pontificate of Pius II. He married Maria, the daughter of King Ferdinando of Naples.
Francesco was received as a boy into the household of Aeneas Silvius who permitted him to assume the name and arms of the Piccolomini family. He studied Canon Law at the University of Perugia, and obtained a doctorate after the completion of his studies.
In 1457, Todeschini-Piccolomini was granted the office of Provost of the Collegiate Church of Sankt Viktor in Xanten, which had been a benefice of his uncle. He held the benefice from 1457 to 1466, and again from 1476 to 1495.
Cardinal Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini was elected pope on 19 August 1458. In the excited tumult following the announcement, the Roman mob sacked his house, which was located near the church of S. Agostino and the north end of the Piazza Navona; even the marble stones were taken. When the Piccolomini family arrived in Rome, therefore, they had no palazzo of their own to use as their base of operations. Francesco moved into the Vatican Palace with his uncle. Pius II was aware that this was a temporary situation; he remarked in a letter to his nephew Antonio that "One is not the nephew of a pope forever ("non semper pontificis nepos"). In 1461, the Pope authorized Cardinal Francesco to purchase a property near the Campo dei Fiori in Rome which had belonged to the recently deceased Cardinal Giovanni Castiglione. The documents made it clear that it was not the Pope or the Papacy which were buying the property, but the Piccolomini family, and that it was private property, not property of the Church, even though Cardinal Francesco's deaconry was not far distant. On this land, Cardinal Francesco, with the Pope's help, built the Piccolomini Palace. In 1476, Cardinal Francesco deeded the palace to his brothers Giacomo and Andrea, and their descendants, on the condition that it not be alienated from the male line. The Palazzo Piccolomini no longer survives, having been razed to make room for the new church of S. Andrea della Valle, which was begun in 1591.
Piccolomini already held the office of protonotary apostolic at the time that he was appointed the administrator of the Archdiocese of Siena in 1460. He was granted the title and the insignia of an archbishop, but he did not receive episcopal consecration until a week before his coronation as pope. The episcopal duties at Siena were carried out by an auxiliary bishop, Antonio Fatati.
Pope Pius II, who was visiting Siena at the time, appointed his nephew a cardinal on 5 March 1460, naming him Cardinal-Deacon of San Eustachio on 26 March.
He was also named Abbot Commendatory of the monastery of S. Vigilio in Siena. He reconstructed and extended the residence next to the church, which he continued to use throughout his life.
In 1460, the Pope appointed him legate of the March of Ancona, with the experienced Bishop of Marsico as his counsellor. He departed Rome on 30 April, and returned on 1 February 1461 for consultations; he returned to Ancona on 1 June 1461, and was back in Rome on 8 November. He proved studious and effective in his job.
Piccolomini was made the archdeacon of Brabant in Cambrai in 1462 and he held that benefice until 1503. On 26 March 1463, Pope Pius II granted Cardinal Francesco the monastery of San Saba on the Aventine Hill "in commendam". The cardinal immediately began extensive restoration, construction, and decoration works on the ancient buildings, spending at least 3,000 ducats on the work.
Piccolomini was named Vicar of Rome and the rest of the Papal States on 21 June 1464, as Pius II departed Rome for Ancona, where he intended to meet the Venetians and launch a crusade in the Balkans. Pius II died at Ancona on 14 August 1464, terminating the project.
Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini participated in the conclave that elected Pope Paul II in 1464. As a nephew of the late pope, he should have had considerable influence in the politics of the election. Of the twenty cardinals who participated, however, the twelve who had not been named by Pius II agreed among themselves that they would not vote to elect anyone except one of themselves. This excluded Francesco Piccolomini and all of his uncle's cardinals. As it happened, the first vote was still in progress when Cardinal Pietro Barbo of Venice received the required two-thirds of the votes, and the scrutiny was quickly made unanimous. He chose the name Paul II (1464–1471).
Cardinal Piccolomini was named "Legatus de latere" in Germany on 20 February 1471. He was accompanied as his secretary by Agostino Patrizi Piccolomini, the former private secretary of Pius II, who wrote an account of the mission. He departed on 18 March, and served in this important legation for the Imperial diet at Regensburg/Ratisbon, and was still there when the Pope died on 26 July 1471. Consequently, he was absent for the Conclave of 1471 which elected Pope Sixtus IV. He returned to Rome on 27 December 1471.
He succeeded to the position of Cardinal Protodeacon in 1471, upon the promotion of Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia to the see of Albano on August 30, 1471.
Francesco served in a new legation for Pope Sixtus IV, to restore ecclesiastical authority in Umbria.
Todeschini-Piccolomini participated in the conclave of 1484 which resulted in the election of Pope Innocent VIII, and as the protodeacon he made the first public announcement of the election and crowned the new pope. According to Stefano Infessura, he was one of the half-dozen cardinals who had slept soundly in their beds on the night between 28 August and 29 August, and had not participated in the clandestine midnight conferences that produced a two-thirds majority for Cardinal Giovanni Battista Cibo. Neither had he engaged in the extensive simoniac trading that took place.
He was made the administrator of Fermo in 1485; he resigned the position in 1494, in favor of Agostino Piccolomini. He was reappointed when Agostino resigned in 1496, and he kept that post until his election to the Papacy.
He was appointed papal legate to Perugia on 5 November 1488, and departed Rome on 15 November. He served in Perugia until 1489.
Todeschini-Piccolomini participated in the conclave of 1492 which elected Pope Alexander VI. He belonged to the faction of the more senior cardinals who gathered around Cardinal Oliviero Carafa of Naples. Cardinal Francesco was sufficiently respected that he received six votes at the first scrutiny (Sixteen were needed to elect), seven on the second, and one on the third. He resisted the election of Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia almost to the end, as one of the five hold-outs. As Cardinal Protodeacon Piccolomini announced and crowned the new pontiff.
He served as the protector of England at the Roman Curia from 1492 to 1503, and of Germany.
He was appointed legate to King Charles VIII of France, whose army was then entering Tuscany, in the consistory of 1 October 1494, departing Rome on 17 October; he returned to Rome on 5 March 1495, after the King declined to meet him. On 27 May 1495, he and numerous other cardinals accompanied Pope Alexander VI on a visit to Orvieto, which had been arranged to avoid a meeting between the Pope and King Charles, who was returning from his expedition against Naples. Charles was in Rome from 1 June to 4 June, and the Pope and his retinue returned to the city on 27 June.
He was named the administrator of the diocese of Pienza and Montalcino on 31 October 1495, and occupied it until 14 March 1498, when he resigned in favor of his relative, Girolamo Piccolomini.
Following the murder of his son Giovanni Borgia in 1497, Alexander VI appointed Francesco Piccolomini a member of a commission of six cardinals, in a short-lived effort to reform the Roman Curia. On 8 February 1501, Pope Alexander also appointed Piccolomini, in his capacity as Protodeacon, to a commission to take charge of the income from the tithe ("decuma"), and dispensing it for yet another contemplated crusade against the Turks.
In 1502 he commissioned a library with access from an aisle of the Duomo di Siena that was intended to house the library of humanist texts assembled by his uncle. Francesco commissioned the artist Pinturicchio to fresco its vault and ten narrative panels along the walls, depicting scenes from the life of Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini. Its iconography illustrating the donor's career gives an edited version of Pius II's life, passing over his former support of the Antipope Felix V. Though Pinturicchio labored for five years, the books never reached their splendid destination; yet the Piccolomini Library is a monument of the High Renaissance in Siena. Some of Pope Pius III's most famous portraits can be viewed in the Louvre Museum.
Pope Alexander VI died on 18 August 1503, and amid the disturbances consequent upon his death, it took the combined pressures of all the ambassadors in Rome to induce Cesare Borgia to withdraw from the city, so that an unpressured conclave might take place. Despite urgent pleas of the cardinals to stay away, both the Orsini and the Colonna factions entered the city with troops, intending to avenge old and new grievances. Because of these negotiations, the Conclave did not begin until 16 September. Cardinal Piccolomini was elected on 22 September 1503 and he named himself "Pius III" after his uncle Pius II. This selection can be seen as a compromise between factions, Borgia and della Rovere, picking a frail cardinal with long experience in the Roman Curia over the kin of either Sixtus IV or Alexander VI.
On 25 September the new pontiff held an unusual Consistory meeting of cardinals and other officials, including the ambassadors of several states. Normally, a pope did not hold such meetings until after his coronation, but Pius III was faced with an emergency, and he was being hard pressed by the Spanish cardinals. A French army, which was nominally under the command of Cesare Borgia, who was ill and in bed, was demanding passage through Rome in order to attack the Spanish government in Naples. Naples was a papal fief, which complicated diplomacy. At the consistory, Pius first announced his desire to bring about peace between the kings of France and Spain. Then he promulgated the aims of his pontificate: the immediate reform of the church, with the establishment of a council of cardinals; strict reform of the expenses and financial situation of the church; peace in the Papal States; and the support of Cesare Borgia, now without his French support, against his enemies who were planning to murder him. The next day, he told the Venetian ambassador, Antonio Giustinian: "In consequence of the pressure put upon me by the Spanish cardinals, I have been compelled to some briefs in favour of Cesare Borgia, but I will not give him any further help. I do not intend to be a warlike, but a peace-loving pope."
On 26 September, Pius III granted permission for 8,500 French soldiers to pass by Rome, but not across the Milvian Bridge (Ponte Molle)
Pius supported Cesare Borgia, and reconfirmed him as Gonfalonier. He allowed him to come into the city of Rome from his refuge at Nepi, aware that Bartolomeo d'Alviano was hurrying with forces from Venice to murder Borgia.
On the morning of 26 September, the newly elected pope underwent an operation on his ulcerous left leg, enduring the pain of cutting in two places. Next day, he announced that he would not carry out the ceremony of the possession of his cathedral on the day of the coronation, as the custom was, because of his lameness.
Piccolomini was never ordained a priest, remaining in diaconal orders, until 30 September 1503, when he finally received ordination. Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere ordained him in one of the halls of the papal palace, with the Pope seated the whole time. Della Rovere consecrated him a bishop on Sunday, 1 October 1503, in the same hall in the Vatican, assisted by the Bishop of Savona (Aldello de Piccolomini) and the Bishop of Spoleto (Francesco Eruli).
A Venetian agent in Rome reported on 3 October that the Pope was suffering from a high fever and had severe pain in his leg. Some judged that he had little time to live, and the politicking for the next conclave was already beginning.
The coronation took place on 8 October 1503. Cardinal Raffaello Sansoni Riario, the Protodeacon, performed the coronation. Several of the features of the ritual had to be omitted due to Pius' troublesome leg. Ludwig Pastor notes that the Pope said Mass sitting.
On Thursday the 12th, as Beltrando Costabili reported to the Duke of Ferrara, Pope Pius had a long audience and did not eat during the day, having been taking medicine the previous day, on which the fever struck and never left him.
On 13 October he was on his deathbed, and after a brief pontificate of 26 days he died on 18 October 1503, of a septic ulcer in his leg. Some have alleged that Pope Pius died of poison administered at the instigation of Pandolfo Petrucci, the ruler of Siena.
He was buried in the chapel of San Andrea in Saint Peter's Basilica, next to his uncle Pius II, his brothers Giacomo and Andrea serving as his executors. He had already chosen his burial place when he wrote his Will of 1493. When the basilica was being rebuilt, the monument was transferred below to the grottoes and the remains of Pius III and his uncle to the church of San Andrea della Valle in Rome put in a mausoleum created by Cardinal Alessandro Damasceni Peretti in 1614. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24073 |
Pope Pius V
Pope Pius V (17 January 1504 – 1 May 1572), born Antonio Ghislieri (from 1518 called Michele Ghislieri, O.P.), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 8 January 1566 to his death in 1572. He is venerated as a saint of the Catholic Church. He is chiefly notable for his role in the Council of Trent, the Counter-Reformation, and the standardization of the Roman Rite within the Latin Church. Pius V declared Thomas Aquinas a Doctor of the Church.
As a cardinal, Ghislieri gained a reputation for putting orthodoxy before personalities, prosecuting eight French bishops for heresy. He also stood firm against nepotism, rebuking his predecessor Pope Pius IV to his face when he wanted to make a 13-year-old member of his family a cardinal and subsidize a nephew from the papal treasury.
By means of the papal bull of 1570, "Regnans in Excelsis", Pius V excommunicated Elizabeth I of England for heresy and persecution of English Catholics during her reign. He also arranged the formation of the Holy League, an alliance of Catholic states to combat the advancement of the Ottoman Empire in Eastern Europe. Although outnumbered, the Holy League famously defeated the Ottomans at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. Pius V attributed the victory to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and instituted the feast of Our Lady of Victory. Biographers report that as the Battle of Lepanto ended, Pius rose and went over to a window, where he stood gazing toward the East. "...[L]ooking at the sky, he cried out, 'A truce to business; our great task at present is to thank God for the victory which He has just given the Christian army'."
Antonio Ghislieri was born 17 January 1504 in Bosco in the Duchy of Milan (now Bosco Marengo in the province of Alessandria, Piedmont), Italy. At the age of fourteen he entered the Dominican Order, taking the name "Michele", passing from the monastery of Voghera to that of Vigevano, and thence to Bologna. Ordained a priest at Genoa in 1528, he was sent by his order to Pavia, where he lectured for sixteen years. At Parma he advanced thirty propositions in support of the papal chair and against the Protestant Reformation.
He became master of novices and was on several occasions elected prior of more than one Dominican priory. During a time of great moral laxity, he insisted on discipline, and strove to develop the practice of the monastic virtues. He fasted, did penance, passed long hours of the night in meditation and prayer, traveled on foot without a cloak in deep silence, or only speaking to his companions of the things of God. As his reformist zeal provoked resentment, he was compelled to return to Rome in 1550, where, after having been employed in several inquisitorial missions, he was elected to the commissariat of the Holy Office.
In 1556 he was made Bishop of Sutri by Pope Paul IV and was selected as inquisitor of the faith in Milan and Lombardy. In 1557 he was made a cardinal and named inquisitor general for all Christendom. His defense of Bartolomé Carranza, Archbishop of Toledo, who had been suspected of heresy by the Spanish Inquisition, earned him a rebuff from the pope.
Under Pope Pius IV (1559–65) he became Bishop of Mondovi in Piedmont. Frequently called to Rome, he displayed his unflinching zeal in all the affairs on which he was consulted. Thus he offered an insurmountable opposition to Pius IV when the latter wished to admit Ferdinand de' Medici, then only thirteen years old, into the Sacred College. His opposition to the pontiff procured his dismissal from the palace and the abridgment of his authority as inquisitor.
Before Michele Ghislieri could return to his episcopate, Pope Pius IV died. Cardinal Borromeo wrote to the Portuguese cardinal Henrique six weeks following the conclave where he recalled the election of the new pope. The cardinal referred to having "a high esteem for him on account of his singular holiness and zeal" and saw these qualities as a signal that he would make a good pope "to the great satisfaction of all". On 4 January, a courier from Spain arrived prompting rumors that King Philip II endorsed Cardinal Ghislieri, giving Borromeo and his allies the chance to capitalize on the confusion. This led to an increase in votes for Ghislieri as the cardinals conferred with each other, leading to the election of the new pope in the afternoon of 8 January.
On 8 January 1566, Ghislieri, with the influential backing of Charles Borromeo, was elected to the papal throne, taking the name Pope Pius V. He was crowned ten days later, on his 62nd birthday by the protodeacon.
His pontificate saw him dealing with internal reform of the Church, the spread of Protestant doctrines in the West, and Turkish armies advancing from the East.
Aware of the necessity of restoring discipline and morality at Rome to ensure success without, he at once proceeded to reduce the cost of the papal court after the manner of the Dominican Order to which he belonged, compel residence among the clergy, regulated inns, and assert the importance of the ceremonial in general and the liturgy of the Mass in particular.
In his wider policy, which was characterised throughout by an effective stringency, the maintenance and increase of the efficacy of the Inquisition and the enforcement of the canons and decrees of the Council of Trent had precedence over other considerations.
Accordingly, in order to implement a decision of that council, he standardised the Holy Mass by promulgating the 1570 edition of the Roman Missal. Pius V made this Missal mandatory throughout the Latin rite of the Catholic Church, except where a Mass liturgy dating from before 1370 AD was in use. This form of the Mass remained essentially unchanged for 400 years until Pope Paul VI's revision of the Roman Missal in 1969–70, after which it has become widely known as the Tridentine Mass; use of the last pre-1969 edition of the Missal, that by Pope John XXIII in 1962, is permitted without limitation for private celebration of the Mass and, since July 2007, is allowed also for public use, as laid down in the motu proprio "Summorum Pontificum" of Pope Benedict XVI. Some continue to use even earlier editions, but without authorisation.
Pius V, who had declared Thomas Aquinas the fifth Latin Doctor of the Church in 1567, commissioned the first edition of Aquinas' "opera omnia", often called the "editio Piana" in honor of the Pope. This work was produced in 1570 at the studium generale of the Dominican Order at Santa Maria sopra Minerva, which would be transformed into the College of Saint Thomas in 1577, and again into the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, "Angelicum" in the 20th century.
Pius V arranged the forming of the Holy League against the Ottoman Empire, as the result of which the Battle of Lepanto (7 October 1571) was won by the combined fleet under Don John of Austria. It is attested in his canonisation that he miraculously knew when the battle was over, himself being in Rome at the time. Pius V also helped financially in the construction of Valletta, Malta's capital city, by sending his military engineer Francesco Laparelli to design the fortification walls. (A bronze bust of Pius V was installed at the Gate of Valletta in 1892.) To commemorate the victory, he instituted the Feast of Our Lady of Victory.
By the time Pius V ascended the throne, Protestantism had swept over all of England and Scotland, as well as half of Germany, the Netherlands, and parts of France; only Spain remained unswervingly Catholic. Pius V was thus determined to prevent its insurgency into Italy—which he believed would come via the Alps and Milan.
Pius V recognized attacks on papal supremacy in the Catholic Church and was desirous of limiting their advancement. In France, where his influence was stronger, he took several measures to oppose the Protestant Huguenots. He directed the dismissal of Cardinal Odet de Coligny and seven bishops, nullified the royal edict tolerating the extramural services of the Reformers, introduced the Roman catechism, restored papal discipline, and strenuously opposed all compromise with the Huguenot nobility.
His response to the Queen Elizabeth I of England assuming position of the Supreme Governor of the Church of England included support of the imprisoned Mary, Queen of Scots and her supporters in their attempts to take over England ""ex turpissima muliebris libidinis servitute"" "from a most sordid slavery to a woman's voracity". A brief English Catholic uprising, the Rising of the North, had just failed. Pius then issued a Papal bull, "Regnans in Excelsis" ("Reigning on High"), dated 27 April 1570, that declared Elizabeth I a heretic and released her subjects from their allegiance to her. It was the official decree of excommunication on her and it also declared an ipso facto excommunication on anyone who did not deny allegiance to her. In response, Elizabeth, who had thus far tolerated Catholic worship in private, now actively started persecuting them for treason.
As a young man, Michele Ghislieri was eager to join the inquisition. Under Paul IV, whom popular historian John Julius Norwich calls the most hated pope of the 16th century, he rose to inquisitor general, and from there ascended to the papacy. As Pius V, he personally attended all sessions of the Roman inquisition. According to Norwich, Ghislieri often stayed to watch as supposed lawbreakers and heretics were tortured.
Upon assuming the papacy, Ghislieri immediately started to get rid of many of the extravagant luxuries then prevalent in the court. One of his first acts was to dismiss the papal court jester, and no pope after had one.± He forbade horse racing in St. Peter's Square. Severe sanctions were imposed against blasphemy, adultery, and sodomy. These laws quickly made Pius V the subject of Roman hatred; he was accused of trying to turn the city into a vast monastery. He was not a hypocrite: in day-to-day life Pius V was highly ascetic. He wore a hair shirt beneath the simple habit of a Dominican friar and was often seen in bare feet.
Rev. Alban Butler writes that "In the time of a great famine in Rome, he imported corn at his own expense from Sicily and France [...]; a considerable part of which he distributed among the poor, gratis, and sold the rest to the public below cost."
Katherine Rinne writes in "Waters of Rome" that Pius V ordered the construction of public works to improve the water supply and sewer system of the city—a welcome step, particularly in low-lying areas, where typhoid and malaria were inevitable summer visitors.
In 1567 he issued "Super prohibitione agitationis Taurorum & Ferarum" prohibiting bull-fighting.
Besides ""In Coena Domini"" (1568) there are several others of note, including his prohibition of quaestuary (February 1567 and January 1570); condemnation of Michael Baius, the heretical Professor of Leuven (1567); reform of the Roman Breviary (July 1568); formal condemnation of homosexual behaviour by the clergy (August 1568); the banishment of the Jews from all ecclesiastical dominions except Rome and Ancona (1569); an injunction against use of the reformed missal (July 1570); the confirmation of the privileges of the Society of Crusaders for the protection of the Inquisition (October 1570); the suppression of the Fratres Humiliati (February 1571); the approbation of the new office of the Blessed Virgin (March 1571); and the enforcement of the daily recitation of the Canonical Hours (September 1571).
Pius V is often credited with the origin of the Pope's white garments, supposedly because after his election Pius continued to wear his white Dominican habit. However, many of his predecessors also wore white with a red mozzetta, as can be seen on many paintings where neither they nor Pius is wearing a cassock, but thin, wide, white garments.
An article by Agostino Paravicini Bagliani on "L'Osservatore Romano" of 31 August 2013 states that the earliest document that speaks explicitly of the Pope wearing white is the "Ordo XIII", a book of ceremonies compiled in about 1274 under Pope Gregory X. From that date on, the books of ceremonies speak ever more explicitly of the Pope as wearing a red mantle, mozzetta, camauro and shoes, and a white cassock and stockings.
Pius V canonized one saint during his reign: Ivo of Chartres on 18 December 1570.
Pius V created 21 cardinals in three consistories including Felice Piergentile who would become Pope Sixtus V.
Pius V died on 1 May 1572 of what is believed to be cancer. He was buried in the chapel of S. Andrea which was close to the tomb of Pope Pius III, in the Vatican. Although his will requested he be buried in Bosco, Pope Sixtus V built a monument in the chapel of SS. Sacramento in the Liberian basilica. His remains were transferred there on 9 January 1588.
In 1696, the process of Pius V's canonisation was started through the efforts of the Master of the Order of Preachers, Antonin Cloche. He also immediately commissioned a representative tomb from the sculptor Pierre Le Gros the Younger to be erected in the Sistine Chapel of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore. The pope's body was placed in it in 1698. Pope Pius V was beatified by Pope Clement X in the year 1672, and was later canonized by Pope Clement XI (1700–21) on 22 May 1712.
In the following year, 1713, his feast day was inserted in the General Roman Calendar, for celebration on 5 May, with the rank of "Double", the equivalent of "Third-Class Feast" in the General Roman Calendar of 1960, and of its present rank of "Memorial". In 1969 the celebration was moved to 30 April, the day before the anniversary of his death (1 May).
Cardinal John Henry Newman declared that "St. Pius V was stern and severe, as far as a heart burning and melted with divine love could be so ... Yet such energy and vigour as his were necessary for the times. He was a soldier of Christ in a time of insurrection and rebellion, when in a spiritual sense, martial law was proclaimed."
The front of his tomb has a lid of gilded bronze which shows a likeness of the dead pope. Most of the time this is left open to allow the veneration of the saint's remains. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24074 |
Peripheral Component Interconnect
Peripheral Component Interconnect is often called PCI, or Conventional PCI to differentiate from its successor PCI Express. PCI is a local computer bus for attaching hardware devices in a computer and is part of the PCI Local Bus standard. The PCI bus supports the functions found on a processor bus but in a standardized format that is independent of any particular processor's native bus. Devices connected to the PCI bus appear to a bus master to be connected directly to its own bus and are assigned addresses in the processor's address space. It is a parallel bus, synchronous to a single bus clock.
Attached devices can take either the form of an integrated circuit fitted onto the motherboard itself (called a "planar device" in the PCI specification) or an expansion card that fits into a slot. The PCI Local Bus was first implemented in IBM PC compatibles, where it displaced the combination of several slow ISA slots and one fast VESA Local Bus slot as the bus configuration. It has subsequently been adopted for other computer types. Typical PCI cards used in PCs include: network cards, sound cards, modems, extra ports such as USB or serial, TV tuner cards and disk controllers. PCI video cards replaced ISA and VESA cards until growing bandwidth requirements outgrew the capabilities of PCI. The preferred interface for video cards then became AGP, itself a superset of PCI, before giving way to PCI Express.
The first version of PCI found in retail desktop computers was a 32-bit bus using a 33 MHz bus clock and 5 V signalling, although the PCI 1.0 standard provided for a 64-bit variant as well. These have one locating notch in the card. Version 2.0 of the PCI standard introduced 3.3 V slots, physically distinguished by a flipped physical connector to prevent accidental insertion of 5 V cards. Universal cards, which can operate on either voltage, have two notches. Version 2.1 of the PCI standard introduced optional 66 MHz operation. A server-oriented variant of PCI, called PCI-X (PCI Extended) operated at frequencies up to 133 MHz for PCI-X 1.0 and up to 533 MHz for PCI-X 2.0. An internal connector for laptop cards, called Mini PCI, was introduced in version 2.2 of the PCI specification. The PCI bus was also adopted for an external laptop connector standard the CardBus. The first PCI specification was developed by Intel, but subsequent development of the standard became the responsibility of the PCI Special Interest Group (PCI-SIG).
PCI and PCI-X are sometimes called Parallel PCI in order to distinguish them technologically from their more recent successor PCI Express, which adopted a serial, lane-based architecture. PCI's heyday in the desktop computer market was approximately 1995 to 2005. PCI and PCI-X have become obsolete for most purposes; however in 2020 they are still common on modern desktops for the purposes of backwards compatibility and the low relative cost to produce. Many kinds of devices previously available on PCI expansion cards are now commonly integrated onto motherboards or available in USB and PCI Express versions.
Work on PCI began at Intel's Architecture Development Lab (IAL) . A team of primarily IAL engineers defined the architecture and developed a proof of concept chipset and platform (Saturn) partnering with teams in the company's desktop PC systems and core logic product organizations.
PCI was immediately put to use in servers, replacing MCA and EISA as the server expansion bus of choice. In mainstream PCs, PCI was slower to replace VESA Local Bus (VLB), and did not gain significant market penetration until late 1994 in second-generation Pentium PCs. By 1996, VLB was all but extinct, and manufacturers had adopted PCI even for 486 computers. EISA continued to be used alongside PCI through 2000. Apple Computer adopted PCI for professional Power Macintosh computers (replacing NuBus) in mid-1995, and the consumer Performa product line (replacing LC PDS) in mid-1996.
The 64-bit version of plain PCI remained rare in practice though, although it was used for example by all (post-iMac) G3 and G4 Power Macintosh computers.
Later revisions of PCI added new features and performance improvements, including a 66 MHz 3.3 V standard and 133 MHz PCI-X, and the adaptation of PCI signaling to other form factors. Both PCI-X 1.0b and PCI-X 2.0 are backward compatible with some PCI standards. These revisions were used on server hardware but consumer PC hardware remained nearly all 32 bit, 33 MHz and 5 volt.
The PCI-SIG introduced the serial PCI Express in . Since then, motherboard manufacturers have included progressively fewer PCI slots in favor of the new standard. Many new motherboards do not provide PCI slots at all, as of late 2013.
PCI provides separate memory and I/O port address spaces for the x86 processor family, 64 and 32 bits, respectively. Addresses in these address spaces are assigned by software. A third address space, called the PCI Configuration Space, which uses a fixed addressing scheme, allows software to determine the amount of memory and I/O address space needed by each device. Each device can request up to six areas of memory space or I/O port space via its configuration space registers.
In a typical system, the firmware (or operating system) queries all PCI buses at startup time (via PCI Configuration Space) to find out what devices are present and what system resources (memory space, I/O space, interrupt lines, etc.) each needs. It then allocates the resources and tells each device what its allocation is.
The PCI configuration space also contains a small amount of device type information, which helps an operating system choose device drivers for it, or at least to have a dialogue with a user about the system configuration.
Devices may have an on-board ROM containing executable code for x86 or PA-RISC processors, an Open Firmware driver, or an EFI driver. These are typically necessary for devices used during system startup, before device drivers are loaded by the operating system.
In addition, there are PCI Latency Timers that are a mechanism for PCI Bus-Mastering devices to share the PCI bus fairly. "Fair" in this case means that devices will not use such a large portion of the available PCI bus bandwidth that other devices are not able to get needed work done. Note, this does not apply to PCI Express.
Devices are required to follow a protocol so that the interrupt lines can be shared. The PCI bus includes four interrupt lines, all of which are available to each device. However, they are not wired in parallel as are the other PCI bus lines. The positions of the interrupt lines rotate between slots, so what appears to one device as the INTA# line is INTB# to the next and INTC# to the one after that. Single-function devices use their INTA# for interrupt signaling, so the device load is spread fairly evenly across the four available interrupt lines. This alleviates a common problem with sharing interrupts.
The mapping of PCI interrupt lines onto system interrupt lines, through the PCI host bridge, is implementation-dependent. Platform-specific BIOS code is meant to know this, and set the "interrupt line" field in each device's configuration space indicating which IRQ it is connected to.
PCI interrupt lines are level-triggered. This was chosen over edge-triggering in order to gain an advantage when servicing a shared interrupt line, and for robustness: edge triggered interrupts are easy to miss.
Later revisions of the PCI specification add support for message-signaled interrupts. In this system, a device signals its need for service by performing a memory write, rather than by asserting a dedicated line. This alleviates the problem of scarcity of interrupt lines. Even if interrupt vectors are still shared, it does not suffer the sharing problems of level-triggered interrupts. It also resolves the routing problem, because the memory write is not unpredictably modified between device and host. Finally, because the message signaling is in-band, it resolves some synchronization problems that can occur with posted writes and out-of-band interrupt lines.
PCI Express does not have physical interrupt lines at all. It uses message-signaled interrupts exclusively.
These specifications represent the most common version of PCI used in normal PCs:
The PCI specification also provides options for 3.3 V signaling, 64-bit bus width, and 66 MHz clocking, but these are not commonly encountered outside of PCI-X support on server motherboards.
The PCI bus arbiter performs bus arbitration among multiple masters on the PCI bus. Any number of bus masters can reside on the PCI bus, as well as requests for the bus. One pair of request and grant signals is dedicated to each bus master.
Typical PCI cards have either one or two key notches, depending on their signaling voltage. Cards requiring 3.3 volts have a notch 56.21 mm from the card backplate; those requiring 5 volts have a notch 104.47 mm from the backplate. This allows cards to be fitted only into slots with a voltage they support. "Universal cards" accepting either voltage have both key notches.
The PCI connector is defined as having 62 contacts on each side of the edge connector, but two or four of them are replaced by key notches, so a card has 60 or 58 contacts on each side. Side A refers to the 'solder side' and side B refers to the 'component side': if the card is held with the connector pointing down, a view of side A will have the backplate on the right, whereas a view of side B will have the backplate on the left. The pinout of B and A sides are as follows, looking down into the motherboard connector (pins A1 and B1 are closest to backplate).
64-bit PCI extends this by an additional 32 contacts on each side which provide AD[63:32], C/BE[7:4]#, the PAR64 parity signal, and a number of power and ground pins.
Most lines are connected to each slot in parallel. The exceptions are:
Notes:
Most 32-bit PCI cards will function properly in 64-bit PCI-X slots, but the bus clock rate will be limited to the clock frequency of the slowest card, an inherent limitation of PCI's shared bus topology. For example, when a PCI 2.3, 66-MHz peripheral is installed into a PCI-X bus capable of 133 MHz, the entire bus backplane will be limited to 66 MHz. To get around this limitation, many motherboards have two or more PCI/PCI-X buses, with one bus intended for use with high-speed PCI-X peripherals, and the other bus intended for general-purpose peripherals.
Many 64-bit PCI-X cards are designed to work in 32-bit mode if inserted in shorter 32-bit connectors, with some loss of performance. An example of this is the Adaptec 29160 64-bit SCSI interface card. However, some 64-bit PCI-X cards do not work in standard 32-bit PCI slots.
Installing a 64-bit PCI-X card in a 32-bit slot will leave the 64-bit portion of the card edge connector not connected and overhanging. This requires that there be no motherboard components positioned so as to mechanically obstruct the overhanging portion of the card edge connector.
PCI Brackets heights:
PCI Card lengths (Standard Bracket & 3.3V):
PCI Card lengths (Low Profile Bracket & 3.3V):
Mini PCI was added to PCI version 2.2 for use in laptops; it uses a 32-bit, 33 MHz bus with powered connections (3.3 V only; 5 V is limited to 100 mA) and support for bus mastering and DMA. The standard size for Mini PCI cards is approximately a quarter of their full-sized counterparts. There is no access to the card from outside the case, unlike desktop PCI cards with brackets carrying connectors. This limits the kinds of functions a Mini PCI card can perform.
Many Mini PCI devices were developed such as Wi-Fi, Fast Ethernet, Bluetooth, modems (often Winmodems), sound cards, cryptographic accelerators, SCSI, IDE–ATA, SATA controllers and combination cards. Mini PCI cards can be used with regular PCI-equipped hardware, using Mini PCI-to-PCI "converters". Mini PCI has been superseded by the much narrower PCI Express Mini Card
Mini PCI cards have a 2 W maximum power consumption, which limits the functionality that can be implemented in this form factor. They also are required to support the CLKRUN# PCI signal used to start and stop the PCI clock for power management purposes.
There are three card form factors: Type I, Type II, and Type III cards. The card connector used for each type include: Type I and II use a 100-pin stacking connector, while Type III uses a 124-pin edge connector, i.e. the connector for Types I and II differs from that for Type III, where the connector is on the edge of a card, like with a SO-DIMM. The additional 24 pins provide the extra signals required to route I/O back through the system connector (audio, AC-Link, LAN, phone-line interface). Type II cards have RJ11 and RJ45 mounted connectors. These cards must be located at the edge of the computer or docking station so that the RJ11 and RJ45 ports can be mounted for external access.
Mini PCI is distinct from 144-pin Micro PCI.
PCI bus traffic consists of a series of PCI bus transactions. Each transaction consists of an "address phase" followed by one or more "data phases". The direction of the data phases may be from initiator to target (write transaction) or vice versa (read transaction), but all of the data phases must be in the same direction. Either party may pause or halt the data phases at any point. (One common example is a low-performance PCI device that does not support burst transactions, and always halts a transaction after the first data phase.)
Any PCI device may initiate a transaction. First, it must request permission from a PCI bus arbiter on the motherboard. The arbiter grants permission to one of the requesting devices. The initiator begins the address phase by broadcasting a 32-bit address plus a 4-bit command code, then waits for a target to respond. All other devices examine this address and one of them responds a few cycles later.
64-bit addressing is done using a two-stage address phase. The initiator broadcasts the low 32 address bits, accompanied by a special "dual address cycle" command code. Devices which do not support 64-bit addressing can simply not respond to that command code. The next cycle, the initiator transmits the high 32 address bits, plus the real command code. The transaction operates identically from that point on. To ensure compatibility with 32-bit PCI devices, it is forbidden to use a dual address cycle if not necessary, i.e. if the high-order address bits are all zero.
While the PCI bus transfers 32 bits per data phase, the initiator transmits 4 active-low byte enable signals indicating which 8-bit bytes are to be considered significant. In particular, a write must affect only the enabled bytes in the target PCI device. They are of little importance for memory reads, but I/O reads might have side effects. The PCI standard explicitly allows a data phase with no bytes enabled, which must behave as a no-op.
PCI has three address spaces: memory, I/O address, and configuration.
Memory addresses are 32 bits (optionally 64 bits) in size, support caching and can be burst transactions.
I/O addresses are for compatibility with the Intel x86 architecture's I/O port address space. Although the PCI bus specification allows burst transactions in any address space, most devices only support it for memory addresses and not I/O.
Finally, PCI configuration space provides access to 256 bytes of special configuration registers per PCI device. Each PCI slot gets its own configuration space address range. The registers are used to configure devices memory and I/O address ranges they should respond to from transaction initiators. When a computer is first turned on, all PCI devices respond only to their configuration space accesses. The computer's BIOS scans for devices and assigns Memory and I/O address ranges to them.
If an address is not claimed by any device, the transaction initiator's address phase will time out causing the initiator to abort the operation. In case of reads, it is customary to supply all-ones for the read data value (0xFFFFFFFF) in this case. PCI devices therefore generally attempt to avoid using the all-ones value in important status registers, so that such an error can be easily detected by software.
There are 16 possible 4-bit command codes, and 12 of them are assigned. With the exception of the unique dual address cycle, the least significant bit of the command code indicates whether the following data phases are a read (data sent from target to initiator) or a write (data sent from an initiator to target). PCI targets must examine the command code as well as the address and not respond to address phases which specify an unsupported command code.
The commands that refer to cache lines depend on the PCI configuration space cache line size register being set up properly; they may not be used until that has been done.
Soon after promulgation of the PCI specification, it was discovered that lengthy transactions by some devices, due to slow acknowledgments, long data bursts, or some combination, could cause buffer underrun or overrun in other devices. Recommendations on the timing of individual phases in Revision 2.0 were made mandatory in revision 2.1:
Additionally, as of revision 2.1, all initiators capable of bursting more than two data phases must implement a programmable latency timer. The timer starts counting clock cycles when a transaction starts (initiator asserts FRAME#). If the timer has expired "and" the arbiter has removed GNT#, then the initiator must terminate the transaction at the next legal opportunity. This is usually the next data phase, but Memory Write and Invalidate transactions must continue to the end of the cache line.
Devices unable to meet those timing restrictions must use a combination of posted writes (for memory writes) and delayed transactions (for other writes and all reads). In a delayed transaction, the target records the transaction (including the write data) internally and aborts (asserts STOP# rather than TRDY#) the first data phase. The initiator "must" retry exactly the same transaction later. In the interim, the target internally performs the transaction, and waits for the retried transaction. When the retried transaction is seen, the buffered result is delivered.
A device may be the target of other transactions while completing one delayed transaction; it must remember the transaction type, address, byte selects and (if a write) data value, and only complete the correct transaction.
If the target has a limit on the number of delayed transactions that it can record internally (simple targets may impose a limit of 1), it will force those transactions to retry without recording them. They will be dealt with when the current delayed transaction is completed. If two initiators attempt the same transaction, a delayed transaction begun by one may have its result delivered to the other; this is harmless.
A target abandons a delayed transaction when a retry succeeds in delivering the buffered result, the bus is reset, or when 215=32768 clock cycles (approximately 1 ms) elapse without seeing a retry. The latter should never happen in normal operation, but it prevents a deadlock of the whole bus if one initiator is reset or malfunctions.
The PCI standard permits multiple independent PCI buses to be connected by bus bridges that will forward operations on one bus to another when required. Although PCI tends not to use many bus bridges, PCI Express systems use many; each PCI Express slot appears to be a separate bus, connected by a bridge to the others.
Generally, when a bus bridge sees a transaction on one bus that must be forwarded to the other, the original transaction must wait until the forwarded transaction completes before a result is ready. One notable exception occurs in the case of memory writes. Here, the bridge may record the write data internally (if it has room) and signal completion of the write before the forwarded write has completed. Or, indeed, before it has begun. Such "sent but not yet arrived" writes are referred to as "posted writes", by analogy with a postal mail message. Although they offer great opportunity for performance gains, the rules governing what is permissible are somewhat intricate.
The PCI standard permits bus bridges to convert multiple bus transactions into one larger transaction under certain situations. This can improve the efficiency of the PCI bus.
PCI bus transactions are controlled by five main control signals, two driven by the initiator of a transaction (FRAME# and IRDY#), and three driven by the target (DEVSEL#, TRDY#, and STOP#). There are two additional arbitration signals (REQ# and GNT#) which are used to obtain permission to initiate a transaction. All are active-low, meaning that the active or "asserted" state is a low voltage. Pull-up resistors on the motherboard ensure they will remain high (inactive or "deasserted") if not driven by any device, but the PCI bus does not depend on the resistors to "change" the signal level; all devices drive the signals high for one cycle before ceasing to drive the signals.
All PCI bus signals are sampled on the rising edge of the clock. Signals nominally change on the falling edge of the clock, giving each PCI device approximately one half a clock cycle to decide how to respond to the signals it observed on the rising edge, and one half a clock cycle to transmit its response to the other device.
The PCI bus requires that every time the device driving a PCI bus signal changes, one "turnaround cycle" must elapse between the time the one device stops driving the signal and the other device starts. Without this, there might be a period when both devices were driving the signal, which would interfere with bus operation.
The combination of this turnaround cycle and the requirement to drive a control line high for one cycle before ceasing to drive it means that each of the main control lines must be high for a minimum of two cycles when changing owners. The PCI bus protocol is designed so this is rarely a limitation; only in a few special cases (notably fast back-to-back transactions) is it necessary to insert additional delay to meet this requirement.
Any device on a PCI bus that is capable of acting as a bus master may initiate a transaction with any other device. To ensure that only one transaction is initiated at a time, each master must first wait for a bus grant signal, GNT#, from an arbiter located on the motherboard. Each device has a separate request line REQ# that requests the bus, but the arbiter may "park" the bus grant signal at any device if there are no current requests.
The arbiter may remove GNT# at any time. A device which loses GNT# may complete its current transaction, but may not start one (by asserting FRAME#) unless it observes GNT# asserted the cycle before it begins.
The arbiter may also provide GNT# at any time, including during another master's transaction. During a transaction, either FRAME# or IRDY# or both are asserted; when both are deasserted, the bus is idle. A device may initiate a transaction at any time that GNT# is asserted and the bus is idle.
A PCI bus transaction begins with an "address phase". The initiator, seeing that it has GNT# and the bus is idle, drives the target address onto the AD[31:0] lines, the associated command (e.g. memory read, or I/O write) on the C/BE[3:0]# lines, and pulls FRAME# low.
Each other device examines the address and command and decides whether to respond as the target by asserting DEVSEL#. A device must respond by asserting DEVSEL# within 3 cycles. Devices which promise to respond within 1 or 2 cycles are said to have "fast DEVSEL" or "medium DEVSEL", respectively. (Actually, the time to respond is 2.5 cycles, since PCI devices must transmit all signals half a cycle early so that they can be received three cycles later.)
Note that a device must latch the address on the first cycle; the initiator is required to remove the address and command from the bus on the following cycle, even before receiving a DEVSEL# response. The additional time is available only for interpreting the address and command after it is captured.
On the fifth cycle of the address phase (or earlier if all other devices have medium DEVSEL or faster), a catch-all "subtractive decoding" is allowed for some address ranges. This is commonly used by an ISA bus bridge for addresses within its range (24 bits for memory and 16 bits for I/O).
On the sixth cycle, if there has been no response, the initiator may abort the transaction by deasserting FRAME#. This is known as "master abort termination" and it is customary for PCI bus bridges to return all-ones data (0xFFFFFFFF) in this case. PCI devices therefore are generally designed to avoid using the all-ones value in important status registers, so that such an error can be easily detected by software.
On the rising edge of clock 0, the initiator observes FRAME# and IRDY# both high, and GNT# low, so it drives the address, command, and asserts FRAME# in time for the rising edge of clock 1. Targets latch the address and begin decoding it. They may respond with DEVSEL# in time for clock 2 (fast DEVSEL), 3 (medium) or 4 (slow). Subtractive decode devices, seeing no other response by clock 4, may respond on clock 5. If the master does not see a response by clock 5, it will terminate the transaction and remove FRAME# on clock 6.
TRDY# and STOP# are deasserted (high) during the address phase. The initiator may assert IRDY# as soon as it is ready to transfer data, which could theoretically be as soon as clock 2.
To allow 64-bit addressing, a master will present the address over two consecutive cycles. First, it sends the low-order address bits with a special "dual-cycle address" command on the C/BE[3:0]#. On the following cycle, it sends the high-order address bits and the actual command. Dual-address cycles are forbidden if the high-order address bits are zero, so devices which do not support 64-bit addressing can simply not respond to dual cycle commands.
Addresses for PCI configuration space access are decoded specially. For these, the low-order address lines specify the offset of the desired PCI configuration register, and the high-order address lines are ignored. Instead, an additional address signal, the IDSEL input, must be high before a device may assert DEVSEL#. Each slot connects a different high-order address line to the IDSEL pin, and is selected using one-hot encoding on the upper address lines.
After the address phase (specifically, beginning with the cycle that DEVSEL# goes low) comes a burst of one or more "data phases". In all cases, the initiator drives active-low byte select signals on the C/BE[3:0]# lines, but the data on the AD[31:0] may be driven by the initiator (in case of writes) or target (in case of reads).
During data phases, the C/BE[3:0]# lines are interpreted as active-low "byte enables". In case of a write, the asserted signals indicate which of the four bytes on the AD bus are to be written to the addressed location. In the case of a read, they indicate which bytes the initiator is interested in. For reads, it is always legal to ignore the byte enable signals and simply return all 32 bits; cacheable memory resources are required to always return 32 valid bits. The byte enables are mainly useful for I/O space accesses where reads have side effects.
A data phase with all four C/BE# lines deasserted is explicitly permitted by the PCI standard, and must have no effect on the target other than to advance the address in the burst access in progress.
The data phase continues until both parties are ready to complete the transfer and continue to the next data phase. The initiator asserts IRDY# ("initiator ready") when it no longer needs to wait, while the target asserts TRDY# ("target ready"). Whichever side is providing the data must drive it on the AD bus before asserting its ready signal.
Once one of the participants asserts its ready signal, it may not become un-ready or otherwise alter its control signals until the end of the data phase. The data recipient must latch the AD bus each cycle until it sees both IRDY# and TRDY# asserted, which marks the end of the current data phase and indicates that the just-latched data is the word to be transferred.
To maintain full burst speed, the data sender then has half a clock cycle after seeing both IRDY# and TRDY# asserted to drive the next word onto the AD bus.
This continues the address cycle illustrated above, assuming a single address cycle with medium DEVSEL, so the target responds in time for clock 3.
However, at that time, neither side is ready to transfer data. For clock 4, the initiator is ready, but the target is not. On clock 5, both are ready, and a data transfer takes place (as indicated by the vertical lines). For clock 6, the target is ready to transfer, but the initiator is not. On clock 7, the initiator becomes ready, and data is transferred. For clocks 8 and 9, both sides remain ready to transfer data, and data is transferred at the maximum possible rate (32 bits per clock cycle).
In case of a read, clock 2 is reserved for turning around the AD bus, so the target is not permitted to drive data on the bus even if it is capable of fast DEVSEL.
A target that supports fast DEVSEL could in theory begin responding to a read the cycle after the address is presented. This cycle is, however, reserved for AD bus turnaround. Thus, a target may not drive the AD bus (and thus may not assert TRDY#) on the second cycle of a transaction. Note that most targets will not be this fast and will not need any special logic to enforce this condition.
Either side may request that a burst end after the current data phase. Simple PCI devices that do not support multi-word bursts will always request this immediately. Even devices that do support bursts will have some limit on the maximum length they can support, such as the end of their addressable memory.
The initiator can mark any data phase as the final one in a transaction by deasserting FRAME# at the same time as it asserts IRDY#. The cycle after the target asserts TRDY#, the final data transfer is complete, both sides deassert their respective RDY# signals, and the bus is idle again. The master may not deassert FRAME# before asserting IRDY#, nor may it deassert FRAME# while waiting, with IRDY# asserted, for the target to assert TRDY#.
The only minor exception is a "master abort termination", when no target responds with DEVSEL#. Obviously, it is pointless to wait for TRDY# in such a case. However, even in this case, the master must assert IRDY# for at least one cycle after deasserting FRAME#. (Commonly, a master will assert IRDY# before receiving DEVSEL#, so it must simply hold IRDY# asserted for one cycle longer.) This is to ensure that bus turnaround timing rules are obeyed on the FRAME# line.
The target requests the initiator end a burst by asserting STOP#. The initiator will then end the transaction by deasserting FRAME# at the next legal opportunity; if it wishes to transfer more data, it will continue in a separate transaction. There are several ways for the target to do this:
There will always be at least one more cycle after a target-initiated disconnection, to allow the master to deassert FRAME#. There are two sub-cases, which take the same amount of time, but one requires an additional data phase:
If the initiator ends the burst at the same time as the target requests disconnection, there is no additional bus cycle.
For memory space accesses, the words in a burst may be accessed in several orders. The unnecessary low-order address bits AD[1:0] are used to convey the initiator's requested order. A target which does not support a particular order must terminate the burst after the first word. Some of these orders depend on the cache line size, which is configurable on all PCI devices.
If the starting offset within the cache line is zero, all of these modes reduce to the same order.
Cache line toggle and cache line wrap modes are two forms of critical-word-first cache line fetching. Toggle mode XORs the supplied address with an incrementing counter. This is the native order for Intel 486 and Pentium processors. It has the advantage that it is not necessary to know the cache line size to implement it.
PCI version 2.1 obsoleted toggle mode and added the cache line wrap mode, where fetching proceeds linearly, wrapping around at the end of each cache line. When one cache line is completely fetched, fetching jumps to the starting offset in the next cache line.
Note that most PCI devices only support a limited range of typical cache line sizes; if the cache line size is programmed to an unexpected value, they force single-word access.
PCI also supports burst access to I/O and configuration space, but only linear mode is supported. (This is rarely used, and may be buggy in some devices; they may not support it, but not properly force single-word access either.)
This is the highest-possible speed four-word write burst, terminated by the master:
On clock edge 1, the initiator starts a transaction by driving an address, command, and asserting FRAME# The other signals are idle (indicated by ^^^), pulled high by the motherboard's pull-up resistors. That might be their turnaround cycle. On cycle 2, the target asserts both DEVSEL# and TRDY#. As the initiator is also ready, a data transfer occurs. This repeats for three more cycles, but before the last one (clock edge 5), the master deasserts FRAME#, indicating that this is the end. On clock edge 6, the AD bus and FRAME# are undriven (turnaround cycle) and the other control lines are driven high for 1 cycle. On clock edge 7, another initiator can start a different transaction. This is also the turnaround cycle for the other control lines.
The equivalent read burst takes one more cycle, because the target must wait 1 cycle for the AD bus to turn around before it may assert TRDY#:
A high-speed burst terminated by the target will have an extra cycle at the end:
On clock edge 6, the target indicates that it wants to stop (with data), but the initiator is already holding IRDY# low, so there is a fifth data phase (clock edge 7), during which no data is transferred.
The PCI bus detects parity errors, but does not attempt to correct them by retrying operations; it is purely a failure indication. Due to this, there is no need to detect the parity error before it has happened, and the PCI bus actually detects it a few cycles later. During a data phase, whichever device is driving the AD[31:0] lines computes even parity over them and the C/BE[3:0]# lines, and sends that out the PAR line one cycle later. All access rules and turnaround cycles for the AD bus apply to the PAR line, just one cycle later. The device listening on the AD bus checks the received parity and asserts the PERR# (parity error) line one cycle after that. This generally generates a processor interrupt, and the processor can search the PCI bus for the device which detected the error.
The PERR# line is only used during data phases, once a target has been selected. If a parity error is detected during an address phase (or the data phase of a Special Cycle), the devices which observe it assert the SERR# (System error) line.
Even when some bytes are masked by the C/BE# lines and not in use, they must still have "some" defined value, and this value must be used to compute the parity.
Due to the need for a turnaround cycle between different devices driving PCI bus signals, in general it is necessary to have an idle cycle between PCI bus transactions. However, in some circumstances it is permitted to skip this idle cycle, going directly from the final cycle of one transfer (IRDY# asserted, FRAME# deasserted) to the first cycle of the next (FRAME# asserted, IRDY# deasserted).
An initiator may only perform back-to-back transactions when:
Additional timing constraints may come from the need to turn around are the target control lines, particularly DEVSEL#. The target deasserts DEVSEL#, driving it high, in the cycle following the final data phase, which in the case of back-to-back transactions is the first cycle of the address phase. The second cycle of the address phase is then reserved for DEVSEL# turnaround, so if the target is different from the previous one, it must not assert DEVSEL# until the third cycle (medium DEVSEL speed).
One case where this problem cannot arise is if the initiator knows somehow (presumably because the addresses share sufficient high-order bits) that the second transfer is addressed to the same target as the previous one. In that case, it may perform back-to-back transactions. All PCI targets must support this.
It is also possible for the target keeps track of the requirements. If it never does fast DEVSEL, they are met trivially. If it does, it must wait until medium DEVSEL time unless:
Targets which have this capability indicate it by a special bit in a PCI configuration register, and if all targets on a bus have it, all initiators may use back-to-back transfers freely.
A subtractive decoding bus bridge must know to expect this extra delay in the event of back-to-back cycles in order to advertise back-to-back support.
Starting from revision 2.1, the PCI specification includes optional 64-bit support. This is provided via an extended connector which provides the 64-bit bus extensions AD[63:32], C/BE[7:4]#, and PAR64, and a number of additional power and ground pins. The 64-bit PCI connector can be distinguished from a 32-bit connector by the additional 64-bit segment.
Memory transactions between 64-bit devices may use all 64 bits to double the data transfer rate. Non-memory transactions (including configuration and I/O space accesses) may not use the 64-bit extension. During a 64-bit burst, burst addressing works just as in a 32-bit transfer, but the address is incremented twice per data phase. The starting address must be 64-bit aligned; i.e. AD2 must be 0. The data corresponding to the intervening addresses (with AD2 = 1) is carried on the upper half of the AD bus.
To initiate a 64-bit transaction, the initiator drives the starting address on the AD bus and asserts REQ64# at the same time as FRAME#. If the selected target can support a 64-bit transfer for this transaction, it replies by asserting ACK64# at the same time as DEVSEL#. Note that a target may decide on a per-transaction basis whether to allow a 64-bit transfer.
If REQ64# is asserted during the address phase, the initiator also drives the high 32 bits of the address and a copy of the bus command on the high half of the bus. If the address requires 64 bits, a dual address cycle is still required, but the high half of the bus carries the upper half of the address and the final command code during both address phase cycles; this allows a 64-bit target to see the entire address and begin responding earlier.
If the initiator sees DEVSEL# asserted without ACK64#, it performs 32-bit data phases. The data which would have been transferred on the upper half of the bus during the first data phase is instead transferred during the second data phase. Typically, the initiator drives all 64 bits of data before seeing DEVSEL#. If ACK64# is missing, it may cease driving the upper half of the data bus.
The REQ64# and ACK64# lines are held asserted for the entire transaction save the last data phase, and deasserted at the same time as FRAME# and DEVSEL#, respectively.
The PAR64 line operates just like the PAR line, but provides even parity over AD[63:32] and C/BE[7:4]#. It is only valid for address phases if REQ64# is asserted. PAR64 is only valid for data phases if both REQ64# and ACK64# are asserted.
PCI originally included optional support for write-back cache coherence. This required support by cacheable memory targets, which would listen to two pins from the cache on the bus, SDONE (snoop done) and SBO# (snoop backoff).
Because this was rarely implemented in practice, it was deleted from revision 2.2 of the PCI specification, and the pins re-used for SMBus access in revision 2.3.
The cache would watch all memory accesses, without asserting DEVSEL#. If it noticed an access that might be cached, it would drive SDONE low (snoop not done). A coherence-supporting target would avoid completing a data phase (asserting TRDY#) until it observed SDONE high.
In the case of a write to data that was clean in the cache, the cache would only have to invalidate its copy, and would assert SDONE as soon as this was established. However, if the cache contained dirty data, the cache would have to write it back before the access could proceed. so it would assert SBO# when raising SDONE. This would signal the active target to assert STOP# rather than TRDY#, causing the initiator to disconnect and retry the operation later. In the meantime, the cache would arbitrate for the bus and write its data back to memory.
Targets supporting cache coherency are also required to terminate bursts before they cross cache lines.
When developing and/or troubleshooting the PCI bus, examination of hardware signals can be very important. Logic analyzers and bus analyzers are tools which collect, analyze, and decode signals for users to view in useful ways. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24075 |
PDF
The Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file format developed by Adobe in the 1990s to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. Based on the PostScript language, each PDF file encapsulates a complete description of a fixed-layout flat document, including the text, fonts, vector graphics, raster images and other information needed to display it. PDF was standardized as ISO 32000 in 2008, and no longer requires any royalties for its implementation.
PDF files may contain a variety of content besides flat text and graphics including logical structuring elements, interactive elements such as annotations and form-fields, layers, rich media (including video content) and three dimensional objects using U3D or PRC, and various other data formats. The PDF specification also provides for encryption and digital signatures, file attachments and metadata to enable workflows requiring these features.
Adobe Systems made the PDF specification available free of charge in 1993. In the early years PDF was popular mainly in desktop publishing workflows, and competed with a variety of formats such as DjVu, Envoy, Common Ground Digital Paper, Farallon Replica and even Adobe's own PostScript format.
PDF was a proprietary format controlled by Adobe until it was released as an open standard on July 1, 2008, and published by the International Organization for Standardization as ISO 32000-1:2008, at which time control of the specification passed to an ISO Committee of volunteer industry experts. In 2008, Adobe published a Public Patent License to ISO 32000-1 granting royalty-free rights for all patents owned by Adobe that are necessary to make, use, sell, and distribute PDF-compliant implementations.
PDF 1.7, the sixth edition of the PDF specification that became ISO 32000-1, includes some proprietary technologies defined only by Adobe, such as Adobe XML Forms Architecture (XFA) and JavaScript extension for Acrobat, which are referenced by ISO 32000-1 as normative and indispensable for the full implementation of the ISO 32000-1 specification. These proprietary technologies are not standardized and their specification is published only on Adobe's website. Many of them are also not supported by popular third-party implementations of PDF.
On July 28, 2017, ISO 32000-2:2017 (PDF 2.0) was published. ISO 32000-2 does not include any proprietary technologies as normative references.
The PDF combines three technologies:
PostScript is a page description language run in an interpreter to generate an image, a process requiring many resources. It can handle graphics and standard features of programming languages such as codice_1 and codice_2 commands. PDF is largely based on PostScript but simplified to remove flow control features like these, while graphics commands such as codice_3 remain.
Often, the PostScript-like PDF code is generated from a source PostScript file. The graphics commands that are output by the PostScript code are collected and tokenized. Any files, graphics, or fonts to which the document refers also are collected. Then, everything is compressed to a single file. Therefore, the entire PostScript world (fonts, layout, measurements) remains intact.
As a document format, PDF has several advantages over PostScript:
A PDF file is a 7-bit ASCII file, except for certain elements that may have binary content.
A PDF file starts with a header containing the magic number and the version of the format such as codice_4. The format is a subset of a COS ("Carousel" Object Structure) format. A COS tree file consists primarily of "objects", of which there are eight types:
Furthermore, there may be comments, introduced with the percent sign (codice_11). Comments may contain 8-bit characters.
Objects may be either "direct" (embedded in another object) or "indirect". Indirect objects are numbered with an "object number" and a "generation number" and defined between the codice_12 and codice_13 keywords if residing in the document root. Beginning with PDF version 1.5, indirect objects (except other streams) may also be located in special streams known as "object streams" (marked codice_14). This technique enables non-stream objects to have standard stream filters applied to them, reduces the size of files that have large numbers of small indirect objects and is especially useful for "Tagged PDF". Object streams do not support specifying an object's "generation number" (other than 0).
An index table, also called the cross-reference table, is typically located near the end of the file and gives the byte offset of each indirect object from the start of the file. This design allows for efficient random access to the objects in the file, and also allows for small changes to be made without rewriting the entire file ("incremental update"). Before PDF version 1.5, the table would always be in a special ASCII format, be marked with the codice_15 keyword, and follow the main body composed of indirect objects. Version 1.5 introduced optional "cross-reference streams", which have the form of a standard stream object, possibly with filters applied. Such a stream may be used instead of the ASCII cross-reference table and contains the offsets and other information in binary format. The format is flexible in that it allows for integer width specification (using the codice_16 array), so that for example a document not exceeding 64 KiB in size may dedicate only 2 bytes for object offsets.
At the end of a PDF file is a footer containing:
If a cross-reference stream is not being used, the footer is preceded by the codice_20 keyword followed by a dictionary containing information that would otherwise be contained in the cross-reference stream object's dictionary:
There are two layouts to the PDF files: non-linear (not "optimized") and linear ("optimized"). Non-linear PDF files consume less disk space than their linear counterparts, though they are slower to access because portions of the data required to assemble pages of the document are scattered throughout the PDF file. Linear PDF files (also called "optimized" or "web optimized" PDF files) are constructed in a manner that enables them to be read in a Web browser plugin without waiting for the entire file to download, since they are written to disk in a linear (as in page order) fashion. PDF files may be optimized using Adobe Acrobat software or QPDF.
The basic design of how graphics are represented in PDF is very similar to that of PostScript, except for the use of transparency, which was added in PDF 1.4.
PDF graphics use a device-independent Cartesian coordinate system to describe the surface of a page. A PDF page description can use a matrix to scale, rotate, or skew graphical elements. A key concept in PDF is that of the "graphics state", which is a collection of graphical parameters that may be changed, saved, and restored by a "page description". PDF has (as of version 1.6) 24 graphics state properties, of which some of the most important are:
As in PostScript, vector graphics in PDF are constructed with "paths". Paths are usually composed of lines and cubic Bézier curves, but can also be constructed from the outlines of text. Unlike PostScript, PDF does not allow a single path to mix text outlines with lines and curves. Paths can be stroked, filled, clipping. Strokes and fills can use any color set in the graphics state, including "patterns".
PDF supports several types of patterns. The simplest is the "tiling pattern" in which a piece of artwork is specified to be drawn repeatedly. This may be a "colored tiling pattern", with the colors specified in the pattern object, or an "uncolored tiling pattern", which defers color specification to the time the pattern is drawn. Beginning with PDF 1.3 there is also a "shading pattern", which draws continuously varying colors. There are seven types of shading pattern of which the simplest are the "axial shade" (Type 2) and "radial shade" (Type 3).
Raster images in PDF (called "Image XObjects") are represented by dictionaries with an associated stream. The dictionary describes properties of the image, and the stream contains the image data. (Less commonly, a raster image may be embedded directly in a page description as an "inline image".) Images are typically "filtered" for compression purposes. Image filters supported in PDF include the general purpose filters
Normally all image content in a PDF is embedded in the file. But PDF allows image data to be stored in external files by the use of "external streams" or "Alternate Images". Standardized subsets of PDF, including PDF/A and PDF/X, prohibit these features.
Text in PDF is represented by "text elements" in page content streams. A text element specifies that "characters" should be drawn at certain positions. The characters are specified using the "encoding" of a selected "font resource".
A font object in PDF is a description of a digital typeface. It may either describe the characteristics of a typeface, or it may include an embedded "font file". The latter case is called an "embedded font" while the former is called an "unembedded font". The font files that may be embedded are based on widely used standard digital font formats: Type 1 (and its compressed variant CFF), TrueType, and (beginning with PDF 1.6) OpenType. Additionally PDF supports the Type 3 variant in which the components of the font are described by PDF graphic operators.
Fourteen typefaces, known as the "standard 14 fonts", have a special significance in PDF documents:
These fonts are sometimes called the "base fourteen fonts". These fonts, or suitable substitute fonts with the same metrics, should be available in most PDF readers, but they are not "guaranteed" to be available in the reader, and may only display correctly if the system has them installed. Fonts may be substituted if they are not embedded in a PDF.
Within text strings, characters are shown using "character codes" (integers) that map to glyphs in the current font using an "encoding". There are a number of predefined encodings, including "WinAnsi", "MacRoman", and many encodings for East Asian languages, and a font can have its own built-in encoding. (Although the WinAnsi and MacRoman encodings are derived from the historical properties of the Windows and Macintosh operating systems, fonts using these encodings work equally well on any platform.) PDF can specify a predefined encoding to use, the font's built-in encoding or provide a lookup table of differences to a predefined or built-in encoding (not recommended with TrueType fonts). The encoding mechanisms in PDF were designed for Type 1 fonts, and the rules for applying them to TrueType fonts are complex.
For large fonts or fonts with non-standard glyphs, the special encodings "Identity-H" (for horizontal writing) and "Identity-V" (for vertical) are used. With such fonts it is necessary to provide a "ToUnicode" table if semantic information about the characters is to be preserved.
The original imaging model of PDF was, like PostScript's, "opaque": each object drawn on the page completely replaced anything previously marked in the same location. In PDF 1.4 the imaging model was extended to allow transparency. When transparency is used, new objects interact with previously marked objects to produce blending effects. The addition of transparency to PDF was done by means of new extensions that were designed to be ignored in products written to the PDF 1.3 and earlier specifications. As a result, files that use a small amount of transparency might view acceptably in older viewers, but files making extensive use of transparency could be viewed incorrectly in an older viewer without warning.
The transparency extensions are based on the key concepts of "transparency groups", "blending modes", "shape", and "alpha". The model is closely aligned with the features of Adobe Illustrator version 9. The blend modes were based on those used by Adobe Photoshop at the time. When the PDF 1.4 specification was published, the formulas for calculating blend modes were kept secret by Adobe. They have since been published.
The concept of a transparency group in PDF specification is independent of existing notions of "group" or "layer" in applications such as Adobe Illustrator. Those groupings reflect logical relationships among objects that are meaningful when editing those objects, but they are not part of the imaging model.
PDF files may contain interactive elements such as annotations, form fields, video, 3D and rich media.
Rich Media PDF is a PDF file including interactive content that can be embedded or linked within the file.
Interactive Forms is a mechanism to add forms to the PDF file format.
PDF currently supports two different methods for integrating data and PDF forms. Both formats today coexist in the PDF specification:
AcroForms were introduced in the PDF 1.2 format. AcroForms permit using objects ("e.g." text boxes, Radio buttons, "etc.") and some code ("e.g." JavaScript).
Alongside the standard PDF action types, interactive forms (AcroForms) support submitting, resetting, and importing data. The "submit" action transmits the names and values of selected interactive form fields to a specified uniform resource locator (URL). Interactive form field names and values may be submitted in any of the following formats, (depending on the settings of the action's ExportFormat, SubmitPDF, and XFDF flags):
AcroForms can keep form field values in external stand-alone files containing key:value pairs. The external files may use Forms Data Format (FDF) and XML Forms Data Format (XFDF) files. The usage rights (UR) signatures define rights for import form data files in FDF, XFDF and text (CSV/TSV) formats, and export form data files in FDF and XFDF formats.
The Forms Data Format (FDF) is based on PDF, it uses the same syntax and has essentially the same file structure, but is much simpler than PDF, since the body of an FDF document consists of only one required object. Forms Data Format is defined in the PDF specification (since PDF 1.2). The Forms Data Format can be used when submitting form data to a server, receiving the response, and incorporating into the interactive form. It can also be used to export form data to stand-alone files that can be imported back into the corresponding PDF interactive form.
XML Forms Data Format (XFDF) is the XML version of Forms Data Format, but the XFDF implements only a subset of FDF containing forms and annotations. Some entries in the FDF dictionary do not have XFDF equivalents – such as the Status, Encoding, JavaScript, Pages keys, EmbeddedFDFs, Differences and Target. In addition, XFDF does not allow the spawning, or addition, of new pages based on the given data; as can be done when using an FDF file. The XFDF specification is referenced (but not included) in PDF 1.5 specification (and in later versions). It is described separately in "XML Forms Data Format Specification". The PDF 1.4 specification allowed form submissions in XML format, but this was replaced by submissions in XFDF format in the PDF 1.5 specification. XFDF conforms to the XML standard.
As of December 2016, XFDF 3.0 is an ISO/IEC standard under the formal name "ISO 19444-1:2016 – Document management – XML Forms Data Format – Part 1: Use of ISO 32000-2 (XFDF 3.0)". This standard is a normative reference of ISO 32000-2.
XFDF can be used in the same way as FDF; e.g., form data is submitted to a server, modifications are made, then sent back and the new form data is imported in an interactive form. It can also be used to export form data to stand-alone files that can be imported back into the corresponding PDF interactive form.
In PDF 1.5, Adobe Systems introduced a proprietary format for forms; Adobe XML Forms Architecture (XFA). Adobe XFA Forms are not compatible with ISO 32000's AcroForms feature, and most PDF processors do not handle XFA content. The XFA specification is referenced from ISO 32000-1/PDF 1.7 as an external proprietary specification, and was entirely deprecated from PDF with ISO 32000-2 (PDF 2.0).
A "tagged" PDF (see clause 14.8 in ISO 32000) includes document structure and semantics information to enable reliable text extraction and accessibility. Technically speaking, tagged PDF is a stylized use of the format that builds on the logical structure framework introduced in PDF 1.3. Tagged PDF defines a set of standard structure types and attributes that allow page content (text, graphics, and images) to be extracted and reused for other purposes.
Tagged PDF is not required in situations where a PDF file is intended only for print. Since the feature is optional, and since the rules for Tagged PDF were relatively vague in ISO 32000-1, support for tagged PDF amongst consuming devices, including assistive technology (AT), is uneven at this time. ISO 32000-2, however, includes an improved discussion of tagged PDF which is anticipated to facilitate further adoption.
An ISO-standardized subset of PDF specifically targeted at accessibility; PDF/UA, was first published in 2012.
With the introduction of PDF version 1.5 (2003) came the concept of Layers. Layers, or as they are more formally known Optional Content Groups (OCGs), refer to sections of content in a PDF document that can be selectively viewed or hidden by document authors or consumers. This capability is useful in CAD drawings, layered artwork, maps, multi-language documents etc.
Basically, it consists of an Optional Content Properties Dictionary added to the document root. This dictionary contains an array of Optional Content Groups (OCGs), each describing a set of information and each of which may be individually displayed or suppressed, plus a set of Optional Content Configuration Dictionaries, which give the status (Displayed or Suppressed) of the given OCGs.
A PDF file may be encrypted for security, or digitally signed for authentication.
The standard security provided by Acrobat PDF consists of two different methods and two different passwords: a "user password", which encrypts the file and prevents opening, and an "owner password", which specifies operations that should be restricted even when the document is decrypted, which can include modifying, printing, or copying text and graphics out of the document, or adding or modifying text notes and AcroForm fields. The user password encrypts the file, while the owner password does not, instead relying on client software to respect these restrictions. An owner password can easily be removed by software, including some free online services. Thus, the use restrictions that a document author places on a PDF document are not secure, and cannot be assured once the file is distributed; this warning is displayed when applying such restrictions using Adobe Acrobat software to create or edit PDF files.
Even without removing the password, most freeware or open source PDF readers ignore the permission "protections" and allow the user to print or make copy of excerpts of the text as if the document were not limited by password protection.
Beginning with PDF 1.5, Usage rights (UR) signatures are used to enable additional interactive features that are not available by default in a particular PDF viewer application. The signature is used to validate that the permissions have been granted by a bona fide granting authority. For example, it can be used to allow a user:
For example, Adobe Systems grants permissions to enable additional features in Adobe Reader, using public-key cryptography. Adobe Reader verifies that the signature uses a certificate from an Adobe-authorized certificate authority. Any PDF application can use this same mechanism for its own purposes.
PDF files can have file attachments which processors may access and open or save to a local filesystem.
PDF files can contain two types of metadata. The first is the Document Information Dictionary, a set of key/value fields such as author, title, subject, creation and update dates. This is stored in the optional Info trailer of the file. A small set of fields is defined, and can be extended with additional text values if required. This method is deprecated in PDF 2.0.
In PDF 1.4, support was added for Metadata Streams, using the Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) to add XML standards-based extensible metadata as used in other file formats. This allows metadata to be attached to any stream in the document, such as information about embedded illustrations, as well as the whole document (attaching to the document catalog), using an extensible schema.
PDFs may be encrypted so that a password is needed to view or edit the contents. PDF 2.0 defines 256-bit AES encryption as standard for PDF 2.0 files. The PDF Reference also defines ways that third parties can define their own encryption systems for PDF.
PDF files may be digitally signed; complete details on implementing digital signatures in PDF is provided in ISO 32000-2.
PDF files may also contain embedded DRM restrictions that provide further controls that limit copying, editing or printing. These restrictions depend on the reader software to obey them, so the security they provide is limited.
PDF documents can contain display settings, including the page display layout and zoom level. Adobe Reader uses these settings to override the user's default settings when opening the document. The free Adobe Reader cannot remove these settings.
Anyone may create applications that can read and write PDF files without having to pay royalties to Adobe Systems; Adobe holds patents to PDF, but licenses them for royalty-free use in developing software complying with its PDF specification.
PDF files can be created specifically to be accessible for people with disabilities. PDF file formats in use can include tags, text equivalents, captions, audio descriptions, and more. Some software can automatically produce tagged PDFs, but this feature is not always enabled by default. Leading screen readers, including JAWS, Window-Eyes, Hal, and Kurzweil 1000 and 3000 can read tagged PDF. Moreover, tagged PDFs can be re-flowed and magnified for readers with visual impairments. Adding tags to older PDFs and those that are generated from scanned documents can present some challenges.
One of the significant challenges with PDF accessibility is that PDF documents have three distinct views, which, depending on the document's creation, can be inconsistent with each other. The three views are (i) the physical view, (ii) the tags view, and (iii) the content view. The physical view is displayed and printed (what most people consider a PDF document). The tags view is what screen readers and other assistive technologies use to deliver a high-quality navigation and reading experience to users with disabilities. The content view is based on the physical order of objects within the PDF's content stream and may be displayed by software that does not fully support the tags view, such as the Reflow feature in Adobe's Reader.
PDF/UA, the International Standard for accessible PDF based on ISO 32000-1 was first published as ISO 14289–1 in 2012, and establishes normative language for accessible PDF technology.
PDF attachments carrying viruses were first discovered in 2001. The virus, named "OUTLOOK.PDFWorm" or "Peachy", uses Microsoft Outlook to send itself as an attachment to an Adobe PDF file. It was activated with Adobe Acrobat, but not with Acrobat Reader.
From time to time, new vulnerabilities are discovered in various versions of Adobe Reader, prompting the company to issue security fixes. Other PDF readers are also susceptible. One aggravating factor is that a PDF reader can be configured to start automatically if a web page has an embedded PDF file, providing a vector for attack. If a malicious web page contains an infected PDF file that takes advantage of a vulnerability in the PDF reader, the system may be compromised even if the browser is secure. Some of these vulnerabilities are a result of the PDF standard allowing PDF documents to be scripted with JavaScript. Disabling JavaScript execution in the PDF reader can help mitigate such future exploits, although it does not protect against exploits in other parts of the PDF viewing software. Security experts say that JavaScript is not essential for a PDF reader, and that the security benefit that comes from disabling JavaScript outweighs any compatibility issues caused. One way of avoiding PDF file exploits is to have a local or web service convert files to another format before viewing.
On March 30, 2010 security researcher Didier Stevens reported an Adobe Reader and Foxit Reader exploit that runs a malicious executable if the user allows it to launch when asked.
A PDF file is often a combination of vector graphics, text, and bitmap graphics. The basic types of content in a PDF are:
In later PDF revisions, a PDF document can also support links (inside document or web page), forms, JavaScript (initially available as plugin for Acrobat 3.0), or any other types of embedded contents that can be handled using plug-ins.
PDF 1.6 supports interactive 3D documents embedded in the PDF – 3D drawings can be embedded using U3D or PRC and various other data formats.
Two PDF files that look similar on a computer screen may be of very different sizes. For example, a high-resolution raster image takes more space than a low-resolution one. Typically higher resolution is needed for printing documents than for displaying them on screen. Other things that may increase the size of a file is embedding full fonts, especially for Asiatic scripts, and storing text as graphics.
PDF viewers are generally provided free of charge, and many versions are available from a variety of sources.
There are many software options for creating PDFs, including the PDF printing capabilities built into macOS, iOS, and most Linux distributions, LibreOffice, Microsoft Office 2007 (if updated to SP2) and later, WordPerfect 9, Scribus, numerous PDF print drivers for Microsoft Windows, the pdfTeX typesetting system, the DocBook PDF tools, applications developed around Ghostscript and Adobe Acrobat itself as well as Adobe InDesign, Adobe FrameMaker, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop. Google's online office suite Google Docs also allows for uploading and saving to PDF.
Raster image processors (RIPs) are used to convert PDF files into a raster format suitable for imaging onto paper and other media in printers, digital production presses and prepress in a process known as rasterisation. RIPs capable of processing PDF directly include the Adobe PDF Print Engine from Adobe Systems and Jaws and the Harlequin RIP from Global Graphics.
Documents saved in PDF (Portable Document Format, Portable Document Format for Archiving, Forms Data Format, any printable document) could be converted back and forth from many other formats such as:
Companies such as Adobe Acrobat provide SDK libraries for developers to add and create PDF features in any software. Besides the Adobe PDF Library, there are other development libraries available.
Adobe Acrobat is one example of proprietary software that allows the user to annotate, highlight, and add notes to already created PDF files. One UNIX application available as free software (under the GNU General Public License) is PDFedit. The freeware Foxit Reader, available for Microsoft Windows, macOS and Linux, allows annotating documents. Tracker Software's PDF-XChange Viewer allows annotations and markups without restrictions in its freeware alternative. Apple's macOS's integrated PDF viewer, Preview, does also enable annotations as does the open source software Skim, with the latter supporting interaction with LaTeX, SyncTeX, and PDFSync and integration with BibDesk reference management software. Freeware Qiqqa can create an annotation report that summarizes all the annotations and notes one has made across their library of PDFs. The Text Verification Tool exports differences in documents as annotations and markups.
There are also web annotation systems that support annotation in pdf and other documents formats. In cases where PDFs are expected to have all of the functionality of paper documents, ink annotation is required.
Examples of PDF software as online services including Scribd for viewing and storing, Pdfvue for online editing, and Thinkfree, Zamzar for conversion.
In 1993 the Jaws raster image processor from Global Graphics became the first shipping prepress RIP that interpreted PDF natively without conversion to another format. The company released an upgrade to their Harlequin RIP with the same capability in 1997.
Agfa-Gevaert introduced and shipped Apogee, the first prepress workflow system based on PDF, in 1997.
Many commercial offset printers have accepted the submission of press-ready PDF files as a print source, specifically the PDF/X-1a subset and variations of the same. The submission of press-ready PDF files are a replacement for the problematic need for receiving collected native working files.
PDF was selected as the "native" metafile format for Mac OS X, replacing the PICT format of the earlier classic Mac OS. The imaging model of the Quartz graphics layer is based on the model common to Display PostScript and PDF, leading to the nickname "Display PDF". The Preview application can display PDF files, as can version 2.0 and later of the Safari web browser. System-level support for PDF allows Mac OS X applications to create PDF documents automatically, provided they support the OS-standard printing architecture. The files are then exported in PDF 1.3 format according to the file header. When taking a screenshot under Mac OS X versions 10.0 through 10.3, the image was also captured as a PDF; later versions save screen captures as a PNG file, though this behaviour can be set back to PDF if desired.
In 2006 PDF was widely accepted as the standard print job format at the Open Source Development Labs Printing Summit. It is supported as a print job format by the Common Unix Printing System and desktop application projects such as GNOME, KDE, Firefox, Thunderbird, LibreOffice and OpenOffice have switched to emit print jobs in PDF.
Some desktop printers also support direct PDF printing, which can interpret PDF data without external help.
The Free Software Foundation once thought of as one of their high priority projects to be "developing a free, high-quality and fully functional set of libraries and programs that implement the PDF file format and associated technologies to the ISO 32000 standard." In 2011, however, the GNU PDF project was removed from the list of "high priority projects" due to the maturation of the Poppler library, which has enjoyed wider use in applications such as Evince with the GNOME desktop environment. Poppler is based on Xpdf code base. There are also commercial development libraries available as listed in List of PDF software.
The Apache PDFBox project of the Apache Software Foundation is an open source Java library for working with PDF documents. PDFBox is licensed under the Apache License. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24077 |
PostScript
PostScript (PS) is a page description language in the electronic publishing and desktop publishing business. It is a dynamically typed, concatenative programming language and was created at Adobe Systems by John Warnock, Charles Geschke, Doug Brotz, Ed Taft and Bill Paxton from 1982 to 1984.
The concepts of the PostScript language were seeded in 1976 by John Gaffney at Evans & Sutherland, a computer graphics company. At that time Gaffney and John Warnock were developing an interpreter for a large three-dimensional graphics database of New York Harbor.
Concurrently, researchers at Xerox PARC had developed the first laser printer and had recognized the need for a standard means of defining page images. In 1975-76 Bob Sproull and William Newman developed the Press format, which was eventually used in the Xerox Star system to drive laser printers. But Press, a data format rather than a language, lacked flexibility, and PARC mounted the Interpress effort to create a successor.
In 1978 John Gaffney and Martin Newell then at Xerox PARC wrote J & M or JaM (for "John and Martin") which was used for VLSI design and the investigation of type and graphics printing. This work later evolved and expanded into the Interpress language.
Warnock left with Chuck Geschke and founded Adobe Systems in December 1982. They, together with Doug Brotz, Ed Taft and Bill Paxton created a simpler language, similar to Interpress, called PostScript, which went on the market in 1984. At about this time they were visited by Steve Jobs, who urged them to adapt PostScript to be used as the language for driving laser printers.
In March 1985, the Apple LaserWriter was the first printer to ship with PostScript, sparking the desktop publishing (DTP) revolution in the mid-1980s. The combination of technical merits and widespread availability made PostScript a language of choice for graphical output for printing applications. For a time an interpreter (sometimes referred to as a RIP for Raster Image Processor) for the PostScript language was a common component of laser printers, into the 1990s.
However, the cost of implementation was high; computers output raw PS code that would be interpreted by the printer into a raster image at the printer's natural resolution. This required high performance microprocessors and ample memory. The LaserWriter used a 12 MHz Motorola 68000, making it faster than any of the Macintosh computers to which it attached. When the laser printer engines themselves cost over a thousand dollars the added cost of PS was marginal. But as printer mechanisms fell in price, the cost of implementing PS became too great a fraction of overall printer cost; in addition, with desktop computers becoming more powerful, it no longer made sense to offload the rasterisation work onto the resource-constrained printer. By 2001, few lower-end printer models came with support for PostScript, largely due to growing competition from much cheaper non-PostScript ink jet printers, and new software-based methods to render PostScript images on the computer, making them suitable for any printer; PDF, a descendant of PostScript, provides one such method, and has largely replaced PostScript as "de facto" standard for electronic document distribution.
On high-end printers, PostScript processors remain common, and their use can dramatically reduce the CPU work involved in printing documents, transferring the work of rendering PostScript images from the computer to the printer.
The first version of the PostScript language was released to the market in 1984. The suffix "Level 1" was added when Level 2 was introduced.
PostScript Level 2 was introduced in 1991, and included several improvements: improved speed and reliability, support for in-RIP separations, image decompression (for example, JPEG images could be rendered by a PostScript program), support for composite fonts, and the form mechanism for caching reusable content.
PostScript 3 (Adobe dropped the "level" terminology in favor of simple versioning) came at the end of 1997, and along with many new dictionary-based versions of older operators, introduced better color handling and new filters (which allow in-program compression/decompression, program chunking, and advanced error-handling).
PostScript 3 was significant in terms of replacing the existing proprietary color electronic prepress systems, then widely used for magazine production, through the introduction of smooth shading operations with up to 4096 shades of grey (rather than the 256 available in PostScript Level 2), as well as DeviceN, a color space that allowed the addition of additional ink colors (called spot colors) into composite color pages.
Prior to the introduction of PostScript, printers were designed to print character output given the text—typically in ASCII—as input. There was a number of technologies for this task, but most shared the property that the glyphs were physically difficult to change, as they were stamped onto typewriter keys, bands of metal, or optical plates.
This changed to some degree with the increasing popularity of dot matrix printers. The characters on these systems were drawn as a series of dots, as defined by a font table inside the printer. As they grew in sophistication, dot matrix printers started including several built-in fonts from which the user could select, and some models allowed users to upload their own custom glyphs into the printer.
Dot matrix printers also introduced the ability to print raster graphics. The graphics were interpreted by the computer and sent as a series of dots to the printer using a series of escape sequences. These printer control languages varied from printer to printer, requiring program authors to create numerous drivers.
Vector graphics printing was left to special-purpose devices, called plotters. Almost all plotters shared a common command language, HPGL, but were of limited use for anything other than printing graphics. In addition, they tended to be expensive and slow, and thus rare.
Laser printers combine the best features of both printers and plotters. Like plotters, laser printers offer high quality line art, and like dot-matrix printers, they are able to generate pages of text and raster graphics. Unlike either printers or plotters, a laser printer makes it possible to position high-quality graphics and text on the same page. PostScript made it possible to exploit fully these characteristics by offering a single control language that could be used on any brand of printer.
PostScript went beyond the typical printer control language and was a complete programming language of its own. Many applications can transform a document into a PostScript program: the execution of which results in the original document. This program can be sent to an interpreter in a printer, which results in a printed document, or to one inside another application, which will display the document on-screen. Since the document-program is the same regardless of its destination, it is called "device-independent".
PostScript is noteworthy for implementing 'on-the fly' rasterization in which everything, even text, is specified in terms of straight lines and cubic Bézier curves (previously found only in CAD applications), which allows arbitrary scaling, rotating and other transformations. When the PostScript program is interpreted, the interpreter converts these instructions into the dots needed to form the output. For this reason, PostScript interpreters are occasionally called PostScript raster image processors, or RIPs.
Almost as complex as PostScript itself is its handling of fonts. The font system uses the PS graphics primitives to draw glyphs as curves, which can then be rendered at any resolution. A number of typographic issues had to be considered with this approach.
One issue is that fonts do not scale linearly at small sizes and features of the glyphs will become proportionally too large or small and start to look displeasing. PostScript avoided this problem with the inclusion of font hinting, in which additional information is provided in horizontal or vertical bands to help identify the features in each letter that are important for the rasterizer to maintain. The result was significantly better-looking fonts even at low resolution. It had formerly been believed that hand-tuned bitmap fonts were required for this task.
At the time, the technology for including these hints in fonts was carefully guarded, and the hinted fonts were compressed and encrypted into what Adobe called a "Type 1 Font" (also known as "PostScript Type 1 Font", "PS1", "T1" or "Adobe Type 1"). Type 1 was effectively a simplification of the PS system to store outline information only, as opposed to being a complete language (PDF is similar in this regard). Adobe would then sell licenses to the Type 1 technology to those wanting to add hints to their own fonts. Those who did not license the technology were left with the "Type 3 Font" (also known as "PostScript Type 3 Font", "PS3" or "T3"). Type 3 fonts allowed for all the sophistication of the PostScript language, but without the standardized approach to hinting.
The Type 2 font format was designed to be used with Compact Font Format (CFF) charstrings, and was implemented to reduce the overall font file size. The CFF/Type2 format later became the basis for handling PostScript outlines in OpenType fonts.
The CID-keyed font format was also designed, to solve the problems in the OCF/Type 0 fonts, for addressing the complex Asian-language (CJK) encoding and very large character set issues. The CID-keyed font format can be used with the Type 1 font format for standard CID-keyed fonts, or Type 2 for CID-keyed OpenType fonts.
To compete with Adobe's system, Apple designed their own system, TrueType, around 1991. Immediately following the announcement of TrueType, Adobe published the specification for the Type 1 font format. Retail tools such as Altsys Fontographer (acquired by Macromedia in January 1995, owned by FontLab since May 2005) added the ability to create Type 1 fonts. Since then, many free Type 1 fonts have been released; for instance, the fonts used with the TeX typesetting system are available in this format.
In the early 1990s there were several other systems for storing outline-based fonts, developed by Bitstream and METAFONT for instance, but none included a general-purpose printing solution and they were therefore not widely used.
In the late 1990s, Adobe joined Microsoft in developing OpenType, essentially a functional superset of the Type 1 and TrueType formats. When printed to a PostScript output device, the unneeded parts of the OpenType font are omitted, and what is sent to the device by the driver is the same as it would be for a TrueType or Type 1 font, depending on which kind of outlines were present in the OpenType font.
In the 1980s, Adobe drew most of its revenue from the licensing fees for their implementation of PostScript for printers, known as a raster image processor or "RIP". As a number of new RISC-based platforms became available in the mid-1980s, some found Adobe's support of the new machines to be lacking.
This and issues of cost led to third-party implementations of PostScript becoming common, particularly in low-cost printers (where the licensing fee was the sticking point) or in high-end typesetting equipment (where the quest for speed demanded support for new platforms faster than Adobe could provide). At one point, Microsoft licensed to Apple a PostScript-compatible interpreter it had bought called TrueImage, and Apple licensed to Microsoft its new font format, TrueType. Apple ended up reaching an accord with Adobe and licensed genuine PostScript for its printers, but TrueType became the standard outline font technology for both Windows and the Macintosh.
Today, third-party PostScript-compatible interpreters are widely used in printers and multifunction peripherals (MFPs). For example, CSR plc's IPS PS3 interpreter, formerly known as PhoenixPage, is standard in many printers and MFPs, including those developed by Hewlett-Packard and sold under the LaserJet and Color LaserJet lines. Other third-party PostScript solutions used by print and MFP manufacturers include Jaws and the Harlequin RIP, both by Global Graphics. A free software version, with several other applications, is Ghostscript. Several compatible interpreters are listed on the Undocumented Printing Wiki.
Some basic, inexpensive laser printers do not support PostScript, instead coming with drivers that simply rasterize the platform's native graphics formats rather than converting them to PostScript first. When PostScript support is needed for such a printer, Ghostscript can be used. There are also a number of commercial PostScript interpreters, such as TeleType Co.'s T-Script.
PostScript became commercially successful due to the introduction of the graphical user interface (GUI), allowing designers to directly lay out pages for eventual output on laser printers. However, the GUI's own graphics systems were generally much less sophisticated than PostScript; Apple's QuickDraw, for instance, supported only basic lines and arcs, not the complex B-splines and advanced region filling options of PostScript. In order to take full advantage of PostScript printing, applications on the computers had to re-implement those features using the host platform's own graphics system. This led to numerous issues where the on-screen layout would not exactly match the printed output, due to differences in the implementation of these features.
As computer power grew, it became possible to host the PS system in the computer rather than the printer. This led to the natural evolution of PS from a printing system to one that could also be used as the host's own graphics language. There were numerous advantages to this approach; not only did it help eliminate the possibility of different output on screen and printer, but it also provided a powerful graphics system for the computer, and allowed the printers to be "dumb" at a time when the cost of the laser engines was falling. In a production setting, using PostScript as a display system meant that the host computer could render low-resolution to the screen, higher resolution to the printer, or simply send the PS code to a smart printer for offboard printing.
However, PostScript was written with printing in mind, and had numerous features that made it unsuitable for direct use in an interactive display system. In particular, PS was based on the idea of collecting up PS commands until the codice_1 command was seen, at which point all of the commands read up to that point were interpreted and output. In an interactive system this was clearly not appropriate. Nor did PS have any sort of interactivity built in; for example, supporting hit detection for mouse interactivity obviously did not apply when PS was being used on a printer.
When Steve Jobs left Apple and started NeXT, he pitched Adobe on the idea of using PS as the display system for his new workstation computers. The result was Display PostScript, or DPS. DPS added basic functionality to improve performance by changing many string lookups into 32 bit integers, adding support for direct output with every command, and adding functions to allow the GUI to inspect the diagram. Additionally, a set of "bindings" was provided to allow PS code to be called directly from the C programming language. NeXT used these bindings in their NeXTStep system to provide an object oriented graphics system. Although DPS was written in conjunction with NeXT, Adobe sold it commercially and it was a common feature of most Unix workstations in the 1990s.
Sun Microsystems took another approach, creating NeWS. Instead of DPS's concept of allowing PS to interact with C programs, NeWS instead extended PS into a language suitable for running the entire GUI of a computer. Sun added a number of new commands for timers, mouse control, interrupts and other systems needed for interactivity, and added data structures and language elements to allow it to be completely object oriented internally. A complete GUI, three in fact, were written in NeWS and provided for a time on their workstations. However, the ongoing efforts to standardize the X11 system led to its introduction and widespread use on Sun systems, and NeWS never became widely used.
PostScript is a Turing-complete programming language, belonging to the concatenative group. Typically, PostScript programs are not produced by humans, but by other programs. However, it is possible to write computer programs in PostScript just like any other programming language.
PostScript is an interpreted, stack-based language similar to Forth but with strong dynamic typing, data structures inspired by those found in Lisp, scoped memory and, since language level 2, garbage collection. The language syntax uses reverse Polish notation, which makes the order of operations unambiguous, but reading a program requires some practice, because one has to keep the layout of the stack in mind. Most "operators" (what other languages term "functions") take their arguments from the stack, and place their results onto the stack. "Literals" (for example, numbers) have the effect of placing a copy of themselves on the stack. Sophisticated data structures can be built on the "array" and "dictionary" types, but cannot be declared to the type system, which sees them all only as arrays and dictionaries, so any further typing discipline to be applied to such user-defined "types" is left to the code that implements them.
The character "%" is used to introduce comments in PostScript programs. As a general convention, every PostScript program should start with the characters "%!PS" as an interpreter directive so that all devices will properly interpret it as PostScript.
A Hello World program, the customary way to show a small example of a complete program in a given language, might look like this in PostScript (level 2):
or if the output device has a console
PostScript uses the point as its unit of length. However, unlike some of the other versions of the point, PostScript uses exactly 72 points to the inch. Thus:
For example, in order to draw a vertical line of 4 cm length, it is sufficient to type:
More readably and idiomatically, one might use the following equivalent, which demonstrates a simple procedure definition and the use of the mathematical operators codice_2 and codice_3:
/cm {72 mul 2.54 div} def % 1 inch = 2.54 cm exactly
Most implementations of PostScript use single-precision reals (24-bit mantissa), so it is not meaningful to use more than 9 decimal digits to specify a real number, and performing calculations may produce unacceptable round-off errors.
List of software which can be used to render the PostScript documents: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24080 |
Pole vault
Pole vaulting is a track and field event in which a person uses a long flexible pole (which today is usually made either of fiberglass or carbon fiber) as an aid to jump over a bar. Pole jumping competitions were known to the ancient Greeks, Cretans and Celts. It has been a full medal event at the Olympic Games since 1896 for men and since 2000 for women.
It is typically classified as one of the four major jumping events in athletics, alongside the high jump, long jump and triple jump. It is unusual among track and field sports in that it requires a significant amount of specialised equipment in order to participate, even at a basic level. A number of elite pole vaulters have had backgrounds in gymnastics, including world record breakers Yelena Isinbayeva and Brian Sternberg, reflecting the similar physical attributes required for the sports. Running speed, however, may be the most dominant factor. Physical attributes such as speed, agility and strength are essential to pole vaulting effectively, but technical skill is an equally if not more important element. The object of pole vaulting is to clear a bar or crossbar supported upon two uprights (standards) without knocking it down.
Poles were used as a practical means of passing over natural obstacles in marshy places such as the province of Friesland in the Netherlands, along the North Sea, and the great level of the Fens in England across Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, Lincolnshire and Norfolk. Artificial draining of these marshes created a network of open drains or canals intersecting each other. To cross these without getting soaked, while avoiding tedious roundabout journeys over bridges, a stack of jumping poles was kept at every house and used for vaulting over the canals.
Distance pole vaulting competitions continue to be held annually in the lowlands around the North Sea. These far-jumping competitions (Frisian: "Fierljeppen") are not based on height.
In his book "The Mechanics of the Pole Vault," Richard Ganslen reports that the London Gymnastic Society under Professor Voelker held measured pole vaulting events in 1826, involving 1,300 participants and recording heights up to . Other early pole vaulting competitions where height was measured took place at the Ulverston Football and Cricket Club, Lancashire, north of the sands (now Cumbria) in 1843. Modern competition began around 1850 in Germany, when pole vaulting was added to the exercises of the Turner gymnastic clubs by Johann C. F. GutsMuths and Friedrich L. Jahn. In Great Britain, it was first practiced at the Caledonian Games.
Initially, vaulting poles were made from stiff materials such as bamboo or aluminum. The introduction of flexible vaulting poles in the early 1950s made from composites such as fiberglass or carbon fiber allowed vaulters to achieve greater height.
In 2000, IAAF rule 260.18a (formerly 260.6a) was amended, so that "world records" (as opposed to "indoor world records") can be set in a facility "with or without roof". This rule was not applied retroactively, With many indoor facilities not conforming to outdoor track specifications for size and flatness, the pole vault is the only world record set indoors.
Today, athletes compete in the pole vault as one of the four jumping events in track and field. Because the high jump and pole vault are both vertical jumps, the competitions are conducted similarly. Each athlete can choose what height they would like to enter the competition. Once they enter, they have three attempts to clear the height. If a height is cleared, the vaulter advances to the next height, where they will have three more attempts. Once the vaulter has three consecutive misses, they are out of the competition and the highest height they cleared is their result. A "no height", often denoted "NH", refers to the failure of a vaulter to clear any bar during the competition.
Once the vaulter enters the competition, they can choose to pass heights. If a vaulter achieves a miss on their first attempt at a height, they can pass to the next height, but they will only have two attempts at that height, as they will be out once they achieve three consecutive misses. Similarly, after earning two misses at a height, they could pass to the next height, when they would have only one attempt.
The competitor who clears the highest height is the winner. If two or more vaulters have finished with the same height, the tie is broken by the number of misses at the final height. If the tied vaulters have the same number of misses at the last height cleared, the tie is broken by the total number of misses in the competition.
If there is still a tie for first place, a jump-off occurs to break the tie. Marks achieved in this type of jump-off are considered valid and count for any purpose that a mark achieved in a normal competition would.
If a tie in the other places still exists, a jump-off is not normally conducted, unless the competition is a qualifying meet, and the tie exists in the final qualifying spot. In this case, an administrative jump-off is conducted to break the tie, but the marks are not considered valid for any other purpose than breaking the tie.
A jump-off is a sudden death competition in which the tied vaulters attempt the same height, starting with the last attempted height. If both vaulters miss, the bar goes down by a small increment, and if both clear, the bar goes up by a small increment. A jump-off ends when one vaulter clears and the other misses. Each vaulter gets one attempt at each height until one makes and one misses.
The equipment and rules for pole vaulting are similar to the high jump. Unlike high jump, however, the athlete in the vault has the ability to select the horizontal position of the bar before each jump and can place it a distance beyond the back of the box, the metal pit that the pole is placed into immediately before takeoff. The range of distance the vaulter may place the standards varies depending on the level of competition.
If the pole used by the athlete dislodges the bar from the uprights, a foul attempt is ruled, even if the athlete has cleared the height. An athlete does not benefit from quickly leaving the landing pad before the bar has fallen. The exception to this rule if the vaulter is vaulting outdoors and has made a clear effort to throw the pole back, but the wind has blown the pole into the bar; this counts as a clearance. This call is made at the discretion of the pole vault official. If the pole breaks during the execution of a vault, it is considered an equipment failure and is ruled a non-jump, neither a make nor a miss. Other types of equipment failure include the standards slipping down or the wind dislodging the bar when no contact was made by the vaulter.
Each athlete has a set amount of time in which to make an attempt. The amount of time varies by level of competition and the number of vaulters remaining. If the vaulter fails to begin an attempt within this time, the vaulter is charged with a time foul and the attempt is a miss.
Poles are manufactured with ratings corresponding to the vaulter's maximum weight. Some organizations forbid vaulters to use poles rated below their weight as a safety precaution. The recommended weight corresponds to a flex rating that is determined by the manufacturer by placing a standardized amount of stress (most commonly a weight) on the pole and measuring how much the center of the pole is displaced. Therefore, two poles rated at the same weight are not necessarily the same stiffness.
Because pole stiffness and length are important factors to a vaulter's performance, it is not uncommon for an elite vaulter to carry as many as ten poles to a competition. The effective properties of a pole can be changed by gripping the pole higher or lower in relation to the top of the pole. The left and right handgrips are typically a bit more than shoulder width apart. Poles are manufactured for people of all skill levels and body sizes, with sizes as short as to as long as , with a wide range of weight ratings. Each manufacturer determines the weight rating for the pole and the location of the maximum handhold band.
However speed is the most essential element to higher jumps, because the energy produced by the run formula_1 is converted to vertical propulsion formula_2. Assuming no loss of energy formula_3, this means that formula_4.
Competitive pole vaulting began using solid ash poles. As the heights attained increased, the bamboo poles gave way to tubular aluminum, which was tapered at each end. Today's pole vaulters benefit from poles produced by wrapping pre-cut sheets of fiberglass that contains resin around a metal pole mandrel, to produce a slightly curved pole that bends more easily under the compression caused by an athlete's take-off. The shape of the fiberglass sheets and the amount of fiberglass used is carefully planned to provide the desired length and stiffness of pole. Different fiber types, including carbon-fiber, are used to give poles specific characteristics intended to promote higher jumps. In recent years, carbon fiber has been added to the commonly used E-glass and S-glass materials to create a lighter pole.
As in the high jump, the landing area was originally a heap of sawdust or sand where athletes landed on their feet. As technology enabled higher vaults, mats evolved into bags of large chunks of foam. Today's high-tech mats are foam usually thick. Mats are growing larger in area as well to minimize risk of injury. Proper landing technique is on the back or shoulders. Landing on the feet should be avoided, to eliminate the risk of injury to the lower extremities, particularly ankle sprains.
Rule changes over the years have resulted in larger landing areas and additional padding of all hard and unyielding surfaces.
The pole vault crossbar has evolved from a triangular aluminum bar to a round fiberglass bar with rubber ends. This is balanced on standards and can be knocked off when it is hit by a pole vaulter or the pole. Rule changes have led to shorter pegs and crossbar ends that are semi-circular.
Although many techniques are used by vaulters at various skill levels to clear the bar, the generally accepted technical model can be broken down into several phases:
During the approach the pole vaulter sprints down the runway in such a way as to achieve maximum speed and correct position to initiate takeoff at the end of the approach. Top class vaulters use approaches with 18 to 22 strides, often referred to as a "step" in which every other foot is counted as one step. The run-up to the vaulting pit begins forcefully with the vaulter running powerfully in a relaxed, upright position with knees lifted and torso leaning very slightly forward. The head, shoulders and hips are aligned, the vaulter increasing speed as the body becomes erect. The tip of the vaulting pole is angled higher than eye level until three paces from takeoff, when the pole tip descends efficiently, amplifying run speed as the pole is planted into the vault box. The faster the vaulter can run and the more efficient their take-off is, the greater the kinetic energy that can be achieved and used during the vault.
The plant and take off is initiated typically three steps out from the final step. Vaulters will usually count their steps backwards from their starting point to the box only counting the steps taken on the left foot (vice versa for left-handers) except for the second step from the box, which is taken by the right foot. For example; a vaulter on a "ten count" (referring to the number of counted steps from the starting point to the box) would count backwards from ten, only counting the steps taken with the left foot, until the last three steps taken and both feet are counted as three, two, one. These last three steps are normally quicker than the previous strides and are referred to as the "turn-over". The goal of this phase is to efficiently translate the kinetic energy accumulated from the approach into potential energy stored by the elasticity of the pole, and to gain as much initial vertical height as possible by jumping off the ground. The plant starts with the vaulter raising their arms up from around the hips or mid-torso until they are fully outstretched above the head, with the right arm extended directly above the head and the left arm extended perpendicular to the pole (vice versa for left-handed vaulters). At the same time, the vaulter is dropping the pole tip into the box. On the final step, the vaulter jumps off the trail leg which should always remain straight and then drives the front knee forward. As the pole slides into the back of the box the pole begins to bend and the vaulter continues up and forward, leaving the trail leg angled down and behind.
The swing and row simply consists of the vaulter swinging the trail leg forward and rowing the pole, bringing the top arm down to the hips, while trying to keep the trail leg straight to store more potential energy into the pole, the rowing motion also keeps the pole bent for a longer period of time for the vaulter to get into optimum position. Once in a "U" shape the left arm hugs the pole tight to efficiently use the recoil within the pole. The goal is to carry out these motions as thoroughly and as quickly as possible; it is a race against the unbending of the pole. Effectively, this causes a double pendulum motion, with the top of the pole moving forward and pivoting from the box, while the vaulter acts as a second pendulum pivoting from the right hand. This action gives the vaulter the best position possible to be "ejected" off the pole. The swing continues until the hips are above the head and the arms are pulling the pole close to the chest; from there the vaulter shoots their legs up over the cross bar while keeping the pole close.
The extension refers to the extension of the hips upward with outstretched legs as the shoulders drive down, causing the vaulter to be positioned upside down. This position is often referred to as "inversion". While this phase is executed, the pole begins to recoil, propelling the vaulter quickly upward. The hands of the vaulter remain close to the body as they move from the shins back to the region around the hips and upper torso.
The turn is executed immediately after or even during the end of the rockback. As the name implies, the vaulter turns 180° toward the pole while extending the arms down past the head and shoulders. Typically the vaulter will begin to angle their body toward the bar as the turn is executed, although ideally the vaulter will remain as vertical as possible. A more accurate description of this phase of the vault may be "the spin" because the vaulter spins around an imaginary axis from head to toe.
This is often highly emphasized by spectators and novice vaulters, but it is the easiest phase of the vault and is a result of proper execution of previous phases. This phase mainly consists of the vaulter pushing off the pole and releasing it so it falls away from the bar and mats. As the torso goes over and around the bar, the vaulter is facing the bar. Rotation of the body over the bar occurs naturally, and the vaulter's main concern is making sure that their arms, face and any other appendages do not knock the bar off as they go over. The vaulter should land near the middle of the foam landing mats, or pits, face up.
Below is a list of all other vaults equal or superior to 6.00 m:
Below is a list of all other vaults equal or superior to 4.85 m:
The "six metres club" consists of pole vaulters who have reached at least 6.00. In 1985 Sergey Bubka became the first pole vaulter to clear six metres.
Three women have cleared 5 metres. Yelena Isinbayeva was the first to clear on July 22, 2005. On March 2, 2013, Jenn Suhr cleared indoors to become the second. Sandi Morris cleared 5.00 meters on September 9, 2016, to become the third.
This is a list of the first time a milestone height was cleared. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24082 |
Party of European Socialists
The Party of European Socialists (PES) is a social-democratic European political party.
The PES comprises national-level political parties from all member states of the European Union (EU) plus Norway and the United Kingdom. This includes major parties such as the Italian Democratic Party, the British Labour Party, the French Socialist Party, Social Democratic Party of Germany and the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party. Parties from a number of other European countries and from the Mediterranean region are also admitted to the PES as associate or observer parties. Most member, associate and observer parties are members of the wider Progressive Alliance or Socialist International.
The PES is currently led by its president Sergei Stanishev, a former Prime Minister of Bulgaria. Its political group in the European Parliament is the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D). The PES also operates in the European Committee of the Regions (in the PES Group in the Committee of the Regions) and the European Council.
The party's English name is "Party of European Socialists". In addition, the following names are used in other languages:
In March 2014 following the congress in Rome, the PES added the tagline "Socialists and Democrats" to its name following the admission of Italy's Democratic Party into the organisation.
In 1961, the Socialists in the European Parliament attempted to produce a common 'European Socialist Programme' but this was neglected due to the applications of Britain, Denmark, Ireland and Norway to join the European Community. The Socialists' 1962 congress pushed for greater democratisation and powers for Parliament, though it was only in 1969 that this possibility was examined by the member states.
In 1973, Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom joined the European Community, bringing in new parties from these countries. The enlarged Socialist Congress met in Bonn and inaugurated the "Confederation of the Socialist Parties of the European Community". The Congress also passed a resolution on social policy, including the right to decent work, social security, democracy and equality in the European economy. In 1978, the Confederation of Socialist Parties approved the first common European election Manifesto. It focused on several goals among which the most important were to ensure a right to decent work, fight pollution, end discrimination, protect the consumer and promote peace, human rights and civil liberties.
At its Luxembourg Congress in 1980, the Confederation of Socialist Parties approved its first Statute. The accession of Greece to the EU in 1981, followed by Spain and Portugal in 1986, brought in more parties.
In 1984, a common Socialist election manifesto proposed a socialist remedy for the economic crisis of the time by establishing a link between industrial production, protection of fundamental social benefits, and the fight for an improved quality of life.
In 1992, with the European Community becoming the European Union and with the Treaty of Maastricht establishing the framework for political parties at a European level, the Confederation of Socialist Parties voted to transform itself into the Party of European Socialists. The party's first programme concentrated on job creation, democracy, gender equality, environmental and consumer protection, peace and security, regulation of immigration, discouragement of racism and fighting organised crime.
Along with the Socialist Group in the European Parliament, the founding members of the PES were:
In 2004 Poul Nyrup Rasmussen defeated Giuliano Amato to be elected President of the PES, succeeding Robin Cook in the post. He was re-elected for a further 2.5 years at the PES Congress in Porto on 8 December 2006 and again at the Prague Congress in 2009.
In 2010, the Foundation for European Progressive Studies was founded as the political foundation (think tank) of the PES.
Mr Rasmussen stood down at the PES Progressive Convention in Brussels on 24 November 2011. He was replaced as interim president by Sergei Stanishev, at the time chairman of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and former prime minister of Bulgaria.
On 28–29 September 2012, the PES Congress in Brussels Congress elected interim president Sergei Stanishev as full President, as well as four deputies: Jean-Christophe Cambadélis (1st Vice-President – PS), Elena Valenciano (PSOE), Jan Royall (Labour) and Katarína Neveďalová (Smer-SD). The same Congress elected Achim Post (SPD) as its new secretary general, and adopted a process which it described as "democratic and transparent" for electing its next candidate for Commission President in 2014.
Sergei Stanishev was re-elected PES President on 22–23 June 2015 in Budapest. The Congress also approved Achim Post (SPD) as the Secretary-General as well as the four Vice-Presidents: Jean-Christophe Cambadélis (PS), Carin Jämtin (Swedish Social Democratic Party), Katarína Neveďalová (Smer-SD) and Jan Royall (Labour).
On 7–8 December 2019, the PES Congress gathered in Lisbon to elect its leadership. Sergei Stanishev was confirmed as party President and Achim Post (SPD) as Secretary General. Iratxe García (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) was elected by the new presidency 1st Vice-President of the PES and Francisco André (Socialist Party (Portugal)), Katarína Neveďalová (Smer-SD) and Marita Ulvskog (Swedish Social Democratic Party) were elected PES Vice-Presidents.
The PES has thirty-three full member parties from each of the twenty-seven EU member states, Norway and the UK. There are a further twelve associate and twelve observer parties from other European countries.
The youth organisation of the PES is the Young European Socialists. PES Women is the party's women's organisation, led by Zita Gurmai. The LGBTI campaign organisation is Rainbow Rose.
PES is an associated organisation of Socialist International and the Progressive Alliance.
The President (currently former Prime Minister of Bulgaria Sergei Stanishev) represents the party on a daily basis and chairs the Presidency, which also consists of the Secretary General, President of the S&D group in Parliament and one representative per full/associate member party and organisation. They may also be joined by the President of the European Parliament (if a PES member), a PES European Commissioner and a representative from associate parties and organisations.
The list below shows PES presidents and the presidents of its predecessors.
The parties meet at the party "Congress" twice every five years to decide on political orientation, such as adopting manifestos ahead of elections. Every year that the Congress does not meet, the Council (a smaller version of the Congress) shapes PES policy. The Congress also elects the party's President, Vice-Presidents and the "Presidency".
The "Leader's Conference" brings together Prime Ministers and Party Leaders from PES parties three to four times a year to agree strategies and resolutions.
In December 2009, the PES decided to put forward a candidate for Commission President at all subsequent elections. On 1 March 2014, the PES organised for the first time a European election Congress where a Common Manifesto was adopted and the Common Candidate designate for the post of Commission President, Martin Schulz, was elected by over a thousand participants in Rome, Italy.
In 2019, progressives elected Frans Timmermans as PES Common Candidate to the European Elections, during the Election Congress in Madrid on 22–23 February 2019. With a strong manifesto and a mandate to work for fairer, more sustainable EU, PES member parties joined forces to campaign for Frans Timmermans, mobilizing thousands across Europe.
European Commissioners are meant to remain independent, however there has been an increasing degree of politicisation within the Commission. In the current European Commission, nine of the Commissioners belong to the PES family.
Of the 27 heads of state and government that are members of the European Council, seven are from the PES, and therefore regularly attend PES summits to prepare for European Council meetings.
Party-alignment at the European Council is often loose, but has been the basis of some intergovernmental cooperation. At present seven countries are led by a PES-affiliated leader, who represents that state at the European Council: Spain (Pedro Sánchez), Portugal (Antonio Costa), Malta (Robert Abela), Denmark (Mette Frederiksen), Finland (Sanna Marin) and Sweden (Stefan Löfven).
The makeup of national delegations to the Council of Ministers is at some times subject to coalitions: for the above governments led by a PES party, that party may not be present in all Council configurations; in other governments led by non-PES parties a PES minister may be its representative for certain portfolios. PES is in coalition in the following countries: Czech Republic, Germany, Italy and Luxembourg.
PES has 122 members in the Committee of the Regions as of 2014. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24083 |
Phenol
Phenol is an aromatic organic compound with the molecular formula C6H5OH. It is a white crystalline solid that is volatile. The molecule consists of a phenyl group (−C6H5) bonded to a hydroxy group (−OH). Mildly acidic, it requires careful handling because it can cause chemical burns.
Phenol was first extracted from coal tar, but today is produced on a large scale (about 7 billion kg/year) from petroleum-derived feedstocks. It is an important industrial commodity as a precursor to many materials and useful compounds. It is primarily used to synthesize plastics and related materials. Phenol and its chemical derivatives are essential for production of polycarbonates, epoxies, Bakelite, nylon, detergents, herbicides such as phenoxy herbicides, and numerous pharmaceutical drugs.
Phenol is an organic compound appreciably soluble in water, with about 84.2 g dissolving in 1000 mL (0.895 M). Homogeneous mixtures of phenol and water at phenol to water mass ratios of ~2.6 and higher are possible. The sodium salt of phenol, sodium phenoxide, is far more water-soluble.
Phenol is a weak acid. In aqueous solution in the pH range ca. 8 - 12 it is in equilibrium with the phenolate anion C6H5O− (also called phenoxide):
One explanation for why phenol is more acidic than aliphatic compounds containing an -OH group is resonance stabilization of the phenoxide anion by the aromatic ring. In this way, the negative charge on oxygen is delocalized on to the ortho and para carbon atoms through the pi system. An alternative explanation involves the sigma framework, postulating that the dominant effect is the induction from the more electronegative sp2 hybridised carbons; the comparatively more powerful inductive withdrawal of electron density that is provided by the sp2 system compared to an sp3 system allows for great stabilization of the oxyanion. In support of the second explanation, the p"K"a of the enol of acetone in water is 10.9, making it only slightly less acidic than phenol (p"K"a 10.0). Thus, the greater number of resonance structures available to phenoxide compared to acetone enolate seems to contribute very little to its stabilization. However, the situation changes when solvation effects are excluded"." A recent "in silico" comparison of the gas phase acidities of the vinylogues of phenol and cyclohexanol in conformations that allow for or exclude resonance stabilization leads to the inference that about of the increased acidity of phenol is attributable to inductive effects, with resonance accounting for the remaining difference.
The phenoxide anion is a strong nucleophile with a nucleophilicity comparable to the one of carbanions or tertiary amines. It can react at both its oxygen or carbon sites as an ambident nucleophile (see HSAB theory). Generally, oxygen attack of phenoxide anions is kinetically favored, while carbon-attack is thermodynamically preferred (see Thermodynamic versus kinetic reaction control). Mixed oxygen/carbon attack and by this a loss of selectivity is usually observed if the reaction rate reaches diffusion control.
Phenol exhibits keto-enol tautomerism with its unstable keto tautomer cyclohexadienone, but only a tiny fraction of phenol exists as the keto form. The equilibrium constant for enolisation is approximately 10−13, which means only one in every ten trillion molecules is in the keto form at any moment. The small amount of stabilisation gained by exchanging a C=C bond for a C=O bond is more than offset by the large destabilisation resulting from the loss of aromaticity. Phenol therefore exists essentially entirely in the enol form.
Phenoxides are enolates stabilised by aromaticity. Under normal circumstances, phenoxide is more reactive at the oxygen position, but the oxygen position is a "hard" nucleophile whereas the alpha-carbon positions tend to be "soft".
Phenol is highly reactive toward electrophilic aromatic substitution as the oxygen atom's pi electrons donate electron density into the ring. By this general approach, many groups can be appended to the ring, via halogenation, acylation, sulfonation, and other processes. However, phenol's ring is so strongly activated—second only to aniline—that bromination or chlorination of phenol leads to substitution on all carbon atoms ortho and para to the hydroxy group, not only on one carbon. Phenol reacts with dilute nitric acid at room temperature to give a mixture of 2-nitrophenol and 4-nitrophenol while with concentrated nitric acid, more nitro groups get substituted on the ring to give 2,4,6-trinitrophenol which is known as picric acid.
Aqueous solutions of phenol are weakly acidic and turn blue litmus slightly to red. Phenol is neutralized by sodium hydroxide forming sodium phenate or phenolate, but being weaker than carbonic acid, it cannot be neutralized by sodium bicarbonate or sodium carbonate to liberate carbon dioxide.
When a mixture of phenol and benzoyl chloride are shaken in presence of dilute sodium hydroxide solution, phenyl benzoate is formed. This is an example of the Schotten–Baumann reaction:
Phenol is reduced to benzene when it is distilled with zinc dust or when its vapour is passed over granules of zinc at 400 °C:
When phenol is reacted with diazomethane in the presence of boron trifluoride (BF3), anisole is obtained as the main product and nitrogen gas as a byproduct.
When phenol reacts with iron(III) chloride solution, an intense violet-purple solution is formed.
Because of phenol's commercial importance, many methods have been developed for its production, but only the cumene process is the dominant technology.
Accounting for 95% of production (2003) is the cumene process, also called Hock process. It involves the partial oxidation of cumene (isopropylbenzene) via the Hock rearrangement: Compared to most other processes, the cumene process uses relatively mild conditions and relatively inexpensive raw materials. For the process to be economical, both phenol and the acetone by-product must be in demand. In 2010, worldwide demand for acetone was approximately 6.7 million tonnes, 83 percent of which was satisfied with acetone produced by the cumene process.
A route analogous to the cumene process begins with cyclohexylbenzene. It is oxidized to a hydroperoxide, akin to the production of cumene hydroperoxide. Via the Hock rearrangement, cyclohexylbenzene hydroperoxide cleaves to give phenol and cyclohexanone. Cyclohexanone is an important precursor to some nylons.
The direct oxidation of benzene to phenol is theoretically possible and of great interest, but it has not been commercialized:
Nitrous oxide is a potentially "green" oxidant that is a more potent oxidant than O2. Routes for the generatation of nitrous oxide however remain uncompetitive.
An electrosynthesis employing alternating current gives phenol from benzene.
The oxidation of toluene, as developed by Dow Chemical, involves copper-catalyzed reaction of molten sodium benzoate with air:
The reaction is proposed to proceed via formation of benzyoylsalicylate.
Early methods relied on extraction of phenol from coal derivatives or the hydrolysis of benzene derivatives.
An early commercial route, developed by Bayer and Monsanto in the early 1900s, begins with the reaction of a strong base with benzenesulfonate. The conversion is represented by this idealized equation:
Chlorobenzene can be hydrolyzed to phenol using base (Dow process) or steam (Raschig–Hooker process):
These methods suffer from the cost of the chlorobenzene and the need to dispose of the chloride by product.
Phenol is also a recoverable byproduct of coal pyrolysis. In the Lummus Process, the oxidation of toluene to benzoic acid is conducted separately.
Phenyldiazonium salts hydrolyze to phenol. The method is of no commercial interest since the precursor is expensive.
Salicylic acid decarboxylates to phenol.
The major uses of phenol, consuming two thirds of its production, involve its conversion to precursors for plastics. Condensation with acetone gives bisphenol-A, a key precursor to polycarbonates and epoxide resins. Condensation of phenol, alkylphenols, or diphenols with formaldehyde gives phenolic resins, a famous example of which is Bakelite. Partial hydrogenation of phenol gives cyclohexanone, a precursor to nylon. Nonionic detergents are produced by alkylation of phenol to give the alkylphenols, e.g., nonylphenol, which are then subjected to ethoxylation.
Phenol is also a versatile precursor to a large collection of drugs, most notably aspirin but also many herbicides and pharmaceutical drugs.
Phenol is a component in liquid–liquid phenol–chloroform extraction technique used in molecular biology for obtaining nucleic acids from tissues or cell culture samples. Depending on the pH of the solution either DNA or RNA can be extracted.
Phenol was once widely used as an antiseptic, its use pioneered by Joseph Lister (see History section).
From the early 1900s to the 1970s it was used in the production of carbolic soap. Concentrated phenol liquids are commonly used for permanent treatment of ingrown toe and finger nails, a procedure known as a chemical matrixectomy. The procedure was first described by Otto Boll in 1945. Since that time it has become the chemical of choice for chemical matrixectomies performed by podiatrists. Phenol in medicinal formulation is also used as a preservative in some vaccines.
Phenol spray, usually at 1.4% phenol as an active ingredient, is used medically to help sore throat. It is the active ingredient in some oral analgesics such as Chloraseptic spray, TCP and Carmex, commonly used to temporarily treat pharyngitis.
Phenol is so inexpensive that it attracts many small-scale uses. It is a component of industrial paint strippers used in the aviation industry for the removal of epoxy, polyurethane and other chemically resistant coatings.
Phenol derivatives have been used in the preparation of cosmetics including sunscreens, hair colorings, skin lightening preparations, as well as in skin toners/exfoliators. However, due to safety concerns, phenol is banned from use in cosmetic products in the European Union and Canada.
Phenol was discovered in 1834 by Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge, who extracted it (in impure form) from coal tar. Runge called phenol "Karbolsäure" (coal-oil-acid, carbolic acid). Coal tar remained the primary source until the development of the petrochemical industry. In 1841, the French chemist Auguste Laurent obtained phenol in pure form.
In 1836, Auguste Laurent coined the name "phène" for benzene; this is the root of the word "phenol" and "phenyl". In 1843, French chemist Charles Gerhardt coined the name "phénol".
The antiseptic properties of phenol were used by Sir Joseph Lister (1827–1912) in his pioneering technique of antiseptic surgery. Lister decided that the wounds themselves had to be thoroughly cleaned. He then covered the wounds with a piece of rag or lint covered in phenol, or carbolic acid as he called it. The skin irritation caused by continual exposure to phenol eventually led to the introduction of aseptic (germ-free) techniques in surgery.
Joseph Lister was a student at University College London under Robert Liston, later rising to the rank of Surgeon at Glasgow Royal Infirmary. Lister experimented with cloths covered in carbolic acid after studying the works and experiments of his contemporary, Louis Pasteur in sterilizing various biological media. Lister was inspired to try to find a way to sterilize living wounds, which could not be done with the heat required by Pasteur's experiments. In examining Pasteur's research, Lister began to piece together his theory: that patients were being killed by germs. He theorized that if germs could be killed or prevented, no infection would occur. Lister reasoned that a chemical could be used to destroy the micro-organisms that cause infection.
Meanwhile, in Carlisle, England, officials were experimenting with a sewage treatment, using carbolic acid to reduce the smell of sewage cess pools. Having heard of these developments and having himself previously experimented with other chemicals for antiseptic purposes without much success, Lister decided to try carbolic acid as a wound antiseptic. He had his first chance on August 12, 1865, when he received a patient: an eleven-year-old boy with a tibia bone fracture which pierced the skin of his lower leg. Ordinarily, amputation would be the only solution. However, Lister decided to try carbolic acid. After setting the bone and supporting the leg with splints, Lister soaked clean cotton towels in undiluted carbolic acid and applied them to the wound, covered with a layer of tin foil, leaving them for four days. When he checked the wound, Lister was pleasantly surprised to find no signs of infection, just redness near the edges of the wound from mild burning by the carbolic acid. Reapplying fresh bandages with diluted carbolic acid, the boy was able to walk home after about six weeks of treatment.
By 16 March 1867, when the first results of Lister's work were published in the Lancet, he had treated a total of eleven patients using his new antiseptic method. Of those, only one had died, and that was through a complication that was nothing to do with Lister's wound-dressing technique. Now, for the first time, patients with compound fractures were likely to leave the hospital with all their limbs intact
Before antiseptic operations were introduced at the hospital, there were sixteen deaths in thirty-five surgical cases. Almost one in every two patients died. After antiseptic surgery was introduced in the summer of 1865, there were only six deaths in forty cases. The mortality rate had dropped from almost 50 per cent to around 15 per cent. It was a remarkable achievement
Phenol was the main ingredient of the Carbolic Smoke Ball, an ineffective device marketed in London in the 19th century as protection against influenza and other ailments, and the subject of the famous law case "Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Company".
The toxic effect of phenol on the central nervous system, discussed below, causes sudden collapse and loss of consciousness in both humans and animals; a state of cramping precedes these symptoms because of the motor activity controlled by the central nervous system. Injections of phenol were used as a means of individual execution by Nazi Germany during the Second World War. It was originally used by the Nazis in 1939 as part of Aktion T4. The Germans learned that extermination of smaller groups was more economical by injection of each victim with phenol. Phenol injections were given to thousands of people. Maximilian Kolbe was also killed with a phenol injection after surviving two weeks of dehydration and starvation in Auschwitz when he volunteered to die in place of a stranger. Approximately one gram is sufficient to cause death.
Phenol is a normal metabolic product, excreted in quantities up to 40 mg/L in human urine.
The temporal gland secretion of male elephants showed the presence of phenol and 4-methylphenol during musth.
It is also one of the chemical compounds found in castoreum. This compound is ingested from the plants the beaver eats.
Phenol is a measurable component in the aroma and taste of the distinctive Islay scotch whisky, generally ~30 ppm, but it can be over 160ppm in the malted barley used to produce whisky. This amount is different from and presumably higher than the amount in the distillate.
"Cryptanaerobacter phenolicus" is a bacterium species that produces benzoate from phenol via 4-hydroxybenzoate. "Rhodococcus phenolicus" is a bacterium species able to degrade phenol as sole carbon sources.
Phenol and its vapors are corrosive to the eyes, the skin, and the respiratory tract. Its corrosive effect on skin and mucous membranes is due to a protein-degenerating effect. Repeated or prolonged skin contact with phenol may cause dermatitis, or even second and third-degree burns. Inhalation of phenol vapor may cause lung edema. The substance may cause harmful effects on the central nervous system and heart, resulting in dysrhythmia, seizures, and coma. The kidneys may be affected as well. Long-term or repeated exposure of the substance may have harmful effects on the liver and kidneys. There is no evidence that phenol causes cancer in humans. Besides its hydrophobic effects, another mechanism for the toxicity of phenol may be the formation of phenoxyl radicals.
Since phenol is absorbed through the skin relatively quickly, systemic poisoning can occur in addition to the local caustic burns. Resorptive poisoning by a large quantity of phenol can occur even with only a small area of skin, rapidly leading to paralysis of the central nervous system and a severe drop in body temperature. The for oral toxicity is less than 500 mg/kg for dogs, rabbits, or mice; the minimum lethal human dose was cited as 140 mg/kg. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services states the fatal dose for ingestion of phenol is from 1 to 32 g.
Chemical burns from skin exposures can be decontaminated by washing with polyethylene glycol, isopropyl alcohol, or perhaps even copious amounts of water. Removal of contaminated clothing is required, as well as immediate hospital treatment for large splashes. This is particularly important if the phenol is mixed with chloroform (a commonly used mixture in molecular biology for DNA and RNA purification). Phenol is also a reproductive toxin causing increased risk of abortion and low birth weight indicating retarded development in utero.
The word "phenol" is also used to refer to any compound that contains a six-membered aromatic ring, bonded directly to a hydroxyl group (-OH). Thus, phenols are a class of organic compounds of which the phenol discussed in this article is the simplest member. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24085 |
Protagoras
Protagoras (; ; ) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher. He is numbered as one of the sophists by Plato. In his dialogue "Protagoras", Plato credits him with inventing the role of the professional sophist.
Protagoras also is believed to have created a major controversy during ancient times through his statement that, "Man is the measure of all things", interpreted by Plato to mean that there is no absolute truth but that which individuals deem to be the truth.
Although there is reason to question the extent of the interpretation of his arguments that has followed, that concept of individual relativity was revolutionary for the time, and contrasted with other philosophical doctrines that claimed the universe was based on something objective, outside human influence or perceptions.
Protagoras was born in Abdera, Thrace, opposite the island of Thasos (today part of the Xanthi regional unit). According to Aulus Gellius, he originally made his living as a porter, but one day he was seen by the philosopher Democritus carrying a load of small pieces of wood he had tied with a short cord. Democritus realized that Protagoras had tied the load together with such perfect geometric accuracy that he must be a mathematical prodigy. Democritus promptly took him into his own household and taught him philosophy. Protagoras became well known in Athens and even became a friend of Pericles.
The dates of his lifetime are not recorded, but extrapolated from writings that have survived the ages. In "Protagoras" Plato wrote that, before a gathering of Socrates, Prodicus, and Hippias, Protagoras stated that he was old enough to be the father of any of them. This suggests a birth date of not later than 490 BC. In the "Meno" he is said to have died at approximately the age of 70, after 40 years as a practicing Sophist. His death, then, may be presumed to have occurred circa 420 BC, but is not known for certain, since assumptions about it are based on an apparently fake story about his trial for impiety in Athens.
Plutarch wrote that Pericles and Protagoras spent a whole day discussing an interesting point of legal responsibility, that probably involved a more philosophical question of causation: "In an athletic contest a man had been accidentally hit and killed with a javelin. Was his death to be attributed to the javelin, to the man who threw it, or to the authorities responsible for the conduct of the games?"
Even though he was mentored by Democritus, Protagoras did not share his enthusiasm for the pursuit of mathematics. "For perceptible lines are not the kind of things the geometer talks about, since no perceptible thing is straight or curved in that way, nor is a circle tangent to a ruler at a point, but the way Protagoras used to say in refuting the geometers" (Aristotles, Metaphysics 997b34-998a4). Protagoras was skeptical about the application of theoretical mathematics to the natural world; he did not believe they were really worth studying at all. According to Philodemus, Protagoras said that "The subject matter is unknowable and the terminology distasteful". Nonetheless, mathematics was considered to be by some a very viable form of art, and Protagoras says on the arts, "art ("tekhnê") without practice and practice without art are nothing" (Stobaeus, "Selections" 3.29.80).
Protagoras also was known as a teacher who addressed subjects connected to virtue and political life. He especially was involved in the question of whether virtue could be taught, a commonplace issue of fifth century BC Greece, that has been related to modern readers through Plato's dialogue. Rather than educators who offered specific, practical training in rhetoric or public speaking, Protagoras attempted to formulate a reasoned understanding, on a very general level, of a wide range of human phenomena, including language and education. In Plato's "Protagoras", he claims to teach "the proper management of one's own affairs, how best to run one's household, and the management of public affairs, how to make the most effective contribution to the affairs of the city by word and action".
He also seems to have had an interest in "orthoepeia"—the correct use of words—although this topic is more strongly associated with his fellow sophist Prodicus. In his eponymous Platonic dialogue, Protagoras interprets a poem by Simonides, focusing on the use of words, their literal meaning, and the author's original intent. This type of education would have been useful for the interpretation of laws and other written documents in the Athenian courts. Diogenes Laërtius reports that Protagoras devised a taxonomy of speech acts, such as assertion, question, answer, command, etc. Aristotle also says that Protagoras worked on the classification and proper use of grammatical gender.
The titles of his books, such as "Technique of Eristics" ("Technē Eristikōn", literally "Practice of Wranglings"—with wrestling used as a metaphor for intellectual debate), prove that Protagoras also was a teacher of rhetoric and argumentation. Diogenes Laërtius states that he was one of the first to take part in rhetorical contests in the Olympic games.
Eusebius quoting Aristocles of Messene says that Protagoras was a member of a line of philosophy that began with Xenophanes and culminated in Pyrrhonism.
Protagoras also said that on any matter, there are two arguments ("logoi") opposed to one another. Consequently he may have been the author of "Dissoi logoi", an ancient Sophistic text on such opposing arguments. According to Aristotle, Protagoras was criticized for having claimed "to make the weaker argument stronger"
Protagoras is credited with the philosophy of relativism, which he discussed in his lost work, "Truth" (also known as "Refutations"). Although knowledge of Protagoras' position is limited, his relativism is inferred from one of his most famous statements: "Man is the measure of all things: of the things that are, that they are, of the things that are not, that they are not."
As with many fragments of the pre-Socratic philosophers, this phrase has been passed down through the ages, without any context, and consequently, its meaning is open to interpretation. His use of the word χρήματα ("chrēmata", "things used") instead of the general word ὄντα ("onta", "entities") signifies, however, that Protagoras was referring to things that are used by, or in some way, related to, humans, such as properties, social entities, ideas, feelings, judgments, which originate in the human mind. Protagoras did not suggest that humans must be the measure of the motion of the stars, the growing of plants, or the activity of volcanoes. Protagoras appears to have meant that each individual is the measure of how things are perceived by that individual. Therefore, things are, or are not, true according to how the individual perceives them. For example, Person X may believe that the weather is cold, whereas Person Y may believe that the weather is hot. According to the philosophy of Protagoras, there is no absolute evaluation of the nature of a temperature because the evaluation will be relative to who is perceiving it. Therefore, to Person X, the weather is cold, whereas to Person Y, the weather is hot. This philosophy implies that there are no absolute "truths". The truth, according to Protagoras, is relative, and differs according to each individual.
Plato ascribes relativism to Protagoras and uses his character Socrates as a foil for his own commitment to objective and transcendent realities and values. Plato ascribes to Protagoras an early form of what John Wild categorized as phenomenalism. That being an assertion that something that is, or appears for a single individual, is true or real for that individual. However, as described in Plato's "Theaetetus", Protagoras's views allow that some views may result from an ill body or mind. He stressed that although all views may appear equally true, and perhaps, should be equally respected, they certainly are not of equal gravity. One view may be useful and advantageous to the person who has it, while the perception of another may prove harmful. Hence, Protagoras believed that the sophist was there to teach the student how to discriminate between them, i.e., to teach virtue.
Both Plato and Aristotle argue against some of Protagoras's claims regarding relativity; however, they argue that the concept provides Protagoras with too convenient an exemption from his own theory and that relativism is true for him yet false for those who do not believe it. They claim that by asserting that truth is relative, Protagoras then could say that whatever further theory he proposed "must" be true.
Protagoras was a proponent of either agnosticism or, as Tim Whitmarsh claims, atheism, on the grounds that since he held that if something is not able to be known it does not exist. Reportedly, in Protagoras' lost work, "On the Gods", he wrote: "Concerning the gods, I have no means of knowing whether they exist or not, nor of what sort they may be, because of the obscurity of the subject, and the brevity of human life."
According to Diogenes Laërtius, the outspoken, agnostic position taken by Protagoras aroused anger, causing the Athenians to expel him from the city, and all copies of his book were collected and burned in the marketplace. The deliberate destruction of his works also is mentioned by Cicero. The classicist John Burnet doubts this account, however, as both Diogenes Laërtius and Cicero wrote hundreds of years later and as no such persecution of Protagoras is mentioned by contemporaries who make extensive references to this philosopher. Burnet notes that even if some copies of the Protagoras books were burned, enough of them survived to be known and discussed in the following century.
Nonetheless, very few fragments from Protagoras have survived, although he is known to have written several different works: "Antilogiae" and "Truth". The latter is cited by Plato, and was known alternatively as, "The Throws" (a wrestling term referring to the attempt to floor an opponent). It began with the "Man is the measure" (ἄνθρωπος μέτρον) pronouncement. According to Diogenes Laërtius other books by Protagoras include: "On the Gods", "Art of Eristics", "Imperative", "On Ambition", "On Incorrect Human Actions", "On Those in Hades", "On Sciences", "On Virtues", "On the Original State of Things" and "Trial over a Fee". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24086 |
Puritans
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries, who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. Puritanism played a significant role in English history, especially during the Protectorate.
Puritans were dissatisfied with the limited extent of the English Reformation and with the Church of England's toleration of certain practices associated with the Roman Catholic Church. They formed and identified with various religious groups advocating greater purity of worship and doctrine, as well as personal and corporate piety. Puritans adopted a Reformed theology and, in that sense, were Calvinists (as were many of their earlier opponents). In church polity, some advocated separation from all other established Christian denominations in favour of autonomous gathered churches. These Separatist and independent strands of Puritanism became prominent in the 1640s, when the supporters of a presbyterian polity in the Westminster Assembly were unable to forge a new English national church.
By the late 1630s, Puritans were in alliance with the growing commercial world, with the parliamentary opposition to the royal prerogative, and with the Scottish Presbyterians with whom they had much in common. Consequently, they became a major political force in England and came to power as a result of the First English Civil War (1642–1646). Almost all Puritan clergy left the Church of England after the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 and the 1662 Uniformity Act. Many continued to practice their faith in nonconformist denominations, especially in Congregationalist and Presbyterian churches. The nature of the movement in England changed radically, although it retained its character for a much longer period in New England.
Puritanism was never a formally defined religious division within Protestantism, and the term "Puritan" itself was rarely used after the turn of the 18th century. Some Puritan ideals, including the formal rejection of Roman Catholicism, were incorporated into the doctrines of the Church of England; others were absorbed into the many Protestant denominations that emerged in the late 17th and early 18th centuries in America and Britain. The Congregational churches, widely considered to be a part of the Reformed tradition, are descended from the Puritans. Moreover, Puritan beliefs are enshrined in the Savoy Declaration, the confession of faith held by the Congregationalist churches.
In the 17th century, the word "Puritan" was a term applied not to just one group but to many. Historians still debate a precise definition of Puritanism. Originally, "Puritan" was a pejorative term characterizing certain Protestant groups as extremist. Thomas Fuller, in his "Church History", dates the first use of the word to 1564. Archbishop Matthew Parker of that time used it and "precisian" with a sense similar to the modern "stickler". Puritans, then, were distinguished for being "more intensely protestant than their protestant neighbors or even the Church of England". As a term of abuse, "Puritan" was not used by Puritans themselves. Those referred to as "Puritan" called themselves terms such as "the godly", "saints", "professors", or "God's children".
"Non-separating Puritans" were dissatisfied with the Reformation of the Church of England but remained within it, advocating for further reform; they disagreed among themselves about how much further reformation was possible or even necessary. They were later termed "Nonconformists". "Separatists", or "separating Puritans", thought the Church of England was so corrupt that true Christians should separate from it altogether. In its widest historical sense, the term "Puritan" includes both groups.
Puritans should not be confused with more radical Protestant groups of the 16th and 17th centuries, such as Quakers, Seekers, and Familists, who believed that individuals could be directly guided by the Holy Spirit and prioritized direct revelation over the Bible.
In current English, "puritan" often means "against pleasure". In such usage, "hedonism" and "puritanism" are antonyms. Puritans embraced sexuality but placed it in the context of marriage. Peter Gay writes of the Puritans' standard reputation for "dour prudery" as a "misreading that went unquestioned in the nineteenth century", commenting how unpuritanical they were in favour of married sexuality, and in opposition to the Catholic veneration of virginity, citing Edward Taylor and John Cotton. One Puritan settlement in western Massachusetts banished a husband because he refused to fulfill his sexual duties to his wife.
Puritanism has a historical importance over a period of a century, followed by fifty years of development in New England. It changed character and emphasis almost decade-by-decade over that time.
The Elizabethan Religious Settlement of 1559 established the Church of England as a Protestant church and brought the English Reformation to a close. During the reign of Elizabeth I, the Church of England was widely considered a Reformed church, and Calvinists held the best bishoprics and deaneries. Nevertheless, it preserved certain characteristics of medieval Catholicism, such as cathedrals, church choirs, a formal liturgy contained in the "Book of Common Prayer", traditional clerical vestments and episcopal polity.
Many English Protestants—especially those former Marian exiles now returning home to work as clergy and bishops—considered the settlement merely the first step in reforming England's church. The years of exile during the Marian Restoration had exposed them to practices of the Continental Reformed churches, and the most impatient clergy began introducing reforms within their local parishes. The initial conflict between Puritans and the authorities included instances of nonconformity such as omitting parts of the liturgy to allow more time for the sermon and singing of metrical psalms. Some Puritans refused to bow on hearing the name of Jesus, to make the sign of the cross in baptism, use wedding rings or the organ. Yet, the main complaint Puritans had was the requirement that clergy wear the white surplice and clerical cap. Puritan clergymen preferred to wear black academic attire. During the vestments controversy, church authorities attempted and failed to enforce the use of clerical vestments. While never a mass movement, the Puritans had the support and protection of powerful patrons in the aristocracy.
In the 1570s, the primary dispute between Puritans and the authorities was over the appropriate form of church government. Many Puritans believed the Church of England should follow the example of Reformed churches in other parts of Europe and adopt presbyterian polity, under which government by bishops would be replaced with government by elders. However, all attempts to enact further reforms through Parliament were blocked by the Queen. Despite such setbacks, Puritan leaders such as John Field and Thomas Cartwright continued to promote presbyterianism through the formation of unofficial clerical conferences that allowed Puritan clergymen to organise and network. This covert Puritan network was discovered and dismantled during the Marprelate Controversy. For the remainder of Elizabeth's reign, Puritans ceased to agitate for further reform.
The accession of James I to the English throne brought the Millenary Petition, a Puritan manifesto of 1603 for reform of the English church, but James wanted a religious settlement along different lines. He called the Hampton Court Conference in 1604, and heard the teachings of four prominent Puritan leaders, including Laurence Chaderton, but largely sided with his bishops. He was well informed on theological matters by his education and Scottish upbringing, and he dealt shortly with the peevish legacy of Elizabethan Puritanism, pursuing an eirenic religious policy, in which he was arbiter.
Many of James's episcopal appointments were Calvinists, notably James Montague, who was an influential courtier. Puritans still opposed much of the Roman Catholic summation in the Church of England, notably the "Book of Common Prayer" but also the use of non-secular vestments (cap and gown) during services, the sign of the Cross in baptism, and kneeling to receive Holy Communion. Some of the bishops under both Elizabeth and James tried to suppress Puritanism, though other bishops were more tolerant and, in many places, individual ministers were able to omit disliked portions of the "Book of Common Prayer".
The Puritan movement of Jacobean times became distinctive by adaptation and compromise, with the emergence of "semi-separatism", "moderate puritanism", the writings of William Bradshaw (who adopted the term "Puritan" for himself), and the beginnings of Congregationalism. Most Puritans of this period were non-separating and remained within the Church of England; Separatists who left the Church of England altogether were numerically much fewer.
The Puritan movement in England was riven over decades by emigration and inconsistent interpretations of Scripture, as well as some political differences that surfaced at that time. The Fifth Monarchy Men, a radical millenarian wing of Puritanism, aided by strident, popular clergy like Vavasor Powell, agitated from the right wing of the movement, even as sectarian groups like the Ranters, Levellers, and Quakers pulled from the left. The fragmentation created a collapse of the centre and, ultimately, sealed a political failure, while depositing an enduring spiritual legacy that would remain and grow in English-speaking Christianity.
The Westminster Assembly was called in 1643, assembling clergy of the Church of England. The Assembly was able to agree to the Westminster Confession of Faith doctrinally, a consistent Reformed theological position. The "Directory of Public Worship" was made official in 1645, and the larger framework (now called the Westminster Standards) was adopted by the Church of Scotland. In England, the Standards were contested by Independents up to 1660.
The Westminster Divines, on the other hand, were divided over questions of church polity and split into factions supporting a reformed episcopacy, presbyterianism, congregationalism, and Erastianism. The membership of the Assembly was heavily weighted towards the Presbyterians, but Oliver Cromwell was a Puritan and an independent Congregationalist Separatist who imposed his doctrines upon them. The Church of England of the Interregnum (1649–60) was run along Presbyterian lines but never became a national Presbyterian church, such as existed in Scotland, and England was not the theocratic state which leading Puritans had called for as "godly rule".
At the time of the English Restoration in 1660, the Savoy Conference was called to determine a new religious settlement for England and Wales. Under the Act of Uniformity 1662, the Church of England was restored to its pre-Civil War constitution with only minor changes, and the Puritans found themselves sidelined. A traditional estimate of historian Calamy is that around 2,400 Puritan clergy left the Church in the "Great Ejection" of 1662. At this point, the term "Dissenter" came to include "Puritan", but more accurately described those (clergy or lay) who "dissented" from the "1662 Book of Common Prayer".
The Dissenters divided themselves from all Christians in the Church of England and established their own Separatist congregations in the 1660s and 1670s. An estimated 1,800 of the ejected clergy continued in some fashion as ministers of religion, according to Richard Baxter. The government initially attempted to suppress these schismatic organisations by using the Clarendon Code. There followed a period in which schemes of "comprehension" were proposed, under which Presbyterians could be brought back into the Church of England, but nothing resulted from them. The Whigs opposed the court religious policies and argued that the Dissenters should be allowed to worship separately from the established Church, and this position ultimately prevailed when the Toleration Act was passed in the wake of the Glorious Revolution in 1689. This permitted the licensing of Dissenting ministers and the building of chapels. The term "Nonconformist" generally replaced the term "Dissenter" from the middle of the 18th century.
Some Puritans left for New England, particularly from 1629–40 (the Eleven Years' Tyranny under King Charles I), supporting the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and other settlements among the northern colonies. The large-scale Puritan immigration to New England ceased by 1641, with around 21,000 having moved across the Atlantic. This English-speaking population in America did not all consist of original colonists, since many returned to England shortly after arriving on the continent, but it produced more than 16 million descendants. This so-called "Great Migration" is not so named because of sheer numbers, which were much less than the number of English citizens who immigrated to Virginia and the Caribbean during this time. The rapid growth of the New England colonies (around 700,000 by 1790) was almost entirely due to the high birth rate and lower death rate per year.
Puritan hegemony lasted for at least a century. That century can be broken down into three parts: the generation of John Cotton and Richard Mather, 1630–62 from the founding to the Restoration, years of virtual independence and nearly autonomous development; the generation of Increase Mather, 1662–89 from the Restoration and the Halfway Covenant to the Glorious Revolution, years of struggle with the British crown; and the generation of Cotton Mather, 1689–1728 from the overthrow of Edmund Andros (in which Cotton Mather played a part) and the new charter, mediated by Increase Mather, to the death of Cotton Mather.
"Puritanism" broadly refers to a diverse religious reform movement in Britain committed to the continental Reformed tradition. While Puritans did not agree on all doctrinal points, most shared similar views on the nature of God, human sinfulness, and the relationship between God and mankind. They believed that all of their beliefs should be based on the Bible, which they considered to be divinely inspired.
The concept of covenant was extremely important to Puritans, and covenant theology was central to their beliefs. With roots in the writings of Reformed theologians John Calvin and Heinrich Bullinger, covenant theology was further developed by Puritan theologians Dudley Fenner, William Perkins, John Preston, Richard Sibbes, William Ames and, most fully by Ames's Dutch student, Johannes Cocceius. Covenant theology asserts that when God created Adam and Eve he promised them eternal life in return for perfect obedience; this promise was termed the covenant of works. After the fall of man, human nature was corrupted by original sin and unable to fulfill the covenant of works, since each person inevitably violated God's law as expressed in the Ten Commandments. As sinners, every person deserved damnation.
Puritans shared with other Calvinists a belief in double predestination, that some people (the elect) were destined by God to receive grace and salvation while others were destined for Hell. No one, however, could merit salvation. According to covenant theology, Christ's sacrifice on the cross made possible the covenant of grace, by which those selected by God could be saved. Puritans believed in unconditional election and irresistible grace—God's grace was given freely without condition to the elect and could not be refused.
Covenant theology made individual salvation deeply personal. It held that God's predestination was not "impersonal and mechanical" but was a "covenant of grace" that one entered into by faith. Therefore, being a Christian could never be reduced to simple "intellectual acknowledgment" of the truth of Christianity. Puritans agreed "that the effectual call of each elect saint of God would always come as an individuated personal encounter with God's promises".
The process by which the elect are brought from spiritual death to spiritual life (regeneration) was described as conversion. Early on, Puritans did not consider a specific conversion experience normative or necessary, but many gained assurance of salvation from such experiences. Over time, however, Puritan theologians developed a framework for authentic religious experience based on their own experiences as well as those of their parishioners. Eventually, Puritans came to regard a specific conversion experience as an essential mark of one's election.
The Puritan conversion experience was commonly described as occurring in discrete phases. It began with a preparatory phase designed to produce contrition for sin through introspection, Bible study and listening to preaching. This was followed by humiliation, when the sinner realized that he or she was helpless to break free from sin and that their good works could never earn forgiveness. It was after reaching this point—the realization that salvation was possible only because of divine mercy—that the person would experience justification, when the righteousness of Christ is imputed to the elect and their minds and hearts are regenerated. For some Puritans, this was a dramatic experience and they referred to it as being born again.
Confirming that such a conversion had actually happened often required prolonged and continual introspection. Historian Perry Miller wrote that the Puritans "liberated men from the treadmill of indulgences and penances, but cast them on the iron couch of introspection". It was expected that conversion would be followed by sanctification—"the progressive growth in the saint's ability to better perceive and seek God's will, and thus to lead a holy life". Some Puritans attempted to find assurance of their faith by keeping detailed records of their behavior and looking for the evidence of salvation in their lives. Puritan clergy wrote many spiritual guides to help their parishioners pursue personal piety and sanctification. These included Arthur Dent's "The Plain Man's Pathway to Heaven" (1601), Richard Rogers's "Seven Treatises" (1603), Henry Scudder's "Christian's Daily Walk" (1627) and Richard Sibbes's "The Bruised Reed and Smoking Flax" (1630).
Too much emphasis on one's good works could be criticized for being too close to Arminianism, and too much emphasis on subjective religious experience could be criticized as Antinomianism. Many Puritans relied on both personal religious experience and self-examination to assess their spiritual condition.
Puritanism's experiential piety would be inherited by the evangelical Protestants of the 18th century. While evangelical views on conversion were heavily influenced by Puritan theology, the Puritans believed that assurance of one's salvation was "rare, late and the fruit of struggle in the experience of believers", whereas evangelicals believed that assurance was normative for all the truly converted.
While most Puritans were members of the Church of England, they were critical of its worship practices. In the 17th century, Sunday worship in the established church took the form of the Morning Prayer service in the "Book of Common Prayer". This might include a sermon, but Holy Communion or the Lord's Supper was only occasionally observed. Officially, lay people were only required to receive communion three times a year, but most people only received communion once a year at Easter. Puritans were concerned about biblical errors and Catholic remnants within the prayer book. Puritans objected to bowing at the name of Jesus, the requirement that priests wear the surplice, and the use of written, set prayers in place of improvised prayers.
The sermon was central to Puritan piety. It was not only a means of religious education; Puritans believed it was the most common way that God prepared a sinner's heart for conversion. On Sundays, Puritan ministers often shortened the litugry to allow more time for preaching. Puritan churchgoers attended two sermons on Sundays and as many weekday sermons and lectures they could find, often traveling for miles. Puritans were distinct for their adherence to Sabbatarianism.
Puritans taught that there were two sacraments: baptism and the Lord's Supper. Puritans agreed with the church's practice of infant baptism. However, the effect of baptism was disputed. Puritans objected to the prayer book's assertion of baptismal regeneration. In Puritan theology, infant baptism was understood in terms of covenant theology—baptism replaced circumcision as a sign of the covenant and marked a child's admission into the visible church. It could not be assumed that baptism produces regeneration. The Westminster Confession states that the grace of baptism is only effective for those who are among the elect, and its effects lie dormant until one experiences conversion later in life. Puritans wanted to do away with godparents, who made baptismal vows on behalf of infants, and give that responsibility to the child's father. Puritans also objected to priests making the sign of the cross in baptism. Private baptisms were opposed because Puritans believed that preaching should always accompany sacraments. Some Puritan clergy even refused to baptise dying infants because that implied the sacrament contributed to salvation.
Puritans rejected both Roman Catholic (transubstantiation) and Lutheran (sacramental union) teachings that Christ is physically present in the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper. Instead, Puritans embraced the Reformed doctrine of real spiritual presence, believing that in the Lord's Supper the faithful receive Christ spiritually. In agreement with Thomas Cranmer, the Puritans stressed "that Christ comes down to us in the sacrament by His Word and Spirit, offering Himself as our spiritual food and drink". They criticised the prayer book service for being too similar to the Catholic mass. For example, the requirement that people kneel to receive communion implied adoration of the Eucharist, a practice linked to transubstantiation. Puritans also criticised the Church of England for allowing unrepentant sinners to receive communion. Puritans wanted better spiritual preparation (such as clergy home visits and testing people on their knowledge of the catechism) for communion and better church discipline to ensure that the unworthy were kept from the sacrament.
Puritans did not believe confirmation was necessary and thought candidates were poorly prepared since bishops did not have the time to examine them properly. The marriage service was criticised for using a wedding ring (which implied that marriage was a sacrament) and having the groom vow to his bride "with my body I thee worship", which Puritans considered blasphemous. In the funeral service, the priest committed the body to the ground "in sure and certain hope of resurrection to eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ." Puritans objected to this phrase because they did not believe it was true for everyone. They suggested it be rewritten as "we commit his body [etc.] believing a resurrection of the just and unjust, some to joy, and some to punishment."
Puritans eliminated choral music and musical instruments in their religious services because these were associated with Roman Catholicism; however, singing the Psalms were considered appropriate (see Exclusive psalmody). Church organs were commonly damaged or destroyed in the Civil War period, such as when an axe was taken to the organ of Worcester Cathedral in 1642.
While the Puritans were united in their goal of furthering the English Reformation, they were always divided over issues of ecclesiology and church polity, specifically questions relating to the manner of organizing congregations, how individual congregations should relate with one another and whether established national churches were scriptural. On these questions, Puritans divided between supporters of episcopal polity, presbyterian polity and congregational polity.
The episcopalians (known as the prelatical party) were conservatives who supported retaining bishops if those leaders supported reform and agreed to share power with local churches. They also supported the idea of having a Book of Common Prayer, but they were against demanding strict conformity or having too much ceremony. In addition, these Puritans called for a renewal of preaching, pastoral care and Christian discipline within the Church of England.
Like the episcopalians, the presbyterians agreed that there should be a national church but one structured on the model of the Church of Scotland. They wanted to replace bishops with a system of elective and representative governing bodies of clergy and laity (local sessions, presbyteries, synods, and ultimately a national general assembly). During the Interregnum, the presbyterians had limited success at reorganizing the Church of England. The Westminster Assembly proposed the creation of a presbyterian system, but the Long Parliament left implementation to local authorities. As a result, the Church of England never developed a complete presbyterian hierarchy.
Congregationalists or Independents believed in the autonomy of the local church, which ideally would be a congregation of "visible saints" (meaning those who had experienced conversion). Members would be required to abide by a church covenant, in which they "pledged to join in the proper worship of God and to nourish each other in the search for further religious truth". Such churches were regarded as complete within themselves, with full authority to determine their own membership, administer their own discipline and ordain their own ministers. Furthermore, the sacraments would only be administered to those in the church covenant.
Most congregational Puritans remained within the Church of England, hoping to reform it according to their own views. The New England Congregationalists were also adamant that they were not separating from the Church of England. However, some Puritans equated the Church of England with the Roman Catholic Church, and therefore considered it no Christian church at all. These groups, such as the Brownists, would split from the established church and become known as Separatists. Other Separatists embraced more radical positions on separation of church and state and believer's baptism, becoming early Baptists.
Based on Biblical portrayals of Adam and Eve, Puritans believed that marriage was rooted in procreation, love, and, most importantly, salvation. Husbands were the spiritual heads of the household, while women were to demonstrate religious piety and obedience under male authority. Furthermore, marriage represented not only the relationship between husband and wife, but also the relationship between spouses and God. Puritan husbands commanded authority through family direction and prayer. The female relationship to her husband and to God was marked by submissiveness and humility.
Thomas Gataker describes Puritan marriage as:
The paradox created by female inferiority in the public sphere and the spiritual equality of men and women in marriage, then, gave way to the informal authority of women concerning matters of the home and childrearing. With the consent of their husbands, wives made important decisions concerning the labour of their children, property, and the management of inns and taverns owned by their husbands. Pious Puritan mothers laboured for their children's righteousness and salvation, connecting women directly to matters of religion and morality. In her poem titled "In Reference to her Children", poet Anne Bradstreet reflects on her role as a mother:
Bradstreet alludes to the temporality of motherhood by comparing her children to a flock of birds on the precipice of leaving home. While Puritans praised the obedience of young children, they also believed that, by separating children from their mothers at adolescence, children could better sustain a superior relationship with God. A child could only be redeemed through religious education and obedience. Girls carried the additional burden of Eve's corruption and were catechised separately from boys at adolescence. Boys' education prepared them for vocations and leadership roles, while girls were educated for domestic and religious purposes. The pinnacle of achievement for children in Puritan society, however, occurred with the conversion process.
Puritans viewed the relationship between master and servant similarly to that of parent and child. Just as parents were expected to uphold Puritan religious values in the home, masters assumed the parental responsibility of housing and educating young servants. Older servants also dwelt with masters and were cared for in the event of illness or injury. African-American and Indian servants were likely excluded from such benefits.
Like most Christians in the early modern period, Puritans believed in the active existence of the devil and demons as evil forces that could possess and cause harm to men and women. There was also widespread belief in witchcraft and witches—persons in league with the devil. "Unexplained phenomena such as the death of livestock, human disease, and hideous fits suffered by young and old" might all be blamed on the agency of the devil or a witch.
Puritan pastors undertook exorcisms for demonic possession in some high-profile cases. Exorcist John Darrell was supported by Arthur Hildersham in the case of Thomas Darling. Samuel Harsnett, a skeptic on witchcraft and possession, attacked Darrell. However, Harsnett was in the minority, and many clergy, not only Puritans, believed in witchcraft and possession.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, thousands of people throughout Europe were accused of being witches and executed. In England and America, Puritans engaged in witch hunts as well. In the 1640s, Matthew Hopkins, the self-proclaimed "Witchfinder General", was responsible for accusing over two hundred people of witchcraft, mainly in East Anglia. In New England, few people were accused and convicted of witchcraft before 1692; there were at most sixteen convictions.
The Salem witch trials of 1692 had a lasting impact on the historical reputation of New England Puritans. Though this witch hunt occurred after Puritans lost political control of the Massachusetts colony, Puritans instigated the judicial proceedings against the accused and comprised the members of the court that convicted and sentenced the accused. By the time Governor William Phips ended the trials, fourteen women and five men had been hanged as witches.
Puritan millennialism has been placed in the broader context of European Reformed beliefs about the millennium and interpretation of biblical prophecy, for which representative figures of the period were Johannes Piscator, Thomas Brightman, Joseph Mede, Johannes Heinrich Alsted, and John Amos Comenius. Like most English Protestants of the time, Puritans based their eschatological views on an historicist interpretation of the Book of Revelation and the Book of Daniel. Protestant theologians identified the sequential phases the world must pass through before the Last Judgment could occur and tended to place their own time period near the end. It was expected that tribulation and persecution would increase but eventually the church's enemies—the Antichrist (identified with the Roman Catholic Church) and the Ottoman Empire—would be defeated. Based on Revelation 20, it was believed that a thousand-year period (the millennium) would occur, during which the saints would rule with Christ on earth.
In contrast to other Protestants who tended to view eschatology as an explanation for "God's remote plans for the world and man", Puritans understood it to describe "the cosmic environment in which the regenerate soldier of Christ was now to do battle against the power of sin". On a personal level, eschatology was related to sanctification, assurance of salvation, and the conversion experience. On a larger level, eschatology was the lens through which events such as the English Civil War and the Thirty Years' War were interpreted. There was also an optimistic aspect to Puritan millennianism; Puritans anticipated a future worldwide religious revival before the Second Coming of Christ. Another departure from other Protestants was the widespread belief among Puritans that the conversion of the Jews to Christianity was an important sign of the apocalypse.
David Brady describes a "lull before the storm" in the early 17th century, in which "reasonably restrained and systematic" Protestant exegesis of the Book of Revelation was seen with Brightman, Mede, and Hugh Broughton, after which "apocalyptic literature became too easily debased" as it became more populist and less scholarly. William Lamont argues that, within the church, the Elizabethan millennial beliefs of John Foxe became sidelined, with Puritans adopting instead the "centrifugal" doctrines of Thomas Brightman, while the Laudians replaced the "centripetal" attitude of Foxe to the "Christian Emperor" by the national and episcopal Church closer to home, with its royal head, as leading the Protestant world "iure divino" (by divine right). Viggo Norskov Olsen writes that Mede "broke fully away from the Augustinian-Foxian tradition, and is the link between Brightman and the premillennialism of the 17th century". The dam broke in 1641 when the traditional retrospective reverence for Thomas Cranmer and other martyred bishops in the "Acts and Monuments" was displaced by forward-looking attitudes to prophecy among radical Puritans.
Some strong religious beliefs common to Puritans had direct impacts on culture. Puritans believed it was the government's responsibility to enforce moral standards and ensure true religious worship was established and maintained. Education was essential to every person, male and female, so that they could read the Bible for themselves. However, the Puritans' emphasis on individual spiritual independence was not always compatible with the community cohesion that was also a strong ideal. Anne Hutchinson (1591–1643), the well educated daughter of a teacher, argued with the established theological orthodoxy, and was forced to leave the colony with her followers.
At a time when the literacy rate in England was less than 30 percent, the Puritan leaders of colonial New England believed children should be educated for both religious and civil reasons, and they worked to achieve universal literacy. In 1642, Massachusetts required heads of households to teach their wives, children and servants basic reading and writing so that they could read the Bible and understand colonial laws. In 1647, the government required all towns with 50 or more households to hire a teacher and towns of 100 or more households to hire a grammar school instructor to prepare promising boys for college. Boys interested in the ministry were often sent to colleges such as Harvard (founded in 1636) or Yale (founded in 1707). Aspiring lawyers or doctors apprenticed to a local practitioner, or in rare cases were sent to England or Scotland.
The Merton Thesis is an argument about the nature of early experimental science proposed by Robert K. Merton. Similar to Max Weber's famous claim on the link between the Protestant work ethic and the capitalist economy, Merton argued for a similar positive correlation between the rise of English Puritanism, as well as German Pietism, and early experimental science. As an example, seven of 10 nucleus members of the Royal Society were Puritans. In the year 1663, 62 percent of the members of the Royal Society were similarly identified. The Merton Thesis has resulted in continuous debates.
Puritans in both England and New England believed that the state should protect and promote true religion and that religion should influence politics and social life. Certain holidays were outlawed when Puritans came to power. In 1647, Parliament outlawed the celebration of Christmas, Easter and Whitsuntide. Christmas was outlawed in Boston from 1659. Puritans objected to Christmas because the festivities surrounding the holiday were seen as impious. (English jails were usually filled with drunken revelers and brawlers.)
Puritans were opposed to Sunday sport or recreation because these distracted from religious observance of the Sabbath. Other forms of leisure and entertainment were completely forbidden on moral grounds. For example, Puritans were universally opposed to blood sports such as bearbaiting and cockfighting because they involved unnecessary injury to God's creatures. For similar reasons, they also opposed boxing. These sports were illegal in England during Puritan rule.
Card playing and gambling were banned in England and the colonies (but card playing by itself was generally considered acceptable), as was mixed dancing involving men and women because it was thought to lead to fornication. Folk dance that did not involve close contact between men and women was considered appropriate. In New England, the first dancing school did not open until the end of the 17th century.
Puritans condemned the sexualization of the theatre and its associations with depravity and prostitution—London's theatres were located on the south side of the Thames, which was a center of prostitution. A major Puritan attack on the theatre was William Prynne's book "Histriomastix". Puritan authorities shut down English theatres in the 1640s and 1650s, and none were allowed to open in Puritan-controlled colonies.
Puritans were not opposed to drinking alcohol in moderation. However, alehouses were closely regulated by Puritan-controlled governments in both England and America. Early New England laws banning the sale of alcohol to Native Americans were criticised because it was "not fit to deprive Indians of any lawfull comfort aloweth to all men by the use of wine". Laws banned the practice of individuals toasting each other, with the explanation that it led to wasting God's gift of beer and wine, as well as being carnal.
Bounds were not set on enjoying sexuality within the bounds of marriage, as a gift from God. Spouses were disciplined if they did not perform their sexual marital duties, in accordance with 1 Corinthians 7 and other biblical passages. Women and men were equally expected to fulfill marital responsibilities. Women and men could file for divorce based on this issue alone. In Massachusetts colony, which had some of the most liberal colonial divorce laws, one out of every six divorce petitions was filed on the basis on male impotence. Puritans publicly punished drunkenness and sexual relations outside marriage. Couples who had sex during their engagement were fined and publicly humiliated. Men, and a handful of women, who engaged in homosexual behavior, were seen as especially sinful, with some executed.
Puritan rule in England was marked by limited religious toleration. The Toleration Act of 1650 repealed the Act of Supremacy, Act of Uniformity, and all laws making recusancy a crime. There was no longer a legal requirement to attend the parish church on Sundays (for both Protestants and Catholics). In 1653, responsibility for recording births, marriages and deaths was transferred from the church to a civil registrar. The result was that church baptisms and marriages became private acts, not guarantees of legal rights, which provided greater equality to dissenters.
The 1653 Instrument of Government guaranteed that in matters of religion "none shall be compelled by penalties or otherwise, but endeavours be used to win them by sound Doctrine and the Example of a good conversation". Religious freedom was given to "all who profess Faith in God by Jesus Christ". However, Catholics and some others were excluded. No one was executed for their religion during the Protectorate. In London, those attending Catholic mass or Anglican holy communion were occasionally arrested but released without charge. Many unofficial Protestant congregations, such as Baptist churches, were permitted to meet. Quakers were allowed to publish freely and hold meetings. They were, however, arrested for disrupting parish church services and organising tithe-strikes against the state church.
In New England, where Congregationalism was the official religion, the Puritans exhibited intolerance of other religious views, including Quaker, Anglican and Baptist theologies. The Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony were the most active of the New England persecutors of Quakers, and the persecuting spirit was shared by the Plymouth Colony and the colonies along the Connecticut river.
Four Quakers, known as the Boston martyrs, were executed. The first two of the four Boston martyrs were executed by the Puritans on 27 October 1659, and in memory of this, 27 October is now International Religious Freedom Day to recognise the importance of freedom of religion. In 1660, one of the most notable victims of the religious intolerance was English Quaker Mary Dyer, who was hanged in Boston for repeatedly defying a Puritan law banning Quakers from the colony. The hanging of Dyer on Boston Common marked the beginning of the end of the Puritan theocracy. In 1661, King Charles II explicitly forbade Massachusetts from executing anyone for professing Quakerism. In 1684, England revoked the Massachusetts charter, sent over a royal governor to enforce English laws in 1686 and, in 1689, passed a broad Toleration Act.
Anti-Catholic sentiment appeared in New England with the first Pilgrim and Puritan settlers. In 1647, Massachusetts passed a law prohibiting any Jesuit Roman Catholic priests from entering territory under Puritan jurisdiction. Any suspected person who could not clear himself was to be banished from the colony; a second offense carried a death penalty.
Puritanism has attracted much scholarly attention, and as a result, the secondary literature on the subject is vast. Puritanism is considered crucial to understanding the religious, political and cultural issues of early modern England. In addition, historians such as Perry Miller have regarded Puritan New England as fundamental to understanding American culture and identity. Puritanism has also been credited with the creation of modernity itself, from England's Scientific Revolution to the rise of democracy. In the early 20th century, Max Weber argued in "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" that Puritan beliefs in predestination resulted in a Protestant work ethic that created capitalism. Puritan authors such as John Milton, John Bunyan, Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor continue to be read and studied as important figures within English and American literature.
A debate continues on the definition of "Puritanism". English historian Patrick Collinson argues that "There is little point in constructing elaborate statements defining what, in ontological terms, puritanism was and what it was not, when it was not a thing definable in itself but only one half of a stressful relationship." Puritanism "was only the mirror image of anti-puritanism and to a considerable extent its invention: a stigma, with great power to distract and distort historical memory." Historian John Spurr writes that Puritans were defined by their relationships with their surroundings, especially with the Church of England. Whenever the Church of England changed, Spurr argues, the definition of a Puritan also changed.
The analysis of "mainstream Puritanism" in terms of the evolution from it of Separatist and antinomian groups that did not flourish, and others that continue to this day, such as Baptists and Quakers, can suffer in this way. The national context (England and Wales, as well as the kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland) frames the definition of Puritans, but was not a self-identification for those Protestants who saw the progress of the Thirty Years' War from 1620 as directly bearing on their denomination, and as a continuation of the religious wars of the previous century, carried on by the English Civil Wars. English historian Christopher Hill, who has contributed to analyses of Puritan concerns that are more respected than accepted, writes of the 1630s, old church lands, and the accusations that William Laud was a crypto-Catholic: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24091 |
Palestinian National Authority
The Palestinian National Authority (PA or PNA; "") is the interim self-government body established in 1994 following the Gaza–Jericho Agreement to govern the Gaza Strip and Areas A and B of the West Bank, as a consequence of the 1993 Oslo Accords. Following elections in 2006 and the subsequent Gaza conflict between the Fatah and Hamas parties, its authority had extended only in areas A and B of the West Bank. Since January 2013, the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority uses the name "State of Palestine" on official documents.
The Palestinian Authority was formed in 1994, pursuant to the Oslo Accords between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the government of Israel, as a five-year interim body. Further negotiations were then meant to take place between the two parties regarding its final status. According to the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Authority was designated to have exclusive control over both security-related and civilian issues in Palestinian urban areas (referred to as "Area A") and only civilian control over Palestinian rural areas ("Area B"). The remainder of the territories, including Israeli settlements, the Jordan Valley region and bypass roads between Palestinian communities, were to remain under Israeli control ("Area C"). East Jerusalem was excluded from the Accords. Negotiations with several Israeli governments had resulted in the Authority gaining further control of some areas, but control was then lost in some areas when the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) retook several strategic positions during the Second ("Al-Aqsa") Intifada. In 2005, after the Second Intifada, Israel withdrew unilaterally from its settlements in the Gaza Strip, thereby expanding Palestinian Authority control to the entire strip while Israel continued to control the crossing points, airspace, and the waters off the Gaza Strip's coast.
In the Palestinian legislative elections on 25 January 2006, Hamas emerged victorious and nominated Ismail Haniyeh as the Authority's Prime Minister. However, the national unity Palestinian government effectively collapsed, when a violent conflict between Hamas and Fatah erupted, mainly in the Gaza Strip. After the Gaza Strip was taken over by Hamas on 14 June 2007, the Authority's Chairman Mahmoud Abbas dismissed the Hamas-led unity government and appointed Salam Fayyad as Prime Minister, dismissing Haniyeh. The move wasn't recognized by Hamas, thus resulting in two separate administrations – the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and a rival Hamas government in the Gaza Strip. The reconciliation process to unite the Palestinian governments achieved some progress over the years, but had failed to produce a re-unification.
The PA received financial assistance from the European Union and the United States (approximately US$1 billion combined in 2005). All direct aid was suspended on 7 April 2006, as a result of the Hamas victory in parliamentary elections. Shortly thereafter, aid payments resumed, but were channeled directly to the offices of Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank. Since 9 January 2009, when Mahmoud Abbas' term as president was supposed to have ended and elections were to have been called, Hamas supporters and many in the Gaza Strip have withdrawn recognition for his presidency and instead consider Aziz Dweik, the speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, to be the acting president until new elections can be held.
In November 2012, the United Nations voted to recognize the State of Palestine as a non-member UN observer state.
The Palestinian Authority was created by the Gaza–Jericho Agreement, pursuant to the 1993 Oslo Accords. The Gaza–Jericho Agreement was signed on 4 May 1994 and included an Israeli withdrawal from the Jericho area and partially from the Gaza Strip, and detailed the creation of the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian Civil Police Force.
The PA was envisioned as an interim organization to administer a limited form of Palestinian self-governance in the Areas A and B in the West Bank and Gaza Strip for a period of five years, during which final-status negotiations would take place. The Palestinian Central Council, itself acting on behalf of the Palestine National Council of the PLO, implemented this agreement in a meeting convened in Tunis from 10–11 October 1993, making the Palestinian Authority accountable to the PLO Executive Committee.
The administrative responsibilities accorded to the PA were limited to civil matters and internal security and did not include external security or foreign affairs. Palestinians in the diaspora and inside Israel were not eligible to vote in elections for the offices of the Palestinian Authority. The PA was legally separate from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which continues to enjoy international recognition as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, representing them at the United Nations under the name "Palestine".
General elections were held for its first legislative body, the Palestinian Legislative Council, on 20 January 1996. The expiration of the body's term was 4 May 1999, but elections were not held because of the "prevailing coercive situation".
On 7 July 2004, the Quartet of Middle East mediators informed Ahmed Qurei, Prime Minister of the PA from 2003 to 2006, that they were "sick and tired" of the Palestinians failure to carry out promised reforms: "If security reforms are not done, there will be no (more) international support and no funding from the international community"
On 18 July 2004, United States President George W. Bush stated that the establishment of a Palestinian state by the end of 2005 was unlikely due to instability and violence in the Palestinian Authority.
Following Arafat's death on 11 November 2004, Rawhi Fattouh, leader of the Palestinian Legislative Council became Acting President of the Palestinian Authority as provided for in Article 54(2) of the Authority's Basic Law and Palestinian Elections Law.
On 19 April 2005, Vladimir Putin the president of Russia agreed to aid the Palestinian Authority stating, "We support the efforts of President Abbas to reform the security services and fight against terrorism [...] If we are waiting for President Abbas to fight terrorism, he cannot do it with the resources he has now. [...] We will give the Palestinian Authority technical help by sending equipment, training people. We will give the Palestinian Authority helicopters and also communication equipment."
The Palestinian Authority became responsible for civil administration in some rural areas, as well as security in the major cities of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Although the five-year interim period expired in 1999, the final status agreement has yet to be concluded despite attempts such as the 2000 Camp David Summit, the Taba Summit, and the unofficial Geneva Accords.
In August 2005, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon began his disengagement from the Gaza Strip, ceding full effective internal control of the Strip to the Palestinian Authority but retained control of its borders including air and sea (except for the Egyptian border). This increased the percentage of land in the Gaza Strip nominally governed by the PA from 60 percent to 100 percent.
Palestinian legislative elections took place on 25 January 2006. Hamas was victorious and Ismail Haniyeh was nominated as Prime Minister on 16 February 2006 and sworn in on 29 March 2006. However, when a Hamas-led Palestinian government was formed, the Quartet (United States, Russia, United Nations, and European Union) conditioned future foreign assistance to the Palestinian Authority (PA) on the future government's commitment to non-violence, recognition of the State of Israel, and acceptance of previous agreements. Hamas rejected these demands, which resulted in the Quartet suspension of its foreign assistance program and Israel imposed economic sanctions.
In December 2006, Ismail Haniyeh, Prime Minister of the PA, declared that the PA will never recognize Israel: "We will never recognize the usurper Zionist government and will continue our jihad-like movement until the liberation of Jerusalem."
In an attempt to resolve the financial and diplomatic impasse, the Hamas-led government together with Fatah Chairman Mahmoud Abbas agreed to form a unity government. As a result, Haniyeh resigned on 15 February 2007 as part of the agreement. The unity government was finally formed on 18 March 2007 under Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and consisted of members from Hamas, Fatah and other parties and independents. The situation in the Gaza strip however quickly deteriorated into an open feud between the Hamas and Fatah, which eventually resulted in the "Brothers` War".
After the takeover in Gaza by Hamas on 14 June 2007, Palestinian Authority Chairman Abbas dismissed the government and on 15 June 2007 appointed Salam Fayyad Prime Minister to form a new government. Though the new government's authority is claimed to extend to all Palestinian territories, in effect it became limited to the Palestinian Authority controlled areas of the West Bank, as Hamas hasn't recognized the move. The Fayyad government has won widespread international support. Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia said in late June 2007 that the West Bank-based Cabinet formed by Fayyad was the sole legitimate Palestinian government, and Egypt moved its embassy from Gaza to the West Bank. Hamas, which government has an effective control of the Gaza Strip since 2007, faces international diplomatic and economic isolation.
In 2013, political analyst Hillel Frisch from Bar-Ilan University’s BESA Center, noted that "The PA is playing a double game...with regards to battling Hamas, there’s coordination if not cooperation with Israel. But on the political front, the PA is trying to generate a popular intifada."
Since the Hamas-Fatah split in 2007, the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority based in areas of the West Bank had stabilized, though no significant economic growth had been achieved. Until 2012, there had also been no progress in promotion of PNA status in the UN, as well in negotiations with Israel. Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority stayed out of the Gaza War in 2008–2009, which followed the six-month truce, between Hamas and Israel which ended on 19 December 2008. Hamas claimed that Israel broke the truce on 4 November 2008, though Israel blamed Hamas for an increasing rocket fire directed at southern Israeli towns and cities. The 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict began on 27 December 2008 (11:30 a.m. local time; 09:30 UTC). Though condemning Israel over attacks on Gaza, the Palestinian Authority erected no actions during the conflict of Israel with Hamas.
The reconciliation process between Fatah and Hamas reached intermediate results by the two governments, most notably the agreement in Cairo on 27 April 2011, but with no final solution. Though the two agreed to form a unity government, and to hold elections in both territories within 12 months of the establishment of such a government, it had not been implemented. The 2011 deal also promised the entry of Hamas into the Palestine Liberation Organization and holding of elections to its Palestine National Council decision-making body, which was not implemented as well. The deal was further ratified in the 2012 Hamas–Fatah Doha agreement, which was made with the background of Hamas relocation from Damascus, due to the simmering Syrian civil war.
Since late August 2012, Palestinian National Authority has been swept with social protests aiming against the cost of living. The protesters targeted the Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, calling for his resignation. Some anti-government protests turned violent. On 11 September, Palestinian Prime Minister issued a decree on lowering the fuel prices and cutting salaries of top officials.
In July 2012, it was reported that Hamas Government in Gaza was considering to declare the independence of the Gaza Strip with the help of Egypt.
On 23 April 2014 Ismail Haniyeh, the prime minister of Hamas, and a senior Palestine Liberation Organisation delegation dispatched by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signed the Fatah–Hamas Gaza Agreement at Gaza City in an attempt to create reconciliation in the Fatah–Hamas conflict. It stated that a unity government should be formed within five weeks, ahead of a presidential and parliamentary election within six months. The Palestinian unity government of 2014 formed on 2 June 2014 as a national and political union under Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas. The European Union, the United Nations, the United States, China, India, Russia and Turkey all agreed to work with it. The Israeli government condemned the unity government because it views Hamas as a terrorist organization. The Palestinian unity government first convened in Gaza on 9 October 2014 to discuss the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip following the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict. On 30 November 2014, Hamas declared that the unity government had ended with the expiration of the six-month term. But Fatah subsequently denied the claim, and said that the government is still in force.
On 7–8 February 2016, Fatah and Hamas held talks in Doha, Qatar in an attempt to implement the 2014 agreements. Hamas official told "Al-Monitor" on 8 March, that the talks did not succeed and that discussions continued between the two movements. He also said that the foreign pressures on the Palestinian Authority to not implement the reconciliation terms is the main obstacle in the talks. In a Feb. 25 statement to local newspaper "Felesteen", Hamas foreign relations chief Osama Hamdan accused the United States and Israel of blocking Palestinian reconciliation. The United States is putting pressure on the PA to not reconcile with Hamas until the latter recognizes the Quartet on the Middle East’s conditions, including the recognition of Israel, which Hamas rejects. After the 2014 agreement, US President Barack Obama said in April 2014 that President Mahmoud Abbas’ decision to form a national unity government with Hamas was “unhelpful” and undermined the negotiations with Israel. Amin Maqboul, secretary-general of Fatah's Revolutionary Council, told "Al-Monitor", “Hamas did not stick to the 2014 agreement, as it has yet to hand over the reins of power over Gaza to the national consensus government and continues to control the crossings. Should Hamas continue down this path, we have to go to the polls immediately and let the people choose who they want to rule.”
The UN has permitted the PLO to title its representative office to the UN as "The Permanent Observer Mission of the State of Palestine to the United Nations", and Palestine has started to re-title its name accordingly on postal stamps, official documents and passports, whilst it has instructed its diplomats to officially represent 'The State of Palestine', as opposed to the 'Palestine National Authority'. Additionally, on 17 December 2012, UN Chief of Protocol Yeocheol Yoon decided that "the designation of 'State of Palestine' shall be used by the Secretariat in all official United Nations documents". However, in a speech in 2016 president Abbas said that "The Palestinian Authority exists and it is here," and "The Palestinian Authority is one of our achievements and we won’t give it up."
The Palestinian Territories refers to the Gaza Strip and the West Bank (including East Jerusalem). The Palestinian Authority currently administers some 39% of the West Bank. 61% of the West bank remains under direct Israeli military and civilian control. East Jerusalem was unilaterally annexed by Israel in 1980, prior to the formation of the PA. Since 2007 Gaza has been governed by the Hamas Government in Gaza.
The politics of the Palestinian Authority take place within the framework of a semi-presidential multi-party republic, with the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), an executive President, and a Prime Minister leading a Cabinet. According to the Palestinian Basic Law which was signed by Arafat in 2002 after a long delay, the current structure of the PA is based on three separate branches of power: executive, legislative, and judiciary. The PA was created by, is ultimately accountable to, and has historically been associated with, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), with whom Israel negotiated the Oslo Accords.
The PLC is an elected body of 132 representatives, which must confirm the Prime Minister upon nomination by the President, and which must approve all government cabinet positions proposed by the Prime Minister. The Judicial Branch has yet to be formalized. The President of the PA is directly elected by the people, and the holder of this position is also considered to be the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. In an amendment to the Basic Law approved in 2003, the president appoints the Prime Minister who is also chief of the security services in the Palestinian territories. The Prime Minister chooses a cabinet of ministers and runs the government, reporting directly to the President.
Parliamentary elections were conducted in January 2006 after the passage of an overhauled election law that increased the number of seats from 88 to 132. The Chairman of the PLO, Yasser Arafat, was elected as President of PA in a landslide victory at the general election in 1996.
Arafat's administration was criticized for its lack of democracy, widespread corruption among officials, and the division of power among families and numerous governmental agencies with overlapping functions. Both Israel and the US declared they lost trust in Arafat as a partner and refused to negotiate with him, regarding him as linked to terrorism. Arafat denied this, and was visited by other leaders around the world up until his death. However, this began a push for change in the Palestinian leadership. In 2003, Mahmoud Abbas resigned because of lack of support from Israel, the US, and Arafat himself. He won the presidency on 9 January 2005 with 62% of the vote. Former prime minister Ahmed Qureia formed his government on 24 February 2005 to wide international praise because, for the first time, most ministries were headed by experts in their field as opposed to political appointees.
The presidential mandate of Mahmoud Abbas expired in 2009 and he is no longer recognised by Hamas, among others, as the legitimate Palestinian leader. According to Palestinian documents leaked to the Al Jazeera news organization, the United States has threatened to cut off funding to the Palestinian Authority should there be a change in the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank. In February 2011, the Palestinian Authority announced that parliamentary and presidential elections would be held by September 2011.
On 27 April 2011, Fatah's Azzam al-Ahmad announced the party's signing of a memorandum of understanding with Hamas' leadership, a major step towards reconciliation effectively paving the way for a unity government. The deal was formally announced in Cairo, and was co-ordinated under the mediation of Egypt's new intelligence director Murad Muwafi. The deal came amidst an international campaign for statehood advanced by the Abbas administration, which is expected to culminate in a request for admission into the General Assembly as a member state in September. As part of the deal, the two factions agreed to hold elections in both territories within twelve months of the creation of a transitional government. In response to the announcement, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu warned that the Authority must choose whether it wants "peace with Israel or peace with Hamas".
From the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1993 until the death of Yasser Arafat in late 2004, only one election had taken place. All other elections were deferred for various reasons.
A single election for president and the legislature took place in 1996. The next presidential and legislative elections were scheduled for 2001, but were delayed following the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada. Following Arafat's death, elections for the President of the Authority were announced for 9 January 2005. The PLO leader Mahmoud Abbas won 62.3% of the vote, while Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, a physician and independent candidate, won 19.8%.
On 10 May 2004, the Palestinian Cabinet announced that municipal elections would take place for the first time. Elections were announced for August 2004 in Jericho, followed by certain municipalities in the Gaza Strip. In July 2004 these elections were postponed. Issues with voter registration are said to have contributed to the delay. Municipal elections finally took place for council officials in Jericho and 25 other towns and villages in the West Bank on 23 December 2004. On 27 January 2005, the first round of the municipal elections took place in the Gaza Strip for officials in 10 local councils. Further rounds in the West Bank took place in May 2005.
Elections for a new Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) were scheduled for July 2005 by Acting Palestinian Authority President Rawhi Fattuh in January 2005. These elections were postponed by Mahmoud Abbas after major changes to the Election Law were enacted by the PLC which required more time for the Palestinian Central Elections Committee to process and prepare. Among these changes were the expansion of the number of parliament seats from 88 to 132, with half of the seats to be competed for in 16 localities, and the other half to be elected in proportion to party votes from a nationwide pool of candidates.
The following organizations, listed in alphabetic order, have taken part in recent popular elections inside the Palestinian Authority:
October 2006 polls showed that Fatah and Hamas had equal strength.
On 14 June 2007, after the Battle of Gaza (2007), Palestine president Mahmoud Abbas dismissed the Hamas-led government, leaving the government under his control for 30 days, after which the temporary government had to be approved by the Palestinian Legislative Council.
In theory the Palestinian Authority has guaranteed freedom of assembly to the Palestinian citizens residing in its territory. Nevertheless, the right to demonstrate for opponents of the PA regime or of PA policy has become increasingly subject to police control and restriction and is a source of concern for human rights groups. In August 2019, the Palestinian Authority banned LGBTQ organizations from operating in the West Bank, targeting the group Al Qaws.
The Fatah–Hamas conflict has further limited the freedom of the press in the PA territories and the distribution of opposing voices in Hamas-controlled Gaza and the West Bank where Fatah still has more influence. According to the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms, in 2011, there were more assaults on Palestinian press freedom from the PA than from Israel. In July 2010, with the easing of the blockade of the Gaza Strip, Israel allowed the distribution of the pro-Fatah newspapers al-Quds, al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida to Gaza, but Hamas prevented Gazan distributors from retrieving the shipment. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) condemned the Hamas restrictions of distribution of the West Bank newspapers in Gaza, and also condemned the Fatah-led government in the West Bank for restricting publication and distribution of the Gazan newspapers al-Resala and Falastin.
Women have full suffrage in the PA. In the 2006 elections, women made up 47 percent of registered voters. Prior to the elections, the election law was amended to introduce a quota for women on the national party lists, resulting in 22 per cent of candidates on the national lists being women. The quota's effectiveness was illustrated in comparison with the district elections, where there was no quota, and only 15 of the 414 candidates were women.
Selling land or housing to Jews is punishable by death, and some high-profile cases have received high media coverage.
Hamas has begun enforcing some Islamic standards of dress for women in the PA; women must don headscarves in order to enter government ministry buildings. In July 2010, Hamas banned the smoking of hookah by women in public. They claimed that it was to reduce the increasing number of divorces.
In June 2011, the Independent Commission for Human Rights published a report whose findings included that the Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip were subjected in 2010 to an "almost systematic campaign" of human rights abuses by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, as well as by Israeli authorities, with the security forces belonging to the PA and Hamas being responsible for torture, arrests and arbitrary detentions.
The Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group reports that through ""everyday disagreements and clashes between the various political factions, families and cities that a complete picture of Palestinian society is painted. These divisions have during the course of the al Aqsa Intifada also led to an increasingly violent ‘Intrafada’. In the 10-year period from 1993 to 2003, 16% of Palestinian civilian deaths were caused by Palestinian groups or individuals"."
Erika Waak reports in "The Humanist" ""Of the total number of Palestinian civilians killed during this period by both Israeli and Palestinian security forces, 16 percent were the victims of Palestinian security forces."" Accusations of collaboration with Israel are used to target and kill individual Palestinians:
""Those who are convicted have either been caught helping Israelis, spoken out against Arafat, or are involved in rival criminal gangs, and these individuals are hanged after summary trials. Arafat creates an environment where the violence continues while silencing would-be critics, and although he could make the violence impossible, he doesn't stop it.""
Freedom House's annual survey of political rights and civil liberties, Freedom in the World 2001–2002, reports ""Civil liberties declined due to: shooting deaths of Palestinian civilians by Palestinian security personnel; the summary trial and executions of alleged collaborators by the Palestinian Authority (PA); extrajudicial killings of suspected collaborators by militias; and the apparent official encouragement of Palestinian youth to confront Israeli soldiers, thus placing them directly in harm's way.""
Palestinian security forces have, as of March 2005, not made any arrests for the October 2003 killing of three American members of a diplomatic convoy in the Gaza Strip. Moussa Arafat, head of the Palestinian Military Intelligence and a cousin of then Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat has stated that, regarding the United States pressure to arrest the killers; "They know that we are in a very critical position and that clashing with any Palestinian party under the presence of the occupation is an issue that will present many problems for us". Since the October 2003 attack, United States diplomats have been banned from entering the Gaza Strip.
On 22 April 2001, Jaweed al-Ghussein, former Chairman of the Palestine National Fund, was abducted from Abu Dhabi, UAE, flown to Arish, Egypt, and driven across the border to Gaza, where he was held hostage by the Palestinian Authority. The Minister of Justice, Freh Abu Mediane, protested and resigned over the illegality. Haider Abdel Shafi, Chief Delegate in the Madrid Peace Process and leading Palestinian, protested at his incarceration and demanded his immediate release. The PCCR (Palestinian Commission on Citizens Rights) took the case up. The Attorney General Sorani declared there was no legality. The Red Cross was denied access to him. Amnesty International asked for his release. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention determined he was being held 'manifestly with no legal justification' and appointed a Special Rapporteur on torture.
On 15 October 2003, three members of a United States diplomatic convoy were killed and additional members of the convoy wounded three kilometers south of the Erez Crossing into the Gaza Strip by a terrorist bomb. The perpetrators remain at large.
In February 2004, Ghassan Shaqawa, the mayor of Nablus, filed his resignation from office in protest of the Palestinian Authority's lack of action against the armed militias rampaging the city and the multiple attempts by some Palestinians to assassinate him. Gaza's police Chief, General Saib al-Ajez would later say: 'This internal conflict between police and militants cannot happen. It is forbidden. We are a single nation and many people know each other and it is not easy to kill someone who is bearing a weapon to defend his nation."
Karen Abu Zayd, deputy commissioner general for the UN Relief and Works Agency in the Gaza Strip stated on 29 February 2004: "What has begun to be more visible is the beginning of the breakdown of law and order, all the groups have their own militias, and they are very organized. It's factions trying to exercise their powers."
Ghazi al-Jabali, the Gaza Strip Chief of Police, since 1994 has been the target of repeated attacks by Palestinians. In March 2004, his offices were targeted by gunfire. In April 2004, a bomb was detonated destroying the front of his house. On 17 July 2004, he was kidnapped at gunpoint following an ambush of his convoy and wounding of two bodyguards. He was released several hours later. Less than six hours later, Colonel Khaled Abu Aloula, director of military coordination in the southern part of Gaza was abducted.
On the eve of 17 July, Fatah movement members kidnapped 5 French citizens (3 men and 2 women) and held them hostage in Red Crescent Society building in Khan Yunis:
On 18 July, Arafat replaced Ghazi al-Jabali, with his nephew Moussa Arafat, sparking violent riots in Rafah and Khan Yunis in which members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades burned PA offices and opened fire on Palestinian policemen. During the riots at least one Palestinian was killed and dozen more seriously wounded.
On 20 July 2004 David Satterfield, the second-in-charge at the United States Department of State Near East desk stated in a hearing before the Senate that the Palestinian Authority had failed to arrest the Palestinian terrorists who had murdered three members of an American diplomatic convoy traveling in the Gaza Strip on 15 October 2003. Satterfield stated:
On 21 July, Nabil Amar, former Minister of Information and a cabinet member and a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, was shot by masked gunmen, after an interview with a television channel in which he criticized Yasser Arafat and called for reforms in the PA.
Regarding the descent into chaos Cabinet minister Qadura Fares stated on 21 July 2004:
On 22 July 2004, The United Nations elevated its threat warning level for the Gaza Strip to "Phase Four" (one less than the maximum "Phase Five") and planned to evacuate non-essential foreign staff from the Gaza Strip.
On 23 July 2004, an Arab boy was shot and killed by Palestinian terrorists of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades after he and his family physically opposed their attempt to set up a Qassam rocket launcher outside the family's house. Five other individuals were wounded in the incident.
On 31 July, Palestinian kidnappers in Nablus seized 3 foreign nationals, an American, British and Irish citizen. They were later released. Also, a PA security forces HQ building was burnt down in Jenin by the al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades. A leader of Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades said they torched the building because new mayor Qadorrah Moussa, appointed by Arafat, had refused to pay salaries to Al Aqsa members or to cooperate with the group.
On 8 August 2004 the Justice Minister Nahed Arreyes resigned stating that he has been stripped of much of his authority over the legal system. The year before, Yasser Arafat created a rival agency to the Justice Ministry and was accused of continuing to control the judiciary and in particular the state prosecutors.
On 10 August 2004, a report by an investigation committee Palestinian Legislative Council for the reasons for the anarchy and chaos in the PA was published by Haaretz daily newspaper. The report put the main blame on Yasser Arafat and the PA's security forces, which "have failed to make a clear political decision to end it".
The report states,
The report also calls to stop shooting Qassam rockets and mortar shells on Israeli settlements because of it hurts "Palestinian interests".
Hakham Balawi said:
Despite the criticism against Yasser Arafat, the troubles continued. On 24 August, the Lieutenant Commander of the Palestinian General Intelligence in the Gaza Strip, Tareq Abu-Rajab, was shot by group of armed men. He was seriously injured.
On 31 August, the Jenin Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, threaten to kill Minister Nabil Shaath for participating in a conference in Italy attended by Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, declaring "He will be sentenced to death if he enters. The decision cannot be rescinded, we call upon his bodyguards to abandon his convoy in order to save their lives."
On 8 September, Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei, threatens to resign, again. Three weeks have elapsed since he retracted is resignation, originally tendered six weeks ago.
On 12 October, Moussa Arafat, cousin of Yasser Arafat and a top security official in the Gaza Strip, survived a car bomb assassination attempt. Recently the Popular Resistance Committees threatened Moussa Arafat with retaliation for an alleged attempt to assassinate its leader, Mohammed Nashabat.
On 14 October, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei stated that the Palestinian Authority is unable to stop the spreading anarchy. While routinely blaming Israel for the PA's problems, he pointed out that the many PA security forces are hobbled by corruption and factional feuding. Due to the lack of governmentals reforms demanded by international peace mediators, Palestinian legislators demanded Qurei present a report on the matter by 20 October, at which point they will decide upon holding a no-confidence vote.
On 19 October, a group of Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades members, led by Zakaria Zubeidi, seized buildings belonging to the Palestinian Finance ministry and Palestinian parliament in Jenin.
According to Mosab Hassan Yousef, the CIA has provided sophisticated electronic eavesdropping equipment to the Palestinian Authority that has been used against suspected Palestinian militants. However, the equipment has also been used against Shin Bet informants.
In 2006, after the Hamas victory, the Palestinian interior minister formed an Executive Force for the police. However, the PA president objected and after clashes between Hamas and Fatah, a redeployment of the force was made and efforts started in order to integrate it with the police force.
In 2011, Amira Hass reported that in sections of Area B of the West Bank, especially around the towns of Abu Dis and Sawahera, a security paradox was evolving: while the Oslo Accords stipulate that the Israeli Army have authority to police Area B, they weren't; and though the Palestinian security forces were prepared to deal with criminal activity in this Area, they had to wait for Israeli permission to enter, and were thus ineffective. Hass also reported that as a result of this paradox, Abu Dis and surrounding areas were becoming a haven for weapons smugglers, drug dealers, and other criminals.
As of 2013, Palestinian security forces continue to coordinate with Israeli troops in tracking Islamic militants in the West Bank.
The governorates ( "muhafazat") of the Palestinian Authority were founded in 1995 to replace the 8 Israeli military districts of the Civil Administration: 11 governorates in the West Bank and 5 in the Gaza Strip. The governorates are not regulated in any official law of decree by the Palestinian Authority but they are regulated by Presidential decrees, mainly Presidential Decree No. 22 of 2003, regarding the powers of the governors.
The regional governors ( "muhafiz") are appointed by the President. They are in charge of the Palestinian police force in their jurisdiction as well as coordinating state services such as education, health and transportation. The governorates are under the direct supervision of the Interior Ministry.
The governorates in the West Bank are grouped into three areas per the Oslo II Accord. Area A forms 18% of the West Bank by area, and is administered by the Palestinian Authority. Area B forms 22% of the West Bank, and is under Palestinian civil control, and joint Israeli-Palestinian security control. Area C, except East Jerusalem, forms 60% of the West Bank, and is administered by the Israeli Civil Administration, except that the Palestinian Authority provides the education and medical services to the 150,000 Palestinians in the area. 70.3% of Area C (40.5% of the West Bank) is off limit to Palestinian construction and development. These areas include areas under jurisdiction of Israeli settlements, closed military zones, nature reserves and national parks and areas designated by Israel as "state land". There are about 330,000 Israelis living in settlements in Area C, in the Judea and Samaria Area. Although Area C is under martial law, Israelis living there are judged in Israeli civil courts.
a. Data from Jerusalem includes occupied East Jerusalem with its Israeli population
East Jerusalem is administered as part of the Jerusalem District of Israel, but is claimed by Palestine as part of the Jerusalem Governorate. It was annexed by Israel in 1980, but this annexation is not recognised by any other country. Of the 456,000 people in East Jerusalem, roughly 60% are Palestinians and 40% are Israelis.
The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) foreign relations are conducted by the minister of foreign affairs. The PNA is represented abroad by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which maintains a network of missions and embassies. In states that recognise the State of Palestine it maintains embassies and in other states it maintains "delegations" or "missions".
Representations of foreign states to the Palestinian Authority are performed by "missions" or "offices" in Ramallah and Gaza. States that recognise the State of Palestine also accredit to the PLO (as the government-in-exile of the State of Palestine) non-resident ambassadors residing in third countries.
On 5 January 2013, following the 2012 UNGA resolution, Palestinian President Abbas ordered all Palestinian embassies to change any official reference to the Palestinian Authority into State of Palestine.
The Palestinian Authority is included in the European Union's European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), which aims at bringing the EU and its neighbours closer.
In April 1995, the Palestinian Authority, pursuant to the Oslo Accords with the State of Israel, started to issue passports to Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip and West Bank. The appearance of the passport and details about its issuance are described in Appendix C of Annex II (Protocol Concerning Civil Affairs) of Gaza-Jericho Agreement signed by Israel and the PLO on 4 May 1994. The Palestinian Authority does not issue the passports on behalf of the proclaimed State of Palestine. The passports bear the inscription: ""This passport/travel document is issued pursuant to the Palestinian Self Government Agreement according to Oslo Agreement signed in Washington on 13/9/1993"". By September 1995, the passport had been recognised by 29 states, some of them (e.g. the United States) recognise it only as a travel document (see further details below): Algeria, Bahrain, Bulgaria, People's Republic of China, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, India, Iran, Jordan, Malta, Morocco, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
While the U.S. Government recognises Palestinian Authority passports as travel documents, it does not view them as conferring citizenship, since they are not issued by a government that they recognise. Consular officials representing the Governments of Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, when asked by the Resource Information Center of UNHCR in May 2002, would not comment on whether their governments viewed PA passports as conferring any proof of citizenship or residency, but did say that the passports, along with valid visas or other necessary papers, would allow their holders to travel to their countries.
The Palestinian Authority has said that anyone born in Palestine carrying a birth certificate attesting to that can apply for a PA passport. Whether or not Palestinians born outside Palestine could apply was not clear to the PA Representative questioned by UNHCR representatives in May 2002. The PA representative also said even if those applying met the PA's eligibility criteria, the Israeli government placed additional restrictions on the actual issuance of passports.
In October 2007, a Japanese Justice Ministry official said, "Given that the Palestinian Authority has improved itself to almost a full-fledged state and issues its own passports, we have decided to accept the Palestinian nationality." The decision followed a recommendation by a ruling party panel on nationality that Palestinians should no longer be treated as stateless.
In February 2015 in a civil case considered by a US federal court the Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization were found liable for the death and injuries of US citizens in a number of terrorist attacks in Israel from 2001 to 2004. However, on 31 August 2016, the Second US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan dismissed the lawsuit on the grounds that US federal courts lacked overseas jurisdiction on civil cases.
The creation of a Palestinian police force was called for under the Oslo Accords. The first Palestinian police force of 9,000 was deployed in Jericho in 1994, and later in Gaza. These forces initially struggled to control security in the areas in which it had partial controlled and because of this Israel delayed expansion of the area to be administered by the PA. By 1996, the PA security forces were estimated to include anywhere from 40,000 to 80,000 recruits. PA security forces employ some armored cars, and a limited number carry automatic weapons. Some Palestinians opposed to or critical of the peace process perceive the Palestinian security forces to be little more than a proxy of the State of Israel.
The Gaza International Airport was built by the PA in the city of Rafah, but operated for only a brief period before being destroyed by Israel following the outbreak of Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000. A sea port was also being constructed in Gaza but was never completed.
Some Palestinians are dependent on access to the Israeli job market. During the 1990s, some Israeli companies began to replace Palestinians with foreign workers. The process was found to be economical and also addressed security concerns. This hurt the Palestinian economy, in particular in the Gaza strip, where 45.7% of the population is under the poverty line according to the CIA World Factbook, but it also affected the West Bank.
According to the World Bank, the budget deficit in PNA was about $800 million in 2005, with nearly half of it financed by donors. The World Bank stated, "The PA's fiscal situation has become increasingly unsustainable mainly as a result of uncontrolled government consumption, in particular a rapidly increasing public sector wage bill, expanding social transfer schemes and rising net lending."
In June 2011, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad stated that the Palestinian Authority is facing a financial crisis because funds pledged by donor nations have not arrived on time. Fayyad said that "In 2011, we have been receiving $52.5 million dollars a month from the Arab countries, which is much less than the amount they committed to deliver."
In June 2012, the Palestinian Authority was unable to pay its workers' salaries as a result of their financial issues, including a cutback in aid from foreign donors, and Arab countries not fulfilling their pledges to send money to the Palestinian Authority, in which the Palestinian Authority is heavily dependent. Finance Minister Nabil Kassis called the crisis "the worst" in three years. Adding to the complications are the fact that in the same month, the head of the Palestine Monetary Authority, Jihad Al-Wazir, stated that the Palestinian Authority reached the maximum limit of borrowing from Palestinian banks.
In July 2012, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad urged Arab countries to send the money they promised, which amounts to tens of millions of dollars, as they have not made good on their pledges, while Western donors have. The Palestinian labor minister Ahmed Majdalani also warned of the consequences of a shortfall in the delivery of aid from Arab donor nations.
In order to help the Palestinian Authority solve its crisis, Israel sought $1 billion in loans from the International Monetary Fund, intending to transfer this loan to the Palestinian Authority who would pay them back when possible. The IMF rejected the proposal because it feared setting a precedent of making IMF money available to non-state entities, like the Palestinian Authority, which as a non-state cannot directly request or receive IMF funding.
In mid-July 2012, it was announced that Saudi Arabia would imminently send $100 million to the Palestinian Authority to help relieve them of their financial crisis. Still, the Palestinian Authority is seeking the support of other countries to send more money to help fix a budget deficit that is approximately $1.5 billion for 2012, and it is estimated that they need approximately $500 million more. Ghassan Khatib, a Palestinian Authority spokesman, said, "This $100 million is important and significant because it's coming from a leading Arab state, and this hopefully can be an example for other countries to follow... We will remain in need of external funding. Whenever it is affected, then we will be in crisis."
By 15 July 2012, Palestinian Authority workers received only 60% of their salaries for June, which caused discontent against the government.
In a "goodwill gesture" to the Palestinian Authority to renew dialogue with Israel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz decided to give Ramallah an NIS 180 million advance on tax money it transfers on a monthly basis. The Israeli government's economic cabinet also decided to increase the number of Palestinian construction workers allowed in Israel by approximately 5,000. One Israeli official said that the money helped the Palestinian Authority pay its salaries before Ramadan, and it was part of Israel's policy of helping to "preserve the Palestinian economy."
The World Bank issued a report in July 2012 that the Palestinian economy cannot sustain statehood as long as it continues to heavily rely on foreign donations and the private sector fails to thrive. The report said that the Palestinian Authority is unlikely to reach fiscal sustainability until a peace deal is achieved that allows the private sector to experience rapid and sustained growth. The World Bank report also blamed the financial issues on the absence of a final status agreement that would allow for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Arab conflict.
As of May 2011 the Palestinian Authority spent $4.5 million per month paying Palestinian prisoners. The payments include monthly amounts such as NIS 12,000 ($3,000) to prisoners who have been imprisoned for over 30 years. The salaries, funded by the PA, are given to Fatah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad prisoners, despite financial hardships by the Palestinian Authority. These payments make up 6% of the PA's budget.
, the PA has a debt of 1.8 bln NIS to the Israel Electric Corporation.
In 2017, the PA received $693 million from foreign donors, of which $345 million, was paid out through the Martyrs Fund in the form of stipends to convicted militants and their families.
A poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research revealed that 71% of Palestinians believe there is corruption in the Palestinian Authority institutions in the West Bank, and 57% say there is corruption in the institutions of the dismissed Palestinian government in the Gaza Strip. 34% say that there is no freedom of the press in the West Bank, 21% say that there is press freedom in the West Bank, and 41% say there is to a certain extent. 29% of Palestinians say people in the West Bank can criticize the government in the West Bank without fear.
At a hearing of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs in the United States Congress on 10 July 2012, titled "Chronic Kleptocracy: Corruption within the Palestinian Political Establishment," it was stated that there is serious corruption within the political establishment and in financial transactions. The experts, analysts, and specialists testified on corruption within financial transactions concerning Mahmoud Abbas, his sons Yasser and Tareq, and the Palestine Investment Fund, among others, as well as on the limiting of freedom of the press, crushing political opposition, and cracking down on protestors. According to Representative Steve Chabot, who testified at the hearing, "Reports suggest that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, like his predecessor Yassir Arafat, has used his position of power to line his own pockets as well as those of his cohort of cronies, including his sons, Yasser and Tareq. The Palestinian Investment Fund, for example, was intended to serve the interests of the Palestinian population and was supposed to be transparent, accountable, and independent of the Palestinian political leadership. Instead it is surrounded by allegations of favoritism and fraud." Concerning Abbas' children, Chabot stated that "Even more disturbingly, Yasser and Tareq Abbas—who have amassed a great deal of wealth and economic power—have enriched themselves with U.S. taxpayer money. They have allegedly received hundreds of thousands of dollars in USAID contracts."
In April 2013, the Palestinian organization Coalition for Transparency in Palestine said it was investigating 29 claims of stolen public funds. In addition, they said that that PA "has problems with money laundering, nepotism and misusing official positions." Twelve earlier claims were investigated and sent to the courts for resolution. In response, Palestinian Authority Justice Minister Ali Muhanna said that they have "made large strides in reducing corruption."
The majority of aid to the Palestinian Authority comes from the United States and European Union. According to figures released by the PA, only 22 percent of the $530,000,000 received since the beginning of 2010 came from Arab donors. The remaining came from Western donors and organizations. The total amount of foreign aid received directly by the PA was $1.4 billion in 2009 and $1.8 billion in 2008.
Palestinian leaders stated the Arab world was "continuing to ignore" repeated requests for help.
The US and the EU responded to Hamas' political victory by stopping direct aid to the PA, while the US imposed a financial blockade on PA's banks, impeding some of the Arab League's funds (e.g. Saudi Arabia and Qatar) from being transferred to the PA. On 6 and 7 May 2006, hundreds of Palestinians demonstrated in Gaza and the West Bank demanding payment of their wages.
In 2013 there are 150,000 government employees. Income to run the government to serve about 4 million citizens, comes from donations from other countries.
Following the January 2006 legislative elections, won by Hamas, the Quartet (the United States, Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations) threatened to cut funds to the Palestinian Authority. On 2 February 2006, according to the AFP, the PA accused Israel of "practicing collective punishment after it snubbed US calls to unblock funds owed to the Palestinians." Prime minister Ahmed Qorei "said he was hopeful of finding alternative funding to meet the budget shortfall of around 50 million dollars, needed to pay the wages of public sector workers, and which should have been handed over by Israel on the first of the month." The US Department criticized Israel for refusing to quickly unblock the funds. The funds were later unblocked. However, the "New York Times" alleged on 14 February 2006 that a "destabilization plan" of the United States and Israel, aimed against Hamas, winner of the January 2006 legislative elections, centered "largely on money" and cutting all funds to the PA once Hamas takes power, in order to delegitimize it in the eyes of the Palestinians. According to the news article, "The Palestinian Authority has a monthly cash deficit of some $60 million to $70 million after it receives between $50 million and $55 million a month from Israel in taxes and customs duties collected by Israeli officials at the borders but owed to the Palestinians." Beginning March 2006, "the Palestinian Authority will face a cash deficit of at least $110 million a month, or more than $1 billion a year, which it needs to pay full salaries to its 140,000 employees, who are the breadwinners for at least one-third of the Palestinian population. The employment figure includes some 58,000 members of the security forces, most of which are affiliated with the defeated Fatah movement." Since 25 January elections, "the Palestinian stock market has already fallen about 20 percent", while the "Authority has exhausted its borrowing capacity with local banks."
In February 2004, it was reported that the European Union (EU) anti-fraud office (OLAF) was studying documents suggesting that Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority had diverted tens of millions of dollars in EU funds to organizations involved in terrorist attacks, such as the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. However, in August 2004, a provisional assessment stated that "To date, there is no evidence that funds from the non-targeted EU Direct Budget Assistance to the Palestinian Authority have been used to finance illegal activities, including terrorism."
The US House for Foreign Operations announced a foreign assistance package to the Palestinian Authority that included provisions that would bar the government from receiving aid if it seeks statehood at the UN or includes Hamas in a unity government. The bill would provide $513 million for the Palestinian Authority.
On 22 July 2004, Salam Fayyad, PA Minister of Finance, in an article in the Palestinian weekly, "The Jerusalem Times", detailed the following payments to Palestinians imprisoned by the Israeli authorities:
In February 2011, The Jerusalem Post revealed that the PA was paying monthly salaries to members of Hamas who are in Israeli prisons.
In March 2009, an extra 800 shekels ($190) was added to the stipends given to Palestinians affiliated with PLO factions in Israeli prisons, as confirmed by the head of Palestinian Prisoner Society in Nablus Ra'ed Amer. Each PLO-affiliated prisoner receives 1,000 shekels ($238) per month, an extra 300 shekels ($71) if they are married, and an extra 50 shekels ($12) for each child.
In 2016 the United Kingdom had a domestic debate about how its aid to the PA ended up funding prisoners incarcerated in Israel. In October 2016 a sum of £25 million, constituting a third of its aid payments, was withheld pending the results of an investigation.
James G. Lindsay a former UNRWA general-counsel and fellow researcher for Washington Institute for Near East Policy published a report regarding the use of international aid in the Palestinian Authority. Lindsay argued that internationally funded construction projects in the West Bank should try to minimize foreign labor and maximize the participation of Palestinian workers and management to ensure economic expansion through salaries, job training, and improved infrastructure. Lindsay stated that some financial control should stay in international hands to avoid "nepotism or corruption".
Lindsay has also argued that in any peace settlement acceptable to Israel "there will be few, if any, Palestinian refugees returning to Israel proper".
Lindsay suggested that internationally funded construction projects should try to benefit West Bank refugees who are willing to give up their longstanding demand for a "right of return". Lindsay also claimed that projects that will improve the living conditions of West Bank refugees could also be seen as part of the reparations or damages to be paid to refugees in any likely Israeli-Palestinian agreement. Lindsay criticized the Palestinian Authority treatment of these refugees:
PA projects are not likely to address refugee needs, however, since the PA has traditionally deferred to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) regarding infrastructure in refugee camps. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24093 |
Diana, Princess of Wales
Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997) was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, the heir apparent to the British throne, and the mother of Prince William and Prince Harry. Diana's activism and glamour made her an international icon and earned her an enduring popularity as well as an unprecedented public scrutiny, exacerbated by her tumultuous private life.
Diana was born into the British nobility and grew up close to the royal family on their Sandringham estate. The youngest daughter of John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer, and Frances Shand Kydd, she was strongly affected by their divorce in 1967. She did not distinguish herself academically, but was talented in music, dance, and sports. In 1978, she moved to London, where she lived with flatmates and took on various low-paying jobs.
Diana came to prominence in 1981 upon her engagement to Prince Charles, the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II, after a brief courtship. Their wedding took place at St Paul's Cathedral in 1981 and made her Princess of Wales, a role in which she was enthusiastically received by the public. The couple had two sons, the princes William and Harry, who were then second and third in the line of succession to the British throne. Diana's marriage to Charles, however, suffered due to their incompatibility and extramarital affairs. The couple separated in 1992, soon after the breakdown of their relationship became public knowledge. The details of their marital difficulties became increasingly publicised, and the marriage ended in divorce in 1996.
As Princess of Wales, Diana undertook royal duties on behalf of the Queen and represented her at functions across the Commonwealth realms. She was celebrated in the media for her unconventional approach to charity work. Her patronages initially centered on children and youth but she later became known for her involvement with AIDS patients and campaign for the removal of landmines. She also raised awareness and advocated ways to help people affected with cancer and mental illness. As princess, Diana was initially noted for her shyness, but her charisma and friendliness endeared her to the public and helped her reputation survive the acrimonious collapse of her marriage. Considered to be very photogenic, she was a leader of fashion in the 1980s and 1990s. Media attention and public mourning were extensive after her death in a car crash in a Paris tunnel in 1997 and subsequent televised funeral. Her legacy has had a deep impact on the royal family and British society.
Diana Frances Spencer was born on 1 July 1961 at Park House, Sandringham, Norfolk. She was the fourth of five children of John Spencer, Viscount Althorp (1924–1992), and Frances Spencer, Viscountess Althorp (née Roche; 1936–2004). The Spencer family had been closely allied with the British royal family for several generations; Diana's grandmothers, Cynthia Spencer, Countess Spencer and Ruth Roche, Baroness Fermoy, had served as ladies-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. The Spencers were hoping for a boy to carry on the family line, and no name was chosen for a week, until they settled on Diana Frances, after her mother and after Lady Diana Spencer, a many-times-great-aunt who was also a prospective Princess of Wales.
On 30 August 1961, Diana was baptised at St. Mary Magdalene Church, Sandringham. She grew up with three siblings: Sarah, Jane, and Charles. Her infant brother, John, died shortly after his birth one year before Diana was born. The desire for an heir added strain to the Spencers' marriage, and Lady Althorp was reportedly sent to Harley Street clinics in London to determine the cause of the "problem". The experience was described as "humiliating" by Diana's younger brother, Charles: "It was a dreadful time for my parents and probably the root of their divorce because I don't think they ever got over it." Diana grew up in Park House, situated on the Sandringham estate. The Spencers leased the house from its owner, Queen Elizabeth II. The royal family frequently holidayed at the neighbouring Sandringham House, and Diana played with the Queen's sons Prince Andrew and Prince Edward.
Diana was seven years old when her parents divorced. Her mother later began a relationship with Peter Shand Kydd and married him in 1969. Diana lived with her mother in London during her parents' separation in 1967, but during that year's Christmas holidays, Lord Althorp refused to let Diana return to London with Lady Althorp. Shortly afterwards he won custody of Diana with support from his former mother-in-law, Lady Fermoy. In 1976, Lord Althorp married Raine, Countess of Dartmouth. Diana's relationship with her stepmother was particularly bad. She resented Raine, whom she called a "bully", and on one occasion Diana "pushed her down the stairs". She later described her childhood as "very unhappy" and "very unstable, the whole thing". Diana became known as "Lady" Diana after her father later inherited the title of Earl Spencer in 1975, at which point her father moved the entire family from Park House to Althorp, the Spencer seat in Northamptonshire.
Diana was initially home-schooled under the supervision of her governess, Gertrude Allen. She began her formal education at Silfield Private School in Gayton, Norfolk, and moved to Riddlesworth Hall School, an all-girls boarding school near Thetford, when she was nine. She joined her sisters at West Heath Girls' School in Sevenoaks, Kent, in 1973. She did not shine academically, failing her O-levels twice. Her outstanding community spirit was recognised with an award from West Heath. She left West Heath when she was sixteen. Her brother Charles recalls her as being quite shy up until that time. She showed a talent for music as an accomplished pianist. Diana also excelled in swimming and diving, and studied ballet and tap dance.
After attending Institut Alpin Videmanette (a finishing school in Rougemont, Switzerland) for one term, and leaving after the Easter term of 1978, Diana returned to London, where she shared her mother's flat with two school friends. In London, she took an advanced cooking course, but seldom cooked for her roommates. She took a series of low-paying jobs; she worked as a dance instructor for youth until a skiing accident caused her to miss three months of work. She then found employment as a playgroup pre-school assistant, did some cleaning work for her sister Sarah and several of her friends, and acted as a hostess at parties. Diana spent time working as a nanny for the Robertsons, an American family living in London, and worked as a nursery teacher's assistant at the Young England School in Pimlico. In July 1979, her mother bought her a flat at Coleherne Court in Earl's Court as an 18th birthday present. She lived there with three flatmates until 25 February 1981.
Lady Diana first met Charles, Prince of Wales, the Queen's eldest son and heir apparent, when she was 16 in November 1977. He was then dating her older sister, Lady Sarah. They were guests at a country weekend during the summer of 1980 when she watched him play polo and he took a serious interest in Diana as a potential bride. The relationship progressed when he invited her aboard the royal yacht "Britannia" for a sailing weekend to Cowes. This was followed by an invitation to Balmoral (the royal family's Scottish residence) to meet his family one weekend in November 1980. Lady Diana was well received by the Queen, the Queen Mother and the Duke of Edinburgh. Prince Charles subsequently courted Diana in London. The Prince proposed on 6 February 1981, and Lady Diana accepted, but their engagement was kept secret for the next few weeks.
Their engagement became official on 24 February 1981. Diana selected a large engagement ring that consisted of 14 solitaire diamonds surrounding a 12-carat oval blue Ceylon sapphire set in 18-carat white gold, which was similar to her mother's engagement ring. The ring was made by the Crown jewellers Garrard. In 2010, it became the engagement ring of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge. The Queen Mother gave Diana a sapphire and diamond brooch as an engagement present.
Following the engagement, Diana left her occupation as a kindergarten assistant and lived for a short period at Clarence House, which was the home of the Queen Mother. She then lived at Buckingham Palace until the wedding. Diana was the first Englishwoman to marry the first in line to the throne since Anne Hyde over 300 years earlier, and she was also the first royal bride to have a paying job before her engagement. She made her first public appearance with Prince Charles in a charity ball in March 1981 at Goldsmiths' Hall, where she met Grace Kelly, who was the Princess of Monaco.
Twenty-year-old Diana became Princess of Wales when she married the Prince of Wales on 29 July 1981 at St Paul's Cathedral, which offered more seating than Westminster Abbey, a church that was generally used for royal nuptials. The service was widely described as a "fairytale wedding" and was watched by a global television audience of 750million people while 600,000 spectators lined the streets to catch a glimpse of the couple en route to the ceremony. At the altar, Diana inadvertently reversed the order of Charles's first two names, saying "Philip Charles" Arthur George instead. She did not say she would "obey" him; that traditional vow was left out at the couple's request, which caused some comment at the time. Diana wore a dress valued at £9,000 with a 25-foot (7.62-metre) train.
After she became Princess of Wales, Diana automatically acquired rank as the third-highest female in the United Kingdom Order of Precedence (after the Queen and the Queen Mother), and was fifth or sixth in the orders of precedence of her other realms, following the Queen, the relevant viceroy, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Queen Mother, and the Prince of Wales. Within a few years of the wedding, the Queen extended Diana visible tokens of membership in the royal family; she lent the Princess the Cambridge Lover's Knot Tiara, and granted her the badge of the Royal Family Order of Queen Elizabeth II.
The couple had residences at Kensington Palace and Highgrove House, near Tetbury. On 5 November 1981, the Princess's pregnancy was officially announced. In January 1982—twelve weeks into the pregnancy—Diana fell down a staircase at Sandringham, and the royal gynaecologist Sir George Pinker was summoned from London. He found that although she had suffered severe bruising, the foetus was uninjured. Diana later confessed that she had intentionally thrown herself down the stairs because she was feeling "so inadequate". In February 1982, pictures of a pregnant Diana in bikini while holidaying was published in the media. The Queen subsequently released a statement and called it "the blackest day in the history of British journalism." On 21 June 1982, the Princess gave birth to the couple's first son, Prince William. Amidst some media criticism, she decided to take William—who was still a baby—on her first major tours of Australia and New Zealand, and the decision was popularly applauded. By her own admission, the Princess of Wales had not initially intended to take William until Malcolm Fraser, the Australian prime minister, made the suggestion.
A second son, Prince Harry, was born on 15 September 1984. The Princess said she and the Prince were closest during her pregnancy with Harry. She was aware their second child was a boy, but did not share the knowledge with anyone else, including the Prince of Wales.
Diana gave her sons wider experiences than was usual for royal children. She rarely deferred to the Prince or to the royal family, and was often intransigent when it came to the children. She chose their first given names, dismissed a royal family nanny and engaged one of her own choosing, selected their schools and clothing, planned their outings, and took them to school herself as often as her schedule permitted. She also organised her public duties around their timetables.
Five years into the marriage, the couple's incompatibility and age difference of almost 13 years became visible and damaging. Charles resumed his relationship with his former girlfriend Camilla Parker Bowles, and Diana later began an affair with Major James Hewitt, the family's former riding instructor. The media speculated that Hewitt, not Charles, was Harry's father based on the alleged physical similarity between Hewitt and Harry, but Hewitt and others have denied this. Harry was born two years before Hewitt and Diana began their affair. In 1989, Diana was at a birthday party for Camilla's sister, Annabel Elliot, when she confronted Camilla about her and Charles's extramarital affair. These affairs were later exposed in May 1992 with the publication of Andrew Morton's book, "Diana: Her True Story". The book, which also revealed the Princess's allegedly suicidal unhappiness, caused a media storm. Morton later revealed that in 1991 he had also conducted a secret interview with Diana in which she had talked about her marital issues and difficulties. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh hosted a meeting between Charles and Diana and unsuccessfully tried to effect a reconciliation. Philip wrote to Diana and expressed his disappointment at the extramarital affairs of both her and Charles; he asked her to examine their behaviour from the other's point of view. The Duke was direct and Diana was sensitive. She found the letters hard to take, but nevertheless, she appreciated that he was acting with good intent. It was alleged by some people, including Diana's close friend Simone Simmons, that the Princess and her former father-in-law, Prince Philip, had a relationship filled with tension; however, other observers said their letters provided no sign of friction between them.
During 1992 and 1993, leaked tapes of telephone conversations reflected negatively on both the Prince and Princess of Wales. Tape recordings of the Princess and James Gilbey were made public in August 1992, and transcripts were published the same month. The article, "Squidgygate", was followed in November 1992 by the leaked "Camillagate" tapes, intimate exchanges between the Prince and Camilla, published in the tabloids. In December 1992, Prime Minister John Major announced the couple's "amicable separation" to the House of Commons.
Between 1992 and 1993, Diana hired voice coach Peter Settelen to help her develop her public speaking voice. In a videotape recorded by Settelen in 1992, Diana admitted that in 1984 through to 1986, she had been "deeply in love with someone who worked in this environment." It is thought she was referring to Barry Mannakee, who was transferred to the Diplomatic Protection Squad in 1986 after his managers had determined that his relationship with Diana had been inappropriate. Diana said in the tape that Mannakee had been "chucked out" from his role as her bodyguard following suspicion that the two were having an affair. Penny Junor suggested in her 1998 book that the Princess was in a romantic relationship with Mannakee. Diana's friends dismissed the claim as absurd. However, in the subsequently released tapes Diana said she had feelings for that "someone", saying "I was quite happy to give all this up [and] just to go off and live with him". She described him as "the greatest friend [she's] ever had", though she denied any sexual relationship with him. She also spoke bitterly of her husband saying that "[He] made me feel so inadequate in every possible way, that each time I came up for air he pushed me down again." Charles's aunt, Princess Margaret, burned "highly personal" letters that Diana had written to the Queen Mother in 1993. Biographer William Shawcross considered Margaret's action to be "understandable" as she was "protecting her mother and other members of the family", but "regrettable from a historical viewpoint".
Although she blamed Camilla Parker Bowles for her marital troubles, Diana began to believe her husband had also been involved in other affairs. In October 1993, the Princess wrote to her butler Paul Burrell, telling him that she believed her husband was now in love with his personal assistant Tiggy Legge-Bourke—who was also his sons' former nanny—and was planning to have her killed "to make the path clear for him to marry Tiggy". Legge-Bourke had been hired by the Prince as a young companion for his sons while they were in his care, and the Princess was resentful of Legge-Bourke and her relationship with the young princes. Prince Charles sought public understanding via a televised interview with Jonathan Dimbleby on 29 June 1994. In the interview, he said he had rekindled his relationship with Camilla in 1986 only after his marriage to the Princess had "irretrievably broken down".
In the same year, the "News of the World" claimed that Diana had made over 300 phone calls to the married art dealer Oliver Hoare. These calls were proven to have been made both from her Kensington Palace apartment and from the phone box just outside the palace. According to Hoare's obituary, there was little doubt she had been in a relationship with him. However, the Princess denied any romantic relationship with Hoare, whom she described as a friend, and said that "a young boy" was the source of the nuisance calls made to Hoare. She was also linked by the press to rugby union player Will Carling and private equity investor Theodore J. Forstmann, yet these claims were neither confirmed nor proven.
Journalist Martin Bashir interviewed Diana for the BBC current affairs show "Panorama". The interview was broadcast on 20 November 1995. The Princess discussed her own and her husband's extramarital affairs. Referring to Charles's relationship with Camilla, she said: "Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded." She also expressed doubt about her husband's suitability for kingship.
Authors Tina Brown, Sally Bedell Smith and Sarah Bradford support Diana's admission in the interview that she had suffered from depression, "rampant bulimia" and had engaged numerous times in the act of self mutilation; the show's transcript records Diana confirming many of her mental health problems, including that she had "hurt (her) arms and legs". The combination of illnesses from which Diana herself said she suffered resulted in some of her biographers opining that she had a borderline personality disorder.
The interview proved to be the tipping point. On 20 December, Buckingham Palace announced that the Queen had sent letters to the Prince and Princess of Wales, advising them to divorce. The Queen's move was backed by the Prime Minister and by senior Privy Counsellors, and, according to the BBC, was decided after two weeks of talks. Charles formally agreed to the divorce in a written statement soon after. In February 1996, the Princess announced her agreement after negotiations with the Prince and representatives of the Queen, irritating Buckingham Palace by issuing her own announcement of the divorce agreement and its terms. In July 1996, the couple agreed on the terms of their divorce. This followed shortly after the Princess's accusation that the Prince's personal assistant Tiggy Legge-Bourke had aborted the Prince's child, after which Legge-Bourke instructed her attorney Peter Carter-Ruck to demand an apology. Diana's private secretary Patrick Jephson resigned shortly before the story broke, later writing that the Princess had "exulted in accusing Legge-Bourke of having had an abortion".
The divorce was finalised on 28 August 1996. Diana received a lump sum settlement of £17million as well as £400,000 per year. The couple signed a confidentiality agreement that prohibited them from discussing the details of the divorce or of their married life. Days before, letters patent were issued with general rules to regulate royal titles after divorce. Diana lost the style "Her Royal Highness" and instead was styled "Diana, Princess of Wales". As the mother of the prince expected to one day ascend to the throne, she continued to be regarded as a member of the royal family and was accorded the same precedence she enjoyed during her marriage. The Queen reportedly wanted to let Diana continue to use the style of Royal Highness after her divorce, but Charles had insisted on removing it. Prince William was reported to have reassured his mother: "Don't worry, Mummy, I will give it back to you one day when I am King." Almost a year before, according to Tina Brown, the Duke of Edinburgh had warned the Princess of Wales: "If you don't behave, my girl, we'll take your title away." She is said to have replied: "My title is a lot older than yours, Philip." By the time of Diana's death in 1997, she had not spoken to her mother in four months. By contrast, Diana's relationship with her estranged stepmother had reportedly improved.
Following her engagement to Prince Charles, Diana made her first official public appearance in March 1981 in a charity event at Goldsmiths' Hall. In October 1981, the Prince and Princess visited Wales. Diana attended the State Opening of Parliament for the first time on 4 November 1981. Her first solo engagement was a visit to Regent Street on 18 November 1981 to switch on the Christmas lights. She attended the Trooping the Colour for the first time in June 1982, making her appearance on the balcony of Buckingham Palace afterwards. The Princess made her inaugural overseas tour in September 1982, to attend the state funeral of Grace, Princess of Monaco. Also in 1982, Diana accompanied the Prince of Wales to the Netherlands and was created a Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown by Queen Beatrix. In 1983, she accompanied the Prince on a tour of Australia and New Zealand with Prince William, where they met with representatives of the Māori people. Their visit to Canada in June and July 1983 included a trip to Edmonton to open the 1983 Summer Universiade and a stop in Newfoundland to commemorate the 400th anniversary of that island's acquisition by the Crown.
In February 1984, Diana was the patron of London City Ballet when she travelled to Norway on her own to attend a performance organised by the company. In April 1985, the Prince and Princess of Wales visited Italy, and were later joined by Princes William and Harry. They met with President Alessandro Pertini. Their visit to the Holy See included a private audience with Pope John Paul II. In November 1985, the couple visited the United States, meeting President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan at the White House. Diana had a busy year in 1986. She embarked with the Prince of Wales on a tour of Japan, Indonesia, Spain, and Canada. In Canada they visited Expo 86, where Diana fainted in the California Pavilion. In November 1986, she went on a six-day tour to the Arab Gulf States including Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, where she met King Fahd and Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said.
In 1988, the Prince and Princess of Wales visited Thailand and toured Australia for the bicentenary celebrations. In February 1989, she spent a few days in New York as a solo visit. During a tour of Harlem Hospital Center, she made a profound impact on the public by spontaneously hugging a seven-year-old child with AIDS. In March 1989, she had her second trip to the Arab Gulf States, in which she visited Kuwait and the UAE.
In March 1990, she and the Prince of Wales toured Nigeria and Cameroon. The President of Cameroon hosted an official dinner to welcome them in Yaoundé. Highlights of the tour included visits by the Princess of Wales to hospitals and projects focusing on women's development. In May 1990, they visited Hungary for four days. It was the first visit by members of the royal family to "a former Warsaw Pact country". They attended a dinner hosted by President Árpád Göncz and viewed a fashion display at the Museum of Applied Arts in Budapest. Peto Institute was among the places that were visited by the Princess, and she presented its director with an honorary OBE. In November 1990, the royal couple went to Japan to attend the enthronement of Emperor Akihito.
In her desire to play an encouraging role during the Gulf War, the Princess of Wales visited Germany in December 1990 to meet with the families of soldiers. She subsequently travelled to Germany in January 1991 to visit RAF Bruggen, and later wrote an encouraging letter which was published in "Soldier", "Navy News" and "RAF News". In 1991, the Prince and Princess of Wales visited Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, where they presented the university with a replica of their royal charter. In September 1991, the Princess visited Pakistan on a solo trip, and went to Brazil with Charles. During the Brazilian tour, Diana paid visits to organisations that battled homelessness among street children. Her final trips with Charles were to India and South Korea in 1992. She visited Mother Teresa's hospice in Kolkata, India, in 1992. The two women met each other again that year and developed a personal relationship. It was also during the Indian tour that pictures of Diana alone in front of the Taj Mahal made headlines.
In December 1993, she announced that she would withdraw from public life, but in November 1994 she said she wished to "make a partial return". In her capacity as the vice-president of British Red Cross, she was interested in playing an important role for its 125th anniversary celebrations. Later, the Queen formally invited her to attend the anniversary celebrations of D-Day. In February 1995, the Princess visited Japan. She paid a formal visit to Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, and visited the National Children's Hospital in Tokyo. In June 1995, Diana went to the Venice Biennale art festival, and also visited Moscow where she received the International Leonardo Prize. In November 1995, the Princess undertook a four-day trip to Argentina in order to attend a charity event. The Princess visited many other countries, including Belgium, Nepal, Switzerland, and Zimbabwe, alongside numerous others. During her separation from Charles which lasted for almost four years, she participated in major national occasions as a senior member of the royal family, notably including "the commemorations of the 50th anniversaries of Victory in Europe Day and Victory over Japan Day" in 1995. The Princess's 36th and final birthday celebration was held at Tate Gallery, which was also a commemorative event for the gallery's 100th anniversary.
In 1983, she confided in the then-Premier of Newfoundland, Brian Peckford, "I am finding it very difficult to cope with the pressures of being Princess of Wales, but I am learning to cope with it." As Princess of Wales, she was expected to make regular public appearances at hospitals, schools, and other facilities, in the 20th-century model of royal patronage. From the mid-1980s, she became increasingly associated with numerous charities. She carried out 191 official engagements in 1988 and 397 in 1991. The Princess developed an intense interest in serious illnesses and health-related matters outside the purview of traditional royal involvement, including AIDS and leprosy. In recognition of her effect as a philanthropist, Stephen Lee, director of the UK Institute of Charity Fundraising Managers, said "Her overall effect on charity is probably more significant than any other person's in the 20th century."
Diana's extensive charity work also included campaigning for animal protection and fighting against the use of landmines. She was the patroness of charities and organisations who worked with the homeless, youth, drug addicts, and the elderly. From 1989, she was president of Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children. She was patron of the Natural History Museum and president of the Royal Academy of Music. From 1984 to 1996, she was president of Barnardo's, a charity founded by Dr. Thomas John Barnardo in 1866 to care for vulnerable children and young people. In 1988, she became patron of the British Red Cross and supported its organisations in other countries such as Australia and Canada. She made several lengthy visits each week to Royal Brompton Hospital, where she worked to comfort seriously ill or dying patients. From 1991 to 1996, she was a patron of Headway, a brain injury association. In 1992, she became the first patron of Chester Childbirth Appeal, a charity she had supported since 1984. The charity, which is named after one of Diana's royal titles, could raise over £1 million with her help. In 1994, she helped her friend Julia Samuel launch the charity Child Bereavement UK which supports children "of military families, those of suicide victims, [and] terminally-ill parents," and became its patron. Prince William later replaced his mother as the charity's royal patron.
Her patronages also included Landmine Survivors Network, Help the Aged, the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, the British Lung Foundation, Eureka! (joint patron with Prince Charles), the National Children's Orchestra, British Red Cross Youth, the Guinness Trust, Meningitis Trust, the Malcolm Sargent Cancer Fund for Children, the Royal School for the Blind, Welsh National Opera, the Variety Club of New Zealand, Birthright, the British Deaf Association (for which she learned sign language), All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, Anglo-European College of Chiropractic, Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, British Sports Association for the Disabled, British Youth Opera, Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, London City Ballet, London Symphony Orchestra, Pre-School Playgroups Association, as well as president or patron of other charities.
In 1987, Diana was awarded the Honorary Freedom of the City of London, the highest honour which is in the power of the City of London to bestow on someone. In June 1995, the Princess travelled to Moscow. She paid a visit to a children's hospital she had previously supported when she provided them with medical equipment. In Moscow, she received the International Leonardo Prize, which is given to "the most distinguished patrons and people in the arts, medicine, and sports". In December 1995, Diana received the United Cerebral Palsy Humanitarian of the Year Award in New York City for her philanthropic efforts. In October 1996, for her works on the elderly, the Princess was awarded a gold medal at a health care conference organised by the Pio Manzù Centre in Rimini, Italy.
The day after her divorce, she announced her resignation from over 100 charities and retained patronages of only six: Centrepoint, English National Ballet, Great Ormond Street Hospital, The Leprosy Mission, National AIDS Trust, and the Royal Marsden Hospital. She continued her work with the British Red Cross Anti-Personnel Land Mines Campaign, but was no longer listed as patron.
In May 1997, the Princess opened the Richard Attenborough Centre for Disability and the Arts in Leicester, after being asked by her friend Richard Attenborough. In June 1997, her dresses and suits were sold at Christie's auction houses in London and New York, and the proceeds that were earned from these events were donated to charities. Her final official engagement was a visit to Northwick Park Hospital, London, on 21 July 1997.
The Princess began her work with AIDS victims in the 1980s. In 1989, she opened Landmark Aids Centre in South London. She was not averse to making physical contact with AIDS patients, though it was still unknown whether the disease could be spread that way. Diana was the first British royal figure to contact AIDS patients. In 1987, she held hands with an AIDS patient in one of her early efforts to de-stigmatise the condition. Diana noted: "HIV does not make people dangerous to know. You can shake their hands and give them a hug. Heaven knows they need it. What's more, you can share their homes, their workplaces, and their playgrounds and toys." To Diana's disappointment, the Queen did not support this type of charity work, suggesting she get involved in "something more pleasant". In October 1990, Diana opened Grandma's House, a home for young AIDS victims in Washington, D.C. She was also a patron of the National AIDS Trust. In 1991, she hugged one victim during a visit to the AIDS ward of the Middlesex Hospital, which she had opened in 1987 as the first hospital unit dedicated to this cause in the UK. As the patron of Turning Point, a health and social care organisation, Diana visited its project in London for people with HIV/AIDS in 1992. She later established and led fundraising campaigns for AIDS research.
In March 1997, Diana visited South Africa, where she met with President Nelson Mandela. On 2 November 2002, Mandela announced that the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund would be teaming up with the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund to help victims of AIDS. They had planned the combination of the two charities a few months before her death. Mandela later praised Diana for her efforts surrounding the issue of HIV/AIDS: "When she stroked the limbs of someone with leprosy or sat on the bed of a man with HIV/AIDS and held his hand, she transformed public attitudes and improved the life chances of such people". Diana had used her celebrity status to "fight stigma attached to people living with HIV/AIDS", Mandela said. In 2009, a panel including Sir Ian McKellen and Alan Hollinghurst chose Diana's portrait to be shown in the Gay Icons exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, London. In October 2017, the "Attitude" magazine honoured Diana with its Legacy Award for her HIV/AIDS work. Prince Harry accepted the award on behalf of his mother.
Diana was the patron of HALO Trust, an organisation that removes debris—particularly landmines—left behind by war. In January 1997, pictures of Diana touring an Angolan minefield in a ballistic helmet and flak jacket were seen worldwide. During her campaign, she was accused of meddling in politics and called a 'loose cannon' by the Earl Howe, an official in the British Ministry of Defence. Despite the criticism, HALO states that Diana's efforts resulted in raising international awareness about landmines and the subsequent sufferings caused by them. In June 1997, she gave a speech at a landmines conference held at the Royal Geographical Society, and travelled to Washington, D.C. to help promote the American Red Cross landmines campaign. From 7 to 10 August 1997, just days before her death, she visited Bosnia and Herzegovina with Jerry White and Ken Rutherford of the Landmine Survivors Network.
Her work on the landmines issue has been described as influential in the signing of the Ottawa Treaty, which created an international ban on the use of anti-personnel landmines. Introducing the Second Reading of the Landmines Bill 1998 to the British House of Commons, the Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, paid tribute to Diana's work on landmines:All Honourable Members will be aware from their postbags of the immense contribution made by Diana, Princess of Wales to bringing home to many of our constituents the human costs of landmines. The best way in which to record our appreciation of her work, and the work of NGOs that have campaigned against landmines, is to pass the Bill, and to pave the way towards a global ban on landmines.
A few months after Diana's death in 1997, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines won the Nobel Peace Prize.
For her first solo official trip, Diana visited The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, a cancer treatment hospital in London. She later chose this charity to be among the organisations that benefited from the auction of her clothes in New York. The trust's communications manager said, "The Princess had done much to remove the stigma and taboo associated with diseases such as cancer, AIDS, HIV and leprosy." Diana became president of the hospital on 27 June 1989. The Wolfson Children's Cancer Unit was opened by Diana on 25 February 1993. In February 1996, the Princess who had been informed about a newly opened cancer hospital built by Imran Khan, travelled to Pakistan to visit its children's cancer wards and attend a fundraising dinner in aid of the charity in Lahore. She later visited the hospital again in May 1997. In June 1996, she travelled to Chicago in her capacity as president of the Royal Marsden Hospital in order to attend a fundraising event and raised more than £1 million for cancer research. In September 1996, after being asked by Katharine Graham, the Princess went to Washington and appeared at a White House breakfast in respect of the Nina Hyde Center for Breast Cancer Research. She also attended an annual fund-raiser for breast cancer research organised by "The Washington Post" at the same centre.
In 1988, the Princess of Wales opened Children with Leukaemia (later renamed Children with Cancer UK) in memory of two young cancer victims. In November 1987, a few days after the death of Jean O'Gorman from cancer, Diana met her family. The deaths of Jean and her brother affected the Princess, and she assisted their family to establish the charity. It was opened by her on 12 January 1988 at Mill Hill Secondary School, and she supported it until her death in 1997.
In November 1989, the Princess visited a leprosy hospital in Indonesia. Following her visit, she became patron of the Leprosy Mission, an organisation dedicated to providing medicine, treatment, and other support services to those who are afflicted with the disease. She remained the patron of this charity and visited several of its hospitals around the world, especially in India, Nepal, Zimbabwe and Nigeria until her death in 1997. She touched those affected by the disease when many people believed it could be contracted through casual contact. "It has always been my concern to touch people with leprosy, trying to show in a simple action that they are not reviled, nor are we repulsed," she commented. The Diana Princess of Wales Health Education and Media Centre in Noida, India, was opened in her honour in November 1999, funded by the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Fund to give social support to the people affected by leprosy and disability.
Diana was a long-standing and active supporter of Centrepoint, a charity which provides accommodation and support to homeless people, and became patron in 1992. She supported organisations that battle poverty and homelessness. The Princess was a supporter of young homeless people and spoke out on behalf of them by saying that "they deserve a decent start in life". "We, as a part of society, must ensure that young people – who are our future – are given the chance they deserve," she said. Diana used to take young William and Harry for private visits to Centrepoint services and homeless shelters. "The young people at Centrepoint were always really touched by her visits and by her genuine feelings for them," said one of the charity's staff members. Prince William later became the patron of this charity.
Diana was a staunch and longtime supporter of charities and organisations that focused on social and mental issues, including Relate and Turning Point. Relate was relaunched in 1987 as a renewed version to its predecessor, the National Marriage Guidance Council. Diana became its patron in 1989. Turning Point, a health and social care organisation, was founded in 1964 to help and support those affected by drug and alcohol misuse and mental health problems. She became the charity's patron in 1987 and visited the charity on a regular basis, meeting the sufferers at its centres or institutions including Rampton and Broadmoor. In 1990 during a speech for Turning Point she said, "It takes professionalism to convince a doubting public that it should accept back into its midst many of those diagnosed as psychotics, neurotics and other sufferers who Victorian communities decided should be kept out of sight in the safety of mental institutions." Despite the protocol problems of travelling to a Muslim country, she made a trip to Pakistan later that year in order to visit a rehabilitation centre in Lahore as a sign of "her commitment to working against drug abuse".
In 1993, Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) published photographs of the Princess that were taken by gym owner Bryce Taylor. The photos showed her exercising in the gym LA Fitness wearing "a leotard and cycling shorts". The Princess's lawyers immediately filed a criminal complaint that sought "a permanent ban on the sale and publication of the photographs" around the world. However, some newspapers outside the UK published the pictures. The courts granted an injunction against Taylor and MGN that prohibited "further publication of the pictures". MGN later issued an apology after facing much criticism from the public. It is said that MGN gave the Princess £1 million as a payment for her legal costs and donated £200,000 to her charities. Taylor apologised as well and paid Diana £300,000, although it was alleged that a member of the royal family had helped him financially.
After her 1996 divorce, Diana retained the double apartment on the north side of Kensington Palace that she had shared with the Prince of Wales since the first year of their marriage; the apartment remained her home until her death the following year. She also moved her offices to Kensington Palace but was permitted "to use the state apartments at St James's Palace". Furthermore, she continued to have access to the jewellery that she had received during her marriage, and was allowed to use the air transport of the British royal family and government. In a book published in 2003, Paul Burrell claimed the Princess's private letters had revealed that her brother, Lord Spencer, had refused to allow her to live at Althorp, despite her request.
Diana dated the British-Pakistani heart surgeon Hasnat Khan, who was called "the love of her life" by many of her closest friends after her death, and she is said to have described him as "Mr Wonderful". In May 1996, Diana visited Lahore upon invitation of Imran Khan, a relative of Hasnat Khan, and visited the latter's family in secret. Khan was intensely private and the relationship was conducted in secrecy, with Diana lying to members of the press who questioned her about it. Their relationship lasted almost two years with differing accounts of who ended it. She is said to have spoken of her distress when "he" ended their relationship. However, according to Khan's testimonial at the inquest for her death, it was Diana who ended their relationship in the summer of 1997. Burrell also said the relationship was ended by the Princess in July 1997. Burrell also claimed that Diana's mother, Frances Shand Kydd, disapproved of her daughter's relationship with a Muslim man.
Within a month, Diana began a relationship with Dodi Fayed, the son of her summer host, Mohamed Al-Fayed. That summer, Diana had considered taking her sons on a holiday to the Hamptons on Long Island, New York, but security officials had prevented it. After deciding against a trip to Thailand, she accepted Fayed's invitation to join his family in the south of France, where his compound and large security detail would not cause concern to the Royal Protection squad. Mohamed Al-Fayed bought the "Jonikal", a 60-metre multimillion-pound yacht on which to entertain Diana and her sons.
On 31 August 1997, Diana died in a car crash in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in Paris while the driver was fleeing the paparazzi. The crash also resulted in the deaths of her companion Dodi Fayed and the driver, Henri Paul, who was the acting security manager of the Hôtel Ritz Paris. Diana's bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, survived the crash. The televised funeral, on 6 September, was watched by a British television audience that peaked at 32.10million, which was one of the United Kingdom's highest viewing figures ever. Millions more watched the event around the world.
The sudden and unexpected death of an extraordinarily popular royal figure brought statements from senior figures worldwide and many tributes by members of the public. People left public offerings of flowers, candles, cards, and personal messages outside Kensington Palace for many months. Her coffin, draped with the royal flag, was brought to London from Paris by Prince Charles and Diana's two sisters on 31 August 1997. The coffin was taken to a private mortuary and then placed in the Chapel Royal, St James's Palace.
On 5 September, Queen Elizabeth II paid tribute to her in a live television broadcast. Diana's funeral took place in Westminster Abbey on 6 September. Her sons walked in the funeral procession behind her coffin, along with her ex-husband the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Edinburgh, Diana's brother Lord Spencer, and representatives of some of her charities. Lord Spencer said of his sister, "She proved in the last year that she needed no royal title to continue to generate her particular brand of magic." Re-written in tribute to Diana, "Candle in the Wind 1997" was performed by Elton John at the funeral service (the only occasion the song has been performed live). Released as a single in 1997, the global proceeds from the song have gone to Diana's charities.
The burial took place privately later the same day. Diana's former husband, sons, mother, siblings, a close friend, and a clergyman were present. Diana's body was clothed in a black long-sleeved dress designed by Catherine Walker, which she had chosen some weeks before. A set of rosary beads that she had received from Mother Teresa was placed in her hands. Mother Teresa had died the same week as Diana. Diana's grave is on an island () within the grounds of Althorp Park, the Spencer family home for centuries.
The burial party was provided by the 2nd Battalion The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment, who were given the honour of carrying the Princess across to the island and laying her to rest. Diana was the Regiment's Colonel-in-Chief from 1992 to 1996. The original plan was for Diana to be buried in the Spencer family vault at the local church in nearby Great Brington, but Lord Spencer said he was concerned about public safety and security and the onslaught of visitors that might overwhelm Great Brington. He decided Diana would be buried where her grave could be easily cared for and visited in privacy by William, Harry, and other Spencer relatives.
The initial French judicial investigation concluded that the crash was caused by Paul's intoxication, reckless driving, speeding (65mph), and effects of prescription drugs. In February 1998, Mohamed Al-Fayed, owner of the Paris Ritz where Paul had worked, publicly said the crash had been planned and accused MI6 and the Duke of Edinburgh. An inquest that started in London in 2004 and continued in 2007–08 attributed the crash to grossly negligent driving by Paul and to the pursuing paparazzi, who forced Paul to speed into the tunnel. On 7 April 2008, the jury returned a verdict of "unlawful killing". On the day after the final verdict of the inquest, Al-Fayed announced that he would end his 10-year campaign to establish that the tragedy was murder rather than an accident; he said he did so for the sake of the Princess's children.
Following her death, Diana left a £21 million estate, "netting £17 million after estate taxes", which were left in the hands of trustees, her mother, and her sister, Lady Sarah. The will was signed in June 1993, but Diana had it modified in February 1996 to remove the name of her personal secretary from the list of trustees and have her sister Sarah replace him. After applying personal and inheritance taxes, a net estate of £12.9 million was left to be distributed among the beneficiaries. Her two sons subsequently inherited the majority of her estate. Each of them received their part upon turning 30 years old in 2012 and 2014 respectively. Many of Diana's possessions were initially left in the care of her brother who put them on show in Althorp twice a year until they were returned to the princes. They were also put on display in American museums and raised two million dollars for charities. Among the objects were her dresses and suits along with numerous family paintings, jewels and two diamond tiaras. Diana's engagement ring was given to William, who later passed it to his wife, Catherine Middleton, while her wedding dress and a yellow gold watch were given to Harry.
In addition to her will, Diana had also written a letter of wishes in which she had asked for three-fourths of her personal property to be given to her sons, and dividing the remaining one-fourth (aside from the jewelry) between her 17 godchildren. Despite Diana's wishes, the executors (her mother and sister) "petitioned the probate court for a "variance" of the will", and the letter of wishes was ignored "because it did not contain certain language required by British law". Eventually, one item from Diana's estate was given to each of her godchildren, while they would have received £100,000 each, had one-fourth of her estate been divided between them. The variance also prevented the estate from being distributed between her sons at the age of 25 but postponed it until they were 30. Diana also left her butler Paul Burrell around £50,000 in cash.
In 1999, after the submission of a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Internet news service "apbonline.com", it was revealed that Diana had been placed under surveillance by the National Security Agency until her death, and the organisation kept a top secret file on her containing more than 1,000 pages. The contents of Diana's NSA file cannot be disclosed because of national security concerns. The NSA officials insisted Diana was not a "target of [their] massive, worldwide electronic eavesdropping infrastructure." Despite multiple inquiries for the files to be declassified—with one of the notable ones being filed by Mohamed Al-Fayed—the NSA has refused to release the documents.
In 2008, Ken Wharfe, a former bodyguard of the Princess, claimed that her scandalous conversations with James Gilbey (commonly referred to as the Squidgygate) were in fact recorded by the GCHQ, which intentionally released them on a "loop". People close to the Princess believed the action was intended to defame her. Wharfe said Diana herself believed that members of the royal family were all being monitored, though he also stated that the main reason of it could be due to the potential threats of the IRA.
The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund was established after her death and was granted intellectual property rights over her image. In 1998, the fund sued the Franklin Mint, accusing it of illegally selling Diana dolls, plates, and jewellery after having been refused a license to do so. In California, where the initial case was tried, a suit to preserve the right of publicity may be filed on behalf of a dead person, but only if that person is a Californian. The Memorial Fund therefore filed the lawsuit on behalf of the estate and, upon losing the case, was required to pay the Franklin Mint's legal costs of £3million which, combined with other fees, caused the Memorial Fund to freeze its grants to charities. In 2003, the Franklin Mint counter-sued. In November 2004, the case was settled out of court with the Memorial Fund agreeing to pay £13.5 million (US$21.5 million) to charitable causes on which both sides agreed. In addition to this, the Memorial Fund had spent a total of close to £4 million (US$6.5 million) in costs and fees relating to this litigation, and as a result froze grants allocated to a number of charities.
On the first anniversary of Diana's death, people left flowers and bouquets outside the gates of Kensington Palace and a memorial service was held at Westminster Abbey. The royal family and the Prime Minister and his family went to Crathie Kirk for private prayers, while Diana's family held a private memorial service at Althorp. All flags at Buckingham Palace and other royal residences were flown at half-mast on the Queen's orders. The Union Jack was first lowered to half-mast on the day of Diana's funeral and has set a precedent, as based on the previous protocol no flag could ever fly at half-mast over the palace "even on the death of a monarch". Since 1997, however, the flag has flown at half-mast upon the deaths of members of the royal family, and other times of national mourning.
The Concert for Diana at Wembley Stadium was held on 1 July 2007. The event, organised by the Princes William and Harry, celebrated the 46th anniversary of their mother's birth and occurred a few weeks before the 10th anniversary of her death on 31 August. The proceeds from this event were donated to Diana's charities. On 31 August 2007, a memorial service for Diana took place in the Guards Chapel. Guests included members of the royal family and their relatives, members of the Spencer family, members of Diana's wedding party, Diana's close friends and aides, representatives from many of her charities, British politicians Gordon Brown, Tony Blair, and John Major, and friends from the entertainment world such as David Frost, Elton John, and Cliff Richard.
In January 2013, a previously unseen photograph of Diana taken during her engagement to Charles was put up for auction. The picture belonged to the "Daily Mirror" newspaper and has "Not to be published" written on it. In it, a young Diana lies across the lap of an unidentified man.
On 19 March 2013, ten of Diana's dresses, including a midnight blue velvet gown she wore to a 1985 state dinner at the White House when she danced with John Travolta (which became known as the Travolta dress), raised over £800,000 at auction in London.
In January 2017, a series of letters that Diana and other members of the royal family had written to a Buckingham Palace steward were sold as a part of a collection titled "the private letters between a trusted butler and the royal family". The six letters that were written by Diana included information about her young sons' daily life and raised £15,100.
"Diana: Her Fashion Story", an exhibition of gowns and suits worn by the Princess, was announced to be opened at Kensington Palace in February 2017 as a tribute to mark her 20th death anniversary, with her favorite dresses created by numerous fashion designers, including Catherine Walker and Victor Edelstein, being displayed. The exhibition opened on 24 February displaying a collection of 25 dresses, and was set to remain open until 2018.
Other tributes planned for the anniversary included exhibitions at Althorp hosted by the Princess's brother, Earl Spencer, a series of commemorating events organised by the Diana Memorial Award, as well as restyling Kensington Gardens and creating a new section called "The White Garden" in order to symbolise Diana's life and style.
On 31 August 2019, the Princess Diana 3D Virtual Museum was launched to mark the 22nd anniversary of Diana's death. Operated by the Princess & the Platypus Foundation, the online museum consists of over 1,000 of Diana's items which were photographed using the techniques of virtual reality.
Diana remains one of the most popular members of the royal family throughout history, and she continues to influence the principles of the royal family and its younger generations. She was a major presence on the world stage from her engagement to the Prince of Wales in 1981 until her death in 1997, and was often described as the "world's most photographed woman". She was noted for her compassion, style, charisma, and high-profile charity work, as well as her ill-fated marriage to the Prince of Wales. Diana's former private secretary, Patrick Jephson described her as an organised and hardworking person, and pointed out that the Princess's husband was not able to "reconcile with his wife's extraordinary popularity", a viewpoint supported by biographer Tina Brown. He also said she was a tough boss who was "equally quick to appreciate hard work", but could also be defiant "if she felt she had been the victim of injustice". Paul Burrell, who worked as a butler for the Princess, remembered her as a "deep thinker" capable of "introspective analysis". She was often described as a devoted mother to her children, who are believed to be influenced by her personality and way of life. In the early years, Diana was often noted for her shy nature, while journalist Michael White perceived her as being "smart", "shrewd and funny". Those who communicated with her closely describe her as a person who was led by "her heart". In an article for "The Guardian", Monica Ali described Diana as having a strong character, because she entered the royal family as an inexperienced girl with little education, but could handle their expectations, and overcome the difficulties and sufferings of her marital life. Ali also believes that she "had a lasting influence on the public discourse, particularly in matters of mental health" by discussing her eating disorder publicly.
Diana was widely known for her encounters with sick and dying patients, and the poor and unwanted whom she used to comfort, an action that earned her more popularity. She was mindful of people's thoughts and feelings, and later revealed her wish to become a beloved figure among the people, saying in her 1995 interview, that "[She would] like to be a queen of people's hearts, in people's hearts." According to Tina Brown, she could charm people with a single glance. Brown also points out that Diana's fame had spread around the world, even affecting Tony Blair who reportedly said Diana had shown the nation "a new way to be British". Diana is often credited with widening the range of charity works carried out by the royal family in a more modern style, as well as affecting some of the household's traditional manners. Eugene Robinson of "The Washington Post" wrote in an article that "Diana imbued her role as royal princess with vitality, activism and, above all, glamour." Alicia Carroll of "The New York Times" described Diana as "a breath of fresh air" who was the main reason the royal family was known in the United States. Despite all the marital issues and scandals, Diana continued to enjoy a high level of popularity in the polls while her husband was suffering from low levels of public approval. Her peak popularity rate in the United Kingdom between 1981 and 2012 was 47%.
Diana had become what Prime Minister Tony Blair called the "People's Princess", an iconic national figure. Her accidental death brought an unprecedented spasm of grief and mourning, and subsequently a crisis arose in the Royal Household. Andrew Marr said that by her death she "revived the culture of public sentiment", while "The Guardian"'s Matthew d'Ancona dubbed Diana "the queen of the realm of feeling" and said that "the impassioned aftermath of her death was a bold punctuation mark in a new national narrative that favoured disinhibition, empathy and personal candour." Her brother, the Earl Spencer, captured her role:
Diana was the very essence of compassion, of duty, of style, of beauty. All over the world she was a symbol of selfless humanity. All over the world, a standard bearer for the rights of the truly downtrodden, a very British girl who transcended nationality. Someone with a natural nobility who was classless and who proved in the last year that she needed no royal title to continue to generate her particular brand of magic.
In 1997, the Princess was one of the runners-up for "Time" magazine's person of the Year. In 1999, "Time" magazine named Diana one of the . In 2002, Diana ranked third on the BBC's poll of the "100 Greatest Britons", above the Queen and other British monarchs. In 2003, VH1 ranked her at number nine on its 200 Greatest Pop Culture Icons list, which recognizes "the folks that have significantly inspired and impacted American society". In 2006, the Japanese public ranked Diana twelfth in "The Top 100 Historical Persons in Japan". In 2018, Diana ranked fifteenth on the "BBC History"'s poll of 100 Women Who Changed the World. In 2020, "Time" magazine included Diana's name on its list of 100 Women of the Year. She was chosen as the Woman of the Year 1987 for her efforts in de-stigmatising the conditions surrounding HIV/AIDS patients.
Despite being regarded as an iconic figure and a popular member of the royal family, Diana was subject to criticism during her life. Patrick Jephson, her private secretary of eight years, wrote in an article in "The Daily Telegraph" that "[Diana] had an extra quality that frustrated her critics during her lifetime and has done little to soften their disdain since her death". Writing for "The Guardian", Peter Conrad suggested that it was Diana who let the journalists and paparazzi into her life as she knew they were the source of her power; thus, she "overburdened herself with public duties" and destroyed the border between private and public life. Diana was criticised by philosophy professor Anthony O'Hear who in his notes argued that she was unable to fulfill her duties, her reckless behaviour was damaging the monarchy, and she was "self-indulgent" in her philanthropic efforts. Following his remarks, charity organisations that were supported by Diana defended her, and Peter Luff called O'Hear's comments "distasteful and inappropriate". Further criticism surfaced as she was accused of using her public profile to benefit herself, which in return "demeaned her royal office". Diana's unique type of charity work, which sometimes included physical contact with people affected by serious diseases occasionally had a negative reaction in the media.
Sally Bedell Smith characterised Diana as unpredictable, egocentric, and possessive. Smith also argued that in her desire to do charity works she was "motivated by personal considerations, rather than by an ambitious urge to take on a societal problem". Eugene Robinson, however, said that "[Diana] was serious about the causes she espoused". According to Sarah Bradford, Diana looked down on the House of Windsor whom she reportedly viewed "as jumped-up foreign princelings" and called them "the Germans". She believed Diana was a "victim of her own poor judgment" as she lost social privilege by doing the "Panorama" interview. Some observers, including Prime Minister Tony Blair, characterised her as a manipulative person, capable of playing on other people's feelings and emotions. Author Anne Applebaum believed that Diana has not had any impact on public opinions posthumously; an idea supported by Jonathan Freedland of "The Guardian" who also noted in his article that Diana's memory and influence started to fade away in the years after her death, while Peter Conrad, another "Guardian" contributor, argued that even in "a decade after her death, she is still not silent," and Allan Massie of "The Telegraph" described the Princess as "the celebrity of celebrities" whose sentiments "continue to shape our society". Writing for "The Guardian", Monica Ali described Diana as "a one-off, fascinating and flawed. Her legacy might be mixed, but it's not insubstantial. Her life was brief, but she left her mark".
Diana was a fashion icon whose style was emulated by women around the world. Iain Hollingshead of "The Telegraph" wrote: "[Diana] had an ability to sell clothes just by looking at them." An early example of the effect occurred during her courtship with Charles in 1980 when sales of Hunter Wellington boots skyrocketed after she was pictured wearing a pair on the Balmoral estate. According to designers and people who worked with Diana, she used fashion and style to endorse her charitable causes, express herself and communicate. The Princess continued to remain a prominent figure for her fashion style, and is still considered an inspiration for stylists, celebrities, and young women, including the singer Rihanna who is influenced by her and during an interview by "Glamour" in 2013 said: "[Diana] killed it. Every look was right. She was gangsta with her clothes. She had these crazy hats. She got oversize jackets. I loved everything she wore!" One of her favourite milliners, John Boyd, said "Diana was our best ambassador for hats, and the entire millinery industry owes her a debt." Boyd's pink tricorn hat Diana wore for her honeymoon was later copied by milliners across the world and credited with rebooting an industry in decline for decades.
The Princess chose her dressing style based on both the royal family's demands and popular modern styles in Britain, and developed her personal fashion trend. While on diplomatic trips, her clothes and attire were chosen to match the destination countries' costumes, and while off-duty she used to wear loose jackets and jumpers. "She was always very thoughtful about how her clothes would be interpreted, it was something that really mattered to her," according to Anna Harvey, a former "Vogue" editor and the Princess's fashion mentor. David Sassoon, one of the designers who worked with Diana, believed she had "broken the rules" by trying new styles. Diana chose not to practice some of the royal clothing traditions such as putting aside the tradition of wearing gloves as she believed it would prevent a direct connection with the people she met, such as those affected by serious diseases like AIDS patients. She used to wear certain types of clothes at charity events which were appropriate for the people she would meet, such as wearing colourful dresses and "jangling jewels" so she could easily play with children at hospitals. According to Donatella Versace who worked closely with the Princess alongside her brother, Diana's interest and sense of curiosity about fashion grew significantly after her separation from Charles. Versace also points out that "[she doesn't] think that anyone, before or after her, has done for fashion what Diana did".
Catherine Walker was among Diana's favorite designers with whom she worked to create her "royal uniform". For her foreign tours and state visits, Walker and her husband used to do research and were determined to design clothes that would not outshine the Princess, a viewpoint supported by Taki Theodoracopulos, who believes Diana did not want "to let her clothes wear her". Eleri Lynn, curator of the exhibition Diana: Her Fashion Story, also believes that "[Diana] didn't want to be known as a clothes horse," and mentions that "the style [Catherine and Diana] created together was a very slender, fluid silhouette which did away with the frills and ruffles of the early '80s and created a sleek silhouette that really flattered the princess's frame and became a timeless look for her. A royal uniform if you like."
Diana made her debut as a Sloane Ranger in 1979 with a gown by Regamus. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the Princess wore outfits and ensembles by numerous notable fashion designers. She also wore ensembles by fashion companies such as Versace, Armani, Chanel, Dior and Clarks. Among her iconic outfits are a décolleté by David and Elizabeth Emanuel worn by a newly engaged Diana at a charity event, a cocktail dress by Christina Stambolian, commonly known as the "Revenge Dress", which she wore after Charles's admission of adultery, an evening gown by Victor Edelstein that she wore to a reception at the White House and later became known as the "Travolta dress", and a Catherine Walker pearl-encrusted gown and jacket dubbed the "Elvis Dress", which she wore for the first time on an official visit to Hong Kong.
In early 1980s, Diana preferred to wear dresses with floral collars, pie-crust blouses, and pearls. These items rapidly became fashion trends. Copies of her "Vogue"-featured pink chiffon blouse by David and Elizabeth Emanuel, which appeared on the magazine's cover on her engagement announcement day, sold in the millions. Her habit of wearing wide-shouldered gowns and lavish fabrics earned her the nickname "Dynasty Di". In the years after her marriage and then her divorce, Diana grew more confident in her choices, and her style underwent a change, with her new choices consisting of blazers, one-shoulder and off-shoulder dresses, two-tone themed suits, military-styled suits, and nude-colored outfits. White shirt and jeans, plaid dresses, jumpsuits and sheath dresses were among the other fashion trends she tried. Her way of dressing began to be influenced by other celebrities including Cindy Crawford, Madonna, Elizabeth Taylor, as well as many others.
The Princess's influential short hairstyle was created by Sam McKnight after a "Vogue" shoot in 1990, which, in McKnight and Donatella Versace's opinion, brought her more liberty as "it always looked great". The Princess reportedly did her own make up and would always have a hairstylist by her side before an event. She told McKnight: "It's not for me, Sam. It is for the people I visit or who come to see me. They don't want me in off-duty mode, they want a princess. Let's give them what they want."
The Princess was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1989. In 2004, "People" cited her as one of the all-time most beautiful women. In 2012, "Time" included Diana on its All-TIME 100 Fashion Icons list.
In 2016, fashion designer Sharmadean Reid designed a collection of clothes for ASOS.com inspired by Diana's style. "Di's incredible relationship with accessible sportswear through to luxury fashion forms the cornerstone of the collection and feels more modern than ever," Reid said about the Princess in a press release.
Following the opening of an exhibition of Diana's clothes and dresses at Kensington Palace in 2017, Catherine Bennett of "The Guardian" said such exhibitions are among the suitable ways to commemorate public figures whose fashion styles were noted due to their achievements. The exhibition suggests to detractors who, like many other princesses, "looking lovely in different clothes was pretty much her life's work" which also brings interest in her clothing.
Diana was an inspiration for Off-White's Spring 2018 show at Paris Fashion Week in 2017. The designer Virgil Abloh used the Princess' signature looks as fragments to design new suits and attire. Supermodel Naomi Campbell, dressed in a combination of white blazer and cropped spandex leggings in reference to Diana's formal and off-duty styles, closed off the show. In 2019, Tory Burch used Diana's early '80s style as an inspiration for her Spring 2020 show at New York Fashion Week.
Immediately after her death, many sites around the world became briefly "ad hoc" memorials to Diana where the public left flowers and other tributes. The largest was outside the gates of Kensington Palace, where people continue to leave flowers and tributes. Permanent memorials include:
The "Flame of Liberty" was erected in 1989 on the Place de l'Alma in Paris above the entrance to the tunnel in which the fatal crash later occurred. It became an unofficial memorial to Diana. The Place de l'Alma was renamed Place Diana princesse de Galles in 2019.
There are two memorials inside Harrods department store, commissioned by Dodi Fayed's father, who owned the store from 1985 to 2010. The first memorial is a pyramid-shaped display containing photos of the princess and al-Fayed's son, a wine glass said to be from their last dinner, and a ring purchased by Dodi the day prior to the crash. The second, "Innocent Victims", unveiled in 2005, is a bronze statue of Fayed dancing with Diana on a beach beneath the wings of an albatross. In January 2018, it was announced that the statue would be returned to the Al-Fayed family.
"Rosa" 'Princess of Wales', a white blend rose cultivar, is named in honour of Diana. She received it as a tribute for her 10-year cooperation with the British Lung Foundation. It was bred by Harkness in the United Kingdom and introduced in 1997. The nostalgic floribunda is also known as 'Hardinkum'. It has a double bloom form, and a mild to strong fragrance. The rose is said to be one of Diana's favourites. After her death, the proceeds from selling the roses in 1998–99 were donated to the British Lung Foundation. In 2002, it was granted the Award of Garden Merit by the Royal Horticultural Society. "Rosa" 'Diana, Princess of Wales', a pink blend garden rose, was first introduced in 1998 at the British Embassy in the United States. The classical hybrid tea rose was bred by Keith W. Zary of Jackson & Perkins and is also known under the names 'Elegant Lady' and 'Jacshaq'. It has a classic bloom form with ivory petals, and a mild, sweet fragrance. "15% of the retail price" for buying each of the roses was donated to the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund. It was also not sold in the United Kingdom in order to prevent from creating a competition with "Rosa" 'Princess of Wales'.
In 1998, Azermarka issued postage stamps commemorating Diana in Azerbaijan. The English text on souvenir sheets issued reads "DIANA, PRINCESS OF WALES The Princess that ("sic") captured people's hearts (1961–1997)". Several other countries issued commemorative stamps that year, including Great Britain, Somalia, and Congo. HayPost also issued a postage stamp commemorating Diana in Armenia at the same year.
In November 2002, a £4,000 bronze plaque was unveiled by Earl Spencer at Northampton Guildhall as a memorial to his sister. In February 2013, OCAD University in Toronto announced that its new 25,000 square foot arts centre would be named the Princess of Wales Visual Arts Centre. Princess Diana Drive was named in her memory in Trenton, New Jersey. Diana's granddaughter, Charlotte Elizabeth Diana (born 2015), and her niece, Charlotte Diana (born 2012), are named after her.
In January 2017, Diana's sons commissioned a statue of their mother for Kensington Palace to commemorate the 20th anniversary of her death. In an official statement released by Kensington Palace, William and Harry said "Our mother touched so many lives. We hope the statue will help all those who visit Kensington Palace to reflect on her life and her legacy." The money will be raised through public donations, and a small committee consisting of close friends and advisers, including Diana's sister Lady Sarah McCorquodale, are said to be working on the project. In December 2017, it was announced that Ian Rank-Broadley had been commissioned to execute the statue. Its completion was initially expected in 2019.
Before and after her death, Diana has been depicted in contemporary art. The first biopics about Diana and Charles were "Charles and Diana: A Royal Love Story" and "The Royal Romance of Charles and Diana" that were broadcast on American TV channels on 17 and 20 September 1981, respectively. In December 1992, ABC aired "Charles and Diana: Unhappily Ever After", a TV movie about marital discord between Diana and Charles. In the 1990s, British magazine "Private Eye" called her "Cheryl" and Prince Charles "Brian".
In July 1999, Tracey Emin created a number of monoprint drawings featuring textual references about Diana's public and private life for "Temple of Diana", a themed exhibition at The Blue Gallery, London. Works such as "They Wanted You To Be Destroyed" (1999) related to Diana's bulimia, while others included affectionate texts such as "Love Was on Your Side" and Diana's "Dress with puffy sleeves". Another text praised her selflessness – "The things you did to help other people", showing Diana in protective clothing walking through a minefield in Angola – while another referenced the conspiracy theories. Of her drawings, Emin maintained "They're quite sentimental... and there's nothing cynical about it whatsoever."
In 2005, Martín Sastre premiered during the Venice Biennale the film "". This fictional work starts with the world discovering Diana alive and enjoying a happy undercover new life in a dangerous cantegril on the outskirts of Montevideo. Shot at an Uruguayan slum using a Diana impersonator from São Paulo, the film was selected by the Italian Art Critics Association as one of the Venice Biennial's best works.
In 2007, following an earlier series referencing the conspiracy theories, Stella Vine created a series of Diana paintings for her first major solo exhibition at Modern Art Oxford gallery. Vine intended to portray Diana's combined strength and vulnerability as well as her closeness to her two sons. The works, all completed in 2007, included "Diana branches", "Diana family picnic", "Diana veil", "Diana crash" and "Diana pram", which incorporates the quotation "I vow to thee my country". Vine asserted her own abiding attraction to "the beauty and the tragedy of Diana's life".
The 2007 docudrama "" details the final two months of her life. She is portrayed by Irish actress Genevieve O'Reilly. On an October 2007 episode of "The Chaser's War on Everything", Andrew Hansen mocked Diana in his "Eulogy Song", which immediately created considerable controversy in the Australian media.
In 2017, Prince William and Prince Harry commissioned two documentaries to mark the 20th anniversary of her death. The first of the two, "", was broadcast on ITV and HBO on 24 July 2017. This film focuses on Diana's legacy and humanitarian efforts for causes such as AIDS, landmines, homelessness and cancer. The second documentary, "Diana, 7 Days", aired on 27 August on BBC and focused on Diana's death and the subsequent outpouring of grief.
Actresses who have portrayed Diana include Serena Scott Thomas (in ""), Julie Cox (in "Princess in Love"), Amy Seccombe (in ""), Genevieve O'Reilly (in ""), Nathalie Brocker (in "The Murder of Princess Diana"), and Naomi Watts (in "Diana"). Emma Corrin will portray her in an upcoming season of the TV series "The Crown".
Posthumously, as in life, she is most popularly referred to as "Princess Diana", a title not formally correct and one she never held. She is still sometimes referred to in the media as "Lady Diana Spencer" or simply as "Lady Di". In a speech after her death, then-Prime Minister Tony Blair referred to Diana as the "People's Princess".
The Princess of Wales held the following military appointments:
Diana gave up these appointments following her divorce.
Diana was born into the British Spencer family, different branches of which hold the titles of Duke of Marlborough, Earl Spencer, Earl of Sunderland, and Baron Churchill. The Spencers claimed descent from a cadet branch of the powerful medieval Despenser family, but its validity is questioned. Her great-grandmother was Margaret Baring, a member of the German-British Baring family of bankers and the daughter of Edward Baring, 1st Baron Revelstoke. Diana's distant noble ancestors included the first Duke and Duchess of Marlborough. Diana and Charles were distantly related, as they were both descended from the House of Tudor through Henry VII of England. She was also descended from the House of Stuart through Charles II of England by Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond, and Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Grafton, and his brother James II of England by Henrietta FitzJames. Other noble ancestors include Margaret Kerdeston, granddaughter of Michael de la Pole, 2nd Earl of Suffolk; Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, an English nobleman and a favourite of Elizabeth I of England; and Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, a descendant of Edward III of England through his son Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence. Diana's Scottish roots came from her maternal grandmother, Lady Fermoy. Among her Scottish ancestors were Alexander Gordon, 4th Duke of Gordon, and his wife Jane, and Archibald Campbell, 9th Earl of Argyll.
Diana's American lineage came from her great-grandmother Frances Ellen Work, daughter of wealthy American stockbroker Franklin H. Work from Ohio, who was married to her great-grandfather James Roche, 3rd Baron Fermoy, an Irish peer. Diana's fourth great-grandmother in her direct maternal line, Eliza Kewark, was of Indian descent. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24095 |
Plough
A plough or plow (US; both ) is a farm tool for loosening or turning the soil before sowing seed or planting. Ploughs were traditionally drawn by oxen and horses, but in modern farms are drawn by tractors. A plough may have a wooden, iron or steel frame, with a blade attached to cut and loosen the soil. It has been fundamental to farming for most of history. The earliest ploughs had no wheels, such a plough being known to the Romans as an "aratrum". Celtic peoples first came to use wheeled ploughs in the Roman era.
The prime purpose of ploughing is to turn over the uppermost soil, so bringing fresh nutrients to the surface, while burying weeds and crop remains to decay. Trenches cut by the plough are called furrows. In modern use, a ploughed field is normally left to dry and then harrowed before planting. Ploughing and cultivating soil evens the content of the upper layer of soil, where most plant-feeder roots grow.
Ploughs were initially powered by humans, but the use of farm animals was considerably more efficient. The earliest beasts used were oxen. Later horses and mules were used in many areas. With the industrial revolution came the possibility of steam engines to pull ploughs. These in turn were superseded by internal-combustion-powered tractors in the early 20th century.
Use of the traditional plough has decreased in some areas threatened by soil damage and erosion. Used instead is shallower ploughing or other less-invasive conservation tillage.
In older English, as in other Germanic languages, the plough was traditionally known by other names, e.g. Old English , Old High German , , , Old Norse (Swedish ), and Gothic , all presumably referring to the ard (scratch plough). The term plough, as used today, was not common until 1700.
The modern word comes from the Old Norse , and is therefore Germanic, but it appears relatively late (it is not attested in Gothic), and is thought to be a loan from one of the north Italic languages. The German cognate is "Pflug", the Dutch "ploeg" and the Swedish "plog". In many Slavic languages and in Romanian the word is "plug". Words with the same root appeared with related meanings: in Raetic "wheeled heavy plough" (Pliny, "Nat. Hist." 18, 172), and in Latin "farm cart", "cart", and "cart box". The word must have originally referred to the wheeled heavy plough, common in Roman north-western Europe by the 5th century AD.
Orel (2003) tentatively attaches "plough" to a PIE stem *"", which gave Armenian "to dig" and Welsh "crack", though the word may not be of Indo-European origin.
The diagram ("right") shows the basic parts of the modern plough:
Other parts not shown or labelled include the frog (or frame), runner, landside, shin, trashboard, and stilts (handles).
On modern ploughs and some older ploughs, the mould board is separate from the share and runner, so these parts can be replaced without replacing the mould board. Abrasion eventually wears out all parts of a plough that come into contact with the soil.
When agriculture was first developed, soil was turned using simple hand-held digging sticks and hoes. These were used in highly fertile areas, such as the banks of the Nile, where the annual flood rejuvenates the soil, to create drills (furrows) in which to plant seeds. Digging sticks, hoes and mattocks were not invented in any one place, and hoe cultivation must have been common everywhere agriculture was practised. Hoe-farming is the traditional tillage method in tropical or sub-tropical regions, which are marked by stony soils, steep slope gradients, predominant root crops, and coarse grains grown at wide distances apart. While hoe-agriculture is best suited to these regions, it is used in some fashion everywhere. Instead of hoeing, some cultures use pigs to trample the soil and grub the earth.
Some ancient hoes, like the Egyptian "mr", were pointed and strong enough to clear rocky soil and make seed drills, which is why they are called "hand-ards". However, domestication of oxen in Mesopotamia and the Indus valley civilization, perhaps as early as the 6th millennium BC, provided mankind with the draft power needed to develop the larger, animal-drawn true "ard" (or scratch plough). The earliest surviving evidence of ploughing, has been dated to 3500–3800 BCE, on a site in Bubeneč, Czech Republic. A ploughed field, from c.2800 BCE, has also discovered at Kalibangan, Pakistan. A terracotta model of the early ards was found at Banawali, Pakistan, giving insight into the form of the tool used. The ard remained easy to replace if it became damaged and easy to replicate.
The earliest was the bow ard, which consists of a draft-pole (or beam) pierced by a thinner vertical pointed stick called the head (or body), with one end being the stilt (handle) and the other a share (cutting blade) dragged through the topsoil to cut a shallow furrow suitable for most cereal crops. The ard does not clear new land well, so hoes or mattocks had to be used to pull up grass and undergrowth, and a hand-held, coulter-like ristle could be made to cut deeper furrows ahead of the share. Because the ard left a strip of undisturbed earth between furrows, the fields were often cross-ploughed lengthwise and breadth-wise, which tended to form squarish Celtic fields. The ard is best suited to loamy or sandy soils that are naturally fertilised by annual flooding, as in the Nile Delta and Fertile Crescent, and to a lesser extent any other cereal-growing region with light or thin soil. By the late Iron Age, ards in Europe were commonly fitted with coulters.
To grow crops regularly in less-fertile areas, it was once believed that the soil must be turned to bring nutrients to the surface. A major advance for this type of farming was the turn plough, also known as the mould-board plough (UK), moldboard plow (US), or frame-plough. A coulter (or skeith) could be added to cut vertically into the ground just ahead of the share (in front of the frog), a wedge-shaped cutting edge at the bottom front of the mould board with the landside of the frame supporting the under-share (below-ground component). The mould-board plough introduced in the 18th century was a major advance in technology.
The upper parts of the frame carry (from the front) the coupling for the motive power (horses), the coulter and the landside frame. Depending on the size of the implement, and the number of furrows it is designed to plough at one time, a fore-carriage with a wheel or wheels (known as a furrow wheel and support wheel) may be added to support the frame (wheeled plough). In the case of a single-furrow plough there is one wheel at the front and handles at the rear for the ploughman to steer and manœuvre it.
When dragged through a field, the coulter cuts down into the soil and the share cuts horizontally from the previous furrow to the vertical cut. This releases a rectangular strip of sod to be lifted by the share and carried by the mould board up and over, so that the strip of sod (slice of the topsoil) that is being cut lifts and rolls over as the plough moves forward, dropping back upside down into the furrow and onto the turned soil from the previous run down the field. Each gap in the ground where the soil has been lifted and moved across (usually to the right) is called a furrow. The sod lifted from it rests at an angle of about 45 degrees in the adjacent furrow, up the back of the sod from the previous run.
So a series of ploughings runs down a field leaves a row of sods partly in the furrows and partly on the ground lifted earlier. Visually, across the rows, there is the land on the left, a furrow (half the width of the removed strip of soil) and the removed strip almost upside-down lying on about half of the previous strip of inverted soil, and so on across the field. Each layer of soil and the gutter it came from forms a classic furrow.
The mould-board plough greatly reduced the time needed to prepare a field and so allowed a farmer to work a larger area of land. In addition, the resulting pattern of low (under the mould board) and high (beside it) ridges in the soil forms water channels, allowing the soil to drain. In areas where snow build-up causes difficulties, this lets farmers plant the soil earlier, as the snow run-off drains away more quickly.
There are five major parts of a mouldboard plough:
Share, landside, mould board are bolted to the frog, which is an irregular piece of cast iron at the base of the plough body, to which the soil-wearing parts are bolted.
The share is the edge that makes the horizontal cut to separate the furrow slice from the soil below. Conventional shares are shaped to penetrate soil efficiently; the tip is pointed downward to pull the share into the ground to a regular depth. The clearance, usually referred to as suction or down suction, varies with different makes and types of plough. Share configuration is related to soil type, particularly in the down suction or concavity of its lower surface. Generally three degrees of clearance or down suction are recognized: regular for light soil, deep for ordinary dry soil, and double-deep for clay and gravelly soils.
As the share wears away, it becomes blunt and the plough will require more power to pull it through the soil. A plough body with a worn share will not have enough "suck" to ensure it delves the ground to its full working depth.
In addition, the share has horizontal suction related to the amount its point is bent out of line with the land side. Down suction causes the plough to penetrate to proper depth when pulled forward, while horizontal suction causes the plough to create the desired width of furrow. The share is a plane part with a trapezoidal shape. It cuts the soil horizontally and lifts it. Common types are regular, winged-plane, bar-point, and share with mounted or welded point. The regular share conserves a good cut but is recommended on stone-free soils. The winged-plane share is used on heavy soil with a moderate amount of stones. The bar-point share can be used in extreme conditions (hard and stony soils). The share with a mounted point is somewhere between the last two types. Makers have designed shares of various shapes (trapesium, diamond, etc.) with bolted point and wings, often separately renewable. Sometimes the share-cutting edge is placed well in advance of the mould board to reduce the pulverizing action of the soil.
The mould board is the part of the plough that receives the furrow slice from the share. It is responsible for lifting and turning the furrow slice and sometimes for shattering it, depending on the type of mould board, ploughing depth and soil conditions. The intensity of this depends on the type of mould board. To suit different soil conditions and crop requirements, mould boards have been designed in different shapes, each producing its own furrow profile and surface finish, but basically they still conform to the original plough body classification. The various types have been traditionally classified as general purpose, digger, and semi-digger, as described below.
The land side is the flat plate which presses against and transmits the lateral thrust of the plough bottom to the furrow wall. It helps to resist the side pressure exerted by the furrow slice on the mould board. It also helps to stabilize the plough while in operation. The rear bottom end of the landslide, which rubs against the furrow sole, is known as the heel. A heel iron is bolted to the end of the rear of the land side and helps to support the back of the plough. The land side and share are arranged to give a "lead" towards the unploughed land, so helping to sustain the correct furrow width. The land side is usually made of solid medium-carbon steel and is very short, except at the rear bottom of the plough. The heel or rear end of the rear land side may be subject to excessive wear if the rear wheel is out of adjustment, and so a chilled iron heel piece is frequently used. This is inexpensive and can be easily replaced. The land side is fastened to the frog by plough bolts.
The frog (standard) is the central part of the plough bottom to which the other components of the bottom are attached. It is an irregular piece of metal, which may be made of cast iron for cast iron ploughs or welded steel for steel ploughs. The frog is the foundation of the plough bottom. It takes the shock resulting from hitting rocks, and therefore should be tough and strong. The frog is in turn fastened to the plough frame.
A "runner" extending from behind the share to the rear of the plough controls the direction of the plough, because it is held against the bottom land-side corner of the new furrow being formed. The holding force is the weight of the sod, as it is raised and rotated, on the curved surface of the mould board. Because of this runner, the mould board plough is harder to turn around than the scratch plough, and its introduction brought about a change in the shape of fields – from mostly square fields into longer rectangular "strips" (hence the introduction of the furlong).
An advance on the basic design was the iron ploughshare, a replaceable horizontal cutting surface mounted on the tip of the share. The earliest ploughs with a detachable and replaceable share date from around 1000 BC in the Ancient Near East, and the earliest iron ploughshares from about 500 BC in China. Early mould boards were wedges that sat inside the cut formed by the coulter, turning over the soil to the side. The ploughshare spread the cut horizontally below the surface, so that when the mould board lifted it, a wider area of soil was turned over. Mould boards are known in Britain from the late 6th century onwards.
The mould-board plough type is usually set by the method with which the plough is attached to the tractor and the way it is lifted and carried. The basic types are:
When a plough hits a rock or other solid obstruction, serious damage may result unless the plough is equipped with some safety device. The damage may be bent or broken shares, bent standards, beams or braces.
The three basic types of safety devices used on mould-board ploughs are a spring release device in the plough drawbar, a trip beam construction on each bottom, and an automatic reset design on each bottom.
The spring release was used in the past almost universally on trailing-type ploughs with one to three or four bottoms. It is not practical on larger ploughs. When an obstruction is encountered, the spring release mechanism in the hitch permits the plough to uncouple from the tractor. When a hydraulic lift is used on the plough, the hydraulic hoses will also usually uncouple automatically when the plough uncouples. Most plough makers offer an automatic reset system for tough conditions or rocky soils. The re-set mechanism allows each body to move rearward and upward to pass without damage over obstacles such as rocks hidden below soil surface. A heavy leaf or coil-spring mechanism that holds the body in its working position under normal conditions resets the plough after the obstruction is passed.
Another type of auto-reset mechanism uses an oil (hydraulic) and gas accumulator. Shock loads cause the oil to compress the gas. When the gas expands again, the leg returns to its working ploughing position after passing over the obstacle. The simplest mechanism is a breaking (shear) bolt that needs replacement. Shear bolts that break when a plough body hits an obstruction are a cheaper overload protection device. It is important to use the correct replacement bolt.
Trip-beam ploughs are constructed with a hinge point in the beam. This is usually located some distance above the top of the plough bottom. The bottom is held in normal ploughing position by a spring-operated latch. When an obstruction is encountered, the entire bottom is released and hinges back and up to pass over the obstruction. It is necessary to back up the tractor and plough to reset the bottom. This construction is used to protect the individual bottoms. The automatic reset design has only recently been introduced on US ploughs, but has been used extensively on European and Australian ploughs. Here the beam is hinged at a point almost above the point of the share. The bottom is held in the normal position by a set of springs or a hydraulic cylinder on each bottom.
When an obstruction is encountered, the plough bottom hinges back and up in such a way as to pass over the obstruction, without stopping the tractor and plough. The bottom automatically returns to normal ploughing position as soon as the obstruction is passed, without any interruption of forward motion. The automatic reset design permits higher field efficiencies since stopping for stones is practically eliminated. It also reduces costs for broken shares, beams and other parts. The fast resetting action helps produce a better job of ploughing, as large areas of unploughed land are not left, as they are when lifting a plough over a stone.
Manual loy ploughing was a form used on small farms in Ireland where farmers could not afford more, or on hilly ground that precluded horses. It was used up until the 1960s in poorer land. It suited the moist Irish climate, as the trenches formed by turning in the sods provided drainage. It allowed potatoes to be grown in bogs (peat swamps) and on otherwise unfarmed mountain slopes.
In the basic mould-board plough, the depth of cut is adjusted by lifting against the runner in the furrow, which limited the weight of the plough to what a ploughman could easily lift. This limited the construction to a small amount of wood (although metal edges were possible). These ploughs were fairly fragile and unsuitable for the heavier soils of northern Europe. The introduction of wheels to replace the runner allowed the weight of the plough to increase, and in turn the use of a larger mould-board faced in metal. These "heavy ploughs" led to greater food production and eventually a marked population increase, beginning around AD 1000.
Before the Han Dynasty (202 BC – AD 220), Chinese ploughs were made almost wholly of wood except for the iron blade of the ploughshare. By the Han period the entire ploughshare was made of cast iron. These are the earliest known heavy, mould-board iron ploughs.
The Romans achieved a heavy-wheeled mould-board plough in the late 3rd and 4th century AD, for which archaeological evidence appears, for instance, in Roman Britain. The first indisputable appearance after the Roman period is in a northern Italian document of 643. Old words connected with the heavy plough and its use appear in Slavic, suggesting possible early use in that region. General adoption of the carruca heavy plough in Europe seems to have accompanied adoption of the three-field system in the later 8th and early 9th centuries, leading to improved agricultural productivity per unit of land in northern Europe. This was accompanied by larger fields, known variously as carucates, ploughlands, and plough gates.
The basic plough with coulter, ploughshare and mould board remained in use for a millennium. Major changes in design spread widely in the Age of Enlightenment, when there was rapid progress in design. Joseph Foljambe in Rotherham, England, in 1730, used new shapes based on the Rotherham plough, which covered the mould board with iron. Unlike the heavy plough, the Rotherham, or Rotherham swing plough consisted entirely of the coulter, mould board and handles. It was much lighter than earlier designs and became common in England. It may have been the first plough widely built in factories and commercially successful there.
In 1789 Robert Ransome, an iron founder in Ipswich, started casting ploughshares in a disused malting at St Margaret's Ditches. A broken mould in his foundry caused molten metal to come into contact with cold metal, making the metal surface extremely hard. This process, chilled casting, resulted in what Ransome advertised as "self-sharpening" ploughs. He received patents for his discovery.
James Small further advanced the design. Using mathematical methods, he eventually arrived at a shape cast from a single piece of iron, an improvement on the "Scots plough" of James Anderson of Hermiston. A single-piece cast-iron plough was also developed and patented by Charles Newbold in the United States. This was again improved on by Jethro Wood, a blacksmith of Scipio, New York, who made a three-part Scots plough that allowed a broken piece to be replaced. In 1837 John Deere introduced the first steel plough; it was so much stronger than iron designs that it could work soil in US areas previously thought unsuitable for farming.
Improvements on this followed developments in metallurgy: steel coulters and shares with softer iron mould boards to prevent breakage, the chilled plough (an early example of surface-hardened steel), and eventually mould boards with faces strong enough to dispense with the coulter.
The first mould-board ploughs could only turn the soil over in one direction (conventionally to the right), as dictated by the shape of the mould board. So a field had to be ploughed in long strips, or "lands". The plough was usually worked clockwise around each land, ploughing the long sides and being dragged across the short sides without ploughing. The length of the strip was limited by the distance oxen (later horses) could comfortably work without rest, and their width by the distance the plough could conveniently be dragged. These distances determined the traditional size of the strips: a furlong, (or "furrow's length", ) by a chain () – an area of one acre (about 0.4 hectares); this is the origin of the acre. The one-sided action gradually moved soil from the sides to the centre line of the strip. If the strip was in the same place each year, the soil built up into a ridge, creating the ridge and furrow topography still seen in some ancient fields.
The turn-wrest plough allows ploughing to be done to either side. The mould board is removable, turning to the right for one furrow, then being moved to the other side of the plough to turn to the left. (The coulter and ploughshare are fixed.) Thus adjacent furrows can be ploughed in opposite directions, allowing ploughing to proceed continuously along the field and so avoid the ridge–furrow topography.
The reversible (or roll-over) plough has two mould-board ploughs mounted back to back, one turning right, the other left. While one works the land, the other is borne upside-down in the air. At the end of each row the paired ploughs are turned over so that the other can be used along the next furrow, again working the field in a consistent direction.
These ploughs date back to the days of the steam engine and the horse. In almost universal use on farms, they have right and left-handed mould boards, enabling them to work up and down the same furrow. Reversible ploughs may either be mounted or semi-mounted and are heavier and more expensive than right-handed models, but have the great advantage of leaving a level surface that facilitates seedbed preparation and harvesting. Very little marking out is necessary before ploughing can start; idle running on the headland is minimal compared with conventional ploughs.
Driving a tractor with furrow-side wheels in the furrow bottom provides the most efficient line of draught between tractor and plough. It is also easier to steer the tractor; driving with the front wheel against the furrow wall will keep the front furrow at the correct width. This is less satisfactory when using a tractor with wide front tyres. Although these make better use of the tractor power, the tyres may compact some of the last furrow slice turned on the previous run. The problem is overcome by using a furrow widener or longer mould board on the rear body. The latter moves the soil further towards the ploughed land, leaving more room for the tractor wheels on the next run.
Driving with all four wheels on unploughed land is another solution to the problem of wide tyres. Semi-mounted ploughs can be hitched in a way that allows the tractor to run on unbroken land and pull the plough in correct alignment without any sideways movement (crabbing).
Early steel ploughs were walking ploughs, directed by a ploughman holding handles on either side of the plough. Steel ploughs were so much easier to draw through the soil that constant adjustment of the blade to deal with roots or clods was no longer necessary, as the plough could easily cut through them. So not long after that the first riding ploughs appeared, whose wheels kept the plough at an adjustable level above the ground, while the ploughman sat on a seat instead of walking. Direction was now controlled mostly through the draught team, with levers allowing fine adjustments. This led quickly to riding ploughs with multiple mould boards, which dramatically increased ploughing performance.
A single draught horse can normally pull a single-furrow plough in clean light soil, but in heavier soils two horses are needed, one walking on the land and one in the furrow. Ploughs with two or more furrows call for more than two horses, and usually one or more have to walk on the ploughed sod, which is hard going for them and means they tread newly ploughed land down. It is usual to rest such horses every half-hour for about ten minutes.
Heavy volcanic loam soils such as are found in New Zealand require the use of four heavy draught horses to pull a double-furrow plough. Where paddocks are more square than oblong, it is more economical to have horses four wide in harness than two-by-two ahead, so that one horse is always on the ploughed land (the sod). The limits of strength and endurance in horses made greater than two-furrow ploughs uneconomic to use on a farm.
Amish farmers tend to use a team of about seven horses or mules when spring ploughing. As Amish farmers often cooperate on ploughing, teams are sometimes changed at noon. Using this method, about can be ploughed per day in light soils and about in heavy soils.
John Deere, an Illinois blacksmith, noted that ploughing many sticky, non-sandy soils might benefit from modifications in the design of the mould board and the metals used. A polished needle would enter leather and fabric with greater ease and a polished pitchfork also require less effort. Looking for a polished, slicker surface for a plough, he experimented with portions of saw blades, and by 1837 was making polished, cast steel ploughs. The energy required was lessened, which enabled the use of larger ploughs and more effective use of horse power.
The advent of the mobile steam engine allowed steam power to be applied to ploughing from about 1850. In Europe, soil conditions were often too soft to support the weight of a traction engine. Instead, counterbalanced, wheeled ploughs, known as "balance ploughs", were drawn by cables across the fields by pairs of ploughing engines on opposite field edges, or by a single engine drawing directly towards it at one end and drawing away from it via a pulley at the other. The balance plough had two sets of facing ploughs arranged so that with one was in the ground, the other was lifted in the air. When pulled in one direction, the trailing ploughs were lowered onto the ground by the tension on the cable. When the plough reached the edge of the field, the other engine pulled the opposite cable, and the plough tilted (balanced), putting the other set of shares into the ground, and the plough worked back across the field.
One set of ploughs was right-handed and the other left-handed, allowing continuous ploughing along the field, as with the turn-wrest and reversible ploughs. The man credited with inventing the ploughing engine and associated balance plough in the mid-19th century was John Fowler, an English agricultural engineer and inventor.
In America the firm soil of the Plains allowed direct pulling with steam tractors, such as the big Case, Reeves or Sawyer-Massey breaking engines. Gang ploughs of up to 14 bottoms were used. Often these were used in regiments of engines, so that in a single field there might be ten steam tractors each drawing a plough. In this way hundreds of acres could be turned over in a day. Only steam engines had the power to draw the big units. When internal combustion engines appeared, they lacked the comparable strength and ruggedness. Only by reducing the number of shares could the work be completed.
The stump-jump plough, an Australian invention of the 1870s, is designed to break up new farming land that contains tree stumps and rocks expensive to remove. It uses a moveable weight to hold the ploughshare in position. When a tree stump or rock is encountered, the ploughshare is thrown up clear of the obstacle, to avoid breaking its harness or linkage. Ploughing can continue when the weight is returned to the earth.
A simpler, later system uses a concave disc (or pair of them) set at a wide angle to the direction of progress, using a concave shape to hold the disc into the soil – unless something hard strikes the circumference of the disc, causing it to roll up and over the obstruction. As this is dragged forward, the sharp edge of the disc cuts the soil, and the concave surface of the rotating disc lifts and throws the soil to the side. It does not work so well as a mould-board plough (but this is not seen as a drawback, because it helps to fight wind erosion), but it does lift and break up the soil ("see" disc harrow).
Modern ploughs are usually multiply reversible, mounted on a tractor with a three-point linkage. These commonly have from two and to as many as seven mould boards – and semi-mounted ploughs (whose lifting is assisted by a wheel about halfway along their length) can have as many as 18. The tractor's hydraulics are used to lift and reverse the implement and to adjust furrow width and depth. The ploughman still has to set the draughting linkage from the tractor, so that the plough keeps the proper angle in the soil. This angle and depth can be controlled automatically by modern tractors. As a complement to the rear plough a two or three mould-board plough can be mounted on the front of the tractor if it is equipped with front three-point linkage.
The "chisel plough" is a common tool for deep tillage (prepared land) with limited soil disruption. Its main function is to loosen and aerate the soils, while leaving crop residue on top. This plough can be used to reduce the effects of soil compaction and to help break up ploughpan and hardpan. Unlike many other ploughs, the chisel will not invert or turn the soil. This feature has made it a useful addition to no-till and low-till farming practices that attempt to maximise the erosion-preventing benefits of keeping organic matter and farming residues present on the soil surface throughout the year. Thus the chisel plough is considered by some to be more sustainable than other types of plough, such as the mould-board plough.
Chisel ploughs are becoming more popular as a primary tillage tool in row-crop farming areas. Basically the chisel plough is a heavy-duty field cultivator intended to operate at depths from 15 cm [6 in] to as much as 46 cm [18 in]. However some models may run much deeper. Each individual plough or shank is typically set from nine inches (229 mm) to twelve inches (305 mm) apart. Such a plough can meet significant soil drag, so that a tractor of sufficient power and traction is required. When planning to plough with a chisel plough, it is important to note that 10–20 horsepower (7.5 to 15 kW) per shank will be required, depending on depth.
Pull-type chisel ploughs are made in working widths from about 2.5 m (8 ft) up to 13.7 m (45 ft). They are tractor mounted, and working depth is hydraulically controlled. Those more than about 4 m (13 ft) wide may be equipped with folding wings to reduce transport width. Wider machines may have the wings supported by individual wheels and hinge joints to allow flexing of the machine over uneven ground. The wider models usually have a wheel each side to control working depth. Three-point hitch-mounted units are made in widths from about 1.5 m to 9 m (5–30 ft).
Cultivators are often similar in form to chisel ploughs, but their goals are different. Cultivator teeth work near the surface, usually for weed control, whereas chisel plough shanks work deep under the surface. So cultivation takes much less power per shank than does chisel ploughing.
A ridging plough is used for crops such as potatoes or scallions grown buried in ridges of soil, using a technique called "ridging" or "hilling". A ridging plough has two back-to-back mould boards cutting a deep furrow on each pass with high ridges either side. The same plough may be used to split the ridges to harvest the crop.
This variety of ridge plough is notable for having a blade pointing towards the operator. It is used solely by human effort rather than with animal or machine assistance and pulled backwards by the operator, requiring great physical effort. It is particularly used for second breaking of ground and for potato planting. It is found in Shetland, some western crofts, and more rarely Central Scotland, typically on holdings too small or poor to merit the use of animals.
The mole plough allows under-drainage to be installed without trenches, or breaks up the deep impermeable soil layers that impede it. It is a deep plough with a torpedo or wedge-shaped tip and a narrow blade connecting it to the body. When dragged over ground, it leaves a channel deep under it that acts as a drain. Modern mole ploughs may also bury a flexible perforated plastic drain pipe as they go, making a more permanent drain – or may be used to lay pipes for water supply or other purposes. Similar machines, so-called pipe-and-cable-laying ploughs, are even used under the sea for laying cables or for preparing the earth for side-scan sonar in a process used in oil exploration.
A simple check can be made to find if the subsoil is in the right condition for mole ploughing. Compact a tennis ball-sized sample from moling depth by hand, then push a pencil through. If the hole stays intact without splitting the ball, the soil is in ideal condition for the mole plough.
Heavy land requires draining to reduce its water content to a level efficient for plant growth. Heavy soils usually have a system of permanent drains, using perforated plastic or clay pipes that discharge into a ditch. Mole ploughs The small tunnels (mole drains) that mole ploughs form lie at a depth of up to 950 mm (3 in) at an angle to the pipe drains. Water from the mole drains seeps into the pipes and runs along them into a ditch.
Mole ploughs are usually trailed and pulled by a crawler tractor, but lighter models for use on the three-point linkage of powerful four-wheel drive tractors are also made. A mole plough has a strong frame that slides along the ground when the machine is at work. A heavy leg, similar to a sub-soiler leg, is attached to the frame and a circular section with a larger diameter expander on a flexible link is bolted to the leg. The bullet-shaped share forms a tunnel in the soil about 75 mm diameter and the expander presses the soil outwards to form a long-lasting drainage channel.
The para-plough, or paraplow, loosens compacted soil layers 3 to 4 dm (12 to 16 inches) deep while maintaining high surface residue levels.It is primary tillage implement for deep ploughing without inversion.
The spade plough is designed to cut the soil and turn it on its side, minimising damage to earthworms, soil microorganism and fungi. This increases the sustainability and long-term fertility of the soil.
Using a bar with square shares mounted perpendicularly and a pivot point to change the bar's angle, the switch plough allows ploughing in either direction. It is best in previously-worked soils, as the ploughshares are designed more to turn the soil over than for deep tillage. At the headland, the operator pivots the bar (and so the ploughshares) to turn the soil to the opposite side of the direction of travel. Switch ploughs are usually lighter than roll-over ploughs, requiring less horsepower to operate.
Mould-board ploughing in cold and temperate climates, down to 20 cm, aerates the soil by loosening it. It incorporates crop residues, solid manures, limestone and commercial fertilisers along oxygen, so reducing nitrogen losses by denitrification, accelerating mineralisation and raising short-term nitrogen availability for turning organic matter into humus. It erases wheel tracks and ruts from harvesting equipment. It controls many perennial weeds and delays the growth of others until spring. It accelerates spring soil warming and water evaporation due to lower residues on the soil surface. It facilitates seeding with a lighter seed, controls many crop enemies (slugs, crane flies, seedcorn maggots-bean seed flies, borers), and raises the number of "soil-eating" earthworms (endogic), but deters vertical-dwelling earthworms (anecic).
Ploughing leaves little crop residue on the surface that might otherwise reduce both wind and water erosion. Over-ploughing can lead to the formation of hardpan. Typically, farmers break that up with a subsoiler, which acts as a long, sharp knife slicing through the hardened layer of soil deep below the surface. Soil erosion due to improper land and plough utilisation is possible. Contour ploughing mitigates soil erosion by ploughing across a slope, along elevation lines. Alternatives to ploughing, such as a no till method, have the potential to build soil levels and humus. These may be suitable for smaller, intensively cultivated plots and for farming on poor, shallow or degraded soils that ploughing would further degrade. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24096 |
Principle of bivalence
In logic, the semantic principle (or law) of bivalence states that every declarative sentence expressing a proposition (of a theory under inspection) has exactly one truth value, either true or false. A logic satisfying this principle is called a two-valued logic or bivalent logic.
In formal logic, the principle of bivalence becomes a property that a semantics may or may not possess. It is not the same as the law of excluded middle, however, and a semantics may satisfy that law without being bivalent.
The principle of bivalence is studied in philosophical logic to address the question of which natural-language statements have a well-defined truth value. Sentences which predict events in the future, and sentences which seem open to interpretation, are particularly difficult for philosophers who hold that the principle of bivalence applies to all declarative natural-language statements. Many-valued logics formalize ideas that a realistic characterization of the notion of consequence requires the admissibility of premises which, owing to vagueness, temporal or quantum indeterminacy, or reference-failure, cannot be considered classically bivalent. Reference failures can also be addressed by free logics.
The principle of bivalence is related to the law of excluded middle though the latter is a syntactic expression of the language of a logic of the form "P ∨ ¬P". The difference between the principle and the law is important because there are logics which validate the law but which do not validate the principle. For example, the three-valued Logic of Paradox (LP) validates the law of excluded middle, but not the law of non-contradiction, ¬(P ∧ ¬P), and its intended semantics is not bivalent. In classical two-valued logic both the law of excluded middle and the law of non-contradiction hold.
Many modern logic programming systems replace the law of the excluded middle with the concept of negation as failure. The programmer may wish to add the law of the excluded middle by explicitly asserting it as true; however, it is not assumed "a priori".
The intended semantics of classical logic is bivalent, but this is not true of every semantics for classical logic. In Boolean-valued semantics (for classical propositional logic), the truth values are the elements of an arbitrary Boolean algebra, "true" corresponds to the maximal element of the algebra, and "false" corresponds to the minimal element. Intermediate elements of the algebra correspond to truth values other than "true" and "false". The principle of bivalence holds only when the Boolean algebra is taken to be the two-element algebra, which has no intermediate elements.
Assigning Boolean semantics to classical predicate calculus requires that the model be a complete Boolean algebra because the universal quantifier maps to the infimum operation, and the existential quantifier maps to the supremum; this is called a Boolean-valued model. All finite Boolean algebras are complete.
In order to justify his claim that true and false are the only logical values, Suszko (1977) observes that every structural Tarskian many-valued propositional logic can be provided with a bivalent semantics.
A famous example is the "contingent sea battle" case found in Aristotle's work, "De Interpretatione", chapter 9:
The principle of bivalence here asserts:
Aristotle to embrace bivalence for such future contingents; Chrysippus, the Stoic logician, did embrace bivalence for this and all other propositions. The controversy continues to be of central importance in both the philosophy of time and the philosophy of logic.
One of the early motivations for the study of many-valued logics has been precisely this issue. In the early 20th century, the Polish formal logician Jan Łukasiewicz proposed three truth-values: the true, the false and the "as-yet-undetermined". This approach was later developed by Arend Heyting and L. E. J. Brouwer; see Łukasiewicz logic.
Issues such as this have also been addressed in various temporal logics, where one can assert that ""Eventually", either there will be a sea battle tomorrow, or there won't be." (Which is true if "tomorrow" eventually occurs.)
Such puzzles as the Sorites paradox and the related continuum fallacy have raised doubt as to the applicability of classical logic and the principle of bivalence to concepts that may be vague in their application. Fuzzy logic and some other multi-valued logics have been proposed as alternatives that handle vague concepts better. Truth (and falsity) in fuzzy logic, for example, comes in varying degrees. Consider the following statement in the circumstance of sorting apples on a moving belt:
Upon observation, the apple is an undetermined color between yellow and red, or it is mottled both colors. Thus the color falls into neither category " red " nor " yellow ", but these are the only categories available to us as we sort the apples. We might say it is "50% red". This could be rephrased: it is 50% true that the apple is red. Therefore, P is 50% true, and 50% false. Now consider:
In other words, P and not-P. This violates the law of noncontradiction and, by extension, bivalence. However, this is only a partial rejection of these laws because P is only partially true. If P were 100% true, not-P would be 100% false, and there is no contradiction because P and not-P no longer holds.
However, the law of the excluded middle is retained, because P and not-P implies P or not-P, since "or" is inclusive. The only two cases where P and not-P is false (when P is 100% true or false) are the same cases considered by two-valued logic, and the same rules apply.
Example of a 3-valued logic applied to vague (undetermined) cases: Kleene 1952 (§64, pp. 332–340) offers a 3-valued logic for the cases when algorithms involving partial recursive functions may not return values, but rather end up with circumstances "u" = undecided. He lets "t" = "true", "f" = "false", "u" = "undecided" and redesigns all the propositional connectives. He observes that:
The following are his "strong tables":
For example, if a determination cannot be made as to whether an apple is red or not-red, then the truth value of the assertion Q: " This apple is red " is " u ". Likewise, the truth value of the assertion R " This apple is not-red " is " u ". Thus the AND of these into the assertion Q AND R, i.e. " This apple is red AND this apple is not-red " will, per the tables, yield " u ". And, the assertion Q OR R, i.e. " This apple is red OR this apple is not-red " will likewise yield " u ". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24097 |
Pope Clement II
Pope Clement II (; born Suidger von Morsleben; died 9 October 1047), was bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 25 December 1046 until his death in 1047. He was the first in a series of reform-minded popes from Germany. Suidger was the bishop of Bamberg. In 1046, he accompanied King Henry III of Germany, when at the request of laity and clergy of Rome, Henry went to Italy and summoned the Council of Sutri, which deposed Benedict IX and Sylvester III, and accepted the resignation of Gregory VI. Henry suggested Suidger for pope, and he was then elected, taking the name of Clement II. Clement then proceeded to crown Henry as emperor. Clement's brief tenure as pope saw the enactment of more stringent prohibitions against simony.
Born in Hornburg, Lower Saxony, Germany, he was the son of Count Konrad of Morsleben and Hornburg and his wife Amulrad. In 1040, he became bishop of Bamberg.
In the autumn of 1046, there were three rival claimants to the papacy, in St. Peter's, the Lateran, and St. Mary Major's. Two of them, Benedict IX and Sylvester III, represented rival factions of the nobility. The third, Pope Gregory VI, in order to free the city from the House of Tusculum, and Benedict's scandalous lifestyle, had paid Benedict money in exchange for his resignation. Regardless the motives, the transaction bore the appearance of simony. Questions regarding the legitimacy of any of them could undermine the validity of a coronation of Henry as Holy Roman Emperor. King Henry crossed the Alps at the head of a large army and accompanied by a brilliant retinue of the secular and ecclesiastical princes of the empire, for the twofold purpose of receiving the imperial crown and of restoring order.
In 1046, Suidiger accompanied King Henry on his campaign to Italy and in December, participated in the Council of Sutri, which deposed former Benedict IX and Sylvester III and persuaded Gregory VI to resign. Henry nominated Suidger for the papacy and the council elected him. Suidger insisted upon retaining the bishopric of his see, partly for needed financial support, and partly lest the turbulent Romans should before long send him back to Bamberg. Suidger took the name Clement II. Immediately after his election, Henry and the new pope travelled to Rome, where Clement was enthroned. He then crowned Henry III as emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
Clement's election as pope was later criticized by the reform party within the papal curia due to the royal involvement and the fact that the new bishop of Rome was already bishop of another diocese. Contrary to later practice, Clement kept his old see, governing both Rome and Bamberg simultaneously. Clement's first pontifical act was to crown Henry and Agnes of Poitou. He bestowed on the Emperor the title and diadem of a Roman Patricius, a dignity which was commonly understood to give the bearer the right of indicating the person to be chosen pope.
Clement II's short pontificate, starting with the Roman synod of 1047, initiated an improvement in the state of affairs within the Roman Church, particularly by enacting decrees against simony. A dispute for precedence among the Sees of Ravenna, Milan, and Aquileia was settled in favour of Ravenna.
Clement accompanied Henry III in a triumphal progress through southern Italy and placed Benevento under an interdict for refusing to open its gates to them. Proceeding with Henry to Germany, he canonized Wiborada, a nun of St. Gall, martyred by the Hungarians in 925. On his way back to Rome, he died near Pesaro on 9 October 1047. His corpse was transferred back to Bamberg, which he had loved dearly, and interred in the western choir of the Bamberg Cathedral. His is the only tomb of a pope north of the Alps.
A toxicologic examination of his remains in the mid-20th century confirmed centuries-old rumors that the pope had been poisoned with lead sugar. It is not clear, however, whether he was murdered or whether the lead sugar was used as medicine. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24099 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.