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Mexico.
The 2015 preliminary survey to the 2020 census allowed Afro-Mexicans to self-identify for the first time in Mexico and recorded a total of 1.4 million (1.2% of the total Mexican population). The majority of Afro-Mexicans live in the Costa Chica of Guerrero region.
Caribbean.
Dominican Republic.
The first Afro-Dominican slaves were shipped to the Dominican Republic by Spanish conquistadors during the Transatlantic slave trade.
Puerto Rico.
Spanish conquistadors shipped slaves from West Africa to Puerto Rico. Afro-Puerto Ricans in part trace ancestry to this colonization of the island.
South America.
Approximately 12 million people were shipped from Africa to the Americas during the Atlantic slave trade from 1492 to 1888. Of these, 11.5 million of those shipped to South America and the Caribbean. Brazil was the largest importer in the Americas, with 5.5 million African slaves imported, followed by the British Caribbean with 2.76 million, the Spanish Caribbean and Spanish Mainland with 1.59 million Africans, and the French Caribbean with 1.32 million. Today their descendants number approximately 150 million in South America and the Caribbean. In addition to skin color, other physical characteristics such as facial features and hair texture are often variously used in classifying peoples as black in South America and the Caribbean. In South America and the Caribbean, classification as black is also closely tied to social status and socioeconomic variables, especially in light of social conceptions of "blanqueamiento" (racial whitening) and related concepts.
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Brazil.
The concept of race in Brazil is complex. A Brazilian child was never automatically identified with the racial type of one or both of their parents, nor were there only two categories to choose from. Between an individual of unmixed West African ancestry and a very light mulatto individual, more than a dozen racial categories were acknowledged, based on various combinations of hair color, hair texture, eye color, and skin color. These types grade into each other like the colors of the spectrum, and no one category stands significantly isolated from the rest. In Brazil, people are classified by appearance, not heredity.
Scholars disagree over the effects of social status on racial classifications in Brazil. It is generally believed that achieving upward mobility and education results in individuals being classified as a category of lighter skin. The popular claim is that in Brazil, poor whites are considered black and wealthy blacks are considered white. Some scholars disagree, arguing that "whitening" of one's social status may be open to people of mixed race, a large part of the population known as "pardo", but a person perceived as "preto" (black) will continue to be classified as black regardless of wealth or social status.
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Statistics.
From the years 1500 to 1850, an estimated 3.5 million captives were forcibly shipped from West/Central Africa to Brazil. The territory received the highest number of slaves of any country in the Americas. Scholars estimate that more than half of the Brazilian population is at least in part descended from these individuals. Brazil has the largest population of Afro-ancestry outside Africa. In contrast to the US, during the slavery period and after, the Portuguese colonial government in Brazil and the later Brazilian government did not pass formal anti-miscegenation or segregation laws. As in other Latin American countries, intermarriage was prevalent during the colonial period and continued afterward. In addition, people of mixed race ("pardo") often tended to marry white spouses, and their descendants became accepted as white. As a result, some of the European descended population also has West African or Amerindian blood. According to the last census of the 20th century, in which Brazilians could choose from five color/ethnic categories with which they identified, 54% of individuals identified as white, 6.2% identified as black, and 39.5% identified as pardo (brown)—a broad multi-racial category, including tri-racial persons.
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In the 19th century, a philosophy of racial whitening emerged in Brazil, related to the assimilation of mixed-race people into the white population through intermarriage. Until recently the government did not keep data on race. However, statisticians estimate that in 1835, roughly 50% of the population was "preto" (black; most were enslaved), a further 20% was "pardo" (brown), and 25% white, with the remainder Amerindian. Some classified as pardo were tri-racial.
By the 2000 census, demographic changes including the end to slavery, immigration from Europe and Asia, assimilation of multiracial persons, and other factors resulted in a population in which 6.2% of the population identified as black, 40% as pardo, and 55% as white. Essentially most of the black population was absorbed into the multi-racial category by intermixing. A 2007 genetic study found that at least 29% of the middle-class, white Brazilian population had some recent (since 1822 and the end of the colonial period) African ancestry.
Race relations in Brazil.
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According to the 2022 census, 10.2% of Brazilians said they were black, compared with 7.6% in 2010, and 45.3% said they were racially mixed, up from 43.1%, while the proportion of self-declared white Brazilians has fallen from 47.7% to 43.5%. Activists from Brazil's Black movement attribute the racial shift in the population to a growing sense of pride among African-descended Brazilians in recognising and celebrating their ancestry.
The philosophy of the racial democracy in Brazil has drawn some criticism, based on economic issues. Brazil has one of the largest gaps in income distribution in the world. The richest 10% of the population earn 28 times the average income of the bottom 40%. The richest 10 percent is almost exclusively white or predominantly European in ancestry. One-third of the population lives under the poverty line, with blacks and other people of color accounting for 70 percent of the poor.
In 2015 United States, African Americans, including multiracial people, earned 76.8% as much as white people. By contrast, black and mixed race Brazilians earned on average 58% as much as whites in 2014. The gap in income between blacks and other non-whites is relatively small compared to the large gap between whites and all people of color. Other social factors, such as illiteracy and education levels, show the same patterns of disadvantage for people of color.
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Some commentators observe that the United States practice of segregation and white supremacy in the South, and discrimination in many areas outside that region, forced many African Americans to unite in the civil rights struggle, whereas the fluid nature of race in Brazil has divided individuals of African ancestry between those with more or less ancestry and helped sustain an image of the country as an example of post-colonial harmony. This has hindered the development of a common identity among black Brazilians.
Though Brazilians of at least partial African heritage make up a large percentage of the population, few blacks have been elected as politicians. The city of Salvador, Bahia, for instance, is 80% people of color, but voters have not elected a mayor of color.
Patterns of discrimination against non-whites have led some academic and other activists to advocate for use of the Portuguese term "negro" to encompass all African-descended people, in order to stimulate a "black" consciousness and identity.
Colombia.
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Afro-Colombians are the third-largest African diaspora population in Latin America after Afro-Brazilians and Afro-Haitians.
Venezuela.
Most black Venezuelans descend from people brought as slaves to Venezuela directly from Africa during colonization; others have been descendants of immigrants from the Antilles and Colombia. Many blacks were part of the independence movement, and several managed to be heroes. There is a deep-rooted heritage of African culture in Venezuelan culture, as demonstrated in many traditional Venezuelan music and dances, such as the Tambor, a musical genre inherited from black members of the colony, or the Llanera music or the Gaita zuliana that both are a fusion of all the three major peoples that contribute to the cultural heritage. Also, black inheritance is present in the country's gastronomy.
There are entire communities of blacks in the Barlovento zone, as well as part of the Bolívar state and in other small towns; they also live peaceably among the general population in the rest of Venezuela. Currently, blacks represent a plurality of the Venezuelan population, although many are actually mixed people. |
Plague (disease)
Plague is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium "Yersinia pestis". Symptoms include fever, weakness and headache. Usually this begins one to seven days after exposure. There are three forms of plague, each affecting a different part of the body and causing associated symptoms. Pneumonic plague infects the lungs, causing shortness of breath, coughing and chest pain; bubonic plague affects the lymph nodes, making them swell; and septicemic plague infects the blood and can cause tissues to turn black and die.
The bubonic and septicemic forms are generally spread by flea bites or handling an infected animal, whereas pneumonic plague is generally spread between people through the air via infectious droplets. Diagnosis is typically by finding the bacterium in fluid from a lymph node, blood or sputum.
Those at high risk may be vaccinated. Those exposed to a case of pneumonic plague may be treated with preventive medication. If infected, treatment is with antibiotics and supportive care. Typically antibiotics include a combination of gentamicin and a fluoroquinolone. The risk of death with treatment is about 10% while without it is about 70%.
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Globally, about 600 cases are reported a year. In 2017, the countries with the most cases include the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar and Peru. In the United States, infections occasionally occur in rural areas, where the bacteria are believed to circulate among rodents. It has historically occurred in large outbreaks, with the best known being the Black Death in the 14th century, which resulted in more than 50 million deaths in Europe.
Signs and symptoms.
There are several different clinical manifestations of plague. The most common form is bubonic plague, followed by septicemic and pneumonic plague. Other clinical manifestations include plague meningitis, plague pharyngitis, and ocular plague. General symptoms of plague include fever, chills, headaches, and nausea. Many people experience swelling in their lymph nodes if they have bubonic plague. For those with pneumonic plague, symptoms may (or may not) include a cough, pain in the chest, and haemoptysis.
Bubonic plague.
When a flea bites a human and contaminates the wound with regurgitated blood, the plague-causing bacteria are passed into the tissue. "Y. pestis" can reproduce inside cells, so even if phagocytosed, they can still survive. Once in the body, the bacteria can enter the lymphatic system, which drains interstitial fluid. Plague bacteria secrete several toxins, one of which is known to cause beta-adrenergic blockade.
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"Y. pestis" spreads through the lymphatic vessels of the infected human until it reaches a lymph node, where it causes acute lymphadenitis. The swollen lymph nodes form the characteristic buboes associated with the disease, and autopsies of these buboes have revealed them to be mostly hemorrhagic or necrotic.
If the lymph node is overwhelmed, the infection can pass into the bloodstream, causing "secondary septicemic plague" and if the lungs are seeded, it can cause "secondary pneumonic plague".
Septicemic plague.
Lymphatics ultimately drain into the bloodstream, so the plague bacteria may enter the blood and travel to almost any part of the body. In septicemic plague, bacterial endotoxins cause disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC), causing tiny clots throughout the body and possibly ischemic necrosis (tissue death due to lack of circulation/perfusion to that tissue) from the clots. DIC results in depletion of the body's clotting resources so that it can no longer control bleeding. Consequently, there is bleeding into the skin and other organs, which can cause red and/or black patchy rash and hemoptysis/hematemesis (coughing up/ vomiting of blood). There are bumps on the skin that look somewhat like insect bites; these are usually red, and sometimes white in the centre. Untreated, the septicemic plague is usually fatal. Early treatment with antibiotics reduces the mortality rate to between 4 and 15 per cent.
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Pneumonic plague.
The pneumonic form of plague arises from infection of the lungs. It causes coughing and thereby produces airborne droplets that contain bacterial cells and are likely to infect anyone inhaling them. The incubation period for pneumonic plague is short, usually two to four days, but sometimes just a few hours. The initial signs are indistinguishable from several other respiratory illnesses; they include headache, weakness, and spitting or vomiting of blood. The course of the disease is rapid; unless diagnosed and treated soon enough, typically within a few hours, death may follow in one to six days; in untreated cases, mortality is nearly 100%.
Cause.
Transmission of "Y. pestis" to an uninfected individual is possible by any of the following means:
"Yersinia pestis" circulates in animal reservoirs, particularly in rodents, in the natural foci of infection found on all continents except Australia. The natural foci of plague are situated in a broad belt in the tropical and sub-tropical latitudes and the warmer parts of the temperate latitudes around the globe, between the parallels 55° N and 40° S.
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Contrary to popular belief, rats did not directly start the spread of the bubonic plague. It is mainly a disease in the fleas ("Xenopsylla cheopis") that infested the rats, making the rats themselves the first victims of the plague. Rodent-borne infection in a human occurs when a person is bitten by a flea that has been infected by biting a rodent that itself has been infected by the bite of a flea carrying the disease. The bacteria multiply inside the flea, sticking together to form a plug that blocks its stomach and causes it to starve. The flea then bites a host and continues to feed, even though it cannot quell its hunger, and consequently, the flea vomits blood tainted with the bacteria back into the bite wound. The bubonic plague bacterium then infects a new person and the flea eventually dies from starvation. Serious outbreaks of plague are usually started by other disease outbreaks in rodents or a rise in the rodent population.
A 21st-century study of a 1665 outbreak of plague in the village of Eyam in England's Derbyshire Dales – which isolated itself during the outbreak, facilitating modern study – found that three-quarters of cases are likely to have been due to human-to-human transmission, especially within families, a much larger proportion than previously thought.
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Diagnosis.
Symptoms of plague are usually non-specific and to definitively diagnose plague, laboratory testing is required. "Y. pestis" can be identified through both a microscope and by culturing a sample and this is used as a reference standard to confirm that a person has a case of plague. The sample can be obtained from the blood, mucus (sputum), or aspirate extracted from inflamed lymph nodes (buboes). If a person is administered antibiotics before a sample is taken or if there is a delay in transporting the person's sample to a laboratory and/or a poorly stored sample, there is a possibility for false negative results.
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) may also be used to diagnose plague, by detecting the presence of bacterial genes such as the "pla" gene (plasmogen activator) and "caf1" gene, (F1 capsule antigen). PCR testing requires a very small sample and is effective for both alive and dead bacteria. For this reason, if a person receives antibiotics before a sample is collected for laboratory testing, they may have a false negative culture and a positive PCR result.
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Blood tests to detect antibodies against "Y. pestis" can also be used to diagnose plague, however, this requires taking blood samples at different periods to detect differences between the acute and convalescent phases of F1 antibody titres.
In 2020, a study about rapid diagnostic tests that detect the F1 capsule antigen (F1RDT) by sampling sputum or bubo aspirate was released. Results show rapid diagnostic F1RDT test can be used for people who have suspected pneumonic and bubonic plague but cannot be used in asymptomatic people. F1RDT may be useful in providing a fast result for prompt treatment and fast public health response as studies suggest that F1RDT is highly sensitive for both pneumonic and bubonic plague. However, when using the rapid test, both positive and negative results need to be confirmed to establish or reject the diagnosis of a confirmed case of plague and the test result needs to be interpreted within the epidemiological context as study findings indicate that although 40 out of 40 people who had the plague in a population of 1000 were correctly diagnosed, 317 people were diagnosed falsely as positive.
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Prevention.
Vaccination.
Bacteriologist Waldemar Haffkine developed the first plague vaccine in 1897. He conducted a massive inoculation program in British India, and it is estimated that 26 million doses of Haffkine's anti-plague vaccine were sent out from Bombay between 1897 and 1925, reducing the plague mortality by 50–85%.
Since human plague is rare in most parts of the world as of 2023, routine vaccination is not needed other than for those at particularly high risk of exposure, nor for people living in areas with enzootic plague, meaning it occurs at regular, predictable rates in populations and specific areas, such as the western United States. It is not even indicated for most travellers to countries with known recent reported cases, particularly if their travel is limited to urban areas with modern hotels. The United States CDC thus only recommends vaccination for (1) all laboratory and field personnel who are working with "Y. pestis" organisms resistant to antimicrobials: (2) people engaged in aerosol experiments with "Y. pestis"; and (3) people engaged in field operations in areas with enzootic plague where preventing exposure is not possible (such as some disaster areas). A systematic review by the Cochrane Collaboration found no studies of sufficient quality to make any statement on the efficacy of the vaccine.
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Early diagnosis.
Diagnosing plague early leads to a decrease in transmission or spread of the disease.
Prophylaxis.
Pre-exposure prophylaxis for first responders and health care providers who will care for patients with pneumonic plague is not considered necessary as long as standard and droplet precautions can be maintained. In cases of surgical mask shortages, patient overcrowding, poor ventilation in hospital wards, or other crises, pre-exposure prophylaxis might be warranted if sufficient supplies of antimicrobials are available.
Postexposure prophylaxis should be considered for people who had close (<6 feet), sustained contact with a patient with pneumonic plague and were not wearing adequate personal protective equipment. Antimicrobial postexposure prophylaxis also can be considered for laboratory workers accidentally exposed to infectious materials and people who had close (<6 feet) or direct contact with infected animals, such as veterinary staff, pet owners, and hunters.
Specific recommendations on pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis are available in the clinical guidelines on treatment and prophylaxis of plague published in 2021.
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Treatments.
If diagnosed in time, the various forms of plague are usually highly responsive to antibiotic therapy. The antibiotics often used are streptomycin, chloramphenicol and tetracycline. Amongst the newer generation of antibiotics, gentamicin and doxycycline have proven effective in monotherapeutic treatment of plague. Guidelines on treatment and prophylaxis of plague were published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2021.
The plague bacterium could develop drug resistance and again become a major health threat. One case of a drug-resistant form of the bacterium was found in Madagascar in 1995. Further outbreaks in Madagascar were reported in November 2014 and October 2017.
Epidemiology.
Globally about 600 cases are reported a year. In 2017, the countries with the most cases include the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar and Peru. It has historically occurred in large outbreaks, with the best known being the Black Death in the 14th century which resulted in more than 50 million dead. In recent years, cases have been distributed between small seasonal outbreaks which occur primarily in Madagascar, and sporadic outbreaks or isolated cases in endemic areas.
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In 2022 the possible origin of all modern strands of "Yersinia pestis" DNA was found in human remains in three graves located in Kyrgyzstan, dated to 1338 and 1339. The siege of Caffa in Crimea in 1346, is known to have been the first plague outbreak with following strands, later to spread over Europe. Sequencing DNA compared to other ancient and modern strands paints a family tree of the bacteria. Bacteria today affecting marmots in Kyrgyzstan, are closest to the strand found in the graves, suggesting this is also the location where plague transferred from animals to humans.
Biological weapon.
The plague has a long history as a biological weapon. Historical accounts from ancient China and medieval Europe details the use of infected animal carcasses, such as cows or horses, and human carcasses, by the Xiongnu/Huns, Mongols, Turks and other groups, to contaminate enemy water supplies. Han dynasty general Huo Qubing is recorded to have died of such contamination while engaging in warfare against the Xiongnu. Plague victims were also reported to have been tossed by catapult into cities under siege.
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In 1347, the Genoese possession of Caffa, a great trade emporium on the Crimean peninsula, came under siege by an army of Mongol warriors of the Golden Horde under the command of Jani Beg. After a protracted siege during which the Mongol army was reportedly withering from the disease, they decided to use the infected corpses as a biological weapon. The corpses were catapulted over the city walls, infecting the inhabitants. This event might have led to the transfer of the Black Death via their ships into the south of Europe, possibly explaining its rapid spread.
During World War II, the Japanese Army developed weaponized plague, based on the breeding and release of large numbers of fleas. During the Japanese occupation of Manchuria, Unit 731 deliberately infected Chinese, Korean and Manchurian civilians and prisoners of war with the plague bacterium. These subjects, termed "maruta" or "logs", were then studied by dissection, others by vivisection while still conscious. Members of the unit such as Shirō Ishii were exonerated from the Tokyo tribunal by Douglas MacArthur but 12 of them were prosecuted in the Khabarovsk War Crime Trials in 1949 during which some admitted having spread bubonic plague within a radius around the city of Changde.
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Ishii innovated bombs containing live mice and fleas, with very small explosive loads, to deliver the weaponized microbes, overcoming the problem of the explosive killing the infected animal and insect by the use of a ceramic, rather than metal, casing for the warhead. While no records survive of the actual usage of the ceramic shells, prototypes exist and are believed to have been used in experiments during WWII.
After World War II, both the United States and the Soviet Union developed means of weaponising pneumonic plague. Experiments included various delivery methods, vacuum drying, sizing the bacterium, developing strains resistant to antibiotics, combining the bacterium with other diseases (such as diphtheria), and genetic engineering. Scientists who worked in USSR bio-weapons programs have stated that the Soviet effort was formidable and that large stocks of weaponised plague bacteria were produced. Information on many of the Soviet and US projects is largely unavailable. Aerosolized pneumonic plague remains the most significant threat.
The plague can be easily treated with antibiotics. Some countries, such as the United States, have large supplies on hand if such an attack should occur, making the threat less severe. |
Baudot code
The Baudot code () is an early character encoding for telegraphy invented by Émile Baudot in the 1870s. It was the predecessor to the International Telegraph Alphabet No. 2 (ITA2), the most common teleprinter code in use before ASCII. Each character in the alphabet is represented by a series of five bits, sent over a communication channel such as a telegraph wire or a radio signal by asynchronous serial communication. The symbol rate measurement is known as baud, and is derived from the same name.
History.
Baudot code (ITA1).
In the below table, Columns I, II, III, IV, and V show the code; the Let. and Fig. columns show the letters and numbers for the Continental and UK versions; and the sort keys present the table in the order: alphabetical, Gray and UK
Baudot developed his first multiplexed telegraph in 1872 and patented it in 1874. In 1876, he changed from a six-bit code to a five-bit code, as suggested by Carl Friedrich Gauss and Wilhelm Weber in 1834,
with equal on and off intervals, which allowed for transmission of the Roman alphabet, and included punctuation and control signals. The code itself was not patented (only the machine) because French patent law does not allow concepts to be patented.
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Baudot's 5-bit code was adapted to be sent from a manual keyboard, and no teleprinter equipment was ever constructed that used it in its original form. The code was entered on a keyboard which had just five piano-type keys and was operated using two fingers of the left hand and three fingers of the right hand. Once the keys had been pressed, they were locked down until mechanical contacts in a distributor unit passed over the sector connected to that particular keyboard, at which time the keyboard was unlocked ready for the next character to be entered, with an audible click (known as the "cadence signal") to warn the operator. Operators had to maintain a steady rhythm, and the usual speed of operation was 30 words per minute.
The table "shows the allocation of the Baudot code which was employed in the British Post Office for continental and inland services. A number of characters in the continental code are replaced by fractionals in the inland code. Code elements 1, 2 and 3 are transmitted by keys 1, 2 and 3, and these are operated by the first three fingers of the right hand. Code elements 4 and 5 are transmitted by keys 4 and 5, and these are operated by the first two fingers of the left hand."
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Baudot's code became known as the International Telegraph Alphabet No. 1 (ITA1). It is no longer used.
Murray code.
In 1901, Baudot's code was modified by Donald Murray (1865–1945), prompted by his development of a typewriter-like keyboard. The Murray system employed an intermediate step: an operator used a keyboard perforator to punch a paper tape and then a transmitter to send the message from the punched tape. At the receiving end of the line, a printing mechanism would print on a paper tape, and/or a reperforator would make a perforated copy of the message.
Because there was no longer a connection between the operator's hand movement and the bits transmitted, there was no concern about arranging the code to minimize operator fatigue. Instead, Murray designed the code to minimize wear on the machinery by assigning the code combinations with the fewest punched holes to the most frequently used characters. For example, the one-hole letters are E and T. The ten two-hole letters are AOINSHRDLZ, very similar to the "Etaoin shrdlu" order used in Linotype machines. Ten more letters, BCGFJMPUWY, have three holes each, and the four-hole letters are VXKQ.
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The Murray code also introduced what became known as "format affectors" or "control characters" the CR (Carriage Return) and LF (Line Feed) codes. A few of Baudot's codes moved to the positions where they have stayed ever since: the NULL or BLANK and the DEL code. NULL/BLANK was used as an idle code for when no messages were being sent, but the same code was used to encode the space separation between words. Sequences of DEL codes (fully punched columns) were used at start or end of messages or between them which made it easier to separate distinct messages. (BELL codes could be inserted in those sequences to signal to the remote operator that a new message was coming or that transmission of a message was terminated).
Early British Creed machines also used the Murray system.
Western Union.
Murray's code was adopted by Western Union which used it until the 1950s, with a few changes that consisted of omitting some characters and adding more control codes. An explicit SPC (space) character was introduced, in place of the BLANK/NULL, and a new BEL code rang a bell or otherwise produced an audible signal at the receiver. Additionally, the WRU or "Who aRe yoU?" code was introduced, which caused a receiving machine to send an identification stream back to the sender.
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ITA2.
In 1932, the CCITT introduced the International Telegraph Alphabet No. 2 (ITA2) code as an international standard, which was based on the Western Union code with some minor changes. The US standardized on a version of ITA2 called the American Teletypewriter code (US TTY) which was the basis for 5-bit teletypewriter codes until the debut of 7-bit ASCII in 1963.
Some code points (marked blue in the table) were reserved for national-specific usage.
The code position assigned to Null was in fact used only for the idle state of teleprinters. During long periods of idle time, the impulse rate was not synchronized between both devices (which could even be powered off or not permanently interconnected on commuted phone lines). To start a message it was first necessary to calibrate the impulse rate, a sequence of regularly timed "mark" pulses (1), by a group of five pulses, which could also be detected by simple passive electronic devices to turn on the teleprinter. This sequence of pulses generated a series of Erasure/Delete characters while also initializing the state of the receiver to the Letters shift mode. |
This sequence of pulses generated a series of Erasure/Delete characters while also initializing the state of the receiver to the Letters shift mode. However, the first pulse could be lost, so this power on procedure could then be terminated by a single Null immediately followed by an Erasure/Delete character. To preserve the synchronization between devices, the Null code could not be used arbitrarily in the middle of messages (this was an improvement to the initial Baudot system where spaces were not explicitly differentiated, so it was difficult to maintain the pulse counters for repeating spaces on teleprinters). But it was then possible to resynchronize devices at any time by sending a Null in the middle of a message (immediately followed by an Erasure/Delete/LS control if followed by a letter, or by a FS control if followed by a figure). Sending Null controls also did not cause the paper band to advance to the next row (as nothing was punched), so this saved precious lengths of punchable paper band. On the other hand, the Erasure/Delete/LS control code was always punched and always shifted to the (initial) letters mode. On the other hand, the Erasure/Delete/LS control code was always punched and always shifted to the (initial) letters mode. According to some sources, the Null code point was reserved for country-internal usage only.
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The Shift to Letters code (LS) is also usable as a way to cancel/delete text from a punched tape after it has been read, allowing the safe destruction of a message before discarding the punched band. Functionally, it can also play the same filler role as the Delete code in ASCII (or other 7-bit and 8-bit encodings, including EBCDIC for punched cards). After codes in a fragment of text have been replaced by an arbitrary number of LS codes, what follows is still preserved and decodable. It can also be used as an initiator to make sure that the decoding of the first code will not give a digit or another symbol from the figures page (because the Null code can be arbitrarily inserted near the end or beginning of a punch band, and has to be ignored, whereas the Space code is significant in text).
The cells marked as reserved for extensions (which use the LS code again a second time—just after the first LS code—to shift from the figures page to the letters shift page) has been defined to shift into a new mode. In this new mode, the letters page contains only lowercase letters, but retains access to a third code page for uppercase letters, either by encoding for a single letter (by sending LS before that letter), or locking (with FS+LS) for an unlimited number of capital letters or digits before then unlocking (with a single LS) to return to lowercase mode. The cell marked as "Reserved" is also usable (using the FS code from the figures shift page) to switch the page of figures (which normally contains digits and "national" lowercase letters or symbols) to a fourth page (where national letters are uppercase and other symbols may be encoded).
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ITA2 is still used in telecommunications devices for the deaf (TDD), Telex, and some amateur radio applications, such as radioteletype ("RTTY"). ITA2 is also used in Enhanced Broadcast Solution, an early 21st-century financial protocol specified by Deutsche Börse, to reduce the character encoding footprint.
Nomenclature.
Nearly all 20th-century teleprinter equipment used Western Union's code, ITA2, or variants thereof. Radio amateurs casually call ITA2 and variants "Baudot" incorrectly, and even the American Radio Relay League's Amateur Radio Handbook does so, though in more recent editions the tables of codes correctly identifies it as ITA2.
Character set.
The values shown in each cell are the Unicode codepoints, given for comparison.
Weather code.
Meteorologists used a variant of ITA2 with the figures-case symbols, except for the ten digits, BEL and a few other characters, replaced by weather symbols:
Details.
Note: This table presumes the space called "1" by Baudot and Murray is rightmost, and least significant. The way the transmitted bits were packed into larger codes varied by manufacturer. The most common solution allocates the bits from the least significant bit towards the most significant bit (leaving the three most significant bits of a byte unused).
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In ITA2, characters are expressed using five bits. ITA2 uses two code sub-sets, the "letter shift" (LTRS), and the "figure shift" (FIGS). The FIGS character (11011) signals that the following characters are to be interpreted as being in the FIGS set, until this is reset by the LTRS (11111) character. In use, the LTRS or FIGS shift key is pressed and released, transmitting the corresponding shift character to the other machine. The desired letters or figures characters are then typed. Unlike a typewriter or modern computer keyboard, the shift key isn't kept depressed whilst the corresponding characters are typed. "ENQuiry" will trigger the other machine's answerback. It means "Who are you?"
CR is carriage return, LF is line feed, BEL is the bell character which rang a small bell (often used to alert operators to an incoming message), SP is space, and NUL is the null character (blank tape).
Note: the binary conversions of the codepoints are often shown in reverse order, depending on (presumably) from which side one views the paper tape. Note further that the "control" characters were chosen so that they were either symmetric or in useful pairs so that inserting a tape "upside down" did not result in problems for the equipment and the resulting printout could be deciphered. Thus FIGS (11011), LTRS (11111) and space (00100) are invariant, while CR (00010) and LF (01000), generally used as a pair, are treated the same regardless of order by page printers. LTRS could also be used to overpunch characters to be deleted on a paper tape (much like DEL in 7-bit ASCII).
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The sequence "RYRYRY..." is often used in test messages, and at the start of every transmission. Since R is 01010 and Y is 10101, the sequence exercises much of a teleprinter's mechanical components at maximum stress. Also, at one time, fine-tuning of the receiver was done using two coloured lights (one for each tone). 'RYRYRY...' produced 0101010101..., which made the lights glow with equal brightness when the tuning was correct. This tuning sequence is only useful when ITA2 is used with two-tone FSK modulation, such as is commonly seen in radioteletype (RTTY) usage.
US implementations of Baudot code may differ in the addition of a few characters, such as #, & on the FIGS layer.
The Russian version of Baudot code (MTK-2) used three shift modes; the Cyrillic letter mode was activated by the character (00000). Because of the larger number of characters in the Cyrillic alphabet, the characters !, &, £ were omitted and replaced by Cyrillics, and BEL has the same code as Cyrillic letter Ю. The Cyrillic letters Ъ and Ё are omitted, and Ч is merged with the numeral 4. |
Blu Tack
Blu Tack is a reusable putty-like pressure-sensitive adhesive produced by Bostik, commonly used to attach lightweight objects (such as posters or sheets of paper) to walls, doors or other dry surfaces. Traditionally blue, it is also available in other colours. Generic versions of the product are also available from other manufacturers. The spelling now used is without a hyphen.
As of 2015, Bostik was manufacturing around 100 tonnes of Blu Tack weekly at its Leicester factory.
History.
While the inventor of the commercial Bostik product is unknown, a precursor was created around 1970 as an accidental by-product of an attempt to develop a sealant based on chalk powder, rubber and oil. Blu Tack was originally white, but following fears that children could mistake it for chewing gum, a blue colouring was added.
In the United Kingdom in March 2008, 20,000 numbered packs of pink Blu Tack were made available, to help raise money for Breast Cancer Campaign, with 10 pence from each pack going to the charity. The formulation was slightly altered to retain complete consistency with its blue counterpart. Since then, many coloured variations have been made, including red-and-white, yellow, and a green Halloween pack.
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Composition.
Blu Tack is described as a synthetic rubber compound without hazardous properties under normal conditions. It can be swallowed without harm and is not carcinogenic. It is non-soluble and is denser than water. The material is not flammable, but emits carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide when exposed to fire or high temperatures.
Similar products.
Similar products of various colours are made by many manufacturers, including Faber-Castell's "Tack-it", Henkel's "Fun-Tak", UHU's "Poster Putty" and "Sticky Tack", UFO's "Dough Tack", "Gummy Sticker" Pritt's "Sticky Stuff", Bostik's "Prestik" and Elmer's "Poster Tack". Plasti-Tak by Brooks Manufacturing Company appears to pre-date Blu Tack, with a trademark registration in 1964.
Versions of the product are also sold under the generic names "adhesive putty" and "mounting putty". The generic trademark or common name for mounting putty varies by region. It is known as "Patafix" in France, Italy, Portugal, Austria and Turkey, ' in Iceland and "lærertyggis" in Norway (both meaning "teacher's chewing gum"), ' ("attachment paste") or ' in Sweden, and ' in South Africa (an Afrikaans word, literally translated as "wonder glue").
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Alternative uses.
Like all poster putties, Blu Tack provides an alternative to the artist's traditional kneaded eraser.
Blu Tack was often used with the Sinclair ZX81 microcomputer to help mitigate crashes caused by wobbly external RAM modules. This was such a widespread problem that Sinclair Research's technical support department officially recommended the use of Blu Tack to resolve this issue.
In 2007 the artist Elizabeth Thompson created a sculpture of a house spider using Blu Tack over a wire frame. It was exhibited at London Zoo.
Blu Tack can be used as a damping agent for sound and vibration applications, due to its low amplitude response properties. A 2013 study concluded that the substance is a comfortable alternative to over-the-counter ear plugs for the attenuation of everyday sound.
The New Zealand Government Earthquake Commission recommends that products such as Blu Tack should be used to prevent ornaments and small household items from falling or moving in the event of an earthquake.
Blu Tack is sometimes used by electronic hobbyists to hold through-hole electronic components in position for soldering onto PC-boards. |
Bacillus
Bacillus (Latin "stick") is a genus of Gram-positive, rod-shaped bacteria, a member of the phylum "Bacillota", with 266 named species. The term is also used to describe the shape (rod) of other so-shaped bacteria; and the plural "Bacilli" is the name of the class of bacteria to which this genus belongs. "Bacillus" species can be either obligate aerobes which are dependent on oxygen, or facultative anaerobes which can survive in the absence of oxygen. Cultured "Bacillus" species test positive for the enzyme catalase if oxygen has been used or is present.
"Bacillus" can reduce themselves to oval endospores and can remain in this dormant state for years. The endospore of one species from Morocco is reported to have survived being heated to 420 °C. Endospore formation is usually triggered by a lack of nutrients: the bacterium divides within its cell wall, and one side then engulfs the other. They are not true spores (i.e., not an offspring). Endospore formation originally defined the genus, but not all such species are closely related, and many species have been moved to other genera of the "Bacillota". Only one endospore is formed per cell. |
They are not true spores (i.e., not an offspring). Endospore formation originally defined the genus, but not all such species are closely related, and many species have been moved to other genera of the "Bacillota". Only one endospore is formed per cell. The spores are resistant to heat, cold, radiation, desiccation, and disinfectants. "Bacillus anthracis" needs oxygen to sporulate; this constraint has important consequences for epidemiology and control. In vivo, "B. anthracis" produces a polypeptide (polyglutamic acid) capsule that kills it from phagocytosis. The genera "Bacillus" and "Clostridium" constitute the family "Bacillaceae". Species are identified by using morphologic and biochemical criteria. Because the spores of many "Bacillus" species are resistant to heat, radiation, disinfectants, and desiccation, they are difficult to eliminate from medical and pharmaceutical materials and are a frequent cause of contamination. Not only are they resistant to heat, radiation, etc., but they are also resistant to chemicals such as antibiotics. Not only are they resistant to heat, radiation, etc., but they are also resistant to chemicals such as antibiotics. This resistance allows them to survive for many years and especially in a controlled environment. "Bacillus" species are well known in the food industries as troublesome spoilage organisms.
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Ubiquitous in nature, "Bacillus" includes symbiotic (sometimes referred to as endophytes) as well as independent species. Two species are medically significant: "B. anthracis" causes anthrax; and "B. cereus" causes food poisoning.
Many species of "Bacillus" can produce copious amounts of enzymes, which are used in various industries, such as in the production of alpha amylase used in starch hydrolysis and the protease subtilisin used in detergents. "B. subtilis" is a valuable model for bacterial research. Some "Bacillus" species can synthesize and secrete lipopeptides, in particular surfactins and mycosubtilins. "Bacillus" species are also found in marine sponges. Marine sponge associated "Bacillus subtilis" (strains WS1A and YBS29) can synthesize several antimicrobial peptides. These "Bacillus subtilis" strains can develop disease resistance in "Labeo rohita".
Structure.
Cell wall.
The cell wall of "Bacillus" is a structure on the outside of the cell that forms the second barrier between the bacterium and the environment, and at the same time maintains the rod shape and withstands the pressure generated by the cell's turgor. The cell wall is made of teichoic and teichuronic acids. "B. subtilis" is the first bacterium for which the role of an actin-like cytoskeleton in cell shape determination and peptidoglycan synthesis was identified and for which the entire set of peptidoglycan-synthesizing enzymes was localized. The role of the cytoskeleton in shape generation and maintenance is important.
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"Bacillus" species are rod-shaped, endospore-forming aerobic or facultatively anaerobic, Gram-positive bacteria; in some species cultures may turn Gram-negative with age. The many species of the genus exhibit a wide range of physiologic abilities that allow them to live in every natural environment. Only one endospore is formed per cell. The spores are resistant to heat, cold, radiation, desiccation, and disinfectants.
Origin of name.
The genus "Bacillus" was named in 1835 by Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg, to contain rod-shaped (bacillus) bacteria. He had seven years earlier named the genus "Bacterium". "Bacillus" was later amended by Ferdinand Cohn to further describe them as spore-forming, Gram-positive, aerobic or facultatively anaerobic bacteria. Like other genera associated with the early history of microbiology, such as "Pseudomonas" and "Vibrio", the 266 species of "Bacillus" are ubiquitous. The genus has a very large ribosomal 16S diversity.
Isolation and identification.
Established methods for isolating "Bacillus" species for culture primarily involve suspension of sampled soil in distilled water, heat shock to kill off vegetative cells leaving primarily viable spores in the sample, and culturing on agar plates with further tests to confirm the identity of the cultured colonies. Additionally, colonies which exhibit characteristics typical of "Bacillus" bacteria can be selected from a culture of an environmental sample which has been significantly diluted following heat shock or hot air drying to select potential "Bacillus" bacteria for testing.
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Cultured colonies are usually large, spreading, and irregularly shaped. Under the microscope, the "Bacillus" cells appear as rods, and a substantial portion of the cells usually contain oval endospores at one end, making them bulge.
Characteristics of "Bacillus" spp..
S.I. Paul et al. (2021) isolated and identified multiple strains of "Bacillus subtilis" (strains WS1A, YBS29, KSP163A, OA122, ISP161A, OI6, WS11, KSP151E, and S8,) from marine sponges of the Saint Martin's Island Area of the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh. Based on their study, colony, morphological, physiological, and biochemical characteristics of "Bacillus" spp. are shown in the Table below.
Note: + = Positive, – =Negative, O= Oxidative, F= Fermentative
Phylogeny.
It's been long known that the (pre-2020) definition of "Bacillus" is overly vague.
One clade, formed by "Bacillus anthracis", "Bacillus cereus", "Bacillus mycoides", "Bacillus pseudomycoides", "Bacillus thuringiensis", and "Bacillus weihenstephanensis" under the 2011 classification standards, should be a single species (within 97% 16S identity), but for medical reasons, they are considered separate species (an issue also present for four species of "Shigella" and "Escherichia coli").
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Species.
Species orphaned and assigned to other genera:
Ecological and clinical significance.
"Bacillus" species are ubiquitous in nature, e.g. in soil. They can occur in extreme environments such as high pH ("B. alcalophilus"), high temperature ("B. thermophilus"), and high salt concentrations ("B. halodurans"). They also are very commonly found as endophytes in plants where they can play a critical role in their immune system, nutrient absorption and nitrogen fixing capabilities. "B. thuringiensis" produces a toxin that can kill insects and thus has been used as insecticide. "B. siamensis" has antimicrobial compounds that inhibit plant pathogens, such as the fungi "Rhizoctonia solani" and "Botrytis cinerea", and they promote plant growth by volatile emissions. Some species of "Bacillus" are naturally competent for DNA uptake by transformation.
Industrial significance.
Many "Bacillus" species are able to secrete large quantities of enzymes. "Bacillus amyloliquefaciens" is the source of a natural antibiotic protein barnase (a ribonuclease), alpha amylase used in starch hydrolysis, the protease subtilisin used with detergents, and the BamH1 restriction enzyme used in DNA research.
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A portion of the "Bacillus thuringiensis" genome was incorporated into corn and cotton crops. The resulting plants are resistant to some insect pests.
"Bacillus subtilis" (natto) is the key microbial participant in the ongoing production of the soya-based traditional natto fermentation, and some "Bacillus" species are on the Food and Drug Administration's GRAS (generally regarded as safe) list.
The capacity of selected "Bacillus" strains to produce and secrete large quantities (20–25 g/L) of extracellular enzymes has placed them among the most important industrial enzyme producers. The ability of different species to ferment in the acid, neutral, and alkaline pH ranges, combined with the presence of thermophiles in the genus, has led to the development of a variety of new commercial enzyme products with the desired temperature, pH activity, and stability properties to address a variety of specific applications. Classical mutation and (or) selection techniques, together with advanced cloning and protein engineering strategies, have been exploited to develop these products.
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Efforts to produce and secrete high yields of foreign recombinant proteins in "Bacillus" hosts initially appeared to be hampered by the degradation of the products by the host proteases. Recent studies have revealed that the slow folding of heterologous proteins at the membrane-cell wall interface of Gram-positive bacteria renders them vulnerable to attack by wall-associated proteases. In addition, the presence of thiol-disulphide oxidoreductases in "B. subtilis" may be beneficial in the secretion of disulphide-bond-containing proteins. Such developments from our understanding of the complex protein translocation machinery of Gram-positive bacteria should allow the resolution of current secretion challenges and make "Bacillus" species preeminent hosts for heterologous protein production.
"Bacillus" strains have also been developed and engineered as industrial producers of nucleotides, the vitamin riboflavin, the flavor agent ribose, and the supplement poly-gamma-glutamic acid. With the recent characterization of the genome of "B. subtilis" 168 and of some related strains, "Bacillus" species are poised to become the preferred hosts for the production of many new and improved products as we move through the genomic and proteomic era.
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Use as model organism.
"Bacillus subtilis" is one of the best understood prokaryotes, in terms of molecular and cellular biology. Its superb genetic amenability and relatively large size have provided the powerful tools required to investigate a bacterium from all possible aspects. Recent improvements in fluorescent microscopy techniques have provided novel insight into the dynamic structure of a single cell organism. Research on "B. subtilis" has been at the forefront of bacterial molecular biology and cytology, and the organism is a model for differentiation, gene/protein regulation, and cell cycle events in bacteria. |
Brasília
Brasília ( ; ) is the federal capital of Brazil and the seat of government of the Federal District. Located in the Brazilian highlands in the country's Central-West region, it was founded by President Juscelino Kubitschek on 21 April 1960, to replace Rio de Janeiro as the national capital. Brasília is Brazil's third-most populous city after São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, with a population of 2.8 million. Among major Latin American cities, it has the highest GDP per capita.
Brasília is a planned city developed by Lúcio Costa, Oscar Niemeyer and Joaquim Cardozo in 1956 in a scheme to move the capital from Rio de Janeiro to a more central location. The landscape architect was Roberto Burle Marx. The city's design divides it into numbered blocks as well as sectors for specified activities, such as the Hotel Sector, the Banking Sector, and the Embassy Sector. Brasília was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987 due to its modernist architecture and uniquely artistic urban planning. It was named "City of Design" by UNESCO in October 2017 and has been part of the Creative Cities Network since then.
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It is notable for its white-colored, modern architecture, designed by Oscar Niemeyer. All three branches of Brazil's federal government are located in the city: executive, legislative and judiciary. Brasília also hosts 124 foreign embassies. The city's international airport connects it to all other major Brazilian cities and some international destinations, and it is the third-busiest airport in Brazil. It was one of the main host cities of the 2014 FIFA World Cup and hosted some of the football matches during the 2016 Summer Olympics; it also hosted the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup.
Laid out in the shape of an airplane, its "fuselage" is the Monumental Axis, a pair of wide avenues flanking a large park. In the "cockpit" is Praça dos Três Poderes, named for the 3 branches of government surrounding it. Brasília has a unique legal status, as it is an administrative region rather than a municipality like other cities in Brazil. The name "Brasília" is often used as a synonym for the Federal District as a whole, which is divided into 35 administrative regions, one of which (Plano Piloto) includes the area of the originally planned city and its federal government buildings. The entire Federal District is considered by IBGE to make up Brasília's city area, and the local government considers the entirety of the district plus 12 neighboring municipalities in the state of Goiás to be its metropolitan area.
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Etymology.
The term Brasília comes from the Latin translation of Brazil, which was suggested as a name for the country's capital in 1821 by José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva.
History.
Background.
Brazil's first capital was Salvador; in 1763 Rio de Janeiro became Brazil's capital and remained so until 1960. During this period, resources tended to be centered in Brazil's southeastern region, and most of the country's population was concentrated near its Atlantic coast. Brasilia's geographically central location fostered a more regionally neutral federal capital. An article of the country's first republican constitution, dated 1891, states that the capital should be moved from Rio de Janeiro to a place close to the country's center.
The idea of relocating Brazil's capital city was conceived in 1827 by José Bonifácio, an advisor to Emperor Pedro I. He presented a plan to the General Assembly of Brazil for a new city called Brasília, with the idea of moving the capital westward from the heavily populated southeastern corridor. The bill was not enacted because Pedro I dissolved the Assembly.
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According to a legend, Italian saint Don Bosco in 1883 had a dream in which he described a futuristic city that roughly fitted Brasília's location. In Brasília today, many references to Bosco, who founded the Salesian order, are found throughout the city and one church parish in the city bears his name.
Costa plan.
Juscelino Kubitschek was elected President of Brazil in 1955. Upon taking office in January 1956, in fulfilment of his campaign pledge, he initiated the planning and construction of the new capital. The following year an international jury selected Lúcio Costa's plan to guide the construction of Brazil's new capital, Brasília. Costa was a student of the famous modernist architect Le Corbusier, and some of modernism's architecture features can be found in his plan. Costa's plan was not as detailed as some of the plans presented by other architects and city planners. It did not include land use schedules, models, population charts or mechanical drawings; however, it was chosen by five out of six jurors because it had the features required to align the growth of a capital city. Even though the initial plan was transformed over time, it oriented much of the construction and most of its features survived.
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Brasília's accession as the new capital and its designation for the development of an extensive interior region inspired the symbolism of the plan. Costa used a cross-axial design indicating the possession and conquest of this new place with a cross, often likened to a dragonfly, an airplane or a bird. Costa's plan included two principal components, the Monumental Axis (east to west) and the Residential Axis (north to south). The Monumental Axis was assigned political and administrative activities, and is considered the body of the city with the style and simplicity of its buildings, oversized scales, and broad vistas and heights, producing the idea of Monumentality. This axis includes the various ministries, national congress, presidential palace, supreme court building and the television and radio tower. The Residential Axis was intended to contain areas with intimate character and is considered the most important achievement of the plan; it was designed for housing and associated functions such as local commerce, schooling, recreation and churches, constituted of 96 limited to six-story buildings and 12 additional superblocks limited to three-story buildings; Costa's intention with superblocks was to have small self-contained and self-sufficient neighborhoods and uniform buildings with apartments of two or three different categories, where he envisioned the integration of upper and middle classes sharing the same residential area.
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The urban design of the communal apartment blocks was based on Le Corbusier's Ville Radieuse of 1935, and the superblocks on the North American Radburn layout from 1929. Visually, the blocks were intended to appear absorbed by the landscape because they were isolated by a belt of tall trees and lower vegetation. Costa attempted to introduce a Brazil that was more equitable, he also designed housing for the working classes that was separated from the upper- and middle-class housing and was visually different, with the intention of avoiding slums ("favelas") in the urban periphery. The has been accused of being a space where individuals are oppressed and alienated to a form of spatial segregation.
One of the main objectives of the plan was to allow the free flow of automobile traffic, the plan included lanes of traffic in a north–south direction (seven for each direction) for the Monumental Axis and three arterials (the W3, the Eixo and the L2) for the residential Axis; the cul-de-sac access roads of the superblocks were planned to be the end of the main flow of traffic. And the reason behind the heavy emphasis on automobile traffic is the architect's desire to establish the concept of modernity in every level.
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Though automobiles were invented prior to the 20th century, mass production of vehicles in the early 20th made them widely available; thus, they became a symbol of modernity. The two small axes around the Monumental axis provide loops and exits for cars to enter small roads. Some argue that his emphasis of the plan on automobiles caused the lengthening of distances between centers and it attended only the necessities of a small segment of the population who owned cars. But one can not ignore the bus transportation system in the city. The buses routes inside the city operate heavily on W3 and L2. Almost anywhere, including satellite cities, can be reached just by taking the bus and most of the Plano Piloto can be reached without transferring to other buses.
Later, as the population of the city increased, the transportation system also played an important role in mediating the relationship between the Pilot plan and the satellite cities. Due to the larger influx of vehicles, traffic lights were introduced to the Monumental Axis, which violates the concept of modernity and advancement the architect first employed. Additionally, the metro system in Brasília was mainly built for inhabitants of satellite cities. Though this growth has made Brasília no longer a pure utopia with incomparable modernity, the later development of traffic management, bus routes to satellite cities, and the metro system all serve as a remedy to the dystopia, enabling the citizens to enjoy the kind of modernity that was not carefully planned.
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At the intersection of the Monumental and Residential Axis Costa planned the city center with the transportation center (Rodoviaria), the banking sector and the hotel sector, near to the city center, he proposed an amusement center with theaters, cinemas and restaurants. Costa's Plan is seen as a plan with a sectoral tendency, segregating all the banks, the office buildings, and the amusement center.
One of the main features of Costa's plan was that he presented a new city with its future shape and patterns evident from the beginning. This meant that the original plan included paving streets that were not immediately put into use; the advantage of this was that the original plan is hard to undo because he provided for an entire street network, but on the other hand, is difficult to adapt and mold to other circumstances in the future. In addition, there has been controversy with the monumental aspect of Lúcio Costa's Plan, because it appeared to some as 19th century city planning, not modern 20th century in urbanism.
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An interesting analysis can be made of Brasília within the context of Cold War politics and the association of Lúcio Costa's plan to the symbolism of aviation. From an architectural perspective, the airplane-shaped plan was certainly an homage to Le Corbusier and his enchantment with the aircraft as an architectural masterpiece. However, Brasília was constructed soon after the end of World War II. Despite Brazil's minor participation in the conflict, the airplane shape of the city was key in envisioning the country as part of the newly globalized world, together with the victorious Allies. Furthermore, Brasília is a unique example of modernism both as a guideline for architectural design but also as a principle for organizing society. Modernism in Brasília is explored in James Holston's book, "The Modernist City".
Construction.
Juscelino Kubitschek, president of Brazil from 1956 to 1961, ordered Brasília's construction, fulfilling the promise of the Constitution and his own political campaign promise. Building Brasília was part of Juscelino's "fifty years of prosperity in five" plan. Already in 1892, the astronomer Louis Cruls, in the service of the Brazilian government, had investigated the site for the future capital. Lúcio Costa won a contest and was the main urban planner in 1957, with 5550 people competing. Oscar Niemeyer was the chief architect of most public buildings, Joaquim Cardozo was the structural engineer, and Roberto Burle Marx was the landscape designer. Brasília was built in 41 months, from 1956 to 21 April 1960, when it was officially inaugurated.
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Geography.
The city sits at an elevation of and more, high on the Brazilian Highlands in the country's center-western region. Paranoá Lake, a large artificial lake, was built to increase the amount of water available and to maintain the region's humidity. It has a marina, and hosts wakeboarders and windsurfers. Diving can also be practiced and one of the main attractions is Vila Amaury, an old village submerged in the lake. This is where the first construction workers of Brasília used to live.
Climate.
Brasília has a humid subtropical climate, milder due to the elevation and with two distinct seasons: the rainy season, from October to April, and the dry season, from May to September. The average temperature is . September, at the end of the dry season, has the highest average maximum temperature, , and July has major and minor lower maximum average temperature, of and , respectively. Average temperatures from September through March are a consistent . With , November is the month with the highest rainfall of the year, while July is the lowest, with only . During the dry season, the city can have very low relative humidity levels, often below 30%.
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According to the Brazilian National Institute of Meteorology (INMET), the record low temperature was on 18 July 1975, and the record high was on 18 October 2015 and 8 October 2020. The highest accumulated rainfall in 24 hours was on 15 November 1963.
Demographics.
Ethnic groups.
According to the 2022 IBGE Census, 2,817,381 people resided in Brasília and its metropolitan area, of whom 1,370,836 were Mixed (48.7%), 1,126,334 White (40%), 301,765 Black (10.7%), 12,810 Asian (0.5%), and 5,536 Amerindian (0.1%).
In 2010, Brasília was ranked the fourth-most populous city in Brazil after São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Salvador. In 2010, the city had 474,871 opposite-sex couples and 1,241 same-sex couples. The population of Brasília was 52.2% female and 47.8% male.
In the 1960 census there were almost 140,000 residents in the new Federal district. By 1970 this figure had grown to 537,000. By 2010 the population of the Federal District had surpassed 2.5 million. The city of Brasília proper, the plano piloto was planned for about 500,000 inhabitants, a figure the plano piloto never surpassed, with a current population of only 214,529, but its metropolitan area within the Federal District has grown past this figure.
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From the beginning, the growth of Brasília was greater than original estimates. According to the original plans, Brasília would be a city for government authorities and staff. However, during its construction, Brazilians from all over the country migrated to the satellite cities of Brasília, seeking public and private employment.
At the close of the 20th century, Brasília was the largest city in the world which had not existed at the beginning of the century. Brasília has one of the highest population growth rates in Brazil, with annual growth of 2.82%, mostly due to internal migration.
Brasília's inhabitants include a foreign population of mostly embassy workers as well as large numbers of Brazilian internal migrants. Today, the city has important communities of immigrants and refugees. The city's Human Development Index was 0.936 in 2000 (developed level), and the city's literacy rate was around 95.65%.
Religion.
Christianity is by far the most prevalent religion in Brasília, with Roman Catholicism being the largest denomination.
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"Source: IBGE 2010. "
Government.
Brasília does not have a mayor or councillors, because article 32 of the Constitution of Brazil expressly prohibits the Federal District being divided into municipalities.
The Federal District is a legal entity of internal public law, which is part of the political-administrative structure of Brazil of a "sui generis" nature, because it is neither a state nor a municipality, but rather a special entity that incorporates the legislative powers reserved to the states and municipalities, as provided in Article 32, § 1º of the Constitution, which gives it a hybrid nature, both state and municipal.
The executive power of the Federal District was represented by the mayor of the Federal District until 1969, when the position was transformed into governor of the Federal District.
The legislative power of the Federal District is represented by the Legislative Chamber of the Federal District, whose nomenclature includes a mixture of legislative assembly (legislative power of the other units of the federation) and of municipal chamber (legislative of the municipalities). The Legislative Chamber is made up of 24 district deputies.
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The judicial power which serves the Federal District also serves federal territories as it is constituted, but Brazil does not have any territories. Therefore, the Court of Justice of the Federal District and of the Territories only serves the Federal District.
Part of the budget of the Federal District Government comes from the Constitutional Fund of the Federal District. In 2012, the fund totaled 9.6 billion reais. By 2015, the forecast is 12.4 billion reais, of which more than half (6.4 billion) is spent on public security spending.
International relations.
Brasília is twinned with:
Of these, Abuja and Washington, D.C. were also cities specifically planned as the seat of government of their respective countries.
Brasília is associated with several significant declarations in the international political and social field, including:
Economy.
The major roles of construction and of services (government, communications, banking and finance, food production, entertainment, and legal services) in Brasília's economy reflect the city's status as a governmental rather than an industrial center. Industries connected with construction, food processing, and furnishings are important, as are those associated with publishing, printing, and computer software. The gross domestic product (GDP) is divided in Public Administration 54.8%, Services 28.7%, Industry 10.2%, Commerce 6.1%, Agrobusiness 0.2%.
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Besides being the political center, Brasília is an important economic center. In 2018, it has the third highest GDP of cities in Brazil, R$254 billion reais, representing 3.6% of the total Brazilian GDP. Most economic activity in the federal capital results from its administrative function. Its industrial planning is studied carefully by the Government of the Federal District. Being a city registered by UNESCO, the government in Brasília has opted to encourage the development of non-polluting industries such as software, film, video, and gemology among others, with emphasis on environmental preservation and maintaining ecological balance, preserving the city property.
According to Mercer's city rankings of cost of living for expatriate employees, Brasília ranks 45th among the most expensive cities in the world in 2012, up from the 70th position in 2010, ranking behind São Paulo (12th) and Rio de Janeiro (13th).
Industries.
Industries in the city include construction (Paulo Octavio, Via Construções, and Irmãos Gravia among others); food processing (Perdigão, Sadia); furniture making; recycling (Novo Rio, Rexam, Latasa and others); pharmaceuticals (União Química); and graphic industries. The main agricultural products produced in the city are coffee, guavas, strawberries, oranges, lemons, papayas, soybeans, and mangoes. It has over 110,000 cows and it exports wood products worldwide.
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The Federal District, where Brasília is located, has a GDP of R$133,4 billion (about US$64.1 billion), about the same as Belarus according to The Economist. Its share of the total Brazilian GDP is about 3.8%. The Federal District has the largest GDP per capita income of Brazil US$25,062, slightly higher than Belarus.
The city's planned design included specific areas for almost everything, including accommodation, Hotels Sectors North and South. New hotel facilities are being developed elsewhere, such as the hotels and tourism Sector North, located on the shores of Lake Paranoá.
Culture.
As a venue for political events, music performances and movie festivals, Brasília is a cosmopolitan city, with around 124 embassies, a wide range of restaurants and a complete infrastructure ready to host any kind of event. Not surprisingly, the city stands out as an important business/tourism destination, which is an important part of the local economy, with dozens of hotels spread around the federal capital. Traditional parties take place throughout the year.
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In June, large festivals known as "festas juninas" are held celebrating Catholic saints such as Saint Anthony of Padua, Saint John the Baptist, and Saint Peter. On 7 September, the traditional Independence Day parade is held on the Ministries Esplanade. Throughout the year, local, national, and international events are held throughout the city. Christmas is widely celebrated, and New Year's Eve usually hosts major events celebrated in the city.
The city also hosts a varied assortment of art works from artists like Bruno Giorgi, Alfredo Ceschiatti, Athos Bulcão, Marianne Peretti, Alfredo Volpi, Di Cavalcanti, Dyllan Taxman, Victor Brecheret and Burle Marx, whose works have been integrated into the city's architecture, making it a unique landscape. The cuisine in the city is very diverse. Many of the best restaurants in the city can be found in the Asa Sul district.
The city is the birthplace of Brazilian rock and place of origin of bands like: Legião Urbana, Capital Inicial, Aborto Elétrico, Plebe Rude and Raimundos. Brasília has the Rock Basement Festival which brings new bands to the national scene. The festival is held in the parking of the Brasília National Stadium Mané Garrincha.
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Since 1965, the annual Brasília Festival of Brazilian Cinema is one of the most traditional cinema festivals in Brazil, being compared only to the Brazilian Cinema Festival of Gramado, in Rio Grande do Sul. The difference between both is that the festival in Brasília still preserves the tradition to only submit and reward Brazilian movies.
The International Dance Seminar in Brasília has brought top-notch dance to the Federal Capital since 1991. International teachers, shows with choreographers and guest groups and scholarships abroad are some of the hallmarks of the event. The Seminar is the central axis of the DANCE BRAZIL program and is promoted by the DF State Department of Culture in partnership with the Cultural Association Claudio Santoro.
Brasília has also been the focus of modern-day literature. Published in 2008, "The World In Grey: Dom Bosco's Prophecy", by author Ryan J. Lucero, tells an apocalyptical story based on the famous prophecy from the late 19th century by the Italian saint Don Bosco. According to Don Bosco's prophecy: "Between parallels 15 and 20, around a lake which shall be formed; A great civilization will thrive, and that will be the Promised Land". Brasília lies between the parallels 15° S and 20° S, where an artificial lake (Paranoá Lake) was formed. Don Bosco is Brasília's patron saint.
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"American Flagg!", the First Comics comic book series created by Howard Chaykin, portrays Brasília as a cosmopolitan world capital of culture and exotic romance. In the series, it is a top vacation and party destination. The 2015 Rede Globo series "Felizes para Sempre?" was set in Brasília.
Architecture and urbanism.
At the Square of Three Powers, Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer and Brazilian structural engineer Joaquim Cardozo made buildings in the style of modern Brazilian architecture. The Congress also occupies various other surrounding buildings, some connected by tunnels.
The National Congress building is located in the middle of the Eixo Monumental, the city's main avenue. In front lies a large lawn and reflecting pool. The building faces the Praça dos Três Poderes where the Palácio do Planalto and the Supreme Federal Court are located. The Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx designed landmark modernist gardens for some of the principal buildings. In residential areas, buildings were built that were inspired in French modernist and bauhaus design.
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Although not fully accomplished, the "Brasília utopia" has produced a city of relatively high quality of life, in which the citizens live in forested areas with sporting and leisure structure (the "") surrounded by small commercial areas, bookstores and cafés; the city is famous for its cuisine and efficiency of transit. Even these positive features have sparked controversy, expressed in the nickname "ilha da fantasia" ("fantasy island"), indicating the sharp contrast between the city and surrounding regions, marked by poverty and disorganization in the cities of the states of Goiás and Minas Gerais, around Brasília.
Critics of Brasilia's grand scale have characterized it as a modernist bauhaus platonic fantasy about the future:
Notable structures.
The Cathedral of Brasília in the capital of the Federative Republic of Brazil, is an expression of the atheist architect Oscar Niemeyer and the structural engineer Joaquim Cardozo. This concrete-framed hyperboloid structure, seems with its glass roof reaching up, open, to the heavens.
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The cathedral's structure was finished on 31 May 1970, and only the diameter of the circular area were visible. Niemeyer's and Cardozo's project of Cathedral of Brasília is based in the hyperboloid of revolution which sections are asymmetric. The hyperboloid structure itself is a result of 16 identical assembled concrete columns. There is controversy as to what these columns, having hyperbolic section and weighing 90 t, represent, some say they are two hands moving upwards to heaven, others associate it to the chalice Jesus used in the last supper and some claim it represent his crown of thorns. The cathedral was dedicated on 31 May 1970.
At the end of the "Eixo Monumental" ("Monumental Axis") lies the "Esplanada dos Ministérios" ("Ministries Esplanade"), an open area in downtown Brasília. The rectangular lawn is surrounded by two eight-lane avenues where many government buildings, monuments and memorials are located. On Sundays and holidays, the Eixo Monumental is closed to cars so that locals may use it as a place to walk, bike, and have picnics under the trees.
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"Praça dos Três Poderes" (Portuguese for "Square of the Three Powers") is a plaza in Brasília. The name is derived from the encounter of the three federal branches around the plaza: the Executive, represented by the Palácio do Planalto (presidential office); the Legislative, represented by the National Congress (Congresso Nacional); and the Judiciary branch, represented by the Supreme Federal Court (Supremo Tribunal Federal). It is a tourist attraction in Brasília, designed by Lúcio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer as a place where the three branches would meet harmoniously.
The Palácio da Alvorada is the official residence of the president of Brazil. The palace was designed, along with the rest of the city of Brasília, by Oscar Niemeyer and inaugurated in 1958. One of the first structures built in the republic's new capital city, the "Alvorada" lies on a peninsula at the shore of Lake Paranoá.
The principles of simplicity and modernity that in the past characterized the great works of architecture motivated Niemeyer. The viewer has an impression of looking at a glass box, softly landing on the ground with the support of thin external columns. The building has an area of 7,000 m2 with three floors consisting of the basement, landing, and second floor.
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The auditorium, kitchen, laundry, medical center, and administration offices are at basement level. The rooms used by the presidency for official receptions are on the landing. The second floor has four suites, two apartments, and various private rooms which make up the residential part of the palace. The building also has a library, a heated Olympic-sized swimming pool, a music room, two dining rooms and various meeting rooms. A chapel and heliport are in adjacent buildings.
The Palácio do Planalto is the official workplace of the president of Brazil. It is located at the Praça dos Três Poderes in Brasília. As the seat of government, the term "Planalto" is often used as a metonym for the executive branch of government. The main working office of the President of the Republic is in the Palácio do Planalto.
The President and his or her family do not live in it, rather in the official residence, the Palácio da Alvorada. Besides the President, senior advisors also have offices in the "Planalto", including the Vice-President of Brazil and the Chief of Staff. The other Ministries are along the Esplanada dos Ministérios. The architect of the Palácio do Planalto was Oscar Niemeyer, creator of most of the important buildings in Brasília. The idea was to project an image of simplicity and modernity using fine lines and waves to compose the columns and exterior structures. The Palace is four stories high, and has an area of 36,000 m2. Four other adjacent buildings are also part of the complex.
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Education.
The education factor of Brasília's Human Development Index in 2020 reached the mark of 0.804 - a considerably high level, in line with the standards of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) - while the literacy rate of the population over the age of ten indicated by the last demographic census was 96.7%, above the national average (91%).
The city has seven international schools: the American School of Brasília, the Brasília International School, the Escola das Nações, the Swiss International School, the Lycée Français François Mitterrand, the Maple Bear Canadian School, and the British School of Brasília. Brasília has two universities, three university centers, and many private colleges.
The main tertiary educational institutions are: Universidade de Brasília – University of Brasília (UnB) (public); Universidade Católica de Brasília – Catholic University of Brasília; Centro Universitário de Brasília (UniCEUB); Centro Universitário Euroamaricano (Unieuro); ; ; and Instituto de Educação Superior de Brasília.
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There is an extreme concentration of higher education institutions in the Plano Piloto. In 2006, a new campus of the University of Brasilia was set up in Planaltina. There are also UnB campuses in the administrative regions of Ceilândia and Gama. The number of libraries is not proportional to the size of the population in the central area. The main public libraries in the Federal District are located in the city center, such as the University of Brasilia Library, the House and Senate Library, the Brasilia Demonstration Library and the Leonel de Moura Brizola National Library, also known as the Brasilia National Library, which opened in 2006.
Transportation.
The average commute time on public transit in Brasília, for example to and from work, on a weekday is 96 min. 31% of public transit riders, ride for more than 2 hours every day. The average amount of time people wait at a stop or station for public transit is 28 min, while 61% of riders wait for over 20 minutes on average every day. The average distance people usually ride in a single trip with public transit is , while 50% travel for over in a single direction.
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Airport.
Brasília–Presidente Juscelino Kubitschek International Airport serves the metropolitan area with major domestic and international flights. It is the third busiest Brazilian airport based on passengers and aircraft movements. Because of its strategic location it is a civil aviation hub for the rest of the country. This results in a large number of takeoffs and landings and it is not unusual for flights to be delayed in a holding pattern before landing. Following the airport's master plan, Infraero built a second runway, which was finished in 2006. In 2007, the airport handled 11,119,872 passengers. The main building's third floor, with 12 thousand square meters, has a panoramic deck, a food court, shops, four movie theaters with total capacity of 500 people, and space for exhibitions. Brasília Airport has 136 vendor spaces. The airport is located about from the central area of Brasília, outside the metro system. The area outside the airport's main gate is lined with taxis as well as several bus line services that connect the airport to Brasília's central district. The parking lot accommodates 1,200 cars.
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The airport is serviced by domestic and regional airlines (TAM, GOL, Azul, WebJET, Trip and Avianca), in addition to a number of international carriers. In 2012, Brasília's International Airport was won by the InfraAmerica consortium, formed by the Brazilian engineering company ENGEVIX and the Argentine Corporacion America holding company, with a 50% stake each. During the 25-year concession, the airport may be expanded to up to 40 million passengers a year.
In 2014 the airport received 15 new boarding bridges, totaling 28 in all. This was the main requirement made by the federal government, which transferred the operation of the terminal to the Inframerica Group after an auction. The group invested R$750 million in the project. In the same year, the number of parking spaces doubled, reaching three thousand. The airport's entrance has a new rooftop cover and a new access road. Furthermore, a VIP room was created on Terminal 1's third floor. The investments increased the airport's capacity from approximately 15 million passengers per year to 21 million by 2014. Brasília Air Force Base - ALA1, one of their most important bases of the Brazilian Air Force, is located in Brasília.
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Road transport.
Like most Brazilian cities, Brasília has a good network of taxi companies. Taxis from the airport are available outside the terminal, but at times there can be quite a queue of people. Although the airport is not far from the downtown area, taxi prices do seem to be higher than in other Brazilian cities. Booking in advance can be advantageous, particularly if time is limited, and local companies should be able to assist airport transfer or transport requirements.
The Juscelino Kubitschek bridge, also known as the 'President JK Bridge' or the 'JK Bridge', crosses Lake Paranoá in Brasília. It is named after Juscelino Kubitschek, former president of Brazil. It was designed by architect Alexandre Chan and structural engineer Mário Vila Verde. Chan won the Gustav Lindenthal Medal for this project at the 2003 International Bridge Conference in Pittsburgh due to "...outstanding achievement demonstrating harmony with the environment, aesthetic merit and successful community participation". It consists of three tall asymmetrical steel arches that crisscross diagonally. With a length of 1,200 m (0.75 miles), it was completed in 2002 at a cost of US$56.8 million. The bridge has a pedestrian walkway and is accessible to bicyclists and skaters.
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The main bus hub in Brasília is the Central Bus Station, located in the crossing of the Eixo Monumental and the Eixão, about from the Three Powers Plaza. The original plan was to have a bus station as near as possible to every corner of Brasília. Today, the bus station is the hub of urban buses only, some running within Brasília and others connecting Brasília to the satellite cities. In the original city plan, the interstate buses would also stop at the Central Station. Because of the growth of Brasília (and corresponding growth in the bus fleet), today the interstate buses leave from the older interstate station (called Rodoferroviária) located at the western end of the Eixo Monumental. The Central Bus Station also contains a main metro station. A new bus station was opened in July 2010. It is on Saída Sul (South Exit) near Parkshopping Mall with its metro station, and is also an inter-state bus station, used only to leave the Federal District.
Metro.
There is no passenger rail service in Brasília, but the Expresso Pequi rail line is planned to link Brasília and Goiânia (see below). A 22 km light rail line is also planned, estimated to cost between 1 billion reais (US$258 million) and 1.5 billion reais with capacity to transport around 200,000 passengers per day.
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The Federal District Metro is Federal District's underground metro system. The system has 24 stations on two lines, the Orange and Green lines, along a total network of , covering some of the Federal District. Both lines begin at the Central Station and run parallel until the Águas Claras Station. The Federal District Metro is not comprehensive so buses may provide better access to the center. The metro leaves the Rodoviária (bus station) and goes south, avoiding most of the political and tourist areas. The main purpose of the metro is to serve cities, such as Samambaia, Taguatinga and Ceilândia, as well as Guará and Águas Claras. The satellite cities served are more populated in total than the Plano Piloto itself (the census of 2000 indicated that Ceilândia had 344,039 inhabitants, Taguatinga had 243,575, and the Plano Piloto had approximately 400,000 inhabitants), and most residents of the satellite cities depend on public transportation.
The Expresso Pequi high-speed railway was planned between Brasília and Goiânia, the capital of the state of Goias, but it will probably be turned into a regional service linking the capital cities and cities in between, including Anápolis and Alexânia.
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Sport.
The main stadiums are Estadio Nacional Mané Garrincha (re-inaugurated on 18 May 2013), the Serejão Stadium (home for Brasiliense) and the Bezerrão Stadium (home for Gama).
There are a couple of professional clubs playing in Brasília, like Brasiliense, Gama, Brasília FC, and Real Brasília, but none are currently in the top two levels of Brazilian football. Clubs from Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo remain the most supported throughout the city.
Brasília was one of the host cities of the 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup. Brasília hosted the opening of the Confederations Cup and hosted 7 World Cup games. Brasília also hosted the football tournaments during the 2016 Summer Olympics held in Rio de Janeiro.
Brasília is known as a departing point for the practice of unpowered air sports, sports that may be practiced with hang gliding or paragliding wings. Practitioners of such sports reveal that, because of the city's dry weather, the city offers strong thermal winds and great "cloud-streets", which is also the name for a maneuver quite appreciated by practitioners. In 2003, Brasília hosted the 14th Hang Gliding World Championship, one of the categories of free flying. In August 2005, the city hosted the second stage of the Brazilian Hang Gliding Championship.
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Brasília is the site of the Autódromo Internacional Nelson Piquet which hosted the Grande Prêmio Presidente Emílio Médici, a non-championship round of the 1974 Formula One Grand Prix season, which was won by Emerson Fittipaldi. An IndyCar race was cancelled at the last minute in 2015 due to financial concerns. The track, which has been closed since 2015, is being renovated for the end of 2023 after a deal was struck with Banco de Brasília and Terracap.
The city is also home to one of Brazil's top basketball clubs, the three-time NBB champion Uniceub BRB. The club hosts some of its games at the 16,000 all-seat Nilson Nelson Gymnasium. Brasília attempted to host the 2000 Summer Olympics, but withdrew its application. In tennis, Brasília is host to the Aberto da República, and formerly hosted the Aberto de Brasília.
See also.
Purpose-built Brazilian state capitals |
Blue Streak (missile)
The de Havilland Propellers Blue Streak was a British Intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), and later the first stage of the Europa satellite launch vehicle. Blue Streak was cancelled without entering full production.
The project was intended to maintain an independent British nuclear deterrent, replacing the V bomber fleet which would become obsolete by 1965. The operational requirement for the missile was issued in 1955 and the design was complete by 1957. During development, it became clear that the missile system was too expensive and too vulnerable to a surprise attack. The missile project was cancelled in 1960, with US-led Skybolt the preferred replacement.
Partly to avoid political embarrassment from the cancellation, the UK government proposed that the rocket be used as the first stage of a civilian satellite launcher called Black Prince. As the cost was thought to be too great for the UK alone, international collaboration was sought. This led to the formation of the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO), with Blue Streak used as the first stage of a carrier rocket named Europa.
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Europa was tested at Woomera Test Range, Australia and later at Kourou in French Guiana. Following launch failures, the ELDO project was cancelled in 1972 and Blue Streak with it.
Background.
Post-war Britain's nuclear weapons armament was initially based on free-fall bombs delivered by the V bomber force. It soon became clear that if Britain wanted to have a credible nuclear deterrent threat, a ballistic missile was essential. There was a political need for an independent deterrent, so that Britain could remain a major world power. Britain was unable to purchase American weapons wholesale due to the restrictions of the Atomic Energy Act of 1946.
In April 1954 the Americans proposed a joint development programme for ballistic missiles. The United States would develop an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) of range (SM-65 Atlas), while the United Kingdom with United States support would develop an Intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) of range. The proposal was accepted as part of the Wilson-Sandys Agreement of August 1954, which provided for collaboration, exchange of information, and mutual planning of development programmes. The decision to develop was influenced by what could be learnt about missile design and development in the US. Initial requirements for the booster were made by the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough with input on the rocket engine design from the Rocket Propulsion Establishment at Westcott. Operational Requirement 1139 demanded a rocket of at least range and the initially proposed rocket would have just reached that threshold.
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Development.
The de Havilland Propellers company won the contract to build the missile, which was to be powered by an uprated liquid-fuelled Rocketdyne S-3D engine, developed by Rolls-Royce, called RZ.2. Two variants of this engine were developed: the first provided a static thrust of and the second (intended for the three-stage satellite launch vehicle) . The engines could be vectored by seven degrees in flight and were used to guide the missile. This configuration, however, put considerable pressure on the autopilot which had to cope with the problem of a vehicle whose weight was diminishing rapidly and that was steered by large engines whose thrust remained more or less constant. Vibration was also a problem, particularly at engine cut-off, and the later development of the autopilot for the satellite launcher was, in itself, a considerable achievement.
Subcontractors included the Sperry Gyroscope Company who produced the missile guidance system whilst the nuclear warhead was designed by the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston.
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The missiles used liquid oxygen and kerosene propellants. Whilst the vehicle could be left fully laden with over 20 tonnes of kerosene, the 60 tonnes of liquid oxygen had to be loaded immediately before launch or icing became a problem. Due to this, fuelling the rocket took 4.5 minutes, which would have made it useless as a rapid response to an attack. The missile was vulnerable to a pre-emptive nuclear strike, launched without warning or in the absence of any heightening of tension sufficient to warrant readying the missile. To negate this problem de Havilland created a stand-by feature. A missile could be held at 30 seconds' notice to launch for ten hours. As the missiles were to be deployed in pairs and it took ten hours for one missile to be prepared for stand-by, one of the two missiles could always be ready for rapid launch.
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In 1955–1956, the rocket motors were test-fired at High Down Rocket Test Site on the Isle of Wight. As no site in Britain provided enough space for test flights, a test site was established at Woomera, South Australia.
Cancellation as a military project.
Doubts arose as the cost escalated from the first tentative figure of £50 million submitted to the Treasury in early 1955, to £300 million in late 1959. Its detractors in the civil service claimed that the programme was crawling along when compared with the speed of development in the US and the Soviet Union.
Estimates within the Civil Service for completion of the project ranged from a total spend of £550 million to £1.3 billion, as different ministers were set on either abandoning or continuing the project.
The project was unexpectedly cancelled in April 1960. Whitehall opposition grew, and it was cancelled on the ostensible grounds that it would be too vulnerable to a first-strike attack. Admiral of the Fleet Lord Mountbatten had spent considerable effort arguing that the project should be cancelled at once in favour of the Navy being armed with nuclear weapons, capable of pre-emptive strike.
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Some considered the cancellation of Blue Streak to be not only a blow to British military-industrial efforts, but also to Commonwealth ally Australia, which had its own vested interest in the project.
The British military transferred its hopes for a strategic nuclear delivery system to the Anglo-American Skybolt missile, before the project's cancellation by the United States as its ICBM programme reached maturity. The British instead purchased the Polaris system from the Americans, carried in British-built submarines.
Civilian programmes - Black Prince and ELDO.
After the cancellation as a military project, there was reluctance to cancel the project because of the huge cost incurred. Blue Streak would have become the first stage of a projected all British satellite launcher known as "Black Prince": the second stage was derived from the "Black Knight" test vehicle, and the orbital injection stage was a small hydrogen peroxide/kerosene motor.
Black Prince proved too expensive for the UK, and the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO) was set up. This used Blue Streak as the first stage, with French and German second and third stages. The Blue Streak first stage was successfully tested three times at the Woomera test range in Australia as part of the ELDO programme.
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Black Prince.
In 1959, a year before the cancellation of the Blue Streak as a missile, the government requested that the RAE and Saunders-Roe design a carrier rocket based on Blue Streak and Black Knight. This design used Blue Streak as a first stage and a second stage based on the Black Knight. Several different third stages would be available, depending on the required payload and orbit.
The cost of developing Black Prince was estimated to be £35 million.
It was planned that Black Prince would be a Commonwealth project. As the government of John Diefenbaker in Canada was already spending more money than publicly acknowledged on Alouette and Australia was not interested in the project, these two countries were unwilling to contribute. South Africa was no longer a member of the Commonwealth. New Zealand was only likely to make "modest" contributions.
European Launcher Development Organisation.
The UK instead proposed a collaboration with other European countries to build a three-stage launcher capable of placing a one-ton payload into low Earth orbit.
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The European Launcher Development Organisation consisted of Belgium, Britain, France, West Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, with Australia as an associate member.
Preliminary work began in 1962 and ELDO was formally signed into existence in 1964.
With Blue Streak, the UK became the first stage of the European launch vehicle with France providing the Coralie second stage and Germany the third. Italy worked on the satellite project, the Netherlands and Belgium concentrated on tracking and telemetry systems and Australia supplied the launch site.
The combined launcher was named Europa.
After ten test launches, the Woomera launch site was not suitable for putting satellites into geosynchronous orbit, and in 1966 it was decided to move to the French site of Kourou in South America. F11 was fired from here in November 1971, but the failure of the autopilot caused the vehicle to break up. The launch of F12 was postponed whilst a project review was carried out, which led to the decision to abandon the Europa design.
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ELDO was merged with the European Space Research Organisation to form the European Space Agency.
Related projects.
Aside from Black Prince, a range of other proposals was made between 1959 and 1972 for a carrier rocket based on Blue Streak, but none of these were ever built in full and today only exist in design.
De Havilland/British Interplanetary Society proposal.
In 1959 de Havilland suggested solving the problem of the Blue Streak/Black Knight geometry by compressing the 10 by 1 metre (30 by 3-foot) Black Knight into a sphere. Although this seemed logical, the development costs proved to be too high for the limited budget of the programme.
Westland Helicopters Black Arrow.
Following its merger with Saunders Roe, Westland Helicopters developed the three-stage Black Arrow satellite carrier rocket, derived from the Black Knight test vehicle. The first stage of Black Arrow was given the same diameter as the French Coralie (the second stage of Europa) to make it compatible with Blue Streak. Using Blue Streak as an additional stage would have increased Black Arrow's payload capacity. To maintain this compatibility, the first stage diameter was given in metres, although the rest of the rocket was defined in imperial units.
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Black Arrow carried out four test launches (without an additional Blue Streak stage) from Woomera between 1969 and 1971, with the final launch carrying the satellite Prospero X-3 into orbit. The United Kingdom remains the only country to have developed and then abandoned a satellite launch capability.
Hawker Siddeley Dynamics proposal.
In 1972, Hawker Siddeley Dynamics ltd produced a brochure for a design using Blue Streak as the first stage of a two-stage to orbit rocket, with an American Centaur upper stage. The Centaur second stage would have either been built in the UK under licence or imported directly from the USA. Both the Centaur and Blue Streak had proved to be very reliable up to this point, and since they were both already designed development costs would have been low. Furthermore, it had a payload of 870–920 kg to a geosynchronous orbit with, and 650–700 kg without the use of additional booster rockets.
Blue Streak today.
Following the cancellation of the Blue Streak project some of the remaining rockets were preserved at:
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A section of the propulsion bay, engines and equipment can be found at the Solway Aviation Museum, Carlisle Lake District Airport. Only a few miles from the Spadeadam testing site, the museum carries many exhibits, photographs and models of the Blue Streak programme, having inherited the original Spadeadam collection that used to be displayed on site.
RZ.2 engines are on display at National Space Centre – a pair on cradles alongside the Blue Streak rocket – and at the Armagh Planetarium in Northern Ireland and The Euro Space Center in Redu, Belgium.
Blue Streak enthusiast Robin Joseph from the United Kingdom has a collection of parts including start systems and combustion chambers amongst other things. He can often be seen displaying his collection at space days in the West Midlands.
A part of the Blue Streak F1 rocket launched on 5 June 1964 from Woomera, Australia, found 50 km SE of Giles in 1980 (c.1000 km) is on display at Giles Weather Station. The titanium structure of a German third stage was, for some time, sited on the edge of a gravel pit in Gloucestershire.
Remains of Blue Streak F4, launched on 24 May 1965, are on display at Woomera.
Footage from the Blue Streak launch was briefly incorporated into "The Prisoner"s final episode, "Fall Out". It was also used in the "Doctor Who" serial "The Tenth Planet", treated within the story as the launch of the "Zeus IV" spacecraft. Images of the Blue Streak 1 are incorporated in the 1997 film "Contact". |
Bakassi
Bakassi is a peninsula on the Gulf of Guinea. It lies between the Cross River estuary, near the city of Calabar and the Rio del Ray estuary on the east. It is governed by Cameroon, following the transfer of sovereignty from neighbouring Nigeria as a result of a judgment by the International Court of Justice. On 22 November 2007, the Nigerian Senate rejected the transfer, since the Greentree Agreement ceding the area to Cameroon was contrary to Section 12(1) of the 1999 Constitution. Regardless, the territory was completely ceded to Cameroon on 14 August 2008, exactly two years after the first part of it was transferred.
Geography and economy.
The peninsula lies between latitudes 4°25′ and 5°10′N and longitudes 8°20′ and 9°08′E . It consists of a number of low-lying, largely mangrove covered islands covering an area of around . The population of Bakassi is the subject of some dispute, but is generally put at between 150,000 and 300,000 people.
Bakassi is situated at the extreme eastern end of the Gulf of Guinea, where the warm east-flowing Guinea Current (called Aya Efiat in Efik) meets the cold north-flowing Benguela Current (called Aya Ubenekang in Efik). These two ocean currents interact, creating huge foamy breakers which constantly advance towards the shore. This builds up shoals rich in fish, shrimps, and a wide variety of other marine life forms, thus making the area a very fertile fishing ground, from which most of the population make their living.
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The peninsula is commonly described as "oil-rich", though in fact no commercially viable deposits of oil have been discovered. However, the area has aroused considerable interest from oil companies in the light of the discovery of rich reserves of high grade crude oil in Nigeria. At least eight multinational oil companies have participated in the exploration of the peninsula and its offshore waters. In October 2012, China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation announced it had discovered new oil and gas resources in the Bakassi region.
History.
During the Scramble for Africa, Queen Victoria signed a Treaty of Protection with the King and Chiefs of Akwa Akpa, known to Europeans as Old Calabar, on 10 September 1884. This enabled the British Empire to exercise control over the entire territory around Calabar, including Bakassi. The territory subsequently became "de facto" part of Nigeria, although the border was never permanently delineated. However, documents released by the Cameroonians, in parity with that of the British and Germans, clearly places Bakassi under Cameroonian Territory as a consequence of colonial era Anglo-German agreements. After Southern Cameroons voted in 1961 to leave Nigeria and became a part of Cameroon, Bakassi remained under Calabar administration in Nigeria until ICJ judgement of 2002.
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Population.
Bakassi inhabitants are mainly the Oron people, the people of Cross River State and Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria.
Territorial dispute.
Nigeria and Cameroon have disputed the possession of Bakassi for some years, leading to considerable tension between the two countries. In 1981 the two countries went to the brink of war over Bakassi and another area around Lake Chad, at the other end of the two countries' common border. More armed clashes broke out in the early 1990s. In response, Cameroon took the matter to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on 29 March 1994.
The case was extremely complex, requiring the court to review diplomatic exchanges dating back over 100 years. Nigeria relied largely on Anglo-German correspondence dating from 1885 as well as treaties between the colonial powers and the indigenous rulers in the area, particularly the 1884 Treaty of Protection. Cameroon pointed to the Anglo-German treaty of 1913, which defined sphere of control in the region, as well as two agreements signed in the 1970s between Cameroon and Nigeria. These were the Yaoundé II Declaration of 4 April 1971 and the Maroua Declaration of 1 June 1975, which were devised to outline maritime boundaries between the two countries following their independence. The line was drawn through the Cross River estuary to the west of the peninsula, thereby implying Cameroonian ownership over Bakassi. However, Nigeria never ratified the agreement, while Cameroon regarded it as being in force.
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ICJ verdict.
The ICJ delivered its judgment on 10 October 2002, finding (based principally on the Anglo-German agreements) that sovereignty over Bakassi did indeed rest with Cameroon. It instructed Nigeria to transfer possession of the peninsula, but did not require the inhabitants to move or to change their nationality. Cameroon was thus given a substantial Nigerian population and was required to protect their rights, infrastructure and welfare.
The verdict caused consternation in Nigeria. It aroused vitriolic comments from Nigerian officials and the Nigerian media alike. Chief Richard Akinjide, a former Nigerian Attorney-General and Minister of Justice who had been a leading member of Nigeria's legal team, described the decision as "50% international law and 50% international politics", "blatantly biased and unfair", "a total disaster", and a "complete fraud". The Nigerian newspaper "The Guardian" went further, declaring that the judgment was "a rape and unforeseen potential international conspiracy against Nigerian territorial integrity and sovereignty" and "part of a Western ploy to foment and perpetuate trouble in Africa". The outcome of the controversy was a "de facto" Nigerian refusal to withdraw its troops from Bakassi and transfer sovereignty. The Nigerian government did not, however, openly reject the judgment but instead called for an agreement that would provide "peace with honour, with the interest and welfare of our people".
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The ICJ judgement was backed up by the United Nations, whose charter potentially allowed sanctions or even the use of force to enforce the court's ruling. Secretary-General Kofi Annan stepped in as a mediator and chaired a tripartite summit with the two countries' presidents on 15 November 2002, which established a commission to facilitate the peaceful implementation of the ICJ's judgement. A further summit was held on 31 January 2004. This made significant progress, but the process was complicated by the opposition of Bakassi's inhabitants to being transferred to Cameroon.
Bakassian leaders threatened to seek independence if Nigeria renounced sovereignty. This secession was announced on 9 July 2006, as the "Democratic Republic of Bakassi". The decision was reportedly made at a meeting on 2 July 2006 and "The Vanguard" newspaper of Nigeria reported the decision to secede. The decision was reportedly made by groups of militants including Southern Cameroons under the aegis of Southern Cameroons Peoples Organisation (SCAPO), Bakassi Movement for Self-Determination (BAMOSD), and the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND).
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The Biafra separatist group, Biafra Nations League (BNL), initially known as Biafra Nations Youth League, led by Princewill Chimezie Richard (known as Prince Obuka) and Ebuta Akor Takon (not the former Deputy, Ebuta Ogar Takon) moved their operational base to the peninsula, after series of warnings to the Nigeria government over the plight of the internally displaced natives and the reported killing of remnants in the peninsula by Cameroon forces. This came amid clashes between Nigerian troops and the Bakassi Strike Force, a militant group that focused on attacking Nigerian and Cameroon forces. BNL Leaders were later apprehended in the Ikang-Cameroon border area on 9 November 2016 by Nigerian troops according to the "Nigeria nation" newspaper; reports linked the Biafra group to the militant groups.
BNL demanded that oil companies authorized to drill for oil by Nigeria and Cameroon leave the maritime boundary area of Bakassi Peninsula. The group also threatened to attack Cameroon Forces.
Resolution.
On 13 June 2006, President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and President Paul Biya of Cameroon resolved the dispute in talks led by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in New York City. Obasanjo agreed to withdraw Nigerian troops within 60 days and to leave the territory completely in Cameroonian control within the next two years. Annan said, "With today's agreement on the Bakassi peninsula, a comprehensive resolution of the dispute is within our grasp. The momentum achieved must be sustained."
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Nigerian withdrawal and low-level insurgency.
Nigeria began to withdraw its forces, comprising some 3,000 troops, beginning 1 August 2006, and a ceremony on 14 August marked the formal handover of the northern part of the peninsula. The remainder stayed under Nigerian civil authority for two more years.
On 22 November 2007, the Nigerian Senate passed a resolution declaring that the withdrawal from the Bakassi Peninsula was illegal. The government took no action, and handed the final parts of Bakassi over to Cameroon on 14 August 2008 as planned, but a Federal High Court had stated this should be delayed until all accommodations for resettled Bakassians had been settled; the government did not seem to plan to heed this court order, and set the necessary mechanisms into motion to override it. Fishermen displaced from Bakassi were first settled in a landlocked area called New Bakassi, which they claimed was already inhabited and not suitable for fishermen like them but only for farmers. The displaced people were then moved to Akpabuyo, and eventually established a new community of Dayspring.
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Despite the formal handover of Bakassi by Nigeria to Cameroon in 2006, the territory of Bakassi is still mentioned as part of the 774 local governments in Nigeria as embodied in the First Schedule, Part I of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999. After the Nigerian 2015 general elections, Nigeria's 8th National Assembly still accommodates the Calabar-South/Akpabuyo/Bakassi Federal Constituency represented by Hon. Essien Ekpeyong Ayi of the People's Democratic Party.
In the 2010s and 2020s, Biafran separatists, most importantly Biafra Nations League, still continue a low-level militant resistance against Cameroon in regards to Bakassi. |
Bestiary
A bestiary () is a compendium of beasts. Originating in the ancient world, bestiaries were made popular in the Middle Ages in illustrated volumes that described various animals and even rocks. The natural history and illustration of each beast was usually accompanied by a moral lesson. This reflected the belief that the world itself was the Word of God and that every living thing had its own special meaning. For example, the pelican, which was believed to tear open its breast to bring its young to life with its own blood, was a living representation of Jesus. Thus the bestiary is also a reference to the symbolic language of animals in Western Christian art and literature.
History.
The bestiary — the medieval book of beasts — was among the most popular illuminated texts in northern Europe during the Middle Ages (about 500–1500). Medieval Christians understood every element of the world as a manifestation of God, and bestiaries largely focused on each animal's religious meaning. Much of what is in the bestiary came from the ancient Greeks and their philosophers. The earliest bestiary in the form in which it was later popularized was an anonymous 2nd-century Greek volume called the "Physiologus", which itself summarized ancient knowledge and wisdom about animals in the writings of classical authors such as Aristotle's "Historia Animalium" and various works by Herodotus, Pliny the Elder, Solinus, Aelian and other naturalists.
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Following the "Physiologus", Saint Isidore of Seville (Book XII of the "Etymologiae") and Saint Ambrose expanded the religious message with reference to passages from the Bible and the Septuagint. They and other authors freely expanded or modified pre-existing models, constantly refining the moral content without interest in or access to much more detail regarding the factual content. Nevertheless, the often fanciful accounts of these beasts were widely read and generally believed to be true. A few observations found in bestiaries, such as the migration of birds, were discounted by the natural philosophers of later centuries, only to be rediscovered in the modern scientific era.
Medieval bestiaries are remarkably similar in sequence of the animals of which they treat. Bestiaries were particularly popular in England and France around the 12th century and were mainly compilations of earlier texts. The Aberdeen Bestiary is one of the best known of over 50 manuscript bestiaries surviving today.
Much influence comes from the Renaissance era and the general Middle Ages, as well as modern times. The Renaissance has been said to have started around the 14th century in Italy. Bestiaries influenced early heraldry in the Middle Ages, giving ideas for charges and also for the artistic form. Bestiaries continue to give inspiration to coats of arms created in our time.
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Two illuminated Psalters, the Queen Mary Psalter (British Library Ms. Royal 2B, vii) and the Isabella Psalter (State Library, Munich), contain full Bestiary cycles. The bestiary in the Queen Mary Psalter is found in the "marginal" decorations that occupy about the bottom quarter of the page, and are unusually extensive and coherent in this work. In fact the bestiary has been expanded beyond the source in the Norman bestiary of Guillaume le Clerc to ninety animals. Some are placed in the text to make correspondences with the psalm they are illustrating.
Many decide to make their own bestiary with their own observations including knowledge from previous ones. These observations can be made in text form, as well as illustrated out. The Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci also made his own bestiary.
A "volucrary" is a similar collection of the symbols of birds that is sometimes found in conjunction with bestiaries. The most widely known volucrary in the Renaissance was Johannes de Cuba's "Gart der Gesundheit" which describes 122 birds and which was printed in 1485.
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Bestiary content.
The contents of medieval bestiaries were often obtained and created from combining older textual sources and accounts of animals, such as the "Physiologus".
Medieval bestiaries contained detailed descriptions and illustrations of species native to Western Europe, exotic animals and what in modern times are considered to be imaginary animals. Descriptions of the animals included the physical characteristics associated with the creature, although these were often physiologically incorrect, along with the Christian morals that the animal represented. The description was then often accompanied by an artistic illustration of the animal as described in the bestiary. For example, in one bestiary the eagle is depicted in an illustration and is said to be the “king of birds.”
Bestiaries were organized in different ways based upon the sources they drew upon. The descriptions could be organized by animal groupings, such as terrestrial and marine creatures, or presented in an alphabetical manner. However, the texts gave no distinction between existing and imaginary animals. Descriptions of creatures such as dragons, unicorns, basilisk, griffin and caladrius were common in such works and found intermingled amongst accounts of bears, boars, deer, lions, and elephants. In one source, the author explains how fables and bestiaries are closely linked to one another as “each chapter of a bestiary, each fable in a collection, has a text and has a meaning.
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This lack of separation has often been associated with the assumption that people during this time believed in what the modern period classifies as nonexistent or "imaginary creatures". However, this assumption is currently under debate, with various explanations being offered. Some scholars, such as Pamela Gravestock, have written on the theory that medieval people did not actually think such creatures existed but instead focused on the belief in the importance of the Christian morals these creatures represented, and that the importance of the moral did not change regardless if the animal existed or not. The historian of science David C. Lindberg pointed out that medieval bestiaries were rich in symbolism and allegory, so as to teach moral lessons and entertain, rather than to convey knowledge of the natural world.
Religious significance.
The significance shown between animals and religion started much before bestiaries came into play. In many ancient civilizations there are references to animals and their meaning within that specific religion or mythology that we know of today. These civilizations included Egypt and their gods with the faces of animals or Greece which had symbolic animals for their godly beings, an example being Zeus and the eagle. With animals being a part of religion before bestiaries and their lessons came out, they were influenced by past observations of meaning as well as older civilizations and their interpretations.
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As most of the students who read these bestiaries were monks and clerics, it is not impossible to say that there is a major religious significance within them. The bestiary was used to educate young men on the correct morals they should display. All of the animals presented in the bestiaries show some sort of lesson or meaning when presented. Much of the symbolism shown of animals. Much of what is proposed by the bestiaries mentions much of paganism because of the religious significance and time period of the medieval ages.
One of the main 'animals' mentioned in some of the bestiaries is dragons, which hold much significance in terms of religion and meaning. The unnatural part of dragon's history shows how important the church can be during this time. Much of what is covered in the article talks about how the dragon that is mentioned in some of the bestiaries shows a glimpse of the religious significance in many of these tales.
These bestiaries held much content in terms of religious significance. In almost every animal there is some way to connect it to a lesson from the church or a familiar religious story. With animals holding significance since ancient times, it is fair to say that bestiaries and their contents gave fuel to the context behind the animals, whether real or myth, and their meanings.
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Modern bestiaries.
In modern times, artists such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Saul Steinberg have produced their own bestiaries. Jorge Luis Borges wrote a contemporary bestiary of sorts, the "Book of Imaginary Beings", which collects imaginary beasts from bestiaries and fiction. Nicholas Christopher wrote a literary novel called "The Bestiary" (Dial, 2007) that describes a lonely young man's efforts to track down the world's most complete bestiary. John Henry Fleming's "Fearsome Creatures of Florida" (Pocol Press, 2009) borrows from the medieval bestiary tradition to impart moral lessons about the environment. Caspar Henderson's "The Book of Barely Imagined Beings" (Granta 2012, University of Chicago Press 2013), subtitled "A 21st Century Bestiary", explores how humans imagine animals in a time of rapid environmental change. In July 2014, Jonathan Scott wrote "The Blessed Book of Beasts", Eastern Christian Publications, featuring 101 animals from the various translations of the Bible, in keeping with the tradition of the bestiary found in the writings of the Saints, including Saint John Chrysostom. In today's world there is a discipline called cryptozoology which is the study of unknown species. This discipline can be linked to medieval bestiaries because in many cases the unknown animals can be the same, as well as having meaning or significance behind them.
The lists of monsters to be found in video games (such as "NetHack", "Dragon Quest", and "Monster Hunter"), as well as some tabletop role-playing games such as Pathfinder, are often termed bestiaries. |
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