imarealist hoi

Scammers target stimulus payouts

2009-03-13T01:20:00.000-07:00

IDENTITY thieves want to steal your life savings, with their latest scam targeting people expecting handouts as part of the Federal Government's stimulus package.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is warning of an email scam asking people for personal details, aimed at stealing cash handouts being rolled out in March and April.

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and Centrelink are preparing to make one-off bonus payments to taxpayers over the coming months as part of the $42bn package announced on February 3.

The latest scam, which emerged days after the Government announced the package, sends bogus emails to your inbox asking for personal information, ACCC deputy chairman Peter Kell says.

"Overall we're seeing a dramatic increase in scam activity,'' Mr Kell said.

"It is in part due to the general growth of online commerce and communication, but it also seems to be related to the current financial downturn which is creating new opportunities for scammers.''

According to the Australian government's Scamwatch website, the emails are disguised as official communication from the ATO or Centrelink.
Related Coverage

* Love that can break the bankCourier Mail, 9 Mar 2009
* Watch out for money scammersHerald Sun, 28 Feb 2009
* Another bushfire scam warningNEWS.com.au, 12 Feb 2009
* Puppy love the latest web scamNEWS.com.au, 11 Feb 2009
* Millions flow in for bushfire victimsHerald Sun, 9 Feb 2009

They ask people to complete and submit an application to receive the bonus payments.

"They do seem to be hitting a wide range of families,'' Mr Kell says.

Leanne Vale, senior manager of financial crimes with the Association of Building Societies and Credit Unions (ABACUS), says identity thieves can empty your bank accounts with your personal information.

"They will take your life savings, what ever they can get from you,'' Ms Vale says.

"They'll use whatever means they can to get what they want.''

Ms Vale said the scammers rolled out bogus emails in the wake of topical and emotive events such as the Victorian bushfires.

Queensland police received reports of people trying to sell raffle tickets and asking for donations on the Gold and Sunshine coasts.

"Within days of the (stimulus) package being announced, scammers had a phising email designed to get your personal information,'' she says.

"Unfortunately I suspect many people responded to it.''

Mr Kell says the main barrier to compiling information on identity and electronic theft is the embarrassment of the victims.

He says complaints compiled by the ACCC for internet and identity theft scams each year amount to tens of millions, while the Australian Bureau of Statistics puts the figure at $1bn.

While online scams are as old as the internet, the global financial crisis has see people lose confidence in current investment markets, making them more likely to turn to alternate means of investment.

"We see additional offers of easy ways to make money emerging on the web,'' he says.

"An example is the significant spike in what looked like free holidays during 2008 and this summer... but they turned out to be nonexistent in some cases or attempts to sell time share in some cases.''

"Scams can be very sophisticated and clever these days and you shouldn't be embarrassed about coming forward and reporting it.''

Scamwatch.gov.au suggests you never give personal, credit card or bank details over the phone, in response to unsolicited emails, or enter it on any website without making sure the person, organisation or website you are dealing with is genuine.

2008-05-02T09:48:00.001-07:00

For other places with this name, see Northumberland (disambiguation)
Alan Beith (LD) Ronnie Campbell (L) Denis Murphy (L) Northumberland is a county in the North East of England. The non-metropolitan county of Northumberland borders Cumbria to the west, County Durham to the south and Tyne and Wear to the south east, as well as having a border with the Scottish Borders council area to the north, and nearly eighty miles of North Sea coastline. Since 1974 the county council has been located in Morpeth, situated in the east of the county at 55°10′07″N, 1°41′15″W; however, both Morpeth and Alnwick claim the title county town.
As the kingdom of Northumbria under King Edwin, the region's historical boundaries stretched from the Humber in the south to the Forth in the north. The historic boundaries of the county cover a different area, including Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the traditional county town, as well as Tynemouth and other settlements in North Tyneside, areas administered by Tyne and Wear since 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972. The historic boundaries of the county are sometimes taken to exclude Islandshire, Bedlingtonshire and Norhamshire (collectively North Durham), exclaves of County Durham which were incorporated into Northumberland in 1844.
Being on the border of Scotland and England, Northumberland has been the site of many battles. The county is noted for its undeveloped landscape of high moorland, a favourite with landscape painters, and now largely protected as a National Park.
Northumberland's county flower is the Bloody Cranesbill (Geranium sanguineum) and her affiliated Royal Navy ship is her namesake, HMS Northumberland.

Blyth Valley
Wansbeck
Castle Morpeth
Tynedale
Alnwick
Berwick-upon-Tweed History
The physical geography of Northumberland is diverse. It is low and flat near the North Sea coast and increasingly mountainous toward the northwest. The Cheviot Hills, in the northwest of the county, consist mainly of resistant Devonian granite and andesite lava. A second area of igneous rock underlies Whin Sill (on which Hadrian's Wall runs), an intrusion of carboniferous Dolerite. Both ridges support a rather bare moorland landscape. Either side of Whin Sill the county lies on carboniferous limestone, giving some areas of karst landscape.
Approximately a quarter of the county is protected as the Northumberland National Park, an area of outstanding landscape that has largely been protected from development and agriculture. The park stretches south from the Scottish border and includes Hadrian's Wall. Most of the park is over 800 feet (240 metres) above sea level. The Northumberland Coast is also a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Physical geography
There are a variety of notable habitats and species in Northumberland including: Chillingham Cattle herd; Holy Island; Farne Islands; and Staple Island.

Ecology
This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Northumberland at current basic prices published (pp.240-253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.
Northumberland has a relatively weak economy amongst the counties and other local government areas of the United Kingdom..

Demographics
See also: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Northumberland
Like most English shire counties Northumberland has a two-tier system of local government. It has a county council based in Morpeth and also has six districts, each with their own district council.
These districts are, Blyth Valley, Wansbeck, Castle Morpeth, Tynedale, Alnwick and Berwick-upon-Tweed. The county and district councils are responsible for different aspects of local government.
The Department for Communities and Local Government have passed plans to reorganise Northumberland's administrative structure. Two proposals are being looked at - one to abolish all of the districts to create a Northumberland unitary authority; and one to create two separate unitary authorities, South East Northumberland (the area now covered by Blyth Valley and Wansbeck), and Rural Northumberland (the area now covered by the other four districts). The changes are planned to be implemented no later than 1 April 2009.
Northumberland is represented in the House of Commons by four Members of Parliament, of whom one is a Conservative, one is a Liberal Democrat and two are Labour.

Politics
Northumberland has traditions not found elsewhere in England, reflecting a mix of indigenous, Anglian, Celtic and Norse influences. These include the rapper sword dance, the Clog dance and the Northumbrian smallpipe. Northumberland also has its own kilt and tartan, sometimes referred to in Scotland as the Shepherd's Tartan. Traditional Northumberland music sounds similar to Scottish music, reflecting the strong historical links between Northumbria and Scotland.
In general, the culture of Northumberland, as with the north east of England, has much more it would seem in common with Scottish Lowland culture than with the rest of England, the two perhaps having more in common with each other in some respects, than with other parts of their respective countries. The links between Northumberland and Scotland are audible in the dialects of both, which include many Old English words, such as bairn for child. For further information, see Scots language and Geordie. Attempts to raise the level of awareness of Northumberland culture have also started, with the formation of a Northumbrian Language Society to preserve the unique dialects (Pitmatic and Northumbrian) of this region, as well as to promote home-grown talent.
Northumberland has its own flag, based on the design first used on the tomb of St Oswald in the 7th century. The current version was granted to the county council in 1951, and adopted as the flag of Northumberland county in 1995.[1]

Culture
Having no large population centres, the county's mainstream media outlets are served from nearby Tyne and Wear, including radio stations and television channels (such as BBC Look North, BBC Radio Newcastle, Tyne Tees Television and Metro Radio), along with the majority of daily newspapers covering the area (The Journal, Evening Chronicle). Newspapers focusing exclusively on Northumberland or its districts include the Northumberland Gazette, Morpeth Herald, Berwick Advertiser, Hexham Courant and the News Post Leader.
Lionheart FM, a community radio station based in Alnwick, has recently been awarded a five-year community broadcasting license by OFCOM. Radio Borders covers Berwick and the rural north of the county.

Media

People
Ashington was the birth place of the three famous footballers Bobby and Jack Charlton in 1937 and 1935 respectively; and Jackie Milburn previously in 1924. The basketballer Alan Hoyle was born here in 1983 whilst in 1978 Steve Harmison, an international cricketer was born here.
Mickley was the birth place of Thomas Bewick, an artist, wood engraver and naturalist in 1753 and Bob Stokoe, a footballer, F.A. Cup winning manager in 1930
Other notable births include:

Thomas Addison, a physician born at Longbenton in 1793
George Airy, an astronomer and geophysicist born at Alnwick in 1802
Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, landscape and garden designer born at Kirkharle in 1715
Josephine Butler, social reformer born at Milfield in 1828
Basil Bunting, a poet born at Scotswood-on-Tyne in 1900
Grace Darling, a heroine born at Bamburgh in 1815
Pete Doherty, a musician born at Hexham in 1979
Bryan Donkin, an engineer and industrialist born at Sandhoe in 1768
Robson Green, an actor and singer born at Hexham in 1964
Daniel Gooch, an engineer and politician born at Bedlington in 1816
Sir Alistair Graham (1942 -), noted public figure
Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, British Prime Minister born at the family seat of Howick Hall in 1764
John Rushworth (1793-1860), an historian born at Acklington Park, Warkworth
George Stephenson, an engineer born at Wylam in 1781
Hugh Trevor-Roper, an historian born at Glanton in 1914
William Turner, ornithologist and botanist born at Morpeth in 1508
C. V. Wedgwood, an historian born in 1910 Famous people born in Northumbria

Thomas Burt, one of the first working-class Members of Parliament and was secretary of the Northumberland Miners' Association in 1863
Ross Noble, a stand-up comedian raising in Cramlington in the 1970s and 1980s
Henry "Harry Hotspur" Percy (1365-1403), borders warlord and rebel
Billy Pigg, a 20th century musician who was vice-President of the Northumbrian Pipers Society
Algernon Swinburne, a poet raised at Capheaton Hall
Kathryn Tickell, a modern day player of the Northumbrian smallpipes
Mark Knopfler, the lead singer of Dire Straits released a song called "Fare Thee Well Northumberland" on his 2002 album, The Ragpicker's Dream. Settlements

Duke of Northumberland
Northumbria
List of places of interest and tourist attractions in Northumberland
List of Parliamentary constituencies in Northumberland
Anglo-Scottish border

2008-05-01T10:33:00.001-07:00

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Wales
1997, 2001, 2005, 2009/10
1999, 2004, 2009
National Assembly for Wales constituencies and electoral regions were first used for the Welsh Assembly election, 1999. New boundaries came into use for the Welsh Assembly election, 2007. The total numbers of constituencies and regions (40 constituencies and five regions) remained the same.
The constituencies of the National Assembly for Wales (or Welsh Assembly) (Welsh: Cynulliad Cenedlaethol Cymru) were created with the boundaries of the Welsh constituencies of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (Westminster), as they were in 1999. The new boundaries are those which will be used, also, for the next United Kingdom general election. Therefore, since the 2007 Assembly election and until the next United Kingdom general election, the two sets of constituencies, Assembly and Westminster, have differing boundaries.
Three constituency names, Conwy, Carnarfon, and Meirionydd Nant Conwy, have become historic, and the new boundaries define three constituencies with new names, Arfon, Dwyfor Meirionnydd, and Aberconwy. Generally, the new boundaries define each constituency as a division of a single preserved county, take account of changes to local government ward boundaries, and create constituencies closer to equal in terms of the sizes of their electorates. Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney, however, continues to straddle the boundary between Mid Glamorgan and Gwent.
Unlike Westminster constituencies, Assembly constituencies are grouped into electoral regions, and an additional member system is used to elect four additional Assembly Members (AMs) (Welsh: Aelodau y Cynulliad) from each region, in addition, that is, to AMs elected by the constituencies. At each general election of the Assembly, each elector has two votes, one constituency vote and one regional party-list vote. Each constituency elects one AM by the first past the post (single-member district plurality, SMDP) system, and the additional Assembly seats are filled from regional closed party lists, under the d'Hondt method, with constituency results being taken into account, to produce a degree of proportional representation for each region. Altogether, 60 AMs are elected from the 40 constituencies and five electoral regions, creating an Assembly of 40 constituency AMs and 20 additional AMs. Every constituent is represented by one constituency AM and four regional AMs.

Contemporary Welsh Law
English Law
Courts of England and Wales
National Assembly for Wales

Measures
Statutory Instruments
Presiding Officer
- Dafydd Elis-Thomas
  Members (AMs): 2007
  Constituencies and electoral regions
  Elections: 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011
  Welsh Assembly Government
  - First Minister: Rhodri Morgan
    Deputy First Minister: Ieuan Wyn Jones
    Welsh Ministers
    Counsel General: Carwyn Jones
    Wales in the UK Parliament:
    - Constituencies
      Acts
      Constituencies
      Elections: 1979, 1983, 1987, 1992,
      Wales in the UK Government:
      - Wales Office
        Secretary of State: Peter Hain
        European Parliament
        
        European Parliament constituency
        Elections: 1979, 1984, 1989, 1994,
        Administrative divisions of Wales
        Political parties From 2007
        
        Electoral regions
        
        Constituencies

2008-04-30T08:58:00.001-07:00

The United States and Ecuador have maintained close ties based on mutual interests in maintaining democratic institutions; combating illegal drugs trade; building trade, investment, and financial ties; cooperating in fostering Ecuador's economic development; and participating in inter-American organizations. Ties are further strengthened by the presence of an estimated 150,000-200,000 Ecuadorians living in the United States and by 24,000 U.S. citizens visiting Ecuador annually, and by approximately 15,000 U.S. citizens residing in Ecuador. The United States assists Ecuador's economic development directly through the Agency for International Development (USAID) program in Ecuador and through multilateral organizations such as the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank. In addition, the U.S. Peace Corps operates a sizable program in Ecuador. More than 100 U.S. companies are doing business in Ecuador.
Both nations are signatories of the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (the Rio Treaty) of 1947, the Western Hemisphere's regional mutual security treaty. Ecuador shares U.S. concern over increasing narcotrafficking and international terrorism and has energetically condemned terrorist actions, whether directed against government officials or private citizens. The government has maintained Ecuador virtually free of coca production since the mid-1980s and is working to combat money laundering and the transshipment of drugs and chemicals essential to the processing of cocaine.
Ecuador and the U.S. agreed in 1999 to a 10-year arrangement whereby U.S. military surveillance aircraft could use the airbase at Manta, Ecuador, as a Forward Operating Location to detect drug trafficking flights through the region. In fisheries issues, the United States claims jurisdiction for the management of coastal fisheries up to 200 mile (370 km) from its coast, but excludes highly migratory species; Ecuador, on the other hand, claims a 200 mile (370 km) territorial sea, and imposes license fees and fines on foreign fishing vessels in the area, making no exceptions for catches of migratory species. In the early 1970s, Ecuador seized about 100 foreign-flag vessels (many of them U.S.) and collected fees and fines of more than $6 million. After a drop-off in such seizures for some years, several U.S. tuna boats were again detained and seized in 1980 and 1981.
The U.S. Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act then triggered an automatic prohibition of U.S. imports of tuna products from Ecuador. The prohibition was lifted in 1983, and although fundamental differences between U.S. and Ecuadorian legislation still exist, there is no current conflict. During the period that has elapsed since seizures which triggered the tuna import ban, successive Ecuadorian governments have declared their willingness to explore possible solutions to this problem with mutual respect for longstanding positions and principles of both sides.

2008-04-29T08:11:00.001-07:00

The Glass Flowers, formally The Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants, is a famous collection of highly-realistic glass botanical models at the Harvard Museum of Natural History at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
They were made by Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka from 1887 through 1936 at their studio in Hosterwitz, Germany, near Dresden. They were commissioned by Professor George Lincoln Goodale, founder of Harvard's Botanical Museum, for the purpose of teaching botany, and financed by Goodale's former student, Mary Lee Ware and her mother, Elizabeth Ware. Over 3000 models, of 847 different plant species, were made.

The models
The flowers have suffered deterioration and are undergoing restoration. In a 1999 article about the collection in the journal ResearchPennState curatorial associate Susan Rossi-Wilcox is quoted as saying "It took a long time for the faculty here to go from thinking about the Glass Flowers as a teaching collection to thinking about them as art objects." Rossi-Wilcox went on "See the white powdery stuff on the leaves? This is glass corrosion. The majority of these models are affected. That's the great irony. The models showing plant diseases are also showing glass diseases."

Restoration
The Glass Flowers were and are one of the most famous attractions of the Boston area. More than 120,000 visitors view the collection annually. In 1936, when Harvard invited the public to tour the campus in honor of its tercentenary, a New York Times reporter taking the tour commented "Tercentenary or no, the chief focus of interest remains the famous glass flowers, the first of which was put on exhibition in 1893, and which with additions at interval since, have never failed to draw exclamations of wonder or disbelief from visitors.".

2008-04-26T08:30:00.001-07:00

The California Eagle, was one of the oldest African American newspapers in Los Angeles, California, and the West, traces its origins to 1879.

Later history

2008-04-25T08:01:00.001-07:00

Pathophysiology
Between 1995 and 2005, 16,742 Americans died from hernias.

Epidemiology
Hernias can be classified according to their anatomical location:
Examples include:
Each of the above hernias may be characterised by several aspects:
If irreducible, hernias can develop several complications (hence, they can be complicated or uncomplicated):

abdominal hernias
diaphragmatic hernias and hiatal hernias (for example, paraesophageal hernia of the stomach)
pelvic hernias, for example, obturator hernia
hernias of the nucleus pulposus of the intervertebral discs
intracranial hernias
congenital or acquired: congenital hernias occur prenatally or in the first year(s) of life, and are caused by a congenital defect, whereas acquired hernias develop later on in life. However, this may be on the basis of a locus minoris resistentiae (Lat. place of least resistance) that is congenital, but only becomes symptomatic later on in life, when degeneration and increased stress (for example, increased abdominal pressure from coughing in COPD) provoke the hernia.
complete or incomplete: for example, the stomach may partially herniate into the chest, or completely.
internal or external: external ones herniate to the outside world, whereas internal hernias protrude from their normal compartment to another (for example, mesenteric hernias).
intraparietal hernia: hernia that does not reach all the way to the subcutis, but only to the musculoaponeurotic layer. An example is a Spigelian hernia. Intraparietal hernias may produces less obvious bulging, and may be less easily detected on clinical examination.
bilateral: in this case, simultaneous repair may be considered, sometimes even with a giant prosthetic reinforcement.
irreducible (also known as incarcerated): the hernial contents cannot be returned to their normal site with simple manipulation
strangulation: pressure on the hernial contents may compromise blood supply (especially veins, with their low pressure, are sensitive, and venous congestion often results) and cause ischemia, and later necrosis and gangrene, which may become fatal.
obstruction: for example, when a part of the bowel herniates, bowel contents can no longer pass the obstruction. This results in cramps, and later on vomiting, ileus, absence of flatus and absence of defecation. These signs mandate urgent surgery.
another complication arises when the herniated organ itself, or surrounding organs start dysfunctioning (for example, sliding hernia of the stomach causing heartburn, lumbar disc hernia causing sciatic nerve pain, etc.) Characteristics
It is generally advisable to repair hernias in a timely fashion, in order to prevent complications such as organ dysfunction, gangrene, and multiple organ dysfunction syndrome. Most abdominal hernias can be surgically repaired, and recovery rarely requires long-term changes in lifestyle. Uncomplicated hernias are principally repaired by pushing back, or "reducing", the herniated tissue, and then mending the weakness in muscle tissue (an operation called herniorrhaphy). If complications have occurred, the surgeon will check the viability of the herniated organ, and resect it if necessary. Modern muscle reinforcement techniques involve synthetic materials (a mesh prosthesis) that avoid over-stretching of already weakened tissue (as in older, but still useful methods). The mesh is placed over the defect, and sometimes staples are used to keep the mesh in place. Increasingly, some repairs are performed through laparoscopes.
Many patients are managed through surgical daycare centers, and are able to return to work within a week or two, while heavy activities are prohibited for a longer period. Surgical complications have been estimated to be up to 10%, but most of them can be easily addressed. They include surgical site infections, nerve and blood vessel injuries, injury to nearby organs, and hernia recurrence.
Generally, the use of external devices to maintain reduction of the hernia without repairing the underlying defect (such as hernia trusses, trunks, belts, etc.), is not advised. Exceptions are uncomplicated incisional hernias that arise shortly after the operation (should only be operated after a few months), or inoperable patients.
It is essential that the hernia not be further irritated by carrying out strenuous labour.

Treatment
A sportman's hernia is a syndrome characterized by chronic groin pain in athletes and a dilated superficial ring of the inguinal canal, although a true hernia is not present.

Individual hernias
Main article: inguinal hernia.
By far the most common hernias (up to 75% of all abdominal hernias) are the so-called inguinal hernias. For a thorough understanding of inguinal hernias, much insight is needed in the anatomy of the inguinal canal. Inguinal hernias are further divided into the more common indirect inguinal hernia (2/3, depicted here), in which the inguinal canal is entered via a congenital weakness at its entrance (the internal inguinal ring), and the direct inguinal hernia type (1/3), where the hernia contents push through a weak spot in the back wall of the inguinal canal. Inguinal hernias are more common in men than women while femoral hernias are more common in women.

Inguinal hernia
Main article: femoral hernia.
Femoral hernias occur just below the inguinal ligament, when abdominal contents pass into the weak area at the posterior wall of the femoral canal. They can be hard to distinguish from the inguinal type (especially when ascending cephalad): however, they generally appear more rounded, and, in contrast to inguinal hernias, there is a strong female preponderance in femoral hernias. The incidence of strangulation in femoral hernias is high. Repair techniques are similar for femoral and inguinal hernia.

Femoral hernia
Main article: umbilical hernia.
Umbilical hernias are especially common in infants of African descent, and occur more in boys. They involve protrusion of intraabdominal contents through a weakness at the site of passage of the umbilical cord through the abdominal wall. These hernias often resolve spontaneously. Umbilical hernias in adults are largely acquired, and are more frequent in obese or pregnant women. Abnormal decussation of fibers at the linea alba may contribute.

Umbilical hernia
Main article: incisional hernia.
An incisional hernia occurs when the defect is the result of an incompletely healed surgical wound. When these occur in median laparotomy incisions in the linea alba, they are termed ventral hernias. These can be the most frustrating and difficult to treat, as the repair utilizes already attenuated tissue.

Incisional hernia
Main article: diaphragmatic hernia
Higher in the abdomen, an (internal) "diaphragmatic hernia" results when part of the stomach or intestine protrudes into the chest cavity through a defect in the diaphragm.
A hiatus hernia is a particular variant of this type, in which the normal passageway through which the esophagus meets the stomach (esophageal hiatus) serves as a functional "defect", allowing part of the stomach to (periodically) "herniate" into the chest. Hiatus hernias may be either "sliding," in which the gastroesophageal junction itself slides through the defect into the chest, or non-sliding (also known as para-esophageal), in which case the junction remains fixed while another portion of the stomach moves up through the defect. Non-sliding or para-esophageal hernias can be dangerous as they may allow the stomach to rotate and obstruct. Repair is usually advised.
A congenital diaphragmatic hernia is a distinct problem, occurring in up to 1 in 2000 births, and requiring pediatric surgery. Intestinal organs may herniate through several parts of the diaphragm, posterolateral (in Bochdalek's triangle, resulting in Bochdalek's hernia), or anteromedial-retrosternal (in the cleft of Larrey/Morgagni's foramen, resulting in Morgagni-Larrey hernia, or Morgagni's hernia).

Diaphragmatic hernia
Since many organs or parts of organs can herniate through many orifices, it is very difficult to give an exhaustive list of hernias, with all synonyms and eponyms. The above article deals mostly with "visceral hernias", where the herniating tissue arises within the abdominal cavity. Other hernia types and unusual types of visceral hernias are listed below, in alphabetical order:

Brain hernia: herniation of part of the brain because of excessive intracranial pressure. This may be a life-threatening condition, especially if the brain stem (responsible for some important vital signs) is involved.
Cooper's hernia: A femoral hernia with two sacs, the first being in the femoral canal, and the second passing through a defect in the superficial fascia and appearing immediately beneath the skin.
epigastric hernia: hernia through the linea alba above the umbilicus.
Littre's hernia: hernia involving a Meckel's diverticulum. It is named after French anatomist Alexis Littre (1658-1726).
lumbar hernia: hernia in the lumbar region (not to be confused with a lumbar disc hernia), contains following entities:

Petit's hernia - hernia through Petit's triangle (inferior lumbar triangle). It is named after French surgeon Jean Louis Petit (1674-1750).
Grynfeltt's hernia - hernia through Grynfeltt-Lesshaft triangle (superior lumbar triangle). It is named after physician Joseph Grynfeltt (1840-1913).
obturator hernia: hernia through obturator canal
pantaloon hernia: a combined direct and indirect hernia, when the hernial sac protrudes on either side of the inferior epigastric vessels
perineal hernia: A perineal hernia protrudes through the muscles and fascia of the perineal floor. It may be primary but usually, is acquired following perineal prostatectomy, abdominoperineal resection of the rectum, or pelvic exenteration.
properitoneal hernia: rare hernia located directly above the peritoneum, for example, when part of an inguinal hernia projects from the deep inguinal ring to the preperitoneal space.
Richter's hernia: strangulated hernia involving only one sidewall of the bowel, which can result in bowel perforation through ischaemia without causing bowel obstruction or any of its warning signs. It is named after German surgeon August Gottlieb Richter (1742-1812).
sliding hernia: occurs when an organ drags along part of the peritoneum, or, in other words, the organ is part of the hernia sac. The colon and the urinary bladder are often involved. The term also frequently refers to sliding hernias of the stomach.
sciatic hernia: this hernia in the greater sciatic foramen most commonly presents as an uncomfortable mass in the gluteal area. Bowel obstruction may also occur. This type of hernia is only a rare cause of sciatic neuralgia.
Spigelian hernia, also known as spontaneous lateral ventral hernia
Velpeau hernia: a hernia in the groin in front of the femoral blood vessels
spinal disc herniation, or "herniated nucleus pulposus": a condition where the central weak part of the intervertebral disc (nucleus pulposus, which helps absorb shocks to our spine), herniates through the fibrous band (annulus fibrosus) by which it is normally bound. This usually occurs low in the back at the lumbar or lumbo-sacral level and can cause back pain which usually radiates well into the thigh or leg. When the sciatic nerve is involved, the symptom complex is called sciatica. Herniation can occur in the cervical vertebrae too. A nucleoplasty is an operation to repair the herniation. Complications

"Weird Al" Yankovic recorded a song entitled "Living with a Hernia", on his Polka Party! album. The song is a parody of James Brown's "Living in America", and describes the discomfort associated with suffering a hernia, as well as listing common types of hernias.
Comedian Bill Engvall has a routine "My hernia"..
The Arrogant Worms recorded a song entitled "Hernia Belt", on their Beige album. The song praises the singer's hernia belt and later hernia repair surgery.
In the Simpsons episode Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in "The Curse of the Flying Hellfish", a hernia killed Oxford as he was carrying a safe full of paintings out of a castle.

2008-04-24T09:57:00.000-07:00

Joseph Jack Fins, M.D.,F.A.C.P.' (b. 1959) is Chief of the Division of Medical Ethics (http://www.med.cornell.edu/public.health/ethics/index.html) at New York Presbyterian Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical College where he serves as Professor of Medicine, Professor of Public Health, and Professor of Medicine in Psychiatry. Dr. Fins is also a member of the Adjunct Faculty of Rockefeller University and has served as Associate for Medicine at The Hastings Center. He was appointed by President Clinton to The White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy and currently serves on The New York State Task Force on Life and the Law by appointment of Governor Eliot Spitzer.
Dr. Fins' scholarship in medical ethics and health policy has focused on palliative care, rational approaches to ethical dilemmas and the development of "clinical pragmatism" as a method of moral problem-solving drawing upon the American pragmatic tradition of William James and John Dewey. His more recent work has been in neuorethics and disorders of consciousness following severe brain injury. He was a co-author of the landmark Nature paper describing the first use of deep brain stimulation in the minimally conscious state.
Dr. Fins has been a Visiting Professor in Medical Ethics at The Complutense University in Madrid and Philipps University in Marburg, Germany. He is a recipient of a Soros Open Society Institute Project on Death in America Faculty Scholars Award, a Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation Visiting Fellowship and a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investigator Award in Health Policy Research. (http://www.investigatorawards.org/)
Dr. Fins received a B.A. (College of Letters with Honors) from Wesleyan University in 1982 and an M.D. from Cornell University Medical College in 1986. After an internship at the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic, Dr. Fins completed his internal medicine residency training and fellowship in general internal medicine at The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. He is the author of "A Palliative Ethic of Care: Clinical Wisdom at Life's End" published by Jones and Bartlett (2006).( http://medicine.jbpub.com/catalog/0763732923/testimonials.htm)
A practicing internist at New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center, Dr. Fins is a Governor of the American College of Physicians and on the Board of Directors of the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities. He has been a Trustee of Wesleyan University and served on the board of The Fund for Modern Courts and New York's Attorney General's Commission on Quality Care at the End of Life. He is a member of the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, The Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, The Oncologist and BioMed Central Medical Ethics.
Dr. Fins is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the New York Academy of Medicine.

2008-04-23T09:59:00.001-07:00

George Alfred George-Brown, Baron George-Brown, PC (2 September 1914 – 2 June 1985) was a British politician who served as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1960 to 1970, and was a senior Cabinet minister (including as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs) in the Labour government of the 1960s. He was a leader of the right wing within the Labour Party and an effective, if aggressive, election campaigner, but was ultimately unable to cope with the pressures of high office without excessive drinking. He changed his surname from Brown to George-Brown in order to incorporate his first name into his peerage title, which was created on 6 November 1970.

Early Life
Shortly before marrying Sophie Levene on 22 April 1937, Brown was appointed as a ledger clerk with the Transport and General Workers Union, moving to be District Organiser for Watford the next year. Brown was already active within the Labour Party and the Labour League of Youth. He ran as a moderate candidate for the Chairmanship but at the Labour Party conference in 1937 he was defeated by Ted Willis of the left, later a noted playwright and television dramatist. At the 1939 Labour Party conference Brown made his mark by a strong speech demanding the expulsion of Stafford Cripps for his support for the Popular Front. Cripps refused to speak to Brown for the rest of his life.
His TGWU activities brought him into close contact with Ernest Bevin, the Union's founder and General Secretary who was brought into the wartime coalition government. Brown himself served as a temporary Civil Servant in the Ministry of Agriculture from 1940 onwards.

Trade Union organiser
As a TGWU official, Brown was an attractive candidate to Labour constituencies seeking a candidate, as the TGWU would sponsor him and pay election expenses. He was selected for Belper, a mixed constituency near Derby which was one of the top Labour target seats. In the 1945 general election Brown won the seat with a majority of nearly 9,000. He was invited as one of a dozen 'Young Victors' to a private dinner given by Hugh Dalton on 30 July 1945 who was talent-spotting and networking. Brown was immediately picked to be a Parliamentary Private Secretary by George Isaacs, who had followed the promoted Bevin as Minister of Labour.
The job of the Parliamentary Private Secretary (usually known as a 'PPS') was almost made for Brown, who was both adept at understanding political issues and how to communicate them, and convivial and generally popular within the Parliamentary Labour Party (save among the left-wing faction, whom he attacked as 'long-haired intellectuals'). He transferred to be PPS to Chancellor of the Exchequer Hugh Dalton in April 1947, at a time when the economic situation of Britain had barely improved and the Chancellor needed the maximum political support. Brown launched an unsuccessful plot to have Clement Attlee replaced as Prime Minister by Ernest Bevin, although without consulting Bevin who did not approve.

Member of Parliament
Attlee, despite knowing all about Brown's plot to depose him, swiftly appointed Brown as Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture. The Prime Minister had decided that it would be best if Brown were kept busy. At the Ministry of Agriculture, Brown worked to pass the Agriculture Act 1947 which provided price support to farmers, and also to provide more arable land and ease shortages of machinery and foodstuffs. Government policy aimed at increasing food production so that rationing could be lifted, but progress was slow. However, Attlee grew to appreciate his talent.
When his mentor Bevin died in April 1951, Brown was appointed Minister of Works in the reshuffle - at the head of a Ministry but not in the Cabinet. Brown inherited a long-running struggle by the Government to have the Tower of London open to tourists on Sunday, and managed to solve it by outsmarting the Constable of the Tower in negotiations.

Ministerial office
No sooner had Brown got to grips with his office, than he was forced to leave it when Labour lost the 1951 general election. As with other Government ministers, Brown found himself forced to rely on an inadequate Parliamentary salary which led him to consider a return to being a Trade Union official. However, he was appointed in 1953 as a consultant to the Daily Mirror Group of newspapers, enabling him to stay in politics.
Brown was a partisan participant in the Labour Party's internecine struggles in the early 1950s, opposing the Bevanite campaign. His natural campaigning ability became prominent, but also his tendency to be rude to those with whom he had disagreements. Shortly after the 1955 general election, Brown was elected to the Shadow Cabinet for the first time; from that December Brown found it easier to win promotion as his friend Hugh Gaitskell became Leader of the Labour Party. Brown had a private but widely publicised shouting-match with Soviet leaders Nikita Khruschev and Nikolai Bulganin when he was part of a Labour Party delegation invited to dine with them on their British visit in April 1956. That year, he lost the election to be the Treasurer of the Labour Party to Bevan.

Opposition
After the death of Aneurin Bevan in the summer of 1960, the Deputy Leadership of the Labour Party became vacant at a time when the Labour Party was severely divided over Clause IV of the party constitution. Brown was encouraged to stand as the candidate of the Gaitskellite right; the other candidates were left-winger Frederick Lee and the moderate but insufficiently senior James Callaghan. Brown was elected, beating Lee by 146 votes to 83 when Callaghan had been eliminated. Gaitskell as Leader and Brown as Deputy Leader did not seem to most on the left of the Labour Party to be a balanced ticket, and Brown was challenged for the job in both 1961, by Barbara Castle, and 1962, by Harold Wilson. Part of his job was to improve Labour's by-election campaigning, and he was successful in winning several - most notably, Middlesbrough West.
Gaitskell's sudden death in January 1963 left Brown no choice but to challenge for the Party Leadership. However he mishandled the campaign badly. At the first Shadow Cabinet meeting after Gaitskell's death, Brown and his Leadership rival Harold Wilson agreed to a clean fight. Wilson, who was accused by the right of undermining party unity, then informed the press that each agreed to serve under the other, which undermined his reputation for plotting; Brown repudiated any such agreement, laying himself open to the accusation.

Deputy leadership
Many on the right of the Labour Party, most notably Anthony Crosland and Denis Healey, supported James Callaghan for the leadership, as they were opposed to Wilson, but also didn't trust Brown. Part of the reason for the mistrust of Brown was the private knowledge of his excessive drinking, which exacerbated his rude and aggressive style of politics. Crosland himself called the leadership election as being "A choice between a crook (Wilson) and a drunk (Brown)". The mainstream press of the day did not publicise this problem, but it became publicly apparent when Brown was invited on Associated-Rediffusion television to pay tribute to John F. Kennedy after his assassination (Brown was probably the closest Labour politician to Kennedy). Brown had come from a dinner in Shoreditch where he had already drunk a great deal, and drank more while preparing to go on air - having a row with actor Eli Wallach which became physical. When Brown went on air, millions of viewers saw him interpret a fair question as an accusation of his having overstated his closeness, then give a morose and slurred tribute from which it was apparent he was intoxicated. Brown had to issue a public apology. Many Labour MPs who were prepared to accept Brown as Deputy Leader were unhappy with the idea of him being in charge, and thus Wilson was easily elected.
Brown bitterly resented his leadership defeat, which came only a matter of weeks after he had defeated Wilson for the Deputy Leadership. He disappeared for five days after the result was declared, using an assumed name to book a flight to Glasgow; the newspapers were full of stories about the vanishing politician. When he returned he demanded of Wilson that he be appointed Shadow Foreign Secretary, which Wilson refused to do.
He retained the Deputy Leadership and despite his personal differences, played an important part in advising Wilson about Labour's campaign strategy in the 1964 general election. It was decided that Wilson would make only a limited number of major campaign speeches outside London, while Brown would tour the country speaking in all the marginal seats (his main theme was predicting an imminent economic crisis). Brown later calculated that he had made 100 speeches. In one of them he made a gaffe by suggesting that the mortgage interest rate could be cut to 3%; the Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer Reginald Maudling was quick to capitalise on this and ask how much it would cost.

Personal problems
Labour won the election with a narrow majority. As previously arranged with Wilson, Brown was appointed to the newly created Department of Economic Affairs through which they both hoped to institute long-term economic planning and remove some of the power of the Treasury. Brown also took the honorific title of First Secretary of State to cover his seniority as Deputy Leader of the Party (Brown, but no-one else, claimed that he was actually the Deputy Prime Minister).
Immediately on taking office Brown was told that the budget deficit for the coming year was forecast at £800 million, double what the Labour Party had predicted as the worst possible figure before the election. The leading economic ministers were presented with three options, including devaluation of the Pound Sterling, to meet the crisis. They decided on a temporary surcharge on imported goods. However, over the next few months Brown was persuaded by his deputy Anthony Crosland that ruling out devaluation had been a mistake. The pound continued to be under pressure in 1965 and Brown struggled over a 12-hour meeting at the Trades Union Congress to persuade the unions to accept a tougher prices and incomes policy, to which he was personally opposed.
The most important function of the DEA was to prepare a 'National Plan' for the economy. Brown became personally identified with the project, which helped increase enthusiasm for it among officials and the Labour Party, while also interesting the press. After nearly a year's work the Plan was unveiled on 16 September 1965, pledging to cover 'all aspects of the country's development for the next five years'. The Plan called for a 25% growth in Gross Domestic Product from 1964 to 1970, which worked out at 3.8% annually. There were 39 specific actions listed, although many were criticized as vague.

Department of Economic Affairs
After the 1966 general election at which Labour won re-election with a landslide, the government was hit by a severe financial crisis. The question of devaluation was raised again in a more pressing way, with Brown now strongly supporting it, but Harold Wilson was firmly opposed, preferring a set of deflationary measures including spending cuts and interest rate rises. Brown believed that these measures would damage the economy. Chancellor of the Exchequer James Callaghan found himself in the middle, as he opposed devaluation but felt that without prompt action it was inevitable. Wilson tried to keep Brown on board, even offering to make him Chancellor should Callaghan resign, but Brown stood firm. When the Cabinet voted by 17-6 against devaluation, Brown sent a letter of resignation.
Wilson craftily sent the letter back to Brown so that he could deny having received it, and then sent George Wigg to try to talk Brown out of it. This did not prevent the news reaching the public; Wigg then changed his position and told Brown that Wilson would accept his resignation. Bizarrely this convinced Brown to stay and he accepted all of Wilson's terms for staying in the government in a late night meeting before announcing his "un-resignation" to the press in Downing Street.

July measures
Brown was reshuffled to become Foreign Secretary in August 1966, a job he coveted. This decision had implications for the government's stance on the European Economic Community as Brown had always favoured entry. Wilson had been sceptical, but not opposed outright, to joining but Brown persuaded him and the rest of the Labour Party to support an application. In May 1967 it was announced that Britain had made its second application to join. Like the first, it was vetoed by Charles de Gaulle.
Brown's drinking was became more pronounced as he became depressed by his loss of face in July 1966. His reaction to his depression was to launch vituperative attacks, for example at the son of newspaper proprietor Cecil King in October 1967. After Wilson was told of this, Brown came round and told Wilson that he had just had a terrible row with his wife and could not continue in Government. More and more people were becoming aware of Brown's alcoholism, and Private Eye managed to hint at the scandal with a parody of a memo titled "Brown: F.O. Acts". The memo gave translations into various languages for the words tired, overwrought, expansive, overworked, colourful, and emotional. This coined the phrase "tired and emotional" as a euphemism for drunk.

Foreign Secretary
During his time, and subsequently, a widely circulated but evidently false rumour had it that Brown had embarrassed himself while drunk at an official reception in South America. Brown was said to have lumbered over to a tall, elegant vision in red, and requested the honour of the next dance, to be told, "I will not dance with you for three reasons. The first is that you are drunk. The second is that the band is not playing a waltz, but the Peruvian national anthem. The final reason is that I am the Cardinal Archbishop of Montevideo". Although the story is highly amusing, checks that have been done on whether it could true have not substantiated it. Brown did not visit South America during his term, and the same story had originally circulated about a different minister.

Rumoured Archbishop of Montevideo incident
Despite devaluation in November 1967, the pound came again under severe pressure in March 1968. When Wilson wanted to declare an emergency bank holiday to give breathing space, he attempted to contact his Foreign Secretary. Brown could not be found and his staff reported his condition as "only 'so-so' when last seen", and so Wilson convened a special meeting of the Privy Council without him. Brown was incensed that Wilson had not tried further to contact him, and got together with other uninformed ministers to face down Wilson at a meeting in the early hours of the morning. Brown, who appeared very drunk, incoherently shouted at Wilson, who was almost as angry and stood up for himself. At the end of the meeting Brown stormed out.
It was unclear whether he had resigned but Brown did nothing the next day to apologise. At 6 o'clock that evening he sent a letter which said "I think it better that we should part company" but did not mention "resignation". Wilson decided to reply by accepting Brown's resignation but also sent a message saying that Brown had half an hour to say whether the letter had been misinterpreted. Brown did not act on this and so left the government, but not in the blaze of glory for which he had hoped.

Resignation
Brown's constituency of Belper had been the site of considerable new development since he had first been elected. Most of the new housing was for middle-class areas near Derby, and therefore contained mostly Conservative voters. Although a Boundary Commission report in 1969 recommended the removal of this area, the Government decided to postpone the boundary changes and Brown was forced to fight in a seat which was trending away from him. Added to this problem, he remained Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and toured the country making speeches for other Labour candidates during the 1970 general election. His Conservative opponent Geoffrey Stewart-Smith had spent the last four years nursing the constituency. Brown lost his seat by more than 2,000 votes.

2008-04-22T10:20:00.000-07:00

Mythology
This theonym appears to be derived from Proto-Celtic *Ambaxtonos meaning "great ploughman, farmer, labourer", an augmentative form of ambactos (ultimately from *ambhi-ag-to-).

Bibliography

2008-04-21T08:59:00.001-07:00

José Manuel Oquendo Contreras (born July 4, 1963 in Río Piedras, Puerto Rico) is a former infielder in Major League Baseball and the current third base coach for the St. Louis Cardinals.

New York Mets (1983-1984)
St. Louis Cardinals (1986-1995)
Led NL in games played in 1989 with 163 Career

In 1990, Oquendo set a major league record for the fewest errors (three) by a second baseman in a 150+ game season after tying what is the current American League record (five) the previous season (based upon 2002 information) [1]. However, Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg won the Gold Glove Award both years.
Oquendo has played every single position on a baseball field.
Oquendo also struck out Deion Sanders ... looking.
Oquendo was pinch hit for in the 1st inning of a game during his rookie year when he was only 19 years of age. As he walked to the dugout his eyes welled up and he had cried because he never received an at bat. Nickname

List of players from Puerto Rico in Major League Baseball
List of Puerto Ricans

2008-04-20T10:06:00.001-07:00

French and Francophone literature
French literature By category French language Medieval 16th century - 17th century 18th century - 19th century 20th century - Contemporary
Francophone literature Literature of Quebec Postcolonial literature Literature of Haiti Chronological list
Writers - Novelists Playwrights - Poets Essayists Short Story Writers
Novel - Poetry - Plays Science Fiction - Comics Fantastique - Detective Fiction Naturalism - Symbolism Surrealism - Existentialism Nouveau Roman Theater of the Absurd
Literary theory - Critics Literary Prizes
Molière - Racine - Balzac Stendhal - Flaubert Emile Zola - Marcel Proust Samuel Beckett - Albert Camus French literature of the 17th century spans the reigns of Henry IV of France, the Regency of Marie de Medici, Louis XIII of France, the Regency of Anne of Austria (and the civil war called the Fronde) and the reign of Louis XIV of France. The literature of this period is often equated with the Classicism of Louis XIV's long reign, during which France led Europe in political and cultural development, and its authors expounded classical ideals of order, clarity, proportion, and good taste. In reality, 17th century French literature encompasses far more than just the classicist masterpieces of Jean Racine and Madame de Lafayette.
For the visual arts of the seventeenth century in France, see French Baroque and Classicism.

Society and Literature in 17th century France
For more information on literary gatherings, see Salon (gathering).
Henri IV's court was considered by contemporaries as a rude one, lacking the Italianate sophistication of the court of the Valois kings. The court also lacked a queen, who traditionally served as a focus or patron of a nation's authors and poets. Henri's literary tastes were largely limited to the chivalric novel Amadis of Gaul.
In the mid-century, academies gradually came under government control and sponsorship and the number of private academies decreased The first private academy to fall under governmental control was L'Académie française, which remains the most prestigious governmental academy in France. Founded in 1634 by Cardinal Richelieu, L'Académie française focuses on the French language.

Salons and Academies
In certain instances, the values of 17th century nobility played a major part in literature of the time. Most notable of these values are the aristocratic obsession with glory ("la gloire") and majesty ("la grandeur"). The spectacle of power, prestige and luxury found in 17th century literature may be distasteful or even offensive. Corneille's heroes, for example, have been labeled by modern critics as vain-glorious, extravagant, or prudeful; contemporaries aristocratic readers would have these same chartacters and their actions as representative of a noble station.
The château of Versailles, court ballets, noble portraits, triumphal arches --- all of these were representations of glory and prestige. The notion of glory, be it artistic or military, was not vanity or boastfulness or hubris, rather a moral imperative for the aristocratic class. Nobles were required to be "generous" and "magnanamous" and to perform great deeds disinterestedly (i.e. because their status demanded it and without expecting financial or political gain), and to master their own emotions (especially fear, jealousy and the desire for vengeance).
One's status in the world demanded appropriate externalisation ( or "conspicuous consumption"). Nobles indebted themselves to build prestigious urban mansions ("hôtels particuliers") and to buy clothes, paintings, silverware, dishes and other furnishings befitting their rank. They were also required to show liberality by hosting sumptuous parties and by funding the arts. Conversely, social parvenues who took on the external trappings of the noble classes (such as the wearing of a sword) were severely criticised, sometimes by legal action (laws on sumptuous clothing worn by bourgeois existed since the Middle Ages)..
These aristocratic values began to be criticised in the mid 17th century: Blaise Pascal for example offered a ferocious analysis of the spectacle of power and François de la Rochefoucauld posited that no human act -- however generous is pretended to be -- could be considered disinterested.

Aristocratic codes
In an attempt to restrict the proliferation of private centers of intellectual or literary life, so as to impose the royal court as the artistic center of France, Cardinal Richelieu took an existing literary gathering (around Valentin Conrart) and designated it as the official Académie française in 1634 (other original members included Jean Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin, Jean Ogier de Gombauld, Jean Chapelain, François le Métel de Boisrobert, François Maynard, Marin le Roy de Gomberville and Nicolas Faret; members added at the time of its official creation included Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac, Claude Favre de Vaugelas and Vincent Voiture). This process of state control of the arts and literature would be expanded even more during the reign of Louis XIV.
The expression classicism as it applies to literature implies notions of order, clarity, moral purpose and good taste. Many of these notions are directly inspired by the works of Aristotle and Horace and by classical Greek and Roman masterpieces.
In theater, a play should follow the Three Unities:
Although based on classical examples, the unities of place and time were seen as essential for the spectator's complete absorption into the dramatic action; wildly dispersed scenes in China or Africa, or over many years would -- critics maintained -- break the theatrical illusion. Sometimes grouped with the unity of action is the notion that no character should appear unexpectedly late in the drama.
Linked with the theatrical unities are the following concepts:
These rules precluded many elements common in the baroque "tragi-comedy": flying horses, chiralric battles, magical trips to foreign lands and the deus ex machina. The mauling of Hippolyte by a monster in Phèdre could only take place offstage.
These "rules" or "codes" were seldom completely followed, and many of the centuries masterpieces broke these rules intentionally to heighten emotional effect:
In 1674 there erupted an intellectual debate -- "la querelle des Anciens et des Modernes" -- on whether the arts and literature of the modern era had achieved more than the illustrious writers and artists of antiquity. The Académy was dominated by the "Moderns" (Charles Perrault, Jean Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin) and Perrault's poem "Le Siècle de Louis le Grand" ("The Century of Louis the Great") (1687) was the strongest expression of their conviction that the reign of Louis XIV was the equal of Augustus. As a great lover of the classics, Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux found himself pushed into the role of champion of the "Anciens" (his severe criticisms of Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin's poems did not help), and Jean Racine, Jean de La Fontaine and Jean de La Bruyère took his defense. Meanwhile, Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle and the gazette "Mercure galant" joined the "Moderns". The debate would last until the beginning of the eighteenth century.
The expression "classicism" is also linked to the visual arts and architecture of the period, and most specifically to the construction of the château of Versailles, the crowning achievement of an official program of propaganda and royal glory. Although originally just a country retreat used for special festivities -- and known more for André Le Nôtre's gardens and fountains -- Versailles eventually became the permanent home of the king. By relocating to Versailles, Louis effectively avoided the dangers of Paris (in his youth, Louis XIV had suffered during the civil and parliamentary insurrection known as the Fronde) and could also keep his eye very closely on the affairs of the nobles and play them off against each other and against the newer "noblesse de robe". Versailles became a gilded cage: to leave spelled disaster for a noble, for all official charges and appointments were made there. A strict etiquette was imposed: a word or glance from the king could make or destroy a career. The king himself followed a strict daily program, and there was little privacy. Through his wars and the glory of Versailles, Louis became, to a certain degree, the arbiter of taste and power in Europe and both his château and the etiquette in Versailles were copied by the other European courts. Yet the difficult wars at the end of his long reign and the religious problems created by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes made the last years dark ones.

Unity of place : the setting should not change. In practice, this lead to the frequent "Castle, interior". Battles take place off stage.
Unity of time: ideally the entire play should take place in 24 hours.
Unity of action: there should be one central story and all secondary plots should be linked to it.
"Les bienséances" : literature should respect moral codes and good taste; nothing should be presented that flouts these codes, even if they are historical events.
"La vraisemblance" : actions should be believable. When historical events contradict believability, some critics counselled the latter. The criterion of believability was sometimes also used to criticize soliloquy, and in late classical plays characters are almost invariably supplied with confidents (valets, friends, nurses) to whom they reveal their emotions.
Finally, literature and art should consciously follow Horace's precept "to please and educate" (aut delectare aut prodesse est).
Corneille's "Le Cid" was criticised for having Rodrigue appear before Chimène after having killed her father, a violation of moral codes.
"La Princesse de Clèves"'s revelation to his husband of her adulterous feelings for the Duc de Nemours was criticized for being unbelievable. Classicism

Prose fiction
In France, the period following the Wars of Religion saw the appearance of a new form of narrative fiction – that some critics have since termed the "sentimental novel" – which very quickly became a literary sensation thanks to the enthusiasm of a reading public searching for delight after so many years of conflict.
These relatively short (and often realistic) novels of love (or "amours" as they are frequently called in the titles) included extensive examples of gallant letters and polite discourse, amorous dialogues, letters and poems inserted in the story; gallant conceits and other rhetorical figures. These texts played an important role in the elaboration of new modes of civility and discourse of the upper classes (leading to the notion of the noble "honnête homme"). None of these novels have been republished since the early part of the seventeenth century and they remain largely unknown today. Authors associated with "les Amours": Antoine de Nervèze, Nicolas des Escuteaux and François du Souhait.
Meanwhile, the tradition of the dark tale - coming from the tragic short story ("histoire tragique") associated with Bandello and frequently ending in suicide or murder - continued in the works of Jean-Pierre Camus and François de Rosset.

The Baroque adventure novel
Not all fiction from the first half of the century was a wild flight of fancy in far-flung lands and rarified adventurous love stories. Influenced by the international success of the picaresque novel from Spain (such as the novel Lazarillo de Tormes), and by Miguel de Cervantes's short story collection Exemplary Tales (French translations started to appear in 1614) and "Don Quixote de la Mancha" (French translation 1614-1618), the French novelists of the first half of the century also chose to describe and satirize their own era and its excesses. Other important models of satire were provided by Fernando de Rojas's "Celestina" and John Barclay's (1582-1621) two satirical works in Latin "Euphormio sive Satiricon" (1602) and "Argenis" (1621).
Agrippa d'Aubigné's "Les Aventures du baron de Faeneste" portrays the rude manners and comic adventures of a Gascon in the royal court.
Charles Sorel's "L'histoire comique de Francion" is a picaresque inspired story of the ruses and amorous dealings of a young gentleman, and his "Le Berger extravagant" is a satire of the d'Urfé-inspired pastoral, which (taking a clue from the end of "Don Quixote") has a young man take on the life of a shepherd. Despite its "realism", Sorel's works remain, none the less, highly baroque with dream sequences and inserted narrations (for example, when Francion tells of his years at school) typical of the adventure novel. This use of inserted stories also follows Cervantes who inserted a number of nearly autonomous stories into his "Quixote".
Paul Scarron's most famous work, "Le Roman comique", uses the narrative frame of a group of ambulant actors in the provinces to present both scenes of farcical comedy and sophisticated inserted tales.
Cyrano de Bergerac -- made famous by the 19th century play by Edmond Rostand -- wrote two novels that, sixty years before Gulliver's Travels or Voltaire (not to mention science-fiction), use a journey to magical lands (the moon and the sun) as pretexts for satirizing contemporary philosophy and morals. By the end of the century, Cyrano's works would inspire a number of philosophical novels in which Frenchmen travel to foreign lands and strange utopias.
The early half of the century also saw the continued popularity of the comic short story and collections of humorous discussions, such as in the "Histoires comiques" of François du Souhait; the playful, chaotic, sometimes obscene and almost unreadable Moyen de parvenir by Béroalde de Verville (a parody of books of "table talk", of Rabelais and of Michel de Montaigne's "The Essays"); the anonymous "Caquets de l'accouchée" (1622); and Molière d'Essertine's "Semaine amoureuse" (a collection of short stories).
Select list of baroque comique writers and works:
In the latter half of the century, a contemporary setting would be also used in many classical "nouvelles" (or short novels), especially as a form of moral critique of contemporary society.

Agrippa d'Aubigné (1552-1630)

Les Aventures du baron de Faeneste (1617, 1619, 1630)
Béroalde de Verville (1556-1626)
- Le Moyen de parvenir (c.1610)
  François du Souhait (c.1570/80 - 1617)
  - Histoires comiques (1612)
    Molière d'Essertine (c.1600 - 1624)
    - Semaine amoureuse (1620)
      Charles Sorel (1602-1674)
      - L'histoire comique de Francion (1622)
        Nouvelles françoises (1623)
        Le Berger extravagant (1627)
        Jean de Lannel (dates?)
        
        Le Roman satyrique (1624)
        Antoine-André Mareschal (dates?)
        
        La Chrysolite (1627)
        Paul Scarron (1610-1660)
        
        Virgile travesti (1648-53)
        Le Roman comique (1651-57)
        Cyrano de Bergerac (Hector Savinien) (1619-1655)
        
        Histoire comique des Etats et Empires de la Lune (1657)
        Histoire comique des Etats et Empires du Soleil (1662) Baroque comic fiction
        By 1660, the multi-volume baroque historical novel had largely fallen out of fashion. The tendency was for much shorter works ("nouvelles" or "petits romans") without the complex structure or adventurous elements (pirates, shipwrecks, kidnappings). An interest in love, psychological analysis, moral dilemmas and social constraints permeates these novels. When the action was placed in an historical setting, this was increasingly a setting in the recent past, and although still filled with anachronisms, these novels showed an interest in historical detail; these are generally called "nouvelles historiques". A number of these short novels recounted the "secret history" of a famous event (like Villedieu's "Annales galantes"), linking the action generally to an amorous intrigue; these were called "histoires galantes". Some of these short novels told stories of the contemporary world (like Préchac's "L'Illustre Parisienne").
        Important "nouvelles classiques":
        The most famous of all of these is clearly Madame de Lafayette's La princesse de Clèves. Reduced to essentially three characters, the short novel tells the story of a married noble woman in the time of Henri II who falls in love with another man, but who reveals her passion to her husband. Although the novel includes a couple of inserted stories, on the whole the narration concentrates on the unspoken doubts and fears of the two individuals living in a social setting dominated by etiquette and moral correctness; despite the historical setting, Lafayette was clearly describing her contemporary world. The psychological analysis is close to the pessimism of La Rochefoucauld, and the abnegation of the characters leads ultimately to tragedy. For all of its force however, Madame de Lafayette's novel is not the first to have a recent historical setting or psychological depth, as some critics state; these elements can be found in novels of the decade before, and in fact are already present in certain of the "Amours" at the beginning of the century.
        
        Jean Renaud de Segrais Nouvelles françoises (1658)
        Madame de Lafayette La princesse de Montpensier (1662)
        Madame de Villedieu Journal amoureux (1669)
        Jean Donneau de Visé Nouvelles galantes et comiques (1669)
        Madame de Villedieu Annales galantes (1670)
        Madame de Lafayette Zaïde (1671)
        Madame de Villedieu Amour des grands hommes (1671)
        César Vichard de Saint-Réal Don Carlos (1672)
        Madame de Villedieu Les Désordres de l'amour (1675)
        Jean de Préchac L'Héroïne mousquetaire (1677)
        Jean de Préchac Le voyage de Fontainebleau (1678)
        Madame de Lafayette La princesse de Clèves (1678)
        Jean de Préchac L'Illustre Parisienne, histoire galante et véritable (1679) The "Nouvelle classique"
        The obsessions of the "nouvelle classique" (an interest in love, psychological analysis, moral dilemmas and social constraints) are also apparent in the anonymous epistolary novel Lettres d'une religieuse portugaise ("Letters of a Portuguese Nun") (1668), attributed to Guilleragues, which were a major sensation when they were published, in part because of their perceived authenticity. These letters written by a scorned woman to her absent lover were a powerful representation of amorous passion with many similarities to the language of Racine. Other epistolary novels followed, written by Claude Barbin, Vincent Voiture, Edmé Boursault, Fontenelle (who used the form to introduce discussion of philosophical and moral matters, prefiguring Montesquieu's Lettres persanes in the 18th century) and others; actual love letters written by noble ladies (Madame de Bussy-Lameth, Madame de Coligny) were also published.
        Antoine Furetière (1619-1688) is responsible for a longer comic novel which pokes fun at a bourgeois family: "Le Roman bourgeois" (1666). The choice of the bourgeois "arriviste" or "parvenu" (a "social climber" trying to ape the manners and style of the noble classes) as a source of mockery appears in a number of short stories and in theater of the period (such as Molière's "Bourgeois Gentihomme").
        The long adventurous novel of love continued to exist after 1660, albeit in a far shorter form than the novels of the 1640s. Influenced as much by the "nouvelles historiques" and the "nouvelles galantes" as by the "roman d'aventures" and the "roman historique", these galant and historical novels -- whose settings range from ancient Rome to Renaissance Castille or France -- were published in to the first decades of the 18th century. Authors include: Madame Marie Catherine d'Aulnoy, Mlle Charlotte-Rose de Caumont La Force, Mlle Anne de La Roche-Guilhem, Catherine Bernard, Catherine Bédacier-Durand.
        An important history of the novel was written by Pierre Daniel Huet, Traitté de l'origine des romans (1670), which (much like theoretical discussions on theatrical "vraisemblance", "bienséance" and the nature of tragedy and comedy) stressed the need for moral utility and made important distinctions between history and the novel, and between the epic (which treats of politics and war) and the novel (which treats of love).
        The first half of the century had seen the development of the biographical mémoire (see below), and by the 1670s this form began to be used in novels. Madame de Villedieu (her real name was Marie-Catherine Desjardins), author of a number of "nouvelles", was also the author of a longer realistic work that represented (and satirized) the contemporary world via the fictionalized "mémoires" of young woman telling her amorous and economic hardships: Mémoires de la vie d'Henriette Sylvie de Molière (1672-1674).
        The fictional "mémoire" form was used by other novelists as well. Courtilz de Sandras's novels -- "Mémoires de M.L.C.D.R." (1687), "Mémoires de M. d'Artagnan" (1700), "Mémoires de M. de B." (1711) -- describe the world of Richelieu and Mazarin without galant clichés: spies, kidnappings, political machinations predominate. Among the other "mémoires" of the period, the most famous was the work of an Englishman Anthony Hamilton, whose "Mémoires de la vie du comte de Grammont..." was published in France in 1713 and tells of his years in the French court from 1643-1663. Many of these works were published anonymously; in some cases it is difficult to tell whether they are fictionlized or biographical. Other authors include: abbé Cavard, abbé de Villiers, abbé Olivier, le sieur de Grandchamp. The realism and occasional irony of these novels would lead directly to the novels of Alain-René Lesage, Pierre de Marivaux and Abbé Prévost in the 18th century.
        In the 1690s, the Fairy tale began to appear in French literature. The most famous collection of traditional tales (liberally adapted) was by Charles Perrault (1697), although many others were published (such as those by Henriette-Julie de Murat and Madame d'Aulnoy). A major revolution would occur however with the appearance of Antoine Galland's first French (and indeed modern) translation of the Thousand and One Nights (or "Arabian Nights") (from 1704; another translation appeared in 1710-12), which would influence the 18th century short stories of Voltaire, Diderot and countless others.
        The period also saw several novels with voyages and utopian descriptions of foreign cultures (in imitation of Cyrano de Bergerac, Thomas More and Francis Bacon):
        Of similar didactic aims was Fénelon's "Les Aventures de Télémaque" (1694-6), which represents a classicist's attempt to overcome the excesses of the baroque novel: using a structure of travels and adventures (grafted onto Telemachus the son of Ulysses) Fénelon exposes his moral philosophy. This novel would be copied by numerous didactic novels in the 18th century.
        
        Denis Veiras - "Histoire de Sévarambes" (1677)
        Gabrielle de Foigny - "Les Avantures de Jacques Sadeur dans la découverte et le voyage de la Terre australe" (or " la Terre australe connue") (1676)
        Tyssot de Patot - "Voyages et Aventures de Jacques Massé" (1710) Other novelistic forms after 1660
        Because of the new conception of "l'honnête homme" or "the honest or upright man", poetry became one of the principle modes of literary production of noble gentlemen and of non-noble professional writers in their patronage in the 17th century.
        Poetry was used for all purposes. A great deal of 17th and 18th century poetry was "occasional", meaning that it was written to celebrate a particular event (a marriage, birth, military victory) or to solemnize a tragic occurrence (a death, militray defeat), and this kind of poetry was frequent with gentlemen in the service of a noble or the king. Poetry was the chief form of seventeenth century theater: the vast majority of scripted plays were written in verse (see "Theater" below). Poetry was used in satires (Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux is famous for his "Satires" (1666)) and in epics (inspired by the Renaissance epic tradition and by Tasso) like Jean Chapelain's La Pucelle.
        Although French poetry during the reign of Henri IV and Louis XIII was still largely inspired by the poets of the late Valois court, some of their excesses and poetic liberties found censure, especially in the work of François de Malherbe who criticized La Pléiade's and Philippe Desportes's irregularities of meter or form (the suppression of the cesura by a hiatus, sentences clauses spilling over into the next line "enjambement", neologisms constructed from Greek words, etc.). The later 17th century would see Malherbe as the grandfather of poetic classicism.
        The Pléiade poems of the natural world (fields and streams) were continued in the first half of the century -- but the tone was often elegiac or melancholy (an "ode to solitude"), and the natural world presented was sometimes the wild sea coast or some other rugged environment -- by poets who have been grouped by later critics with the "baroque" label (notably Théophile de Viau and Antoine Gérard de Saint-Amant).
        Poetry came to be a part of the social games in noble salons (see "salons" above), where epigrams, satirical verse, and poetic descriptions were all common (the most famous example is "La Guirlande de Julie" (1641) at the Hôtel de Rambouillet, a collection of floral poems written by the salon members for the birthday of the host's daughter). The linguistic aspects of the phenomenon associated with the "précieuses" (similar to Euphuism in England, Gongorism in Spain and Marinism in Italy) -- the use of highly metaphorical (sometimes obscure) language, the purification of socially unacceptable vocabulary -- was tied to this poetic salon spirit and would have an enormous impact on French poetic and courtly language. Although "préciosité" was often mocked (especially in the later 1660s when the phenomenon had spread to the provinces) for its linguistic and romantic excesses (often linked to a misogynistic disdain for intellectual women), the French language and social manners of the seventeenth century were permanently changed by it.
        From the 1660s, three poets stand out. Jean de La Fontaine gained enormous celebrity through his Aesop and Phaedrus inspired "Fables" (1668-1693) which were written in an irregular verse form (different meter lengths are used in a poem). Jean Racine was seen as the greatest tragedy writer of his age. Finally, Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux became the theorizer of poetic classicism: his "Art poétique" (1674) praised reason and logic (Boileau elevated Malherbe as the first of the rational poets), believability, moral usefulness and moral correctness; it elevated tragedy and the poetic epic as the great genres and recommended imitation of the poets of antiquity.
        "Classicism" in poetry would dominate until the pre-romantics and the French Revolution.
        Select list of French poets of the 17th century:
        
        François de Malherbe (1555-1628)
        Honoré d'Urfé (1567-1625)
        Jean Ogier de Gombaud (1570?-1666)
        Mathurin Régnier (1573-1613) - nephew of Philippe Desportes
        François de Maynard (1582-1646)
        Honorat de Bueil, seigneur de Racan (1589-1670)
        Théophile de Viau (1590-1626)
        François le Métel de Boisrobert (1592-1662)
        Antoine Gérard de Saint-Amant (1594-1661)
        Jean Chapelain (1595-1674)
        Vincent Voiture (1597-1648)
        Tristan L'Hermite (1601?-1655)
        Pierre Corneille (1606-1684)
        Paul Scarron (1610-1660)
        Isaac de Benserade (1613-1691)
        Georges de Brébeuf (1618-1661)
        Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695)
        Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux (1636-1711)
        Jean Racine (1639-1699)
        Guillaume Amfrye de Chaulieu (1639-1720)
        Jean-François Regnard (1655-1709) Poetry
        
        Theater
        During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, public theatrical representations in Paris were under the control of guilds, but in the last decades of the sixteenth century only one of these continued to exist: although "les Confrères de la Passion" no longer had the right to perform mystery plays (1548), they were given exclusive rights to oversee all theatrical productions in the capital and rented out their theater (the Hôtel de Bourgogne) to theatrical troupes at a high price. In 1599, this guild abandoned its privilege which permitted other theaters and theatrical companies to eventually open in the capital.
        In addition to public theaters, plays were produced in private residences, before the court and in the university. In the first half of the century, the public, the humanist theater of the colleges and the theater performed at court showed extremely divergent tastes. For example, while the tragicomedy was fashionable at the court in the first decade, the public was more interested in tragedy.
        The early theaters in Paris were often placed in existing structures like tennis courts; their stages were extremely narrow, and facilities for sets and scene changes were often non-existent (this would encourage the development of the unity of place). Eventually, theaters would develop systems of elaborate machines and decors, fashionable for the chevaleresque flights of knights found in the tragicomedies of the first half of the century.
        In the early part of the century, the theater performances took place twice a week starting at two or three o'clock. Theatrical representations often encompassed several works, beginning with a comic prologue, then a tragedy or tragicomedy, then a farce and finally a song. Nobles sometimes sat on the side of the stage during the performance. Given that it was impossible to lower the house lights, the audience was always aware of each other and spectators were notably vocal during performances. The place directly in front of the stage, without seats -- the "parterre" -- was reserved for men, but being the cheapest tickets, the parterre was usually a mix of social groups. Elegant people watched the show from the galleries. Princes, musketeers and royal pages were given free entry. Before 1630, a honest woman did not go to the theater.
        Unlike England, France placed no restrictions on women performing on stage, but the career of actors of either sex was seen as morally wrong by the Catholic church (actors were excommunicated) and by the ascetic religious Janseanist movement. Actors typically had fantastic stage names that described typical roles or stereotypical characters.
        In addition to scripted comedies and tragedies, Parisians were also great fans of the Italian acting troupe who performed their Commedia dell'arte, a kind of improvised theater based on types. The characters from the Commedia dell'arte would have a profound effect on French theater, and one finds echoes of them in the braggarts, fools, lovers, old men and wily servants that populate French theater.
        Finally, it should be noted that opera came to France in the second half of the century.
        The most important theaters and troupes in Paris:
        Outside of Paris, in the suburbs and in the provinces, there were many wandering theatrical troupes. Molière got his start in a such a troupe.
        The royal court and other noble houses were also important organizers of theatrical representations, court ballets, mock battles and other sorts of "divertissement" for their festivities, and in the some cases the roles of dancers and actors were held by the nobles themselves. The early years at Versailles -- before the massive expansion of the residence -- were entirely consecrated to such pleasures, and similar spectacles continued throughout the reign. Engravings show Louis XIV and the court seating outside before the "Cour du marbre" of Versailles watching the performance of a play.
        The great majority of scripted plays in the seventeenth century were written in verse (notable exceptions include some of Molière's comedies. Samuel Chappuzeau, author of Le Théâtre François printed one comedy play in both prose and verse at different times). Except for lyric passages in these plays, the meter used was a twelve-syllable line (the "alexandrine") with a regular pause or "cesura" after the sixth syllable; these lines were put into rhymed couplets; couplets alternated between "feminine" (i.e. ending in a mute e) and "masculine" (i.e. ending in a vowel other than a mute e, or in a consonant or a nasal) rhymes.
        
        Hôtel de Bourgogne - until 1629, this theater was occupied by various troupes, including the ("Comédiens du Roi") directed by Vallerin Lecomte and, at his death, by Bellerose (Pierre Le Messier). The troupe became the official "Troupe Royale" in 1629. Actors included: Turlupin, Gros-Guillaume, Gautier-Gargouille, Floridor, Monfleury, la Champmeslé.
        Théâtre du Marais (1600-1673) - this rival theater of the Hôtel de Bourgogne housed the troupe "Vieux Comédiens du Roi" around Claude Deschamps and the troupe of Jodelet.
        'La troupe de Monsieur" - under the protection of Louis XIV's brother, this was Molière's first Paris troupe. They moved to several theaters in Paris (the Petit-Bourbon, the Palais-Royal) before combining in 1673 with the troupe of the Théâtre du Marais and becoming the troupe of the Hôtel Guénégaud.
        La Comédie française - in 1689 Louis XIV united the Hôtel de Bourgogne and the Hôtel Guénégaud into one official troupe. Theaters and theatrical companies
        French theater from the seventeenth century is often reduced to three great names -- Pierre Corneille, Molière and Jean Racine -- and to the triumph of "classicism"; the truth is however far more complicated.
        Theater at the beginning of the century was dominiated by the genres and dramatists of the previous generation. Most influential in this respect was Robert Garnier. Although the royal court had grown tired of the tragedy (preferring the more escapist tragicomedy), the theater going public preferred the former. This would change in the 1630s and 1640s when, influenced by the long baroque novels of the period, the tragicomedy -- a heroic and magical adventure of knights and maidens -- became the dominant genre. The amazing success of Corneille's "Le Cid" in 1637 and "Horace" in 1640 would bring the tragedy back into fashion, where it would remain for the rest of the century.
        The most important source for tragic theater was Seneca and the precepts of Horace and Aristotle (and modern commentaries by Julius Caesar Scaliger and Lodovico Castelvetro), although plots were taken from classical authors such as Plutarch, Suetonius, etc. and from short story collections (Italian, French and Spanish). The Greek tragic authors (Sophocles, Euripides) would become increasingly important by the middle of the century. Important models for both comedy, tragedy and tragicomedy of the century were also supplied by the Spanish playwrights Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Tirso de Molina and Lope de Vega, many of whose works were translated and adapted for the French stage. Important theatrical models were also supplied by the Italian stage (including the pastoral), and Italy was also an important source for theoretical discussions on theater, especially with regards to decorum (see for example the debates on Sperone Speroni's play Canace and Giovanni Battista Giraldi's play Orbecche).
        Regular comedies (i.e. comedies in five acts modeled on Plautus or Terence and the precepts of Aelius Donatus) were less frequent on the stage than tragedies and tragicomedies at the turn of the century, as the comedic element of the early stage was dominated by the farce, the satirical monologue and by the Italian commedia dell'arte. Jean Rotrou and Pierre Corneille would return to the regular comedy shortly before 1630.
        Corneille's tragedies were strangely un-tragic (his first version of "Le Cid" was even listed as a tragicomedy), for they had happy endings. In his theoretical works on theater, Corneille redefined both comedy and tragedy around the following suppositions:
        The history of the public and critical reaction to Corneille's "Le Cid" can be found in other articles (he was criticized for his use of sources, for his violation of good taste, and for other irregularities that did not conform to Aristotian or Horacian rules), but its impact was stunning. Cardinal Richelieu asked the newly formed Académie française to investigate and pronounce on the criticisms (it was the Academy's first official judgement), and the controversy reveals a growing attempt to control and regulate theater and theatrical forms. This would be the beginning of seventeenth century "classicism".
        Corneille continued to write plays through 1674 (mainly tragedies, but also something he called "heroic comedies") and many continued to be successes, although the "irregularities" of his theatrical methods were increasingly criticized (notably by François Hédelin, abbé d'Aubignac) and the success of Jean Racine from the late 1660s signaled the end of his preeminence.
        Select list of dramatists and plays, with indication of genre (dates are often approximate, as date of publication was usually long after the date of first performance):
        
        The stage -- in both comedy and tragedy -- should feature noble characters (this would eliminate many low-characters, typical of the farce, from Corneille's comedies). Noble characters should not be depicted as vile (reprehensible actions are generally due to non-noble characters in Corneille's plays).
        Tragedy deals with affairs of the state (wars, dynastic marriages); comedy deals with love. For a work to be tragic, it need not have a tragic ending.
        Although Aristotle says that catharsis (purgation of emotion) should be the goal of tragedy, this is only an ideal. In conformity with the moral codes of the period, plays should not show evil being rewarded or nobility being degraded.
        Antoine de Montchrestien (c.1575-1621)
        
        Sophonisbe a/k/a La Cathaginoise a/k/a La Liberté (tragedy) - 1596
        La Reine d'Ecosse a/k/a L'Ecossaise (tragedy) - 1601
        Aman (tragedy) - 1601
        La Bergerie (pastoral) - 1601
        Hector (tragedy) - 1604
        Jean de Schelandre (c. 1585-1635)
        
        Tyr et Sidon, ou les funestes amours de Belcar et Méliane (1608)
        Alexandre Hardy (1572-c.1632) - Hardy reputedly wrote 600 plays; only 34 have come down to us.
        
        Scédase, ou l'hospitalité violée (tragedy) - 1624
        La Force du sang (tragicomedy) - 1625 (the plot is taken from a Cervantes short story)
        Lucrèce, ou l'Adultère puni (tragedy) - 1628
        Honorat de Bueil, seigneur de Racan (1589-1670)
        
        Les Bergeries (pastoral) - 1625
        Théophile de Viau (1590-1626)
        
        Les Amours tragiques de Pyrame et Thisbé (tragedy) - 1621
        François le Métel de Boisrobert (1592-1662)
        
        Didon la chaste ou Les Amours de Hiarbas (tragedy) - 1642
        Jean Mairet (1604-1686)
        
        La Sylve (pastoral tragicomedy) - c.1626
        La Silvanire, ou La Morte vive (pastoral tragicomedy) - 1630
        Les Galanteries du Duc d'Ossonne Vice-Roi de Naples (comedy) - 1632
        La Sophonisbe (tragedy) - 1634
        La Virginie (tragicomedy) - 1636
        Tristan L'Hermite (1601-1655)
        
        Mariamne (tragedy) - 1636
        Penthée (tragedy) - 1637
        La Mort de Seneque (tragedy) - 1644
        La Mort de Crispe (tragedy) - 1645
        The Parasite - 1653
        Jean Rotrou (1609-1650)
        
        La Bague de l'oubli (comedy) - 1629
        La Belle Alphrède (comedy) - 1639
        Laure persécutée (tragicomedy) - 1637
        Le Véritable saint Genest (tragedy) - 1645
        Venceslas (tragicomedy) - 1647
        Cosroès (tragedy) - 1648
        Pierre Corneille (1606-1684)
        
        Mélite (comedy) - 1629
        Clitandre (tragicomedy, later changed to tragedy) - 1631
        La Veuve (comedy) - 1631
        La Place Royale (comedy) - 1633
        Médée (tragedy) - 1635
        L'Illusion comique (comedy) - 1636
        Le Cid (tragicomedy, later changed to tragedy) - 1637
        Horace (tragedy) - 1640
        Cinna (tragedy) - 1640
        Polyeucte ("Christian" tragedy) - c.1641
        La Mort de Pompée (tragedy) - 1642
        Le Menteur (comedy) - 1643
        Rodogune, princesse des Parthes (tragedy) - 1644
        Héraclius, empereur d'Orient (tragedy) - 1647
        Don Sanche d'Aragon ("heroic" comedy) - 1649
        Nicomède (tragedy) - 1650
        Sertorius (tragedy) - 1662
        Sophonisbe (tragedy) - 1663
        Othon (tragedy) - 1664
        Tite et Bérénice ("heroic" comedy) - 1670
        Suréna, général des Parthes (tragedy) - 1674
        Pierre du Ryer (1606-1658)
        
        Lucrèce (tragedy) - 1636
        Alcione - 1638
        Scévola (tragedy) - 1644
        Jean Desmarets (1595-1676)
        
        Les Visionnaires (comedy) - 1637
        Erigone (prose tragedy) - 1638
        Scipion (verse tragedy) - 1639
        François Hédelin, abbé d'Aubignac (1604-1676)
        
        La Cyminde - 1642
        La Pucelle d'Orléans - 1642
        Zénobie (tragedy) - 1647, written with the intention of affording a model in which the strict rules of the drama were served.
        Le Martyre de Sainte Catherine (tragedy) - 1650
        Paul Scarron (1610-1660)
        
        Jodelet - 1645
        Don Japhel d'Arménie - 1653
        Isaac de Benserade (c.1613-1691)
        
        Cléopâtre (tragedy) - 1635 Theater under Louis XIV
        Briefly, here are some of the other literary achievements of the period.
        Moral and philosophical reflection
        The seventeenth century was dominated by a profound moral and religious fervor unleashed by the Counter-Reformation. Of all literary works, books of devotion were the number one best sellers of the century. New religious organisations swept the country (see for example the work of Saint Vincent de Paul and Saint Francis de Sales). The preacher Louis Bourdaloue (1632-1704) was famous for his sermons. The theologian and orator Jacques-Benigne Bossuet (1627-1704) composed a number of celebrated funeral orations.
        Nevertheless, the century had a number of writers who were considered "libertine"; these writers (like Théophile de Viau (1590-1626) and Charles de Saint-Evremond (1610-1703)), inspired by Epicurus and the publication of Petronius, professed doubts on religious or moral matters in a period of increasingly reactionary religious fervor.
        René Descartes' (1596-1650) "Discours de la méthode" (1637) and "Méditations" marked a complete break with medieval philosophical reflection.
        An outgrowth of counter reformation catholicism, Jansenism advocated a profound moral and spiritual interrogation of the soul. This movement would attract writers such as Blaise Pascal and Jean Racine, but would eventually come under attack as being heretical (they maintained a doctrine bordering on predestination), and their monastery at Port-Royal was suppressed. Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) was a great satirist for their cause (in his "Lettres provinciales" (1656-57)), but his greatest moral and religious work was his unfinished and fragmentary collection of thoughts justifying the Christian religion called "Les Pensées" ("The Thoughts") (the most famous section being his discussion of the "pari" or "wager" on the possible eternity of the soul).
        Another outgrowth of the religious fervor of the period was "Quietism" which taught practitioners a kind of spiritual trance state.
        François de la Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) wrote a collection of prose "Maximes" ("maxims") (1665) that analyzed human actions with a severe moral pessimism. Jean de La Bruyère (1645-1696) -- inspired by Theophrastus's characters, composed his own collection of "Characters" (1688), describing contemporary moral types. François de La Mothe-Le-Vayer wrote numerous pedagogical works for the education of the royal prince.
        Pierre Bayle's "Dictionnaire historique et critique" (1695-1697; enlarged 1702) with its multiplicity of marginalia and interpretations offered a uniquely discursive and multifaceted view of knowledge (distinctly at odds with French classicism) and would be a major inspiration for the Enlightenment and Diderot's Encyclopédie.
        Mémoires and Letters
        The seventeenth century is the century of biographical "mémoires". The first great outpouring of these comes from the participants of the Fronde (like the Cardinal de Retz) who used the genre as a form of political justification combined with novelistic adventure.
        Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy (called "Bussy-Rabutin") is responsible for the scandalous "Histoire amoureuse des Gaules", a series of sketches of the amorous intrigues of the chief ladies of the court. Paul Pellisson, historian to the king, wrote a "Histoire de Louis XIV" covering the years 1660 to 1670. Gédéon Tallemant des Réaux wrote "Les Historiettes", a collection of short biographical sketches of his contemporaries.
        Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac's collected letters are credited with executing in French prose a reform parallel to Francois de Malherbe's in verse. Madame de Sévigné's (1626-1696) letters are considered an important document of society and literary happenings under Louis XIV. The most celebrated Mémoires of the century were not published until over a century later, those of Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon (1675-1755).

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Alvan Graham Clark (July 10, 1832 – June 9, 1897), born in Fall River, Massachusetts, was an American astronomer and telescope-maker. He was the son of Alvan Clark. In 1862, while testing Northwestern University's Dearborn Telescope in Evanston, Illinois, which was a new 18-inch refracting telescope, he discovered Sirius B, the magnitude 8 companion of Sirius and the first known white dwarf.

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History
The theory for ideal gases makes the following assumptions:
In addition, if the gas is in a container, the collisions with the walls are assumed to be instantaneous and elastic.
More modern developments relax these assumptions and are based on the Boltzmann equation. These can accurately describe the properties of dense gases, because they include the volume of the molecules. The necessary assumptions are the absence of quantum effects, molecular chaos and small gradients in bulk properties. Expansions to higher orders in the density are known as virial expansions. The definitive work is the book by Chapman and Enskog but there have been many modern developments and there is an alternative approach developed by Grad based on moment expansions. In the other limit, for extremely rarefied gases, the gradients in bulk properties are not small compared to the mean free paths. This is known as the Knudsen regime and expansions can be performed in the Knudsen number.
The kinetic theory has also been extended to include inelastic collisions in granular matter by Jenkins and others.

The gas consists of very small particles, each of which has a mass.
The number of molecules is large such that statistical treatment can be applied.
These molecules are in constant, random motion. The rapidly moving particles constantly collide with each other and with the walls of the container.
The collisions of gas particles with the walls of the container holding them are perfectly elastic.
The interactions between molecules are negligible. They exert no forces on one another except during collisions.
The total volume of the individual gas molecules added up is negligible compared to the volume of the container. This is equivalent to stating that the average distance separating the gas particles is relatively large compared to their size.
The molecules are perfectly spherical in shape, and elastic in nature .
The average kinetic energy of the gas particles depends only on the temperature of the system.
Relativistic effects are negligible.
Quantum-mechanical effects are negligible. This means that the inter-particle distance is much larger than the thermal de Broglie wavelength and the molecules can be treated as classical objects.
The time during collision of molecule with the container's wall is negligible as comparable to the time between successive collisions.
The equations of motion of the molecules are time-reversible. Postulates
Pressure is explained by kinetic theory as arising from the force exerted by gas molecules impacting on the walls of the container. Consider a gas of N molecules, each of mass m, enclosed in a cuboidal container of volume V. When a gas molecule collides with the wall of the container perpendicular to the x coordinate axis and bounces off in the opposite direction with the same speed (an elastic collision), then the momentum lost by the particle and gained by the wall is:

where v_x is the x-component of the initial velocity of the particle.
The particle impacts the wall once every 2l/v_x time units (where l is the length of the container). Although the particle impacts a side wall once every 1l/v_x time units, only the momentum change on one wall is considered so that the particle produces a momentum change on a particular wall once every 2l/v_x time units.

The force due to this particle is:

The total force acting on the wall is:

where the summation is over all the gas molecules in the container.
The magnitude of the velocity for each particle will follow:

Now considering the total force acting on all six walls, adding the contributions from each direction we have:

where the factor of two arises from now considering both walls in a given direction.
Assuming there are a large number of particles moving sufficiently randomly, the force on each of the walls will be approximately the same and now considering the force on only one wall we have:

The quantity can be written as , where the bar denotes an average, in this case an average over all particles. This quantity is also denoted by where

v r m s

is the root-mean-square velocity of the collection of particles.
Thus the force can be written as:

Pressure, which is force per unit area, of the gas can then be written as:

where A is the area of the wall of which the force exerted on is considered.
Thus, as cross-sectional area multiplied by length is equal to volume, we have the following expression for the pressure

where V is the volume. Also, as Nm is the total mass of the gas, and mass divided by volume is density

where ρ is the density of the gas.
This result is interesting and significant, because it relates pressure, a macroscopic property, to the average (translational) kinetic energy per molecule (1/2mv_rms), which is a microscopic property. Note that the product of pressure and volume is simply two thirds of the total kinetic energy.

Pressure
One can calculate the number of atomic or molecular collisions with a wall of a container per unit area per unit time.
Assuming an ideal gas, a derivation of this[1] results in an equation for total number of collisions per unit time per area:

A =

Number of collisions with wall
The above equation tells us that the product of pressure and volume per mole is proportional to the average (translational) molecular kinetic energy. Further, the ideal gas equation tells us that this product is proportional to the absolute temperature. Putting the two together, we arrive at one important result of the kinetic theory: average molecular kinetic energy is proportional to the absolute temperature. The constant of proportionality per degree of freedom is 1/2 times Boltzmann's constant. This result is related to the equipartition theorem. Monatomic gases have 3 degrees of freedom. As noted in the article on heat capacity, diatomic gases should have 7 degrees of freedom, but the lighter gases act as if they have only 5.
Thus the kinetic energy per kelvin (monatomic ideal gas) is:
At standard temperature (273.15 K), we get:

per mole: 12.47 J
per molecule: 20.7 yJ = 129 μeV
per mole: 3406 J
per molecule: 5.65 zJ = 35.2 meV RMS speeds of molecules

Gas laws
Heat
Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution
Thermodynamics
Collision Theory
Critical temperature

2008-04-17T08:58:00.001-07:00

Georgi Valentinovich Plekhanov (Георгий Валентинович Плеханов) (December 11, 1856 – May 30, 1918; Old Style: November 29, 1856 – May 17, 1918) was a Russian revolutionary and a Marxist theoretician. He was a founder of the Social-Democratic movement in Russia.
Plekhanov contributed many ideas to Marxism in the area of philosophy and the roles of art and religion in society. In his political activities he adopted the nom de guerre of Volgin, after the Volga River. Some have commented that this name influenced the famous revolutionary Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov adopting the name Lenin to highlight his opposition to Plekhanov's politics. This claim is however refuted due to the timing involved. The first instance of Lenin's pseudonym predates any disagreement with Plekhanov.
Plekhanov was originally a Narodnik, a leader of the organization "Land and Liberty". After emigrating from Russia in 1880, he established connections with the Social-Democratic movement of western Europe and began to study the works of Marx and Engels. This led him to renounce Narodism and become a Marxist.
In 1883 in Switzerland, he co-founded with Lev Deutsch and Vera Zasulich, the "Emancipation of Labor" group, which popularized Marxism among Russian revolutionaries. At its dissolution, he joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) and worked with Lenin.
In 1903, at the second congress of the RSDLP, Plekhanov broke with Lenin and sided with the Mensheviks. During World War I, he took a "nationalist" position (as opposed to the Bolsheviks' "proletarian internationalism"), calling for the defeat of Germany. This owed him Lenin's critics as a "Social-Chauvinist" in the April's Theses, which quoted Plekhanov claiming that Lenin was advocating "civil war" in the socialist movement by his supporting the creation of a new International consequently to the 1915 Zimmerwald Conference and the subsequent dissolving, in 1916, of the Second International.
He returned to Russia after the February Revolution and formed Yedinstvo. However, he left Russia again after the October Revolution because he was hostile toward the Bolsheviks. He died of tuberculosis in Terijoki, Finland (now Zelenogorsk, Saint Petersburg, Russia). Despite his disagreements with Lenin, the Soviet Communists cherished his memory and gave his name to the Soviet Academy of Economics and the G.V. Plekhanov St. Petersburg State Mining Institute.

2008-04-16T08:43:00.001-07:00

Philosophy
Duhem is well known for his work on the history of science, which resulted in the ten volume Le système du monde: histoire des doctrines cosmologiques de Platon à Copernic.

Other works

Les théories de la chaleur (1895)
Le mixte et la combinaison chimique. Essai sur l'évolution d'une idée (1902)
L'évolution de la mécanique (1902)
Les origines de la statique (1903)
La théorie physique son objet et sa structure (1906)
Études sur Léonard de Vinci. Paris, F. De Nobele, 1906-13; 1955. 3 v. 1. sér. I. Albert de Saxe et Léonard de Vinci. II. Léonard de Vinci et Villalpand. III. Léonard de Vinci et Bernardino Baldi. IV. Bernardino Baldi, Roberval dt Descartes. V. Thémon le fils du juif et Léonard de Vinci. VI. Léonard de Vinci, Cardan et Bernard Palissy. VII. La scientia de ponderibus et Léonard de Vinci. VIII. Albert de Saxe. 2. sér. IX. Léonard de Vinci et les deux infinis. X. Léonard de Vinci et la pluralité des mondes. XI. Nicolas de Cues et Léonard de Vinci. XII. Léonard de Vinci et les origines de la géologie. 3. sér. Les précurseurs parisiens de Galilée: XIII. Jean I. Buridan (de Béthune) et Léonard de Vinci. XIV. Le tradition de Buridan et la science italienne au XVIe siecle. XV. Dominique Soto et la scolastique parisienne.
Sozein ta phainomena. Essai sur la Notion de Théorie physique de Platon à Galilée (1908)
Traité de l'énergétique (1911)
Le Système du Monde. Histoire des Doctrines cosmologiques de Platon à Copernic, 10 vols., (1913—1959)

2008-04-15T08:18:00.001-07:00

Peter Artedi or Petrus Arctaedius (February 22, 1705 – September 27, 1735) was a Swedish naturalist and is known as the "father of Ichthyology."
Artedi was born in the province of Ångermanland. Intending to become a clergyman, he went, in 1724, to study theology at Uppsala University, but he turned his attention to medicine and natural history, especially fishes. In 1728 his countryman Carolus Linnaeus arrived in Uppsala, and a lasting friendship was formed between the two. In 1732 both left Uppsala, Artedi for England, and Linnaeus for Lappland; before parting they reciprocally bequeathed to each other their manuscripts and books in the event of death.
Artedi accidentally drowned at Amsterdam, where he was engaged in cataloguing the collections of Albertus Seba, a wealthy Dutchman, who had formed what was perhaps the richest museum of his time. According to agreement, his manuscripts came into the hands of Linnaeus, and his Bibliotheca Ichthyologica and Philosophia Ichthyologica, together with a life of the author, were published at Leiden in 1738.

2008-04-14T09:01:00.001-07:00

This is the old Swedish name day calendar, sanctioned by the Swedish Academy in 1901, with official status until 1972. Some days still refer to traditional or religious feasts rather than personal names. Some of the names below are linked to the original saints or martyrs from which they originate. A work group consisting of the Swedish Academy, publishers and others, agreed to adopt a new name day list in 2001, very similar to the old one but with more names. This list will be updated every 15 years.

The list
January
February
In leap years February 24th was considered leap day with no name associated to it, thus moving the following February name days one day forward. March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

Nyårsdagen (no name)
Svea
Alfred
Rut
Hanna
Trettondedag jul (no name)
August
Erland
Gunnar
Sigurd
Hugo
Frideborg
Knut
Felix
Laura
Hjalmar
Anton
Hilda
Henrik
Fabian
Agnes
Vincent
Emilia
Erika
Paulus
Botilda
Göte
Karl (*)
Valter
Gunhild
Ivar
Max
Kyndelsmässodagen (no name)
Disa
Ansgar
Agata
Dorotea
Rikard
Berta
Fanny
Eugenia
Yngve
Evelina
Agne
Valentin
Sigfrid
Julia
Alexandra
Frida
Gabriella
Hulda
Hilding
Martina
Torsten
Mattias
Sigvard
Torgny
Lage
Maria
Albin
Ernst
Gunborg
Adrian
Tora
Ebba
Ottilia
Filippa
Torbjörn
Ethel
Edvin
Viktoria (*)
Greger
Matilda
Kristofer
Herbert
Gertrud
Edvard
Josef
Joakim
Bengt
Viktor
Gerda
Gabriel
Marie bebådelsedag (no name)
Emanuel
Rudolf
Malkolm
Jonas
Holger
Ester
Harald
Gudmund
Ferdinand
Ambrosius
Nanna
Vilhelm
Ingemund
Hemming
Otto
Ingvar
Ulf
Julius
Artur
Tiburtius
Olivia
Patrik
Elias
Valdemar
Olaus Petri
Amalia
Anselm
Albertina
Georg
Vega
Markus
Teresia
Engelbrekt
Ture
Tyko
Mariana
Valborg
Filip
Göta
Monika
Gotthard
Sigmund
Gustava
Åke
Jonatan
Esbjörn
Märta
Charlotta
Linnea
Halvard
Sofia
Hilma
Rebecka
Erik
Alrik
Karolina
Konstantin
Henning
Desideria
Ragnvald
Urban
Vilhelmina
Blenda
Ingeborg
Baltsar
Fritjof
Isabella
Gun, Gunnel
Rutger, Roger
Ingemar, Gudmar
Solbritt, Solveig
Bo
Gustav, Gösta
Robin, Robert
Eivor, Majvor
Börje, Birger
Svante, Boris
Bertil, Berthold
Eskil
Aina, Aino
Håkan, Hakon
Margit, Margot
Axel, Axelina
Torborg, Torvald
Björn, Bjarne
Germund, Görel
Linda
Alf, Alvar
Paulina, Paula
Adolf, Alice
Johannes Döparens dag
David, Salomon
Rakel, Lea
Selma, Fingal
Leo
Peter, Petra Petrus
Elof, Leif
Aron
Rosa
Aurora
Ulrika
Melker
Esaias
Klas
Kjell
Götilda
Anund
Eleonora
Herman
Joel
Folke
Ragnhild
Reinhold
Alexis
Fredrik
Sara
Margareta
Johanna
Magdalena
Emma
Kristina
Jakob
Jesper
Marta
Botvid
Olof
Algot
Elin
Per
Karin
Tage
Arne
Ulrik
Sixten
Arnold
Sylvia (*)
Roland
Lars
Susanna
Klara
Hillevi
Ebbe
Stella
Brynolf
Verner
Helena
Magnus
Bernhard
Josefina
Henrietta
Signe
Bartolomeus
Lovisa
Östen
Rolf
Augustin
Hans
Albert
Arvid
Samuel
Justus
Alfhild
Moses
Adela
Sakarias
Regina
Alma
Augusta
Tord
Dagny
Tyra
Ambjörn
Ida
Sigrid
Eufemia
Hildegard
Alvar
Fredrika
Agda
Matteus
Maurits
Tekla
Gerhard
Signild
Enar
Dagmar
Lennart
Mikael
Helge
Ragnar
Ludvig
Evald
Frans
Bror
Jenny
Birgitta
Nils
Ingrid
Helmer
Erling
Valfrid
Teofil
Manfred
Hedvig
Fingal
Antoinetta
Lukas
Tore
Sibylla (changed from Kasper in 1934)
Birger
Seved
Sören
Evert
Inga
Amanda
Sabina
Simon
Viola
Elsa
Edit
Allhelgonadagen
Tobias
Hubert
Sverker (changed from Nore in 1905)
Eugen
Gustav Adolf
Ingegerd
Vendela
Teodor
Martin Luther
Mårten
Konrad
Kristian
Emil
Leopold
Edmund
Napoleon Gabriella
Magnhild
Elisabet
Pontus
Helga
Cecilia
Klemens
Gudrun
Katarina
Torkel
Astrid (changed from Estrid in 1907)
Malte
Sune
Anders
Oskar
Beata
Lydia
Barbro
Sven
Nikolaus
Agaton
Virginia
Anna
Malin
Daniel
Alexander
Lucia
Sten
Gottfrid
Assar
Inge
Abraham
Isak
Israel
Tomas
Natanael
Adam
Eva
Juldagen (no name)
Stefan
Johannes
Menlösa barns dag (no name)
Abel
Set
Sylvester

2008-04-13T09:46:00.001-07:00

The Oberlin-Wellington Rescue was a key event and cause celebre in the history of the Abolitionist movement in the United States, just before the American Civil War.
On September 13, 1858, a runaway slave named John Price was arrested by a United States marshal in Oberlin, Ohio. Under the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, the federal government was required to assist slaveholders in reclaiming their runaway slaves. The marshal knew that many Oberlin residents were committed to abolitionism. To avoid conflict with locals and to quickly get the slave to Columbus and en route to the slave's owner in Kentucky, he immediately took Price to nearby Wellington, Ohio. As soon as Oberlin residents heard of the marshal's actions, a group of them immediately rushed to Wellington. There, they joined like-minded residents of the Wellington community and attempted to free Price. The marshal and his deputies took refuge in a local hotel. After peaceful negotiations failed, the mob stormed the hotel and found Price in the attic. The group immediately returned Price to Oberlin, where they hid him in the home of Oberlin College's future president, James Harris Fairchild. A short time later, they took Price to Canada (Oberlin had long been an important stop on the Underground Railroad). There, Price did not have to worry about U.S. authorities or slaveholders trying to return him to slavery.
A federal grand jury handed up indictments against 37 of those who freed Price. Only two of the people indicted, Simeon Bushnell and Charles Langston, went to trial. Four prominent local attorneys -- Franklin Thomas Backus, Rufus Spalding, Albert G. Riddle, and Seneca O. Griswold -- acted for the defense. Bushnell and Langston were convicted in federal court in April 1859. Bushnell received a sentence of 60 days in jail, Langston 20. The remaining 35 people in jail were released in July 1859. Feelings ran high in Ohio in the aftermath of Price's release, and state authorities arrested the federal marshal, his deputies, and other men involved in John Price's detention. After negotiations, it was agreed that all of these men would be released and not charged with a crime, if the remaining 35 prisoners were immediately released.
Bushnell and Langston filed a writ of habeas corpus with the Ohio Supreme Court, claiming that the federal court did not have the authority to arrest and try them because the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the law by a three-to-two ruling. Although Chief Justice Joseph Swan was personally opposed to slavery, he wrote that his judicial duty left him no choice but to acknowledge that an Act of the United States Congress was the supreme law of the land (see Supremacy Clause), and to uphold it. Members of Ohio's abolitionist community were incensed. More than ten thousand people participated in a Cleveland rally to oppose the federal and state courts' decisions. Because of his decision, Chief Justice Swan failed to win reelection, and his political career was ruined.
In time, regional tensions over slavery, constitutional interpretation and other factors would lead to the outbreak of the Civil War. The incident is considered as important as it not only received national attention along the lines of incidents like John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, but occurred in a volatile county and region of Ohio known for its activity with the Underground Railroad.

2008-04-12T09:37:00.001-07:00

Miramax Films is a film production and distribution brand that was a leading independent film motion picture distribution and production company headquartered in New York City before it was acquired by The Walt Disney Company. It was considered an important quasi-independent studio for many years after the Disney purchase.

History
Miramax Family (formerly known as Miramax Family Films) is the family division of Miramax Films created in 1992. Some films distributed by them are:

My Scene Goes Hollywood: The Movie (2005)
In Search of Santa (2004)
The Adventures of Tom Thumb and Thumbelina (2002)
How the Toys Saved Christmas (1997)
Gordy (1995)
The Thief and the Cobbler (1995)
Into the West (1993)
Tom and Jerry: The Movie (1993)
Freddie as F.R.O.7 (1992) Criticism

Selected list of Miramax films

The Secret Policeman's Other Ball (1982)
Playing for Keeps (1986) (produced by Miramax but distributed by Universal Pictures)
Yellow Pages (1988)
Sex, lies and videotape (1989) (distributor) 1990s

A Hard Day's Night (2000, theatrical reissue of 1964 film)
Bounce (2000)
Committed (2000)
Hellraiser: Inferno (2000)
Love's Labour's Lost (2000)
Malèna (2000)
Ordinary Decent Criminal (2000)
The Yards (2000)
Bridget Jones's Diary (2001, with Universal Pictures, Studio Canal and Working Title Films)
Chocolat (2001)
Daddy and Them (2001)
Lucky Break (2001) (co-production with Paramount Pictures and FilmFour)
Get Over It (2001)
Iris (2001)
Kate & Leopold (2001)
On the Line (2001)
The Shipping News (2001)
Tears of the Black Tiger (2001, never released, rights sold in 2006 to Magnolia Pictures)
40 Days and 40 Nights (2002, with Universal Pictures, Studio Canal and Working Title Films)
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)
Cypher (2002)
Frida (2002)
Full Frontal (2002)
Gangs of New York (2002)
Infernal Affairs (2002) (distribution only)
Naqoyqatsi (2002)
Hero (2002) (distribution only) (re-release by Miramax only in the U.S. only)
Pinocchio (2002) (English dub, distributor)
Pokémon 4Ever (2002) (English dub, distributor)
Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002) (U.S. distributor)
Stolen Summer (2002)
Tadpole (2002)
The Hours (2002, with Paramount Pictures)
The Importance of Being Earnest (2002)
The Adventures of Tom Thumb and Thumbelina (2002) (distributor, direct-to-video)
Undisputed (2002)
Valentín (2002)
Waking Up in Reno (2002)
Bionicle: Mask of Light (2003)
Chicago (2003)
Cold Mountain (2003)
Duplex (2003)
Kill Bill Volume 1 (2003)
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003, with 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures)
Pokémon Heroes (2003) (English dub, distributor)
The Battle of Shaker Heights (2003)
The Human Stain (2003)
View from the Top (2003)
Deep Blue (2003, With BBC worldwide)
The Aviator (2004, co-production with Warner Bros.)
Kill Bill Volume 2 (2004)
Bionicle 2: Legends of Metru Nui (2004)
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004, with Universal Pictures, Studio Canal and Working Title Films)
Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights (2004)
Garden State (2004, with Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Hero (2002, released by Miramax in 2004) (2004)
Jersey Girl (2004)
My Baby's Daddy (2004)
Finding Neverland (2004)
Paper Clips (2004) (distributor)
Pokémon: Jirachi Wishmaker (2004) (English dub, US distributor, direct-to-video)
Shall We Dance? (2004)
Bionicle 3: Web of Shadows (2005)
Cinderella Man (2005, with Universal Pictures)
Deep Blue (2005) (distributor)
Derailed (2005, with The Weinstein Company)
Dracula III: Legacy (2005)
Hellraiser: Deader (2005)
Hostage (2005)
Kinky Boots (2005)
Pokémon: Destiny Deoxys (2005) (English dub, distributor, direct-to-video)
Proof (2005)
The Great Raid (2005)
Tsotsi (2005)
An Unfinished Life (2005) (co-production with Revolution Studios)
Underclassman (2005)
Hollywoodland (2006, with Focus Features)
Scary Movie 4 (2006, with Dimension Films)
The Queen (2006) (co-production with Pathé and Granada Productions)
The Hoax (2006)
Breaking and Entering (2006, co-production with The Weinstein Company, distributed in US theaters by TWC and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
The Lookout (2007) (co-production with Spyglass Entertainment)
Scary Movie 5 (2008, co-production with Dimension Films and The Weinstein Company)
Brideshead Revisited (2008, co-production with Warner Independent Pictures and Recorded Picture Company)
The Locker (2008) (with DreamWorks SKG)

2008-04-11T10:34:00.000-07:00

History

Preston King, U.S. Senator
Frederic Remington, artist.
Newton Martin Curtis, Civil War general and public official.
Leon N. "Chief" Blair, World War II U.S. submarine wolfpack commander.
Mark Valley, actor famous for role of Brad Chase on the hit ABC show Boston Legal. Notable residents
Ogdensburg is located on the Saint Lawrence River at 44°42′2″N, 75°28′52″W (44.700547, -75.481209). It is on the international border and lies opposite Prescott, Ontario, Canada.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 21.1 km² (8.2 mi²). 13.1 km² (5.1 mi²) of it is land and 8.0 km² (3.1 mi²) of it (37.87%) is water.
The Oswegatchie River joins the St. Lawrence River at Ogdensburg.
Ogdensburg is the northernmost city in New York State.
Odgensburg is at the junction of New York State Route 37, New York State Route 68, and New York State Route 812

Demographics
Ogdensburg is home to the St. Lawrence Psychiatric Center, a mental health service provider offering both inpatient and outpatient services. The SLPC is part of the New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) and serves the general public. Academy at Ivy Ridge is a privately operated boarding school enrolling teenagers with behavioral issues.
Ogdensburg is also home to two correctional facilities. Riverview and Ogdensburg Correctional Facilities. Both are run by the New York State Department of Correctional Services. One is located on the former grounds of the St. Lawrence Psychiatric Center and the other is directly across state highway 37.
The city is also the home of the Frederic Remington Art Museum, housed in the former Parish family mansion on Washington Street in downtown Ogdensburg. While it was always known as the Parish family mansion his wife Eva did reside there after his death. The collection of Remington art and memorabilia was started with items from the estates of his wife Eva and her sister Emma. It has been added to through donations, gifts and purchases. It is an internationally acclaimed collection.

2008-04-10T09:17:00.001-07:00

Benjamin Louis "Ben" Cardin (born October 5, 1943) is a Democratic member of the United States Senate representing the state of Maryland. On November 7, 2006, Cardin was elected to the United States Senate seat being vacated by Paul Sarbanes, having defeated Republican challenger Lt. Governor Michael S. Steele.

Political career
Cardin served in the Maryland House of Delegates from 1967 to 1986. He was chairman of the Ways & Means Committee from 1974 to 1979, and after that Speaker until he retired from that house. As Speaker, he was involved with reform efforts involving Maryland's property tax system, the school financing formula and the ethical standards for elected officials.

House of Representatives
As of May 2006, Cardin served on the following House committees:

Member of the Ways and Means Committee.

Ranking member of the Trade Subcommittee.
Member of the Human Resources Subcommittee.
Ranking member of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. Committee assignments

Main article: Maryland U.S. Senate election, 2006 2006 U.S. Senate election
Cardin has been a Commissioner on the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (the U.S. Helsinki Commission) since 1993, serving as Ranking Member from 2003 to 2006. In the 110th Congress, he was appointed co-chairman of the Commission, and is currently Vice President of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Parliamentary Assembly.[3]

International experience
Cardin earned his B.A. degree cum laude in 1964 from University of Pittsburgh. In 1967, he graduated first in his class from the University of Maryland School of Law. Cardin also holds honorary degrees from several institutions, including the University of Baltimore School of Law (1990); University of Maryland, Baltimore (1993); Baltimore Hebrew University (1994); and Goucher College (1996). From 1988 to 1995, he chaired the Maryland Legal Services Corp.
From 1988 to 1999, Cardin served on the St. Mary's College of Maryland Board of Trustees, and in 2002, he was appointed to the St. Mary's Advisory Board for the Study of Democracy. In 1999, he was appointed to the Goucher College Board of Trustees.

Education & honors

Supports Net Neutrality, as shown by his vote during the 109th Congress in favor of the Markey Amendment to H.R. 5252 which would add Net Neutrality provisions to the federal telecommunications code. [4]
Pro-Israel.[5]
Pro-India. As a congressman, Cardin supported civilian nuclear cooperation with India.[6] Policies
Cardin was born in Baltimore, Maryland to Dora Green and Meyer M. Cardin. After Ben announced that he would vacate his Congressional seat to run for the U.S. Senate, Jon Cardin stated that he was exploring a campaign for his uncle's Congressional seat.

Election history

Ben Cardin at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
Congressional Quarterly Voting and Elections Collection

2008-04-09T10:21:00.001-07:00

St. Noël Chabanel (February 2, 1613 – December 8, 1649) was a Jesuit missionary at Sainte-Marie among the Hurons, and one of the Canadian Martyrs.
Chabanel entered the Jesuit novitiate at Toulouse at the age of seventeen, and was a professor of rhetoric at several Jesuit colleges. He was highly esteemed for virtue and learning. In 1643, he was sent to New France, and after studying the Algonquin language for a time, was appointed to the mission at Sainte-Marie, where he remained till his death.
In his apostolic labours he was the companion of Fr. Charles Garnier. As he felt a strong repugnance to the life and habits of the Huron, and feared it might result in his own withdrawal from the work, he bound himself by vow never to leave the mission. Chabanel was martyred on December 8, 1649 by what is described as a "renegade" Huron, actually Iroquois then engaged in warfare with the Huron.

2008-04-08T08:01:00.001-07:00

The Cleveland Torso Murderer (also known as the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run) was an unidentified serial killer active in the Cleveland, Ohio, area in the early 20th century. The official toll of the murderer was 12 (latest researchers include the "Lady of the Lake," listed below, for a total of 13 victims), killed between 1935 to 1938, but some (including lead Cleveland Detective Peter Merylo) believe that there may have been as many as 40+ victims in the Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Youngstown, Ohio, area between the 1920s and the 1950s. Two strong candidates for addition to the list of those killed are the unknown victim nicknamed the Lady of the Lake, found on September 5, 1934, and Robert Robertson, found on July 22, 1950. Serial killers were virtually unknown in 1935, and the "Mad Butcher" is considered to be one of America's first (after others such as Albert Fish and Dr. H. H. Holmes).
The victims were usually drifters whose identities were never determined, although there are several exceptions to this (victims number 2, 3, and 8 were identified as Edward Andrassy, Flo Polillo, and possibly Rose Wallace, respectively). Invariably, all the victims, male and female, appeared to be from the lower classes of society—easy prey in Depression-era Cleveland. Many were known as "working poor" that had nowhere else to live but the ramshackle shanty towns in the Cleveland Flats.
The Torso Murderer always beheaded and often dismembered his victims, sometimes also cutting the torso in half; in many cases the cause of death was the act of decapitation itself. Most of the male victims were castrated, and some victims showed evidence of chemical treatment of their bodies. Many of the victims were found a considerable period after their deaths, sometimes a year or more, which made identification nearly impossible, especially since the heads were often not found.
Eliot Ness was the Public Safety Director of Cleveland during the period of "official" murders. Failure to apprehend the murderer was perhaps the major failure of his tenure and is accepted by many to be a contributor to his declining status in later years. Some have called Ness the unlucky "14th victim" of the Torso Murderer; new evidence suggests that Ness was actually successful - though not publicly so - in chasing the killer from Cleveland.

Possible victims
Three suspects are most commonly associated with the Torso murders, although there are numerous others occasionally mentioned.
On August 24, 1939, Frank Dolezal, arrested as a suspect in only one of the murders - that of Florence Polillo - died under suspicious circumstances in the Cuyahoga County Jail. He was discovered to have six broken ribs, injuries his friends say he did not have when arrested by County Sheriff Martin L. O'Donnell some six weeks prior. Most researchers believe that there exists no evidence that Dolezal was involved in the murders, although at one time he did admit killing Flo Polillo in self-defense. Before his death, he recanted that confession, and recanted two others as well, saying he had been beaten until he confessed. Lead Cleveland Police detective Peter Merylo, who along with Cleveland officials did not appreciate Sheriff O'Donnell barging into the city's long-running case, is now seen, via his memoirs, as having quietly and behind the scenes tipped the Cleveland press to discrepancies in Dolezal's coerced confessions. Recently unearthed evidence points away from suicide and toward complicity by the sheriff and his deputies in Dolezal's death; a book and documentary about the case are slated for 2008 releases.
Most investigators consider the last canonical murder to have been in 1938. One very strongly suspected individual was alcoholic and drug addict Dr. Francis E. Sweeney, who permanently entered institutionalized care shortly after the last official murders were discovered in 1938. Significantly, Sweeney worked during the first world war in a "M.A.S.H.," or medical, unit that conducted amputations on the field of battle. Dr. Sweeney was later personally interviewed by famed "Untouchable" Eliot Ness who oversaw the official investigation into the killings in his capacity as Cleveland's Safety Director. During this discreet interrogation, Sweeney, whom Ness code-named "Gaylord Sundheim," is said to have "failed to pass" a very early polygraph machine test administered by polygraph expert Leonard Keeler, who told Ness he had his man. Nevertheless, Ness apparently felt that there was very little chance of obtaining a successful prosecution of the doctor, especially as he was the first cousin of one of Ness's political opponents, Congressman Martin L. Sweeney, who ironically hounded Ness publicly about his failure to catch the Butcher, and who in turn was later related by marriage to political ally Sheriff O'Donnell. Ness' frustration with this may have led to his raiding and burning six shantytowns in the low-lying riverbank "Flats" area of Cleveland in order, he said, to rid the Butcher of his prey. In any case, with Sweeney perhaps thinking Ness was onto him, and subsequently voluntarily committing himself to a hospital just days after the raids, there were no more leads or connections that police could make to him as a possible suspect. The killings apparently stopped after Sweeney committed himself, but the draconian nature of Ness' raids, which he did with little or no political cover, served to unalterably diminish Ness in the eyes of Cleveland's power structure. Sweeney died in a Dayton veteran's hospital in 1965, though he did continue to mock and harass Eliot Ness and his family with bizarre threatening postcards well into the 1950s. Ness never recovered his public stature.
The 1947 murder of Elizabeth Short, often called the Black Dahlia, by an unknown perpetrator in Los Angeles bears distinct similarities, as well as some significant differences, when compared to the Torso Murderer's work. Most researchers familiar with both crimes do not feel that the same person was at work, but Elizabeth Short's murderer might have copied aspects of the Cleveland crimes. Those who see a link between the Black Dahlia and Torso Murders have pointed out that a petty criminal named Jack Wilson, who was not a suspect in the Black Dahlia murder at the time but was put forth as suspect in John Gilmore's 1994 book Severed, is known to have lived in Cleveland during the murders and reportedly talked of viewing the death mask of victim number 4, the unknown "tattooed man". At least one reference also discusses a mysterious Torso suspect named Jack Wilson who was never found for questioning, but this may not have been the same person. Sources give the date of birth of the Jack Wilson in Severed as 1920 or 1924, either of which would make him improbably young to have committed many of the Torso Murders.
One other opinion is that there were many murderers involved—that there was no true Torso Murderer. Murders were common in the Cleveland-Youngstown-Pittsburgh area during this time, and some, especially those associated with organized crime, were savage. In other cases, long exposure to the elements and animal scavenging might have made some of these murders seem more violent than they actually were.

2008-04-07T10:37:00.001-07:00

The United States Football Alliance(USFA) is a full contact outdoor semi-pro minor league American football league, based in Sharon, Pennsylvania. The league is divided into NFC and AFC Conferences. Each conference is divided into equal divisions. The league was established in 2005 by Randy Goodnight and has been in continuous operation every year. The USFA has active teams in New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, and Michigan. Every year the USFA seeks to expand it's region of play and bring in quality teams to expand the league.

League Leadership

Danial Marshall - Danial Marshall spent the first 8 years of his adult life in the U.S. Army as a Combat Engineer where he fought his way up rank structure to becoming a Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO). During his time in the military he attended many leadership schools and was assigned to high demanding units such as Ranger Battalion and the 82nd Airborne Division. After leaving the military due to disability he searched for another "love" to fill his life with. This was Semi-Pro football. He began as a player, but since the travel was so great to play, he started his own team with a fellow teammate. After successfully founding and operating a Semi-Pro team he felt that it would be a good decision to assist the United States Football Alliance on the Executive Board. Danial accepted the League Commissioner job as a welcomed challenge and vows to be fair and impartial. League Commissioner

Randy Goodnight - Randy Goodnight played Semi Pro Football in 2002 for the Youngstown(OH) Steelers. In 2003 he became the founder of the Penn Ohio Raiders in which he was a part time player as well as the teams President. In 2005 he was selected as an All American Offensive Linemen by the MLFN. In 2005 Mr. Goodnight became the founder of The United States Football Alliance League which was voted the "Best New League In The Mid-West"by the Minor League Football News.He serves as the Leagues President. In 2006 Mr. Goodnight joined the Albany Conquest of the AF2 in becoming a Regional Scout. In 2007 Randy Goodnight joined forces with the North East Ohio Panthers Indoor Football Team he is the Director of Player Operations. He has attended The Community College of Rhode Island as well as the Shenango Valley(PA)School of Business. He lives in the Youngstown,Ohio area. League President/Founder
After the inaugural season of the USFA it was voted Best New League by the Minor League Football News.

League Awards

2007 USFA Teams

WFC

Motor City Soldiers
Northwest Ohio Raiders
Lima Warriors
Delphos Dark Knights North

Akron Jagz Central

Southern Ohio Patriots
Mt. Carmel Fire
West Virginia Crash
Butler County Blazers South

EFC

Lackawanna Dynasty
Penn Ohio Raiders
Lawrence County Mustangs
Pittsburgh Tornadoes North

Beaver County Vipers
Western Pennsylvania Warhawks
Steel City United Central

West Virginia Gladiators
Pittsburgh Pride
West Virginia Wardogs
Tri State Spartans Previous USFA Champions

No League Champion
NFC Champion, Columbus Cowboys
AFC Co-Champions, Penn Ohio Raiders and Beaver County Warriors 2005

Beaver County Vipers - Champions
Penn Ohio Raiders - Runner-Up
Championship MVP - VaShawn Patrick - WR/DB - #2 - BC Vipers 2007

American football
List of developmental and minor sports leagues

2008-04-06T10:09:00.001-07:00

Samedbey Sadykhbey oglu Mehmandarov (Azeri: Səməd bəy Sadığ bəy oğlu Mehmandarov, 1855 - 1931) was General of the Artillery of the Russian tsarist army and Minister of Defense of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic.
Samedbey Mehmandarov was born on 16 October 1855 in Lankaran in a noble family from Shusha. He graduated from 2nd Constantine Military School in St. Petersburg in 1875, was conferred the rank of podporuchik and assigned to 1st Turkestan artillery brigade. In the course of military service he was promoted in 1877 to poruchik and seconded two years later to 2nd artillery brigade in St. Petersburg.
In 1885 shtabs-kapitan Mehmandarov was assigned to 38th artillery brigade in the Caucasus, where he served 9 years. In 1894 38th artillery brigade was transferred to Poland, where he became a member of court martial. In 1898 captain Mehmandarov was promoted to lieutenant-colonel and appointed the commander of 1st battery of 3rd artillery battalion. The same year the Mehmandarov's battery was moved to Transbaikal region and took part in China Relief Expedition in 1901. For the services in battle Mehmandarov was conferred the rank of colonel. In 1903 he completed a course in Tsarskoye Selo Officer's Artillery College.
When the Russo-Japanese War broke out in 1904, Mehmandarov was appointed the commander of 7th Eastern Siberia artillery battalion. During the siege of Port Arthur he was the commander of the Eastern Front Artillery. For the services in battle he was promoted to major general and decorated with the Order of Saint George of IV degree. After the capitulation of the fortress the garrison was in Japanese captivity. When Japanese commanders allowed the captured Russian officers to return home in exchange to signing an obligation to not fight against Japan, Mehmandarov refused and preferred to stay with his soldiers.
Upon his return from captivity Mehmandarov was appointed the commander of 7th East Siberian Artillery Brigade in 1906, and became the commander of 3rd Siberian Army Corps artillery a year later. In 1908 he was conferred the rank of lieutenant-general. In 1910 he was appointed the commander of 1st Caucasian Division; in 1913 he became the commander of 21st Infantry Division and in this position entered World War I within 3rd Caucasian Army Corps. Under Mehmandarov's command the division earned the reputation of one of the best in the Russian Army, and 81st Apsheron and 83rd Samur regiments especially distinguished themselves. He was decorated with the Order of Saint George of III degree for the battles of 27 – 29 September 1914, and Saint George sword decorated with diamonds for the battle near Ivangorod on 14 February 1915. On 11 December 1914 Mehmandarov was appointed the commander of 2nd Caucasian Army Corps. Mehmandarov's corps was engaged in the fiercest battles with German troops and during the whole war had not surrendered to the enemy a single piece of ordnance. On 22 March 1915 Samedbey Mehmandarov was promoted to the rank of the General of the Artillery. He was decorated with British, French and Romanian orders.
After the February Revolution in Russia Mehmandarov resigned and left to Baku. With the establishment of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in 1918 Samedbey Mehmandarov became the first minister of defense of Azerbaijan. He held this position until Red Army troops invaded Azerbaijan in 1920. After the fall of the national government and establishment of the Soviet rule in Azerbaijan Mehmandarov was arrested, but was released two months later. He taught in military schools and was an advisor to the Commissariat of Military and Naval Forces of Azerbaijan SSR until his retirement in 1928.
Samedbey Mehmandarov died 12 February 1931 in Baku.

2008-04-05T10:07:00.001-07:00

A Guillotine Motion is the common name for an Allocation of Time Motion which is a British House of Commons procedure that can be used to restrict the time set aside for debate during the passage of a bill through the House.
The Standing Orders of the House of Commons do not establish any formal time limits for debates. The Speaker may, however, order a Member who persists in making a tediously repetitive or irrelevant speech to stop speaking, the speaker can not however stop all filibustering, which is made easier for a Member by the rule which allows a Member to give way temporarily to another Member before retaking the baton and continuing his or her speech. The time set aside for debate on a particular motion is, however, often limited by informal agreements between the parties. Debate may, however, be restricted by the passage of "Guillotine Motions". Alternatively, the House may put an immediate end to debate by passing a motion to invoke the Closure. The Speaker is allowed to deny the motion if he or she believes that it infringes upon the rights of the minority.

2008-04-04T10:23:00.001-07:00

Abigail Williams was one of the original and foremost accusers in the Salem witch trials of 1692. Williams was eleven years old at the time.
After Betty Parris, a nine-year-old cousin of Williams, became seemingly ill, Williams began to show alike symptoms. According to Rev. Deodat Lawson, an eye witness, she began to have fits in which she ran around rooms, flailing her arms, ducking under chairs and trying to climb up the chimney. These behaviors brought attention to her, as they had with Parris. A local doctor, thought to have been William Griggs, suggested bewitchment as the cause. The girls were eventually asked to name their supposed tormentors. They did so, thus bringing about the witch trials. Nothing is surely known of what happened to Williams after the trials ended. Some suspect that Abigail fled to Boston and became a prostitute.

2008-04-03T09:35:00.001-07:00

This name may refer to two legendary kings of Athens:
It more often refers to Cecrops I, who was the most well-known.
Cecrops I
Cecrops II

2008-04-02T08:49:00.000-07:00

Firmin Lambot (14 March 1886 – 19 January 1964) was a Belgian bicycle racer and a two time champion of the Tour de France.
Born in the small town of Florennes, Lambot worked as a saddler but began racing professionally in 1908. In that year he won the championships of Flanders and Belgium. He rode the Tour de France from 1911 to 1913 but the First World War eliminated the race for the next five years.
When it struggled to its feet again in 1919 the Tour was a miserable affair of war-torn roads, fractured logistics and former contenders no longer alive to compete. Only eleven riders finished. Lambot was in second place for much of the race but prevailed when the leader, Eugène Christophe, suffered a broken fork. Many observers felt that Lambot owed his victory more to Christophe's bad luck than to his own ability and a collection was taken up for Christophe that eventually surpassed the official prize money Lambot received.
During the 1919 Tour Henri Desgrange unveiled his now-famous yellow jersey (maillot jaune) and Lambot was the first rider to wear it. It has ever since identified the leader of the race.
In the 1920 and 1921 Tours Lambot placed respectably and in 1922 he became champion for the second time after another rival fell victim to a broken bicycle. Lambot was 36 years old when he won the 1922 Tour and remains the oldest champion in the history of the race. In retirement, he returned to work as a saddler.
1903 Maurice Garin · 1904 Henri Cornet · 1905 Louis Trousselier · 1906 René Pottier · 1907-1908 Lucien Petit-Breton · 1909 François Faber · 1910 Octave Lapize · 1911 Gustave Garrigou · 1912 Odile Defraye · 1913-1914 Philippe Thys · 1915-1918 World War I · 1919 Firmin Lambot · 1920 Philippe Thys · 1921 Léon Scieur · 1922 Firmin Lambot · 1923 Henri Pélissier · 1924-1925 Ottavio Bottecchia · 1926 Lucien Buysse · 1927-1928 Nicolas Frantz · 1929 Maurice De Waele · 1930 André Leducq · 1931 Antonin Magne · 1932 André Leducq · 1933 Georges Speicher · 1934 Antonin Magne · 1935 Romain Maes · 1936 Sylvère Maes · 1937 Roger Lapébie · 1938 Gino Bartali · 1939 Sylvère Maes · 1940-1946 World War II · 1947 Jean Robic · 1948 Gino Bartali · 1949 Fausto Coppi · 1950 Ferdinand Kübler · 1951 Hugo Koblet · 1952 Fausto Coppi · 1953-1955 Louison Bobet · 1956 Roger Walkowiak · 1957 Jacques Anquetil · 1958 Charly Gaul · 1959 Federico Bahamontes · 1960 Gastone Nencini · 1961-1964 Jacques Anquetil · 1965 Felice Gimondi · 1966 Lucien Aimar · 1967 Roger Pingeon · 1968 Jan Janssen · 1969-1972 Eddy Merckx · 1973 Luis Ocaña · 1974 Eddy Merckx · 1975 Bernard Thévenet · 1976 Lucien Van Impe · 1977 Bernard Thévenet · 1978-1979 Bernard Hinault · 1980 Joop Zoetemelk · 1981-1982 Bernard Hinault · 1983-1984 Laurent Fignon · 1985 Bernard Hinault · 1986 Greg LeMond · 1987 Stephen Roche · 1988 Pedro Delgado · 1989-1990 Greg LeMond · 1991-1995 Miguel Indurain · 1996 Bjarne Riis · 1997 Jan Ullrich · 1998 Marco Pantani · 1999-2005 Lance Armstrong · 2006 Floyd Landis · 2007 Alberto Contador ·

2008-04-01T08:01:00.001-07:00

The Mozarabic Rite is a form of Catholic worship within the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church. It dates principally to the 7th and 8th centuries, and is localized in the Iberian Peninsula (the Roman Hispania). Mozarab is the term for the Christian population living under Muslim rulers in Al-Andalus.

Formation of early Catholic rites
The Arian Visigoths were driven from France and came south, converting to Catholicism in 587. The Catholic liturgical practice in Iberia prior to the Visigoths (and the Muslims) is termed "Old Hispanic", and inaccurately is often called Mozarabic. There was a liturgical tradition in Hispania prior to the arrival of the Visigoths as evidenced by the fact that it lacks Arian influence. This liturgy reached its point of greatest development in the 7th century, and is found partly in the Verona Orationale, taken to Italy for safekeeping after the invasion of Muslims (below). Terminological confusion regarding the liturgical development in this area is common, and most names proposed bear a degree of inaccuracy; hence qualifications are the norm in the discussion of this history. The most precise use of the term "Mozarabic rite" is for that liturgy followed by the inhabitants of former visigothic Hispania who submitted to Islamic rule and their descendants. St. Isidore of Seville (d. 636), who was influential at the Fourth Council of Toledo 633, according to the wishes of that Council, gave the Hispanic rite its final form before the invasion of the Muslims.

Muslims in Iberia
As the Christians reconquered Iberia, the kings sought to establish links to Europe and the Papacy. They established the Way of Saint James for pilgrims and invited Roman-rite Catholics ("Franks") into Iberia, who established that rite in all liberated portions, a change that was met with "uprisings", such that the Mozarabic rite was permitted to be used in Toledo and Leon even after the Muslims had been expelled. The Mozarabic rite was approved by Pope John X in 918, suppressed by Pope Gregory VII in 1085 yet permitted in six parishes. Unity in liturgical practice was strongly encouraged by Rome from an early date as well as around the general period of the East-West Schism; areas liberated after periods of conquest typically had the Roman rite installed — this was true for centuries in the East as well. Eventually the Mozarabic rite became a memorial service, as people grew to accept the Roman rite.

Christianity restored in Iberia
There is evidence that the Mozarabic rite is tied to the Gallican rite, given common points of construction. Schaff argues for an Oriental element in both the Gallican and the Mozarabic (or Old Hispanic), while Jenner quotes Dom Marius Férotin, O.S.B., who writes that the framework of the liturgy is from Italy or Rome, while various details such as hymns are from Iberia, Africa, and Gaul. Jenner states that there is no extant concrete information about the Old Hispanic liturgy prior to the end of the 6th century, a point echoed by Cabrol. Michael Davies reports that it is commonly believed that the Gallican rite came from the East, perhaps Antioch, and through Italy influenced the West. The work of St. Isidore, who was asked by a Council of Toledo (probably the one occurring in 633) to revise and rearrange the liturgy of the time (Old Hispanic), leaves us a number of documents demonstrating liturgical stability prior to the Muslim invasion. Cabrol lists several liturgical points of Oriental origin ("the place of the diptychs, the Kiss of Peace, and even the 'epiclesis'") while indicating the liturgical commonalities to the entire West, including Rome and Gaul. Cabrol also indicates that the Mozarabic rite contains some customs that ante-date those of Rome.

Gallican, Mozarabic, and Roman rite connections
The Mozarabic rite is the second-best attested liturgy in the Latin Church in terms of preserved documentation. The Mozarabic rite was considered authoritative for the clarification of a Sacramentary received by Charlemagne from Pope Adrian I (d. 795). The first is, of course, the Roman Rite, which, to encourage unity of faith and worship, generally replaced the Mozarabic in Iberia from about 1080.
When king Alfonso VI of Castile conquered Toledo in 1085, it was being disputed on whether Iberian Christians should follow the foreign Roman rite or the traditional Mozarabic rite. After other ordeals, it was submitted to the trial by fire: One book for each rite was thrown into a fire. The Toledan book was little damaged after the Roman one was consumed. Henry Jenner comments in the Catholic Encyclopedia: "No one who has seen a Mozarabic manuscript with its extraordinarily solid vellum, will adopt any hypothesis of Divine Interposition here." The king allowed six parishes in the city to continue to use the Mozarabic rite.
Cardinal Jiménez de Cisneros (d. 1517) published in 1500 a Mozarabic Missal, and two years later a Breviary, both of which were formally approved by Pope Julius II. To perfect the presentation of the liturgy Jiménez interpolated elements of the Roman rite then in Iberia, particularly the preliminary prayers for the Mass. He also instituted a chapel in the cathedral of Toledo, with a college of thirteen priests to use the Missal and Breviary. This continues to the present day, in spite of vicissitudes that included the killing of all the priests of the group in 1936 during the Spanish Civil War.
The texts prepared by Jiménez were republished at various times. The dawn of the twentieth century saw an intensification of studies of the rite and the publication of its manuscript sources. In response to the encouragement given by the Second Vatican Council in Sacrosanctum Concilium, 3-4 to renew other rites as well as the Roman, the Cardinal Archbishop of Toledo set up a commission to revise the liturgical books of the Mozarabic rite. Between 1988 and 1995, the Missal (in two volumes), the Lectionary (also in two volumes), and a vernacular (Castilian) version of the Ordinary of the Mass appeared, with the required approval of the Spanish bishops conference and confirmation by the Holy See.
The Mozarabic Mass is celebrated daily in the Corpus Christi Chapel (also called the Mozarabic Chapel) in the Cathedral of Toledo. Two of the original six "Mozarabic" parishes of Toledo remain. Additionally, all the churches of Toledo annually celebrate this rite on the Feast of the Incarnation, December 18th, and on the feast day of San Ildefonso, January 23rd. The rite is also used on certain days each year in the Talavera Chapel of the Old Cathedral of Salamanca and less regularly in other cities in Spain. Pope John Paul II celebrated it once in each of the years 1992 and 2000.
The Mozarabic rite has been of interest to non-Catholic communions as well. For example, in the 1880s the Anglican church examined the Mozarabic rite for ideas about making their own liturgy more inspiring.
The oldest Western manuscript written on paper is the Mozarabic Missal of Silos, from the eleventh century.

Preservation and relevance of the Mozarabic rite
The Mozarabic rite offers insight into how rites evolve within the Church. After the early period of persecutions came to an end, Christians began to develop more elaborate forms of worship, perhaps because it became possible to store and share rubrical ideas over time and geography, and because love for Christ inspired greater elaboration. Liturgical variety has always been assumed, by the Church, to be permissible in small details that do not touch upon articles of faith or morals. This variety is a natural result of the Church, i.e. the body of faithful, being in "a dialogue of love" with Jesus: this is how forms of worship are perceived by the Church — which can authoritatively, but not arbitrarily, "define and limit the usage of rites" (quotes from Ratzinger). G. S. Lee writes that the Church is always eager to "recognize the varying wants of her spiritual children, and to shape her devotional exercises in conformity to these". The needs of the Hispanic Christians, living as oppressed people minimally permitted to exercise their religion, were arguably greater than those of Christians living freely elsewhere. The Mozarabic liturgy is perhaps more communal than others, involving more responsories among priest and congregation. This rite was largely arranged prior to the Muslim invasion, but its character was perhaps of special help during that time. The Mozarabic rite is esteemed to be of great beauty and source of piety, which would have been sustenance to these Christians. The Council of Toledo affirmed it to be "a form of worship grateful to the people" and the Council of Mantua, 1067, declared it to be free of heresy and "also worthy of praise".

Character of Mozarabic rite

Monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos

2008-03-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

Alfred W. Crosby is a historian, professor and author of such books as The Colombian Exchange (1972) and Ecological Imperialism (1986). In these works, he provides biological and geographical explanations for why Europeans were able to succeed with relative ease in what he refers to as the Neo-Europes of Australasia, North America, and southern South America.
Recognizing the majority of modern day wealth is located in Europe and the Neo-Europes, Crosby set out to investigate what historical causes are behind the disparity. According to Hal Rothman, a Professor of History at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, Crosby "added biology to the process of human exploration, coming up with explanations for events as diverse as Cortez's conquest of Mexico and the fall of the Inca empire that made vital use of the physical essence of humanity.".
Jared Diamond, author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, has reached similar conclusions about the role of biology and ecology in human history.

2008-03-28T08:33:00.001-07:00

This article covers the island of Ireland, that is, covering both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland

Boyne Navigation
Broharris Canal
Coalisland Canal (Tyrone Navigation)
Dukart's Canal
Grand Canal
Lacy's Canal
Lagan Canal
Newry Canal
Royal Canal
Shannon-Erne Waterway
Strabane Canal
Ulster Canal

2008-03-27T10:05:00.001-07:00

Alan Emtage (born November 27, 1964) conceived of and implemented the first version of Archie, a pre-Web internet search engine for locating material in public FTP archives.
A native of Barbados, and the son of Sir Stephen and Lady Emtage, he attended high school at Harrison College from 1975 to 1983 (and in 1981 becoming the proud owner of a Sinclair ZX81 with 1K of memory), where he graduated at the top of his class, winning the prestigious Barbados Scholarship.
In 1983 he entered McGill University in Montréal, Canada studying for an honors Bachelor's degree in computer science which was followed by a Master's degree in 1987 from which he graduated in 1991. Emtage was part of the team that brought the first Internet link to eastern Canada (and only the second link in the country) in 1986. In 1989 while a student and working as a systems administrator for the School of Computer Science, Emtage conceived of and implemented the original version of the Archie search engine, the world's first Internet search engine and the start of a line which leads directly to today's Altavista, Yahoo!, Inktomi and Google.
In 1992, Emtage along with Peter J. Deutsch formed Bunyip Information Systems the world's first company expressly founded for and dedicated to providing Internet information services with a licensed commercial version of the Archie search engine used by millions of people worldwide.
Emtage was a founding member of the Internet Society and went on to create and chair several important Working Groups at the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the standard-setting body for the Internet. Working with other pioneers such as Tim Berners-Lee, Marc Andreessen, Mark McCahill (creator of Gopher) and Jon Postel, Emtage co-chaired the Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) Working Group which created and codified the standard for Uniform Resource Locators (URLs).
Emtage has spoken and lectured around the world on Internet Information Systems.
Emtage is currently Chief Technical Officer at Mediapolis, Inc., a web engineering company in New York City.

Works

"The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture" John Battelle (Portfolio Hardcover, 2005) ISBN 1-59184-088-0
How the Web was Born: The Story of the World Wide Web Robert Cailliau, James Gillies, R. Cailliau (Oxford University Press, 2000) ISBN 0-19-286207-3
"The Information Revolution: The Not-for-Dummies Guide to the History, Technology, And Use of the World Wide Web" J. R. Okin (Ironbound Press, 2005) ISBN 0-9763857-3-2
"Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science" Marcel Dekker (CRC Press, 2002) ISBN 0-8247-2072-5
"Encyclopedia of Microcomputers" Allen Kent, James G Williams, Kent Kent (Marcel Dekke, 2002) ISBN 0-8247-2727-4

2008-03-26T09:41:00.000-07:00

Bond market Fixed income Corporate bond Government bond Municipal bond Bond valuation High-yield debt Stock market Stock Preferred stock Common stock Stock exchange Foreign exchange market Retail forex Derivative market Credit derivative Hybrid security Options Futures Forwards Swaps Other Markets Commodity market OTC market Real estate market Spot market Finance series Financial market Financial market participants Corporate finance Personal finance Public finance Banks and Banking Financial regulation In structured finance, the word tranche (misspelled as traunch or traunche) refers to one of several related securitized bonds offered as part of the same deal. The word tranche is French for slice, section, series, or portion; in the financial sense of the word, each bond is a slice of the deal's risk. The legal documents (see indenture) usually refer to the tranches as "classes" of notes identified by letter (e.g. the Class A, Class B, Class C securities).

How tranching works

A bank transfers risk in its loan portfolio by entering into a default swap with a "ring-fenced" SPV ("Special Purpose Vehicle")
The SPV buys gilts (UK government bonds)
The SPV sells 4 tranches of credit linked notes with a waterfall structure whereby:

Tranche A absorbs the first 25% of losses on the portfolio
Tranche B absorbs the next 25% of losses
Tranche C the next 25%
Tranche D the final 25%
Tranches B, C and D are sold to outside investors
Tranche A is bought by bank itself Benefits
Tranching poses the following risks:

Tranching can add complexity to deals. "Beyond the challenges posed by estimation of the asset pool's loss distribution, tranching requires detailed, deal-specific documentation to ensure that the desired characteristics, such as the seniority ordering the various tranches, will be delivered under all plausible scenarios. In addition, complexity may be further increased by the need to account for the involvement of asset managers and other third parties, whose own incentives to act in the interest of some investor classes at the expense of other may need to be balanced.
With increased complexity, less sophisticated investors have a harder time understanding them and thus are less able to make informed investment decisions. One must be very careful investing in structured products. As shown above, tranches from the same offering have different risk, reward, and/or maturity characteristics.
Tranching has largely led to the understatement of the risks embedded in high-yield debt and asset-backed securities backing the structured products. These risks have surfaced recently in the light of the subprime meltdown. See also
"Tranche" is also the name of the ProteomeCommons.org file sharing network for scientific data (http://tranche.proteomecommons.org). The name is used to refer to how Tranche works: many research groups share a portion or slice of the responsibility for sharing public access scientific data sets.

2008-03-25T08:14:00.001-07:00

Magic is a performing art that entertains an audience by creating illusions of impossible feats, using purely natural means. These feats are called magic tricks, effects or illusions.
An artist who performs magic is called a magician. Magicians (or magi) are also referred to by names reflecting the type of magical effects they typically perform, such as prestidigitators, conjurors, illusionists, mentalists, ventriloquists, and escape artists, etc.

History
There is much discussion among magicians as to how a given effect is to be categorized, and disagreement as to what categories actually exist -- for instance, some magicians consider "penetrations" to be a separate category, while others consider penetrations a form of restoration or teleportation. It is generally agreed that there are very few different types of effect. While many authors such as Fitzkee, Tarbell, S.H. Sharpe and others have disagreed, it has often been said that there are only seven types of illusion (perhaps because it is considered a magic number).
Many magical routines use combinations of effects. For example, in the famous 'cups and balls' a magician may use vanishes, productions, penetrations, teleportations and transformations all as part of the one presentation.

Production The magician produces something from nothing—a rabbit from an empty hat, a fan of cards from thin air, a shower of coins from an empty bucket, or the magician themselves, appearing in a puff of smoke on an empty stage -- all of these effects are productions.
Vanishing The magician makes something disappear—a coin, a cage of doves, milk from a newspaper, an assistant from a cabinet, or even the Statue of Liberty. A vanish, being the reverse of a production, may use a similar technique, in reverse.
Transformation The magician transforms something from one state into another—a silk handkerchief changes colour, a lady turns into a tiger, an indifferent card changes to the spectator's chosen card. A transformation can be seen as a combination of a vanish and a production.
Restoration The magician destroys an object, then restores it back to its original state—a rope is cut, a newspaper is torn, a woman is sawn in half, a borrowed watch is smashed to pieces—then they are all restored to their original state.
Teleportation The magician causes something to move from one place to another—a borrowed ring is found inside a ball of wool, a canary inside a light bulb, an assistant from a cabinet to the back of the theatre. When two objects exchange places, it is called a transposition: a simultaneous, double teleportation.
Levitation The magician defies gravity, either by making something float in the air, or with the aid of another object (suspension)—a silver ball floats around a cloth, an assistant floats in mid-air, another is suspended from a broom, a scarf dances in a sealed bottle, the magician hovers a few inches off the floor. There are many popular ways to create this illusion of the magician himself being levitated, such as the Balducci levitation, the King Rising, Criss Angel's stool levitations, the Andruzzi levitations, and the eight gravity.
Penetration The magician makes a solid object pass through another—a set of steel rings link and unlink, a candle penetrates an arm, swords pass through an assistant in a basket, a saltshaker penetrates the table-top, a man walks through a mirror. Sometimes referred to as 'solid-through-solid'.
Prediction The magician predicts the choice of a spectator, or the outcome of an event under seemingly impossible circumstances—a newspaper headline is predicted, the total amount of loose change in the spectator's pocket, a picture drawn on a slate. Prediction forms the basis for most 'pick-a-card' tricks, where a random card is chosen, then revealed to be known by the performer. Categories of effects
The purpose of a magic trick is to amuse and create a feeling of wonder; the audience is generally aware that the magic is performed using trickery, and derives enjoyment from the magician's skill and cunning. Traditionally, magicians refuse to reveal the secrets to the audience. The reasons include:
Membership in professional magicians' organizations often requires a solemn commitment to the "Magician's Oath" never to reveal the secrets of magic to non-magicians.
The Magician's Oath (though it may vary, 'The Oath' takes the following, or similar form):

"As a magician I promise never to reveal the secret of any illusion to a non-magician, unless that one swears to uphold the Magician's Oath in turn. I promise never to perform any illusion for any non-magician without first practicing the effect until I can perform it well enough to maintain the illusion of magic."
Once sworn to The Oath, one is considered a magician, and is expected to live up to this promise. A magician who reveals a secret, either purposely or through insufficient practice, may typically find oneself without any magicians willing to teach one any more secrets.
However, it is considered permissible to reveal secrets to individuals who are determined to learn magic and become magicians. It is typically a sequential process of increasingly valuable and lesser known secrets. The secrets of almost all magical effects are available to the public through numerous books and magazines devoted to magic, available from the specialised magic trade. There are also web sites which offer videos, DVDs and instructional materials. In this sense, there are very few classical illusions left unrevealed, however this does not appear to have diminished the appeal of performances. In addition, magic is a living art, and new illusions are devised with surprising regularity. Sometimes a 'new' illusion will be built on an illusion that is old enough to have become unfamiliar.
Some magicians have taken the controversial position that revealing the methods used in certain works of magic can enhance the appreciation of the audience for cleverness of magic. Penn and Teller frequently perform tricks using transparent props to reveal how it is done, for example, although they almost always include additional unexplained effects at the end that are made even more astonishing by the revealing props being used.
Often what seems to be a revelation of a magical secret is merely another form of misdirection. For instance, a magician may explain to an audience member that the linking rings "have a hole in them" and hand the volunteer two unlinked rings, which the volunteer finds to have become linked as soon as he handles them. At this point the magician may shove his arm through the ring ('the hole in the ring'), proclaiming: "See? Once you know that every ring has a hole, it's easy!"
See also: Intellectual rights to magic methods

Exposure is claimed to "kill" magic as an artform and transforms it into mere intellectual puzzles and riddles. It is argued that once the secret of a trick is revealed to a person, that one can no longer fully enjoy subsequent performances of that magic, as the amazement is missing. Sometimes the secret is so simple that the audience feels let down, and feels disappointed it was taken in so easily.
Keeping the secrets preserves the professional mystery of magicians who perform for money. Secrecy
The teaching of performance magic was once a secretive art. Professional magicians were unwilling to share knowledge with anyone outside the profession to prevent the laity from learning their secrets. This made it difficult for an interested apprentice to learn magic beyond the basics. Some organizations of magicians had strict rules against members discussing magic secrets with anyone but established magicians.
From the 1584 publication of Reginald Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft until the end of the 19th century, only a few books were available for budding magicians to learn the craft. Books remain extremely useful today, and are still considered the best way for a student to learn magic. Videos and DVDs are a newer medium of tuition, which many inexperienced magicians rely on as a primary source of information; in reality, many of the methods found in this format are readily found in previously published books. However, they can serve useful as a visual demonstration.
The next step up is joining a magic club or workshop. Here magicians, both seasoned and novitiate, can work together and help one another for mutual improvement, to learn new techniques, to discuss all aspects of magic, to perform for each other — sharing advice, encouragement and criticism.
The world's largest magic organization is the International Brotherhood of Magicians. It publishes a monthly journal, The Linking Ring. The oldest organization is the Society of American Magicians, of which Houdini was a member; and in London, England, there is the Magic Circle which boasts the largest magic library in Europe. The Magic Castle in Hollywood is home to the Academy of Magical Arts.

2008-03-24T09:19:00.001-07:00

James Island is a town in Charleston County, South Carolina. It is located in the central and southern parts of James Island. As defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, the town's population is included within the Charleston-North Charleston Urbanized Area and the larger Charleston-North Charleston Metropolitan Statistical Area.

History

Comic television sensation Stephen Colbert grew up on James Island, frequently mentioning both Charleston and South Carolina on his television program The Colbert Report.
Atlanta Falcons wide receiver, Roddy White.

2008-03-23T10:27:00.001-07:00

William Anthony "Wild Bill" Hallahan (August 4, 1902 - July 8, 1981) was an American lefthanded pitcher in Major League Baseball during the 1920s and 1930s. So named because of his lack of control on the mound — he twice led the National League in bases on balls — Hallahan nevertheless was one of the pitching stars of the 1931 World Series and pitched his finest in postseason competition.
He also was the starting pitcher for the NL in the first All-Star Game in 1933, losing a 4-2 decision to Lefty Gomez of the American League and surrendering a third-inning home run to Babe Ruth in the process.
Hallahan, a native of Binghamton, New York, spent most of his career in the employ of the St. Louis Cardinals. He signed with their nearby AA farm club, the Syracuse Stars of the International League, in 1924. The following season, he made his first NL appearance for the Redbirds, appearing in six games. In 1926, Hallahan pitched in 19 games for the Cardinals during the regular season, and made a first, brief World Series appearance that fall against the New York Yankees.
But Hallahan was not yet ready for an extended major league career. He spent 1927 with Syracuse, winning 19 games and leading the International League in strikeouts (195) and walks (135). The next season, he won 23 games for the Houston Buffaloes and led the Texas League in strikouts (244). Finally, in 1929, he rejoined the Cardinals.
He became a starting pitcher in 1930, winning 15 games for the pennant-winning Cardinals and leading the NL in strikeouts (177) and walks (126). In the 1930 World Series against the Philadelphia Athletics, Hallahan split two decisions but he shut out the powerful A's in Game 3 and allowed only two earned runs in 11 innings, for a sparking ERA of 1.64. Philadelphia won the Series in six games, the only World Series Hallahan's Cardinals would ever lose.
In 1931, Hallahan again led the NL in strikeouts (159) and walks (112) and won 19 games, as St. Louis again took the league championship for a rematch against the Athletics. This time, Hallahan was even more effective. He shut out the A's again in Game 2, pitched a complete game 5-1 victory in Game 5, and nailed down the decisive Game 7 in relief by getting the last out in the ninth inning. Altogether, he gave up only 12 hits and one run in 18⅓ innings — an ERA of 0.36 — as St. Louis triumphed in seven games. Hallahan's dominance is even more impressive because the A's featured a predominantly righthanded-hitting lineup, including fearsome sluggers Jimmie Foxx and Al Simmons.
After two more winning campaigns for non-contending Cardinal clubs, Hallahan won only eight games, losing 12, for the 1934 edition. But the Gashouse Gang won the National League title and gave Hallahan one more chance to experience the big stage. In Game 2 of the 1934 World Series, against the Detroit Tigers, Hallahan started against Detroit ace Schoolboy Rowe and left with one out in the eighth inning of a 2-2 tie. Detroit won the game in the ninth, 3-2, but overall the Cardinals again prevailed in seven games.
Altogether, in seven World Series games and 39⅓ innings, Hallahan won three games, lost one and compiled a sparkling ERA of 1.51.
He stayed with the Cardinals until May 31, 1936, when he was sold to the Cincinnati Reds, then a second-division team. His career statistics suffered with the Reds and his final club, the cellar-dwelling Philadelphia Phillies. Over his last two seasons, 1937-38, Hallahan won four and lost 17 games.
He finished with a regular-season record of 102 victories and 94 defeats, 856 strikouts and 779 walks, and an ERA of 4.03 in 1,740 innings pitched.
After retiring from baseball, Hallahan worked as a supervisor for General Aniline and Film Co. in Johnson City, New York. He died at age 78 in Binghamton.

2008-03-22T08:30:00.001-07:00

This is a list of unsuccessful candidates for the office of President of the United States. Presidents who failed bids at reelection are not included. In order to be included on the list, a candidate must have received at least one electoral college vote. Note that some of these candidates went on to win the presidency in subsequent elections.

2008-03-21T10:05:00.001-07:00

Bengkulu is a city on the west coast of Sumatra island. The city is capital of the Bengkulu province of Indonesia.

2008-03-20T10:30:00.001-07:00

Boise is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho. It is the county seat of Ada County and the principal city of the Boise metropolitan area.
As of the 2000 census, Boise's population was 185,787 (2006 estimate: 201,287).

Geography and climate
An apocryphal tale tells that the Lewis & Clark expedition, after trekking for weeks through rough terrain, happened upon the sight of the Boise River Valley. A french guide overwhelmed by the sight of the verdant river yelled "Les Bois! Les Bois!" and this is how Boise got its name. In the 1820's French furtrappers set traps in the area where Boise now lies. Though mostly an area of high desert, a prominent landmark was the tree lined Boise River Valley, which they called "La Riviere Boise" which means "wooded river." Though the connection between the Lewis & Clark tale and the naming of the city is dubious, it is clear that the area was referred to as Boise long before the establishment of Fort Boise.
The original Fort Boise was 40 miles (64 km) west, down the Boise River, near the confluence with the Snake River at the Oregon border. This fort was erected by the Hudson's Bay Company in the 1830s. It was abandoned in the 1850s, but massacres along the Oregon Trail prompted the U.S. Army to re-establish a fort in the area in 1863, during the U.S. Civil War. The new location was selected because it was near the intersection of the Oregon Trail and a major road connecting the Boise Basin (Idaho City) and the Owyhee mining areas, both booming at the time. Idaho City was the largest city in the area, but the new Fort Boise grew rapidly (as a staging area to Idaho City) and Boise was incorporated as a city in 1864. The first capital of Idaho was Lewiston, but Boise replaced it in 1865.

History

MacGibbon, Elma (1904). Leaves of knowledge. Shaw & Borden Co. Available online through the Washington State Library's Classics in Washington History collection Elma MacGibbons reminiscences of her travels in the United States starting in 1898, which were mainly in Oregon and Washington. Includes chapter "Boise, the capital of Idaho." Further reading

Demographics
Boise and its surrounding metropolitan area have seen dramatic growth through the 1990s and 2000s. As of 2004 the city of Boise estimated the metropolitan area (Boise, Meridian, Nampa, Caldwell) had a population of 526,656.

Recent figures
As of the census of 2000, there were 185,787 people, 74,438 households, and 46,523 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,913.1/mi². There were 77,850 housing units at an average density of 1,220.7/mi². The racial makeup of the city was 92.15% White, 0.77% Black or African American, 0.70% Native American, 2.08% Asian, 0.16% Pacific Islander, 1.74% from other races, and 2.39% from two or more races. 4.53% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.The top 5 ethnic groups in Boise are · German - 19%[2] · English - 16% · Irish - 11% · Scottish - 3% · Norwegian - 3
There were 74,438 households out of which 32.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.7% were married couples living together, 10% had a female householder with no husband present, and 37.5% were non-families. 28.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.44 and the average family size was 3.03.
In the city, the population was spread out with 25.3% under the age of 18, 11.7% from 18 to 24, 32.3% from 25 to 44, 20.6% from 45 to 64, and 10% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females, there were 98.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.8 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $42,432, and the median income for a family was $52,014. Males had a median income of $36,893 versus $26,173 for females. The per capita income for the city was $22,696. About 5.9% of families and 8.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 9.7% of those under age 18 and 6% of those age 65 or over.

2000 Census
Boise frequently receives national recognition for its quality of life and business climate. Some recent national rankings:

Best places for business and careers: # 3 (Forbes Magazine, 2007) Accolades
Boise is the headquarters for several major companies, such as Washington Group International (successor to Morrison Knudsen), Micron Technology (the area's largest private employer.
Varney Airlines, founded by Walter Varney, was formed in Boise. The company is the root of present day United Airlines, which still serves the city at the newly renovated and upgraded Boise Airport.

Economy
The city is home to the Boise School District, which includes 34 elementary schools, 8 junior high schools, 5 high schools and 2 specialty schools. Part of the Meridian School District (the largest district in Idaho) overlaps into Boise city limits.
The city is home to six public high schools: Boise High School, Borah High School, Capital High School, Timberline High School as well as the Meridian district's Centennial High School and the alternative Mountain Cove High School. Boise's private schools include Bishop Kelly High School (Catholic), and Baccalaureate accredited Riverstone Community School.
Post-secondary educational options in Boise include Boise State University and George Fox University, as well as a wide range of technical schools. Boise is home to Boise Bible College, an undergraduate degree-granting college that exists to train leaders for churches as well as missionaries for the world. Nearby Meridian is home to a campus of the University of Phoenix.
Boise is one of the largest cities in the United States that does not have a community college. The issue has received a fair amount of attention from city and state officials in recent years. As of May 2007 a community college special district was formed, with the intention of starting a community college in Nampa, Idaho.

Education
Numbering about 15,000, Boise's Basque community is the largest such community in the United States and the fourth largest in the world outside Argentina, Venezuela and the Basque Country in Spain and France.

Culture
A number of recreational opportunities are available in Boise, including extensive hiking and biking in the foothills to the immediate north of downtown and an extensive urban trail system called the Boise River Greenbelt that runs along the river. The Boise River itself is a common destination for fishing, swimming and rafting.
Bogus Basin Mountain Resort hosts several winter activities, including cross-country and downhill skiing, snowboarding and snow tubing. "Bogus" is just 16 miles (26 km) outside city limits (less than an hour drive from downtown).
Minor professional sports teams in Boise include the short-season Class A Boise Hawks (Minor League Baseball), the Idaho Steelheads of the ECHL, and the Idaho Stampede of the NBA Development League. An arenafootball2 franchise, the Boise Burn, began play in 2007.
The Boise State University campus is home to Velma V. Morrison Center for the Performing Arts, which hosts local and national fine arts performances; Bronco Stadium, the 30,000 seat football stadium known for its blue AstroPlay field; and Taco Bell Arena, a 12,000 seat basketball and entertainment venue which opened in 1982 as the BSU Pavillion. Boise State University is known primarily for the recent successes of its football team, although it is also a fairly well regarded commuter school for undergraduate students.
The Roady's Humanitarian Bowl football game (formerly known as the MPC Computers Bowl) is held in late December of each year, and pairs a team from the Western Athletic Conference with an Atlantic Coast Conference team.
The World Center for Birds of Prey is located just outside city limits, and is a key part of the re-establishment of the Peregrine falcon and the subsequent removal from the Endangered Species list. The center is currently breeding the very rare California condor, among many other rare and endangered species.
The city has been cited by publications like Forbes, Fortune and Sunset for its quality of life.
The cornerstone mall in Boise, Boise Towne Square Mall, is also a major shopping attraction for Boise, Nampa, Caldwell, and surrounding areas and has recently been through an upgrade along with adding new retailers.

Major attractions

Main article: Media in Boise, Idaho Sister cities
The major Interstate serving Boise is I-84, with I-184 branching toward the northeast. There is also a network of bike paths throughout the city and surrounding region.
Commercial air service is provided at the Boise Airport, recently renovated to accommodate the growing number of passengers flying in and out of Boise. Public bus transportation is provided by ValleyRide and the Boise Urban Stages (BUS).

Transportation
Despite Boise's small population, it occupies a large area, 64 mi² according to the United States Census Bureau. Like most major metropolitan areas it is divided into several named parts. These include the Bench, the North End, West Boise and Downtown among others.

Parts of the city
Downtown Boise is Boise's cultural center and home to many small businesses and several skyscrapers. Downtown Boise has an array of shopping and dining choices. Centrally, 8th street contains a pedestrian zone with street side cafes and restaurants. Downtown Boise is home to many local restaurants, bars and boutiques and supports a lively night life.
Downtown Boise's economy was threatened in the late 1990's by extensive growth around the Boise Towne Square Mall have been created to combat this trend.

Downtown Boise
The North End contains many of Boise's older homes and is known for its tree-lined drives such as Harrison Boulevard, and for its quiet neighborhoods near the downtown area. From Camel's Back Park is home to many small restaurants (several with outdoor dining) and businesses. The North End also hosts several events such as the annual Hyde Park Street Fair.

The North End
Southwest Boise has traditionally been known for its more country-like aesthetics. It contains sparsely populated neighborhoods built from the 1960s to the early 1980s. Many include acre-sized plots and the occasional farmhouse and pastures. Growth in the area was limited in the 1980s due to a moratorium on new construction to prevent urban sprawl. Since this has been lifted there has been widespread growth of new homes and neighborhoods. The area lies fairly close to Interstate 84, theaters, shopping, the airport, and the Boise Bench area.

Southwest Boise
Northwest Boise lies blanketed against the Boise Foothills to the north, the major thoroughfare State Street to the south, the City of Eagle to the west, and Downtown Boise to the east. It contains an eclectic mix of old and new neighborhoods, including Lakeharbor, which features the private Silver Lake, a reclaimed quarry. Northwest Boise has some pockets of older homes with a similar aesthetic to the North End, yet housing prices tend to be lower. Downtown is minutes away, as is Veteran's Memorial Park and easy access to the Boise Greenbelt. Across the river sits the Boise Bench and to the west is fast access to the bedroom communities of Eagle, Star, and Middleton.

Northwest Boise
Warm Springs is centered around the tree-lined drive Warm Springs Avenue and contains many of Boise's largest and most expensive homes (many of which were erected by wealthy miners and businessmen around the turn of the century; Victorian styles feature prominently). The area gets its name from the natural hot springs that flow from Boise's fault line and warm many of the homes in the area.

Warm Springs
The far east end of Warm Springs was once known as Barber Town, featuring a hotel with hot springs nestled into the foothills. It now has some new residential developments, with easy access to Highway 21, which leads to the south-central Idaho mountains; the Boise River; the Boise Foothills; and the Idaho Shakespeare Festival.

East End
South East Boise spans from Boise State University to Micron Technology - all areas between Federal Way and the Boise River. The older area just south of the University can be described as a cross between the North End and the Boise bench. The rest of South East Boise was developed in the last thirty years with suburban style homes. Unlike the more typical flat suburban sprawl, residents of South East Boise are reminded of their city's natural beauty as they catch a close view of Table Rock, or drive along the winding Parkcenter Blvd. along the Boise River. Columiba Village and the older sub-division Oregon Trail Heights were the first major planned community in South East Boise with an elementary and middle school all within walking distance from all homes. Developed with the middle carved out for schools as well as a large soccer complex (over 20 fields) as well as a baseball complex, swimming pools as well as the best view in the valley. Most people consider this end of Boise a hidden gem as just about everything is about 15 minutes from home: the river, greenbelt, the mountains, lakes, snow, high mountain desert, etc. The reason being the subdivsion is located at the intersections of Interstate 84, Idaho 21 and Federal Way (former US Highway) which are all major arteries to get anywhere fast in Boise.

South East Boise
The Boise Bench is south of Downtown Boise and is raised in elevation approximately 60 feet. The bench is named such because the sudden rise in elevation gives the prominent appearance of a step, or bench. The Bench (or Benches, there are 3 actual benches throughout the Boise Valley) was created as an ancient shoreline to the old river channel. The Bench is home to the old Boise Train Depot, Vista Village shopping center, and extensive residential neighborhoods. Due south of the Boise Bench is the Boise Airport, raised up on another "bench".

The Boise Bench

About the name
The name Boise comes from the French word boisé, which means "wooded". Many people assume that it means "tree", but the French word for "tree" is arbre, whereas the word bois means "wood". One legend claims that French-Canadian fur trappers of the early 1800s came over the mountains looked down upon the Boise River Valley and exclaimed "Les Bois!" (the wood!). This is also how Boise gained its nickname 'The City of Trees'. In actuality, the name was apparently a translation of an earlier English name for the Boise River, the Wood River.

Origin of Name
Many residents (generally those who have lived in the area longer) use the pronunciation of "Boise" as a shibboleth, insisting that [bɔɪsi] is the only correct pronunciation. Others not native to Boise consider [bɔɪzi] to be an equally valid pronunciation. According to the official city website, the correct way to say Boise is [bɔɪsi].

Pronunciation

Boise State Football
The Old Boise Train Depot
Boise Downtown

2008-03-19T09:05:00.001-07:00

Brad Childress (born June 27, 1956 in Aurora, Illinois, U.S.) is a professional American football coach. Attended High School at Marmion Academy. Prior to being selected as the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings beginning with the 2006 season, Childress worked as an assistant coach for various college organizations and NFL franchises, most recently with the Philadelphia Eagles.

Career
On January 6, 2006, Childress was hired to be the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings. This choice was the result of a fervent and short-lived selection process. Former coach Mike Tice was informed that his contract would not be renewed shortly after the Vikings' last game of the 2005 season on December 31, and rumors began to circulate about Childress as the new head coach on January 5. Four candidates were interviewed by the Vikings: Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Al Saunders, Indianapolis Colts assistant head coach Jim Caldwell, and former Vikings defensive coordinator Ted Cottrell.
The short length and small breadth of the selection process was questioned by some in the local media. Vikings owner Zygi Wilf, who is known as an intense football fan but not as an expert on the game, was criticized for not first hiring a top-shelf personnel manager who would then be tasked with hiring a new head coach. Childress had never played football at the college level or the pros. He had never been a head coach before and never called his own plays either, which he would be doing with the Vikings.

Criticism
Childress is married and has four children. His wife's name is Dru-Ann, and his children's names are Cara, Kyle, Andrew, and Christopher. He is one of a current triumvirate of Eastern Illinois University alums that are head coaches in the NFL, along with Mike Shanahan and Sean Payton. He has recently joined Minnetonka Country Club in Minnetonka Minnesota

2008-03-18T09:38:00.001-07:00

A computer is a machine which manipulates data according to a list of instructions.
Computers take numerous physical forms. The first devices that resemble modern computers date to the mid-20th century (around 1940 - 1941), although the computer concept and various machines similar to computers existed prior. Early electronic computers were the size of a large room, consuming as much power as several hundred modern personal computers. Meuer, Hans; Strohmaier, Erich; Simon, Horst; Dongarra, Jack (2006-11-13). Architectures Share Over Time. TOP500. Retrieved on 2006-11-27.
Stokes, Jon (2007). Inside the Machine: An Illustrated Introduction to Microprocessors and Computer Architecture. San Francisco: No Starch Press. ISBN 978-1-59327-104-6.

2008-03-17T09:29:00.001-07:00

Apollinary Mikhailovich Vasnetsov (Russian: Аполлинарий Михайлович Васнецов) (July 25 (N.S. August 6), 1856, the village of Riabovo, Vyatka province - January 23, 1933, Moscow) was a Russian painter and graphic artist whose elder brother was the more famous Viktor Vasnetsov. He specialized in scenes from the medieval history of Moscow.
Vasnetsov was a painter and a graphic artist. He did not receive a formal artistic education. He studied under his older brother Viktor Vasnetsov, the famous Russian painter. From 1883, he and his brother lived and worked in Abramtsevo where he fell under the influence of Vasily Polenov. In 1898–1899, he traveled across Europe. In addition to epic landscapes of Russian nature, Apollinary Vasnetsov created his own genre of historical landscape reconstruction on the basis of historical and archaeological data. His paintings present a visual picture of medieval Moscow. He was a member of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions (Peredvizhniki) from 1899, and an academician from 1900. He became one of the founders and supervisors of the Union of Russian Artists.
Kremlin, 1892
The street in the town: the set to the opera The Oprichnik by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, 1911
In Moscow Kremlin

2008-03-16T10:36:00.001-07:00

This article is part of the series on: Norwegian language
Variants: Official: Bokmål | Nynorsk Unofficial: Riksmål | Landsmål/Høgnorsk Norwegian language struggle Norwegian dialects
Use: Alphabet Phonology

Other topics: Norwegian literature Norwegian Sign Language Norwegian Language Council

Bokmål (lit. "book language") is the most commonly used of the two official written standards of Norwegian, the other being Nynorsk. Bokmål is used by around 85% of the population (regardless of dialect) and is the standard most commonly taught to foreign students of Norwegian. Before 1929 the official term for Bokmål was Riksmål. Historically, Bokmål was a Norwegianized variety of Danish, which was commonly written in Norway until the start of the 20th century (see Dano-Norwegian).

Note

2008-03-15T09:59:00.001-07:00

Protoscience refers to historical philosophical disciplines, developed prior to the Age of Enlightenment, that with the development of scientific method developed into science proper (prescientific). A standard example is alchemy, which from the 18th century became chemistry, or pre-modern astrology which from the 17th century became astronomy.
By extension, "protoscience" may be used in reference to any "set of beliefs or theories that have not yet been tested adequately by the scientific method but which are otherwise consistent with existing science".

Examples

History of science

History of science in early cultures
Science in the Middle Ages
History of science in the Renaissance
Philosophy of science
Methodical culturalism
Falsifiability
Conjecture
Hypothesis
Pathological science
Fringe science
Natural magic
Pseudoscience
List of pseudoscientific theories
Obsolete scientific theories

2008-03-14T09:30:00.000-07:00

This is a list of astronomical observatories ordered by name, along with initial dates of operation (where an accurate date is available) and location. The list also includes a final year of operation for many observatories that are no longer in operation. While other sciences, such as volcanology and meteorology, also use facilities called observatories for research and observations, this list is limited to observatories that are used to observe celestial objects.
An astronomical observatory is generally a building or group of buildings constructed to aid in observations of astronomical objects such as planets, asteroids, stars, nebulae, and galaxies. In most cases, astronomical observations are made using different types of telescopes that serve to increase the apparent angular size and brightness of distant celestial objects allowing them to be better studied and understood.
Many modern telescopes and observatories are located in space in order to avoid the effects of atmospheric turbulence that plague ground based telescopes. These space observatories can also be used to observe astronomical objects in wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum that cannot penetrate the Earth's atmosphere (such as ultraviolet radiation, X-rays, and gamma rays) and are thus impossible to observe using ground-based telescopes.
Contents: Top - 0–9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

B

C

D

E

La Silla Observatory

Llano de Chajnantor Observatory

Paranal Observatory

La Silla Observatory
Llano de Chajnantor Observatory
Paranal Observatory
1969
2005
1999 F

G

H

I

J

L

Anderson Mesa Station

Anderson Mesa Station
1959 M

Pic du Midi Observatory

Toulouse Observatory

1878

1733

Pic du Midi Observatory
Toulouse Observatory
1878
1733
Pyrenees, France
Toulouse, France N

Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory

Gemini Observatory

Kitt Peak National Observatory

National Solar Observatory

Atacama Large Millimeter Array

Green Bank Telescope

Very Large Array

Very Long Baseline Array

Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory
Gemini Observatory
Kitt Peak National Observatory
National Solar Observatory
Atacama Large Millimeter Array
Green Bank Telescope
Very Large Array
Very Long Baseline Array O

P

R

S

Southern African Large Telescope

MMT Observatory

Mount Graham International Observatory

Mount Lemmon Observatory

Southern African Large Telescope
2005
Karoo, South Africa
MMT Observatory
Mount Graham International Observatory
Mount Lemmon Observatory T

U

U.S. Naval Observatory (Flagstaff Station)
1955
Flagstaff, Arizona, (USA) V

Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope

Mount Graham, Arizona, USA

Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope
1993
Mount Graham, Arizona, USA W

X

Z