Description.

The evergreen grapefruit trees usually grow to around tall, although they may reach. The leaves are glossy, dark green, long (up to ), and thin. It produces white four-petaled flowers. The fruit is yellow-orange skinned and generally, an oblate spheroid in shape; it ranges in diameter from. The flesh is segmented and acidic, varying in color depending on the cultivars, which include white, pink, and red pulps of varying sweetness (generally, the redder varieties are the sweetest). The 1929 U.S. Ruby Red (of the Redblush variety) has the first grapefruit patent.

History.

The genetic origin of the grapefruit is a hybrid mix. One ancestor of the grapefruit was the Jamaican sweet orange ("Citrus sinensis"), itself an ancient hybrid of Asian origin; the other was the Indonesian pomelo ("C. maxima"). One story of the fruit's origin is that a certain "Captain Shaddock" brought pomelo seeds to Jamaica and bred the first fruit, although it probably originated as a naturally occurring hybrid between the two plants some time after they had been introduced there. The hybrid fruit, then called "the forbidden fruit", was first documented in 1750 by a Welshman, Rev. Griffith Hughes, who described specimens from Barbados in "The Natural History of Barbados". Currently, the grapefruit is said to be one of the "Seven Wonders of Barbados".  The grapefruit was brought to Florida by Count Odet Philippe in 1823 in what is now known as Safety Harbor. Further crosses have produced the tangelo (1905), the Minneola tangelo (1931), and the oroblanco (1984).  The grapefruit was known as the "shaddock" or "shattuck" until the nineteenth century. Its current name alludes to clusters of the fruit on the tree, which often appear similar to that of grapes. Botanically, it was not distinguished from the pomelo until the 1830s, when it was given the name "Citrus paradisi." Its true origins were not determined until the 1940s. This led to the official name being altered to "Citrus × paradisi," the "×" identifying its hybrid origin. An early pioneer in the American citrus industry was Kimball Atwood, a wealthy entrepreneur who founded the Atwood Grapefruit Company in the late nineteenth century. The Atwood Grove became the largest grapefruit grove in the world, with a yearly output of 80,000 boxes of fruit. It was there that pink grapefruit was first discovered in 1906.

Ruby Red.

The 1929 Ruby Red (or "Redblush") patent was associated with real commercial success, which came after the discovery of a red grapefruit growing on a pink variety. Using radiation to trigger mutations, new varieties were developed to retain the red tones which typically faded to pink. The Rio Red variety is the current (2007) Texas grapefruit with registered trademarks Rio Star and Ruby-Sweet, also sometimes promoted as "Reddest" and "Texas Choice". The Rio Red is a mutation bred variety that was developed by treatment of bud sticks with thermal neutrons. Its improved attributes of mutant variety are fruit and juice color, deeper red, and wide adaptation.

Star Ruby.

The Star Ruby is the darkest of the red varieties. Developed from an irradiated Hudson grapefruit, it has found limited commercial success because it is more difficult to grow than other varieties.

Varieties.

The varieties of Texas and Florida grapefruit include: Oro Blanco, Ruby Red, Pink, Rio Star, Thompson, White Marsh, Flame, Star Ruby, Duncan, and Pummelo HB.

Production.

In 2018, world production of grapefruits (combined with pomelos) was 9.4 million tonnes, led by China with 53% of the world total. Secondary producers were Vietnam and the United States.

Colors and flavors.

Grapefruit varieties are differentiated by the flesh color of fruit they produce. Common varieties are red, white, and pink pulp colors. Flavors range from highly acidic and somewhat sour to sweet and tart, resulting from composition of sugars (mainly sucrose), organic acids (mainly citric acid), and monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes providing aromas.  Grapefruit mercaptan, a sulfur-containing terpene, is one of the aroma compounds influencing taste and odor of grapefruit, compared with other citrus fruits.

Drug interactions.

Grapefruit and grapefruit juice have been found to interact with numerous drugs and in many cases, to result in adverse direct and/or side effects (if dosage is not carefully adjusted.)  This happens in two very different ways. In the first, the effect is from bergamottin, a natural furanocoumarin in both grapefruit flesh and peel that inhibits the CYP3A4 enzyme (among others from the P450 enzyme family responsible for metabolizing 90% of drugs). The action of the CYP3A4 enzyme itself is to metabolize many medications. If the drug's breakdown for removal is lessened, then the level of the drug in the blood may become too high or stay too long, leading to adverse effects. On the other hand, some drugs must be broken down to become active, and inhibiting CYP3A4 may lead to reduced drug effects.  The other effect is that grapefruit can block the absorption of drugs in the intestine. If the drug is not absorbed, then not enough of it is in the blood to have a therapeutic effect. Each affected drug has either a specific increase of effect or decrease.  One whole grapefruit, or a glass of of grapefruit juice may cause drug overdose toxicity. Typically, drugs that are incompatible with grapefruit are so labeled on the container or package insert. People taking drugs should ask their health care provider or pharmacist questions about grapefruit and drug interactions.

Nutrition.

Raw grapefruit is 90% water, 8% carbohydrates, 1% protein, and contains negligible fat (table). In a 100 gram reference amount, raw grapefruit provides 33 calories and is a rich source of vitamin C (40% of the Daily Value), with no other micronutrients in significant content.

Citric acid.

Grapefruit juice contains about half the citric acid of lime or lemon juice, and about 50% more citric acid than orange juice.

Grapefruit sweets.

In Costa Rica, especially in Atenas, grapefruit are often cooked to remove their sourness, rendering them as sweets; they are also stuffed with "dulce de leche", resulting in a dessert called "toronja rellena" (stuffed grapefruit). In Haiti, grapefruit is used primarily for its juice ("jus de Chadèque"), but also is used to make jam ("confiture de Chadèque").

Parasites.

Grapefruits are one of the most common hosts for fruit flies like "A. suspensa", which will lay their eggs in overripe or spoiled grapefruits. The larvae of these flies will then consume the fruit in order to gain nutrients until they can proceed into the pupae stage. This parasitism has led to millions in economic costs for nations in Central America and Southern North America.

Other uses.

Grapefruit has also been investigated in cancer medicine pharmacodynamics. Its inhibiting effect on the metabolism of some drugs may allow smaller doses to be used, which can help to reduce costs.  In aromatherapy, the fruity aroma of grapefruit is believed to have an uplifting and stimulating effect on the mind, inhaling the aroma of grapefruit can be used to help combat tiredness or mental exhaustion.  Lifestyle magazines and websites sometimes recommend grapefruit as a stain remover for porcelain and enamel.

Grapefruit relatives.

Grapefruit is a pomelo backcross, a hybrid of pomelo × sweet orange, with sweet orange itself being a pomelo × mandarin hybrid.  The grapefruit is a parent to many hybrids:  The grapefruit's cousins include:

The grapefruit ("Citrus × paradisi") is a subtropical citrus tree known for its relatively large sour to semi-sweet, somewhat bitter fruit. Grapefruit is a citrus hybrid originating in Barbados as an accidental cross between the sweet orange ("C. sinensis") and pomelo (or shaddock; "C. maxima"), both of which were introduced from Asia in the seventeenth century. When found, it was nicknamed the "forbidden fruit". Frequently, it is misidentified as the very similar parent species, pomelo.


Subgenres.

There are several major formats of talk shows. Generally, each subgenre predominates during a specific programming block during the broadcast day.  These formats are not absolute; some afternoon programs have similar structures to late-night talk shows. These formats may vary across different countries or markets. Late night talk shows are especially significant in the United States. Breakfast television is a staple of British television. The daytime talk format has become popular in Latin America as well as the United States.  Talk-radio host Howard Stern also hosted a talk show that was syndicated nationally in the USA, then moved to satellite radio's Sirius. The tabloid talk show genre, pioneered by Phil Donahue but popularized by Oprah Winfrey was extremely popular during the last two decades of the 20th century.  Politics are hardly the only subject of American talk shows, however. Other radio talk show subjects include "Car Talk" hosted by NPR and "Coast to Coast AM" hosted by Art Bell and George Noory which discusses topics of the paranormal, conspiracy theories, fringe science, and the just plain weird. Sports talk shows are also very popular ranging from high-budget shows like "The Best Damn Sports Show Period" to Max Kellerman's original public-access television cable TV show "Max on Boxing".

History.

Talk shows have been broadcast on television since the earliest days of the medium. Joe Franklin, an American radio and television personality, hosted the first television talk show. The show began in 1951 on WJZ-TV (later WABC-TV) and moved to WOR-TV (later WWOR-TV) from 1962 to 1993.  NBC's "The Tonight Show" is the world's longest-running talk show; having debuted in 1954, it continues to this day. The show underwent some minor title changes until settling on its current title in 1962, and despite a brief foray into a more news-style program in 1957 and then reverting that same year, it has remained a talk show. Ireland's "The Late Late Show" is the second-longest running talk show in television history, and the longest running talk show in Europe, having debuted in 1962.  Steve Allen was the first host of "The Tonight Show", which began as a local New York show, being picked up by the NBC network in 1954. It in turn had evolved from his late-night radio talk show in Los Angeles. Allen pioneered the format of late night network TV talk shows, originating such talk show staples as an opening monologue, celebrity interviews, audience participation, and comedy bits in which cameras were taken outside the studio, as well as music, although the series' popularity was cemented by second host Jack Paar, who took over after Allen had left and the show had ceased to exist. TV news pioneer Edward R. Murrow hosted a talk show entitled "Small World" in the late 1950s and since then, political TV talk shows have predominantly aired on Sunday mornings.  Syndicated daily talk shows began to gain more popularity during the mid-1970s and reached their height of popularity with the rise of the tabloid talk show. Morning talk shows gradually replaced earlier forms of programming — there were a plethora of morning game shows during the 1960s and early to mid-1970s, and some stations formerly showed a morning movie in the time slot that many talk shows now occupy.  Current late night talk shows such as "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Conan" and "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" have aired featuring celebrity guests and comedy sketches. Syndicated daily talk shows range from tabloid talk shows, such as "Jerry Springer" and "Maury" to celebrity interview shows like "Live with Kelly and Ryan", "The Better Show", "The Wendy Williams Show", "Steve Wilkos", "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and "The Kelly Clarkson Show" to industry leader "The Oprah Winfrey Show" which popularized the former genre and has been evolving towards the latter. On November 10, 2010, Oprah Winfrey invited several of the most prominent American talk show hosts - Phil Donahue, Sally Jessy Raphael, Geraldo Rivera, Ricki Lake, and Montel Williams - to join her as guests on her show. The 1990s in particular saw a spike in the number of "tabloid" talk shows, most of which were short-lived and are now replaced by a more universally appealing "interview" or "lifestyle TV" format.  Talk shows have more recently started to appear on Internet radio. Also, several Internet blogs are in talk show format including the Baugh Experience.  The current world record for the longest talk show is held by Rabi Lamichhane from Nepal by staying on air for 62 hours from April 11 to 13, 2013 breaking the previous record set by two Ukrainians by airing the show for 52 hours in 2011.

Talk shows around the world.

Rabi Lamichhane from Nepal holds the present world record for longest ever talk show.  In Japan, panel shows — called "tooku bangumi" (トーク番組)in Japanese — are very commonplace, accounting for about 30% of daytime and prime-time programming on the four main television stations. Due to language and cultural differences, Japanese TV stations could not freely use syndicated programs (mostly from Europe and North America) and therefore turned to panel shows, which could be produced cheaply and easily, to fill time during daytime programming.  Japanese panel shows are distinct in generally not employing regular panelists but instead having a panel made up of different freelance comedians and celebrities each program, although the program is generally hosted by the same compere. Talk shows evolved in tandem with the Japanese variety show and it is very common for talk shows to borrow variety elements, typically by having celebrity guests attempt some kind of amusingly incongruous activity. Often, one of the guests will be a gaijin tarento (foreign talent) in order to provide comedy or to comment on matters related to Western culture. Comedic material is commonly written and rehearsed before tapings with or without a live audience.  Korean and Taiwanese talk shows have used the panel format similar to Japanese programs and rely on famous celebrities and comedic banter than topics. Their programs often shorten interviews from lengthy tapings.  In Brazil, Jô Soares inaugurated the genre with Jô Soares Onze e Meia ("Jô Soares Eleven Thirty") from 1988 to 1999. In 2000, Soares took his show's format to Rede Globo, where it was then called Programa do Jô, and hosts the program until the present day. Jô's main competitors are Danilo Gentili and Fábio Porchat. Weesibe Bbiri on Delta TV Uganda, hosted by Moses Wamala

A talk show or chat show is a television programming or radio programming genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation. In a talk show, one person (or group of people) discusses various topics put forth by a talk show host. The tone of the show is shaped by the host personality, which also defines the "trademark" of the show.


History.

The Maltese had been recognized as a FCI breed under the patronage of Italy in 1954, at the annual meeting in Interlaken, Switzerland. The current FCI standard is dated November 27, 1989, and the latest translation from Italian to English is dated April 6, 1998.  The American Kennel Club recognized the breed in 1888, its latest standard being from March 10, 1964. Parti-colour and solid colour dogs were accepted in the show ring from 1902 until 1913 in England, and as late as 1950 in Victoria, Australia. However, white Maltese were required to be pure white. Coloured Maltese could be obtained from the south of France.  Little is known about the origin and spread of the Maltese dog. It probably did not originate from the island of Malta, the town of Melita in Italy, nor the island of Melita in the Adriatic, but from spitz-type dogs in south-central Europe, where it may at first have resembled the modern Pomeranian.

Melitaie.

The Maltese dog was a lapdog favoured by both the ancient Greeks and Romans, especially their children, and appears on amphorae with the word Μελιταιε (Melitaie). References to the dog can also be found in Ancient Greek and Roman literature. Aristotle mentions the dog around 370 BC. Early writers attribute its origin to Melita, however there were two islands named Melita at that time with one being in the Mediterranean and the other being in the Adriatic sea near Dalmatia, which confuses where the dog originated from. Strabo wrote about the "Canes Melitei" that came not from Malta but from a town named Melita in Sicily, which is in contrast to English writers who give Malta, as the place of origin, considering that Melite is also the old name of Mdina, former capital of Malta.  Pliny suggests the dog as having taken its name from the Adriatic island Méléda, however Strabo, in the early first century AD, identifies the breed as originating from the Mediterranean island of Malta.  During the first century, the Roman poet Martial wrote descriptive verses to a lap dog named "Issa" owned by his friend Publius. It is proposed that Issa was a Maltese dog, and various sources link Martial's friend Publius with the Roman Governor Publius of Malta, though others do not identify him.  John Caius, physician to Queen Elizabeth I, also claimed that Callimachus was referring to the island of Melita "in the Sicilian strait" (Malta). This claim is often repeated, especially by English writers. The dog's links to Malta are mentioned in the writings of Abbé Jean Quintin d'Autun, Secretary to the Grand Master of the Knights of Malta Philippe Villiers de L'Isle-Adam, in his work "Insulae Melitae Descriptio".

Description.

Appearance.

Characteristics include slightly rounded skulls, with a finger-wide dome, a black button nose and brown eyes. The body is compact with the length equaling the height and the tail is almost always curled. The drop ears with (sometimes) long hair, and eyes surrounded by darker skin pigmentation (called a "halo"), gives Maltese their expressive look. Lacking exposure to a lot of sunlight, their noses can fade and become pink or light brown in color. This is often referred to as a "winter nose" and many times will become black again with increased exposure to the sun. The Maltese's paws are very sensitive to touch. The coat is long and silky and lacks an undercoat. Some Maltese can have curly hair (especially behind their ears), but this is considered a fault. The colour of the coat is pure white. A pale ivory tinge is permitted on the ears. In some standards, a pure white coat with slight lemon markings is tolerated.  The Maltese does not shed, and is therefore a good choice for people with dog allergies. They can exhibit signs of tear-staining. Some people prefer their dogs to have the coat short, clipped to a few centimetres in length.  Adult Maltese range from roughly. The international FCI standard specifies a weight of ; the American Kennel Club calls for a somewhat lighter weight of, with preferred, They are usually tall.

Uses.

The Maltese is kept as for companionship, for ornament or for showing. It is ranked 59th of 79 breeds assessed for intelligence by Stanley Coren.

Abandonment.

In 2004, an Australia-wide (not including Tasmania) research project carried out in conjunction with the RSPCA found Maltese owners were the most likely to surrender their dogs to a shelter, citing the tendency of Maltese to bark constantly, and were Australia's most abandoned dog breed. Data released in 2010 by the Korean National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service show 1,208 Maltese abandoned between January and August 2010, making it the most abandoned breed in Seoul, South Korea.

The Maltese is a breed of dog in the toy group. It is thought to have originated in south-central Europe from dogs of spitz type. Despite the name, it has no verified historic or scientific connection to the island of Malta.


Origins.

Although linoleum is a floor covering that dates to the 1860s, the linocut printing technique was used first by the artists of Die Brücke in Germany between 1905 and 1913, where it had been similarly used for wallpaper printing.

Technique.

Since the material being carved has no directional grain and does not tend to split, it is easier to obtain certain artistic effects with lino than with most woods, although the resultant prints lack the often angular grainy character of woodcuts and engravings. Lino is generally diced, much easier to cut than wood, especially when heated, but the pressure of the printing process degrades the plate faster and it is difficult to create larger works due to the material's fragility.  Linocuts can also be achieved by the careful application of arts on the surface of the lino. This creates a surface similar to a soft ground etching and these caustic-lino plates can be printed in either a relief, intaglio or a viscosity printing manner.  Colour linocuts can be made by using a different block for each colour as in a woodcut, as the artists of the Grosvenor School frequently did, but, as Pablo Picasso demonstrated, such prints can also be achieved using a single piece of linoleum in what is called the'reductive' print method. Essentially, after each successive colour is imprinted onto the paper, the artist then cleans the lino plate and cuts away what will not be imprinted for the subsequently applied colour.  Due to ease of use, linocut is widely used in schools to introduce children to the art of printmaking, using it to complete many tasks in the art lesson rather than going straight for the pencil and eraser; similarly, non-professional artists often cut lino rather than wood for printing. Nevertheless, in the contemporary art world the linocut is an established professional print medium, because of its extensive use by the artists of the Grosvenor School, followed by Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse.

Emergence of the technique in America.

In 1911 “linoleum art” was first displayed in New York City by the Czech émigré Vojtěch Preissig. In his publications on linocuts (1926-29) the respected American printmaker, Pedro Joseph de Lemos, simplified the methods for art schools and introduced new techniques for color linocuts, including the printing of the key block first. The first large-scale colour linocuts made by an American artist were created ca. 1943–45 by Walter Inglis Anderson, and exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum in 1949. Today, linocut is a popular technique among street artists and street art-related fine art.

Linocut, also known as lino print, lino printing or linoleum art, is a printmaking technique, a variant of woodcut in which a sheet of linoleum (sometimes mounted on a wooden block) is used for a relief surface. A design is cut into the linoleum surface with a sharp knife, V-shaped chisel or gouge, with the raised (uncarved) areas representing a reversal (mirror image) of the parts to show printed. The linoleum sheet is inked with a roller (called a brayer), and then impressed onto paper or fabric. The actual printing can be done by hand or with a printing press.


Biography.

Lucius Cassius Dio was the son of Cassius Apronianus, a Roman senator and member of the gens Cassia, who was born and raised at Nicaea in Bithynia. Byzantine tradition maintains that Dio's mother was the daughter or sister of the Greek orator and philosopher, Dio Chrysostom; however, this relationship has been disputed. Lucius is often identified as Dio's "praenomen", but a Macedonian inscription, published in 1970, reveals the abbreviation, "Cl.", presumably Claudius. Although Dio was a Roman citizen, he wrote in Greek. Dio always maintained a love for his hometown of Nicaea, calling it "his home", as opposed to his description of his villa in Italy ("my residence in Italy").  For the greater part of his life, Dio was a member of the public service. He was a senator under Commodus and governor of Smyrna following the death of Septimius Severus; he became a suffect consul in approximately the year 205. Dio was also proconsul in Africa and Pannonia. Severus Alexander held Dio in the highest esteem and reappointed him to the position of consul, even though his caustic nature irritated the Praetorian Guards, who demanded his life. Following his second consulship, while in his later years, Dio returned to his native country, where he eventually died.  Dio was either the grandfather or great-grandfather of Cassius Dio, consul in 291.

"Roman History".

Dio published a "Roman History" (, ""), in 80 books, after twenty-two years of research and labour. The books cover a period of approximately 1,400 years, beginning with the tales from Roman mythology of the arrival of the legendary Aeneas in Italy (c. 1200 BC) and the founding of Rome by his descendant Romulus (753 BC); as well as the historic events of the republican and imperial eras through 229 AD. The work is one of only three written Roman sources that document the British revolt of AD 60–61 led by Boudica. Until the first century BC, Dio provides only a summary of events; after that period, his accounts become more detailed. From the time of Commodus (ruled AD 180–192), Dio is very circumspect in his conveyance of the events that he witnessed.  The version of Dio's work that survives today is quite composite since his history does not survive in its entirety: The first 21 books have been partially reconstructed based on fragments from other works as well as the epitome of Zonaras who used Dio's "Roman History" as a main source. Scholarship on this part of Dio's work is scarce but the importance of the Early Republic and Regal period to Dio's overall work has recently been underlined. Books 22-35 are sparsely covered by fragments. The books that follow, Books 36 through 54, are nearly all complete; they cover the period from 65 BC to 12 BC, or from the eastern campaign of Pompey and the death of Mithridates to the death of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. Book 55 contains a considerable gap, while Books 56 through 60 (which cover the period from AD 9 through 54) are complete and contain events from the defeat of Varus in Germany to the death of Claudius. Of the 20 subsequent books in the series, there remain only fragments and the meager abridgement of John Xiphilinus, a monk from the 11th century. The abridgment of Xiphilinus, as now extant, commences with Book 35 and continues to the end of Book 80: it is a very indifferent performance and was made by order of the emperor Michael VII Doukas. The last book covers the period from 222 to 229 (the first half of the reign of Alexander Severus). Dio's work has often been deprecated as unreliable and lacking any overall political aim. Recently, however, this Roman historian has received a thorough reevaluation and his complexity and sophisticated political and historical interpretations have been highlighted.  The fragments of the first 36 books, as they have been collected, consist of four kinds:

Literary style.

Dio attempted to emulate Thucydides in his writing style. Dio's style, where there appears to be no corruption of the text, is generally clear though full of Latinisms. Dio's writing was underpinned by a set of personal circumstances whereby he was able to observe significant events of the Empire in the first person, or had direct contact with the key figures who were involved.

Lucius Cassius Dio (; c. 155 – c. 235) or Dio Cassius (Greek: Δίων Κάσσιος) was a Roman statesman and historian of Greek and Roman origin. He published 80 volumes of history on ancient Rome, beginning with the arrival of Aeneas in Italy. The volumes documented the subsequent founding of Rome (753 BC), the formation of the Republic (509 BC), and the creation of the Empire (31 BC), up until 229 AD. Written in ancient Greek over 22 years, Dio's work covers approximately 1,000 years of history. Many of his 80 books have survived intact, or as fragments, providing modern scholars with a detailed perspective on Roman history.


Life and career.

Lucien Bonaparte's rise during the French Revolution, unlike Napoleon Bonaparte's other siblings, was not based on familial connections or nepotism. This was one of the issues that caused friction between Lucien and Napoleon in the early years of the 19th century, as their political differences deepened. Both Lucien and Napoleon had a very keen interest in historical antiquity as youngsters.

Youth.

Lucien was born in Ajaccio, Corsica in 1775, and was educated in mainland France, at the College d'Autun, the military school in Brienne, and at seminary in Aix-en-Provence. In 1769 the Corsican Republic had been conquered by French forces and annexed into France. Lucien's father Carlo Bonaparte had been a strong supporter of Corsican patriots under Pasquale Paoli, but later switched to become a supporter of French rule.

Revolutionary activities.

A 14-year-old Lucien returned to Corsica at the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 and became an outspoken speaker in the Jacobin Club at Ajaccio, where he renamed himself "Brutus". An ally of Maximilien Robespierre before and during the Reign of Terror, he was briefly imprisoned (at Aix-en-Provence) after the coup of 9 Thermidor on 27 July 1794, which deposed Robespierre and led to Robespierre's execution the following day.

President of the Council of Five Hundred.

As president of the Council of Five Hundred — which he removed to the suburban security of Saint-Cloud — Lucien Bonaparte was crucial with a combination of bravado and disinformation to the "coup d'état" of 18 Brumaire (date based on the French Revolutionary Calendar) in which Napoleon Bonaparte overthrew the government of the Directory to replace it by the Consulate on 9 November 1799. Lucien mounted a horse and galvanized the grenadiers by pointing a sword at his brother and swearing to run him through if he ever betrayed the principles of "Liberté, égalité, fraternité". The following day Lucien arranged for Napoleon's formal election as First Consul.

Diplomacy.

Napoleon made him Minister of the Interior under the Consulate, which enabled Lucien to falsify the results of the plebiscite but which brought him into competition with Joseph Fouché, the chief of police, who showed Napoleon a subversive pamphlet that was probably written by Lucien, and effected a breach between the brothers. Lucien was sent as ambassador to the court of Charles IV of Spain, (November, 1800), where his diplomatic talents won over the Bourbon royal family and, perhaps as importantly, the minister Manuel de Godoy.

Falling out with the Emperor.

Though he was a member of the "Tribunat" in 1802 and was made a senator of the First French Empire, Lucien came to oppose many of Napoleon's ideas. In 1804, with Lucien disliking Napoleon's intention to declare himself as Emperor of the French and to marry Lucien off to a Bourbon Spanish princess, the Queen of Etruria, Lucien spurned all imperial honours and went into self-imposed exile, living initially in Rome, where he bought the Villa Rufinella in Frascati.

Later years.

In 1809, Napoleon increased pressure on Lucien to divorce his wife and return to France, even having their mother write a letter encouraging him to abandon her and return. With the whole of the Papal States annexed to France and the Pope imprisoned, Lucien was a virtual prisoner in his Italian estates, requiring permission of the Military Governor to venture off his property. He attempted to sail to the United States to escape his situation but was captured by the British. When he disembarked in Britain, he was greeted with cheers and applause by the crowd, many of whom saw him as anti-Napoleon.  The government permitted Lucien to settle comfortably with his family at Ludlow, and later at Thorngrove House in Grimley, Worcestershire, where he worked on a heroic poem on Charlemagne. Napoleon, believing Lucien had deliberately gone to Britain and thus a traitor, had Lucien omitted from the Imperial almanacs of the Bonapartes from 1811 until his 1814 abdication.  Lucien returned to France following his brother's abdication in April 1814. Lucien continued to Rome where on 18 August 1814 he was made Prince of Canino, Count of Apollino, and Lord of Nemori by Pope Pius VII and Prince of Musignano on 21 March 1824 by Pope Leo XII.  In the Hundred Days after Napoleon's return to France from exile in Elba, Lucien rallied to his brother's cause, and they joined forces once again during Napoleon's brief return to power. His brother made him a French Prince and included his children into the Imperial Family, but this was not recognized by the Bourbons after Napoleon's second abdication. Subsequently, Lucien was proscribed at the Restoration and deprived of his "fauteuil" at the Académie française. In 1836 he wrote his "Mémoires". He died in Viterbo, Italy, on 29 June 1840, of stomach cancer, the same disease that claimed his father, his sister Pauline and his brother Napoleon.

Academic activities.

Lucien Bonaparte was the inspiration behind the Napoleonic reconstitution of the dispersed Académie française in 1803, where he took a seat. He collected paintings in "la maison de campagne" at Brienne, was a member of Jeanne Françoise Julie Adélaïde Récamier's salon and wrote a novel, "La Tribu indienne." He was an amateur archeologist, establishing excavations at his property in Frascati which produced a complete statue of Tiberius, and at Musignano which rendered a bust of Juno. Bonaparte owned a parcel which had once formed part of Cicero's estate called Tusculum, and was much given to commenting on the fact. In 1825, Bonaparte excavated the so-called Tusculum portrait of Julius Caesar at the Tusculum's forum.

Marriages and children.

His first wife was his landlord's daughter, Christine Boyer (3 July 1771 – 14 May 1800), the illiterate sister of an innkeeper of Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume, and by her he had four children:  His second wife was Alexandrine de Bleschamp (23 February 1778 – 12 July 1855), widow of Hippolyte Jouberthon, known as "Madame Jouberthon", and by her he had ten children:

Lucien Bonaparte, Prince Français, 1st Prince of Canino and Musignano (born Luciano Buonaparte; 21 May 1775 – 29 June 1840), the third surviving son of Carlo Bonaparte and his wife Letizia Ramolino, was a French statesman, who served as the final President of the Council of Five Hundred at the end of the French Revolution.


Underlying principles.

The premise of the method is that the human brain thinks in a number of distinct ways which can be deliberately challenged, and hence planned for use in a structured way allowing one to develop tactics for thinking about particular issues. De Bono identifies six distinct directions in which the brain can be challenged. In each of these directions the brain will identify and bring into conscious thought certain aspects of issues being considered (e.g. gut instinct, pessimistic judgement, neutral facts). None of these directions is a completely natural way of thinking, but rather how some of us already represent the results of our thinking.  Since the hats do not represent natural modes of thinking, each hat must be used for a limited time only. Also, some will feel that using the hats is unnatural, uncomfortable or even counterproductive and against their better judgement.  A compelling example presented is sensitivity to "mismatch" stimuli. This is presented as a valuable survival instinct, because, in the natural world: the thing that is out of the ordinary may well be dangerous. This mode is identified as the root of negative judgement and critical thinking.  Colored hats are used as metaphors for each direction. Switching to a direction is symbolized by the act of putting on a colored hat, either literally or metaphorically. This metaphor of using an imaginary hat or cap as a symbol for a different thinking direction was first mentioned by De Bono as early as 1971 in his book "Lateral Thinking for Management" when describing a brainstorming framework. These metaphors allow for a more complete and elaborate segregation of the thinking directions. The six thinking hats indicate problems and solutions about an idea the thinker may come up with.  Similarly, "The Five Stages of Thinking" method—a set of tools corresponding to all six thinking hats—first appears in his CoRT Thinking Programme in 1973:

Strategies and programs.

Having identified the six modes of thinking that can be accessed, distinct programs can be created. These are sequences of hats which encompass and structure the thinking process toward a distinct goal. A number of these are included in the materials provided to support the franchised training of the six hats method; however it is often necessary to adapt them to suit an individual purpose. Also, programs are often "emergent", which is to say that the group might plan the first few hats then the facilitator will see what seems to be the right way to go.  Sequences always begin and end with a blue hat; the group agrees together how they will think, then they do the thinking, then they evaluate the outcomes of that thinking and what they should do next. Sequences (and indeed hats) may be used by individuals working alone or in groups. Example programs are shown below, each hat is typically used for approximately 2 minutes at a time – although at the start of a process an extended white hat session is common to get everyone onto the same page, and the red hat is recommended to be used for a very short period to get a visceral gut reaction – about 30 seconds, and in practice often takes the form of dot-voting.

Use.

Speedo researchers are said to have tried the six thinking hats in the creation of swimsuits. "They tried the "Six Thinking Hats" method of brainstorming, a green hat for creative ways to attack a problem, a black one to look at the feasibility of those ideas."  Typically, a project will begin with an extended white hat action, as facts are assembled. Thereafter each hat is used for a few minutes at a time only, except the red hat which is limited to a very short 30 seconds or so to ensure that it is an instinctive gut reaction, rather than a form of judgement. This pace is believed to have a positive impact on the thinking process, in accordance with Malcolm Gladwell's theories on "blink" thinking.  De Bono believed that the key to a successful use of the Six Thinking Hats methodology was the deliberate focusing of the discussion on a particular approach as needed during the meeting or collaboration session. For instance, a meeting may be called to review a particular problem and to develop a solution for the problem. The Six Thinking Hats method could then be used in a sequence to first explore the problem, then develop a set of solutions, and to finally choose a solution through critical examination of the solution set.  The meeting may start with everyone assuming the Blue hat to discuss how the meeting will be conducted and to develop the goals and objectives. The discussion may then move to Red hat thinking in order to collect opinions and reactions to the problem. This phase may also be used to develop constraints for the actual solution such as who will be affected by the problem and/or solutions. Next the discussion may move to the (Yellow then) Green hat in order to generate ideas and possible solutions. Next the discussion may move between White hat thinking as part of developing information and Black hat thinking to develop criticisms of the solution set.  Because everyone is focused on a particular approach at any one time, the group tends to be more collaborative than if one person is reacting emotionally (Red hat) while another person is trying to be objective (White hat) and still another person is being critical of the points which emerge from the discussion (Black hat). The hats aid individuals in addressing problems from a variety of angles, and focus individuals on deficiencies in the way that they approach problem solving.

Six Thinking Hats was written by Dr. Edward de Bono. "Six Thinking Hats" and the associated idea parallel thinking provide a means for groups to plan thinking processes in a detailed and cohesive way, and in doing so to think together more effectively.


History.

The bridge is built on the former boundary of the municipal area with its rural environs, where an excise wall was built in 1732. A wooden drawbridge was built as part of the wall; it served as a gate to the city. The name "Oberbaumbrücke" stemmed from the heavy tree trunk, covered in metal spikes, that was used as a boom to block the river at night to prevent smuggling. ("Baum" means tree or wooden beam in German; thus the name means something like "Upper [Upstream] Tree Bridge"; there was another tree-trunk barrier at the western end of the contemporary city limits, close to today's Unterbaumstraße (lit. in.)  By 1879 the wooden bridge had been modified greatly. At 154 meters it was Berlin's longest, but was no longer adequate to the amount of traffic crossing it. Plans began to be drawn up for a new stone construction. The Siemens & Halske company, which was planning to build the Berlin U-Bahn (subway), insisted on a combined crossing for road vehicles, pedestrians, and the new rail line.  The new bridge opened in 1896 after two years of construction, in time for the Berlin Trades Exhibition. The architect and government official Otto Stahn (1859–1930) designed it in the North German Brick Gothic style of a city gate with many decorative elements, such as pointed arches, cross vaults, and coats of arms. The two towers were inspired by the Middle Gate Tower ("Mitteltorturm") in the northern Brandenburg city of Prenzlau. Although purely cosmetic, they served as a reminder that the site was once Berlin’s river gateway.  In 1902 the first segment of the U-Bahn opened. Its inaugural journey, carrying 19 passengers, ran from Stralauer Tor, at the eastern end of the bridge, to Potsdamer Platz. Stralauer Tor was dismantled after being damaged in a 1945 air raid, but its four sandstone-clad support posts can still be seen.  After Berlin absorbed several other municipalities in 1920, the Oberbaum Bridge became the crossing between the new boroughs of Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg. In April 1945 the Wehrmacht blew up the middle section of the bridge in an attempt to stop the Red Army from crossing it. After the war ended, Berlin was divided into four sectors. The Oberbaum Bridge crossed between the American and Soviet sectors. Until the mid-1950s, pedestrians, motor vehicles, and the city tramway were able to cross the bridge without difficulty.

Border crossing.

When the Berlin Wall was built in 1961 the bridge became part of East Berlin's border with West Berlin; as all the waters of the River Spree were within the Friedrichshain limits, the East German fortifications extended up to the shoreline on the Kreuzberg side. As a result, the West Berlin U-Bahn line was forced to terminate at Schlesisches Tor. Beginning on 21 December 1963, the Oberbaum Bridge was used as a pedestrian border crossing for West Berlin residents only.  Three brief openings of the bridge occurred by the summer of 1966. A permanent opening for pedestrians came with the 1972 Four Power Agreement for Berlin. A building for the East Berlin control authorities was built directly on the eastern bank of the Spree, across the street from the Oberbaumbrücke. The part of the subway viaduct crossing the Stralauer Allee at the bridge was completely demolished. The towers were demolished in the 1970s. Since the border on the Kreuzberg shore (Gröbenufer) ran along the Spree, several children from Kreuzberg drowned on the Oberbaum bridge because rescue personnel from west side could not reach them, and this was prohibited from the east side. In response to this an agreement on rescue operations in the event of accidents in Berlin's border waters was signed on October 29, 1975. In 1976, an emergency call column was installed on the southern bridgehead, after whose activation drowning help was provided.  The coat of arms of the district Friedrichshain–Kreuzberg with the Oberbaumbrücke The Oberbaum Bridge, which formed part of the Friedrichshain coat of arms since 1991, was also included in the coat of arms of the new Berlin district of Friedrichshain–Kreuzberg after the district merger.

Post-Berlin Wall.

After the removal of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and German reunification the following year, the bridge was rebuilt and restored to the former appearance, albeit with a new steel middle section designed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. Reconstruction began in January 1992, with the war-damaged parts of the bridge rebuilt. It opened to pedestrians and traffic on 9 November 1994, the fifth anniversary of the opening of the Berlin Wall. The U-Bahn line to Warschauer Straße station was reopened a year later.  Since 1997, a neon installation entitled "Stone – Paper – Scissors" by Thorsten Goldberg has adorned the bridge. Its two elements are engaged in a constant game of rock, paper, scissors, suggesting the arbitrariness of immigration decisions, both during the Cold War and for today's asylum seekers and poverty migrants.  Since the creation of the unified Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough in 2001, the Oberbaum Bridge no longer crosses a jurisdictional boundary.  In April 2019 the Oberbaum Bridge was blockaded as part of an international series of protests organised by Extinction Rebellion.  The bridge was used as the location for the defection of Karla to George Smiley and British intelligence in the book and mini series, Smiley's People.

The Oberbaum Bridge () is a double-deck bridge crossing Berlin's River Spree, considered one of the city's landmarks. It links Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg, former boroughs that were divided by the Berlin Wall, and has become an important symbol of Berlin’s unity.


History.

On Karlstad's largest islet, there was a place of counsel called Tingvalla in the medieval age, which had roots from the Viking Age before 1000 AD. It was also used as a market place. Karlstad was granted its city charter on March 5, 1584, by the Swedish Duke Charles, who would later be crowned King Charles IX of Sweden. The city derives its name from the King – Karlstad literally means "Charles' city". The Duke also granted Karlstad the right as a governmental seat in the region, and gave it a substantial amount of land.  The Duke built his own house in the city, which is referred to as "Kungsgården" ("The King's Manor"). Karlstad's Cathedral was built on the location Kungsgården in 1724–1730 by Christian Haller.  Then most significant coup d'état in modern Swedish history had its beginning in Karlstad. During the night of 7 March 1809, major general Georg Adlersparre used the part of the western army that was stationed in Värmland to occupy Karlstad. From there officially proclaimed a revolution, and during 9 March, he and his soldiers began their march toward the capital to end the reign of king Gustav IV Adolf.  Karlstad has suffered four major fires. Only the cathedral and a few houses remained after the last fire on July 2, 1865. Karlstad was thereafter rebuilt according to a grid pattern with wide streets surrounded by trees.  In 1905, the agreement to dissolve the union between Norway and Sweden was negotiated and signed in Karlstad.

Demographics.

Language.

The official language, Swedish, is the native language of a big majority and also spoken by most people in Karlstad. Immigration has also established five notable minority languages:

Education.

Several upper secondary schools (gymnasium) offer the most common range of courses usually available throughout Sweden, including the IB Diploma Programme. The majority of students in Värmland need to commute or move to Karlstad for their upper secondary education. Tertiary education is offered by Karlstad University, which was granted university status in 1999.

Culture.

Media.

Värmlands Folkblad and Nya Wermlands-Tidningen are both located in Karlstad, with county-wide circulations.

Sports and recreation.

Winter sports.

Ice hockey is a highly popular spectator sport in Karlstad. The most popular club is Färjestad BK. The team plays in the "Swedish Hockey League" (SHL, highest level) and their home arena is Löfbergs Arena. The club has won the Swedish Championship several times, most recently in 2011, and is the most successful ice hockey club in Sweden since the foundation of Elitserien (Swedish Hockey League since 2013) in 1975. Several other ice hockey clubs exist and Karlstad is also represented in the 1st Division of ice hockey (3rd highest level) by the team Skåre BK. The 2010 Men's World Inline Hockey Championships was also hosted by Karlstad, with Löfbergs Arena as the primary site of the tournament.  Traditionally, bandy has been the most popular winter sport in Karlstad, and the city is the home of two of the historically most successful clubs in Sweden, IF Boltic and IF Karlstad-Göta. Boltic reached 10 Swedish finals in a row from 1979 to 1988. They won the first 7 and the one in 1988. They also won in 1995. In 2000, the two clubs merged into BS BolticGöta, which is now the major bandy club in Karlstad. After a successful season in "Allsvenskan" 2009/2010 the team qualified for "Elitserien", but was again relegated for the 2011/2012 season. The home arena, Tingvalla Ice Stadium, built in 1967, is claimed to be one of Europe's largest artificially frozen areas and is currently awaiting a decision by the municipality to eventually become renovated and transformed into an indoor ice rink. Afghans living in Karlstad has taken a liking to the sport and set up an Afghanistan national bandy team, which is based in the city.  Karlstad is a regular host of start, finish and special stages for the Swedish Rally. The competition has world championship status and is held annually in Värmland.

Summer sports.

Several football clubs exist, and the highest-ranking team is QBIK. The club was founded in 1978, and entered the premier division of women's football, "Damallsvenskan", in 2005. The team currently plays in the 1st Division (2nd highest level), but has several players in the Swedish national team. Their home ground is Tingvalla IP, and recently, the facility is also becoming the home ground for the football team Karlstad BK, that plays in the men's Division 1 Norra (3rd highest level), having gained promotion following a successful 2010 season. The third highest-ranking football team is Carlstad United. The club was founded in 1998 by an alliance of seven local football clubs, with the aim of providing Karlstad with an elite football team. The club was accepted by the Swedish Football Association (SvFF) in 1999 and the team is currently playing in the men's Division 2 Norra Götaland (4th highest level). FBK Karlstad play in Division 3 Västra Svealand.  American football is also played on Tingvalla IP. The Carlstad Crusaders play in "Superserien", the highest level and since the founding of the club in 1990, the team has attended eight finals, winning its first championship in 2010.  Karlstad is also famous for athletics. The club IF Göta has a number of international athletes and host the annual athletics meet Götagalan. There is an outdoor athletics track at Tingvalla IP and an indoor track (200 m) in Våxnäshallen.  Another prominent sports club in Karlstad is OK Tyr, one of the largest orienteering clubs in Sweden. OK Tyr won Tiomila in 1989 and 1990.

Public facilities.

Public sports facilities in Karlstad include Klarälvsbanan, a cycle path on a former railway line running north from Karlstad to Hagfors. It is popular with cyclists, inlines skaters and roller skiers.  There is also a large number of open-air beaches and bathing spots by Vänern, smaller lakes and Klarälven in the municipality, and a indoor municipal swimming pool.  Many wood-chip jogging trails, some of which are lit, can be found in the city outskirts. During wintertime, several are used for cross-country skiing.

Climate.

Karlstad has a humid continental climate ("Dfb") with influence from the surrounding waters of Vänern and the inflow from the Atlantic Ocean. It has large differences between seasons and is moderately influenced by both marine and land airflows. The highest recorded temperature since 1901 is 34.0°C (93.2°F) in July 1933 and the lowest is -36.0°C (-32.8°F) from February 1966.

Karlstad (, ) is a city, the seat of Karlstad Municipality, the capital of Värmland County, and the largest city in the province Värmland in Sweden. The city had 61,492 inhabitants in 2015 with 90,882 inhabitants in the wider municipality in 2017, and is the 21st biggest municipality in Sweden. Karlstad has a university and a cathedral.


Biography.

Early life.

Born in Metz, Verlaine was educated at the "Lycée Impérial Bonaparte" (now the Lycée Condorcet) in Paris and then took up a post in the civil service. He began writing poetry at an early age, and was initially influenced by the Parnassien movement and its leader, Leconte de Lisle. Verlaine's first published poem was published in 1863 in "La Revue du progrès", a publication founded by poet Louis-Xavier de Ricard. Verlaine was a frequenter of the salon of the Marquise de Ricard (Louis-Xavier de Ricard's mother) at 10 Boulevard des Batignolles and other social venues, where he rubbed shoulders with prominent artistic figures of the day: Anatole France, Emmanuel Chabrier, inventor-poet and humorist Charles Cros, the cynical anti-bourgeois idealist Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, Théodore de Banville, François Coppée, Jose-Maria de Heredia, Leconte de Lisle, Catulle Mendes and others. Verlaine's first published collection, "Poèmes saturniens" (1866), though adversely commented upon by Sainte-Beuve, established him as a poet of promise and originality.

Marriage and military service.

Mathilde Mauté became Verlaine's wife in 1870. At the proclamation of the Third Republic in the same year, Verlaine joined the 160th battalion of the "Garde nationale", turning Communard on 18 March 1871.  He became head of the press bureau of the Central Committee of the Paris Commune. Verlaine escaped the deadly street fighting known as the Bloody Week, or "Semaine Sanglante", and went into hiding in the Pas-de-Calais.

Relationships with Rimbaud and Létinois.

Verlaine returned to Paris in August 1871, and, in September, he received the first letter from Arthur Rimbaud, who admired his poetry. He urged Rimbaud to come to Paris, and by 1872, he had lost interest in Mathilde, and effectively abandoned her and their son, preferring the company of his new lover. Rimbaud and Verlaine's stormy affair took them to London in 1872. In Brussels in July 1873 in a drunken, jealous rage, he fired two shots with a pistol at Rimbaud, wounding his left wrist, though not seriously injuring the poet. As an indirect result of this incident, Verlaine was arrested and imprisoned at Mons, where he underwent a re-conversion to Roman Catholicism, which again influenced his work and provoked Rimbaud's sharp criticism.  The poems collected in "Romances sans paroles" (1874) were written between 1872 and 1873, inspired by Verlaine's nostalgically colored recollections of his life with Mathilde on the one hand and impressionistic sketches of his on-again off-again year-long escapade with Rimbaud on the other. "Romances sans paroles" was published while Verlaine was imprisoned. Following his release from prison, Verlaine again traveled to England, where he worked for some years as a teacher, teaching French, Latin and Greek, and drawing at a grammar school in Stickney in Lincolnshire. From there he went to teach in nearby Boston, before moving to Bournemouth. While in England he produced another successful collection, "Sagesse". He returned to France in 1877 and, while teaching English at a school in Rethel, fell in love with one of his pupils, Lucien Létinois, who inspired Verlaine to write further poems. Verlaine was devastated when Létinois died of typhus in 1883.

Final years.

Verlaine's last years saw his descent into drug addiction, alcoholism, and poverty. He lived in slums and public hospitals, and spent his days drinking absinthe in Paris cafés. However, the people's love for his art was able to resurrect support and bring in an income for Verlaine: his early poetry was rediscovered, his lifestyle and strange behaviour in front of crowds attracted admiration, and in 1894 he was elected France's "Prince of Poets" by his peers.  His poetry was admired and recognized as ground-breaking, and served as a source of inspiration to composers. Gabriel Fauré composed many mélodies, such as the song cycles "Cinq mélodies "de Venise"" and "La bonne chanson", which were settings of Verlaine's poems. Claude Debussy set to music "Clair de lune" and six of the "Fêtes galantes" poems, forming part of the "mélodie" collection known as the "Recueil Vasnier"; he also made another setting of Clair de lune, and the poem inspired his Suite bergamasque. Reynaldo Hahn set several of Verlaine's poems as did the Belgian-British composer Poldowski (daughter of Henryk Wieniawski).  His drug dependence and alcoholism caught up with him and took a toll on his life. Paul Verlaine died in Paris at the age of 51 on 8 January 1896; he was buried in the Cimetière des Batignolles (he was first buried in the 20th division, but his grave was moved to the 11th division—on the roundabout, a much better location—when the Boulevard Périphérique was built).

Style.

Much of the French poetry produced during the "fin de siècle" was characterized as "decadent" for its lurid content or moral vision. In a similar vein, Verlaine used the expression "poète maudit" ("cursed poet") in 1884 to refer to a number of poets like Stéphane Mallarmé, Arthur Rimbaud, Aloysius Bertrand, Comte de Lautréamont, Tristan Corbière or Alice de Chambrier, who had fought against poetic conventions and suffered social rebuke or were ignored by the critics. But with the publication of Jean Moréas' "Symbolist Manifesto" in 1886, it was the term symbolism which was most often applied to the new literary environment. Along with Verlaine, Mallarmé, Rimbaud, Paul Valéry, Albert Samain and many others began to be referred to as "Symbolists." These poets would often share themes that parallel Schopenhauer's aesthetics and notions of will, fatality and unconscious forces, and used themes of sex (such as prostitutes), the city, irrational phenomena (delirium, dreams, narcotics, alcohol), and sometimes a vaguely medieval setting.  In poetry, the symbolist procedure—as typified by Verlaine—was to use subtle suggestion instead of precise statement (rhetoric was banned) and to evoke moods and feelings through the magic of words and repeated sounds and the cadence of verse (musicality) and metrical innovation.  Verlaine described his typically decadent style in great detail in his poem "Art Poétique," describing the primacy of musicality and the importance of elusiveness and "the Odd." He spoke of veils and nuance and implored poets to "Keep away from the murderous Sharp Saying, Cruel Wit, and Impure Laugh." It is with these lyrical veils in mind that he concluded by suggesting that a poem should be a "happy occurrence."

Portraits.

Numerous artists painted Verlaine's portrait. Among the most illustrious were Henri Fantin-Latour, Antonio de la Gándara, Eugène Carrière, Gustave Courbet, Frédéric Cazalis, and Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen.

Works.

Verlaine's "Complete Works" are available in critical editions from the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade.

Paul-Marie Verlaine (; ; 30 March 1844 – 8 January 1896) was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement and the Decadent movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the "fin de siècle" in international and French poetry.


Normal atmospheric conditions.

Usually, within the lower atmosphere (the troposphere) the air near the surface of the Earth is warmer than the air above it, largely because the atmosphere is heated from below as solar radiation warms the Earth's surface, which in turn then warms the layer of the atmosphere directly above it, e.g., by thermals (convective heat transfer). Air temperature also decreases with an increase in altitude because higher air is at lower pressure, and lower pressure results in lower temperature, following the ideal gas law and adiabatic lapse rate.

Causes.

Given the right conditions, the normal vertical temperature gradient is inverted such that the air is colder near the surface of the Earth. This can occur when, for example, a warmer, less-dense air mass moves over a cooler, denser air mass. This type of inversion occurs in the vicinity of warm fronts, and also in areas of oceanic upwelling such as along the California coast in the United States. With sufficient humidity in the cooler layer, fog is typically present below the inversion cap. An inversion is also produced whenever radiation from the surface of the earth exceeds the amount of radiation received from the sun, which commonly occurs at night, or during the winter when the angle of the sun is very low in the sky. This effect is virtually confined to land regions as the ocean retains heat far longer. In the polar regions during winter, inversions are nearly always present over land.  A warmer air mass moving over a cooler one can "shut off" any convection which may be present in the cooler air mass. This is known as a capping inversion. However, if this cap is broken, either by extreme convection overcoming the cap, or by the lifting effect of a front or a mountain range, the sudden release of bottled-up convective energy like the bursting of a balloon can result in severe thunderstorms. Such capping inversions typically precede the development of tornadoes in the Midwestern United States. In this instance, the "cooler" layer is actually quite warm, but is still denser and usually cooler than the lower part of the inversion layer capping it.

Subsidence inversion.

An inversion can develop aloft as a result of air gradually sinking over a wide area and being warmed by adiabatic compression, usually associated with subtropical high-pressure areas. A stable marine layer may then develop over the ocean as a result. As this layer moves over progressively warmer waters, however, turbulence within the marine layer can gradually lift the inversion layer to higher altitudes, and eventually even pierce it, producing thunderstorms, and under the right circumstances, tropical cyclones. The accumulated smog and dust under the inversion quickly taints the sky reddish, easily seen on sunny days.

Consequences.

Temperature inversion stops atmospheric convection (which is normally present) from happening in the affected area and can lead to the air becoming stiller and murky from the collection of dust and pollutants that are no longer able to be lifted from the surface. This can become a problem in cities where many pollutants exist. Inversion effects occur frequently in big cities, but also in smaller cities. These cities are closely surrounded by hills and mountains, or on plains which are surrounded by mountain chains, which makes an inversion trap the air in the city. During a severe inversion, trapped air pollutants form a brownish haze that can cause respiratory problems. The Great Smog of 1952 in London, England, is one of the most serious examples of such an inversion. It was blamed for an estimated 11,000 to 12,000 deaths.  Sometimes the inversion layer is at a high enough altitude that cumulus clouds can condense but can only spread out under the inversion layer. This decreases the amount of sunlight reaching the ground and prevents new thermals from forming. As the clouds disperse, sunny weather replaces cloudiness in a cycle that can occur more than once a day.  As the temperature of air increases, the index of refraction of air decreases, a side effect of hotter air being less dense. Normally this results in distant objects being shortened vertically, an effect that is easy to see at sunset where the sun is visible as an oval. In an inversion, the normal pattern is reversed, and distant objects are instead stretched out or appear to be above the horizon, leading to the phenomenon known as a Fata Morgana or mirage.  Inversions can magnify the so-called "green flash"—a phenomenon occurring at sunrise or sunset, usually visible for a few seconds, in which the sun's green light is isolated due to dispersion. The shorter wavelength is refracted most, so it is the first or last light from the upper rim of the solar disc to be seen.

Electromagnetic radiation (radio and television).

Very high frequency radio waves can be refracted by inversions, making it possible to hear FM radio or watch VHF low-band television broadcasts from long distances on foggy nights. The signal, which would normally be refracted up and away from the ground-based antenna, is instead refracted down towards the earth by the temperature-inversion boundary layer. This phenomenon is called tropospheric ducting. Along coast lines during Autumn and Spring, due to multiple stations being simultaneously present because of reduced propagation losses, many FM radio stations are plagued by severe signal degradation causing them to sound scrambled.

Sound.

When an inversion layer is present, if a sound or explosion occurs at ground level, the sound wave is refracted by the temperature gradient (which affects sound speed) and returns towards the ground. The sound, therefore, travels much better than normal. This is noticeable in areas around airports, where the sound of aircraft taking off and landing often can be heard at greater distances around dawn than at other times of day, and inversion thunder which is significantly louder and travels further than when it is produced by lightning strikes under normal conditions.

Shock waves.

The shock wave from an explosion can be reflected by an inversion layer in much the same way as it bounces off the ground in an air-burst and can cause additional damage as a result. This phenomenon killed three people in the Soviet RDS-37 nuclear test when a building collapsed.

In meteorology, an inversion, also known as a temperature inversion, is a deviation from the normal change of an atmospheric property with altitude. It almost always refers to an inversion of the thermal lapse rate. Normally, air temperature decreases with an increase in altitude. During an inversion, warmer air is held above cooler air; the normal temperature profile with altitude is inverted.


Rope types.

Dynamic climbing ropes are classified into three categories: Single ropes, twin ropes, and half ropes (also referred to as 'double ropes').  Both twin and half ropes have the advantage of redundancy, as well as allowing a rappel along the full length of the climbing rope (by tying both ropes together), so that climbers can descend from a long multipitch route with fewer rappels than with a single rope. Some ropes are 'triple rated', meeting the standards for all three rope types, so they can be used in each configuration.

Length and diameters.

Dynamic ropes used for rock climbing come in a variety of lengths and diameters, with the most common lengths being,,. Lengths will vary depending on rope maintenance and age, and there are even ropes as long as 80 meters for specialized ascents on routes that would normally require a multi-pitch climbing attempt due to being only slightly longer than a standard rope length. Rope diameters are generally between 8.3mm and 11.5mm, with the different diameters used for slightly different purposes. Sport and multi-pitch trad climbers often value thinner ropes because they are lighter, and have less rope drag. Thinner ropes also run more smoothly through belay devices, especially assisted braking devices or 'tube-style' devices operated in 'guide mode', which can be tedious to pull thicker or stiffer rope through. Lighter, thinner ropes, however, have less strength than a thicker rope and will sustain fewer hard falls. Note that some belay devices are better suited for different rope diameters. This is particularly relevant with assisted braking devices, such as the Petzl Grigri (which, for example, works best with a 9.4-10.3 mm thick line) or the Faders SUM. Users must make sure to read the instructions for the device carefully to ensure safety and recognize any limitations to rope diameter.

Standards and testing.

All modern rock climbing dynamic ropes rated by the UIAA must meet certain standards and pass testing for Construction, Sheath Slippage, Static Elongation, Impact Force on first fall, and Number of falls held. The force rating indicates the maximum amount of force the rope can deliver to a falling climber, measured in kilonewtons (kN), under test conditions designed to simulate a hard fall; typical climbing ropes range from 9kN up to an Arborist's 24kN. The force rating is often misunderstood by climbers, because all other climbing gear is rated by the breaking strength (in kN) of the material. Whereas a higher rating (indicating greater strength) is desired for other gear, for dynamic ropes a lower rating is generally desired, as this indicates it would give a'soft catch' that is less likely to injure the climber or break or dislodge protection or anchors.  Unlike most climbing equipment, dynamic ropes do not have a rated tensile breaking strength. Instead, the strength of a rope is tested by the number of standard test falls a rope can sustain before breaking. The test falls use an 80 kg weight for single ropes (55 kg for half ropes), and a fall factor of 1.7 (4 meter fall on 2.3 meters of rope). This tests simulates a very hard fall that would rarely occur. When climbing, it is possible to produce a fall factor as high as 2, however, real-world climbing situations include additional shock absorbing elements which are not included in the test standard, such as the body of both the climber and belayer, elasticity of their harnesses and anchor materials, and friction between the rope and the belay device, and any protection pieces. Single ropes must sustain at least 5 such falls before breaking, and a rope that can sustain more than 9 falls is considered a'multifall' rope. In practice, climbing ropes rarely if ever break due to a fall alone- all documented rope failures involve the rope being cut or damaged, for example by abrasion against a sharp rock edge. Ropes are especially vulnerable to being cut while they are weighted with the body of the climber, and moving over a sharp edge (for example if a following climber is resting his weight on the rope, or using the rope for assistance, while swinging or traversing under a roof, while being belayed from above). In general, thicker ropes will be stronger and more durable, and have a higher fall rating.

Rope care and maintenance.

Modern ropes are made from nylon and don't require a great deal of maintenance. Ropes that are frequently used are often inspected for cuts, abrasions, or frayed areas; any cut or fraying that passes into the core of the rope is cause for concern. Ropes can also be washed to clean them of any extensive dirt or grime.  Every fall lessens the amount of impact a rope can later absorb, and hard falls can seriously compromise the strength of a rope, without showing obvious signs of wear. One definition of a 'hard fall' is a long fall (> 10–15 meters) with a fall factor greater than one. Manufacturers often recommended that ropes be retired if they sustain an extremely hard fall, even if they do not show outward signs of wear.

A dynamic rope is a specially constructed, somewhat elastic rope used primarily in rock climbing, ice climbing, and mountaineering. This'stretch' is what makes it 'dynamic', in contrast to a static rope that has very low elongation under load. Greater stretch allows a dynamic rope to absorb the energy of a sudden load such as from a fall more slowly, reducing the peak force and therefore the chance of catastrophic failure. Kernmantle ropes are the most common type of dynamic rope, and nylon has replaced all natural materials such as hemp (Manila rope) since 1945 for durability and strength.


Definition.

There are two primary types of classification used for information organization: enumerative and faceted. An enumerative classification contains a full set of entries for all concepts. A faceted classification system uses a set of semantically cohesive categories that are combined as needed to create an expression of a concept. In this way, the faceted classification is not limited to already defined concepts. While this makes the classification quite flexible, it also makes the resulting expression of topics complex. To the extent possible, facets represent "clearly defined, mutually exclusive, and collectively exhaustive aspects of a subject. The premise is that any subject or class can be analyzed into its component parts (i.e., its aspects, properties, or characteristics)." Some commonly used general-purpose facets are time, place, and form.  There are few purely faceted classifications; the best known of these is the Colon Classification of S. R. Ranganathan, a general knowledge classification for libraries. Some other faceted classifications are specific to special topics, such as the Art and Architecture Thesaurus and the faceted classification of occupational safety and health topics created by D. J. Foskett for the International Labour Organization.  Many library classifications combine the enumerative and faceted classification techniques. The Dewey Decimal Classification, the Library of Congress Classification, and the Universal Decimal Classification all make use of facets at various points in their enumerated classification schedules. The allowed facets vary based on the subject area of the classification. These facets are recorded as tables that represent recurring types of subdivisions within subject areas. There are general facets that can be used wherever appropriate, such as geographic subdivisions of the topic. Other tables are applied only to specific areas of the schedules. Facets can be combined to create a complex subject statement.  Daniel Joudrey and Arlene Taylor describe faceted classification using an analogy: “If one thinks of each of the faces of a cut and polished diamond as a facet of the whole, one can picture a classification notation that has small notations standing for subparts of the whole topic, which are pieced together to create a complete classification notation."  Faceted classifications exhibit many of the same problems as classifications based on a hierarchy. In particular, some concepts could belong in more than one facet, so their placement in the classification may appear to be arbitrary to the classifier. It also tends to result in a complex notation because each facet must be distinguishable as recorded.

Retrieval.

Search in systems with faceted classification can enable a user to navigate information along multiple paths corresponding to different orderings of the facets. This contrasts with traditional taxonomies in which the hierarchy of categories is fixed and unchanging. It is also possible to use facets to filter search results to more quickly find desired results.

Examples of faceted classifications.

Colon classification for library materials.

The Colon Classification developed by S. R. Ranganathan is an example of general faceted classification designed to be applied to all library materials. In the Colon Classification system, a book is assigned a set of values from each independent facet. This facet formula uses punctuation marks and symbols placed between the facets to connect them. Colon classification was named after its use of the colon as the primary symbol in its notation.  Ranganathan stated that hierarchical classification schemes like the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) or the Library of Congress Subject Headings are too limiting and finite to use for modern classification and that many items can pertain information to more than one subject. He organized his classification scheme into 42 classes. Each class can be categorized according to particular characteristics, that he called facets. Ranganathan said that there are five fundamental categories that can be used to demonstrate the facets of a subject: personality, material, energy, space and time. He called this the PMEST formula:

Universal Decimal Classification.

Another example of a faceted classification scheme is the Universal Decimal Classification (UDC), the UDC is considered to be a complex multilingual classification that can be used in all fields of knowledge. The Universal Decimal Classification scheme was created at the end of the nineteenth century by Belgian bibliographers Paul Otlet and Henri la Fontaine. The goal of their system was to create an index that would be able to record knowledge even if it is stored in non-conventional ways including materials in notebooks and ephemera. They also wanted their index to organize material systematically instead of alphabetically.  The UDC has an overall taxonomy of knowledge that is extended with a number of facets, such as language, form, place and time. Each facet has its own symbol in the notation, such as: "=" for language; "-02" for materials, "[...]" for subordinate concepts.

Faceted Classification for Occupational Safety and Health.

D. J. Foskett, a member of the Classification Research Group in London, developed classification of occupational safety and health materials for the library of the International Labour Organization. After a study of the literature in the field, he created the classification with the following facets:  Notation was solely alphabetic, with the sub-facets organized hierarchically using extended codes, such as "g Industrial equipment and processes", "ge Machines".

Art and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT).

While not strictly a classification system, the AAT uses facets similar to those of Ranganathan's Colon Classification:

Comparison between faceted and single hierarchical classification.

Hierarchical classification refers to the classification of objects using one "single" hierarchical taxonomy. Faceted classification may actually employ hierarchy in one or more of its facets, but allows for the use of more than one taxonomy to classify objects.

A faceted classification is a classification scheme used in organizing knowledge into a systematic order. A faceted classification uses semantic categories, either general or subject-specific, that are combined to create the full classification entry. Many library classification systems use a combination of a fixed, enumerative taxonomy of concepts with subordinate facets that further refine the topic.


History.

Ant ("Another Neat Tool") was conceived by James Duncan Davidson while preparing Sun Microsystems's reference JSP and Servlet engine, later Apache Tomcat, for release as open-source. A proprietary version of Make was used to build it on the Solaris platform, but in the open-source world, there was no way of controlling which platform was used to build Tomcat; so Ant was created as a simple platform-independent tool to build Tomcat from directives in an XML "build file". Ant (version 1.1) was officially released as a stand-alone product on July 19, 2000.  Several proposals for an Ant version 2 have been made, such as AntEater by James Duncan Davidson, Myrmidon by Peter Donald and Mutant by Conor MacNeill, none of which were able to find large acceptance with the developer community.  At one time (2002), Ant was the build tool used by most Java development projects. For example, most open source Java developers included codice_1 files with their distribution. Because Ant made it trivial to integrate JUnit tests with the build process, Ant made it easy for willing developers to adopt test-driven development, and even extreme programming.

Extensions.

WOProject-Ant is just one of many examples of a task extension written for Ant. These extensions are installed by copying their codice_3 files into ant's codice_4 directory. Once this is done, these task extensions can be invoked directly in the typical codice_1 file. The WOProject extensions allow WebObjects developers to use ant in building their frameworks and apps, instead of using Apple's Xcode suite.  codice_6 provides a collection of tasks such as conditional statements and operations on properties as well as other useful tasks.  codice_7 implements tasks and types for networking, Swing user interfaces, JSON processing and other.  Other task extensions exist for Perforce,.NET Framework, EJB, and filesystem manipulations.

Example.

Below is listed a sample codice_1 file for a simple Java "Hello, world" application. It defines four targets - codice_9, codice_10, codice_11 and codice_12, each of which has an associated description. The codice_12 target lists the codice_11 target as a dependency. This tells Ant that before it can start the codice_12 target it must first complete the codice_11 target. <?xml version="1.0"?> <project name="Hello" default="compile"> </project> Within each target are the actions that Ant must take to build that target; these are performed using built-in tasks. For example, to build the codice_17 target Ant must first create a directory called codice_18 (which Ant will do only if it does not already exist) and then invoke the Java compiler. Therefore, the tasks used are codice_19 and codice_20. These perform a similar task to the command-line utilities of the same name.  Another task used in this example is named codice_12: <jar destfile="hello.jar"> This Ant task has the same name as the common Java command-line utility, JAR, but is really a call to the Ant program's built-in JAR/ZIP file support. This detail is not relevant to most end users, who just get the JAR they wanted, with the files they asked for.  Many Ant tasks delegate their work to external programs, either native or Java. They use Ant's own and tasks to set up the command lines, and handle all the details of mapping from information in the build file to the program's arguments and interpreting the return value. Users can see which tasks do this (e.g.,,, ), by trying to execute the task on a system without the underlying program on the path, or without a full Java Development Kit (JDK) installed.

Portability.

One of the primary aims of Ant was to solve Make's portability problems. The first portability issue in a Makefile is that the actions required to create a target are specified as shell commands which are specific to the platform on which Make runs. Different platforms require different shell commands. Ant solves this problem by providing a large amount of built-in functionality that is designed to behave the same on all platforms. For example, in the sample codice_1 file above, the "clean" target deletes the codice_18 directory and everything in it. In a Makefile this would typically be done with the command: codice_24 is a Unix-specific command unavailable in some other environments. Microsoft Windows, for example, would use: In an Ant build file the same goal would be accomplished using a built-in command:  A second portability issue is a result of the fact that the symbol used to delimit elements of file system directory path components differs from one platform to another. Unix uses a forward slash (/) to delimit components whereas Windows uses a backslash (\). Ant build files let authors choose their favorite convention: forward slash or backslash for directories; semicolon or colon for path separators. It converts each to the symbol appropriate to the platform on which it executes.

Limitations.

There exist myriad third-party Ant extensions (called "antlibs") that provide much of the missing functionality. Also, the Eclipse integrated development environment (IDE) can build and execute Ant scripts, while the NetBeans IDE uses Ant for its internal build system. As both these IDEs are very popular development platforms, they can simplify Ant use significantly. (As a bonus, Ant scripts generated by NetBeans can be used outside that IDE as standalone scripts.)

Apache Ant is a software tool for automating software build processes which originated from the Apache Tomcat project in early 2000. It was a replacement for the Make build tool of Unix, and was created due to a number of problems with Unix's make. It is similar to Make but is implemented using the Java language, requires the Java platform, and is best suited to building Java projects.


Calculation.

Solar irradiance is measured by satellites above Earth's atmosphere, and is then adjusted using the inverse square law to infer the magnitude of solar irradiance at one Astronomical Unit (AU) to evaluate the solar constant. The approximate average value cited, 1.3608 ± 0.0005 kW/m2, which is 81.65 kJ/m2 per minute, is equivalent to approximately 1.951 calories per minute per square centimeter, or 1.951 langleys per minute.  Solar output is nearly, but not quite, constant. Variations in total solar irradiance (TSI) were small and difficult to detect accurately with technology available before the satellite era (±2% in 1954). Total solar output is now measured as varying (over the last three 11-year sunspot cycles) by approximately 0.1%; see solar variation for details.

Historical measurements.

In 1838, Claude Pouillet made the first estimate of the solar constant. Using a very simple pyrheliometer he developed, he obtained a value of 1.228 kW/m2, close to the current estimate.  In 1875, Jules Violle resumed the work of Pouillet and offered a somewhat larger estimate of 1.7 kW/m2 based, in part, on a measurement that he made from Mont Blanc in France.  In 1884, Samuel Pierpont Langley attempted to estimate the solar constant from Mount Whitney in California. By taking readings at different times of day, he tried to correct for effects due to atmospheric absorption. However, the final value he proposed, 2.903 kW/m2, was much too large.  In 1954 the solar constant was evaluated as 2.00 cal/min/cm ± 2%. Current results are about 2.5 percent lower.

Relationship to other measurements.

Solar irradiance.

The actual direct solar irradiance at the top of the atmosphere fluctuates by about 6.9% during a year (from 1.412 kW/m2 in early January to 1.321 kW/m2 in early July) due to the Earth's varying distance from the Sun, and typically by much less than 0.1% from day to day. Thus, for the whole Earth (which has a cross section of 127,400,000 km2), the power is 1.730×10 W (or 173,000 terawatts), plus or minus 3.5% (half the approximately 6.9% annual range). The solar constant does not remain constant over long periods of time (see Solar variation), but over a year the solar constant varies much less than the solar irradiance measured at the top of the atmosphere. This is because the solar constant is evaluated at a fixed distance of 1 Astronomical Unit (AU) while the solar irradiance will be affected by the eccentricity of the Earth's orbit. Its distance to the Sun varies annually between 147.1·10 km at perihelion and 152.1·10 km at aphelion. In addition, several long term (tens to hundreds of millennia) cycles of subtle variation the Earth's orbit (Milankovich cycles) affect the solar irradiance and isolation (but not the solar constant).  The Earth receives a total amount of radiation determined by its cross section (π·R2), but as it rotates this energy is distributed across the entire surface area (4·π·R2). Hence the average incoming solar radiation, taking into account the angle at which the rays strike and that at any one moment half the planet does not receive any solar radiation, is one-fourth the solar constant (approximately 340 W/m2). The amount reaching the Earth's surface (as insolation) is further reduced by atmospheric attenuation, which varies. At any given moment, the amount of solar radiation received at a location on the Earth's surface depends on the state of the atmosphere, the location's latitude, and the time of day.

Apparent magnitude.

The solar constant includes all wavelengths of solar electromagnetic radiation, not just the visible light (see Electromagnetic spectrum). It is positively correlated with the apparent magnitude of the Sun which is −26.8. The solar constant and the magnitude of the Sun are two methods of describing the apparent brightness of the Sun, though the magnitude is based on the Sun's visual output only.

The Sun's total radiation.

The angular diameter of the Earth as seen from the Sun is approximately 1/11,700 radians (about 18 arcseconds), meaning the solid angle of the Earth as seen from the Sun is approximately 1/175,000,000 of a steradian. Thus the Sun emits about 2.2 billion times the amount of radiation that is caught by Earth, in other words about 3.846×10 watts.

Past variations in solar irradiance.

Space-based observations of solar irradiance started in 1978. These measurements show that the solar constant is not constant. It varies with the 11-year sunspot solar cycle. When going further back in time, one has to rely on irradiance reconstructions, using sunspots for the past 400 years or cosmogenic radionuclides for going back 10,000 years. Such reconstructions show that solar irradiance varies with distinct periodicities. These cycles are: 11 years (Schwabe), 88 years (Gleisberg cycle), 208 years (DeVries cycle) and 1,000 years (Eddy cycle).  Over billions of years, the Sun is gradually expanding, and emitting more energy from the resultant larger surface area. The unsolved question of how to account for the clear geological evidence of liquid water on the Earth billions of years ago, at a time when the sun's luminosity was only 70% of its current value, is known as the faint young Sun paradox.

Variations due to atmospheric conditions.

At most about 75% of the solar energy actually reaches the earth's surface, as even with a cloudless sky it is partially reflected and absorbed by the atmosphere. Even light cirrus clouds reduce this to 50%, stronger cirrus clouds to 40%. Thus the solar energy arriving at the surface with the sun directly overhead can vary from 550 W/m2 with cirrus clouds to 1025 W/m2 with a clear sky.

The solar constant (G) is a flux density measuring mean solar electromagnetic radiation (solar irradiance) per unit area. It is measured on a surface perpendicular to the rays, one astronomical unit (AU) from the Sun (roughly the distance from the Sun to the Earth).


Early life.

He was born at Haddington, East Lothian, the only son of the Scottish king William the Lion and Ermengarde of Beaumont. He spent time in England (John of England knighted him at Clerkenwell Priory in 1213) before succeeding to the kingdom on the death of his father on 4 December 1214, being crowned at Scone on 6 December the same year.

King of Scots.

In 1215, the year after his accession, the clans Meic Uilleim and MacHeths, inveterate enemies of the Scottish crown, broke into revolt; but loyalist forces speedily quelled the insurrection. In the same year Alexander joined the English barons in their struggle against John of England, and led an army into the Kingdom of England in support of their cause. This action led to the sacking of Berwick-upon-Tweed as John's forces ravaged the north.  The Scottish forces reached the south coast of England at the port of Dover where in September 1216, Alexander paid homage to the pretender Prince Louis of France for his lands in England, chosen by the barons to replace King John. But King John having died, the Pope and the English aristocracy changed their allegiance to his nine-year-old son, Henry, forcing the French and the Scots armies to return home.  Peace between Henry III, Louis of France, and Alexander followed on 12 September 1217 with the Treaty of Kingston. Diplomacy further strengthened the reconciliation by the marriage of Alexander to Henry's sister Joan of England on 18 June or 25 June 1221.  In 1222 Jon Haraldsson, the last native Scandinavian to be Jarl of Orkney, was indirectly implicated in the burning of Bishop Adam at his hall at Halkirk by local farmers when this part of Caithness was still part of the Kingdom of Norway. A contemporary chronicler, Boethius the Dane blamed Haraldsson for the bishop's death. After the Jarl swore oaths to his own innocence, Alexander took the opportunity to assert his claims to the mainland part of the Orkney jarldom. He visited Caithness in person, and hanged the majority of the farmers while mutilating the rest. His actions were applauded by Pope Honorius III, and a quarter of a century later, he was continuing to receive commendation from the Vatican, as in the reward of a bull from Celestine IV.  During the same period, Alexander subjugated the hitherto semi-independent district of Argyll (much smaller than the modern area by that name, it only comprised Craignish, Ardscotnish, Glassary, Glenary, and Cowal; Lorn was a separate province, while Kintyre and Knapdale were part of Suðreyar). Royal forces crushed a revolt in Galloway in 1235 without difficulty; nor did an invasion attempted soon afterwards by its exiled leaders meet with success. Soon afterwards a claim for homage from Henry of England drew forth from Alexander a counter-claim to the northern English counties. The two kingdoms, however, settled this dispute by a compromise in 1237. This was the Treaty of York, which defined the boundary between the two kingdoms as running between the Solway Firth (in the west) and the mouth of the River Tweed (in the east).  Alexander's first wife Joan of England died in March 1238 in Essex, and was buried in Dorset. Alexander married his second wife, Marie de Coucy, the following year on 15 May 1239. Together they had one son, the future Alexander III, born in 1241.  A threat of invasion by Henry in 1243 for a time interrupted the friendly relations between the two countries; but the prompt action of Alexander in anticipating his attack, and the disinclination of the English barons for war, compelled him to make peace next year at Newcastle.  Alexander now turned his attention to securing the Western Isles, which were still part of the Norwegian domain of Suðreyjar. He repeatedly attempted negotiations and purchase, but without success. Alexander set out to conquer these islands but died on the way in 1249. This dispute over the Western Isles, also known as the Hebrides, was not resolved until 1266 when Magnus VI of Norway ceded them to Scotland along with the Isle of Man.  The English chronicler Matthew Paris in his "Chronica Majora" described Alexander as red-haired:  [King John] taunted King Alexander, and because he was red-headed, sent word to him, saying,'so shall we hunt the red fox-cub from his lairs.

Death.

Alexander attempted to persuade Ewen, the son of Duncan, Lord of Argyll, to sever his allegiance to Haakon IV of Norway. When Ewen rejected these attempts, Alexander sailed forth to compel him, but on the way he suffered a fever at the Isle of Kerrera in the Inner Hebrides. He died there in 1249 and was buried at Melrose Abbey.  He was succeeded by his son, the seven-year-old Alexander III of Scotland.

Family.

Alexander II had two wives:  1. Joan of England, (22 July 12104 March 1238), was the eldest legitimate daughter and third child of John of England and Isabella of Angoulême. She and Alexander II married on 21 June 1221, at York Minster. Alexander was 23. Joan was 11. They had no children. Joan was Alexander's 3rd cousin, their closest common ancestor being Henry I of England. Joan died in Essex in 1238, and was buried at Tarant Crawford Abbey in Dorset.  2. Marie de Coucy, who became mother of Alexander III of Scotland. She was Alexander's third cousin once removed by their common ancestor Hugh, Count of Vermandois.  He also had an illegitimate daughter Marjorie, who married Alan Durward.

Fictional portrayals.

Alexander II has been depicted in historical novels:  The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio. Day the Second: Third Story.

Further reading.

Alexander II (Mediaeval Gaelic: '; Modern Gaelic: '; 24 August 11986 July 1249) was King of Scotland from 1214 until his death. He concluded the Treaty of York (1237) which defined the boundary between England and Scotland, virtually unchanged today.