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Alexander von Humboldt | |
Alexander von Humboldt, by Joseph Stieler, 1843 | |
Born | September 14, 1769 Berlin |
Died | May 6, 1859 Berlin | (aged 89)
Nationality | Prussian |
Fields | Geography |
Known for | Biogeography, Kosmos (1845) |
Influences | Schelling |
Influenced | Darwin |
Notable awards | Copley Medal (1852) |
Signature |
Alexander von Humboldt | |
Alexander von Humboldt, by Joseph Stieler, 1843 | |
Born | September 14, 1769 Berlin |
Died | May 6, 1859 Berlin | (aged 89)
Nationality | Prussian |
Fields | Geography |
Known for | Biogeography, Kosmos (1845) |
Influences | Schelling |
Influenced | Darwin |
Notable awards | Copley Medal (1852) |
Signature |
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt ( listen (help·info); September 14, 1769 – May 6, 1859) was a Prussian geographer, naturalist, and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835). Humboldt's quantitative work on botanical geography laid the foundation for the field of biogeography.
Between 1799 and 1804, Humboldt travelled extensively in Latin America, exploring and describing it for the first time from a modern scientific point of view. His description of the journey was written up and published in an enormous set of volumes over 21 years. He was one of the first to propose that the lands bordering the Atlantic Ocean were once joined (South America and Africa in particular). Later, his five-volume work, Kosmos (1845), attempted to unify the various branches of scientific knowledge. Humboldt supported and worked with other scientists, including Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac, Justus von Liebig, Louis Agassiz, Matthew Fontaine Maury, Georg von Neumayer, and most notably, Aimé Bonpland, with whom he conducted much of his scientific exploration.
Humboldt was born in Berlin in the Margraviate of Brandenburg in 1769.[1] His father, Alexander Georg von Humboldt, belonged to a prominent Pomeranian family; a major in the Prussian Army, he was rewarded for his services in the Seven Years' War with the post of Royal Chamberlain. He married the daughter of the Prussian general adjutant, Schweder.[1] In 1766, he married Maria Elizabeth Colomb, the widow of Baron Hollwede, and they had two sons. The money of Baron Holwede, left to his former wife, was instrumental in funding Humboldt's explorations, contributing more than 70% of his private income.[citation needed]
Due to his youthful penchant for collecting and labelling plants, shells and insects, Humboldt received the playful title of "the little apothecary". His father died in 1779, after which his mother saw to his education. Marked for a political career, he studied finance for six months at the University of Frankfurt (Oder); a year later, on April 25, 1789, he matriculated at Göttingen, then known for the lectures of C. G. Heyne and J. F. Blumenbach. His vast and varied interests were by this time fully developed, and during a vacation in 1789 he made a scientific excursion up the Rhine and produced the treatise Mineralogische Beobachtungen über einige Basalte am Rhein (Brunswick, 1790) (Mineralogic Observations on Several Basalts on the River Rhine).
Humboldt's passion for travel was confirmed by a friendship formed at Göttingen with Georg Forster, Heyne's son-in-law and the companion of Captain James Cook on Cook's second voyage. Thereafter, his talents were devoted to the purpose of preparing himself as a scientific explorer. With this emphasis, he studied commerce and foreign languages at Hamburg, geology at Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg under A. G. Werner, anatomy at Jena under J. C. Loder and astronomy and the use of scientific instruments under F. X. von Zach and J. G. Köhler. His researches into the vegetation of the mines of Freiberg led to the publication, in 1793, of his Florae Fribergensis Specimen. Long experimentation on muscular irritability, then recently discovered by Luigi Galvani, were contained in his Versuche über die gereizte Muskel- und Nervenfaser (Berlin, 1797) (Experiments on the Frayed Muscle and Nerve Fibres), enriched in the French translation with notes by Blumenbach.
In 1794 Humboldt was admitted to the famous Weimar coterie and contributed (June 7, 1795) to Schiller's new periodical, Die Horen, a philosophical allegory entitled Die Lebenskraft, oder der rhodische Genius. In the summer of 1790 he paid a short visit to England in the company of Forster. In 1792 and 1797 he was in Vienna; in 1795 he made a geological and botanical tour through Switzerland and Italy. He had obtained in the meantime official employment by appointment as assessor of mines at Berlin, February 29, 1792. Although this service to the state was regarded by him as only an apprenticeship to the service of science, he fulfilled its duties with such conspicuous ability that not only did he rise rapidly to the highest post in his department, but he was also entrusted with several important diplomatic missions. The death of his mother, on November 19, 1796, set him free to follow the bent of his genius, and severing his official connections, he waited for an opportunity to fulfil his long-cherished dream of travel.
On the postponement of Captain Nicolas Baudin's proposed voyage of circumnavigation, which he had been officially invited to accompany, Humboldt left Paris for Marseille with Aimé Bonpland, the designated botanist of the frustrated expedition, hoping to join Napoleon Bonaparte in Egypt. Means of transport, however, were not forthcoming, and the two travellers eventually found their way to Madrid, where the unexpected patronage of the minister Don Mariano Luis de Urquijo convinced them to make Spanish America the scene of their explorations.
Armed with powerful recommendations from the King of Spain, they sailed in the Pizarro from A Coruña, on June 5, 1799, stopped six days on the island of Tenerife to climb the volcano Teide, and landed at Cumaná, Venezuela, on July 16. Humboldt visited the mission at Caripe and explored the Guácharo cavern, where he found the oil-bird, which he was to make known to science as Steatornis caripensis. Returning to Cumaná, Humboldt observed, on the night of November 11–12, a remarkable meteor shower (the Leonids). He proceeded with Bonpland to Caracas where he would climb the Avila mount with Andrés Bello. In February 1800, Humboldt and Bonpland left the coast with the purpose of exploring the course of the Orinoco River and its tributaries. This trip, which lasted four months and covered 1,725 miles (2,776 km) of wild and largely uninhabited country, had the important result of establishing the existence of the Casiquiare canal (a communication between the water-systems of the rivers Orinoco and Amazon), and of determining the exact position of the bifurcation, as well as documenting the life of several native tribes such as the Maipures and their extinct rivals the Atures (several words of the latter tribe were transferred to Humboldt by one parrot[2]). Around March 19, 1800, Humboldt and Bonpland discovered and captured some electric eels. They both received potentially dangerous electric shocks during their investigations. Two months later they explored the territory of the Maypures and that of the then recently extinct Aturès Indians.
On November 24, the two friends set sail for Cuba where they met fellow botanist and plant collector John Fraser,[3] and after a stay of some months they regained the mainland at Cartagena, Colombia. Ascending the swollen stream of the Magdalena River and crossing the frozen ridges of the Cordillera Real, they reached Quito on January 6, 1802, after a tedious and difficult journey. Their stay there was marked by the ascent of Pichincha and an attempt on Chimborazo. Humboldt and his party reached an altitude of 19,286 feet (5,878 m), a world record at the time. The journey concluded with an expedition to the sources of the Amazon en route for Lima, Peru.[4] At Callao, Humboldt observed the transit of Mercury on November 9, and studied the fertilizing properties of guano, the subsequent introduction of which into Europe was due mainly to his writings. A tempestuous sea-voyage brought them to Mexico, where they resided for a year, travelling to different cities.
Next, Humboldt made a short visit to the United States, staying in the White House as a guest of President Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson, a scientist himself, was delighted to have Humboldt as a guest and the two held numerous intense discussions on scientific matters. After six weeks, Humboldt set sail for Europe from the mouth of the Delaware and landed at Bordeaux on August 3, 1804.
This memorable expedition may be regarded as having laid the foundation of the sciences of physical geography and meteorology. By his delineation (in 1817) of "isothermal lines", he at once suggested the idea and devised the means of comparing the climatic conditions of various countries. He first investigated the rate of decrease in mean temperature with the increase in elevation above sea level, and afforded, by his inquiries regarding the origin of tropical storms, the earliest clue to the detection of the more complicated law governing atmospheric disturbances in higher latitudes; while his essay on the geography of plants was based on the then novel idea of studying the distribution of organic life as affected by varying physical conditions. His discovery of the decrease in intensity of Earth's magnetic field from the poles to the equator was communicated to the Paris Institute in a memoir read by him on December 7, 1804, and its importance was attested by the speedy emergence of rival claims. His services to geology were based mainly on his attentive study of the volcanoes of the New World. He showed that they fell naturally into linear groups, presumably corresponding with vast subterranean fissures; and by his demonstration of the igneous origin of rocks previously held to be of aqueous formation, he contributed largely to the elimination of erroneous views, such as Neptunism.
Humboldt is considered to be the "second discoverer of Cuba" due to all the scientific and social research he conducted on this Spanish colony. During an initial three-month stay at Havana, his first tasks were to properly survey that city and the nearby towns of Guanabacoa, Regla and Bejucal. He befriended Cuban landowner and thinker Francisco Arango y Parreño; together they visited the Guines area in south Havana, the valleys of Matanzas Province and the Valley of the Sugar Mills in Trinidad. Those three areas were, at the time, the first frontier of sugar production in the island. During those trips, Humboldt collected statistical information on Cuba's population, production, technology and trade, and with Arango, made suggestions for enhancing them. He predicted that the agricultural and commercial potential of Cuba was huge and could be vastly improved with proper leadership in the future. After traveling to the United States, Humboldt returned to Cuba for a second, shorter stay in April 1804. During this time he socialized with his scientific and landowner friends, conducted mineralogical surveys and finished his vast collection of the island's flora and fauna. Finally, Humboldt conducted a rudimentary census of the indigenous and European inhabitants in New Spain, and on May 5, 1804, he estimated the population to be six million individuals.[5][6]
The editing and publication of the encyclopedic mass of scientific, political and archaeological material that had been collected by him during his absence from Europe was now Humboldt's most urgent desire. After a short trip to Italy with Gay-Lussac for the purpose of investigating the law of magnetic declination and a sojourn of two and a half years in his native city, he finally, in the spring of 1808, settled in Paris with the purpose of securing the scientific cooperation required for bringing his great work through the press. This colossal task, which he at first hoped would occupy but two years, eventually cost him twenty-one, and even then it remained incomplete. In these early years in Paris, he shared accommodation and a laboratory with his former rival, and now friend, Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac, both working together on the analysis of gases and the composition of the atmosphere. A statue of Alexander von Humboldt was raised commemorating the 200th anniversary of his travels in Mexico, located in the Alameda Central (central park) of Mexico City. The inscription reads "From the Mexican Nation to Alejandro de Humboldt - Hero of the Nation (benemérito de la patria) 1799–1999".
House where Alexander von Humboldt lived in Mexico City in 1803, located at 80 Rep. de Uruguay in the historic centre of the town, just south of the Zocalo.
Isothermal chart of the world created by William Channing Woodbridge using Humboldt's work.
Alexander von Humboldt saw the need for an approach to science that could account for the harmony of nature among the diversity of the physical world. For Humboldt, "the unity of nature" meant that it was the interrelation of all physical sciences—such as the conjoining between biology, meteorology and geology—that determined where specific plants grew. He found these relationships by unravelling myriad, painstakingly collected data,[7] data extensive enough that it became an enduring foundation upon which others could base their work. Humboldt viewed nature holistically, and tried to explain natural phenomena without the appeal to religious dogma. He believed in the central importance of observation, and as a consequence had amassed a vast array of the most sophisticated scientific instruments then available. Each had its own velvet lined box and was the most accurate and portable of its time; nothing quantifiable escaped measurement. According to Humboldt, everything should be measured with the finest and most modern instruments and sophisticated techniques available, for that collected data was the basis of all scientific understanding. This quantitative methodology would become known as "Humboldtian science." Humboldt wrote "Nature herself is sublimely eloquent. The stars as they sparkle in firmament fill us with delight and ecstasy, and yet they all move in orbit marked out with mathematical precision."[8]
His critics say his writings contain fantastical descriptions of America, while leaving out its inhabitants. They claim Humboldt, coming from the Romantic school of thought, believed '... nature is perfect till man deforms it with care.'[9] In this line of thinking, they think he largely neglected the human societies amidst this nature. The writing style that describes the 'new world' without people is a trend among explorers both of the past and present. Views of indigenous peoples as 'savage' or 'unimportant' leaves them out of the historical picture.[9] In reality Humboldt dedicated large parts of his work to describing the conditions of slaves, indigenous peoples and society in general. He often showed his disgust for the slavery[10] and inhumane conditions in which indigenous peoples and others were treated and he often criticized the colonial policies.[11] Some of Humboldt's descriptions or assumptions were not accurate.[10]
Humboldt was now one of the most famous men in Europe.[12] The acclaimed American painter Rembrandt Peale painted him during his European stay, between 1808 and 1810, as one of the most prominent figures in Europe at the time. A chorus of applause greeted him from every side. Academies, both native and foreign, were eager to enrol him among their members. He was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1810. King Frederick William III of Prussia conferred upon him the honour, without exacting the duties, attached to the post of royal chamberlain, together with a pension of 2,500 thalers, afterwards doubled. He refused the appointment of Prussian minister of public instruction in 1810. In 1814 he accompanied the allied sovereigns to London. Three years later he was summoned by the king of Prussia to attend him at the congress of Aachen. Humboldt was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1822.[13] Again in the autumn of 1822 he accompanied the same monarch to the Congress of Verona, proceeded thence with the royal party to Rome and Naples and returned to Paris in the spring of 1823. Humboldt had long regarded the French capital as his true home. There he found not only scientific sympathy, but the social stimulus which his vigorous and healthy mind eagerly craved. He was equally in his element as the lion of the salons and as the savant of the Institut de France and the observatory. During that time he met in 1818, the young and brilliant Peruvian student of the Royal Mining School of Paris, Mariano Eduardo de Rivero y Ustariz. They became good friends. Subsequently Humboldt acted as a mentor of the career of this promising Peruvian scientist. Thus, when at last he received from his sovereign a summons to join his court at Berlin, he obeyed indeed, but with deep and lasting regret. The provincialism of his native city was odious to him. He never ceased to rail against the bigotry without religion[clarification needed], aestheticism without culture, and philosophy without common sense, which he found dominant on the banks of the Spree. The unremitting benefits and sincere attachment of two well-meaning princes secured his gratitude but could not appease his discontent. At first he sought relief from the "nebulous atmosphere" of his new abode by frequent visits to Paris; but as years advanced, his excursions were reduced to accompanying the monotonous "oscillations" of the court between Potsdam and Berlin. On May 12, 1827, he settled permanently in the Prussian capital, where his first efforts were directed towards the furtherance of the science of terrestrial magnetism. For many years, it had been one of his favourite schemes to secure, by means of simultaneous observations at distant points, a thorough investigation of the nature and law of "magnetic storms" (a term invented by him to designate abnormal disturbances of Earth's magnetism). The meeting at Berlin, on September 18, 1828, of a newly formed scientific association, of which he was elected president, gave him the opportunity of setting on foot an extensive system of research in combination with his diligent personal observations. His appeal to the Russian government, in 1829, led to the establishment of a line of magnetic and meteorological stations across northern Asia. Meanwhile his letter to the Duke of Sussex, then (April 1836) president of the Royal Society, secured for the undertaking, the wide basis of the British dominions.
The Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, observes, "Thus that scientific conspiracy of nations which is one of the noblest fruits of modern civilization was by his exertions first successfully organized." However, earlier examples of international scientific cooperation exist, notably the 18th-century observations of the transits of Venus.
Then President of Mexico, Benito Juárez, gave him honorary Mexican citizenship.
thumb|A 1959 postage stamp from the Soviet Union.
Bust of Humboldt at the University of Havana
Humboldt statue in Berlin.
Statue of Humboldt in Allegheny West Park, Pittsburgh, PA
Statue at Humboldt University of Berlin., describing him as "the second discoverer of Cuba."
In 1811, and again in 1818, projects of Asiatic exploration were proposed to Humboldt, first by the Russian government, and afterwards by the Prussian government; but on each occasion, untoward circumstances interposed, and it was not until he had begun his sixtieth year that he resumed his early role of traveller in the interests of science. Between May and November 1829, he, together with his chosen associates, Gustav Rose and C. G. Ehrenberg, traversed the wide expanse of the Russian empire from the Neva to the Yenesei, accomplishing in twenty-five weeks a distance of 9,614 miles (15,472 km). The journey, however, though carried out with all the advantages afforded by the immediate patronage of the Russian government, was too rapid to be profitable. The correction of the prevalent exaggerated estimate of the height of the Central Asian plateau, and the discovery of diamonds in the gold-washings of the Ural, a result which Humboldt's Brazilian experiences enabled him to predict, and by predicting to secure.
Between 1830 and 1848 Humboldt was frequently employed in diplomatic missions to the court of King Louis Philippe of France, with whom he always maintained the most cordial personal relations.
His brother, Wilhelm von Humboldt, died in Humboldt's arms on April 8, 1835. The death saddened the later years of his life; Alexander lamented that he had lost half of himself with the death of his brother.
Upon the accession of the crown prince Frederick William IV in June 1840, Humboldt's favour at court increased. Indeed, the new king's craving for Humboldt's company became at times so importunate as to leave him only a few waking hours to work on his writing.
The first two volumes of the Kosmos were published between the years 1845 and 1847. Humboldt had long intended to write a comprehensive work about geography and the natural sciences. The writing took shape in lectures he delivered before the University of Berlin in the winter of 1827–28. These lectures would form "the cartoon for the great fresco of the [K]osmos".[14] The work attempted to unify the sciences then known in a Kantian framework. With inspiration from German Romanticism, Humboldt sought to create a compendium of the world's environment.
He spent the last decade of his long life — as he called them, his "improbable" years — continuing this work. The third and fourth volumes were published in 1850–58; a fragment of a fifth appeared posthumously in 1862.
Kosmos was very popular in Britain and America. In 1849 a German newspaper commented that in England two of the three different translations were made by women, "while in Germany most of the men do not understand it."[15] The first translation by Augustin Pritchard — published anonymously by Mr. Baillière (volume I in 1845 and volume II in 1848) — suffered from being hurriedly made. In a letter Humboldt said of it: "It will damage my reputation. All the charm of my description is destroyed by an English sounding like Sanskrit."
The other two translations were made by Mrs. Sabine under the superintendence of her husband Col. Edward Sabine (4 volumes 1846–1858), and by Miss E.C. Otté (5 volumes 1849–1858, the only complete translation of the 4 German volumes). These three translations were also published in America. The numbering of the volumes differs between the German and the English editions. Volume 3 of the German edition corresponds to the volumes 3 and 4 of the English translation, as the German volume appeared in 2 parts in 1850 and 1851. Volume 5 of the German edition was not translated until 1981, again by a woman.[16] Miss Otté's translation benefited from a detailed table of contents, and an index for every volume; of the German edition only volumes 4 and 5 had (extremely short) tables of contents, and the index to the whole work only appeared with volume 5 in 1862.
Not so well known in Germany is the atlas belonging to the German edition of the Cosmos "Berghaus' Physikalischer Atlas", better known as the pirated version by Traugott Bromme under the title "Atlas zu Alexander von Humboldt's Kosmos" (Stuttgart 1861). In Britain Heinrich Berghaus planned to publish together with Alexander Keith Johnston a "Physical Atlas". But later Johnston published it alone under the title "The Physical Atlas of Natural Phenomena". In Britain its connection to the Cosmos seems not have been recognized.[17]
On February 24, 1857, Humboldt suffered a minor stroke, which passed without perceptible symptoms. It was not until the winter of 1858–1859 that his strength began to decline, and that spring, on May 6, he died peacefully in Berlin at the age of 89. The honours which had been showered on him during life continued after his death. His remains, prior to being interred at the family resting-place at Tegel, were conveyed in state through the streets of Berlin, and received by the prince-regent at the door of the cathedral.
The first centenary of Humboldt's birth was celebrated on September 14, 1869, with great enthusiasm in both the New and Old Worlds. Numerous monuments were constructed in his honour, such as Humboldt Park in Chicago, planned that year and constructed shortly after the Chicago fire. Newly explored regions and species named after Humboldt, as discussed below, also stand as a measure of his wide fame and popularity.
Much of Humboldt's private life remains a mystery because he destroyed his private letters.[citation needed] Humboldt made many friends and had a reputation for widespread benevolence. He showed zeal for the improvement of the condition of the miners in Galicia and Franconia, detestation of slavery, and patronage of rising men of science.[18]
On the speculations of his private life and a possible homosexuality, in 1908, the sexual researcher Paul Näcke, who worked with outspoken gay activist Magnus Hirschfeld, gathered reminiscences of him from people[who?] who said he participated in the homosexual subculture of Berlin.[19] A travelling companion, Francisco José de Caldas, accused him of frequenting houses where 'impure love reigned', of making friends with 'obscene dissolute youths', and giving vent to 'shameful passions of his heart'.[20] Nevertheless, author Robert F. Aldrich concludes hesitantly: "As for so many men of his age, a definite answer is impossible."[21]
Other suspicions arouse because he never married, and, in a letter to Reinhard von Haeften, a soldier, he wrote: "I know that I live only through you, my good precious Reinhard, and that I can only be happy in your presence."[22] There were other two notable occasions when he seems to have been drawn to members of the opposite sex; the first was an adolescent infatuation with Henriette Herz,[citation needed] the beautiful wife of Marcus Herz, his mentor, and the second was a short-lived but intimate relationship with a woman named Pauline Wiesel in Paris in 1808.[citation needed] He was strongly attached to his brother's family.
Four years before his death, he executed a deed of gift transferring the absolute possession of his entire property to an old family servant named Seifert.[23]
In one occasion, a supposed admirer of Humboldt wrote an article claiming that Humboldt was "a materialist philosopher, or perhaps an atheist."[24] The speculation was based on the argument that Humboldt did not mention God in his work Kosmos, nor in the letters he knew, and that sometimes he spoke unfavoraubly of hypocritical religious attitudes. Unlike irreligious figures like Robert G. Ingersoll, who went so far as to use Humboldtian science to campaign against religion,[25] Humboldt himself denied imputations of atheism in a letter he wrote to Varnhagen von Ense, to whom he emphasized that he believed the world had indeed been created:
"In the "Westminster Review" a certain Dr. Cross says, the style of Kosmos is lengthened, and very indifferent ; the frequent reflection on sentiment was deemed very superfluous by English savans — such a book did not contain any thing new. Then follows the denunciation of Atheism, although " creation" and the " created world" are never lost sight of in the book. And did I not, only eight months ago, in the French translation, say, in the plainest terms: 'It is this neccessity of things, this occult but permanent connection, this periodical return in the progress, development of formation, phenomena, and events which constitute Nature submissive to a controlling power? Physics, as the name itself implies, can only deduce the phenomena of the physical world from the properties of matter; the highest aim of experimental science is therefore to ascend to the existence of the laws, and progressively to generalize the same. Whatever lies beyond is no objection for physical demonstration, it belongs to another order of more elevated speculations."
—Humboldt, (1845)[26]
Early in life, Humboldt had moments of temporary "religious fervour" which were brought up when he contemplated nature. When he grew up, "Humboldt acknowledged the existence of a rulling and regulative force in the world and said it could be called divinity".[27]
In the words of Wayne scholar Adrina Michelle Garbooshian, "althought Humboldt emphasizes the basis of morality in the nature of man, he does acknowledge that a belief in God is linked directly to acts of virtue" and therefore "the dignitiy of man lies at the center of Humboldt's religious thought." [28] Not only did Humboldt believed in God, but he also believed firmly in the afterlife.[29] This is also reflected in a letter to his friend Charlotte Hildebrand Diede (1769-1846), to whom Humboldt wrote:
"God constantly appoints the course of nature and of circumstances; so that, including his existence in an eternal future, the happiness of the individual does not perish, but on the contrary grows and increases. True peace, true consolation, or rather the feeling that no consolation is required, first arises when we leave all earthly considerations, and contemplate the appearances of Nature and the world as if from an exalted point of view. The Creator might have placed man in life only for His own pleasure: He might have given him up either to the blind changes of universal laws and progressive organization, or to an ideal aim of an ever-present, long-continuing whole, whose limits and true nature he is never in a position to survey. Every one on his entrance into life ought to be happy," happy in a deep and spiritual mind, whose happiness is an inward feeling arising from love and the fulfilment of duty. In this disposition God guides and loves him, and considers him worthy of his protection. In him "in the individual" lies the aim and the whole power of life, and with this aim, the course of nature and events will be brought into harmony. Nowhere is the paternal care of God for the happiness of each so beautifully, so soothingly displayed as in Christianity, in the New Testament. It contains the simplest, but at the same time the most exciting and heart-stirring demonstrations of it."
—Humboldt to Diede; Letter VII, Aug. 20, 1829[30]
He remained distant of organized religion, he did not believe in the Bible as an inerrant document, nor in the divinity of Jesus; yet, Humboldt still held deep respect for the ideal side of religious belief and church life within human communities.[31] He differentiated between "negative" religions, and those "all positive religions [which] consist of three distinct parts — a code of morals which is nearly the same in all of them, and generally very pure; a geological chimera, and a myth or a little historical novel."[32] In Cosmos: Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universe, he wrote about how rich geological descriptions where found in different religious traditions, and showing his attitude toward Christianity, he stated:
"Christianity gradually diffused itself, and, wherever it was adopted as the religion of the state, it not only exercised a beneficial condition on the lower classes by inculcating the social freedom of mankind, but also expanded the views of men in their communion with Nature. The eye no longer rested on the form of the Olympic gods. The Fathers of the Church, in their rhetorically correct and often practically imaginative language, now taught that the Creator showed himself great in inanimate Nature no less than in animated Nature; and in the wild strife of the elements no less than in the still activity of organic development. It was thus the tendency of the Christian mind to prove from the order of the universe and the beauty of Nature the greatness and goodness of the Creator, and this tendency to glorify the Deity in his works gave rise to a taste for natural observation."
In addition, Humboldt showed religious tolerance towards Judaism, and he criticized the political Jews Bill, which was an initiative intended to stablish legal discrimination against Jews. He called this an "abominable" law, since he hoped seeing Jews being treated equally in society.[34]
Le voyage aux régions equinoxiales du Nouveau Continent, fait en 1799–1804, par Alexandre de Humboldt et Aimé Bonpland (Paris, 1807, etc.), consisted of thirty folio and quarto volumes, including:
The Nova genera et species plantarum (7 vols. folio, 1815–1825), containing descriptions of above 4500 species of plants collected by Humboldt and Bonpland, was mainly compiled by Carl Sigismund Kunth; J. Oltmanns assisted in preparing the Recueil d'observations astronomiques (1808); Cuvier, Latreille, Valenciennes and Gay-Lussac cooperated in the Recueil d'observations de zoologie et d'anatomie comparée (1805–1833).
Humboldt's Ansichten der Natur (Stuttgart and Tübingen, 1808) went through three editions in his lifetime, and was translated into nearly every European language.
The results of his Asiatic journey were published in Fragments de géologie et de climatologie asiatiques (2 vols. 8vo, 1831), and in Asie centrale (3 vols. 8vo, 1843) an enlargement of the earlier work. The memoirs and papers read by him before scientific societies, or contributed by him to scientific periodicals, are too numerous for specification.
A 1992 essay entitled "Journey to the Top of the World" details Humboldt's South American exploration and America's interest in him. The essay is chapter one of David McCullough's book, Brave Companions: Portraits in History (Prentice Hall Press, 1992).
Gerard Helferich's 2004 biography Humboldt's Cosmos: Alexander von Humboldt and the Latin American Journey that Changed the World (Gotham Books, 2004) provides a descriptive account of Humboldt's journey through Latin America, using Humboldt's journals.
Daniel Kehlmann's 2005 novel Die Vermessung der Welt, translated into English by Carol Brown Janeway as Measuring the World in 2006, explores Humboldt's life through a lens of historical fiction, contrasting his character and contributions to science to those of Carl Friedrich Gauss.
Humboldt's effect on American scientists and environmentalists (Clarence King, Jeremiah N. Reynolds, George Wallace Melville, and John Muir) is examined in The Humboldt Current: Nineteenth Century Exploration and the Roots of American Environmentalism, by Aaron Sachs (Viking, 2006).
As a consequence of his explorations, Humboldt described many geographical features and species of life that were hitherto unknown to Europeans. Species named after him include:
Features named after him include the following:
The following places are named for Humboldt:
Alexander von Humboldt also lends his name to a prominent lecture series in Human geography in the Netherlands (hosted by the Radboud University Nijmegen). It is the Dutch equivalent of the widely known annual Hettner lectures at the University of Heidelberg.
After his death, Humboldt's friends and colleagues created the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Stiftung in German) to continue his generous support of young scientists. Although the original endowment was lost in the German hyperinflation of the 1920s, and again as a result of World War II, the Foundation has been re-endowed by the German government to award young scientists and distinguished senior scientists from abroad. It plays an important role in attracting foreign researchers to work in Germany and enabling German researchers to work abroad for a period
Edgar Allan Poe dedicated his last major work, Eureka: A Prose Poem, to Humboldt. Humboldt's attempt to unify the sciences in his Kosmos was a big inspiration for Poe's project.
Charles Darwin made frequent reference to Humboldt's work in his Voyage of the Beagle, where Darwin described his own scientific exploration of the Americas. In one note, he placed Humboldt first on the "list of American travellers".[39] When this Journal was published, Darwin sent a copy to Humboldt, who responded "You told me in your kind letter that, when you were young, the manner in which I studied and depicted nature in the torrid zones contributed toward exciting in you the ardour and desire to travel in distant lands. Considering the importance of your work, Sir, this may be the greatest success that my humble work could bring."[40] In his autobiography, Darwin recalled reading "with care and profound interest Humboldt's Personal Narrative" and finding it one of the two most influential books on his work, which had "stirred up in me a burning zeal to add even the most humble contribution to the noble structure of Natural Science."[41]
Alexander von Humboldt is also a German ship named after the scientist originally built in 1906 by the German shipyard AG Weser at Bremen as Reserve Sonderburg. She was operated throughout the North and Baltic Seas until being retired in 1986. Subsequently she was converted into a three masted barque by the German shipyard Motorwerke Bremerhaven and was re-launched in 1988 as Alexander von Humboldt.
Simón Bolívar: "The real discoverer of South America was Humboldt, since his work was more useful for our people than the work of all conquerors."[42]
Charles Darwin: expressed his debt to Humboldt, and admiration for his work,[43] and wrote to Joseph Dalton Hooker that Humboldt was the "greatest scientific traveller who ever lived".[44]
Wilhelm von Humboldt: "Alexander is destined to combine ideas and follow chains of thoughts which would otherwise have remained unknown for ages. His depth, his sharp mind and his incredible speed are a rare combination."[citation needed]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: "Humboldt showers us with true treasures."[citation needed]
Friedrich von Schiller: "Alexander impresses many, particularly when compared to his brother - because he shows off more!"[citation needed]
José de la Luz y Caballero: "Columbus gave Europe a New World; Humboldt made it known in its physical, material, intellectual, and moral aspects."[citation needed]
Napoléon Bonaparte: "You have been studying Botanics? Just like my wife!"[citation needed]
Claude Louis Berthollet: "This man is as knowledgeable as a whole academy."[citation needed]
Thomas Jefferson: "I consider him the most important scientist whom I have met."[citation needed]
Emil Du Bois-Reymond: "Every scientist is a descendant of Humboldt. We are all his family."[citation needed]
Robert G. Ingersoll: "He was to science what Shakespeare was to the drama."[45]
Hermann von Helmholtz: "During the first half of the present century we had an Alexander von Humboldt, who was able to scan the scientific knowledge of his time in its details, and to bring it within one vast generalization. At the present juncture, it is obviously very doubtful whether this task could be accomplished in a similar way, even by a mind with gifts so peculiarly suited for the purpose as Humboldt's was, and if all his time and work were devoted to the purpose."[46]
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As Seen By The Dean GW Law Briefs
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Alumni from across the nation gathered at GW Law in October to celebrate Reunion Weekend. Special tributes were paid to the Classes of 1956, 1976, 1981, 1996, and 2001. Events included an Old Guard luncheon, a jazz reception, an emeritus reception, and a Class Dinner held at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in D.C.
At the Class Dinner, former Secretary of the Treasury John W. Snow, JD '67, received the J. William Fulbright Distinguished Public Service Award. Dean Robert V. Stanek, JD '79, received the Jacob Burns Award for Extraordinary Service to The George Washington University Law School. Dean Frederick M. Lawrence offered Snow and Stanek his thanks and congratulations, and welcomed all alumni to the event.
Reunion class chairs were Arnold I. Weber, 1956; Dick Champion and Alan Dubin, 1976; Eli Ciamrone, Jill A. Kotvis, and Andrew Perellis, 1981; Laura Arsenault and Matthew Keiser, 1996; and John Filamor, Robert J. Garagiola, Janeen M. Thomas, and Venus Griffith Trunnel, 2001.
At the Old Guard luncheon, members of the classes of 1956 and earlier—including A. Fred Starobin, JD '56 (left), and Arthur E. Neuman, JD '55—were honored. Abdul El-Tayef/WPPI
Allison Silverblatt Colker, JD '01, and Ryan Colker, JD '01 Abdul El-Tayef/WPPI
Nov. 30—Join GW Law alumni in New York for a reception at the 21 Club, 21 West 52nd St. From 7 to 9 p.m., GW Law alumni will mix and mingle at this popular establishment.
Dec. 6—Cake and Champagne is back! Food Network personality Warren Brown, MPH '98, JD '98, owner of CakeLove and LoveCafe in Washington, returns to his alma mater to discuss alternative uses of a law degree. He will bring samples of favorite treats as well as new products including vegan cakes, low-sugar cakes, and gluten-free cakes.
Jan. 18—The GW Law Alumni Association is hosting a Florida Law Alumni Reception at the Hyatt Regency Miami from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The event will coincide with the Florida Bar Mid-Year Meeting.
Feb. 23—Mark your calendars for the annual Government Contracts Luncheon. See www.law.gwu.edu/alumni as updates are made available.
Dean Frederick M. Lawrence with former Secretary of the Treasury John W. Snow, JD '67 (left), recipient of the J. William Fulbright Distinguished Public Service Award, and Dean Robert V. Stanek, JD '79, recipient of the Jacob Burns Award for Extraordinary Service to GW Law. From left to right: Judith Jurin Semo, JD '77; Joseph Semo, JD '76; reunion class co-chair Dick Champion, JD '76; and Lila Anderson Hillard, JD '76
Rebecca Keiser and reunion class co-chair Matthew Keiser, JD '96 Reunion class co-chair Andrew Perellis, JD '81, and Florie Shertzer Perellis, JD '82
Photos by Abdul El-Tayef/WPPI
At the National Bar Association's Annual Conference in downtown Detroit in August, GW Law alumni reunited at a Caribbean-themed reception. Dean Lawrence, Associate Dean Alfreda Robinson, and GW Black Law Alumni Association President Monica Monroe hosted the festivities.
(From left to right) Joan Singleton; Michael D. Patterson, JD '74; Pamela Bethel; and Colone Pearson, JD '74 Monica Monroe
On July 6, alumni residing in the United Kingdom met Dean Frederick M. Lawrence for a dinner at Claridge's in London. Alumni shared personal updates and learned about changes and improvements at GW Law.
Washington-area alumni gathered for an evening of billiards and buffalo wings at Finn MacCool's Irish Publick House in the Eastern Market on Sept. 28. The event was hosted by H. Scott Johnson Jr., JD '00, and Alison Wilson, JD '97.
Lisa Barton, JD '98, and Lorraine Campos, JD '98
Alumni gathered for a pre-game reception, then traveled to RFK Stadium to watch the Washington Nationals take on the Philadelphia Phillies on June 8. The exciting game ended with a Nationals victory, 5 to 3.

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text: This is a great neighborhood spot but worthy of a visit from other areas. The main attraction here are their morning pastries - the chocolate thing is to die for - brioche with dark chocolate - not too sweet. Their scones are amazing - oat, corn, and current. I'm not a huge fan of their breads... read more


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Posted: Wednesday, September 12th 2012 at 7:12am
US, Russia bridge differences on Iran at nuke meet
By The Associated Press
(AP file photo)
VIENNA - The United States and its Western allies have persuaded Russia and China to support a resolution critical of Iran's nuclear defiance in hope of showing Israel that diplomacy is an alternative to military force in pressuring Tehran, diplomats said Wednesday.
The resolution, which demands that Iran stop activities that could be used to make nuclear arms, cannot be enforced by the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency, even if approved by vote or consensus as expected Thursday. But with Israel increasingly floating force as an alternative to failed international efforts to curtail suspected Iranian nuclear activities, the document is significant in seeking to show world-power resolve in pursuing a diplomatic solution to the standoff.
Israel views a nuclear-armed Iran as a mortal threat, citing Iran's persistent calls for the destruction of the Jewish state, its development of missiles capable of striking Israel, and Iranian support for Arab militant groups.
Tehran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. But it refuses foreign offers of reactor fuel if it stops making its own through uranium enrichment - a process that worries the international community because it could also be used to arm nuclear warheads.
Concerns also focus on IAEA suspicions that Iran has worked secretly on nuclear arms - allegations Iran dismisses as based on fabricated U.S. and Israeli intelligence.
With fears growing over the possibility of Israeli military attack and other diplomatic efforts on Iran deadlocked, diplomats told The Associated Press that a resolution supported by the six powers seeking to engage Tehran on its nuclear program had become a priority discussed at the highest level.
The text was agreed on only after consultations involving U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her counterparts in Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany, said the diplomats, who demanded anonymity because the negotiating process was confidential.
While the four Western powers had no differences, it was unclear until Wednesday whether Russia and China - which Iran has relied on to blunt harsh U.N. and other sanctions - would agree to join in backing the resolution. The diplomats said that they were persuaded largely with the argument that a signal of big-power unity had to be sent to Israel.
A Russian diplomat refused on Wednesday to discuss how the accord about the resolution came about.
Russia and China have been inconsistent in backing such Western efforts in the past. While joining in a critical resolution at an IAEA meeting in November, they refused to do so in June.
That unity came at a price for the West, however, which had to settle for compromise language in the current text, made available to The AP outside the closed meeting.
While expressing "serious concern" over continued Iranian uranium enrichment in defiance of the U.N. Security Council, the six nations say they back the "inalienable right" of countries that have signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. That is a bow to arguments by Iran, an NPT signatory that it has a right to enrich.
The resolution "stresses" that the IAEA has not reported any nuclear material missing from Iran sites it is monitoring. Missing material could mean that Tehran is using it elsewhere for weapons purposes.
It only "notes" that the agency cannot conclude there is no hidden nuclear activity going on because of "lack of cooperation" by Iran on agency requests that it be given greater powers to monitor the country.
Washington considers any signal to Israel that diplomacy is working crucial amid signs of increased jitters by the Jewish state about Tehran's nuclear progress.
Most recently, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized what he said was the world's failure to spell out what would provoke a U.S.-led military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities. The comments came in response to U.S. refusals in recent days to set "red lines" for Tehran.
Israeli officials say American politics do not factor into their thinking, but that the sense of urgency is so grave that the world cannot hold its breath until after the U.S. presidential election in November.
"The world tells Israel, `Wait. There's still time,'" Netanyahu said Tuesday. "And I say: `Wait for what? Wait until when?' Those in the international community who refuse to put red lines before Iran don't have a moral right to place a red light before Israel."
Also Tuesday, diplomats told The Associated Press that the U.N. atomic agency has received new and significant intelligence over the past month that Iran has advanced its work on calculating the destructive power of an atomic warhead through a series of computer models within the past three years.
The diplomats who spoke to the AP said the information came from Israel, the United States and at least two other Western countries. They demanded anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss classified information member countries make available to the IAEA.
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Star Wars: X-Wing - PC Games
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Licensed Video Games Worth Playing
(40 items)list by Ghosthack Published 2 years, 10 months ago 3 comments
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PC Games
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Website: Amazon
The enhanced CD-ROM version of Star Wars: X-Wing features 6 new missions, improved 3D graphics, voice, and upgraded sound. In addition, the two Tour of Duty extensions are included: Imperial Pursuit and B-Wing.
Manufacturer: Activision
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Results for "local news"
This is a short video of a live news broadcast when a worker realizes he's on camera, panics, then drops to his stomach and crawls off stage. Me? I would have pretended like I didn't notice I was on camera and spent an uncomfortable amount of time adjusting my crotch so my pe... / Continue →
This is a screenshot from a local news report by WGN in Chicago about an app students are developing that can expunge your criminal record. Unfortunately for her, this student forgot to expunge her browser's history before flashing it on the news, revealing a P0rnhub link and ... / Continue →
This is a video of CBS 3 meteorologist Scot Haney scooping up and eating what he believes are Grape-Nuts off the newsroom floor. They weren't though, they were bits of cat vomit that he'd stepped in at home and had since rubbed off his shoe. Dude's supposed to predict the wea... / Continue →
This is a short video of totally professional Rhode Island NBC reporter Julie Tremmel demonstrating what to do in the event of a bear encounter. It's, uh, it's hard to take anything she says seriously. As a matter of fact, if you run into a bear I suggest doing the exact oppo... / Continue →
Note: Must must must watch video of the sadness after the jump. This is a local news report about a hunting camp in Louisiana that was allegedly ravaged by a zombie-monster. Admittedly, that picture does look totally for real. The news comes from Baton Rouge LA news (NBC 33)... / Continue →
Note: Very worthwhile video is after the jump. Kenny "K-Strass" Strasser is basically a no-name Sasha Baron Cohen who travels around the midwest tricking local news stations into thinking he's a yo-yo master so they'll have them on their show. Then once on air he does his bes... / Continue →


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I was looking at a collection of perfectly looped gifs on Buzzfeed and thinking about how they remind me of sample-based electronic music. In both cases, you're taking a piece of a linear recording and making it cyclical. Do it wrong and it's extremely irritating. Do it right and it's mesmerizing. I've given a lot of thought to how looping a segment of audio changes its meaning, but am only just starting to think about the visual equivalent.
Category Archives: Visual art
Software design as research
Brown, A. (2007). Software Development as Music Education Research. International Journal of Education & the Arts. Volume 8, Number 6.
My thesis is supposed to include a quantitative research component. This had been causing me some anxiety. It's educational and creative software. What exactly could I measure? I had this vague notion of testing people's rhythmic ability before and after using the app. But how do you quantify rhythmic ability? Even if I had a meaningful numerical representation, how could I possibly measure a big enough sample size over a long enough time to get a statistically significant result? The development of my app is going okay, but I was really stressing about the experimental component.
Then my advisor introduced me to Andrew Brown's notion of software development as research, or SoDaR. As Brown puts it, "SoDaR involves computers, but is about people." Humans are complex, our interactions with computers are complex, the way we learn is complex. The only method of inquiry that can encompass all that complexity is qualitative, anthropological inquiry, involving a substantial amount of introspection on the part of the researcher.
Hip-hop transcriptions
There's a great Tumblr called Hip-Hop Transcriptions. It consists solely meticulous transcriptions of classic beats and rhymes by Charlie Hely. The mere fact of these transcriptions is fairly wonderful, but even better is the way that Hely lays out his charts. He uses graph paper, with each box representing a sixteenth note. This makes the complex rhythms a lot more readable than they normally would be, essentially turning standard notation into a time-unit box system. Music should always be typeset that way. Below are my favorite transcriptions.
MC Shan in "The Bridge" and KRS-One's diss track response in "South Bronx" by Boogie Down Productions.
How has the representation of the human body changed in modern and contemporary art over the last 100 years?
Big question! First, a little philosophical throat-clearing: I don't believe that modern/contemporary art is as radical a break with the past as it likes to think. I had an art professor in college argue that, really, all abstract art is representational, and all representational art is abstract. Any abstract art has to refer to particular sensory impressions that the artist has had, because there's nothing else we have to draw on for material. No matter how crazy the art is, we can't help but look for signs of the physical world in it. Meanwhile, even the most photorealist painting is still abstract. You'd never be fooled by a painting into thinking you were looking out a window. Ultimately, it's just static blobs of color on a flat surface; you have to do quite a bit of interpretive work to be "convinced" by the illusion.
How do I learn to draw?
Draw a lot.
Don't be precious about materials. Don't use fancy art board or moleskines. Get a big newsprint pad or a stack of cheap legal pads from Staples. You want to draw as much and as quickly as possible, without being worried about wasting expensive paper.
Draw fearlessly.
Use a pen or Sharpie. No erasers, no correcting fluid. Fill the page completely as fast as you can. Use loose scribbles and gestures. Don't sweat details. Use The Force — let go your feelings, young Skywalker. Get it right the first time or start over. Try to push each drawing to completion, but if you're really not happy with where it's going, toss it in the recycling and move on. Also try drawing without looking at the page. Get ready to be pleasantly surprised by the result.
Is music the most abstract art form?
The Quora question that prompted this post asks:
Why has music been historically the most abstract art form?
We can see highly developed musical forms in renaissance polyphony and baroque counterpoint. The secular forms of this music is often non-programmatic or "absolute music." In contrast to this, the paintings and sculpture of those times are often representational. Did music start as representational but merely move to a more abstract art form than other types of arts sooner? Does it lend it self to this sort of abstraction more easily?
I had an art professor in college who argued that all "representational" art is abstract, and all "abstract" art is representational. Any art has to refer back to sensory impressions of the world, internal or external, because that's the only raw material we have to work with. Meanwhile, you're unlikely to ever mistake a work of representational art for the object it represents. You don't mistake photographs (or photorealistic paintings) for their subjects, and even the most "realistic" special effects in movies require willing suspension of disbelief.
Visual remixes
Long before I got interested in electronic music, I was a fine arts guy. It bothers me that unauthorized appropriation of a music recording will get you sued, but visual artists who appropriate pop cultural materials get into museums and art history textbooks.
Marcel Duchamp
In ancient times and more traditional societies, there was never much importance attached to the concept of sole authorship or ownership of creative works. Widespread belief in the lone Byronic genius didn't take hold until the eighteenth century in Europe. Duchamp signaled the beginning of the end of the Byronic genius with his readymades, like the infamous urinal, or this bicycle wheel:
Visualizing music
Update: check out my masters thesis, a radial drum machine. Specifically, see the section on visualizing rhythm. See also a more scholarly review of the literature on visualization and music education. And here's a post on the value of video games in music education.
Computer-based music production and composition involves the eyes as much as the ears. The representations in audio editors like Pro Tools and Ableton Live are purely informational, waveforms and grids and linear graphs. Some visualization systems are purely decorative, like the psychedelic semi-random graphics produced by iTunes. Some systems lie in between. I see rich potential in these graphical systems for better understanding of how music works, and for new compositional methods. Here's a sampling of the most interesting music visualization systems I've come across.
Music notation
Western music notation is a venerable method of visualizing music. It's a very neat and compact system, unambiguous and digital, and not too difficult to learn. Programs like Sibelius can effortlessly translate notation to and from MIDI data, too.
But western notation has some limitations, especially for contemporary music. It doesn't handle microtones well. It has limited ability to convey performative nuance — after a hundred years of jazz, there's no good way to notate swing other than to just write the word "swing" at the top of the score. The key signature system works fine for major keys, but is less helpful for minor keys and modal music and is pretty much worthless for the blues.
Here's a suggestion for how notation could improve in the future. It's a visualization by Jon Snydal of John Coltrane's solo in Miles Davis' "All Blues" (I edited it a little to be easier on the eyes.)
Snydal's visualization is more analog than digital — it shows the exact nuances of Coltrane's performance, with subtle shadings of pitch, timing and dynamics.


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You never know what to expect from consummate artist Novel, except the unexpected. The first we heard from his upcoming Legato Blues Summer Mixtape was the gospel-infused State of Loneliness, followed by the bedroom burner Red Light, and now? Now we're being hit off with the quasi-philosophical What If, an eclectically produced track (by Novel himself, of course) that seemingly draws from influences ranging from classic soul to reggae. While Novel steps into the booth to sing and, yes, rap a bit about how life might have been oh-so-different if the situations surrounding he and a certain female were just a little different, Tweet (who's continuing her comeback with skill after Love Again) also jumps on board for some supremely smooth harmonies. What If Novel had never started making music? Thankfully, we'll never have to find out the answer to that question. So, will Legato Blues Summer contain a punk rock track? An opera? From what we're heard so far, I wouldn't rule anything out. We'll find out for sure when the project finally drops …"soon."
Written by Nathan S. on 07/19/10
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Amazon debuts new Kindle Fire HDX with 24/7 Mayday live support
Amazon announced Wednesday it is updating its Kindle line with the new Kindle Fire HDX. Along with reportedly being significantly faster, lighter, with sharper, more colorful displays than the previous generation, Amazon is also debuting a new feature called 'Mayday.'
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The 8.9-inch Amazon Kindle HDX tablet computer is shown Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2013, in Seattle. Amazon has refreshed its line-up of tablets with new HDX devices, which are significantly faster and lighter than the previous generation. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
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The Elders of Country Music
The recent passing of 94-year-old Grand Ole Opry star Little Jimmy Dickens, along with the late 2014 death of the Cajun Cowboy, Jimmy C. Newman, gave us pause to consider the dwindling list of country music elders. Below are the oldest remaining nationally known country music performers.Diminutive Little Jimmy Dickens, 94, passed away January 2 in Nashville
Dr. Ralph Stanley -- Born in McClure, Virginia on Feb. 25, 1927, along with his guitarist older brother Carter, Stanley was part of the Clinch Mountain Boys. The band was formed in 1946 and became one of the most celebrated bluegrass outfits in the history of the genre. The brothers soon came to rival Bill Monroe, the big dog of the bluegrass world at the end of World War II. The Stanleys recorded for the eclectic King Records label originally; James Brown, another King artist, was present when the Stanley's recorded "Finger Poppin' Time" and was said to be highly impressed.
The brothers moved to Columbia Records in early 1949, which caused Monroe to leave the label and move to Decca, where he recorded his classic material. With the passing of Carter Stanley in 1967, Ralph Stanley carried on alone. Stanley won a Grammy for his 2002 a capella performance of "O Death" in the box office smash O Brother, Where Art Thou. He continues to record and perform. In 2006 he was awarded a National Medal of Arts. His next album, set to be recorded in the next few months, will be produced by Jim Lauderdale and Buddy Miller.
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Katherine Levy: Print circulations are down, yet hope springs eternal
By Katherine Levy, campaignlive.co.uk, Thursday, 23 August 2012 08:00AM
The latest set of consumer magazine results from the Audit Bureau of Circulations may make for depressing reading.
But if you take the figures at face value, then you risk misunderstanding how the magazine industry is faring.
Yes, the men's lifestyle and women's lifestyle sectors are both down overall; yes, a number of big special-interest brands (BBC Top Gear and BBC Good Food) are suffering double-digit losses; and yes, the women's weekly market is also haemorrhaging circulation, down 11 per cent overall.
But it is no longer viable to just look at the print figures when considering how healthy a magazine brand is. If you comb through the latest ABC report, you will find a section towards the back of the document (section 12 of 18), positioned with the care and thought of an after-dinner sugared almond you might not have room for.
Yet this almond is the kernel of something big for the magazine industry. Because while we dredge through the ABC figures and shock ourselves with the news that big, successful brands are suffering in print - Cosmopolitan is down 8.6 per cent year on year in the UK, while Grazia has declined 13.5 per cent - we are choosing to ignore that this is an industry in the midst of revolutionary transition.
It becomes all the more obvious when you look at section 12. Here, you will see that Cosmopolitan, the biggest magazine brand in the world, retains its number-one position with an average monthly digital edition circulation of 13,298. Men's Health, the most successful paid-for men's magazine, is the second-most successful magazine currently reporting digital editions, with an average monthly circulation of 12,142.
Considering how nascent this market is, these numbers are huge. When Cosmopolitan first reported its digital editions this time last year, it only had 259 a month. Imagine where the brand can go once affordable tablets are as ubiquitous as smartphones; and, in the youth market, they aren't just the province of privileged teenagers.
It is true that, in the digital age, some magazine titles will die altogether, but those backed by shrewd publishers can thrive on a multiplatform strategy, where the brand is kept alive on the tablet, online, on mobile and - if it pays dividends - in print too.
In six months' time, hopefully we will see more than just 61 magazines reporting their digital editions and, even better, embracing the ABC's sparkling new multiplatform certificate, which enables publishers to report pretty much everything, including Twitter followers. We are gradually moving towards a time when press buyers can look up a brand and see the holistic picture of how successful it is across all platforms. Until then, don't forget section 12.
This article was first published on campaignlive.co.uk
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Survey: Who Owns Business Jet Operators?
- Language: English
- 14 Pages
- Published: November 2012
- Region: Global
Brief Excerpt from Industry Overview Chapter:
Companies in this industry provide on-demand, nonscheduled domestic and international transportation of passengers and cargo. Major companies include US-based Air Transport Services, Atlas Air Worldwide, and NetJets, along with CHC Group (Canada), Thomas Cook Airlines (UK), Thomson Airways (UK), and VistaJets (Switzerland).
The US air charter services industry includes about 2,300 companies with combined annual revenue of about $14 billion.
Demand is driven by corporate profits and the needs of the US military. The profitability of individual companies depends on effective marketing and customer service. Large companies have advantages in fleet size and name recognition. Smaller companies can compete effectively by serving small local markets and offering lower prices. The industry is concentrated: the 50 largest companies account for about 65 percent of industry revenue.
Major services include domestic passenger travel (about half of industry revenue in the US market) and international passenger travel (20 percent). Other services include
Industry Overview
Quarterly Industry Update
Business Challenges
Business Trends
Industry Opportunities
Call Preparation Questions
Financial Information
Industry Forecast
Web Links and Acronyms


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RECAP: Alt Celebrity Halloween Costumes [from Best Coast 2 Skrillex 2 Kickball Katy 2 Chrissy Owens]
By Carles on 01 Nov 2011
Were u wondering what ur favourite alt celebs were 4 Halloween?
Sorta wish I coulda gone to a relevant Halloween Partie where I saw tons of alt celebs, DJs, and CEOs of buzzbands :-(
At least I can look at pix of them on the internet and pretend they are my friends and pretend we went out and had fun and ate candy. :-)


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A stock market delivered from the brink of depression to record highs in four quick years can be a bundle of insecurities. What happens if the central bank stops cosseting us, and how will it pare back its trove of Treasuries as rates rise? Lately, however, such perennial questions are pushed aside by more pressing concerns.
Last week's 1% pullback has revived fears—altogether now—that the Federal Reserve's monetary medicine is losing its oomph. The Fed's still printing gobs of money, but U.S. manufacturing and services are expanding at a slower rate, and new jobs are being created at the sleepiest pace since June. The horrors!
That wasn't our only worry. Stocks peaked in April in each of the past three years before correcting 10% to 19%, so the "sell in May and go away" brigade is already fretting that April is the new May. Yet with stocks up 23% since June, money managers can't afford to fall too far behind surging indexes. Concerns also are mounting that corporate profits aren't growing fast enough. So buyers piled into sectors with more-stable revenues like health care, consumer staples, and utilities, and these have wrested market leadership from the energy and industrial stocks that propelled the rally in January.
Just how crowded have defensive stocks become? The average consumer-staple stock is up over 14% this year, and only two of them— Monster Beverage mnst 0.07794784580498866% Monster Beverage Corp. U.S.: Nasdaq USD141.23 0.11 0.07794784580498866% /Date(1425333600104-0600)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 2134563 AFTER HOURS USD141.499 0.269000000000005 0.19046944700134533% Volume (Delayed 15m) : 154326 P/E Ratio 54.31923076923077 Market Cap 23657073810.3613 Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee 1224470 More quote details and news » (ticker: MNST), which makes sugary caffeinated energy drinks that Americans now deem a staple, and Whole Foods Market wfm -0.47796070100902815% Whole Foods Market Inc. U.S.: Nasdaq USD56.22 -0.27 -0.47796070100902815% /Date(1425333600229-0600)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 3126122 AFTER HOURS USD56.05 -0.170000000000002 -0.3023834934187122% Volume (Delayed 15m) : 48006 P/E Ratio 35.1375 Market Cap 20353346915.1764 Dividend Yield 0.9249377445748844% Rev. per Employee 167729 More quote details and news » (WFM)—are down this year. The sector now fetches 19.5 times what these companies earned over the past year, its fattest valuation since this bull run began.
Then there're fears the global economy isn't up to snuff. Oil and copper are plumbing 2013 lows, and investors are scampering to markets where weak growth has central banks pledging their staunchest support. Japan, relatively new to quantitative easing, has jumped 55% since June, and too many money managers are hailing the U.S. as the best house in a crumbling world order.
Still, stocks haven't had as much as a 4% blip since November, and concerns and corrections keep markets from overheating. Robert Pavlik, chief market strategist at Banyan Partners, thinks the U.S. rally has lately been boosted by the ruckus in Cyprus, which persuaded European investors to steer deposits into U.S. stocks. But he thinks the market is due for a pause before bargain hunters eventually prevail.
Already, the lunge at safety has driven the yield on 10-year Treasuries from 2.06% down to 1.70% in less than a month. BofA Merrill Lynch rates strategist Priya Misra advises selling Treasuries when the yield shrinks below 1.75%, since a strengthening labor, housing, and stock market will help offset fiscal austerity.
In each of the past four years, the first quarter's laggard sectors have outperformed in the second. Of course, that all happened as defensive stocks thrived during the market's spring corrections. Can the same now happen with lagging cyclical stocks? The March jobs report didn't help, but data for January and February were revised upward, and aggregate hours worked rose. The housing market's spring selling season has also been delayed by late-winter storms in the Midwest. Cyclical stocks began doubting before the broad market did, and moderating expectations can only help their cause.
REFINER STOCKS HAVE DOUBLED since June, and those looking to take profits had their pick of reasons. The government wants to cut sulfur content in gasoline by 2017, which could cost refiners hundreds of millions. Gasoline prices track Brent crude oil produced abroad, and the hefty premiums these command to the glut of cheap West Texas Intermediate crude produced here has helped U.S. refiners with access to cheaper raw materials. But as Brent crude slipped recently, the Brent-WTI spread has shrunk from $22 a barrel to $11 over the past month.
Last week's 10% refiner-stock correction can worsen if gas demand weakens. But refiners trade at just 7.9 times projected profits, a discount to historical valuations. "The principal drivers of refining-stock performance over the past two years—accelerated return of cash, monetization of secondary assets, and feedstock cost advantages relative to competing global refiners—remain in place," notes Cowen analyst Sam Margolin.
Historically, stricter environmental standards can reduce the supply of refined products and widen the profit spread between raw materials and finished products. Goldman Sachs analyst Arjun Murti thinks prices of midcontinent refiners—his picks include HollyFrontier hfc -6.478745169356672% HollyFrontier Corp. U.S.: NYSE USD41.14 -2.85 -6.478745169356672% /Date(1425333799486-0600)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 6005415 AFTER HOURS USD41.15 0.00999999999999801 0.024307243558580455% Volume (Delayed 15m) : 40766 P/E Ratio 29.385714285714286 Market Cap 8607039588.05068 Dividend Yield 3.1113271754982983% Rev. per Employee 7424620 More quote details and news » (HFC) and Marathon Petroleum mpc -3.066666666666667% Marathon Petroleum Corp. U.S.: NYSE USD101.78 -3.22 -3.066666666666667% /Date(1425333634401-0600)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 4028190 AFTER HOURS USD101.78 % Volume (Delayed 15m) : 603771 P/E Ratio 12.53448275862069 Market Cap 29420264282.2266 Dividend Yield 1.9650225977598743% Rev. per Employee 3051460 More quote details and news » (MPC)—are now bracing for Brent-WTI spreads of less than $5, when they should stay above $10 or $15 over the next few years. His advice: Look to buy the dips.
In contrast, Supervalu svu 1.1133603238866396% SUPERVALU Inc. U.S.: NYSE USD9.99 0.11 1.1133603238866396% /Date(1425333803180-0600)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 2941236 AFTER HOURS USD9.99 % Volume (Delayed 15m) : 19462 P/E Ratio 14.271428571428572 Market Cap 2581574862.66628 Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee 486285 More quote details and news » (SVU) shares have doubled last quarter. Management has sold struggling stores, and a Cerberus Capital offer, which failed to get financed, to buy Supervalu for $4 a share might put a floor under shares, now pushing $4.80. But the supermarket chain remains over-levered, with net debt near 3.5 times cash flow, compared with just twice for Kroger kr -0.2951510892480675% Kroger Co. U.S.: NYSE USD70.94 -0.21 -0.2951510892480675% /Date(1425333615876-0600)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 6025057 AFTER HOURS USD71.01 0.0700000000000074 0.0986749365661122% Volume (Delayed 15m) : 54947 P/E Ratio 21.76073619631902 Market Cap 34957703714.4837 Dividend Yield 1.0431350436989004% Rev. per Employee 283947 More quote details and news » (KR) and Safeway (SWY), notes Morgan Stanley. With profits and traffic at traditional groceries still waning, Supervalu's surging stock could have a harder time living up to its name.
E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com


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CSBG Archive
Howard the Duck Legends Revealed
With Steve Gerber and Val Mayerik's classic creation, Howard the Duck, suddenly getting a lot more attention than he has received in years (likely not since George Lucas' ill-fated Howard the Duck film in 1986) we thought it would make sense to spotlight the various installments of Comic Book Legends Revealed that featured Howard over the years.
Was a Frank Brunner drawing of Howard and Beverley in bed too salacious for the Comics Code?
9 Comments
Giant-Size Man-Thing!
That will never be not funny.
That first one is particularly funny, now that Disney OWNs Howard.
So, now that Disney owns Howard, does that mean he's no longer legally mandated to wear pants?
There's nothing wrong with the movie. It's a weird 80s sci-fi film, but it's not bad. Howard the Duck would make a good tv show. Maybe even an Adult Swim cartoon.
@Cerebro, actually according to James Gunn, he STILL has. To wear pants despite being own by Disney.
So what's generating the renewed interest in Howard?
I'm delighted as long as it doesn't lead to Lucas doing a sequel.
@Cerebro, actually according to James Gunn, he STILL has. To wear pants despite being own by Disney.
Yeah, my guess is that Disney would still like there to be a clear demarcation between Donald and Howard, even if they own them both.
So what's generating the renewed interest in Howard?
We're being purposefully vague, but if you really want to know, simply google "Howard the Duck" and you'll see.


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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - View original article
This article is part of a series on |
Computer hacking |
History |
Hacker ethic |
Computer crime |
Hacking tools |
Malware |
Computer security |
Groups |
In the computer security context, a hacker is someone who seeks and exploits weaknesses in a computer system or computer network. Hackers may be motivated by a multitude of reasons, such as profit, protest, or challenge.[1] The subculture that has evolved around hackers is often referred to as the computer underground and is now a known community.[2] While other uses of the word hacker exist that are not related to computer security, such as referring to someone with an advanced understanding of computers and computer networks,[3] they are rarely used in mainstream context. They are subject to the longstanding hacker definition controversy about the term's true meaning. In this controversy, the term hacker is reclaimed by computer programmers who argue that someone who breaks into computers, whether computer criminal (black hats) or computer security expert (white hats),[4] is more appropriately called a cracker instead.[5] Some white hat hackers claim that they also deserve the title hacker, and that only black hats should be called crackers.
Bruce Sterling traces part of the roots of the computer underground to the Yippies, a 1960s counterculture movement which published the Technological Assistance Program (TAP) newsletter.[citation needed] TAP was a phone phreaking newsletter that taught techniques for unauthorized exploration of the phone network. Many people from the phreaking community are also active in the hacking community even today, and vice versa.[citation needed]
Several subgroups of the computer underground with different attitudes use different terms to demarcate themselves from each other, or try to exclude some specific group with which they do not agree.
Eric S. Raymond, author of The New Hacker's Dictionary, advocates that members of the computer underground should be called crackers. Yet, those people see themselves as hackers and even try to include the views of Raymond in what they see as a wider hacker culture, a view that Raymond has harshly rejected. Instead of a hacker/cracker dichotomy, they emphasize a spectrum of different categories, such as white hat, grey hat, black hat and script kiddie. In contrast to Raymond, they usually reserve the term cracker for more malicious activity.
According to Ralph D. Clifford, a cracker or cracking is to "gain unauthorized access to a computer in order to commit another crime such as destroying information contained in that system".[6] These subgroups may also be defined by the legal status of their activities.[7]
Recently, hackers have also been viewed in society as providing a public service. The presence of hackers in today's day and age may actually be benefitting society by providing the world with the means to verify truths that were previously considered conventional. Certainly, there are hackers who attempt to create, and other hackers who attempt to destroy. However, hackers now argue that one can use the techniques of a dark-side hacker, but still attempt to only achieve good ends.[8]
A white hat hacker breaks security for non-malicious reasons, perhaps to test their own security system or while working for a security company which makes security software. The term "white hat" in Internet slang refers to an ethical hacker. This classification also includes individuals who perform penetration tests and vulnerability assessments within a contractual agreement. The EC-Council,[9] also known as the International Council of Electronic Commerce Consultants, is one of those organizations that have developed certifications, courseware, classes, and online training covering the diverse arena of Ethical Hacking.[7]
A "black hat" hacker is a hacker who "violates computer security for little reason beyond maliciousness or for personal gain" (Moore, 2005).[10] Black hat hackers form the stereotypical, illegal hacking groups often portrayed in popular culture, and are "the epitome of all that the public fears in a computer criminal".[11] Black hat hackers break into secure networks to destroy data or make the network unusable for those who are authorized to use the network. Black hat hackers also are referred to as the "crackers" within the security industry and by modern programmers. Crackers keep the awareness of the vulnerabilities to themselves and do not notify the general public or manufacturer for patches to be applied. Individual freedom and accessibility is promoted over privacy and security. Once they have gained control over a system, they may apply patches or fixes to the system only to keep their reigning control. Richard Stallman invented the definition to express the maliciousness of a criminal hacker versus a white hat hacker who performs hacking duties to identify places to repair.[12]
A grey hat hacker is a combination of a black hat and a white hat hacker. A grey hat hacker may surf the internet and hack into a computer system for the sole purpose of notifying the administrator that their system has a security defect, for example. They may then offer to correct the defect for a fee.[11]
A social status among hackers, elite is used to describe the most skilled. Newly discovered exploits circulate among these hackers. Elite groups such as Masters of Deception conferred a kind of credibility on their members.[13]
A script kiddie (also known as a skid or skiddie) is a non-expert who breaks into computer systems by using pre-packaged automated tools written by others, usually with little understanding of the underlying concept—hence the term script (i.e. a prearranged plan or set of activities) kiddie (i.e. kid, child—an individual lacking knowledge and experience, immature).[14]
A neophyte, "n00b", or "newbie" is someone who is new to hacking or phreaking and has almost no knowledge or experience of the workings of technology and hacking.[11]
A blue hat hacker is someone outside computer security consulting firms who is used to bug-test a system prior to its launch, looking for exploits so they can be closed. Microsoft also uses the term BlueHat to represent a series of security briefing events.[15][16][17]
A hacktivist is a hacker who utilizes technology to publicize a social, ideological, religious or political message. Most hacktivism involves website defacement or denial-of-service attacks.
Intelligence agencies and cyberwarfare operatives of nation states.[18]
Groups of hackers that carry out organized criminal activities for profit.[18]
This article is part of a series on |
Computer security |
Related security categories |
Threats |
Defenses |
A typical approach in an attack on Internet-connected system is:
In order to do so, there are several recurring tools of the trade and techniques used by computer criminals and security experts.
A security exploit is a prepared application that takes advantage of a known weakness.[20] Common examples of security exploits are SQL injection, Cross Site Scripting and Cross Site Request Forgery which abuse security holes that may result from substandard programming practice. Other exploits would be able to be used through FTP, HTTP, PHP, SSH, Telnet and some web-pages. These are very common in website/domain hacking.
This section does not cite any references or sources. (August 2011) |
Tools and Procedures
The computer underground[1] has produced its own specialized slang, such as 1337speak. Its members often advocate freedom of information, strongly opposing the principles of copyright, as well as the rights of free speech and privacy.[citation needed] Writing software and performing other activities to support these views is referred to as hacktivism. Some consider illegal cracking ethically justified for these goals; a common form is website defacement. The computer underground is frequently compared to the Wild West.[24] It is common for hackers to use aliases to conceal their identities.
The computer underground is supported by regular real-world gatherings called hacker conventions or "hacker cons". These events include SummerCon (Summer), DEF CON, HoHoCon (Christmas), ShmooCon (February), BlackHat, Chaos Communication Congress, AthCon, Hacker Halted, and H.O.P.E...[citation needed] Local Hackfest groups organize and compete to develop their skills to send a team to a prominent convention to compete in group pentesting, exploit and forensics on a larger scale. Hacker groups became popular in the early 1980s, providing access to hacking information and resources and a place to learn from other members. Computer bulletin board systems (BBSs), such as the Utopias, provided platforms for information-sharing via dial-up modem. Hackers could also gain credibility by being affiliated with elite groups.[25]
Maximum imprisonment is one year or a fine of the fourth category.[26]
This section is in a list format that may be better presented using prose. (August 2008) |
The most notable hacker-oriented print publications are Phrack, Hakin9 and 2600: The Hacker Quarterly. While the information contained in hacker magazines and ezines was often outdated by the time they were published, they enhanced their contributors's reputations by documenting their successes.[25]
Hackers often show an interest in fictional cyberpunk and cyberculture literature and movies. The adoption of fictional pseudonyms,[27] symbols, values and metaphors from these works is very common.[28]
Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Hacking |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hackers. |