Domenik Hixon (born October 8, 1984) is a former American football wide receiver and return specialist in the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted by the Denver Broncos in the fourth round of the 2006 NFL Draft. He played college football at Akron. He was also a member of New York Giants, with whom he became a two-time Super Bowl winner against the New England Patriots twice, as well as, a member of the Carolina Panthers and the Chicago Bears.

Early years
Hixon was born to an African American father and a German mother. He attended Whitehall-Yearling High School in Whitehall, Ohio and was a letterman in football, basketball, track, and baseball. In basketball, he was named Honorable Mention All-State as a point guard. In track, he cleared 6–5 in the high jump event.

Hixon was a high school teammate of NFL defensive back Keiwan Ratliff.

College career
Hixon was one of Charlie Frye's passing weapons during his first 3 years at Akron.  In the 2005 MAC Championship game, Luke Getsy found Hixon for what would be the game winning 36 yard touchdown pass with 11 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, earning Akron its first MAC Championship in school history.

Professional career

Denver Broncos
Hixon played 4 games for the Denver Broncos to start the 2007 season then was released in early October. He functioned as the team's starting kick returner. At the start of the second quarter in the first game of the season against the Buffalo Bills, tight end Kevin Everett suffered a serious spinal cord injury while tackling Hixon. Everett had a near-full recovery after a grim prognosis but never played another NFL game.

New York Giants
The New York Giants quickly signed Hixon and soon he took over the main kickoff returning duties. Domenik had one reception for 5 yards against the Minnesota Vikings on November 25. He made his mark by returning a kickoff 74 yards for a touchdown in the Giants' 2007 regular season finale against the undefeated New England Patriots. Hixon's touchdown put the Giants ahead 14–10 in the 2nd quarter, but the Giants lost 38–35.

As the main kickoff returner, Hixon returned 10 kickoffs for an average of 25.3 yards during the Giants' run to Super Bowl XLII. His returns provided the Giants with good field position and helped propel their offense into the end zone on several occasions. He recovered a critical fumble late in the 4th quarter of the NFC Championship game on January 20 at frigid Lambeau Field, a game the Giants eventually won in overtime. Hixon also recorded 2 special teams tackles in the 2007 playoffs.

Hixon later broke out in the Giants second preseason game against the Cleveland Browns, catching two touchdown passes and then returned an 82-yard kickoff for a touchdown, all in the first quarter.

In week 5 of the 2008 season, Hixon was forced to start after Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress was suspended for breaking team rules.

Hixon would have 4 catches for 102 yards and a touchdown in his first career start. He left the game late in the first half after suffering a concussion.

In Week 14, Hixon would again be placed in the starting role for the rest of the season, due to the suspension of Burress for conduct detrimental to the team after suffering an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound to his leg.

On June 16, 2010, Hixon suffered a torn ACL at a practice at the Giants' new home in the New Meadowlands, and was pronounced out for the season. He was waived/injured and subsequently placed on the injured reserve list on July 17.

On August 13, 2011, Hixon returned to the team in the New York Giants and Carolina Panthers preseason game.

On week 2 of the 2011 Season, Hixon tore his ACL while making a spectacular bobbling catch in the endzone. He was declared out for the season.

In his career, he's made 31 special teams tackles, caught 63 passes for 838 yards (13.3 avg) and 4 touchdowns, ran 3 times on reverse plays for 18 yards, returned 51 punts for 561 yards and a touchdown and 80 kickoffs for 1,966 yards and a touchdown.

On March 3, 2012, Hixon re-signed with the New York Giants.

Carolina Panthers
At the start of free agency, Hixon reportedly turned down an offer from the Detroit Lions. After receiving interest from the Cleveland Browns and Carolina Panthers, Hixon ultimately agreed to terms on a one-year deal with the Panthers on April 3, 2013. In a week 16 game against the New Orleans Saints, Hixon caught a game winning 14 yard TD pass from Cam Newton to give the Panthers a 17–13 win and give them first place in the NFC South.

Chicago Bears
On March 13, 2014, Hixon signed a one-year contract with the Chicago Bears. On May 27, 2014, during Organized Team Activities (OTAs), he suffered a torn ACL for the third time in his career.

Retirement
On the same day that his injury during the Bears' OTAs was announced, Hixon announced through his Facebook page that he would be retiring from the NFL. On June 3, 2014, the Bears terminated Hixon's contract with an injury settlement.

Charity work
Hixon hosts the Next Level Football Camp, with co-founder Anthony Jordan, which provides underprivileged children in the Columbus, Ohio area with a summer football training program. In the past, the camp has been staffed by current and former NFL players such as Lance Moore, Chase Blackburn, and Gary Joshua.

References

External links
Chicago Bears bio
Carolina Panthers bio

1984 births
Living people
African-American players of American football
American people of German descent
American football wide receivers
American football return specialists
Akron Zips football players
Carolina Panthers players
Chicago Bears players
Denver Broncos players
German players of American football
New York Giants players
People from Kusel (district)
Players of American football from Columbus, Ohio
Sportspeople from Rhineland-Palatinate
21st-century African-American sportspeople
20th-century African-American people

Domenik Hixon


Richard Charles Rodgers (June 28, 1902 – December 30, 1979) was an American composer. He wrote many musicals with Oscar Hammerstein II, including Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, the television musical, Cinderella, and The Sound of Music.

Rodgers was the first person to win all four top show business awards: an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony.  He also won a Pulitzer Prize.

Life
Rodgers was born in New York City to Dr. William Rodgers and his wife, Mamie, who were of German Jewish descent. The family enjoyed musicals and opera. At 15, Rodgers chose music as his profession. He attended Columbia University, and wrote for the school's Varsity Show.

Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, and Oscar Hammerstein II all attended Columbia University. At Columbia, Rodgers joined the Pi Lambda Phi fraternity. In 1921, Rodgers changed his studies to the Institute of Musical Art (now Juilliard). Rodgers was influenced by composers such as Victor Herbert and Jerome Kern.

Late in life, Rodgers established scholarships and other awards for students of The Juilliard School of Music, the American Theater Wing and the American Academy of Dramatic Art.

Lorenz Hart

In 1919 Rodgers met Lorenz Hart.  The two wrote 26 musicals together, and song standards such as "I'll Take Manhattan", "My Funny Valentine", and "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered".

Their first professional production was the 1920 Poor Little Ritz Girl. In 1925 they became well known for the song "Manhattan".  The duo then wrote several hit shows for both Broadway and London. Because of the Depression in the 1930s, they went to work in Hollywood. In 1935, they returned to Broadway. They wrote an almost unbroken string of hit shows.  This ended with Hart's death in 1943.

Oscar Hammerstein II
In 1942, Rodgers teamed up with Oscar Hammerstein II.  They made the most successful partnership in American musical theatre history. Their first musical was the hit Oklahoma!. The team went on to create four more of the most popular musicals to date: Carousel (1945), South Pacific, The King and I (1951), and The Sound of Music (1959). All four were made into popular films.

Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals earned a total of 35 Tony Awards, 15 Academy Awards, two Pulitzer Prizes, two Grammy Awards, and two Emmy Awards.

Rodgers, Hammerstein, and Joshua Logan won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for South Pacific. Rodgers and Hammerstein also won a special Pulitzer Prize in 1944 for Oklahoma!.

After Hammerstein's death in 1960, Rodgers wrote both words and music for his first new Broadway project. Rodgers went on to work with lyricists Stephen Sondheim and Sheldon Harnick.

Personal
Rodgers married Dorothy Feiner in 1930. They had two daughters, Mary and Linda. Mary is the composer of Once Upon a Mattress and an author of children's books.  Her son Adam Guettel won a Tony Awards for Best Score and Best Orchestrations for The Light in the Piazza in 2005.

Rodgers died in 1979. He was cremated, and his ashes scattered at sea.

Richard Rodgers is a member of the American Theatre Hall of Fame.

References

 Richard Rodgers.bio

1902 births
1979 deaths
American composers
Entertainers from New York City
Best Original Song Academy Award-winning songwriters
Emmy Award winners
Grammy Award winners
Tony Award winners

Richard Rodgers


William "Extra Billy" Smith (September 6, 1797May 18, 1887) was a lawyer, congressman, the 30th and 35th Governor of Virginia, and a major general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. On his appointment in January 1863, at 65, Smith was the oldest Confederate general to hold field command in the war.

Early and family life
Smith was born in Marengo, (then Richmond County, Virginia now King George County, Virginia) to Mary Waugh Smith (1775-1811) (born at "Mt. Eccentric" in Fauquier County) and her cousin and husband Caleb Smith (1761-1814). His maternal grandfather (also William Smith, served in the local militia and was wounded in Lord Dunmore's War. His paternal grandfather Thomas Smith (1739-1801) had fought in the American Revolutionary War (and overwintered at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania). His uncle Col. Austin Smith served in the War of 1812 and then represented King George County in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1814, 1821, and 1822. His mother's Doniphan ancestor had emigrated before 1663, and their joint ancestor, British naval officer Sir Sydney Smith emigrated circa 1720. The future governor had either six or seven siblings, including Rev. Thomas Smith (1799-1847), who was a minister at Smithfield, Virginia and later Parkersburg, West Virginia, and James Madison Smith (1808-1853).  Billie Smith attended private school in Virginia and Plainfield Academy in Connecticut, then returned to Virginia to read law.

In 1820, he married Elizabeth Hansbrough Bell, of a similar social class. They had eleven children, several of whom died in infancy or as young adults. Their son William Henry (1824-1850) was lost at sea, and James Caleb Smith (1822-1856) was admitted to the bar in California but died in Nicaragua. Their sons Austin Smith (1829- ), Thomas J. Smith (1836-1918) and Frederick Waugh Smith (1843-1928) enlisted in the Confederate States Army. Each, for a time, fought under their father. After the war, Col. Thomas Smith married a Virginia judge's daughter, became U.S. Attorney for the Territory of New Mexico, and Chief Justice of the territory's supreme court before returning to Virginia. His brother Capt. Frederick Smith would move to South Africa and also live to old age. His nephew Caleb Smith (1824-1874; Rev. Thomas Smith's son) would resign his U.S. Army commission to fight for the Confederacy and be wounded at Bull Run. His brother-in-law Peter Hansbrough Bell was a Texas Revolutionary and Mexican War veteran who served as the third Governor of Texas from 1849 through 1853. His cousin William Waugh Smith (1845-1912) would fight for the Confederacy then become president of Randolph Macon College and found Randolph College, a women's college near Lynchburg.

Career
Smith was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Culpeper, Culpeper County, Virginia, in 1818. About a decade later, in 1827, Smith established a line of United States mail and passenger post coaches through Virginia, then expanded the business into the Carolinas and Georgia in 1831. It was in this role that he received his nickname. Given a contract by the administration of President Andrew Jackson to deliver mail between Washington, D.C., and Milledgeville, Georgia (then the state capital), Smith extended it with numerous spur routes, generating extra fees. During an investigation of the Post Office Department, Smith's extra fees were publicized by U.S. Senator Benjamin W. Leigh. Smith became known as "Extra Billy" in both the Northern and Southern United States.

Smith owned ten enslaved people in the 1840 census.
Interested in politics and a Democrat, Smith won election to the Senate of Virginia from the Piedmont district consisting of Culpeper, Madison, Orange, Rappahannock and Greene counties, and served from 1836 to 1841. He resigned during his second term, having successfully contested the election of Linn Banks to the Twenty-seventh Congress. Thus Smith served one term, from March 4, 1841, to March 3, 1843, but failed to win reelection in 1842 to the Twenty-eighth Congress. He then moved to Fauquier County.

Elected by legislators as Governor of Virginia in 1845, Smith served from 1846 to 1849, during the Mexican–American War, but failed to earn legislative approval necessary for election to the United States Senate during that period. As his gubernatorial term ended and consecutive terms were forbidden, Smith moved to California in April 1849 after the California Gold Rush and was president of the first Democratic state convention in 1850. Smith soon returned to Virginia and in December 1852 was elected to the Thirty-third Congress and to the three succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1853 – March 3, 1861). Although chosen for the Confederate States Congress, he resigned in 1862 in favor of military service. He was again elected governor in 1863 (this time by popular election in Confederate-held territory) and served until the end of the war.

Electoral history
1853; Smith was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives with 51.79% of the vote, defeating Whig Edgar Snowden.
1855; Smith was re-elected with 78.01% of the vote, defeating Independents P. Johnson Barbour and David Funsten.
1857; Smith was re-elected with 57.5% of the vote, defeating now-American Snowden.
1859; Smith was re-elected with 49.36% of the vote, defeating Independent Democrats Henry Wirtz Thomas and Henry Shackleford.
1863; Smith was elected Governor of Virginia with  47.77% of the vote, defeating fellow Conservative Democrats Thomas Stanhope Flournoy and George W. Munford.

Civil War
When Virginia seceded from the United States, Smith declined to accept a commission as a brigadier general because he rightly admitted he was "wholly ignorant of drill and tactics". A few weeks after the war started, he was present during a U.S. Army cavalry charge at the Battle of Fairfax Court House (June 1861). He took command of the Confederate troops after the death of their commander John Quincy Marr and found he enjoyed the experience. He requested a commission and was appointed colonel of the 49th Virginia Infantry regiment just three days before the First Battle of Bull Run, where the regiment and new commander performed well.

Smith served in the Confederate Congress in 1862 but returned to the 49th Virginia at the start of the Peninsula Campaign. He was wounded at the Battle of Seven Pines, and his regiment received favorable notice in his commander's report. During the Seven Days Battles, the regiment was lightly engaged, but he and his command again were described as having "characteristic coolness" and "fearlessness." He was known for expressing contempt for West Point graduates ("West P'inters") and their formal tactics, recommending common sense to his men instead of military education. He distinguished himself with his unorthodox field uniform, including a tall beaver hat and a blue cotton umbrella.

At the Battle of Antietam, Smith temporarily commanded a brigade in Maj. Gen. Jubal Early's division. He was wounded three times but continued to command, and Maj. Gen. J. E. B. Stuart wrote that he was "conspicuously brave and self-possessed." By the end of the battle, he had to be carried from the field. In recognition of his performance, he was promoted to brigadier general on January 31, 1863. He commanded a brigade in the Battle of Chancellorsville but achieved no distinction.

By the time of the Gettysburg Campaign, Smith's superiors were leery of his performance. Still, they had to maintain some support since he was the former governor and, at the time, the governor-elect of Virginia. Early directed Brig. Gen. John B. Gordon to keep close contact with Smith and effectively exercise a joint command over their two brigades. During the Battle of Gettysburg, Smith refused to pursue retreating U.S. XI Corps troops, concerned that a U.S. Army force was approaching from his left, which was a significant reason that the Confederates failed to attack and take Cemetery Hill on July 1, 1863. Smith was the oldest general on the field and fought (unsuccessfully) the oldest U.S. general, Brig. Gen. George S. Greene, at Culp's Hill on July 3, 1863. He was the only general not commended in Early's official report and, as a result, decided to resign his commission on July 10. He nevertheless received an essentially honorary promotion to major general and Assistant Inspector General on August 12 and performed recruiting duty in Virginia.

Postbellum career
Before the Gettysburg Campaign, Smith was elected again as Governor of Virginia and served from January 1, 1864, to the war's end. He was among the first Southern governors to advocate arming blacks to provide additional troops for the Confederacy. He occasionally returned to the field to command forces in defense of Richmond. He was removed from office and arrested on May 9, 1865, but was paroled on June 8.

He returned to his estate, "Monte Rosa" (later renamed "Neptune Lodge") near Warrenton, Virginia, where he engaged in agricultural pursuits. At the age of eighty, he became a member of the Virginia House of Delegates (1877–79). He died in Warrenton and was buried in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia.

See also
List of American Civil War generals (Confederate)

References

 Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher. Civil War High Commands. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001. .
 Mingus, Scott L., Sr. Confederate General William "Extra Billy" Smith: From Virginia's Statehouse to Gettysburg Scapegoat. El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Beatie, 2013. .
 Sifakis, Stewart. Who Was Who in the Civil War. New York: Facts On File, 1988. .
 Tagg, Larry. The Generals of Gettysburg. Campbell, CA: Savas Publishing, 1998. .
 Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959. .

External links
A Guide to the Executive Papers of Governor William Smith, 1846-1848 at The Library of Virginia
A Guide to the Executive Papers of Governor William Smith, 1864-1865 at The Library of Virginia

1797 births
1887 deaths
Democratic Party governors of Virginia
Confederate States Army major generals
Members of the Confederate House of Representatives from Virginia
People from King George County, Virginia
Virginia lawyers
Burials at Hollywood Cemetery (Richmond, Virginia)
Confederate States of America state governors
Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Virginia
19th-century American politicians
People from Warrenton, Virginia
19th-century American lawyers

William Smith (Virginia governor)


The Pareto distribution is a probability distribution named after Vilfredo Pareto. It is continuous and follows a power law. It is a heavy tailed distribution. The Pareto distribution was first used to show how income is distributed among households (which is commonly called Income distribution). Pareto distributions are often used in the cases when many different small independent factors contribute to a result. Pareto wrote a book called Cours d'économie politique, where he tried to show that the number of people who have an income greater than x is proportional to . The parameter  is constant, and about 1.5. This is all that is needed to describe the Pareto distribution. Insurance companies often use Pareto distributions to model damage.

Probability distributions

Pareto distribution


Nathaniel Branden (born Nathan Blumenthal; April 9, 1930 – December 3, 2014) was a Canadian–American psychotherapist and writer known for his work in the psychology of self-esteem. A former associate and romantic partner of Ayn Rand, Branden also played a prominent role in the 1960s in promoting Rand's philosophy, Objectivism. Rand and Branden split acrimoniously in 1968, after which Branden focused on developing his own psychological theories and modes of therapy.

Early life and education
Nathaniel Branden was born Nathan Blumenthal in Brampton, Ontario to Dinah (née Copp) and Joseph Blumenthal, who were Jewish immigrants from Russia. He grew up alongside three sisters, Florence, Elayne, and Reva. A gifted student, he became impatient with his studies during his first year of high school and skipped school often in favor of the library. After getting failing grades as a result, he convinced his mother to send him to a special accelerated high school for adults, and subsequently did well in that environment.

After graduating from high school, Branden went on to earn his BA in psychology from the University of California Los Angeles, an MA from New York University, and in 1973, a Ph.D. in psychology from the California Graduate Institute (CGI), then an unaccredited, state-approved school whose graduates may be licensed by the state to practice psychology. (Graduates of unaccredited state-approved schools such as CGI are limited to associate membership in the American Psychological Association.)

Objectivist movement

In 1950, after he had read The Fountainhead and exchanged letters and phone calls with Ayn Rand, Branden and his then-girlfriend Barbara Weidman visited Rand and her husband Frank O'Connor at their Los Angeles home. The four became close friends, with Branden and Rand in particular sharing a vivid interest in philosophical exploration and development. After the publication of Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged, Branden sensed an interest on the part of Rand's readers in further philosophic education. In 1958 he created the Nathaniel Branden Lectures, later renamed the Nathaniel Branden Institute (NBI). The organization disseminated Rand's philosophy of Objectivism by offering live and taped lecture courses by a variety of Objectivist intellectuals, including Rand, Branden, and Alan Greenspan, whom Branden had brought into Rand's fold. During this time, Branden also contributed articles to Rand's newsletters on subjects ranging from economics to politics to psychology. Branden's work at NBI included translating the principles expressed by Rand in her fiction and non-fiction writing into a systematized construct that became known as Objectivism.

NBI expanded considerably over the course of its existence, ultimately offering courses in 80 cities and establishing an office in the Empire State Building. In 1968, Rand publicly broke with Branden and published an article denouncing him and accusing him of a variety of offenses, such as philosophic irrationality and unresolved psychological problems. In response, Branden sent out a letter to the NBI mailing list denying Rand's accusations and suggesting that the actual cause of Rand's denunciation of him was his unwillingness to engage in a romantic relationship with her. (Branden later explained in his memoir that he and Rand had in fact been romantically intimate for a period of time in the late 1950s; see personal life.)

After the break, Branden went on to publish The Psychology of Self-Esteem (many chapters of which he had published originally in Rand's newsletter), and then to develop his theory and mode of therapy more independently of Rand's influence. Though he remained supportive of the broad essentials of Rand's philosophy, he eventually offered criticisms of aspects of her work, naming as problems a tendency to encourage emotional repression and moralizing, a failure to understand psychology beyond its cognitive aspects, and a failure to appreciate adequately the importance of kindness in human relationships. He also apologized in an interview to "every student of Objectivism" for "perpetuating the Ayn Rand mystique" and for "contributing to that dreadful atmosphere of intellectual repressiveness that pervades the Objectivist movement."

Psychology of self-esteem
Branden argued that self-esteem is a human psychological need and that to the extent this need remains unmet, pathology (defensiveness, anxiety, depression, difficulty in relationships, etc.) tends to result. He defined self-esteem formally as "the disposition to experience oneself as competent to cope with the basic challenges of life and as worthy of happiness", and proposed that, while others (parents, teachers, friends) can nurture and support self-esteem in an individual, self-esteem also relies upon various internally generated practices. These consisted, in Branden's framework, of six "pillars" of self-esteem:
 Living consciously: the practice of being aware of what one is doing while one is doing it, i.e., the practice of mindfulness.
 Self-acceptance: the practice of owning truths regarding one's thoughts, emotions, and behaviors; of being kind toward oneself with respect to them; and of being "for" oneself in a basic sense.
 Self-responsibility: the practice of owning one's authorship of one's actions and of owning one's capacity to be the cause of the effects one desires.
 Self-assertiveness: the practice of treating one's needs and interests with respect and of expressing them in appropriate ways.
 Living purposefully: the practice of formulating goals and of formulating and implementing action plans to achieve them.
 Personal integrity: the practice of maintaining alignment between one's behaviors and convictions.

In his book Taking Responsibility Branden defended voluntarism as a moral concept and libertarianism as a political one; likewise, individualism and personal autonomy are seen as essential to human freedom.

Branden distinguished his approach to self-esteem from that of many others by his inclusion of both confidence and worth in his definition of self-esteem, and by his emphasis on the importance of internally generated practices for the improvement and maintenance of self-esteem. For this reason, he at times expressed lack of enthusiasm about the teachings of the "self-esteem movement", which he is sometimes credited with having spawned (he was sometimes referred to as "the father of the self-esteem movement").

Mode of therapy
While Branden began his practice of therapy as, primarily, a cognitivist, starting in the 1970s he rapidly shifted toward a decidedly technically eclectic stance, utilizing techniques from gestalt therapy, psychodrama, neo-Reichian breathwork, Ericksonian hypnosis, as well as original techniques such as his sentence completion method, which he favored. In a piece from 1973, he characterized his mode of therapy as consisting of four aspects: education, emotional unblocking, stimulation of insight, and encouragement of behavior change. In contrast to the exclusively experiential or exclusively cognitive (insight-oriented) methods of the day, Branden saw his mode of therapy as distinguished in part by "the integration of the emotional and the cognitive, the practice of constantly moving back and forth between the experiential and the conceptual."

Sentence completion, a method that figured prominently in Branden's mode of therapy, is an example of this dual focus. In its most common variation, it consists of a therapist giving a client an incomplete sentence—a sentence stem—and having the client repeat the sentence stem over and over, each time adding a new ending, going quickly, without thinking or censoring, and inventing endings when stuck. In this way, a therapist can facilitate the generation of awareness and insight (for example, with a stem such as, "If my fear could speak, it might say—"), and shifts in cognitive-motivational structure (for example, with a stem such as, "If I were to be kinder to myself when I'm afraid—"). By improvising a succession of such stems, many based on endings generated by a previous stem, a therapist can, according to Branden, lead a client  on a sometimes dramatically emotional journey of self exploration and self-discovery.

Eventually, Branden integrated techniques from the field of energy psychology, such as Thought Field Therapy and Seemorg Matrix work, into his practice, viewing psychological trauma (which such techniques target) as a significant barrier to growth and development. He has described human problems as occurring both "above the line"—that is, in the realm of cognition and volitional behavior—and "below the line"—that is, in the realm of unconscious trauma stored in the body.

Personal life
Branden married Barbara Weidman in 1953, with Rand and Rand's husband Frank O'Connor in attendance. Branden would later state the marriage was unwise, and troubled from the beginning. In the context of these troubles, and Rand's reported frustrations in her own marriage, Branden and Rand—who had a passionate philosophic bond—developed amorous feelings for each other and began a love affair in 1954. The affair lasted until the publication of Atlas Shrugged in 1957, after which, according to Branden, Rand became depressed, and the affair, practically speaking, ended.

Branden reported that in this period Rand began seeking a resumption of their affair; his own marriage, meanwhile, was deteriorating, although he and Barbara were becoming closer as friends. Branden then met and fell in love with a young model, Patrecia Scott (née Gullison). The two began a secret affair in 1964. In mid-1965, Nathaniel told Barbara of the affair and the two separated (and subsequently divorced). Despite Rand's romantic involvement with Nathaniel, her close intellectual collaboration with him, and her strong public endorsements of him, both Brandens kept Nathaniel's affair with Patrecia secret from Rand, fearing her reaction. In 1968, four years into the affair, Barbara Branden informed Rand of it. In response, Rand morally condemned the Brandens and dissociated herself from them in an article for her journal, The Objectivist, which, without revealing the existence of her romantic involvement with Branden, accused him of "deliberate deception" and financial misdealings in their business partnership.

Branden at this point moved to California with Patrecia; the two married in November 1969. In March 1977, Patrecia died in a freak drowning accident, falling into a pool after presumably suffering a mild epileptic seizure. Branden subsequently married businesswoman (and later psychotherapist) Estelle Devers in December 1978. The two later divorced, though they remained friends. Branden subsequently married Leigh Horton.

Branden retained a relationship—sometimes friendly, sometimes acrimonious—with his first wife, Barbara, who wrote a successful biography, The Passion of Ayn Rand, which presented her version of Branden's relationship with Rand and the bitter breakup. The book was made into a motion picture in 1999 titled The Passion of Ayn Rand, starring Helen Mirren as Rand and Eric Stoltz as Branden.

Branden died on December 3, 2014, due to complications from Parkinson's disease.

Books
 Who is Ayn Rand? (with Barbara Branden) (1962)
 The Psychology of Self-Esteem (1969)
 Breaking Free (1970)
 The Disowned Self (1971)
 The Psychology of Romantic Love (1980)
 The Romantic Love Question & Answer Book (with Devers Branden) (1982)
 Honoring the Self (1983)
 If You Could Hear What I Cannot Say (1985)
 To See What I See and Know What I Know (1985)
 How To Raise Your Self-Esteem (1987)
 Judgment Day: My Years with Ayn Rand (1989)
 The Power of Self-Esteem (1992)
 The Art of Self Discovery (1993)
 The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem (1994)
 Taking Responsibility (1996)
 The Art of Living Consciously (1997)
 A Woman's Self-Esteem (1998)
 Nathaniel Branden's Self-Esteem Every Day (1998)
 Self-Esteem at Work (1998)
 My Years with Ayn Rand (1999) (revised edition of Judgment Day)
 32nd Anniversary Edition of Psychology of Self-Esteem (2001)
 The Vision of Ayn Rand (2009) (book version of his "Basic Principles of Objectivism" lecture series)
 Layers (2020) (posthumous novel)

Branden's books have been translated into 18 languages, with more than 4 million copies in print. In addition, Branden contributed essays to two of Rand's essay collections, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal and The Virtue of Selfishness.

See also

 Objectivism and libertarianism

References

Works cited

External links

 Booknotes interview on Judgement Day: My Years with Ayn Rand, July 2, 1989.

1930 births
2014 deaths
20th-century Canadian non-fiction writers
20th-century Canadian male writers
Canadian expatriate writers in the United States
Canadian libertarians
Canadian psychologists
Canadian self-help writers
Critics of Objectivism (Ayn Rand)
Neurological disease deaths in California
Deaths from Parkinson's disease
Human Potential Movement
Neo-Objectivists
New York University alumni
People from Brampton
Canadian psychotherapists
University of California, Los Angeles alumni
Writers from Ontario
American libertarians
American psychotherapists

Nathaniel Branden


Sulfur tetrafluoride, also known as sulfur(IV) fluoride, is a chemical compound. Its chemical formula is SF4. It contains sulfur in its +4 oxidation state.

Properties
Sulfur tetrafluoride is a colorless gas. It is toxic and corrosive. It releases hydrogen fluoride when exposed to water.

Preparation
It is made by reacting sodium fluoride, chlorine, and sulfur dichloride. The chlorine does not have to be included. If no chlorine is used, other products form that need to be taken out.

Uses
Sulfur tetrafluoride is used to make organic molecules containing fluoride ions. It is not used much.

Related pages
Sulfur hexafluoride
Sulfur pentafluoride

Sulfur compounds
Fluorine compounds

Sulfur tetrafluoride


In terms of computer security, a firewall is a piece of  software. This software monitors the network traffic between the inside and outside. The firewall is placed between the network that is to be protected (trusted) and the outside network (less trusted) aka WAN or Internet. A firewall has a set of rules which are applied to each packet. The rules decide if a packet can pass, or whether it is discarded. When a large network needs to be protected, the firewall software often runs on a computer that does nothing else.

A firewall protects one part of the network against unauthorized access.

Different kinds of Firewalls

Packet filtering / Network Layer
Data travels on the internet in small pieces; these are called packets. Each packet has certain metadata attached, like where it is coming from, and where it should be sent to. The easiest thing to do is to look at the metadata. Based on rules, certain packets are then dropped or rejected. It is done at the network layer.

Stateful packet inspection
In addition to the simple packet filtering (above), this kind of firewall also keeps track of connections. A packet can be the start of a new connection, or it can be part of an existing connection. If it is neither of the two, it is probably useless and can be dropped.

Application-layer firewalls
Application-layer firewalls do not just look at the metadata; they also look at the actual data transported. They know how certain protocols work, for example  FTP or HTTP. They can then look if the data that is in the packet is valid (for that protocol). If it is not, it can be dropped.

Other things firewalls are used for

Tunneling
Firewalls can provide a secure connection between two networks. This is called tunnellng. The data may be encrypted. It is decrypted at the other end. Since the firewalls are doing this, the rest of the network is unaware of it. An alternative is to provide a secure access (to the corporate network).

Network Address Translation (NAT)
Very often, firewalls can translate IP addresses. That way, many computers can share a few public IP addresses. The firewall translates between the public and the private IP addresses.

Types of firewalls
In general, there are two types of firewalls:
Software-based firewalls: these are often run as additional programs on computers that are used for other things. They are often known as personal firewalls which can be updates on personal computers.

Prominent Brands include OPNsense, pfsense, comodo etc.

Hardware-based firewalls: Hardware based firewalls run on a dedicated computer (or appliance). Often, these offer a better performance than software firewalls, but they are also more money.

Prominent Brands include PaloAlto, WiJungle, Checkpoint, Cisco etc.

What firewalls cannot protect against
Firewalls can protect against some problems (viruses and attacks) that come from the internet. They cannot protect against viruses, that come from infected media (like an infected office document on an USB flash drive).

Software
Internet security

Firewall (networking)


Alberto Dines (February 19, 1932 – May 22, 2018) was a Brazilian journalist and writer.

Biography
With a career spanning over five decades, Dines directed and launched several magazines and newspapers in Brazil and Portugal. He has taught journalism since 1963, and was a visiting professor at the Columbia University School of Journalism in 1974.

Dines was the editor in chief of Jornal do Brasil for twelve years, in addition to coordinating the Rio de Janeiro branch of Folha de S.Paulo. He was also the director of Grupo Abril in Portugal, where he launched the Exame magazine.

After years of dodging the military dictatorship censorship as the editor in chief of Jornal do Brazil, Dines was fired in June 1974 for publishing an article criticizing the overtly amicable relationship between the owners of the newspaper and the state government of Rio de Janeiro.

In addition to working as a journalist, Dines has written over 15 books, including Death in Paradise, the Tragedy of Stefan Zweig (1981) and Fire Links – Antônio José da Silva, the Jew and other stories of the Inquisition in Portugal and Brazil (1992). His book about Stefan Zweig was adapted into the film Lost Zweig (2002), directed by Sylvio Back. Dines also discussed Zweig in a documentary by the same director.

In April 1996, Dines launched the groundbreaking Observatório da Imprensa website. The media analysis website was later adapted into a weekly TV show, currently aired by TV Brasil, and a daily radio show, aired on public stations.

Awards
 1970: Maria Moors Cabot Prize
 2005: Prêmio Imprensa Estrangeira
 October 2007: Austrian Holocaust Memorial Award
 2009: Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art
 March 29, 2010: Roberto Marinho Prize for Communication (Brazil)

Works
Morte no paraíso, a tragédia de Stefan Zweig, Editora Nova Fronteira (1981), Editora Rocco (2004)
Tod im Paradies. Die Tragödie des Stefan Zweig, Edition Büchergilde (2006)

References

External links
Observatório da Imprensa, the website
Observatório da Imprensa, the TV show

1932 births
2018 deaths
Brazilian Jews
Brazilian journalists
Brazilian male journalists
Brazilian magazine editors
Jewish Brazilian writers
Maria Moors Cabot Prize winners
Recipients of the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art
Stefan Zweig
Writers from Rio de Janeiro (city)

Alberto Dines


Tashbih Sayyed (1941–2007) was a Pakistani-American scholar, journalist, and author and was the editor-in-chief of Our Times, Pakistan Today, and In Review. Sayyed worked from 1967 to 1980 for the Pakistan Television Corporation. In 1981, he emigrated to the United States. As a regular columnist for newspapers in the US, Pakistan, Germany and India, Sayyed wrote about what he perceived as the Islamist threat to the US.  In 2004 he was one of the founders of the Center for Islamic Pluralism.

He was also founder of the websites Muslim World Today and Pakistan Today (not the Pakistani newspaper of the same name). Sayyed is featured in the documentaries, Relentless: The Struggle for Peace in Israel and Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West.

Life and career

Tashbih Sayyed was born in India in 1941 to a Shiite Muslim family. Following the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan in 1947, his family left for Pakistan.

He started his career in journalism at Pakistan Television in 1967, ultimately becoming the controller and general manager of the station. During his last years at Pakistan Television, Sayyed became the founder of the station's current affairs programming. As a result of his liberal views, however, he came under attack by the Zia ul-Haq regime. He left his position at the station in 1980 and immigrated to the U.S. in 1981.

After moving to the United States, he worked as a translator and writer for several years.

In later years, Sayyed founded two California-based weekly newspapers, Pakistan Today (1991) and Muslim World Today. He is the author of eight books, including History of the World, Left of the Center, Pakistan – An Unfinished Agenda, Mohammad – A Secularist's View, Foreign Policy of Pakistan and Shadow Warriors – Afghanistan, Pakistan, Taliban. He appeared in the documentary Relentless: The Struggle for Peace in Israel (2003) and in Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West (2005).

He was the founder and president of the Council for Democracy and Tolerance in the United States, an organization established to promote pluralism and respect for democratic values in society. He also served as editor of South Asia in Review, a quarterly journal, and was an adjunct fellow of the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C.. He was a speaker for Benador Associates.

Death
After Sayeed's death in 2007, his daughter Supna succeeded him as editor-in-chief of Muslim World Today and Pakistan Today.

Views on the Islamist movement

Sayyed criticized Palestinian extremism, saying that "Terrorists not only benefit from wide support through Palestinian society, they embody only too well the deepest hopes of the majority: to destroy the Jewish state". He criticized Arab nations of making the children and grandchildren of Palestinian refugees second-class citizens in Lebanon, Syria, or the Gulf States, and said that the refugees "cling to the illusion that defeating the Jews will restore their dignity".

He said that Arab dictators, the PLO and radical Islamist movements have used the media, mosques and universities to present Jews as unholy intruders, occupiers, murderers, and enemies of Islam. "To create a Palestinian state before this mindset is changed can only ensure that the new state will be yet another terrorist sponsor.", he argued. He continued by saying that Palestinian "terrorist movements" have successfully connected the Arab-Israeli conflict with the militant Islamists' goal of establishing a global caliphate.

Views on Israel

Sayyed regarded Israel highly, and said that Israel is vital for the stability of the region. In an article published in Muslim World Today, describing his visit to Israel, has said that Arabs are protected by Israel's democratic principles, the Muslim Arab citizens of Israel are afforded all the rights and privileges of Israeli citizenship. He noted that Israel is one of the few countries in the Middle East where Arab women can vote. In contrast to the non-Israeli Arab world, Arab women in Israel enjoy the same status as men. Muslim women have the right to vote and to be elected to public office. Muslim women, according to Sayyed, are in fact more liberated in Israel than in any Muslim country. Israeli law prohibits polygamy, child marriage, and the "barbarity" of female sexual mutilation. He concluded by saying "I am convinced that it is true that God created this earth but it is also a fact that only an Israel can keep this earth from dying".

He condemned the press that portrays the Israelis as villains, and "chooses to ignore all rules of ethical journalism when it comes to Israel".

Sayyed was strongly affiliated with Zionism and openly promoted himself as a Muslim Zionist.  His close friend was the eminent Israeli journalist Ari Busse. Busse's strong pro-Zionist views were reflected in Sayyed's writings. Busse now runs Muslim World Today and Paktoday.com.

See also
Wafa Sultan
Muslim supporters of Israel

Bibliography
History of the World
Left of the Center
Pakistan – An Unfinished Agenda
Mohammad – A secularist's View
Foreign Policy of Pakistan
Shadow Warriors – Afghanistan, Pakistan, Taliban
"Stop Ahmadinejad Before It's Too Late", Global Politician, 5 November 2007

References

1941 births
2007 deaths
20th-century American journalists
American male journalists
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century Pakistani writers
American columnists
American male non-fiction writers
American political journalists
American political writers
American Shia Muslims
American writers of Pakistani descent
Muhajir people
Muslim supporters of Israel
Pakistani emigrants to the United States
Pakistani non-fiction writers
Pakistani opinion journalists
Pakistani political journalists
Pakistani political writers
Pakistani scholars
Pakistani Shia Muslims
Pakistani Zionists
20th-century American male writers

Tashbih Sayyed


In medicine, malignant is a clinical word that is used to describe an illness that kills a patient fast. A malignant tumor is a tumor that is able to invade nearby tissues and spread to tissues that are not nearby.  Not all patients diagnosed with malignant tumors die, because of the improved treatments available.  The actual prognosis depends on the type of tumor, its differentiation, and how bad the disease is.  The term malignant is typically applied to neoplasms that show aggressive behavior characterized by local invasion or distant metastasis.

Medicine

Malignant


Luther Emmett Holt (L. Emmett Holt, March 4, 1855 – January 14, 1924) was an American pediatrician and author, noted for writing The Care and Feeding of Children: A Catechism for the Use of Mothers and Children's Nurses in 1894.

Born near Rochester, New York, Holt graduated from the University of Rochester in 1875. He went to medical school in the University at Buffalo and then the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, earning his M.D. in 1880. He pioneered the science of pediatrics, and became the head physician at New York's Babies Hospital in 1888. Under his leadership it became the leading pediatric hospital of its time.

One of Holt's most notable accomplishments is the introduction of milk certification in New York City.  Using a grant he acquired through his connection with the Rockefeller Institute Holt surveyed the quality of milk in the tenement districts and subsequently proved that a large proportion of infant fatalities were due to excessively high bacterial counts.  He was instrumental in the creation of milk commissions and advisory boards for the city's Department of Health.

In 1887, a hospital designated solely for children became a reality when five determined women purchased a brownstone house at the corner of Lexington Avenue and 55th Street, near the site of Bloomingdale's today. Holt became its first medical director of the Babies Hospital in 1889 - now Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital. At his first rounds examining the patients, he noted with interest, the practice of the nurses there in maintaining a clipboard at the bedside (cribside) upon which important clinical information was being kept. He began adding physician observations to it, and thus was born the "medical record" or "chart". The head of nursing at that time had a set of lecture notes, which she used in the education of parents. He adapted it into a book that became the standard child rearing text The Care and Feeding of Children: A Catechism for the Use of Mothers and Children's Nurses (1894). This remained the pre-eminent guide until Psychological Care of Infant and Child (Watson 1928) and then Baby and Child Care (Spock 1946). Holt promoted the idea of regimented and disciplined parenting. His book included a schedule of activities (such as toilet training) to be learned at specific ages, and meals to at regular hours to "prevent disease". He advised that: "Babies under six months should never be played with: and the less of it at anytime the better for the infant.  They are made nervous and irritable, sleep badly and suffer from indigestion."

In 1900, the Rockefeller family funded the construction of a new Babies' Hospital at the same site, a 10-story state-of-the-art building that still stands to this day. However, by the 1920s even this building was too small, so Babies' Hospital joined Presbyterian Hospital, the Neurological Institute and the College of Physicians & Surgeons of Columbia University, to build Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, located between West 165th and 168th Streets and Broadway.  It continues today as the largest Hospital in the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital system.

Many important early figures in pediatrics did their internship under his supervision, such as Dorothy Reed (Mendenhall), MD, John Howland, MD (1st Chairman of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins and Director of the Harriet Lane Home for Invalid Children) and Edward Parks, MD (3d chair at Johns Hopkins).  At the turn of the century, Dr. Holt was a major figure in pediatrics.  He was a charter member of the American Pediatric Society and would be elected its president twice, an honor bestowed upon only one other doctor.  In 1901 he was appointed to the board of the Rockefeller Institute, under whose auspices he would eventually travel to China.  Following his development of a child welfare program adopted at the Red Cross Cannes Conference (1919), he was elected president of the Child Health Organization.

As president of the American Association for the Study and Prevention of Infant Mortality (AASPIM), Holt promoted reproduction control by society as a means of eugenics. In his 1913 presidential address he said:

We must eliminate the unfit by birth not by death. The race is to be most effectively improved by preventing marriage and reproduction by the unfit, among whom we would class the diseased, the degenerate, the defective, and the criminal.

He wrote The Care and Feeding of Children to great acclaim, and the text quickly became a bestseller. He also wrote Diseases of Infancy and Childhood in 1896; the book would go through 11 editions and remain the definitive text on pediatrics until 1940. Editions published after Holt's death were revised and edited by his son, Luther Emmett Holt, Jr., and Rustin McIntosh. In 1967, Holt, Jr., renewed the copyright. In 1980, Appleton/Classics of Medicine Library published a facsimile of the 1897 first edition.

Holt was a professor at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons from 1901 to 1922.  In 1923, despite his old age, the Rockefeller Institute called on him to lecture at Peking Union Medical College for their winter term.  Holt accepted, viewing the offer as both an opportunity to observe Chinese children for his own studies, and introduce pediatrics to the Chinese doctors.  Days before his return home, Holt suffered a heart attack and died in Peking on January 14, 1924.

References

External links

1855 births
1924 deaths
American instructional writers
American medical writers
American male non-fiction writers
American pediatricians
American eugenicists
Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons alumni
Columbia University faculty
Academic staff of Peking Union Medical College
University at Buffalo alumni
University of Rochester alumni
People from Webster, New York

Luther Emmett Holt


A covert operation is an operation that is done in a way that keeps it secret. The term suggests some kind of important reason. Examples might be:

a kind of surveillance to collect information.
to gather information for future arrest and prosecution
to get information which is needed for government security
an attempt to rescue or to capture a person without it being known.

Covert operations may be done by police. They can also be done by security agencies such as the Central Intelligence Agency (US) or MI5 (UK).

Security

Covert operation


Leeteratur is leiterally "an acquent wi letters" (frae the Latin littera meanin "the ae written chairacter (letter)"). The term haes maistly come til identifee a collection o texts. The wird "leeteratur" as a common noon can refer til onie kin o writin, sic as essays; "Leeteratur" as a proper noon refers til a hail bodie o leiterar wark, global or anent the ae cultur. Monie a time there's confusion on the actual defineition o leeteratur an Leeteratur. The wird "leeteratur" can be baith singular an plural, juist like "Literatur". Sayin that, "leeteraturs" is plural forby. Houaniver "Leeteratur", wi emphasis on uppercase L, is a subset o the mair wide-reengin "leeteratur". "Leeteratur" is uised for onie written wark o byordinar intellectual calibre, whiles "leeteratur" can be oniething written. Sae, War and Peace bi Tolstoy is "Leeteratur" (singular) as weel as "leeteratur" (singular), but Charles Dickens's wark is pairt o "Leeteratur" (plural) as weel as "leeteratur" (plural). Mairanower a Harry Potter novel will be thocht on as "leeteratur" (singular) but nae as "Leeteratur" (singular) sith maist fowk wadna deem the beuks as intellectual or meaninfu eneuch at an academic level. Likewice the Harry Potter collection bi J. K. Rowling will be thocht on as "leeteratur" (plural) but nae as "Leeteratur" (plural). What is intellectual an meaninfu is subjective an aften controversial or dubious, but it daesna interfere wi the defineition abuin.

Leeteratur

Leeteratur


Traffic lights (or traffic signals) are lights used to control the movement of traffic. They are placed at road intersections and crossings. The different colors of lights tell drivers what to do.

In South Africa, they call them robots.

Light cycles
Traffic lights change their colors in the same order every time. In most English-speaking countries, traffic lights usually change in this order:
 Red light on: This tells drivers to stop.
 Green light on: This means the driver can start driving or keep driving.
 Yellow light on: This tells drivers to stop when it is safe to, because the light is about to turn red.

Lester Wire was credited with the invention of the electric traffic light in 1912 in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Garrett Morgan, an African-American inventor, also developed a traffic signaling system, and was one of the first people to get a patent for a traffic light.

William Potts, a police officer, invented the first traffic light with three colors.

References

Traffic

Traffic light


The Palace of Mafra (), also known as the Palace-Convent of Mafra and the Royal Building of Mafra (), is a monumental Baroque and Neoclassical palace-monastery located in Mafra, Portugal, some 28 kilometres from Lisbon. Construction began in 1717 under King John V of Portugal and was completely concluded in 1755.

The palace was classified as a National Monument in 1910 and was also a finalist in the Seven Wonders of Portugal. On 7 July 2019, the Royal Building of Mafra – Palace, Basilica, Convent, Cerco Garden and Hunting Park (Tapada) was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

History

The palace, which also served as a Franciscan friary, was built during the reign of King John V (1717–1750), as consequence of a vow the king made in 1711, to build a convent if his wife, Queen Mariana, gave him offspring. The birth of his first daughter the Infanta Barbara of Portugal, prompted construction of the palace to begin. The palace was conveniently located near royal hunting preserves, and was usually a secondary residence for the royal family.

The construction was funded in large part from the proceeds of the colonies in Brazil, where gold and then diamonds were mined in vast quantities.

This vast complex, largely built of Lioz stone, is among the most sumptuous Baroque buildings in Portugal and at 40,000 m2, one of the largest royal palaces. Designed by the German architect Johann Friedrich Ludwig (João Frederico Ludovice), the palace was built symmetrically from a central axis, occupied by the basilica, and continues lengthwise through the main façade until two major towers. The structures of the convent are located behind the main façade. The building also includes a major library, with about 30,000 rare books. The basilica is decorated with several Italian statues and includes six historical pipe organs and two carillons, composed of 98 bells.

Construction
The exact site was chosen in 1713 and purchased in 1716. Construction began by the laying of the first stone on November 17, 1717, with a grand ceremony in the presence of the king, his entire court and the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon.

Initially it was a relatively small project for a friary of 13 Capuchin friars, who were to observe strict poverty. However, when the flow of gold and diamonds from the Portuguese colony of Brazil started to arrive in Lisbon in abundance, the king changed his plans and announced the construction of a sumptuous palace along with a much enlarged friary. This immense wealth allowed the king to be a generous patron of the arts.

He appointed an architect João Frederico Ludovice as director of the royal works at Mafra. Ludwig had studied architecture in Rome and knew contemporary Italian art. The extent of Ludwig's responsibility is unclear, as several other architects were involved in this project: the Milanese builder Carlos Baptista Garbo, Custódio Vieira, Manuel da Maia and even his own son António. However the application of the same architectural style over the whole building suggests the work of Ludwig as the head-architect in charge of the Royal Office of Works (Real Obra).

Construction lasted 13 years and mobilized a vast army of workers from the entire country (a daily average of 15,000 but at the end climbing to 30,000 and a maximum of 45,000), under the command of António Ludovice, the son of the architect. In addition 7,000 soldiers were assigned to preserve order at the construction site. They used 400 kg of gunpowder to blast through the bedrock for the laying of foundations. There was even a hospital for the sick or wounded workers. A total of 1,383 workers died during the construction.

The facade is 220 meters long. The whole complex covers 37,790 m2 with about 1,200 rooms, more than 4,700 doors and windows, and 156 stairways.

When complete the building consisted of a friary capable of sheltering 330 friars, along with a royal palace and a huge library of 30,000 books, embellished with marble, exotic woods and countless artworks taken from France, Flanders and Italy, which included six monumental pipe organs and the two carillons.

The basilica and the convent were inaugurated on the day of the King's 41st birthday on October 22, 1730. The festivities lasted for 8 days and were of a scale never seen before in Portugal. The basilica was dedicated to Our Lady and to St. Anthony.

However the building was not finished. The lantern on the cupola was completed in 1735. Work continued until 1755, when the work force was needed in Lisbon by the devastations of the Lisbon earthquake.

Later history

The palace was not occupied permanently by the royalty, who considered the rooms too gloomy. Nonetheless, it was a popular destination for the members of the royal family who enjoyed hunting in the nearby game preserve, the Tapada Nacional de Mafra. During the reign of King John VI the palace was inhabited for a whole year in 1807. The king was responsible for a partial renovation of the building by some well-known artists. However, with the French invasion of Portugal, in 1807, the royal family fled to Brazil, taking with them some of the best pieces of art and furniture in the building. Marshal Junot took up residence in the palace, to be driven out in turn by Wellington.

In 1834, after the Liberal Wars, Queen Maria II ordered the dissolution of the religious orders and the convent was abandoned by the Franciscans. During the last reigns of the House of Braganza, the palace was mainly used as a base for hunting. In 1849 the monastery part of the building was assigned to the military, a situation still in use today.

The last king of Portugal, Manuel II, following the proclamation of the republic, left on 5 October 1910 from the palace to the nearby coastal village of Ericeira on his way to exile. The palace was declared a national monument in 1907. At present, the building is conserved by the Portuguese Institute of the Architectonic Patrimony, which carried out several recovery programs, including the conservation of the main façade. A major restoration of the historical pipe organs began in 1998 with the collaboration of foreign experts and was finished in 2010. The restoration won the Europa Nostra 2012 award.

Description

Façade
The imposing façade, built of local limestone, is 220 m long and faces the town of Mafra. At each end of the façade stands a square tower with a bulbous dome, such as found in Central Europe. The church, built in white marble, is located in the centre of the main façade, symmetrically flanked on both sides by the royal palace. The king, wishing to rival the splendour of Rome, had sought architectural advice from his ambassador to the Vatican, who sent him small-scale models of important Roman religious buildings. The benedictal balcony at its centre is clearly mirrored on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. But this balcony is rather intended for the king, as a symbol of his power, than for the benedictions by a prelate.

The two church towers (68 m high) are inspired by the towers of Sant'Agnese in Agone (by the Roman Baroque architect Francesco Borromini). Their two carillons contain a total of 92 church bells, founded in Antwerp. The story goes that the Flemish bell-founders were so astonished by the size of their commission, that they asked to be paid in advance. The king retorted by doubling the offered amount. These carillons constitute the largest historical collection in the world.

The two towers are connected by two rows of Corinthian columns. The top row contains the statues of St. Dominic and St. Francis, sculpted from Carrara marble, standing in a niche on each side of the balcony. The lower row contains the statues of St. Clara and St. Elisabeth of Hungary.

Royal Palace

The spacious royal apartments are situated on the second floor. The apartments of the king are situated at the end of the palace while the apartment of the queen is 200 m away at the other end. Such was this distance that, when the king left his apartment towards the apartment of the queen, this was announced to the queen by the sound of a trumpet.

As king John VI had taken with him some of the best pieces of art and furniture in the building when the royal family fled in 1808 for the advancing French troops to Brazil, most rooms had to be redecorated in the original style. The Hunting trophy room (Sala dos Troféus) is decorated with numerous skulls of deer, the furniture is constructed of antlers and covered with deerskin and even the candleholders are made of deer antlers.

The Benediction Gallery (Sala da Benção) borders at the upper level of the basilica. The royal family could here attend Mass, seated at a window opening unto the basilica. The bust of John V in this hall is a work of the Italian Alessandro Giusti. The Throne Room, the Guard Room and the Room of Goddess Diana are decorated with murals by artist such as Ciryllo Wolkmar Machado, Bernardo Oliveira Góis and Vieira Lusitano.

Basilica

The church is built in the form of a Latin cross with a length of 63 m. It is rather narrow (16.5 m), an impression accentuated by the height of its nave (21.5 m). The vestibule (Galilee porch) contains a group of large sculptures in Carrara marble, representing the patron saints of several monastic orders.

The interior makes abundantly use of local rose-coloured marble, intermingled with white marble in different patterns. The multi-coloured designs of the floor are repeated on the ceiling. The barrel vault rests on fluted Corinthian semicolumns standing between the side chapels. The chapels in the transept contain altarpieces in jasper made by sculptors from the School of Mafra. The side aisles display 58 marble statues commissioned from the best Roman sculptors of their time. The All Saint's chapel in the transept is screened from the crossing by iron railings with bronze ornaments, made in Antwerp.

The choir has a magnificent giant candleholder with seven lamps sprouting from the mouth of seven rolled-up snakes. Above the main altar, inserting into the ceiling, is a gigantic jasper crucifix of 4.2 m, flanked by two kneeling angels, made by the School of Mafra. The cupola over the crossing was also inspired by the cupola of Sant'Agnese in Agone (by the Roman Baroque architect Francesco Borromini). This 70 m-high cupola with a small lantern atop, is carried by four finely sculpted arcs in rose and white marble.

There are six organs, four of which are located in the transept, constituting a rather uncommon ensemble. There were built by Joaquim Peres Fontanes and António Xavier Machado Cerveira between 1792 and 1807 (when the French troops occupied Mafra). They were made out of partially gilded Brazilian wood. The largest pipe is 6 m high and has a diameter of 0.28 m. King John V had commissioned liturgical vestments from master embroiderers from Genoa and Milan, such as Giuliano Saturni and Benedetto Salandri, and from France. They attest of superb quality and workmanship by their embroidering in gold technique and the use of silk thread in the same colour.

The religious paintings in the basilica and the convent constitute one of the most significant 18th century collections in Portugal. They include works by the Italians Agostino Masucci, Corrado Giaquinto, Francesco Trevisani, Pompeo Batoni and some Portuguese students in Rome such as Vieira Lusitano and Inácio de Oliveira Bernardes. The sculpture collection contains works by almost every major Roman sculptor from the first half of the 18th century. At that time, it represented the biggest single order done by a foreign power in Rome and still is one of the biggest collections in existence.

The parish of Mafra (Santo André de Mafra) and the Royal and Venerable Confraternity of the Most Blessed Sacrament of Mafra (Portuguese: Real e Venerável Irmandade do Santíssimo Sacramento de Mafra) have their headquarters in the basilica.

On 10 November 2020, Pope Francis granted a canonical coronation to the image of Our Lady of Solitude of the basilica, guarded by the Confraternity of the Most Blessed Sacrament.

Library

The Rococo library, situated at the back of the second floor, is truly the highlight of this palace, rivalling the grandeur of the library of the Melk Abbey in Austria. Built by Manuel Caetano de Sousa, this library is 88 m long, 9.5 m wide and 13 m high. The magnificent floor is covered with tiles of rose, grey and white marble. The wooden bookshelves in Rococo style are situated on the sidewalls in two rows, separated by a balcony with a wooden railing. They contain over 36,000 leather-bound volumes, attesting of the extent of western knowledge from the 14th to the 19th century. Among them, are many valuable bibliographical jewels, such as incunabula. These beautiful finished volumes were bound in the local workshop (Livraria) in the rocaille style (also by Manuel Caetano de Sousa).

The library is known for homing bats which protect the books from insect damage. The library's bat colony includes grey long-eared bats and serotine bats.

The library was used in Gulliver's Travels (1996) as the Great Chamber of War for the Emperor of Lilliput.

Convent

The rectangle behind the church and the palace houses the friary of the Franciscan friars of Arrábida Order (Ordem de São Francisco da Província da Arrábida) with cells for about 300 friars in long corridors on several floors. Between 1771 and 1791 this monastery was occupied by the Hermit Friars of St. Augustine.

Mafra School of Sculpture

The Mafra School of Sculpture was founded during the reign of king Joseph I of Portugal, successor of king John V. As the Mafra National Palace had a great need for sculptors, local and from abroad, it became the location of a sculpture academy headed by the Italian Alessandro Giusti (1715–1799).

Among the teachers were several important sculptors, such as José de Almeida (1709–1769), Claude de Laprade (1682–1738) and Giovanni Antonio da Padova (who created most of the statues for the cathedral of Évora).

The academy was awarded many commissions by the Augustinians from the monastery, resulting in the many marble statues and retables in marble and jasper in the basilica. This academy produced several generations of Portuguese sculptors, such as Joaquim Machado de Castro (1731–1822).

Cultural influence
A major reference to the construction of the palace is made in the novel Baltasar and Blimunda (Memorial do Convento), written by the Portuguese Nobel laureate José Saramago. The main character, Baltasar, born in Mafra, works on the construction of the palace. Saramago makes a detailed description of the building process, including the transport of a giant stone from the quarry to the building site (which Baltasar assists with), depicting it as a torture for those who helped build the palace.

See also
 Other Portuguese royal residences:
 Sintra National Palace
 Ajuda National Palace
 Belém Palace
 Palace of Necessidades
 Pena National Palace
 Queluz National Palace
 List of Baroque residences
 Royal and Venerable Confraternity of the Most Blessed Sacrament of Mafra
 List of carillons

References

Turner, J. – Grove Dictionary of Art – Oxford University Press, USA; New Ed (January 2, 1996);
Rentes de Carvalho J. – Portugal, um guia para amigos (in Dutch translation : Portugal); De Arbeiderspers, Amsterdam; 9th ed. August 1999;
The Rough Guide to Portugal – 11th ed. March 2005;
The National Palace of Mafra, an English guide; IPPAR, July 2005 (on sale in the palace)

Notes

External links

Palácio Nacional de Mafra

Houses completed in 1755
Religious buildings and structures completed in 1755
Palaces in Portugal
Royal residences in Portugal
Basilica churches in Portugal
Neoclassical architecture in Portugal
Neoclassical palaces
Baroque architecture in Portugal
Baroque palaces
Palaces in Lisbon District
Museums in Lisbon District
Historic house museums in Portugal
Churches in Lisbon District
World Heritage Sites in Portugal
National monuments in Lisbon District
7 Most Endangered Programme

Palace of Mafra


The Valentinos (also known as  The Womack Brothers) was an American family R&B group from Cleveland, Ohio, best known for launching the careers of brothers Bobby Womack and Cecil Womack. Bobby went on to find greater fame as a solo artist while Cecil became successful as a member of the husband and wife duo of Womack & Womack with Linda Cooke. The group was well known for  R&B hits such as the original versions of "Lookin' for a Love", notably covered by the J. Geils Band and later a solo hit for Bobby Womack, and "It's All Over Now", covered by the Rolling Stones.

Biography

Origins
The foundation of the Valentinos started in church where the five Womack brothers – Friendly, Jr. (born 1941), Curtis (1942–2017), Bobby (1944–2014), Harry (1945–1974) and Cecil (1947–2013) – performed at their father Friendly's church located from the East 85th & Quincy area of Cleveland. The group started out around 1952 when eight-year-old Bobby Womack played guitar for his father after he had broken a string. Following this, he discovered that all five of his sons could sing, forming the Womack Brothers.

Attracting a gospel following, in 1954, the group, under the name Curtis Womack and the Womack Brothers, cut a single, "Buffalo Bill" with the Pennant label; both Curtis and Bobby Womack were only ten years old at the time of the recording. In 1956, Sam Cooke discovered the group performing while he and his then group, the Soul Stirrers, were headlining and was so impressed with the brothers that he promised to help the group advance in their careers. In 1960, a couple of years after he founded SAR Records and becoming a crossover solo sensation, Cooke made good on his promise signing the teenage act to the label. The group arrived to California in a beat-up Cadillac prior to Cooke signing them.

Still going by The Womack Brothers, SAR cut two gospel singles the group recorded in 1961 and 1962 including "Somebody's Wrong" and "Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray". After the singles failed to chart, Cooke advised the group to go a secular direction. Upon this, they changed their name to the Valentinos and while both Bobby and Curtis continued to switch leads, Sam Cooke reportedly favored Bobby and while some SAR singles featured Curtis in lead, the Bobby-led singles garnered the most airplay.

Success
Shortly afterwards, the group under its new moniker, recorded "Lookin' for a Love", which was a pop rendition of "Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray". The song peaked at number eight on the R&B charts and number 72 on the Billboard Hot 100, going on to sell two million copies. The hit landed them an opening spot on James Brown & The Famous Flames' national tour.

In early 1964, the group issued their next hit, "It's All Over Now", which was co-written by Bobby and sister-in-law Shirley. Prior to them releasing it, however, word got around that the Rolling Stones wanted to cover it. Despite Bobby's initial protests, the Stones were eventually allowed to release it and their version became their first national hit in the U.S. Bobby's anger cooled after he received his first royalty check for the single following the Stones' release of the single.

Around 1963, Bobby Womack began touring as Sam Cooke's backing guitarist. Bobby added instrumentation to several of Cooke's albums including Night Beat and Ain't That Good News.  Around the same time Bobby was one of the first people to hear Cooke's chilling anthem, "A Change Is Gonna Come". In December 1964, the Valentinos' career was put in jeopardy when Cooke was suddenly shot and killed while at a Los Angeles motel.

Scandal
Struggling to deal with the sudden loss of Cooke, the group temporarily broke up. Not long after Cooke was buried, however, in February of the following year, Bobby, just before his 21st birthday married Cooke's widow, 29-year-old Barbara Cooke. Womack, his family and friends later say that Barbara fell in love with Bobby and convinced him to marry her. Womack even wore one of Sam's suits to the wedding by Barbara's request. The marriage angered many of Cooke's loyal fans due to the fact that Cooke's death was still being investigated at the time. In response to the negative attention, Bobby chose to leave the Valentinos and start his solo career in 1965, first recording for Him Records and later the Chess Records subsidiary, Checker. But due to the Cooke scandal, radio deejays refused to play his records and onstage, he was often referred to as "the kid that married Sam Cooke's wife". Womack settled on session work for the time being as a rhythm guitarist, beginning in 1966, while the rest of the Valentinos, who had initially disbanded following Cooke's death, were urged by Bobby to regroup.

Bobby Womack's success, Harry Womack's death and breakup

Following Cooke's death, SAR Records folded and the remaining Valentinos auditioned for several record labels before Chess Records picked them up. In 1966, they recorded two singles, "Do It Right" and "Let's Get Together" but both singles failed to chart and the brothers were dropped from the label soon after. Following this, the youngest Valentino, Cecil Womack, was the next brother to leave the group after he decided to marry former Motown singer Mary Wells. Cecil was 19 at the time of the marriage, Wells was 23. In 1968, Wells and Cecil helped the brothers get signed to Jubilee Records. Several of the brothers - including Bobby - contributed to the sessions of Mary Wells' Jubilee album Servin' Up Some Soul, many of the tracks being Cecil and Mary compositions. That same year, the remaining trio of Friendly, Jr., Curtis and Harry recorded the single "Tired of Being Nobody" followed by the Cecil Womack penned "Two Lovers History" before calling it a day.

Meanwhile, Bobby Womack's career was on a rise again, this time as a session musician and songwriter. After contributing guitar to recordings by Aretha Franklin, he gave up some of his compositions to Wilson Pickett, who later took the Womack single, "I'm in Love", to the top 40 on the pop and soul charts. Several of Womack's other songs including "I'm a Midnight Mover" were recorded by Pickett. Following this success, Minit Records signed Bobby and released the album Fly Me to the Moon, which featured the singer's first charted hit, a cover of the Mamas & the Papas' "California Dreaming". Once again being able to have a career after years of struggle following his marriage to Barbara Cooke, Womack continued his session work, working with musicians such as Gábor Szabó, with whom he wrote "Breezin'". By 1970, Womack's brothers rejoined him as background vocalists on his work, starting with the 1970 release of his second solo album, My Prescription.

In 1971, Bobby signed with United Artists Records and released his breakthrough album, Communication, which featured the top ten R&B hit, "That's the Way I Feel About Cha", to which the rest of his brothers (the Valentinos) contributed background vocals. The brothers featured on several of Womack's other albums over the years including Understanding, Facts of Life and Lookin' for a Love Again, the latter album in which the brothers re-recorded "Lookin' for a Love" in a modern funk setting. The remake later shot up to number one R&B and number ten pop becoming the biggest hit the brothers ever sang on, selling over two million copies. Bobby Womack later produced a version of "I Can Understand It" for the remaining Valentinos, releasing it on the Clean Records label. The song gave the Valentinos some traction again on the R&B charts leading to them appearing on Soul Train where Bobby was a frequent guest.

However, this period of success was short-lived. On March 9, 1974, Harry Womack was shot to death by his girlfriend during a fight while living in Bobby's Los Angeles home. Bobby said later that he received a phone call from his oldest brother Friendly, Jr., who told him of what had happened to Harry. Bobby was then doing an interview for a local radio station while "Lookin' for a Love" was rising on the charts when he got the call. Bobby said he was shocked by the news and tried to escape the building of the station, later landing in a hospital from his fall where he made a full recovery. In response, Bobby moved his entire family including parents Friendly and Naomi to California to strengthen a fragile family bond. The Valentinos ceased recordings as a group after Harry's death, settling on background work with brother Bobby.

Post-breakup
Bobby Womack's solo career struggled following the death of his brother as did the careers of the other ex-Valentinos. In 1982, Bobby Womack's solo career received a boost with the release of "If You Think You're Lonely Now", which featured his surviving brothers and other singers backing him. The following year, Cecil Womack, now married to Linda Cooke, Sam Cooke's daughter and Bobby's former stepdaughter, began finding success on his own with Linda as the duo Womack & Womack, releasing the album, Love Wars, which boosted the hit single, "Baby I'm Scared of You", which Cecil and Linda wrote. The duo later had a hugely successful international hit with "Teardrops". Friendly Womack and Curtis Womack continued to provide background vocals for brother Bobby's recordings until the nineties when both singers announced retirements.

An estrangement in the family occurred following the 1977 divorce of Cecil Womack and Mary Wells as it was alleged that a reason for the divorce (filed by Cecil) was due to Mary Wells carrying on an extramarital affair with Curtis. Curtis and Mary continued to date and in 1986, Wells gave birth to Curtis' daughter Sugar. Mary and Cecil had three children during their marriage including record producer Meech Wells (born Cecil Womack, Jr.). In the late eighties, disenchanted with life in the United States and searching for their African roots, Cecil and Linda Womack and their children moved to an African country and changed their name to the Zekkariyas where they continued recording music. As a songwriting team for Philadelphia International Records, the couple wrote hits for Teddy Pendergrass and Patti LaBelle. Cecil died on February 1, 2013, in Africa. In 2009, Bobby Womack was inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. During the ceremony, he performed his 1972 hit "Across 110th Street", his 1982 hit, "If You Think You're Lonely Now",  and the Valentinos' original  hit "It's All Over Now", in which Rolling Stone member Ron Wood backed him. (The Stones made a successful cover version of the song). Wood inducted Womack to the Hall. Womack's family with the exception of Cecil Womack was present for the induction ceremony. The family patriarch and founder of the Womack Brothers, Friendly Womack, Sr., died of cancer in 1981. Their mother, Naomi, died in December 2011.

Some of the group's recordings are most noted for their covers by artists of various genres. Alongside the Rolling Stones, Solomon Burke and Wilson Pickett recorded covers of the Valentinos tunes "Everybody Wants to Fall in Love" and "I Found a True Love", both of which were written solely by Bobby. In 1971, the J Geils Band covered "Lookin' for a Love" a couple years before the brothers re-recorded it for Bobby's solo release, Lookin' for a Love Again. Another composition that was first recorded by Bobby as a solo release and revived by the Valentinos a year later, "I Can Understand It", became a major hit for the funk band New Birth. Prior to her later work with Cecil, Linda helped Bobby co-write the hit "A Woman's Gotta Have It", which also featured Cecil singing background for his brother. Cecil and Linda's composition, "Love TKO", a major hit for Teddy Pendergrass, has been covered several times.

Naming controversy
A popular Australia-based rock combo attempted to appropriate the name of the original Valentinos but had to change their name when faced with the threat of possible litigation by Bobby and his brothers. This group later changed their name to the Lost Valentinos.

Since then, an a cappella doo-wop group and a Detroit-based rock band have also tried to use the original group's name.

Deaths
Four of the five Womack brothers are now deceased.

Harry died on March 9, 1974

Cecil died on February 1, 2013,

Bobby died on June 27, 2014,
Curtis on May 21, 2017.

Only Friendly Jr. - the eldest brother - remains alive.

Cover versions
 "It's All Over Now" - The Rolling Stones, The Sharks, Rod Stewart, Ry Cooder, Molly Hatchet, Johnny Winter
 "Looking for a Love" - The J. Geils Band, Bobby Womack (solo), Ryan Shaw
 "I Found a True Love" - Wilson Pickett
 "Everybody Wants to Fall in Love" - Solomon Burke
 "I Can Understand It" - The New Birth

Partial discography
The Valentinos' national and regional hit songs included:
 "Lookin' for a Love"
 "It's All Over Now"
 "Everybody Wants to Fall in Love"
 "Baby, Lots of Luck"
 "I Can Understand It"
 "What About Me"
 "Do It Right"
 "I've Found a True Love"
 "Sweeter Than the Day Before"
 "Two Lovers History"
 "Tired of Being Nobody"
 "I'm Going to Forget About You"
 "Let's Get Together"

In 2015, The Valentinos' Lookin' for a Love: The Complete SAR Recordings was released on CD for the first time.

References

External links
 The Valentinos on ''The Future Rock Hall website
 [ All Music Guide  - The Valentinos Bio]
 "It's All Over Now" - The story of The Valentinos' original song, the group's history, and the Rolling Stones' cover version
 The Valentinos - A history in pictures from the Soulwalking U.K. website
 Bobby Womack page on the Soulwalking U.K. website
 YouTube videos-Bobby Womack gets inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
 Rolling Stone Ron Wood inducts Bobby Womack into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame.
 Bobby Womack performs on his 2009 induction into The Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame.

Doo-wop groups
Family musical groups
American soul musical groups
Musical groups from Cleveland
Musical groups established in 1952
Musical groups disestablished in 1974
Northern soul musicians
American rhythm and blues musical groups
1952 establishments in Ohio

The Valentinos


Pisces () is the twelfth astrological sign in the Zodiac. It came from the Pisces constellation. In western astrology this sign is no longer aligned with the constellation. This is because of the precession of the equinoxes. It is also considered a water sign and one of the four mutable signs.

The Symbol
The symbol represents fish, swimming in different directions. The two shapes are also crescents, facing outward, which represents the idea that Pisceans are open to new things and to change.

Astrology
Pisces has been traditionally ruled by the planet Jupiter, but since its discovery, Neptune has been considered a modern ruler of this sign. Being the twelfth sign, Pisces is associated with the astrological twelfth house.

Individuals born when the Sun was in this sign are considered "Pisceans". The Sun can be seen 1n Pisces from about February 19 to March 20, ending at the moment of vernal equinox by definition under the tropical zodiac.

Under the sidereal zodiac, it is generally there from about March 15 to April 13.

 Birthstone= amethyst
 Starstone= Coral
 Colours= Sea Green
 Metal= Tin

Astrological signs

Pisces (astrology)


The Miami Science Barge (also known as the Science Barge) was a floating marine laboratory and education platform docked in Museum Park, Miami, FL since 2016. The Barge, designed to help support a more sustainable city, had three main areas of focus: marine ecology and conservation, sustainability, and alternative agriculture. It is completely off-grid and off-pipe and provided approximately enough energy and food production to support an average American family. In its first year, over 3000 students came aboard to learn about the innovative technology on the Barge. The vessel opened to the public on Saturdays.
The Miami Science Barge was conceived by Nathalie Manzano and designed by Manzano and Ted Caplow. They were inspired by the Science Barge built in 2006 by New York Sun Works, designed by Caplow. The vessels were of similar size and both had a sustainable technology focus, but they responded to very different local environments and housed differing technology and unique public education programs. The Miami Science Barge emphasized aquaculture.
The Miami Science Barge was donated in April 2017 to the brand-new Philip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science, who took over operations. The Miami Science Barge is no longer in use.

Early history
In 2015, Nathalie Manzano and Ted Caplow of CappSci won the Knight Cities Challenge grant competition from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation with a proposal to build the Miami Science Barge.
The Barge was a 120x30 steel construction barge from Grady Marine retrofitted with 2nd-hand shipping containers in 2015. With the generosity of Beau Payne of P & L Towing, the staff of CappSci were able to design and build the power system and exhibits of the Barge on the Miami River prior to moving it to its official location in Museum Park in downtown Miami, FL.
The Miami Science Barge opened on Earth Day, April 22, 2016. The following April, the Barge was gifted to Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science.

Technical details
The Miami Science Barge has three main areas of focus:

Sustainability
The Barge is fully off-grid. It utilizes 48 solar panels (donated by JinkoSolar) to generate enough power to run all of its systems. These panels are set into five arrays including a solar dance floor and a solar tracking system. Power is stored into two sets of batteries: lead-acid batteries, and experimental Aquion M-Line battery modules. The panels provide about 75Kwh.
It is also off-pipe, meaning that all of its fresh water comes from a rainwater catchment system located about the classroom area. The water is stored in a 900-gallon cistern. The salt water comes directly from Biscayne Bay. No discharge is released from the Barge. Waste water is collected in constructed wetland troughs where the water is filtered or in some cases may evaporate.
Furthermore, the Barge aimed to utilize only sustainable material in construction, i.e. the Kebony deck throughout the farm area. Kebony is an eco-friendly alternative to tropical hardwoods, using a bio-based seal instead of a synthetic one.
The staff on the Barge also follow strict habits of sustainability, including prohibiting single-use plastics from being used on board for events and by diligently cleaning debris found in the notch.

Alternative agriculture
On board are a variety of sustainable and unconventional agriculture systems including hydroponics, aeroponics, aquaculture, and aquaponics.
Hydroponics and aeroponics are forms of growing produce that utilizes water and nutrients most efficiently. Aquaculture systems grow fish and other marine creature for consumption so as not to harm the balance in the ocean and aquaponics is a combination of aquaculture and aquaponics, where marine life produce waste which is consumed by plants.
On board is also a vertically integrated greenhouse (patented by Caplow and Zak W. Adams).

Marine ecology and conservation
Along with the aquaponic and aquaculture tanks, there are multiple tanks showcasing marine life. Towards the entrance of the Barge, there is a coral tank, developed with the help of Dr. Diego Lirman at the University of Miami and Rescue a Reef. It is the only tank in South Florida representing what coral restoration in the wild looks like. Other exhibit tanks show sea life from Biscayne Bay, including sea horses, a giant hermit crab, erosion-preventing sea grasses, mangroves, and a myriad of local fish.

These tanks are used to educate about the importance of diversity in Miami's local ecology. Guest scientists are invited most weekends and on the 3rd Wednesday of every month for Sip of Science to promote the conservation of the environment.

Response
The Miami Science Barge opened on Earth Day, April 22, 2016 and was attended by dignitary speakers including City of Miami Commissioner Frank Carollo, who in his remarks called the Barge "a symbol of Miami's diversity not only in people, but in ideas, as well as, a symbol of our community's commitment to environmental education," Miami Dade County Public Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, Knight Foundation's Miami Program Director Matt Haggman, and Children Trust's Founding Board Chair David Lawrence, Jr.
In December 2016, Miami Science Barge was named one of "The Ten Best Things to Do in Downtown Miami" by Miami New Times

References

Science education in the United States
Marine biology
Laboratories in the United States
2016 establishments in Florida

Miami Science Barge


Biodiesel is a type of fuel prepared by changing vegetable oil, animal fat, special types of algae and possibly even sewage.  It is considered a type of renewable energy, since it all comes from living plants and animals.  It can be used to power an engine, usually for vehicles, including airplanes.  It replaces diesel that comes from petroleum, a type of fossil fuel.

Biofuel prepared from biomass is different since it does not start from oil and uses a different chemical process to make the fuel.

Advantages and disadvantages
Biodiesel is much cleaner and has less pollution than diesel fuel made from fossil fuels.  It also acts as a solvent (like soap). In fact, it cleans the engine so much that it might pull out old dirt in the engine and clog up the filters.  After the filters are replaced then it is fine.

In the United States and several other places, new laws say that regular diesel fuel must be low in sulfur.  This gets rid of pollution, especially acid rain, but it also makes the fuel less slippery.  Adding in biodiesel helps keep the fuel slippery and the engine running smoothly.

Most biodiesel comes from plants.  This means a lot of farmland is used to grow plants for fuel instead of for feeding animals and people.  There are scientists, chemical engineers and agricultural engineers who are studying ways to use algae and saltwater plants to make oil.  This would not take away farmland that is used to grow food.  Also, some biodiesel comes from waste oil and waste animal fat, that would otherwise be thrown away.  NASA is testing biodiesel made from chicken fat to fuel their airplanes.

All diesel fuel has a problem starting an engine in cold weather, but biodiesel has more of a problem.  This can be solved by mixing biodiesel and regular diesel at the right mixture.  Or by heating the fuel before it is used by the engine.  There might be a heater built into the vehicle for this.

Biodiesel from plants
Most biodiesel is made from oilseed.  Oilseed is any type of seed that has enough oil in it to be useful in making vegetable oil.

In Brazil, castor beans are the best plants to make biodiesel.
In Germany biodiesel is usually made from rapeseeds.
Soybeans and sunflower seeds are commonly used in the United States.
In Thailand, the raw material will most likely come from palm oil, coconut oil, Jatropha oil, and animal fat.
Jatropha trees also grow in India and Africa.

Some people make their own biodiesel by converting old oil that is used in restaurants to fry foods.  The exhaust smells a bit like french fries.

Biodiesel from algae
Someday algae might be used to make more biodiesel than is made today with vegetable oil.  Algae can be grown in places that food cannot be grown in, so it would not take food away from people.   But right now it is still too expensive, but scientists are looking at ways to make the process better.

References

Biofuels

Biodiesel


Doncaster is a large city in the north of England. It is in South Yorkshire, which is a Metropolitan County (an area of dense population).

Doncaster has a population of 109,805; the metropolitan borough has a population of 311,890.

Doncaster is near other, larger, cities, such as Sheffield and Leeds.

History
Doncaster is an ancient city that developed from a Roman fort called 'Danum'. It was built on a Roman road Ermine Street, which linked London to York. The fort was built where Doncaster Minster now stands. However in the 4th century Roman civilization declined and the last Roman soldiers left Britain in 407 AD.

Later Doncaster developed into a medieval cityship with a fortified boundary and historic gates. What remains of the gates can still be seen in the city today. Conisbrough Castle was built here after the Norman Conquest and, following a slow building up of markets across the centuries, the city quickly became the most profitable of its size in the county.

Doncaster also has a market which has existed for over 750 years.

As the centuries passed, Doncaster became an important city post on the route between London and Edinburgh. An ancient road called the Great North Road passed straight through the very centre of Doncaster, and the city grew around and along this road.

Trains
When railways were invented, Doncaster became famous for steam trains. It was an important stop for trains travelling between Scotland and London. It is still an important stop today. A big factory for making trains was built in Doncaster. Some of the finest and fastest steam trains in the world were built in Doncaster. These trains include The Flying Scotsman, The Mallard, and The Sir Nigel Gresley. The station also houses a unique Victorian themed bar on platform 3b.

Aeroplanes
Doncaster was one of the first places in the country that made aeroplanes and had an airport. The first airshow in the country was held in Doncaster in 1908.

Doncaster has an international airport which was opened in 2005. The airport is growing very fast and lots of people from across the region and across Europe now use Doncaster as a popular destination – which is something that people have already been doing for the last 2000 years.

Attractions
Doncaster is famous for horse racing. Doncaster is one of the oldest racecourses in the world. It hosts two famous horse races: The Doncaster Cup, which is the oldest horse race in the world, and the St Leger Stakes, which is the oldest classic horse race in the world. There has been horse racing in Doncaster for over 500 years. The horse racing started because of the horses that used to pull horse-drawn coaches on the Great North Road.

Famous people from Doncaster
 Louis Tomlinson
 Dave Allen
 Billy Bremner
 Brian Blessed
 Douglas Bader
 Dianna Rigg
 George Porter
 Jeremy Clarkson
 John Parr
 Kevin Keegan
 Thomas Crapper
 Tony Christie
 Tan France
 Lesley Garret
 Darren Hill
 Dominic Harrison
 Sally Carman

Influence
Doncaster is also the name of a suburb in eastern Melbourne, Australia. It is home to two state primary schools: Doncaster Gardens Primary School and Doncaster Primary School.

References

Cities in England
Metropolitan boroughs in South Yorkshire
Settlements in South Yorkshire

Doncaster


Tenure is normally used for jobs, usually academic high-ranking jobs like professors. It is to protect professors who are teaching something that their employer, the university, might not agree with. Tenure means that these people cannot be fired without a very good reason- the job is for life. The reason for tenure is to help professors be bold about what they teach and research, so that new ideas will be developed. Or a teacher can also have a tenure. It depends how long their term has to be.

Sometimes judges also get tenure. This is so that they can make decisions based on the evidence, even if this means saying that the government, which is their employer, is wrong.

Employment

Tenure