Radko Dimitriev () (24 September 1859 in Gradets – 18 October 1918 near Pyatigorsk) was a Bulgarian general, Head of the General Staff of the Bulgarian Army from 1 January 1904 to 28 March 1907, as well as a general in the Russian Army during the First World War.

Biography
He was born in the village of Gradets (Sliven Province) and was raised by his grandmother in Kotel. He later studied in the Aprilov Gymnasium in Gabrovo and participated in the organization of the April Uprising (1876).

During the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) he was a translator in the 2nd Guards Division of the Russian Army. In 1879 he graduated the Military School in Sofia; in 1881 Dimitriev was promoted to a Lieutenant and in 1884 he became Captain after graduating the Saint Petersburg Academy. When only a captain he was one of the pro-Russian officers involved in the plot to kidnap Prince Alexander of Battenberg and force his abdication in 1886, for which he was exiled by Prime Minister Stefan Stambolov. He then served for ten years in the Russian army, and only returned to Bulgaria after the fall of Stambolov.

During the Serbo-Bulgarian War (1885) Dimitriev was one of the commanders of the Western Corps and participated in the successful Battle of Pirot. After the war he took part in an unsuccessful coup d'état; emigrated to Romania and became a member of the club of the Emigrant Officers. Later he emigrated to Russia and served in the Russian Army.

He returned to Bulgaria in 1898 and became a second in command in the 5th Danube Infantry Division. On 18 May 1900 he was promoted to Colonel and was the Head of the General Staff of the Bulgarian Army from 1904 to 1907. On 2 August 1912 Radko Dimitriev was promoted to Lieutenant General.

During the First Balkan War (1912–1913) he was in command of the 3rd Army which decisively defeated the Ottoman Empire at Lozengrad and Lule Burgas in Thrace.

During the Second Balkan War in 1913 he replaced general Mihail Savov as deputy commander-in-chief. Later that year after the end of the war he was sent as a Minister Plenipotentiary to Saint Petersburg, Russia.

First World War
During the First World War (1914–1918) he served in the Russian Army as a commander of a corps. At the beginning of spring 1915, Radko Dimitriev commanded the 3rd Army in Galicia facing the Austrians along the line of Gorlice-Tarnów. His role was to hold the line while the Russian 11th and 12th armies in Bukovina renewed the offensive through the Carpathians towards Hungary.
In April 1915 despite knowing that German troops had replaced those of Austro-Hungary in the area of Gorlice, Radko Dimitriev had made no preparations to counter a German offensive or fortify his positions. The trenches in his sector were crude and in many places there was no second line of defence. In the breakthrough area of Gorlice 5½ Russian divisions (60,000 men) of poorly trained conscripts faced the 10 German divisions of the 11th army under Mackensen with 700 guns including many of heavy caliber, while the Russians had only 140 light field guns.

The concentrated bombardment which opened the Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive on 2 May 1915 tore the front open, but initially General Alexeev at Stavka refused to take the offensive seriously; Stavka remained convinced that main German attack would come in the north, and were focused on their own offensive in the south. A Russian counterattack was ordered by Stavka and took place at Dokra Pass on 7 May 1915 but this became a senseless massacre. Consequently, much of the 3rd Army was either cut off or destroyed by the time Stavka allowed Radko Dimitriev to order a retreat on 10 May 1915, and only 40,000 out of an army of 200,000 reached the River San. Radko Dimitriev claimed correctly that his army had been "bled white" but was removed from command 2 June 1915 and replaced by General Leonid Lesh.

Sir Bernard Pares, who met Radko Dimitriev several times when he was covering the war on the Eastern Front, and knew him well, described him thus:

"General Radko Dimitriev is a short and sturdily built man with quick brown eyes and a profile reminiscent of Napoleon. He talks quickly and shortly, sometimes drums on the table with his fingers, and now and then makes a rapid dash for the matches. The daily visit of the Chief of the Staff is short, because, as the General says on his return, simple business is done quickly. Every piece of his incisive conversation holds together as part of a single and clear view of the whole military position, of which the watchword is 'Forward'."

After he was appointed to fight against the Ottomans in the Caucasus campaign out of favour, he was reappointed in late 1916 to command the 12th army on the Riga front, but in summer 1917 Alexeyev dismissed his commander-in-chief at the front, Ruszky, and the army commander Radko Dimitriev, for weakness and indulgence to the soldiers' committees that had sprung up everywhere after the February Revolution in 1917.

Radko Dimitriev fled to the resort town of Pyatigorsk in the  North Caucasus. There in October 1918 he was executed by the Bolsheviks.

References

 Недев, С., Командването на българската войска през войните за национално обединение, София, 1993, Военноиздателски комплекс "Св. Георги Победоносец", 57–58.
 Димитров, И., Съединението 1885 – енциклопедичен справочник, София, 1985, Държавно издателство "д-р Петър Берон", 92–93.
 Бутаков, Я. Как болгарский посол стал русским генералом. – http://www.stoletie.ru/territoriya_istorii/kak_bolgarskij_posol_stal_russkim_generalom_2010-10-13.htm.

1859 births
1918 deaths
People from Kotel, Bulgaria
Bulgarian generals
Bulgarian people of the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)
People of the Serbo-Bulgarian War
Bulgarian military personnel of World War I
Bulgarian military personnel of the Balkan Wars
Recipients of the Order of Bravery
Recipients of the Order of Military Merit (Bulgaria)
Recipients of the Order of St. George of the Third Degree
Recipients of the Order of the Star of Romania
Recipients of the Order of St. Anna
Recipients of the Legion of Honour
Ambassadors of Bulgaria to Russia
Victims of Red Terror in Soviet Russia
Imperial Russian Army generals
Bulgarian people executed abroad
People executed by Russia by firearm
Bulgarian people murdered abroad
People from the Ottoman Empire

Radko Dimitriev


Leto is a goddess in Greek mythology.  She was the daughter of Coeus and Phoebe, who were Titans. Leto was the mother of the twins Artemis and Apollo, whose father was Zeus.

After the twins were born, Leto played very little part in Greek mythology. She is the goddess of motherhood and one of Zeus' many wives.

Birth of Artemis and Apollo
Hera, who was Zeus's wife, discovered that Leto was pregnant and became very angry.  She banned Leto from giving birth on any mainland or island known.

Leto found the island of Delos, which floated and so was not an island nor mainland, and gave birth there. Leto gave birth to Artemis without any problem.  However she was in labour with Apollo for nine days and nine nights.  Artemis helped Leto to give birth to Apollo.

Related pages
Latona Fountain

Titans

Leto


Installation means to put a program on a computer so that the computer can run it.

Most programs are stored in special ways to make them smaller, or to gather all the different pieces of a program up into one big piece. Before it can be used, though, the program needs to have these changes undone. Some programs also need to know extra information about the computer it is going to run on, so while it is installing, it will figure out what it needs to know and write it down for later.

Software

Installation (computer programs)


The Driving Standards Agency (DSA) was an executive agency of the UK Department for Transport (DfT).

DSA promoted road safety in Great Britain by improving driving and motorcycling standards. It set standards for education and training, as well as carrying out theory and practical driving and riding tests.

The responsibilities of DSA only covered Great Britain. In Northern Ireland the same role was carried out by the Driver & Vehicle Agency (DVA).

It was announced on 20 June 2013 that DSA would merge with the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency into a single agency in 2014. The name of the new agency was confirmed as the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) on 28 November 2013. The DSA was abolished on 31 March 2014, and the DVSA took over its responsibilities on 1 April 2014.

Profile

The DSA was a national organisation with headquarters in Nottingham, training and learning materials centre at Cardington in Bedfordshire and administrative centres in Cardiff and Newcastle.

DSA employed around 2,400 staff around Great Britain and ran tests from around 400 practical driving test centres. Theory tests were carried out at around 150 theory test centres.

DSA was a Trading Fund with a turnover of over £184 million in 2009-10 mainly funded through fees and revenue from other road safety initiatives.

Aims and objectives
The DSA's mission and primary aim was to continually promote road safety by influencing driver and rider behaviour, which it did through:
 setting the standards for pre-driver education and driver trainers
 registering and supervising quality assured Approved Driving Instructors
 carrying out theory and practical driving and riding tests
 quality assurance of all testing activity
 investigating cases of suspected theory test and practical test impersonations and identity fraud
 developing the future education and testing environment through its Learning to Drive programme

Resources
The DSA employed 1,789 practical driving examiners, and 728 administrative staff and managers. It planned to employ a total of 2,769 staff by March 2011, dependent on trading and the government freeze on recruitment.

Board structure
The chief executive was accountable to the Secretary of State for ensuring that the DSA met its obligations and delivered its targets and services. The chief executive had overall responsibility for the DSA's activities, ensuring it met its financial obligations, and providing assurance of a sound system of internal control. The Director General of Motoring and Freight Services was the additional accounting officer.

The chief executive was supported by an executive board, including two non-executive directors. The executive board's role was to provide support and advice, and met monthly.

A separate audit and risk management committee, comprising non-executive directors, acted independently of the executive board to provide assurance  to the chief executive on financial and non-financial matters, including corporate governance and risk management.

The change board, attended by the chief executive and appropriate directors, oversaw the development and effective management of the DSA's investment plan of change projects and programmes, and met monthly.

The operational performance group, which also met monthly, was chaired by the operations director and attended by senior managers, and monitored performance against targets and business plan objectives.

Theory and practical driving tests

Before learning to drive a car, moped or motorcycle, a provisional driving licence must be obtained.  If a driver already holds a valid full driving licence but wishes to drive larger vehicles, minibuses or buses, provisional entitlement for these categories of vehicle is required.

For those holding a provisional licence, taking the theory test is the next step before acquiring a full licence. For cars and motorcycles candidates are asked 50 questions in 57 minutes and the pass mark is 43 out of 50.  For lorries and buses, there are 100 questions in 115 minutes and the pass mark is 85 out of 100.

The hazard perception test is the second part of the driving theory test.  Both parts must be passed in order to pass the theory test.  If successful, one can then apply to take the practical driving test.

The practical test starts with an eyesight check and some vehicle safety questions.  The driving part of the test lasts about 40 minutes, and involves performing some specific manoeuvres as well as demonstrating an overall safe standard of driving.  A candidate may make up to 15 minor driving faults but still pass the test (16 or more results in failure).  However, if one serious or dangerous fault is committed, then the test is failed.  The current pass rate for car 'L' tests is 43%.

The cost of the theory test is now £31, and the practical car test is £62 if taken on weekdays or £75 if taken at weekends or weekday evenings.

To help candidates fully prepare for their theory and practical driving and motorcycle tests, The Stationery Office (TSO), DSA's official publishing partner, produces a range of best-selling official publications. These include The Official DSA Theory Test for Car Drivers (available as a book, CD-ROM or interactive download), The Official DSA Complete Theory Test Kit (CD-ROM and DVD pack) and The Official DSA Guide to Driving – the essential skills (available as a book or downloadable PDF). The full range of titles is available from The Stationery Office online bookshop.

Driving test fees

The last increases prior to July 2005 were:
Practical car and motorcycling test: 2002
Lorry and bus tests: 2001
Driving instructor test: 1997
Sources: http://www.dft.gov.uk/dsa/PressRelease.asp?id=4206 http://www.dft.gov.uk/dsa/PressRelease.asp?id=145

Driving instructor registration
The DSA held a register of Approved Driving Instructors (ADIs) in Great Britain.  The ADI Registrar also issues trainee licences to give instruction.  In order to qualify as an ADI, three tests must be passed:

 theory (part one) - a multiple choice section and a video-based hazard perception section;
 driving ability (part two) - an eyesight test followed by a practical test of driving technique;
 instructional ability (part three) - a practical test of the ability to instruct.

All three parts of the examination must be passed in this order, and must be completed within two years of passing the theory test (part one).

After being entered on the ADI register, ADIs are free to give driving instruction for money or monies worth, either working for
a driving school or being self-employed. It is a condition of remaining on the register that all ADIs undergo a periodic "test of continued ability of fitness to give instruction" also known as the 'check test'. The passage of the Road Safety Act 2006 empowered DSA to set the standards on all paid tuition, not just that of motor cars as was previously the case.

The DSA required people who applied to register as a Potential Driving Instructor (PDI), as well as existing ADIs who applied to extend their registration or re-register, to have a criminal record check.  DSA used the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) to obtain criminal record checks of people in England and Wales, and Disclosure Scotland for people in Scotland.

Some ADIs choose to take additional qualifications so that they can train drivers of large goods vehicles, or fleet drivers.  The DSA also held a voluntary register for fleet drivers, Compulsory Basic Trainers (for motorcycles), Large Goods Vehicle instructors and the Register of post-test motorcycle trainers. These registers provided quality standards for the relevant discipline, but were not necessary for paid tuition.

'Learning to Drive' programme

Following consultation, Ministers decided to proceed with a programme of measures, based on education and incentivisation, to strengthen the way that people learn to drive and are tested, and encourage a
culture of lifelong learning.

DSA planned a phased implementation programme, supporting progressive improvements whilst avoiding disruption to those currently learning to drive.

Early improvements were:
 continued roll out across Great Britain of the new pre-driver qualification in safe road use
 introduction from October 2009 of:
 a partial credit towards the theory test for car drivers for those students awarded the new pre-driver qualification in the form of an abridged theory test
 case studies into the theory test for car drivers and moped and motorcycle riders to better assess whether learners have understood driving or riding theory
 the launch in 2009/10 of a trial to assess the effectiveness of the proposed new learning to drive syllabus and process
 introduction from October 2010 of a requirement for the supervising driver to accompany the candidate during a practical car test
 subject to the outcome of the trialling, from October 2010 the introduction into all DSA practical tests for learner drivers of an assessment of competence whilst the candidate is driving independently.

Websites
DSA moved its information about learning to drive and ride to Directgov and its information for businesses to Business Link. This was part of the Transformational Government strategy. Its corporate information, which included how the agency was run, consultations, and press releases, was moved to the Department for Transport website.

All DSA's information about learning to drive and ride and for businesses moved to the single government website GOV.UK on 17 October 2012.

DSA became one of the first central government organisations to move its corporate and policy content onto the GOV.UK website on 15 November 2012.

Social media
DSA announced the launch of its own video sharing channel on YouTube on 22 September 2009. The channel – youtube.com/dsagov – was used to post road safety videos which offer advice to test candidates and other road users.

The DSA also operated a Twitter channel - twitter.com/dsagovuk and a Facebook page - facebook.com/dsagovuk.

See also
 Driving examiner (United Kingdom)
 Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA)
 Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA)
 National Highways
 Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) - administers the MOT

References

External links

 Driving, transport and travel - GOV.UK
 Official DSA YouTube channel
 DSA on Twitter
 DSA on Facebook
 The Stationery Office Online Bookshop

Road transport in the United Kingdom
Defunct executive agencies of the United Kingdom government
Organisations based in Nottingham
Government agencies established in 1990
Government agencies disestablished in 2014
1990 establishments in the United Kingdom
Department for Transport
Driving in the United Kingdom
2014 disestablishments in the United Kingdom

Driving Standards Agency


Just for Laughs: Gags  is a Canadian quiet comedy show. In 2000 the Gags began airing on French and Canadian television Télé Québec. In the next years, the show was picked up by TVA, CBC and The Comedy Television in Canada.

This series' format is the hidden camera filming the jokes. Music plays in the background, but there is no sound or speech other than some sound effects and laughter. It is mostly filmed in downtown Montreal and rural Quebec although some parts have been filmed in Mexico. British and Asian versions have also been produced in the UK and Singapore respectively.

With its quiet format and no translation required, Just for Laughs Gags has been purchased for use in over 100 countries throughout the world as well as in airports and airlines.

Canadian television series
Comedy television series
English-language television programs

Just for Laughs: Gags


The Bolsón de Mapimí is an endorheic, or internal drainage, basin in which no rivers or streams drain to the sea, but rather toward the center of the basin, often terminating in swamps and ephemeral lakes. It is located in the center-north of the Mexican Plateau. The basin is shared by the states of Durango, Coahuila, Chihuahua, and Zacatecas. It takes its name from Mapimí, a town in Durango.

The largest city in the basin is Torreón. Parts of the basin host much industrial and agricultural activity. However, most of the region is sparsely populated.

Geography

The Bolsón de Mapimí is a large area, measuring more than  north to south and the same distance east to west, lying between 25 and 29 degrees north latitude.  The total area is about   and the average elevation is .  The Greater Bolsón de Mapimí covers adjacent areas extending north to the Rio Grande, which are similar in terrain and climate but have streams which have outlets to the Gulf of Mexico.

The Bolsón is bounded on the west by the Sierra Madre Occidental and the Conchos River basin, by the basin of the Rio Grande to the north, and by the mountain ranges of the Sierra del Carmen and Sierra Madre Oriental to the east. At its southern edge, near the state line of Zacatecas, the Bolson shades into another endorheic basin called Llanos El Salado. Major rivers flowing northward into the basin are the Nazas River and its tributaries, which originate in the Sierra Madre Occidental in Durango, and the Aguanaval River, which flows north from central Zacatecas.  The two rivers terminate in the southern part of the Bolsón in an area called the Comarca Lagunera, centered on the city of Torreón, Coahuila, which formerly contained large, shallow lakes, now usually dry.

The Bolsón de Mapimí consists of desert plains separated by low mountain ranges.  Cerro Centinela, which rises to (, south of Torreón is at the southern edge.  Within the Bolsón most of the mountain ranges are  in elevation.  Los Alamitos range near the center of the Bolsón reaches

The Bolsón is the southernmost extension of the Chihuahua Desert.  The area receives between  of precipitation annually, mostly falling in summer. The city of Torreón receives . Summer temperatures are hot.  June is the hottest month in Torreón with an average temperature of .  Winters are mild with an average temperature of  in December in Torreón.  Freezes are common in winter.

The largest conurbation in the basin is the Comarca Lagunera, with nearly 1.5 million inhabitants, roughly half of whom live in the city of Torreón. Most of the Bolsón is sparsely populated, with settlements centered on mines and areas where irrigated agriculture is possible.

History

Prior to the arrival of the Spanish the Bolsón de Mapimí was inhabited by nomadic hunter-gatherers.  Bands of the Toboso people, of whom little is known, inhabited most of the Bolsón.  In the north lived the Chisos who had a similar culture.  Spanish penetration into the Bolson began in the 1590s with Jesuit missionaries, slave traders, and Tlaxcalan Indians whom the Spanish persuaded by grants of land and freedom from taxes to move north to aid in assimilating the Indians and resolving the long-running Chichimeca War.  The Toboso and Chisos began raiding Spanish settlements at an early date and participated in wars against Spanish settlements in 1644, 1667, and 1684.  Most of the Toboso and Chisos were absorbed into the Spanish population in the early 18th century.

In the 19th century the Bolsón was still largely unpopulated.  In the 1840s and 1850s the Bolsón became a base for Comanches from Texas who met at well-watered locations,  consolidated their forces, often numbering hundreds of warriors, and struck off in every direction on destructive raids of mines and ranches. (See Comanche-Mexico War) Much of the Bolsón was owned by the Sánchez Navarro family, possibly the largest ranch in the Americas in the 1840s and 1850s.

See also
 Mapimí Biosphere Reserve
 Mapimí Silent Zone
 Meseta Central matorral

References

External links

Drainage basins of Mexico
Endorheic basins of North America
Mexican Plateau
Landforms of Chihuahua (state)
Landforms of Coahuila
Landforms of Durango
Landforms of Zacatecas
Natural history of the Mexican Plateau

Bolsón de Mapimí


The germanium alloy-junction transistor, or alloy transistor, was an early type of bipolar junction transistor, developed at General Electric and RCA in 1951 as an improvement over the earlier grown-junction transistor.

The usual construction of an alloy-junction transistor is a germanium crystal forming the base, with emitter and collector alloy beads fused on opposite sides. Indium and antimony were commonly used to form the alloy junctions on a bar of N-type germanium.  The collector junction pellet would be about 50 mils (thousandths of an inch) in diameter, and the emitter pellet about 20 mils.  The base region would be on the order of 1 mil (0.001 inches, 25 μm) thick. There were several types of improved alloy-junction transistors developed over the years that they were manufactured.

All types of alloy-junction transistors became obsolete in the early 1960s, with the introduction of the planar transistor which could be mass-produced easily while alloy-junction transistors had to be made individually. The first germanium planar transistors had much worse characteristics than alloy-junction germanium transistors of the period, but they cost much less, and the characteristics of planar transistors improved very rapidly, quickly exceeding those of all earlier germanium transistors.

Micro-alloy transistor
The micro-alloy transistor (MAT) was developed by Philco as an improved type of alloy-junction transistor, it offered much higher speed.

It is constructed of a semiconductor crystal forming the base, into which a pair of wells are etched (similar to Philco's earlier surface-barrier transistor) on opposite sides then fusing emitter and collector alloy beads into the wells.

Micro-alloy diffused transistor
The micro-alloy diffused transistor (MADT), or micro-alloy diffused-base transistor, was developed by Philco as an improved type of micro-alloy transistor; it offered even higher speed. It is a type of diffused-base transistor.

Before using electrochemical techniques and etching depression wells into the base semiconductor crystal material, a heated diffused phosphorus gaseous layer is created over the entire intrinsic semiconductor base crystal, creating a N-type graded base semiconductor material. The emitter well is etched very shallow into this diffused base layer.

For high-speed operation, the collector well is etched all the way through the diffused base layer and through most of the intrinsic base semiconductor region, forming an extremely thin base region. A doping-engineered electric field was created in the diffused base layer to reduce the charge carrier base transit time (similar to the drift-field transistor).

Post-alloy diffused transistor
The post-alloy diffused transistor (PADT), or post-alloy diffused-base transistor, was developed by Philips (but GE and RCA filed for patent and Jacques Pankove of RCA received patent for it) as an improvement to the germanium alloy-junction transistor, it offered even higher speed. It is a type of diffused-base transistor.

The Philco micro-alloy diffused transistor had a mechanical weakness that ultimately limited their speed; the thin diffused base layer would break if made too thin, but to get high speed it needed to be as thin as possible. Also it was very hard to control alloying on both sides of such a thin layer.

The post-alloy diffused transistor solved this problem by making the bulk semiconductor crystal the collector (instead of the base), which could be as thick as necessary for mechanical strength. The diffused base layer was created on top of this. Then two alloy beads, one P-type and one N-type were fused on top of the diffused base layer. The bead having the same type as the base dopant then became part of the base and the bead having the opposite type from the base dopant became the emitter.

A doping-engineered electric field was created in the diffused base layer to reduce the charge carrier base transit time (similar to the drift-field transistor).

Photo gallery

See also
 Tetrode transistor

References

External links
Manufacture of Junction Transistors

1951 introductions
Bipolar transistors

pl:Tranzystor stopowy

Alloy-junction transistor


Sir Theodore Martin  (16 September 1816 – 18 August 1909) was a Scottish poet, biographer, and translator.

Biography

Martin was the son of James Martin, a solicitor in Edinburgh, where Theodore was born and educated at the Royal High School and University. He practised as a solicitor in Edinburgh 1840–45, after which he went to London and became head of the firm of Martin and Leslie, parliamentary agents.

His first contribution to literature was the humorous Bon Gaultier Ballads, written along with W.E. Aytoun, which remained popular for a long time; originally contributed to a magazine, they appeared in book form in 1845.

Martin's translations include Dante's Vita Nuova, Oehlenschläger's Correggio and Aladdin, Heinrich Heine's Poems and Ballads, Friedrich Schiller's Wilhelm Tell, and Hertz's King René's Daughter.  He also published a complete translation of Horace with a Life, and one of Catullus.

He is probably best known for his Life of the Prince Consort (1874–80), the writing of which was entrusted to him by Queen Victoria, a work which won him her lifelong friendship.  He also wrote Lives of Professor Aytoun and Lord Lyndhurst.

In 1851 he married Helena Faucit, a well-known actress, and author of studies on Shakespeare's Female Characters, whose Life he published in 1901. The couple lived for some time at Bryntysilio {The Hill of St. Tyssilio} which he bought in 1861, near Llangollen, where in 1889 they were visited by the queen during her progress in Wales.

Martin kept up his intellectual activity into old age, published in 1905 a translation of Leopardi's poems, and Monographs (1906).  He was Lord Rector of St. Andrews 1881, LL.D. of Edinburgh 1875, and Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath 1880.

He died in 1909 and is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London.

References

Sources

External links

1816 births
1909 deaths
Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
People educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh
Writers from Edinburgh
Scottish poets
Scottish biographers
Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath
Knights Commander of the Royal Victorian Order
Burials at Brompton Cemetery
Rectors of the University of St Andrews
19th-century poets

Theodore Martin


Riot grrrl is an underground feminist punk rock movement. It started in the early 1990s in Washington. Kathleen Hanna's band the Bikini Kill made riot grrrl famous. Bratmobile was another influential riot grrrl band. Riot grrrl is associated with zine culture and third wave feminism.

Zines
In 1992 a zine distro called Riot Grrrl Press was started by Erika Reinstein and May Summer.

Pussy Riot are a Russian punk rock band that are influenced by Bikini Kill.

Feminism
Punk rock

Riot grrrl


Jakob Ammann (also Jacob Amman, Amann; 12 February 1644 – between 1712 and 1730) was an Anabaptist leader and the namesake of the Amish religious movement.

Personal life

The full facts about the personal life of Jacob Ammann are incomplete and have been mostly speculative until recent decades. Since the late 1990s, more research has filled in some of the gaps and a basic outline of his life is now conceivable.

Early life and family
Jakob Ammann was born on 12 February 1644 in Erlenbach im Simmental, Canton of Bern, Switzerland to Michael and Anna (née Rupp) Ammann. Erlenbach church records note the baptism of a Jacob Ammann on 12 February 1644, who was probably Ammann. His grandfather has been identified as Ulrich Ammann. All three Ammanns were tailors. Jakob was third in a family of six children. He probably received limited formal education. On 37 official documents signed by only his initials appear, with most of them having a nearby note that Ammann was not able to write so he only "made his mark". However, on three documents, his signed name does appear, although twice it was probably written for him by someone else; once, with the same style of writing as his initials, appear the poorly formed letters "J. AMME", which is assumed to be his own writing. Because he asked for letters to be read in one meeting, it is assumed he was not able to read or could do so only poorly. He did better financially than the average person of his time.

Jakob was married to Verena Stüdler, but very little is known of her beyond her name. They had at least one daughter and one son, Baltz.

Jakob's father and one of his sisters also joined the Anabaptist movement. His brother Ulli, 18 years his junior, was also an Anabaptist and is known for his moderating tone in the attempts at reconciliation between the Amish and Reist sides.

Conversion to Anabaptism
On 12 March 1671, he is noted as the sponsor for a baptism in the state church. In June 1680, government correspondence from Oberhofen asked counsel from authorities in Bern on how to deal with a Jakob Ammann who had "become infected with the Anabaptist sect". This is the first known reference to Ammann as an Anabaptist. This indicates a conversion to Anabaptism sometime between 1671 and 1680. Sometime between his conversion and 1693, he was ordained to the ministry, possibly by Hans Reist who would later become one of his greatest opponents.

By 1693, Ammann had moved from Switzerland to Heidolsheim, Alsace where his father died and was buried in the neighboring village of Baldenheim. Apparently shortly after the death of his father, he moved to the head of the valley at La Petite Lièpvre (Klein Leberau), near Markirch (today Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines), Alsace, remaining there until October 1712 when all the Anabaptists in the area were expelled by an edict  of Louis XIV. After this date, no more records concerning Jakob Ammann have been found. He probably went to live with friends or relatives somewhere in Lower Alsace.

Death
The date and place of Ammann's death are unknown, but in 1730 his daughter requested baptism in the Reformed Church in Erlenbach and stated that her father had died. It is not recorded when or where the death had occurred. Ammann's involvement in church matters had dropped off considerably before his disappearance from the records in 1712, possibly from old age since he would have been approaching 70 years of age when he moved away from the Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines area.

Theology and practice
Because of scarcity of materials, very little is known of Jakob Ammann's teaching and day-to-day life. Three letters comprise the whole of his first-hand accounts of his thoughts. Other letters accuse Jakob of teaching or holding various viewpoints, but since many of these letters were written by his opponents it is not clear how much bias the accusations contain.

From Jakob's letters, it can be learned that he was a firm disciplinarian, uncompromising in what he believed, and expected others to "conform to the teachings of Christ and His apostles". His rejection of the "good-hearted" stemmed from his belief that whoever accepted the "true saving faith" would be baptized upon that faith, cost what it may. They would "forsake the world" and practise a very practical separation in their everyday life. Jakob was willing to disregard longstanding customs and practices if they were not founded on God's Word. He denied that he was trying to start a "new faith". He believed in a new birth experience that would radically change a person. He wrote:

In practical matters, he stood opposed to long hair on men, shaved beards, and clothing that manifested pride. Liars were to be excommunicated. Ammann, unlike most Amish married men of today, however, had a mustache, which is largely forbidden today in the faith.

Schism
Jakob Ammann is known because of his prominent involvement in a schism among the Swiss Brethren that began in 1693. Until recent decades, he was often heavily blamed for the division, being portrayed as an angry, harsh, and demanding leader who imposed his views on others. With the publication of some of the correspondence from the period (beginning in 1950, with Mast's "Amish Letters") and the uncovering of new evidence, Ammann's reputation has received a more positive appraisal among some researchers. Because of their prominent roles, Jakob Ammann and Hans Reist have been used to characterize the two sides of the schism, but the issues were broader than the two most prominent men involved.

Background
In the mid-1600s, a fresh influx of converts came into Swiss Anabaptism. The Reformed pastor at Burgdorf even complained that half of the people in the villages in his area were either Anabaptist or deeply sympathetic to their cause. These fresh converts—zealous for their new faith—were in fact a sort of new movement within Swiss Anabaptism. Of the nearly 200 surnames among the Amish in the 1690s, only a very few were found in the Reist side, indicating that the two sides formed mostly around two groups of people with different origins. Because of persecution, many Swiss Brethren families had emigrated or been evicted from Swiss territory into the Alsace and Palatinate before the division. The civil authorities tended to be more lenient in the new locations, and in some cases welcomed the newcomers as they were looking for people to develop their lands. This emigration tended to create a different environment than the Swiss who had not emigrated were experiencing, making some of the issues come to the fore.

Another important aspect in the schism was a conference held at Ohnenheim, Alsace, by several Swiss Brethren ministers and elders in 1660, in which they formally adopted the Dordrecht Confession of Faith that had been drawn up by Dutch Mennonites. Until this time, the Swiss Brethren (who did not use the name "Mennonite" for themselves) had no official confession of faith beyond the Schleitheim Confession. The Dordrecht Confession contained two points that the Swiss Brethren had not historically practiced: foot washing (Article XI) and social avoidance (including not eating meals with those who had been shunned, Article XVII). Swiss Brethren had practiced excommunication and a refusal to "eat" the [Lord's Supper] with those banned, but their avoidance did not include refraining from eating regular meals with those in the bann. These two issues, foot washing and not eating "physical" meals with the excommunicated, would be at the core of the schism.

Beginning
In 1693, Jakob Ammann, "together with the ministers and elders," sent a general letter to people within the Swiss Brethren congregations, asking for a meeting in which he wanted clarification about where they stood on three issues: 1) Shunning those who had been banned, 2) whether liars should be excommunicated, and 3) if people could be saved who did not follow God's word. This last issue was referring to the "good-hearted", meaning those who sympathized with the Anabaptists and even helped them materially in times of persecution, but who would not take the step of rebaptism. Those siding with Ammann felt that these "good-hearted" people should not be looked upon and consoled as "saved" unless they took up the cross and followed Christ in rebaptism and obedience to his teachings.

Along with feetwashing, these three issues were at the core of the division. However, other issues surfaced during the discussions in the following years, including frequency of communion and how church discipline should be conducted. Another issue mentioned during the time of the schism was the establishment of stricter regulations concerning dress and beard styles. However, social avoidance of banned individuals was the most controversial of all the issues, and thus it has sometimes been erroneously considered as the only cause of the schism.

Excommunications
Jakob Ammann and Nicolas Augsburger were chosen by a ministerial committee to travel to Switzerland for a meeting with church leaders to find out where the Swiss congregations stood on the disputed issues. At first, a few of the Swiss ministers agreed with Ammann's view, but in a later meeting Hans Reist would not agree with social avoidance, using Matthew 15:17 as a basis for "what enters the mouth is no sin." Another meeting was called, in which Hans Reist did not show up, saying he was busy. At this point, Jakob Ammann became irritated (verdreiszlich) and then proceeded to announce that Hans Reist was excommunicated on six points. When Ammann questioned some of the other Swiss ministers at the meeting where they stood on the issues, they pleaded for time to consult with their congregations. Ammann saw this as a turning back, since some of them had previously expressed agreement with his side. He then proceeded to announce the excommunication of six of the present ministers. Amman and the four men with him then left "without shaking hands with anyone." These excommunications created a definite breach within the Swiss Brethren movement. The Reist side eventually excommunicated the Ammann side as well.

Attempts at reconciliation
Within a few years, several attempts were made at reconciliation. In February 1700, Jakob Ammann and several of his co-ministers removed the ban from the Swiss ministers and excommunicated themselves in recognition that they had acted too rashly and had "grievously erred." They did not feel that they were in error concerning the issues they had brought up, but rather that they had not given sufficient time for the Reist side to consider the issues before excommunicating them. Also, they felt that they should not have excommunicated the Swiss ministers on the spot, but should have consulted with the whole congregation before proceeding. However, while Hans Reist and some of the Swiss ministers appear to have accepted the repentance of Ammann and his co-workers, they held firm to their position of not accepting social shunning. Some of the other issues had been accepted by the Swiss ministers, but the main body of Amish and the Reist side were never able to reconcile on the issue of social shunning.

Today in North America, the Amish and Mennonites (the Reist side became known as Mennonites after the schism; in a paradox, it was the Amish side that was pushing for the introduction of Dutch Mennonite ideas, but those opposing the ideas eventually became known as Mennonites) live side by side in many communities and work together peacefully in publishing, businesses, and charitable aid projects. However, official sharing of ministry and communion is rare among the most conservative groups of Old Order Amish and Mennonites. In more moderate groups, there remains little to no effect from the schism, with the exception of names of churches.

Notes

References

Further reading
 Steven M. Nolt, A History of the Amish, rev. ed. (Intercourse, PA: Good Books, 2003)
 Ste Marie, Andrew V, Atnip, Mike, Grounded Upon God's Word: The Life and Labors of Jakob Ammann (Cross Bearers Series) (Manchester, MI: Sermon on the Mount Publishing, 2020)

External links

 Jakob Ammann at the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online

1644 births
18th-century deaths
People from Frutigen-Niedersimmental District
Swiss Christian religious leaders
Swiss Christian pacifists
17th-century Swiss people
18th-century Swiss people
17th-century Anabaptist ministers
18th-century Anabaptist ministers
Christian radicals
Swiss Amish people
Year of death unknown

Jakob Ammann


Zane William Smith (born December 28, 1960) is a former American professional baseball player.

Career
Smith, a left-handed pitcher, played collegiately at Indiana State University. He was drafted by the Atlanta Braves in the 3rd round of the 1982 amateur draft and made his Major League debut on September 10, 1984, for Atlanta. His first successful season was 1987 with the Braves, when he led the team with 15 wins, nearly twice as many as any other Braves pitcher on a team with only 69 wins. He was among the league leaders in wins (tied 5th), innings pitched (5th), games started (tied 1st), complete games (4th) and shutouts (tied 3rd).

Smith was traded from Atlanta to the Montreal Expos on July 2, 1989, for Sergio Valdez, Nate Minchey and minor leaguer Kevin Dean.  Just over a year later, on August 8, 1990, Smith was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Scott Ruskin, Willie Greene and Moisés Alou. The trade allowed the Pirates to hold off the New York Mets down the stretch and win the National League Eastern Division pennant.  Smith contributed by winning 6 games, 3 of them complete games, 2 of those shutouts, while losing only 2, and compiling a 1.30 ERA.  It was during this season that Smith had his best performance, a 1 hit complete-game shutout of the Mets in the first game of a doubleheader sweep that gave the Pirates a 2.5 game lead over the Mets.

Smith played with the Pirates through the 1994 season before signing as a free agent with the Boston Red Sox on April 18, 1995.  Smith did not have much success during the 1995 season for Boston, compiling a 5.61 ERA and an 8–8 record in 24 starts. The next offseason, he returned to the Pirates for a salary that was significantly reduced from the $3.125 million he earned in 1994. Smith pitched his final career game for the Pirates on July 5, 1996; he would be released by the Pirates the following day.

Highlights
On May 1, 1986, Smith struck out 12 Mets to end New York's club record tying 11 game win streak.

On April 17, 1988, Smith got Atlanta's first victory of the season, ending a 10-game season-opening losing streak that set an MLB record.

On October 3, 1995, Smith gave up a walk-off home run to Tony Peña to end Game 1 of the 1995 American League Division Series.

On June 7, 1996, Smith recorded the 100th and final win of his career, a complete-game shutout at San Diego.

Personal
Smith has three daughters and lives near Atlanta.

Zane enjoys listening to hard-rock music.

References

External links

1960 births
Living people
American expatriate baseball players in Canada
Anderson Braves players
Atlanta Braves players
Baseball players from Wisconsin
Boston Red Sox players
Carolina Mudcats players
Durham Bulls players
Greenville Braves players
Indiana State Sycamores baseball players
Major League Baseball pitchers
Montreal Expos players
Pawtucket Red Sox players
Pittsburgh Pirates players
Richmond Braves players
Sportspeople from Madison, Wisconsin

Zane Smith (baseball)


Mandarin Chinese, or simply Mandarin, (; ) is the language of government and education of the Chinese mainland and Taiwan, with the notable exceptions of Hong Kong and Macau where a local dialect of Chinese called Cantonese is more often used.

Mandarin is one of five major regional languages of China. It spreads wider than any other regional variety, from the whole northern part of China to Yunnan Province in the southwest corner of China. In that big area there are many regional differences in vocabulary, so somebody who moves from Beijing to Yunnan could not understand people there who were speaking their own dialect, Yunnanhua. The problem is bigger than for a person in Great Britain or the United States to go to Australia. Therefore, starting in the 1920s, the Chinese government set up a national language based on the Beijing dialect and on the most widely understood words and pronunciations.

Mandarin is a standard language. It is nobody's native language, but a good average between various language forms and a common language everyone can understand and communicate with. Although it is based on the Beijing dialect, it is not the same as Beijing dialect.

Schools use a dialect called Standard Mandarin, Putonghua (普通话/普通話) meaning "common (spoken) language" or Hanyu (汉语/漢語) meaning "language of the Han". In places such as Malaysia, it is known as Huayu (华语/華語). In Taiwan, it is known as Guoyu (国语/國語) meaning "national language." There are some minor differences in these standards.

Mandarin is spoken by over 800 million people around the world, more than any other language. Most people emigrating from the Greater China region now speak Mandarin, while in past centuries most spoke Cantonese or Taishanese, another local Chinese dialect.

Standard Mandarin is one of the six official languages at the United Nations. The others are English, French, Spanish, Russian and Arabic.

Writing

Mandarin is written with Chinese characters called Hànzì (漢字 or 汉字) which literally means "Han characters". Each Hànzì has its own pronunciation and meaning. An ordinary dictionary will contain about 10,000 characters.  Spoken Mandarin uses very many compound words, words that combine meanings the way English does in such terms as "machine gun," "fire truck," "playground," etc.

The Hanzi are ideograms: one character means one idea. The various concepts are derived from the ideograms by combining them. Mandarin can also be written phonetically (that is: written as it is spoken) with the Latin alphabet as you really cannot see the spelling from Hanzi characters. That is called transliteration. The most popular transliteration system is called Pinyin.

Some Chinese characters were originally fairly concrete pictures of the things they represent. As time went on, people chose to write simpler versions that are easier to write but do not look so much like the real thing, just as people sometimes draw stick men rather than drawing people with real-looking bodies, arms, legs, etc. Here are some examples:

Most characters, however, are made by combining pictures, using one to give a general meaning, and the other to represent a sound. For instance, "媽 mā" (mom) is made by adding 女 (nǚ, human female) to 馬 (mǎ, horse). The "ma" part is only there to represent the sound.

In most dialects of ancient Chinese, one character was generally enough for one word, but modern spoken Mandarin uses mostly compounds like "媽媽 māma," which is just "mama,"

Other examples show different ways of combining components:

火車 huǒ chē (lit. fire vehicle) locomotive, train
大人 dà rén (lit. big person) adult
打開 dǎ kāi (lit. strike open) open up (door, window, envelope, etc.)

Just as the English used in Great Britain favors "petrol" but the English used in the United States almost always uses "gasoline," different regional languages in China may use different compound words to name the same thing.

In Spoken Mandarin, most words are character compounds because over time Mandarin lost many sounds that existed in earlier forms of Chinese. Due to the loss of sounds, many Chinese words ended up becoming homophones, thus more characters were added to words to tell them apart. For example, the Chinese title of the poem Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den 施氏食狮史 is pronounced "Shī Shì Shí Shī Shǐ", and every character in the poem is pronounced with the same syllable, but with different tones. In older forms of Chinese, one could have been to tell apart the different characters making up the title, as they could have sounded noticeably different from each other.

Thus, one-character words in Classical Chinese like

became the Mandarin compound words

to clearly distinguish such words from their homophones, otherwise the already mentioned characters could be mistaken for similar sounding characters like

thus making spoken language difficult to understand without the compound words.

Difference between Mandarin (Beijing Accent) and Beijing Dialect
Mandarin is defined and designed based on Beijing accent. In China, there are over 600,000 dialects and more accents although they all use Chinese language and characters, but their pronunciation and some expressions are totally different. China must find a standard pronunciation to allow all people to understand each other and communicate. Beijing has been the capital city of China for more than 1,000 years, so China defined Beijing Accent as standard Mandarin.

Beijing also has some local dialects that are not included by Mandarin or standard Chinese language yet. But with Beijing being the capital city as well as the political, economic, cultural and education center of China, more and more new Beijing dialects have been or will be accepted as Mandarin or standard Chinese language. The other dialects, such as Shanghainese, Cantonese, Hakka etc., have few opportunities to be included into Mandarin or standard Chinese language or be accepted by the whole of China.

The following samples are some Beijing dialects which are not yet accepted as standard Mandarin. 倍儿: bèi'ér means 'very much'; 拌蒜: bànsuàn means 'stagger'; 不吝: bùlìn means 'do not worry about'; 撮: cuò means 'eat'; 出溜: chūliū means 'slip'; 大老爷儿们儿: dàlǎoyérmenr means 'men, males';

The following samples are some Beijing dialects which have been already accepted as Mandarin in recent years. 二把刀: èrbǎdāo means 'not very skillful'; 哥们儿: gēmenr means 'good male friends'; 抠门儿: kōuménr means 'parsimony'; 打小儿: dǎxiǎo'ér means 'since childhood'

Examples
 你好 nǐ hǎo -hello
 你好吗?nǐ hǎo ma?-How are you?
 我 wǒ-me, I
 你 nǐ -you
 您 nín -you (Used only when out of respect)

Related pages
 Chinese language
 Standard Chinese (language)

References

Other websites
 General Introduction of  Mandarin Language
Pinyin Annotator  Automatically adds phonetic symbols (pinyin) on top of Chinese characters.
I Love Chinese Learning Chinese Magazine
Free Chinese Character Input Software  Google Pinyin Input Software
Learn Mandarin 11 Free Mandarin learning lessons
Mandarin Pinyin In order to learn standard Chinese, one must learn its phonetic system first.
Yellow Bridge An online resource for students of the Chinese language
Zhongwen Red  Free set of systematic lessons for Mandarin Chinese.
 Mandarin Language -Citizendium

Sino-Tibetan languages
Tonal languages

Mandarin Chinese


Winter Solstice is a 2004 American drama film written and directed by Josh Sternfeld and starring Anthony LaPaglia, Aaron Stanford, and Mark Webber. The story focuses on the efforts of a man to interact with and relate to his sons in the years following the accidental death of his wife.

Plot
New Jersey landscape gardener Jim Winters is struggling to raise his sons, high school student Peter and older Gabe, as a single father. Gabe announces he is leaving home to move to Tampa, Florida, although he's vague about both his reason for doing so and what he plans to do there once he arrives. Instead of discussing his plans with his devoted girlfriend Stacey, he plans to drop her. Aware of what he has in mind, she quietly retreats from him to make it difficult for him to achieve his goal. Peter, who was in the car with his mother when she was killed in an accident five years earlier, is a rebellious, hearing-impaired underachiever doing poorly in school, despite the efforts of his teacher Mr. Bricker, who urges him to work harder to meet his potential.

Jim helps new neighbor Molly Ripkin move some cartons. Later she asks him and his sons to dinner. Her invitation is the catalyst that upsets the delicate equilibrium they have been maintaining as each tries to deal with his loss and painful memories in his own way.

Cast
Anthony LaPaglia as Jim Winters
Aaron Stanford as Gabe Winters
Mark Webber as Pete Winters
Michelle Monaghan as Stacey
Allison Janney as Molly Ripkin
Ron Livingston as Mr. Bricker
Jason Fuchs as Bob
 Rocco Rosanio as Pete's Friend #1

Production
The film was shot on location in Glen Ridge, Jersey City and Oradell, New Jersey.

The soundtrack includes "The Rookie Year" by Brandtson and "Sunset Soon Forgotten" by Iron & Wine.

The film premiered at the 2004 Santa Barbara International Film Festival and was shown at the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival and the 2004 Vancouver International Film Festival before going into limited release in the United States on April 8, 2005. It opened on five screens and grossed $20,393 on its opening weekend. At its widest release in the US it played in only 39 theaters. It was featured at the Cannes Film Market and the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival following its US release. Eventually it earned $319,355 in the US and $18,262 in foreign markets for a total worldwide box office of $337,617.

Critical reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 60% based on 80 reviews with an average rating of 6.4/10. The site's critical consensus is "A deliberately paced, realistic portrait of a family's grief and healing."

Dana Stevens of The New York Times called the film "the kind of ambling, event-free family drama that will either draw audiences in with its gentle, understated power or quietly bore them out of their skulls."

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times observed, "The movie is not plot-driven, for which we must be thankful, because to force their feelings into a plot would be a form of cruelty. The whole point is that these lives have no plot. The characters and their situation are on stage and waiting for something to happen, but Josh Sternfeld, the writer-director, isn't going to let them off that easily. If this movie ended in hugs, it would be an abomination . . . Sternfeld . . . knows he will have more effect on us if he denies us closure."

Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle called the film "a completely boring, counterfeit movie" and added, "Because everyone in Winter Solstice is miserable, because everyone is sensitive, because nothing happens, because people smile through tears and tear through smiles, and because there isn't a single explosion or car chase, there will be people who'll insist that this film is a searing examination of the human soul. In fact, it's dreadful, but it's a special kind of dreadful - the kind designed to appeal to intelligent people on principle . . . The film's depiction of middle-aged grief is antiseptic and uninformed, and its depiction of middle-aged bonding is trite and unreal."

David Rooney of Variety called the film an "accomplished debut for writer-director Josh Sternfeld . . . distinguished by its emotional integrity, sustained mood of aching melancholy and superbly understated performances." He added, "Relatively little happens in Sternfeld's screenplay, the rewards of which lie in its intelligent refusal to offer artificial, clean solutions or to broadcast the characters' conflicts in big, showy scenes. Instead, the writer-director coaxes out their fear, bitterness, hostility and sorrow through small revelations or telling silences."

DVD release
The Region 1 DVD was released on September 13, 2005. The film is in anamorphic widescreen format with an audiotrack and subtitles in English.

References

External links

2004 films
American independent films
2004 drama films
Films set in New Jersey
Films shot in New Jersey
2004 independent films
American drama films
2000s English-language films
Films directed by Josh Sternfeld
2000s American films
Films about grieving
Films about father–son relationships

Winter Solstice (film)


Gustav Adolf Merkel (November 12, 1827, Oberoderwitz, Kingdom of Saxony – October 30, 1885, Dresden) was a German organist and composer.

Having been given some lessons by Schumann in his youth, Merkel spent most of his career in Dresden, concentrating on organ-playing from 1858. A Lutheran himself, he nevertheless held an appointment at the Catholic Church of the Court of Saxony from 1864 until his death. During the same period he taught the organ at Dresden's Conservatory.

His compositions include nine organ sonatas (which have been recorded several times, as well as occurring quite often in organ recitals), of which the first sonata (Op.30) is written for two organists, and several dozen miniatures (some of them based on Protestant chorale melodies). In these works, his style is broadly conservative, very much influenced by Mendelssohn, and with similarities to the output of his younger contemporary Josef Rheinberger. He also produced choral and piano pieces; his salon piece "Schmetterling" ("Butterfly"), Op. 81, No. 4 is particularly well-known.

Further reading
 Paul Janssen, Gustav Merkel: Ein Bild seines Lebens und Wirkens (Leipzig, 1886).
 Magdalene Saal, Gustav Adolf Merkel: Leben und Orgelwerk (Frankfurt, 1993).

External links

1827 births
1885 deaths
19th-century classical composers
19th-century German composers
19th-century German male musicians
German Romantic composers
German male classical composers
German classical organists
German male organists
People from Görlitz (district)
Musicians from the Kingdom of Saxony
Pupils of Friedrich Wieck
Male classical organists
19th-century organists

Gustav Merkel


An N-type semiconductor is a type of material used in electronics.

It is made by adding an impurity to a pure semiconductor such as silicon or germanium. The impurities used may be phosphorus, arsenic, antimony, bismuth or some other chemical element. They are called donor impurities.
The impurity is called a donor because it gives a free electron to a semiconductor. The purpose of doing this is to make more charge carriers, or electron wires  available in the material for conduction. The final material is a lot more conductive than the original silicon or germanium.

Introduction
Semiconductor materials like silicon and germanium have four electrons in their outer shell. The outer shell of electrons is called the valence shell. The four electrons are used by the semiconductor atom in forming bonds with its neighbouring atoms. This leaves a low number of electrons available for conduction.

Pentavalent elements are those elements which have five electrons in their outer shell. To make the n-type semiconductor, pentavalent impurities like phosphorus or arsenic are added. Four of the impurities' electrons form bonds with the surrounding silicon atoms. This leaves one electron free. The resulting material has a large number of free electrons. Since electrons are negative charge carriers, the resultant material is called an n-type (or negative type) semiconductor. The pentavalent impurity that is added is called a 'dopant' and the process of addition is called 'doping'.

Manufacture
N-type semiconductors are manufactured by doping pure semiconductor material. The amount of impurity added is very small compared to the amount of semiconductor. The way this new semiconductor works is changed by controlling the quantity of the dopant.

Related pages
 Semiconductor
P-type Semiconductor

Other websites
 The Doping of Semiconductors - Hyperphysics

Electronic components

N-type semiconductor


In sport, a jersey is a shirt worn by a member of a team, often with the wearer's name and team number as well. Many Cycling jerseys of specific colour or pattern represent certain statuses in cycling, such as the maillot jaune (yellow jersey) of the leader of the Tour de France, or the rainbow jersey.  The World Cycling Union also says a champion must wear the champions jersey in a race, not the team jersey.  Cycling jerseys are usually made of special synthetic material to help sweat away from the skin.  The main garment of an ice hockey uniform, which was traditionally called a sweater, is increasingly known as a hockey jersey. This garment, along with basketball jerseys which are usually sleeveless and baseball jerseys which are usually button up, have become fashion accessories.

In some sports, such as baseball, basketball, and American football, a player's jersey may be "retired".  When a jersey is retired that player's jersey is placed usually where the team plays in honour of that player's accomplishment.  The retiring of a jersey at one time included the retiring of the number on the player's jersey leaving it unavailable for future players, to further honour that player.  However, as jerseys are usually double digit (00-99), that leaves only 100 possible numbers—if the rules of the sport allow it. For example, in U.S. college basketball, only 36 distinct numbers are possible, as rules prohibit the use of any digits greater than 5. As such the practice of retiring the number has dwindled, and in most cases only the specific jersey is retired and put on display.

Other

It is common for Australian and South African year 12 students and year 13 students in New Zealand to receive personalised jerseys during their last year at school. These are commonly referred to as a year 12 or leavers' jumpers. They are based on the design of a sport jersey (usually Australian Rules Football or Association Football), feature school colours, the year the students graduate, and a personalised nickname. They are usually worn over the normal school uniform. It is common for students to get personalised names on the back of their jerseys.

In Australia there has been a recent trend with many students now preferring to get year 12 hoodies, jackets or baseball varsity style jackets instead of the traditional jerseys.

History
Jersey, in the Channel Islands, was famous for its knitting trade in medieval times, and because of that original fame, the name jersey is still applied to many forms of knitted fabric, round or flat. The traditional jersey, and traditional guernsey, are dyed a navy blue colour, using a dye that does not require stripping the wool of its natural oil, rendering these sweaters surprisingly water resistant. The wool used in guernseys is often passed through oil in order to render it doubly water-resistant.

In sports

In sport a jersey is a shirt worn by a member of a team, often with the wearer's name and team number as well. Many Cycling jerseys of specific colour or pattern represent certain statuses in cycling, such as the maillot jaune (yellow jersey) of the leader of the Tour de France, or the rainbow jersey.  The World Cycling Union also says a champion must wear the champions jersey in a race, not the team jersey.  Cycling jerseys are usually made of special synthetic material to help sweat away from the skin.  The main garment of an ice hockey uniform, which was traditionally called a sweater, is increasingly known as a hockey jersey. This garment, along with basketball jerseys which are usually sleeveless and baseball jerseys which are usually button up, have become fashion accessories.

In some sports, such as baseball, basketball, and American football, a player's jersey may be "retired".  When a jersey is retired that player's jersey is placed usually where the team plays in honour of that player's accomplishment.  The retiring of a jersey at one time included the retiring of the number on the player's jersey leaving it unavailable for future players, to further honour that player.  However, as jerseys are usually double digit (00-99), that leaves only 100 possible numbers—if the rules of the sport allow it. For example, in U.S. college basketball, only 36 distinct numbers are possible, as rules prohibit the use of any digits greater than 5. As such the practice of retiring the number has dwindled, and in most cases only the specific jersey is retired and put on display.

Other

It was common for Australian and South African year 12 students and year 13 students in New Zealand to receive personalised jerseys during their last year at school. These are commonly referred to as a year or leavers' jumpers. They are based on the design of a sport jersey (usually Australian Rules Football or Association Football), feature school colours, the year the students graduate, and a personalised nickname. They are usually worn over the normal school uniform.

In Australia there has been a recent trend with many students now preferring to get year 12 hoodies, jackets or baseball varsity style jackets instead of the traditional jerseys.

Sports clothing

Jersey (clothing)


Alternate uses: See Data (disambiguation)

Data nyaéta catetan-catetan tina sakumpuleun fakta. Data ngabogaan bentuk tunggal nyaéta datum. Hal nu penting dina kelas nu gedé nyaéta ukuran atawa panalungtikan tina variabel. Hal ieu saperti wilangan, kecap atawa gambar.

Étimologi
The word data is the
plural of Latin datum, neuter past participle of dare, "to give",
hence "something given".
The past participle of "to give" has been used for millennia,
in the sense of a statement accepted at face value;
one of the works of Euclid, circa 300 BC,
was the Dedomena (in Latin, Data).
In discussions of problems in géometry, mathematics, engineering, and so on,
the terms givens and data are used interchangéably.
Such usage is the origin of data as a concept in computer science:
data are numbers, words, images, etc., accepted as they stand.

Pamakéan dina basa Inggris
In English,
the word datum is still used in the general sense of "something given",
and more specifically in cartography, geography, and geology to méan a reference point, reference line, or reference surface.
The Latin plural data is also used as a plural in English,
but it is also commonly tréated as a mass noun and used in the singular.
For example,
"This is all the data from the experiment".
This usage is inconsistent with the rules of Latin grammar,
which would suggest "These are the data ...",
éach méasurement or result being a single datum.
However,
given the variety and irregularity of English plural constructions,
there seem to be no grounds for arguing that data is incorrect as a singular mass noun in English.

Mangpaat data dina komputasi
Raw data are numbers, characters, images or other outputs from devices to convert physical quantities into symbols,
in a very broad sense.
Such data are typically further processed by a human or input into a computer, stored and processed there, or transmitted (output) to another human or computer.
Raw data is a relative term; data processing commonly occurs by stages,
and the "processed data" from one stage may be considered the "raw data" of the next.

Mechanical computing devices are classified according to the méans by which they represent data. An analog computer represents a datum as a voltage, distance, position, or other physical quantity. A digital computer represents a datum as a sequence of symbols drawn from a fixed alphabet. The most common digital computers use a binary alphabet, that is, an alphabet of two characters, typically denoted "0" and "1". More familiar representations, such as numbers and letters, are then constructed from the binary alphabet.

Some special forms of data are distinguished. A computer program is a collection of data which can be interpreted as instructions. Most computer languages maké a distinction between programs and the other data on which programs operate, but in some languages, notably Lisp and similar languages, programs are essentially indistinguishable from other data. It is also useful to distinguish metadata, that is, a description of other data. The prototypical example of metadata is the library catalog, which is a description of the contents of books.

Hartina data jeung informasi
Data on its own has no méaning, only when interpreted by some kind of data processing system does it take on méaning and become information.
Péople or computers can find patterns in data to perceive information, and information can be used to enhance knowledge. Since knowledge is prerequisite to wisdom, we always want more data and information. But, as modérn societies verge on information overload, we especially need better ways to find patterns.

Tempo ogé
data processing
data mining
data warehouse
datasheet
Data Recovery
Database

This article (or an earlier version of it) contains material from FOLDOC, used with permission.

Téhnologi

Data


Bismuth(III) oxide, also known as bismite and bismuth trioxide, is a chemical compound. Its chemical formula is Bi2O3. It has bismuth and oxide ions in it. The bismuth is in its +3 oxidation state.

Properties
Bismuth(III) oxide is a pale yellow solid. It does not dissolve in water. It dissolves in acids to make other bismuth(III) salts. When it is electrolyzed, it makes a bright red solid, bismuth(V) oxide. It has several different crystal structures that have been studied. It reacts with rare earth metal oxides and the products are being studied.

Occurrence

Bismite is the mineral form of bismuth(III) oxide. It is an ore of bismuth. Its Mohs hardness is 4.5 to 5 and its specific gravity is quite high, around 8 or 9. It is made when bismuthinite is oxidized. It was first found in Nevada in 1868.

Preparation
It can be made by reacting sodium hydroxide with a bismuth(III) salt such as bismuth(III) chloride. It can also be made by igniting powdered bismuth metal. Another way of making it is to react bismuth nitrate (made by dissolving bismuth in nitric acid) with concentrated sodium hydroxide.

Uses
Bismuth(III) oxide is used in pyrotechnics to make fireworks that burn with an effect called "dragon's eggs". Lead(II,IV) oxide was used for this in the past, but now is considered too toxic to use. It is also used in research and the making of other bismuth compounds.

Related pages
Bismuth compounds

Bismuth compounds
Oxides

Bismuth(III) oxide


Ang We Three Kings (Kaming Tatlong Hari) ay isang awiting pamaskong nasa wikang Ingles na inawit ni Nat King Cole sa ilalim ng tatak ng Decca Records.

Panitik
We three kings of Orient are

Bearing gifts we traverse afar.

Field and fountain, moor and mountain,

Following yonder star.

O star of wonder, star of night,

Star with royal beauty bright,

Westward leading, still proceeding,

Guide us to thy perfect Light.

Born a king on Bethlehem's plain,

Gold I bring to crown Him again,

King forever, ceasing never

Over us all to reign.

Frankincense to offer have I.

Incense owns a Deity nigh.

Prayer and praising all men raising,

Worship Him, God on high.

Myrrh is mine: Its bitter perfume

Breaths a life of gathering gloom.

Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding dying,

Sealed in the stone-cold tomb.

Glorious now behold Him arise,

King and God and Sacrifice.

Alleluia, alleluia!

Sounds through the earth and skies.

Mga awiting pamasko na nasa wikang Ingles

We Three Kings


Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropical rainforests or temperate rainforests, but other types have been described.

Estimates vary from 40% to 75% of all biotic species being indigenous to the rainforests. There may be many millions of species of plants, insects and microorganisms  still undiscovered in tropical rainforests. Tropical rainforests have been called the "jewels of the Earth" and the "world's largest pharmacy", because over one quarter of natural medicines have been discovered there.

Rainforests as well as endemic rainforest species are rapidly disappearing due to deforestation, the resulting habitat loss and pollution of the atmosphere.

Definition
Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, high humidity, the presence of moisture-dependent vegetation, a moist layer of leaf litter, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. The largest areas of rainforest are tropical or temperate rainforests, but other vegetation associations including subtropical rainforest, littoral rainforest, cloud forest, vine thicket and even dry rainforest have been described.

Tropical rainforest

Tropical rainforests are characterized by a warm and wet climate with no substantial dry season: typically found within 10 degrees north and south of the equator. Mean monthly temperatures exceed  during all months of the year.  Average annual rainfall is no less than  and can exceed  although it typically lies between  and .

Many of the world's tropical forests are associated with the location of the monsoon trough, also known as the intertropical convergence zone.  The broader category of tropical moist forests are located in the equatorial zone between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn. Tropical rainforests exist in Southeast Asia (from Myanmar (Burma)) to the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Sri Lanka; also in Sub-Saharan Africa from the Cameroon to the Congo (Congo Rainforest), South America (e.g. the Amazon rainforest), Central America (e.g. Bosawás, the southern Yucatán Peninsula-El Peten-Belize-Calakmul), Australia, and on Pacific Islands (such as Hawaii). Tropical forests have been called the "Earth's lungs", although it is now known that rainforests contribute little net oxygen addition to the atmosphere through photosynthesis.

Temperate rainforest

Tropical forests cover a large part of the globe, but temperate rainforests only occur in a few regions around the world. Temperate rainforests are rainforests in temperate regions. They occur in North America (in the Pacific Northwest in Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and California), in Europe (parts of the British Isles such as the coastal areas of Ireland and Scotland, southern Norway, parts of the western Balkans along the Adriatic coast, as well as in Galicia and coastal areas of the eastern Black Sea, including Georgia and coastal Turkey), in East Asia (in southern China, Highlands of Taiwan, much of Japan and Korea, and on Sakhalin Island and the adjacent Russian Far East coast), in South America (southern Chile) and also in Australia and New Zealand.

Dry rainforest
Dry rainforests have a more open canopy layer than other rainforests, and are found in areas of lower rainfall (). They generally have two layers of trees.

Layers

A tropical rainforest typically has a number of layers, each with different plants and animals adapted for life in that particular area. Examples include the emergent, canopy, understory and forest floor layers.

Emergent layer
The emergent layer contains a small number of very large trees called emergents, which grow above the general canopy, reaching heights of 45–55 m, although on occasion a few species will grow to 70–80 m tall. They need to be able to withstand the hot temperatures and strong winds that occur above the canopy in some areas. Eagles, butterflies, bats and certain monkeys inhabit this layer.

Canopy layer

The canopy layer contains the majority of the largest trees, typically  to  tall. The densest areas of biodiversity are found in the forest canopy, a more or less continuous cover of foliage formed by adjacent treetops. The canopy, by some estimates, is home to 50 percent of all plant species. Epiphytic plants attach to trunks and branches, and obtain water and minerals from rain and debris that collects on the supporting plants. The fauna is similar to that found in the emergent layer but more diverse. A quarter of all insect species are believed to exist in the rainforest canopy. Scientists have long suspected the richness of the canopy as a habitat, but have only recently developed practical methods of exploring it. As long ago as 1917, naturalist William Beebe declared that "another continent of life remains to be discovered, not upon the Earth, but one to two hundred feet above it, extending over thousands of square miles." A true exploration of this habitat only began in the 1980s, when scientists developed methods to reach the canopy, such as firing ropes into the trees using crossbows. Exploration of the canopy is still in its infancy, but other methods include the use of balloons and airships to float above the highest branches and the building of cranes and walkways planted on the forest floor. The science of accessing tropical forest canopy using airships or similar aerial platforms is called dendronautics.

Understory layer

The understory or understorey layer lies between the canopy and the forest floor. It is home to a number of birds, snakes and lizards, as well as predators such as jaguars, boa constrictors and leopards. The leaves are much larger at this level and insect life is abundant. Many seedlings that will grow to the canopy level are present in the understory. Only about 5% of the sunlight shining on the rainforest canopy reaches the understory. This layer can be called a shrub layer, although the shrub layer may also be considered a separate layer.

Forest floor

The forest floor, the bottom-most layer, receives only 2% of the sunlight. Only plants adapted to low light can grow in this region. Away from riverbanks, swamps and clearings, where dense undergrowth is found, the forest floor is relatively clear of vegetation because of the low sunlight penetration. It also contains decaying plant and animal matter, which disappears quickly, because the warm, humid conditions promote rapid decay. Many forms of fungi growing here help decay the animal and plant waste.

Flora and fauna
More than half of the world's species of plants and animals are found in rainforests. Rainforests support a very broad array of fauna, including mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds and invertebrates.  Mammals may include primates, felids and other families.  Reptiles include snakes, turtles, chameleons and other families; while birds include such families as vangidae and Cuculidae. Dozens of families of invertebrates are found in rainforests. Fungi are also very common in rainforest areas as they can feed on the decomposing remains of plants and animals.

The great diversity in rainforest species is in large part the result of diverse and numerous physical refuges, i.e. places in which plants are inaccessible to many herbivores, or in which animals can hide from predators.  Having numerous refuges available also results in much higher total biomass than would otherwise be possible.

Some species of fauna show a trend towards declining populations in rainforests, for example, reptiles that feed on amphibians and reptiles. This trend requires close monitoring. The seasonality of rainforests affects the reproductive patterns of amphibians, and this in turn can directly affect the species of reptiles that feed on these groups, particularly species with specialized feeding, since these are less likely to use alternative resources.

Soils

Despite the growth of vegetation in a tropical rainforest, soil quality is often quite poor. Rapid bacterial decay prevents the accumulation of humus. The concentration of iron and aluminium oxides by the laterization process gives the oxisols a bright red colour and sometimes produces mineral deposits such as bauxite. Most trees have roots near the surface because there are insufficient nutrients below the surface; most of the trees' minerals come from the top layer of decomposing leaves and animals. On younger substrates, especially of volcanic origin, tropical soils may be quite fertile. If rainforest trees are cleared, rain can accumulate on the exposed soil surfaces, creating run-off, and beginning a process of soil erosion. Eventually, streams and rivers form and flooding becomes possible. There are several reasons for the poor soil quality. First is that the soil is highly acidic. The roots of plants rely on an acidity difference between the roots and the soil in order to absorb nutrients. When the soil is acidic, there is little difference, and therefore little absorption of nutrients from the soil. Second, the type of clay particles present in tropical rainforest soil has a poor ability to trap nutrients and stop them from washing away. Even if humans artificially add nutrients to the soil, the nutrients mostly wash away and are not absorbed by the plants. Finally, these soils are poor due to the high volume of rain in tropical rainforests washes nutrients out of the soil more quickly than in other climates.

Effect on global climate
A natural rainforest emits and absorbs vast quantities of carbon dioxide. On a global scale, long-term fluxes are approximately in balance, so that an undisturbed rainforest would have a small net impact on atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, though they may have other climatic effects (on cloud formation, for example, by recycling water vapour). No rainforest today can be considered to be undisturbed.  Human-induced deforestation plays a significant role in causing rainforests to release carbon dioxide, as do other factors, whether human-induced or natural, which result in tree death, such as burning and drought. Some climate models operating with interactive vegetation predict a large loss of Amazonian rainforest around 2050 due to drought, forest dieback and the subsequent release of more carbon dioxide.

Human uses

Tropical rainforests provide timber as well as animal products such as meat and hides. Rainforests also have value as tourism destinations and for the ecosystem services provided. Many foods originally came from tropical forests, and are still mostly grown on plantations in regions that were formerly primary forest. Also, plant-derived medicines are commonly used for fever, fungal infections, burns, gastrointestinal problems, pain, respiratory problems, and wound treatment. At the same time, rainforests are usually not used sustainably by non-native peoples but are being exploited or removed for agricultural purposes.

Native people
On January 18, 2007, FUNAI reported also that it had confirmed the presence of 67 different uncontacted tribes in Brazil, up from 40 in 2005. With this addition, Brazil has now overtaken the island of New Guinea as the country having the largest number of uncontacted tribes. The province of Irian Jaya or West Papua in the island of New Guinea is home to an estimated 44 uncontacted tribal groups. The tribes are in danger because of the deforestation, especially in Brazil.

Central African rainforest is home of the Mbuti pygmies, one of the hunter-gatherer peoples living in equatorial rainforests characterised by their short height (below one and a half metres, or 59 inches, on average). They were the subject of a study by Colin Turnbull, The Forest People, in 1962. Pygmies who live in Southeast Asia are, amongst others, referred to as "Negrito".
There are many tribes in the rainforests of the Malaysian state of Sarawak. Sarawak is part of Borneo, the third largest island in the world. Some of the other tribes in Sarawak are: the Kayan, Kenyah, Kejaman, Kelabit, Punan Bah, Tanjong, Sekapan, and the Lahanan. Collectively, they are referred to as Dayaks or Orangulu which means "people of the interior".

About half of Sarawak's 1.5 million people are Dayaks. Most Dayaks, it is believed by anthropologists, came originally from the South-East Asian mainland. Their mythologies support this.

Deforestation

Tropical and temperate rainforests have been subjected to heavy legal and illegal logging for their valuable hardwoods and agricultural clearance (slash-and-burn, clearcutting) throughout the 20th century and the area covered by rainforests around the world is shrinking.  Biologists have estimated that large numbers of species are being driven to extinction (possibly more than 50,000 a year; at that rate, says E. O. Wilson of Harvard University, a quarter or more of all species on Earth could be exterminated within 50 years) due to the removal of habitat with destruction of the rainforests.

Another factor causing the loss of rainforest is expanding urban areas. Littoral rainforest growing along coastal areas of eastern Australia is now rare due to ribbon development to accommodate the demand for seachange lifestyles.

Forests are being destroyed at a rapid pace. Almost 90% of West Africa's rainforest has been destroyed. Since the arrival of humans, Madagascar has lost two thirds of its original rainforest. At present rates, tropical rainforests in Indonesia would be logged out in 10 years and Papua New Guinea in 13 to 16 years. According to Rainforest Rescue, an important reason for the increasing deforestation rate, especially in Indonesia, is the expansion of oil palm plantations to meet growing demand for cheap vegetable fats and biofuels. In Indonesia, palm oil is already cultivated on nine million hectares and, together with Malaysia, the island nation produces about 85 percent of the world's palm oil.

Several countries, notably Brazil, have declared their deforestation a national emergency. Amazon deforestation jumped by 69% in 2008 compared to 2007's twelve
months, according to official government data.

However, a January 30, 2009 New York Times article stated, "By one estimate, for every acre of rainforest cut down each year, more than 50 acres of new forest are growing in the tropics." The new forest includes secondary forest on former farmland and so-called degraded forest.

See also

 Cloud forest
 Ecology
 Inland rainforest
 Intact forest landscape
 Jungle
 Rainforest Foundation Fund
 Sepilok Orang Utan Sanctuary
 Stratification (vegetation)
 Tapiche Ohara's Reserve

References

Further reading

 Butler, R. A. (2005) A Place Out of Time: Tropical Rainforests and the Perils They Face. Published online: Rainforests.mongabay.com
 Richards, P. W. (1996). The tropical rain forest. 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press
 Whitmore, T. C. (1998) An introduction to tropical rain forests. 2nd ed. Oxford University Press.

External links

 Animals in a rainforest
 Rainforest Action Network
 EIA forest reports: Investigations into illegal logging.
 EIA in the USA Reports and info.
 The Coalition for Rainforest Nations
 United Nations Forum on Forests
 Dave Kimble's Rainforest Photo Catalog (Wet Tropics, Australia)
 Rainforest Plants
 Tropical rainforest for children
 What is a rainforest
 National Geographic: Rain forest
 Tropical rainforests

Biodiversity
Forest ecology

Rainforest


Ford Ranger is a name uised on twa distinct compact pickup truck lines bi the Ford Motor Company an bi a marketing arrangement wi Mazda.
 A Ford-designed compact pickup truck, which is sauld an manufactured in North Americae as well as Brazil, Chile, Argentinae an Sooth Africae. It wis an aa marketed as the Mazda B-Series bi Mazda dealers frae 1994 throu 2009. In North Americae it is biggit in St. Paul, Minnesota.
 A Mazda-designed compact pickup kent as Ford Ranger sauld in mair nor 130 kintras.

The "Ranger" name haed previously been uised for a premium styling package on the F-Series full-sized pickup trucks syne 1965. The name wis moved tae this line o North American compact trucks for the 1983 model year.

Ranger

Ford Ranger


The Fountainhead is a novel written by Ayn Rand. The book was first printed in 1943.

The theme of Rand's fictional story is the belief that selfishness can be ethically good for people in a workplace. Altruism can actually make a person a servant or slave to other people. This novel has many themes that support philosophies of objectivism, and capitalism.  There are themes that are against the idea of communism. The use of architecture and skyscrapers in this novel show that humans are able to do great things. Rand's belief in the novel is that a person should only work at something they love doing.

Plot
It is 1922 in Stanton; one of America's best colleges for architects. Howard Roark has just been kicked out of Stanton because he wants to design modern buildings made with glass, concrete and steel. But his professors want him to just design the same old style buildings. Roark's roommate, Peter Keating, is given an award when he graduates, just after Roark is expelled. Keating is offered a job in New York at Francon & Heyer, a company that makes traditional old style buildings.

Roark goes to New York, so he can find Henry Cameron, the inventor of skyscrapers. Roark gets a job at Cameron's company. He is designing modern buildings, but he does not earn much money.  Keating is becoming rich because he designs traditional buildings for millionaires.

Keating meets his old girlfriend, Catherine Halsey. She tells him that her uncle is Ellsworth Toohey, a well-known writer for a Wynand newspaper, named the Banner. Even though Keating wants to meet Toohey, he wants to wait until he is more successful and famous. Then he can impress Toohey, who is an architecture expert, in the hopes of a new job with even more wealthy  income.

Roark loses his job because his boss, Cameron, gets sick and has to take retirement. Roark looks for new jobs but is told no, because he is too original. Keating wants Roark to work for him so that he can steal some of Roark's ideas. Keating decides to help Roark, because in the past, Roark helped him with his projects at college and also at Francon & Heyer. After Roark works for Francon & Heyer for a few days, he asks if he can design a building in a modern style. He is told he has to leave or design the building in an old fashion style.

He finally finds work with John Eric Snyte, an architect who hires Roark because Snyte likes to mix different styles. A famous writer, Austin Heller comes to Snyte and asks for a house. Snyte gives all the architects the task of designing the house. He then puts all the sketches together to be shown. Heller says he only likes the modern parts; so Roark tears up the drawings, telling Heller that wants to design the house on his own. Snyte fires Roark, but it is too late because Heller has accepted the deal. Roark then designs Heller's house, which leans over a cliff. He then also gets to design other buildings by himself.

Roark gets very proud of himself; so he turns down a lot of new jobs because he still hates designing old buildings. He becomes so poor he has to close his business and he refuses to take any money from Heller. He finally takes a job in Connecticut, working in a quarry.

Keating wants to marry Catherine, but the boss of Francon & Heyer, Guy Francon, tries to introduce him to his daughter, Dominique. She writes for the Banner and knows Ellsworth Toohey. Keating meets Dominique after she and Guy have an argument and she makes fun of Keating. She keeps writing bad reviews of buildings that are being made by architects who have no talent. She goes on holiday to her father's country house in Connecticut. Guy Francon owns the house and the quarry. She is walking one day and meets Roark. She is attracted to him because he is working at drilling granite and seems masculine to her. But she is always behaves rudely to him and never says how much she is attracted to him.

Dominique goes back to her house and breaks her fireplace so that Roark will have to come up and repair it and she can see him again. When Roark arrives, he rapes Dominique, even though he does not really want to hurt her. Roark then leaves and gets a phone call from a rich businessman asking him to design a new shop for him.This person had seen Heller's house and tried to find Roark. So Roark travels back to New York.

Characters

Howard Roark is a gifted architect who is expelled from college for trying to have original ideas and think for himself.  He does not want to compromise in order to obey authority.  He does not care what people think about him.

Peter Keating is planning to get rich by just doing what was popular, instead of being original like Roark.  He says and thinks that because of that, he will be more successful than Roark.  In the end, Keating admits that he is a failure and he was being used by others.

Ellsworth Toohey is the antagonist (or the bad guy) of the story.  He tries to stop Roark from being successful by controlling people who are weaker or timid. He believes in collectivism (when people join a group and they lose their own identity). He only helps people who he thinks are not very smart and not very talented. Dominique believes he is trying to control the Wynand newspapers.

Gail Wynand is the owner of a newspaper that appeals to the opinion of the public.  He thinks he is a failure because he made his newspaper company just to be popular and so he can become rich.

Henry Cameron is Roark's mentor. He invented skyscrapers and designed modern buildings that most architects hated, because they were not traditional enough. Cameron thinks that Wynand is his enemy, because he writes a newspaper that has different ideals. Wynand understands that he is unhappy and becomes friends with Roark because he respects him. Cameron becomes an alcoholic and dies early in the story.

Dominique Francon is a woman who is afraid of having great things such as love because society can destroy those great things. She marries Peter Keating first, then Gail Wynand. Roark changes her view of life and he also marries her.

Related pages
 Objectivism (Ayn Rand)

20th-century American novels
1943 books

The Fountainhead


George Lowe is an American voice actor. He is best known for voicing Space Ghost on the adult swim program Space Ghost: Coast to Coast. He also voices Brak's Dad on The Brak Show.

Voice Acting
 Space Ghost: Coast to Coast - Space Ghost
 Cartoon Planet - Space Ghost
 The Brak Show - Dad and Space Ghost
 Aqua Teen Hunger Force - various characters
 Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters - Space Ghost

Adult Swim

George Lowe


"Krusty Gets Busted" is the twelfth episode of the first season of The Simpsons. It was first shown on April 29, 1990. The episode was written by Jay Kogen and Wallace Wolodarsky, and directed by Brad Bird. In this episode, Krusty the Clown, a well-known TV comedian, is convicted of the robbery of the "Kwik-E-Mart." Bart and Lisa looked for clues, and were convinced that Krusty had been framed.

This episode is the first full appearance of Kent Brockman, and Kelsey Grammer makes his first guest appearance on the show as the voice of "Sideshow Bob." The episode was well liked by people, and it was the highest-rated show on the Fox Network the week it started.

Other websites

1990 television episodes
The Simpsons (season 1) episodes

Krusty Gets Busted


Bethany is a place mentioned in the New Testament of the Bible. It was a village near Jerusalem. It is now in the West Bank, and is often thought to be the modern-day town of al-Eizariya. It is also a girl's name meaning 'house of figs'.

Related pages
 Martha
 Mary of Bethany

New Testament
West Bank

Bethany