Discounted cumulative gain (DCG) is a measure of ranking quality for a given query; Normalized DCG (nDCG or NDCG) is a measure of ranking quality independent of the particular query. In information retrieval, they are often used to measure effectiveness of search engine algorithms and related applications. Using a graded relevance scale of documents in a search-engine result set, DCG measures the usefulness, or gain, of a document based on its position in the result list. The gain is accumulated from the top of the result list to the bottom, with the gain of each result discounted at lower ranks. The normalized version corrects for the fact that different queries may have different numbers of relevant results.

Overview

Two assumptions are made in using DCG and its related measures.

 Highly relevant documents are more useful when appearing earlier in a search engine result list (have higher ranks)
 Highly relevant documents are more useful than marginally relevant documents, which are in turn more useful than non-relevant documents.

Cumulative Gain

DCG is a refinement of simpler measure, Cumulative Gain (CG). Cumulative Gain is the sum of the graded relevance values of all results in a search result list. CG does not take into account the rank (position) of a result in the result list. The CG at a particular rank position  is defined as:

Where  is the graded relevance of the result at position .

The value computed with the CG function is unaffected by changes in the ordering of search results. That is, moving a highly relevant document  above a higher ranked, less relevant, document  does not change the computed value for CG (assuming ). Based on the two assumptions made above about the usefulness of search results, (N)DCG is usually preferred over CG. Cumulative Gain is sometimes called Graded Precision.

Discounted Cumulative Gain

The premise of DCG is that highly relevant documents appearing lower in a search result list should be penalized as the graded relevance value is reduced logarithmically proportional to the position of the result.

The usual formula of DCG accumulated at a particular rank position  is defined as:

Previously there was no theoretically sound justification for using a logarithmic reduction factor other than the fact that it produces a smooth reduction. But Wang et al. (2013) gave theoretical guarantee for using the logarithmic reduction factor in Normalized DCG (NDCG). The authors show that for every pair of substantially different ranking functions, the NDCG can decide which one is better in a consistent manner.

An alternative formulation of DCG places stronger emphasis on retrieving relevant documents:

The latter formula is commonly used in industry including major web search companies and data science competition platforms such as Kaggle.

These two formulations of DCG are the same when the relevance values of documents are binary; .

Note that Croft et al. (2010) and Burges et al. (2005) present the second DCG with a log of base e, while both versions of DCG above use a log of base 2.  When computing NDCG with the first formulation of DCG, the base of the log does not matter, but the base of the log does affect the value of NDCG for the second formulation.  Clearly, the base of the log affects the value of DCG in both formulations.

Normalized DCG

Search result lists vary in length depending on the query. Comparing a search engine's performance from one query to the next cannot be consistently achieved using DCG alone, so the cumulative gain at each position for a chosen value of  should be normalized across queries. This is done by sorting all relevant documents in the corpus by their relative relevance, producing the maximum possible DCG through position , also called Ideal DCG (IDCG) through that position. For a query, the normalized discounted cumulative gain, or nDCG, is computed as:

,

where IDCG is ideal discounted cumulative gain,

and  represents the list of relevant documents (ordered by their relevance) in the corpus up to position p.

The nDCG values for all queries can be averaged to obtain a measure of the average performance of a search engine's ranking algorithm. Note that in a perfect ranking algorithm, the  will be the same as the  producing an nDCG of 1.0. All nDCG calculations are then relative values on the interval 0.0 to 1.0 and so are cross-query comparable.

The main difficulty encountered in using nDCG is the unavailability of an ideal ordering of results when only partial relevance feedback is available.

Example

Presented with a list of documents in response to a search query, an experiment participant is asked to judge the relevance of each document to the query. Each document is to be judged on a scale of 0-3 with 0 meaning not relevant, 3 meaning highly relevant, and 1 and 2 meaning "somewhere in between". For the documents ordered by the ranking algorithm as

the user provides the following relevance scores:

That is: document 1 has a relevance of 3, document 2 has a relevance of 2, etc. The Cumulative Gain of this search result listing is:

Changing the order of any two documents does not affect the CG measure. If  and  are switched, the CG remains the same, 11. DCG is used to emphasize highly relevant documents appearing early in the result list. Using the logarithmic scale for reduction, the DCG for each result in order is:

So the  of this ranking is:

Now a switch of  and  results in a reduced DCG because a less relevant document is placed higher in the ranking; that is, a more relevant document is discounted more by being placed in a lower rank.

The performance of this query to another is incomparable in this form since the other query may have more results, resulting in a larger overall DCG which may not necessarily be better. In order to compare, the DCG values must be normalized.

To normalize DCG values, an ideal ordering for the given query is needed. For this example, that ordering would be the monotonically decreasing sort of all known relevance judgments.  In addition to the six from this experiment, suppose we also know there is a document  with relevance grade 3 to the same query and a document  with relevance grade 2 to that query.  Then the ideal ordering is:

The ideal ranking is cut again to length 6 to match the depth of analysis of the ranking:

The DCG of this ideal ordering, or IDCG (Ideal DCG) , is computed to rank 6:

And so the nDCG for this query is given as:

Limitations
 Normalized DCG metric does not penalize for bad documents in the result. For example, if a query returns two results with scores  and  respectively, both would be considered equally good even if the latter contains a bad document. For the ranking judgments  one might use numerical scores  instead of . This would cause the score to lower if bad results are returned, prioritizing the precision of the results over the recall. Note that this approach can result in an overall negative score which would shift the lower bound of the score from  to a negative value.
 Normalized DCG does not penalize for missing documents in the result. For example, if a query returns two results with scores  and  respectively, both would be considered equally good, assuming ideal DCG is computed to rank 3 for the former and rank 5 for the latter. One way to take into account this limitation is to enforce fixed set size for the result set and use minimum scores for the missing documents. In previous example, we would use the scores  and  and quote nDCG as nDCG@5.
 Normalized DCG may not be suitable to measure performance of queries that may often have several equally good results. This is especially true when this metric is limited to only the first few results as it is done in practice. For example, for queries such as "restaurants" nDCG@1 would account for only the first result and hence if one result set contains only 1 restaurant from the nearby area while the other contains 5, both would end up having the same score even though the latter is more comprehensive.

See also
 Evaluation measures (information retrieval)
 Learning to rank

References

Information retrieval evaluation

Discounted cumulative gain


In everyday speech, the word "theory" is used as a "best guess". In modern science, a scientific theory is a tested and expanded hypothesis that explains many experiments. It fits ideas together in a framework. If anyone finds a case where all or part of a scientific theory is false, then that theory is either changed or thrown out.

An example of a scientific theory that underwent many changes is the germ theory of disease. In ancient times, people believed that diseases were caused by the gods, or by curses, or by improper behavior. Germs (microorganisms) were unknown, because germs are too small to see. With the invention of the microscope, germs were discovered, and the germ theory of disease was proposed. Thanks to the germ theory of disease, many diseases can now be cured. However, the germ theory of disease had to be modified, because some diseases are not caused by germs. The flu and scurvy are examples of diseases that are not caused by bacteria, but viruses or poor nutrition. Scientists modified the germ theory of disease, so that today we would state that theory as "Some diseases are caused by germs".

To be a scientific theory, a theory must be tested a large number of times, by different scientists in different places, and must pass the test every time. The theory must be stated exactly, sometimes using mathematics. And it must fit in with all of the other scientific theories. Science has many branches. Physics, chemistry, biology, geology, and astronomy are some of the major branches of science. A scientific theory in one branch of science must hold true in all of the other branches of science. For example, the atomic theory of matter, that all matter is made up of atoms, was discovered using physics, but the chemicals used in chemistry, the living tissue used in biology, the rocks studied in geology, and the planets studied in astronomy are all made up of atoms. The atomic theory of matter holds in every area of science.

Sometimes scientists come up with a theory that is wrong. The discovery of an exception to a scientific theory is a major event, and a scientist can become famous by discovering an exception to a rule. Einstein became famous for his theory of relativity, which found an exception to Isaac Newton's laws of motion. Newton's theory, which had been accepted for hundreds of years, had to be changed, and has been changed.

Here is a list of some of the major theories of modern science. These theories have been tested thousands of times, and no exception has been found.

 The atomic theory of matter: all matter is made up of atoms.
 The law of conservation of mass and energy: in chemical and physical reactions, mass and energy stay the same, in atomic reactions, mass is changed to energy or energy to mass according to the formula E = mc2.
 The cell theory of living things: all living things are made up of cells.
 The tectonic theory of geology: the surface of the earth is composed of tectonic plates, which move slowly.
 The periodic table of elements: atoms are distinguished by their atomic number and atomic weight, and can be arranged in a table which illustrates their properties.
 The theory of relativity: scientific laws hold in different frames of reference.
 Quantum theory: the smallest amount of energy is a "quantum unit", and all energy comes in multiples of this amount.
 The theory of evolution: It explains how living things changed over a long time, and how they have come to be the way they are.

Related pages
Philosophy of science
Scientific method
Scientific law

Science
Philosophy of science

Scientific theory


A nursery is a place where plants are cultivated and grown to usable size. There are retail nurseries which sell to the general public, wholesale nurseries which sell only to other nurseries and to commercial landscape gardeners, and private nurseries which supply the needs of institutions or private estates.  Some retail and wholesale nurseries sell by mail.

Gardening
Plants

Nursery (horticulture)


A maze is a puzzle. It is made of a complex system of paths. Mazes can be on paper. They can also be big enough to walk through. Labyrinths, which are similar, have one winding path instead of many paths like a maze. Sometimes balls are placed in small mazes which have to be moved to the end through the maze.

Puzzles

Maze


Wilton Álvaro Guerrero (born October 24, 1974) is a Dominican former second baseman in Major League Baseball. He played for the Los Angeles Dodgers (1996–1998), Montreal Expos (1998–2000, 2002), Cincinnati Reds (2001–2002), and Kansas City Royals (2004). He is the older brother of Vladimir Guerrero and cousin of Cristian Guerrero.

According to MLB official records, Wilton Guerrero was born on October 24, 1974. However, this date is believed to be incorrect given the fact that his brother Vladimir was born less than four months later on February 9, 1975. Vladimir's birth date was originally listed as February 9, 1976, but he was revealed to be a year older in 2009. At this time, Wilton no longer played in the Major Leagues, making it likely that nobody noticed or cared about correcting Wilton's birth date.

He was a utility player and played strong defense at any position he played. Although he had the ability to hit for average, he had limited power. A switch hitter, most of his power came while batting right handed. He hit only 3 of his 11 career home runs while batting left handed despite many more career at bats from that side.

Career

Los Angeles Dodgers (1996-1998)
On October 8, 1991, Guerrero was signed out of the Dominican Republic by the Los Angeles Dodgers.

After several seasons in the minor leagues, punctuated by hitting a combined .346 at Double A and Triple-A in 1995, and .344 in Triple-A in 1996, Guerrero was called up to the Dodgers at 21 years old late in the 1996 seasons. He made his major league debut on September 3, 1996, against the New York Mets. He recorded his first hit on Opening Day 1997 (April 1) against the Philadelphia Phillies, with a first inning single off Curt Schilling. His first home run came two weeks later, on April 16, against the Mets' Rick Reed.

However, on June 1, 1997, the Dodgers rookie led off against the St. Louis Cardinals by breaking his bat on a grounder to second. Rather than try to run it out, Guerrero scrambled to pick up the pieces of his shattered bat, making the umpires suspicious. Plate umpire Steve Rippley noticed cork in one of the shattered pieces, and showed it to crew chief and third-base umpire Bruce Froemming, who immediately ejected Guerrero. He was suspended eight games and fined $1,000. Additionally, his tenure in Los Angeles was plagued by numerous mental mistakes that kept him from becoming a regular starter. Despite these issues, however, Guerrero proved a solid contact hitter with an ability to hit for average, posting a .291 average in 1997. However, he did not hit for power, with only 4 home runs, and despite being known as a speedy runner, he only stole 6 bases in 1997 while being caught 5 times.

Montreal Expos (1998-2000)
Guerrero began the 1998 season with the Dodgers, but was traded at the deadline to the Montreal Expos with minor league first baseman Jonny Tucker, outfield prospect Peter Bergeron, and pitching prospect Ted Lilly for outfield prospect Hiram Bocachica, second baseman Mark Grudzielanek, and starting pitcher Carlos Perez. The deal also united Guerrero with his younger brother Vladimir in Montreal.

Despite having fallen out of favor in Los Angeles, Guerrero again became a starting second baseman in Montreal. He played in all 52 of the Expos' final games during 1998, and for the season his combined totals were a .284 batting average, 2 home runs, and 27 RBI. He also stole 8 bases, and was only thrown out twice. On August 15, 1998, he hit his first home run as an Expo in the 8th inning of a game against the Cincinnati Reds. One inning later, his brother homered, making the brothers the 12th pair of siblings to homer in the same game, and only the sixth to do so as teammates.

In 1999, Guerrero hit .292, again with 2 home runs, and 31 RBI in 132 games. He stole 7 bases and was caught 6 times. On October 2, he launched his first grand slam in the second inning of a 13–3 rout of the Phillies. Since Vladimir had homered earlier in the game, it was the second time the brothers had homered in the same game.

During the 2000 season, Guerrero began seeing more time in the outfield due to the emergence of Jose Vidro. His batting average fell to .267, but he once again hit 2 home runs, this time driving in 23 runs. He stole 8 bases and was caught once. His two home runs, the first May 18 against the Arizona Diamondbacks, and the second September 18 against the Florida Marlins, came in games where Vladimir had already homered, the third and fourth times the brothers had both homered in the same game. The four games was a new Major League record at the time, surpassing the three games in which Lloyd and Paul Waner, and Tommie and Hank Aaron had achieved the feat. In 2001, Jeremy and Jason Giambi tied the Guerreros by homering in their fourth game together, and the record has since been surpassed by Melvin Upton Jr. and Justin Upton who both homered in a 5th game together in 2014. The Uptons hold the current record at 6 games.

Later years (2001-2005)
Following the 2000 season, Guerrero elected to sign as a free agent with the Cincinnati Reds. In Cincinnati, Guerrero was used exclusively as a pinch hitter before being sent down to Triple-A Louisville. After being called back up in July, Guerrero steadily boosted his batting average to a career best .338 in 60 games. He added a home run, 8 RBI, and 5 steals (caught twice). He finished the year playing mostly shortstop in the wake of an injury to Barry Larkin.

In 2002, he returned to a pinch hitting and backup role once more with the Reds. After hitting just .244, Guerrero was part of a massive three team deal that landed him back with the Expos alongside his brother Vladimir. In the deal, the Florida Marlins received Juan Encarnación, Graeme Lloyd, Mike Mordecai, Carl Pavano, Justin Wayne, Ryan Snare, minor leaguer Don Levinski, and a player to be named later. The Reds received Ryan Dempster. The Expos received Guerrero, Cliff Floyd, Claudio Vargas, and cash.

Guerrero remained a backup and pinch hitter following the trade, and had his worst offensive season to date, batting only a combined .221 for the season with 5 RBI (no home runs), though he did steal 7 bases (caught only once). The Expos released Guerrero following the 2002 season. A free agent once again, he opted to sign once more with the Reds. Guerrero did not make the Reds out of spring training, however, and spent the entire 2003 season with Triple-A Louisville.

A free agent again for 2004, Guerrero signed with the Kansas City Royals. He spent most of 2004 with the Triple-A Omaha Royals, but did appear in 24 games with the Major League club, mostly as a backup, batting .219 with 1 RBI and a stolen base.

He was signed by the St. Louis Cardinals to a minor league contract in January 2005 with an invitation to spring training, but was let go at the end of spring training. However, the Cardinals signed Guerrero on April 26 to add depth. He started the season with the Memphis Redbirds, the Cardinals' Triple-A affiliate. The Cardinals traded his contract to the Chicago White Sox in June, but after two more months with the White Sox' top affiliate, the Charlotte Knights, he was released in August. He then played several years in the Dominican Republic.

As of the 2009 season, Guerrero was serving as an international scout in the Dominican Republic for the Dodgers.

Playing style
Guerrero as a hitter was known as a slap-hitter who frequently choked up on the bat to try and hit singles rather than try to hit home runs. He was also a free swinger, never walking more than 19 times in a single season. This contributed to a low on-base percentage throughout his career. However, because he did hit for a high batting average, Guerrero was valuable as a pinch hitter since he could come through in a clutch situation with a necessary hit. A switch hitter, Guerrero hit most of his home runs batting right-handed (8 of 11), however, throughout his MLB career, he hit for a higher batting average while batting left-handed (.286 vs .273 right-handed).

Guerrero's utility also made him valuable in that he could play multiple positions. Despite being primarily a second baseman throughout his career, Guerrero was used at times as a left fielder, center fielder, right fielder, third baseman, shortstop, and first baseman. The only positions he never played at the Major League level were catcher and pitcher.

Personal life
Guerrero is the older brother of Vladimir Guerrero and uncle of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. His cousin, Gabriel Guerrero, is also a baseball player. Guerrero is very religious and attends church every morning.

See also

 List of Major League Baseball players from the Dominican Republic

References

External links

1974 births
Albuquerque Dukes players
Charlotte Knights players
Cincinnati Reds players
Dominican Republic expatriate baseball players in Canada
Dominican Republic expatriate baseball players in the United States
Great Falls Dodgers players
Kansas City Royals players

Living people
Los Angeles Dodgers players
Louisville Bats players
Louisville RiverBats players
Major League Baseball infielders
Major League Baseball outfielders
Major League Baseball players from the Dominican Republic
Major League Baseball second basemen
Memphis Redbirds players
Montreal Expos players
Omaha Royals players
San Antonio Missions players
Vero Beach Dodgers players

Wilton Guerrero


Neoptera is a classification group that has almost all the winged insects, mostly those that can flex their wings over their abdomens. This is in contrast with the more basal orders of winged insects, which are not able to flex their wings in this way.

The Neoptera can be contrasted with the Palaeoptera, the 'ancient-winged' insects, which include the Odonata, the Ephemeroptera and extinct groups such as the Palaeodictyoptera.

Insects

Neoptera


Mario Joseph Conti (20 March 1934 – 8 November 2022) was a Scottish Catholic prelate who served as the Archbishop of the Metropolitan see of Glasgow, Scotland between 2002 and his retirement in 2012. Ordained to the priesthood in 1958, Conti spent most of his life in the service of the Church, being consecrated Bishop of Aberdeen in 1977 where he served until his appointment to Glasgow.

Conti died in November 2022 after what was reported as a 'short illness' in the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow.

Life
Mario Joseph Conti was born on 20 March 1934, in Elgin, Moray, son of Louis Joseph Conti and Josephine Quintilia Conti (née Panicali). He studied for the priesthood at The Scots College, Rome and was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Aberdeen in the Church of San Marcello al Corso, by Archbishop Luigi Traglia on 26 October 1958.

After a period as Assistant Priest at St Mary's Cathedral in Aberdeen, Fr. Conti served as parish priest of the most northerly Roman Catholic parish in the British mainland, St Joachim's and St Anne's (Wick and Thurso respectively) in Caithness from 1962 to 1977. He was appointed bishop of Aberdeen on 28 February 1977, succeeding Michael Foylan. He was consecrated to that post by Cardinal Gordon Gray on 3 May 1977. He was awarded the degree of Doctor of Divinity honoris causa by the University of Aberdeen in 1989, being the first Catholic priest to be so honoured since the Reformation.

As bishop of Aberdeen he rejected claims that the Church sought to protect the interests of nuns and priests above those of children who said they had been abused. It followed the conviction of Sister Marie Docherty on four charges of cruelty towards girls at Nazareth House children's homes in Aberdeen and Midlothian in the 1960s and 1970s. The Liberal Democrats MP for Gordon, Malcolm Bruce, called on the church to apologise to Sister Marie's victims, but Conti resisted any public apology.

Bishop Conti was translated to the archdiocese of Glasgow on 15 January 2002, succeeding Thomas Winning. He took possession of the archdiocese on 22 February 2002.
Pope John Paul II bestowed the Pallium on Archbishop Conti on 29 June 2004, the Feast of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. Archbishop Conti was a member of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

Conti was succeeded as Metropolitan Archbishop of Glasgow in September 2012, with the installation of Archbishop Philip Tartaglia, who was previously the Bishop of Paisley.

Conti died on 8 November 2022, at the age of 88.

Episcopate

Offices and awards
Archbishop Conti was President of the Commission for Christian Doctrine and Unity and also of the Heritage Commission of the Bishops' Conference of Scotland. The Archbishop was a member of the Catholic Bishops' Joint Committee for Bio-Ethics and also of the Central Council of ACTS (Action of Churches Together in Scotland) and was a President of CTBI (Churches Together in Britain and Ireland).

Conti held the following honours:

Commendatore nell'Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana, 1981.

Honorary D.D. (University of Aberdeen), 1989.

Honorary D.D. (University of Glasgow), 2010

Knight Commander of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem and a Knight of the Order of St John of Jerusalem Rhodes and Malta, 1991;

Principal Chaplain to the British Association of the Order of Malta, 1995-2000.

Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh

Honorary Professor of Theology at the University of Aberdeen, 2002

Grande Ufficiale della Stella della Solidarieta' Italiana

Restoration of St Andrew's Cathedral
Following a successful fund raising campaign Archbishop Conti oversaw the major renovation of St Andrew's Metropolitan Cathedral in Glasgow between 2009-2011. The £5m programme was described as the most significant renovation of a Catholic church in Scotland since the reformation. The dramatic transformation was widely acclaimed and the opening was attended by Scotland's First Minister and representatives of other Christian denominations. The Cathedral now boasts new flooring, new heating and sound systems, new seating, new altar and ambo (designed by the Archbishop himself) and an iconic painting of St John Ogilvie by acclaimed Scottish painter Peter Howson. To the east of the Cathedral, thanks to a fund raising campaign among the Scots Italian community an Italian Cloister Garden has been created with a dramatic modern monument to recall the Arandora Star disaster in 1940.

Accusations against the BBC
In 2004, he accused the BBC of "rudeness and prejudice" in its coverage of the Catholic Church and of "gross insensitivity" at the time of Pope John Paul II's silver jubilee. He said that the 25th anniversary of the pontificate of Pope John Paul II and the beatification of Mother Teresa had been marked with a documentary entitled Sex and the Holy City, which looked at the effectiveness of condoms in the fight against AIDS. He also questioned the plans to broadcast a cartoon called Popetown, which satirised the Pope as a childish pensioner and he accused Newsnight Scotland of conducting a "sneering and aggressive" interview on the church's position on shared campus schools. The National Secular Society described the claims as "grossly anti-democratic and dangerous". A spokesperson for the BBC said: "We are always keen to ensure that all faiths are reflected across our output and are reported accurately."

Human cloning
In 2003, Conti publicly accused the UK Government of paving the way for human cloning. He claimed the first step on the "nightmarish journey" had been the acceptance of test tube babies or invitro fertilisation (IVF) in 1978.

Gay rights
Archbishop Conti has been a vociferous opponent of extensions to gay rights. In 2000, he signed a public letter alongside Cardinal Winning which called for the retention of Section 28 of the Local Government Act despite efforts by the government to repeal. The letter argued that it was important to prevent the funding and promotion of educational material overtly promoting homosexual practice in schools.

In 2006 Conti publicly voiced his views on the case of nine Scottish firefighters who had been disciplined for refusing to take part in a gay pride event, saying it was wrong to expect them to participate. Not because homosexual people should not be given fire safety advice, but because the men felt uncomfortable about the 'kiss-a-fireman' campaign allegedly planned for the event.

Also in 2006, Conti called on MSPs to reject the Civil Partnerships (Scotland) Bill, which would provide unmarried couples in "committed" relationships with equality in areas like inheritance, pensions and bereavement saying, "It is not homophobia and we have no gripe against homosexuals per se but we believe that the homosexual relationship is subversive." He later criticised government proposals to permit the adoption of children by gay couples.

Later that same year he preached a sermon which put forward the view that the moral teaching of the Church was being undermined.  In part of the sermon, he criticized the UK's civil partnerships legislation which had recently been introduced. He also mentioned the Catholic Church's traditional teaching, stating that homosexual acts cannot be considered equivalent to marital love between a man and a woman.  After Patrick Harvie (a Green MSP and advocate of LGBT equality) heard about the Archbishop's sermon, he wrote to the Chief Constable of Strathclyde Police asking for the Force to give clarity regarding the criteria for using breach of the peace charges in relation to comments which might be seen to incite hatred on grounds of sexual orientation.

In October 2010, he sent a public letter to all Scottish parishes urging Catholic parishioners to oppose Government plans to give gay couples the right to marry. He warned that the move would create "larger divisions" in society. This prompted the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie to suggest that the Catholic Church was trying to control opinion.

Lockerbie bomber
In 2009, Conti was vocal in supporting the release by the Scottish government of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, who had been imprisoned for his part in the Lockerbie bombing. Conti argued that, "I personally, and many others in the Catholic community, admired the decision to release Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi on grounds of compassion which is, after all, one of the principles inscribed on the mace of the Scottish Parliament by which Scotland's government should operate."

Sexual health
In 2004, Conti criticised Scottish Executive proposals to tackle sexual health problems among young people. He argued that the draft strategy placed too much emphasis on medical treatment and not enough on spiritual or social worries. Concern over homosexuality being perceived as equal to heterosexual relationships and the absence of references to marriage in the report were also highlighted by the archbishop.

Summorum Pontificum
In 2007 he issued directives on the application of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum in his diocese. This clarified arrangements for priests who wished to freely celebrate in Glasgow the Mass according to the 1962 Roman Missal (the Tridentine Mass). Father John Zuhlsdorf said they were directly disobedient to Benedict XVI's motu proprio, which allowed complete freedom for celebrating this form of Mass without a congregation but demanded certain conditions for its celebration with a congregation.

Support for asylum seekers
In 2012 he launched an outspoken defence of asylum seekers facing destitution. The Archbishop wrote an article urging action to defend the asylum seekers at risk (Sunday Herald 10 June 2012) and backed a public demonstration to protest at the asylum seekers' eviction: "It seems utterly inconceivable that a country with such strong traditions of welfare provision, fairness and social cohesion could allow innocent persons to be evicted, banned from working, left without food and shelter, and effectively eliminated from society. But that is exactly what is likely to happen – unless something is done."

References

External links
 Biographical link
 Sectarianism 'caused by poverty' says archbishop

1934 births
2022 deaths
20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Scotland
21st-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Scotland
People from Elgin, Moray
Scottish people of Italian descent
Bishops of Aberdeen
Roman Catholic archbishops of Glasgow
Knights of Malta
Knights of the Holy Sepulchre
Scottish Roman Catholic bishops

Mario Conti


A belt is a piece of clothing worn around a person's waist. They can be used to hold up trousers(pants, men) or skirts(women) or for carrying things in pockets, such as on a utility belt, which police use. Belts are commonly made using cloth or leather. They are worn by men and women, however men wear them more casually and formally. The most common colors are black and brown. Belts have buckles. Belts are thread around belt loops on trousers(usually Jeans and dress pants for men). Belts have holes which the buckle is put into., making them looser to tighter. Cowboys often wear belt and customize/pick their buckles.

Other websites

Accessories

Belt


The Chicago Cubs are a professional baseball team based in Chicago, Illinois. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB). The Cubs became World Series Champions in 2016, ending a 108-year drought.

History

The Cubs were started in 1870. They originally wore all-white uniforms and were called the Chicago White Stockings. (The current Chicago White Sox got their nickname from the Cubs' original nickname.) By the 1890s the team was called the "Colts". In the early 1900s, the nicknames "Colts" and "Cubs" were both used. The name "Cubs" became official in 1906.

The team was very successful in its early years. They won the first National League championship in 1876. They won several pennants in the 1880s and then again in the early 1900s.  After they won their second World Series in 1908, they went into the longest championship drought in the history of North American sports.  They won the World Series in 1907, 1908, and 2016.  They won the pennant, but lost the World Series in 1906, 1910, 1918, 1929, 1932, 1935, 1938, and 1945.

The Wrigley family, founders of the Wrigley Gum Company, owned the team from about 1920 to about 1980. The Chicago Tribune bought the team and operated them for close to 30 years. They were sold to the Ricketts family in 2009.

Stadium

When playing home games in Chicago, the Cubs play at Wrigley Field. The stadium was built in 1914 and has been the home playing field of the Cubs since 1916.

During games, the stadium is filled with Cubs fans, who are known for always cheering for their team, even if they are not winning. Even when the Cubs held the record for the longest championship dry spell in all of American professional sports (until they won the World Series in 2016), their fans remain loyal to them.

The Billy Goat Curse
The name "Billy Goat " comes from a bar known as the Billy Goat Tavern, located on lower Wacker drive in downtown Chicago. By the time the story of this "curse" started to get out, all the main characters were conveniently dead.
The story is:
During the 1945 World Series, a man by the name of Vasili "Billy Goat" Sianis attended Game 4 of the series with his pet goat. During the 7th inning of the game, the Stadium's security guards asked Sianis to leave the stadium because his goat was bothering other fans. Sianis became angry and cursed the Cubs, saying that they would never win or even play in a World Series as long as they played at Wrigley Field. Although the curse is often seen as a joke for most Cubs fans, some fans thought it could be the reason for the Cubs' championship drought between 1908 and 2016.  The drought ended and the "curse" was reversed in 2016 when the team won their third World Series title.

In the 2016 World Series, the Cubs beat the Cleveland Indians.  They fell 3 games to 1 to the Indians, but then, on the brink of elimination, won the next three games, and thereby won the series.  Game 7 went down as a classic.  It was an exciting back-and-forth game, in which the Cubs won in 10 innings to win their first World Series since 1908.  The Cubs became sixth team to win a World Series after trailing 3 games to 1.

References

Other websites

 Sun Times Cubs News
 Chicago Tribune Cubs News

1870 establishments in the United States
1870s establishments in Illinois

Chicago Cubs


S1m0ne is a 2002 American comedy-drama science fiction movie. It was directed by Andrew Niccol and released to movie theaters by Warner Bros. It stars Al Pacino.

Plot
Viktor Taransky (Al Pacino) is working on a movie project. He is running out of money and his star decided not to do it anymore, so his movie is in trouble. A computer programmer named Hank approaches Viktor and tells him that he is able to create a computer-generated character. Hank soon dies of cancer and gives the program to Viktor. Viktor uses the program to insert an actress in place of his original star and the movie is a huge hit. The program, titled "Simulation One," is simplified to "Simone."

Viktor is at first very happy that this is a success, and has her star in more movies. For her voice, he simply speaks into a microphone and the computer makes it a female voice. He conducts interviews. Simone goes on to win an Academy Award and is wildly famous. However, Viktor soon becomes unhappy with Simone and tries to make her unpopular by having her star in a bad movie. However, the people still love Simone and the movie is still a success. Finally, Viktor uses a virus and erases her program from the computer. He then throws a trunk full of CDs into the ocean.

The police come and arrest Viktor and charge her for the murder of Simone. They have a video showing him dragging the trunk into the ocean; they believe that there was a body inside. He tells them that Simone was never real, but they don't believe him. His ex-wife Elaine (Catherine Keener) and his daughter Lainey (Evan Rachel Wood) enter his studio. Lainey ejects the floppy disk, restoring the Simone program, and they create a short movie that shows that Simone is alive and well. The police let him go. Elaine and Lainey convince Viktor that Simone is a symbol now and that they should continue to keep her alive. The last scene shows Viktor and Simone together, with Viktor announcing that Simone and he just had a child.

2002 comedy-drama movies
2002 science fiction movies
American comedy-drama movies
American science fiction movies
English-language movies

S1m0ne


Kattegat is a sea in the northern part of Europe between the Danish peninsula Jutland, the Danish island Zealand, and the western coast of Sweden.

To the north-west is Skagerrak. Kattegat is connected to the Baltic Sea through the Danish Straits and Belts.

The sea is shallow, and life conditions are threatened by loss of oxygen in the water. The oxygen loss is caused by pollution. The pollution originates from farming. A century ago, the sea was very rich in cod, herring, and salmon, which were important sources of food in the countries around the sea.

Seas

Kattegat


Flotation is a process where gas bubbles are injected at the bottom of a tank containing a mixture of a liquid and solid particles to separate the solid particles from the liquid. When the gas bubbles move along the liquid mixture, the solids particles stick to the surface of the bubbles. The bubbles form a foam at the surface of the liquid: this foam contains the solid particles, so after the flotation process the solids can be removed just cleaning the liquid from this foam.

Uses

Flotation is used to separate sulfide ores from the impurities in the ore (gangue). A detergent is added to the mixture and it is stirred. The sulfide minerals float, while the gangue sinks to the bottom and is removed. This is used in making zinc, where zinc sulfide (sphalerite) is a major zinc ore.

Minerals
Chemistry

Flotation


Judah ben Isaac Messer Leon (1166–1224) was a French tosafist born in Paris.

Biography
Born in 1166 in Paris, France, his father Rabbi Isaac Treves was a rabbi in Paris and a paternal descendant of Judah ben Nathan, and thus a descendant of Rashi. In his early years, he learnt under Isaac ben Samuel of Dampierre and his son Elhanan ben Isaac of Dampierre. He married a daughter of Abraham ben Joseph of Orleans, who has been identified by Jacobs with Abraham fil Rabbi Joce, chief Jew in London in 1186. In a list of that year associated with Abraham occurs the name of Leo Blund, whom Jacobs identifies with Judah ben Isaac.

Sir Leon must have left Paris in 1182, when all Jews were expelled from the French king's dominions; he did not return till 1198. According to Gross, however, he received his chief training at Dampierre under Samson of Sens, Samson of Coucy, Solomon of Dreux, and Abraham ben Nathan of Lunel. Shortly after 1198 he returned to Paris and founded an important school of tosafists, in which were trained, among others, Jehiel ben Joseph (Sir Leon's successor), Isaac ben Moses of Vienna (author of Or Zarua), Samuel ben Solomon of Falaise (Sir Morel of Falaise), and Moses of Coucy.

Teachings
He appears to have composed tosafot to most of the tractates of the Talmud, traces being found of his annotations to twenty tractates. The only collection that has been published are his additamenta to Berakot, published at Warsaw in 1863. A long fragment of his tosafot to Abodah Zarah is still extant in a manuscript that formerly belonged to Samuel David Luzzatto and Solomon Joachim Halberstam 'R.E.J.'s session of Jews' College, London. A few of his responsa are also found, chiefly in various additions to the Mordecai, while reference is also found to his commentary on the Pentateuch, in which he appears to have followed the method of Rashbam.

Judah wrote several poems—an Aramaic description of the Ten Commandments, a pizmon, and a piyyut. He is not, however, to be identified with the mystical Yehudah HaChasid, to whom are attributed Sefer Hasidim and an ethical will. The writers whom Judah quotes include Amram Gaon, Sherira Gaon, Hai Gaon, Nissim Gaon, Alfasi, Maimonides, Elijah ben Menahem, Gershom ben Judah, Jacob of Orleans, Jacob of Corbeil, Joseph Kara, Joseph Bekor Shor, Yom-Tov of Joigny, and Rashi.

He died in Paris in 1224.

See also
Tosafists

References

 Its bibliography:
Henri Gross, in Berliner's Magazin, iv.173-210;
idem, Gallia Judaica, pp. 519–524;
Joseph Jacobs, Jews of Angevin England, pp. 406–416.

Rabbis from Paris
1166 births
1224 deaths
12th-century French rabbis
French Tosafists
13th-century French rabbis

Judah ben Isaac Messer Leon


Eudimorphodon is a recently discovered pterosaur, and comes from shale laid down Upper Triassic rocks in Italy.

A nearly complete skeleton was found in 1973. This showed it was a member of the long-tailed sub-order of pterosaurs, the Rhamphorhynchoidea. Eudimorphodon was small in size, with 110 teeth packed into a jaw only 6 cms long. Teeth at the front are fangs, further back the teeth are small and multipointed, many with five cusps. This is unique among pterosaurs, whose teeth are usually of a simple conical form.

Stomach contents showed it had eaten a small fish, Parapholidophorus. The top and bottom teeth of Eudimorphodon came into direct contact with each other when the jaws were closed, especially at the back of the jaw. The teeth were multi-cusped, and tooth wear shows that Eudimorphodon was able to crush or chew its food to some degree. Wear along the sides of these teeth suggests that Eudimorphodon also fed on hard-shelled invertebrates.

Juvenile Eudimorphodon had somewhat different and fewer teeth, and may have eaten insects.

An unsolved puzzle is the flexibility of the tail, which lacks the very long stiffening vertebral extensions other long-tailed pterosaurs have. This flexibility is a basal trait; its functional significance in this genus is unknown. However, it is known that the stiffened tail of Rhamphorhynchus-like pterosaurs is a device which adds stability to their flight. Without this stability, the animal would be more manoeuvrable, but their flight would need more control by the brain.

References

Pterosaurs

Eudimorphodon


The GD Graphics Library is a graphics software library for dynamically manipulating images. It can create GIFs, JPEGs, PNGs, and WBMPs. The images can be composed of lines, arcs, text (using program-selected fonts), other images, and multiple colors, supporting truecolor images, alpha channels, resampling, and many other features.

Its native programming language is ANSI C, but it has interfaces for many other programming languages. GD supports numerous programming languages including C, PHP, Perl, Python, OCaml, Tcl, Lua, Pascal, GNU Octave, Rexx, Ruby and Go. In addition, the "Fly" command line interpreter allows for image creation ("on the fly") using GD. GD scripts can thus be written in potentially any language and run using this tool.

GD is extensively used with PHP, where a modified version supporting additional features is included by default as of PHP 4.3 and was an option before that. As of PHP 5.3, a system version of GD may be used as well, to get the additional features that were previously available only to the bundled version of GD.

History
The software was developed in 1994 by Thomas Boutell and others.

GD originally stood for "GIF Draw". However, since the revoking of the Unisys license, it has informally stood for "Graphics Draw".

Support for drawing GIFs was dropped in 1999 when Unisys revoked the royalty-free license granted to non-commercial software projects for the LZW compression method used by GIFs. When the Unisys patent expired worldwide on July 7, 2004, GIF support was subsequently re-enabled.

Version 2.0 added support for truecolor images, alpha channels, resampling (for smooth resizing of truecolor images), and many other features.

Example
The following is an example which outputs a 3D looking pie chart (from the PHP GD documentation on the imagefilledarc() function).

<?php
    // Create an image
    $image = imagecreatetruecolor(100, 100);

    // Allocate some colors
    $white    = imagecolorallocate($image, 0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF);
    $gray     = imagecolorallocate($image, 0xC0, 0xC0, 0xC0);
    $darkgray = imagecolorallocate($image, 0x90, 0x90, 0x90);
    $navy     = imagecolorallocate($image, 0x00, 0x00, 0x80);
    $darknavy = imagecolorallocate($image, 0x00, 0x00, 0x50);
    $red      = imagecolorallocate($image, 0xFF, 0x00, 0x00);
    $darkred  = imagecolorallocate($image, 0x90, 0x00, 0x00);

    // Make the 3D effect
    for ($i = 60; $i > 50; $i--) {
        imagefilledarc($image, 50, $i, 100, 50, 0,   45, $darknavy, IMG_ARC_PIE);
        imagefilledarc($image, 50, $i, 100, 50, 45,  75, $darkgray, IMG_ARC_PIE);
        imagefilledarc($image, 50, $i, 100, 50, 75, 360, $darkred,  IMG_ARC_PIE);
    }

    imagefilledarc($image, 50, 50, 100, 50,  0,  45, $navy, IMG_ARC_PIE);
    imagefilledarc($image, 50, 50, 100, 50, 45,  75, $gray, IMG_ARC_PIE);
    imagefilledarc($image, 50, 50, 100, 50, 75, 360, $red,  IMG_ARC_PIE);

    // Flush the image
    header('Content-type: image/png');
    imagepng($image);
    imagedestroy($image);
?>

See also
 GDAL - for geospatial images
 GraphicsMagick
 ImageMagick
 Netpbm
 Python Imaging Library

References

External links

 Image Functions (PHP), support in PHP

Free software programmed in C
Graphics libraries
Software using the BSD license

GD Graphics Library


The Global Alliance for Information and Communication Technologies and Development (also known as Global Alliance for ICT and Development or GAID) is a subgroup or continuation of the United Nations Information and Communication Technologies Task Force. GAID was launched by the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan in 2006, at the end of his tenure.

Mission
According to the United Nations press release, the organization's mission is to facilitate and promote integration by providing a platform for an open, inclusive, multi-stakeholder cross-sectoral policy dialogue on the role of information and communication technology in development. The Alliance organizes events which address core issues related to the role of information and communication technology in economic development, especially of impoverished or disadvantaged segments of society.

Structure
The Alliance makes extensive use of web-based collaborative technologies, thus minimizing the need for physical meetings. Members include both governments and members of the private and commercial sectors.  Its inaugural meeting was held on June 19, 2006 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

It is led by an 11-person steering committee, with Intel Corporation's Craig Barrett as its initial chairperson, followed by Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, a prominent businessman in the Arab world.  A 60-person Strategy Council is composed of 30 governments, plus 30 representatives from the private sector, civil society and international
organizations.

Communities of Expertise
Communities of Expertise (CoEs) are networks convened by GAID to bring together motivated and capable actors to address specific, well-defined ICTD problems in a results-oriented manner and to identify and disseminate good practices. These CoEs include:

Education, Entrepreneurship, Governance, Health

Cross cutting themes include gender, rural development and connectivity.

In October 2006, under the CoE of Governance, the ICT4Peace Foundation was invited to a partnership with the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) and GAID as the focal point for overseeing and promoting the spirit of Paragraph 36 of the WSIS Tunis Declaration. Paragraph 36 flags the potential for the use of ICTs to promote peace and to prevent conflict which, inter alia, negatively affects achieving development goals. On 13 January 2010 the ICT4Peace Foundation created the ICT4Peace Foundation wiki on Haiti Earthquake.

Notes

Organizations established in 2006
Internet governance organizations
International Telecommunication Union
Information and communication technologies for development
Organizations established by the United Nations


Supervillains, sometimes called supercriminals, are fictional characters generally appearing in comic books and in superhero movies as antagonists of superheroes. A Supervillain normally has powers that make him or her a threat that only a superhero can stop.  A lot of Supervillains are enemies of specific superheroes. For example, the Supervillain Lex Luthor is an enemy of Superman, The Joker is an enemy of Batman, and the Green Goblin is an enemy of Spider-Man.

Comics characters

Supervillain


An omen is a sign that is thought to foretell the future, often signifying the advent of change. The word can mean something either "good" or "bad" is about to happen. The origin of the word is unknown, although it may be connected with the Latin word audire, meaning "to hear". An example from the past, babies born with birth defects were believed to be a bad or evil omen.

Related pages
 Luck
 Superstition

Divination

Omen


Mission San Francisco de la Espada (also Mission Espada) is a Roman Rite Catholic mission established in 1690 by Spain and relocated in 1731 to present-day San Antonio, Texas, in what was then known as northern New Spain. The mission was built in order to convert local Native Americans to Christianity and solidify Spanish territorial claims in the New World against encroachment from France. Today, the structure is one of four missions that comprise San Antonio Missions National Historical Park.

History
Founded in 1690 as San Francisco de los Tejas near Weches, Texas and southwest of present-day Alto, Texas, Mission San Francisco de la Espada was the second mission established in Texas.

Three priests, three soldiers and supplies were left among the Nabedache Indians. The new mission was dedicated on June 1, 1690. A smallpox epidemic in the winter of 1690-1691 killed an estimated 3,300 people in the area. The Nabedache believed the Spaniards brought the disease and hostilities developed between the two groups.

Drought besieged the mission in the summers of 1691 and 1692, and the Nabedache wished to get rid of the mission. Under threat of personal attack, the priests began packing their belongings in the fall of 1693. On October 25, 1693, the padres burned the mission and retreated toward Monclova. The party lost its way and did not reach Monclova until February 17, 1694.

The mission was re-established in the same area on July 5, 1716 by the Domingo Ramón-St. Denis expedition. It was named as Nuestro Padre San Francisco de los Tejas. The new mission had to be abandoned in 1719 because of conflict between Spain and France.

The mission was tried once more on August 5, 1721 as San Francisco de los Neches. As the Nabedache were no longer interested in the mission, and France had abandoned effort to lay claim in the area, the mission was temporarily relocated along the Colorado River in July 1730. Mission Tejas State Park encompasses the original site of the mission.

The mission relocated to its current location in the San Antonio River area (coordinates 29.3177°, -98.4498°) in March, 1731 and was renamed San Francisco De la Espada. A friary was built in 1745, and the church was completed in 1756.  The relocation was in part inspired by fears of French encroachment and need for more Missionaries to tend to San Antonio de Bexar's Indian population.  The Mission encountered great difficulties in presiding over the Indian population and experienced common rebellious activity.

Several modern churches have been architecturally based on the design of this mission including St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Wimberley, Texas, north of San Antonio.

Rancho de las Cabras
Rancho de las Cabras was established between 1750 and 1760,  southeast of San Antonio de Bexar under the jurisdiction of Mission Espada, so as to provide land for cultivation of crops and livestock for the Mission's population without intruding on private lands. The ranch was primarily made up by low fences and thatched buildings known as jacales for the native workforce to inhabit. According to ethno-historian T.N. Campbell, the ranch was likely constructed by Indians not native to Texas. It is listed separately as part of the World Heritage Site.

Espada Acequia

Mission San Francisco de la Espada's acequia and aqueduct can still be seen today. The main ditch continues to carry water to the mission and its former farm lands. This water is still used by residents living on these neighboring lands.

The use of acequias was originally brought to the arid regions of Spain and Portugal by the Romans and the Moors. When Franciscan missionaries arrived in the desert Southwest they found the system worked well in the hot, dry environment.

In order to distribute water to the missions along the San Antonio River, Franciscan missionaries oversaw the construction of seven gravity-flow ditches, dams, and at least one aqueduct – a  network that irrigated approximately  of land.

Gallery

See also
Mission Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción de Acuña
Mission San José y San Miguel de Aguayo
Mission San Juan Capistrano
Spanish missions in Texas

References

"Mission San Francisco de la Espada". National Park Service. Retrieved July 12, 2005.
"Interpretive Guide to Mission Tejas State Park". Texas Parks and Wildlife. 2006.

San Francisco de la Espada
San Antonio Missions National Historical Park
Churches completed in the 1690s
National Register of Historic Places in San Antonio
Properties of religious function on the National Register of Historic Places in Texas
San Antonio Missions (World Heritage Site)
1690 establishments in New Spain
1690 establishments in Texas
17th-century architecture in Mexico
Spanish Colonial architecture in Texas

Mission San Francisco de la Espada


Chewing, or mastication, is the first part of the digestive system. It is when the teeth chew the food and the tongue mixes it with saliva to make it mushy in the mouth. A group of animals, called the ruminants, masticate more than once. Most cattle are in this group.

Digestive system

Chewing


The Church of Christ, informally referred to as the Fettingites, is a denomination within the Latter Day Saint movement which split from the Church of Christ—informally known as "Hedrickites"— in late 1929. The faction was formally established on April 8, 1930, and an Associated Press report published in The New York Times and Los Angeles Times April 7, 1930, describes it as having been briefly named "The Church of Jesus Christ" and later, the "Church of Christ".  It is informally referred to as the "Church of Christ (Fettingite)", after its founder, Otto Fetting, but this sect has never officially been named as such. Otto Fetting, an Apostle in the Church of Christ, was the alleged recipient of a series of messages delivered by John the Baptist concerning construction of a temple on the Temple Lot, along with other aspects of Hedrickite doctrine and practice. The rejection of his "Twelfth Message" by a majority vote of his fellow Apostles in October 1929 led to a split in the Temple Lot organization between those who rejected Fetting's messages and those who accepted them.  The "Fettingites" subsequently established their own church organization.

While Fettingite doctrine and practices are virtually identical to those of the Church of Christ, a significant difference exists today in the acceptance of the messages' authenticity between Hedrickites and Fettingites. The Hedrickite leadership voted at their April, 1936 conference to formally reject Otto Fetting's claim of having heard from John the Baptist, but some laity in the Hedrickite sect have informally expressed interest or belief in his claims, to where about a half-dozen Hedrickites today believe Fetting received some or all of the revelations he claimed. After its founder's death in 1933, the Fettingite sect further divided into various factions, including The Church of Christ (Restored), the Church of Christ at Halley's Bluff, and the Church of Christ with the Elijah Message.  As with the Church of Christ, each of these groups declares itself to be the "only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth."

Otto Fetting

Entry into the Temple Lot church

Otto Fetting was born on 20 November 1871 in Casco, St. Clair County, Michigan.  Making his home in Port Huron, Michigan, he was baptised into the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on February 9, 1891, and ordained a High Priest on February 15, 1899. In 1925, disgruntled by the Supreme Directional Control controversy within the RLDS church, Fetting switched his allegiance to the Temple Lot organization.  At the time, this did not require rebaptism or reordination, as each group accepted the priesthood and sacraments of the other.  In the spring of 1926, he was among seven men ordained to be Apostles in the Church of Christ.

Visitation by John the Baptist
On February 4, 1927, Otto Fetting claimed that he had been visited by a so-called "resurrected angel" clothed in 20th-century garb, who delivered a message for him to give to the Temple Lot organization. In a second alleged visitation one month later, the being identified himself as John the Baptist. The "angel"'s messages advised construction of the long-awaited Temple in Independence, Missouri, first foretold by Latter-Day Saint founder Joseph Smith in 1831 and 1832. The Temple Lot church had a long history of direction via revelation and angel visits and so was originally receptive to these alleged visits of the Biblical prophet, publishing Fetting's messages in their monthly periodical Zion's Advocate." They also began work on the temple with a groundbreaking ceremony held on 6 April 1929. According to Fetting, the Hedrickites were given seven years to complete the structure.

Fetting's "visitor" revealed various architectural details for the building and specifically directed surveyors to move their markers ten feet to the east of where they had originally been placed.  The angel also revealed the location of two of Joseph Smith's original marker stones, which Smith had buried 98 years before to indicate the location for his planned temple. He also indicated that the "Articles of Faith and Practice" of the Temple Lot church were correct and should not be changed from their original form. In other occasions, the messenger indicated particular men to be ordained within the organization, including to its Quorum of Twelve Apostles.

The twelfth message
Although the Temple Lot organization had enthusiastically accepted the first eleven of Fetting's messages, this would not hold true for the twelfth.  In verse four of this missive, John the Baptist states that all persons coming into the Church of Christ must be rebaptized, as "the Lord has rejected all creeds and factions of men".  While this reflects the practice of the majority of Latter Day Saint denominations (including the Temple Lot church itself, today), it did not reflect the policy of the Temple Lot church at the time, which accepted members during this period from the Reorganized church, certain other Latter Day Saint organizations, and Joseph Smith's pre-1844 church on their original baptisms.  This message equally declared Fetting to have been given the same "keys to the priesthood" that were given to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery on May 15, 1829.

Controversy over the meaning and application of Fetting's twelfth message became so great that he was "silenced" in October 1929 by the leading quorum of the Temple Lot church.  Fetting was censured for alleged "arrogant" behavior by demanding that the church comply with his twelfth message.  Choosing to withdraw rather than continue under such a restriction, Fetting led approximately half of the Church of Christ members (including some of its apostles) to found an organization of his own, which became known as the Church of Christ (Fettingite).  Since the Temple Lot organization retained possession of the Temple Lot and its meetinghouse, Fetting's organization met in members' homes for a considerable period prior to building their own worship facilities.

Fetting claimed to have been visited some thirty times by the "messenger" prior to his death on 30 January 1933.

Subsequent history

William A. Draves
Four years after Fetting's death, a young Fettingite Elder named William A. Draves from Nucla, Colorado claimed that the same messenger who had appeared to Fetting had begun to appear to him as well, starting on October 4, 1937.  While initially receptive to these new messages, the leadership of the existing Fettingite faction ultimately rejected all of them, leading to a split in 1943.  Draves' adherents formed the Church of Christ with the Elijah Message, which claims to be the sole legitimate continuance of Fetting's original organization.  Draves himself claimed a total of ninety messages prior to his death on June 28, 1994; these were combined with Fetting's into a book entitled The Word of the Lord Brought to Mankind by an Angel.  The original Fettingite faction continues to publish its own compendium of Fetting's revelations, simply entitled The Word of the Lord, containing only Fetting's thirty messages.  This latter group is colloquially known as the "Thirty-message church."

A.C. DeWolf and the Saturday Sabbath
While the main Fettingite organization in Missouri took some time to completely reject William Draves and his new "messages", branches of this church in Louisiana and Mississippi did not.  Under the leadership of A.C. DeWolf, these Fettingites rejected Draves almost immediately, and formed their own church organization, the Church of Christ (Restored).  This organization remained separated from the main Fettingite group even after the latter decided against Draves.

During the 1950s, some leaders of the Fettingite church began to advocate keeping the Saturday Sabbath in lieu of Sunday.  In 1956, the Fettingite Quorum of Twelve, under Apostle S.T. Bronson, formally instituted this change.  The Church of Christ (Restored) refused to sanction this change, and claims that the Church of Christ (Fettingite) is in error for introducing it.

Other than disagreeing as to the proper day for worship, the "Bronsonite" and "DeWolf" organizations remain virtually identical in doctrine and practice.  Both of them accept Fetting's ministry and messages, but not Draves'.  Each rejects the other, and considers itself the sole true continuation of Otto Fetting's church.  Draves' organization, on the other hand, rejects both of these groups, accepting their founder's messages and those of Otto Fetting.

The "Bronsonite" faction of the Fettingite church is said to have about 2000 members, while the Church of Christ (Restored) has approximately 450.

Doctrine and practices
Other than their acceptance of Fetting's thirty "messages", the beliefs and practices of the Fettingite organizations are virtually identical to those of their parent church, the Church of Christ.  In common with the Temple Lot church, Fettingites reject the office of President of the Church, being led instead by their Quorum of Twelve Apostles, with all members of that body considered equal.  Also, like their Temple Lot cousins, the Fettingites reject the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price, as well as Joseph Smith's Inspired Version of the Bible, preferring to use only the King James Bible and the Book of Mormon as doctrinal standards.  Baptism for the Dead, eternal marriage, polygamy and the eternal progression doctrine are all rejected.  Fettingites still believe that a temple will be reared on the Temple Lot, but it will not be like any of the LDS or Community of Christ temples currently in use.

In verse 6 of his twelfth "message", Otto Fetting quoted John the Baptist as allegedly saying that Joseph Smith had indeed been a true prophet, but that he "sinned before God" due to "pride, and the love and praise of men".  "Much of his work has been destroyed", wrote Fetting, "but he will be saved as by fire, and will be numbered with the prophets of old".  Accordingly, Fettingites respect Joseph Smith as a prophet, but do not necessarily accept all of his teaching.  In verse 1 of his first "message", Fetting's heavenly envoy commanded that the "Articles of Faith and Practice" of the Temple Lot organization (of which Fetting was then still an apostle) were to remain unchanged, "because the Lord inspired the men that wrote them".

The Fettingite faction currently headquartered in Independence, sometimes referred to as the "Bronsonite" group, is Sabbatarian.  The Church of Christ (Restored), also called the "De Wolf" group, is found mostly in Louisiana and Mississippi and observes Sunday as its day of worship, as does the Elijah Message church.

See also
 Factional breakdown: Followers of Granville Hedrick

References

External links
The Church of Christ, and Their Quest to Build a Temple in Zion, by R. Jean Adams.  Overview of the efforts to build a temple during the '20s and '30s, including Fetting and his messages.
Church of Christ With the Elijah Message.  Although opposed to and by the Fettingite organizations, this website offers online source for Fetting's thirty "messages".  Also offers the "Articles of Faith and Practice", which are identical among the Fettingite and Elijah Message organizations.
Testimonies of Otto Fetting and William A. Draves.  Includes photos of each man.

Churches in Independence, Missouri
Latter Day Saint movement in Missouri
Organizations based in Missouri
Christian organizations established in 1929
Hedrickite denominations in the Latter Day Saint movement
Seventh-day denominations

Church of Christ (Fettingite)