The City and the Stars is a science fiction novel by British writer Arthur C. Clarke, published in 1956. This novel is a complete rewrite of his earlier Against the Fall of Night, Clarke's first novel, which had been published in Startling Stories magazine in 1948 after John W. Campbell, Jr., editor of Astounding Science-Fiction, had rejected it, according to Clarke.

Several years later, Clarke revised his novel extensively and renamed it The City and the Stars. The new version was intended to showcase what he had learned about writing, and about information processing. The major differences are in individual scenes and in the details of his contrasting civilizations of Diaspar and Lys.  Against the Fall of Night remained popular enough to stay in print after The City and the Stars had been published. In introductions to it Clarke has told the anecdote of a psychiatrist and patient who admitted that they had discussed it one day in therapy, without realizing at the time that one had read one novel and one the other.

Synopsis

Setting
The City and the Stars takes place (at least) two and a half billion years from the present—ten rotations of the Galaxy since the apparition of the human species in the novel (one rotation of the Solar System around the galactic center (a galactic year) is equivalent to 220–250 million years)—in the city of Diaspar. By this time, the Earth is so old that the oceans have gone and humanity has all but left. As far as the people of Diaspar know, theirs is the only city remaining on the planet. The city of Diaspar is completely enclosed. Nobody has entered or left the city for as long as anybody can remember, and everybody in Diaspar has an instinctive insular conservatism. The story behind this fear of venturing outside the city tells of a race of ruthless invaders which beat humanity back from the stars to Earth, and then made a deal that humanity may live—if they never leave the planet.

In Diaspar, the entire city is run by the Central Computer. Not only is the city repaired by machines, but the people themselves are created by the machines as well. The computer creates bodies for the people of Diaspar to live in and stores their minds in its memory at the end of their lives. At any time, only a small number of these people are actually living in Diaspar; the rest are retained in the computer's memory banks.

All the people currently living in Diaspar have had past "lives" within Diaspar except one person—Alvin, the main character of this story. He is one of only a very small number of "Uniques", different from everybody else in Diaspar, not only because he has no past lives to remember, but because instead of fearing the outside, he feels compelled to leave. Alvin has just come to the age where he is considered grown up, and is putting all his energies to trying to find a way out. Eventually, a character named Khedron the Jester helps Alvin use the central computer to find a way out of the city of Diaspar. This involves the discovery that in the remote past, Diaspar was linked to other cities by an underground transport system. This system still exists, although its terminal is covered over and sealed, with only a secret entrance left.

Alvin's quest
Once out of Diaspar, Alvin discovers that another human habitation remains on Earth.  In contrast to the technological Diaspar, Lys is a vast green oasis shielded by mountains from the worldwide desert.  Its people are not stored and recreated technologically, but naturally conceive, are born, age, and die.  They have rejected the hyper-advanced technology of Diaspar in favor of an almost agrarian existence, with machines used only for labor-saving purposes.  The people of Lys have instead worked to perfect the arts of the mind; they are telepaths, capable of communicating with each other over great distances and without words.

Alvin continues his quest until he finds out the truth of why the people of Diaspar are so frightened of the external universe and why Lys is so scared of space travel and mechanical things. In Lys, he goes on a trip with a young man named Hilvar, who becomes his friend, and they see a signal light, which they decide to investigate. It leads them to Shalmirane, the remains of the fortress where the Invaders were fought off with unimaginable weapons, and there they encounter an extraterrestrial creature with a strange robot. The creature is the last survivor of a religious cult dating back to the days of the Galactic Empire. The robot was the companion of the founder, the "Master", who came with his followers to Earth at the end of his life. Alvin and Hilvar are unable to understand the content of the religion except that it refers to "Great Ones" who have left, but will someday return. Alvin persuades the creature to lend him the robot, arguing that the Master would want it to see how things were developing in the world. The Master had, however, forbidden the robot to give out any information at all, so Alvin does not learn anything.

Alvin instructs the robot to ignore his entreaties to take him back to Lys, knowing the people of Lys would use their great telepathic powers to induce him to return—the previous 14 Uniques had stayed. They had originally told Alvin he would be free to choose whether to stay or return, but because the people of Lys had their own insular failure, just like Diaspar, this option was no longer available. Back in Diaspar, he seeks the help of the Central Computer, which overcomes the Master's block on the robot by creating the illusion of an apocalyptic return of the Great Ones. This differs from the solution used in the original novel, which was to create a duplicate of the robot without the block.

Discoveries
Alvin learns that the Master's ship is still functional, buried outside Diaspar. He manages to retrieve it, then fetches Hilvar from Lys, and they travel into deep space. They encounter Vanamonde, a being of pure intellect, with whom Hilvar—being telepathic like other Lys people—can communicate and bring him back to Earth. From him the truth of history finally emerges.

The fearsome Invaders, it turns out, were a myth: Shalmirane was actually used to destroy the Moon to prevent it from colliding with the Earth. Diaspar and Lys are the descendants of those humans who deliberately turned away from the universe in rejection of history's greatest scientific project: the creation of a disembodied intellect. The first attempt had created a powerful but insane being, the Mad Mind. The Mad Mind had devastated the galaxy and its civilizations before being imprisoned in a "strange artificial star" called the Black Sun.

Vanamonde is the second, successful experiment of the ancient empire: a being of pure intellect, immensely old, immensely powerful, able to move instantly to any point in space—but entirely childlike and unsophisticated. Vanamonde's ultimate destiny, Hilvar realizes, is to battle the Mad Mind, when it escapes its prison at the end of time.

After this, most of the Galactic Empire had left our galaxy, leaving only a scattered few. This departure from the galaxy, leaving it to Vanamonde, was made because they had been contacted by a "very strange and very great" intelligent, extraterrestrial species, which called them urgently to the other side of the universe.

Alvin's discoveries reunite Diaspar with Lys. He then sends the ship, under the command of the robot, to search for the long-lost people of the Empire. He has no wish to join the search—even if there are human remnants in the Galaxy, they are probably decadent—and he has work to do on Earth. Even the environment, he hopes, can be revived.

Print history
1956, The City and the Stars, Muller, ISBN (NOT AVAILABLE)
1956, The City and the Stars, Harcourt,
1957, The City and the Stars, Corgi,
1968, The City and the Stars, Gollancz,
1976, The City and the Stars, Signet,
1991, The City and the Stars, Spectra,
2001, The City and the Stars, Gollancz,

See also
 The book Beyond the Fall of Night (1990) includes a sequel by Gregory Benford of Against the Fall of Night

References

External links

1956 science fiction novels
1956 British novels
British science fiction novels
Dying Earth (genre)
Space exploration novels
Novels by Arthur C. Clarke
Works originally published in Startling Stories
Religion in science fiction
Novels about virtual reality
Novels about artificial intelligence
Novels about robots
Dystopian novels
Novels about extraterrestrial life
Novels about telepathy
Frederick Muller Ltd books

The City and the Stars


Télévision Par Satellite (; TPS) was a French company that offered subscription television packages via satellite.

It was created in 1996 by Eutelsat and Arte, soon joined by the TF1 Group, the M6 Group, France Télévisions, RTL Group, France Telecom and Suez Environnement. France Télévisions left the company in 2002.

TPS offered various channels, including some owned by themselves:
TPS Star, the general entertainment flagship channel
TPS Foot, a football channel
Multivision, a 7-channel premium PPV service
And several movie channels: TPS Cineclub, TPS CinéComedy, TPS Cinéculte, TPS Cinextrême, TPS Cinéfamily, TPS Cinéstar, TPS Cinétoile and TPS Homecinéma.

In November 2005, it was announced that TPS would merge with its competitor CanalSat, owned by the Canal+ Group.

The two distributors merged their packages on March 21, 2007. Essentially, TPS merged into CanalSat which was then branded as Nouveau CanalSat. All the TPS branded movie channels were merged into the Canal+-owned CinéCinéma package, TPS Star and TPS Foot would be the only channels that still used the TPS brand. Some new channels launched on both platforms. Eventually, the TPS service from the Hot Bird satellites will close down and the former TPS customers will have to change their equipment to receive the CanalSat service from the Astra satellites instead.

External links
official SES website
SES fleet information and map

Direct broadcast satellite services
Television in France
1996 establishments in France
2007 disestablishments in France
2007 mergers and acquisitions

nl:TPS

Télévision Par Satellite


There are many different breeds of ponies. A baby horse or pony is called a foal. These horses are raised around farms like other horses. Ponies are usually more chubby than horses and ponies have shorter legs. Miniature horses are not ponies but are actually mini horses because they have the features of a horse (i.e. longer legs and they are not as chubby as ponies). Shetland ponies are around the same height as miniature horse maybe a bit bigger a times but they ARE ponies not miniature horses.

Pony is also a Ginuwine song that was released in 1996.

Pony breeds
These are some well-known pony breeds:
 Connemara Pony
 Chincoteague Pony
 New Forest Pony
 Pony of the Americas
 Welsh Pony
 Shetland Ponies
 Dartmoor Pony

Horses
Animals used for transport

Pony


Capuchin monkeys are a subfamily  of New World monkeys, the Cebinae. They are native to Central and South America. There are only two genera: Cebus and Sepajus. Cebus has the gracile capuchins, and Sepajus has the robust capuchins.

Capuchin monkeys are active during the day and generally live and travel through trees.

Habitat and lifespan
Capuchin monkeys live in Central America and South America.  They make their home in trees, traveling during the day and sleeping in the trees at night.

Capuchins live in groups of 10 to 40 members. These groups consist of related females and their offspring, as well as several males. Usually groups are dominated by a single male.  The Capuchins in a group will groom each other and vocalize to communicate.  The Capuchin group will be protective of its territory, marking a central area of their territory with urine and defending it against intruders.

Females bear young every two years following a 160 to 180 day gestation. The young cling to their mother's chest until they are larger, when they move to her back a Capuchin Monkey takes 18 - 24 months to grow into an adult. Adult male capuchins rarely take part in caring for the young. Within four years for females and eight years for males, juveniles become fully mature. In captivity, individual capuchins have reached an age of 45 years, although life expectancy in nature is only 15 to 25 years.

Intelligence
Capuchins are the most intelligent New World monkeys. The tufted capuchin uses tools in a similar way to chimpanzees. It is one of the few examples of primate tool use other than by apes.

When they see macaws eating palm nuts, cracking them open with their beaks, capuchins select a  few of the ripest fruits. They nip off the tip of the fruit and drink down the juice, then seemingly discard the rest of the fruit with the nut inside. When these discarded fruits are hardened and brittle, the capuchins gather them up. Then they take them to a large flat boulder where they already have a few stones from a river. They use these stones to crack open the fruit to get to the nut inside. Young capuchins watch this process to learn from the more experienced adults. It may take a capuchin up to eight years to master this skill.

During the mosquito season, they crush millipedes and rub the result on their backs. This acts as a natural insect repellent.

One experiment suggest they can distinguish between seeing and knowing, but this is not entirely accepted.

Relationship with humans

Capuchin monkeys can be recognized as the "organ grinder" or "greyhound jockey" monkeys.  Capuchins are sometimes kept as exotic pets.  Sometimes they plunder fields and crops and are seen as troublesome by nearby human populations. In some regions they have become rare due to the destruction of their habitat.

They are also used as service animals, sometimes being called "nature's butlers."  Some organizations have been training capuchin monkeys to assist quadriplegics as monkey helpers in a manner similar to mobility assistance dogs. After being socialized in a human home as infants, the monkeys undergo extensive training before being placed with a quadriplegic. Around the house, the monkeys help out by doing tasks including microwaving food, washing the quadriplegic's face, and opening drink bottles.

Capuchin monkeys are the most common featured monkeys in the movies Outbreak, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (and its sequels), Zookeeper, George of the Jungle, and The Hangover Part II. Ross Geller (David Schwimmer) on the NBC sitcom Friends had a capuchin monkey named Marcel.  Crystal the Monkey is the famous monkey actress.

Food
The diet of the capuchins is more varied than other 'New World' monkeys such as spider monkeys. They are omnivores, eating not only fruits, nuts, seeds, and buds, but also insects, spiders, birds' eggs, and small vertebrates. Capuchins living near water will also eat crabs and shellfish by cracking their shells with stones.

Physical description
Capuchins are darkly black or brown except for the face, throat and chest, that are white coloured. They reach a length of 30 to 56 cm (12–22 in), with tails that are just as long as the body.

Behaviour
Capuchin monkeys have long naps during the day. Also they socialize in small groups up to 10 to 40 members.

Related pages
Monkey

References

New World monkeys
Mammals of North America
Mammals of South America

Capuchin monkey


Bernard Rubin (6 December 1896 – 27 June 1936) was an Australian born racing driver and pilot who was a member of the "Bentley Boys" team at the Bentley Motor Company and winner of the 1928 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Personal life
The son of Australian pearl salesman Mark Rubin (1867 – 1919), Bernard was born in the Melbourne suburb of Carlton, before he eventually moved to London with his family in 1908. His mother was the former Rebecca de Vahl Davis, who came from a notable Jewish Melbourne family. He had a brother, well-known grazier, art collector and philanthropist Harold de Vahl Rubin (1899–1964). His uncle, wealthy entrepreneur Abraham de Vahl Davis (1864 – 1912), went down with the steamship SS Koombana after having purchased the legendary – and presumably cursed – Roseate Pearl on behalf of Bernard's father, the Broome Pearler Mark Rubin. On 29 March 1935, in Paris, Rubin married Audrey Mary Simpson, daughter of Charles Ringham Simpson.

Rubin served in the Royal Garrison Artillery in World War I where he was badly injured and required three years of treatment before he could walk again. Following his father's death in 1919, Rubin began purchasing properties in Australia's Northern Territory, before his interest in auto racing developed in 1928.

Motorsports
Rubin became close friends with Woolf Barnato, the director of Bentley Motors, and even lived together for some time. Rubin made his driving debut at Brooklands in 1928 where he finished in sixth place before he made his first appearance at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Rubin and Barnato won the event in a Bentley 4½ Litre, despite the car being damaged during the race. He remained at Bentley for Le Mans in , but his car failed after only seven laps.

Rubin was the first Australian to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans. As at 2017, four Australians have won Le Mans: Rubin (1928), Vern Schuppan (1983), Geoff Brabham (1993) and David Brabham (2009).

In July 1929 he came eighth in the Irish Grand Prix. In August 1929 Rubin was injured when his Bentley overturned during the RAC Tourist Trophy on the first lap.  With his injuries, Rubin turned to team ownership, and helped fund fellow "Bentley Boy" Henry Birkin's racing efforts. In 1933 they shared the wheel of an MG K3 in the famed Mille Miglia race and won their class before Birkin raced Rubin's Alfa Romeo with George Eyston and Whitney Straight. Birkin later drove Rubin's Maserati 3000 in the Tripoli Grand Prix in May 1933 during which, while reaching over for a cigarette during a pit stop, he burnt his forearm on the exhaust and died five weeks later.

In April 1934 Rubin flew to Australia in a Leopard Moth with test-pilot K.F.H. Waller to get familiar with the route and arrangements for the Centenary Air Race from Mildenhall to Melbourne in October same year. Their return flight of 8 days, 12 hours was not officially timed but was ten hours faster than Jim Mollison's World Record.  He entered his Bentley-green de Havilland Comet in the air race but was unable to compete due to severe illness. Waller and former Royal Navy pilot Owen Cathcart-Jones finished fourth in the green Comet and, returning to England, set a round-trip record of 130 flying hours. They also set a new record Darwin-London of 130 hours total and for this earned a Royal Aero Club silver medal.

Bernard Rubin died in England of pulmonary tuberculosis in 1936. His body was taken back to Australia, where he is buried in Fawkner Crematorium and Memorial Park, Melbourne.

Career results

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

References

Bentley Boys
Brooklands people
24 Hours of Le Mans drivers
24 Hours of Le Mans winning drivers
British Army personnel of World War I
Royal Garrison Artillery officers
20th-century deaths from tuberculosis
Australian Jews
Racing drivers from Melbourne
1936 deaths
1896 births
Australian emigrants to England
Racing drivers from London
English Jews
English racing drivers
Australian aviators
English aviators
Grand Prix drivers
Tuberculosis deaths in England
Racing drivers from Victoria (state)

Bernard Rubin


Ned is a derogatory term applee'd tae certaint yung fowk in Scotland  (seemilar tae the terms chav, scanger uised in the Republic o Ireland, an spide/smick in Northren Ireland). The stereoteipical view o a ned is a white adolescent male, o warkin cless backgrund, that weirs fauss Burberry, that taks pairt in hooliganism, petty creiminality, scurrivaigin, unnerage drinkin an smokin or general anti-social behaviour.  Thay is aften assumed tae be unemployed.

Etymology
The oreigin o the term isna clear. Accordin tae Rosie Kane, umwhile MSP for the Scots Socialist Pairty ned is an acronym derived frae the phrase "non-eddicated delinquent", awtho for suith this derivation is a backronym. In addition, "uneddicated" is the ordinar term.  It micht be that it comes frae an abbreviation o the nou auld farrant phrase "ne'er-dae-weil."

References

Ither airticles
Neddism

Cless-relatit slurs
Pejorative terms for fowk
Scots culture
Social cless subculturs
Youth cultur
Stereoteeps o the wirkin cless
Wirkin-cless cultur in the Unitit Kinrick

Ned


Skins is a controversial and two time BAFTA-winning British teen drama about a group of English teenagers growing up in Bristol. Mainly ages 16–18, the characters go to a fictional school called Roundview College. The show was created by television writers Bryan Elsley and Jamie Brittain, and was first shown on E4 on 25 January 2007. There are seven seasons (61 episodes). There are also mini episodes of Skins that can only be watched online. It was also shown on Channel 4. On 12 March 2009 it was announced on the official Skins website that a fourth season of Skins has been planned. The last episode was 5 August 2013. An American adaptation was made. The remake made in the USA was shown on MTV in 2011. It was not very popular and was accused of child pornography and being a bad influence on teenagers, so a second season was not made. It had the same characters as UK Skins apart from Maxxie, who was replaced with a lesbian called Tea Marvelli.

Characters

First generation
These characters were in the first two seasons.

 Anthony "Tony" Stonem is played by Nicholas Hoult. He is the older brother of Effy. He goes out with Michelle at the start of series 1. He cheats on her with Abbie and Maxxie. In the last episode of series 1 Tony is ran over by a bus. In series 2 he has subdural hematoma because of this. He and Effy and their mother Anthea lived with his abusive father named Jim in 2007-2008.
 Sid Jenkins is Tony's best friend. He is played by Mike Bailey. He is a virgin at the start of the first season. He has low self-esteem and his best friend Tony is his role model. His respect for Tony lessens throughout the two seasons. In the remake, Sid got called Stanley.
 Michelle Richardson is Tony's girlfriend. She is played by April Pearson. She describes Jal as her best friend.
 Cassie Ainsworth is a weird girl who self-harms and has anorexia. She is played by Hannah Murray. She is romantically interested in Sid from the first episode, Later they start dating.
 Christopher "Chris" Miles is played by Joe Dempsie. He has an affair with his psychology teacher Angie. He is expelled from college. He dies unexpectedly in series 2 of a brain hemorrhage.
 Jalander "Jal" Fazer is a black musician. She is played by Larissa Wilson.
 Maxxie Oliver is openly gay. His best friend is Anwar. He is played by Mitch Hewer. He was the only character not to appear in the American adaptation of the show.
 Anwar Kharral is a Muslim. This conflicts with his friendship with Maxxie, who is gay. Anwar says that being gay is against his religion. But he eats pork, takes drugs at parties, and has premarital sex. He is played by Dev Patel.
 Lucy "Sketch" is a Welsh girl who stalks Maxxie in series 2. She is played by Aimee-Ffion Edwards. When Maxxie is not interested in her she has sex with his best friend Anwar.

Second generation
At the end of the second season of Skins, it was announced that the old characters were being replaced with new ones. The only characters from the "original" season to come back are Effy Stonem (who is Tony's little sister), and Effy's best friend from season two, Pandora Moon.
 Elizabeth "Effy" Stonem is the younger sister of Tony Stonem. She is the lead character of the series. She is played by Kaya Scodelario. She is popular but quiet.
 Pandora "Panda" Moon is played by Lisa Backwell. Thomas is her boyfriend.
 James Cook, known as Cook, is played by Jack O'Connell. He reappears in series 7. He is an outgoing 'party animal'.
 Frederick "Freddie" Mclair is played by Luke Pasqualino. Cook and JJ are his best friends. They call themselves The Three Musketeers. He falls in love with Effy.
 JJ Jones has Asperger syndrome. He is a virgin at the start of the series but he becomes more confident. He is played by Ollie Barbieri. In series 4 he becomes close friends with Thomas. Thomas helps him get a girlfriend, Lara.
 Emily and Katherine "Katie" Fitch are identical twin sisters. They are played by real-life twins Megan and Kathryn Prescott. They are very different. Katie refers to herself as a WAG because she has a footballer boyfriend. Emily goes out with Naomi.
 Naomi Campbell is played by Lucy Loveless. She goes out with Naomi and cheats on her. She reappears in season seven. She develops breast cancer and dies.
 Thomas Tomone is an immigrant from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He is played by Merveille Lukeba. Panda is his girlfriend.

Third generation
 Francesca "Franky" Fitzgerald is played by Dakota Blue Richards.
 Richard "Rich" Hardbeck is Alo's best friend. He is played by Alexander Arnold. He is a fan of metal music. Grace becomes his girlfriend.
 Grace Violet Blood  is played by Jessica Sula.  She is played by Jessica Sula. In the sixth series she is killed in a car crash.
 Matthew "Matty" Levan is played by Sebastian de Souza.
 Olivia "Liv" Malone is played by Laya Lewis. She is best friends with Mini and Grace. She is impulsive and likes to party.
 Aloysius "Alo" Creevey is played by Will Merrick. He spends most of his time hanging out with Rich in his van.
 Alexander "Alex" Henley is played by Sam Jackson. He appears in the sixth series. He is gay.
 Nicholas "Nick" Levan is played by Sean Teale. He is Matt's brother. Mini and Franky are his ex-girlfriends.
 Minerva "Mini" McGuiness is played by Freya Mavor. She is a 'queen bee'.

References

Other websites

E4's official Skins website

2007 British television series debuts
2013 television series endings
2000s British drama television series
2000s LGBT television series
2000s teen television series
2010s British drama television series
2010s LGBT television series
2010s teen television series
BAFTA Award winning programmes
Bristol
British LGBT television programmes
British teen television series
LGBT drama television series
British teen drama television series
English-language television programs

Skins (TV series)


The cigar box guitar is a simple chordophone that uses an empty cigar box as a resonator. The earliest had one or two strings; modern models typically have three or more. Generally, the strings are connected to the end of a broomstick or a 1×2 inch wood slat and to the cigar box resonator.

History
Cigars were packed in boxes, crates, and barrels as early as 1800, but the small boxes that are common today did not exist prior to around 1840. Until then, cigars were shipped in crates containing 100 or more per case. After 1840, cigar manufacturers started using smaller, more portable boxes with 20–50 cigars per box.

Trace evidence of cigar box instruments exists from 1840 to the 1860s. The earliest known illustration of a cigar box instrument is an etching copyrighted in 1876 of two American Civil War soldiers at a campsite, one of whom is playing a cigar box fiddle. The etching was created by illustrator and artist Edwin Forbes, who, under the banner of Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, worked for the Union Army. The etching was included in Forbes's work Life Studies of the Great Army. In the etching (Home, Sweet Home), the fiddle clearly shows the brand "Figaro" on the cigar box.

In addition to the etching, plans for a cigar box banjo were published by Daniel Carter Beard, co-founder of the Boy Scouts of America, in 1884 as part of Christmas Eve with Uncle Enos. The plans, retitled "How to Build an Uncle Enos Banjo", were included in the 1890 edition of Beard's American Boy's Handy Book as supplementary material at the back of the book. These plans omitted the story but still showed a step-by-step description of a playable five-string fretless banjo made from a cigar box.

It would seem that the earliest cigar box instruments would be crude and primitive, but this is not always the case. According to William Jehle, curator of The Cigar Box Guitar Museum and the author of One Man's Trash: A History of the Cigar Box Guitar, the museum acquired two cigar box fiddles built in 1886 and 1889 that seem very playable and well built. The 1886 fiddle was made for an 8-year-old boy and is certainly playable, but the 1889 fiddle has a well-carved neck and slotted violin headstock. The latter instrument was made for serious playing.

Cigar box guitars and fiddles were also important in the rise of jug bands and blues. As most of these performers were black Americans living in poverty, many could not afford a "real" instrument. Using these, along with the washtub bass (similar to the cigar box guitar), jug, washboard, and harmonica, black musicians performed blues at social events.

The Great Depression of the 1930s saw a resurgence of homemade musical instruments.

Modern revival

A modern revival of these instruments has been gathering momentum with an increase in the number of cigar box guitar builders and performers. A loose-knit group of underground musicians tour the East Coast of the United States each summer under the banner "Masters of the Cigar Box Guitar Tour".. These musicians include Doctor Oakroot, Johnny Lowebow, Tomi-O and many others. A growing number of primitive luthiers are adding cigar box guitars to their items for sale. Some cigar box guitar builders of today include Shane Speal, Mike Snowden, Del Puckett and Peter Lake of Heavy Fog Guitars.

The modern revival is partly due to interest in the DIY culture, as a cigar box is inexpensive in comparison with other factors, such as strings and construction time. Many modern cigar box guitar makers can be seen as practitioners of a type of lutherie and implement various personal touches, such as the addition of pickups and resonator cones.

The modern revival of cigar box guitars is documented in the 2008 film Songs Inside the Box, which was shot primarily at the Cigar Box Guitar Extravaganza, an annual event held in Huntsville, Alabama, which has since been re-named the World's Longest-Running Cigar Box Guitar Festival. The 19th annual Cigar Box Guitar Festival was held in 2022.

While there are many cigar box guitar builders selling their guitars online, at music festivals and outdoor markets, Huntsville, Alabama is also home to the only brick-and-mortar cigar box guitar store in the world, exclusively selling cigar box guitars and other cigar box instruments. Located at Lowe Mill Arts & Entertainment, the store was founded in 2010 by John Nickel and his father Pat Nickel, after John attended the Cigar Box Guitar Extravaganza and was inspired to build and play cigar box guitars. Luthier Jeff Mello and his wife Tara took over ownership of the store in February 2021. In November 2021, Mello and the store were featured on the WVTM Chronicle special, "Made in 'Bama," hosted by Lisa Crane.

The Cigar Box Guitar Museum, a free display dedicated to cigar box guitars, is located in Speal's Tavern, a small blues club in New Alexandria, Pennsylvania. It is curated by cigar box guitarist Shane Speal and contains over 60 antique and modern cigar box guitars.

Tuning
Many different tunings can be used for cigar box guitars. Common tunings are:

 Open tuning
 three strings: for example A – e – a or G – d – g
 four strings: for example A – e – a – c#' or G – d – g – b
 Classical tuning of a six-string guitar (E – A – d – g – b – e')
 three strings: for example A – d – g
 four strings: for example d – g – b – e'
 Magic jazz tuning: A – e – g
 Hawaiian tuning: A – e – f#
 Four string banjo tuning: D – G – b – d

Notable performers
Bo Diddley played a cigar box–shaped guitar.
Luther Dickinson, the guitarist of the North Mississippi Allstars, uses an electric cigar box guitar called the Lowebow.
Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top performs with a cigar box guitar.
Frank Turner plays a four-string cigar box guitar.
Richard Johnston, the subject of the 2005 Max Shores documentary Richard Johnston: Hill Country Troubadour, performs with a Lowebow. Johnston helped design the instrument with its builder, John Lowe.
Bonny B. plays with a cigar box with only two strings (octave chord).
Tom Waits plays cigar box banjo on his album Real Gone.
Jon Hembrey, lead guitarist of 2014 Juno nominees the Strumbellas, plays a three-string cigar box guitar.
Seasick Steve plays several personalized and obscure instruments, including a cigar box guitar.
Shane Speal, billed as "The King of the Cigar Box Guitar," performs exclusively with cigar box guitars in solo shows and with his group, Shane Speal's Snake Oil Band. He performs with self-built cigar box guitars and also with instruments by Daddy Mojo, Smokehouse Guitars, Tomi-O Hartwell, Johnny Lowebow, Kurt Schoen and Mike Orr.
Ed King of Lynyrd Skynyrd plays a cigar box guitar.
Harry Manx, a Hindustani slide master, plays a Lowebow cigar box guitar.
Chris Ballew, lead singer of the Presidents of the United States of America, has recorded with a one-string cigar box bass made by Shane Speal.
Vic Ruggiero, lead singer of the Slackers, recorded tracks in Japan for his upcoming solo album. He plays a four-string cigar box guitar.
Joe Buck, performing as a one-man band and also as a member of Hank Williams III's band Assjack.
Robert Hamilton of the Low-Country Messiahs plays a three-string cigar box guitar.
PJ Harvey plays a Baratto Cigfiddle.
Charlie Brown, of the Peanuts comic strip, played a cigar box banjo a few times in his first years (in the early 1950s).
 Lightnin' Hopkins played a cigar box guitar at times and said this on the subject:

Alain Johannes plays a cigar box guitar throughout his first solo record, "Spark", and also on tour.
Reverend Peyton of The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band plays a three-string cigar box guitar.
Paul McCartney played a Baratto cigar box guitar on "Cut Me Some Slack", as heard in the documentary Sound City. He also used the guitar for the live debut of the song at the 12-12-12 Concert with grunge band Nirvana (Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic) and for a subsequent performance on Saturday Night Live.
Mark Stowe was included on the 2014 album Guitar Wizards Vol. 1 & 2, performing his guitar solo "Hemingway" on a homemade three-string cigar box guitar.
Samantha Fish plays a four-string cigar box guitar.
Matthew West plays a cigar box ukulele on his 2017 video for "Come On Christmas".

See also
Diddley Bow
Lowebow
Jug band
Washtub bass
Luthier
Kabosy
Ramkie

References

External links

MATTEACCI'S CIGAR BOX GUITAR SHOP
Cigar Box Nation
Heavy Fog Guitars
Shane Speal's Cigar Box Guitar Museum in New Alexandria, Pennsylvania
Handmade Music Clubhouse
Cigar Box Guitar Museum
National Cigar Box Guitar Museum (Flickr)
Ciguitars: Information on How to Build and Play a CBG
BSA CBG Festival (France)

Cigars
Guitars
Improvised musical instruments

Cigar box guitar


There are several allotropes of carbon.   Diamond and graphite are the most famous.  Graphite is a conductor, a semimetal (an element that is partially a metal and a nonmetal, such as black phosphorus and grey selenium). It can be used, for instance, as the material in the electrodes of an electrical arc lamp. Graphite is the most stable form of solid carbon ever discovered.

Allotropes are different forms of the same chemical element. All elements are made up uniquely of their own atoms.  Any physical differences are because of how the atoms are joined together. Many elements show allotropy because there are a number of ways in which the atoms can be linked together. Also there are different ways in how the molecules can be arranged to make larger structures.

Diamond is one of the best known allotropes of carbon. Its hardness and high dispersion of light make it good for use in jewellery. It also has industrial uses. Diamond is the hardest known natural mineral. This makes it an excellent abrasive. A diamond also holds its luster well. Both diamond and graphite have extremely high melting point, which is unusual for nonmetallic element.

Carbon

Allotropes of carbon


Ambrogio Lorenzetti (;  – 9 June 1348) or Ambruogio Laurati was an Italian painter of the Sienese school. He was active from approximately 1317 to 1348. He painted The Allegory of Good and Bad Government in the Sala dei Nove (Salon of Nine or Council Room) in Siena's Palazzo Pubblico. His elder brother was the painter Pietro Lorenzetti.

Biography
Lorenzetti was highly influenced by both Byzantine art and classical art forms, and used these to create a unique and individualistic style of painting. His work was exceptionally original. Individuality at this time was unusual due to the influence of patronage on art. Because paintings were often commissioned, individualism in art was infrequently seen. It is known that Lorenzetti engaged in artistic pursuits that were thought to have their origins during the Renaissance, such as experimenting with perspective and physiognomy, and studying classical antiquity.  His body of work clearly shows the innovativeness that subsequent artists chose to emulate.

His work, although more naturalistic, shows the influence of Simone Martini. The earliest dated work of the Sienese painter is a Madonna and Child (1319, Museo Diocesano, San Casciano). His presence was documented in Florence up until 1321. He would return there after spending a number of years in Siena.

Later he painted The Allegory of Good and Bad Government. The frescoes on the walls of the Room of the Nine (Sala dei Nove) or Room of Peace (Sala della Pace) in Siena's Palazzo Pubblico are one of the masterworks of early Renaissance secular painting. The "nine" was the oligarchal assembly of guild and monetary interests that governed the republic. Three walls are painted with frescoes consisting of a large assembly of allegorical figures of virtues in the Allegory of Good Government. In the other two facing panels, Ambrogio weaves panoramic visions of Effects of Good Government on Town and Country, and Allegory of Bad Government and its Effects on Town and Country (also called "Ill-governed Town and Country"). The better preserved "well-governed town and country" is an unrivaled pictorial encyclopedia of incidents in a peaceful medieval "borgo" and countryside.

The first evidence of the existence of the hourglass can be found in the fresco, Allegory of Bad Government and Its Effects on Town and Country.

Like his brother, he is believed to have died of bubonic plague in 1348. Giorgio Vasari includes a biography of Lorenzetti in his Lives.

Selected works

Annunciation, 1344
Lorenzetti's final piece, telling the story of the Virgin Mary receiving the news from the Angel about the coming of baby Jesus, contains the first use of clear linear perspective. Though it is not perfect, and the gold ground that is traditional for the time renders a flat feeling, the diagonals created on the floor do create depth.

Madonna and Child, 1319

In Madonna and Child, there is a clear debt to Byzantine art. The image of the Madonna is noted for its frontality, which is a typical characteristic of Byzantine art.  The Madonna faces the viewer, as the Child gazes up at her. Though not as emotionally intense as subsequent Madonnas, in Lorenzetti's Madonna and Child, the Virgin Mary belies a subtle level of emotion as she confronts the viewer. This difference could be attributed to the patron's stylistic wishes for Madonna and Child, or could indicate Lorenzetti's evolution of style. But, even in this early work, there is evidence of Lorenzetti's talent for conveying the monumentality of figures, without the application of chiaroscuro.  Chiaroscuro was often used to subtle effect in Byzantine art to depict spatial depth. Ambrogio instead used color and patterns to move the figures forward, as seen in Madonna and Child.

Investiture of Saint Louis of Toulouse, 1329

In this fresco, St. Louis is being greeted by Pope Boniface VIII as he is granted the title of Bishop of Toulouse. It was one in a series of frescoes painted with his brother, Pietro Lorenzetti, for Saint Francis of Assisi.  This fresco is particularly well known for its realistic sense of depth within an architectural environment, due to Lorenzetti's compellingly rendered three-dimensional space. Moreover, his figures are positioned in a very natural and familiar manner, introducing an awareness of naturalism in art. Lorenzetti's command of spatial perspective is thought to prefigure the Italian Renaissance. This fresco also shows his talent for depicting emotion, as we see on King Charles II's face during the king's witness to his son's rejection of material goods and power.  Such attention to detail possibly indicates an intellectual curiosity. Giorgio Vasari, in Lives of the Most Excellent, Painters, Sculptors and Architects wrote of Lorenzetti's intellectual abilities, saying that his manners were "more those of a gentleman and philosopher than those of an artist".

Maestà, 1335

In his Maestà, completed in 1335, his use of allegory prefigures Effects of Bad Government in the City. Allegorical elements reference Dante, indicating an interest in literature. Additionally, this might point to the beginnings of vernacularization of literature at this time, a precursor to humanist ideas. In Maestà, Lorenzetti followed the artistic tradition set by other Sienese painters like Simone Martini but adds an intense maternal bonding scene to Maestà, which was unusual in contemporary Sienese art. In the painting, the Virgin gazes at her child with intense emotion as he grasps her dress, returning her gaze. By personalizing the Virgin Mary in this way, Lorenzetti has made her seem more human, thus creating a profound psychological effect on the viewer. This highlights the increasing secularity in Sienese art at this time, of which Lorenzetti was a leading proponent, through the uniqueness of his painting style. The crowd of saints depicted with the Virgin is a Byzantine artistic tradition, used to indicate an assemblage of witnesses.  As such, Lorenzetti's art could be seen as a transition between Byzantine and Renaissance styles of art. Lorenzetti's interest in classical antiquity can be seen in Maestà, particularly in the depiction of Charity.  In his memoirs, I Commentarii, the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti mentions Lorenzetti's interest in an antique statue uncovered during an excavation in Siena at the time, attributed to the Greek sculptor, Lysippus.

References

Further reading

External links

 Ambrogio Lorenzetti at Panopticon Virtual Art Gallery
 Arch 343: Cities in History - Lecture 10: The Uses of Decorum - Lorenzetti's Good and Bad Government

1290s births
Year of birth uncertain
1348 deaths
Trecento painters
14th-century Italian painters
Italian male painters
Painters from Siena
Gothic painters
14th-century deaths from plague (disease)
Sibling artists
Catholic painters

Ambrogio Lorenzetti


Atziluth or Atzilut (also Olam Atsiluth, עוֹלָם אֲצִילוּת, literally "the World of Emanation") is the highest of four worlds in which exists the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. It is also known as "near to God." Beri'ah follows it. It is known as the World of Emanations, or the World of Causes. In the  Kabbalah, each of the Sephiroth in this world is associated with a Name of God, and it is associated with the Suit of Wands in the Tarot.

Significance

Atziluth is the realm of pure divinity. The four worlds of Kabbalah relate to the Tree of Life in two primary ways:
 Firstly, it is taught that the whole tree is contained in each of the four worlds, and in this manner they are described one on top of another, and in symbolic form, by a diagram called Jacob's Ladder.
 Secondly, is taught that the Tree of Life can be subdivided into four horizontal sections, each representing one of the four worlds.

It should be remembered that in Kabbalah each of the ten Sephirot of the Tree of Life also contains a whole tree inside itself. The realm of Atziluth is thus related to the top three Sephirot of the Tree of Life; these three spheres of Kether, Chokmah and Binah are considered to be wholly spiritual in nature and are separated from the rest of the tree by a region of reality called the Abyss.

Origins
The word is derived from "atzal" in reference to ; and in this sense it was taken over into the Kabbalah from Solomon ibn Gabirol's Meḳor Ḥayyim (The Fountain of Life), which was much used by Kabbalists. The theory of emanation, which is conceived as a free act of the will of God, endeavors to surmount the difficulties that attach to the idea of creation in its relation to God. These difficulties are threefold:
 the act of creation involves a change in the unchangeable being of God;
 it is incomprehensible how the absolutely infinite and perfect being could have produced such imperfect and finite beings;
 a creatio ex nihilo is difficult to imagine.
The simile used for the emanation is either the soaked sponge that emits spontaneously the water it has absorbed, or the gushing spring that overflows, or the sunlight that sends forth its rays—parts of its own essence—everywhere, without losing any portion, however infinitesimal, of its being. Since it was the last-named simile that chiefly occupied and influenced the Kabbalistic writers, Atziluth must properly be taken to mean "eradiation" (compare Zohar, Exodus Yitro, 86b).

Later on the expression "Atziluth" assumed a more specific meaning, influenced no doubt by the little work, Maseket Atzilut. Herein for the first time (following : "I have created"; "I have formed"; "I have made"), the four worlds are distinguished: Atziluth, Beri'ah, Yetzirah, and Assiah. But here too they are transferred to the region of spirits and angels:
 In the Atzilah-world the Shekinah alone rules;
 in the Beri'ah-world are the throne of God and the souls of the just under the dominion of Akatriel ("Crown of God");
 in the Yetzirah-world are the "holy creatures" (ḥayyot) of Ezekiel's vision, and the ten classes of angels ruled over by Metatron;
 and in the Assiah-world are the Ofanim, and the angels that combat evil, governed by Sandalphon.
In the Zohar, Atziluth is taken to be simply the direct emanation of God, in contradistinction to the other emanations derived from the Sephirot. No fourfold world is mentioned.

Moses Cordovero and Isaac Luria (sixteenth century) were the first to introduce the fourfold world as an essential principle into Kabbalistic speculation. According to this doctrine,
 the Atzilah-world represents the ten Sephirot;
 the Beriah-world (world of creation) the throne of God, emanating from the light of the Sephirot;
 the Yezirah-world (world of becoming) the ten classes of angels, forming the halls for the Sephirot;
 and the Assiah-world (world of making, that is, of form) the different heavens and the material world.
In contradistinction to the Atzilah-world, which constitutes the domain of the Sephirot, the three other worlds are called by the general name "Pirud". Later Kabbalists explain "Atziluth" (according to , and ) as meaning "excellence," so that according to them the Atzilah-world would mean the most excellent or highest world.

Correspondences
 The letter yud י in the Tetragrammaton
 The sefirah of Chochmah and hence the partzuf of Abba
 The element of Fire
 The soul-level of Chayah
 The brain (Patach Eliyahu)
 The Shemoneh Esrei in the Shacharit prayer service
 In the allegory of the teacher and the student, the first stage where the teacher has a flash of inspiration, or an unexpanded concept that he wishes to give to the student
 The fixed, fire, sign of Leo (astrology)
 Within the Western mystery tradition; the classical element of fire and the suit of wands (or batons) in divinitory Tarot

References

Four Worlds
Kabbalistic words and phrases

Atziluth


Heat lightning is the name for lightning from thunderstorms that are far away that is not followed by thunder. This happens because the lightning is far away and the sound of the thunder stops before it reaches the person watching the thunderstorm. Although it is named heat lightning, it does not have anything to do with the heat of the lightning itself. At night, lightning can be seen from up to 100 miles away, but the thunder doesn't go that far.

Heat lightning is often seen during the summer months. In Florida, heat lightning can often been seen over the water at night from thunderstorms that formed during the day.

References

Other websites
The Weather Doctor: Weather Whys
Heat Lightning Facts

Weather
Electricity

Heat lightning


Mary Eleanor Bowes, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne (24 February 1749 – 28 April 1800) was a notable member of the British aristocracy during the Georgian period in the 18th century.

Referred to by some as "The Unhappy Countess", she was a prominent heiress, who inherited a vast fortune. Her husbands were the 9th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne and Anglo-Irishman Andrew Robinson Stoney, the latter of whom reportedly treated her very cruelly during their marriage. Amongst many other achievements in her life, including a significant expertise developed in the field of botany, Mary Eleanor Bowes was one of the early pioneers of women's rights in relation to divorce.

Early life
Mary was born in Upper Brook Street in Mayfair, London, the daughter and heiress of Sir George Bowes, a wealthy businessman; and his second wife, Mary Gilbert of St Paul's Walden. She was named Mary Eleanor in homage to both her own mother and her father's beloved first wife, Eleanor Verney, who died in 1724. From 1757, Elizabeth Planta worked as her governess, while her father Andrew Planta was engaged as French teacher.

Mary's childhood home was at Gibside, in County Durham. Bowes died when Mary was 11 years old, and left her a vast fortune (estimated at between £600,000 and £1,040,000), which he had built up through membership of the Grand Allies, a cartel of coal-mine owners. At a stroke, Mary became the wealthiest heiress in Britain, perhaps in all of Europe. She encouraged the attentions of Campbell Scott, younger brother of the Duke of Buccleuch as well as of John Stuart, the self-styled Lord Mountstuart, eldest son of Lord Bute (the Prime Minister), before becoming engaged at the age of 16 to John Lyon, the 9th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne.

First marriage
Mary married the 9th Earl of Strathmore on her 18th birthday, 24 February 1767. Since her father's will stipulated that her husband should assume his family name, the Earl addressed Parliament with a request to change his name from John Lyon to John Bowes, which was granted. However, some of the couple's children chose to use a surname that hyphenated their parents' names, styling themselves Lyon-Bowes. Five children were born to the Earl and Countess within the first six years of marriage, being:
Maria Jane Lyon-Bowes (21 April 1768 – 22 April 1806), married Colonel Barrington Price of the British Army in 1789
John Bowes, 10th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne (14 April 1769 – 3 July 1820), married in 1820 Mary Milner, his long-term mistress and the mother of his son, on the day before he died
Anna Maria Bowes (3 June 1770 – 29 March 1832), eloped and married Henry Jessop in 1788; returned shortly afterwards to live with her mother
George Bowes (17 November 1771 – 3 December 1806), married Mary Thornhill
Thomas Lyon-Bowes, 11th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne (3 May 1773 – 27 August 1846) married Mary Elizabeth Louisa Rodney Carpenter, whose mother was the daughter of a mason.

Thanks to the countess's fortune, the couple lived extravagantly. While the Earl spent much of his time restoring his family seat, Glamis Castle, the countess self-published a poetical drama entitled The Siege of Jerusalem in 1769, which remained her only literary effort, although she maintained remarkably candid diaries for much of her life. She also professed interest in botany and financed an expedition by the explorer William Paterson to the Cape in 1777 to collect plants for her.

A few years into the marriage, the Earl contracted tuberculosis and his health weakened. Dissatisfied with her husband's increasing lack of robustness and alleged inattention, the countess took lovers to entertain herself. On 7 March 1776, Lord Strathmore died at sea on his way to Portugal, of tuberculosis.

Between marriages
The couple's combined extravagance meant that the countess was left with debts totalling £145,000 upon the Earl's death. While the sum was staggering, her fortune far exceeded the figure and she had little trouble discharging these debts. As a widow, she also regained control of her fortune, centred on the mines and farms around her childhood home of Gibside in County Durham.

At the time of the Earl's death, the countess was pregnant by a lover, George Gray. Born in Calcutta in 1737, where his father had worked as a surgeon for the East India Company, Gray was a Scottish "nabob" who had made and squandered a small fortune working for the same company. He had returned to England under a cloud in 1766 after squandering both his own fortune and a considerable inheritance from his first wife, Hannah Newton. Samuel Foote's play The Nabob is believed to have been inspired by Gray, who was also a friend of James Boswell.

Despite the pregnancy, the dowager countess was loath to marry Gray, since her loss of rank would be considerable and since Gray's fortune had been squandered anyway. She successfully induced an abortion by drinking "a black inky kind of medicine". However, she continued the affair with Gray and became pregnant repeatedly, undergoing two further abortions. Her candid account of these abortions is one of very few available first-person descriptions of secret abortions in the era before legalised abortion. When she found herself pregnant by Gray a fourth time, the dowager countess resigned herself to marrying him and they became formally engaged to marry. This was in 1776.

However, that same summer of 1776, the dowager countess was seduced by a charming and wily Anglo-Irish adventurer, Andrew Robinson Stoney, who manipulated his way into her household (using the governess of the children, Eliza Planta) and her bed. Calling himself "Captain" Stoney (although in reality he was a mere lieutenant in the British Army) he insisted on fighting a duel in the dowager countess's honour with the editor of The Morning Post, a newspaper which had published scurrilous articles about her private life. In fact, Stoney had himself written the articles both criticising and defending the countess. He now faked a duel with the editor, the Reverend Sir Henry Bate Dudley, to appeal to Mary's romantic nature. Pretending to be mortally wounded, Stoney begged the dowager countess to grant his dying wish: to marry her. Taken in by the ruse, she agreed.

Second marriage

Stoney was carried on a stretcher down the aisle of St James's Church, Piccadilly, where he married Mary. Shortly afterwards, he staged a remarkable recovery. In compliance with Mary's father's will, Stoney changed his name to Bowes. Two children were born to Mary during the term of this marriage:
Mary Bowes, who was probably the daughter of George Gray, was delivered secretly in August 1777, but her birthday was registered as 14 November 1777;
William Johnstone Bowes was born on 8 March 1782.
After the wedding, Stoney Bowes attempted to take control of his wife's fortune, as was the custom of that era. When he discovered that Mary had secretly made a prenuptial agreement safeguarding the profits of her estate for her own use, he forced her to sign a revocation handing control to him. He is then alleged to have subjected Mary to eight years of physical and mental abuse, including confining her to her own house for a period. He later took Mary and her daughter Anna Maria (the Earl's daughter) off to Paris, whence they returned only after a writ had been served on him. He is also said to have raped the maids, invited prostitutes into the home and fathered numerous illegitimate children.

In 1785, with the help of loyal maids, Mary managed to escape Stoney's custody and filed for divorce through the ecclesiastical courts. Stoney Bowes then allegedly abducted Mary with the help of some accomplices and carried her off to the north country. She later alleged that he threatened to rape and kill her, that he gagged and beat her and carried her around the countryside on horseback in one of the coldest spells of an unusually cold winter. The country was alerted; Stoney Bowes was eventually arrested, and Mary rescued.

The divorce case continued with additional legal battles regarding these incidents. The trials were sensational and the talk of London. Although Mary initially won public sympathy with her tales and tears, the tide soon turned against her as her own licentiousness of character became known. Even during the pendency of the case, Mary had an affair with the brother of one of her lawyers, which became public knowledge; an affair with her footman, George Walker, was also alleged. Stoney made known other salacious details of Mary's past excesses and ensured the publication of the 'confessions' that she had earlier made in writing to him – he even purchased shares in a newspaper to publish these memoirs. There was also a general feeling that Mary had behaved badly in attempting to prevent her husband's access to her fortune.

Stoney Bowes and his accomplices were found guilty of conspiracy to abduct Mary and he was sentenced to three years in prison. Meanwhile, the divorce case reached the trial stage at the High Court of Delegates. In an interim judgment, Stoney lost the battle to retain control of the Bowes fortune during the pendency of the case. The divorce case itself remained pending until Mary died in 1800, at which point it became infructuous. Stoney Bowes was released from prison upon Mary's death, and unsuccessfully attempted to have her will invalidated. After he lost that case, he was sued by his own lawyers for their expenses. Unable to pay these debts, he came under prison jurisdiction (in that era, bankruptcy was punished with prison), although he lived outside the prison walls with his mistress, Mary 'Polly' Sutton. He died on 16 June 1810.

In 1841, the novelist William Makepeace Thackeray heard Bowes's life story from the Countess's grandson, John Bowes, and used it in his novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon.

Retirement and death
After 1792, Mary lived quietly in Purbrook Park in Hampshire. She later moved to Stourfield House, an isolated mansion on the edge of the village of Pokesdown near Christchurch, Hampshire, where she could live feeling that she was "...out of the world.." She brought to Stourfield a full establishment of servants, including Mary Morgan, the maid who had helped her escape her marital home. Morgan died in 1796 and was buried beneath a brass plaque composed by Mary. Following this death, Mary did not socialise at all, but spent most of her time looking after pet animals, including a large number of dogs, for whom hot dinners were cooked daily. Local people found her very strange, if not actually mad. However, she occasionally tried to reach out to them, ordering dinners cooked for the men working in the fields, and having beer sent out to refresh them. Details of Mary's life at Stourfield House have been preserved in the transcribed memoirs of an elderly Pokesdown resident.

Mary's three sons by the Earl seldom visited their mother, and never stayed long. However, two of Mary's daughters lived with her – Lady Anna Maria Jessop, the Earl's daughter; and Mary Bowes, who was born during the term of Mary's second marriage. One of Mary's few joys was to see her daughter Mary learning to ride – at this time, riding brought great independence; journey times were about a third that of going by coach.

Towards the close of the century, Mary called in some trusted friends from Pokesdown village to witness her final will, and began making presents of dresses and other items to the community. She also left an annuity for the widow Lockyer of Pokesdown Farm.

Mary died on 28 April 1800. Undertakers came from London with a hearse and three mourning carriages and transported her body to London. Mary was buried in Westminster Abbey, where her tombstone stands in the Poets' Corner. According to the locals, she was buried as per her request in a court dress, with all the accessories necessary for a Royal audience, plus a small silver trumpet. Other reports have it that she was buried in a bridal dress. Soon after her death, the contents of Stourfield House were sold.

Mary Eleanor Bowes was the great-great-great-grandmother of Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the late Queen Mother.

Archives

A collection of records "concerning the life and adventures of Mary Eleanor Bowes" is held by the University of Dundee. They include a letter to her from her first husband "enumerating her faults", which was written on his death bed.

References

Sources

Further reading
Arnold, Ralph, The Unhappy Countess (1957)
Bowes, Mary Eleanor, Confessions of the Countess of Strathmore, written by herself. Carefully copied from the original lodged in Doctor's Commons (1793, British Library).
Foot, Jesse, The Lives of Andrew Robinson Bowes, Esq., and the Countess of Strathmore, written from thirty-three years professional attendance, from Letters and other well authenticated documents (1810)

Parker, Derek, The Trampled Wife (2006)

1749 births
1800 deaths
People from County Durham (before 1974)
People from Purbrook
Mary Bowes, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne
Scottish countesses
English dramatists and playwrights
British women dramatists and playwrights
18th-century English women writers
18th-century British writers
English women writers
18th-century English people


Voltage is what makes electric charges move.  It is the 'push' that causes charges to move in a wire or other electrical conductor.  It can be thought of as the force that pushes the charges, but it is not a force. Voltage can cause charges to move, and since moving charges is a current, voltage can cause a current.

Electric Potential Difference is the true scientific term but is commonly called Voltage. Informally, voltage or electric potential difference is sometimes called "Potential Difference". Voltage is also called, in certain circumstances, electromotive force (EMF).

Voltage is an electrical potential difference, the difference in electric potential between two places.  The unit for electrical potential difference, or voltage, is the volt. The volt is named in memory of Alessandro Volta. One volt equals one joule per coulomb.  The symbol for the unit volt is written with an uppercase V as in (9V).  According to the rules of the International System of Units, the symbol for a unit with a name derived from the proper name of a person is uppercase.

Please note that the volt and voltage are two different things. The volt is a unit by which we measure something. Both electric potential and voltage are things we measure and the volt is the unit of measure for both. The symbol for the unit volt is written with a V (9 volts or 9 V). When voltage is used in a formula, it can be typeset in italics, e.g., , or written in cursive. If there is only a single letter symbol to go by, a lowercase v may be used, e.g.,  or . Electrical engineers use the symbol  for voltage, e.g., , to make the difference between voltage and volts very clear.

Technically, the voltage is the difference in electric potential between two points and is always measured between two points.  e.g. between the positive and negative ends of a battery, between a wire and the ground, or between a wire or a point of a circuit and a point in another part of the circuit.  In everyday use with household electricity in the U.S. the voltage is most often 120V. This voltage is measured from the electric wire to the ground.

Note that there must be both voltage and current to transfer power (energy). For example, a wire can have a high voltage on it, but unless it is connected, nothing will happen. Birds can land on high voltage lines such as 12kV and 16kV without dying, because the current does not flow through the bird.

There are two types of voltage, DC voltage and AC voltage. The DC voltage (direct current voltage) always has the same polarity (positive or negative), such as in a battery. The AC voltage (alternating current voltage) alternates between positive and negative. For example, the voltage from the wall socket changes polarity 60 times per second (in America) or 50 times per second (UK and Europe). The DC is typically used for electronics and the AC for motors.

Definition
Voltage is the change in Electric Potential between two places
or the change in Electric Potential Energy per coulomb between two places.

Where V=Voltage, EPE=Electric Potential Energy, q=charge, ∆=difference in.

Ground voltage
Voltage is always measured between two points, and one of them is often called the "ground", or the zero volt (0V) point. In most AC electrical installations there is a connection to the earth. A connection is made to the real ground through a water pipe, a ground rod buried or driven into the earth, or a convenient metallic conductor (not a gas pipe) buried underground.  This connection is made at the point of entry of the electric system into a building, at every pole where there is a transformer at the street (often on an electric pole), and other places in the system. The whole planet Earth is used as a reference point for measuring voltage. In a building this ground is carried to each electrical device on two wires. One is the 'grounding conductor' (the green or bare wire) and is used as a safety ground to connect metal parts of equipment to the earth.  The other is used as one of the electric conductors in the circuits of the system and is called the 'neutral conductor'. This wire which is at the ground potential completes all the circuits by carrying the current from any electric equipment back to the systems entry point into the buildings and then to the transformer usually at the street.  In many places outside the buildings it becomes unnecessary to have a wire to complete the circuits and carry the current from the buildings to the generators.  The return path that carries all the current back is the earth itself.

In DC circuits, the negative end of a generator or battery is often called the "ground" or zero volt (0V) point, even though there may or may not be a connection to the earth. There can be several grounds on the same printed circuit board (PCB), for example with sensitive analog circuits, that part of the circuit can use an "analog ground", and the digital part, have a " digital ground".

In electrical equipment the 0 volt point can be the metal chassis called a chassis ground or a connection to the actual ground called an earth ground, each with their own symbol used in electrical schematic drawings (circuit drawings).

Measuring tools
Some of the tools for measuring the voltage are the voltmeter and the oscilloscope.

The voltmeter measures the voltage between two points and can be set to the DC mode or the AC mode. The voltmeter can measure the DC voltage of a battery for example (typically 1.5V or 9V), or the AC voltage from the power socket on the wall (typically 120V).

For more complex signals, an oscilloscope can be used the measured the DC and/or AC voltage, for example to measure the voltage across a speaker.

Potential difference
The voltage, or potential difference from point a to point b is the amount of energy in joules (as a result of electric field) required to move 1 coulomb of positive charge from point a to point b. A negative voltage between points a and b is one in which 1 coulomb of energy is required to move a negative charge from point a to b. If there is a uniform electric field about a charged object, negatively charged objects will be pulled towards higher voltages, and positively charged objects will be pulled towards lower voltages. The potential difference/Voltage between two points is independent of the path taken to get from point a to b. Thus, the voltage from a to b + the voltage from b to c will always equal the voltage from a to c.

Energy
Electricity

Voltage


Lillian Groag (born Liliana C. Groag) is an Argentine-American playwright, theater director, and actress. Her plays include The Ladies of the Camellias, The Magic Fire, and The White Rose.

Early life and career

Lillian Groag was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to a Viennese father and an Italian mother. Her father had fled to Argentina in 1938 when Austria joined Nazi Germany. When Lillian was only 7 years old her family fled from Argentina to Montevideo, Uruguay, but this time they were fleeing from the Juan Domingo Perón dictatorship. Her father would die 7 years later in Uruguay. Lillian was schooled in Catholic boarding schools in both Argentina and Uruguay her entire life until she came to Lake Forest College in Chicago, United States, and the University of Dijon in France.  She would later go on to earn masters and doctoral degrees in Romance Languages and Literature from Northwestern University.

While attending both Lake Forest College and Northwestern she appeared in many plays. It was during her performance while at Northwestern in the play, "A Lion in Winter" that she was spotted by a Hollywood talent agent who persuaded her to move to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career in TV and movies. She went on to have guest appearances on several TV shows before shifting her focus more to the theater and plays as well as writing.

Theater career

Miss Groag has acted, directed and written for many regional theatres in the country, Broadway and Off, as well as opera houses. Her plays have also had long runs in Germany, Italy, Mexico and Japan.

In 1993, Groag acted as part of an ensemble cast in  The Kentucky Cycle at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and on Broadway at the Royale theatre. For this performance she received a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Supporting Performer in 1994.

In 1997, Groag's play The Magic Fire premiered at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. She received a Kennedy Center Fund for  New American Plays (FNAP) to support this.

Works

Plays

The Ladies of the Camellias is a farce about an imagined meeting in Paris, 1897, between the famous theater divas Sarah Bernhardt and Eleonora Duse.  They are each to start in separate productions of The Lady of the Camellias on successive nights.

The Magic Fire is a play about an immigrant family in Buenos Aires during the 1950s regime of Juan Perón. They take refuge from the fascist politics of Argentina in art and opera. Eventually, events force them to confront the politics and their moral obligations. Premiered in 1997 at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Performed (among other times) in 2006 at the Shaw Festival.

The White Rose is a play about resistance by German university students to Hitler's Nazi Germany, pivoting around a young student Sophie and a police inspector Mohr.

Midons, a play about the Troubadours in Provence and the "invention of love".   A Monty Python-type farce with serious undertones.  Produced by The People's Light and Theatre Company in Philadelphia.

Menocchio, a play about the famous real-life trial of miller Domenico Scandella in the Friuli region in 1600.  Scandella propounded about evolution, socialism and doubted the existence of God.  A comedy.  Produced by the Berkeley Repertory Theatre.

Blood Wedding, translated and adapted by Garrett-Groag from a Spanish play by Federico García Lorca, is a play about a cycle of murder and revenge in an imagined setting in rural Spain.

War Music (2009), based on Christopher Logue's modernist rewrite of Homer's Iliad.

Translations and Adaptations

 A Flaw in the Ointment by Georges Feydeau. Performed in 1993-94 by the Seattle Rep.
 The Triumph of Love by Pierre Marivaux. Adapted from a new translation by Frederick Kluck. Performed in 2007 by California Shakespeare Theater and San Jose Rep.
 Blood Wedding - Garcia Lorca - Guthrie Theater
 Liliom - Molnar - Missouri Rep

Productions directed
1993: "Tosca" (Puccini), Virginia Opera
1995: "La Boheme", Virginia Opera

"SIMÓN BOLÍVAR" – World Premiere – January 1995 Virginia Opera.

1998: Scapin, the Cheat, (Molière), California Shakespeare Theater.

2000: The Taming of the Shrew, California Shakespeare Theater.

2003: Arms and the Man (Shaw), California Shakespeare Theater.

2005: The Tempest, California Shakespeare Theater.

2007: The Triumph of Love (Marivaux), California Shakespeare Theater and San Jose Rep.

The Rivals - A.C.T. in San Francisco

A Flaw in the Ointment - Seattle Rep

Menocchio - Berkeley Rep

Napoli Milionaria and The Magic Fire - Milwaukee Rep

Midons and The Imaginary Invalid - People's Light and Theatre Company, Philadelphia

Enter the Guardsman and The Triumph of Love - San Jose Rep

Death and the Maiden - Center Stage, Baltimore

School for Scandal and Merry Wives of Windsor - at Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Smash - Asolo Repertory Theatre

Liliom - Missouri Rep
OPERA - Virginia Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, New York City Opera, Boston Lyric, Cincinnati, Chicago Opera Theatre, San Jose Opera, Florida Grand Opera.

Representation:  Beth Blickers, Abrams Artists Agency - New York / Robert Slotover - Allied Artists, U.K.
2010: "Cosi Fan Tutte", Virginia Opera
2013: "Marriage of Figaro" Virginia Opera

Awards
 1994: Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Supporting Performer
 1996: Kennedy Center's Fund for New American Plays (FNAP) grant, for The Magic Fire at Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
 AT&T American Plays - "The White Rose"
 TCG - Playwright in Residence grant, Center Stage, Baltimore.  "Menocchio".

See also
OPERA PRODUCTIONS at:

New York City Opera,
Glimmerglass Opera,
Virginia Opera,
Florida Grand Opera,
Chicago Opera Theatre,
Opera San Jose,
Boston Lyric Opera.
Opera Omaha

References

External links
 Doollee.com playwright entry for Lillian Groag

 Agent's biography of Lillian Groag

Notes
Representation:

Beth Blickers - Abrams Artists Agency New York/
Robert Slotover - Allied Artists U.K.

American theatre directors
American women theatre directors
American women dramatists and playwrights
Argentine theatre directors
Argentine women theatre directors
Argentine women dramatists and playwrights
American stage actresses
20th-century American actresses
Living people
Place of birth missing (living people)
Lake Forest College alumni
Northwestern University alumni
Argentine people of Austrian descent
Argentine people of Italian descent
Argentine emigrants to the United States
American people of Austrian descent
American writers of Italian descent
American television actresses
Actresses from Buenos Aires
1945 births
21st-century American women

Lillian Garrett-Groag


A Jewish consistory (see conventional meanings: consistory in Wiktionary), (or Consistoire in French), was a body governing the Jewish congregations of a province or of a country; also the district administered by the consistory.

Napoleon Bonaparte established the first central Jewish consistory in France, and ordered regional ones to be set up in turn. The political emancipation of the Jews required the creation of a representative body that could transact official business with a government in the name of the Jews. The Jews in countries under French influence during the Napoleonic period often also established consistories. In addition, in this period, the educated classes desired religious reform and supported the creation of a body vested with authority to render religious decisions.

In 1983 The New York Times reported that France had "some 750,000 - the fourth largest in the world, after those in the United States, Israel and the Soviet Union."

France

Napoleon I established the first Jewish consistory. In 1806 he convened the Assembly of Jewish Notables, whose resolutions were confirmed by a subsequently convened Grand Sanhedrin. By decree of March 17, 1808, he organized a consistory. According to this decree, every department containing 2,000 Jews might establish a consistory. Departments having fewer than this number might combine with others; but no department had more than one consistory. Above these provincial consistories, there was a central consistory. Every consistory consisted of a grand rabbi, with another rabbi where possible, and three lay members, two of whom were residents of the town where the consistory sat. They were elected by twenty-five "notables," who were nominated by the French authorities.

Thus Israelite French consistories were, like their Protestant namesakes, parastatal entities to represent these religious minorities to the administration, which in return used to control them. Eligible to become members of the consistory were Israelites who had reached the age of thirty years, who had never been bankrupt, nor practised usury. The central consistory consisted of three grand rabbis and two lay members. Every year one grand rabbi retired, and the remaining members elected his successor.

Napoleon demanded that the consistories should ensure that resolutions passed by the Assembly of Notables and confirmed by the Sanhedrin should be enforced by the rabbis. He required the following: proper decorum should be maintained in the synagogue; Jews should take up mechanical trades (to replace usury); and the leaders should ensure that no young men evaded military service. The central consistory watched over the consistories of the various departments, and had the right to appoint the rabbis.

French dependencies
Napoleon's administration introduced the concept of the consistory to the various countries which were under the sway of France during his era and where Jews had been emancipated, such as Belgium (French-annexed from 1794 to 1814), and the client states of Holland and Westphalia. Napoleon's youngest brother, Jérôme Bonaparte, ruled over Westphalia, where he established the  by decree of March 31, 1808. It was composed of a president (who could be either a rabbi or a layman), three rabbis, two lay members, and one secretary. Consistorial President Israel Jacobson was largely responsible for establishing this, as he hoped to use it to introduce his own ideas about Reform Judaism, including organs in the synagogue and the covering of coffins with flowers.
 The consistory ordered the introduction of confirmation for Jewish youths and removed the prohibition against consumption of leguminous plants on Passover.

With the exception of the consistory in Belgium, none of these organizations survived the Napoleonic era. Counter-revolutions in the countries formerly under French influence resulted in governments re-establishing discriminatory laws against the Jews.

During the middle of the nineteenth century, various Jewish communities worked to introduce either a consistory or a synod which should, by an authoritative vote, settle the difficulties which arose when the demands of the time came into conflict with the traditional Halakah law. Some members of the Jewish communities wanted reform, but others resisted change. None of these attempts was successful.

19th century

Since Napoleon's 1808 decree, the Consistory in France has changed. Members changed the method of electing the delegates, and dropped provisions assigning the rabbis secondary roles as government informers. In the later 19th century, Louis Philippe (May 25, 1844) and Napoleon III (June 15, 1850, and August 29, 1862) made significant changes.

In 1871 the ambits of the three consistories in Colmar, Metz and Strasbourg became part of Alsace-Lorraine outside the supervision of the Central Consistory. They were not under any other common umbrella. However, the three consistories remained concordatory religious bodies and were entitled to nominate together one representative for the upper house of the parliament of Alsace-Lorraine, as did other recognised religious bodies. After French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, Alsace-Lorraine was ceded to Germany.

The French law of December 12, 1872, introduced the system of universal suffrage in elections of the consistories. In the beginning of the 20th century, there were twelve consistories: Paris, Nancy, Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseilles, Bayonne, Epinal, Lille, Besançon, Algier, Constantine, and Oran. Each has the grand rabbi of the consistorial district and six lay members, with a secretary. Each consistory has a representative in the Central Consistory, which is composed of twelve members and the Grand Rabbi of France; its seat is in Paris.

20th century
By the 1905 French law on the Separation of Religions and the State, the Israelite consistories in France lost their status as établissements publics du culte (public-law corporations of cult). With the defeat of Germany in World War I, in 1919 the three Israelite consistories in Alsace-Moselle returned to French jurisdiction. Their concordatory status has since been preserved in what is now called the local law in Alsace-Moselle. They retain their status as parastatal entities.

The Jewish population of France increased in part due to the arrival in the 1950s and 1960s of an estimated 300,000 North-African Jews from formerly French possessions: Algeria,  Morocco, Tunisia.

Due to "anti-Jewish terrorist acts believed to have been carried out by professional terrorists based outside France and linked to radical Arab movements in the Middle East" extra security precautions became the norm in the 1980s in France.

See also
 Conseil Représentatif des Institutions juives de France (CRIF)

References

 Felix Lazarus, Das Königlich Westphälische Konsistorium der Israeliten: nach meist unbenützten Quellen, Bratislava: Alkalay, 1914.

Governing assemblies of religious organizations
Jewish French history
Jewish self-rule

Consistory (Judaism)


In television, a season premiere refers to the first episode of a new television season for a series that has been renewed.

In North America, a given show's season premiere often airs in September or October, after several months of reruns.

Characteristics

A season premiere usually has one or more of the following characteristics:

 Resolutions to cliffhangers and other plots left unresolved in the previous season's season finale.
 Introductions of new storylines. Some stock examples might include a character having a new job (or losing one), a character gets a new love interest (or an existing relationship either ends or enters a new phase), children entering a new school, the core group of characters move to a new home (or hangout, etc.) ... and the list goes on.
Often, one or more of these stories will introduce a fundamental change to a particular show. An example is Archie Bunker's Place, where Archie's wife, Edith, died and the characters deal with her death. Subsequent episodes had Archie adjusting to life as a widower and re-entering the dating scene.
 One-up episodes with plots or special guest stars meant to entice viewers. Some shows feature a special guest star (e.g., Don Drysdale on a season premiere episode of The Brady Bunch or Jerry Seinfeld on a season premiere of 30 Rock); others might have multi-part "adventures," such as the Bradys' family vacations to Grand Canyon and Hawaii.
 A change in central setting or, to a lesser extent, remodeling of the setting.
 Introductions of new characters, frequently to boost the ratings of a veteran show, two examples are John Doggett in season eight and Monica Reyes in season nine of The X-Files.
 In the case of game shows, the introduction of new (or revised) rules, new bonus games, rules concerning prizes (such as what can be won), and/or new models.
 The show airing at a new day and/or timeslot, either to improve sagging ratings or - if the ratings are high - to anchor a line-up of new and veteran programs.

Television series

Season premiere


Consecration is a special ceremony, usually religious, in which a person, or an object or a building is dedicated to a special purpose.  When a new church is built there will be a special opening ceremony, called a "consecration". In many religions ordination is how individuals are consecrated (ordained) as a minister.

The verb is to consecrate.  The adjective is consecrated.

A synonym (another word) for consecration is sanctification (verb: to sanctify).
An antonym (the opposite) is desecration (verb: to desecrate) (for example when people smash holy things in a church).
 A related word is deconsecration, also called secularization. it is the act of reversing the consecration from something that had been previously consecrated. A church building which is no longer to be used as a church is sometimes deconsecrated, thus making it suitable for secular use.

The word "consecration" is used in the Catholic Church as the setting apart for the service of God of both persons and objects. The ordination of a new bishop is also called a consecration. The life of those who enter religious orders (for example: monks and nuns) is also described as "Consecrated Life".

In Catholic and Orthodox churches, only men are chosen to be priests. But in many Protestant denominations, including the Church of England, women are allowed take leadership roles. (See Liberal Christianity) Some major Protestant denominations however, like the Southern Baptist Convention take a more conservative and traditional view of women. Various religious groups have different terminology for the recognition of persons who take special roles in the religion. The word "consecration" is sometimes used to recognize persons who would not be accepted for "ordination".

Sacraments
Roman Catholicism

hi:अभिषेक

Consecration


Hammarby Sjöstad is a part of the inner city of Stockholm, currently undergoing major urban redevelopment. It is located on both sides of lake Hammarby Sjö, bordering Nacka Municipality to the east. The area is part of the districts Södermalm and Södra Hammarbyhamnen.

Before the current redevelopment began, the area was known as Norra Hammarbyhamnen and Södra Hammarbyhamnen, a mainly industrial zone centered on the Lumafabriken works, a piece of functionalist architecture designed by Eskil Sundahl and Arthur von Schmalensee, which now houses a library, restaurants, and offices. The neighbouring Lugnet was a run-down light industrial area, not intended to be permanent, housing an impromptu trailer park.
On the north side of the lake, the Norra Hammarbyhamnen area was used as a harbour area, with a railway connecting the area.

New plans for most of the Södermalm area Norra Hammarbyhamnen in the early 1990s opened the door for a redevelopment of the entire area around the water expanse Hammarby Sjö. A general plan, featuring an extension of the Tvärbanan light rail link from Gullmarsplan through the area was presented.

Although the south and east part of Hammarby Sjöstad is located outside what is traditionally considered to be the perimeter of inner-city Stockholm, the design is intentionally semi-urban rather than suburban, with boulevards, somewhat defined and architecturally varied city blocks, and commercial spaces in the ground floor of some buildings. The location, next to the lake Hammarby Sjö and a canal, Sickla Kanal, has allowed for plenty of quays and walkways along the water.

The area also included the 1940s area Danviksklippan that remains unchanged of the ongoing development. Neighbourhoods includes most of Norra Hammarbyhamnen, Tegelviksgatan, Sickla Udde, Sickla Kaj, Luma and Sickla Kanal.

Administratively, Hammarby Sjöstad is a part of the Stockholm Municipality borough of Södermalm. It belonged to the former borough of Katarina-Sofia, which merged with Maria-Gamla Stan borough into Södermalm borough on January 1, 2007.

External links

Stockholm Municipality information page
Environmental web portal

Geography of Stockholm
Redeveloped ports and waterfronts in Sweden

Hammarby Sjöstad


Rudolf Slánský (31 July 1901 – 3 December 1952) was a Czechoslovak Communist politician. He was a longtime member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. Later he was the General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee (1945-1951). Slánský was one of the main organizers of the 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état. During World War II he was a member of Czechoslovak exile resistance in the foreign centre in Moscow. Slánský was executed on December 3, 1952 at Prague's Pankrac Prison.

Early years
Slánský was born  on July 31, 1901 in Nezvěstice near Pilsen, Bohemia. His father was a Jewish merchant. He studied at a public academy in Plzeň. Slánský joined the Czechoslovak Communist Party in 1921, three years after it was formed. In 1924 he was the editor of the Communist Party newspaper, Rude Pravo. He rose in the ranks of the Party becoming a member of the Central Committee. He was in hiding from 1929 to 1935 because the Party was illegal in Czechoslovakia at the time. He became a member of the National Assembly and a close associate of Klement Gottwald.

World War II
When the Munich Agreement was signed in 1938, Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland was taken over by Nazi Germany. When the German army marched into the Sudetenland on October 1, 1938, Slánský fled. He went to the Soviet Union and stayed there during most of World War II. He returned to Czechoslovakia in 1944 and took part in the Slovak National Uprising.

Postwar
After the war, he was involved in politics. The Communist Party in Czechoslovakia agreed to accept many of Joseph Stalin's trained Czechs. Slánský was made the Secretary-General of the Party in Czechoslovakia. By 1948, it was clear that Gottwald was following the Stalinist style of politics.

Arrest and trial
Slánský himself had been in charge of purges of several of his associates. When Gottwald thought he might be next, he had Slánský and 13 others arrested. The charges against Slánský included treason, spying and sabotage. Slánský finally confessed after being tortured. Then he had to memorize a speech for the show trial. All of the 14 had confessed. Slánský was one of the 11 who was given a death sentence. Twice Slánský attempted suicide while he was waiting for his execution. Finally, on December 3, 1952, he was hanged at Pankrac Prison.

After Stalin died in 1953, there were fewer purges. In April 1963, Slánský and his fellow victims were cleared of the charges against them. In May, 1968, Slánský and the others were formally exonerated.

References

1901 births
1952 deaths
Czechoslovak communist politicians
Czech Jews
Jewish politicians
People executed by hanging

Rudolf Slánský


Pole position is when a racing driver starts first on the grid in a race. Before a race, all the drivers see who goes around the fastest. The person who has the fastest time starts at the front, in pole position, and then so on according to their times. Pole position is the best place to start.

Auto racing

Pole position


Nanoelectromechanical systems will be very tiny machines, with dimensions thousands of times thinner than the human hair, that could be used as motors or sensors. The technology is very new and still in the laboratory stage, but may replace microelectromechanical systems.

Compared to human scale, things work very differently at nano dimensions. For example, attractive forces between materials of the same type may push together moving parts and block a motor.

Nanotechnology

Nanoelectromechanical systems


Bjarmaland (also spelt Bjarmland and Bjarmia; ; , , Old Permic: ) was a territory mentioned in Norse sagas since the Viking Age and in geographical accounts until the 16th century. The term is usually seen to have referred to the southern shores of the White Sea and the basin of the Northern Dvina River (Vienanjoki in Finnish) as well as, presumably, some of the surrounding areas. Today, those territories comprise a part of the Arkhangelsk Oblast of Russia, as well as the Kola Peninsula.

Norse voyagers in Bjarmaland

According to the Voyage of Ohthere (c. 890 CE), the Norwegian merchant Ottar (Ohthere) reported to king Alfred the Great that he had sailed for 15 days along the northern coast and then southwards, finally arriving at a great river, probably the Northern Dvina. At the estuary of the river dwelt the Beormas, who unlike the nomadic Sami peoples were sedentary, and their land was rich and populous. Ohthere did not know their language but he said that it resembled the language of the Sami people. The Bjarmians told Ohthere about their country and other countries that bordered it.

Later, several expeditions were undertaken from Norway to Bjarmaland. In 920, Eric Bloodaxe made a Viking expedition, as well as Harald II of Norway and Haakon Magnusson of Norway, in 1090.

The best known expedition was that of Tore Hund (Tore Dog) who together with some friends, arrived in Bjarmaland in 1026. They started to trade with the inhabitants and bought a great many pelts, whereupon they pretended to leave. Later, they made shore in secret, and plundered the burial site, where the Bjarmians had erected an idol of their god Jómali. This god had a bowl containing silver on his knees, and a valuable chain around his neck. Tore and his men managed to escape from the pursuing Bjarmians with their rich bounty.

Identification

The name Bjarmaland appears in Old Norse literature, possibly referring to the area where Arkhangelsk is presently situated, and where it was preceded by a Bjarmian settlement.  The first appearance of the name occurs in an account of the travels of Ohthere of Hålogaland, which was written in about 890.

The name Permians is already found in the oldest document of the Rus', the Nestor's Chronicle (1000–1100). The names of other Uralic tribes are also listed including some Samoyedic peoples as well as the Veps, Cheremis, Mordvin, and Chudes.

The place-name Bjarmaland was also used later both by the German historian Adam of Bremen (11th century) and the Icelander Snorri Sturluson (1179–1241) in Bósa saga ok Herrauðs, reporting about its rivers flowing out to Gandvik. It is not clear if they reference the same Bjarmaland as was mentioned in the Voyage of Ohthere, however. The name of the Bjarmian god Jómali is so close to the word  for "god" in most Finnic languages that Bjarmians were likely a Finnic group. In fact, languages belonging to other language groups have never been suggested within serious research.

The Swedish cartographer Olaus Magnus located Bjarmaland in the Kola Peninsula in his Carta marina et descriptio septentrionalium terrarum (1539), while Swedish humanist Johannes Schefferus (1621–1679) identified it with Lappland.

Origin of the name: the Bjarmians
Bjarmians cannot be connected directly to any existing group of people living today, but it is likely that they were a separate group of Finnic speakers in the White Sea area. Toponyms and loan words in dialects in northern Russia indicate that Finnic speaking populations used to live in the area. Also Russian chronicles mention groups of people in the area associated with Finno-Ugric languages.

Accordingly, many historians assume the terms  and  to derive from the Uralic word perm, which refers to "travelling merchants" and represents the Old Permic culture. However, some linguists consider this theory to be speculative.

Recent research on the Uralic substrate in northern Russian dialects suggests that several other Uralic groups besides the Permians, lived in Bjarmaland, assumed to have included the Viena Karelians, Sami and Kvens. According to Helimski, the language spoken c. 1000 AD in the northern Archangel region, which he terms Lop''', was closely related to but distinct from the Sami languages proper. That would fit Ottar's account perfectly.

Bjarmian trade reached southeast to Bolghar, by the Volga River, where the Bjarmians also interacted with Scandinavians and Fennoscandians, who had ventured southbound from the Baltic Sea area.

 Background

Modern historians suppose that the wealth of the Bjarmians was due to their profitable trade along the Northern Dvina, the Kama River and the Volga to Bolghar and other trading settlements in the south. Along this route, silver coins and other merchandise were exchanged for pelts and walrus tusks brought by the Bjarmians. In fact, burial sites in modern Perm Krai are the richest source of Sasanian and Sogdian silverware from Iran. Further north, the Bjarmians traded with the Sami.

It seems that the Scandinavians made some use of the Dvina trade route, in addition to the Volga trade route and Dnieper trade route. In 1217, two Norwegian traders arrived in Bjarmaland to buy pelts; one of the traders continued further south to pass to Russia in order to arrive in the Holy Land, where he intended to take part in the Crusades. The second trader who remained was killed by the Bjarmians. This caused Norwegian officials to undertake a campaign of retribution into Bjarmaland which they pillaged in 1222.

The 13th century seems to have seen the decline of the Bjarmians, who became tributaries of the Novgorod Republic. While many Slavs fled the Mongol invasion northward, to Beloozero and Bjarmaland, the displaced Bjarmians sought refuge in Norway, where they were given land around the Malangen fjord by Haakon IV of Norway in 1240. More important for the decline was probably that, with the onset of the Crusades, the trade routes had found a more westerly orientation or shifted considerably to the south.

When the Novgorodians founded Velikiy Ustiug, in the beginning of the 13th century, the Bjarmians had a serious competitor for the trade. More and more Pomors arrived in the area during the 14th and 15th centuries, which led to the final assimilation of the Bjarmians by the Slavs.

Later use
The collaborationist Quisling regime planned to build Norwegian colonies in Northern Russia, following a future success of Operation Barbarossa, and which were to be named Bjarmaland; but these plans never came to be.

See also
Ohthere of Hålogaland
Kvenland
Gardariki
Miklagard
Vinland
Serkland
SkrælingPanurus biarmicus and Biarmosuchus tener, species whose scientific names were created after the region
 Kola Norwegians
 Murman Coast
 Viking expansion

Notes

References

Steinsland, G. & Meulengracht Sørensen, P. (1998): Människor och makter i vikingarnas värld.
Тиандер К.Ф.  Поездки скандинавов в Белое море. [Voyages of the Norsemen to the White Sea'']. Saint Petersburg, 1906.

History of Scandinavia
Medieval Russia
Historical regions in Russia
Scandinavian folklore
Novgorod Republic
White Sea
Saga locations
Viking Age populated places
Exonyms
Old Norse
Barents Sea
History of Murmansk Oblast
History of the Arctic
Kingdom of Norway (872–1397)
Medieval Norway
Norway–Russia relations
Sámi history
Permians

Bjarmaland