St Mary's Church is a redundant Anglican church in the small village of Thornton-le-Moors, Cheshire, England.  The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building, and it is in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.

History

A chapel was present on the site in Saxon times and is recorded in the Domesday Book.  It was formerly dedicated to Saint Helen.  The nave, chancel and south aisle of the present church date from the 14th century as does the south door. A chapel, the Elton Chapel, was added in the 16th century.  The tower also dates from this time; it was damaged by fire in 1909 and was largely rebuilt in 1910.  A south porch was added in the late 17th century.  The nave and chancel were originally undivided but an arch was added in the 19th century.  A restoration was carried out in 1878.  The church closed in 2002 and was vested in the Churches Conservation Trust in September 2009.  Repairs and restoration have cost £350,000, and the church is now open for visitors and community use.

Architecture

Exterior
The church is built in red sandstone with slate roofs.  The plan consists of a nave of five bays, and three-bay chancel with a south aisle and a south porch.  To the west of the aisle and incorporated in the church is the tower.  The three-bay Elton Chapel is to the east of the aisle.

Interior
The chancel retains its medieval hammerbeam roof but the roof of the nave was replaced in pitch pine in the 1878 restoration.  The chancel is panelled with oak which had previously been used for the pews.  An oak screen is between the chancel and the chapel.  The organ has been placed at the west end of the chapel and the rest of it is used as a clergy vestry.  The altar rails are dated 1694 and are on three sides of the altar.  The altar table is also dated 1694.  A medieval piscina is in the wall of the aisle.  In the vestry is a small church chest and two sanctuary chairs dating from the early 17th century.  There are two fonts, both probably from the 17th century.  One of these, which is octagonal, was used for a time as a vase in a local garden.  On the walls are monuments to local landowners and 11 painted memorial panels and hatchments.  It is thought that some of these may be by members of the Randle Holme family of Chester.  The parish registers begin in 1574 but are incomplete between 1682 and 1688.  There is a ring of four bells cast by John Taylor and Company in 1909.

External features

Some of the walls of the churchyard and gate piers are listed Grade II, as is a table tomb in the churchyard.  Also in the churchyard is a sundial with an octagonal shaft dated 1754.  In addition the churchyard contains the war grave of a First World War soldier of the King's Liverpool Regiment.

See also

Grade I listed buildings in Cheshire West and Chester
Grade I listed churches in Cheshire
Listed buildings in Thornton-le-Moors
List of churches preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust in Northern England

References

External links

Photographs by Craig Thornber
Photographs of the interior by Peter Whitby

14th-century church buildings in England
16th-century Church of England church buildings
Church of England church buildings in Cheshire
Former Church of England church buildings
Former churches in Cheshire
Grade I listed churches in Cheshire
English Gothic architecture in Cheshire
Churches preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust

St Mary's Church, Thornton-le-Moors


A chamber pot (also a chamberpot), a piss pot, a potty, a po, a gazunder, or a thunder pot) is a container with a handle, usually used as a urinal at night. It is kept in a bedroom under a bed or in a nightstand.

During Victorian times, some chamber pots were built into a cabinet with a closeable cover.

History
The chamber pot was originally designed for females. Called the Bourdaloue, it allowed women to urinate squatting or sitting without accidents. It was supposedly named after the French Catholic priest Louis Bourdaloue, whose sermon were so long that women brought Bourdaloue so they could urinate without having to leave.

In the 19th century, water closets started to be more common than chamber pots, but chamber pots were still used until the mid-20th century. Today, they are used in countries that have no indoor plumbing.

In North America and the UK, "potty" refer to the toilets made especially for potty training. These toilets are similar to chamber pots.

In the Philippines, chamber pots are used as urinals and are commonly called "Arinola" in Philippine languages like Tagalog and Cebuano.

In Korea, chamber pots are referred to as yogang (요강). Currently, they are still used in some country regions in the North.

Related pages

Furniture

Chamber pot


Floorball is an indoor team sport similar to hockey. Floorball is usually played in gyms with little plastic balls and special hockey sticks. In floorball, there are basically five players with sticks and a goalkeeper without any special equipment. The goalkeeper has only special jersey and helmet. Floorball is very popular today.

The origin of floorball is disputed, with Sweden, Canada, and the USA all claiming to have invented the sport. Regardless, floorball has been most popular in Sweden since the 1970s. Its popularity quickly spread to Finland and Switzerland, but with different rules. For example, in Switzerland a goalkeeper was allowed to use a stick.  In 1986, the International Floorball Federation (IFF) was founded and rules became the same.

Floorball is played in a gym on an area of 40x20 meters bordered by boards 50 centimetres high. The formations are very similar to ice hockey. Both teams play with 3 attackers, 2 defenders and a goalkeeper. They can relieve whenever they want. Floorball is usually played 3x20 minutes with 15 minutes breaks. This is only for men and women. In juniors matches the time is different. Floorball is a contact sport so players can play with their body, but it has limits. The goalkeeper is not allowed to use a stick, but he can handle the ball with his body. The field players cannot hit the ball with their hands or head and they cannot jump. The goalkeeper can hit the ball with every part of his body and he can hold it for 3 seconds. In floorball, a player can be excluded for 2 minutes when he breaks the rules.

The currently strongest leagues are located in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Switzerland and the Czech Republic.

IFF organises world championships in floorball. Every year they are in a different country and it's also alternating between the mens and the womens tournament.

Other websites

Team sports

Floorball


Valenti Angelo (1897-1982) (variant name Valenti Michael Angelo) was an Italian-American printmaker, illustrator and author, born June 23, 1897, in Massarosa, Italy. He immigrated to the United States, living first in New York City then settling in Antioch, California. At the age of nineteen, Angelo moved to San Francisco, working by day as a labourer and spending his evenings and weekends at libraries and museums. He soon became a versatile artist and an especially skilled engraver and printer. Angelo's favoured medium was the linocut, and his prints depicting urban nocturnes and desert scenes of the American Southwest are particularly coveted by collectors and dealers. In 1926, Angelo made his first book illustrations for the well-known, San Francisco-based Grabhorn Press.

In a period of 34 years, Angelo decorated and illustrated roughly 250 books. Among these were folio editions of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, and numerous books of the Bible. Many of these books have been included in the annual American Institute of Graphic Arts exhibitions since 1927. Under the tutelage of May Massee of Viking Press, Angelo began writing children's stories in 1937. In 1939, Angelo won the Newbery Honor for Nino. After a mid-life relocation to New York state, he returned to San Francisco in 1974 and continued his life's work. Angelo died in San Francisco on September 3, 1982.

Selected collections
 Library of Congress, Washington D.C.
 New York Public Library
 Special Collections, Stony Brook University Libraries

Selected publications
 Paradise Valley
 The Rooster Club
 The Candy Basket 1960 The Viking Press
 The Bells of Bleecker Street
 The Marble Fountain
 Nino
 Salome
 The Scarlet Letter
1934 Limited Editions Club edition: Burton, Richard Francis, translator, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night: The Complete Burton Translation with the Complete Burton Notes, the Terminal Index, and 1001 Decorations by Valenti Angelo, 3 Volumes (reprinted in 1962).
 The Little Flowers of Saint Francis of Assisi,  The translation of Thomas Okey, Published by Peter Pauper Press ()

References
Linden, James (ed.). Con Amore: Valenti Angelo: A Bibliography, 1971-1982. San Francisco: Linden Editions, 1992.
Valenti Angelo: Author, Illustrator, Printer. San Francisco: Book Club of California, 1976.

External links

Autobiography
Askart.com (Valenti Michael Angelo)
Special Collections, Stony Brook University Libraries (Valenti Angelo collection)
International Fine Print Dealers Association (Valenti Angelo)
Example of books illustrated by Valenti Angelo

1897 births
1982 deaths
American children's writers
American engravers
American illustrators
American printmakers
Artists from San Francisco
Italian emigrants to the United States
Artists from the Province of Lucca
20th-century engravers

Valenti Angelo


A Travelcard is a  ticket used for most transport in London, including buses and the underground. The ticket is issued by Transport for London and National Rail and can be used on the services of either.

History
Before Travelcards were used, travellers in Greater London had to pay every time they changed between
London Transport's bus and Underground services. This was a problem as it led to delays while purchasing the next ticket.

One ticket for all transport in London was one of the key promises made in 1981 by the newly-elected Labour Greater London Council, headed by council leader Ken Livingstone. The policy, with the slogan "Just The Ticket", meant that only one ticket was needed for London Transport bus and Underground services. They also reduced the price of transport. The price cut was then ruled illegal, but the one pricing scheme was mostly a success and was extended during the 1980s and 1990s as new transport routes were opened in London.

By 1985, there were two travelcards: the Travelcard itself, which covered only London Buses and the Underground, and the Capitalcard, which covered most bus, Underground and local British Rail (BR) services. The Travelcard replaced the original Capitalcard, while including its greater availability, around 1989.

The original "zonal" system was mainly in Greater London. The zone areas used both letters and numbers for the outermost zones such that bus availability ignored the letter while BR and Underground availability depended also upon the letter(s) - e.g. a Travelcard or Capitalcard valid in zone 3a (but not 3b or 3c) was valid on buses in zones 3a, 3b and 3c but only in zone 3a when used on the railway services.

Transport modes
A Travelcard entitles the holder to use the following modes of transport within Greater London:

London Buses, including some services that terminate outside of Greater London
London Underground
London Overground
Docklands Light Railway
National Rail except for the Heathrow Express
Tramlink

Travelcards also entitle the holder to a 33% discount on some London River Services.

References

Transport in London

Travelcard


The northbridge is one of two basic chips on the motherboard of a computer. The other basic chip is the southbridge and together they create the computer chipset. Usually, north- and southbridge are on different ICs; it is rare for both of them to be on one chip.

Use
Northbridge supports communication between CPU, RAM memory, AGP port or PCI Express bus and also supports connection with southbridge. There exist some chipsets which support two types of RAM memory and which are accessible during transition to new standard.

Significance
Northbridge is a basic part of motherboard which establishes speed, types of processors, quantity of processors and kind of RAM memory. Other important factors are, for example, voltage regulation and number of connectors.

Progression
Sequencers of RAM memory was, in AMD64 architecture, shifted directly into processor. Other producers (like Intel or IBM) also incorporated this change into their new processors.

The future
A perspective to the future  is SOC (System On Chip). With it will also decrease the number of components on the motherboard. But bigger chips hold under universality of solution, they have more pins and they are more difficult. Present high-speed buses are series (PCIe, SATA) and they decline the complexity. In the future we can expect return to the standard interface of other circuits using bus (probably PCI express) and maybe they will be connected to the single Super I/O sequencer. Saved lads can be used for another integrated turn like SATA, USB, IDE, SDIO scanner of cards and sequencers of PCI.

Motherboard

Northbridge


Barra Honda National Park is a national park in the western part of Costa Rica, which forms part of the Tempisque Conservation Area about  from the Tempisque River. It was created in 1974 to protect its famous cave systems, under the Barra Honda Peak which was formed when islets from the Miocene Era were raised above the plains of the river. The caves and waterways there today were then carved out by the action of rain filtering through the limestone over 70 million years or more.

The calcareous formations of the limestone caverns at the Park are the main visitor attraction, which are only estimated to be 50% explored. The park has a Ranger Station which is open for visitor attention from 8am to dusk, and has potable water and restrooms.

The number of caves discovered on Barra Honda Peak was 42 in 2005, which were rediscovered during the 1960s and 1970s. They include Nicoa, where pre-Columbian human remains, artifacts and jewelry were found dated to approximately 300 BC, and Santa Ana, the deepest cave known in the complex which is unusual for its unique and numerous stalactites and columns. This cave plunges some  into the earth.   Various colonies of bats roost within the [cavern system].

Due to its unique underground features, the park is also home to several rare species. These include blind salamanders and endemic fish that have adapted to living in complete darkness.

In March 1997 approximately five percent of the park was devastated by a fire, several other national parks in that same year were also affected. Costa Rica's National Commission of Forest Fires (CONIFOR) reported that efforts to suppress fires were hampered by smoke obscuring locations that were in danger of getting out of control, as well as problems with communication and transport and an overall lack of firefighting equipment. On June 11, 1997, an OFDA funded commercial flight carrying appropriate tools and equipment was sent to several nations hit by similar fires in the region, the cargo being funded by a grant from the USFS towards fire suppression efforts.

References

Protected areas established in 1974
National parks of Costa Rica
Geography of Guanacaste Province
Tourist attractions in Guanacaste Province
Central American dry forests

Barra Honda National Park


The Book of One Thousand and One Nights , Arabia aur Persia se kahani hae. Isme tiin layer hae:

 Queen Scheherazade jon aapan admii ke batais, jiske uske maut ke ghta nai utara jaae.
 Aslii kahani, jaise kiAli Baba and the Forty Thieves, Aladdin and the Magic Lamp, etc.
 II kahani me ek narrator bhi rahe hae jon ki khissa ke batae hae.

References
 The Thousand Nights and a Night in several classic translations, including unexpurgated version by Sir Francis Burton, and John Payne translation, with additional material.
 Stories From One Thousand and One Nights, (Lane and Poole translation): Project Bartleby edition
 The Arabian Nights (includes Lang and (expurgated) Burton translations): Electronic Literature Foundation editions
 The Medieval Arabic Nights - a study
 Jonathan Scott translation of Arabian Nights
 Notes on the influences and context of the Thousand and One Nights
 1001 Resources and Links for A Thousand and One Nights University of Houston
 The Book of the Thousand and One Nights by John Crocker
 (expurgated) Sir Burton's ~1885 translation, annotated for English study.
 Arabian Nights' Tales  Dedicated site with just the stories of 1001 nights listed in order.

Persian literature
Arabic literature

The Book of One Thousand and One Nights


A converter is a chemical reactor which turns raw iron into steel.

Raw iron called pig iron which is the product of blast furnace, contains up to 4% of carbon. It is too hard and brittle for meaningful use. The carbon must first be burned off the iron to produce steel. This process is called conversion and the reactor a converter.

The first converter was invented by Sir Henry Bessemer in 1856. He built a pear-shaped large vessel with nozzles (tuyeres) for air in the bottom. Hot molten pig iron from blast furnace was poured in the converter, and then air was pumped in at the bottom with high pressure. The result was a loud noise and a flame of up to 20 metres off the mouth of the converter. After ten minutes all the pig iron had become steel. The Bessemer converter was the first successful reactor on converting pig iron into steel, and the era of steel began. Steel was now plentiful and cheap.

However, steel becomes better if only oxygen is blown in. Air contains nitrogen, which is harmful for some steel grades. A modern converter called basic oxygen furnace uses pure oxygen instead of air. It was invented 1949 in Austria.

The modern basic oxygen converter is a large pumpkin-shape vessel which is made from steel and lined with refractories such as calcium oxide and magnesium oxide line so the vessel can withstand the high temperature of molten metal.

Molten pig iron and scrap are loaded in the converter. The scrap usually is rusty and contains oxygen, so some of the rust reacts with the pig iron, burning the carbon away and creating heat which melts the scrap. Once all scrap has melted, a special pipe called "oxygen lance" is lowered in the pig iron, and a very fast and sharp blow of oxygen is blasted in. The oxygen burns all the carbon away and mixes the liquid steel thoroughly. Once all carbon has been burned away, some extra carbon is inserted to raise the contents to desired level. The result is liquid steel, which is then tapped away and taken to rolling mill to produce steel products.
Industries

Converter (metallurgy)


A normal mode of a dynamical system is a pattern of motion in which all parts of the system move sinusoidally with the same frequency and with a fixed phase relation.  The free motion described by the normal modes takes place at fixed frequencies.  These fixed frequencies of the normal modes of a system are known as its natural frequencies or resonant frequencies.  A physical object, such as a building, bridge, or molecule, has a set of normal modes and their natural frequencies that depend on its structure, materials and boundary conditions.

The most general motion of a linear system is a superposition of its normal modes. The modes are normal in the sense that they can move independently, that is to say that an excitation of one mode will never cause motion of a different mode. In mathematical terms, normal modes are orthogonal to each other.

General definitions

Mode
In the wave theory of physics and engineering, a mode in a dynamical system is a standing wave state of excitation, in which all the components of the system will be affected sinusoidally at a fixed frequency associated with that mode.

Because no real system can perfectly fit under the standing wave framework, the mode concept is taken as a general characterization of specific states of oscillation, thus treating the dynamic system in a linear fashion, in which linear superposition of states can be performed.

Classical examples include
 In a mechanical dynamical system, a vibrating rope is the most clear example of a mode, in which the rope is the medium, the stress on the rope is the excitation, and the displacement of the rope with respect to its static state is the modal variable.
 In an acoustic dynamical system, a single sound pitch is a mode, in which the air is the medium, the sound pressure in the air is the excitation, and the displacement of the air molecules is the modal variable.
 In a structural dynamical system, a high tall building oscillating under its most flexural axis is a mode, in which all the material of the building -under the proper numerical simplifications- is the medium, the seismic/wind/environmental solicitations are the excitations and the displacements are the modal variable.
 In an electrical dynamical system, a resonant cavity made of thin metal walls, enclosing a hollow space, for a particle accelerator is a pure standing wave system, and thus an example of a mode, in which the hollow space of the cavity is the medium, the RF source (a Klystron or another RF source) is the excitation and the electromagnetic field is the modal variable.
 When relating to music, normal modes of vibrating instruments (strings, air pipes, drums, etc.) are called "overtones".

The concept of normal modes also finds application in other dynamical systems, such as optics, quantum mechanics, atmospheric dynamics and molecular dynamics.

Most dynamical systems can be excited in several modes, possibly simultaneously. Each mode is characterized by one or several frequencies, according to the modal variable field. For example, a vibrating rope in 2D space is defined by a single-frequency (1D axial displacement), but a vibrating rope in 3D space is defined by two frequencies (2D axial displacement).

For a given amplitude on the modal variable, each mode will store a specific amount of energy because of the sinusoidal excitation.

The normal or dominant mode of a system with multiple modes will be the mode storing the minimum amount of energy for a given amplitude of the modal variable, or, equivalently, for a given stored amount of energy, the dominant mode will be the mode imposing the maximum amplitude of the modal variable.

Mode numbers
A mode of vibration is characterized by a modal frequency and a mode shape. It is numbered according to the number of half waves in the vibration.  For example, if a vibrating beam with both ends pinned displayed a mode shape of half of a sine wave (one peak on the vibrating beam) it would be vibrating in mode 1. If it had a full sine wave (one peak and one trough) it would be vibrating in mode 2.

In a system with two or more dimensions, such as the pictured disk, each dimension is given a mode number.  Using polar coordinates, we have a radial coordinate and an angular coordinate. If one measured from the center outward along the radial coordinate one would encounter a full wave, so the mode number in the radial direction is 2. The other direction is trickier, because only half of the disk is considered due to the anti-symmetric (also called skew-symmetry) nature of a disk's vibration in the angular direction. Thus, measuring 180° along the angular direction you would encounter a half wave, so the mode number in the angular direction is 1. So the mode number of the system is 2–1 or 1–2, depending on which coordinate is considered the "first" and which is considered the "second" coordinate (so it is important to always indicate which mode number matches with each coordinate direction).

In linear systems each mode is entirely independent of all other modes.  In general all modes have different frequencies (with lower modes having lower frequencies) and different mode shapes.

Nodes

In a one-dimensional system at a given mode the vibration will have nodes, or places where the displacement is always zero.  These nodes correspond to points in the mode shape where the mode shape is zero.  Since the vibration of a system is given by the mode shape multiplied by a time function, the displacement of the node points remain zero at all times.

When expanded to a two dimensional system, these nodes become lines where the displacement is always zero.  If you watch the animation above you will see two circles (one about halfway between the edge and center, and the other on the edge itself) and a straight line bisecting the disk, where the displacement is close to zero.  In an idealized system these lines equal zero exactly, as shown to the right.

In mechanical systems

Coupled oscillators
Consider two equal bodies (not affected by gravity), each of mass m, attached to three springs, each with spring constant k. They are attached in the following manner, forming a system that is physically symmetric:

where the edge points are fixed and cannot move. We'll use x1(t) to denote the horizontal displacement of the left mass, and x2(t) to denote the displacement of the right mass.

If one denotes acceleration (the second derivative of x(t) with respect to time) as , the equations of motion are:

Since we expect oscillatory motion of a normal mode (where ω is the same for both masses), we try:

Substituting these into the equations of motion gives us:

Since the exponential factor is common to all terms, we omit it and simplify:

And in matrix representation:

If the matrix on the left is invertible, the unique solution is the trivial solution (A1, A2) = (x1, x2) = (0,0). The non trivial solutions are to be found for those values of ω whereby the matrix on the left is singular i.e. is not invertible. It follows that the determinant of the matrix must be equal to 0, so:

Solving for , we have two positive solutions:

If we substitute ω1 into the matrix and solve for (A1, A2), we get (1, 1).  If we substitute ω2, we get (1, −1).  (These vectors are eigenvectors, and the frequencies are eigenvalues.)

The first normal mode is:

Which corresponds to both masses moving in the same direction at the same time. This mode is called antisymmetric.

The second normal mode is:

This corresponds to the masses moving in the opposite directions, while the center of mass remains stationary. This mode is called symmetric.

The general solution is a superposition of the normal modes where c1, c2, φ1, and φ2, are determined by the initial conditions of the problem.

The process demonstrated here can be generalized and formulated using the formalism of Lagrangian mechanics or Hamiltonian mechanics.

Standing waves
A standing wave is a continuous form of normal mode. In a standing wave, all the space elements (i.e. (x, y, z) coordinates) are oscillating in the same frequency and in phase (reaching the equilibrium point together), but each has a different amplitude.

The general form of a standing wave is:

where ƒ(x, y, z) represents the dependence of amplitude on location and the cosine\sine are the oscillations in time.

Physically, standing waves are formed by the interference (superposition) of waves and their reflections (although one may also say the opposite; that a moving wave is a superposition of standing waves). The geometric shape of the medium determines what would be the interference pattern, thus determines the ƒ(x, y, z) form of the standing wave. This space-dependence is called a normal mode.

Usually, for problems with continuous dependence on (x, y, z) there is no single or finite number of normal modes, but there are infinitely many normal modes. If the problem is bounded (i.e. it is defined on a finite section of space) there are countably many normal modes (usually numbered n = 1, 2, 3, ...). If the problem is not bounded, there is a continuous spectrum of normal modes.

Elastic solids

In any solid at any temperature, the primary particles (e.g. atoms or molecules) are not stationary, but rather vibrate about mean positions. In insulators the capacity of the solid to store thermal energy is due almost entirely to these vibrations. Many physical properties of the solid (e.g. modulus of elasticity) can be predicted given knowledge of the frequencies with which the particles vibrate. The simplest assumption (by Einstein) is that all the particles oscillate about their mean positions with the same natural frequency ν. This is equivalent to the assumption that all atoms vibrate independently with a frequency ν. Einstein also assumed that the allowed energy states of these oscillations are harmonics, or integral multiples of hν. The spectrum of waveforms can be described mathematically using a Fourier series of sinusoidal density fluctuations (or thermal phonons).

Debye subsequently recognized that each oscillator is intimately coupled to its neighboring oscillators at all times. Thus, by replacing Einstein's identical uncoupled oscillators with the same number of coupled oscillators, Debye correlated the elastic vibrations of a one-dimensional solid with the number of mathematically special modes of vibration of a stretched string (see figure). The pure tone of lowest pitch or frequency is referred to as the fundamental and the multiples of that frequency are called its harmonic overtones. He assigned to one of the oscillators the frequency of the fundamental vibration of the whole block of solid. He assigned to the remaining oscillators the frequencies of the harmonics of that fundamental, with the highest of all these frequencies being limited by the motion of the smallest primary unit.

The normal modes of vibration of a crystal are in general superpositions of many overtones, each with an appropriate amplitude and phase. Longer wavelength (low frequency) phonons are exactly those acoustical vibrations which are considered in the theory of sound. Both longitudinal and transverse waves can be propagated through a solid, while, in general, only longitudinal waves are supported by fluids.

In the longitudinal mode, the displacement of particles from their positions of equilibrium coincides with the propagation direction of the wave. Mechanical longitudinal waves have been also referred to as compression waves. For transverse modes, individual particles move perpendicular to the propagation of the wave.

According to quantum theory, the mean energy of a normal vibrational mode of a crystalline solid with characteristic frequency ν is:

The term (1/2)hν represents the "zero-point energy", or the energy which an oscillator will have at absolute zero. E(ν) tends to the classic value kT at high temperatures

By knowing the thermodynamic formula,

the entropy per normal mode is:

The free energy is:

which, for kT >> hν, tends to:

In order to calculate the internal energy and the specific heat, we must know the number of normal vibrational modes a frequency between the values ν and ν + dν. Allow this number to be f(ν)dν. Since the total number of normal modes is 3N, the function f(ν) is given by:

The integration is performed over all frequencies of the crystal. Then the internal energy U will be given by:

In quantum mechanics
In quantum mechanics, a state  of a system is described by a wavefunction  which solves the Schrödinger equation. The square of the absolute value of  , i.e.

is the probability density to measure the particle in place x at time t.

Usually, when involving some sort of potential, the wavefunction is decomposed into a superposition of energy eigenstates, each oscillating with frequency of . Thus, one may write

The eigenstates have a physical meaning further than an orthonormal basis. When the energy of the system is measured, the wavefunction collapses into one of its eigenstates and so the particle wavefunction is described by the pure eigenstate corresponding to the measured energy.

In seismology
Normal modes are generated in the Earth from long wavelength seismic waves from large earthquakes interfering to form standing waves.

For an elastic, isotropic, homogeneous sphere, spheroidal, toroidal and radial (or breathing) modes arise. Spheroidal modes only involve P and SV waves (like Rayleigh waves) and depend on overtone number n and angular order l but have degeneracy of azimuthal order m. Increasing l concentrates fundamental branch closer to surface and at large l this tends to Rayleigh waves. Toroidal modes only involve SH waves (like Love waves) and do not exist in fluid outer core. Radial modes are just a subset of spheroidal modes with l=0. The degeneracy does not exist on Earth as it is broken by rotation, ellipticity and 3D heterogeneous velocity and density structure.

It may be assumed that each mode can be isolated, the self-coupling approximation, or that many modes close in frequency resonate, the cross-coupling approximation.  Self-coupling will solely change the phase velocity and not the number of waves around a great circle, resulting in a stretching or shrinking of standing wave pattern. Modal cross-coupling occurs due to the rotation of the Earth, from aspherical elastic structure, or due to Earth's ellipticity and leads to a mixing of fundamental spheroidal and toroidal modes.

See also
 Antiresonance
 Critical speed
 Harmonic oscillator
 Harmonic series (music)
 Infrared spectroscopy
 Leaky mode
 Mechanical resonance
 Modal analysis
 Mode (electromagnetism)
 Quasinormal mode
 Sturm–Liouville theory
 Torsional vibration
 Vibrations of a circular membrane

Sources

External links
 Harvard lecture notes on normal modes

Ordinary differential equations
Classical mechanics
Quantum mechanics
Spectroscopy
Singular value decomposition
Articles containing video clips

Normal mode


In Egyptian mythology, the Ogdoad are a group of eight deities (divine beings) worshipped in Hermopolis. The gods of the Ogdoad were mostly seen as humans with the heads of animals, or just depicted as snakes and frogs. They were arranged in four male-female pairs, with the males associated with frogs, and the females with snakes. Their story is part of the Egyptian creation myth.

The Egyptians believed that before the world was formed, there was a watery mass of dark, directionless chaos. In this chaos lived the Ogdoad of Khmunu (Hermopolis). These were four frog gods and four snake goddesses of chaos. Together they represented balance in infinity.

Their names were Nun and Naunet (water), Amun and Amaunet (invisibility), Heh and Hauhet (infinity) and Kek and Kauket (darkness).

The chaos existed without the light, and thus Kek and Kauket came to represent this darkness. They also symbolized obscurity, the kind of obscurity that went with darkness, and night.

The Ogdoad were the original great gods of Iunu (On, Heliopolis) where they were thought to have helped with creation, then died and retired to the land of the dead where they continued to make the Nile River flow and the sun rise every day.

References

Egyptian gods and goddesses
Creation myths

Ogdoad (Egyptian)


Arun Manilal Gandhi (14 April 1934 – 2 May 2023) was a South African-born Indian-American author, socio-political activist and son of Manilal Gandhi, thus a grandson of nationalist leader Mahatma Gandhi.  In 2017, he published The Gift of Anger: And Other Lessons From My Grandfather Mahatma Gandhi (New York: Gallery Books/Jeter Publishing 2017).

Gandhi criticized the Indian government in an article he wrote after they subsidized a 1982 film based on his grandfather's life with $25 million. He immigrated to the United States with his family in 1987 where he studied at the University of Mississippi. They later moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where they founded a nonviolence institute hosted by the Christian Brothers University.

Early life
Arun Manilal Gandhi was born on 14 April 1934, in Durban, to Manilal Gandhi and Sushila Mashruwala. His father was an editor and his mother was a publisher for the Indian Opinion. Arun had seen his grandfather Mahatma Gandhi once briefly at age 5 and didn't see him again until 1946 when he lived with Mahatma Gandhi at the Sevagram ashram in India. Arun returned to the Union of South Africa in 1947, just weeks before his grandfather was assassinated.

While living at Sevagram, Arun had the advantage of education over the illiterate farm families who worked the surrounding fields. His grandfather urged him to play with the neighboring children after school in order to "learn what it was like to live in poverty", as well as to teach those children what he learned in class each day, which Arun Gandhi later described as "the most creative and enlightening experience for me." Eventually, crowds of children and their parents started showing up for lessons with the young Gandhi, which taught him compassion and the need to share.

Career
In 1982, when Columbia Pictures released the feature film, Gandhi, based on his grandfather's life, Gandhi wrote an article criticizing the Indian government for subsidizing the film with $25 million, arguing that there were more important things to spend such money on. Though his article was widely reprinted and celebrated, after attending a special screening of the film, Gandhi included that it accurately conveyed his grandfather's philosophy and legacy (despite its historical inaccuracies), and was so moved by it that he wrote another article retracting the first one.

In 1987, Arun Gandhi moved to the United States along with his wife, Sunanda, to work on a study at the University of Mississippi. This study examined and contrasted the sorts of prejudices that existed in India, the U.S., and South Africa. Afterward, they moved to Memphis, Tennessee, and founded the M. K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence hosted by the Christian Brothers University, a Catholic academic institution. This institute was dedicated to applying the principles of nonviolence at both local and global scales. As co-founders of the institute, both husband and wife received the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award "for bringing the legacy of Gandhi to America" which was awarded at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston. In 1996, he cofounded the Season for Nonviolence as a yearly celebration of the philosophies and lives of Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.

In 2003, Gandhi was one of the signatories to Humanism and Its Aspirations (Humanist Manifesto III).

In late 2007, Gandhi co-taught a course entitled "Gandhi on Personal Leadership and Nonviolence" at Salisbury University in Salisbury, Maryland. On 12 November 2007, Gandhi gave a lecture for the Salisbury University Center for Conflict Resolution's "One Person Can Make a Difference" Lecture Series, entitled "Nonviolence in the Age of Terrorism". In late 2008, Gandhi returned to Salisbury University to co-teach a course entitled "The Global Impact of Gandhi".

In 2007, after the passing of his wife  on 21 February, the institute moved to Rochester, New York, and is currently located on the University of Rochester River Campus. After January 2008 op-ed in The Washington Post'''s "On Faith" section where Gandhi said that Israelis talked too much about the Holocaust and were losing world sympathy and that Israel and the U.S. were the biggest contributors to the world-threatening "culture of violence", his ties to Rochester were imperiled. He claimed that dwelling on the past wouldn't allow them to move forward. Gandhi apologized by saying he had only meant to say right-wing Likud supporters were part of the problem, but the university did not accept his explanation and informed him that the institute would be closed unless he resigned from it. Gandhi then quit, making an erroneous prediction that he would be able to return in several months when the furor over his actions died down (he never came back in any capacity before his death in 2023).

Gandhi had given many speeches about nonviolence in many countries. During his tour to Israel, he urged the Palestinians to resist Israeli occupation peacefully to assure their freedom. In August 2004, Gandhi proposed to the Palestinian Parliament a peaceful march of 50,000 refugees across the Jordan River to return to their homeland and said MPs should lead the way. Gandhi also claimed that the fate of Palestinians is ten times worse than that of blacks in apartheid South Africa. He asked: "What would happen? Maybe the Israeli army would shoot and kill several. They may kill 100. They may kill 200 men, women and children. And that would shock the world. The world will get up and say, 'What is going on?'."

On 12 October 2009 Gandhi visited the Brunton Theatre in Musselburgh to talk to P7's from all over East Lothian in Scotland. On 11 November 2009 Gandhi visited Chattanooga State Technical Community College in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to speak and spread his message of peace. On 13 November 2009, Gandhi visited Cleveland State Community College in Cleveland, Tennessee, to speak and spread his message of peace. On 16 November 2010, Gandhi visited The University of Wyoming in Laramie, Wyoming, to speak and spread his message of peace.

On 2 March 2011, Arun Gandhi spoke at the East West Center on the campus of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii. He spoke about Nonviolence: A Means for Social Change. On the same day, he also spoke at Iolani School in Honolulu, on the subject of The Wisdom of Choosing Peace. On 3 March 2011, Gandhi spoke at the University of Hawaii Architecture Building, in an event sponsored by the Spark Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution in Honolulu, Hawaii. On 4 March 2011 spoke at the Pacific Buddhist Academy in Honolulu, Hawaii. He also spoke at the Hawaii State Capitol (public auditorium) on the subject of "The Power of Peace to Create a Culture of Human Rights in Hawaii and the World." This was part of the Human Rights Week, sponsored by the State of Hawaii. He also spoke at the Pioneer Plaza Club in downtown Honolulu on the subject of "Gandhian Peace (Nonviolence) A Pathway for Resolving Modern Day Conflict." On 5 March 2011, Gandhi visited The International Society for Krishna Consciousness Temple in Honolulu, Hawaii, to speak and spread his message of peace. He also spoke at To Ho No Hikari Church in Honolulu, in an event sponsored by Dr. Terry Shintani, on the subject of "The Way of Nonviolence Towards All Living Beings", and at the Hawaii Convention Center as part of the PAAAC Youth Conference. On 6 March 2011 Gandhi spoke at Unity Church, Diamond Head, Honolulu, on the subject of "Lessons I Learned With My Grandfather".

Gandhi's 2011 tour of Honolulu was sponsored by Barbara Altemus of the We Are One Foundation and by the Gandhian International Institute for Peace. Gandhi is featured in "THE CALLING: Heal Ourselves Heal our Planet" a Documentary Film in Production created by Barbara Altemus, directed by Oscar-nominated William Gazecki.

On 23 March 2012, Gandhi was the keynote speaker at the first annual Engaging Peace Conference at Arcadia University in Glenside, Pennsylvania.

In March 2014, Atheneum Books for Young Readers published Grandfather Gandhi, a children's book that Arun Gandhi co-authored with Bethany Hegedus, and illustrated by Evan Turk. The picture book memoir, which carries a pro-peace message, tells the story of how Arun's grandfather, likening anger to lightning that could either destroy or illuminate, taught Arun to respond to injustice using peaceful methods, in order to "turn darkness into light". The book also focuses on how Arun, jealous of the other people who commanded his grandfather's attention, frustrated with his schoolwork, and embarrassed at his inability to control his anger, strove to make his grandfather proud. The book was met with positive reviews for its use of a child's point of view in order to make a complex historical issue understandable to child readers, and for Turk's use of cut-paper abstract images to create illustrations with emotional resonance.Smith, Robin (4 November 2014). "Grandfather Gandhi". The Horn Book Magazine. He also published Legacy of Love: My Education in the Path of Nonviolence''.

Personal life and death
Gandhi considered himself to be a Hindu but expressed universalist views. Gandhi had worked closely with Christian priests and his philosophies were strongly influenced by Buddhist, Hindu, and Muslim and Christian concepts. Like his grandfather, he also believed in the concept of 'non-violence' (Ahimsa). Gandhi claimed to be more Unitarian than anything else. He took his prayers public and did not practice Hinduism in the traditional sense.

Gandhi met nurse Sunanda in a hospital and they married in 1957. The couple had 2 children, Tushar, born on 17 January 1960, and Archana. Gandhi and Sunanda stayed married until her death on 21 February 2007.

As of 2016, Gandhi resided in Rochester, New York.

Gandhi died at the Sunanda Gandhi Home for Girls in Kolhapur, on 2 May 2023. He was 89.

See also
List of peace activists

References

External links

 Official Arun Gandhi Blog & Contact Site
 Arun Gandhi Philanthropic Tours
 Gandhi Worldwide Education Institute (Arun Gandhi President)
 M.K. Gandhi institute (Founded by Arun Gandhi)

1934 births
2023 deaths
20th-century Indian philosophers
American people of Gujarati descent
Nonviolence advocates
American Hindus
South African emigrants to the United States
Arun
South African people of Indian descent
American male writers of Indian descent
21st-century Indian novelists
South African people of Gujarati descent
Indian children's writers
21st-century Indian biographers
Gandhians

Arun Manilal Gandhi


The Sleeping Beauty is a ballet in a prologue and three acts. Marius Petipa and Ivan Vsevolozhsky wrote the story of the ballet. It was based on Charles Perrault's 1697 fairy tale "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood". Tchaikovsky wrote the music. Marius Petipa designed the dances.  The Sleeping Beauty was first presented at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, on 15 January 1890. Carlotta Brianza danced the Princess and Pavel Gerdt the Prince, with Marie Petipa as the Lilac Fairy and Enrico Cecchetti as Carabosse. It was first presented in Europe in a shortened version by the Ballets Russes in London on 2 November 1921. Catherine Littlefield designed the first complete Sleeping Beauty in the United States, and presented the production on 12 February 1937 at the Academy of Music, Philadelphia, with the Philadelphia Ballet.

Background
About ten years after Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake was presented for the first time, Tchaikovsky was asked to write a ballet for the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. The ballet would be based on Charles Perrault's fairy tale "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood". Tchaikovsky was very happy this story had been chosen. It was set in the age of Louis XIV. He would have the chance to write music in the Baroque style.

Petipa gave Tchaikovsky very special directions about tempi, meter, and other musical matters. He even specified the length of particular pieces in exact numbers of bars. He asked for a Waltz in Act 1, a Mazurka in Act 2, and a Polonaise in Act 3. The ballet is tied together (and its drama and suspense heightened) through the repeated use of the two musical themes representing good and evil, personified by the Lilac Fairy and Carabosse respectively. Petipa's specifications stimulated Tchaikovsky's imagination, rather than hindered it as one might expect.

Tchaikovsky's interest in setting the tale reaches back to 1867. It was then that he wrote a little ballet on the story for the children of his sister Alexandra Davydova. He had done the same for Swan Lake. In November 1888, he had a conference with theater officials and Petipa. A draft of the scenario was drawn up. Petipa provided Tchaikovsky with a detailed analysis of the musical requirements. The composer set to work, and finished the score on 1 September 1889.

Story

Prologue
A brief overture contrasts the themes of the malicious Carabosse and the benevolent Lilac Fairy. When the curtain rises, the court assembles for Princess Aurora's christening. Six fairies present their gifts. Carabosse, a fairy overlooked by the master of ceremonies, enters. She curses Aurora. The Princess shall die on her 16th birthday, she says, after pricking her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel. The remaining seventh fairy the Lilac Fairy comes forward. She cannot put the curse to rest, but she can soften it. The Princess shall not die, she commands, but sleep one hundred years. At the end of that term, a Prince will awaken her with true love's kiss.

Act 1
Sixteen years after the christening of Princess Aurora, the court assembles in the palace gardens to celebrate Aurora's birthday. Villagers dance a waltz. Aurora dances an adagio with four noble suitors. Carabosse enters unnoticed and slips Aurora a spindle. The Princess pricks her finger on the spindle. She falls to the ground, sound asleep. The Princess is carried into the palace by the noble suitors. The Lilac Fairy puts the entire court to sleep, then causes a dense forest of trees  and thorns to surround the castle.

Act 2

Scene 1. The Prince's hunt. A woodland glade with a river in the background. The stage is empty. Hunting horns are heard. Prince Desire, his tutor Galifron, and his friends enter. They have paused in the hunt to take refreshments. Several dances are performed by various ladies of the court. The hunt is resumed. The Prince is tired so chooses to remain alone in the forest. Here, he meets the Lilac Fairy who emerges from a boat of mother of pearl on the river. She has chosen him as the prince to awaken princess Aurora, and presents various visions of the princess to him. He quickly falls in love with her from the visions and begs the Lilac Fairy to lead him to her. The Lilac Fairy guides him through the forest until they reach the enchanted castle where Aurora rests.

Scene 2. Sleeping Beauty's castle. The Sleeping Beauty lies on a canopied bed. The King and Queen sleep in armchairs nearby. The courtiers and pages sleep standing up and leaning upon one another. Dust and cobwebs cover everything. The Lilac Fairy and the Prince enter. He tries to rouse the Princess and the court, but without success. The Lilac Fairy stands aside without interfering. The Prince kisses the Princess. She awakens. The dust and cobwebs disappear. The court awakens. The King grants the marriage of the Prince and Princess.

Act 3
The Wedding of Prince Désiré and Princess Aurora on the esplanade of King Florestan's palace.
The court assembles to celebrate the marriage of Prince Désiré and Princess Aurora. The King and Queen make their entrances with the newlyweds. The festivities begin with a series of divertissements. The Diamond, Gold, Silver, and Sapphire Fairies dance. Several fairy tale characters dance: Puss in Boots and the White Cat; the Bluebird and Princess Florine; Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf; Cinderella and Prince Fortuné; and finally Hop o' My Thumb with his brothers and the ogre.  The Prince and Princess dance a pas de deux. Roman, Persian, Indian, American, and Turkish characters dance a Sarabande. The act ends with a tableau vivant representing the Glory of the Fairies. This tableau was changed to represent the Glory of Apollo.

Gallery

Notes

References
 Balanchine, George. 1975. 101 Stories of the Great Ballets. New York, USA: Anchor Books.
 Hurley, Thérèse. "Opening the door to a fairy tale world: Tchaikovsky's ballet music" in The Cambridge Companion to Ballet. 2007. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. .
 Kirstein, Lincoln. 1970. Four Centuries of Ballet: Fifty Masterworks. New York, USA: Dover. .
 Warrack, John. 1973. Tchaikovsky. New York, USA: Charles Scribner's Sons.
 Warrack, John. 1979. Tchaikovsky Ballet Music. Seattle, USA: University of Washington Press. .
 Warrack, John. 1985. Tchaikovsky's Ballets. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. .

Ballets by Marius Petipa
Compositions by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Ballets first performed by the St. Petersburg Imperial Ballet
Sleeping Beauty

The Sleeping Beauty (ballet)


Munshi Premchand (Hindi: प्रेमचंद, Urdu: پریمچںد), whose original name was Dhanpat Rai Srivastava, He was born on 31 July 1880 and he died on 8 October 1936. He was a writer of modern Hindi and Urdu literature.

Biography
Munshi Premchand (, ), whose original name was Dhanpat Rai Srivastava , was born on 31 July 1880, in village Lamahi near Varanasi, where his father was a clerk in the post office. Premchand's parents died young - his mother when he was seven and his father while he was fourteen and still a student. Premchand was left responsible for his stepmother and step-siblings.

Early in life, Premchand faced immense poverty. He earned five rupees a month tutoring a lawyer's child. He was married at the early age of fifteen but that marriage failed, later he married again, to Shivrani Devi, a balavidhava (child widow), and had several children. She supported him through life struggles.

Premchand passed his  exam with great effort in 1898, and in 1899 he took up school-teaching job, with a monthly salary of eighteen rupees. In 1919 he passed his B.A. with English, Persian and History. Later, Premchand worked as the deputy sub-inspector of schools.

Premchand lived a life of financial struggle. Once he took a loan of two-and-a-half rupees to buy some clothes. He had to struggle for three years to pay it back.

When asked why he does not write anything about himself, he answered: "What greatness do I have that I have to tell anyone about? I live just like millions of people in this country; I am ordinary. My life is also ordinary. I am a poor school teacher suffering family travails. During my whole lifetime, I have been grinding away with the hope that I could become free of my sufferings. But I have not been able to free myself from suffering. What is so special about this life that needs to be told to anybody?".

During his last years,he became terribly ill. The money his wife used to give for his treatment was used in running his press "The Saraswati". He was also writing a book "Mangalsutra" which would never be completed. All this had serious impact on his health leading to his early death on 8th October 1936, at the age of 56.

Writing style
The main characteristic of Premchand's writings is his interesting story-telling and use of simple language. His novels describe the problems of the rural peasant classes. He avoided the use of highly Sanskritized Hindi (as was the common practice among Hindi writers), and also Spanish language.

Literary works
Premchand has written about 300 short stories, several novels as well as many essays and letters. He has also written some plays. He also did some translations. Many of Premchand's stories have been translated into English and Russian.

Godaan (The gift of a cow), his last novel, is considered the finest Hindi novel of all times. The hero, Hori, a poor peasant, desperately longs for a cow, a symbol of wealth and prestige in rural India. Hori gets a cow but pays with his life for it. After his death, the village priests demand a cow from his widow to bring his soul to peace.

In Kafan (Shroud), a poor man collects money for the funeral rites of his dead wife, but spends it on food and drink.

Famous stories

Panch Parameshvar (Five Almighty)
Idgah (ईदगाह اِیدگاہ) (The gift on Eid)
Nashaa (नशा نشا) (Addiction)
Shatranj Ke Khiladiلاڈی) (The chess players)
Poos ki raat (पूस की रात پُوس کی رات) (Winter's Night)
Atmaram (आत्माराम آتمارام)
Boodhi Kaki (बूढी काकी بُوڈھی کاکی) (The Old Aunty)
Bade Bhaisahab (बडे भाईसाब بڈے بھائیساب) (The elder gentleman)
Bade Ghar Ki Beti (बडे घर की बेटी بڈے گھر کی بیٹی) (The daughter of a wealthy house)
Kafan (कफ़न کفن) (Shroud)
Dikri Ke Rupai (दिक्रि के रुपै دِکرِ کے رُپے)
Udhar Ki Ghadi (उधार की घडी اُدھار کی گھڈی) (The credited watch)
Panch Phool (पाँच फूल) (The five flowers)
Prem Purnima (प्रेम पूर्णिमा) (the Full moon of Love)
Ram Katha (राम कथा) (The story of Lord Ram)
 Pariksha(Examination)
Gora (गोरा) (Fair-skinned)

Novels
Gaban (गबन) (Speed)
Sevasadan (the Workplace)
Godaan (गोदान)
Karmabhoomi (कर्मभूमि)(the Land of Work)
Kaayakalp (कायाकल्प)
Manorma (मनोरमा)(Beautiful)
Mangalsutra (मंगलसूत्र) (wedding necklace)
Nirmala (निर्मला)
Pratigya (प्रतिज्ञा) (Pledge)
Premashram (प्रेमाश्रम)(the Temple of Love)
Rangbhoomi (रंगभूमि) (the Land of Colours)
Vardaan (वरदान) (Blessing)
Mera Khoon (मेरा खून) (My Blood)

Plays
Karbala
 Prem Ki Vedi

Films based on Premchand's work
Satyajit Ray filmed two of Premchand's works – Sadgati and Shatranj Ke Khiladi. Sadgati (Salvation) is a short story about poor Dukhi, who gets exhausted to death while he hews wood for more or less nothing. Shatranj ke Khiladi (The Chess Players) tells the story of chess players who are so concentrated on a game that they forget their responsibilities in the midst of a crisis.

Films and TV serials
 Sadgati (1981) (TV)
 Shatranj Ke Khilari (1977)
 Godhuli (1977)
 Oka Oori Katha (1977)
 Gaban (1966)
 Godaan (1963)
 Seva Sadan (1938) (based on the novel Bazaar-e-Husn)
 Mazdoor (1934)
 Nirmala (TV Series, 1980s)

References

Other websites

 Biography
 Another brief biography
 Translations of two stories by Premchand
 Collection of Munshi Premchand's stories and novels
 Complete collection of his literature and some of it available for reading online
 Website in making about works of Premchand

1880 births
1936 deaths
Indian writers

Munshi Premchand


In science fiction, an ion cannon is a  beam weapon. It shoots beams of ions (atoms or molecules  with an electrical charge). Because of its power, it is usually said to be a superweapon. An ion cannon is a type of particle cannon. The particles it shoots are ionized. Because of their electrical charges, they can cause electronic devices, vehicles, and anything else that has an electrical or similar power source to stop working. Ion cannons are used in many  science-fiction movies and television series. Ion cannons are also used in many video games.

Real-world connections

The science fiction idea for these weapons comes from the particle cannon created by Nikola Tesla. Tesla's cannon shot ions into the ionosphere. This caused them to be charged more. Research of this idea is still being done with directed-energy weapons.

Media references

 In the Star Wars universe, Ion weapons are common. They range from handheld pistols to star ship cannons. Ion weapons are mainly used to stop electronic systems from working. They can stop vehicles, droids and starships without doing any damage. In Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, the Rebel Alliance uses a large ion cannon on the planet Hoth to disable Imperial Star Destroyers near the planet. This is done to stop them from firing on Rebel ships trying to leave the planet. The Jawas used ion blasters to disable R2-D2.
 In StarCraft, Raynor's faction is stopped from leaving because of Tarsonis' ion cannon. The weapon is destroyed as part of a mission.
 In the computer game Conquest: Frontier Wars, huge Ion Cannon space stations can be built.
 In Master of Orion 2, Ion cannons are used to damage ship's internal systems. They are not stopped by armor.
 In the Pixar movie WALL-E, the robot EVE has an ion cannon in her right arm.
 Destroy All Humans! and its sequels has a weapon called the Ion Detonator.
 In the Command & Conquer franchise the Global Defense Initiative (GDI) uses an orbital ion cannon as that faction superweapon.
 In Microsoft Urban Assault, a technologically-advanced alien faction Mykonians possess weapon systems that are entirely comprised of various types of ion cannons for their armament.

Other websites
 Watch the C&C Ion Cannon in action. (Created by Tiberian Dawn Mod team)

Science fiction technology
Weapons

Ion cannon


The hexadecimal numeral system, often shortened to "hex", is a numeral system made up of 16 symbols (base 16).  The standard numeral system is called decimal (base 10) and uses ten symbols: 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9.  Hexadecimal uses the decimal numbers and six extra symbols. There are no numerical symbols that represent values greater than nine, so letters taken from the English alphabet are used, specifically A, B, C, D, E and F.  Hexadecimal A = decimal 10, and hexadecimal F = decimal 15.

Humans mostly use the decimal (base 10) system where each digit can have one of ten values between zero and ten.  This is probably because humans have ten fingers on their hands. Computers generally represent numbers in binary (base 2).  In binary, each "binary digit" is called a bit and can only have one of two values: one or zero.   Since a single bit's two possible values represents one fifth the information potentially conveyed by of decimal digit's ten possible values, binary representations of integer values can require many more (binary) bits than decimal digits.

For example, the three digit decimal value 219 requires eight bits to be represented in binary (11011011).  Humans find reading, remembering, and typing long strings of bits inconvenient. Hexadecimal allows groups of four bits to be more conveniently represented by a single "hex" digit, so the eight bit binary value 11011011 only requires two hexadecimal digits "DB."

Computer memory is organized as an array of strings of bits called bytes.   On modern computers, each byte generally contains eight bits, which can be conveniently be represented as two hexadecimal digits.   Engineers and computer scientists frequently refer to each of these four-bit values as a nibble (sometimes spelled nybble, see computer jargon).

To avoid confusion with decimal, octal or other numbering systems, hexadecimal numbers are sometimes written with a "h" after or "0x" before the number. For example, 63h and 0x63 mean 63 hexadecimal.

History
Unlike modern computers, many early computers had six-bit bytes.   Programmers of those systems typically used an alternate bit grouping scheme called octal.  Each octal digit efficiently represents three bits, and a six-bit byte can be represented as two octal digits.  Three bits, each being on or off, can represent the eight numbers from 0 to 7: 000 = 0; 001 = 1; 010 = 2; 011 = 3; 100 = 4; 101 = 5; 110 = 6 and 111 = 7.

Hexadecimal values
Hexadecimal is similar to the octal numeral system (base 8) because each can be easily compared to the binary numeral system. Hexadecimal uses a four-bit binary coding. This means that each digit in hexadecimal is the same as four digits in binary. Octal uses a three-bit binary system.

In the decimal system, the first digit is the one's place, the next digit to the left is the ten's place, the next is the hundred's place, etc.  In hexadecimal, each digit can be 16 values, not 10.  This means the digits have the one's place, the sixteen's place, and the next one is the 256's place. So 1h = 1 decimal, 10h = 16 decimal, and 100h = 256 in decimal.

Example values of hexadecimal numbers converted into binary, octal and decimal.

Conversion

Binary to hexadecimal
Changing a number from binary to hex uses a grouping method. The binary number is separated into groups of four digits starting from the right.  These groups are then converted to hexadecimal digits as shown in the chart above for the hexadecimal numbers 0 through F. To change from hexadecimal, the reverse is done. The hex digits are each changed to binary and the grouping is usually removed.

When the quantity of bits in a binary numbers is not a multiple of 4, it is padded with zeros to make it so. Examples:

 binary 110 = 0110, which is 6 Hex.
 binary 010010 = 00010010, which is 12 Hex.

Hexadecimal to decimal
To convert a number from hexadecimal to decimal, there are two common ways.

The first method is more commonly done when converting it manually:

 Use the decimal value for each hexadecimal digit.  For 0-9, it is the same, but A = 10, B = 11, C = 12, D = 13, E = 14, and F = 15.
 Keep a sum of the numbers converted at each step below.
 Start with the least significant hexadecimal digit. That is the digit on the right end. This will be the first item in a sum.
 Take the second-least significant digit. That is next to the digit on the right end. Multiply the decimal value of the digit by 16. Add this to the sum.
 Do the same for the third-least significant digit, but multiply it by 162 (that is, 16 squared, or 256). Add it to the sum.
 Continue for each digit, multiplying each place by another power of 16.  (4096, 65536, etc.)

The next method is more commonly done when converting a number in software.  It does not need to know how many digits the number has before it starts, and it never multiplies by more than 16, but it looks longer on paper.

 Use the decimal value for each hexadecimal digit.  For 0-9, it is the same, but A = 10, B = 11, C = 12, D = 13, E = 14, and F = 15.
 Keep a sum of the numbers converted at each step below.
 Start with the most significant digit (the digit on the far left).  This is the first item in the sum.
 If another digit exists, multiply the sum by 16 and add the decimal value of the next digit.
 Repeat the above step until there are no more digits.

Example: 5Fh and 3425h to decimal, method 1

Example: 5Fh and 3425h to decimal, method 2

Related pages
Binary numeral system
Octal numeral system
Decimal numeral system

Numbering systems

Hexadecimal


Osip Emilyevich Mandelstam (also spelled Mandelshtam, ; January 15, 1891 – December 27, 1938) was a Russian poet and essayist.

Mandelstam was born in Warsaw, to a rich Jewish family. In 1900 Mandelstam entered the prestigious Tenishevsky school, which also counts Vladimir Nabokov and other significant figures of Russian (and Soviet) culture among its alumni. His first poems were printed in the school's almanac in 1907.

In April 1908 Mandelstam decided to enter the Sorbonne to study literature and philosophy, but he left the following year to attend the University of Heidelberg. In 1911, in order to continue education in the University of St. Petersburg, he converted to Methodism (which he did not practice) and entered the university the same year.

Mandelstam's poetry, acutely populist in spirit after the first Russian revolution, became closely associated with symbolist imagery, and in 1911 he and several other young Russian poets formed the "Poets' Guild" (Russian: Цех Поэтов, Tsekh Poetov), under the formal leadership of Nikolai Gumilyov and Sergei Gorodetsky.

In 1922 Mandelstam arrived in Moscow with his newlywed wife Nadezhda. At the same time his second book of poems, Tristia, was published in Berlin. For several years after that, he almost completely abandoned poetry, concentrating on essays, literary criticism, memoirs (The Din Of Time, Russian: Шум времени, Shum vremeni; Феодосия, Feodosiya – both 1925) and small-format prose (The Egyptian Stamp, Russian: Египетская марка, Yegipetskaya marka – 1928). As a day job, he translated (19 books in 6 years), then worked as a correspondent for a newspaper.

Mandelstam died in 1938 in prison.

Mandelstam's non-conformist, anti-establishment tendencies always simmered not far from the surface, and in the autumn of 1933 they broke through in the form of the famous "Stalin Epigram".

Bibliography
 Osip Mandelstam: "Poems", chosen and translated by James Greene. Elek Books, 1977; revised and enlarged edition, Granada/Elek, 1980.
 Osip Mandelstam: The Noise of Time: Selected Prose (European Classics) (Paperback), translated by Clarence Brown Northwestern University Press; Reprint edition, 2002.
 Coetzee, J.M. "Osip Mandelstam and the Stalin Ode", Representations, No. 35, Special Issue: Monumental Histories. (Summer, 1991), pp. 72–83.

References

1891 births
1938 deaths
Jewish writers
Methodists
Polish Jews
Prisoners
Russian Christians
Russian Jews
Russian poets
Russian writers
Soviet Jews
Writers from Warsaw

Osip Mandelstam


An assembly line is a manufacturing process which is a very important part of industry.

In an assembly line, parts are added to a product in a sequence. Each worker and machine does one part, and the parts are put together to make the finished object. This makes a product much faster than with handcrafting-type methods, where one person made the whole object.

The division of labour was discussed by Adam Smith in his book The Wealth of Nations (1776). He used the manufacture of pins as an example of increasing productive efficiency.

Ford
The assembly line developed by Ford Motor Company between 1908 and 1915 made assembly lines famous as an example of mass production. The result was a cheaper car, the Ford Model T, and higher wages for Ford workers. Henry Ford was the first to master the moving assembly line, and was able to reduce labor hours needed to make a car, and increased numbers of cars and parts. Ford was the first company to build large factories around the assembly line concept.

Mass production by assembly lines was the catalyst which started the modern consumer culture by making possible low unit cost for manufactured goods. It is often said that Ford's production system was ingenious because it turned Ford's own workers into new customers. The lower prices turned a huge potential market into a reality. The greater demand allowed further economies of scale to be exploited. This bootstrapping quality of growth made Ford famous and set an example for other industries.

The idea was not invented by Ford. Its use in America may have started with the production of cars by Ransom E. Olds in 1901.

History
The earliest example of an assembly system is the Terracotta Army of the 3rd century BC. The terracotta army figures were made in workshops. The head, arms, legs and torsos were created separately and then assembled. Studies show that eight face moulds were most likely used. Once put together, features such as facial expressions were added.

It is thought their legs were made the same way that terracotta drainage pipes were made at the time. This would make it an assembly line production, with specific parts manufactured and assembled after being fired, as opposed to crafting one solid piece and subsequently firing it. In those times, each workshop had to write its name on items produced. Once they were completed, the terracotta figures were placed in the pits in precise military formation according to rank and duty.

References

Manufacturing

Assembly line


The Sopwith Camel was a British World War I fighter biplane, it was famous for not flying very well.

The Sopwith Camel entered service in June 1917.

Unlike many biplanes, the Camel was unpleasant to fly. The Camel could manoeuvre well because of the placement of the engine, pilot, guns, and fuel tank, but controlling the engine torque made flying it difficult and dangerous.

The Camel soon had a bad reputation with pilots. The engine was sensitive to fuel mixture control, and wrong settings caused the engine to cut out during takeoff. Many crashed due to mishandling on takeoff when a full fuel tank affected the center of gravity. As well as this, the Camel was also known for its bad spinning characteristics, where any stall resulted in an uncontrollable spin.

The Camel had better guns and better performance compared to other biplanes. Its controls were light and sensitive. The Camel was one of the best-remembered Allied aircraft of the First World War.
The Camel was credited with shooting down 1,294 enemy aircraft, more than any other Allied fighter.

By 1918 better aircraft had been invented, faster and with better high altitude performance. The camel soon became a ground-attack and infantry support aircraft. When fighting Germans in March 1918, flights of Camels stopped the advancing German Army. Because of this the Camel remained in service until the  (ceasefire).

Military aviation
World War I aircraft
British aircraft

Sopwith Camel


Willapa Bay is a large shallow body of water near the Pacific Ocean in southwestern Washington. For a number of years before modern roads were built in Pacific County, Washington, the bay was used as the means of travel around the county, by powered and unpowered craft, including several steamboats.

Operations

In 1858, Capt. James H. Whitcomb, a pioneer of the Oregon Territory, obtained a contract to carry mail from Willapa, Washington, a small settlement upstream from modern-day Raymond, where he had a donation land claim, across the Willapa Bay to Oysterville. He ran passengers, freight and mail on the route with the sloops Minerva and Pet, and later the steamboat Favorite. Later, he commanded the steamers Montesano and Tom Morris on Willapa Bay. His son, James P. Whitcomb, built Mountain Buck at Naselle in 1888, which was placed in towing service under his father's command.

Another main route was from South Bend, Washington to Nahcotta, Washington, on the Long Beach Peninsula. At Nahcotta, the propeller steamers Shamrock and Reliable would meet the train at the end of the Nahcotta dock, and pick up passengers bound for South Bend across Willapa Bay. In 1896, another steamer employed on the Willapa Bay run was the Edgar.

Vessels

In 1875, the steamer General Canby was launched at South Bend. George A. Whitcomb, member of a prominent steamboating family, served on her as mate. In 1882, the Shoalwater Bay Transportation Company launched Montesano at Astoria to run mail from Willapa to Sealand, Washington, on the Long Beach Peninsula.

In 1902, the steam propeller Reliable (99 tons, 73') was built at Astoria, Oregon for the Willapa Bay Transportation Company, operating under the command of Captain A.W. Reed. Much later, in 1925, when passenger traffic had fallen, Reliable'''s upper works were cut down and she was converted into a tug.

In 1903, Lauderback & Taylor of Willapa built the steam propeller Laurel for C.A. and James S. Coulter of South Bend. She had a steeple compound engine and Morgan-type pipe boiler. She worked as a tow and log boat in Willapa Bay until she was sold to the Hubble concern in Grays Harbor, where she was abandoned in 1938.

In 1905, the steam propeller Shamrock (99 tons, 72'), a near twin to Reliable, was also built at Astoria, by R.M. Leathers. She had a  compound steam engine, and was operated by A.W. Reed, doing business as the Willapa Bay Transportation Co. As with Reliable, Shamrock was later converted to a towboat under Knappton Towing Co. of Astoria. Agnes, a steam tug built at Hoquiam in 1905, was later placed in service in Willapa Bay under T.H. Bell.

Another vessel in service on Willapa Bay was Flora Brown, used to tow logs to mills at South Bend.

See also

Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company
Pacific County, Washington
Astoria, Oregon
Nahcotta, Washington
Columbia River Maritime Museum
Willapa Bay
Raymond, Washington
South Bend, Washington
Tokeland, Washington
Pacific County, Washington

Notes

References
 Faber, Jim, Steamer's Wake, Enetai Press, Seattle, WA 1985
 Feagans, Raymond J., The Railroad that Ran by the Tide, Howell-North, Berkeley, CA 1972
 Newell, Gordon R., ed. H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest'', at page 81, Superior Publishing, Seattle, WA 1966

External links
University of Washington Digital Collections

History of transportation in Washington (state)
Transportation in Pacific County, Washington
Willapa Bay
Willapa Bay

Steamboats of Willapa Bay


Vowel length is a feature in languages when how long a vowel is spoken in a word can create a completely different word. Although this is a feature in many languages like Japanese, Arabic, Hawaiian, Classical Latin, and Thai, there are also many languages that do not have this feature.

An example of this would be the Japanese words chizu, which has a short vowel (a vowel spoken for a short time), and chīzu, which has a long vowel (a vowel spoken for a long time). The only difference that can be heard is how long the vowel "I" is spoken. The amount of time the vowel is spoken could create two entirely different words. Chizu means "map", while chīzu "cheese".

When using IPA, the colon (:) is used to show that the vowel before it is a long vowel. For example, chizu in IPA is written as /t͡ɕizɯ/, but chīzu is written as /t͡ɕi:zɯ/.

While Old English had vowel lengthening, most modern dialects of English do not. For example, the words God and good used to have the same vowel sound, but the vowel in good (/go:d/), which was a long vowel, was said longer than it was in God (/god/), which was a short vowel. Although the vowel sounds in Modern English are very different than in Old English, readers can often get an idea of how vowels used to sound like based on an English word's spelling, which often shows words' historical roots rather than their current pronunciation. Long vowels in Old English could be written with a bar on top of the vowel like in gōd (good). Later, during the days of Middle English, spellings used to spell long vowels included spelling with two vowels together like in book or break and putting a silent "E" at the end of the word like in hate. These vowels were all long vowels until the Great Vowel Shift in English, in which the vowel sounds in English changed to sound very differently from before.

Classical Latin had both vowel and consonant lengthening, and long vowels had a macron, or a straight horizontal line, written above them. In Classical Latin, ānus (/ˈaː.nus/), annus (/ˈan.nus/), and anus (/ˈa.nus/) were all different words. Ānus means "buttocks", annus means year, and anus means old woman. Today, none of the Romance languages, the languages that are daughter languages of Latin, can distinguish words by vowel length, though Italian can distinguish words by consonant length: /anno/ "year", /ano/ "anus". Italian also has vowel lengthening in accented syllables ending in a vowel, but vowel length cannot make the difference between two words as it could in Latin.

References

Linguistics

Vowel length


Nathalie Sarraute (; 18 Julie 1900 – 19 October 1999) wis a French lawyer an writer.

Personal life
Sarraute wis born Natalia Ilinichna Tcherniak (Roushie: Ната́лья Ильи́нична Черня́к, Natalya Chernyak) in Ivanovo (then kent as Ivanovo-Voznesensk), 300 km north-east o Moscow in 1900 (although she frequently referred tae the year o her birth as 1902, a date still citit in select reference wirks). She wis the dochter o Pauline (née Chatounovsky), a writer, an Ilya Tcherniak, a chemist. She wis o Roushie Jewish oreegin. Follaein the divorce o her parents, she spent her childhuid shuttled atween Fraunce an Roushie. In 1909 she muivit tae Paris wi her faither. Sarraute studied law an literatur at the prestigious Sorbonne, haein a pairticular fondness for contemporary leeterature an the wirks o Marcel Proust an Virginia Woolf, who greatly affectit her conception o the novel, then later studiet history at Oxford an sociology in Berlin, afore passin the French bar exam (1926–1941) an becomin a lawyer.

In 1925, she marriet Raymond Sarraute, a fellae lawyer, wi whom she wad hae three dochters. In 1932 she wrote her first beuk, Tropismes, a series o brief sketches an memories that set the tone for her entire oeuvre. The novel wis first published in 1939, although the impact o Warld War II stuntit its popularity. In 1941, Sarraute, who wis Jewish, wis released from her wirk as a lawyer as a result o Nazi law. Durin this time, she went intae hidin an made arrangements tae divorce her husband in an effort tae protect him (although they wad eventually stay thegither).

Sarraute dee'd at the age o 99 in Paris, Fraunce. Her dochter, the journalist Claude Sarraute, wis marriet tae French Academician Jean-François Revel.

Career
Sarraute dedicatit hersel tae leeteratur, wi her maist prominent wirk being Portrait of a Man Unknown (1948), a wirk applaudit bi Jean-Paul Sartre, who famously referred tae it as an "anti-novel" an who contributit a forewird an aw. Despite such heich creetical praise, housomeivver, the work anerlie drew notice frae literary insiders, as did her follae-up, Martereau.

Sarraute's essay The Age of Suspicion (L'Ère du soupçon, 1956) servit as a prime manifesto for the nouveau roman leeterary muivement, alangside Alain Robbe-Grillet's For a New Novel. Sarraute became, alang wi Robbe-Grillet, Claude Simon, Marguerite Duras, an Michel Butor, ane o the figurs maist associatit wi the rise o this new trend in writin, which socht tae radically transform traditional narrative models o character an plot. Sarraute wis awairdit the Prix international de littérature for her novel The Golden Fruits in 1963, which led tae greater popularity an exposur for the author. That same year, Sarraute began wirkin as a dramatist an aw, authorin a total o seiven plays, includin Le Silence (1963), Le Mensonge (1965) an Elle est là (1993). As a result o Sarraute's growin popularity an public profile, she wis invitit tae speak at a nummer o literary events baith in her native kintra o Fraunce an abroad.

Sarraute's wirk, includin the novels Atween Life an Daith (1968), The Uise o Speech (1980) an You Daena Love Yoursel (1989), hae been translatit intae mair nor 30 leids. Her wirk haes aften been referred tae as "difficult," as a result o her experimental style an abandonment o traditional literary conventions. Sarraute celebrated the daith o the leeterary "character" an placit her primary emphasis on the creation o a faithful depiction o psychological phenomena, as in her novella The Golden Fruits, consistin entirely o interior monologues, an the novel The Planetarium (1959), which focuses on a young man's obsession wi inheritin his aunt's apairtment. The constantly shiftin perspectives an points of view in Sarraute's wirk serve tae unnermine the author's haund, while at the same time embracin the incoherence o livit experience.

In contrast tae the relative difficulty o Sarraute's novels, her memoir Childhood is considered an easier read. Penned when she wis ower aichty year auld, Sarraute's autobiografie is hardly a straichtforward memoir, as she challenges her awn capacity tae accurately recaw her past throughoot the wirk. In the 1980s, the autobiografie wis adaptit intae a ane-act Broadway play starrin Glenn Close. The issues wi memory which Sarraute heichlichtit in her autobiografie carriet through tae her last novel, Here, published in 1995, in which the author splores a range o existential issues relatin tae the formlessness o baith individual an social reality.

Bibliografie
 Tropismes, 1939 (tr. Tropisms)
 Portrait d'un inconnu, 1948 (tr. Portrait o a Man Unkent)
 Martereau 1953 (novel)
 L'Ère du soupçon, 1956 (tr. The Age o Suspicion) (essay)
 Le Planetarium, 1959 (tr. The Planetarium) (novel)
 Les Fruits d'or, 1963 (tr. The Gowden Fruits ) (novel)
 Le Silence 1964 (theatre)
 Le Mensonge, 1966 (novel)
 Entre la vie et la mort 1968 (novel)
 Isma, ou ce qui s'appelle rien 1970 (theatre)
 Vous les entendez ? 1972 (novel)
 C'est beau 1975 (theatre)
 « disent les imbéciles », 1976 (novel)
 L'Usage de la parole 1980 (tr. The Uise o Speech) (novel)
 Enfance 1983 (tr. Childhood) (autobiografie)
 Tu ne t'aimes pas 1989 (novel)
 Elle est là 1993 (tr. It is Thare) (theatre)
 Pour un oui ou pour un non 1993 (theatre)
 Ici 1995 (novel)
 Ouvrez 1997 (novel)
 Lecture 1998

See an aw
[[Le Monde's 100 Buiks o the Hunderyear|Le Monde'''s 100 Buiks o the Hunderyear]], a leet whilk includes Tropisms''

Further readin
Jean-Louis de Rambures, "Comment travaillent les écrivains", Paris 1978 (interview with N. Sarraute, in French)

References

Freemit airtins

 Brief biography
 Critical bibliography (Auteurs.contemporain.info)
 Spotlight on ... Nathalie Sarraute's 'The Planetarium'

1900 births
1999 daiths
Fowk frae Ivanovo
French dramatists an playwrichts
French novelists
Jewish novelists
French fowk o Roushie-Jewish strynd
Imperial Roushie emigrants tae Fraunce
French weemen writers
Roushie Jews
French Jews

Nathalie Sarraute


Akagera National Park is a protected area in eastern Rwanda covering  along the international border with Tanzania. It was founded in 1934 and includes savannah, montane and swamp habitats. The park is named for the Kagera River which flows along its eastern boundary feeding into Lake Ihema and several smaller lakes. The complex system of lakes and linking papyrus swamps makes up over a third of the park, which is the largest protected wetland in Eastern-Central Africa.

History

Akagera National Park was founded in 1934 by the Belgian government, which at the time occupied Rwanda. The park was  large and was known for its biodiversity.

Akagera used to have a large population of African wild dogs. At one point, it was known as the 'Parc aux Lycaons' and wild dogs were so abundant, that the Belgian government considered them a pest. However, a disease epidemic diminished the population and the last wild dogs were seen in 1984.

In 1957, black rhinos were introduced from Tanzania. In the 1970s, more than 50 black rhinos lived in the savannah-habitat of the park. Due to widespread poaching, the population declined over the following decades, and the last confirmed sighting was in 2007. In 1986, Masai giraffes were introduced from Kenya. Their population has grown to over 80 individuals in recent years. Around 1990, Akagera was known to have a population of 250 to 300 lions. In the years following the Rwandan Civil War, the entire population was killed by farmers who returned to Rwanda after the War and settled in the park.

In 2009 the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) and the African Parks Network entered into a 20-year renewable agreement for the joint management of Akagera. The Akagera Management Company was formed in 2010 as the joint management body for Akagera National Park. Over the next 5 years a $10 million expenditure was carried out in the national park area, with financial help from the Howard Buffett Foundation. The aim was to increase the security of the national park and to reintroduce locally extinct species. Security measures that were taken include: the construction of a western boundary fence which measures , deploying an air surveillance helicopter, training of an expert rhino tracking and protection team and a canine anti-poaching unit.

In July 2015, seven lions from South Africa were introduced and released in the park, making them the first lions in Rwanda for 15 years. AndBeyond donated five lionesses from Phinda Private Game Reserve and Tembe Elephant Park in KwaZulu-Natal donated two male lions. This effort was described by African Parks as "a ground-breaking conservation effort for both the park and the country" as part of a project aimed at reversing the local extinction of the species in Akagera National Park. Since 2015, the lion population has grown to 58 animals.

In May 2017, a joint operation between the Rwanda Development Board and African Parks saw the reintroduction of 18 Eastern black rhinoceroses from South Africa, which had been absent for 10 years. With the reintroduction of black rhinos and lions, the national park is now home to all of Africa's "big five": lion, African leopard, African bush elephant, rhinoceros, and African buffalo.

During June 2019, Akagera received a further 5 eastern black rhinoceros from 3 different zoos in 3 different countries located across Europe. The zoos include Dvur Kralove zoo from the Czech Republic, Flamingo Land from the UK and Ree Park Safari from Denmark. This relocation is the first of its kind, as something like this between Europe and Africa never happened before. The 2 males and 3 females were safely delivered to the park after a 30 hour journey. These mammals are direct descendants from rhinos taken from Africa during the colonial days.

In November 2021, 30 white rhinos were successfully translocated to Akagera from Phinda Private Game Reserve in South Africa, in the largest single rhino translocation ever taken. This translocation aimed to extend the species' range and create a new breeding stronghold in Rwanda.

The large mammal population has increased since 2010, from 4,000 animals in 2010 to over 13,500 in 2018.

Tourism
Since African Parks assumed management of the park in partnership with the Rwanda Development Board in 2010, tourism has dramatically increased. In 2010, 8,000 people visited the park. This number rose to 44,000 by 2018. This increase has allowed Akagera to become 80% self-sustaining and therefore less reliant on donors.

See also
 Mutara Game Reserve, an adjacent former protected area
 Serengeti

References

External links

African Parks (organisation)
Eastern Province, Rwanda
National parks of Rwanda
Protected areas established in 1934
Victoria Basin forest–savanna mosaic
Important Bird Areas of Rwanda

Akagera National Park


François Duquesnoy or Frans Duquesnoy (12 January 1597 – 18 July 1643) was a Flemish Baroque sculptor who was active in Rome for most of his career, where he was known as Il Fiammingo ("the Fleming"). His idealized representations represented a quieter and more restrained version of Italian baroque sculpture, and are often contrasted with the more dramatic and emotional character of Bernini's works, while his style shows a great affinity to Algardi's sculptures.

Early years
Duquesnoy was born in Brussels. Having come from Flanders, Duquesnoy was called Il Fiammingo by the Italians and François Flamand by the French. His father, Jerôme Duquesnoy the Elder, sculptor of the Manneken Pis fountain in Brussels (1619), was the court sculptor to Archduchess Isabella and Archduke Albert, governor of the Low Countries. The sculptor Jerôme Duquesnoy, the younger was his brother. Some of Francois' early work in Brussels attracted the notice of the Archduke, who gave him the wherewithal to study in Rome, where he would spend his whole career.

According to early biographers, when Duquesnoy arrived in Rome in 1618, he studied antique sculpture in detail, climbing over the equestrian Marcus Aurelius to determine how it was cast, or making a pilgrimage to the shrine of Diana at Lake Nemi. In 1624, Nicolas Poussin, who shared his classicly styled, emotionally detached manner of depiction, arrived in Rome, and the two foreign artists lodged together. Both moved in the circle of patronage of Cassiano dal Pozzo. They developed a canon of ideal expressive figures, counter to the theatrical baroque of Bernini. Contemporary critics, like Giovanni Bellori, in Lives of the Modern Painters, Sculptors and Architects from 1672, hailed Duquesnoy's art as restoring contemporary sculpture to quality of antique Roman sculpture. Bellori said that with his Santa Susanna, Duquesnoy "had left to modern sculptors the example for statues of clothed figures, making him more than the equal of the best ancient sculptors...".

Among Duquesnoy's early works are bas-relief putti for Villa Doria Pamphili. In spite of the contrast perceived by contemporaries in their stylistic approaches, Duquesnoy collaborated with Bernini in the design, among others, of the angels offering garlands of the baldacchino for Saint Peter's (in process 1624–1633). The four angels are entirely Duquesnoy's work, and this work earned him future commissions.

The statue of Santa Susanna

Duquesnoy's classicly styled Saint Susanna (1629) depicts the saint as both modest and revealing under marble draperies – "so much so that the pure volume of the members is visible" (Bellori). This is one of four sculptures depicting virgin martyrs by various sculptors for the church of Santa Maria di Loreto in front of the Roman Forum of Trajan (1630–33).

Critics have remarked on the refined surfaces and the softness and sweetness with which Duquesnoy invested this statue. There is a transcendence in her empty gaze. The sculpture was little known until the 18th century, when a marble copy by Guillaume Coustou was sent to Paris (1739) and Duquesnoy's Susanna entered the canon of most-admired modern sculptures.

The statue of Saint Andrew in the Transept of St Peter's
The more extroverted marble representation of Saint Andrew (1629–33) was begun a few months after his completion of the Santa Bibiana. It is one of the four larger-than-life statues which frame the baldacchino in the transept of St. Peter's Basilica; each statues is associated with the basilica's primary holy relics (the other three statues in St. Peter are Bernini's Saint Longinus, Mochi's Saint Veronica, and Bolgi's St Helena). It is useful to contrast the tone of Andrew with that of Longinus: in Andrew the draperies fall vertically or droop, while Longinus''' clothes inflate in improbably starched ebullience. Andrew leans over the saltire cross of his martyrdom, while Longinus theatrically flings arms outward expostulating divine influence. Both statues accentuate the diagonals, but Duquesnoy's is more restrained than either Bernini's or Mochi's contribution.

Other works
Poussin recommended Duquesnoy to Cardinal Richelieu, who offered the position of royal sculptor to Louis XIII and with the goal of founding a royal academy of sculpture in Paris. Duquesnoy was about to sail from Livorno, when he died; he had suffered for years from gout and episodes of vertigo (he fell from the scaffolding while attaching the gilded palm branch to his Susanna) and bouts of depression. His brother, Jerôme Duquesnoy (II) (1612–1654) inherited the chests with the  designs of uncompleted work, including some designs for putti for the tomb of  Bishop Triest in the Saint Bavo Cathedral in Ghent.

Like other sculptors working in 17th century Rome, Duquesnoy was called upon to restore and complete antiquities, for headless torsos rarely found a market with contemporary connoisseurs. With the Rondanini Faun (1625–30; now in the British Museum) Duquesnoy amplified a torso into a characteristically Baroque expansive gesture that deeply satisfied contemporary taste but was bitterly criticised by Neoclassicists by the end of the 18th century. He completed a Roman torso as Adonis. It found its way into the collection of Cardinal Mazarin and is now in the Louvre.

There are bronze busts of the Susanna in Vienna, Berlin, and Copenhagen. Finely finished small-scale bronzes of antique subjects, suitable for collectors, occupied the sculptor and his studio assistants. A Mercury and Cupid is at the Louvre, a gracile Bacchus at the Hermitage Museum. A bronze Mercury was commissioned by the collector of antiquities Vincenzo Giustiniani as a pendant to a Hellenistic bronze Hercules in his collection, a compliment to Duquesnoy and implicitly a statement of the parity of the Ancients and the Moderns. Giustiniani commissioned a life-size Virgin and Child from Duquesnoy in 1622, at a moment when the sculptor was hard pressed to finish his Andrew, due to interruption of payments instigated by a cabal (Joachim von Sandrart). His terracotta modelli were more likely to carry the immediacy of the sculptor's touch and were of especial value to other sculptors, if they could afford them. Louis XIV's royal sculptor François Girardon owned a great number of Duquesnoy's terra-cotta models, which are recorded in the inventory of Girardon's collection drawn up after his death in 1715.

Bas-reliefs of putti

His characteristic putti, plump, with carefully observed children's heads, helped to establish the conventional type, familiar in the paintings of Rubens: in fact Rubens wrote Duquesnoy in 1640 to thank him for sending him casts of the putti from the sculptor's Tomb of Ferdinand van den Eynde in Santa Maria dell'Anima in Rome.

Flemish boxwood or ivory carvings, especially with scenes of putti, are often  casually described as "in his manner", though he never left Rome.

Aside from his brother, who collaborated with him in his studio, his most prominent pupils were François Dieussart and Artus Quellinus.  Quellinus and Rombaut Pauwels, another Flemish sculptor who familiarized himself with Duquesnoy's style in Rome, brought the classicly styled Baroque style of what Duquesnoy's circle, an informal academy, called la gran maniera greca to the Netherlands on their return from Rome. In Rome, Duquesnoy's student Orfeo Boselli wrote Osservazioni della scoltura antica in the 1650s; his observations reflected connoisseurship of the subtle contours of superior Greek sculpture, considered superior to Roman work, which had been developed in Duquesnoy's circle and would inform the sensibility of Winckelmann and Neoclassicism.

References

Further reading
Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, 1981. Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture, 1500–1900'' (New Haven: Yale University Press)

External links

Estelle Lingo "The Greek Manner and a Christian Canon: Francois Duquesnoy's Saint Susanna" from The Art Bulletin, March, 2002 by
François Duquesnoy - "Sankt Andreas"
 "Putti", Rome
Shearer West, Guide to Art (Bloomsbury 1996: "François Duquesnoy"

1597 births
1643 deaths
Artists from Brussels
Flemish Baroque sculptors
Court sculptors
Catholic sculptors

François Duquesnoy


Graphic arts is a term that was used for the art of printmaking and drawing. Today it means the skills of a graphic designer or print technician. Graphic arts as a trade can be traced back to the first instances of the stamped image or word.

Traditional meaning
Graphic art is an artistic process of creating a design where one uses a medium (like rubber or plexiglas) and transfers the image to a material (like paper).

Related pages
Graphic design

References

Other websites
 American Institute of Graphic Artists
 Online Design Degrees

Graphics

Graphic arts