Oxkintok is a pre-Columbian Maya archaeological site in the Puuc region of Yucatán state, in southeastern Mexico.

Geography and climate
The site of Oxkintok is located on the northwestern tip of the Yucatán Peninsula, and is situated uncharacteristically (for the region) near two other sites.  Oxkintok lies six kilometers southeast from Maxcanu, 46 kilometers northeast of Uxmal, and 50 kilometers south of the current state capital city of Mérida. It lies in the Puuc region; puuc is the Mayan word for "hill". The Puuc hills extend from the southern Yucatán up to Campeche in the north and Quintana Roo in the west. These are the limits of the karstic hills in the otherwise flat landscape of the Yucatán.

The Yucatán is an extensive, limestone rich plains region that is dominated by karst topography and geology. Being karst landscape is significant, as no surface water is present. This means no major river systems and hardly any lakes are present in the northern Yucatán as the limestone lithology drains subterraneously. Any surface water that is retained is unsuitable for consumption and occurs in very small amounts. The underground drainage results in the northern Yucatán being covered in caves and sinkholes called cenotes, which are subsequently used by the inhabitants to access drinkable ground water. Any relief in the Puuc region is due to unequal dissolution rates within the limestone bedrock, and never reaches 400 meters above sea level.

The northern Yucatán is rainy tropics with heavy summer rains, in most areas precipitation is upwards of 1000mm with a rainy and dry season. 80% of precipitation occurs in the months between May and October, with only moderate precipitation November to March. At the archaeological site of Oxkintok there is substantial rainfall of around 700mm. The temperatures of the peninsula are notably uniform, with an average of 25°C, with warmer temperatures towards the coast, and a continuous cooling towards the center.

Etymology
In the Yucatec Maya language, the name "Oxkintok" can be parsed as "Ox" (three) and "Kin" (day/sun), but there are multiple possibilities for "Tok" (if the final letter is a soft /K/ then it may mean "snatch away / defend, lean, fall, or burn", but if the final letter is truly a glottalized /K'/ then it may mean "puncture, let blood, or chert / flint / hard stone").  Different translations, based upon the various meanings of "Tok" are found in the literature.

History of research
The site of Oxkintok was first described in the 16th century by Brother Antonio de Ciudad Real, who noted the proximity of the site to the Puuc mountain range and the large ruined structures. He was also first to make note of Satunsat "the place where they tossed those who had committed great offenses so that there they may die" (Torecilla, 1998). Afterwards the site isn't mentioned again until the 19th century when it's visited by J.L. Stephens (Torecilla, 1998). In 1842, John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood explored Oxkintok, including The Labyrinth. In the early 20th century, under the Carnegie project, Edwin M. Shook spent a short time at the site. The first actual excavations were funded by the University of Pennsylvania and directed by H.E. Mercer in February 1895. These first investigations were focused on the architectural group of Satunsat. Between 1932 and 1940 the Carnegie institution of Washington funded a large project to collect data on many sites of the Yucatán peninsula (Torecilla, 1998). Oxkintok was studied by H.E.D Pollock, E.M. Shook and G.W. Brainerd with a focus heavily on architecture and ceramics during the 1940s but no large scale excavations took place.
Since the 1980s a long-term project directed by Miguel Rivera Dorado (of Madrid, Spain) has produced a vast amount of data on Oxkintok. Most recently, Mexico's INAH has invested in excavations and reconstructions at the site (under the direction of Ricardo Velazquez Valadez).

The Oxkintok Project
The first large scale excavations at Oxkintok were conducted from 1986 to 1991 during the Oxkintok Project/M.A.E.M. (Mision Arcqueologica de Espana en Mexico) headed by Miguel Rivera Dorado. The goals of the excavations were twofold (Madrid, 1991).
1) Finish excavations at a site that suggest clues towards the social order of prehispanic Mayans.
2) Oxkintok provides clues to gaps in the evolution of the first civilizations in the Northern Yucatán.
This is by far the majority of the body of publications available as individual team members publish on Oxkintok.

Chronology
The site has provided evidence of habitation from the Late Preclassic through the Late Postclassic periods of Maya prehistory.  However, Oxkintok became a major center between the Early Classic and Terminal Classic periods (including what Carmen Varela terms the "Middle Classic").  It is well known as possessing a very early Long Count date in 475 CE (on the lintel of Structure 6 in the "Canul" group).  The latest dated monument at the site records a date in 859 CE.
In total there are about 70,000 pot sherds collected at Oxkintok, and 38 complete vessels. The chronology is largely based on pottery types that emerge and die out in Maya culture. However, there is ongoing debate within the excavation team about how to interpret the ceramics. The chronology that includes aspects aside from ceramics includes architecture and iconography.

Based on this model, there were six phases:
Sihil, But, Ichpa, Noheb, Ukmul, Nak, and Tokoy.

The chronology of the site starts at ~600 BCE and lasts until ~1500 CE The first two phases are weakly defined and things don't solidify until the Ichpa phase, which lines up with the Early Classic Period and is consequently the first agreed upon phase. There is polychrome pottery characteristic of the region in that time period, and hieroglyphics. The Noheb phase lines up with the Middle Classic and during this period, polychrome pottery disappears along with any sort of stone inscriptions, and the construction of large pyramids begins. In the Ukmul phase, hieroglyphics re-emerge and there is an abundance of rich detailed iconography. The Nak phase is a high point, with the building of the most 'glamorous' architecture, and Pre-pizarran ceramics emerge, characterized by supporting conical feet but displaying a broad diversity in design otherwise. Finally the Tokoy phase is defined by a disappearance in all evidence of human activity, except for pottery with a deterioration in materials and in consistency in technique, which fades out completely towards 1500 CE.

There is no evidence that warfare or famine caused the abandonment of Oxkintok. Nor is there evidence for  occupation after it was abandoned around 1500 CE.

Architecture
The style of architecture is an interesting mix of Early, Late and Terminal Classic techniques.  Some of the structures exhibit slab-vaulted masonry (indicative of the Early Classic and early Late Classic periods), while many quadrangles contain structures with veneer masonry (introduced at the end of the Late Classic and elaborated during the Terminal Classic period).  The site is used as an example of the transition from traditional Classic Period architecture to Puuc Veneer masonry by George F. Andrews.  Oxkintok also exhibits a type of "talud-tablero" architecture, most commonly associated with central Mexican sites such as Teotihuacan, Monte Albán and Cholula (but can also be found among certain Maya sites, such as Tikal, Kaminaljuyu and neighboring Chunchucmil, during the Middle Classic).

The architecture is best understood and is almost always broken up into four groups and then looking at how architecture changed or didn't change within those groups. The four groups are: May, Satunsat, and Ah Canul/Canul and Dzib. These groups make up the urban center, and are almost exclusively monumental architecture. They were defined by the excavation team and they're essentially just a cluster of buildings, or a building (Madrid, 1991). There's much more than just these four groups; the rest just hasn't been excavated really, since there was such a heavy focus on excavating monumental architecture. Most of what's been excavated at Oxkintok is temples, palaces, and multiroom structures. To trace the changes in architecture of the site, the above chart (Fig. 7) was compiled. It's a compilation of data from the three sources listed below figure 7. It is evident that there are many major changes between the three periods, and in general it's a transition from irregular design to a more elaborate, very planned out geometric design with decoration and complex stucco art and stone wrought decorations. One thing that remains consistent the use of domes and arches for entryways and open spaces. Concerning the individual groups, there's a concentration of Proto Puuc in the Ah-Canul group and Early Oxkintok in the May group that was later modified in the Proto Puuc phase, but no group is confined to one phase.

Satunsat
The most popular structure at the site is the tzat tun tzat (sometimes written Satunsat, but most commonly called "The Labyrinth"). The Satunsat group is an outlier. It's a single building, a sort of a maze or labyrinth, built to replicate a cave complex. There's no real guess as to what it was built for, though there was a recent discovery that most of the ventilation shafts line up with specific positions of the sun, so some think it was a maze used for initiation and practice of religion but there's nothing conclusive. So it's a little hard to place Satunsat into any one phase, but sources continuously point to a probability that this structure was built in the early Oxkintok phase.

In the VI century, one of the rooms of the lower floor was converted into a burial chamber with a reduced area of the labyrinth. The staircase to the third floor on the north side was also blocked, the painting of the north, east and south facades was replaced and a staircase was added to the east side. According to Miguel Rivera Dorado, this conversion marked the transformation of a specific semi-subterranean labyrinthine palace into an ordinary palace.

Sculpture

Oxkintok is well known for its anthropomorphic columns.  These Late to Terminal Classic columns were sculpted to represent elites, warriors and deities – a potential precursor to the "warrior columns" of Chichen Itza and Mayapan.  Notes on some of these columns were included in the pioneering work of Tatiana Proskouriakoff (see references, below).

Tombs
Due to the looting of Oxkintok, there are currently only 11 (though the number of intact tombs varies in the literature between 11 (Dorado) and 5 (Torecilla)) undisturbed tombs, almost all of which were very similar.

Tombs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 dated to the Middle Classic, 6,7, to the transition between the Late and Middle Classic, 8, 9 and 10 belong to the late Classic and 11 is preliminarily dated to the terminal classic. There are no foreign burials, and the only burials that aren't of males are of undetermined sex. It does seem however that these burials were only of those of high status.
Mostly Male Burials, with only three of unknown sex
All individual burials aside from one mixed burial
Secondary burials, with two primary
Burial Chambers/graves within monumental Maya architecture
Offerings varied little. Almost always included shell jewelry and fragments, jade mask and/or pendant fragments, few obsidian tools, and a form of tripod ceramics.

Bones
There many skeletal remains throughout site that aren't included in burials, and were either parts of offerings or have been intentionally deposited. Some of them are animal, but most are human. Many of the bones have signs of breakdown through arthritis, osteomieltisis (which is a bone marrow disease that leads to deterioration of the affected bones), and many of the teeth had severely worn down enamel.

Religion and ideology
At Oxkintok, religion, government and architecture were closely tied together as was the case for Maya religion at most cities. Firstly it is clear that the northern half of the urban center was less important than the southern half, due to the lack of iconography and the presence of a ball court in the southern half. Of the three architectural groups of this southern half the Ah Canul group is considered to have been the center of power, with three monumental pyramids and connecting tunnels to the other groups. The Dzib group was specialized, possessing a ball court making it extremely important in the expression of social order, power relations, and legitimization of monarchy (Dorado, 1996). There is also a complex relationship described between the Mayan monarchy and the sun-god. It is accepted that the layout of Oxkintok is closely tied with the movements and patterns of the sun. Looking at the orientation of buildings, such as the facades of Satunsat that face east and west it is specially prepared for observing the solar equinox and trapping sunlight in the interior of the labyrinth (Dorado, 1996). The orientation of the ball court is also important as it faces north–south so that "the ball may imitate the annual itinerary of the sun in its comings and goings" (Dorado). Lastly, it is noted by Dorado (1996) that "we lack sufficiently complete maps of numerous cities, the looting and the elements have wiped out the clearest remains" but later concludes that the city itself was designed to represent the heavens The king in some reliefs holds up an emblem of the sky is considered to be connected to the sun-god who appears throughout the city in the kings works. In the Ah Canul group, effigies to the sun and the moon and images of the "governing family" referred to as Walas can still be seen, further interlinking these two aspects of Mayan culture at Oxkintok.

The ideology of construction
Dorado (1996) presents the idea that continual construction that took place at Oxkintok and other Maya sites is related to the symbolization of kinship ties and the cult of ancestors. Each successive ruler established ties to the "founding fathers" through stone works. Construction is the affirmation and expression of kinship ties and laws of stratification, so each building reaffirms a lineage, the memory of its existence and the justification of its power.

Leadership and inequality
Discussion of leadership and inequality revolves around the site's architecture as many of Oxkintok's excavations have been focused on the design of its urban center and its development during antiquity (Dorado, 1997). All of the burials were relatively well endowed with an unvarying set of grave goods and well designed structures, further suggesting that all of the burials were of higher status individuals. There is a burial that included a modified skull suggesting there was status differentiation, assuming Oxkintok followed the traditional Maya status practice of cranial deformation.

Government structure
There is clear evidence of inequality and sources of power in Oxkintoks architecture. It is hard however to separate the government structure from what is known of the religion at Oxkintok: "The layout of the city seems to have been related to the movements of the sun and the political power of the leader (Manzanilla, 1997)". Religion, government, and to an extent inequality are best understood, and frequently discussed simultaneously through the lens of architecture.

A governing group deemed "Walas" has been preliminarily investigated at the sight, not much is known about them in particular, but they do show up frequently in the surviving iconography.

Warfare and violence
Any wars that did occur, and any marriages for that matter, occurred between sites at an average distance of 38 km (Manzanilla, 1997). This brings the idea that there was violence at this site. Manzanilla (1997) also states the Dorado stresses the difficulty of maintaining widespread territorial control in the tropical rainforest and that strength is based on kinship ties. However, there are several key pieces of evidence missing for any further conclusions. The architecture does not suggest any preparation for warfare, through the lack of walls and other fortifications. It is hard to make any conclusions based on the burials described above due to the sheer lack of a data set. Furthermore, there are no written records of violence Oxkintok, nor are there evidences of tributes received/paid or of conquest. Through the lack of so many indicators of violence and warfare, it isn't unreasonable to conclude that Oxkintok was not frequently involved in large scale violence.

Writing and symbolism
Most of the information on the writing at Oxkintok comes from the Dzib architectural group. The group includes the previously mentioned ball court, two staircases, and 18 stelae that all include some form of iconography. The stelae at the site are illegible/uninterpretable do to advanced erosion and deterioration, but can be without doubt placed in the late classic period by other characteristics (Dorado, 1996). The first staircase has not been fully interpreted, but is assumed to be concurrent to the second staircase and therefore similar in meaning. The second set of stairs mentions the Walas government, and seems to be dedicated to it. A calendar wheel that has not been fully interpreted but seems to be connected to the ball court ring, as they start on the same date, is also present. The ball court ring is inscribed with the date it was presumably constructed, 713-714 AD. It is possible that more writing/iconography was not preserved due to the natural tendency of the building material (karstic limestone and sandstone) to weather rapidly relative to other building materials. It is also important to note that there was a conspicuous "hiatus" of writing at Oxkintok during a boom in architectural contraction at the site, 550-650AD (Dorado, 1996). Interpretation of this hiatus has not been presented.

Modern site and tourism
The site of Oxkintok is a protected "zona", open to visitors with an admission fee. It is accessible from the nearby town of Maxcanú, approximately 62 km (38.5 mi) south of Mérida on Federal Highway 180. The site lacks facilities, but is attended by guides.  Nearby attractions include the Calcehtok caves.

References

Bibliography

 Andrews, George F. (1999) Pyramids, Palaces, Monsters and Masks: The Golden Age of Maya Architecture. Labyrinthos Press, Culvert City.
 Cosme Munoz, Alfonso. 1989 Laberintos, Piramides y Palacios las Fases Arquitectonicas de la Ciudad de Oxkintok, Ministerio de Cultura, Direccion General de Bellas Artes y Archivos, 1987-1990 3:99-111.
 Kelly, Joyce (1993) An Archaeological Guide to Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.
 Proskouriakoff, Tatiana (1950) A Study of Classic Maya Sculpture. Carnegie Institute of Washington Publication No. 593.
 Rivera Dorado, Miguel (1994) Notas de arqueología de Oxkintok. In Hidden Among the Hills: Maya Archaeology of the Northwest Yucatán Península. Hanns J. Prem, ed. pp. 44–58  Acta Mesoamericana, 7 Verlag von Flemming, Möckmühl.
 Rivera Dorado, Miguel (1999) La emergencia del estado maya de Oxkintok.  Mayab 12:71-78 Madrid.
 Rivera Dorado, Miguel (2001) Oxkintok (Yucatán, Mexico).  In Archaeology of Ancient Mexico and Central America: An Encyclopedia. Susan T. Evans and David L. Webster, eds. pp. 561–562.  Garland, New York
 Shook, Edwin M. (1940) (English) Exploration in the ruins of Oxkintok, Yucatán.  Revista mexicana de estudios antropológicos 4:165-171.  Mexico
 Shook, Edwin M. (1983) (Spanish) Exploración en las ruinas de Oxkintok, Yucatán.  Revista mexicana de estudios antropológicos 29(1):203-210. Mexico
 Stephens, John L. (1962) Incidents of Travel in Yucatán (2 vol.).  University of Oklahoma Press, Norman
 Varela Torrecilla, Carmen (1990) Un nuevo complejo en la secuencia cerámica de Oxkintok: El Clásico Medio.  Oxkintok 3:113-126.  Madrid
 Varela Torrecilla, Carmen (1992) La cerámica de Oxkintok.  Mayab 8:39-45. Madrid
 Varela Torrecilla, Carmen, and Geoffrey E. Braswell (2003)  Teotihuacan and Oxkintok: new perspectives from Yucatán.In The Maya and Teotihuacan: Reinterpreting Early Classic Interaction, edited by G. E. Braswell, pp. 249–272.  University of Texas Press, Austin.
 Dorado Rivera, Miguel 1996 Los Mayas De Oxkintok. Ministerio de Educaciâon y Cultura, Direccion General de Bellas Artes y Bienes Culturales, Instituto del Patrimonio Historico Espanol, Spain.
Dorado Rivera, Miguel 1997 Arqueologia y etnografia en Oxkintok. Revista Española de Antropología Americana 27:113-127.
Dorado Rivera, Miguel 1995 Arquitectura, gobernantes y cosmologia: Anotaciones sobre ideologia maya en los cudernos de Oxikintok. Revista Española de Antropología Americana 25:23-40.
Dorado Rivera, Miguel 1998 El urbanismo de Oxkitok: Problemas e interpretaciones. Revista Española de Antropología Americana 28:39-61.
Dorado Rivera, Miguel 1999 La emergencia del estado maya de Oxkintok. Sociedad Espanola de Estudios Mayas 12:71-78.
Marqínez, M. Yolanda F., and Alfonso M. Cosme 1993 Estilos arquitectónicos y estadios constructivos en el grupo May, Oxkintok, Yucatán. Revista Española de Antropología Americana 23:67-82.
Manzanilla, Linda (editor)1997 Emergence and Change in Early Urban Societies. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México.
Torrecilla Vare, Carmen 1996 La secuencia historica de Oxkintok: Problemas cronologicos y metodologicos desde el punto de vista de la ceramica. Revista Española de Antropología Americana 26:29-55.
 Torrecilla Vare, Carmen 1998 El Clasico Medio en el Noroccidente de Yucatán: La fase Oxkintok Regional en Oxkintok (Yucatán) como paradigma. Paris Monographs in American Archaeology 2

External links
 Oxkinto Photo Essay

Maya sites in Yucatán
Former populated places in Mexico
Populated places established in the 7th century BC
7th-century BC establishments in the Maya civilization
15th-century disestablishments in the Maya civilization
Tourist attractions in Yucatán
Maya sites that survived the end of the Classic Period

Oxkintok


Turk Pipkin (born July 2, 1953) is an author, actor, comedian and director. He is the co-founder of The Nobelity Project, a non-profit organization which seeks to find solutions to global problems, and which advocates for basic rights for children. He was a lifelong friend of Harry Anderson up until Anderson's death in 2018.

The Nobelity Project
In 2006, Pipkin founded the non-profit organization The Nobelity Project with his wife, Christy Pipkin. After interviewing nine Nobel Laureates, he directed Nobelity, a film about global problems such as energy, hunger, land mines, and climate change. He then spent 3 years traveling to 5 continents and 20 countries filming a sequel, One Peace at a Time, which focuses on solutions in the areas of water, nutrition, education, health care, opportunity, environment and peace. In 2011 The Nobelity Project released their third film, entitled Building Hope about construction of Mahiga Hope High School in rural Kenya. The Nobel Laureates he worked with include Desmond Tutu, Wangari Maathai, Ahmed Zewail, Steven Chu (former U.S. Secretary of Energy), Harold Varmus, Steven Weinberg, Muhammad Yunus, Amartya Sen, Jody Williams, Sir Joseph Rotblat and Richard Smalley. The work with Roblat and Smalley were the final major interviews of their lives.

Pipkin is also the project leader for The Nobelity Project's work to build Mahiga Hope High School in the Aberdare Mountains of Kenya.
Pipkin is a member of the Clinton Global Initiative, and in 2010 received the White Lotus Humanitarian Award from the Government of China at the Macau International Digital Film Festival.

The Nobelity Project in Kenya

Mahiga Hope High School

In 2009 The Nobelity Project began construction on Mahiga Hope High School in rural Kenya. It is the first high school in the area of Mahiga near Nyeri. Mahiga Hope High School along with its Mahiga Rainwater Court held its grand opening on October 1, 2010.

Mahiga Rainwater Court

In 2009, The Nobelity Project in partnership with Architecture for Humanity received "The Game Changers Award," an architectural grant from Nike, Inc. to build a multiple purpose game, performance, and rain water collection facility. The facility serves Mahiga Hope High as well as a community center for Mahiga. It also provides the school's source of drinking water. The Mahiga Rainwater Court opened on October 1, 2010.

Mahiga Hope Library

In 2010, along with the classroom building for Mahiga Hope High, construction began on the Mahiga Hope Library. This library will provide books to the community of Mahiga, donated by individuals as part of the book drive, 1000 Books for Hope. The library will have textbooks and reference books in English and Swahili.

Work as an author
Turk Pipkin has worked as a screen and television writer, as a freelance journalist and contributing editor for numerous national magazines, and has authored nine books of fiction and nonfiction. His most recent book is the New York Times bestseller, The Tao of Willie, co-authored with Willie Nelson. His novels include Fast Greens, and When Angels Sing which was adapted as a feature film under the title Angels Sing. He has written for multiple television productions.

Writing credits include:
When Angels Sing (Algonquin Books) Author. (Released as the movie Angels Sing produced by Fred Miller)
Fast Greens (Hardback Edition, Dial Press). (In development with Warner Bros/1492 Productions)
The Old Man and the Tee (St. Martin's Press) Author
Born of the River (Softshoe Publishing) Author
Harry Anderson's Games You Can't Lose (Pocket Books) Co-author
Barton Springs Eternal, The Soul of a City (Softshoe Publishing) Co-editor
Be a Clown! (Workman Books)
Texas Monthly magazine, contributing editor

Writing work in television

Night Court (1989)  "Attack of the Mac Snacks" (1989) (TV) (co-writer)
Harry Anderson: The Tricks of His Trade (1996) (TV) (writer)
Farm Aid: The Tenth Anniversary Concert (1995) (TV) (writer)
Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade (2001) (TV) (writer)
The World's Greatest Magic 5 (1998) (TV) (writer)
The Glenn Miller Band Reunion (1989) (TV) (writer)
Going to California (Showtime) (TV) (writer)

Filmography
Turk Pipkin is most known as an actor for his work in the HBO series' The Sopranos, The Leftovers and in the feature films The Alamo, Friday Night Lights, Waiting for Guffman and Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly.

References

External links

TurkPipkin.com
http://nobelity.org/

Living people
American male actors
1952 births

Turk Pipkin


The term Gambler's fallacy refers to a misconception about statistics. It is also known Monte Carlo fallacy or fallacy of the maturity of chances. In statistics, a random event has a certain probability of occurring. The fallacy is that if the event has occurred more frequently in the past, it will occur less frequently in the future; or that if it has been less frequent in the past, it will be more frequent in the future.

Childbirth
As early as 1796, the idea of the gambler's fallacy was used to "predict" the sex of children. In his work A Philosophical Essay on Probabilities, published in 1796, Pierre-Simon Laplace wrote of the ways in which men calculated their probability of having sons:"I have seen men [who wanted to have] a son, who could learn only with anxiety of the births of boys in the month when they expected to become fathers. Imagining that the ratio of these births to those of girls ought to be the same at the end of each month, they judged that the boys already born would render more probable the births next of girls." In short, the expectant fathers feared that if more sons were born in the surrounding community, then they themselves would be more likely to have a daughter.

Some expectant parents believe that, after having multiple children of the same sex, they are "due" to have a child of the opposite sex. While the Trivers–Willard hypothesis predicts that birth sex is dependent on living conditions (i.e. more male children are born in "good" living conditions, while more female children are born in poorer living conditions), the probability of having a child of either sex is still generally regarded as near 50%.

References

Logical fallacies
Statistics
Probability theory
Gambling

Gambler's fallacy


"Heavy Action" is a musical piece composed by Johnny Pearson for KPM Music. Composed in 1970, and featuring a strong brass and string fanfare opening, "Heavy Action" soon became a well established sporting theme tune, most associated in the United Kingdom as the theme for Superstars and in the United States as the theme music for ABC and ESPN's  Monday Night Football. APM Music exclusively controls the rights to the song in North America.

Superstars
The BBC commissioned Pearson to write the piece for its music library, while he was working as a member of the Top of the Pops orchestra accompanying pop stars on the weekly music TV show. During production of the first series of Superstars in 1973, "Heavy Action" was chosen as the theme music, owing to its high energy brass and string fanfare opening and Olympian themes. The show (which aired in its first run from 1973 to 1985 and has been revived regularly since then) has always used the theme tune for all episodes of the show in its various incarnations, including the latest 2012 Olympic Superstars edition.  The theme is now synonymous with sport in the United Kingdom, and was used extensively by the BBC during their coverage of the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Monday Night Football
In the 1975 NFL season, ABC, who had developed the original Superstars show in the US, acquired the rights to use "Heavy Action" as the opening theme music to Monday Night Football, although it would not become the official theme until the 1989 NFL season. It was also used as the background music during a halftime segment as Howard Cosell narrated highlights of the previous Sunday's games.  In 1989, Edd Kalehoff arranged an entirely new recording of "Heavy Action" for the final years of Monday Night Football on ABC.

For the 2006 NFL season, a team of composers comprising Robert Anthony Navarro, Cris Velasco, Sven Spieker, Sascha Dikiciyan and Chris Rickwood were hired by APM Music (APM) to arrange yet another entirely new recording of "Heavy Action" for the rebirth of Monday Night Football on ESPN.

For the 2010 NFL season, Cris Velasco, Robert Anthony Navarro, Rod Abernathy, and Joachim Svare were hired by APM to do several arrangements of "Heavy Action" in various musical styles including rock, hip-hop and holiday for Monday Night Football on ESPN.

For the 2018 NFL season, ESPN brought back the original Pearson arrangement of "Heavy Action" as the main theme for Monday Night Football.

For the 2022 NFL season, ESPN used a remix of "Heavy Action" by EDM producer and DJ Marshmello as the intro theme for Monday Night Football.

Other uses
 Three years after its arrival on Monday Night Football, this same music was used as the theme for the now defunct syndicated SFM Holiday Network monthly offering of family feature films.
 NFL Films used this piece of music along with the narration of John Facenda in its Super Bowl IX highlights film.
In 1975 British Leyland used the soundtrack on the launch film of the 18-22 Series Austin Princess saloon.
 The music was also used as the theme for the American television show Ten Who Dared (1976), which was a reworking of the BBC series The Explorers (1975).
 Used in the 1976 Indianapolis 500 & 1977 Indianapolis 500 opening credits as Monday Night Football Producers Roone Arledge and Chuck Howard along with Director Chet Forte also worked on this other ABC Sports staple.
 A remix by Si Begg was included on the album Bootleg Beats, an album of remixes of KPM Music library music.
Since January 2012 Chris Evans has used the song as the opening theme to his BBC Radio 2 breakfast show on Monday mornings.
WWE has used the song for their Halftime Heat specials which aired at halftime of the Super Bowl, most recently for Super Bowl LIII.
It was used in the introduction to the "Genkibowl VII" DLC missions in the video game Saints Row: The Third.

References

External links

Sports television theme songs
ABC Sports
ESPN
National Football League music
1970 songs

Heavy Action


The press box is a special section of a sports stadium or arena that is set up for the media to report about a given event. It is typically located in the section of the stadium holding the luxury box and can be either enclosed or open to the elements. In general, newspaper writers sit in this box and write about the on-field event as it unfolds. Television and radio announcers broadcast from the press box as well. Finally, in gridiron football, some coaches (especially offensive coordinators) prefer to work from the press box instead of from the sideline in order to have an "all 22" view of both the offensive and defensive players, along with coaching personnel ordered to by physicians due to medical conditions, or injuries which require rehabilitation and prevent them from being on the sidelines due to risk of further injury. For college and professional basketball, a "press row" along the sideline across the way from the scorer's table is set up instead for broadcasters and statisticians, while most writers work from a traditional press box position.

The press box is considered to be a working area, and writers, broadcasters, and other visitors to press boxes are constantly reminded of this fact at sporting events. Cheering is strictly forbidden in press boxes, and anyone violating rules against showing favoritism for either team is subject to ejection from the press box by security personnel. The rule against cheering is generally enforced only in the writers' area of the press box, and not against coaches and (in many cases) broadcasters who are known to be employed by one of the teams involved.

References

See also

Baseball Writers' Association of America
National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association
Pro Basketball Writers Association
United States Basketball Writers Association (college)
Football Writers Association of America (college)
Pro Football Writers Association
Professional Hockey Writers Association
National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association

Sports radio
Sports television
Sports terminology

Press box


Lorenzo Romano Amedeo Carlo Avogadro, Count of Quaregna and Cerreto (, also , ; 9 August 17769 July 1856) was an Italian scientist, most noted for his contribution to molecular theory now known as Avogadro's law, which states that equal volumes of gases under the same conditions of temperature and pressure will contain equal numbers of molecules. In tribute to him, the ratio of the number of elementary entities (atoms, molecules, ions or other particles) in a substance to its amount of substance (the latter having the unit mole), , is known as the Avogadro constant.  This constant is denoted NA, and is one of the seven defining constants of the SI.

Biography

Amedeo Avogadro was born in Turin to a noble family of the Kingdom of Sardinia (now part of Italy) in the year 1776. He graduated in ecclesiastical law at the late age of 20 and began to practice. Soon after, he dedicated himself to physics and mathematics (then called positive philosophy), and in 1809 started teaching them at a liceo (high school) in Vercelli, where his family lived and had some property.

In 1811, he published an article with the title Essai d'une manière de déterminer les masses relatives des molécules élémentaires des corps, et les proportions selon lesquelles elles entrent dans ces combinaisons ("Essay on a manner  of Determining the Relative Masses of the Elementary Molecules of Bodies and the Proportions by Which They Enter These Combinations"), which contains Avogadro's hypothesis. Avogadro submitted this essay to Jean-Claude Delamétherie's Journal de Physique, de Chimie et d'Histoire naturelle ("Journal of Physics, Chemistry and Natural History").

In 1820, he became a professor of physics at the University of Turin. Turin was now the capital of  the restored Savoyard Kingdom of Sardinia under Victor Emmanuel I. Avogadro was active in the revolutionary movement of March 1821. As a result, he lost his chair in 1823 (or, as the university officially declared, it was "very glad to allow this interesting scientist to take a rest from heavy teaching duties, in order to be able to give better attention to his researches"). Eventually, King Charles Albert granted a Constitution (Statuto Albertino) in 1848. Well before this, Avogadro had been recalled to the university in Turin in 1833, where he taught for another twenty years.

Little is known about Avogadro's private life, which appears to have been sober and religious. He married Felicita Mazzé and had six children. Avogadro held posts dealing with statistics, meteorology, and weights and measures (he introduced the metric system into Piedmont) and was a member of the Royal Superior Council on Public Instruction.

He died on 9 July 1856.

Accomplishments

In honor of Avogadro's contributions to molecular theory, the number of molecules per mole of substance is named the Avogadro constant, NA. It is exactly   The Avogadro constant is used to compute the results of chemical reactions. It allows chemists to determine the amounts of substances produced in a given reaction to a great degree of accuracy.

Johann Josef Loschmidt first calculated the value of the Avogadro constant, the number of particles in one mole, sometimes referred to as the Loschmidt number in German-speaking countries (Loschmidt constant now has another meaning).

Avogadro's law states that the relationship between the masses of the same volume of all gases (at the same temperature and pressure) corresponds to the relationship between their respective molecular weights. Hence, the relative molecular mass of a gas can be calculated from the mass of a sample of known volume.

Avogadro developed this hypothesis after Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac published his law on volumes (and combining gases) in 1808. The greatest problem Avogadro had to resolve was the confusion at that time regarding atoms and molecules. One of his most important contributions was clearly distinguishing one from the other, stating that gases are composed of molecules, and these molecules are composed of atoms. (For instance, John Dalton did not consider this possibility.) Avogadro did not actually use the word "atom" as the words "atom" and "molecule" were used almost without difference. He believed that there were three kinds of "molecules", including an "elementary molecule" (our "atom"). Also, he gave more attention to the definition of mass, as distinguished from weight.

In 1815, he published Mémoire sur les masses relatives des molécules des corps simples, ou densités présumées de leur gaz, et sur la constitution de quelques-uns de leur composés, pour servir de suite à l'Essai sur le même sujet, publié dans le Journal de Physique, juillet 1811 ("Note on the Relative Masses of Elementary Molecules, or Suggested Densities of Their Gases, and on the Constituents of Some of Their Compounds, As a Follow-up to the Essay on the Same Subject, Published in the Journal of Physics, July 1811") about gas densities.

In 1821 he published another paper, Nouvelles considérations sur la théorie des proportions déterminées dans les combinaisons, et sur la détermination des masses des molécules des corps (New Considerations on the Theory of Proportions Determined in Combinations, and on Determination of the Masses of Atoms) and shortly afterwards, Mémoire sur la manière de ramener les composès organiques aux lois ordinaires des proportions déterminées ("Note on the Manner of Finding the Organic Composition by the Ordinary Laws of Determined Proportions").

In 1841, he published his work in Fisica dei corpi ponderabili, ossia Trattato della costituzione materiale de' corpi, 4 volumes.

Response to the theory
The scientific community did not give great attention to Avogadro's theory, and it was not immediately accepted. André-Marie Ampère proposed a very similar theory three years later (in his ; "On the Determination of Proportions in which Bodies Combine According to the Number and the Respective Disposition of the Molecules by Which Their Integral Particles Are Made"), but the same indifference was shown to his theory as well.

Only through studies by Charles Frédéric Gerhardt and Auguste Laurent on organic chemistry was it possible to demonstrate that Avogadro's law explained why the same quantities of molecules in a gas have the same volume.

Unfortunately, related experiments with some inorganic substances showed seeming contradictions. This was finally resolved by Stanislao Cannizzaro, as announced at Karlsruhe Congress in 1860, four years after Avogadro's death. He explained that these exceptions were due to molecular dissociations at certain temperatures, and that Avogadro's law determined not only molecular masses, but atomic masses as well.

In 1911, a meeting in Turin commemorated the hundredth anniversary of the publication of Avogadro's classic 1811 paper. King Victor Emmanuel III attended, and Avogadro's great contribution to chemistry was recognized.

Rudolf Clausius, with his kinetic theory on gases proposed in 1857, provided further evidence for Avogadro's law. Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff showed that Avogadro's theory also held in dilute solutions.

Avogadro is hailed as a founder of the atomic-molecular theory.

See also
 Avogadrite (mineral)
 Avogadro (lunar crater)

References

Further reading

 Morselli, Mario. (1984). Amedeo Avogadro, a Scientific Biography. Kluwer. .
 Review of Morselli's book:
 Pierre Radvanyi, "Two hypothesis of Avogadro", 1811 Avogadro's article analyzed on BibNum  (click 'Télécharger').

External links

1776 births
1856 deaths
Scientists from Turin
Italian chemists
Fluid dynamicists
People from the Kingdom of Sardinia
Academic staff of the University of Turin

Amedeo Avogadro


An Electro-optic modulator is an optical device. It is made of a material that has a so-called electro-optical effect. This means that the material changes its optical properties when there is an electric field. One example is then when there is no electricity, light can pass through, and when there is, it cannot, and is reflected.

Tools

Electro-optic modulator


Óæskileg persóna (latína: eintala: persona non grata, fleirtala: personae non gratae) er í ríkiserindarekstri hugtak með mjög ákveðna merkingu skilgreint í 9. grein vínarsamningsins um diplómatísk samskipti:

The receiving State may at any time and without having to explain its decision, notify the sending State that the head of the mission or any member of the diplomatic staff of the mission is persona non grata or that any other member of the staff of the mission is not acceptable. In any such case, the sending State shall, as appropriate, either recall the person concerned or terminate his functions with the mission. A person may be declared non grata or not acceptable before arriving in the territory of the receiving State.

If the sending State refuses or fails within a reasonable period to carry out its obligations under paragraph 1 of this Article, the receiving State may refuse to recognize the person concerned as a member of the mission.

Heimild

Ríkiserindrekstur
Vínarsamningurinn um diplómatísk samskipti

Óæskileg persóna


Telangana () is a state in southern India. It became the 29th state of India on 2nd June, 2014. Before that, it was part of Andhra Pradesh. It has a population of 39.12 million as per the 2017 census. Its capital is Hyderabad (Bagyanagar), being the largest city of Telangana. Hyderabad was built by Quli Qutub Shah 400 years back on the banks of river Musi, with the Charminar at its centre.  The rivers flowing through the state are Krishna, Godavari, Bhima, Manjira, Musi and Paleru. Telangana is a land locked state with Maharashtra, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, and Andhra Pradesh as its border states. K. Chandrashekar Rao  is the first and current Chief Minister of the state from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS). According to the data released by the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India in 2018, Telegana stands first in the states with respect to the average growth rate of its own tax revenue. It has achieved an average growth rate of 13.8% during the last 4 years. It has 17 Lok Sabha seats and 119 assembly seat.

Districts
There were 10 districts in Telangana, viz. Adilabad, Hyderabad, Karimnagar, Khammam, Mahaboobnagar, Medak, Nalgonda, Nizamabad, Rangareddy and Warangal, which have been expanded into 32 districts, viz. Nirmal, Komarambheem, Jegityala, Kammareddy, Pedapali, Sidipet, Hanumakonda, Jayashenkar, Sangareddy, Yadadri, Suryapet, Shamshabad, Vanaparti and Nagarkarnool among others and the old ones.

Coal reserves in Telangana were first found at Singareni in Khammam. T-Hub started by Telangana's government is the first of its kind, promoting the startups in the state. The Government Of Telegana has launched several welfare schemes such as the Amma Vodi scheme (for poor and pregnant scheme), Single Women Pension scheme and KCR kit scheme for pregnant women and new born.

Language
Telangana has its own slang of Telugu language,and is also known for its featured Telangana songs,  namely "Janapadha Geethalu".As in the culture,the state of Telangana,celebrates festivals like Bonalu, Bathukamma. Sammakka -Saralamma Jathara is the second largest festival  in India after the Kumbh And in Telangana many languages will speak like urdu,lambadi,  chenchu etc..

Related pages
Hyderabad State
Osman Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VII

References

Telangana


In Norse mythology, Ragnarök which in Old Norse translates to "Doom of the Gods" is the battle at the end of the world. It is to be fought between the gods or Æsir, led by Odin; and the fire giants, the Jötnar and other monsters, led by Loki and Surtr. Not only will most of the gods, giants, and monsters die in this battle, but almost everything in the universe will be destroyed.

The following battles will be fought:
 Odin vs Fenrir,or Fenris: Odin will be swallowed by Fenrir.
 Vidar vs Fenrir,or Fenris: Vidar will kill Fenrir by stepping on the jaw of Fenrir (also known as Fenris) and split it all the way down through his tail. That's when Ragnarok ends.
 Thor vs Jormungandr: Thor kills Jormungandr, but then dies from his wounds and the poison after taking nine steps.
 Tyr vs Garm: Garm bites off Tyr's other hand and he bleeds out, but not before he gives Garm a mortal wound, which does kill him.
 Heimdall vs Loki: Both will inflict fatal wounds on each other, but Loki shall refuse to die until he sees the destruction of the worlds which will happen soon after. They'll both die next to each other.

After these gods die, Surtr will alight the world in flames, until a flood finally covers the world.

Surviving gods
Hoenir, Magni, Modi, Njord, Vidar, Vali, and the daughter of Sol are all stated to survive Ragnarok. All of the remaining Æsir then reunite at Ithavllir. Baldr and Hod return from the underworld - Baldr having been killed by Hod, and Hod by Vali, before Ragnarok. Hoenir either makes slots for divination or receives a wand for divination, depending on the translation. Vidar - who avenges Odin - and Vali are unharmed by Surtr's fire or the flood. Magni and Modi who will wield their father's (Thor) hammer, Mjolnir, will also live. Njord is stated to return to Vanaheim at "the doom of man", which has been interpreted as Ragnarok. Sol (who dies) gives birth to a daughter who will follow her path in the new world.

Theories
There are some beings whose fate after Ragnarok is uncertain. Nidhhoggr is stated to fly with darkness under him and corpses on his back at the end of the Voluspa. This has been noted to not fit well with the theme of the last stanza, in which all of the old and bad has been burnt, and a new world with only good will rise of the waters. The last stanza has seen this interpreted differently, with some having Nidhoggr as the last remaining evil in the new world, and others stating that Nidhhoggr will rise one more time but then fall back to the ground, meaning evil has been defeated and all is good in the new world.

Additionally, the dwarfs are stated to be in their "stone doors". This has been interpreted as meaning that the dwarfs are stuck in their mountain homes or structures, which are going to fall - but that they are unable to leave, as they will turn to stone if they do.

References
 2. The Voluspa in the Poetic Edda

Norse mythology

Ragnarök


Integrated Services Digital Network is an international standard for a communication network. It is often shortened to ISDN. It is used for telephone lines. Before ISDN, telephone lines were mainly seen as a way for people to make phone calls, so the main idea was to use circuit switching. When a phone call is made, a line is set up between the two participants. This phone call is analogue. With ISDN, this view changes. As the signal is now digital ISDN can be used to offer a number of services, which use the telephone line to transport data. There were different services, like telex or teleprinters before ISDN, but they used their own networks. At specific locations, there were gateways between these networks. With ISDN, this changes. There is only one network, and it offers different services. Some of them are for voice, to make phone calls, others are for data, for example to send telefaxes.

Channels
ISDN offers a number of data channels, and a signalling channel. The data channels carry the actual service data. The two data channels are completely independent and can be used independently. The usual setup has two such data channels. That way, it is possible to send a fax through one channel, while doing a phone call over the other channel, for example. If the main focus is on a high quality voice connection, the two channels can be combined into one single channel carrying twice the amount of a single channel enhancing the quality dramatically.

For larger companies it is possible to extend the number of data channels to 30 with still one signalling channel.

Computer networking

Integrated Services Digital Network


Richard Stoddert Ewell (February 8, 1817 – January 25, 1872) was a career United States Army officer and a Confederate general during the American Civil War. He achieved fame as a senior commander under Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee and fought effectively through much of the war. Still, his legacy was clouded by controversies over his actions at the Battle of Gettysburg and the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House.

Early life and career
Ewell was born in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. He was raised in Prince William County, Virginia, from the age of 3, at an estate near Manassas known as "Stony Lonesome." He was the third son of Dr. Thomas and Elizabeth Stoddert Ewell; the grandson of Benjamin Stoddert, the first United States Secretary of the Navy; the grandson of Revolutionary War Colonel Jesse Ewell; and the brother of Benjamin Stoddert Ewell. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1840, thirteenth in his class of 42 cadets. His friends called him "Old Bald Head" or "Baldy." He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 1st U.S. Dragoons and was promoted to first lieutenant in 1845. From 1843 to 1845, he served with Philip St. George Cooke and Stephen Watts Kearny on escort duty along the Santa Fe and Oregon Trails. In the Mexican–American War, serving under Winfield Scott, he was recognized and promoted to captain for his courage at the Battle of Contreras and the Battle of Churubusco. At Contreras, he conducted a nighttime reconnaissance with engineer Captain Robert E. Lee, his future commander.

Ewell served in the New Mexico Territory for some time, exploring the newly acquired Gadsden Purchase with Colonel Benjamin Bonneville. He was wounded in a skirmish with Apaches under Cochise in 1859. In 1860, while in command of Fort Buchanan, Arizona, illness compelled him to leave the West for Virginia to recuperate. He described his condition as "very ill with vertigo, nausea, etc., and now am excessively debilitated[,] having occasional attacks of the ague." Illnesses and injuries would cause difficulties for him throughout the upcoming Civil War.

Civil War
As the nation moved towards war, Ewell had generally pro-Union sentiments. Nevertheless, when his home state of Virginia declared secession, Ewell resigned from the U.S. Army on May 7, 1861, to join the Provisional Army of Virginia. He was appointed a colonel of cavalry on May 9 and was the first officer of field grade wounded in the war at a May 31 skirmish at Fairfax Court House where he was hit in the shoulder. He was promoted to brigadier general in the Confederate States Army on June 17. He commanded a brigade in the (Confederate) Army of the Potomac at the First Battle of Bull Run (First Manassas). Still, his brigade was guarding fords downstream and did not get into the action at all.

Hours after the battle, Ewell proposed to President of the Confederate States of America Jefferson Davis that for the Confederacy to win the war, enslaved people must be freed and join the ranks of the army; he was also willing to lead black soldiers into battle. But Davis considered that "impossible", and that topic never came up between him and Ewell again. Nevertheless, like Patrick Cleburne, Ewell was one of those few Confederate generals who believed the Confederacy needed all the soldiers it could get, regardless of race.

In late July, Ewell was furious when he heard that his commanding officer, P. G. T. Beauregard, blamed him for not following orders at Bull Run (Manassas) when the orders did not reach him in time.

Ewell inspired his men despite, not because of, his appearance. Historian Larry Tagg using General Richard Taylor's description, described him:

With Stonewall Jackson

Ewell was promoted to major general and division command on January 24, 1862. When Joe Johnson's army pulled out of the Manassas area in March and went down to Richmond, Ewell's division was stationed around Culpeper. In May, he was ordered to the Shenandoah Valley to reinforce "Stonewall" Jackson. Ewell moved west, crossing the Blue Ridge, and managed to locate Jackson's command after some difficulty. Although the two generals worked together well and were noted for their quixotic personal behavior, they had many stylistic differences. Jackson was stern and pious, whereas Ewell was witty and extremely profane. Jackson was flexible and intuitive on the battlefield, while Ewell, although brave and effective, required precise instructions to function effectively. Ewell was initially resentful about Jackson's tendency to keep his subordinates uninformed about his tactical plans, but he eventually adjusted to Jackson's methods.

Ewell superbly commanded a division in Jackson's small army during the Valley Campaign, personally winning quite a few battles against the larger U.S. armies of Maj. Gens. Nathaniel P. Banks, John C. Frémont, and James Shields at the Battle of Front Royal and First Battle of Winchester, Battle of Cross Keys, and Battle of Port Republic, respectively. Jackson's army was then recalled to Richmond to join Robert E. Lee in protecting the city against Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac in the Peninsula Campaign. Ewell fought conspicuously at Gaines' Mill and saw relatively light action at Malvern Hill. After Lee repelled the U.S. army in the Seven Days Battles, U.S. Maj. Gen. John Pope's Army of Virginia threatened to attack from the north, so Jackson was sent to intercept him. Ewell defeated Banks again at the Battle of Cedar Mountain on August 9, and, returning to the old Manassas battlefield, he led his division into action at Brawner's Farm on August 28. A Minie ball shattered Ewell's left leg, and he lay on the ground for several hours before being found and taken away. The leg was amputated above the knee, and Ewell faced a painful recovery lasting months. Although he received a wooden leg, the irregular shape of the leg stump made it difficult to fit it. Ewell slipped and fell in Richmond on Christmas Day, aggravating his injury further.

While recovering from his injury, Ewell was nursed by his first cousin, Lizinka Campbell Brown, a wealthy widow from the Nashville area. Ewell had been attracted to Lizinka since his teenage years, and they had flirted with romance in 1861 and during the Valley Campaign, but now the close contact resulted in their wedding in Richmond on May 26, 1863.

Ewell returned to Lee's Army of Northern Virginia after the Battle of Chancellorsville. After the mortal wounding of Jackson at that battle, on May 23, Ewell was promoted to lieutenant general and command of the Second Corps (now slightly smaller than Jackson's because units were detached to create a new Third Corps, under Lt. Gen. A. P. Hill, also one of Jackson's division commanders). Ewell was given a date of rank one day earlier than Hill's, so he became the third-highest-ranking general in the Army of Northern Virginia, after Lee and James Longstreet.

Gettysburg and controversy
Ewell continued to have difficulty walking and needed crutches when not mounted on horseback. In the opening days of the Gettysburg Campaign, at the Second Battle of Winchester, Ewell performed superbly, capturing the U.S. garrison of 4,000 men and 23 cannons. He escaped severe injury there when he was hit in the chest with a spent bullet (the second such incident in his career, after Gaines' Mill). His corps took the lead in the invasion of Pennsylvania and almost reached the state capital of Harrisburg before being recalled by Lee to concentrate at Gettysburg. These successes led to favorable comparisons with Jackson.

But at the Battle of Gettysburg, Ewell's military reputation started a long decline. On July 1, 1863, Ewell's corps approached Gettysburg from the north and smashed the U.S. XI Corps and part of the I Corps, driving them back through the town and forcing them to take up defensive positions on Cemetery Hill south of town. Lee had just arrived on the field and saw the importance of this position. He sent discretionary orders to Ewell that Cemetery Hill be taken "if practicable." Historian James M. McPherson wrote, "Had Jackson still lived, he undoubtedly would have found it practicable. But Ewell was not Jackson." Ewell chose not to attempt the assault.

Ewell had several possible reasons for not attacking. The orders from Lee contained an innate contradiction. He was "to carry the hill occupied by the enemy, if he found it practicable, but to avoid a general engagement until the arrival of the other divisions of the army." Lee also refused to provide assistance that Ewell requested from the corps of A. P. Hill. Ewell's men were fatigued from their lengthy marching and strenuous battle in the hot July afternoon. It would be difficult to reassemble them into battle formation and assault the hill through the narrow corridors afforded by the streets of Gettysburg. The fresh division under Maj. Gen. Edward "Allegheny" Johnson was arriving. Still, Ewell also received intelligence that heavy U.S. reinforcements were approaching from the east on the York Pike, potentially threatening his flank. Ewell's normally aggressive subordinate, Maj. Gen. Jubal A. Early, concurred with his decision.

Lee's order has been criticized because it left too much discretion to Ewell. Historians such as McPherson have speculated on how the more aggressive Stonewall Jackson would have acted on this order if he had lived to command this wing of Lee's army and how differently the second day of battle would have proceeded with Confederate possession of Culp's Hill or Cemetery Hill. Discretionary orders were customary for General Lee because Jackson and James Longstreet, his other principal subordinate, usually reacted to them very well and could use their initiative to respond to conditions and achieve the desired results. Ewell's critics have noted that this failure of action on his part, whether justified or not, ultimately cost the Confederates the battle. Other historians have noted that Lee, as the overall commanding general who issued discretionary orders to Ewell and then continued the battle for another two days, bears the final responsibility for the Confederate defeat at Gettysburg.

When Ewell's corps attacked these positions on July 2 and 3, the U.S. army had had time to fully occupy the heights and build impregnable defenses, resulting in heavy Confederate losses. Postwar proponents of the Lost Cause movement, particularly Jubal Early, but also Maj. Gen. Isaac R. Trimble, assigned to Ewell's staff during the battle, criticized him bitterly to deflect any blame for losing the battle on Robert E. Lee. Part of their argument was that the U.S. soldiers were demoralized by their defeat earlier in the day. Still, Ewell's men were also disorganized, and their decisions were far simpler to make in hindsight than in the heat of battle and fog of war.

On July 3, Ewell was again wounded, but only in his wooden leg. He led his corps on an orderly retreat back to Virginia. By late November, Ewell took a leave of absence due to fever and continued problems with his leg. Within a month, he returned to command but struggled with his health and mobility. He was bruised in a fall from his horse in January 1864.

Overland Campaign and Richmond

Ewell led his corps in the May 1864 Battle of the Wilderness and performed well, enjoying a slight numerical superiority over the U.S. corps that attacked him. In the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, Lee felt compelled to lead the defense of the "Mule Shoe" on May 12 personally because of Ewell's indecision and inaction. At one point, Ewell began hysterically berating some of his fleeing soldiers and beating them over the back with his sword. Lee reined him in, saying sharply, "General Ewell, you must restrain yourself; how can you expect to control these men when you have lost control of yourself? If you cannot repress your excitement, you had better retire." Ewell's behavior on this occasion undoubtedly was the source of a statement made by Lee to his secretary, William Allan, after the war that on May 12, he "found Ewell perfectly prostrated by the misfortune of the morning, and too much overwhelmed to be efficient." In the final combat at Spotsylvania, on May 19, 1864, Ewell ordered an attack on the U.S. left flank at the Harris Farm, which had little effect beyond delaying Grant for a day, at the cost of 900 casualties, about one-sixth of his remaining force.

Lee felt that Ewell was not in any shape for field command and decided to reassign him to the Richmond defenses. In April 1865, as Ewell and his troops were retreating, many fires in Richmond were started, although it is unclear by whose orders the fires were started. Ewell blamed the plundering mobs of civilians for burning a tobacco warehouse, which was a significant source of the fire, but Nelson Lankford, the author of Richmond Burning, wrote that "Ewell convinced few people that the great fire had nothing to do with his men or their deliberate demolition of the warehouses and bridges through military orders passed down the chain of command." These fires created The Great Conflagration of Richmond, which left a third of the city destroyed, including all of the business district. Ewell and his troops were then surrounded and captured at Sailor's Creek. This was a few days before Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House. Ewell told his captors that he had no idea what Lee was planning to do next, but the Confederacy was clearly doomed, and he hoped he would have the sense to surrender. He was held as a prisoner of war at Fort Warren in Boston Harbor until July.

While imprisoned, Ewell organized a group of sixteen former generals also at Fort Warren, including Edward "Allegheny" Johnson and Joseph B. Kershaw, and sent a letter to Ulysses S. Grant about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, for which they said no Southern man could feel anything other than "unqualified abhorrence and indignation" and insisting that the crime should not be connected to the southern states.

Postbellum life

After his parole, Ewell retired to work as a "gentleman farmer" on his wife's farm near Spring Hill, Tennessee, which he helped to become profitable, and also leased a successful cotton plantation in Mississippi. His leg stump had largely healed by the war's end and no longer seriously bothered him, but he continued to suffer from neuralgia and other ailments. He doted on Lizinka's children and grandchildren. He was president of the Columbia Female Academy's board of trustees, a communicant at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Columbia, and president of the Maury County Agricultural Society. Ewell and his wife came down with pneumonia in January 1872 and died within a few days of each other. They were buried in Old City Cemetery in Nashville, Tennessee. He is the author of The Making of a Soldier, published posthumously in 1935.

In popular media
Tim Scott portrayed Ewell in the 1993 film Gettysburg, based on Michael Shaara's novel, The Killer Angels. In that movie, Maj. Gen. Isaac R. Trimble meets with Robert E. Lee and tells him that Ewell had refused to take Cemetery Hill, giving the U.S. army a massive advantage, and that many men would die in the coming days because of that failure.

Ewell is the main character in the 1963 gospel film Red Runs the River and is portrayed by Bob Jones Jr. The film, directed by Katherine Stenholm, details Ewell's relationship with Stonewall Jackson and Ewell's conversion to Christ following his wound at the Second Battle of Bull Run (Manassas). It is an Unusual Films production from the Cinema Department of Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. Red Runs the River was the film the University Film Producers Association selected to represent the United States at the International Congress of Motion-Picture and Television Schools in Budapest, Hungary.

See also

List of American Civil War generals (Confederate)

Notes

References
 Coddington, Edwin B. The Gettysburg Campaign; a study in command. New York: Scribner's, 1968. .
 Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher, Civil War High Commands. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. .
 Frederiksen, John C. "Richard Stoddert Ewell." In Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History, edited by David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000. .
 Lankford, Nelson. Richmond Burning: The Last Days of the Confederate Capital. New York: Viking, 2002. .
 Pfanz, Donald C. Richard S. Ewell: A Soldier's Life. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998. .
 Rhea, Gordon C. To the North Anna River: Grant and Lee, May 13–25, 1864. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2000. .
 Sears, Stephen W. Gettysburg. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003. .
 Sifakis, Stewart. Who Was Who in the Civil War. New York: Facts On File, 1988. .
 Tagg, Larry. The Generals of Gettysburg. Campbell, CA: Savas Publishing, 1998. .
 Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959. .

External links
Richard S. Ewell in Encyclopedia Virginia
Ewell's biography at Civil War Home
Biography at Stonewall in the Valley website

1817 births
1872 deaths
19th-century American military personnel
American Civil War prisoners of war held by the United States
American military personnel of the Mexican–American War
American amputees
Confederate States Army lieutenant generals
Deaths from pneumonia in Tennessee
Members of the Aztec Club of 1847
People from Georgetown (Washington, D.C.)
People of Virginia in the American Civil War
People of Washington, D.C., in the American Civil War
United States Military Academy alumni

Richard S. Ewell


Coppélia ou La fille aux yeux d'email () is probably the best-known and most performed comedy ballet in the world. Arthur Saint-Léon and Charles Nuitter based the ballet on E. T. A. Hoffmann's 1816 short story The Sandman (short story). Léo Delibes wrote the music. Saint-Léon choreographed the ballet.

The ballet is set in a Polish village long ago. Swanhilda and Frantz are sweethearts. Swanhilda thinks Frantz is in love with Coppélia, a strange girl in the house of a dollmaker named Dr. Coppélius. Swanhilda discovers Coppélia is a doll. Dr. Coppélius tries to bring the doll to life using Frantz's life force. Swanhilda saves her sweetheart's life, and the two live happily ever after.

Coppélia was in rehearsal for three years. It had many troubles. One was finding just the right dancer to portray Swanhilda. Sixteen-year-old Giuseppina Bozzacchi was finally chosen. Frantz was played by Eugenie Fiocre. The ballet was first performed on 25 May 1870 at the Théâtre Impérial de l´Opéra in Paris. Coppélia was a great success. It has been performed around the world.

Story of the ballet

Act I. Coppélia is set in a small village in Poland at the end of the 18th century. Swanhilda and Frantz are young peasants. They are sweethearts. Frantz however is flirting with Coppélia, a strange girl in the dark house of a dollmaker named Dr. Coppélius. Swanhilda is upset with her sweetheart's behavior.

One evening, Dr. Coppélius leaves home. He drops his key in the street. Swanhilda finds the key. She opens his door and goes into the house with her girlfriends. Frantz enters the street quietly. He puts a ladder against a window of the house. Coppelius returns and chases Frantz away.

Act II. Swanhilda and her girlfriends explore Dr. Coppélius's workroom. It is filled with life-size dolls. Swanhilda discovers Coppélia is also a doll. Coppélius enters and chases the girls away. Swanhilda hides. Frantz climbs through the window. Coppélius welcomes him. He needs a human sacrifice to bring Coppélia to life.

Coppélius give Frantz a glass of wine. The boy falls asleep. The dollmaker performs a magic spell. He tries to bring Coppélia to life using Frantz's life force. Swanhilda pretends to be Coppélia. She destroys the workroom, and saves Frantz's life. Coppélius faints as the sweethearts run away.

Act III. A new church bell is blessed. Swanhilda and Frantz (and other couples) are going to be married. They have all been given dowries by the Lord of the Manor. Dr. Coppélius enters. He is angry. He wants to be paid for the damage done to his workroom. Swanhilda offers her dowry.

The Lord of the Manor allows Swanhilda to keep her dowry. He agrees to pay for the damages. The couples enter the chapel. The celebrations start with the "Dance of the Hours". Dawn, Day, the Hour of Prayer, and other dances are performed. The married couples return. All rejoice.

Short story to ballet

Several changes were made to Hoffmann's dark short story when it was adapted to the bright and gay Coppélia. In Hoffmann's fairy tale, for example, the doll comes to life through the hero's life force. In the ballet though, the doll remains a doll. Coppélius's attempt to bring it to life is thwarted by Swanhilda.

In another example, Hoffmann's hero sees the doll in a vision. He then falls from a tower to his death. The hero of Coppélia however is saved by his sweetheart. A happy ending replaces a tragic ending.

The designers of the ballet chose only Dr. Coppélius, the life-sized doll, and the young man torn between his attraction to the doll and his love for a human sweetheart for their adaptation. They set the story in a simple country village. Hoffmann set his story in "the philosophically oriented bourgeois society" of the early 19th century.

The spirit of Coppélia is lighthearted and gay. The story of the ballet is simple. Its fantastic touches such as the dollmaker and his workshop make Coppélia, according to Lincoln Kirstein, "a trifle presumed especially appealing to children."

Development of the ballet

Coppélia is one of many (if not the first) ballet about bringing a doll to life. Charles Nuitter started work on the libretto in late 1866 or early 1867. He had a young dancer named Léontine Beaugrand in mind for the part of Swanhilda. Delibes set to work writing the music.

Rehearsals started. The director of the Opéra wanted a star with a well known name to portray the ballet's heroine, Swanhilda. Beaugrand was a lovely young dancer, but her career was just starting. She had yet to have the sort of name that would draw ballet-goers to the theatre.

Adèle Grantzow, a German ballerina dancing at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, was hired to play Swanhilda. Saint-Léon was working between France and Russia at this time. He could not completely devote himself to Coppélia. Consequently, the ballet was rehearsed over a three-year period.

Coppélia lost its star when Grantzow was injured. She went back to Russia. Beaugrand was again passed over for the part of Swanhilda. Giuseppina Bozzacchi was a sixteen-year-old dancer in the company. It was she who was chosen to play Swanhilda.

First performance
Coppélia was first performed on 25 May 1870 at the Théâtre Impérial de l'Opéra. Giuseppina Bozzacchi played Swanhilda.  Eugénie Fiocre played Frantz. Francois-Édouard Dauty portrayed Dr. Coppélius. A real mechanical doll was used as Coppélia. Because a woman played Frantz, a pas de deux for Swanhilda and Frantz was not possible. Nonetheless, the ballet was a great success.

Bozzacchi danced eighteen performances of the ballet before the theatre closed because of the Franco-Prussian War.  She died of a fever during the Siege of Paris on her seventeenth birthday, 23 November 1870.

When the theatres reopened in 1871, Beaugrand played Swanhilda with great success. The part of Frantz was again played by a woman in men's clothing. Frantz would be a travesty role at the Paris Opéra until the 1950s.

Music

Coppélia was the first ballet score written completely by Delibes. He studied with Adolphe Adam. Adam was the composer of the enduring romantic ballet, Giselle, and the first to use leitmotifs in ballet. Delibes, like his teacher, used leitmotifs to identify persons and places in Coppelia. Swanhilda has a waltz, and Frantz has two leitmotifs. Coppélius has a dry-sounding motif and the doll has an odd-sounding little motif. Bustling, lively music identifies the village square. Sinister music identifies Coppélius's workshop.

Delibes appreciated the folk music of eastern Europe. He wrote both a Polish dance called the mazurka, and an Hungarian dance called the czardas for the ballet.  Delibes's czardas was the first written for a ballet. Other ethnic music in the ballet include a Spanish bolero and a Scottish jig. Frantz has no solo dance in the original ballet because a woman played the part. A pas de deux for Frantz and Swanhilda was not possible for the same reason. The pas de deux now in the ballet was the addition of Marius Petipa. He put a pas de deux in the ballet when he rearranged the music for his 1884 St Petersburg production.

Lincoln Kirstein describes the music as "sprightly" and the "most durable since Adam's Giselle". Dance music had become the "miserable servant" of the dance, Kirstein points out, until Delibes's colorful, rhythmically varied, and richly orchestrated Coppélia. While the music did little to change dance design itself, he writes, it did provide a criterion for future ballet music.

Reviews
The critic of Le Figaro wrote on 28 May 1870, "M. Léo Delibes has composed for the three scenes of Coppélia a distinguished, piquant, and colorful score, excellently orchestrated ... It is very difficult to write for legs with a little artistry, taste, and style. For instance, ballets such as Giselle are not improvised by the dozen. M. Delibes has avoided the commonplace in a piece where it has every right to succeed."

The critic of Le Ménestrel wrote about Bozzacchi on 29 May 1870, "The title of child prodigy should be devised for her had it had not been abused in so many other cases; although scarcely fifteen years old she is already a very skillful dancer, what is better still in our opinion, she is a graceful and a witty actress; add to that a well-proportioned, dainty little body, and that she bids fair to have the prettiest features in the world. If she fulfills all her first promises, she will be a power in her profession."

Other performances

France
Coppelia was, and still is, very popular. The Paris Opéra Ballet has performed Coppelia 711 times over 90 years. In 1996, Patrice Bart created a new version of the ballet. He went back to Hoffmann's fairy tale. In the process, he brought some psychological depth to the ballet's characters. He even put one of Hoffmann's original characters, Professor Spalanzani, into his new version. Bart also used music from Delibes's operas Le Roi l'a dit and Lakmé.

England

Coppélia was first performed in England at the Empire Theatre in London on 14 May 1906. Adeline Genée danced Swanhilda. The Royal Ballet first staged Coppélia in 1933. This staging was Nicholas Sergeyev's version based on the 19th century revision by Lev Ivanov and Enrico Cecchetti. Dame Ninette de Valois danced Swanilda in Sergeyev's 1933 version. In 1954, de Valois created her own version based on the Russian versions of Coppélia.

Russia
Coppélia was first performed in Russia in 1884. Marius Petipa adapted the original choreography for this production. In 2009, Sergei Vikharev reconstructed Coppélia for the Bolshoi Ballet from the Mariinsky Theatre records of 1894. This version featured new designs and 24 dancers in the "Dance of the Hours". Vikharev's version was staged in London in 2010 as part of the Bolshoi's summer tour.

United States
Coppélia was first performed in the United States by the American Opera Company at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City on 11 March 1887. Marie Giuri danced Swanhilda and Felicita Carossa danced Frantz. Anna Pavlova made her American debut in the role of Swanhilda at the Metropolitan Opera on 28 February  1910. George Balanchine and Alexandra Danilova choreographed a version of Coppélia in 1974. Their production used the traditional story in the first two scenes, but dropped the third scene's "Dance of the Hours" for a general celebration of ballet.

Australia
Coppelia was first performed in Australia in Melbourne in 1913. Adeline Gennée and members of the Imperial Russian Ballet performed the ballet on the opening night of their Australian tour. This version was produced by Alexandre Volonine, and was supplemented with music by C. J. M. Glaser.

The first Australian production premiered in 1931 in Sydney, Australia. This production was designed and staged by Louise Lightfoot and performed by the First Australian Ballet. Australian ballet lovers then saw selections from the ballet as well as complete, full length productions by both Australian and foreign companies in the following decades.

China
A version of Coppélia was staged by the National Ballet of China in Beijing in 2002. The dances for this production were designed by Par Isberg. The production opened at the Tianqiao Theatre on 1 May 2002. Wang Qiming played Coppélia.  The production stayed close to the original, but the story was simplified and made modern. Costumes included jeans for men and short, tight skirts for women. Some of the women danced on roller skates.

Notes

References

Other websites
 Project Gutenberg: Der Sandmann (in English)

Ballets
Compositions by Léo Delibes

Coppélia


Devon colic was a condition that affected people in the English county of Devon during parts of the 17th and 18th centuries, before it was discovered to be lead poisoning.

The first written account of the colic comes from 1655. Symptoms began with severe abdominal pains and the condition was occasionally fatal. Cider is a traditional drink of Devonians, and the connection between the colic and cider drinking had been observed for many years. The condition was commonly attributed to the acidity of the beverage.

William Musgrave's publication De arthritide symptomatica (2nd edn, 1715) included the first scientific description of "Devonshire colic" – it was later referred to by John Huxham and Sir George Baker.

However, the precise cause was not discovered until the 1760s when Dr George Baker put forward the hypothesis that poisoning from lead in cider was to blame. He observed that the symptoms of the colic were similar to those of lead poisoning. He pointed out that lead was used in the cider making process both as a component of the cider presses and in the form of lead shot which was used to clean them. He also conducted chemical tests to demonstrate the presence of lead in Devon apple juice.

The publication of his results met with some hostile reaction from cider manufacturers, keen to defend their product. Once Baker's conclusions became accepted and the elimination of lead from the cider presses was undertaken, the colic declined. By 1818, Baker's son reported that it was "hardly known to exist" in Devon.

Poitou colic

An illness with identical symptoms was described from Poitou in western France in a work of 1616 by François Citois. It was known in English sources as Poitou colic. It was likewise demonstrated to be a form of lead poisoning in a 1757 publication by Théodore Tronchin of Geneva.

References

External links
 Etched on Devon's Memory - paper from Conference of Healthcare Librarians, 1996

History of Devon
Lead poisoning incidents
17th-century health disasters
18th-century health disasters
17th century in England
18th century in England
History of forensic science
Forensic toxicology
Forensic pathology
Deaths by poisoning
Cider
17th century in Devon
18th century in Devon
Obsolete medical terms

Devon colic


A still life is a work of art, most often a painting. In a still life, objects like flowers, fruit, or glasses are arranged in a certain way, and then painted. Most still lifes are of inanimate objects manmade or natural.Still life painting has been popular since the 17th century, when Dutch painters like Adriaen Coorte raised it to a fine art. However, the idea is old: examples can be found in antiquity. With a still life, the artist can focus more on composition and arrangement than with other forms of painting, such as landscape painting or portraiture.

Art

Still life


The Articles of Confederation, formally named the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, was an agreement among all thirteen original states in the United States of America that served as its first constitution. All thirteen states ratified the Articles in early 1781.

In 1789, the Founding Fathers replaced the Articles with the United States Constitution and a federal form of government.

Contents

Even though the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution were created by many of the same people, the two documents were very different. The original five-paged Articles contained thirteen articles, a conclusion, and a section for signatures. The following list contains short summaries of each of the thirteen articles.

(1) The name of the confederation will be "The United States of America."

(2) Each state will continue to rule itself, except for the specific things the Articles allow the confederation government to do: "Each state [keeps] its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not [given to the confederation government] by this Confederation...."

(3) The United States is a group of states that has come together to protect each other and help each other.  The states have united "for their common defense, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general [well-being], [coming together] to assist each other, against all force offered to, or attacks made upon them...."

(4) People in the United States have freedom of movement: anyone can pass freely between states, except for "paupers, vagabonds, and fugitives from justice." When a person travels into one state, he gets all of the rights that state gives to people that live there. If a person commits a crime in one state and runs away to another state, and he is found, he will be extradited to the state where the crime happened, and tried there.

(5) Each state gets one vote in the "Congress of the Confederation" (called the "United States in Congress Assembled").  Each state can bring a group of two to seven delegates to the Congress.  Each state's legislature chooses its Members of Congress. Members of Congress cannot serve for more than three out of any six years.

(6) Only the confederation government is allowed to conduct foreign policy (work with other countries) and to declare war.  Without Congress's permission, no states may have navies or full-time armies, and no states may fight in any war.  However, the Articles encouraged each state to have militias.

(7) When an army is raised for common defense, the state legislatures will choose Colonels and military ranks below Colonel.

(8) The United States will pay for things using money that the state legislatures will raise.  Not every state will have to pay the same amount.  States with higher property values will pay more.

(9) The confederation government has these powers: to declare war; to set weights and measures (including coins); and for Congress to serve as a final court for disagreements between states.

(10) A "Committee of the States" will be the government when Congress is not meeting.

(11) Nine states must agree before a new state is accepted into the Confederation.  Canada is already approved, if it applies for membership.

(12) The Confederation accepts war debt from before the Articles.

(13) The Articles can only be changed if Congress and all of the state legislatures agree.

Congress of the Confederation
The Articles of Confederation created the Congress of the Confederation, which was formally named the "United States in Congress Assembled". It became the governing body of the United States. The Congress of the Confederation had both legislative and executive powers. This meant the Congress could make the laws and enforce the laws. The states sent delegates chosen from the state legislature. The states had one vote each.

The Committee of the States was also created by the Articles of Confederation. It was  also known as Council of State.  It was meant to be the government when the Congress of the Confederation was not meeting. Each state had one member. The Committee had one meeting in 1784. Why was it so difficult for the United States government under the Articles of Confederation to respond to revolts like Shay's Rebellion? The National Government could not draft an Army and use federal troops to respond to riots and revolts

Gallery

References
 R. B. Bernstein, "Parliamentary Principles, American Realities: The Continental and Confederation Congresses, 1774-1789," in Inventing Congress: Origins & Establishment Of First Federal Congress ed by Kenneth R. Bowling and Donald R. Kennon (1999) pp 76–108
 Burnett, Edmund Cody. The Continental Congress: A Definitive History of the Continental Congress From Its Inception in 1774 to March, 1789 (1941)
 Barbara Feinberg, The Articles Of Confederation (2002). [for middle school children.]
 Robert W. Hoffert, A Politics of Tensions: The Articles of Confederation and American Political Ideas (1992).
 Lucille E. Horgan. Forged in War: The Continental Congress and the Origin of Military Supply and Acquisition Policy (2002)
 Merrill Jensen, The Articles of Confederation: An Interpretation of the Social-Constitutional History of the American Revolution, 1774-1781 (1959).
 Merrill Jensen: "The Idea of a National Government During the American Revolution", Political Science Quarterly, 58 (1943), 356-79. online at JSTOR
 Calvin Jillson and Rick K. Wilson. Congressional Dynamics: Structure, Coordination, and Choice in the First American Congress, 1774-1789. (1994)
 Forest McDonald.Novus Ordo Seclorum: The Intellectual Origins of the Constitution. (1985)
 Andrew C. Mclaughlin, A Constitutional History of the United States (1935) online version
 Pauline Maier, American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence (1998).
 Jackson T. Main, Political Parties before the Constitution. University of North Carolina Press, 1974
 Jack N. Rakove, The Beginnings of National Politics: An Interpretive History of the Continental Congress  (1982).
 Jack N. Rakove, "The Collapse of the Articles of Confederation," in The American Founding: Essays on the Formation of the Constitution. Ed by J. Jackson Barlow, Leonard W. Levy and Ken Masugi. Greenwood Press. 1988. pp 225–45

Related pages
 History of the United States
 United States Declaration of Independence
 United States Constitution
 United States Bill of Rights

References

Further reading

Other websites

 Text Version of the Articles of Confederation
 Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union
 Articles of Confederation and related resources, Library of Congress
 Today in History: November 15, Library of Congress
 United States Constitution Online - The Articles of Confederation
 Free Download of Articles of Confederation Audio
 Audio narration (mp3) of the Articles of Confederation  at Americana Phonic
 The Articles of Confederation, Chapter 45 (see page 253) of Volume 4 of Conceived in Liberty by Murray Rothbard, in PDF format.

1781 in North America
Official documents of the United States
1780s in the United States

Articles of Confederation


Smoothies are a type of cold drink made from a liquid (either milk, fruit juice, or water), crushed ice or ice cubes, different fruits (such as banana, strawberries, or pineapple). Sometimes other foods are added to smoothies, such as yogurt, honey, maple syrup or ice cream. Smoothies are blended with an electric blender until the fruit and ice is puréed (made smooth).

People usually drink smoothies from a tall glass or cup, and use a plastic drinking straw to suck it into their mouth. Some dieticians think that drinking smoothies is not as good as eating the original fruit, because the smoothie has less fibre, and does not provide exercise for the jaw and other digestive processes which eating the fruit would give.

Smoothies are similar to milk shakes. Milk shakes are also a cold drink made with an electric blender. Milk shakes are usually made with milk, ice cream, and sweet syrups, such as chocolate syrup.

Related pages

 Milk shake

Smoothie

Smoothie


Tafelspitz is boiled beef in broth Viennese style.

The dish
Tafelspitz - boiled tri-tip - is a typical Austrian dish. The beef is simmered with root vegetables and spices in the broth. It is usually served with roasted slices of potato and a mix of minced apples and horseradish or sour cream mixed with horseradish.
Franz Joseph I, Emperor of Austria, was a great lover of Tafelspitz.  Tafelspitz is said to be the national dish of Austria.

The cut

Tafelspitz is the name of the meat cut which is used.  It is usually from a young ox. The meat for Tafelspitz is well-aged pieces of beef, a cut of beef from the bottom sirloin primal cut.  This cut is typically known in the  United States as the tri-tip.
Austrian butchers gave almost every muscle of beef a separate name.  The hind leg alone is parted into 16 cuts.

References

Austrian food
Meat dishes

Tafelspitz


Romeo and Juliet is a ballet. The music was written by Sergei Prokofiev. The ballet is based on Shakespeare's play, Romeo and Juliet. The ballet was first performed in Brno (now in the Czech Republic) in 1938. It has been re-choreographed many times, notably by Sir Frederick Ashton in 1955, John Cranko in 1962, Kenneth MacMillan in 1965, and Rudolph Nureyev in 1977.

Ballets
Compositions by Sergei Prokofiev

Romeo and Juliet (ballet)


The Congress of the French Parliament () is the name given to the body created when both houses of the present-day French Parliament—the National Assembly and the Senate—meet at the Palace of Versailles to vote on revisions to the Constitution or to listen to an address by the President of the French Republic.

History
Historically, during the Third Republic, the reunion of both houses of the French Parliament — the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate — was called the National Assembly (Assemblée nationale) and gathered in Versailles to elect the President of France and to amend the Constitution. During the Fourth Republic, the Congress of the French Parliament was the reunion of the National Assembly and the Council of the Republic (Conseil de la République); it used to gather to elect the President of France. The last president elected this way was René Coty who was elected on 23 December 1953.

Composition and organization
The Congress is composed of senators and deputies who come together in the meeting hall (salle des séances) of the southern wing of the Château of Versailles.  Its officers and its president are those of the National Assembly.

Constitutional revision
According to Article 89 of the Constitution of the Fifth Republic, revisions to the constitution may be instigated by either deputies or senators (this is called "proposition de révision"), or by the President of the Republic through proposals submitted by the Prime Minister (this is called "projet de révision").

The normal procedure of constitutional revision is through national referendum.  However, in the case of "projet de révision", the  President may turn to a more flexible and less demanding procedure. The constitution stipulates that However, a Government Bill to amend the Constitution shall not be submitted to referendum where the President of the Republic decides to submit it to Parliament convened in Congress; the Government Bill to amend the Constitution shall then be approved only if it is passed by a three-fifths majority of the votes cast. The Bureau of the Congress shall be that of the National Assembly.

The Congress traditionally takes place in Versailles.

Address by the President of France

Since the Constitutional revision of 2008, Article 18 states that the President "... may take the floor before Parliament convened in Congress for this purpose. His statement may give rise, in his absence, to a debate without vote." This Congress, like the Constitutional one, is convened in Versailles.

The first President to use this new Constitutional right was Nicolas Sarkozy on 22 June 2009. The previous presidential speech to France's parliament was in 1873, before lawmakers banned the practice to protect the separation of powers and keep the president in check.

François Hollande made a speech to Congress under this provision on 16 November 2015 regarding the November 2015 Paris attacks.

Emmanuel Macron made a speech to Congress on July 3, 2017 and plans to do it every year.

Stamp collecting
The meeting of the French Congress is the occasion for the creation of a temporary post office and a special cancellation mark.  Mail sent from this office is highly sought after by stamp collectors who often ask their senator or deputies to send them mail from the Congress.

References

External links
"Constitutional Revision" on the French National Assembly website

Government of France
French Parliament
France

Congress of the French Parliament


Frank Eugene Corder (May 26, 1956 – September 12, 1994) was an American truck driver. He stole a Cessna 150 late on September 11, 1994, and crashed the stolen aircraft onto the South Lawn of the White House early on September 12, 1994, while attempting to land the plane; he was killed, and was the sole casualty.

Background
Corder was born in Perry Point, Maryland, the son of William Eugene Corder, who was an aircraft mechanic at Edgewood Arsenal, and Dorothy Corder. He dropped out of Aberdeen High School in the eleventh grade and enlisted in the Army in October 1974. Corder was stationed at Fort Knox, Kentucky and Fort Carson, Colorado, where he was trained as a mechanic. He was honorably discharged from military service in July 1975 at the rank of private first class. After his service ended, he worked as a truck driver from 1976 until his employment was terminated in early 1993.

On April 15, 1993, Corder was arrested for theft and was arrested again later that year on October 9 for drug dealing. He was sentenced to spend 90 days at a drug rehabilitation center and was released in February 1994. After he was released, he was living with his third wife Lydia at Keyser's Motel in Aberdeen, Maryland. Lydia Corder left Frank three weeks prior to the incident, which is thought to have driven him towards deep depression and suicide. Friends claim he bore no ill will towards President Bill Clinton and probably only wanted the publicity of the stunt, based largely on his sentiments towards Mathias Rust's flight of a Cessna 172 from Finland to Moscow, USSR. The President was not even in the mansion at the time due to renovations, but was instead staying at Blair House.

Incident

Corder stole the Cessna on the night of September 11 and departed from Harford County Airport in Churchville, Maryland while severely intoxicated. The plane was noticed by radar technicians at Ronald Reagan National Airport several minutes before he tried to steer it into the wall of the White House. At 1:49 a.m., he hit the South Lawn and died on impact.

The crash caused a re-evaluation in security procedures around the White House, as the pilot had entered restricted airspace. Though the White House is rumored to be equipped with surface-to-air missiles, none were fired; the Secret Service has neither confirmed nor dispelled the rumor; however, in 2019 a CBS reporter spotted a battery on the roof of a building across the street.

See also
Samuel Byck
Francisco Martin Duran
List of White House security breaches
United Airlines Flight 93 - Hijackers tried to take over the flight during the September 11 attacks, with a destination of either the White House or the US Capitol. However the passengers and crew tried to take back control and during the ensuing struggle the plane crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania

References

Further reading
Summary statement of facts on the September 12, 1994 plane crash
Public report of the White House Security Review
 Pear, Robert. "Friends Depict Loner with Unraveling Life." New York Times, September 13, 1994.

1956 births
1994 suicides
1994 deaths
Attacks in the United States in 1994
White House intruders
Failed assassins of presidents of the United States
United States Army soldiers
Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States in 1994
Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in the United States
September 1994 crimes in the United States
Suicides in Washington, D.C.
American failed assassins
1994 in the United States
1994 in Washington, D.C.
People from Cecil County, Maryland
Military personnel from Maryland
Burials at Arlington National Cemetery
Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1994

Frank Eugene Corder