A principality (or princedom) is a monarchical feudatory or sovereign state, ruled or reigned over by a monarch with the title of prince or princess, or (in the widest sense) a monarch with another title within the generic use of the term prince.

Terminology
Some have never been an actual polity, but simply a territorial denomination in chief of which a princely style is held, with or even without an often more modest estate or income, both of which may even be (at least partially) outside the geographical confines of the principality.

Surviving sovereign principalities are Liechtenstein, Monaco, and the co-principality of Andorra. Extant royal primogenitures styled principality include Asturias (Spain), and Wales (UK).  The term "principality" is often used informally to describe Wales as it currently exists, but this has no constitutional basis.  The Principality of Wales existed in the northern and western parts of Wales between the 13th and 16th centuries; the Laws in Wales Act of 1536 which legally incorporated Wales within England (until the 20th century) removed the distinction between that area and the March of Wales, but no principality covering the whole of Wales was created thereafter.  Since that time, the title Prince of Wales (together with Duke of Cornwall) has been a title traditionally granted to the heir apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom, but it confers no responsibilities for government in Wales.

The term is also sometimes used as a generic term for any monarchy, especially for other small sovereign states ruled by a Monarch of a lesser rank (compare Fürst) than King, for instance grand duchies, whose monarch is a Grand Duke or Duchess. No sovereign duchy currently exists, but Luxembourg is a surviving example of a sovereign grand duchy. Historically there have been sovereign principalities of many ruler styles, such as Countships, Margraviates and even Lordships.

Notable principalities existed until the early 20th century in various regions of ප්‍රංශය, ජර්මනිය and Italy.

While the definition would fit a princely state perfectly, the historical tradition is to reserve that word for native monarchies in colonial countries, principality for the Western monarchies, which this page is therefore devoted to.

Western principalities

Development
Though principalities existed in Antiquity, before the height of the Roman Empire, the modern principality as it is known today evolved into being in the Middle Ages between 350 and 1450 when feudalism was the primary economic system employed by Eurasian societies. Feudalism increased the power of local princes to govern the king's lands. As princes continued to gain more power over time, the authority of the king was diminished in many places. This led to political fragmentation as the king's lands were broken into mini-states led by princes and dukes who wielded absolute power over their small territories. This was especially prevalent in යුරෝපය, and particularly with the Princes of the Holy Roman Empire.

During the period known as the Renaissance from 1200 to 1500, principalities were engaged in constant warfare with each other as royal houses asserted sovereignty over smaller principalities. These wars caused a great deal of instability and economies were destroyed. To add insult to injury, the bubonic plague reduced the power of principalities to survive independently.  But eventually, agricultural successes, development of new goods and services to trade and patronisation by the Roman Catholic Church boosted commerce between principalities.  These states became wealthy and expanded their territories and improved the services provided to their citizens.  Princes and dukes developed their lands, established new ports and chartered large thriving cities. Some took their newfound wealth and built the first palaces and elaborate government offices people now associate with principalities.

Consolidation
While some principalities prospered in their independence, less successful states were swallowed by stronger royal houses. Europe saw consolidation of small principalities into larger kingdoms and empires. This trend directly led to the creation of such states as England, ප්‍රංශය, පෘතුගාලය, and ස්පාඤ්ඤය.  Another form of consolidation was orchestrated in Italy during the Renaissance by the Medici family. A banking family from Florence, the Medici took control of governments in various Italian regions and even assumed the papacy.  They then appointed family members to become princes and assured their protection by the Medici-controlled Vatican.

Nationalism
Nationalism, the belief that the nation-state is the best vehicle to realise the aspirations of a people, became popular in the late 19th century. Characteristic of nationalism is the preference for loyalty to the people instead of loyalty to monarchs. With this development, principalities fell out of favour. As a compromise, many principalities united with neighbouring regions and adopted constitutional forms of government with the monarch as a mere figurehead while administration was left at the hands of elected parliaments. The trend after දෙවන ලෝක යුද්ධය was the abolition of various forms of monarchy like principalities and the creation of republican governments led by popularly elected presidents.

Ecclesiastical principalities
Principalities where genealogical inheritance is replaced by succession in a religious office have existed in significant number in the Roman Catholic Church, in each case consisting of a feudal polity (often a former secular principality sensu lato, such as a Lordship, Countship...) held ex offico -the closest possible equivalent to hereditary succession- by a Prince of the church, styled more precisely according to his ecclesiastical rank, such as Prince-bishop, Prince-abbot and, especially as a form of crusader state, Grand Master.

Other principalities

Non-western and colonial world
Principalities have existed in ancient and modern civilisations of Africa, ආසියාව, Pre-Columbian America and Oceania.

However in the colonial context, the term princely states is generally preferred, specially for those that came under the sway of a Western colonising power, e.g., the British Indian and neighbouring or associated (e.g., Arabian) princely states were ruled by monarchs called Princes by the British, regardless of the native styles, which could be equivalent to royal or even imperial rank in the autochthonous cultures.

Micronations claiming to be principalities
Several micronations, which claim sovereignty but are not recognised as states, also claim the status of sovereign principalities, the most notable in Europe being Sealand off the coast of England and Seborga, a small town in Italy; other micronational principalities elsewhere include the Principality of Hutt River in Australia and the Principality of Minerva in the South Pacific.

Other uses
A fictional country, the Principality of Belka, is one of the countries in the Ace Combat game series.

In the TV anime Mobile Suit Gundam universe, the Principality of Zeon was a space colony which declared its independence and waged war against the Earth Federation.

In Meg Cabot's series the Princess Diaries, the protagonist, Mia Thermopolis, is the Crown Princess of the imaginary country of Genovia. Mia's father is the Prince Regnant of the country, making it a principality by definition.

Some of the kingdoms in the Society for Creative Anachronism include principalities among the smaller regions which comprise the overall kingdom.  The principalities are governed by a Prince and Princess, chosen through rite of combat, and these in turn are governed by the King and Queen of the kingdom in which they exist.

Users of the internet game Nationstates may create principalities.

See also
Andorra
Asturias
Grand Prince
Liechtenstein
Monaco
Principality of Sealand
Principality of Wales
Victory title

Sources and references
(incomplete)
WorldStatesmen

References

කුමාරධානි
රාජධානි
දේශපාලනය

රාජ්‍ය පාලන ක්‍රම

කුමාරධානි


Ary Abittan (born 31 January 1974) is a French actor and humorist.

Life and career

Ary Abittan was born on January 31, 1974, in Paris. He comes from a Sephardic Jewish (Maghrebi Jewish) family. His father is from Morocco and his mother from Tunisia. He spent part of his childhood between Garges-lès-Gonesse and Sarcelles.
At age 19, he became a taxi driver, like his father, an activity that allowed him to finance his first theater lessons.

In 1993, Ary Abittan wrote (in parallel of theater lessons) his first sketches and then performed on stage since 1994
In 2007, he took the lead role in a play, Happy Hanukah, which Jean-Luc Moreau directed. The same year, he plays the main role during three seasons of Nos années pension, broadcast on France 2.

In 2012, he plays in Dépression et des potes of Arnaud Lemort. The same year, he made his first participation in Marrakech du rire.
In 2014, he plays in Serial (Bad) Weddings with Christian Clavier and Chantal Lauby by Philippe de Chauveron.

Filmography

Feature films

Television

References

External links

1974 births
Living people
21st-century French male actors
French male film actors
French male television actors
Male actors from Paris
French humorists
Jewish French writers
21st-century French Sephardi Jews
French male writers

Ary Abittan


Rococo is an artistic style which originated in the 18th century in France. Often referred to merely as Late Baroque, the Rococo developed from the Baroque artistic movement. Whilst it kept several characteristics of the original style, including elaboration and ornate themes, it was also more playful and asymmetrical. The Rococo is associated with the reign of French king Louis XV (Louis XIV is associated with the Baroque, whilst Louis XVI with Neoclassicism, albeit his style started off as Rococo at the beginning of reign). Rococo's popularity was at its height towards the middle of the 18th century, fading out by the end in favour of Neoclassicism.

Rococo art and architecture was feminine, graceful, florid and ornate. Creamy and pastel-like colours were used for paintings, unlike the darker shades in Baroque art. Religion and politics were no longer necessarily the core theme of Rococo art, unlike the Baroque, and everyday life became more commonly represented. In such a way, Rococo art revolved around themes such as love, romance, fun, landscapes, and mere portraits. Additionally, Far Eastern themes became popular in Rococo, especially Chinoiserie. Famous Rococo artists include Boucher, Watteau and Fragonard, amongst several others.

The Rococo has been the focus of much discussion, analysis and criticism by art historians throughout history. It has been criticised over the years for being over-the-top, superficial and frivolous; in such a way, the term has even been used derogatively in various points of history. Nevertheless, Rococo art and theatre has also received praise for the elegance, "beauty", and "charm" of its artwork.

References

Art
Architectural styles
French culture
18th century in France

Rococo


Cadmium sulfide is a chemical compound. Its chemical formula is CdS. It has cadmium and sulfide ions in it.

Properties
Cadmium sulfide is a yellow orange solid. It does not dissolve in water. It reacts with hydrochloric acid to make hydrogen sulfide and cadmium chloride. It is used in an odd reaction where cadmium sulfide is sprinkled into a sulfide solution and light is shined on it. It starts making small amounts of hydrogen gas.

Occurrence
Cadmium sulfide is only found in two rare minerals. It is normally made artificially.

Preparation

Cadmium sulfide is made several different ways. Cadmium salts, normally the sulfate or the chloride (cadmium chloride), are reacted with hydrogen sulfide to make a bright yellow cadmium sulfide solid. When it is made for pigment, the cadmium sulfide is then washed, heated (to change it into the right form), and ground to a powder. It is then mixed with paint.

Uses
Cadmium sulfide is used as a yellow pigment. Cadmium yellow is the name of the pigment. If selenide is added during the roasting process (seen above in "preparation" section), it can make an orange or a yellow pigment. Cadmium sulfide is a good pigment because it does not break down easily, is very bright, and does not react with air like other pigments can. It is toxic, though.

It is also used in photoresistors that are sensitive to infrared and red light. Cadmium sulfide is found around some bacteria that reduce sulfate to sulfide.

Related pages
Cadmium telluride, semiconductor
Mercury sulfide, bright red pigment, too toxic to be used
Zinc sulfide, phosphor

Cadmium compounds
Sulfur compounds

Cadmium sulfide


Fort Manoel ( or Fortizza Manoel) is a star fort on Manoel Island in Gżira, Malta. It was built in the 18th century by the Order of Saint John, during the reign of Grand Master António Manoel de Vilhena, after whom it is named. Fort Manoel is located to the north west of Valletta, and commands Marsamxett Harbour and the anchorage of Sliema Creek. The fort is an example of Baroque architecture, and it was designed with both functionality and aesthetics in mind.

After a brief French occupation which began in 1798, the British military took over the fort in 1800, and it remained in use by them until 1964. The fort was severely damaged in World War II, but it was restored in the early 21st century and it is now in good condition.

Fort Manoel has been on Malta's tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 1998, as part of the Knights' Fortifications around the Harbours of Malta.

History

Background and failed proposals

In the 16th century, the Marsamxett Harbour was one of the two major harbours in the Maltese city of Valletta. In the centre of the harbour was an island, originally known as l'Isolotto and now known as Manoel Island after the fort, which overlooked the city.

Shortly after Valletta's construction, the Order of Saint John realised this was a potential vulnerability in the city's defences. As early as 1569, it was proposed that a small fort with a cavalier be built on the Isolotto to prevent the enemy from taking the island and building batteries on it. This proposal was presented by Francesco Collignon.

The threat was again highlighted by the Spanish military engineer Scipione Campi in 1577, and by Giovanni Battista in 1582.

The next proposal to build a fortification on the island was made by the Italian military engineer Antonio Maurizio Valperga in 1670. He proposed a roughly hexagonal fort with a hornwork, in the Dutch style of fortification. The proposal was criticized by the Order's engineers, and a third proposal was drawn up by the Flemish military engineer Carlos de Grunenbergh in 1687. Grunenburgh's proposal consisted of a fort with four bastions and a ravelin, surrounded by a ditch, covertway and faussebraye.

Other proposals were made in 1715, this time by the knight René Jacob de Tigné and a team of French engineers. There were several different plans, including building a coastal battery and a redoubt. Other plans included building a four-bastioned fort, or combining all three (fort, battery and redoubt) for the defence of the island.

Construction

Eventually, the final design was agreed in 1723, and it incorporated the work of de Tigné as well as Charles François de Mondion, the Order's military engineer. The new fort was to be square in shape, with four bastions and two cavaliers. The fort was financed by, and named after, the Portuguese Grand Master, António Manoel de Vilhena. He also set up the Manoel Foundation, a fund responsible for the maintenance and garrison of Fort Manoel and its outworks.

The first stone was laid by de Vilhena on 14 September 1723, and work progressed rapidly. By 1727, the enceinte, cavaliers and gateway were complete. The ditch had been excavated by 1732, while the chapel, barracks, magazines and countermines were completed in around 1733. The fort was an active military establishment by 1734. When Mondion died in 1733, he was buried in the crypt under the fort's chapel.

In 1757, Lembi Battery was added near Tigné Point, Sliema. The battery was funded by the Manoel Foundation and it was considered to be an outwork of Fort Manoel, since it was intended to prevent an enemy from bombarding the fort's northern flank. It was decommissioned following the construction of Fort Tigné in 1795. The construction of the latter fort was also partially funded by the Manoel Foundation.

By 1761, Fort Manoel was considered to be as one of the best completed fortifications, and Comte de Bourlamaque has commented that the fort is a "modèle de fortification fait avec soin."

French occupation

The fort first saw use during the French invasion of Malta in June 1798, in the French Revolutionary Wars. At the time, it was commanded by the Portuguese knight Gourgeau, and it was garrisoned by the Cacciatori, who were a volunteer chasseur light infantry regiment, as well as a few men from the Birchircara militia. The fort surrendered after Grand Master Hompesch officially capitulated to Napoleon.

A French garrison of a few hundred men took over the fort on 12 June. During the subsequent Maltese uprising and insurrection against the French, Maltese insurgents built Għargħar and Sqaq Cappara batteries to bombard Fort Manoel. The Maltese attacked the fort on a number of occasions, and the French retaliated with their own bombardment at least once. On 12 September 1799, a company of French troops from Fort Manoel attempted to silence an insurgent gun position in San Ġwann, but were repelled by the Maltese insurgents.

British rule

When Malta became a British protectorate in 1800, Fort Manoel was officially taken over by the British military that September. The piazza of Fort Manoel was the subject of the earliest known photographs of Malta, which were taken in 1840 by Horace Vernet while he was quarantined at the Lazzaretto but are now believed to be lost. In the late 19th century, the echaugettes on the bastions facing Valletta were dismantled to make way for gun emplacements. Later on, significant alterations were made to St. Anthony Bastion, when its gunpowder magazine was demolished to make way for a battery of three QF 12-pounder guns.

The British military finally decommissioned the fort's guns in 1906, although it remained a military establishment. It was included on the Antiquities List of 1925. The fort saw use again during World War II, when a battery of 3.7-inch heavy anti-aircraft guns was deployed there. The guns were mounted in concrete gun emplacements and deployed in a semicircle in and around the fort. The fort suffered considerable damage to its ramparts, barracks and chapel as a result of aerial bombing during the war. The fort was eventually decommissioned in 1964.

Recent history
After being decommissioned, Fort Manoel was abandoned and fell into a state of disrepair. Parts of it were also vandalized. In 1970, the Royal Malta Yacht Club acquired part of the fort as its club house, and the yacht club remained there until it acquired new premises in Ta' Xbiex in 2008.

In August 2001, the development company MIDI plc began restoration work on the fort. Phase One of the project, which included the restoration of the piazza and the reconstruction of the ruined chapel, was completed in 2009. The second phase, including the restoration of the outer fortifications and glacis, was approved by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority in 2012. The restoration of Fort Manoel together with that of the nearby Fort Tigné cost a total of €30 million.

Layout

Fort Manoel is built in the shape of a square, with a pentagonal bastion on each corner, giving it the shape of a star fort. The four bastions are called St. Helen, St. Anthony, St. John and Notre Dame Bastions.

St. Helen and St. Anthony Bastions are located on the seaward side, facing Valletta. They originally had echaugettes and gunpowder magazines, but the echaugettes on both bastions were dismantled in the 19th century, and the magazine on St. Anthony Bastion was demolished to make way for three QF 12-pounder gun emplacements. The magazine on St. Helen Bastion is still intact. The curtain wall linking these two bastions contains the main gate, which is protected by a lunette known as the Couvre Porte.

St. John and Notre Dame Bastions are located along the landward side of the fort. Each bastion is protected by a low cavalier. The curtain wall between the two bastions is further protected by a pentagonal ravelin, which is largely rock hewn.

A Piazza is located inside the fort, and it contains the rebuilt Chapel of St Anthony of Padua, several barrack blocks, an armoury and other buildings. A bronze statue of Grand Master Vilhena, possibly designed by Pietro Paolo Troisi, once stood in the square but it was removed in the 19th century and relocated to Valletta. It was later relocated again and it is now in Floriana.

Ghost story
The fort is supposedly haunted by the Black Knight, who wears the armour and regalia of the Order of St. John, and resembles Grand Master de Vilhena. In the 1940s, the knight began to appear out of thin air near the ruins of the Chapel of St Anthony of Padua, which had just been bombed in World War II. The apparition was reportedly seen by Maltese and English men within the fort. When the rubble from the ruined chapel began to be cleared, the workmen reported that the knight was supervising their work. When the crypt beneath the chapel was opened, it was found that it had been vandalized, and the remains of knights which had been buried there were scattered around. After the crypt was restored and the bones were reburied, the Black Knight stopped appearing. In 1980, the crypt was vandalized for a second time, and the Black Knight reportedly began to appear again.

In popular culture
Fort Manoel is featured in the 2007 fiction book Il-Misteru tal-Forti Manoel (The Mystery of Fort Manoel) by Charles Zarb.
The fort served as a location for the shooting of the climactic scene of Baelor, the ninth episode of the TV series Game of Thrones, in 2011.
The fort hosted a Pit Stop during the eighth episode of The Amazing Race 25.
The fort was also used in the filming of the 2016 films Risen and Assassin's Creed.
The fort is also visible in the 2016 film 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi.

Transfer of the Island from the church to Lascaris and early buildings. Manoel and de Rohan period.

References

Notes

Further reading
 Azzopardi, Joe (2008), "Fort Manoel", Din L-Art Helwa – National Trust of Malta, Vigilo, pp. 26–33.
The palace used as procedural inn at Fort Manoel

External links

National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands
YouTube video by Dr. Stephen C. Spiteri about Fort Manoel

Gżira
Manoel
Manoel
Baroque architecture in Malta
Buildings and structures by French architects
Limestone buildings in Malta
Buildings and structures completed in 1733
World War II sites in Malta
Military installations closed in 1964
Reportedly haunted locations in Malta
National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands
Barracks in Malta
18th-century fortifications
18th Century military history of Malta

Fort Manoel


Joan Orpí i del Pou, also Juan Orpín or Juan Urpín (1593 in Piera – 1 July 1645 in Barcelona, Venezuela) was a Spanish conquistador, known for founding New Barcelona in Venezuela, and for founding the short-lived Province of New Catalonia (1633–1654).

In 1623 he journeyed to Araya. In 1624 the Governor of New Andalusia Province, Diego de Arroyo Daza, named Orpí Lieutenant General of the province, a position he held until 1627/8. That year the Real Audiencia of Santo Domingo recognised the law degree he had obtained in Barcelona, and he began acting as a legal representative of the Audiencia in Caracas.

In 1631 he moved to Santo Domingo, where the difficulty of communication between the Venezuela Province (Caracas) and the New Andalusia Province (Cumaná) was a matter of some concern. He agreed to launch an expedition to secure the territory between the Unare River and the Neverí River, inhabited by the Cumanagotos, and was granted the royal privilege to do so, despite opposition from others. His expedition began in 1632 but had to be called off when the privilege was revoked, and he had to plead a case to the Audiencia and to the Council of the Indies to regain it, which he was able to do in 1636.

A second expedition was launched in 1637, and Orpí founded New Barcelona (Nueva Barcelona del Cerro Santo) in February 1638. New Barcelona became the capital of the Province of Nueva Cataluña he created in 1633, extending along the coast from San Felipe de Austria (Cariaco) to Cabo Codera, and down to the Orinoco River. After his death in 1645 the Province did not last long, being merged into New Andalusia Province in 1654, while New Barcelona had to be refounded in 1671.

Further reading
 Joan Orpí, l'home de la Nova Catalunya, Pau Vila (Barcelona, 1967)
 Gestas de Juan Orpín en la fundación de Barcelona y defensa de Oriente, Pau Vila (Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas, 1975)
 Nova Catalunya: una colònia catalana a Amèrica?,https://www.elnacional.cat/ca/cultura/marc-pons-reportatge-nova-catalunya-colonia-catalana-america_503760_102.html

1593 births
1645 deaths
Spanish conquistadors
Royal Governors of Venezuela
Spanish city founders
People from Anoia
People from the New Kingdom of Granada

Joan Orpí


The Zapotec civilization was an indigenous pre-Columbian civilization. It was mainly in the Valley of Oaxaca of southern Mesoamerica.  Archaeologists think their culture goes back at least 2500 years.  The Zapotec left traces at the ancient city of Monte Albán. There are buildings, ball courts, magnificent tombs and grave goods. In the graves, finely worked gold jewellery was found.  Monte Albán was the first major city in the western hemisphere. It was the center of a Zapotec state that dominated much of what is now the state of Oaxaca.

Etymology
The name Zapotec comes from Nahuatl tzapotēcah (singular tzapotēcatl). This word means "inhabitants of the place of sapote". The Zapotec referred to themselves as Be'ena'a, which means "The People."

Technology

The Zapotec developed a calendar and a special system of writing. This system has a separate glyph for each of the syllables of the language.  It is one of several candidates thought to have been the first writings system of Mesoamerica. It is the predecessor of the writing systems developed by the Maya, Mixtec, and Aztec civilizations. Currently there is some debate if Olmec symbols, dated to 650 BC, are actually a form of writing which is older than the earliest Zapotec writing dated to about 500 BC.

In the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, there were Zapotec and Mixtec artisans who made jewellery for the Aztec rulers (tlatoanis), including Moctezuma II.  Relations with central Mexico go back much further. This can be proven by archaeological remains of a Zapotec neighborhood within Teotihuacan and a Teotihuacan style "guest house" in Monte Albán. Other important pre-Columbian Zapotec sites include Lambityeco, Dainzu, Mitla, Yagul, San José Mogote, El Palmillo and Zaachila.

The Zapotec were a sedentary culture. They were a well-advanced in civilization, living in large villages and towns, in houses constructed with stone and mortar. They recorded the principal events in their history by means of hieroglyphics, and in warfare they made use of a cotton armour. The well-known ruins of Mitla have been attributed to them and were claimed to be the tombs of their ancestors.

Religion
Like most Mesoamerican religious systems, the Zapotec religion was polytheistic.  Two principal deities include Cocijo, the rain god (similar to the Aztec god Tlaloc), and Coquihani, the god of light.  It is believed that the Zapotec sometimes used human sacrifice in their rituals.

The Zapotecs tell that their ancestors emerged from the earth, from caves, or that they turned from trees or jaguars into people, while the elite that governed them believed that they descended from supernatural beings that lived among the clouds, and that upon death they would return to such status. In fact, the name by which Zapotecs are known today resulted from this belief. In Central Valley Zapotec "The Cloud People' is "Be'ena' Za'a."

Warfare
The last battle between the Aztecs and the Zapotecs occurred between 1497 and 1502, under the Aztec ruler Ahuizotl.  At the time of Spanish conquest of Mexico, when news arrived that the Aztecs were defeated by the Spaniards, King Cosijoeza ordered his people not to confront the Spaniards so they would avoid the same fate. They were defeated by the Spaniards only after several campaigns between 1522 and 1527.  However, uprisings against colonial authorities occurred in 1550, 1560, and 1715.

In 1850 there was another rebellion against the local government of Oaxaca, followed in 1866 by one against the Royal French Army, during the French invasion of Mexico. In recent times, there was an uprising against the local governor Manuel Zárate Aquino in the late 1970s.

References

"Zapotec Civilization: How Urban Society Evolved in Mexico's Oaxaca Valley".  Joyce Marcus and Kent Flannery.  Thames and Hudson, New York, 1996

History of Mesoamerica
Native Americans

Zapotec civilisation


Betacam is a family of half-inch professional videocassette products developed by Sony in 1982. In colloquial use, "Betacam" singly is often used to refer to a Betacam camcorder, a Betacam tape, a Betacam video recorder or the format itself.

All Betacam variants from (plain) analog recording Betacam to Betacam SP and digital recording Digital Betacam (and additionally, HDCAM and HDCAM SR), use the same shape videocassettes, meaning vaults and other storage facilities do not have to be changed when upgrading to a new format. The cassettes are available in two sizes: S (short or small) and L (long or large). The Betacam camcorder can only load S magnetic tapes, while television studio sized video tape recorders (VTR) designed for video editing can play both S and L tapes.

The cassette shell and case for each Betacam cassette is colored differently depending on the format, allowing for easy visual identification. There is also a mechanical key that allows a video tape recorder to identify which format has been inserted.

The format supplanted the three-quarter-inch U-Matic format, which Sony had introduced in 1971. In addition to improvements in video quality, the Betacam configuration of an integrated professional video camera/recorder led to its rapid adoption by electronic news gathering (ENG) organizations.

DigiBeta, the common name for Digital Betacam, went on to become the single most successful professional broadcast digital recording video tape format in history, but now although Betacam remains popular in the field and for archiving, new tapeless digital products have led to a  phasing out of Betacam products in television studio environments since 2006.

Variants

Betacam and Betacam SP

Original Betacam format
The original Betacam format was launched on August 7, 1982. It is an analog component video format, storing the luminance, "Y", in one track and the chrominance, on another as alternating segments of the R-Y and B-Y components performing Compressed Time Division Multiplex, or CTDM. This splitting of channels allows true broadcast quality recording with 300 lines of horizontal luminance resolution and 120 lines chrominance resolution versus 0.4 MHz chroma bandwidth for domestic Betamax and the professional U-Matic formats.  (~30 lines resolution left-to-right) on a relatively inexpensive cassette based format.

The original Betacam cassettes, loaded with ferric-oxide tape, were identical in overall design and size (15.1 × 9.5 × 2.5 cm) to consumer-grade Betamax, introduced by Sony in 1975. Betacam cassettes could be used in a Betamax VCR; likewise, a blank Betamax tape would work on a Betacam deck. However, in later years Sony discouraged this practice, suggesting that the internal tape transport of Betamax cassette was not well suited to the faster tape transport of Betacam. In particular, the guide rollers tend to be noisy.

Although there is a superficial similarity between Betamax and Betacam in that they use the same tape cassette, they are really quite different formats. Betamax records relatively low resolution video using a heterodyne color recording system and only two recording heads, while Betacam uses four heads to record in component format, at a much higher linear tape speed of 10.15 cm/s (3.99606 in./s) compared with Betamax's 1.87 cm/s (0.7362205 in./s), resulting in much higher video and audio quality. A typical L-750 length Betamax cassette that yielded about 3 hours of recording time on a Betamax VCR at its B-II Speed (NTSC), or on PAL, only provided 30 minutes' record time on a Betacam VCR or camcorder. Another common point between Betamax and Betacam is the placement of the stereo linear audio tracks. Also, some Betacam and Betamax portables share the same batteries.

(Matsushita's rival "M" and "MII" formats took a similar approach in combining the cassette from a non-professional system- in this case, VHS- with a much higher-quality recording format. However, neither enjoyed Betacam's level of success).

Betacam was initially introduced as a camera line along with a video cassette player. The first cameras were the BVP-3, which utilized three saticon tubes, and the BVP1, which used a single tri-stripe Trinicon tube. Both these cameras could be operated standalone, or with their docking companion VTR, the BVV-1 (quickly superseded by the BVV-1A), to form the BVW-1 (BVW-1A) integrated camcorder. Those decks were record-only. The only transport controls on the deck were eject and rewind. The docked camera's VTR button started and paused the tape recorder. Later the Betacam SP docking decks had full transport controls (except a record button) but tapes could not be played back except in the camera's viewfinder in black-and-white only. Sony then came out with the playback adapter, a separate portable unit that connected via a multi-pin cable and had a composite video out jack for color playback. At first color playback required the studio source deck, the BVW-10, which could not record, only play back. It was primarily designed as a feeder deck for A/B roll edit systems, usually for editing to a one-inch Type C or three-quarter-inch U-matic cassette edit master tape. There was also the BVW-20 field playback deck, which was a portable unit with DC power and a handle, that was used to verify color playback of tapes in the field. Unlike the BVW-10, it did not have a built in time base corrector (TBC).

With the popular success of the Betacam system as a news acquisition format, the line was soon extended to include the BVW-15 studio player, and the BVW-40 studio edit recorder. The BVW-15 added dynamic tracking, which enabled clear still frame and jog playback, something the BVW-10 could not deliver. The BVW-40 enabled for the first time editing to a Betacam master, and if set up and wired correctly, true component video editing. It was also possible to do machine to machine editing between a BVW-10/15 and BVW-40 without an edit controller—a single serial cable between the units was all that was required to control the player from the recorder in performing simple assemble and insert editing. Additionally there were two field models introduced, the field recorder BVW-25, and the BVW-21 play only portable field deck.

At its introduction, many insisted that Betacam remained inferior to the bulkier one-inch type C and B videotapes, the standard broadcast production formats of the late 1970s to mid-1990s. Additionally, the maximum record time for both the cameras and studio recorders was only half an hour, a severe limitation in television production. There was also the limitation that high quality recording was only possible if the original component signals were available, as they were in a Betacam camcorder. If the recording started as composite video, re-converting them to components for recording and then eventually back to composite for broadcast caused a drop in quality compared to recording component video directly.

Betacam SP
In 1986, Betacam SP (commonly referred to as Beta SP) was developed, which increased horizontal resolution to 340 lines. While the quality improvement of the format itself was minor, the improvement to the VTRs was enormous, particularly in quality and features. In addition to the existing cassette a larger cassette (25.3 × 14.4 × 2.5 cm) was introduced with 90 minutes of recording time. Betacam SP (for "Superior Performance") became the industry standard for most TV stations and high-end production houses until the late 1990s. Despite the format's age and its discontinuation in 2001, Betacam SP remained a common standard for standard definition video post-production into the 2010s. The recording time is the same as for Betacam, 30 and 90 minutes for S and L, respectively. Tape speed is slightly slower in machines working in the 625/50 format, increasing tape duration by one minute for every five minutes of run time. So, a 90-minute tape will record 108 minutes of video in PAL.

Betacam SP is able to achieve its namesake "Superior Performance" over Betacam in the fact that it uses metal-formulated tape as opposed to Betacam's ferric oxide tape. Sony designed Betacam SP to be partially forward compatible with standard Betacam, with the capability that Betacam SP tapes recorded on Betacam SP decks can be played in oxide-era Betacam VTRs (such as the BVW-15 and BVW-40 mentioned earlier), but for playback only. Betacam SP-branded tapes cannot be used for recording in consumer Betamax VCRs like oxide Betacam tapes, due to Betacam SP's metal-formulation tape causing the video heads in a Betamax deck to wear prematurely, which are made of a softer material than the heads in a standard Betacam deck. However, Betacam SP tapes can be used without a problem in ED Beta VCRs, since the ED Beta format uses metal-formulated tape as well.

The new Betacam SP studio decks were the players: The BVW-60 and BVW-65 (the BVW-65 features Dynamic Tracking); and the Edit Recorders: the BVW-70, and the Dynamic Tracking model, the BVW-75. The BVV-5 was the Betacam SP dockable camera back, which could play back in color if its companion playback adapter was used. A new SP field recorder, the BVW-35, possessed the added benefit of a standard RS422 serial control port that enabled it to be used as an edit feeder deck. Though the four new studio decks could utilize the full 90-minute Betacam SP cassettes, the BVW-35 remained limited to the original Betacam small 30-minute cassette shells. Answering a need for a basic office player, Sony also introduced the BVW-22, a much less expensive desktop model that could be used for viewing and logging 90-minute cassettes of both Betacam SP and oxide types, but could not be configured into an edit system and offered only composite video output.

Sony followed up the SP field recorder BVW-50 that could record and play the large-size 90 minute cassettes. After this, the deck line was relatively stagnant and incredibly popular for a decade, aside from some specialty models that could record digital audio. Some Betacam SP VCRs were sold by Broadcast Television Systems Inc. (BTS).

Until the introduction of the BVW-200 camera, the camera and recorder configuration was a docking system. The BVW-200 was an integrated camera recorder system. It sacrificed the flexibility of a docking camera in order to lose a substantial amount of weight. Eventually, non-docking camcorders became the most popular design by the mid-1990s.

The final Betacam SP camcorder was the BVW-600, which paired a digital professional video camera front section, very similar to the one on the DigiBeta DVW-700, with an integrated Betacam SP recorder. Like every other Betacam camera system, and unlike the DigiBeta DVW-700, the camera could not play back in color without the use of an outboard adapter.

In 1991, the less-expensive, "Professional", PV line of Betacam SP decks was introduced. The PV line consisted of only four models: the full-sized PVW-2600 (VTP), PVW-2650 (VTP with Dynamic tracking allowing up to fwd x3, whereas the BVW line only offered x2 DT playback) and PVW-2800 (VTR) editing decks, and the PVV-3 camera-dockable VTR. These high quality machines were similar to the original BV series machines, but lacked the third and fourth audio channels. In 1993, the far less expensive UVW series debuted. These machines were considerably simpler, somewhat lower quality, and were designed primarily to be used as companions to computer systems, for industrial video, and other low-cost, yet high-quality, uses. The UVW decks possessed very limited front panel controls, no jog and shuttle (except by use of a DSRM-10 cable remote control); and with time base corrector (TBC) control available only with an optional remote TBC controller. These were represented by the UVW-1800, a very popular editing VTR (and companion UVW-1600 edit VTP), and the non-editing UVW-1400 VTR, and UVW-1200 VTP. The UVW-100 (and later 100B) one-piece camcorder rounded out the UVW series.

Third-party support
Betacam and Betacam SP tape cassette shells varied in color depending on the manufacturer. Many companies sold Betacam tapes, sometimes of their own manufacture, sometimes re-branded. Fuji, Maxell, Ampex/Quantegy, BASF/EMTEC and 3M were just some of the major brands to do so.

Ampex, Thomson SA, Bosch and Philips each sold OEM versions of some of the Sony VTRs and camcorders at various times in the 1980s and 1990s. Other than nameplates, these models were identical to the Sony models. Internal components still bore the Sony name.

Digital Betacam

Digital Betacam (commonly referred to as DigiBeta, D-Beta, DBC or simply Digi) was launched at 18th International Television Symposium in Montreux on June 10, 1993. It supersedes both Betacam and Betacam SP, while costing significantly less than the first, 100% uncompressed D1 format. S tapes are available with up to 40 minutes running time, and L tapes with up to 124 minutes.

The Digital Betacam format records 2.34:1 DCT-compressed digital component video signal at 10-bit YUV 4:2:2 sampling in NTSC (720×486) or PAL (720×576) resolutions at a bitrate of 90 Mbit/s plus four channels of uncompressed 48 kHz / 20 bit PCM-encoded digital audio. A fifth analog audio track is available for cueing, and a linear timecode track is also used on the tape. It was a popular digital video cassette format for broadcast television use. It uses a head drum that rotates at 5400 RPM for NTSC video. The video heads in the drum read helical tracks 24 microns wide. Audio is also recorded on the helical tracks. The compression algorithm used by Digital Betacam is propietary.

Another key element which aided adoption was Sony's implementation of the SDI coaxial digital connection on Digital Betacam decks. Facilities could begin using digital signals on their existing coaxial wiring without having to commit to an expensive re-installation.

Betacam SX
Betacam SX is a digital version of Betacam SP introduced in 1996, positioned as a cheaper alternative to Digital Betacam. It stores video using MPEG-2 4:2:2 Profile@ML compression, along with four channels of 48 kHz 16 bit PCM audio. All Betacam SX equipment is compatible with Betacam SP tapes. S tapes have a recording time up to 62 minutes, and L tapes up to 194 minutes.

The Betacam SX system was very successful with newsgathering operations, which had a legacy of Betacam and Betacam SP tapes. Some Betacam SX decks, such as the DNW-A75 or DNW-A50, can natively play and work from the analog tapes interchangeably, because they contain both analog and digital playback heads.

Betacam SX uses MPEG-2 4:2:2P@ML compression, compliant with CCIR 601, in comparison with other similar systems that use 4:1:1 or 4:2:0 chroma subsampling for coding. It gives better chroma resolution and allows certain postproduction processes such as Chroma-key.

This format compresses the video signal from approximately 180 Mbit/s to only 18 Mbit/s. This means a compression ratio of around 10:1, which is achieved by the use of mild temporal compression, where alternate frames are stored as MPEG I-frames and B-frames, giving rise to an IBIB sequence on tape. Due to the low bitrate this format was not standardized by any standards body.

Together with Betacam SX, Sony introduced a generation of hybrid recorder, allowing use of both tape and disk recording on the same deck, and high speed dubbing from one to another. This was intended to save wear on the video heads for television studio applications, as well to speed up online editing.

Betacam SX also features a good shot mark (a method for qualitative decisions made in the camcorder to be utilized during the editing process) feature that allows marking of each scene for fast scanning of the tape, looking at recorded marks on each single cassette, and showing the markers to the operator.

The cameras themselves are generally considered by most sound recordists to be quite noisy in operation, possibly because the amount of computer processing power, and subsequent generated heat leads to cooling fans being used to keep the camera at a reasonable temperature.

Betacam SX tape shells are bright yellow, but SX recordings may also be found recorded on analogue Betacam SP cassettes. Of course if such a Betacam SP tape with SX recording is inserted into a Betacam SP player, no picture or sound will appear.

The helical scan head drum is 81 mm in diameter. The video tracks read by the video heads in the drum, are 32 microns wide, the drum rotates at 5400 RPM for NTSC video. The video heads have a 15.25 degree azimuth.

Although Betacam SX machines have gone out of production since 2008, the format is still used by many newsgathering operations, including Canada's CTV, Atlanta's WSB-TV, San Diego's KFMB-TV and NBC's operations in the San Francisco Bay Area at KNTV and KSTS. Many news archives still contain SX tapes. In August 2011, Betacam SX tapes were found in Muammar Gaddafi's underground studio in Tripoli. CNN reporter Sara Sidner commented on-air that CNN still used the same type of tapes.

MPEG IMX

MPEG IMX is a 2000 development of the Digital Betacam format. Digital video compression uses H.262/MPEG-2 Part 2 encoding at a higher bitrate than Betacam SX: 30 Mbit/s (6:1 compression), 40 Mbit/s (4:1 compression) or 50 Mbit/s (3.3:1 compression). Unlike most other MPEG-2 implementations, IMX uses intraframe compression. Additionally, IMX ensures that each frame has the same exact size in bytes to simplify recording onto video tape. Video recorded in the IMX format is compliant with CCIR 601 specification, with eight channels of audio and timecode track. It lacks an analog audio (cue) track as the Digital Betacam, but will read it as channel 7 if used for playback. This format has been standardized in SMPTE 365M and SMPTE 356M as "MPEG D10 Streaming".

With its IMX VTRs, Sony introduced some new technologies including SDTI and e-VTR. SDTI allows for audio, video, timecode, and remote control functions to be transported by a single coaxial cable, while e-VTR technology extends this by allowing the same data to be transported over IP by way of an ethernet interface on the VTR itself.

All IMX VTRs can natively playback Betacam SX tapes, and some, such as the MSW-M2000P/1 are capable of playing back Digital Betacam cassettes as well as analog Betacam and Betacam SP cassettes, but they can only record to their native IMX cassettes. S tapes are available with up to 60 minutes capacity, and L tapes hold up to 184 minutes. These values are for 525/60 decks, but will extend in 625/50. A 184-minute tape will record for, as the label itself specifies, 220 minutes.

IMX machines feature the same good shot mark function of the Betacam SX.

MPEG IMX cassettes are a muted green.

This format uses a helical scan head drum 80 mm in diameter. The video tracks read by the video heads in the drum, are 22 microns wide. The video heads have a 15.25 degree azimuth. 4:2:2 Chroma subsampling is used, and the drum rotates at 5400 RPM for NTSC video. Due to the use of an MPEG format, video is recorded with 8-bit samples (8-bit color).

The XDCAM format, unveiled in 2003, allows recording of MPEG IMX video in MXF container onto Professional Disc.

HDCAM/HDCAM SR

HDCAM, introduced in 1997, was the first HD format available in Betacam form-factor, using an 8-bit DCT compressed 3:1:1 recording, in 1080i-compatible downsampled resolution of 1440×1080, and adding 24p and 23.976 PsF modes to later models. The HDCAM codec uses non-square pixels and as such the recorded 1440×1080 content is upsampled to 1920×1080 on playback. The recorded video bitrate is 144 Mbit/s. There are four channels of AES/EBU 20-bit/48 kHz digital audio.

It was used for some of Sony's cinema-targeted CineAlta range of products (newer CineAlta devices use flash storage).

HDCAM SR, introduced in 2003, uses a higher particle density tape and is capable of recording in 10 bits 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 RGB with a bitrate of 440 Mbit/s. The "SR" stands for "Superior Resolution". The increased bitrate (over HDCAM) allows HDCAM SR to capture much more of the full bandwidth of the HD-SDI signal (1920×1080). Some HDCAM SR VTRs can also use a 2× mode with an even higher bitrate of 880 Mbit/s, allowing for a 4:4:4 RGB stream at a lower compression. HDCAM SR uses the new MPEG-4 Part 2 Studio Profile for compression, and expands the number of audio channels up to 12 at 48 kHz/24 bit.

HDCAM SR was used commonly for HDTV television production.

Some HDCAM VTRs play back older Betacam variants, for example, the Sony SRW-5500 HDCAM SR recorder, plays back and records HDCAM and HDCAM SR tapes and with optional hardware also plays and upconverts Digital Betacam tapes to HD format. Tape lengths are the same as for Digital Betacam, up to 40 minutes for S and 124 minutes for L tapes. In 24p mode the runtime increases to 50 and 155 minutes, respectively.

Sony branded HDCAM cassettes are black with an orange lid, and HDCAM SR cassettes black with a cyan lid.

440 Mbit/s mode is known as SQ, and 880 Mbit/s mode is known as HQ, and this mode has recently become available in studio models (e.g. SRW-5800) as well as portable models previously available.

See also
U-matic
MII (videocassette format)
 D-1 (Sony)
 D-2 (video)
 D-3 (video)
 D5 HD
 D6 HDTV VTR
 DVCPRO (D-7)
 DVCAM
 Digital-S (D-9)
 HDCAM (D-11)
 DVCPRO HD (D-12)

Footnotes

References

Further reading

External links
 Sony professional cameras
 Comparison Chart of Tape format Specs from Maxell
 Betacam PALsite—over 70 pages of Betacam information, running since 2000
  Sony Betamax Case Report

Products introduced in 1982
Videotape
Japanese inventions
Videocassette formats

Betacam


Namli Maira is one of the 51 Union Councils of Abbottabad District in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.

History

2005 earthquake
8 October 2005 was one of the worst days in the history of Pakistan. An earthquake of magnitude 7.6 struck the Northern Areas as well as Kashmir. The quake brought huge destruction. Namli Maira was partially damaged, but the aftershocks were felt in this area even in December. Houses were damaged but the death toll was very low.

Location
Namli Maira is between 34° 07.33' N, 073° 23.00' E in Abbottabad District. The Union Council is a collection of small hamlets, and takes its name from the largest two, Namli and Maira. These settlements are nestled on mountains about 20 kilometres from the city of Abbottabad. Miranjani, the highest peak of the area, is also in Namli Maira.

From Mera Jani, Azad Kashmir, River Jhelum, (Kohala) Tarbela lake, Abbottabad city, Havelian, Mountains of Naran kaghan & IIOJK and other far places can easily be seen.

Namli Maira is mainly a mountainous rural area. The nearest city to Namli Maira is Abbottabad which is also its Tehsil and District capital.

Administration
The Union Council is administratively divided into the following areas: Dhaki Khaitar, Namli Maira, Noormang and Pangoora.

People
The majority of the people of Namli Maira belong to the Karlal tribe. Other tribes in this area are: Turks, the Mughals, Malik and Awans and Dhund Abbasi, although they are in a minority. People are religious and are all Muslims.

Fruits
Fruit like pears, apples, black grapes, grapes, figs, peaches, damson plums, mulberries, wild figs, lemons, and apricots grow in abundance in Namli Maira. As the hill people lack awareness about the markets, these fruits only meet the requirement of local people. They are not for sale in a market.

Forests
Most of the area of these hilly hamlets and villages is covered with trees. Peaks are covered with evergreen trees including pine, walnut, oak and maple trees. Herbs, shrubs, wild flowers and thorny bushes can be seen in abundance. Goats and other pet animals graze in pastures. Most of the people used forest wood as fuel for daily use and also for home construction.

Education

Literacy rate: Namli Maira village has one of the highest literacy rates for the district. The literacy rate of Namli Maira is about 75%. There are both girls' and boys' schools here. There are primary schools for boys and girls, Government Boys High School, and Girls High school. Private English Medium Schools (Model Public School Namli, Habib Model School Etc.) are also here – these account for the high literacy rate.

References

Union councils of Abbottabad District

Namli Maira


Monasteries are places where monks live. Although the word "monastery" is sometimes used for a place where nuns live, nuns usually live in a convent or nunnery.  The word abbey (from the Syriac/Aramaic word : father) is also used for a Christian monastery or convent.  The monk in charge of an abbey is called an abbot; the nun in charge of an abbey is an abbess.

Several religions have a system of monasteries. Christian monasteries have a chapel for the monks to worship. Monks are not allowed to marry (celibacy). They are also not allowed to own anything. Everything they use, including their clothes, belongs to the monastery. During the Middle Ages after the Roman Empire was defeated, monasteries were some of the few places where knowledge still existed.

Some monasteries were built in places far away from where other people lived. The monks who live there live very isolated lives, growing their own food and looking after one another.  Other monasteries were in or near towns. Monks do a lot of work in the community, including as teaching, medical care or telling people about God. Few monks live isolated lives nowadays.

References

Other websites

Monastery


Ferrocement is both a method and a material used in building or sculpting with cement, sand, water and wire or mesh material. It is often called the thin shell. Thin shell ferrocement offers strength and economy and can be used in many ways including: building homes, creating sculptures, or building boats and ships.

Related pages
 Reinforced concrete

Other websites
 FerroBoats.com
 Ferrocement.com (multi-lingual)
 Ferrocement Educational Network
 Water Storage book by Art Ludwig, includes Ferrocement Tanks & Excel Water Tank Calculator
 Water Tank Design  Water Tank Design information

Building materials

Ferrocement


Clouds without Water is a poetry collection by Aleister Crowley (1875–1947), an English author, occult magician, mountaineer and founder of the religious philosophy of Thelema. Clouds without Water was one of many of Crowley's eccentric works published in his lifetime and was first issued in 1909. The title comes from a passage in Jude 1:12-13 which is quoted at the beginning of the book:

"Clouds they are without water; carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever"

As with many other books of Crowley's, such as The Scented Garden of Abdullah and Alice, an Adultury, this work was first published under the pseudonym "the Rev. C. Verey". Within the introduction there is a claim the starkly esoteric poems were discovered as an anonymous manuscript and presented only as a means to condemn them. Given in the end of the book are notes humorously contemptuous of the text, Crowley sarcastically portraying a pious clergyman before praying to be freed of such "sin".

Editions
 Clouds without Water, privately printed, 1909.
 Clouds without Water, reprint, Yogi Publication Society, Des Plaines, Illinois, 1974,

See also
 Works of Aleister Crowley
 Libri of Aleister Crowley
 Collected Works of Aleister Crowley 1905-1907
 The Stratagem and other Stories

External links
Clouds without Water the full text of the book.

English poetry collections
Thelemic texts
Works by Aleister Crowley
1909 books
Works published under a pseudonym

Clouds without Water


Carl Richard Jacobi (10 July 1908 – 25 August 1997) was an American journalist and writer. He wrote short stories in the horror and fantasy genres for the pulp magazine market, appearing in such pulps of the bizarre and uncanny as Thrilling, Ghost Stories, Startling Stories, Thrilling Wonder Stories and Strange Stories. He also wrote stories crime and adventure which appeared in such pulps as Thrilling Adventures, Complete Stories, Top-Notch, Short Stories, The Skipper, Doc Savage and Dime Adventures Magazine. Jacobi also produced some science fiction, mainly space opera, published in such magazines as Planet Stories. He was one of the last surviving pulp-fictioneers to have contributed to the legendary American horror magazine Weird Tales during its "glory days" (the 1920s and 1930s). His stories have been translated into French, Swedish, Danish and Dutch.

Biography

Early life and education

Jacobi was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1908 and lived there throughout his life. He was a lifelong bachelor. He was a voracious reader at an early age, reading Jules Verne, Edgar Allan Poe, H.G. Wells as well as the Frank Merriwell and Tom Swift boys' adventure yarns. Jacobi was always a writer; at his junior high school he earned good pocket-money concocting his own 'dime novels' (short story booklets) and selling them to fellow students as 10 cents-a-piece.

Jacobi attended the University of Minnesota from 1927 to 1930, majoring in English Literature, where he began his writing career in campus magazines and was an undergraduate classmate of Donald Wandrei. He wrote of this period on Thrilling Wonder Stories (June 1939) that "I tried to divide my time between rhetoric courses and the geology lab. As an underclassman I was somewhat undecided whether future life would find me studying rocks and fossils or simply pounding a typewriter. The typewriter won."  Jacobi's first stories were published while he was at the University. Long before graduation he made his first professional sale, a short detective tale, "Rumbling Cannon", to Secret Service Stories. This ought to have paid around fifty dollars but Jacobi received nothing since the pulp folded soon after the story was published. The last of the stories he published while at university, "Moss Island", was a graduate's contribution to The Quest of Central High School, and "Mive" (which won a college-wide contest judged by Margaret Culkin Banning), published in the University of Minnesota's The Minnesota Quarterly. Both stories were later sold to Amazing Stories (Winter 1932) and Weird Tales respectively and marked his debut in professional magazines. "Mive"  (Weird Tales, 1932) brought him payment of 25 dollars. "Mive" was praised by H. P. Lovecraft in his letter to Jacobi of 27 February 1932: "Mive please me immensely, and I told Wright that I was glad to see at least one story whose weirdness of incident was made convincing by adequate emotional preparation and suitably developed atmosphere." Lovecraft commended Jacobi's work to Derleth and thereby helped set up the long-term relationship Arkham House would have with Jacobi.

Beginning in 1928, Jacobi corresponded with adventure-pulp veteran Arthur O. Friel.

Jacobi's early story "The Monument" (1932) was submitted only once—to Farnsworth Wright of Weird Tales. It was not submitted subsequently but was discovered in a filing cabinet when R. Dixon Smith was researching his biography Lost in the Rentharpian Hills: Spanning the Decades with Carl Jacobi (1985) and finally saw print when included by Smith in Smoke of the Snake (1994).

1930s

Jacobi joined the editorial staff of The Minnesota Quarterly, and after graduation in 1931, he became a news reporter, reviewer and sub-editor for the Minneapolis Star, as well as a frequent reviewer of books and plays. He also served on the staff of the Minnesota Ski-U-Mah, a campus humor magazine (described on the jackets of Jacobi's books as 'a scholastic publication'). After a while regular hours palled, and he left the Star, renting an office in uptown Minneapolis in which were typewriter, paper, a few reference books, and a list of editorial addresses in New York.

Jacobi met August Derleth in January 1931 when Derleth was visiting Minneapolis to see Donald Wandrei. Jacobi had read Derleth's stories in Weird Tales and his Solar Pons stories in Dragnet and asked to be introduced; they met together, and with Donald Wandrei, for a literary roundtable at Minneapolis' Rainbow Cafe. Though Derleth and Jacobi corresponded for 40 years thereafter, Jacobi saw him but a few times in St Paul and never visited Derleth's home of Sauk City, Wisconsin. Over the following summer, when Derleth worked briefly as an editor for Fawcett Publications, outside Minneapolis, the three men frequently got together for brainstorming sessions.

Jacobi owned his own private retreat, a cabin at Minnewashta in the Carver country outlands of Minneapolis. His intimate familiarity with the terrain and environment there provided the setting for many of his most distinguished stories.

From 1932 until Jacobi's death in 1997, pulp writer Hugh B. Cave corresponded with Jacobi. Scores of their letters are quoted in Cave's memoir Magazines I Remember (Chicago: Tattered Pages Press, 1994), though many of Jacobi's early letters to Cave were lost in a fire in the early 1970s, along with copies of all Cave's early stories. Jacobi and Cave often criticised and improved each other's stories.

Jack Adrian writes:

In the depression years of the early 1930s, the pulp-writer needed as formidable a creative armoury as possible, along with a certain amount of luck, and cunning, to crack even the lowest paying markets. Jacobi had a useful knack for dreaming up memorable milieu against which to set his tales, and bizarre situations that stayed in the mind long after the magazine the story itself was in had been finished and tossed away. He may have been the only writer ever to have a story firmly rejected by the redoubtable Weird Tales editor Farnsworth Wright, only to have Wright, weeks later, begging for the story back, because an incident in it had stuck in his mind. This was "Revelations in Black", a chilling, and much-reprinted, vampire tale set in an old stone farmhouse outside of Minneapolis Jacobi had driven past one night (the house's eerie statue-lined garden, as seen by brilliant moonlight, had caught his eye and his imagination.

Jacobi wrote scores of tales for all the best-known magazines of fantasy and science fiction and was represented in numerous anthologies of imaginative fiction published in the United States, England and New Zealand. His stories were translated into French, Swedish, Danish and Dutch. Many of his tales were published in anthologies edited by Derleth, and Arkham House published his first three short story collections. Stories also appeared in such magazines as Short Stories, Railroad Magazine, The Toronto Star, Wonder Stories, MacLean's magazine, Ghost Stories, Strange Stories, Thrilling Mystery, Startling Stories, Complete Stories, Top-Notch and others. Though best known for his macabre fiction, Jacobi also wrote science fiction, weird-menace yarns and adventure stories.

Already by 1935, Jacobi was seeing a greater percentage of rejected stories. Pressed by financial problems and the need to help his parents survive the Depression, he took a $50 a week job as a continuity writer for the local radio station where he stayed until 1940.

Jacobi was fascinated by adventure tales with a Southeast Asia setting, particularly in regard to Dutch central Borneo and the Maritime Southeast Asia. Jacobi wrote to officials working in Southeast Asia to obtain details for his stories,  and he had considerable knowledge of that background in his fiction. According to Jack Adrian, "He would write to those in charge of far-flung outposts deep in the heart of the Borneo jungle, say, demanding geographical detail, obscure ethnic lore, atmospheric and forestall conditions; anything, in short, you couldn't get out of a book. This way he became an acknowledged expert in a field he had created himself, at the same time inventing whole new fiction subgenres, such as "Borneo terror tale", "New Guinea adventure" and so on. Later he turned the same trick with Baluchistan.

In 1939, Jacobi met writer Clifford D. Simak when Simak moved to Minneapolis to take a job with the Minneapolis Star; they became friends. At this time, Jacobi listed his hobbies as "studying the night sky with a 60 power glass; continuing contacts with friends now located in jumping off spots of the South Seas and Malaysia; and collecting old tobacco tins."

1940s and 1950s

In 1940-41, Jacobi served as editor of Midwest Media, an advertising and radio trade journal.  He then spent some years as a reporter, and reviewer of books and plays, for the Minneapolis Star. He worked for them for many years, writing fiction on the side. Following this, he "travelled a spell; fooled about with telegraphy, both wireless and Morse for another spell; then turned to writing fiction full-time."

At the time of the compilation of Revelations in Black (1947), Jacobi's first collection, Jacobi was at work on a novel, but it is unknown whether this was completed.

Jacobi continued to sell stories to Weird Tales up through the 1950s, with that market taking eighteen of his stories in all.

When the pulp markets collapsed, Jacobi took regular employment with one of the Honeywell defense plants as an electronics inspector, a job he had through WWII and beyond, while writing part-time. He worked the night shift at Honeywell seven days a week, which had a severe effect on both his writing schedule and his health, leading to heart problems.

1960s

1964 saw the publication of Jacobi's second collection of weird fiction, Portraits in Moonlight, and several short stories published in magazines.

1970s and 1980s

In 1972, Arkham House published Jacobi's third collection of weird fiction, Disclosures in Scarlet. Don Herron, writing in Jack Sullivan's Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, calls Jacobi's 1972 story "The Unpleasantness at Carver House" his masterpiece - "a ghoulish tale of horror and madness that may rank with the best work of Robert Aickman and Walter de la Mare in its brilliant use of suggestion. A feeling of unease pervades the story, and its many macabre implications prey on the imagination long after the last sentence is read."

In 1973, Jacobi attended the science-fiction convention Torcon II 31st World Science Fiction Convention, held in Canada, having been persuaded to attend by literary agent Kirby McCauley. There he met such figures as J. Vernon Shea and Robert Bloch. In the same year, Etchings and Odysseys magazine was launched in Minneapolis by Kirby McCauley, John Koblas, Eric Carlson, Joe West and others. Jacobi attended the launch, along with Mary Elizabeth Counselman, who had frequently appeared in the pages of the same magazines as Jacobi. Jacobi also met E. Hoffman Price (visiting from the West) at both Donald Wandrei's home and at Etchings and Odysseys 'headquarters'. Koblas had come to know Jacobi much earlier, and received encouraging criticism from Jacobi on his manuscripts. Jacobi also came much in contact with poet and novelist Richard L. Tierney, a Twin Cities resident for nine years during the 1970s. During this period, however, Jacobi had suffered a stroke which left one side of his body paralysed and gave him a speech impediment.

1980 saw a collection of Jacobi's stories published in French, under the title Les ecarlates. In 1989 appeared a collection of all-reprint adventure stories from the pulps, East of Samarinda. In the late 1980s, Robert M. Price's Cryptic Publications published a number of obscure Jacobi stories in such magazines as Astro-Adventures, Pulp Stories, Pulse-Pounding Adventure Stories and Shudder Stories.

Jacobi continued to write macabre stories in the 1970s and 1980s. Many are collected in his final volume, The Smoke of the Snake (1994). His last published story, "A Quire of Foolscap" (Whispers, Oct 1987) contains an in-joke: an unfaithful wife and her lover check into a motel "out on Carcosa", an obvious reference to both Ambrose Bierce's "An Inhabitant of Carcosa" and Robert W. Chambers' The King in Yellow, as well as affectionate praise for Karl Edward Wagner's newly established publishing firm (see Carcosa).

Later life and death

Debilitating illness crippled Jacobi during the final half-decade of his life, although his literary agent and biographer R. Dixon Smith did much to alleviate his various afflictions.

Jacobi died at St Louis Park, Minnesota on 25 August 1997.

A memorial for him was held at the Arcana (convention) 27, Sept 26-28, 1997 at the Holiday Inn Express Bandana Square, Minneapolis.

Critical reception

Fritz Leiber wrote about Jacobi: "his best tales surely include "Mive", "Carnaby's Fish", "Revelations in Black", "Moss Island", "Portrait in Moonlight", "The Lo Prello Paper", "The Aquarium", "The Singleton Barrier"...and "The Unpleasantness at Carver House".

Writer Don Herron has stated "Jacobi has a genuine bent for original, gruesome invention equal to the best writers who emerged from Weird Tales." Herron also said "Jacobi's finest stories have an exquisitely creepy quality from first paragraph to last" and described the story "The Unpleasantness at Carver House" as "Jacobi's masterpiece".

Bibliography
(All of the following are short story collections)
Revelations in Black (1947)
Portraits in Moonlight (1964)
Disclosures in Scarlet (1972)
East of Samarinda (1989) (edited by Carl Jacobi and R. Dixon Smith).
Smoke of the Snake (1994) (edited by Carl Jacobi and R. Dixon Smith). Note: This volume of short stories was originally titled Levitations in Lavender and later, Wayfarers in Darkness. The death of August Derleth scuttled its publication and it circulated in manuscript for some twenty years until being issued by Fedogan and Bremer, 1994. It contains 15 tales, some early, some late, all previously uncollected. The tale "The Street That Wasn't There" is a collaboration with Clifford D. Simak. The volume is dedicated by the editor to Basil Copper and his wife Annie, and illustrated by Jon Arfstrom and Rodger Geberding. The editor's introduction is titled "Waking Up Dead".
 Masters of the Weird Tale: Carl Jacobi. Edited by S. T. Joshi. Introduction by John Pelan. A mammoth collection of Jacobi's best weird fiction.
 Mive and Others: Best Weird Stories of Carl Jacobi Volume 1 (2021) Edited by S.T. Joshi
 Witches in the Corrnfield: Best Weird Stories of Carl Jacobi Volume 2 (2021) Edited by S.T. Joshi

References

Sources
 Don Herron. "Carl Jacobi" in Jack Sullivan (ed). The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural. New York: Viking Penguin, 1986, p. 229.
 W. H. Pugmire (ed). Carl Jacobi: An Appreciation. Pensacola, FL: Stellar Z Productions, 1977.
 Ruber, Peter (ed). Arkham's Masters of Horror. Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, 2000.
 Smith, R. Dixon. Lost in the Rentharpian Hills: Spanning the Decades with Carl Jacobi. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green State University Press, 1985.

External links

1908 births
1997 deaths
20th-century American novelists
American crime fiction writers
American fantasy writers
American horror writers
American male novelists
American science fiction writers
American male short story writers
Pulp fiction writers
University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts alumni
Novelists from Minnesota
20th-century American short story writers
20th-century American male writers
Weird fiction writers

Carl Richard Jacobi


OGame is a browser-based strategy game. The game was created in 2002 by Gameforge. OGame is able to go in different languages. It also has up to 39 uni (for short) or universes.

Game play

Each player starts with one randomly given planet, with the starting name of "Homeworld" (which can be changed). Building from that one planet, he/she later has the option to keep on developing that planet or to expand his/her colony to include up to as many planets they can afford to build, originally 9 planets. All construction, research, and missions are performed and launched from a planet or moon. While playing the player has a chance of building fleets and defenses for their planet.

Alliances

An alliance is a group of people who have banded together and is mostly used for solidarity purposes. Alliances are created for players to protect each other from attacks, join together to raid other planets, or to promote free trade amongst members. Members of an alliance can use the ACS (Alliance Combat System), available in all universes.

Buildings

Metal Mine is what is used to gather the resource metal.

Crystal Mine is what is used to gather the resource crystal.

Deuterium Synthesizer is what is used to gather the resource deuterium.

Solar Plant is a plant that produces energy from the sun to run mines or to do research.

Fusion Reactor is like a solar plant but instead of gathering energy from the sun it uses deterium to produce it's energy.

Robotic Factory is a building that decreases the building time of buildings.

Nanite Factory is an upgraded version of the robotics factory.

Resources

There are four resources used in OGame: metal, crystal, deuterium,and dark matter.

Metal is mainly used for buildings, Ships, Defenses. To get this resources he/she has to upgrade or build a metal mine.

Crystal is the second resource. Crystal is mostly used in research. Crystal is one of the hardest resource to obtain. It is obtained by building or upgrading a crystal mine.

Deuterium is the third resource and can be obtained only from deuterium synthesizers. Deuterium is mainly used as fuel for a player's fleet to perform a mission, and for research.

Dark Matter is a resource that can be bought with real money. If a user doesn't want to pay this resource will become the most rarest resource in the game. Dark Matter can be found on expeditions with the players fleet after researching Expedition.

Energy is not actual energy you get from a mine but from solar planets and fusion reactors. Energy is needed to be able to run the mines to gather metal, crystal, deuterium, and to do research.

A list of how these resources are obtained:

 Mining: Metal mines, crystal mines and deuterium synthesizers obtain metal, crystal and deuterium from one's own planet. The larger the mine, the faster the rate of getting the resources. Planetary resources never run out and can be continuously mined.
 Raiding other planets: A player can decide to send an attacking fleet to an enemy's planet. If the player's fleet destroys all of the enemy's fleet and defensive buildings, up to 50% (depending on the cargo capacity of the attacking ships) of the enemy's stored resources can be taken.
 Harvesting debris fields: destroyed fleets form a debris field around the planet it was destroyed. Debris fields consist of metal and crystal.
 Fleet Crashing: Stronger players can "fleet crash" weaker opponents, which is the act of destroying another player's fleet for the purpose of collecting the debris that remain after the battle and recycling the resulting debris (only metal and crystal can be obtained this way) and 30% of all ship's metal and crystal can be obtained in such a manner.
 Trading: Players can negotiate a trade sequence where they swap different resources at an official rate.
 Expeditions: Players can send their fleets out and get random things in return. These are risky, as there is a chance of losing your fleet or getting attacked by aliens.

Combat

Unlike other games, OGame doesn't allow the player to control his ships. While playing the game a player can send units to a specific moon or planet. Once the ship(s) arrive at the planet the player can only recall the ships, he/she cannot fly them.

Research

Researching various fields of science allows for better buildings, ships and defensive structures to be built. Research must be done for the production of Solar Satellites, which supplies power, to the fearsome Death Star, which is considered the strongest ship in the game.

The costs of research usually doubles each level, with the exception of Graviton Technology, which costs 300,000 energy and is not useful over level 1.

Research time is reduced with each upgrade of the Research Lab, or reduced dramatically with the Intergalactic Research Network researched.

Purchased effects

All purchased effects are paid with dark matter. In order to get dark matter he/she has to buy it on OGame.

Commander

The Commander gives the player improved functions. Features include a building order which gives the player the ability to order several buildings to be built without requiring the player to login and start a new build. The player also gets an "Empire View" that shows the player all details on every planet including ships, defenses, resources, and energy. Other bonus given by OGame Commander are message filters, shortcuts, an improved galaxy view and commands, and a gaming experience free of ads.

Officers

On February 16, 2007, Officers were introduced to the game. It is worth noting that Gameforge had earlier promised it's users it would never introduce pay-to-play options that provided direct benefits, and the change the caused a large scale of conflict in the community.

The officer feature gives players a real advantage in the game, for a price, while those who cannot afford it go without. The 4 officers types are:

 Fleet Admiral: Increases maximum fleet slot by 2.
 Engineer: Reduces the losses of defensive structure during an attack by half and gives 10% more energy.
 Geologist: Increases metal mine, crystal mine and deuterium synthesizer production by 10%
 Technocrat: Increases the espionage level for espionage probes by 2 and decreases research time by 25%.

Merchants

As of version 0.78 people can hire a merchant to trade one resource type for another. This is almost the same as trading except that there are no other players involved. The only limitation you have is the amount of free space in your storage silos and the amount of dark matter you have. You cannot trade when your silos are full, or when standing on a moon. It is wise to move away all the resources you want to keep, so that you can trade the maximum amount that your storage holds.

Rules

OGame is monitored by Game Operators, Super Game Operators and Game Administrators each of whom have the rights to ban any player suspected of misconduct and violation of the rules. The rules can be different for each OGame universe. Players who have been banned are put into the pillory of their universe. The pillory shows the reason of banning and the administrator who made the decision. It also shows the unbanning of a player when they have clarified the fault. The planets and colonies of players that have received lifelong bans are subject to the one month account deletion due to inactivity.

Awards

OGame won the bronze Superbrowsergame Award in 2006.

References

Other websites
 Gameforge
 OGame
 OGame Wiki

Online games

OGame


Marie Taglioni (18041884) was a ballerina. She was born in Stockholm, Sweden on 23 April 1804. Her father was the choreographer Filippo Taglioni. He created the seminal romantic ballet La Sylphide to showcase her talents.

She was the first ballerina to dance en pointe for the sake of artistry rather than spectacle. She created a scandal when she shortened her ballet skirts to display her footwork.

She danced mostly in London at Her Majesty's Theatre and in Paris at the Opéra. In 1827, she began a three-year stint with the Imperial Ballet in St Petersburg. She danced in Pas de Quatre with Carlotta Grisi, Lucille Grahn, and Fanny Cerrito in July 1845. She retired in 1847 and lived in Venice, Italy.

She was the guiding spirit behind the reorganization of the Paris Opéra Ballet. In later life, she taught social dances to children and society ladies. She also took a limited number of ballet pupils.  Johann Strauss II composed the Marie Taglioni Polka, Op. 173 in her honour. She died in Marseilles on 24 April 1884.

Ballet dancers
Ballerinas
1804 births
1884 deaths
Swedish entertainers
Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery
Disease-related deaths in France

Marie Taglioni


Maist Kintras pits signs, kent as traffec signs or road signs, at the sides o roads for tae impairt information tae road uisers. Syne leid differs can create barriers tae understaundin, internaitional signs uisin seembols in steid o wirds haes been developed in Europe an adoptit in maist kintras an areas o the warld. Annexe 1 o the Vienna Convention on Road Signs an Seegnals o November 8t, 1968 defines aicht categories o signs:
 A. Danger wairnin signs
 B. Priority signs
 C. prescriptive signs
 D. Mandator signs
 E. Speicial regulation signs
 F. Information, faceelities, or service signs
 G. Airtins, poseetion, or indication signs
 H. Addeetional painels

Houaniver, Kintras an areas categorize road signs in differin weys.

Street furnitur

Road safety
Seembols

Traffec sign


"In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela" is the second episode in the  sixth season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 90th episode of the series overall. It originally aired directly after "Rebirth" on June 24, 2010 on Comedy Central. In the episode, Zapp Brannigan and Leela end up on a Garden of Eden-like world after fighting a planet-destroying satellite called V-Giny.

The episode was written by Carolyn Premish, who created the story for the episode with series creator Matt Groening. Dwayne Carey-Hill directed. It features references to Adam and Eve, and Matt Groening's other show, The Simpsons, along with self-parody. The episode received positive reviews from critics.

Notably, "In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela" is the first of several episodes to use a significantly shortened intro sequence this season, and consequently is the first episode in the series not to show a brief clip of a classic cartoon before the opening credits.

Plot
Sometime in the 31st century, a death sphere appears, destroying planets in its path. Professor Farnsworth soon discovers that the death sphere is headed for Earth. After running several simulations, he realizes that the death sphere is the result of a collision between two artificial satellites that were launched into Earth's orbit in 1998. One satellite, launched by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), was known as the "V-chip" which censors inappropriate programs like The Pimpsons and Assarama, and the other satellite was called the "USAF Flying Destiny."  Shortly after launch, the two mysteriously disappeared. The collision effectively created the death sphere and also gave the death sphere the name "V-GINY," a portmanteau of the two former satellites' names. The death sphere's purpose is later revealed as censoring indecent planets, thereby destroying them.

Zapp Brannigan and Leela are sent to destroy the death sphere in an undetectable one-man craft built by Farnsworth. Upon confronting the sphere's control center, Leela utters "holy cr—", triggering the censor, which sends a black, crude oil-like substance towards them. Their counterattack weaponry proves to be ineffective against the mysterious substance, forcing the duo to retreat. They end up stranded on a Garden of Eden-like planet (complete with a talking serpent, though Brannigan dismisses this as a hallucination) where Brannigan tries to woo Leela through deceit and purposely leaving her trapped and mentally addled. However, Brannigan ultimately scammed Leela; the two really landed on Earth.

In the meantime, the Planet Express crew travels to Lo'ihi Island in Hawaii, the one spot where humanity has not made its mark. There, they desperately attempt to convince the death sphere that there is still some decency on Earth by performing a purity chant. However, Bender cannot keep to himself and begins fornicating with the satellite encoder.

Following the incident, Fry wanders the island in search of a good spot to "take a dump". As he wanders, he finds the stranded Leela, at which point V-Giny appears on Earth, and in a bargain made between it and the Planet Express crew, agrees to spare the planet if "Adam" (Brannigan) and "Eve" (Leela) consummate their relationship. Brannigan tries to bargain his way out due to the uncomfortable setting but Leela forces him into it, which causes Fry a great deal of grief, and he begs for it to be censored. V-Giny states that it is "approved for all audiences" and leaves Earth.

Production
By August 20, 2009, the writing of this episode was ready for its table reading. This episode and the fourth episode of the sixth season feature some coarser language that would previously not have been possible on FOX. The episode's screenplay was written by Carolyn Premish, with the story written by her and Futurama creator, Matt Groening. This episode had to be toned down when it aired on Sinclair Broadcasting affiliates, but it still kept a TV-14 rating for suggestive dialogue (D), offensive language (L), sexual situations (S),  and violence (V).

Cultural references
The episode title itself is a spoof of Iron Butterfly's 1968 song "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" (originally titled "In the Garden of Eden"). The episode makes references to the typical 1950s B-Movie serials with Zapp Brannigan's dreams. Zapp and Leela are in an Adam and Eve type planet and take on the roles while on the planet. The Death Sphere is a reference to "Death Star" in Star Wars, its creation and its name are a reference to V′Ger in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. It is also a reference to the Star Trek: The Original Series episodes "The Changeling" (in reference to the fact that the V-chip and the USAF Flying Destiny colliding like the Nomad probe) and "The Doomsday Machine" (an ancient military starship that has gone rogue and destroyed several planets, before heading toward the Federation). Hermes uses a reference database called Janeway's Guide, a portmanteau of Jane's Fighting Ships and Kathryn Janeway.

The main plot line of the episode, involving a "Death Sphere" on a course to destroy the Earth, is analogous to the plot of the 1997 Luc Besson film The Fifth Element. The movie's antagonist, referred to as the "great evil," is a giant sentient sphere with the ability to communicate with humans on a mission to destroy life, and shares many attributes with Futurama's V-GINY. In both cases the President of the Earth meets with a military leader to discuss how to handle the death sphere, and they end up consulting a third party (the priest and then the scientist who rebuilds/revives Lelu in The Fifth Element, and Professor Farnsworth in Futurama) for an alternative solution to military action. In both cases, the great evil is defeated through an act of "love."

Reception
In its original American broadcast, "In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela" was viewed by an estimated 2.78 million households with a 1.5 rating/5% share in the 18-49 demographic becoming the second highest rated episode of the night after Burn Notice, Royal Pains and the previous Futurama episode, "Rebirth" according to the Nielsen Media Research.

The A.V. Club reviewer Zack Helden while reviewing "Rebirth" gave the episode a B saying "'Gadda' is the weaker of the two premiere episodes. It's still funny (though not quite as funny as 'Rebirth'), but the storyline doesn't build to the sort of wild, resonant pay-off that Futurama does best". Robert Canning of IGN gave the episode an 8.0/10 calling it "Impressive" and also stated "While 'Rebirth' was forced to reacquaint and catch people up, 'In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela' was essentially a standalone episode delivering a lot of laughs and a quintessential Futurama story." Danny Gallagher of TV Squad stated in his review "It was nice to see 'Futurama' stick with its satirical roots. The best of the old episodes always had a touch of something that spoke out about something (i.e. global warming in 'Crimes of the Hot,' environmental awareness in 'A Big Piece of Garbage'). It really knew how to drive the episode, both on plot and humor, and it works here, for the most part." However, he also stated it lacked "cleverness" and delivered few laughs from Bender.

References

External links

2010 American television episodes
Cultural depictions of Adam and Eve
Futurama (season 6) episodes
Television episodes about censorship
Garden of Eden
Television episodes set in Hawaii
Television episodes based on the Bible
Television episodes written by Matt Groening

In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela


Desertification is the expansion of desert into the surrounding areas. The desert area in the world is getting bigger. Desertification usually happens on the edge of deserts. It is caused by a variety of factors.

Causes

There are many causes of desert spreading:

Climatic change, including global warming (natural factor). The distribution of rainfall in the surrounding area of desert is uneven. From 1970 onwards, the world's weather has been changing. There has been less rain, and certain areas of the world are becoming drier. Drought affects the area surrounding a desert. As a result, many crops and animals have died. There is no vegetation to protect the soil. The topsoil is removed by sudden flash floods or strong wind. This makes the soil erode and the desert spread towards the surrounding area. Here are a few more ways of desertification:

Rapid population growth (human factor).
Overgrazing.
Deforestation.
Drought
Irrigation (if done wrongly, or it needs more water than the environment can provide).

References

Other websites

Environmental issues

Desertification


Kala géologi: tempo ogé skala waktu géologis.

 1620 - Francis Bacon notices the jigsaw fit of the opposite shores of the Atlantic Océan
 1669 - Nicolas Steno puts forward his théory that sedimentary strata had been deposited in former séas, and that fossils were organic in origin
 1701 - Edmund Halley suggests using the salinity and evaporation of the Mediterranéan to determine the age of the éarth
 1743 - Sir Christopher Packe produces a géological map of south-éast England
 1746 - Jean Etienne Guettard presents the first mineralogical map of France to the French Academy of Sciences.
 1760 - John Michell suggests éarthquakes are caused by one layer of rocks rubbing against another
 1776 - James Keir suggests that some rocks, such as those at the Giant's Causeway, might have been formed by the crystallisation of molten lava
 1779 - Comte de Buffon speculates that the éarth is older than the 6,000 yéars suggested by the Bible
 1785 - James Hutton presents paper entitled Théory of the éarth - éarth must be old
 1799 - William Smith produces the first large scale géological map, of the aréa around Bath
 1809 - William Maclure conducts the first géological survey of the éastern United States
 1830 - Sir Charles Lyell publishes book, Principles of Géology, which describes the world as being several hundred million yéars old
 1837 - Louis Agassiz begins his glaciation studies which eventually demonstrate that the éarth has had at léast one ice age
 1862 - Lord Kelvin attempts to find the age of the éarth by examining its cooling time and estimates that the éarth is between 20–400 	million yéars old
 1903 - George Darwin and John Joly claim that radioactivity is partially responsible for the éarth's héat
 1907 - Bertram Boltwood proposes that the amount of léad in uranium and thorium ores might be used to determine the éarth's age and 	crudely dates some 	rocks to have ages between 410–2200 million yéars
 1911 Arthur Holmes uses radioactivity to date rocks, the oldest being 1.6 billion yéars old
 1912 - Alfred Wegener proposes that all the continents once formed a single landmass called Pangaéa that broke apart via continental drift
 1913 - Albert Michelson méasures tides in the solid body of the éarth
 1935 - Charles Richter invents a logarithmic scale to méasure the intensity of earthquakes
 1953 - Maurice Ewing and Bruce Heezen discover the Great Global Rift running along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
 1960 - Harry Hess proposes that new séa floor might be créated at mid-océan rifts and destroyed at deep séa trenches
 1963 - F.J. Vine and D.H. Matthews explain the stripes of magnetized rocks with alternating magnetic polarities running parallel to mid-	océan ridges as due 	to séa floor spréading and the periodic géomagnetic field reversals
 1980 - Physicist Luis Alvarez, his son, géologist Walter Alvarez, and others propose that the impact of a large extra-terrestrial object caused the extinction of the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous Period, about 65 million yéars ago.

Kala élmu

Kala Géologi


Anthrozoology, also known as human–nonhuman-animal studies (HAS), is the subset of ethnobiology that deals with interactions between humans and other animals. It is an interdisciplinary field that overlaps with other disciplines including anthropology, ethnology, medicine, psychology, social work, veterinary medicine, and zoology. A major focus of anthrozoologic research is the quantifying of the positive effects of human–animal relationships on either party and the study of their interactions. It includes scholars from fields such as anthropology, sociology, biology, history and philosophy.

Anthrozoology scholars, such as Pauleen Bennett recognize the lack of scholarly attention given to non-human animals in the past, and to the relationships between human and non-human animals, especially in the light of the magnitude of animal representations, symbols, stories and their actual physical presence in human societies. Rather than a unified approach, the field currently consists of several methods adapted from the several participating disciplines to encompass human–nonhuman animal relationships and occasional efforts to develop sui generis methods.

Areas of study
 The interaction and enhancement within captive animal interactions.
 Affective (emotional) or relational bonds between humans and animals
 Human perceptions and beliefs in respect of other animals
 How some animals fit into human societies
 How these vary between cultures, and change over times
 The study of animal domestication: how and why domestic animals evolved from wild species (paleoanthrozoology)
 Captive zoo animal bonds with keepers
 The social construction of animals and what it means to be animal
 The human–animal bond
 Parallels between human–animal interactions and human–technology interactions
 The symbolism of animals in literature and art
 The history of animal domestication
 The intersections of speciesism, racism, and sexism
 The place of animals in human-occupied spaces
 The religious significance of animals throughout human history
 Exploring the cross-cultural ethical treatment of animals
 The critical evaluation of animal abuse and exploitation
 Mind, self, and personhood in nonhuman animals
 The potential human health benefits of companion animal ownership
 Human-animal hybrids (where each cell has partly human and partly animal genetic contents)
 Human-animal chimeras (where some cells are human and some cells are animal in origin)

Growth of the field
There are currently 23 college programs in HAS or a related field in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Israel and the Netherlands, as well as an additional eight veterinary school programs in North America, and over thirty HAS organizations in the US, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, France, Germany, New Zealand, Israel, Sweden, and Switzerland.

In the UK, the University of Exeter runs an MA in Anthrozoology which explores human–animal interactions from anthropological (cross-cultural) perspectives. Human animal interactions (HAI) involving companion animals are also studied by the Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition, which partners with the US National Institutes of Health to research HAI in relation to child development and aging.

There are now three primary lists for HAS scholars and students—H-Animal, the Human-Animal Studies listserv, and NILAS, as well as the Critical Animal Studies list.

There are now over a dozen journals covering HAS issues, many of them founded in the last decade, and hundreds of HAS books, most of them published in the last decade (see for example, Humanimalia). Brill, Berg, Johns Hopkins, Purdue, Columbia, Reaktion, Palgrave-Macmillan, University of Minnesota, University of Illinois, and Oxford all offer either a HAS series or a large number of HAS books.

In addition, in 2006, Animals and Society Institute (ASI) began hosting the Human-Animal Studies Fellowship, a six-week program in which pre- and post-doctoral scholars work on a HAS research project at a university under the guidance of host scholars and distance peer scholars. Beginning in 2011, ASI has partnered with Wesleyan Animal Studies, who will be hosting the fellowship in conjunction with ASI. There are also a handful of HAS conferences per year, including those organized by ISAZ and NILAS, and the Minding Animals conference, held in 2009 in Australia. Finally, there are more HAS courses being taught now than ever before. The ASI website lists over 300 courses (primarily in North America, but also including Great Britain, New Zealand, Australia, Germany, and Poland) in 29 disciplines at over 200 colleges and universities, not including over 100 law school courses.

See also

 Animal behavior
 ABMAP
 Animal rights
 Animal studies
 Anthropomorphism
 Birds in culture
 Cognitive ethology
 Companion animal
 Critical animal studies
 Domestication of the horse
 Ethnozoology
 Human–animal bonding
 Human–canine bond
 Intersectionality
 Insects in culture
 Origin of the domestic dog
 Pauleen Bennett
 Pet humanization
 Service animal
 Social grooming
 Trans-species psychology
 Zooarchaeology

References

External links
 Animals and Society Institute
 Anthrozoology Research Group
 H-Animal
 Human-Animal Studies listserve
 Humanimalia: a journal of human-animal interface studies
 NILAS

Animal rights
Animal welfare

Anthropology
Ethology
Interdisciplinary subfields of sociology
Environmental humanities
Environmental social science
Zoology

Anthrozoology