Serfdom is the forced labour of serfs in a feudal society.  In medieval Europe, serfs were peasant farmers who worked without pay for a lord.  In exchange, they got to live and work on the lord's manor.  They also got the lord's protection.

Serfs had more rights than slaves (for example, serfs could own property).  However, they were not completely free.  They could not move, marry, or leave the manor without the lord's permission.  In most serfdoms, serfs were legally part of the land.  If the land was sold, they were sold with it.

Serfs worked in their lord's fields.  They sometimes did other things related to agriculture, like forestry and transportation (by both land and river).  Some also worked in craft and manufacturing.

Serfdom developed from agricultural slavery in the Roman Empire.  It spread through Europe around the 10th century.  During the Middle Ages, most European people lived in serfdoms.

Serfdom lasted up to the 1600s in England and until 1789 in France.  In most other European countries, serfdom continued until the early 19th century.

Serfdom was unusual in the Russian Empire until the 18th century when it became widespread. Alexander II of Russia abolished it in 1861,

The system of serfdom
During the Middle Ages in Europe, monarchs, the Catholic Church, and the nobility owned all land.  Serfs did not own land.  Instead, they did manual labor for landowners in exchange for a place to live and work.

Most serfs were workers, but some were craftsmen - like the village blacksmith, miller or innkeeper.

The serf's feudal contract
Serfs had a feudal contract, just like a baron or a knight. A serf's feudal contract said that he would live and work on a piece of land owned by his lord. A serf was allowed to have their own home, fields, crops, and animals on the lord's land. Serfs had some rights in the feudal contract. In return for their work, the serf would get protection.

During feudal times, people said that a serf "worked for all", a knight or baron "fought for all," and clergy "prayed for all." Serfs were in a lower social class than knights and barons. However, they were better off than slaves.

A manorial lord could not sell his serfs like Romans sold slaves.  However, serfs were legally tied to the land they worked on.  If their lord sold his land, his serfs were sold along with the land.  Serfs could not sell the land they lived on, and could not leave the manor without their lord's permission.  Often, they needed the lord's permission before they could marry someone who was not also a serf for that lord.

Becoming a serf
A free man usually became a serf because he owed a large debt. He would make an agreement with the lord of the land. The lord would keep him safe, give money to pay his debt, and give him land to work on. In return, he would work for the lord. All his children would become serfs.

The serf's duties
Serfs had to pay taxes to their lord. The lord would decide how much each serf had to pay, based on the size of the land the serf lived on. Usually, serfs had to pay 1/3 of their land's value in taxes, which is less than most middle class Americans pay in taxes in the present day. When the lord was fighting a war, serfs also had to pay wartime taxes.

Money was not very common during the Middle Ages. Serfs usually paid their lord by giving food and working without pay.  Usually, serfs spent five or six days a week working for their lord. On these days, the lord would give his serfs better food.  However, serfs had to do the lord's work before they could do their own work. When the lord's crops needed to be harvested, the serf's own crops needed to be harvested too. Still, the serf could not harvest his own food until he had done his required work for the lord.

At different times in the year, serfs would do different things. A serf might plough his lord's fields, harvest crops, dig ditches, or repair fences. The rest of his time he could take care of his own fields, crops and animals.

There were strange tests to decide if something was good enough to be given for taxes. A chicken, for example, had to be able to jump over a fence. That showed that the chicken was young and healthy.

Lords also required serfs to pay fines when they did certain things.  For example, a serf would have to pay a fine:

 If he inherited money or property
 If he became a priest or monk
 If his children moved to the city instead of staying and being a serf on the lord's manor
 If he used his own mill to grind the grain he grew

When a serf died, his children could only stay on the land if they gave the lord their best animal.

Serfs had to pay to use the lord's grain mill.  Many serfs thought this was unfair.  Millers charged a fee called multure, which was usually 1/24 of the total grain milled.  The serfs often thought the millers were not honest.

Many serfs had to use their lord's ovens to bake their daily bread.  They had to pay to use these ovens.  They also had to pay to use the lord's carts to carry their produce.

Benefits of serfdom
Serfs had some freedoms. They could get and keep property and money. Some serfs had more money and property than their free neighbours. Sometimes, serfs could buy their freedom.

The lord could not make serfs leave his land unless he had good reasons. The lord was supposed to protect them from criminals or other lords, and he was supposed to give them charity during famines.

Agricultural benefits
Serfs could grow what they wanted on their lands. Sometimes they had to pay their taxes in wheat, which is difficult to grow. They could take the wheat they did not give for taxes to the market.

Mostly, serfs were subsistence farmers, eating what they grew. Their heirs usually got an inheritance.

Variations
The rules for serfdom were different at different times and places. In some places, serfdom changed into different types of taxation.

In the 13th-century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, serfs had to work two to three days a week for their landlords. In the 14th century, they had to work one day per week. In the 17th century, they had to work four days per week. In the 18th century, they had to work six days per week.

Sometimes, serfs were soldiers during war. They could earn their freedom or even become nobles as a reward for bravery in war.

Serfs could also gain their freedom in other ways.  Sometimes they could buy their freedom.  Enlightened or generous owners could free a serf (this is called manumission).  Some serfs were able to flee to other towns or to newly settled land where people would not ask questions about the serf's past.  Laws varied from country to country.  In England, a serf became free if he made his way to a chartered town and avoided being recaptured for a year and a day.

Freedom for the serfs
When people started to use money more, and barter became less important, serfdom began to change.  Now lords could make money by renting their land.  This was more profitable than getting unpaid work from serfs.  Many lords "freed" their serfs when their work became less valuable than money.

Still, the serfs' lives were not seriously changed.  They still had to farm their land, take care of their families, and pay their taxes.  However, they could no longer be forced off their lands if they did not pay rent, or if their Lord decided he wanted to use their fields for a different purpose.

History of serfdom

Serfs in antiquity
The helots in the ancient Greek city-state of Sparta worked like serfs.  So did peasants working on government lands in ancient Rome.  However, these workers were not called "serfs."  Instead, they were called coloni, meaning "tenant farmers."

When Germanic tribes took over the Roman Empire, they took the lands from the wealthy Romans. They became the new lords in the same economic system of serfdom.

Beginning of serfdom

In Western Europe
Medieval serfdom in Western Europe began with the breakup of the Carolingian Empire around the 10th century.  This empire had ruled most of western Europe for more than 200 years.  After the empire broke up, Western Europe had no strong central governments for a long time.

During this time, feudal lords worked to make serfdom the common way for people to live.  Under serfdom, rich landlords could force other people to work for them and feed them.

Serfs did most of the agricultural work in medieval Western Europe.  Slavery did exist during this time, but it was not common.  Usually slaves were only used to take care of people's houses.

Parts of Europe, including much of Scandinavia, never used serfdom or other feudal institutions.

In Eastern Europe

Serfdom reached Eastern European countries later than Western Europe.  It started in Russia around the 12th century, but was not common until several hundred years later.  By the 17th century, serfdom was the most common relationship between Russian peasants and the nobility.  It was most common in the central and southern areas of the Tsardom of Russia, and later the Russian Empire.

Serfdom in Ukraine, in other Cossack lands, in the Urals and in Siberia was rare until the reign of Catherine the Great (r. 1762–1796).  At that time, it spread to Ukraine.  Noblemen began to send their serfs into Cossack lands in an attempt to harvest their extensive untapped natural resources.

Russian serfdom was different than in other Eastern European countries, because it was not changed by German law or by people coming from Germany.  In Russia, serfdom and manorialism systems were enforced by the crown (the Tsar), not by the nobility.

End of serfdom

In Western Europe
By the 13th and 14th centuries, serfdom was becoming less common in Western Europe.  The manorial system weakened as powerful monarchs took control, towns developed, and the economy improved.  At the same time, there were more protests by serfs and peasants, like Wat Tyler's Rebellion in England in 1381.  This put pressure on the nobility and the clergy to change the system and make improvements.  New ways of renting the land gave people more freedom.

By the 15th and 16th centuries, serfdom was ending in Western Europe.  As the economy continued to change, serfdom became less profitable than renting land for money.  Other causes for the end of serfdom included changes in the population and laws about what lords could make their tenants do.

The Industrial Revolution also helped to end serfdom.  Landowners began to put their money into industries, because they made more money this way than they did from having serfs.  This caused urbanization.  As towns got bigger, farmers wanted to move off of manors.  They could make more money working in town than they could by working in a lord's fields.

In England, serfdom ended around 1600.  After the Renaissance, serfdom was not common in Western Europe.  However, as serfdom was ending, chattel slavery was beginning in the English-speaking parts of the Western Hemisphere.

In Eastern Europe
Serfdom existed in Russia until February 19, 1861.  In Russian Baltic provinces, it ended in the beginning of the 19th century (see Russian Serfdom Reforms).

Dates for abolition in European countries
 Savoy: 19 December 1771
 Baden: 23 July 1783
 Denmark: 20 June 1788
 France: 3 November 1789
 Switzerland: 4 May 1798
 Schleswig-Holstein: 19 December 1804
 Grand Duchy of Warsaw (Poland): 22 July 1807
 Prussia: 9 October 1807 (effectively 1811-1823)
 Mecklenberg: October 1807 (effectively 1820)
 Bavaria: 31 August 1808
 Nassau: 1 September 1812
 Estonia (Russian Empire): 23 March 1816
 Courland (Russian Empire): 25 August 1817
 Württemberg: 18 November 1817
 Livonia (Russian Empire): 26 March 1819
 Hannover: 1831
 Saxony: 17 March 1832
 Austria: 7 September 1848
 Hungary: 2 March 1853
 Bulgaria: 1858 (when feudalism was definitely abolished in the Ottoman Empire; practically in 1880)
 Russia: 19 February 1861 (or 1974 - see 'Return of Serfdom' below)
 Danubian Principalities (Romania): 14 August 1864
 Bosnia and Herzegovina: 1918

Return of serfdom
Some people say that planned economies, especially those based on Soviet-style Communist economics (like the Soviet collective farm system) are government-owned serfdom.  Friedrich Hayek said this in his book The Road to Serfdom.

Mikhail Gorbachev grew up in a kolkhoz.  These were supposed to be collectives.  There were also sovkhoz, which were state-owned.  The government used a system of internal passports and household registration (like China's hukou system) to make people stay on their farms. They had to plant crops according to instructions from the central authorities, especially if they were on state-run farms.  The state then bought their agricultural produce at low prices and invested heavily in industrialization.  Gorbachev said this was much like being a serf.

This kind of serfdom lasted in Russia until 1974 (with a brief break during the Russian Civil War). USSR Government Decree #667 gave peasants identification documents, with an unrestricted right to move within the country, for the first time in Russian history. It is possible that a system like this still exists in rural China.

Related pages
 Indentured servant
 Farm
 Fiefdom
 Yeoman
 Villein

Other websites
 An extraction from the book "Serfdom to Self-Government: Memoirs of a Polish Village Mayor, 1842-1927"
 The Granary of Europe - serfdom in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
 The Causes of Slavery or Serfdom: A Hypothesis , discussion and full online text of Evsey Domar (1970), "The Causes of Slavery or Serfdom: A Hypothesis," Economic History Review 30:1 (March), pp. 18–32
 The Estabilishment of Serfdom in Eastern Europe and Russia, Richard Trethewey, American Economist, Spring 1974, Vol. 18 Issue 1
 Serfdom
 SERFS UP!

References
 War Communism to the NEP: The Road from Serfdom
 Gorbachev's BBC Interview
 Hayek, Friedrich A. von, The Road to Serfdom, London: Routledge, 2001.

Feudalism

Serfdom


街友()亦都叫流浪者、野宿族、遊民,係指一班因為某啲原因冇屋企返而要喺公園、天橋底、地下道同埋後樓梯呢啲地方睏覺嘅人。佢哋通常係靠喺城市度流浪、執垃圾、乞食或者做咕喱等等嚟賺錢同搵嘢食。

睇埋

麥難民
街童
社會福利
最低工資
貧窮

拎
 Homeless Statistics for Australia, Canada, United Kingdom and the United States, all data from around the year 2001.
 PBS, "Home at Last?", NOW series program, first aired on 2 February 2007. The topic was what will most help homeless people reenter the fabric of society.

 Homelessness in Europe FEANTSA is the European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless is an umbrella of not-for-profit organizations which participate in or contribute to the fight against homelessness in Europe.
 Report Card on Child Homelessness by the American Institutes for Research. Summarized in Child homelessness on the rise in US (November 2014), Palm Beach Post
 Utah found a brilliantly effective solution for homelessness (February 2015), Natasha Bertrand, Business Insider

社會問題

街友


A blindfold is a piece of cloth tied over a person's eyes. Sometimes a blindfold is made of material other than cloth. Blindfolds make it impossible to see. They are used for many different reasons:
To cover the eyes of a person who is blind.
They are used in some games played by children on a playground.
As sleep masks to help a person sleep when there is too much light.
In a ransom so that a person cannot see the kidnappers.
In magic tricks.
For erotic play.

In art, Justice is sometimes made to look like a woman wearing a blindfold.

Related pages
Eyeglasses
Mask

References

Clothing

Blindfold


Restorationism, also called Christian primitivism is a movement that tries to model itself after what is known or believed of the Early Christian Church. Over the course of time, different groups have used the term, with different meanings:
In the Middle Ages, most groups were active during the time when the Protestant Reformation happened. In the 15th century, a movement called the Lollards started. Another group  with similar ideas was the Brethren of the Common Life.
Movements such as the Hussites, the Anabaptists,  the Landmark Baptists, the Puritans and the Waldensians were called Primitive, as is the Primitive Methodist Church.
After the Protestant Reformation, the Protestant movement split in many groups. Some of these groups, such as the Churches of Christ and the Baptists are more restorationist than others. Other movements include the Glasites, in Scotland. In the United States, there was a Restoration Movement, which is also known as Stone-Campbell Movement as well as the Mormons, Christadelphians, Christian Scientists, and Jehovah's Witnesses.
A number of Pentecostal movements has been described as restorationist: Among them are the Assemblies of God, and the evangelical British New Church Movement
Some movements use the term to say that Jewish people must be "restored" to the Promised Land. These movements are usually called Christian Restorationism or Christian Zionism.
 The term has also been used in reference to Muslim movements with similar aims, such as Salafism, Muwahhidism, Ghair Muqallids and Quranism.
 In the Philippines, Iglesia ni Cristo sees itself as restorationist.

Christian movements and denominational families
Religious terminology

Restorationism


John Morton (born February 17, 1942) is an American racing driver from Waukegan, Illinois.

Early life
After his father took him to a race at Road America in 1957, Morton became an avid racing fan. He went on to race jalopies in South Carolina before he dropped out of Clemson University to attend Carroll Shelby's racing school at Riverside Raceway in California. Taking a menial job working in Carroll Shelby's race shop, Morton saved his money to purchase his first race car, a Lotus Super 7 which he raced in SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) amateur races in 1963.

Career
In 1964, he drove with Ken Miles at Sebring in a 427 Cobra for Shelby American Racing. Teaming with Miles and Skip Scott, Morton won the GT class at the Road America 500, second overall, in a team Cobra. That year, he bought his second race car, a Lotus 23B.

John raced mostly SCCA Club races through 1968 until Peter Brock (the American designer, motorsports writer and photographer, not the Australian racer) hired him for his new BRE Datsun team. The period between 1969 and 1972 was fruitful for John, Peter and Datsun. The team disbanded after the 1972 season after dominating both SCCA C Production with the 240Z (National Championships in 1970-71) and the 2.5 Trans-Am with the 510.

Racing in F5000, Can-Am and IMSA occupied the next few years. A short almost accidental foray into the movie industry in 1975 led to stunt work on films and several TV shows, including The Rockford Files and Fantasy Island. In 1981, Phil Conte joined John's small Can-Am team as a sponsor for two years after which Phil formed his own IMSA team with John as one of his two drivers in the GTP category.

In 1985, Jim Busby hired John as team driver in one of his BF Goodrich sponsored Porsche 962s with Pete Halsmer. The pair won the Times GP at Riverside in 1985. In 1987 John drove for the Group 44 Jaguar team of Bob Tullius and won the last Times GP at Riverside and the West Palm Beach GP, both sharing the car with Hurley Haywood. The Walkinshaw team replaced Tullius' Jaguar team for 1988 and the Electramotive Nissan Team signed Morton. John and Geoff Brabham won several races that year setting the stage for Nissan's domination of the IMSA series for several years.

Other notable Nissan races for John during 1989–95 include an overall victory at Sebring and several class wins, including Le Mans. Morton was third overall in a Joest Porsche in 1986 and class winner in a BFG Mazda Lola in 1984, competing nine times at Le Mans. Several races in various other classes and categories include Sprint cars and karts. He made his CART debut in the first race of the 1984 season at the Long Beach Grand Prix and finished 9th but was never able to get a ride in competitive car.

In his most recent professional races, 1997–2001, John raced Porsches in both the Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Series and American Le Mans Series. Currently most of John's competition is in vintage races driving a variety of cars, which include Cobra coupes, Corvettes, Porsches, and a Sunbeam Tiger.

Morton has competed at the Monterey Historic Automobile Races many times. In 2010, he suffered a crash when his Scarab flipped end-over-end near turn two of Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, landing upside down with a broken roll bar. He was taken to the hospital, and was determined to be fine. The Scarab was seriously damaged, but it was rebuilt and restored to original specifications and recently won the Amelia Island Concours.

In 2013, the Sports Car Club of America held the 50th Running of the National Runoffs. Because of this momentous event special rules were in place to allow former champions to enter the event without running any of that season's qualifying events. Bonk Brothers Racing and LNA Enterprises prepared a Nissan 240Z for Morton to run at the event. Due to poor weather he was only able to have 2 sessions in the car. He was able to qualify 13th and finish 10th.

In 2013, Motorbooks published John's first person account: "Inside Shelby American - Wrenching and Racing with Carroll Shelby in the 1960s."

Racing record

SCCA National Championship Runoffs

24 Hours of Le Mans results

References

External links

John Morton Racing

1942 births
Champ Car drivers
Trans-Am Series drivers
Living people
24 Hours of Le Mans drivers
American Le Mans Series drivers
Sportspeople from Waukegan, Illinois
Racing drivers from Illinois
World Sportscar Championship drivers
SCCA Formula Super Vee drivers
SCCA National Championship Runoffs winners
12 Hours of Sebring drivers
Oreca drivers
Team Joest drivers

John Morton (racing driver)


Cantor's diagonal argument is a mathematical method to prove that two infinite sets have the same cardinality. Cantor  published articles on it in 1877, 1891 and 1899. His first proof of the diagonal argument was published in 1890 in the journal of the German Mathematical Society (Deutsche Mathematiker-Vereinigung).  According to Cantor, two sets have the same cardinality, if it is possible to associate an element from the second set to each element of the first set, and to associate an element of the first set to each element of the second set. This statement works well for sets with a finite number of elements. It is less intuitive for sets with an infinite number of elements.

Cantor's first diagonal argument

The example below uses two of the simplest infinite sets, that of natural numbers, and that of positive fractions. The idea is to show that both of these sets,   and   have the same cardinality.

First, the fractions are aligned in an array, as follows:

Next, the numbers are counted, as shown. Fractions which can be simplified are left out:

That way, the fractions are counted:

By omitting fractions that can still be simplified, there is a bijection which associates each element of the natural numbers, to one element of the fractions:

To show that all natural numbers and the fractions have the same cardinality, the element 0 needs to be added; after each fraction its negative  is added;

That way, there is a complete bijection, which associates a fraction to each natural number. In other words: both sets have the same cardinality. Today, sets that have the same number of elements than the set of natural numbers are called countable. Sets which have fewer elements than the natural numbers are called at most countable. With that definition, the set of rational numbers / fractions is countable.

Infinite sets often have properties which go against intuition: David Hilbert showed this in an experiment which is called Hilbert's paradox of the Grand Hotel.

Real numbers
The set of real numbers does not have the same cardinality than those of the natural numbers;  there are more real numbers than natural numbers. The idea outlined above influenced his proof. In his 1891 article, Cantor considered the set T of all infinite sequences of binary digits (i.e. each digit is zero or one).

He begins with a constructive proof of the following theorem:
If s1, s2, … , sn, … is any enumeration of elements from T, then there is always an element s of T which corresponds to no sn in the enumeration.
To prove this, given an enumeration of elements from T, like e.g.
{|
|-
| s1 = || (0, || 0, || 0, || 0, || 0, || 0, || 0, || ...)
|-
| s2 = || (1, || 1, || 1, || 1, || 1, || 1, || 1, || ...)
|-
| s3 = || (0, || 1, || 0, || 1, || 0, || 1, || 0, || ...)
|-
| s4 = || (1, || 0, || 1, || 0, || 1, || 0, || 1, || ...)
|-
| s5 = || (1, || 1, || 0, || 1, || 0, || 1, || 1, || ...)
|-
| s6 = || (0, || 0, || 1, || 1, || 0, || 1, || 1, || ...)
|-
| s7 = || (1, || 0, || 0, || 0, || 1, || 0, || 0, || ...)
|-
| ...
|}
The sequence s is constructed by choosing the 1st digit as complementary to the 1st digit of s1 (swapping 0s for 1s and vice versa), the 2nd digit as complementary to the 2nd digit of s2, the 3rd digit as complementary to the 3rd digit of s3, and generally for every n, the nth digit as complementary to the nth digit of sn. In the example, this yields:

{|
|-
| s1 || = || (0, || 0, || 0, || 0, || 0, || 0, || 0, || ...)
|-
| s2 || = || (1, || 1, || 1, || 1, || 1, || 1, || 1, || ...)
|-
| s3 || = || (0, || 1, || 0, || 1, || 0, || 1, || 0, || ...)
|-
| s4 || = || (1, || 0, || 1, || 0, || 1, || 0, || 1, || ...)
|-
| s5 || = || (1, || 1, || 0, || 1, || 0, || 1, || 1, || ...)
|-
| s6 || = || (0, || 0, || 1, || 1, || 0, || 1, || 1, || ...)
|-
| s7 || = || (1, || 0, || 0, || 0, || 1, || 0, || 0, || ...)
|-
| ...
|-
|
|-
| s || = || (1, || 0, || 1, || 1, || 1, || 0, || 1, || ...)
|}
By construction, s differs from each sn, since their nth digits differ (highlighted in the example).
Hence, s cannot occur in the enumeration.

Based on this theorem, Cantor then uses a proof by contradiction to show that:
The set T is uncountable.
He assumes for contradiction that T was countable. In that case, all its elements could be written as an enumeration s1, s2, … , sn, … .
Applying the previous theorem to this enumeration would produce a sequence s not belonging to the enumeration.
However, s was an element of T and should therefore be in the enumeration.
This contradicts the original assumption, so T must be uncountable.

Notes

References

Set theory

Cantor's diagonal argument


Mary Anning (21 May 1799 – 9 March 1847) was an early 19th-century British fossil collector, dealer and paleontologist. She earned her living finding and preparing fossils, in the rich Jurassic marine strata at Lyme Regis, Dorset where she lived. She made many important finds. These included the first ichthyosaur skeleton to be correctly identified (Temnodontosaurus platyodon); the first two plesiosaur skeletons ever found (Plesiosaurus dolichodeirus); the first pterosaur skeleton found outside Germany (Dimorphodon macronyx); and some important fish fossils.

Her observations played a key role in the discoveries that belemnite fossils contained fossilized ink sacs, and that coprolites, known as bezoar stones at the time, were fossilized faeces. When the geologist Henry De la Beche painted Duria Antiquior, he based it largely on fossils Anning had found. He sold prints for her benefit. Her work played a key role in the growth of scientific biology in the early 19th century. It showed without question that previously unknown forms of life had existed in the Jurassic seas, all of which were long extinct.

Anning's sex and social class—her parents were poor religious dissenters (non-Anglican Protestants)—prevented her from fully participating in the scientific community of early 19th century England, dominated as it was by rich Anglican gentlemen. Some of the men she worked with and for did give her full credit for her contributions, but some did not.

Although she became well known in geological circles in Britain, Europe, and America, and she made a great deal of money from her best finds, she struggled financially for much of her life. In 1818 Anning came to the attention of Thomas Birch, a rich fossil collector, when she sold him an ichthyosaur skeleton. A year later, he was disturbed by the poverty of the Anning family, which was at the point of having to sell their furniture to make ends meet. Birch arranged for the sale by auction of his own fossil collection, and the proceeds (some £400) were given to the Annings. Besides providing much needed funds, the public auction raised the profile of the Anning family in the geologic community. Later, she lost £300 (a huge sum) in 1835 on unwise investments, but was saved by a government pension of £25 per year. This was organised by another of her friends, William Buckland. Her early death was caused by breast cancer.

The fossil shop
Tourists used to visit Lyme Regis, which had become a popular seaside resort. As their father had before them, Mary and her brother Joseph Anning set up a table of 'curiosities' near the coach stop at a local inn to sell their wares to tourists. After Joseph made an important find of an ichthyosaur skull in 1810 and Mary found the associated skeleton a year later, they became known to the geologists and amateurs interested in fossils. Their passion for fossils grew to be the main source of income for their family.

Her stock in trade were invertebrate fossils such as ammonite and belemnite shells, which were common in the area and sold for a few shillings. Vertebrate fossils were much rarer, and exceptional specimens like an almost complete ichthyosaur skeleton could sell for much more.

The source of these fossils were the coastal cliffs that surround Lyme which are part of a geological formation known as the Blue Lias. This formation consists of alternating layers of limestone and shale, laid down as sediment on a shallow seabed early in the Jurassic period (about 210-195 million years ago). The cliffs are one of the richest fossil locations in Britain.

As Mary Anning continued to make important finds her reputation grew. In 1826, at the age of 27, she managed to save enough money to buy a home with a glass store front window for her shop, called Anning's Fossil Depot. The move was covered in the local paper, which noted that the shop currently had a fine ichthyosaur skeleton on display. Many geologists and fossil collectors from Europe and America visited Anning at Lyme to purchase specimens. These included the geologist George William Featherstonhaugh who purchased fossils for the newly opened New York Lyceum of Natural History in 1827.  King Frederick Augustus II of Saxony visited her shop in 1844 and purchased an ichthyosaur skeleton for his extensive natural history collection.

A publication
Lady Harriet Silvester visited Lyme in 1824. She remarked in her diary:
... the extraordinary thing in this young woman is that she has made herself so thoroughly acquainted with the science that the moment she finds any bones she knows to what tribe they belong. She fixes the bones on a frame with cement and then makes drawings and has them engraved. . . It is certainly a wonderful instance of divine favour – that this poor, ignorant girl should be so blessed, for by reading and application she has arrived to that degree of knowledge as to be in the habit of writing and talking with professors and other clever men on the subject, and they all acknowledge that she understands more of the science than anyone else in this kingdom.
As time passed, her confidence in her knowledge increased, and in 1839 she wrote to the Magazine of Natural History to question their claim that a hooked tooth of the prehistoric shark Hybodus represented a new discovery. She had discovered years ago the existence of fossil sharks with both straight and hooked teeth. The extract from the letter that the magazine printed was the only thing that Anning ever published.

Major finds

Ichthyosaur 1810/11
several Ichthyosaurs 1815/19
Plesiosaurus 1820/21
Ink-sac of belemnite 1826
Pterosaur 1828
Fossil fish 1828/29
Plesiosaur 1830

Her later fame
Mary Anning is the subject of the old tongue-twister, "She sells sea shells on the sea shore."  It was composed in 1908, more than a half century after her death, by Terry Sullivan who was inspired by her life story. The lyrics have changed over time, but the original text was:
She sells seashells on the seashoreThe shells she sells are seashells, I'm sureSo if she sells seashells on the seashoreThen I'm sure she sells seashore shells.

Anning's life story was seen as inspirational by a number of writers in the 20th century. Most of this material was intended as inspirational literature for children, and tended to focus on her childhood and early career, neglecting her later accomplishments. Much of it was also romanticized and not always historically accurate. She appeared as a character in historical novels, perhaps most notably in The French Lieutenant's Woman (1969) by John Fowles, which was made into a feature film in 1981. Fowles observed critically that no British scientist had named a species after Anning in her lifetime.

However, in the 1840s the Swiss-American expert on fossil fish Louis Agassiz did name two fossil fish species, Acrodus anningiae, and Belenostomus anningiae, after her, and another after her friend Elizabeth Philpot. Agassiz was grateful for the help the two women had given him in examining and understanding fossil fish specimens, during his 1834 visit to Lyme Regis.

References

1799 births
1847 deaths
Fossils
People from Dorset
British biologists
British palaeontologists

Mary Anning


Peter Svidler, born 17 June 1976 in Leningrad, is a Russian chess Grandmaster, and six times Russian chess champion.

Peter Svidler learned to play chess when he was six years old. In 1992, he tied for 1st with Ragim Gasimov in the USSR Junior Open Chess Championship. He became a grandmaster in 1994.

He has been Russian champion six times (1994, 1995, 1997, 2003, 2008, 2011). This is a record for this high-class event, which has a long history. In 2001, he reached the semi-finals of the FIDE World Championship.

He came second (with Viswanathan Anand) in the FIDE World Chess Championship 2005 in San Luis with 8.5 points out of 14 games, lagging 1.5 points behind the winner, Veselin Topalov. In an interview  given for World Chess Network he said: "I only prepared seriously for San Luis, and I think it has paid off. But in general I spend most of my spare time with my wife and kids, so my relative success in 2005 was a pleasant surprise". His San Luis result earned him direct entry to the World Chess Championship series of 2007. In that tournament he scored 6.5 out of 14, placing 5th out of eight players.

In 2006 he came second behind Alexander Grischuk at the World Blitz Championship in Rishon Lezion, Israel, with 10.5 points out of 15 games. He also finished tied for first with Vladimir Kramnik at Dortmund 2006.

2011 World Cup
Svidler has won the FIDE 2011 World Cup in Khanty-Mansisyk Siberia. The final was in September.

Svidler took the $120,000 first prize after beating his fellow countryman, Alexander Grischuk 2.5-1.5, in the best-of-four game final. It was a crushing psychological win for Svidler, who took adantage of his opponent's bad time-management. Svidler steered the games into lines that had Grischuk thinking from the very early stages.

Svidler has now become the first Russian to win the World Cup title. His back-to-back major title wins of the Russian Championship followed by the World Cup has Svidler once again into the world's top ten.

Both Svidler and Grischuk also earned qualification for the 2012 World Championship Candidates tournament. And in the all-Ukrainian battle for the third Candidates spot, Vassily Ivanchuk won 2.5-1.5 against Ruslan Ponomariov.

References

1976 births
Living people
People from Saint Petersburg
Russian chess players
Chess grandmasters

Peter Svidler


The mandolin is a musical instrument, which literally means, a small soprano member of the lute family. It is played by hitting its strings and sounds similar in tone of a violin or a hammered dulcimer. The most common type of mandolin, which was first designed in Naples, has eight strings. It has a body made of wood and a fingerboard which has frets.

Plucked string instruments

Mandolin


An inductively coupled plasma (ICP) is a type of plasma source. Electromagnetic induction creates energy in the source by causing ions to circulate. Movement of the ions generates energy in the form of heat.

Operation
Inductively coupled plasma sources usually use argon as a fuel. Unfortunately, most ICP sources require at least 5 L/min of argon. This makes inductively coupled plasma a rather expensive source. The argon atoms are ionized with a spark from tesla coil. These ions will circulate due to the magnetic field to produce heat and high temperatures. This will cause additional ions to be formed from the argon fuel. After a period of time, the torch will reach temperatures between 6 000 and 10 000 Kelvin.

Applications
The high temperatures produced by ICP make it a popular source for many scientific experiments. This source had the advantage of providing strong signals and only small amounts of noise or interference. Also, the data obtained from experiments using an inductively coupled plasma source is often linear. This makes it easy for scientists to determine the amount of something in a sample. Some of the most common applications are

 ICP-AES, a type of atomic emission spectroscopy
 ICP-MS, a type of mass spectrometry.
 ICP-RIE, a type of reactive-ion etching.

ICP-AES

Inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy is one of the most common applications of ICP. The plasma source is used to heat a sample. At high enough temperatures, electrons in the sample atoms will gain enough energy to move into an excited state. Energy is released in the form of photons when electrons "fall" from the excited state to a lower energy. The lower energy state is usually called the ground state of an atom.

The wavelength of the emissions are determined by a detector. Most atoms will emit light at different wavelengths so scientists may use this information to identify atoms in a sample. The intensity of emission is related to the amount of an atom in the sample. Scientist may use the wavelength and intensity to determine both the identity and amount of an atom. ICP-AES is often used for the detection of toxins, such as heavy metals. It may also be used for chemical studies.

Detection
Inductively coupled plasma source may be used for the detection of approximately 60 different elements. These include most alkali metals, alkaline earth metals, metalloids, all transition metals, and some f-block elements.

Related pages
Plasma (physics)

References

Other websites
 Inductively Coupled Plasma by Traci Bradford and M. Nicole Cook

Electromagnetism
Spectroscopy

Inductively coupled plasma


Scott McLeod is a British bassist who was a member of The Ya Ya's and briefly a member of Oasis in 1995 when Paul McGuigan quit the band citing exhaustion after a long time touring. McLeod appeared in the music video for "Wonderwall" and began a tour with the band of the United States.  He quit after a show in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which resulted in rhythm guitarist Bonehead playing bass for a while.

Weeks later, McLeod contacted Oasis lead guitarist Noel Gallagher claiming he felt he had made the wrong decision. Gallagher replied: "I think you have too. Good luck signing on.".

References

Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
British rock musicians

Scott McLeod


An endothermic reaction is a chemical reaction that takes in energy from the surroundings. The opposite of an endothermic reaction is an exothermic reaction. Reversible reactions are where the products can react to remake the original reactants. The energy is usually transferred as heat energy: the reaction absorbs heat. The temperature decrease can sometimes be detected using a thermometer. Some examples of endothermic reactions are:

 Photosynthesis
 Reaction between ethanoic acid and sodium carbonate
 Dissolving ammonium chloride in water
 Thermal decomposition

Chemical reactions

Endothermic reaction


Leipzig (Upper Saxon: Leibzsch or Leibz'sch) is the biggest city in the state of Saxony (eastern Germany). When Germany was divided into East and West Germany, Leipzig was one of the three biggest industrial cities in the East Germany.

Leipzig occupies  and is still an industrial city. 510,651 people are living in Leipzig as of 29 February 2008.

History
Its Latin name is Lipsia and the German name "Leipzig" came from this name. Leipzig has a long history. Its name was first recorded as Leipzig Castle (Leipziger Burg) in 1015, and the official founding of the city occurred later in 1165. It was an economic center of Medieval Germany, famous with its market (Leipziger Messe).

In 1409, Leipzig University was started. Theology was its major faculty. In 1519, Martin Luther had a discussion in Leipzig against Johann Eck. Reformation came to Leipzig in 1539 and the city people became Lutheran.

It is famous for St. Thomas Church, where Johann Sebastian Bach worked as music director (Kantor) from 1723 until his death in 1750.

In 1813 near Leipzig, the Battle of Leipzig was fought between the French army led by Napoleon Bonaparte and the allied armies of Austria, Prussia and Russia.

In 1839, the railway between Dresden and Leipzig was opened. It was the first long distance railroad in Germany.

As a result of industrialization, the number of people living in Leipzig grew during the 19th century. Before World War II, there were about 750,000 people in Leipzig.

After the war, Leipzig belonged to the part of Germany occupied by the Soviet Union, and later to East Germany.

In 1989, the Monday Demonstrations took place in Leipzig. Every monday after a Christian mess in the Nikolaikirche the Leipzig people demonstrate for freedom to travel and democracy. These demonstrations became bigger and bigger and reached their peak on 23 October when 320,000 people came. The demonstrations are one of the things that lead to the end of communist dictatorship in East Germany.

Today, Leipzig is still known as a city of fairs, media and university, but is less important than it was before World War II.

Economy
Before World War II, Leipzig was a famous center of commerce (Leipzig exhibition) and industry. Now, there are big companies in Leipzig like Porsche, BMW, Siemens and DHL, as well as the Leipzig Airport.

Population

With almost 511,000 people, Leipzig city proper is the 12th biggest city in Germany and the 2nd biggest in what was East Germany (DDR), smaller than East Berlin and bigger than Dresden. Leipzig urban has 567,000 people. The total population of Leipzig metropolitan area is 1,389,000.

Geography

Leipzig, Chemnitz, Dresden, Halle, and Zwickau form an area called the Saxon Triangle, which has about 3,500,000 people.

Miscellaneous

Leipzig has a university where famous people studied (e.g. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Edvard Grieg, Erich Kästner, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Angela Merkel, Friedrich Nietzsche, Robert Schumann and Richard Wagner.) The Leipzig Hauptbahnhof (Central Station) is the biggest terminal station in Europe. It sees about 150,000 passengers each day. It is 293 meters wide.

Sister cities

 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, since 2004
 Birmingham, UK, since 1992
 Bologna, Italy, since 1962, renewed in 1997
 Brno, Czech Republic, since 1973, renewed in 1999
 Frankfurt am Main, Germany, since 1990
 Hanover, Germany, since 1987
 Houston, United States, since 1993
 Kyiv, Ukraine, since 1961, renewed in 1992
 Lyon, France, since 1981</
 Nanjing, China, since 1988
 Plovdiv, Bulgaria, since 1975, renewed in 2007
 Thessaloniki, Greece, since 1984
 Travnik, Bosnia and Herzegovina, since 2003
 Herzliya, Israel, since 2010

References

Other websites

Leipzig


Jacques-Yves Cousteau ƿæs geboren on 11um Sēremōnþes, 1910 in Saint André de Cubzac in Franclande and forþfērde on 25um Sēremōnþes, 1997 in Parise. Hē ƿæs Frencisc sciptoga and explorer and researcher. Hē leornode þā sǣ and ealle þe lifdon in ƿætre. Man cnǣƿþ Cousteau in Franclande mǣste sƿā le commandant Cousteau (Bebēodere Cousteau).  Man sægþ his naman sƿā Cū·stō.

Man ālīefede hine in þǣm Ēcole Navale (Scipfierdlic Scōlu) in Breste. He ƿearþ scēotunggerēfa þǣre Frenciscan Scipfierde, and þurh þis cƿōm tō him byre ǣreste cunnian under ƿætre. In 1936 he cunnode cynn underƿæterlicra glasa, and mæg bēon þæt of þissum cƿōmon dȳfera ēagegriman.

In 1937 ƿīfode hē Simone Melchior. Hē fōhte in þǣre Ōðeran Ƿoruldgūðe sƿā dyrnscēaƿere for þǣre Frenciscan dyrnfierde, and þenden man fōhte hē fand tīd for þǣm hē and Emile Gagnan macodon þæt forme cynnes ābiddungǣðmendra lyftǣðmungsearƿa, þe is se aqualung, in 1943, and of þissum cƿōm mǣst þǣre dȳfunge mid scuban in þǣre ƿorulde. Hē sōhte gōd lyftǣðmungsearƿu æfter þæt tƿuƿa mid oxygenongēanǣðmungsearƿe hē hæfde oxygenfylleƿærcas and gesƿogunge.

Æfter þǣre Ōðeran Ƿoruldgūðe þenden hē ƿæs giet scipfyrde sciptoga, hē macode ƿeorcƿegas tō findenne ūtberstendas in Franclandes hȳðum and sƿēaƿode in gesuncenum scipum.

Man nemnede hine foresittend þāra Frenciscra Farunga tō Scēaƿianne þā Sǣƿa. In 1950 he bōhte his mǣre scip Calypso, and in him hē fōr tō manigum sǣm and tō sumum ēam. In þissum farungum he macode manige bēc and āstyriende gelīcnesse. Hē geƿann þrēo þæs myrcenses Oscar for þǣm āstyriendan gelīcnessum The Silent World, The Golden Fish, World Without Sun, and manige ōðre hēam myrcelsas and in þissum ƿǣron se Palme d'Or in 1956 æt þǣm Cannes Film Festival. Þurh his geƿeorce þǣre ƿorulde folc geleornode micel ymb underƿæterlicre libbendcyþþe.

In 1963 Cousteau and Jean de Wouters searƿodon þone underƿæterlican leohtātīefrend genemnedan "Calypso-Phot", and æfterra hē alīefede Nikon macian hit and hit ƿearþ se "Calypso-Nikkor" and æfter se "Nikonos".
ǣ
Hē and Jean Mollard macodon þone SP-350, þe is tƿǣm mannum undersǣbāt þe cūðe dȳfan 350 metras under sǣ. Spēoƿ þissum, and in 1965 hē dȳfede tō 500m mid tƿǣm undersǣbātum.

Man sette Cousteau sƿā stihtere þæs Sǣcræftlican Stǣrhēddærnes Monacos, and Cousteau scōp þæt Undersǣs Þurhsmēagunggefēre in Toulone, ƿæs se lǣdere þæs Conshelf Saturation Dive Program (long-term immersion experiments, the first manned undersea colonies) and was one of the few foreigners that has been admitted to the American Academy of Sciences.

Cousteau ƿearþ mǣrora. In Ƿinterfylleðe 1960 EURATOM ƿolde āƿeorpan in sǣ micelne radioactiviscne þreax. Cousteau organized a publicity campaign which gained wide popular support. Ƿīfa and cildru sǣton on þǣm īrenƿege and forstoppodon þone geƿægnoþ, and man þorfte senden þone þreax tō þǣm stede þanon hit cƿōm, and þæt plēo endode.

In þǣm æfterran Blōtmōnaðe Charles de Gaulle Francrīces foresittend ēode to Monaco and þǣr ƿordum ƿrixlode ymb þæt þe gelamp on Ƿinterfylleðe geares 1960 and ƿīdorlīce ymb cyrncræftlīe cunnungum.

Ǣrra Francrīces ambaht segde þæt betere ƿǣre gif  Rainier æðeling ne sprece ymb þis, ac man segde þæt se foresittend frēondlīce āscode Cousteau to be kind toward nuclear researchers, and Cousteau (allegedly) replied: "No sir, it is your researchers that ought to be kind toward us." During this discussion Cousteau found out that the reason for French experiments and research was American refusal to share its atomic secrets with its allies.

In 1974 he ongann þone Cousteau Society for the Protection of Ocean Life, and in þissum nū sind māran þonne 300,000.

In 1977 man geaf him and Peter Scott þæt sigetācn gehāten "UN international environment prize", and fēaƿe gēaru ǣfterra Jimmy Carter Foresittend geaf him þone American Liberty Medal.

In 1992 inlāðode man hine tō Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for the United Nations' international conference on environment and development, then he became a regular consultant the UN and the World Bank.

Lāf
Cousteau nemnode georne hine "oceanographic technician". He was in reality a sophisticated lover of nature, especially that of the sea. His work allowed people of all continents tō visit life under the ocean's surface and explore through television the resources of the "blue continent".

The works that Cousteau produced also created a new kind of scientific communication that caused some criticism by formal academics. The so-called divulgationisme, a simple comprehensible form of sharing scientific concepts, was soon used for other disciplines too and became one of the most important and appreciated characteristics of modern TV broadcasting.
The documentary information found in Cousteau's words a linear scheme to follow.

Now Cousteau's figure is admired, beloved worldwide through the many who love the sea, and is regarded to with a sort of devotion, as symbolic of adventure, nature and exploration.

Jacques Cousteau forþfērde on 25um Sēremōnþes 1997 and man byrgede hine in Cousteau cynnes byrgenlande in Saint-André-de-Cubzac lictūne in Franclande.

Sēo ēac: Scuba dȳfung

Ūtanƿeardlice bendas

The Cousteau Society
Cousteau spricþ tō geongum (.mov QuickTime movie, 1,6Mb)
scort līfwrīting
obituarius (CNN)

Lēode
Geboren in 1910
Gestorfen in 1997

Jacques-Yves Cousteau


The Baja California Peninsula (or Lower California) is a peninsula of North America. It is west of Mexico. It extends some 1,250 km (775 miles) from Mexicali in the north to Cabo San Lucas in the south, separating the Pacific Ocean from the Gulf of California (or "Sea of Cortés").

Other websites
Google maps
Baja.net
Baja California

Geography of Mexico
Peninsulas of North America

Baja California Peninsula


The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844 to 1922. It had a large network of lines managed from its headquarters in Derby. It became the third-largest railway undertaking in the British Isles after the Great Western Railway and the London and North Western Railway.

The company was formed in 1844 by the merger of the Midland Counties Railway, the North Midland Railway, and the Birmingham & Derby Junction Railway. The Birmingham & Gloucester Railway joined two years later. The earlier systems met at Derby railway station. The MR established its locomotive works, and later its carriage and wagon works, at Derby.

In 1923, the MR became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway under the Railways Act 1921.

Pre-grouping British railway companies

Midland Railway


The observer effect, or observer bias, means several things in different situations, although there are similarities.

Use in science
In science, the term observer effect means that the act of observing will influence the phenomenon being observed.

For example, for us to "see" an electron, a photon must first interact with it, and this interaction will change the path of that electron. It is also theoretically possible for other, less direct means of measurement to affect the electron; even if the electron is simply put into a position where observing it is possible, without actual observation taking place, it will still (theoretically) alter its position.

In physics, a more mundane observer effect can be the result of instruments that by necessity alter the state of what they measure in some manner. For instance, in electronics, ammeters and voltmeters usually need to be connected to the circuit, and so by their very presence affect the current or the voltage they are measuring. Likewise, a standard mercury-in-glass thermometer must absorb some thermal energy to record a temperature, and therefore changes the temperature of the body which it is measuring.

Some state a misunderstanding of the term refers to quantum mechanics, where, if the outcome of an event has not been observed, it exists in a state of 'superposition', which is something like being in all possible states at once. In the famous thought experiment known as Schrödinger's cat, the cat is empirically neither alive nor dead until observed – until that time, the cat is theoretically both alive and dead (technically half-alive and half-dead in probability terms). However, most quantum physicists, in resolving Schrödinger's seeming paradox, now understand that the acts of 'observation' and 'measurement' must also be defined in quantum terms before the question makes sense. From this point of view, there is no 'observer effect', only one vastly entangled quantum system. A significant minority still find the equations point to an observer; John Archibald Wheeler, who probably worked more deeply on this subject than any physicist thus far, devised a graphic in which the universe was represented by a "U" with an eye on one end, turned around and viewing itself, to describe his understanding.

The Heisenberg uncertainty principle is also frequently, confused with the "observer effect". The uncertainty principle actually describes how precisely we may measure the position and momentum of a particle at the same time – if we increase the precision in measuring one quantity, we are forced to lose precision in measuring the other. Thus, the uncertainty principle deals with measurement, and not observation. The idea that the Uncertainty Principle is caused by disturbance (and hence by observation) is not considered to be valid by some, although it was discussed in the early years of quantum mechanics, and is often repeated in popular treatments.

There is a related issue in quantum mechanics relating to whether systems have pre-existing – prior to measurement, that is – properties corresponding to measurements that could possibly be made on them. The assumption that they do is often referred to as "realism" in the literature, although it has been argued that the word "realism" is being used in a more restricted sense than philosophical realism. A recent experiment in the realm of quantum physics has been quoted as meaning that we have to "say goodbye" to realism, although the author of the paper states only that "we would [..] have to give up certain intuitive features of realism". These experiments demonstrate a puzzling relationship between the act of measurement and the system being measured, but it is unclear if they require a conscious observer or not.

Use in Information technology
In information technology, the observer effect refers to potential impact of the act of observing a process output while the process is running.  For example, if a process records its progress in a log file, the act of viewing the file while the process is running could cause an I/O error in the process, which could, in turn, cause it to stop.

Another example would be observing the performance of a CPU by running both the observed and observing programs on the same CPU.  This will lead to inaccurate results because the observer program itself affects the CPU performance (modern, heavily cached and pipelined CPUs are particularly affected by this kind of observation).

Observing (or rather, debugging) a running program by modifying its source code (such as adding extra output or generating log files) or by running it in a debugger may sometimes cause certain bugs to diminish or change their behavior.  This makes more difficulty for the person trying to isolate the so-called "Heisenbug".

Use in the social sciences
In the social sciences and general usage, the effect refers to how people change their behavior when aware of being watched (see Hawthorne effect). For instance, in the armed forces, an announced inspection is used to see how well soldiers can do when they put their minds to it, while a surprise inspection is used to see how well prepared they generally are.

Observer bias
The related social-science term observer bias is error introduced into measurement when observers overemphasize behavior they expect to find and fail to notice behavior they do not expect.  This is why medical trials are normally organized as double-blind tests.  Observer bias can also be introduced because researchers see a subject doing something, and interpret it according to what it means to them, whereas it may mean something else to the subject.

References

 Observer Effect  in the social sciences (Association for Qualitative Research)
 The observer effect  (usage of the term in the computer industry)

Quantum mechanics

Observer effect


The Serengeti (also Seremgeti) is a region of  savannah (woodlands and grasslands) in East Africa. The south of it (80%) belongs to Tanzania. The north of it is in Kenya. It is about 30,000 square kilometers, and one of the greatest areas for wildlife.

It has more than 1.6 million herbivores and thousands of predators. Wildebeests, gazelles, zebras and buffalos are the most common animals in the region.

This area is most famous for the migration that takes place every year.
Every year around October nearly 1.5 million herbivores travel towards the southern plains, crossing the Mara River, from the northern hills for the rains. And then back to the north through the west, once again crossing the Mara river, after the rains in around April. This phenomenon is sometimes also called the Circular Migration.

Also in this area is the archeologically significant Olduvai Gorge where some of the oldest hominid fossils are found.

The Serengeti region contains the Serengeti National Park, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and Maswa Game Reserve in Tanzania and the Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya.

Serengeti National Park

Geography
The park covers 14,763 km² (5,700 square miles) of grassland plains and savanna as well as riverine forest and woodlands. The park is in the north of the country, bordered to the north by the national Tanzania and Kenyan border, where it is continuous with the Masai Mara National Reserve. To the southeast of the park is Ngorongoro Conservation Area, to the southwest is Maswa Game Reserve, and to the western borders are Ikorongo and Grumeti Game Reserves, to the northeast is Loliondo Game Control Area.

Few people are allowed to live in the National Park. Exceptions the staff of the Park, researchers and staff of Frankfurt Zoological Society, and staff of the various lodges and hotels. The main settlement is at Seronera.

The park has three regions:
Serengeti plains: the endless, almost treeless grassland of the south. This is where the wildebeest breed, as they stay in the plains from December to May. Other hoofed animals–zebra, gazelle, impala, hartebeest, topi, buffalo, waterbuck–also occur in huge numbers during the wet season. Kopjes are granite mounds which are very common in the region, and they are great observation posts for predators, and a refuge for hyrax and pythons.
Western corridor: the "black cotton" (actually black clay) soil covers the swampy savannah of this region. Grumeti river is home to enormous Nile crocodiles, colobus monkey, and the martial eagle. The migration passes through from May to July.
Northern Serengeti: the landscape is dominated by open woodlands and hills, from Seronera in the South, to the Mara river into Kenya. Apart from the migratory wildebeest and zebra (which occur from July to August, and in November), the bushy savannah is the best place to find elephant, giraffe and dik dik.

Wildlife

As well as the migration of ungulates, the park has a healthy stock of other resident wildlife, especially the "Big Five":
Lion: the Serengeti is believed to hold the largest population of lions in Africa due in part to the abundance of prey species. Currently there are more than 3000 lions living in this ecosystem.
African Leopard: these reclusive predators are commonly seen in the Seronera region but are present throughout the national park with the current population at around 1000.
African elephant: the herds are recovering from population lows in the 1980s caused by poaching, and are mostly in the northern regions of the park
Black Rhinoceros: mainly around the kopjes in the centre of the park, very few individuals remain due to rampant poaching. Individuals from the Masai Mara Reserve cross the park border and enter Serengeti from the northern section at times.
African Buffalo: still abundant and present in healthy numbers, but numbers have been somewhat reduced due to disease

The park also supports many further species, including cheetah, Thomson's and Grant's gazelle, topi, eland, water buck, hyena, baboon, impala, African wild dog and giraffe. The park also boasts about 500 bird species, including ostrich, secretary bird, Kori bustard, crowned crane, marabou stork, martial eagle, lovebirds and many species of vultures.

Ngorongoro Conservation Area
Ngorongoro is the caldera of a huge extinct volcano, which is part of the Serengeti area.

The Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) is a  UNESCO World Heritage Site 180 km (112 miles) west of Arusha in the Crater Highlands area of Tanzania.

Ngorongoro Crater
The main feature of the NCA is the Ngorongoro Crater, a large volcanic caldera. The crater, which formed when a giant volcano exploded and collapsed on itself some two to three million years ago, is  deep and its floor covers .

Estimates of the height of the original volcano range from fifteen to nineteen thousand feet (4500 to 5800 metres) high.

Although thought of as "a natural enclosure" for a very wide variety of wildlife, up to 20% or more of the wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus) and half the zebra (Equus burchelli) populations leave the Crater in the wet season. The Ngorongoro lions are significantly inbred, with many genetic problems passed from generation to generation. This is due to the very few new bloodlines that enter the local gene pool, because few migrating male lions enter the crater from the outside. Those who do enter the crater often cannot contribute to the gene pool. The crater's male lions, because of their large size (the result of an abundant food source), easily expel outside competitors.

Animal populations in the crater include most of the species in East Africa, but there are no impalas (Aepyceros melampus), giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis), or crocodiles (Crocodylus niloticus).

The crater highlands on the side facing the easterly trade winds receives 800–1200 mm of rain a year and is covered largely in montane forest, while the less-steep west wall receives only 400–600 mm; this side is grassland and bushland dotted with Euphorbia bussei trees. The crater floor is mostly open grassland with two small wooded areas dominated by Acacia xanthophloea.

The Munge Stream drains Olmoti Crater to the north, and is the main water source draining into the seasonal salt lake in the center of the crater. This lake is known by two names: Makat as the Maasai called it, meaning salt; and Magadi. The Lerai Stream drains the humid forests to the south of the Crater, and it feeds the Lerai Forest on the crater floor - when there is enough rain, the Lerai drains into Lake Magadi as well. Extraction of water by lodges and NCA headquarters reduces the amount of water entering Lerai by around 25%.

The other major water source in the crater is the Ngoitokitok Spring, near the eastern crater wall. There is a picnic site here open to tourists and a huge swamp fed by the spring, and the area is inhabited by hippopotamus, elephants, lions, and many others. Many other small springs are around the crater's floor, and these are important water supplies for the animals and local Masaai, especially during times of drought.

Aside from herds of zebra, gazelle, and wildebeest, the crater is home to the "Big Five Game" of rhinoceros, lion, leopard, elephant, and buffalo. The crater plays host to almost every individual species of wildlife in East Africa, with an estimated 25 000 animals within the crater.

Following the recommendations of a committee of scientists after the 2000 drought, an ecological burning program was implemented in the crater, which entails annual or biannual controlled burns of up to 20% of the grasslands. Maasai are now permitted to graze their cattle within the crater, but must enter and exit daily.

Olduvai Gorge

The conservation area also protects Olduvai Gorge, in the plains area. It is considered the seat of humanity after the discovery of the earliest known specimens of the human genus, Homo habilis  as well as early hominidae, such as Paranthropus boisei.

The Olduvai Gorge or Oldupai Gorge is a steep-sided ravine in the Great Rift Valley, which stretches along eastern Africa. Olduvai is in the eastern Serengeti Plains in northern Tanzania and is about thirty miles long. It is in the rain shadow of the Ngorongoro highlands and is the driest part of the region.

It is one of the most important prehistoric sites in the world. Research there has greatly developed our understanding of early human evolution. Excavation work there was pioneered by Mary and Louis Leakey in the 1950s. It is still continued today by their family. During the Pleistocene, the site was that of a large lake, the shores of which were covered with successive deposits of volcanic ash. Around 500,000 years ago seismic activity diverted a nearby stream which began to cut down into the sediments, revealing seven main layers in the walls of the gorge.

References

Other websites
World Heritage Site
 Flickr photos tagged serengeti

Biosphere reserves
Calderas
IUCN Category II
National parks in Africa
Volcanoes of Africa
World Heritage Sites in Africa
Geography of Kenya
Geography of Tanzania

Serengeti


The Goodwill Bridge is a pedestrian and cyclist bridge which spans the Brisbane River in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The bridge connects the South Bank Parklands in South Brisbane to Gardens Point in the Brisbane CBD.

The Goodwill Bridge was opened on 21 October 2001 and takes its name from the Goodwill Games, which were held in Brisbane that year.  The bridge does not carry any motorised traffic — it is shared by pedestrians, cyclists and inline skaters.

Structure
Two main components of The Goodwill Bridge are the pavilion and the arch. The pavilion is located in the middle of the Brisbane River between the arch and the city approach. It is a fundamental component of the pedestrian and cycle bridge and supports one end of the arch. The arch is
 in length,  wide and  high and weighs  .

Specifications
 Width:
 Height: Clearance for River Vessels  from high water level to the bridge deck (same height as Victoria and Captain Cook bridges)
 Arch:  in length,  wide and  high
 Bridge Deck: The bridge deck wearing surface is concrete with a broom finish to provide a safe foothold. It incorporates coloured concrete and applied finish bandings which signify areas where caution is required.
 Security: Six closed circuit TV cameras are spread across the bridge and are monitored from the South Bank Security Control Room.
 Architects: Cox Rayner
 Design Engineer: Ove Arup and Partners
 Principal Contractor: John Holland Group
Superintendent: Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads
 Officially Opened: The Premier of Queensland, The Honourable Peter Beattie, officially opened The Goodwill Bridge on 21 October 2001.
 Total length:
 Bridge Foundations: The bridge's 45 foundation piles range in diameter from  and are reinforced with 350-grade steel and  of concrete.
 Central Arch span:

History
The structure was built downstream at Hemmant and took three months to construct. On completion barges floated the arch upstream at low tide it was floated under the Captain Cook Bridge and then lifted as a single structure into its final resting position by two heavy lift towers.  Four strategically positioned platforms and the pavilion-viewing platform provide rest points for pedestrians and cyclists. With exception of cables, all materials utilised in the construction of the arch and the pavilions were sourced from local suppliers.

Controversy arose during the construction of the bridge over its growing cost, and a subsequent budgetary blow-out which resulted in the use of $20.3 million in government funds. The bridge was scheduled to be opened by Queen Elizabeth II during her visit for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting summit to be held in Brisbane, but after the postponement of that meeting and change of venue to Coolum on the Sunshine Coast in the wake of the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001, the bridge was instead opened by Queensland Premier, Peter Beattie.

Usage

Over 40,000 people walk or cycle across the bridge each week and it is clearly established as a major access point between South Bank and the city. Spanning the Brisbane River between the southern end of South Bank Parklands and the CBD via the Queensland University of Technology campus, the bridge provides a vital link for pedestrians and cyclists, especially since the closest train station to QUT is in South Bank.

The bridge is also popular amongst those who like to maintain fitness, providing a link for a continuous run. Traceurs also use the bridge not only to cross, but in strength training as a distance to travel in the Quadrupedel movement (which provides an arm and leg workout), and also refines coordination skills.

The bridge innovatively includes several outspanning seating bays which allow for contemplation of the river and relaxation.

The architectural design has received mixed reviews; many people see it as a work of art, while others consider it a monstrosity. This is likely due to its unconventional form; for instance, the bridge is entirely asymmetrical, and does not appear to follow any particular scheme with regards to placement of features.

Between 2013 and 2022, a coffee cart was in operation. This cafe received a high level of through flow traffic .

Gallery

See also
Through arch bridge
Bridges over the Brisbane River

References

External links

 "More than just a pedestrian link" at Bridgeforum.org

Bridges in Brisbane
Bridges completed in 2001
Bridges over the Brisbane River
Through arch bridges
Pedestrian bridges in Australia
Steel bridges in Australia
Cyclist bridges in Australia
South Brisbane, Queensland
Brisbane central business district
History of Brisbane
Philip Cox buildings
2001 establishments in Australia

Goodwill Bridge


Aksai Chin (, , Ākèsàiqīn) is a region  37,555 km² (16,481 sq mi) which lies at the juncture of China, Pakistan, and India. It consists of about one fifth of Kashmir and one of the driest place and true desert in the world that receive less rain than the Polar desert.

It is ruled by China but claimed by the Republic of India. Aksai Chin is one of the two main border disputes between India and China. The other is the dispute over Arunachal Pradesh. Aksai Chin (the name literally means "Chin's desert of white stones") is a very large high-altitude hot desert of salt with sand dunes and yareta (a type of cushioned plants)  that reaches heights up to 4,500 metres. It covers an area of 37,555 km² (16,481 sq mi) of the disputed territory. Geographically part of the Tibetan Plateau, Aksai Chin itself is a plateau and  it is often called the "Soda Plain". The region is almost uninhabited, has no permanent settlements, and receives no rain or snow as the Himalayan and other mountains block the rains from the Indian monsoon. Pakistan recognizes it as part of China, however India has objected to this and claims all the territory. In boundary talks in 1960 Chinese officials shown a map drawn by General Staff of the Chinese Army in 1918 shows the territory as part of China. However the map was not published hence it's authenticity is doubtful although another document in 1943 created by Bureau of Survey of Chinese Ministry of National Defence shows all of the territory as part of China.

Related pages

 Line of Actual Control

Territorial disputes of India
Territorial disputes of China
Kashmir
Geography of the People's Republic of China

Aksai Chin


Switched fabric or switching fabric is a network topology in which network nodes interconnect via one or more network switches (particularly crossbar switches). Because a switched fabric network spreads network traffic across multiple physical links, it yields higher total throughput than broadcast networks, such as the early 10BASE5 version of Ethernet and most wireless networks such as Wi-Fi.

The generation of high-speed serial data interconnects that appeared in 2001–2004 which provided point-to-point connectivity between processor and peripheral devices are sometimes referred to as fabrics; however, they lack features such as a message-passing protocol. For example, HyperTransport, the computer processor interconnect technology, continues to maintain a processor bus focus even after adopting a higher speed physical layer. Similarly, PCI Express is just a serial version of PCI; it adheres to PCI's host/peripheral load/store direct memory access (DMA)-based architecture on top of a serial physical and link layer.

Fibre Channel

In the Fibre Channel Switched Fabric (FC-SW-6) topology, devices are connected to each other through one or more Fibre Channel switches. While this topology has the best scalability of the three FC topologies (the other two are Arbitrated Loop and point-to-point), it is the only one requiring switches, which are costly hardware devices.

Visibility among devices (called nodes) in a fabric is typically controlled with Fibre Channel zoning.

Multiple switches in a fabric usually form a mesh network, with devices being on the "edges" ("leaves") of the mesh. Most Fibre Channel network designs employ two separate fabrics for redundancy. The two fabrics share the edge nodes (devices), but are otherwise unconnected. One of the advantages of such setup is capability of failover, meaning that in case one link breaks or a fabric goes out of order, datagrams can be sent via the second fabric.

The fabric topology allows the connection of up to the theoretical maximum of  about 16 million devices, limited only by the available address space (224).

239 domains * 256 areas * 256 ports = 15,663,104

See also
 Clos network
 Fabric Application Interface Standard
 InfiniBand
 Network traffic control
 RapidIO
 VPX

References

External links
 What is a Switch Fabric

Fibre Channel
Network topology

Switched fabric


Populus section Aigeiros is a section of three species in the genus Populus, the poplars. Like some other species in the genus Populus, they are commonly known as cottonwoods. The species are native to North America, Europe, and western Asia. In the past, as many as six species were recognized, but recent trends have been to accept just three species, treating the others as subspecies of P. deltoides.

They are large, deciduous trees that are  tall and diameters of , distinguished by thick, deeply fissured bark and triangular-based to diamond-shaped leaves that are green on both sides (without the whitish wax on the undersides) and without any obvious balsam scent in spring. An important feature of the leaves is the petiole, which is flattened sideways so that the leaves have a particular type of movement in the wind.

Male and female flowers are in separate catkins, appearing before the leaves in spring.  The seeds are borne on cottony structures that allow them to be blown long distances in the air before settling to ground.

The cottonwoods are exceptionally tolerant of flooding, erosion, and flood deposits filling around the trunk.

Although each of the three cottonwood species has a different leaf pattern, they all have the same general diamond leaf shape.

Species

Populus deltoides

Eastern cottonwood (Populus deltoides) is one of the largest North American hardwood trees, although the wood is rather soft. It is a riparian zone tree. It occurs throughout the eastern United States, parts of southern Canada, and northern Mexico. The leaves are alternate and simple, with coarsely toothed (crenate/serrate) edges, and subcordate at the base. The leaf shape is roughly triangular, hence the species name, deltoides. Their winter buds are enrobed in a protective, fragrant resin that coats young leaves when they unfurl from the bud.

In the typical subspecies P. d. deltoides (Vermont south to northern Florida and west to about Michigan), the leaves are broad and triangular, 7–15 cm across at the base. Further west (Minnesota south to eastern Texas), the subspecies P. d. monilifera (plains cottonwood; syn. P. sargentii) has somewhat narrower leaves, 5–10 cm wide at the base. This is also the state tree of Nebraska, Wyoming, and Kansas. In West Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado, the subspecies P. d. wislizeni (Rio Grande cottonwood; syn. P. wislizeni) occurs.

Populus fremontii
Fremont's cottonwood (P. fremontii) is native to the southwestern United States and western Mexico. In the United States, the species can be found in Arizona, California, Colorado,  Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, and Utah. In Mexico, it can be found in the states of Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Mexico State, and Puebla.  It differs from the eastern cottonwood mainly in the leaves having fewer, larger serrations on the edge, and small differences in the flower and seed pod structure. Some taxonomists formerly considered P. fremontii to be a subspecies of P. deltoides.

Populus nigra
Black poplar (P. nigra) is native to Europe and Western Asia, is distinct in its much smaller leaves,  across, with a more rhombic (diamond) shape.

Cultivation and uses
Cottonwoods are widely grown for timber production along wet river banks, where their exceptional growth rate provides a large crop of wood within just 10–30 years. The wood is coarse and of fairly low value, used for pallet boxes, shipping crates, and similar purposes where a cheap but strong enough wood is suitable. They are also widely grown as screens and shelterbelts. Many of the cottonwoods grown commercially are the hybrid of eastern cottonwood and black poplar, Populus × canadensis (hybrid black poplar or Carolina poplar).

Cottonwood bark is often a favorite medium for artisans. The bark, which is usually harvested in the fall after a tree's death, is generally very soft and easy to carve.

Cottonwood is one of the poorest wood fuels; it does not dry well, and rots quickly. It splits poorly, because it is very fibrous. It produces a low level of energy per unit of volume of wood.

Cottonwoods serve as food for the caterpillars of several Lepidoptera.

References

External links
 Minnesota DNR big tree list. The largest tree by circumference in Minnesota is a Populus deltoides at 394 inches (1,001 centimeters) measured at the trunk 4 and 1/2 feet (137 cm) above the ground. This tree is 106 feet (32.31 meters) tall.

Aegiros
Plant sections
Trees of North America
Trees of Asia
Trees of Europe
Trees of Mexico
Trees of the United States
North American desert flora

Populus sect. Aigeiros


Frapin is a Cognac producer based in the town of Segonzac, in the heart of the Grande Champagne region of France.

The Frapin family has been established in the South West of France since 1270, initially as a family of wine-growers. They then became distillers and have continued in this tradition for 20 generations. The Grande Champagne region was where the family eventually settled, establishing their headquarters in the Fontpinot Castle at Segonzac. Today the Frapin estate covers 300 hectares entirely in Grande Champagne, officially listed as Premier Grand Cru du Cognac, of which 200 hectares are planted with the Ugni blanc grape variety.

See also

References

External links

Cognac
Wineries of France
French brands

Frapin


Frédérick Leboyer (1 November 1918 – 25 May 2017) was a French obstetrician and author. He is best known for his 1974 book, Birth Without Violence, which popularized gentle birthing techniques, in particular, the practice of immersing newborn infants in a small tub of warm water — known as a "Leboyer bath" — to help ease the transition from the womb to the outside world. He also advocated low lighting and quiet in a warm room to limit the supposed shock of birth,[Reynolds, Concise Encyclopedia of Special Education, 138] and that a newborn be laid on its mother's stomach and allowed to bond, instead of being taken away for tests.

Birth
Leboyer graduated from the University of Paris School of Medicine. His own birth was traumatic and without anesthetics available, his mother had to be pinned down. Leboyer attributes his interest in birth to this experience.

Water births
Leboyer is often mistaken as a proponent for water births. Although Leboyer's disciple, Michel Odent, became known for introducing birthing pools in hospitals as an option for lower lumbar pain management. As a consequence, water births were seen as a birthing method that he encouraged. Odent has stated that being submerged in water longer than 2 hours can decrease the progress of labor. Odent developed an effective method of reducing pain in the lower lumbar region. Informed by the Gate Control Theory of Pain, Odent injected sterile water underneath the skin surface in the lumbar region. This technique produced a localized source of pain, which in turn reduced the more severe regional pain women experienced in the lower lumbar region  during labor. Because this method of non-pharmacological pain management could be viewed as too simple, Odent introduced the birthing pool which could deliver a similar form of pain management. Many sources mistakenly attribute a belief that humans should birth in water to Michel Odent. He has stated that this option is possible, however he does not promote any method, he only points to information to better understand any method.  Leboyer himself is against the idea of waterbirth.

Leboyer speaks at length about his philosophy of "birth without violence" in the 1975 documentary Giving Birth: Four Portraits.

Death
Leboyer died on 25 May 2017 at the age of 98.

Family
Frédérick Leboyer was the uncle of prominent French psychiatrist Marion Leboyer.

Bibliography
Birth Without Violence (1974)
 Shantala: un art traditionnel, le massage des enfants  /  Loving Hands: The Traditional Art of Baby Massage (1976)Inner Beauty, Inner Light (1978)Si l'enfantement m'était conté (1996)Birth Without Violence'' (DVD, re-released 2008 through New Earth Records)

See also
Michel Odent, French physician who popularized the practice of water birth
Bradley method of natural childbirth
Pre- and perinatal psychology

References

External links
Review of Birth Without Violence
Interview with Frederick Leboyer (in Spanish)

1918 births
2017 deaths
Infancy
French obstetricians
Natural childbirth advocates
Family and parenting writers
French health and wellness writers
French male writers
Writers from Paris

Frédérick Leboyer


Italian ballet is the training methods and aesthetic qualities seen in classical ballet in Italy. Ballet has a long history in Italy, and it is widely believed that the earliest predecessor of modern-day ballet originated in the Italian courts of the Renaissance. Two predominant training systems are used to teach Italian ballet today: the Cecchetti method, devised by Enrico Cecchetti, and that of the La Scala Theatre Ballet School.

History (origins of il ballo, or ballet)
Ballet began during the Italian Renaissance court as an outgrowth of court pageantry, where aristocratic weddings were lavish celebrations. Court musicians and dancers collaborated to provide elaborate entertainment for them. Ballet was further shaped by the French ballet de cour, which consisted of social dances performed by the nobility in tandem with music, speech, verse, song, pageant, decor and costume. When Catherine de' Medici, an Italian aristocrat with an interest in the arts, married the French crown heir Henry II, she brought her enthusiasm for dance to France and provided financial support. These glittering entertainments supported the aims of court politics and usually were organized around mythological themes.

A ballet of the Renaissance was a far cry from the form of theatrical entertainment known to audiences today. Tutus, ballet slippers and pointe work were not yet used. The choreography was adapted from court dance steps. Performers dressed in fashions of the times. For women that meant formal gowns that covered their legs to the ankle. Early ballet was participatory, with the audience joining the dance towards the end.

Domenico da Piacenza was one of the first dancing masters. Along with his students, Antonio Cornazzano and Guglielmo Ebreo, he was trained in dance and responsible for teaching nobles the art. Da Piacenza left one work:  De arte saltandi et choreus ducendi (On the art of dancing and conducting dances), which was put together by his students.

Ballet, if not the first, produced and shown was Baldassare de Belgiojoso's balletto comico, also known as Balthasar de Beaujoyeulx's Ballet Comique de la Reine (1581) and was a ballet comique (ballet drama). In the same year, the publication of Fabritio Caroso's Il Ballarino, a technical manual on court dancing, both performance and social, helped to establish Italy as a centre of technical ballet development.

At first, ballets were woven in to the midst of an opera to allow the audience a moment of relief from the dramatic intensity. By the mid-seventeenth century, Italian ballets in their entirety were performed in between the acts of an opera. Over time, Italian ballets became a more beloved and important part of theatrical life: ballet companies in Italy's major opera houses employed an average of four to twelve dancers; in 1815 many companies employed anywhere from eighty to one hundred dancers.

Notable companies & schools

 La Scala Theatre Ballet

 La Scala Theatre Ballet School

Notable Italian dancers

 Roberto Bolle
 Enrico Cecchetti
 Fanny Cerrito
 Oriella Dorella
 Alessandra Ferri

 Carla Fracci
 Mara Galeazzi
 Carlotta Grisi
 Pierina Legnani
 Luciana Savignano
 Marie Taglioni

References

Ballet styles
Ballet in Italy
History of ballet

Italian ballet


Minimalism is a way of making modern art or music that uses simple ideas, sounds or shapes. It was most popular in America in the 1960s and 1970s. There are many different kinds of minimalism. Sometimes a simple thing is repeated many times until it seems very complicated. Today minimalism can be used to talk about many things such as design, architecture, poetry, and movies.

Music
In music, minimalism is a way of composing classical music which became popular during the second half of the 20th century. It is a way of composing by using a simple idea which is repeated many times. A minimalist piece of music usually takes a short idea which may be a melodic or a rhythmic pattern. This idea is then repeated many times, but each time it changes slightly. Sometimes this may be done by two or more instruments which start off by playing their notes or chords together but, as one is going slightly faster than the other, they gradually become "out of sync" (not synchronized, i.e. not together), then eventually they catch up with one another again. Usually this music is tonal so that it is firmly in one key. A steady pulse is kept throughout the whole piece.

Composers who wrote minimalist music include Steve Reich (b.1936), Philip Glass (b.1937) and Terry Riley (b.1935). Other composers like John Adams (b.1947) have also used minimalist ways of composing, but they combined these with other techniques, so that their music is not just minimalist.

Minimalist music became popular in the 1960s and 1970s. Minimalist composers started writing like this, also because a lot of new music at that time was very complicated and hard to understand. It was often serial music which was atonal with no obvious melodies or ideas that were easy to remember.

Minimalist music is not necessarily simple. It can have a kind of hypnotic effect, but this is part of what the composer wants. Reich's Clapping Music just consists of hand clapping: there is no melody. He was thinking of African drum music when he wrote it. Two performers begin by clapping a rhythm together. After 13 seconds the second performer leaves out the first quaver (eighth note) and puts it at the end of the second bar (measure). After another 13 seconds this happens again so that in the end the two performers are together again. This music has to be listened to in a different way from other kinds of music.

Visual art
Minimalism in visual art, sometimes referred to as literalist art and ABC Art emerged in New York in the 1960s. As a product it had much in common with earlier geometric abstraction and suprematism.

The term "minimalism" was not generally embraced by the artists associated with it, and many practitioners of art called minimalist by critics did not identify it as a movement as such.

One of the first artists specifically associated with Minimalism was the painter, Frank Stella, whose early "stripe" paintings were highlighted in the 1959 show, "16 Americans", organized by Dorothy Miller at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The width of the stripes in Frank Stellas's stripe paintings were determined by the dimensions of the lumber, visible as the depth of the painting when viewed from the side, used to construct the supportive chassis upon which the canvas was stretched. The decisions about structures on the front surface of the canvas were therefore not entirely subjective, but pre-conditioned by a "given" feature of the physical construction of the support. In the show catalog, Carl André noted, "Art excludes the unnecessary. Frank Stella has found it necessary to paint stripes. There is nothing else in his painting".

These reductive works were in sharp contrast to the energy-filled and emotionally-charged expressionist paintings of Willem de Kooning or Franz Kline.

They leaned more towards the controlled, somber color field paintings of Barnett Newman and Mark Rothko. Although Stella received immediate attention from the MOMA show, artists like Kenneth Noland, Ralph Humphrey, Robert Motherwell and Robert Ryman had begun to explore stripes, monochromatic and hard-edge formats from the late 50s through the 1960s.

References

Musical movements
Art movements
Simple living

Minimalism


The Fichtelgebirge is a mountain range in northeastern Bavaria, Germany. It extends from the valley of the Red Main River to the Czech border, where it is continued by the much higher Ore Mountains.

The highest mountain is the Schneeberg (1051 m). Rivers rising from the Fichtelgebirge are the White Main (German: Weißer Main), the Saxon Saale, the Ohře (German: Eger) and the Fichtelnaab which later joins the Waldnaab. Cities on the edge of the mountains include Bayreuth and Hof.

The mountains slope gradually away to the north and the south, but there is a steep slope to the west, where the Red Main forms the boundary of the mountains.

The Fichtelgebirge attracts many tourists both during summer and winter, mainly for hiking and skiing, but also to see the large rock formations.

Geography of Bavaria
Mountain ranges of Germany

Fichtelgebirge


The IBIS Interconnect Modeling Specification (ICM) in electronic circuit simulation is a behavioral, ASCII-based file format. The ICM is used for distributing passive interconnect modeling information.  The format and style of ICM are highly similar to the Input Output Buffer Information Specification (IBIS), and both specifications are managed by the same organization, the IBIS Open Forum.

Interconnects under ICM may be represented through tabular frequency-dependent RLGC matrices or through S-parameters in separate Touchstone files. ICM models define interconnects as consisting of one or more segments.  Segment topologies are described in terms of the arrangements of their nodes relative to pin or port lists.  The electrical behaviors for each segment are then defined. Interconnects may be grouped into families with similar characteristics or sharing identical segment definitions.

As of 2006, ICM version 1.1 has been standardized in the US through both the GEIA and ANSI as ANSI GEIA-STD-0001.

References

External links
Official IBIS and ICM website

EDA file formats


is a celebrity homemaker and television personality in Japan.  Kurihara has often been called the "Martha Stewart of Japan", and has enjoyed popularity there for over twenty years.  She is the host of numerous television shows, author of Suteki Recipe, a quarterly recipe magazine which has sold 5 million copies, as well as over 20 bestselling cookbooks and style magazines, has a line of cookware named after her, and owns a chain of stores. Her homemaking empire is named Yutori no Kukan, which means "a space to relax". She has had sponsorship deals with companies such as P&G, Shiseido, 3M, Takara Distillers and Nissan.

She was born in Shimoda, a coastal city, and never had professional training as a chef. She is therefore known for satisfying home cooking. In particular her cuisine is known for combining traditional and newer Western influences, while accounting for the real-world time constraints of a housewife.  She is married to Reiji Kurihara, a former television newsanchor, who originally encouraged her to begin her television career, and is now president of Yutori no Kukan.

Harumi's first cookbook was Gochisosama Ga Kikitakute!, which translates to "I want to hear you say: 'I'm all finished and that was great!'".  Harumi's first major cookbook published in English was Harumi's Japanese Cooking, which in 2004 was awarded the best cookbook of the year (and the best world Asian cuisine book) at the 10th Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, and was selected from a pool of 5000 cookbooks from 67 countries.

Publications
 Harumi's Japanese Cooking, (Original limited edition, 2004; Home edition, April 2006)
 Harumi's Japanese Home Cooking, (2006)
 Everyday Harumi, (2009)

References

External links
Gourmand World Cookbook Awards press release
Martha Stewart of Japan: Honolulu Advertiser
Your Japanese Kitchen A NHK World TV program with recipes from and presented by Harumi Kurihara

1947 births
Japanese chefs
Living people
People from Shizuoka Prefecture
Food writers

Harumi Kurihara