A galactic disc (or galactic disk) is a component of disc galaxies, such as spiral galaxies, lenticular galaxies, and the Milky Way. Galactic discs consist of a stellar component (composed of most of the galaxy's stars) and a gaseous component (mostly composed of cool gas and dust). The stellar population of galactic discs tend to exhibit very little random motion with most of its stars undergoing nearly circular orbits about the galactic center. Discs can be fairly thin because the disc material's motion lies predominantly on the plane of the disc (very little vertical motion). The Milky Way's disc, for example, is approximately 1 kly thick, but thickness can vary for discs in other galaxies.

Stellar component

Exponential surface brightness profiles
Galactic discs have surface brightness profiles that very closely follow exponential functions in both the radial and vertical directions.

Radial profile
The surface brightness radial profile of the galactic disc of a typical disc galaxy (viewed face-on) roughly follows an exponential function:

where  is the galaxy's central brightness and  is the scale length. The scale length is the radius at which the galaxy is a factor of e (~2.7) less bright than it is at its center. Due to the diversity in the shapes and sizes of galaxies, not all galactic discs follow this simple exponential form in their brightness profiles. Some galaxies have been found to have discs with profiles that become truncated in the outermost regions.

Vertical profile
When viewed edge-on, the vertical surface brightness profiles of galactic discs follow a very similar exponential profile that is proportional to the disc's radial profile:

where  is the scale height. Although exponential profiles serve as a useful first approximations, vertical surface brightness profiles can also be more complicated. For example, the scale height , although assumed to be a constant above, can in some cases increase with the radius.

Gaseous component
Most of a disc galaxy's gas lies within the disc. Both cool atomic hydrogen (HI) and warm molecular hydrogen (HII) make up most of the disc's gaseous component. This gas serves as the fuel for the formation of new stars in the disc. Although the distribution of gas in the disc is not as well-defined as the stellar component's distribution it is understood (from 21cm emission) that atomic hydrogen is distributed fairly uniformly throughout the disc. 21 cm emission by HI also reveals that the gaseous component can flare out at the outer regions of the galaxy. The abundance of molecular hydrogen makes it a great candidate to help trace the dynamics within the disc. Like the stars within the disc, clumps or clouds of gas follow approximately circular orbits about the galactic center. The circular velocity of the gas in the disc is strongly correlated with the luminosity of the galaxy (see Tully-Fisher Relation). This relationship becomes stronger when the stellar mass is also taken into consideration.

Structure of the Milky Way disc
Three stellar components with varying scale heights can be distinguished within the disc of the Milky Way (MW): the young thin disc, the old thin disc, and the thick disc. The young thin disc is a region in which star formation is taking place and contains the MW's youngest stars and most of its gas and dust. The scale height of this component is roughly 100 pc. The old thin disc has a scale height of approximately 325 pc while the thick disc has a scale height of 1.5 kpc. Although stars move primarily within the disc, they exhibit a random enough motion in the direction perpendicular to the disc to result in various scale heights for the different disc components. Stars in the MW's thin disc tend to have higher metallicities compared to the stars in the thick disc. The metal-rich stars in the thin disc have metallicities close to that of the sun () and are referred to as population I (pop I) stars while the stars that populate the thick disc are more metal-poor () and are referred to as population II (pop II) stars (see stellar population). These distinct ages and metallicities in the different stellar components of the disc point to a strong relationship between the metallicities and ages of stars.

See also

 Thick disk
 Thin disk

References

Galaxies

Galactic disc


USS Herndon (DD-638), a , was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for Commander William Lewis Herndon.

Herndon was launched on 2 February 1942 by the Norfolk Navy Yard, sponsored by Lucy Herndon Crockett, great-grandniece of Comdr. Herndon, and commissioned on 20 December 1942.

Service history

Atlantic service

After shakedown off the Maine coast, Herndon escorted a convoy from New York City to Casablanca, returning to New York 14 May 1943 escorting a tanker. Sailing from Norfolk on 8 June, she reached Algiers on 24 June and prepared for a key role in the Sicilian campaign. As Allied amphibious forces under the overall command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower launched the initial strike at "the soft underbelly of Europe" 10 July 1943, Herndon performed antisubmarine patrol duty as well as fire support for Lieutenant General George S. Patton's U.S. 7th Army and General Bernard L. Montgomery's British 8th Army. Departing the Mediterranean on 3 August, Herndon on spent the next nine months escorting troopships across the Atlantic from New York to various British ports as the massive buildup for the invasion of France hit full strike. On D-Day, 6 June 1944, Herndon was off Utah Beach, down front in "Bald-headed Row" ahead of the first assault waves. Despite heavy counter fire from enemy batteries, she  bombarded enemy targets ashore.

Herndon remained off the Normandy beaches providing fire support, screening troopships, and antisubmarine patrol until 19 June, when she served as a screen for Allied landings at Baie de la Seine. Further screening duties followed until 11 July, when she reported to Belfast for training as an escort in the Mediterranean. Operation Anvil was the Allies' next major operation. Herndon was part of the joint task force screening aircraft carriers on 16 August when the invasion of southern France was begun.

The destroyer remained in the Mediterranean until sailing for New York on 3 September. After two weeks of experimental operations in Chesapeake Bay for the Naval Research Laboratory, Herndon headed back toward the Mediterranean as a convoy escort on 14 October. Returning to the United States on 12 November, she conducted battle exercises in Casco Bay and escorted convoys along the Atlantic coast through February 1945. In that month. Herndon escorted President Franklin D. Roosevelt on the first leg of his voyage to the historic Yalta Conference.  On January 11, 1045 Herndon collided with and sank the auxiliary motor minesweeper YMS-14 in Boston Harbor.

Pacific Service

The destroyer and her crew turned south 21 April 1945 and headed for the still-hot war in the Pacific, reaching Pearl Harbor via the Panama Canal and San Diego on 15 May. After training exercises and duty as a carrier plane guard, Herndon sailed to Eniwetok on 12 July and remained in the rear area escorting convoys between Eniwetok, Guam, and Saipan through the end of the long Pacific war.

Japanese capitulation came at last with the formal signing of the surrender in Tokyo Bay on 2 September, and Herndon proceeded to the China coast to enforce provisions of the peace. Reaching Dairen, Manchuria on 10 September, she continued to Qingdao, China 16 September. On that day Japanese Vice Admiral Kanako, and his staff came aboard Herndon to sign and implement the unconditional surrender of all Japanese-controlled combatant and merchant vessels in the Qingdao area.

Post World War II and fate

Herndon spent the fall and winter escorting Japanese prize vessels along the coast, patrolling the Korean and China coasts, and assisting the repatriation of Japanese soldiers and the movement of Chinese Nationalist troops. On 5 December 1945 she was detached from this duty to participate in Operation Magic Carpet, the transfer of troops from the Pacific to the United States, and reached San Diego via Shanghai, Eniwetok, Okinawa, and Pearl Harbor on 27 December. After disembarking some of the troops, Herndon continued on to New York with the rest, arriving 15 January 1946.

Herndon arrived Charleston on 28 January 1946 and decommissioned there 8 May and entered the Atlantic Reserve Fleet. She was moved to Philadelphia in January 1947 and in June 1965 was transferred to Orange, Texas.  Stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 June 1971, Herndon was sunk as a target off Florida on 24 May 1973.

Herndon received three battle stars for World War II service.

References

External links
           navsource.org: USS Herndon
      hazegray.org: USS Herndon

Herndon (DD-638)
Shipwrecks of the Florida coast
1942 ships
Herndon (DD-638)
Maritime incidents in 1973
Ships sunk as targets
Ships built in Portsmouth, Virginia

USS Herndon (DD-638)


James Duane Doty (November 5, 1799 – June 13, 1865) was a land speculator and politician in the United States who played an important role in the development of Wisconsin and Utah Territory.

Early life and legal career
A descendant of Mayflower immigrant Edward Doty, Doty was born in Salem, New York, in 1799. He was less than three years old when his family moved to Martinsburg, New York, which was founded by his mother's brother General Walter Martin. Doty attended the Lowville Academy several miles north of Martinsburg in Lowville, New York.

In 1818, Doty moved to Detroit, the capital of Michigan Territory, where he became an apprentice to Charles Larned, the attorney general. On November 20, 1818, he was admitted to the bar in Wayne County and Michigan Territory. He practiced law until September 29, 1819, when he was appointed clerk of court for Michigan Territory. In June 1820 he resigned the clerkship in order to serve as secretary to the Lewis Cass expedition, a summer-long exploration of the part of Michigan Territory lying west of Lake Michigan as far as the headwaters of the Mississippi River. Upon his return to Detroit, Doty resumed his legal practice. In the winter of 1822 Doty traveled to Washington, D.C., where on March 13, with the sponsorship of Henry Wheaton, he was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States.

In 1823, a new federal judicial district was created for northern and western Michigan Territory, covering what is now the state of Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Doty was appointed as the federal judge for the district by President James Monroe. Before taking up his new duties, on April 14, 1823, Doty married Sarah Collins at Whitesboro, New York.  Because he was required to live within his district, Doty and his new wife moved from Detroit to Prairie du Chien in 1823. Doty regularly held court at Prairie du Chien, Green Bay, and Mackinac. He also served as the first postmaster of Prairie du Chien from 1823 to 1824. In 1824, Doty moved to Green Bay, where he lived until 1841. Doty remained the district judge until he was replaced by David Irvin in 1832.

Territorial politics
Following his career as a judge, Doty served as a member of the Michigan Territorial Council from 1834 to 1835, representing the western part of the territory. In this capacity Doty argued for the creation of a new territorial government for Wisconsin, sending petitions to Congress in favor of splitting Michigan Territory into two parts, one east and one west of Lake Michigan. Doty had supported this idea as early as 1824, and argued that the growing number of residents in Wisconsin were not adequately provided for by the territorial government in Detroit, which was hundreds of miles away from any settlement in Wisconsin. Doty claimed that votes sent by residents west of Lake Michigan could not be sent to Detroit in time to be counted, and that the residents in Lower Michigan cared little about the affairs west of the lake. In 1835, his wishes were partially granted when the Governor of Michigan Territory created a separate legislature to govern the western part of the territory as Michigan prepared for statehood.

In 1835, Doty campaigned to represent western Michigan Territory as a delegate in Congress, but he lost in a three-way election to George Wallace Jones. Both Doty and Jones were running as Democrats, but Doty had little true loyalty to any political party. He was conservative in view and usually aligned himself with whichever people were most popular at any given time. After losing the election, Doty turned to land speculation and bought thousands of acres of land across the region, some of which he began developing into the city of Madison, Wisconsin.

In 1836, Wisconsin Territory was officially created. Doty hoped to be the territorial governor, but President Andrew Jackson appointed Henry Dodge, Doty's longtime political rival, to the post. With no public title, Doty worked to improve his land holdings in what would become the city of Madison. Doty had this land surveyed and platted, and made plans to create a city on the isthmus between lakes Mendota and Monona. To gain recognition for the planned city, Doty lobbied the new territorial legislature to select his proposed city as the capital of Wisconsin. A temporary capital had already been established at Belmont, Wisconsin, but its distance from Milwaukee and Green Bay coupled with the dissatisfaction of many legislators towards the facilities at Belmont made it likely that the capital would be moved. Doty used numerous tactics to ensure that Madison would be made the capital city, wooing legislators with plans for canals and railroads and offering legislators who voted to make Madison the capital choice lots in the new city. Madison was declared the permanent capital in November, 1836, and construction at the new city began in 1837.

In 1838, Doty was elected as the Wisconsin Territory's congressional delegate, defeating George W. Jones in a rematch of the 1835 election. Despite being elected as a Democrat, Doty formed personal friendships with several Whigs in Washington, D.C., including Henry Clay. In 1840, Whig Party candidate William Henry Harrison was elected president, and he made plans to appoint Doty to the governorship of the Wisconsin Territory despite Doty's status as a Democrat. Harrison died before he could make the appointment, but vice president John Tyler fulfilled Harrison's desire after ascending to the presidency in 1841. Doty was largely unsuccessful as territorial governor; the Dodge supporters in the territorial legislature rejected most of the legislation Doty supported, and Doty failed on four separate occasions to get public support for Wisconsin statehood. Doty's term ended in 1844, and he was not reappointed by Tyler, who instead selected Nathaniel P. Tallmadge to the post. This left Doty to once again return to his private life.

Wisconsin statehood

In 1846, Doty returned to politics, this time as a delegate to the First Wisconsin Constitutional Convention. Doty came to the convention as an independent, but sided with the Whigs on most issues and emerged as the opposition leader at the convention, which had a clear Democratic majority. After much debate, the convention produced a constitution, but the state's residents considered the document to be too radical and voted it down in a referendum, despite public campaigns for the constitution led by Doty and other delegates. A second convention called in late 1847 produced a constitution that was accepted by the people, and this enabled Wisconsin to achieve statehood in 1848. Doty was elected to the United States House of Representatives shortly after Wisconsin became a state, and served from 1849 to 1853 as the representative of Wisconsin's newly created 3rd congressional district and served as part of the 31st and 32nd Congresses. He was replaced by John B. Macy. After leaving Congress, Doty left public life and retired to his home on an island (now named Doty Island) between Neenah and Menasha, Wisconsin. His log-cabin home, relocated from the east end of the island, is located in Doty Park on the southeastern riverfront of Doty Island (on the island's Neenah side). It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Career in Utah
In 1861, Doty returned to public service when Republican President Abraham Lincoln appointed him to the position of Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Utah Territory. Doty was successful in this position. In 1863, Stephen Selwyn Harding, Utah's territorial governor, was removed from office after public backlash from his criticism of the LDS Church and the practice of polygamy. Lincoln appointed Doty to the governorship shortly thereafter. As governor, Doty was able to repair the relationship between the federal government and the territory's Mormons. Doty also promoted the construction of schools and negotiations with local Native American tribes.

Family
Charles Doty: Doty's son
Morgan Lewis Martin, cousin

Death
Doty died in office at age 65 on June 13, 1865, shortly after the outbreak of Utah's Black Hawk War. He was buried at the Fort Douglas Cemetery in Salt Lake City, Utah. Both the community of Dotyville, Wisconsin and town of Doty, Wisconsin were named in his honor.

References

External links

 James Duane Doty at the Wisconsin Historical Society

|-

|-

|-

1799 births
1865 deaths
19th-century American politicians
Burials in Utah
Delegates to the United States House of Representatives from Wisconsin Territory
Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Wisconsin
Governors of Utah Territory
Governors of Wisconsin Territory
Independent Democrat members of the United States House of Representatives
Members of the Michigan Territorial Legislature
Michigan Democrats
People from Martinsburg, New York
People from Salem, New York
People of Utah in the American Civil War
People of Wisconsin in the American Civil War
Politicians from Detroit
Politicians from Green Bay, Wisconsin
Utah Republicans
Wisconsin Independents
Wisconsin postmasters
Wisconsin Whigs

James Duane Doty


The New Testament is the seicont pairt o the Christian Bible, an haes the maist important scrievins o that releegion. It tells the story an lair o Jesus Christ, the first thirty year or sae o the early kirk, as weel as haein letters tae the kirks an indiveeduals that's the basis for maist Christian moral lair.

Pairts o The New Testament
The New Testament is skailed intae beuks that can be pitten intae the follaein curns:

The Fower Gospels
Ilkane o the Gospels tells the story o the life an lair o Jesus, the Jewish chiel that cam tae be seen bi the Christians as the Son o God, the Messiah. The Gospels isna biographies as we wad unnerstaund the term the day, but they dae gie us awmaist aw the information we hae anent the life an sayins o Jesus. Gin a body leuks tae the Gospels as a modren biography, they are like tae be dozent bi, for example, the chronological settin oot o things, syne they hae sae muckle a theological importance as they dae narrative importance. The parables, sermons an ferlies o Jesus is setten doun in thir beuks, alang wi the kenspeckle accoonts o his birth, daith an raisin up.
 The Gospel o Matthew
 The Gospel o Mark
 The Gospel o Luke
 The Gospel o John
Tradeetion hauds that the Gospels war scrieven bi the fowk that's names is eikit tae thaim. Modren scholars is dividit in opeenion as tae wha actually scrieved thaim. It haes been merkit bi scholars syne the langsyne that Mathew, Mark an Luke are gey seemilar, while John haes a mair disteenctive air aboot it. Sae the first three thegither is aften cried The Synoptic Gospels, an twa-three theories haes kythed anent their authorskip an order o scrievin.
The maist common theory thir days is that Mark wis scrieven first, an the authors o Matthew an Luke uised it a soorce, alang wi anither soorce syne tint that haes been cried Q (frae the German Quelle = soorce in Scots). This is acause the three skares muckle material thegither, Matthew an Luke skares a wheen material that's in Mark an aw.
John is for ordinar jaloused tae hae been scrieven last, tho some scholars, sic as CH Dodd, haes sugeestit it micht hae been the first, gin it wis scrieven first in Aramaic, an no in Greek as they think it micht hae been.

History
For the maist pairt this beuk tells o the first thirty year or sae o the early kirk. It chairts the oncome o meesion darg, orginisation an guideship efter the daith an raisin up o Jesus. In Acks we see the new releegion stairtin tae leuk outwi the Jews an taewart the Gentiles in its meesion darg, unner the guideship o Saunt Paul.
 The Acks o the Apostles

Tradeetion threaps that Acks wis scrieved bi Luke, wha scrieved the Gospel that beirs his name an aw. Maist modren scholars grees that they war screiven bi the same chiel due tae style, phrases etc.

Pauline Epistles (cried the Corpus Paulinum an aw)
Thir beuks wir jaloused tae be letters sent tae the kirks an indiveedual fowk bi Saunt Paul (see ablo). As he wis ane o the maist important fowk in the early kirk, his letters (an his beliefs, that's setten oot in thae letters) wir unco influential in the biggin o Christian morals, the organisation o the kirk an in mony ither pairts o the releegion forby thon. Mony o the maist kenspeckle pairts an ideas o screeptur can be fund in the Pauline Epistles sic as the sae cried "Roman Gate" (Romans) the celebratit passage anent Christian luve (I Cor. 13:1-13) an the "Airmour o God" (Eph. 6:10-18).
 Romans
 I Corinthians
 II Corinthians
 Galatians
 Ephesians
 Philippians
 Colossians
 I Thessalonians
 II Thessalonians
 I Timothy
 II Timothy
 Titus
 Philemon
 Hebrews

Aw o thir screivins war at ae time threapit tae hae been bi Saunt Paul, tho his authorskip o some o thaim is disputit the nou. It shoud be merkit that e'en syne early times fowk haes doutit that Paul scrieved Hebrews - an in fact it is naewhaur threapit in the letter as it is in the lave. Mair oot ower, the muckle deeferences in style atween Hebrews an the lave o the Pauline Epsitles leads the muckle feck o scholars (specially syne the Reformation) tae draw that it wisna scrieven bi Paul ava. Paul seems tae hae dictatit his letters tae scribes, an in some letters maks a pynt o scrievin his ain salutation.

Ordinar Epistles
The Ordinar Epistles is the name gien tae the curn o letters no jaloused tae hae been scrieven bi Paul, but bi ithir leaders o the early kirk. Like Paul's letters, they deal wi ordinar Christian issues (sic as the "Faith/ Warks" issue that kythes in James) as weel as issues mair relevent tae heresies etc. o the time that they war scrieven in (sic as II John).
 James
 I Peter
 II Peter
 I John
 II John
 III John
 Jude

Thir scrievins war bi tradeetion thocht tae hae been scrieven bi the fowk that's names ais eikit tae thaim, tho ance mair modren scholars disna gree wi ilk ithir as tae whither or no this is true. James an Jude wis jaloused tae be hauf-brithers o Jesus. It isna certain whither the John that the the letters is attribute is the same John that the The Gospel o John an Revelation is attribute, tho that haes lang been assumed bi some fowk. It is true that they hae certain language featurs in common - tho Revelation is screiven in raither ill Greek that leads maist scholars tae draw that it wisna screiven bi the same chiel that scrieved the letters (see ablo).

Apocalypse
This beuk is anent the "End Times", an is unco teuch tae unnerstaund. The style that it wis scrieven in, the sae cried "Apocalypse" genre (that, in fact, comes frae the Greek meanin revelation, or unkiverin). It haes unco strynge seembolic language an metaphors that arna easy tae unnerstaund the day, tho it wad likely hae been clearer tae the oreeginal readers.
 Revelation

Ance mair attributit tae a chiel cried John, but John wis a common name amang the early Christians, an identifeein him is haird. Mair nor twa-three fowk haes been pitten forrit bi scholars (John the Apostle, son o Zebedee; John Mark an a skuggy chiel cried John the Presbyter is amang thaim maist aften pitten forrit) , an ithers hauds that the beuk wis scrieven bi mair nor ae chiel at mair nor ae time. Whit is certaint is that the Greek uised in the scrievin o Revelation isna awfu guid, specially whan compeart tae that uised in The Gospel o John that haes led mony scholars tae draw that they warna scrieven bi the same chiel. Housome'er fowk that threaps that they war scrieven bi the same chiel pynts oot that the uiss o scribes wis common at the time (see the jottin anent the Pauline Epistles abuin) an sugeests that John (whit iver ane scrieved the Gospel) micht hae uised a scribe for his Gospel, but syne he seems tae scrieve that he is in exile at the time o scrievin (Rev. 1: 9) this micht no hae been an option whan he pit doun Revelation an sae he haed tae uise his ain, less guid, Greek.

Fremmit Airtins
 The hail Bible online, in monie leids (tho no in Scots as yet)
 Directory wi links monie academic wabstaids anent The New Testament
 Papist Kirk encyclopaedia entry anent The New Testament
 Palmer, 1881. Edwin Palmer, ΚΑΙΝΗ ΔΙΑΘΗΚΗ. The Greek Testament with the Readings Adopted by the Revisers of the Authorised Version. London: Simon Wallenberg Press, 2007. ISBN 1-84356-023-2

Christian terminology
Greek leeteratur (post-clessical)
Biblical exegesis

New Testament


Heidenheim an der Brenz (short: Heidenheim,  or Hoirna) is a town in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany.  It is located on the border with Bavaria, approximately 17 km south of Aalen and 33 km north of Ulm. Heidenheim is the largest town and the seat of the district of Heidenheim, and ranks third behind Aalen and Schwäbisch Gmünd in size among the towns in the region of East Württemberg. Heidenheim is the economic center for all the communities in Heidenheim district and is the headquarters of the Voith industrial company.  The town's population passed the 20,000 mark in 1925.  Heidenheim collaborates with the town of Nattheim in administrative matters.

The residents of Heidenheim and its surrounding area speak in the distinct German dialect of Swabian.

References

Towns in Baden-Württemberg

Heidenheim an der Brenz


Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley, KG (c. 1508-20 March 1549) was the brother of the English Queen Jane Seymour (the third wife of King Henry VIII) and uncle to King Edward VI. He was also the fourth husband of Catherine Parr who was the sixth and last wife of Henry VIII.

Thomas was the son of Sir John Seymour and Margaret Wentworth.  He grew up at Wulfhall in Wiltshire. He was the brother to Edward Seymour, Elizabeth Seymour and Jane Seymour.

Brother to the Queen
Henry VIII married Jane Seymour in May 1536, eleven days after he executed his second wife, Anne Boleyn. Thomas and his older brother Edward, both saw their fortunes rise, as they became part of the royal family.

In October of the following year, Jane gave birth to a son, Edward Tudor, who would become King Edward VI.  Less than two weeks later, Queen Jane died as a result of giving birth, leaving Thomas as an uncle to the baby prince, and in a very powerful position.

Death of Henry VIII

King Henry VIII died in January 1547, leaving his son, Edward VI, as King of England. Thomas's older brother Edward Seymour, became Lord Protector of England, in effect, ruler of England as Regent for his nephew, the king. Thomas was very jealous of his brother's power and worked to replace his brother as Lord Protector.

In April or May of 1547, Thomas secretly married Henry VIII's widow- Catherine Parr. As they married so soon after Henry VIII's death, many people turned against them.

Relationship with Elizabeth and Catherine's death
Upon their marriage, Thomas moved into his wife's house, where they lived with Henry VIII's youngest daughter- who would later become Elizabeth I. When living in the same house, Thomas had a close relationship with Elizabeth.

When his wife Catherine became pregnant in the spring of 1548, she was worried enough about her husband's relationship with Elizabeth that she sent her away to live elsewhere. In September 1548, Catherine gave birth to a daughter, but died soon after.

Upon her death, Catherine left all of her possessions to Thomas, making him one of the richest men in England.

Thomas Seymour's downfall
Despite the amount of power and money Thomas now had, he was still jealous that his brother was Lord Protector. He began publicly saying that his brother was not good enough at ruling.

By 1548, Edward Seymour and others responsible for running the country were becoming aware that Thomas was trying to take power. Thomas would not try to explain himself.

On the night of 16 January 1549, Thomas was caught trying to break into the King's apartments at Hampton Court Palace. The next day, he was arrested and sent to the Tower of London. He was found guilty of treason. Thomas was beheaded on 20 March 1549.

Notes

Sources

1500s births
1549 deaths
Knights of the Garter


A cutscene is a time in a video game where the game stops and the player watches something happen.

Usually cutscenes tell part of the story, such as showing characters talking or having a narrator say what is going on. Sometimes, however, a cutscene just shows something that is happening in the game, like a boss showing up, a ship taking off, or a building falling down.

There are many different types of cutscene. Some cutscenes are very simple and just show pictures with text like a slideshow. Others may be animated like a cartoon. Sometimes the cutscene appears directly in the game engine.

Many new games use prerendered scenes, meaning that the scene was created when the game was made and saved as a video file. Prerendered videos are sometimes just saved movies of things recorded in the game engine, but some use Computer-generated imagery (CGI), which is separately made 3D graphics which are usually fancier than the game's normal graphics. Prerendered scenes with CGI are often used for a game's intro video.

A few games use live-action video footage, which is filmed like a movie or television show. Sometimes live-action footage will be used together with CGI.

Video game design

Cutscene


Hypnosis is "a trance state characterized by extreme suggestibility, relaxation and heightened imagination".
It is an altered state of consciousness.

Usually, one person (the "hypnotist") talks to another (the "subject") in a special way that puts the subject into a trance. While the subject is in this state, he can be influenced by suggestions. The hypnotist can tell him to forget his name, or that the room is hot (he will start sweating), or that he is someone else. Hypnotic suggestions may be delivered by a hypnotist in the presence of the subject, or may be self-administered ('self-suggestion' or 'autosuggestion'). The use of hypnotism for therapeutic purposes is referred to as 'hypnotherapy', while its use as a form of entertainment for an audience is known as 'stage hypnosis'.

Contrary to a popular misconception—that hypnosis is a form of unconsciousness resembling sleep—some contemporary research suggests that hypnotic subjects are fully awake and are focusing attention, with a corresponding decrease in their peripheral awareness. Subjects also show an increased response to suggestions. However, the behaviour of subjects under hypnotism goes so far beyond normal focused attention that the description of "altered state of consciousness" is more used.

Hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy is when a hypnotist uses hypnosis to help the subject heal emotionally, or to heal a sick mind.  Hypnotherapy is hypnosis used for therapy.

Hypnosis can also be done by one person acting alone.  Then he is acting as both hypnotist and subject.  This is called "self-hypnosis," or sometimes "auto-suggestion."  In some cases, this is simply a form of using trance.

History

Ancient societies
Almost every pre-modern society had practices which were somewhat like hypnotism. Often a special person in a society (witchdoctor, shaman, priest...) would conduct a ceremony. The ceremony might use incantations (spells), chants, repetitive music, mind-altering substances, darkness, fire, and other settings. The purpose was to send a person or group into an altered state of mind like a trance. Even literate societies such as ancient Greece had phenomena suggestive of hypnosis. The Delphic oracle was in a trance of some kind as she uttered her famous predictions. Whether that was self-hypnosis or just the effects of volcanic gas will never be known.

Western societies
There seem to be many ideas about how hypnosis started. Historic records in modern Europe start with the work of Franz Mesmer, though he did not invent the word 'hypnotism'. Mesmer and his followers practised what was first called 'animal magnetism', and later mesmerism. Descriptions of his work leave no doubt that he had discovered for himself what we now call 'hypnotism'.

The words hypnosis and hypnotism both derive from the term neuro-hypnotism (nervous sleep) coined by the Scottish surgeon James Braid around 1841. Braid based his practice on that developed by but differed in his theory as to how the procedure worked.

The main hypnosis discoveries came in 1842 when Braid started to learn more about its effects. He did not think that 'mesmerism' was the cause of hypnosis, and in the end he thought that trances were only a 'nervous sleep'. In 1843 he wrote a book about this with the title Neurypnology. In this book Braid described hypnotism as a state of physical relaxation accompanied and induced by mental concentration ("abstraction").

Method
Hypnosis is used to treat fears, addictions, emotional trouble, pain control, stress, and so on.

The hypnotist must do two things to do hypnosis.  First, he must put the subject into a trance.  Second, he must lead the subject through the trance process (for therapy, or whatever effect is needed).  Often, he will switch between these, first making sure the subject is in the proper state of mind, and then leading him through the process.  These steps are repeated in a cycle throughout.

In trance, the subject does not make decisions about the truth of the hypnotist's suggestions: If trance is reached—it is not always—the subject will accept as true anything the hypnotist says, unless it goes against the subject's deepest beliefs. This is the heart of hypnosis: to put the subject in trance so he will accept suggestions.

Stage hypnotists get truly amazing effects from good subjects: they can make them forget their names, believe they are someone else, make them see people who are not there, make them forget letters or numbers, and so on. This happens because the subject actively follows the hypnotist's suggestions, because he trusts the hypnotist and he believes it is safe. If the trust is broken or the subject believes it is not safe, the subject may emerge from trance.

Hypnosis is not truly a power resting in the hypnotist.  Instead, the power rests in the mind of the subject.  The hypnotist simply knows how to guide the subject through trance.

References

Psychology
Consciousness

Hypnosis


The Black Adder is the first series of the BBC sitcom Blackadder, written by Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson, directed by Martin Shardlow and produced by John Lloyd. The series was originally aired on BBC 1 from 15 June 1983 to 20 July 1983, and was a joint production with the Australian Seven Network. Set in 1485 at the end of the British Middle Ages, the series is written as a secret history which contends that King Richard III won the Battle of Bosworth Field, only to be unintentionally assassinated by his nephew's son Edmund and succeeded by said nephew, Richard IV, one of the Princes in the Tower. The series follows the exploits of Richard IV's unfavoured second son Edmund (who calls himself "The Black Adder") in his various attempts to increase his standing with his father and, in the final episode, his quest to overthrow him.

Conceived while Atkinson and Curtis were working on Not the Nine O'Clock News, the series presents medieval issues in Britain in a humorous and often anachronistic manner—witchcraft, royal succession, European relations, the Crusades and the conflict between the Crown and the Church. The filming of the series was ambitious, as it featured a large cast and required extensive location shooting. Shakespearean dialogue is sometimes adapted for comic effect. Despite winning an International Emmy, The Black Adder is regarded by its creators and most critics as the weakest Blackadder series.

Plot
Set in the Middle Ages, the series is written as an alternative history. It opens on 21 August 1485, the eve of the Battle of Bosworth Field, which in the series is won not by Henry Tudor (as in reality) but by Richard III. Richard III, played by Peter Cook, is presented as a good king who doted on his nephews, contrary to the Shakespearean view of him as a hunchbacked, infanticidal monster.

After his victory in the battle, Richard III is unintentionally killed by Lord Edmund Plantagenet; Richard attempts to take Edmund's horse, which he thinks is his own. Not recognizing the king, Edmund thinks Richard is stealing it and cuts his head off. The late King's nephew, Richard, Duke of York (played by Brian Blessed) who is Lord Edmund Plantagenet's father, is then crowned as Richard IV. Lord Edmund himself did not take part in the battle after arriving late, but later claims to have killed 450 peasants and several nobles, one of whom had actually been killed by his brother in the battle.

King Richard IV of England and XII of Scotland and his Queen Gertrude of Flanders have two sons: Harry, Prince of Wales and his younger brother Prince Edmund. Of the two, Harry is by far his father's favourite, the King barely acknowledging his second son's existence. It is a running gag throughout the series that Edmund's father cannot even remember his name. However, despite his mostly dismissive attitude toward his second son, the King actually loves Edmund very dearly, partially due to their father-son relationship; in the third episode, when Edmund becomes the Archbishop of Canterbury and helps his father to secure some land from a dying noble before the church can, the King acknowledges Edmund as his son, embraces him and even mentions to the Queen that he has "turned out well", and in the series' finale, on Edmund's deathbed, the King does his best to console him and has the entire court drink a toast in his honour.

Using this premise, the series follows the fictitious reign of Richard IV (1485–1498) through the experiences of Prince Edmund, who styles himself as "The Black Adder", and his two sidekicks: the imbecilic Lord Percy Percy, the Duke of Northumberland (Tim McInnerny); and Baldrick (Tony Robinson), a more intelligent servant who Edmund takes on as his squire.

By the end of the series, events converge with accepted history, when King Richard IV and his entire family are poisoned, allowing Henry Tudor to take the throne as King Henry VII. He then rewrites history, presenting Richard III as a monster, and eliminating Richard IV's reign from the history books. In reality, Richard, Duke of York, one of the Princes in the Tower, was only twelve years old (and perhaps two years dead) when the Battle of Bosworth Field took place in 1485, and thus too young to have had two adult sons. Henry Tudor seemingly also falsified the history of Scotland and Ireland: Richard IV is said to be king of England, Scotland and Ireland, and Prince Edmund has the title of Duke of Edinburgh, whereas in reality Ireland was not a kingdom until 1542 and Scotland continued to have a separate royal house until 1603.

Episodes

The episodes in this series, written by Rowan Atkinson and Richard Curtis, were originally shown on BBC 1 on Wednesday evenings, 21:25–22:00. Each episode ran for roughly 33 minutes. The series began on 15 June 1983.

Each of the episodes was based on a medieval theme – the Wars of the Roses, the Crusades and royal succession, the conflict between the Crown and the Church, arranged marriages between monarchies, the Plague and witchcraft, and a planned coup d'état in the final episode.

The series was broadcast shortly after the BBC Television Shakespeare productions of Shakespeare's four plays about the Wars of the Roses: the three-part Henry VI plays, followed by Richard III, which was first shown on 23 January 1983. Some of the same actors were used to enhance the parody of Shakespearean history. Ron Cook, who played Richard III in the Shakespeare productions, is cast as the villainous "Sean the Irish Bastard". Peter Benson, who played Shakespeare's Henry VI, played Henry VII in the first episode.

Character development
In this series, the character of the Black Adder is somewhat different from later incarnations, being largely unintelligent, naive, and snivelling. The character does evolve through the series, however, and he begins showing signs of what his descendants will be like by the final episode, where he begins insulting everyone around him and making his own plans. This evolution follows naturally from the character's situation. "The Black Adder" is the title that Edmund adopts during the first episode (after first considering "The Black Vegetable"). Presumably one of his descendants adopted it as a surname before Blackadder II, in which the title character becomes "Edmund Blackadder". Furthermore, Baldrick is shown in more favourable and intelligent light here than in subsequent series – his 'cunning plans' are typically superior to and more workable than Edmund's own. Starting from the second series, the characters' relative intelligence and naiveté clearly switch.

Production

Development
Rowan Atkinson and Richard Curtis developed the idea for the sitcom while working on Not the Nine O'Clock News. Eager to avoid comparisons to the critically acclaimed Fawlty Towers, they proposed the idea of a historical sitcom. An unaired pilot episode was made in 1982, and a six-episode series was commissioned.

In the unaired pilot episode, covering the basic plot of "Born to Be King", Rowan Atkinson speaks, dresses and generally looks and acts like the later Blackadder descendants of the second series onwards, but no reason is given as to why he was instead changed to a snivelling wretch for the first series. Richard Curtis has stated he cannot remember the exact reason, but has suggested it was because they wanted to have a more complicated character (implying that the change was driven by the writing) instead of a swaggering lead from the pilot.

Curtis admitted in a 2004 documentary that just before recording began, producer John Lloyd came up to him with Atkinson and asked what Edmund's character was. Curtis then realised that, despite writing some funny lines, he had no idea how Rowan Atkinson was supposed to play his part. On the 25th anniversary documentary Blackadder Rides Again, Atkinson added that as the cameras were about to roll for the first time, he suddenly realised he wasn't even sure what voice to use for the character.

Filming

The budget for the series was considerable, with much location shooting particularly at Alnwick Castle in Northumberland and the surrounding countryside in February 1983. Brinkburn Priory, an authentic reconstruction of a medieval monastery church, was used for the episode "The Archbishop". The series also used large casts of extras, as well as horses and expensive medieval-style costumes. Filming at the castle was hindered by bad weather – snow is visible in many of the outdoor location shots.

For the duration of the production, Atkinson endured having his hair trimmed in an unflattering medieval style and wearing a selection of "priapic codpieces".
Atkinson has said about the making of the first series:

The first series was odd, it was very extravagant. It cost a million pounds for the six programmes ... [which] was a lot of money to spend ... It looked great, but it wasn't as consistently funny as we would have liked.

Cast

Robinson said in 2003 that he was originally flattered to be offered a part and it was only later he found that other small-part actors had also been offered the role and turned it down. The series guest-starred noted actors including Peter Cook and Peter Benson in "The Foretelling"; Miriam Margolyes and Jim Broadbent in "The Queen of Spain's Beard"; Frank Finlay in "Witchsmeller Pursuivant"; and Rik Mayall and Patrick Allen (who also narrated the series) in "The Black Seal".

Title sequence and music
The title sequence included stock shots of Edmund riding his horse on location, interspersed with shots of him doing silly things (and, usually, a shot of King Richard IV to go with Brian Blessed's credit). The closing titles were a similar sequence of Edmund riding, eventually falling off his horse, after which the camera continues following the horse as it goes on running. All the credits of the first series featured eccentric orderings of the cast list (such as "order of precedence", "order of witchiness" and "order of disappearance") and included "with additional dialogue by William Shakespeare" and "made in glorious television".

The series used the first incarnation of the Blackadder theme by Howard Goodall (with the exception of the unaired pilot, which featured a different arrangement). For the opening theme, a trumpet solo accompanied by an orchestra was used. For the end titles, the theme gained mock-heroic lyrics sung by a baritone (Simon Carrington, a member of the King's Singers). In the final episode, the theme was sung with altered lyrics by a treble, in a more reflective style. The series' incidental music was unusually performed by pipe organ and percussion.

Awards and criticism
The series won an International Emmy award in the popular arts category in 1983. The four series of Blackadder were voted into second place in the BBC's Britain's Best Sitcom in 2004 with 282,106 votes, although the series' advocate, John Sergeant, was not complimentary of the first series, suggesting it was "grandiose, confused and expensive".

Members of the cast and crew, looking back for the documentary Blackadder Rides Again, are also not particularly complimentary of the first series. John Lloyd recalls that a colleague commented at the time that the series "looks a million dollars, but cost a million pounds", although he admits that they were proud of the result at the time. Due to the high cost of the first series, the controller of BBC1 when the second series was commissioned, Michael Grade, was reluctant to authorise a second series without major improvements and cost-cutting, leaving a gap of three years before Blackadder II was broadcast, on the condition that it remained largely studio-bound.

Releases
The complete series of The Black Adder is available as a Region 2 DVD from BBC Worldwide, as well as in a complete box set with the other series. The series is also available in Region 1 DVD in a box set of the complete series. "The Complete Collected Series 1, 2, 3, 4 and Specials", a 15-disc complete set of audiobooks published by BBC Audiobooks Ltd, was released in 2009. A selection of one-off episodes, documentaries and other appearances by "Blackadder" are featured, with some of this extra material being released on audio for the first time.

VHS releases
On 5 February 1990, BBC Enterprises Ltd released all 6 episodes of The Black Adder on two single videos and on 7 September 1992 all 6 episodes of The Blackadder were re-released on 'Complete' double VHS releases.  All 6 episodes were re-released on a single video release on 2 October 1995.

References

External links

The Black Adder at the BBC Comedy Guide

1980s British sitcoms
1983 British television series debuts
1983 British television series endings
Alternate history television series
BBC black comedy television shows
BBC television sitcoms
Blackadder
British parody television series
English-language television shows
Fiction set in the 1480s
Cultural depictions of Henry VII of England
House of York
Cultural depictions of Richard III of England
Television series set in the 15th century
Television series created by Rowan Atkinson
Television series created by Richard Curtis
Television shows set in England
Television series set in castles

The Black Adder


Česká zbrojovka (ČZ a.s.) is a Czech company producing forklifts Desta and components for the automobile industry, it is former firearms manufacturer, also known for making ČZ motorcycles. ČZ was established as a branch of the Škoda Works Armament in Strakonice, Czechoslovakia in September 1919.

History

Work started on the construction of the first workshops of the arms factory originally called Jihočeská zbrojovka ("South Bohemian Armament Works"). The company merged with an arms manufacturing plant in Vejprty and with a factory in Prague in 1922. This gave rise to the formation of a stock company whose name translates as "Czech Armament Works in Prague of the Manufacturing Plant in Strakonice". It produced pistols, air guns, and automatic guns which all became successful products.

In 1929 the growth of the Czech Armament Works reached a turning point. With the downturn in weapons sales after World War I, the company acquired a bicycle parts manufacturing plant in Kralupy nad Vltavou on the Vltava River. Bicycle exports destined for several countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and South America started to expand. Production of motor-driven bicycles started in 1932. Three years later the first motorcycles made in Strakonice entered the market. This marked the beginning of an era of great success for the ČZ brand. In a short time the company became the biggest manufacturer of motorcycles in Czechoslovakia. Consequently, business success resulted in a further extension of production activities by introducing chain and machine tool production. During the Second World War the factory came under German occupation and was converted to the manufacture of war materials.

Like most large industrial enterprises this stock company was nationalized in 1946. Due to the post-war political situation, firearms production in the Strakonice plant was ended.

The company changed after the motorcycle brand went out of production in the 1990s and started focusing on manufacturing car components, like turbochargers, besides its traditional production of chains, tools, moulds, castings and machine tools. Since 1999, Desta forklifts have been manufactured in ČZ Strakonice.

Motorcycle development

Motorcycle development and production as well as competition victories in 1950s and 1960s enabled the ČZ brand to be among the world's most successful makers of competition and street motorcycles. After World War II, ČZ was the second largest motorcycle manufacturer in Europe. It was during this period that the company experienced its greatest racing successes. It began competing in the 250 cc and 350 cc classes of Grand Prix motorcycle road racing. These bikes, although technically refined, were rarely very competitive with bikes from the powerful Italian factories such as MV Agusta, Gilera and Mondial.

The ČZ 501 Čezeta (1957) scooter design has become iconic throughout Eastern Europe, Russia, Vietnam and Cuba. Čezeta thus became Vespa of these Republics.

The ČZ factory recorded a historic victory during the 1963 FIM Motocross World Championship when factory rider Vlastimil Valek rode a 263cc ČZ motorcycle to win the first moto of the 500cc Czechoslovakian Motocross Grand Prix. His victory marked the first time that a two stroke powered motorcycle had won the premier division of the Motocross World Championships.

In the 1969 ČZ produced the technically advanced "Type-860" GP model with a 350 cc V4 engine, developed by the engineer Frantisek Pudil. This advanced bike, with dual overhead camshaft, 16 valves, 8-speed gearbox, Ceriani forks and Dell'Orto SSI carburetors, produced  at 16,000 rpm with a maximum speed of 240 km/h. The V-4  achieved several good results: the best being in 1971, at the Czechoslovakian Grand Prix when Bohumil Stasa finished second behind Jarno Saarinen on his 350 cc Yamaha. In 1972, the bike almost won the Austrian Grand Prix. With just few laps to go in the race the ČZ was leading Giacomo Agostini's MV Agusta when it had to retire with mechanical problems. In 1972 ČZ abandoned Grand Prix road racing competitions in order to concentrate its efforts on motocross, a less expensive form of competition.

ČZ proved to be much more successful with motocross and became well known for its powerful two-stroke off-road motorcycles. They were the first company to use expansion chambers in their exhaust pipes. During the 1960s, they would become the dominant force in off-road competition, winning seven Grand Prix Motocross World Championships and dominating the International Six Day Trial.

By the 1970s, with the advent of inexpensive and technically advanced Japanese motorcycles, ČZ lost an increasing share of the motorcycle market. Ironically, many of the innovations successfully pioneered by ČZ, were copied by the Japanese factories. In 1993 the motorcycle branch of ČZ was bought by the Italian motorcycle manufacturer Cagiva, who intended to use the Czech factories to build their own brand of motorcycles as well as new ČZ and Jawa models. The venture failed in 1997 due to Cagiva's financial difficulties and the ČZ motorcycle brand went out of production.

Since 2018, the company Čezeta Motors is producing electric scooters Čezeta 506.

Competition history

Motocross World Championships
1964  250 cc Motocross - Joël Robert, Belgium
1965  250 cc Motocross - Victor Arbekov, Russia
1966  500 cc Motocross - Paul Friedrichs, East Germany
1967  500 cc Motocross - Paul Friedrichs, East Germany
1968  500 cc Motocross - Paul Friedrichs, East Germany
1968  250 cc Motocross - Joël Robert, Belgium
1969  250 cc Motocross - Joël Robert, Belgium

International Six Day Trials victories
1947 Trophy - Team Czechoslovakia
1952 Trophy - Team Czechoslovakia
1954 Trophy - Team Czechoslovakia
1956 Trophy - Team Czechoslovakia
1958 Trophy - Team Czechoslovakia
1959 Trophy - Team Czechoslovakia
1962 Trophy - Team Czechoslovakia
1970 Trophy - Team Czechoslovakia
1971 Trophy - Team Czechoslovakia
1972 Trophy - Team Czechoslovakia
1973 Trophy - Team Czechoslovakia
1974 Trophy - Team Czechoslovakia
1977 Trophy - Team Czechoslovakia
1978 Trophy - Team Czechoslovakia
1982 Trophy - Team Czechoslovakia

See also
 Jawa Motors

References

External links
CZ History
Article on the CZ 350 V4 Grand Prix race bike
Jawa CZ Owners Club
Jawa CZ Owners Club of Ireland
CZ at Sechtl & Vosecek archive CZ-Strakonice in 1960s photo gallery
International Six Days Trial

Motorcycle manufacturers of Czechoslovakia
Moped manufacturers
Manufacturing companies established in 1919
1919 establishments in Czechoslovakia

Česká zbrojovka Strakonice


The banner o Turkmenistan () wis adoptit on Januar 24, 2001.

It features a green field wi a vertical reid stripe near the hoist side, containin five cairpet guls (designs uised in producin rugs) stackt abuin twa crossed olive branches seemilar tae those on the banner o the Unitit Naitions; a white waxin crescent moon, teepical o Turkic seembology, an five white five-pointit stars appear in the upper corner o the field juist tae the flee side o the reid stripe.

The green an reid colors appear in this banner acause thay hae been veneratit historically bi the Turkmen. The waxin crescent moon symbolizes the hope o the kintra for a shinin future an the stars represent the five provinces (welayatlar) o Turkmenistan – Ahal, Balkan, Dashhowuz, Lebap, an Mary.

The five traditional cairpet designs alang the hoist represent the five major tribes or hooses, an form motifs in the kintra's state emblem an banner. These Turkmen tribes in traditional order (as well as tap tae bottom) are Teke (Tekke), Yomut (Yomud), Arsary (Ersary), Chowdur (Choudur), an Saryk (Saryq). The Salyr (Salor), a tribe that declined as a result o military defeat afore the modren period, are no representit, nor are several smawer tribes or subtribes.

The wreath is ane o the odder pairts o the banner, addit against the rules o heraldry an breakin up the cairpet pattern. It wis addit as an efterthought tae represent the "status o permanent neutrality," which wis acceptit bi the United Naitions General Assembly on December 12, 1995.

Afore independence frae the Soviet Union in 1991, Turkmenistan haed a banner seemilar tae aw ither Soviet Republics; see Banner o the Turkmen SSR. Efter independence in 1991, Turkmenistan adoptit a flag vera seemilar tae the current design, on Februar 19, 1992. Houever, the designs on the left wur different. In 1997, the designs changed again afore becomin the current versions in 2001.

See an aa
Coat o airms o Turkmenistan
Banner o the Turkmen SSR

References

Turkmenistan Pages by Ekahau
Photos of yurts and fabrics at TurkoTek.com (rug enthusiasts' wabsteid)

Turkmenistan
Naitional seembols o Turkmenistan

Banner o Turkmenistan


Gideon Algernon Mantell MRCS FRS (Lewes, 3 February 1790 – London, 10 November 1852) was an English obstetrician, geologist and palaeontologist.

Mantell's work on the structure and life of Iguanodon began the scientific study of dinosaurs. In 1822 he was responsible for the discovery (and the eventual identification) of the first fossil teeth, and later much of the skeleton, of Iguanodon.

Mantell's work on the Cretaceous of southern England was also important. His phrase the "Age of Reptiles" was significant. He recognised that reptiles were the dominant life-form in what we now call the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.

Mantell did two things which were most important. He showed that the teeth of Iguanodon meant it must be a herbivore, and its shorter front legs meant it could be bipedal (walk on two legs). This was denied by Richard Owen, who did a good deal to hide Mantell's achievements. The discovery of this fossil is known to be the first evidence of a prehistoric reptilian dinosaur, dating back roughly 130 million years ago.

At the end of Mantell's life he suffered terribly from damage to his spine caused by an accident. He took an overdose of opium, which caused his death. It is not known whether he did this deliberately; he took opium to dull the pain.

Works by Mantell
Sixty-seven books and memoirs appear in Agassiz and Strickland's Bibliographia Zoologiæ, and forty-eight scientific papers in the Royal Society's Catalogue.
The Fossils of the South Downs. Royal 4to, 42 plates. London 1822. This was his first book, the plates of which were drawn by his wife. Very expensive, at £3. 3/- (three guineas). At double the price, plates were hand-coloured.
Outlines of the natural history of the environs of Lewes. 4to, 24pp, 3pl. Lewes, 1824.
Illustrations of the Geology of Sussex, containing figures and descriptions of the fossils of Tilgate Forest. Royal 4to, 20 plates, £2. 15s. 6d. 1827.
The Geological Age of Reptiles. In Jameson's Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, 1831.
The Geology of the South-East of England. 8vo, with coloured maps, sections, and numerous plates, £1. 1/-. 1833.
Thoughts on a Pebble. 1836.
The Wonders of Geology or, a familiar exposition of geological phenomena: being the substance of a course of lectures delivered at Brighton. 2 vols, London, 1838. Lithographic plates drawn by his wife. Data from 4th ed of 1840: vol 1: 428p, frontis & 4 plates; vol 2: pages 429795 plus appendix, glossary and other material, coloured frontis & 10 coloured pates, most drawn by his wife. Mantell's most extensive work.
The Medals of Creation. 2 vols, 1844.
Thoughts on Animalcules. small 4to, 144p, 12 coloured plates. London: Murray, 1846. 1850 title: The invisible world revealed by the microscope or, thoughts on animalcules.
Geological Excursions round the Isle of Wight and along the adjacent Coast of Dorsetshire. 1847.
Pictorial Atlas of Fossil Remains consisting of coloured Illustration selected from Parkinson's "Organic Remains of Former World" and Arti's "Antediluvian Phytology". London: Bohn. 1850.
Petrifactions and their teachings. 1851.

References

1790 births
1852 deaths
English biologists
Fellows of the Royal Society
British obstetricians

Gideon Mantell


A watchtower or watch tower is a tower used for surveillance. They were used at city walls to see invaders, when they were far away, so the city could prepare for an attack. A watchtower is also used for watching over people (like a town or a city). Watchtowers were popular in the Middle Ages. They are still often used to watch over prisoners and make sure that they don't escape or leave the area. Forestry uses watchtowers to find fires before they become more dangerous.

Towers

Watchtower


Marschall der DDR (Marshal of the German Democratic Republic), was the highest rank in the NVA, the army of the DDR. It was founded on 25th March 1982. The reason was a strategy change in the armies of Warsaw Pact. After the change the DDR needed a new rank to be sure there was only one high command. The rank was never used and abolished in 1989.

East Germany


Friedrich Spanheim the Elder (January 1, 1600, Amberg – May 14, 1649, Leiden) was a Calvinistic theology professor at the University of Leiden.

Life

He entered in 1614 the University of Heidelberg where he studied philology and philosophy, and in 1619 removed to Geneva to study theology. In 1621 he became tutor in the house of Jean de Bonne, Baron de Vitrolle, governor of Embrun in Dauphiné, and after three years he visited Geneva, and Paris, and England, returning to Geneva in 1626 and becoming professor of philosophy. In 1631 he went over to the theological faculty, and was rector of the academy from 1633 to 1637.

In 1642 he moved to Leiden as professor of theology. There Spanheim became one of the most prominent defenders of the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination against Amyraldism.

Works

He published anonymously, Le Soldat suedois (1633), a history of the Thirty Years' War until 1631 and Le Mercure suisse (1634); Commentaire historique de la vie et de la mort de . . Christofle Vicomte de Dohna (1639).

His principal theological works are:

Dubia evangelica (3 vols., Geneva, 1631-1639)
Disputatio de gratia universali (3 vols., Leiden, 1644-1648)
Epistola ad Buchananum super controversiis...in ecclesiis Anglicanis (Leiden, 1645).

Against the Anabaptists he wrote Variae disputationes anti-Anabaptisticae (1643) and Diatribe historica de origine, progressu, sectis et nominibus anabaptistarum (1645; English translation, Englands Warning by Germanies Woe, London, 1646).

References

A. Heiden, Oratio funebris in obitum...F. Spenhemii, Leiden, 1849.
Pierre Bayle, Dictionary, v. 193-195.
Nicéron, Mémoires, xxix. 35
J. Senebier, Hist. littéraire de Genève, ii. 191 sqq., Geneva, 1786
Lichtenberger, ESR, xi. 656.

Attribution

1600 births
1649 deaths
17th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians
Dutch Calvinist and Reformed theologians
Heidelberg University alumni
Academic staff of Leiden University
Academic staff of the University of Geneva
People from Amberg

Friedrich Spanheim


The International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA) was founded in 1924 to promote widespread study, discussion and publicity in the establishment of an international auxiliary language, together with research and experiment.

Although it was created to determine which auxiliary language was best suited for international communication, it eventually determined that none of them was up to the task and developed its own language, Interlingua. The IALA continued to publish materials in and about Interlingua until 1954.

Interlingua


The Group 15 elements, also called the pnictogens, Group V elements, or Group VB elements, are a group on the periodic table. They have many different properties. Nitrogen is a colorless unreactive gas that helps us breathe. Phosphorus is a super reactive white or red solid nonmetal. Arsenic is a highly toxic semimetal. Antimony is also a semimetal. Bismuth is a radioactive metal. Moscovium is a man made element that is radioactive. They all have 5 valence electrons but most of them form +5 or -3 chemical compounds.

15

Pnictogen


Filippo Taglioni (5 November 1777 – 11 February 1871) was an Italian choreographer of the 19th century. His greatest work was the ballet, La Sylphide. Most of his work has been lost. He taught his daughter, Marie Taglioni to dance. She became one of the greatest ballerinas in history.

1777 births
1871 deaths
Italian choreographers

Filippo Taglioni


The Protestant Reformation was a series of events that happened in the 16th century in the Catholic Church. Because of corruption in the Catholic Church, some people saw that the way it worked needed to change. People like Erasmus, Huldrych Zwingli, Martin Luther and John Calvin saw the corruption and tried to stop it. This led to a split in the church, into Catholics and various Protestant churches. The Protestant reformation triggered the Catholic Counter-Reformation.

Martin Luther's posting of The Ninety-Five theses at Wittenberg is seen as the start of the Protestant Reformation. This happened in the year 1517. John Knox brought Luther's ideas to Scotland and founded the Presbyterian Church. As various countries adopted Protestant ideas, wars broke out between Catholic and Protestant factions and countries. Many people died in these wars, which included the Thirty Years' War and the Eighty Years' War. These wars were not just about religion. Since most countries have recognized (state) religion, many of the disputes were political. The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 recognized Protestants when the signers agreed not to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries. This included their chosen religion.

The recent invention of the printing press helped spread awareness of the Church's abuses. A start was made in translating the Bible into various local languages. For example, John Wycliffe and William Tyndale worked on translating it into the English language. Much of Tyndale's translation was used in the King James version of the Bible. Luther translated the Bible into German.

Causes of Reformation
The start of the 16th century, many events led to the Protestant reformation. Clergy abuse caused people to begin criticizing the Catholic Church. The greed and scandalous lives of the clergy had created a split between them and the peasants. Furthermore, the clergy did not respond to the population's needs, often because they did not speak the local language, or live in their own diocese. The papacy lost prestige.

However, the split was more over doctrine than corruption. The main points of criticism were:
 The Bible was only printed in Latin. It was not printed in the local language. Printing was controlled by the church by a system of censorship. Catholic Mass, the Church's chief religious service, was also in Latin. This meant the people could not check whether what the priest said was actually correct.
 The church sold tickets of indulgences (forgiveness) from sins for money. This suggested that the rich could buy their way into Heaven while the poor could not - quite the opposite of what the Bible says. (See Gospel of Matthew 19:24)
 Religious posts were often sold to whoever was willing to pay the most money for them, see Simony. This meant many priests did not know enough about Christianity. So they told the people many different things. Some of the things had little to do with what was written in the Bible.

In 1515, the Pope started a new indulgence campaign to raise money for the rebuilding of St. Peter's Basilica, a church in Rome. Preachers came to Germany to sell the indulgences, promising that money could release souls from purgatory. Martin Luther, a German Catholic monk thought this went too far. On October 31, 1517, he sent his 95 theses to the local archbishop in protest. It is said he nailed a copy to the door of a church in Wittenberg. These theses, written in Latin, were points that Luther wanted to debate. Most of them related to the problems caused by the sale of indulgences. Luther said that the idea the money could buy forgiveness prevented people from turning away from sins. He said that it also made people give less money to the poor. Luther did not attack the Pope. He blamed the abuses on others. Nevertheless, his ideas implied that the pope was corrupt also. Without Luther's permission, the 95 Theses were translated into German and sent to many places. Many people agreed with Luther. The Catholic Church tried to stop these new ideas, but without much result. Luther was considered an enemy of the Pope, and when he refused to change his ideas he was excommunicated (put out of the church). In the beginning, Luther had not planned to separate from the Catholic Church or to create a new religion; he wanted to reform the Catholic Church.

Consequences
In many countries, Christians put the needed reforms listed by Luther into practice. People began to read the Bible in their own language, and many could see for themselves how the Catholic Church had let the Christian faith become corrupted. Many who stayed in the Catholic Church adopted some of Luther's ideas. The Pope reestablished the Inquisition to combat heresy. The Catholic Church responded to the Protestant reformation with the counter-reformation. Between 1545 and 1563 the Council of Trent met to decide what to do. Some of the worst abuses were eliminated but many of the old teachings were kept. The Inquisition tried to force people to keep those ideas. Finding force not very successful, the Pope created new religious orders like the Jesuits. These new religious orders were told to combat Protestantism by educating the population to Catholicism. The Pope made the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, a list of banned books. It had a big influence in its first centuries and was not ended until the 1960s. The Catholic Church used baroque art to touch the religious feeling of the faithful and bring them to the Catholic religion.

In addition to the conflict in the churches, there were political consequences. Common people were made more open to questioning their leaders. In 1524-1525, millions of peasants rebelled against the nobles in the name of equality of humanity in front of God. Many countries in Europe choose Protestantism as the state religion and so Europe was divided by religion. This brought religious wars such as the French Wars of Religion. For a short time, Protestant and Catholic had managed to live with one another and with the Peace of Augsburg in 1555. This Peace recognized the confessional division of the German states and gave the right to Protestants to practice their religion.

Longer Term Impacts
Catholic countries such as Spain and Italy for a long time didn't allow Protestants to live there, and Protestant countries kept out Catholics. With the American Revolution the idea of freedom of religion began to expand. Protestants are influential in the United States and the English Canada. Quebec was a (formerly French) Catholic province of Canada. After the Seven Years War the British imposed the Quebec Act  granting freedom of religion in Quebec, while including in Quebec some of the present day United States, for example Ohio and Michigan. Catholics were granted religious freedom in those areas. Protestant colonists saw this as one of the Intolerable Acts. In later centuries, many Protestant churches were established in the province of Quebec. Many Catholic churches began in Ohio and Michigan. Eventually most Christian countries allowed some religious freedom.

Churches based on Reformation ideas have multiplied into different forms, especially in historically Protestant countries. Even in much of Latin America, which is historically Catholic, Evangelical churches, which follow many of the Protestant ideas have greatly expanded. In the 20th century, some countries still had state churches, but also allowed full freedom of religion. In these countries, conflict between Protestant and Catholic Christians have become less important. They have to work together to confront a more secular society. In 2016 Pope Francis praised Luther in a prayer service commemorating the 500th anniversary of the Reformatiom. In turn, some Protestant churches have embraced some Catholic worship traditions, and others have praised them for their stand on social issues.

Related pages
 Protestantism

References

Protestant Reformation


Armageddon ( Harmagedōn, , Har Megiddo, , ) is the place where the great war of the end of day will start.

Christians that believe that Jesus Christ will someday come back to earth, translated the sentences of the Messiah and the Lamb of God, are the symbolism of Jesus, that will return to the earth to fight the Antichrist (or the Beast) in the battle of Armageddon. After that war Satan (or the Antichrist) will be thrown to the bottomless pit, or Abyss for a 1,000 years, known as the Millennium Age. After Satan will be out of the pit, he will gather one man called Gog and Magog (In the texts he is named God and Magog but also named Gog kind of Magog, in Jewish texts, the war of Gog and Magog means the attack of Gog kind of Magog to kill all the Jewish people, and God will kill him and his army. In Christianity, Gog and Magog are two separate people that are Evil.) from the Four corners of the Earth. They will trap the Holy Ones (means Christians) in the Beloved City, (means Jerusalem). Then Fire will come from God and from the Heavens, and it will destroy Gog and Magog and will trap the Devil in Gehenna (Gehinom, Valley of Hinom, a place near Jerusalem, lake of fire and brimstone, also known as Hell).

The word Armageddon appears only once in the Greek New Testament. This word comes from the Hebrew Har Megiddo (), which means - Mountain of Megiddo. In Israel there is a small city, that is in the Azrieli Vally, called Megiddo. The Mountain of Megiddo is a small mountain which had a big Roman fort.

Related pages
Rapture
Apocalypse
Second Coming
Eschatology
World War III

Christian eschatology

Armageddon


The Berbak National Park in Sumatra island, Jambi province of Indonesia, forms part of the largest undisturbed swamp forest in southeastern Asia, and the peat swamp forest with the greatest number of palm species. Protected since 1935 under Dutch colonial law and later declared a national park, it has been also recognised as a wetland of international importance.

Geography
Berbak National Park occupies part of the vast alluvial plain of East Sumatra, which comprises approximately one quarter of the island. The region is predominantly flat, being dissected by a number of meandering rivers that drain in a northeasterly direction toward the coast. Along the coast and lower sections of the rivers, extensive beach ridges and intertidal mudflats occur. The area contains 600 km2 of freshwater swamp forest and 1,100 km2 of undisturbed peatswamp forest. Its eastern boundary is bordered by muddy coast and a small fringe of mangrove forest. The southern border is the Benu River. The maximum coastal tidal range is 2-2.5 m decreasing to 1 m upstream. The rivers are up to 20 m deep and contain acid peatwater.

Vegetation and fauna

Plant species in the park include genus Shorea rainforest trees and 23 species of palm tree. Of these a number are categorized as endangered, including Johannesteijsmannia altifrons, and a newly found species Lepidaria kingii.

Berbak National Park provides a rich habitat for fauna, which include the endangered Sumatran tiger and Malayan tapir.  Small remnant populations of the critically threatened Sumatran rhinoceros may still exist in some areas of the park, although they have not been sighted in recent years. The more than 250 bird species include the Chinese egret, lesser adjutant stork, many species of kingfisher, and the white-winged wood duck. Reptiles include the Malaysian giant turtle, batagur turtle, saltwater crocodile and  tiger barb.

Conservation and threats
The area of the national park has been protected since 1935 under Dutch colonial law, and later became a wildlife reserve (Suaka Margasatwa). It has been declared a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention and a national park in 1992

The park has degraded since 1990, mainly due to illegal logging and fires. Major fires occurred in 1994, and again in 1997, destroying about 12,000 ha in the central area of the park along the Air Hitam Laut River, and about 4,000 ha along the Simpang Melaka River. It is estimated that at least 25% of the park has been affected by illegal logging and subsequent fires. Hunting and capturing of animals and some illegal huts also exist within the reserve.

In 2013 a tree house was built at Simpang Malaka, from which researchers and tourists can observe tigers safely. The tree house was built from donation made by Green Sands.

References

National parks of Indonesia
Ramsar sites in Indonesia
Wetlands of Indonesia
Protected areas of Sumatra
Protected areas established in 1935
Geography of Jambi
Tourist attractions in Jambi
Landforms of Jambi
Landforms of Sumatra
Sunda Shelf mangroves
Drainage basins of the East Coast of Sumatra
Batanghari basin

Berbak National Park


The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is the confederation of countries that used to form the Soviet Union.

Establishment
On December 8, 1991, leaders of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine met at the nature reserve called Belovezhskaya Pushcha in Belarus. They discussed the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in place of the Soviet Union. They reached an agreement about many points and signed a document creating the CIS. One of these points stated that the alliance would be open to all the republics of the Soviet Union. Other nations with similar goals could also join the CIS.

Nations
The Soviet Union had 15 republics: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. On 6th September 1991, the Soviet Union had recognized the independence of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Out of the remaining 12 republics, all (except Georgia) joined the CIS. Before joining the CIS, on 21st December 1991, leaders of these 11 countries had met in Kazakhstan to accept the original CIS agreement of 8th December 1991. Because Ukraine did not ratify the CIS agreement in the national parliament, it never became an official member of the CIS, but nevertheless participated as a de facto member. In December 1993, Georgia also joined the CIS. On 26th August 2006 Turkmenistan left the permanent membership, and became an associate member. On 15th August 2008 Georgia left the CIS membership, and Georgia's CIS membership officially ended on 17th August 2009. On 19 May 2018, Ukraine, which stopped participating in CIS in 2014 because of its conflict with Russia over Crimea and the Donbas, formally ended all participation in CIS.

With the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Soviet Union ceased to exist. It was the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Many consider that with CIS, Russia continues to have some control over the former republics of the Soviet Union.

Headquarters
The CIS has its headquarters at Minsk, Belarus. An executive director heads the CIS. The CIS is not a successor country to the Soviet Union. The CIS is an organization or alliance of independent countries. It is more like the European Community. The member countries of the CIS had also signed many agreements for economic cooperation and defense cooperation. They have signed other agreements for cooperation in foreign policy and other matters.

Other websites
 http://cis.minsk.by Belarus
 Commonwealth of Independent States - Citizendium

1991 establishments in Europe
International organizations
Political organizations based in Europe
Soviet Union
Politics of Asia
Politics of Europe
Political organizations based in Asia
1991 establishments in Asia

Commonwealth of Independent States


Albert Thomas (16 June 1878 – 7 May 1932) was a prominent French Socialist and the first Minister of Armament for the French Third Republic during World War I. Following the Treaty of Versailles, he was nominated as the first Director General of the International Labour Office, a position he held until his death in 1932. As Director-General, he was succeeded by Harold Butler.

Early years

He was born at Champigny-sur-Marne on 16 June 1878. In 1898, he entered the École Normale Supérieure, where he studied history and won a travelling scholarship which enabled him to visit Russia. Other educational distinctions followed, including degrees in literature and history at the University of Paris. In 1904, Thomas was both appointed to the editorial staff of L'humanité and elected a municipal councillor for Champigny, where, eight years later he was elected mayor. As a journalist, Thomas wrote for L'information and the Revue socialiste founded the Revue syndicaliste and subsequently launched L'Information ouvrière et sociale.

National politics and war

In 1910, Thomas was elected member of the Chamber of Deputies for one of the constituencies of the Department of the Seine, and he was re-elected in 1914. He became a member of the public works, railways, and finance committees of the Chamber and was active in shaping legislative measures, notably those relating to conditions in mines, industrial and agricultural workers pensions, and pensions for miners.

When the First World War broke out, Thomas served in a territorial regiment of the French Army for a few weeks after which he was summoned to Paris and placed in control of the railway services, acting as a link between the General Staff and the Ministry of Public Works. In October 1914, the Government gave him the task of organising factories with a view to the intensive production of munitions. In May 1915, he was appointed Under-Secretary of State for Artillery and Munitions, becoming Minister of Munitions the following year. Thomas first became a member of the cabinet on 12 December 1915 when he was made the Sub-Minister of Artillery and Munitions under the Minister of War. Due in large part to the need for more shells for the widely used "Soixante-Quinze" cannon, he was promoted again on 12 Dec 1916 to become Minister of Armaments. He answered only to the Prime Minister and subsequently President of the Republic, Raymond Poincaré. Thomas was removed from the Ministry on 12 September 1917 by Louis Loucheur.

International Labour Office

Thomas was elected Deputy for the Tarn. In November 1919, during the inaugural Session of the International Labour Conference in Washington, at which he was not present, the Governing Body of the ILO chose him to be the Director of the Office. From then, Thomas gave himself up entirely to the work of the ILO.

Thomas gave ILO a strong impetus from the very beginning. In a few years, he created, out of a small group of officials housed in a private residence in London, an international institution with a staff of 400 and a building of its own in Geneva. In the first two years, 16 international Labour Conventions and 18 Recommendations had been adopted. From 1920 onwards, the ILO launched an ambitious programme of publications, which included the Official Bulletin, the monthly International Labour Review and various other periodicals and newspapers. As Director, Thomas took personal interest in recruiting an international team to form the Secretariat of the Organisation. His leadership helped to establish the image of the ILO as one of boundless enthusiasm and explosive energy.

Opposition between national governments, organised labour and employer representative bodies soon began to develop, and the optimism that had prevailed immediately following the end of the war gave way to doubt and pessimism. Some members sought to restrict the powers and activities of the Organisation. Firstly, it was felt that the Conference had gone too far and too quickly in the output of Conventions and Recommendations. National governments and parliaments could not or would not keep up. Thomas, noting the disappointing number of ratifications reached the conclusion that over-production of Conventions and Recommendations should stop.

The publications programme of the Office became a target for criticism, namely that its research was not objective and impartial. At the same time, efforts were being made to restrict the competence of the ILO. In 1921, the French government took the position that the ILO was not competent to deal with agricultural matters and the Permanent Court of International Justice was requested to give an advisory opinion on the question. The Court found that the competence of the ILO did extend to international regulation of the conditions of labour of persons in agriculture, rejecting a restrictive interpretation of the Constitution. Other attempts to induce the Court to restrict the scope of action of the ILO also failed in 1922 and 1926.

Another serious difficulty emerged over the financing of the Organisation. Under the Constitution, the ILO was dependent on the League of Nations for its financing, but in all matters of general policy the Constitution provided the ILO for absolute independence. In 1923, a group of governments worked in the Governing Body to reduce the ILO's budget to approximately US $1,400,000 - which became established as a standard level for the ILO.

The restriction of the budget made stabilization and consolidation of ILO programmes and activities necessary. That, in turn, had positive spillover effects. Between 1922 and 1931, the Conference continued to meet each year but adopted only 15 Conventions and 21 Recommendations. The limitation of the standard-setting work of the ILO allowed national governments to devote adequate attention to applying the provisions of the international agreements in national laws and regulations. More and more countries ratified ILO Conventions and ILO standards began to exercise an effective influence in the improvements of conditions of life and work. In 1926, an important innovation was introduced when the International Labour Conference set up a supervisory system on the application of its standards, which still exists today. It created the Committee of Experts composed of independent jurists responsible for examining government reports and presenting its own report each year to the Conference.

The stabilization of the ILO's basic programmes in no sense implied stagnation. As Director, Thomas continued to inspire his staff to take advantage of every opportunity to promote the objectives of the ILO. He was a great believer in the "policy of presence", and he spent a good deal of time travelling in order to seek support for the objectives and functions of the Organisation. He visited all the European countries, as well as countries in North and South America, China and Japan. In 1932, after having assured the ILO's strong presence in the world for 13 years, Thomas suddenly died at 53.

Sources

 International Labour Organization Website

External links

1878 births
1932 deaths
People from Champigny-sur-Marne
French Section of the Workers' International politicians
Government ministers of France
Members of the 10th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic
Members of the 11th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic
Members of the 12th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic
Members of Parliament for Seine
Members of Parliament for Tarn
Mayors of places in Île-de-France
International Labour Organization people
École Normale Supérieure alumni
French military personnel of World War I

Albert Thomas (minister)


African countries have been sites for clinical trials by large pharmaceutical companies, raising human rights concerns. Incidents of unethical experimentation, clinical trials lacking properly informed consent, and forced medical procedures have been claimed and prosecuted.

Specific incidents by date

Meningitis testing in Nigeria: 1990s

The Pfizer drug Trovan was used in a clinical trial in Kano, Nigeria. The trial compared the new antibiotic (Trovan) against the best treatment available at the time (intravenous ceftriaxone). Eleven children died in the trial: five after taking Trovan and six after taking an older antibiotic used for comparison in the clinical trial. Others suffered blindness, deafness and brain damage, the cause of which is difficult to determine because these disabilities are relatively common outcomes of the disease itself. A panel of medical experts later implicated Pfizer in the incident, concluding the drug had been administered as part of an illegal clinical trial without authorization from the Nigerian government or consent from the children's parents. This led to a lawsuit from the Nigerian government over informed consent. Pfizer countered that it met all the necessary regulations. The drug was approved for general use in the US but eventually withdrawn due to hepatotoxicity.

HIV/AIDS testing in Zimbabwe: 1990s

AZT trials conducted on HIV-positive African subjects by U.S. physicians and the University of Zimbabwe were performed without proper informed consent. The United States began testing AZT treatments in Africa in 1994, through projects funded by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It included testing of over 17,000 women for a medication that prevents mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS. The subjects did not fully understand the testing methods, the effectiveness, the possible dangers, or the nature of a placebo in testing situations.  They were also told about the trials under duress. Half of these women received a placebo that has no effect, making transmission likely. As a result, an estimated 1000 babies contracted HIV/AIDS although a proven life-saving regimen already existed. The CDC ended the short course testing in 1998 after they announced they had enough information from Thailand trials.

Forced sexual reassignment in South Africa: 1970s–1980s
In a project headed by Aubrey Levin during the 1970s to 1980s, the South African Defence Force forced lesbian and gay military personnel to undergo "sex-change" operations. This was part of a secret program to purge homosexuality in the army. It included psychological coercion, chemical castration, electric shock, and other unethical medical experiments. An estimated 900 forced sexual reassignment operations may have been performed between 1971 and 1989 at military hospitals. Most of the victims were males, young 16 to 24-year-old white men who were drafted into the army during the South African Border War. Women were also subject to the experimentation.

Forced contraception in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe): 1970s
Depo-Provera was clinically tested on black Rhodesian (now Zimbabwean) women in the 1970s. Once approved, the drug was used as a birth control measure. Women on white-run commercial farms were coerced into accepting Depo-Provera. In 1981, the drug was banned in what was by then Zimbabwe.

Sterilisation experiments in German South-West Africa (now part of Namibia): Late 1800s–1910s
Eugen Fischer conducted sterilisation experiments on Herero women in German South-West Africa (now Namibia, less Walvis Bay etc.) in the early 1900s. His experimentation was largely done on mixed-race offspring in order to provide justification to ban mixed-race marriages. He joined the Nazi party thereafter where he did similar experiments in the Jewish concentration camps. Late stage studies were later continued by Doctor , founder of the German branch of International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) who is also associated with the compulsory sterilisation in Nazi Germany.

Effects on legitimate medicine
Unethical medical experimentation that has occurred for over a century may be the cause of the documented fear and mistrust of doctors and medicine in Africa. For example, polio has been on the rise in Nigeria, Chad, and Burkina Faso because many people there avoid vaccinations because they believe that the vaccines are contaminated with HIV or sterilization agents. Due to the meningitis testing incident in Kano, many Nigerians now refuse to participate in clinical trials.

The role of poverty
Many African nations cannot afford to offer medicine for their citizens without subsidies from multinational pharmaceutical corporations. To court these pharmaceutical corporations, some African nations minimize legal regulations on the conduct of medical research, which prevents potential legal battles from arising. This forces some Africans to make a Hobson's choice: "experimental medicine or no medicine at all".  People living in the rural or slum area are also more vulnerable to experimentation because they are more likely to be illiterate and to misunderstand the effects of the experimentation.

Codes of ethics
Several national and international bodies have devised codes of ethics for conducting experiments and clinical trials.  These include the Nuremberg Code and Helsinki Declaration and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, which seeks to prohibit all medical and scientific experiments on women without their prior informed consent.

Popular culture references
The book and movie The Constant Gardener highlighted the dynamics of conduct in clinical trials in Africa in the slum areas. This was based on the real-life meningitis incident in Kano, Nigeria. New York Times best seller book Medical Apartheid by Harriet A. Washington, provides a historical account of experimentation on African Americans, but also includes the links to African experimentation.

See also
Human experimentation in North Korea
Japanese human experimentation
Nazi human experimentation
Unethical human experimentation in the United States
Project Coast

References

Human rights in Africa
World Health Organization
Clinical trials
Human subject research
Health in Africa
Medical scandals
History of eugenics
Race and health
History of medicine
Research in Africa
Medical research

Medical experimentation in Africa


Edward Misselden (fl. 1608–1654) was an English merchant, and leading member of the writers in the Mercantilist group of economic thought. He argued that international movements of money and fluctuations in the exchange rate depended upon the international trade flows and not the manipulations of the bankers, which was the popular view at the time. He suggested that trading returns should be established for purposes of statistical analysis, so that the state could regulate trade with a view to obtaining export surpluses.

Life
He was deputy-governor of the Merchant Adventurers' Company at Delft from 1623 until 1633. On his departure from England (October 1623) the East India Company invited him to act as one of their commissioners at Amsterdam to negotiate a private treaty with the Dutch; he had probably been employed by the Merchant Adventurers' Company in 1616 in a similar capacity. His fellow-commissioner was Robert Barlow, East India merchant. The negotiations, however, were fruitless, and the report of the Amboyna massacre made progress difficult.

In low health, Misselden returned to England, and presented to the company an account of the negotiations (3 November 1624). He returned to Delft at the end of November 1624, and during the next four years he was again employed by the East India Company in the Amboyna matter. He was also entrusted with the negotiations on behalf of the Merchant Adventurers' Company for a reduction of the duties on English cloth. Dudley Carleton, the English ambassador at the Hague, believed that he had been bribed by the Dutch, while the States-General, on the other hand, suspected him of compromising their interests by sending secret information to England, and confronted him (October 1628) with some of his letters. Missenden was aggrieved at his treatment, and declined to have anything further to do with the East India Company's affairs. His case was taken up by the privy council, and reparation was made (1628).

Misselden supported William Laud's schemes for bringing the practice of the English congregations abroad into conformity with that of the Church of England. The merchant adventurers at Delft were strongly presbyterian, and John Forbes, their preacher, exercised great influence. Misselden's attempts to impose the Book of Common Prayer were met by plots to eject him from his position, and he and Forbes were bitterly opposed. He was ultimately turned out, and the company chose in his place Samuel Avery, a presbyterian.

Two years later (1635) abortive attempts were made to obtain his election as deputy-governor at Rotterdam, and Charles I addressed a letter to the Merchant Adventurers' Company vainly recommending them to deprive Robert Edwards who was in the post. Behind this lay the fact that Missenden had furnished Philip Burlamachi with large sums for the king's service, and in May 1633, £13,000 remained unpaid.

Misselden was subsequently employed by the Merchant Adventurers' Company on missions. Around 1650 he was in Hamburg, and tried to make himself useful to the Parliamentary regime; but his reputation as a royalist told against him.

Writings
Misselden's economic writings were prompted mainly by the appointment of the standing commission on trade (1622). In his Free Trade, or the Means to make Trade flourish, London, 1622, he discussed the causes of the alleged decay of trade, which he attributed to excessive consumption of foreign commodities, exportation of bullion by the East India Company, and defective searching in the cloth trade. His object appears to have been to disarm the opposition to the regulated companies, especially the Merchant Adventurers', and turn it against the joint-stock associations.

The views he put forth on the East India trade were inconsistent with those he advocated in the following year. Gerard Malynes immediately attacked his pamphlet, opposing the principles of foreign exchange. In reply Misselden published The Circle of Commerce, or the Ballance of Trade, in Defence of Free Trade, opposed to Malynes' " Little Fish and his Great Whale," and poized against them in the Scale, London, 1623. After dealing with Malynes's views, and stating a theory of exchange, he discussed the balance of trade. He defended the exportation of bullion on the ground that by the re-exportation of the commodities the country was thus enabled to purchase, the treasure of the nation was augmented. His theory of the balance of trade is similar to that later developed by Thomas Mun.

References

Attribution

External links
 Free Trade or, The Meanes To Make Trade Florish

1608 births
1654 deaths
English economists
English merchants
17th-century English businesspeople
British East India Company people
Mercantilists

Edward Misselden