Richard Wagner (22 May 1813 in Leipzig – 13 February 1883 in Venice) was a German opera composer. He was one of the most important opera composers in Germany during the Romantic period. Apart from some music that he wrote as a student he wrote ten operas which are all performed regularly in opera houses today. Most of his operas are about stories from German mythology. He always wrote the words himself.

Wagner changed people's ideas of what operas should be. He thought that the drama (the story that is being told with all its tensions) was very important, and he chose the singers for his operas himself, so that he could train them into his way of thinking. The music in his operas did not give the audience a chance to applaud after big solos as it had done in the 18th century: it continues throughout the whole act. He made his music tell the story by using what he called "leitmotifs". These were melodies or short musical phrases which belonged to particular characters in the opera, or to particular ideas. He had more influence on other composers than anybody else in his time, largely because of his harmonies which became more and more chromatic (using lots of sharps and flats), with many changes of key. He built an opera house to his own design in the German town of Bayreuth. Nearly all musicians in Europe tried to make a journey to Bayreuth to hear Wagner's music. The Wagner festival still takes place every year there.

His life

Early years

He studied at the University of Leipzig, although he was not allowed to be a full student because he did not have proper school qualifications. Although he lived a wild life he worked hard at his music. He studied the scores of Beethoven's string quartets and symphonies and he wrote his own symphony which was performed in 1833 at the famous Leipzig Gewandhaus. He wrote his first opera, Die Feen (The Fairies) in Würzburg. He became the conductor of a travelling opera group and fell in love with one of the singers called Minna Planer and he married her in 1836. His second opera, Das Liebesverbot, based on Shakespeare's play Measure for Measure was a failure.

Wagner always liked spending money, and he soon found he owed money to a lot of people, so he went away to Paris where he lived for three years. He was not successful at all there, none of the French musicians showed any interest in him and he was very poor. He still managed to write an opera Rienzi in 1841, and this was soon followed by Der fliegende Holländer, (The Flying Dutchman), which still remains a favourite to opera lovers today. It was first performed in Dresden in 1843. The audience did not like it much because they were used to operas like Rienzi which were written in the old way. Wagner was given the job of court opera composer in Dresden. He stayed there until 1849. During that time he worked very hard to make opera performances better, improve the orchestra and train the singers. In 1845 he wrote another great opera, Tannhäuser. People gradually started to understand the way that Wagner's music was telling the drama of the story. After this all his operas were great successes, although there always remained some people who hated his music, e.g. the music critic Eduard Hanslick.

Years in exile

In 1848 he finished working on Lohengrin but it was not performed because he was supporting the Revolutions of 1848 in the German states, joining in the demonstrations. Although he did join the fighting he was going to be arrested, so Franz Liszt helped him to escape to Switzerland. He lived in Zürich until 1858. There he wrote about music, conducted, and read stories from Norse mythology. He was starting to think about writing operas about these stories. It was something that would take him over 25 years to complete. They were to become the four operas known as Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung) which, together, tell one long story. The four operas which make up this famous Ring cycle are Das Rheingold (The Rhinegold), Die Walküre (The Valkyrie), Siegfried and Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods). Because of the political situation in Germany at the time, Wagner expected the rise of a socialist state. The operas in the Ring cycle were a new kind of music drama (which Wagner simply called "drama"). These operas can be seen as describing a new kind of world in which humans are free. The music used the idea of leitmotif (in English: "leading motive"), where musical ideas represent characters or emotions, and help the development and understanding of the story.

By 1857 Wagner had written the first two operas as well as Acts One and Two of Siegfried. However, the third Act of Siegfried was not written until many years later, because he could see that at that time there was no suitable opera house to have these operas performed. He fell in love with a woman called Mathilde Wesendonk, whose husband was very rich. This affair led to a separation with his wife, Minna. He wrote an opera about an unhappy love affair: Tristan und Isolde (Tristan and Isolde).

Mid career

Meanwhile, he wrote another opera: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Mastersinger of Nűrnberg). It is the only comedy Wagner wrote.
It is set in medieval Germany and is about a song contest.

By 1864 Wagner was in debt once more. He fled to Stuttgart to avoid being put into prison (Germany at that time was still made up of many small countries, each with their own laws). Then he had a big stroke of luck. The new king of Bavaria, Ludwig II, who was only 18 years old, adored the music of Wagner. He had read the poem about the Ring of the Nibelungs (Wagner had written the words, but had not finished the music). King Ludwig invited Wagner to finish the Ring cycle for performances in Munich. He gave him somewhere to live, and his new operas were performed in Munich: Tristan und Isolde in 1865, Die Meistersinger von Nűrnberg in 1868, Das Rheingold in 1869 and Die Walkűre in 1870. There were plans for a new opera house in Munich, but it was never built because people were angry with Wagner for being in debt in spite of having lots of money from the king. Another thing people did not like was that he fell in love with the wife of the man who had conducted his operas, Hans von Bülow. Her name was Cosima. Her father was the composer Franz Liszt who had not been married to Cosima's mother. Wagner had already left Munich in 1865, but the king still supported him, making it possible for him to live in a large house called Triebschen on Lake Lucerne. Cosima divorced von Bülow in 1870 and married Wagner in the same year.

Bayreuth and Wahnfried

By now Wagner was working hard at the Ring cycle again. He had promised the king that the four operas would be performed in Munich when they were ready, but he realized that they would need a special kind of opera house. So he designed his own opera house and had it built in the town of Bayreuth. He spent a lot of time travelling and conducting in order to raise money for this huge project. The King Ludwig also gave him a lot of money, and a lovely new house in Bayreuth which Wagner called Wahnfried (the name of the house means something like: Peace from the mad world). Finally, the complete cycle of four operas was performed in August 1876 in the new opera house, the (Bayreuth Festspielhaus). The third and fourth operas of the cycle, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung  were being performed for the first time.

Wagner spent the rest of his life living in Wahnfried. Sometimes he travelled. He went to London and made several trips to Italy. He wrote his last opera, Parsifal, which almost has a religious feeling to it. The story is related to the legends about King Arthur and the Holy Grail. Wagner dictated his memoirs to his wife. His autobiography is called Mein Leben (My Life). He died of a heart attack when he was staying in Venice. He was buried in the grounds of Wahnfried.

Wagner's reputation

Wagner had enormous influence on the development of music. Many composers imitated his harmonies, or let themselves be influenced by them. By the early 20th century some composers like Arnold Schoenberg had gone even farther in making more and more complicated harmonies, and composers had to find new ways of composing.

Wagner made his orchestras much bigger than usual. The woodwind, for example, need four of each instrument (four flutes, four oboes etc.), and there are extra instruments like the bass clarinet and Wagner tubas. His ideas about music drama were very important. His music helps the drama to be told because it develops all the time, like the music in a symphony.

Wagner was anti-semitic. Wagner's writings on Jews, including 'Jewishness in Music', corresponded to some existing anti-semitic trends of thought in Germany during the 19th century. The published essay attacks two Jewish composers and Jews in general.

Wagner died long before the Nazis arose. Wagner's widow and heirs established direct political links with the Nazis. Their actions to belittle Jewish artists and involvement in anti-semetic organisations after 1914 helped prepare the ground for state-organised expulsion of Jewish artists after 1933.

When Hitler came to power in the 1930s he liked Wagner's music and thought that it was something typically German. Wagner's ideas in Die Meistersinger von Nűrnberg about German art suited some of Hitler's thoughts. After the war, the music was wrongly thought of as being something of the Nazis. Wagner wrote things that freely expressed his dislike of Jewish composers, although he praised Felix Mendelssohn for his Hebrides Overture. Wagner also had some Jewish friends. Wagner's music is played very rarely in Israel. Daniel Barenboim made people in Israel angry by conducting Wagner's music at a Jerusalem festival in 2001.

References

German autobiographers
19th-century German composers
Musicians from Leipzig
Romantic composers
1813 births
1883 deaths

Richard Wagner


The Tertiary was an official geological period, but it is no longer used. It included the first part of the Cainozoic. This is now divided into the Palaeogene and the Neogene.

The previous use of the term "Tertiary" explains why the last period of the Cainozoic is called the Quarternary. There was a big debate about that. These decisions are made by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS). This organisation runs an International Commission on Stratigraphy, which decides how we should name geological strata and stages.

In 19th and 20th century scientific literature, Tertiary is used where geologists now use Palaeogene and Neogene.

References

Cainozoic

Tertiary


Arabella Mansfield (May 23, 1846 – August 1, 1911), born Belle Aurelia Babb, became the first female lawyer in the United States in 1869, admitted to the Iowa bar; she made her career as a college educator and administrator. Despite an Iowa state law restricting the bar exam to males, Mansfield had taken it and earned high scores. Shortly after her court challenge, Iowa amended its licensing statute and became the first state to accept women and minorities into its bar.

During her career, Mansfield worked primarily as an educator and activist, teaching at Iowa Wesleyan College and DePauw University. At the latter, she also became a university administrator, serving successively as dean in the 1890s of two different schools.

Early life and education
Belle Aurelia Babb (known as Belle) was born in 1846 on a family farm in Benton Township, Des Moines County, Iowa, as the second child to Mary (Moyer) (1820-1895) and Miles Babb. Her older brother, Washington Irving Babb, born in 1844 and named after the prominent New York author, was her lifelong friend. While Belle was young, her father left for California April 10, 1850 on the Flint River Company wagon train. Prior to his departure he signed a will making provisions for the educations of his children. Miles became superintendent of the Bay State Mining Company and was killed in the collapse of a mining tunnel at the Mameluke Hill mine in El Dorado County, California Dec. 23, 1852.

Mary Babb moved with their two children to Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, where they attended local schools. (Clara Foltz, the first woman lawyer to be accepted to the bar on the West Coast, also grew up in Mount Pleasant around this time.)

In 1862, Babb started her studies at Iowa Wesleyan College in Mount Pleasant. There she began using the name Arabella (previously, she had gone by her given name of Belle). As many men were leaving to fight in the American Civil War, universities were admitting more women students and hiring them as teachers. Arabella Babb graduated in three years as valedictorian; her brother Washington Babb was salutatorian in the same class.

Career

Babb taught at Des Moines Conference Seminary (now Simpson College) in Indianola, Iowa for a year. She returned to Mount Pleasant to marry her college sweetheart, John Melvin Mansfield, a young professor at Iowa Wesleyan. He encouraged her in her ambition to study law. Arabella Mansfield "read the law" as an apprentice in her brother Washington's law office, after he had passed the bar and established his practice. Although by Iowa law the bar exam was restricted to "males over 21," Arabella Mansfield took the exam in 1869, passing it with high scores.

In 1869, Iowa became the first state in the union to admit women to the practice of law after Mansfield challenged the state law excluding her. The Court ruled that women may not be denied the right to practice law in Iowa, admitting Mansfield to the bar. Mansfield was sworn in at the Union Block building in Mount Pleasant that year.

Although admitted to the bar, Mansfield did not practice law, concentrating on college teaching and activist work. She taught at Iowa Wesleyan College, followed by DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. In 1893 she was selected as Dean of the School of Art at DePauw, and in 1894 as Dean of the School of Music. In 1893, Mansfield joined the National League of Women Lawyers.

Mansfield was also active in the women's suffrage movement, chairing the Iowa Women's Suffrage Convention in 1870, and working with Susan B. Anthony.

Mansfield died August 1, 1911, at the home of her brother, Washington I. Babb, in Aurora, Illinois, before getting to see the suffrage movement's ultimate achievement: passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, effective in 1920.

Legacy and honors
In 1980, Arabella Mansfield was inducted into the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame.
In 2002 the Iowa Organization of Women Attorneys established the Arabella Mansfield Award to recognize outstanding women lawyers in the state.
A commemorative sculpture of her was commissioned by Iowa Wesleyan College and installed at the campus; it was created by Benjamin Victor.
The National Association of Women Lawyers named its most prestigious award after Arabella Babb Mansfield. Past winners include all three sitting female U.S. Supreme Court Justices, Judge Ann Claire Williams (7th Circuit), Anita Hill, and Marcia Greenberger.
In 2017, Diversity Lab established the Mansfield Rule to hold big law firms accountable for their diversity goals. Named for Arabella Mansfield, the rule is modeled after the National Football League's Rooney Rule, which requires teams to interview a minority candidate for head coach or general manager vacancies. The idea, first proposed by Mark Helm, a partner at Munger, Tolles & Olson, was to create a system to circumvent implicit biases and encourage big law firms to consider women or minority candidates for leadership roles at the firm. To be considered "Mansfield Certified" by Diversity Lab, a firm needs to show that 30 percent of the candidate pool for these positions were underrepresented lawyers.

See also
Carrie Chapman Catt, contemporaneous Iowa leader of women's suffrage movement
List of first women lawyers and judges in the United States
First women lawyers around the world
List of suffragists and suffragettes
Gertrude Rush, Iowa's first African-American lawyer
Feminism
History of feminism

References

External links
Biography: "Arabella Mansfield" , Iowa Women Attorneys
"Arabella Mansfield", Encyclopædia Britannica

Iowa lawyers
American feminists
American suffragists
19th-century American women lawyers
People from Burlington, Iowa
People from Mount Pleasant, Iowa
1846 births
1911 deaths
Iowa Wesleyan University alumni
Iowa Wesleyan University faculty
Simpson College faculty
DePauw University faculty
American lawyers admitted to the practice of law by reading law
19th-century American lawyers
American women academics

Arabella Mansfield


Johann Ulrich von Cramer (8 November 1706 – 18 June 1772) was an eminent German judge, legal scholar, and Enlightenment philosopher.

Biography
Cramer was the most important representative of Wolffianism in the area of law; he was first a university professor at the University of Marburg and then one of the highest judges of the Holy Roman Empire, both in Vienna and Wetzlar.

Works

JCramer, Johann Ulrich von. Opuscula, 5 vols., Wolfgang Drechsler (ed.). Christian Wolff, Gesammelte Werke, IIIrd series, vol. 34, pts. 1–5, Hildesheim - Zürich - New York: Olms, 1996.
Cramer, Johann Ulrich von. Sammlung juristischer Ausführungen einiger vertheidigten Rechts-Sachen, welche bey denen höchsten Reichs-Gerichtern durch den Druck bekandt gemacht worden. - Wetzlar, 1759. digital

References

Further reading

External links

Ulrich von Cramer (1706-1772), BnF

1706 births
1772 deaths
German philosophers
German male writers

Johann Ulrich von Cramer


Andrew Jones (born 1835, date of death unknown) was a Union Navy sailor in the American Civil War. He received the Medal of Honor which is the U.S. military's highest decoration. He received it for his actions at the Battle of Mobile Bay.

Biography
Jones was born in 1835 in Limerick, Ireland. He immigrated to the United States and was living in New York when he joined the U.S. Navy. He served during the Civil War as a chief boatswain's mate on the . Although their enlistments had expired, Jones and crewmate James Seanor voluntarily transferred to the  to fight in the Battle of Mobile Bay on August 5, 1864. During the battle they "carried out [their] duties gallantly" according to the Medal of Honor citation. For this actions, both Jones and Seanor were presented the Medal of Honor four months later, on December 31, 1864.

Jones's official Medal of Honor citation reads:
Served as chief boatswain's mate on board the U.S. Ironclad Chickasaw, Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Although his enlistment was up, Jones volunteered for the battle of Mobile Bay, going on board the Chickasaw from the Vincennes where he then carried out his duties gallantly throughout the engagement with the enemy which resulted in the capture of the rebel ram Tennessee.

References

1835 births
Year of death unknown
United States Navy Medal of Honor recipients
People from New York City
Military personnel of the American Civil War
People from Limerick

Andrew Jones (Medal of Honor)


Liu Ji (1 July 1311 – 16 May 1375), courtesy name Bowen, better known as Liu Bowen, was a Chinese military strategist, philosopher, and politician who lived in the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties. He was born in Qingtian County (present-day Wencheng County, Wenzhou, Zhejiang). He served as a key advisor to Zhu Yuanzhang, the Hongwu Emperor, the founder of the Ming dynasty, in the latter's struggle to overthrow the Yuan dynasty and unify China proper under his rule. Liu is also known for his prophecies and has been described as the "Divine Chinese Nostradamus". He and Jiao Yu co-edited the military treatise known as the Huolongjing (Fire Dragon Manual).

Liu Bowen initially aided Zhu Yuanzhang in his ascent to power, but later on Li Shanchang and Hu Weiyong fought with Liu, forcing Liu to resign. Liu Bowen was told Zhu that Hu was not suitable for position of prime minister. Zhu and Hu Weiyong then poisoned Liu to death as part of the Four Major Cases of the early Ming dynasty.

Career

Liu served under Zhu Yuanzhang's rebellion against the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty, which had ruled all of China proper since the conquest of the Southern Song in 1279. He dabbled in many fields of statecraft, philosophy, scholarly works, and technology. His philosophical outlook was that of a skeptical naturalist, and he became interested in astronomy, calendrical science, magnetism, and fengshui. He was known to be a friendly associate of the mathematician and alchemist Zhao Yuqin, and collaborated with the contemporary general and scholar Jiao Yu to edit and compile the military-technology treatise of the Huolongjing, which outlined the use of various gunpowder weapons. He was very interested in the latter, and once said that "thunder is like fire shot from a cannon".

Early service under the Yuan dynasty
Liu sat for the imperial examination and obtained the position of a jinshi ("presented scholar", the highest grade of successful candidate) in the final years of the Yuan dynasty. He spent much of his early career attempting to save the Yuan dynasty from collapse. He served the Yuan dynasty as an official for 25 years, gaining a reputation for integrity and honesty, and became known as a distinguished scholar and strategist. In 1348, he was appointed to a military position and assigned to put down a southern rebellion against the dynasty. The leader of the rebellion attempted to save himself by offering Liu a bribe. When Liu refused, the rebel went to Beijing and succeeded in bribing his way into favour there.

Once the secessionist had bribed his way into the regime's favour, he was given a public office and a salary. Liu's relationship with the Yuan government deteriorated after this event. He attempted to resign twice, in 1349 and 1352. He was demoted in 1358, and finally left service to retire in his ancestral homeland. In 1360, Liu was introduced to Zhu Yuanzhang, a former leader of a radical White Lotus rebellion who was then the leader of a broad anti-Yuan rebellion.

Service to Zhu Yuanzhang
Liu served not only in the administration of Zhu Yuanzhang, but also in many battles as a commanding officer on land and water, leading the early Ming naval forces. Zhu Yuanzhang placed Liu in charge of the campaign to conquer all of Zhejiang from Yuan forces. Liu was also responsible for military ventures against opposing Chinese rebel groups, as well as the wokou. His forces owed much of their success to the use of the medieval Chinese firearm known as the fire lance. It was during this period that he wrote the books Extraordinary Strategies of a Hundred Battles (百戰奇略) and Eighteen Strategies and Affairs (時務十八策). Later in the rebellion, Zhu Yuanzhang only rarely relied on Liu to personally command his armies in the field, as he acquired other capable generals, including Xu Da, Deng Yu and Chang Yuchun. Liu was most often consulted for his strategic advice during this period.

In 1368, after eight years of Liu's service, Zhu Yuanzhang unified China proper. When Zhu founded the Ming dynasty and became historically known as the Hongwu Emperor, Liu was one of his most trusted advisors, but the relationship between Liu and the emperor eventually deteriorated in a manner similar to the way that Liu had become estranged from the Yuan government. In 1375, Liu rejected a man, Hu Weiyong, for appointment to high office. Hu Weiyong later obtained an audience with the Hongwu Emperor and slandered Liu by telling the emperor that Liu was plotting to establish his own power. After convincing the emperor of Liu's treachery, Liu was ejected from office, and Hu Weiyong was promoted.

Death
The shock and shame of being groundlessly dismissed from office had destroyed Liu's health, and he had died soon after. Within five years of Liu's death, the man who had slandered Liu in order to hold office, Hu Weiyong, was himself suspected of plotting against the Hongwu Emperor. In the subsequent orgy of the emperor's paranoid efforts to root out conspiracy, 30,000–40,000 people were executed.

The precise cause of Liu's death is considered uncertain by modern scholars.  In late January of Hongwu's eighth year (1375), Liu was infected with cold. After Zhu Yuanzhang knew this, he sent Hu Weiyong to find an imperial doctor for Liu. However, after Liu had doctor's medicines, he felt as if some uneven stones were squeezed together in his stomach, which made him even more pained. Liu gently told Zhu Yuanzhang that he felt more pain after having Hu Weiyong's doctor's medicines. After Zhu Yuanzhang listened to this, he only gave some comforting words to Liu, which made Liu feel upset. In late March, Liu had already been unable to move freely. Therefore, he decided to return home. After he got home, he refused all the medicines and just tried to maintain a normal diet as much as possible. Eventually, Liu died in April. Some scholars believe that Liu was poisoned by the Hongwu Emperor himself, not because Liu failed his duty, but because the emperor was envious and even fearful of his knowledge and influence. Other sources have pointed out that the Hongwu Emperor did kill many people shortly after Liu lost his official position, but they are uncertain about whether Liu was part of this group.

Prophecy
Liu's most famous prophecy to Zhu Yuanzhang, written down in a lyrical style, is called the Shaobing Song (燒餅歌). The poem is written in cryptic verse and is difficult to understand. Some people believe that the Shaobing Song predicted future events in China, including the Tumu Crisis of 1449, and the Xinhai Revolution of 1911 that led to the Republic of China.

Biographical works
Liu's official biography is found in the 128th volume of the History of Ming, which was written by Zhang Tingyu and others in the Qing dynasty. The author Chong Tai also wrote a biography on him.

In popular culture
Shenji Miaosuan Liu Bowen (), a 404 episodes long television drama about Liu, was aired in Taiwan on TTV from August 23, 2006 to March 12, 2008, starring Taiwanese actor Huang Shaoqi (黃少祺) as Liu.

See also
 Huolongjing
 Shaobing Song
 History of firearms
 Four Major Cases of the early Ming dynasty
 Chancellor of China

Notes

References
Cleary, Thomas. (2005). Mastering the Art of War. Shambhala Publications, Inc. .
HK GeoCities. "HK geocities." 燒餅歌. Retrieved on 2008-09-19.
Jiang Yonglin. (2005). The Great Ming Code: 大明律. University of Washington Press. .
Liu Ji.(2004) 燒餅歌與推背圖. Bai Shan Shu Fang Publishing Company. .
Needham, Joseph (1986). Science and Civilization in China: Volume 5, Part 7. Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd.
TTV. "Taiwan Television." 神機妙算劉伯溫. Retrieved on 2008-09-20.
Xinhuanet.com. "Xinhuanet.com." 劉伯溫是被神化了嗎?. Retrieved on 2008-09-19.
Windridge, Charles. (2003). Tong Sing: The Chinese Book of Wisdom. Kyle Cathie Limited. .
Zhang, Tingyu. History of Ming, Volume 128.

External links

1311 births
1375 deaths
14th-century Chinese philosophers
14th-century writers
Chinese military writers
Generals from Zhejiang
Military strategists
Ming dynasty government officials
Ming dynasty philosophers
Philosophers from Zhejiang
Politicians from Wenzhou
Writers from Wenzhou
Yuan dynasty philosophers
Yuan dynasty government officials

Liu Bowen


Adelaide Bishop (23 June 1928 – 20 June 2008) was an American operatic soprano, musical theatre actress, opera director, stage director, and voice teacher. She began her career appearing in Broadway musicals as a teenager during the early 1940s. She became a principal soprano with the New York City Opera (NYCO) in 1948, where she performed through 1960 in a broad repertoire encompassing German, French, Italian, and English operas from a variety of musical periods. In the late 1950s, she started working actively as a stage director and as a voice teacher, working with many opera companies throughout the United States and serving on the music faculties of several different American universities. She also served as the artistic director of the Wolf Trap Opera for many years.

Early life and career: 1928–1948
Born in New York City, Bishop started studying singing as a young teenager with various instructors, including Paul Breisach, Louis Polanski, Rose Landver, and at Luigi Rossini's Rossini Opera Workshop. She made her Broadway debut at the age of 15 as Fritzi in the 1943 revival of Blossom Time, which ran for a total of 43 performances. She returned to Broadway in 1945 to portray Betty Ellis in the short-lived musical The Girl From Nantucket with Jane Kean as Dodey Ellis and Helen Raymond as Keziah Getchel.

On October 24, 1946, Bishop made her professional opera debut as Blonde in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail with the American Opera Company at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia. The following December, she returned to Broadway as Gretchen in the revival of Victor Herbert's The Red Mill when the production moved to the Shubert Theatre from the 46th Street Theatre. In January 1948, Bishop returned to Philadelphia to portray Letitia in Gian Carlo Menotti's The Old Maid and the Thief. The composer attended one of the performances and was so impressed with Bishop that he contacted Laszlo Halasz, director of the NYCO, and told him he had to hire her. This led to her being offered a contract with the NYCO and her debut with the company as Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto on April 18, 1948.

The New York City Opera years: 1948–1960
After this point, Bishop's career decidedly oriented away from musical theatre to opera. Even her two remaining Broadway parts were in opera productions: the role of Lucia in the United States premiere of Britten's The Rape of Lucretia (1948) at the Ziegfeld Theatre and Adele in Johann Strauss II's Die Fledermaus (1954) with the New York City Center Light Opera Company. She quickly became a favorite at the NYCO during the late 1940s and went on to portray many lyric soprano roles with the company through 1960, including The Stepdaughter in the world premiere of Hugo Weisgall's Six Characters in Search of an Author (1959) and Mary Stone in the New York premiere of Douglas Moore's The Devil and Daniel Webster (1959). Among her many other roles with the NYCO were Gretel in Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel, Liù in Puccini's Turandot, Musetta in Puccini's La bohème, Norina in Donizetti's Don Pasquale, Olympia in Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann, Sophie in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, and Susanna in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro.

While mainly performing with the NYCO, Bishop also occasionally performed with other organizations. In 1949 she sang Gilda with the Philadelphia La Scala Opera Company with Cesare Bardelli as Rigoletto, Rudolf Petrak as the Duke of Mantua, and conductor Giuseppe Bamboschek. That same year she made her first appearance at the Central City Opera in Colorado as Adele, later returning to sing roles in two operas by Gounod: Juliet in Romeo et Juliet (1951) and Marguerite in Faust (1954). In 1950 she portrayed Adele in a television recording of Die Fledermaus with the NBC Opera Theatre. In 1951 she made her first appearance with New Orleans Opera as Susanna to the Countess of Frances Yeend and Cherubino of Frances Bible, later returning to the house to portray Kathie in Sigmund Romberg's The Student Prince opposite Brian Sullivan as Karl in 1953. She portrayed Estelle in the premiere of the orchestrated version of Weisgall's The Stronger in August 1955 for the Composers Forum at Columbia University. That 1955 performance with the Columbia Chamber Orchestra was recorded.

In 1956 Bishop sang Lucia again opposite Jon Vickers's Male Chorus and Regina Resnik's Lucretia at the renowned Stratford Festival in Canada. In 1956, again with NBC Opera Theatre, she portrayed Papagena in an English-language version of Mozart's The Magic Flute, a production which also featured Leontyne Price as Pamina, in an almost unheard-of 1950s example of television "color-blind casting". In 1957, she returned to NBC to appear in the world premiere telecast of Stanley Hollingsworth's La Grande Breteche. She portrayed Queen Popotte in the United States premiere of Offenbach's Le Voyage dans la Lune in 1958, which was also the very first production mounted by Sarah Caldwell's Opera Company of Boston. The production was so well received that the company was invited to present the work on the lawn of the White House in a performance attended by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. She returned to Boston the following season for their production of The Beggar's Opera.

Of all the roles Bishop sang, she is most remembered for her portrayal of the title role in the world premiere of Lukas Foss's Griffelkin, which was written for television. Made by the NBC Opera Theater, the work premiered on NBC in 1955 and was viewed by an estimated audience of one million people. Opera News said in their review at the time: "In Griffelkin, Lukas Foss is almost too brilliant for his own good. Adelaide Bishop, creating the title role, saved the day. Extraordinarily impish in appearance, she not only sang like an inspired choirboy but succeeded in bringing wonder and a heartbreaking confusion into the scenes when the small hero is seized with the first pangs of humanity."

Work as an opera director and voice teacher
Beginning in the late 1950s, Bishop became highly active working as a stage director, competition judge, and voice teacher. As a stage director, she worked on productions for many companies throughout the United States. The operas she staged came from a broad range of repertoire, including standard works like La traviata and Il Barbiere di Siviglia, as well as twentieth-century American works such as Summer and Smoke, The Crucible, and The Medium, to name just a few. Bishop notably staged the world premiere of David Amram's Twelfth Night at the Lake George Opera in 1968.

As an educator, Bishop worked on the music faculties of Carnegie Mellon University and the Mannes College The New School for Music, teaching voice and directing student opera productions. She also served for fourteen years as the chair of the opera department at Boston University (1970–1984) and chairwoman of the opera department and artistic director of the opera theater at the Hartt School (1982–1993). Bishop also worked as Artistic Director of the Wolf Trap Opera, a summer opera training program for young opera singers.

Personal life

Bishop married twice, first to Eugene Deatrick and then to Bertram Schur. She has one son, Peyton Deatrick Schur, and one grandson, Kyle Schur.

Bishop died in a car accident in Sarasota, Florida just three days shy of her eightieth birthday.

References

External links

1928 births
2008 deaths
American operatic sopranos
American musical theatre actresses
American theatre directors
American women theatre directors
American opera directors
Female opera directors
Singers from New York City
Carnegie Mellon University faculty
The New School faculty
Boston University faculty
University of Hartford Hartt School faculty
Road incident deaths in Florida
Actresses from New York City
20th-century American actresses
20th-century American women opera singers

Adelaide Bishop


Hugh Ike Shott (September 3, 1866October 12, 1953) was an American newspaper editor, pioneer broadcaster, and Republican politician in the U.S. State of West Virginia.

Career
Shott apprenticed as a printer. He moved to the then-booming new city of Bluefield, West Virginia. He took control of the Bluefield Daily Telegraph, the city's primary morning newspaper. Via straw parties, he also controlled the "competing" evening Mountain Sunset Review.

He was also involved in the railway mail service and was postmaster for several years.  In that era, postmaster was a political appointment given by the President of the United States.

He was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1928 and re-elected in 1930. However, he was defeated for a third term in 1932, as well as in his attempt to run for the United States Senate in 1936.

In 1942, he was a candidate for the special Senate "short term" caused by the resignation of Matthew M. Neely. He won and served from November 18, 1942 to January 3, 1943. The election was almost honorary, as the Senate only met twice during his term of office. He was not a candidate in the regular election, held on the same day, for the following regular six-year term. He was referred to as "Senator" for the rest of his life.

Broadcasting
In 1928, the Daily Telegraph Printing Co. obtained a license for the only radio station in Bluefield at the time. The call letters stood for his initials – WHIS. In 1948, Jim and Hugh, Jr. started a companion FM station, WHIS-FM. The venture turned out to be premature, as there weren't enough FM receivers to make the station a success, and it was temporarily shut down. The FM station now has the call letters WHAJ.

His control of both daily newspapers and both of the primary radio stations gave him a virtual news monopoly in his area. His newspaper, the Bluefield Daily Telegraph, was an unashamedly Republican publication. The radio stations and the television station that would later become part of the company were not organs of opinion.

In 1955 his heirs obtained, by the only special exception ever granted by the Federal Communications Commission, the sole television station in the city, which likewise carried his WHIS initials.

After extended litigation, the United States Supreme Court ordered that no one company could own both the primary AM and FM stations, the only TV station, and the only daily newspaper in the same town. WHIS-TV was sold and the call letters changed to WVVA in 1979. His name lives on in WHIS-AM although it also was later sold, as was the FM station he owned.

Legacy
The Hugh Ike Shott, Jr. Foundation – Shott's youngest son, H.I. Shott, Jr., established a foundation in 1984 with the objective to help improve the social and economic quality of life within the trade area of the Bluefield Daily Telegraph. Shott  Jr. was with the newspaper founded by his father for more than 60 years.

References

 Hugh Ike Shott at The Political Graveyard
 Hugh Ike Shott at GovTrack

External links
The West Virginia & Regional History Center at West Virginia University houses the Hugh Ike Shott papers in two collections, A&M 908 and A&M 1583

1866 births
1953 deaths
People from Bluefield, West Virginia
Politicians from Staunton, Virginia
Editors of West Virginia newspapers
West Virginia postmasters
Republican Party United States senators from West Virginia
Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from West Virginia
Journalists from Virginia

Hugh Ike Shott


Intel Core is the name of a family of 32-bit dual-core microprocessors. It was made by the technology company Intel. Intel Core processors are based on Pentium M technology. Those processors are more advanced than Intel P6 processors. This architecture, or way to build a processor, is now replaced by Core 2 microarchitecture. In the Core family, there are two groups: the Duo (with two cores) and Solo (Duo with one disabled core). The Solo line replaced the Pentium M one-core processor.

In September of 2006 and January of 2008, Core CPUs stopped selling as much, as Intel released CPUs with newer technology.

Yonah
Yonah is a company name for Intel's first generation of microprocessors for mobile computers. The Core Duo was released on 5 January 2006. It was the first Intel processor to be used in Apple Inc.'s Macintosh computers. Yonah does not have 64-bit function.

The Intel Core Duo has two cores, 2 Mebibytes of L2 cache for both cores, and an arbiter bus that controls the L2 cache and front side bus access.

The Intel Core Solo uses two-cores die as a Core Duo, but one core is turned off.

Technical specifications
 151 million transistors, with 2 MiB L2 cache.
 2.33 – 2.50 GHz
 front side bus (FSB) is 667 MT/s (per second)
 supported by the 945GM, 945PM, 945GT, 965GM, 965PM, and 965GT chipsets

Advantages and shortcomings
The duo version of Intel Core (Yonah) has two cores, which give performance per watt almost as good as single-core processors. In computer machines operating with batteries, this means getting as much total work done in one battery charge like in old computers.

The shortcomings of Intel Core (Yonah) are:
 64-bit is not supported.
 Limited FPU (Floating Point Unit) throughput (amount of data computed in a certain time) for non-parallel (not at the same time) computations or single processes.
 "Performance per watt" is not better or even worse than older processors.

Core-based processor Intel Xeon Sossaman LV (low-voltage), for servers also does not have the Intel 64-bit function. All new server systems have support for x86-64, and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 even requires a 64-bit processor to run.

On July 27, 2006, Intel released newer Core version Intel Core 2.

Related pages
 Intel
 FSB
 Multi-core processor

References

Other websites
Intel Core Duo Web page
Intel Core Solo Web page
Processor comparison table
Intel Core technical specifications
techPowerUp! CPU Database
Tested against AMD's 64 X2 line and Intel's own Pentium M
Intel® Centrino® Duo Mobile Technology papers

Computer hardware
Intel Core processors

Intel Core


Generator Rex: Agent of Providence is the first console video game based on the critically acclaimed Cartoon Network series Generator Rex. It is available for the Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, Wii, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. It was released November 1, 2011 in the USA and November 4, 2011 in the UK.

Plot
Rex goes on a mission to defeat the Multi-faced EVO in Mexico. Once he cures it he discovers a piece of a blueprint hidden in a church which later is stolen by Breach. This causes Rex to lose some of his builds. He reports this happening to Providence and is sent to the Amazon jungle on another mission from Providence.

A massive group of EVOs is migrating through the Amazon to Dr. Rylander's lab, where Rex copies Rylander's data, learning that the piece Breach stole is part of a Omega-1 Nanite blueprint. He is then quickly attacked by the Rabbit EVO, whom he later defeats. Breach steals a blueprint piece again as Rex returns to Providence.

Afterwards, Rex goes to Hong Kong with Bobo Haha to stop Quarry from stealing items from a bank, including a piece of the blueprint. To Rex's interest here they encounter his love, Circe. He finds out that she is working for Van Kleiss again, as he helped her escape from him. Rex is ambushed by Breach and he and Bobo are separated. Later, Rex stops Quarry but he is knocked into a river, unable to get the blueprint.

Rex leaves Hong Kong right when Quarry gets out of the river and gives Circe the blueprint. It is later revealed that Circe is only helping Van Kleiss so that she can become a normal girl again. Back at Providence, Rex's brother, Caesar Salazar, tells Rex that Van Kleiss can never make another Omega-1 Nanite because he has a quarter of the blueprint memorized in his mind.

Suddenly Doctor Holiday is attacked and is taken into the Petting Zoo. Once she is safe, Rex goes to the landing platform to save Caesar but Van Kleiss manages to kidnap him. Rex later sets out to find the rest of the blueprints, going to Aquania and discovering that the entire area has turned into an EVO and is trying to kill him.

Once inside Rex discovers that Biowulf has taken Serge hostage, believing he has the blueprint piece. Rex defeats Biowulf and is informed by Serge that in order to save Aquania he must cure its Heart. Rex successfully fights the Heart and cures it. Afterwards Serge finds the blueprint piece and meets up with Rex, telling him to get the cursed thing out of his sight.

However, before Rex can get back to Providence, he is transported to Breach's pocket dimension. Once there he once again fights the Rabbit EVO. Rex then confronts Breach and makes her open a portal back to the real world by destroying her toys, escaping with the Aquania blueprint. Rex goes to Abysus to find Caesar and bring him back.

Circe steals Rex's blueprint when kissing him. Once Rex rescues his brother, Van Kleiss informs him that he had already created his Omega-1 Nanite, resulting with him becoming a giant EVO When he loses control of the nanite, Rex explains he tampered with the blueprint. Rex defeats Van Kleiss with the help of Circe, they then return to Providence where he and Bobo decide to go partying before the next end of the world crisis pops up.

Weapons

 Big Fat Sword
 Smack Hands
 Punk Busters (only available at certain parts in the game)
 Slam Cannon
 Rex Ride (only available during the Rex Ride level)
 Boogie Pack (you do not actually use this, although it is included in many of the mini sequences, where you have to press the correct button.)
 Blast Caster
 Bad Axes
 Funchucks

Characters

Allies

 Agent Six
 Caesar
 Bobo Haha (playable in Rex Ride Level)
 Dr. Holiday
 White Knight
 Circe
 Serge

Enemies

 Gnasht
 Pyreptryx
 Sklugg
 Gelatinor
 AMP
 Guardian drone
 Larvus
 Crustacean EVO

Bosses

 Multi-faced EVO
 Rabbit EVO (X2)
 Quarry
 Breach
 Van Kleiss (X3 once as Omega Van Kleiss)
 Heart of Aquania
 Biowulf

Levels

 Sky Diving
 Mexico
 The Jungle
 Rex Ride
 Hong Kong
 Providence
 Aquania
 Pocket Dimension
 Abysus

Trivia

 The facts of this video game are set in a different timeline to the continuity of the television series.
 John DiMaggio replaced Mark Hamill as Quarry.
 Alpha is mentioned in Rylander's database.

References

 ↑ Jump up to:1.0 1.1 "Generator Rex: Agent of Providence". IGN.com.

Nintendo DS games
Nintendo 3DS games
Wii games
PlayStation 3 games
Xbox 360 games
2011 video games
Action video games
Adventure games

Generator Rex: Agent of Providence


Charybdis is a sea monster in Ancient Greek mythology. It was said that she was a daughter of Poseidon and that when she breathed in and out the sea would rise and fall. She was also the sister of Scylla.When angry she would turn into a whirlpool and suck in anything within half a mile

Greek legendary creatures
Gods and goddesses of water

Charybdis


RoEduNet is a Romanian educational and research network NREN, member of the European research and education network GÉANT. The network is under the administration of the Administration Agency of the National Network for Education and Informatics Research, AARNIEC (Romanian: Agenția de Administrare a Rețelei Naționale de Informatică pentru Educație și Cercetare).

History
The RoEduNet network appeared as a consequence of an evolutionary process that started after the Romanian Revolution of 1989

1990
Universitatea Politehnica of Bucharest and Technische Universitat Darmstadt started a project whose aim was to develop an experimental e-mail system, and to develop a communications infrastructure connected to the international data network. The German partner donated the equipment and in October 1990 the e-mail system became operational, and the international connectivity was actually a dialup connection.

1991-1992
A new project was developed in collaboration with Deutsches Forschungsnetz. Its purpose was to install a communications server in Bucharest, connected to the German Scientific Network WIN using x25. At the end of 1992, a dedicated x25 line was operational between Bucharest and Germany, and also other Romanian Universities was using the system for e-mail messages.

1993
Universitatea Politehnica implements its first LAN in November, and it was connected to EuropaNet through a 9.6 kbit/s dedicated line, whose other end was in Düsseldorf - Germany.

1996
128 kbit/s line

References

External links

Educational organizations based in Romania
Internet in Romania
National research and education networks

RoEduNet


Gerber-Las Flores is a former census-designated place (CDP) in Tehama County, California, United States. The population was 1,389 at the 2000 census.

Geography
Gerber-Las Flores is located at  (40.059757, -122.151299).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP had a total area of , all of it land.

Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 1,389 people, 451 households, and 339 families residing in the CDP.  The population density was .  There were 480 housing units at an average density of .  The racial makeup of the CDP was 62.06% White, 0.43% African American, 4.32% Native American, 0.36% Asian, 0.07% Pacific Islander, 28.94% from other races, and 3.82% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 40.96% of the population.

There were 451 households, out of which 45.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.4% were married couples living together, 12.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 24.8% were non-families. 19.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.  The average household size was 3.08 and the average family size was 3.55.

In the CDP, the population was spread out, with 35.0% under the age of 18, 9.1% from 18 to 24, 28.0% from 25 to 44, 16.6% from 45 to 64, and 11.3% who were 65 years of age or older.  The median age was 30 years. For every 100 females, there were 100.4 males.  For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 105.2 males.

The median income for a household in the CDP was $24,107, and the median income for a family was $29,464. Males had a median income of $27,098 versus $17,434 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $11,888.  About 22.8% of families and 28.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 40.3% of those under age 18 and 13.7% of those age 65 or over.

Politics
In the state legislature Gerber-Las Flores is in the 4th Senate District, represented by Republican Doug LaMalfa, and in the 2nd Assembly District, represented by Republican Jim Nielsen.

Federally, Gerber-Las Flores is in .

References

Former census-designated places in California
Unincorporated communities in Tehama County, California
Unincorporated communities in California

Gerber-Las Flores, California


The Co-operative Group is a United Kingdom consumers' cooperative, and, after the acquisition of Somerfield supermarkets, is the world's largest consumer-owned business, with over 4.5 million members and 123,000 employees across all its businesses. Regional and local retail co-operative societies are corporate members of the Group.

Each member (each person registered to the 'Co-operative Membership' scheme) and every person employed has an equal say in how the business is run. Everyone has a right to help shape the company. The Co-operative Group runs several businesses, including the famous Co-op supermarket chain.

Every year, members receive a share of the profits that they helped to create, based on the amount made in profits that year and how much they had spent with any of its businesses.

References

Companies of the United Kingdom
Co-operative movement

The Co-operative Group


A script editor is a member of the production team of scripted television and radio programmes, usually dramas and comedies. The script editor has many responsibilities including finding new script writers, developing storyline and series ideas with writers, and ensuring that scripts  are suitable for production. The script editor will work closely with the writer at each draft of the script, giving the writer feedback on the quality of the work, suggesting improvements that can be made whilst also ensuring that practical issues like show continuity and correct running time are adhered to.  Unlike the writers, script editors will usually be full-time members of the production team, working closely with the producer, if the script writer is not a producer.

See also
Script doctor
Story editor
Showrunner

References

Mass media occupations
Television terminology
Types of editors

Script editor


Viscosity index or VI is measure of the temperature at which a lubricating oil works properly. The VI scale goes from 0 to 100, with 0 being the worst, and 100 being the best. New products are now better than when the scale was first made, so some new products have scores as high as 400.

Lubricating oil is meant to reduce friction between two surfaces. If it is too viscous the oil will be thick and sticky and need too much energy to keep the parts moving. If the oil is too thin, then the parts will rub together and create friction. What is needed is an oil that has just the right amount of viscosity to keep the two surfaces apart. Oil becomes less viscous as the temperature goes up. In an automobile engine, the oil needs to be viscous at a range of temperatures. It needs to work when the engine is first started and is cold, and keep working when the engine gets very hot, perhaps as much as 200 °C. The best oils, with a high viscosity index score, will keep their viscosity the same across the temperature range.

The scale was made up by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE).

Fuel

Viscosity index


Micro hydro is a type of hydroelectric power that typically produces from 5 kW to 100 kW of electricity using the natural flow of water. Installations below 5 kW are called pico hydro. These installations can provide power to an isolated home or small community, or are sometimes connected to electric power networks, particularly where net metering is offered.
There are many of these installations around the world, particularly in developing nations as they can provide an economical source of energy without the purchase of fuel. Micro hydro systems complement solar PV power systems because in many areas water flow, and thus available hydro power, is highest in the winter when solar energy is at a minimum. Micro hydro is frequently accomplished with a pelton wheel for high head, low flow water supply. The installation is often just a small dammed pool, at the top of a waterfall, with several hundred feet of pipe leading to a small generator housing. In low head sites, generally water wheels and Archimedes' screws are used.

Construction

Construction details of a microhydro plant are site-specific. Sometimes an existing mill-pond or other artificial reservoir is available and can be adapted for power production. In general, microhydro systems are made up of a number of components. The most important include the intake where water is diverted from the natural stream, river, or perhaps a waterfall. An intake structure such as a catch box is required to screen out floating debris and fish, using a screen or array of bars to keep out large objects. In temperate climates, this structure must resist ice as well. The intake may have a gate to allow the system to be dewatered for inspection and maintenance.

The intake is then brought through a canal and then forebay. The forebay is used for sediment holding. At the bottom of the system the water is tunneled through a pipeline (penstock) to the powerhouse building containing a turbine. The penstock builds up pressure from the water that has traveled downwards. In mountainous areas, access to the route of the penstock may provide considerable challenges. If the water source and turbine are far apart, the construction of the penstock may be the largest part of the costs of construction. At the turbine, a controlling valve is installed to regulate the flow and the speed of the turbine. The turbine converts the flow and pressure of the water to mechanical energy; the water emerging from the turbine returns to the natural watercourse along a tailrace channel. The turbine turns a generator, which is then connected to electrical loads; this might be directly connected to the power system of a single building in very small installations, or may be connected to a community distribution system for several homes or buildings.

Usually, microhydro installations do not have a dam and reservoir, like large hydroelectric plants have, relying on a minimal flow of water to be available year-round.

Head and flow characteristics
Microhydro systems are typically set up in areas capable of producing up to 100 kilowatts of electricity. This can be enough to power a home or small business facility. This production range is calculated in terms of "head" and "flow". The higher each of these are, the more power available. Hydraulic head is the pressure measurement of water falling in a pipe expressed as a function of the vertical distance the water falls. This change in elevation is usually measured in feet or meters. A drop of at least 2 feet is required or the system may not be feasible. When quantifying head, both gross and net head must be considered. Gross head approximates power accessibility through the vertical distance measurement alone whereas net head subtracts pressure lost due to friction in piping from the gross head. "Flow" is the actual quantity of water falling from a site and is usually measured in gallons per minute, cubic feet per second, or liters per second. Low flow/high head installations in steep terrain have significant pipe costs. A long penstock starts with low pressure pipe at the top and progressively higher pressure pipe closer to the turbine in order to reduce pipe costs.

The available power, in kilowatts, from such a system can be calculated by the equation P=Q*H/k, where Q is the flow rate in gallons per minute, H is the static head, and k is a constant of 5,310 gal*ft/min*kW. For instance, for a system with a flow of 500 gallons per minute and a static head of 60 feet, the theoretical maximum power output is 5.65 kW. The system is prevented from 100% efficiency (from obtaining all 5.65 kW) due to the real world, such as: turbine efficiency, friction in pipe, and conversion from potential to kinetic energy. Turbine efficiency is generally between 50-80%, and pipe friction is accounted for using the Hazen–Williams equation.

Regulation and operation
Typically, an automatic controller operates the turbine inlet valve to maintain constant speed (and frequency) when the load changes on the generator. In a system connected to a grid with multiple sources, the turbine control ensures that power always flows out from the generator to the system. The frequency of the alternating current generated needs to match the local standard utility frequency. In some systems, if the useful load on the generator is not high enough, a load bank may be automatically connected to the generator to dissipate energy not required by the load; while this wastes energy, it may be required if it's not possible to control the water flow through the turbine.

An induction generator always operates at the grid frequency irrespective of its rotation speed; all that is necessary is to ensure that it is driven by the turbine faster than the synchronous speed so that it generates power rather than consuming it. Other types of generator can use a speed control systems for frequency matching.

With the availability of modern power electronics it is often easier to operate the generator at an arbitrary frequency and feed its output through an inverter which produces output at grid frequency. Power electronics now allow the use of permanent magnet alternators that produce wild AC to be stabilised. This approach allows low speed / low head water turbines to be competitive; they can run at the best speed for extraction of energy, and the power frequency is controlled by the electronics instead of the generator.

Very small installations (pico hydro), a few kilowatts or smaller, may generate direct current and charge batteries for peak use times.

Turbine types
Several types of water turbines can be used in micro hydro installations, selection depending on the head of water, the volume of flow, and such factors as availability of local maintenance and transport of equipment to the site. For hilly regions where a waterfall of 50 meters or more may be available, a Pelton wheel can be used. For low head installations, Francis or propeller-type turbines are used. Very low head installations of only a few meters may use propeller-type turbines in a pit, or water wheels and Archimedes screws. Small micro hydro installations may successfully use industrial centrifugal pumps, run in reverse as prime movers; while the efficiency may not be as high as a purpose-built runner, the relatively low cost makes the projects economically feasible.

In low-head installations, maintenance and mechanism costs can be relatively high. A low-head system moves larger amounts of water, and is more likely to encounter surface debris. For this reason a Banki turbine also called Ossberger turbine, a pressurized self-cleaning crossflow waterwheel, is often preferred for low-head micro hydro systems. Though less efficient, its simpler structure is less expensive than other low-head turbines of the same capacity. Since the water flows in, then out of it, it cleans itself and is less prone to jam with debris.

Screw turbine (Reverse Archimedes' screw): two low-head schemes in England, Settle Hydro and Torrs Hydro use an Archimedes' screw which is another debris-tolerant design. Efficiency 85%.
Gorlov: the Gorlov helical turbine free stream or constrained flow with or without a dam,
Francis and propeller turbines.
Kaplan turbine : Is a high flow, low head, propeller-type turbine. An alternative to the traditional kaplan turbine is a large diameter, slow turning, permanent magnet, sloped open flow VLH turbine with efficiencies of 90%.
Water wheel : advanced hydraulic water wheels and hydraulic wheel-part reaction turbine can have hydraulic efficiencies of 67% and 85% respectively. Overshot water wheel maximum efficiency (hydraulic efficiency) is 85%. Undershot water wheels can operate with very low head, but also have  efficiencies below 30%.
Gravitation water vortex power plant : part of the river flow at a weir or natural water fall is diverted into a round basin with a central bottom exit that creates a vortex. A simple rotor (and connected generator) is moved by the kinetic energy. Efficiencies of 83% down to 64% at 1/3 part flow.

Use
Microhydro systems are very flexible and can be deployed in a number of different environments. They are dependent on how much water flow the source (creek, river, stream) has and the velocity of the flow of water. Energy can be stored in battery banks at sites that are far from a facility or used in addition to a system that is directly connected so that in times of high demand there is additional reserve energy available. These systems can be designed to minimize community and environmental impact regularly caused by large dams or other mass hydroelectric generation sites.

Potential for rural development
In relation to rural development, the simplicity and low relative cost of micro hydro systems open up new opportunities for some isolated communities in need of electricity. With only a small stream needed, remote areas can access lighting and communications for homes, medical clinics, schools, and other facilities. Microhydro can even run a certain level of machinery supporting small businesses. Regions along the Andes mountains and in Sri Lanka and China already have similar, active programs. One seemingly unexpected use of such systems in some areas is to keep young community members from moving into more urban regions in order to spur economic growth. Also, as the possibility of financial incentives for less carbon-intensive processes grows, the future of microhydro systems may become more appealing.

Micro-hydro installations can also provide multiple uses.  For instance, micro-hydro projects in rural Asia have incorporated agro-processing facilities such as rice mills alongside standard electrification into the project design.

Cost
The cost of a micro hydro plant can be between 1,000 and 5000 U.S. dollars per kW installed

Advantages and disadvantages

Advantages
Microhydro power is generated through a process that utilizes the natural flow of water. This power is most commonly converted into electricity. With no direct emissions resulting from this conversion process, there are little to no harmful effects on the environment, if planned well, thus supplying power from a renewable source and in a sustainable manner. Microhydro is considered a "run-of-river" system meaning that water diverted from the stream or river is redirected back into the same watercourse. Adding to the potential economic benefits of microhydro is efficiency, reliability, and cost effectiveness.

Disadvantages
Microhydro systems are limited mainly by the characteristics of the site. The most direct limitation comes from small sources with the minuscule flow. Likewise, flow can fluctuate seasonally in some areas. Lastly, though perhaps the foremost disadvantage is the distance from the power source to the site in need of energy. This distributional issue as well as the others are key when considering using a micro-hydro system.

See also

Small hydro up to 10,000 kW
Pico hydro up to 5 kW
Hydro power
Renewable Energy
Sustainable energy
Water wheels
Vortex power
Gravitation water vortex power

References

External links

Portal on microhydro power
SMART - Strategies to promote small scale hydro electricity production in Europe (project financed by the European Commission, involves Italy, Croatia, Norway, Greece and Austria)
Micro Hydro information, Dorado Vista ranch application
European Small Hydropower Association
Micro Hydro Association UK
Hydropower Prospector, Idaho National Engineering Laboratory
Ashden Awards hydro power winners
Example of a new Scottish Highland micro hydro system
Home built micro hydro project
Microhydro in Afghanistan with drawings of equipment

Appropriate technology
Power station technology
Hydroelectricity
Distributed generation

Micro hydro


Burrewarra Point is to the north of Broulee and 25 kilometres south of Batemans Bay on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia.

An active lighthouse, Burrewarra Point Light, is located at Burrewarra Point. It was built in 1974.

Also at Burrewarra Point are the remains of concrete igloo buildings of No. 17 Radar Station used by the Royal Australian Air Force during World War II. Also present at the location is a commemorative plaque.

References

Headlands of New South Wales

Burrewarra Point


The Joseph Wheeler Plantation, formally known as The Joseph Wheeler Plantation, is a historic plantation complex and historic district in the Tennessee River Valley in Wheeler, Alabama. The property contains twelve historically significant structures dating from 1818 to the 1880s.  It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 13, 1977, due to its association with Joseph Wheeler.

History
The plantation at Pond Spring was first established by the John P. Hickman family in 1818. They were among the earliest settlers of Lawrence County. By 1820 Hickman's family had grown to 11 members and he owned 56 slaves.  Benjamin Sherrod, a planter from Halifax County, North Carolina with more than 300 slaves, bought Pond Spring and its  from Hickman in 1827. In the 1830s his son, Felix Sherrod, greatly expanded the larger of the two log dogtrot cabins on the property into what today is known as the Sherrod House. It is a vernacular interpretation of the Federal style. The smaller dogtrot came to be used as housing for slaves.

Upon Felix's death the plantation was inherited by his son, also named Benjamin. Benjamin Sherrod married Daniella Jones from the nearby Caledonia plantation in 1859, but he died prematurely in 1861. Daniella Sherrod met Joseph Wheeler, a general in the Confederate States Army from Augusta, Georgia, during his visit to the area in 1863. They married following the American Civil War and lived in New Orleans for the next four years. They returned to Lawrence County in the early 1870s and built a new home, adjacent to the older Sherrod House.

Beginning in 1880, Wheeler served multiple terms as a United States Representative from Alabama until he retired from politics in 1900. In 1898, Wheeler volunteered for the Spanish–American War and received an appointment to major general of volunteers by President William McKinley. He assumed command of the cavalry division, which included Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders. Wheeler next served in the Philippine–American War in 1899. He commanded the First Brigade in Arthur MacArthur's Second Division during the Philippine–American War until January 1900. During this period, Wheeler was mustered out of the volunteer service and commissioned a brigadier general in the regular army, both on June 16, 1900. He retired on September 10, 1900 and moved to New York City, where he died in 1906.

His daughter, Annie, lived on the plantation until her death in 1955. It remained in the Wheeler family until 1993, when it was donated by them to the state of Alabama and the Alabama Historical Commission.

Visiting
The property is managed by the Alabama Historical Commission. AHC has completed restoring the Wheeler House, which is now open to the public.

See also
National Register of Historic Places listings in Lawrence County, Alabama

References

External links
Official Facebook Page
Alabama Historical Commission: Pond Spring - The General Joe Wheeler Home

National Register of Historic Places in Lawrence County, Alabama
Historic house museums in Alabama
Plantations in Alabama
Museums in Lawrence County, Alabama
Historic districts in Lawrence County, Alabama
Dogtrot architecture in Alabama
Houses in Lawrence County, Alabama
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Alabama

Joseph Wheeler Plantation


The triple point of any substance is the combination of temperature and pressure at which it exists in its solid, liquid, and gaseous state all at once, in equilibrium.

The temperature of the triple point of water is a commonly used physical constant which is used to define temperature scales and calibrate temperature-measuring systems.

By definition, the temperature of the triple point of water is 273.16 Kelvin, 0.01°C, or 32.018°F at a pressure of 611.5 Pa (less than 1% of atmospheric pressure). One degree Celsius is defined as 1/273.16th part of the triple point of water. This fixes the temperature scale as defined in the ITS 90, which is the international temperature scale of 1990. This scale is developed as a practical approximation of the thermodynamical temperature scale.

Chemistry
Thermodynamics

Triple point


Kleptomania (, "to steal", μανία, "mania") is an impulse control disorder. It is mental disorder with a frequent urge of stealing. Kleptomaniacs often steal many of the same thing and hoard, throw away or give away the things they steal. Some may not be aware that they have committed the theft. It is often found in people who have other mental disorders, such as depression, panic attacks, bulimia nervosa, anorexia nervosa, obsessive-compulsive disorder and drug addiction. The condition is more common in females, and especially those with bulimia.

References

Impulse control disorders

Kleptomania


For about a hundred years, from after Reconstruction until the 1990s, the Democratic Party dominated Texas politics, making part of the Solid South. In a reversal of alignments, since the late 1960s, the Republican Party has grown more prominent. By the 1990s, it became the state's dominant political party and remains so to this day, as Democrats have not won a statewide race since the 1994 Lieutenant gubernatorial election.

Texas is a majority Republican state with Republicans controlling every statewide office. Texas Republicans have majorities in the State House and Senate, an entirely Republican Texas Supreme Court, control of both Senate seats in the US Congress. Texas is America's most-populous Republican state. A number of political commentators had suggested that Texas is trending Democratic since 2016, however, Republicans have continued to win every statewide office through 2022.

The 19th-century culture of the state was heavily influenced by the plantation culture of the Old South, dependent on African-American slaves, as well as the patron system once prevalent (and still somewhat present) in northern Mexico and South Texas. In these societies, the government's primary role was seen as being the preservation of social order. Solving individual problems in society was seen as a local problem with the expectation that the individual with wealth should resolve his or her own issues. These influences continue to affect Texas today. In their book, Texas Politics Today 2009-2010, authors Maxwell, Crain, and Santos attribute Texas' traditionally low voter turnout among whites to these influences. But beginning in the early 20th century, voter turnout was dramatically reduced by the state legislature's disenfranchisement of most blacks, and many poor whites and Latinos.

History

Democratic dominance: 1845–mid-1990s
From 1848 until Dwight D. Eisenhower's victory in 1952, Texas voted for the Democratic candidate for president in every election except 1928, when it did not support Catholic Al Smith. The Democrats were pro-slavery pre-Civil War, as Abraham Lincoln was a Republican in the North. Most Republicans were Abolitionists. In the mid-20th century 1952 and 1956 elections, the state voters joined the landslide for Dwight D. Eisenhower. (Texas did not vote in 1864 and 1868 due to the Civil War and Reconstruction).

In the post-Civil War era, two of the most important Republican figures in Texas were African Americans George T. Ruby and Norris Wright Cuney. Ruby was a black community organizer, director in the federal Freedmen's Bureau, and leader of the Galveston Union League. His protégé Cuney was a person of mixed-race descent whose wealthy, white planter father freed him and his siblings before the Civil War and arranged for his education in Pennsylvania. Cuney returned and settled in Galveston, where he became active in the Union League and the Republican party; he rose to the leadership of the party. He became influential in Galveston and Texas politics, and is widely regarded as one of the most influential black leaders in the South during the 19th century.

From 1902 through 1965, Texas had virtually disenfranchised most Black, many Latino, and poor White people through the imposition of the poll tax and white primaries. Across the South, Democrats controlled congressional apportionment based on total population, although they had disenfranchised the black population. The Solid South exercised tremendous power in Congress, and Democrats gained important committee chairmanships by seniority. They gained federal funding for infrastructure projects in their states and the region, as well as support for numerous military bases, as two examples of how they brought federal investment to the state and region.

In the post-Reconstruction era, by the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Republican Party became non-competitive in the South, due to Democrat-dominated legislatures' disenfranchisement of blacks and many poor whites and Latinos. In Texas, the Democrat-dominated legislature excluded them through passage of a poll tax and white primary. Voter turnout in Texas declined dramatically following these disenfranchisement measures, and Southern voting turnout was far below the national average.

Although black people made up 20 percent of the state population at the turn of the century, they were essentially excluded from formal politics. Republican support in Texas had been based almost exclusively in the free black communities, particularly in Galveston, and in the German counties of the rural Texas Hill Country inhabited by German immigrants and their descendants, who had opposed slavery in the antebellum period. The German counties continued to run Republican candidates. Harry M. Wurzbach was elected from the 14th district from 1920 to 1926, contesting and finally winning the election of 1928, and being re-elected in 1930.

Some of the most important American political figures of the 20th century, such as President Lyndon B. Johnson, Vice-President John Nance Garner, Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn, and Senator Ralph Yarborough were Texas Democrats. But, the Texas Democrats were rarely united, being divided into conservative, moderate and liberal factions that vied with one another for power.

Increasing Republican strength: 1960–1990

Beginning in the late 1960s, Republican strength increased in Texas, particularly among residents of the expanding "country club suburbs" around Dallas and Houston. The election, to Congress, of Republicans such as John Tower, (who had switched from the Democratic Party) and George H. W. Bush in 1961 and 1966, respectively, reflected this trend. Nationally, outside of the South, Democrats supported the civil rights movement and achieved important passage of federal legislation in the mid-1960s. In the South, however, Democratic leaders had opposed changes to bring about black voting or desegregated schools and public facilities and in many places exercised resistance. Following the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, southern white voters began to align with the Republican Party, a movement accelerated after the next year, when Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, providing for federal enforcement of minorities' constitutional right to vote. Voter registration and turnout increased among blacks and Latinos in Texas and other states.

Unlike the rest of the South, however, Texas voters were never especially supportive of the various third-party candidacies of Southern Democrats. It was the only state in the former Confederacy to back Democrat Hubert Humphrey in the 1968 presidential election. During the 1980s, a number of conservative Democrats defected to the GOP, including Senator Phil Gramm, Congressman Kent Hance, and GOP Governor Rick Perry, who was a Democrat during his time as a state lawmaker.

John Tower's 1961 election to the U.S. Senate made him the first statewide GOP officeholder since Reconstruction and the disenfranchisement of black Republicans. Republican Governor Bill Clements and Senator Phil Gramm (also a former Democrat) were elected after him. Republicans became increasingly dominant in national elections in white-majority Texas. The last Democratic presidential candidate to win the state was Jimmy Carter in 1976. In the 1992 election, Bill Clinton became the first Democrat to win the Oval Office while losing Texas electoral votes. This result significantly reduced the power of Texas Democrats at the national level, as party leaders believed the state had become unwinnable.

Republican dominance: mid-1990s–present

Despite increasing Republican strength in national elections, after the 1990 census, Texas Democrats still controlled both houses of the State Legislature and most statewide offices. As a result, they directed the redistricting process after the decennial census. Although Congressional Texas Democrats received an average of 45 percent of the votes, Democrats consistently had a majority in the state delegation, as they had in every election since at least the end of Reconstruction.

In 1994, In the midst of the Republican Revolution, Democratic Governor Ann Richards lost her bid for re-election against Republican George W. Bush, ending an era in which Democrats controlled the governorship for all but eight of the past 120 years. Republicans have won the governorship ever since. In 1998, Bush won re-election in a landslide victory, with Republicans sweeping to victory in all the statewide races. Republicans won the Texas Senate for the first time since Reconstruction in 1996.

After the 2000 census, the Republican-controlled state Senate sought to draw a congressional district map that would guarantee a Republican majority in the state's delegation.  The Democrat-controlled state House desired to retain a plan similar to the existing lines. There was an impasse. With the Legislature unable to reach a compromise, the matter was settled by a panel of federal court judges, who ruled in favor of a district map that largely retained the status quo.

But, Republicans dominated the Legislative Redistricting Board, which defines the state legislative districts, by a majority of four to one. The Republicans on this board used their voting strength to adopt a map for the state Senate that was more favorable to the Republicans as well as a map for the state House that also strongly favored them, as Democrats had also done before them.

In 2002, Texas Republicans gained control of the Texas House of Representatives for the first time since Reconstruction. The newly elected Republican legislature engaged in an unprecedented mid-decade redistricting plan. Democrats said that the redistricting was a blatant partisan gerrymander, while Republicans argued that it was a much-needed correction of the partisan lines drawn after the 1990 census. But, the Republicans ignored the effects of nearly one million new citizens in the state, basing redistricting on 2000 census data. The result was a gain of six seats by the Republicans in the 2004 elections, giving them a majority of the state's delegation for the first time since Reconstruction.

In December 2005, the US Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal that challenged the legality of this redistricting plan.  While largely upholding the map, it ruled the El Paso-to-San Antonio 23rd District, which had been a protected majority-Latino district until the 2003 redistricting, was unconstitutionally drawn.  The ruling forced nearly every district in the El Paso-San Antonio corridor to be reconfigured.  Partly due to this, Democrats picked up two seats in the state in the 2006 elections. The 23rd's Republican incumbent was defeated in this election. It was the first time a Democratic House challenger unseated a Texas Republican incumbent in 10 years.

In 2018, Democratic Congressman Beto O'Rourke lost his Senate bid to the incumbent Ted Cruz by 2.6%, the best result for a Democratic Senate candidate since Lloyd Bentsen won in 1988. O'Rourke's performance in 2018 led analysts to predict greater gains for the Democrats going into the 2020s. In the 2020 elections, Texas voted for the Republican nominee for president Donald Trump by a narrower margin than in 2016, and re-elected the Republican incumbent senator, John Cornyn. In the 2022 governor race, the Republican governor Greg Abbott easily won reelection against Beto O'Rourke.

Issues

Capital punishment

Texas has a reputation for strict "law and order" sentencing. Texas leads the nation in executions in raw numbers, with 578 executions from 1976 to 2022. The second-highest ranking state is Oklahoma at 119 A 2002 Houston Chronicle poll of Texans found that when asked "Do you support the death penalty?" 69.1% responded that they did, 21.9% did not support and 9.1% were not sure or gave no answer.

Secessionist sentiment

Texas has a long history with secession. It was originally a Spanish province, which in 1821 seceded from Spain and helped form the First Mexican Empire. In 1824 Texas became a state in the new Mexican republic. In 1835 Antonio López de Santa Anna assumed dictatorial control over that republic and several states openly rebelled against the changes: Coahuila y Tejas (the northern part of which would become the Republic of Texas), San Luis Potosí, Querétaro, Durango, Guanajuato, Michoacán, Yucatán, Jalisco, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, and Zacatecas. Several of these states formed their own governments: the Republic of the Rio Grande, the Republic of Yucatan, and the Republic of Texas. Only the Texans defeated Santa Anna and retained their independence.

Some Texans believe that because it joined the United States as a country, the Texas state constitution includes the right to secede.  However, neither the ordinance of The Texas Annexation of 1845 nor The Annexation of Texas Joint Resolution of Congress March 1, 1845 included provisions giving Texas the right to secede. Texas did originally retain the right to divide into as many as five independent States, and as part of the Compromise of 1850 continues to retain that right while ceding former claims westward and northward along the full length of the Rio Grande in exchange for $10 million from the federal government. See Texas divisionism.

The United States Supreme Court's primary ruling on the legality of secession involved a case brought by Texas involving a Civil War era bonds transfer.  In deciding the 1869 Texas v. White case, the Supreme Court first addressed the issue of whether Texas had in fact seceded when it joined the Confederacy.  In a 5–3 vote the Court "held that as a matter of constitutional law, no state could leave the Union, explicitly repudiating the position of the Confederate States that the United States was a voluntary compact between sovereign states."  In writing the majority opinion Chief Justice Salmon Chase opined that:
When, therefore, Texas became one of the United States, she entered into an indissoluble relation. All the obligations of perpetual union, and all the guaranties of republican government in the Union, attached at once to the State. The act which consummated her admission into the Union was something more than a compact; it was the incorporation of a new member into the political body. And it was final. The union between Texas and the other States was as complete, as perpetual, and as indissoluble as the union between the original States. There was no place for reconsideration or revocation, except through revolution or through consent of the States.

However, as the issue of secession per se was not the one before the court, it has been debated as to whether this reasoning is merely dicta or a binding ruling on the question. It is also worth noting that Salmon Chase was nominated by Abraham Lincoln and was a staunch anti-secessionist. It is unlikely that he or his Republican appointed court would have approved of the Confederacy and Texas' choice to join it.

The state's organized secessionist movement is growing, with a notable minority of Texans holding secessionist sentiments.  A 2009 poll found that 31% of Texans believe that Texas has the legal right to secede and form an independent country and 18% believe it should do so. The Texas Nationalist Movement has been working towards Texas independence for 15 years. In January 2021, State Representative Kyle Biedermann filed HB 1359, which would bring a vote for Texas independence to the citizens of Texas in November 2021.

Budget
Until 2010, Texas had weathered the Great Recession fairly well, buffered by its vast oil and gas industries. It avoided the housing industry meltdown and its unemployment rate continues to be below the national level. It benefited from having a two-year budget cycle, allowing officials create budget plans with more time to focus on issues of importance. However, Texas was impacted by the economic downturn just like many other states, and by 2011 was suffering from tens of billions of dollars in budget deficits.  In order to deal with this deficit, a supermajority of Republicans led to a massive cost cutting spree.  In order to draw new businesses to the state, Texas has developed a program of tax incentives to corporations willing to move there.  These efforts, along with Texas focusing on developing their natural energy resources, has led to a surplus as Texas begins its next two year budget cycle.

Major revenue sources
For FY 2011, the top Texas revenue sources by category were approximately:
Federal Income:
$42,159,665,863.56
Sales Tax:
$21,523,984,733.17
Investments:
$10,406,151,499.48
Other Revenue:
$8,569,805,443.66
Licenses, Fees, Fines and Penalties:
$7,741,880,095.57

As of 2008, Texas residents paid a total of $88,794 million dollars in income taxes.  This does not include Federal taxes paid by Texas businesses.

Besides sales tax, other taxes include franchise, insurance, natural gas, alcohol, cigarette and tobacco taxes. Texas has no personal state income tax.

Major spending categories
For FY 2011, the top Texas State Agency spending categories were approximately:
Public Assistance Payments:
$26,501,123,478.54
Intergovernmental Payments:
$21,014,819,852.52
Interfund Transfers/Other:
$12,319,487,032.40
Salaries and Wages:
$8,595,912,992.82
Employee Benefits:
$5,743,905,057.61

Current state political parties
 Republican Party of Texas (State Affiliate of Republican Party)
 Texas Democratic Party (State Affiliate of Democratic Party)
 Libertarian Party of Texas (State Affiliate of Libertarian Party)
 Constitution Party of Texas (State Affiliate of Constitution Party)
 Texas Independence Party (State Affiliate of Independence Party of America)
 Green Party of Texas (State Affiliate of Green Party of the United States)
 Reform Party of Texas (State Affiliate of Reform Party of the United States of America)
 Socialist Party of Texas (State Affiliate of Socialist Party USA)
 Communist Party of Texas (State Affiliate of Communist Party of the United States of America)
 Southern Independence Party (State Specific)
 Confederate Party of Texas (state Specific)

Federal representation
Texas currently has 38 House districts In the 118th Congress, 13 of Texas's seats are held by Democrats and 25 are held by Republicans. There are as follows:

Texas's 1st congressional district represented by Nathaniel Moran (R)
Texas's 2nd congressional district represented by Dan Crenshaw (R)
Texas's 3rd congressional district represented by Keith Self (R)
Texas's 4th congressional district represented by Pat Fallon (R)
Texas's 5th congressional district represented by Lance Gooden (R)
Texas's 6th congressional district represented by Jake Ellzey (R)
Texas's 7th congressional district represented by Lizzie Fletcher (D)
Texas's 8th congressional district represented by Morgan Luttrell (R)
Texas's 9th congressional district represented by Al Green (D)
Texas's 10th congressional district represented by Michael Cloud (R)
Texas's 11th congressional district represented by August Pfluger (R)
Texas's 12th congressional district represented by Kay Granger (R)
Texas's 13th congressional district represented by Ronny Jackson (R)
Texas's 14th congressional district represented by Randy Weber (R)
Texas's 15th congressional district represented by Monica De La Cruz (R)
Texas's 16th congressional district represented by Veronica Escobar (D)
Texas's 17th congressional district represented by Pete Sessions (R)
Texas's 18th congressional district represented by Sheila Jackson Lee (D)
Texas's 19th congressional district represented by Jodey Arrington (R)
Texas's 20th congressional district represented by Joaquin Castro (D)
Texas's 21st congressional district represented by Chip Roy (R)
Texas's 22nd congressional district represented by Troy Nehls (R)
Texas's 23rd congressional district represented by Tony Gonzales (R)
Texas's 24th congressional district represented by Beth Van Duyne (R)
Texas's 25th congressional district represented by Roger Williams (R)
Texas's 26th congressional district represented by Michael Burgess (R)
Texas's 27th congressional district represented by Michael Cloud (R)
Texas's 28th congressional district represented by Henry Cuellar (D)
Texas's 29th congressional district represented by Sylvia Garcia (D)
Texas's 30th congressional district represented by Jasmine Crockett (D)
Texas's 31st congressional district represented by John Carter (R)
Texas's 32nd congressional district represented by Colin Allred (D)
Texas's 33rd congressional district represented by Mark Veasey (D)
Texas's 34th congressional district represented by Vicente Gonzalez (D)
Texas's 35th congressional district represented by Greg Casar (D)
Texas's 36th congressional district represented by Brian Babin (R)
Texas's 37th congressional district represented by Lloyd Doggett (D)
Texas's 38th congressional district represented by Wesley Hunt (R)

Texas's two United States Senators are Republicans John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, serving since 2002 and 2013, respectively.

Texas is part of the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, and the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas in the federal judiciary. The district's cases are appealed to the Houston-based United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

See also
 Government of Texas
 Political party strength in Texas
 Elections in Texas

Notes

References
 Cunningham, Sean P. Cowboy Conservatism: Texas and the Rise of the Modern Right. (2010).

External links
Texas Politics, the TxP project at the University of Texas at Austin

Politics of Texas


David Oei (; surname pronounced "Wee", born 1950) is a Hong Kong-born American classical pianist.

Biography
Oei was born in Hong Kong, into a family that had emigrated from Amoy (Xiamen), Fujian in 1934 to open a branch of The China & South Sea Bank founded by his Chinese-Indonesian great grandfather Oei Ik-Tjoe (黃奕住; pinyin: Huang Yizhu). In Hong Kong, he began studying classical piano at the age of four with Tu Yuet-Sien (屠月仙). At age 9, after winning eleven first prizes at the Hong Kong Music Festival, he was a soloist with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. At age 10, he immigrated to the United States by winning a full scholarship to study with Mieczysław Munz at the Peabody Conservatory and later accepted a full scholarship to study with Munz and Ilona Kabos at the Juilliard School from 1964 to 1972, leaving a year short of graduation to perform with Peter Schickele as a member of The Intimate P. D. Q. Bach until 1985.  Schickele regularly introduced him to the audience as having "a black belt in piano". During that same period he also founded the Aspen Soloists, a piano trio that toured extensively under CAMI management. He attended the Interlochen Music Camp from 1963 to 1967 and won the concerto competition in each of those five years. He also won the Concert Artists Guild, WQXR Young Artists, Young Musicians Foundation, and Paul Ulanowsky Chamber Pianists competitions. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen on November 20, 1985.

Oei made his first appearance on U.S. network television on February 22, 1966, on one of the famous Young People's Concerts conducted by Leonard Bernstein (the episode was entitled "Pictures at an Exhibition".

Oei has performed with such major orchestras as the New York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke's, and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. In addition, he has performed with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and is also noted as a performer of the works of P. D. Q. Bach. He appeared on television in Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts, as well as on The Today Show and CBS News Sunday Morning. He has recorded for the ADDA, Arabesque, CRI, Delos, Albany, Grenadilla, New World, Festival Chamber Music, Pro Arte, and Vanguard labels. He is the founding director of the Salon Chamber Soloists and a member of the Festival Chamber Music, Friends Of Mozart and the Elysium and Ecliptica Chamber Ensembles. He is a member of a duo with the Korean-born violinist Chin Kim, with which he has recorded and gives annual concerts. He has performed in a piano duo (performing music for piano four hands as well as for two pianos) with Helene Jeanney.

Oei has taught at Hoff-Barthelson Music School in Scarsdale, New York and in the Preparatory Division at Mannes College of Music.  He has taught at Summertrios and the Bennington Chamber Music Conference. A former regular fixture at Chamber Music Northwest and Bargemusic, he has performed at various festivals including Sitka, Caramoor, OK Mozart, Washington Square Music Festival, and Kuhmo. He has served as an affiliated teacher at the State University of New York at Purchase and he was the Volunteers Coordinator and Head Coach for the Manhattan Special Olympics.

Beginning in the mid-1980s, Oei also served for five years as the Music Director and Production Advisor for Music-Theatre Group's productions of Stanley Silverman and Richard Foreman's Africanis Instructus and Love and Science. In July 2001 he served as the Music Director for the Sundance Theater Workshop production of the opera Yiddisha Teddy Bears (with score by Stewart Wallace and libretto by Richard Foreman).  Oei became a member of the Alaria Chamber Ensemble in 2009.

Oei lives in New York City with his wife, the violinist Eriko Sato.

Discography
1974: The Intimate P. D. Q. Bach: John Ferrante (countertenor), David Oei (piano) Vanguard
1978: Karel Husa Sonata: Elmar Oliveira (violin), David Oei (piano) New World
1980: PDQ Bach Liebeslieder Polkas: David Oei (piano), Anne Epperson (piano) Vanguard
1984: Peter Schickele Clarinet Quartet: Eriko Sato (violin), Fred Sherry (cello), David Shifrin (clarinet), David Oei (piano) Vanguard
1989: Schumann & Grieg: Sonia Wieder-Atherton (cello), David Oei (piano) ADDA
1989: David Schiff: Gimpel the Fool: Theodore Arm (violin), Warren Lash (cello), David Shifrin (clarinet), David Oei (piano) Delos
1990: Miriam Gideon Retrospective: Patricia Spencer (flute), David Oei (piano) New World
1993: Prokofiev Violin Sonata No. 2: Chin Kim (violin), David Oei (piano) Pro Arte
1995: Alec Wilder Works For Horn: David Jolley (horn), David Oei (piano) Arabesque
1997: Old Friends: Christopher Lee (violin), David Oei (piano) Quattro Corde
2004: Karel Husa Recollections: Quintet of the Americas, David Oei (piano) New World
2005: Donald Crockett Ceiling Of Heaven: Renee Jolles (violin), Nicolas Cords (viola), Edward Aaron (cello), David Oei (piano) Albany
2007: Strauss and Rachmaninoff Sonatas: Ruth Sommers (cello), David Oei (piano) FCM
2008: The Lay of Love and Death of the Cornet Christoph Rilke by Viktor Ullmann: David Oei (piano), Lutz Rath (speaker)
2010: Five Not-So-Easy Pieces: David Oei (piano), Eriko Sato (violin) Prestissimo

References

External links
David Oei biography from Festival Chamber Music site
David Oei biography from Summertrios site
David Oei biography from Hoff-Barthelson Music School site
 IMDB entry on New York Philharmonic Young People's Concerts, 22 February 1966

1950 births
Living people
American classical pianists
American male pianists
American musicians of Chinese descent
Classical piano duos
Hong Kong emigrants to the United States
Musicians from New York City
20th-century American pianists
Classical musicians from New York (state)
21st-century classical pianists
20th-century American male musicians
21st-century American male musicians
21st-century American pianists

David Oei