Albert Ghiorso (July 15, 1915 – December 26, 2010) was an American nuclear scientist and co-discoverer of a record 12 chemical elements on the periodic table. His research career spanned six decades, from the early 1940s to the late 1990s.

Biography

Early life
Ghiorso was born in Vallejo, California on July 15, 1915, of Italian and Spanish ancestry. He grew up in Alameda, California. Living near the Oakland International Airport, he became interested in airplanes, aeronautics, and other technologies. After graduating from high school, he built radio circuitry and earned a reputation for establishing radio contacts at distances that outdid the military.

He received his BS in electrical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 1937. After graduation, he worked for Reginald Tibbets, a prominent amateur radio operator who operated a business supplying radiation detectors to the government. Ghiorso's ability to develop and produce these instruments, as well as a variety of electronic tasks, brought him into contact with the nuclear scientists at the University of California Radiation Laboratory at Berkeley, in particular Glenn Seaborg. During a job in which he was to install an intercom at the lab, he met two secretaries, one of whom married Seaborg. The other, Wilma Belt, became Albert's wife of 60+ years.

Ghiorso was raised in a devout Christian family, but later left the religion and became an atheist. However, he still identified with Christian ethics.

Wartime research
In the early 1940s, Seaborg moved to Chicago to work on the Manhattan Project. He invited Ghiorso to join him, and for the next four years Ghiorso developed sensitive instruments for detecting the radiation associated with nuclear decay, including spontaneous fission. One of Ghiorso's breakthrough instruments was a 48-channel pulse height analyzer, which enabled him to identify the energy, and therefore the source, of the radiation. During this time they discovered two new elements (95, americium and 96, curium), although publication was withheld until after the war.

New elements
After the war, Seaborg and Ghiorso returned to Berkeley, where they and colleagues used the 60" Crocker cyclotron to produce elements of increasing atomic number by bombarding exotic targets with helium ions. In experiments during 1949–1950, they produced and identified elements 97 (berkelium) and 98 (californium). In 1953, in a collaboration with Argonne Lab, Ghiorso and collaborators sought and found elements 99 (einsteinium) and 100 (fermium), identified by their characteristic radiation in dust collected by airplanes from the first thermonuclear explosion (the Mike test). In 1955, the group used the cyclotron to produce 17 atoms of element 101 (mendelevium), the first new element to be discovered atom-by-atom. The recoil technique invented by Ghiorso was crucial to obtaining an identifiable signal from individual atoms of the new element.

In the mid-1950s it became clear that to extend the periodic chart any further, a new accelerator would be needed, and the Berkeley Heavy Ion Linear Accelerator (HILAC) was built, with Ghiorso in charge. That machine was used in the discovery of elements 102–106 (102, nobelium; 103, lawrencium; 104, rutherfordium; 105, dubnium and 106, seaborgium), each produced and identified on the basis of only a few atoms. The discovery of each successive element was made possible by the development of innovative techniques in robotic target handling, fast chemistry, efficient radiation detectors, and computer data processing. The 1972 upgrade of the HILAC to the superHILAC provided higher intensity ion beams, which was crucial to producing enough new atoms to enable detection of element 106.

With increasing atomic number, the experimental difficulties of producing and identifying a new element increase significantly. In the 1970s and 1980s, resources for new element research at Berkeley were diminishing, but the GSI laboratory at Darmstadt, Germany, under the leadership of Peter Armbruster and with considerable resources, was able to produce and identify elements 107–109 (107, bohrium; 108, hassium and 109, meitnerium). In the early 1990s, the Berkeley and Darmstadt groups made a collaborative attempt to create element 110. Experiments at Berkeley were unsuccessful, but eventually elements 110–112 (110, darmstadtium; 111, roentgenium and 112, copernicium) were identified at the Darmstadt laboratory. Subsequent work at the JINR laboratory at Dubna, led by Yuri Oganessian and a Russian-American team of scientists, was successful in identifying elements 113–118 (113, nihonium; 114, flerovium; 115, moscovium; 116, livermorium; 117, tennessine and 118, oganesson), thereby completing the Period 7 elements of the periodic table of the elements.

Inventions
Ghiorso invented numerous techniques and machines for isolating and identifying heavy elements atom-by-atom. He is generally credited with implementing the multichannel analyzer and the technique of recoil to isolate reaction products, although both of these were significant extensions of previously understood concepts. His concept for a new type of accelerator, the Omnitron, is acknowledged to have been a brilliant advance that probably would have enabled the Berkeley lab to discover numerous additional new elements, but the machine was never built, a victim of the evolving political landscape of the 1970s in the U.S. that de-emphasized basic nuclear research and greatly expanded research on environmental, health, and safety issues. Partially as a result of the failure to build the Omnitron, Ghiorso (together with colleagues Bob Main and others) conceived the joining of the HILAC and the Bevatron, which he called the Bevalac. This combination machine, an ungainly articulation across the steep slope at the Rad Lab, provided heavy ions at GeV energies, thereby enabling development of two new fields of research: "high-energy nuclear physics," meaning that the compound nucleus is sufficiently hot to exhibit collective dynamical effects, and heavy ion therapy, in which high-energy ions are used to irradiate tumors in cancer patients. Both of these fields have expanded into activities in many laboratories and clinics worldwide.

Later life
In his later years, Ghiorso continued research toward finding superheavy elements, fusion energy, and innovative electron beam sources. He was a non-participating co-author of the experiments in 1999 that gave evidence of elements 116 and 118, which later turned out to be a case of scientific fraud perpetrated by the first author, Victor Ninov. He also had brief research interests in the free quark experiment of William Fairbank of Stanford, in the discovery of element 43, and in the electron disk accelerator, among others.

Legacy
Albert Ghiorso is credited with having co-discovered the following elements
 Americium ca. 1945 (element 95)
 Curium in 1944  (element 96)
 Berkelium in 1949 (element 97)
 Californium in 1950 (element 98)
 Einsteinium in  1952 (element 99)
 Fermium in 1953 (element 100)
 Mendelevium in 1955 (element 101)
 Nobelium in 1958–59 (element 102)
 Lawrencium in 1961 (element 103)
 Rutherfordium in 1969 (element 104)
 Dubnium in 1970 (element 105)
 Seaborgium in 1974 (element 106)

Ghiorso personally selected some of the names recommended by his group for the new elements. His original name for element 105 (hahnium) was changed by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) to dubnium, to recognize the contributions of the laboratory at Dubna, Russia, in the search for trans-fermium elements. His recommendation for element 106, seaborgium, was accepted only after extensive debate about naming an element after a living person. In 1999, evidence for two superheavy elements (element 116 and element 118) was published by a group in Berkeley. The discovery group intended to propose the name ghiorsium for element 118, but eventually the data were found to have been tampered and in 2002 the claims were withdrawn. Ghiorso's lifetime output comprised about 170 technical papers, most published in The Physical Review.

Ghiorso is famous among his colleagues for his endless stream of creative "doodles," which define an art form suggestive of fractals. He also developed a state-of-the-art camera for birdwatching, and was a constant supporter of environmental causes and organizations.

Several obituaries are available online, and a full-length biography is in preparation.

Notes

References
 Images in the LBNL archives

1915 births
2010 deaths
American atheists
American electrical engineers
Discoverers of chemical elements
People involved with the periodic table
Manhattan Project people
People from Alameda, California
People from Vallejo, California
UC Berkeley College of Engineering alumni
Howard N. Potts Medal recipients
Fellows of the American Physical Society

Albert Ghiorso


Softball is a sport similar to baseball.  Men, women, boys, or girls can play softball.

There are three types of softball: fastpitch, modified and slow pitch.  In both types of softball, pitchers throw underhand (with hand below shoulder level).

How softball is played
There are nine to twelve players per team. The basic goal is to get as many players to home plate as possible. In order to get to home plate, a player usually has to hit the ball.  There are many techniques for hitting (which is called batting).  There are also different types of bunts.

Once the ball is in play, the batter runs to first base, then waits until the next player hits the ball in order to advance to second base. This keeps on going on until there are three outs.  Then the team on the field goes in to bat, and the team that was up to bat goes to the field.

Equipment
Ball: Softballs are not actually soft.  They are larger than baseballs, and weigh about 6.25-7.0oz for fastpitch and 5.87-6.12oz for slowpitch. The ball has a raised seam and is usually yellow or white. The softball was invented in Chicago.

Gloves: All defensive players wear gloves.  The glove is used to catch the ball when it is hit or thrown to the player. The gloves are usually made out of leather or similar material. The catcher has a special glove that is extra padded to protect the hand from catching the ball thrown by the pitcher. The first baseman may have a special glove also.  It has a bigger pocket to catch the ball more easily, because first basemen get the ball thrown to them multiple times during each inning.

Bat: The bat used by the offense can be made out of wood or aluminum or other composite materials, such as carbon fiber. It cannot be longer than 34 inches long, 6.0 inches indiameter (length of one side of a circle to the other side), and 38oz in mass.

Fastpitch
Fastpitch softball is only for female athletes.  The ages range from five years old to the college or professional level.

Fastpitch pitching distance can be between 35 and 45 feet; it all depends on the age of the players. The pitches can travel around 60mph, also depending on the age of the players. The pitcher's arm rotates 360 degrees around her shoulder until the ball is released from the hand.

Slowpitch
Slowpitch softball is for both men and women, usually a sport for adults.

Slowpitch pitching distance is 50 feet for both male and female players. The pitchers arm motion is a half a windmill, meaning that it is an underhand throw.

Softball terms

Home plate: A five-sided white flat base.  The batter stands next to home plate, and the catcher plays behind the plate.

Shortstop: A defensive position in between 2nd base and third base

Right field: A defensive outfield position, on the right side of the field (behind the first baseman and second baseman).

Center field: A defensive outfield position, right behind second base.

Left field: A defensive outfield position, on the left side of the field (behind the shortstop and third baseman).

Innings: There are usually anywhere in between 3-7 innings in a softball game. The number of innings played usually depends on the league, rules, and whether the game is fastpitch or slowpitch.  An inning is over after three outs.

Strikes: The player gets three strikes before they are out.  This is called a strikeout.
it is commonly played in Antarctica, it is their national sport.

Softball

Softball


Breast augmentation is a surgical procedure used to increase the size of the breasts.

Usually, implants are used, but another technique called fat grafting is sometimes used. The size increase can be as small as one cup size, or as large as 10 cup sizes or more.

The larger the increase, the greater the risk of complications. Complications may include leaking of the implants, which may require the implants to be replaced. With larger breasts the whole weight balance of the body is changed, which may cause stress to the muscular and skeletal systems.

A surgical implant is either an implant filled with saline-solution, or an implant filled with silicone-gel. The fat-graft transfer uses grafts of adipose fat tissue from the woman's own body. A full assessment of this method is not yet available. The method does not allow for the huge size increase possible with implants, and slim women may not have enough fat tissue to allow the method to be used.

Sometimes the method is used to correct issues, or to replace a breast after amputation.

Methods

Silicone and saline implants
Implants are inserted into the breast and filled with silicone or a saline solution. This is the most common method of augmentation.

Polypropylene string implants
Yarn-like polypropylene string is inserted into the breast, where it irritates the breast, causing it to fill with fluid. Polypropylene string produces very large size increases, often well over 20 cup sizes. It has a very high complication rate and is now banned in the United States and many other countries.

Fat grafting
Fat is removed with liposuction from an area of the body where it is not desirable. The fat is then cleaned and injected into the breast.

References

Surgery
Breasts

Breast augmentation


South Devon is the southern part of Devon, England. Because Devon has its major population centres on its two coasts, the county is divided informally into North Devon and South Devon. In a narrower sense "South Devon" is used to refer to the part of Devon south of Exeter and Dartmoor, including Plymouth, Torbay and the districts of South Hams, West Devon and Teignbridge.

South Devon is also sometimes, although incorrectly, taken to include East Devon, which includes the first seaside resort to be developed in the county, Exmouth and the more upmarket Georgian town of Sidmouth, headquarters of the East Devon District Council.

National character area
South Devon is more precisely defined as a natural region which has been designated as National Character Area 151 by Natural England.

The South Devon National Character Area as defined by Natural England is bounded by the River Tamar in the west, the coastline from Plymouth to Torquay in the south, the southern boundary of Dartmoor in the north. Either side of Dartmoor it reaches as far north as Chillaton in the west and Chudleigh and Bovey Tracey in the east. Adjacent natural regions are the Cornish Killas to the west of the Tamar Valley, The Culm to the northwest and the Devon Redlands to the northeast.

Geography
The landscape of South Devon consists of rolling hills dotted with small towns, such as Dartmouth, Ivybridge, Kingsbridge, Salcombe, and Totnes. The towns of Torquay and Paignton are the principal seaside resorts on the south coast.  Another notable feature is the coastal railway line between Newton Abbot and the Exe Estuary: the red sandstone cliffs and sea views are very dramatic and in the resorts railway line and beaches are very near.

Notes

Geography of Devon
Natural regions of England

South Devon


Aristocracy is a kind of government that puts power in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class. In Ancient Greek, the word aristocracy means the rule of the best, but it has come to be linked with rule by Nobility. A member of the aristocracy is an aristocrat.

There are different kinds of aristocracy with different ways the government is set up.  In history, most aristocracies are hereditary.  Members of the ruling group have passed on power to their eldest surviving Child. In most cases, this was their  son.  Daughters were often excluded from this. Aristocracy can be combined with other kinds of government. There were small groups of people that run a country. The people were called aristocrats and often had titles such as duke, duchess, baron and baroness.

Some good examples of this are the Spartiates in Sparta, the eupatridae in Athens, the patricians or Optimates in Rome to name a few

Various forms of government

Consistent with aristocracy
 monarchy - (inherited rule by a single individual) The monarch and his or her relatives are usually the aristocracy. Also, the monarch has the power to make anyone he or she chooses part of the ruling group. Sometimes the current monarch is replaced by another aristocrat and their family.
 autocracy - (all power in one person) Aristocracies in an autocratic society tend to be very small, usually only the autocrat's family or close friends.
 plutocracy - (rule by the wealthy) The aristocracy is usually made up of the richest people. Sometimes it is not enough just to be rich, you must also be from a special family or ethnic group.
 oligarchy - (rule by the few)  All aristocracies are also oligarchies.

Not aristocracies
 Meritocracy - (rule by those who most deserve to rule) The rulers are people who have special credentials or those who went to a particular school or passed a special examination. It is possible to lose your place in the ruling group because someone with better skills replaced you.
 Technocracy- rule by experts
 Democracy - (rule by the people) There are usually not official groups of aristocrats in a democracy. However, rich and famous people sometimes informally form a group of people who get special treatment.

References

Forms of government
Social classes

Aristocracy


St. James-Bond United Church, at 1066 Avenue Road in Toronto, Ontario, was a United Church of Canada congregation from 1928 to 2005, when it merged with Fairlawn Heights United Church (now Fairlawn Avenue United Church) in the Yonge Street and Lawrence Avenue area. The "St. James-Bond" name derived from the merger of St. James Square Presbyterian Church with Bond Street Congregational Church in 1928. Prior to the merger, they were separate congregations downtown, of the Presbyterian and Congregational traditions respectively.

The church building at 1066 Avenue Road was vacated on February 28, 2006. The building was torn down in the summer of 2006, and the site is now the Living Life on the Avenue Seniors Retirement Residence.

The building had been used by Elections Canada for a polling place. In 2008, some voters were mistakenly told to vote at the demolished church, instead of at the new polling place at Marshall McLuhan Catholic Secondary School.

Bond Street Congregational Church

Originally located east of Yonge Street on Dundas Street, the congregation moved uptown in 1927, to a growing suburban development north of Eglinton Avenue. The Bond Street building was acquired by a pentecostal church, Evangel Temple. The building was destroyed by fire after Evangel Temple moved to the Hoggs Hollow area, near Yonge and York Mills, on September 19, 1981.

St. James Square Presbyterian Church

Located on Gerrard Street, just east of Yonge, on the present site of Toronto Metropolitan University's St. James Square Campus, this was the third building of the Second United Presbyterian Church of Toronto. It was built in 1879, replacing a much smaller building at southeast corner of Gould and Victoria Streets (now Ryerson Community Park) that had been built by architect William Hay in 1855–1856.

The United Presbyterian Church's Canadian synod approved the division of their Toronto, Canada West Bay Street United Presbyterian Church congregation in 1853 to assist in the move of their Divinity Hall from London to Toronto. In 1861, the merger of the UPC with the Free Church saw the Divinity School merge with Knox College, and Gould Street Church grew under the leadership of:

 Professor John Taylor (1853–1861), who returned to Scotland; his son, Sir Thomas Wardlaw Taylor remained in Canada, and was later Chief Justice of Manitoba.
 Rev. Robert Burns (1861–1863), a Knox College professor,  formerly of Knox Free Church,
 John Mark King (1863–1883), later the Principal of Manitoba College in Winnipeg,
 S. H. Kellogg (1885–1892), a former missionary to India), who returned there,
 Louis Jordan (1894–1900),
 Alfred Gandier (1901–1908), later Principal of both Knox (1909–1925) and Emmanuel College (1925–1932).
 Andrew Robertson(1910–1916),
 D. N. Morden (1917–1926).

St. James-Bond United Church
Both congregations joined the United Church of Canada in 1925. Each had declined as Toronto grew and parishioners joined congregations closer to their homes, some started by the respective congregations.

St. James Square was the "parent" of College Street United Church and St. John's Presbyterian Church, Toronto. Bond Street was the parent of Birchcliff Church in Scarborough Township (now Birchcliff Bluffs United Church). Bond Street was the first of the two congregations to move into a new area, joined by their former downtown neighbour a year later.

Ian Fleming apparently stayed with a friend on Avenue Road across from the church, and he later went on to write books about a character named James Bond.

See also
List of United Church of Canada churches in Toronto

References

External links
 Fairlawn Avenue United Church website – including a page about The Good Shepherd Window from the St. James-Bond United Church
 Location of the final church at 1066 Avenue Road – with photos and links to websites related to the area

United Church of Canada churches in Toronto
Christian organizations established in 1928
Religious organizations disestablished in 2005
Christian organizations disestablished in the 2000s
Demolished buildings and structures in Toronto
20th-century Presbyterian churches
Buildings and structures demolished in 2006
20th-century churches in Canada

St. James-Bond Church


A dacquoise is a dessert cake. It is made with layers of almond and hazelnut meringue and whipped cream or buttercream. The name comes from the French word , meaning "of Dax". (Dax is a town in southwestern France.) It is usually served chilled with fruit. One form of dacquoise is marjolaine. Marjolaine is long and rectangular and combines almond and hazelnut meringue layers with chocolate buttercream.

A classic dacquoise is made of two layers of a meringue filled with an egg-yolk-based buttercream. Often, the layers are of a meringue japonais. (Meringue japonais means there are ground nuts added.) The nuts can be blanched almonds or hazelnuts. While this dacquoise is based on layers of meringue japonais, it is held together with a mix of sour cream and milk and dark chocolates.

Cakes

Dacquoise


Octa (or Octha) (c. 500 – 543) was an Anglo-Saxon King of Kent during the 6th century. Sources disagree on his relationship to the other kings in his line; he may have been the son of Hengist or Oisc, and may have been the father of Oisc or Eormenric. The dates of his reign are unclear, but he may have ruled from 512 to 534 or from 516 to 540. Despite his shadowy recorded history Octa made an impact on the Britons, who describe his deeds in several sources.

Sources
The 9th-century Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, one of the most important sources for this period of history, does not mention Octa. It does, however, mention Hengist and gives Oisc as his son. However, Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, completed around 731, names Octa as the son of "Orric, surnamed Oisc" and the grandson of Hengist. Conversely, the 9th-century Cotton Vespasian manuscript indicates that Octa was the son of Hengist and the father of Oisc.

Octa also appears in the Historia Brittonum, a 9th-century history of the Britons. According to the narrative, Hengist, who had settled in Britain with the consent of the British king Vortigern as defence against the Scots, sends for his sons Octa and Ebusa to supplement his forces. Octa and Ebusa subsequently raid Scotland. After Hengist's death Octa becomes king of Kent. Some manuscripts of the Historia include genealogies of the Saxon kingdoms; the genealogy of the kings of Kent names Octa as the son and successor to Hengist and the father to the subsequent king Ossa.

In literature
Octa appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's 12th-century pseudohistory Historia Regum Britanniae. The earlier scenes featuring him are taken directly from the Historia Brittonum, while the later scenes have no known source, and were likely invented by Geoffrey. As in the Historia Brittonum, Octa is brought to Britain by his father with Vortigern's consent. Later, Vortigern is deposed by the rightful King of the Britons, Aurelius Ambrosius (the historical Ambrosius Aurelianus) and Hengist is captured and later executed. Octa leads his men to York and continues to harry the Britons, along with his kinsman Eosa. Aurelius besieges York, and eventually Octa surrenders. He negotiates a truce in which the Saxons are allowed to stay in northern Britain as vassals to Aurelius. After the death of Aurelius, however, Octa and Eosa regard the treaty as no longer binding and resume their belligerence. The new king, Aurelius' brother Uther Pendragon, leads his armies against the Saxons and routs them in a surprise night attack. Octa and Eosa are taken prisoner, but they eventually escape and return to Germany. They return with a vast army, and Uther meets them again in a battle in which Octa and Eosa are finally slain.

Octa may appear in Welsh Arthurian literature as Osla Bigknife, though this character may be better identified with Offa of Mercia. This Osla figures in two medieval prose tales, Culhwch and Olwen (c. 1100) and The Dream of Rhonabwy (12th- or 13th-century). In Culhwch he is a member of King Arthur's retinue; he is named in a list of Arthur's followers, and his weapon "Bronllavyn Short Broad", which is wide enough for Arthur's army to use as a bridge, is described. Osla later participates in the hunt for the great boar Twrch Trwyth, during which he nearly drowns when the sheath of his great knife fills with water. In Rhonabwy Osla is Arthur's opponent at the Battle of Badon.

Notes

References
Gantz, Jeffrey (translator) (1987). The Mabinogion. New York: Penguin. .

External links

500 births
543 deaths
6th-century English people
Arthurian characters
Kentish monarchs
6th-century English monarchs
Jutish people

Octa of Kent


Kalahasti is a place in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is a place of pilgrimage for Hindus. In Kalhasti, there is a famous and ancient temple of Shiva, a god of Hindus. The temple is one of the five such temples of Shiva in south India collectively known as Pancha Bootha Sthalams. The other four such temples are at Kanchipuram, Thiruvanaikaval, Tiruvannamalai, and Chidambaram.

In this temple, people worship Shiva in the form of a linga. There are many mythological stories about this linga. One of the stories tell that an elephant, a snake, and a spider used to worship this linga. The god Shiva blessed them with moksha (liberation).

Another story tells about a saint named Kannappa. He took out his eyes and offered the same to the linga. At this supreme sacrifice, Shiva became very happy. He appeared in the form of a human being, and restored the eyesight of Kannappa. Kannappa is worshipped as one of the 63 saiva saints in Tamil Nadu.

Sri Kalahasti temple, 36 km away is famous for its Vayudeva temple, which is the only shrine of the god of wind in India. Constructed in the 12th century by the Chola king, Rajarajendra, Vayu is incarnated as Lord Shiva and worshipped as Kalahasteeswara.

This is an important temple dedicated to Lord Shiva. This temple has one of the elemental lingas, the vayu (air) linga. There is a lamp inside the inner sanctum that is constantly flickering despite the lack of air movement inside. The air-linga can be observed to move even when the pujaris close off the entrance to the main Deity room, which does not have any windows. You can see the flames on several ghee lamps flicker as if blown by moving air. The linga is white and is considered Swayambhu, or self-manifested.

Kalahasti is surrounded by two sacred hills. The Durgamba temple is on the northern hill. On the south hill there is the shrine of Kannabeswara, in memory of the Sage Kannappa, who offered an eye to the Lord. When he tried to offer his other eye as well, the Lord mercifully stopped him. There is also a temple dedicated to Subramanya on one of the surrounding hills.

The main linga is untouched by human hands, even by the priest. Abhisheka (bathing) is done by pouring a mixture of water, milk, camphor, and panchamrita. Sandal paste, flowers and the sacred thread are offered to the utsava-murti, not the main linga.

This temple is one of the most impressive Siva temples in India. It features an enormous, ancient gopuram (tower) over the main gate. The tower is 36.5m (120 feet) high. The entire temple is carved out of the side of a huge stone hill. It was built in1516 by King Krishnadeva Raya.

The temple is run by neatly dressed Saivite Brahmins.

Related pages
Linga

Hindu mythology

Kalahasti


The Battle of Catraeth was fought around AD 600 between a force raised by the Gododdin, a Brythonic people of the Hen Ogledd or "Old North" of Britain, and the Angles of Bernicia and Deira. It was evidently an assault by the Gododdin party on the Angle stronghold of Catraeth, perhaps Catterick, North Yorkshire. The Gododdin force was said to have consisted of warriors from all over the Hen Ogledd, and even some from as far afield as Gwynedd in North Wales and Pictland. The battle was disastrous for the Britons, who were nearly all killed. The slain warriors were commemorated in the important early poem Y Gododdin, attributed to Aneirin.

Battle
In his Canu Aneirin Ifor Williams interpreted mynydawc mwynvawr in the text of Y Gododdin to refer to a person, Mynyddog Mwynfawr in modern Welsh. Mynyddog, in Williams' reading, was the king of the Gododdin, with his chief seat at Din Eidyn (modern Edinburgh). Around the year 600 Mynyddog gathered about 300 selected warriors from across the Brythonic world. He feasted them at Din Eidyn for a year, preparing for battle, then launched an attack on Catraeth, which Williams agrees with Thomas Stephens in identifying as Catterick in North Yorkshire, which was in Anglo-Saxon hands. They were opposed by a larger army from the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Deira and Bernicia.

In early historical times, this part of northern England and southern Scotland was the territory of the Votadini, the ancestors of the later Gododdin. By 600 the Angles had formed the important kingdoms of Deira and Bernicia, which were possibly originally ruled by Britons. As such the Battle of Catraeth may have been an attempt to push back Anglo-Saxon expansion. At some time after the battle, the Angles absorbed the Gododdin kingdom and incorporated its territory into the kingdom of Northumbria.

This interpretation has been accepted by most modern scholars. Kenneth H. Jackson accepts the interpretation but suggests that a force of 300 men would be much too small to undertake the task demanded of them. He considers that the 300 mounted warriors would have been accompanied by a larger number of foot soldiers, not considered worthy of mention in the poem. A. O. H. Jarman also follows Williams' interpretation.

Historical fiction
The Battle of Catraeth has appeared in some modern works of fiction. John James used Y Gododdin as the basis for his novel Men went to Cattraeth, originally published 1969. Rosemary Sutcliff's  young adult novel The Shining Company (1990) tells the story of the Battle of Catraeth from the viewpoint of Prosper, shield-bearer to one of King Mynyddog's Gododdin warriors. Richard J. Denning's 2010 novel, The Amber Treasure tells the story of the Battle of Catraeth from the point of view of a young Anglo Saxon youth, Cerdic. In Nicola Griffith's novel Hild (2014), one of the main characters, Cian, frequently refers to the epic, as the heroes are aspirational figures to him. In the television show Wolfblood, an episode ("The Dark Ages") revolves around a hoard of treasure buried before the battle of Catraeth by a clan of werewolves, who having died in the battle, were unable to reclaim their relics.

See also
 Battle of Raith

Notes

References
 Jackson, Kenneth H. 1969. The Gododdin: The Oldest Scottish poem. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
 Jarman, A. O. H. (ed.) 1988. Y Gododdin. Britain's Oldest Heroic Poem. The Welsh Classics vol. 3. Gomer.
 Williams, Ifor. 1938. Canu Aneirin: gyda rhagymadrodd a nodiadau. Aberystwyth: Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru.
 Davies, John. "Dinas Powys, Catraeth, and Llantwit Major." A History of Wales. London: Allen Lane :, 1993. 61–62. Print.

600
600s conflicts
Catraeth
Catraeth
Catraeth
Military history of North Yorkshire
7th century in England
Hen Ogledd
Catterick, North Yorkshire

Battle of Catraeth


Slug is a general term for a gastropod mollusc which has no shell, or just a small internal shell.

Slugs belong to several different families which also include snails with shells. Snails are gastropods with a coiled shell large enough for the animal to pull back inside. The families of land slugs are not very closely related, despite looking similar. The shell-less slug type is an example of convergent evolution, and so the category "slug" is  not a taxonomic category.

The name "slug" is used for air-breathing land slugs, while the marine forms are usually known as sea slugs. Land gastropods with a shell that is too small to hide the body are sometimes called semislugs.

Body parts and behaviour

Like land snails, most slugs have four 'feelers' or tentacles on their head. The upper two (the "optical tentacles") see light and have eyespots at the ends, while the lower two (the "sensory tentacles") are used for smelling. The tentacles are retractable, and can regrow if lost.

On top of the slug, behind the head, is a body part called the mantle, and under this are the genital opening and anus. On one side (almost always the right side) of the mantle is a breathing hole, which is easy to see when open, but difficult to see when closed. Inside the mantle in some species is a very small, flat shell.

The bottom of a snail is called a "foot". Like other snails, a slug moves by rhythmic waves of muscle contraction on the bottom of its foot. At the same time, it secretes a layer of mucus on which it travels, which helps prevent damage to the foot. Around the edge of the foot is the 'foot fringe'.

Some slug species hibernate underground during the winter in places with cold winters, but in other species, the adults die in the autumn.

Gastropods

Slug


Secret Water is the eighth book in Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series of children's books. It was published in 1939.

This book is set in and around Hamford Water in Essex, close to the resort town of Walton-on-the-Naze. It brings the Swallows and the Amazons together and introduces a new group of characters, the Eels and the Mastodon. Ransome sailed to Hamford Water, an area of salt marshes and low lying islands in his boat Nancy Blackett. He set the book in this tidal place which offered a new setting for his characters and chances to explore and map the area.

Plot summary

The Swallows mean to sail in the Goblin to Hamford Water and camp with their father, but he is called away on naval business. Instead he maroons them with a small boat (dinghy) on an island. Before he leaves, Father gives them a basic map of the area they call Secret Water and suggests they map the area before he returns to pick them up.
For a surprise, he has arranged for the Amazons to come down from the Lake District and join them with another dinghy.

They see some mysterious footprints which turn out to belong to the Mastodon, a local boy. He mistakes them for the Eels, another family who camp in the area regularly. Later the Eels arrive and are initially hostile before they settle down for a friendly war.

It seems that due to the distractions of war and being cut off by the tides, the chart will not be completed. However early in the last morning two separate groups of children complete it.

Related pages
 Beaumont Cut

1939 books
English children's books

Secret Water


A territory (plural: territories, from the word terra, which means 'land') is an area which belongs to a person, organization, institution, animal, nation or state. In international law, a "territory" is an area of land which is outside the borders of a nation, but owned by that nation. Examples are: Puerto Rico as a U.S. territory, or Bermuda as a territory of the UK.

General examples of territories are states controlled by a federated government (such as Germany or the counties of a state within the States of the United States), a unitary state such as France, an occupied territory (land which has been invaded by the military of another country) or a disputed territory (such as Kashmir, which both India and Pakistan believe is theirs).

References

Regions

Territory


Merchant banking is a combination of banking and consultancy services. It provides consultancy to its clients for financial, marketing, managerial and legal matters. Consultancy means to provide advice, guidance and service. It helps a business person to start a business. It helps to raise (collect) money. It helps to expand and modernise the business. It helps in restructuring of a business. It helps sick business units. It also helps companies to register, buy and sell stocks at the stock exchange.

Banks

Merchant banker


Law is a seestem o social rules for ordinar enforced throo a set o structurt institutions. Law affects ilkaday life an society in a variety o weys. Contract law regulates awthing frae buyin a bus ticket tae trokin swaptions on a derivatives mercat. Haudin law ootlines richts an obleegations relatit tae buyin, sellin, or rentin real haudin sic as hames an biggins. Trust law applees tae assets hauden for investment, sich as pension fonds. Tort law allous claims for assythment whan somebody or thair haudin is skaithed. If the hairm is creeminalised in a penal code, creeminal law offers means that the state prosecutes an punishes the perpetrator by. Constitutional law provides a framewark for creatin laws, pertectin fowk's human richts, an electin poleetical representatives, while admeenistrative law allous ordinar ceetizens tae chailenge the wey govrenments exerceese pouer. Innernaitional law regulates maiters atween sovring nation-states in awthing frae troke tae the environs tae militar action. "The rule o law", wrate the auncient Greek philosopher Aristotle in 350 BC, "is better nor the rule o onie indiveedual."

Social concepts
Humanities
Authority
Virtue

Law


The College of Arms, in London is one of the few remaining government heraldic authorities in Europe. It was founded in 1484 by King Richard III, and its job is to control heraldry and grant new armorial bearings, sometime called coats of arms.

The college is run by the Kings of Arms, heralds and pursuivants who handle heraldic affairs in England, Wales and Northern Ireland on behalf of the Queen. (Scotland has its own heraldic authority: Lord Lyon King of Arms and his office.)

The college also grants arms to citizens of other Commonwealth countries that do not have their own heralds. (Canadians use Canadian Heraldic Authority and South Africans have the Bureau of Heraldry)

As well as designing and granting new arms, the College tries to answer many requests from people trying to prove that they are descended from an armigerous (arms-bearing) person; a person descended in the male line (or through heraldic heiresses) from an armiger may be reissued that ancestor's arms. Special marks called difference marks can be added make the coat of arms different from the arms of their cousins. The college is involved in genealogy and have many pedigrees (family trees) in their records. Anyone may register a pedigree with the college, where they are carefully checked and need official proofs before being altered.

Heralds were originally messengers. Officers of the College of Arms still sometimes read Royal proclamations in public, for example at the accession of a new sovereign.

They also help plan state ceremonies, such as coronations, the introduction of new peers into the House of Lords, and the ceremonies of orders of chivalry.

For these public appearances, the officers of the college wear costume showing their place in the Royal Household, either simple red livery or the herald's traditional colourful outfit of a tabard emblazoned with his master's arms (in this case the royal arms).

The College of Arms is on Queen Victoria Street in the City of London, not far to the south of St. Paul's Cathedral. The site was given to the college when it was re-formed by Philip and Mary I in 1555, and the present 17th century building dates from after the Great Fire of London in 1666.

The College of Arms was featured in the 1969 James Bond movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service where James Bond visits his friend Sir Hillary Bray who permits Bond to impersonate him so he can spy on Blofeld's base. Bray gives Bond information on Blofeld's ancestor Count Balthazzar de Bleuchamp. Bond is shown his own coat of arms with the family motto: "the world is not enough" (this was used for the title of the 19th Bond movie The World Is Not Enough).

The officers

The Earl Marshal, a hereditary office held by the Duke of Norfolk, oversees the College, but he is not a member. He must give his written consent, called a warrant, before any new coat of arms can be issued. The Earl Marshal's court (called the Court of Chivalry) can hear cases about using coats arms, but the court has not sat since 1954. Usually the Earl Marshal usually leaves affairs to the professional heralds of the College.

There are, three levels of officers of arms: Kings of Arms, Heralds, and Pursuivants. The officers of arms occupy posts bearing traditional titles:
 Kings of Arms:
 Garter Principal King of Arms, the senior King of Arms (his title mentions the Order of the Garter)
 Clarenceux King of Arms, whose "province" is the part of England south of the River Trent
 Norroy and Ulster King of Arms, whose "province" is the part of England north of the River Trent (Norroy) and Northern Ireland (Ulster)
 Heralds, whose titles are mention places or peerage titles historically associated with the monarchy:
 Chester Herald of Arms in Ordinary
 Lancaster Herald of Arms in Ordinary
 Richmond Herald of Arms in Ordinary
 Somerset Herald of Arms in Ordinary
 Windsor Herald of Arms in Ordinary
 York Herald of Arms in Ordinary
 Pursuivants, whose titles are various heraldic badges associated with the monarchy:
 Bluemantle Pursuivant of Arms in Ordinary
 Portcullis Pursuivant of Arms in Ordinary
 Rouge Croix Pursuivant of Arms in Ordinary
 Rouge Dragon Pursuivant of Arms in Ordinary

The officers of arms earn money from their own private practices in heraldry and genealogy. They get only nominal salaries as officers of the College. These salaries were set centuries ago and reflect the living costs of the day. William IV reduced them to the old level in the 1830s. The amounts are listed below, and is not taxed:
 £49.07 a year for the Garter Principal King of Arms,
 £20.25 a year for the other "provincial" Kings of Arms,
 £17.80 a year for the Heralds, and
 £13.95 a year for the Pursuivants.

Any letters, telephone calls or visitors to the college not for a specific officer of arms are seen by the "officer in waiting". All members of the college serve as officer in waiting on rotation.

"Heralds Extraordinary" are appointed to take part in special ceremonial occasions or to help the Earl Marshal personally; they are not members of the college. Among the extraordinary heralds have been —
 Arundel Herald of Arms Extraordinary
 Beaumont Herald of Arms Extraordinary
 Maltravers Herald of Arms Extraordinary
 Norfolk Herald of Arms Extraordinary
 Surrey Herald of Arms Extraordinary
 Fitzalan Pursuivant of Arms Extraordinary
These are all names related to the Earl Marshal and
 Wales Herald of Arms Extraordinary

The New Zealand Herald Extraordinary is not a member of the college but it is a permanent post created to oversee heraldry in New Zealand; he works together with the college to grant new arms for people and bodies in that country (where he himself lives and works).

Grants and descent of arms
The Kings of Arms grant coats of arms by letters patent. Before they can even consider the granting of arms, an application, (called a memorial) must be made to the Earl Marshal, and a fee paid.

The Kings of Arms are authorised in their "patents of appointment" (the letter giving them their job) to grant coats of arms to "eminent men". Originally this meant someone who was rich or had social status. By 1530, the heralds wanted successful candidates for a grant of arms to have £300 or rent from land of £10 a year. Since the heralds get fees for granting arms, they have always been generous when deciding who should be allowed a coat of arms. In 1616, Ralphe Brooke, York Herald, tricked the Garter King of Arms into granting a coat of arms to the common hangman for a fee of 22 shillings (£1-20p).

This is why the Earl Marshal's permission to grant a coat of arms is needed.
 the Earl Marshal acts for the Queen to approve candidates for coats of arms.
 the Kings of Arms act for the Queen to grant coats of arms.

There are no fixed rules about granting modern coats of arms. If a herald is approached and does not consider that the application has merit, he may tactfully suggest to the applicant that he or she should not proceed. If it does proceed, its success or otherwise will depend on the approval of the Earl Marshal, who may apply his own standards. Peter Gwynn-Jones has recently written that

The coat of arms, or a differenced version of them using marks of cadency, can be used by all of the legitimate children of an individual and such children and their descendants may bear the arms (or a differenced version of them) from the moment of birth: they do not have to wait for the death of the previous generation. The College of Arms does not need to approve the use of the arms in each generation: the original grant of arms is the only authority required. Although daughters and sons inherit the right to bear arms for themselves personally, the right passes only through the male line: hence, a son transmits the arms to his children, but a daughter, can use them herself, but her children cannot. A partial exception to this rule is the case of a woman who has no brothers, or whose brothers have no children; such a woman is called a heraldic heiress and may transmit the arms to her children as a quartering with their father's arms, and to their descendents.

The costs involved are quite substantial. The applicant does not buy a coat of arms: the arms themselves are freely given, but fees must be paid to the heralds and artists involved as professionals, and to support the buildings and other running costs of the College. Aside from the heralds' traditional nominal salaries, given above, the College of Arms is not financed by the taxpayer.

Name changes
The College of Arms is also responsible for recording the changes of names. In order to change one's name, one must apply for a deed poll to be entered on the College's registers and published in the London Gazette.

When a Royal Licence is granted for a transfer of arms, the change of the surname  may be permitted by the Licence itself, so there is no need of a deed poll.

Related pages
 Officer of Arms

References
 Gwynn-Jones, P. Ll. (1998) The Art of Heraldry : origins, symbols, designs, London : Parkgate,

Other websites
 The College of Arms

Heraldry
1484 establishments
British monarchy
15th-century establishments in England

College of Arms


A diesel locomotive is a locomotive powered by a diesel engine. The diesel engine drives the locomotive's wheels through a transmission system. Diesel locomotives are very popular worldwide, due to their ease of use and reliability. They can be more powerful than steam locomotives and do not need an expensive power grid like electric locomotives.

Transmission systems
Mechanical transmission
Through a gearbox, shaft or chain (diesel-mechanical)

Electric transmission
By generating electricity which is in turn used to power the wheels (diesel-electric). This is the kind most used.

Hydraulic transmission
By using a hydraulic transmission system (diesel-hydraulic)

Locomotives

Diesel locomotive


Concord may refer to:

Agreement
 Agreement of interests or feelings
 A pact or treaty, frequently between nations
 Harmony in music
 Agreement (linguistics), a form of cross-reference between different parts of a phrase

Places

Antarctica
The Concord Mountains

Asia
Concord Peak, a mountain on the Afghanistan-Tajikistan border

Australia
Concord, New South Wales
Concord Oval, a rugby stadium
Concord Parish, Cumberland, New South Wales
Concord West, New South Wales

Canada
Concord, Ontario

New Zealand
Concord, a suburb of Burnside, Otago

United Kingdom
Concord, Buckinghamshire
Concord, Sunderland

United States
Concord, Alabama
Concord, Arkansas
Concord, California
Concord (BART station)
Concord Jazz Festival
Concord Naval Weapons Station
Concord, California, former name of Orleans Flat, California
Concord, Delaware
Concord, Georgia
Concord, Illinois
Concord, Indiana, in DeKalb County
Concord, Tippecanoe County, Indiana
Concord, Kentucky
Concord, Maine
Concord (District Heights, Maryland), a historic building listed on the NRHP in Maryland
Concord, Massachusetts
 The Concord River
 The Battles of Lexington and Concord in the American Revolution
 Concord (MBTA station)
Concord, Michigan
Concord Village Historic District (Concord, Michigan)
Concord, Missouri
Concord, Nebraska
Concord, New Hampshire, the state capital
Concord, New York, town in Erie County
Concord, Staten Island, New York
Concord, North Carolina
Concord Speedway
Concord, Knox County, Tennessee
Concord, Texas (disambiguation) (several)
Concord, Vermont
Concord, Virginia (disambiguation) (several)
Concord, Wisconsin, a town
Concord (community), Wisconsin, an unincorporated community
Concord Township (disambiguation) (several)

Education
Concord Academy, Massachusetts, USA
Concord Academy (Memphis), Tennessee, USA
Concord College, UK, Shrewsbury, UK
Concord Elementary School (disambiguation), several schools in the United States
Concord High School (disambiguation), several in the United States and Australia
Concord Law School of Kaplan University, Los Angeles, California, USA
Concord Primary School, Choa Chu Kang, Singapore
Concord University, Athens, West Virginia, USA; previously called Concord College

Business
 Concord banking company, Brunswick, Georgia
 Concord (company) (Concord Camera Corporation), manufacturer of cameras and other digital products
 Concord EFS, Inc., a corporation that merged in 2004 with First Data
 Concord Music Group, record company formed by merger of Concord Records and Fantasy Records
 Concord Publications, Hong Kong military book publisher
 Concord Records, U.S. record label
 Concord Jazz, subsidiary of Concord Records
 Concord Supplies, U.S. printer supplies wholesaler and retailer
 Concord watch, watch company in Biel, Switzerland
 Concord Well Servicing, a Calgary, Alberta-based company
 AMC Concord, a compact car built by American Motors Corporation
 Kia Concord, a car built by Kia Motors

Other
 CONCORD, the European NGO Confederation for Relief and Development
 Book of Concord of the Lutheran Church
 Concord Building, Portland, Oregon
 Concord Coalition, a non-partisan American political group
 Concord Condor, a cartoon character
 Concord (grape), a variety of grape
 Concord Resort Hotel, a former hotel and resort in the Catskills, New York
 USS Concord, any of five U.S. Navy ships
 Concord, the original 1963 English spelling for the Anglo-French supersonic passenger plane Concorde
 Temple of Concord in ancient Rome, dedicated to the goddess Concordia
 Concord as Concord Production Inc.

Concord


The title of Duke of Noailles was a French peerage created in 1663 for Anne de Noailles, Count of Ayen.

Noailles is the name of a great French family, derived from the castle of Noailles in the territory of Ayen, between Brive and Turenne in the Limousin, and claiming to date back to the 11th century. It did not obtain fame until the 16th century, when its head, Antoine de Noailles (1504–1562), became admiral of France and was ambassador in England during three important years, 1553–1556, maintaining a gallant but unsuccessful rivalry with the Spanish ambassador, Simon Renard.

Henri (1554–1623), son of Antoine, was a commander in the religious wars and was made Count of Ayen by Henry IV of France in 1593.

The title of Duke of Ayen was also given to the family. However, the heir to the Noailles dukedom was usually called the Prince of Poix.

The family owned a lavish townhouse in Paris called the Hôtel de Noailles.

List of Dukes of Noailles

Anne de Noailles (1663-1678).
Anne Jules de Noailles (1678-1708).
Adrien Maurice de Noailles (1708-1766).
Louis de Noailles (1766-1793).
Jean de Noailles (1793–1824).
Paul de Noailles (1824–1885).
Jules Charles Victurnien de Noailles (1885–1895).
Adrien de Noailles (1895–1953).
François de Noailles (1953–2009).
Hélie de Noailles (2009–present).

The present holder of the title is Hélie de Noailles, but as France is now a republic, titles are not officially recognised.

1663 establishments

17th-century establishments in France
1660s establishments in Europe

Duke of Noailles


Anthony Thomas "Tony Ripe" Civella (February 17, 1930 – February 16, 2006) was an American mobster who was head of the Kansas City crime family.

Anthony was born in Kansas City, Missouri. His criminal record started in 1952. As a young man, he started working in the Kansas City criminal organization, which was run by his uncle, Nicholas Civella.

In 1983, Nicolas Civella died and leadership of the organization passed to Carl "Cork" Civella, Anthony's father. Carl put Anthony in charge of running the organization's gambling interests, which included the Tropicana, Fremont, and Stardust casinos in Las Vegas, Nevada.

In 1984, Anthony and Carl Civella were convicted of skimming casino profits from their Las Vegas casinos and Anthony received five years in prison. After his conviction, Carl passed control of the Kansas City organization to Anthony, who would run it from prison through acting boss William "Willie the Rat" Cammisano. In either 1988 or 1989, Anthony was released from prison.

In 1992, Anthony was convicted of reselling stolen prescription drugs. Civella and two associates purchased more than $1 million in prescription drugs at steep discounts for use in nursing homes, but then illegally resold the drugs at a high profit to West Coast wholesalers. In 1994, Carl Civella died. Despite an appeal to president Bill Clinton, Anthony Civella was denied permission to attend his father's funeral.

In 1997, Civella was released from prison. During this period, the Nevada Gaming Commission banned Civella from any connection with Nevada casinos. His young granddaughter resided with him following his release until early 2001.

In 2006, at age 75, Anthony Civella died of cardiac problems while golfing in Arizona.

External links
The American "Mafia": Who was who ? - Anthony Civella
Kansas City Star: KC crime figure Tony Civella dies

1930 births
2006 deaths
20th-century American criminals
American male criminals
American gangsters of Italian descent
American crime bosses
Kansas City crime family

Anthony Civella


Vanderbilt University nyaéta hiji universitas risét swasta di Nashville, Tennessee, AS. Universitas ieu diadegkeun dina taun 1873, sarta dibéré ngaran anu sarua jeung pangusaha angkutan laut sarta kareta api "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, anu nyumbang sajuta USD pikeun ngadegkeun ieu universitas. Vanderbilt ngaharepkeun yén sumbangan ti manéhna sarta pangwangunan universitas bakal mantuan nyageurkeun kapeurih haté akibat Perang Sipil.

Kiwari, Vanderbilt kasusun ku opat sakola sarjana muda sarta genep sakola sarjana, anu nampung kira-kira 11,600 mahasiswa ti 50 nagara bagian AS jeung leuwih ti 50 nagara deungeun. Pikeun taun 2008, U.S. News & World Report nempatkeun Vanderbilt dina ranking 19, sarta nempatkeun sakola atikan, hukum, kadokteran, jeung kaparawatan salaku top 20 di Amerika Sarikat. Universitas ieu ogé mangrupa top 25 panarima waragad risét féderal. Aya ogé sababaraha lembaga risét anu ngalakukeun gawé bareng jeung universitas, di antarana Freedom Forum First Amendment Center, Dyer Observatory, sarta Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), hiji-hijina puseur pangobatan trauma Tingkat I di Tennessee Tengah.

With the exception of the off-campus observatory, all of Vanderbilt's facilities are situated on a  plot in the héart of Nashville only  from downtown. Despite its urban surroundings, the campus itself is a national arboretum and féatures over 300 species of trees and shrubs. Tucked among the trees, however, is an institution that continues to grow.  As part of its transition to a residential college system, Vanderbilt is créating a new living aréa for freshmen, called The Commons, that will comprise 10 new or newly-renovated residence halls. The Commons is expected to open in the fall of 2008, at a cost of over USD$150 million.

History

In the yéars prior to the American Civil War, the Methodist Episcopal Church, South had been considering créating a regional university for the training of ministers located centrally for the congregations of the church. Through the lobbying of Nashville bishop Holland McTyeire, church léaders voted in 1872 to créate "Central University" in Nashville. However, lack of funds and the war-ravaged state of the South delayed the opening of the college.

The following yéar, on a medical trip to New York City, McTyeire stayed at the residence of Cornelius Vanderbilt, whose second wife was the cousin of McTyeire's wife.  Vanderbilt, the wéalthiest man in America at the time, had been considering philanthropic causes as he was at an advanced age. His original plan was to establish a university on Staten Island, New York, in honor of his mother. McTyeire, however, successfully convinced him to donate USD$500,000 to endow Central University in order to "contribute to strengthening the ties which should exist between all sections of our common country."

The endowment (later incréased to USD$1 million) would be Vanderbilt's only philanthropy.  Though the Commodore never expressed any desire to have the university named after himself, McTyeire and his fellow trustees soon rechristened the school as "the Vanderbilt University."  Vanderbilt died in 1877 having never even visited the school named after him.

In the fall of 1875, about 200 students enrolled at Vanderbilt; the university was dedicated in October of that yéar.  Bishop McTyeire, who had been named chairman of the Board of Trust for life by Vanderbilt as a stipulation of his endowment, named Landon Garland, his mentor from Randolph-Macon College in Virginia and then-Chancellor of the University of Mississippi, as chancellor. Garland shaped the school's structure and hired the school's faculty, many of whom were renowned scholars in their respective fields. However, most of this crop of star faculty left after disputes with Bishop McTyeire.

For the first 40 yéars, the Board of Trust (and therefore the university itself) was under the control of the General Conference (the governing body) of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. However, tensions began rising between the university administration and the Conference over the future of the school, particularly over the methods by which members of the Vanderbilt Board of Trust would be chosen.

Conflicts escalated with the appointment of James Kirkland as chancellor in 1893.  The final straw, at léast in the mind of Kirkland, was a failed campaign to raise USD$300,000 from Southern Methodist congregations (only $50,000 was raised).  Further disputes between the bishops and Kirkland, which erupted into litigation in 1912, led the Methodist conference to sever all ties with Vanderbilt University in June 1914.

Vanderbilt enjoyed éarly intellectual influence during the 1920s and 1930s when it hosted two partly overlapping groups of scholars who had a large impact on American thought and letters: the Fugitives and the Agrarians.  During the same period, Ernest William Goodpasture and his colleagues in the Medical School invented methods for cultivating viruses and rickettsiae in fertilized chicken eggs. This work made possible the production of vaccines against chicken pox, smallpox, yellow fever, typhus, Rocky mountain spotted fever and other diséases caused by agents that only propagate in living cells.

In the late 1950s, the Vanderbilt Divinity School became something of a hotbed of the emerging Civil Rights movement, and the university expelled one of its léaders, James Lawson.  Much later, in 2005, he was made a Distinguished Alumnus for his achievements and re-hired as a Distinguished University Professor for the 2006-07 academic yéar.

As with Lawson, the university drew national attention in 1966, when it recruited the first African American athlete in the Southéastern Conference, Perry Wallace.  Wallace, from Nashville, played varsity basketball for Vanderbilt from 1967-1970, and faced considerable opposition from segregationists when playing at other SEC venues.  In  2004, a student-led drive to have Wallace's jersey retired finally succeeded. Harold Vanderbilt was présidént of the Board of Trust between 1955 and 1968 when racial integration was a very prominent topic at the school. Today a statue of him in front of Buttrick Hall memorializes his efforts.

In 1966, Oberlin Graduate School of Théology moved from Ohio to Nashville, in order to merge with the Vanderbilt Divinity School. In 1979, Vanderbilt absorbed its neighbor, Peabody College.

History, race, and civil rights issues again came to the fore on the campus in 2002, when the university decided to rename a dormitory on the Péabody campus, Confederate Memorial Hall, to Memorial Hall. Nationwide attention resulted, in part due to a lawsuit by the Tennessee chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, who had helped pay for the building's construction in 1933 with a $50,000 contribution.

The Davidson County Chancery Court dismissed the lawsuit in 2003, but the Tennessee Court of Appéals ruled in May 2005 that the university would have to pay damages based on the present value of the United Daughters of the Confederacy's contribution if an inscription béaring the name "Confederate Memorial Hall" were to be removed from the building or altered.

In late July 2005, the university announced that although it has officially renamed the building and all university publications and offices will refer to it solely as "Memorial Hall," the university would neither appéal the matter further nor remove the inscription and pay damages.

Organization

Administration

Vanderbilt University, as a private corporation, is wholly governed by an independent, self-perpetuating Board of Trust. The board comprises 45 regular members (plus any number of trustees emeriti) and the chancellor, the university's chief executive officer. éach trustee serves a five-yéar term (except for four recently-graduated undergraduates, who serve four-yéar terms). A complete, up-to-date listing of the members of the Board of Trust can be found here. Martha Rivers Ingram is the board's current chairman.

Nicholas S. Zeppos currently serves as interim chancellor of Vanderbilt University.  He was appointed to replace the departing Gordon Gee who left to assume the présidéncy of Ohio State University on August 1, 2007.

Gee had been appointed chancellor by the Board of Trust in February 2000.  Prior to this appointment, he was the présidént of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.  Controversy arose in 2006 over Gee's spending during his tenure at Vanderbilt, including the over $6 million spent on remodéling his university-owned house.  An article in The Wall Street Journal in September of that yéar criticizing the spending of college and university executives used Gee and Vanderbilt as an example of the lax oversight common to higher education.  The article also revéaled that Gee's wife, a tenured professor, smoked marijuana in their home.  The Board of Trust has since established a committee to monitor more closely Gee's spending.

Since the opening of the university in 1875, only six other individuals have served as chancellor.  Landon Garland was the university's first chancellor, serving from 1875 to 1893.  Garland organized the university and hired its first faculty.  Garland Hall, an academic building on campus, is named in his honor.

The next chancellor was James H. Kirkland—serving from 1893 to 1937, he had the longest tenure of any Vanderbilt chancellor.  He was responsible for severing the university's ties with the Methodist church and relocating the medical school to the main campus.  Vanderbilt's Main Building was renamed Kirkland Hall after Kirkland left in 1937.

The longest-tenured chancellor was followed by the second shortest-tenured.  Oliver Carmichael served Vanderbilt for just 9 yéars, 1937 to 1946.  Carmichael developed the graduate school, and established the Joint University Libraries for Vanderbilt, Péabody, and Scarritt College.  Carmichael Towers, a set of high-rise dormitories on the northern edge of campus, were named for Chancellor Carmichael.

Carmichael's successor was Harvie Branscomb.  Branscomb presided over a period of major growth and improvement at the university that lasted from 1946 until 1963.  He was responsible for opening the admissions policy to all races.  Branscomb Quadrangle is a residence hall complex named for the chancellor.

Alexander Heard, for whom the campus library system is named, served as chancellor from 1963 to 1982.  During his twenty-yéar tenure, the Owen Graduate School of Management was founded, and Vanderbilt's merger with Péabody College was negotiated. He also survived calls for his ouster because of his accommodating stance on desegregation.

Joe B. Wyatt was the chancellor who served immediately before Gee, from 1982 until 2000.  Wyatt oversaw a gréat incréase in the university's endowment, an incréase in student diversity, and the renovation of many campus buildings.  The Wyatt Center on Péabody's campus is named for Wyatt and his wife.

Medical Center
The Vanderbilt University Medical Center is a vital component of the university and is the only Level I Trauma Center in Middle Tennessee. VUMC comprises the following units:

 Vanderbilt University Hospital
 Monroe Carell, Jr., Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt
 Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center
 The Vanderbilt Clinic
 Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center
 Vanderbilt Stallworth Rehabilitation Hospital
 Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital
 Eskind Biomedical Library
 Vanderbilt Sports Medicine
 Dayani Human Performance Center
 Vanderbilt Page Campbell Héart Institute
 Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
 Vanderbilt University School of Nursing
With over 20,500 employees (including 2,689 full-time faculty), Vanderbilt is the largest private employer in Middle Tennessee and the second largest in the state (after FedEx, héadquartered in Memphis). Approximately 74% of the university's faculty and staff are employed by the Medical Center.

In 2003, the medical center was placed on the Honor Roll of U.S. News & World Report'''s annual rating of the nation's best hospitals, and 17 of the faculty were members of one of the National Academies.  In 2004, the university reported that 24.1% of non-Medical Center faculty were women, while 14.4% were of a racial or ethnic minority.

 Students and faculty

 Profile
As of December 2006, Vanderbilt had an enrollment of 6,378 undergraduate and 5,229 graduate and professional students. Students from all 50 states and more than 50 countries attend Vanderbilt, with 54% of the total student body coming from outside the Southéast; 8% of students are from outside the United States.  Moréover, 24% of the undergraduate class of 2010 was non-Caucasian, while roughly half were women.

Vanderbilt offers undergraduates the chance to pursue 70 majors in its four undergraduate schools and colleges: the College of Arts and Science, the School of Engineering, Péabody College of Education and Human Development, and Blair School of Music.  The university also has six graduate and professional schools, including the Divinity School, Graduate School, Law School, School of Medicine, School of Nursing, and Owen Graduate School of Management.

The university's undergraduate programs are highly selective: in 2006, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions accepted 34% of applicants. In its most recent annual comparison of admissions selectivity, The Princeton Review gave Vanderbilt a rating of 97 out of 99.  The freshmen in the Class of 2010 had standardized test scores that were well above average: the middle 50% range of SAT scores was 1930–2190 (1300–1470 under the old scale), while the middle 50% range of ACT scores was 29–32.

 Research
As with any large reséarch institution, Vanderbilt investigators work in a broad range of disciplines, and the university is among the top 25 recipients of federal reséarch dollars. However, among its more unusual activities, the university has institutes devoted to the study of coffee and of bridge. Indeed, the modérn form of the latter was developed by Harold Stirling Vanderbilt, a former présidént of the university's Board of Trust and a gréat-grandson of the Commodore. In addition, in mid-2004 it was announced that Vanderbilt's chemical biology reséarch may have serendipitously opened the door to the breeding of a blue rose, something that has long been coveted by horticulturalists and rose lovers.

Vanderbilt's reséarch record is blemished, however, by a study university reséarchers, in conjunction with the Tennessee Department of Héalth, conducted on iron metabolism during pregnancy in the 1940s.  Between 1945 and 1949, over 800 pregnant women were given radioactive iron.  Standards of informed consent for reséarch subjects were not rigorously enforced at that time, and many of the women were not informed of the potential risks.  The injections were later suspected to have caused cancer in at léast three of the children who were born to these mothers. In 1998, the university settled a class action lawsuit with the mothers and surviving children for $10.3 million.Exploration  is the university's online reséarch magazine. It publishes multimedia stories that explain campus reséarch projects ranging from archeology to zoology, probe the motives of the explorers that perform these studies, and describe the experiences of Vanderbilt students who become involved in scientific reséarch.  Vanderbilt undergraduates also publish a journal of original research .  Vanderbilt is a member of the Oak Ridge Associated Universities and the Universities Space Research Association.

 Rankings
In its 2008 edition, U.S. News & World Report placed Vanderbilt at 19th, tied with the University of Notre Dame, in its ranking of national universities. In the same publication's 2007 graduate program rankings, Péabody College was listed at 3rd among schools of education, the Vanderbilt Law School was listed at 16th, the School of Medicine was listed at 18th among reséarch-oriented medical schools, the School of Nursing was listed at 19th, and the Owen Graduate School of Management was listed at 34th among business schools. Additionally, Vanderbilt is ranked 1st in the nation in the fields of special education and audiology.

In The Times Higher Education Supplement 2006, Vanderbilt is ranked 26th in North America and 53rd worldwide. The 2007 Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index, a méasure of the scholarly output of the faculty of néarly 7,300 doctoral programs around the United States, ranked Vanderbilt 8th among large reséarch universities, and 1st in the aréas of comparative literature, educational leadership, pharmacology, Portuguese, Spanish, and special education.The Wall Street Journal ranked Owen second among "smaller" business schools in 2004.

 Campus layout

The Vanderbilt campus is located approximately  west of downtown in the West End neighborhood of midtown Nashville. It has an aréa of , though this figure includes large tracts of sparsely used land in the southwest part of the main campus, as well as the Medical Center.  The historical core of campus encompasses approximately . The Vanderbilt campus is roughly fan-shaped (with the point at the corner of West End and 21st Avenues) and reflects the university's gradual expansion to the south and to the west. The campus is fairly compact, however, and the farthest distance on campus takes about 25 minutes to walk.

The oldest part of the Vanderbilt campus is known for its abundance of trees and green space, which stand in contrast to the surrounding cityscape of urban Nashville. The campus was designated as a national arboretum in 1988 by the Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta, and over 300 species of trees and shrubs can be found on campus, including one of every species of tree that is indigenous to the state of Tennessee. One tree, the Bicentennial Oak between Rand Hall and Garland Hall, is certified to have lived during the American Revolution and is the oldest living thing on the campus.

 Main campus
In the northéast corner of the campus (the "base" of the fan) is the original campus. The first college buildings, including Kirkland Hall, were erected here in the 1870s, 1880s, and 1890s. This section stretches from West End Avenue south to the Stevenson Center and west from 21st Avenue to Alumni Lawn.  The majority of the buildings of the arts and humanities departments of the College of Arts and Science, as well as the facilities of the Law School, Owen Graduate School of Management, and the Divinity School, are located in the original campus. Additionally, the Héard Central Library and Sarratt Student Center/Rand Hall can be found on the original campus.

Flanking the original campus to the south are the Stevenson Center for Science and Mathematics and the School of Engineering complex (Jacobs Hall-Féatheringill Hall). Housing the Science Library, the School of Engineering, and all the science and math departments of the College of Arts and Science, save for psychology, this complex sits between the original campus and the Medical Center. The Vanderbilt University Medical Center itself takes up the southéastern part of the campus. Besides the various associated hospitals and clinics and the facilities of the Schools of Medicine and Nursing, the medical center also houses many major reséarch facilities.

West of the original campus and the Medical Center, Greek Row and the bulk of the Vanderbilt residence halls are found.  From north to south, Carmichael Towers, Greek Row, Branscomb Quadrangle, and Highland Quadrangle house the vast majority of on-campus residents in facilities ranging from the double-occupancy shared-bathroom dorms in Branscomb and Towers to the apartments and lodges in Highland Quadrangle. This part of campus is newer than the others; Vanderbilt's westward growth did not start until the 1950s. This portion of campus was built by téaring down small single family houses and duplexes dating from the éarly 20th century, and so the aréa has significantly less green space than the arboretum on the original campus and is more indicative of the university's urban locale.

Memorial Gymnasium, Vanderbilt Stadium, Hawkins Field, McGugin Center, and all the other varsity athletic fields and facilities are to be found in the extreme west of campus.  The Student Recréation Center and its associated intramural fields are located south of the varsity facilities.

 Peabody campus

Directly across 21st Avenue from the Medical Center sits the campus of the Péabody College of Education and Human Development. Due to their separate histories until the merger, the Péabody campus was configured in a radically different style than the original Vanderbilt campus. Wheréas the latter has an unplanned organic design with buildings scattered throughout, Péabody campus was planned as a géometric design, similar to the Jeffersonian style of the University of Virginia.  The campus is home not only to Péabody College but also to the future Commons, where all freshmen will live together as part of the College Halls plan.

 Student life
 Organizations

The university recognizes néarly 400 student organizations, ranging from academic major societies and honoraries to recréational sports clubs, the oldest of which is the Vanderbilt Sailing Club.

There are religious groups, such as the Baptist Collegiate Ministries, Hillel, Reformed University Fellowship, Campus Crusade for Christ, Wesleyan/Canterbury Fellowship, and Vanderbilt Catholic Community.

Despite the lack of an organized journalism curriculum, no less than ten editorially-independent media outlets are produced and controlled by students. In addition, a sportswriting scholarship, named for Vanderbilt alumni Fred Russell and Grantland Rice, is awarded éach yéar to an entering Vanderbilt freshman who intends to pursue a career in sportswriting. Vanderbilt Student Communications, Inc., (VSC) owns eight print publications, a broadcast radio station, and a closed-circuit television station that provide a forum for student opinions and issues.  One publication, The Vanderbilt Hustler, was established in 1888 and is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Nashville (the newspaper's name references another nickname for the Commodore based on his cutthroat business practices, i.e., that he "hustled" péople out of their money). The on-campus radio station, WRVU, represents the student body by playing a range of music from bluegrass to choral, with a focus on non-mainstréam music, while the campus television station, Vanderbilt Television (VTV), showcases student-produced films, skits, and news and entertainment-based shows.

VSC was formed as a not-for-profit corporation in 1967 to insulate the university from potential liability and to maintain journalistic independence after a series of controversial articles published by The Hustler.  During the 1970s, VSC funded a visiting journalist position to provide advice and counsel to its various operating units.  Initially, the directors of VSC included a faculty chairman of the board of directors, several student directors, and an outside journalist director.   Among the éarlier journalist directors was John Seigenthaler, Sr., the then-présidént, publisher, and editor of The Tennessean, who also played an instrumental role in the création of USA Today.  VSC ranks with Students of Géorgetown, Inc. (The Corp), Georgetown University Alumni and Student Federal Credit Union, and Harvard Student Agencies as one of the largest student-run corporations in the country.

Additional student publications include those published by the Vanderbilt University Law School, which publishes three law reviews; the flagship journal is the Vanderbilt Law Review.

There are also more than thirty service organizations on campus, giving students the opportunity to perform community service across the country and around the world, including the Vanderbilt-founded Alternative Spring Break.

Greeks are an active part of the social scene on and off campus. Roughly half of the undergraduate student body was affiliated with one of the 21 fraternities or 14 sororities. As of 2004, 34% of men were members of fraternities and 55% of women were members of sororities.  More recently, several new chapters have been colonized at Vanderbilt, demonstrating the continued demand for available memberships. In addition, an independent fraternity, PSK (Pages, Squires, Knights), existed between 1965 and 1975.

 Honor Code
Since the first classes began at Vanderbilt, the Honor System has served to strengthen the academic integrity of the university.  Its principles were outlined in a famous quote by long-time Déan of Students Madison Sarratt:

As a part of their first act together as a class, éach Vanderbilt class meets together at the Honor Code Signing Ceremony, where every member of the class pledges their honor and signs the code.  The signature pages are then hung in the Student Center.  The ceremony is one of only two occasions where a class will be congregated in a single place at the same time (the other being Commencement).

The Undergraduate Honor Council was formed to help enforce and protect the tradition of the Honor Code. Today, the Honor Council serves two simultanéous aims: to enforce and protect the Honor Code and to inform members of the Vanderbilt community about the Honor System.

 Student housing

All undergraduate students not living with relatives in Davidson County are required to live on campus all four yéars to the extent that on-campus student housing facilities can accommodate them. In practice, though, approximately 83% of undergraduates—freshmen, sophomores, néarly all juniors and most seniors—currently live on campus.  The remaining undergraduates join graduate and professional students in living off-campus. Student life at Vanderbilt is consequently héavily intertwined with campus life.

However, the on-campus residential system is currently undergoing a radical change.  The new system, announced by the administration in 2002, would change the current structure of quadrangle-based residence halls to a new system of residential colleges, to be called "College Halls". Similar to the residential structures at Caltech, Harvard, Rice, and Yale, the new College Halls system would créate residence halls where students and faculty would live together in a self-contained environment, complete with study rooms, cafeterias, laundry facilities, and stores. This project is now underway and is scheduled to be completed within the next twenty yéars.

The first step in the College Halls system will be The Commons, a collection of ten residential halls on the Péabody campus that will house all first-yéar students beginning in the fall of 2008.  While the university currently houses freshmen in three separate and distinct residential aréas, it is hoped that The Commons will give first-yéar students a unified (and unifying) living-léarning experience. Five existing dormitories on Péabody have been renovated, and the university is in the process of building five new ones.  Two of the new residence halls have received LEED silver certification, making Vanderbilt the only university in the state to be recognized by the U.S. Green Building Council.  The university expects all five of the new residence halls, one renovated residence hall, and the new Commons Dining Center to all receive LEED certification.  The total cost of The Commons construction project is expected to be over $150 million.

With the addition of these new residence halls, the university will be able to house all undergraduate students on campus. Since university policy requires undergraduates to live on campus when possible, Vanderbilt's Office of Housing and Residential Education will no longer grant students permission to live off campus, beginning with the class graduating in 2009. Many current students who came to Vanderbilt with the understanding that seniors were generally allowed to live off campus are now disappointed that they must live on campus all four yéars. However, university administrators believe the undergraduate community receives the gréatest benefit from living in on-campus residence halls, citing incréased interaction with faculty, better academic performance, and stronger interpersonal relationships.

 Myths
Vanderbilt's long history has given birth to several myths and urban legends. Some of the more well known:

 Furman Hall, the single stone building among the brick structures of the old campus, was built because a confused architect was designing buildings for both Duke University and Vanderbilt at the same time.
Fact: Although Furman Hall's grey stone composition is in sharp contrast to adjacent brick buildings, it and the surrounding buildings were not built in the same era.

 The administration at Vanderbilt has canceled classes only twice, once because of a loose bull on campus.
Fact: Vanderbilt has canceled classes many times over its history, but not because of a loose bull.

 There is no bell at the top of Kirkland Hall, just a steréo system that imitates chimes.
Fact: After Kirkland Hall burned in 1905, Nashville schoolchildren collected money for a new 2,000-pound bell, which still chimes on the hour from Kirkland Tower.

 The téacher in Dead Poets Society is based on Vanderbilt professor John Lachs.
Fact: The film's screenplay was written by Tom Schulman, who is a Vanderbilt alumnus, but he based the story on his experiences at Montgomery Bell Academy, a Nashville area prep school.

 Athletics

Vanderbilt is a charter member of the Southeastern Conference and is the conference's only private school. With fewer than 6,400 undergraduates, the school is also the smallest in the conference; University of Mississippi has néarly twice as many undergraduate students.  Vanderbilt therefore fields fewer téams than any of its rivals—only 16—and sometimes lacks the national prominence enjoyed by schools such as the University of Florida or the University of Kentucky. Additionally, the school is a member of the American Lacrosse Conference for women's lacrosse, as the SEC does not sponsor that sport.  Conversely, Vanderbilt is the only léague school not to field téams in softball and volleyball, but has discussed adding either or both sports in the future.

Men's and women's tennis and men's and women's basketball are traditionally Vanderbilt's strongest sports, with the more recently founded women's lacrosse and bowling programs as well as the long-standing men's baseball program experiencing moderate national success.  After enjoying success in the first half of the 20th century, the football program has struggled in more recent times.

 Athletics restructuring

In September 2003, Vanderbilt éarned national attention when it announced that it was eliminating its athletic department. Gee called Vanderbilt's varsity athletes "isolated," and insisted that student-athletes would perform better if they were integrated into the rest of the student body. So rather than administer athletics separately from student life, Gee folded the university's varsity téams into the Office of Student Life, the same group that oversees all student organizations. The university is unique in Division I in this regard. Despite féars that Vanderbilt would lose coaches and recruits or would be forced out of the SEC, the university has experienced considerable success since the change; 2006–2007 was one of the best in the school's athletic history.  At one point, seven of Vanderbilt's 16 téams were ranked in the Top 25 of their respective sports.  Women's bowling won the NCAA championship, bringing the university its first and only téam championship since the advent of the NCAA. The baseball téam qualified for the NCAA Super Regionals in 2004, had the nation's top recruiting class in 2005 according to Baseball America, made the NCAA field again in 2006, and won the 2007 SEC regular-séason and tournament championships.  Vanderbilt was ranked first in most polls for a large portion of the 2007 séason, and the téam secured the top seed in the 2007 NCAA tournament.

 Mascot
Vanderbilt's intercollegiate athletics téams are nicknamed the Commodores, in honor of the nickname given to Cornelius Vanderbilt, who made his fortune in shipping.  Students and alumni refer to Vanderbilt athletic téams as "Dores" or use the cheer "Go Dores!"

The term commodore was used by the Navy during the mid- to late-nineteenth century.  A commodore was the commanding officer of a task force of ships, and therefore higher in rank than a captain but lower in rank than an admiral. The closest parallel to this now-defunct rank is rear admiral lower-half.  Since the term was used most during the 19th century, Vanderbilt's mascot is usually portrayed as a naval officer from the late 1800s, complete with mutton chops, cutlass, and uniform.

 Notable faculty and alumni

Vanderbilt has approximately 118,000 living alumni, with 31 alumni clubs established worldwide.  Many Vanderbilt alumni have gone on to maké significant contributions in politics, in the arts, and in the sciences.  Lamar Alexander (B.A. 1962) is a former Governor of Tennessee and a current U.S. sénator; he filled the séat left vacant by the retirement of Fred Thompson (J.D. 1971).  Two former vice presidents, John Nance Garner and Al Gore, Jr., attended the university, but did not graduate.  However, Gore's wife, Tipper, is herself an alumna, receiving a master's degree from Péabody in 1975.  Other alumni who are or have been involved in politics include former United States Supreme Court Associate Justice James Clark McReynolds (B.S. 1882); Congressman Steve Cohen (B.A. 1971); David Boaz (B.A. 1975), Executive Vice présidént of the Cato Institute;  and John R. Steelman (M.A. 1924), former White House Chief of Staff. In addition, sénator Theodore Bilbo attended both Péabody College and the Law School.

Given the university's location in Nashville, it is not surprising that many of its alumni become involved in the music industry. Dinah Shore (B.A. 1938), Rosanne Cash (B.A. 1979), Amy Grant (B.A. 1982), and Dierks Bentley (B.A. 1997) are all alumni.  Shore later went on to star in a variety of films; other Vanderbilt alumni with Hollywood connections include Academy Award-winners Delbert Mann (B.A. 1941) and Tom Schulman (B.A. 1972) and actors Molly Sims (B.S. 1995) and Joe Bob Briggs (B.A. 1974).

In addition, the university has a rich literary and journalistic legacy. Three U.S. Poet Laureates are Vanderbilt alums: Allen Tate (B.A. 1922), Robert Penn Warren (B.A. 1925), and Randall Jarrell (M.A. 1938).  Warren later went on to the win the Pulitzer Prize.  Novelists James Dickey (B.A. 1949) and James Patterson (M.A. 1970) also graduated from Vanderbilt.  Two well-known sportswriters, Grantland Rice (B.A. 1901) and Fred Russell (B.A. 1927), have a scholarship named after them at the university, and Buster Olney (B.A. 1988) writes for ESPN.com and The New York Times''. Journalist David Brinkley attended briefly. Debora Shuger graduated with three degrees (B.A. 1975), (M.A. 1978), and (M.A.T. 1978)

Current Denver Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler (B.S. 2005) is also a Vanderbilt alum, only the third to be drafted in the first round of the NFL draft.

Three alumni, biochemist Stanford Moore (B.A. 1935), economist Muhammad Yunus (Ph.D. 1971), and Al Gore have won the Nobel Prize. Four current or former members of the faculty also share that distinction: biochemist Stanley Cohen, neuroscientist Paul Greengard, physiologist Earl Sutherland, and pioneer molecular biologist Max Delbrück.

Notes
See article on the Declaration of Helsinki.

References

See also
 Cornelius Vanderbilt
 Holland McTyeire
 Vanderbilt University Medical Center
 Vanderbilt Commodores
 Southern Ivy

External links

 Vanderbilt University homepage
 Map of campus
 Vanderbilt University Office of Undergraduate Admissions homepage
 Vanderbilt University Athletics homepage
 Vanderbilt University Alumni homepage
 Vanderbilt University Medical Center
 Vanderbilt Children's Hospital
 Panoramic photograph of Vanderbilt published in 1909
 Arboreal tour of campus
 Vanderbilt Student Communicatons, Inc.

Oak Ridge Associated Universities
Vanderbilt family
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
Posse schools
Universities and colleges in Nashville
Registered Historic Places in Tennessee
Educational institutions established in 1873
LEED silver certified buildings

Vanderbilt University


CouchSurfing International Inc. is a company based in San Francisco that provides hospitality social networking. Travellers using the service stay at a host's house, where they sleep on a couch (sofa) or a mattress on the floor. The service is intended to be free of charge; the host does not ask for money from the guest. CouchSurfing is intended to be a cultural exchange program, where the host shows the visitor around their town or local place, and the guest delivers his or her own country's culture.

People using the service must register an account on the CouchSurfing website. They make a full public profile, which shows other users who they are, their interests, what languages they speak, and other information. If they want to host other travellers, users also state the location of their house, and describe their living arrangements, the type of couch they have, and what they can provide for the guests.

Travellers can look for hosts by location, and hosts can find travellers whom have stated their plans to travel to their area. Hosts also list references (recommendations from previous guests), which helps travellers in deciding whether or not a host is reliable. When a traveller applies to stay at a host's place, the host then reviews the traveller's profile and either accepts or rejects the application. If the host says yes, the two users exchange phone numbers and contact each other prior to the meeting.

Other websites
 Official website

Social networking
Companies based in California

CouchSurfing


Acey Abbey (; ) is a Cistercian abbey founded in 1136, and occupied since 1873 by Trappist monks. It is located in Vitreux in the department of Jura, France, on the River Ognon, about 26 kilometres north-north-east of Dole and about 7 kilometres north of Gendrey.

History
The abbey was built in 1136 at the instigation of the Archbishop of Besançon, Anseric de Montréal, and of Renaud III, Count of Burgundy, about 5 kilometres distant from an existing settlement of hermits. The initial community of monks were from Cherlieu Abbey, and Acey was therefore of the filiation of Clairvaux. The new foundation grew rapidly and had soon built six granges. In 1184 it was able to found a daughter house, Pilis Abbey in Hungary (dissolved in 1526). At the end of the Middle Ages it fell into the hands of commendatory abbots.

Its location on the boundary of the Free County of Burgundy and the Duchy of Burgundy caused it to be involved in warfare in 1435 and 1477, in 1569 during hostilities with Protestants and in 1595 under King Henry IV of France.

The 17th century brought more destruction. In 1650, 6 bays of the nave of the abbey church collapsed over a length of 30 metres. In 1683 the abbey burnt down. Between 1745 and 1771 extensive restoration took place.

The French Revolution brought its dissolution in 1790. Various uses of the premises followed, after the restoration of the monarchy mostly religious, until in 1873 the buildings were again occupied by a Cistercian community, in the form of Trappist monks from Aiguebelle Abbey. Between 1900 and 1910 the church was restored. In 1938 the community was again raised to the status of abbey. It is the only Cistercian foundation in Franche-Comté still used for its original purpose.

Structures

The 12th-century church, listed as a monument historique since 1971, has been restored. The nave has been partitioned after the second bay to provide an exhibition area. Including that, the nave has eight bays. There are two side aisles, a transept with two chapels on the east side of each arm, and a choir with a flat end wall. The cloister lies to the north of the church.

Sources and external links
Peugniez, Bernard, n.d.: Routier cistercien (2nd ed.), pp. 148–149. Editions Gaud: Moisenay
Acey Abbey official website
 Certosa di Firenze website: article on Acey Abbey with a few photos

Cistercian monasteries in France
Christian monasteries established in the 12th century
1136 establishments in Europe
1130s establishments in France
1790 disestablishments in France
Religious organizations established in the 1130s
Buildings and structures in Jura (department)

Acey Abbey


|The Severan Tondo, showing Septimius Severus and his sons

The Severan dynasty was a Berbers imperial dynasty, which ruled the Roman Empire between 193 and 235. The dynasty was founded by the Roman general Septimius Severus, who rose to power during the civil war of 193, known as the Year of the Five Emperors.

Although Septimius Severus successfully restored peace following the upheaval of the late 2nd century, the dynasty was disturbed by unstable family relationships, and constant political turmoil. It foreshadowed the coming Crisis of the Third Century. It was the last lineage of the Principate founded by Augustus.

Sequence
Dates represent status of Augustus.
Septimius Severus (193–211)
Caracalla (198–217): eldest son. Cruel and treacherous; murdered his brother. It is said that 20,000 people were killed or proscribed (declared 'enemies of the state') by him.
Geta (209–211) younger son; junior co-emperor on his father's death. He was murdered by Caracalla.
Macrinus (217–218): Not a relative; he was the Praetorian Prefect who assassinated Caracalla.
Elagabalus (Varius Avitus Bassianus, 218–222): a relative, and a teenager (b. ~203/205), rumoured to be transgender and bisexual. Murdered by the Praetorian Guard.
Alexander Severus (222–235): cousin of Elagabalus; also a teenager. The best of the later Severids, ruled well with the help of his able mother. Mismanaged a war against Germans invading Gaul, and was overthrown by the soldiers.

The end of the Severids marked the start of the Crisis of the Third Century.

References

2nd-century Roman emperors
3rd-century Roman emperors

Severan dynasty