Urraca ( 1080 – 8 March 1126), called "the reckless" (la temeraria), was Queen of León, Castile and Galicia from 1109 until her death. She claimed the imperial title as suo jure Empress of All Spain and Empress of All Galicia.

Early years

Urraca was born to King Alfonso VI of León and Castile and Constance of Burgundy. Constance—Alfonso's second wife—was closely related to the French royal family and the influential Burgundian abbot Hugh of Cluny was her maternal uncle. As Constance was also related to her husband's first wife, Agnes of Aquitaine, Pope Gregory VII only confirmed their marriage after Alfonso agreed to replace the traditional Mozarabic liturgy in his realms with the Roman Rite. The place and date of Urraca's birth are unknown, but she was born likely in Sahagún or León around 1080, probably in 1081. Although she was her parents' sole child, her childhood is poorly documented. She would mention one Presbyter Pedro and a certain Domingo Falcóniz, two otherwise unknown clergymen, as her tutors in her royal diplomas. Her relationship with her paternal aunt Elvira was obviously close, as it is demonstrated by Elvira's appointment as guardian of Urraca's daughter Sancha Raimúndez. A late source, Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada, claims that the powerful aristocrat Pedro Ansúrez and his wife Elo Alfónsez raised Urraca in their household, but no contemporaneous document confirms this report.

First marriage and widowhood

Urraca was married to Raymond of Burgundy. Unlike her mother, who was a member of the ruling house of the Duchy of Burgundy, her husband descended from the rulers of the neighbouring County of Burgundy. Raymond was also the brother-in-law of Urraca's maternal cousin Duke Odo I of Burgundy and Odo's brother Henry. The Muslim Almoravids inflicted a heavy defeat on Alfonso VI at Sagrajas in 1086 and Urraca's marriage to Raymond was part of Alfonso's diplomatic strategy to attract cross-Pyrenees alliances. The first authentic document mentioning Urraca as Raymond's wife, a letter of grant to one Hermenegildo Rodríguez, was issued on 22 February 1093, but interpolated documents refer to them as husband and wife already before 1088. Historians Ángel Gordo Molina and Diego Melo Carrasco propose that Raymond wed Urraca likely before early 1090 when royal diplomas first present them as rulers of the "Land of Saint James", or Galicia.

Raymond reached the age of majority by the time of the marriage, but Alfonso VI continued to control the administration of Galicia. His representative in Galicia, Pedro Vimaraz, died around the time of the wedding and Alfonso appointed Arias Diaz as his successor. A talented young clergyman, Diego Gelmírez, was made the "chancellor and secretary" of Raymond and Urraca with Alfonso's consent. On the other hand, Raymond and Urraca became involved in the administration of other provinces as well. For instance, they witnessed charters on the occasion of the repopulation of Ávila, Segovia, Salamanca and Zamora. In 1093 Urraca's mother died and Alfonso's Moorish concubine Zaida of Seville gave birth to a son, Sancho Alfónsez. The birth of her illegitimate brother jeopardized Urraca's position as their father's sole heir. The power base of Raymond and Urraca weakened even more when Alfonso granted the "Land of Portugal" to his illegitimate daughter Theresa and her husband Henry of Burgundy around 1094.

As a woman, Urraca was under the tutelage of her husband. Raymond was mentioned at the first place in almost all documents issued during his rule as Count of Galicia. Two documents, both confirming privileges of the burghers of Santiago de Compostella, referred to her as "Queen Urraca" in 1095 and 1105. The use of the title may have expressed her resentment at her inferior position, although , or royal princesses, were occasionally styled queens in this period. Sancho Alfónsez was regularly mentioned in royal diplomas from 1103, showing that Alfonso VI regarded his only son as his heir, although most clerics opposed the succession of an illegitimate child. By March 1107, Sancho was elected king on his father's initiative. Raymond made preparations for a succession crisis through an alliance with their brother-in-law Henry of Portugal. Their treaty was confirmed in the presence of a high-ranking monk from the Abbey of Cluny late in 1105 or early in 1106. They agreed on the division of their father-in-law's realms without referring to Sancho's claims and Henry promised to rule his portion as Raymond's vassal.

Raymond fell seriously ill and died in Grajal de Campos in September 1107. The widowed Urraca took full responsibility of the administration of Galicia. She styled herself "empress of whole Galicia" in her letter of grant to the Lugo Cathedral late in 1107 or early in 1108. The Galician clerics and aristocrats regarded Urraca's infant son by Raymond, Alfonso Raimúndez, as Raymond's lawful successor. The boy's position as his father's heir was confirmed in their presence at an assembly in León by Alfonso VI. The King also acknowledged his grandson's right to rule Galicia in case of Urraca's remarriage. Around this time Urraca began a love affair with the Castilian aristocrat Gómez González. Sancho Alfónsez died fighting against the Almoravids at Uclés on 29 May 1108. After her half-brother's unexpected death, Urraca became their father's sole heir. Her new position was ceremoniously confirmed at an assembly of "almost all nobles and counts of Spain" shortly before her father died on 30 June or 1 July 1108.

Reign

Second marriage

Urraca succeeded her father as the first reigning queen in European history. Her earliest extant diploma, issued in favour of the León Cathedral a day after her father's funeral, referred to her as "queen of whole Spain". Prominent Leonese, Castilian and Galician aristocrats and twelve bishops witnessed the document, showing that her realm's elite acknowledged her as lawful monarch. Two early sources—the Chronicle of Sahagún and the —attribute the proposal about Urraca's marriage to Alfonso I, King of Aragon and Navarre, to the Leonese aristocrats. They were reportedly convinced that a female monarch would be unable to rule and defend the kingdom against the Almoravids and forced Urraca to marry to "the bloodthirsty and cruel Aragonese tyrant" against her will. Bernard of Sédirac, Archbishop of Toledo, raised objections against the marriage, emphasising that Urraca and Alfonso were cousins. In contrast with the two chronicles, Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada writes that Alfonso VI started the negotiations about his heir's marriage with Alfonso I because he wanted to prevent Urraca's marriage with her lover, Gómez González. Gordo Molina and Melo Carrasc propose that both reports could be reliable, because the selection of a suitable husband for his daughter and heir was the elderly King's most important task before his death.

Alfonso I married Urraca in the castle of Monzón in October or November 1109. In December, Urraca granted her "whole land that used to be" her father's to her husband whom she mentioned as "lord and my spouse". In the same document, she stipulated that Alfonso should respect her "like a good husband his good wife" and he could not request the annulment of their marriage referring to their kinship or excommunication. The document confirmed the right of Urraca's son by her first marriage to inherit León in case the couple died without issue. The Galician aristocrats' traditional desire for independence awakened and they used the defense of Alfonso Raimúndez's right to rule Galicia and succeed his mother as a pretext for a rebellion. After their leader Pedro Fróilaz de Traba announced that Urraca had lost her claim to rule Galicia when re-marrying, they proclaimed Alfonso Raimúndez king. Pedro Arias, Pedro Gudesteiz and other Galician nobles who remained loyal to Urraca formed a brotherhood against Pedro Fróilaz and his allies. They offered the leadership to Diego Gelmírez, who had been elevated to Bishop of Compostella, but Gelmírez remained neutral in the conflict. Alfonso I and Urraca invaded Galicia and seized the important castle of Monterroso, but reports of the cruelty of the Aragonese troops outraged the Leonese aristocrats. The relationship between Alfonso I and the high clergy grew tense. The bishop of Palencia was imprisoned, the archbishop of Toledo, the bishops of Burgos and León and the abad of Sahagún were forced to flee.

The marriage proved unfortunate. Alfonso's prejudice against women is well documented and he disliked Urraca's son. She disdained her husband for his superstitious nature, in particular for his fear of ravens and crows, and he killed a Galician noble who had sought Urraca's protection in Monterroso during their campaign in Galicia. Her husband regularly shamed her in the royal court and often went as far as beating and kicking her in public. Urraca's letter of grant to the Abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos is the earliest attestation to her will to get rid of her husband's tutelage. In the document, she styled herself as "queen of whole Spain and daughter of Emperor Alfonso" on 13 June 1110. The exact circumstances of Urraca's separation from her husband are uncertain. According to contemporaneous sources, she left Alfonso after consulting with her advisors. Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada writes that Alfonso repudiated her for her infidelity leaving her "free to do whatever she pleased". The last document mentioning Urraca in her second husband's company was issued on 22 May 1112.

The marriage of Urraca and Alfonso almost immediately sparked rebellions in Galicia and scheming by her illegitimate half-sister Theresa and brother-in-law Henry, the countess and count of Portugal. Also, they believed that the new marriage of Urraca could put in jeopardy the rights of the son of her first marriage, Alfonso Raimúndez. One of the first acts of the new spouses was to sign a pact under which the monarchs granted to each other soberana potestas over the other's kingdom, declaring heir of both their future children, and in the case that the union was childless, the surviving spouse would succeed the other one in the throne.

From the start, the Galician faction was divided in two tendencies: one headed by Archbishop Diego Gelmírez of Santiago de Compostela (who defended the position of Alfonso Raimúndez as Urraca's successor) and another led by Count Pedro Fróilaz de Traba, tutor of the young prince (who was inclined to the complete independence of Galicia under the rule of Alfonso). A third group of opposition to the royal marriage was at the court and was headed by Count Gómez González, whose motivation against Urraca and Alfonso I of Aragon could have been his fear of losing power, a sensation soon confirmed when Alfonso I appointed Aragonese and Navarrese nobles for important public posts and as holders of fortresses.

From Galicia, the count of Traba began the first aggressive movement against the monarchs reclaiming the hereditary rights of Alfonso Raimúndez. In response to the Galician rebellion, Alfonso I of Aragon marched with his army to Galicia and in 1110, reestablished the order there after defeating the local troops in Monterroso Castle. The Galician rebellion against the royal power was only the beginning of a series of political and military conflicts which, with the complete opposite personalities of Urraca and Alfonso I and their mutual dislike, gave rise to a continuous civil war in the Hispanic kingdoms over the following years. Urraca did not share the governance of her realms with her husband.

As their relationship soured, Urraca accused Alfonso of physical abuse, and by May 1110 she separated from Alfonso. In addition to her objections to Alfonso's handling of rebels, the couple had a falling-out over his execution of one of the rebels who had surrendered to the queen, to whom the queen was inclined to be merciful. Additionally, as Urraca was married to someone many in the kingdom objected to, the queen's son and heir became a rallying point for opponents to the marriage.

Estrangement between husband and wife escalated from discrete and simmering hostilities into open armed warfare between the Leonese-Castilians and the Aragonese. An alliance between Alfonso of Aragon and Henry of Portugal culminated in the 1111 Battle of Candespina in which Urraca's lover and chief supporter Gómez González was killed. He was soon replaced in both roles by another count, Pedro González de Lara, who took up the fight and would father at least two further children by Urraca. By the fall of 1112 a truce was brokered between Urraca and Alfonso with their marriage annulled. Though Urraca recovered Asturias, Leon, and Galicia, Alfonso occupied a significant portion of Castile (where Urraca enjoyed large support), while her half-sister Theresa and her husband Count Henry of Portugal occupied Zamora and Extremadura. Recovering these regions and expanding into Muslim lands would occupy much of Urraca's foreign policy. Despite the annulment of their marriage (on the grounds of consanguinity), Alfonso continued his efforts for political control. While Urraca was engaged in this battle, she also had to contend with the schemes of her sister, who promoted a plan to replace the queen by her son. This particular incident, ended in a compromise between the two sisters where Theresa was granted a vast territory in Leon in exchange for agreeing that she was Urraca's vassal.

According to author Bernard F. Reilly, the measure of success for Urraca's rule was her ability to restore and protect the integrity of her inheritance – that is, the kingdom of her father – and transmit that inheritance in full to her own heir. Policies and events pursued by Alfonso VI – namely legitimizing her brother and thereby providing an opportunity for her illegitimate half-sister to claim a portion of the patrimony, as well as the forced marriage with Alfonso I of Aragon – contributed in large part to the challenges Urraca faced upon her succession. Additionally, the circumstance of Urraca's gender added a distinctive role-reversal dimension to diplomacy and politics, which Urraca used to her advantage.

Character

Urraca is characterized in the Historia Compostelana as prudent, modest, and with good sense. According to Reilly, the chronicle also attributes her failings to "the weakness and changeability of women, feminine perversity", and calls her a Jezebel for her liaisons with her leading magnates, with at least one relationship producing an illegitimate son. Her son Alfonso Raimúndez likewise decried the political turmoil caused by her extramarital affairs. Modern historians have given a more critical outlook to these observations, with Reilly noting that the queen was nevertheless in control of events, in contrast with earlier writers who had described her suitors as the real rulers.

Death and legacy

According to the twelfth-century "Chronicon Compostellanum", Urraca died in adulterous childbirth on 8 March 1126 in the castle of Saldaña. As queen, she rose to the challenges presented to her, and her solutions were seen by Reilly as pragmatic ones. Her delaying the accession of her son Alfonso VII nevertheless led to a turbulent transition of power, as the new king would have to face the rebellion of her lover Pedro González upon her death, followed by an attempted invasion by the king of Aragon, and the resumption of Galician revolts.

Family

Urraca's firstborn child by Raymond, Sancha, was born before 11 November 1095. She was named for Urraca's paternal grandmother Sancha of León who transmitted the claim to rule the Kingdom of León to her children. A diploma issued in Monastery of San Xulián de Samos on 24 October 1102 refers to the "children" of Raymond and Urraca, implying that their second child, Alfonso, had been born, but two nearly contemporaneous sources—the  and the —dates Alfonso's birth to 1105. He was named for Urraca's father.

Urraca had two illegitimate children with her lover Pedro González de Lara: Fernando Pérez Hurtado (c.1114-1156), and Elvira Pérez de Lara (c.1112-1174), who is mentioned in the Historia Compostelana in connection with her donation of the village of Arquillinos to Diego Gelmírez. Elvira would twice wed, first to García Pérez de Traba, lord of Trastámara and son of Pedro Fróilaz de Traba, then to count Beltrán de Risnel.

References

Sources

Further reading

External links

Reilly, Bernard F. The Medieval Spains, 1993.

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Hispanic empresses and queens
1079 births
1126 deaths
12th-century Castilian monarchs
House of Jiménez
Leonese infantas
Castilian infantas
12th-century Galician monarchs
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Queens regnant in Europe
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12th-century Spanish women
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Burials in the Royal Pantheon at the Basilica of San Isidoro
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Daughters of emperors
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Urraca of León and Castile


The Eclogues (;  ), also called the Bucolics, is the first of the three major works of the Latin poet Virgil.

Background
Taking as his generic model the Greek bucolic poetry of Theocritus, Virgil created a Roman version partly by offering a dramatic and mythic interpretation of revolutionary change at Rome in the turbulent period between roughly 44 and 38 BC. Virgil introduced political clamor largely absent from Theocritus' poems, called idylls ("little scenes" or "vignettes"), even though erotic turbulence disturbs the "idyllic" landscapes of Theocritus.

Virgil's book contains ten pieces, each called not an idyll but an eclogue ("selection", "extract"), populated by and large with herdsmen imagined conversing and performing amoebaean singing in rural settings, whether suffering or embracing revolutionary change or happy or unhappy love. Performed with great success on the Roman stage, they feature a mix of visionary politics and eroticism that made Virgil a celebrity in his own lifetime.

Like all of Virgil's works, the Eclogues are composed in dactylic hexameter.

Structure and organization

Several scholars have attempted to identify the organizational principles underpinning the construction of the book. Most commonly the structure has been seen to be symmetrical, turning around eclogue 5, with a triadic pattern. The following scheme comes from Steenkamp (2011):

1 – Confiscation of land
2 – Love song
3 – Singing contest

4 – Religion and the world that will be
5 – The 'pastor' becomes a god
6 – Mythology and the world that was

7 – Singing contest
8 – Two love songs
9 – Confiscation of land

The tenth eclogue stands alone, summing up the whole collection.

Numerous verbal echoes between the corresponding poems in each half reinforce the symmetry: for example, the phrase "Plant pears, Daphnis" in 9.50 echoes "Plant pears, Meliboeus" in 1.73. Eclogue 10 has verbal echoes with all the earlier poems. Thomas K. Hubbard (1998) has noted, "The first half of the book has often been seen as a positive construction of a pastoral vision, whilst the second half dramatizes progressive alienation from that vision, as each poem of the first half is taken up and responded to in reverse order."

However, the arrangement of the eclogues into three groups of three does not prevent the collection also being seen as divided at the same time into two halves, with a second opening at the beginning of eclogue 6.

The average length of each eclogue is 83 lines, but some are a little longer and some shorter. It has been observed that long and short poems alternate. Thus the 3rd eclogue in each half is the longest, while the 2nd and 4th are the shortest:

1 – 83 lines
2 – 73
3 – 111
4 – 63
5 – 90

6 – 86 lines
7 – 70
8 – 108
9 – 67
10 – 77

Variety is also achieved by alternating dialogue eclogues (1, 3, 5, 7, 9) with monologues (2, 4, 6, 8, 10).

Some scholars have also observed numerical coincidences, when each eclogue in poems 1–9 is added to its pair: eclogues 2 + 8 = 3 + 7 = 181 lines, while eclogues 1 + 9 = 4 + 6 = 150/149 lines; 2 + 10 also = 150 lines. However, the significance of these findings is not clear. Similar numerical phenomena have been found in other authors. For example, in Tibullus book 2, poems 1 + 6 = 2 + 5 = 3 + 4 = 144 lines.

Eclogue 1

A dialogue between Tityrus and Meliboeus. In the turmoil of the era Meliboeus has been forced off his land and faces an uncertain future. Tityrus recounts his journey to Rome and the "god" he met there who answered his plea and allowed him to remain on his land. He offers to let Meliboeus spend the night with him. This text has been viewed as reflecting the infamous land-confiscations after the return of Mark Antony and Octavian's joint forces from the Battle of Philippi of 42 BCE, in which Brutus and Cassius (the orchestrators of Caesar's assassination in 44 BCE) were defeated.

Eclogue 2

A monologue by the herdsman Corydon bemoaning his unrequited love for the handsome boy Alexis (the boss's darling) in the height of summer. The poem is adapted from the eleventh Idyll of Theocritus, in which the Cyclops Polyphemus laments the cruelty of the sea-nymph Galatea.

Eclogue 3

Menalcas comes across a herdsman Damoetas, who is herding some animals on behalf of a friend. The two men exchange insults and then Damoetas challenges Menalcas to a singing competition. Menalcas accepts the challenge, offering some decorated cups as a prize, but Damoetas insists that the prize must be a calf, which is more valuable. A neighbour Palaemon agrees to judge the contest. The second half of the poem is the contest itself, ending with Palaemon pronouncing it a tie.

The eclogue is mostly based on Theocritus's Idyll 5, but with elements added from other idylls.

Eclogue 4

Eclogue 4 imagines a golden age ushered in by the birth of a boy heralded as "great increase of Jove" (magnum Iovis incrementum). The poet makes this notional scion of Jove the occasion to predict his own metabasis up the scale in epos, rising from the humble bucolic to the lofty range of the heroic, potentially rivaling Homer: he thus signals his own ambition to make Roman epic that will culminate in the Aeneid. In the surge of ambition, Virgil also predicts defeating the legendary poet Orpheus and his mother, the epic muse Calliope, as well as Pan, the inventor of the bucolic pipe, even in Pan's homeland of Arcadia, which Virgil will claim as his own at the climax of his book in the tenth eclogue.

Identification of the fourth eclogue's child has proved elusive, but one common solution is that it refers to the predicted child of the sister of Octavian, Octavia the Younger, who had married Mark Antony in 40 BC. The poem is dated to 40 BC by the reference to the consulship of Gaius Asinius Pollio, Virgil's patron at the time, to whom the eclogue is addressed.

In later years, it was often assumed that the boy predicted in the poem was Christ. The connection is first made in the Oration of Constantine appended to the Life of Constantine by Eusebius of Caesarea (a reading to which Dante makes fleeting reference in his Purgatorio). Some scholars have also noted similarities between the eclogue's prophetic themes and the words of Isaiah 11:6: "a little child shall lead".

Eclogue 5

In Eclogue 5, Menalcas, meeting the young goatherd Mopsus, flatters him and begs him to sing one of his songs. Mopsus is persuaded, and sings a song he has made mourning the death of the fabled herdsman Daphnis. After praising the song, Menalcas responds by singing a song of equal length describing the reception of Daphnis in heaven as a god. Mopsus praises Menalcas in turn, and the two exchange gifts.

Eclogue 5 articulates another significant pastoral theme, the shepherd-poet's concern with achieving worldly fame through poetry. Ensuring poetic fame is a fundamental interest of the shepherds in classical pastoral elegies, including the speaker in Milton's "Lycidas".

Eclogue 6

This eclogue tells the story of how two boys, Chromis and Mnasyllos, and a Naiad persuaded Silenus to sing to them, and how he sang to them of the world's beginning, the Flood, the Golden Age, Prometheus, Hylas, Pasiphaë, Atalanta and Phaëthon's sisters; after which he described how the Muses gave Gallus (a close personal friend of Virgil's) Hesiod's reed pipe and commissioned him to write a didactic poem; after which he told of Scylla (whom Virgil identifies as both the sea monster and the daughter of Nisos who was transmuted into a seabird) and of Tereus and Philomela, and then we learn that he has in fact been singing a song composed by Apollo on the banks of the Eurotas.

Eclogue 7

The goatherd Meliboeus, a recurring character, soliloquizing remembers how he happened to be present at a great singing match between Corydon and Thyrsis. He then quotes from memory their actual songs (six rounds of matching quatrains) and recalls that Daphnis as judge declared Corydon the winner. This eclogue is based on pseudo-Theocritus Idyll VIII, though there the quatrains are not in hexameters but in elegiac couplets. Scholars argue about why Thyrsis loses. The reader may feel that despite the very close parallelism of his quatrains with Corydon's, they are less musical and sometimes cruder in content.

Eclogue 8

This eclogue is also known as Pharmaceutria ("Sorceress"). The poet reports the contrasting songs of two herdsmen whose music is as powerful as that of Orpheus. Both songs are dramatic (the character in the first being a man and in the second a woman), both have almost the same pattern of three-to-five-line stanzas, with a refrain after each one. In one song the singer complains that his girlfriend is marrying another man; in the second a woman performs a magic spell to get her lover back.

Eclogue 9

Young Lycidas meets old Moeris on his way to town and learns that Moeris's master, the poet Menalcas, has been evicted from his small farm and nearly killed. They proceed to recall snatches of Menalcas's poetry, two translated from Theocritus and two relating to contemporary events. Lycidas is anxious for a singing-match, while admitting that he is no match for two contemporary Roman poets whom he mentions by name, but Moeris pleads for forgetfulness and loss of voice. They walk on towards the city, postponing the competition until Menalcas arrives.

Eclogue 10

In Eclogue 10, Virgil replaces Theocritus' Sicily and old bucolic hero, the impassioned oxherd Daphnis, with the impassioned voice of his contemporary Roman friend, the elegiac poet Gaius Cornelius Gallus, imagined dying of love in Arcadia. Virgil transforms this remote, mountainous, and myth-ridden region of Greece, homeland of Pan, into the original and ideal place of pastoral song, thus founding a richly resonant tradition in western literature and the arts.

This eclogue is the origin of the phrase omnia vincit amor ("love conquers all").

See also
Aeneid
Georgics
The Golden Bough

References

Further reading
 Buckham, Philip Wentworth; Spence, Joseph; Holdsworth, Edward; Warburton, William; Jortin, John, Miscellanea Virgiliana: In Scriptis Maxime Eruditorum Virorum Varie Dispersa, in Unum Fasciculum Collecta, Cambridge: Printed for W. P. Grant; 1825.

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External links

The Eclogues (Internet Classics Archive)
The Eclogues (translated by H.R. Fairclough for the Loeb Classical Library)

French translations (Bibliotheca Classica Selecta)
Latin texts and German translations
An appreciation by Samuel Johnson

1st-century BC Latin books
Poetry by Virgil
LGBT poetry

Eclogues


Edward Robert King-Harman (3 April 1838 – 10 June 1888) was an Irish landlord and politician. He sat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom between 1877 and 1888 as an Irish nationalist, and later Unionist, Member of Parliament.

Early life
King-Harman was the son of Lawrence Harman King-Harman and his wife Cecilia Johnstone of Stirling. His father was the younger son of Robert King, 1st Viscount Lorton and inherited from him the estates of Rockingham, County Roscommon, and Newcastle, Ballymahon, County Longford. King-Harman was educated at Eton and became a lieutenant in the 60th Rifles and captain in the Longford Militia. He inherited Rockingham which was a fine house built by John Nash, but altered in a less than sympathetic way in the late 19th century in order to provide more accommodation. He was J.P. for the counties of Sligo, Longford and Westmeath and Honorary Colonel of the 5th Battalion, Connaught Rangers. He published in the Freeman's Journal and was a member of the Arts Club from 1863 until his death.

Political career
King-Harman stood unsuccessfully as Isaac Butt's Nationalist Home Rule candidate in the May 1870 rerun of the December 1869 Longford by-election after the result of the first vote was overturned. In January 1877, he was elected Member of Parliament for Sligo County but lost the seat at the 1880 general election. He then became Lord Lieutenant and Custos Rotulorum of Roscommon in 1878. In 1883 he was elected MP for Dublin County, until the seat was divided under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885.  He was initially a Nationalist Home Ruler but subsequently became a Unionist. As result of Gladstone's Representation of the People Act 1884 which would extend the Irish franchise, some Orangemen were threatening violence and T. P. O'Connor complained in parliament of several politicians using inflammatory language. O'Connor quoted as an example King-Harman's advice to "Keep the cartridge in the rifle."

In 1885 King-Harman was elected as a Unionist (Conservative) MP for the English seat of Isle of Thanet. In 1887 he was a parliamentary Under-Secretary for Ireland. He held the seat until his  death from heart disease at Rockingham in Boyle, Ireland at the age of 49 in 1888.

Family
King-Harman married, in 1864, Emma Frances Worsley, daughter of Sir William Worsley, 1st Baronet.  They had one daughter, Frances Agnes, who married Sir Thomas Stafford, 1st Baronet, a physician and member of the Irish Privy Council.  They in turn had two sons, the younger of whom, Cecil Stafford-King-Harman, inherited the baronetcy and the Rockingham estates.

References

External links

1838 births
1888 deaths
People educated at Eton College
King's Royal Rifle Corps officers
Lord-Lieutenants of Roscommon
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Sligo constituencies (1801–1922)
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Dublin constituencies (1801–1922)
UK MPs 1874–1880
UK MPs 1880–1885
UK MPs 1885–1886
UK MPs 1886–1892
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
Members of the Privy Council of Ireland
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Artists' Rifles soldiers
Irish landlords
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People from Boyle, County Roscommon
Politicians from County Roscommon

Edward King-Harman


Jonathan Tyler is a Green Party activist and academic.

Tyler was an early parliamentary candidate for the Ecology Party, in the 1976 Walsall North by-election, at a time when he was a transport lecturer at the University of Birmingham. He was the Ecology Party's Chairman for some years from 1976.

Tyler would later go on to stand as a candidate in local elections.  During the 1980s he was associated with attempts by the 'Maingreen' group to streamline the Green Party's internal workings. He subsequently left the Green Party, but rejoined some years later.

Tyler joined British Rail as a Traffic Apprentice in 1962. He became a British Rail-sponsored university lecturer and since 2000 has run a consultancy called Passenger Transport Networks. He has specialised in making the case for the importance of integrated strategic timetabling, drawing in particular on the Swiss Taktfahrplan methodology. The Taktfahrplan is based on repeating hourly cycles where trains meet at hubs around symmetry minutes (normally xx.00 and xx.30) to optimise connections in all directions. To create an optimal 'Taktfahrplan' system, infrastructure must be designed with the network timetable in mind. The 'Taktfahrplan' aims to create notions of convenience and accessibility to encourage people to use public transport. Tyler has argued for a National Timetabling Authority to plan an integrated strategic timetable. Tyler has critiqued High Speed 2 from a "green" perspective, and has written about the implications a "green" agenda should have for railway timetabling.

He chaired the York Environment Forum until 2010. |As a prominent member of York Green Party he was its Parliamentary Candidate for York Central in 2015, winning 10% of the vote.

References

External links
Passenger Transport Networks

Green Party of England and Wales parliamentary candidates
Living people
Academics of the University of Birmingham
Year of birth missing (living people)

Jonathan Tyler


The bronze frog (Lithobates clamitans clamitans) is a subspecies of Lithobates clamitans found in the southeastern region of North America.

Description
The bronze frog grows up to 2–4 in (5.4–10.2 cm). Distinguishing characteristics include a bronze to brownish body, a white belly with dark, irregular blotches, and a bright-green upper lip and nose. Males may have yellowish throats. Bronze frogs are smooth-skinned, like all true frogs. They have long hind legs with webbed toes. Two dorsolateral folds begin behind the eye and runs two-thirds the length of body. The tympanum (ear disc) is larger in males.

Behavior
Bronze frogs are nocturnal and solitary. They remain under cover, in logs and crevices, most of the time. Male bronze frogs court females with a distinct call. Researchers agree that the mating call of the bronze frog sounds like someone plucking a loose banjo string. Named for its body color, the bronze frog may be difficult to find until warm, humid evenings, when its mating call is heard. Colloquially referred to as the "banjo frog", the primary breeding call is an explosive "clunk," or "cloink" frequently repeated several times in succession, but less powerfully each time. Like many species of frogs, the males voice an aggressive call when concentrations of these frogs are high in breeding areas. This call is a quick, harsh, spitting sound that sometimes precedes an attack on a competitor.

Distribution
Bronze frogs are found in the southeastern portion of the United States, from North Carolina to the eastern third of Texas.

Habitat
Bronze frogs are found in shallow streams, ponds, marshes, springs, bayous, and bald cypress swamps with plenty of vegetation. They are active both day and night.

Diet
Bronze frogs eat a variety of vertebrates and arthropods. They eat flies, crickets, fish, small snakes, crayfish, tadpoles, and other frogs.

Breeding
It reaches sexual maturity in the first full summer after metamorphosis. Breeding season begins in early spring and lasts through the summer. Females lay 2,000–4,000 eggs in small masses attached to underwater vegetation. Eggs are 1.5 mm when laid, but grow to 6 mm as cells divide. Incubation is one to two weeks. Tadpoles are green with small, dark spots. They grow 1.0–1.5 inches (28 – 33 mm) before they metamorphose (change from tadpoles to frogs). Bronze frogs live seven to 10 years.

References

External links
 State of Texas: Bronze Frog
 US Geological Survey: Rana clamitans

Lithobates
Amphibians of the United States
Fauna of the Southeastern United States

Bronze frog


Superstring theory is an attempt to explain all of the particles and fundamental forces of nature in one theory by modeling them as vibrations of tiny supersymmetric strings.

'Superstring theory' is a shorthand for supersymmetric string theory because unlike bosonic string theory, it is the version of string theory that accounts for both fermions and bosons and incorporates supersymmetry to model gravity.

Since the second superstring revolution, the five superstring theories (Type I, Type IIA, Type IIB, HO and HE) are regarded as different limits of a single theory tentatively called M-theory.

Background
One of the deepest open problems in theoretical physics is formulating a theory of quantum gravity. Such a theory incorporates both the theory of general relativity, which describes gravitation and applies to large-scale structures, and quantum mechanics or more specifically quantum field theory, which describes the other three fundamental forces that act on the atomic scale.

Quantum field theory, in particular the Standard model, is currently the most successful theory to describe fundamental forces, but while computing physical quantities of interest, naïvely one obtains infinite values. Physicists developed the technique of renormalization to 'eliminate these infinities' to obtain finite values which can be experimentally tested. This technique works for three of the four fundamental forces: Electromagnetism, the strong force and the weak force, but does not work for gravity, which is non-renormalizable. Development of a quantum theory of gravity therefore requires different means than those used for the other forces.

According to superstring theory, or more generally string theory, the fundamental constituents of reality are strings with radius on the order of the Planck length (about 10−33 cm). An appealing feature of string theory is that fundamental particles can be viewed as excitations of the string. The tension in a string is on the order of the Planck force (1044 newtons). The graviton (the proposed messenger particle of the gravitational force) is predicted by the theory to be a string with wave amplitude zero.

History

Investigating how a string theory may include fermions in its spectrum led to the invention of supersymmetry (in the West) in 1971, a mathematical transformation between bosons and fermions. String theories that include fermionic vibrations are now known as "superstring theories".

Since its beginnings in the seventies and through the combined efforts of many different researchers, superstring theory has developed into a broad and varied subject with connections to quantum gravity, particle and condensed matter physics, cosmology, and pure mathematics.

Absence of physical evidence
Superstring theory is based on supersymmetry. No supersymmetric particles have been discovered and initial investigation, carried out in 2011 at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and in 2006 at the Tevatron has excluded some of the ranges. For instance, the mass constraint of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model squarks has been up to 1.1 TeV, and gluinos up to 500 GeV. No report on suggesting large extra dimensions has been delivered from LHC. There have been no principles so far to limit the number of vacua in the concept of a landscape of vacua.

Some particle physicists became disappointed by the lack of experimental verification of supersymmetry, and some have already discarded it. Jon Butterworth at University College London said that we had no sign of supersymmetry, even in higher energy region, excluding the superpartners of the top quark up to a few TeV. Ben Allanach at the University of Cambridge states that if we do not discover any new particles in the next trial at the LHC, then we can say it is unlikely to discover supersymmetry at CERN in the foreseeable future.

Extra dimensions

Our physical space is observed to have three large spatial dimensions and, along with time, is a boundless 4-dimensional continuum known as spacetime. However, nothing prevents a theory from including more than 4 dimensions. In the case of string theory, consistency requires spacetime to have 10 dimensions (3D regular space + 1 time + 6D hyperspace). The fact that we see only 3 dimensions of space can be explained by one of two mechanisms: either the extra dimensions are compactified on a very small scale, or else our world may live on a 3-dimensional submanifold corresponding to a brane, on which all known particles besides gravity would be restricted.

If the extra dimensions are compactified, then the extra 6 dimensions must be in the form of a Calabi–Yau manifold. Within the more complete framework of M-theory, they would have to take form of a G2 manifold. A particular exact symmetry of string/M-theory called T-duality (which exchanges momentum modes for winding number and sends compact dimensions of radius R to radius 1/R), has led to the discovery of equivalences between different Calabi–Yau manifolds called mirror symmetry.

Superstring theory is not the first theory to propose extra spatial dimensions. It can be seen as building upon the Kaluza–Klein theory, which proposed a 4+1 dimensional (5D) theory of gravity. When compactified on a circle, the gravity in the extra dimension precisely describes electromagnetism from the perspective of the 3 remaining large space dimensions. Thus the original Kaluza–Klein theory is a prototype for the unification of gauge and gravity interactions, at least at the classical level, however it is known to be insufficient to describe nature for a variety of reasons (missing weak and strong forces, lack of parity violation, etc.) A more complex compact geometry is needed to reproduce the known gauge forces. Also, to obtain a consistent, fundamental, quantum theory requires the upgrade to string theory, not just the extra dimensions.

Number of superstring theories
Theoretical physicists were troubled by the existence of five separate superstring theories. A possible solution for this dilemma was suggested at the beginning of what is called the second superstring revolution in the 1990s, which suggests that the five string theories might be different limits of a single underlying theory, called M-theory. This remains a conjecture.

The five consistent superstring theories are:

 The type I string has one supersymmetry in the ten-dimensional sense (16 supercharges). This theory is special in the sense that it is based on unoriented open and closed strings, while the rest are based on oriented closed strings.
 The type II string theories have two supersymmetries in the ten-dimensional sense (32 supercharges). There are actually two kinds of type II strings called type IIA and type IIB. They differ mainly in the fact that the IIA theory is non-chiral (parity conserving) while the IIB theory is chiral (parity violating).
 The heterotic string theories are based on a peculiar hybrid of a type I superstring and a bosonic string. There are two kinds of heterotic strings differing in their ten-dimensional gauge groups:  the heterotic E8×E8 string and the heterotic SO(32) string. (The name heterotic SO(32) is slightly inaccurate since among the SO(32) Lie groups, string theory singles out a quotient Spin(32)/Z2 that is not equivalent to SO(32).)

Chiral gauge theories can be inconsistent due to anomalies. This happens when certain one-loop Feynman diagrams cause a quantum mechanical breakdown of the gauge symmetry. The anomalies were canceled out via the Green–Schwarz mechanism.

Even though there are only five superstring theories, making detailed predictions for real experiments requires information about exactly what physical configuration the theory is in. This considerably complicates efforts to test string theory because there is an astronomically high number—10500 or more—of configurations that meet some of the basic requirements to be consistent with our world. Along with the extreme remoteness of the Planck scale, this is the other major reason it is hard to test superstring theory.

Another approach to the number of superstring theories refers to the mathematical structure called composition algebra. In the findings of abstract algebra there are just seven composition algebras over the field of real numbers. In 1990 physicists R. Foot and G.C. Joshi in Australia stated that "the seven classical superstring theories are in one-to-one correspondence to the seven composition algebras".

Integrating general relativity and quantum mechanics

General relativity typically deals with situations involving large mass objects in fairly large regions of spacetime whereas quantum mechanics is generally reserved for scenarios at the atomic scale (small spacetime regions). The two are very rarely used together, and the most common case that combines them is in the study of black holes. Having peak density, or the maximum amount of matter possible in a space, and very small area, the two must be used in synchrony to predict conditions in such places. Yet, when used together, the equations fall apart, spitting out impossible answers, such as imaginary distances and less than one dimension.

The major problem with their incongruence is that, at Planck scale (a fundamental small unit of length) lengths, general relativity predicts a smooth, flowing surface, while quantum mechanics predicts a random, warped surface, which are nowhere near compatible. Superstring theory resolves this issue, replacing the classical idea of point particles with strings. These strings have an average diameter of the Planck length, with extremely small variances, which completely ignores the quantum mechanical predictions of Planck-scale length dimensional warping. Also, these surfaces can be mapped as branes. These branes can be viewed as objects with a morphism between them. In this case, the morphism will be the state of a string that stretches between brane A and brane B.

Singularities are avoided because the observed consequences of "Big Crunches" never reach zero size.  In fact, should the universe begin a "big crunch" sort of process, string theory dictates that the universe could never be smaller than the size of one string, at which point it would actually begin expanding.

Mathematics

D-branes
D-branes are membrane-like objects in 10D string theory. They can be thought of as occurring as a result of a Kaluza–Klein compactification of 11D M-theory that contains membranes. Because compactification of a geometric theory produces extra vector fields the D-branes can be included in the action by adding an extra U(1) vector field to the string action.

In type I open string theory, the ends of open strings are always attached to D-brane surfaces. A string theory with more gauge fields such as SU(2) gauge fields would then correspond to the compactification of some higher-dimensional theory above 11 dimensions, which is not thought to be possible to date. Furthermore, the tachyons attached to the D-branes show the instability of those D-branes with respect to the annihilation. The tachyon total energy is (or reflects) the total energy of the D-branes.

Why five superstring theories?
For a 10 dimensional supersymmetric theory we are allowed a 32-component Majorana spinor. This can be decomposed into a pair of 16-component Majorana-Weyl (chiral) spinors. There are then various ways to construct an invariant depending on whether these two spinors have the same or opposite chiralities:

The heterotic superstrings come in two types SO(32) and E8×E8 as indicated above and the type I superstrings include open strings.

Beyond superstring theory
It is conceivable that the five superstring theories are approximated to a theory in higher dimensions possibly involving membranes. Because the action for this involves quartic terms and higher so is not Gaussian, the functional integrals are very difficult to solve and so this has confounded the top theoretical physicists. Edward Witten has popularised the concept of a theory in 11 dimensions, called M-theory, involving membranes interpolating from the known symmetries of superstring theory. It may turn out that there exist membrane models or other non-membrane models in higher dimensions—which may become acceptable when we find new unknown symmetries of nature, such as noncommutative geometry. It is thought, however, that 16 is probably the maximum since SO(16) is a maximal subgroup of E8, the largest exceptional Lie group, and also is more than large enough to contain the Standard Model. Quartic integrals of the non-functional kind are easier to solve so there is hope for the future. This is the series solution, which is always convergent when a is non-zero and negative:

In the case of membranes the series would correspond to sums of various membrane interactions that are not seen in string theory.

Compactification
Investigating theories of higher dimensions often involves looking at the 10 dimensional superstring theory and interpreting some of the more obscure results in terms of compactified dimensions. For example, D-branes are seen as compactified membranes from 11D M-theory. Theories of higher dimensions such as 12D F-theory and beyond produce other effects, such as gauge terms higher than U(1). The components of the extra vector fields (A) in the D-brane actions can be thought of as extra coordinates (X) in disguise. However, the known symmetries including supersymmetry currently restrict the spinors to 32-components—which limits the number of dimensions to 11 (or 12 if you include two time dimensions.) Some physicists (e.g., John Baez et al.) have speculated that the exceptional Lie groups E6, E7 and E8 having maximum orthogonal subgroups SO(10), SO(12) and SO(16) may be related to theories in 10, 12 and 16 dimensions; 10 dimensions corresponding to string theory and the 12 and 16 dimensional theories being yet undiscovered but would be theories based on 3-branes and 7-branes respectively. However, this is a minority view within the string community. Since E7 is in some sense F4 quaternified and E8 is F4 octonified, the 12 and 16 dimensional theories, if they did exist, may involve the noncommutative geometry based on the quaternions and octonions respectively. From the above discussion, it can be seen that physicists have many ideas for extending superstring theory beyond the current 10 dimensional theory, but so far all have been unsuccessful.

Kac–Moody algebras
Since strings can have an infinite number of modes, the symmetry used to describe string theory is based on infinite dimensional Lie algebras. Some Kac–Moody algebras that have been considered as symmetries for M-theory have been E10 and E11 and their supersymmetric extensions.

See also

 AdS/CFT correspondence
 dS/CFT correspondence
 Grand unification theory
 List of string theory topics
 String field theory

References

Cited sources

String theory
Supersymmetry
Supersymmetric quantum field theory
Physics beyond the Standard Model

Superstring theory


The Charles Urban Trading Company specialised in travel, educational and scientific films. It was formed in 1903 in London by the Anglo-American film producer Charles Urban, who struck out on his own after five years at the Warwick Trading Company. The slogan of the Charles Urban Trading Company was 'We Put the World Before You'.

The company made its name with coverage of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5 from Joseph Rosenthal (with the Japanese) and George Rogers (with the Russians). Other notable cameramen working for Urban were Charles Rider Noble (filming in the Balkans), H.M. Lomas (Malaya, Borneo, hunting films), John Mackenzie (the Balkans), mountaineer F. Ormiston-Smith (Switzerland, Sweden), and the naturalists F. Martin Duncan and F. Percy Smith. The CUTC also made fiction films, including several science fiction and trick films made by Walter R. Booth. Charles Urban ceased to have any connection with the company (beyond his name being used) after 1910. It ceased production during the First World War.

A 1957 copy of the film shot by the Charles Urban Trading Company of the 1906 Warwick Pageant in the grounds of Warwick Castle was deposited some time ago in the Warwickshire County Record Office, and has recently been transferred to DVD (2007).

References

Film production companies of the United Kingdom
Mass media companies established in 1903
1903 establishments in England
Mass media companies disestablished in 1914
1914 disestablishments in England
British companies disestablished in 1914
British companies established in 1903

Charles Urban Trading Company


Thomas Evans (ca. 1755February 12, 1815) was an eighteenth- and nineteenth-century congressman and lawyer from Virginia.

Biography
Born in Accomack County, Virginia, Evans attended the College of William and Mary. He studied law and was admitted to the bar. He was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates in 1780, 1781 and from 1794 to 1796. Evans was later elected a Federalist to the United States House of Representatives in 1796, serving from 1797 to 1801. There, he was appointed one of the impeachment managers to conduct the impeachment proceedings against Tennessee Senator William Blount in 1798. In 1802, Evans moved to Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia) and once again became a member of the House of Delegates, serving in 1805 and 1806. He died in 1815.

External links

Thomas Evans at The Political Graveyard
Death Notice

1750s births
1815 deaths
People from Accomack County, Virginia
Members of the Virginia House of Delegates
Virginia lawyers
College of William & Mary alumni
Politicians from Wheeling, West Virginia
Federalist Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Virginia
Lawyers from Wheeling, West Virginia

Thomas Evans (Virginia politician)


A polyp is a growth of tissue in areas such as the colon, stomach, nose and ear. It has a stalk which attaches the growth. If it doesn't have a stalk then it is called sessile.

Other websites
 ASGE Website dedicated to colon cancer awareness and early detection.
 ASGE Website educating the public about endoscopy.
 National Institutes of Health polyp website

Tissues

Polyp (medicine)


The Master and Margarita () is a Russian television mini-series produced by Russian television channel Telekanal Rossiya, In US on Fox and Canada on CTV. based on the novel The Master and Margarita, written by Soviet writer Mikhail Bulgakov between 1928 and 1940.  Vladimir Bortko directed this adaptation and was also its screenwriter. The series tagline is "Manuscripts do not burn!".

Background
This was Bortko's second attempt to make a screen adaptation of Bulgakov's masterpiece. In 2000 he had already been solicited by the Kino-Most film studio, associated with competing channel NTV in American ABC and Canadian CTV; but at the last moment Kino-Most did not reach an agreement with Sergei Shilovsky, grandson of Mikhail Bulgakov's third wife Elena Sergeevna Shilovskaya, the self-declared owner of the copyrights. In 2005, Telekanal Rossiiya reached an agreement with Shilovsky.

This TV-epopee of more than eight hours was heavily criticized, or at least regarded with much skepticism.  The first broadcast on December 19, 2005, was preceded by months of controversy in the media. Opponents feared that filming the work for television would sacrifice the layered narrative of the novel and the complexity of the socio-political and metaphysical themes to the popular demands of the broadcast medium.  Director Bortko followed the dialogues of the novel carefully, and the series became the most successful series ever on Russian television. Most of the criticism stopped after the first appearance on screen. On December 25, 2005, 40 million Russians watched the seventh episode.

Despite the fact that the city of Moscow plays an important role in the novel, director Vladimir Bortko opted to shoot the 1930s scenes in Saint Petersburg. "Saint Petersburg today is much more like Moscow in the Stalin period than Moscow today," he said. The biblical scenes were shot in Bulgaria and in Crimea.

Unlike previous screen adaptations, director Vladimir Bortko followed the novel meticulously. The setting of a TV-series appeared to be an ideal format to elaborate the complicated, multidimensional work with many different characters. "Bulgakov wrote the novel almost like a screenplay", Bortko said.

The story

Three layers
The film is an adaptation of the novel  The Master and Margarita written by the Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov. Three story lines are interwoven.
 The first story is a satire of the 1930s in the 20th century, the period during which Joseph Stalin was in power in the Soviet Union. The devil Woland comes to Moscow to have his annual Spring Ball of the Full Moon. Together with his demonic suite, he challenges the corrupt lucky ones, bureaucrats, and profiteers of that period in an hilarious way..
 The second story line is set in the biblical Yershalaim, and describes the inner struggle of Pontius Pilate before, during, and after the conviction and execution of  Yeshua Ha Nozri.
 The third layer tells the love story between a nameless writer, called the Master, in Moscow in the 1930s and his lover Margarita. The Master has written a novel about Pontius Pilate, a subject which was taboo in the officially atheistic Soviet Union.

Differences from the novel
Despite the length of the TV series, several scenes and characters from the novel were not included in this adaptation.
 The most notable of the absent characters are  doctor Kuzmin and the demon Abaddon.
 The most notable of the absent scenes is The Dream of Nikanor Ivanovich, in which Bulgakov denounces, through the dream of a protagonist, the show trials in the Soviet Union. Vladimir Bortko replaced this scene with an assembly of authentic Soviet propaganda films from that period.

Trivia
 Vladimir Bortko did not like the voice of actor Aleksandr Galibin, who played the role of the Master. Galibin's voice is not heard in the film. Instead, his lines were dubbed using the voice of Sergey Bezrukov, the actor who played the role of Yeshua. But there were more voices dubbed by other actors. To mention only the most important ones: the role of Aloisy Mogarych was played by actor Gennadi Bogachov, but we hear the voice of actor Andrei Tolubeyev. And Aphranius, played by Lithuanian actor Liubomiras Laucevičius, got the voice of Oleg Basilashvili, the actor who played Woland.
 In the series, the dialogue from chapter 5 between the characters «near the cast-iron fence of Griboedov's» about the quality of the restaurant at the writer's house is not conducted by the characters Amvrosy and Foka. Vladimir Bortko replaced them with the characters of Grigory Rimsky and Styopa Likhodeev.
 Director Vladimir Bortko made an historical mistake in this TV series. In episode 5, we hear the foxtrot Цветущий май [tsvetushchi may] or Blossoming May coming from the cellar of the master. This foxtrot, written by composer Artur Moritsevich Polonsky (1899-1989), was not released until 1948. So Bulgakov, who died in 1940, could not have known it
 Some of the actors who appear in this TV series also appeared in the film The Master and Margarita made by Yuri Kara. Aleksandr Filippenko (Azazello in Bortko's production) is Koroviev in Kara's film, while Valentin Gaft, who plays the roles of both Caiaphas and the chief officer of the secret police in Bortko's miniseries, is Woland in Kara's film. Oleg Basilashvili (Woland) played Vladimir Talberg in Vladimir Basov's film The Days of the Turbins, and Roman Kartsev (Maksimilian Poplavsky) was Schwonder in Vladimir Bortko's screen adaptation of Heart of a Dog
 A main theme of The Master and Margarita, death under mysterious circumstances, remains very topical. Several deaths that have occurred, since the filming of the miniseries, among actors who played roles in it feed the idea for many Russians that a curse rests upon those who participate in a film adaptation of The Master and Margarita, and this idea is fiercely debated even today. But some events are not reported accurately. Some media report that the 29-year-old daughter of Valentin Gaft (Kaifa) would have hanged herself shortly after the filming. But that's not exact: Olga's body was discovered on August 24, 2002, three years before the filming of the series. An overview of all sudden and suspected deaths after the recordings of the TV series can be found on the Master and Margarita website.

 An important element of the novel is the fact that the master has no name. But when, in episode 8 of this series, Behemoth returns the manuscript of the novel to the master, we see the title page of the manuscript with the name of the author - Maksudov Nikolay Afanasievich. That is the name of the main character from Bulgakov's Theatrical Novel, which was translated in English as Black Snow, and which was also given to the master by director Aleksandar Petrović in the film The Master and Margaret from 1972.

Production
 General Producers: Anton Zlatopolsky, Valery Todorovsky
 Produced by Telekanal Rossiya in collaboration with Goskino
 VFX: Lesta Studio
 Special effects: Behemoth Studio St. Petersburg
 Special effects: Trigraph

Cast
 Oleg Basilashvili as Woland
 Aleksandr Galibin as the Master (voiced by Sergey Bezrukov)
 Anna Kovalchuk as Margarita
 Kirill Lavrov as Pontius Pilate
 Sergey Bezrukov as Yeshua
 Aleksandr Abdulov as Koroviev
 Aleksandr Filippenko as Azazello
 Aleksandr Bashirov as Behemoth (voiced by Semen Furman)
 Vladislav Galkin as Ivan Bezdomny
 Tania U as Hella
 Dmitry Nagiyev as Judas Iscariot / Baron Meigel
 Liubomiras Laucevičius as Aphranius
 Aleksandr Adabashyan as Berlioz
 Gennadi Bogachyov as Aloisy Mogarych
 Valentin Gaft as Caiaphas / Lavrentiy Beria
 Semyon Strugachyov as Levi Matvei
 Valeri Zolotukhin as Bosoy
 Vasily Livanov as Professor Stravinsky
 Roman Kartsev as Poplavsky
 Ilya Oleynikov as Rimsky
 Aleksandr Pankratov-Chyorny as Likhodeyev
 Valentin Smirnitsky as Sempleyarov
 Ivan Krasko as the taxi driver

Soundtrack
Igor Kornelyuk
01.  Titles  - 2:04
02.  Invisible and Free  - 4:57
03.  The Execution  - 5:20
04.  Do you like My flowers?  - 2:40
05.  Sabbath  - 6:55
06.  Waltz  - 3:48
07.  Garden of Gethsemane  - 3:31
08.  Woland's theme  - 3:40
09.  Love Leaped Out in Front of Us  - 4:47
10.  Azazello's Cream  - 1:47
11.  Even the Moon Gives Him No Peace  - 4:01
12.  The Great Ball at Satan's  - 12:02
13.  More About Love  - 6:58
14.  Maestro! Hack Out a March!  - 1:47

Total time: 61:29 min.

More screen adaptations
Charlotte Waligòra - Le maître et Marguerite - 2017 (film)
Giovanni Brancale - Il Maestro e Margherita - 2008 (film)
Vladimir Bortko - Master i Margarita - 2005 (TV series)
Ibolya Fekete - A Mester és Margarita - 2005 (film)
Sergey Desnitsky - Master i Margarita - 1996 (film)
Yuri Kara - Master i Margarita - 1994 (film)
Paul Bryers - Incident in Judea - 1991 (TV-film)
Oldřich Daněk - Pilát Pontský, onoho dne - 1991 (film)
Andras Szirtes - Forradalom Után - 1990 (film)
Aleksandr Dzekun  - Master i Margarita - 1989 (TV series)
Maciej Wojtyszko - The Master and Margarita (1988 TV series)
Vladimir Vasilyev and Boris Yermolaev - Fuete - 1986 (film)
Aleksandar Petrović - Il Maestro e Margherita - 1972 (film)
Andrzej Wajda - Pilate and Others - 1972 (TV-film)
Seppo Wallin - Pilatus - 1970 (TV-film)

To be expected
Logos Film Company - The Master and Margarita - 2018  (film)
Katariina Lillqvist - Mistr a Markétka - 2013 (animation film)
Nikolai Lebedev  - Master i Margarita - 2019 (film)

Sources

External links

 The Master and Margarita (TV miniseries) on the Master and Margarita website

Russia-1 original programming
Russian fantasy television series
2005 Russian television series debuts
2000s Russian television series
Russian television miniseries
Portrayals of Jesus on television
Television shows directed by Vladimir Bortko
Films set in the 1930s
Films set in Moscow
Television series set in the 1930s
Cultural depictions of Judas Iscariot
Cultural depictions of Pontius Pilate
Caiaphas
Russian horror fiction television series
Fox Broadcasting Company original programming
CTV Television Network original programming
Television shows based on works by Mikhail Bulgakov

The Master and Margarita (miniseries)


Tommaltach mac Indrechtaig (died 790)  was a King of Dal nAraide in Ulaid (Ulster) and possible King of all Ulaid. He was the son of Indrechtach mac Lethlobair (died 741), a previous King of Dal nAraide. He ruled from 776 to 790 and as King of all Ulaid from 789 to 790. He belonged to the main ruling dynasty of the Dal nAraide known as the Uí Chóelbad based in Mag Line, east of Antrim town in modern county Antrim.

Tommaltach made his bid for the Dal nAraide throne in 776 supported by Eochaid mac Fiachnai (died 810) of the Dal Fiatach, son of the reigning King of Ulaid. They were successful at the Battle of Drong. They were successful and the incumbent king Cináed Ciarrge mac Cathussaig and his ally, Dúngal king of the Uí Tuirtri (an Airgialla tribe west of Lough Neagh), were slain. In 783 Tommaltach had to defend his position and won the Battle of Duma Achad (Dunaughey, modern County Antrim) against his internal enemies.

Upon the death of Fiachnae mac Áedo Róin (died 789), King of Ulaid, the Dal Fiatach became involved in a civil feud and Tommaltach made himself King of Ulaid. Tommaltach however died the next year. That same year in 790, a slaughter of the Dal Fiatach by the Dál nAraidi occurred. This is listed after his death notice for that year in the annals but yearly events are not necessarily listed in chronological order. Though listed as king of Ulaid in the kinglists in the Book of Leinster he is only awarded the title King of Dal nAraide at his death notice in the Annals of Ulster.

His grandson Lethlobar mac Loingsig (died 873) was also a King of Ulaid.

Notes

References

 Annals of Ulster at  at University College Cork
 Byrne, Francis John (2001), Irish Kings and High-Kings, Dublin: Four Courts Press,
 Charles-Edwards, T. M. (2000), Early Christian Ireland, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
 Mac Niocaill, Gearoid (1972), Ireland before the Vikings, Dublin: Gill and Macmillan

External links
CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts at University College Cork

Kings of Dál nAraidi
Kings of Ulster
790 deaths
8th-century Irish monarchs
Year of birth unknown

Tommaltach mac Indrechtaig


Michael Anthony Mercer Jr. (born September 29, 1986) is an American former professional basketball player. He played college basketball for the University of Georgia and the University of South Florida.

Early life
Born in Anaheim, California, Mercer grew up in Snellville, Georgia, where he was a teammate of former NBA player Lou Williams at South Gwinnett High School and with the AAU's Georgia Stars. As a junior at South Gwinnett in 2003–04, he averaged 18.1 points per game and helped the school go 31–2 and win the AAAAA championship.

As a senior in 2004–05, Mercer averaged 19.8 points, 8.1 assists and 6.0 rebounds per game, helping South Gwinnett to a 28–3 record and the quarterfinals of the Georgia Class 5A state tournament.

College career

Georgia
As a freshman at Georgia in 2005–06, Mercer averaged 11 points and three rebounds per game and was named to the Coaches' SEC All-Freshman team. He had 17 double-digit scoring games, captured one Freshman-of-the-Week award, and ranked eighth in the SEC in steals at 1.71 per game.

As a sophomore in 2006–07, Mercer started all 23 games for Georgia before suffering a right ACL injury that forced him to miss the final 10 games of the season. He was the second leading scorer on the team at 13.6 points per game. Prior to his injury, Mercer was leading the team in scoring and minutes played and was ranked 18th in the SEC in scoring, 14th in assists (3.6), eighth in steals (1.70) and 13th in assist/turnover ratio (1.43). He earned SEC Player of the Week honors once and came within two rebounds against Jacksonville of becoming first Bulldogs player in history to achieve a triple-double.

On March 15, 2007, Mercer underwent reconstructive knee surgery to repair the torn ligament.

On October 11, 2007, Mercer was suspended by the University of Georgia for violating the school's new class attendance policy for student-athletes. His suspension cost him the first 15 games of the 2007–08 season. Mercer was later dismissed from the program on November 19, 2007 for "being a disruption," said Georgia coach Dennis Felton at the time.

South Florida
On November 27, 2007, Mercer transferred to South Florida and subsequently redshirted the 2007–08 season due to NCAA transfer regulations.

Mercer became eligible to play for South Florida in December 2008, making his debut for the Bulls on December 14 against Niagara. He competed in four games, starting two, before suffering a season-ending knee injury on December 21 against Wright State.

While out injured, Mercer again ran into trouble. On January 23, 2009, he was arrested for the second time in four months: the first being in September 2008 for public consumption of alcohol, and the second being for marijuana possession. Arrested with him was teammate Anthony Crater, who were both charged with misdemeanor possession of marijuana. Both were suspended from the team indefinitely.

It seemed his career, at Georgia and USF, would be remembered for injuries and dismissals, and for the disappointment of missed opportunities. But coach Stan Heath kept Mercer on scholarship, hoping he would stick around and earn his degree, and after Mercer graduated in August 2009 and fulfilled the legal requirements of a pretrial intervention program to get a misdemeanor drug charge dropped, Heath took a chance by allowing Mercer back on the team for the 2009–10 season. Heath's decision paid dividends, as Mercer became a key part of the Bulls' emergence in 2009–10. In February 2010, Mercer expressed how grateful he was to be part of a team making a run at the NCAA Tournament: "Coming back has been a blessing. I'm grateful that Coach Heath and the coaching staff gave me another chance, and that's why I play my heart out every game. When you have a coach that's willing to go out on a limb for you, it makes you want to work that much harder for them."

In 2009–10, Mercer played in all 33 games for the Bulls, starting 30 of them. He ranked fifth on the team with 9.2 points per game while also adding 4.5 rebounds in 28.6 minutes per contest. He also finished third on the team with 48 assists and second with 44 steals. On January 5, 2010, he had his first career double-double with 10 points and a career-high 10 rebounds against Notre Dame. During the season, he had two 19-point games, a season high.

After earning a degree in criminology, Mercer began working on a second degree in communications.

Professional career
In November 2010, Mercer joined the Halifax Rainmen as a non-contracted training camp invite. He helped the team go 3–1 over four preseason games between December 10 and 19, and made his regular season debut for the club in the season opener on January 2, 2011, scoring 14 points in a 109–99 win over the Vermont Frost Heaves. Mercer left the team on February 15 because of undisclosed family reasons. Team Owner Andre Levingston said Mercer returned to Atlanta to be with his wife and young child. His departure left a gaping hole at the Rainmen's two spot, where Mercer averaged 14.5 points per game, second on the team and 15th in the Premier Basketball League.

In November 2011, Mercer moved to Weißenhorn, Germany to play for BG Illertal of the German ProB. In 15 games for the club throughout the 2011–12 season, he averaged 16.5 points, 3.6 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.7 steals per game.

In December 2012, Mercer signed with the Geelong Supercats for the 2013 SEABL season. Mercer had a standout year with Geelong, finishing top ten in the league in points scored, assists and steals. In 29 games for the club in 2013, he averaged 20.1 points, 5.0 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game. He subsequently earned All-SEABL Team honors.

In October 2013, Mercer trialled with the Wollongong Hawks of the National Basketball League, but was ultimately unsuccessful in garnering a contract.

Mercer returned to the Geelong Supercats for the 2014 SEABL season, but a mid-season right Achilles tendon injury ended his campaign after just 15 games. He helped the Supercats go 14–1 with averages of 20.1 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game.

References

External links
 Mike Mercer at gousfbulls.com
 Mike Mercer at georgiadogs.com

1986 births
Living people
African-American basketball players
American expatriate basketball people in Australia
American expatriate basketball people in Canada
American expatriate basketball people in Germany
American men's basketball players
Basketball players from Anaheim, California
Geelong Supercats players
Georgia Bulldogs basketball players
Halifax Rainmen players
Parade High School All-Americans (boys' basketball)
Sportspeople from Snellville, Georgia
Basketball players from Gwinnett County, Georgia
Shooting guards
South Florida Bulls men's basketball players
21st-century African-American sportspeople
20th-century African-American people

Mike Mercer (basketball)


The Henderson House, also known as the Edward Peirce House, is a historic house at 99 Westcliff Road in Weston, Massachusetts.  Built in 1927–28, it is the last great summer estate house to be built in Weston, and one of about a dozen that survive.  It was built for Edward Peirce, a businessman in the wool trade.  It was for many years a conference center of Northeastern University, but is now in private ownership.  It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.

Description and history
The Henderson House stands in a residential area of southern Weston, on the west side of Westcliff Road.  It is set on a knoll from which expansive views in all directions, but particularly to the south, are possible.  It is a large -story structure, its foundation and first floor built of stone, and the upper levels finished in stone as well has half-timbered stucco in the Tudor Revival style.  The woodwork on the upper levels has elaborate decorative elements, each gable and window group receiving slightly different treatment.  A stone porte-cochere projects over the circular drive in front of the main entrance, which features a heavy wooden door.  The interior public spaces are richly decorated in woodwork, ironwork, and stone.

The house was built in 1927–28, on the site of an earlier Tudor house that burned in 1925.  It was the centerpiece of a large country estate (more than  spanning the Weston-Wellesley line) of Edward Peirce, the owner, made a fortune in the wool business.  The design was by Coolidge, Shepley, Bulfinch & Abbott, and may have reused portions of the previous estate house or its foundations.  The estate also originally had a number of outbuildings, of which two have survived in altered forms as parts of nearby houses built on the former estate.  The property passed into the hands of Roger Babson, before a nearly six-acre parcel was donated to Northeastern University by one of its trustees, Ernest Henderson.  The school used the property as part of its continuing education programs and as a conference center.  The house is the last surviving grand Tudor mansion of several that were once in Weston.  The residence was closed for event functions as of December 31, 2014.

See also
National Register of Historic Places listings in Weston, Massachusetts

References

Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Houses in Weston, Massachusetts
Northeastern University
Tudor Revival architecture in Massachusetts
Houses completed in 1928

Henderson House (Weston, Massachusetts)


Flower-Vaile House is a historic house in North Capitol Hill, Denver, Colorado. The house was designed by Balcombe and Rice and built by D. S. Gray. It was designated a Denver Landmark on October 13, 1981 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 21, 1982. Richard R. Brettel described the house in Historic Denver as a prime example of "decorative or surface style eclecticism added to the basic Queen Anne Street house — very common in Denver by the mid- to late-1880s."

It was first owned by John S. Flower, who was a real estate developer in Denver and a close friend of Mayor Robert W. Speer. The house is historically significant for its association with attorney Joel F. Vaile and his family, who were leaders in the economic and social development of the Denver area and the state of Colorado. Vaile bought the house in 1890. He was an attorney, prosecutor, and president of the Colorado Bar Association. A founding member of the law firm Wolcott, Vaile, and Waterman, Vaile was a national authority on general business, mining, and railroad law. His arguments were adopted by the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Del Monte Mining and Milling v. Last Chance Mining and Milling, 171 U.S. 55, 18 S.Ct. 895, 43 L.Ed. 72 (1898). Vaile was first married to Charlotte M. White Vaile, an author of children's books. Their son William was his law partner and a member of Congress. Their first daughter, Gertrude, became the executive secretary to the committee of the National Conference on Charities and Correction in 1916, and was elected to head the National Welfare Workers in 1925. Their second daughter, Lucretia, became president of the Colorado Librarian's Association in 1922.

Charlotte died in 1902. In 1912, he married Anna Louisa Wolcott, who established and ran the Wolcott School for Girls. One year after retiring, Joel F. Vaile died in 1916 in Pasadena, California. The house remained in the family until 1927. It was then converted into an apartment building, Traymore Apartments, until early 1981 when it underwent an renovation.

References

Buildings and structures in Denver
National Register of Historic Places in Denver
1889 establishments in the United States

Flower-Vaile House


Abraham Riker Lawrence (September 19, 1832 – February 14, 1917) was an American lawyer, judge, and historian.

Early life
Abraham was born in New York City on September 19, 1832 and was the namesake of his paternal uncle, Abraham Riker Lawrence, a merchant.  He was one of eleven children born to John L. Lawrence (1785–1849) and Sarah Augusta (née Smith) Lawrence (1794–1877). Among his siblings was Ann Middleton (née Lawrence) Suydam, who married John Richard Suydam, a merchant and "gentleman well-known in New-York society for his genial and hospitably qualities" (parents of Jane Mesier Suydam), Richard Montgomery Lawrence; and Charles William Lawrence.  His father was a New York State Senator, Comptroller of New York City and diplomat (who served as chargé d'Affaires at Stockholm during the absence of U.S. Minister to Sweden Jonathan Russell).

His paternal grandparents were Jonathan Lawrence, a merchant and New York State Senator, and Ruth (née Riker) Lawrence, a member of the Riker family, for whom Rikers Island is named.  Among his extended family were uncles, Congressmen Samuel Lawrence and William T. Lawrence, as well as William Beach Lawrence, the Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island, and Brigadier General Albert G. Lawrence.  He was also a direct descendant of Capt. James Lawrence, a hero of the War of 1812, and Maj. Thomas Lawrence of the British Army who received a land grant in what became Queens in 1656. His maternal grandparents were Elizabeth (née Woodhull) Smith (daughter of Gen. Nathaniel Woodhull) and General John Tangier Smith, a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from New York.

Lawrence was educated at private schools and then attended and graduated from Ballston Spa Law School in Ballston Spa, New York.

Career
After being admitted to the bar in 1853, he was appointed and served as Assistant Corporation Counsel of New York City from 1853 to 1856 and from 1857 to 1858. In 1859, Lawrence wrote Compilation of the Tax Laws of the State of New York, with notes of Cases.  In 1867, he was a member of the Constitutional Convention.  In 1870, he was one of the founders of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York (serving as vice-president in 1905 and 1906).

Political career
In 1870, he was a leading member of Apollo Hall, a Democratic reform movement founded by New York State Senator James O'Brien as a response to the corruption of Boss Tweed controlled Tammany Hall.

In 1872, Lawrence, then a lawyer doing business at 25 Nassau Street, was selected by both Tammany Hall (even though he had been a vocal opponent of Tammany) and the Greeleyites as the Democratic candidate for mayor of New York City against the O'Brien, the Apollo candidate, and William Frederick Havemeyer, the Republican candidate. Lawrence came in second place, losing to Havemeyer, in what became Havemeyer's third non-consecutive term as mayor.

In 1873, he was elected a justice of the Supreme Court of New York. He was reelected in 1887 and served on the bench for twenty-eight years until December 31, 1901.  After his retirement, a dinner was given in his honor at Delmonico's and hosted by John Edward Parsons, president of the Bar Association.  From 1911 until his death, he served as the official Referee of the Supreme Court.

Society life
Lawrence was a member of the Union Club, the Century Club and the Manhattan Club.  In addition to membership in the Society of Colonial Wars (serving as Chancellor in 1895) and the American Rifle Association, he served two terms as president the 25th President of the Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York from 1882 to 1883, succeeding Edward Floyd DeLancey. He previously served as fourth vice-president in 1878, second vice-president in 1879, and first vice-president from 1880 to 1881.

Personal life
In 1860, Lawrence was married to Elizabeth "Eliza" Williams Miner (1838–1915). Eliza was the only daughter of Dr. William Miner and Julia Caroline (née Williams) Miner. Together, Eliza and Abraham were the parents of:

 William Miner Lawrence (1861–1935), a member of the New York State Assembly in 1891 who married Lavinia Oliver (1869–1916).
 Ruth Woodhull Lawrence (1866–1956), who did not marry and who was a founder of the National Society of Colonial Dames in New York in 1893.

Lawrence died at his home, 69 Washington Place in New York City, on February 14, 1917. He was buried at the Lawrence Family Cemetery, on 20th Road and 35th Street, in Astoria, Queens.

Descendants
Through his son William, he was the grandfather of Oliver P. Lawrence (1892–1975), a U.S. Navy veteran, Clement Lawrence, who died young, and Ruth Lawrence (1902–1992), who married Stuart M. Briggs (son of G. Loring Briggs), in 1926.  Ruth, who graduated from Wellesley College in 1925, was one of only five non-family members to inherit from Hetty Green, through her mentorship relationship with Green's son, Edward Howland Robinson Green.

References

External links

A. R. (Abraham Riker) Lawrence, 1832-1917. at the New York Public Library.

1832 births
1917 deaths
Woodhull family
State and National Law School alumni
Lawyers from New York City
19th-century American judges
New York Supreme Court Justices
Presidents of the Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York

Abraham Riker Lawrence


The atrium (; : atria) is one of the two upper chambers in the heart that receives blood from the circulatory system. The blood in the atria is pumped into the heart ventricles through the atrioventricular mitral and tricuspid heart valves.

There are two atria in the human heart – the left atrium receives blood from the pulmonary circulation, and the right atrium receives blood from the venae cavae of the systemic circulation. During the cardiac cycle the atria receive blood while relaxed in diastole, then contract in systole to move blood to the ventricles. Each atrium is roughly cube-shaped except for an ear-shaped projection called an atrial appendage, previously known as an auricle. All animals with a closed circulatory system have at least one atrium.

The atrium was formerly called the 'auricle'. That term is still used to describe this chamber in some other animals, such as the Mollusca. Auricles in this modern terminology are distinguished by having thicker muscular walls.

Structure

Humans have a four-chambered heart consisting of the right and left atrium, and the right and left ventricle. The atria are the two upper chambers which pump blood to the two lower ventricles.

The right atrium and ventricle are often referred to together as the right heart, and the left atrium and ventricle as the left heart. As the atria do not have valves at their inlets a venous pulsation is normal, and can be detected in the jugular vein as the jugular venous pressure.
Internally, there are the rough pectinate muscles, and the crista terminalis of His, which act as a boundary inside the atrium and the smooth-walled part of the right atrium, the sinus venarum, which are derived from the sinus venosus. The sinus venarum is the adult remnant of the sinus venosus and it surrounds the openings of the venae cavae and the coronary sinus.
 Attached to each atrium is an atrial appendage.

Right atrium
The right atrium receives and holds deoxygenated blood from the superior vena cava, inferior vena cava, anterior cardiac veins, smallest cardiac veins and the coronary sinus, which it then sends down to the right ventricle through the tricuspid valve, which in turn sends it to the pulmonary artery for pulmonary circulation.

Right atrial appendage
The right atrial appendage (lat: Auricula atrii dextra) is located at the front upper surface of the right atrium. Looking from the front, the right atrial appendage appears wedge-shaped or triangular. Its base surrounds the superior vena cava. The right atrial appendage is a pouch-like extension of the right atrium and is covered by a trabecula network of pectinate muscles. The interatrial septum separates the right atrium from the left atrium; this is marked by a depression in the right atrium – the fossa ovalis. The atria are depolarised by calcium.

Left atrium
The left atrium receives the oxygenated blood from the left and right pulmonary veins, which it pumps to the left ventricle (through the mitral valve (left atrioventricular valve) for pumping out through the aorta for systemic circulation.

Left atrial appendage

High in the upper part of the left atrium is a muscular ear-shaped pouch – the left atrial appendage (lat: Auricula atrii sinistra). This appears to "function as a decompression chamber during left ventricular systole and during other periods when left atrial pressure is high". It also modulates intravascular volume by secreting natriuretic peptides, namely atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) into the coronary sinus, where they enter into the blood circulation.

The left atrial appendage can be seen on a standard posteroanterior X-ray, where the lower level of the left hilum becomes concave. It can also be seen clearly using transesophageal echocardiography. The left atrial appendage can serve as an approach for mitral valve surgery.
The body of the left atrial appendage is anterior to the left atrium and parallel to the left pulmonary veins. The left pulmonary artery passes posterosuperiorly and is separated from the atrial appendage by the transverse sinus. With certain conditions such as atrial fibrillation, the left atrial appendage may be associated with risks of stroke from blood clot formation, because of which surgeons may choose to close it during open-heart surgery, using a left atrial appendage occlusion procedure.

Conduction system

The sinoatrial node (SA node) is located in the posterior aspect of the right atrium, next to the superior vena cava. This is a group of pacemaker cells which spontaneously depolarize to create an action potential. The cardiac action potential then spreads across both atria causing them to contract, forcing the blood they hold into their corresponding ventricles.

The atrioventricular node (AV node) is another node in the cardiac conduction system. This is located between the atria and the ventricles.

Blood supply
The left atrium is supplied mainly by the left circumflex coronary artery, and its small branches.

The oblique vein of the left atrium is partly responsible for venous drainage; it derives from the embryonic left superior vena cava.

Development
During embryogenesis at about two weeks, a primitive atrium begins to be formed as one chamber, which over the following two weeks becomes divided by the septum primum into the left atrium and the right atrium. The interatrial septum has an opening in the right atrium, the foramen ovale, which provides access to the left atrium; this connects the two chambers, which is essential for fetal blood circulation. At birth, when the first breath is taken fetal blood flow is reversed to travel through the lungs. The foramen ovale is no longer needed and it closes to leave a depression (the fossa ovalis) in the atrial wall.

In some cases, the foramen ovale fails to close. This abnormality is present in approximately 25% of the general population. This is known as a patent foramen ovale, an atrial septal defect. It is mostly unproblematic, although it can be associated with paradoxical embolization and stroke.

Within the fetal right atrium, blood from the inferior vena cava and the superior vena cava flow in separate streams to different locations in the heart; this has been reported to occur through the Coandă effect.

Function
In human physiology, the atria facilitate circulation primarily by allowing uninterrupted venous flow to the heart during ventricular systole. By being partially empty and distensible, atria prevent the interruption of venous flow to the heart that would occur during ventricular systole if the veins ended at the inlet valves of the heart.  In normal physiologic states, the output of the heart is pulsatile, and the venous inflow to the heart is continuous and non-pulsatile.  But without functioning atria, venous flow becomes pulsatile, and the overall circulation rate decreases significantly.

Atria have four essential characteristics that cause them to promote continuous venous flow. (1) There are no atrial inlet valves to interrupt blood flow during atrial systole. (2) The atrial systole contractions are incomplete and thus do not contract to the extent that would block flow from the veins through the atria into the ventricles. During atrial systole, blood not only empties from the atria to the ventricles, but blood continues to flow uninterrupted from the veins right through the atria into the ventricles. (3) The atrial contractions must be gentle enough so that the force of contraction does not exert significant back pressure that would impede venous flow. (4) The "let go" of the atria must be timed so that they relax before the start of ventricular contraction, to be able to accept venous flow without interruption.

By preventing the inertia of interrupted venous flow that would otherwise occur at each ventricular systole, atria allow approximately 75% more cardiac output than would otherwise occur. The fact that atrial contraction is 15% of the amount of the succeeding ventricular ejection has led to a misplaced emphasis on their role in pumping up the ventricles (the so-called "atrial kick"), whereas the key benefit of atria is in preventing circulatory inertia and allowing uninterrupted venous flow to the heart.

Also of importance in maintaining the blood flow are the presence of atrial volume receptors. These are low-pressure baroreceptors in the atria, which send signals to the hypothalamus when a drop in atrial pressure (which indicates a drop in blood volume) is detected. This triggers a release of vasopressin.

Disorders

Atrial septal defect
In an adult, an atrial septal defect results in the flow of blood in the reverse direction – from the left atrium to the right – which reduces cardiac output, potentially causing cardiac failure, and in severe or untreated cases cardiac arrest and sudden death.

Left atrial appendage thrombosis

In patients with atrial fibrillation, mitral valve disease, and other conditions, blood clots have a tendency to form in the left atrial appendage. The clots may dislodge (forming emboli), which may lead to ischemic damage to the brain, kidneys, or other organs supplied by the systemic circulation.

In those with uncontrollable atrial fibrillation, left atrial appendage occlusion may be performed at the time of any open-heart surgery to prevent future clot formation within the appendage.

Functional abnormalities
 Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome
 Atrial flutter
 Atrial tachycardia
 Sinus tachycardia
 Multifocal atrial tachycardia – several types
 Premature atrial contraction

Other animals

Many other animals, including mammals, also have four-chambered hearts, which have a similar function. Some animals (amphibians and reptiles) have a three-chambered heart, in which the blood from each atrium is mixed in the single ventricle before being pumped to the aorta. In these animals, the left atrium still serves the purpose of collecting blood from the pulmonary veins.

In most fish, the circulatory system is very simple: a two-chambered heart including one atrium and one ventricle. Among sharks, the heart consists of four parts arranged serially: blood flows into the most posterior part, the sinus venosus, and then to the atrium which moves it to the third part, the ventricle, before it reaches the conus anteriosus, which itself is connected to the ventral aorta.  This is considered a primitive arrangement, and many vertebrates have condensed the atrium with the sinus venosus and the ventricle with the conus anteriosus.

With the advent of lungs came a partitioning of the atrium into two parts divided by a septum.  Among frogs, the oxygenated and deoxygenated blood is mixed in the ventricle before being pumped out to the body's organs; in turtles, the ventricle is almost entirely divided by a septum, but retains an opening through which some mixing of blood occurs.  In birds, mammals, and some other reptiles (alligators in particular) the partitioning of both chambers is complete.

See also

 Atrial syncytium
 Left atrial volume

References

External links

Cardiac anatomy

de:Herz#Räume und Gefäße

Atrium (heart)


The X-Coupe was a concept crossover coupe designed by Chris Bangle for BMW, debuting at the 2001 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Based upon the BMW X5 chassis, the X-Coupe featured an aluminium body and a 3.0 litre turbo-diesel engine.  Unlike the BMW X5, the X-Coupe had an aluminium body, a trunk opening downwards and two doors that swing outward.

References

X-Coupe
Cars introduced in 2001

BMW X-Coupe


The Kith are a starfaring culture featured in a number of science fiction stories by American writer Poul Anderson. They are:

"Ghetto" (1954)
"The Horn of Time the Hunter" (also known as "Homo Aquaticus", 1963)
The novel Starfarers (1998) - John W. Campbell Memorial Award nominee, 1999

The Kith develop out of early interstellar explorers in the 21st and 22nd centuries. Because of the effects of time dilation associated with travel at near-light speeds, the Kith maintain separate settlements ("Kithtowns") in which care was taken to keep their language and culture consistent over the course of millennia. As Kith usually marry among themselves, they seek to avoid in-breeding by a strict exogamy; Kith must find their mates in a ship other their own, marriage between crew members of the same ship being considered a kind of incest.

Inevitably, Kith come to regard planet-bound cultures with aloof detachment, as an individual Kith may witness in his or her lifetime the passage of hundreds of years, the rise and fall of empires which can only seem ephemeral. To the ground-dwellers such attitudes come to seem superior and arrogant, and the Kith's apparent near-immortality arouses envy. Although the Kith are instrumental in maintaining the network of trade that makes human interstellar civilization possible, over time they become the object of derision, suspicion and ultimately persecution.

As set forth in Starfarers and "Ghetto", the Kithtowns ultimately become ghettos, and pogroms are launched against the Kith. "The Horn of Time the Hunter" suggests that the Kith are ultimately forced to flee human space altogether, and chronicles the return of one group of Kith to human space after hundreds of thousands of years' relativistic travel to the Galactic core.

References

External links

Works by Poul Anderson
Fictional human races
Special relativity

Kith (Poul Anderson)


Járnsíða (, ironside) was a law-code which Magnus VI of Norway had composed for Iceland, which came formally under Norwegian control during 1262–1264. Járnsíða was introduced over 1271–1273, superseding the previous law-code Grágás. Amongst other things, Járnsíða formally put all legislative powers in the hands of the King, abolished the goðar, and reformed the Alþingi. In 1281, Járnsíða was itself superseded by Jónsbók.

See also
Law of Iceland

References
Haraldur Bernharðsson, Magnús Lyngdal Magnússon and Már Jónsson, Járnsíða og kristinréttur Árna Þorlákssonar (Reykjavík: Sögufélagið, 2005).

Legal history of Iceland

Járnsíða


Priority Records is a United States-based record label, owned and operated by EMI, and has made a name for itself primarily in hip hop music. Priority has also provided distribution for other labels such as Ruthless Records, Death Row Records, No Limit Records, and Roc-A-Fella Records.

Company history

Beginnings
The Los Angeles-based company was formed in 1985 by three former K-tel executives: Bryan Turner, Mark Cerami and Steve Drath. Seed funding was provided by R-tek, a company headed by former K-tel board members: Ray and Harold Kives, and their company acquired an initial 50% stake in Priority. Priority bought out R-tek's interest in 1987.

To support early operations, Priority licensed others' repertoire and released compilation albums, but soon began developing its own roster of major artists. Priority was able to achieve unparalleled success as an independent label by developing an underground "street-based" marketing formula that set precedents and bypassed mainstream radio. His unique approach allowed Priority to sell millions of records without getting into the fiercely competitive battles of the major record labels for airplay. Priority's strategic marketing team was developed by Vice President Alyssa Pisano, who led Priority's Marketing and Creative Services Department from 1987 to 1996. Priority's roster featured numerous gold, platinum, and multi-platinum artists, including N.W.A, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Master P, Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z, Mack 10, Westside Connection, Eazy-E and Ice T.

EMI acquisition
In the early 1990s, the label entered into a distribution deal with EMI, while continuing to operate independently. EMI bought a 50% stake in Priority in 1996 and the remainder in 1998. Despite EMI's full ownership, Priority remained an independently managed company until 2001, when its operations were merged with EMI's main US subsidiary, Capitol Records. Priority was absorbed into Capitol Records in 2004 and ceased operations.

Revival
In late 2006, EMI revived Priority Records. The first act signed to the newly reorganized company is C-Murder (who, in the mid-late 1990s, recorded for the label through No Limit Records.)

American record labels
1985 establishments in the United States

Priority Records