Eddy Fortes, better known by his stage name Eddy Fort Moda Grog, or Eddy (FMG) (born 4 June 1950) is a Rotterdam-based Cape-Verdean rapper, who became popular in Cape Verde the 90s, thus becoming one of the pioneers of the rap and hip hop in Cape Verdean music. His greatest success was his song "Materialista" (Portuguese for materialist), which samples LL Cool J's "Loungin (Who Do you Luv Remix)".

Biography
Eddy Fortes was born in Mindelo, capital of the island of São Vicente.

His first album was CouNtDown released as a cassette (popular at the time) in 1994.

In 1995 he came in contact with friend and rapper Nouba. They began to exchange ideas, and they found that they had much in common. That same year the group Cabo Funk Alliance was formed (with Eddy, Alee, Aureon, Jay B & Angel and Nouba), they released Cabo Alliance in 1995 and not long after Hoje è quel dia.  The first album were mainly in English, later songs were sung in Dutch and Capeverdean Creole. This group was seen as the first controversial Cape Verdean rap group. During that same period, there were also other rap and RnB groups in the Cape Verdean scene, such as Tha Real Vibe, Quatro, and others.

Also in 1995 came the first (and only) album of Cabo Funk Alliance, Hoje ê Kel Dia. It brought a lot of fuss for breaking the "barrier" of traditional music.

Eddy also published 2 solo albums apart from Hoje ê Kel Dia.

After leaving the Cabo Funk Alliance
Eddy left the top of Cape-Verdean rap/hip-hop after a few years of success, being replaced by artists and groups such as Black Side and others, but he kept rapping and producing songs.

He made a guest appearance in 2005 album "Criol na Coraçao" by the Luxembourg-based cape verdean rapper Kodé

On June 23, 2007 he participated  with Yes-R in the Delfshaven Festival, in the Netherlands.

He made another guest appearance in the album  Fidju Di Kriolu (2011), made by  La Mc Malcriado.

References

External links

 Cabo Hip Hop

1950 births
Living people
People from Mindelo
Singers from São Vicente, Cape Verde
Dutch rappers
Dutch people of Cape Verdean descent
Cape Verdean musicians

Eddy Fort Moda Grog


Mayfair Gardens () is the first private housing estate on Tsing Yi, Hong Kong. It was built by Sun Hung Kai Properties and established between 1982 and 1984. The estate is composed of eight residential buildings, namely Blocks 5 to 12.

Estate information
 Number of blocks: 8
 The phase that each block belongs to:
 Phase I: Block 6, Block 8, Block 10, Block 11, Block 12
 Phase II: Block 5, Block 7, Block 9
 Occupation Date:
 Phase I: 1982
 Phase II: 1984
 The total number of flat:1,912
The original plan of the estate includes block 1-4, however the location of those blocks is too close to the oil depot, so block 1-4 are not built.

The original location for block 1-4 becomes the location of the park now, and the original location of the oil depot becomes the location of Rambler Crest today.

Location
The estate was built on the site of Sai Shan Village. To the east of the estate is Cheung Ching Estate and to the west IVE (Tsing Yi). The estate is surrounded by Sai Shan and Tsing Yi Peak to the north and west.

Facilities
Mayfair Garden has facilities including private clubs, swimming pool, park, car park, playground, basketball court, tennis court, etc. There is also a small shopping mall.

The total area of the shopping mall is 69,490 square feet. The shops including 7-Eleven, Fairwood, 759 Store, Wellcome and restaurants providing different nations' cuisine.

Withdrawal of development of Block 1, 2 and 3
Twelve blocks were originally proposed for the site. During the 1980s, there was a growing concern about the environmental safety of Tsing Yi Island. The proximity of Mobil oil depot to Mayfair Gardens triggered the protest of the islanders. The residents demanded a relocation of the depot to a more distant area. The depot remained unmoved, but the planned development of Blocks 1, 2 and 3, together with a bus terminus and a cinema, were forced to be withdrawn.

Although the results of the protests were not what the campaigners desired at the time, this was one of the main examples of a civil protest movement in Hong Kong in the mid-1980s. Actions against the government were organised by residents and social workers. The movement encouraged greater participation in newly devised District Board and resulted in more public involvement in policy formulation.

The area originally intended for Blocks 1-3 is now a basketball court, a tennis court and a playground, so the estate is open to Victoria Harbour despite the existence of the newly built Container Terminal 9 and Rambler Crest which partially blocks the sea view. The oil depot has since been relocated to the west shore of the island, separated from the residential population by the geographic barrier of Tsing Yi Peak.

Access
Following the partial withdrawal of the development, Sai Shan Road is the only road access to the housing estate. Its bus terminus is installed at the road. Most residents on the other hand use the footbridge entrance at Ching Hong Road.

Anecdote
There was an incident that a 12-year-old girl committed suicide because of the academic problem in 2008, therefore some people think that the estate is haunted.

References

Residential buildings completed in 1982
Residential buildings completed in 1984
Sun Hung Kai Properties
Tsing Yi
Private housing estates in Hong Kong
1982 establishments in Hong Kong

Mayfair Gardens


Lowell's Boat Shop (Hiram Lowell & Sons) is a National Historic Landmark at 459 Main Street in Amesbury, Massachusetts.

The shop was built in 1793 by Simeon Lowell. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

Located on the banks of the Merrimack River, Lowell's Boat Shop is considered to be the birthplace of the legendary New England fishing dory, originated by Simeon Lowell. His grandson, Hiram, further developed the dory into the simplified Banks dory design that became a mainstay of New England's fishing fleets.  An historian remarked, "A Lowell's dory to a fisherman was like a hammer to a carpenter". Hiram also created a seminal form of assembly line production that made Lowell's the world's preeminent dory manufacturer of its day. It is said to have greatly influenced Henry Ford's mass production processes. Within the boat shop's buildings remain such interesting historic features as ancient ship's knees, heavily worn floorboards and two centuries of accumulated paint coat the floors. The oldest buildings remaining on the site are combined Greek Revival structures that were built in the 1860s.  A cross-beam features annual production figures, branded into the wood from 1897 through 1919, reveal that 2,029 boats were built here, by hand, in the single year of 1911.  Lowell's Boat Shop is also a rare survivor of the many various industries for which the Merrimack River Valley region was known.

By the early 1990s, it was decided that the boat shop had to function as a charitable institution to insure its continued operation. To facilitate this transition, The Trust for Public Land helped form the Lowell's Boat Shop Trust and purchased the property. In 1994, the Trust for Public Land granted a preservation easement over the property to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The Newburyport Maritime assumed ownership of the shop in 1994.

Today, Lowell's Boat Shop is a working boat shop and living museum.  The shop continues to build dories and skiffs in the tradition of the seven generations of the Lowell family.  Its rich history is conveyed through boat building classes, model dory classes, apprenticeships, onsite programs for scouts, local schools and at-risk youth.  Because the cost of building wooden boats provides little profit margin, Lowell's Maritime Foundation continues to find creative ways to augment income. Volunteers, mentored by the boat builders, manage the onsite production of a variety of wood based products that are made from wood that might otherwise be considered scrap. Lowell's Boat Shop actively encourages boat building, tourism and maritime fine arts with affiliations with a variety of government agencies and non-profit organizations. During the boating season, members are able to row Lowell's line of dories and skiffs as a part of the Members Open Waterfront Program. The Boat Shop is fully accessible to the handicapped and guided tours are offered by appointment.

In 2012, Lowell's Boat Shop was chosen to participate in an historic project for America's last extant whale ship, the Charles W. Morgan. A group of local high school apprentices have assisted in the construction of an historically accurate Beetle-design whaleboat replica, which will accompany the Charles W. Morgan when her restoration is complete.

See also
List of the oldest buildings in Massachusetts
List of National Historic Landmarks in Massachusetts
National Register of Historic Places listings in Essex County, Massachusetts

References

External links

Industrial buildings completed in 1793
National Historic Landmarks in Massachusetts
Historic American Engineering Record in Massachusetts
Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
Merrimack River
Buildings and structures in Essex County, Massachusetts
Tourist attractions in Essex County, Massachusetts
National Register of Historic Places in Essex County, Massachusetts
1793 establishments in Massachusetts

Lowell's Boat Shop


Van der Hoop Bankiers N.V. is a Dutch bank founded in 1895 currently in state of bankruptcy and put under supervision of court-ordered curators.

History prior to 2005
The bank was founded by Cornelis van der Hoop in Rotterdam in 1895, with several branches including in The Hague. Its headquarters moved to Amsterdam some time later, at the " Gouden Bocht " at Herengracht 469 in Amsterdam. Until 2003 the bank's name was van der Hoop Effektenbank NV and it was a relatively small, specialized bank whose account holders were mainly wealthy individuals who had often been clients there for a long time. The bank was completely dependent on the securities company for its income. The new name was part of developments to offer banking services for mortgages, savings and asset management to additional, less wealthy, customers. This development was not very successful. Among other things, an attempt was made to provide film financing. At the end of 2004, Van der Hoop Bankiers' balance sheet total was 403.6 million euros, and the bank had approximately 100 million euros in assets. The mortgage portfolio amounted to approximately 150 million euros.

Events and bankruptcy in 2006

On 9 December 2005 the bank was found by a Dutch court to be in a financial position that required attention. Its liquidity position was found to consist of €140 million in demands, while its credit facilities consisted of only €68 million. Also, the Netherlands central bank was concerned about whether the bank was solvent. Van der Hoop Bankiers was declared bankrupt by the same court on 16 December 2005, when the bank showed it had a negative balance of €9 million.

Earlier in 2005, the bank had settled a claim of €5.5 million with the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration (Belastingdienst) for not paying some of the corporation taxes on its daughter companies. This dated back to 2001. The bank had set up so-called cash companies with the objective of raising more income.  Such companies were considered risky. Unusually, this activity was carried out entirely in the bank's own name (through its own trust company). A bank usually only mediates in such shares and they are not held in its own name, but, after taking tax advice, the bank took the unusual course of conducting this activity entirely in its own name (through its own trust company). As a result, the profit for 2004 had to be adjusted retrospectively to a loss.

On 8 June 2005, Van der Hoop's management informed the account holders by letter of the loss and announced a restructuring. A press release was also issued at the time. At the end of June 2005, it was announced that one-third of the 75 jobs at the bank would be cut, which attracted media attention. Takeover and merger discussions - including with project developer LSI and the Belgian Bank DeGroof - came to nothing. At the request of the Netherlands central bank, emergency regulations were applied on 9 December, freezing all bank accounts, after which bankruptcy was declared on 16 December. Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck and HP de Haan were appointed as the two administrators and receivers. On 23 December 2005 they sent a letter to the account holders about the assets. Securities that were not in the name of the bank might still be available. The distribution lists, bankruptcy reports and other legally relevant documents are still available on the website of the law firm Houthoff of the former trustee.

The Hope Loss Foundation was established on 13 February 2006 as an advocate for the account holders after the bankruptcy. The board of this foundation consisted of 4 account holders at the bank and meetings were held in 2006. In the end, a lawsuit was brought by the account holders about whether DNB could recover the amounts that it was required to pay out to private account holders and small businesses under the Deposit Guarantee Scheme from the bankruptcy estate. In fact, DNB had made a mistake on this point during a creditors' meeting. The account holders group won the lawsuit; a substantive procedure was never initiated by DNB.

Under the Deposit Guarantee Scheme (depositogarantiestelsel) of the Netherlands central bank, account holders were eligible for compensation up to a maximum of €20,000, and in fact received twice this protection from the scheme.

Ultimately, all private savers and account holders were fully repaid their credit from the proceeds of the bankruptcy estate. However, the bank's shareholders lost their deposits permanently.

References

Sources
 This article is based entirely or partially on its equivalent on Dutch Wikipedia.

Hoop Bankiers, Van der
Banks based in Amsterdam
Banks established in 1895
Banks disestablished in 2005
Dutch companies established in 1895
2005 disestablishments in the Netherlands

Van der Hoop Bankiers


The Uelzen–Langwedel railway runs through the Lüneburg Heath in north Germany in an east-west direction. The line became known as part of the so-called America Line.

History

Imperial era
The Bremen State Railway, as it was first called, was originally built by the Bremen Senate and opened in 1873. It runs from Lower Saxon Langwedel eastwards through the Lüneburg Heath to Uelzen. The line was renowned as part of the so-called America Line. In Langwedel it formed a junction with the line to Wunstorf, that was owned 50/50 by Bremen and Hanover and operated by the Royal Hanoverian State Railways. Profits on the Langwedel–Uelzen section were initially split in a 2:1 ratio between the Magdeburg-Halberstadt Railway Company (MHE) and Bremen, until operations were taken over by Prussia. At the start of the 20th century the line entered the spotlight as the shortest link between Berlin and the naval base at Wilhelmshaven, which is why several barracks and military training areas were established at Munster (Örtze) and the line doubled in 1907.

1918 to 1945
Between the wars several express trains ran between Berlin and Wilhelmshaven or Norddeich over this line. In the Second World War the stations were repeatedly the targets of air raids. At the end of the 1930s there was a collision between a bus and Adolf Hitler's train at the level crossing near Walle which resulted in several fatalities. Today the level crossing has gone; in its place is an overbridge for the B 215. The so-called Führerzug ("Führer's train") continued on its way after a short stop at Kirchlinteln. In February 1945 a refugee train was destroyed during an air raid near the villages of Scharnhorst and Walle resulting in a high death toll. Towards the end the line was the scene of heavy fighting between retreating Wehrmacht troops and the advancing British Army.

Post-war period
After the Second World War the line through the Lüneburg Heath was reduced in stages to a single-track branch line by 1987 and several halts and stations were closed to passenger services. In addition many of the goods facilities were closed. In 1987 most of the manually operated level crossings were replaced by automatic barriers.

Situation today

Physical condition
Even after the fall of the Berlin Wall the non-electrified line was of little importance within the Deutsche Bahn network and has had very little in the way of modernisation measures. As a result, between Langwedel and Uelzen there are many features of interest to railway fans such as old signal box installations, telegraph poles, semaphore signals and station buildings.

Renovation work
In early 2009 renovations to the permanent way were carried out between Langwedel and Soltau, something that had been repeatedly delayed since the 1990s. The Federal Railway Office (EBA) had set Deutsche Bahn a deadline after when it threatened to ban operations between Langwedel and Soltau. Consequently, train services in the 2008/2009 winter timetable were interrupted due to major work on the line and in Visselhövede station. These measures secured the continued existence of the line.

Passenger services
Up to December 2008 passenger services consisted of Regionalbahn trains run by DB Regio as part of the Uelzen-Bremen route, not all of which were operated to a fixed-interval system. Following the changeover of timetables in December 2008, RegionalBahn trains now only run between Uelzen and Langwedel; passengers have to change for Bremen. This service is justified on the grounds that a lot of construction work is taking place. The occasional trains between Brunswick and Bremen that ran over the Brunswick–Uelzen railway and Langwedel before December 2008 have also been dropped from the timetable.

The Osthannoversche Eisenbahnen AG (OHE) won the tender for the Heidekreuz (cross heath) services (Bremen–Uelzen and Buchholz–Hanover). The newly founded subsidiary Erixx took over operations from the timetable change in December 2011 for eight years. Except for a few exceptions during peak hours, services run on a two-hour cycle. There are no longer any commuter or school trains on the America Line, so the majority of travellers are occasional passengers.

Goods traffic
The low level of goods traffic, which comprises wood trains, transfers to the Visselhövede mineral oil dealer and container trains, is operated by the East Hanoverian Railways. From time to time vehicles from the Middle Weser Railway run on the line.

Future
The railway is seriously threatened with closure, mainly due to the lack of passenger numbers. Nevertheless, there are regular discussions about electrifying and upgrading the line for goods traffic, especially as a junction to the JadeWeserPort container port at Wilhelmshaven. In a 2004 federal railway upgrade law it was described as of "urgent necessity". In Kirchlinteln there are efforts being made to have a halt built for passengers. The demand is for a more central facility unlike the former station. In Visselhövede there are plans to close the present station and build another one further east nearer the town centre. There is also an intent to double the line between Tadel (between the old stations of Jeddingen and Bendingbostel) and Langwedel as part of the new wye section (Y-Trasse) on the Hanover–Bremen route for the high speed trains; but construction has been delayed several times and its future is uncertain.

Rolling stock

Locomotives of DRG classes 03 and 50 used to be a common sight on the line. These were  mainly stationed in Uelzen. The line was one of the longest in West Germany to be regularly worked by steam engines. In addition, immediately after the war Wittfelder accumulator cars could be seen on the line as well as steam-hauled trains. The Wittfelders were later replaced by Class 798 Uerdingen railbuses and prototype units of Class 628.0. In the 1980s and 1990s DB Class 216s, 624s, 218s and even  occasional 212s were used in charge of Eilzug trains. Local passenger trains no longer run any more. In 2008 diesel multiple units of classes 628.2 and 628.4 were introduced. Until the timetable change in December 2008 DB Class 614 units were used. On 10 December 2005 the DB Class 634s were withdrawn. InterCity trains between Munster and Uelzen are headed by 218s.

The wood and container trains are occasionally hauled by ADtranz DE-AC33C diesel locomotives with their Red Tiger livery, with locomotives of classes MaK G 1202 BB, MaK G 1204 BB or MaK G 1205 BB in charge of smaller transfer trains operated by the OHE.

See also
 List of scheduled railway routes in Germany
 Bremen State Railway

References

External links

 More on the Uelzen–Langwedel line (pdf file, 414 KB)
 Discussion on the Uelzen–Ebstorf section
 1944 timetable, including express services

Railway lines in Lower Saxony
Buildings and structures in Verden (district)
Rotenburg (district)
Buildings and structures in Heidekreis
Uelzen (district)
Soltau
Railway lines opened in 1873
1873 establishments in Germany

Uelzen–Langwedel railway


Skytech Helicopters is a Belgian helicopter company operating heavy-lift helicopters in different countries. The company is known for pioneering commercial operation of the Mil MI 26T in Western Europe from 1992.

History

Skytech SA was founded in Belgium in November 1989 by helicopter pilots Thierry Lakhanisky and Lucienne De Dryver.

First external load works were carried on with a single MD 500 helicopter; this light lifter was soon joined by a Mil MI 10K Harke-B under long term lease from the Aeroflot regional branch of the Republic of Komi. This MI 10K was used as a flying crane on various projects all over Europe, including building ski lifts up to 3,500 m on the Monte Rosa in the Alps.

The Belgian company introduced the first Mil MI 26T  in South America in 1994 and in the same year set up partnerships with Nepal Airways to operate five Mil MI 17 helicopters in Nepal, and in Papua Niugini with Heli Niugini to operate a couple of Kamov 32 helicopters to support oil explorations with Barracuda Oil and Chevron Oil.

Since 2006, the family-owned company was largely involved in humanitarian support in Asia and signed a cooperation agreement with the Emercom, the Russian Ministry of Civil Protection to establish an alert base in Brussels South Charleroi Airport but the project was moved to north of France.

Heavy firefighting

Rostvertol, the MI 26T's manufacturer, teamed with Skytech in 1994 to produce a powerful fire fighting system for the world largest helicopters; the system, called Twin Bambi Buckets, was able to deliver 20.000 liters per drop and was manufactured in Canada by SEI.

The TBB was first operated commercially by Samsung Aerospace of South Korea under contract with Skytech SA in 1998, and on several governmental contracts in Turkey and Italy; in 2000 Skytech supplied at least three MI 26T for the Italian Civil Protection, operated as "state aircraft" for the firefighting season.

Fleet
The fleet size is variable: the company has operated Ka 32T, KA 32S, MI 26T, MI 10K, MI 8MTV, MI 8AMT, MI 171, B 206, MD 500. At least three MI 26T were at one time based in Belgium but are no more active. Several MI 17 bearing Skytech titles were spotted in Yemen and Bosnia from 2000. The company is known to operate on undisclosed governmental programs.

Media

The company's helicopters appeared in several films:

 "Operation Okavango" - Nicolas Hulot
 "Ushuaia" - Nicolas Hulot
 "Massive Machines" - Chris Barrie
 "Greatest Ever" Discovery Channel

See also

Russian Helicopters JSC

External links
  Skytech helicopters.

References

 http://www.airspacemag.com/flight-today/milman.html
 http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2006/06/20/207270/russian-ministry-and-skytech-to-offer-international.html
 http://www.answers.com/topic/rostvertol-plc
 http://www.sonnet.com/usr/wildfire/mi26t.html
 https://web.archive.org/web/20110715204141/http://www.rotorandwing-digital.com/rotorandwing/200605/?pg=54
 http://www.airliners.net/photo/Skytech-Helicopters/Mil-Mi-8MTV/0557227/&sid=1b0892100fec07b0c0c6e994402fb00f
 http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2005/09/20/201567/heavy-horses.html

Aerospace companies
Companies based in Brussels

Skytech


S.H.I.E.L.D. is a fictional espionage, law enforcement, and counterterrorism agency of the federal government of the United States. They appeared in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. It was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in Strange Tales #135 (Aug. 1965).

Missions
It often deals with superhuman threats to international security.

Etymology
The acronym was for Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage and Law-Enforcement Division. It was changed in 1991 to Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate. Within the various movies set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as well as many animated and live-action television series, the backronym stands for Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division.

In media
The organization has appeared in media adaptations as well as movies and shows that take place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Marvel Comics

S.H.I.E.L.D.


Alan of Beccles ( – 1240) was official secretary to Bishops Pandulf and Thomas de Blundeville of Norwich between the years 1217 and 1236. He became archdeacon of Sudbury in 1225. After this he was at Paris, as he is mentioned as one of the English of note who left the University of Paris in 1229 on the dispersion of the students in consequence of the riots between them and the citizens. In 1239 he was appointed one of the arbitrators between Bishop Grosseteste and his chapter on the question of visitation. In 1240 he is mentioned as giving way to the demands of the legate Otho for money, in spite of his previous firmness, as Otho succeeded by dividing his opponents. He died suddenly in 1240, and Matthew Paris, while acknowledging his eminence in literature, regards his death as a judgment for the injuries his conduct had caused to St. Albans.

References

University of Paris alumni
1190s births
Year of birth uncertain
1240 deaths
13th-century English clergy
English expatriates in France

Alan of Beccles


The contemporary economics of culture most often takes as its starting point Baumol and Bowen's seminal work on the performing arts, which argues that reflection on the arts has been part of the history of economic thought since the birth of modern economics in the seventeenth century.

Until then, the arts had an ambivalent image. They were morally condemned as expensive activities that offered little benefit to society and were associated with the sins of pride and laziness. If they had any merit, it was in their educational value, or in their ability to prevent the rich from wasting their resources on even more harmful activities.

In the eighteenth century, Hume and Turgot helped to give a more positive image to cultural activities, presenting them as useful incentives for enrichment, and therefore for economic growth. For his part, Adam Smith highlighted the particularities of the supply and demand of cultural goods, which were to form part of the basis of the cultural economics research program.

Nineteenth-century economics sought to express general laws in the same way as the exact sciences. As a result, neither the authors of classical political economy nor the marginalists paid much attention to the specific features of the economics of culture in their research programs, even though several of them (Alfred Marshall, William Stanley Jevons) were individually sensitive to questions about the role of the arts in an industrialized economy. Reflection on the economic role of the arts and the economic conditions of their production thus came from intellectuals who integrated economic dimensions into an essentially political or aesthetic approach (Matthew Arnold, John Ruskin, and William Morris).

From the mid-twentieth century onwards, important figures such as Galbraith began to take an interest in these questions, but he failed to generate interest among both artists and his fellow economists. Similarly, although Keynes had a decisive influence on the actions of the Bloomsbury Group, which led to the United Kingdom setting up an institutional structure to support the arts (the British Arts Council), he did not directly devote any personal research work to the subject.

It was during the 1960s that the economics of culture emerged as a close disciplinary field, under the impetus of the work of Baumol and Bowen as well as work emanating from the analysis of addictive goods (Gary Becker) and the theory of public choice. Initially conceived as a crossroads between several disciplines, cultural economics has had a specialized journal since 1977, and achieved full academic recognition in 1993 with the publication of a literature review in the Journal of Economic Literature and two reference manuals.

Cultural economics
Cultural economics is the branch of economics that studies the relation of culture to economic outcomes. Here, 'culture' is defined by shared beliefs and preferences of respective groups. Programmatic issues include whether and how much culture matters as to economic outcomes and what its relation is to institutions. As a growing field in behavioral economics, the role of culture in economic behavior is increasingly being demonstrated to cause significant differentials in decision-making and the management and valuation of assets.

Before the 18th century

The economy prior to the eighteenth century was essentially a subsistence economy, which was also very much subject to the vagaries of geopolitics, which meant that attention was focused on ways of allocating resources to activities that produced food or strengthened the means of defence. As a result, cultural activities that detracted from production, defence or religion were generally viewed with suspicion, except by mercantilists, who saw them as a way of improving the trade balance. Cultural activities were seen as deeply linked to the passions, and as an expression of vices such as jealousy, envy, pride and lust, they were seen as something to be fought. So when Jean Bodin ranked city dwellers in order of social merit in 1576, he placed artists at the bottom. Even Bernard Mandeville, for whom the organisation of selfish passions is the driving force behind economic growth, only advises indulging in the arts as a means of avoiding other, more costly extravagances.

However, both of these authors were interested in the problem of determining the price of works of art. For Bodin, the value of works of art or luxury items was essentially determined by demand, which in turn was linked to trends. Anticipating Veblen, he highlighted the conspicuous consumption dimension of the artistic demand of his time: it was all about flaunting one's wealth.

Mandeville, for his part, also noted that an artist's reputation and the social position of his buyers had a major influence on the value placed on his work. To these determinants, he adds rarity, but also the conformity of the work to its model. In this, he agrees with Jean Bodin and Ferdinando Galiani that the fundamental value of art lies in its ability to highlight and exalt the true nature of its model and to educate viewers about virtue through its power to represent elevated feelings.

The 18th century: imitation and imagination

Hume and Turgot: towards a rehabilitation of the arts
In the context of the Age of Enlightenment, David Hume clearly distinguished between art, luxury, and vice. Noting that historically, periods of greater artistic vitality were also periods of economic growth, political freedom, and virtue, he put forward the idea that luxury provided a powerful incentive for economic activity that benefited everyone. Indeed, Hume argued, "innocent luxury" sharpens the capacities of the mind and provides an incentive to work in order to acquire it, thus avoiding idleness. What's more, he adds, the consumption of luxury goods produces positive externalities for society as a whole. In economic terms, it sustains an activity that, if necessary, can be quickly converted to suit the needs of the moment. In political terms, he joins his predecessors in the idea that art nurtures civic virtues.

In the same vein, Turgot links inequalities in development between nations to differences in the way the arts and sciences are treated, thus anticipating the notion of human capital. Using ancient Greece as an example, he noted that the development of the arts preceded that of the sciences. He established a link between spontaneous expressions of joy and dance, which in turn led to music, whose regularities encouraged the development of mathematics, and between poetry and the enrichment of language, which in turn led to philosophy.

Like Hume, Turgot insisted on the necessity, both in art and in the rest of the economy, of competition between artists by means of a large market, which implies a large demand for second-rate works of art, from which masterpieces and great artists can emerge. He bases this idea on the difference between the situation in Italy, France, and Flanders and the one in England, where the Reformation paralyzed the English art market, which was based on ecclesiastical demand, without a wealthy merchant bourgeoisie being able to take up the slack, unlike in Flanders.

He also gave a central role to patronage as the driving force behind artistic progress, citing Lorenzo de' Medici, Leo X, and Francis I as models of patrons interested in art itself, and not in an ostentatious consumer dimension. On this last point, Turgot notes that when conspicuous consumption dominates, the effects of trends and technical virtuosity take priority over genuine artistic creativity.

Adam Smith
Adam Smith set out his main thoughts on the problem of culture in his Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759). His main question was to explain the reasons for the demand for works of art. In The Wealth of Nations, he considers that the essential reasons are tradition and the effects of trends, to which he adds pure emulation. His account of how wealthy people use works of art to flaunt their wealth may have influenced Veblen's formulation of conspicuous consumption. On the supply side, he notes that the greatest artists, though innovative, are always dissatisfied with their own work in terms of what they would like to produce. However, he balances this dissatisfaction against the risks of excessive self-esteem associated with the popularity that some of them achieve. Still, on the supply side, Smith cites artists as an example of professions that require skills that are costly to acquire, and whose pay therefore reflects that cost. This effect, he notes, is less for those (philosophers, poets) whose work enables them to achieve a respected social position, and stronger for those (actors, opera singers) whose scarcity of talent is accompanied by social condemnation of their type of career. However, he places them all in the category of 'unproductive' workers (who do not lead to capital accumulation and economic growth), showing how much his thinking still owes mercantilism in failing to understand the role of services and the contribution of human capital to growth.

The age of classic economics
The political economy of the nineteenth century virtually ignored the subject of arts and culture. The challenge at the time was to gain recognition for economics as a science, and thus to express general laws with as few exceptions as possible. The Age of Enlightenment's questions about the unique and exceptional nature of the arts were therefore hardly relevant to the research agenda that led to Homo economicus.

This fear can be clearly seen in Jeremy Bentham's The Rationale of Reward. Advocating respect for the allocative efficiency of the market structure highlighted by Smith, Bentham recommends intervening as little as possible in the results of this allocation, even in cases where Smith himself recommended intervention. Bentham was very suspicious of groups demanding public assistance and saw artists as a particularly visible and effective group in demanding preferential treatment. He also noted the regressive nature of public spending on the arts.

Poetry was one of Bentham's main targets, preferring science and finding it of little social use. On several occasions, he expressed his astonishment and incomprehension at man's fascination with the arts, which in his view were only as valuable as the pleasure they gave, and failed to understand why the arts, based on fiction and the distortion of nature, could produce more pleasure than simple play or the pursuit of scientific knowledge. At most, he finds in the arts the merit of avoiding boredom and laziness, and of providing the powerful with an occupation other than war.

In his view, the quality of a work of art was purely a matter of individual taste, and the only thing to do was to stay out of it, leaving everyone to enjoy what they liked. He saw no point in the existence of critics, or in educating people in the arts.

Such views of Bentham's, the emphasis placed only on the sectors designated as 'productive' by Smith, and the prejudices inherited from previous centuries largely explain the period's lack of interest in the economic analysis of the arts and culture. Some authors did, however, highlight the weaknesses of the distinction between productive and non-productive work. James Maitland, following on from his critique of the physiocrats, remarked that if Smith was right, competition between artists should reduce their remuneration to the level of the living wage, which was clearly not the case for successful artists. Pointing to the existence of strong barriers to entry (technical training and talent), he explains how the most talented artists constitute a rare resource, which explains the extent of the rents they receive. For the same reasons of scarcity, he refutes Smith's idea that artistic work is unproductive, the payments themselves being a sign that wealth of some kind is being created.

However, the classification of the arts as "unproductive" is also found in the writings of John Stuart Mill. It is indeed logical that an economic thought whose theory of value is based on production costs alone should fail to grasp the workings of art markets, where value resides not in the labor employed to produce the works, but in the works themselves. At the same time, however, Mill was concerned that the most common forms of remuneration did not allow most authors, albeit talented ones, to make a living from their creative work, while a few received very large sums. So he wondered what could be done to ensure a more egalitarian distribution of artistic income, starting with mass education in the arts. In his view, the latter had the dual merit of contributing to the moral improvement of the population and creating a greater solvent demand for artists.

Humanist criticisms

With political economy abandoning reflection on the role of culture in the economy and society, the subject was taken up by a group of humanist thinkers, poets, essayists, and artists themselves, united in a collective condemnation of what Thomas Love Peacock calls "the grocer's mind". In his view, the grocer's mind manifests itself in a love of order and material activity, and its corollary is a rejection of the arts. Beyond this rejection, their aim was to define the place of the arts and culture in an economy undergoing industrialization.

Contrary to political economy thinkers, Matthew Arnold put forward the idea that, far from being a matter of superfluity and leisure, the arts and culture were an essential means of warding off the dangers of antagonism between the growing population of workers and the owners of the means of production. Against a historical backdrop marked by the memory of the French Revolution and that of 1848, as well as by the continuing extension of the right to vote in the United Kingdom, Arnold considered that a more educated population, with a better conception of perfection and beauty, was less likely to indulge in the violent outbursts that marked the beginning of the nineteenth century. Here we find both an idea inherited from the Age of Enlightenment and a foreshadowing of later reflections on the conditions under which market allocation can work as well as the economists of the time thought.

While Arnold questioned the possibility of considering economic relations outside their cultural context, John Ruskin attacked another pillar of classical political economy: that of the stability of individuals' utility functions (in other words, their preferences). Rather than a society of abundance, Ruskin advocated a more authoritarian society, in which educated people could train others to choose and appreciate quality goods. In the vanguard of these trainers of taste, Ruskin placed the artist and art critic and was therefore a fervent advocate of public policies to support the arts and culture. Seldom read by the economists of his time, Ruskin had a major influence on the Anglo-Saxon labor movement as a whole, particularly through Henry Clay, who, in the final chapter of Economics: An Introduction to the General Reader, took up Ruskin's opposition between a nineteenth-century of material abundance but artistic poverty and periods (Antiquity, the Middle Ages) of great material poverty but great artistic wealth.

A third virulent critic of the treatment of the arts by the political thinking of his time was William Morris, who was both a businessman and an artist, leading the Arts & Crafts movement. More reserved than the previous two about the possibilities of reform, Morris was also more radical in his political views. He believed that only collective ownership of the means of production could ensure a rich artistic output. Not always clearly explained, Morris went further than Marx and his successors in considering the positive effects of socialism on the arts.

Marginalist revolution
As had their predecessors, the founders of marginalism sought to construct general laws with as few exceptions as possible. As a result, the early texts of the neoclassical school make very little mention of the arts, except when they provide striking illustrations of a theory of value in which value is determined by demand. Unlike the previous generation, however, these economists were sensitive to the existence of beneficial externalities of the arts on society as a whole. Alfred Marshall, for example, saw the arts as a means of alleviating the discomfort of city life for the working class from the countryside. Moreover, the main authors of the first marginalist generation were themselves great lovers of art, and although none of their works devotes a chapter to the subject in its own right, reflections on the theme are scattered throughout their works, with varying degrees of success.

William Jevons was undoubtedly the person who wrote most about the role of the arts in the neo-classical program. An artist and aesthete himself, he saw in the arts the possibility of enriching the lives of the whole population. However, in his view, the artistic experience could not be planned. As a result, people who have not received an early education in the arts underestimate the pleasure they will derive from it, which results in too low a demand for artistic goods on their part. Anticipating Becker and Murphy's theory of rational addiction by almost a century, Jevons described the artistic experience as an addictive consumption, separate in this sense from that of conventional goods. Although somewhat critical of the role of critics, Jevons believed that the cultural goods available to the working class should be carefully selected by enlightened members of the ruling class, in contrast to what he saw as a conspiracy to provide workers with only inferior cultural goods that did not contribute to their education in the fine arts. In this context, Jevons was one of the first economists to reflect on the role of museums in terms of popular education. He condemned the museums of his day, which lacked explanatory texts and were still often organized as vast cabinets of curiosities.

Although ardent defenders of consumer sovereignty, the marginalists nonetheless established a clear hierarchy of different goods and believed that the enrichment of populations naturally led them to consume cultural goods, once basic material comfort was assured.

Among the neo-classicists active on the subject before cultural economics became a subdivision in its own right in the 1960s, Lionel Robbins occupies a special place. An aspiring artist himself, he is best known for his work on behalf of Britain's major cultural institutions (Covent Garden, the Tate Gallery, and the National Gallery). Convinced of the public good nature of at least some major works, he also advocated public support for patronage. He admitted, however, that the tools of neo-classical economics at his disposal did not allow him to justify the exceptional treatment he demanded for the arts.

The arts according to American economists

Rejecting the utilitarianism of Bentham and the rational agent of the neo-classicists, American institutionalism proceeds from a more complex conception of human behavior and seeks to relate it to the organization of the economy. As a result, we would expect to find arguments highlighting the special character of the arts and the organization of the production of cultural goods. This subject, however, was not part of their research program, and their treatment of the arts differed little from that of previous generations.

For example, Veblen's treatment of the arts in his Theory of the Leisure Class revived the tone of seventeenth-century pamphlets. Seeing the works of the past essentially as a tool for the conspicuous consumption of the powerful of the day, he contrasts an aesthetic in which beauty is the expression of a generic or universal character with the pursuit of originality that is characteristic of the dynamic of conspicuous consumption. In this way, he relegated the arts to the same rank as all non-productive activities designed to demonstrate an individual's wealth through his or her ability to waste resources on activities with no social value.

Galbraith, on the other hand, showed a sustained interest in the arts. As early as the 1960s, he tried to launch a seminar on the economics of the arts at Harvard, but met with rejection from artists, who saw it as a deviation from their activity, and a lack of interest from economists. In the chapter entitled "The Market and the Arts" in his book Economic Science and the General Interest, he explains this lack of interest by referring to the anachronistic nature of creative processes. Originating with individuals or small groups who were quite frankly individualistic, artistic creation, right up to design, remained the work of small businesses with their own particular behavior, which set them apart from the technostructure that the economists of the time were trying to theorize.

Keynes and the Bloomsbury Group

While some of the authors before him had been enthusiastic art lovers, no renowned economist spent as much time in contact with artists as Keynes, who spent most of his life in contact with the Bloomsbury Group. Although he did not personally devote any of his work to the economics of culture, it seems certain that his presence encouraged the other members of the group to think about the economic conditions of the production of cultural goods.

Going against the implicit hierarchy of goods set out in marginalist works, the members of the group considered that cultural goods were not luxury goods, but one of the fundamentals of all human civilization. Arguing on the basis of the high artistic quality of the primitive arts, they challenged the relationship between economic growth and artistic creativity.

Roger Fry and Clive Bell also challenged the application of utilitarianism to the artistic experience. For them, aesthetic experience is fundamentally different from the satisfaction of a biological need and, by extension, from the consumption of an ordinary material good. While this challenge did not lead to the formulation of an alternative theory of cultural consumption, it did have the merit of highlighting a specificity of cultural goods that Anglo-Saxon thinkers had neglected since the end of the eighteenth century.

All the members of the group also shared a fascination for how the artistic representation of mythical events was revealed, and in their view perpetuated perceptions and conditioning that helped to shape political and economic decisions. In this way, they linked the importance given to the Flood myth in artistic representations to the belief that a catastrophe or revolution must necessarily precede any fundamental improvement in the human condition. From Genesis to the 'Five Giants', they identified multiple forms of this influence.

Personally involved in the art markets, the members of the group noted that, contrary to the classical analysis, price did not seem to be the essential determinant of the supply of cultural goods, with authors feeling driven more by inner necessities than by the prospect of gain. On the demand side, Fry followed a similar approach to Keynes in distinguishing between the various types of motivation in the demand for works of art. Like Keynes too, they were in favor of public intervention to support artistic demand, but only once all private alternatives had been exhausted.

Keynes's intervention was decisive for them in terms of public policy in favor of the arts and culture. Members of the group became involved in concrete actions, as evidenced by Fry's numerous lectures. Above all, they initiated cooperative or associative structures (Hogarth Press, The London Artists' Association) designed to provide a stable framework for artists prepared to abide by minimum rules in exchange for a more regular income and a guarantee of their creative freedom. In the private sector, one of their most important achievements was the Contemporary Art Society, which functioned as a certification authority for contemporary artists in order to educate public taste and reassure potential buyers about the quality of their purchases. This role was taken up, and indeed considerably extended, with the founding after World War II of the Arts Council of Great Britain, of which Keynes was one of the first directors.

From marginal status to recognition
Regardless of the calibre of economists interested in culture, until the second half of the twentieth century it was never at the heart of any research program. Rather, it was seen as a marginal theme, of little importance in relation to the problems posed by the crisis of the 1930s, and then by the revival of the world economy.

The economy of culture emerged as its own subject from a series of works in the 1960s. The book Performing Arts-The Economic Dilemma by William Baumol and William Bowen, devoted to the economics of the performing arts, is widely regarded as the starting point for contemporary cultural economics, setting out a considerable research programme through a fairly pessimistic analysis of the sustainability of the performing arts. The interest shown in cultural consumption also owes much to the work of Gary Becker on addictive goods, of which cultural goods are a positive example, as well as to the work of Alan Peacock, at the time director of the British Arts Council, and to that of public choice theory, which provided a basis for the idea of a market failure specific to the field of cultural goods.

These various initial influences did not occur without tension between them. If, according to Baumol and Bowen, the performing arts have no future outside of heavily subsidised structures (this is a consequence of Baumol effect), the school of public choice strongly questions the ability of the institutions responsible for granting subsidies to do so efficiently and without capturing rents. At the same time, Becker's work provides a starting point for examining cultural consumption as the result of rational and maximizing behaviour, differing little from that which governs the consumption of all other goods.

The growth of the cultural industries in terms of economic activity and their share within the economy, as well as the need to evaluate public policies on the arts and culture, has fuelled interest in this work. A specialized international journal, the Journal of Cultural Economics, was launched in 1977. In academic terms, recognition was definitively achieved in 1994 with the publication by David Throsby of a literature review in the Journal of Economic Litterature, at the same time as this same journal introduced the classifications Z1 (cultural economics) and Z11 (arts economics) into its classification. Two handbooks reviewing the state of the literature were then produced, first by Ruth Towse in 2003, and then by Victor Ginsburgh and David Throsby. In the introduction to this work, David Throsby notes that the economics of culture currently makes extensive use of neoclassical tools for analysing demand and well-being, as well as tools for the macroeconomic evaluation of public policies. Concepts from public choice theory and political economy also feature prominently in the study of policy design, while institutional economics is used to study the influence of production structures on behaviour. Relying on a literature review by Ruth Towse, he notes the influence of the economic analysis of law stemming from the work of Ronald Coase for the study of transaction costs and intellectual property problems. Finally, he notes that in the field of cultural economics, applications of industrial economics remain under-represented.

Historical challenges and the contemporary culture economics
The panorama of the field of cultural economics as it is defined at the beginning of the 21st century can be seen in the table of contents of the Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture. The problem of the value of cultural goods continues to be an important subject of reflection. While the neoclassical theory of value, determined solely by the match between supply and demand, accounts for the price of certain works of art, the measurement of the value of a work of art for society as a whole remains an open question. The role of the arts, culture and, more generally, cultural norms, which was at the heart of economic thinking on the arts and culture until the mid-twentieth century, has gradually been emancipated, becoming a sub-field of economics in its own right. On the other hand, the preoccupation with the public policies of the arts and culture remains a major subject within the field, to which contemporary approaches in terms of international trade and geographical economics have been added.

Similarly, the economics of artists' work constitutes a pivotal point between historical thought and the economics of modern culture: while the central questions of resource allocation posed by the contrast between the considerable earnings of a few stars and the modesty of average artistic remuneration remain the same, the tools of labor market analysis in terms of supply, demand, human capital, and asymmetric information are now used to answer them. The study of the economic consequences of legislative frameworks, in particular intellectual and artistic property, has taken on increasing importance in the economics of culture, under the influence of the economic analysis of law, a dimension rarely present in economic thought before Ronald Coase. Finally, a large part of the contemporary cultural economics approach is to take account of the reputed particularism of the arts and culture by showing the extent to which the common tools of economics can be applied to account for the functioning of the corresponding markets, whether in terms of supply and demand, contractual relations within the various cultural industries or auctions.

References

Notes

Appendix

Bibliography

 Victor Ginsburgh, David Throsby, Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture, vol. 1, Amsterdam/Boston Mass., North-Holland, coll. "Handbooks", November 11, 2006, 1400 p. (), 2 : History, "Chapter 2 : Art and culture in the history of economic thought", p. 25-68
 The definitive textbook on the economics of culture. The chapter on the place of the arts and culture in economic thought is written by Craufurd Goodwin. It covers the period between the eighteenth century and Keynes.
 V. A. Ginsburgh, David Throsby, Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture, vol. 1, 1: Introduction, "Chapter 1: Introduction and Overview", p. 3-22
 Ruth Towse, A Handbook of Cultural Economics, Edward Elgar, 2003, 494 p. ()
 Françoise Benhamou, L'Économie de la culture, Paris, La Découverte, coll. "Repères", 2004 (5th ed.), 123 p. (, read online archive)

Related articles

 For a presentation of the field itself: Cultural economics
 For an overview of the schools of thought cited: History of economic thought
 Schools of thought: Mercantilism, Classical economics, Marxism, Neoclassical school, Institutionalism, Keynesianism, Public choice theory.
 Economic theory of museums

Cultural history
History of economic thought

History of schools of economic thought on arts and culture


Hakea denticulata, commonly known as stinking Roger is a shrub tree endemic southern Western Australia. One of the many species of Australian plant described by the botanist Robert Brown. A compact shrub  high and wide with red flowers in the spring with an unpleasant odour.

Description
Hakea denticulata grows as a dense woody shrub to 1–2 metres (3–7 ft) high and wide, smaller branches are hairy. The flat leaves are smooth and grow alternately along the stem, are more or less oval-shaped and 1.5–4.6 cm (0.6-0.9 in) long and 1–2.5 cm (0.4–1 in) wide. The leaf margins have 2-10 teeth measuring 1–2 mm long on each side. The inflorescence consists of 1,3 or 5 creamy-yellow or orange-red flowers that appear in leaf axils in the upper branches on a stalk  long with an offensive strong scent. The smooth perianth is  long and the style  long and smooth. The fruit grow at an angle to the stem are  long and  wide. The fruit have  several prickles on the otherwise smooth surface. Flowers in July, August, September or October.

Taxonomy and naming
Hakea denticulata was first formally described by Robert Brown in 1830 and published in Supplementum primum Prodromi florae Novae Hollandiae, a supplement to his 1810 work. Byron Lamont differentiated what was previously considered a form of Hakea prostrata and named it H. rubriflora in 1973, but it was found to be synonymous with H. denticulata. The specific epithet (denticulata) is derived from the Latin word denticulatus meaning "with small teeth"  referring to the leaf margins. Lamont's name was derived from the Latin ruber "red" and flos "flower".
Hakea denticulata was reclassified along with five other species in the Prostrata group in the 1999 Flora of Australia treatment.

Distribution and habitat
Hakea denticulata occurs on Western Australia's southern coast from Albany to east of Esperance. It reaches the Stirling Range to the north. It is found on a range of soils from sand to gravel and even a heavier clay loam.

Cultivation
Although the plant has attractive foliage and flowers, the latter's smell rather limits its use in cultivation.

References

denticulata
Flora of Western Australia
Plants described in 1830

Hakea denticulata


The Laws of Moses were the laws God is said to have given Moses. The first set of Moses laws were the Ten Commandments which covered morality. The second was the set of social laws (on property, inheritance, and marriage). The third were the laws on food (what's considered kosher or not, cooking and storage of food, etc).

Related pages

 Halakha

Old Testament

Law of Moses


is a Japanese lutenist.
Imamura has appeared on more than 150 CDs, both as a soloist and as a member of ensembles. His solo recordings include the complete lute works by Johann Sebastian Bach (two versions : for Naxos in 2018 and for Etcetera in 1991), three volumes of lute sonatas by Silvius Leopold Weiss  (for Claves and Capriccio), pièces pour théorbe by Robert de Visée, Spanish music for vihuela from the time of Charles V (Querstand) and the complete lute fantasies by Simone Molinario (Deutsche Harmonia Mundi).

His teachers included lute with Eugen Müller-Dombois and Hopkinson Smith at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, where, in 1981, he received his soloist's diploma. In addition, he studied interpretation and basso continuo with Ton Koopman and Johann Sonnleitner and composition with Wolfgang Neininger.

Imamura has collaborated with such artists as Cecilia Bartoli, Teresa Berganza, Gérard Lesne, Marc Minkowski, Michael Schneider, Martin Gester, Maurice Steger, Masaaki Suzuki, Alan Curtis and Paul Goodwin. Mr. Imamura is a member of La Stagione Frankfurt, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Camerata Köln, Le Parlement de Musique and Il Complesso Barocco.

Imamura created the ensemble "Fons Musicae" in 1997. They have released five recordings - "Airs de cour" (Michel Lambert), and recording dedicated exclusively to works by Giovanni Bononcini, Agostino Steffani, Antonio Caldara, Francesco Gasparini and Barbara Strozzi. These recordings have received awards including "Classica" (France) and  "Star of the Month" (Germany).

Imamura teaches lute at the Conservatoire National de Région, Strasbourg since 1984. In 1989, he began teaching at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts. He gives master-classes in Europe and throughout the Far East.

Awards
 "Diapason d'Or" prize by French Diapason Magazine (July–August 2006)
 "Joker de Crescendo" prize by the Belgian magazine, Crescendo.(September–October 2008)
 "Cultural achievement award" by the Canton of Solothurn (Switzerland) in 2010.
 "The classica" by the French magazine, Classica (July-August 1998)
 "Star of the Month" Prize by the Fono Forum Magazine (march 2002)

External links

1953 births
Japanese male musicians
Japanese musicians
Living people
Musicians from Osaka Prefecture
People from Sakai, Osaka

Yasunori Imamura


Maa Shakti (previously known as Aarki) is the name of the world record garba, which has been organized every year by Mr. Jayesh Thakkar and his NGO Samvedan Charitable Trust which runs the garba festival in the city of Vadodara.

Overview
Jayesh Thakkar has organised this event under Sam Vedan Charitable Trust. Nitin Sandesara formerly organised it under the name Maa Aarki. Navratri, who strongly believed in the traditional form of Garba, introduced it.  Mr. Nitin Sandesara who started this theme, ceased organising the event and for the last 10 years, it has been known as "Maa Shakti/RISHABH Group", but its popularity has not decreased. Owing to the organising committee, Maa Shakti/RISHABH Group of Vadodara has taken a global face. Crores of rupees are now spent on the event of navratri in Gujarat.  Under Nitin sandesaras arkee garb there was not even one advertisement on the grounds as he believed that it is a place of worship and there are no advertisements in a temple.

The organisers of the event ensure the traditional aspect of the event. The organisers set rules such as the dancers only being allowed on the ground wearing traditional costumes and aarti of the goddess Amba. The garbas are performed in large circles around the main stage. The number of circles varies between 15–20. The singers sing traditional and new compositions in Gujarati.

Record
Maa Shakti holds a record in the Limca Book of Records of holding the largest number of dancers in the ground. The number of dancers present in the ground (when the record was set) was about 38,850.Total
5 lakhs peoples at that time on garba ground.

Dance organizations
Vadodara
Cultural organisations based in India
Organisations based in Gujarat
1998 establishments in Gujarat
Recurring events established in 1998

Maa Aarki


Gottfried Wilhelm Bitzer (April 21, 1872 – April 29, 1944) was an American cinematographer, notable for his close association and pioneering work with D. W. Griffith.

Biography
Prior to his career as a cameraman, working as a motion picture projectionist, Bitzer developed early cinematic technologies for the American Mutoscope Company, eventually to become the Biograph Company. He admired and learned the art of motion picture photography from Kinetoscope inventor W. K. L. Dickson, who directed the early Biograph shorts on which Bitzer cut his teeth. Bitzer achieved success in 1896 when his film of William McKinley being notified of the presidential nomination of his party was exhibited on the Biograph Company's first program. Until 1903, Bitzer was employed by Biograph primarily as a documentary photographer, and from 1903 onward primarily as the photographer of narrative films, as these gained popularity.

In 1908 Bitzer entered into his first collaboration with Griffith. The two would work together for the rest of Bitzer's career, leaving Biograph in 1913 for the Mutual Film Corporation where Bitzer continued to innovate, perfecting existing technologies and inventing new ones. During this time he pioneered the field of matte photography and made use of innovative lighting techniques, closeups, and iris shots.

Bitzer provided assistance during Griffith's directorial debut, 1908's The Adventures of Dollie, which was shot by Arthur Marvin. He eventually succeeded Marvin as Griffith's regular cinematographer, working with him on some of his most important films and contributing significantly to cinematic innovations attributed to Griffith. In 1910, he photographed Griffith's silent short In Old California in the Los Angeles village of "Hollywoodland", qualifying Bitzer as, arguably, Hollywood's first Director of Photography. The apex of Bitzer and Griffith's collaboration came with The Birth of a Nation (1915), a film funded in part by Bitzer's life savings, and the epic Intolerance (1916).

His film The Jeffries-Sharkey Fight of 1899 is the first known use of artificial light. Rip Van Winkle (1903) features the first known close-up. Advances in lenses and filters developed by Bitzer made soft focus possible. He was the first to use split-screen photography and backlighting, contributing to the development of three-point lighting. He improved in-camera fade and dissolve effects and invented what came to be known as transition tools. Even after the Bell & Howell Model 2709 production camera became the industry standard, he continued to use a Pathe.

For all his innovation, Bitzer's career did not survive the industry's transition to sound. In 1944, he suffered a heart attack and died in Hollywood.

His autobiography, Billy Bitzer: His Story, was published posthumously in 1973.

In 2003, a survey conducted by the International Cinematographers Guild named him one of the ten most influential cinematographers in history. Bitzer, it is said, "developed camera techniques that set the standard for all future motion pictures".

Selected filmography

The Moonshiner (1904)
2 A. M. in the Subway (1905)
The Kentuckian (1908)
The Invisible Fluid (1908)
The Lonely Villa (1909)
A Sound Sleeper (1909)
The Sealed Room (1909)
Edgar Allan Poe (1909)
A Corner in Wheat (1909)
In the Border States (1910)
The Modern Prodigal (1910)
A Mohawk's Way (1910)
The Lonedale Operator (1911)
Enoch Arden (1911)
The Girl and Her Trust (1912)
The Female of the Species (1912)
A Beast at Bay (1912)
The Root of Evil (1912)
An Unseen Enemy (1912)
The Painted Lady (1912)
The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912)
The House of Darkness (1913)
Death's Marathon (1913)
The Mothering Heart (1913)
The Yaqui Cur (1913)
The Battle at Elderbush Gulch (1914)
Judith of Bethulia (1914)
The Avenging Conscience (1914)
The Birth of a Nation (1915)
Intolerance (1916)
Hearts of the World (1918)
The Great Love (1918)
The Greatest Thing in Life (1918)
A Romance of Happy Valley (1919)
The Girl Who Stayed at Home (1919)
True Heart Susie (1919)
Scarlet Days (1919)
Broken Blossoms (1919)
The Greatest Question (1919)
The Idol Dancer (1920)
The Love Flower (1920)
Way Down East (1920)
The White Rose (1923)
America (1924)
Drums of Love (1927)
The Battle of the Sexes (1928)
Lady of the Pavements (1929)

References

Further reading
 G. W. Bitzer (as Billy Bitzer). Billy Bitzer: His Story. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1973.

External links

1872 births
1944 deaths
American cinematographers
People from Roxbury, Boston
Articles containing video clips
American people of German descent

Billy Bitzer


Josef Joffe (born 15 March 1944) is a former publisher-editor of Die Zeit, a weekly German newspaper. His second career has been in academia. Appointed Senior Fellow of Stanford's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies in 2007 (a faculty position), he is also the Marc and Anita Abramowitz Fellow in International Relations at the Hoover Institution and a courtesy professor of political science at Stanford University. Since 1999, he has been an associate of the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University.

Life
Joffe was born into the Jewish Joffe family in Litzmannstadt, Wartheland, Nazi Germany (now Łódź, Poland) and grew up in West Berlin, where he attended elementary school and gymnasium. He then came to the United States in 1961 as an exchange student, attending East Grand Rapids High School in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He attended Swarthmore College, graduating in 1965, obtained a postgraduate Certificate of Advanced European Studies from the College of Europe in 1966 and an M.A. from Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies. He received a Ph.D. in government from Harvard University in 1975.

In 1976, Joffe started his career with Die Zeit as a political writer and grew into managing the Zeit Dossier department, an important and often lengthy part of this newspaper which elaborates a single topic on several pages. From 1982 to 1984, he was a professorial lecturer at Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, and from 1985 to 2000 he was columnist and editorial page editor for Süddeutsche Zeitung. In 1990 and 1991 he taught at Harvard University, in 1998 he was a visiting lecturer at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and in 2002 he was a visiting lecturer at Dartmouth College. He has also taught at the University of Munich and the Salzburg Seminar.

In 2005, Joffe founded, together with Zbigniew Brzezinski, Eliot Cohen and Francis Fukuyama, The American Interest, a magazine where both American and international authors think and argue about the United States and its role in the world. Joffe's essays and reviews have appeared in a wide number of publications including Commentary, The New Republic, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Magazine, Prospect, The European Journal of International Affairs, The Times Literary Supplement, and The Weekly Standard. His scholarly work has appeared in many books and in journals, including Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, International Security, The National Interest and The American Interest.

Topics and standpoints

International politics in relation with Germany's position in the world has been a preferred subject for Joffe. Joffe's 1984 article in Foreign Policy, entitled "Europe's American Pacifier," is the source of the common international relations term of art "the American pacifier". The piece presents the argument that the preponderant power of the United States (in this case, projected into Europe) acts as a pacifying force in the region, preventing the region's multipolarity from leading to conflict.

Joffe is known for his global warming scepticism. He has described Al Gore as the "priest" of a (climate related) "secular religion".

Honors

Joffe has received the Theodor Wolff Prize in journalism, the Ludwig Börne Prize in essays and literature, and the German Federal Order of Merit. He has also been awarded honorary doctoral degrees from Swarthmore College (2002) and Lewis and Clark College (2005). He received the Scopus Award in 2009.

References

Selected books

External links

 Biography
 Prospect magazine Archive of articles written by Joffe.
 The New York Review of Books

1944 births
Living people
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Josef Joffe


The Armoured Battalion () is the first battalion and an infantry unit of the Norwegian Army. Although it is categorised as an armoured unit, the battalion (strictly a battlegroup) primarily serves in the mechanised infantry role. As with the Telemark Bataljon it also has a tank squadron equipped with the Leopard 2 main battle tank. It was formed in 1987 and has participated in several international operations in the Balkans (KFOR) and in Afghanistan (ISAF). The battalion is recognised as a cavalry unit for ceremonial purposes, so its conscripted soldiers are referred to as dragoons as opposed to privates, as is the case in most of the Norwegian Army.

Organization

Stridsvogneskadronen – The second squadron, known as ESK2, Strv esk 2 or Stridsvogneskadronen (The Armoured Squadron) is the battalion's main strike weapon. The squadron operates with the Leopard 2 main battle tank. The unit colour is red.
Stormeskadron 3 – The third squadron, known as ESK3 or Stormeskadron 3 (Assault Squadron 3). The squadron's role is to support ESK2 with mechanised infantry support. The squadron is based on quick and aggressive assaults with infantry squads supported by their CV90 infantry fighting vehicles. The unit colour is yellow. The Motto of the squadron is "Semper Paratus", which means always ready.
Stormeskadron 4 – The fourth squadron, known as ESK4 or Stormeskadron 4 (Assault Squadron 4). The squadron has the same role as that of ESK3. The unit colour is green, and their motto " Gulo ad arma, Plus Ultra" meaning "Wolverines to battle, continue forward" is in reference to their ability to push forward in combat.
Kavalerieskadronen – The fifth squadron, known as ESK5, KavEsk or Kavalerieskadronen (The Cavalry Squadron) is a reconnaissance unit. Its roles also include artillery observation and sharpshooters. It also uses the CV90 infantry fighting vehicle. The unit colour is blue. The Armoured Reconnaissance platoon in ESK1 has the motto "Primus Intrat, Exit Novissimus" meaning "First in, last out".
Kampstøtteeskadronen – The sixth squadron, known as ESK6 or Kampstøtte Eskadron 6 (Combat Support Squadron 6). The largest and most complex of the battalion's units, its capabilities include logistics support, repair and recovery, signals, medevac and mortar support. The unit is also responsible for the protection and operation of the battalion's base of operations. The unit colour is black. The squadron motto is "Volens et Potens" which means willing and able.
Minkebataljonen – During operations the battalion is usually supported by elements of the Combat Service support battalion, Engineer battalion, Intelligence battalion, Artillery battalion and Medical Battalion as well as Military police and other elements that may be attached depending on the mission. This combat group is known as Minkebataljonen.

The motto of the battalion is Bitit fyrst (Old Norse for "Strike First"), referring to the offensive role of the battalion.

External links
Norwegian Army page on Panserbattaljonen (in Norwegian)

Battalions of Norway
Military units and formations established in 1987
1987 establishments in Norway

Armoured Battalion (Norway)


Antibiosis is a biological interaction between two or more organisms that is detrimental to at least one of them; it can also be an antagonistic association between an organism and the metabolic substances produced by another. Examples of antibiosis include the relationship between antibiotics and bacteria or animals and disease-causing pathogens. The study of antibiosis and its role in antibiotics has led to the expansion of knowledge in the field of microbiology. Molecular processes such cell wall synthesis and recycling, for example, have become better understood through the study of how antibiotics affect beta-lactam development through the antibiosis relationship and interaction of the particular drugs with the bacteria subjected to the compound.

Antibiosis is typically studied in host plant populations and extends to the insects which feed upon them.

"Antibiosis resistance affects the biology of the insect so pest abundance and subsequent damage is reduced compared to that which would have occurred if the insect was on a susceptible crop variety. Antibiosis resistance often results in increased mortality or reduced longevity and reproduction of the insect."

During a study of antibiosis, it was determine that the means to achieving effective antibiosis is remaining still. "When you give antibiotic-producing bacteria a structured medium, they affix to substrate, grow clonally, and produce a "no mans land," absent competitors, where the antibiotics diffuse outward." Antibiosis is most effective when resources are neither plentiful nor sparse. Antibiosis should be considered as the median on the scale of resource, due to its ideal performance.

See also
 Antibiotic
 Biological pest control
 Biotechnology
 Symbiosis

References

Further reading

External links

Biological interactions
Antibiotics

pt:Relação ecológica#Amensalismo ou antibiose

Antibiosis


Oscar Sala (born March 26, 1922, in Milan, Italy, d. January 2, 2010 in São Paulo, Brazil), Italian-Brazilian nuclear physicist and important scientific leader, Emeritus Professor of the Institute of Physics, University of São Paulo.

Early life and education
Sala graduated in physics in 1943, at the then recently created University of São Paulo, in São Paulo, Brazil. The Department of Physics of the Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Letters was started with two imminent Italian physicists, Gleb Wataghin and Giuseppe Occhialini, who specialized in researching cosmic radiation. He was contemporary with a brilliant generation of young Brazilian physicians, such as César Lattes, José Leite Lopes, Mário Schenberg, Roberto Salmeron, Marcelo Damy de Souza Santos and Jayme Tiomno. While still a student, Oscar Sala started research work with the group. In 1945, Sala published with Wataghin an important paper on showers of penetrating nuclear particles.

Career in academia
Soon after graduation, he was hired as a teaching assistant by the Chair of General and Experimental Physics, led by Prof. Marcelo Damy de Souza Santos. His entire scientific and teaching career was spent at the same institution, which later became the Institute of Physics. In this new capacity, Sala became head of the Department of Nuclear Physics (1970–1979 and 1983–1987).

In 1946 Oscar Sala received a scholarship from the Rockefeller Foundation and went to study in the U.S., first at the University of Illinois, and subsequently, in 1948, at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. There, he participated in the development of electrostatic particle accelerators for use in nuclear physics research, the first devices to use pulsed beams for the study of nuclear reactions with rapid neutrons. Upon his return to Brazil, Sala was responsible for installing and coordinating research efforts based on a large electrostatic Van de Graaff generator. Later, he helped to build a pelletron at the University of São Paulo (the first in Latin America).

As a scientific leader, Dr. Oscar Sala was one of the founders and a scientific director (1959–1965) with the Foundation for Support of Research of the State of São Paulo (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) and president of the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science (Sociedade Brasileira para o Progresso da Ciência). He was a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (Academia Brasileira de Ciências), the Third World Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  Prof. Sala was a member of the Board of Sponsors of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

Selected bibliography
WATAGHIN, G. and SALA, O. 1945. Showers of penetrating particles. Phys. R., vol. 67, p. 55.
AXEL, P., GOLDHABER, M. and SALA, O. 1948. Internal conversion electrons accompanying slow neutron capture in Gd. Phys. R., vol. 74, p. 1249.
HERB, R. G. and SALA, O. 1948. Design of electrostatic generator for the Universidade de São Paulo, Brasil. Phys. R., vol. 74, p. 1260.
BOWER, J., GOLDHABER, M., HILL, R. D. and SALA, O. 1948. Short lived metastable state of an "Even-Even" nucleus Ge72. Phys. R., vol. 73, p. 1219.
ACQUADRO, J. C., HUSSEIN, M. S., PEREIRA, D. and SALA, O. 1981. The contribution of quasi-elastic processes to the total reaction cross-section of heavy ions. Physical Review Letters., vol. B100, p. 381.
SALA, O. 1982. Post-accelerator for the Pelletron of the University of São Paulo. Workshop on Nuclear Physics, 5., La Plata, Argentina:.

References

1922 births
Italian emigrants to Brazil
Brazilian physicists
Brazilian nuclear physicists
Members of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences
Recipients of the Great Cross of the National Order of Scientific Merit (Brazil)
University of São Paulo alumni
2010 deaths
20th-century Brazilian scientists
21st-century Brazilian scientists
Presidents of the Brazilian Physical Society

Oscar Sala