Huangdi (, "Emperor") or Emperor of China was the superlative title held by monarchs of China who ruled various imperial dynasties in Chinese history. In traditional Chinese political theory, the emperor of China was considered the Son of Heaven and the autocrat of all under Heaven worshipped posthumously under an Imperial cult. Under the Han dynasty, Confucianism gained sanction as the official political theory and succession in most cases theoretically followed agnatic primogeniture. The lineage of emperors descended from a paternal family line constituted a dynasty.

The absolute authority of the emperor came with a variety of governing duties and moral obligations; failure to uphold these was thought to remove the dynasty's Mandate of Heaven and to justify its overthrow. In practice, emperors sometimes avoided the strict rules of succession and dynasties' purported "failures" were detailed in official histories written by their successful replacements or even later dynasties. The power of the emperor was also limited by the imperial bureaucracy, which was staffed by scholar-officials and in some dynasties eunuchs. An emperor was also constrained by filial obligations to his ancestors' policies and dynastic traditions, such as those first detailed in the Ming dynasty's Ancestral Instructions.

Origin and history

During the Western Zhou period ( – 771 BC), Chinese vassal rulers with power over their particular fiefdoms served a strong central monarch. Following a brutal succession crisis and relocation of the royal capital, the power of the Zhou kings (, mod. wang) waned, and during the Eastern Zhou period, the regional lords overshadowed the king and began to usurp that title for themselves. In 221 BCE, after the then-king of Qin completed the conquest of the various kingdoms of the Warring States period, he adopted a new title to reflect his prestige as a ruler greater than the rulers before him. He called himself Shi Huangdi, the First Emperor. Before this, Huang (, "august, sovereign") was most commonly seen as a reverential epithet for a deceased ancestor, and Di (, ) was an apical ancestor, originally referring to the deïfied ancestors of the Shang kings. In the 3rd century BCE, the two titles had not previously been used together. The Emperor of China, like the Zhou kings before him, and the Shang kings before them, was most commonly referred to as Tianzi (, the Son of Heaven), who was divinely appointed to rule. The appellation Huangdi carried similar shades of meaning. Alternate English translations of the word include "The August Ancestor", "The Holy Ruler", or "The Divine Lord". On that account, some modern scholars translate the title as "thearch".

On occasion, the father of the ascended emperor was still alive. Such an emperor was titled the Taishang Huang (), the "Grand Imperial Sire". The practice was initiated by the First Emperor, who gave the title as a posthumous name to his own father, as was already common for monarchs of any stratum of power. Liu Bang, who established the Han dynasty, was the first to become emperor while his father yet lived. It was said he granted the title during his father's life because he would not be done obeisance to by his own father, a commoner.

Owing to political fragmentation, over the centuries, it has not been uncommon to have numerous claimants to the title of "Son of Heaven". The Chinese political concept of the Mandate of Heaven essentially legitimized those claimants who emerged victorious. The proper list was considered those made by the official dynastic histories; the compilation of a history of the preceding dynasty was considered one of the hallmarks of legitimacy, along with symbols such as the Nine Ding or the Heirloom Seal of the Realm. As with the First Emperor, it remained very common to grant posthumous titles to the ancestors of the victors.

The Yuan and Qing dynasties were founded by successful invaders of different ethnic groups. As part of their rule over China, they also went through the culturally appropriate rituals of formally declaring a new dynasty and taking on the Chinese title of Huangdi, in addition to the titles of their respective people, especially in the case of the Yuan dynasty. Thus, Kublai Khan was simultaneously khagan of the Mongols and emperor of China.

End of the imperial system

In 1911, the title of Prime Minister of the Imperial Cabinet was created to rule alongside the emperor, as part of an attempt to turn China into a constitutional monarchy.

The Xuantong Emperor (Puyi) of the Qing dynasty was the last emperor of China, abdicated on 12 February 1912, thus ending the imperial tradition after more than 2,100 years.

Yuan Shikai, former President of the Republic of China, attempted to restore a monarchy with himself as the Hongxian Emperor, however his claim to the title of emperor ended on 22 March 1916.

Puyi was briefly restored for almost two weeks during a coup in 1917 but was overthrown again shortly after. He later became the emperor of Manchukuo, a Japanese puppet state, and was captured by the Red Army as a prisoner of war after World War II and held in Chita, Soviet Union. He was returned to China and imprisoned in Fushun War Criminals Management Centre, and after he was released lived until 1967.

Had the Qing dynasty continued as an imperial house, Jin Yuzhang would currently head it. He has worked for various local councils on China, and no interest in the restoration of monarchy.

Number of emperors
Traditional political theory holds that there can only be one legitimate Son of Heaven at any given time. However, identifying the "legitimate" emperor during times of division is not always uncontroversial, and therefore the exact number of legitimate emperors depends on where one stands on a number of succession disputes. The two most notable such controversies are whether Cao Wei or Shu Han was the legitimate dynasty during the Three Kingdoms, and at what point the Song dynasty ceased to be the legitimate dynasty in favor of the Yuan dynasty. The Qing view, reported to Europe by the Jesuits, was that there had been 150 emperors from the First Emperor to the Kangxi Emperor. Adding the eight uncontroversial emperors that followed the Kangxi Emperor would give a grand total of 158 emperors from the First Emperor to Puyi.

By one count, from the Qin dynasty to the Qing dynasty, there were a total 557 individuals who at one point or another claimed the title "emperor", several of them simultaneously. Some, such as Li Zicheng, Huang Chao, and Yuan Shu, declared themselves the emperors, Son of Heaven and founded their own empires as a rival government to challenge the legitimacy of and overthrow the existing emperor. Among the most famous emperors were Qin Shi Huang of the Qin dynasty, the emperors Gaozu and Guangwu of the Han dynasty, Emperor Taizong of the Tang dynasty, Kublai Khan of the Yuan dynasty, the Hongwu Emperor of the Ming dynasty, and the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing dynasty.

Power
The emperor's words were considered sacred edicts () and his written proclamations "directives from above" (). In theory, the emperor's orders were to be obeyed immediately. He was elevated above all commoners, nobility and members of the Imperial family. Addresses to the emperor were always to be formal and self-deprecatory, even by the closest of family members.

In practice, however, the power of the emperor varied between different emperors and different dynasties. Generally, in the Chinese dynastic cycle, emperors founding a dynasty usually consolidated the empire through absolute rule: examples include Qin Shi Huang of the Qin, Emperor Gaozu of Han, Emperor Guangwu of Han, Emperor Taizong of the Tang, Kublai Khan of the Yuan, and the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing. These emperors ruled as absolute monarchs throughout their reign, maintaining a centralized grip on the country.

The usual method for widespread geographic power consolidation was to involve the whole family. From generation to generation, the bonds weakened between the branches of family established as local rulers in different areas. After a sufficient period of time, their loyalty could no longer be assured, and the taxes they collected sapped the imperial coffers. This led to situations like the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, who disenfranchised and annihilated the nobilities of virtually all imperial relatives whose forebears had been enfeoffed by his own ancestor, Gaozu.

Apart from a few very energetic monarchs, the emperor usually delegated the majority of decision making to the civil bureaucracy (chiefly the chancellery and the Central Secretariat), the military, and in some periods the censorate. Very paranoid emperors – like Emperor Wu of Han and the Hongwu Emperor of Ming – would cycle through high government officials with alarming frequency, or simply leave top-ranking posts vacant, such that no one could threaten their power. During other reigns, certain officials in the civil bureaucracy wield more powerful than the emperor himself.

The emperor's position, unless deposed in a rebellion, was always hereditary, usually by agnatic primogeniture. As a result, many emperors ascended the throne while still children. During minority reigns, the Empress Dowager (i.e., the emperor's mother) would usually possess significant political power, along with the male members of her birth family. In fact, the vast majority of female rulers throughout Chinese Imperial history came to power by ruling as regents on behalf of their sons; prominent examples include the Empress Lü of the Han dynasty, as well as Empress Dowager Cixi and Empress Dowager Ci'an of the Qing dynasty, who for a time ruled jointly as co-regents. Where Empresses Dowager were too weak to assume power, or her family too strongly opposed, court officials often seized control. Court eunuchs had a significant role in the power structure, as emperors often relied on a few of them as confidants, which gave them access to many court documents. In a few places, eunuchs wielded vast power; one of the most powerful eunuchs in Chinese history was Wei Zhongxian during the Ming dynasty. Occasionally, other nobles seized power as regents.

The actual area ruled by the Emperor of China varied from dynasty to dynasty. In some cases, such as during the Southern Song dynasty, political power in East Asia was effectively split among several governments; nonetheless, the political fiction that there was but one ruler was maintained.

Heredity and succession

The title of emperor was hereditary, traditionally passed on from father to son in each dynasty. There are also instances where the throne is assumed by a younger brother, should the deceased emperor have no male offspring. By convention in most dynasties, the eldest son born to the Empress consort () succeeded to the throne. In some cases when the empress did not bear any children, the emperor would have a child with another of his many wives (all children of the emperor were said also to be the children of the empress, regardless of birth mother). In some dynasties the succession of the empress' eldest son was disputed, and because many emperors had large numbers of progeny, there were wars of succession between rival sons. In an attempt to resolve after-death disputes, the emperor, while still living, often designated a Crown Prince (). Even such a clear designation, however, was often thwarted by jealousy and distrust, whether it was the crown prince plotting against the emperor, or brothers plotting against each other. Some emperors, like the Yongzheng Emperor, after abolishing the position of Crown Prince, placed the succession papers in a sealed box, only to be opened and announced after his death.

Unlike, for example, the Japanese monarchy, Chinese political theory allowed for a change in the ruling house. This was based on the concept of the "Mandate of Heaven". The theory behind this was that the Chinese emperor acted as the "Son of Heaven" and held a mandate to rule over everyone else in the world; but only as long as he served the people well. If the quality of rule became questionable because of repeated natural disasters such as flood or famine, or for other reasons, then rebellion was justified. This important concept legitimized the dynastic cycle or the change of dynasties.

This principle made it possible even for peasants to found new dynasties, as happened with the Han and Ming dynasties, and for the establishment of conquest dynasties such as the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty and Manchu-led Qing dynasty. It was moral integrity and benevolent leadership that determined the holder of the "Mandate of Heaven".

There has been only one lawful female reigning emperor in China, Empress Zetian, who briefly replaced the Tang dynasty with her own Zhou dynasty. Many women, however, did become de facto leaders, usually as Empress Dowager. Prominent examples include Empress Dowager Lü of the Han dynasty, Empress Dowager Liu of the Sung dynasty and Empress Dowager Cixi of the Qing dynasty.

Styles, names and forms of address
 To see naming conventions in detail, please refer to Chinese sovereign

As the emperor had, by law, an absolute position not to be challenged by anyone else, his or her subjects were to show the utmost respect in his or her presence, whether in direct conversation or otherwise. When approaching the Imperial throne, one was expected to kowtow before the emperor. In a conversation with the emperor, it was considered a crime to compare oneself to the emperor in any way. It was taboo to refer to the emperor by his or her given name, even for the emperor's own mother, who instead was to use Huángdì (), or simply Ér (, "son", for male emperor). The given names of all the emperor's deceased male ancestors were forbidden from being written, and could be avoided () by using synonymous characters, homophonous characters, or simply leaving out the final stroke of the tabboo word. This linguistic feature can sometimes be used to date historical texts, by noting which words in parallel texts are altered.

The emperor was never to be addressed as "you". Anyone who spoke to the emperor was to address him or her as Bìxià (, lit. the "Bottom of the Steps"), corresponding to "Your Imperial Majesty"; Huángshàng (, lit. Radiant Highness); Shèngshàng (, lit. Holy Highness); or Tiānzǐ (, lit. "Son of Heaven"). The emperor could also be alluded to indirectly through reference to the imperial dragon symbology. Servants often addressed the emperor as Wànsuìyé (, lit. Lord of Ten Thousand Years). The emperor referred to himself or herself as zhèn (), the original Chinese first-person singular arrogated by the First Emperor, functioning as an equivalent to the "Royal We", or, self-deprecatingly, Guǎrén (, the "Morally-Deficient One", from the longer [Guǎdé zhī rén] ) or Gū (, the "Lonely One", from the longer [Gūjiā] ) in front of his or her subjects.

In contrast to the Western convention of referring to a sovereign using a regnal name (e.g. George V) or by a personal name (e.g. Queen Victoria), a governing emperor was to be referred to simply as Huángdì Bìxià (, Majesty|His/Her Majesty the Emperor) or Dāngjīn Huángshàng (, The Present Emperor Above) when spoken about in the third person. Under the Qing, the emperor was usually styled His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of the Great Qing Dynasty, Son of Heaven, Lord of Ten Thousand Years although this varied considerably. In historical texts, the present emperor was referred to almost universally as Shang (; "Above").

Generally, emperors also ruled with an era name (). Since the adoption of era names by Emperor Wu of Han and up until the Ming dynasty, the sovereign conventionally changed the era name semi-regularly during his or her reign. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, emperors simply chose one era name for their entire reign, and people often referred to past emperors with that title. In earlier dynasties, the emperors were known with a temple name () given after their death. Most emperors were also given a posthumous name (, Shìhào), which was sometimes combined with the temple name (e.g. Emperor Shèngzǔ Rén  for the Kangxi Emperor). The passing of an emperor was referred to as Jiàbēng (, lit. "collapse of the [imperial] chariot") and an emperor that had just died was referred to as Dàixíng Huángdì (), literally "the Emperor of the Great Journey."

Consorts and children
The imperial family was made up of the emperor and the empress () as the primary consort and Mother of the Nation (). In addition, the emperor would typically have several other consorts and concubines (), ranked by importance into a harem, in which the Empress was supreme. Every dynasty had its set of rules regarding the numerical composition of the harem. During the Qing dynasty, for example, imperial convention dictated that at any given time there should be one Empress, one Huang Guifei, two Guifei, four fei and six pin, plus an unlimited number of other consorts and concubines. Although the emperor had the highest status by law, by tradition and precedent the mother of the emperor, i.e., the empress dowager (), usually received the greatest respect in the palace and was the decision maker in most family affairs. At times, especially when a young emperor was on the throne, she was the de facto ruler. The emperor's children, the princes () and princesses (), were often referred to by their order of birth, e.g., Eldest Prince, Third Princess, etc. The princes were often given titles of peerage once they reached adulthood. The emperor's brothers and uncles served in court by law, and held equal status with other court officials (). The emperor was always elevated above all others despite any chronological or generational superiority.

Ethnicity

Recent scholarship is wary of applying present-day ethnic categories to historical situations. Most Chinese emperors have been considered members of the Han ethnicity, but there were also many Chinese emperors who were of non-Han ethnic origins. The most successful of these were the Khitans (Liao dynasty), Jurchens (Jin dynasty), Mongols (Yuan dynasty), and Manchus (Qing dynasty). The orthodox historical view sees these as dynasties as sinicized polities as they adopted Han culture, claimed the Mandate of Heaven, and performed the traditional imperial obligations such as annual sacrifices to Heaven (as Tian or Shangdi) for rain and prosperity. The revisionist New Qing History school, however, argues that the interaction between politics and ethnicity was far more complex and that elements of these dynasties differed from and altered "native Chinese" traditions concerning imperial rule.

Gallery

Early dynasties and Qin

Han and Three Kingdoms

Jin and Northern and Southern dynasties

Sui dynasty

Tang dynasty

Five dynasties

Northern Song dynasty

Southern Song dynasty

Yuan dynasty

Ming dynasty

Qing dynasty

See also

 Chinese emperors family tree
 Ancient – Early – Middle – Late
 Tributary system of China
 List of Chinese monarchs
 Dragon Throne
 Taishang Huang, an honorific for a retired emperor
 Tian (Heaven) / Shangdi (God)
 Tian Xia (All under Heaven)
 Tian Chao (Dynasty of Heaven)
 Tian Kehan (Khan of Heaven)
 Tian Ming (Mandate of Heaven)
 Monarchy of China
 Dynasties in Chinese history
 Emperor at home, king abroad

Notes

References

Further reading

External links

 PRC Qin Shi Huang site

Huangdi

Chinese monarchs
Deified Chinese people
Government of Imperial China
Chinese royal titles

Emperor of China


Miyota  is a brand of mechanical and quartz watch movements manufactured by Citizen Watch Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (CWMJ), a subsidiary of Citizen Watch.

In 1959 Miyota Precision Co., Ltd. was established in the town of Miyota, Nagano Prefecture, Japan as an assembly factory for wristwatches. The company renamed Miyota Co., Ltd. in 1991  and Citizen Miyota Co., Ltd. in 2005 and was merged with Citizen Finetech Co., Ltd. to form Citizen Finetech Miyota Co., Ltd. in 2008 and merged with Citizen Seimitsu Co., Ltd. to form Citizen Finedevice Co., Ltd. in 2015. The company produces watch parts such as crystal oscillators and bearing jewels, but its watch movement manufacturing business has been transferred to Citizen Watch Manufacturing Co., Ltd.

In 2016 a large movement assembly factory (CWMJ Miyota Saku Factory) in Saku, Nagano Prefecture was opened. Most watch brands do not make their own movements in-house, but rather use standard watch movements manufactured by specialized companies like Miyota and ETA SA.

Products

Mechanical movements
Miyota produces various 'standard' and 'premium' grade mechanical movements for automatic wristwatches.

The Miyota 8215 is an entry level non-hacking twenty-one jewel three-hand with date automatic wristwatch movement with a uni-directional winding system (left rotation) with an accuracy of -20 to +40 seconds per day, and a power reserve of over 40 hours. It allows hand winding. The date window may be placed at the 3 o'clock position (cal. 8215-33A) or at 6 o'clock (cal. 8215-36A). The diameter of the movement is 26 mm and the thickness is 5.67 mm. It beats at 21,600 BPH or 3 Hz (6 half-cycles per second). The movement has a 49° lift angle.

The Miyota 9015 is a more sophisticated hacking twenty-four jewel three-hand with date automatic wristwatch movement with a uni-directional winding system (left rotation). The 9015 automatic movement has a beat rate of 28,800 BPH (= 4 Hz), 51° lift angle, 24 jewels and features (automatic) winding, a ≥42 hours power reserve, manual winding and a hack function (stopping the movement of the second hand). The static accuracy rating is −10 to +30 seconds per day (23±2 °C).

Electric movements
Miyota also produces various electric driven movements for quartz watches. These are categorized in standard, slim, small, multi-function, chronograph, and small second chronograph movements.These movements are used by a variety of watch brands such as Bulova, MVMT and Skagen.

Usage
Miyota movements are used by many watch makers besides Citizen for some of their watches, among them  Xeric, Invicta, Boldr, Bulova, Bernhardt, Casio, Corgeut, and Timex.

Gallery

References

External links

Watch movement manufacturers
Citizen Watch

Miyota (watch movement manufacturer)


Michael James Gandolfi (born July 5, 1956) is an American composer of contemporary classical music. He chairs  the composition department at the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC).

Gandolfi  was born in Melrose, Massachusetts. He taught himself guitar as a child, studied for a year at the Berklee College of Music, and then entered NEC, where he earned his bachelor's and master's degrees.

In 1986, he was a Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, where he studied with Leonard Bernstein and Oliver Knussen. He has served on the faculty of Harvard University, Indiana University, and the Phillips Academy at Andover. He was composer in residence with the New England Philharmonic from 1997-2000.

Since 1997, Gandolfi has been the coordinator for the Tanglewood Music Center's composition department.

He has been championed by conductor Robert Spano as one of the "Atlanta School" of American composers, a group that includes Osvaldo Golijov, Jennifer Higdon, Christopher Theofanidis and Adam Schoenberg. Gandolfi's music often contains rock and jazz elements. He sometimes looks to the sciences for his subject matter.

His The Garden of Cosmic Speculation was inspired by Charles Jencks' garden in Scotland that incorporates modern physics into its design. It was nominated for Best Contemporary Classical Composition at the 2009 Grammy Awards, His Trivia, written for the Weilerstein Trio, uses Richard Wolfson's book Simply Einstein as a source.

Gandolfi has also written a significant amount of children's music, including a setting of Carlo Collodi's 1949 version of the Pinocchio story.

His works have been performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, The New World Symphony, the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and many others.

Gandolfi resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is a member of ASCAP.

References

External links
 Michael Gandolfi website

 Interview with Atlanta's CreativeLoafing
 Interview about the premiere of "Plain Song, Fantastic Dances"
 2005 Boston Globe profile by Geoff Edgers
 Berklee alumni profile
 Boston Modern Orchestra Project: Boston Connections concert program notes
 EarRelevant interview
 CNN.com: A rainy bus stop and, three years later, marriage

1956 births
Culture of Boston
Living people
American people of Italian descent
New England Conservatory faculty
American classical composers
21st-century American composers
20th-century American composers

Michael Gandolfi


Pascal's wager is the name for an idea by a person named Blaise Pascal. He said that it is not possible to prove or disprove that God exists and that when it comes to God's existence, we are taking a big risk with our lives. Pascal thought it is better to bet that God exists, and therefore to live so and try to believe in Him. If God doesn't exist, we might lose some things, but if He does exist, we could gain a lot, like eternal happiness in Heaven. If God did not exist it would make no difference. For this reason, it would be better to believe in God, Pascal said. Critics say it's hard to prove God's existence and that true belief should not be based on what we might gain. Despite the criticism, Pascal's wager is still talked about, making people think about belief and whether there is a higher power.

Pascal's argument is that reason and intellect cannot decide the question of whether God exists or not; therefore, it makes sense to choose the option that would benefit us most should we be right, and harm us the least should we be wrong.  Accordingly, the options would be as follows:

1. You may live a religious and moral life and be rewarded by eternal happiness.

2. You may live a pleasure-seeking life and be denied eternal happiness.

3. You may live a holy life but there is actually no God or eternal life.

4. You may live a pleasure-seeking life but it makes no difference because there is no God.

For Pascal, the first of these options is the most important one because it represents the maximum gain and loss. Even if it should turn out that there is no God, the risk of deciding against such a possibility means that we should take that option.

The case against Pascal's wager
The argument from inconsistent revelations shows we have no idea which hell to avoid since many different religions exist with different beliefs about hell.  Within religions there are different denominations and sects with different ideas about heaven and hell.  If we try to avoid the hell that Christians believe in we are at risk from the hell Muslims believe.  So it goes on.  Perhaps God does not like people who accept Pascal's Wager but god may not mind that atheists doubt.  Atheists and believers could both be in trouble or neither could be in trouble.

A moral and loving god that deserves respect will not mind when people doubt and do not believe in it for rational reason.  Such a god will not punish us for critical thinking or for doubting statements from other imperfect human beings.
A moral and loving god that deserves respect will disapprove when believers accept immoral acts that are in religious texts.  One example is Abraham being ready to sacrifice Isaac in the Old Testament. A good god would want Abraham to value compassion more than fear and loyalty and to spare Isaac.  A good god would reward Abraham for sparing Isaac.  A moral and loving god that deserves respect will condemn very many cases of genocide also in the Old Testament and will disapprove when believers imagine genocide can be moral.

Further two of the three Abrahamic religions, Christianity and Islam claim worshiping other gods is sinful. Judaism, however is different, being older and clarifies that as long as you acknowledge the existence of the G-D of Abraham, and don't blaspheme the name, you do not need to worship any deity, and may worship any you like. The loss of understanding and ignoring the Noahide Laws has muddled the issue.

We have no proof that any particular deity is real, but as there is no wrong deity as long as you acknowledge the Abrahamic one, meaning Pascal's Wager stands, belief is the only safe bet.

Importance in history
Pierre de Fermat and Pascal created probability theory. Pascal's Wager was very important for the time, because it did new things with probability theory. It is also one of the first tries to use the concept of infinity, and the first use of decision theory. It was important for other philosophers who developed the ideas of pragmatism and voluntarism.

References

Philosophy

Pascal's Wager


The Day of the Jackal is a book.  Frederick Forsyth wrote it in 1971.  It became a bestseller.  It is about a plot to kill French head of state Charles De Galle in the summer of 1963.

Story

As a result of the French Goverment decision to grant Independence to Algeria, a group of former French officers decide to take over the government.  They decide to kill Charles De Galle.

They hire an international assassin called "the Jackal" to kill de Galle. By accident, the French Secret Service learns of the plot.  The French Secret Service searches for the criminal with help from British MI6. They try to stop the killer and the killer tries not to be caught.

The Jackal almost kills Charles de Galle.

Characters

The Jackal is in his early 30s and has blond hair and cold gray eyes.  He speaks the French language very well. He hides his identity using fake passports. He learned to kill people as a mercenary in the Congo. He only takes very expensive "jobs."

Adaptation
In 1977 a British-French movie was made. It was close to the book.

References

1973 books

The Day of the Jackal


Cima Dodici (Italian for "peak 12", in Cimbrian language Freyjoch) is a mountain on the border of Vicenza in Veneto and Trentino in Trentino Alto Adige, northern Italy, south of the village of Borgo Valsugana. It has an elevation of 2,336 metres. and is the highest peak in Vicenza. At 1,874 m prominence, it is an ultra prominent peak. The key col is near the village of Pergine Valsugana.

Climbing
The most direct access to the summit is from the valley of Galmarara, on the left hand side of the Val d'Assa. From the crossroads of the Galmarara hut (1614 m, reachable by car) the route continues via two old Austrian military roads, the Zoviellostraße (or, alternatively, the path 830) and the Kaiser Karl Straße. Just beyond the Bivio Italy (1987 m), a path leads to the summit.

The climb from Val di Sella is more difficult as it begins lower down the mountain. It goes via trail 211 which, starting from the road of Dosso, goes directly to the summit through the valley of the Twelve and the valley of the Trap. Alternatively, for the trail marked 231, which is detached from the former, it is a gradual climb up the valley of the Twelve to join up with the other path near the Busa Dodese bivouac.

From the summit the view sweeps over the eastern Alps, including the Brenta Dolomites, over to Pale di San Martino. The Adriatic Sea and The Apennines are visible to the south on a clear day.

On the top lie two summit crosses. The first, made from wood, was erected in 1946 to replace an earlier cross laid in 1900. The second, made up of metal pipes, was put up in 1973.

SOIUSA classification
According to the SOIUSA (International Standardized Mountain Subdivision of the Alps) the mountain can be classified in the following way:
 main part = Eastern Alps
 major sector =  Southern Limestone Alps
 section = Venetian Prealps
 subsection = Prealpi Vicentine
 supergroup = Gruppo degli Altipiani
 group = Altopiano dei sette comuni
 subgroup = Dorsale Cima Dodici-Ortigara
 code = II/C-32.I-A.3.b

References

External links
 "Cima Dódici, Italy" on Peakbagger

Mountains of Veneto
Mountains of Trentino
Mountains of the Alps
Mountains of Italy
Vicentine Alps

Cima Dodici


Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Brighton is a Swaminarayan Hindu Temple located in the Portslade area of the city of Brighton and Hove, on the south east coast of England. Inaugurated on 19 September 1999, the 10th Swaminarayan temple to be opened in the UK. The temple comes under the ISSO wing of the Swaminarayan Sampraday

The Murti Pratishta was done by Acharya Maharajshree Tejendraprasad Pande among chants of vedic hymns. The event was attended by the MP and Mayor of Brighton as well as the Indian High Commissioner in the UK.

See also
List of places of worship in Brighton and Hove

Notes

Swaminarayan temples

Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Brighton


A resort town or resort city is an urban area where tourism generates income for most of the people who live there. Such a city usually has one or more actual resorts around it. Sometimes the term is used to refer to a place that is popular with tourists.
The first such cities were created in the early 19th century.

Tourism

Resort town


An impressionist or a mimic is a performer whose act consists of imitating sounds, voices and mannerisms of celebrities and cartoon characters. The word usually refers to a professional comedian/entertainer who specializes in such performances and has developed a wide repertoire of impressions, including adding to them, often to keep pace with current events. Impressionist performances are a classic casino entertainment genre.

Someone who imitates one particular person without claiming a wide range, such as a lookalike, is instead called an impersonator. In very broad contexts, "impersonator" may be substituted for "impressionist" where the distinction between the two is less important than avoiding confusion with the use of "impressionist" in painting and music.

Usually the most "impressive" aspect of the performance is the vocal fidelity to the target – usually a politician or a famous person. Props may also be employed, such as glasses or hats, but these are now considered somewhat old-fashioned and cumbersome: the voice is expected to carry the act.

Because animated cartoons often lampoon famous people (sometimes obliquely), a facility for impressions is one of the marks of a successful voice actor. Many cartoon characters are intended to be recognized by the audience as evoking a specific celebrity, even when not explicitly named. With such indirect references, the entertainment value does not lie so much in the technical achievement of exactly reproducing the voice so much as in merely making it recognizable; the joke lies in the reference to a celebrity, not in its rendition.

In Britain
During the 1970s, British television was awash with impressions of Frank Spencer, a character from the hugely popular British sitcom Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em. This may have been because Frank had such distinctive mannerisms and dress sense which gave performers a number of visual shortcuts to cover for failings in their abilities. For about a decade, no British impressionist's act was complete without Frank.

From the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, Mike Yarwood dominated the impressionist scene, with his own TV shows regularly attracting more than 10 million viewers. Impressionists were very popular on the televised talent shows of the 1970s; Lenny Henry is a notable example of an act that developed from this.

In the 1990s, there was a certain absence of impressionists on television, with the demise of Spitting Image and Rory Bremner mainly concentrating on political figures (notably John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, and also members of the Royal Family). Then, in 1999, came Alistair McGowan's Big Impression, with Alistair McGowan and Ronni Ancona, and in 2002 Dead Ringers. Both of these shows featured impressions of celebrities and television personalities, as well as sporting figures on the former and politicians on the latter. In the same year as Dead Ringers' debut, Channel 4 began broadcasting the adult sketch show Bo' Selecta!, created by and starring comedian Leigh Francis, which spoofed singers, including Craig David, Mel B and Michael Jackson; however, the show focused on making caricatures out of celebrities rather than impersonating them.

The Icons in London, which ran at The Venue in Leicester Square from 4 January to 28 February 2007 and starred the notable impressionist Greg London, is the first original musical to have dealt with impressions in depth. The book was by Greg London, West End theatre director David Taylor and London playwright Paul Miller. In 2009, a new BBC One impressions show, The Impressions Show with Culshaw and Stephenson, was a big hit, starring Jon Culshaw and Debra Stephenson donning Britain's most famous faces. A third series of the programme premiered in October 2011.

In North America
From the late 1960s, Rich Little has been the pre-eminent impressionist, mimicking a wide range of celebrities and politicians. The cast of NBC's Saturday Night Live have performed impressions of politicians and celebrities since the program debuted in 1975. Jimmy Fallon, a Saturday Night Live alumnus and current host of NBC's The Tonight Show, rose to fame with stand-up comedy routines featuring impressions of many celebrities in various scenarios. Fellow Saturday Night Live alumni Darrell Hammond, Bill Hader, and Jay Pharoah have been cited as 'master impressionists', each having performed impressions of over 80 different celebrities on the show. American impressionist Frank Caliendo is also widely known for his impressions of celebrities and personalities such as John Madden and George W. Bush, which he performed while starring in television series MADtv, Fox NFL Sunday and his own show Frank TV.

Many of today's Presidential impressionists have been influenced by Vaughn Meader, whose 1962 impersonations of John F. Kennedy on the album The First Family made him famous.

Impressionists are a major part of animation; many film and television cartoons (especially adaptations of franchises) used impressions of famous celebrities of the era. Voice actors who are or were known for their celebrity impressions include Daws Butler, Mel Blanc, Don Messick, Maurice LaMarche, Tress MacNeille, James Arnold Taylor and Rob Paulsen.

Some impressionists have more specialized acts in the art. For example, Canadian comedian André-Philippe Gagnon, Canadian singer Véronic Dicaire, and American Greg London impersonate singing voices. Canadian Tracey Bell impersonates celebrities. Legends In Concert produces musical impressionist shows known as tribute artist productions.

In India

Nerella Venumadhav imitates world politicians, film artists, singers, poets, scenes from Shakespeare's plays, popular movies including musical notes. Other notable actors include Jayaram, Sivakarthikeyan, and Dileep.

In Hong Kong, China and Taiwan
The entertainment industries in Hong Kong, China and Taiwan are famous for impersonations by singers. Some well-established singers such as Adam Cheng are considered first-generation impersonators. Notable singers/impersonators/comedians include Johnson Lee, Wong Cho Lam, Show Lo, Eason Chan, and JJ Lin and many more.

Bird impressionists
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, prior to the advent of high quality recording, animal and bird impressionists were popular on stage as entertainers. Some prominent performers included Charles Crawford Gorst (USA), Charles Kellogg, Joe Belmont, Edward Avis, Alec Shaw and Percy Edwards (UK).

See also
 Look-alike
 Impersonator
 Celebrity impersonator

References

Entertainment occupations

Comedy genres

Impressionist (entertainment)


An airbase (stylised air base in American English), sometimes referred to as a military airbase, military airfield, military airport, air station, naval air station, air force station, or air force base, is an aerodrome or airport used as a military base by a military force for the operation of military aircraft.

Airbase facilities
An airbase typically has some facilities similar to a civilian airport; for example, air traffic control and firefighting.  Some military aerodromes have passenger facilities; for example, RAF Brize Norton in England has a terminal used by passengers for the Royal Air Force's passenger transport flights.  A number of military airbases may also have a civil enclave for commercial passenger flights, e.g. Beijing Nanyuan Airport (China), Chandigarh Airport (India), Ibaraki Airport (Japan), Burlington International Airport (USA),
Sheikh Ul-Alam International Airport Srinagar (India), Taipei Songshan Airport (Taiwan), Eindhoven airport (The Netherlands).  Likewise, the opposite also occurs; large civilian airports may contain a smaller military airbase within their environs, such as Royal Brunei Air Force Base, Rimba (located within Brunei International Airport).

Some airbases have dispersed aircraft parking, revetments, hardened aircraft shelters, or even underground hangars, to protect aircraft from enemy attack.  Combat aircraft require secure protected storage of aircraft ordnance and munitions.  Other facilities may also include technical buildings for servicing and support of survival equipment (including flying helmets and personal liquid oxygen), flight simulator for synthetic training, servicing facilities for all aircraft systems (airframes, propulsion, avionics, weapons systems) and associated ground support systems (including mechanical transport).  All military airbases will have buildings for military administration (station headquarters, squadron briefing and operations), and larger bases will also include medical and dental facilities for military personnel (and sometimes their dependents), along with dining (mess, informally known as the 'cook house'), accommodation (single living accommodation for junior ranks, Sergeants' and Officers' Mess for senior non-commissioned officers and commissioned officers), recreational facilities (club house for socialising), shopping facilities (NAAFI shops, base exchange, commissary), and sports facilities (gymnasium, swimming pool, sports pitches).  An airbase may be defended by anti-aircraft weapons and force protection troops.

Dispersal airbase
A dispersal (or dispersed) airbase is an airfield that is used for the purpose of dispersing air units in the event of conflict, so to minimise the vulnerability of aircraft and its supporting units whilst on the ground.  Dispersal airbases are not necessarily ordinarily operational in peace time, and may only be activated when needed.  Airfields used as dispersal bases can either be auxiliary military airfields, civilian airports, or highway strips.  Examples of uses of dispersal bases are the Swedish Bas 60 and Bas 90 systems, the British V-Bomber dispersal bases, and NATO's Dispersed Operating Bases in France.

Road airbase

Road airbases are highways constructed to double as auxiliary airbases in the event of war.  Nations known to utilise this strategy are India, Sweden, Finland, Germany (formerly), Singapore, Switzerland, South Korea, Turkey, Poland, Pakistan, and the Czech Republic.  In the case of Finnish road airbases, the space needed for landing aircraft is reduced by means of an arrestor wire, similar to that used on some aircraft carriers (Finnish Air Force uses F-18s, which can land on aircraft carriers).

Aircraft carrier

An aircraft carrier is a type of naval ship which serves as a seaborne airbase, the development of which has greatly enhanced the capabilities of modern air forces and naval aviators.  In many countries, they are now a key part of the military, allowing for their military aircraft to be staged much nearer the area of conflict.  Aircraft carriers were vital to the United States during World War II, and to the United Kingdom in the 1982 Falklands War.  They retain modern roles as well as "several acres of sovereign territory a nation can move about at will", which allows greater flexibility in diplomacy as well as military affairs.  Aircraft carriers may also used in disaster relief.

See also
List of Royal Air Force stations
List of Royal Australian Air Force installations
List of Royal Canadian Air Force stations
List of United States Air Force installations
List of Soviet Air Force bases
Naming of military air bases
Satellite airfield

References

External links

Base

Airports by type

Air base


In December 2010, strong rains in some places in the central part of Visayas and the eastern section of Luzon and Mindanao caused floods in the Philippines. By January 12, 2011, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) pegged those affected at 235,867 families or 1,230,022 people in 1,267 villages in 137 towns and 10 cities in 23 provinces.

Causes
The causes of flood were blamed on a stationary front or called tail-end of a cold front and wind convergence.
PAGASA reported that the cold front would pass at the places of Eastern Visayas and Central Visayas, along with the wind convergence.

Floods

December 2010
The first reports of flooding were at the Bicol Region provinces of Albay and Sorsogon. In late December, Albay governor Joey Salceda had placed his province under a state of emergency after the rains caused the deaths of two people and the displacement of 4,000. He has also issued a mandatory evacuation on residents in affected areas. Fears of lahar flows from the recently active Mayon Volcano had been dismissed. In adjacent Sorsogon, 170 families had already been evacuated.

January 1 to 5
At the start of the new year, the cold front moved to the central part of the Philippines, stretching a rain band from Southern Leyte to Misamis Oriental. PAGASA forecast more rain until January 6 in these areas. At least five deaths have been confirmed in these areas: three children died after being buried by a landslide in Saint Bernard, Southern Leyte, while two others drowned in the same province. The town and five other municipalities in the province had also been without power. Several towns in Eastern Samar and Northern Samar have also reported flooding. Elsewhere, minor landslides were reported in Hinabangan, Samar and Tacloban. In Cebu City, a flight going to Siargao had been canceled, and landslides have also been reported.

More than 2,000 people have been displaced in the Caraga due to the rains. A landslide claimed a life of a person in Monkayo, Compostela Valley, while three girls were reported missing in the area.

January 6 to January 10
On January 6, the cold front that affected Caraga and Eastern Visayas moved to Bicol and brought rains anew. This caused the evacuation of 8,200 people in the region.

By January 6, Butuan, Agusan del Sur towns of Bunawan and San Francisco, and Surigao del Sur were placed under state of calamity as additional seven deaths were recorded. Flood damage to government infrastructure in Caraga was at 141 million Philippine pesos (US$3.2 million).

More than 80% of the evacuees in Albay were sent home after conditions improved on January 7. Classes that were suspended on January 6 reopened the next day except for schools that were used as evacuation centers. Meanwhile, the floods subsided in Davao del Norte and Compostela Valley, but it destroyed the crops of some 2,100 farmers. The NDRRMC pegged the damages to agriculture and infrastructure nationwide at 183 million pesos (US$4.1 million).

January 23 onwards
As of January 23, 2010 the death toll from the floods has risen to 68 with 26 others still missing.
Another causes of flooding was the Wind Convergence.On January 26 heavy rain bought by the northeast monsoon fall down Cebu.

Reaction
Salceda urged PAGASA to assign names to weather systems that are not storms that cause disruptions. Secretary of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Rogelio Singson also said in a DWIZ interview that PAGASA "should draw up a classification system, not just for typhoons but also for massive rainfall." PAGASA for their part had already installed automatic weather stations, and established a community-based early warning system.

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), which had been in a decades-long insurgency, instructed its military arm the New People's Army to help in relief operations. The government and the CCP ended their ceasefire on January 3.

References

2010 disasters in Asia
2011 disasters in Asia
2011 floods
2010-11 floods
December 2010 events

Floods in Asia
January 2011 events
2010 floods

2010–11 Philippine floods


Felix Dothan (Deutsch) (1924-2005) was a full professor of physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He initiated the Talpiot program together with Professor Shaul Yatziv.

Dothan received his B.A. from the Technion and his PhD from the Hebrew University. His research centered on plasma and the technology of high voltage electricity. He won the award of the Israeli Chief of Staff for a lifetime contribution to technology in 2001, especially for founding the Talpiot program.

Biography

Childhood
Felix Dothan was born in 1924 in Zagreb, Croatia. He was the first-born son to Sandor Deutsch, a merchant of building materials, and Lilli, the daughter of Marcus Steiner. He was born in a bilingual environment that used both Serbo-Croatian and German.

Until the summer of 1942, the family was protected from the prosecution of Jews by their business partners that had connections with the heads of government. In August 1942, all the protections were abolished and the remaining Jews of Zagreb, including the family, were arrested. Within a few days, the Croatian Nazis, the Ustaše, arranged a transport to Auschwitz. Fortunately, Deutsch was saved by a Croat and instead of going on the train he was put in three weeks home arrest and was later released. Until the liberation of Croatia in May 1945, Jews were sometimes hunted down, but Deutsch managed to survive by hiding among non-Jews.

Education
After the war, four years in which he was not permitted to study, Deutsch was allowed by the Yugoslavian ministry of education to finish high-school and the matriculation exams, which he passed summa cum laude. The same year he started to study electrical engineering at the University of Zagreb, where he studied for three years. In the fourth year, December 1948, he immigrated to Israel.

In Israel, he worked for half a year in construction and as a fisherman. In Summer 1949, when the studies at the Technion were resumed after the end of the War of Independence, Deutsch was admitted to the third year of studies in the electricity faculty. He finished his studies in the Technion at the beginning of 1951 after facing the challenge of not knowing the Hebrew language and became an engineer.

Scientific work
In February 1951 he started to work as a designer of scientific machinery in Hemed (later Rafael) in Jerusalem. Among other things, he designed an experimental device for the production of Ether, a centrifuge for the separation of heavy water and vacuum pumps. In July 1954 the Hemed institute in Jerusalem was closed and Dothan started to work at the Hebrew University. In July 1951, he married Olga Balog and the couple had two children, Yoav who is an International chess Grand Master and was also the Israeli champion in Correspondence Chess, and Ruth, a family doctor.

In Spring 1957, Deutsch left with his family to Switzerland where he worked for two and a half years as a research engineer in the high voltage laboratory. Among other things, he studied electro-negative gases, built an innovative measuring device (Deutsch bridge) and calculated using advanced mathematical methods the electric field of complicated constructions.

In the beginning of 1960, he came back to the Hebrew University. This time, to the new laboratory for physics of electrically ionized gases (plasma) as an expert for high voltage. Then he started his Ph.D. studies, which he finished in 1965. During his studies, he registered several patents.

After finishing his PhD, he was accepted as a visiting scientist at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, where he stayed for two years. His research dealt primarily with the calculation of the proper magnetic fields for super-conductor magnets. He also designed, built, and explored a switch that is turned on in a nanosecond using a laser pulse.

In 1968 he was appointed as a senior lecturer at the Racah Institute of Physics. In 1980 he was appointed a full professor. In 1968, he changed his family name from Deutsch to Dothan.

Throughout the years 1968 to 1973, he studied various lasers together with professor Shaul Yatziv and professor Pinchas Avivi and built a laser inside a metal pipe instead of a glass tube, which allowed for the creation of more durable lasers. He also studied the dynamics of excitation in molecules of . In 1973–1974 he was a visiting professor at the University of California, Irvine where he built and studied a plasma gun and measures for the rapid circulation of the plasma created in the cannon.

Founding the Talpiot program

During his stay in California, the Yom Kippur War broke. Dothan feared for the fate of Israel and thought about a way to help the country sustain similar challenges in the future. He had an idea: to create a unit of the most talented soldiers drafted in every term. These youngsters will first study intensively to reach the cutting edge of current science and technology and later will invent, design, and build advanced weapons.

When he got back to Israel he wrote, together with his colleague Professor Shaul Yatziv a proposal for the creation of an institute for developing new weapons that listed the core of the idea. In Summer 1974, he submitted the proposal to the minister of defense but the committee that was appointed to discuss the issue did not reach a decision.

In 1975, a group of lecturers at the Hebrew University was organized following the initiative of professor Shaul Patay to help the IDF by various inventions and improving procedures. The group suggested and built several constructions. Dothan contributed a laser gun that was used for training of gunmen in tanks.

In 1978, he met with professor Patay the Chief of Staff Rafael Eitan. Dothan presented his proposal to create a unit of talented youth. Eitan ordered to initiate the program which he called the Talpiot program. The first term was drafted in the Spring of 1979 and operated, as all later terms, as a military unit within the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The cadets studied three years of extended studies of physics and mathematics and during the study breaks joined courses in various units of the IDF. Dothan served as a volunteer as the primary educator of Talpiot between 1979 and 1994. The graduates of the Talpiot program contributed much to the IDF and some of them won the Israel Defense Prize.

Later years
In the years 1974–1981, he worked especially on the dynamics of electric glow discharge. In the years 1981–1982, he was a visiting research fellow at Yale University. In 1986 and in 1991, he was a visiting researcher in CERN in Geneva. In 1992, he retired.

In 1986 he won the President decoration for an important contribution to the defense of Israel and in 2001 he won the Chief of Staff prize for a lifetime contribution in the field of technology.

In the last years of his life, he published four books designed to encourage within the educated public, especially young readers, a greater interest in science. On his last day, he gave an interview on the radio station Kol Israel about science and research. At the end of the interview, he expressed a clear warning about the danger to Israel posed by an Iranian armament with nuclear weapons. Minutes after the interview ended, he lost consciousness.

Patents
 Phonocardioscope with a liquid crystal display
 Starter for inductively coupled plasma tube

References

External links
 Felix Dothan (in Croatian)
 Physics Tree - The Academic Genealogy of Physics
 Inside the IDF's Super-Secret Elite Brain Trust
 Review: 'Israel's Edge' Not the Sharpest

20th-century Israeli physicists
Academic staff of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
People associated with CERN
1924 births
2005 deaths
Israeli electrical engineers
Yugoslav emigrants to Israel
Technion – Israel Institute of Technology alumni
Croatian Jews
Israeli people of Croatian-Jewish descent
Engineers from Zagreb

Felix Dothan


Phytomelanin (phytomelan) is a black, inert, organic material that forms a crust-like covering of some seeds, commonly found in Asparagales and Asteraceae but uncommon in other taxonomic groupings. Phytomelanin is found in most families of the Asparagales (although not in Orchidaceae). It is mechanically hard and forms a resistant substance, although it is more pliable in the developing fruit, hardening later. Chemically it appears to be a polyvinyl aromatic alcohol, and is  thought to be exuded from the hypodermis. It appears to provide resistance to insect predators and desiccation.

References

Bibliography

Asparagales
Asteraceae
Phytochemicals

Phytomelanin


Tropical Storm Erin was the second tropical cyclone to make landfall on the United States in the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season. It was also the fifth named storm of the season. Erin formed in the Gulf of Mexico on August 14 from an area of convection which was becoming stronger. It became stronger and changed into a tropical storm the next day, and on August 16 Erin made landfall near Lamar, Texas and was able to not die as it moved over land across Texas before moving towards the north into Oklahoma. The storm killed at least 17 people and made an already-severe flooding problem in Texas even worse. Another different storm that Erin went into killed at least 18 people.

Storm history

On August 9, an area of convection formed just south of Jamaica in association with a trough of low pressure.  The system moved west-northwestward, and by August 10, the system had a broad surface trough with a little shower activity.  Convection increased on August 11, and by August 12 the contact between a tropical wave and an upper-level low in the area resulted in a large area of disorganized thunderstorms extending from the western Caribbean Sea into the central Bahamas.  Upper-level winds slowly became more helpful for development, and on August 13 a large low pressure area formed about 90 miles (145 km) north-northeast of Cancún, Quintana Roo.  Late on August 14, a NOAA Hurricane Hunters plane that flew into the system reported a small circulation center, but at the time was not well-defined enough to begin tropical cyclone advisories. However, deep convection was kept near the increasingly organizaing center, and at 0300 UTC on August 15 the National Hurricane Center named it as Tropical Depression Five about 425 miles (685 km) southeast of Brownsville, Texas.

In the overnight hours after formation, the storm was disorganized with a shabby and abstracted center of circulation. Located to the south of a mid to upper-level ridge over the southern United States, the system moved to the west-northwest into an area ideal for further strengthening; an upper-level anticyclone formed over the central Gulf of Mexico, and sea surface temperatures along its track were warm.  The cloud pattern became better organized, keeping a large area of convection with curved rainbands and well-established outflow.  Based on reports from Hurricane Hunters, the National Hurricane Center upgraded the depression to Tropical Storm Erin at 1530 UTC on August 13 about 250 miles (400 km) east of Brownsville, Texas.  As it continued northwestward, Erin remained disorganized and was not able to strengthen above minimal tropical storm status.  At 1200 UTC on August 16 the cyclone made landfall near Lamar, Texas as it weakened to tropical depression status.  Three hours later, the National Hurricane Center stopped giving out advisories on Erin as warning responsibility was switched to the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center.

Slowly moving northwestward through Texas, Tropical Depression Erin managed to keep an area of convection near the center, with its widespread, but scattered rainbands dropping moderate to heavy precipitation. By August 17, the winds decreased to 20 mph (30 km/h), with higher gusts. The system turned to the north-northeast on August 18, while heavy bands of thunderstorms continued to spin around the center of Erin.  Early on August 19 after entering Oklahoma, Erin suddenly re-intensified to maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (80 km/h) a short distance west of Oklahoma City.  The Norman, Oklahoma National Weather Service remarked the intensification "[resulted] in what amounts to an inland tropical storm;" at 0930 UTC the system showed an eye-like feature and a spiral rainband, and produced wind gusts of over 80 mph (130 km/h).  However, a few hours later, the system began weakening again, and late on August 19 Erin degenerated into a remnant low pressure area as the circulation dissipated over northeastern Oklahoma. The low continued into southeastern Kansas before dissipating, feeding moisture northward toward a frontal system extending from the Midwestern United States through the Mid-Atlantic States.  Its remnant mid-level circulation then moved eastward across Missouri, Kentucky, and Virginia before losing identity as it moved out into the Atlantic Ocean.

Preparations

Instantly after Erin become a tropical depression, the National Hurricane Center gave out a tropical storm watch from Freeport, Texas to the United States/Mexico border; at the same time, the government of Mexico issued a tropical storm watch southward to Rio San Fernando.  Shortly before achieving tropical storm status, the watch in Texas was upgraded to a tropical storm warning.  Late on August 15, the warning was extended to San Luis Pass, while the watch in Mexico was cancelled.  As Erin made landfall, the warnings was cancelled, and several flood watches and warnings were given out for counties across southeastern Texas.  Upon moving into Oklahoma, flood and flash flood warnings were issued for several counties.

Governor of Texas, Rick Perry activated the National Guard and moved emergency personnel to the areas expected to be affected by the storm.  Erin is expected to bring flooding to the region, which had already been declared a disaster area on August 7, 2007 from widespread flooding on the Nueces River basin; this area remained flooded as of August 15, 2007.  On August 15, oil futures rose to $74.01 (USD), because of fears of Erin disturbing oil supplies produced on Texan coasts, combined with low oil supplies.  As a result of the threat from the storm, Shell Oil Company evacuated 188 workers on oil platforms in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico.

Impact

Texas

By midday on August 15, rainbands with gusty winds began affecting the Texas coastline.  As it made landfall, the storm created heavy rainfall near and to the or northeast of its path, reaching 11.02 inches (280 mm) at a station in Lockwood. The passage of the storm caused several bayous in the Houston area to reach or go beyond flood levels.  Across southeastern Texas, the cyclone generated several funnel clouds, and near Iah a EF0 tornado was reported. Wind gusts from Erin were fairly weak across the state, peaking at 35 mph (55 km/h) at Palacios with an unofficial report of 39 mph (63 km/h) at Jamaica Beach. While moving onto land, the storm produced a small storm surge peaking at 3.22 feet (0.98 m) at Pleasure Pier, which caused minor beach erosion.

In Clear Lake City, heavy rainfall broke down a part of a grocery store roof, killing two workers. The precipitation caused moderate flooding across eastern parts of Harris County; over 400 homes and 40 businesses were flooded.  Flooding across the Greater Houston area briefly stopped the METRORail and closed several state roads. One person drowned after driving into a retention pond.  Several people needed rescue assistance, and in Comal County a car accident killed three people. The movement of the storm temporarily left about 20,000 electrical customers without power, though most outages were quickly restored. In San Antonio, one body was found from a creek and another died after driving into a flooded road and was swept into a drainage ditch in which four others survived. In Sisterdale, two people were killed when they were swept away stalled over Sister Creek  In Taylor County, near Abilene, flooding killed one person and forced the evacuation of about 2,000 people.

Oklahoma
After its unexpected redevelopment over Oklahoma, heavy damages were also reported there. Several communities in central Oklahoma were flooded from the effects of heavy rainfall. Watonga, Kingfisher and Geary were the hardest-hit communities, where many houses and buildings were flooded. Winds in Watonga gusted as high as 82 mph (131 km/h), which damaged numerous trees and power lines and heavily damaged mobile homes. The entire community lost power, also with about 15,000 customers in total in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. A section of Interstate 40 was also closed for a while.

One person was found to have drowned in a cellar in Fort Cobb, and another drowned in Kingfisher.  Another storm-related death took place in Seminole.  Three others were found dead after a weather-related automobile accident also near Carnegie.  Another automobile accident-related death took place in Okmulgee County but it is not sure if Erin is to blame there.

Missouri
Although its surface circulation had dissipated, its upper circulation remained unbroken and created a burst of rainfall early on August 20. The 11.94 inches/303.3 mm that fell at Miller became the wettest Missouri rainfall total associated with a tropical cyclone, or its remains, since at least 1976.  One person died in Sleeper when he drove into flood waters which had swept away a bridge he was trying to navigate onto.  Nine water rescues happened along the Interstate 44 passageway, which was most effected by Erin's rainfall.

Related pages
 2007 Atlantic hurricane season

References

Other websites
 NHC advisory archive on Tropical Storm Erin
 HPC advisory archive  on Tropical Depression Erin

Erin
Erin
Erin
2007 in Texas
2000s in Oklahoma

Tropical Storm Erin (2007)