A  is a story in Japanese folklore which is circulated as true. These urban legends are characterized by originating in or being popularized throughout the country of Japan. These urban legends commonly involve paranormal entities or creatures who encounter and attack humans, but the term can also encompass widespread, non-supernatural rumors in popular culture. Urban legends in the former category rarely include the folklore yōkai, instead of being primarily based on contemporary examples of yūrei (Japanese ghosts). Modern Japanese urban legends tend to occur in schools or urban settings, and some can be considered cautionary tales.

Natural legends

1932 Shirokiya Department Store deaths

On 16 December 1932, the Shirokiya Department Store fire in Tokyo resulted in 14 deaths. During the fire, many saleswomen in kimono were forced onto the roof of the eight-storey building. Rumors later spread that some of these women refused to jump into the safety nets held by firefighters on the ground. Traditionally, women did not wear undergarments with kimono, and they were afraid they would be exposed and ashamed if they jumped. As a result, they died. This news attracted attention from as far away as Europe. It has been alleged that in the aftermath of the fire, department store management ordered saleswomen to wear panties or other underwear with their kimono, and the trend spread.

Contrary to this belief, Shoichi Inoue, a Japanese customs and architecture professor at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies, has denied the story of the ambivalent women with fatal modesty. According to Inoue, most people were saved by firefighters, and the story of women who preferred to die with their modesty intact was fabricated for Westerners. The story has been prevalent in many reference books, even published by the Fire Fighting Agency. Moreover, the Japanese generally believed that the Shirokiya Department Store fire was a catalyst for changing fashion customs, specifically the trend toward wearing Western-style panties. However, there is no evidence to substantiate the belief.

Sony timer
It was rumored that the Sony Corporation installed a device in all of its electronic products that caused them to fail soon after their warranties expired, an illegal form of planned obsolescence.

This has never been substantiated, and while it is unlikely that Sony would explicitly add expiration devices to their hardware, the "Sony Timer" has also been taken to mean that Sony manufactures devices to withstand just enough use to necessitate a new line. At the annual shareholders meeting in 2007, then president Ryoji Chubachi said that he was aware of the term "Sony Timer".

Supernatural legends

Aka Manto ("Red Cloak")

 is described as a male spirit who wears a red cloak and a mask which hides his face, and is said to haunt public or school bathrooms, and often specifically the last stall of female bathrooms. According to legend, individuals using a toilet in such bathrooms may be asked by Aka Manto to choose between red paper or blue paper (in some versions, the options will be red or blue cloaks, rather than paper). Choosing the "red" option results in fatal lacerations or flaying, while choosing the "blue" option results in strangulation or all of the individual's blood being drained from their body. Picking a colour which has not been offered leads to the individual being dragged to an underworld or hell, and in some accounts, choosing "yellow" results in the person's head being pushed into the toilet. Ignoring the spirit, rejecting both options offered by the spirit, escaping the bathroom, or a combination of the aforementioned methods are said to result in the individual's survival.

Cursed Kleenex commercial
In the 1980s, Kleenex released three Japanese commercials for their tissues, featuring a woman played by actress Keiko Matsuzaka dressed in a white dress and a child dressed as a Japanese ogre, sitting on straw. Each advertisement had the song "It's a Fine Day" by Edward Barton and Jane playing in the background. Allegedly, viewers began to file complaints with television stations and with Kleenex's corporate headquarters because they found the commercial unnerving, and some supposedly claimed that the song sounded like a German curse, despite the lyrics being in English. False rumors about the cast and crew were reported and circulated, including that all those involved in filming the commercial met untimely deaths in accidents, that Matsuzaka was institutionalized after a mental breakdown, or that Matsuzaka became pregnant with a demon child. The demon child is actually a depiction of the character Ten from the anime Urusei Yatsura.

The Curse of the Colonel

The  is supposedly suffered by the Hanshin Tigers baseball team and cited as the cause of their poor performance in the Japan Championship Series. In 1985, fans of the Hanshin Tigers celebrated their team's first and only victory of the series and, in their excitement, threw a statue of Colonel Sanders (the founder and mascot of KFC) into the Dōtonbori River. For several years after the incident, the team failed to win the Championship again, and some fans believed the team would never do so again until the statue was recovered.

The legend is similar in nature to the Curse of the Bambino.

Ghost taxi passengers
A Japanese urban legend dating back to the Taishō period, that saw a significant resurgence after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, is a trend of taxi drivers who say that they picked up a passenger, often drenched or cold, who then disappears before reaching their destination, often leaving behind evidence of their presence such as a puddle, a glove, or occasionally a fare. Because the passenger typically disappears before reaching the destination, the taxi driver is left to pay the fare themselves; however, those with a strong respect for the dead do not mind paying the fare. Ghost passengers are said to often visit homes of loved ones, and many are young people who feel they died too young. Sometimes the passengers seem unaware that they are dead. Yuka Kudo at Tokyo Gakugei University interviewed over 100 taxi drivers in an effort to study the phenomenon, but many refused to answer. Ishinomaki psychiatrist Keizo Hara and others have suggested that the ghost passengers are grief hallucinations or a sign of collective post-traumatic stress disorder. Parallels have been drawn between Japanese ghost passengers and Western vanishing hitchhikers.

Gozu ("Cow Head")
, also known as "Ox Head", is a Japanese urban legend about a fictional story called "Cow Head". Supposedly the "Cow Head" story is so horrifying that people who read or hear it are overcome with fear so great that they tremble violently for days on end until they die. The full story was broken up into fragments that when read individually are not lethal, but still terrify and bring great pain and suffering upon those who read or listen to their words.

Gozu was sometimes rumored to be an unpublished piece written by the famous science fiction author Sakyo Komatsu, but there is no evidence to link the author to the legend. A Ukrainian folktale called Cow's Head exists, about a woman who receives good fortune by offering food and shelter to a disembodied cow's head that visits her one night.

Hanako-san of the Toilet (Toire no Hanako-san)

Hanako-san, or , is a legend about the spirit of a young girl named Hanako who haunts school bathrooms. Several variations of the legend exist: in one, Hanako-san is the ghost of a girl who committed suicide during an air raid in World War II; in another, she committed suicide after being bullied by other students. Rumors and legends about Hanako-san have achieved notable popularity in Japanese primary schools, where children may challenge classmates to try and summon Hanako-san.

Inokashira Park curse
In Inokashira Park, Tokyo, there is a shrine to the goddess Benzaiten, as well as Inokashira Pond, a lake where visitors can rent rowing boats. There is an urban legend which states that if a couple rides on a boat together, their relationship will end prematurely. In some versions of the legend, happy couples who visit the park will be cursed by the jealous Benzaiten, which will cause them to break up.

Jinmenken ("Human-Faced Dog")
 are dogs with human faces that are said to appear at night in Japanese urban areas. They are rumored to be able to run along highways at extremely high speeds, which allows them to overtake cars and then look back at drivers with their human faces. Jinmenken can talk, but prefer to be left alone. In some stories, which are often presented as comedic, wherein individuals may encounter a dog rummaging through garbage, only for the dog to look up, revealing itself as a jinmenken with its human face, and say something like "leave me alone!" (or "hottoite kure!"). Explanations for jinmenken include that they are genetic experiments, or that a jinmenken is the ghost of a human who was struck by a car while walking a dog.

The concept of dogs with human faces dates back to at least as early as 1810, when a "human-faced puppy" was reportedly exhibited at a misemono. Rumors about jinmenken may also have circulated among surfers in the 1950s, but the modern concept of the legend is first known to have spread across Japan in 1989. Additionally, jinmenken, or human-faced dogs, have made appearances in various media. A dog with a human face appears in the 1978 American film Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and jinmenken have been featured in the anime and video game franchise Yo-kai Watch.

Kisaragi Station

The Kisaragi Station is a Japanese urban legend originating on the 2channel message boards in 2004 and revolves around a mysterious railway station somewhere in Shizuoka Prefecture. Shared as an anecdote in the thread "Post About Strange Occurrences Around You: Thread 26", the tale recounted how the anonymous user – who was later identified as "Hasumi" – awoke on a train with all other passengers asleep. As Hasumi tried to figure out what had happened, she posted about the strange occurrence on 2channel, receiving advice from other users on the thread. The trip was meant to be her typical commute to work on the Enshū Railway Line, but the train was travelling in an unknown direction, and its driver and conductor were completely unreachable, making it impossible for Hasumi to figure out where she was headed.

After an hour, the train stopped at Kisaragi Station, late at night. Hasumi left the train, finding the station to be deserted. She asked users on the 2channel thread she had written about what to do, and everyone urged her to escape, but Hasumi chose to stay at the station. Wandering around the station premises, Hasumi attempted to locate a taxi to no success. She then located a telephone booth, dialled her parents and requested that they collect her, but they were unable to determine her location – Kisaragi Station appeared on no maps. Her parents urged her to call the emergency services and inform them that she was lost, but when she did, the authorities assumed it was a prank call.

Suddenly, the station's surroundings changed. A bell inside the station began tolling ominously, a loud drumbeat was heard, and even the physical qualities of the landscape began to change. Hasumi climbed down onto the tracks in an effort to flee, but was interrupted by a lone voice that shouted "Hey! Don't walk on the track, that's dangerous!" Expecting a station attendant to have found her, Hasumi turned around to see a man with only one leg, who immediately vanished. Terrified, Hasumi ran along the train tracks into a tunnel, but tripped and injured herself.

She soon reached the end of the tunnel and was welcomed by a friendly man who offered a ride to safety – unusual for this hour and also at such a location. With no options left, Hasumi returned to the station with the man, and boarded another train. However, this train continued along the line, deeper and deeper into a remote area of the Japanese Alps, and the once-friendly man went completely silent and didn't acknowledge Hasumi's presence.

Hasumi's final post on the 2channel thread was "My battery's almost run out. Things are getting strange, so I think I'm going to make a run for it. He's been talking to himself about bizarre things for a while now. To prepare for just the right time, I'm going to make this my last post for now." After that, she vanished without a trace.

Kokkuri

 or  is a Japanese game which became popular during the Meiji era. The game is similar to the use of a Ouija board, though rather than using a store-bought board with letters and a planchette, players write down hiragana characters and place their fingers on a coin, before asking "Kokkuri-san" a question. This is a popular game in Japanese high schools.

Legends about the game include Kokkuri-san only telling players the date of their death, while others say that one can ask Kokkuri-san anything, but one must finish the game either by saying goodbye to Kokkuri-san before leaving the table or by disposing of the kokkuri game utensils within a specific time limit, such as spending the coin or using up the ink in pen used to write the hiragana.

Kuchisake-onna ("Slit-Mouthed Woman")

 is an urban legend about the malevolent spirit, or onryō, of a woman with a mutilated mouth. She is said to partially cover her face with a mask or object and reportedly carries a sharp tool of some kind, such as a knife or a large pair of scissors. According to popular legend, she will ask potential victims if they think she is attractive. If an individual responds with "no", she will kill them with her weapon. If they say "yes", she will then reveal that the corners of her mouth have been slit from ear to ear. If the individual again responds that she is unattractive, or if they scream in fright, she will kill them with her weapon. If they say "yes", she will cut the corners of their mouth in such a way that mimics her disfigurement. Attempting to flee Kuchisake-onna will also result in death; to survive an encounter with her, it is said that individuals may answer her question with a response that confuses her, describing her appearance as "average", distracting her with money or hard candy (specifically the traditional Japanese variety bekko ame), or saying the word "pomade" three times.

Kunekune ("Wriggling body")

 is an urban legend which concerns distant apparitions seen on widely extended rice or barley fields on hot summer days. A kunekune refers to an indiscernible white object, similar in appearance to a tall, slender strip of paper or a textile sheet, that shimmers and wiggles as if moved by wind, even on windless days. According to legend, anyone who tries to get a closer look at it is driven insane or dies when touching it. Early reports of kunekune appeared on several websites simultaneously. The kunekune legend may be based on local ghost stories about scarecrows coming to life at night (or when someone stares at them too often). Alleged encounters of kunekune are likely a misinterpretation of either a scarecrow wiggling slightly in the wind or wick drains planted to drain water from the inner ground to robust the soft ground.

Living dolls

One contemporary legend in Japan is that of "living dolls", described by American folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand as dolls that "acquire independent spirits as children play with them and talk to them." If a so-called living doll is mistreated or discarded by its owner, it is said that it may seek revenge against them. An example of this legend tells of a "three-legged" Licca-chan doll, left deformed and discarded in a public toilet. After being discovered by a woman who threw it aside in disgust, the doll cursed her, causing her to lose her sanity and eventually die in a mental hospital.

Red Room Curse

The  is an early Japanese Internet urban legend about a red pop-up ad which announces a forthcoming death of the person seeing it on their computer. A common version of the story says that, while browsing the Internet the victim will be presented with a pop-up of a black text saying "Do you like — ?" (あなたは〜好きですか?) on a red background. After trying to close it, the pop-up will reappear, this time the text saying "Do you like the red room?" (あなたは赤い部屋が好きですか?). Then, the screen will turn red, displaying a list of names of the Red Room's victims. The target will sense a mysterious presence behind them, after which they will lose consciousness. They will later be found dead in their home, with the walls of the room in which they are discovered "painted red with blood".

It is thought to originate from a 1990s Flash animation horror animation of the late 1990s that tells the story of the legend.

Square (or the Corner Game)

 is an urban legend game circulated in East Asia. The game requires four players and can allegedly summon a supernatural entity.

Teke Teke (or Kashima Reiko)

 is the ghost of a young woman or schoolgirl who fell on a railway line, which resulted in her body being cut in half by a train. She is an onryō, or a vengeful spirit, who lurks around urban areas and train stations at night. Since she no longer has her legs, she travels on either her hands or elbows, dragging her upper torso along the ground and making a scratching or "teke teke"-like sound. If she encounters a potential victim, she will chase them and slice them in half at the torso with a scythe or another bladed weapon.

In some versions of the Teke Teke story, the spirit is identified as Kashima Reiko, who is said to have died when her legs were severed from her body by a train. According to legend, her legless ghost haunts bathrooms, asking occupants if they know where her legs are. If a questioned individual replies with an answer that Kashima deems unacceptable, she will tear or cut their legs off. Individuals may escape Kashima by replying that her legs are on the Meishin Expressway, or by answering her question with the phrase "kamen shinin ma", which translates to "mask death demon".

References

Further reading

External links
 Scary Japanese Urban Legends
 Snopes

Japanese folklore

Japanese urban legends


All Saints' Church, Northampton is a Church of England parish church in the centre of Northampton. The current church was largely built after a fire and was consecrated in 1680. It is a Grade I listed building.

History
Simon de Senlis' church of All Hallows, Northampton, England, lasted with medieval alterations until 20 September 1675 when much of the old town was destroyed by the Great Fire of Northampton. The fire began in St Mary's Street, near the castle, and the inhabitants fled to the Market Square, but then were forced to evacuate, leaving the buildings to burn, including All Hallows:

The new church

After the fire, Charles II gave a thousand tons of timber for the rebuilding of All Hallows' Church, and one tenth of the money collected for the rebuilding of the town was allocated to the rebuilding of All Hallows', under the management of the King's Lynn architect, Henry Bell and Edward Edwards. Bell was resident in Northampton at the time, and he set to rebuild the church in a manner similar to Sir Christopher Wren's designs.

The central medieval tower survived the fire, as did the crypt. The new church of All Saints' was built east of the tower in an almost square plan, with a chancel to the east and a north and south narthex flanking the tower.

Visitors enter the church through the existing tower into a barrel vaulted nave. At the centre is a dome, supported on four Ionic columns, which is lit by a lantern above. The barrel vault extends into the aisles from the dome in a Greek-cross form, leaving four flat ceilings in the corners of the church. The church is well lit by plain glass windows in the aisles and originally there was a large east window in the chancel, that is now covered by a reredos. The plasterwork ceiling is finely decorated, and the barrel vaults are lit by elliptical windows.

Present day
All Saints' sits in the Catholic tradition of the Church of England. The parochial church council passed Resolutions A, B and C in 1993, after the Church of England voted to allow the ordination of women to the priesthood. As the parish rejects the ordination of women, it received alternative episcopal oversight from the Bishop of Richborough (currently Norman Banks).

All Saints' is open from 9:00am to 5:00pm throughout the year, with extended opening on days with choral services.

Architecture

Built in the style of Christopher Wren's London churches rebuilt after the Great Fire of London, it has in the past been mistakenly attributed to him. The rebuilding of the city churches was initiated by financing of the Rebuilding of London Act 1670. Wren, as Surveyor General of the King's Works, undertook the operation, and one of his first London churches was St Mary-at-Hill.

The interior space of St Mary-at-Hill is roughly square in plan, and of a similar size to All Saints'. To the west is the tower, again flanked by a north and south narthex. Wren spanned the square space by a barrel vault in a Greek-cross plan, with a dome at the centre, supported on four columns. If Henry Bell drew his inspiration from any one of Wren's churches, this would be the one. The barrel-vaulting though in All Saints' is much flatter than in St Mary-at-Hill, which has semi-circular vaulting. The dome in All Saints' is more hemi-spherical, and the columns at St Mary-at-Hill are Corinthian with fluting. The Mayoral Seat dominates the pews on the south side, and in the north aisle there is a Consistory Court. Icons of Saint Peter and Saint Katharine are situated at the east end before the steps in to the Quire. These were painted for the church in 2001 to reflect the parish boundaries, which include the site of St Katharine's Church (demolished) and St Peter's Church.

The rebuilt church of All Saints' was consecrated and opened in 1680. In 1701, a large portico was added to the west end, in front of the narthex, very much in the style of the Inigo Jones portico added to Old St Paul's Cathedral in the 1630s. The All Saints' portico was added as a memorial to Charles II's contribution to the rebuilding of the church after the fire, and a statue of him was erected above the portico, dressed in a Roman tunic. At 12:00pm on Oak Apple Day each year, the choir sings a Latin hymn to Charles II from the roof as the statue is wreathed in oak leaves by the Mayor of Northampton; a similar ceremony takes place on Ascension Day at 7:00am.

The church building underwent some restoration in the 1970s under the direction of the Vicar at the time, Rev. Victor Mallan.

In 2006, the present Chancel Organ was installed (replacing the previous instrument from 1981 which had come to the end of its useful life) to accompany the choirs. Alongside this, a new ring of 10 bells in the key of E, replacing a heavier ring of 8 bells which dated from 1782, and which, by all accounts, weren't very easy to ring. In 2008, the Narthex, Sacristy and lavatories were refurbished. A privately leased coffee shop (All Saints' Bistro) operates from its north and south areas, and on the space under the portico. The north end of the coffee shop is named the John Clare Lounge, after the poet who sat outside this space, composing his poems.

Music

Choir

The choir of All Saints' Church was formed in the 1100s for the old church of All Hallows', lost in 1675. There are currently three groups which make up the choirs: the Boys Choir, the Girls Choir and the Choral Scholars and Lay Clerks. The boys choir ranges in age from 7 to 15, and the girls from 8 to 18. The lower parts consist of Choral Scholars with an age range of 15 to 18, some having previously sung in the treble line, and Lay Clerks.

These choirs sing at 5 choral services a week, including Sunday Mass and Evensong throughout the week.

Instruments
The church has 6 instruments: 3 pipe organs, and 3 pianos:

West organ
Built by J. W. Walker & Sons Ltd in 1982/3, using 6 ranks of pipes from the previous organ by William Hill & Sons 1872/1884/Brindley & Foster 1912/1926, and the front part of the main case is from an instrument by Thomas Swarbrick, c.1730. The instrument is the church's largest, with 40 stops spread over 3 manuals and pedals.

Chancel organ
Built by Alfred Monk, rebuilt by Hill, Norman & Beard in 1939 originally for St Andrew's 'Scotch' Church Bournemouth, it was removed in 2004 and moved to All Saints' with new ranks by Kenneth Tickell, who installed it in 2006. It has 33 stops spread over 3 manuals and pedals.

Memorial Chapel organ
Built by J. W. Walker & Sons Ltd in 1983, and consists of 2 ranks (Gedackt and Diapason), which can be combined in various ways using 10 stops.

Notes

References

External links

 All Saints Church, Northampton

Churches completed in 1680
Church of England church buildings in Northampton
Northampton
17th-century Church of England church buildings
1680 establishments in England
Church buildings with domes
Anglo-Catholic church buildings in Northamptonshire
Northampton

All Saints' Church, Northampton


Adam Whitney Savage (born July 15, 1967) is an American special effects designer and fabricator, actor, educator, and television personality and producer, best known as the former co-host (with Jamie Hyneman) of the Discovery Channel television series MythBusters and Unchained Reaction. His model work has appeared in major films, including Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones and The Matrix Reloaded. He hosts the TV program Savage Builds, which premiered on the Science Channel on June 14, 2019. He is most active on the platform Adam Savage's Tested, which includes a website and a YouTube channel.

Early life
Savage was born in New York City and raised in North Tarrytown, New York (renamed Sleepy Hollow in 1996). He graduated from Sleepy Hollow High School in 1985. His maternal grandfather Cushman Haagensen was a surgeon who pioneered breast cancer surgery. His father, Whitney Lee Savage (1928–1998), was a painter, filmmaker, and animator known for his work on Sesame Street. The Clay Center in Charleston, West Virginia, features some of his work in its permanent collection. Whitney Lee was also known for directing the 1969 underground short film Mickey Mouse in Vietnam. His mother, Karen, was a psychotherapist. Savage was the second youngest of six children, with the four older children coming from his parents' previous marriages. He has two older brothers, two older sisters, and one younger sister. His sister Kate Savage is also an artist.

Savage began acting as a child and had five years of acting school. His early credits include voicing animated characters that his father produced for Sesame Street, Mr. Whipple's stock boy Jimmy in a Charmin commercial, and a drowning young man saved by a lifeguard in the 1985 Billy Joel music video "You're Only Human (Second Wind)."

Savage abandoned acting by the time he was 19. "I had passed on that in favor of doing stuff with my hands," he said. He describes MythBusters as "the perfect marriage of two things, performance, and special effects."  As a teenager in Sleepy Hollow, Savage routinely visited the local bike shop to have flat tires fixed. The shop showed him how to do the repairs himself. From this experience, Savage said, "I realized you could take a bike apart and put it back together and it wasn't that hard… I've been building and putting bicycles together since then."

Savage broke his neck on his eighteenth birthday in a swimming accident, an injury he survived without suffering long-term consequences.

Career

Savage has worked as an animator, graphic designer, carpenter, projectionist, film developer, television presenter, set designer, toy designer, and gallery owner. He worked as a model maker on Galaxy Quest, Bicentennial Man, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, The Mummy, The Matrix Reloaded, and Space Cowboys, among others. Savage played the role of a helpful engineer in the 2001 film Ever Since the World Ended and the part of an army surplus store owner who sells a man a rocket engine for his pickup truck in 2006 in The Darwin Awards, which also featured MythBusters co-star Jamie Hyneman. He appeared with Hyneman on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation on the May 1, 2008, episode "The Theory of Everything." He appears as a special effects artist in the "making of" material for The Matrix Revolutions, where he discusses some of the miniature effects used and the difficulties involved. He previously taught advanced model making in the Department of Industrial Design at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.

Savage has become a regular presenter at magician James Randi's annual skeptics conference, The Amaz!ng Meeting, since first appearing in January 2006. Savage credits Michael Shermer with introducing him to the skeptical community. Shermer interviewed him for Skeptic Magazine in 2006. He also appeared in the United Kingdom, giving a talk at the first Amaz!ng Meeting London from October 3 to 4, 2009, hosted at the Mermaid Conference Centre, Blackfriars. Savage was a featured performer at the three w00tstock v1.x shows in 2009 and appeared in four w00tstock v2.x shows in 2010. He also appeared as a guest on Diggnation 220th show. Savage has also been a regular guest speaker at the annual Maker Faire since 2008, speaking on different topics such as his obsession with the dodo bird, problem-solving, and taking questions from the audience members about MythBusters, among other topics. Savage hosted an episode of the Discovery Channel series Curiosity, in which he speculated whether humans could live forever. Various topics, such as limb regeneration, organ printers, and even age reversal, are discussed during the program. In 2011, Savage appeared as "Dan" in a short film directed by Frank Ippolito titled Night of the Little Dead. On November 25, 2011, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Twente (Enschede, Netherlands) for popularizing science and technology.

Savage and Hyneman were judges on the game show Unchained Reaction, which premiered in March 2012. Savage is an occasional guest host for lecture events at the San Francisco-based non-profit City Arts & Lectures and delivered a keynote address at the South by Southwest conference on March 10, 2014. On March 24, 2012, Savage appeared as a featured speaker at the first Reason Rally in Washington, D.C. On May 18, 2012, Savage was the commencement speaker at Sarah Lawrence College. Savage co-hosts the weekly podcast Still Untitled: The Adam Savage Project. The project launched on June 5, 2012, and is in the format of a conversation between Savage, tested.com editors-in-chief Will Smith and Norman Chan, and Simone Giertz about topics from science and movies to DIY and work ethic. Episodes typically last 3045 minutes. Savage is a co-owner, editor, and contributor at tested.com.

In 2017, Savage toured with Michael Stevens on the Brain Candy LIVE! tour. In April 2017, Savage played the role of a mission specialist in the episode Caliban's War of the series The Expanse. In June 2017, Savage was named "Humanist of the Year" by the American Humanist Association at their annual conference. In October 2017, Savage played a cameo as a merchant selling blood bags in the Blade Runner 2049 short film prequel 2048: Nowhere to Run. In April 2018, Discovery Channel announced that Savage would host and produce a new series called MythBusters Jr., which focused on a group of young scientists tasked with completing various experiments of challenges using STEAM skills. In July 2018, Savage created and acted in the short film A Farewell To Arms in collaboration with Weta Workshop. The same year, he won the Heinz Oberhummer Award for Science Communication. On February 20, 2020, SiliCon (formally Silicon Valley Comic Con) appointed Savage as its Creative Director, succeeding Steve Wozniak.

In 2022, it was announced that Savage became godfather of the Discovery Princess cruise ship.

In 2023 Savage created a box for Sir Isaac Newton's death mask held by the Royal Society.

MythBusters

Savage was in MythBusters from 2003 to 2016. His role with his co-hosts was to disprove or confirm myths through testing and experiments done at different scales. His demeanor on MythBusters is animated and energetic, providing a foil to Jamie Hyneman's more reserved straight-man persona. Savage and Hyneman were the sole hosts of the show for the first season of MythBusters. They introduced members of Hyneman's staff in the second season who began to appear regularly; Kari Byron, Tory Belleci, and welder Scottie Chapman appeared in the second season. In the third season, Grant Imahara, a robot builder and model maker, replaced Chapman. Filmed in San Francisco and edited in Artarmon, New South Wales, Australia, MythBusters aired 282 total episodes before its cancellation at the end of its 2016 season in March. On November 15, 2017, following the conclusion of  the competition spin-off MythBusters: The Search, Discovery's sister network Science Channel revived the series with new hosts Jon Lung and Brian Louden.

In 2019, Savage hosted the spin-off series Mythbusters Jr., featuring a team of teenagers skilled in STEAM topics.

Other work
In 2019 Savage published his first book, Every Tool's a Hammer: Life Is What You Make It, exploring his approach to making.

Personal life
Savage married Julia Ward on September 11, 2004. He has twin sons from a previous relationship. He wears hearing aids in both ears due to congenital otosclerosis.

In the late 1980s, Savage lived at Eighth Avenue and Carroll Street in Park Slope, Brooklyn. He later moved in with his parents for less than a year, working for a graphic design firm in Manhattan. A close friend living on Broderick Street in San Francisco asked him to become his roommate, and Savage moved to San Francisco in August 1990. He continues to live in San Francisco.

In a 2011 interview, Savage has publicly identified himself as an atheist. In a 2019 Twitter post, he said he was an agnostic. In a YouTube video dated December 14, 2020, Savage stated that he had married 20 to 25 couples over 25 years and implied that he was an ordained minister with the Universal Life Church, a group whose only belief is "Do that which is right."

Savage has a lifelong interest in costume making and cosplay: "I remember my mom getting me a Jaws costume when Jaws came out… and wearing a Batman costume. Back then, everyone dressed up as hobos." He strives for authenticity with his costumes. While in high school, he and his father made a suit of armor out of aluminum roof flashing with seven hundred rivets. "I wore it to school and passed out from heat exhaustion in math class. I woke up in the nurse's office, and the first thing I said was, 'Where's my armor?'"

In June 2020, Savage's younger sister, Miranda Pacchiana, filed a lawsuit against him, alleging that Savage repeatedly raped her when they were both children. Savage responded, "While I hope that my sister gets the help she needs to find peace, this needs to end. For many years, she has relentlessly and falsely attacked me and other members of my family to anyone who will listen [...] I will fight this groundless and offensive lawsuit and work to put this to rest once and for all." The siblings' mother came to Adam's defense, stating, "It makes me very sad to say this, but my daughter suffers from severe mental health challenges, and it's devastating that she's putting Adam and our entire family through this. Adam is a good man, and I support him completely." The lawsuit was settled through mediation on May 24, 2021, and dismissed the next day. Details of the settlement were not made public. Pacchiana removed her original blog post about Savage, which had precipitated the lawsuit.

References

External links

 Adam Savage's biography from the Discovery Channel

1967 births
Academy of Art University faculty
American artists
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The Netscape Public License (NPL) is a free software license, the license under which Netscape Communications Corporation originally released Mozilla.

Its most notable feature is that it gives the original developer of Mozilla (Netscape, now a subsidiary of AOL), the right to distribute modifications made by other contributors under whatever terms it desires, including proprietary terms, without granting similar rights to these other contributors in respect to contributions made by the original developer.  This allowed the release of the Netscape 6 and later versions as proprietary software.

This asymmetry with respect to rights has led to criticism of the license by many members of the open source and free software movements: the Free Software Foundation acknowledged it as a free-software license but one to be avoided, and the Open Source Initiative either rejected it entirely or was not asked to review it. The FSF adds that it's not possible to combine software obtained under the license with software obtained under the GPL.

The Mozilla Public License version 1.1 is similar (and has limited "file-level copyleft"), but lacks the asymmetry in rights. Time Warner, exercising its rights under the Netscape Public License, and at the request of the Mozilla Foundation, relicensed all code in Mozilla that was under the Netscape Public License (including code by other contributors) to an MPL 1.1/GPL 2.0/LGPL 2.1 tri-license, thus removing the GPL-incompatibility.

References

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Igor Rostislavovich Shafarevich (; 3 June 1923 – 19 February 2017) was a Soviet and Russian mathematician who contributed to algebraic number theory and algebraic geometry. Outside mathematics, he wrote books and articles that criticised socialism and other books which were described as anti-semitic.

Mathematics
From his early years, Shafarevich made fundamental contributions to several parts of mathematics
including algebraic number theory, algebraic geometry and arithmetic algebraic geometry. In particular, in algebraic number theory, the Shafarevich–Weil theorem extends the commutative reciprocity map to the case of Galois groups, which are central extensions of abelian groups by finite groups.

Shafarevich was the first mathematician to give a completely self-contained formula for the Hilbert pairing, thus initiating an important branch of the study of explicit formulas in number theory. Another famous (and slightly incomplete) result is Shafarevich's theorem on solvable Galois groups, giving the realization of every finite solvable group as a Galois group over the rationals.

Another development is the Golod–Shafarevich theorem on towers of unramified extensions of number fields.

Shafarevich and his school greatly contributed to the study of algebraic geometry of surfaces. He started a famous Moscow seminar on classification of algebraic surfaces that updated the treatment of birational geometry around 1960 and was largely responsible for the early introduction of the scheme theory approach to algebraic geometry in the Soviet school. His investigation in arithmetic of elliptic curves led him, independently of John Tate, to the introduction of the group related to elliptic curves over number fields, the Tate–Shafarevich group (usually called 'Sha', and denoted as 'Ш', the first Cyrillic letter of his surname).

He contributed the Grothendieck–Ogg–Shafarevich formula and to the Néron–Ogg–Shafarevich criterion.

With former student Ilya Piatetski-Shapiro, he proved a version of the Torelli theorem for K3 surfaces.

He formulated the Shafarevich conjecture, which stated the finiteness of the set of Abelian varieties over a number field having fixed dimension and prescribed set of primes of bad reduction. The conjecture was proved by Gerd Faltings as a partial step in his proof of the Mordell conjecture.

Shafarevich's students included Yuri Manin, Alexey Parshin, Igor Dolgachev, Evgeny Golod, Alexei Kostrikin, Suren Arakelov, G. V. Belyi, Victor Abrashkin, Andrey Todorov, Andrey N. Tyurin, and Victor Kolyvagin.

He was a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in the department of Mathematics, Physics and Earth Sciences.
In 1960, he was elected a Member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. In 1981, he was elected as a foreign member of the Royal Society.

In 2017, Shafarevich was awarded the Leonhard Euler Gold Medal by the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Soviet politics
Shafarevich came into conflict with the Soviet authorities in the early 1950s but was protected by Ivan Petrovsky, the Rector of Moscow University. He belonged to a group of Pochvennichestvo-influenced dissidents who endorsed the Eastern Orthodox tradition. Shafarevich published a book, The Socialist Phenomenon (French edition 1975, English edition 1980), which was cited by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in his 1978 address to Harvard University.

In the 1970s, Shafarevich, with Valery Chalidze, Grigori Podyapolski and Andrei Tverdokhlebov, became one of Andrei Sakharov's human rights investigators and so was dismissed from Moscow University. Shafarevich opposed political interference in universities.

The Socialist Phenomenon
Shafarevich's book The Socialist Phenomenon, which was published in the US by Harper & Row in 1980, analyzed numerous examples of socialism from ancient times to various medieval heresies and a variety of modern thinkers and socialist states. From those examples, he claimed that all the basic principles of socialist ideology derive from the urge to suppress individualism. The Socialist Phenomenon consists of three major parts:

 Chiliastic Socialism: Identifies socialist ideas amongst the ancient Greeks, especially Plato, in numerous medieval heretic groups such as the Cathars, Brethren of the Free Spirit, Taborites, Anabaptists, in various religious groups during the English Civil War, in modern writers such as Thomas More, Tommaso Campanella and numerous Enlightenment writers in 18th-century France.
 State Socialism: Describes the socialism of the Incas, the Jesuit state in Paraguay, Mesopotamia, Egypt and China.
 Analysis: Identifies three persistent abolition themes in socialism: the abolition of private property, the abolition of the family, and the abolition of religion (mainly but not exclusively Christianity)

Shafarevich argued that ancient socialism (such as Mesopotamia and Egypt) was not ideological, as an ideology socialism was a reaction to the emergence of individualism in the Axial Age. He compared Thomas More's (Utopia) and Tommaso Campanella's (City of the Sun) visions with what is known about the Inca Empire and concluded that there are striking similarities. He claimed that we become persons through our relationship with God and argued that socialism is essentially nihilistic and is unconsciously motivated by a death instinct. He concluded that we have the choice of pursuing death or life.

Religious views
Shafarevich adhered to Russian Orthodox Christianity and incorporated the neo-Platonic views of Eastern Orthodoxy into his understanding of the relation of mathematics and religion.

In his talk to the Göttingen Academy of Sciences upon receiving a prize, Shafarevich presented his view of the relationship between mathematics and religion. He noted the multiple discoveries in mathematics, such as that of non-Euclidean geometry, to suggest that pure mathematics reflects an objective reality, not a set of conventional definitions or a formalism. He claimed that the growth of mathematics itself is not directed or organic. To have a unity and direction, mathematics needs a goal. It can be practical applications or God as the source for the direction of development. Shafarevich opted for the latter, as pure mathematics is not in itself driven by practical applications.

Russian politics

On 21 December 1991 he took part in the first congress of the Russian All-People's Union, headed by Sergei Baburin. In October 1992, he became a member of the founding committee of the National Salvation Front. In 1993, he was an unsuccessful candidate for the State Duma with Mikhail Astafyev's Constitutional Democratic Party - Party of Popular Freedom.

Shafarevich was a member of the editorial board of the magazine Nash Sovremennik and in 1991–1992 of the editorial board of Den of Alexander Prokhanov, which ceased publication in October 1993 and later reopened under the title Zavtra. In 1994, he joined the "All-Russian National Right Wing Centre", led by Mikhail Astafyev.

Accusations of antisemitism
Shafarevich's essay Russophobia was expanded into his book Three Thousand-Year-Old Mystery (Трехтысячелетняя загадка) and resulted in accusations of antisemitism. He completed the Russophobia essay in 1982 and it was initially circulated as samizdat. In the Soviet Union, it was first officially published in 1989. At the same time, Shafarevich condemned the methods that were used to screen out applicants of Jewish origin when entering prestigious Moscow universities in the 1970s and early 1980s.

In Russophobia, he argued in the essay that great nations experience periods in their history of reformist elitist groups ('small nations') having values that differ fundamentally from the values of the majority of the people but gaining the upper hand in the society. In Shafarevich's opinion, the role of such a 'small nation' in Russia was played by a small group of intelligentsiya, dominated by Jews, "who were full of hatred against traditional Russian way of life and played an active role in the terrorist regimes of Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin".

Its publication led to a request by the United States National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to Shafarevich to resign his membership, because the NAS charter prohibited stripping an existing membership.<ref>Semyon Reznik, On Shafarevich And NAS: Tolerance Vs. Indifference, The Scientist, 1993, 7(8):11.</ref> In an open letter to the NAS, Shafarevich explained that Russophobia is not antisemitic. Shafarevich also noted that since NAS enlisted him without his request or knowledge, delisting him was its internal matter. Nevertheless, when the United States invaded Iraq, Shafarevich faxed his resignation.

Accusations of antisemitism continued and involved Shafarevich's other publications. Semyon Reznik targets the Russophobia essay for factual inaccuracies: Shafarevich misassigned Jewish ethnicity to a number of non-Jews involved in the execution of Nicholas II, repeated the false assertion of graffiti in Yiddish at the murder site and suggested that Shafarevich's phrase "Nicholas II was shot specifically as the Tsar, and this ritual act drew a line under an epoch in Russian history" – is read by some as a blood libel. (An accusation which ignores the remainder of Shafarevich's sentence: "so it can only be compared with the execution of Charles I in England or of Louis XVI in France".)  Aron Katsenelinboigen wrote that Shafarevish's work "lives up to the best traditions of antisemitic propaganda".

Later, Shafarevich expanded on his views in his book Three Thousand-Year-Old Mystery in which he further claimed that Jews effectively marginalise and exclude non-Jews in all types of intellectual endeavors. The work was published in Russian in 2002; an introductory section explains the relationship with the Russophobia essay, explaining that the essay developed from an appendix to an intended work of wider scope, which he started writing in samizdat.

In 2005, Shafarevich was amongst the signatories  of the Letter of 5000.

The issue of Shafarevich's alleged antisemitism has been the subject of a 2009 doctoral thesis at the University of Helsinki, which was later turned into a book in which the author, Krista Berglund, stated that Shafarevich's views have been misconstrued as antisemitic.

Publications

 Shafarevich, Igor (1975), "Socialism in Our Past and Future." In From under the Rubble, with Solzhenitsyn, Alexander; Agursky, Mikhail; Barabanov, Evgeny; Borisov, Vadim; Korsakov, F. Collins: Harvill Press [Regnery Pub. 1989].

 Shafarevich, Igor (1981), "On Certain Tendencies in the Development of Mathematics", The Mathematical Intelligencer, Vol. 3, Number 4, pp. 182–184.
 Nikulin, V. V.; Shafarevich, Igor (1987), Geometries and Groups, Berlin; Springer-Verlag,

 Kostrikin, A. I.; Shafarevich, Igor (1991), Noncommutative Rings, Identities, Berlin: Springer-Verlag,
 Parshin, A. N.; Shafarevich, Igor (1995), Number Theory: Fundamental Problems, Ideas, and Theories, Berlin: Springer,
 Arslanov, M. M.; Parshin, A. N.; Shafarevich, Igor (1996), Algebra and Analysis, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter,
 Shafarevich, Igor (2003), Discourses on Algebra, Berlin: Springer,
 Shafarevich, Igor (2005), Basic Notions of Algebra, Berlin: Springer,
 Shafarevich, Igor (2013), Basic Algebraic Geometry 1: Varieties in Projective Space(3rd edition), Berlin, Springer-Verlag,
 Shafarevich, Igor (2013), Basic Algebraic Geometry 2: Schemes and Complex Manifolds(3rd edition), Berlin, Springer-Verlag,
 Shafarevich, Igor; Remizov, Alexey (2013), Linear Algebra and Geometry, Berlin, Springer-Verlag,
 Shafarevich, Igor (2015), Collected mathematical papers, Reprint of the 1989 edition, Springer Collect. Works Math., Springer, Heidelberg, x+769 pp.

Notes

Further reading
 Brun‐Zejmis, Julia (1996), "Who are the 'Enemies of Russia'? The Question of Russophobia in the Samizdat Debate before Glasnost'," Nationalities Papers: The Journal of Nationalism and Ethnicity, Vol. 24, Issue 2.
 Dunlop, John B. (1994), "The 'Sad Case' of Igor Shafarevich," East European Jewish Affairs, Vol. 24, Issue 1.
 Laqueur, Walter (1990), "From Russia, With Hate," New Republic, February 5.
 Moran, Gordon (1998), Silencing Scientists and Scholars in Other Fields'', Greenwood Publishing Group.

External links

 Shafarevich's political works (in Russian)
 The Socialist Phenomenon (in English)
 Socialism in our Past and Future (in English)
 Berglund, Krista. The Vexing Case of Igor Shafarevich, a Russian Political Thinker, Springer Basel, 2012 (in English).
 Speech at the General meeting of Steklov members dedicated to 75th anniversary of Steklov Mathematical Institute. Video, in Russian.

1923 births
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Scientists from Zhytomyr
20th-century Russian mathematicians
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Igor Shafarevich


Jean-François Boisard (born around 1762 – 1820) in Caen was a French painter and poet. Boisard was initially interested in painting but shifted to poetry constructively.

He left France at the time of the French Revolution and was part of the "émigration", namely the royalist families supposed to plot against the new regime from foreign countries. He nevertheless returned to France at the worst moment, namely during the "Terreur" of 1793, during which close to 40,000 persons were arrested and executed. He was himself condemned to death but escaped the sentencing for unknown reasons. He then lived a miserable life, constantly on the move and dependent on alms and the assistance of dignitaries for whom he wrote dedications.

His fate somewhat improved with the Bourbon Restoration in 1815. He published two collections of some 300 fables "dedicated to the king", in 1817 and 1822 (Fables dédiées au roi). Their quality can certainly not be compared with the work of his uncle.

The date of his death is not known precisely but was between 1821 and 1823.

Works

Fables dédiées au roi, Paris 1817.
Fables faisant suite à celles qui sont dédiées au roi. Paris, 1822.

References
Frere, Edouard: Manuel du bibliographe normand. Rouen, 1858. Vol I
Grente, Georges: Dictionnaires des Lettres françaises. Le Dix-huitième siècle. Paris 1960, Vol. I
Hoefer, Jean Chrétien Ferdinand: Nouvelle Biographie générale, depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'à nos jours. Paris, 1862. Vol. VI
La Grande Encyclopédie, inventaire raisonné des Sciences, des Lettres et des Arts, Paris 1902, Tome VII
Encyclopédie universelle du XXe siècle, Lettres, Sciences, Arts. Paris 1908, Tome II

NOTE: One can notice that, in consulting the above-mentioned references, several other Boisard appear. They are less known authors of the 18th – 19th centuries, such as for instance: François Boisard who published a novel in 5 volumes, Pastorale, and various studies on the topography and the history of the cities of his region (Calvados). Another Boisard was a regular contributor to the Mémorial du Calvados and the author of a work on "Les Cziganys de Hongrie" (The Gypsies of Hungary). Claude Florimond Boisard (de Ponteau) was a famous comic author. Moreover, he was the author of almost all mimes and ballets presented at the Opéra-Comique de Paris, when his was its director, from 1728 to 1742.

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1821 deaths
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Jean-François Boisard


The Peace Corps is an independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to provide international development assistance. It was established in March 1961 by an executive order of President John F. Kennedy and authorized by Congress the following September by the Peace Corps Act.

The official goal of the Peace Corps is to assist developing countries by providing skilled workers in fields such as education, health, entrepreneurship, women's empowerment, and community development. Volunteers are American citizens, typically with a college degree, who are assigned to specific projects in certain countries based on their qualifications and experience. Following three months of technical training, Peace Corps members are expected to serve at least two years in the host country, after which they may request an extension of service. Volunteers are strongly encouraged to respect local customs, learn the prevailing language, and live in comparable conditions.

In its inaugural year, the Peace Corps had 900 volunteers serving 16 countries, reaching its peak in 1966 with 15,556 volunteers in 52 countries. Following budget cuts in 1989, the number of volunteers declined to 5,100, though subsequent increases in funding led to renewed growth into the 21st century; by its 50th anniversary in 2011, there were over 8,500 volunteers serving in 77 countries. Since its inception, more than 240,000 Americans have joined the Peace Corps and served in 142 countries.

History

1950–1959

In 1950, Walter Reuther, president of the United Auto Workers, proposed, in an article titled, "A Proposal for a Total Peace Offensive," that the United States establish a voluntary agency for young Americans to be sent around the world to fulfill humanitarian and development objectives. Subsequently, throughout the 1950s, Reuther gave speeches to the following effect:I have been saying for a long time that I believe the more young Americans who are trained to join with other young people in the world to be sent abroad with slide rule, textbook, and medical kit to help people help themselves with the tools of peace, the fewer young people will need to be sent with guns and weapons of war.In addition, following the end of World War II, various members of the United States Congress proposed bills to establish volunteer organizations in developing countries. In December 1951, Representative John F. Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) suggested to a group that "young college graduates would find a full life in bringing technical advice and assistance to the underprivileged and backward Middle East ... In that calling, these men would follow the constructive work done by the religious missionaries in these countries over the past 100 years." In 1952 Senator Brien McMahon (D-Connecticut) proposed an "army" of young Americans to act as "missionaries of democracy". Privately funded nonreligious organizations began sending volunteers overseas during the 1950s. While Kennedy is credited with the creation of the Peace Corps as president, the first initiative came from Senator Hubert H. Humphrey, Jr. (D-Minnesota), who introduced the first bill to create the Peace Corps in 1957—three years before Kennedy, as a presidential candidate, would raise the idea during a campaign speech at the University of Michigan. In his autobiography The Education of a Public Man, Humphrey wrote,

Only in 1959, however, did the idea receive serious attention in Washington when Congressman Henry S. Reuss of Wisconsin proposed a "Point Four Youth Corps". In 1960, he and Senator Richard L. Neuberger of Oregon introduced identical measures calling for a nongovernmental study of the idea's "advisability and practicability". Both the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee endorsed the study, the latter writing the Reuss proposal into the pending Mutual Security legislation. In this form it became law in June 1960. In August the Mutual Security Appropriations Act was enacted, making available US$10,000 for the study, and in November ICA contracted with Maurice Albertson, Andrew E. Rice, and Pauline E. Birky of Colorado State University Research Foundation for the study.

1960–1969
In August 1960, following the 1960 Democratic National Convention, Walter Reuther visited John F. Kennedy at the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport to discuss Kennedy's platform and staffing of a future administration. It was there that Reuther got Kennedy to commit to creating the executive agency that would become the Peace Corps. Under Reuther's leadership, the United Auto Workers had earlier that summer put together a policy platform that included a "youth peace corps" to be sent to developing nations. Subsequently, at the urging of Reuther, John F. Kennedy announced the idea for such an organization on October 14, 1960, at a late-night campaign speech at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor on the steps of the Michigan Union. He later dubbed the proposed organization the "Peace Corps." A brass marker commemorates the place where Kennedy stood. In the weeks after the 1960 election, the study group at Colorado State University released their feasibility a few days before Kennedy's Presidential Inauguration in January 1961.

Critics opposed the program. Kennedy's opponent, Richard M. Nixon, predicted it would become a "cult of escapism" and "a haven for draft dodgers."

Others doubted whether recent graduates had the necessary skills and maturity for such a task. The idea was popular among students, however, and Kennedy pursued it, asking respected academics such as Max Millikan and Chester Bowles to help him outline the organization and its goals. During his inaugural address, Kennedy again promised to create the program: "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country". President Kennedy in a speech at the White House on June 22, 1962, "Remarks to Student Volunteers Participating in Operation Crossroads Africa", acknowledged that Operation Crossroads for Africa was the basis for the development of the Peace Corps. "This group and this effort really were the progenitors of the Peace Corps and what this organization has been doing for a number of years led to the establishment of what I consider to be the most encouraging indication of the desire for service not only in this country but all around the world that we have seen in recent years". The Peace Corps website answered the question "Who Inspired the Creation of the Peace Corps?", acknowledging that the Peace Corps was based on Operation Crossroads Africa founded by Rev. James H. Robinson.

On March 1, 1961, Kennedy signed Executive Order 10924 that officially started the Peace Corps. Concerned with the growing tide of revolutionary sentiment in the Third World, Kennedy saw the Peace Corps as a means of countering the stereotype of the "Ugly American" and "Yankee imperialism," especially in the emerging nations of post-colonial Africa and Asia. Kennedy appointed his brother-in-law, Sargent Shriver, to be the program's first director. Shriver fleshed out the organization and his think tank outlined the organization's goals and set the initial number of volunteers. The Peace Corps began recruiting in July 1962; Bob Hope recorded radio and television announcements hailing the program.

Until about 1967, applicants had to pass a placement test of "general aptitude" (knowledge of various skills needed for Peace Corps assignments) and language aptitude.

 After an address from Kennedy, who was introduced by Rev. Russell Fuller of Memorial Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, on August 28, 1961, the first group of volunteers left for Ghana and Tanganyika (now part of Tanzania). The program was formally authorized by Congress on September 22, 1961, and within two years over 7,300 volunteers were serving in 44 countries. This number increased to 15,000 in June 1966, the largest number in the organization's history.

The organization experienced controversy in its first year of operation. On October 13, 1961, a postcard from a volunteer named Margery Jane Michelmore in Nigeria to a friend in the U.S. described her situation in Nigeria as "squalor and absolutely primitive living conditions." However, this postcard never made it out of the country. The University of Ibadan College Students Union demanded deportation and accused the volunteers of being "America's international spies" and the project as "a scheme designed to foster neocolonialism." Soon the international press picked up the story, leading several people in the U.S. administration to question the program. Nigerian students protested the program, while the American volunteers sequestered themselves and eventually began a hunger strike. After several days, the Nigerian students agreed to open a dialogue with the Americans.

Policies

The theme of enabling Americans to volunteer in poor countries appealed to Kennedy because it fit in with his campaign themes of self-sacrifice and volunteerism, while also providing a way to redefine American relations with the Third World. Upon taking office, Kennedy issued an executive order establishing the Peace Corps. Shriver, not Kennedy, energetically lobbied Congress for approval. Kennedy proudly took the credit, and ensured that it remained free of CIA influence. He largely left its administration to Shriver. To avoid the appearance of favoritism to the Catholic Church, the Corps did not place its volunteers with any religious agencies. In the first twenty-five years, more than 100,000 Americans served in 44 countries as part of the program. Most volunteers taught English in local schools, but many became involved in activities like construction and food delivery. Shriver practiced affirmative action, and women comprised about 40 percent of the first 7000 volunteers. However, given the paucity of black college graduates, racial minorities never reached five percent. The Corps developed its own training program, based on nine weeks at an American university, with a focus on conversational language, world affairs, and desired job skills. That was followed by three weeks at a Peace Corps camp in Puerto Rico, and week or two of orientation the home and the host country.

1970–1999
In July 1971, President Richard Nixon, an opponent of the program, brought the Peace Corps under the umbrella agency ACTION. President Jimmy Carter, an advocate of the program, said that his mother, who had served as a nurse in the program, had "one of the most glorious experiences of her life" in the Peace Corps. In 1979, he made it fully autonomous in an executive order. This independent status was further secured by 1981 legislation making the organization an independent federal agency.

In 1976, Deborah Gardner was found murdered in her home in Tonga, where she was serving in the Peace Corps. Dennis Priven, a fellow Peace Corps worker, was later charged with the murder by the Tonga government. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity, and was sentenced to serve time in a mental institution in Washington D.C. Priven was never admitted to any institution, and the handling of the case has been heavily criticized.

2000–present
Although the earliest volunteers were typically thought of as generalists, the Peace Corps had requests for technical personnel from the start. For example, geologists were among the first volunteers requested by Ghana, an early volunteer host. An article in Geotimes (a trade publication) in 1963, reviewed the program, with a follow-up history of Peace Corps geoscientists appearing in that publication in 2004. During the Nixon Administration the Peace Corps included foresters, computer scientists, and small business advisers among its volunteers.

In 1982, President Ronald Reagan appointed director Loret Miller Ruppe, who initiated business-related programs. For the first time, a significant number of conservative and Republican volunteers joined the Corps, as the organization continued to reflect the evolving political and social conditions in the United States. Funding cuts during the early 1980s reduced the number of volunteers to 5,380, its lowest level since the early years. Funding increased in 1985, when Congress began raising the number of volunteers, reaching 10,000 in 1992.

After the 2001 September 11 attacks, which alerted the U.S. to growing anti-U.S. sentiment in the Middle East, President George W. Bush pledged to double the size of the organization within five years as a part of the War on Terrorism. For the 2004 fiscal year, Congress increased the budget to US$325 million, US$30 million above that of 2003 but US$30 million below the President's request.

As part of an economic stimulus package in 2008, President Barack Obama proposed to double the size of the Peace Corps. However, , the amount requested was insufficient to reach this goal by 2011. In fact, the number of applicants to the Peace Corps declined steadily from a high of 15,384 in 2009 to 10,118 in 2013. Congress raised the 2010 appropriation from the US$373 million requested by the President to US$400 million, and proposed bills would raise this further for 2011 and 2012. According to former director Gaddi Vasquez, the Peace Corps is trying to recruit more diverse volunteers of different ages and make it look "more like America". A Harvard International Review article from 2007 proposed to expand the Peace Corps, revisit its mission, and equip it with new technology. In 1961 only 1% of volunteers were over 50, compared with 5% today. Ethnic minorities currently comprise 34% of volunteers, compared to around 35% of the U.S. population.

In 2009, Casey Frazee, who was sexually assaulted while serving in South Africa, created First Response Action, an advocacy group for a stronger Peace Corps response for volunteers who are survivors or victims of physical and sexual violence. In 2010, concerns about the safety of volunteers were illustrated by a report, compiled from official public documents, listing hundreds of violent crimes against volunteers since 1989. In 2011, a 20/20 investigation found that "more than 1,000 young American women have been raped or sexually assaulted in the last decade while serving as Peace Corps volunteers in foreign countries."

In a historic first, all Peace Corps volunteers worldwide were withdrawn from their host countries on March 15, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Volunteers were not eligible for unemployment or health benefits, although some Members of Congress said they should be. Legislators also called upon FEMA to hire Peace Corps volunteers until the end of their service.

Application and volunteer process

The application for the Peace Corps takes up to one hour, unless one talks to a recruiter. The applicant must be at least 18 years old and a U.S. citizen and, according to a 2018 document, they should apply 6 to 9 months before they want to leave. They must go through an interview.

Applicants can apply to only one placement every year. Placements can be sorted through the Peace Corps six project sectors: Agriculture, Environment, Community Economic Development, Health, Education, and Youth in Development. Applicants may also narrow down their application of choice by country they want to serve in various regions of the world.

Peace Corps volunteers are expected to serve for 2 years in the foreign country, with 3 months of training before swearing in to service. This occurs in country with host country national trainers in language and assignment skills.

Prior to 2014, the application process took about a year.

Initiatives
The Peace Corps aims to educate community members on the different illnesses that are present in developing countries as well as what treatments exist in order prevent these illnesses from spreading. Volunteers are also often there in order to teach community members about modern agricultural techniques in order for them to more effectively produce food for themselves and each other (Peace Corps). The Corps is also a proponent of equal education and moves to allow for equal education opportunities for girls in countries like Liberia and Ethiopia. In 2015, the organization partnered with United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to implement First Lady Michelle Obama's Let Girls Learn initiative.

Eradicating malaria in Africa
The Corps launched its initiative to engage volunteers in malaria control efforts in 2011. The initiative, which grew out of malaria prevention programs in Peace Corps Senegal, now includes volunteers in 24 African countries.

Environment
The Corps offers a variety of environmental programs. Needs assessments determine which programs apply to each country. Programs include effective and efficient forms of farming, recycling, park management, environmental education, and developing alternative fuel sources. Volunteers must have some combination of academic degrees and practical experience.

The three major programs are Protected-Areas Management, Environment Education or Awareness, and Forestry.

In Protected areas management, volunteers work with parks or other programs to teach resource conservation. Volunteer activities include technical training, working with park staff on wildlife preservation, organizing community-based conservation programs for sustainable use of forests or marine resources, and creating activities for raising revenue to protect the environment.

Environment Education or Awareness focuses on communities that have environmental issues regarding farming and income. Programs include teaching in elementary and secondary schools; environmental education to youth programs; creation of environmental groups; support forest and marine resource sustainability; ways of generating money; urban sanitation management; and educating farmers about soil conservation, forestry, and vegetable gardening.

Forestry programs help communities conserve natural resources through projects such as soil conservation, flood control, creation of sustainable fuels, agroforestry (e.g., fruit and vegetable production), alley cropping, and protection of biodiversity.

Peace Corps Response
Peace Corps Response, formerly named the Crisis Corps, was created by Peace Corps Director Mark Gearan in 1996. Gearan modeled the Crisis Corps after the National Peace Corps Association's successful Emergency Response Network (ERN) of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers willing to respond to crises when needed. ERN emerged in response to the 1994 Rwandan genocide. On November 19, 2007, Peace Corps Director Ronald Tschetter changed Crisis Corps's name to Peace Corps Response.

The change to Peace Corps Response allowed Peace Corps to include projects that did not rise to the level of a crisis. The program deploys former volunteers on high-impact assignments that typically range from three to twelve months in duration.

Peace Corps Response volunteers generally receive the same allowances and benefits as their Peace Corps counterparts, including round-trip transportation, living and readjustment allowances, and medical care. Minimum qualifications include completion of at least one year of Peace Corps service, including training, in addition to medical and legal clearances. The Crisis Corps title was retained as a unique branch within Peace Corps Response, designed for volunteers who are deployed to true "crisis" situations, such as disaster relief following hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions and other catastrophes.

Education and languages
Peace Corps has created resources for teachers in the US and abroad to teach 101 languages. Resources vary by language, and include text, recordings, lesson plans and teaching notes.

Laws governing the Peace Corps

Executive orders
Peace Corps was originally established by Executive Order, and has been modified by several subsequent executive orders including:

 1961 – Executive Order 10924 – Establishment and administration of the Peace Corps in the Department of State (Kennedy)
 1962 – Executive Order 11041 – Continuance and administration of the Peace Corps in the Department of State (Kennedy)
 1963 – Executive Order 11103 – Providing for the appointment of former Peace Corps volunteers to the civilian career services (Kennedy)
 1971 – Executive Order 11603 – Assigning additional functions to the Director of ACTION (Nixon)
 1979 – Executive Order 12137 – The Peace Corps (Carter)

Laws
Federal laws governing the Peace Corps are contained in Title 22 of the United States Code – Foreign Relations and Intercourse, Chapter 34 – The Peace Corps.

Code of Federal Regulations
The Peace Corps is subject to Federal Regulations as prescribed by public law and executive order and contained in Title 22 of the Code of Federal Regulations under Chapter 3.

Limitations on former volunteers
Former members of the Peace Corps may not be assigned to military intelligence duties for a period of 4 years following Peace Corps service. Furthermore, they are forever prohibited from serving in a military intelligence posting to any country in which they volunteered. Former members may not apply for employment with the Central Intelligence Agency for a period of 5 years following Peace Corps Service.

Time limits on employment
Peace Corps employees receive time-limited appointments, and most employees are limited to a maximum of five years of employment. This time limit was established to ensure that Peace Corps' staff remain fresh and innovative. A related rule specifies that former employees cannot be re-employed until after the same amount of time that they were employed. Volunteer service is not counted for the purposes of either rule.

Union representation

Non-supervisory domestic employees are represented by the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 3548. The Federal Labor Relations Agency certified the Union on May 11, 1983. About 500 domestic employees are members. The current collective bargaining agreement became effective on April 21, 1995.

Leadership

Directors
On January 3, 2018, President Donald Trump nominated Josephine "Jody" Olsen as the 20th director of the Peace Corps. Olsen has a long history with the agency, serving as Acting Director in 2009, Deputy Director from 2002 to 2009, Chief of Staff from 1989 to 1992, Regional Director, North Africa Near East, Asia, Pacific from 1981 to 1984, and Country Director in Togo from 1979 to 1981. Olsen also served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Tunisia from 1966 to 1968. She left office on January 20, 2021.

In April 2022, President Biden nominated Carol Spahn as director to succeed Olsen, and she was confirmed by the United States Senate on December 13, 2022. Spahn was acting director from January 20, 2021, until November 16, 2021, and CEO from November 2021 to November 2022. She had previously served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Romania and subsequently returned as Country Director in Malawi, then Chief of Operations for Eastern and Southern Africa, following a career in the NGO and private sectors.

The full list of directors is as follows:

Inspector General
The Peace Corps Office of Inspector General is authorized by law to review all programs and operations of the Peace Corps. The OIG is an independent entity within the Peace Corps. The inspector general (IG) reports directly to the Peace Corps Director. In addition, the IG reports to Congress semiannually with data on OIG activities. The OIG serves as the law enforcement arm of the Peace Corps and works closely with the Department of State, the Department of Justice, and other federal agencies OIG has three sections to conduct its functions:Audit – Auditors review functional activities of the Peace Corps, such as contract compliance and financial and program operations, to ensure accountability and to recommend improved levels of economy and efficiency;

     Evaluations – Evaluators analyze the management and program operations of the Peace Corps at both overseas posts and domestic offices. They identify best practices and recommend program improvements and ways to accomplish Peace Corps' mission and strategic goals.

     Investigations – Investigators respond to allegations of criminal or administrative wrongdoing by Peace Corps Volunteers, Peace Corps personnel, including experts and consultants, and by those who do business with the Peace Corps, including contractors.From 2006 to 2007, H. David Kotz was the Inspector General. As of 2023, the Inspector General is Joaquin E. Ferrao.

Criticism and New Directions
Critics and criticisms of Peace Corps include former volunteer and country director Robert L. Strauss in Foreign Policy, The New York Times, The American Interest and elsewhere, an article by a former volunteer describing assaults on volunteers from 1992 to 2010, an ABC news report on 20/20, a Huffington Post article on former Peace Corps volunteers speaking out on rapes, and About.com's article on rape and assault in the Peace Corps.

In the Reagan Administration, in 1986, an article in the Multinational Monitor looked critically at the Peace Corps. On a positive note, the writer praises the Corps for aspects saying that it is "not in the business of transferring massive economic resources. Rather it concentrates on increasing productivity and encouraging self-reliance in villages that are often ignored by large-scale development agencies," and notes the "heavy emphasis on basic education" by the Corps. "Many returned volunteers complain that the Peace Corps does little to promote or make use of their rich experiences once they return ... [A] Peace Corps volunteer is sent in ... [to] relieve ... the local government from having to develop policies that assure equitable distribution of health care ... During the early years there were many failures in structure and programming ... Some critics charge that the Peace Corps is only a somewhat ineffective attempt to counter damage done to the U.S. image abroad by its aggressive military and its unscrupulous businesses ... Many observers and some returned volunteers charge that, in addition to public relations for the United States, Peace Corps programs serve to legitimize dictators ... When he began evaluating the Corps in the 1960s, Charlie Peters found "they were training volunteers to be junior diplomats. Giving them a course in American studies, world affairs and communism ... Although it seems unlikely that the Peace Corps is used in covert operations, wittingly or not it is often used in conjunction with U.S. military interests ... In a review of the Peace Corps in March the House Select Committee on Hunger praised the agency for effective work in the areas of agriculture and conservation, while recommending that the Corps expand its African Food Systems Initiative, increase the number of volunteers in the field, recruit more women, and move to depoliticize country dictatorships."

The author suggests that "the poor should be encouraged to organize a power base to gain more leverage with the powers-that-be" by the Peace Corps and that "The Peace Corps is the epitome of Kennedy's Camelot mythology. It is a tall order to expect a small program appended to an immense superpower, to make a difference, but it is a goal worth striving for."

In December 2003, a report by the Brookings Institution praised the Peace Corps but proposed changes. These include relabeling Peace Corps volunteers in certain countries, greater host country ownership, reverse volunteers (have volunteers from the host country in the U.S.), and multilateral volunteers. The Brookings Institution wrote that a "one-year service commitment [for the Baby Boom generation] could make the Peace Corps more attractive to older Americans, possibly combined with the option of returning to the same site or country after a three-month break" and customized placement to a specific country would increase the number of people volunteering.

In a critique by The Future of Freedom Foundation, James Bovard mixes history of the Peace Corps with current interpretations. He writes that in the 1980s, "The Peace Corps's world-saving pretensions were a joke on American taxpayers and Third World folks who expected real help." He goes on to criticize the difference in rhetoric and action of Peace Corps volunteers, even attacking its establishment as "the epitome of emotionalism in American politics." Using snippets of reports, accounts of those in countries affected by the Peace Corps and even concluded that at one point "some Peace Corps agricultural efforts directly hurt Third World poor." At the end of the article, Bovard noted that all Peace Corps volunteers he had talked with conceded they have not helped foreigners ... but he acknowledges that "Some Peace Corps volunteers, like some Americans who volunteer for religion missions abroad, have truly helped foreigners."

Over the past decade, new directions for the Peace Corps have emerged. Christopher Hedrick outlined "The New Peace Corps" in a Yale Journal of International Affairs essay published in 2013. Hedrick, who was then both the Country Director for Peace Corps Senegal and the originator and coordinator of the Peace Corps malaria prevention initiative across sub-Saharan Africa, argued that the Peace Corps was "building upon a new generation's passion and technological know-how to make a difference in the everyday lives of people in developing countries across the globe. The agency is undergoing a profound transformation, and volunteers' service no longer resembles the traditional notion of the Peace Corps experience." While retaining the unique focus on deep understanding and relations with host communities, the New Peace Corps embraced professionalism among volunteers and staff, leveraged technology to improve communications and enhance the ability of host communities to access needed resources, and deepened partnerships with local, national, and international development partners. While some found this vision threatening to the iconic notion of the lone Peace Corps volunteer, the agency rapidly adopted this approach in significant initiatives such as the food security alliance with USAID's Feed the Future Initiative, the collaboration on malaria prevention and treatment with African health ministries and the U.S. President's Malaria Initiative, and the increased focus on ensuring high levels of volunteer fluency in local languages.

Sexual assault

The Peace Corps has been criticized for failing to properly respond to the sexual violence that many of its female volunteers face. BoingBoing editor Xeni Jardin describes criticism of the agency's response to assault: "A growing number of ex-Peace Corps volunteers are speaking out about having survived rape and other forms of sexual assault while assigned overseas. They say the agency ignored their concerns for safety or requests for relocation, and tried to blame rape victims for their attacks. Their stories, and support from families and advocates, are drawing attention from lawmakers and promises of reform from the agency". Among 8,655 volunteers there are on average 22 Peace Corps women who reported being the victims of rape or attempted rape each year.

At a meeting of the House Foreign Affairs Committee in 2011, Peace Corps volunteers shared their experiences of violence and sexual assault. At this meeting, it was found that between 2000 and 2009 there have been several cases of rape or attempted rape, and about 22 women are sexually assaulted each year. The case of murdered Peace Corps volunteer Kate Puzey was discussed. The Peace Corps has gained attention in the media and their directors have been attacked for how they handled this situation. Kate Puzey's mother was one of those to make a comment at the meeting about how badly the situation with her daughter had been handled. One woman claimed that her country's director had blamed her for getting raped, while other victims have also been similarly blamed. Criticism of how Peace Corps has responded to sexual assaults against volunteers culminated in the appointment of Kellie Green as the agency's first Director of the Office Of Victims Advocacy in 2011. Green was eventually pushed out of her position in April 2015 for purportedly "creating a hostile work environment". Greene maintains that Peace Corps retaliated against her for pressing agency officials to fully comply with their responsibilities towards volunteers who have been victims of sexual assault. A Change.org petition demanding that Green be reinstated began circulating among former volunteers in December 2015.

In 2009, the most recent year reported, 69% of Peace Corps crime victims were women, 88% were under 30, and 82% were Caucasian. Worldwide, there were 15 cases of rape/attempted rape and 96 cases of sexual assault reported for a total of 111 sexual crimes committed against female Peace Corps volunteers. The majority of women who join the Peace Corps are in their mid-twenties. In 62% of the more than 2,900 assault cases since 1990, the victim was identified as being alone. In 59% of assault cases, the victim was identified as a woman in her 20s.

In popular culture
Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention have a song named "Who Needs the Peace Corps?" on their 1968 album We're Only in It for the Money.

In popular culture, the Peace Corps has been used as a comedic plot device in such movies as Airplane!, Christmas with the Kranks, Shallow Hal, and Volunteers or used to set the scene for a historic era, as when Frances "Baby" Houseman tells the audience she plans to join the Peace Corps in the introduction to the movie Dirty Dancing.

The Peace Corps has also been documented on film and examined more seriously and in more depth. The 2006 documentary film Death of Two Sons, directed by Micah Schaffer, juxtaposes the deaths of Amadou Diallo, a Guinean-American who was gunned down by four New York City policemen with 41 bullets, and Peace Corps volunteer Jesse Thyne who lived with Amadou's family in Guinea and died in a car crash there. Jimi Sir, released in 2007, is a documentary portrait of volunteer James Parks' experiences as a high school science, math and English teacher during the last 10 weeks of his service in Nepal. James speaks Nepali fluently and shows a culture where there are no roads, vehicles, electricity, plumbing, telephone or radio. The movie El Rey, directed and written by Antonio Dorado in 2004, attacks corrupt police, unscrupulous politicians and half-hearted revolutionaries but also depicts the urban legend of Peace Corps Volunteers "training" native Colombians how to process coca leaves into cocaine.

Fictional Peace Corps volunteers

 Frances "Baby" Houseman in the 1987 film Dirty Dancing plans to join the Peace Corps after graduating from Mount Holyoke.

See also

 List of notable Peace Corps volunteers
 AmeriCorps
 Language education
 List of language self-study programs
 Peace Corps Memorial
 Provincial Reconstruction Team
 United States Cultural Exchange Programs
 British Romanian Educational Exchange
 CUSO
 Doctors Without Borders
 EU Aid Volunteers
 European Voluntary Service
 Fredskorpset
 International Voluntary Services
 JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency)
 Korea International Cooperation Agency
 United Nations Volunteers
 Voluntary Service Overseas
 World Vision

Notes

References

Further reading
 Bernstein, Irving. (1991) Promises Kept: John F. Kennedy's New Frontier pp 259–79.
 Latham, Michael E. Modernization as ideology: American social science and" nation building" in the Kennedy era. (U of North Carolina Press, 2000). Online
 May, Gary. "Passing the Torch and Lighting Fires: The Peace Corps," in Thomas G. Paterson, ed. Kennedy's Quest for Victory: American Foreign Policy, 1961–1963 (1989) pp 284–316.

External links

 Records of the Peace Corps in the National Archives (Record Group 490)
 Czernek, Andrew (2012). Summary of studies done of returned Peace Corps volunteers (RPCVs)

Appropriate technology organizations
Government agencies established in 1961
International volunteer organizations
Presidency of John F. Kennedy
Foreign relations agencies of the United States
Ramon Magsaysay Award winners
Recipients of the Order of Honour (Moldova)
1961 establishments in the United States

Peace Corps


Constantine Manasses (; ) was a Byzantine chronicler who flourished in the 12th century during the reign of Manuel I Komnenos (1143–1180). He was the author of a Synopsis Chronike (Σύνοψις Χρονική, "summary chronicle"), which narrates history from the creation of the world to the end of the reign of Nikephoros III Botaneiates (1081), sponsored by Irene Komnene, the emperor's sister-in-law. It was probably written around 1150, shortly before Irene's death. It consists of about 7000 lines in political verse. It obtained great popularity and appeared in a free prose translation; it was also translated into Bulgarian in the 14th century. An Arabic translation written in 1313 is now hosted at the British Museum.

Manasses also wrote the poetical romance Loves of Aristander and Callithea, also in political verse. It is only known from the fragments preserved in the rose-garden of Macarius Chrysocephalus (14th century). Manasses also wrote a short biography of Oppian, and some descriptive pieces (all except one unpublished) on artistic and other subjects.

References

External links

 Full Greek text of the Malasses Chronicle

12th-century births
1180s deaths
Byzantine chroniclers
12th-century Byzantine historians
12th-century Greek painters
Writers from Constantinople
Eastern Orthodox chroniclers

Constantine Manasses


Gaeth was an American steam automobile manufactured in Cleveland, Ohio from 1902 until 1911.

Bicycle maker Paul Gaeth added stationary engines to his business, and made an experimental steam car in 1898. His gasoline cars were unusual in using a large 3-cylinder horizontal engine of 25/30 hp. Advertised as "the best $3500 car on the market", the 1909 model was a powerful 6423 cc 35/40 hp four-cylinder.

References

G.N. Georgano, Encyclopedia of American Automobile, (New York, E. P. Dutton & Co., 1968), p. 86.
Wise, David Burgess. The New Illustrated Encyclopedia of Automobiles

Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of the United States
Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1902
Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1911
Companies based in Ohio
Defunct companies based in Ohio
1902 establishments in Ohio
1911 disestablishments in Ohio

Gaeth


Glandore (, meaning harbour of the oak trees) is the name of both a harbour and village in County Cork, Ireland.  Glandore is off the N71 road, about 10 km east of Skibbereen.

The village has several pubs, with traditional music. It is a holiday destination for Irish holiday makers in particular. Notable homeowners and residents include Margaret Jay, former leader of the House of Lords, and at one time the businessman Tony O'Reilly. The former Church of Ireland rectory (originally called East View), along with Bearna Donn (originally called West View) and Stone Hall were built in the 19th Century by the Allen Family. The village yacht club's headquarters is located near the pier on the Old School Road.

The Irish Coast Guard has a unit based in Glandore at the "Rocket House" at the western end of the village.

An annual regatta takes place the third weekend of August. Sailing is one of the main attractions to the village, with rowing and swimming also undertaken within the community. The Lar Casey Cup is awarded to the winning Dragon class yacht. In former years there used also be Irish dancing competitions in the village square.

Every 2 years (on odd years) the Glandore Classic Boat Regatta is held during the second week of July.

Geography
The village is located on the east side of Glandore Harbour. The harbour is approximately three miles long north to south with the village of Leap at the north end, Union Hall on the west side and two small islands, named Adam and Eve, at the mouth of the harbour at the south end. The sailing directions in the harbour are "to avoid Adam and hug Eve".
Rocks in the middle of the harbour called 'The Perches' have a flashing green mark to the western extremity indicating a safe channel. The Danger Rock further up the harbour is indicated with a flashing northern cardinal mark.
The harbour itself is located midway in Glandore bay which is the area between The Galley Head and Toe Head.

Townlands in the Glandore area include Rushanes, Aughatubber, Drombeg (in which Drombeg stone circle is located), Kilfinnan, Kilfaughnabeg, Brulea, Maulmarine, Kilcosan, Reenogreena, Cregg, Tralong, Carriglusky and Knockardan.

History

Due to its location, Glandore was one of the earlier settlements in the area. In 1215, the Normans built two castles here. The present pier and wall were built in the first half of the 19th century.  A fair was held at Trá an Aonaigh (Beach of the Fair) also known as Tralong (Beach of the ship)  in the 18th century.

Glandore was then for centuries closely associated with the O'Donovan family, who gained control of the harbour from the Normans and occupied its castles.

Wildlife

The harbour supports a wide array of species. Seabirds include grey herons, oystercatchers, gannets, shags, cormorants, herring gulls and black tipped gulls. A number of seals live in the harbour. Whale, dolphin, porpoise and shark are frequently found in the greater bay area between the Galley Head and Toe Head. There are many seals in the area also. Mackerel can be plentiful in the harbour depending on the time of year.

Sailing

The local yacht club organizes 16+ courses every year for junior sailors while there is still courses for adults as well as powerboat and instructors courses. Every odd year Glandore hosts its "Classic Boat Regatta"  which takes place over the space of a week. Boats from all over the country come to participate in this event.
The Dragon and Squib keelboat classes and many dinghy classes including Topaz are raced by club members. The club has turned out many talented sailors over the years such as champion of everything carbon-fibre, Colman O'Riordan. For many years Glandore has been home to veteran transatlantic yachtsman and sailing author Don Street who continues to participate in local Dragon racing.

Places of interest
Drombeg stone circle is located  (1.5 miles) east of Glandore. There is no entry fee for this site.

Churches
There is a Roman Catholic church one mile away on the Rosscarbery side of the village in the townland of Kilfaughnabeg (meaning "Little church of Faughna"). This church was built circa 1929. The building of a church at another location was abandoned before commencement of the construction of the existing church. The abandoned structure was in Killacoosane. Its erection had been undertaken by Fr. John Power, but  the project was abandoned after his death.

Christ Church Church of Ireland church is on the Leap side of the village. It was consecrated in 1861. It contains a bell cast by the Murphy foundry in 1889.

Notable residents
 Seán Hayes (1884–1928) was a Sinn Féin TD 1918–1923
 Michael MacWhite (1883–1958), the first Irish permanent delegate to the League of Nations
Tony O'Reilly, Chryss Goulandris and family, at one time lived at Shorecliffe, a complex of buildings centred on an old guesthouse at which O'Reilly used to stay with his family. Shorecliffe was sold in the 2000s. Baroness Jay of Paddington, aka Margaret Jay has spent part of every year in her house in the village, Elm Bank, for decades.

References

External links
Glandore Area
Glandore Today
Glandore Harbour Yacht Club

Towns and villages in County Cork
O'Donovan family
Clíodhna

Glandore