In astronomy, an extraterrestrial sky is a view of outer space from the surface of a planet (or related body in space) other than Earth.

The only extraterrestrial sky that has been directly observed and photographed by astronauts is that of the Moon. The skies of Venus, Mars and Titan have been observed by space probes designed to land on the surface and send images back to Earth.

Extraterrestrial skies seem to vary because of a number of reasons. An extraterrestrial atmosphere, if present, has a large bearing on visible characteristics. The atmosphere's density and chemical composition can contribute to differences in color, opacity (including haze) and the presence of clouds. Astronomical objects may also be visible and can include natural satellites, rings, star systems and nebulas and other planetary system bodies.

For skies that have not been directly or indirectly observed, their appearance can be simulated based on known factors, such as the position of astronomical objects relative to the surface and atmospheric composition.

Mercury
Because Mercury has little or no atmosphere, a view of the planet's skies would be no different from viewing space from orbit. Mercury has a southern pole star, Alpha Pictoris. It is fainter than Earth's Polaris in the constellation Ursa Minor.

The Sun from Mercury
On average, the visible diameter of the Sun on Mercury is 2.5 times as large as it appears from Earth, and its total brightness is more than 6 times as great. Because of the planet's orbit, the Sun's apparent diameter in the sky would vary from 2.2 times that from Earth to 3.2 times. The sun would be over ten-times brighter.

Due to its slow rotation, a day on Mercury lasts around 176 Earth days.

Other planets seen from Mercury
After the Sun, the second-brightest object in the Mercurian sky is Venus, which is much brighter there than for observers on Earth.

The Earth and the Moon are also very prominent in the sky of Mercury. and −1.2, respectively. All other planets are visible just as they are on Earth, but somewhat less bright at opposition.

Venus

The atmosphere of Venus is so thick that the Sun cannot be easily seen in the daytime sky, and the stars are not visible at night. Color images taken by the space probes suggest that the sky on Venus is orange. If the Sun could be seen from Venus's surface, the time from one sunrise to the next would be about 117 Earth days. Because of the rotation of Venus, the Sun would appear to rise in the west and set in the east.

An observer above the clouds of Venus would circle the planet in about four Earth days, and see a sky in which the Earth and the Moon shine brightly. Mercury would also be easy to spot, because it is closer and brighter, and because its maximum elongation from the Sun is considerably larger than when observed from Earth.

The Moon

The Moon's atmosphere is very thin so its sky is always black, as in the case of Mercury. However, the Sun is so bright that it is impossible to see stars during the daytime, unless the observer is well shielded from sunlight.

The Sun from the Moon
The Sun looks the same from the Moon as it does from Earth's orbit, somewhat brighter than it does from the Earth's surface, and colored pure white, due to the lack of scattering and absorption in its very thin atmosphere.

Due to the position and orbit of the moon, the Sun nearly always takes the same path through the Moon's sky over the course of a year. As a result, there are craters and valleys near the Moon's poles that never receive direct sunlight, and there may exist mountains and hilltops that are never in shadow.

The Earth from the Moon
Among the most prominent features of the Moon's sky is Earth. Earth shows phases, just like the Moon does for observers on Earth. The phases, however, are opposite; when the observer on Earth sees the full Moon, the lunar observer sees a "new Earth", and vice versa. The full Earth glows over 50 times brighter than the full Moon at its brightest for the observer on Earth. Earth light reflected on the Moon's darker half is bright enough to be visible from Earth, and is known as known as earthshine.

As a result of the Moon's rotation, one side of the Moon (the "near side") is permanently turned towards Earth, and the other side, the "far side", mostly cannot be seen from Earth. This means, conversely, that Earth can be seen only from the near side of the Moon and would always be invisible from the far side.

Eclipses from the Moon

Earth and the Sun sometimes meet in the lunar sky, causing an eclipse. On Earth, one would see a lunar eclipse, when the Moon passes through the Earth's shadow; meanwhile on the Moon, one would see a solar eclipse, when the Sun goes behind the Earth. Since the apparent diameter of the Earth is four times as large as that of the Sun, the Sun would be hidden behind the Earth for hours. Earth's atmosphere would be visible as a reddish ring.

Solar eclipse shadows, when the Moon blocks sunlight to the Earth, on the other hand, would not be as spectacular for observers on the Moon viewing the Earth: the Moon's umbra nearly tapers out at the Earth's surface. A blurry dark patch would be barely visible. The effect would be comparable to the shadow of a golf ball cast by sunlight on an object  away. Observers on the Moon with telescopes might be able to discern the umbral shadow as a black spot at the center of a less dark region (penumbra) traveling across the full Earth's disk. It would look essentially the same as it does to the Deep Space Climate Observatory, which orbits Earth at the L1 Lagrangian point in the Sun-Earth system,  from Earth.

In summary, whenever an eclipse of some sort is occurring on Earth, an eclipse of another sort is occurring on the Moon. Eclipses occur for observers on both Earth and the Moon whenever the two bodies and the Sun align in a straight line.

Mars
Mars has only a thin atmosphere; however, it is extremely dusty, and there is much light that is scattered about. The sky is thus rather bright during the daytime and stars are not visible.

The color of the Martian sky

Capturing accurate color images from Mars's surface is difficult. For many years, the sky on Mars was thought to be more pinkish than it is now believed to be.

It is now known that during the Martian day, the sky is a butterscotch color. Around sunset and sunrise, the sky is rose in color, but in the vicinity of the setting Sun it is blue. This is the opposite of the situation on Earth. Twilight lasts a long time after the Sun has set and before it rises because of the dust high up in the atmosphere of Mars.

On Mars, the red color of the sky is caused by the presence of iron(III) oxide in the airborne dust particles. These particles are larger in size than gas molecules, so most of the light is scattered. Dust absorbs blue light and scatters longer wavelengths (red, orange, yellow).

The Sun from Mars
The Sun as seen from Mars is about  as large as seen from Earth, and shines 40% of the light, approximately the brightness of a slightly cloudy afternoon on Earth.

Mars's moons as seen from Mars
Mars has two small moons: Phobos and Deimos. From the Martian surface, Phobos is one-third to one-half the size of the Sun, while Deimos is barely more than a dot.

Due to its orbit, Phobos rises in the west and sets in the east. Deimos rises in the east and sets in the west, like a "normal" moon, although its appearance to the naked eye would be star-like. Phobos and Deimos can both eclipse the Sun as seen from Mars, although neither can completely cover its disk and so the event is in fact a transit, rather than an eclipse.

Earth from Mars

The Earth is visible from Mars as a double star; the Moon would be visible alongside it as a fainter companion.

Venus from Mars
Venus as seen from Mars would have an apparent magnitude of about −3.2.

The outer planets
Compared with their view from Earth, the outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) would appear slightly brighter during opposition, but slightly dimmer during conjunction.

The skies of Mars's moons
From Phobos, Mars appears 6,400 times larger and 2,500 times brighter than the full Moon as seen from Earth. From Deimos, Mars appears 1,000 times larger and 400 times brighter than the full Moon as seen from Earth.

The Asteroid Belt
The asteroid belt is sparsely populated and most asteroids are very small, so that an observer situated on one asteroid would be unlikely to be able to see another without the aid of a telescope. Some asteroids that cross the orbits of planets may occasionally get close enough to a planet or asteroid so that an observer from that asteroid can make out the disc of the nearby object without the aid of binoculars or a telescope.

Jupiter
Although no images from within Jupiter's atmosphere have ever been taken, artistic representations typically assume that the planet's sky is blue, though dimmer than Earth's, because the sunlight there is on average 27 times fainter, at least in the upper reaches of the atmosphere. The planet's narrow rings might be faintly visible from latitudes above the equator. Further down into the atmosphere, the Sun would be obscured by clouds and haze of various colors, most commonly blue, brown, and red. Although theories abound on the cause of the colors, there is currently no clear answer.

From Jupiter, the Sun appears to be less than a quarter of its size as seen from Earth.

Jupiter's moons as seen from Jupiter

Aside from the Sun, the most prominent objects in Jupiter's sky are the four Galilean moons. Io, the nearest to the planet, would be slightly larger than the full moon in Earth's sky, though less bright, and would be the largest moon in the Solar System as seen from Jupiter. The higher brightness of Europa would not overcome its greater distance from Jupiter, so it would not outshine Io. Ganymede, the largest moon and third from Jupiter, is almost as bright as Io and Europa, but appears only half the size of Io. Callisto, further out, would appear only a quarter the size of Io.

None of the surface features on Jupiter's moons would appear as prominent as the lunar maria do when the Moon is viewed from Earth. Dark and light patches would be visible on Io's surface due to the coloration of sulfur that covers Io, and the largest volcanoes would be designated by dark points, but the lack of large, contrasting features results in a poor view of it. Europa, however, would appear as a completely featureless white disc. Even when viewed from nearby, most spacecraft images use contrast enhancements to clearly show the cracks in the Europan ice. Vague dark and light patches would be visible on Ganymede, whereas Callisto is much too distant for any features to be made out.

All four Galilean moons stand out because of the swiftness of their motion, compared to the Moon. They are all also large enough to fully eclipse the Sun.

Jupiter's small inner moons appear only as star-like points except Amalthea, which can occasionally appear as large as Callisto. However, they would all be brighter than any star. The outer moons would be invisible except for Himalia, which would appear as a dim, star-like point to the naked eye only under favorable circumstances.

The skies of Jupiter's moons
None of Jupiter's moons have more than traces of atmosphere, so their skies are black or very nearly so. For an observer on one of the moons, the most prominent feature of the sky by far would be Jupiter.

Because the inner moons of Jupiter are in synchronous rotation around Jupiter, the planet always appears in nearly the same spot in their skies. Observers on the sides of the Galilean satellites facing away from the planet would never see Jupiter, for instance.

From the moons of Jupiter, solar eclipses caused by the Galilean satellites would be spectacular, because an observer would see the circular shadow of the eclipsing moon travel across Jupiter's face.

Saturn

The sky in the upper reaches of Saturn's atmosphere is blue, but the predominant color of its cloud decks suggests that it may be yellowish further down. The rings of Saturn are almost certainly visible from the upper reaches of its atmosphere. The rings are so thin that from a position on Saturn's equator, they would be almost invisible. However, from anywhere else on the planet, they could be seen as a spectacular arc stretching across half the celestial hemisphere.

Saturn's moons would not look particularly impressive in its sky, as most are fairly small, and the largest are a long way from the planet. Even Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, appears only half the size of Earth's moon. In fact, Titan is the dimmest of Saturn's large moons due to its great distance and dimness; Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, and Rhea are all brighter. Most of the inner moons would appear as bright, star-like points (with the exception of Janus), although most would shine brighter than any star. None of the outer moons would be visible except Phoebe which would be very dim.

The skies of Saturn's moons
Since the inner moons of Saturn are all in synchronous rotation, the planet always appears in the same spot in their skies. Observers on the sides of those satellites facing away from the planet would never see Saturn. In the skies of Saturn's inner moons, Saturn is an enormous object.

The rings from Saturn's moons

Saturn's rings would not be prominent from most of the moons. This is because the rings, though wide, are not very thick. The rings are edge-on and practically invisible from the inner moons. From the outer moons, starting with Iapetus, a more oblique view of the rings would be available, although the greater distance would make Saturn appear smaller in the sky; from Phoebe, the largest of Saturn's irregular moons, Saturn would appear only as big as the full Moon does from Earth. The best view of the rings may be from the inner moon Mimas, which is fairly near the rings. The co-orbitals Epimetheus and Janus would also get a good view. Tethys gets the next best view; Iapetus gets a good view of the rings and is more than any of the outer moons can claim.

The sky of Titan
Titan is the only moon in the Solar System to have a thick atmosphere. The Titanean sky is a light tangerine color. However, an astronaut standing on the surface of Titan would see a hazy brownish/dark orange color. As a consequence of its greater distance from the Sun and the thickness of its atmosphere, the surface of Titan receives only about  of the sunlight Earth does – daytime on Titan is thus only as bright as twilight on the Earth. It seems likely that Saturn is permanently invisible behind orange smog, and even the Sun would be only a lighter patch in the haze, barely illuminating the surface of ice and methane lakes. However, in the upper atmosphere, the sky would have a blue color and Saturn would be visible. With its thick atmosphere and methane rain, Titan is the only celestial body other than Earth upon which rainbows on the surface could form. However, given the extreme thickness of the atmosphere in visible light, the vast majority of the rainbow would be in the infrared.

The sky of Enceladus

Seen from Enceladus, Saturn would have a visible diameter sixty times more than the Moon visible from Earth. Moreover, since Enceladus rotates synchronously with its orbital period and therefore keeps one face pointed toward Saturn, the planet never moves in the sky of Enceladus and cannot be seen from the far side of the satellite.

Saturn's rings would be almost invisible, but their shadow on Saturn's disk would be clearly distinguishable. Like our own Moon from Earth, Saturn itself would show regular phases. From Enceladus, the Sun would have a diameter of only one-ninth that of the Moon as seen from Earth.

An observer located on Enceladus could also observe Mimas (the biggest satellite located inside Enceladus's orbit) transit in front of Saturn every 72 hours, on average. Its apparent size would be about the same size as the Moon seen from Earth. Pallene and Methone would appear nearly star-like. Tethys, visible from Enceladus's anti-Saturnian side, would reach a maximum apparent size, about twice that of the Moon as seen from the Earth.

Uranus

Judging by the color of its atmosphere, the sky of Uranus is probably a light blue. It is unlikely that the planet's rings can be seen from its surface, as they are very thin and dark.

None of Uranus's moons would appear as large as a full moon on Earth from the surface of Uranus, but the large number of them would present an interesting sight for observers hovering above the cloud tops. Unlike on Jupiter and Saturn, many of the inner moons can be seen as disks rather than star-like points; the moons Portia and Juliet can appear around the size of Miranda at times, and a number of other inner moons appear larger than Oberon. The outer irregular moons would not be visible to the naked eye.

The low light levels at such a great distance from the sun ensure that the moons appear very dim; the brightest, Ariel, would shine more than 100 times dimmer than the moon as seen from Earth. Meanwhile, the outer large moon Oberon would be only as bright as Venus despite its proximity.

Neptune

Judging by the color of its atmosphere, the sky of Neptune is probably an azure or sky blue, similar to Uranus'. As in the case of Uranus, it is unlikely that the planet's rings can be seen from its surface, as they are very thin and dark.

Aside from the Sun, the most notable object in Neptune's sky is its large moon Triton, which would appear slightly smaller than a full Moon on Earth. It moves more swiftly than our Moon. The smaller moon Proteus would show a disk about half the size of the full Moon. An alignment of the inner moons would likely produce a spectacular sight. Neptune's large outer satellite, Nereid, is not large enough to appear as a disk from Neptune, and is not noticeable in the sky. The other irregular outer moons would not be visible to the naked eye.

As with Uranus, the low light levels cause the major moons to appear very dim.

The sky of Triton
Triton, Neptune's largest moon, has an atmosphere, but it is so thin that its sky is still black, possibly with some pale haze at the horizon. Because Triton orbits with synchronous rotation, Neptune always appears in the same position in its sky. As Neptune orbits the Sun, Triton's polar regions take turns facing the Sun for 82 years at a stretch, resulting in radical seasonal changes as one pole, then the other, moves into the sunlight.

Neptune itself with a maximum brightness would be about that of the full moon on Earth. Due to its eccentric orbit, Nereid would vary considerably in brightness; its disk would be far too small to see with the naked eye. Proteus would also be difficult to resolve but, at its closest, would rival Canopus.

Trans-Neptunian Objects
A trans-Neptunian object is any minor planet in the Solar System that orbits the Sun at a greater average distance than Neptune.

Pluto and Charon
Pluto, accompanied by its largest moon Charon, orbits the Sun at a distance usually outside the orbit of Neptune except for a twenty-year period in each orbit.
From Pluto, the Sun is point-like to human eyes, but still very bright, giving roughly 150 to 450 times the light of the full Moon from Earth. Nonetheless, human observers on Pluto would notice a large decrease in available light.

Pluto's atmosphere consists of a thin envelope of nitrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide gases, all of which are derived from the ices of these substances on its surface. When Pluto is close to the Sun, the temperature of Pluto's solid surface increases, causing these ices to sublimate into gasses. This atmosphere also produces a noticeable blue haze that is visible at sunset and possibly other times of the Plutonian day.

Pluto and Charon are tidally locked to each other. This means that Charon always presents the same face to Pluto, and Pluto also always presents the same face to Charon. Observers on the far side of Charon from Pluto would never see the dwarf planet; observers on the far side of Pluto from Charon would never see the moon. Charon, as seen from Pluto's surface would be a very large object in the night sky.

Comets
The sky of a comet changes dramatically as it nears the Sun. During closest distance, a comet's ices begin to sublime from its surface, forming tails of gas and dust, and a coma. An observer on a comet nearing the Sun might see the stars slightly obscured by a milky haze, which could create halo effects around the Sun and other bright objects.

Extrasolar planets
For observers on extrasolar planets, the constellations would differ depending on the distances involved. A consequence of observing the universe from other stars is that stars that may appear bright in our own sky may appear dimmer in other skies and vice versa.

A planet around either α Centauri A or B would see the other star as a very bright secondary.

From a planet orbiting Aldebaran, 65 light years away, our Sun would be seen as an insignificant star between Ophiuchus and Scorpius. Constellations made of bright, distant stars would look somewhat similar (such as Orion and Scorpius) but much of the night sky would seem unfamiliar to someone from Earth. Even Orion would appear somewhat different; viewed from this position, Alnilam and Mintaka would appear to be on top of each other, thus reducing the belt to two stars. Also, Bellatrix would be much closer to the belt, making the "chest" of Orion somewhat smaller.

Stars
If the Sun were to be observed from the Alpha Centauri system, the nearest star system to ours, it would appear to be as a star in the constellation Cassiopeia. Due to the proximity of the Alpha Centauri system, the constellations would, for the most part, appear similar.

From further away, the Sun would be an average looking star in the constellation Serpens Caput. At this distance, most of the stars nearest to us would be in different locations to those in our sky, including Alpha Centauri, Sirius, and Procyon.

Related pages

 Earth phase
 Exosphere
 Extraterrestrial skies (en wiki)
 Sky
 Spaceship Earth
 Timeline of first images of Earth from space (en wiki)

References

Further reading

Other websites
 Astronauts on the planets
 Essay on the possible sky colours of alien worlds.
 JPL Solar System Simulator
 Phases of Charon as seen from Pluto
 The Starry Universe – Life magazine (December 20, 1954).
 Sunsets simulated on other planets (NASA; 22 June 2020)

Astronomy

Extraterrestrial sky


Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace is a science fiction movie released in 1999. This movie is the fourth movie that director George Lucas made in the Star Wars series but is the first movie chronologically.

Story

A peaceful planet named Naboo has been blockaded by a fleet of spaceships belonging to a corrupt organisation called the Trade Federation. Two Jedi Knights, Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi, learn that the Federation is planning to invade Naboo with their army of droids (robots). In order to warn the people of Naboo, they transport themselves down to the planet on Trade Federation battleships.

They reach the swamps of Naboo, separately. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan meet Jar Jar Binks. They find the Queen, Padmé Amidala, who escapes with them to the Republic, but in the blockade, their ship's engine was damaged.

They barely had enough power to reach Tatooine, and still need new parts for the ship so as not to be stuck on the planet forever. Luckily, they meet Anakin Skywalker, a young slave boy, who helps them gain the money by participating in a very dangerous podracing event.

Qui-Gon suspects that Anakin is strong with the Force, meaning that he has potential to become a Jedi. Qui-Gon manages to win Anakin's freedom and they take him with them, but his mother must stay behind.

Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, Anakin, Padmé and her personnel make it to Coruscant, capital of the Republic. However, Padmé soon finds out that the Republic Senate is corrupt and she calls for a vote to elect a new Chancellor. A senator named Palpatine is elected, but nobody knows that he is secretly a Sith (evil Jedi) and he is the person who is controlling the Trade Federation.

The group returns to Naboo because the Republic is unwilling to help. Padmé and her guards manage to capture Nute Gunray, the head of the Trade Federation and they force him to surrender. Meanwhile, Qui-Gon is killed by Darth Maul, a Sith knight sent by Palpatine to kill the Jedi. Obi-Wan uses his lightsaber to cut Maul in half. Yoda and the other Jedi agree that Obi-Wan should be allowed to train Anakin in the ways of the Jedi.

Cast
Liam Neeson as Qui-Gon Jinn
Natalie Portman as Padmé Amidala
Jake Lloyd as Anakin Skywalker
Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi
Ian McDiarmid as Senator Palpatine
Pernilla August as Shmi Skywalker
Ahmed Best as Jar Jar Binks
Kenny Baker as R2-D2
Anthony Daniels as C-3PO
Silas Carson as Nute Gunray and Ki-Adi-Mundi
Frank Oz as Yoda
Samuel L. Jackson as Mace Windu
Ray Park as Darth Maul
Terence Stamp as Chancellor Valorum
Oliver Ford Davies as Sio Bibble
Hugh Quarshie as Captain Panaka
Andy Secombe as Watto
Brian Blessed as Boss Nass
Lewis MacLeod as Sebulba

Other websites

 Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace The Movie Database

1999 movies
1999 science fiction movies
Movies composed by John Williams
Prequel movies
Phantom Menace, The
Movies directed by George Lucas
Movies with underwater settings
3D re-releases

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace


Threshing, or thrashing, is the process of loosening the edible part of grain (or other crop) from the straw to which it is attached. It is the step in grain preparation after reaping. Threshing does not remove the bran from the grain.

History of threshing

Through much of the history of agriculture, threshing was time-consuming and usually laborious, with a bushel of wheat taking about an hour. In the late 18th century, before threshing was mechanized, about one-quarter of agricultural labor was devoted to it.

It is likely that in the earliest days of agriculture the little grain that was raised was shelled by hand, but as the quantity increased the grain was probably beaten out with a stick, or the sheaf beaten upon the ground. An improvement on this, as the quantity further increased, was the practice of the ancient Egyptians of spreading out the loosened sheaves on a circular enclosure of hard ground, and driving oxen, sheep or other animals round and round over it so as to tread out the grain. This enclosure was placed on an elevated piece of ground so that when the straw was removed the wind blew away the chaff and left the corn. A contemporary version of this in some locations is to spread the grain on the surface of a country road so the grain may be threshed by the wheels of passing vehicles.

This method, however, damaged part of the grain, and it was partially superseded by the threshing sledge, a heavy frame mounted with three or more rollers, sometimes spiked, which revolved as it was drawn over the spread out corn by two oxen. A common sledge with a ridged or grooved bottom was also used. Similar methods to these were used by the ancient Greeks, and continued to be employed in the modern period in some places. In Italy the use of a tapering roller fastened to an upright shaft in the centre of the thrashing floor and pulled round from the outer end by oxen seems to be a descendant of the Roman  or roller sledge.

The flail, a pair of connected sticks used to beat the grain, evolved from the early method of using a single stick. It, with the earlier methods, was described by Pliny the Elder in his first-century CE Natural History: "The cereals are threshed in some places with the threshing board on the threshing floor; in others they are trampled by a train of horses, and in others they are beaten with flails". It seems to have been the thrashing implement in general use in all Northern European countries, and was the chief means of thrashing grain as late as 1860. It was known in Japan very early, and was probably used in conjunction with the stripper, an implement fashioned very much like a large comb, with the teeth made of hard wood and pointing upwards. The straw after being reaped was brought to this and combed through by hand, the heads being drawn off and afterwards threshed on the threshing floor by the flail. Much more recently, just such an implement, known as a "heckle", has been used for combing the bolls or heads off flax, or for straightening the fibre in the after-treatment.

After the grain had been beaten out by the flail or ground out by other means the straw was carefully raked away and the corn and chaff collected to be separated by winnowing when there was a wind blowing. This consisted of tossing the mixture of corn and chaff into the air so that the wind carried away the chaff while the grain fell back on the threshing floor. The best grain fell nearest while the lightest grain was carried some distance before falling, thus an approximate grading of the grain was obtained. It was also performed when there was no wind by fanning while pouring the mixture from a vessel. Later, a fanning or winnowing mill was invented. Barns were constructed with large doors opening in the direction of the prevailing winds so that the wind could blow right through the barn and across the threshing floor for the purpose of winnowing the corn. The flail continued to be used for special purposes such as flower seeds, and also where the quantity grown was small enough to render it not worth while to use a threshing mill.

With regard to the amount of grain threshed in a day by the flail, a fair average quantity was 8 bushels of wheat, 30 bushels of oats, 16 bushels of barley, 20 bushels of beans, 8 bushels of rye and 20 bushels of buckwheat.

Mechanization
In the 18th century there were efforts to create a power-driven threshing machine. In 1732 Michael Menzies, a Scot, obtained a patent for a power-driven machine. This was arranged to drive a large number of flails operated by water power, but was not particularly successful. The first practical effort leading in the right direction was made by a Scottish farmer named Leckie about 1758. He invented what was described as a "rotary machine consisting of a set of cross arms attached to a horizontal shaft and enclosed in a cylindrical case." This machine did not work very well, but it demonstrated the superiority of the rotary motion and pointed to the ways in which thrashing machines should be constructed.

True industrialization of threshing began in 1786 with the invention of the threshing machine by Scot Andrew Meikle.  In this the loosened sheaves were fed, ears first, from a feeding board between two fluted revolving rollers to the beating cylinder. This cylinder or "drum" was armed with four iron-shod beaters or spars of wood parallel to its axle, and these striking the ears of corn as they protruded from the rollers knocked out the grain. The drum revolved at 200 to 250 revolutions per minute and carried the loose grain and straw on to a concave sieve beneath another revolving drum or rake with pegs which rubbed the straw on to the concave and caused the grain and chaff to fall through. Another revolving rake tossed the straw out of the machine. The straw thus passing under one peg drum and over the next was subjected to a thorough rubbing and tossing which separated the grain and chaff from it. These fell on to the floor beneath, ready for winnowing.

A later development of the beater-drum was to fix iron pegs on the framework, and thus was evolved the Scottish "peg-mill," which remained the standard type for nearly a hundred years, and was adopted across the US. In Britain, the development of high-speed drums carried considerable risk, and a type of safety guard was mandated by the Threshing Machine Act of 1878.

Contemporary industrialization
Today, in developed areas, threshing is mostly done by machine, usually by a combine harvester, which harvests, threshes, and winnows the grain while it is still in the field.

The cereal may be stored in a barn or silos.

Threshing festivals
A threshing bee was traditionally a bee in which local people gathered together to pitch in and get the season's threshing done. Such bees were sometimes festivals or events within larger harvest festivals. Today the original purpose is largely obsolete, but the festival tradition lives on in some modern examples that commemorate the past and include flea markets, hog wrestling, and dances.

Gallery

See also

Swing Riots
Threshing-board
Threshing floor
Threshing machine
Threshing stone
Winnowing

References

Sources

Harvest
Agriculture
Articles containing video clips

Threshing


Allium cristophii, the Persian onion or star of Persia, is a species of flowering plant in the family Amaryllidaceae, native to Iran, Turkey, and Turkmenistan, though grown as an ornamental bulbous plant in many parts of the world. It may be sold under the synonym of Allium albopilosum.

Star of Persia grows to  and is cultivated in gardens for its large showy umbels of silvery pink star-shaped flowers,  in diameter, which appear in early summer.  The flowers are followed by attractive fruiting clusters. The plant has received the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

A. cristophii performs best in sun to part shade. It is toxic to cats, dogs, and horses. It prefers sandy, gritty soil with good drainage, and is best suited to USDA hardiness zones 5–8.

References

cristophii
Garden plants of Asia
Flora of temperate Asia
Onions
Plants described in 1884

Allium cristophii


La Place de l'Étoile is the first novel of the French writer Patrick Modiano. It was published by Gallimard in 1968 and won the Roger Nimier Prize and Fénéon Prize.

The novel, which draws on elements of autobiography, recounts the story of Raphael Schlemilovitch, a French Jew born just after the war, who is haunted by the war and by thoughts of persecution. The hero, who is also the narrator, tells the story in a hallucinatory manner, mixing reality and fictitious personal inventions.

He first presents himself as an antisemitic Jew belonging to the French Gestapo living in Geneva who becomes friends with Des Essarts, a French aristocrat, and Maurice Sachs, who has miraculously reappeared (Maurice Sachs was a real person, but deceased by the time of the narration). After their abrupt disappearance, he reconnects with his father, a Jewish industrialist living in New York, and gives him his entire fortune which he had previously inherited from an uncle from Venezuela. He then enrolls in an academic preparatory school (a "khâgne") in Bordeaux, where he is influenced by M. Debigorre, professor of literature, former Pétainist, who is harassed by his students, and whom the narrator successfully defends against them. He then meets Levy-Vendome, a Jewish aristocrat who is in the business of sex slave trafficking and with whom he signs on as an associate in order to kidnap young women according to specifications. By virtue of his athletic good looks, his stature and his physical strength, he is able to seduce and capture and deliver to employer several women from the French provinces, first in Savoy and then in Normandy. He then flees to Vienna, where he becomes a pimp, believing himself to be the "official Jew" of the third Reich, friend of Heydrich, the official pimp of the SS and lover of Eva Braun. We next see him in Israel in a reeducation camp that very much resembles a concentration camp where the Israeli army "reforms" European Jews into good Israelis, freed from their obsessions over Jewish misfortune, Jewish thought and Jewish intelligence. But all this appears to be simply an illusion because after a final scene where all the characters reappear, we find Schlemilovitch on a couch in Vienna in the process of being psychoanalyzed by a doctor whom he takes to be doctor Freud.

The title is a play on words, reflecting both the star that Jews were forced to wear under Nazi rule (French l'étoile jaune) and Place de l'Étoile, the traffic circle around the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

Editions
 La Place de l'Étoile, « Blanche » collection, Gallimard, 1968 ()
 La Place de l'Étoile, « Folio » collection, Gallimard (nº 698), 1975 ()
 La Place de l'Étoile, translated by Frank Wynne, Bloomsbury, 2016 ()

References

1968 French novels
1968 debut novels
Novels by Patrick Modiano
Éditions Gallimard books
Novels set in the 1940s
Vichy France in fiction

La Place de l'Étoile (novel)


Hard-paste porcelain, sometimes called "true porcelain", is a ceramic material that was originally made from a compound of the feldspathic rock petuntse and kaolin fired at a very high temperature, usually around 1400 °C. It was first made in China around the 7th or 8th century and has remained the most common type of Chinese porcelain.

From the Middle Ages onwards, it was very widely exported and admired by other cultures and fetched huge prices on foreign markets. Eventually Korean porcelain developed in the 14th century and Japanese porcelain in the 17th, but other cultures were unable to learn or reproduce the secret of its formula in terms of materials and firing temperature until it was worked out in Europe in the early 18th century and suitable mineral deposits of kaolin, feldspar, and quartz were discovered. This soon led to a large production in factories across Europe by the end of the 18th century.

Despite the huge influence of Chinese porcelain decoration on Islamic pottery, historic production in the Islamic world was all in earthenware or fritware, the latter having some of the properties of hard-paste porcelain. Europeans also developed soft-paste porcelain, fired at lower temperatures (around 1200 °C), while trying to copy the Chinese, and later bone china, which in modern times has somewhat replaced hard-paste around the world, even in China.

History
Chinese porcelain began to be exported to Europe by the Portuguese and later by the Dutch from the middle of the 16th century, creating vast demand for the material. The discovery in Europe of the secret of its manufacture has conventionally been credited to Johann Friedrich Böttger of Meissen, Germany in 1708, but it has also been claimed that English manufacturers or Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus produced porcelain first. Certainly, the Meissen porcelain factory, established 1710, was the first to produce porcelain in Europe in large quantities and since the recipe was kept a trade secret by Böttger for his company, experiments continued elsewhere throughout Europe. Vienna porcelain became the second European manufacturer in 1718, followed by Vezzi porcelain in Venice in 1720.

In 1712, the French Jesuit François Xavier d'Entrecolles described the Chinese process of manufacturing porcelain in his letters to Europe. In 1771, the comte de Milly published L'art de la porcelaine, a detailed account of the processes of creating hard-paste porcelain, ending its prestige as a rare and valuable material.

Hard-paste now chiefly refers to formulations prepared from mixtures of kaolin, feldspar and quartz. Other raw materials can also be used and these include pottery stones, which historically were known as petunse although this name has long fallen out of use.

Characteristics
Hard-paste porcelain is now differentiated from soft-paste porcelain mainly by the firing temperature, with the former being higher, to around 1400 °C, and the latter to around 1200 °C. Depending on the raw materials and firing methods used, hard-paste porcelain can also resemble stoneware or earthenware. Hard-paste porcelain can also be used for unglazed biscuit porcelain. It is a translucent and bright, white ceramic.  Hard-paste has the advantage over soft-paste that it is less likely to crack when exposed to hot liquids, but the higher firing temperature of hard-paste may necessitate a second "glost" firing for the decoration.

References

External links

 Teapots.net. "The Invention of Hard-Paste Porcelain". History of Teapots. https://web.archive.org/web/20070118045744/http://www.teapots.net/porcelain.html
 ThePotteries.org. "Hard paste porcelain". Types and Examples of Pottery. http://www.thepotteries.org/types/hardpaste.htm

Ceramic materials
Porcelain
History of ceramics

Hard-paste porcelain


The Range Rover is a 4x4 luxury SUV produced by Land Rover, a marque and sub-brand of Jaguar Land Rover. The Range Rover line was launched in 1970 by British Leyland and is now in its fifth generation.

Additional models have been launched under the Range Rover name, including the Range Rover Sport, Range Rover Evoque, and Range Rover Velar.

History
The Rover Company (originator of the Land Rover marque) was experimenting with a larger model than the Land Rover Series in 1951, when the Rover P4-based two-wheel-drive "Road Rover" project was developed by Gordon Bashford. This was shelved in 1958 and the idea lay dormant until 1966, when engineers Spen King and Bashford set to work on a new model.

The first Range Rover prototype was built in 1967 with plate number SYE 157F. The design of the Range Rover was finalised in 1969. Twenty-six Velar-badged engineering development vehicles were built between 1969 and 1970 and were road registered with the number plates YVB151H through to YVB177H.

Though being chassis no. 3, YVB 153H is believed to have been the first off the production line as a vehicle in that colour was urgently required for marketing. (The Range Rover with chassis no. 1 was a green model with the registration "YVB 151H", and is now on exhibition at Huddersfield Land Rover Centre, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire). The Velar name was derived from the Italian "velare" meaning to veil or to cover. Range Rover development engineer Geof Miller used the name as a decoy for registering pre-production Range Rovers. The Velar company was registered in London and produced 40 pre-production vehicles that were built between 1967 and 1970.

The Range Rover was launched in 1970. In the early 1970s, the Musée du Louvre in Paris exhibited a Range Rover as an "exemplary work of industrial design".

In 1971, ex-Cream drummer Ginger Baker used the unproven Range Rover to drive from Algeria to Lagos, Nigeria, to set up a recording studio and jam with Fela Kuti. Predating the Paris-Dakar rally the subsequent documentary is replete with such terrain, documenting the vehicle's endurance.

In 1972, the British Trans-Americas Expedition became the first vehicle-based expedition to traverse the Americas from north to south, including traversing the roadless Darién Gap. The specially modified Range Rovers used for this expedition are now on display in the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust collection at Gaydon, Warwickshire.

Range Rover sub-brands have been launched. In 2004, Land Rover debuted the Range Rover Sport, based on the Land Rover Discovery platform. Later models received the latest Range Rover platform. In 2011 came the Range Rover Evoque, and in 2017  the Range Rover Velar (re-using the name of the very first, pre-production Range Rovers).

In North America
From 1970 until 1987, the Range Rover was only available to American consumers through unofficial grey market import channels. Its popularity via these imports prompted official U.S. sales to begin on 16 March 1987. From that time until 1993, the U.S. marketing was all in the name of Range Rover, because it was the only model offered in the American market. In 1993, with the arrival of the Defender 110 and the imminent arrival of the Land Rover Discovery, the company's U.S. sales were under the name "Land Rover North America".

First generation (1969)

The first-generation Range Rover was produced between 1969 and 1996. It was available only in a 2-door body until 1981. (Before then, 4-door models had been produced by specialist firms).

Unlike other 4x4s such as the Jeep Wagoneer, the original Range Rover was not designed as a luxury vehicle. It was up-market compared to preceding Land Rover models, but the early Range Rovers had fairly basic, utilitarian, interiors with vinyl seats and plastic dashboards that were designed to be washed down with a hose. Convenience features such as power steering, carpeted floors, air conditioning, cloth/leather seats, and wooden interior trim were fitted later.

The Range Rover was a body-on-frame design with a box section ladder type chassis, like the contemporary Series Land Rovers. The Range Rover used coil springs as opposed to leaf springs, permanent four-wheel drive, and four-wheel disc brakes. The Range Rover was originally powered by various Rover V8 engines and diesel engines.

Originally, the Range Rover was fitted with a detuned  version of the Buick-derived Rover V8 engine. In 1984, the engine was fitted with Lucas fuel injection, boosting power to . The 3.5-litre (3,528 cc) engine was bored out to a displacement of 3.9 litres (3,947 cc) for the 1990 model year, and 4.2-litre (4,215 cc) in 1992 (1993 model year) for the 108-inch Long Wheelbase Vogue LSE (County LWB [long wheelbase] in North America). One of the first significant changes came in 1981, with the introduction of a four-door body. Shortly after twin-thermo fan technology was introduced to reduce significant overheating problems 1970s models experienced in Australia. In 1988, LR introduced a 2.4-litre turbodiesel (badged Vogue Turbo D) with , manufactured by Italian VM Motori. The same engine was available in the Rover SD1 passenger car. The diesel project was codenamed project Beaver. During the project, 12 world records were broken, including the fastest diesel off-roader to reach , and the furthest a diesel off-roader has travelled in 24 hours. In 1990 project Otter was unveiled. This was a mildly tuned 2.5-litre,  version of the 'Beaver' 2.4. In 1992, Land Rover finally introduced their own diesel engines in the Range Rover, beginning with the  200TDi, first released in the Land Rover Discovery and following in 1994, the 300 TDi, again with 111 bhp.

The first generation was known as the Range Rover until almost the end of its production when Land Rover introduced the name Range Rover Classic to distinguish it from its successors. The original model served as the basis for the 1989 introduced 1st generation Discovery (directly based on the standard (short) wheelbase Range Rover), and for the 2nd generation Range Rover, based on the LWB chassis of the Classic.

Australian assembly
Jaguar-Rover-Australia began assembly of the Range Rover from CKD kits at its Enfield plant, in New South Wales, Australia in 1979. Government increases in the tariff on parts led to the discontinuation of Australian assembly in 1983.

Utility vehicles

The first-generation Range Rover served as the base for specialist utility vehicles. These included the Carmichaels International six-wheel Fire Tender. This was a two-door model with an extended chassis and a third "lazy" axle added. Designed for small airfield use, it had a water-pump mounted on the front bumper driven directly by the V8's crankshaft. The MoD purchased them for the RAF, this version was called the TACR2. Carmichaels was contracted to supply the modified chassis and the fire-fighting body was supplied and mounted by Gloster-Saro. These were four-door versions using an internally mounted water-pump driven by a gearbox PTO. At least one of these (at Duxford IWM) has been converted into a full 6x6 by linking a drive-through unit to the two rear axles' differentials.

Second generation (1994)

Twenty-five years after the introduction of the original Range Rover, the second-generation (model-designation P38A) was introduced for the 1995 model year, based on the LWB chassis of the model, with an updated version of the Rover V8 engine or a 2.5-litre BMW six-cylinder turbo-diesel with a Bosch injection pump. This was the first diesel injection with electronic controls in a Land Rover, before common rails were introduced. This was a result of BMW's subsequent ownership of Rover Group and hence the Land Rover brand.

This model was the last to use the Rover V8 and interior leather supplied by Connolly who went out of business in 2002. It was the first model to feature Satellite Navigation as an option.

Third generation (2001)

In 2001, the third-generation model was introduced, which saw the model move further upmarket. Planned and developed under BMW ownership the third generation shared components and systems (electronics, core power units etc.) with the BMW 7 Series (E38). The 7 Series electronics system was being phased out during the development of the third-generation Range Rover and being replaced with the electronics from the BMW 5 Series (E39).

There were three "Generations" of the L322. First, from 2001 until 2005, was the 4.4 litre M62 BMW V8 with ZF 5HP-24 transmission. (The manual transmission was dropped, leaving only the automatic). Then, from 2006 until 2009 a 4.4-litre Jaguar-derived engine or a 4.2-litre supercharged variant of the Jaguar engine partnered with the ZF 6HP-26 transmission. and thirdly, in 2010 Land Rover fitted the newly-designed AJ133 5.0 N/A and Supercharged engine with ZF 6HP-26 until the 2012 model year, the end of L322 production. (This summary does not give diesel options).

From 2001-2004 the L322 used a standard BMW E39 electrics system. From 2005-2009 the L322 saw an updated Jaguar-derived electrical system with fibre optics and Bluetooth. From 2010-2012 the L322 used updated Jaguar-derived electrics, the first "modern feeling" system, replacing the gear lever with a rotary dial.

In MY06 the first exterior update was applied with a face-lift of the front fascia, tail lamps (orange/red now became red/red), side vents (from two "gills" to three), clear indicator side-repeaters. Some other slight differences can be found on the "Supercharged" variant (rear lamps became clear/clear). The second exterior update was in 2010, bringing an even more modern feel to the L322 with a new fascia, tail lamps, side grills, and clear side markers.

The interiors stayed relatively the same until 2006.5, (NAS 2007). A major change came in 2010: a range of new engines was offered, with 5-litre versions of the petrol V8 in standard and supercharged forms, and revision of the exterior front and rear profiles.

Fourth generation (2012)

The fourth generation Range Rover, codenamed L405, was exhibited in September 2012 at the 2012 Paris Motor Show.

It uses an all-aluminium monocoque unitary body structure, instead of the third generation's steel unibody — making it the first production 4x4 SUV to do so, resulting in a reduction of  compared to its predecessor.

Hybrid
The Range Rover Hybrid is diesel-powered hybrid electric model unveiled at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show. The ordering process began in September 2013, and retail deliveries in Europe were slated to start in early 2014.

Plug-in Hybrid
The Range Rover Plug-in Hybrid is a petrol-powered PHEV model unveiled in 2018.

Diesel
In 2021 Land Rover started selling the Range Rover Sport D350 model which runs on the 3.0-litre D300 Ingenium Diesel engine.

Fifth generation (2022)

The fifth generation Range Rover was revealed on 26 October 2021 by the Jaguar Land Rover Chief Creative Officer and the car's designer, Gerry McGovern, at the Royal Opera House in London. As well as two PHEV, three diesel and two petrol JLR 3.0 L Ingenium I6 engine options, the car will be the first from JLR to use an engine developed under the combustion and electrified powertrain partnership agreed between JLR and BMW in 2019, as a 4.4L BMW/JLR V8 engine is also an option. It was launched with a range of mild hybrid diesel and petrol engines, with plug-in hybrids due in early 2022 and an all-electric model in 2024.

Sales
The success of Jaguar Land Rover since its formation in 2008 is reflected largely in the rising sales of the Range Rover. In 2009, as a severe recession took hold, just over 22,000 were sold. Four years later, it sold more than twice as many units, with more than 45,000 being sold. By 2015, Range Rover sales worldwide exceeded 60,000.

This table excludes Range Rover Sport, Evoque, and Velar. The total figure is from 2009, excluding those sold prior to that year.

Motorsport
A Range Rover was used to win the 1979 inaugural and 1981 Paris–Dakar Rally, completing a race distance in each case of approx 10,000 km. Range Rovers also competed in the East African Safari Rally throughout the 1980s.

Expanded line

Range Rover Sport

On 26 November 2004, Land Rover released the first photographs of the Range Rover Sport, a new model it planned to show to the public for the first time at the 2004 North American International Auto Show. The Range Rover Sport is a production car development of the Range Stormer concept vehicle the company showcased in the 2004 North American International Auto Show. Though called the Range Rover Sport "L320", it was not merely a new specification within the Range Rover line-up, but rather an adapted Discovery "L319", or T5 Platform Discovery/LR3 with Range Rover exterior styling and Range Rover interior seating and dash forms, a shortened wheelbase, smaller luggage capacity and a single rather than split tailgate which was angled back for styling improvements. With entry model pricing close to upper Discovery models, the Sport became the biggest seller of all the Land Rover products. This model was released for sale in late 2004 as a 2004 model.

In 2013 a redesigned version was released for sale as a 2014 model year "L494". Unlike the original and current Discovery, it does not have steel chassis rails, but is based on the new D7u alloy Platform, which much more resembles the current flagship Range Rover with closer equipment levels and capabilities in a smaller body style. Hence the L494 Range Rover Sport is around 400 kg lighter than the previous generation and benefits in performance due to its weight reduction.

Range Rover Evoque

The Range Rover Evoque, which went into production in July 2011, has its roots in the Land Rover LRX concept car which it resembles. It is available with either a three-door or five-door hatchback body, front-wheel drive or four-wheel drive, and with a 2-litre turbocharged petrol engine or one of two different power output 2.0-litre turbo-diesel engines.

In 2012, at the Geneva Motor Show, Land Rover unveiled a convertible concept, which featured four seats and a drop-down tailgate.

Range Rover Velar

Land Rover unveiled a mid-size crossover using the Range Rover name in March 2017. Named the Range Rover Velar, it has a roofline running away on its bodywork and uses the same platform as the Jaguar F-Pace, which serves as the basis for its design.

Advertising
A song titled "I Found a Place in My Heart" and "Find Your Heaven", co-written by Dom James and Tommy Antonio for Range Rover commercials, is sung by Emma Smith.

Criticism

The Range Rover brand has attracted some controversy, particularly from those concerned with the potential negative environmental impact of large, luxury vehicles. In 2005, members of Greenpeace temporarily disrupted Range Rover production at the Land Rover plant in Solihull.

In 2004, Spen King criticised owners of off-roaders who drove their vehicles in urban areas, saying that vehicles like the Range Rover he created were "never intended as a status symbol but later incarnations of my design seem to be intended for that purpose."

In 2014 it was reported that Range Rovers could be opened and started using hand-held equipment readily available from eBay. High levels of theft led The Times to report that "High-end motor insurers are refusing to cover new Range Rovers in London after a series of thefts."

Range Rovers, according to AutoTrader, "can be complicated, costly vehicles, and are loaded with very expensive parts." Reliability issues are common complaints. J.D. Power rankings for the Land Rover are in the lowest category - known as "The Rest" - for quality overall, dependability, sales satisfaction, and customer service, with the cars only earning a "Better than Most" rank in the performance and design overall category. The Land Rover brand has "a legacy of quality problems" and ranks "at the bottom of the J.D. Power reliability ratings for three-year-old vehicles". The JD Power 2014 U.S. Customer Service Index (CSI) study ranked Land Rover last in overall customer satisfaction. However, one Motor Trend review of a 2014 Range Rover after  turned up only two things that went wrong with the car. According to an automotive journalist, "Land Rover doesn't care about JD Power ratings because it doesn't need to care" since people "still line up for months to pay full sticker."

References

External links

Land Rover vehicles
Cars introduced in 1970
1980s cars
1990s cars
2000s cars
2010s cars
2020s cars
Luxury sport utility vehicles
All-wheel-drive vehicles
Expanded length sport utility vehicles
Flagship vehicles
Luxury vehicles

Range Rover


Stonyville Township, Water Race and Cemetery is a heritage-listed mining camp at Mareeba Mining District, Palmer, Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. It was built from the 1870s to . It is also known as Stony Creek Township, Stonyville Water Race, and Stonyville Cemetery. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.

History
Stony Creek is one of a number of tributaries of Sandy Creek, in the Limestone district south of the Palmer River, that were subjected to a major rush and intensive alluvial mining by Chinese prospectors following James Venture Mulligan's discovery of gold in Sandy Creek in 1874. The alluvial gravels yielded fine gold for several years.

It is not recorded when prospecting first commenced in Stony Creek but presumably in the gold rush of 1874. A township developed on the southern side of a wide bend in the creek and in 1882 Len Yue had the hotel, John McLean and Sam Marris had butcher shops, and there were several Chinese stores. By September 1896 when the Government Geologist, Robert Logan Jack, passed through "Stony Creek Township" on his way from Groganville to the Palmer, he noted:"... there are now only four inhabited houses in the street, and a few huts around, all occupied by Chinese. The chief feature of Stony Creek is a huge outcrop of micaceous quartzite-schist....There is a remarkable water-race on the right bank of the creek, which must have cost, inparts at least £500 per mile. The quartzite-schist crosses the creek again and again".The water race is evidence of Chinese alluvial mining in the area and of the construction skills that had been developed. Prior to the arrival of the Chinese on Stony Creek in large numbers, the European prospectors are reported to have obtained "fantastic amounts" of alluvial gold. Later, the Chinese were reported to be "particularly strong" on Stony Creek. Hence their continuing presence at the time of Jack's visit in 1896 and their cemetery. It is presumed the area was abandoned in the first decade of this century.

Description

The township and cemetery occupy a cleared flat on a horseshoe bend of Stony Creek. A haulage road has recently been driven through the centre of the township to a large area of surface workings that scour the hillside to the north-west of the creek. Evidence of structures in Stony Creek township is now largely archaeological and includes stone surfaces, rock-lined borders and stone cooking places in scattered and disturbed condition. There are two small groups of mango trees.

The cemetery is situated immediately adjacent to the township on the north-west. Cemetery boundaries have recently been assumed with the erection of four corner posts. The area was covered with long grass at the time of survey and only two disturbed arrangements of stones, which may form the perimeter of the cemetery, were evident. The cemetery is reported to contain the foot stones of 15 graves. Two grave markers are reported to have been removed for "safe-keeping" by the Palmer River Historic Preservation Society.

The water race extends for about  along the northern and eastern banks of Stony Creek. For most of its length the race consists of a  wide channel partially cut into bed-rock and raised on a rubble and earth aqueduct up to  above the creekbed. Several short sections contain packed stone retaining walls  in height. The race is cut through bed rock for about  through a gorge. The race terminates at an area of past alluvial workings adjacent to Stonyville township.

Heritage listing
Stonyville Township, Water Race and Cemetery was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992 having satisfied the following criteria.

The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history.

The place is significant in Queensland's history for illustrating the pattern of Chinese settlement and alluvial mining operations in a rugged and remote area of North Queensland.

The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage.

The archaeologically intact combination of water race, stone dams, creek alluvial workings, township site and cemetery is unique and the best surviving example of this type of place in Queensland.

The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history.

The archaeologically intact combination of water race, stone dams, creek alluvial workings, township site and cemetery is unique and the best surviving example of this type of place in Queensland.

The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places.

The archaeologically intact combination of water race, stone dams, creek alluvial workings, township site and cemetery is unique and the best surviving example of this type of place in Queensland.

The place is important because of its aesthetic significance.

The place exhibits strong visual qualities.

References

Attribution

External links

Queensland Heritage Register
Palmer, Queensland
Mines in Queensland
Articles incorporating text from the Queensland Heritage Register

Stonyville Township


The Fairey Fremantle was a large single-engine biplane seaplane designed in the mid-1920s for a proposed around-the-world flight. Only one was built.

Design and development
The Fremantle was designed to Air Ministry specification 44/22 calling for a single long-range reconnaissance aircraft. One of several contracts aimed at keeping British design teams together in difficult economic times, it was hoped to produce an aircraft that might achieve the first around-the-world flight. It was a large (almost 70 ft/21 m span) two-bay unstaggered biplane. The fuselage was rectangular and deep, with a two-windowed section for the cabin, built of mahogany planking over a wooden frame in small-boat fashion to avoid the need for internal bracing. The fuselage was deep enough to allow the crew to stand in the cabin, which contained provisions, storage, bunks and navigator's table. The navigator also had a position for celestial observation at the rear of the cabin. The pilot's open cockpit was at the trailing edge of the wing, in front of the cabin.

In front of the pilot was the engine firewall and the metal-covered engine bay housing a 650 hp (490 kW) Rolls-Royce Condor III water-cooled motor. This drove a fixed-pitch wooden propeller via a spur reduction gear which conveniently raised the propeller shaft high on the nose. This arrangement had at least two advantages: for a given propeller diameter, the height of the fuselage above the water was reduced, shortening the length and weight of the float struts; the underside of the nose could be swept up to the base of the radiator for better aerodynamics.

The two mahogany-planked floats were short, so that at rest the Fremantle sat on the water like a tailwheel-type landplane with the assistance of a tail float fixed to the fuselage underside.  The tailplane was mounted at the top of the fuselage with bracing underneath and the rudder hinge post carried a water-rudder for directional control at low speeds on the surface. Since the main floats were not widely spaced, there were two more floats attached to the underside of the lower wing immediately below the outer pairs of interplane struts to provide lateral stability. Fuel was stored in tanks in the floats but there was another large and very conspicuous tank mounted centrally above the upper wing. This gravity-fed the engine and was replenished by pumping (hand- or wind-powered) fuel from the float tanks.

Operational history
The Fremantle's first flight was on 28 November 1924, with Norman Macmillan at the controls. Macmillan flew it throughout its flying programme, which lasted until the following June. He reported that it was a pleasant aircraft in the air and on water, though there were some control modifications made during the flying programme. It left the water under full load even with flat sea conditions; on its last flight it carried seven passengers. During this period, the lone Fremantle carried the RAF serial N173 and the civil registration, for the proposed around-the-world flight, G-EBLZ.  No such attempt was made, as three Douglas aircraft had already performed this feat in September 1924, two months before the Fremantle flew. It flew with the Royal Aircraft Establishment on radio navigation development during 1926.

Specifications

See also

References

Notes

Bibliography

1920s British military reconnaissance aircraft
Fremantle
Floatplanes
Single-engined tractor aircraft
Biplanes
Aircraft first flown in 1924

Fairey Fremantle


Summer in Kingston is the tenth studio album released by Jamaican dancehall artist Shaggy.

Background
The album was first released via digital download on 19 July 2011, containing a total of eight tracks. Shaggy described the album as a "Summer follow-up" to Shaggy & Friends, which was released in January 2011. The album was mostly produced by Shaggy. The album's lead single, "Fired Up (Fuck the Rece$$ion!)", was released on 8 March 2011, and features vocals from Cuban-American rapper Pitbull. The album's second single, "Sugarcane", was released just three days prior to the album, and was produced by Teflon, formerly of hip-hop's Ruff Ryders Crew, and the producer of Eve's worldwide smash hit "Who's That Girl". The album was priced at $2.99 for a limited time through iTunes, Amazon and other major digital outlets, however, this promotion ended on Labor Day. In 2012, Shaggy announced plans to release a 'Lava edition' of the album on 7 February 2012, this time being issued both physically and via digital download. The 'Lava edition' was preceded by the album's third single, a new version of "Dame" featuring Kat DeLuna. The 'Lava edition' contains two brand new songs - "Hurting" and "She Gives Me Love", featuring Sly & Robbie.

Track listing

References

2011 albums
Shaggy (musician) albums

Summer in Kingston


The Eh'häusl is an eight-foot-wide hotel in the city of Amberg, in the Upper Palatinate of Bavaria in Germany. According to the operator, the Urban Planning Society of the town of Amberg, it is now regarded as "the smallest hotel in the world."

The name of the building, derived possibly from Early New High German Ehalten (for servants) and was probably reinterpreted in the vernacular to marriage house or matrimonial home in the 18th or 19th century.

Built in 1728, the 2 metre wide house was sold between young couples to circumvent local laws prohibiting marriage between poor people who did not own their own home.

The house was built on an area of approximately 20 square meters with no side walls and is mounted between the two neighboring houses. Though tiny in size the hotel has flat-screen TV, a mini spa, and several other amenities for its guests.

References

External links
Eh'häusl Hotel

Buildings and structures in Amberg
Hotels in Germany

Eh'häusl


Stanley Tigerman (September 20, 1930 – June 3, 2019) was an American architect, theorist and designer.

Biography

Early years
Tigerman was born into a Jewish family, the only child of Emma (Stern), a typist for the federal government, and Samuel Tigerman, an engineer whose career struggled by the Depression. He grew up in his paternal grandparents' boardinghouse in Edgewater, Chicago. He won the 'beautiful baby' contest at the 1933 World's Fair. When he was a child, he wanted to be a musician and took six years of piano lessons. At Senn High School he studied jazz.

Education and apprenticeships
He studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but flunked out after one year. After, the dean of architecture at MIT helped Tigerman get an apprenticeship with Chicago architect George Fred Keck. After a year with Keck, he left to start his own practice, which failed. He then joined the U.S. Navy for four years, serving in the Korean War. After the navy, he returned to Chicago and worked for two years for A.J. Del Bianco doing suburban architecture; then with Milton Schwartz on the Executive House Hotel; and then as junior designer for Skidmore Owings & Merrill on the Air Force Academy. In 1958, Tigerman was officially an architect through his many years of apprenticeships, and he wrote to MIT, IIT, Yale, and Harvard to apply to their graduate programs, though he still did not have a bachelor's degree. MIT and Harvard told him he would have to come back as an undergraduate, but after an interview with chairman Paul Rudolph, the Yale School of Architecture allowed Tigerman to enter a graduate program. While at Yale, he worked nights at Rudolph's architectural office. After two years, he graduated from the Yale School of Architecture with a Masters in 1961.

Architectural career

In 1961, Tigerman established a small practice. From 1964 until his retirement in 2017, Tigerman was a principal of Stanley Tigerman and Associates Ltd. (later, Tigerman McCurry Architects), in Chicago. He also taught at several universities in the United States.  A collection of his papers is held by the Ryerson & Burnham Libraries in the Art Institute of Chicago.

The residential apartment building originally named "Boardwalk Apartments", located at the southeast corner of Montrose and Clarendon Avenues and completed in 1974, was Tigerman's first built project inspired by Mies van der Rohe.

During his early career, Tigerman borrowed extensively from an eclectic blend of styles. In 1976, he was the central figure of the Chicago Seven, a group which emerged in opposition to the doctrinal application of modernism, as represented particularly in Chicago by the followers of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

In later years, Tigerman's diverse design style progressively assumed more sensual and dramatic qualities. Tigerman's early skill with curves and perspective expanded to include organic shapes, bright color, topiary, and allegory. From the days of his early eclectic stylings, Tigerman developed into an idiosyncratic theorist.

Tigerman's architectural achievements included the designs for institutional projects such as The Five Polytechnic Institutes in Bangladesh, The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie, Illinois, the Illinois Regional Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped in Chicago, and the POWERHOUSE Energy Museum in Zion, Illinois. Tigerman designed both mixed use high-rise and low-rise housing throughout the United States, and in Germany and Japan. He worked in Bangladesh with Louis I Kahn and Muzharul Islam. His broad ranging collaborations included projects such as The Chicago Central Area Plan, 1992 Chicago World's Fair, and London's Kings' Cross and St. Pancras High Density Mixed Use Urban Plan.

In the early 1980s, he partnered with his third wife, Margaret McCurry, also an architect, to form Tigerman McCurry Architects. While McCurry primarily designed homes for wealthy clients, Tigerman's focus was on bringing architect to underprivileged communities, with the design of a homeless shelter in Chicago called the Pacific Garden Mission and an Anti-Cruelty Society animal shelter. Sometimes McCurry and Tigerman collaborated on projects, but they typically worked on their own projects.

In May 2017, Tigerman closed his Chicago office and announced that he was retiring from active practice, but that his wife, Margaret McCurry, would carry on the work of the firm, Tigerman McCurry Architects. Tigerman is credited with over 390 projects, and over 175 built works, representing almost every building type.

Other work
Tigerman designed exhibition installations for museums in the United States, Portugal and Puerto Rico. In 1976, he helped organize a museum exhibition titled "Chicago Architects" highlighting work from lesser-known architects that he thought were overlooked in Chicago's modernist architectural history. In 1988, Tigerman designed an exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago on the architectural history of Chicago.

Tigerman was director of the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago from 1988 until he was fired in 1993, after his outspokenness style was not appreciated by the university administration. In 1994, Tigerman and the designer Eva L. Maddox co-founded Archeworks, a nonprofit institute in Chicago for students focused on urban problems. Tigerman was director at Archeworks for 15 years.

In addition to architecture, Tigerman designed products, such as tableware for the Swid Powell Company, a cookie jar, a coffee and tea set, and watches for Projects.

Tigerman wrote several books, including Versus: An American Architect's Alternatives in 1982, a monograph of his work in 1989, and Architecture of Exile.

Personal life
Tigerman was married three times. He had a son and daughter from his first marriage. In 1979, he married his third wife Margaret McCurry, an Episcopalian, a fellow architect, and later his partner. They were married 40 years and lived at 900-910 North Lake Shore apartments designed by Mies van der Rohe on Chicago's lakefront. He died on June 3, 2019, aged 88.

See also
Chicago Seven (architects)

References

Further reading
 Robert A. M. Stern. Modern Classicism (1988),
 Ruth A Peltason. 100 Contemporary Architects,
 Muriel Emmanuel. Contemporary Architects (1980),
 Emmanuel Petit ed. Schlepping Through Ambivalence: Essays on an American Architectural Condition (2011),

External links
Official Website
Stanley Tigerman Bloch Residence, Highland Park, Illinois, Model, 1982
 Discussion with Stanley Tigerman at AIA Chicago, May 15, 2012
Stanley Tigerman's tribute to Fazlur Rahman Khan in the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA)
 Stanley Tigerman Papers and Records (MS 1947). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.

1930 births
2019 deaths
20th-century American architects
20th-century American Jews
Architects from Chicago
Military personnel from Illinois
Deaths from emphysema
Yale School of Architecture alumni
21st-century American Jews
21st-century American architects

Stanley Tigerman


Taylor Creek is a stream in Seattle, Washington, flowing from Lakeridge Park in Deadhorse Canyon, west of Rainier Avenue S at 68th Avenue S, to Lake Washington.  The creek's name comes from the Taylor sawmill, which in the late 1880s was located where the creek flowed into Lake Washington, to the east of the park. The ravine has been the focus of efforts to plant native vegetation and restore salmon runs in Taylor Creek. With volunteer effort and some city matching grants, restoration has been underway since 1971. Volunteers have planted thousands of indigenous trees and plants, removed tons of garbage, removed invasive plants, and had city help removing fish-blocking culverts and improving trails.  Sightings of raccoons, opossum and birds are common.  Taylor is the fourth-largest creek in urban Seattle. In 2010, the city of Seattle began a project to improve fish passage along the creek.

See also
 List of rivers of Washington
 Daylighting (streams)
 Water resources

Notes and references

External links
Restoration of privately held property on Taylor Creek video
USGS Inventory Site - Taylor Creek at Lakeride Park
Taylor Creek, Seattle Stairway Walks

Rivers of Washington (state)
Landforms of Seattle
Subterranean rivers of the United States
Rivers of King County, Washington
Rainier Beach, Seattle

Taylor Creek (Seattle)


Electron holography is holography with electron matter waves. Dennis Gabor invented holography in 1948 when he tried to improve image resolution in electron microscope. The first attempts to perform holography with electron waves were made by Haine and Mulvey in 1952; they recorded holograms of zinc oxide crystals with 60 keV electrons, demonstrating reconstructions with approximately 1 nm resolution. In 1955, G. Möllenstedt and H. Düker invented an electron biprism, thus enabling the recording of electron holograms in off-axis scheme. There are many different possible configurations for electron holography, with more than 20 documented in 1992 by Cowley. Usually, high spatial and temporal coherence (i.e. a low energy spread) of the electron beam are required to perform holographic measurements.

High-energy electron holography in off-axis scheme
Electron holography with high-energy electrons (80-200 keV) can be realized in a transmission electron microscope (TEM) in an off-axis scheme. Electron beam is split into two parts by very thin positively charged wire. Positive voltage deflects the electron waves so that they overlap and produce an interference pattern of equidistantly spaced fringes.

Reconstruction of off-axis holograms is done numerically and it consists of two mathematical transformations. First, a Fourier transform of the hologram is performed. The resulting complex image consists of the autocorrelation (center band) and two mutually conjugated sidebands. Only one side band is selected by applying a low-pass filter (round mask) centered on the chosen side-band. The central band and the twin side-band are both set to zero. Next, the selected side-band is re-positioned to the center of the complex image and the backward Fourier-transform is applied. The resulting image in the object domain is complex-valued, and thus, the amplitude and phase distributions of the object function are reconstructed.

Electron holography in in-line scheme
Original holographic scheme by Dennis Gabor is inline scheme, which means that reference and object wave share the same optical axis. This scheme is also called point projection holography. An object is placed into divergent electron beam, part of the wave is scattered by the object (object wave) and it interferes with the unscattered wave (reference wave) in detector plane. The spatial coherence in in-line scheme is defined by the size of the electron source. Holography with low-energy electrons (50-1000 eV) can be realized in in-line scheme.

Electromagnetic fields
It is important to shield the interferometric system from electromagnetic fields, as they can induce unwanted phase-shifts due to the Aharonov–Bohm effect. Static fields will result in a fixed shift of the interference pattern. It is clear every component and sample must be properly grounded and shielded from outside noise.

Applications

Electron holography is commonly used to study electric and magnetic fields in thin films, as magnetic and electric fields can shift the phase of the interfering wave passing through the sample.

The principle of electron holography can also be applied to interference lithography.

References

Electron microscopy techniques
Holography

Electron holography


Mark August Stoermer (born June 28, 1977) is an American musician and songwriter. He is best known as the bassist for the rock band the Killers, with whom he has recorded six studio albums.

In addition to his work with the Killers, Stoermer has released three solo albums, Another Life in 2011, Dark Arts in 2016, and Filthy Apes and Lions in 2017. Stoermer also joined the Smashing Pumpkins to tour in support of the band's ninth studio album, Monuments to an Elegy (2014), and produced Howling Bells' third studio album The Loudest Engine (2011).

Early life
Mark August Stoermer was born in Houston, Texas, to a German Australian father who was a physician and a big-band-style musician and an American mother who was a nurse. They moved to Las Vegas when Stoermer was three years old.

Stoermer graduated in 1995 from Chaparral High School, where he played trumpet in the jazz ensemble. His early musical influences included hip hop bands such as Public Enemy and N.W.A and later rock bands such as Nirvana, the Beatles, the Who and Pink Floyd. Stoermer played lead guitar for a number of local bands including Habit Rouge and the Negative Ponies.  Before the Killers got signed, Stoermer worked as a medical courier. Stoermer also studied philosophy and music at UNLV.

Stoermer has been dubbed 'The Gentle Giant' by bandmates and fans due to his quiet but kind nature, and because he is 6 feet 5 inches.

Career

The Killers (2002–present)
It was while playing guitar with the Negative Ponies that Stoermer met Brandon Flowers and Dave Keuning, who were performing as an early incarnation of the Killers. He was a fan of the band's unique sound and was often present at the band's gigs. "They even asked me to join the band as a guitar player, because originally – at least according to Dave – they wanted to build a five-piece, possibly more like the Strokes with a keyboard," said Stoermer in 2016. "I was first asked to be a second guitar player and I casually mentioned I also play bass. And then one day I got the call from Dave." In September 2002 he was offered the opportunity to become the band's permanent bass player, he accepted and completed the band's lineup along with Ronnie Vannucci Jr. The band's six albums each reached No. 1 on the United Kingdom Albums Chart and garnered the band seven GRAMMY Award nominations and seven BRIT Award nominations.

Production work and collaborations (2010–present)
In 2010, Stoermer produced rock band Howling Bells' third studio album, The Loudest Engine. The album was recorded at Battle Born Studios in Las Vegas, Nevada, and was released in September 2011.

On September 24, 2014, Stoermer performed "Let It Down" and "Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll)" with Dhani Harrison on Conan during George Harrison week.

In late 2014 and early 2015, Stoermer played bass guitar on tour with the Smashing Pumpkins along with Billy Corgan, Jeff Schroeder and Brad Wilk. A Smashing Pumpkins fan since his teen years, Stoermer received a call from Corgan – who had become a casual acquaintance after their respective bands played a few shows together in recent years – to join the touring line-up in support of the Smashing Pumpkins' then-new album Monuments to an Elegy. The strength of the new material convinced Stoermer to accept the offer. "In addition to the nostalgia aspect, I also had to hear the new music, which I think is great. If the new music wasn't up to par, I wouldn't be doing it. I felt like, yeah, it was one of those things I had to do", he said.

On December 1, 2014, Stoermer performed "Maida Vale" with Smashing Pumpkins on BBC Radio 6. On December 11, 2014, he performed "Being Beige" with Smashing Pumpkins on Jimmy Kimmel Live. On April 3, 2015, he performed "Drum + Fife" with the Smashing Pumpkins on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

Hiatus with the Killers (2016–present)

On May 24, 2016, the Killers announced that Stoermer was taking a break from touring "to pursue other educational goals and releasing a solo album." The statement emphasized that Stoermer was still involved in working on the band's fifth album, and that he may still occasionally perform live with them in the future. Stoermer elaborated further in an interview: "I'm taking a class online right now. The reason why I'm doing that is to take a break, but not exclusively. It's a combination of a lot of things. I've been doing the Killers since 2003 and I think about a thousand shows. I just needed to step away a while from that." Stoermer performed with the band at their 2017 Glastonbury Festival appearance, as well as at the Vegas Strong benefit show that December. Stoermer also appeared with the band as a part of their appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live in April 2019.

Stoermer was not involved in The Killers' seventh studio album "Pressure Machine", and is no longer actively working with the band.

Solo career

Another Life (2011)

The debut studio album Another Life was released on November 1, 2011, as a self-release on St. August Records. It was available for free download via markstoermer.com and sold on CD and vinyl on January 24, 2012. It was also released on iTunes the same day along with two bonus tracks. Stoermer recorded the album in early 2011 with the help of Glenn Moule and Joel Stein, from Howling Bells, and Jason Hill from Louis XIV. The album was mixed by Robert Root and mastered by Bob Ludwig.

Dark Arts (2016)

Dark Arts was released on August 5, 2016, as a self-release on St. August Records. The album was written and produced by Stoermer. David Hopkins was also involved in writing and production. The album was mixed and engineered by Robert Root.

The first single "Spare the Ones that Weep" was released on July 22, 2016. Soon after the second single "Are Your Stars Out?" was released on July 29, 2016, and was featured on Billboard along with an interview in which Stoermer talked about his inspiration for the song's lyrics. The album was sold digitally, on CD, and on vinyl.

Stoermer talked about his idea for writing "Dark Arts" with Interview Magazine: "I wanted to do at least one [record] that was an album experience, even though the days of the album experience may be over. If anything, it may be a tribute to those times... Maybe someone out there will have that experience with this album."

Soaked in sixties psychedelic foundations, the album is noticeably different from the work he is known for in the Killers.

Blood and Guts / Beautiful Deformities 7-inch (2016)
The Blood and Guts / Beautiful Deformities 7-inch was a limited edition vinyl released for Halloween 2016 with only 100 copies made that were decorated with one of ten unique designs and only ten of each design was produced. The release featured the single Blood and Guts (The Anatomy Lesson) on one side, and Beautiful Deformities (The Monastic Controversy) on the other. 100 additional copies were manufactured and given away to fans through the Secret Door, a hidden page on Mark's website, initiated as a "thank you" note. These copies didn't have the same picture disc artwork as the other 100 copies.

Shows
In support of Dark Arts, Stoermer invited several musicians to form the Hownds, a five-person band  including David Hopkins (keyboards), Nigel Ledgerwood (rhythm guitar), Ben Lecourt (drums) and Erik Paparozzi (bass). They performed five shows in Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

Filthy Apes and Lions (2017)

Filthy Apes and Lions was released on vinyl on October 13, and digitally and on CD on November 17, 2017 through Stoermer's label St. August Records. The title track "Filthy Apes and Lions" was the first single released on October 13, 2017. "Beautiful Deformities" was the second single, released on November 11, 2017.

Filthy Apes and Lions was written and produced by Mark Stoermer and David Hopkins with Robert Root. The album was mixed and engineered by Robert Root. Sprinkled with sixties psychedelic foundations, jazz fusion, and progressive rock, the album is very different from the work he is known for in the Killers.

Stoermer talked about the songwriting process behind the single "Filthy Apes and Lions": I was doing a stream-of-consciousness, surrealistic exercise where you just write out whatever's on the top of your head, and then I started creating rhymes, not really knowing where I was going, and then that's where I got the lyrics for the song [...] "Filthy Apes and Lions."

Artistry

Playing style
Stoermer mainly plays with a pick.  He says "I love the punch and grit of a pick. . . I do a lot of unconscious palm muting.  I love how you can instantly get that clunky tone with shorter notes.  It's a great sound." He tries to play the bass as a "half percussive. . . half melodic instrument".  Stoermer feels that "You can add to a song's melodic side without taking away from the vocals.  That's my favorite kind of bass playing."  His signature bass playing is featured prominently in the Killers' debut and sophomore albums.

While his aggressive playing was a focal point in the Killers' first two albums, Stoermer's playing became more funk-driven in Day & Age, and much more reserved and subtle in Battle Born. His style of playing has influenced many other bands and even a genre of music in bass-driven New Wave-synth rock.

Stoermer was featured on the cover of Bass Guitar Magazine in June 2009 and has been interviewed by other major bass guitar publications including Bass Player Magazine.

Stoermer is widely recognized for his signature tone: an overdriven signal using two modified BOSS Blues Driver pedals fed into separate amplifiers using high top-end frequencies to produce a trebly but thick, cutting sound while retaining excellent bass response, similar to that of Chris Squire (bassist of the band Yes).

Stoermer is also noted for heavily accenting his notes to produce string popping, as well as his use of jumping between octaves.

Influences
Stoermer cites influences such as Noel Redding of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, John Entwistle of the Who, and Paul McCartney of the Beatles and solo. He also lists the Cure, U2, and New Order as influences.

Equipment
Basses:
 Fender Jazz Basses (Geddy Lee signature model)
 Rickenbacker 4001 Bass
 Gibson SG Bass (Very rarely used)
 Fender Vintage Precision Bass
 Guild Starfire Bass
 Höfner 500/1

During the recording of Hot Fuss, Stoermer had been using a Fender Geddy Lee Jazz Bass for his main bass, but had switched over to a vintage Fender Precision Bass and Rickenbacker 4001 for the recording of Sam's Town. After recording and touring for Sam's Town had concluded, he switched back to the Geddy Lee as his primary bass and started broadening his equipment repertoire, using other basses for the recording of Day & Age, such as the Starfire for "This is Your Life" and the Höfner 500/1 on "Joy Ride".

Guitars:
 Gibson SG – On the Song "For Reasons Unknown"
 Gibson ES-335 (Occasionally used instead of the SG for live performances of "For Reasons Unknown"; this instrument belongs to and is a backup instrument of bandmate Dave Keuning's)
 Gibson J-45 Acoustic Guitar
 Gibson SJ-200 Acoustic Guitar
 All are strung with medium-gauge GHS Bass Boomers.  Basses are tuned to standard or down a 1/2 step (Drop-Db on the song "Sam's Town"), and guitars tuned a 1/2 step down to Eb for playing the rhythm portions of "For Reasons Unknown" during live performances.

Gear:
 Ampeg SVT Classic Head and 8x10" SVT Cabinets
 Hiwatt Custom 200 Head (one dirty, one clean) and Hiwatt SE-1510 4x10+1x15 cabs (x2, one rig with effects, one clean)
 Fender Deville 2x12"
 BOSS DS-1 distortion pedal
 BOSS GE-7 EQ pedal
 Big Muff Sovtek Big Muff pedal (for live performances of 'Andy, You're a Star')
 BOSS BD-2 Blues Driver (modified) (x2)
 BOSS GEB-7 Bass EQ (for volume boost)
 TC Electronic chorus/flanger
 MXR Phase 100
 Big Muff pi (electro harmonix keeley modded)
 Zaolla Artist and Zaolla Silverline series cables as instrument leads, cable speakers, and cable snakes

Picks: Dunlop Nylon – 1.00 mm

Filmography

Television

Discography

Solo albums
 Another Life (2011)
 Dark Arts (2016)
 Filthy Apes and Lions (2017)
Other appearances
 The Synthetic Love of Emotional Engineering (2013) – Vicky Cryer
 "Your Love Is Not Enough", "A Spade Is A Spade" (2014–15) – Bombay Heavy

Awards and nominations

References

External links
 The Killers official site, from Island Records
 The Killers official site (U.K.), from the Vertigo label

1977 births
Living people
American rock bass guitarists
American male bass guitarists
Musicians from Houston
The Killers members
American people of Australian descent
American people of German descent
Alternative rock bass guitarists
Musicians from Las Vegas
Guitarists from Nevada
21st-century American bass guitarists

Mark Stoermer


Thomas Crombie Schelling (14 April 1921 – 13 December 2016) was an American economist and professor of foreign affairs, national security, nuclear strategy, and arms control.

After 1953, he left government to join the economics faculty at Yale University, and in 1958 he was appointed Professor of Economics at Harvard University. In 1969 he joined the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.

In 1993, Schelling received an award from the National Academy of Sciences. He also received an honorary doctorate from Yale University in 2009 as well as an honorary degree from the University of Manchester.

He was awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize in Economics (shared with Robert Aumann) for "having enhanced our understanding of conflict and cooperation through game-theory analysis".

Personal life
Schelling was born on 14 April 1921 in Oakland, California. He studied at the University of California, Berkeley, at Harvard University, and at Yale University.

Schelling married Corinne Tigay Saposs in 1947. They had four children. They divorced in 1991. Then, Schelling married Alice M. Coleman in 1991. They had four children.

Schelling died on 13 December 2016 in Bethesda, Maryland from complications following a hip fracture, aged 95.

Major works

The strategy of conflict (1960)
Schelling's most famous work grew out of the post-war interest in game theory and the Cold War. The book covers an area known as strategic bargaining, about how the United States could deal with the Soviet Union after World War II. It is thought to be one of the hundred books that have been most influential in the West since 1945. Many studies at the RAND Corporation and Herman Kahn's Hudson Institute were along similar lines. All these people knew each other and gave advice and seminars at the Pentagon and other U.S. government departments.

Arms and influence (1966)
Schelling's theories about war were extended in Arms and Influence. The blurb states that it "carries forward the analysis so brilliantly begun in his earlier The Strategy of Conflict... and makes a significant contribution to the growing literature on modern war and diplomacy".

Micromotives and macrobehavior (1978)
In 1969 and 1971, Schelling published widely cited articles dealing with what he called "a general theory of tipping". In these papers he showed that a preference that one's neighbors be of the same color, or even a preference for a mixture "up to some limit", could lead to total segregation. This explained the phenomenon of complete local separation of distinct groups.
Once a cycle of such changes has begun, it may have a self-sustaining momentum.

Global warming
Schelling has been involved in the global warming debate since chairing a commission for President Jimmy Carter in 1980. He believes climate change poses a serious threat to developing nations, but that the threat to the United States has been exaggerated. Drawing on his experience with the Marshall Plan after World War II, he has argued that addressing global warming is a bargaining problem; if the world is able to reduce emissions, poor countries will receive most of the benefits but rich countries will bear most of the costs.

List of books
1951. National income behavior: an introduction to algebraic analysis. New York: McGraw-Hill.
1958. International economics. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
1960. The strategy of conflict. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.
1961. Strategy and arms control. (with Morton H. Halperin) New York: The Twentieth Century Fund, and reissued with a new preface, A Pergamon-Brassey's Classic, 1985.
1966. Arms and influence. New Haven CT: Yale University Press.
1978. Micromotives and macrobehavior. New York: W.W. Norton.
1979. Thinking through the energy problem. Committee for Economic Development.
1984. Choice and consequence. Harvard University Press.

References

Other websites
 Nobel Prize Announcement
 Schelling Nobel Prize Lecture
 IDEAS/RePEc

1921 births
2016 deaths
Deaths from fractured hip
American economists
Educators from Oakland, California
Nobel Prize in Economics winners
Scientists from Oakland, California
American Nobel Prize winners
Harvard University faculty

Thomas Schelling


Stanley Freeman (April 3, 1920 – January 13, 2001) was an American composer, pianist, lyricist, musical arranger, conductor, and studio musician.

Biography
Born in Waterbury, Connecticut, Freeman studied classical piano in college and earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Hartford. After serving in World War II, he joined Tex Beneke's big band, eventually leaving to perform as a pianist and later a comic in nightclubs.

Freeman's work as a studio musician included sessions with Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Ella Fitzgerald, Percy Faith, Mabel Mercer, Charlie Parker, and Rosemary Clooney, for whom he played harpsichord on her hit "Come on-a My House." He also played harpsichord on Faith's "Delicado", a no. 1 hit in 1952.

Freeman's first Broadway project was the 1964 Buddy Hackett vehicle I Had a Ball. He also composed the score for Lovely Ladies, Kind Gentlemen, the short-lived 1970 musical adaptation of The Teahouse of the August Moon.

Freeman conducted Broadway concerts for Marlene Dietrich in 1967 and 1968 and provided arrangements for three of Michael Feinstein's Broadway outings.

Freeman was nominated for the 1992 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance/One Person Show for At Wit's End, a tribute to Oscar Levant.

Freeman's television work included composing special musical material for Carol Burnett and Mary Tyler Moore. With Arthur Malvin he shared the Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Special Musical Material for the mini-musical Hi-Hat performed by Burnett with guest Fred Astaire on the January 8, 1978 episode of her eponymous television variety series.

Freeman's solo recordings include Piano Sweethearts, Piano Moods, Come on-a Stan's house: Stan Freeman at the Harpsichord, Fascination, Manhattan, At the Blue Angel, and Everybody's Twistin'.

Freeman died of emphysema in Los Angeles, California.

See also
 List of jazz arrangers
 Secrets Every Smart Traveler Should Know, musical comedy revue

References

External links

1920 births
2001 deaths
American male composers
American lyricists
American male conductors (music)
Cool jazz arrangers
Primetime Emmy Award winners
People from Waterbury, Connecticut
University of Hartford alumni
American military personnel of World War II
Deaths from emphysema
Songwriters from Connecticut
20th-century American composers
20th-century American conductors (music)
20th-century American male musicians
American male jazz musicians
American jazz pianists
American male songwriters

Stan Freeman