The TGV POS is a TGV train built by French manufacturer Alstom which is operated by the French national rail company, the SNCF, in France's high-speed rail lines. It was originally ordered by the SNCF for use on the new LGV Est, which was put into service in 2007. "POS" stands for Paris-Ostfrankreich-Süddeutschland (German for "Paris, Eastern France, Southern Germany").

History

Each train is formed of eight existing TGV Réseau single-deck carriages paired with new power cars, with a total power output of  and a top speed of  under 25 kV. The TGV Réseau power cars thus freed have been matched to newer TGV Duplex carriages to create TGV Réseau Duplex sets. This is because traffic on the LGV Est is expected to be less than on the heavily congested LGV Sud-Est.

Like the TGV TMST, the TGV POS power cars have asynchronous motors and, in case of failure, isolation of an individual motor in a powered bogie is possible. By using IGBT power packs, the new power cars are capable of developing 75% of their full rated power under 15 kV German and Swiss electrifications, compared to 45% for existing TGV power cars. This allows POS trains to operate at the same speed as Intercity-Express trains in Germany.

The TGV POS links France with Germany and Switzerland. In Switzerland, it travels from Basel to Zurich and on the line from Vallorbe to Lausanne coming from Paris.

Each TGV POS trainset weighs  and is numbered in the 4400 series. The livery is the same as that of TGV Réseau sets (silver and blue). Pre-production set No 4401 had a prototype livery similar as the one used on the TGV Duplex sets but, in March 2007, the blue areas were stickered over with silver and was now in appearance the same as the other sets.

From 2013 to 2019, all of the TGV POS trainsets operated under the TGV Lyria brand and livery (a joint-venture by SNCF and the Swiss Federal Railways) with services between France and Switzerland, replacing the nine TGV PSE trainsets that were taken out of service. Since 2019 all trainsets operate strictly in domestic services from Paris Nord and Paris Est replacing the last TGV PSE operating there.

World rail speed record

On 3 April 2007 a train using both power cars of the TGV POS trainset number 4402 set a new world speed record for travel on conventional rails. The train reached . As part of a series of increasingly faster runs that culminated in the official record attempt, it set an unofficial speed record of  on 13 February 2007.

The trainset comprised three specially modified Duplex cars, fitted with two powered bogies similar to the AGV prototype, marshalled between the TGV POS power cars. The record trainset, configured as Bo'Bo'+2'Bo'Bo'2'+Bo'Bo', had four more powered axles than trainset 325 during the 1990 speed record, and had a theoretical maximum power output of  instead of the  on a standard TGV. Over 600 sensors were fitted on various parts of both the engines and the cars.

The train set ran with larger wheels, and the catenary voltage was increased to 31 kV from the standard 25 kV. The maximum speed was achieved near kilometer post 193 on the LGV Est between Meuse and Champagne-Ardenne TGV stations.

See also

ICE 3
TGV Duplex
 SNCF TGV Thalys PBKA
 List of high-speed trains

References

Pos
Passenger trains running at least at 300 km/h in commercial operations
Electric multiple units with locomotive-like power cars
15 kV AC multiple units
25 kV AC multiple units
Alstom multiple units

TGV POS


The Burlington Northern Railroad  was a United States-based railroad company formed from a merger of four major U.S. railroads. Burlington Northern operated between 1970 and 1995.

Its historical lineage begins in the earliest days of railroading with the chartering in 1848 of the Chicago and Aurora Railroad, a direct ancestor line of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, which lends Burlington to the names of various merger-produced successors.

Burlington Northern acquired the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway on December 31, 1996, to form the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway (later renamed BNSF Railway), which was owned by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation. That corporation was purchased in 2009 by Berkshire Hathaway, which is controlled by investor Warren Buffett.

History
The Burlington Northern Railroad was the product of the merger of four major railroads: the Great Northern Railway (GN), the Northern Pacific Railway (NP), the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway (SP&S) and the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q).

The four railroads shared a very intertwined history, due to the efforts of James J. Hill, the railroad tycoon who had founded the Great Northern Railway. Hill purchased an interest in the Northern Pacific in 1896 as the railway endured a period of financial turmoil. Hill attempted to merge the two railways but was rebuffed by the leaders of the Northern Pacific.

In 1901, the two railways teamed up to purchase nearly all shares of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, giving both a needed connection to Chicago, the nation's railroad hub. That same year, came the next attempt to merge the railroads with the establishment of the Northern Securities Company, a trust that controlled all three, with Hill serving as president. The company was sued in 1902 under the Sherman Antitrust Act and in 1904 the Justice Department won in the Supreme Court ruling Northern Securities Co. v. United States.

Although the ruling forced the three companies to be operated independently, they were still closely linked, even sharing a headquarters building, the Railroad and Bank Building in Saint Paul, Minnesota. In 1905, the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway was founded. Like the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, this new railroad was co-owned by the Great Northern and Northern Pacific and allowed both to access the Pacific Northwest.

Leaders attempted to merge another two times, in 1927 and 1955, but were unsuccessful.

The four railroads were finally cleared to merge on March 2, 1970, after a legal challenge that once again went to the Supreme Court. Under the leadership of Louis W. Menk, the newly established holding company, Burlington Northern, Inc. purchased the four railroad companies and merged them into the Burlington Northern Railroad. Louis Menk became the company's first president and CEO.

To further expand the Burlington Northern, a single track was constructed in 1972 into the Powder River Basin to serve various coal mines. The expansion was a source of traffic unprecedented in United States railroad history. In 1971, the first full year for the new railroad, trains carried 64,116 million revenue ton-miles of freight, by 1979 the total was 135,004 million. Most of the increase was attributed to Powder River coal from Wyoming.

The Burlington Northern, along with handling freight trains, briefly operated inter-city passenger trains. The BN had started operations just a matter of weeks before the end of service of the original California Zephyr, which had been operated by the CB&Q, in conjunction with the Denver & Rio Grande Western and Western Pacific railroads, and continued to operate the North Coast Limited, Mainstreeter, Empire Builder, Western Star, Denver Zephyr, "Gopher", and "International", until Amtrak took over intercity passenger service in May 1971, thus becoming the last "new" Class I railroad to operate its own passenger trains. The BN also operated a commuter line inherited from the CB&Q from Aurora, Illinois to Chicago Union Station. This line is still owned and operated to this day by the BNSF Railway under a purchase-of-service agreement with Metra.

In May 1980 when Mount St. Helens erupted, the BNR owned the land around the summit of Mount St. Helens in Washington state. In the 19th century, the United States government distributed land to railroads as a way to open up the American West and the  peak was granted to the Northern Pacific. It was inherited in the 1970 merger by Burlington Northern. Following the eruption the land including the volcano was subsequently transferred in a land swap between the railroad and the United States Forest Service so the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument could be established.

On November 21, 1980, the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway was acquired, giving the railroad trackage as far south as Florida.

In the early 1980s two independently operated railroads, owned by Burlington Northern Inc. were absorbed into the Burlington Northern Railroad; the Colorado and Southern Railway was absorbed in 1981, followed by the Fort Worth and Denver Railway in 1982.

The railroad relocated its headquarters from Saint Paul to Seattle, Washington in 1981, as well as its parent company and sister companies.

All of Burlington Northern, Inc's non-rail operations were spun off to a new company, Burlington Resources in 1988.

The railroad once again relocated its headquarters in 1988, moving from Seattle to Fort Worth, Texas.

On September 22, 1995, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway merged with the Burlington Northern to create the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway. However, the merger was not official until December 31, 1996, when a common dispatching system was established, Santa Fe's non-union dispatchers were unionized and the implementation of Santa Fe's train identification codes systemwide. On January 24, 2005, the railroad shortened its name to BNSF Railway.

Route

The Burlington Northern traversed the most northerly routes of any railroad in the western United States. These routes started at Chicago, Illinois and ran west-northwest to La Crosse, Wisconsin. From here the routes continued northwest through Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota to Grand Forks, North Dakota. From Grand Forks the routes ran west through North Dakota, Montana, and Idaho to Spokane, Washington. The former GN routed through North Dakota/Northern Montana, crossing the continental divide at Marias Pass, while the former NP line routed through the southern part of Montana (which was spun off to Montana Rail Link in 1987), crossing the continental divide at Mullan and Homestake Passes. At Spokane the routes split into three. The former Great Northern route ran west to Wenatchee, Washington, crossed under the Cascade Range at New Cascade Tunnel on Stevens Pass, and descended to the Puget Sound region through Everett, Washington. The former Northern Pacific turned southwest towards the Tri-Cities, then northwest to Yakima, Washington, and crossed under the Cascade Range at Stampede Tunnel, descending to the Green River Valley at Auburn, Washington where it connected with existing NP lines from British Columbia to Portland, Oregon. The Spokane, Portland and Seattle ran southwest to the Tri-Cities, then followed the north bank of the Columbia River to Vancouver, Washington.With the acquisition of the St. Louis – San Francisco Railway the route was extended into the South Central and Southeastern United States.

Transport Statistics shows BN operated 23609 miles of line and 34691 miles of track at the end of 1970; it shows 4547 SLSF miles of line not including QA&P and AT&N. At the end of 1981 BN showed  of line and  of track.

At the time of the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens the summit of the volcano that was blasted away was owned by Burlington Northern.  Following the eruption, Burlington Northern agreed to a land swap with the U.S. government and exchanged its square mile (2.59 square kilometer) of land on the mountain for national forest land elsewhere to allow for the creation of the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument to preserve the volcano and allow for its aftermath to be scientifically studied.

Company officers

Presidents of the Burlington Northern Railroad
 Louis W. Menk (1970–1971)
 Robert W. Downing (1971–1976)
 Norman Lorentzsen (1976–1981)
 Richard C. Grayson (1981–1982)
 Walter A. Drexel (1982–1985)
 Darius W. Gaskins, Jr. (1985–1989)
 Gerald Grinstein (1989–1995)
 Robert D. Krebs (1995–1996) [Post BN]

See also

 Paul Bunyan Trail Rail Trail
 List of Superfund sites in Minnesota

References

External links

 Portrait of a Railroad (1973)
 Friends of the Burlington Northern Railroad (BN historical society)
 Railroads in the Midwest: Early Documents and Images
 List and Family Trees of North American Railroads
 EPA Superfund Fact Sheet for Burlington Northern

Companies based in Saint Paul, Minnesota
Defunct Alabama railroads
Defunct Arkansas railroads
Defunct California railroads
Defunct Colorado railroads
Defunct Florida railroads
Defunct Idaho railroads
Defunct Illinois railroads
Defunct Iowa railroads
Defunct Kansas railroads
Defunct Kentucky railroads
Defunct Minnesota railroads
Defunct Mississippi railroads
Defunct Missouri railroads
Defunct Montana railroads
Defunct Nebraska railroads
Defunct New Mexico railroads
Defunct North Dakota railroads
Defunct Oklahoma railroads
Defunct Oregon railroads
Defunct South Dakota railroads
Defunct Tennessee railroads
Defunct Texas railroads
Defunct Washington (state) railroads
Defunct Wisconsin railroads
Defunct Wyoming railroads
Economy of the Midwestern United States
Economy of the Northwestern United States
Former Class I railroads in the United States
Predecessors of the BNSF Railway
Railway companies disestablished in 1996
Railway companies established in 1970
American companies established in 1970

Burlington Northern Railroad


The Caleb Whittaker Place is a historic house on Perkins Pond Road in Weare, New Hampshire.  Probably built about 1765 by an early settler, it is one of the oldest surviving buildings in the town, notable for its remarkably unaltered interior.  The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

Description and history
The Caleb Whittaker Place is located in a remote rural setting of southwestern Weare, on the west side of Perkins Pond Road north of Peacock Hill Road.    The oldest portion of the house is a simple three-bay Cape-style structure,  stories in height with an unfinished attic space, with what is now the central chimney offset on its west side.  On the far side of the chimney a similar section was built, probably not long after the first section, but it was never finished.  The finished portions of interior include deeply worn wooden flooring, horizontal wood paneling on the walls, and doors fastened with leather strap hinges.

The house is believed to have been built by Caleb Whittaker, the son of one of Weare's first settlers, who may have arrived as early as 1753.  The unfinished left side of the house was probably used for storage and animal shelter in the early days, and remained unfinished until 1977, when care was taken to preserve the original hand-hewn timbers.  The exterior of the house was resided in 1902, at which time dormers and a porch were added.  Because the house was tied up in estate litigation for many years in the 20th century, a number of features have survived inside that are often lost due to modernization.

See also
National Register of Historic Places listings in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire

References

Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in New Hampshire
Houses completed in 1765
Houses in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire
National Register of Historic Places in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire
Weare, New Hampshire

Caleb Whittaker Place


Gintaras Balčiūnas (born April 2, 1964 in Lithuania) is Lithuanian lawyer, a partner at the law firm Balčiūnas & Grajauskas, and an expert in litigation and arbitration.

In 1989 Gintaras Balčiūnas graduated from Vilnius University, the Faculty of Law. During his professional career Gintaras Balčiūnas was managing partner and one of the founders of the law firm Jurevičius, Balčiūnas & Bartkus (2000–2009), the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Lithuania (9th Government and 10th Government).

Gintaras Balčiūnas took an active part in drafting the legislation of the Republic of Lithuania. He was the head of the working group drafting the Law on the Approval, Enforcement and Implementation of the Civil Code of the Republic of Lithuania, led the working group drafting the Law on the Register of Property Seizure Acts, the working group drafting the Law on the Legal Aid.

Since 1989 he has been teaching at Mykolas Romeris University.

During his legal practice Gintaras Balčiūnas has advised a large number of public institutions, municipalities, local and foreign private companies and natural persons.

Gintaras Balčiūnas is listed as a recommended arbitrator of Vilnius Court of Commercial Arbitration.

Gintaras Balčiūnas is also a member of Vilnius Rotary Club and Vilnius Leaders' Club.

References

1964 births
Living people
Ministers of Justice of Lithuania
Lithuanian legal scholars
Lawyers from Vilnius
Vilnius University alumni
Academic staff of Mykolas Romeris University
20th-century Lithuanian lawyers
21st-century Lithuanian lawyers

Gintaras Balčiūnas


Gerhard I, Count of Holstein-Itzehoe (1232 – 21 December 1290) was the only count of Holstein-Itzehoe.

Life
He was the second son of Count Adolf IV of Holstein and Heilwig of Lippe.

When his father retired to a monastery in 1238, he ruled the Holstein jointly with his elder brother John I, initially under the guardianship of their brother-in-law the Duke Abel of Schleswig.  When they came of age, the brothers took up government and continue their joint rule.  In 1255, they concluded a trade agreement with Lübeck.

When their father died in 1261, John and Gerhard divided Holstein.  Gerhard took Holstein-Itzehoe, consisting of the districts of Stormarn, Plön and Schaumburg, with his residence in Itzehoe.  John received Holstein-Kiel, consisting of the districts Kiel, Wagria and East Holstein, with his seat in Kiel.  John later won Rendsburg back from Denmark and traded it with Gerhard for Segeberg.

Gerhard founded several villages, in order to develop Holstein and control the area.  He also developed the County's administration.  He fought ward with the Archdiocese of Bremen, the City of Lübeck and the landed gentry in his county.  In 1262, he won the Battle of the Loh Moor.  In 1263, John died and Gerhard became regent of Kiel and Segeberg for John's sons.

Gerhard I died in 1290.  After his death, his sons subdivided Holstein-itzehoe into Holstein-Plön, Holstein-Pinneberg and Holstein-Rendsburg.

Seal
The inscription on his seal reads: S(IGILLUM)* GERARDI*COMITIS*HOLTSATIE*ET*DE*SCOWENB(O)RCH ("Seal of Count Gerhard of Holstein and Schauenburg").

Marriages and issue
He married around 1250 with Elizabeth (d. ), a daughter of John I of Mecklenburg and had the following children with her:
 Liutgard, ( – Aft. 1289), married:
 Duke John of Brunswick-Lüneburg
 Prince Albert I of Anhalt-Zerbst
 John (1253 – ), Canon in Hamburg
 Gerhard II (1254–1312), Count of Holstein-Plön
 Adolph VI (1256–1315), Count of Holstein-Pinneberg and Schauenburg
 Henry I (1258–1304), Count of Holstein-Rendsburg
 Elisabeth (d. before 1284), married to Count Burchard of Wolpe
 Albrert (1272–1281)
 Bruno
 Otto
 Matilda, married to Count John of Wunstorf
 Hedwig (before 1264 – ), married to King Magnus III of Sweden

Around 1280, he married Adelaide (Alessia;  – 1285), the widow of Albert I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, and a daughter of Marquess Boniface II of Monferrat ( – 1253). This marriage remained childless.

Ancestors

References

External links

Entry at genealogie-mittelalter.de

|-

|-

People from Steinburg
Counts of Holstein
House of Schauenburg
1232 births
1290 deaths

Gerhard I, Count of Holstein-Itzehoe


Antoine Brice (26 May 1752, in Brussels, Austrian Netherlands – 23 January 1817, in Brussels, United Kingdom of the Netherlands) was a painter from Brussels.

Life
Antoine Brice was the son of the painter Pierre-François Brice, working in the entourage of Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine, and his own son Ignace also became a painter.  Antoine began his training as a painter under his father at the Brussels Court and was made a master by the Corporation of Painters of Brussels on 5 February 1783.  In the meantime he had also followed a more classical training at the Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture of Brussels, where he won first prize in 1776.  This training and the entourage of the governor-general's court led him, at the end of the 18th century and the end of the Austrian regime in Brussels, to become a kind of official painter to the city's aristocratic circles.

He became a professor at the Brussels academy and there headed a course on classical art and the principals of drawing.  His students included Jean Baptiste Madou.  In 1810 he joined with the painters Antoine Cardon, Charles Verhulst and François-Joseph Navez to found a "Société des Amateurs d'Arts".

References

1752 births
1817 deaths
Painters from Brussels
Belgian painters
Draughtsmen

Antoine Brice


is a shōjo manga by Masami Tsuda, published in Hakusensha's LaLa and collected into two volumes.    It was licensed in English by Tokyopop, and is licensed in French by Tonkam.

Plot
The story is about an average high school student, Nanoha Satsuki, who comfortably spends her time in the shadow of her two beautiful popular friends Renge Midou and Nobara Ryuzaki. Her days are happy until Hazuki Tokiwa (the "prince") with his arrogant demeanor gets under her skin, releasing her inner monster!

Characters

Nanoha Satsuki
 Nanoha is the heroine of our story. She is an ordinary high school student who is a little clumsy, has average grades and a plain face. She feels that her only talents lie in separating food and folding handouts. Because she is such a simple girl, she is over-shadowed by her two best friends Renge and Nobara. Even though she is often forgotten, she still loves her friends dearly and is not jealous or spiteful. Nanoha is usually a very happy and easy-going girl, but one particular boy at her school gets under her skin, Hazuki Tokiwa. She calls this deep hatred for him her little monster. Because of this, she tries to avoid him at all costs, but in such a small school they are bound to run into one another at some point. At one of these encounters, Nanoha can't hold in her annoyance anymore and yells at Hazuki calling him arrogant. This one utterance changes Hazuki's world to the point where he eventually figures out that his friends, who are mainly girls, only hang out with him because he is good looking. Not wanting to be so shallow, Hazuki drops his old friends and begins to seek out Nanoha, the girl who is not afraid to be honest with him.

Renge Midou
 Renge is one of Nanoha's best friends. Considered the "genius princess," Renge is beautiful and at the top of her class in every subject. She is a legend in which she doesn't study but simply memorizes everything that her teachers say. While she appears rather perfect to the rest of her classmates, she actually has a hard time making friends which makes her rather lonely. She cherishes both Nanoha and Nobara as her best friends.

Nobara Ryuzaki
 Nobara is one of Nanoha's best friends. She is beautiful to the point where she is popular even with the girls in the school. Being abandoned by her father and left with a huge debt has made things rough for her family but it has also made Nobara strong. She frequently dotes on Nanoha and is seen as a sort of knight to the other girls in the school.

Hazuki Tokiwa
 Hazuki is the prince of the school. Charming and beautiful he feels like he runs the school until one day when Nanoha calls him arrogant straight to his face. Finally realizing how shallow he had been acting Hazuki strives to change his ways and form friendships that are not based solely on looks.

Reception
Brigid Alverson describes the manga as "short, witty, and well drawn", and praised it for its subversion of shojo manga tropes.  Leroy Douresseaux enjoyed hearing both Nanoha's and Hazuki's thoughts, feeling that watching the characters "get a clue when they are so clueless is delightful".

References

External links

2007 manga
Hakusensha manga
Romantic comedy anime and manga
Shōjo manga
Tokyopop titles

Eensy Weensy Monster


Aretaeus () is one of the most celebrated of the ancient Greek physicians.  Little is known of his life.  He presumably was a native or at least a citizen of Cappadocia, a Roman province in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey), and most likely lived in the second half of the second century AD. He is generally styled "the Cappadocian" ().

Diagnostic method
Aretaeus wrote in Ionic Greek. His eight treatises on diseases, which are still extant, are considered to be among the most important Greco-Roman medical works ever written.  His valuable work displays great accuracy in the detail of symptoms, and in seizing the diagnostic character of diseases. In his practice he followed for the most part the method of Hippocrates, but he paid less attention to what have been styled "the natural actions" of the system; and, contrary to the practice of the Father of Medicine, he did not hesitate to attempt to counteract them, when they appeared to him to be injurious.

Aretaeus offered clinical descriptions of a number of diseases among which he gave classic accounts of asthma, epilepsy, pneumonia, tetanus, uterine cancer, liver cancer, and different kinds of insanity. He differentiated nervous diseases and mental disorders and described hysteria, headaches, mania and melancholia.  Some of his thinking about neurological disorders anticipated 19th and 20th century notions. He wrote the first known description of coeliac disease, naming it disease of the abdomen, koiliakos. He also wrote the first known description of diabetes.

The account which Aretaeus gives of his treatment of various diseases indicates a simple and sagacious system, and one of more energy than that of the professed Methodici. Thus he freely administered active purgatives; he did not object to narcotics; he was much less averse to bleeding; and upon the whole his Materia Medica was both ample and efficient.

It may be asserted generally that there are few of the ancient physicians, since the time of Hippocrates, who appear to have been less biased by attachment to any peculiar set of opinions, and whose account of the phenomena and treatment of disease has better stood the test of subsequent experience. Aretaeus is placed by some writers among the Pneumatici because he maintained the doctrines which are peculiar to this sect; other systematic writers, however, think that he is better entitled to be placed with the Eclectics.

Works
Aretaeus' work consists of eight books, two De causis et signis acutorum morborum, two De causis et signis diuturnorum morborum, two De curatione acutorum morborum, and two De curatione diuturnorum morborum. They are in a tolerably complete state of preservation, though a few chapters are lost.

The work was first published in a Latin translation by Junius Paulus Crassus (Giunio Paolo Grassi), Venice 1552, together with Rufus of Ephesus. The first Greek edition is that by Jacobus Goupylus, Paris, 1554, which is more complete than the Latin version of Crassus. In 1723 a major edition in folio was published at the Clarendon Press at Oxford, edited by John Wigan, containing an improved text, a new Latin version, learned dissertations and notes, and a copious index by Michel Maittaire. In 1731, Boerhaave brought out a new edition, of which the text and Latin version had been printed before the appearance of Wigan's; this edition contains annotations by Pierre Petit and Daniel Wilhelm Triller. The edition by C. G. Kühn, Leipzig 1828, included Wigan's text, Latin version, dissertations, etc., together with Petit's commentary, Triller's emendations, and Maittaire's index. An edition by F. Z. Ermerins was published in Utrecht in 1847.

A more recent standard edition is by Karl Hude (1860–1936) in the Corpus medicorum graecorum (2nd ed., Berlin, Akademie-Verlag, 1958, online). The four books De causis et signis have now been issued in an annotated bilingual edition in Greek and French (Arétée de Cappadoce, Des causes et des signes des maladies aiguës et chroniques, trans. R.T.H. Laennec, ed. and comm. Mirko D. Grmek, pref. by Danielle Gourevitch, Geneva, 2000).

Secondary literature
The medical opinions of Aretaeus have been discussed by such scholars as Johann Albert Fabricius, Albrecht von Haller, and Kurt Sprengel. Aretaeus has been treated more recently in a couple of short monographs:
 Karl Deichgräber, Aretaeus von Kappadozien als medizinischer Schriftsteller, Berlin, 1971.
 Fridolf Kudlien, Untersuchungen zu Aretaios von Kappadokien, Mainz, 1964.
For Aretaeus' influence on Giambattista Morgagni, the father of anatomical pathology, see:
 Giorgio Weber, Areteo di Cappadocia: interpretazioni e aspetti della formazione anatomo-patologica del Morgagni, Florence, 1996

References

Sources

Further reading
 New York: Blom, 1970.

External links
Aretaeus' complete works in Greek and English (edition of Francis Adams, 1856) at the Digital Hippocrates project
The extant works of Aretaeus, the Cappadocian, edited and translated by Francis Adams, London, printed for the Sydenham Society, 1856
Works at Open Library

1st-century Greek physicians
Ionic Greek writers
Cappadocia (Roman province)
People from Cappadocia

Aretaeus of Cappadocia


Felix Otto Dessoff (14 January 1835 – 28 October 1892) was a German conductor and composer.

Biography
Dessoff was born to a Jewish family in Leipzig; his father was a cloth merchant. His musical talent was recognized by Franz Liszt, who then advised his family on his musical training.

As a student at the Leipzig Conservatory from 1851–54, Dessoff studied composition, piano and conducting with some of the foremost teachers of the day, including Ignaz Moscheles for piano and Moritz Hauptmann and Julius Rietz for composition. On November 16, 1853, a symphony of his was performed by the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra; the following day he met Johannes Brahms, with whom he formed a lasting friendship and artistic relationship.

It was as a conductor that he primarily established his reputation. His first conducting post was at Actien Theater in Chemnitz. After that, he was successively director of music in Altenburg, Düsseldorf, Kassel, Aachen and Magdeburg. In 1860 he was offered a position with the Vienna Court Opera.

In 1860, the Vienna Philharmonic elected Otto Dessoff to be its subscription conductor, a position he held until 1875. The Vienna-based music critic, newspaper editor, and biographer Max Kalbeck wrote in 1908 that the fame and excellence of the Vienna Philharmonic resulted from Dessoff's "energy and sense of purpose."

Dr Clemens Hellsberg, the president of the Vienna Philharmonic, specifies that during Dessoff's tenure with that orchestra its "repertoire was consistently enlarged, important organizational principles (music archives, rules of procedure) were introduced and the orchestra moved to its third new home [in which it still performs]. At the beginning of the 1870/71 season it began playing in the newly built Goldener Saal in the Musikverein building in Vienna, which has proved to be the ideal venue, with its acoustical characteristics influencing the orchestra's style and sound."

In Vienna, beginning in 1861 Dessoff also taught composition at the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (the forerunner of the Vienna Conservatory).  His students included Arthur Nikisch and Felix Mottl.  Although he composed into the early 1860s, he gave up composing when his career as a conductor blossomed.

During Dessoff's tenure with the Vienna Philharmonic, "Brahms was invited to dinner in his home after every Sunday concert - Frau Frederike [Dessoff's wife] was a good cook.".

In 1875, Dessoff was "pushed out of his position in Vienna through intrigue" according to Styra Avins, but immediately found a new position as conductor (Hofkapellmeister) of the Badische Staatskapelle in Karlsruhe, Germany, succeeding Hermann Levi.

In October, 1876 (circa the 11th), Brahms wrote to Dessoff hinting that he would like him conduct the first performance of his long-awaited Symphony no. 1, saying "It was always a secret, fond wish of mine to hear the thing for the first time in the small town which has a good friend, good conductor, and good orchestra".

Dessoff was, according to Styra Avins, "overjoyed at Brahms's veiled request," and on November 4, 1876 the premiere took place with Brahms in attendance at the rehearsals and concert.

In 1880, Dessoff was appointed to the newly created position of "First Kapellmeister" (Ersten Kapellmeisters) at the Frankfurt Opera; he inaugurated the newly completed opera house (now known as the Alte Oper) on 20 October 1880 with a performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni.

Dessoff's close friendship with Brahms can be seen in an exchange of letters between the two in 1878 when Dessoff wished to dedicate what is probably his best known work, his String Quartet in F, Op. 7. Although it met with success in its premiere, Dessoff was still not sure it was worth publishing and sent the score to Brahms asking for his candid opinion and offering to dedicate to him.

Brahms wrote back praising the work and said, "...you would do me a great honor by writing my name over the quartet title—if need be then, we'll take the blows together should the public find it not to their liking."

Much gratified, Dessoff wrote back in a free and bantering way of the sort Brahms himself often penned, "...you will be relieved to see your name on the title page of the quartet preserved for posterity. When people have forgotten your German Requiem, people will then say, 'Brahms? Oh yes, he's the one to whom Dessoff's Op. 7 is dedicated!'"

He composed a string quintet for 2 violins, viola and 2 cellos, Op. 10, several Lieder (songs) and a choral book. He died in Frankfurt in 1892, aged 57. His daughter, Margarete Dessoff, founded the Dessoff Choirs when she stayed on in New York City during a family visit there.

References

External links
 Dessoff Choirs at the Bach Cantatas Website

1835 births
1892 deaths
German Romantic composers
German conductors (music)
German male conductors (music)
19th-century German Jews
Musicians from Leipzig
Jewish classical composers
19th-century classical composers
19th-century conductors (music)
German male classical composers
19th-century German composers

Felix Otto Dessoff


A universal remote is a remote control that can be programmed to operate various brands of one or more types of consumer electronics devices.  Low-end universal remotes can only control a set number of devices determined by their manufacturer, while mid- and high-end universal remotes allow the user to program in new control codes to the remote. Many remotes sold with various electronics include universal remote capabilities for other types of devices, which allows the remote to control other devices beyond the device it came with. For example, a VCR remote may be programmed to operate various brands of televisions.

History
On May 30, 1985, Philips introduced the first universal remote (U.S. Pat. #4774511) under the Magnavox brand name.
In 1985, Robin Rumbolt, William "Russ" McIntyre, and Larry Goodson with North American Philips Consumer Electronics (Magnavox, Sylvania, and Philco) developed the first universal remote control.

In 1987, the first programmable universal remote control was released. It was called the "CORE" and was created by CL 9, a startup founded by Steve Wozniak, the inventor of the Apple I and Apple II computers.

In March 1987, Steve Ciarcia published an article in Byte magazine entitled "Build a Trainable Infrared Master Controller", describing a universal remote with the ability to upload the settings to a computer. This device had macro capabilities.

Layout and features
Most universal remotes share a number of basic design elements:
 A power button, as well as a switch or series of buttons to select which device the remote is controlling at the moment. A typical selection includes TV, VCR, DVD, and CBL/SAT, along with other devices that sometimes include DVRs, audio equipment or home automation devices.
 Channel and volume up/down selectors (sometimes marked with + and - signs).
 A numeric keypad for entering channel numbers and some other purposes such as time and date entry.
 A set button (sometimes recessed to avoid accidental pressing) to allow selection of a particular set of codes (usually entered on the keypad). Most remotes also allow the user to cycle through the list of available codes to find one that matches the device to be controlled.
 Most but not all universal remotes include one or more D-pads for navigating menus on DVD players and cable/satellite boxes.

Certain highly reduced designs such as the TV-B-Gone or keychain-sized remotes include only a few buttons, such as power and channel/volume selectors.

Higher-end remotes have numerous other features:
 Macro programming, allowing the user to program command sequences to be sent with one button press
 LCD to display status information.
 Programmable soft keys, allowing user-defined functions and macros
 Aliases or "punchthroughs", which allow multiple devices to be accessed without changing device modes (for example, using the TV's volume control while the remote is still in DVD-player mode.)
 IR code learning, allowing the remote to be programmed to control new devices not already in its code list
 PC configuration, allowing the remote to be connected to a computer for easy setup
 Some universal remotes have the ability to also make phone calls replacing your home phone in that room.
 Repeaters are available that can extend the range of a remote control; some remotes are designed to communicate with a dedicated repeater over RF, removing the line-of-sight requirement of IR repeaters, while others accept infrared signals from any remote and transmit them to the device being controlled. (The latter are sometimes built as hobby projects and are widely available in kit form.)

Upgradable and learning remotes
Some universal remotes allow the code lists programmed into the remote to be updated to support new brands or models of devices not currently supported by the remote. Some higher end universal learning remotes require a computer to be connected. The connection is typically done via USB from the computer to mini-USB on the remote or the remotes base station.

In 2000, a group of enthusiasts discovered that universal remotes made by UEI and sold under the One For All, RadioShack, and other brands can be reprogrammed by means of an interface called JP1.

IR learning remotes can learn the code for any button on many other IR remote controls. This functionality allows the remote to learn functions not supported by default for a particular device, making it sometimes possible to control devices that the remote was not originally designed to control. A drawback of this approach is that the learning remote needs a functioning teaching remote. Also, some entertainment equipment manufacturers use pulse frequencies that are higher than what the learning remote can detect and store in its memory.

Touch-screen remotes

These remotes feature an LCD screen that can be either monochrome or full color.  The "buttons" are actually images on the screen, which, when touched, will send IR signals to controlled devices.  Some models have multiple screens that are accessed through virtual buttons on the touch-screen and other models have a combination of the touch-screen and physical buttons.

Some models of the touch-screen remotes are programmed using a graphical interface program on a PC, which allows the user to customize the screens, backgrounds, buttons and even the "actions" the buttons perform. The "project" that is created is then downloaded into the remote through a USB cable or, in the most recent models, wirelessly by Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.

The newest touch-screen remotes, such as the Logitech 900 and 1100, include an RF transmitter to allow signals to reach locations much farther than the usual range of IR (approximately 6 meters).  RF also does not require line of sight.

Some touch-screen remote controls, such as the Ray Super Remote, now have content recommendations built directly in to the universal remote control.

Smartphone and tablet universal remotes

Smartphones and tablets such as those running Nokia's Maemo (N900), Apple's iOS and Google's Android operating system can also be used as universal remote controls.

A number of devices from vendors such as Samsung, LG and Nokia include a built-in IR port that can be used as a remote, while others require a physical attachment, or 'dongle', be connected on to the phone when used as a remote. The dongle is required to convert the electrical control signals from the phone into infra red signals that are required by most home audio visual components for remote control.  However it is also possible to implement a system that does not require a dongle. Such systems use a stand-alone piece of hardware called a 'gateway', which receives the electrical control signals from the smartphone in Bluetooth or wi-fi form and forward them on in infra red form to the components to be controlled.

See also
 JP1 remote - Universal Electronics/One For All range of programmable remotes
 Logitech Harmony Remote - Logitech's range of programmable remote controls.
 Ray Super Remote - Touchscreen Universal Remote Control that recommends what to watch.
 TV-B-Gone - A remote control device for turning off any television set

References

Audiovisual introductions in 1985
Assistive technology
Consumer electronics
Television technology
Remote control

Universal remote


Simon Richard Spillett (born 4 November 1974, Chesham, Buckinghamshire, England) is a jazz tenor saxophonist. He has won the BBC Jazz Awards Rising Star (2007), Jazz Journals  Critics' Choice album of the Year (2009), the British Jazz Awards Top Tenor Saxophonist (2011), and Services to British Jazz award (2016).

By 2017, he was leading his own quartet featuring pianist John Critchinson, bassist Alec Dankworth and drummer Clark Tracey, as well as appearing with bands led by other leaders including Ronnie Scott's Jazz Orchestra. After John Critchinson died, Robin Aspland joined the quartet on piano.

Leading British jazz figures with whom he has worked include Sir John Dankworth, Stan Tracey, Peter King, Liane Carroll, Tina May, John Etheridge, Guy Barker, Alan Barnes and Bobby Wellins. American musicians with whom he has worked include Jon Hendricks, Kurt Elling, Bobby Shew and Monica Mancini.

Spillett's biography of saxophonist Tubby Hayes, The Long Shadow Of The Little Giant, was published by Equinox in 2015.

Since 2016, he has contributed a regular monthly column to Jazz Journal, mixing humorous reflections on his experiences as a musician with observations about famous historical jazz figures. He has also acted as a compere at jazz festivals and appears in the anchor interview role in the 2015 documentary film Tubby Hayes: A Man In A Hurry.

Early career
After studying with Eddie Harvey, Tony Russell and Ken Wray, Spillett's father Richard worked as a semi-professional musician, playing gigs with saxophonists Tony Coe, Jimmy Skidmore and Lol Coxhill.

A love of jazz grew through exposure to his father's record collection and by his teens he was listening to Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Stan Getz, Sonny Rollins, Stan Kenton, Frank Sinatra and others. His musical life began at school, singing in school choirs, while at home he learned a variety of brass instruments including the trombone and valve trombone. Spillett took up the alto saxophone aged 16 and taught himself initially by playing along with records. Aged 17, he switched to tenor saxophone inspired by hearing albums by John Coltrane, Stan Getz and Sonny Rollins. At this time he also played piano, clarinet and soprano saxophone.

In his late teens, Spillett began to sit in at local jazz venues, appearing with saxophonists Dick Morrissey, Art Themen, Spike Robinson and Duncan Lamont among others. At the same time, he began two and a half years of private saxophone tuition with saxophonist Vic Ash, then a member of the BBC Big Band.

Spillett began playing gigs aged seventeen with bands playing mainstream jazz. By the age of 21, he had turned professional. During the early 2000s he played gigs with, among others, saxophonists Peter King and Alan Skidmore, trumpeter Steve Waterman, guitarist John Etheridge and vocalist Tina May.

In 2005, Spillett formed a quartet featuring pianist John Critchinson and drummer Martin Drew. The band quickly became a popular attraction at UK jazz venues including Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club and the Brecon, Marlborough, Swanage, Birmingham, Wigan, Southport and Wavendon festivals. During this period Spillett also worked with English jazz players including Sir John Dankworth, Alan Barnes, Danny Moss, Stan Tracey, Bobby Wellins, Louis Stewart, Jack Parnell, Gwilym Simcock, Clark Tracey, Tony Kinsey Allan Ganley, Tony Levin and Spike Wells. In 2007, he joined the Ronnie Scott's Jazz Orchestra, and continues to work with the band. With this band, he worked with popular artists including Will Young and Mick Hucknall.

Spillett has appeared with American jazz artists including vocalist Jon Hendricks, trumpeter Bobby Shew, saxophonist Greg Abate, pianist Phil DeGreg, drummer Gregg Field and vocalist Monica Mancini.

2013–present
In 2013, Spillett was part of the co-operative band 'Standard Miles' also featuring trumpeter Henry Lowther, pianist John Critchinson, bassist Dave Green and drummer Trevor Tomkins. Performing the Great American songbook standards performed by Miles Davis' groups from 1955 to 1965, the band became a popular attraction at UK jazz clubs and festivals and has reformed for various one-off appearances since disbanding in 2014.

In 2015-16, Spillett was working as a member of Pete Long's Jazz at The Philharmonic tribute package.

In October 2016, Spillett was appointed as a Patron of the Jazz Centre UK, joining fellow patrons Sir Michael Parkinson, Dame Cleo Laine, Van Morrison, Paul Jones (of Manfred Mann) and Jools Holland.

As of 2020, his quartet features Rob Barron, Alec Dankworth and Pete Cater.

In 2021, Spillett launched his own big band, debuting at London's 100 Club. The band focuses on the repertoire of Tubby Hayes.

Spillett was the partner of vocalist Tina May for two and a half years from 2019 before May's death, aged 60, in March 2022.

Recordings and awards
In 2006, Spillett recorded his first album with his quartet. Introducing Simon Spillett which received widespread coverage in the jazz media, including airplay on Humphrey Lyttelton's BBC radio show The Best of Jazz and on the re-launched Jazz FM.

In 2007, a follow-up album, Sienna Red, was recorded by the same quartet with Spike Wells replacing Drew, which was nominated in the best album category of the BBC Jazz Awards. In 2009, Sienna Red won the critics' poll for Best Jazz Album of 2008/9 in Jazz Journal.

In 2007, Spillett recorded two albums' worth of material with tenor saxophonist Danny Moss. Featuring Mike Carr, John Pearce, Len Skeat, Danny Moss Junior and Martin Drew, these sessions remain unissued. In 2012, Spillett recorded for Gearbox Records. A limited edition vinyl album Square One was released the following March. In December 2013 this album was voted among the top jazz releases of the year in Jazz Journal magazine. In interviews Spillett has said that he will not be making any more recordings. "If anyone has heard the three albums I did make, they'll know why", he remarked in one online piece.

In 2007, Spillett won the BBC Jazz Award for Rising Star, accepting his award from actor Michael Brandon on BBC Radio 2 and appearing with the BBC Big Band directed by Guy Barker.

In 2011, Spillett won the tenor saxophone category of the British Jazz Awards. In 2016, Spillett won the Services To British Jazz Award in the British Jazz Awards.

Media
Spillett has broadcast on BBC Radio 3's Jazz Line-Up with his quartet and has featured in several magazine interviews including in Jazz Rag (issues 96 and 97) and Jazz Journal (April 2008). He took part in "The Test" in Jazz Journal magazine during November and December 2012.

Spillett is the anchor interviewee in the 2015 documentary film Tubby Hayes: A Man In A Hurry, written by Mark Baxter, directed by Lee Cogswell, produced by Paul Weller and with narration by actor Martin Freeman.

Influences
Spillett's primary influence on the tenor saxophone is often cited as Tubby Hayes, although in interviews he has credited John Coltrane as his all-time favourite saxophonist. He has also named Ronnie Scott, Sonny Rollins, Dick Morrissey, Hank Mobley, Ben Webster, Stan Getz and Alan Skidmore as inspirations.

Writing
Spillett has contributed articles to magazines including Record Collector, Jazz Rag, Jazzwise and Jazz Journal.

He has also complied and/or written CD sleeve notes for over ninety albums for a variety of jazz specialist labels. In 2006, he co-authored the autobiography of Vic Ash I Blew It My Way and musicians including Alan Skidmore, Kenny Wheeler and Stan Tracey have commissioned him to write notes for their albums.

In 2008,The Little Giant, a 4-CD compilation of Tubby Hayes work assembled by Spillett for the Properbox label, won Best Reissue in the British Jazz Awards.

Spillett has also written a biography of Tubby Hayes, titled The Long Shadow of The Little Giant - The Life, Work and Legacy of Tubby Hayes (Equinox Publishing 2015). This book was nominated among the best music books of 2015 by The Guardian.

Discography
Introducing Simon Spillett (Woodville Records 2006)
 BBC Jazz Awards 2007 - one track (Specific Jazz 2007)
Sienna Red (Woodville Records 2007)
Similar Souls - Danny Moss and Simon Spillett (Avid Records 2007 UNISSUED)
 BBC Jazz Awards 2008 - one track (Specific Jazz 2008)
 Square One - (Gearbox Records 2013)
 Dear Tubby H - (Mister PC Records 2023)

References

External links
 Official website
 Interview

1974 births
Bebop saxophonists
Post-bop saxophonists
Hard bop saxophonists
English jazz saxophonists
British male saxophonists
Living people
21st-century saxophonists
21st-century British male musicians
British male jazz musicians

Simon Spillett


Uncelen, Uncelin, or Uncilin (from Latin Uncelenus; died c. 613) was the Duke of Alemannia from 587 to 607. He was appointed to replace Leutfred by the Austrasian king Childebert II.

On Childebert's death in 595, the Thurgau, Kembsgau, and Alsace passed to the Kingdom of Burgundy, then under the rule of Theuderic II.

In 605 Theuderic went to war with his brother Theudebert II, who ruled Austrasia. His army, which did not wish to go to war, he placed under the command of his majordomo Protadius with instructions to induce the soldiers to fight. The next year (606) at Quierzy-sur-Oise, Theuderic re-assembled the army, but the men once again refused to fight their countrymen and the king ordered Uncelen to coerce them. Uncelen, however, declared that the king had ordered the Protadius' death. The despised majordomo was killed by the warriors and the king was forced to sign a treaty. Queen Brunhilda, who had induced Theuderic to war, had Uncelen's foot cut off. According to the Lex Alamannorum, a duke was only eligible for office if he could mount a horse. Being unable to continue exercising his office, Uncelen was removed.

Sources

Fuchs, Karlheinz; Kempa, Martin; Redies, Rainer. Die Alamannen (Ausstellungskatalog). Stuttgart: Verlag Theiß, 2001. .
Geuenich, Dieter. Geschichte der Alemannen. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer Verlag, 2004. .

Alemannic monarchs
613 deaths
7th-century dukes in Europe
7th-century Frankish nobility
Year of birth unknown

Uncelen


Petworth Cottage Museum, at 346 High Street, Petworth, West Sussex is a Leconfield Estate worker's cottage. It has been restored and furnished as it might have been in about 1910 when the occupier was a Mrs. Mary Cummings, an Irish Catholic. Mary worked as a seamstress at nearby Petworth House and at home. The collection also includes two oil on canvas paintings by an unknown artist. These show an exterior and an interior view of Petworth Gaol, or House of Correction, in the 1860s.

The museum was opened by Lord and Lady Egremont in May 1996 and is run by an independent charitable trust, the Petworth Cottage Trust. Volunteer staff provide information and guided tours.

References

External links
Petworth Cottage Museum website

Houses in West Sussex
Historic house museums in West Sussex
Museums established in 1996
Petworth

Petworth Cottage Museum


Pablo Saul Marin (born 1967) is a Belizean politician from Corozal Bay. A member of the United Democratic Party (UDP), he is the Minister of Health in Belize as part of the Cabinet and the Member of the Belize House of Representatives for Corozal Bay constituency, serving in both positions since 8 February 2008, after the UDP won the General election. He received the 2010 United Nations award for his excellence in public service and the prominent role he played in bringing better Health care to Belize. Marin is also a Doctor of Health in Belize.

Early life and education
Pablo Saul Marin was born in 1967 in Corozal Bay, then British Honduras to his Mother and Father. He grew in the same district and still resides there up until today. During his years at Corozal Bay he would often get sick and unwell but that did not stop him from pursuing his Education. Marin is extremely well known in Corozal Bay and has made several friends and comrades in that particular District. He also studied in a Primary school and Secondary school located not to far from his home, his parents wanted this for him so that his time would not be consumed by travelling.

After graduating form High school in 1984, Marin went on to Junior college where he studied Medicine there. He had a strong aspiration to become one of the well-known Doctors in Belize. Marin often study late until the night just to ace his exams in High school. Due to his stellar work in his Junior college and his brilliant attitude towards learning, Marin was appointed as a Student Councillor in 1986 and quickly rose up the ranks to become member of the Student Council Executive Committee (EXCO) serving as its President in 1987. Marin chaired several students in Medicine as well.

Health career
Upon graduation from College in 1989, Marin set up his own Clinic in Corozal Bay and first served as a doctor there from 1990 to 1994. Prior to 1994, he was appointed Senior doctor which he served until 2007. During his years as a Doctor, Marin never failed to treat his patients whoever they were and his Clinic became one of the most famous and well-known clinics in Belize.

Political career
Marin first joined the UDP in 2007, where he submitted his nomination to contest the 2007 United Democratic Party (UDP) Corozal Bay Standard-bearer convention and election. He was the only UDP Candidate who submitted his nominations in that Convention and therefore, won unopposed. After the Convention concluded, Marin then prepared himself to go head to head against Deputy prime minister, Juan Vildo Marin of the People's United Party (PUP) in the 2008 general election. Vildo Marin was the Area Representative for Corozal Bay for 19 consecutive years and Marin new that it was not an easy task to turn Corozal Bay Red. Marin came up with multiple Health policies that will woo the Electorate to vote for him. He also toured his Constituency and manage to get a view of how "bad" everything in Corozal Bay was. During the campaign period in the of the 2008 election, Marin proposed better health care solutions as well as improving infrastructure for the people of his Constituency. He also campaigned heavily especially in the urban areas of the Corozal District where there were more Electorate. After a determined Campaign, Marin finally ended his opponent's Long time political career. Marin finished first to Vildo Marin gaining 59.36% of the vote and 2,467 of the Popular vote.

Going into the 2012 Belizean general election, Marin sought another term as Corozal Bay Area Rep after winning the 2012 United Democratic Party (UDP) Standard-bearer unopposed once again. Marin's main campaign focus was his achievements as Health Minister and the road ahead for the country if having re-elected to his seat. Marin went on to face PUP's Gregorio "Papas" Garcia. However unlike Marin's previous landslide win in 2008. This time was different. There was a third candidate contesting in Corozal Bay, namely Carlos Javier Sawers of Vision Inspired by the People (VIP). Marin retained his winning streak, winning 50.3% of the vote and 2,340 of the Popular vote.

On 30 May 2012, several babies across Belize due to an outbreak of Inter Bacteria in the Intensive care unit (ICU) at the Cage image. Marin attended a press conference at the Carlie Hugh Memorial Hospital to address about the tragedy. Instead of speaking up at the conference, Marin differed to Prime minister, Dean Barrow to lead. This caused multiple protests across the country.

On 29 June 2013, Marin attended another press conference and took the spotlight this time on the same matter. In opening the press conference he formally apologised to the families who were affected by the tragedy and said he had formulate a team to investigate the outbreak. He also believed that the media have either received or have been given access to the reports on the investigation by the International Consultants which was brought it by the Pan-American health organisation. Marin also said that the Ministry of Health will remain absolutely committed to making all Information available and doing everything possible to make sure that the babies are safe for the future. The report was clearly critical of many areas and made strong recommendation. Marin stated that he will not resign or take overall responsibility about the affair as there was never a report by the media about what Cage image has done. Marin also enforced that all hospitals across Belize are doing the best they can to provide good and quality health care to Belizeans.

After the press conference ended, the PUP issued a press release saying that powers findings point to the Ministry of Health and the hospital's incompetence and lack of accountability.

1967 births
Living people
Belizean politicians

Pablo Marin


Katherine Louise Bouman (; born 1989) is an American engineer and computer scientist working in the field of computer imagery. She led the development of an algorithm for imaging black holes, known as Continuous High-resolution Image Reconstruction using Patch priors (CHIRP), and was a member of the Event Horizon Telescope team that captured the first image of a black hole.

The California Institute of Technology, which hired Bouman as an assistant professor in June 2019, awarded her a named professorship in 2020. In 2021, asteroid 291387 Katiebouman was  after her.

Early life and education
Bouman grew up in West Lafayette, Indiana. Her father, Charles Bouman, is a professor of electrical and computer engineering and biomedical engineering at Purdue University.

As a high school student, Bouman conducted imaging research at Purdue University. She graduated from West Lafayette Junior-Senior High School in 2007.

Bouman studied electrical engineering at the University of Michigan and graduated summa cum laude in 2011. She earned her master's degree (2013) and doctoral degree (2017) in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

At MIT, she was a member of the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). This group also worked closely with MIT's Haystack Observatory and with the Event Horizon Telescope. She was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship. Her master's thesis, Estimating Material Properties of Fabric through the Observation of Motion, was awarded the Ernst Guillemin Award for best Master's Thesis in electrical engineering. Her Ph.D. dissertation, Extreme imaging via physical model inversion: seeing around corners and imaging black holes, was supervised by William T. Freeman. Prior to receiving her doctoral degree, Bouman delivered a TEDx talk, How to Take a Picture of a Black Hole, which explained algorithms that could be used to capture the first image of a black hole.

Research and career
After earning her doctorate, Bouman joined Harvard University as a postdoctoral fellow on the Event Horizon Telescope Imaging team.

Bouman joined Event Horizon Telescope project in 2013. She led the development of an algorithm for imaging black holes, known as Continuous High-resolution Image Reconstruction using Patch priors (CHIRP). CHIRP inspired image validation procedures used in acquiring the first image of a black hole in April 2019, and Bouman played a significant role in the project by verifying images, selecting parameters for filtering images taken by the Event Horizon Telescope, and participating in the development of a robust imaging framework that compared the results of different image reconstruction techniques. Her group is analyzing the Event Horizon Telescope's images to learn more about general relativity in a strong gravitational field.

Bouman received significant media attention after a photo, showing her reaction to the detection of the black hole shadow in the EHT images, went viral. Some people in the media and on the Internet misleadingly implied that Bouman was a "lone genius" behind the image. However, Bouman herself repeatedly noted that the result came from the work of a large collaboration, showing the importance of teamwork in science. Bouman also became the target of online harassment, to the extent that her colleague Andrew Chael made a statement on Twitter criticizing "awful and sexist attacks on my colleague and friend", including attempts to undermine her contributions by crediting him solely with work accomplished by the team.

Bouman joined the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) as an assistant professor in June 2019, where she works on new systems for computational imaging using computer vision and machine learning. She is an assistant professor of computing and mathematical sciences, electrical engineering and astronomy as well as a Rosenberg Scholar. Bouman received a named professorship at Caltech in 2020. In 2021, Bouman was awarded the Royal Photographic Society Progress Medal and Honorary Fellowship.

Recognition
She was recognized as one of the BBC's 100 women of 2019.

References

External links

 Event Horizon Telescope, C-SPAN, May 16, 2019

Living people
1989 births
American computer scientists
American women academics
California Institute of Technology faculty
MIT School of Engineering alumni
People from West Lafayette, Indiana
University of Michigan College of Engineering alumni
American women computer scientists
Harvard Fellows
Harvard University people
21st-century American scientists
21st-century American women scientists
Computer vision researchers
Machine learning researchers
21st-century American engineers
21st-century women engineers

Katie Bouman


AlphaBASIC is a computer programming language created by Alpha Microsystems in 1976. The language was written by Alpha Microsystems employees Paul Edelstein, Dick Wilcox and Bob Courier.

Features
AlphaBASIC shares much in common with other BASIC languages. It does offer some fairly unusual features such as multi-user orientation, ability to control memory layout of variables (MAP statement), calling of external assembly language subroutines (XCALL statement). The language is designed for developers of vertical market software packages. The compiler and runtime system are written in Motorola 68000 assembly language, and thus are only able to run on Alpha Microsystems hardware. The compiler emits interpreter code.

References

External links
AlphaBASIC User's Manual
Softworks Basic is a compatible superset of the AlphaBasic Language
Softworks Basic is an AlphaBASIC compatible language for Windows, Linux, Unix
Softworks Basic to VB.Net Translator translates AlphaBASIC and Softworks Basic into Microsoft VB.Net 2005

BASIC interpreters
Assembly language software

AlphaBasic


Eloise Psychiatric Hospital was a large complex located in Westland, Michigan. It was named after Eloise Dickerson Davock, the daughter of Detroit's postmaster.

It operated from 1839 to early 1982. Starting out as a poor house and farm, it eventually developed into an asylum, sanatorium and hospital. In 1832 it was called the Wayne County Poorhouse; in 1872 it was the Wayne County Alms House; in 1886 it was referred to simply as the Wayne County House.  In 1913 there were three divisions: The Eloise Hospital (Mental Hospital), the Eloise Infirmary (Poorhouse) and the Eloise Sanatorium (T.B. Hospital) which were collectively called Eloise. In 1945 it was named Wayne County General Hospital and Infirmary at Eloise, Michigan.  In 1974 it had two divisions - the Wayne County General Hospital and the Wayne County Psychiatric Hospital. In 1979 it was officially called Wayne County General Hospital with the psychiatric division closing in 1982. In its prime, Eloise consisted of 78 buildings on 902 acres with 10,000 patients along with 2,000 staff. It was the largest psychiatric facility in the United States.  Only five of the 78 buildings and the Eloise Cemetery remain. The firehouse, power plant, commissary and D buildings still stand as of July, 2023. The bakery was burned down due to arson in 2020.

The History of Eloise
The Wayne County Poor House was founded in 1832.  It was located at Gratiot and Mt. Elliott Avenues in Hamtramck Township two miles from the Detroit city limits. By 1834 the poorhouse was in bad condition and  in Nankin Township were purchased.  The Black Horse Tavern, which served as a stagecoach stop between Detroit and Chicago, was located on the property. In those days it was a two-day stagecoach ride from Hamtramck Township to Nankin Township. The register shows that on April 11, 1839, 35 people were transferred from the poorhouse in Hamtramck Township to the new one in Nankin Township.  One hundred eleven apparently refused to go to the "awful wilderness." Many were children, and homes among the residents of the city may have been found for them.  The log cabin, which was formerly the Black Horse Tavern, became the keeper's quarters, and in 1839 an A-frame building was put up to house the inmates  more appropriately termed, by today's standards, patients. An A-frame cookhouse was erected in the back of the log building and was used for cooking by the inmates, the staff and the keeper's family.

The complex was self-sufficient. It had its own police and fire departments along with a railroad and trolley system. It included a bakery, amusement hall, laundry facility, post office and a power plant.  It had its own farm, which included a dairy herd, dairy barns, piggery, root cellar, tobacco curing building and greenhouses. Patients came from Detroit and other communities to have x-rays done.  It also housed the first kidney dialysis unit in the State of Michigan and pioneered the use of music therapy. Staff also used hydrotherapy, shock therapy and insulin therapy to treat patients.

As the years went, on the institution grew larger and larger, a reflection in the increases in the population of the Detroit area.  From only 35 residents in 1839, the complex grew to about 10,000 residents at its peak during the Great Depression. Slowly over the next 40 years, Eloise's population decreased. The farm operations ceased in 1958, and some of the large psychiatric buildings were vacated in 1973. The psychiatric division started closing in 1977, and the last patients were transferred out in 1982 when the State of Michigan took over. The general hospital closed in 1986.

Inventor Elijah McCoy may be its most famous former resident.  He spent a year prior to his death as a patient in the Eloise Infirmary. There were other well-known people who died at Eloise including several baseball players.  Among them are Jul Kustus, Larry LeJeune, Charlie Krause, and Marty Kavanagh.  Musician Horace Flinders was also a patient, and received music therapy.

Eloise present day

Today the land that once was Eloise has been developed into a strip mall, a golf course, and condominiums. There is only one building currently in use.  "D" Building (the Kay Beard Building) was used for psychiatric admissions, housed 400 patients and had living quarters for some employees like the Catholic chaplain. Later it was used by Wayne County for administration until 2016. The Kay Beard Building was closed in October 2016.  The old commissary building is currently being used as a family homeless shelter.

The firehouse (former psychiatric facility laundry), and the power plant are still standing in decay.  The bakery was heavily damaged by arson in April 2016, with charred ruins still standing as of March 16, 2021 (however, there are plans to raze and remove the remainder).  The Eloise smokestack  emblazoned Eloise in brick  was deemed a hazard and was demolished in 2006.

In 1979, the Walter P. Reuther Psychiatric Hospital, located near the northwest end of the former Eloise property, just southeast of the intersection of Merriman and Palmer Roads, was opened. The facility is currently operated by the Michigan Department of Community Health. In 1996, Oakwood Health System (later merged into Beaumont Health) opened an outpatient facility, the Adams Child & Adolescent Health Center, on the corner of Merriman and Palmer near Reuther Hospital. Both facilities have Palmer Road addresses.

Eloise is featured in the book Annie's Ghosts: A Journey Into a Family Secret by Steve Luxenberg, which is about Luxenberg's secret aunt who was committed to the Eloise psychiatric hospital in the 1940s.

The site is marked by a Michigan Historic Marker.

The site and the adjoining Eloise Cemetery are reputed to be haunted.

In popular culture
It also inspired the horror movie Eloise. The film stars Eliza Dushku, Robert Patrick, Chace Crawford, Brandon T. Jackson, Nicole Forester, and P. J. Byrne. The film was released on February 3, 2017, by Vertical Entertainment.

It was featured in Expedition X: Ghosts of Eloise Asylum Part 1 and Part 2. Released August 9, 2023. Starring Josh Gates, Phil Torres and Jessica Chobot.

References
Citations

References

Further reading

External links
 Caring for the County's Poor: a character repository of Eloise
 History of Eloise  Westland, Michigan

The Tales of Eloise

Hospital buildings completed in 1894
Government buildings completed in 1894
Buildings and structures in Wayne County, Michigan
County government buildings in Michigan
Former psychiatric hospitals
History of mental health in the United States
Poor farms
Psychiatric hospitals in Michigan
Reportedly haunted locations in Michigan

Eloise (psychiatric hospital)


The National Measurement and Regulation Office (NMRO) was an executive agency of the UK Government's Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). Its function were to provide a measurement infrastructure which supports innovation, facilitates fair competition, promotes international trade and protects consumers and the environment.

History
The agency was created as National Weights and Measures Laboratory (NWML) in 1987 from a reorganisation of the Standards Department when it moved from its previous location in central London to a new, purpose-built facility in Teddington which was officially opened by the Duke of Kent on the 9th of April 1987.

Until June 28, 2007, it was an agency of the Department of Trade and Industry. It then became part of the newly formed Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills. In 2009 an agency moved to Department for Business Innovation and Skills and until April 2015 was known as the National Measurement Office (NMO). In April 2015 NMO was renamed to National Measurement and Regulation Office and by 1 April 2016 it was merged with Better Regulation Delivery Office to form Regulatory Delivery in the former Department for Business Innovation and Skills.

Since July 2017, Regulatory Delivery has been a directorate in the newly created Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

Roles
The NMO and NMRO was responsible for the setting of the strategic direction of the measurement infrastructure, aligning policy and legislation, managing the national scientific and legal metrological activities and representing the UK in international activities on measurement. In addition, the NMO / NMRO acts as a National Enforcement Authority for a range of EU-based environmental legislation and carries out commercial activities which rely on measurement expertise.

Scientific metrology
The Agency had responsibility for the National Measurement System (NMS) until April 2015, which is the UK's national infrastructure of laboratories that are involved with the science and technology of measurement. It has responsibility for maintaining the national primary standards (mass, length, time, temperature etc.) and disseminating the associated measurements and technologies to the UK for trade and measurement purposes.

Legal metrology
The Agency was also responsible for examining and approving new measuring instruments and equipment which are ultimately intended for use in trade in order to establish their compliance with national legislation such as the Weights and Measures Act 1985 and relevant EU legislation. The agency also made available to manufacturers of such equipment a consultancy service, intended to be used throughout different stages of the equipment's development. They also provided calibration and testing services to both local authorities and private businesses, as well as training in aspects of legal metrology to national and international clients.

See also
 National Physical Laboratory
 National Engineering Laboratory
 Laboratory of the Government Chemist
 International Organization of Legal Metrology

References

External links

1987 establishments in the United Kingdom
Government agencies established in 1987
Executive agencies of the United Kingdom government
Organisations based in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames
Standards organisations in the United Kingdom
Teddington


Ralph Peduto (March 9, 1942 – May 12, 2014) was an American actor, playwright, writer and director.  Peduto's film roles included Mrs. Doubtfire in 1993, The Rock in 1996, and Patch Adams in 1998, while his television credits included guest spots in Cheers and Hill Street Blues. He ultimately appeared in more than 100 film and television roles, as forty television commercials. An acting teacher as well as an actor, Peduto founded Acting On Camera, an acting school in Santa Cruz, California.

Life and career
Peduto was born on March 9. 1942, in Jersey City, New Jersey, to a working-class Italian American family. He was the eldest of three children of James and Helen Peduto. He attended James J. Ferris High School and graduated from William L. Dickinson High School in Jersey City (He was later inducted into Dickinson's Hall of Fame in 2000). Peduto enlisted in the U.S. Army and was stationed in South Korea during the Vietnam War era. He then attended Rutgers University after returning to the United States.

In 1973, Peduto moved from New Jersey to the Monterey Bay Area to accept a broadcasting position at KRML, an AM radio station in Carmel, California. He first began acting at Cabrillo College. He soon wrote and produced theater plays at Cabrillo, including "Root Rock," his autobiographical musical which debuted in 1979.

Peduto transitioned to roles in Hollywood films, television shows and commercials during the 1980s. He appeared in television and films from the 1980s to the 2000s. Peduto also had an extensive career in television commercials. His best known commercial work was as the "Midas Man", a character and spokesman for the Midas automotive centers, in which he urged consumers to depend on Midas.

Peduto was a longtime resident of Capitola, California.

Ralph Peduto died on May 12, 2014, just twelve days after being diagnosed with leukemia, at the age of 72. He was survived by his wife of 45 years, Laura Peduto, and their two children, Maro Peduto and Oceanna Ceja.

Filmography

References

External links

1942 births
2014 deaths
American male film actors
American male television actors
American male stage actors
James J. Ferris High School alumni
Male actors from California
American writers of Italian descent
Male actors from Santa Cruz, California
Male actors from Jersey City, New Jersey
Rutgers University alumni
Cabrillo College alumni
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American male actors
Deaths from leukemia
Deaths from cancer in California
20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
William L. Dickinson High School alumni
Writers from Jersey City, New Jersey
People from Capitola, California

Ralph Peduto


Area codes 801 and 385 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) serving Salt Lake City and the four surrounding counties of the Wasatch Front in north-central Utah. The numbering plan area comprises Davis, Morgan, Salt Lake, Utah, and Weber counties. Other major towns and cities within the area are Alta, American Fork, Bountiful, Layton, Lehi, Murray, Ogden, Orem, Provo, Sandy, South Jordan, Spanish Fork, Taylorsville, West Jordan, and West Valley City.  This numbering plan area is located in the Mountain Time Zone. Area code 801 is one of the original North American area codes created in 1947. Area code 385 was assigned to the same numbering plan area in 2008, creating an overlay complex.

History
The state of Utah was a single numbering plan area, assigned area code 801, when the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) devised the first nationwide telephone numbering plan for Operator Toll Dialing in 1947.

On September 21, 1997, the numbering plan area was geographically reduced to the Wasatch Front, while the rest of Utah was assigned area code 435. This resulted in 801 being an enclave area code and also became one of the six doughnut area codes in the NANP. This split was originally intended to be a long-term solution. However, the Wasatch Front is not only home to most of Utah's landlines, but also the great majority of its pagers, cell phones and fax machines. As a result, 801 was close to exhaustion once again within only two years.

In 2000, the Public Service Commission of Utah (PSC) approved a split for 801 in 2001, in which Salt Lake County would have retained the 801 area code and the rest of the Wasatch Front would have been assigned area code 385. Conservation measures, such as number pooling, postponed the split for more than seven years.

In July 2007, the PSC announced that the capacity created by the conservation measures would be exhausted by June 2008, finally necessitating the implementation of area code 385. The same announcement stated that 385 would be implemented as an overlay rather than a split, so that the Wasatch Front would be served by both area codes. Everyone who already had an 801 number could keep it. 385 entered service on June 1, 2008, with a year-long permissive dialing period beginning during which seven and ten-digit calls could be completed. Ten-digit dialing became mandatory along the Wasatch Front on June 1, 2009. As new wireless devices have become prominent over new landline adoption, outside abandoned 801 numbers being placed back into the pool, most new numbers have been assigned the 385 area code.

See also
List of Utah area codes
List of North American Numbering Plan area codes

References

External links

801
801
Telecommunications-related introductions in 1947
Telecommunications-related introductions in 2009

Area codes 801 and 385


Alex Patricio Colón Rueda (born 17 November 1986 in Quito) is an Ecuadorian professional footballer currently playing for CD La Union in Ecuador.

Career

Técnico Universitario

2010–2012
Alex's first goal of the 2011 season came on March 20, in a 2-1 home win over River Plate. He later scored 2 goals in the month of April against Deportivo Quevedo and against LDU Portoviejo. Alex would go on to score 2 more goals in the month of May, against Universidad Catolica and LDU Portoviejo once again. He scored 3 goals in July, against Audaz, Grecia and Macara. His final 3 goals of the 2011 Serie B season were against UT Cotopaxi, Valle del Chota and River Plate, the first team he scored against in the current season. He finished his 2011 Serie B season scoring 11 goals.

Alex began his goal-scoring tally for the 2012 Serie A season with amazing fashion, scoring a 3-goal hat-trick against Olmedo in a 3-0 away win. On March 11, he scored the equalizer against his old club and Ecuadorian giants, LDU Quito in a 1-1 home draw. On March 28, Alex scored the winner against Macara, in a 2-1 home win. On May 22, he scored against Ecuadorian giants Emelec, but lost 2-3. He also scored against El Nacional on July 7, but lost 1-2 at home turf. On August 19, he scored the winning goal against Ecuadorian giants and most popular team of the country, Barcelona SC, in a 1-0 away win. On September 30, he scored against LDU Loja, in a 3-0 home win. His final goal of the season came on October 28, once again defeating Barcelona SC 3-2, at home. He ended his 2012 season with impressive displays of football, and scored 10 goals all season. Deportivo Quito and Emelec went on to battle against each other for his transfer, Deportivo Quito being the winner of his transfer.

Deportivo Quito

2013
Alex Colón signed on for Deportivo Quito, and was given the number 10 shirt. He began the 2013 Serie A season scoring an amazing volleyed long range goal against Deportivo Quevedo, winning 4-1 at home. On February 23, he scored a lovely chipped goal against Maximo Banguera, Barcelona's star goalkeeper, winning 1-0 at home. On March 13 Colón scored against Deportivo Cuenca, drawing away a 2-2 score-line. On April 14, he scored yet a more beautiful goal, a long-range chipped goal against Emelec, winning 3-0 at home. On April 28, he in a 3-0 home win over Manta. On May 4, he scored yet again for the 4th time of the season a well-finished chipped goal against LDU Quito, winning 3-1 away against their city rivals. On 8 May 2013, Colón scored 2 absolutely magnificent goals in a 5-1 win over Deportivo Cuenca, the first one a perfectly placed finish from outside the box, and the second was a true testament of his brilliance, scoring from the middle of the field, and perfectly placed inside the corner of the goal. On June 12, Alex scored a goal in a 2-1 home win over Deportivo Quevedo. On November Alex goes back to his goal-scoring ways, scoring goals against Macara, El Nacional and Independiente del Valle, winning both and drawing on the latter.

Pachuca

After numerous rumors of Pachuca interest in the midfielder, both parties came to terms and agreed on a transfer.

On January 25, 2014, Colón scored his 1st goal for Pachuca in a 3-1 away win against Club León.

Loan to Mineros Zacatecas
It was confirmed that Colón would play for Ascenso MX side Mineros de Zacatecas on loan from Pachuca.

International career
Due to Alex Colón's outstanding 2013 season, Ecuador National Team coach Reinaldo Rueda called him up for the 2014 World Cup Qualifier matches against Peru and Argentina.

He made his unofficial debut in a friendly against LDU Quito in a 5-0 thrashing. Colón scored 2 goals coming in as a Sub.

Honors

Club
Tecnico Universitario
Ecuadorian Serie B: 2011

References

1986 births
Living people
Footballers from Quito
Men's association football midfielders
Ecuadorian men's footballers
C.D. Técnico Universitario footballers
S.D. Quito footballers
C.F. Pachuca players
Barcelona S.C. footballers
Delfín S.C. footballers
C.D. ESPOLI footballers
Ecuadorian Serie A players
Liga MX players
Ecuadorian expatriate men's footballers
Expatriate men's footballers in Mexico

Alex Colón


Sociobiology is a field of scientific study which is based on the assumption that social behaviour has resulted from evolution. It attempts to explain and examine social behaviour in that way.

A branch of ethology and sociology, sociobiology  draws from anthropology, evolution, zoology, archaeology, population genetics, and other disciplines. As a study of human societies, sociobiology is allied to Darwinian anthropology, ethology and evolutionary psychology.

Ethology investigates collective animal behaviour, such as mating patterns, territorial fights, pack hunting, and the hive society of social insects. It argues that selection pressure led to the genetic evolution of advantageous social behaviour. In other words, a typical behaviour  pattern is inherited because it has raised the inclusive fitness of individuals as compared to other behaviours. This is mainstream biology. Its extension into human social behaviour is for ethologists absolutely normal, but for others it may be controversial.

While the term "sociobiology" can be traced to the 1940s, the concept did not get recognition until 1975 with the publication of E.O. Wilson's book, Sociobiology.

Sociobiology is based upon two fundamental premises:
 Certain behavioural traits are inherited,
 Inherited behavioural traits have been honed by natural selection.
 Therefore, these traits were probably adaptive in the species` original environment.
 Humans are animals
 Therefore, their behaviours have been modified by natural selection
 Therefore, the root of human behaviour is inherited, and our ability to change it by social means has limits. Humans are not blank slates.

It is this last point which is most controversial.

Criticism
Wilson's book had almost 700 pages, which were almost entirely devoted to social behaviour in animals. His ideas on the evolution of human behaviour was in a short section of 30 pages at the end of the book. Yet because of this section, the (apparently) new field of sociobiology became the subject of heated controversy. The criticism was driven by political events of the day.

"The mid-1970s were years of intense political activity on campuses, much of it initiated by left-wing professors and their students who opposed the war in Vietnam. At Harvard University [Wilson's employer] the war... came under fire from a number of scholars of the Marxist or semi-Marxist persuasion... Marxist philosophy is founded on the premise of the perfectability of human institutions through ideological prescription. Therefore, persons with Marxist views were particularly unreceptive to the notion that an evolved 'human nature' exists".

Criticism by Richard Lewontin and Stephen Jay Gould, and the Sociobiology Study Group hinted that there was some relationship between these ideas and some of the worst events in history. The main concern of the critics seemed to be the idea that sociobiology provided aid and comfort for those who would maintain social injustice and inequality.p545

Actually, there was no political content in Wilson's last chapter, and Wilson himself was and is a liberal thinker. In the 25th anniversary edition of his book Wilson gives his own account of the controversy.

To avoid some of the controversy, though their ideas are rather similar to Wilson's, some psychologists and anthropologists founded the related field of evolutionary psychology. This shares with sociobiology a belief in the evolutionary origin of behaviour patterns. However, it is more aimed at human behaviour, where sociobiology arose out of experiments on animal behaviour (ethology).

A human case study
Why do men have standards of beauty which they apply to women? This is a question to which a typical femininist sociologist would reply: it is culturally determined, a belief system which serves to keep males dominant over females.

To this, John Alcock asks: "What are the actual data? Are the standards of beauty in Western culture arbitrary?" The standards of beauty are consistent with youth and good health. Young, healthy women are more likely to become pregnant and give birth successfully than older or unhealthy women. Alcock asks:
"How likely is it that millions of years of natural selection on humans... would produce a male psyche... indifferent to the cues associated with fertile women? The answer is obvious".p137

Alcock gives the evidence that the signs of youth and beauty are consistent with high reproductive value.p138

An avian case study
In some ways, it is easier to study the behaviour of other animals because our own experiences and prejudices are not involved. And we can do experiments on them which might not be possible with humans.

Songbird species almost always have a song which is characteristic of the species. In most cases the details of the song are not inherited. Instead, they inherit an ability to learn at a certain age. If a young male White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys) is raised in isolation from the sound of other members of the species, it cannot sing their song. Eventually, it produces a song which is only vaguely like the proper song. But if the experimenter plays a tape of the adult male song, the young will later produce the complete and perfect song when they get to the right age. However, if the young bird is made deaf, it cannot learn the song. From this we learn
 that the capacity to learn is inherited rather than the song itself
 that hearing the adult song triggers the learning process
 that the young bird has to compare the sound it makes to the model song
 a young bird offered two or more songs on tape always learns the one characteristic of its own species.
 but if the young male is only allowed to meet a mature male of another species, it does learn the "alien" song.
This allows us to be sure that the song, as such, is not inherited, but there is inherited a strong learning bias, which makes sense. In order to live and reproduce successfully, it pays for a male to attract a female of the same species, and defend its territory against other males of its species. The right song does both these jobs.p163/5

Sociobiology today
In recent years the supporters of sociobiology have claimed to be "winning". They feel its basic ideas are quite sound. We are not blank slates, and our human nature is as much a product of evolution as the rest of us. Even our widespread love of pet animals may be explained by their improving our survival in a prehistoric past.p35/9

Books

Related pages
 Adaptive unconscious
 Blank slate
 Evolutionary psychology
 Human nature
 Nature vs nurture
 Sociobiology: the new synthesis

References

Ethology
Subfields of sociology
Evolutionary biology

Sociobiology


John F. Loder (7 April 1946 – 12 August 2005) was an English sound engineer, record producer and founder of Southern Studios, as well as a former member of EXIT and co-founder of the Southern Records distribution company with his wife Sue. He was also the studio engineer of choice for Crass and Crass Records, and was often considered to be the band's "ninth member".

Loder was born near Plymouth and educated at boarding school before studying electrical engineering at London's City University. During his post-graduate work there, he became involved in early experiments in digital encoding of audio for the military. By 1970 he had joined EXIT, alongside Penny Rimbaud, utilising a one-track tape-recorder. This led to Loder eventually founding a record studio in his garage after the disbanding of EXIT in 1974. Loder was recording advertising jingles in 1977 when his path crossed once again with Rimbaud, who had by then co-founded Crass, and invited Loder to become the band's engineer and financial manager, roles Loder happily accepted.

When Crass founded their own record label, Loder worked as an engineer on most of the label's releases, and when Loder saw potential in a number of bands turned away by Crass Records, Loder set up Southern Records.

Loder engineered and produced for many bands other than Crass, among them the Jesus and Mary Chain (for whom he engineered the recordings of the Psychocandy album), Big Black (Songs About Fucking), PJ Harvey, Babes in Toyland, Fugazi (mastering the vinyl edition of 2001's The Argument), Ministry and Shellac (mastering 2000's 1000 Hurts). American musician and recording engineer Steve Albini (member of Big Black and Shellac), has spoken highly of Loder and described him as a critical influence:
When I was in Big Black we did a session with him, and I thought he was a terrific engineer. He showed me the potential for getting the most out of the equipment without making the equipment the focus of attention. He knew how to do things quickly and with great sensitivity to the band, and had a complete working knowledge of his equipment. In any situation he could snap his fingers and do the right thing, because he knew exactly how things worked and what to do.

In the mid-1980s, Loder established a television production facility at Southern. Its notable output included the music show Snub TV, which after first being syndicated nationwide in the US, went on to further success on BBC2 and in other countries.

Loder was responsible for encouraging and establishing independent alternative ezines, donating the use of Southern's servers and bandwidth, taking part in pioneering online media streaming and simulcasting.

Loder died of a brain tumour on 12 August 2005, aged 59.

References

1946 births
2005 deaths
English electrical engineers
Anarcho-punk musicians
English record producers
English audio engineers
People from Plymouth, Devon
Alumni of City, University of London
Deaths from brain tumor
Crass members
Musicians from Plymouth, Devon

John Loder (sound engineer)