Carlos Claudio Spies (March 26, 1925 – April 2, 2020) was a Chilean American composer.

Biography

Early life
Born in Santiago, Chile, of German Jewish parents, Spies completed primary and secondary education in Santiago in 1941, when he passed the Bachillerato. Erich Kleiber and Fritz Busch were mentors to Spies at an early age.

Spies came to the United States in August 1942 to study music at New England Conservatory and Longy School of Music, where he studied with Nadia Boulanger and, after her departure for California, with Harold Shapero. He entered Harvard College in February 1947. One of his most influential teachers at Harvard was Irving Fine, and another was Otto Gombosi. He wrote his dissertation on "The concept of form in the symphonies and concertos of Strawinsky."

He graduated in June 1950, and received the John K. Paine Traveling Fellowship, which took him to Paris, where he spent a year composing. He returned to Harvard as a graduate student and received his MA degree in composition in 1954.

Career
Spies has taught music at many institutions:
 Harvard University (1953–1957)
 Vassar College (1957–1958)
 Swarthmore College (1958–1970)
 Princeton University (Professor of Music, 1970–1998; Professor Emeritus, 1998–)
 The Juilliard School (1998–2010)

In addition to teaching music composition and analysis, he has also taught such subjects as: study of composers' manuscripts, Brahms' chamber music, courses on the music of Igor Stravinsky and Arnold Schoenberg, conducting. He may be the first person ever to teach a course on composers' manuscripts, which he did through facsimile editions as well as regular visits to manuscripts collection at the Morgan Library in New York City.

With Stravinsky, he attended countless rehearsals, performances, and recording sessions of new Stravinsky works in such places as Boston, New York, and Venice (the first performance of The Rake's Progress in 1951). Another Stravinsky work whose premiere Spies helped bring to fruition was Requiem Canticles, at Princeton's McCarter Theatre in 1966.

While teaching at Harvard Summer School in 1968, Spies conducted the first performances of four preliminary versions of Stravinsky's Les Noces along with a performance of the final version. At that session, he also conducted various works of Schoenberg and Anton Webern. Some of the musical comments shared between Spies and Stravinsky were reflected in articles written by Spies in several issues of Perspectives of New Music dealing with new works by Stravinsky.

Personal life
Spies married Emmi-Vera Tobias in 1953 and had five children: Caterina, Michael, Tatiana, Leah, Susanna. He has five grandchildren. Spies and his wife were divorced in 1985. Spies moved to California from his Princeton home to live with his daughter.

He died April 2, 2020, in Sonoma.

Sources
 Sadie, Stanley, The Norton/Grove Concise Dictionary of Music, W. W. Norton, 1988

References

Further reading

External links

1925 births
2020 deaths
20th-century classical composers
20th-century male musicians
Chilean emigrants to the United States
Chilean Jews
Chilean people of German-Jewish descent
Male classical composers
Harvard College alumni
Harvard University faculty
Longy School of Music of Bard College alumni
New England Conservatory alumni
Princeton University faculty
Swarthmore College faculty
Vassar College faculty
Pupils of Walter Piston

Claudio Spies


Edward Osbaldeston was an English martyr, born about 1560. Не was hanged, drawn and quartered at York, 16 November 1594.

Life
Edward Osbaldeston was born about 1560 at Osbaldeston Hall near Blackburn, Lancashire. He was the son of Thomas Osbaldeston, and nephew of Edward Osbaldeston, of Osbaldeston Hall. He went to the English College of Douai, then at Reims, where he was ordained deacon in December 1583, and priest 21 September 1585.  He had said his first Mass on the feast day of St. Jerome, and in consequence had a great devotion to that saint.

He was sent on the English mission 27 April 1589, and was apprehended at night through the instrumentality of an Anglican priest named Thomas Clark at an inn at Tollerton, Yorkshire, upon St. Jerome's day, 30 September 1594.

The day following his arrest he was taken to York where he was tried at the next assizes and attained of high treason for being a priest.

Bishop Richard Challoner prints the greater part of a letter addressed by the martyr to his fellow-prisoners in York Castle,  the full text of which is still extant, and which reveals the great humility and serene trust in God with which he anticipated his death.

Edward Osbaldeston was among the eighty-five martyrs of England and Wales beatified by Pope John Paul II on 22 November 1987.

See also
 Catholic Church in the United Kingdom
 Douai Martyrs

References

1594 deaths
People from Ribble Valley (district)
16th-century English Roman Catholic priests
People executed under the Tudors for treason against England
People executed under Elizabeth I by hanging, drawing and quartering
16th-century Roman Catholic martyrs
Year of birth unknown
Executed people from Lancashire
English beatified people
Eighty-five martyrs of England and Wales

Edward Osbaldeston


Alessandro Sani (1856-1927) was an Italian painter, mainly of genre subjects.

He was born and resident in Florence.  Considered one of the last great Italian painters, Alessandro was one of few artists who remained in Italy during the mass immigration to the US in the late 1800s and early 1900s, making his works some of the only Italian artwork produced during that period.

Among his works: La tentazione, completed in 1879; Una lezione di mandolino; Scacco matto; Il piatto favorito; Una partita a scacchi; Soldati e Ostessa; Un cercatore mal capitato; Le promesse; La visita alla balia; Il saggio del vino; his paintings faithfully reproduce interior scenes.

References

1856 births
1927 deaths
19th-century Italian painters
Italian male painters
20th-century Italian painters
Painters from Florence
19th-century Italian male artists
20th-century Italian male artists

Alessandro Sani


Diomedes (, Diomēdēs - "God-like cunning, advised by Zeus") was an ancient Greek hero and one of the central figures of the Iliad. Son of King Tydeus and Queen Deipyle, he was the leader of the Argive contingent during the Trojan War. Diomedes was, alongside Greater Ajax, regarded as one of the greatest of all the Achaean warriors, second only to Achilles in terms of prowess.

People in Greek mythology

Diomedes


Charter for Compassion is a document that urges the peoples and religions of the world to embrace the core value of compassion. The charter is currently available in more than 30 languages and has been endorsed by more than two million individuals.

Charter for Compassion International, the Charter's supporting organization, has enrolled 311 communities in 45 countries in its Compassionate Communities campaign and has partnered with more than 1,300 organizations to spread the Charter's ideas in 10 sectors: the arts, business, education, environment, healthcare, peace, religion/spirituality/interfaith, science & research, social sciences and restorative justice.

History
On February 28, 2008, scholar and author Karen Armstrong won the TED Prize. In her acceptance speech she called for help in creating, launching and propagating a Charter for Compassion, claiming to be based on the fundamental principle of the Golden Rule. An open writing process to create the Charter began in November 2008 with the launch of the Charter for Compassion website.  People of all faiths, nationalities and backgrounds submitted ideas on what the Charter should include. Individuals from more than 100 countries added their voices to this process and their submissions were read and commented upon by more than 150,000 visitors to the site.

The Council of Conscience, a multi-faith, multi-national group of religious thinkers and leaders, then met in Vevey, Switzerland, to craft the final Charter for Compassion. The Councillors sorted and reviewed the thousands of written submissions, considered the meaning of compassion, determined key ideas to include in the Charter and created a plan for how the Charter will exist in the world.

The Charter for Compassion was unveiled by Karen Armstrong and the Council of Conscience on November 12, 2009, at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. That day, more than 75 launch events took place around the globe and more than 60 Charter for Compassion plaques designed by Yves Behar were hung at significant religious and secular sites around the world. At its launch, the Charter was endorsed by the 14th Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu among many others.

Charter for Compassion -- The Organization
Just a few months after Armstrong was awarded the TED Prize, individuals and organizations around the world began coalescing to bring the Charter for Compassion to life. On May 4, 2009, the' Compassionate Action Network '(CAN) was launched in Seattle. CAN's intention, expressed in its founding document, was to create "an association of like-minded programs, projects and organizations that collectively represent the power of thousands of relationships."

CAN became the home for the Charter for Compassion from the summer of 2012 through December 2013 and provided startup assistance to the Charter organization, including staff, fundraising, resource development, and strategic planning.

With the support of CAN, the Fetzer Institute and many other groups and individuals, the Charter for Compassion grew steadily in scale and scope. In January, 2014, almost six years after the TED Prize award, a group of leaders in the movement organized as the Global Compassion Council and formed the Charter for Compassion (CFC) as a non-profit(c)(3) organization. The Global Compassion Council became CCI's advisory panel.

CFC vision, mission and logo
Charter for Compassion's vision is to foster a world where everyone is committed to living by the principle of compassion.

Its mission is to support the emergence of a global movement that brings the Charter for Compassion to life. It does this by being a network of networks—connecting organizers and leaders from around the world; providing educational resources, organizing tools and avenues for communication; sharing lessons, stories and inspiration; and providing an umbrella for Charter for Compassion conferences, events, collaborations, conversations and initiatives to create compassionate communities and institutions around the globe.

The CFC logo incorporates the ancient symbol for infinity. The symbol has long been used to represent the concept of endless love. CFC's use of the symbol in the context of the Charter for Compassion is used to represent the limitless potential of compassion to transform human relationships, institutions and communities.

Self-Organizing Structure
CFC utilizes self-organization, based on the idea that sustainable change emerges organically from communities. As such, it facilitates connections between resources, individuals and organizations with the intent of promoting compassion. CFC sees networks as the first, critical step in systemic reorganization of the type necessary to make compassion an organizing, luminous force.

The advisory body for CFC is the Global Compassion Council, which consists of leaders in the global compassion movement from the realms of government, business, education, philanthropy, religion and spirituality, healthcare, the environment, peace and social justice. The CFC governing Board of Trustees is drawn from members of the Council. Board members (2016) are: Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell, president; Dr. James Doty, M.D., vice-president; Toni Murden McClure, treasurer; and the following members: Allan Boesak, Amin Hashwani,  Imam Mohamed Magid and Amy Novogratz. Karen Armstrong is an ex-officio member of the Board.

CFC activities largely are delegated to  made up primarily of volunteers. Located all over the world, the teams function virtually and, where there are several people in one geographic area, in person. There is a weekly teleconference staff meeting where participants review their work and contribute to and make decisions on current CFC initiatives. Also, many of the volunteers are facilitators on CFC's regularly scheduled sector- and theme-based conference calls.

The International Teams help support the daily operational work of the Charter, which includes overseeing and contributing to the Charter's website. Additionally, they support and help grow CCI's partner network and its campaigns to encourage compassionate cities and communities. Team volunteers also work on special Charter initiatives such as the Charter Community Tool Box, the Charter Education Institute and informational materials on the Charter.

Major Initiatives

Compassionate Communities
At the heart of the Charter for Compassion's work is its Campaign for Compassionate Communities. In the beginning, this effort was focused on building a network of cities, but it soon became evident that communities both larger and smaller than cities wanted to join the movement to embrace compassion as a core value. The Charter's growing network of Compassionate Communities encompasses nearly 50 countries and includes cities, towns, townships, shires, hamlets, villages, neighborhoods, islands, states, provinces, and counties. Of these, more than 76 cities globally have affirmed the Charter for Compassion through city, community councils or other government entities. Affirming the Charter means that a community has identified issues on which they are working, and have committed to a multi-year action plan. A list of participating communities can be found here.

CFC's Compassionate Communities program is not a certificate program that offers a seal of approval, nor does it subscribe to a single definition of a compassionate community. Instead, the Charter invites communities of all sizes to bring compassion to life in practical, specific ways through compassion-driven actions—in neighborhoods, businesses, schools and colleges, healthcare, the arts, local government, peace groups, environmental advocacy groups and faith congregations.

Any individual, group or organization that recognizes the need for greater compassion in a community is encouraged to begin the process for creating a Compassionate Community. While the Charter does not prescribe any one path, it does recommend that the process be designed and carried out by a diverse and inclusive coalition of people so that all voices within the community are heard, and the significant issues are addressed.

The Charter for Compassion has developed a four-part model or framework, called the Charter Community Tool Box, to help communities build a compassionate society. The Tool Box is intended to provide communities with a starting point and a process to follow, though it is adaptable to the unique circumstances of any community that seeks to become a Compassionate Community. There are four broad phases: Discover and Assess; Focus and Commit; Build and Launch; Evaluate and Sustain. For each of the phases the Tool Box includes more specific steps as well as stories and examples. Depending on the community, its particular issues and available resources, this process may take one or more years.

Within the Charter Tool Box are relevant references to the University of Kansas' Community Tool Box, with which the Charter collaborated on this project. The Charter's model for building Compassionate Communities resides on the University of Kansas' Community Tool Box website.

The cities and communities that sign on to become Compassionate Cities and Communities often begin their work by identifying issues that are troubling the community and need to be addressed through compassionate action. For example, a community may discover a significant issue related to social justice for women, immigrants or some other marginalized group. Other communities may want to address issues of drug use, gang violence, the lack of equitable healthcare, or the effects of racism. Others may decide to work to empower youth or to educate their communities about the need for compassion in addressing environmental issues.

Louisville, KY—Model City
Louisville, KY, is a shining example of a Compassionate Community, having been named the ICC's Model City of the year for four consecutive years (2012–2015).

Louisville was the seventh city to sign on to the Compassion Charter, and Mayor Greg Fischer created Compassionate Louisville to help develop and implement a city-wide campaign to nurture and champion the growth of compassion. One of its signature events is the annual 'Mayor's Give a Day Week', in which the entire city makes time for volunteering, service and compassion. In 2015, the city broke its own world record, with more than 166,000 volunteers and acts of compassion.

Compassionate Louisville's education team launched the Compassion Bench project, which is designed to provide safe spots in the community where children are encouraged to express compassion. The first was installed at the Louisville Islamic Center on the heels of an act of vandalism there that ultimately served only to unify the community. Mayor Fischer noted that the vandalism at the mosque illustrates the heart of compassion in Louisville. Within hours of the terrible act, dozens of community and religious leaders showed up at an 8 a.m. press conference to denounce the hate and make plans for a community cleanup the next day. That cleanup drew a crowd of nearly 1,000 people—men, women and children; people of all color, nationality, religion and political leanings. "If the vandals' goal was to highlight division, they failed miserably," said Mayor Fischer. "This is a city that rejects hate, and the response to the incident at the mosque was a beautiful illustration of the work we've done to become a community of even greater compassion."

Other examples of the city's commitment to compassion in 2015 include:
 The community's Give Local Louisville effort brought in almost $3 million for local charities in one day.
 Members of Compassionate Louisville's Coordinating Circle have mentored more than 40 other communities interested in joining the Compassionate Cities movement, including surrounding counties like Henderson, Ky., as well as large cities like Detroit.
 In April, Mayor Fischer announced that Louisville and Jefferson County Public Schools will serve as the site of an independently funded, $11 million health and wellness project focused on teaching caring for oneself and others.
 Louisville supported and competed in the "Compassion Games: Survival of the Kindest!" in September, joining cities across the nation in vying to post the greatest number of good deeds in an 11-day stretch in September.
 Nearly 100 local organizations and businesses have made a commitment to compassion this year, including the international YUM! Brands and Brown-Forman.
 Metro Louisville has lined up almost 100 volunteer mentors to work one-on-one with at-risk youth in a program called "Right Turn." And Louisville Metro Government itself launched Metro Mentors, which allows and encourages city employees to spend two hours of paid time each week working with at-risk youth.
 In March, area nonprofits worked with Liberians in our community to fill a huge  ocean-going container with emergency meals, water purification and medical supplies and equipment for Ebola victims and families and for those suffering the aftermath of the civil war in Liberia.

Charter for Compassion Partners
Charter for Compassion believes it is possible—and indeed, urgently necessary—to tap into humanity's common desire for a more compassionate and peaceful world by building a vast interconnected network of compassion among the peoples of the Earth. It encourages groups, organizations, and institutions to join the Charter for Compassion's network of networks by signing on as a partner, at no cost, in any one of its current sectors: Arts, Business,  Education, Environment, Healthcare, Peace and Non-violence, Religion/Spirituality/Interfaith, Restorative Justice, Science and Research, Social Justice, Social Service, and Women and Girls.

These partners represent a vast range of activities. In the science and research field, for example, Stanford University's Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education is conducting research into mapping compassion in the brain and developing compassion training programs for adults. In the Netherlands, an impassioned group of medical students has written a charter focused on medical ethics and compassion in healthcare. They are working to make compassion training a required part of the medical school curriculum.

In education, partners around the globe have translated the Charter for children and many schools are using compassionate curricula developed for all age levels. Pakistan, one of the most active Charter partners, introduces a compassionate character into the Pakistani Sesame Street, Sim Sim Harama. Pakistan is working closely with Jordan, on the other side of the Gulf, in education efforts. In Jordan one compassionate school is housed in a tent and follows nomads through the Jordanian desert.

Another project trains prison officers to treat inmates with more respect and care. When it was put into practice in a jail in Washington State, the goal was to decrease violence by 2.5 percent; in fact the project was so successful that violence was decreased by 100 percent. Now the creators are evaluating just what the federal government could save by implementing this program across the United States.

The Charter for Compassion Education Institute
The Charter for Compassion Education Institute was formed in 2016 to educate and prepare people of the world to live a compassionate life, to understand the power of compassion to transform the inequities and injustices of human civilization, and to spread compassion and compassionate action throughout the world.

The Education Institute successfully launched its first online course in September 2016 with students from six countries and has several exciting courses lined up for Spring 2017. These first courses deal with how to develop compassion for others, how to learn self-compassion, and how to become a part of the growing compassion movement and the Charter for Compassion. Eventually, CFC will offer courses that address the work of compassion in many contexts—in communities, healthcare, business, education, religion and interfaith, the arts, restorative justice, environment, and science. Instructors from several countries are in the process of developing online courses.

References

External links
 Charter for Compassion, website
 Karen Armstrong's TED Talk calling for the creation of the Charter, Feb. 2008 TED

Codes of conduct
2008 documents
Works by Karen Armstrong
Political charters
Kindness
Suffering
Religious ethics
Peace organizations

Charter for Compassion


Xenoturbella is a genus of bilaterian animals; it contains two marine worm-like species. The first known species was discovered in 1915 but was only described in 1949. A 2003 DNA study has shown it is a primitive deuterostome phylum. The genus was the first member of its subphylum (the Xenoturbellida) to be discovered.

This phylum is basal within the deuterostomes. It is related to the Acoelomorpha, forming a sister clade to the echinoderms and hemichordates. Other members of this phylum are now known.

Xenoturbella has a very simple body plan: it has no brain, no through gut, no excretory system, no organized gonads (but does have gametes), or any other organs except for a statocyst containing flagellated cells. It has cilia and a diffuse nervous system. The animal is up to  long, and has been found off the coasts of Sweden, Scotland and Iceland.

The association of specimens of Xenoturbella with mollusc larva has led many to suggest that they are molluscivores. However, another idea is that the Xenoturbella larval stage develops as an internal parasite of certain molluscs.

The genus Xenoturbella contains two species:
 Xenoturbella bocki
 Xenoturbella westbladi

References

Other websites

A PCR survey of Xenoturbella bocki Hox genes
Movie of adult Xenoturbella bocki

Xenacoelomorpha

Xenoturbella


The Zenit-3F, Zenit-3SLBF or Zenit-2SB/Fregat is an expendable carrier rocket. It is a member of the Zenit family of rockets, which were designed by Yuzhnoye Design Bureau of Ukraine.

Launches of Zenit-3SLBF rockets are conducted from Baikonur Cosmodrome Site 45/1. The rocket consists of a Zenit-2SB (Zenit-2M) core vehicle, with a Fregat-SB upper stage, developed by NPO Lavochkin of Russia, in place of the Block-DM used on the Zenit-3SL and 3SLB.

The first launch of a Zenit-3F took place on 20 January 2011. The payload was an Elektro-L new generation weather satellite. A Zenit-3F was also used to successfully launch the Spektr-R radio astronomy satellite on 18 July 2011.

Launches

References

Zenit (rocket family)
Vehicles introduced in 2011

Zenit-3F


A bathing dress was a mode of dress used for ladies' swimming/bathing activities during the 19th century. These bathing costumes originally included ankle length dresses, long pants, and long sleeves. Around the 1880s the sleeves and hemlines of these dresses were shortened to improve range of motion and general comfort.

Uses and development
As the 19th century progressed, women's "bathing" or swimming activities became increasingly popular. The use of the bathing machine provided greater privacy to bathers and reduced the need for complete modesty. Athletic activities such as swimming and bicycling became more socially acceptable, resulting in a need for a better range of motion and a reduction in the weight of the garment when wet.

The bathing dress was popularly used up through the 1910s, eventually giving way to what we commonly see today as a swimsuit, being closest to what we know as a one piece swimsuit.

Gallery

See also
Burqini
Swimming dress

References

Other Resources
The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK  http://vam.ac.uk

The Fashion Institute of Technology Library Website  https://web.archive.org/web/20100619133547/http://www3.fitnyc.edu/library/

Swimsuits
Dresses

Bathing dress


William George "Rosey" Rosenbaum (December 17, 1889 – January 12, 1949) was an American politician.

Born in Owensboro, Kentucky, Rosenbaum moved to Arizona Territory, in 1911, because of health problems. He worked at a mine mill in Hayden, Arizona and was the foreman and was a pharmacist. He served in the United States Army during World War I. He served in the Arizona House of Representatives from 1927 until his death in 1949. He served as  speaker in 1934 and was a member of the Democratic Party. His wife Polly Rosenbaum was appointed to his seat after his death. He died in Phoenix, Arizona.

Notes

1889 births
1949 deaths
People from Gila County, Arizona
Politicians from Owensboro, Kentucky
Democratic Party members of the Arizona House of Representatives
20th-century American politicians

William Rosenbaum


Eleocharis ochrostachys, commonly known as spike rush, is a sedge of the family Cyperaceae that is native to Australia and Asia.

Description
The rhizomatous perennial herb to grass-like sedge typically grows to a height of  and produces green flowers.
The sedge has short rhizomes and long stolons. The smooth, erect, rigid and terete stems are  in height and have a diameter of .
The leaves have membranous sheaths and are a purplish colour at the base. The flowers are on pale green cylindrical spikelets cylindrical that are wider than the stem. The spikelets are  long and  with firm glumes. After flowering biconvex light brown to grey coloured nuts form that are ribbed on the margins with an obovate to broadly obovate shape that are s in length.

Taxonomy
The species was first formally described by the botanist Ernst Gottlieb von Steudel in 1854 as part of the work Synopsis Plantarum Glumacearum. Several synonyms are known including; Eleocharis variegata var. laxiflora, Scirpus laxiflorus and Eleocharis difformis.

Distribution
It is found in and around swampy areas throughout its extensive range. The range of the plant includes coastal areas in Australia, India, China, Japan, Micronesia and Melanesia. In Australia the plant is often in closed forest or in Melaleuca dominated swamps in wet areas such as swamps, creek-lines or damp depressions. The sedge has a scattered distribution in northern Australia through parts of the Kimberley region of Western Australia, the top end of the Northern Territory, parts of northern Queensland and coastal parts of New South Wales.

References

Plants described in 1854
Flora of Western Australia
ochrostachys

Eleocharis ochrostachys


George Phoenix (1863–1935) was a British (Victorian/Edwardian) landscape, figurative and portrait artist and sculptor. He regularly exhibited his works in his native Wolverhampton and nationally. They are represented at Wolverhampton Art Gallery and other galleries of the Midlands, and at the National Portrait Gallery.

Biography

George Phoenix was born in 1863 in Wolverhampton, as George Phoenix Edwards, the second of seven surviving children of George William Walter Edwards, a hair-dresser, and his wife Jane, née Phoenix. He studied at the Birmingham School of Art. The 1881 census describes 17-year-old George Edwards as 'an artist (photo)'. At about thus time, he undertook a walking tour in Wales which later he would consider a start of his artistic career.

He definitely lived in London in the late 1880s, as he painted the only known portrait of the artist Henry Mark Anthony. In 1889, when he was in Bournemouth, he started to exhibit. He took as his artistic name the maiden name of his mother, Phoenix, and his paintings are usually signed 'Geo Phoenix'. They were shown at the Royal Academy, the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, Walker Art Gallery (Liverpool), and the New Gallery.
In around 1890 he returned to Wolverhampton and in 1891 married Julia Critchlow (1858–1932). Since then, he lived permanently in Wolverhampton where he maintained a studio in the Merridale Road and then in the Clarendon Street.

Work

Phoenix worked in both oils and watercolours. At the early stage of his artistic career, he was supported and encouraged by Wolverhampton builder and patron of arts Philip Horsman whose posthumous portrait Phoenix painted in 1900 (Wolverhampton Art Gallery). He completed many portraits including these of the Mayors and Town Clerks of Wolverhampton and Bilston, doctors and nurses of South Staffordshire General Hospital (now at New Cross Hospital), Lord Bishop of Lichfield Dr Kempthorne, Sir Charles Tertius Mander and his family, and others. His posthumous portraits of Sister Dora of Walsall and Douglas Harris of Wolverhampton correspond with their sculptural monuments and confirm his relations with sculptors Francis John Williamson (1833–1920) and Robert Jackson Emerson (1878–1944). His landscape paintings depicting mainly English countryside -  Bridgnorth, Ludlow, Lincoln - were much influenced by Henry Mark Anthony. He also painted landscapes of Normandy and Holland. He often painted 'old Wolverhampton'. In 1922, his large-scale painting 'The Old Hill, Tettenhall' was presented to Wolverhampton Art Gallery by subscription.
Several religious paintings are known, among them - 'The Spirit of Christ' which was shown at his solo exhibition in 1927, and 'The Prodigal Son' (now at Wolverhampton Art Gallery). As an illustrator, he contributed drawings and cartoons to 'Punch'.

Geo Phoenix was a well-known, respected, and active member of the local society. He participated in the organisation of the  Wolverhampton Art and Industrial Exhibition in 1902 and created its large-scale pictorial panorama. A souvenir album of the Exhibition was illustrated with his watercolour. His humorous cartoons depicting the main organisers of the Exhibition have been preserved at Wolverhampton Art Gallery. In 1922, Phoenix presented six his paintings to the Gallery as his personal tribute to the survivors of the Great War (The World War I). Among them was the painting 'The Grandmother's Wardrobe' (1912) which was considered the best Phoenix' work.

Writing

In 1907, he wrote a book 'Wolverhampton Art Gallery Pictures' which became the first guide-book of Wolverhampton Art Gallery. Written in a form of a conversation with a lady-friend, it provides useful information about the ways of local art patronage, early years of Wolverhampton Art Gallery and art criticism of the Edwardian period. Several Phoenix' remarks on art in Wolverhampton and events at Wolverhampton Art Gallery can be found on the pages of a local newspaper 'Express & Star'.

Exhibitions

Geo Phoenix regularly participated in Wolverhampton Art exhibitions. His solo show in 1927 included more than one hundred paintings and works on paper from Wolverhampton Art Gallery and private collections, and a sculpture bust of Wolverhampton industrialist A Hickman. In local press, the exhibition was described as demonstrating "versatility, imagination and craftsmanship". Another show was organised in 1932 to celebrate 50 years of his artistic career. At that time, it was noticed that his late paintings demonstrated his strong inclination to the religious subjects, but those were inferior in comparison to his early landscapes. George Phoenix' death in 1935 was also marked by a memorial exhibition at Wolverhampton Art Gallery.

Literature

 Geo. Phoenix. Wolverhampton Art Gallery Pictures. Wolverhampton [no date, c.1907].
 Graves, Algernon. The Royal Academy of Arts Exhibitors. V.3.
 Morris Sidney, Morris Kathleen. A Catalogue of Birmingham & West Midlands Painters of the Nineteenth Century. 1974.

References

Artists from Wolverhampton
19th-century English painters
English male painters
20th-century English painters
Landscape artists
1863 births
1935 deaths
20th-century English male artists
19th-century English male artists

George Phoenix


Anton Stepanovich Arensky (;  – ) was a Russian composer of Romantic classical music, a pianist and a professor of music.

Biography
Arensky was born into an affluent, music-loving family in Novgorod, Russia. He was musically precocious and had composed a number of songs and piano pieces by the age of nine. With his mother and father, he moved to Saint Petersburg in 1879, after which he studied composition at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

After graduating from the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in 1882, Arensky became a professor at the Moscow Conservatory. Among his students there were Alexander Scriabin, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Alexander Gretchaninov.

In 1895, Arensky returned to Saint Petersburg as the director of the Imperial Choir, a post for which he had been recommended by Mily Balakirev. He retired from this position in 1901, living off a comfortable pension and spending his remaining time as a pianist, conductor, and composer.

Arensky died of tuberculosis in a sanatorium in Perkjärvi, in what was then the Russian-administered Grand Duchy of Finland, at the age of 44. While very little is known about his private life, Rimsky-Korsakov alleges that drinking and gambling undermined his health. He was buried in the Tikhvin Cemetery.

The Antarctic Arensky Glacier was named after him.

Music

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was the greatest influence on Arensky's musical compositions. Indeed, Rimsky-Korsakov said, "In his youth, Arensky did not escape some influence from me; later, the influence came from Tchaikovsky. He will quickly be forgotten."  The perception that he lacked a distinctive personal style contributed to long-term neglect of his music, though in recent years, a large number of his compositions have been recorded.  Especially popular are the Variations on a Theme of Tchaikovsky for string orchestra, Op. 35a - arranged from the slow movement of Arensky's 2nd string quartet, and based on one of Tchaikovsky's Songs for Children, Op. 54.

Arensky was, perhaps, at his best in the genre of chamber music, in which he wrote two string quartets, two piano trios, and a piano quintet.

Selected works

Opera
Сон на Волге (Son na Volge / Dream on the Volga), Op. 16 (1888), libretto by Anton Arensky after Alexander Ostrovsky's play Voyevoda, premiere: January 2, 1891 [OS December 21, 1890], Moscow, Bolshoy Theatre
Рафаэль (Rafael / Raphael), Op. 37 (1894), libretto by A. Kryukov, premiere: May 6 [OS April 24], 1894, Moscow, Conservatory
Наль и Дамаянти (Nal' i Damayanti / Nal and Damayanti), Op. 47 (1903), after Indian epos "Mahabharata", libretto by Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky after the novel by Vasily Zhukovsky, premiere: January 22, [OS January 9], 1904, Moscow, Bolshoy Theatre)

Ballet
Egyptian Nights () a.k.a. Une Nuit d'Égypte or Nuits égyptiennes (1900). Divertissement-Ballet in one act. Originally composed for the Imperial Ballet, St. Petersburg. Choreography by Lev Ivanov. Production was never given due to the death of the choreographer before completion.
revival by Mikhail Fokine for the Imperial Ballet. Imperial Mariinsky Theatre, .
revival by Mikhail Fokine as Cléopâtre for the Ballets Russes. Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, 2 June 1909. Additional music by Alexander Glazunov, Mikhail Glinka, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Sergei Taneyev, and Nikolai Tcherepnin.

Orchestral

 (1881)
 (1883)
Suite No. 1 in G minor, Op. 7 (1885)
Intermezzo in G minor, Op. 13 (1882)
Symphony No. 2 in A major, Op. 22 (1889)
Suite No. 2 'Silhouettes', Op. 23 (originally for 2 pianos, 1892)
Suite No. 3 'Variations in C major', Op. 33 (originally for 2 pianos, 1894)
Variations on a Theme of Tchaikovsky, Op. 35a, for string orchestra (1894)
Fantasia on Themes of Ryabinin, Op. 48, for piano and orchestra (1899), also known as Fantasia on Russian Folksongs
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in A minor, Op. 54 (1891)
 Pamyati Suvorova (To the Memory of Suvorov, 1900)

Chamber
String Quartet No. 1 in G major, Op. 11 (1888)
Serenade, Op. 30, No. 2, for violin and piano
Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 32 (1894)
 in A minor, Op. 35 (1894), scored either for standard string quartet or for violin, viola and two cellos
Piano Quintet in D major, Op. 51 (1900)
Two Pieces, Op. 12, for cello and piano
Four Pieces, Op. 56, for cello and piano
 (1905)

Piano
(for solo piano unless otherwise specified)
Suite for Two Pianos No. 1 in F major, Op. 15 (1888)
Suite for Two Pianos No. 2, Op. 23, "Silhouettes" (1892), also orchestral version
Four Morceaux, Op. 25 (1893)
Six Essais sur des rythmes oubliés, Op. 28 (ca. 1893)
Suite for Two Pianos No. 3 in C major, Op. 33, "Variations" (pub. 1894), also orchestral version
24 Morceaux caractéristiques, Op. 36 (covering all 24 major and minor keys) (1894)
Four Etudes, Op. 41 (1896)
Three Morceaux, Op. 42 (1898)
Six Caprices, Op. 43 (1898)
Près de la mer, six esquisses (sketches), Op. 52 (1901)
Six Pieces, Op. 53 (1901)
Suite for Two Pianos No. 4, Op. 62 (1903)
Twelve Preludes, Op. 63 (1903)
Twelve Pieces for Piano four hands, Op. 66 (1903)
Arabesques (suite), Op. 67 (1903)
Twelve Etudes, Op. 74 (1905)

Choral
Cantata for the Tenth Anniversary of the Sacred Coronation of Their Imperial Highnesses, Op. 25 (1893)
The Fountain of Bakhchisarai, Op. 46, cantata
Three Vocal Quartets, Op. 57, with cello accompaniment

The Diver, Op. 61, cantata

Solo vocal
Romances (4), for voice and piano, Op. 17

Arrangements of Arensky's music
Tempo di Valse from the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in A minor, Op.54, arranged for violin and piano by Jascha Heifetz

References

External links

Biography on Dr. Estrella's Incredibly Abridged Dictionary of Composers
Texts and translations of Anton Arensky's vocal works at the LiederNet Archive
Anton Arensky Chamber Music discussion of works and soundbites
Brief overview of his life and information about Opus 35

1861 births
1906 deaths
People from Veliky Novgorod
People from Novgorodsky Uyezd

Opera composers from the Russian Empire
String quartet composers
Composers for piano
Romantic composers from the Russian Empire
Male classical pianists
Male opera composers
Ballet composers from the Russian Empire
Pianists from the Russian Empire
19th-century classical composers
19th-century classical pianists

20th-century classical composers
20th-century classical pianists

Pupils of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
20th-century deaths from tuberculosis
Tuberculosis deaths in the Russian Empire
Burials at Tikhvin Cemetery
Academic staff of Moscow Conservatory

Anton Arensky


Pedro Almíndez Chirino (or Pedro Almíndez Chirinos) was a conquistador born in Úbeda and member of several councils that governed New Spain while Hernán Cortés was traveling to Honduras, in 1525-26. Almíndez was an ally of Gonzalo de Salazar; the events of this period are recounted in that article.

In 1530 he was sent by Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán to the current Mexican states of Jalisco, Aguascalientes, Zacatecas and Sinaloa to explore the region, search for gold and silver, and subdue the Indians. He passed through the current town of Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco in March 1530 with a force of 50 Spanish soldiers and 500 Purépecha and Tlaxcaltec allies. This encounter was peaceful, but he was accused of a massacre in Mocorito (Sinaloa) in 1531, and in many places of destroying and burning everything he passed. "Mocorito" in the Cahita language signifies the place of the dead. The indigenous people named it for the Indians that Pedro Almíndez Chirino killed.

See also

Spanish conquistadors
Spanish explorers
Year of birth missing
16th-century deaths
Andalusian conquistadors
People from New Spain
Spanish colonial governors and administrators
1525 in New Spain
1526 in New Spain
1530 in New Spain
People from Úbeda
16th-century explorers
16th-century Mexican people
16th-century Spanish people

Pedro Almíndez Chirino


Dragonmech is a steampunk/fantasy campaign setting for d20 fantasy developed by Goodman Games and Sword & Sorcery Studios. It centers on giant mechs, powerful war machines powered by steam, clockwork, magic, or slave labor.  Characters in this setting are engaged in epic conflicts in a world of ancient ruins, mighty mechdoms and towering city-mechs.

Setting
Dragonmech is set in a world where the moon is quite literally falling apart, resulting in regular meteor showers across the planet's surface. Lunar magic has started finding its way onto the planet below, along with lunar creatures including lunar dragons, which only vaguely resemble their terrestrial counterparts. Built to combat these new threats are the DragonMechs, specially designed for combat with large creatures.  Also created were the city-mechs, huge mobile cities that can support not only a large population, but its own ecology.

The main continent in the setting is Highpoint, an unusually altitudinous continent broken into several levels of elevation, with the lowest area of it being a desert that is knee-deep in seawater for half of Highpoint's 250-odd day calendar. A major feature is the "Endless" River, which runs through a large section of the continent and, in fact, runs for about half its length through the Underdark, and serves as the most important trade route on the continent. The Endless river exits the underground as a large waterfall from the side of a cliff. Highpoint's largest city, Edge, is actually built on this cliff and around this waterfall, and a thriving local economy is in large part based on the transport of people and goods up and down the cliff. Trade in Edge is so lucrative that even the drow have a trading enclave there, and all its members are under strict orders to be civil and polite to everyone who comes to do business.

Factions
While in many d20 campaigns, there are inevitable tensions between the races, in DragonMech these tensions are magnified to levels of almost xenophobia. One of the defining characteristics of this setting is then it is NOT humanocentric; the single most successful and powerful core race of the planet is in fact the Dwarves.

Dwarves: Many other campaigns characterize the dwarves as a dying breed, a race for whom many of their ancient and legendary strongholds have been overrun, with little hope of recovery. But in this campaign, while they have suffered disastrously from refugee invasions, their innovation has in fact made them able to rebound dramatically, catapulting them into a level of political and social power rarely seen. As the creators of a technology that is capable of reversing the fortunes of those living in this world, they control the largest and arguably the safest sections of open land in the world of Highpoint. They also control the most city mechs; the five city mechs of Nedderpik, Durgen-lok, Lokag, Thuron, and Goria form the core of their military might, as well as the centers of their political power. Together with Duerok, arguably the core of Dwarven civilization that remains underground, these five city mechs form the Stenian Confederacy.

Elves: The Elves have their part in this world as well, but their role is in fact emotionally similar to that of the Elves in The Lord of the Rings – that their time is passing and their way of life all but gone. This theme is more nihilistically represented in DragonMech for, unlike in Tolkien's work, these Elves have nowhere to go. Rather than their powers fading from them, instead their homelands have been shattered and ruined by the Lunar Rain, their ancestral homelands and forests all but eradicated. All that remains are a few animated mechs serving as repositories for hastily salvaged elven libraries, and the sole Elven City Mech (not to mention the single most powerful construction in Highpoint) known as Tannanliel.

Tannanliel cannot be adequately explained without first describing Tannan himself, for it was formed by a pact between the archmage Tannan and the overwhelmed native deities. As a result, its awesome might is being powered by a constant drain on Tannan's life force, costing him roughly a year of his life for each week he operates it. Although he is an elf, with an elf's life span, he still remains mortal, and his time is rapidly running out. The L'arile Nation, last hope of the elves, rests on Tannanliel, which itself is dependent on Tannan himself. Tannan has kept the knowledge of the city mech's price to himself, a fact that is costing him dearly on a personal level.

The tragic error of Tannanliel is that all of the remaining real power of the Elves resides in its single form; and that single form can only be one place at a time. While it remains a mighty protector it is incapable of prosecuting the total war needed to drive back and destroy the lunar invaders, and though none are aware of it, all the lunar invaders need do to eliminate it is to wait for Tannan to die.

Humans: The rising power of Highpoint, the Legion is headed by a single, massively charismatic figure by the name of Shar Thizdic. Through his personal magnetism and shrewd political maneuverings he united the scattered nomadic humans of the plains to form a powerful nation that is solely for humans. Through the forced labor of enslaved dwarven coglayers, he created the first of two citymechs currently operative, known as Rebirth.

Whether the result of shoddy construction, or deliberate sabotage (referred to by its believers as the One Flaw), Rebirth was something of a disaster. Plagued with failures and poor efficiency on a daily basis, Rebirth remains a citymech, and is still a powerful force in its own right. As the first human Citymech, Shar Thizdic seats himself as ruler here, a symbolic gesture of leadership. Because of its problems, Rebirth is generally acknowledged to be the weakest of all existing citymechs, and was originally discounted by dwarves and elves alike. But human engineers, learning from their work assisting the captured dwarves, and from their own works afterward, have caused an uproar amongst the other nations, with their subsequent construction of the second human citymech, Haven.

Haven is a significant improvement over Rebirth, and a massive undertaking whose scale is greater than all other citymechs save Tannanliel itself. Already it has proven its power in battles against lunar monstrosities including the terrifyingly powerful lunar dragons, and some doubt has been assayed over the outcome of any battles between it and one of the dwarven citymechs. But the real panic being levelled against the human nation is that Shar Thizdic has plans for five more citymechs. Many in Highpoint are wondering what power the human nations will wield by the time the final citymech has been built, and support is growing amongst both elves and dwarves to deal with the Legion in general, and Shar Thizdic in specific, on a permanent basis.

Their mistrust and paranoia are in fact founded on good reason. Shar Thizdic is very much prohuman, a stance caused by the fend-for-yourself mentality that gripped the races during the early parts of the lunar rain. He holds no actual malicious intent against elves, gnomes, and dwarves, but because they did not compassionately aid humans during the early, and most intense, part of the crisis when the plains-nomads humans had no shelter at all, he does not aid them, and if he builds his five more city mechs like he plans to, they each will need a substantial territory to roam—territory which is held by the elves and the dwarves. Non humans are third class citizens in Legion territory, and are never permitted aboard Legion citymechs. His habit of casual betrayal, enslavement, and murder- however well he has managed to hide most of the proof- may well be the downfall of the only hope that humans in highpoint truly have, should the other races of Highpoint decide to finally take action and eliminate him as a threat for once and all.

Deities
Dragonmech deities are similar to those in other campaign settings, with only a few significant differences. First, the deities are slowly losing a war with the Lunar gods. Unaccustomed to working together, they are losing ground badly to the unified front presented by the gods of the lunar monsters. But there is one factor of hope- an emergent deity who is rapidly gaining power and consciousness known as Dotrak. Gaining in power from the rapidly blooming faith in machines, Dotrak is making his powers known by the random animation of free roaming gear piles, the spontaneous transformation of persons into mechanical prophets, and even the conversion of druids into caretakers of machine forests. Should Dotrak emerge as a fully empowered deity and join the fight against the lunar gods, the tide of battle will shift drastically. However, Dotrak is a mostly unformed power, with no personality, agenda, or real intelligence—yet.
Not all people who reject the old gods worship Dotrak. Many coglayers and steamborgs view him as the designer and builder of the Great Engine of the universe, a power who does not require that mortals think of him, only that they think.

New Races
With the changes in the world, new races are coming into being to fill new ecological niches as they occur.

Coglings
Feral halflings who have adapted to the new world, Coglings make their homes by living as unobtrusively as possible in the gear forests of the largest mechs. Although from halfling stock, they are rapidly evolving to be their own distinct race.

Coglings make a whole society based on "Don't get caught." Coglings live in constant fear of discovery, which makes them hone their stealth and hiding skills to perfection. They have also taken up preventative maintenance on the gear forests in which they live, correctly reasoning that no one comes into the dangerous innards of the biggest engines in the world unless they absolutely must enter to locate and fix a problem. Therefore, the Coglings have taken up mechanical aptitude to keep the gear forests in perfect shape—and many are the coglayers of a citymech who brag about how little trouble their section of the engines have given, unaware the smooth operation is due to a tribe of coglings smoothing out small problems before they escalate.

Tik'Toks
Entirely mechanical life, Tik'toks are reminiscent of the Warforged of the Eberron setting, but made entirely from technology rather than magic. Their imperfect forms of gears and parts make them seem more human than warforged with their carefully sculpted forms. Tik'toks have emotions and build their own children, but the process is difficult and prone to failure, a consequence that can scar them for many years. They tend towards the reverence or at least acknowledgement of Dotrak, an emergent Deity whose demesne is Machines.

Tortogs
Reptilian, tortoise-like humanoids whose heavy shells and armored hide protect them from all but the worst of the lunar rain. They have turned this protection into a racial profession of trading. Their society is strange, but it has been shown to place importance on dreams and visions, a peculiarity given they are otherwise fairly sophisticated.

Slathem
The slathem are fish-like humanoids who exist equally well both in and out of the water. The slathem have not been too terribly affected by the lunar rain. Certain of their towns and cities are underwater for part of the year, because of the immense seasonal tides characteristic of Highpoint.  The winter/summer seasons result in more polar ice cap melting/freezing than on earth, so the Highpoint seasons are labeled Highwater and Lowwater.  Increased tidal effects due to the moon only amplify this problem.

Zuleps
Warriorlike humanoid leptoceratopses. They philosophy is that strength is, when you can get what your want without any compromise, and therefore they see trading as a sign of weakness. However, they cannot get everything with raiding, so they are forced to trade with other races, but because of their perceived pride, they take part in a ritual fight with their merchant partners. This ritual fight is indeed very serious: it ends only, if somebody lost his life in the battle.

Mechs
Most mechs in Dragonmech are powered by steam. They are the widely accepted standards, and the second-cheapest kind of mech around. The different kinds of mech are as follows:

Man-powered Mechs - These are powered by slaves turning cranks and pedalling belts to keep the mech going. Favored among orcs, who use this as their primary mechs. Cheapest by far.

Steam Mechs - Using steam engines, these mechs require great amounts of fuel to keep running. They are, price and effectiveness considered, the mechs best suited for armies. The first kind of mechs constructed in recent times.

Clockwork Mechs - Operating on fine mechanics, this mech can support itself with power, only needing a recharge about once a week. It is one of the most effective mech designs around.

Undead Mechs - These rare mechs are constructed from dead bodies and animated by great necromancers.

Animated Mechs - A special kind of golem used similar to mechs. Favored among elves. They are extremely effective, but also enormously expensive.

Classes

In addition to the standard Dungeons & Dragons character classes, Dragonmech introduces new base classes:

Coglayer
The coglayer is a mech and steam mechanic. They use steam powers to create technological weapons, devices, and to augment mechs.

Steam Powers
Steam Powers give the Coglayer abilities beyond Mech construction. These modular powers can be combined in order to create complex effects. Steam Powers can be combined with existing weapons such as crossbows, swords, or steamguns to create automated weapons, or stand-alone effects such as interrogation devices or steam powered undead, such as meat racks and smoking dead.

Mech Jockey
The Mech Jockey is the ultimate mech pilot. Spending all their time training with mechs, they have incredible piloting skill and can skillfully gauge the limits of a mech so they know exactly how far they can push it.

Steamborg
The steamborg is a hybrid of man and technology. With a steam engine surgically implanted into his body, the steamborg uses steam powers and artificial limbs to augment himself.
Also, the Mark 2 Steamborg, the second generation, trades the vast number of features of the fixed Steamborg slightly for a far greater degree of versatility. Considered to be even more alarming than regular steamborgs, seemingly heralds the constant evolution of the Steamborg until flesh and blood become obsolete.

Clockwork Ranger
Based on the ranger, the Clockwork Rangers live in the bowels of the city-mechs themselves.  These regions are called Gear Forests, vast engine-rooms that have developed their own unique ecology.

Prestige Classes
There are many prestige classes that represent further specialization into the setting of Dragonmech, many of them presented in Steam Warriors.

As can be expected, many of the prestige classes involve mechs and these focus around either piloting a mech (such as the feared Mech Devils), fighting a mech (such as the Anklebiter), and two classes (Assimilated and Mech Symbiote) revolve around becoming a part of a mech.

Some other classes involve special focus on or uses of technology, which can include combining it with magic.

Finally, there are many classes based around the Steamborg concept. These are as varied as the Necroborg (undead and powered by a steam engine), the Lunarborg (whose physiology is being altered by burning a substance in their engine), the Chainmuscle (who gains great physical toughness, improvements to their combat ability, and improved attributes as they replace more of their body), and the Ghostgear (who combines the steamborg with lethal stealth). There is even the Unborg, who, after going so far down the path of steamborg, voluntarily rejects the transformation and begins to regain their humanity.

External links
 Official site

Campaign settings
Goodman Games games
Steampunk role-playing games
Science fantasy role-playing games

DragonMech


Michiel is a Dutch masculine given name equivalent to Michael and a Venetian surname.

Given name
Michiel Andrieszoon (died 1684), Dutch pirate
Michiel Bartman (born 1967), Dutch rower
Michiel Borstlap (born 1966), Dutch pianist and composer
Michiel van den Bos (born 1975), Dutch video game composer
Michiel Josias Botha (born 1947), South African diamond cutter
Michiel Bothma (born 1973), South African golfer
Michiel Braam (born 1964), Dutch jazz pianist and composer
Michiel Carree (1657–1727), Dutch painter
Michiel Coignet (1549–1623), Flemish polymath
Michiel II Coignet (1618–1663), Flemish painter, son of the above
Michiel Coxie (1499–1592), Flemish painter
Michiel Driessen (born 1959), Dutch fencer
Michiel Dudok van Heel (1924–2003), Dutch Olympic sailor
Michiel Elijzen (born 1982), Dutch road bicycle racer
Michiel G. Eman (born 1961), Aruban Prime Minister
Michiel van der Gucht (1660–1725), Flemish engraver
Michiel Hazewinkel (born 1943), Dutch mathematician
Michiel van der Heijden (born 1992), Dutch mountain biker and cyclo-cross rider
Michiel Hemmen (born 1987), Dutch footballer
Michiel Heyns (born 1943), South African author and translator
Michiel Holtackers (born 1956), Dutch politician, police officer and trade unionist
Michiel Horn (born 1939), Dutch-born Canadian historian
Michiel ten Hove (1640–1689), Grand Pensionary of Holland
Michiel Huisman (born 1981), Dutch actor and musician
Michiel van Hulten (born 1969), Dutch Labour Party politician
Michiel Engel Immenraet (1621–1683), Flemish history and portrait painter
Michiel Jonckheere (born 1990), Belgian footballer
Michiel van Kampen (born 1976), Dutch baseball player
Michiel van Kempen (born 1957), Dutch writer, art historian and literary critic
Michiel van der Klis (born 1953), Dutch astronomer
Michiel Hendrik de Kock (1898–1976), South African banker
Michiel Kramer (born 1988), Dutch footballer
Michiel van Lambalgen (born 1954), Dutch logician and cognitive scientist
Michiel Maddersteg (1662–1708), Dutch painter
Michiel Meyer Cohen (1877–1968), Dutch military commander
Michiel Jansz van Middelhoven (1562–1638), Dutch theologian portrayed by Frans Hals
Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt (1565–1641), Dutch painter and draftsman
Michiel Mol (born 1969), Dutch businessman and Formula One team owner
Michiel van Musscher (1645–1705), Dutch painter
Michiel van Nispen (born 1982), Dutch Socialist Party politician
Michiel Daniel Overbeek (1920–2001), South African amateur astronomer
Michiel Reyniersz Pauw (1590–1640), Dutch mayor of Amsterdam and Dutch West India Company director
Michiel Pesman (1887–1962), Dutch-born American engineer, author and landscape architect
Michiel Riedijk (born 1964), Dutch architect
Michiel de Ruyter (1607–1676), Dutch admiral, a.o. famous for the Raid on the Medway
Michiel Schapers (born 1959), Dutch tennis player
Michiel Servaes (born 1972), Dutch Labour Party politician
Michiel Smit (born 1976), Dutch nationalist politician
Michiel de Swaen (1654–1707), Flemish surgeon and rhetorician
Michiel Sweerts (1618–1664), Flemish painter and printmaker
Michiel Thomassen (born 1979), Dutch DJ, music producer and record label owner
Michiel de Vaan (born 1973), Dutch linguist
Michiel van Veen (born 1971), Dutch VVD politician
Michiel Veenstra (born 1976), Dutch radio DJ
Tijs Michiel Verwest (born 1969), Dutch DJ and music producer known as Tiësto
Michiel Victor (1910–1998), South African sports shooter
Michiel Vos (born 1970), Dutch-born American journalist, lawyer, and jurist
Michiel de Wael (1596–1659), Dutch brewer portrayed by Frans Hals

Surname
The  was one of the families of the Venetian patriciate:
 Giovanni Michiel (fl. 1220s–1240s), Venetian merchant and administrator
Giovanni Michiel (1447–1503), Venetian cardinal and bishop
Marcantonio Michiel (1484–1552), Venetian nobleman, and amateur art critic
Giustina Renier Michiel (1755–1832), Venetian noblewoman

See also
Michiels, a Dutch-language patronymic surname
Sint Michiel, village on Curaçao
Machiel (given name)
Chiel, a short version of this name

Dutch masculine given names
Masculine given names

Michiel


A tournament is a form of organized competition.

Tournament may also refer to:

 Tournament (medieval), a chivalrous competition of the Middle Ages
 Tournament (solitaire), a solitaire card game
 Tournament (graph theory), a kind of directed graph

Media
 The Tournament (TV series), a 2005–06 Canadian TV show
 The Tournament (Clarke novel), a 2002 novel by Australian writer John Clarke
 The Tournament (Reilly novel), a 2013 novel by Australian writer Matthew Reilly
 The Tournament (Révoil), an 1812 painting by Pierre Révoil
 Speedball 2: Tournament, a 2007 videogame

Films
 The Tournament (1974 film) (Cantonese: Chung taai kuen taan sang sei chin), a Hong Kong film featuring Yuen Wah
 The Tournament (2009 film), an action film starring Robert Carlyle
 Tournament (film), a 2010 Malayalam-language film
 The Tournament (2015 film), a 2015 French film

Other uses
 Tournament Park, Pasadena, California, USA; a park

See also

 La Tourney, Saint Lucia; a town
 Tournament sort, a sorting algorithm
 Tournament selection, a selection algorithm
 Royal Tournament, a 20th century British military tattoo

 Tournament of Champions (disambiguation)

Tournament (disambiguation)


Adja Yunkers (1900–1983) was an American abstract painter and printmaker. He was born in Riga, Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire in 1900.  He studied art in Leningrad, Berlin, Paris, and London.  He lived in Paris for 14 years, and then moved to Stockholm in 1939. In Stockholm, he published and edited the arts magazines ARS magazine and Creation magazine. In 1947 he moved to the United States, where he lived for the rest of his life. He held a teaching position at the New School for Social Research in New York while summers were spent teaching at the University of New Mexico. In 1949, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship. During the 1950s he primarily worked in color woodcuts, introducing brushwork into the genre. In 1960, he began producing lithographs.  He produced two important series of lithographs at the Tamarind Lithography Workshop in Los Angeles―Salt (five lithographs) and Skies of Venice (ten lithographs).  Yunkers died in New York City in 1983.

Permanent collections
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris
Boca Raton Museum of Art, Florida
Brooklyn Museum, New York City
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio
Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C.
Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, California
Guggenheim Museum, New York
Hamburg Kunsthalle, Germany
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.
Honolulu Museum of Art, Hawaii
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana
Museo Pedro Coronel, Zacatecas, México
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
Museum of Modern Art, New York City
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Seattle Art Museum
Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, Illinois
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
Stockholm National Gallery, Sweden
Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio
University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum
Utah Museum of Fine Arts, University of Utah, Salt Lake City
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
 Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende, Chile

References

Bartelik, Marek, To Invent a Garden, The Life and Art of Adja Yunkers, New York, Hudson Hills Press, 2000.
Johnson, Una E. & Jo Miller, Adja Yunkers; Prints 1927-1967, Brooklyn, N.Y., Brooklyn Museum, 1969.
Paz, Octavio, Blanco, Illuminations by Adja Yunkers, Yunkers, 1974.
University of New Mexico, New Mexico Artists: John Sloan, Ernest L. Blumenschein, Gustave Baumann, Kenneth M. Adams, Adja Yunkers, Raymond Jonson, Peter Hurd, Howard Cook, Albuquerque, N.M., University of New Mexico Press, 1952.
Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Adja Yunkers, Salt Lake City, Utah Museum of Fine Arts, 1969.
Yunkers, Adja, Adja Yunkers, Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museaum, 1962.

External links

Adja Yunkers in ArtCyclopedia

1900 births
1983 deaths
20th-century American painters
American male painters
Abstract expressionist artists
Modern painters
Latvian artists
Artists from Riga
The New School faculty
University of New Mexico faculty
20th-century American printmakers
20th-century American male artists

Adja Yunkers


"Build God, Then We'll Talk" is the fifth and last official single, written by Ryan Ross, from Panic at the Disco's 2005 album, A Fever You Can't Sweat Out, including the radio-only single "The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide Is Press Coverage".

Song information
The song is the last song on Panic at the Disco's début album A Fever You Can't Sweat Out.

The bridge melody of "Build God, Then We'll Talk" is a derivative of the melody of the chorus of "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music. The lyrics in the bridge also directly satirize the lyrics of "My Favorite Things".

The song depicts the story of a virgin who, in desperate need of cash, agrees to sleep with a powerful Lawyer in exchange for a job at the firm. His wife, despite knowing about his late ventures, stays with him for the same reason this girl has been manipulated into sleeping with him; money. However, the Lawyer has tipped off the police, claiming her to be a prostitute, and, just hours after he leaves, the Constable bursts in while she's fixing her hair in a compact. Surprised, she knocks her bag over, spilling the contents, and the officer gives her an option- go to jail or sleep with him. In the album there are extended lyrics confirming this.

Music video
The video shows the story of a "pornomime" and a girl who falls in love after she watches one of his performances. Their relationship is a fake one. Both "relationships" includes a fake feeling of confidence and are really useless in meaning.
The mime and his girlfriend both walk in on each other having affairs (pretended, of course), again showing the emptiness of their fake relationships. They are not making love to real people — it is a false impression. The video is the first from the band to be web-exclusive, mostly because they felt it was too offensive for television, but it has aired on MTV2 in the UK and is available on Music Choice On-demand.

The band does not appear in this video.

Other websites

2005 songs
Panic! at the Disco songs

Build God, Then We'll Talk


Dmitry Ilyich Leshchenko (Russian: Дми́трий Ильи́ч Лéщенко; 25 October 1876, Nikolaev, Kherson province – 9 November 1937, Leningrad) was a Russian revolutionary, Old Bolshevik, professor and one of the founders and first organizers of Soviet Cinema and first head of the All-Russian Photo and Cinematographic Department of the People's Commissariat for Education.

Life and career
Born in to a working-class family of an artisan, he became a student at the St. Petersburg University and joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in his student years in 1900. He graduated from the University in 1902.

During the 1905 Russian Revolution, he was a member of the "chemical group" created in December 1905 under the Central Committee of the RSDLP. He was entrusted with the serial production of bombs.

During this period, he was also the permanent secretary of the Bolshevik newspapers Volna, Vperyod, Echo, published in St. Petersburg, and worked with Vladimir Lenin on most days. Leshchenko's three-room apartment was used for meetings among fellow party members. Lenin, Krupskaya, Anatoly Lunacharsky, Vatslav Vorovsky and others were visitors. Later he helped to create new safe houses, also acted as an agitator for the Central Committee. He was a delegate of the Fifth Congress of the RSDLP.

During the First World War, Leshchenko firmly defended the Leninist slogan of turning the imperialist war into a civil war, and resolutely fought against defencism. He was active participant in the February Revolution and served as the secretary of the editorial board Izvestia of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies. In 1917 he worked with Krupskaya in the Vyborg District Duma as the secretary of the cultural and educational commission.

In 1917 he photographed Lenin in Razliv for a secret passport in the name of K.P Ivanov, a worker of a Sestroretsk plant.

After the October Revolution, from November 1917 to 1920 he served as Secretary of the State Commission on Education and Secretary of the RSFSR People's Commissariat for Education.

In 1918 he headed the Petrograd Film Committee, in December 1918 - the Central Film Committee in Moscow. He was the founder and professor of the Higher Institute of Photography and Photographic Technology. He played the role of a professor in one of the first Soviet feature films Congestion.

From 1919 to 1921 he was the head of the All-Russian photographic and cinematographic department of the People 's Commissariat for Education of the RSFSR, the first organization for the management of cinematography within the entire RSFSR. He participated in the organization of the 1st State School of Cinematography (now Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography).

In January 1922, he was appointed head of the Petrograd District Photographic and Film Department of POFKO, on the basis of which a new film organization was established on 9 May 1922, the Sevzapkino (North-West Cinema and Photo Administration) which was later renamed to Lenifilm. He headed Sevzapkino until 1923. In March 1923 he became a member of the Artistic Council Goskino.

From 19231929 he was elected a member of the Petrograd and then Leningrad City Council. From 1924 to 1929 he was the director of the Leningrad State Photo-Cinema School.

From 1923 to 1937 he worked as the head of the department of inorganic chemistry at the Leningrad Agricultural Institute.

Leshchenko died on 9 November 1937 in Leningrad after suffering an illness.

References

1876 births
1937 deaths
Russian revolutionaries
Old Bolsheviks
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party members
Soviet film producers

Dmitry Leshchenko


The Nebraska Correctional Center for Women (NCCW) is a state correctional facility for the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services. Located just west of York, Nebraska, it is the only secure state facility to house adult women.

NCCW, began operation in May, 1920, through an act of the Nebraska State Legislature establishing the "State Reformatory for Women." The original facility consisted of a 2-story house that was used as an inmate and staff residence. The facility was a working dairy farm. The inmates assisted with the livestock. The current institution consists of 17 buildings on  of land, secured by two security fences. NCCW houses all security classification levels of female inmates including those in its own Diagnostic and Evaluation Center (D&E) (All male new commitments are taken to the Nebraska Diagnostic and Evaluation Center located in Lincoln). The NCCW D&E houses all new commitments. The average stay of a new commitment in the NCCW D&E is 30 days. This allows the inmate time to adjust to the institution and to learn about the institution's programs, rules, and regulations. During the evaluation period staff develop a personalized classification plan for the inmate.

NCCW has been accredited by the American Correctional Association since 1981.

Security Levels:  NCCW houses all classifications levels of female inmates including new commitments, court-ordered evaluators, and safe-keepers from county facilities.
Average Population:  281
Number of Staff:  116
Cost per Inmate per Year:  $29,417.00

Notable inmates
Caril Ann Fugate, spree killer, paroled in 1976.
 Shanna "Liz" Golyar, Murdered Cari Farver in 2012.

External links
 Nebraska Correctional Center for Women Official website

Prisons in Nebraska
Buildings and structures in York County, Nebraska
Women's prisons in the United States
Capital punishment in the United States
Women in Nebraska
1920 establishments in Nebraska

Nebraska Correctional Center for Women


Peter Jaszi is a widely known expert on copyright law and author, with Patricia Aufderheide, of Reclaiming Fair Use (2012), which examines the state of fair use and the importance to scholarship, art, and free expression of strengthening the doctrine.

Education
Jaszi earned a B.A. degree from Harvard University in 1968 and a J.D. degree from Harvard Law School in 1971.

Career
Jaszi was one of the founders in 1995 of the "Digital Future Coalition", an organization of library associations and other public interest groups engaging in copyright advocacy during the late 1990s.   Jaszi has testified numerous times before Congress on copyright matters, and in 1994 served on the Librarian of Congress' Advisory Commission on Copyright Registration and Deposit.  Jaszi also serves as a trustee of the Copyright Society of the U.S.A., the primary scholarly society dedicated to copyright law.

Jaszi is currently Emeritus Professor of Law at American University's Washington College of Law, and Founder of the Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Law Clinic.

Awards and honors

 Lyman Ray Patterson Copyright Award, from the American Library Association (2007)
 Champion of Intellectual Property, IP Section of the District of Columbia Bar (2009)
 IP3 Award, Public Knowledge (2011)

Bibliography
 Reclaiming Fair Use (with Patricia Aufderheide) (2012)
 "Toward a Theory of Copyright: The Metamorphoses of" Authorship"", Duke Law Journal (1991)
 "On the author effect: contemporary copyright and collective creativity", Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal (1991)
 Editor, The Construction of Authorship: Textual Appropriation in Law and Literature (Duke University Press, 1994)
 Copyright in Transition (with Martha Woodmansee) in History of the Book in America, Volume IV)
 "Is There Such a Thing as Post-Modern Copyright?" in Making and Unmaking Intellectual Property (2011), edited with Martha Woodmansee and Mario Biagioi

References

External links
 faculty profile, Washington College of Law
 "Copyright Criminals", at "Community Cinema" (2010)
 "Peter Jaszi" profile with presentations, EDUCAUSE
 Index of writings at The Harvard Crimson (1967–69)
 C-SPAN Biographical History

Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
American legal scholars
Copyright scholars
American University faculty and staff
Harvard Law School alumni

Peter Jaszi


A hypothetical list of biota, or "hypothetical list" for short, is a list of taxa (of plants, animals, fungi etc.) which are not recorded from a given geographical area, but which may be found there. Such lists are sometimes included by authors of regional biota, partly to demonstrate that the authors have considered and rejected the taxa in question rather than overlooked them, and partly to encourage researchers and others to seek out the taxa in question so that they can be added to the list of the area's biota in future revisions.

Taxa may be included for different reasons:
 They may be resident close to the region in question, and the region may have habitat which appears suitable
 They may be long-distance vagrants with a pattern of occurrence
 They may be poorly studied taxa, which the authors feel could be found in the region if appropriate search techniques are used
 There may be historical evidence of occurrence which the authors felt was not watertight enough to justify inclusion in a definitive list for the region

A 1973 checklist of fleas in Connecticut added species to its hypothetical list if they were documented in a bordering state and have a host found in Connecticut.

Ornithological works which have included hypothetical lists include the following:

 A field guide to the birds of Hawaii and the Tropical Pacific by Pratt, Bruner and Berrett
 Birds of South Asia. The Ripley Guide by Rasmussen and Anderton

References

Biological literature

Hypothetical list of biota


Wantage is a town in the Vale of the White Horse, near the Thames Valley, in the English county of Berkshire, and about  south-southwest of Oxford. It is famous for being the birthplace of King Alfred the Great.

Local government
Wantage has a town council consisting of sixteen councillors, twelve of whom  are Liberal Democrats (2007). It is also part of the district of the Vale of White Horse.

Transport

Wantage sits at the crossing of the B4507 valley road, the A417 Reading to Cirencester road and the A338 Hungerford (and junction 14 of the M4 motorway) to Oxford road.

Wantage is connected to Oxford, Didcot, Abingdon and Faringdon by regular bus services. The fastest public bus journey from Wantage to Oxford takes about 45 minutes, the slowest can take over 1 hour 15 minutes.

History

King Alfred the Great was born here in the 9th century. Wantage appears in the Domesday Book of 1086. Its value was £61 and it was in the king's ownership until 1190. Troops of the king were stationed in Wantage during the English Civil War.

Since 1848, Wantage has been home to the Community of Saint Mary the Virgin, one of the largest communities of Anglican nuns in the world.

Famous people

King Alfred the Great was born in Wantage in 849.
John Betjeman, Poet Laureate from 1972 to 1984, lived in Wantage and his book, 'Archie and the Strict Baptists' is based in the town. A memorial park has now been established in the town named after him, which includes extracts from his poems in a peaceful wooded area.

Twinning
Wantage is twinned with:
 Mably in France
 Seesen in Germany

The town was twinned with Seesen (Germany) in 1979 and Mably (France) in 1990.

Other websites

 Wantage Community Website
 Wantage Town Council
 Wantage Churches Together
 Vale and Downland Museum, Wantage
 Royal Berkshire History: Wantage
 Wantage Silver Band
 King Alfred's School
 CTC Wantage Section
 Wantage Dive Club
 Wantage Choral Society
 Wantage Town Football Club
 Wantage local bus services

Towns in Oxfordshire

Wantage


The Japanese flying squid, Japanese common squid or Pacific flying squid, scientific name Todarodes pacificus, is a squid of the family Ommastrephidae. This animal lives in the northern Pacific Ocean, in the area surrounding Japan, along the entire coast of China up to Russia, then spreading across the Bering Strait east towards the southern coast of Alaska and Canada. They tend to cluster around the central region of Vietnam.

"Flying"
Flying squid have been spotted to covering distances as long as 30m above the surface of the water, presumably to avoid predators or save energy as they migrate across vast expanses of ocean, uniquely utilizing jet-propelled aerial locomotion. However, the behavior is not unique to the species, and is quite common in the Oegopsida order.

Cephalopods
Animals of Japan

Japanese flying squid


Commedia is a 2023 Italian-English romantic drama film written and directed by Riccardo Vannunccini, stars Greta Bellamacina as the main lead alongside Vannunncini who plays Rocco.Commedia had its world premiere at the Caravaggio  cinema in Rome, Italy on the 23rd January 2023

Synopsis

Commedia is a harsh comedy which examines the thin borderline between creativity and madness set against a city with a long cinematic history that is, for the first time in a long time, shot in an entirely new way. The two main characters are patients in a mental hospital who want to make a movie. It's a touching exploration of where the borders of sanity and madness lie.

Cast

Release

Commedia had its world premiere at the Cinema Caravaggio in Rome, 23 January 2023.

References

External links

2020s English-language films
British romantic drama films

Commedia (2023 film)


James Smith Middleton (12 March 1878 – 18 November 1962) was a journalist and political organiser best known for serving as the General Secretary of the Labour Party.

Biography
In 1878, Middleton was born in Clarborough, Nottinghamshire. He worked for a printer, then as a journalist on his father's labour movement journal, the Workington Star. He joined the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavour and the Independent Labour Party, then served in prominent roles on Workington Trades Council and the local Labour Representation Committee.

In 1900, while in Workington, Middleton met and married his first wife, the former Mary Muir, who was working locally as a domestic servant.

In 1902, Middleton moved to work on the Harringay Mercury, and became the first Assistant Secretary of the Labour Party.  He remained in this role for many years, a close supporter of Ramsay MacDonald.

In 1911, Middleton's first wife Mary died after a lengthy battle with cancer.

Middleton opposed World War I, founding the War Emergency Workers' National Committee, and was initially enthusiastic about the October Revolution.

In 1920, Middleton was one of the joint secretaries of the National Council of Action alongside Fred Bramley and H. S. Lindsay.

In 1931, Middleton remained with the Labour Party when MacDonald left to form the National Labour Organisation, although he stated that he was in awe at MacDonald's heroism over this move.

In 1935, Middleton succeeded Arthur Henderson as General Secretary of the Labour Party.  In this role, he opposed proposals to form a Popular Front and worked to sideline all critics of the official party line.

In 1936, Middleton married his second wife, the former Lucy Cox.

In 1944, having been increasingly seen as ineffective, Middleton retired as General Secretary of the Labour Party.

Starting with the 1945 general election, Middleton acted as Lucy's election agent, when she was the successful Labour candidate in Plymouth Sutton. He continued this role until her last contest in the 1955 general election.

Legacy
News of Middleton's retirement brought tributes from various prominent figures in the Labour movement including George Bernard Shaw and Robert Blatchford.

In retirement, Middleton focussed on writing biographical sketches and obituaries of early Labour Party figures.

The Labour History Archive and Study Centre at the People's History Museum in Manchester has the papers of the War Emergency Workers' National Committee in their collection, as well as Middleton's General Secretary papers.

See also
Labour Party (UK)
Lucy Middleton
Mary Middleton

References

External links
Labour History Archive and Study Centre

1878 births
1962 deaths
English male journalists
Labour Party (UK) officials
Members of the Fabian Society
People from Bassetlaw District
English male non-fiction writers

James Middleton (political organiser)


Tom Thumb is a character of English folklore. The History of Tom Thumb was published in 1621 and was the first fairy tale printed in English. Tom is no bigger than his father's thumb, and his adventures include being swallowed by a cow, tangling with giants, and becoming a favourite of King Arthur. The earliest allusions to Tom occur in various 16th-century works such as Reginald Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft (1584), where Tom is cited as one of the supernatural folk employed by servant maids to frighten children. Tattershall in Lincolnshire, England, reputedly has the home and grave of Tom Thumb.

Aside from his own tales, Tom figures in Henry Fielding's 1730 play Tom Thumb, a companion piece to his The Author's Farce. It was expanded into a single 1731 piece titled The Tragedy of Tragedies, or the History of Tom Thumb the Great.

In the mid-18th century, books began to be published specifically for children (some with their authorship attributed to "Tommy Thumb"), and by the mid-19th century, Tom was a fixture of the nursery library. The tale took on moral overtones and some writers, such as Charlotte Mary Yonge, cleansed questionable passages. Dinah Mulock, however, refrained from scrubbing the tale of its vulgarities. Tom Thumb's story has been adapted into several films.

History

Tom Thumb may have been a real person born around 1519, as there is a grave purporting to be his. It is set into the floor adjacent to the font of the main chapel in Holy Trinity Church at Tattershall, Lincolnshire, UK. The inscription reads: "T. THUMB, Aged 101 Died 1620". The grave measures just 16" (40 cm) in length.

The earliest surviving text is a 40-page booklet printed in London for Thomas Langley in 1621 entitled The History of Tom Thumbe, the Little, for his small stature surnamed, King Arthur's Dwarfe: whose Life and adventures containe many strange and wonderfull accidents, published for the delight of merry Time-spenders. The author is presumed to be Londoner Richard Johnson (1579–1659?) because his initials appear on the last page. The only known copy is in the Morgan Library & Museum, New York.

Tom was already a traditional folk character when the booklet was printed, and it is likely that printed materials circulated prior to Johnson's. It is not known how much Johnson contributed to Tom's character or his adventures. William Fulke referred to Tom in 1579 in Heskins Parleament Repealed, and Thomas Nashe referred to him in 1592 in his prose satire on the vices of the age Pierce Penniless, His Supplication to the Divell. Reginald Scot listed Tom in his Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584) as one of the creatures used by servant maids to frighten children, along with witches, dwarfs, elves, fairies, giants, and other supernatural folk.

Tom was mentioned by James Field in Coryat's Crudities (1611): "Tom Thumbe is dumbe, until the pudding creepe, in which he was intomb'd, then out doth peepe." The incident of the pudding was the most popular in connection with the character. It is alluded to in Ben Jonson's masque of the Fortunate Isles: "Thomas Thumb in a pudding fat, with Doctor Rat."

Richard Johnson's History may have been in circulation as early as this date because the title page woodblock in the 1621 edition shows great wear. Johnson himself makes it clear in the preface that Tom was long known by "old and young... Bachelors and Maids... and Shepheard and the young Plow boy".

The tale belongs to the swallow cycle. Tom is swallowed by a cow, a giant, a fish, and by a miller and a salmon in some extensions to Johnson's tale. In this respect, the tale shows little imaginative development. Tom is delivered from such predicaments rather crudely, but editors of later dates found ways to make his deliverance more seemly and he rarely passed beyond the mouth.

Tom's tale was reprinted countless times in Britain, and was being sold in America as early as 1686. A metrical version was published in 1630 entitled Tom Thumbe, His Life and Death: Wherein is declared many Maruailous Acts of Manhood, full of wonder, and strange merriments: Which little Knight liued in King Arthurs time, and famous in the Court of Great Brittaine. The book was reprinted many times, and two more parts were added to the first around 1700. The three parts were reprinted many times.

In 1711, William Wagstaffe published A Comment upon The History of Tom Thumbe. In 1730, English dramatist Henry Fielding used Tom Thumb as the central figure of a play by that name, which he rewrote in 1731 as the farce The Tragedy of Tragedies, or the History of Tom Thumb the Great. The play is filled with 18th-century political and literary satire and is intended as a parody of heroic tragedies. The title of "The Great" may be intended as a reference to politician Sir Robert Walpole who was often called "The Great."

Henry Fielding's tragedy Tom Thumb was the basis for an opera constructed by Kane O'Hara. Fielding's Tom is cast as a mighty warrior and a conqueror of giants, despite his stature, as well as the object of desire for many of the ladies at court. The plot is largely concerned with the various love triangles amongst the characters, who include Princess Huncamunca, giantess Glumdalca, and Queen Dollalolla (Arthur's wife in this version). Matters are complicated when Arthur awards Tom the hand of Huncamunca in marriage which results in Dollalolla and the jealous Grizzle seeking revenge. Eventually, Tom dies when swallowed by a cow, but his ghost returns. At the conclusion, Tom's ghost is killed by Grizzle and most of the cast kill each other in duels or take their own lives in grief.

Fielding's play was later adapted into a spoof on opera conventions called The Opera of Operas; or Tom Thumb the Great by playwrights Eliza Haywood and William Hatchett. This version includes a happy ending in which Tom is spat back out by the cow and the others are resurrected by Merlin's magic. This is considered to be a satirical comment on the unlikely and tacked-on nature of many happy endings in literature and drama.

In the mid-18th century, books began appearing specifically for children, and Tom was cited as the author of titles such as Tommy Thumb's Song Book (1744) and Tommy Thumb's Little Story Book (c. 1760). In 1791, Joseph Ritson remarked that Tom's popularity was known far and wide: "Every city, town, village, shop, stall, man, woman, and child, in the kingdom, can bear witness to it."

Tom's story was originally intended for adults, but it was relegated to the nursery by the mid-19th century. Vulgar episodes were sanitized, and moralizing colored the tale. In Charlotte Mary Yonge's 1856 adaptation, Tom resists his natural urges to play impish pranks, renounces his ties to Fairyland, and pronounces himself a Christian. As Mordred's rebellion wears on in the last days of Arthur's reign, Tom refuses to return to Fairyland, preferring to die as an honorable Christian.

In 1863, Dinah Maria Craik Mulock refused to cleanse the tale's questionable passages and let the story speak for itself. She adds material, and Tom has adventures that again involve being swallowed by a miller and a salmon, being imprisoned in a mousetrap, angering King Thunston and his queen, and finally dying from the poisonous breath of a spider. Tom's tale has since been adapted to all sorts of children's books with new material added and existing material reworked, but his mischievous nature and his bravery remain undiminished.

Plot

Richard Johnson's The History of Tom Thumbe of 1621 tells that in the days of King Arthur, old Thomas of the Mountain, a plowman and a member of the King's Council, wants nothing more than a son, even if he is no bigger than his thumb. He sends his wife to consult with Merlin. In three months' time, she gives birth to the diminutive Tom Thumb. The "Queene of Fayres" and her attendants act as midwives. She provides Tom with an oak leaf hat, a shirt of cobweb, a doublet of thistledown, stockings of apple rind, and shoes of mouse's skin.

Tom cheats at games with other boys and because of his many tricks, the boys will not associate with him. Tom retaliates by using magic to hang his mother's pots and glasses from a sunbeam. When his fellows try the same, their pots and glasses fall and are broken. Thereafter, Tom stays home under his mother's supervision. At Christmas, she makes puddings, but Tom falls into the batter and is boiled into one of them. When a tinker comes begging, Tom's mother inadvertently gives him the pudding containing her son.

His mother thereafter keeps a closer watch upon him. One day, he accompanies her to the field to milk the cows. He sits under a thistle, but a red cow swallows him. The cow is given a laxative and Tom passes from her in a "cow pat". He is taken home and cleaned. Another day, he accompanies his father for the seed sowing and rides in the horse's ear. Tom is set down in the field to play the scarecrow, but a raven carries him away. His parents search for him, but are unable to find him.

The raven drops Tom at the castle of a giant. The cruel giant swallows the tiny boy like a pill. Tom thrashes about so much in the giant's stomach that he is vomited into the sea. There, he is eaten once more by a fish which is caught for King Arthur's supper. The cook is astonished to see the little man emerge from the fish. Tom then becomes King Arthur's Dwarf.

Tom becomes a favorite at King Arthur's royal court, especially among the ladies. There is revelry; Tom joins the jousting and dances in the palm of a Maid of Honour. He goes home briefly to see his parents, taking some money from the treasury with the king's permission, then returns to court. The Queene of Fayres finds him asleep on a rose and leaves him several gifts: an enchanted hat of knowledge, a ring of invisibility, a shape-changing girdle, and shoes to take him anywhere in a moment.

Tom falls seriously ill when a lady blows her nose, but is cured by the physician to King Twaddell of the Pygmies. He takes a ride in his walnut shell coach and meets Garagantua. Each boasts of his many powers. When Garagantua threatens to harm Tom, he is cast under an enchantment and Tom hurries home to safety. King Arthur listens with amazement to Tom's many adventures.

Richard Johnson's 1621 narrative ends here, but he promised his readers a sequel that has never been found, if published at all. In 1630, a metrical version in three parts was published that continues Tom's adventures.

Later narratives
Other versions paint a different picture to Tom's end. Dinah Mulock continued the tale and noted that Tom exhausted himself with jousting but recovered in Fairyland. When he returned to Arthur's court, he accidentally landed in a bowl of the king's frumenty. Tom enrages the cook and is threatened with beheading. He seeks refuge in the mouth of a passing slack-jawed miller. Sensing tiny voices and movements within him, the man believes he is possessed. He yawns and Tom emerges, but the Miller is so angry he tosses Tom into a river where he is swallowed by a salmon. The fish is caught, taken to the King's kitchen, and Tom is found and kept in a mousetrap until King Arthur forgives him.

The court goes hunting and Tom joins them upon his steed, a mouse. A cat catches the mouse and Tom is injured. He is carried to Fairyland where he recovers and dwells for several years. When he returns to court, King Thunston now reigns. Charmed by the little man, the king gives Tom a tiny coach pulled by six mice. This makes the queen jealous as she received no such gifts and she frames Tom with being insolent to her. Tom attempts to escape on a passing butterfly, but is caught and imprisoned in a mousetrap. He is freed by a curious cat and once more wins back the favor of King Thunston. Sadly, he does not live to enjoy it as he is killed by a spider's bite. Tom is laid to rest beneath rosebush and a marble monument is raised to his memory with the epitaph:

Here lies Tom Thumb, King Arthur's knight,
Who died by a spider's cruel bite.
He was well known in Arthur's court,
Where he afforded gallant sport;
He rode at tilt and tournament,
And on a mouse a-hunting went;
Alive he fill'd the court with mirth
His death to sorrow soon gave birth.
Wipe, wipe your eyes, and shake your head
And cry, 'Alas! Tom Thumb is dead.

Adaptations
Tom Thumb is the subject of several films.

Animated shorts
In 1936, a short ComiColor Cartoons, directed by Ub Iwerks was released,
in 1940 an Merrie Melodies short called Tom Thumb in Trouble. was released by Chuck Jones

Live-action
In 1958, George Pal directed a live action musical, tom thumb (rendered in lowercase to denote the character's small size) starring Russ Tamblyn, based on the Brothers Grimm's story Thumbling.
Also in 1958, although not released in the U.S. until 1967 in a dubbed version, a Mexican version of Tom Thumb (originally titled Pulgarcito) was made based loosely on Charles Perrault's "Le petit Poucet".
In 2001, a French film titled Le petit poucet was released that was directed by Olivier Dahan and starred Nils Hugon, Catherine Deneuve and Raphaël Fuchs-Willig

Feature Animation
A darker, modernized film version using stop motion animation called The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb was released in 1993
Tom Thumb Meets Thumbelina and the 2002 direct-to-DVD animated movie, The Adventures of Tom Thumb and Thumbelina brought together the two most famous tiny people of literature, with Tom voiced by Elijah Wood.

Literature
Text stories and later comic strips based on the Tom Thumb character appeared in the anthology comic The Beano from the first issue in 1938 until the late fifties.

Similar tales and characters
There are many thumb-sized characters around the world: Le petit poucet (France), Der kleine Däumling (Germany), Tommelise (Denmark), Little One Inch/Issun-bōshi (Japan), Si Kelingking (Indonesia), Thumbikin (Norway), Garbancito and Pulgarcito (Spain), Pollicino (Italy), Piñoncito (Chile), Липунюшка (Lipunyushka or No-Bigger-Than-A-Finger) (Russia), Palčić (Serbia), Patufet (Catalonia), The Hazel-nut Child (Bukovina), Klein Duimpje and Pinkeltje (Netherlands), Hüvelyk Matyi (Hungary), Ko Ko Nga Latt Ma (Myanmar), দেড় আঙ্গুলে (Dēṛa āṅgulē) (Bengal), Sprīdītis (Latvia) and others.

See also
Hop-o'-My-Thumb
General Tom Thumb
Thumbelina
Erkenek
Issun-bōshi

Notes

References

Further reading
 Green, Thomas. "Tom Thumb and Jack the Giant-Killer: Two Arthurian Fairytales?" In: Folklore 118 (2007): 123–140. DOI:10.1080/00155870701337296
 Merceron, Jacques E. «Naître l'âme en pet: le conte du Pouçot (AT 700), la Vieille et la Vache cosmique». In: Françoise Clier-Colombani et Martine Genevois (dir.). Patrimoine légendaire et culture populaire: le Gai Savoir de Claude Gaignebet. Paris, Éditions L'Harmattan. 2019. pp. 425–458.

External links

Tom Thumb at The Camelot Project
The History of Tom Thumb by Henry Altemus at Project Gutenberg

English fairy tales
Arthurian characters
Fairy tale stock characters
Male characters in fairy tales
Child characters in fairy tales
ATU 700-749

Tom Thumb