Cassandra "Cassie" Hack is a fictional character that appears as the main protagonist in the Hack/Slash comic books published by Devil's Due Publishing. The character first appears in Hack/Slash: Euthanized (April 2004), and was created by writer and occasional penciller Tim Seeley.

Seeley has repeatedly stated that Cassie is designed to be a horror victim who has overcome her fears and decided to take revenge on horror villains, who are known in the comic as "slashers". However, despite her hardened exterior, Seeley has tried to show that "beneath [the surface Cassie] is still [a] lost, scared innocent girl".

In 2005, Stefani Bishop portrayed Cassie in a stage adaptation of Hack/Slash called Hack/Slash: Stagefright.  A film adaptation of Hack/Slash was in development by Rogue Pictures.

Publication history

Cassie and her partner, Vlad, first appeared in the Hack/Slash one-shot (later renamed Hack/Slash: Euthanized) in 2004. This included a brief backstory called The Strange Story of Cassie Hack. Between 2005 and 2007 a series of further one-shots were released including a mini-series: Hack/Slash: Land of Lost Toys. In 2007, Hack/Slash became an ongoing series.

Hack/Slash has included crossovers with other franchises with Cassie and Vlad encountering Evil Ernie, Chucky, a horde of treehuggers and Herbert West from the cult-classic Re-Animator film series.

Fictional character biography

Early life
Cassandra "Cassie" Hack, daughter of Dr. Jack and Delilah Hack, grew up in western Wisconsin. Her father left soon after she was born, leaving Cassie with her overbearing, eccentric mother who worked as a cook at a nearby high school. A timid wallflower, plain-looking and unattractive, young Cassie was verbally and physically abused by her classmates. Never having a friend, Cassie was ostracized because she wasn't pretty and was poor and ill-dressed. This prompted her unbalanced mother, the "Lunch Lady", to kill every child at Cassie's school that had somehow hurt or insulted Cassie and serve them as the school food. Cassie, witnessing her mother's last killing spree, promptly called the police. She managed to save the life of her mother's last victim, but was forced to witness her mother's death when she committed suicide.

Cassie was placed in a foster home and attended a new school. She detested her fanatically religious foster parents, but endured, desiring to be accepted by someone. She began training in various martial arts and fighting techniques. In the meantime, she tried to find her father, utilizing the internet and whatever resources she could find. Two years later, children began disappearing once more, signalling the return of her mother, reborn as a vengeful "slasher" trying to continue its murderous spree. Feeling responsible for the deaths, Cassie confronted her mother once again and shot her. Driven by guilt and lacking any connection to anyone or anyplace, Cassie left her foster family and went on the road.

Solo adventures
Cassie became determined to seek out slashers and stop their rampages wherever she could. She also hoped that she might find a clue to the whereabouts of her father, but for a long time, found nothing.

On one of her adventures, Cassie came to Chicago, where she hunted a killer known as "the Meatman", who was responsible for the deaths of several teenagers. She eventually encountered the Meatman, but discovered that he was not responsible for the murders. Cassie befriended the Meatman, a misshapen man named Vlad, and together they hunted down the actual murderer, a local minister/assassin with Mafia connections. The two began travelling together in a van bought with Cassie's inheritance, with Vlad acting as her bodyguard and muscle.

Cassie and Vlad, slasher slayers
Some time later, the pair investigate a series of murders around a veterinary clinic in Eminence, Indiana.  They rescue a vet, Lisa, from a slasher who was accidentally killed by Lisa's boyfriend. Later, they investigate a murder at a beach resort hosting a "girls gone naughty" event.  While investigating the situation, Cassie becomes extremely drunk (when a boy drugged her ice tea with pure vodka) and having lost her inhibitions, flirts with a stranger and kisses a random girl. Despite being less than sober, she continues her investigation and encounters a crazed Catholic schoolgirl, Laura Lochs, who controls an undead preacher named Father Wrath. After a prolonged fight, Vlad kills Father Wrath and Cassie sets Laura on fire and leaves her for dead. Soon after, Cassie and Vlad, encounter a pair of slashers murdering writers and illustrators at a Philadelphia comic convention.

When Evil Ernie awakens in the Hack/Slash universe he begins a killing spree, murdering six women near a strip club in New Jersey.  Cassie and Vlad investigate and track Ernie to a saw mill where he falls in love with Cassie, believing the two of them to be "two sides of the same coin". After escaping from Ernie, Cassie is distressed by the fact that she now has to kill the "one person who loves her". Vlad asserts that he loves her, but Cassie snaps and claims that he only thinks that because she's the only one who can stand being around him. Shocked by what she's said, she apologizes to Vlad and the pair resume their hunt for Ernie. Upon finding Ernie, he attempts to kidnap Cassie but accidentally banishes himself to Hell.

A tip from Lisa, who has been staying in contact, leads Cassie and Vlad to investigating the circumstances behind nine children dying in their sleep.  Their contact, Jason, concludes that the person responsible is Ashley, a Freddy Krueger-esque slasher who can kill people in their dreams. After Jason is also killed, Cassie gets Lisa to knock her out with sleeping gas, so she can confront Ashley in his realm. Despite Ashley's best efforts, he is unable to kill Cassie and she soon turns her own past on him and Ashley is dispatched by Cassie's own worst nightmare: her mother. Afterward, Jason's ex-flatmate, Chris, begins a relationship with Lisa.

Later, while setting a trap for a slasher calling herself "the Acid Angel", Cassie and Vlad discover that a company led by ex-Miss America, Emily Cristy, is capturing slashers in order to perform experiments upon them.  Cassie discovers that the company is producing a regenerative drug that turns people into slashers. After the slashers escape, Emily ends up taking the drug to save her life, but has her skin burned off in an explosion, creating a new slasher: Ms. America. Soon afterward, Cassie teams-up with a possessed doll, Chucky, in order to confront Laura Lochs who has returned and stolen Vlad's body using a voodoo amulet.  After a series of battles, they defeat Laura once again and Vlad regains control of his body. However, despite Cassie's trying to stop him, Chucky escapes.

Cassie is later captured by a slasher who used to be a psychologist who analyzes and tortures her.  After losing two toes and remembering various events from her childhood, Cassie self-diagnoses herself as "really fucked up" and pushes him out of the window. However, later in the bathroom, Cassie's hard exterior falters and she cries. Several days later, after receiving a call from Chris, Cassie and Vlad travel to Tampa Bay to investigate a string of disappearances coinciding with the tour schedule of a band called Acid Washed.  Upon getting there, they meet a stripper called Georgia who offers to take them to the next concert. At the show, the band transport all the virgin girls, including Cassie and Georgia, to another realm to be sacrificed. While caged, Cassie talks to a local dog named Pooch, who tells her that the singer, Six Sixx, has made a deal with a demon. Afterwards, Cassie and Georgia flirt and talk about Cassie's undecided sexuality and the possibilities of escaping by "making each other impure" by having sex. However, Vlad arrives to rescue them and together they return to Earth and defeat Six.

Some time later, Cassie is forced to sell her mother's wedding ring in order to pay for better accommodation while Vlad recovers from a respiratory infection.  Afterward, they travel to Stone County and encounter a new Father Wrath, who turns out to be nephew of the original.

Search for Dr. Jack Hack
Cassie and Vlad's next adventure leads to a college in Massachusetts where a series of corpses have been discovered.    Cassie and Vlad's relationship is somewhat rocky due to the amount of time Cassie has been spending on the phone with Georgia. After Vlad is attacked, Cassie begins questioning the local students and discovers that a number of them are lesbians who are involved in a cult surrounding the mythology of Elizabeth Bathory. After accidentally kissing one of the students (and thinking of Georgia at the time), Cassie interrogates her to find out more information about the cult. However, before the student can lead her to the cult's base of operations, Cassie encounters a government team working for her father. Cassie, Vlad and the government team are led to the cult's underground base where they are attacked by Ms. America, who has been stealing the blood and skin of students in an attempt to regain her original beauty. After a long battle, Vlad impales Ms. America. Afterwards, Cassie and Vlad reconcile, though Cassie is uncertain of her feelings towards Georgia.

Following the clues given by the government team, Cassie and Vlad search a cabin in Montana in the hopes of finding information about Cassie's father.  What they find is a series of journals detailing how a group of feral children were turned into "revenants" (i.e., slashers) using a drug. The children then attack and Cassie is forced to shoot them, much to Vlad's objections. Afterwards, Cassie and Vlad hunt down a one-eyed vigilante, Nathan, who Cassie believes is a slasher.  However, he is actually a man seeking vengeance for the murder of his wife. After Nathan exacts his revenge (he's fatally wounded in the process) Cassie, still confused by her feelings for Georgia, asks him how he knew that he was in love. Afterwards, Cassie takes a break from searching for her father to investigate a series of killings in Hitchfield, Georgia and encounter a horde of treehuggers and their puppet master, Eddie.

Not long after, Georgia contacts Cassie when several of the cast of a Wizard of Oz remake turn up dead.  However, despite being told to wait, Georgia investigates on her own and is almost killed by a psychopathic Tin Man. She is soon rescued by an angry Cassie who begs Georgia "not to die on [her, because] there's too much death in [her] life already". Cassie's search for her father soon comes to an end when she encounters Dr Herbert West, who has been working with Dr Jack Hack in researching slashers.    West succeeds in reviving Delilah Hack; however she reverts to her Lunch Lady persona and kills her husband. Disappointed with the results, West kills the Lunch Lady with an overdose of his serum. He then gives Cassie the opportunity to reanimate her father, but she refuses.

Losing both her parents once again leaves Cassie deeply depressed, prompting the worried Vlad into calling Georgia and asking her to talk to Cassie. Cassie confides in Georgia that she can't go on killing slashers and wants to live a normal life, thoughts which alienate Vlad. While going to the Mississippi police to tell them all she knows about slashers, Cassie is arrested due to her suspected involvement in homicides throughout the country, the authorities having been led to believe Cassie may be responsible for the murders due to tips from psychic Muffy Joworski (who is being manipulated by the returned Ashley Guthrie, which Cassie and Vlad piece together). While being transported to a detention center Cassie is broken out by the Society of the Black Lamp, who attempt to ritualistically murder her as punishment for destroying slashers. At the last minute Cassie is saved by the vigilante Samhain, who kills the Black Lamp members.

Skills and abilities
While Cassie has no formal combat training beyond childhood martial arts lessons, Cassie is a skilled close quarters fighter. Her weapon of choice is usually something light and swingable, such as her trademarked baseball bat. She is also adept at using a handgun and has killed many slashers with one. Cassie also has an eye for improvised weaponry and has been known to use all kinds of inanimate objects as makeshift weapons.

Reception
Cassie Hack was ranked 37th in Comics Buyer's Guide's "100 Sexiest Women in Comics" list.

In other media

Film

 In 2006, Rogue Pictures secured the rights to produce a Hack/Slash film.

Stage
 In the 2005 stage play, Hack/Slash: Stagefright, Cassie was portrayed by Stefani Bishop. The production, by the New Millennium Theatre Company, was an adaptation of Hack/Slash: Euthanized and Hack/Slash: Girls Gone Dead.

References

External links
Hack/Slash page at Devil's Due Publishing
 Cassie's MySpace Page
 Cassie's SuicideGirls Page

Devil's Due Publishing characters
Comics characters introduced in 2004
Female characters in comics
Fictional bisexual women
Fictional monster hunters
Fictional amputees
LGBT characters in comics
Vigilante characters in comics

Cassie Hack


The Restless Spirit is a 1913 American silent short drama film written and directed by Allan Dwan, featuring J. Warren Kerrigan, Lon Chaney (in a dual role), and Pauline Bush. The film is based on Thomas Gray's 1751 poem, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, and tells the story of a man who wishes to be a conqueror.  A series of illusions follows which show him the futility of conquest when he cannot even conquer his own community.

The film makes use of numerous dissolves which were technically difficult to execute, and reportedly sent the cameraman to the hospital due to stress. The film may have been the last unbilled appearance by Lon Chaney, and was released on October 27, 1913 by Universal Film Manufacturing Company under the Victor label. The film is presumed lost.

Plot
The film begins with the Dreamer, a restless and disappointed dreamer who has a wife and child. He gazes at his hands and dreams of becoming a great conqueror, but laments that no opportunities ever come to him, and so he continues to dream. The Dreamer becomes the subject of ridicule and his wife becomes the subject of pity by the community. The Dreamer decides to enter the world of men and abandons his wife, leaving her to seek refuge from her father. Her father wishes for her to marry a wealthy gentleman who is also a stranger in the town.

The Dreamer heads off into the desert and wanders until exhaustion takes its toll. A woman called "The Desert Flower" finds him and takes him to her hut in the desert. There she spends her time looking over the garments of the man who once courted her, who happens to be the same stranger who is now attempting to marry the Dreamer's wife. The woman learns of the Dreamer's story and shows the Dreamer the futility of conquering worlds unknown when he cannot even conquer his own small corner of the world. The Dreamer sees visions of himself in the roles of various great conquerors, but each vision ends in death. Meanwhile the Dreamer's wife has been kicked out of her father's home for refusing to marry the Stranger, and is reunited with the Dreamer at the edge of the desert. The Stranger is sent out into the desert, and the Dreamer and his wife return to the town. In time, the Dreamer becomes respected by the community.

Cast
 J. Warren Kerrigan as the Husband/The Dreamer
 Pauline Bush as the Wife
 Jessalyn Van Trump as The Desert Flower
 William Worthington as the Stranger
 George Periolat
 Lon Chaney in a dual role as a Russian Count/ Wild man

Production
The groundwork for The Restless Spirit began when Allan Dwan visited Universal's offices in New York City in late July 1913. Frederic Lombardi believes that it was during this meeting that Carl Laemmle offered Dwan's colleagues double their pay from Flying A if they would come to Universal. In the following weeks, J. Warren Kerrigan came to Universal and the two would work together in the production of The Restless Spirit. Dwan credits the idea to adapt and produce a film on Thomas Grays Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard as a betting challenge. Dwan also claimed to have studied Gray's poem and dream about the production before accepting the challenge. Frederic Lombardi, author of Allan Dwan and the Rise and Decline of the Hollywood Studios, writes that Dwan may have been emboldened after the production of the Pickett Guard and the lack of structure in Gray's poem. Since the poem had no "real story", Dwan could formulate his own allegorical plot. Dwan was also able to convince his employers that the work would be a box office success and intended to use the film a prestigious multi-role vehicle for Kerrigan's debut at Universal. Lombardi writes that Dwan was subject to produce overtly artistic films, but these tendencies were kept in check by Dwan's more practical inclinations.

The film's ethereal aspects and double exposures were performed in the camera because the ability to create the effects in lab did not yet exist. Dwan made 24 dissolves in the film, each required precise control by the cameramen and that the counts had to be exact otherwise the shot would be ruined. Lombardi notes that the cinematographer, Walter Pritchard, was the man who had to go through the ordeal and that Universal said he was one of the company's oldest men. Dwan would claim that Pritchard would end up in the hospital from the production. In The Parade's Gone By, Brownlow instead gives the number of dissolves as 25 and adds to the story by Dwan claiming that the audience could not figure out the effect was done. Dwan also claimed that by the time 15 dissolves were done that the cinematographer was so nervous that it would keep him up at night and cause his hands to shake so greatly that an assistant would have to reload the film at the right spot before shots.

This production may have been the last unbilled movie credit of Lon Chaney. The discovery of Lon Chaney's role was through Chaney having marked his appearance in a still with an X above his head. Chaney wrote "This is me just below the X sign. Here I am a Russian Prince" on the back of the still. The image leaves no question that it comes from The Restless Spirit because it also appeared on the cover of The Universal Weekly for October 23, 1913.  The second image found in the estate depicts Lon Chaney in the role of a primitive wild man, which Mirsalis says occurs in a fantasy sequence in the film.

Release

On September 6, 1913, Motography reported that J. Warren Kerrigan would star in the upcoming picture known as A Restless Spirit with a reference to Kerrigan's transfer to Universal. Alternate names for the film such as His Restless Spirit and A Restless Spirit.

It is unknown if the film was initially planned or if it was mere assumption, but it was reported that it would be a two reel production in September 1913. Newspaper accounts change to reference the film as having three reels by October 3, 1913. As details spread in the newspaper, the film's working title continued to be referenced as A Restless Spirit in various papers. Newspaper references began to reference the final title on October 24, 1913. The film was released on October 27, 1913 by Universal Film Manufacturing Company under the Victor label.

With the film's release on October 27, it was of minor note that the Alcazar of Atlanta, Georgia would show the film until November 1, 1913. The film would be a special for the week at the Hippodrome in Leavenworth, Kansas. Some theaters, such as the Alamo of El Paso, Texas would only show the film for a single day. The Unique theater, also of El Paso, would show the film on October 29 due to a "slip-up" with Universal's New York office. The advertisement would also mention Kerrigan's popularity in the area in otherwise apparent contrast to the Alamo's single day run. Another advertisement noted the film's artistry and that it is one of the best three-reel films released, but the film would play for only a single day. The film received play in various theaters until at least July 1914.

Reception and fate
Advertisements would state the films artistry or that it was one of the best three-reel films released. Lombardi cites a single review from The Moving Picture World in his text and suggests that other reviews may have been more tepid, but the result was that Dwan would not produce any more films of "such experimental nature" at Universal. The film is now considered to be lost. It is unknown when the film was lost, but if it was in Universal's vaults it would have been deliberately destroyed along with the remaining copies of Universal's silent era films in 1948.

Notes
Pauline Bush's role has been the subject of some dispute, but a contemporary account also states her role as the wife. William Worthington's role was also noted by a later contemporary account.

References

External links

1913 films
1913 drama films
1913 short films
Silent American drama films
American silent short films
American black-and-white films
Films based on poems
Films directed by Allan Dwan
Lost American drama films
Universal Pictures short films
1913 lost films
American drama short films
1910s American films
1910s English-language films

The Restless Spirit


The Pinacoteca Domenico Inzaghi is an art museum, exhibiting mainly paintings and engravings, located in Palazzo della Partecipanza, Via Mentana 32, in Budrio, Italy.

Most of the collection was donated to an agrarian collective known as La Partizipanza in 1821 by Captain Domenico Inzaghi. In 1931, the collection was donated to the commune (municipality) of Budrio. The pinacoteca or painting gallery was inaugurated that year, under curation by Antonio Certani.

In 1988-1989, the museum was restructured, and the collection augmented by paintings from the Opera Pia Bianchi and the Fondazione Benni di Bologna. The paintings represent Bolognese-Emilian artists from the 14th to 18th centuries, including Vitale da Bologna, Simone dei Crocefissi, Dosso Dossi, Prospero Fontana, Lavinia Fontana, Cesare Gennari, Antonio Mezzadri, Felice Rubbiani, Simon Vouet, Tommaso Garelli, Cristoforo di Benedetto, Denis Calvaert, Bartolomeo Passerotti, Alessandro Tiarini, Mauro Gandolfi, and Antonio Ghedini; or works by or influenced by Cima da Conegliano, Francesco Francia, Dosso Dossi, Ludovico Carracci, Francesco Brizio, Guercino, or Guido Reni. They display engravings a by Francesco Curti, Vittorio Maria Bigari, Jacques Callot, and Antonio Sarti.

References

External links

Art museums and galleries in Emilia-Romagna
Museums in Emilia-Romagna
Art museums established in 1931

Pinacoteca Domenico Inzaghi, Budrio


Raymond Obstfeld is a writer of poetry, non-fiction, fiction, and screenplays as well as a professor of English at Orange Coast College.

He was born in Williamsport, Pennsylvania on January 22, 1952 and graduated from Loyalsock High School in 1969. His parents and older brother, Roland (b. 1947), were immigrants from Germany. His parents owned and operated Obstfeld's Jewish Delicatessen, which was the target of various hate crimes during Obstfeld's youth, from Nazi swastikas painted on the doors to arson, which gutted the building. His parents rebuilt the store, but these events informed Obstfeld's later political activism as well as his writing.

After a year at the local Lycoming College, Obstfeld attended an experimental college in Redlands, California, (now the Johnston Center at the University of Redlands) from which he graduated in 1972. He then attended the University of California at Santa Barbara for a year, but left to pursue his writing. After a year living in San Francisco working odd jobs, he finished his first novel and got an agent.

In 1974, he returned to graduate school at the University of California at Davis where he studied poetry under the famed poet Karl Shapiro. After graduating in 1976, he began teaching English at Orange Coast College at the age of 24, where he still teaches today. He has said that when he started teaching he intended to quit as soon as his writing career took off. However, in his first year of teaching he sold his first book of poetry as well as his first novel, with a contract for three additional novels. He decided that he actually loved teaching more than writing and couldn't give it up.

Writing career
Obstfeld has authored or co-authored nearly 50 books. Since 2007, he has been co-author to eight books with NBA basketball legend, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Obstfeld has twice been nominated for the NAACP Image Award, having won once. He has also been nominated for an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Dead Heat. His young adult novel, The Joker and the Thief, won a Delacorte Young Adult Award.

Early in his writing career, Obstfeld wrote under several pseudonyms (Pike Bishop, Carl Stevens, Jason Frost) because he wrote different genres. After writing over a dozen thrillers, Westerns, and occult novels, he decided to return to mainstream literary fiction that he had written in graduate school. Because he'd already achieved some fame as a mystery writer, he decided to write his new novel under the name Laramie Dunaway. The novel, Hungry Women, was written from the points of view of four women friends. It was published by Warner Books without anyone at the publishing house knowing Obstfeld was a man. The novel went on to great success, being published internationally. Laramie Dunaway published two more novels before informing Warner of his gender. The publisher decided to publish Obstfeld's next novel, Earth Angel, under his real name.

As a screenwriter, Obstfeld has written and sold numerous scripts that have been optioned or sold, though only one has actually been filmed, Whatever It Takes (1999) starring Don "The Dragon" Wilson.

In 2018, he joined the writing staff for the upcoming Veronica Mars revival series.

Bibliography
•	The Cat with Half a Face (Leyman & Johnson Press, 1978)

•	The Goulden Fleece (Charter Books, 1979)

•	Dead-End Option (Charter Books, 1980)

•	Dead Heat (Charter Books, 1981)

•	Dead Bolt (Charter Books, 1982)

•	Mack Bolan: Bloodsport (Executioner, book 46), writing as Don Pendleton (Harlequin, 1982)

•	Mack Bolan: Flesh Wounds (Executioner, book 57), writing as Don Pendleton (Harlequin Books, 1983)

•	Judgment at Poisoned Well, writing as Pike Bishop (Pinnacle Books, 1983)

•	The Dagger Series, book 1: The Centaur Conspiracy, writing as Carl Stevens (Harlequin Enterprises, 1983)

•	The Warlord, writing as Jason Frost (Zebra, 1983)

•	Dagger Series, book 2: Ride of the Razorback, writing as Carl Stevens (Harlequin Enterprises, 1984)

•	The Warlord #2: The Cutthroat, writing as Jason Frost (Zebra, 1984)

•	The Warlord #3: Badland, writing as Jason Frost (Zebra, 1984)

•	The Warlord #4: Prisonland, writing as Jason Frost (Zebra, 1985)

•	The Warlord #5: Terminal Island, writing as Jason Frost (Zebra, 1985)

•	The Remington Factor (Charter Books, 1985) reprinted Endeavor, 2017

•	Invasion USA (Kensington Publishing Co., 1985)

•	Mack Bolan: Savannah Swingsaw (Executioner, book 74), writing as Don Pendleton (Harlequin Books, 1985)

•	Masked Dog (Gold Eagle, 1986)

•	Mack Bolan: The Fire Eaters (Executioner, book 93), writing as Don Pendleton (Harlequin Books, 1986)

•	Brain Wave (Berkley, 1987)

•	The Remington Contract (Charter, 1988), reprinted Endeavor, 2017

•	The Reincarnation of Reece Erikson (A Tom Doherty Associates Book, 1988)

•	Hot Sand: The Beach Volleyball Handbook (Windmill Press, 1989).  Co-authored with beach volleyball professional Jon Stevenson.

•	Hungry Women, writing as Laramie Dunaway (Warner, 1990)

•	Borrowed Lives, writing as Laramie Dunaway (Warner, 1993)

•	The Joker and the Thief (Delacorte, 1993)

•	Writer's Digest Handbook of Novel Writing (Writer's Digest Books, 1993)

•	Lessons in Survival writing as Laramie Dunaway (Warner, 1994)

•	Earth Angel (Warner Books, 1995)

•	Kinky Cats, Immortal Amoebas, and Nine-Armed Octopuses: Weird, Wild, and Wonderful Behaviors in the Animal World (HarperCollins, 1997)

•	JabberRock (Henry Holt, 1997). Co-authored by Patricia Fitzgerald.

•	Napoleon Bonaparte (Greenhaven Press, 2000)

•	Novelist's Essential Guide to Crafting Scenes (Writer's Digest Books, 2000)

•	Fiction First Aid (Writer's Digest Books, 2001)

•	Writer's Reference Guide to Writing About Professions (Writer's Digest Books, 2002)

•	The Renaissance (Lucent Books, 2002)

•	Moby Dick (Lucent Books, 2003)

•	Borrowed Lives (reprint by Iota Press, 2007)

•	On the Shoulders of Giants: My Journey Through the Harlem Renaissance, with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Simon &
Schuster, 2007)

•	Anatomy Lesson (Iota Press, 2008)

•	What Color Is My World? The Lost History of African American Inventors, with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
(Candlewick, 2012)

•	Streetball Crew Book One Sasquatch in the Paint, with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Disney-Hyperion, 2013)

•	Streetball Crew Book Two Stealing the Game, with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Disney-Hyperion, 2015)

•	Mycroft Holmes and the Apocalypse Handbook, with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (2017) (graphic novel)

•	Writings on the Wall: Searching for a New Equality Beyond Black and White, with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Time, 2016)

•	Coach Wooden and Me: Our 50-Year Friendship On and Off the Court. editorial advisor to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Grand Central, 2017)

•	Becoming Kareem: Growing Up On and Off the Court, with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Little Brown Books, 2017)

Awards
1992 - Delacorte Young Adult Novel Award for Joker and the Thief

1981 - Nominated for Edgar Allan Poe Award for Dead Heat

2013 - NAACP Image Award for What Color Is My World

2017 - Nominated NAACP Image Award for Becoming Kareem

Personal life
Obstfeld married Loretta Obstfeld, an award-winning poet and English professor at Orange Coast College, in 1990. They have two children: Max (b. 1999) and Harper (b. 2002).

References

1952 births
Living people
20th-century American novelists
21st-century American novelists
American male novelists
Writers from California
20th-century American male writers
21st-century American male writers
University of California, Davis alumni

Raymond Obstfeld


Culture Assimilators are culture training programs first developed at the University of Illinois in the 1960s. A team from the psychology department of that university was asked by the Office of Naval Research to develop a training method that would "make every sailor an ambassador of the United States."  The team consistent of Fred Fiedler, whose major research was the study of leadership, Charles Osgood, whose major research was on interpersonal communication, Larry Stolurow, whose major research was on the use of computers for training, and Harry Triandis, whose major research was the study of the relationship between culture and social behavior.

Culture assimilators

The team developed methods for the study of culture and social behavior (Triandis, 1972), and the information was formatted in such a way that computers could be used in the training.

The procedure started with interviews with people who had experience in two cultures, e.g., A and B. The questions asked for "episodes" or "critical incidents" that surprised and confused members of culture B when they interacted with people from culture A.  Student samples from the two cultures were asked to explain why the problem or confusion occurs. When the explanations given by the students from culture A were different from the explanations given by members from culture B, there was something to teach. For example, teachers from the U.S. are annoyed that pupils from Latin America do not look at them when they talk. It was explained that in the U.S. people usually pay attention to the speaker by looking at the speaker, but in Latin America it is "insolent" to look at a high status person in the eyes: one is supposed to look down.

The format of assimilators is as follows. An episode is described (page 1) followed by 4 or 5 explanations of why there is a problem or difficulty. For example, why do people from culture A behave that way? The trainee selects the explanation that s/he thinks is best. The explanations are selected such that when people from culture B are learning about culture A most of the explanations are frequently given by people in culture B and one explanation comes from culture A. After the trainee selects an explanation s/he is asked to turn to a page (pages 2, 3, 4, 5) that gives feedback about each explanation. If the explanation selected by the trainee is incorrect, the trainee is told that this is not the best explanation, and to try another explanation. When the trainee picks the correct explanation, the feedback is extensive, describing cultural similarities and differences between cultures A and B. Assimilators that use feedback that includes culture theory, such as the differences between collectivist and individualist cultures, are especially effective. Gradually, the trainee from culture B starts thinking like the people from culture A. In a way, s/he learns to get "into the shoes" of the people from the other culture.

The result is a training program that makes people more comfortable in working in the other culture. This was tested by assigning trainees randomly to two groups. One group gets the assimilator training, and the other gets geography training, such as what are the physical features of culture A. After the training the trainees go to the other culture and the effectiveness of their interactions in that culture and the comfort they experience while they live in the other culture is measured. The results show that the assimilator training is helpful. Training does not make the trainee an ambassador, but the trained individuals have a better experience in the other culture than those who did not receive the culture assimilator training.

Further reading
Albert, R., & Triandis, H. C. (1979).  Cross-Cultural 	training: A theoretical framework and some observations.  In H. T. Trueba & C. Barnett-Mizrahi (Eds.), Bilingual multicultural education and the professional: The theory to practice.  Rowley,  MA: Newbury House.
Bhawuk, D. P. S., Podsiadlowski, A., Graf, J., & Triandis, H. C. (2002).  Corporate Strategies for Managing Diversity in the Global  Workplace. In G. R. Ferris & M. R. Buckley, & D. B. Fedor, (Eds.),  Human resource management: Perspectives, context, functions, and  outcomes (pp. 112–145). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Brislin, R., Cushner, K., Cherrie, C. & Yong, M. (1986). Intercultural  interactions: A practical guide. Beverley Hills, CA. Sage.
Fiedler, F. E., Mitchell, T., & Triandis, H. C. (1971).  The culture  assimilator:  An approach to cross-cultural training.  Journal of Applied Psychology, 55, 95-102.
Landis, D.  and Bhagat, R. (1996) (Eds.) Handbook of Cross-Cultural Training. Second Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA:  Sage.
Mitchell, T. R., Dossett, D. I., Fiedler, F. E., & Triandis, H. C. (1972).  Culture training:  Validation evidence for the culture assimilator. International Journal of Psychology, 7, 97-104.
Triandis, H. C. and Albert, R.  (1987).  Cross-cultural perspectives on  organizational communication.  In F. M. Jablin, L. L. Putnam, K. H.  Roberts and L. W. Porter (Eds.), Handbook of organizational  communication.  Beverly Hills, Sage.  pp. 264–295.
Triandis, H. C.,  with Vassiliou, V., Vassiliou, G., Tanaka, Y., and Shanmugam, A.  V.  (1972).  The Analysis of Subjective Culture.  New York:  Wiley.
Weldon, D. E., Carlston, D. E., Rissman, A. K., Slobodin, L., & Triandis, H. C. (1975).  A laboratory test of effects of culture assimilator training.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,  32, 300-310.

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Interpersonal relationships
Cross-cultural studies

Culture assimilators (programs)


George Heller is a Canadian businessperson. He was the president and CEO of Hudson's Bay Company from 1999 to 2006, when the company was acquired by Jerry Zucker. He  continued to serve as Senior Director of the Board until late 2008.

He was President and CEO of the Victoria, British Columbia. Commonwealth Games Committee, which organized the 1994 XV Commonwealth Games. In 1995, he became President for North America and Europe of Bata Industries Ltd. He became President and CEO of Kmart's Canadian unit in 1997. In February 1998, he became President and CEO of Zellers and Executive Vice President of Hudson's Bay Company.

Heller has Honorary Doctorates from the University of Victoria and Ryerson University. He was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal from the Government of Canada for service to his country. Recently elected to the Canadian Retail Hall of Fame, Heller is also a Board Member and Chair  of the Investment Committee, Asia Pacific Foundation in Vancouver. He serves on several Boards, including Gildan Activewear.
In August 2014, he was presented the Governor General's Sovereign Medal. He was appointed Honorary Consul General of Thailand in 2007 and has served as Honorary Trade Advisor to the Government of Thailand since 2000.
In 2013, he was awarded the Jan Masaryk Silver Medal by the Government of the Czech Republic.
In September 2016,  he was appointed as Commander, Most Noble Order of the Crown of Thailand by the Government of Thailand.

References
HBC profile

Living people
Canadian businesspeople
Hudson's Bay Company people
Year of birth missing (living people)

George Heller


Francisco José Barnés de Castro (born 11 September 1946, in Mexico City) is a Mexican academic and consultant. From 6 January 1997 to 12 November 1999 he served as rector of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the largest university in the Spanish-speaking world.

Barnés de Castro graduated with a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the National Autonomous University of Mexico and received both a master's degree and a doctorate degree in the same discipline from University of California, Berkeley. He is a long-standing academic and researcher at the National Autonomous University, where he has led the Faculty of Chemistry and served as rector until a major student strike, provoked by his proposal to significantly increase its tuition, forced him to resign.

In the public sector, he has served as Undersecretary of Hydrocarbons and Undersecretary of Energy Policy Technological Development at the Mexican Secretariat of Energy, as Director-General of the Mexican Petroleum Institute and Commissioner of the Energy Regulatory Commission. Overseas, he has worked as an international consultant for the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy and in the Joint Public Consultative Committee of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation of North America.

Barnés de Castro has authored more than 27 articles, proceedings and papers in specialized journals and over 15 on educational subjects. He has chaired the Mexican Institute of Chemical Engineers, the Mexican Chemical Society, the National College of Chemical Engineers and Chemists and he is a member of the Mexican Academy of Engineering.

References

National Autonomous University of Mexico alumni
UC Berkeley College of Chemistry alumni
Academic staff of the National Autonomous University of Mexico
Mexican chemical engineers
Academics from Mexico City
Living people
1946 births

Francisco Barnés de Castro


Colonel John Okey (24 August 1606 – 19 April 1662) was a political and religious radical who served in the Parliamentarian army during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. A regicide who approved the Execution of Charles I in 1649, he escaped to the Dutch Republic after the 1660 Stuart Restoration, but was brought back to England and executed on 19 April 1662.

Personal details
John Okey was baptised at St Giles-in-the-Fields in London on 24 August 1606, sixth child of William Okey and his wife, Margaret Whetherly. Okey came from a prominent family which had property in London as well as a coat of arms.

On  21 January 1630, John Okey married Susanna Pearson. Okey became a proprietor of a ships' chandler's business by 1640. Okey's first wife, Susanna, died and he later remarried to Mary Blackwell in 1658.

Before the start of the Civil War, Okey worked as a stoker at a brewery. When the Civil War began, he enlisted in the Parliamentary army of the Earl of Essex as a quartermaster, and became one of the "humble" men who advanced to positions of higher rank and position. Okey quickly advanced in rank becoming a captain of horse, and later became a Major in a regiment commanded by Arthur Hesilrige. When the New Model Army was formed in 1645, John Okey was appointed colonel of a regiment of Dragoons, a form of mounted infantry troopers capable of quickly advancing, attacking, and then withdrawing from an engagement. Okey's regiment gained lasting fame for their actions at the Battle of Naseby, where his dragoons opened the fighting by firing into the right wing of the Royalist horse from a concealed position in Sulby Hedges, and later delivered probably the first mounted charge by English dragoons. Later the same year, Okey's regiment saved John Butler's cavalry regiment when they were extremely close to being defeated by Prince Rupert's cavalry. Okey also fought at Boroughbridge and at Bath in Somerset. Okey was captured by the Royalists at the siege of Bristol, but was released after the city surrendered.

An upsurge of political activism began after the victory in the first civil war. Okey's regiment was not noticeably radical. Increased political activism did, however, give rise to agitation in June 1647. In December 1647, a loyal address was presented to the commander of the New Model Army, Thomas Fairfax, by many of the troops. Okey's regiment later served in the second civil war in South Wales in 1648. The same year, Okey also brought his regiment to fight in the battle of St Fagans as well as at the siege of Pembroke Castle.

Involvement in the trial and execution of Charles I
In 1648, Okey was appointed a commissioner to the High Court of Justice after the king was declared as having "traitorously and maliciously levyed war against the present parliament and the people therein represented" and set to stand trial. Okey was one of 135 men who were selected and appointed by "An Act of the Commons Assembled in Parliament". Okey, along with about 80 others (all of whom were at risk of being labelled as regicides), was actively involved in the case and was present for most of the court's sittings. Moreover, Okey was one of 59 who signed the king's death warrant, and was also charged with upholding the validity of the actions surrounding the execution of Charles I.

Religious radicalism
John Okey was considered a religious radical, and practised as both a Baptist and a Congregationalist. This outlook affected his military career, and he wrote following his own involvement in the battle of Naseby that the parliamentarians:
"...should magnifie the name of our God that did remember a poore handfull of dispised men, whom they had thought to have swallowed up before them."
In February 1652, after Okey's return to England following a military excursion in Scotland, Okey filed a petition to parliament regarding a number of religious reforms as a means of spreading the Gospel and reforming what he considered to be a flawed parochial ministry. There is also some evidence to suggest that Okey was involved in the creation of John Bunyan's Baptist church in Bedford in 1653.

Following his prosecution as a regicide, Okey was quoted as stating that his actions and strong commitment to Congregationalism was "for righteousness and for justice and for the advancement of a godly magistracy and a godly ministry".

Petition of the three colonels
In 1654, Okey signed the petition of the three colonels, drafted by the Leveller and republican John Wildman, along with colonels Thomas Saunders, and Matthew Alured which criticised Oliver Cromwell and the Protectorate. It was unsuccessful and although only Alured was imprisoned, all three were cashiered from the New Model Army.
Okey retired to Bedfordshire, where he had invested heavily in land, and was elected MP for Bedfordshire in the Third Protectorate Parliament of 1659.

Arrest and execution
As part of the political compromise that allowed for the restoration of the monarchy at the end of the interregnum, Parliament passed the Act of Free and General Pardon, Indemnity, and Oblivion. Under this act most people were granted a general pardon for any crimes that they had committed during the civil war and during the interregnum. However two score of people were exempted from this pardon. The exceptions of certain crimes such as murder (without a licence granted by King or Parliament), piracy, buggery, rape and witchcraft, and people named in the act such as those involved in the regicide of Charles I.

Some of those who had reason to believe that they would not be included in the general pardon, fled abroad in an attempt to escape royalist retribution. Okey, with John Barkstead, went to Germany. In fleeing abroad, he forfeited the right to a trial for his alleged crimes and was declared an outlaw.

In 1662, however, while in the Netherlands, Okey was arrested along with Barkstead and Miles Corbet by Sir George Downing, the English ambassador to the Dutch court. The three prisoners were immediately sent to England, and, as they had been previously outlawed, their trial turned entirely on the question of identity.

Okey and his companions were executed at Tower Hill on 19 April 1662; although condemned to be hanged, drawn and quartered, they were left hanging for more than 20 minutes and thus were almost certainly dead before being quartered. Permission had been granted for Okey to be buried by his family in Stepney next to his first wife, but a large crowd had gathered to pay their respects and he was interred within the Tower of London.

References

Sources

1606 births
1662 deaths
English MPs 1659
Executed regicides of Charles I
People executed by Stuart England by hanging, drawing and quartering
Executed people from London
English Baptists
English Congregationalists
17th-century Baptists
English politicians convicted of crimes
Parliamentarian military personnel of the English Civil War

John Okey


George Postolos (born December 6, 1963) is the president and CEO of the Postolos Group LP, a firm that focuses on advising in sports acquisitions of major league franchises. He was formerly the president of the Houston Rockets and Houston Astros.

Early life
Postolos graduated magna cum laude both from Harvard University with a degree in political theory in 1986, and from Harvard Law School in 1990.

Career
Postolos specialized in mergers and acquisitions for the New York law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz before becoming the personal assistant to then-NBA commissioner David Stern. He was hired as the Houston Rockets' chief operating officer in 1998, at 34 years old. During his time with the Rockets, Postolos played a large role in winning the arena referendum to build Toyota Center in downtown Houston. In 2006, Postolos resigned as president and CEO of the Rockets and started the Postolos Group, LP, an investment and advisory firm that specializes in the sports and live-entertainment business. Postolos became president of the Astros on November 27, 2011, following the sale of the team to Jim Crane. He replaced Tal Smith. He resigned as president and CEO on May 13, 2013, and was later replaced by Reid Ryan.

References

1964 births
Living people
Houston Astros executives
Major League Baseball team presidents
American chief executives
Harvard Law School alumni
Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz people
Harvard College alumni

George Postolos


"Wpływologia" ("influenceology") is a Polish term that is sometimes used within the history and theory of literature, the history and theory of art, the history and theory of music, and even within general history. The term expresses skepticism about exaggerated attempts at tracking down alleged "influences" among artists, scholars, and their respective works.

History
The term wpływologia was formed from the Polish wpływ ("influence") and from -logia, a Greek-derived suffix meaning "science."

The term was coined after World War I by Polish literary critic Adam Grzymała-Siedlecki. (According to Karol Irzykowski, its author was actually the prominent author and translator Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński.) The neologism immediately won currency among Polish scholars and literary critics due to the anti-positivist turn that the humanities had taken in the early 20th century.

The term wpływologia made light of certain positivist practices that had been common in the 19th-century humanities. Positivist history of literature had posited that the study of literature may be regarded as scientific only when it deals with facts, and that scientific analysis must formulate general laws. Positivist analysis saw these laws as being embodied in  "influences" ("wpływy") obtaining among various writers and their works.

This view had led some positivist-influenced literary historians to propose outlandish theories concerning "influences" on specific literary works. Even the greatest masterpieces had sometimes been seen as mere recombinations of influences derived from earlier works, rather than as independent works in their own right.

See also
Positivism in Poland
Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński
Karol Irzykowski
Comparative literature

Notes

References
Janusz Sławiński, ed., Słownik terminów literackich (A Dictionary of Literary Terms), Ossolineum, Wrocław, Ossolineum, 1989.

Literary criticism
Positivism
Culture of Poland

Wpływologia


The Abraham Lincoln Statue is a historic statue in the Hodgenville Commercial Historic District's public square in Hodgenville, Kentucky. Adolph Alexander Weinman sculpted the statue, as he also did the Lincoln statue at the capitol rotunda at Frankfort, Kentucky.  The Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park is nearby.

History
The statue was erected as the result of the Lincoln Monument Commission under the direction of Otis M. Mather, chairman.  The Kentucky General Assembly commissioned the Commission in 1904.  It was built to commemorate the centennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth, which occurred a few miles south of Hodgenville on February 12, 1809.  It was the Commission that decided to place the statue in Hodgenville's public square.  Funding for the bronze statue was done by $10,000 from the United States Congress, $5,000 from the Kentucky General Assembly, and the rest from the residents of LaRue County, Kentucky.

The official dedication was on May 31, 1909.  Lincoln's son Robert Todd Lincoln was at the ceremony, and Lincoln's sister-in-law Mrs. Ben Hardin Helm did the unveiling.  Henry Watterson was the principal speaker. The statue was officially accepted for the commonwealth of Kentucky by Kentucky governor Augustus E. Willson.  Over 10,000 people witnessed the ceremony.

The  tall bronze statue features Lincoln sitting in an Empire style chair on a marble foundation.  Stars are inlaid on a Greek fret band on the marble foundation. "Lincoln" is spelled out in bronze letters on the statue's eastern facade.  A replica of the statue is at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Robert Todd Lincoln on June 2, 1909, wrote a letter thanking Otis Mather for constructing the statue in his father's honor.

It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 10, 1991.

Gallery

See also
 List of statues of Abraham Lincoln
 List of sculptures of presidents of the United States

References

Footnotes

Sources

Monuments and memorials to Abraham Lincoln in the United States
Hodgenville, Kentucky
Statues in Kentucky
Monuments and memorials on the National Register of Historic Places in Kentucky
National Register of Historic Places in LaRue County, Kentucky
1909 sculptures
Bronze sculptures in Kentucky
Outdoor sculptures in Kentucky
Sculptures of men in Kentucky
1909 establishments in Kentucky
Works by Adolph Weinman
Hodgenville, Kentucky

Statue of Abraham Lincoln (Hodgenville, Kentucky)


Gaineswood is a plantation house in Demopolis, Alabama, United States. It is the grandest plantation house ever built in Marengo County and is one of the most significant remaining examples of Greek Revival architecture in Alabama.

The house was built with the profits of forced labor, and much of the actual construction was performed by enslaved people. It was completed on the eve of the American Civil War after a construction period of almost 20 years.

The house and grounds are currently operated by the Alabama Historical Commission as a historic house museum.

History
Gaineswood was designed and built by General Nathan Bryan Whitfield, beginning in 1843 as a dog-trot cabin, an open-hall log dwelling.  Whitfield was a cotton planter who had moved from North Carolina to Marengo County, Alabama in 1834.  In 1842, Whitfield bought the  property from George Strother Gaines, younger brother of Edmund P. Gaines. By 1860, Whitfield owned as many as 7,200 acres and had 235 enslaved people working his land, which produced nearly 600 bales of cotton that year, though not all at Gaineswood.

The grounds had been the site of a notable historic event while owned by George Gaines.  When Gaines was serving as the U.S. Indian Agent, he is said to have met with the famous chief Pushmataha, of the Choctaw Nation, under an old post oak tree on what would become the Gaineswood estate.  They were negotiating the terms of the treaty that would lead to the Choctaw removal to Indian Territory.  The tree became known as the Pushmataha Oak.

In 1843, Whitfield gave his farm the name of Marlmont; in 1856, he renamed it Gaineswood in honor of Gaines. The Whitfield family tradition maintained that Gaines' original log house was the nucleus around which Whitfield had the mansion built, and that it was located at the present site of the south entrance hall and office. Gen. Whitfield sold the house to his son, Dr. Bryan Watkins Whitfield, in 1861. The second generation of Whitfields maintained Gaineswood as a residence. Mary Foscue Whitfield inherited the nearby Foscue–Whitfield House in 1861 upon her father's death and used that as a residence as well. In 1923 the Whitfield family sold Gaineswood.  After years of use as a private residence, Gaineswood was purchased in 1966 by the state of Alabama from Dr. J.D. McLeod, for preservation as a house museum.

Architecture
Gaineswood was completed in its current Greek Revival form in 1861.  It is considered to be "Alabama's finest neoclassical house"  and one of America's most unusual neoclassical mansions.  Gaineswood is one of the few Greek Revival homes in the United States that uses all three of the ancient Greek architectural orders: Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian.  Built when tastes were shifting to the Italianate style, it features a partially asymmetrical layout.  Whitfield is known to have designed most of the house from pattern books by James Stuart, Minard Lafever, Nicholas Revett and others.  Much of the work on the house was executed by highly skilled artisans who, while doing the work were given shelter and food in exchange. During these times many worked on farms in exchange for housing and minimal funds as work was scarce.      .

Exterior

The exterior has a decorative stucco over brick treatment, intended to simulate ashlar blocks.  The exterior features the use of eighteen fluted Doric columns and 14 plain square pillars to support the three porches, the main portico, and the porte-cochère. The assorted porches surround most of three sides of the structure.  Parterre gardens off of the main north portico and south porch are surrounded by low masonry and wood balustrades and feature period-appropriate plantings and marble statuary.  A rooftop observation ring with a vasiform balustrade surmounts the house and was used for observing the estate.

The estate has three surviving outbuildings: a cook's house, a garden pavilion with eight fluted Corinthian columns, and a monumental gatehouse that date to the antebellum period. The tripartite entrance gate features massive pillars crowned by large metal finials and elaborate cast iron gates.  The gatehouse and gates had to moved closer to the house as the city streets were widened in the 20th century. No quarters for the enslaved residents were preserved, although some may have existed into the early 20th century for use as residences for workers on the plantation.

Interior

The interior features decorative plasterwork throughout the main floor.  The library and the dining room both feature elaborate domed ceilings with central skylights. The hallway features fluted Ionic columns in the main entrance hall with reception rooms to either side, one for each sex.

The master's bedroom also features two fluted Ionic columns supporting a cornice that visually divides the room into bedroom and sitting room.

The mistress' bedroom features a large floor-to-ceiling semicircular bay with curved windows and is fronted by two fluted Corinthian columns.  Doors to either side of the bay provide access to the semicircular porch outside with its six Doric columns.

The ballroom features four fluted Corinthian columns and 24 fluted Corinthian pilasters, vis-à-vis mirrors, an elaborate plaster cornice, and a coffered ceiling.

The second floor is much simpler in decor and contains a boudoir, a nursery, and four large bedrooms.

Whitfield canal
Whitfield directed the digging of a drainage canal 1845 and 1863 to prevent water from overflowing and flooding the plantation. His slaves dug it by hand. The rainfall on a large section of the Gaineswood estate originally had to follow a  course to reach the Tombigbee River. About one mile (1.6 km) long, the canal was dug to a depth of more than  deep through the underlying chalk in some areas; it quickly diverts the surface water into the river at Demopolis.

Present
Gaineswood is on the National Register of Historic Places and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1973. The estate is owned by the state of Alabama and is administered by the Alabama Historical Commission. Severe moisture damage to the ceiling and dome in the dining room was corrected under a Save America's Treasures grant.

The Whitfield family has donated or sold much of the original family furniture and some statuary to the Historical Commission to be used in the house. The Burning of the Eliza Battle, painted by Nathan B. Whitfield, still hangs at Gaineswood.  He was a witness to the steamboat disaster in 1858.

See also

 List of National Historic Landmarks in Alabama
 National Register of Historic Places listings in Marengo County, Alabama

References

External links
 Alabama Historical Commission: Gaineswood

National Register of Historic Places in Marengo County, Alabama
National Historic Landmarks in Alabama
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Alabama
Houses in Demopolis, Alabama
Greek Revival houses in Alabama
Historic house museums in Alabama
Plantation houses in Alabama
Museums in Marengo County, Alabama
Tourist attractions in Marengo County, Alabama
Alabama State Historic Sites
Pendleton family residences
Whitfield family residences
1843 establishments in Alabama

Gaineswood


In microeconomics, the law of demand is a fundamental principle which states that there is an inverse relationship between price and quantity demanded. In other words, "conditional on all else being equal, as the price of a good increases (↑), quantity demanded will decrease (↓); conversely, as the price of a good decreases (↓), quantity demanded will increase (↑)". Alfred Marshall worded this as: "When we say that a person's demand for anything increases, we mean that he will buy more of it than he would before at the same price, and that he will buy as much of it as before at a higher price". The law of demand, however, only makes a qualitative statement in the sense that it describes the direction of change in the amount of quantity demanded but not the magnitude of change.

The law of demand is represented by a graph called the demand curve, with quantity demanded on the x-axis and price on the y-axis. Demand curves are downward sloping by definition of the law of demand. The law of demand also works together with the law of supply to determine the efficient allocation of resources in an economy through the equilibrium price and quantity.

It is important to note that the relationship between price and quantity demanded holds true so long as it is complied with the ceteris paribus condition "all else remain equal" quantity demanded varies inversely with price when income and the prices of other goods remain constant. If all else are not held equal, the law of demand may not necessarily hold. In the real world, there are many determinants of demand other than price, such as the prices of other goods, the consumer's income, preferences etc. There are also exceptions to the law of demand such as Giffen goods and perfectly inelastic goods.

Overview
Economist Alfred Marshall provided the graphical illustration of the law of demand. This graphical illustration is still used today to define and explain a variety of other concepts and theories in economics. A simple explanation of the law of demand is that all else equal, at a higher price, consumer will demand less quantity of a good and vice versa. The law of demand applies to a variety of organisational and business situations. Price determination, government policy formation etc are examples. Together with the law of supply, the law of demand provides to us the equilibrium price and quantity. Moreover, the law of demand and supply explains why goods are priced at the level that they are. They also help us identify opportunities to buy what are perceived to be underpriced (or sell overpriced) goods or assets.

Law of Demand is relied heavily upon by managerial economics, which is a branch of economics that applies microeconomic analysis to managerial decision-making,  to make informed decisions on pricing, production, and marketing strategies. In this context, understanding the alternative factors that influence the Law of Demand becomes crucial for managers and decision-makers.

 Income effect: The income effect is the change in the quantity demanded of a good or service as a result of changes in consumers' purchasing power. When prices increase, the purchasing power of consumers decreases, leading to a decline in the quantity demanded. Conversely, a decrease in prices will increase purchasing power and lead to an increase in the quantity demanded.
 Substitution effect: The substitution effect is the change in the quantity demanded of a good or service due to a change in the relative prices of substitute goods. When the price of a good increases, consumers may shift their consumption to relatively cheaper substitute goods, causing the demand for the original good to decrease.
 Price expectations: Consumer expectations about future prices can influence their current demand for goods or services. If consumers expect prices to rise in the future, they may increase their current consumption to avoid higher prices later. Conversely, if they expect prices to fall, they may delay consumption, causing a decline in the quantity demanded.
 Market size and demographics: The size of the market and its demographics can also influence the Law of Demand. Changes in population size, age distribution, and income levels can affect the overall demand for goods or services, thus impacting the relationship between price and quantity demanded.

An important concept to apprehend from the law of demand is the difference between demand and quantity demanded. Demand refers to the demand curve. A change in demand is indicated by a shift in the demand curve. Quantity demanded, on the other hand refers to a specific point on the demand curve which corresponds to a specific price. A change in quantity demanded therefore refers to a movement along the existing demand curve. However, there are some exceptions to the law of demand. For instance, if the price of cigarettes goes up, its demand does not decrease. The exceptions to the law of demand typically suit the Giffen commodities and Veblen goods which is further explained below.

The four main types of elasticity of demand are price elasticity of demand, cross elasticity of demand, income elasticity of demand, and advertising elasticity of demand.

History
The famous law of demand was first stated by  Charles Davenant  (1656-1714) in his essay, "Probable Methods of Making People Gainers in the Balance of Trade (1699)". However, there were instances of its understanding and use much earlier when Gregory King (1648-1712) made a demonstration of the law of demand. He represented a relationship between the price of wheat and the harvest where the results suggested that if the harvest falls by 50%, the price would rise by 500%. This demonstration illustrated the law of demand as well as its elasticity.

Skipping forward to 1890, economist Alfred Marshall documented the graphical illustration of the law of demand. In Principles of Economics (1890), Alfred Marshall reconciled the demand and supply into a single analytical framework. The formulation of the demand curve was provided by the utility theory while supply curve was determined by the cost. This idea of demand and supply curve is what we still use today to develop the market equilibrium and to support a variety of other economic theories and concepts. Due to general agreement with the observation, economists have come to accept the validity of the law under most situations. Economist also see Alfred Marshall as the pioneer of the standard demand and supply diagrams and their use in economic analysis including welfare applications and consumer surplus.

Mathematical description
Consider the function , where  is the quantity demanded of good ,  is the demand function,  is the price of the good and  is the list of parameters other than the price.

The law of demand states that . Here  is the partial derivative operator.

The above equation, when plotted with quantity demanded () on the -axis and price () on the -axis, gives the demand curve, which is also known as the demand schedule. The demand curve is downward sloping illustrating the inverse relationship between quantity demanded and price. Therefore, a downward sloping demand curve embeds the law of demand.

In a more specific manner:

Which is a functional relationship where the quantity demanded by the consumer  depends on the price of the good , the monetary income of the consumer , the prices of other goods , and the taste of the consumer .

Another common way to express the law of demand without imposing a functional form is the following:

This formula states that, for all possible prices p' and p, and corresponding demands x' and x, prices and demand must move in opposite directions, i.e. as price increases, demand must decrease and vice versa. Note that demands are demand bundles, not individual demands. Demand for a single good can still increase even though its price also increased, if there is another good whose price increased and which is sufficiently substituted away from. If good i is a Giffen good whose price increases while other goods' prices are held fixed (so that ), the law of demand is clearly violated, as we have both  (as price increased) and  (as we consider a Giffen good), so that .

Demand versus quantity demanded
It is very important to apprehend the difference between demand and quantity demanded as they are used to mean different things in the economic jargon.

On the one hand, demand refers to the demand curve. Changes in demand are depicted graphically by a shift in the demand curve to the left or right. Changes in the demand curve are usually caused by 5 major factors, namely: number of buyers, consumer income, tastes or preferences, price of related goods and future expectations.
On the other hand, quantity demanded refers to a specific point located on the demand curve which corresponds to a specific price. Therefore, quantity demanded represents the exact quantity of a good or service demanded by a consumer at a particular price, conditional on the other determinants. A change in quantity demanded can be indicated by a movement along the existing demand curve that is caused only by a change in price.

For instance, let's take the example of a housing market. An increase or decrease in price of housing will not shift the demand curve rather it will cause a movement along the demand curve for housing i.e. change in quantity demanded. But if we look at mortgage rates (a factor other than price), even if housing prices remain unchanged, an increased mortgage rate leads to a lower willingness to buy at all prices, shifting the demand curve to the left. Consumers will buy less, even though the price is the same. On the other hand, lower mortgage rate leads to a higher willingness to buy at all prices, and eventually shifting the demand curve to the right. Consumers will now buy more, even though the price has not changed at all. Such variation in demand can be explained by demand elasticity.

Demand elasticity
The elasticity of demand refers to the sensitivity of a goods demand as compared to the fluctuation of other economic factors, such as price, income, etc. The law of demand explains that the relationship between Demand and Price is directly inverse. However, the demand for some goods are more receptive to a change in price than others. There are  four major elasticities of demand, these being the price elasticity of demand, income elasticity of demand, cross elasticity of demand, and advertising elasticity of demand.

Price elasticity of demand
The variation in demand with regards to a change in price is known as the price elasticity of demand. The formula to solve for the coefficient of price elasticity of demand is the percentage change in quantity demanded divided by the percentage change in Price.

Price elasticity of demand can be classified as elastic, inelastic, or unitary. An elastic demand occurs when the percentage change in the quantity demanded is greater than the percentage change in price, meaning that a small change in price results in a large change in quantity demanded. Inelastic demand occurs when the percentage change in quantity demanded is smaller than the percentage change in price. Unitary elasticity occurs when the percentage change in quantity demanded is equal to the percentage change in price.

Factors affecting price elasticity of demand include the availability of substitute goods, the proportion of income spent on the good, the nature of the good (whether it's a necessity or a luxury), and the time horizon under consideration.

Cross elasticity of demand
The cross elasticity of demand is an economic concept that measures the relative change in demand of a good when another good varies in price. The formula to solve for the coefficient of cross elasticity of demand is calculated by dividing the percentage change in quantity demanded of good A by the percentage change in price of good B.

The Cross elasticity of demand, also commonly referred to as the Cross-price elasticity of demand, allows companies to establish competitive prices against substitute goods and complementary goods. The metric figure produced by the equation thus determines the strength of both the relationship and competition between the two goods.

Income elasticity of demand
Income elasticity of demand is an economic measurement tool developed to measure the sensitivity of a goods quantity demanded when there is a change in the real income of a consumer. To calculate the income elasticity of demand, the percentage change in quantity demanded is divided by the percentage change in the consumers income.

The Income elasticity of demand allows businesses to analyse and further predict the impact of business cycles on total sales. The Income elastitcty of demand thus allows goods to be broadly categorised as Normal goods and Inferior goods. A positive measurement suggests that the good is a normal good, and a negative measurement suggests an inferior good. The Income elasticity of demand effectively represents a consumers idea as to whether a good is a luxury or a necessity.

Advertising elasticity of demand
Advertising elasticity of demand measures the effectiveness of an advertising campaign as to generate new sales. To calculate the Advertising elasticity of demand, the percentage change in quantity demanded is divided by the percentage change in advertising expenditures.

A business utilises the advertising elasticity of demand to measure the effectiveness of advertising on generating new sales. A positive elasticity indicates success for the advertisement as demand for the goods has increased. However, this measurement is also subject to the availability of substitutes, consumer behaviours and price points of the good being advertised.

Exceptions to the law of demand
The elasticity of demand follows the law of demand and its definition. However, there are goods and specific situations that defy the law of demand. Generally, the amount demanded of a good increases with a decrease in price of the good and vice versa. In some cases this may not be true. There are certain goods which do not follow the law of demand. These include Giffen goods, Veblen goods, basic or necessary goods and expectations of future price changes. Further exception and details are given in the sections below:

Giffen goods

Initially proposed by Sir Robert Giffen, economists disagree on the existence of Giffen goods in the market. A Giffen good describes an inferior good that, as the price increases, demand for the product increases. As an example, during the Great Famine of Ireland of the 19th century, potatoes were considered a Giffen good. Potatoes were the largest staple in the Irish diet, so as the price rose it had a large impact on income. People responded by cutting out on luxury goods such as meat and vegetables, and instead bought more potatoes. Therefore, as the price of potatoes increased, so did the quantity demanded.This results in an upward sloping demand curve contrary to the fundamental law of demand.

Giffen goods violate the law of demand due to the income effect dominating the substitution effect. This can be illustrated with the Slutsky equation for a change in a good's own price:

The first term on the right-hand side is the substitution effect, which is always negative. The second term on the right side is the income effect, which can be positive or negative. For inferior goods, this is negative, so subtracting this means adding its positive absolute value. The non-derivative component of the income effect is a measure of a consumer's existing demand for the good, meaning that if a consumer spends a large amount of his income on an inferior good, then a price increase could cause the income effect to dominate the substitution effect. This leads to a positive partial derivative of the good's demand with regards to its price, which violates the law of demand.

Expectation of change in the price of commodity
If an increase in the price of a commodity causes households to expect the price of a commodity to increase further, they may start purchasing a greater amount of the commodity even at the presently increased price.  Similarly, if the household expects the price of the commodity to decrease, it may postpone its purchases. Thus, some argue that the law of demand is violated in such cases. In this case, the demand curve does not slope down from left to right; instead, it presents a backward slope from the top right to down left. This curve is known as an exceptional demand curve.

Basic or necessary goods
The goods which people need no matter how high the price is are basic or necessary goods. Medicines covered by insurance are a good example. An increase or decrease in the price of such a good does not affect its quantity demanded.

Certain scenarios in stock trading
Stock buyers acting in accord with the hot-hand fallacy will increase buying when stock prices are trending upward. Other rationales for buying a high-priced stock are that previous buyers who bid up the price are proof of the issue's quality, or conversely, that an issue's low price may be evidence of viability problems. Likewise, demand among short traders during a short squeeze can increase as price increases.

Veblen goods

Unlike Giffen goods, which are inferior items, Veblen goods are generally high quality goods. The demand for Veblen goods increases with the increase in price. Examples of Veblen goods are mostly luxurious items such as diamond, gold, precious stones, world-famous paintings, antiques etc. Veblen goods appear to go against the law of demand because of their exclusivity appeal, in the sense that if a price of a luxurious and expensive product is increased, it may attract the status-conscious group more, since it will be further out of reach for an average consumer. Thorstein Veblen referred to this sort of consumption as the purchase of goods that do not exhibit additional utility or functionality but offer status and reveal socioeconomic position. In simple words, these goods are not bought for their satisfaction but for their "snob appeal" or "ostentation". Accordingly, all these factors also lead to an upward sloping demand curve for Veblen goods along a certain price range.

Gary S. Becker and Kevin M. Murphy analysed Veblen goods. Their analysis of the demand for paintings by masters and for other objects proves Veblen by relying heavily on the allocative role of prices in markets with social interactions.

See also

 Revealed preference
 Aggregation problem
 Representative agent
 Methodological individualism
 Demand (economics)
 Price–performance ratio
 Second law of demand (price elasticity over time)
 Third Law of Demand (Alchian–Allen effect)
 Supply and demand
 Law of supply
 Tragedy of the commons

References

Economics laws
Demand

Law of demand


Sverre Lodgaard is a Norwegian political scientist who has held several senior positions within government and non-governmental organizations, including the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI). Lodgaard specializes in peace, foreign and security policy, but has also worked on developing country issues. He has since the 2000s written extensively on nuclear arms control and disarmament issues and on Middle East affairs.

He graduated from the University of Oslo in 1971; magister degree in political science and supportive degrees in sociology and economics (1971). He conducted research for some years at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) and as a fellow at the University of Oslo. From 1980 to 1986 he was director of European Security and Disarmament Studies at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), and from 1986 to 1992 returned to PRIO as its director. Lodgaard served as director of United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) from 1992 to 1996 and of NUPI from 1997 to 2007. In 2007 he stepped down as director and was succeeded by Jan Egeland, but continued there as senior research fellow. By virtue of his expertise, he has participated in a number of topical TV and radio programs.

Lodgaard has also held senior advisory positions including from 1992–1999 as a member of the UN Secretary-General's Advisory Board on Security and Disarmament, which became United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA). From 1999–2005 he led the Norwegian Labour Party's international committee, and from 2003–2011 was a deputy of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. From 2010–2013 he was president of the Polytechnic Society, and from 2015 to 2018 chairman of the Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights.

References

1945 births
Living people
Labour Party (Norway) politicians
Norwegian political scientists
Nuclear weapons policy
University of Oslo alumni
Academic staff of the University of Oslo
United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research people
Directors of government agencies of Norway
Norwegian officials of the United Nations

Sverre Lodgaard