Sacred prostitution, temple prostitution, cult prostitution, and religious prostitution are purported rites consisting of paid intercourse performed in the context of religious worship, possibly as a form of fertility rite or divine marriage (). Scholars prefer the terms "sacred sex" or "sacred sexual rites" in cases where payment for services is not involved.

The historicity of literal sacred prostitution, particularly in some places and periods, is a controversial topic within the academic world. Historically mainstream historiography has considered it a probable reality, based on the abundance of ancient sources and chroniclers detailing its practices, although it has proved harder to differentiate between true prostitution and sacred sex without remuneration. Authors have also interpreted evidence as secular prostitution administered in the temple under the patronage of fertility deities, not as an act of religious worship by itself. However, scholarship in the 21st century has challenged the veracity of sacred prostitution as a concept, suggesting that the claims are based on mistranslations, misunderstandings or outright inventions of ancient authors.

Definitions
Sacred prostitution has many different characteristics depending on the region, class and the religious ideals of the period and the place, and consequently can have many different definitions. One definition that was developed was due to the common types of sacred prostitution that are recorded in Classical sources: sale of a woman's virginity or rinni in honor of a goddess or a once-in-a-lifetime prostitution, professional prostitutes or slaves owned by a temple or sanctuary, and temporary prostitution that occurs before a marriage or during certain rituals.

Ancient Near East

Ancient Near Eastern societies along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers featured many shrines and temples or houses of heaven dedicated to various deities. The 5th-century BC historian Herodotus's account and some other testimony from the Hellenistic Period and Late Antiquity suggest that ancient societies encouraged the practice of sacred sexual rites not only in Babylonia and Cyprus, but throughout the Near East.

The work of gender researchers like Daniel Arnaud, Julia Assante and Stephanie Budin has cast the whole tradition of scholarship that defined the concept of sacred prostitution into doubt. Budin regards the concept of sacred prostitution as a myth, arguing taxatively that the practices described in the sources were misunderstandings of either non-remunerated ritual sex or non-sexual religious ceremonies, or possibly even invented as rhetorical devices.

Sumer
Through the twentieth century, scholars generally believed that a form of sacred marriage rite (hieros gamos) was staged between the kings in the ancient Near Eastern region of Sumer and the high priestesses of Inanna, the Sumerian goddess of sexual love, fertility, and warfare, later called Ishtar. The king would couple with the priestess to represent the union of Dumuzid with Inanna. According to the noted Assyriologist Samuel Noah Kramer, the kings would further establish their legitimacy by taking part in a ritual sexual act in the temple of the fertility goddess Ishtar every year on the tenth day of the New Year festival Akitu.

However, no certain evidence has survived to prove that sexual intercourse was included, despite many popular descriptions of the habit. It is possible that these unions never occurred but were embellishments to the image of the king; hymns which praise Ancient Near Eastern kings for coupling with the goddess Ishtar often speak of them as running , offering sacrifices, feasting with the sun-god Utu, and receiving a royal crown from An, all in a single day. Some modern historians argue in the same direction, though their posture has been disputed.

Babylonia
According to Herodotus, the rites performed at these temples included sexual intercourse, or what scholars later called sacred sexual rites:

The British anthropologist James Frazer accumulated citations to prove this in a chapter of his magnum opus The Golden Bough (1890–1915), and this has served as a starting point for several generations of scholars. Frazer and Henriques distinguished two major forms of sacred sexual rites: temporary rite of unwed girls (with variants such as dowry-sexual rite, or as public defloration of a bride), and lifelong sexual rite. However, Frazer took his sources mostly from authors of Late Antiquity (i.e. 150–500 AD), not from the Classical or Hellenistic periods. This raises questions as to whether the phenomenon of temple sexual rites can be generalised to the whole of the ancient world, as earlier scholars typically did.

In Hammurabi's code of laws, the rights and good name of female sacred sexual priestesses were protected. The same legislation that protected married women from slander applied to them and their children. They could inherit property from their fathers, collect income from land worked by their brothers, and dispose of property. These rights have been described as extraordinary, taking into account the role of women at the time.

Terms associated with temple prostitution in Sumer and Babylonia
All translations are sourced from the Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary.  Akkadian terms were used in the Akkadian Empire, Assyria, and Babylonia.  The terms themselves come from lexical profession lists on tablets dating back to the Early Dynastic period.

Notes on the cuneiform: by convention Akkadian is italicised, spoken Sumerian is lowercase and cuneiform sign transliteration is uppercase.  In addition, a determinative sign is written as a superscript.  Determinatives are only written and never spoken.  In spoken Sumerian homophones are distinguished by a numerical subscript.

Hittites
The Hittites practiced sacred prostitution as part of a cult of deities, including the worship of a mated pair of deities, a bull god and a lion goddess, while in later days it was the mother-goddess who became prominent, representing fertility, and (in Phoenicia) the goddess who presided over human birth.

Phoenicia
It has been argued that sacred prostitution, worked by both males and females, was a custom of ancient Phoenicians. It would be dedicated to the deities Astarte and Adonis, and sometimes performed as a festival or social rite in the cities of Byblos, Afqa and Baalbek (later named Heliopolis) as well as the nearby Syrian city of Palmyra.

At the Etruscan site of Pyrgi, a center of worship of the eastern goddess Astarte, archaeologists identified a temple consecrated to her and built with at least 17 small rooms that may have served as quarters for temple prostitutes. Similarly, a temple dedicated to her equated goddess Atargatis in Dura-Europos, was found with nearly a dozen small rooms with low benches, which might have used either for sacred meals or sacred services of women jailed in the temple for adultery. Pyrgi's sacred prostitutes were famous enough to be apparently mentioned in a lost fragment of Lucilius's works.

In northern Africa, the area of influence of the Phoenician colony of Carthage, this service was associated to the city of Sicca, a nearby city that received the name of Sicca Veneria for its temple of Astarte or Tanit (called Venus by Roman authors). Valerius Maximus describe how their women gained gifts by engaging in prostitution with visitors.

Phoenicio-Punic settlements in Hispania, like Cancho Roano, Gadir, Castulo and La Quéjola, have suggested this practice through their archaeology and iconography. In particular, Cancho Roano features a sanctuary built with multiple cells or rooms, which has been identified as a possible place of sacred prostitution in honor to Astarte. A similar institution might have been found in Gadir. Its posterior, renowned erotic dancers called puellae gaditanae in Roman sources (or cinaedi in the case of male dancers) might have been desecrated heirs of this practice, considering the role occupied by sex and dance on Phoenician culture.

Another center of cult to Astarte was Cyprus, whose main temples were located in Paphos, Amathus and Kition. The epigraphy of the Kition temple describes personal economic activity on the temple, as sacred prostitution would have been taxed as any other occupation, and names possible practitioners as grm (male) and lmt (female).

Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible uses two different words for prostitute, zonah (זונה) and kedeshah (or qedesha) (קדשה). The word zonah simply meant an ordinary prostitute or loose woman. But the word kedeshah literally means set apart (in feminine form), from the Semitic root Q-D-Sh (קדש) meaning holy, consecrated or set apart. Nevertheless, zonah and qedeshah are not interchangeable terms: the former occurs 93 times in the Bible, whereas the latter is only used in three places, conveying different connotations.

This double meaning has led to the belief that kedeshah were not ordinary prostitutes, but sacred harlots who worked out of fertility temples. However, the lack of solid evidence has indicated that the word might refer to prostitutes who offered their services in the vicinity of temples, where they could attract a larger number of clients. The term might have originated as consecrated maidens employed in Canaanite and Phoenician temples, which became synonymous with harlotry for Biblical writers.

In any case, the translation of sacred prostitute has continued, however, because it explains how the word can mean such disparate concepts as sacred and prostitute. As put by DeGrado, "neither the interpretation of the קדשה as a 'priestess-not-prostitute' (according to Westenholz) nor as a 'prostitute-not-priestess' (according to Gruber) adequately represents the semantic range of Hebrew word in biblical and post-biblical Hebrew."

Male prostitutes were called kadesh or qadesh (literally: male who is set apart). The Hebrew word kelev (dog) may also signify a male dancer or prostitute.

The Law of Moses (Book of Deuteronomy) was not universally observed in Hebrew culture under the rule of the Davidic line, as recorded in the Books of Kings.  In fact, the Kingdom of Judah had lost "the Book of the Law". During the reign of King Josiah, Hilkiah, the High Priest of Israel, discovered it in "the House of the Lord" and realised that the people have disobeyed, particularly regarding prostitution.

Ancient Greece and Hellenistic world

Ancient Greece

The Greek term hierodoulos or hierodule has sometimes been taken to mean sacred holy woman, but it is more likely to refer to a former slave freed from slavery in order to be dedicated to a god.

There were different levels of prostitutes within Ancient Greece society, but two categories are specifically related to sacred or temple prostitution. The first category are hetaires, also known as courtesans, typically more educated women that served within temples. The second category are known as hierodoules, slave women or female priests who worked within temples and served the sexual requests of visitors to the temple.

While there may not be a direct connection between temples and prostitution, many prostitutes and courtesans worshipped Aphrodite, the goddess of love. Prostitutes would use their earnings to pay for dedications and ritualistic celebrations in honour of Aphrodite. Some prostitutes also viewed the action of sexual service and sexual pleasure as an act of devotion to the goddess of love, worshipping Aphrodite through an act rather than a physical dedication.

In the temple of Apollo at Bulla Regia, a woman was found buried with an inscription reading: "Adulteress. Prostitute. Seize [me], because I fled from Bulla Regia." It has been speculated she might have been a woman forced into sacred prostitution as a punishment for adultery.

Temple(s) of Aphrodite
The act of sacred prostitution within the Temples of Aphrodite in the city of Corinth was well-known and well-spread. Greek writer-philosopher Strabo comments, "the Temple of Aphrodite was so rich that it owned a thousand temple-slaves, courtesans, whom both men and women had dedicated to the goddess". Within the same work, Strabo compares Corinth to the city of Comana, confirming the belief that temple prositution was a notable characteristic of Corinth.

Prostitutes performed sacred functions within the temple of Aphrodite. They would often burn incense in honor of Aphrodite. Chameleon of Heracleia recorded in his book, On Pindar, that whenever the city of Corinth prayed to Aphrodite in manners of great importance, many prostitutes were invited to participate in the prayers and petitions.

The girls involved in temple prostitution were typically slaves owned by the temple. However, some of the girls were gifted to the temple from other members of society in return for success in particular endeavors. One example that shows the gifting of girls to the temple is the poem of Athenaeus, which explores an athlete Xenophon's actions of gifting a group of courtesans to Aphrodite as a thanks-offering for his victory in a competition.

Specifically in 464 BC, Xenophon was victorious in the Olympic Games and donated 100 slaves to Aphrodite's temple. Pindar, a famous Greek poet, was commissioned to write a poem that was to be performed at Xenophon's victory celebration in Corinth. The poet acknowledged that the slaves would serve Aphrodite as sacred prostitutes within her temple at Corinth.

Another temple of Aphrodite was named Aphrodite Melainis, located near the city gates in an area known as "Craneion". It is the resting place of Lais, who was a famous prostitute in Greek history. This suggests that there was a connection with ritual prostitution within temples of Aphrodite.

There is a report that was found of an epigram of Simonides commemorating the prayer of the prostitutes of Corinth on behalf of the salvation of the Greeks from the invading Achaemenid Empire in the Greco-Persian Wars of the  early fifth century BCE. Both temple prostitutes and priestesses prayed to Aphrodite for help, and were honoured for their potent prayers, which Greek citizens believed contributed to the repelling of the Persians.

Athenaeus also alludes to the idea that many of Aphrodite's temples and sanctuaries were occupied by temple prostitutes. These prostitutes were known to practise sexual rituals in different cities which included Corinth, Magnesia, and Samos.

Signs of Sacred Prostitution within Minoan Crete
Some evidence of sacred prostitution was evident in Minoan Crete. The building in question is known as the "East Building", but was also referred to as "the House of the Ladies" by the excavator of the building. Some believe that the architecture of this building seemed to reflect the grooming needs of women, but could also have been a brothel for high status individuals.

The structure of the interior of the building seemed to suggest that the building was used for prostitution. Large clay vats typically used for bathing were found within the building, along with successive doors within the corridors. The successive doors suggested privacy, and within the time period, was associated with two functions: storage of valuable goods and protection of the private moments of its residents. Because the ground floors were found practically empty, the possibility that the building was used for prostitution increases.

There were also religious embellishments found within the "East Building", such as vases and other vessels that seemed to be connected to religious rituals. The vessels were covered in motifs related to sacrilegious rituals, such as the sacral knot and the image of birds flying freely. The functions of the vessels would have been offering food or liquid in relation to the rituals. Combining these two factors, it is a possibility that sacred prostitution existed within this building.

Hellenistic world
In the Greek-influenced and colonised world, "sacred prostitution" was known in Cyprus (Greek-settled since 1100 BC), Sicily (Hellenised since 750 BC), in the Kingdom of Pontus (8th century BC) and in Cappadocia (c. 330 BC hellenised). 2 Maccabees () describes sacred prostitution in the Second Temple under the reign of the Hellenistic ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes.

Cyprus
A passage in Herodotus explains a Babylonian custom where before marriage, girls had to offer themselves for sex, presumably within a temple, as required by rites of a goddess equivalent to Aphrodite in their culture. Herodotus records that a similar practice or custom took place within Cyprus, with girls offering themselves up for sex as required by the rites of Aphrodite. Ennius and Ovid corroborate each other on the idea that Aphrodite established the act of prostitution within the city of Cyprus.

A temple of Kition also shows evidence of sacred prostitution. On a marble plaque, it lists sacred prostitutes among other professions (bakers, scribes, barbers) that were part of ritual personnel at some Cypriot temples.

Temple of Aphaca
The temple of Aphaca may be another source of evidence for temple prostitution. The process is similar to regular prostitution, where male customers paid two or three obol in the form of or in addition to dedications to Aphrodite in exchange for sex with a temple prostitute. In the temple of Aphaca specifically, the men would dedicate their payment to "Cyprian Aphrodite" before engaging in sex with a temple prostitute.

Ancient Rome and late antiquity

Ancient Rome

Late antiquity
The Roman emperor Constantine closed down a number of temples to Venus or similar deities in the 4th century AD, as the Christian church historian Eusebius proudly noted. Eusebius also writes that the Phoenician cities of Aphaca and Heliopolis (Baalbek) continued to practise temple prostitution until the emperor Constantine put an end to the rite in the 4th century AD.

Asia

India

Some parts of Indian state have the practice of hierodulic prostitution, with similar customary forms such as basavi, and involves dedicating pre-pubescent and young adolescent girls from villages in a ritual marriage to a Hindu deity or a Hindu temple, who then work in the temple and function as spiritual guides, dancers, and prostitutes servicing male devotees in the temple. The devadasis were originally seen as intercessors who allowed upper-caste men to have contact with the gods. Though they did develop sexual relations with other men, they were not looked upon with lust. Before Muslim rule in the 14th century, they could live an existence apart from the men, with inheritance rights, wealth and influence, as well as living outside of the dangers of marriage.

The system was criticised by British colonial government while defended by Brahmins, leading to a decline in support for the system and the devadasis soon turned to prostitution. Many scholars have stated that the Hindu scriptures do not mention the system. Human Rights Watch also reports claims that devadasis are forced into this service and, at least in some cases, to practise prostitution for upper-caste members. Various state governments in India enacted laws to ban this practice both prior to India's independence and more recently. They include Bombay Devdasi Act, 1934, Devdasi (Prevention of dedication) Madras Act, 1947, Karnataka Devdasi (Prohibition of dedication) Act, 1982, and Andhra Pradesh Devdasi (Prohibition of dedication) Act, 1988. However, the tradition continues in certain regions of India, particularly the states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

Japan
During the Kamakura period, many shrines and temples, which provided for , fell into bankruptcy. Some miko started travelling in search of livelihood and came to be known as  (歩き巫女 lit. walking shrine-maiden). While aruki miko primarily provided religious services, they were also widely associated with prostitution. However, no religious reasons for miko prostitution are known, and hence the act might be unrelated to sacred prostitution.

Indonesia

Mesoamerica and South America

Maya
The Maya maintained several phallic religious cults, possibly involving homosexual temple prostitution.

Aztec
Much evidence for the religious practices of the Aztec culture was destroyed during the Spanish conquest, and almost the only evidence for the practices of their religion is from Spanish accounts. The Franciscan Spanish Friar Bernardino de Sahagún learned their language and spent more than 50 years studying the culture. He wrote that they participated in religious festivals and rituals, as well as performing sexual acts as part of religious practice. This may be evidence for the existence of sacred prostitution in Mesoamerica, or it may be either confusion, or accusational polemic. He also speaks of kind of prostitutes named ahuianime ("pleasure girls"), whom he described as "an evil woman who finds pleasure in her body... [A] dissolute woman of debauched life."

It is agreed that the Aztec god Xochipili (taken from both Toltec and Maya cultures) was both the patron of homosexuals and homosexual prostitutes. Xochiquetzal was worshiped as goddess of sexual power, patroness of prostitutes and artisans involved in the manufacture of luxury items.

Inca
The Inca sometimes dedicated young boys as temple prostitutes.  The boys were dressed in girl's clothing, and chiefs and head men would have ritual sexual intercourse with them during religious ceremonies and on holy days.

Recent Western occurrences
In the 1970s and early 1980s, some religious cults practised sacred prostitution as an instrument to recruit new converts. Among them was the cult Children of God, also known as The Family, who called this practice "Flirty Fishing". They later abolished the practice due to the growing AIDS epidemic.

In Ventura County, California, Wilbur and Mary Ellen Tracy established their own temple, the Church Of The Most High Goddess, in the wake of what they described as a divine revelation. Sexual acts played a fundamental role in the church's sacred rites, which were performed by Mary Ellen Tracy herself in her assumed role of High Priestess. Local newspaper articles about the Neopagan church quickly got the attention of local law enforcement officials, and in April 1989, the Tracys' house was searched and the couple arrested on charges of pimping, pandering and prostitution. They were subsequently convicted in a trial in state court and sentenced to jail terms: Wilbur Tracy for 180 days plus a $1,000.00 fine; Mary Ellen Tracy for 90 days plus mandatory screening for STDs.

Some modern sacred prostitutes act as sexual surrogates as a form of therapy. In places where prostitution is illegal, sacred prostitutes may be paid as therapists, escorts, or performers.

Modern views
According to Avaren Ipsen, from University of California, Berkeley's Commission on the Status of Women, the myth of sacred prostitution works as "an enormous source of self-esteem and as a model of sex positivity" to many sex workers. She compared this situation to the figure of Mary Magdalene, whose status as a prostitute, though short-lived according to Christian texts and disputed among academics, has been celebrated by sex working collectives (among them Sex Workers Outreach Project USA) in an effort to de-stigmatize their job. Ipsen speculated that academic currents trying to deny sacred prostitution are ideologically motivated, attributing them to the "desires of feminists, including myself, to be 'decent.'"

In her book The Sacred Prostitute: Eternal Aspect of the Feminine, psychoanalyst Nancy Qualls-Corbett praised sacred prostitution as an expression of female sexuality and a bridge between the latter and the divine, as well as a rupture from mundane sexual degradation. "[The sacred prostitute] did not make love in order to obtain admiration or devotion from the man who came to her... She did not require a man to give her a sense of her own identity; rather this was rooted in her own womanliness." Qualls also equated censuring sacred prostitution to demonize female sexuality and vitality. "In her temple, men and women came to find life and all that it had to offer in sensual pleasure and delight. But with the change in cultural values and the institutionalization of monotheism and patriarchy, the individual came to the House of God to prepare for death."

This opinion is shared by several schools of modern Paganism. among them Wicca, for whom sacred prostitution, independently from its historical backing, embodies the sacralization of sex and a celebration of the communion between female and male sexuality. This practice is associated to spiritual healing and sex magic. Within secular thinking, philosopher Antonio Escohotado is a popular adept of this current, favoring particularly the role of ancient sacred prostitutes and priestesses of Ishtar. In his seminal work Rameras y esposas, he extols them and their cult as symbols of female empowerment and sexual freedom.

Actress Susie Lamb approached sacred prostitution in her 2014 performance Horae: Fragments of a Sacred History of Prostitution, in which she points out its value to challenge gender roles. "The idea of sacred prostitution is almost entirely incomprehensible to the modern imagination. It involved women having sex as an act of worship... The relationship between men and women in this ancient tradition is based on respect for the woman. She was seen as a powerful person."

See also

Deuki
Devadasi
Hetaera
Shamhat
Sex worker
Sex magic
Primitive promiscuity
Hijra (South Asia)
Sexuality in ancient Rome
List of fertility deities
List of love and lust deities
Padre Putas

References

Bibliography

  Published in 12 volumes

External links
Stuckey, H. Johanna. "Sacred Prostitutes".   MatriFocus. 2005 vol 5–1.
, and a discussion
Jenin Younes (2008), Sacred Prostitution in Ancient Israel

Prostitution
Religious sex rituals
Prostitution
Religious occupations
Ancient priestesses
Sexual controversies
Holiness
History of prostitution
Inanna
Tanit
Books of the Maccabees
Second Temple
Antiochus IV Epiphanes
Constantine the Great
Eusebius

Sacred prostitution


"Venus Smiles" is a short story by British author J. G. Ballard. Originally titled "Mobile", it appeared in the June 1957 edition of Science Fantasy (Volume 8, Number 23). It was then rewritten and appeared in the Vermilion Sands (1971) collection under its new name and later The Complete Short Stories of J. G. Ballard (2006).

Like the rest of the Vermilion Sands collection, this story takes place in the fictional desert town of Vermilion Sands, and also features exotic technology.

Plot

"Venus Smiles" concerns the events surrounding a musical sculpture commissioned to be placed in the centre of Vermilion Sands. On the day of the unveiling, the statue causes outrage with the public — as well as being aesthetically unpleasing, the music emitted from the sculpture tends to lean towards middle-eastern style quarter tones and is unpleasing to the ear. Instead of being scrapped, Mr Hamilton, one of the board members who commissioned it, decides to follow the wishes of the woman who sculpted it, and take it back to his home that he shares with his secretary.

At first the narrator, Hamilton, finds the statue looks quite pleasant in his garden, and likes the new melodic classical music it starts to produce. One day, Hamilton and his secretary discover the statue is gently vibrating and moving, and the metal seems to be twisting and turning. As days continue to pass, they find the statue growing increasingly in height and girth, to an extent that is now twice its original size, and the twisting and forming of the new metal is developing at noticeable speed.

After the statue has taken over the garden, the main characters and others begin to strip the metal off, which proves difficult as the rate at which the metal grows is the same as they can dismantle it. Eventually, the sculpture is completely demolished and the metal sold to a scrap yard.

A legal battle then ensues, when the woman who originally sculpted the statue sues the board for damaging her reputation by openly and ungainly destroying one of her works. When the ruling is finally made in her favour, ten months have passed. When the lead characters have left the court building they remark on the fact that it is new and yet to be completed — unplastered walls are visible and metal beams protrude from the building. The story ends when the narrator and supporting characters discover the unusual vibrations coming from the beams, and realise with horror that the statue's old metal has been recycled and distributed around Vermilion Sands in new buildings and motor vehicles. Mr Hamilton remarks to his secretary, "Carol, it's only just the beginning. The whole world will be singing."

References

External links

Short stories by J. G. Ballard
1971 short stories
Works originally published in Science Fantasy (magazine)

Venus Smiles


For the computer term, see Computer hardware.
Household hardware describes various things used mostly at home.  Those things can be equipment such as fasteners, keys, door knobs, locks, hinges, latches, handles, wire, chains, tools, screws  and machine parts, especially when they are made of metal.

Related pages

 Hardware

References

Other websites

Technology

Household hardware


Otorhinolaryngology also known as otolaryngology, otolaryngology – head and neck surgery, or ear, nose, and throat (ENT) is a speciality within medicine that deals with the surgical and medical management of the head and neck. Doctors who specialize in this area are called otorhinolaryngologists, otolaryngologists, head and neck surgeons, or ENT surgeons. People go to them for diseases of the ear, nose, throat, base of the skull, head, and neck.  These affect eating, drinking, speaking, breathing, swallowing, and hearing.

It takes 12–14 years to train. In the United States in 2023, the average annual income was $118,230.

References

Surgery

Otorhinolaryngology


Clarkia franciscana is a rare species of flowering plant in the evening primrose family known by the common name Presidio clarkia. It is endemic to the San Francisco Bay Area of California, where it is known only from two populations at the Presidio of San Francisco and three occurrences in Oakland. The plant is known only from serpentine soils.

Distribution
Clarkia franciscana is a federally listed endangered species. The two San Francisco populations are on land which is protected from development but is affected by many other factors including invasive plant species, trampling, and landscaping of vegetation. The three Oakland populations are probably the remnants of one population that was fragmented by development in the heavily altered urban habitat. The largest of the three occurrences is partially protected at Redwood Regional Park, but the other two are on privately owned property which is proposed to undergo some development. Construction of housing is proposed on the site, with less than an acre being left undeveloped as a compromise between developers and environmental advocates.

Description
The Presidio clarkia, Clarkia franciscana, is an erect annual herb growing up to about 40 centimeters in maximum height. The leaves are narrowly lance-shaped and up to about 3.5 centimeters long. The top of the stem is occupied by the inflorescence, which bears opening flowers and closed, erect flower buds. The sepals stay fused together as the petals bloom from one side. The small corolla is bowl-shaped, with petals up to 1.3 centimeters long and wedge-shaped with mostly flat tips. The petals are lavender-pink in color, darkest at the tips and lightening to nearly white at the base, where there is a deep red spot. The plant is self-pollinating. The population sizes are variable from year to year; sometimes there are no plants seen at all, the seed banks remaining dormant until conditions improve.

References

External links

Jepson Manual Treatment of Clarkia franciscana
Endangered Species at Golden Gate National Recreation Area: Presidio clarkia
Clarkia franciscana — U.C. Photo gallery

franciscana
Endemic flora of California
Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands
Natural history of San Francisco
Natural history of the San Francisco Bay Area
Plants described in 1958

Clarkia franciscana


Cinazepam (BD-798, sold under brand name Levana) is an atypical benzodiazepine derivative. It produces pronounced hypnotic, sedative, and anxiolytic effects with minimal myorelaxant side effects. In addition, unlike many other benzodiazepine and nonbenzodiazepine hypnotics such as diazepam, flunitrazepam, and zopiclone, cinazepam does not violate sleep architecture, and the continuity of slow-wave sleep and REM sleep are proportionally increased. As such, cinazepam produces a sleep state close to physiological, and for that reason, may be advantageous compared to other, related drugs in the treatment of insomnia and other sleep disorders.

Cinazepam has an order of magnitude lower affinity for the benzodiazepine receptor of the GABAA complex relative to other well-known hypnotic benzodiazepines such as nitrazepam and phenazepam. Moreover, in mice, it is rapidly metabolized, with only 5% of the base compound remaining within 30 minutes of administration. As such, cinazepam is considered to be a benzodiazepine prodrug; specifically, to 3-hydroxyphenazepam, as the main active metabolite.

See also
 Gidazepam
 Cloxazolam

References

Abandoned drugs
Anxiolytics
Benzodiazepines
Chlorobenzenes
GABAA receptor positive allosteric modulators
Hypnotics
Bromoarenes
Prodrugs

Cinazepam


Big Boss is a recurring character in the Metal Gear series of video games, who serves as a hero or villain. He is the one who gave the genes to make three clones of himself, Solid Snake, Liquid Snake and Solidus Snake. In a way, this makes him their father. He starts off as a soldier for the CIA special forces team, the FOX Unit. He later creates and leads a special forces team himself, FOXHOUND.

In Metal Gear Solid 3, Big Boss unsuccessfully rescues the scientist Sokolov, because his mentor, the Boss, changes sides from the United States to Soviet Union. At first, he did not understand why. Later, it is explained that the government ordered her to change sides, because she was the only soldier Volgin would respect and trust enough to keep the Philosophers' legacy during World War II. The Boss later reunites with her former team of fellow soldiers, the Cobra Unit. She knew Big Boss, who was called Naked Snake in the game, would have to kill her as part of his mission, but she wanted to pass on her goal for him to complete. After he discovers the real reason for the Boss's death, he loses his patriotism and wants to unite the world under one government. This is so that the world's governments would not threaten to destroy each other with nuclear weapons. The government gives him a new code name, Big Boss. He dislikes the code name, because it reminded him that it was given to him for killing the Boss. She was one of the only he really cared for.

In Metal Gear 1 & 2, Big Boss attempts to use Metal Gear to destroy the world's governments, but FOXHOUND agent Solid Snake (who is also one of Big Boss's clones) destroys it and stops him.

Metal Gear
Video game characters

Big Boss


Shiv Nadar (born 14 July 1945) is an Indian billionaire industrialist and philanthropist. He is the founder and chairman emeritus of HCL Technologies and the Shiv Nadar Foundation. Nadar founded HCL in the mid-1970s and transformed the IT hardware company into an IT enterprise over the next three decades. In 2008, Nadar was awarded Padma Bhushan for his efforts in the IT industry. Nadar, nicknamed by friends as Magus (Old Persian for "wizard"), since the mid-1990s he has focused his efforts on developing the educational system of India through the Shiv Nadar Foundation.
According to Forbes, he is the 3rd richest person in India and the 50th richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of US$30 billion as of June 2023.

Early life and education
Nadar was born in Moolaipozhi village, Madras Presidency (present day Thoothukudi district, Tamil Nadu) into a Tamil Hindu family. His parents were Sivasubramaniya Nadar and Vamasundari Devi. His mother, Vamasundari Devi, is the sister of S. P. Adithanar, founder of Dina Thanthi newspaper.

Nadar studied at Town Higher Secondary School, Kumbakonam. He also studied in the Elango Corporation Higher Secondary School, Madurai. He was admitted into the first form (Sixth Standard) in June 1955 and continued his education in Town High School until June 1957. Later, he joined St. Joseph Boys Higher Secondary School, Trichy, and completed high school education here. Nadar received a pre-university degree in the American College, Madurai and a degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore.

Career
Nadar began his career at Walchand group's Cooper Engineering Ltd. in Pune in 1967. he soon gave it up to begin his own venture, in partnerships with several friends and colleagues. These partners were Ajai Chowdhry (Ex-Chairman, HCL), Arjun Malhotra (CEO and chairman, Headstrong), Subhash Arora, Yogesh Vaidya, S. Raman, Mahendra Pratap and DS Puri.

The initial enterprise which Nadar and his partners began was Microcomp, a company which focused on selling teledigital calculators in the Indian market. HCL was founded in 1976, with an investment of Rs. 187,000.

In 1980, HCL ventured into the international market with the opening of Far East Computers in Singapore to sell IT hardware. The venture reported Rs 1 million revenue in the first year and continued to address the Singapore operations. Nadar remained the largest shareholder without retaining any management control.

In July 2020, Nadar handed over to his daughter Roshni Nadar, who became the first woman chair of a   listed Indian IT company.  In July 2021, Nadar also stepped down as managing director of HCL Technologies, and was succeeded by C Vijayakumar, HCL Tech CEO, for a five-year term.

In October 2021, he was ranked by Forbes magazine as the third richest person in India with an estimated net worth of US$31 billion.

Focus on education

In 1996, Nadar founded SSN College of Engineering in Chennai, Tamil Nadu in the name of his father, Sivasubramaniya Nadar. Nadar took an active role in the college activities, including the gifting of Rs. 10 lakh worth of HCL shares to the college. In 2006, Nadar announced that the college will promote research apart from ensuring that students benefit from foreign university tie-ups. Nadar joined the executive board of Indian School of Business in 2005. In March 2008, Nadar's SSN Trust announced the setting up of two Vidyagyan schools in Uttar Pradesh for rural students, where free scholarship for 200 students from 50 districts of the state. He visited Town Higher Secondary School in February 2011 and donated computers and other equipment worth Rs. 80 lakh. He served as chairman of the board of governors, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur or IIT-KGP), a technical institute until 2014.

Personal life
Nadar's daughter Roshni Nadar is now chairwoman of HCL. She was the manager of HCL when Siva Nadar started it in the 1990s.

His wife, Kiran Nadar, is an art collector and philanthropist.

Awards and accolades

 In 2008, the Government of India awarded him with a Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award, for his contribution to the IT industry.
 In 2007, Madras University awarded him an honorary doctorate degree.
 Shiv Nadar was awarded E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year 2007 (Services).
 In 2011, he was counted amongst Forbes 48 Heroes of Philanthropy in Asia Pacific.
 In April 2017, India Today magazine ranked Nadar #16th in India's 50 most powerful people of 2017 list.
 Shiv Nadar has committed more than $1 billion to philanthropy.

References

External links

 Profile at HCL
 Profile at Forbes
 Profile at Bloomberg L.P.

Living people
1945 births
Businesspeople in software
Indian chief executives
Indian billionaires
Tamil billionaires
Tamil entrepreneurs
Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in trade and industry
Tamil businesspeople
People from Thoothukudi district
20th-century Indian businesspeople
Businesspeople from Tamil Nadu
Indian Tamil people

Shiv Nadar


Rochford is a town and civil parish in the Rochford District in Essex, England,  north of Southend-on-Sea,  from London and  from Chelmsford. At the 2011 census, the civil parish had a population of 8,471.

History
The town is the main settlement in the Rochford district, and takes its name from Rochefort, Old English for "Ford of the Hunting Dogs". The town runs into suburban developments in the parishes of Ashingdon and Hawkwell. Kings Hill, in Rochford, was notable for containing the Lawless Court up until the 19th century.

Peculiar People
In 1837 James Banyard  (14 November 1800 – 1863) (a reformed drunk and Wesleyan preacher) and William Bridges (1802–1874) took a lease on the old workhouse at Rochford, which became the first chapel of the Peculiar People, a name taken from Deuteronomy 14:2 and 1 Peter 2:9. The Peculiar People practised a lively form of worship bound by the literal interpretation of the King James Bible, banning both frivolity and medicine. During the two World Wars some were conscientious objectors, believing that war is contrary to the teachings of Jesus Christ. The Peculiar People are nowadays known as the Union of Evangelical Churches,

First World War
Nearby Southend Airport started life as a grass fighter station in World War I. The site was founded in the autumn of 1914 when farmland between Westbarrow Hall and the Great Eastern Railway line at Warners Bridge  north of Southend Pier was acquired for RFC training purposes. Training continued until May 1915 when the site, known also as Eastwood, was taken over by the RNAS to become a Station (night) in the fight against intruding Zeppelins.

Second World War
Southend Airport was opened on the site on 18 September 1935. As World War II approached it was requisitioned by the Air Ministry in August 1939 for use as a fighter airfield by No.11 Group RAF. RAF Rochford was a satellite station for RAF Hornchurch and was primarily a fighter base, home mainly to Supermarine Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane aircraft. Rochford airfield was accompanied by a radar base in Canewdon (around  away). RAF Rochford was bombed a number of times during the war.

It was returned to civilian service on 31 December 1946.

Geography

The town is just to the north of Southend-on-Sea, and is separated from both Southend and Rayleigh.

Governance
The Member of Parliament for Rochford and Southend East is James Duddridge (Conservative). An electoral ward in the same name exists. At the 2011 Census this ward had a population of 7,695.

Landmarks

Rochford Hall is privately owned by Rochford Hundred Golf Club. The Corn Exchange, now home to the local branch of the Women's Institute, was completed in 1866.

Leisure
Clements Hall Leisure Centre is managed by Fusion Lifestyle, for Rochford District Council.

Sport
Rochford Hundred Rugby Club was formed in 1962 and as of 2019 play in London & South East Premier—level 5 of the English rugby union system.

Rochford Town Football Club are a non-league side who play in the second division of the Essex Olympian Football League.

Rankin's Cricket Club was established in 1881 and play in the T Rippon Mid Essex League.

Transport

Trains run from Rochford railway station eastbound to Southend Victoria and westbound to Liverpool Street station in the business district of central London. Southend Airport railway station, which is sited on the eastern boundary of the airport, opened on 18 July 2011.

Rochford has bus links to the surrounding towns; routes 7, 8 and 9 travel to Rayleigh and Southend-on-Sea.

There are over twenty scheduled flight destinations within Europe available from London Southend Airport.

Rochford Hospital
Rochford Hospital used to be primarily the district maternity hospital. It was here, in 1956, that Sister J Ward made observations that led to the development of phototherapy for newborns suffering from jaundice.

Churches

St Andrew's Parish Church

The ancient Church of England parish church is St Andrew's Church, Rochford, close to Rochford Hall, and is part of Rochford Deanery, within the Bradwell Area of the Diocese of Chelmsford. It is thought to have originated in Anglo-Saxon times, but the current church building dates from the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. It is a Grade II* listed building.

Free churches
Rochford Congregational Church has been part of the local community since 1750. The Congregational Church also established the first Dissenting School in the area; When others were afraid of educating the children of the lower classes because they might prove a danger to the state, the church ensured that ordinary people had "a plain and useful education."

Rochford Methodist Church, near the White Horse Public House. The Methodists have been in Rochford since 1822, originally meeting in a building where Market Alley turns into the Square. In 1841 they moved to a new building in North Street near Weir Pond Road, and in 1880 they moved to their current premises.

Rochford Community Church was founded in 1987 and meets at The Freight House near the railway station.

Catholic church
There is a Roman Catholic church in Ashington Road, Rochford, dedicated to St Teresa of the child Jesus. It was founded in 1953; the present church building opened in 1977.

Notable people

Jamie Cullum, jazz-pop musician
Terry Alderton, comedian and former footballer
Peter Allen, journalist and radio presenter
Barrie Delf, professional footballer
Digby Fairweather, jazz musician
Brenda Forbes, Anglo-American actress of stage and screen
Philip Guard, actor
Dean Macey, athlete
Mike Penning, Conservative MP
Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich, Lord Chancellor under Edward VI, died in Rochford 12 June 1567
Rachel Riley, TV presenter and mathematician, born in Rochford but raised in Thorpe Bay, Southend-on-Sea
Will Stevens, racing driver
Amanda Tapping, actress, producer and director was born in Rochford before moving to Canada with her family.
Andrew Tyrie, Conservative MP
Omar Abdullah, former Chief Minister, Jammu and Kashmir, India
James Bourne, Singer and guitarist for band McBusted
Paul Stephenson (civil rights campaigner), leader of the Bristol Bus Boycott
Matthew Yates, athlete

References

External links
 Rochford Historic Town Project Assessment Report

Towns in Essex
Civil parishes in Essex
Rochford District

Rochford


was a town located in Ichishi District, Mie Prefecture, Japan.

As of 2003, the town had an estimated population of 13,291 and a density of 118.82 persons per km². The total area was 111.86 km².

On January 1, 2006, Hakusan, along with the city of Hisai, the towns of Anō, Geinō and Kawage, the village of Misato (all from Age District), the towns of Ichishi and Karasu, and the village of Misugi (all from Ichishi District), was merged into the expanded city of Tsu and thus no longer exists as an independent municipality.

External links
 Official website of Tsu

Dissolved municipalities of Mie Prefecture
Populated places disestablished in 2006
2006 disestablishments in Japan
Tsu, Mie

Hakusan, Mie


Real Time (Discovery Real Time until August 31, 2010) is an Italian television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery EMEA.

The channel launched on October 1, 2005, becoming the sixth Discovery network to launch in Italy. It showed lifestyle programmes targeting a female upper-class audience of 25- to 44-year-olds. It features both foreign programmes and Italian programmes produced for the channel.

On April 7, 2009, the channel adopted a new logo and a new look. This look had previously been adopted by Discovery Real Time France.

After becoming the most viewed non-fiction entertainment channel on the Sky Italia platform, on September 1, 2010, it changed its name to "Real Time", and became available both on digital terrestrial and via free-to-air satellite, also joining the Tivùsat platform.

On November 8, 2010, the +1 version of the channel was born and from February 1, 2012, it also broadcasts in high definition.

On March 13, 2019, definitively closes the SD version on the satellite.

From April 9 Real Time, together with the other free channels of the group, is also available in HD streaming on the Dplay platform.

From March 1, 2019, on Tivùsat, the "HD" and "+1" versions replace the SD version, therefore they become visible to LCN 31 and 131 respectively.

On December 1, 2020, Real Time +1 was shut down.

The channel broadcasts both foreign programmes and a few original Italian productions. Most acquired programmes were originally produced for the American TLC or the British Channel 4.

Original programs

 Cerco casa disperatamente
 Chef a domicilio
 Clio Make Up
 Com'è fatto con Barbara
 Cortesie per gli ospiti
 Cortesie per gli ospiti New York
 Cucina con Ale
 Cuoco gentiluomo
 Diario di un chirurgo
 Dimmi di sì
 Donne mortali
 Fuori menù
 Guardaroba perfetto
 Il re del cioccolato
 Il boss delle cerimonie
 Life Shock
 L'eleganza del maschio
 L'ost
 Ma come ti vesti?!
 Mamma mia
 Matrimonio all'italiana
 Merry Christmas con Csaba
 Non solo magre
 Paint Your Life
 Reparto maternità
 Se balli ti sposo
 Shopping night
 Stelle e padelle
 Torte in corso con Renato
 Tutto in un Weekend
 Vendo casa disperatamente
 Wedding Planners
 Shopping Night
 Zenzero

Imported programs

 24 ore in sala parto
 290 chili, vergine
 Abito da damigella cercasi
 Abito da sposa: Beverly Hills (Brides of Beverly Hills)
 Abito da sposa cercasi
 Abito da sposa cercasi XXL
 Adolescenti XXL (Too Fat for 15)
 Basta: io o il cane Bimbi fatti in casa Cher: Mia figlia cambia sesso (Becoming Chaz)
 Chirurgia XXL Cucina con Buddy (Kitchen Boss)
 Emozioni in vitro
 Fantasmi
 Gite gastronomiche
 Il cibo ti fa bella Australia
 Il giardiniere
 Il mio grosso grasso matrimonio gypsy (My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding)
 Io e la mia ossessione (My Strange Addiction)
 I peggiori cuochi d'America
 Jo Frost: SOS genitori (Supernanny)
 L'aggiustatutto a domicilio La fabbrica del cioccolato Little Miss America (Toddlers & Tiaras)
 Mad Fashion
 Malattie imbarazzanti (Embarrassing Bodies)
 Malattie imbarazzanti XXL Malattie misteriose Mamme che amano troppo Million Dollar Decorators Mob Wives Monster House My Shocking Body Non sapevo di essere incinta Obiettivo peso forma'
 Party Mamas
 Pazzi per la spesa (Extreme Couponing)
 Quattro matrimoni (Four Weddings)
 School Mum Makeover
 Sepolti in casa (Hoarding: Buried Alive)
 Storia di un bebè (A conception story)
 Tabatha mani di forbice (Tabatha Takes Over)
 Torte da record
 Transgender e incinta
 Vita al pronto soccorso (24 Hours in A&E )
 Cucina con Buddy (Kitchen Boss)
 Cucine da incubo USA (Kitchen Nightmares)
 Cucine da incubo (Kitchen Nightmares)
 Extreme Makeover: Diet Edition (Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition)
 Fashion Star Grassi contro magri (Supersize vs Superskinny)
 Grassi contro magri teenager
 Il boss delle torte (Cake Boss)
 Il boss delle torte: la sfida (Next Great Baker)
 Top Chef Masters (Top Chef Masters)
 Top chef:solo dessert (Top Chef: Just Desserts)
 Top Gear

Presenters
Roberto Ruspoli
Enzo Miccio
Renato Ardovino

African version
In 2018, An English version which took its content from TLC alongside other Discovery brands with the same styling as the Italian version was also made available in South Africa from 3 September through MultiChoice's DStv and a year later across Africa. The channel is also available to StarTimes and Canal+ Afrique within the region.
Real Time is now on Zuku TV channel 102 replacing Fine Living on channel 710 in January 2021.

References

External links
 Official Websites: realtimetv.it
 Real Time channel on YouTube

Warner Bros. Discovery networks
Television channels in Italy
Television channels and stations established in 2005
Warner Bros. Discovery EMEA

Real Time (TV channel)


The Quincy Method, also known as the Quincy Plan, or the Quincy system of learning, was a child-centred, progressive approach to education developed by Francis W. Parker, then superintendent of schools in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1875.

Parker, a pioneer of the progressive school movement, rejected the traditional rigid school routine, exemplified by rote learning and the spelling-book method, and even stated that the spelling book should be burned, although he did favour oral spelling. Emphasis was instead placed on social skills and self-expression through cultural activities and physical training, as well as teacher-prepared materials, experience-based learning and children's own writing.

A survey by the Massachusetts State Board of Education published four years later showed that Quincy students excelled at reading, writing, and spelling, and ranked fourth in their county in math.

Hundreds of visitors traveled to Quincy to observe the new methods, aiming to replicate them in their own schools. Many of Quincy's teachers were recruited by districts in other states, spreading the Quincy method beyond Massachusetts to New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Vermont, Florida, Minnesota, and other places.

When in 1883 Parker became principal of the Cook County Normal School in Chicago, he developed the Method further, introducing teacher training based on modern educational methods.

See also
 Constructionist learning
 Experiential education
 Educational philosophies
 Education reform
 Humanistic education
 Laboratory school

References

Alternative education
Philosophy of education
Progressive education

Quincy Method


Elachista crenatella is a moth of the family Elachistidae. It is found in the Australian state of South Australia near Adelaide and on Kangaroo Island.

The wingspan is about 11 mm for males. The forewings are bluish grey. The hindwings are pale grey.

The larvae feed on Lepidosperma viscidum. They mine the leaves of their host plant. Young larvae mine upwards, creating a straight and narrow initial stage of the mine. Later, the mine slowly widens and turns downwards. The whole mine, except the last 20 mm, is filled with frass. Pupation takes place outside of the mine on a leaf of the host plant.

References

Moths described in 2011
crenatella
Moths of Australia
Taxa named by Lauri Kaila

Elachista crenatella


Adi Shankara (also called Shankaracharya; 788–820) was an Indian religious philosopher. He was born in Kalady, in the Indian state of Kerala. He traveled to many parts of Ancient India. Shankara wrote many books in Sanskrit. He founded a branch of Hindu thoughts named Advaita. He wrote many books such as Saundarya laharifor lauding Lakshmi. Shankara gave explanations for Brahma Sutra, Bhagavat Geeta, etc. His first guru was Gaudapada, who lived as a seer on the banks of river Narmada.He established for Maths in four extreme corner to spread the message of Advaita other all over the country. They ate:
1. North-Jyotirmatha at Badrinath
2. West-Shardapitha at Dwarka
3. East-Govardhanmatha at Puri
4. South-Sringeri matha at Sringeri

Other websites

Complete information about Sankaracharya and his works

Shankara
Hinduism
788 births
820 deaths
Indian philosophers

Adi Shankara


Herbert Larry Burgess (25 February 1883 – 1954) was an English footballer.

Born in Openshaw, Manchester, Burgess began his football career with Glossop North End, but soon signed for Manchester City. He made his debut for City on 5 September 1903, playing at left back away to Stoke City on the opening day of the 1903–04 season. In 1906, in the wake of a scandal regarding players' wages, Manchester City were forced into selling most of their players, and Burgess was purchased by Manchester United along with Sandy Turnbull, Jimmy Bannister and Billy Meredith. After helping the club to the 1907–08 Football League title, Burgess left the club and moved to Denmark to play for Kristiania. He then emigrated to Hungary, where he played for MTK Budapest, before becoming their manager. In the 1920s, Burgess' managerial career took him to Italy, where he became the manager of Padova. He had a two-year spell at Milan before returning to Padova, but two years later he was on the move again, this time to Roma.

Burgess was capped four times for England.

References

External links

1883 births
1954 deaths
Footballers from Manchester
English men's footballers
England men's international footballers
Manchester City F.C. players
Manchester United F.C. players
MTK Budapest FC players
English football managers
MTK Budapest FC managers
Calcio Padova managers
AC Milan managers
AS Roma managers
Expatriate football managers in Italy
English expatriate football managers
English Football League representative players
Men's association football fullbacks
Glossop North End A.F.C. players
English Football League players

Herbert Burgess


Aventure Malgache (1944) is a short British propaganda film in French directed by Alfred Hitchcock for the British Ministry of Information. The title means Malagasy Adventure in English.

There are conflicting reports as to the true inspiration for the film, lawyer Jules François Clermont or actor Claude Dauphin. Some sources claim the film is based on the real-life activities of Jules François Clermont, who wrote and starred in the film under the name "Paul Clarus". In September 2011, The Daily Telegraph published an article noting that writer and actor Claude Dauphin had collaborated with Hitchcock to recount his own experiences of operating an underground radio station in Nazi occupied France.

Plot summary
Paul Clarus, a French actor, is chatting with his fellow actors (the "Molière Players") as they put on their makeup before a performance. He reminisces about a very unpleasant Vichy official, the Chef de la Sûreté, whom he knew when he was part of the Resistance on the island of Madagascar during the Second World War. The events on Madagascar are shown in flashback.

Paul Clarus pretended to be loyal to the Vichy official, while he simultaneously worked as the head of the Resistance movement. He ran an illegal pro-Resistance radio station "Madagascar Libre", and helped arrange numerous boats to take loyal Frenchmen out of the island to safety. Finally when the Vichy government falls, we see that the Vichy official is nothing but a turncoat; in his office he rapidly replaces a portrait of Marshal Philippe Pétain with a portrait of Queen Victoria, and he changes his bottle of Vichy water for bottles of Scotch and soda water.

Cast
Paul Bonifas as Michel - Chef de la Sûreté (Leader of the Sûreté)
Paul Clarus as himself
Jean Dattas as man behind Michel, reading a telegram
Andre Frere as Pierre
Guy Le Feuvre as General
Paulette Preney as Yvonne

Home media
Milestone Films has released Aventure Malgache, paired with other 1944 French language Hitchcock short film Bon Voyage, on DVD and VHS.

See also
List of World War II short films

References

External links

1944 films
British black-and-white films
British World War II propaganda shorts
Films directed by Alfred Hitchcock
1940s French-language films

Aventure Malgache


Peter Basquin is an American pianist and a winner of the Montreal International Competition. He attended both Carleton College and Manhattan School of Music where his teachers were Dora Zaslavsky and William Nelson. He was the pianist of the American Composers Orchestra and is Professor Emeritus at the Hunter College.

He had solo appearances at the American and Boston Symphony Orchestras as well as Minnesota, the Westchester Philharmonic and the Hunter Symphony. His conductors during those times were Dennis Russell Davies, Paul Lustig Dunkel, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Gunther Schuller among others. He also collaborated with Lewis Kaplan, Jaime Laredo, Charles Neidich, Nathaniel Rosen, Jacques Thibaud Trio, and Frederick Zlotkin and played with Cassatt Quartet. In 1978 he recorded Marga Richter's 1954 Sonata which was published by Grenadilla Records the same year. (Richter's Sonata was first recorded in 1956 by Menahem Pressler for MGM recordings.)

References

External links
Piano Lesson

Living people
American male pianists
21st-century American pianists
21st-century American male musicians
Year of birth missing (living people)

Peter Basquin


Nicol Muschat (1695–1721) was a Scottish physician, remembered for his murder of his teenage wife, Margaret Hall (1704-1720).

Life

He was born in 1695, possibly at Boghall Farmhouse on Biggar Road just south-west of Edinburgh, as he is often referred to as "Muschat of Boghall". His father died when he was young, and he was raised by his mother; the family appears to have been relatively wealthy.

While studying medicine at Edinburgh University he resided in the top floor of the Auld Cameronian Meeting House on the east side of Blackfriars Wynd just off the Royal Mile.

In 1715, he served as assistant to Dr Thomas Napier in Alloa on the opposite side of the Firth of Forth. In less than a year he returned to Edinburgh where he lodged on Anchor Close and took a job as a shop assistant nearby on the Royal Mile.

In 1719 a customer called Margaret Hall caught his eye. She was the daughter of a wealthy wine merchant further up the street at Castlehill. He married her on 5 September 1719, three weeks after meeting her. They lived some weeks with her parents, then found their own lodgings on St Mary's Wynd (now called St Mary Street).

Nicol had three friends in Edinburgh with whom he both confided his plans and sought their aid: James Campbell of Burnbank (the storekeeper at Edinburgh Castle); James Muschat (his cousin); and James' wife, Grizel. They made three failed attempts on her life (according to his own confession at trial). Firstly, being given 20 guineas by Muschat, they attempted to murder her on Dickson's Close. Secondly, in November 1719, Campbell of Burnbank was offered the immediate repayment of Muschat's debt of 900 merks, to fabricate some crime against his wife, but this did not materialise. Thirdly his brother James and his wife were minded to poison her, but although administering mercury in a glass of brandy, she did not die.

A scheme to drown her in a ditch at the side of Easter Road after a trip to Leith was abandoned. Grizel, frustrated by the lack of payment, due to the failed schemes, pressed the men to continue with their murder plans.

Finally, on 17 October 1720, Muschat had been drinking with James until 7 pm and returned to his house on St Mary's Wynd where Grizel sat with Margaret. He invented a story of wishing to walk to Duddingston and they started walking down The Canongate, leaving James and Grizel in his house. Margaret started crying in St Anne's Yards, just east of Holyrood, suspecting something afoot. He declared if she did not accompany him to Duddingston, he would never speak to her again. They reached a point on the north edge of Holyrood Park then highly distant from any house. Here he slit her throat and left her. He returned home to confess the crime to his brother.

Margaret's body was found around 10 am on the following day. She was easily identified and Nicol went into hiding in Leith where he tried to gain passage on a ship to Europe. Meanwhile, Grizel, worrying about her own potential prosecution, revealed Nicol's location to the town guard whilst seeking indemnity against prosecution for herself and her husband. She led the guard to his whereabouts in Leith, and Nicol was arrested. Grizel received a reward from the town council for this act. He confessed all, including the earlier failed plans. He was held at the Tolbooth Prison. He was hanged in the Grassmarket on 6 January 1721.

James and Grizel Muschat escaped all punishment and further turned King's evidence against James Campbell. Campbell was tried in March for "art and part" (aiding and abetting) in the crimes. He was sentenced to transportation for life to the West Indies as a slave on the plantations.

Memorial

Local people raised a stone cairn in 1721. The original cairn was removed in 1789 during improvements to the park, but was rebuilt in 1823 a few metres east of the original site. The 19th century cairn was around  in diameter and 2 m tall, and appears to have remained intact until the Second World War when it was partially pulled down, thereafter lacking its original height and form. It now remains as a somewhat sprawling stack of stones, and lacks a man-made or purposeful appearance.

The cairn stands opposite the East Lodge at the Meadowbank entrance into Holyrood Park.

In popular culture

In Sir Walter Scott's book The Heart of Midlothian, Muschat's Cairn was the rendezvous point of Butler and Jeanie Deans.

References

1695 births
1721 deaths
Criminals from Edinburgh
Scottish people convicted of murder
People executed by Scotland by hanging
Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
18th-century executions by Scotland

Nicol Muschat


The Cotton Pygmy Goose or Cotton Teal (Nettapus coromandelianus) is a small Perching duck which breeds in Asia. They are among the smallest waterfowl in the world and are found in small to large waterbodies with good aquatic vegetation. They are usually seen in pairs or larger groups of pairs, roosting and nesting on trees near water. They are strong fliers and are known to disperse widely, especially in winter. Their breeding season coincides with the rains. This species is widely distributed across much of Southern Asia, its distribution extending to Australasia. Some populations disperse further in summer (and are found only seasonally, for instance in Afghanistan and Pakistan's Balochistan province). Winter dispersal is also wide and individuals have been seen as far west as Arabia, and Jordan They are found especially in lakes and ponds with emergent vegetation amid which they forage. They can be found even in small village ponds in Pakistan.

In culture
They were hunted with shotguns especially in the former British India, although they were not considered particularly good eating. Eggs were collected for food and the birds were sold in large numbers in the birds markets of Calcutta in the 19th century. In Pakistan it is considered as the "National Aquatic bird of Pakistan", because of its Pan-Pakistani Patriotic Colours respectively.

References

Ducks
National symbols of Pakistan
Birds of Asia
Birds of Australia

Cotton pygmy goose


Adriaen Maertensz Block (c.1582, Gouda – 7 March 1661, Lisse) was successively captain, commander, and governor of Ambon between 1614 and 1617, administrator of the Raad van Indië for the Kamer of the Dutch East India Company in Amsterdam (VOC) in Batavia.

In 1627 two of his ships wrecked on the island of Wight in a storm. He probably intended to go there to buy secretly and trade privately. He was suspended and declared unsuitable for other similar offices and retired in a country house at Lisse (which he had let built in 1641), now known as Kasteel Keukenhof.

In his inventory were many books listed on navigation and history: Jan Huygen van Linschoten, Hugo de Groot, Justus Lipsius, Lieuwe van Aitzema, Plutarch, Tacitus.

Notes

1580s births
1661 deaths
People from Gouda, South Holland
Sailors on ships of the Dutch East India Company

Adriaen Maertensz Block


Altri Mondi (or Altrimondi, Italian for "Other Worlds") was an Italian collection of science fiction novels published by Arnoldo Mondadori Editore from 1986 to 1993.

The first number was the Italian translation of Robots and Empire by Isaac Asimov (May 1986). Other authors published included Alfred Bester, William Gibson, Robert A. Heinlein, Robert Silverberg, Lucius Shepard.

Covers were initially painted by Vicente Segrelles, soon replaced by the Argentine Oscar Chichoni.

External links
 List of published numbers  (containing original titles of novels)

Science fiction book series
Book series introduced in 1986

Altri Mondi


Charles Champion Gilbert (March 1, 1822 – January 17, 1903) was a United States Army officer during the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War.

Early life
Gilbert was born in Zanesville, Ohio. He graduated from West Point in the famed Class of 1846, finishing 21st out of 59 students. His classmates included twenty future Civil War generals, including George B. McClellan, Stonewall Jackson, George Stoneman, Darius N. Couch, and George Pickett. During the Mexican–American War he served in the 3rd U.S. Infantry and 1st U.S. Infantry and fought at Veracruz and Mexico City. Then he served in Texas for two years. Returning to West Point in 1850 as the Assistant Professor of Geography, History and Ethics he was promoted to first lieutenant on June 10, 1850. In 1855, now a captain in the 1st Infantry, he returned to Texas for frontier duty and Indian fighting. He was also the first member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity chapter at Ohio University (Beta Kappa).

Civil War

Early service
When the Civil War started, Gilbert commanded the post of Fort Cobb, Oklahoma. Gilbert rejoined the regiment and fought in the Battle of Wilson's Creek, where he was wounded. He was appointed Inspector General in the Army of the Ohio during the Battle of Shiloh and the Siege of Corinth.

Promotion to Major General
During the Confederate Heartland Offensive, Maj. Gen. William "Bull" Nelson was wounded in the battle of Richmond and his Army of Kentucky severely mauled. Department commander Horatio G. Wright needed to select a replacement for the wounded Nelson and the two ranking officers, Generals Charles Cruft and James S. Jackson, refused the promotion. Therefore, at the recommendation of both Cruft and Jackson, Wright promoted Gilbert to fill the vacancy, and Gilbert was elevated to acting major general pending the approval of the president. Several days later, on September 9, President Abraham Lincoln promoted Gilbert to brigadier general of U.S. Volunteers. Wright's promotion to acting Major General, however, gave Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell enough leverage to appoint Gilbert to a corps command in his Army of the Ohio over such generals as Jeremiah T. Boyle, Jefferson C. Davis, and Albin F. Schoepf. Buell later denied knowing Gilbert had not actually received an official appointment.

Perryville
Proudly wearing two stars in his shoulders, Gilbert was temporarily placed in command of the corps-sized Army of Kentucky in the absence of Nelson. About the time Nelson was well enough to resume command, he was murdered in Louisville. When the Army of Kentucky was assimilated into the Army of the Ohio it was redesignated as its III Provisional Corps, and Gilbert retained the command. A week later, Gilbert was engaged in the Battle of Perryville. His troops were successful in checking the last of the Confederate attacks and driving a Confederate brigade back through Perryville, but Gilbert was criticized for his slow action in battle and he was widely despised by the men in his corps for his actions as a martinet.

Gilbert's appointment to brigadier general was not confirmed by the Senate and it expired on March 4, 1863. Some officers in the Army, including Buell's Chief of Staff James B. Fry, were surprised to find out Gilbert had not officially been promoted to major general. Leaving the Volunteer service and returning to the regular army he was appointed Major in the 19th U.S. Infantry. He also was brevetted as lieutenant colonel and colonel.

Later assignments
Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans took command of the Army of the Ohio and the subsequent reorganization as the Army of the Cumberland left Gilbert without a permanent command. He commanded the 10th (Provisional) Division in Tennessee at the Battle of Harpeth River. In July 1863 he was assigned to the East on administrative duty, serving as Assistant Provost Marshal General and Chief Mustering Officer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and later Hartford, Connecticut, for the remainder of the war.

Postbellum career
Gilbert served on the frontier serving in the 28th U.S. Infantry and 7th U.S. Infantry Regiments. When he retired in 1886 he was the Commanding Officer of the 17th U.S. Infantry with the rank of colonel. He died in Baltimore, Maryland on January 17, 1903; and was buried in Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky. He was the brother of Union Brig. Gen. Samuel A. Gilbert and uncle to Samuel's son Cass Gilbert.

See also

 List of American Civil War generals (Union)

Notes

References
 Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher. Civil War High Commands. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001. .
 Noe, Kenneth W. Perryville: This Grand Havoc of Battle. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2001. .

External links

1822 births
1903 deaths
People from Zanesville, Ohio
American military personnel of the Mexican–American War
Members of the Aztec Club of 1847
Union Army generals
United States Military Academy alumni
People of Ohio in the American Civil War
Burials at Cave Hill Cemetery

Charles Champion Gilbert


Computer art is any art in which computers play a role in production or display of the artwork.  Such art can be an image, sound, animation, video, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, video game, website, algorithm, performance or gallery installation. Many traditional disciplines are now integrating digital technologies and, as a result, the lines between traditional works of art and new media works created using computers has been blurred. For instance, an artist may combine traditional painting with algorithm art and other digital techniques.   As a result, defining computer art by its end product can thus be difficult.  Computer art is bound to change over time since changes in technology and software directly affect what is possible.

Origin of the term
On the title page of the magazine Computers and Automation, January 1963, Edmund Berkeley published a picture by Efraim Arazi from 1962, coining for it the term "computer art." This picture inspired him to initiate the first Computer Art Contest in 1963. The annual contest was a key point in the development of computer art up to the year 1973.

History

The precursor of computer art dates back to 1956–1958, with the generation of what is probably the first image of a human being on a computer screen, a (George Petty-inspired) pin-up girl at a SAGE air defense installation. Desmond Paul Henry created his first electromechanical Henry Drawing Machine in 1961, using an adapted analogue Bombsight Computer. His drawing machine-generated artwork was shown at the Reid Gallery in London in 1962 after his traditional, non-machine artwork won him the privilege of a one-man exhibition there. It was artist L.S.Lowry who encouraged Henry to include examples of his machine-generated art in the Reid Gallery exhibition. .

By the mid-1960s, most individuals involved in the creation of computer art were in fact engineers and scientists because they had access to the only computing resources available at university scientific research labs. Many artists tentatively began to explore the emerging computing technology for use as a creative tool. In the summer of 1962, A. Michael Noll programmed a digital computer at Bell Telephone Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey to generate visual patterns solely for artistic purposes. His later computer-generated patterns simulated paintings by Piet Mondrian and Bridget Riley and became classics. Noll also used the patterns to investigate aesthetic preferences in the mid-1960s.

The two early exhibitions of computer art were held in 1965: Generative Computergrafik, February 1965, at the Technische Hochschule in Stuttgart, Germany, and Computer-Generated Pictures, April 1965, at the Howard Wise Gallery in New York. The Stuttgart exhibit featured work by Georg Nees; the New York exhibit featured works by Bela Julesz and A. Michael Noll and was reviewed as art by The New York Times. A third exhibition was put up in November 1965 at Galerie Wendelin Niedlich in Stuttgart, Germany, showing works by Frieder Nake and Georg Nees. Analogue computer art by Maughan Mason along with digital computer art by Noll were exhibited at the AFIPS Fall Joint Computer Conference in Las Vegas toward the end of 1965.

In 1968, the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London hosted one of the most influential early exhibitions of computer art called Cybernetic Serendipity. The exhibition, curated by Jasia Reichardt, included many of those often regarded as the first digital artists, Nam June Paik, Frieder Nake, Leslie Mezei, Georg Nees, A. Michael Noll, John Whitney, and Charles Csuri. One year later, the Computer Arts Society was founded, also in London.

At the time of the opening of Cybernetic Serendipity, in August 1968, a symposium was held in Zagreb, Yugoslavia, under the title "Computers and visual research". It took up the European artists movement of New Tendencies that had led to three exhibitions (in 1961, 63, and 65) in Zagreb of concrete, kinetic, and constructive art as well as op art and conceptual art. New Tendencies changed its name to "Tendencies" and continued with more symposia, exhibitions, a competition, and an international journal (bit international) until 1973.

Katherine Nash and Richard Williams published Computer Program for Artists: ART 1 in 1970.

Xerox Corporation's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) designed the first Graphical User Interface (GUI) in the 1970s. The first Macintosh computer was released in 1984; since then the GUI became popular. Many graphic designers quickly accepted its capacity as a creative tool.

Andy Warhol created digital art using an Amiga when the computer was publicly introduced at the Lincoln Center, New York in July 1985. An image of Debbie Harry was captured in monochrome from a video camera and digitized into a graphics program called ProPaint. Warhol manipulated the image adding colour by using flood fills.

Output devices
Formerly, technology restricted output and print results. Early machines used pen-and-ink plotters to produce basic hard copy.

In the early 1960s, the Stromberg Carlson SC-4020 microfilm printer was used at Bell Telephone Laboratories as a plotter to produce digital computer art and animation on 35-mm microfilm. Still images were drawn on the face plate of the cathode ray tube and automatically photographed. A series of still images were drawn to create a computer-animated movie, early on a roll of 35-mm film and then on 16-mm film as a 16-mm camera was later added to the SC-4020 printer.

In the 1970s, the dot matrix printer (which uses a print head hitting an ink ribbon somewhat like a typewriter) was used to reproduce varied fonts and arbitrary graphics. The first animations were created by plotting all still frames sequentially on a stack of paper, with motion transfer to 16-mm film for projection.  During the 1970s and 1980s, dot matrix printers were used to produce most visual output while microfilm plotters were used for most early animation.

In 1976, the inkjet printer was invented with the increase in use of personal computers.  The inkjet printer is now the cheapest and most versatile option for everyday digital color output. Raster Image Processing (RIP) is typically built into the printer or supplied as a software package for the computer; it is required to achieve the highest quality output.  Basic inkjet devices do not feature RIP.  Instead, they rely on graphic software to rasterize images.  The laser printer, though more expensive than the inkjet, is another affordable output device available today.

Graphic software
Adobe Systems, founded in 1982, developed the PostScript language and digital fonts, making drawing, painting, and image manipulation software popular. Adobe Illustrator, a vector drawing program based on the Bézier curve introduced in 1987 and Adobe Photoshop, written by brothers Thomas and John Knoll in 1990 were developed for use on MacIntosh computers, and compiled for DOS/Windows platforms by 1993.

Robot painting

A robot painting is an artwork painted by a robot. Raymond Auger's Painting Machine, made in 1962, was one of the first robotic painters  as was AARON, an artificial intelligence/artist developed by Harold Cohen beginning in the late 1960s. Joseph Nechvatal began making large computer-robotic paintings in 1986. Artist Ken Goldberg created an 11' x 11' painting machine in 1992 and German artist Matthias Groebel also built his own robotic painting machine in the early 1990s.

Neural style transfer

Non-photorealistic rendering (using computers to automatically transform images into stylized art) has been a subject of research since the 1990s. Around 2015, neural style transfer using convolutional neural networks to transfer the style of an artwork onto a photograph or other target image became feasible.  One method of style transfer involves using a framework such as VGG or ResNet to break the artwork style down into statistics about visual features. The target photograph is subsequently modified to match those statistics. Notable applications include Prisma, Facebook Caffe2Go style transfer, MIT's Nightmare Machine, and DeepArt.

See also

 3D printing art
 Algorithm art
 Artificial intelligence art
 ASCII art
 Digital painting
 Digital art
 Fractal art
 Generative art
 Glitch art
 Internet art
 New media art
 Software art
 Systems art
 Video game art / Modding

References

Further reading
Honor Beddard and Douglas Dodds. (2009). Digital Pioneers. London: V&A Publishing.
Timothy Binkley. (1988/89). "The Computer is Not A Medium", Philosophic Exchange. Reprinted in EDB & kunstfag, Rapport Nr. 48, NAVFs EDB-Senter for Humanistisk Forskning.  Translated as "L'ordinateur n'est pas un médium", Esthétique des arts médiatiques, Sainte-Foy, Québec: Presses de l'Université du Québec, 1995.
Timothy Binkley. (1997). "The Vitality of Digital Creation" The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 55(2), Perspectives on the Arts and Technology, pp. 107–116.
Thomas Dreher: History of Computer Art

Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion (MIT Press/Leonardo Books) by Oliver Grau

Charlie Gere. (2006). White Heat, Cold Logic: Early British Computer Art, co-edited with Paul Brown, Catherine Mason and Nicholas Lambert, MIT Press/Leonardo Books.
Mark Hansen. (2004). New Philosophy for New Media. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Dick Higgins. (1966). Intermedia. Reprinted in Donna De Salvo (ed.), Open Systems Rethinking Art , London: Tate Publishing, 2005.
Lieser, Wolf. Digital Art. Langenscheidt: h.f. ullmann. 2009
Lopes, Dominic McIver. (2009). A Philosophy of Computer Art. London: Routledge

Lev Manovich. (2002, October). Ten Key Texts on Digital Art: 1970–2000. Leonardo - Volume 35, Number 5, pp. 567–569.
Frieder Nake. (2009, Spring). The Semiotic Engine: Notes on the History of Algorithmic Images in Europe. Art Journal, pp. 76–89.
Perry M., Margoni T., (2010) From music tracks to Google maps: Who owns computer-generated works? in Computer Law and Security Review, Vol. 26, pp. 621–629, 2010
Edward A. Shanken. (2009). Art and Electronic Media. London: Phaidon.
Grant D. Taylor (2014). When The Machine Made Art: The Troubled History of Computer Art. New York: Bloomsbury.

External links

Postmodern art
Contemporary art movements
Creativity techniques
The arts
Multimedia

Computer art


Edward Ware Barrett (July 3, 1910 – October 3, 1989) was an American journalist who was Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs from 1950 to 1952, and Dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism from 1956 to 1968, in which capacity he founded the Columbia Journalism Review in 1961.

Biography
Barrett was born on July 3, 1910, in Birmingham, Alabama, where his father was editor of the Birmingham Age-Herald. He was educated at Princeton University, graduating with a B.A. in public and international affairs in 1932.  During his time at Princeton, he was editor of The Daily Princetonian.

After college, Barrett worked briefly for CBS, before joining Newsweek as a researcher-writer; later, he became the magazine's Washington correspondent and then its national affairs editor.  He moved to Today magazine in 1937, but Today merged with Newsweek later in 1937, and he was therefore back at Newsweek.  Barrett originated the "Periscope" feature at Newsweek.

During World War II, Barrett joined the Office of the Coordinator of Information, which later became the Office of Strategic Services.  Later in 1942, he became chief of the overseas news and features division of the Office of War Information.  After the war, Barrett returned to Newsweek in 1946.

In 1950, President of the United States Harry S. Truman named Barrett Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and Barrett held this office from February 16, 1950, until February 20, 1952.  After his time at the United States Department of State, Barrett founded his own public relations firm, Edward W. Barrett and Associates.  In 1953, he published a memoir entitled Truth Is Our Weapon recounting his experiences during World War II. He joined Hill & Knowlton as executive vice president in 1956.

In 1956, Barrett became Dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, a post he would hold until 1968, when he resigned. He explained, somewhat cryptically, that his resignation had to do with the Columbia student riots of that year.

He founded the Columbia Journalism Review in 1961.  In 1963, he published a second book, entitled Journalism in Action.

Barrett died at Greenwich Hospital in Greenwich, Connecticut on October 23, 1989, at the age of 79.

References

Glenn Fowler, "Edward W. Barrett, 79, Ex-Journalism Dean, Dies", New York Times, October 25, 1989
"Edward W. Barrett Dies; Started Columbia Journalism Review", Washington Post, October 26, 1989
Oral History Interview with Edward W. Barrett at the Harry S. Truman Library & Museum
 Arthur M. Louis, Journalism and Other Atrocities. Createspace.com (2010)

External links

1910 births
1989 deaths
United States Assistant Secretaries of State
Writers from Birmingham, Alabama
Princeton University alumni
Newsweek people
Maria Moors Cabot Prize winners
People of the United States Office of War Information
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism faculty
American male journalists
American public relations people
20th-century American non-fiction writers
Journalists from Alabama
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American journalists

Edward W. Barrett


Campus Point State Marine Conservation Area (SMCA) is a marine protected area that protects the waters along and off the coast of the University of California, Santa Barbara, the student community of Isla Vista, and the University's Coal Oil Point Reserve. The SMCA covers 10.51 square miles, including Goleta Point (also known as "Campus Point").   The marine protected areas protect natural habitats and marine life by prohibiting or limiting removal of wildlife from within their boundaries.

Establishment
Campus Point SMCA is one of 36 marine protected areas adopted by the California Fish and Game Commission in December, 2010 during the third phase of the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative.  The MLPAI is a collaborative public process to create a statewide network of protected areas along California's coastline.  The south coast's new marine protected areas were designed by local divers, fishermen, conservationists and scientists who comprised the South Coast Regional Stakeholder Group.  Their job was to design a network of protected areas that would preserve sensitive sea life and habitats while enhancing recreation, study and education opportunities.  The south coast marine protected areas went into effect in 2012.

Habitat and wildlife
Campus Point SMCA  is designed to protect habitat and species diversity. This SMCA represents and protects a wide diversity of habitat types including eelgrass, surfgrass, kelp, rocky reefs, shallow subtidal, rocky intertidal, oil seeps, sand, and the estuarine inputs of Devereux Slough. It's also known as one of the best places for the Western snowy plover.

Recreation and nearby attractions

Campus Point SMCA prohibits the take of all living marine resources.  However, California's marine protected areas encourage recreational and educational uses of the ocean.  Activities such as kayaking, diving, snorkeling, and swimming are allowed.

University of California, Santa Barbara is a coastal attraction of its own, featuring miles of sandy beaches, a semi-enclosed lagoon and the school's world-class Marine Science Institute.  Access to the coast along this fully marine protected area is available from Goleta Beach County Park, various coastal access points on University property, staircases and trails in the community of Isla Vista, and from the Ellwood Beach area of Goleta. The dunes and blufftop here are part of an elaborate restoration effort, including a docent program to protect and interpret the nesting area of rare snowy plover shorebirds.

Scientific monitoring
As specified by the Marine Life Protection Act, select marine protected areas along California's south coast are being monitored by scientists to track their effectiveness and learn more about ocean health. Similar studies in marine protected areas located off of the Santa Barbara Channel Islands have already detected gradual improvements in fish size and number.

References

External links
Marine Life Protection Act Initiative

Protected areas of Santa Barbara County, California
University of California, Santa Barbara
Protected areas established in 2010
2010 establishments in California


Durrington Walls is the site of a large Neolithic settlement and later henge enclosure in the Stonehenge World Heritage Site. It is 2 miles north-east of Stonehenge in the parish of Durrington, just north of Amesbury.

Excavations in 2013 by a team has revealed a huge settlement; 1,000 homes have been found, supporting a population of 4,000 people at one time. The village was carbon dated to about 2600 B.C.

The monument was on "an extraordinary scale" and unique, researchers said.
The Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes team has been creating an underground map of the area in a five-year project.
Remote sensing and geophysical imaging technology has been used to reveal evidence of nearly 100 stones without the need for excavation.
The monument is just under two miles (3km) from Stonehenge, Wiltshire, and is thought to have been a Neolithic ritual site.

It is the "largest Neolithic settlement in the whole of northern Europe". At 500m in diameter, the henge is the largest in Britain and recent evidence suggests that it was a complementary monument to Stonehenge.

What visibly remains of Durrington Walls today is the 'walls' of the henge monument. This is now a ridge surrounding a central basin. Originally the ditch was some 5.5m deep, 7m wide at its bottom and 18m wide at the top. The bank was in some areas 30m wide. There were two entrances through the bank and ditch – at the north western and south eastern ends. The henge enclosed several timber circles and smaller enclosures – not all of which have been excavated. Several Neolithic house floors have been found next to and under the eastern bank of the henge. Their density suggests that there was a very large village on the sloping river bank on this side.

About three feet underneath  Durrington Walls, there are remains of about 90 standing stones, maybe from an earlier time.  The stones are in a "slightly curved row."  They were found in 2015, using special archaeological research tools and methods including  ground-penetrating radar. Scientists do not know if this feature is the same age as  early Stonehenge or not.

References

3rd millennium BC buildings and structures
Archaeological sites in Wiltshire

Durrington Walls


Sumer Is Icumen In: The Pagan Sound of British and Irish Folk 1966–75 is a 2020 compilation album released by Grapefruit Records, an imprint label of Cherry Red Records. It consists of British folk revival music influenced by the counterculture of the 1960s; the song material has a focus on eerie and mystical elements.

Background
In 2015, Grapefruit Records, an imprint label of Cherry Red Records, released the 3-CD compilation album Dust on the Nettles: A Journey Through the British Underground Folk Scene 1967–72. It had a focus on the meeting between the British folk revival and the counterculture of the 1960s. It was followed by Sumer Is Icumen In: The Pagan Sound of British and Irish Folk 1966–75, which differs from its predecessor by having a stronger focus on spiritual and eerie elements.

Reception
Grapefruit Records released Sumer Is Icumen In on 27 November 2020. Multiple critics wrote that the album contains tracks from both famous and obscure acts. AllMusics Timothy Monger said the mystical elements are best represented by less famous acts such as Oberon, Meic Stevens and Jan Dukes de Grey. Aspects of progressive folk, according to Monger, are best represented by Comus, Dr. Strangely Strange and Third Ear Band, and more traditional approaches by Archie Fisher and Anne Briggs. Monger named Briggs' previously unreleased "Summer's In" as a standout track, gave the album a rating of four and a half out of five and he called the material "quite magical and still captivating a half-century later". David Honigmann of the Financial Times wrote that the music on Sumer Is Icumen In is rooted in the eerie and uncanny aspects of traditional song material which makes it distinct from New Age culture. He rated the album four out of five and called it "a wintry collection, melodic and strangely strange".

Several critics mentioned the 1973 film The Wicker Man as a cultural reference point; track number two, "Corn Rigs" performed by Magnet, comes from that film. For The Arts Desk, Kieron Tyler wrote that Sumer Is Icumen In has a "pick-'n-mix approach to the pagan", comparing it to The Wicker Man in that regard, in which atmosphere is at the centre. He highlighted the tracks from Fairport Convention, The Incredible String Band, Comus and Amber, and although he described some tracks as weak, he wrote that the album is "stuffed with gems". Jack Hopkin of It's Psychedelic Baby! Magazine wrote that Sumer Is Icumen In is more coherent than Dust on the Nettless and thought it was an improvement to include Irish acts such as Dr. Strangely Strange. He said the selection can be enjoyed by "both the casual fan and serious archivist" and the album should appeal to fans of freak-folk.

Track listing

See also
 Sumer is icumen in

References

External links
 Official website

2020 compilation albums
Cherry Red Records compilation albums
Folk rock compilation albums
Psychedelic folk albums


The Sacramento Youth Symphony (SYS) was founded in 1956 as a 55-member youth orchestra, associated with the Sacramento Symphony Association. The Sacramento Symphony has since ceased operations and the Sacramento Youth Symphony became incorporated as an independent, 501(c) 3 non-profit organization in 1991. The SYS has evolved from one orchestra to beginning, intermediate and advanced orchestras.

The loss of the Sacramento Symphony along with cutbacks and elimination of music programs in the public schools have challenged the SYS to assume a greater role in the music education of youth. The Academy of Music was added in 1995. The Academic Orchestra, an intermediate orchestra, was established in 1996. In 1997, the Classic Orchestra, formerly the Junior Music Sponsors, joined SYS as a beginning-level orchestra. The Vivace  strings class was added in 2003 to meet the musical needs of musicians not yet ready for placement in an orchestra. There is also the Premier Orchestra, an orchestra for advanced musicians conducted by Michael Neumann, whose birthday is on December 31.

In 2005, a flute choir was added, which was split in 2007 into intermediate and advanced ensembles. Clarinet ensembles were added in 2010. The 2010 season includes over 350  members in the organization.

In 2011, a strings group called Prelude Strings was added to give young string students who have only been playing for 1–2 years an opportunity to perform
in an ensemble.

The Sacramento Youth Symphony has been under the direction of Michael Neumann since 1979.

Tours

2015- Costa Rica

2010 - Vienna, Salzburg, Prague,

2007 – Gulf of Finland – Finland, Estonia, and Russia.

2003 – Brazil

1999 – European Tour – Switzerland, Austria, Italy and Germany.

1995 – Vienna – SYS won 1st Place and the City of Vienna Award at the International Youth and Music Festival in Vienna, Austria.

1987 – China – Performed in Jinan, Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.  Jinan was inspired to start its own youth orchestra, which still operates today.

1984 – Vienna – SYS placed 2nd in the 13th International Youth and Music Festival in Vienna, Austria.

Website

American youth orchestras
Culture of Sacramento, California
Musical groups established in 1956
1956 establishments in California
Youth organizations based in California
Orchestras based in California

Sacramento Youth Symphony


Menato Boffa (4 January 1930 in Benevento, Italy – 28 September 1996) was an Italian racing driver.

Boffa raced in Formula Junior in 1960, and the following year, he entered four non-championship Formula One races with a Cooper T45. In the poorly attended 1961 Vienna Grand Prix he qualified fourth and was classified fifth, albeit 14 laps down on the winner. At Syracuse he started 17th and finished ninth, seven laps down. However, in Naples he retired on lap five after an accident with Keith Greene, and later in the year he failed to qualify for the Modena Grand Prix where he was 3.5 seconds slower than pole-sitter Stirling Moss. The following week, he was on the entry list for the 1961 Italian Grand Prix but withdrew before the event. After the 1961 season, Boffa moved away from Formula One and did not participate at that level again.

Complete Formula One World Championship results
(key)

Non-championship Formula One results
(key)

References

1930 births
1996 deaths
Sportspeople from Benevento
Italian racing drivers
Italian Formula One drivers

Menato Boffa