Alan Marshal (born Alan M Willey 29 January 1909 – 9 July 1961) was an Australian-born actor who performed on stage in the United States and in Hollywood films. He was sometimes billed as Alan Marshall or Alan Willey.

Biography

Early life
Born Alan M Willey in Sydney, Australia, he was the son of popular Queensland stage actress Irby (Agnes) Marshal and English actor-producer Leonard Willey. The family left Australia in mid 1914, when he was five years old.

Willey and Marshal appeared in several Australian films made in 1912 – including The Strangler's Grip (1912) and The Mystery of the Black Pearl (1912), both directed by Franklyn Barrett.

Irby and Leonard continued their successful careers on the stage in the United States, first in San Francisco then in New York.

Early acting career
Alan reportedly first appeared on Broadway in The Swan (1924), at age 15 as "Alan Willey".

He went on to appear on Broadway as Stephano in The Merchant of Venice (1928), a production that also featured his father Leonard Willey as Antonio. Other Broadway stage productions he performed in include The Game of Love and Death (1929–30), Michael and Mary (1930), and Death Takes a Holiday (1931).

As "Alan Marshal", he had roles on Broadway in Foolscap (1933), Going Gay (1934), While Parents Sleep (1934), Lady Jane (1934), The Bishop Misbehaves (1935) and On Stage (1935).

Film career

According to his son, Kit, Marshal was spotted by a studio scout while performing in a play in New York and was asked to do a screen test for Selznick International Studios.

Selznick cast him in a supporting role in The Garden of Allah (1936) with Charles Boyer and Marlene Dietrich.

Marshal was loaned to MGM where he was in After the Thin Man (1936). That studio liked him and gave him a good part in Night Must Fall (1937).

Marshal was used by MGM for key roles in prestige pictures: Parnell (1937), playing William O'Shea who was cuckolded by Clark Gable and Myrna Loy; and Conquest (1937) with Greta Garbo and Boyer, playing Philippe Antoine d'Ornano.

Walter Wanger borrowed him for I Met My Love Again (1938), billed fourth.

Marshal's first lead role was in a B picture at Republic Films, Invisible Enemy (1938). He went back to support parts for The Road to Reno (1938) at Universal, then was the romantic male lead in Dramatic School (1938) with Luise Rainer at MGM, a big flop.

He played a similar sort of part in Four Girls in White (1939) then was Anna Sten's co star in Exile Express (1939) made at Grand National Pictures.

Marshal had a strong role in 20th Century Fox's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939) supporting Basil Rathbone and Ida Lupino.

At RKO Marshal had a support part in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) and the lead in a B picture, Married and in Love (1940), directed by John Farrow. He supported Anna Neagle in Irene (1940) at RKO and Loretta Young in He Stayed for Breakfast (1940) at Columbia.

Marshal stayed at Columbia for The Howards of Virginia (1940) with Cary Grant then went back to RKO to play one of Ginger Rogers's suitors in Tom, Dick and Harry (1940), a big hit. He was second billed to Merle Oberon in Lydia (1941). In 1942 Selznick sold many of his contracts to 20th Century Fox including Marshal's.

Marshal was second billed to Irene Dunne in The White Cliffs of Dover (1944) at MGM, a huge hit. He was top billed in Bride by Mistake (1944) with Laraine Day, another box office success. "It's the third time I've been discovered", said Marshall, who was set to star in Claudia (1945).

Marshal had a nervous breakdown and did not act for a number of years.

Television
Marshall was announced for Three Came Home (1950) but did not appear in the final film. It was reported he withdrew due to illness.

Marshal concentrated on television in the 1950s, appearing in episodes of Lights Out (1950) ("The Dark Corner"), The Clock (1951) ("Last Adventure"), Robert Montgomery Presents (1952) ("Claire Ambler"), and Climax! (1956) ("The Hanging Judge", directed by John Frankenheimer).

Marshal returned to movies with a small role in The Opposite Sex (1956). He was more commonly found on TV, such as in Playhouse 90 (1957, "The Greer Case"), Perry Mason (1958, "The Case of the Terrified Typist"), Buckskin (1958, "The Ghost of Balaclava"), General Electric Theatre (1958, "Battle for a Soul", directed by Ray Milland), Wagon Train (1958, "The Doctor Willoughby Story", with Jane Wyman), The Ann Sothern Show (1958, "The Countess of Bartley"), Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1958, "Murder Me Twice"), Rawhide (1959, "Incident on the Edge of Madness", with Lon Chaney Jr), 77 Sunset Strip (1959)("In Memoriam"), M Squad (1959) ("Ghost Town"), Sugarfoot (1959, "The Vultures"), Bourbon Street Beat (1959, "Invitation to a Murder") and Surfside 6 (1960, "Spinout at Sebrin").

Marshall had a supporting role in House on Haunted Hill (1959) starring Vincent Price and directed by William Castle, and the western Day of the Outlaw (1959).

Filmography

Family

Marshal eloped with socialite Mary Grace Borel in November 1938. The couple had one son, Christopher ("Kit"), who also became an actor. Borel sued for divorce in August 1947. Marshal did not remarry.

Death
Marshal died after suffering a heart attack while appearing in Chicago with Mae West in a production of her play Sextette at the Edgewater Beach Playhouse on 9 July 1961. He was 52. He finished the performance but was later found dead in his bed at the Edgewater Beach Hotel. His son Kit was also performing in the show.

His interment was at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

References

Further reading

External links

  (alternate billing)

1909 births
1961 deaths
Australian expatriate male actors in the United States
Australian male film actors
Australian male stage actors
Australian people of English descent
Male actors from Sydney
Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)
20th-century Australian male actors

Alan Marshal (actor)


Majoritarianism is a political philosophy or ideology with the agenda asserting that a majority based on a religion, language, social class, or other category of the population, is entitled to a certain degree of primacy in society, and has the right to make decisions that affect the society. This traditional view has come under growing criticism, and liberal democracies have increasingly included constraints on what the parliamentary majority can do, in order to protect citizens' fundamental rights.

Majoritarianism should not be confused with electoral systems that give seats to candidates with only a plurality of votes. Although such systems are sometimes called majoritarian systems, they use plurality, not majority, to set winners. Instant-runoff voting and some other electoral systems are majoritarianwinners are determined by having majority of the votes that are being counted.

A parliament that gives lawmaking power to any group that holds a majority of seats may be called a majoritarian parliament. Such is the case in the Parliament of the United Kingdom and the Parliament of India) and many other chambers of power.

Under a democratic majoritarian political structure, the majority would not exclude any minority from future participation in the democratic process. Majoritarianism is sometimes pejoratively referred to by its opponents as "ochlocracy" or "tyranny of the majority". Majoritarianism is often referred to as majority rule, which may refer to a majority class ruling over a minority class, while not referring to the decision process called majority rule. Majority rule is a belief that the majority community should be able to rule a country in whichever way it wants. However, in many cases due to active dis-empowerment of the minority or minorities, often what is claimed as the majority with the right to rule is only a minority of the voters.

Advocates of majoritarianism argue that majority decision making is intrinsically democratic and that any restriction on majority decision making is intrinsically undemocratic. If democracy is restricted by a constitution that cannot be changed by a simple majority decision, then yesterday's majority is being given more weight than today's. If it is restricted by some small group, such as aristocrats, judges, priests, soldiers, or philosophers, then society becomes an oligarchy. The only restriction acceptable in a majoritarian system is that a current majority has no right to prevent a different majority emerging in the future; this could happen, for example, if a minority persuades enough of the majority to change its position. In particular, a majority cannot exclude a minority from future participation in the democratic process. Majoritarianism does not prohibit a decision being made by representatives as long as this decision is made via majority rule, as it can be altered at any time by any different majority emerging in the future.

One critique of majoritarianism is that systems without supermajority requirements for changing the rules for voting can be shown to likely be unstable. Among other critiques of majoritarianism is that most decisions in fact take place not by majority rule, but by plurality, unless the voting system artificially restricts candidates or options to two only, such as is done under Contingent voting, two-round voting and Instant-runoff voting. In turn, due to Gibbard's theorem and Arrow's paradox, it is not possible to have a voting system with more than two options that retains adherence to both certain "fairness" criteria and rational decision-making criteria.

Additionally, if majoritarianism is left unchecked, the rights of minority groups can be threatened. Some democracies have tried to resolve this by requiring supermajority support to enact changes to basic rights. For example, in the United States, the rights to freedom of speech and freedom of religion are written into the Constitution, meaning it would take more than a simple majority of the members of Congress to repeal the rights. Other democracies have sought to address threats to minority rights by adopting proportional voting systems that guarantee at least some seats in their national legislatures to minority political factions. Examples include New Zealand, where mixed-member proportional voting is used, and Australia, where a single transferable vote system is used. Whether these methods have succeeded in protecting minority interests, or have gone too far, remains a matter for debate.

Another critical analysis of majoritarianism is that when it emerges as a form of governance that uses nationalist and populist markers of inclusion and exclusion, majoritarianism is "authoritarian by definition"; as advocates for a nationalist-populist majoritarianism assert that they are "the people" (where only one "the people" is allowed) there is little space for pluralism. Scholars note that this form of governance can be seen in connection to India under the rule of Narendra Modi.

Types
Majoritarianism, as a concept of government, branches out into several forms. The classic form includes unicameralism and a unitary state.

Qualified majoritarianism is a more inclusionary form, with degrees of decentralization and federalism.

Integrative majoritarianism incorporates several institutions to preserve minority groups and foster moderate political parties.

History and legacy
There are relatively few instances of large-scale majority rule in recorded history, most notably the majoritarian system of Athenian democracy and other ancient Greek city-states. However, some argue that none of those Greek city-states were truly majority rule, particularly due to their exclusion of women, non-landowners, and slaves from decision-making processes. Most of the famous ancient philosophers staunchly opposed majoritarianism, because decisions based on the will of the uneducated and uninformed 'masses' are not necessarily wise or just. Plato is a prime example with his Republic, which describes a societal model based on a tripartite class structure.

Anarchist anthropologist David Graeber offers a reason as to why majority democratic government is so scarce in the historical record. "Majority democracy, we might say, can only emerge when two factors coincide: 1. a feeling that people should have equal say in making group decisions, and 2. a coercive apparatus capable of enforcing those decisions." Graeber argues that those two factors almost never meet: "Where egalitarian societies exist, it is also usually considered wrong to impose systematic coercion. Where a machinery of coercion did exist, it did not even occur to those wielding it that they were enforcing any sort of popular will."

Majoritarianism (as a theory), similar to democracy, has often been used as a pretext by sizable or aggressive minorities to politically oppress other smaller (or civically inactive) minorities, or even sometimes a civically inactive majority (see Richard Nixon's reference to the "Silent Majority" that he asserted supported his policies).

This agenda is most frequently encountered in the realm of religion: In essentially all Western nations, for instance, Christmas Day—and in some countries, other important dates in the Christian year as well—are recognized as legal holidays; plus a particular denomination may be designated as the state religion and receive financial backing from the government (examples include the Church of England in England and the Lutheran Church in the Scandinavian countries). Virtually all countries also have one or more official languages, often to the exclusion of some minority group or groups within that country who do not speak the language or languages so designated. In most cases, those decisions have not been made using a majoritarian referendum, and even in the rare case when a referendum has been used, a new majority is not allowed to emerge at any time and repeal it.

Reform and backlash

In recent times—especially beginning in the 1960s—some forms of majoritarianism have been countered by liberal reformers in many countries: in the 1963 case Abington School District v. Schempp, the United States Supreme Court declared that school-led prayer in the nation's public schools was unconstitutional, and since then many localities have sought to limit, or even prohibit, religious displays on public property. The movement toward greater consideration for the rights of minorities within a society is often referred to as pluralism.

This has provoked a backlash from some advocates of majoritarianism, who lament the Balkanization of society they claim has resulted from the gains made by the multicultural agenda; these concerns were articulated in a 1972 book, The Dispossessed Majority, written by Wilmot Robertson. Multiculturalists, in turn, have accused majoritarians of racism and xenophobia.

See also

Argumentum ad populum
Majoritarian democracy
Collectivism and individualism
Consensus decision-making
Consensus democracy
Direct democracy
Minoritarianism (opposite)
Minority rights
Popular democracy
Populism
Tyranny of the majority
Utilitarian ethics

References

Political theories
Majority–minority relations
Liberalism
Majority

Majoritarianism


Geraldine Claudette Darden (born July 22, 1936) is an  American mathematician. She was the fourteenth African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics.

Early life and education
Darden was born in Nansemond County, Virginia.  Darden earned a bachelor's degrees in mathematics in 1957 from the Hampton Institute, a historically black institute, and took a teaching position at S.H. Clarke Junior High School in Portsmouth, Virginia. In the summer of 1958, Darden saw an opportunity for aspiring mathematicians created by the launch of Russian satellite Sputnik and ensuing US interest in mathematics and science a year earlier, and she applied for and received a National Science Foundation grant to attend the Summer Institute in Mathematics held at North Carolina Central University. Here she met Marjorie Lee Browne, the mathematician who directed the institute, who would encourage Darden to go on to graduate school.

Darden earned a master's degree in 1960 at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, and a second master's degree in 1965 and Ph.D. in 1967 from Syracuse University. Her dissertation was completed under the supervision of James Reid, "On the Direct Sums of Cyclic Groups".

Contributions
In addition to teaching, Darden also co-wrote Selected Papers on Pre-calculus, with textbook author Tom Apostol, Gulbank D. Chakerian, and John D. Neff.

References

Further reading
 Selected Papers on Pre-calculus. Reprinted from the American Mathematical Monthly (volumes 1-81) and from the Mathematics Magazine (volumes 1-49). The Raymond W. Brink Selected Mathematical Papers, Vol. 1. The Mathematical Association of America, Washington, D.C., 1977. pp. xvii+469,

External links
 Photograph of Geraldine Claudette Darden

1936 births
Living people
20th-century American mathematicians
African-American mathematicians
American women mathematicians
People from Suffolk, Virginia
Hampton University alumni
Syracuse University alumni
African-American schoolteachers
Schoolteachers from Virginia
20th-century American educators
20th-century American women educators
20th-century women mathematicians
Mathematicians from Virginia
20th-century African-American women
20th-century African-American educators
21st-century American educators
21st-century American women educators
21st-century African-American educators
21st-century African-American women
University of Illinois College of Liberal Arts and Sciences alumni

Geraldine Claudette Darden


Return flow is surface and subsurface water that leaves the field following application of irrigation water. While irrigation return flows are point sources, in the United States they are expressly exempted from discharge permit requirements under the Clean Water Act.

Return flows generally return to the irrigation centre after a period of about three to four weeks; due to this, the farmers usually need to pour bleach into the water to clean it of any organisms that have entered the stream. If this is not taken care of, diseases such as typhoid or cholera could enter the irrigation and pose a risk of epidemic disease to surrounding towns and cities.

The return flows in irrigation is nearly 50% of the water supplied in silty clay soil type in tropical countries. The salinity of the return flow water increases with decrease in % of return flow quantity. Rest of the water supplied to irrigation evaporates to atmosphere due to evapotranspiration.

When ground water is extracted for irrigation and other uses, most of the return flows seep back into the ground instead of joining the nearby surface stream. When ground water is used in excess of recharge from rainfall/precipitation, the quality of groundwater deteriorates over a period of time and becomes unfit for irrigation use.

References

United States Department of Agriculture
Water law
Water pollution

Return flow


Llamerada is a popular dance of Bolivian origin. It is a representation of the llama muleteers who went from the highlands altiplano to the valleys to exchange products, using the llama as a means of transporting products. It is also a remembrance of the task of herding llamas and has historical religious value as a ritual of good fortune.

This dance is meant to represent the Highland llama holders and breeders. Therefore, the dancers (male) traditionally hold a little llama in their left hand while rotating the "honda" in their right. Some claim that the Llamerada is a very old, even Inca dance, an argument mainly based on the fact that llama herding has been very important to the indigenous peoples of the Andes for centuries and the Inca Empire encompassed parts of Bolivia. There is very little known about how the actual version emerged; even the costumes have changed a lot during the last few decades. The headdress used at present is said to represent the traditional headdress of Aymara leaders (in both sides of Lake Titicaca) and in fact it resembles the headdress of the "Mama Talla", the wife of an Aymara Community leader.

References

Bolivian dances
Bolivian culture
Peruvian culture
Peruvian dances

Llamerada


The checker-throated stipplethroat (Epinecrophylla fulviventris), also called fulvous-bellied antwren or checker-throated antwren, is a small passerine bird in the antbird family. It has traditionally been placed in the genus Myrmotherula, but is, together with other members of the so-called "stipple-throated group", now placed in the new genus Epinecrophylla. This is supported by molecular work, behavior, voice and morphology. Now treated as monotypic, it includes the former subspecies E. f. costaricensis and E. f. salmoni.

It is a resident breeder in tropical Central and South America from southeastern Honduras to western Ecuador. In Central America, it occurs in the Caribbean lowlands and foothills up to 700 m altitude.

The checker-throated stipplethroat is typically 10 cm long and weighs 10.5 g. Both sexes have olive-brown upperparts, paler buff-brown underparts, and blackish wings with buff wingbars. The adult male has a blackish throat, heavily spotted with white, a greyish wash to the breast, and dusky sides to the head. The adult female has a buff throat and buff central breast. Young birds are brighter and more cinnamon than the adults, with less distinct wingbars and pale streaking on the under parts. This species has a thin cheep call, and the song is a loud .

The checker-throated stipplethroat is normally found as pairs or small groups, but often forms the core of a  mixed-species feeding flock. It feeds on the eggs, larvae and adults of insects and spiders, taken from leaf litter, epiphyte bases and vine tangles in low vegetation or on the ground. This is a common bird in the understory of wet forest and in adjacent tall second growth.  The female lays two lilac or red-brown spotted white eggs, which are incubated by both sexes, in a 15 cm deep pouch nest constructed from plant fibres and dead leaves. The nest is suspended from the last fork of a thin twig less than 2 m up. The male and female parents both feed the chicks. At territorial boundaries, males will perch 30 cm apart with lowered heads and puffed-out plumage and sway in opposite directions.

References

Irestedt, Martin ; Fjeldså, Jon; Nylander, Johan A. A. & Ericson, Per G. P. (2004): Phylogenetic relationships of typical antbirds (Thamnophilidae) and test of incongruence based on Bayes factors. BMC Evol. Biol. 4: 23.  Supplementary information
 Isler, M., D. Lacerda, P. Isler, S. Hackett, K. Rosenberg, and R. Brumfield (2006). Epinecrophylla, a new genus of antwrens (Aves: Passeriformes: Thamnophilidae). Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 119(4): 522–527.
Stiles, F. Gary & Skutch, Alexander Frank (1989): A guide to the birds of Costa Rica. Comistock, Ithaca.

Further reading

checker-throated stipplethroat
Birds of Nicaragua
Birds of Costa Rica
Birds of Panama
Birds of the Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena
checker-throated stipplethroat
checker-throated stipplethroat

Checker-throated stipplethroat


Stephen Globus is a New York City venture capitalist who is third generation from a prominent banking family.  He is currently a founder and director of China Biopharmaceuticals Holdings, which is a major medical company in China.  He was a founding shareholder of  Genitope Corporation which is a San Francisco-area biotechnology company that designs custom treatments for cancer, including a vaccine to treat lymphoma.

Globus also was founder and chairman of PlasmaCo which developed color plasma television and sold to Osaka based  Matsushita (Panasonic) in 1996.  Globus was on the Japanese Board of Directors for the proceeding 7 years after the sale. His other ventures activities include key investment or managerial roles in Proscure (sold to Repligen), ExSar, Kimeragen which sold to a Paris-based company whose board Globus served on, Energy Research  (Fuel Cell Energy), Nematron, and Tinsley Laboratories  which developed the optic correction for Hubble Space Telescope now a division of the Dutch company ASML.

Globus holds patents on panoramic cameras called the Globuscope and  optics. Globus is a founder of  Globus Studios  in Central  Manhattan.  He is patron of the arts with associations such as Japan Society of New York and China Institute in America.

References

American businesspeople
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)

Stephen Globus


José António Prudéncio Conde Bargiela (29 October 1957 – 2 June 2005), known as José António, was a Portuguese footballer who played as a central defender.

Club career
José António was born in Cascais. After an unassuming two-year spell at S.L. Benfica, where he also played youth football, he moved to neighbours G.D. Estoril Praia where he established himself as a professional.

In 1983, at the age of 25, José António signed with C.F. Os Belenenses – also in Lisbon – where he would remain in several capacities for the next two decades. In 1989, already as an undisputed starter and captain, he helped the Azuis (Blues) lift the Portuguese Cup after a 2–1 win over Benfica.

José António retired in 1991 at nearly 34, having played 163 games for the club in the Primeira Liga. Two years later, he had a very brief coaching spell with Belenenses as one of three coaches during the season, as the team eventually avoided relegation; from an early age onwards, he developed a baldness condition.

International career
José António only earned three caps for Portugal, but his first and last produced memorable results: on 16 October 1985, 13 days shy of his 28th birthday, he helped the national side achieve a 1–0 win in West Germany for the 1986 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

In the final stages in Mexico, José António appeared in the first match against England, in another 1–0 success. The competition, however, was tainted with the Saltillo Affair in which the squad was involved, and Portugal eventually crashed out in the group stages, and the player never appeared internationally again.

Death
On 2 June 2005, José António was playing in a pickup game with some friends in Carcavelos, but felt indisposed only a few minutes after its start. Having already left the court, he suddenly collapsed and died; all resuscitation attempts were in vain.

He was only 47 years old, and never married.

Honours
Belenenses
Taça de Portugal: 1988–89

References

External links

1957 births
2005 deaths
Footballers from Cascais
Portuguese men's footballers
Men's association football defenders
Primeira Liga players
Liga Portugal 2 players
S.L. Benfica footballers
G.D. Estoril Praia players
C.F. Os Belenenses players
Portugal men's youth international footballers
Portugal men's under-21 international footballers
Portugal men's international footballers
1986 FIFA World Cup players
Portuguese football managers
Primeira Liga managers
C.F. Os Belenenses managers

José António (footballer, born 1957)


David Adam (1936 – 24 January 2020) was a British Anglican priest and writer.

Adam was born in Alnwick, Northumberland. When he left school at 15, he went to work underground in the coal mines for three years before training for ordained ministry at Kelham Theological College. He was vicar of Danby-Castleton-Commondale in North Yorkshire for over 20 years, where he began writing prayers in the Celtic pattern. He later became rector of Holy Island, Lindisfarne, where he ministered to thousands of pilgrims and other visitors. He was made a canon of York Minster in 1989. He lived on the coast near Lindisfarne.

Writings
Adam's first book in the Celtic vein, Edge of Glory, achieved immediate popularity. He published several collections of art, reflections, prayers and meditations based on the Celtic tradition. His books have been translated into various languages, including Finnish and German, and have appeared in American editions.

Adam's books include:

The Cry of the Deer: Meditations on the hymn of St Patrick known as The Deer's Cry.
A Desert in the Ocean: Meditations based on St Brendan's Prayer on the Mountain – God's call to adventurous living.
The Eye of the Eagle: Meditations on the hymn Be Thou My Vision
The Edge of Glory: Collection of modern prayers in the Celtic tradition
Flame In My Heart: The life of St Aidan
Fire of the North: The life of St Cuthbert
On Eagles' Wings: The life of St Chad
The Open Gate: Celtic-style prayers for spiritual growth
The Road of Life: Reflections on Searching and Longing
The Rhythm Of Life: Morning, Midday, Evening and Night liturgies for each day of the week, SPCK
Tides and Seasons: A further collection of modern prayers in the Celtic tradition
Walking the Edges: Living in the Presence of God. Drawing on the stories of St Martin of Tours, St Ninian, St Patrick, St Oswald of Northumbria and St Cuthbert, this is an invitation to journey to the "borderlands"
The Awesome Journey: Life's pilgrimage

References

1936 births
2020 deaths
People from Alnwick
20th-century English Anglican priests

David Adam (priest)


The Tepid Baths is a public indoor pool complex in Auckland, New Zealand. The baths opened in 1914 on a site that had previously been occupied by a small drydock and were very well-received by the public, with the new baths attracting 30,000 visitors in the first two months after opening. In 2010 the baths closed for a major refurbishment, re-opening in mid-2012 after a two year re-build.

The main pool is 1.1m in the shallowest end, and 2.1m  in the deepest end.

History
The Tepid Baths was originally leased from the Auckland Harbour Board, and contain two separate pools, a "male" (25 m, 6 lanes) and "female" (18 m, 4 lane). The "male" pool was the largest in New Zealand at the time. The pools were heated with hot water from the nearby tramways power plant, the system being considered an engineering masterpiece of its time.

The pools were not only extensively used for both recreational and competitive swimming, but also for some other activities – in one event in the early 1930s, a pentecostal minister baptised a hundred new faithful in the pools. Two local athletes were employed as custodians of the baths, swimmer Malcolm Champion (who frequently swam across the harbour to and from his North Shore home) and runner Billy Savidan.

In 1974, the salt water pools (previously fed from the Waitematā Harbour) were transformed into fresh water pools, primarily for maintenance reasons. The facility was refurbished in 1986 and again after the YMCA received the management lease in 1997 from Auckland City Council. Renovations included new sauna and steam rooms, and a gym on the upper level (YMCA club members only). Nowadays, a large part of the Tepid Baths' customers are people working in the Auckland CBD who swim here before or after work.

In November 2009 it was announced that the Tepid Baths would close for a period of up to four years for a $12 million restoration project to address structural issues exacerbated by saltwater effects. It was hoped the pool would reopen in time for its 100th anniversary in 2014. The baths closed in April 2010, with the Y-Fitness Centre having already moved to a new purpose-built facility at the ANZ Centre on Albert Street. While the restoration costs rose later to approximately $16 million, the pools were closed only until mid-2012 when they reopened.

In late 2012, the restored building won the New Zealand Project Management Institute's (PMINZ) Public Sector Project of the Year award.

References

External links

Tepid Baths
Photographs of the Tepid Baths held in Auckland Libraries' heritage collections.

Buildings and structures in Auckland
Tourist attractions in Auckland
Swimming venues in New Zealand
Buildings and structures completed in 1914
1914 establishments in New Zealand
Sports venues completed in 1914
1910s architecture in New Zealand
Heritage New Zealand Category 2 historic places in the Auckland Region
Auckland CBD

Tepid Baths


Vaccinium vitis-idaea, the lingonberry, partridgeberry, mountain cranberry or cowberry, is a small evergreen shrub in the heath family Ericaceae, that bears edible fruit. It is native to boreal forest and Arctic tundra throughout the Northern Hemisphere, from Europe and Asia to North America. Lingonberries are picked in the wild and used to accompany various dishes, primarily in the Nordics. Commercial cultivation is undertaken in the U.S. Pacific Northwest and in the Netherlands.

Names
Vaccinium vitis-idaea is most commonly known in English as 'lingonberry' or 'cowberry'. The name 'lingonberry' originates from the Swedish name  for the species, and is derived from  ("heather").

The genus name Vaccinium is a classical Latin name for a plant, possibly the bilberry or hyacinth, and may be derived from the Latin , 'berry'. The specific name is derived from Latin  ('vine') and , the feminine form of  (literally 'from Mount Ida', used in reference to raspberries Rubus idaeus).

There are at least 25 other common English names of Vaccinium vitis-idaea worldwide, including:

 bearberry
 beaverberry
 cougarberry
 foxberry
 lowbush cranberry
 mountain bilberry
 mountain cranberry
 partridgeberry (in Newfoundland and Cape Breton Island)
 quailberry
 red whortleberry
 redberry (in Labrador and the Lower North Shore of Quebec)

Description
Vaccinium vitis-idaea spreads by underground stems to form dense clonal colonies. Slender and brittle roots grow from the underground stems. The stems are rounded in cross-section and grow from  in height. Leaves grow alternately and are oval,  long, with a slightly wavy margin, and sometimes with a notched tip.

The flowers are bell-shaped, white to pale pink,  long, and produced in the early summer. V. vitis-idaea begins to produce flowers from five to ten years of age. They are pollinated by multiple insect species, including Andrena lapponica and several species of bumblebee.

The fruit is a red berry  across, with an acidic taste, ripening in late summer to autumn. While bitter early in the season, they sweeten if left on the branch through winter.

Conservation status in the United States
The plant is endangered in Michigan. The minus subspecies is listed as a species of special concern and believed extirpated in Connecticut.

Ecology
Vaccinium vitis-idaea keeps its leaves all winter even in the coldest years, unusual for a broad-leaved plant, though in its natural habitat it is usually protected from severe cold by snow cover. It is extremely hardy, tolerating temperatures as low as  or lower, but grows poorly where summers are hot. It prefers some shade (as from a forest canopy) and constantly moist, acidic soil. Nutrient-poor soils are tolerated but not alkaline soils.

Varieties

There are two regional varieties or subspecies of V. vitis-idaea, one in Eurasia and one in North America, differing in leaf size:

 V. vitis-idaea var. vitis-idaea L.—syn. V. vitis-idaea subsp. vitis-idaea.cowberry. Eurasia. Leaves are  long.
 V. vitis-idaea var. minus Lodd.—syn. V. vitis-idaea subsp. minus (Lodd.) Hultén.lingonberry. North America. Leaves are  long.

Cultivation
Lingonberry has been commercially cultivated in the Netherlands and other countries since the 1960s.

Some cultivars are grown for their ornamental rather than culinary value. In the United Kingdom, the Koralle Group has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

Culinary uses

The berries collected in the wild are a popular fruit in northern, central and eastern Europe, notably in Nordic countries, the Baltic states, central and northern Europe. In some areas, they can be picked legally on both public and private lands in accordance with the freedom to roam.

The berries are quite tart, so they are often cooked and sweetened before eating in the form of lingonberry jam, compote, juice, smoothie or syrup. The raw fruits are also frequently simply mashed with sugar, which preserves most of their nutrients and taste. This mix can be stored at room temperature in closed but not necessarily sealed containers, but in this condition, they are best preserved frozen. Fruit served this way or as compote often accompanies game and liver dishes.

In Sweden the traditional Swedish meatballs are served with lingonberry jam alongside boiled or mashed potatoes and gravy sauce. In Sweden, Finland and Norway, reindeer and elk steaks are traditionally served with gravy and lingonberry sauce. Preserved fruit is commonly eaten with meatballs, as well as potato pancakes. A traditional Swedish dessert is  (literally 'lingonberry pears'), consisting of fresh pears which are peeled, boiled and preserved in  (lingonberry juice) and is commonly eaten during Christmas. This was very common in old times, because it was an easy and tasty way to preserve pears. In Sweden and Russia, when sugar was still a luxury item, the berries were usually preserved simply by putting them whole into bottles of water. This was known as  (watered lingonberries); the procedure preserved them until next season. This was also a home remedy against scurvy.

This traditional Russian soft drink, known as "lingonberry water", is mentioned by Alexander Pushkin in Eugene Onegin. In Russian folk medicine, lingonberry water was used as a mild laxative. A traditional Finnish dish is sautéed reindeer () with mashed potatoes and lingonberries on the side, either raw, thawed or as a jam. In Finland, whipped semolina pudding flavored with lingonberry () is also popular. In Poland, the berries are often mixed with pears to create a sauce served with poultry or game. The berries can also be used to replace redcurrants when creating Cumberland sauce.

The berries are also popular as a wild picked fruit in Eastern Canada, for example in Newfoundland and Labrador and Cape Breton, where they are locally known as partridgeberries or redberries, and on the mainland of Nova Scotia, where they are known as foxberries. In this region they are incorporated into jams, syrups, and baked goods, such as pies, scones, and muffins.

In Sweden lingonberries are often sold as jam and juice, and as a key ingredient in dishes. They are used to make Lillehammer berry liqueur; and, in East European countries, lingonberry vodka is sold, and vodka with lingonberry juice or mors is a cocktail.

The berries are an important food for bears and foxes, and many fruit-eating birds. Caterpillars of the case-bearer moths Coleophora glitzella, Coleophora idaeella and Coleophora vitisella are obligate feeders on V. vitis-idaea leaves.

In Indigenous North American cuisine
Alaska natives mix the berries with rose hip pulp and sugar to make jam, cook the berries as a sauce, and store the berries for future use. The Dakelh use the berries to make jam. The Koyukon freeze the berries for winter use. Inuit dilute and sweeten the juice to make a beverage, freeze and store the berries for spring, and use the berries to make jams and jellies. The Iñupiat use the berries to make two different desserts, one in which the berries are whipped with frozen fish eggs and eaten, and one in which raw berries are mashed with canned milk and seal oil. They also make a dish of the berries cooked with fish eggs, fish (whitefish, sheefish or pike) and blubber.

The Upper Tanana boil the berries with sugar and flour to thicken; eat the raw berries, either plain or mixed with sugar, grease or a combination of the two; fry them in grease with sugar or dried fish eggs; or make them into pies, jam, and jelly. They also preserve the berries alone or in grease and store them in a birchbark basket in an underground cache, or freeze them.

Use of the minus subspecies
The Anticosti people use the fruit to make jams and jellies. The Nihithawak Cree store the berries by freezing them outside during the winter, mix the berries with boiled fish eggs, livers, air bladders and fat and eat them, eat the berries raw as a snack food, or stew them with fish or meat. The Iñupiat of Nelson Island eat the berries, as do the Iñupiat of the Northern Bering Sea and Arctic regions of Alaska, as well as the Inuvialuit. The Haida people, Hesquiaht First Nation, Wuikinuxv and Tsimshian all use the berries as food.

Nutrition
Raw lingonberries are 86% water, 13% carbohydrates, 1% protein, and contain negligible fat. In a  reference amount, lingonberries supply 228 calories, and are low-to-moderate sources of vitamin C, B vitamins, and dietary minerals.

Traditional medicine
In traditional medicine, V. vitis-idaea was used as an apéritif and astringent. The Upper Tanana ate the berries or used their juice to treat minor respiratory disorders.

Other uses
The Nihithawak Cree use the berries of the minus subspecies to color porcupine quills, and put the firm, ripe berries on a string to wear as a necklace. The Western Canadian Inuit use the minus subspecies as a tobacco additive or substitute.

Related species
Vaccinium vitis-idaea differs from the related cranberries in having white flowers with petals partially enclosing the stamens and stigma, rather than pink flowers with petals reflexed backwards, and rounder, less pear-shaped berries.

Hybrids between Vaccinium vitis-idaea and Vaccinium myrtillus, named Vaccinium × intermedium Ruthe, are occasionally found in Europe.

Explanatory notes

References

External links

vitis-idaea
Alpine flora
Berries
Flora of Eastern Canada
Flora of Europe
Flora of Minnesota
Flora of Subarctic America
Flora of temperate Asia
Flora of the Northeastern United States
Flora of Western Canada
Flora of Wisconsin
Groundcovers
Japanese fruit
Least concern flora of North America
Least concern flora of the United States
Least concern plants
Plants described in 1753
Plants used in Native American cuisine
Plants used in traditional Native American medicine
Subshrubs
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus

Vaccinium vitis-idaea


The leopard shark (Triakis semifasciata) is a species of houndshark, in the family Triakidae. It is found along the Pacific coast of North America, from the U.S. state of Oregon to Mazatlán in Mexico. Typically measuring 1.2–1.5 m (3.9–4.9 ft) long, this slender-bodied shark is immediately identifiable by the striking pattern of black saddle-like markings and large spots over its back, from which it derives its common name. Large schools of leopard sharks are a common sight in bays and estuaries, swimming over sandy or muddy flats or rock-strewn areas near kelp beds and reefs. They are most common near the coast, in water less than 4 m (13 ft) deep.

Active-swimming predators, groups of leopard sharks often follow the tide onto intertidal mudflats to forage for food, mainly clams, spoon worms, crabs, shrimp, bony fish, and fish eggs. Most leopard sharks tend to remain within a particular area rather than undertaking long movements elsewhere, which has led to genetic divergence between populations of sharks living in different regions. This species is aplacental viviparous, meaning that the young hatch inside the uterus and are nourished by yolk. From March to June, the female gives birth to as many as 37 young after a gestation period of 10–12 months. It is relatively slow-growing and takes many years to mature.

Harmless to humans, the leopard shark is caught by commercial and recreational fisheries for food and the aquarium trade. This species is mostly fished in the waters off California where, after a period of population decline in the 1980s, new fishing regulations in the early 1990s reduced harvesting to sustainable levels. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed this species as of Least Concern, while noting that local stocks may easily become overfished because of the shark's slow growth and limited migratory habits.

Taxonomy and phylogeny
The first scientific name applied to the leopard shark was Triakis californica, coined by British zoologist John Edward Gray in the 1851 List of the specimens of fish in the collection of the British Museum. However, Gray did not furnish the name with a proper description, rendering it a nomen nudum. In December 1854, American ichthyologist William Orville Ayres gave a lecture describing the species as Mustelus felis, which included the first scientific description of the species.  His lecture was reprinted first in The Pacific, a San Francisco newspaper, and then in the journal Proceedings of the California Academy of Natural Sciences. In April 1855, French biologist Charles Frédéric Girard published another description of this species, naming it Triakis semifasciata.

Despite M. felis being the senior synonym, an error in recording the dates of publication resulted in the widespread use of T. semifasciata as the leopard shark's scientific name. As a result of this long-standing error, Triakis semifasciata came to be recognized as the valid name (as a nomen protectum) and Mustelis felis was invalidated (as a nomen oblitum). The specific epithet semifasciata comes from the Latin words semi ("half") and fasciatus ("banded"), describing this shark's dorsal pattern of saddle-like markings. In older literature, this species may be referred to as "tiger shark" or "catshark".

The genus Triakis contains two subgenera, Triakis and Cazon. The leopard shark is placed within the subgenus Triakis along with the banded houndshark (T. (Triakis) scyllium). A 2006 phylogenetic analysis by J. Andrés López and colleagues, based on protein-coding genes, revealed that Triakis and Cazon are in fact not closely related, and additionally that the leopard shark may be the most basal member of its family.

Distribution and habitat

The leopard shark occurs in the Northeastern Pacific Ocean, from the temperate continental waters of Coos Bay, Oregon to the tropical waters of Mazatlán, Mexico, including the Gulf of California. It favors muddy or sandy flats within enclosed bays and estuaries, and may also be encountered near kelp beds and rocky reefs, or along the open coast. Numbers have been known to gather near discharges of warm effluent from power plants. Leopard sharks generally swim close to the bottom and are most abundant from the intertidal zone to a depth of , though they may be found as deep as . Many leopard sharks, particularly in the north, leave their coastal habitats in winter and return in early spring. A study in Tomales Bay in northern California determined that they depart when the water temperature drops below 10–12 °C (50–54 °F); one tagged shark was found to have swum some  south.

While a few leopard sharks have been documented traveling hundreds of kilometers, most individuals tend to remain in a localized area for much of their lives. This low level of dispersal has led to genetic divergence across its range. Seven discrete gene pools have been identified along the Californian coast between Humboldt Bay and San Diego. Of these, the Humboldt Bay subpopulation is perhaps the most isolated, with the sharks there maturing at a larger size and producing fewer offspring than those from other areas. By contrast, the area around Los Angeles represents a genetic transitional zone between subpopulations whose boundaries are more diffuse. Off Baja California, the leopard sharks on the Pacific side are probably distinct from those in the northern Gulf of California. Although there is equivocal evidence for natal philopatry (returning to one's birthplace to breed) in this species, proximity to established breeding grounds likely contributes to the structuring of these different subpopulations.

Description
The leopard shark has a moderately stout body, with a short, rounded snout. There are well-developed, triangular flaps of skin in front of the nares. The eyes are large and oval, with a nictitating membrane (a protective third eyelid). The line of the mouth is strongly curved. There are furrows at the corners of the mouth extending onto both jaws, with those on the lower jaw almost long enough to meet at the midline. The tooth rows number 41–55 in the upper jaw and 34–45 in the lower jaw; each tooth has a slightly oblique, smooth-edged cusp in the center and 1–2 small cusplets on either side. These teeth are arranged into a flat, "pavement"-like surface with overlapping ridges.

The large first dorsal fin is positioned about halfway between the pectoral and pelvic fins; the second is almost as large as the first and much larger than the anal fin. The pectoral fins are wide and triangular. The lower lobe of the caudal fin is well-developed in adults but less than half the length of the upper lobe, which has a strong ventral notch near the tip. The coloration is unique, consisting of prominent black "saddles" and large black spots running along the back, on a silvery to bronzy gray background. Adult sharks often have more spots and saddles with lighter centers compared to juveniles. The underside is whitish and plain. The average length of a leopard shark is . Rarely males may grow to  and females , and there is a record of an exceptional female that measured  long. The heaviest known leopard shark weighed .

Biology and ecology

An active species that swims with a strong undulating motion, the leopard shark is commonly spotted cruising in or just beyond the surf zone. It is more active at night than during the day, and sometimes lies still on the bottom. In Tomales Bay (among other similar regions), the leopard shark follows the tide onto mudflats to forage for food, retreating just fast enough to prevent being stranded or trapped as the water recedes. At Santa Catalina Island, resident sharks spend the day together in the shallows and at night, they disperse into deeper water, up to  away.

From birth, leopard sharks form large schools, generally segregated by age and sex; these groups may intermingle with grey or brown smoothhounds (Mustelus californicus and M. henlei) and spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias). These schools are apparently nomadic, often appearing suddenly in an area for a few hours before vanishing just as quickly. In captivity, larger sharks have been observed establishing their dominance over smaller individuals via light nips to the pectoral fins. During summer days, large aggregations of mature females assemble in shallow bays and estuaries, dispersing at night. As these females follow the warmest patches of water (allowing them to raise their internal body temperatures by up to 3 °C/5.4 °F), they are speculated to be taking advantage of the heat to speed their own growth and that of their gestating young. The membership of these aggregations is inconstant, with individual females periodically switching between different sites scattered over several kilometers.

Compared to the related grey and brown smoothhounds that share its range, the leopard shark has smaller and more numerous red blood cells, allowing it to process oxygen more efficiently. This may be an adaptation for foraging in deoxygenated estuarine environments. Their eyes contain very few cone cells, likely due to the murky water they inhabit. Small leopard sharks fall prey to larger sharks such as the great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) and the broadnose sevengill shark (Notorynchus cepedianus). On one occasion, a sevengill shark was seen ambushing a leopard shark on a tidal mudflat in Humboldt Bay, striking with such momentum that the larger predator momentarily beached itself. Known parasites of this species include the tapeworms Phyllobothrium riseri, Lacistorhynchus dollfusi and Paraorygmatobothrium barber, as well as the copepods Echthrogaleus eoleoptratus and Achtheinus oblongatus.

Feeding

The diet of the leopard shark consists of small benthic and littoral animals, most significantly crabs (Cancridae, Grapsidae, and Hippoidea), shrimp, bony fish (including anchovies, herring, topsmelt, croakers, surfperch, gobies, rockfish, sculpins, flatfish, and midshipmen), fish eggs, clams, and the echiurid fat innkeeper worm (Urechis caupo). This opportunistic hunter has also been known to eat ghost shrimp, polychaete worms, and the young of smoothhounds, shovelnose guitarfish (Rhinobatos productus), and bat rays (Myliobatis californicus). Eelgrass (Zostera) and algae may be swallowed incidentally.

The leopard shark captures prey by expanding its buccal cavity to create a suction force, which is facilitated by its labial cartilages swinging forward to form the mouth into a tube. Simultaneously, the shark protrudes its jaws forward to grip the prey between its teeth. As with other sharks, the teeth of the leopard shark are periodically shed and replaced; it takes 9–12 days for a replacement tooth to move into position. Leopard sharks have been caught with stomachs filled with clam siphons, which the sharks seize before the clams can retract and break off with a levering motion of their bodies. On occasion, the shark tears the entire clam body out of its shell this way. Other sharks examined have had stomachs containing whole innkeeper worms with no bite marks, suggesting that the sharks sucked them out of their burrows. Under a hollow bridge support in San Francisco Bay, a group of leopard sharks and spiny dogfish have been observed feeding on a dense school of anchovies by slowly swimming counterclockwise through the clockwise-swimming school, and swallowing any anchovies that accidentally entered their open mouths.

In some places, this species feeds only on a few prey types and little else (e.g. innkeeper worms and cancrid crabs in Tomales Bay, jack silverside (Atherinopsis californiensis) eggs and the crabs Romaleon antennarium and Metacarcinus magister in Humboldt Bay). The predominant prey taken depends on location, time of year, and age. For example, in the Elkhorn Slough at Monterey Bay, cancrid crabs and innkeeper worms are mostly eaten in winter and spring, fish eggs from winter to early summer, bony fish in summer, and grapsid crabs and clams in fall. Young sharks feed mostly on crabs and transition to clam siphons, fish eggs, and innkeeper worms once they reach  long. The largest sharks are the ones that consume the most fish.

Life history

The leopard shark is aplacental viviparous, with the developing embryos sustained by a yolk sac until birth. In northern areas, females use bays and sloughs as nursery areas, while to the south they give birth in more open areas. Known breeding grounds along the coast of California include Humboldt Bay, Tomales Bay, Bodega Bay, San Francisco Bay, Elkhorn Slough, Morro Bay, Santa Monica Bay (Los Angeles), Catalina Harbor (Santa Catalina Island), and San Diego Bay.

Females give birth to 1–37 young annually from March and July (most in April or May), with the number of pups increasing with female size. Multiple males may father a litter from a single mother In Humboldt and San Francisco Bays, females drop their pups in beds of eelgrass that provide both shelter and food. In Catalina Harbor, females give birth on flats in  of water, their backs and dorsal fins exposed; the pups stay in even shallower water less than  deep. Mating occurs in early summer following birth; the only known observation of this in the wild was in 2004 off La Jolla, amongst nine sharks gathered  from shore in water  deep.

Newborn leopard sharks measure around  long. Relatively slow-growing after the first 3–4 years of life, male leopard sharks grow an average of  per year, reaching maturity at an age of 7–13 years and a length of , while females grow an average of  per year, reaching maturity at an age of 10–15 years and a length of . Individuals of the same age can vary significantly in size and large sharks are especially slow-growing: one specimen was documented to have gained only  in length over 12 years. The maximum lifespan of this species is estimated to be 30 years.

Human interactions

Wary and quick to flee, leopard sharks pose almost no danger to humans. There is a single record from 1955 of a leopard shark harassing a skin diver with a nosebleed, though no injuries resulted. This species is caught by commercial fisheries using gillnets and longlines, and by recreational anglers and spearfishers; it is also caught as bycatch in bottom trawls. The meat is considered excellent eating and is sold fresh or frozen. However, leopard sharks living alongside human development may accumulate pollutants such as mercury, pesticides, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) within their bodies, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife warns against eating them regularly. The leopard shark is prized by the aquarium trade for its attractive appearance and hardiness; this led to many newborn pups being captured with hook-and-line off southern California in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It may live for over 20 years in captivity.

Most of the fishing for leopard sharks occurs in the waters off California, where commercial landings peaked at  in 1983 and has averaged  annually since 1991. These figures are believed to be underestimates, as an unknown portion of the leopard shark catch is recorded simply as "shark". In recent decades the number of sharks taken recreationally has exceeded those taken commercially, with sport fishers catching an average of 52,000 sharks per year from 1980–1988, and 45,000 sharks per year since 1993. This species contributes negligibly to fishery landings off Oregon. The status of leopard sharks off Mexico is uncertain, although Mexican shark fisheries tend to focus more on larger species.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed the leopard shark as of Least Concern. It is highly susceptible to local depletion due to its slow growth rate and low level of exchange between regional stocks. It was considered for, but is not managed under, the U.S. Pacific Fishery Management Council's (PMC) 1982 Groundfish Management Plan. In 1992, the State of California imposed a recreational minimum size limit of  and a possession limit of three fish, a move that was strongly supported and promoted by the sport fishing community. In 1993, the State also instituted a minimum size limit of  for the commercial harvesting of all sharks and rays, including for the aquarium trade. In addition, Californian restrictions on the use of certain types of fishing gear in near-shore waters confer good protection to this shark's core population. These management measures seem to have successfully reduced fishing mortality and halted the population decline from the 1980s; the status of the leopard shark off California is regarded as secure, with demographic models estimating an annual population increase of 3–6% with sustainable fishing.

See also

List of sharks

References

External links

 Triakis semifasciata, Leopard shark at FishBase
 Biological Profiles: Leopard Shark at Florida Museum of Natural History Ichthyology Department
 Triakis semifasciata (Leopard shark) at Monterey Bay Aquarium

leopard shark
Taxa named by Charles Frédéric Girard
Marine fauna of North America
Western North American coastal fauna
Viviparous fish
Fish of the Gulf of California
Fish of the Western United States
Fauna of California
Fish of Mexico
Fish of the United States
Fish of North America
Fauna of the Baja California Peninsula
leopard shark

Leopard shark


Marco Lara Klahr is a Mexican professor and journalist. , he has been a journalist for 29 years, focusing mainly on violence, crime and social conflicts in 15 countries. His reports have been published in different media, and several have been translated into many different languages, including English, Italian, Portuguese and German. He was the founder and director of the Violence and Media project (sponsored by the European Union) in Mexican NGO INSYDE, worked as a consultant for the Open Society Justice Initiative  (an operational program of the Open Society Foundations)  and now works as the Director of the Media Program at the Instituto de Justicia Procesal Penal.

Lara Klahr has authored numerous books and guides. His work lately focuses on improving journalistic quality and integrity in the difficult context of Latin America. For example, the book "No mas pagadores" is a guide for journalists on the new adversarial system of justice recently implemented in Mexico and the concept of presumption of innocence that is introduced as a result. The book's creation was supported by the Freedom of Expression organization Article 19, by the British Embassy in Mexico, and by the Open Society Justice Initiative.

References

Living people
Mexican journalists
Mexican male journalists
National Autonomous University of Mexico alumni
People from Mexico City
Year of birth missing (living people)

Marco Lara Klahr


Structural mechanics or mechanics of structures is the computation of deformations, deflections, and internal forces or stresses (stress equivalents) within structures, either for design or for performance evaluation of existing structures. It is one subset of structural analysis. Structural mechanics analysis needs input data such as structural loads, the structure's geometric representation and support conditions, and the materials' properties. Output quantities may include support reactions, stresses and displacements. Advanced structural mechanics may include the effects of stability and non-linear behaviors.

Mechanics of structures is a field of study within applied mechanics that investigates the behavior of structures under mechanical loads, such as bending of a beam, buckling of a column, torsion of a shaft, deflection of a thin shell, and vibration of a bridge.

There are three approaches to the analysis: the energy methods, flexibility method  or direct stiffness method which later developed into finite element method and the plastic analysis approach.

Energy method
Energy principles in structural mechanics

Flexibility method
Flexibility method

Stiffness methods
Direct stiffness method
Finite element method in structural mechanics

Plastic analysis approach
Plastic Analysis

Major topics
 Beam theory
 Buckling
 Earthquake engineering
 Finite element method in structural mechanics
 Plates and shells
 Torsion
 Trusses
 Stiffening
 Structural dynamics
 Structural instability

Building engineering
Structural engineering
Solid mechanics
Mechanics
Earthquake engineering

Structural mechanics


The different varieties of Chinese have been transcribed into many other writing systems.

General Chinese

General Chinese is a diaphonemic orthography invented by Yuen Ren Chao to represent the pronunciations of all major varieties of Chinese simultaneously. It is "the most complete genuine Chinese diasystem yet published". It can also be used for the Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese pronunciations of Chinese characters, and challenges the claim that Chinese characters are required for inter-dialectal communication in written Chinese.

General Chinese is not wholly a romanisation system, but consists of two alternative systems: one uses Chinese characters as a syllabary of 2082 glyphs, and the other is a romanisation system with similar spellings to Gwoyeu Romatzyh.

Guanhua zimu
, developed by Wang Zhao (1859–1933), was the first alphabetic writing system for Chinese developed by a Chinese person. This system was modeled on Japanese katakana, which he learned during a two-year stay in Japan, and consisted of letters that were based on components of Chinese characters. After returning to China in 1900, he taught his system in various parts of North China, but the government banned it in 1901.

One of Wang's contemporaries, Lao Naixuan  (1843–1921), later adapted Guanhua zimu for use in two Wu dialects, those of Ningbo and Suzhou. In doing this, he raised the issue that was ultimately responsible for the failure of all alphabetic writing systems in China: the notion that people should be introduced to literacy in their own local dialects. Such a proposal would both challenge the unique position of the millennia-old writing system and create more than one literary language, destroying China's linguistic unity in both the historical and geographic senses. Because of this, there was strong opposition from the very beginning to proposals of this kind.

Bopomofo

Wu Jingheng, who had developed a "beansprout alphabet", and Wang Zhao, who had developed Guanhua zimu in 1900, and Lu Zhuangzhang were part of the Commission on the Unification of Pronunciation (1912–1913), which developed the rudimentary Jiyin Zimu () system of Zhang Binglin into the Mandarin-specific phonetic system now known as Zhuyin Fuhao or bopomofo, proclaimed on 23 November 1918.

The significant feature of bopomofo is that it is composed entirely of ruby characters which can be written beside any Chinese text whether written vertically, right-to-left, or left-to-right. The characters within the bopomofo system are unique phonetic characters, and are not part of the Latin alphabet. In this way, it is not technically a form of romanisation, but because it is used for phonetic transcription the alphabet is often grouped with the romanisation systems.

Taiwanese kana

When Taiwan was under Japanese rule, a katakana-based writing system used to write Holo Taiwanese. It functioned as a phonetic guide to Chinese characters, much like furigana in Japanese, or bopomofo. There were similar systems for other languages in Taiwan as well, including Hakka and Formosan languages.

Phags-pa script

The Phags-pa script was an alphabet designed by Drogön Chögyal Phagpa at the behest of Kublai Khan during the Yuan dynasty, to unify the empire's various languages. While Phags-pa has aided in the reconstruction of pre-modern Chinese pronunciation, it totally ignores tone.

Manchu alphabet
The Manchu alphabet was used to write Chinese in the Qing dynasty.

Mongolian alphabet

In Inner Mongolia the Mongolian alphabet is used to transliterate Chinese.

Xiao'erjing

Xiao'erjing uses the Arabic alphabet to transliterate Chinese. It is used on occasion by many ethnic minorities who adhere to the Islamic faith in China (mostly the Hui, but also the Dongxiang, and the Salar), and formerly by their Dungan descendants in Central Asia. Soviet writing reforms forced the Dungan to replace xiao'erjing with a Roman alphabet and later a Cyrillic alphabet, which they continue to use up until today.

Romanisation

There have been many Chinese romanisation systems throughout history. Recently, Hanyu Pinyin has become prominent since its introduction in 1982. Other well-known systems include Wade-Giles and Yale.

Cyrillisation

The Russian system for Cyrillisation of Chinese is the Palladius system. The Dungan language, a variety of Mandarin, was once written in the Latin script, but now employs Cyrillic. Some use the Cyrillic alphabet to shorten pinyin—e.g.  as .

Various other countries employ bespoke systems for cyrillising Chinese.

Braille
A number of braille transcriptions have been developed for Chinese. In mainland China, traditional mainland Chinese Braille and Two-Cell Chinese Braille are used in parallel to transcribe Standard Chinese. Taiwanese Braille is used in Taiwan for Taiwanese Mandarin.

In traditional Mainland Chinese Braille, consonants and basic finals conform to international braille, but additional finals form a semi-syllabary, as in bopomofo. Each syllable is written with up to three Braille cells, representing the initial, final and tone, respectively. In practice tone is generally omitted.

In Two-Cell Chinese Braille, designed in the 1970s, each syllable is rendered with two braille characters. The first combines the initial and medial; the second the syllable rime and tone. The base letters represent the initial and rhyme; these are modified with diacritics for the medial and tone.

Like traditional Mainland Chinese Braille, Taiwanese Braille is a semi-syllabary. Although based marginally on international braille, the majority of consonants have been reassigned.

See also
Fanqie

References

Transliteration of Chinese