The First National City Charge Service, marketed as The Everything Card, was an early credit card introduced by First National City Bank (now Citibank) in the eastern United States in 1967. It was intended as a response to the BankAmericard (today's Visa card), issued by BankAmerica. Issued under the initiative of National City Bank President Walter B. Wriston, the card followed the bank's purchase of an interest in the Carte Blanche charge card.

Information
The card proved to be limited by its regional scope, as it was tied to the area surrounding the bank's New York City base of operations. In 1969, the card was absorbed into Master Charge (now known as MasterCard), another card that had been developed by a membership association of four banks, the Interbank Card Association, which National City Bank joined.

Citibank, as First National City Bank came to be known in 1976, made a further attempt in 1977 to create a proprietary credit card that was not tied to either Master Charge or Visa. The Choice card was, like the Everything Card, a regional credit card issued only by Citibank. It also proved unsuccessful, and its cards were reissued as Visa cards in 1987.

References

External links

Citigroup
Credit card issuer associations
Credit cards in the United States
1967 establishments in the United States
Financial services companies established in 1967

The Everything Card


Verticordia fimbrilepis, commonly known as shy featherflower, is a flowering plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a small, bushy shrub with one openly branched main stem at its base, small, pointed leaves and rounded groups of pink flowers near the ends of the branches.

Description
Verticordia fimbrilepis is a shrub which grows to a height and width of about  and which has one openly branched stem at its base. The leaves lower on the stems are linear in shape, almost round in cross-section,  long with a rounded end with a sharp point. Those near the flowers are more oblong to narrow egg-shaped.

The flowers are arranged in rounded groups on stalks  long near the ends of the branches. The floral cup is broadly top-shaped, about  long, glabrous but slightly rough. The sepals are pink, sometimes white,  long, with 5 to 7 hairy lobes. The petals are also pink or white, and are  long, egg-shaped with long, coarse hairs. The style is  long, straight and glabrous. Flowering time is from November to December or January.

Taxonomy and naming
Verticordia fimbrilepis was first formally described by Nikolai Turczaninow in 1847 and the description was published in the Bulletin de la Société Impériale des Naturalistes de Moscou from specimens collected by James Drummond. The specific epithet (fimbrilepis) is "from the Latin fimbria (fringe) and the Greek lepis (a scale), probably in reference to the staminodes".

In 1991, Alex George described two subspecies and the names have been accepted by the Australian Plant Census:
 Verticordia fimbrilepis Turcz.  subsp. fimbrilepis which has flower stalks  long;
 Verticordia fimbrilepis subsp. australis  A.S.George  which has flower stalks  long.

When Alex George reviewed the genus Verticordia in 1991, he placed this species in subgenus Verticordia, section Verticordia along with V. crebra, V. helichrysantha, V. plumosa, V. stenopetala, V. sieberi, V. harveyi and V. pityrhops.

Distribution and habitat
This verticordia grows in low-level sandy areas in heath, shrubland and wandoo woodland in scattered areas near Brookton and Narrogin in the Avon Wheatbelt, Jarrah Forest and Warren biogeographic regions.

Conservation
This verticordia is classified as "not threatened" but both subspecies are classified as "Threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife meaning that they are likely to become extinct or are rare, or otherwise in need of special protection. Subspecies fimbrilepis is also classed as "Endangered" (EN) under the Australian Government Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) and an interim recovery plan has been prepared. Subspecies australis has been classed as "Vulnerable" under the same Act.

Use in horticulture
Both subspecies of V. fimbrilepis are small open shrubs with dainty pink flowers but only subsp. australis has so far proved amenable to propagation, and only in Western Australia.

References

fimbrilepis
Rosids of Western Australia
Eudicots of Western Australia
Plants described in 1847
Taxa named by Nikolai Turczaninow

Verticordia fimbrilepis


John Requa (born January 1, 1967) is an American screenwriter (with Glenn Ficarra) of Cats & Dogs, Bad Santa and the 2005 remake Bad News Bears.

Requa and Ficarra directed Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor in their screenplay I Love You Phillip Morris. For their writing on this film, Requa and Ficarra received a nomination for the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Early life
Requa grew up in Burien, Washington, a suburb of Seattle, graduating from Burien's Highline High School in 1985. His talents as a writer were evident when he wrote and performed in a skit for his senior year Homecoming assembly titled "Fernbusters". It was a morphing of Ghostbusters and the Christmas Trees sketch from Saturday Night Live. In it, Requa played the killer fern. For another assembly later that year he wrote a skit about an almighty creator named Sven.

Requa attended Highline at the same time as Dana Newton, who became a senior producer on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Randy Dixon who is an internationally known improv artist who heads Unexpected Productions in Seattle, and Mike Starr who was the original Bassist for Alice in Chains and seen on season three of Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew.

Requa graduated from the film program at the Pratt Institute in the early 90s. While there he met and began his long association with writing partner Glenn Ficarra.

Career

As best as is known, all of John Requa's professional work has been in association with his writing partner Glenn Ficarra.

Requa and Ficarra wrote numerous episodes of The Angry Beavers, an animated series on Nickelodeon from 1997 until 2001.  Their first episode was season two's Kandid Kreatures which they followed with Dag for Night, Un-Barry-ble, Zooing Time, Sans-a-Pelt and Gonna Getcha.  They went on to write eleven more episodes over the remaining three seasons of the show.

The pair directed Focus, starring Will Smith and Margot Robbie, and Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, starring Tina Fey and Robbie. More recently, his Zaftig company signed a deal with Fox Entertainment.

Filmography

Film

Executive producer
 Storks (2016)
 DC League of Super-Pets (2022)

Television

References

External links

1967 births
Living people
American male screenwriters
Pratt Institute alumni
People from Burien, Washington
Film directors from Washington (state)
Screenwriters from Washington (state)
Highline High School alumni

John Requa


The Raisin Valley Friends Meetinghouse is a historic church located at 3552 North Adrian Highway (M-52) in Adrian Charter Township about two miles (3.2 km) north of the city of Adrian in central Lenawee County, Michigan.  It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 28, 1982, and later designated as a Michigan Historic Site on January 23, 1992. It houses the oldest Quaker congregation in Michigan, which was established in 1831.  It is also recognized as the second oldest continuously operating church building in the state of Michigan after the Mission Church in Mackinac Island, which was built in 1829.

History
In 1831,  Quaker missionaries travelling to Michigan established two congregations. One of these, initially known as Adrian meeting, evolved into the Raisin Valley Friends. Raisin Valley Friends initially worshipped in a log cabin located near the present church property, but by 1834 the congregation had grown large enough that a permanent meeting place was called for. Local settler David Baker made a six-acre parcel available, and the congregation raised $800 (~$ in ) to build this church, which opened in 1835.

The church, which had an abolitionism stance, is recognized as having served as a major stop in Michigan's Underground Railroad network. Abolitionists Charles and Laura Smith Haviland founded the Raisin Institute at the church, and poet and abolitionist Elizabeth Margaret Chandler was also a member of the congregation.

In 1947, a basement was added to the building. In 1953 an addition was constructed, and in 1961 a Sunday School unit was added to one end, In the later 1960s, a front porch was added. The building continues to house the Raisin Valley Friends Church.

Description
The simple, wooden church is typical of those built in the early nineteenth-century.  The structure maintains its original appearance, with only modest changes in appearance due to the additions. The Raisin Valley Friends Meetinghouse is a single story clapboarded structure with simple corner boards, a thin classical cornice with returns, and a gable roof. An entrances is located at one end of the church, protected by a porch. The windows were originally sixteen pane double hung units; the current windows are substantially similar, and have the same size and placement.

References

External links

Buildings and structures in Lenawee County, Michigan
Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan
Quaker meeting houses in Michigan
Michigan State Historic Sites in Lenawee County
Churches completed in 1835
19th-century Quaker meeting houses
Churches on the Underground Railroad
National Register of Historic Places in Lenawee County, Michigan
Wooden churches in Michigan

Raisin Valley Friends Meetinghouse


Mulugu Papayaradhya, also known as Mulugu Papayya and Sangameswara Sastry, (1778–1852) was a Telugu and Sanskrit scholar, preceptor, translator, and writer, known for his translation of the Devi Bhagavatam from Sanskrit into Telugu and for being the preceptor and court poet of the Raja of Amaravati, Vasireddy Venkatadri Nayudu. Mulugu Papayaradhya was born to Viranaradhya, a prominent Veera Shaiva acharya, and Akkamba. He lived in Amaravati, now in the Guntur District of Andhra Pradesh. He is known to have written more than a hundred works in Telugu and Sanskrit. He was titled as Abhinava Kalidasa. He was a Veera Shaivite acharya (preceptor).

Work
Mulugu Papayaradhya is regarded as the first poet to translate the Devi Bhagavata Purana into Telugu. This translation was done at the request of Vasireddy Venkatadri Nayudu's son, and Papayaradhya dedicated it to Kashi Vishwanatha, a form of Shiva. From the more than hundred works he wrote, Kalyanacampu, Ekadasivratacampu, Aryasati, Sivastotra, and Vedantasarasangraha are among the more prominent Sanskrit works. Papayaradhya also wrote the Ahalya Sankrandana Vilasamu.

References

Indian male poets
Telugu poets

1778 births
1852 deaths
Sanskrit
Indian poets
19th-century Indian poets
18th-century Indian poets

Mulugu Papayaradhya


Pleasure Island was an area of the Downtown Disney shopping, dining and entertainment district at Walt Disney World Resort. It officially opened on May 1, 1989. In September 2008, all of its clubs were closed, but its retail stores and restaurants remained open. The area is now called The Landing and is the central part of Disney Springs.

History
As the name originates from Walt Disney's 1940 film Pinocchio, Pleasure Island opened emulating Church Street Station in Downtown Orlando, Florida. At that time, this was a highly successful gated attraction which offered admission to multiple clubs for one price.

The legend the Disney Company created is that Pleasure Island was based on the fictitious owner, Merriweather Adam Pleasure, and was carried on into one of its clubs, The Adventurers Club. Merriweather Pleasure was said to be an industrialist and explorer who decided to move his family to Florida and start a new sailmaking and yacht construction business on the island during the 1920s through early 1940s. He enjoyed throwing parties for his employees and friends after hours, but, eventually, he was lost at sea, his sons failed at running the company without him, and the island was mostly destroyed in a storm. As the story goes, Disney would rediscover the ruins of the Pleasure complex and establish a nightclub district to carry on Pleasure's merrymaking spirit.

Every night at midnight, "New Year's Eve" was celebrated at Pleasure Island with a fireworks show. This tradition lasted from 1990 through New Year's Eve 2005.

Changes in 2006
Major renovations to Pleasure Island were made in March 2006 in an attempt to reverse declining attendance. These changes included the closing and dismantling of the West End Stage and the Hub Stage. Since there was no longer an entry fee, the free entertainment provided by these stages was attracting large groups of local teens, which was considered undesirable. The area formerly occupied by the West End Stage is the location of the new pedestrian bridge to Downtown Disney West Side and provides visitors a greater line-of-sight view from Pleasure Island to the West Side. The removal of the Hub Stage opened a small area to a view of the lagoon located behind Pleasure Island, including a dock. In late June 2006, a life-size Jessica Rabbit sign above the facility of "Pleasure Island Tonight!" was removed.

The construction of new docks allow boat transportation links between West Side, Pleasure Island, Marketplace, and Disney resorts across the lagoon and up the Sassagoula River.

Changes from 2007 to 2009
Effective January 1, 2007, the dance clubs reverted to a policy which required guests to be age 21 or older. Minors could still visit the Comedy Warehouse and Adventurers Club, as well as the shops and restaurants on the island.

In late June 2008, Disney announced that the six remaining night clubs at Pleasure Island would close by September 28, 2008, to make room for additional family-oriented entertainment. Effective June 27, 2008, customers who purchased annual passes to Pleasure Island could receive a pro-rated refund for that purchase, due to the September 2008 scheduled closure of all of its nightclubs.

Disney officials stated that the Pleasure Island nightclub closures are in response to customers who desire more broad-based dining and retail opportunities.

September 27, 2008 was Pleasure Island's last night. Among the capacity crowd were many of its past actors and cast members, some of whom started to line up at 9:00 in the morning to ensure entrance to what would be a very emotional and busy night. Highlights included Frankie and the West End Boys playing on the waterfront stage. At midnight, "New Year's Eve" was celebrated one last time. A fireworks show was complemented by popular songs heard on the island over the years. The final song played in Mannequins was "Everybody's Free (To Feel Good)" by Rozalla. With that, Pleasure Island was officially shut down. By the next day, many of the clubs' signs and logos were being removed or painted over.

In February 2009, amid rumors of a partial reopening of Pleasure Island, Disney announced that three former clubs would become available for private party rentals. Motion, Soundstage Club, and Adventurers Club were available for rental through the end of March 2010.

In 2009, a building that previously housed stores and a fast food restaurant was completely renovated by E-Brands, the operator of the Samba Room restaurant in Orlando, into Paradiso 37, a Central/South American-themed restaurant.

Hyperion Wharf
On November 10, 2010, Disney announced Hyperion Wharf would be the new name for Pleasure Island. The new theme of the island would be an early 20th-century nautical warehouse district. $3.2 million in new lighting features were to be added, in addition to a waterfront entertainment area and a lighthouse structure. No names for shops, restaurants or entertainment venues were announced. There was no indication that any of the former clubs would reopen.

Permits and plans showed the buildings which formerly housed the Motion and Rock 'n' Roll Beach Club, Adventurers Club and BET Soundstage Club would be demolished. The buildings which formerly housed the Comedy Warehouse, 8TRAX and Mannequins clubs would remain. Demolition of Motion and Rock 'n' Roll Beach Club took place between December 2010 and February 2011. Earlier in 2010, the bridge from the Downtown Disney Marketplace to Pleasure Island was widened to accommodate a new, wider pedestrian pathway across the island.

On December 3, 2012, Disney allowed the trademark for Hyperion Wharf to expire. Renovation plans for the area were announced as part of the Downtown Disney redevelopment in 2013.

During 2014, Disney closed access to the Pleasure Island portion of Downtown Disney, as additional retailers and theme restaurants were brought into the mix. Disney ultimately decided against using the name "Hyperion Wharf".

The Landing
Instead, in April 2015, Disney reopened Pleasure Island as the middle link of the Downtown Disney shopping area. This section of the complex is now called "The Landing". The former dance clubs, jazz club, and Adventurers Club are no longer part of the concept. Instead, the area focuses on retail and restaurants, though one restaurant circuitously links the new area to its predecessor: Jock Lindsey's Hangar Bar was ostensibly opened by pilot Jock Lindsey (who appeared in the 1981 Indiana Jones film Raiders of the Lost Ark), who is a member of the Society of Explorers and Adventurers. A fez housed in the Skipper Canteen in Magic Kingdom's Adventureland establishes that Pleasure Island founder Merriweather Adam Pleasure was also a member of the S.E.A., with his Adventurers Club retroactively serving as his own private chapter of the Society.

Operating attractions

Restaurants
 Paradiso 37 — A North, South and Central American restaurant named for the 37 countries located in those areas, and includes a food court section as well as an upscale tequila bar. It features a focus on dishes famously sold by street vendors in those countries. This restaurant is managed by E Brands, and was the first new restaurant to open from the Pleasure Island renovations which began in 2008. It is located in a building which formerly housed shops and a fast food restaurant. Dishes include sandwiches, steaks, chicken, and an extensive appetizer menu. Paradiso 37 opened on June 4, 2009.
 Portobello Restaurant — An Italian restaurant patterned after an osteria. It opened with the clubs in 1989. Portobello Restaurant was known as Portobello Yacht Club until renovations in late 2008. In the context of the Island's backstory, the restaurant was once the Pleasure Family Home.
 Raglan Road Irish Pub & Restaurant — Operated by Great Irish Pubs Florida. It opened in October 2005, replacing Merriweather's Market and the Pleasure Island Jazz Company.

Shopping
For many years, a number of small shops and boutiques were located between the Adventurers Club and Rock 'n' Roll Beach Club. Many of these shops closed in March 2006 as part of the renovation of the island. However, Disney has begun to reintroduce selected stores on the island.

 Curl by Sammy Duvall — A surf-themed retail establishment operated by Florida-based water skier Sammy Duvall.  Curl opened in 2008, replacing Superstar Studios.
 Fuego by Sosa Cigars — A cigar bar which opened in 2007, located near the center of the island.
 Orlando Harley-Davidson — A "gear shop" operated by Orlando's Harley-Davidson franchiser. It opened in 2005, located near Raglan Road.

Former attractions

Shopping
 Superstar Studios — A long-time "make-your-own-video" studio which was replaced by Curl by Sammy Duvall in 2008.
 Jessica's - A store featuring the character Jessica Rabbit from the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which opened in 1990 and closed in 1992. A two-sided, thirty-foot neon sign of Jessica Rabbit with a swinging leg and moving sequins hung over the building until the store's closing. In 1993, the sign was relocated to the West End Stage where it resided until 2006.
 Avigators Supply - A store located close to the Adventurers Club. It sold aviation and adventure gear branded with the Avigators logo. It also sold Adventurers Club and Indiana Jones merchandise. It was replaced by Mouse House which was replaced by Paradiso 37.
 Changing Attitudes - Trendy clothing and unusual gifts.
 Doodles - Pleasure island memorabilia, hip graphic T-shirts, trendy gifts.
 Hammer and Fire - Hand-crafted jewelry, accessories and unusual gifts.
 The Mouse House - Disney T-shirts, plush animals and gifts.
 Suspended Animation - Disney animated cels, posters, prints and lithographs.
 DTV - Modern Disney fashions from silks and sequins to painted jeans.
 Music Legends - Clothing, books, music, and music memorabilia.

Restaurants

 Fulton's Crab House — A seafood restaurant which has been operated by Levy Restaurants since March 10, 1996. It originally opened on May 1, 1977, as the Empress Lilly. The head chef is Frank Walason.
 The Empress Lilly — An authentic recreation of a 19th-century paddle steamer boat in Rococo (Louis XIV) style. It was operated by Disney and named in homage to Walt Disney's's wife Lillian. Upon becoming Fulton's Crab House, the boat lost its paddle wheel and smokestacks. It was divided into four separate restaurants and lounges, including the Baton Rouge Lounge, Steerman's Quarters, Fisherman's Deck, and the Empress Room.
 Fireworks Factory — A pyrotechnics-themed restaurant operated by Levy Restaurants. According to the island's fictional backstory, Merriweather Pleasure manufactured fireworks in the building until one of his cigars caused an explosion. The restaurant was decorated with authentic pyrotechnic props from the Grucci family. It operated from 1989 to 1997, and was replaced by the Motion dance club.
 Merriweather's Market — A food court that operated from 1989 to 1993, and was replaced by Raglan Road Irish Pub & Restaurant in October 2005.
 Planet Hollywood - It was a Pleasure Island attraction when it opened in 1994. In 1998 it moved to West Side. In 2017 it was replaced by the Planet Hollywood Observatory.
 Hill Street Diner - Pizza, hotdogs, hot deli sandwiches, french fries and assorted salads.
 D-Zertz - Cappuccino and espresso, pastries, frozen yogurt and soft serve ice cream with toppings.

Entertainment
Entertainment venues included:
 8TRAX — A 1970s and 1980s themed dance club. It closed on September 27, 2008. The club opened on December 31, 1992, replacing:
Videopolis East — Opened in 1989, playing new wave music on 170 video screens. In 1990 it was renamed Cage, adding more progressive music before closing in 1992.
 Adventurers Club — A 1930s-style British explorers' club that featured a staff of flamboyant characters portrayed by improv actors. The club closed on September 27, 2008.
 BET Soundstage — A hip-hop and R&B dance club operated by Black Entertainment Television (formerly BET Holdings Inc). It closed on September 27, 2008.  The licensing agreement with BET Holdings Inc. was created before Black Entertainment Television was purchased by Viacom (which owned networks such as Nickelodeon, a rival to Disney's own Disney Channel) in 2000. The club opened in 1998, replacing:
Neon Armadillo — A club featuring live country music bands, it operated from 1989 to 1998.
 Celebrate Tonight — An outdoor dance party featuring DJs and cast members known as the Party Team. Focused mainly on families with children, it opened in early April 2009 and closed on June 26, 2010. It took place in the large brick expanse between the former Comedy Warehouse and BET Soundstage, an area renamed Celebration Plaza.
 Comedy Warehouse — A nightclub which featured an improv comedy troupe. It originally featured a parody show called "Forbidden Disney".  The club soon attracted a large return audience. The move to the improv format after a couple of seasons was made to keep the show fresh. The club closed September 27, 2008.
 Mannequins Dance Palace — A techno-trance multi-story dance club which featured a revolving lighted dance floor. The club featured nightly light shows with synchronized music and live performances by human "mannequins".  The club closed on September 27, 2008.
 Motion — A dance club which featured Top 40 music videos. It closed September 27, 2008. The club opened in 2001, replacing the Fireworks Factory.
 Wildhorse Saloon — A country music dance club and BBQ restaurant which opened in 1998 to capitalize on the country/western dance craze at the time. It was operated by Levy Restaurants and Gaylord Entertainment Company, which also operated a Wildhorse in Nashville, Tennessee. They eventually sold their interest in the building back to Disney, and the venue closed in 2001.
 Pleasure Island Jazz Company — A club featuring live jazz musicians which opened on August 27, 1993. It was replaced by Raglan Road Irish Pub & Restaurant in October 2005.
 Rock 'n' Roll Beach Club — A rock-themed dance club which featured live bands (usually local cover bands). It closed on February 2, 2008. The club opened on April 4, 1990, replacing:
XZFR Rockin' Rollerdrome — A short lived club where guests could strap on skates and dance to rock and roll
West End Stage  - A stage used for events every night. The roof of the stage was torn down in 2009 and most of the stage was taken to the Disney Boneyard with small parts intact. It was replaced by Celebration Plaza in 2009.
AMC Pleasure Island 24  - In April 1990 these theaters opened with 10 screens as a Pleasure Island attraction but in January 1998 AMC expanded to 24 screens and became a part of West Side. The name was changed in 2010 to AMC Theatres Downtown Disney 24 and then, the name was changed to AMC Theatres Disney Springs 24 in 2015.

Performers included:
 New Kids on the Block (1989)
 Marky Mark & the Funky Bunch (1992)
 Blind Melon (1993, West End Stage)
 Johnny Cash (1995)
 Boy George (1995)
 *NSYNC (1995, filmed a demo at Rock 'n' Roll Beach Club)
 Savage Garden (1997)
 Christina Aguilera (1999, West End Stage)
 Hootie & the Blowfish (1999, New Year's Eve)
 The B-52's (1999, New Year's Eve)
 Styx (1999, New Year's Eve)
 Duran Duran (2000)

Gallery

In popular culture
 "Itchy & Scratchy Land", an episode of The Simpsons from 1994, features the family visiting the theme park Itchy and Scratchy Land, a parody of Walt Disney World. Marge and Homer visit "Parents' Island", which features a '70s-themed dance club where New Year's Eve is celebrated every few minutes

References

External links
Pleasure Island News & Information Website
Save P.I.: The Radio Revolution website
Stop Disney from Closing Pleasure Island Facebook Group

1989 establishments in Florida
2008 disestablishments in Florida
Buildings and structures in Lake Buena Vista, Florida
Disney Springs
Former Walt Disney Parks and Resorts attractions
Tourist attractions in Greater Orlando
Walt Disney Parks and Resorts

Pleasure Island (Walt Disney World)


The Grand Babylon Hotel is a novel by Arnold Bennett, published in January 1902, about the mysterious disappearance of a German prince. It originally appeared as a serial in the Golden Penny. The titular Grand Babylon was modelled on the Savoy Hotel which Bennett had much later also used as a model for his 1930 novel Imperial Palace.

In Bennett's journal entry on 18 January 1901, he also notes that said his serial was being advertised was the "best thing of this sort" they'd seen since The Mystery of a Hansom Cab by Fergus Hume.

Plot introduction
The protagonists are an American millionaire, Theodore Racksole, and his daughter Nella (Helen). While staying at the supremely exclusive Grand Babylon Hotel, Nella asks for a steak and Bass beer for dinner, but the order is refused. To get her what she wants Racksole buys the entire hotel, for £400,000 "and a guinea" (so the previous owner, Félix Babylon, can say that he haggled with the multi-millionaire businessman).

Strange things are happening in the hotel. First, Racksole
notices the headwaiter, Jules, winking at his daughter's friend,
Reginald Dimmock, while they consume their expensive steak. He
dismisses the headwaiter. The next day Miss Spencer, the pretty,
efficient hotel clerk who has been employed there for years,
disappears. It appears that she just took her things and left, no one knows when or
where. And Prince Eugen, a prince regnant of Posen, who was to come to
the hotel and meet his youthful uncle Prince Aribert (he and the nephew are of the
same age), never turns up. Then the body of Dimmock, who was an equerry to the princes, come ahead to
prepare for their visit, is found. He was obviously
poisoned. And soon after, Dimmock's body disappears.

The same evening the hotel is having a ball in the Gold Room, hosted by
a Mr and Mrs Sampson Levi. There is a special secret window though
which one can observe the room and the guests. Racksole
looks out of it and sees among the guests the dismissed headwaiter,
Jules. Racksole runs out to confront him and throw him out, but can't
find him. He comes back to the secret window to find Jules,
staring intensely into the ball room. Racksole orders him out of the
hotel for the second time.

Prince Aribert, who met Nella in Paris while he was travelling incognito under the
name of Count Steenbock, confides the whole story to her. He tells her
that Prince Eugen never arrived, and no one knows where he is. He was
last seen at Ostend. His Majesty the Emperor sent a telegram to
Aribert, requesting the whereabouts of Eugen.  Aribert, who does not
know whether there might be a secret love affair, or an abduction, is facing a
dilemma. At last he decides to go to Berlin and state the facts to the
Emperor. Nella promises him help and support in London.

After the departure of Aribert, an old lady signs into the hotel under
the name of 'Baroness Zerlinski'. Some chance remarks about hotel
rooms convinced Nella, who was substituting for the hotel clerk, that it was, in fact
Miss Spencer in disguise. When she finds out that Miss Spencer
suddenly checks out and departs for Ostend, Nella too
goes to Ostend, leaving a short message for her father as to her
whereabouts.

In Ostend, Nella follows Miss Spencer into a house, and
tries to find out what's going on, threatening the latter with a
revolver. Miss Spencer says that she was
under orders of Jules, the headwaiter, whose real name is Tom Jackson
and who is, she claims, her husband. She says that Jackson/Jules
quarrelled with Dimmock and that he had some "money business" with
Prince Eugen. She admits that the Prince was a captive in that same
house, and she looked after him. He was abducted to prevent him
arriving to London, for it would have "upset the scheme". Then Miss
Spencer fakes a faint, and Nella, who comes nearer to see if she can
help her, is overpowered. Nella loses consciousness.

Publication history
First serialised in Golden Penny in 1901 (of which the relevant issues have not survived), it was then published as a novel by London publisher Chatto & Windus in 1902.  An American edition was also published in 1902 by George H. Doran Company in New York, and a Canadian edition in 1902 by Toronto's Bell & Cockburn.  A new edition of the novel was published by various publishers in 1904, 1905, 1906, 1910, 1913, 1914, 1920, 1924, 1930, 1932, 1936.

In 1938, Penguin Books added Grand Babylon Hotel to their main series of paperbacks (#176 to be precise).  in 1954 & 1972, Penguin did a reprinted version. The 1976 version was part of their Modern Classics line.  Their edition of 4 February 1992 was on the Penguin Classics line.

Various editions were published in 1947, 1958 (an abridged version by Longmans, Green & Co.), 1959, 1961, 1967, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1984 (a large print edition), 1990, 1996.

On 1 September 2001, Project Gutenberg released an e-book version of the novel.

Since the 2000s, the novel has been in and out of print.  Academic publisher Broadview Press published a new edition on 3 August 2016 edited by Randi Saloman, an Assistant Teaching Professor at Wake Forest University.

Reception
London-based literature review periodical The Academy had an unsigned review that called the novel a "very amusing story of the feuilleton type".  Review had also said that novel was "excellent in the mingling of farce and characterization."

An unsigned review in The Times Literary Supplement notes that Grand Babylon follows a type of subgenre that Anthony Hope had begun with The Prisoner of Zenda and praised Bennett's ability to keep readers interest from the first page to the last.

Film and Radio adaptations
In 1916 the novel was adapted into a British film The Grand Babylon Hotel directed by Frank Wilson. In 1920 the title was used by the German filmmaker E.A. Dupont for his thriller The Grand Babylon Hotel. Dupont and Bennett later worked together on the 1929 film Piccadilly.

Chris Harrald adapted the novel for BBC Radio 4 in 2009 in 2 parts with John Sessions as Theodore Racksole and Matti Houghton as Nella Racksole, Stephen Critchlow as Prince Eugen, Fenella Woolgar as Miss Spencer and Joe Kloska as Aribert.

Xavier Mauméjean adapted Lise Capitan's French language translation for Radio France Culture (Samedi Noir programme).

References

External links

1902 British novels
British novels adapted into films
Novels by Arnold Bennett
Novels first published in serial form
Works originally published in the Daily Mail
Chatto & Windus books

The Grand Babylon Hotel


WVII-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Bangor, Maine, United States, affiliated with ABC. The station is owned by Rockfleet Broadcasting alongside Fox affiliate WFVX-LD (channel 22). WVII-TV and WFVX-LD share studios on Target Industrial Circle in West Bangor; through a channel sharing agreement, the two stations transmit using WVII-TV's spectrum from an antenna on Black Cap Mountain along the Penobscot and Hancock county line.

WVII-TV serves as the default ABC affiliate through cable for the Presque Isle market, as that area does not have an ABC affiliate of its own. It is carried in the local tier of Charter Spectrum's cable system in Presque Isle, and is also offered as the ABC affiliate in the Presque Isle Dish Network and DirecTV channel lineups.

History
The station signed on October 15, 1965, as WEMT under the ownership of Downeast Television, an ownership group that included Melvin Stone, owner of WGUY (1250 AM, later WNSW on 1200 AM; now defunct) and Rumford's WRUM, and Herbert Hoffman, owner of WBOS-AM-FM in Boston. Until WEMT went on the air, ABC maintained secondary affiliations with CBS affiliate WABI-TV (channel 5) and NBC affiliate WLBZ-TV (channel 2). It is the only television station in Bangor to have never switched its network affiliation. Downeast sold WEMT to Eastern Maine Broadcasting Systems (a subsidiary of Valley Communications, owner of WPNO in Auburn and WSKW and WTOS-FM in Skowhegan) on February 2, 1976. The new owners changed the station's call letters to WVII-TV that September. Although ABC was the nation's number one network by that time, Eastern Maine Broadcasting Systems suffered from massive financial problems during its ownership of WVII, bouncing paychecks, relying on an outdated Super 8mm film camera to film stories and lacking basic amenities such as air conditioning; the station went unnoticed in Bangor during this time. WVII did see some success as a border blaster when viewers in Halifax, Nova Scotia discovered the station's late-night offering, Dick Stacey's Country Jamboree. Eastern Maine Broadcasting Systems sold the station to Seaway Communications, a minority-controlled company that already owned WAEO-TV (now WJFW-TV) in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, on July 23, 1982.

WVII suffered a transmitter failure on February 9, 1995, due to a fire, knocking the station off-the-air in the middle of the 6 p.m. news, during a Bangor Hydro Electric advertisement. The following day, TCI Cable, whose facilities shared a real property line with WVII on Target Industrial Circle, ran a transmission line from its building to the WVII studios, allowing the station to resume normal operations for Bangor cable viewers; however, until a temporary transmitter was activated on February 19, cable systems in areas outside of Bangor were forced to carry distant affiliates for programming (WVII was supplemented by WMTW in the Augusta and Waterville areas (which are considered to be part of the Portland area), while Miami affiliate WPLG was carried in the Presque Isle market in place of WVII) and over-the-air viewers outside of the Bangor market's extreme western fringes lost ABC programming completely during that time. WVII would not return to full-power broadcasting until April 1995; at that time, it became the second station in Bangor to broadcast in stereo. The cause of the fire was determined by the station's chief engineer to have been a snake crawling into the final on the transmitter causing an electrical short.

Seaway Broadcasting merged with current owner Rockfleet Broadcasting in 1998. Under Rockfleet, WVII ventured into low-power broadcasting in Bangor; it signed a local marketing agreement with James McLeod, owner of W30BF (the former Bangor transmitter for Maine Public Television Plus) and WBGR-LP (channel 33), in 2000, and relaunched channel 30 as UPN affiliate WCKD-LP, which also carried some Fox Sports programming (in the 1990s, WVII itself carried some sports programming from Fox on a secondary basis), in 2001. WCKD tried to become a full Fox affiliate that October after Portland's WPXT announced that it would switch to The WB, but was blocked from doing so by UPN; this did not stop the station from continuing its existing relationship with Fox Sports. As a result, from October 2001 to April 2003, Fox's primetime and children's programming in the Bangor and Portland areas was carried by Foxnet, which served as the network's affiliate for the entire state of Maine during that time. After Rockfleet Broadcasting acquired W22BU (channel 22) from MS Communications in 2003, it changed that station's call letters to WFVX-LP and, on April 13, affiliated it with Fox. Rockfleet moved all of WCKD's syndicated and local programming, but not the UPN affiliation, to WFVX. That August, Rockfleet and James McLeod agreed to end the LMA with WCKD.

WVII made national news in a New York Times article on October 30, 2006, quoting General Manager Michael Palmer saying "when Bar Harbor is underwater, then we can do global warming stories. Until then," he added, "no more." According to Palmer, this policy, implemented the preceding summer, was introduced because: "a) we do local news, b) the issue evolved from hard science into hard politics and c) despite what you may have heard from the mainstream media, this science is far from conclusive." In an e-mail message to the station's operations manager, a news anchor, and a news reporter, Palmer placed "global warming stories in the same category as 'the killer African bee scare' from the 1970s or, more recently, the Y2K scare when everyone's computer was going to self-destruct." Palmer eventually told the Bangor Daily News that the e-mail was in response to an "overtly political" report from a former reporter and that the station did not intend to stop reporting on global warming altogether; on the following night's newscast, WVII broadcast a report in which residents were asked if they felt global temperatures were rising "so we could immediately dispel the rumor."

In August 2008, WVII and WFVX began to split live coverage of New England Patriots pre-season games. Channel 7 had previously shown the games in 1995 and since 2001; however, National Football League rules required WVII to show them on tape delay, despite several efforts by the station to carry live telecasts.

WVII has been digital-only since February 17, 2009, the original date when all television stations in the United States transitioned from analog broadcasts to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (the date would later change to June 12, 2009). Initially, the digital signal remained on UHF channel 14 (where it broadcast before the transition), but it subsequently returned to its former analog channel, 7.

The station received national attention when the station's main anchor team, Cindy Michaels (who also acted as WVII/WFVX's news director) and Tony Consiglio (who also doubled as executive producer), resigned their positions on-air at the end of the 6 p.m. newscast on November 20, 2012; effective immediately. Michaels and Consiglio later told the Bangor Daily News and other media outlets that they felt compelled to resign due to conflicts with upper management of both the station and Rockfleet. They claimed that management interfered with the news department so much that in the end, it was impossible to present balanced newscasts. They took the step of resigning on-air because they wanted a chance to say goodbye to their viewers. They were replaced by former WABI-TV and WQCB radio news anchor Craig Colson, who also became news director for WVII and WFVX, in December 2012.

In June 2013, WVII and WFVX reached a deal to carry Husson University sports. This was followed a month later with a deal to carry University of Maine sports; as a result, WVII and WFVX replace WABI-TV as the television flagship of the Black Bear Sports Network. As part of the deal, Black Bear sports telecasts are also seen on Stadium College Sports, and production is handled by Pack Network (WABI had produced its telecasts in-house).

In early September 2017, WVII replaced their long-time version of the commonly-used Circle 7 logo from ABC (used among their channel 7 stations) with a different logo variation made up of a block number "7".

On February 28, 2022, WVII and WFVX temporarily changed their logos to blue and yellow, the colors of the Ukrainian flag, in support of Ukraine after the 2022 Russian invasion.

In July 2023, a WVII employee was indicted on felony theft charges. According to District Attorney Chris Almy, Melissa Moran, the former accounts manager for WVII/WFVX, stole more than $200,000 from the station over a period of two years.

WVII is one of a few ABC affiliates to air paid programming on weekdays.

News operation
WVII has spent most of its history as a distant third place in the Nielsen ratings behind WABI and WLBZ, at point in its early existence not registering any measurable or identifiable audience in one of the smallest media markets in the U.S. Since the early 2010s, it is quickly catching up with WLBZ in the Eastern Maine market. Its news operation is quite small compared to its rivals. The station produces newscasts at 6 a.m. (on WVII), 7 a.m. (on WFVX), Noon, 6 p.m., 6:30 and 10 p.m. (on WFVX), and 11 p.m. WVII's website offers on-demand video of its newscasts.

Unlike most ABC affiliates, WVII does not air weeknight newscasts at 5 and/or 5:30, though it did produce a 5:30 newscast until August 1998. It currently does not air weekend newscasts; the 6 p.m. edition ended in September 1998, and the 11 p.m. show was dropped in July 2003. However, WFVX began airing a weekend 10 p.m. newscast in September 2012. The station also ended its 6:30 a.m. newscast on October 1, 1998, though it returned on September 7, 2011. WVII also attempted a noon newscast during the 1990s. On February 4, 2016, WVII brought back a Noon newscast.

WVII operated its own weather department during the 20th century, serving as an entry-level opening for aspiring television meteorologists. On October 1, 2002, the station contracted out its forecasts to AccuWeather. The segments are recorded in advance with rotating meteorologists and fed via satellite to Bangor from AccuWeather's headquarters in State College, Pennsylvania (which WVII occasionally refers to as the "ABC 7 Weather Center"). Weekend forecasts started being produced by co-owned WJFW in Wisconsin in 2018, followed by weekday newscasts on January 1, 2020.

WVII began taping the 10 and 11 p.m. newscasts earlier in the evening on October 16, 2006, though the sports report was still seen live on Fridays so that game highlights and scores from high school football games could still be featured. As of September 2011, WFVX has resumed airing a live newscast at 10.

When providing regional and state coverage, WVII and CBS affiliate WGME-TV in Portland share content and video footage. During the summer months, the station periodically airs its early evening news at 6 on Fridays from a town selected in advance. These newscasts are known as ABC 7 News on the Road, and include features about the town where the show is being broadcast from.

In December 2012, WVII and WFVX converted to high definition. A new website, studio and HD graphics were also added during this transition.

Notable former on-air staff
Jim Axelrod – reporter (1989; now with CBS News)
Pete Bouchard – meteorologist (1994–1998, now with WBTS-CD and New England Cable News in Boston)

Subchannel

References

External links

Television channels and stations established in 1965
VII-TV
ABC network affiliates
1965 establishments in Maine

WVII-TV


Arthur Adamov (23 August 1908 – 15 March 1970) was a playwright, one of the foremost exponents of the Theatre of the Absurd.

Early life
Adamov (originally Adamian) was born in Kislovodsk in the Terek Oblast of the Russian Empire to a wealthy Armenian family.:92 At the outbreak of the First World War, the family was at risk of being interned as 'enemy citizens', and only 'through the special intervention of the King of Wurttemberg' were they able to escape to Geneva, Switzerland.:93 Adamov was educated in Switzerland and Germany,:93 with French as his primary language. In 1924, when he was sixteen years old, he moved to Paris.:93 There he met artists associated with the Surrealist Movement and edited the surrealist journal Discontinuité.:93

Postwar career
He began to write plays at the end of World War II.:98 La Parodie (1947) was his first play, which Martin Esslin has identified as 'an attempt to come to terms with neurosis, to make psychological states visible in concrete terms.':98 His work, influenced by Bertolt Brechtand August Strindberg,:98 is often dream-like and later works in particular have a political element. The title character of one of his best known works, Le Professeur Taranne (1953), is accused of various things (public nudity, littering, plagiarism), all of which he strenuously denies, only to have his denials turned against him into more evidence of misdemeanours. This particular play was directly influenced by a dream Adamov had.

Lesser known to the public is his prose work with short stories like Fin Août (in Je... Ils..., 1969). Their themes revolve around topics like masochism, which the author regarded as "immunisation against death". Adamov translated a number of works by German authors (Rilke, Büchner) and Russian classics (Gogol, Chekhov) into French.

The Algerian war radicalised his political views and in the 1960s he became a Communist.

During his later years, he began to drink and use drugs.

Adamov's death in 1970 was due to an overdose of barbiturates.

Selected works

 L'Aveu (The Confession, 1946)
 La Parodie  (The Parody, 1950)
 L'Invasion  (The Invasion, 1950)
 La Grande et la Petite Manoeuvre (The Grand and Small Manoeuvre, 1950)
 Le Sens de la Marche (The Way to Go, 1953)
 Tous contre tous (All against all, 1953)
 Le Professeur Taranne  (Professor Taranne, 1953)
 Le Ping-Pong  (Ping Pong, 1955)
 Paolo Paoli  (1957)
 Le Printemps '71 (Spring '71, 1960)
 La Politique des Restes (The Politics of Rubbish, 1963)
 Ici et Maintenant (Here and Now, 1964)
 Sainte Europe (Holy Europe, 1966)
 M. le Modéré (Mr. Moderate, 1968)
 Off Limits (1969)
 Si l'été revenait (If Summer Came Again'', 1970)

References

1908 births
1970 deaths
People from Kislovodsk
People from Terek Oblast
Russian people of Armenian descent
Soviet emigrants to France
Russian–French translators
20th-century French dramatists and playwrights
French people of Armenian descent
Soviet Armenians
Theatre of the Absurd
Drug-related deaths in France
20th-century translators
1970 suicides
Burials at Ivry Cemetery

Arthur Adamov


In science, an inverse-square law is any scientific law stating that a specified physical quantity is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the source of that physical quantity. The fundamental cause for this can be understood as geometric dilution corresponding to point-source radiation into three-dimensional space.

Radar energy expands during both the signal transmission and the reflected return, so the inverse square for both paths means that the radar will receive energy according to the inverse fourth power of the range.

To prevent dilution of energy while propagating a signal, certain methods can be used such as a waveguide, which acts like a canal does for water, or how a gun barrel restricts hot gas expansion to one dimension in order to prevent loss of energy transfer to a bullet.

Formula
In mathematical notation the inverse square law can be expressed as an intensity (I) varying as a function of distance (d) from some centre. The intensity is proportional (see ∝) to the reciprocal of the square of the distance thus:

It can also be mathematically expressed as:

or as the formulation of a constant quantity:

The divergence of a vector field which is the resultant of radial inverse-square law fields with respect to one or more sources is proportional to the strength of the local sources, and hence zero outside sources. Newton's law of universal gravitation follows an inverse-square law, as do the effects of electric, light, sound, and radiation phenomena.

Justification
The inverse-square law generally applies when some force, energy, or other conserved quantity is evenly radiated outward from a point source in three-dimensional space.  Since the surface area of a sphere (which is 4πr2) is proportional to the square of the radius, as the emitted radiation gets farther from the source, it is spread out over an area that is increasing in proportion to the square of the distance from the source. Hence, the intensity of radiation passing through any unit area (directly facing the point source) is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the point source. Gauss's law for gravity is similarly applicable, and can be used with any physical quantity that acts in accordance with the inverse-square relationship.

Occurrences

Gravitation
Gravitation is the attraction between objects that have mass. Newton's law states:

If the distribution of matter in each body is spherically symmetric, then the objects can be treated as point masses without approximation, as shown in the shell theorem.  Otherwise, if we want to calculate the attraction between massive bodies, we need to add all the point-point attraction forces vectorially and the net attraction might not be exact inverse square. However, if the separation between the massive bodies is much larger compared to their sizes, then to a good approximation, it is reasonable to treat the masses as a point mass located at the object's center of mass while calculating the gravitational force.

As the law of gravitation, this law was suggested in 1645 by Ismaël Bullialdus. But Bullialdus did not accept Kepler's second and third laws, nor did he appreciate Christiaan Huygens's solution for circular motion (motion in a straight line pulled aside by the central force).  Indeed, Bullialdus maintained the sun's force was attractive at aphelion and repulsive at perihelion. Robert Hooke and Giovanni Alfonso Borelli both expounded gravitation in 1666 as an attractive force. Hooke's lecture "On gravity" was at the Royal Society, in London, on 21 March. Borelli's "Theory of the Planets" was published later in 1666.  Hooke's 1670 Gresham lecture explained that gravitation applied to "all celestiall bodys" and added the principles that the gravitating power decreases with distance and that in the absence of any such power bodies move in straight lines. By 1679, Hooke thought gravitation had inverse square dependence and communicated this in a letter to Isaac Newton:
my supposition is that the attraction always is in duplicate proportion to the distance from the center reciprocall.

Hooke remained bitter about Newton claiming the invention of this principle, even though Newton's 1686 Principia acknowledged that Hooke, along with Wren and Halley, had separately appreciated the inverse square law in the solar system, as well as giving some credit to Bullialdus.

Electrostatics
The force of attraction or repulsion between two electrically charged particles, in addition to being directly proportional to the product of the electric charges, is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them; this is known as Coulomb's law. The deviation of the exponent from 2 is less than one part in 1015.

Light and other electromagnetic radiation
The intensity (or illuminance or irradiance) of light or other linear waves radiating from a point source (energy per unit of area perpendicular to the source) is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the source, so an object (of the same size) twice as far away receives only one-quarter the energy (in the same time period).

More generally, the irradiance, i.e., the intensity (or power per unit area in the direction of propagation), of a spherical wavefront varies inversely with the square of the distance from the source (assuming there are no losses caused by absorption or scattering).

For example, the intensity of radiation from the Sun is 9126 watts per square meter at the distance of Mercury (0.387 AU); but only 1367 watts per square meter at the distance of Earth (1 AU)—an approximate threefold increase in distance results in an approximate ninefold decrease in intensity of radiation.

For non-isotropic radiators such as parabolic antennas, headlights, and lasers, the effective origin is located far behind the beam aperture. If you are close to the origin, you don't have to go far to double the radius, so the signal drops quickly. When you are far from the origin and still have a strong signal, like with a laser, you have to travel very far to double the radius and reduce the signal. This means you have a stronger signal or have antenna gain in the direction of the narrow beam relative to a wide beam in all directions of an isotropic antenna.

In photography and stage lighting, the inverse-square law is used to determine the "fall off" or the difference in illumination on a subject as it moves closer to or further from the light source. For quick approximations, it is enough to remember that doubling the distance reduces illumination to one quarter; or similarly, to halve the illumination increase the distance by a factor of 1.4 (the square root of 2), and to double illumination, reduce the distance to 0.7 (square root of 1/2). When the illuminant is not a point source, the inverse square rule is often still a useful approximation; when the size of the light source is less than one-fifth of the distance to the subject, the calculation error is less than 1%.

The fractional reduction in electromagnetic fluence (Φ) for indirectly ionizing radiation with increasing distance from a point source can be calculated using the inverse-square law. Since emissions from a point source have radial directions, they intercept at a perpendicular incidence. The area of such a shell is 4πr 2 where r is the radial distance from the center. The law is particularly important in diagnostic radiography and radiotherapy treatment planning, though this proportionality does not hold in practical situations unless source dimensions are much smaller than the distance.  As stated in Fourier theory of heat "as the point source is magnification by distances, its radiation is dilute proportional to the sin of the angle, of the increasing circumference arc from the point of origin".

Example
Let P  be the total power radiated from a point source (for example, an omnidirectional isotropic radiator). At large distances from the source (compared to the size of the source), this power is distributed over larger and larger spherical surfaces as the distance from the source increases.  Since the surface area of a sphere of radius r is A = 4πr 2, the intensity I (power per unit area) of radiation at distance r is

The energy or intensity decreases (divided by 4) as the distance r is doubled; if measured in dB would decrease by 6.02 dB per doubling of distance. When referring to measurements of power quantities, a ratio can be expressed as a level in decibels by evaluating ten times the base-10 logarithm of the ratio of the measured quantity to the reference value.

Sound in a gas

In acoustics, the sound pressure of a spherical wavefront radiating from a point source decreases by 50% as the distance r is doubled; measured in dB, the decrease is still 6.02 dB, since dB represents an intensity ratio. The pressure ratio (as opposed to power ratio) is not inverse-square, but is inverse-proportional (inverse distance law):

The same is true for the component of particle velocity  that is in-phase with the instantaneous sound pressure :

In the near field is a quadrature component of the particle velocity that is 90° out of phase with the sound pressure and does not contribute to the time-averaged energy or the intensity of the sound.  The sound intensity is the product of the RMS sound pressure and the in-phase component of the RMS particle velocity, both of which are inverse-proportional. Accordingly, the intensity follows an inverse-square behaviour:

Field theory interpretation
For an irrotational vector field in three-dimensional space, the inverse-square law corresponds to the property that the divergence is zero outside the source. This can be generalized to higher dimensions. Generally, for an irrotational vector field in n-dimensional Euclidean space, the intensity "I" of the vector field falls off with the distance "r" following the inverse (n − 1)th power law

given that the space outside the source is divergence free.

Non-Euclidean implications

The inverse-square law, fundamental in Euclidean spaces, also applies to non-Euclidean geometries, including hyperbolic space. The inherent curvature in these spaces impacts physical laws, underpinning various fields such as cosmology, general relativity, and string theory.

John D. Barrow, in his 2020 paper "Non-Euclidean Newtonian Cosmology," elaborates on the behavior of force (F) and potential (Φ) within hyperbolic 3-space (H3). He illustrates that F and Φ obey the formulas F ∝ 1 / R^2 sinh^2(r/R) and Φ ∝ coth(r/R), where R and r represent the curvature radius and the distance from the focal point, respectively.

The concept of the dimensionality of space, first proposed by Immanuel Kant, is an ongoing topic of debate in relation to the inverse-square law. Dimitria Electra Gatzia and Rex D. Ramsier, in their 2021 paper, argue that the inverse-square law pertains more to the symmetry in force distribution than to the dimensionality of space.

Within the realm of non-Euclidean geometries and general relativity, deviations from the inverse-square law might not stem from the law itself but rather from the assumption that the force between bodies depends instantaneously on distance, contradicting special relativity. General relativity instead interprets gravity as a distortion of spacetime, causing freely falling particles to traverse geodesics in this curved spacetime.

History

John Dumbleton of the 14th-century Oxford Calculators, was one of the first to express functional relationships in graphical form. He gave a proof of the mean speed theorem stating that "the latitude of a uniformly difform movement corresponds to the degree of the midpoint" and used this method to study the quantitative decrease in intensity of illumination in his Summa logicæ et philosophiæ naturalis (ca. 1349), stating that it was not linearly proportional to the distance, but was unable to expose the Inverse-square law.

In proposition 9 of Book 1 in his book Ad Vitellionem paralipomena, quibus astronomiae pars optica traditur (1604), the astronomer Johannes Kepler argued that the spreading of light from a point source obeys an inverse square law:

In 1645, in his book Astronomia Philolaica ..., the French astronomer Ismaël Bullialdus (1605–1694) refuted Johannes Kepler's suggestion that "gravity" weakens as the inverse of the distance; instead, Bullialdus argued, "gravity" weakens as the inverse square of the distance:

In England, the Anglican bishop Seth Ward (1617–1689) publicized the ideas of Bullialdus in his critique In Ismaelis Bullialdi astronomiae philolaicae fundamenta inquisitio brevis (1653) and publicized the planetary astronomy of Kepler in his book Astronomia geometrica (1656).

In 1663–1664, the English scientist Robert Hooke was writing his book Micrographia (1666) in which he discussed, among other things, the relation between the height of the atmosphere and the barometric pressure at the surface.  Since the atmosphere surrounds the Earth, which itself is a sphere, the volume of atmosphere bearing on any unit area of the Earth's surface is a truncated cone (which extends from the Earth's center to the vacuum of space; obviously only the section of the cone from the Earth's surface to space bears on the Earth's surface).  Although the volume of a cone is proportional to the cube of its height, Hooke argued that the air's pressure at the Earth's surface is instead proportional to the height of the atmosphere because gravity diminishes with altitude.  Although Hooke did not explicitly state so, the relation that he proposed would be true only if gravity decreases as the inverse square of the distance from the Earth's center.

See also
 Flux
 Antenna (radio)
 Gauss's law
 Kepler's laws of planetary motion
 Kepler problem
 Telecommunications, particularly:
 William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin
 Power-aware routing protocols
 Inverse proportionality
 Multiplicative inverse
 Distance decay
 Fermi paradox
 Square–cube law
 Principle of similitude

References

External links
 Damping of sound level with distance
 Sound pressure p and the inverse distance law 1/r

Philosophy of physics
Scientific method

Inverse-square law


Bechamoun (), is a  town near Beirut in the Mount Lebanon Governorate of Lebanon. It has an area about 6.6  square kilometres and elevation between 60 and 580 metres above sea level. It lies 8 kilometres from Beirut's airport and central Beirut. The town has a population of greater than 15,000.

Bechamoun was the first village to raise the Lebanese flag after gaining independence from France.

Name
Bchamoun's name is derived from "Beit Chamoun" (Arabic) The word comes from Syriac Aramaic spoken by the Canaanites.
, "House of Chamoun" (English), "Temple of Eshmun" (Syriac Aramaic), a Phoenician god.

Schools
Bchamoun has 10 schools, 8 private and 2 governmental.

Hospitals
There is only one hospital in Bchamoun which is Bchamoun Speciality Hospital.

Geography and Archaeology
Bchamoun is divided to 3 parts.

1. Al Day3a zone which is the old village and its three hills surrounded with forests and great views toward Beirut

2. Madares

3. Yanar is a modern city that lies under the hills overlooking the airport and Beirut.

An archaeological site was discovered  east of Khalde by V. Hankey in 1963. The site is located on the western terraces of a conical hill, west of the main village called Qalaa' Tahun-el-Haoua. An unpublished collection was also made by R. Saidah. Various potsherds were found and dated back to the Early Bronze Age by Maurice Dunand. Amongst the pottery was a sherd with a cylinder seal showing pattern of marching and alternating goats and lions that was similar to sherds showing a similar type of animalism from Byblos, Megiddo and other Palestinian and Syrian sites dating to the EB period. Although some thinner pink ware was found, sherds were usually red or grey, thick and well fired. The forms suggested were large, flat based jars with flared rims. Decorations found included incised patterns, made with combs to form bands of chevrons. Similar finds were discovered at Jaita I, Kaffer Jarra Roueisse, Nahr Damour, Aramoun and Khallet-el-Khazen. Two used flint blades were found along with part of a basalt object.

See also
 Druze in Lebanon
 Christianity in Lebanon

References

External links
Bchamoun, localiban

Populated places in Aley District
Druze communities in Lebanon
Christian communities in Lebanon
Archaeological sites in Lebanon
Bronze Age Asia
Prehistoric Lebanon
Ancient cities of the Middle East

Bechamoun