The culture of Germany has been shaped by major intellectual and popular currents in Europe, both religious and secular.  Historically, Germany has been called Das Land der Dichter und Denker (the country of poets and thinkers). German culture originated with the Germanic tribes, the earliest evidence of Germanic culture dates to the Jastorf culture in Northern Germany and Denmark. Contact with Germanic tribes were described by various Greco-Roman authors. The first extensive writing done on Germanic culture can be seen during the Roman Imperial Period with Germania by Tacitus.

History

Germany has been the center for various important phenomena such as the Migration Period, the Carolingian Empire, Holy Roman Empire, the Medieval renaissances, Scholasticism, the Hanseatic League, the German Renaissance, the Printing Revolution, Protestant reformation, Prussia, Romanticism, Kaiserreich, Weimar and National Socialism.

There are a number of public holidays in Germany. The country is particularly known for its Oktoberfest celebrations in Munich, its carnival culture and globally influential Christmas customs known as Weihnachten. 3 October has been the national day of Germany since 1990, celebrated as the German Unity Day (Tag der Deutschen Einheit). The UNESCO inscribed 46 properties in Germany on the World Heritage List. A global opinion poll for the BBC revealed that Germany is recognized for having the most positive influence in the world in 2011, 2013, and 2014.

Language

German is the official and predominant spoken language in Germany. It is one of 23 official languages in the European Union, and one of the three working languages of the European Commission, along with English and French. Recognised native minority languages in Germany are Danish, Sorbian,
North Frisian and
Saterland Frisian. Further Low German as a regional language. They are officially protected by the ECRML. The most used immigrant languages are Turkish, Kurdish, Polish, the Balkan languages, and Russian.

Standard German is a West Germanic language and is closely related to and classified alongside English, Dutch, and the Frisian languages. To a lesser extent, it is also related to the East (extinct) and North Germanic languages. Most German vocabulary is derived from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family. Significant minorities of words are derived from Latin and Greek, with a smaller amount from French and most recently English (known as Denglisch). German is written using the Latin alphabet. In addition to the 26 standard letters, German has three vowels with Umlaut, namely ä, ö, and ü, as well as the Eszett or scharfes S (sharp s) which is written "ß". German orthography has gone through a series of reforms, the most recent in 1996.

German dialects are distinguished from varieties of standard German. German dialects are traditional local varieties and can be traced back to the different German tribes. Many of them are not easily understandable to a speaker of standard German, since they often differ in lexicon, phonology, and syntax.

Around the world, German has approximately 100 million native speakers and also about 80 million non-native speakers. German is the main language of about 90 million people (18%) in the EU. 67% of German citizens claim to be able to communicate in at least one foreign language, 27% in at least two languages other than their first.

In the German diaspora, aspects of German culture are passed on to younger generations through naming customs and through the use of spoken and written German. The Goethe Institute seeks to spread the knowledge of German culture worldwide. A total of 15.5 million people are currently learning German as a second language.

Literature

German literature can be traced back to the Middle Ages, with the most notable authors of the period being Walther von der Vogelweide and Wolfram von Eschenbach.
The , whose author remains unknown, is also an important work of the epoch, as is the Thidrekssaga.  The fairy tales collections collected and published by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in the 19th century became famous throughout the world.

Theologian Luther, who translated the Bible into German, is widely credited for having set the basis for the modern "High German" language.

Among the most admired German philosophers and authors are Lessing, Goethe, Schiller, Kleist, Hoffmann, Brecht, Heine and Schmidt.  Nine Germans have won the Nobel Prize in literature: Theodor Mommsen, Paul von Heyse, Gerhart Hauptmann, Thomas Mann, Nelly Sachs, Hermann Hesse, Heinrich Böll, Günter Grass, and Herta Müller.

Philosophy

The rise of the modern natural sciences and the related decline of religion raised a series of questions, which recur throughout German philosophy, concerning the relationships between knowledge and faith, reason and emotion, and scientific, ethical, and artistic ways of seeing the world.

German philosophers have helped shape western philosophy from as early as the Middle Ages (Albertus Magnus). Later, Leibniz (17th century) and most importantly Kant played central roles in the history of philosophy. Kantianism inspired the work of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche as well as German idealism defended by Fichte and Hegel. Marx and Engels developed communist theory in the second half of the 19th century while Heidegger and Gadamer pursued the tradition of German philosophy in the 20th century. A number of German intellectuals were also influential in sociology, most notably Adorno, Elias, Habermas, Horkheimer, Luhmann, Marcuse, Simmel, Tönnies, and Weber. The University of Berlin founded in 1810 by linguist and philosopher Wilhelm von Humboldt served as an influential model for a number of modern western universities.

In the 21st century Germany has been an important country for the development of contemporary analytic philosophy in continental Europe, along with France, Austria, Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries.

Music

In the field of music, Germany claims some of the most renowned classical composers of the world, including Bach and Beethoven, who marked the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western classical music. Also, Germans developed many Lutheran chorales and hymns.

Other composers of the Austro-German tradition who achieved international fame include Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Brahms, Wagner, Haydn, Johann Pachelbel, Schubert, Händel, Schumann, Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Johann Strauss II, Bruckner, Mahler, Telemann, Richard Strauss, Schoenberg, Orff, and most recently, Henze, Lachenmann, and Stockhausen.

Germany is the largest music market in Europe, and third largest in the world. It has exerted a strong influence on rock and heavy metal music. Artists such as Herbert Grönemeyer, Scorpions, Blind Guardian, Rammstein, Nena, Unheilig, Xavier Naidoo, Tokio Hotel and Modern Talking have enjoyed international fame.

German musicians have contributed heavily to developments in electronic music. Synth-pop, electronic body music, trance, hardcore. Krautrock band Kraftwerk, are considered to be the pioneers of synth-pop, electro, techno, and house music. Tangerine Dream's "Love on a Real Train" was a major influence on the development of synthwave.

German popular music of the 20th and 21st centuries includes the movements of Neue Deutsche Welle (Nena, Alphaville), Ostrock (City, Keimzeit), Metal/Rock, Punk (Nina Hagen, Böhse Onkelz, Die Ärzte, Die Toten Hosen), Pop rock (Beatsteaks), Indie (Tocotronic, Blumfeld) and Hip Hop (Die Fantastischen Vier, Deichkind). A global trendsetter is the German Minimal and Techno scene (e.g. Ricardo Villalobos, Paul Kalkbrenner and Sven Vath).

Germany hosts many large rock music festivals every year. The Rock am Ring festival is the largest music festival in Germany, and among the largest in the world. German artists also make up a large percentage of Industrial music acts, which is called Neue Deutsche Härte. Germany hosts some of the largest Goth scenes and festivals in the entire world, with events like Wave-Gotik-Treffen and M'era Luna Festival attracting up to 30,000 people. In addition, the country hosts Wacken Open Air, the biggest heavy metal open air festival in the world.

Since about 1970, Germany has once again had a thriving popular culture, now increasingly led by its reinstated capital Berlin, and a self-confident music and art scene. Germany is also very well known for its many renowned opera houses, such as Semperoper, Komische Oper Berlin and Munich State Theatre. Richard Wagner established the Bayreuth Festspielhaus.

One of the most famous composers of the international film business is Hans Zimmer. The year 2020 was designated "Beethoven Year" to mark 250 years since the composer was born.

Cinema

German cinema dates back to the very early years of the medium with the work of Max Skladanowsky. It was particularly influential during the years of the Weimar Republic with German expressionists such as Robert Wiene and Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau. Austrian-based director Fritz Lang, who became a German citizen in 1926 and whose career flourished in the pre-war German film industry, is said to have been a major influence on Hollywood cinema. His silent movie Metropolis (1927) is referred to as the birth of modern Science Fiction movies.
Founded in 1912, the Babelsberg Film Studio is the oldest large-scale film studio in the world.

In 1930, Josef von Sternberg directed The Blue Angel, which was the first major German sound film and it brought world fame to actress Marlene Dietrich. Impressionist documentary Berlin: Symphony of a Great City, directed by Walter Ruttmann, is a prominent example of the city symphony genre. The Nazi era produced mostly propaganda films although the work of Leni Riefenstahl still introduced new aesthetics to film.

During the 1970s and 1980s, New German Cinema directors such as Volker Schlöndorff, Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder put West German cinema back on the international stage with their often provocative films.

More recently, films such as Good Bye Lenin! (2003), Gegen die Wand (Head-on) (2004), Der Untergang (Downfall) (2004), and Der Baader Meinhof Komplex (2008) have enjoyed international success.

The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film went to the German production Die Blechtrommel (The Tin Drum) in 1979, to Nowhere in Africa in 2002, and to Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others) in 2007. Among the most famous German actors are Marlene Dietrich, Klaus Kinski, Hanna Schygulla, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Jürgen Prochnow, Thomas Kretschmann, Til Schweiger and Daniel Brühl.

The Berlin Film Festival, held annually since 1951, is one of the world's foremost film festivals. An international jury places emphasis on representing films from all over the world and awards the winners with the Golden and Silver Bears. The annual European Film Awards ceremony is held every second year in the city of Berlin, where the European Film Academy (EFA) is located. The Babelsberg Studios in Potsdam are the oldest large-scale film studios in the world and a centre for international film production.

Media

Germany's television market is the largest in Europe, with 34,000,000 TV households.
The many regional and national public broadcasters are organised in line with the federal political structure. Around 90% of German households have cable or satellite TV, and viewers can choose from a variety of free-to-view public and commercial channels. Pay-TV services have not become popular or successful while public TV broadcasters ZDF and ARD offer a range of digital-only channels. Reality TV is the most popular programming in Germany and a key part in modern German culture.

Germany is home to some of the world's largest media conglomerates, including Bertelsmann, the Axel Springer AG and ProSiebenSat.1 Media.

The German-speaking book publishers produce about 700,000,000 copies of books every year, with about 80,000 titles, nearly 60,000 of them new publications. Germany is in third place on international statistics after the English-speaking book market and the People's Republic of China. The Frankfurt Book Fair is considered to be the most important book fair in the world for international deals and trading and has a tradition that spans over 500 years.

Many of Europe's best-selling newspapers and magazines are produced in Germany. The papers with the highest circulation are Die Zeit, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Die Welt, the largest magazines include Der Spiegel, Stern and Focus. The Bild is a tabloid and has the largest circulation of all German papers.

However, the publishing industry is in flux – amongst other things because meanwhile almost 800,000 newspaper copies sold daily are distributed digitally and the number of digital subscriptions is continually rising. Nevertheless, a total of around 38 million people in Germany still read a printed newspaper every day, while around 14.6 million make use of newspapers' digital offerings.

Architecture

Architectural contributions from Germany include the Carolingian and Ottonian styles, important precursors of Romanesque. The region has also produced significant works in styles such as the Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque.

The nation was particularly important in the early modern movement through the Deutscher Werkbund and the Bauhaus movement identified with Walter Gropius. The Nazis closed these movements and favoured a type of neo-classicism. Since World War II post-modern structures have been built. Since the reunification of Germany the trend has continued.

Art

German art has a long and distinguished tradition in the visual arts, from the earliest known work of figurative art to its current output of contemporary art.

Important German Renaissance painters include Albrecht Altdorfer, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Matthias Grünewald, Hans Holbein the Younger and the well-known Albrecht Dürer. The most important Baroque artists from Germany are Cosmas Damian Asam. Further artists are the painter Anselm Kiefer, romantic Caspar David Friedrich, the surrealist Max Ernst, the conceptualist Joseph Beuys, or Wolf Vostell or the neo-expressionist Georg Baselitz.

Within modern day society, contemporary art is a large aspect of the culture. This large community draws in people from all around the world. There are around 500 galleries in Germany that caters to this modern form of art. Art Cologne is a popular fair that displays contemporary art.

Religion

Christianity was introduced to the area of modern Germany by 300 AD and became fully Christianized by the time of Charlemagne in the eighth and ninth century. After the Reformation started by Martin Luther in the early 16th century, many people left the Catholic Church and became Protestant, mainly Lutheran and Calvinist. 59.4% of the German population belongs to Christian denominations: 30% are Roman Catholic, and 29% are affiliated with Protestantism (the figures are known accurately because Germany imposes a church tax on those who disclose a religious affiliation).

The north and east are predominantly Protestant, the south and west predominantly Catholic. Nowadays there is a non-religious majority in Hamburg and the former East German states. Germany was, at one point, almost in its entirety within the Roman Catholic Holy Roman Empire, but was also the source of Protestant reformers such as Martin Luther. During the Kulturkampf (from about 1872 to 1886) the government opposed the Catholic church.

Historically, Germany had a substantial Jewish population. Only a few thousand people of Jewish origin remained in Germany after the Holocaust, but the German Jewish community now has about 100,000 members, many from the former Soviet Union. Germany also has a substantial Muslim minority, most of whom are from Turkey.

German theologians include Luther, Melanchthon, Schleiermacher, Feuerbach, and Rudolf Otto. Germany was also the origin of many mystics, including Meister Eckhart, Rudolf Steiner, and Jakob Boehme; and of Pope Benedict XVI.

Science

Germany has been the home of many famous inventors and engineers, such as Johannes Gutenberg, who is credited with the invention of movable type printing in Europe; Hans Geiger, the creator of the Geiger counter; and Konrad Zuse, who built the first computer.  German inventors, engineers and industrialists such as Zeppelin, Daimler, Diesel, Otto, Wankel, von Braun and Benz helped shape modern automotive and air transportation technology including the beginnings of space travel.

The work of Albert Einstein and Max Planck was crucial to the foundation of modern physics, which Werner Heisenberg and Erwin Schrödinger developed further. They were preceded by such key physicists as Hermann von Helmholtz, Joseph von Fraunhofer, and Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit, among others. Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen discovered X-rays, an accomplishment that earned him the first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901. The Walhalla temple for "laudable and distinguished Germans" features a number of scientists, and is located east of Regensburg, in Bavaria.

Germany is home to some of the finest academic centers in Europe. Some famous universities are those of Munich and Berlin, University of Tübingen, University of Göttingen, University of Marburg, University of Berlin, Mining Academy Freiberg and Freiburg University, among many others. Moreover, the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg is one of the oldest universities in Europe.

Fashion and design

German designers were leaders of modern product design, with the Bauhaus designers like Mies van der Rohe, and Dieter Rams of Braun being essential.

Germany is a leading country in the fashion industry. The German textile industry consisted of about 1,300 companies with more than 130,000 employees in 2010, which generated a revenue of 28 billion Euro. Almost 44 percent of the products are exported. The textile branch thus is the second largest producer of consumer goods after food production in the country. Berlin is the center of young and creative fashion in Germany, prominently displayed at Berlin Fashion Week (twice a year). It also hosts Europe's largest fashion trade fair called Bread & Butter.

Munich, Hamburg and Düsseldorf are also important design and production hubs of the German fashion industry, among smaller towns. Renowned fashion designers from Germany include Karl Lagerfeld, Jil Sander, Wolfgang Joop, Philipp Plein and Michael Michalsky. Important brands include Hugo Boss, Escada and Triumph, as well as special outfitters like Adidas, PUMA and Jack Wolfskin. The German supermodels Claudia Schiffer, Heidi Klum, Tatjana Patitz and Nadja Auermann came to global fame.

Cuisine

German cuisine varies from region to region. The southern regions of Bavaria and Swabia, for instance, share a culinary culture with Switzerland and Austria. Pork, beef, and poultry are the main varieties of meat consumed in Germany; pork is the most popular. Throughout all regions, meat is often eaten in sausage form. More than 1,500 different types of sausage are produced in Germany. Organic food has gained a market share of almost 6%, and this is predicted to increase further.

A popular German saying has the meaning: "Breakfast like an emperor, lunch like a king, and dine like a beggar." Breakfast is usually a selection of breads and rolls with jam and honey or cold cuts and cheese, sometimes accompanied by a boiled egg. Cereals or muesli with milk or yoghurt is less common but widespread. More than 3000 types of bread are sold in bakery shops across the country. Occasionally, more traditional and heartier Breakfasts, like the Bavarian "Brotzeit" with Weisswurst, Sweet Mustard and Wheat beer, or the Bauernfrühstück are also popular.

It is customary for Germans to have a very large lunch around noon. A typical lunch usually consists of some type of meat or fish, a heavy carb such as potato or German noodles, and a side of vegetables. Due to the increasing number of Germans who work in urban centers, however, many more people are eating simple items on-the-go for lunch such as Currywurst or Schnitzel. Currywurst is a go-to quick meal to pick up that consists of small pieces of sausage, french fries, and a spicy ketchup sauce. Schnitzel is cooked at home as well as picked up on-the-go and consists of meat covered in egg, flour and breadcrumbs.

The term for dinner in German is Abendbrot which directly translates to "evening bread". As the name suggests, typically Germans will have a lighter dinner that consists of sliced meat, sausages, bread, and cheeses. Also, most dinners eaten by Germans usually include some form of mustard and pickles. The habit of having a simple, light dinner has become less of an everyday routine for many Germans. Due to the increasing number of people who work all day, it is difficult for many Germans to make the time to have a large lunch. For this reason, larger dinners have become more common. Although, most families still have Abendbrot at least a few times a week.

As a country with many immigrants, Germany has adopted many international dishes into its cuisine and daily eating habits. Italian dishes like pizza and pasta, Turkish and Arab dishes like döner kebab and falafel, are well established, especially in bigger cities. International burger chains, as well as Chinese and Greek restaurants, are widespread. Indian, Thai, Japanese, and other Asian cuisines have gained popularity in recent decades.
Among high-profile restaurants in Germany, the Michelin guide has awarded ten restaurants three stars, the highest designation, while 38 more received two stars and 255 one star. German restaurants have become the world's second most decorated eateries after France.

Although German wine is becoming more popular in many parts of Germany, the national alcoholic drink is beer. In over 1.500 breweries more than 5.000 types of beer are produced. German beer consumption per person is declining but—at 116 litres annually—it is still among the highest in the world. Beer varieties include Alt, Bock, Dunkel, Kölsch, Lager, Malzbier, Pils, and Weizenbier. Among 18 surveyed western countries, Germany ranked 14th in the list of per capita consumption of soft drinks in general, while it ranked third in the consumption of fruit juices. Furthermore, carbonated mineral water and Schorle (its mixture with fruit juice or wine) are very popular in Germany.

Gaming

Germany is filled with inventors of board games, also known as Eurogames, that are played around the world. Popular games include The Settlers of Catan, which features hexagonal resource tiles that generate resources according to the roll of two dice, and Carcassonne with its randomly drawn square tiles that eventually make a medieval map and its notability for its meeples. The fervor for new games continued with Puerto Rico, Ticket to Ride, and Alhambra. In 2008, Germany imported the popular card game Dominion from the US. Today, Germany publishes more board games than any other country per capita.

The German video gaming market is one of the largest in the world. The Gamescom in Cologne is the world's leading gaming convention. Popular game series from Germany include Turrican, the Anno series, The Settlers series, the Gothic series, SpellForce, the X series, the FIFA Manager series, Far Cry and Crysis. The most relevant game developers and publishers are Blue Byte, Crytek, Deck13, Deep Silver,    Daedalic Entertainment, Egosoft, Kalypso Media, Koch Media, Piranha Bytes, Related Designs and Yager Development. Bigpoint, Gameforge, Goodgame, Quake III Arena / Defrag and Wooga are leading developers of online and social games.

Sports

Sport forms an integral part of German life. 27,000,000 Germans are members of a sports club and an additional 12,000,000 pursue such an activity individually. Association football is the most popular sport. With more than 6,300,000 official members, the German Football Association (Deutscher Fußball-Bund) is the largest sports organisation of its kind worldwide. The Bundesliga attracts the second-highest average attendance of any professional sports league in the world. The Germany national football team won the FIFA World Cup in 1954, 1974, 1990 and 2014 and the UEFA European Football Championship in 1972, 1980 and 1996. Germany has hosted the FIFA World Cup in 1974 and 2006 and the UEFA European Football Championship in 1988. Amongst the most successful and renowned footballers are: Franz Beckenbauer, Gerd Müller, Jürgen Klinsmann, Lothar Matthäus, and Oliver Kahn. Other popular spectator sports include handball, volleyball, basketball, ice hockey, and tennis.

Germany is one of the leading motorsports countries in the world. Race-winning cars, teams and drivers have come from Germany. One of the most successful Formula One drivers in history, Michael Schumacher, set many significant motorsport records during his career, winning seven Formula One World Drivers' Championships and 91 Formula One race wins, making him the most gilded driver since Formula One's debut season in 1950. He is one of the highest paid sportsmen in history and became a billionaire athlete. Sebastian Vettel, another German Formula One pilot, later became the youngest Formula One World Champion in history and went on to win four consecutive world championship titles. He still holds records for the highest number of consecutive race wins and most pole positions in a single season. Constructors like BMW and Mercedes are among the leading manufacturers in motorsport. Additionally, Porsche has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans, a prestigious annual endurance race held in France, 16 times, and Audi has won it 9 times. The Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters is a popular series in Germany.

Historically, German sportsmen have been some of the most successful contenders in the Olympic Games, ranking third in an all-time Olympic Games medal count, combining East and West German medals. In the 2016 Summer Olympics, Germany finished fifth in the medal count, while in the 2018 Winter Olympics they finished second. Germany has hosted the Summer Olympic Games twice, in Berlin in 1936 and in Munich in 1972. The Winter Olympic Games took place in Germany once in 1936 when they were staged in the Bavarian twin towns of Garmisch and Partenkirchen.

Society

Germany is a modern, advanced society, shaped by a plurality of lifestyles and regional identities. The country has established a high level of gender equality, promotes disability rights, and is legally and socially tolerant towards homosexuals. Gays and lesbians can legally adopt their partner's biological children, and same-sex marriage has been permitted since 2017. The former Foreign minister Guido Westerwelle and the former mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit, are openly gay.

During the last decade of the twentieth century, Germany's attitude towards immigrants changed. Until the mid-1990s, the opinion was widespread that Germany was not a country of immigration, even though about 20% of the population were of non-German origin. Today the government and a majority of the German society are acknowledging that immigrants from diverse ethnocultural backgrounds are part of German society and that controlled immigration should be initiated based on qualification standards.

Since the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the internal and external evaluation of Germany's national image has changed. In the annual Nation Brands Index global survey, Germany became significantly and repeatedly more highly ranked after the tournament. People in 20 different states assessed the country's reputation in terms of culture, politics, exports, its people and its attractiveness to tourists, immigrants and investments. Germany has been named the world's second most valued nation among 50 countries in 2010. Another global opinion poll, for the BBC, revealed that Germany is recognised for the most positive influence in the world in 2010. A majority of 59% have a positive view of the country, while 14% have a negative view.

With an expenditure of €67 billion on international travel in 2008, Germans spent more money on travel than any other country. The most visited destinations were Spain, Italy and Austria. Additionally, tourism analysts estimate that over 65 percent of Germans vacationed for 5 or more days in 2007. The large amount of travel that Germans partake in can also be attributed to the amount of vacation days they receive. In Germany, employees are given a minimum of 24 vacation days annually, but often employers will give between 25 and 30 paid vacation days. Germans also like packaged vacations which can be all-inclusive vacations or pre-booked excursions or reservations. In 2018, 43% of all German travel consisted of packaged vacations.

Leisure
In Germany, leisure is considered a quintessential part of the culture. Researchers in Hamburg concluded that Germans over 14 years old have an average of 4 hours of leisure time per day. Regardless of many factors that differentiate Germans, across the board, the most popular leisure activity is watching television. Most Germans dedicate their Sundays to leisure activity because a majority of shops and restaurants are closed on Sundays.

Sports clubs are a large part of Germans' leisure time. Currently, around 26 million people in Germany make up the membership to the over 91,000 sports clubs in Germany. Sports clubs can aid children and adults in getting to know people in their community through a shared passion for sports.

Another leisure activity that Germans like to partake in is exercise. Studies show that most Germans work out at least once a week in their free time.

Gallery

See also

 German Forest
 Goethe-Institut
 Prussian virtues
 Public holidays in Germany
 German folklore
 Weihnachten
 Oktoberfest
 List of museums in Germany

References

External links

 Facts about Germany
 German Missions in the United States: Culture, Sports & Events
 Goethe Institute

Culture of Germany


Akwasi Addo Alfred Kwarteng (born 26 May 1975) is a British politician who served as the Chancellor of the Exchequer from 6 September to 14 October 2022 under Liz Truss and the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy from 2021 to 2022 under Boris Johnson. A member of the Conservative Party, he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Spelthorne since 2010.

Kwarteng was born in London to Ghanaian immigrant parents and was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge. He worked as a columnist for The Daily Telegraph and as a financial analyst before standing for election to the House of Commons. As a backbencher, Kwarteng co-authored a number of papers and books, including After the Coalition (2011) and Britannia Unchained (2012).

In November 2018, Kwarteng was appointed parliamentary under-secretary of state for Exiting the European Union by Theresa May. After May resigned in 2019, Kwarteng supported Boris Johnson's bid to become leader of the Conservative Party. Following Johnson's appointment as prime minister, he appointed Kwarteng as the minister of state for Business, Energy and Clean Growth. In January 2021, Kwarteng was promoted to the office of secretary of state for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, a role he retained throughout the remainder of Johnson's premiership.

After Johnson resigned in 2022, Kwarteng supported Truss's bid to become Conservative leader. Following Truss's appointment as prime minister, she appointed Kwarteng as Chancellor of the Exchequer. He was the first black chancellor. On 23 September, Kwarteng announced various tax cuts in a mini-budget that was widely criticised and which briefly caused the pound sterling to fall to its lowest-ever level against the U.S. dollar. Kwarteng was dismissed as chancellor on 14 October after 38 days, making him the second-shortest-serving holder of the office. He was succeeded by Jeremy Hunt, who was retained by Rishi Sunak following Truss's resignation on 25 October.

Early life and education
Akwasi Addo Alfred Kwarteng was born in the London Borough of Waltham Forest on 26 May 1975, the only child of Alfred K. Kwarteng and Charlotte Boaitey-Kwarteng, who had emigrated from Ghana as students in the 1960s. His mother is a barrister and his father an economist in the Commonwealth Secretariat.

After starting school at a state primary school in Waltham Forest, Kwarteng attended Colet Court, an independent preparatory school in London, where he won the Harrow History Prize in 1988. Then Kwarteng went to Eton College, where he was a King's Scholar and was awarded the Newcastle Scholarship prize. He read classics and history at Trinity College, Cambridge, matriculating in 1993. He achieved a double first class degree, and twice won the Browne Medal. He was a member of the team which won the BBC quiz show University Challenge in 1995. At Cambridge, he was a member of the University Pitt Club, and has since returned to visit. He was a Kennedy Scholar for a year at Harvard University, and then earned a PhD degree in economic history from the University of Cambridge in 2000, with a thesis on the recoinage crisis of 1695–97.

Early career
Before becoming a member of parliament, Kwarteng worked as a columnist for The Daily Telegraph and as a financial analyst at JPMorgan Chase as well as at WestLB and the hedge fund Odey Asset Management. He wrote a book, Ghosts of Empire, about the legacy of the British Empire, published by Bloomsbury in 2011. He also co-authored Gridlock Nation with Jonathan Dupont in 2011, about the causes of and solutions to traffic congestion in Britain.

Early political career
Considered "a rising star on the right of the party" by 2015, Kwarteng initially became a Conservative candidate in the constituency of Brent East at the 2005 general election. He finished in third place. Kwarteng was chairman of the conservative think tank Bow Group in 2006. In the same year, The Times suggested that he could become the first black Conservative cabinet minister. He was sixth on the Conservative list of candidates for the London Assembly in the 2008 London Assembly election, but was not elected, as the Conservatives obtained only three London-wide list seats.

Parliamentary career

2010 election and tenure

Kwarteng was selected as the Conservative candidate for Spelthorne in January 2010. Kwarteng won the seat with a majority of 10,019 votes (21.2%). Kwarteng did not vote on the backbench EU Referendum Bill in October 2011. In 2013 he described the Help to Buy housing scheme as "inflationary".

In March 2011 he registered that he would be paid "£10,000 on a half-yearly basis" for work as "Consultant to Odey Asset Management" in the House of Commons Register of Members' Financial Interests.  Only one payment appears to have been made.

In 2014, his book, War and Gold: A Five-Hundred-Year History of Empires, Adventures and Debt, was published. It is a history of capital and the enduring ability of money, when combined with speculation, to ruin societies. In 2015, his next book, Thatcher's Trial: Six Months That Defined a Leader, was published.

Kwarteng was re-elected at the 2015 general election with an increased majority of 14,152 votes. Kwarteng backed the UK's withdrawal from the European Union in the 2016 referendum.

Early ministerial career (2017–2019)
Following the 2017 general election, Kwarteng was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond. On 16 November 2018, Kwarteng replaced Suella Braverman as a minister in the Department for Exiting the EU.

Kwarteng supported Boris Johnson in the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election. After Johnson's appointment as Prime Minister, Kwarteng was appointed Minister of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on 25 July 2019 along with Jo Johnson, a brother of the Prime Minister. He was appointed to the Privy Council on the same day.

In September 2019, Kwarteng stated on The Andrew Neil Show: "I'm not saying this, but, many people are saying that the judges are biased", after the Court of Session ruled that Johnson's prorogation of parliament was illegal. Kwarteng added: "The extent to which lawyers and judges are interfering in politics is something that concerns many people." Defence Secretary Ben Wallace and the then Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick distanced themselves from his comments and defended the judiciary. Opposition MPs, the chair of the Bar Council, and the chair of the Law Society of England and Wales criticised his comments.

Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (2021–2022)

On 8 January 2021, as part of a mini-reshuffle, he replaced Alok Sharma as Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. He committed the department to cutting global emissions to stop climate change.

Dissolving ISC
In March 2021, he was criticised for dissolving the Industrial Strategy Council, the advisory body seeking to regenerate Britain's regions. In the days after the COP26 climate summit, Kwarteng met oil industry bosses to encourage them to continue drilling in the North Sea.

In January 2022, while on a trip to Saudi Arabia, Kwarteng accepted flights and hospitality from Saudi Aramco, the majority state-owned energy firm. Kwarteng was also gifted a £300 Lenovo tablet. The BEIS department transparency data revealed that Kwarteng travelled to Saudi Arabia on a commercial flight costing the taxpayer £4,430. He also visited Aramco's Shaybah oil field with the Saudi energy minister, although this was not logged in BEIS transparency records. Opposition politicians criticised Kwarteng for accepting the Saudi state's hospitality, particularly in light of their human rights record, and raised concerns over whether he broke the ministerial code.

2021 gas crisis

From August 2021, high European wholesale natural gas prices caused some smaller domestic suppliers in the United Kingdom to go out of business. In September 2021, the fuel supply crisis caused serious disruption to the supply of road fuel. Kwarteng said that "There is no question of the lights going out, of people being unable to heat their homes. There will be no three-day working week, or a throwback to the 1970s." He also said that the government would not rescue failed companies. Ed Miliband, Labour's shadow business secretary, accused Kwarteng of being complacent.

Role in the Owen Paterson scandal
Kwarteng was an outspoken supporter of Owen Paterson, who had been found by the Commons Select Committee on Standards to have committed "an egregious case of paid advocacy". In reaction to this ruling, Kwarteng called for the independent Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Kathryn Stone, to "consider her position". The government later withdrew its support for Paterson, who resigned as an MP. The opposition called for an investigation into Kwarteng, claiming he may have breached the ministerial code.

On 15 November 2021, Kwarteng published a letter of apology to Stone, in which he said he "did not mean to express doubt about your ability to discharge your role" and apologised for "any upset or distress my choice of words may have caused".

Chancellor of the Exchequer

After Johnson resigned in 2022, Kwarteng supported Liz Truss's bid to become Conservative leader. Following Truss's appointment as Prime Minister, she appointed Kwarteng as Chancellor of the Exchequer. He was the first black Chancellor. On 23 September 2022, he announced a set of economic policies named "The Growth Plan 2022" in what the Treasury described as a "fiscal event"; this was dubbed a "mini-budget" by the media. He refused to allow the Office for Budget Responsibility to assess the economic impact of the budget and provide a forecast.

Among the policies announced by Kwarteng was a cut in the basic rate of income tax from 20% to 19% to start in April 2023, the abolition of the 45% higher rate of income tax in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the lifting of the stamp duty threshold, the freezing of energy bills, the reversal of the increase in National Insurance from April 2022, the abolition of the proposed Health and Social Care Levy, and the scrapping of the limit on bankers' bonuses.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies director Paul Johnson called the plan "the biggest package of tax cuts in 50 years" and said that it "seems to be to borrow large sums at increasingly expensive rates, put government debt on an unsustainable rising path, and hope that we get better growth". The following week, sterling fell to its lowest-ever level against the US dollar, and turmoil in government bond prices led the Bank of England to launch an emergency bond buying programme. This caused house mortgage lenders to withdraw over 40% of their products, with other products repriced upwards. The International Monetary Fund cautioned that the measures would increase inequality.

Following criticism from several Conservative MPs, including Michael Gove and Grant Shapps, Kwarteng said on 3 October 2022 that the government would not pursue the plan to abolish the 45% higher rate of income tax paid by people earning over £150,000 a year. Kwarteng said the plan had become a "distraction from our overriding mission to tackle the challenges facing the country". He acknowledged in an interview that there was "some turbulence" after his mini-budget but said it was a "very dicey situation globally", and when questioned on 13 October whether he would remain as chancellor, Kwarteng said he was "not going anywhere".

Dismissal
Kwarteng was dismissed as Chancellor on 14 October after only 38 days in post. This made him the second shortest-serving Chancellor after Iain Macleod, who died a month after taking office. Kwarteng was succeeded by Jeremy Hunt.

Following Truss's resignation and Rishi Sunak's appointment as Prime Minister, Kwarteng said in a November 2022 interview that he warned Truss that she was "going too fast" with her ill-fated economic plans.  Kwarteng stated he had urged her to "slow down" after the mini-budget.  He maintained he told Truss it was "mad" to sack him, and if she did she would last just "three or four weeks [...] Little did I know it was only going to be six days."  In December 2022 Kwarteng said he regretted having been "too impatient" over the mini-budget, and that there was "no tactical subtlety whatsoever.  [...] People got carried away, myself included." Kwarteng maintains he and Truss were too rushed to consider economic and political results from their policies. Kwarteng maintains Truss and her team lost perspective over the budget and its political or financial results.

Kwarteng received a severance payment from The Treasury of £16,876 following his resignation.

Political views

Kwarteng is considered a member of the right wing of the Conservative Party, and is a member of the Free Enterprise Group.

Racial issues and colonialism
Kwarteng's views on colonialism have been described by a PoliticsHome writer as "nuanced", stating that modern representation on historical events must be taken within historical context, "I think people should look at history with a bit more humility, and a little bit more critical inquiry. It's very difficult not to have lots of preconceptions and lots of strongly held beliefs."

When asked about his thoughts on removal of British Empire-era statues and monuments, including that of slave trader Edward Colston, Kwarteng called these "acts of vandalism". In an interview, Kwarteng stated many supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement and critics of British imperialism have a "cartoon-like view" of the past, arguing for a greater understanding of the complexities of British history. Reactions to his stances on racial and colonialism issues have ranged from support to opposition. On 26 September 2022, Labour Party MP Rupa Huq was suspended after calling Kwarteng "superficially black" in response to his comments.

Economic issues
In August 2012, Kwarteng co-authored a book with four fellow Conservative MPs including Liz Truss, titled Britannia Unchained. The book argues for a radical shrinking of the welfare state in order "to return it to the contributory principle envisioned by its founder Sir William Beveridge – that you get benefits in return for contributions".

Personal life
Kwarteng is described by friends as an "intensely private" person. He was previously in a relationship with former Conservative Home Secretary Amber Rudd. He married the City solicitor Harriet Edwards in December 2019. Their daughter was born in 2021. He has lived in Bayswater, and in January 2022 purchased a house in Greenwich. He is a member of the Garrick Club.

Publications

References

External links

Blog at Conservative Home
Spelthorne Conservatives

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1975 births
Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
Black British MPs
British Eurosceptics
Chancellors of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom
Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
Contestants on University Challenge
English people of Ghanaian descent
Free Enterprise Group
People educated at Eton College
Harvard University alumni
Living people
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Politicians from London
UK MPs 2010–2015
UK MPs 2015–2017
UK MPs 2017–2019
UK MPs 2019–present
Writers from London

Kwasi Kwarteng


Jorge "Jordi" Llopart Ribas (5 May 1952 – 11 November 2020) was a Spanish race walker. He competed in the 50 km event at the 1980, 1984, and 1988 Olympics. He won a silver medal in 1980. He was a European champion in this event in 1978. Llopart was born in El Prat de Llobregat, Spain.

Llopart died on 11 November 2020 in Badalona, Spain from a heart attack, aged 68.

References

1952 births
2020 deaths
Racewalkers
Spanish athletes

Jorge Llopart


Blaz4me is the second album by Natas, released on January 8, 1994. Allrovi reviewer Jason Birchmeier wrote "like the Bomb Squad's collage-like approach on It Takes a Nation to Hold Us Back and Dr. Dre's neo-P-Funk sound on The Chronic, Esham crafts a particular aesthetic by endlessly raiding his record collection in classic postmodern fashion. Still, even if he unethically creates an innovative-for-its-time sound that merges Funkadelic guitar distortion with hard mid-'80s Def Jam-like beats, the often ridiculous lyrics ruin whatever validity the music may have."

Track listing

References

1994 albums
Albums produced by Esham
Natas (group) albums
Reel Life Productions albums

Blaz4me


The runner bean (Phaseolus coccineus) is a kind of bean commonly grown in gardens. It is also known as scarlet runner bean or  multiflora bean. It is part of the Fabaceae, which also contains other legumes. It may also be called  butter bean, but that name can also be used for the Lima bean, which is a different species. The runner bean originally grew in South America. It was brought to Europe in the 17th century.

Runner beans are more resistant to cold than Great northern beans. For this reason, runner beans are commonly cultivated in Europe, also in higher altitudes. Today, the runner bean is either grown as an ornamental plants, or to get food. Usually, poles of a height of  to  are commonly used, when the plant is grown in the garden. Note also, that in Europe, runner beans die in winter, because they do not support the cold, for a prolonged period of time.

References

Beans

Runner bean


A boonie hat or booney hat is a type of wide-brim sun hat commonly used by military forces in hot tropical climates. Its design is similar to a bucket hat but with a stiffer brim.

The Australian giggle hat has a thinner brim. Often a fabric tape band of "branch loops" is sewn around the crown of the hat. This "foliage ring" is meant to hold additional vegetation as camouflage. A strap provides stability. The crown may be vented with eyelets or small mesh panels. Snaps may also be provided with which to fix the brim in the style of an Australian bush hat.

U.S. military boonie hat

A blue cap with an all-around brim was issued as part of the 1937 blue denim fatigue uniform that was nicknamed the "Daisy Mae hat". The M1941 green herringbone twill cloth fatigue uniform featured the same hat. The military caps inspired "Johnny Jeep" hats (or "Johnny Jeepers") which were featured on the cover of the August 24, 1942 issue of LIFE magazine and mocked in the accompanying article.  The cover features two female models wearing the hats in style, while the article notes that the fashion accessory costs $25 at John-Frederic's (from a famous milliner known as Mr. John) and the "Army hat" costs 45¢.  Photos of GIs demonstrating various ways to wear the hat are included in the tongue-in-cheek article. Lord & Taylor produced licensed copies for a reduced price; cheap knockoffs ("bootleg imitations") soon followed.

The boonie hat was introduced to the United States Armed Forces during the Vietnam War, when U.S. Army Green Berets of the 5th Special Forces Group began wearing them in the field, along with Australian and Army of the Republic of Vietnam units. These leopard spots or tigerstripe boonie hats were locally procured, and the camouflage cloth was usually salvaged from other uniform items, parachutes, or fabricated by a tailor. The name is derived from "boonie", the abbreviated form of boondocks (originally American military slang derived from Tagalog bundok, "mountain", during the Philippine–American War). The hat was similar to the hat worn with the pattern 1941 HBT fatigue uniform.

In 1967, the U.S. Army began issuing boonie hats, such as the "Hat, Jungle, with Insect Net", made of cotton and wind-resistant poplin, in olive drab, tigerstripe, and ERDL pattern. It was meant to supplement and replace the patrol and baseball caps that had been in service since World War II. As the U.S. military evolved away from a garrison mentality, the boonie hat found a permanent place as part of the uniform of all services. The boonie hat has changed little through the decades since the Vietnam War and was used in the Iraq War and still in the War in Afghanistan as an alternative to the patrol cap. The U.S. military boonie hat has come in a variety of camouflage patterns; the current assortment includes Woodland, three-color desert, UCP, MultiCam, and both desert and woodland versions of MARPAT, as well as the Air Force ABU pattern. The boonie hat is often worn with the wearer's rank insignia pinned or sewn to the front, above the branch loops.

Hat, Camouflage (Tropical Combat) Type II
In 1968 the U.S. Army authorized the use of the woodland ERDL pattern (Engineering Research Development Laboratory) material, used in 1969 and later production of hats in cotton ripstop material. These were labeled, "Hat, Camouflage (Tropical Combat) Type II" with contract dates starting in 1968. They were in use from 1968 for both the Army and Air Force, and from 1969-70 for the Marine Corps and Navy.

Hat, Sun, Hot Weather
Later boonies are called "Hat, Sun" or "Hat, Sun, Hot Weather", which is still the designation for this type of cover. They are made in various patterns, in cotton ripstop or nylon blend cloth.

Australian Army giggle hat

Similar wide-brimmed hats in the Australian Army are known as giggle hats although today most Australian soldiers refer to them as bush hats, unlike in the past where a slouch hat with the brim down was referred to as a bush hat. Along with slouch hats, giggle hats were issued as the standard uniform of Australian troops fighting in the South West Pacific theatre, during the Second World War. The design apparently originated from an earlier British uniform intended for fighting in hot and humid conditions. They were nicknamed "giggle hats" (as well as "hat ridiculous-for-the-use-of") by the Australian troops due to their appearance.

The giggle hat gained popularity during the Malayan Emergency. Protection from the searing heat of Malayan conditions and heavy rain proved to be necessary. Alongside the British, the Australian Army started issuing this type of hat, which had a steeper and shorter brim than its earlier counterparts. It was made with the same materials as the hot weather combat uniforms, unlike the slouch hat, which was beginning to take on a more ceremonial role rather than being field gear.

These hats gained popularity during the Vietnam War, where they were called 'hats utility, jungle green', although they were colloquially known by Australians as giggle hats. Their New Zealand counterparts referred to them as "J hats." During this conflict, most Australian soldiers were issued the hat. The army created several regulations: the hat was not allowed to be modified or cut whatsoever, and it had to be worn when outdoors at all times. The hat had also served to break up the recognizable outline of the soldier's head. It was made with cotton twill and was issued in olive drab, the standard colour of Australian combat uniforms at the time.

Current giggle hats are issued in Multicam Pattern. They continue to be heavily used by the Australian Defence Force, and are issued to every person serving in the Australian Army and Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).

See also
 Panamanka
 Bucket hat
 Patrol cap
 Side cap
 Peaked cap
 PASGT
 ACUPAT
 Pith helmet

References

External links

Australian headgear
Australian military uniforms
Hats
Military equipment of Australia
Military hats
United States Air Force uniforms

Boonie hat


Sir John Carleton, 1st Baronet (died 7 November 1637) was an English landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1628 to 1629.

Carleton was the son of George Carleton of Holcombe, Oxfordshire and his wife Elizabeth Brockett, daughter of Sir John Brocket of Brocket Hall, Hertfordshire.  John Carleton's grandfather, Anthony Carleton, had been a member of parliament in the 1550s. John was at Christ Church, Oxford, and was awarded BA on 10 February 1610. On 28 May 1627, he was created  a baronet and on 8 March 1628, he succeeded to Holcombe on the death of his father.  He was elected Member of Parliament for Cambridgeshire in 1628 and sat until 1629 when King Charles decided to rule without parliament for eleven years.

Carleton inherited the estate of Brightwell, Oxfordshire on the death of his uncle Dudley Carleton, 1st Viscount Dorchester. He became a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber in 1633 and from 1636 to 1637 he was High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire.

Carleton died in London and was buried at Brightwell.

Carleton married Lady Anne Cotton, widow of Sir John Cotton of Landwade, Cambridgeshire and daughter of Sir Richard Hoghton, 1st Baronet. He was succeeded in the baronetcy by his son George.

References

Year of birth missing
1637 deaths
English MPs 1628–1629
Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford
High Sheriffs of Cambridgeshire
English landowners
Baronets in the Baronetage of England
Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber

Sir John Carleton, 1st Baronet


Saliva is the watery substance made in the mouths of humans and many animals.  Saliva begins digesting food in the mouth, and moistens food to make swallowing easier. Saliva consists of 99.5% water.

The mouth is obviously the point of entry to the whole alimentary canal. It follows from this that saliva must both help digestion, and protect against infections.

The digestion part is by three enzymes, one each for carbohydrates, fats and proteins. The digestion started here carries on in the stomach. There are some other 'minor' enzymes as well, and we do not know the full story about them yet. Also there is a pain-killing opiorphin, and a wrap-around haptocorrin which keeps vitamin B12 safe from stomach acids. Finally, there are a set of anti-bacterial proteins which make life difficult for any bacteria which get in with the food.

Saliva is filtered blood, "These observations are consistent with the fact that saliva is a filtrate of blood, meaning that the contents of blood—water, salts and macromolecules—pass through capillary walls into the salivary glands."  Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2741028/#:~:text=These%20observations%20are%20consistent%20with,walls%20into%20the%20salivary%20glands.

References

Mouth
Digestive system

Saliva


In the mathematical field of complex analysis, a global analytic function is a generalization of the notion of an analytic function which allows for functions to have multiple branches.  Global analytic functions arise naturally in considering the possible analytic continuations of an analytic function, since analytic continuations may have a non-trivial monodromy.  They are one foundation for the theory of Riemann surfaces.

Definition
The following definition is in , but also found in Weyl or perhaps Weierstrass.  An analytic function in an open set U is called a function element.  Two function elements (f1, U1) and (f2, U2) are said to be analytic continuations of one another if U1 ∩ U2 ≠ ∅ and f1 = f2 on this intersection.  A chain of analytic continuations is a finite sequence of function elements (f1, U1), …, (fn,Un) such that each consecutive pair are analytic continuations of one another; i.e., (fi+1, Ui+1) is an analytic continuation of (fi, Ui) for i = 1, 2, …, n − 1.

A global analytic function is a family f of function elements such that, for any (f,U) and (g,V) belonging to f, there is a chain of analytic continuations in f beginning at (f,U) and finishing at (g,V).

A complete global analytic function is a global analytic function f which contains every analytic continuation of each of its elements.

Sheaf-theoretic definition
Using ideas from sheaf theory, the definition can be streamlined.  In these terms, a complete global analytic function is a path-connected sheaf of germs of analytic functions which is maximal in the sense that it is not contained (as an etale space) within any other path connected sheaf of germs of analytic functions.

References

Complex analysis
Types of functions

Global analytic function


Bowman's Hill Tower, (also known as Bowman's Tower), is a  stone tower located in Washington Crossing Historic Park in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. It is administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. The tower was built on Bowman's Hill, which is on the Upper Makefield Township side of the border between itself and Solebury Township. The tower was erected in the 1930s as a memorial.

Tower
Construction on Bowman's Hill Tower began in 1929 and was completed in 1931.  It stands 125 feet tall and its base measures 24 feet on a side.  The tower was constructed from native stone quarried from Bowman's Hill and nearby stone fences.  Quarries in Lumberville, Pennsylvania and Lawrenceville, New Jersey provided cut stone to be used for the sills and balustrades.  Over  of materials were used in its construction, including; 1,200 perch of stone,  of sand and  tons of cement.  In order to provide a solid foundation for the tower, the base was excavated . The labor for the construction was provided by employees of the Washington Crossing Park Commission.  Including labor, the tower cost $100,000 to build.

By 1934 the Tower was struck many times by lightning which resulted in the installation of a lightning protection system by the National Lightning Protection Company of St. Louis, Missouri. During the 1930s the Civil Works Administration and the Works Progress Administration planted over 28,300 seedlings in an effort to reforest the area.  A large number of erosion control measures were taken to include the setting of large numbers of rocks and boulders. Additionally, they created two vistas from the tower to the Delaware River, one on the north side of the hill and the other on the southeast side.  In the 1980s the tower was extensively restored and an elevator was installed.

Previously visitors climbed an open stone spiral staircase to the observation point at the top of the tower. An elevator now goes three-quarters of the way to the top and lets out onto a stone landing.  Visitors must then climb a small and narrow 23-step stone spiral staircase to the tower roof. Additionally, there is a parapet over the final stairs that gives the tower its distinctive look.

Park
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania created the Washington Crossing Historic Park in 1917, and then established the Washington Crossing Park Commission to administer and develop the park in 1919.  The park also contains the Thompson-Neely House.

Name

There is no definitive source for the name Bowman, however there are several theories:
 The original name was Beau Mont which was paired with Belle Mont, a similar hill in New Jersey.  There was a John Beaumont who owned the original land in 1783.  His tract of land can be seen in the Upper Makefield township building.
 The hill was named for Thomas Bowman, an English merchant who conducted trade up and down the Delaware River in the 17th century.
 The hill was named for a John Bowman, a friend of Jonathan Pidcock, the first European settler in the area. Pidcock's farm was located in the northeast end of the hill, from which Revolutionary War soldiers encamped on the farm, then owned by a Robert Thompson.
 Refers to a Doctor John Bowman (possibly the same John Bowman as above), allegedly ship's surgeon to Captain Kidd. Dr Bowman was thought to have retired to eastern Pennsylvania after his time at sea and is said to be buried somewhere on the hill.  The legend goes on in claiming that pirate treasure may be buried on the hill.
Note: a Burial placard on the hill commemorates a John Pidcock, early settler of the area, and not Dr. Bowman.

Mine
In 1854, an accident led to the discovery of a mine on the west side of Bowman's hill.  It was later excavated in search of copper.  The supervising engineer was of the opinion that the mine was originally created by Germans.

Vistas
 To the east, a large American Flag can be seen over an American Revolutionary War cemetery containing the graves of 23 Continental Army soldiers, 22 of them are unknown.
 The Thompson-Neely House, an 18th-century stone farmhouse with a gristmill, located down the hill and across the street (River Road) to the east.
 To the northeast, the New Hope-Lambertville Bridge connecting New Hope, Pennsylvania and Lambertville, New Jersey, and the U.S. Route 202 bridge.
 To the south east, Trenton, New Jersey and Morrisville, Pennsylvania.
To the south, Tullytown landfill operated by Waste Management, Inc.

References

External links

Landmarks in Pennsylvania
Buildings and structures in Bucks County, Pennsylvania
Tourist attractions in Bucks County, Pennsylvania
George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River

Bowman's Hill Tower


Hurricane Vince was an unusual hurricane that began in the northeast Atlantic Ocean. It was part of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. The waters where it formed were thought to be too cold for tropical cyclones to exist. Vince was the 20th named storm and 12th hurricane of the season.

The storm that became Vince started out as an extratropical cyclone. It became a subtropical storm on October 8 to the southeast of the Azores. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) did not officially give the storm a name until the next day. Vince grew into a hurricane before beginning to weaken at sea. On October 11, it made landfall on the Iberian Peninsula in Spain. At that time, it was a tropical depression. It may have been the first storm to hit the area since a hurricane in 1842. Vince died out over Spain. However, it did drop rain on the country. What was left of the storm passed into the Mediterranean Sea.  Vince was one of only three storms to do so, alongside the 1842 Spanish hurricane and Subtropical Storm Alpha of 2020.

Meteorological history

On October 5, a storm now known as the 2005 Azores subtropical storm was absorbed by another low pressure area. It then began to develop and become more organized. It became a subtropical cyclone early on October 8. The storm was 580 miles (930 km) southeast of Lajes in the Azores. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) did not name the system Vince at the time, because the waters here were thought to be too cold for tropical or subtropical cyclones to exist. The storm slowly became more tropical, with a warm center. It became a tropical storm the next day in water cooler than 24 °C (75 °F), colder than the 26.5 °C (80 °F) usually needed for tropical storms.

After becoming a tropical storm, it had an eye, a clear opening at the center of the storm. The NHC named it Tropical Storm Vince, but at the time, it was not known whether Vince was tropical or subtropical. A later analysis of the storm found that Vince became tropical before it was given a name. The storm's eye became more settled and had a diameter of 15 mi (25 km). The storm also became stronger; it reached its highest force on October 9. At the time, it had wind speeds of 75 mph (120 km/h), a very weak Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale. One NHC weather forecaster said that "if it looks like a hurricane, it probably is, despite its environment and unusual location".

Hurricane Vince quickly began to weaken because wind shear began to erode it. Vince weakened to a tropical storm. A type of weather system called a trough moved towards Vince from the northwest It pulled thunderstorms related to Vince away from the storm, and its center quickly moved to the east. On October 10, two short bursts of thunderstorms surprised forecasters. However, because the water was so cold, the storm kept weakening. Vince became weaker as it came closer to the Iberian Peninsula. It became a tropical depression on October 11. This was just before it made its landfall in Huelva, Spain. The fast-moving tropical depression quickly died out over land. What was left of the cyclone moved across southern Spain. It moved into the Mediterranean Sea south of Alicante early on October 12.

Preparations and impact

The Spanish Center for Emergency Coordination declared a rain pre-emergency for the province of Castellón. They were afraid that Hurricane Vince would bring rains which would flood the area. The Instituto Nacional de Meteorología (INM) issued a bulletin. It warned of a 40% chance of flooding. Four autonomous regions (Asturias, Cataluña, Castile and León and Galicia) issued flood warnings. Canarias issued a wind warning. Fishing fleets from Spain off the Andalusian coast went back to port. They were hit by the storm while anchored. The storm did not hit them in the open ocean.

Spain had been fighting a record drought that year. They welcomed the rains brought by Vince's remnants. In two days the storm brought a lot of rain to the province of A Coruña. This eased the sinking water levels in the reservoirs. But this also caused bad traffic and small floods. In Cordoba province, the A-303, A-306 and OC-293 roads were slightly flooded. The entrance of the University of A Coruña was blocked for some time. It was blocked by flood waters on October 11. A nearby roundabout was submerged. There were limited damages. No one died in the storm. The highest winds reported on land were 48 mph (77 km/h). These winds were reported at Jerez, Spain.
Some ships reported stronger winds. The rainfall as a result of the hurricane was like normal rains from temperate systems. Only one to two inches (25 to 50 mm) of rain fell. Using the words of a song in the movie My Fair Lady, National Hurricane Center forecaster James Franklin in the Tropical Cyclone Report for Vince wrote, "the rain in Spain was mainly less than 2 inches, although 3.30 inches (84 mm) fell in the plain at Cordoba."

Records and naming

Hurricane Vince began in an odd place, an area where tropical cyclones do not usually originate from. However, it does not hold any important records. Tropical Storm Alberto of the 1988 season formed farther north than any other storm, at 41.5° N. Also, Hurricane Ginger of the 1967 season formed at 18.1° W, the farthest east of any tropical cyclones. Hurricane Vince became a hurricane further east than any known storm, at 18.9° W, prior to 2019's Hurricane Pablo, at 18.8°W. A tropical  storm becomes a hurricane when wind speeds grow higher than .

The National Hurricane Center said that Vince was the first tropical cyclone known to hit the Iberian Peninsula. However, some  documents claim that the 1842 Spain hurricane struck the Iberian Peninsula on October 29, 1842. That hurricane may have been stronger. More recently, Tropical Storm Grace formed farther north than Vince.

When Subtropical Storm Vince began on October 8, it was earliest in a season that the twenty-first tropical or subtropical storm formed. It was 38 days ahead of the record before that, which was set by Tropical Storm 21 of the 1933 season. Because Vince did not cause bad damage, the World Meteorological Organization did not retire (stop using) the name Vince. It will be on the list of names for the 2011 season.

References

Other websites

Vince
2005 in Europe
2000s in Spain
Vince (2005)
2000s in Portugal
Vince (2005)
October 2005 events

Hurricane Vince


Gag reflex, also called pharyngeal reflex, is a reflex contraction of the throat in humans that prevents anything to pass through the throat, except during normal swallowing. It is also named as pharyngeal reflex.

Touching the soft palate results in a very strong gag reflex in most healthy people. The gag reflex can also be caused by touching the roof of the mouth, or the back part of the tongue. The gag reflex can be used to make someone vomit as well.

References

Reflexes

Gag reflex


Suni Paz is an Argentinian singer, songwriter, guitarist, poet, folklorist, translator, and teacher, who has recorded and has been published extensively. Paz is part of the progressive Latin American music movement known as nueva canción (new song).

Best known in the United States as a performing artist and prolific songwriter, Paz has been presenting Latin American culture to audiences of all ages for more than thirty years. In addition to eight CDs on the Smithsonian Folkways label, she has recorded more than four hundred songs for children and performed on the world stage alongside American icons that included Arlo Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Guy Carawan and Phil Ochs.

Biography

Born into a talented Argentine Italian-Catalan family of writers, musicians, linguists and poets, Paz started playing the guitar, writing songs, singing in choirs, and at family parties at age 12. From 1960 to 1963 she lived in Chile. From 1963 to 1965 she raised her two children alone, making a living by writing and singing advertising jingles for various companies and becoming a copywriter trainee for McCann Erickson-Chile.

In 1967, Paz moved to California with her two children. There, she designed curriculum for elementary schools presenting Latin American culture through songs, stories and dances. She studied voice, began her studies towards a BA in Sociology and Literature, remarried, got a school district permit to perform in the schools in Los Angeles and Oakland, and thus began her teaching and singing career in the United States.

Influenced by the nueva canción movement, Paz began writing songs in folk styles with lyrics that addressed the poverty and inequality in Latin America.

In 1977, Paz completed an MA from Rutgers University and a teaching credential, and taught in New York City. Paz has two sons whom she enjoys involving in her recordings. Her eldest, Juan, played keyboard on several of her albums. Her youngest, Ramiro Fauve, a singer-songwriter and outstanding artist continues to create music with her. Paz currently splits time between Nevada and Los Angeles, California.

Name and mission

Suni Paz chose the name "Suni" because it means "ever-lasting" in the Quechua language. "Paz" which means "peace" is a last name found in every Latin American country. To find inner peace and share it with others is Paz's quest in life. Her mission is to use her singing and playing to disseminate the rich cultures of the Americas through the lyrics, rhythms, and indigenous instruments such as the charango, caja, and bombo, thereby building a bridge between cultures.

Creative works

Paz began writing her own lyrics and setting to music some of her concerns in order to give a voice to the silent and forgotten ones. She has sung in communities, schools, at rallies and marches, and later at colleges, universities, and festivals in the United States, Latin America and Europe.

In the sixties, having settled in New York, Paz began recording. Her first album, Breaking Out of the Silence/Brotando del Silencio was released on 1973 on Paredon Records, a label founded by Irwin Silber and Barbara Dane to present social protest music. In 1977, Paz recorded her first album with Folkways Records, Entre Hermanas: Between Sisters-Women's Songs Sung in Spanish, widening the implications of the women's movement beyond middle- and upper-class Americans.

In the late seventies, Moe Asch from Folkways Records commissioned three children's albums including Alerta, Children Songs for the Playground and From the Sky of My Childhood which Paz recorded accompanied by noted cellist Martha Siegel. The three albums solidified Paz's voice as a singer-songwriter of children's songs. The albums became pivotal in Paz's career as an educator and a musician using songs to teach about all subjects and about life.

In 1984, Paz met Dr. Alma Flor Ada, a renowned writer and poet of children's stories, living and working in San Francisco. Ada was interested in having her lyrics set to music and recorded by Paz. Together with Vivi Escrivá, an illustrator living in Spain, Ada's lyrics and Paz's music, a trio of creativity across two continents became established. In 1997, Paz met poet and writer Francisca Isabel Campoy who writes children's books on Latin America and Spain with Ada. The trio became a quartet. Paz then began writing music, recording and performing Ada's and Campoy's lyrics and stories which they now present together in conferences on education in the United States and Latin America. Thus, Paz continues today with her career as an author, lyricist, singer, songwriter, recording artist, and performer of folklore and children's songs. She has just published her own collection of short stories and anecdotes about growing up in Argentina and has an upcoming release about her life in Chile.

In 2007 Paz recorded a new Smithsonian Folkways CD Bandera Mía featuring stirring folk songs from Argentina.

Also in 2007 Paz published a collection of autobiographical stories in English and Spanish entitled Sparkles & Shadows - from Innocence to Wisdom (Destellos y Sombras de la Inoncencia a la Madurez in Spanish) published by Del Sol Books.

In 2008 Paz was featured in Worlds of Sound: The Story of Smithsonian Folkways, by Richard Carlin.

Concerts

On June 9, 1975, Paz performed at a benefit for Sing Out! magazine at The Bottom Line, sharing the stage with Don Mclean, Abby Newton, Louisiana Red, Phil Ochs, Charley Sales, Leon Rossebson, Sara Cleveland and the Red Clay Ramblers.

Awards and honors
In 2020, the National Endowment for the Arts awarded Paz a National Heritage Fellowship, the nation's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. The NEA described Paz as "One of the first artists to bring the nueva canción tradition—the 'new song' music of the 1960s and 1970s—to North American audiences, Paz's work as an American songwriter and performer of Latin American folk music has resonated as a cultural force engaging people of all backgrounds and ages."

In 2003, The Children's Music Network bestowed the Magic Penny Award on Paz, for her outstanding lifetime contribution to children's music.

Discography

Cantos de Las Posadas and Other Christmas Songs (recorded by Elena Paz and Carlos Garcia Travesi), 1963, Folkways Records

Brotando del Silencio - Breaking Out of the Silence, 1973, Paredon Records

Entre Hermanas: Between Sisters: Women's Songs in Spanish Sung by Suni Paz, 1977, Folkways

From the Sky of My Childhood / Del Cielo de Mi Ninez - Folk Songs from Latin America sung by Suni Paz, 1979, Folkways

Earth and Ocean Songs: Canciones del Mar y de la Tierra, 1982, Folkways

Hagamos Camimos: Andamos Student, 1986, Addison-Wesley

Brotes Sobre el Papel: Buds on Paper, 1987, Suni Paz

La Pajara Pinta, 1988, Santillana Publishing

Manana es Domingo, 1988, Santillana

Estaba la Pastora, 1988, Santillana

Las Semillas Magicas, 1988, Santillana

La Bella Durmiente, 1988, Santillana

La cenicienta, 1988, Santillana

Caperucita Roja, 1988, Santillana

Blancanieves, 1988, Santillana

Alerta Sings and Songs for the Playground/ Canciones Para el Recreo, 1989, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

Aprender Cantando, 1990, Alma Flor Ada-Suni Paz

Songs in Spanish, 1992, Sanctuary Wooks-Scholastic

Amigos, 1994, Rei American

El Viejo Abuelo, 1995, Scholastic

Musica Matematica, 1995, Scholastic

Cantando con Suni Paz, 1995, Scholastic

Abecedario de los Animales, 1996, Alma Flor Ada-Suni Paz

Waves, 1996, Mimosa

Como Una Flor, 1996, Alma Flor Ada-Suni Paz

Cielo Abierto (K-2nd Grade), 1996, Harcourt-Brace

Cuentos Cantados (K-3rd Grade), 1997, Mimosa

Gathering the Sun, 1997, Alma Flor Ada-Suni Paz

Canciones Para el Recreo: Children's Songs for the Playground, 1998, Smithsonian Folkways

Smithsonian Folkways Children's Collection, 1998, Smithsonian Folkways

Alerta Sings and Songs for the Playground/ Canciones Para el Recreo, 2000, Smithsonian Folkways

Raíces Latinas: Smithsonian Folkways Latino Roots Collection, 2002, Smithsonian Folkways

Bandera Mía: Songs of Argentina, 2007, Smithsonian Folkways

Tú eres mi flor: Songs for Children en Español: Elizabeth Mitchell and Suni Paz, 2018, Smithsonian Folkways

References

External links
http://www.sunipaz.com/
http://www.delsolbooks.com/sunipaz.htm
http://folkways.si.edu/suni-paz-argentinian-singer-songwriter/latin-world/music/article/smithsonian
http://www.pacificaradioarchives.org/recording/bc1858?keys=Suni%20Paz
http://www.pacificaradioarchives.org/recording/iz1145a?keys=Suni%20Paz

20th-century Argentine women singers
Living people
Argentine guitarists
Argentine women guitarists
Argentine songwriters
Argentine women songwriters
Argentine poets
Argentine women poets
Argentine music educators
Argentine women music educators
Argentine folklorists
Argentine women folklorists
Year of birth missing (living people)
National Heritage Fellowship winners
Rutgers University alumni
Folkways Records artists
Argentine emigrants to the United States

Suni Paz


Haas Automation, Inc is an American machine tool builder headquartered in Oxnard, California. The company designs and manufactures lower cost machine tools and specialized accessory tooling, mostly computer numerically controlled (CNC) equipment, such as vertical machining centers and horizontal machining centers, lathes/turning centers, and rotary tables and indexers. Most of its products are manufactured at the company's main facility in Oxnard. The company is also involved in motorsports: it owns the Haas F1 Team and is a co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing in NASCAR.
Haas is one of the largest machine tool builders in the world by total unit volume.

History

Gene Haas founded Haas Automation in 1983 in Sun Valley, California, to manufacture machine tool accessory tooling and rotary tables. The company entered the machine tool industry with the first fully automatic, programmable collet indexer. Over the next four years, the company expanded its product line to include fully programmable rotary tables, rotary indexers, and other machine tool accessories.

In 1987, Haas Automation began developing its first vertical machining center (VMC), the VF-1, a machine designed to perform operations such as milling, drilling, tapping, and boring. The first VF-1 prototypes were completed in 1988, and introduced at the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS '88) in Chicago, Illinois. The company moved to larger facilities in Chatsworth, Los Angeles, in 1991, but Haas was dissatisfied with the local government and the building permit process. In 1997, Haas moved to a purpose-built facility on  in Oxnard.

In 2019, Haas purchased  of land in Henderson, Nevada, for $27.4 million to expand its business, planning to build 4.3 million square feet of commercial space with 2.3 million square feet intended for a $327 million manufacturing facility

During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Haas Automation was accused by the Economic Security Council of Ukraine in March 2023 of violating United States sanctions by supplying the Russian arms industry with CNC machines via Abamet Management, which distributes parts in Russia and Belarus and with whom Haas severed ties in March 2022. The company denied the allegations and asserted it had departed Russia prior to the invasion, while remaining Haas equipment were taken over by an independent distributor. In August, a follow-up investigation by the ESCU suggested Haas was still indirectly providing resources to the Russian military through Suzhou Sup Bestech Machine Tools Co, a Chinese liaison that was founded two weeks after Haas formally ended operations in Russia.

Products

The company manufactures several lines of CNC machine tools for the metalworking industry.

Vertical Mills

VF Series
VF series mills are a range of 3-axis vertical machining centers, which can be outfitted with 4th and 5th axis drives if so configured. These mills are available in different sizes, ranging from VF-1 to VF-14.

The VF in the name stands for "Very First" as the first machine Haas produced was the VF-1 ("Very First One"). One of these machines was restored by an employee, gifted to Gene Haas, and now resides in Haas's demo room in Oxnard, CA.

Universal Machines (UMC)
Haas universal machining centers (known as UMC) are 5-axis bridge-type vertical machines. They were first introduced in 2015.

Mini Mill
The mini mill was introduced as a small footprint alternative to the VF series mills, featuring a smaller casting while still maintaining a 40 taper spindle.

Toolroom Mills (TM)
The TM series was first introduced as essentially a "CNC-capable toolroom mill". Originally, these mills did not feature an enclosure, but have since been outfitted with an enclosure that encompasses the bottom and sides of the machine. These machines are characterized by a smaller casting and slower rapids, as they are targeted towards customers who do not require production capabilities.

Drill/Tap/Mill Series (DT / DM)
The Haas DT series was originally introduced as a 30 taper high-speed machine, ideal for operations where high speed and small footprint are required, but the ability to handle large axial cutting loads is not needed. Eventually, the DM series was introduced as a 40 taper variant of the DT machine, but does not offer the 20,000 RPM spindle option.

Compact Mill
The CM is focused on machining small parts where high accuracy is required. The CM is a 20 taper machine, with spindles from 30,000 to 50,000 RPM. Haas only offers one machine in this series, the CM-1.

Gantry Series (GM / GR)
Gantry Series mills feature a static bed, a bridge that moves along the Y axis, and a head that moves along the X axis. The two primary use cases for GM series machines are large molds. GM series machines feature a more substantial casting with improved chip management as opposed to the GR series. The GM-2-5AX is also available, which is simply a GM-2 featuring two extra axes affixed to the head.

Other Machines
 VM Series machines feature a grid-style table capable of handling more weight than a comparable VF machine.
 VR Series machines are based on the VF series, but include a special head to allow A and B axis capabilities. VR machines are able to machine larger parts than would be possible on a VF machine outfitted with a 5th axis trunnion, as the head is able to span the entire X and Y axis travel, rather than being constrained by the smaller work envelope of a trunnion.
 VMT (Vertical Mill Turn) series mills feature an HSK-T/A63 spindle and are capable of performing both milling and turning operations.
 The VC-400 machine is a pallet-changing vertical mill, based on the design of the EC-400 horizontal mill with a 90 degree head.

Certifications
Haas Automation is an ISO 9001 certified company. All machine tools carry the ETL Listed mark, certifying that they conform to the NFPA 79 electrical standard for industrial machinery and the Canadian equivalent, CAN/CSA C22.2 No. 73. The company is also entitled to affix the CE mark to its products.

Sales
Products are distributed worldwide through a network of independently owned franchised local "factory outlet" businesses that provide sales, service, and applications support for Haas machine tools. Introduced in 1999, with the first outlet established in Torrance, California, it was applied to the company's existing worldwide network, and then expanded to Europe.

See also
 Windshear, Inc.

References

Companies based in Oxnard, California
Machine tool builders
Companies established in 1983

Haas Automation


Bristol Cathedral Choir School is a mixed gender non-selective musical Secondary Academy, located in the Cabot area of Bristol, England. Until 2008 it was Bristol Cathedral School, part of Bristol Cathedral, in the centre of the city. The choristers at Bristol Cathedral are educated at the school, which has a strong musical tradition. The new school is a day school and has no boarders. The school admits some pupils each year based on musical aptitude, as well as admitting probationary choristers. That is the school's only form of selection, all other pupils are chosen at random via a lottery system.

History
Founded in 1140 as part of what was then Bristol Abbey, Bristol Cathedral School was refounded by Henry VIII in 1542 after he dissolved the monastery.

A fee-paying school up until the Second World War, from 1944 to 1975 the school was a direct grant school. When direct grant schools were abolished, the school had to become an independent school once more to maintain its policy of selection by academic ability.

It began accepting girls into the sixth form in 1982 and became fully co-educational in 2005.

In April 2007, the school appointed a new headmaster, Hugh Monro. In July of that year, the school moved towards ending a 30-year period as an independent, fee-paying institution by applying to change its status to a publicly funded city academy with specialities in music and maths – the first choir school in the country to make such a move. The formal agreement clearing the way for the school to become an academy in September 2008 was signed on 3 March 2008. The school also changed its name to Bristol Cathedral Choir School.

In January 2009, the school appointed a new headmaster, Neil Blundell.

External facilities
Weekly assemblies, occasional services and school concerts are held in Bristol Cathedral.

The school has playing fields near Beggar Bush Lane in Failand. Games sessions for all years take place here, as well as forest school sessions for the primary school.

Future
The school site is undergoing a period of development. In 2008 the school completed a £3.5 million new building in College Square, and is currently building a new block, in an expansion of the School's facilities that will enable pupil numbers to grow from 400 to over 700.

In 2013, a primary school opened under the city library. It is known as Cathedral Primary School (CPS).

Buildings

The main school building is part of St Augustine's Abbey, which was founded in 1140. This contains the refectory and a 13th-century right-hand archway, with upper walls from the early 16th century. It was extensively altered and partly refaced in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It has been designated by English Heritage as a grade II* listed building. The Abbey House and Deanery are also II* listed.

Newer buildings include the Cresswell Centre and the Parsonage, which was opened in 2008. These buildings are located on the west side of College Square.

Academic achievement
The school has improved its results over the period from 2009 to 2011 and achieved its best ever GCSE scores in 2011 The table below shows the percentage of students achieving the key measure of 5 GCSEs at grades A*–C including English Language and Mathematics.

Uganda link
Since 1987, Bristol Cathedral Choir School has been linked with St. James's School, an independent co-educational secondary school in the centre of Jinja, Uganda.
Each year a teacher from St. James's visits BCCS for two or three weeks, getting involved in School activities including expeditions, observing lessons and also giving lessons on topics such as AIDS, agriculture or African economics. In addition, two gap-year students from BCCS go to Jinja for six months each year. They act as classroom assistants at St. James's, as well as helping in a local primary school and in an orphanage or a street children's centre.

Cathedral Schools Trust
Since 2008 the school has been managed by the Cathedral Schools Trust, a multi-academy trust with roots in the Church of England in Bristol.  The trust also manages two other secondary schools, Trinity Academy in Lockleaze and St. Katherine's School in Pill, and six primary schools, Cathedral, Headley Park, Hotwells, St Werburgh's, Stoke Park and Victoria Park.

Notable Old Cathedralians

Sophie Anderton (born 1977), lingerie model and reality television personality
James Averis (born 1974), cricketer
Raymond L. Brett (1917–1996), university professor
 Julian Close of Red Box (born c.1960), musician and music industry professional
Chris Chivers (1967-), Anglican priest
Russ Conway (1925–2000), pianist and composer
Reginald Croom-Johnson (1879-1957)
Lieutenant-General Sir William Draper (1721–1787), army officer
John Fortune (1939-2013), comic and writer
Tom Dascombe (Born 1973), jockey and racehorse trainer
Racey Helps, (1913–1970), children's writer and illustrator
Simon Richard William Hicks, (1955–2007), production designer and filmmaker
David Hulin, (born 1975), director and animation director
Andrew Ibrahim (born 1989), terrorist suspect convicted of preparing terrorist acts
Dan Jones (born 1969), composer
David Jones (1941–2010), Flavelle Medal–winning biologist
Chris McNab (born 1980), author and computer hacker
Mark Newman (born c.1967), physicist
Tom Spilsbury (born 1976), journalist, Doctor Who Magazine editor
Reece Winstone (1909–1991), photographer and local historian
Alan Geoffrey Woods (born 1942), Dean of Gibraltar 2003–2008

It has been alleged that the influential pseudonymous graffiti artist Banksy, whose identity is a closely guarded secret, is in fact a former pupil of Bristol Cathedral School named Robin Gunningham. Banksy himself has declined either to confirm or deny the allegation.

Former teachers
David Jewell, headmaster
Alastair Hignell, history and sport
Clifford Harker, organist and master of the choristers, Bristol Cathedral, 1949–1983

See also
List of the oldest schools in the world

References

External links

Official school website

Old Boys website

Secondary schools in Bristol
Educational institutions established in the 12th century
Grade II* listed educational buildings
Grade II* listed churches in Bristol

1140 establishments in England
Bristol
Choir schools in England
Church of England secondary schools in the Diocese of Bristol
Academies in Bristol
Bristol Cathedral

Bristol Cathedral Choir School


James H. Fowler (born February 18, 1970) is an American social scientist specializing in social networks, cooperation, political participation, and genopolitics (the study of the genetic basis of political behavior). He is currently Professor of Medical Genetics in the School of Medicine and Professor of Political Science in the Division of Social Science at the University of California, San Diego.  He was named a 2010 Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation.

Background
Fowler earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard College in 1992, a master's degree in International Relations from Yale University in 1997, and a Ph.D. in Government from the Harvard University in 2003.  He was also a Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador from 1992 to 1994. In 2010, he was named by Foreign Policy magazine to its list of top global thinkers.

Research
Fowler's research centers on social networks. He is best known for his studies of the social spread of obesity, smoking, and happiness in the Framingham Heart Study, but he has also studied the network of legislative cosponsorships in the U.S. Congress and the network of U.S. Supreme Court precedents.

Studies by Nicholas A. Christakis and Fowler suggested a variety of individuals' attributes like obesity, smoking cessation, and happiness rather than being individualistic, are causally correlated by contagion mechanisms that transmit these behaviors over long distances within social networks. A debate over the statistical models used to establish these three degrees of influence findings ensued, but subsequent studies have found evidence of their central claims about behavioral influence and contagion.

In addition to his research on social networks, Fowler has become known for his work on genopolitics, showing that genes influence voting and other forms of political participation.  Fowler used twin studies of voter turnout in Los Angeles and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to establish that the decision to vote in the United States has very strong heritability.  He has also identified three genes that are associated with voter turnout and partisan attachment, specifically those regulating the serotonin and dopamine systems in the brain via the production of monoamine oxidase, 5HTT, and DRD2.

More recently, he has shown evidence that social networks have a partly genetic basis.  In 2010, he published a paper regarding the use of social networks as 'sensors' for forecasting epidemics.

In other research, Fowler is known for his theoretical and experimental work on egalitarianism and the evolution of cooperation, with related work on altruism, overconfidence, and political participation.

Fowler's newest research focuses on Facebook friendship as a predictor of voter mobilization, and the use of the social network medium, to mobilize voters in American elections. Based on a large manipulation of friendship cues in the Facebook social network, Fowler demonstrates that being presented with indications of friends having voted is a strong predictor of individual voting.

Books
In September 2009, Little, Brown & Co. published Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives by Nicholas A. Christakis and James H. Fowler. Connected draws on previously published and unpublished studies, including the Framingham Heart Study and makes several new conclusions about the influence of social networks on human health and behavior. In Connected, they put forward their "three degrees of influence" rule about human behavior, which theorizes that each person's individual social influence stretches three degrees before it fades out.

The Colbert Report
On February 28, 2008, the Los Angeles Times published an op-ed that summarized Fowler's research showing that Democratic candidates who come on The Colbert Report receive 44% more in campaign donations in the first 30 days after appearing on the show. Colbert pointed out the op-ed on his March 3, 2008 show.  Fowler also appeared during the Threatdown on his December 10, 2008 show, describing his work on the spread of happiness in social networks, and again on the January 7th, 2010 show to discuss the sociological impact of social networking.

Selected publications

The Framingham Heart Study Social Network

Genes and Politics

Genes and Social Networks

Experimental Studies of Cooperation and Egalitarianism

Evolutionary Models

Altruism and Political Participation

Legislator Social Networks

Voter Social Networks

Network of Supreme Court Precedents

References

External links
 Personal webpage for James Fowler
 SSRN page with papers by James Fowler
 Center for Wireless and Population Health Systems
 UCSD Political Science Department faculty

 Video interview in Conversation with Tom Munnecke January 7, 2009
 Peace Corps Wiki article http://www.peacecorpswiki.org/James_Fowler
 Website for Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives http://connectedthebook.com

1970 births
Living people
American political scientists
Harvard College alumni
Yale University alumni

James H. Fowler