robotfindskitten (rfk) is a "Zen simulation", originally written by Leonard Richardson for DOS.

Game
It is a free video game with an ASCII interface in which the user (playing the eponymous robot and represented by a number sign "") must find kitten (represented by a random character) on a field of other random characters. Walking up to items allows robot to identify them as either kitten, or any of a variety of "Non-kitten Items" (NKIs) with whimsical, strange or simply random text descriptions. It is not possible to lose (though there is a patch that adds a 1 in 10 probability of the NKI killing robot). Simon Carless has characterized robotfindskitten as "less a game and more a way of life ... It's fun to wander around until you find a kitten, at which point you feel happy and can start again".

The original robotfindskitten program was the sole entrant to a contest in 1997 at the now-defunct webzine Nerth Pork — the object: create a depiction of "robotfindskitten". (The robotfindskitten concept was originally created by Jacob Berendes, but the only submission he received depicted kittens meeting an untimely end at the hands of malevolent robots.)

When the author rewrote the program for Linux in 1999, it gained popularity and now has its own website and mailing lists. Since then, it has been ported to and/or implemented on over 30 platforms, including POSIX, the Dreamcast, Palm OS, TI-99/4A, the Z-machine, the Sony PSP, Android, and many more. Graphical versions, such as an OpenGL version with  emblazoned on an otherwise featureless cube, also exist. Remakes of it are also used as programming tutorials, such as for Gambas.

References

External links

robotfindskitten in a Java applet
Fictional Back-story to the game, detailing robot's creation
"The Ultimate robotfindskitten Fan Site" on the original author's web site

1997 video games
Amiga games
Android (operating system) games
Apple II games
Commodore 64 games
DOS games
Dreamcast homebrew games
Game Boy Advance games
Free and open-source Android software
Java platform games
Linux games
Open-source video games
Palm OS games
Unix games
Video games developed in the United States
Video games with textual graphics
ZX Spectrum games

Robotfindskitten


Joseph Richard Conlan is an American film and television composer based in Los Angeles. He is best known for his scores to the television series NCIS, Tour of Duty and Simon & Simon, and films Spiders 3D and Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia.
Conlan is also known for integrating electronic music textures with conventional orchestration. He has received several awards and nominations.

Film and television scoring
Conlan's earliest notable television credits are Simon & Simon, Tour of Duty, The Equalizer and V: The Final Battle. Recent feature scores include Toolbox Murders and Mortuary (for legendary film director Tobe Hooper), Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia (dir.: Tim Matheson), Spiders 3D (dir.: Tibor Takács), and for television, the series NCIS. Most recently Conlan wrote the romantic-comedy scores to the feature films Sanctuary for director Len Colin and The Callback Queen for Film Venture London and director Graham Cantwell.
Conlan has been nominated for two EMMY awards, one for Mortal Sins (starring Christopher Reeve) and another for Miracle Run (starring Aidan Quinn and Zac Efron). Conlan has also won Best Score at The Underground Cinema Awards (2010) for his score to the short film No Justice (directed by Dublin director Alan Walsh) and won Best Song at the Rome International Film Festival (2004) for the title song "Finding Home" (lyric by Holly Conlan).

Conlan has dual citizenship with the U.S. and Ireland (EU).

Early years and influences

Born in Brooklyn, New York, a fortuitous move at the age of five brought Conlan and his family to Los Angeles to set down new roots. At the age of eight, a tortuous, stilted regimen of piano lessons began, but by age eleven a new, younger teacher had opened Conlan's eyes to the more theoretical dimensions of music and the magic of chords.
Conlan began to hone his craft as early as high school, writing music for various ensembles and choirs. But it was not until a friend introduced him to Earle Hagen's seminal book, Scoring for Film, that Conlan realized how he should apply his passion.

After a few years of writing commercial jingles for Santa Barbara radio stations, Conlan began to work for Hagen on the TV series Eight Is Enough. This introduction to television led him to work with composers Mark Snow on Starsky & Hutch and Hart to Hart and Hoyt Curtin on Hanna-Barbera's Smurfs and Popeye. Conlan's first screen credit soon followed when Barry De Vorzon brought him on to write the score for the new series Simon & Simon.

Conlan's musical influences reach from Lennon/McCartney and James Taylor to Claude Debussy and Aaron Copland, to Tom Scott, Radiohead, The Chemical Brothers and Irish folk music. His film scores are just as eclectic, ranging from dark psychological thrillers to romantic comedies, from conventional orchestral arrangements to electronic and more experimental instrumentation. Along with his strong sense of theme and rhythmic texture, the technique of combining conventional instrumentation with manipulated, twisted and textural sound design elements that he has created, allows Conlan to produce a distinctive score for each project.

Awards and nominations

Awards
 2010 The Underground Cinema Awards for Best Score - No Justice
 2005 BMI TV Music Award - NCIS
 2004 Rome Film Festival for Best Score - Finding Home
 1985 BMI TV Music Award - Simon & Simon

Nominations
 2004 Emmy Award for Best Score - Miracle Run
 1992 Emmy Award for Best Score - Mortal Sins

References

External links
Official Website
SoundCloud

Living people
American television composers
NCIS (TV series)
Year of birth missing (living people)

Joseph Conlan


Jean-François Marmontel (; 11 July 1723 – 31 December 1799) was a French historian, writer and a member of the Encyclopédistes movement.

Biography

He was born of poor parents at Bort, Limousin (today in Corrèze). After studying with the Jesuits at Mauriac, Cantal, he taught in their colleges at Clermont-Ferrand and Toulouse; and in 1745, acting on the advice of Voltaire, he set out for Paris to try for literary success.

From 1748 to 1753 he wrote a succession of tragedies: Denys le Tyran (1748); Aristomene (1749); Cleopâtre (1750); Heraclides (1752); Egyptus (1753). These literary works, though only moderately successful on the stage, secured Marmontel's introduction into literary and fashionable circles.

He wrote a series of articles for the Encyclopédie evincing considerable critical power and insight, which in their collected form, under the title Eléments de Littérature, still rank among the French classics. He also wrote several comic operas, the two best of which probably are Sylvain (1770) and Zémire et Azore (1771). In the Gluck–Piccinni controversy he was an eager partisan of Piccinni with whom he collaborated in Roland (Piccinni) (1778) and Atys (1779), both using Jean Baptiste Lully's libretto by Quinault as basis, Didon (1783) and Penelope (1785).

In 1758 he gained the patronage of Madame de Pompadour, who obtained for him a place as a civil servant, and the management of the official journal Le Mercure, in which he had already begun the famous series of Contes moraux. The merit of these tales lies partly in the delicate finish of the style, but mainly in the graphic and charming pictures of French society under King Louis XV. The author was elected to the Académie française in 1763. In 1767 he published Bélisaire, now remarkable in part because of a chapter on religious toleration which incurred the censure of the Sorbonne and the archbishop of Paris. Marmontel retorted in Les Incas, ou la destruction de l'empire du Perou (1777) by tracing the cruelties in Spanish America to the religious fanaticism of the invaders.

He was appointed historiographer of France (1771), secretary to the Academy (1783), and professor of history in the Lycée (1786). As a historiographer, Marmontel wrote a history of the regency (1788). Reduced to poverty by the French Revolution, Marmontel retired during the Reign of Terror to Evreux, and soon afterwards to a cottage at Abloville (near Saint-Aubin-sur-Gaillon) in the département of Eure. There he wrote Memoires d'un père (4 vols., 1804), including a picturesque review of his life, a literary history of two important reigns, a great gallery of portraits extending from the venerable Jean Baptiste Massillon, whom more than half a century previously he had seen at Clermont, to Honoré Mirabeau. The book was nominally written for the instruction of his children. It contains an exquisite picture of his own childhood in the Limousin; its value for the literary historian is great.

Marmontel lived for some time under the roof of Madame Geoffrin, and was present at her famous dinners given to artists; he was welcomed into most of the houses where the encyclopaedists met, and was a contributor to the Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. He thus had at his command the best material for his portraits, and made good use of his opportunities. After a short stay in Paris when elected in 1797 to the Conseil des Anciens, he died at Abloville.

He was a member of the Masonic lodge Les Neuf Sœurs.

John Ruskin named him as one of the three people in history who were the most influential for him. In his autobiography, John Stuart Mill credits Memoires d'un père with curing him of depression.

Works

Theatre
Marmontel published many opera librettos and mostly operas comiques librettos, a genre in which he excelled but could not compete with Charles-Simon Favart.
1748: Denys le tyran, tragedy, 5 February
1749: Aristomène, tragedy, 30 April
1750: Cléopâtre, tragédie, 20 May
1751: La Guirlande, acte de ballet, music by Jean-Philippe Rameau
1751: Acante et Céphise, pastorale héroïque in three acts, music by Jean-Philippe Rameau
1752: Les Héraclides, tragedy, 24 May
1753: Égyptus, tragedy
1753: Lisis et Délie, pastorale héroïque in 1 act, music by Jean-Philippe Rameau
1753: Les sibarites, acte de ballet, music by Jean-Philippe Rameau
1761: Hercule mourant, tragédie lyrique, music by Antoine Dauvergne
1762: Annette et Lubin
1766: La Bergère des Alpes
1768: Le Huron, opera comique, music by André Grétry
1769: Lucile, opéra comique, music by André Grétry
1770: Sylvain, opéra comique, music by André Grétry
1771: L'amie de la maison, opéra comique, music by André Grétry
1771: Zémire et Azor, opéra comique, music by André Grétry
1773: Céphale et Procris, ballet héroïque, music by André Grétry
1775: La Fausse magie, opéra comique, music by André Grétry
1783: Didon, opera, music by Niccolò Piccinni
1785: Pénélope, opéra comique, music by Niccolò Piccinni
1788: Démophoon, music by Luigi Cherubini.

Poetry
 Polymnie, satire en 11 chants
1751: L'établissement de l'École militaire,
1752: Vers sur la convalescence du Dauphin,
1753: La naissance du duc d'Aquitaine,
1760: Épître aux poètes,
1820: La Neuvaine de Cythère, (licencious poem)

Novels
1755–1759: Contes moraux,
1767: Bélisaire,<ref>Ce livre interdit a directement fait l'objet d'une critique Examen du Bélisaire de M. Marmontel</ref> Reprinted in 1787 by the Bibliothèque amusante. (see the two paintings by Jacques Louis David Bélisaire demandant l'aumône)
1777: Les Incas, ou la destruction de l'empire du Perou1792: Nouveaux contes moraux Essays
1763: Poétique française, 3 parts: a work in which Racine and Boileau are strongly attacked.
1777: Essai sur les révolutions de la musique en France,
1785: De l'Autorité de l'usage sur la langue,
1787: Éléments de littérature. Modern edition at Desjonquères, presented, established and annotated by Sophie Le Ménahèze, 2005.
1788: Mémoire sur la régence du duc d'Orléans1792: Apologie de l'Académie française.

 Varia
1746:  L'Observateur littéraire : literary journal established with Jean-Grégoire Bauvin (or Beauvin) ; « Cette feuille, écrira-t-il, n'étant ni la critique infidèle et injuste des bons ouvrages, ni la satire amère et mordante des bons auteurs, elle eut peu de débit.» . The title was revived by abbé de La Porte in 1758.
1712–1714: The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope, translated into verse La boucle de cheveux enlevée, 1746. Edition bilingue moderne chez Rivages poche, 2010, 142 pages ()
1759: édition remaniée de Venceslas by Rotrou,
1766: La Pharsale de Lucain, translated into prose,
1775: édition des Chefs d'œuvres dramatiques de Mairet, Du Ryer et Rotrou, with a Commentaire,
1800: Mémoires d'un père pour servir à l'instruction de ses enfants,
1806: Leçons d'un père à ses enfants sur la langue française''.

Notes

References

External links

 Marmontel on Wikisource

1723 births
1799 deaths
People from Corrèze
18th-century French male writers
18th-century French dramatists and playwrights
18th-century French novelists
18th-century French poets
18th-century French journalists
French opera librettists
French literary critics
18th-century French historians
French fantasy writers
Members of the Académie Française
Les Neuf Sœurs
Contributors to the Encyclopédie (1751–1772)
French historiographers
Prisoners of the Bastille
18th-century French memoirists

Jean-François Marmontel


Bihu is the most prominent festival celebrated by the people of Assam. It is a set of three celebrations performed throughout the year. The three Bihus are celebrated at different times of year, in the months of Bohaag (Baisakhi), Kaati (Kartik) and Maagh, according to Hindu calendar. As per modern calendar these days fall in the month of mid April, October/ November and early January.

Assam is a small state in the north-eastern part of the country. Its economy is mainly based on agriculture. The inhabitants of Assam are known agrarians from ages. Hence all their daily activities and celebrations are agriculture oriented only. Bihu is also one of such festivals. It is very much evident from the months of celebration of this festival that these months are actually significant in relation with farming of native crop of Assam, the paddy. Bohaag bihu is celebrated at the seeding time of paddy. Kaati bihu is celebrated when the sowing of paddy is complete and the transformation of the saplings is done. Maagh bihu represents the culmination of the harvesting period of the crop.

The word bihu is derived from the language of 'dimasa kacharis', which is the agricultural community of Assam, since ages. The word was originally 'Bishu', which meant 'to ask for prosperity' from the tribal god. Bihu is the distorted version of Bishu.

Bohaag bihu is also known as Rongali bihu and celebrated with the highest joy and mirth among all the three bihus. As stated it is the commencement time of the new season of farming. But along with, Bohaag is the first month according to Assamese calendar. Hence it is also celebrated as the New Year festival. This period also marks the transition in the seasonal cycle and people greet the coming season of spring with enthusiasm. Rongali bihu is celebrated over a period of 7 days. There are various phases and significance of the respective 7 days of the bihu. The first day is known as goru bihu (cows are washed and worshipped). This is followed by manuha bihu (human beings take early day bath and wear new attire). Then on third day deities are worshipped and washed. Hence the festival stretches over a span of time and the celebrations culminate by bidding adieu to bihu on the last day of festival.

Kati bihu is also known as kongali bihu. It is celebrated with solidarity. However, the celebrations are quietest of all the three bihus. The farmers are busy in their paddy fields and earthen lamps are lit to mark the celebrations. Farmers pray for a better crop during this time of the farming cycle.

Maagh bihu is also known as Bhogaali bihu. Bhogalli means eating and enjoyment. Hence the name itself implies the mood of the festival. Men folk prepare cottages in the barren fields after harvesting of the crops and spend whole night while singing and dancing in communion. Delicious food and sweets are exchanged among the people. In the very next morning, the cottage is lit up in fire and this brings an end to yearly festival of bihu.

It is quite evident that bihu is a festival of farming community whose livelihood is mainly dependent upon the agriculture. The festival of bihu is celebrated by one and all in Assam. The boundaries of rich or poor, cast creed etc. are diminished in the dazzling light of joy and merriment.

Festivals in India
Assam

Bihu


Raymond Peter "Smoke" Laval (born December 20, 1955) is an American college baseball coach who was the head coach of the University of North Florida Ospreys. He is a former head coach of the Louisiana State University Tigers and the University of Louisiana at Monroe Indians baseball teams. He has led his teams to two College World Series, five conference championships, and seven NCAA Division I Baseball Championship appearances, and has received a number of coaching awards.

Early life and career
Laval was born in McDonald, Pennsylvania. He enrolled at Gulf Coast Community College in 1974, where he played catcher on the college baseball team. He transferred to Jacksonville University in 1976, playing for the Jacksonville Dolphins baseball team.

After college he served in a variety of assistant coaching positions at Jacksonville, Wolfson High School, Louisiana State University, Gulf Coast Community College, and the University of Florida from 1977 to 1983. In 1984 he took a longer term assistant position with the LSU Tigers baseball team under the legendary coach Skip Bertman.  During that time the LSU program became one of the best in the nation winning two National Championships (1991 & 1993). As a result of the success at LSU, Laval was offered the head coaching position at nearby University of Louisiana at Monroe in 1993.

Head coaching career

Northeast Louisiana/Louisiana–Monroe
Laval became head coach of the Northeast Louisiana Indians (now the Louisiana–Monroe Warhawks) for the 1994 season. Laval led the team to a 241–159 (.603) record, two NCAA tournament appearances, two Southland Conference regular season championships (1999 and 2000) and one Southland Conference tournament championship (1995). As a result of this success he attracted the attention of LSU in the wake of Skip Bertman's impending retirement.

LSU
LSU hired Laval as an administrative assistant for the baseball team under Bertman in 2001, with the intention of promoting him to head coach succeeding Bertman. Bertman retired at the end of that season having won five national championships and Laval took over head coaching duties in 2002. Expectations were high for the new coach, as one would expect following a legend like Bertman.

In 2002 Laval led the Tigers to a 44–22 record and an appearance in a Super Regional in his first season. Things got even better in 2003, Laval's second season, as he led the team to a 45–22–1 record and their first Southeastern Conference regular season championship since 1997. He was named the 2003 SEC Coach of the Year. He also led the team to an appearance in the College World Series as the #2 national seed. However, the Tigers went home after two straight losses.

2004 saw the Tigers compile a 46–19 record and included a return trip to the College World Series. Like the prior year, LSU went 0–2 in the CWS and was eliminated.  LSU fans were not used to going winless in Omaha, leading to questions about Laval's ability to maintain the program's elite status.  The 2005 Tigers struggled during the regular season but still managed to compile a 40–22 record. The team lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament and did not make an appearance in a Super Regional for the first time ever (Super Regionals began in 1999).

Although Laval's first four years were fairly solid, they were below Tiger fans had come to expect.  He began feeling pressure from LSU fans and the athletic administration, and it was generally felt that 2006 would be a make-or-break season for him.  Unfortunately for Laval, the Tigers had their worst season since 1983, the year before Bertman arrived. The team finished the season with a record of 35–24 and its first losing SEC record in 24 years.  They missed the NCAA tournament for the first time in 18 years.  Under pressure, Laval officially resigned on June 4, 2006. He finished his career at LSU with a record of 210–109–1 (.658) in five seasons.  Notre Dame coach Paul Mainieri was hired to replace him.

Following his resignation, Laval worked as a scouting adviser for the Toronto Blue Jays.

North Florida
In 2009, the University of North Florida announced that Laval would succeed Hall of Fame coach Dusty Rhodes as head coach of the Ospreys upon Rhodes' retirement. He took over prior to the 2011 season, becoming the second baseball coach in the school's history.  He led the team to its first Atlantic Sun Conference regular season championship in 2015 and was named Atlantic Sun Conference coach of the year that season.  Laval was removed as head coach after the 2017 season.

Yearly record
Below is a table of Laval's yearly records as an NCAA head baseball coach.

Coaching honors
1995 Louisiana Sportswriters Association Coach of the Year
1999 Southland Conference Coach of the Year
2002 Louisiana Sportswriters Association Coach of the Year
2003 SEC Coach of the Year; Louisiana Sportswriters Association Coach of the Year
2004 Louisiana Sportswriters Association Coach of the Year
2015 Atlantic Sun Conference Coach of the Year

See also
List of current NCAA Division I baseball coaches

References

External links
LSUSports.net Bio

1955 births
Living people
Baseball coaches from Pennsylvania
Atlanta Braves scouts
Florida Gators baseball coaches
Jacksonville Dolphins baseball coaches
Jacksonville Dolphins baseball players
Gulf Coast State Commodores baseball coaches
Gulf Coast State Commodores baseball players
Louisiana–Monroe Warhawks baseball coaches
LSU Tigers baseball coaches
North Florida Ospreys baseball coaches
Toronto Blue Jays scouts
People from McDonald, Pennsylvania

Smoke Laval


Clan Maxwell is a Lawland Scots clan an a minor hoose o the ryal House o Stuart (throu the marriage o John Maxwell, 4t Lord Maxwell  tae his wife Lady Agnes Stewart). The clan daes no currently hae a chief therefore it is considered an Armigerous clan. The name Maxwell is the name o a Scotts faimily, members o which hae held the titles as, member o the council o Regency (1536) o the Kinrick o Scotland Regent o Arran, Earl o Morton, Earl o Nithsdale, Lord Maxwell, an Lord Herries.

History

Oreegins o the Clan

The name is taken probably frae Maccuswell, or Maxwell, near Kelsae, Scotland, in the barony o Holydean. The name Maxwell oreeginates frae Maccus, a Norman lord an son o Undweyn, who gae his name tae Maccuswell, a puil o the river Tweed near Kelsae brig. A grandson o Maccus, John Maxwell, became chamberlain o Scotland afore dying in 1241, tae be succeeded bi his brither Aylmer. Frae Aylmer sprang mony branches o the faimily throughoot the sooth-wast o Scotland.

Spellin variants include Mackeswal, Makiswel, Makiswell, Makkiswell, Miskill, Maxwaile, Maxwale, Maxweel, Maxwell, Maxuel, Maxvall, Maxvile, an Mescall. Septs include Adair, Blackstock, Dinwiddie, Dinwoddie, Dinwoodie, Dunwoodie, Edgar, Egarr, Halldykes, Herries, Kirk, Kirkdale, Kirkhaugh, Kirkland, Kirko, Latimer, Latimore, Macetterick, Macettrick, Macgetrick, Macgettrich, Macgettrick, Macghittich, Machethrick, Macittrick, Mackethrick, Macketterick, Mackitterick, Mackittrick, Macsata, Macsetree, Maxey, Maxon, Maxton, Monreith, Moss, Nithdale, Paulk, Peacock, Poak, Pogue, Poke, Polk, Pollock, Pollok, Sturgeon, an Wardlaw.

Wars o Scots Unthirldom

Sir Herbert Maxwell wan great fame bi defendin his Caerlaverock Castle against King Edward I o England in 1300. During the Wars o Scots Independence the Clan Maxwell supported King Robert the Bruce an focht at his side at the Battle o Bannockburn in 1314, unner the clan chief o Eustace Maxwell. Herbert, the succeeding clan chief wis knightit bi King James I o Scotland for his services tae the crown. Anither Sir Herbert Maxwell wis made a lord o the Scots parliament afore 1445.

16t-century Anglo-Scots wars an clan conflicts

His great-grandson John, 4t Lord Maxwell, wis killed at the Battle o Flodden Field fightin against the Inglis in 1513 during the Anglo-Scots Wars. The fift Lord Maxwell intrigued wi King Henry VII o Ingland, awtho bi 1542 King James V o Scotland haed appyntit him warden o the marches an an Extraordinary Lord o Session an maist importantly Regent o Arran the lairgest island in the Firth o Clyde. Maxwell wis captured bi the Inglis at the Battle o Solway Moss in the same year.

The Clan Maxwell focht on the side o Mary, Queen o Scots at the Battle o Langside in 1568.

Robert's great-grandson John, 7t Lord Maxwell (1553-1593), wis the son o Robert, 6t Lord Maxwell (d. 1554), who wis son o the 5t Earl an his wife Beatrix, dochter o James Douglas, 3rd Earl o Morton. Efter the execution o the regent James Douglas, 4t Earl o Morton, in 1581 this earldom wis bestowed upon Maxwell, but in 1586 the attainder o the late earl wis reversed an he wis deprived o his new title. He haed helped in 1585 tae drive the ryal favorite James Stewart, Earl o Arran, frae pouer, an he made active preparations tae assist the invadin Spaniards in 1588.

Thare haed been a lang runnin feud atween Clan Maxwell an the Clan Johnstone. The feud came tae a heid on 7 December 1593 at the Battle o Dryfe Sands near Lockerbie. The Clan Maxwell airmy approached the Johnstone toun o Lockerbie. Johnston kept maist o his men hidden, juist sendin a handful o men oot on horseback tae taunt an provoke the Maxwells. The Johnstones attacked, takin the Maxwells bi surprise as thay wur attemptin tae ford the river Annan. The Clan Maxwell fared badly that day. In aw, it is said that up tae 700 Maxwells wur killed, but this mey be an exaggerated nummer. Mony wur woundit bi dounward swuird strokes kent as "Lockerbie Licks." An thair chief, Lord Maxwell, who wis ane o the maist pouerful fowk in soothren Scotland, wus slain in cauld bluid bi the Johnstones when he asked for mercy an offered tae surrender. Awtho Sir Johnstone escaped punishment frae the King for his actions, he did no escape the unforgivin haund o the next Lord Maxwell, son o the chief who wis killed at Dryfe Sands. In 1608, Lord Maxwell shot Sir Johnstone in the back durin a meetin held "unner trust," which rendered him an ootlaw. Lord Maxwell wis later captured an executit bi hangin.

The Maxwells wur an aa at feud wi the pouerful Clan Douglas ower the Earldom o Morton, which he regardit as his inheritance. Efter a life o exceptional an continuous lawlessness he escaped frae Scotland an in his absence wis sentenced tae daith for the murder o Lord Johnstone; haein returned tae his native kintra he wis seized an wis beheadit in Edinburgh.

17t Century & Ceevil War

In 1618 John's brither an heir Robert (d. 1646) wis restored tae the lordship o Maxwell, an in 1620 wis creatit Earl o Nithsdale, surrenderin at this time his claim tae the earldom o Morton. He an his son Robert, afterwards the 2nt earl, focht unner James Graham, 1st Marquess o Montrose for King Charles I durin the Wars o the Three Kinricks. Robert dee'd athoot sons in October 1667, an his cousin John Maxwell, 7t Lord Herries (d. 1677), became third earl.

18t Century & Jacobite Uprisins

William, 5t Earl o Nithsdale (1676-1744), a grandson o the third earl, wis lik his ancestor a Roman Catholic an wis attached tae the cause o the exiled House o Stuart. In 1715 he jynt the Jacobites an wis taken preesoner at the Battle o Preston; he wis sentenced tae daith an impreesoned in the Touer o Lunnon. Housomeivver wi the assistance o his wife, he disguised himsel as a servin wumman. The couple fled tae Roum whaur the earl dee'd in 1744.

Castles

Caerlaverock Castle wis the seat o the chief o Clan Maxwell.
Threave Castle wis awned bi the Clan Maxwell atween 1526 an 1640.
Maxwell Castle wis biggit in 1545 but destroyed bi the Inglis in 1570.
Newark Castle, Port Glesga wis biggit bi the Clan Maxwell in the 15t century.
Haggs Castle wis awned bi the Maxwells frae 1585 tae 1972.
Pollok House, the seat o the Maxwell Baronets o Pollok, is nou o internaitional importance, as it hooses the warld-famous Burrell Collection in its grunds.

See also

Scots clan
Armigerous clan

External links

Clan Maxwell Worldwide Society
Clan Maxwell Society Canada
Clan Maxwell Society of the USA

Maxwell
Maxwell

Clan Maxwell


On 5 June 2017, Yacqub Khayre, a 29-year-old Somali-born Australian, murdered a receptionist and held a sex worker hostage at the Buckingham International Serviced Apartments, located in Brighton, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia. In a subsequent shoot-out with a police tactical unit, Khayre was killed and three police officers were wounded. Police consider the siege an act of terrorism.

Siege
On 5 June 2017, Yacqub Khayre made a telephone booking for a female escort through an escort agency to meet in an apartment at the Buckingham International Serviced Apartments. At 4:00pm, the 36-year-old escort arrived by taxi and attended at apartment 11 as arranged and was taken hostage by Khayre and held captive in the bathroom. Khayre was armed with two shotguns. At approx. 4:10pm, the escort managed to free herself and made a phone call to Victoria Police via 000. Shortly after, Khayre phoned police stating it was a hostage situation, no one was to attend apartment 11 otherwise the hostage would die, the receptionist was dead and that there was a bomb on the premises. In the foyer of the complex, Khayre fatally shot the receptionist, 36-year-old Kai Hao. Khayre around this time tampered with the GPS ankle monitor, which he was wearing as a condition of his parole.

At approx. 4:44pm, Khayre called police again making similar statements as the previous call. Specialist police were called in: the Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT) arrived first, followed by the Special Operations Group (SOG) who took over tactical command. At 5:04pm, police located the receptionist dead in the foyer. At 5:41pm, Khayre made a phone call to Seven News stating "This is for IS, this is for al-Qaeda".

At approx. 6:02pm, Khayre emerged from apartment 11 exiting the front of the complex. Yelling and running, he fired a Nikko sawed-off over-under shotgun twice at SOG officers, who exchanged fire and killed him. Three SOG officers were shot including one suffering a hand injury and another facial injuries. The hostage was freed in the apartment by police and had not been physically harmed during the ordeal.

Perpetrator
Born in Somalia, Khayre arrived in Australia at age 3 in 1991 as a refugee via a Kenyan refugee camp and grew up in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. Whilst at secondary school in Year 12 his grandfather died. He subsequently dropped out of school and began using drugs and alcohol, including ice to which he became addicted, and started committing criminal offences. The crimes including burglaries and thefts, assaults and an armed robbery with a knife.

In April 2009, he travelled back to Somalia, where he is alleged to have undertaken military training with the militant Islamist group Al-Shabaab, with a view to participating in Somali insurgency against that country's government. Whilst in Somalia, he successfully sought from a sheikh a fatwa, a religious order, that police alleged was to authorise a terrorist attack in Australia. After he returned to Australia in July 2009, he was charged, along with others, with conspiracy to commit a terrorist attack on the Holsworthy Army Barracks. At his trial, his lawyer argued that the fatwa was to do with fraud and obtaining money to support Al-Shabaab in Somalia. He was acquitted in December 2010 having spent 16 months in prison on remand.

He committed further criminal offences and in 2011 returned to prison including for possession of a firearm. In 2012, he committed a home invasion for which he was sentenced to five years imprisonment and was released on parole in December 2016 (he set two fires whilst in prison).

Investigation
The Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police Graham Ashton stated that police were treating the siege as a terrorist incident given the comments made by Khayre referring to ISIS and al-Qaeda and also given his past involvement with the Holsworthy Barracks terrorist plot. Ashton stated that police did not know if the crime was spontaneous or was planned, and if so, whether it was a deliberate attempt to lure police to the scene to ambush them. Detectives established that the unregistered shotgun used in the siege was illegally trafficked on 19 May 2017 for $2,000 to a middle man for Khayre.

Reactions
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull stated Australia faced "a growing threat from Islamist terrorism" and that he would push states to reform parole laws, questioning how a person with a history of violence was allowed on parole.

The ISIL propaganda outlet Amaq declared the gunman was a soldier of Islamic State and that the attack was to target citizens.

The Islamic Council of Victoria described it as a "horrendous crime" and stated they understand
"that the police are investigating this as a potential terrorist attack but note that the perpetrator himself appeared to be confused as to who he was acting on behalf, claiming allegiance to both ISIS and
al-Qaeda, known enemies."

On 16 June 2017, the Minister for Justice Michael Keenan announced that following recent events that a national firearms amnesty would commence on 1 July 2017 to hand in unregistered or unwanted firearms stating the national security environment had deteriorated with terror attacks using illegal guns including the shooting of Curtis Cheng in 2015 and the Lindt Cafe siege in 2014. The firearms amnesty is Australia's first national amnesty since 1996 following the Port Arthur massacre.

See also

 List of mass shootings in Australia
 2018 Melbourne stabbing attack

References

2010s in Melbourne
Hostage taking in Australia
June 2017 crimes in Oceania
June 2017 events in Australia
2017 murders in Australia
Terrorist incidents in Australia in the 2010s
Terrorist incidents in Oceania in 2017
Murder in Melbourne

2017 Brighton siege


A banjo is a stringed instrument common in folk and popular music.

Banjo may also refer to:

People

Nickname
 Terence Bannon (born 1967), Northern Ireland mountaineer and adventurer
 Bill Cornett (1890–c. 1959), American traditional folk singer, banjo player and politician
 Banjo Matthews (1932–1996), NASCAR driver, car owner and builder
 Barney McKenna (1939–2012), Irish musician and a founding member of The Dubliners, nicknamed "Banjo Barney"
 Banjo Paterson (1864–1941), Australian poet, journalist and author
 Ikey Robinson or Banjo Ikey (1904–1990), American banjoist and vocalist

Surname
 Ashley Banjo (born 1988), English street dancer, choreographer and actor
 Chris Banjo (born 1990), American National Football League player
 Jordan Banjo (born 1992), a British street dancer
 Kay Banjo (born 1992), American soccer player
 Tunji Banjo (fl. 1977–1982), Nigerian-Irish former footballer
 Victor Banjo (1930–1967), Nigerian Army colonel

Stage name
 Banjō Ginga, Japanese actor and voice actor Takashi Tanaka (born 1948)

Arts and entertainment

Films
 Banjo (1947 film), an American film directed by Richard Fleischer
 Banjo (2016 film), an Indian film
 the title character of Banjo the Woodpile Cat, a 1979 animated short

Music
 "Banjo" (song), by Rascal Flatts from the album Changed
 "The Banjo" (song), a 2014 single by Norwegian formation 3LOGY
 The Banjo (Gottschalk), an 1853 piano composition by Louis Moreau Gottschalk
 Banjo, of the Overflow, an 1892 poem by Australian poet Francis Kenna

Television
 "Banjo (Space Ghost Coast to Coast)", an episode of Space Ghost Coast to Coast

Fictional characters
 Haran Banjo, the main character in the 1978's Japanese anime series Daitarn 3
 Banjo, one of two protagonists in the Banjo-Kazooie video game series
 Mister Banjo, a recurring enemy of the Marvel Family
 Banjo Possum, a minor character in the Tiny Toon Adventures animated television series
 Dr. Banjo, a character from the Futurama episode "A Clockwork Origin"

Other uses
 Banjo (chocolate bar), a popular British chocolate bar during the 1970s
 Egg banjo, a type of fried egg sandwich
 Banjo (samba), a musical instrument
 Banjo (application), a surveillance app
 Banjo (signal), an obsolete railroad signalling device
 Banjo (wood lathe), a fixture on a wood-turning lathe
 Banjo enclosure, an archaeological feature
 Banjo Island, Bermuda
 Banjo Awards, presented by the National Book Council of Australia from 1974 to 1997 for both fiction and non-fiction
 Banjo ray, another name for the fiddler ray (Trygonorrhina)
 Battle of Banjo, a First World War battle in Africa
 Japanese gunboat Banjō, a warship of the early Imperial Japanese Navy
 A slang term for the Australian $10 note because one side has a picture of Banjo Paterson
 A dinosaur specimen of the genus Australovenator
 A typeface from French foundry Deberny & Peignot

See also
 Banjos banjos or banjofish, a species of fish

Nicknames

Banjo (disambiguation)


Roberto Battiti (born 1961) is an Italian computer scientist, Professor of computer science at the University of Trento, director of the LIONlab (Learning and Intelligent Optimization), and deputy director of the DISI Department (Information Engineering and Computer Science) and delegate for technology transfer.

Biography
Battiti received the Laurea degree in physics from the University of Trento in 1985, and the Ph.D. in Computation and Neural Systems from the California Institute of Technology in 1990 under supervision of Geoffrey C. Fox.

His main research interests are heuristic algorithms for problem-solving, in particular Reactive Search Optimization, which aims at embodying solvers with internal machine learning techniques, data mining and visualization.

Battiti was elected Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2009, in recognition of his "contributions to machine learning techniques for intelligent optimization and neural networks", is author of highly cited publications.

He wrote the books The LION way. Machine Learning plus Intelligent Optimization.   and Reactive Business Intelligence. From Data to Models to Insight. (with Mauro Brunato),
about integrating data mining, modeling, optimization and interactive visualization, into an end-to-end discovery and continuous innovation process powered by human and automated learning. His ideas form the basis of the Grapheur and LIONsolver software.

See also
Grapheur
LIONsolver
Reactive search optimization
Reactive business intelligence

Selected publications

Articles, a selection:

References

Fellow Members of the IEEE
Living people
Academic staff of the University of Trento
1961 births

Roberto Battiti


Batignolles () is a neighbourhood of Paris, part of its 17th arrondissement. The neighbourhood is bounded on the south by the Boulevard des Batignolles, on the east by the Avenue de Clichy, on the north by Rue Cardinet and on the west by the Rue de Rome.

History
Batignolles was an independent village outside Paris until 1860, when the emperor, Napoleon III, annexed it to the capital.

During the 19th century, Batignolles had an active cultural life, and it served as a base for the painter Édouard Manet and his friends, who became known as the Batignolles group.  They painted many scenes of its café life.

21st century

Batignolles is outside the center of Paris most visited by tourists, but attractions include the Batignolles Cemetery (which is actually located in the nearby Épinettes district), and the Square des Batignolles, a small park created in 1862.

It was intended that Batignolles would include the Olympic Village, had Paris hosted the 2012 Olympic Games. Former SNCF railyards were expected to be redeveloped as part of this process. It was intended that, after the Olympics (by 2015), the neighborhood would include 3,400 apartments, 30,000 square metres of shops, 140,000 square metres of office buildings and new public facilities (including a school and nursery). Moreover, major public buildings including the Palais de Justice court complex and the Police judiciaire building (previously located in the Île de la Cité), were expected to move to the new Cité judiciaire de Paris building, north of the garden.

The former railyards have instead been redeveloped into a new 4.3-hectare district, centered on the Parc Clichy-Batignolles – Martin-Luther-King.

Metro stations
Batignolles is:

It is served by lines 2, 13 and 14.

Education

The Szkoła Narodowa Polska w Paryżu (Polish school in Paris) is in the Batignolles area.

Notes

17th arrondissement of Paris
Districts of Paris
Former communes of Seine

Batignolles


Prayers for Bobby is a televised drama film that premiered on the Lifetime network on January 24, 2009. The film is based on the book of the same name by Leroy F. Aarons, which is itself based on the true story of the life and legacy of Bobby Griffith, a gay young man who killed himself in 1983 due to his mother's homophobia. Ryan Kelley stars as Bobby Griffith and Sigourney Weaver portrays his mother Mary.

The film was watched by more than 6 million viewers during its two-day initial run. It received positive reviews from critics and was nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards: Outstanding Television Movie and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for Weaver, who was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

Plot
Mary Griffith is a devout Christian who raises her four children—Ed, Bobby, Joy and Nancy—according to the evangelical teachings of her local Presbyterian church in the late 1970s and early 1980s in Walnut Creek, California.

Ed finds Bobby resisting temptations to overdose on Aspirin as an initial suicide attempt before Bobby confides to him that he is gay. Life changes for the entire family after Mary learns about his secret. In hopes of converting him, she takes him to a psychiatrist, who explains to Bobby's parents that a person's homosexuality is the result of lacking a close relationship with their parents. She then advises Bobby to pray harder and seek solace in Church activities, as well as to arrange a special bonding time with his father. While spending such quality time with his father, Bobby explains his desire to become a writer, to which his father suggests "some dreams are just not realistic."

Bobby's father and siblings slowly come to terms with his homosexuality, but Mary believes God can cure him. To get away from his family, Bobby visits his cousin Jeanette in Portland, Oregon; she has always been accepting of his sexual orientation and tries to help him realize that his mother will never change. Desperate for his mother's approval, he does what is asked of him, but through it all, the Church's disapproval of homosexuality and his mother's attempts to suppress his growing behaviors in public cause him to grow increasingly withdrawn and depressed.

Stricken with guilt, Bobby finds a boyfriend, David, at a gay bar. Nonetheless, before leaving the house with David, Mary informs Bobby that she "will not have a gay son." After Bobby finds David betraying him for another man, he continues to think of his mother's words of prejudice, i.e., when saying "homosexuality is a sin and (gays) are doomed to spend eternity in hell," as well as calling him "sick," "perverted," and "a danger to our children." Following his subsequent depression and self-loathing which intensifies, one night he free falls off of a bridge onto a highway and into the path of an oncoming eighteen-wheeler truck, which kills him instantly. The family receives the news the following day and are devastated.

Faced with their tragedy, Mary begins to question herself and her Church's interpretation of Scripture. Through her long and emotional journey, Mary slowly reaches out to the gay community and discovers unexpected support from them. She becomes acquainted with a local reverend of the Metropolitan Community Church, who convinces her to attend a meeting of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG). It is there that she recalls Bobby being different from conception and reassures herself that his true value was in his heart.

Mary then gives a speech in a Walnut Creek city council meeting supporting a local "gay day" live on television. She tells of her experiences with Bobby, the struggles she had coping with him coming out of the closet and her stubbornness to reevaluate her religious beliefs which were nothing more than "bigotry" and "dehumanizing slander." Mary also acknowledges how she came to realize that Bobby's sexual orientation was quite natural in God's image and his suicide was subsequently due to poor parenting. She concludes her speech by urging people to think before they say, voice, or support homophobia because "a child is listening". The measure is rejected, but Mary and her family travel to San Francisco with fellow PFLAG members and walk in a gay pride parade, during which she sees another young man just like Bobby observing the parade. She walks over and hugs him, finally coming to terms with her son's death and vowing to work hard for the rights of gays and lesbians.

Cast
 Sigourney Weaver as Mary Griffith
 Henry Czerny as Robert Griffith
 Ryan Kelley as Bobby Griffith
 Austin Nichols as Ed Griffith
 Dan Butler as the Rev. Whitsell
 Carly Schroeder as Joy Griffith
 Shannon Eagen as Nancy Griffith
 Scott Bailey as David
 Bryan Endress-Fox as Greg
 Rebecca Louise Miller as Jeanette
 Marshall McClean as Reverend Owens
 Mary Griffith as herself in the Pride Parade scene

Production
Executive producers David Permut, Daniel Sladek, and Chris Taaffe initiated and championed the project over a period of thirteen years. The film was directed by Russell Mulcahy. Screenwriter Katie Ford based the teleplay on the noted best-selling book Prayers for Bobby: A Mother's Coming to Terms with the Suicide of Her Gay Son by Leroy F. Aarons, a journalist who interviewed Mary Griffith about her experiences that led to the suicide of her son as well as her work advocating the rights of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender community. Griffith and Aarons are credited as co-producers on the film. Produced by Once Upon A Times Films, Ltd in association with Permut Presentations and Sladek Taaffe Productions, the other executive producer was Stanley M. Brooks. The final scene of the film features "Here I Am" by Leona Lewis.

Reception

Ratings
Prayers For Bobby received 3.8 million total viewers during the film's January 24, 2009 premiere on Lifetime, with 2.3 million total viewers subsequently during the January 25, 2009 airdate with a combined total of 6.1 million viewers.

Critical reaction
Critics responded positively to the film, which received approval from 73% of 15 critics and an average rating of 6.4/10 on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Critics' consensus on the website is "A devastating true story and terrific performance by Sigourney Weaver give Prayers for Bobby palpable power, although some viewers may find this well-intentioned film too calculating in its efforts to wring tears." Brian Lowry of Variety wrote "Sigourney Weaver's TV movie debut proves worth the wait, as Lifetime's fact-based Prayers for Bobby revisits ground similar to that broken nearly 25 years ago by the AIDS-themed "An Early Frost" and – thanks to enduring religious-based bigotry toward gays – still feels fresh and poignant."

Accolades
Sigourney Weaver was given the Trevor Life Award from The Trevor Project for her participation in the film. The award was presented by Anne Hathaway. In 2015, executive producers Daniel Sladek & Chris Taaffe were invited by the Vice President of the EU to the European Parliament in Brussels where they presented Prayers for Bobby to Members of Parliament on International Homophobia Day.

Home media
On December 7, 2010, Prayers for Bobby was released on DVD.

See also
 The Matthew Shepard Story

References

External links

2009 biographical drama films
2009 LGBT-related films
2009 in American television
2009 television films
2009 films
American biographical drama films
American LGBT-related films
Biographical television films
Drama films based on actual events
American drama television films
2000s English-language films
Films about dysfunctional families
Films about mother–son relationships
Films about suicide
Films based on biographies
Films directed by Russell Mulcahy
Films set in the 1970s
Films set in California
Films shot in Detroit
Gay-related films
LGBT-related drama films
Films about LGBT and Christianity
LGBT-related films based on actual events
Lifetime (TV network) films
Sexual orientation change efforts
2009 drama films
Biographical films about LGBT people
2000s American films

Prayers for Bobby


The Commercial Act of South Korea () is the law that controls commerce in South Korea. It was originally enacted on 1 January 1963. It currently consists of 5 main chapters: General Provisions, Commercial Transactions, Company, Insurance, and Maritime Commerce.

Amendments (changes) were made in 1963, 1984, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2008 and 2009. The biggest changes were made to comply with rules made by the International Monetary Fund. These changes were made during South Korea's foreign currency crisis in 1998. They were commentated to support corporate restructuring and improving accountability and transparency of management through efficient monitoring.

The concept of directors' fiduciary duty of loyalty was introduced into the statute in the Commercial Act and was imposed as a statutory obligation of directors of stock companies. The Commercial Act also newly included the concept of de facto directors liable for damages under certain circumstances.  This enabled the Commercial Act to enhance managerial accountability by holding "owners", who do not hold any official corporate directorship, liable for mis-management and misconduct. Additionally, through the introduction of the shareholder proposal rights, the status of minority shareholders improved, securing the opportunities of minority shareholders to propose certain issues to the board of directors and the general shareholders' meeting.

More reading

 Hwa-Jin Kim (1999) "Living with the IMF: a New Approach to Corporate Governance and Regulation of Financial Institutions in Korea", 17 Berkeley Journal International Law.
 The Korean Commerce Code (상법/商法): § 382-3, 401-2, 363-2

Economy of South Korea
Commerce
Legislation
History of South Korea

Commercial Act of South Korea


In biology, cell theory is a scientific theory first formulated in the mid-nineteenth century, that organisms are made up of cells, that they are the basic structural/organizational unit of all organisms, and that all cells come from pre-existing cells. Cells are the basic unit of structure in all organisms and also the basic unit of reproduction.

The theory was once universally accepted, but now some biologists consider non-cellular entities such as viruses living organisms, and thus disagree with the first tenet. As of 2021: "expert opinion remains divided roughly a third each between yes, no and don't know". As there is no universally accepted definition of life, discussion still continues.

History

With continual improvements made to microscopes over time, magnification technology became advanced enough to discover cells. This discovery is largely attributed to Robert Hooke, and began the scientific study of cells, known as cell biology. When observing a piece of cork under the scope, he was able to see pores. This was shocking at the time as it was believed no one else had seen these. To further support his theory, Matthias Schleiden and Theodor Schwann both also studied cells of both animal and plants. What they discovered were significant differences between the two types of cells. This put forth the idea that cells were not only fundamental to plants, but animals as well.

Microscopes

The discovery of the cell was made possible through the invention of the microscope. In the first century BC, Romans were able to make glass. They discovered that objects appeared to be larger under the glass. The expanded use of lenses in eyeglasses in the 13th century probably led to wider spread use of simple microscopes (magnifying glasses) with limited magnification. Compound microscopes, which combine an objective lens with an eyepiece to view a real image achieving much higher magnification, first appeared in Europe around 1620. In 1665, Robert Hooke used a microscope about six inches long with two convex lenses inside and examined specimens under reflected light for the observations in his book Micrographia. Hooke also used a simpler microscope with a single lens for examining specimens with directly transmitted light, because this allowed for a clearer image.

An extensive microscopic study was done by Anton van Leeuwenhoek, a draper who took the interest in microscopes after seeing one while on an apprenticeship in Amsterdam in 1648. At some point in his life before 1668, he was able to learn how to grind lenses. This eventually led to Leeuwenhoek making his own unique microscope. He made one with a single lens. He was able to use a single lens that was a small glass sphere but allowed for a magnification of 270x. This was a large progression since the magnification before was only a maximum of 50x. After Leeuwenhoek, there was not much progress in microscope technology until the 1850s, two hundred years later. Carl Zeiss, a German engineer who manufactured microscopes, began to make changes to the lenses used. But the optical quality did not improve until the 1880s when he hired Otto Schott and eventually Ernst Abbe.

Optical microscopes can focus on objects the size of a wavelength or larger, giving restrictions still to advancement in discoveries with objects smaller than the wavelengths of visible light. The development of the electron microscope in the 1920s made it possible to view objects that are smaller than optical wavelengths, once again opening up new possibilities in science.

Discovery of cells

The cell was first discovered by Robert Hooke in 1665, which can be found to be described in his book Micrographia. In this book, he gave 60 observations in detail of various objects under a coarse, compound microscope. One observation was from very thin slices of bottle cork. Hooke discovered a multitude of tiny pores that he named "cells". This came from the Latin word Cella, meaning 'a small room' like monks lived in, and also Cellulae, which meant the six-sided cell of a honeycomb. However, Hooke did not know their real structure or function. What Hooke had thought were cells, were actually empty cell walls of plant tissues. With microscopes during this time having a low magnification, Hooke was unable to see that there were other internal components to the cells he was observing. Therefore, he did not think the "cellulae" were alive. His cell observations gave no indication of the nucleus and other organelles found in most living cells. In Micrographia, Hooke also observed mould, bluish in color, found on leather. After studying it under his microscope, he was unable to observe "seeds" that would have indicated how the mould was multiplying in quantity. This led to Hooke suggesting that spontaneous generation, from either natural or artificial heat, was the cause. Since this was an old Aristotelian theory still accepted at the time, others did not reject it and was not disproved until Leeuwenhoek later discovered that generation was achieved otherwise.

Anton van Leeuwenhoek is another scientist who saw these cells soon after Hooke did. He made use of a microscope containing improved lenses that could magnify objects 270-fold. Under these microscopes, Leeuwenhoek found motile objects. In a letter to The Royal Society on October 9, 1676, he states that motility is a quality of life therefore these were living organisms. Over time, he wrote many more papers which described many specific forms of microorganisms. Leeuwenhoek named these "animalcules," which included protozoa and other unicellular organisms, like bacteria. Though he did not have much formal education, he was able to identify the first accurate description of red blood cells and discovered bacteria after gaining interest in the sense of taste that resulted in Leeuwenhoek to observe the tongue of an ox, then leading him to study "pepper water" in 1676. He also found for the first time the sperm cells of animals and humans. Once discovering these types of cells, Leeuwenhoek saw that the fertilization process requires the sperm cell to enter the egg cell. This put an end to the previous theory of spontaneous generation. After reading letters by Leeuwenhoek, Hooke was the first to confirm his observations that were thought to be unlikely by other contemporaries.

Cells in animal tissues were observed later than those in plants because their tissues are fragile and difficult to study. Biologists believed that there was a fundamental unit to life, but until Henri Dutrochet were unclear what it was. Besides stating "the cell is the fundamental element of organization", Dutrochet claimed that cells were also a physiological unit.

In 1804, Karl Rudolphi and J. H. F. Link were awarded the prize for "solving the problem of the nature of cells", meaning they were the first to prove that cells had independent cell walls by the Königliche Societät der Wissenschaft (Royal Society of Science), Göttingen. Before, it had been thought that cells shared walls and the fluid passed between them this way.

Cell theory

Credit for developing cell theory is usually given to two scientists: Theodor Schwann and Matthias Jakob Schleiden. While Rudolf Virchow contributed to the theory, he is not as credited for his attributions toward it. In 1839, Schleiden suggested that every structural part of a plant was made up of cells or the result of cells. He also suggested that cells were made by a crystallization process either within other cells or from the outside. However, this was not an original idea of Schleiden. He claimed this theory as his own, though Barthelemy Dumortier had stated it years before him. This crystallization process is no longer accepted with modern cell theory. In 1839, Theodor Schwann states that along with plants, animals are composed of cells or the product of cells in their structures. This was a major advance in the field of biology since little was known about animal structure up to this point compared to plants. From these conclusions about plants and animals, two of the three tenets of cell theory were postulated.

1. All living organisms are composed of one or more cells
2. The cell is the most basic unit of life

Schleiden's theory of free cell formation through crystallization was refuted in the 1850s by Robert Remak, Rudolf Virchow, and Albert Kolliker. In 1855, Rudolf Virchow added the third tenet to cell theory. In Latin, this tenet states Omnis cellula e cellula. This translated to:

3. All cells arise only from pre-existing cells

However, the idea that all cells come from pre-existing cells had already been proposed by Robert Remak; it has been suggested that Virchow plagiarized Remak. Remak published observations in 1852 on cell division, claiming Schleiden and Schawnn were incorrect about generation schemes. He instead said that binary fission, which was first introduced by Dumortier, was how reproduction of new animal cells were made. Once this tenet was added, classical cell theory was complete.

Modern interpretation

The generally accepted parts of modern cell theory include:

 All known living things are made up of one or more cells
 All living cells arise from pre-existing cells by division.
 The cell is the fundamental unit of structure and function in all living organisms.
 The activity of an organism depends on the total activity of independent cells.
 Energy flow (metabolism and biochemistry) occurs within cells.
 Cells contain DNA which is found specifically in the chromosome and RNA found in the cell nucleus and cytoplasm.
 All cells are basically the same in chemical composition in organisms of similar species.

Opposing concepts

The cell was  first discovered by Robert Hooke in 1665 using a microscope. The first cell theory is credited to the work of Theodor Schwann and Matthias Jakob Schleiden in the 1830s. In this theory the internal contents of cells were called protoplasm and described as a jelly-like substance, sometimes called living jelly. At about the same time, colloidal chemistry began its development, and the concepts of bound water emerged. A colloid being something between a solution and a suspension, where Brownian motion is sufficient to prevent sedimentation.
The idea of a semipermeable membrane, a barrier that is permeable to solvent but impermeable to solute molecules was developed at about the same time. The term osmosis originated in 1827 and its importance to physiological phenomena realized, but it wasn't until 1877, when the botanist Pfeffer proposed the membrane theory of cell physiology. In this view, the cell was seen to be enclosed by a thin surface, the plasma membrane, and cell water and solutes such as a potassium ion existed in a physical state like that of a dilute solution. In 1889 Hamburger used hemolysis of erythrocytes to determine the permeability of various solutes. By measuring the time required for the cells to swell past their elastic limit, the rate at which solutes entered the cells could be estimated by the accompanying change in cell volume. He also found that there was an apparent nonsolvent volume of about 50% in red blood cells and later showed that this includes water of hydration in addition to the protein and other nonsolvent components of the cells.

Membrane and bulk phase theories

Two opposing concepts developed within the context of studies on osmosis, permeability, and electrical properties of cells. The first held that these properties all belonged to the plasma membrane whereas the other predominant view was that the protoplasm was responsible for these properties. The membrane theory developed as a succession of ad-hoc additions and changes to the theory to overcome experimental hurdles. Overton (a distant cousin of Charles Darwin) first proposed the concept of a lipid (oil) plasma membrane in 1899. The major weakness of the lipid membrane was the lack of an explanation of the high permeability to water, so Nathansohn (1904) proposed the mosaic theory. In this view, the membrane is not a pure lipid layer, but a mosaic of areas with lipid and areas with semipermeable gel. Ruhland refined the mosaic theory to include pores to allow additional passage of small molecules. Since membranes are generally less permeable to anions, Leonor Michaelis concluded that ions are adsorbed to the walls of the pores, changing the permeability of the pores to ions by electrostatic repulsion. Michaelis demonstrated the membrane potential (1926) and proposed that it was related to the distribution of ions across the membrane.

Harvey and Danielli (1939) proposed a lipid bilayer membrane covered on each side with a layer of protein to account for measurements of surface tension. In 1941 Boyle and Conway showed that the membrane of frog muscle was permeable to both  and , but apparently not to , so the idea of electrical charges in the pores was unnecessary since a single critical pore size would explain the permeability to , , and  as well as the impermeability to , , and .
Over the same time period, it was shown (Procter and Wilson, 1916) that gels, which do not have a semipermeable membrane, would swell in dilute solutions.

Jacques Loeb (1920) also studied gelatin extensively, with and without a membrane, showing that more of the properties attributed to the plasma membrane could be duplicated in gels without a membrane. In particular, he found that an electrical potential difference between the gelatin and the outside medium could be developed, based on the  concentration. Some criticisms of the membrane theory developed in the 1930s, based on observations such as the ability of some cells to swell and increase their surface area by a factor of 1000. A lipid layer cannot stretch to that extent without becoming a patchwork (thereby losing its barrier properties). Such criticisms stimulated continued studies on protoplasm as the principal agent determining cell permeability properties.

In 1938, Fischer and Suer proposed that water in the protoplasm is not free but in a chemically combined form—the protoplasm represents a combination of protein, salt and water—and demonstrated the basic similarity between swelling in living tissues and the swelling of gelatin and fibrin gels. Dimitri Nasonov (1944) viewed proteins as the central components responsible for many properties of the cell, including electrical properties.
By the 1940s, the bulk phase theories were not as well developed as the membrane theories. In 1941, Brooks and Brooks published a monograph, "The Permeability of Living Cells", which rejects the bulk phase theories.

Steady-state membrane pump concept

With the development of radioactive tracers, it was shown that cells are not impermeable to . This was difficult to explain with the membrane barrier theory, so the sodium pump was proposed to continually remove  as it permeates cells. This drove the concept that cells are in a state of dynamic equilibrium, constantly using energy to maintain ion gradients. In 1935,  discovered ATP and its role as a source of energy for cells, so the concept of a metabolically-driven sodium pump was proposed.
The success of Hodgkin, Huxley, and Katz in the development of the membrane theory of cellular membrane potentials, with differential equations that modeled the phenomena correctly, provided further support for the membrane pump hypothesis.

The modern view of the plasma membrane is of a fluid lipid bilayer that has protein components embedded within it. The structure of the membrane is now known in great detail, including 3D models of many of the hundreds of different proteins that are bound to the membrane.
These major developments in cell physiology placed the membrane theory in a position of dominance and stimulated the imagination of most physiologists, who now apparently accept the theory as fact—there are, however, a few dissenters.

Reemergence of bulk phase theories

In 1956, Afanasy S. Troshin published a book, The Problems of Cell Permeability, in Russian, in which he showed that permeability was of secondary importance in determining the patterns of equilibrium between the cell and its environment. Troshin showed that cell water decreased in solutions of galactose or urea although these compounds did slowly permeate cells. Since the membrane theory requires an impermanent solute to sustain cell shrinkage, these experiments cast doubt on the theory. Others questioned whether the cell has enough energy to sustain the sodium/potassium pump. Such questions became even more urgent as dozens of new metabolic pumps were added as new chemical gradients were discovered.

In 1962, Gilbert Ling became the champion of the bulk phase theories and proposed his association-induction hypothesis of living cells.

See also

 Cell adhesion
 Cytoskeleton
 Cell biology
 Cellular differentiation
 Germ theory of disease
 Membrane models

References

Bibliography

External links

Cell biology
History of biology
Biology theories

Cell theory


Ruth Zavaleta Salgado (born August 27, 1966) is a Mexican politician. She was affiliated with the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) until November 2009  but changed and is currently part of the Ecologist Green Party of Mexico. She is a founding member of the PRD and the first female PRD politician to serve as President of the Chamber of Deputies 2007-2008.

Personal life and education
Zavaleta holds a bachelor's degree in sociology from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).

Political career
In 1989 Zavaleta was one of the founders of the PRD.  In 1997 Cuauhtemoc Cárdenas designated her as Secretary of Social Development in the government of the Mexican Federal District; she then served (1998–2000) as Secretary of Finance in the Mexican Federal District.

From 2000 to 2003 she served in the Legislative Assembly of the Mexican Federal District.   In 2003 she was elected borough mayor (Jefe Delegacional) of Venustiano Carranza.

In 2006 Zavaleta won a seat in the Chamber of Deputies of Mexico; hence she was serving during the LX Legislature of the Mexican Congress. In 2007 she was elected President of the Chamber of Deputies Directive Board for the second year of the LX Legislature (September 2007–August 2008).

References

External links

1966 births
Living people
Party of the Democratic Revolution politicians
Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Mexico)
Presidents of the Chamber of Deputies (Mexico)
Mayors of places in Mexico
Women members of the Chamber of Deputies (Mexico)
Mexican people of Basque descent
Women mayors of places in Mexico
Members of the Congress of Mexico City
21st-century Mexican politicians
21st-century Mexican women politicians
Women legislative speakers
20th-century Mexican politicians
20th-century Mexican women politicians
Deputies of the LX Legislature of Mexico

Ruth Zavaleta


Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated deposit is called an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of water. The depth at which soil pore spaces or fractures and voids in rock become completely saturated with water is called the water table. Groundwater is recharged from the surface; it may discharge from the surface naturally at springs and seeps, and can form oases or wetlands. Groundwater is also often withdrawn for agricultural, municipal, and industrial use by constructing and operating extraction wells. The study of the distribution and movement of groundwater is hydrogeology, also called groundwater hydrology.

Typically, groundwater is thought of as water flowing through shallow aquifers, but, in the technical sense, it can also contain soil moisture, permafrost (frozen soil), immobile water in very low permeability bedrock, and deep geothermal or oil formation water. Groundwater is hypothesized to provide lubrication that can possibly influence the movement of faults. It is likely that much of Earth's subsurface contains some water, which may be mixed with other fluids in some instances.

Groundwater is often cheaper, more convenient and less vulnerable to pollution than surface water. Therefore, it is commonly used for public water supplies. For example, groundwater provides the largest source of usable water storage in the United States, and California annually withdraws the largest amount of groundwater of all the states. Underground reservoirs contain far more water than the capacity of all surface reservoirs and lakes in the US, including the Great Lakes. Many municipal water supplies are derived solely from groundwater. Over 2 billion people rely on it as their primary water source worldwide.

Human use of groundwater causes environmental problems. For example, polluted groundwater is less visible and more difficult to clean up than pollution in rivers and lakes. Groundwater pollution most often results from improper disposal of wastes on land. Major sources include industrial and household chemicals and garbage landfills, excessive fertilizers and pesticides used in agriculture, industrial waste lagoons, tailings and process wastewater from mines, industrial fracking, oil field brine pits, leaking underground oil storage tanks and pipelines, sewage sludge and septic systems. Additionally, groundwater is susceptible to saltwater intrusion in coastal areas and can cause land subsidence when extracted unsustainably, leading to sinking cities (like Bangkok) and loss in elevation (such as the multiple meters lost in the Central Valley of California). These issues are made more complicated by sea level rise and other effects of climate change, particularly those on the water cycle. Earth's axial tilt has shifted 31 inches because of human groundwater pumping.

Definition
Groundwater is fresh water located in the subsurface pore space of soil and rocks. It is also water that is flowing within aquifers below the water table. Sometimes it is useful to make a distinction between groundwater that is closely associated with surface water, and deep groundwater in an aquifer (called "fossil water" if it infiltrated into the ground millennia ago).

Role in the water cycle

Groundwater can be thought of in the same terms as surface water: inputs, outputs and storage. The natural input to groundwater is seepage from surface water. The natural outputs from groundwater are springs and seepage to the oceans. Due to its slow rate of turnover, groundwater storage is generally much larger (in volume) compared to inputs than it is for surface water. This difference makes it easy for humans to use groundwater unsustainable for a long time without severe consequences. Nevertheless, over the long term the average rate of seepage above a groundwater source is the upper bound for average consumption of water from that source.

Groundwater is naturally replenished by surface water from precipitation, streams, and rivers when this recharge reaches the water table.

Groundwater can be a long-term 'reservoir' of the natural water cycle (with residence times from days to millennia), as opposed to short-term water reservoirs like the atmosphere and fresh surface water (which have residence times from minutes to years). Deep groundwater (which is quite distant from the surface recharge) can take a very long time to complete its natural cycle.

The Great Artesian Basin in central and eastern Australia is one of the largest confined aquifer systems in the world, extending for almost 2 million km2. By analysing the trace elements in water sourced from deep underground, hydrogeologists have been able to determine that water extracted from these aquifers can be more than 1 million years old.

By comparing the age of groundwater obtained from different parts of the Great Artesian Basin, hydrogeologists have found it increases in age across the basin. Where water recharges the aquifers along the Eastern Divide, ages are young. As groundwater flows westward across the continent, it increases in age, with the oldest groundwater occurring in the western parts. This means that in order to have travelled almost 1000 km from the source of recharge in 1 million years, the groundwater flowing through the Great Artesian Basin travels at an average rate of about 1 metre per year.

Groundwater recharge

Location in aquifers

Characteristics

Temperature

The high specific heat capacity of water and the insulating effect of soil and rock can mitigate the effects of climate and maintain groundwater at a relatively steady temperature. In some places where groundwater temperatures are maintained by this effect at about 10 °C (50 °F), groundwater can be used for controlling the temperature inside structures at the surface. For example, during hot weather relatively cool groundwater can be pumped through radiators in a home and then returned to the ground in another well. During cold seasons, because it is relatively warm, the water can be used in the same way as a source of heat for heat pumps that is much more efficient than using air.

Availability
Groundwater makes up about thirty percent of the world's fresh water supply, which is about 0.76% of the entire world's water, including oceans and permanent ice. About 99% of the world's liquid fresh water is groundwater. Global groundwater storage is roughly equal to the total amount of freshwater stored in the snow and ice pack, including the north and south poles. This makes it an important resource that can act as a natural storage that can buffer against shortages of surface water, as in during times of drought.

The volume of groundwater in an aquifer can be estimated by measuring water levels in local wells and by examining geologic records from well-drilling to determine the extent, depth and thickness of water-bearing sediments and rocks. Before an investment is made in production wells, test wells may be drilled to measure the depths at which water is encountered and collect samples of soils, rock and water for laboratory analyses. Pumping tests can be performed in test wells to determine flow characteristics of the aquifer.

The characteristics of aquifers vary with the geology and structure of the substrate and topography in which they occur. In general, the more productive aquifers occur in sedimentary geologic formations. By comparison, weathered and fractured crystalline rocks yield smaller quantities of groundwater in many environments. Unconsolidated to poorly cemented alluvial materials that have accumulated as valley-filling sediments in major river valleys and geologically subsiding structural basins are included among the most productive sources of groundwater.

Fluid flows can be altered in different lithological settings by brittle deformation of rocks in fault zones; the mechanisms by which this occurs are the subject of fault zone hydrogeology.

Uses by humans
Reliance on groundwater will only increase, mainly due to growing water demand by all sectors combined with increasing variation in rainfall patterns.

Quantities
Groundwater is the most accessed source of freshwater around the world, including as drinking water, irrigation, and manufacturing. Groundwater accounts for about half of the world's drinking water, 40% of its irrigation water, and a third of water for industrial purposes.

Another estimate stated that globally groundwater accounts for about one third of all water withdrawals, and surface water for the other two thirds. Groundwater provides drinking water to at least 50% of the global population. About 2.5 billion people depend solely on groundwater resources to satisfy their basic daily water needs.

A similar estimate was published in 2021 which stated that "groundwater is estimated to supply between a quarter and a third of the world's annual freshwater withdrawals to meet agricultural, industrial and domestic demands."

Global freshwater withdrawal was probably around 600 km³ per year in 1900 and increased to 3,880 km³ per year in 2017. The rate of increase was especially high (around 3% per year) during the period 1950–1980, partly due to a higher population growth rate, and partly to rapidly increasing groundwater development, particularly for irrigation. The rate of increase is (as per 2022) approximately 1% per year, in tune with the current population growth rate.

Global groundwater depletion has been calculated to be between 100 and 300 km3 per year. This depletion is mainly caused by "expansion of irrigated agriculture in drylands".

The Asia-Pacific region is the largest groundwater abstractor in the world, containing seven out of the ten countries that extract most groundwater (Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Pakistan and Turkey). These countries alone account for roughly 60% of the world's total groundwater withdrawal.

Drinking water quality aspects

Groundwater may or may not be a safe water source. In fact, there is considerable uncertainty with groundwater in different hydrogeologic contexts: the widespread presence of contaminants such as arsenic, fluoride and salinity can reduce the suitability of groundwater as a drinking water source. Arsenic and fluoride have been considered as priority contaminants at a global level, although priority chemicals will vary by country.

There is a lot of heterogeneity of hydrogeologic properties. For this reason, salinity of groundwater is often highly variable over space. This contributes to highly variable groundwater security risks even within a specific region. Salinity in groundwater makes the water unpalatable and unusable and often occurs in coastal areas, for example in Bangladesh and East and West Africa.

Water supply for municipal and industrial uses

Municipal and industrial water supplies are provided through large wells. Multiple wells for one water supply source are termed "wellfields", which may withdraw water from confined or unconfined aquifers. Using groundwater from deep, confined aquifers provides more protection from surface water contamination. Some wells, termed "collector wells", are specifically designed to induce infiltration of surface (usually river) water.

Aquifers that provide sustainable fresh groundwater to urban areas and for agricultural irrigation are typically close to the ground surface (within a couple of hundred metres) and have some recharge by fresh water. This recharge is typically from rivers or meteoric water (precipitation) that percolates into the aquifer through overlying unsaturated materials.

Irrigation

In general, the irrigation of 20% of farming land (with various types of water sources) accounts for the production of 40% of food production. Irrigation techniques across the globe includes canals redirecting surface water, groundwater pumping, and diverting water from dams. Aquifers are critically important in agriculture. Deep aquifers in arid areas have long been water sources for irrigation. A majority of extracted groundwater, 70%, is used for agricultural purposes.

In India, 65% of the irrigation is from groundwater and about 90% of extracted groundwater is used for irrigation.

Occasionally, sedimentary or "fossil" aquifers are used to provide irrigation and drinking water to urban areas. In Libya, for example, Muammar Gaddafi's Great Manmade River project has pumped large amounts of groundwater from aquifers beneath the Sahara to populous areas near the coast. Though this has saved Libya money over the alternative, desalination, the aquifers are likely to run dry in 60 to 100 years. Aquifer depletion has been cited as one of the causes of the food price rises of 2011.

In developing countries

Challenges
First, flood mitigation schemes, intended to protect infrastructure built on floodplains, have had the unintended consequence of reducing aquifer recharge associated with natural flooding. Second, prolonged depletion of groundwater in extensive aquifers can result in land subsidence, with associated infrastructure damageas well as, third, saline intrusion. Fourth, draining acid sulphate soils, often found in low-lying coastal plains, can result in acidification and pollution of formerly freshwater and estuarine streams.

Overdraft

Groundwater is a highly useful and often abundant resource. Most land areas on Earth have some form of aquifer underlying them, sometimes at significant depths. In some cases, these aquifers are rapidly being depleted by the human population. Such over-use, over-abstraction or overdraft can cause major problems to human users and to the environment. The most evident problem (as far as human groundwater use is concerned) is a lowering of the water table beyond the reach of existing wells. As a consequence, wells must be drilled deeper to reach the groundwater; in some places (e.g., California, Texas, and India) the water table has dropped hundreds of feet because of extensive well pumping. The GRACE satellites have collected data that demonstrates 21 of Earth's 37 major aquifers are undergoing depletion. In the Punjab region of India, for example, groundwater levels have dropped 10 meters since 1979, and the rate of depletion is accelerating. A lowered water table may, in turn, cause other problems such as groundwater-related subsidence and saltwater intrusion.

Another cause for concern is that groundwater drawdown from over-allocated aquifers has the potential to cause severe damage to both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystemsin some cases very conspicuously but in others quite imperceptibly because of the extended period over which the damage occurs. The importance of groundwater to ecosystems is often overlooked, even by freshwater biologists and ecologists. Groundwaters sustain rivers, wetlands, and lakes, as well as subterranean ecosystems within karst or alluvial aquifers.

Not all ecosystems need groundwater, of course. Some terrestrial ecosystemsfor example, those of the open deserts and similar arid environmentsexist on irregular rainfall and the moisture it delivers to the soil, supplemented by moisture in the air. While there are other terrestrial ecosystems in more hospitable environments where groundwater plays no central role, groundwater is in fact fundamental to many of the world's major ecosystems. Water flows between groundwaters and surface waters. Most rivers, lakes, and wetlands are fed by, and (at other places or times) feed groundwater, to varying degrees. Groundwater feeds soil moisture through percolation, and many terrestrial vegetation communities depend directly on either groundwater or the percolated soil moisture above the aquifer for at least part of each year. Hyporheic zones (the mixing zone of streamwater and groundwater) and riparian zones are examples of ecotones largely or totally dependent on groundwater.

A 2021 study found that of ~39 million investigated groundwater wells 6-20% are at high risk of running dry if local groundwater levels decline by a few meters, oras with many areas and possibly more than half of major aquiferscontinue to decline.

Fresh-water aquifers, especially those with limited recharge by snow or rain, also known as meteoric water, can be over-exploited and depending on the local hydrogeology, may draw in non-potable water or saltwater intrusion from hydraulically connected aquifers or surface water bodies. This can be a serious problem, especially in coastal areas and other areas where aquifer pumping is excessive.

Subsidence

Subsidence occurs when too much water is pumped out from underground, deflating the space below the above-surface, and thus causing the ground to collapse. The result can look like craters on plots of land. This occurs because, in its natural equilibrium state, the hydraulic pressure of groundwater in the pore spaces of the aquifer and the aquitard supports some of the weight of the overlying sediments. When groundwater is removed from aquifers by excessive pumping, pore pressures in the aquifer drop and compression of the aquifer may occur. This compression may be partially recoverable if pressures rebound, but much of it is not. When the aquifer gets compressed, it may cause land subsidence, a drop in the ground surface.

In unconsolidated aquifers, groundwater is produced from pore spaces between particles of gravel, sand, and silt. If the aquifer is confined by low-permeability layers, the reduced water pressure in the sand and gravel causes slow drainage of water from the adjoining confining layers. If these confining layers are composed of compressible silt or clay, the loss of water to the aquifer reduces the water pressure in the confining layer, causing it to compress from the weight of overlying geologic materials. In severe cases, this compression can be observed on the ground surface as subsidence. Unfortunately, much of the subsidence from groundwater extraction is permanent (elastic rebound is small). Thus, the subsidence is not only permanent, but the compressed aquifer has a permanently reduced capacity to hold water.

The city of New Orleans, Louisiana is actually below sea level today, and its subsidence is partly caused by removal of groundwater from the various aquifer/aquitard systems beneath it. In the first half of the 20th century, the San Joaquin Valley experienced significant subsidence, in some places up to 8.5 metres (28 feet) due to groundwater removal. Cities on river deltas, including Venice in Italy, and Bangkok in Thailand, have experienced surface subsidence; Mexico City, built on a former lake bed, has experienced rates of subsidence of up to 40 cm (1'3") per year.

For coastal cities, subsidence can increase the risk of other environmental issues, such as sea level rise. For example, Bangkok is expected to have 5.138 million people exposed to coastal flooding by 2070 because of these combining factors.

Groundwater becoming saline due to evaporation
If the surface water source is also subject to substantial evaporation, a groundwater source may become saline. This situation can occur naturally under endorheic bodies of water, or artificially under irrigated farmland. In coastal areas, human use of a groundwater source may cause the direction of seepage to ocean to reverse which can also cause soil salinization.

As water moves through the landscape, it collects soluble salts, mainly sodium chloride. Where such water enters the atmosphere through evapotranspiration, these salts are left behind. In irrigation districts, poor drainage of soils and surface aquifers can result in water tables' coming to the surface in low-lying areas. Major land degradation problems of soil salinity and waterlogging result, combined with increasing levels of salt in surface waters. As a consequence, major damage has occurred to local economies and environments.

Aquifers in surface irrigated areas in semi-arid zones with reuse of the unavoidable irrigation water losses percolating down into the underground by supplemental irrigation from wells run the risk of salination.

Surface irrigation water normally contains salts in the order of  or more and the annual irrigation requirement is in the order of  or more so the annual import of salt is in the order of  or more.

Under the influence of continuous evaporation, the salt concentration of the aquifer water may increase continually and eventually cause an environmental problem.

For salinity control in such a case, annually an amount of drainage water is to be discharged from the aquifer by means of a subsurface drainage system and disposed of through a safe outlet. The drainage system may be horizontal (i.e. using pipes, tile drains or ditches) or vertical (drainage by wells). To estimate the drainage requirement, the use of a groundwater model with an agro-hydro-salinity component may be instrumental, e.g. SahysMod.

Seawater intrusion

Aquifers near the coast have a lens of freshwater near the surface and denser seawater under freshwater. Seawater penetrates the aquifer diffusing in from the ocean and is denser than freshwater. For porous (i.e., sandy) aquifers near the coast, the thickness of freshwater atop saltwater is about  for every  of freshwater head above sea level. This relationship is called the Ghyben-Herzberg equation. If too much groundwater is pumped near the coast, salt-water may intrude into freshwater aquifers causing contamination of potable freshwater supplies. Many coastal aquifers, such as the Biscayne Aquifer near Miami and the New Jersey Coastal Plain aquifer, have problems with saltwater intrusion as a result of overpumping and sea level rise.

Seawater intrusion is the flow or presence of seawater into coastal aquifers; it is a case of saltwater intrusion. It is a natural phenomenon but can also be caused or worsened by anthropogenic factors, such as sea level rise due to climate change. In the case of homogeneous aquifers, seawater intrusion forms a saline wedge below a transition zone to fresh groundwater, flowing seaward on the top. These changes can have other effects on the land above the groundwater. For example, coastal groundwater in California would rise in many aquifers, increasing risks of flooding and runoff challenges.

Sea level rise causes the mixing of sea water into the coastal groundwater, rendering it unusable once it amounts to more than 2-3% of the reservoir. Along an estimated 15% of the US coastline, the majority of local groundwater levels are already below the sea level.

Pollution

Climate change

The impacts of climate change on groundwater may be greatest through its indirect effects on irrigation water demand via increased evapotranspiration. There is an observed declined in groundwater storage in many parts of the world. This is due to more groundwater being used for irrigation activities in agriculture, particularly in drylands. Some of this increase in irrigation can be due to water scarcity issues made worse by effects of climate change on the water cycle. Direct redistribution of water by human activities amounting to ~24,000 km3 per year is about double the global groundwater recharge each year.

Climate change causes changes to the water cycle which in turn affect groundwater in several ways: There can be a decline in groundwater storage, and reduction in groundwater recharge and water quality deterioration due to extreme weather events. In the tropics intense precipitation and flooding events appear to lead to more groundwater recharge.

However, the exact impacts of climate change on groundwater are still under investigation. This is because scientific data derived from groundwater monitoring is still missing, such as changes in space and time, abstraction data and "numerical representations of groundwater recharge processes".

Effects of climate change could have different impacts on groundwater storage: The expected more intense (but fewer) major rainfall events could lead to increased groundwater recharge in many environments. But more intense drought periods could result in soil drying-out and compaction which would reduce infiltration to groundwater.

For the higher altitudes regions, the reduced duration and amount of snow may lead to reduced recharge of groundwater in spring. The impacts of receding alpine glaciers on groundwater systems are not well understood.

Global sea level rise due to climate change has induced seawater intrusion into coastal aquifers around the world, particularly in low-lying areas and small islands. However, groundwater abstraction is usually the main reason for seawater intrusion, rather than sea level rise (see in section on seawater intrusion). Seawater intrusion threatens coastal ecosystems and livelihood resilience. Bangladesh is a vulnerable country for this issue, and  mangrove forest of Sundarbans is a vulnerable ecosystem.

Groundwater pollution may also increase indirectly due to climate change: More frequent and intense storms can pollute groundwater by mobilizing contaminants, for example fertilizers, wastewater or human excreta from pit latrines. Droughts reduce river dilution capacities and groundwater levels, increasing the risk of groundwater contamination.

Aquifer systems that are vulnerable to climate change include the following examples (the first four are largely independent of human withdrawals, unlike examples 5 to 8 where the intensity of human groundwater withdrawals plays a key role in amplifying vulnerability to climate change):
 low-relief coastal and deltaic aquifer systems,
 aquifer systems in continental northern latitudes or alpine and polar regions
 aquifers in rapidly expanding low-income cities and large displaced and informal communities
 shallow alluvial aquifers underlying seasonal rivers in drylands,
 intensively pumped aquifer systems for groundwater-fed irrigation in drylands
 intensively pumped aquifers for dryland cities
 intensively pumped coastal aquifers
 low-storage/low-recharge aquifer systems in drylands

Climate change adaptation
Using more groundwater, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, is seen as a method for climate change adaptation in the case that climate change causes more intense or frequent droughts.

Groundwater-based adaptations to climate change exploit distributed groundwater storage and the capacity of aquifer systems to store seasonal or episodic water surpluses. They incur substantially lower evaporative losses than conventional infrastructure, such as surface dams. For example in tropical Africa, pumping water from groundwater storage can help to improve the climate resilience of water and food supplies.

Climate change mitigation
The development of geothermal energy, a sustainable energy source, plays an important role in reducing CO2 emissions and thus mitigating climate change. Groundwater is an agent in the storage, movement, and extraction of geothermal energy.

In pioneering nations, such as the Netherlands and Sweden, the ground/groundwater is increasingly seen as just one component (a seasonal source, sink or thermal 'buffer') in district heating and cooling networks.

Deep aquifers can also be used for carbon capture and sequestration, the process of storing carbon to curb accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Groundwater governance
Groundwater governance processes enable groundwater management, planning and policy implementation. It takes place at multiple scales and geographic levels, including regional and transboundary scales.

Groundwater management is action-oriented, focusing on practical implementation activities and day-to-day operations. Because groundwater is often perceived as a private resource (that is, closely connected to land ownership, and in some jurisdictions treated as privately owned), regulation and top–down governance and management are difficult. Governments need to fully assume their role as resource custodians in view of the common-good aspects of groundwater.

Domestic laws and regulations regulate access to groundwater as well as human activities that impact the quality of groundwater. Legal frameworks also need to include protection of discharge and recharge zones and of the area surrounding water supply wells, as well as sustainable yield norms and abstraction controls, and conjunctive use regulations. In some jurisdictions, groundwater is regulated in conjunction with surface water, including rivers.

By country
Groundwater is an important water resource for the supply of drinking water, especially in arid countries.

The Arab region is one of the most water-scarce in the world and groundwater is the most relied-upon water source in at least 11 of the 22 Arab states. Over-extraction of groundwater in many parts of the region has led to groundwater table declines, especially in highly populated and agricultural areas.

Iranians have pumped so much water that it is no longer any having water with Isfahan between Iranian cities being existentially critically threatened having 18 centimeter land subsidence rate. In 2023 Iran permitted private security to guard groundwater.

See also

 Hydrology

References

External links

 USGS Office of Groundwater
 IAH, International Association of Hydrogeologists
 The Groundwater Project Online platform for groundwater knowledge
 UGPRO 7-year research project on the "Potential of Groundwater for the Poor" (2013-2020)

Hydrology
Hydraulic engineering
Soil mechanics
Liquid water
Water and the environment
Water
Lithosphere
Subterranea (geography)

Groundwater