Disembowelment, evisceration or gutting is the removal of some or all of the organs of the gastrointestinal tract (bowels or viscera), usually through an incision made across the abdominal area. Evisceration is a routine operation during animal slaughter. In ancient Rome, disembowelment of animals was practiced for divination, and was known as haruspicy. Disembowelment of humans may result from an accident, but has also been used as a method of torture, execution, or suicide. In such practices, disembowelment may be accompanied by various forms of torture or the removal of other vital organs.

Dressing of animals

The removal of internal organs is a typical operation in meat processing also known as dressing. Land animals and birds are typically killed and bled before the dressing. The process of dressing includes the removal of heart, liver and lungs (pluck) as well as disembowelment by an abdominal cut. Disembowelment is typically accompanied by bung dropping or bunging. Bung dropping is the circumcision of the rectum from the carcass and is the first step of the gutting. Puncturing of bowels are avoided during the evisceration. Otherwise, bacteria from the intestinal contents might spread over the carcass. In case of birds, the abdominal cut extends up to the cloaca separating it from the rest of the skin.

Industrial dressing line
A bung dropper is a device used in slaughterhouses for fast bung dropping in a dressing line. The probe of a bung dropper is inserted into the rectum to loosen it from the carcass by circumcising with a sharp rotating cylinder. Belly opener is a device for performing the abdominal cut.

Mummification and embalming
Some types of animal mummification include evisceration. The process of embalming sometimes includes removing the internal organs. Mummification, especially as practiced by the ancient Egyptians, entailed the removal of internal organs prior to the preservation of the remainder of the body.  The removed organs were embalmed, stored in canopic jars and then placed in the tomb with the body.

James Cook, on his second voyage, noted an embalming custom on some of the Pacific islands his crew visited, a custom utilizing transanal evisceration:

Transanal evisceration of humans

When a portion of the intestinal tract is forcefully pulled from or expelled from the body through the anus, it is referred to as transanal evisceration. Following the first report of transanal evisceration by Brodie in 1827, more than 70 cases have been reported to date, the majority occurring spontaneously in elderly individuals. Straining, chronic constipation, and rectal ulcerations predispose to spontaneous perforation in elderly individuals.

Cases of transanal evisceration of children whilst sitting over uncovered swimming pool drains have been reported; notable cases include Valerie Lakey (1993) and Abigail Taylor (2007). In Taylor's case, the suction dislodged and damaged her liver and pancreas; several meters of her small intestine were forcefully pulled through her anus.  In both these cases, the victims were left with short bowel syndrome and required feeding by total parenteral nutrition. After multiple operations, Taylor later died from transplant-related cancer.

A person, usually a child, can suffer a similar injury if a heavy weight is applied directly over the abdomen. Large intestine (rectosigmoid) rupture with transanal evisceration has been reported from blunt abdominal trauma and suction injuries. A direct blow or impingement of intestine between the vertebrae and anterior abdominal wall results in sudden increase in the intra-abdominal or intraluminal pressure of the intestine and rupture. The downward pressure forces a portion of the intestine to burst from the anus.

Disembowelment of humans as torture

If a living person is disemboweled, it is invariably fatal without major medical intervention.  Historically, disembowelment has been used as a severe form of capital punishment.  If the intestinal tract alone is removed, death follows after several hours of gruesome pain. The victim will often be fully conscious while the torture is performed if the vital organs aren't damaged, and will be able to see their intestine being removed, but will eventually lose consciousness due to blood loss. However, in some forms of intentional disembowelment, decapitation or the removal of the heart and lungs would hasten the victim's death.

Asia

Vietnam
Various accounts have asserted that during the Vietnam War, members of the Viet Cong sometimes made calculated use of disembowelment as a means of psychological warfare, to coerce and intimidate rural peasants.  Peer De Silva, former head of the Saigon department of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), wrote that from as early as 1963, Viet Cong units were using disembowelment and other methods of mutilation as psychological warfare. The extent, however, to which this punishment was perpetrated may be impossible to gauge and while detailed accounts survive regarding how civilians were disemboweled by Viet Cong, the use of this torture appears to have been quite arbitrary and there is no record that such actions were sanctioned by the North Vietnamese government in Hanoi. Disembowelment and other methods of intimidation and torture were intended to frighten civilian peasants at a local level into cooperating with the Viet Cong or discourage them from cooperating with the South Vietnamese Army or its allies.

Europe

Romania
In early 1941, during the Bucharest pogrom in which 125 Jewish civilians were killed, multiple cases of torture including disembowelment were recorded.

Netherlands
On 10 July 1584, Balthasar Gérard shot and killed William of Orange, who had advocated for Dutch independence from the King of Spain. The assassin was interrogated and condemned to death almost immediately. On 14 July, after suffering various tortures during each of the five days since the assassination, Gérard was disemboweled and dismembered while still alive, after which his heart was torn out and then he was beheaded by his Dutch executioners.

Roman Empire

Christian tradition states that Erasmus of Formiae, also known as Saint Elmo, was finally executed by disembowelment in about A.D. 303, after he had suffered extreme forms of torture during the persecutions of Emperor Diocletian and Maximian.

England

In England, the punishment of being "hanged, drawn and quartered" was typically used for men convicted of high treason. This referred to the practice of dragging a man by a hurdle (similar to a fence) through the streets, removing him from the hurdle and (1) hanging him from the neck (but removing him before death), (2) drawing (i.e. disembowelling) him slowly on a wooden block by slitting open his abdomen, removing his entrails and his other organs (which were frequently thrown on a fire), and then decapitating him and (3) quartering, i.e. dividing the body into four pieces.  The man's head and quarters would often be parboiled and displayed as a warning to others. As part of the disembowelment, the man was also typically emasculated and his genitals and entrails would be burned.

William Harrington, Hugh le Despenser the Younger and William Parry are examples of men who were hanged, drawn and quartered – tortured on the rack, hanged until not quite dead, subjected to emasculation, disembowelment and then chopped into quarters.

Germany
From the 15th century, ordinances are retained that threaten with a terrible punishment those who stripped off the bark of a standing tree in the common woods. A typical wording is found in the 1401 ordinance from Oberursel:

Jacob Grimm observes that no case of the punishment being carried out has been found in records from that period (15th century), but 300 to 500 years earlier, the Western Slavic tribes like the Wends  are said to have revenged themselves upon Christians by binding the guts to an erect pole and driving them around until the person was fully eviscerated. In the 13th century, members of the now extinct Baltic ethnic group of Old Prussians in one of the battles against the Teutonic Knights, are said to have captured one such knight in 1248 and made him undergo this punishment.

Americas

Texcoco
Nezahualcoyotl, a 15th-century Acolhuan ruler of Texcoco, a member of the Aztec Triple Alliance (now Mexico), promulgated a law code that was partially preserved. Those who had engaged in the passive role of homosexual anal intercourse had their intestines pulled out, then their bodies were filled with ash, and finally, were burnt.  The active or penetrating partner was simply suffocated in a heap of ash.

Suicide

In Japan, disembowelment played a central part as a method of execution or the ritualized suicide of a samurai. In killing themselves by this method, they were deemed to be free from the dishonor resulting from their crimes. The most common form of disembowelment was referred to in Japanese as seppuku (or, colloquially, hara-kiri), literally "stomach cutting," involving two cuts across the abdomen, sometimes followed by pulling out one's own viscera.

The act of decapitation by a second (kaishaku-nin) was added to this ritual suicide in later times in order to shorten the suffering of the samurai or leader, an attempt at rendering the ritual more humane. Even later the knife was just a simple formality and the swordsman would decapitate before the subject could reach for it.  The commission of a crime or dishonorable act was only one of many reasons for the performance of seppuku; others included the atonement of cowardice, as a means of apology, or following the loss of a battle or the surrender of a castle.

The Japanese tradition of seppuku is a well known example of highly ritualized suicide, within a wider cultural world of norms and symbolism. However, reported examples of suicides exist, in which a person performed disembowelment on himself or herself, without any ambient culture of approved, or expected, suicide.

The Spartan king Cleomenes I  is reported, in a fit of madness, to have slit his stomach open, and ripped his own bowels out.

Roman statesman Cato the Younger committed suicide in Utica, after his side lost to Caesar, by plunging a knife in his own gut, in the dead of night. According to Plutarch, Cato's son heard the commotion from a nearby room, and called a doctor who stitched the wound close; after his son and the doctor left, Cato tore the stitching open with his hand and died. On account of his tragic, highly symbolic suicide, Cato is often termed Uticensis ("of Utica"), in order to differentiate him from his homonymous ancestor, Cato "the Elder" or "the Censor".

In 1593, a suicide occurred in Wimpfen. A young, pregnant woman, who had become a widow a few weeks before, was lying in her bed. She took a large knife, opened her belly in a cross, and threw out the fetus, her own intestines, and dug out her spleen and flung that out as well. She lived for 10 hours after the act, and when the priests sought to bring her a final consolation and blessing, she said it would all be in vain, because she was a daughter of the devil, and was beyond any sort of redemption. Then, she died, was put in a sack, and was thrown in the river. She was affluent, so it was clear that poverty had not driven her to this act.

In 1617, a merchant in the municipality Grossglockau slit up his abdomen so that the intestines fell out; he then pulled out his stomach and threw it on the bed. The chronicler notes he lived long enough to regret his action.

See also

 Blood eagle
 List of people hanged, drawn and quartered
 Seppuku

References

Execution methods
Torture
Slaughter methods
Suicide by sharp object

Disembowelment


Lay presidency is a form of celebrating the Lord's Supper (sometimes called the Eucharist) whereby the person presiding over the sacrament is not an ordained minister of religion. Similarly, when the celebrant is a deacon rather than a presbyter, the term diaconal presidency is used.

Use
Most independent Christian churches have a form of lay presidency as part of their communal worship. Mainstream denominations have been less inclined to allow lay people to preside over the sacrament, preferring to use ordained ministers or priests for this role.

Denominations which use lay presidency
In the United Methodist Church lay presidency is the norm. While many are ordained as presbyters (Elders) most clergy in the UMC are commissioned or licensed local pastors. These laypersons while called clergy in the Book of Discipline are nonetheless not ordained. These lay persons are only allowed to celebrate the sacraments in their appointments.

Theological considerations
One area of conflict for Evangelical Christians in mainline churches is that, while the sacrament is a symbolic preaching of the gospel, only authorized and ordained ministers may preside, whereas non-ordained people are not allowed to do this, despite being allowed to preach the gospel in some cases. This may be seen as elevating the importance of the sacrament over the preaching of the gospel - that the symbolic preaching is more important than the literal. Evangelical elements in some mainline churches, for example the Diocese of Sydney within the Anglican Church of Australia, are considering introducing lay presidency due to this.

North American Lutheran view
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada authorise lay and diaconal presidency in certain extraordinary circumstances, within a finite time period and location. In some Lutheran churches, seminarians will celebrate the Lord's Supper prior to their eventual ordination. This expresses official church teaching against the concepts of apostolic succession and the idea that ordination leaves an indelible character, without which sacraments would be invalid.

References

Eucharist
Ecclesiology

Lay presidency


MS  Svea Corona was a car-passenger ferry built in 1975 by Dubegion-Normandie S.A., Nantes, France for Rederi AB Svea, Sweden for Silja Line traffic. She was later rebuilt as a cruiseship and known under names MS Sundancer and MS Pegasus. She was scrapped in 1995 in Aliağa, Turkey.

History

1975–1984

MS Svea Corona was the first of the so-called "second generation French sisters" to be built for Silja Line traffic. The first generation French sisters, MS Aallotar and MS Svea Regina were delivered in 1972 and started year-round ferry traffic between Helsinki, the capital of Finland and Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. After just three years, three new ships of similar but larger construction replaced the first generation ships.  The new ships were the Svea Corona and her sisters MS Wellamo and MS Bore Star. These ships started a new era in Baltic Sea ferry traffic, being larger than any previous ferries to have sailed in those waters.

On 24 May 1975, the Svea Corona started service for the Silja Line. She damaged her bow thruster during the maiden voyage, and it was not repaired until 10 June of the same year during an extra docking at Vuosaaren telakka, Helsinki. With all three ships in operation, there wasn't enough passenger traffic on the route to support three ships through the entire year. As an initial solution, the Bore Star was chartered to Finnlines for winter seasons 1975-76 and 1976-77 while Svea Corona and Wellamo served the route as a two-ship operation. During the summer seasons, an unusual schedule allowing two daily departures from each port with three ships was adopted instead of the route's normal one daily departure per port arrangement. On 14 April 1977 there was a bomb threat on board the Svea Corona, but it turned out to be false.

After September 1977, the Svea Corona served on the Turku–Mariehamn–Stockholm route during the winter season (between September and May) and spent the summer months as a third ship on the Helsinki–Stockholm service. The arrangement lasted until 1981 when larger tonnage was delivered to the Helsinki–Stockholm route, and Svea Corona alongside her sister Bore Star (which had been renamed Silja Star the previous year after a change of ownership) transferred permanently to the Turku–Stockholm service. In 1978, Rederi AB Svea signed a memorandum of agreement to sell Svea Corona to DFDS on delivery of the new Helsinki–Stockholm ship, but this agreement was not exercised and DFDS acquired Effoa's Wellamo instead. On 24 November 1981, Johnson Line purchased Rederi AB Svea, owner of Svea Corona. As a result, the ship lost her original white/black funnel colours and gained Johnson Line's blue/yellow colours.

1984–1995

In February 1984 Svea Corona ceased service with Silja Line, and was sold to Sundance Cruises, a company owned by Effoa, Johnson Line and McDonald Enterprises. She was rebuilt at Oskarshamns Varv, Sweden as MS Sundancer for cruising on the west coast of North America. However, on what was just her third cruise as the Sundancer, The ship hit a rock on her starboard side on Maud island while trying to turn to starboard to enter Seymour Narrows. She entered Menzies Bay to try to run aground but decided to try to run south in Discovery passage to the Elk Falls Mill to try and come alongside the paper dock. The M/V Seymour Crown, a Tug based at the mill was called out and managed to reverse the starboard list to a port list against the dock and mill employees managed to remove all on board with no loss of life.

In August 1984 the Sundancer was refloated and towed into Burrard Shipyard, Vancouver, where she was examined and declared a constructive total loss. The ship was left laid up at the shipyard, awaiting potential buyers. In November 1984 she was sold to the Greece-based Epirotiki Line, and during December 1984 the ship was towed to Piraeus, Greece, where she was restored during the year 1985 as the cruise ship MS Pegasus. During early 1986 she was chartered to V.T.C. for cruising on the east coast of South America. Between May and September of the same year she returned to Vancouver, where she was laid up as a hotel ship. After the charter she was used by Epirotiki Lines on cruises on the Mediterranean and between 1989 and 1990 also on the Caribbean.

On June 2, 1991, a fire broke out onboard while the ship was in Venice, preparing to depart on a product exhibition cruise for Bosch. She partially sank in the shallow waters, and was declared a total constructive loss for the second time. In August of the same year she was towed to Piraeus where she was laid up for the next three years awaiting buyers. Finally in 1994 a buyer emerged. The Greece-based Strintzis Lines purchased the ship and renamed her Ionian Express, with intention to rebuild her as a car-passenger ferry for their Swansea Cork Ferries (although officially renamed Ionian Express, this name was never painted on her hull). A fire broke out in her engine room during the rebuilding at Perama, Greece, and for a third time the ship was declared a total constructive loss. No further buyers were found to restore the ill-fated ship, and she was towed to the scrapyard in Aliağa, Turkey, on 29 March 1995, and was subsequently broken up. Her engines were sold to Med Link Line and installed on their M/S Agios Andreas.

Facilities

Interior features of the Svea Corona (and her sisters) included a sauna and swimming pool, several restaurants, conference facilities for 140 people, a night club, movie theatre and a children's playroom.

References

Ferries of Finland
Ferries of Sweden
Cruise ships
Ships built in France
1974 ships

MS Svea Corona


All Saints Church is a redundant Anglican church in the village of Holdenby, Northamptonshire, England.  It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building, and is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.

History
The present church was largely built between 1330 and 1340 by Richard Holdenby, the lord of the manor.  It is not the first church on the site, because the presence of a rector is recorded in 1220, but there are no remains of an earlier church.  The nave, the aisles, and the lower part of the tower date from the 14th century.  During the 15th century the upper part of the tower was added, and the north aisle was altered and its roof was raised.  In the 1570s Sir Christopher Hatton, Lord Chancellor to Elizabeth I, built a new mansion and moved the dwellings of the village away from the vicinity of the church, leaving it isolated.  In 1843–44 the chancel was rebuilt to a design by Sir Henry Dryden of Canons Ashby House.  The church was restored in 1867–68 by Sir George Gilbert Scott.  This included adding new high-pitched roofs to the nave and the south aisle, renewal of the window tracery, the stained glass and the doors, and the addition of the south porch.  An organ chamber was added to the chancel in 1874.  In 1972, when the parish was united with that of East Haddon, All Saints was declared redundant, and it came under the care of the Redundant Churches Fund (now the Church Conservation Trust).

Architecture

Exterior
The church is constructed in lias ashlar stone with roofs tiled in a fish-scale pattern.  Its plan consists of a nave with north and south aisles, a chancel, and a west tower.  The tower is in  three stages, with a clasping buttress on the west and an angle buttress at its junction with the nave.  In the lowest stage is a two-light west window.  The top stage contains two-light bell openings on each side and it has a crenellated parapet.  On both the north and south sides of the chancel are lancet windows with buttresses between them, and the east window consists of a triple lancet with a lozenge-shaped window above it.  In the south wall of the south aisle there are two three-light windows, and similar windows are in the east and west ends.  The porch, which is gabled, stands between the windows on the south side.  Along the north side of the north aisle are three two-light windows and a doorway.

Interior
The nave arcades are in three bays supported by octagonal piers.  At the top of each pier is a corbel carved with a human head.  In the northeast corner of the south aisle is a tomb recess and a piscina.  The rood screen was originally in nearby Holdenby House, and was moved into the church in about 1700.  It is elaborately carved with images including lions, exotic plants, and gilded heads and suns.  The cross was added to the screen in 1867.  The wooden reredos behind the altar was also originally in Holdenby House.  The oak pulpit originated in the 18th century but was altered in the Victorian era.  The octagonal font originated in the medieval period and was also altered in Victorian times.  The church also contains a Victorian wheeled coffin bier, and a wooden alms box.  Above the south door hang the Royal arms of George I.  The choir stalls in the chancel date from the 15th century and were originally in Lincoln Cathedral.  There include misericords carved with a variety of images.

On the walls of the nave and aisles are seven painted panels with strapwork borders.  They contain text taken from the Bishops' Bible of 1568, and so are thought to date from the Elizabethan era.  Also on the walls are zinc panels from the Victorian period inscribed with the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments and the Creed.  The walls of the chancel are decorated with patterns and the images of two angels.  In one of the windows in the south aisle are fragments of 14th-century stained glass.  The rest of the stained glass is Victorian.  At the east end of the south aisle is an alabaster floor memorial to William Holdenby, who died in 1490, and his wife.  Also in the church are memorials to other residents of Holdenby House, including Henry Agar-Ellis, 3rd Viscount Clifden, and to members of the White family. The two-manual organ was built in about 1890 by Wordsworth and Maskell of Leeds.

See also
List of churches preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust in the English Midlands

References

External links

Holdenby House

Further reading

Grade II* listed churches in Northamptonshire
Church of England church buildings in Northamptonshire
14th-century church buildings in England
English Gothic architecture in Northamptonshire
Churches completed in 1844
19th-century Church of England church buildings
Gothic Revival architecture in Northamptonshire
Churches preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust
Former Church of England church buildings

All Saints Church, Holdenby


Benjamin Rush (April 19, 1813) was an American revolutionary, a Founding Father of the United States and signatory to the U.S. Declaration of Independence, and a civic leader in Philadelphia, where he was a physician, politician, social reformer, humanitarian, educator, and the founder of Dickinson College. Rush was a Pennsylvania delegate to the Continental Congress. He later described his efforts in support of the American Revolution, saying: "He aimed right."  He served as surgeon general of the Continental Army and became a professor of chemistry, medical theory, and clinical practice at the University of Pennsylvania.

Rush was a leader of the American Enlightenment and an enthusiastic supporter of the American Revolution. He was a leader in Pennsylvania's ratification of the U.S. Constitution in 1788. He was prominent in many reforms, especially in the areas of medicine and education. He opposed slavery, advocated free public schools, and sought improved, but patriarchal, education for women, and a more enlightened penal system. As a leading physician, Rush had a major impact on the emerging medical profession.

As an Enlightenment intellectual, Rush was committed to organizing all medical knowledge around explanatory theories, rather than relying on empirical methods. Rush argued that illness was the result of imbalances in the body's physical system and was caused by malfunctions in the brain. His approach prepared the way for later medical research, but Rush undertook none of it. He promoted public health by advocating clean environment and stressing the importance of personal and military hygiene. His study of mental disorder made him one of the founders of American psychiatry. In 1965, the American Psychiatric Association recognized Rush as the "father of American psychiatry".

Early life and career

Rush was born to John Rush and Susanna Hall on January 4, 1746 (December 24, 1745, O.S.). The family, of English descent, lived on a farm in the Township of Byberry in Philadelphia County, about 14 miles outside of Philadelphia (the township was incorporated into Philadelphia in 1854). Rush was the fourth of seven children. His father died in July 1751 at age 39, leaving his mother, who ran a country store, to care for the family. At age eight, Benjamin was sent to live with an aunt and uncle to receive an education. He and his older brother Jacob attended a school run by Reverend Samuel Finley, which later became West Nottingham Academy.

In 1760, after further studies at the College of New Jersey, which in 1895 became Princeton University, Rush graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree at age 14. From 1761 to 1766, Rush apprenticed under Dr. John Redman in Philadelphia. Redman encouraged him to further his studies at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, where Rush studied from 1766 to 1768 and earned an M. D. degree. Rush became fluent in French, Italian, and Spanish as a result of his studies and European tour. While at Edinburgh, he became a friend of the Earl of Leven and his family, including William Leslie.

Returning to the Colonies in 1769, Rush opened a medical practice in Philadelphia and became professor of chemistry at the College of Philadelphia (which in 1791 changed its name to its present name, University of Pennsylvania). After his election to the revived American Philosophical Society in 1768, Rush served as the society's curator from 1770 to 1773, as secretary from 1773 to 1773, and vice president from 1797 to 1801. Rush ultimately published the first American textbook on chemistry and several volumes on medical student education and wrote influential patriotic essays.

Revolutionary period

Rush was active in the Sons of Liberty and was elected to attend the provincial conference to send delegates to the Continental Congress. Thomas Paine consulted Rush when writing the profoundly influential pro-independence pamphlet Common Sense. Starting in 1776, Rush represented Pennsylvania and signed the Declaration of Independence.  He also represented Philadelphia at Pennsylvania's own Constitutional Convention.

In an 1811 letter to John Adams, Rush recounted in stark fashion the signing of the Declaration of Independence. He described it as a scene of "pensive and awful silence". Rush said the delegates were called up, one after another, and then filed forward somberly to subscribe to what each thought was their ensuing death warrant. He related that the "gloom of the morning" was briefly interrupted when the rotund Benjamin Harrison of Virginia said to a diminutive Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, at the signing table, "I shall have a great advantage over you, Mr. Gerry, when we are all hung for what we are now doing. From the size and weight of my body I shall die in a few minutes and be with the Angels, but from the lightness of your body you will dance in the air an hour or two before you are dead." According to Rush, Harrison's remark "procured a transient smile, but it was soon succeeded by the Solemnity with which the whole business was conducted."

While Rush was representing Pennsylvania in the Continental Congress (and serving on its medical committee), he also used his medical skills in the field. Rush accompanied the Philadelphia militia during the battles after which the British occupied Philadelphia and most of New Jersey. He was depicted serving in the Battle of Princeton in the painting The Death of General Mercer at the Battle of Princeton, January 3, 1777 by the American artist John Trumbull.

The Army Medical Service was in disarray, between the military casualties, extremely high losses from typhoid, yellow fever and other camp illnesses, political conflicts between Dr. John Morgan and Dr. William Shippen Jr., and inadequate supplies and guidance from the medical committee. Nonetheless, Rush accepted an appointment as surgeon-general of the middle department of the Continental Army. Rush's order "Directions for preserving the health of soldiers" became one of the foundations of preventive military medicine and was repeatedly republished, including as late as 1908. However, Rush's reporting of Shippen's misappropriation of food and wine supplies intended to comfort hospitalized soldiers, under-reporting of patient deaths, and failure to visit the hospitals under his command, ultimately led to Rush's resignation in 1778.

Controversy
Rush criticized General George Washington in two handwritten but unsigned letters while still serving under the surgeon general. One, to Virginia Governor Patrick Henry dated October 12, 1778, quotes General Thomas Conway saying that if not for God's grace the ongoing war would have been lost by Washington and his weak counselors. Henry forwarded the letter to Washington, despite Rush's request that the criticism be conveyed orally, and Washington recognized the handwriting. At the time, the supposed Conway Cabal was reportedly trying to replace Washington with Horatio Gates as commander-in-chief. Rush's letter relayed General John Sullivan's criticism that forces directly under Washington were undisciplined and mob-like, and contrasted Gates' army as "a well-regulated family". Ten days later, Rush wrote to John Adams relaying complaints inside Washington's army, including about "bad bread, no order, universal disgust" and praising Conway, who had been appointed to inspector general.

Shippen sought Rush's resignation and received it by the end of the month after Continental Congress delegate John Witherspoon, chairman of a committee to investigate Morgan's and Rush's charges of misappropriation and mismanagement against Shippen, told Rush his complaints would not produce reform. Rush later expressed regret for his gossip against Washington. In a letter to John Adams in 1812, Rush wrote, "He [Washington] was the highly favored instrument whose patriotism and name contributed greatly to the establishment of the independence of the United States." Rush also successfully pleaded with Washington's biographers Justice Bushrod Washington and Chief Justice John Marshall to delete his association with those stinging words.

In his 2005 book 1776, David McCullough quotes Rush, referring to George Washington:

Post-Revolution

Rush believed that, while America was free from British rule, the "American Revolution" had yet to finish. As expressed in his 1787 'Address to the People of the United States', "The American war is over: but this is far from being the case with the American revolution. On the contrary, nothing but the first act of the great drama is closed." In this address, he encouraged Americans to "come forward" and continue advancements on behalf of America.

In 1783, he was appointed to the staff of Pennsylvania Hospital, and he remained a member until his death. He was elected to the Pennsylvania convention which adopted the Federal constitution and was appointed treasurer of the United States Mint, serving from 1797 to 1813. He was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1788.

He became a professor of medical theory and clinical practice at the University of Pennsylvania in 1791, though the quality of his medicine was quite primitive even for the time: he advocated bloodletting for almost any illness, long after its practice had declined. While teaching at the University of Pennsylvania, one of his students was future president William Henry Harrison, who took a chemistry class from Rush.

He was also founder of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. In 1794, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. In the 1793 Philadelphia yellow fever epidemic, Rush treated patients with bleeding, calomel, and other early medicinal techniques that often were ineffective and actually brought many patients closer to their deathbeds. Rush's ideas on yellow fever treatments differed from those of many experienced French doctors, who came from the West Indies where there were yellow fever outbreaks every year. However, he also helped the population of the city by convincing Richard Allen to ask members of his African Methodist Episcopal Church and other free blacks, who tended to be less affected by yellow fever than other Philadelphians, to perform volunteer aid work for doctors and funeral homes.

Rush came down with yellow fever himself during the 1793 epidemic, although he recovered from it.

Rush took on several social causes during his lifetime. Rush became a social activist and an abolitionist and was a founding member of the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons (known today as the Pennsylvania Prison Society), which greatly influenced the construction of Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. He supported Thomas Jefferson for president in 1796 over the eventual winner, John Adams.

Corps of Discovery
In 1803, Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis to Philadelphia to prepare for the Lewis and Clark Expedition under the tutelage of Rush, who taught Lewis about frontier illnesses and the performance of bloodletting. Rush provided the corps with a medical kit that included:
 Turkish opium for nervousness
 emetics to induce vomiting
 medicinal wine
 fifty dozen of Dr. Rush's Bilious Pills, laxatives containing more than 50% mercury, which have since colloquially been referred to as "thunderclappers." Their meat-rich diet and lack of clean water during the expedition gave the men cause to use them frequently. Although their efficacy is questionable, their high mercury content provided an excellent tracer by which archaeologists have been able to track the corps' actual route to the Pacific.

Reforms

Anti-slavery
In 1766, when Rush set out for his studies in Edinburgh, he was outraged by the sight of 100 slave ships in Liverpool harbor.  As a prominent Presbyterian doctor and professor of chemistry in Philadelphia, he provided a bold and respected voice against the slave trade. He warmly praised the ministry of "Black Harry" Hosier, the freedman circuit rider who accompanied Bishop Francis Asbury during the establishment of the Methodist Church in America, but the highlight of his involvement was the pamphlet he wrote in 1773 entitled "An Address to the Inhabitants of the British Settlements in America, upon Slave-Keeping." In this first of his many attacks on the social evils of his day, he assailed the slave trade as well as the entire institution of slavery. Rush argued scientifically that Negroes were not by nature intellectually or morally inferior. Any apparent evidence to the contrary was only the perverted expression of slavery, which "is so foreign to the human mind, that the moral faculties, as well as those of the understanding are debased, and rendered torpid by it."

Anti-capital punishment
Rush deemed public punishments such as putting a person on display in stocks, common at the time, to be counterproductive. Instead, he proposed private confinement, labor, solitude, and religious instruction for criminals, and he opposed the death penalty. His outspoken opposition to capital punishment pushed the Pennsylvania legislature to abolish the death penalty for all crimes other than first-degree murder. He authored a 1792 treatise on punishing murder by death in which he made three principal arguments:
I. Every man possesses an absolute power over his own liberty and property, but not over his own life...
II. The punishment of murder by death, is contrary to reason, and to the order and happiness of society...
III. The punishment of murder by death, is contrary to divine revelation.

Rush led the state of Pennsylvania to establish the first state penitentiary, the Walnut Street Prison, in 1790. Rush campaigned for long-term imprisonment, the denial of liberty, as both the most humane but severe punishment. This 1792 treatise was preceded by comments on the efficacy of the death penalty that he self-references and which, evidently, appeared in the second volume of the American Museum.

Status of women
After the Revolution, Rush proposed a new model of education for elite women that included English language, vocal music, dancing, sciences, bookkeeping, history, and moral philosophy. He was instrumental to the founding of the Young Ladies' Academy of Philadelphia, the first chartered women's institution of higher education in Philadelphia.  Rush saw little need for training women in metaphysics, logic, mathematics, or advanced science; rather he wanted the emphasis on guiding women toward moral essays, poetry, history, and religious writings. This type of education for elite women grew dramatically during the post-revolutionary period, as women claimed a role in creating the Republic. And so, the ideal of Republican motherhood emerged, lauding women's responsibility of instructing the young in the obligations of patriotism, the blessings of liberty and the true meaning of Republicanism. He opposed coeducational classrooms and insisted on the need to instruct all youth in the Christian religion.

Medical contributions

Physical medicine

Rush was a leading proponent of heroic medicine. He firmly believed in such practices as bloodletting patients (a practice now known to be generally harmful, but at the time common practice), as well as purges using calomel and other toxic substances. In his report on the Philadelphia yellow fever epidemic of 1793, Rush wrote: "I have found bleeding to be useful, not only in cases where the pulse was full and quick but where it was slow and tense. I have bled twice in many and in one acute case four times, with the happiest effect. I consider intrepidity in the use of the lancet, at present, to be necessary, as it is in the use of mercury and jalap, in this insidious and ferocious disease." During that epidemic, Rush gained acclaim for remaining in town and treating sometimes 100 patients per day (some through freed black volunteers coordinated by Richard Allen), but many died. Even Rush acknowledged the failure of two treatments, sweats in vinegar-wrapped blankets accompanied by mercury rubs, and cold baths.

William Cobbett vociferously objected to Rush's extreme use of bloodletting, and even in Rush's day and location, many physicians had abandoned on scientific grounds this favorite remedy of Rush's former teachers Thomas Sydenham and Hermann Boerhaave. Cobbett accused Rush of killing more patients than he had saved. Rush ultimately sued Cobbett for libel, winning a judgment of $5,000 and $3,000 in court costs, which was only partially paid before Cobbett returned to England. Nonetheless, Rush's practice waned as he continued to advocate bloodletting and purges, much to the chagrin of his friend Thomas Jefferson. Some even blamed Rush's bleeding for hastening the death of Benjamin Franklin, as well as George Washington (although the only one of Washington's medics who opposed the bleeding was Rush's former student), and Rush insisted upon being bled himself shortly before his death (as he had during the yellow fever epidemic two decades earlier).

Rush also wrote the first case report on dengue fever (published in 1789 on a case from 1780). Perhaps his greatest contributions to physical medicine were his establishment of a public dispensary for low-income patients (Philadelphia Dispensary), and public works associated with draining and rerouting Dock Creek (eliminating mosquito breeding grounds, which greatly decreased typhus, typhoid and cholera outbreaks).

Another of Rush's medical views that now draws criticism is his analysis of race. In reviewing the case of Henry Moss, a slave who lost his dark skin color (probably through vitiligo), Rush characterized being black as a hereditary and curable skin disease. Rush wrote that the "disease, instead of inviting us [whites] to tyrannise over them [blacks], it should entitle them to a double portion of our humanity." He added that this "should teach white people the necessity of keeping up that prejudice against [miscegenation], as it would tend to infect posterity with … their disorder" and called for an "endeavour to discover a remedy for it."

Rush was interested in Native American health. He wanted to find out why Native Americans were susceptible to certain illnesses and whether they had higher mortality rates as compared to other people. Other questions that he raised were whether they dreamed more and if their hair turned gray as they got older. His fascination with these people came from his interest in the theory that social scientists can better study the history of their own civilization by studying cultures in earlier stages of development, "primitive men". In his autobiography, he writes "From a review of the three different species of settlers, it appears that there are certain regular stages which mark the progress from the savage to civilized life. The first settler is nearly related to an Indian in his manners. In the second, the Indian manners are more diluted. It is in the third species only that we behold civilization completed. It is to the third species of settlers only that it is proper to apply the term of farmers. While we record the voices of the first and second settlers, it is but just to mention their virtues likewise. Their mutual wants to produce mutual dependence; hence they are kind and friendly to each other. Their solitary situation makes visitors agreeable to them; hence they are hospitable to a stranger."

Mental health

Rush published one of the first descriptions and treatments for psychiatric disorders in American medicine, Medical Inquiries and Observations, Upon the Diseases of the Mind (1812). He undertook to classify different forms of mental illness and to theorize as to their causes and possible cures. Rush believed (incorrectly) that many mental illnesses were caused by disruptions of blood circulation or by sensory overload and treated them with devices meant to improve circulation to the brain such as a centrifugal spinning board, and inactivity/sensory deprivation via a restraining chair with a sensory-deprivation head enclosure ("tranquilizer chair").  After seeing mental patients in appalling conditions in Pennsylvania Hospital, Rush led a successful campaign in 1792 for the state to build a separate mental ward where the patients could be kept in more humane conditions.

Rush believed, as did so many physicians of the time, that bleeding and active purging with mercury(I) chloride (calomel) were the preferable medical treatments for insanity, a fact evidenced by his statement that, "It is sometimes difficult to prevail upon patients in this state of madness, or even to compel them, to take mercury in any of the ways in which it is usually administered.  In these cases I have succeeded, by sprinkling a few grains of calomel daily upon a piece of bread, and afterwards spreading over it, a thin covering of butter."  Rush followed the standard procedures of bleeding and treatment with mercury, he did believe that "coercion" and "restraint", the physical punishment, chains and dungeons, which were the practice of the time, were the answer as proven by his invention of the restraint chair and other devices. For this reason, some aspects of his approach could be seen as similar to Moral Therapy, which would soon rise to prominence in at least the wealthier institutions of Europe and the United States.

Rush is sometimes considered a pioneer of occupational therapy particularly as it pertains to the institutionalized. In Diseases of the Mind (1812), Rush wrote:

Furthermore, Rush was one of the first people to describe Savant Syndrome.  In 1789, he described the abilities of Thomas Fuller, an enslaved African who was a lightning calculator.  His observation would later be described in other individuals by notable scientists like John Langdon Down.

Rush pioneered the therapeutic approach to addiction. Prior to his work, drunkenness was viewed as being sinful and a matter of choice. Rush believed that the alcoholic loses control over himself and identified the properties of alcohol, rather than the alcoholic's choice, as the causal agent. He developed the conception of alcoholism as a form of medical disease and proposed that alcoholics should be weaned from their addiction via less potent substances.

Rush advocated for more humane mental institutions and perpetuated the idea that people with mental illness are people who have an illness, rather than inhuman animals. He is quoted to have said, "Terror acts powerfully upon the body, through the medium of the mind, and should be employed in the cure of madness."  He also championed the idea of "partial madness," or that people could have varying degrees of mental illness.

The American Psychiatric Association's seal bears an image of Rush's purported profile at its center. The outer ring of the seal contains the words "American Psychiatric Association 1844". The Association's history of the seal states:

Educational legacy
During his career, he educated over 3,000 medical students, and several of these established Rush Medical College in Chicago in his honor after his death. His students included Valentine Seaman, who mapped yellow fever mortality patterns in New York and introduced the smallpox vaccine to the United States in 1799. One of his last apprentices was Samuel A. Cartwright, later a Confederate States of America surgeon charged with improving sanitary conditions in the camps around Vicksburg, Mississippi, and Port Hudson, Louisiana. Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, formerly Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center, was named in his honor.

Religious views and vision

Rush advocated Christianity in public life and in education and sometimes compared himself to the prophet Jeremiah. Rush regularly attended Christ Church in Philadelphia and counted William White among his closest friends (and neighbors). Ever the controversialist, Rush became involved in internal disputes over the revised Book of Common Prayer and the splitting of the Episcopal Church from the Church of England. He dabbled with Presbyterianism, Methodism (which split from Anglicanism in those years), and Unitarianism. In a letter to John Adams, Rush describes his religious views as "a compound of the orthodoxy and heterodoxy of most of our Christian churches." Christian Universalists consider him one of their founders, although Rush stopped attending that church after the death of his friend, former Baptist pastor Elhanan Winchester, in 1797.

Rush fought for temperance and both public and Sunday schools. He helped found the Bible Society at Philadelphia (now known as the Pennsylvania Bible Society) and promoted the American Sunday School Union. When many public schools stopped using the Bible as a textbook, Rush proposed that the U.S. government require such use, as well as furnish an American Bible to every family at public expense. In 1806, Rush proposed inscribing "The Son of Man Came into the World, Not To Destroy Men's Lives, But To Save Them." above the doors of courthouses and other public buildings. Earlier, on July 16, 1776, Rush had complained to Patrick Henry about a provision in Virginia's constitution of 1776 which forbade clergymen from serving in the legislature.

Rush felt that the United States was the work of God: "I do not believe that the Constitution was the offspring of inspiration, but I am as perfectly satisfied that the Union of the United States in its form and adoption is as much the work of a Divine Providence as any of the miracles recorded in the Old and New Testament". In 1798, after the Constitution's adoption, Rush declared: "The only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in Religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments." One quote popularly assigned to Rush, however, which portrays him as a medical libertarian: "Unless we put medical freedoms into the Constitution, the time will come when medicine will organize into an undercover dictatorship [. . .] To restrict the art of healing to one class of men and deny equal privileges to others will constitute the Bastille of medical science. All such laws are un-American and despotic and have no place in a republic [. . .] The Constitution of this republic should make special privilege for medical freedom as well as religious freedom," is likely a misattribution. No primary source for it has been found, and the words "un-American" and "undercover" are anachronisms, as their usage as such did not appear until after Rush's death.

Before 1779, Rush's religious views were influenced by what he described as "Fletcher's controversy with the Calvinists in favor of the Universality of the atonement."  After hearing Elhanan Winchester preach, Rush indicated that this theology "embraced and reconciled my ancient calvinistical, and my newly adopted (Arminian) principles. From that time on I have never doubted upon the subject of the salvation of all men." To simplify, both believed in punishment after death for the wicked. His wife, Julia Rush, thought her husband like Martin Luther for his ardent passions, fearless attacks on old prejudices, and quick tongue against perceived enemies.

Rush helped Richard Allen found the African Methodist Episcopal Church. In his autobiography, Allen wrote:

Personal life

On January 11, 1776, Rush married Julia Stockton (1759–1848), daughter of Richard Stockton, another signer of the Declaration of Independence, and his wife Annis Boudinot Stockton. They had 13 children, 9 of whom survived their first year: John, Ann Emily, Richard, Susannah (died as an infant), Elizabeth Graeme (died as an infant), Mary B, James, William (died as an infant), Benjamin (died as an infant), Richard, Julia, Samuel, and William. Richard later became a member of the cabinets of James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk, and Zachary Taylor (at one point during each of their presidencies).

In 1812, Rush helped reconcile the friendship of Jefferson and Adams by encouraging the two former presidents to resume writing to each other. Once divided over politics and political rivalries, Jefferson and Adams grew close. On July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, Jefferson and Adams both died within hours of each other.

Death
After dying of typhus fever, he was buried (in Section N67) along with his wife Julia in the Christ Church Burial Ground in Philadelphia, not far from where Benjamin Franklin is buried. At the site, a small plaque honoring Benjamin Rush has been placed. However, the box marker is next to the plaque on the right, with inscriptions on the top. The inscription reads,

In memory of
Benjamin Rush MD
he died on the 19th of April
in the year of our Lord 1813
Aged 68 years
Well done good and faithful servant
enter thou into the joy of the Lord

Mrs Julia Rush
consort of
Benjamin Rush MD
Born March 2, 1759
Died July 7, 1848
For as in Adam, all die, even so in Christ
Shall all be made alive

Legacy
Benjamin Rush Elementary School in Redmond, Washington was named by its students for him. The Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush magnet high school in Philadelphia was established in 2008. Rush County, Indiana, is named for him as is its county seat, Rushville. Rush University Medical Center in Chicago is named after Rush. Benjamin Rush State Park in Philadelphia is named after Rush. The eponymous conservative Benjamin Rush Institute is an associate member of the State Policy Network.
Stockton Rush, the owner, operator and co-founder of OceanGate, was a direct descendent of Benjamin Rush.

Controversy regarding quotations
George Seldes includes in his widely recognized 1960 book The Great Quotations a quote by Rush: The book includes a detailed depiction of sources and methodologies used by Seldes to gather the quotes. However, Thomas Szasz in recent years has claimed to believe that to be is a false attribution and avoids mentioning Seldes's book: "Not a single author supplies a verifiable source for it. Hence, I believe this false attribution, depicting Rush as a medical libertarian, needs to be exposed as bogus."

Writings

  1989 reprint: Syracuse University Press,

 Rush, Benjamin (1812) Medical Inquiries And Observations Upon The Diseases Of The Mind, 2006 reprint: Kessinger Publishing, . Free digital copies of original published in 1812 at http://deila.dickinson.edu/theirownwords/title/0034. or https://web.archive.org/web/20121024024628/http://collections.nlm.nih.gov/muradora/objectView.action?pid=nlm%3Anlmuid-2569036R-bk

 The Spur of Fame: Dialogues of John Adams and Benjamin Rush, 1805–1813 (2001), Liberty Fund,

Archival collections
The Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has a collection of Benjamin Rush's original manuscripts.

See also

 List of abolitionist forerunners
 Memorial to the 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence

Notes

Further reading

 Unger, Harlow Giles.  Dr. Benjamin Rush: The Founding Father Who Healed a Wounded Nation (Da Capo Press, 2018).  320 pp. online review

External links

 Article and portrait at "Discovering Lewis & Clark"
 "Benjamin Rush: The Revolution's Doctor of Medicine and Universal Humanitarian" – excerpts from his writings
 "An oration, delivered before the American Philosophical Society, held in Philadelphia on the 27th of February, 1786; containing an enquiry into the influence of physical causes upon the moral faculty."

 Papers from the Historic Psychiatry Collection, Menninger Archives, Kansas Historical Society

Guide to the Benjamin Rush Lectures  at the University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center
Guide to Benjamin Rush, On the Influence of Physical Causes on the Moral Faculty 1786 at the University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center

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Antinatalism, or anti-natalism, is a philosophical stance and social movement that gives a negative value to starting life. Antinatalists argue that humans (and sometimes other sentient beings) should stop making kids because it is morally bad. People who believe that making kids is morally good are called natalists. The term antinatalism was likely used for the first time by Belgian author Théophile de Giraud in his book L'art de guillotiner les procréateurs: Manifeste anti-nataliste. South African philosopher David Benatar has also published books in support of antinatalism.

Arguments
Negative Utilitarianism is the idea that stopping pain is more important than making people happy. This makes it different from utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is the idea that people should do the most useful thing. The most useful thing in utilitarianism is making people happy. People who believe in negative utilitarianism idea say that making happiness is not needed. Since life has bad things, it is not worth starting. Some supporters of this idea argue that the worst pains in life do not make up for the best moments. This makes life not worth starting because it is too risky.

Realism can support antinatalism. This is because supporters of the idea have evidence showing that most people have an optimism bias. This means that they see the world as better than it actually is.

Religion can support antinatalism. This is because some religious sects (groups) believe creating life traps souls in a bad world. The Manichaeans, the Bogomils, and the Cathars are some of these groups that believe in the idea. Others include the Marcionites, and the Encratites.

Criticism
Natalists say that making kids is good because most people are happy.

Related pages
Abortion
Childfree
Emil Cioran
Misanthropy
Pessimism
Right to die
Ethics
Ecclesiastes (Chapter 4)

References

Biology
Ethics
Philosophical movements and positions

Antinatalism


The 2018 LG K10 is a mid-range Android phone developed and manufactured by LG Electronics and was announced on Mobile World Congress in February 2018, alongside the 2018 LG K8. The phone was released in April 2018. Notable changes compared to the predecessor include a redesigned form factor and some hardware upgrades. The model will be sold with three variants, namely the base LG K10, the low-end LG K10α (K10 Alpha) and the high-end LG K10+.

Features

Hardware
The 2018 model sports a metal design, compared to the predecessor. Similar to the previous model, it has the same processor and 720p screen.

The LG K10α has the downgraded camera, with 8 MP rear and 5 MP front cameras, compared to K10 and K10's 13 MP rear and 8 MP or 5 MP front camera. They can record 1080p at 30fps of video. The LG K10+'s storage and RAM was increased to 32 GB and 3 GB respectively, compared to LG K10 and K10α's 16 GB of storage and 2 GB RAM. They can be expandable of up to 400 GB of microSD card. The battery of 2018 models has upgraded to 3000 mAh, compared to the predecessor's 2800 mAh battery.

Price
It is 100 euros in Iran.

References

LG Electronics
Mobile phones introduced in 2018
LG Electronics smartphones
Discontinued smartphones

LG K10 (2018)


George T. Shaheen (born July 11, 1944) is an American businessman. He became chief executive at management consulting firm Andersen Consulting in 1989, and in 1999 became CEO of Webvan. Shaheen was CEO of Siebel Systems from 2005 until 2006.

Early life and education
George Shaheen was born in 1944 and grew up with his twin Gerald in Elmwood, Illinois. Shaheen is an American of Lebanese descent. At age 13 he worked at the family grocery shop in town. He holds a master's degree in finance from Bradley University, graduating in 1967 and going to work at Arthur Andersen.

Career

Andersen
He was sent by Arthur Andersen in 1977 in South Bend, Indiana and moved in 1986 to Silicon Valley. He became the chief at Andersen's consulting arm in 1989, and "oversaw the move to set up Andersen Consulting as a free-standing unit." He was chief executive at management consulting firm Andersen Consulting from 1989. At Andersen, as CEO "its revenue increased from $1.1 billion to $8.3 billion." He was CEO until 1999, before moving on to online grocer Webvan.  The move "shocked colleagues" at Andersen Consulting. After he left Andersen Consulting, it was renamed Accenture, and Shaheen missed out on the windfall of the Accenture initial public offering.

Webvan
He joined Webvan while it was "one of the largest start-ups during the Dot-com Bubble," with plans to deliver online grocery orders within 30 minutes. His Webvan employment agreement, signed September 19, 1999 was filed with the SEC. Under Shaheen, the company underwent an IPO in November 1999, raising $375 million with stocks soaring, and the company valued at $8.45 billion. Shares afterwards dropped sharply with the dotcom bubble. He resigned as CEO of WebVan in April 2001. His retirement pack included collecting $375,000 each year for the rest of his life from WebVan. Webvan declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2001. When the company filed bankruptcy, Shaheen became an unsecured creditor. In 2010, Business Insider named him one of the 15 Worst CEOs in American History, citing his involvement with Webvan.

Siebel Systems
Appointed on April 13, 2005, in 2005-2006, Shaheen was CEO of Siebel Systems, Inc. and served as CEO when it merged with Oracle in 2005, five months after his appointment as CEO. He had joined the Siebel Systems board in 1995, and he remained a director after becoming CEO. He did not stay on with Oracle after the merger.

In 2013, he was on the board of [24]7.

Cultural references
George Shaheen was the target of parody cartoon Bigtime Consulting, which parodied Andersen Consulting and had a very similar CEO character named George Unseen.

Personal life
In 1999, he lived in Silicon Valley. He has been married to Darlene Shaheen since 1984.

References

American technology chief executives
Bradley University alumni
American people of Lebanese descent
1944 births
Living people

George Shaheen


Supply chain diversification, within the context of manufacturing businesses, refers to the strategic approach of expanding sourcing options and optimizing procurement timing to facilitate the efficient flow of products into the market. It encompasses the breadth and adaptability of suppliers available for a particular product or component. However, the concept extends beyond mere supplier competition for favorable pricing, emphasizing the creation of a supple supply chain capable of responding adeptly to dynamic market conditions.

Supply chain diversification entails more than the mere presence of multiple suppliers; it necessitates that these suppliers offer comparable or interchangeable products while maintaining distinct competitive advantages that are situationally exclusive. For instance, consider two suppliers, Alpha and Beta, both providing identical sprockets. Alpha prices each sprocket at $1.00, ensuring delivery within 24 hours. Meanwhile, Beta offers the same sprocket for $0.25 but requires a two-week delivery period. The decision-making process hinges on a trade-off between cost and time considerations.

Ultimately, the goal of supply chain diversification is to strike a balance between sourcing options, risk mitigation, and operational agility. This approach enables businesses to navigate challenges while optimizing procurement strategies for enhanced performance in a dynamic marketplace.

In diversifying the supply chain for a product, it is also necessary to assist and educate the suppliers on what one expects from the suppliers and what one intends to do with the supplies. It becomes important to maintain an open line of communication with all the suppliers, and this in turn will increase the overhead necessary to maintain the managers/reps for each supplier. To minimize the overhead involved, method of developing a relationship with their suppliers such as RFPs and taking bids on jobs can be utilized.

When doing business with multiple companies, such is the case here, it may become necessary to standardize paperwork – such as RFQs, and purchase orders. As price fixing is illegal in countries such as the United States, traceable paper trail management becomes a legal obligation for companies seeking supply chain diversification.

In the International market, import and export regulations may become a hurdle for finding the right suppliers to diversify ones supply chain. This is especially true for US businesses after 9/11. The US customs department has enacted new regulations such as C-TPAT to encourage trade. The extra time and money spent on certifying a supplier for regulations like C-TPAT is another trade-off that management must consider when diversifying their supply chain.

Legacy suppliers
When diversifying your supply chain, the question arises, "What do we do with our old suppliers?"

Because supply chain diversification cannot occur overnight, the legacy supplier must be involved throughout the transition phase. In most cases, the legacy supplier will remain as the primary supplier even after diversification, as there is usually good reason that they became the original supplier.

The most common cases of the original suppliers being phased out after diversification is when supplies were being provided in-house or the material provided by that supplier has become obsolete. This is usually not the case with third-party suppliers, as the market drives them to stay competitive.

As with any new supplier, communicating with the legacy suppliers of the new direction of one's company is important for a smooth transition. At first, legacy suppliers may be apprehensive about the diversification, as it brings competition to an otherwise dominated market. That is why it is important that each supplier is distinguished from one another and they are not in direct competition with each other. Otherwise, diversification may cause duplicated efforts, extra costs, and non-cooperation that the price savings may not be able to justify.

References

Supply chain management

Supply chain diversification


A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket used to take a payload from Earth's surface through outer space. This can be to another place on earth (Sub-orbital transportation), or into space. Sub-orbital vehicles aren't as powerful as orbital vehicles must be. They use more than one stage so that they have enough delta-v performance. Many different rocket fuels can be used, and some rockets have solid rocket boosters attached.

Most launch vehicles are expendable, which means that they can only be used once. This means that lots of expensive equipment is lost, but it also means that the launch vehicle can carry a heavier payload.  SpaceX has developed a partly reusable rocket, called the Falcon 9. It is also developing a fully reusable rocket called Starship. The first stage of this rocket can land and be relaunched. Parts of the Space Shuttle were also reusable. There are many different types of launch vehicle. The vehicle that is used depends on the spaceport, the mass of the payload, and the orbit that the payload is being launched to. Many countries try and build their own rockets as part of their national space programs.

References

Spaceflight

Launch vehicle


Paul Henderson III (January 13, 1939 – December 7, 2018) was an American journalist and private investigator. In both roles, he helped win the freedom of 14 wrongfully convicted people, with nearly all being murder cases. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting in 1982 as a reporter for The Seattle Times.

Henderson was born in Washington D.C., but moved to Beatrice, Nebraska as a young child. He attended Wentworth Military Academy and Junior College in Lexington, Missouri, graduating in 1959. After three years in the U.S. Army, he continued his education at Creighton University and the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Henderson began his career as a journalist at  the Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil (1962–1966), before moving on to the Omaha World-Herald (1966–1967), and The Seattle Times (1967–1985).  While working in the newsroom as an investigative reporter at The Seattle Times in 1981, Henderson took a call from a man named Steve Titus.

Titus explained to Henderson that he was about to be sentenced for a sexual assault he did not commit.  Henderson looked into the case and wrote a series of three stories entitled "One Man's Battle to Clear His Name, a story of rape, wrongful conviction and vindication," challenging the circumstantial evidence against Titus.  When officials followed up on Henderson's leads, they found a man who resembled Titus and who eventually confessed to the crime. The report convinced a judge to reverse Titus' conviction.

Henderson won the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for his series. Titus died of a heart attack at age 36, just as he was on the verge of winning a major wrongful-conviction settlement.

Motivated by his experience with the Titus case, Henderson left the Seattle Times in 1985 to become a private investigator.  Since 1988, Henderson had been an investigator for Centurion Ministries, a small nonprofit organization based in Princeton, New Jersey dedicated to vindicating the wrongfully convicted. They have helped free more than 30 people.

In addition to winning the Pulitzer, Henderson is also the winner of the C.B. Blethan Award (1977 and 1982), the Roy W. Howard Newspaper Award, Scripps-Howard Foundation (1982), and he was named an Outstanding Achiever by the American Academy of Achievement (1982).

Henderson died on December 7, 2018 at the age of 79 from lung cancer.

References

Further reading
 Predator: Rape, Madness, and Injustice in Seattle, , Jack Olsen, 1991

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Journalists from Washington, D.C.
Military personnel from Washington, D.C.
American male journalists
Deaths from cancer in Washington (state)
Deaths from lung cancer
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Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting winners
The Seattle Times people
Wentworth Military Academy and College alumni
Creighton University alumni
University of Nebraska Omaha alumni

Paul Henderson (journalist)


Kal Kent is a superhero who appears in the DC Comics, created by Grant Morrison. He is the Superman of the 853rd century. He is also a descendant of the original Superman himself. He first appeared in JLA #15 (February 1998).

Fictional character biography

DC One Million
In the 853rd century, the progenitor of the Superman Dynasty, Superman Kal-El, is about to return from his solar Fortress of Solitude after several centuries. As part of the festivities, the Justice Legion Alpha went back in time to recruit the ancient Justice League of America. The current Legion had counterparts to the League except for Green Lantern (they had the future Starman instead). After arriving at the end of the 20th century, Kal Kent and the Justice Legion convinced the League to go the future and participate in trials as part of the celebration. Before they leave, Kal helps Superman stop a Belle-Reve prison riot; during this incident he references fighting the Chronovore with the Superman Squad.

Following the League's departure, Hourman releases the "Hourman virus" which infects not only people, but technology. It is revealed that the virus is Solaris' artificial intelligence in its infancy. The virus is spreading because Solaris is looking in all technology and organisms for its body. To cure the world and save it from Solaris, the JL-Alpha has to create Solaris. Once in his body, Solaris becomes self-aware, with his intelligence increasing with every passing second. Starman sacrifices himself in order to banish Solaris by creating a black hole. With the JL-Alpha's time machine unable to reach the 853rd century, Superman Secundus is able to punch through the time barrier to bring the Legion back to the 853rd century. They arrive in time for Superman-Prime's arrival and the final destruction of Solaris.

All-Star Superman

Kal Kent is shown in a holographic communication unit, as Superman is trying to communicate with the future. Due to technological limitations, only fragments come through, Kal is shown talking about the Superman Dynasty's feud with Solaris. He makes his first appearance leading a group of time-traveling Superman Squad members against the time-eating Chronovore in Smallville the day Jonathan Kent dies of a heart attack.

Powers and abilities
Kal Kent has Kryptonian powers that have evolved into the far future. His default Kryptonian powers (superhuman strength, invulnerability, superhuman speed, superhuman senses, vortex breath, arctic breath, flight, x-ray vision, and heat vision) appear on par with the vastly powerful Silver Age Superman. Due to other alien/extradimensional/supernatural admixtures in the Superman Dynasty bloodline, he also has additional powers such as superhuman ESP, force vision, telepathy, electromagnetic manipulation, and an additional 10 senses. Kal gets the energy for his main powers from the original Superman Kal-El and Earth's Super-Sun, resulting in him gradually losing his powers when he is in the past. This future descendant of Superman has stated that he himself is "faster than a speeding tachyon, more powerful than a collapsing star, and able to leap between planets in a single bound". When trapped in the 20th century, he displayed the ability to punch his way through time using the basic time portal Steel had assembled using plans acquired from the Lord of Time, although this was exhausting and nearly drained him down to the last dregs of his power before he reached his home century. Finally his agility, extrasensory, and visionary power are nearly incalculable. He is also immune to Kryptonite, Red sun light/radiation, and possibly psionics. He is also as smart as Brainiac 5 if not more so as the future Flash John Fox once stated he is able to calculate over a billion scenarios simultaneously. Although others have developed into a superhuman race as well, Superman promised his successors greater powers if they pledged to always protect Earth and the solar system.

In other media
Kal Kent appears in a cameo in the animated film All-Star Superman as one of Superman's descendants from the far future. In the film, Superman shows Lois Lane on his time telescope Kal Kent, who has just fought Darkseid. Lois points out to Superman that Kal resembles her father, to which Superman just smiles.

References

External links

Characters created by Grant Morrison
Comics characters introduced in 1998
DC Comics characters who can move at superhuman speeds
DC Comics characters who have mental powers
DC Comics characters with superhuman durability or invulnerability
DC Comics characters with superhuman senses
DC Comics characters with superhuman strength
DC Comics male superheroes
DC Comics superheroes
DC Comics hybrids
DC Comics telepaths
Fictional characters with slowed ageing
Fictional characters with X-ray vision
Fictional characters with nuclear or radiation abilities
Fictional characters from parallel universes
Fictional characters with air or wind abilities
Fictional characters with ice or cold abilities
Fictional characters with absorption or parasitic abilities
Fictional characters with energy-manipulation abilities
Fictional characters with fire or heat abilities
Fictional characters with electric or magnetic abilities
Fictional technopaths
Kryptonians
Superman characters

Superman (Kal Kent)


Siyavush () is a legendary-historic play, a tragedy in five acts written by Huseyn Javid, an Azerbaijani poet and playwright in 1932-1933. It is based on motifs of an ancient story from "Shahnameh" poem by Ferdowsi, to the 1000th anniversary of the poet. In 1934, the play was published and then staged by Ismayil Hidayetzade.

The play is about a destiny of young Siyavush, who lapses into philosophic thoughts about assignment of a human being, happiness and meaning of the life. Siyavush has been brought up on heroic traditions of the nation. He follows a "Be fair" behest and stands up for the interest of nation. Siyavush perishes without finding the truth and fairness both in Iran and Turan and he understands that the truth is only in the struggle against despotism.

Photos

References

Tragedy plays
Azerbaijani plays
1933 plays
Tragedies of Huseyn Javid
Azerbaijani-language plays

Siyavush (play)


Rudolf William Nilsen (28 February 1901 – 23 March 1929) was a Norwegian poet and journalist.

Early life
He was born in the district of Vålerenga in Kristiania (present-day Oslo), on 28 February 1901, and was raised at the nearby neighborhood of Tøyen/Grønland in the same city.

Writing and political life

Rudolf Nilsen's first published work was the collection of poetry På stengrunn (1925), which was followed by På gjensyn (1926). Many of his poems were of political nature, while others were romantic or about the contemporary life in Oslo.

His poem collection, Hverdagen was published posthumously the same year. His collected poems were published in 1935. New collections of his works were published in the 1970s. An album bearing the same title as his first collection of poetry, På Stengrunn, was popular in the 1970s and still in 2019 there are yearly concerts where the songs are performed. Other artists, both Norwegian and other Nordic artists have composed songs to the poems of Rudolf Nilsen, even as recently as 2019.

A child of the working class, Nilsen became part of the left-wing revolutionary movement and joined the organisation Norges Socialdemokratiske Ungdomsforbund (Social Democratic Youth League of Norway), the youth league of the Norwegian Labour Party. When the Norwegian Labour Party split up in 1923, due to an ideological schism, Nilsen decided to join the Communist Party of Norway, and their youth league Young Communist League of Norway.

In 1921, he was arrested and stood trial for smuggling illegal revolutionary literature into Norway. With the help of defence lawyer (and later Secretary-General of the United Nations) Trygve Lie, he avoided sentencing, and was eventually found not guilty and released.

Personal life and death

In 1924, he married Ella Quist Kristoffersen, later Ella Hval.

Nilsen died shortly after contracting tuberculosis in Paris on 23 March 1929.  Outside his childhood address of Heimdalsgata nr 26, a public square was named after him in 1952, and a bronze statue of a worker, based on the theme of one of the poems, was erected on that site in 1954.

References

External links
 Rudolf Nilsen poems and texts by marxists.org
 Rudolf Nilsen biography by NRK
 Birth and dwellings of Rudolf Nilsen – records in the Oslo City Archives
 Poems in original language

1901 births
1929 deaths
20th-century Norwegian poets
Norwegian male poets
Riksmål-language writers
Norwegian communists
Writers from Oslo
20th-century deaths from tuberculosis
Tuberculosis deaths in France
20th-century Norwegian journalists

Rudolf Nilsen


Until 1 January 2007 Bramming Municipality was a municipality (Danish: kommune) in Ribe County on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula in southwest Denmark. The municipality covered an area of 170 km², and had a total population of 13,638 (2005).  Its last mayor was Karl Kristian Knudtzen, a member of the Venstre (Liberal Party) political party. The main town and the site of its municipal council was the town of Bramming.

Bramming municipality ceased to exist as the result of the Municipal Reform of 2007 (Kommunalreformen). It was merged with the former Ribe and Esbjerg municipalities to form the new Esbjerg Municipality. This created a municipality with an area of 741 km² and a total population of 114,097 (2005). The new municipality belongs to the Region of Southern Denmark (Region Syddanmark).

Notable people
 John Lauridsen (born 1959) a retired Danish professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder, played 27 times for Denmark. After his football career he settled in Bramming

Anders Dreyer (born 1998) professional footballer for St Mirren.

External links
 Esbjerg municipality's official website

References

 Municipal statistics: NetBorger Kommunefakta, delivered from KMD aka Kommunedata (Municipal Data)
 Municipal mergers and neighbors: Eniro new municipalities map

Esbjerg
Former municipalities of Denmark

Bramming Municipality


Gaming the system (also rigging, abusing, cheating, milking, playing, working, or breaking the system, or gaming or bending the rules) can be defined as using the rules and procedures meant to protect a system to, instead, manipulate the system for a desired outcome.

The first known documented use of the term "gaming the system" is in 1975. According to James Rieley, a British advisor to CEOs and an author, structures in companies and organizations (both explicit and implicit policies and procedures, stated goals, and mental models) drive behaviors that are detrimental to long-term organizational success and stifle competition. For some, error is the essence of gaming the system, in which a gap in protocol allows for errant practices that lead to unintended results.

Although the term generally carries negative connotations, gaming the system can be used for benign purposes in the undermining and dismantling of corrupt or oppressive organisations.

Examples

Finance
Henry Paulson, considering that the financial crisis of 2007–08 demonstrated that US financial markets had outgrown the ability of the system that had been used to regulate them, saw as a necessity a better framework than US financial markets had used before. This framework would be one that featured less duplication and that restricted the ability of financial firms to pick and choose their own, generally less strict  regulators—a practice known as regulatory arbitrage, which enabled widespread gaming of the regulatory system.

A similar, contributing effect has been identified within corporate rating systems, where gaming the system becomes virulent when formalization is combined with transparency.

Internet

Designers of online communities are explicitly warned that whenever one creates a system for managing a community, someone will try to work it to their advantage. Accordingly, they are advised from the start to think like a bad guy and to consider what behaviors they are unintentionally encouraging by creating some new social rules for the community.

Child-rearing
Parental divisions on child-rearing will always give the child plenty of opportunity to play one parent off against the other. Object relations theory states that if one parent is easy-going and the other stricter, a child is likely to take advantage of that split. According to this theory, this is always a hollow triumph; the child is really hoping that the parents will begin to work together to set limits.

It has been noted that contingent feedingoffering treats if an unpopular food is eatenencourages children to argue and practice gaming the system by fighting over the fine print.

NHS dentistry
NHS dentistry in the UK sees the frequent use of gaming the system in the form of adapting treatment to the payment system, which is frequently referred to as simply "gaming". The practice of adapting treatment to payment systems, rather than clinical need, is thought to be widespread in NHS dentistry and is considered by some to be a result of a poorly planned target based system. The term is also used to describe obfuscation of the scope of NHS dentistry in order to "upsell" items of treatment that should be available.

Performance management

In performance management, gaming the system is finding ways to achieve good scores on performance metrics (for employees or departments) without achieving the aims of the corporation which the metrics were instigated to promote. This is related to the well-known problem inherent in incentive system design, sometimes known as perverse incentive, in that people will tend to pursue incentives, even by means that make no common sense, should the incentive be naively constructed. For instance, criticism of author-level metrics in science often described the vulnerabilities to gaming strategies of such metrics.

Algorithmic governance

Whenever greater transparency is brought by the government to previously secret decisions, those decision processes become more gameable. Parties adjust their behavior to maximize their outcomes. The case of algorithmic governance is not exceptional. Regulated parties might even employ adversarial machine learning in order to fool algorithmic models.

Other
Eric Berne identified a kind of gaming the system in a clinical context through what he called the game of "Psychiatry", with its motto "You will never cure me, but you will teach me to be a better neurotic (play a better game of 'Psychiatry')." A few patients, he noted, carefully pick weak psychoanalysts, moving from one to another, demonstrating that they can not be cured and meanwhile learning to play a sharper and sharper game of 'Psychiatry;' eventually it becomes difficult for even a first-rate clinician to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Some people confuse "gaming the system" with "working the system".  Gaming the system has a negative connotation, while working the system has a positive meaning.  Working the system implies that one is using an understanding to work within the system to attain sets of goals that align, whereas gaming the system implies using this understanding to attain specific goals that do not align with the rest of a set of goals. Depending on the observers' interest or preferred goals, this may be perceived as unfair or as an outcome for which the system was never intended. The cause of the difference between gaming the system and working the system lies in the existence of a (perceived) conflict between goals.

See also

References

Further reading

Ziewitz, M. (2019). "Rethinking gaming: The ethical work of optimization in web search engines". Social Studies of Science: 1–25.

Political terminology
Abuse of the legal system

Political corruption

Gaming the system


Catherine of Austria (; ; 15 September 1533 – 28 February 1572) was one of the fifteen children of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary. In 1553, she married Polish King Sigismund II Augustus and became Queen consort of Poland and Grand Duchess consort of Lithuania. Their marriage was not happy and they had no children together. After a likely miscarriage in 1554 and a bout of illness in 1558, Sigismund became increasingly distant. He tried but failed to obtain a divorce from the pope. In 1565, Catherine returned to Austria and lived in Linz until her death. Sigismund died just a few months after her, bringing the male line of the Jagiellon dynasty to its end. The dynasty would continue, strictly speaking, for one more reign—that of Sigismund Augustus' sister, Anna Jagiellon, who was crowned with the male title of Rex Poloniae.

Early life and Duchess of Mantua
Catherine was one of the fifteen children of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary. She spent most of her childhood at Hofburg, Innsbruck and received education based on discipline and religion. She learned Italian and Latin languages. On 17 March 1543, Catherine was betrothed to Francesco III Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua and Marquess of Montferrat, reflecting her father's desire to strengthen Habsburg influence against France in northern Italy, particularly Milan.  Catherine and Francesco were 9 and 10 years old at the time, so the wedding took place six years later on 22 October 1549. In October 1549, Catherine with a dowry of 100,000 Rhine florins was escorted by her elder brother Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria from Innsbruck to Mantua. The marriage lasted only four months as Francesco drowned in Lake Como on 21 February 1550, and a widowed Catherine returned home to Innsbruck. To improve Catherine's chances of a better second marriage, the Habsburgs claimed that the marriage was not consummated.

Queen consort of Poland

Wedding

In May 1551, after the death of his second scandalous wife Barbara Radziwiłł, King Sigismund II Augustus became a widower. Emperor Ferdinand I pursued the marriage between Catherine and Sigismund to create a pro-Habsburg group within the Polish court. Particularly, he wanted to prevent Polish assistance to Sigismund's sister Isabella Jagiellon and her son John Sigismund Zápolya in the succession disputes over the Kingdom of Hungary. Both Catherine and Sigismund personally opposed the marriage. Catherine blamed Sigismund of mistreating and causing the early death of her older sister and his first wife Elizabeth of Austria. Sigismund feared that Catherine would be similarly unattractive and of frail health as Elisabeth. However, the Habsburgs threatened to create an anti-Polish alliance with the Tsardom of Russia.

In early 1553, Mikołaj "the Black" Radziwiłł traveled to the court of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, in an attempt to persuade the emperor to cease his assistance to Tsar Ivan the Terrible. Radziwiłł had further orders to travel to investigate marriage opportunities with Mechthild of Bavaria or one of the daughters of Ercole II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara. However, the Emperor convinced Radziwiłł that marriage between Catherine and Sigismund was best. Radziwiłł wrote enthusiastic letters to Sigismund, who soon gave in and gave his consent on 10 April 1553. The papal dispensation (they were first cousins once removed) was received on 20 May and the wedding treaty was signed on 23 June. The same day the per procura wedding took place. The actual wedding was delayed due to Sigismund's ill health from 1 July to 30 July. The celebrations lasted 10 days. Catherine's dowry was 100,000 florins as well as 500 grzywnas of silver, 48 expensive dresses, and about 800 jewels.

Life with Sigismund

Catherine spoke Italian and therefore could communicate with Queen mother Bona Sforza and her family. She was ambitious and tried to gain political influence in the Polish court which caused Sigismund's ire. At least at first, he attempted to do right by his wife – he needed an heir and was acutely aware of the criticism of his treatment of his first wife Elizabeth of Austria. In February 1554, the royal couple separated for the first time. Catherine was in Parczew while Sigismund attended general sejm in Lublin. According to royal secretary Michał Trzebuchowski, the queen was very upset by the separation and kept crying. When Sigismund visited his wife on 9–10 April, Catherine informed him that she was pregnant. At the end of April, the royal couple traveled to Lithuania and on 25 May reached Vilnius where with short breaks Catherine lived for nine years. It is unclear whether it was a miscarriage, false pregnancy, or an intrigue, but there was no birth in October 1554.

Relatively normal, albeit somewhat distant, the marriage continued for a few more years. It seems that Catherine accompanied her husband to general sejm in spring 1555 and to the per procura wedding of Sophia Jagiellon and Henry V, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg in January 1556. She also continued to mediate between her husband and her father, carried frequent correspondence with Albert, Duke of Prussia, and was known for generally favorable views on Protestantism. Catherine's dowry was paid by her father at the end of 1555 or very early 1556, and on 19 January 1556, she received the towns of Wiślica, Żarnów, Radom, Nowy Korczyn, Kozienice, Chęciny, and Radoszyce.

In the spring of 1556, the Queen mother Bona Sforza returned to her native Italy and her two yet-unmarried daughters, Anna Jagiellon and Catherine Jagiellon, moved to Vilnius. It seems that the three women became close. In summer 1558, the royal family returned to Poland. In October, Catherine became severely ill, but the cause of the illness is unknown as she would not allow Polish doctors near her. When her father sent a couple of Austrian doctors, they reported only high fever and chills. She recovered somewhat only in spring 1559 but her recovery was interrupted by frequent travels in summer 1559 to avoid a plague outbreak. Catherine returned to Vilnius only in early 1560 and became ill again. Sigismund was convinced that it was epilepsy, the same disease that tormented his first wife and Catherine's sister. Their marriage became very distant.

Failed marriage
In October 1562, at the wedding of Catherine Jagiellon and Duke John of Finland, the couple saw each other for the last time. Catherine lived in Vilnius and Hrodna before being sent to Radom in April 1563. 40-year-old Sigismund sought to obtain annulment of the marriage as he wanted to marry for the fourth time and secure a male heir. In January 1565, Sigismund complained to papal nuncio Giovanni Francesco Commendone that marriage to Catherine was sinful because she was a sister of his first wife, that she hated Poland, that she caused the miscarriage in 1554, and that he was physically disgusted by his wife due to her epilepsy. Due to Habsburg influence, Pope Pius IV did not allow the divorce.

In July 1564, Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, died and was succeeded by his son Maximilian II. The new emperor sent his diplomats Andreas Dudith and Wilhelm von Kurzbach to try to reconcile the couple, or if that failed, to convince Sigismund to allow her to leave Poland. The plan for Catherine to leave was discussed in May 1565. Initially Sigismund refused, fearing that it would only increase the anti-Polish sentiment in the Habsburg court, but later changed his mind because he believed that Catherine's departure would make it easier to obtain a divorce. In late 1565, she departed to Wieluń, but Polish nobles interfered and her departure to Vienna was delayed until 8 October 1566. In a letter written to Albert, Duke of Prussia, a day before her departure, Catherine expressed her resolve to one day return to Poland.

Catherine did not receive a warm welcome in Vienna as she was blamed for the failed marriage. Emperor Maximilian II extended her stay and wanted to meet with Sigismund personally to discuss the issue, but he refused. In March 1567, Andreas Dudith relayed that Sigismund categorically refused to live with Catherine (reportedly, he once said that he would gladly become a monk if that meant he could get rid of Catherine) and that he would not protest if Catherine remained in Austria. Sigismund would not specify where Catherine should live if she returned to Poland and would not allot money for her court, in effect precluding her from returning. In June 1567, Catherine became seriously ill with what doctors called melancholia. After recovering, in October, she moved to Linz to live out the remaining five years of her life.

According to a witness, Catherine lived like a widow. She received 28,000 guldens annually from Sigismund for her court of more than fifty people. She was visited by her family, she studied the Bible and other theological works, and established a garden for medicinal herbs which produced various herbal remedies. It seems that she still wanted to return to Poland: she tearfully asked Giovanni Francesco Commendone for help when he visited her twice and kept writing letters to her husband. In her last will, she asked her husband for forgiveness and left him all the jewellery she had received from him. The majority of her money was left for charity.

Catherine died on 28 February 1572 and was buried in castle's chapel. When Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor, ordered reconstruction of the castle, her body was moved to the St. Florian Monastery on 22 September 1599. A funeral was not organized until 22 September 1614 during the reign of Emperor Matthias. The surviving sarcophagus was built in 1781.

Ancestors

References
Notes

Bibliography

External links

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1533 births
1572 deaths
16th-century House of Habsburg
16th-century Austrian women
Austrian princesses
Wives of Sigismund II Augustus
Bohemian princesses
Marchionesses of Montferrat
Daughters of emperors
Children of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor
Daughters of kings
People from Innsbruck
Remarried royal consorts

Catherine of Austria, Queen of Poland


Media Business Centre (MBC) is a building located at 166 Wiertnicza Street in Warsaw, Poland. It is located in the part of Warsaw commonly known as Sadyba, on the administrative border of the Mokotów and Wilanów districts). It is the headquarters of the TVN Group and a large part of its companies. It was built in 2002.

There are two newsrooms in the building. The upper one (on the scale of the whole building located on the first floor, also equipped with mezzanines) is the location of production and broadcasting of TVN's news program Fakty and most of TVN24's programmes. The lower one (on the ground floor) serves as editorial office of TVN24 Biznes i Świat, sometimes it also serves as a reserve or weekend studio of TVN24. The building also houses all weather services provided by TVN Meteo, as well as some programs provided by other channels of the TVN Group, including the TVN Turbo Report.

In the immediate vicinity of the MBC, there are buildings erected by the ITI Group companies prior to the construction of the office building, including the first headquarters of TVN at Augustówka Street. They are still in use.

It has an area of 31000 m², seven overground storeys and two underground storeys. The building won the "Most Intelligent Building of the Year 2003" award.

In 2016, a competition was announced for the development of an architectural concept for the redevelopment of the main entrance area of the Media Business Centre TVN S.A. building, which until then had identified itself with the former owner of TVN  the ITI Group.

References

External links

Mokotów
Office buildings in Warsaw
Buildings and structures completed in 2002
2002 establishments in Poland
Mass media in Warsaw
Television studios

Media Business Centre (Warsaw)