Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission (RKM) is a Hindu religious, spiritual and philanthropic organisation headquartered in Belur Math, West Bengal. The mission is named after the Indian Hindu spiritual guru and mystic Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa Deva. The mission was founded by Ramakrishna's chief disciple Swami Vivekananda on 1 May 1897. The organisation mainly propagates the Hindu philosophy of Vedanta–Advaita Vedanta and four yogic ideals – Jnana, Bhakti, Karma, and Raja yoga.

Apart from religious and spiritual teaching, the organisation carries out extensive educational and philanthropic work in India and abroad. This aspect came to be a feature of many other Hindu movements. The mission bases its work on the principles of Karma Yoga, the principle of selfless work done with a dedication to God. The Ramakrishna Mission has centres around the world and publishes many important Hindu texts. It is affiliated with a monastic organisation. Vivekananda was greatly influenced by his guru (teacher), Ramakrishna, who also believed in Universalism.

Overview

The Math and the Mission are the two key organisations that direct the work of the Ramakrishna movement. The Ramakrishna Math, alternatively referred to as the Ramakrishna Order, is a monastic institution associated with the religious movement established by Ramakrishna in 1886. The primary emphasis of the Math lies in the cultivation of spiritual development and the dissemination of the movement's doctrines.

The Mission, founded by Vivekananda in 1897, is a humanitarian organisation that carries out medical, relief, and educational programs. Both organisations have headquarters at Belur Math.

The Mission acquired legal status when it was registered in 1909 under Act XXI of 1860. Its management is vested in a Governing Body. Though the Mission with its branches is a distinct legal entity, it is closely related to the Math.

The elected trustees of the Math also serve as the Mission's Governing Body. Vedanta Societies comprise the American arm of the Movement and work more in the purely spiritual field than social welfare.

History

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (1836–1886), regarded as a 19th-century mystic, was the inspirer of the Ramakrishna Order of monks and is regarded as the spiritual founder of the Ramakrishna Movement. Ramakrishna was a priest at the Dakshineswar Kali Temple and attracted several monastic and household disciples.

In 1886, shortly before his death, Ramakrishna gave the ochre cloths to his young disciples, who were planning to become renunciants. Ramakrishna entrusted the care of these young aspirants to Vivekananda. After Ramakrishna's death, the young disciples of Ramakrishna gathered and practised spiritual disciplines. They took informal monastic vows on the night of 24 December 1886.

After the death of Ramakrishna in 1886, the monastic disciples formed the first Math (monastery) at Baranagore. Later, Vivekananda became a wandering monk, and in 1893, he was a delegate at the Parliament of the World's Religions held in the year 1893. His speech there, beginning with "Sisters and Brothers of America," became famous and brought him widespread recognition. Vivekananda went on lecture tours and held private discourses on Hinduism and spirituality. He also founded the first Vedanta Society in the United States, in New York. He returned to India in 1897 and founded the Ramakrishna Mission on 1 May 1897. Though he was a Hindu sadhu and was hailed as the first Hindu missionary in modern times, he exhorted his followers to be true to their faith and respect all the religions of the world, as his guru Ramakrishna had taught that all religions are pathways to God. One such example is his exhortation that one can be born in a church, but he or she should not die in a church, meaning that one should realise the spiritual truths for themselves and not stop at blindly believing in doctrines taught to them. The same year, famine relief was started at Sargachi by Swami Akhandananda, a direct disciple of Ramakrishna. Swami Brahmananda, a direct disciple of Ramakrishna, was appointed as the first president of the Order. After the death of Vivekananda in 1902, Sarada Devi, the spiritual counterpart of Ramakrishna, played an important role as the advisory head of a nascent monastic organisation. Gayatri Spivak writes that Sarada Devi "performed her role with tact and wisdom, always remaining in the background."

Administration

The Board of Trustees holds all the authority inside the twin organisation, Ramakrishna Math and Mission. The governing body known as the Board of Trustees consists of several key positions, including an elected President, one or more vice presidents, a General Secretary, one or more Assistant General Secretaries, and a Treasurer.

The individual holding the position of President serves as the highest authority within both Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, overseeing all affiliated branch centres and the central headquarters located at Belur Math.

The composition of the Board of Trustees comprises elected members of the Ramakrishna Order who hold senior positions as monks. The appointment of a head is done by the Trustees, who designate the head of a branch centre of Ramakrishna Math.

The Ramakrishna Movement comprises four distinct streams. The inclusion of ordinary devotees assuming the role of monks within the Ramakrishna Math constitutes the initial manifestation of the Ramakrishna Movement. The second stream of the Ramakrishna Movement consists of lay devotees who choose not to renounce the world but instead engage in voluntary activities. The third stream of the Ramakrishna Movement comprises Sarada Math and the Ramakrishna Sarada Mission. The fourth branch of the Ramakrishna Movement consists of the "Private Ashramas," which operate autonomously and are not administratively affiliated with the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission.

Motto and principles
The aims and ideals of the Mission are purely spiritual and humanitarian, and they have no connection with politics. The mission strives to practice and preach these. The Principles of the Upanishads and Yoga in the Bhagavad Gita are reinterpreted in light of Ramakrishna's life and teachings, and are the main source of inspiration for the Mission.

Motto
Manifestation of the Atman can be realized through any of the four yogas. The Ramakrishna Mission also believes in the harmony of all religions, i.e. that all religions lead to the same goal if followed properly.

Monastic Order
After the death of Ramakrishna in 1886, his young disciples organised themselves into a new monastic order. The original monastery at Baranagar, known as Baranagar Math, was subsequently moved to the nearby Alambazar area in 1892, then to Nilambar Mukherjee's Garden House, south of the present Belur Math in 1898 before finally being shifted in January 1899 to a newly acquired plot of land at Belur in Howrah district by Vivekananda.

Attitude towards politics
Almost 95% of the monks possess voter ID cards for the sake of identification and particularly for traveling, as they are forced by governmental authorities to seek a voter ID card. But they generally use it only for identification purpose and not for voting though they are not forbidden to vote. As individuals, the monks may have political opinions, but these are not meant to be discussed in public.

The Mission, had, however, supported the movement of Indian independence, with a section of the monks keeping close apolitical relations with freedom fighters of various camps. A number of political revolutionaries later joined the Ramakrishna Order.

Emblem
Designed and explained by Swami Vivekananda in his own words:
The wavy waters in the picture are symbolic of Karma; the lotus, of Bhakti; and the rising-sun, of Jnana. The encircling serpent is indicative of [Raja] Yoga and the awakened Kundalini Shakti, while the swan in the picture stands for Paramatman (Supreme Self). Therefore, the idea of the picture is that by the union of Karma, Jnana, Bhakti and Yoga, the vision of Paramatman is obtained.

Activities

The principal workers of the mission are the monks. The mission's activities cover the following areas,
 Education
 Healthcare
 Cultural activities
 Rural upliftment
 Tribal welfare
 Youth movement, spiritual teachings
The mission has its own hospitals, charitable dispensaries, maternity clinics, tuberculosis clinics, and mobile dispensaries. It also maintains training centres for nurses. Orphanages and homes for the elderly are included in the mission's field of activities, along with rural and tribal welfare work.

The mission has established many renowned educational institutions in India, having its own university, colleges, vocational training centres, high schools and primary schools, teacher-training institutes, as well as schools for the visually handicapped. It has also been involved in disaster relief operations during famine, epidemic, fire, flood, earthquake, cyclone and communal disturbances.

The mission played an important role in the installation of photovoltaic (PV) lighting systems in the Sundarbans region of West Bengal. Due to the geographical features of the Sunderbans, it is very difficult to extend the grid network to supply power to its population. The PV lighting was used to provide electricity to the people who were traditionally depending on kerosene and diesel.

Religious activities
The mission is a non-sectarian organisation and ignores caste distinctions.

Ramakrishna ashrama's religious activities include satsang and arati. Satsang includes communal prayers, songs, rituals, discourses, reading and meditation. Arati involves the ceremonial waving of lights before the images of a deity of holy person and is performed twice in a day.
Ramakrishna ashramas observes major Hindu festivals, including Maha Shivarathri, Rama Navami, Krishna Ashtami and Durga Puja. They also give special place to the birthdays of Ramakrishna, Sarada Devi, Swami Vivekananda and his other monastic disciples. 1 January is celebrated as Kalpataru Day.

The math and the mission are known for their religious tolerance and respect for other religions. Among the earliest rules laid down by Swami Vivekananda for them was, "Due respect and reverence should be paid to all religions, all preachers, and to the deities worshiped in all religions." Acceptance and toleration of all religions is the one of ideals of Ramakrishna Math and Mission. Along with the major Hindu festivals, Christmas Eve and Buddha's birthday are also devoutly observed.
Cyril Veliath of Sophia University writes that the Ramakrishna Mission monks are a relatively orthodox set of monks who are "extremely well respected both in India and abroad", and that they "cannot be classified as just another sect or cult, such as the groups led by the gurus". Veliath writes that "of the Hindu groups I have worked with I have found the Ramakrishna Mission to be the most tolerant and amenable to dialogue, and I believe that we Christians couldn't do better, than to cooperate wholeheartedly in their efforts towards inter-religious harmony.

Awards and honourable
The Ramakrishna Mission has received numerous accolades throughout its lifetime:
 Bhagwan Mahavir Foundation Award (1996).
 Dr. Ambedkar National Award (1996).
 Dr. Bhawar Singh Porte Tribal Service Award (1997–98).
 In 1998 the Mission was awarded the Indian government's prestigious Gandhi Peace Prize.
 Shahid Vir Narayan Singh Award (2001).
 Pt. Ravishankar Shukla Award (2002).
 National Communal Harmony Award (2005).
 The Ramakrishna Mission was selected for an honorary mention of the UNESCO Madanjeet Singh Prize for Promotion of Tolerance and Non violence 2002.
 The Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama Narainpur, Chhattisgarh was jointly selected for the 25th Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration for the year 2009 with musician A.R.Rehman for their services in promoting and preserving national integration.
In a speech made in 1993, Federico Mayor, Director-General of UNESCO, stated:

Branch centres

As of March 7, 2022, the Math and Mission have 265 centres all over the world: 198 in India, 26 in Bangladesh, 14 in the United States, two each in Canada, Russia, and South Africa and one each in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Fiji, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, Mauritius, Nepal, Netherlands, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, the UK, and Zambia. Besides, there are 44 sub-centres (14 within India, 30 outside India) under different centres.

The centres of the Ramakrishna Order outside India fall into two broad categories. In countries such as Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Fiji and Mauritius, the nature of service activities is very similar to India. In other parts of the world, especially in Europe, Canada, the United States, Japan, and Australia, the work is mostly confined to the preaching of Vedanta, the publication of books and journals and personal guidance in spiritual matters. Many of the centres outside India are called as the 'Vedanta Society' or 'Vedanta Centre'.

Controversies
In 1980, in an act that caused "considerable debate" within the order, the mission petitioned the courts to have their organisation and movement declared a non-Hindu minority religion for the purpose of Article 30 of the Indian constitution.

Many generations of monks and others have been of the view that the religion propounded and practised by Ramakrishna and his disciples was different from that practised by the Hindu masses then. They held that Ramakrishna's "Neo-Vedanta" is a truer version of the ideals of Vedanta. So it was honestly felt that this makes the followers of Ramakrishna eligible for the legal status of "minority". It is possible that the immediate cause for the appeal for minority status was the danger that the local Marxist government would take control of its educational institutions unless it could invoke the extra protection the Indian constitution accords to minority religions.

While the Calcutta High Court accepted the Ramakrishna Mission's pleas, the Supreme Court of India ruled against the Mission in 1995, citing evidence that it had all the characteristics of a Hindu organization. The Mission found it advisable to let the matter rest. The wisdom of the attempt by the Mission's leadership to characterize the Mission as non-Hindu was widely questioned within the membership of the organization itself, and the leadership today embraces the Mission's status as both a Hindu organization and as an organization that emphasizes the harmony of all faiths.

Most members—and even monks—of the Ramakrishna Mission consider themselves Hindus, and the Mission's founding figures, such as Swami Vivekananda, never disavowed Hinduism.

See also
 List of publications by Ramakrishna Mission
 List of Ramakrishna Mission institutions

References

Further reading

 Prabhananda, Swami. The Early History of the Ramakrishna Movement (2005)
Elst, Koenraad. Who is a Hindu - Hindu Revivalist Views of Animism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Other Offshoots of Hinduism (2001) Online version of Chapter 6
 Swarup, Ram: Ramakrishna Mission in Search of a New Identity. (1986) PDF in www.archive.org

External links

 About Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission

Ramakrishna
Hindu denominations
Recipients of the Gandhi Peace Prize
Founders of Indian schools and colleges
Hindu organisations based in India
Hindu new religious movements
Articles containing video clips
Religious organizations established in 1897
1897 establishments in India
Neo-Vedanta
Religious organisations based in India
Tourist attractions in Howrah
Charities based in India
Recipients of Pravasi Bharatiya Samman

Ramakrishna Mission


George Livingston Robinson (August 19, 1863 – July 18, 1958) was a noted author, biblical scholar, explorer, and lecturer.

He was born in West Hebron, New York to William Robinson and Mary (Archibald) Robinson. He earned his undergraduate and an advanced degree at Princeton University. He traveled to Europe and the Levant extensively. He met his wife, Jessie Harvey, and was married in Egypt. He received his doctorate in Ancient languages at Berlin University. He accepted instructor positions at Knox College, Toronto and the Syrian Protestant College in Beirut. While working as the Director of the School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem (1913–1914), he had an opportunity to explore many ancient sites in the Holy Land. He was credited with recognizing the religious significance of the High Place at Petra, an Iron Age sacrificial altar dating to biblical times. He was also one of a select few Western scholars to be granted permission by the Caliph to visit the Cave of Macpelah (where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are reputed to have been buried).

He spent the majority of his teaching career as a professor at McCormick Theological Seminary. He was fluent in Latin, German, Hebrew, Classic Greek, and Assyrian cuneiform. He composed and published the psalm "Reflections". His published books include The Sarcaphocus of Ancient Civilization (MacMillan, 1930), Leaders of Israel, The Book of Isaiah, The Twelve Minor Prophets, and The Autobiography of George L Robinson, A Short History of a Long Life in addition to hundreds of essays, monographs, and research publications.

He died in Saint Paul, Minnesota on July 18, 1958.

References

American biblical scholars
1863 births
1958 deaths
Princeton University alumni
People from Hebron, New York
Writers from Saint Paul, Minnesota

George Livingston Robinson


The Château Pastré, formerly known as the Chateau de Montredon, is a nineteenth-century building in the suburb of Montredon to the south of Marseille, France. Originally the property of a wealthy merchant family, as of 2012, it housed the Faïence pottery museum, the Musée de la Faïence de Marseille. The grounds of the chateau are a public park.

Foundation
Eugène Pastré (1806–1868) and his wife Céline de Beaulincourt-Marle (1825–1900) belonged to a wealthy family of Marseille shipowners and merchants. Between 1836 and 1853, the Pastré family accumulated  of land between Pointe Rouge and the Grotte Rolland in the south of Marseille, which they made into a park.  The natural vegetation would have been scrub, Aleppo pines, oaks, laurel and juniper.
Before the Canal de Marseille was constructed to this point, the family had to go to great lengths to obtain water, with which they irrigated and created lawns in the lower levels
with gardens of vines, cereals and orchards of almonds, figs and apricot. The Pastrés had three large houses built in the park between 1845 and 1865: the Château Estrangin, Château Pastré and Château Sanderval.

Building
The Parisian architect Jean-Charles Danjoy designed the Château Pastré, the largest of the buildings, completed in 1862. The three-story building was designed to meet the needs of its owners for a place where they could hold entertainments for many people. The Nouvelle Revue in its gossip section Chronique de L'Élégance in 1884, described a play being presented at the home of Mme Pastre.

The chateau is located between the hills of Marseilleveyre and the Mediterranean Sea, with large windows looking out over the park. The exterior design is elegant and warm. Jean Danjoy chose to design a reinterpretation of a building from the Louis XIII period. In the facade he blended bricks from Marseille with blonde stone from Arles. These meet in rhythmic curves and counter-curves.

Past residents

Eugène and Céline's son Ange André Pastré (1856–1926) was made a Roman Count. He married Claire Goldschmidt around 1885, and they had four children: Odette, Diane (1888–1971), Jean André and Louis. Jean Pastré was born on 2 December 1888, in Marseille, and inherited the title of "Count". In 1918, he married Louise (Lily) Double. The couple had three children. Jean Pastré played on France's polo team in the 1924 Summer Olympic games. He died in Paris on 29 June 1960 at the age of 71. Their daughter Nadia Pastré helped in the escape lines for Allied prisoners during World War II.

Countess Lily Pastré was born Louise Double de Saint Lambert in 1891. Her mother Véra Magnan was partly Russian, and was granddaughter of Bernard Pierre Magnan, a Marshal of France. Her father was Paul Double (1868–1935), son of Léon Double and Marie Prat (1849–1939). Marie Prat was the daughter of Claudius Prat (1814–1859), the co-founder of Noilly Prat. Countess Lily Pastre inherited the Noilly Prat vermouth fortune. After Countess Lily and Jean Pastré divorced in 1940, she continued to live at the Chateau de Montredon. She turned it into a refuge for artists fleeing the Nazi regime in occupied France, of whom many were Jewish.

Lily Pastré remained on good terms with the authorities, and invited them to concerts that she arranged at the chateau. At the same time, she was sheltering Jewish composers and musicians, of whom perhaps forty stayed at the chateau at different times.
Norbert Glanzberg, who played piano for Édith Piaf, was hidden at the chateau at the singer's request. The Spanish cellist Pablo Casals and the American entertainer Josephine Baker both stayed at the chateau for a while,  as did the pianist Clara Haskil.
On 27 July 1942, Pastre arranged for a performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the chateau. A young Christian Dior made the costumes from the draperies of the chateau. The Orchèstre National de la Radiodiffusion Française, conducted by Manuel Rosenthal, provided music.
The Germans occupied part of the chateau when they took over the south of France. They arrested and killed some of the guests found at the chateau.

After the war, Countess Lily contributed to the foundation of the Aix-en-Provence Festival of music and arts. She died in 1974, having spent her entire fortune helping others, much of it during the war.

Recent years

Between 1966 and 1987, the city of Marseille bought almost all of the property, including the Château Pastré, Château Sanderval and the bastide Clary. It had the Château Pastré carefully restored.
Since May 1995, it has housed the Faïence Museum, and displays more than 1,500 pieces crafted during a period spanning more than 7000 years.

Marseille has been chosen as the "European cultural capital" for 2013. As part of the preparation for this, the government plans to transfer the Faïence Museum to the Château Borély, which will be adapted for the planned Museum of Decorative Arts and Fashion.

The grounds are now a public park commonly known as the Campagne Pastré. Of this,  are formally laid out with lawns, woods and two artificial lakes, while  have more natural vegetation. The central avenue from the entrance to the chateau is over  long. Apart from the lakes, the park includes playgrounds, canal areas and hiking trails. The gardens are decorated with statues. From a steep hill, visitors have views of Marseille. The entire forested area of the park is part of the Calanques World Heritage Site. In 2021, the association Pour Que Marseille Vive proposed to rehabilitate the Château Pastré by installing an artists' incubator and a cultural place there. The project was in negotiation with the town hall of Marseille.

References
Notes

Citations

Sources

Pastre
Museums in Marseille
Houses completed in 1862
1862 establishments in France

Château Pastré


Edward Lowe (July 10, 1920 – October 4, 1995) was an American businessman and entrepreneur, noted for the invention of cat litter. The Small Business School described him as "building a huge business from nothing", and cites him as a textbook example of an individual who "created a product, brought it to marketplace, invented an industry and sold his business for millions".  By the time of his death, his company was worth about five hundred million dollars (or $ million today, adjusted for inflation).

Background
Edward Lowe was born on July 10, 1920, in Saint Paul, Minnesota, to Lulu and Henry E. Lowe. His family moved to Cassopolis, Michigan, where he attended high school at Cassopolis High School. He had four children and six grandchildren. He served in the US Navy in World War II.

Invention of cat litter
Before Lowe's invention, people kept their cats outside, using ashes, dirt or sand as cat litter when it was necessary to keep them inside. One day in January 1947, Mrs. Draper, Edward Lowe's neighbor in Cassopolis, Michigan, asked him for some sand to use as cat litter. Her sand pile was frozen so she had been using ashes but they tracked all over her house. Instead of sand, Lowe gave her some clay called Fuller's Earth, a set of clay minerals capable of absorbing their weight in water. She found it worked far better than sand or ashes. In later years he worked on developing a litter product for chimpanzee waste with Jane Goodall, but was unable to develop a successful product.

Career
In 1947, Lowe decided to sell the clay. He packaged it in  bags and called it "Kitty Litter". He suggested that a local pet store sell it for 65 cents (or $ today). The store owner refused, saying that it would not sell because sand was so much cheaper. Lowe told him to give it away free until people were willing to pay for it. Kitty Litter was a success. Lowe drove around the country selling Kitty Litter. He even cleaned boxes at cat shows so he could get a booth to demonstrate his product. He founded Edward Lowe Industries and created Tidy Cat cat box filler in 1964. In the early 1980s, he almost lost his market to Clorox, but by 1990, Edward Lowe Industries was the top producer of cat box filler.

In Lowe's later years, he decided the best way for his business to continue after his death was to hand the running over to a management team funded by venture capitalists from New York and Chicago.  The sale went through in 1990, with the company being renamed the Golden Cat Corporation; Lowe remained as an equity holder and director. The sale was later estimated by The New York Times as being $200 million (or $ million today). Following his death, Golden Cat Corporation was sold to Ralston Purina.

References

External links
 The Edward Lowe Foundation

1920 births
1995 deaths
United States Navy personnel of World War II
Businesspeople from Saint Paul, Minnesota
People from Cassopolis, Michigan
20th-century American businesspeople
20th-century American inventors

Ed Lowe (businessman)


Booby Island Light is an active heritage-listed lighthouse located on Booby Island in the Shire of Torres, near the tip of Cape York Peninsula, west of Prince of Wales Island, within the Endeavour Strait, Queensland, Australia. It marks the western entrance to the navigation channel through the Torres Strait. It was the last of the major lights to be constructed along the Queensland coast.

History
The colony of Queensland was formed in 1859. In 1862, the Queensland government appointed the first Portmaster, Commander George Poynter Heath. During the following years, several committees were held, but none of them recommended the erection of a lighthouse on Booby Island. It was Heath who first recommended the construction of such a lighthouse, at the Intercolonial Conference of Marine Departments in 1873, where a first order light was finally recommended by the delegates. However, this recommendation was not followed through, and it was only in August 1885 that Heath referred to the lighthouse again, as trade through the Torres Strait increased, and a traffic channel west of the Prince of Wales Island was established. Formal approval took four more years, and tenders for the lighthouse were called in April 1899. The accepted tender of  was by the brothers John and Jacob Rooney of Maryborough, which also constructed Sandy Cape Light, Cape Bowling Green Light, Cowan Cowan Point Light, Cape Capricorn Light and Lady Elliot Island Light. The light was first exhibited on 24 June 1890, and the total cost of construction was . Residences for the lighthouse keepers were also constructed in 1890.

The original lens was a second order Chance Brothers Fresnel lens, with a focal radius of , mounted on a rotating pedestal with mercury bearings. The light source was an oil wick burner with an intensity of 20,000 cd. In 1917 the light source was upgraded to an  vaporised kerosene mantle, with an intensity of 120,000 cd.

In 1961 a radio beacon was installed. In 1963 the lighthouse was converted to electricity. The light source at that time was a 120 Volt 1,000 Watt tungsten-halogen lamp providing 1,000,000 cd and visible for . The light characteristic was one flash every four seconds (Fl.W. 4s). A tide gauge was installed in 1970.

In November 1991 the power source was converted to solar power. The original lens and the pedestal were removed, the mercury drained, and the entire apparatus replaced with a modern rotating mechanism. The original apparatus now resides in the Thursday Island Museum. The battery banks were installed in the ground floor of the tower. The light characteristic was changed to the current, one white flash every ten seconds (Fl.W. 10s), and it is visible for . The light was fully automated and demanned in 1992.

Structures

The lighthouse is conical,  high, made of timber frame clad with galvanised iron. The tower is topped by the original  diameter Chance Brothers lantern. It is painted white, with red dome of sheet copper. The dome is topped by a rounded knob and a weather vane.

The residences include four cottages, three for the resident lighthouse keepers and an additional relief quarters. The resident keeper residences were built in 1890, and then renovated twice, in the 1920s and 1960s. They are timber-framed, clad with weatherboards and fibre cement. Also associated with these quarters is a glasshouse, timber-framed with external concrete block walls and a corrugated asbestos cement roof. The relief quarters, built in the late 1960s or early 1970s, are timber-framed with external walls of asbestos sheeting and a roof of corrugated asbestos cement.

Other buildings in the station include a radio equipment building that doubles as an office, a powerhouse with a fuel store, the tide gauge hut, the radio beacon transmitter building and a workshop. The radio equipment building is timber-framed with external painted concrete block walls and corrugated asbestos cement roof. The powerhouse and the fuel store are constructed of concrete blocks with a corrugated zinc sheeted roof. The powerhouse houses three diesel alternators which provide power to the station. The tide gauge hut, constructed in 1970, is timber-framed with fibre cement sheeting, a galvanised metal deck and an aluminium louvre mechanism. The radio beacon transmitter building, constructed in 1961, is built of concrete blocks with timber framed doors and aluminium hopper windows. Finally, the workshop is timber-framed with fibre cement walls and corrugated asbestos cement roof.

Site operation and visiting
The light is operated by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority. The site is managed by the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service. The location is accessible only by boat, and a special permit is required for landing. Both the tower and the location are closed to the public.

Heritage listing
The lighthouse was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register in 1998.

See also

 List of lighthouses in Australia

Notes

References

External links

Lighthouses completed in 1890
Lighthouses in Queensland
Queensland Heritage Register
Queensland places listed on the defunct Register of the National Estate
Torres Strait
1890 establishments in Australia

Booby Island Light


Henry Carroll Timmonds (May 12, 1853 – July 4, 1913) was an American judge and state legislator.

The oldest child of Dr. Landon Marion Timmonds and Jane Mandeville Tichenor, was born in Knoxville, Iowa, on May 12, 1853, less than a year after his parents moved there. Most of his life was spent in Missouri, growing up in Lamar and the general Barton County area where he was "Principal of Public Schools" for one term (at age 19 or 20), then marrying Katherine Faust in 1873 and moving to neighboring Cedar County, where he became editor (and printer) of the "Stockton Journal" from 1873 to 1878.

Even prior to his marriage and work as a journalist, H. C. Timmonds (called "Carroll" by his friends) had been interested in the law, and had read law under a local Lamar attorney. He continued to study the subject while producing the newspaper and while Superintendent of Stockton Schools for two years. Finally, after studying under Judge D. P. Stratton, he was admitted to the Stockton bar in 1880, becoming a lawyer. (His third child, the first after his being admitted to the bar, was Reba Stratton Timmonds, presumably so named as to honor Judge Stratton.) After passing the bar, Henry Carroll Timmonds moved back to Lamar, and set up legal offices with several other local attorneys, becoming Prosecuting Attorney for Barton County for two terms.

After a few years, he entered politics, running as a Democrat for the office of representative to the state legislature from Barton County, to which he was elected in 1887. He served in the thirty-fourth Missouri General Assembly, and was on the Judicial Committee.

Several years after his career as a legislator ended he was elected Judge of the Twenty-sixth Judicial Circuit Court, a position he held for about five years. After that time he was usually called Judge Timmonds. During his years as a judge, Henry Carroll Timmonds tried one case which involved much local and even some national interest, one of the so-called "boodle" trials. These cases involved several state senators who had solicited "boodle" (bribe money) in exchange for their votes. Oddly, this was not contrary to any Missouri statute at the time. Judge Timmonds, though, found Senator W. P. Sullivan guilty under the common law, and the senator was convicted and fined, thus setting a significant precedent.

Judge Timmonds moved to Kansas City, Missouri, in 1905, becoming a law partner of U. S. Senator William Warner. He was injured in a carriage accident that killed his wife, Katherine "Kate" Faust, in 1909, but remarried the next year, to Anastasia Murray. He died on July 4, 1913.

Sources

Missouri state court judges
Members of the Missouri House of Representatives
Missouri lawyers
Iowa lawyers
People from Knoxville, Iowa
1853 births
1913 deaths
People from Lamar, Missouri
American lawyers admitted to the practice of law by reading law
19th-century American judges
19th-century American lawyers

Henry Carroll Timmonds


In fiction, a false protagonist is a literary technique, often used to make the plot more jarring or more memorable by fooling the audience's preconceptions, that constructs a character who the audience assumes is the protagonist but is later revealed not to be.

A false protagonist is presented at the start of the fictional work as the main character, but then is eradicated, often by killing them (usually for shock value or as a plot twist) or changed in terms of their role in the story (i.e. making them a lesser character, a character who leaves the story, or revealing them to actually be the antagonist).

Overview
In film, a character can be made to seem like the main protagonist based on a number of techniques (beyond just simply focusing the plot on their role). Star power is a very effective method; audience members generally assume that the biggest "name" in a film will have a significant part to play. An abundance of close-ups can also be used as a subliminal method. Generally, the star of a film will get longer-lasting and more frequent close-ups than any other character, but this is rarely immediately apparent to viewers during the film. Alternatively, the false protagonist can serve as a narrator to the film, encouraging the audience to assume that the character survives to tell their tale later.

Many of the same techniques used in film can also apply to television, but the episodic nature adds an additional possibility. By ending one or more episodes with the false protagonist still in place, the show can reinforce the viewers' belief in the character's protagonist status. Also, because TV shows often have changes of cast between seasons, some series can have unintentional false protagonists: characters who begin the series as the main character but then are replaced early in the show's run by another character entirely. When the series is viewed as a whole, this can lead to the appearance of a false protagonist.

In video games, a false protagonist may initially be a playable character, only to be killed or revealed to be the antagonist. One key way in which video games employ the method that differs from uses in non-interactive fiction is by granting the player direct control over the false protagonist. Since most video games allow a player to control only the main characters (and their success or failure is based on playing skill, not pre-determined story), the sudden demise of the character that is being controlled serves to surprise the player.

Examples

Literature
The Book of Samuel begins with Samuel's birth and God's call to him as a boy. At this point, readers are led to believe that Samuel is the central figure of the book. However, by the sixteenth chapter, the book begins to primarily focus on David.
 The story of Aladdin in the Arabian Nights begins with a wizard undertaking a difficult quest from Morocco to China to recover a powerful magical lamp. Gradually, it becomes clear that the boy Aladdin, whom the Wizard meets in China, is the true protagonist, while the Wizard is the story's villain.
 Robert A. Heinlein's  1940 science fiction short story The Roads Must Roll begins with an orator stirring up a rebellion among the workers of the story's "roadtowns" (wide rapidly moving passenger platforms). The orator enumerates the workers' grievances, gaining their and the reader's sympathy. However, the rebelling workers then callously cause mass death and injuries among commuters, and the true protagonist is revealed to be the director working effectively and courageously to put down the rebellion. By the end, the original orator is depicted  as a cowardly and contemptible villain.
George R. R. Martin's novel A Game of Thrones, the first entry in the A Song of Ice and Fire epic fantasy series, features chapters told from the point of view of numerous characters, though the most prominent is Ned Stark. In the television adaptation Game of Thrones, he was portrayed by Sean Bean, who received top billing among the cast for Season One. Stark is generally assumed to be the series' main protagonist until the final chapters of the novel (corresponding to the penultimate episode of the first season) where he is unexpectedly executed.
The light novel Goblin Slayer introduces a Warrior, Mage, and Monk who recruit a Priestess for a goblin killing quest. The three are eaten, poisoned to death, and sexually assaulted to the point of ending up in a vegetative state. The Priestess is rescued by the legendary Goblin Slayer who replaces her escorts as the protagonist. The escorts were featured in promotional marketing material for the novel and its anime adaptation until the first episode was released.
Juan Rulfo's novel Pedro Paramo initially features Juan Preciado, who is searching for his father as a final wish made to his dying mother, as the main protagonist of the story. Halfway through the novel, Juan Preciado unexpectedly dies in the abandoned town of Comala. The latter half of the novel focuses exclusively on the life of Pedro Paramo, his rise to power, and how his ambition and ruthlessness leads to Comala's demise.

Film
 Alfred Hitchcock's film Psycho opens with Marion Crane as the main character.  However, she is killed partway through the film, making the murder far more unexpected and shocking. Hitchcock felt that the opening scenes with Marion as the false protagonist were so important to the film that when it was released in theaters, he compelled theater owners to enforce a "no late admission" policy.
 In the action film Executive Decision, the character played by Steven Seagal is introduced as a major protagonist only to be killed at the end of the first act, leaving the character played by Kurt Russell as the film's true hero.

Video games
 In Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, the player assumes the roles of two alternating player characters, SAS operative Sgt. John "Soap" MacTavish and U.S. Marine Sgt. Paul Jackson, during the game's first act. At the end of the first act, Sgt. Jackson is killed in a nuclear explosion, after which Soap is the sole player character for the rest of the game.
 In Fatal Frame, the player assumes the role of Mafuyu in the prologue. Then after that, Miku, Mafuyu's sibling, becomes the main protagonist.
 In Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, the player initially plays as Solid Snake, protagonist of the original Metal Gear games. However, the majority of the game after that is played with Raiden, with Snake becoming a deuteragonist.
 In Final Fantasy XII, the player start the game playing as a young soldier named Reks. After less than an hour of gameplay, Reks is suddenly killed, and the game resumes play following Vaan, Reks' younger brother.
 In Kingdom Hearts II, Roxas is initially portrayed as the protagonist in the first few hours of gameplay.  However, after finding the pod in which Sora has been imprisoned for more than a year, he vanishes, and Sora regains his role as protagonist.  Though Roxas continues to appear throughout the game in Organization XIII flashbacks, he does not return to playable status, only being revealed as Sora's Nobody, created from the time that he had become a Heartless in the original game.
 In The Godfather: The Game, scenes introduce a gangster, who works for the Corleone family. The gangster is shown saving his son's life from the resultant fire, after which the player is allowed to control the gangster as the primary character while he defeats the thugs. When all the enemies are defeated, the game cuts to an FMV scene where the gangster is surprisingly shot dead by Barzini thugs. Play resumes with the player in control of the true protagonist of the game: his previously-mentioned son, who wants revenge for his father's death.
 In Star Fox Adventures, one first uses Krystal, but then she is captured by Andross, and Fox McCloud regains his position as main character throughout the game.
 In Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War Sigurd is the main character at first. However, at the middle of the story, he is killed by Arvis, and his son Seliph takes over from him as the protagonist.
 In Xenoblade, Dunban is portrayed as the protagonist during the prologue. However, after he is unable to wield the Monado anymore due to his right arm being severely injured, the character Shulk becomes the protagonist. Dunban later joins up with Shulk and fights alongside him for the remainder of the game as a "supporting main character."
 In Assassin's Creed III, Haytham Kenway is portrayed as the protagonist during the prologue. However, after initiating Charles Lee into the order, it is revealed that Haytham was actually a Templar master and becomes the game's antagonist. The game then proceeds to switch to Haytham's son Connor Kenway, also known as Ratonhnhaké:ton, who becomes an assassin after his village is burned down.
 In Silent Hill 4: The Room, during the prologue Joseph Schreiber is portrayed as the protagonist, but is later killed by Walter Sullivan. After the prologue the game proceeds to Henry Townsend, who comes to live in the apartment previously inhabited by Joseph.
 In Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, Kaede Akamatsu is initially portrayed as the protagonist of the game. However, she is later executed at the end of chapter 1, and her role as protagonist is replaced by Shuichi Saihara.

See also
Antihero
False hero
Plot twist
Red herring (narrative)

References

Counterparts to the protagonist
Heroes

False protagonist


Mr. Microchip is a live-action children's television series that focused on the world of computer technology and the (then) relatively new home computer trend of the early 1980s. Several 8-bit home computers of the era were seen in the show, including the Apple II, Commodore, Atari and Tandy series. It was originally broadcast in Canada on the CBC, between 1983 and 1985, and later shown in the U.K., Australia and South Africa.

Production
The show was produced by Canadian animation company, Nelvana, whom at the time had also produced some of its first television series: Inspector Gadget, 20 Minute Workout and The Edison Twins. A total of thirteen episodes were produced. The original scripts were later re-used to produce the same thirteen episodes in French, using different actors, as a show titled M. Micropuce. All twenty-six episodes were produced during the summer of 1982 through the fall of 1984.

The series was created by Skip Lumley and Michael Hirsh, Nelvana and Ventura Pictures, produced by Michael Hirsh and directed by Peter Jennings. Most of the computer hardware, software and electronics in the show were donated by various companies, looking to promote their products at the time.

To date, the show has not been released on home video or DVD.

Synopsis
Aimed at school students aged nine to fifteen, and designed to teach children basic knowledge about computers. It featured Skip Lumley, an adult computer consultant, and his two neighbours, twelve-year-old Stevie Grosfield and his ten-year-old sister Dayna Simon. Visiting Skip's workshop, Stevie and Dayna learned about computers through hands-on demonstrations and clear, analogy-filled explanations. The trio were accompanied by an artificial intelligence fantasy computer named Lumley and a robot called Hero.

Episodes (1982-84)

Episode  1 - "Information please"
Episode  2 - "Bits of programming"
Episode  3 - "Memory is made of this"
Episode  4 - "The computer has a code"
Episode  5 - "Problems, problems, problems"
Episode  6 - "You can count on computers"
Episode  7 - "Flights of fancy"
Episode  8 - "A pixel is worth a thousand words"
Episode  9 - "Music on key"
Episode 10 - "Does that compute?"
Episode 11 - "Games computers play"
Episode 12 - "Ask the teacher"
Episode 13 - "Computers don't do windows"

See also
The Edison Twins, Nelvana's first live-action series.
Bill Nye the Science Guy
Beakman's World
The Screen Savers

References

1980s Canadian children's television series
Television series by Nelvana
1983 Canadian television series debuts
1983 Canadian television series endings

Mr. Microchip


The Punggol LRT Line is the third line of the LRT system in Singapore. Its first phase comprises a 10.3 km line with 15 stations.

The Punggol LRT Line serves the residents in the town and urban planning area of Punggol.

Punggol LRT station, the centerpiece of the line, is located directly above the Punggol MRT station, thus linking up the Punggol LRT Line to the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) system that spans the entire island of Singapore.

History
Plans for the Punggol LRT Line were drawn up and announced in January 1999 with the development of Punggol New Town.

Construction began in June 2000 by a consortium comprising SembCorp Industries, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Mitsubishi Corporation, at a cost of S$354 million. Construction of the first phase was completed in June 2004, and underwent testing by the Land Transport Authority. The system was handed over to SBS Transit on 1 December 2004, who conducted more trial runs and staff training before the opening of the East Loop on 29 January 2005. The West Loop opened on 29 June 2014.

Timeline
29 January 2005: Line opened on East Loop except Oasis and Damai
15 November 2007: Oasis (PE6) Opened.
20 June 2011: Damai (PE7) Opened. East Loop become bidirectional whole day.
29 June 2014: West Loop opened between Nibong (PW5) and Soo Teck (PW7), in unidirectional manner.
29 February 2016: Sam Kee (PW1) opened.

Stations
There are 15 Stations on this line, in the future we will have North Loop (PN) in the future. The 'PE' means Punggol LRT East Loop.

Punggol (PTC/NE17), Interchange with North East Line

East Loop (PE)
Cove (PE1)

Meridian (PE2)

Coral Edge (PE3)

Riviera (PE4)

Kadaloor (PE5)

Oasis (PE6)

Damai (PE7)

West Loop
Sam Kee (PW1)

Teck Lee (PW2), Station Not in Service

Punggol Point (PW3)

Samudera (PW4)

Nibong (PW5)

Sumang (PW6)

Soo Teck (PW7)

Improvements
On 31 October 2012, LTA announced that by 2016, Sengkang and Punggol LRT systems will be upgraded to a two-car system for the 41 existing train cars, allowing double the number of passengers to board at any one time. Each train car can take up to 105 passengers. 16 more train-cars will also be procured. This will bring the total fleet size to 57 train-cars. Hence, there is also the need to modify the signalling and communication system.

Rolling stock
Trains operating on the line are Mitsubishi Crystal Movers (C810) manufactured by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. These trains operate from the Sengkang Depot which serves maintenance and train overhaul facilities for trains along the Sengkang and Punggol LRT lines.

Related pages
Light Rail Transit (Singapore)
Bukit Panjang LRT Line
Sengkang LRT Line

References

Light Rail Transit (Singapore)

Punggol LRT Line


John Mortimer Brinkley (born 1763 or 1766died 14 September 1835) was the first Royal Astronomer of Ireland and later Bishop of Cloyne. He was President of the Royal Irish Academy (1822–35), President of the Royal Astronomical Society (1831–33). He was awarded the Cunningham Medal in 1818, and the Copley Medal in 1824.

Early years
Brinkley was born in Woodbridge, Suffolk and was baptised there on 31 January 1763, the illegitimate son of Sarah Brinkley, a butcher's daughter.

On being admitted to Cambridge, he was recorded as being the son of John Toler Brinkley, a vintner, but it is strongly suggested that his real father was John Toler, 1st Earl of Norbury, Chief Justice of the Irish Court of Common Pleas.

His exact date of birth is unknown; he has often been assigned the birth year 1763, as at least one obituary gives his age at death in 1835 as 72. However, his memorial at Trinity College Dublin states that he died aged 70; also, he was recorded as being 17 upon matriculation at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge in August 1783, both of which imply a slightly later birth year.

Career

Scientific

He graduated Bachelor of Arts (BA) in 1788 as Senior Wrangler and Smith's Prizeman, was elected a fellow of the college and was awarded Cambridge Master of Arts (MA Cantab) in 1791. He was ordained at Lincoln Cathedral in the same year.

In 1792 he became the second Andrews Professor of Astronomy at Trinity College Dublin,  which carried the new title of Royal Astronomer of Ireland. He was the director at the Dunsink Observatory from 1790 to 1827. Together with John Law, Bishop of Elphin, he drafted the chapter on "Astronomy" in William Paley's Natural Theology. His main work concerned stellar astronomy and he published his Elements of Plane Astronomy in 1808.

In 1818 he was awarded the prestigious Cunningham Medal of the Royal Irish Academy and in 1822 was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was awarded the Copley Medal by the Royal Society in 1824.

Brinkley's observations that several stars shifted their apparent place in the sky in the course of a year were disproved at Greenwich by his contemporary John Pond, the Astronomer Royal. In 1826, he was appointed Bishop of Cloyne in County Cork, a position he held for the remaining nine years of his life. Brinkley was elected President of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1831, serving in that position for two years.

He was also an honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (HFRSE).

Clerical

On May 24 May 1806 he was appointed a prebendary of Elphin Cathedral; and on 5 June 1806 he became Rector of Derrybrusk. Later that year Trinity College Dublin awarded him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. He was appointed the Archdeacon of Clogher in 1808; and collated to the Vicarage of Laracor. There is a memorial to him in Cloyne Cathedral.

Family
Brinkley married Esther, daughter of Matthew Weld of Molesworth Street, Sheriff of Dublin City, by his wife Elizabeth Kane, daughter of Nathaniel Kane (d. 1757) of Drumreaske, County Monaghan; Sheriff (1720) and Lord Mayor of Dublin (1734); co-founder of the Bank of Kane & Latouche. Brinkley and his wife were the parents of two sons and a daughter: John (1793–1847), Rector of Glanworth, Diocese of Cloyne, who married Anna, second daughter and co-heir of Walter Stephens, of Hybla, County Kildare; Sarah Jane (1801–1827), second wife of Dr. Robert Graves, who died giving birth to a daughter; and Matthew (1797–1855) J.P., of Parsonstown House, County Meath, who married Harriet, a daughter of Richard Graves and with her was the father of Francis Brinkley.

Death
Brinkley died in 1835 at Leeson Street, Dublin and was buried in Trinity College chapel. He was succeeded at Dunsink Observatory by William Rowan Hamilton.

Arms

References

W. W. Rouse Ball, A History of the Study of Mathematics at Cambridge University, 1889, repr. Cambridge University Press, 2009, , p. 109

1760s births
1835 deaths
Year of birth uncertain
Directors of Dunsink Observatory
Doctors of Divinity
19th-century British astronomers
Recipients of the Copley Medal
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Fellows of the Royal Society
People from Woodbridge, Suffolk
Fellows of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Academics of Trinity College Dublin
Anglican bishops of Cloyne
Senior Wranglers
Date of birth unknown
18th-century British astronomers
19th-century Anglican bishops in Ireland
Presidents of the Royal Astronomical Society
Archdeacons of Clogher
Presidents of the Royal Irish Academy
People educated at Woodbridge School
18th-century Irish astronomers
19th-century Irish astronomers

John Brinkley (astronomer)


Raúl Rojas González (born 1955, in Mexico City) is an emeritus professor of Computer Science and Mathematics at the Free University of Berlin, and a renowned specialist in artificial neural networks. The FU-Fighters, football-playing robots he helped build, were world champions in 2004 and 2005. He is now leading an autonomous car project called Spirit of Berlin.

He and his team were awarded the Wolfgang von Kempelen Prize for his work on Konrad Zuse and the history of computers. Although most of his current research and teaching revolves around artificial intelligence and its applications, he holds academic degrees in mathematics and economics.

In 2009 the Mexican government created the Raúl Rojas González Prize for scientific achievement by Mexican citizens. The first recipient of the prize was Luis Rafael Herrera Estrella, for contributions to plant biotechnology.

He ran for president at the Free University of Berlin in 2010.

History
Rojas was born on June 25, 1955, in Mexico City to an engineer and a teacher. He attended university at the National Polytechnic Institute in Mexico City, where he majored in Mathematics and Physics. He moved to Germany in 1982 as a doctoral student in economics under the guidance of the political economist Elmar Altvater. The resulting dissertation was published under the title "Die Armut der Nationen – Handbuch zur Schuldenkrise von Argentinien bis Zaire" (The poverty of nations – Handbook of debt crisis from Argentina to Zaire). He became a full professor at University of Halle-Wittenberg in 1994, and later moved to the Free University of Berlin, where he remains today in the Informatics department. His wife, Margarita Esponda Argüero, is a professor in the same department.

Prizes
2001: Gründerpreis Multimedia of the German Ministry of Finance and Technology
2002: European Academic Software Award
2004 and 2005: World champions in football robots with the FU-Fighters
2005: Wolfgang von Kempelen Prize for the History of Informatics
2009: Received the Heberto Castillo gold medal for contributions to science from the Mexico City government
2015: Was named Professor of the year by the Association of German Universities
2015: Received the National Prize of Sciences and Arts by the Mexican Government in the category of Technology and Design

Works
  Available as a free e-book

References

External links
Homepage of Raúl Rojas at the Free University of Berlin
Curriculum vitae of Raúl Rojas
FU-Fighters football robots
Autonomous car project

1955 births
Living people
National Autonomous University of Mexico alumni
Instituto Politécnico Nacional alumni
Scientists from Mexico City
Mexican scientists
Academic staff of the Free University of Berlin

Raúl Rojas


Charles H. Robbins (born 1965/1966) is an American businessman, and the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Cisco Systems.

Early life
Robbins was born in Grayson, Georgia, and educated at Rocky Mount High School in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. He earned a Bachelor of Mathematics degree, in 1987, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Career
Robbins began his career as an application developer for North Carolina National Bank, (now part of Bank of America). After five years, he then joined Wellfleet Communications, which merged with SynOptics to become Bay Networks, followed by a brief tenure at Ascend Communications, before joining Cisco, in 1997.

At Cisco, Robbins filled various posts, including senior vice president of the Americas and senior vice president of Worldwide Field Operations, a role in which he led Cisco's Worldwide Sales and Partner Organizations, and built out Cisco's partnership program.

In May 2015, Cisco announced that the CEO and chairman John Chambers would step down as CEO in July 2015, while remaining as chairman. Robbins, then a senior vice president, was named as his successor. Mentored by Chambers;
 Robbins was unanimously voted in as the company's new chief executive, becoming CEO of Cisco Systems in July 2015.

As CEO, Robbins became noted for accelerating the pace of Cisco's modern growth, while disrupting outdated working modes; promoting employee trust based in transparency of policy and process; and humanitarian policies and workplace diversity.

In 2018, as the GDPR came into effect, Robbins called for more regulation and for the tech industry to help educate regulators. In February 2019, Robbins promoted the need for comprehensive global privacy legislation, asserting privacy as "a fundamental human right."

Robbins advocated against a 15% increase on tariffs for Chinese goods. Robbins has advocated for corporate social responsibility. In March 2018, Cisco pledged to donate $50M to Destination: Home, an organization devoted to ending homelessness in Santa Clara County, where Cisco's headquarters is located; Robbins serves as honorary counsel to the NPO.

Boards and affiliations
Robbins serves the World Economic Forum as the chair for the IT Governors Steering Committee and as a member of the International Business Council. He is a member of the Ford Foundation board of trustees. He is a director for BlackRock, and for the Business Roundtable, where he chairs the Immigration Committee.

In 2018, Robbins authored a statement on behalf of Business Roundtable that applauded bipartisan lawmakers working to reform immigration policies, while urging the White House "Administration to end immediately the policy of separating accompanied minors from their parents," decrying the practice as "cruel and contrary to American values."

Robbins spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in 2016, 2017, and 2018, and at the 2019 WEF annual general meeting.

He has been a board member of the MS Society of Northern California; a member of the Advisory Board of Georgia Tech; and a member of the International Council for the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University. He is also a member of the 2019 class of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Personal life
Robbins is a fan of North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball; participates in social media, and is noted for his humor. He is married with four children and lives in Los Gatos, California.

References

External links
 "Behind the scenes at Cisco with CEO Chuck Robbins and his team" (video) Cisco; April 2, 2019. Accessed June 28, 2109.

Living people
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni
American chief executives of manufacturing companies
American technology chief executives
Cisco people
1960s births
People from Los Gatos, California
People from Gwinnett County, Georgia

Chuck Robbins


The 1945 Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit were the 10th rendition of the Governor General's Awards, Canada's annual national awards program which then comprised literary awards alone. The awards recognized Canadian writers for new English-language works published in Canada during 1945 and were presented in 1946. There were no cash prizes.

As every year from 1942 to 1948, there two awards for non-fiction, and four awards in the three established categories, which recognized English-language works only.

Winners

 Fiction:  Hugh MacLennan, Two Solitudes
 Poetry or drama: Earle Birney, Now is Time
 Non-fiction: Evelyn M. Richardson, We Keep a Light
 Non-fiction: Ross Munro, Gauntlet to Overlord

References

Governor General's Awards
Governor General's Awards
Governor General's Awards

1945 Governor General's Awards


Coenwulf (also spelled Cenwulf and Kenulf) (died 821) was a Mercian nobleman and the King of Mercia from December 796 until his death. He claimed to be a descendant of a Cenwalh, a brother of Penda and Eowa. The sudden death of King Ecgfrith of Mercia was suspicious and certainly benefited Coenwulf but he was never formally accused. Coenwulf proved to be a strong king who quickly restored Mercian dominance in southern England. He was the last of the Mercian overlords or bretwaldas.

King of Mercia

Coenwulf was the son of Cuthbert, a Mercian nobleman. He came to the throne in 796, the same year Offa and his son Ecgfrith both died. At the same time Coenwulf became king, Eadberht Praen set himself up as king of Kent. An Eadwald set himself up as king of the East Angles and began issuing coins. When Eadberht Praen expelled Aethelheard, the Archbishop of Canterbury from Kent, Coenwulf contacted Pope Leo III and got permission to remove the new Kentish king. Eadbert attacked Kent, and captured Eadbert. He then set up his brother Cuthred as king of Kent. Coenwulf then dealt with East Anglia where Eadwald had tried to gain independence from Mercia. In 799 Coenwulf made a peace treaty with Wessex. He restored Mercian power to southern England very quickly. He then began using the style of Charlemagne calling himself king and emperor. He attacked the Welsh making raids on Gwynedd and Powys. In one of these battles Caradog ap Meirion, the king of Gwynedd was killed. In 801 King Eardwulf of Northumbria attacked Mercia. He accused Coenwulf of giving refuge to his enemies. Eventually the two made peace on equal terms. This was through the mediations of several bishops and nobles.

Coenwulf wanted all the English churches placed under the authority of a single archbishop. But he wanted him seated in London, not Canterbury. He managed to abolish the archbishopric of Lichfield in 803. Coenwulf tried to convince the pope on moving the remaining archbishopric to London. But the pope felt that Coenwulf's success in bringing Kent under his control meant the move was no longer necessary. So the archbishop remained in Canterbury, Kent. When Archbishop Aethelheard died in 805, his archdeacon Wulfred was appointed the new archbishop. Wulfred witnessed charters for Coenwulf from 805 to 817 but then promptly stopped. Archbishop Wulfred and King Coenwulf quarreled for several years. It may have started over a claim by Coenwulf to various lands held by the see of  Canterbury. Wulfred in turn began minting coins without the name of King Coenwulf. Finally in 817 Coenwulf took Wulfred's monasteries of Reculver and Minster-in-Thanet. Then he brought charges against Wulfred to Pope Paschal I. As a result, Wulfred was relieved of many of his duties by the pope. In 821 Coenwulf summoned the archbishop to appear before him in London. There Wulfred was fined 120 pounds and an estate of 250 hides He was then restored to his duties as archbishop. In 818 he was again attacking the Britons in Dyfed. He was planning another campaign against Wales when he died in 821. He was succeeded by his brother Ceolwulf I of Mercia. Coenwulf was buried at Winchcombe abbey where his daughter Cwenthryh was later abbess. A lead seal belonging to King Coenwulf was found during the 19th century in Italy. It is now in the British Museum.

Family

Coenwulf had two known children:

 Cynehelm (died 812), heir to the throne but died before his father.
 Cwenthryh, abbess of Winchcombe in Gloucestershire. Was thought to be involved in the murder of her brother Cynehelm.

Notes

References

Other websites
 The Kings of Mercia

Year of birth unknown
820s deaths
Kings and Queens of Mercia

Coenwulf of Mercia


British Plant Communities is a five-volume work, edited by John S. Rodwell and published by Cambridge University Press, which describes the plant communities which comprise the British National Vegetation Classification.

Its coverage includes all native vegetation communities and some artificial ones of Great Britain, excluding Northern Ireland.  The series is a major contribution to plant conservation in Great Britain, and, as such, covers material appropriate for professionals and amateurs interested in the conservation of native plant communities.  Each book begins with an introduction to the techniques used to survey the particular vegetations within its scope,  discussing sampling, the type of data collected, organization of the data, and analysing the data.  Each community is discussed with an overall emphasis of the ecology of the community, so that users can consider the relationships of various plant communities to each other as a function of climatic or soil conditions, for example.

The five volumes are:

 British Plant Communities Volume 1 – Woodlands and Scrub
This volume was first published in 1991 in hardback () and in 1998 in paperback ()

 British Plant Communities Volume 2 – Mires and Heaths
This volume was first published in 1991 in hardback () and in 1998 in paperback ()

 British Plant Communities Volume 3 – Grasslands and Montane Communities
This volume was first published in 1992 in hardback () and in 1998 in paperback ()

 British Plant Communities Volume 4 – Aquatic Communities, Swamps and Tall-herb Fens
This volume was first published in 1995 in hardback () and in 1998 in paperback ()

 British Plant Communities Volume 5 – Maritime Communities and Vegetation of Open Habitats
This volume was first published in 2000 in both hardback () and paperback ()

Errors

The following is a list of errors found in the published books:

 In Volume 1, on page 38–39, the branches leading from couplets 22 and 23 should read W12, not W14
 In volume 3, on page 117, the first branch in couplet 3 should lead to couplet 4, to enable the subcommunities of CG3 to be discerned
 In volume 3, page 284, the Juncus trifidus – Racomitrium lanuginosum community is referred to as community U11, whereas it is in fact community U9.
 In volume 4, page 19, the "free-floating or rooted and submerged pondweed vegetation" group of aquatic communities is listed as having seven constituent communities, when in fact it has eight.
 In volume 5, page 20, the "middle saltmarsh" grouping is listed as having eight constituent communities, when in fact it has nine.
 In volume 5, pages 142–143, there is a discrepancy between the stated distribution of community SD3 ("confined to Scotland") and the mapped distribution, which shows the community also occurring in Lancashire and Cumbria.
 In volume 5, page 482, Sedum anglicum is listed as a constituent species of community OV33; however, it is not present in the floristic table for this community on page 437

External links
 Cambridge University Press

 01
.
Ecology of the British Isles
Florae (publication)
.
Botany books
British non-fiction books
Books about the United Kingdom

British Plant Communities


X-Level Studios,  formerly known as EMI Studios, Abbey Road Studios and Cosmos Studios, is a recording studio in Skärmarbrink on the outskirts of Stockholm, Sweden. It has been running since the early 1960s.

It was founded by Kent Isaacs, who has been active both in the Swedish music scene as well as internationally since the 1980s, and owned by him until 2012, when it was bought by X-Level Media Group. After the purchase, the name was changed to X-Level Studios.

As Cosmos Studios, it was closely affiliated with sister company Cosmos Music Group.

References

External links

Recording studios in Sweden
Music in Stockholm

X-Level Studios


The following is a list of animated works as commissioned by Allspark Animation (a subsidiary of American toy company Hasbro; previously credited under Hasbro Studios) as a part of My Little Pony: Equestria Girls toy line and media franchise, which is a spin-off of the 2010 incarnation of Hasbro's main My Little Pony franchise.

The productions, especially films (2013–2016) and specials (2017–2019), are tie-ins to the yearly theme of Equestria Girls line-up of toys. The animations revolve around the main cast of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (the main My Little Pony line's television series), normally ponies, as teenage humanoid characters in a high school setting in an alternate universe.

Most of animated media were produced by DHX Studios Vancouver's 2D animation team in Canada, with the exception of Canterlot Shorts from 2017, which were produced by Boulder Media in the Republic of Ireland (a company acquired by Hasbro in 2016).

The following works were produced under this scope:

Films
 Equestria Girls (2013)
 Rainbow Rocks (2014)
 Friendship Games (2015)
 Legend of Everfree (2016)

Specials
 Magical Movie Night (2017)
 "Dance Magic"
 "Movie Magic"
 "Mirror Magic"
 Forgotten Friendship (2018)
 Rollercoaster of Friendship (2018)
 Spring Breakdown (2019)
 Sunset's Backstage Pass (2019)
 Holidays Unwrapped (2019)

Shorts
 Rainbow Rocks prelude shorts (2014)
 Rainbow Rocks encore shorts and Friendship Games prelude shorts (2015)
 Canterlot Shorts (2017)
 Music videos (2017)
 Better Together shorts (2017–2020)

In the United States, the Equestria Girls animations were broadcast on television on Discovery Family (a joint venture between Discovery, Inc. and Hasbro) and/or released online on its TV Everywhere platform Discovery Family Go, and released on the physical home media by Shout! Factory. The first three films, Equestria Girls, Rainbow Rocks and Friendship Games, each had a premiere screening event held prior to the release, with the first two films additionally having limited release in select theaters. Animated shorts (and, later, certain specials) were released freely worldwide on YouTube through Hasbro's official channels, and previously on the toy line's official website.

This list does not include Equestria Girls Minis animated shorts, the production company behind which is yet to be identified; see My Little Pony: Equestria Girls#Equestria Girls Minis shorts for details about the particular shorts.

Premise
As with the toy line, the animations are primarily set in a fictional world parallel to the pony-inhabited fantasy setting of the 2010 incarnation of My Little Pony, accessible via a magic mirror. The media additionally features alternate humanoid versions of pony characters in roles similar to the counterparts in Equestria; characters as depicted in the Friendship Is Magic television series who travel between worlds assume similar forms in the alternative setting.

The first film, Equestria Girls, follows Equestria's Twilight Sparkle in the parallel world, which is accessed through a magic mirror. Together, with the counterparts of her pony friends, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy, along with her assistant Spike, Twilight will have to deal with the various magical happenings in Canterlot High that originate from the mirror portal.

Later works put Sunset Shimmer, introduced in the first film as the major antagonist who betrayed her former teacher Princess Celestia but later reformed, in a reading role in place of Equestria's Twilight Sparkle. Friendship Games formally introduced the parallel world counterpart of Twilight Sparkle ( "Sci-Twi").

Productions
Allspark Animation (previsiously credited as Hasbro Studios), a subsidiary of Hasbro responsible for non-toy multimedia strategies, commissioned the productions. DHX Studios Vancouver's 2D animation team, part of Canadian company DHX Media's DHX Studios division, produced most of animations. However, the Canterlot Shorts from 2017 were produced by Boulder Media, an animation studio located in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, that Hasbro acquired in 2016.

To maintain continuity of the films with the Friendship Is Magic television series, Hasbro used the same writing staff as the show, including the story editor Meghan McCarthy, who considered the story to be "an extension of our mythology". McCarthy stated that with the Equestria Girls setting, "we might explore different aspects of relationships that in the pony world don't quite work the same as they do when you set it in a high school setting", thus making the work more appealing to older girls that are in high or junior high school.

Films (2013–2016)
Four Equestria Girls animated feature films, each lasting around 70 minutes, were released between 2013 and 2016, promoting the year's particular line-up of Equestria Girls dolls. The films were then followed by the animated specials beginning in 2017 (the year My Little Pony: The Movie, a wide release animated feature film, was distributed by Lionsgate Films).

The first two films were written by Meghan McCarthy and directed by Jayson Thiessen; the third film was written by Josh Haber and directed by Ishi Rudell; the fourth film was written by Kristine Songco and Joanna Lewis, and directed by Ishi Rudell.

Hasbro Studios listed the films as "TV specials" in the company's sales guide. However, in the United States and Canada, the first two films, Equestria Girls and Rainbow Rocks, had limited theatrical screenings in select cities before they were released on home media (by Shout! Factory for the region) and broadcast on television. In the U.S., these films were screened in Screenvision theaters, without any rating from the MPAA, while in Canada, they were shown in Cineplex theaters, with classifications from provincial film boards. There are no box office records in either area are available for the two films. Internationally, there have been theatrical releases of the films in some areas, but in most cases the films were only shown on television before (or after) it was released on home media.

Equestria Girls (2013)

In writing the script of the first film, Equestria Girls, Meghan McCarthy went back to the self-titled two-part pilot episodes of Friendship Is Magic, where Twilight Sparkle is sent to Ponyville for the first time and forced to meet new friends. She wanted to do the same with the film, in this case putting Twilight into a new world where she would again be forced to make new friends to succeed in her quest. Released in 2013, the film was premiered on June 15 as a part of Los Angeles Film Festival that year, before having limited theatrical releases in the United States and Canada the next day, and was released on home media on August 6.

Rainbow Rocks (2014)

The second film released in 2014, Rainbow Rocks centers around Twilight Sparkle, Sunset Shimmer and friends' activities against evil sirens using music. On February 13, 2014, Meghan McCarthy wrote on Twitter that she had worked on the film during the summer of 2013. That same day, songwriter Daniel Ingram also wrote on the service that there would be a total of 12 songs in the film; however, only 11 songs were used in the film. The film had a limited theatrical release from September 27, 2014, before it was out on home media on October 28 that year.

Friendship Games (2015)

Released in 2015, the third installment, Friendship Games, was first teased by Rainbow Rocks co-director, Ishi Rudell on December 12, 2014. The film was first broadcast on September 26, 2015 on Discovery Family in the U.S. and Family Channel in Canada, and was released on home media on October 13 that year. In the film, the alternative universe counterpart of Twilight Sparkle, a student at Crystal Prep, is forced by Principal Abacus Cinch to disrupt Friendship Games (a sporting event held every four years with Canterlot High) with magic.

Legend of Everfree (2016)

On October 3, 2015, CEO of Hasbro Studios Stephen Davis said that a fourth film, subtitled Legend of Everfree, was in development. The film was released on Netflix on October 1, 2016, and the home media release followed on November 1, 2016. In the film, the protagonists follow the damages at Camp Everfree caused by a creature so-called Gaea Everfree.

Specials (2017–2019)
Beginning in 2017, Hasbro released Equestria Girls animated specials in place of feature films. As with the four previous films, the specials promote the year's particular line-up of Equestria Girls dolls.

The three 22-minute specials were released in 2017. The following year, 2018, Hasbro began releasing extended specials. The original version of Forgotten Friendship (the first special to be produced under the current cycle) lasts around 50 minutes, but it was cut to around 44 minutes for television broadcasts. Subsequent specials (Rollercoaster of Friendship, Spring Breakdown, Sunset's Backstage Pass, Holidays Unwrapped) were produced to fit around the length of 44 minutes.

The specials since 2018 are also released freely worldwide on YouTube, after the initial release in the United States, through Hasbro's official channels. The YouTube release of specials are divided into parts, and released sequentially every week, in line with the Better Together shorts.

2017 specials

Three animated specials, each lasting around 22 minutes, were first announced in October 2016. The specials were broadcast on Discovery Family on Saturdays from June 24 to July 8, 2017, as a part of the channel's "Summer Splash" seasonal event. The first of the specials, "Dance Magic", focuses on the protagonists' attempt to enter a music video contest to win an amount of prize money, which they plan to use to help repair Camp Everfree; the second, "Movie Magic", follows the protagonists, who were invited to a film studio tour, encounter a series of incidents while the filming was taking place, and begin a group investigation; in "Mirror Magic", the last of the specials, Sunset Shimmer takes Starlight Glimmer to a tour of the parallel universe, and a corrupted mirror slowly influences a girl.

Forgotten Friendship (2018)

Forgotten Friendship ( Most Likely to be Forgotten), which succeeded the 2017 specials, was broadcast on February 17, 2018, on Discovery Family. The story follows Sunset Shimmer's discovery that her friends' memories of her have been mysteriously erased; she returns to Equestria and seeks help from Twilight Sparkle to find the cause before the memories vanish for good.

Rollercoaster of Friendship (2018)

Rollercoaster of Friendship was broadcast on July 6, 2018, on Discovery Family as a part of its "Summer Surprises" seasonal event. The story follows Rarity's acceptance of a summer job as a costume designer for a new amusement park and the strain that it puts on her friendship with the other girls, particularly Applejack.

Spring Breakdown (2019)

Spring Breakdown was broadcast on Discovery Family on March 30, 2019. In this special, the girls take a luxury cruise for spring break, but wayward magic imperils the passengers and forces Sunset Shimmer, and the parallel universe counterpart of Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash to visit Equestria for help from Ponyville's Twilight Sparkle.

Sunset's Backstage Pass (2019)

Sunset's Backstage Pass was broadcast on Discovery Family on July 27, 2019. It follows Sunset Shimmer as she attends a music festival along with other protagonists but finds herself stuck in a time loop.

Holidays Unwrapped (2019)

Holidays Unwrapped, a holiday season special, was broadcast on Discovery Family on November 2, 2019. Presented in an omnibus manner, the special follows the protagonists who prepare for, and enjoy, the parallel universe's equivalent of Christmas and holiday season.

Shorts (2014–2015; 2017–2020)

Rainbow Rocks and Friendship Games complementary shorts (2014–2015)

Feature films Rainbow Rocks and Friendship Games are each accompanied by a series of animated shorts released online. 8 animated shorts which served as a prelude to Rainbow Rocks were released in 2014, followed by 3 encore shorts to Rainbow Rocks and 5 prelude shorts to Friendship Games (in total, 8 animated shorts) in 2015. The shorts are also included in physical home media releases of the films as a part of special features.

Canterlot Shorts (2017)

The Canterlot Shorts (as referred by Hasbro, even though the title card for this series has nothing but an Equestria Girls logo) was premiered on July 30, 2017, on Discovery Family (where it is billed together with the music videos as Summertime Shorts) as a part of the channel's "Summer Splash" seasonal event. The series is the only animated media in the Equestria Girls franchise to be produced by Boulder Media in the Republic of Ireland (which Hasbro Studios acquired in 2016), and all episodes were written by Gillian M. Berrow (who also wrote the novelization of first Equestria Girls film as well as most of the Friendship Is Magic novels). The shorts were later released internationally on YouTube by Hasbro through its official channel.

Music videos (2017)

A series of music videos was premiered on July 30, 2017, on Discovery Family (where it is billed together with the Canterlot Shorts as Summertime Shorts) as a part of the channel's "Summer Splash" seasonal event. The shorts share the same title sequence as the 2017 television specials. The shorts were later released internationally on YouTube by Hasbro through its official channel.

Better Together shorts (2017–2020)

A plan to release a series of Equestria Girls animated shorts online sometime in 2018 was first mentioned at Hasbro's 2017 Investor Day event held in August that year. The plan was apparently brought forward, as the series (not to be confused with the Canterlot Shorts and the summer 2017 music videos that were released earlier in the same year), also known as Better Together shorts, was released on Discovery Family Go TV Everywhere platform in the United States in early November 2017, before having a worldwide debut on YouTube later in the same month. On YouTube, the shorts were released by Hasbro's official channel, before moving to My Little Pony's official channel.

As well as normal animated shorts, each season also includes a number of interactive shorts (initially labelled as "Choose Your Own Ending", before re-labelled as "You Choose the Ending") which utilize the interactivity function of Discovery Family Go platform (and previously that of YouTube, before such function was disabled for child-oriented videos in January 2020). In the shorts, viewers are offered three choices, each containing a different ending, at the end of the main video. Each ending can be watched by clicking (or tapping) a button onscreen. The endings don't affect the series' entire continuity, however.

Home media releases

References

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls
2013 introductions
Lists of animation
Magical girl films
Magical girl television series

List of My Little Pony: Equestria Girls animations


Frederick Culley (8 March 1879 – 3 November 1942) was a British film actor. He is best remembered as the kindly Dr. Sutton in The Four Feathers (1939).  His Father, Richard Palethorpe Culley, was an entrepreneur and philanthropist and his mother, Mary Widgery, came from a family of artists.  Her father was landscape painter, William Widgery, and her brother, Frederick Widgery, painted in the same genre.  Frederick Culley began his career in the theater, where his talent was recognized by the good reviews he usually received in the London press.  He appeared briefly in silent films before entering talkies but, by 1930, Culley was already 51 years old and his roles were primarily supporting ones. He was remarkably effective as Dr. Sutton, using a cane and convincing that he was in pain or discomfort because, in the book that inspired the movie, his character had suffered an accident to his leg.  There was nothing wrong with the actor's own legs.  Culley appeared in several other Alexander Korda productions.  Frederick Culley was married to Mildred C. Thomas in 1920.  They had no children.  The actor died of lung cancer at the Three Swans Hotel, Hungerford, Berkshire, where he was staying.

Filmography

References

External links

1879 births
1942 deaths
20th-century English male actors
English male film actors
Male actors from Plymouth, Devon

Frederick Culley


A meet-me room (MMR) is a place within a colocation center (or carrier hotel) where  telecommunications companies can physically connect to one another and exchange data without incurring local loop fees. Services provided across connections in an MMR may be voice circuits, data circuits, or Internet Protocol traffic.

An MMR provides a safe production environment where the carrier handover point equipment can be expected to run on a 24/7 basis with minimal risk of interruption. It is typically located within the data center.

To interconnect, companies order a patch from their cage or suite to the MMR and then arrange for the organization running the facility to connect them together. These physical connections may be an optical fiber cable, coaxial cable, twisted pair, or any other networking medium.

Typically, a meet-me room will discourage or disallow customers from installing large amounts of equipment.  However, multiplexing equipment is often welcome in the meet-me room, so that a customer can have a single connection between the room and the rest of their equipment in the building, and the multiplexing equipment can then break that out to allow for direct, private connections to several other organizations present in the meet-me room.

An Internet exchange point can also be present in a meet-me room to allow many organizations in the meet-me room to interchange traffic without having to make physical interconnections between every possible pair of organizations.

Examples
 One Wilshire: Los Angeles, California
 Westin Building: Seattle, Washington
 MAE-West (located in Market Post Tower): Downtown San Jose, California
 60 Hudson St, New York
 111 Eighth Ave, New York
 Infomart: Dallas, Texas
 350 E. Cermak Rd: Chicago
 165 Halsey Street, Newark, New Jersey
 399 Chai Wan Road, Hong Kong

References

Internet hosting
Internet architecture
Internet exchange points
Telecommunications infrastructure

Meet-me room


Tracy Coster is an Australian country music singer and songwriter. Her father, Stan Coster, was an acknowledged songwriter.

Early life
Coster was born on 12 April 1966, It is hard to determine the time Tracy Coster started her career. She was born into country music, and she grew up with the music her father Stan wrote. Tracy started singing in her father's band when she was about thirteen, and she was determined to become a country star. The family led a travelling life from one gig to the other.

Recording career
 1985 - release of the first single 'Why Do I Feel Like Crying'
 1987 - released debut album 'From The Heart'
 1991 - released album 'The Girl in the Band' - 'City Sidewalks' and 'Don't say Goodbye' became Top 10 hit singles.
 1993 - released the album 'Play the Game'
 2000 - released her first bush ballads album 'Bush Baby'
 2004 - released Coster Country - a tribute to her father Stan Coster.
 2006 - released single 'I Don't Want To Talk About Rain'

Achievements
 1986 - CMAA Golden Guitar Awards Finalist in Female Vocalist of the Year
 1994 - Inducted into the Hands of Fame in Tamworth
 1994 - CMAA Golden Guitar Finalist for Female Vocalist Of The Year with the Brian Poole and the Tremolos remake 'Someone'
 2004 - Named Australian Independent Country Music Award Heritage Track of the Year 'Bush Barbeque'
 2005 - Named CMAA Golden Guitar Awards Vocal Collaboration Of The Year with Anne Kirkpatrick for 'Back To The Saltbush Plains''
 2005 - Named Australian Independent Country Music Awards Album Of The Year
 2005 - Named Stan Coster Bush Ballad Awards Album Of The Year 'Coster Country'
 2005 - Named Stan Coster Bush Ballad Awards Comedy Song Of The Year 'Loaded Dog'
 2006 - Finalist in the ACMLA People's Choice Awards for Best Bush Ballad Of The Year

External links
 Tracy Coster Tracy Coster's homepage

1966 births
Australian country singer-songwriters
Australian women singer-songwriters
Australian singer-songwriters
Living people

Tracy Coster


Limiting similarity (informally "limsim") is a concept in theoretical ecology and community ecology that proposes the existence of a maximum level of niche overlap between two given species that will allow continued coexistence.

This concept is a corollary of the competitive exclusion principle, which states that, controlling for all else, two species competing for exactly the same resources cannot stably coexist. It assumes normally-distributed resource utilization curves ordered linearly along a resource axis, and as such, it is often considered to be an oversimplified model of species interactions. Moreover, it has theoretical weakness, and it is poor at generating real-world predictions or falsifiable hypotheses. Thus, the concept has fallen somewhat out of favor except in didactic settings (where it is commonly referenced), and has largely been replaced by more complex and inclusive theories.

History

In 1932, Georgii Gause created the competitive exclusion principle based on experiments with cultures of yeast and paramecium.  The principle maintains that two species with the same ecological niches cannot stably coexist. That is to say, when two species compete for identical resource access, one will be competitively superior and it will ultimately supplant the other. Over the next half century, limiting similarity slowly emerged as a natural outgrowth of this principle, aiming (but not necessarily succeeding) to be more quantitative and specific.

Noted ecologist and evolutionary biologist David Lack said retrospectively that he had already begun to mull around with the ideas of limiting similarity as early as the 1940s, but it wasn't until the end of the 1950s that the theory began to be built up and articulated. G. Evelyn Hutchinson's famous "Homage to Santa Rosalia" was the next foundational paper in the history of the theory. Its subtitle famously asks, "Why are there so many kinds of animals?", and the address attempts to answer this question by suggesting theoretical bounds to speciation and niche overlap. For the purposes of understanding limiting similarity, the key portion of Hutchinson's address is the end where he presents the observation that a seemingly ubiquitous ratio (1.3:1) defines the upper bound of morphological character similarity between closely related species. While this so-called Hutchinson ratio and the idea of a universal limit have been overturned by later research, the address was still foundational to the theory of limiting similarity.

MacArthur and Levins were the first to introduce the term 'limiting similarity' in their 1967 paper. They attempted to lay out a rigorous quantitative basis for the theory using probability theory and the Lotka–Volterra competition equations. In doing so, they provided the ultimate theoretical framework on which many subsequent studies were based.

Theory

As proposed by MacArthur and Levins in 1967, the theory of limiting similarity is rooted in the Lotka–Volterra competition model. This model describes two or more populations with logistic dynamics, adding in an additional term to account for their biological interactions. Thus for two populations, x1 and x2:

where

α12 represents the effect species 2 has on the population of species 1
α21 represents the effect species 1 has on the population of species 2
dy/dt and dx/dt represent the growth of the two populations with time;
K1 and K2 represent these species' respective carrying capacities
r1 and r2 represent these species' respective growth rates

MacArthur and Levins examine this system applied to three populations, also visualized as resource utilization curves, depicted below. In this model, at some upper limit of competition α, between two species x1 and x3, the survival of a third species x2 between the other two is not possible. This phenomenon is termed limiting similarity.  Evolutionary, if two species are more similar than some limit L, a third species will converge towards the nearer of the two competitors. If the two species are less similar than some limit L, a third species will evolve an intermediate phenotype.

[embedded graph: U v R. x1, x2, x3 curves.]

For each resource R, U represents the probability of utilization per unit time by an individual. At some level of overlap between species x1 and x3, the survival of a third species x2 is no longer possible.

May extended this theory when considering species with different carrying capacities, concluding that coexistence was unlikely if the distance between the modes of competing resource utilization curves d was less than the standard deviation of the curves w.

Applied examples

It is of note that the theory of limiting similarity does not easily generate falsifiable predictions about natural phenomenon. However, many studies have tried to test the theory by making the highly suspect assumption that character displacement can be used as a close proxy for niche incongruence. One recent paleoecological study, for example, used fossil proxies of gastropod body size to determine levels of character displacement over 42,500 years during the Quaternary. They found little evidence of character displacement, and they concluded that "limiting similarity, as seen in both ecological character displacement and community-wide character displacement, is a transient ecological phenomenon rather than a long-term evolutionary process". Other theoretical and empirical studies tend to find results that similarly play down the strength and role of limiting similarity in ecology and evolution. For example, Abrams (who is prolific on the subject of limiting similarity) and Rueffler find in 2009 that "there is no absolute limit to similarity; there is always some range of mortality rates of one species allowing coexistence, given a fixed mortality of the other species".

What a lot of studies examining limiting similarity find are the weaknesses in the original theory that are addressed below.

Criticism

The key weakness of the theory of limiting similarity is that it is highly system specific and thus difficult to test in practice. In actual environments, one resource axis is inadequate and a specific analysis must be done for each given pair of species. In practice it is necessary to take into account:
individual variations in resource utilization curves within a species and how these should be weighted in calculating a common curve
whether the resource in question is a present in a deterministic or stochastic distribution and if this changes over time
effects of intraspecific competition vs interspecific competition
While these complications don't invalidate the concept, they render limiting similarity exceedingly difficult to test in practice and useful for little more than didacticism.

Furthermore, Hubbell and Foster point out that extinction via competition can take an extremely long time and the importance of limiting similarity in extinction may even be superseded by speciation. Also, from a theoretical standpoint, small changes in carrying capacities can allow for nearly completely overlapping resource utilization curves and in practice carrying capacity can be difficult to determine. Many studies that attempt to explore limiting similarity (including Huntley et al. 2007) resort to examining character displacement as a proxy for niche overlap, which is suspect at best. While a useful-if simple-model, limiting similarity is nearly untestable in reality.

See also
Competitive exclusion principle
Competitive Lotka–Volterra equations
Lotka–Volterra equation

References

Ecology
Ecological niche
Habitat

Limiting similarity


Kaikhosro III Gurieli (; died ) was a member of the Georgian family of Gurieli, a princely dynasty of Guria. He was briefly Prince-regnant of Guria as a rival to his brother Giorgi IV Gurieli in 1716. In 1724, he emigrated to the Russian Empire, where he commanded the Georgian Hussar Regiment in the 1740s.

Kaikhosro was the second son of Mamia III Gurieli, Prince of Guria, and Elene, daughter of Giorgi-Malakia Abashidze. He was a monk in 1716, when Elene engineered a coup against his own son, Giorgi IV Gurieli, whom she deposed with the help of Mingrelian and Imeretian troops and installed Kaikhosro as prince of Guria. Next year, Giorgi was able to resume his rule with the help of Ottoman pasha of Erzurum; Elene and Kaikhosro fled to Kartli under the protection of King Vakhtang VI, whose mother Tuta was Kaikhosro's grandfather's sister.

In 1724, Kaikhosro and his wife followed Vakhtang VI in his exile into Russia occasioned by the Ottoman invasion of Kartli. Known in Russia as Kaikhosro Matveyevich Gurielov, he was enlisted in the Georgian Hussar Regiment in 1738 and granted an estate in the Poltava Governorate. In 1741, he was promoted to the rank of podpolkovnik and placed in command of the Georgian Hussar Regiment. He retired in 1751. Kaikhosro's Russia-born son Stepan (1730–1812) and grandson Ivan (1770–1818) were major-generals of the Imperial Russian Army. With Ivan's death, the Gurieli's Russian branch went extinct in a male line; Kaikhosro's female-line descendants sought the right to carry the surname of Gurieli into their families in the 19th century, but to no avail.

References

1750s deaths
House of Gurieli
Year of birth unknown
18th-century people from Georgia (country)
Expatriates from Georgia (country) in Russia
18th-century military personnel from the Russian Empire

Kaikhosro III Gurieli