The Assembly of Catalonia (Catalan: Assemblea de Catalunya, Spanish: Asamblea de Cataluña) was a unitary body of the anti-Francoist opposition of Catalonia created in November 1971. Its fundamental demands were the demand for democratic freedoms, the general amnesty for political prisoners and the achievement of the statute of autonomy, which were synthesized in the motto of Freedom, Amnesty, Statute of Autonomy. In addition to the political parties—all of them clandestine—forces of various kinds were part of it, such as trade union organizations, professional groups, representatives of the university movement, neighborhood movements, Christian groups, regional assemblies, etc. The objectives of the Assembly were achieved during the democratic transition, especially when the Cortes approved the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia in 1979.

Background

Having managed to survive the harsh repression of the first two decades of the dictatorship, the anti-Francoist opposition resurfaced in 1960. The founding act of the Catalan nationalist resistance is usually considered as the events at the Palau de la Música in Barcelona in May 1960, during which the public attending an event held at the Palau de la Música Catalana presided over by several Franco ministers sang the Cant de la Senyera, which functioned as an alternative anthem to the banned Els Segadors. Jordi Pujol, who was also accused of being the author of the pamphlet Us presentem al general Franco (We present ourselves to general Franco), was arrested, tried and sentenced by a military court to seven years in prison.

In those years the most established opposition party was the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSUC) and the first important political event was La Caputxinada in 1966, named after the Sarrià Caputxins that the police surrounded to proceed to arrest the promoters of the illegal Democratic Union of Students of the University of Barcelona who were gathered there together with a group of intellectuals, who among other things claimed the duty of universities to "welcome national languages and cultures and take responsibility for their development and consolidation".

Creation
As a consequence of the actions undertaken to achieve the freedom of those detained in La Caputxinada, the Taula Rodona was founded, an organization that brought together the entire anti-Francoist opposition and of which the PSUC was also a part, for the first time since the end of the Civil War. This organization was a precedent to the Coordination of Political Forces of Catalonia (Catalan: Coordinadora de Forces Polítiques de Catalunya), founded in 1969 and constituted by the National Front of Catalonia, the Socialist Movement of Catalonia, the Democratic Union of Catalonia and the PSUC. In its founding manifesto, the Coordination demanded amnesty and political and union freedoms, as well as the reestablishment of the Statute of Autonomy of 1932 and the convocation of a constituent Cortes, as a prior step to the recognition of the right of self-determination that was to be extended to all the peoples of the Spanish state. With the founding of this unitary body of the entire opposition and the presentation of a joint program "Catalan anti-Francoism [was] at the head of the Spanish opposition".

As a means of protest against the Burgos military tribunals, the Coordination organized in December 1970 an Assembly of Intellectuals held in the Monastery of Montserrat, that led to the formation in November of the following year of the Assembly of Catalonia. In addition to the Coordination's parties, the Socialist Party of National Liberation- a split from the National Front of Catalonia -, the PSOE, the Workers' Commissions and UGT trade unions, as well as various professional and social groups, as well as legal entities and independent people, were integrated into it.

Objectives and actions

The Assembly's program was summarized in the slogan "Freedom, Amnesty, Statute of Autonomy" that achieved great popularity - its first campaign "Per què l'Estatut of 1932?", initiated in May 1972, achieved notable success - extending its influence throughout the Catalan territory, despite the fact that its permanent commission was arrested by the police in 1973 (113 people) and on September 8, 1974 (67 people). "Its greatest success was taking the democratic and nationalist demand from the ghetto of the parties to the streets, confirming its social implementation. The Assembly reversed the situation: until then the clandestine groups had to evade repression, with it the problem was with the Government, which had to combat an illegal and provocative platform on the streets, which attracted a growing number of citizens". And on the other hand "it condemned to immediate failure, lack of any kind of social support, the attempts to establish armed struggle groups in the image of ETA such as the Catalan Liberation Front (FAC), the Organization of Armed Struggle (OLLA) or the Catalan People's Army (EPOCA)".

An important moment in the history of the Assembly was the "Caiguda dels 113" ("Fall of the 113"). On October 28, 1973, the Francoist police arrested 113 people in the Parish of Santa Maria Mitjancera in Barcelona. The arrested were representatives of political parties and clandestine unions but also of professional and neighborhood associations. A large citizen mobilization in support of the detainees immediately began in Catalonia and a solidarity campaign was launched that had international resonance.

After the death of Franco in November 1975, the Assembly of Catalonia increased its campaign in favor of "Freedom, Amnesty and Statute of Autonomy", which resulted in the two demonstrations held in Barcelona on February 1 and 8, 1976, that were harshly repressed by the police. Taking advantage of the greater margin of freedom granted by the new government of Adolfo Suárez formed in July, the Marxa de la Libertat was organized throughout the summer of that year promoted by the Lluís Maria Xirinacs — who would be elected senator in the first democratic elections June 1977— who toured not only Catalonia but also Valencia and the Balearic Islands with the motto "Poble català, posa't a caminar" ("Catalan people, start walking") and which was sometimes repressed by the police. However, the leading role in the fight for freedoms passed to the political parties that in December 1975 had formed the Council of Political Forces of Catalonia, successor to the Coordination. It was this organization that negotiated with the Suárez government the free commemoration of the first September 11th (National Day of Catalonia) since the end of the civil war. The permission was granted at the last moment and more than 100,000 people gathered in the main demonstration in Sant Boi de Llobregat, while the demonstrations called in other towns were brutally repressed by the police.

Disolution

The Assembly of Catalonia was dissolved after the general elections of June 1977, which in Catalonia produced a large majority for the left-wing parties, whereas in the rest of Spain the Union of the Democratic Center obtained the most votes.

Ten days after the elections were held, the Assemblea de Parliamentaris was formed, which brought together all the Catalan deputies and senators and demanded the restoration of the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 1932.

References

Works cited

Anti-Francoism
Political organisations based in Spain
Catalonia

Assembly of Catalonia


The VIA Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS), formerly known as the "Values in Action Inventory," is a proprietary psychological assessment measure designed to identify an individual's profile of "character strengths".

It was created by Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman, researchers in the field of positive psychology, in order to operationalize their Character Strengths and Virtues Handbook (CSV). The CSV is the positive psychology counterpart to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) used in traditional psychology. Unlike the DSM, which scientifically categorizes human deficits and disorders, the CSV classifies positive human strengths. The CSV helps people recognize and build upon their strengths. This aligns with the overall goal of the positive psychology movement, to make people's lives more fulfilling. People can use the VIA-IS to identify their own positive strengths and learn how to capitalize on them.

Classification of strengths
 Wisdom: creativity, curiosity, judgment, love of learning, perspective
 Courage: bravery, perseverance, honesty, zest
 Humanity: love, kindness, social intelligence
 Justice: teamwork, fairness, leadership
 Temperance: forgiveness, humility, prudence, self-regulation
 Transcendence: appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, hope, humor, spirituality

Composition and administration
The VIA-IS is a 96-question measure of 24 character strengths. On average, an individual will complete the VIA-IS in 10 to 15 minutes. , the survey is available online and one can retrieve one's results for , at www.viacharacter.org, and over 27,000,000 people have participated.

Participants are instructed to answer each item on the VIA-IS in terms of "whether the statement describes what you are like". Participants respond according to a five-point Likert scale ranging from (1=very much unlike me, 5=very much like me). Sample items include "I find the world a very interesting place", which gauges curiosity, and "I always let bygone be bygones", which gauges forgiveness. People can score anywhere from 10 to 50 points for each of the 24 strengths. A higher score on a scale indicates that the participant more strongly identifies with that scale's associated strength. Score reports are delivered to each paying participant at the completion of the survey. Feedback is provided for the signature strengths, but not for the lesser strengths. The results rank order the participant's strengths from 1–24, with the top four to seven strengths considered "signature strengths".

History
As a relatively new field of research, positive psychology lacked a common vocabulary for discussing measurable positive traits before 2004. Traditional psychology benefited from the creation of DSM, as it provided researchers and clinicians with the same set of language from which they could talk about the negative. As a first step in remedying this disparity between tradition and positive psychology, Peterson and Seligman set out to identify, organize, and measure character.

They began by defining the notion of character as traits that are possessed by an individual and are stable over time, but can still be impacted by setting and thus are subject to change. They brainstormed with a group of noted positive psychology scholars. They examined ancient cultures (including their religions, politics, education, and philosophies) for information about how people in the past construed human virtue. The researchers looked for virtues that were present across cultures and time. Six core virtues emerged from their analysis: courage, justice, humanity, temperance, transcendence, and wisdom.

Next, Peterson and Seligman proposed a model of classification. The hierarchical system is modeled after the Linnaean classification of species, which ranges from a specific species to more general and broad categories. The six core values are the broadest category and are, "core characteristics valued by moral philosophers and religious thinkers". Peterson and Seligman then moved down the hierarchy to identify character strengths, which are "the psychological processes or mechanisms that define the virtues".

The researchers began identifying individual character strengths by brainstorming with a group of noted positive psychology scholars. Peterson and Seligman then performed an exhaustive literature search for work that directly addresses good character in the domains of, "psychiatry, youth development, philosophy, and psychology". Some individuals who influenced Peterson's and Seligman's choice of strengths include: Abraham Maslow, Erik Erikson, Ellen Greenberger, Marie Jahoda, Carol Ryff, Michael Cawley, Howard Gardner, and Shalom Schwartz. The researchers also looked for virtue-laden messages in popular culture. For example, the researchers examined Hallmark greeting cards, personal ads, graffiti, bumper stickers, and profiles of Pokémon characters.

After identifying dozens of "candidate strengths", the researchers refined their list by subjecting them to a list of ten criteria (e.g., strengths must contribute to a sense of a fulfilling life, must be intrinsically valuable) to help them select the final 24 strengths for the CSV. Approximately half of the strengths included in the CSV meet all ten criteria, and half do not. By looking for similarities between candidate strengths, the researchers distributed 24 character strengths between six virtue categories. After creating this a priori organization of traits, the researchers performed, "an exploratory factor analysis of scale scores using varimax rotation," from which five factors emerged. Peterson & Seligman state that they are not as concerned with how the 24 strengths are grouped into virtue clusters because, in the end, these traits are mixed together to form the character of a person.

Validity and reliability
Peterson and Seligman state that all character strengths must be measurable. Of the 24 strengths, most can be assessed using self-report questionnaires, behavioral observation, peer-report methods, and clinical interviews. Three strengths, however, have yet to be reliably assessed: humility, modesty, and bravery. The researchers acknowledge that some strengths are more difficult to assess than others, therefore methods of assessing these strengths are still in-progress.

For each strength, there are typically several measures that could be administered in order to assess a person's trait level for that strength. Time and energy, however, prohibit administering all of the measures for the 24 strengths in one testing session. To solve this problem, Peterson & Seligman designed a new measure, the VIA-IS, to assess all 24 strengths in relatively brief amount of time. Beginning in the fall of 2000, the researchers pilot tested the VIA-IS with a group of 250 adults. The researchers removed items that correlated poorly with the rest of the items in the same scale of interest. Peterson & Seligman repeated this process until Cronbach's alpha for all scales exceeded .70. The researchers added three reverse-scored items in each of the 24 scales as well. For the current version of the VIA-IS, test-retest correlations for all scales during a four-month period are > .70.

Peterson & Seligman provide limited data on the validity and reliability of the VIA-IS; the only published statistics are those stated above. The researchers say that they will provide the full statistical results of their analysis of the VIA-IS in a future publication. However, other researchers have published studies that challenge the validity of this six-factor structure.

Empirical findings and limitations
Although researchers have not yet examined the validity and reliability of the VIA-IS, they are beginning to look at how the 24 character strengths are distributed within the United States and international populations. Researchers found that, within the United States, the most commonly endorsed strengths are kindness, fairness, honesty, gratitude, and judgment. The lesser strengths demonstrated consistency across states and regions as well: prudence, modesty, and self-regulation. The researchers did not find regional differences in the rank-order of strengths, with the exception of the South demonstrating slightly higher scores for religiousness.

When the rank order of prevalence of character strengths in the U.S. is compared to that of 53 other countries, scientists found the relative pattern of rank ordering did not differ. This finding provides evidence to support Peterson & Seligman's assertion that their classification system is composed of universally acknowledged strengths.

The results of this study have limitations. Respondents to the survey must speak English, as the VIA-IS was not translated into each respondent's native language. This may restrict the extension of these results to non-English speakers.

In an earlier study, researchers administered the English-language version of the VIA-IS to individuals in 40 countries. Worldwide, the following strengths were most associated with positive life satisfaction: hope, zest, gratitude, and love. The researchers called these "strengths of the heart". Strengths associated with knowledge, such as love of learning and curiosity, were least correlated with life satisfaction.

United Kingdom
Scientists have also performed more in-depth analyses of the VIA-IS when it is applied to populations outside of the United States. Linley and colleagues did not simply compare the rank-order of strengths of the U.S. to other countries. They administered the VIA-IS to 17,056 individuals living in the United Kingdom between 2002 and 2005. Compared to the entire U.K. population, the study's sample was better educated, and was composed of more women and fewer elderly individuals.

The researchers found that as people aged, strength scores tended to increase. Using Pearson's correlations, researchers looked for associations between age and strengths. The following strengths showed the strongest correlations: love of learning, curiosity, forgiveness, self-regulation, and fairness. Humor, however, did not follow this pattern and was negatively correlated with age.

In terms of statistically significant gender differences, women demonstrated higher scores for interpersonal strengths (kindness, love, and social intelligence) and appreciation of beauty and gratitude. Men scored significantly higher than women on creativity. For men and women, four of the top five signature strengths were the same: open-mindedness, fairness, curiosity, and love of learning.

When the means and standard deviations were broken down by gender and age, they were consistent with those reported by U.S. samples. The rank ordering of the prevalence of strengths was comparable to the patterns found in the U.S. and other international samples. Once again, research supports Peterson & Seligman's assertion that the strengths listed in the CSV and VIA-IS are present in the majority of cultures.

An important limitation of this study, as with all studies that collect data via the internet, is that the samples tend to be more educated and from higher socioeconomic background because these individuals are more likely to have access and knowledge of the internet.

Japan
Shimai and colleagues tested the applicability of a translated version of the VIA-IS to a sample in Japan. The researchers administered the VIA-IS to 308 young adults from Japan and 1099 young adults from the U.S. The scientists translated the VIA-IS into Japanese and then back to English in order to be examined by the original creators of the VIA-IS. They confirmed that the Japanese version of the VIA-IS demonstrated face validity, test-retest reliability and internal consistency before administering it to young adults.

The researchers found that top-ranked strengths (in terms of prevalence) for young adults in Japan, were similar to those of young adults in the U.S. The percentage of people who scored high or low on each character strength were similar between the two countries. Moreover, the scientists did not find a significant variation in the pattern of gender differences between the United States and Japan. Women in both countries were more likely than men to score highly on the strengths of kindness, love, gratitude, teamwork, and appreciation of beauty, whereas men in both countries were more likely score highly on the strengths of open-mindedness, perspective, creativity, self-regulation, and bravery. The correlations between specific strengths and happiness outcomes were consistent as well. The strengths of zest, curiosity, gratitude, and hope were significantly positively correlated with subjective measures of happiness for both populations.

Differences between the young adults in Japan and the U.S. emerged as well. The rank-order of religiousness was the biggest difference between the cultures. For American young adults, religiousness was on average the 14th most prevalent strength. For Japanese young adults, religiousness was, on average, the 19th most prevalent strength. The researchers attributed this finding to the fact that some of the items on the VIA-IS that assess religiousness were based on Western connotations of religiosity (e.g. monotheistic traditions).

A notable limitation of this study is that the researchers examined young adults, rather than the population at-large. According to the researchers, young adults in Japan are more active participants in a more global, Americanized culture than the older generations. This could explain the commonalities found between young adults in Japan and the U.S.

Shimai and colleagues demonstrated that the VIA-IS can be successfully and accurately translated into other languages. When this is done, however, researchers need to ensure that the items on the scale are not culturally biased toward Western concepts.

Character Strengths and Virtues

Character Strengths and Virtues (CSV) is a book by Peterson and Seligman that attempts to present a measure of humanist ideals of virtue in an empirical, rigorously scientific manner, intended to provide a theoretical framework for practical applications for positive psychology. CSV identifies six classes of virtue (i.e. "core virtues") comprising 24 measurable "character strengths". The organization of the six virtues and 24 strengths is as follows:

 Wisdom and Knowledge: creativity, curiosity, open-mindedness, love of learning, perspective
 Courage: bravery, persistence, integrity, zest
 Humanity: love, kindness, social intelligence
 Justice: teamwork, fairness, leadership
 Temperance: forgiveness and mercy, humility, prudence, self control
 Transcendence: appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, hope, humor, spirituality

CSV defines character strengths as satisfying most of the ten following criteria:

 contributes to individual fulfillment "for oneself and others"
 intrinsically valuable, in an ethical sense (gifts, skills, aptitudes, and expertise can be squandered, but character strengths and virtues cannot)
 non-rivalrous
 not the opposite of a desirable trait (a counterexample is steadfast and flexible, which are opposites but are both commonly seen as desirable)
 trait-like (habitual patterns that are relatively stable over time)
 not a combination of the other character strengths in the CSV
 personified (at least in the popular imagination) by people made famous through story, song, etc.
 observable in child prodigies (though this criterion is not applicable to all character strengths)
 absent in some individuals
 and nurtured by societal norms and institutions

CSV suggests that these six virtues are considered good by the vast majority of cultures and throughout history and that practicing these traits leads to increased happiness. Notwithstanding numerous caveats, this suggestion of universality hints that in addition to trying to broaden the scope of psychological research to include mental wellness, the leaders of the positive psychology movement are challenging moral relativism and suggesting that virtue has a biological basis. These arguments are in line with the science of morality.

Each of the 24 character traits is defined behaviorally, with psychometric evidence demonstrating that it can be reliably measured. The book shows that "empirically minded humanists can measure character strengths and virtues in a rigorous scientific manner."

Practical applications of positive psychology include helping individuals and organizations correctly identify their strengths and use them to increase and sustain their respective levels of well-being. Each trait "provides one of many alternative paths to virtue and well-being." Therapists, counselors, coaches, and various other psychological professionals can use the new methods and techniques to build and broaden the lives of individuals who are not necessarily suffering from mental illness or disorder.

Other researchers have advocated grouping the 28 identified character traits into just four classes of strength (Intellectual, Social, Temperance, Transcendent) or even just three classes (without Transcendence). Not only is this easier to remember, but additionally there is evidence that these adequately capture the components of the 28 original traits.

Applications

One of the major goals of positive psychology is to help people "cultivate and sustain the good life". The VIA-IS provides a practical measure that can be used to evaluate the efficacy of positive interventions. As one example, consider the thousands of people who participate in life coaching and character education programs every year. Strengths of character are often the outcome of interest, yet these programs do not employ a rigorous outcome measure in order to gauge efficacy. Researchers propose that if these programs used the VIA-IS, then they may discover unanticipated benefits of their interventions and that this would facilitate objective evaluation of its outcome.

Peterson & Seligman suggest that the VIA-IS could be used as a way to help people identify their signature strengths. With this knowledge, people could then begin to capitalize and build upon their signature strengths. Positive psychologists argue that the VIA-IS should not be used as a way to identify your 'lesser strengths' or weaknesses. Their approach departs from the medical model of traditional psychology, which focuses on fixing deficits. In contrast, positive psychologists emphasize that people should focus and build upon what they are doing well.

Criticism
Many studies have checked the factor structure of the CSV, on which the VIA-IS is based.

Using a second order factor analysis, Macdonald & colleagues found that the 24 strengths did not fit into the six higher order virtues model proposed in the CSV. None of the clusters of characters strengths that they found resembled the structure of the six virtue clusters of strengths. The researchers noted that many of the VIA character strengths cross-loaded onto multiple factors. Rather, the strengths were best represented by a one and four factor model. A one factor model would mean that the strengths are best accounted for by, "one overarching factor," such as a global trait of character. A four factor model more closely resembles the "Big Five" model of personality. The character strengths in the four factor model could be organized into the following four groups: Niceness, Positivity, Intellect, and Conscientiousness.

Peterson and Seligman conducted a factor analysis and found that a five factor model, rather than their six hierarchical virtues model, best organized the strengths. Their study, however, did not include five of the character strengths in the results of their analysis. The researchers most likely did this because their results were plagued by the problem of strengths cross-loading on to multiple factors, similar to what occurred in Macdonald and colleagues' study. Clearly, empirical evidence casts doubt on the link proposed by Peterson & Seligman between the 24 strengths and associated 6 higher order virtues.

Brdar & Kashdan used more precise statistical tools to build upon the findings of the two earlier studies. They found that a four factor model (Interpersonal Strengths, Vitality, Fortitude, and Cautiousness) explained 60% of the variance. One large, overarching factor explained 50% of the variance. The four factors found by Brdar and Kashdan are similar to the four factors found by Macdonald and colleagues. Once again, Brdar and Kashdan found that the 24 strengths did not fall into the six higher order virtues proposed by Peterson and Seligman. The correlations found between many of the strengths demonstrates that each strength is not distinct, which contradicts the claims made by the creators of the VIA-IS.

Robert E. McGrath modified the inventory by adding four new scales (Positivity, Future-Mindedness, Receptivity, Intellectual Pursuits) and removing four previous scales of Leadership, Zest, Hope, and Gratitude. He suggested five virtues (second-order factors) instead of six hypothesized virtues by Peterson and Seligman. These virtues were: Interpersonal, Emotional, Intellectual, Restraint, and Future Orientation. These factors / virtues resembled the ones identified in previous factor-analytic studies which have found very different factor structures than the ones hypothesized theoretically. Therefore, substantial evidence stands against original scale structures, in terms of nature of factors and their structures regarding content of items. McGrath also found that a lot of items that were part of original character strengths inventory (VIA-IS) were no more belonging to the same scales after confirmatory factor analyses. His new scales had some overlaps with previous scales, but had many new items from other scales that loaded onto them instead of previous ones. McGrath indicated that the original scale structure needs several modifications and future studies would yield a better structure for a second-generation model of strengths.

Caution should be taken in interpreting the results from these four studies as their samples differ in age and country of origin.

See also

Aristotle's
Aquinas's

References

External links
 Values in Action website
 authentichappiness.com for VIA online strengths diagnosis questionnaire (registration required)

Moral psychology
Positive psychology
Psychological tests and scales

Values in Action Inventory of Strengths


A shaft cross () is a specific type of Latin or High cross, named after its method of construction. The majority of these external monuments consist of the cross or crucifix itself. The cross or crucifix is usually made of stone (often sandstone), occasionally of wood or, more rarely, of metal, and sits above a shaft (pillar or column) almost always made of stone, which is fixed to a foundation or base.

They may take various forms from a plain cross formed from two beams, a wayside shrine, a complex cross (Gliederkreuz) or a niche cross (Nischenkreuz) – but may also have elements of the variations, for example a niche in the upright post of the cross. It is thus a more elaborate and usually higher form of the simple stone cross. Shaft crosses are mostly found as  wayside crosses or occasionally by churches or on cemeteries in predominantly Roman Catholic regions such as the Rhineland of Germany.

References

Christian symbols
Crosses by form
High crosses

Shaft cross


The British Rail Class 10 diesel locomotive was a version on the Class 08 diesel-electric shunter. A Blackstone diesel engine was fitted instead of one made by the English Electric company.  Traction motors were by either the General Electric Company plc (GEC) or British Thomson-Houston (BTH).

The locomotives were built at the BR Works in Darlington and Doncaster over the period 1953-62.  Early batches were classified D3/4 (those with GEC motors) and D3/5  (those with BTH motors).

10

British Rail Class 10


The coat of arms of Spain represents Spain and the Spanish nation, including its national sovereignty and the country's form of government, a constitutional monarchy. It appears on the flag of Spain and it is used by the Government of Spain, the , the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court, and other state institutions. Its design consists of the arms of the medieval kingdoms that would unite to form Spain in the 15th century, the Royal Crown, the arms of the House of Bourbon, the Pillars of Hercules and the Spanish national motto: . The Monarch, the heir to the throne and some institutions like the Senate, the Council of State and the General Council of the Judiciary have their own variants of the coat of arms.

The blazon of the Spanish coat of arms is composed as follows:

Quarterly, first quarter Gules a triple-towered castle Or masoned Sable and ajoure Azure (for Castile); second quarter Argent a lion rampant Purpure crowned Or, langued and armed Gules (for León); third quarter Or, four pallets Gules (for the former Crown of Aragon), fourth quarter Gules a cross, saltire and orle of chains linked together Or, a centre point Vert (for Navarre); enté en point Argent a pomegranate proper seeded Gules, supported, sculpted and leafed in two leaves Vert (for Granada); overall an escutcheon Azure bordure Gules, three fleurs-de-lys Or (for the regnant House of Bourbon-Anjou); for a Crest, a circlet Or, jewelled with eight breeches of bear or oyster plant leaves, five shown, with pearls on points Or inserted and above which rise arches decorated with pearls and surmounted by a monde Azure with its equator, its upper half-meridian and a latin cross Or, the crown capped Gules (the Spanish royal crown); for Supporters, two columns Argent with capital and base Or, standing on five waves Azure and Argent, surmounted dexter by an imperial crown and sinister the Spanish royal crown, the columns surrounded by a ribbon Gules charged with the Motto 'Plus Ultra' written Or (the Pillars of Hercules).

The contemporary Spanish coat of arms, featured in the national flag of Spain, was approved by law in 1981, in replacement of the interim coat of arms that replaced the official arms of Spain under Franco (1939–75).

Features
The Spanish coat of arms is composed of six other arms and some additional heraldic symbols:

The present version is regulated by:

Act 33/1981, dated 5 October, on the Coat of Arms of Spain (Official Gazette nº 250, dated 19 October)
Royal Decree 2964/1981, dated 18 December, approving the official Coat of Arms of Spain design (Official Gazette nº 303, dated 19 December)
Royal Decree 2267/1982, dated 3 September, technically specifying the colours of the Arms of Spain (Official Gazette nº 221, dated 15 September)

Official design criticism

The official design of the coat of arms of Spain is like a logotype set in linear style: drawing, proportions of elements and colours (CIELAB). This approach has been criticised by Spanish heraldists Faustino Menéndez Pidal y Navascués, the Duke of Tetuan, and Begoña Lolo for three reasons.

First, the coat of arms pattern is simplified, compared to the usual heraldic usages, which relevantly considers the way of representing the charges and tinctures, because they must be easily identifiable, without error; however, the colours determined by the decree are difficult to distinguish. In particular, the Or and the Gules have been respectively represented so intensely and so darkly that they do not allow for clear distinction of the charges. The colour chosen to represent Purpure has been criticised for being a pinkish hue, unlike the traditional hues of the Kingdom of León and heraldic custom.

Second, the style of the official design does not fit into traditional Iberian heraldic norms. The Escutcheon shape is midway between the modern French style, rectangular with a slightly convex bottom edge, and the Spanish style, with an almost semicircular bottom edge. The Enté en point of the arms of Granada also is represented in the French tradition, with slightly convex top edges, instead of the sharp curved-top edges of Iberian heraldry.

Third, the inescutcheon, superimposed on the main shield, is elliptical rather than the usual escutcheon shape, which is considered imprecise.

Historical Spanish coats of arms

The Arms of the Kingdom of Spain was the official coat of arms of the Monarch of Spain from the time of the Catholic Monarchs, and was used as the official arms of the Kingdom until the First Spanish Republic in 1873. Afterwards, the arms became an integral part of the Coat of Arms of Spain. The different governments since (whether republican or monarchist) have led to the arms being changed on various occasions, but always respecting the main heraldic design involving the former kingdoms and, in many cases, the pillars of Hercules.

As a reward for his successful voyage of discovery, the Spanish sovereigns granted Columbus the right to bear arms. According to the blazon specified in letters patent dated May 20, 1493, Columbus was to bear in the first and the second quarters the royal charges of Castile and León, the Castle and the Lion, but with different tinctures or colours. In the third quarter would be islands in a wavy sea, and in the fourth, the customary arms of his family.

House of Trastámara

The arms of the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, whose marriage unified Spain, were:

Quarterly, 1 and 4. quarterly Castile-León,
2 and 3. per pale Aragon and Aragon-Sicily.
The arms were borne by the eagle of Saint John, sable, with an open royal crown.
The conquest of Granada was symbolized by the addition enté en point of a quarter for Granada

After Isabella I's death in 1504, Ferdinand used different arms, namely tierced per pale Castile-León, Aragon-Naples-Sicily, and Aragon. The annexation of Navarre (1513) brought about the final change in the arms of the Rey Católico (Catholic King): the second quarter was changed to per pale, 1. per fess Aragon and Navarra, 2. per fess Jerusalem and Hungary.

The arms as used in Navarra (until 1700) were Quarterly:
1. quarterly Castile and Navarra;
2. per pale Aragon and per pale Leon and Jerusalem;
3. per pale, a. per pale Hungary and Aragon, b. Aragon-Sicily;
4. quarterly Castile and León; enté en point Granada.

The arms used in Aragon were either Aragon, or per pale, Castile-León and Aragon, or tierced per pale, Aragon-Sicily, Aragon and tierced per pale Hungary, Anjou-Naples and Jerusalem. In Naples, the arms were Quarterly, 1 and 4. Castile-León, 2. per pale Aragon and per pale Jerusalem-Hungary; 3. per pale Aragon and Aragon-Sicily.

House of Habsburg

At the death of Isabella I of Castile in 1504, her son-in-law Archduke Philip the Handsome immediately staked his claim to her inheritance by quartering his own arms with those of the Catholic Monarchs. He had previously borne quarterly: Austria, Burgundy modern, Burgundy ancient and Brabant, with an escutcheon overall per pale Flanders and Tyrol. Since his highest title was archduke and the Spanish titles were all royal, the Spanish quarters were given precedence over his. Hence the arrangement became, quarterly: 1. and 4. grand quarters, quarterly: A. and D. quarterly Castile-León, B. and C. per pale Aragon-Sicily, the grand quarter enté en point for Granada; 2. and 3. grand quarters, quarterly Austria, Burgundy ancient, Burgundy modern, Brabant, with an escutcheon per pale Flanders and Tyrol.

Charles I marshalled his arms in a number of ways. In the first years of his reign, he most frequently used the same arrangement as his father. After his election as Holy Roman Emperor in 1519 he placed it on the breast of an imperial eagle. Later in his reign a simplified version appears. The arms are per fess with the Spanish quarters in chief and the Austrian quarters in base. This version became very popular in the Netherlands. There it is often seen with the imperial eagle placed on a golden shield, ensigned with the imperial crown and supported by a lion and a griffin. The Order of the Golden Fleece then hangs suspended round the main shield.

In other parts of his extensive monarchy, a number of variations are to be found. Many concern the way in which the Aragonese realms are represented and therefore probably relate to the Crown of Aragon or to one of its constituent parts. In 1516 for instance, he is found using arms quarterly of Spain (quarterly Castile-León and Aragon-Aragon-Sicily, with Granada enté en point) and Austria (quarterly Austria, Burgundy modern, Burgundy ancient and Brabant) with an escutcheon overall per pale Flanders and Tyrol. In 1520, the quarter of Aragon and Aragon-Sicily are replaced per pale Aragon and Naples (per pale Jerusalem and Hungary).

After 1530 some versions display quarterly: 1. and 4. grand quarters Spain, which is quarterly A. and D. Castile-León, B. and C. per pale a. per fess Aragon and Navarra, b. per pale Naples (Jerusalem and Hungary); 2. and 3. grand quarters Austria, (as above); enté en point Granada. These arms are borne by an imperial double-headed eagle sable, surmounted by an imperial crown, surrounded with the collar of the Golden Fleece and accompanied by the pillars of Hercules and the motto PLUS ULTRA.

In Sicily on the other hand, Emperor Charles V used quarterly 1. and 4. Castile-León, 2. tierced per pale Aragon, Jerusalem and Hungary, 3. per pale Aragon and Aragon-Sicily, enté en point Granada. Overall in chief, a double-headed eagle sable crowned or bearing an escutcheon of Austria. Later, his arms in that realm were quarterly, 1. Castile-León, 2. quarterly Aragon, Aragon-Sicily, Navarra and Aragon, 3. quarterly Austria, Burgundy modern, Burgundy ancient and Brabant, overall an escutcheon per pale Flanders and Tyrol; 4. per pale Naples (Jerusalem and Hungary); enté en point Granada, these arms borne by an imperial eagle.

Phillip II to Charles II

During the reign of King Phillip II the arms of the Spanish Monarchy become fixed for the remainder of the House of Austria. Originally Philip II used the simplified arms as devised for his father, namely per fess with the Spanish quarters in chief and the Austrian quarters in base.

After the unification with Portugal in 1580 (due to the death of the Portuguese king), the arms of the Monarchy became per fess, in chief per pale, A. quarterly Castile and León, B. per pale Aragon and Aragon-Sicily, the whole enté en point Granada and with an escutcheon of Portugal on the honour point; in base quarterly Austria, Burgundy ancient, Burgundy modern and Brabant, with an escutcheon (in the nombril point) per pale Flanders and Tyrol. The arms were crowned with a royal crown with three visible arches and the Order of the Golden Fleece was suspended around them. In the Netherlands, the arms were regularly supported by two golden lions guardant.

Even though Portugal and its possessions were lost in 1640, the Spanish kings retained the use of the Portuguese arms as arms of pretence until 1668.

House of Bourbon

Philip was born in Versailles. He was made the Duc d'Anjou upon his birth. He was the second son of Louis, le Grand Dauphin.  In the year 1700, the King of Spain, Charles II, died. Charles' will named the 17-year-old Philip, the grandson of Charles' sister Maria Theresa, as his successor.  Upon any possible refusal the Crown of Spain would be offered next to Philip's younger brother Charles, Duke of Berry, or to Archduke Charles of Austria.

Both claimants had a legal right due to the fact that Philip's grandfather, Louis XIV of France and Charles's father, Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, were both the husbands of Charles' older half sisters and sons of Charles' aunts.

Philip had the better claim because his grandmother and great-grandmother were older than Leopold's. However, the Austrian branch claimed that Philip's grandmother had renounced the Spanish throne for her descendants as part of her marriage contract. This was countered by the French branch's claim that it was on the basis of a dowry that had never been paid.

After a long council meeting where the Dauphin spoke up in favour of his son's rights, it was agreed that Philip would ascend the throne but would forever renounce his claim to the throne of France for himself and his descendants. It was not difficult to see whether Louis would have refused anyway as a Habsburg ruler in Spain would've put a possible enemy on three frontiers.

The arms of Bourbon-Anjou were added in 1700 when Phillip V became king of Spain. He introduced changes in the royal arms of Spain. The king's new arms were designed by the French heraldist Clairambault in November 1700, and were as follows:

per fess: 1. per pale, quarterly Castile and León, enté en point Granada, and per pale, Aragon and Aragon-Sicily; 2. Quarterly, Austria, Burgundy modern, Burgundy ancient and Brabant; enté en point, per pale Flanders and Tyrol. Overall an escutcheon Anjou. The abbreviated arms were quarterly Castile and León, enté en point Granada, overall Anjou.

Charles III

Charles III was the first son of the second marriage of Philip V with Elizabeth Farnese of Parma, he was one of the so-called "enlightened monarchs".

In 1761 Charles III modified the arms as follows:

Quarterly of six (in three rows of two each): 1. per pale Aragon and Aragon-Sicily; 2. per pale Austria and Burgundy modern; 3. Farnese 4. Medici; 5. Burgundy ancient; 6. Brabant; enté en point per pale Flanders and Tyrol. Overall an escutcheon quarterly of Castile and León enté en point of Granada, overall Anjou. Around the shield are the collars of the Golden Fleece and of the French Holy Spirit (After the Order of Carlos III).

The abbreviated arms remained the same (they form the escutcheon en surtout of the state arms). They are accompanied by the Pillars of Hercules and the motto PLUS ULTRA and crowned with the royal crown, but do not show the collars. Already at this time the Anjou escutcheon was sometimes represented without its bordure gules.

House of Bonaparte

Joseph Napoleon I (born Corte 1768, died Firenze 1844), king of Spain (1808–1813), was the elder brother of the Emperor Napoleon I. Following his conquests, the Emperor placed members of his family on the throne of various European states, some of them being created accordingly. Joseph was the first king of Naples (1806).

When Napoleon expelled the Bourbons from Spain, he placed Joseph on the throne and gave the throne of Naples to Marshal Murat, former Commander-in-Chief of the French troops in Spain and husband of Caroline Bonaparte, Napoleon's sister. The long and difficult Spanish War of Independence or Peninsular War, famously illustrated by the painter Francisco Goya, ended with the overthrow of Joseph in 1814.

In 1808, Joseph Napoleon proclaimed a new coat of arms:

Quarterly of 6, in three rows of two each, 1. Castile; 2. Leon; 3. Aragon; 4. Navarra; 5. Granada; 6. Indies (Gules often Azure, the old and the new world or between the pillars of Hercules argent). Overall an escutcheon with Imperial France's eagle.

House of Bourbon 1st restoration

In 1813 the Allies returned Ferdinand VII of Spain to Madrid. The Spanish people, blaming the liberal, enlightened policies of the Francophiles (afrancesados) for incurring the Napoleonic occupation and the Peninsular War, at first welcomed Fernando. Ferdinand soon found that while Spain was fighting for independence in his name and while in his name juntas had governed in Spanish America, a new world had been born of foreign invasion and domestic revolution. Spain was no longer an absolute monarchy under the liberal Constitution of 1812. Ferdinand, in being restored to the throne, guaranteed the liberals that he would govern on the basis of the existing constitution, but, encouraged by conservatives backed by the Church hierarchy, he rejected the constitution within weeks (May 4) and arrested the liberal leaders (May 10), justifying his actions as rejecting a constitution made by the  in his absence and without his consent. Thus he had come back to assert the Bourbon doctrine that the sovereign authority resided in his person only. Ferdinand VII of Spain reestablished the arms of Charles III, both the state arms and the abbreviated arms. The Anjou escutcheon became increasingly frequently an escutcheon of France.

Provisional government (1868–1870) and First Spanish Republic (1873–1874)

The First Spanish Republic started with the abdication as King of Spain on 10 February 1873, of Amadeo I of Spain, following the Hidalgo Affair, when he had been required by the radical government to sign a decree against the artillery officers. The next day, 11 February, the republic was declared by a parliamentary majority made up of radicals, republicans, and democrats. It lasted twenty-three months, between 11 February 1873, and 29 December 1874 and had five presidents: Estanislao Figueras, Pi i Margall, Nicolás Salmerón y Alonso, Emilio Castelar y Ripoll and Francisco Serrano.

The Provisional Government of 1868 adopted the present territorial arms: quarterly of Castile, Leon, Aragon and Navarre enté en point of Granada. The crown was a mural crown.

During the brief reign of Amadeo, the royal crown was reinstated and an escutcheon of Savoy (Gules, a cross argent) was placed en surtout. There were not many Spanish arms including the escutcheon of Aosta (Argent, a cross gules within a bordure compony azure and or), the arms used by Amadeo before his accession to the throne of Spain.

House of Bourbon 2nd restoration

When the Bourbons were restored with Alfonso XII of Spain, a decree (8 January 1875) restored the use of the coat of arms as it stood until September 29, 1868. In practice, the Anjou escutcheon (actually called Borbón in Spanish) was displayed without the bordure, because the bordure was considered inessential, and the escutcheon an indication of lineage from the French Bourbon dynasty.  With the death of Henri, comte de Chambord in 1883, Alfonso XII became the senior male representative of the French royal dynasty and thus bore its arms without difference.  A striking example is given by the royal arms as they appear on the reverse of a 5 pesetas coin of Alfonso XII (1885). The king also used the grand as well as the abbreviated arms of Charles III as personal arms. In 1924 Alfonso XIII did away with the distinction between state and personal arms by combining the two. He took the arms of Charles III, substituted the Aragon quarter with Jerusalem, and replaced the escutcheon with the former national arms:

Quarterly of 6, in three rows of two each: 1. per pale Aragon-Sicily and Jerusalem; 2. 2. per pale Austria and Burgundy modern; 3. Farnese 4. Medici; 5. Burgundy ancient; 6. Brabant; enté en point per pale Flanders and Tyrol. Overall an escutcheon quarterly of Castile, Leon, Aragon and Navarra enté en point of Granada, overall France.

Second Spanish Republic (1931–1939)

The Second Spanish Republic is the name of the regime that existed in Spain between 14 April 1931, when King Alfonso XIII left the country, and 1 April 1939, when the last of the Republican (Loyalist) forces surrendered to Francoist (Nationalist) forces in the Spanish Civil War.

The Republic of 1931 used again the territorial arms as in the First Spanish Republic but depicting in the second quarter an uncrowned lion.

Francoist Spain (1936–1977)

The Spanish Civil War officially ended on 1 April 1939, the day Francisco Franco announced the end of hostilities. The Republican forces had been defeated and Franco became the undisputed caudillo of Spain. He ruled Spain until he died on November 20, 1975.

The Nationalist senior generals had held an informal meeting in September 1936, where they elected Francisco Franco as leader of the Nationalists, with the rank of Generalísimo. He was originally supposed to be only commander-in-chief, but after some discussion became head of state as well with nearly unlimited and absolute powers.

Franco adopted in 1938 a variant of the Coat of Arms reinstating some elements originally used by the House of Trastámara such as Saint John's Eagle and the yoke and bundle, as follows:

Quarterly, 1 and 4. quarterly Castile and León, 2 and 3. per pale Aragon and Navarra, enté en point of Granada. The arms are crowned with an open royal crown, placed on an eagle displayed sable, surrounded with the pillars of Hercules, the yoke and the bundle of arrows of the Catholic Monarchs.

Spanish transition to democracy (1977–1981)

See also

Coat of arms of the King of Spain
Coat of arms of the Prince of Asturias
Coat of arms of the Kingdom of León
Coat of arms of the Kingdom and Crown of Castile
Coat of arms of the Crown of Aragon
Coats of arms of Spanish Monarchs in Italy
Coat of arms of the Second Spanish Republic
Symbols of Francoism
Coat of arms of Toledo, municipal arms based on the royal arms of the 16th century
Armorial of Spain
Armorial of the Spanish Armed Forces
Spanish heraldry
A solis ortu usque ad occasum
Granada

Notes

References
Centro de Estudios Políticos y Constitucionales, Símbolos de España (Madrid, 2000).
Hubert De Vries, Wapens van de Nederlanden (Amsterdam, 1995).

External links

 Web of the Spanish Presidency of the Government – The National Coat of Arms (archived 17 March 2006)
Origins and history of the Spanish coat of arms
Royal Society of Armigers of Spain (archived 31 July 2016)

Spain
National symbols of Spain

Spain
Spain
Spain
Spain
Spain
Spain
Spain
Spain
Pillars of Hercules

Coat of arms of Spain


Sarah Williams may refer to:

People
Sarah Williams (historian) (1828–1861), English historian
Sarah Williams (poet) (1837–1868), English poet and novelist
Sarah Williams (screenwriter) (–present), English screenwriter
Sarah Anne Williams (–present), American voice actress
Sarah Furman Warner Williams (1764–1848), American embroider and quiltmaker
Sarah-Rose Williams, member of the New York City Ballet
Sarah Wescot-Williams (born 1956), Sint Maarten politician

Characters
Sarah Williams (Labyrinth), the main character of the 1986 film Labyrinth, played by Jennifer Connelly
Sarah Williams, a character of the 2000 film Waking the Dead, also played by Jennifer Connelly

Sarah Williams


In physical cosmology, the Big Rip is a hypothetical cosmological model concerning the ultimate fate of the universe, in which the matter of the universe, from stars and galaxies to atoms and subatomic particles, and even spacetime itself, is progressively torn apart by the expansion of the universe at a certain time in the future, until distances between particles will infinitely increase. According to the standard model of cosmology, the scale factor of the universe is accelerating, and, in the future era of cosmological constant dominance, will increase exponentially. However, this expansion is similar for every moment of time (hence the exponential law – the expansion of a local volume is the same number of times over the same time interval), and is characterized by an unchanging, small Hubble constant, effectively ignored by any bound material structures. By contrast, in the Big Rip scenario the Hubble constant increases to infinity in a finite time.

The possibility of sudden rip singularity occurs only for hypothetical matter (phantom energy) with implausible physical properties.

Overview

The truth of the hypothesis relies on the type of dark energy present in our universe. The type that could prove this hypothesis is a constantly increasing form of dark energy, known as phantom energy. If the dark energy in the universe increases without limit, it could overcome all forces that hold the universe together. The key value is the equation of state parameter w, the ratio between the dark energy pressure and its energy density. If −1 < w < 0, the expansion of the universe tends to accelerate, but the dark energy tends to dissipate over time, and the Big Rip does not happen. Phantom energy has w < −1, which means that its density increases as the universe expands.

A universe dominated by phantom energy is an accelerating universe, expanding at an ever-increasing rate. However, this implies that the size of the observable universe and the cosmological event horizon is continually shrinking – the distance at which objects can influence an observer becomes ever closer, and the distance over which interactions can propagate becomes ever shorter. When the size of the horizon becomes smaller than any particular structure, no interaction by any of the fundamental forces can occur between the most remote parts of the structure, and the structure is "ripped apart". The progression of time itself will stop. The model implies that after a finite time there will be a final singularity, called the "Big Rip", in which the observable universe eventually reaches zero size and all distances diverge to infinite values.

The authors of this hypothesis, led by Robert R. Caldwell of Dartmouth College, calculate the time from the present to the Big Rip to be

where w is defined above, H0 is Hubble's constant and Ωm is the present value of the density of all the matter in the universe.

Observations of galaxy cluster speeds by the Chandra X-ray Observatory seem to suggest the value of w is between approximately −0.907 and −1.075, meaning the Big Rip cannot be definitively ruled out. (Based on the above equation, if the observation determines that the value of w is less than -1, but greater than or equal to -1.075, the Big Rip would occur approximately 152 billion years into the future at the earliest)

Authors' example
In their paper, the authors consider a hypothetical example with w = −1.5, H0 = 70 km/s/Mpc, and Ωm = 0.3, in which case the Big Rip would happen approximately 22 billion years from the present. In this scenario, galaxies would first be separated from each other about 200 million years before the Big Rip. About 60 million years before the Big Rip, galaxies would begin to disintegrate as gravity becomes too weak to hold them together. Planetary systems like the Solar System would become gravitationally unbound about three months before the Big Rip, and planets would fly off into the rapidly expanding universe. In the last minutes, stars and planets would be torn apart, and the now-dispersed atoms would be destroyed about 10−19 seconds before the end (the atoms will first be ionized as electrons fly off, followed by the dissociation of the atomic nuclei). At the time the Big Rip occurs, even spacetime itself would be ripped apart and the scale factor would be infinity.

Observed universe

Evidence indicates w to be very close to −1 in our universe, which makes w the dominating term in the equation. The closer that w is to −1, the closer the denominator is to zero and the further the Big Rip is in the future. If w were exactly equal to −1, the Big Rip could not happen, regardless of the values of H0 or Ωm.

According to the latest cosmological data available, the uncertainties are still too large to discriminate among the three cases w < −1, w = −1, and w > −1.

See also

 "Last Contact" – A short story describing what Big Rip would be like from an everyday perspective

References

External links

Dark energy
2003 introductions
2003 in science
Ultimate fate of the universe
Physical cosmology

Big Rip


Nazi Pop Twins (also known as America's Hate Rock Twins) is a 2007 British documentary wherein filmmaker James Quinn travels to the United States to investigate Prussian Blue, a pop duo composed of twin sisters Lynx and Lamb Gaede. The film first aired on 19 July 2007 on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom. The documentary was filmed over the course of a year. Dresden Gaede, the twins' toddler half-sister and April Gaede's parents, Bill and Dianne, also appear in the documentary.

In a change from a previous documentary featuring the duo, Louis and the Nazis by Louis Theroux, Nazi Pop Twins was without humorous irony. Filmed mainly in low-light, indoors and/or in winter, it stresses tension between the twins and their mother, April — manager and driving force behind the band — and the stress the white nationalist ideology has put on grandparents Bill and Dianne's relationship to the point where Dianne threatens to leave Bill during the making of the program. It also touches on the fact that this ideology seems to have been a factor in the breakup of mother April's marriage, which also happens concurrently to the making of the program. The girls are also shown trying to distance themselves from the "white pride" movement, expressing doubt that it is what they really believe in. For example, Prussian Blue's non-political songs receive a warm reception at a bar in Fresno, until their background is revealed by their mother. David Lane, an incarcerated neo-Nazi domestic terrorist, is heard speaking by telephone with Prussian Blue and termed them "fantasy sweethearts" in a manner Quinn found disturbing and inappropriate.

References

External links

Channel4.com

British documentary television films
2007 television films
2007 films
Documentary films about singers
Documentary films about racism in the United States
Neo-Nazism in the United States
Documentary films about women in music
2000s English-language films
2000s British films
British musical documentary films

Nazi Pop Twins


Glaxo Babies are a Bristol-based post-punk band, formed in late 1977. There were three distinct phases in the band's life and after initially breaking up in 1980, they reformed in 1985, only to finally break up again in 1990. The band reformed once again in 2015 for the Un-Peeled 2015 event with Steve Street on bass and Tony Wrafter's son Oscar on vocals.

First phase
The band was formed by Tom Nichols (bassist), Dan Catsis (guitarist) and drummer Geoff Alsopp (previously Nichols and Alsopp had been in another Bristol based band called The Vultures). The initial band line-up was completed by Rob Chapman (singer) joining in November 1977, and their first gig was held just 3 weeks later in The Dockland Settlement, St Pauls, Bristol. The band signed to local label Heartbeat Records (marketed by Cherry Red), with their first release being the This Is Your Life EP in February 1979. This led to them recording their first session for BBC radio's John Peel the following April, and the track "It's Irrational", from this session, opened the seminal 1979 Bristol Compilation album "Avon Calling". For this release the band had been forced by pharmaceutical company Glaxo to change their name, and this resulted in the use of "Gl*xo Babies", with an asterisk replacing the "a", although subsequent recordings have used a mixture of the two forms.

Tony Wrafter (saxophone) had joined the band in early 1979, and in May 1979 drummer Geoff Alsopp was replaced by Welshman Charlie Llewellin. This line-up had just started to record their debut album in June 1979 at Crescent Studios, Bath with David Lord as engineer. However, due to artistic differences Rob Chapman promptly left the group after the recording of just a couple of run through tracks (including a song about Christine Keeler, former Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and the political scandal known as the Profumo affair).

Second phase

Following the abrupt departure of Rob Chapman the other four members, supplemented by Tim Aylett (and later Alan Jones), took the band "into a more experimental area, leaning more towards a free-form fusion of jazz and dance rhythms", which resulted in them recording, in one day, the album Nine Months to the Disco. By the time this recording was released in March 1980 and reached No. 8 in the UK Indie Chart, the Gl*xo Babies had disbanded. Initially Tony Wrafter left, then Dan Catsis and Charlie Llewellin, all three of them going on to found Maximum Joy with Janine Rainforth, and John Waddington formerly of The Pop Group (Dan Catsis had also played in The Pop Group during 1979 and 1980 as a replacement for Simon Underwood).
Rob Chapman joined The Transmitters, with whom he recorded one LP, "And We Call That Leisure Time".
The single of Rob Chapman singing on Christine Keeler was released in 1979 on Heartbeat and in 1980 Shake (The Foundations) was released as a single off Nine Months to the Disco. Another Peel session had been recorded in February 1980 and the 4 tracks were released later that year on Y Records as the "Limited Entertainment EP".  Heartbeats final Glaxos' release was a compilation album of early demos and unreleased tracks from the Rob Chapman period, called "Put Me on the Guest List".

In 2007, the Japanese label Birdsong reissued both of the band's albums on CD; Nine Months to the Disco included the extra track "Swampstomp" and Put Me on the Guest List included "Christine Keeler", "Nova Bossa Nova" and "Because of You (Live)" as bonus tracks.

Third and final phase
The band (Rob Chapman, Dan Catsis and Charlie Llewellin) reconvened in the summer of 1985, and continued to record sporadically until they final disbanded in 1990. The highlights from this third incarnation of the band were collected in 2007 on "The Porlock Factor: Psych Dreams and Other Schemes 1985–1990" on Cherry Red Records (in 2006 they had previously issued a compilation CD of singles, album tracks and unreleased tracks from their earlier work, "Dreams Interrupted: The Bewilderbeat Years 1978–1980").

Post–final break-up, 2015 reformation
Rob Chapman – after The Transmitters, Chapman had jobs in teaching and broadcasting on BBC Radio, eventually drifting into music journalism. He began contributing to the magazine Mojo, then in 2003 moved to Uncut, only to move back to Mojo in 2006. He is the author of several books, including a history of offshore pirate radio, Selling the Sixties (Routledge, 1992); an alternative history of the record sleeve, The Vinyl Junkyard (Booth Clibbon, 1997); and a biography of Syd Barrett, Syd Barrett: A Very Irregular Head (Faber, 2010). He currently works at the University of Huddersfield.

Dan Catsis – as of 2010, has been playing bass in the reformed Pop Group.

Tom Nichols – went on to be an art historian and lecturer at the University of Aberdeen and currently works at the University of Glasgow.

Tony Wrafter – continues to play saxophone and flute around the world.

Charlie Llewellin – went on to be drummer with Maximum Joy and Palace of Light in the UK. He has lived in Austin, Texas since September 1991, and in the 1990s played with Austin bands Eleanor Plunge, Jean Caffeine and the Gourds. In 2019 he and Maximum Joy singer Janine Rainforth released the album P.E.A.C.E. as MXMJoY.

In 2015, the band reformed, playing alongside other bands, for 'Un-Peeled 2015', a tribute show to the late Radio 1 DJ John Peel. They also played at The Exchange, Bristol in January 2016.

Discography

Albums
Nine Months to the Disco (1980, Heartbeat, UK, LP, HB 2)
Put Me on the Guest List (1980, Heartbeat, UK, LP, HBM 3)
Dreams Interrupted: The Bewilderbeat Years 1978–1980 (2006, Cherry Red, UK, CD, CDMRED291)
The Porlock Factor: Psych Dreams and Other Schemes 1985–1990 (2007, Cherry Red, UK, CD, CDMRED322)
Nine Months to the Disco [Reissue + Bonus Track] (2007, Birdsong, Japan, CD, BIRD-2006)
Put Me on the Guest List [Reissue + Bonus Tracks] (2007, Birdsong, Japan, CD, BIRD-2007)

Singles and EPs
This Is Your Life EP ("This Is Your Life" / "Stay Awake" / "Because of You" / "Who Killed Bruce Lee?") (1979, Heartbeat, UK, 12", PULSE 3)
"Christine Keeler" / "Nova Bossa Nova" (1979, Heartbeat, UK, 7", PULSE 5)
"Shake (The Foundations)" / "She Went to Pieces" (live) (1980, Heartbeat, UK, 7", PULSE 8)
Limited Entertainment EP ("Limited Entertainment" / "Dahij" / "There'll Be No Room for You in the Shelter" / "Permission to Be Wrong") (1980, Y, UK, 7", Y 6)

Compilation appearances
Labels Unlimited – The Second Record Collection (1979, Cherry Red, UK, LP, ARED 4)
Avon Calling (1980, Heartbeat, UK, LP, HB 1)
Western Stars – The Bands That Built Bristol Vol. 1 (2001, Bristol Archive Records, UK, CD, ARC 001)
Avon Calling [Reissue + Unreleased Tracks and Heartbeat Singles Collection] (2005, Cherry Red, UK, CD, CDMRED292)
7" Up! (2006, Crippled Dick Hot Wax!, Germany, CD & LP, CDHW 103–2)
D-I-Y Do It Yourself (2007, Soul Jazz Records, UK CD & LP, SJR CD 153)
I'll Give You My Heart I'll Give You My Heart – The Cherry Red Records Singles Collection 1978–1983 (2008, Cherry Red, UK, 8xCD, CRCD BOX 4)

See also
List of bands from Bristol
The Pop Group
Maximum Joy
The Transmitters
Heartbeat Records
Avon Calling

References

External links
Listen to Glaxo Babies at last.fm
[ Glaxo Babies at AllMusic]
Glaxo Babies Discography at Discogs.com
Bristol Archive Records/Sleeve notes by Rob Chapman from "Dreams Interrupted"
Official Glaxo Babies MySpace page
Birdsong Records, Japan
Rob Chapman at University of Huddersfield
Rob Chapman at rockbackpages.com
Tony Wrafter MySpace page
Charlie Llewellin bio

English post-punk music groups
English new wave musical groups
Musical groups from Bristol
Musical groups established in 1977
Cherry Red Records artists

Glaxo Babies


Barbara Remington (23 June 1929 – 23 January 2020) was an American artist and illustrator.  Born in Minnesota, she was probably best known for her cover-art for Ballantine Books' first paperback editions of J. R. R. Tolkien's novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings  and for her Tolkien-related poster A Map of Middle-earth.

In an interview about her association with Tolkien's works, Remington mentions that she had not been able to get hold of the books before making the illustration, and had only a sketchy idea from friends what they were about. Tolkien, the author, could not understand why her illustration included what he thought were  pumpkins in a tree, or why a lion appeared at all (the lions were removed from the cover of later editions).  Remington became a huge Tolkien fan, and would have "definitely drawn different pictures" had she read the books first.

The popularity of the artwork led to a large edition of the poster as well as work for similar genre fiction such as The Worm Ouroboros by E. R. Eddison.  She also illustrated a number of children's books.

Remington illustrated "Scuttle The Stowaway Mouse", written by Jean and Nancy Soule in 1969. This is a great example of Remington's ability to understand and transform the characters into her own. Her imagination and eye for every small detail is impeccable. Remington illustrated the book "Boat" in 1975. It's a story told in art (no words). Beautifully drawn with incredible attention to details. All done in pencil and ink.

Remington  died at her home in Thompson, Pennsylvania,  on January 23, 2020. She was 90 years old.

References

External links
 Interview, on the Tolkien Collector's Guide website
 Brief notes, on the Tolkien Collector's Guide website
 Examples of her work, from a 2005 exhibition

American women illustrators
1929 births
2020 deaths
Tolkien artists
Artists from Minnesota

Barbara Remington


Château Larcis Ducasse is a Bordeaux wine which has the appellation Saint-Émilion, ranked Premier Grand cru classé B in the Classification of Saint-Émilion wine. The winery is located in the Right Bank of France's Bordeaux wine region  in the department Gironde.

History

In the 16th century Larcis Ducasse's wines were extremely popular and already highly sought-after. Records show that in 1777 they were purchased at a very high price by Pierre Beylot. Then, in 1841, Lecoutre de Beauvais mentions Larcis as being one of the best Saint-Emilion crus. A few years later in 1867, a first gold medal from the International Exposition in Paris was awarded for the quality of the wines produced in this exceptional terroir.
In 1893, Château Larcis Ducasse was purchased by Henry Raba – a direct descendant of a major Bordeaux ship-owning and merchant family based in Bordeaux from the 18th century. His passion led him to invest a significant portion of his fortune in maintaining this terraced vineyard and equipping the chateau with state-of-the art winery equipment. His son André took over upon his death in 1925. André then died during the war. He was childless, so his niece Hélène Gratiot Alphandéry inherited the property in 1941. She in her turn managed the property along with cellar-master Pharaon Roche and her son, Jacques Olivier Gratiot, director with l'Oréal and member of the Jurade, became manager in 1990.
Today, Château Larcis Ducasse is still in the hands of the Gratiot Alphandéry family and since 2002 the property has been under the management of Nicolas Thienpont.

Production

The vineyard area is around 11 hectares, with the grape varieties of approximately 65% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Franc and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon.

References

External links
Château Larcis Ducasse official site
 https://www.nicolas-thienpont.com/en/vin/larcis-ducasse/
 https://www.bordeaux-tradition.com/en/vins/chateau-larcis-ducasse-2/

Bordeaux wine
Bordeaux wine producers

Château Larcis Ducasse


Seahorses are a type of teleost fish. They are in the genus Hippocampus. They are called 'seahorses' because their head looks like a horse's head. There are about 32–48 species of seahorse. Seahorses live in tropical oceans.

Seahorses use camouflage to hide.

Reproduction
Seahorses are unique because the male hatches the eggs in a pouch on his belly. The female inserts her ovipositor into the male's brood pouch. She places dozens to thousands of eggs in the pouch. As the female releases her eggs, her body slims while his swells. The male releases his sperm directly into the water. The sperm then fertilize the eggs in the pouch. The fertilised eggs are then embedded in the pouch wall. They get nutrition and oxygen from the fluid in the pouch. In the pouch, the salinity of the water is controlled. This prepares the newborns for life in the sea.

Both animals then sink back into the seagrass and she swims away. The eggs then hatch

Throughout gestation, which in most species requires two to four weeks, his mate visits him daily for 'morning greetings'. They interact for about 6 minutes. The female then swims away until the next morning, and the male vacuums up food through his snout.

Research published in 2007 shows that the males release sperm into the surrounding sea water during fertilization, and not directly into the pouch as previously thought.

Birth
The number of young released by the male seahorse averages 100-200 for most species, but may be as low as 5 for the smaller species, or as high as 1,500.

When the fry are ready to be born, the male expels them with muscular contractions. He gives birth at night and is ready for the next batch of eggs by morning when his mate returns.

Like almost all other fish species, seahorses do not take care of their young after birth. Infants are susceptible to predators or ocean currents which wash them away from feeding grounds or into temperatures too extreme for their  bodies. Fewer than 0.5% of infants survive to adulthood. This is why litters are so large. These survival rates are actually fairly high compared to other fish, because of their protected gestation. This makes the process worth the cost to the father. The eggs of most other fish are abandoned immediately after fertilization.

Seahorses are the only fish that experience true male pregnancy.

References

Syngnathiformes

Seahorse


"Blumfeld, an Elderly Bachelor" (German: "Blumfeld, ein älterer Junggeselle") is an incomplete story by Franz Kafka. Probably written at the beginning of 1915, it first appeared in 1936 in the collection Beschreibung eines Kampfes (Description of a Struggle).

It relates part of the life of Blumfeld, an elderly bachelor, who upon arriving home finds two balls bouncing off the ground of their own accord. The balls follow him wherever he goes, and they clearly annoy him. The action continues into the next day, following his attempt to be rid of the balls. After finding an apparent solution, he goes off to work, where he interacts with those around him.

An entry from Kafka's Diaries, dated February 9, 1915, could refer to "Blumfeld":
Just now read the beginning. It is ugly and gives me a headache. In spite of all its truth, it is wicked, pedantic, mechanical, a fish barely breathing on a sandbank.

A reimagining of the story by Carter Scholz is featured in Kafka Americana.

External links
"Blumfeld, an Elderly Bachelor" in A Franz Kafka Encyclopedia

Footnotes

External links
the text kafka.uni-bonn.de

1915 short stories
Short stories by Franz Kafka
Unfinished books

Blumfeld, an Elderly Bachelor


Murminnie Beach is a locality in the Australian state of South Australia located on the east coast of the Eyre Peninsula overlooking Spencer Gulf about  north-west of the state capital of Adelaide and about  south-west of the municipal seat of Whyalla.

Its boundaries were created in December 2011.  The name is derived from Murninnie Beach Shack Site whose site is located within the locality's boundaries.

As of 2015, Murminnie Beach consists of an area of land adjoining the coastline and containing a settlement consisting of several streets of low-rise dwellings.  The majority of the locality is zoned for conservation purposes with the view of providing limited built development intended principally for recreational and tourism uses, which has a minimal impact and where provided, complements the environment of the locality.

Murminnie Beach is located within the federal division of Grey, the state electoral district of Giles and the local government area of the City of Whyalla.

References

Suburbs of Whyalla
Towns in South Australia

Murninnie Beach, South Australia


The St. Marks Green Belt, in Seattle, Washington, borders East Blaine Street to the west, 10th Ave East to the east. The northern and southern borders are vague at best mixed with trees and houses. The greenbelt helps buffer the noise from I-5 from Capitol Hill. A trail entrance at the Lefler House parking lot leads through the green belt looping back to the other end of the parking lot. A small creek runs through the center of the western portion of the greenbelt weaving through corrugated pipes above and underground.

History
In 1993, the city added the greenbelt to a number of properties protected by the green space policy. Later in the 1990s, the Streissguth family donated additional land to the greenbelt that included a permanent garden. In 2007 a large grant from the city was given to Green Seattle and St. Marks Episcopal Cathedral to reduce invasive plant species and build new trails.

Plants and Animals
The greenbelt has been overrun in the last decade with invasive species of plants; mainly Holly and Ivy. A lack of native species especially conifers leaves little for the urban wildlife except local birds. One positive of the location is that provides refuge for raptors hunting on I-5 and is a good place to view American Kestrels and occasional a Peregrine Falcon.

References

External links

Geography of Seattle
Parks in Seattle
Protected areas established in 1993
1993 establishments in Washington (state)

St. Mark's Greenbelt


IDAGIO is a streaming service specializing in classical music, with both free and paid tiers. The company is based in Berlin, Germany.

History
IDAGIO was founded in 2015 by Till Janczukowicz, a former artist manager, and Christoph Lange, who previously founded the German streaming company Simfy. Janczukowicz has said that his aim is "to offer the ultimate streaming service for classical music worldwide." IDAGIO officially started its streaming app for iOS at the Salzburg Festival in 2015.

IDAGIO added the Sony Classical catalogue in December 2017 and the Deutsche Grammophon catalogue (comprising also the Decca, Philips and ECM labels) in January 2018. In April 2018 it announced a partnership with Warner Classics, bringing the entire Warner Classics and Erato catalogues to the platform.

In September 2018, following a €10 million funding round, the service launched in North America. Labels from the Outhere Music Group (including Alpha, Phi, Aeon and Ricercar) were added to the service in April 2019.

In November 2019, IDAGIO was named one of Time Magazine's 2019 Best Inventions.

Exclusive content
Several recordings have been available exclusively for streaming on IDAGIO.

In January 2020, IDAGIO reached an exclusive streaming agreement with violinist Maxim Vengerov.

References

External links

Music streaming services
Companies based in Berlin
German companies established in 2015

IDAGIO


The Slate Islands are an island group in the Inner Hebrides, lying immediately off the west coast of Scotland, north of Jura and southwest of Oban. The main islands are Seil, Easdale, Luing, Shuna, Torsa and Belnahua. Scarba and Kerrera, which lie nearby are not usually included.

The underlying geology of the islands is Dalradian slate, which was quarried widely until the mid-20th century. Quarry working began in 1630 and at the turn of the 20th century, the quarries were yielding some eight million slates every year.

The Garvellachs lie to the southwest.

Definition

Unlike some of Scotland's larger archipelagos such as Orkney and the Outer Hebrides, which are distant from other islands and also have their own local authority, the Slate Islands have no formal definition. The islands from which the slate that gives rise to the name was quarried on a substantial commercial basis are Easdale, Belnahua, Luing and Seil. The website of the Slate Islands Heritage Trust also prominently lists these islands as their remit although other sources are slightly more inclusive.

According to the Gazetteer for Scotland these islands "include Luing, Seil, Shuna, Torsay, Easdale, Belnahua and Fladda". W. H. Murray in The Companion Guide to the West Highlands of Scotland goes so far as to say: "Seil and Luing, Shuna, Torsa, Belnahua and many others are collectively known as the Slate Islands." Torsa is a tidal island, joined to Luing at low tide. From a geological perspective Shuna has "no workable slate", although limestone was once worked there. The neighbouring islands to the west, Lunga and Eilean Dubh Mòr, are constituted of quartzite, "Scarba conglomerate" and other rocks that lack a commercial value.

It therefore seems reasonable to conclude that this collective noun includes the commercially quarried Easdale, Belnahua, Luing and Seil, plus their larger and relatively recently inhabited close neighbours of Shuna and Torsa with the "many others" being the smaller uninhabited islands and skerries in their immediate vicinity.{{#tag:ref|Other sources that support this definition are Southern Hebrides Scotland: "The main islands are Seil, Easdale, Luing, Lunga, Shuna, Torsa and Belnahua" and Electric Scotland which re-publishes Patrick H Gillies' 1909 writings on Netherlorn. Rather idiosyncratically Scottish Island Bagging: The Walkhighlands Guide to the Islands of Scotland suggests that Scarba is "the southernmost of the Slate Islands.
|group="Note"}} This then excludes Lunga and Eilean Dubh Mòr and their own outliers that lie to the west of Luing, between Scarba and The Garvellachs.

Geography

The main islands of the group are as follows.

Torsa was inhabited until the 1960s. Belnahua had a significant population during the height of the commercial slate quarrying there but in 1914 quarry work ceased, the island was completely abandoned and it has been uninhabited ever since.

Smaller islands, tidal islets only separated at higher stages of the tide, and skerries which are only exposed at lower stages of the tide pepper the seas surrounding the main islands. Most of them are obscure and only Fladda, which has an abandoned lighthouse keeper's cottage, and perhaps Insh are ever likely to have been inhabited.

Belnahua: Fladda, Ormsa
Easdale:  None
Luing: Diar Sgeir, Dubh-fheith, Dubh Sgeir, Eilean Loisgte, Fraoch Eilean (2), Funaich Mhòr, Glas Eilean, Rubh Aird Luing, Sgeir Bhuidhe
Torsa: Eilean Fraoch, Glas Eilean, Torsa Beag
Seil: Dubh-sgeir, Eilean à Chomraidh, Eilean Bàn-leac, Eilean Buidhe, Eilean Dùin, Eilean nam Beathach, Eilean nam Freumha, Eilean Tornal, Henderson's Rock, Insh, Sgeir Beul na h-Uamhaidh
Shuna: None

Eilean-a-beithich ("island of the birches") located in Easdale Sound was once one of the Slate Islands. However, it was quarried for slate to a depth of  below sea level leaving only the outer rim of the island. Part of this rim was breached by the sea in 1881 flooding the quarry and little visible sign of the island now remains.

Etymology
Belnahua is from the Scots Gaelic Beul na h-Uamha, meaning "the mouth of the cave" and Torsa is also a Gaelic name although ultimately derived from Old Norse. It means "Thorir's island". The derivations of the other main islands are less clear. Seil and Luing are probably pre-Gaelic in origin  and of uncertain meaning. Shuna is Siùna in Gaelic and may derive from the Norse for "sea island". Easdale appears to be the combination of  eas, which is Gaelic for "waterfall" and dal, the Norse for "valley". However, it is not clear why either description should apply to this tiny island which is low lying and has no waterfalls and the name may have come from  the nearby village of the same name on Seil.

Geology
The most important bedrock on the islands from a commercial point of view is the Neoproterozoic age Easdale Slate Formation, a pyritic, graphitic pelite belonging to the Easdale Subgroup of the Dalradian Argyll Group. Zones of metamorphosed intrusive igneous rocks occur within the southeast of Seil and andesitic lavas of the Lorn Plateau Lava Formation dominate the west of the island. There are numerous NW-SE aligned basalt and microgabbro dykes which form a part of the 'Mull Swarm' which is of early Palaeogene age. Raised marine deposits of sand and gravel occur widely around the margins of some of the islands, a legacy of late Quaternary changes in relative sea-level.

Prior to the Pleistocene ice ages the Slate Islands were part of a long peninsula that ran from what is now mainland Scotland out through Scarba and Jura to Islay until the Firth of Lorn glacier cut through it, creating the islands that exist today. The entire area was covered by an ice sheet during the maximum extent of glaciation and deep channels were cut into what is now the sea bed, creating deep waters of  or more in the Firth of Lorn.

History
From about the 6th to the 8th century AD the Cenél Loairn kindred controlled what is today known as Lorn, which region includes the Slate Islands, in the then kingdom of Dalriada. Their main base may have been at Dunollie near Oban.

By the late 8th century the area was a zone of conflict between the Celtic rulers of mainland Argyll and the newly arrived Norse settlers. It has been suggested that Seil may be the Innisibsolian referred to in the Chronicle of the Kings of Alba, which records a victory by the Scots over a Viking force during the time of Donald II. The Frankish Annales Bertiniani may record the conquest of the Inner Hebrides by Vikings in 847 and there is an early reference to the Norse presence in the Irish records to a king of "Viking Scotland" whose heir Thórir brought an army to Ireland in 848. Although there are few written references to the Slate Islands for this period the influence of the Norse language on placenames suggests that these islands then became part of the Kingdom of the Isles. Clan MacDougall were an important force in the area responsible for their mainland territories to the Scots crown, but to the Kings of Norway for their island territories until the 1266 Treaty of Perth. At this point the Hebrides and Mann and all rights that the Norwegian crown "had of old therein" were yielded to the Kingdom of Scotland.

During the Wars of Scottish Independence the MacDougalls sided with Clan Comyn against King Robert the Bruce, defeating him the Battle of Dalrigh in 1306. Two years later Bruce led three thousand veterans into Argyll against the MacDougalls and at the Battle of the Pass of Brander they were defeated and King Robert held most of their lands to be forfeit, including all their island possessions save for Kerrera. Their fortunes were restored somewhat under John Gallda MacDougall. In the mid-14th century, he relocated from England to Scotland, married a niece of the reigning David II, King of Scotland, and regained the clan's ancestral lands in Lorn.

Three centuries later, Clan Dougall was on the losing side again. The failure of King James VII to regain the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland led to the MacDougalls losing much of their land to the Duke of Argyll. The Slate Islands then became part of the Netherlorn estates of the Breadalbane family, a branch of Clan Campbell. From the late 17th century the Dukes of Argyll began to lease land on a competitive basis rather than as a means of strengthening the welfare of their senior clansmen. This resulted in mass evictions in 1669, long before the clearances as such. During the 20th century the Breadalbane land on the islands was sold off as smaller farms and individual houses.

Slate quarrying

Easdale slate had been quarried from as early as the 12th century using seasonal labour from the Breadalbane's Ardmaddy estate. In 1730 Colin Campbell of Carwhin was appointed as the Captain of Ardmaddy and tasked with exploiting the area's natural resources. In 1745 Campbell created the Easdale Marble and Slate Company in order to place  extractions from the area on a more commercial basis. At that point Easdale was producing 1 million slates per annum; when Thomas Pennant visited two years later production had increased by 250% and as further quarries were opened this further increased the company's production to 5 million per annum by 1800.

Slate quarries were opened on Eilean-a-beithich, Belnahua, Luing and at Balvicar on Seil. Railway lines were laid to take the rock from the quarries to nearby harbours. Peak production was reached in the 1860s at 9 million slates per annum, with export destinations including England, Nova Scotia, the West Indies, the US, Norway and New Zealand. The 6th Earl of Breadalbane had less interest in the industry than his predecessors although during the time of the 7th Earl a new quarry was opened at Ardencaple in the north of Seil. However, disaster struck in 1881. In the early morning of the 22nd November a severe gale from the south-west wind and an exceptionally high tide flooded the quarries on Easdale and at Eilean-a-beithich "a large rocky buttress which supported a sea wall gave way under the excessive pressure of water"."Slate Islands - The Islands that Roofed the World" Southernhebrides.com. Retrieved 14 November 2009.  Eilean-a-beithich was never re-opened although production did continue at Easdale, Luing and Balvicar. Changes in demand - clay tiles were rapidly replacing slate as the roofing material of choice - led to commercial production ceasing by 1911 on Seil and in 1914 on Belnahua. Balvicar quarry re-opened from the late 1940s until the early 1960s but slate is no longer mined anywhere in the Slate Islands.

The Isle of Insh was bequeathed to the National Trust for Scotland by the island's former owner, David Brearley, when he died in 2016. After assessing the island's 'heritage significance' the trust attracted criticism when it subsequently decided to sell the island to a private company for £353,000 in 2019.

Economy and transport
Today, the islands' commerce is largely dependent on agriculture, tourism and lobster fishing. The Ellenabeich Heritage Centre which opened in 2000, is run by the Slate Islands Heritage Trust. Located in a former slate quarry-worker's cottage, the centre has displays about life in the 19th century, slate quarrying and the local flora, fauna and geology.

Seil has been linked to the Scottish mainland since 1792/3 when the Clachan Bridge, also known as the "Bridge Over the Atlantic", was built by engineer Robert Mylne. Ferries from Seil depart from Ellenabeich to Easdale, and from Cuan to Luing across the Cuan Sound. The Easdale ferry uses a chain and cog wheels designed by John Whyte in the mid 19th century.

The Firth of Lorn is the seaway used by vessels going to and from Oban and Fort William  from points south and the seas around the Slate Islands contain the sites of various shipwrecks. The greatest loss of life in the vicinity was suffered by the  unladen Latvian vessel Helēna Faulbaums. She left the Mersey on 26 October 1936 en route for Blyth. Encountering a storm, she headed for the Firth of Lorn seeking shelter although the light load meant that the propeller was ineffective in the high seas. At 7pm her steering failed and captain ordered the anchors to be deployed but they could not hold in the deep waters. There is an extensive drying reef to the north of Belnahua and at 10pm that night the Helēna Faulbaums'' struck it broadside and foundered, sinking within ten minutes with the loss of 15 lives including two 18-year-old boys. Four sailors managed to scramble ashore and were rescued the next day by the Islay lifeboat and taken to Crinan. The bodies of the other crew members were washed ashore on Luing.

The waters surrounding all the Slate Islands are part of the Loch Sunart to the Sound of Jura Marine Protected Area.

Notes

References

Citations

Bibliography

External links

 The Scottish Slate Islands Heritage Trust

Islands of Argyll and Bute
Islands of the Inner Hebrides
Archipelagoes of Scotland

Slate Islands


Michiko Nishiura Weglyn (November 29, 1926 – April 25, 1999) was a Japanese-American activist and clothing designer, whose goal was to raise awareness about concentration camps during World War II. After United States Attorney General Ramsey Clark lied and said that the concentration camps did not exist in the US, Weglyn made it her goal to tell people the truth about the concentration camps.

Early Life
Weglyn was born on November 29, 1926, on her family's farm in Stockton, California. She was one of two sisters and had a loving mother and father, Tomojiro and Misao Weglyn. Before going to school in the mornings, Weglyn fed the chickens and the horses to prove to her father she was just as useful as a boy. In 1926, boys were often considered more important than girls.

Concentration Camp
Weglyn was put in a concentration camp, in Gila River, Arizona. This camp was for Japanese Americans during World War II. Many Americans believed that Japanese people were helping Japan, perhaps planning another attack after Pearl Harbor. Later in her life, Weglyn heard the attorney general, Ramsey Clark, deny that America ever had concentration camps. He said that the concentration camps that had affected Weglyn's life never happened. Of course, this was a lie, and Weglyn was telling the truth about her past experiences. Weglyn later decided to write a book called, Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of America's Concentration Camps, to share the horror and torture that she experienced. She wrote to raise awareness. This is why she is considered an activist, who helped inspire others to share their stories.

Life as a Designer
Weglyn was one of the first Japanese-American female designer known internationally. Throughout her career she made beautiful pieces of clothing to fit actors/actresses needs. She was known as a designer who could hide the actors/actresses flaws.

References

1926 births
1999 deaths
American activists
People from Stockton, California
American fashion designers

Michiko Nishiura Weglyn


George Henry  (1858–1943) was a Scottish painter, one of the most prominent of the Glasgow School.

Life
Henry was born in Irvine, North Ayrshire, and studied at the Glasgow School of Art, later in Macgregor's studio, but learned most from his nature studies at Kirkcudbright. His father's name was Hendry and George dropped the "d" from his surname as a young man.

He was influenced also by his collaboration with E. A. Hornel in such works as "The Druids" (1887), Grosvenor Gallery, London.  His "Galloway Landscape" was epoch-making at Glasgow by reason of its higher key of colour and essentially decorative character.  Following these tendencies, the two friends spent a year and a half in Japan.

Henry's importance consists in his influence in the Glasgow school in the direction of richer and more decorative color. In addition to genre and landscape, he also painted portraits, more distinguished by technical ability than by rendition of character. Henry's pictures in public collections include "The Blue Gown," Museum of Cape Town, "The Gray Hat," at Edinburgh, two portraits at Glasgow, and one at Montreal. He was elected a member of the Royal Scottish Academy (1902) and an associate of the Royal Academy.

"The Black Hat", a luminous portrait of a supremely confident Edwardian woman, was included in Modern Britain, a 2007 exhibition at Melbourne's National Gallery of Victoria.

In 1893 he went to Japan with Edward Atkinson Hornel another of the Glasgow Boys for an 18-month study tour. His work thereafter continued to have a strong Oriental flavour.

Publications
 Martin, The Glasgow School of Painting (London, 1897)
 Caw, Scottish Painting, Past and Present (Edinburgh, 1908)

References

External links

Gazetteer for Scotland
George Henry's biography & artwork from the Permanent Collection of the Gracefield Arts Centre in Dumfries, Scotland biography & virtual representation of George Henry's artwork of Gracefield Arts Centre at exploreart.co.uk
 Profile on Royal Academy of Arts Collections

19th-century Scottish painters
Scottish male painters
20th-century Scottish painters
Royal Academicians
1858 births
1943 deaths
People from Irvine, North Ayrshire
Glasgow School
Alumni of the Glasgow School of Art
Royal Scottish Academicians
19th-century Scottish male artists
20th-century Scottish male artists

George Henry (painter)


Aster Yohannes is the wife of an Eritrean political activist.  In 2016, Samantha Power, the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., named her one of twenty women political prisoners in the Free the 20 campaign.

Yohannes' husband, Petros Solomon, is a member of the G-15, a group of politicians who called for reforms. He was arrested in 2001. Yohannes was arrested in 2003, when she returned from the United States.  She was never accused of a crime or tried in a court.  No one knows where she is.

Aster Yohannes and Petros Solomon fought for the Eritrean People's Liberation Front.  They helped Eritrea get independence from Ethiopia in 1993.  Solomon was the Minister of Marine Resources in the Eritrean government.

When her husband was arrested, Aster Yohannes was studying in the USA. After she graduated, she returned to Eritrea to be with her children. The Eritrean government told her she would not be arrested. When she arrived in Eritrea in December 2003, she was arrested at Asmara International Airport. They took her to Karchele security prison in Asmara.  She did not see her children.  They did not let her speak to her family.  Her health is not good.  She has asthma and a heart problem.

References

Year of birth missing
Living people
Eritrean people
Prisoners

Aster Yohannes