The architecture of Poland includes modern and historical monuments of architectural and historical importance.

Several important works of Western architecture, such as the Wawel Hill, the Książ and Malbork castles, cityscapes of Toruń, Zamość, and Kraków are located in the country. Some of them are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Now Poland is developing modernist approaches in design with architects like Daniel Libeskind, Karol Żurawski, and Krzysztof Ingarden.

History

Pre-Romanesque and Romanesque architecture

The oldest, Pre-Romanesque buildings were built in Poland after the Christianisation of the country but only few of them still exist today (palace and church complex on Ostrów Lednicki, the Rotunda of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Wawel Castle).

The Romanesque architecture was then developed in the 12th and 13th centuries. The most significant buildings are the second cathedral in Kraków (only parts of it still exist in the current, third, gothic cathedral, e.g. the crypt), Tum Collegiate Church, Czerwińsk abbey, collegiate churches in Kruszwica and Opatów as well as the churches of St. Andrew in Kraków and of Blessed Lady Mary in Inowrocław. Smaller structures were also popular, like rotundas in Cieszyn and Strzelno.

Late Romanesque architecture is represented by the Cistercian abbeys in Jędrzejów, Koprzywnica, Sulejów and Wąchock as well as the Dominican church in Sandomierz and the ruins of Legnica castle chapel.

Gothic architecture

The first Gothic structures in Poland were built in the 13th century in Silesia. The most important churches from this time are the cathedral in Wrocław and the Collegiate Church of the Holy Cross and St Bartholomew in the same city, as well as the St Hedwig's Chapel in the Cistercian nuns abbey in Trzebnica and the castle chapel in Racibórz. The Gothic architecture in Silesia was further developed in the 14th century in the series of parish churches in the most important cities of the region (churches of St. Mary Magdalene, St. Elizabeth, St Mary on the Sand and St Dorothea in Wrocław, St. Nicholas' Church in Brzeg, Saints Stanislaus and Wenceslaus Church in Świdnica, Saints Peter and Paul church in Strzegom). The most important secular building of the gothic period in Silesia is the Wrocław Town Hall, initially built in the 13th century and enlarged and rebuilt in later centuries, mainly at the turn of the 16th century.

The 14th century is also the heyday of the Gothic in Lesser Poland, where such structures were built like the gothic Wawel Cathedral in Kraków, the series of basilical churches in the same city (churches of St. Mary, Holy Trinity, Corpus Christi and St. Catherine) and many hall churches outside the capital city (e.g. Wiślica, Szydłów, Stopnica and Sandomierz). In the same time the Greater Poland's cathedrals in Poznań and Gniezno were also built.

Many Gothic structures were also built in Royal Prussia before and after the incorporation of the region into the Polish Crown according to the Second Peace of Thorn (1466). The most important sights are the castles of the Teutonic Order in Malbork, Gniew and Radzyń Chełmiński and the town halls and churches of Toruń (town hall, the churches of St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist and St. James the Greater), Chełmno, Pelplin, Frombork and Gdańsk (town hall and churches of St. Mary, St. Catherine and Holy Trinity).

Late Gothic is represented by such builidings like the Collegium Maius of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow or the St. Mary's Church in Poznań and the Corpus Christi Church in Biecz. Moreover, in the 1st half of the 16th century diamond vaults were popular, especially in Masovia (St Michael's Church in Łomża, the cloister of the St. Anne's Church in Warsaw) and in Royal Prussia (eg. in the aforementioned churches of Gdańsk and in the St James's Concathedral Basilica in Olsztyn).

The are also some examples of the post-gothic architecture (germ. ) from the 17th century, like the choir of the St. Hyacinth's Church in Warsaw or the Bernardine monastery in Przasnysz.

Renaissance

The Renaissance came to Poland as a court fashion thanks to King Sigismund, who became acquainted with this stylistics in Buda, at the court of his Hungarian uncle. Sigismund invited Italian craftsmen from Buda to Kraków, where they created the first Italian Renaissance piece in Poland, the Tomb of John I Albert in the Wawel Cathedral (between 1502 and 1506) and remodelled in the new manner the Wawel Castle. One of the masterpieces of this time is also the Sigismund's Chapel of the Wawel Cathedral.

Later, the Renaissance architecture was especially popular in the secular architecture and is represented by the cloth hall in Krakow, many town halls (e.g. in Poznań, Tarnów, Sandomierz and Chełmno), town houses on the market squares (e.g. in Zamość, Kazimierz Dolny, Lublin, Warsaw and Lviv) and castles (e.g. the Baranów Sandomierski Castle, Krasiczyn Castle and Krzyżtopór Castle).

In religious architecture Renaissance influences are visible in the Zamość Cathedral, in the church of St. Bartholomew and John the Baptist in Kazimierz Dolny, in the Bernardine churches of Lublin and Lviv (today Ukraine) as well as in many synagogues (e.g. the Old Synagogue in Krakow and Zamość Synagogue). Moreover, a specific group of churches, inspired by the Romanesque tradition of the region, was built in Mazovia (Płock, Pułtusk, Brochów, Brok). Late mannierism from the time of the Counter-Reformation is represented by the Kalwaria Zebrzydowska calvary complex.

The Renaissance architecture in the northern cities developed under the influence of Dutch Mannierism. The most important examples are the Great Armoury, Green Gate and Old Town City Hall in Gdańsk, as well as many town houses in Gdańsk, Toruń and Elbląg (e.g. Jost von Kampen house in Elbląg).

Within the borders of modern Poland are also some important Renaissance buildings built in the lands of the then Holy Roman Empire like the castle in Szczecin or the castle and the town hall in Brzeg as well as the church in Żórawina.

Baroque architecture

The early Baroque in Poland was dominated by the Roman influences (the jesuite churches in Nesvizh, Krakow and Lviv, as well as the Camaldolese Monastery in Kraków). In the second half of the 17th century the influences of the Dutch Baroque architecture were also important thanks to the Tylman van Gameren (Krasiński Palace and St. Kazimierz Church in Warsaw, St. Anne's Church in Kraków, Royal Chapel in Gdańsk).

The most important structures of the Polish late Baroque were built in the former Eastern Borderlands, like the churches of St. Peter and St. Paul and St. Johns in Vilnius (today Lithuania), the St. George's Cathedral and the Dominican Church in Lviv (today Ukraine) as well as the Basilian Church and Monastery in Berezwecz (today Belarus) and the Saint Sophia Cathedral in Polotsk (today Belarus). Other key buildings of this period are the Piarists Church and the Church of the Conversion of St. Paul in Krakow, the Visitationist Church in Warsaw, the Greater Poland's abbeys in Głogówko near Gostyń and in Ląd as well as the Święta Lipka pilgrimage church in Warmia.

The secular Baroque architecture in Poland is represented by the Ujazdów Castle, Royal Castle and Wilanów Palace in Warsaw, Palace of the Kraków Bishops in Kielce as well as Branicki Palace in Białystok. Other important structures are also the palaces in Radzyń Podlaski, Rogalin and Rydzyna. In Royal Prussia the most important example is the Abbot's Palace in Oliwa (district of Gdańsk).

In modern Poland there are also important examples of the Baroque architecture in Silesia, which was then a part of the Habsburg monarchy. They include i.a. the main building of the University of Wrocław, the Protestant Churches of Peace in Świdnica and Jawor, the former Protestant Holy Cross Church in Jelenia Góra, the Cistercian monasteries in Lubiąż, Krzeszów and Henryków as well as the churches by Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer in Legnica (Church of St. John the Baptist built together with Christoph Dientzenhofer) and in Legnickie Pole.

Neoclassicism

Neoclassicism dominated Polish architecture during the second half of the 18th and first third of the 19th century as a manifestation of Enlightenment rationalism. New stylistics came from France, Italy, and partly from Germany as a reflection of general admiration only for the newly discovered Greco-Roman antiquity. The most important structures from this period are the palaces On the Isle and Królikarnia in Warsaw by Domenico Merlini, the Lutheran Holy Trinity Church in the same city by Szymon Bogumił Zug and the cathedral in Vilnius (today Lithuania) by Wawrzyniec Gucewicz.

Late neoclassicism, which was chronologically connected with the end of the Napoleonic Wars and capture of the former Duchy of Warsaw by the Russian Empire in 1815, was characterized by significant volumes of construction, large representative buildings, which set a new, large scale of squares and streets of Warsaw like the Saxon Palace. The leading architect of the late neoclassicism in Poland is Italian Antonio Corazzi. His main buildings in Warsaw include Staszic Palace, the buildings on the Bank Square and the Grand Theatre. Other important architects were Piotr Aigner (the palace and the pavilions in Puławy landscape garden, St. Alexander's Church in Warsaw, Presidential Palace) and Jakub Kubicki (Belvedere Palace in Warsaw).

Apart from Congress Poland, worth mentioning are also the Raczyński Library in Poznań (designed probably by Charles Percier and Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine) and the Wybrzeże Theater in Gdańsk (after the World War II reconstructed in modern form).

Style revivals

The territory of the former Polish state remained divided between Prussia (Germany), Russia, and the Austrian (Austro-Hungarian) Empire and developed unevenly.

The architecture of Kraków and Galicia at that time was oriented towards the Viennese model. The experience of Vienna Ring Road was successfully applied in Kraków where Planty Park was created. Stylistically, it was an eclecticism dominated by Neo-Gothic (Collegium Novum of the Jagiellonian University) and Neo-Renaissance (Słowacki Theatre). Similar stylistics dominated also in Lviv (Lviv Opera, Lviv Polytechnic and the building of the Diet of Galicia and Lodomeria, today housing the University of Lviv), Warsaw (Warsaw Polytechnic, Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Bristol Hotel) and Łódź (Izrael Poznański Palace).

In the church architecture, the most important was Neo-Gothic, promoted by architects like Józef Pius Dziekoński (Karol Scheibler's Chapel in Łódź, St. Florian's Cathedral in Warsaw, Białystok Cathedral, Radom Cathedral), Konstanty Wojciechowski (Częstochowa Cathedral), Jan Sas-Zubrzycki (St. Joseph's Church in Krakow) and Teodor Talowski (Church of Sts. Olha and Elizabeth in Lviv, Church of St. Mary in Ternopil).

Apart from Polish architects, also some important German and Austrian architects were activ in the partitioned Poland, e.g. Karl Friedrich Schinkel (St. Martin's Church in Krzeszowice, the Kórnik Castle, the Radziwiłł Palace in Antonin), Franz Schwechten (Imperial Castle in Poznań and the Lutheran Church in Łódź), Friedrich Hitzig (Kronenberg Palace in Warsaw, demolished in 1962), Theophil Hansen (House of military invalids in Lviv, today Ukraine), Heinrich von Ferstel (Lutheran Church in Bielsko Biała) and Fellner & Helmer (Goetz Palace in Brzesko, Hotel George and Noble Casino in Lviv, theaters in Bielsko-Biała, Cieszyn and Toruń).

Within the borders of the modern Poland are also important examples built in at the time Prussian Silesia and Prussian Pomerania, like the Chrobry Embankment (germ. Hakenterrasse) in Szczecin and the works of Karl Friedrich Schinkel (town hall in Kołobrzeg, Kamieniec Ząbkowicki Palace), Friedrich August Stüler (Royal Palace of Wrocław, St. Barbara's Church in Gliwice) and Alexis Langer (St. Mary's Church in Katowice, St. Michael Archangel's Church in Wrocław).

In the era of capitalism, many factory owners' villas and palaces are built, as well as numerous workers' housing estates and industrial buildings.

Art Nouveau and Folk Architecture

Art Nouveau emerged as an attempt to abandon stylization and eclecticism, invent a new architectural style that would meet the spirit of the time. The most important centre of this style was Galicia, where many buildings were built under the influence of the Vienna Secession. The most important architects were Franciszek Mączyński in Krakow (Palace of Art, House Under the Globe, Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus) and Władysław Sadłowski in Lviv (Lviv railway station, Lviv's Philharmonic, Industrial School). Moreover, in Krakow important are also the interiors designed by Stanisław Wyspiański in the House of the Krakow Medical Society and by Józef Mehoffer in the House Under the Globe.

In Bielsko-Biała some architects direct from Vienna were active, like Leopold Bauer (Saint Nicholas' Cathedral, house at 51 Stojałowskiego Street) and Max Fabiani (house at 1 Barlickiego Street). Other important examples in the city include also the so-called Frog House.

In Congress Poland the Art Nouveau is represented by e.g. the Leopold Kindermann's Villa and the Poznanski's Mausoleum in Łódź, the bank building at 47 Sienkiewicza Street in Kielce and the early-modernist Eagles House in Warsaw.

Polish architects from the 1890s were also discovering folk motives. The leading figure of this trend was Stanisław Witkiewicz, the founder of the Zakopane Style. Folk-inspired were also many World War I Eastern Front cemeteries in Galicia, many of them designed by Dušan Jurkovič.

Modern architecture

Interwar period

Poland's regaining of independence marked a new era in art, where modern architecture developed on a large scale, in the beginning often combining achievements of functionalism with elements of classicism. The most important architects of this period are Adolf Szyszko-Bohusz (PKO BP Building on Wielopole Street in Krakow), Marian Lalewicz (Polish Geological Institute in Warsaw, Bank Building at 50 Nowogrodzka Street in Warsaw, PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe headquarters in Targowa Street in Warsaw), Bohdan Pniewski (Patria guesthouse in Krynica-Zdrój, court at 127 Solidarności Avenue in Warsaw) and Wacław Krzyżanowski (AGH University of Science and Technology, Jagiellonian Library in Krakow). Other important examples include also the buildings of the Polish Parliament (Sejm) in Warsaw and the Silesian Parliament in Katowice.

Important were also influences of the Polish folk art and the Expressionist architecture, clearly visible in the works of Jan Koszczyc Witkiewicz (e.g. Warsaw School of Economics), in the Polish pavilion at International Exhibition in Paris (1925) or in the St. Roch's Church in Białystok, as well as in the inspred by the Chilehaus house at 6 Inwalidów Square in Kraków.

Examples of Polish constructivism and international style include numerous housing complexes and modern residential houses built by architects Barbara Brukalska and Stanisław Brukalski (own house at 8 Niegolewskiego Street in Warsaw, WSM housing estate in Żoliborz, Warsaw), Bohdan Lachert (own house at 9 Katowicka Street in Warsaw), Józef Szanajca, Helena and Szymon Syrkus (WSM housing estate in Rakowiec, Warsaw) or Juliusz Żórawski (houses at 28 Puławska Street, 3 Przyjaciół Avenue and 34/36 Mickiewicza Street, Warsaw).

Construction investments took place on a larger scale in modern cities like seaport Gdynia, Katowice, and Stalowa Wola. The most important examples include in Gdynia the BGK housing complex as well as the buildings of the ZUS and the Department of Nautical Science of the Gdynia Maritime University and in Katowice the buildings of the former Silesian Parliament and the Silesian Museum (destroyed in World War II) as well as the so-called Skyscraper. Other early skyscrapers include the Prudential House in Warsaw.

German modernism
Famous examples in modern Poland also include the works of German architects in Silesia, like Hans Poelzig (office building at 38-40 Ofiar Oświęcimskich Street and the Four Domes Pavilion in Wrocław), Max Berg (Centennial Hall in Wrocław), Dominikus Böhm (St Joseph's Church, Zabrze), Erich Mendelsohn (Jewish Tahara house in Olsztyn, department stores in Gliwice and Wrocław) or Hans Scharoun (the Ledigenheim at WUWA housing estate in Wrocław).

In the former Free City of Danzig Brick expressionist architecture gained popularity, represented by such works like the building of the health insurance company in the 27 Wałowa Street.

There are also some buildings built in the Nazi Germany or during the German occupation of Poland in the General Government like the Regierungspräsidium in Wrocław (today the headquarters of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship Sejmik) or the Przegorzały Castle (germ. Schloss Wartenberg) in Kraków.

After 1945

Reconstruction of cities and monuments after the war had a diverse character. Valuable examples of cultural restitution can be reconstructions of the old towns in Warsaw and Gdańsk. However, reconstruction of buildings in the Recovered Territories was strongly influenced by political aims of eradicating architecture perceived as German, and Prussian in particular.

After the Second World War, the avant-garde architecture was initially developed (Central Department Store in Warsaw, Okrąglak Department Store in Poznań, Central Statistical Office building in Warsaw), but in the years 1949-1956 it was interrupted by the socialist realist period. The best examples of the so-called Stalinist neoclassicism are the Palace of Culture and Science by Lev Rudnev and the Marszałkowska Dzielnica Mieszkaniowa housing estate in Warsaw as well as the planned city of Nowa Huta in Krakow.

After the period of the socialist realism the architects could again develop the international style. The most important sights include the Kijów Cinema and the Cracovia Hotel in Kraków,  in Warsaw, railway stations in Warsaw (Centralna, Ochota, Śródmieście, Powiśle, Stadion, Wschodnia), Spodek in Katowice and the  in Kalisz.

The brutalist architecture is represented by the Plac Grunwaldzki housing estate in Wrocław, the Bunkier Sztuki Gallery of Contemporary Art, the Arka Pana Church and the former Hotel Forum in Kraków, the "hammer" (młotek) building at 8 Smolna Street in Warsaw as well as being inspired by Unité d'habitation residential unit Superjednostka and the railway station (demolished and partially rebuilt in 2010-12) in Katowice.

In the time of the People's Republic many new housing estates were built, some of them are distunguished by interesting architectural forms. Besides the above-mentioned Nowa Huta in Kraków and the Plac Grunwaldzki in Wrocław, also e.g. the Koło II in Warsaw by Helena and Szymon Syrkus, the  in Warsaw, the Falowiec in Gdańsk, the Osiedle Tysiąclecia in Katowice as well as the housing estates  (Warsaw) and  by Oskar Nikolai Hansen and Zofia Garlińska-Hansen.

After 1989
Among the most important contemporary polish architects are the post-modernists Marek Budzyński (Warsaw University Library, the Supreme Court), Romuald Loegler (Centrum E housing estate in Kraków and the chapel in the Batowice Cemetery in the same city) and Dariusz Kozłowski (Seminary of the Salesian Society in Krakow) as well as the neo-modernists Stefan Kuryłowicz (The Focus building in Warsaw), JEMS (Agora headquarters in Warsaw), Krzysztof Ingarden (Wyspiański Pavilion in Krakow) and Zbigniew Maćków (Silver Tower Center in Wrocław). One of the recent phenomeons are also many new museums built in last years, e.g. the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, the Museum of Taduesz Kantor in Kraków (), the Museum of the Solidarity and the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk as well as the concert halls, e.g. National Forum of Music in Wrocław and Szczecin Philharmonic.

After the creation of the Third Republic, starchitects Arata Isozaki (Manggha), Norman Foster (Metropolitan, Varso), Daniel Libeskind (Złota 44) and Helmut Jahn (Cosmopolitan Twarda 2/4) had their projects in Poland. Other foreign architects active in Poland are Larry Oltmanns/SOM (Rondo 1), Rainer Mahlamäki (Museum of the History of Polish Jews), Renato Rizzi (Shakespearian Theatre in Gdańsk), Riegler Riewe Architekten (Silesian Museum) and Estudio Barozzi Veig Studio (Szczecin Philharmonic).

In 2015, Szczecin Philharmonic was awarded the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture.

Vernacular architecture

Vernacular architecture of Poland includes many wooden Roman Catholic churches and tserkvas (Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches) in the Carpathians, some of them dating from the 14th and 15th century (eg. churches of the Assumption of Holy Mary Church in Haczów, of the St. Michael Archangel in Dębno, of the All Saints in Blizne and of the St. Leonard in Lipnica Murowana). Other examples include wooden synagogues of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, however most of them were destroyed during the World War II.

Architecture schools in Poland

Literature and sources
 Tadeusz Dobrowolski, Sztuka polska, Warszawa 1970.
 Tadeusz Dobrowolski, Władysław Tatarkiewicz (ed.), Historia sztuki polskiej vol. I-III, Kraków 1965.
 Marek Walczak, Piotr Krasny, Stefania Kszysztofowicz-Kozakowska, Sztuka Polski, Kraków 2006.
 Adam Miłobędzki, Zarys dziejów architektury w Polsce, Warszawa 1978.
 Zygmunt Świechowski, Sztuka polska. Romanizm, Warszawa 2005.
 Szczęsny Skibiński, Katarzyna Zalewska-Lorkiewicz, Sztuka polska. Gotyk, Warszawa 2010.
 Mieczysław Zlat, Sztuka polska. Renesans i manieryzm, Warszawa 2008.
 Zbigniew Bania [et al.], Sztuka polska. Wczesny i dojrzały barok (XVII wiek), Warszawa 2013.
 Zbigniew Bania [et al.], Sztuka polska. Późny barok, rokoko, klasycyzm (XVIII wiek), Warszawa 2016.
 Jerzy Malinowski [ed.], Sztuka polska. Sztuka XIX wieku (z uzupełnieniem o sztukę Śląska i Pomorza Zachodniego), Warszawa 2016.
 Stefania Krzysztofowicz-Kozakowska, Sztuka II RP, Olszanica 2013.
 Stefania Krzysztofowicz-Kozakowska, Sztuka w czasach PRL, Olszanica 2016.
 Stefania Krzysztofowicz-Kozakowska, Sztuka od roku 1989, Olszanica 2020.
 Anna Cymer, Architektura w Polsce 1945–1989, Warszawa 2019.

See also

 List of Polish architects
Architecture of Warsaw
Residential architecture in Poland
List of tallest buildings in Poland
Wooden synagogues of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
Vernacular architecture of the Carpathians
Silesian architecture
Association of Polish Architects

References

External links

Polish art
Culture of Poland

Architecture of Poland


In mining, the face is the surface where the mining work is advancing. In surface mining it is commonly called pit face, in underground mining a common term is mine face.

Accordingly, face equipment is the mining equipment used immediately at the mine face used for removal and near-face transportation  of the material: cutting machines, loaders, etc.

References

Mining terminology

Face (mining)


The Quasar Equatorial Survey Team (QUEST) is a joint venture between Yale University, Indiana University, and Centro de Investigaciones de Astronomia (CIDA) to photographically survey the sky using a digital camera, an array of 112 charge-coupled devices.  Since 2009, it has used the 1 m ESO Schmidt Telescope in Chile.  From 2003–2007, it used the 48 inch (1.22 m) Samuel Oschin telescope at the Palomar Observatory.  Before that, it had used the 1.0-metre Schmidt telescope at the Llano del Hato National Astronomical Observatory in Venezuela.

References

As of 08/09/2017 all the following links are broken.

Astronomy organizations
Astronomical surveys

Quasar Equatorial Survey Team


"The Pause" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov.  It was first published in August Derleth's 1954 anthology Time to Come and reprinted in the 1975 collection Buy Jupiter and Other Stories.

Plot summary

Alexander Johannison, a nuclear physicist working at the United States Atomic Energy Commission, is mystified when his Geiger Counter starts failing to detect radioactivity. Over a period of time, his colleagues also notice the same strange events, but when he finally reports them to his boss, no one will take him seriously, and he realises that he is the only one who is still aware of the existence of radioactivity.

Thinking that maybe an enemy has removed all knowledge of nuclear energy and nuclear weapons and is about to invade the United States, he goes home and finds a stranger there talking to his wife. The stranger, who looks like an impossibly perfect human, explains that he is an entity from 'outside the universe'. He has been assigned to perform an 'operation' on humanity to save them from a potential nuclear holocaust. As part of the operation, all knowledge of radioactivity has been removed from humanity for five years. Also, all radioactive elements no longer exist. After the pause, about one hundred people, including Johannison, will have the task of re-educating humanity in the peaceful use of nuclear power.

The story ends on a sinister note, as, in discussing the visit with his wife, Johannison points out that the visitor at one point referred to the Earth as "the yard", mistakenly using its own context in the reference rather than ours. Johannison concludes that it regards the Earth as a "barnyard" and humans as mere cattle who have to be controlled.

External links

Short stories by Isaac Asimov
1954 short stories

The Pause (story)


Charles Francis Avila (September 17, 1906 – October 29, 2000) was an American electrical engineer and a Vice President and a member of the Executive Committee of the Yankee Atomic Electric Company.

Biography
Charles Francis Avila was born in Taunton, Massachusetts, on September 17, 1906. His facility for resolving seemingly insoluble problems and his vigorous leadership have contributed much to the electrical power industry. There is much in the tradition of Thomas A. Edison in the way he has worked, for Avila has the same far-reaching curiosity, the same unflagging interest in basic principles and the same unremitting perseverance. His early penchant for an engineering career became evident during his pre-high school days through his interest in the care, rebuilding, and refinishing of bicycles. He was recognized as a leader by and was a consultant to his boyhood friends in the numerous areas of model building and mechanical and electrical gadgetry.

In high school, Avila was most interested in the science courses and became an enthusiastic builder of amateur radio equipment. His limited budget made him constantly aware of the economic aspects of his projects. This combination of technological interest and economics led him to enter an integrated five-year program in Electrical Engineering and Business Administration at Harvard University from which Avila graduated in 1929 with a bachelor's degree.

Immediately after graduation, Avila entered the employ of the Boston Edison Company. During these years, he took the initiative in analyzing and solving the many problems inherent in the operation of the utility system. His contributions included a method of laying a half-mile length of cable across a lake without a barge to carry the reel; the development of a formula for safe pulling tensions to permit extra long cables between manholes; the design of a metal bellows as a flexible insert in sheaths to allow cable motion; the invention of a thermometer probe to measure accurately the temperature of cable conductors in ducts; the improvement of cable reliability by investigating the complex causes of faults under varying conditions. From this work he derived formulas whereby the combined cost of testing and the cost of outages were made a minimum.

Avila designed tanks for transformers applying a zinc spray of bituminous coating to prevent their deterioration when salt water was present. He devised slots in unfastened manhole covers to prevent them from flying up. He was a pioneer in the use of neoprene-jacketed cables to eliminate stray currents and corrosion by electrolysis. He engineered the installation of the first high voltage aluminum conductor cable in this country. As Vice President and a member of the Executive Committee of the Yankee Atomic Electric Company and as a Director of the Connecticut Yankee Atomic Power Company, he has done much to develop atomic power in New England.

Avila's method of dealing with cable failures led to his leading authority on cable design and operation. When a failure occurred, he was soon at the scene tracing the cause and minutely dissecting the faulty section to determine the source of failure. From these analyses, with the assistance of the engineers of cable companies, notable improvements in cable manufacture were developed.

Avila's interests were not confined to electrical engineering. While at Harvard, he read Ritchey's treatise on optics and telescopes and before long began grinding and mounting optical lenses which in turn led to the construction of a 6-inch telescope of excellent precision in definition and mounting. His enthusiasm influenced others and resulted in the formation of The Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston (ATMOB), a club which continues today. This club, with the assistance of Avila's expertise in optics and with the collaboration of James G. Baker of the Harvard Optical Research Laboratory and Harlow Shapley, worked on the design of an aerial camera for the National Defense Research Committee. Avila did the entire engineering work on the camera with automatic focusing for altitudes up to flying limits and self-adjustments for ground speed and distance, air density, temperature and plane rocking. This camera was used extensively in the Pacific and Korean Wars and is still in use today for tracking missiles and satellites.

Avila advanced through a series of positions with the Boston Edison Company until in 1960 he became President and General Manager and, in 1967, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer.

Avila was most interested in public affairs and contributes generously of his time. He played a large part in the conception and shaping of the New Boston and was a director of many civic and business organizations including the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, the John Hancock and Liberty Mutual Insurance Companies, the National Shawmut Bank of Boston, the Raytheon Company, and the New England Council.

Avila has also made considerable contributions to the field of education. As a member of the Executive Committee of the Society of Harvard Engineers and Scientists, he maintained close contact with the educational program of his Alma Mater; he was a member of the IEEE Committee on Relations with Educational Institutions. As a member of the Corporation and a Trustee of Northeastern University, he was instrumental in establishing the Power System Engineering Program, a five-year course sponsored by local utilities, designed to stimulate the interests of electrical engineering students in power engineering.

Avila was a Fellow of the IEEE. He was President of the Edison Electric Institute and he was a member of the Executive Committee of the Association of Edison Illuminating Companies. He has served on numerous committees of the IEEE and of the EEI. He received the honorary LL.D. degree from the University of Massachusetts in 1963. He received the 1968 IEEE Edison Medal; "For his early contribution to underground transmission, for his continuing guidance in the field of electrical research and for his positive leadership in the development of the electrical utility industry."

He died on October 29, 2000, in Westwood, Massachusetts.

References

External links
Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston

1906 births
2000 deaths
Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences alumni
American electrical engineers
Fellow Members of the IEEE
IEEE Edison Medal recipients
Harvard Business School alumni
20th-century American engineers

Charles F. Avila


The Paykan (Persien:پيکان) was an automobile produced by the Iranian company Iran Khodro Industrial Group (formerly known as "Iran National Company"). The car was very popular in Iran from the late 1960s to the late 1990s. It is often  referred to as the Iranian "chariot".

The Paykan design was based on the 1967 Hillman Hunter, which was originally designed and manufactured by the British Rootes Group.

The design was introduced to Iran by Mahmoud Khayami, co-founder of the Iran Khodro or IKCO. He accurately predicted that Iran was in need of a simple  "no-frills" automobile within the price range of ordinary folks.

In 1967, Rootes began exporting Hunters to Iran Khodro in "complete knock down" (CKD) kit form, for assembly in Iran. In 1972 it seemed that every car in Iran was a Paykan. By the mid 1970s, full scale manufacturing of the car, minus the engine, had started in Iran.

In 1978, Peugeot took ownership of the Rootes company after it collapsed under the partnership Chrysler Europe; a year later Peugeot ended Hunter production. Thereafter, the Paykan's engine production tooling was moved to Iran and was in full-scale production under Peugeots license until 2005.

Although Paykan was based on an old 1966 model, there was many changes and modifications made to it over the years, most notably, the substitution for the original 1725 cc Rootes engine, o a Peugeot 504-derived unit. The modifications to the exterior included a new stock body kit and head an tail lights.

The Iranian govrenment reportedly offered Iran Khodro a muckle cash incentive to end Paykan production by 2005, labeling the car as an environmental hazard because of its high fuel consumption. During its last years, it had a two year backlog for orders.

The Samand, commonly referred to as the "New Paykan", is currently being produced by Iran Khodro as a modren substitute for the Paykan class of cars.  In 2005, Iran Khodro annoonced that it had sold the discontinued Paykan's automobile production line to the Khartoum Transportation Company in Sudan, while auto-parts production for the Paykan still continues by third party manufacturers in Iran.

See also
Iranian automobile industry

Caurs o Iran

Paykan


Casamari Abbey is a Cistercian abbey in the Province of Frosinone, Lazio, Italy, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) east-south-east of Veroli.

The abbey, mostly from 1203-1217, is a fine and very well preserved example of early Italian Gothic architecture in the Burgundian style of early-Gothic architecture, paralleled within Italy only by that of the Abbey of Fossanova. It was declared a National Monument in 1874.

The abbey has a plan similar to the French contemporary ones, the entrance being a gate with a double arch. The interior has a garden whose central part is occupied by a cloister, of quadrangular shape, with four galleries having a semi-cylindrical ceiling.

The chapter room has nine spans and four pilaster, and is used for meetings. The church can be accessed from the cloister. It has a basilica plan with a nave and two aisles; the façade has a large external portico, while behind the altar is the choir, added in 1954 and made by Vincenzo Domenico De Donatis from Sora (1886-1969) and his sons. The windows of the church are fitted with sheets of alabaster rather than glass panels.

History
It marks the site of Cereatae, the birthplace of Caius Marius, afterwards known, as inscriptions attest, as Cereatae Marianae, having been separated perhaps by the triumvirs from the territory of Arpinum. In the early Imperial times it was an independent community.

Benedictine
A chronicle of the abbey from the 13th century dates its founding to the 9th century as a Benedictine monastery with the same name. Initially a small community with a simple church dedicated to Saints John and Paul, the buildings were expanded in the mid-11th century by its then-Abbot Giovanni. That it became a sphere of influence for the region at that time is shown by the large number of donations it was receiving and its acquisition of many chapels in the area whose revenues contributed to the maintenance of the abbey.

Cistercian

The 12th century, however, saw a period of long decline for the abbey. Due to the severe financial crises which arose in the shift to a capital-based economy, the region underwent great instability. In the religious realm, the Church was suffering from the contending rule of Antipope Anacletus II and Pope Innocent II. During this period, one of the major religious figures of the day, St Bernard of Clairvaux, promoted the Cistercian reforms of monasticism as the best way to ensure fidelity of life and obedience to the Church. He himself arranged the incorporation of Casamari in the new order, officially listing it in the Cistercian directory as the 29th foundation of Citeaux.

Under the Cistercians the abbey and its church were completely rebuilt between 1203 and 1217, in accordance with their own standards.

In 1417 the abbey suffered major damage due to an assault by the army of Queen Joanna II of Naples, allied with the papacy, on the forces of Braccio da Montone which had occupied the monastic complex. The entire western wing of the abbey was destroyed in the battle.

An equally major blow was soon given to the life of the monastic community in 1430, when Pope Martin V made his nephew, Cardinal Prospero Colonna, the commendatory abbot of Casamari, thereby giving him the control of the abbey's finances. By 1623 the community had been reduced to eight monks. As a result, it joined eight other abbeys to form the Roman Congregation for their mutual support. This union lasted until 1650.

In 1717, the commendatory abbot at that time, Annibale Albani, made an attempt to reform and reinvigorate the community by introducing the Trappist reform, bringing several monks for this purpose from the Trappist monastery of Buonsollazzo in Tuscany, part of the Italian Congregation of St. Bernard.

Suppression
At the start of the 19th century, Italy found itself invaded by the forces of the First French Empire. In the course of the Napoleonic wars, several French soldiers stopped at the abbey on May 13, 1799, when returning from the assault on Naples. They were well received by the prior, Simon Cardon, a fellow Frenchman. Nevertheless, the soldiers proceeded to sack the abbey in next days, including the church, where they broke open the tabernacle and scattered the consecrated hosts on the floor. When Cardon and five of his fellow monks went to recover the hosts, they were shot by the soldiers. Declared martyrs, they were buried within the church itself, as opposed to the abbey graveyard, however the official pronouncement was issued in Vatican only in May 2020. Soon, though, the abbey, along with most other religious communities, was suppressed by a decree of Napoleon in 1811.

Revival
Within a few years, by 1814, some of the surviving monks returned to the abbey and were able to resume monastic life, now under the direct authority of the Holy See. In 1825 Pope Pius IX officially ended the office of commendatory abbot. The monks of Casamari incorporated the Monastery of San Domenico, near Sora, under their jurisdiction in 1833. Valvisciolo Abbey, near Sermoneta, also came under their authority in 1864 . At that point Casamari, along with its dependencies, was able to establish itself as an autonomous congregation, directly subject to the Holy See. Keeping their adherence to the Trappist reform, they resisted later pressures put on them at the start of the 20th century to join the Congregation of Subiaco.

Congregation of Casamari
In 1929 the Holy See formally recognized the Congregation of Casamari, and united it with the other congregations which form the Cistercian Order (though not the Trappists). The monks began to extend their work to include the pastoral care of nearby parishes and opened a seminary. At the invitation of Pope Pius XI they began to consider expansion to foreign missions.

The Venerable Father Felix
At this point in time, Father Felix Mary Ghebreamlak, a priest of the Ethiopian Catholic Church, was directed to Casamari, due to his desire to introduce Catholic monastic life to his country. The community there accepted his request to sponsor a community of the Order in Ethiopia and train the candidates for such a community. Ghebreamlak entered, along with 12 other Ethiopian Catholic men.

Within a few years of his admission to the Order, Ghebreamlak was diagnosed with incurable tuberculosis. Allowed to profess religious vows on his deathbed, he died in 1934 and was buried at Casamari. The reputation he had for holiness of life drew the veneration of the Ethiopian clergy. The local Catholic Diocese, along with the Ethiopian Catholic Church, opened a process of investigating his life for possible canonization. The cause was eventually approved and accepted by the Holy See for further investigation.

In 1957 the abbey church was designated a basilica minor by Pope Pius XII.

Current status
The abbey made its first overseas foundation in Ethiopia in 1940. There are now four monasteries of the congregation there, with some 100 native monks. Foundations were also made subsequently in Brazil and the United States. The total membership of the congregation numbers some 200 monks. The abbey notes that, with the exception of the three years that they were disbanded under Napoleon, there has been a continuous monastic presence there since its founding.

The Abbot of the Abbey of Casamari, as of 2017, is the Right Reverend Abbot Dom Eugenio Romagnuolo, President of the Cistercian Congregation of Casamari.

References

External links

 Adrian Fletcher's Paradoxplace - Casamari and Cistercian Abbey Pages – Photos
  Casamari Abbey Website
 The Abbey Of Casamari

Christian monasteries established in the 9th century
13th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy
Cistercian monasteries in Italy
Monasteries in Lazio
Gothic architecture in Lazio
Churches in the province of Frosinone
Veroli

Casamari Abbey


Castelpoggio is a frazione (borough) of the comune of Carrara, in northwest Tuscany, central Italy. , it had around 360 inhabitants.

It is located on the slopes of the Apuan Alps, overlooking the plain of Luni.

Remains of human presence in the area date from as early as the Neolithic Age. The current borough originated perhaps from a Byzantine stronghold built to defend Luni from Lombard raids.

The first document mentioning Castelpoggio proper date from 997 AD. During World War II, German occupation forces killed 33 people and burned down much of the village in retaliation for Italian partisan activity in the area.

Sources

Frazioni of Carrara

Castelpoggio


Locust Hill is a historic home and farm complex located near Hurt, Pittsylvania County, Virginia. The house was built in two sections with the main section built in 1861, and expanded with a three-story rear ell in 1930.  The original section is a -story, three bay, frame dwelling in the Swiss Gothic style.  It has a steeply pitched gable roof that incorporates two central chimneys and four gable ends decorated in ornamental bargeboard.  Also on the property are a number of contributing resources including a tavern, a servants' quarter, a kitchen, an icehouse, a chicken house, a smoke house, a dairy, a servants' quarter, a caretaker's house, a grist mill, a dam, a family cemetery, and the ruins of an 18th-century house.

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.

References

Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia
Farms on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia
Gothic Revival architecture in Virginia
Houses completed in 1861
Houses in Pittsylvania County, Virginia
National Register of Historic Places in Pittsylvania County, Virginia
1861 establishments in Virginia

Locust Hill (Hurt, Virginia)


That Mothers Might Live is a 1938 American short drama film directed by Fred Zinnemann. In 1939, at the 11th Academy Awards, it won an Oscar for Best Short Subject (One-Reel).

The short is a brief account of Hungarian physician Ignaz Semmelweis and his discovery of the need for cleanliness in 19th-century maternity wards, thereby significantly decreasing maternal mortality, and of his struggle to gain acceptance of his idea. Although Semmelweis ultimately failed in his lifetime, later scientific luminaries advanced his work in spirit like microbiologist Louis Pasteur, who provided a scientific theoretical explanation of Semmelweis' observations by helping develop the germ theory of disease and the British surgeon, Dr. Joseph Lister who revolutionized medicine putting Pasteur's research to practical use.

Cast
 Shepperd Strudwick as Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis (as Sheppard Strudwick)
 John Nesbitt as Narrator (voice)

References

External links

1938 films
1938 drama films
1938 short films
American drama short films
American black-and-white films
Biographical films about physicians
Biographical films about scientists
Films directed by Fred Zinnemann
Live Action Short Film Academy Award winners
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer short films
1930s English-language films
1930s American films
English-language drama films

That Mothers Might Live


Erchanger (or Erchangar) (c. 860/880 – 21 January 917) was the duke of Swabia from September 915 to his death. He was the son of Berthold I, count palatine of Swabia, who is sometimes called Erchanger as well, in which case the duke is Erchanger II. His mother was Gisela, daughter of Louis the German and his family is known as the Ahalolfinger.

He was originally a missus dominicus in Swabia. In 911, he allied with Bishop Solomon III of Constance due their common political goals. Erchanger was at the time striving for ever greater power in Swabia alongside Burchard I and Burchard II. He played a conspicuous part in the downfall of the elder Burchard, who was convicted of high treason and executed, in 911. With the fall of the Burchards, Erchanger and his younger brother Berthold were the most powerful counts in the tribe. In 913, Erchanger and King Conrad I of Germany fell out, but Erchanger married off his sister Cunigunda, whose husband, Luitpold, had just died, to the king. With this diplomatic marriage, Erchanger became the king's representative in Swabia. With this, his alliance with Bishop Solomon broke and the bishop opposed his rise. Seeing his income diminished by the bishop, Erchanger imprisoned Solomon in 914. Conrad opposed this and freed the bishop, exiling Erchanger.

Erchanger returned in 915 and was fighting alongside his nephew Arnulf of Bavaria and his old enemy Burchard II against the Magyars. Erchanger and Burchard then turned against Conrad. Defeating him at the Battle of Wahlwies in the Hegau, Erchanger is proclaimed duke. However, at a high court in Hohenaltheim in September 916, Erchanger was condemned to a monastery for offences against king and bishop. He was executed on the instructions of the king on 21 January 917.

Notes

References

Sources

Dukes of Swabia
10th-century dukes in Europe
Ahalolfing dynasty
9th-century births

917 deaths

Year of birth uncertain

Erchanger, Duke of Swabia


Guy Hemmings (born May 10, 1962) is a Canadian curler from Sorel. Hemmings gained prominence after reaching the final of the Brier in 1998 and 1999. He is considered an ambassador for the game, not only in his home province of Quebec but across Canada which he crosses every year as part of his "Guy Hemmings Rockin' the House Tour". In his tour he conducts "junior clinics at local curling clubs, visits elementary and high schools, visits the sick kids' wings at area hospitals and will host media scrums and is the keynote speaker at receptions at local curling clubs."

Hemmings was born in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, and began curling in 1984 at the age of 22. Eight years later, he played in his first provincial championship. In 1998, he won his first provincial championship giving him the right to represent Quebec at the 1998 Labatt Brier. That year, he lost in the final to Ontario, skipped by Wayne Middaugh. The following year, Hemmings made it to the finals again but lost to Manitoba, skipped by Jeff Stoughton. In the 1999 semi-final, Hemmings won the game with a last-shot draw to the back of the button vs Gerald Shymko, which was the shot of the week. (Hemmings had had won that honour the previous year as well). In the year 2000 he was hired by the Canadian Curling Association at an annual stipend of $50000 to be their goodwill ambassador.

Hemmings qualified for both the 2001 Nokia Brier and the 2003 Nokia Brier, but never again reached the final. He has been unable to win the provincial championships since then.

Hemmings was a colour commentator during the 2006 Winter Olympics and is a French language colour commentator for RDS since the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Current team
()
 François Gagné (third)
 Ghyslain Richard (second)
 Christian Bouchard (lead)

References

External links
 Guy Hemmings Rockin' the House Tour
 Stats
 Team Hemmings

1962 births
Curlers from Quebec
Curling broadcasters
Living people
Sportspeople from Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu
Sportspeople from Sorel-Tracy

Guy Hemmings


Procedural animation refers to rule-based or algorithmic method of creating computer graphics animation.

Procedural animation vs. traditional animation
With traditional animation method, every principal animation poses are specified by an animator at a specific point in the animation timeline. By setting these poses, an animator can artistically direct how the geometry will be framed in some key events. These poses are in the same sense as how a person may pose for photography session. Note that every shapes and objects in computer graphics are considered as geometry. With key events specified, the animation software will then automatically fill the intermediary motions between key points, thereby creating continuous motion throughout the timeline without requiring additional works by an animator.

Procedural animation is a rule-base approach to creating animations. These rules are typically some form of mathematical or statistical functions which tell the animation software how an object is to be animated. In order for the geometry to be animated, these functions typically require some form of time-based variable as its input. Therefore, one can apply a chain of logical rules and algorithms to create animations without manually specify any key poses.

Procedural modeling
In computer graphics, modeling refers to an act of digitally sculpting a model. As one creates rule-based animation, procedural modeling then refers to same rule-based, algorithmic approach to creating geometry. Procedural modeling differs from procedural animation in that time-based variable is not required.

Proceduralism
Amongst some group of animators within computer graphics industry, procedural modeling and animation method is also known as proceduralism.

Advantages and disadvantages of proceduralism
In order to maximize artistic impact of their craft, animators employ traditional animation techniques to set pose manually at a specific point in time. When the objects to be animated become significantly more complex, traditional animation techniques may not be feasible. Therefore, proceduralism offers significant advantage as complexities increase significantly. While proceduralism enables its practitioners to create infinite variation of models and animations, specific key pose is often left as random chance. Therefore, computer graphics animator must decide between the combinations of both techniques in order to achieve the desired outcome.

Applications of procedural animation
Procedural animation is used extensively in visual effects for movie and gaming industry where animation data and geometry must be generated with certain random probability in order to simulate physical world.

Animation

Procedural animation


The 1194 Yellow River flood was a series of natural disasters along the Yellow River in China during the Jurchen Jin dynasty.

The Grand Canal was used to provide extensive disaster relief, but the flood devastated large swathes of the north China plain, wrecked the regional economy, and created many thousands of refugees. It altered the course of the Yellow River from that taken along the Hai River past modern Tianjin during the 1048 flood and also permanently shifted (and shrank) the course of the Si River in Shandong. The former course into the Huai was no longer available once the Yellow River shifted again, as it had left behind 46 metres of mud behind.

References

Yellow River flood, 1194
Yellow River flood, 1194
Yellow River flood, 1194
Yellow River floods
12th-century natural disasters
Medieval floods
2nd-millennium floods

1194 Yellow River flood


Annamalaiyar Temple  is a Tamil Hindu temple dedicated to the deity Shiva, located at the base of Annamalai Hill in the town of Tiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu, India.It is significant to the Hindu section of Saivism as one of the temples associated with the five elements, and specifically to the element of fire, or Agni. The main deity of the temple is Arunachaleshwarar (Shiva) and his consort, Unnamalai Amman(Parvati).

The temple complex covers 10 hectares, and is one of the largest in India. It has four gateway towers known as "gopurams". The tallest is the eastern tower, with 11 stories and a height of , making it one of the tallest temple towers in India.

The Karthigai Deepam festival is celebrated during the day of the full moon between November and December, and a huge beacon is lit at the top of the hill.The event is witnessed by millions of pilgrims from different parts of Tamil Nadu.

Reference

Tiruvannamalai district

Annamalaiyar Temple


The battle of Serres (, ) took place in 1196 near the town of Serres in contemporary Greece between the armies of the Bulgarian and the Byzantine Empire. The result was Bulgarian victory.

Origins of the conflict

After the beginning of the anti-Byzantine rebellion in 1185 and especially after the victory at Tryavna the Bulgarians firmly took the initiative of the war. As a result of their efforts, the Bulgarians started capturing regions of Thrace and Macedonia from Byzantines; the Bulgarian army used their strongholds to the north of the Balkan mountains and the Danube river as bases for the war.

Between 1190 and 1195 many towns to the south and south-west were seized. During his preparation for a third campaign against Bulgaria, the Byzantine Emperor Isaac II Angelos was dethroned by his brother Alexios III Angelos who offered peace to the Bulgarian Emperor. Ivan Asen I demanded the return of all Bulgarian lands, which he knew it was impossible for the Byzantines to accept, and continued the struggle.

The battle

In the same year, the Bulgarian army advanced deep to the south-west and reached the vicinity of Serres taking many fortresses on its way. During the winter, the Bulgarians retreated to the north but in the next year reappeared and defeated a Byzantine army under the sebastokrator Isaac near the town. In the course of the battle, the Byzantine cavalry was surrounded, suffering heavy casualties, and their commander was captured.

Aftermath
Instead of a triumphal return, the way back to the Bulgarian capital ended tragically. Slightly before reaching Tarnovo, Ivan Asen I was murdered by his cousin Ivanko, who had been allegedly bribed by the Byzantines. Still, their attempts to stop the Bulgarians failed: Ivanko could not take the throne and had to flee to Byzantium. The Bulgarians advanced further during the reign of Kaloyan (r. 1197–1207).

References

1196 in Europe
1190s in the Byzantine Empire
12th century in Bulgaria
Battles involving the Second Bulgarian Empire
Serres
Serres 1196
Medieval Macedonia
Conflicts in 1196
History of Serres

Battle of Serres


Davidson Sylvester Hector Willoughby Nicol  (14 September 1924 – 20 September 1994), also known by his pen name Abioseh Nicol, was a Sierra Leonean academic, diplomat, physician, writer and poet. He was able to secure degrees in the arts, science and commercial disciplines and he contributed to science, history, and literature. Nicol was the first African to graduate with first class honours from the University of Cambridge and he was also the first African elected as a fellow of a college of Cambridge University. Nicol also contributed to medical science when he was the first to analyse the breakdown of insulin in the human body, a discovery which was a breakthrough for the treatment of diabetes.

Early life
Nicol was born as Davidson Sylvester Hector Willoughby Nicol on 14 September 1924 in Bathurst, Sierra Leone, to Jonathan Josibiah Nicol and Winifred Clarissa Regina Willoughby. He taught at the Prince of Wales School in Freetown, the capital city of Sierra Leone, and studied on a scholarship at Christ's College, Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, graduating with a BA in natural science in 1947. He was the first black African to graduate with first-class honours.  He got a medical degree from London Hospital Medical College. On 11 August 1950, he was married to Marjorie Johnston of Trinidad. Nicol had five children.

In the early 1950s, he taught at the Ibadan University medical school, researching topical malnutrition, before returning to Cambridge in 1954. In 1957, he was named the first black African Fellow of a Christ's College, and went to the college to research insulin under famed scientist Frederick Sanger. He published two works on the topic, The Mechanism of Action of Insulin and The Structure of Human Insulin. both in 1960. He had returned to Freetown in 1958, and was working for the Sierra Leonean government as a pathologist.

Academia

Beginning in 1960, Nicol was the first native principal of Fourah Bay College in Freetown for eight years. While principal of the college, he led a large expansion program. Nicol was a member Public Service Commission until 1968. Nicol continued his administrative career at the university level in Sierra Leone as first the chairman (1964–68) then as Vice-Chancellor at the University of Sierra Leone (1966–68). In 1964, he was appointed a CMG.

Diplomacy
Nicol left academia in 1968 to become the Permanent Representative of Sierra Leone to the United Nations, which he served as until 1971. In that year, Nicol became the High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, which ended in 1972. In 1972, Nicol became the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations under Austrian Kurt Waldheim, which he served as until 1982. While serving as Under-Secretary General, Nicol also served as head of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). He was also at one point ambassador of Sierra Leone to Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. He was President of the United Nations Security Council in September 1970.

Return to academia and retirement
He maintained a home for many years in Thornton Road, Cambridge, England, frequently visiting Christ's College, of which he had been made a distinguished Honorary Fellow, meanwhile serving from 1987 until retiring in 1991 as a visiting professor of International Studies at the University of California (1987–88) and University of South Carolina (1990–91). Nicol retired in 1991 at the age of 67 to Cambridge, where he died on 20 September 1994 at the age of 70. He was president of the World Federation of United Nations Associations from 1983 to 1987.

Nicol's writings
Beginning in 1965 with Two African Tales, Nicol was a published author of short stories, as well as poetry, music, academic literature and a biography of Africanus Horton, an early Sierra Leonean author and one of the founders of African nationalism. His last piece of published work was Creative Women in 1982.

Selected bibliography
 Africa, A Subjective View, 1964
 Two African Tales, 1965
 The Truly Married Woman, and Other Stories, 1965
 Creative Women, 1982

Sources
 Abioseh Nicol on the Literary Encyclopedia
The Papers of Davidson Nicol held at Churchill Archives Centre

References

1924 births
1994 deaths
Sierra Leonean diplomats
Sierra Leonean physicians
Fellows of Christ's College, Cambridge
Sierra Leonean male poets
Sierra Leone Creole people
People from Freetown
High Commissioners of Sierra Leone to the United Kingdom
Permanent Representatives of Sierra Leone to the United Nations
Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge
Alumni of Queen Mary University of London
Alumni of the Medical College of St Bartholomew's Hospital
20th-century Sierra Leonean poets
20th-century male writers
Academic staff of Fourah Bay College
Sierra Leonean expatriates in Nigeria
Academic staff of the University of Ibadan
20th-century Sierra Leonean physicians

Davidson Nicol


Frederick Theodore Underwood (October 14, 1868 – January 26, 1906) was a Major League Baseball pitcher during part of the 1894 season.  He was a native of St. Louis County, Missouri.

Underwood appeared in seven games for the Brooklyn Grooms of the National League, starting six of them and completing five. He gave up 110 baserunners (80 hits and 30 walks) in just 47 innings. He also gave up 62 runs, but only 41 of them were earned runs.

Despite his struggles he did win two games for Brooklyn...July 21 against the Philadelphia Phillies (8-7) and July 28 against the Washington Senators (9-5). He was more successful with the bat, as he went 7-for-18 for a batting average of .389.

In his short MLB career he was 2–4 with 10 strikeouts and an ERA of 7.85.

Underwood died at the age of 37 in Kansas City, Missouri.

External links
 Baseball Reference
 Retrosheet

Brooklyn Grooms players
Major League Baseball pitchers
Baseball players from St. Louis
19th-century baseball players
1868 births
1906 deaths
St. Paul Apostles players
Washington Senators (minor league) players
Rockford Hustlers players
Kansas City Blues (baseball) players
Birmingham Grays players
Birmingham Blues players
Mobile Bluebirds players
Rockford Forest City players
Rockford Reds players
Rockford Forest Citys (minor league) players
Detroit Tigers (Western League) players
Omaha Omahogs players
St. Joseph Saints players
Saginaw Braves players
Rockford Rough Riders players

Fred Underwood


Robert Holley "Bobby" Davidson (19 July 1928 – 17 December 1993) was a Scottish football referee who also operated for FIFA.

Career
He was Scotland's representative at the 1962, 1970 and 1974 World Cups. He additionally took charge of the match between England and the Rest of the World in October 1963 which celebrated the centenary of The Football Association, and refereed the 1975 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup Final between Dynamo Kiev and Ferencváros.

Davidson refereed four matches over his World Cup career; two games in 1962, and a single game in each of the other competitions. In the 1962 tournament in Chile, he took charge of the Group B match between Italy and West Germany on 31 May 1962, plus West Germany against Chile on 6 June 1962, in the same group. He was also one of the linesmen during the Final between Brazil and Czechoslovakia on 17 June 1962 at the Estadio Nacional, Santiago under referee Nikolay Latyshev.

The match he handled in 1970 was the group stage tie between Uruguay and Israel on 2 June 1970. He was also a linesman for the group match involving the Soviet Union versus Belgium on 6 June 1970, and again for the quarter-final on 14 June 1970, when Uruguay beat the Soviet Union 1–0.

In Germany four years later, he refereed the Netherlands against Argentina in a second phase group game on 29 June 1974. He was linesman for Poland against Argentina in a group game on 15 June 1974, and also for Chile versus East Germany in another group match played on 18 June 1974. In addition, Davidson was a linesman during the second phase group match between the Netherlands and Brazil on 3 July 1974.

Before the 1974 Final there was much speculation in the Scottish press that he would referee the final, some suggesting this as a sort of 'consolation prize' for Scotland being eliminated from that year's tournament without losing a game. The final was actually refereed by England's Jack Taylor.

Bobby Davidson later became a director and honorary chairman of Airdrieonians and served on the Scottish league management committee. He died on 23 December 1993, at the age of 65.

References

1928 births
1993 deaths
Scottish football referees
1974 FIFA World Cup referees
1970 FIFA World Cup referees
1962 FIFA World Cup referees
Directors of football clubs in Scotland
Scottish Football League referees

Bobby Davidson


Thomas Ankersmit (born 1979, Leiden, Netherlands) is a musician and installation artist based in Berlin and Amsterdam.

His main instrument, both live and in the studio, is the Serge analogue modular synthesizer.

Physical and psychoacoustic phenomena such as sound reflections, infrasonic vibration, otoacoustic emissions, and highly directional projections of sound have been an important part of his work since the early 2000s.
His electronic music is also characterized by a deliberate misuse of the equipment, using feedback and disruptions in the signal to create many of the sounds.

Ankersmit frequently collaborates with New York-based minimalist composer Phill Niblock, electroacoustic improviser Valerio Tricoli and noise artist Kevin Drumm.

During the first ten years of his activities, Ankersmit focussed almost exclusively on live performance and installation work.
Since 2010, his music has been released on the PAN, Touch and Ash International labels.

Selected discography

 Thomas Ankersmit & Valerio Tricoli: Forma II, CD, PAN, Berlin, 2011
 Thomas Ankersmit: Hangar Performance, Tallinn, May 29, 2010, download, Touch, London, 2010
 Thomas Ankersmit: Live in Utrecht, CD, Ash International, London, 2010
 Thomas Ankersmit/Jim O'Rourke: Weerzin/Oscillators and Guitars, LP, Tochnit Aleph, Berlin, 2005
 Thomas Ankersmit: Alto Saxophone, 3" CD-R, no label, 2001

External links

Free improvisation
Living people
1979 births
Dutch experimental musicians

Thomas Ankersmit


Anadolu Feneri is a historical lighthouse still in use, which is located on the Asian side of Bosphorus' Black Sea entrance in Istanbul, Turkey. Anadolu is the Turkish name for Anatolia. It is across from the lighthouse Rumeli Feneri, which is on the European side of the strait at a distance of . A connecting line between the two lighthouses marks the northern boundary of the Port of Istanbul. The place, where the lighthouse stands, is named Anadolufeneri, which today is a fishermen's village in Beykoz district.

History
François Baron de Tott, a French engineer and military officer of Hungarian origin, who lived some years in Istanbul, reported on the existence of a lighthouse at this location in 1755. During the Crimean War (1853–1856), it became necessary to have lighthouses on both sides of the Black Sea entrance of Bosporus to provide safe navigation for the French and British war ships. The French constructed Rumeli Feneri on the opposite side of the strait and improved the existing lighthouse Anadolu Feneri. Both lighthouses went in service on May 15, 1856. Anadolu Feneri was operated by the French until 1933 when the 100-years concession was cancelled and the Turkish authorities took over. Today, it is maintained by the Coastal Safety Authority () of the Ministry of Transport and Communication.

The lighthouse is situated on Yum Burnu or Yon (Hrom) Point  high above the sea level and the entirely white painted tower has a height of . The masonry built tower with a gallery around the lantern room has a conical form. A two-story keeper's house is attached to the tower. Initially, it was lit by kerosene that was later replaced by Dalén light using carbide (acetylene gas). Today, the light source is electricity, however, a butane gas lighting system is also installed for backup purposes. The lighthouse's lantern flashes every 20 seconds and its light is visible at a range of .

The lighthouse is listed in Turkey under the code "TUR 014" and its radio call sign is TC2ALH.

Anadolu Feneri, inhabited by a family, is open to public visit as a historical site.

See also

 List of lighthouses in Turkey

References

External links
 Directorate General of Coastal Safety
 Picture of Anadolu Feneri

Lighthouses completed in 1755
Towers completed in 1755
Tourist attractions in Istanbul
Bosphorus
Lighthouses of the Black Sea
Lighthouses in Istanbul
Beykoz

Anadolu Feneri


Stella Mae Parton (born May 4, 1949) is an American country singer and songwriter widely known for a series of country singles that charted during the mid-to-late-1970s, her biggest hit being "I Want to Hold You in My Dreams Tonight" in 1975. She is the younger sister of the singer and songwriter Dolly Parton and the older sister of the singer Randy Parton and former actress Rachel Dennison.

Early life
Parton was born in Sevierville, Tennessee, the sixth of 12 children born to Avie Lee Caroline (née Owens; 1923–2003) and Robert Lee Parton Sr. (1921–2000). Dolly Parton is her elder sister by three years. When Stella was seven, she and Dolly appeared on a Knoxville television program, and two years later she debuted on radio. During this time, Stella and her sisters Willadeene and Cassie formed a group who sang gospel music and made commercials around East Tennessee. During her high school years, she began writing songs. She married Marvin Carroll Rauhuff just before her high school graduation in 1966. She had one son by this marriage.

Recording career
In 1967, Parton released her first album, In the Garden (a gospel project with Willadeene, Cassie and their mother). Shortly thereafter, she moved to Washington, D.C., and began performing at the Hillbilly Heaven club. Later moving to Nashville, she started her own record label, Soul, Country and Blues, in 1975 and released her first solo album, I Want to Hold You in My Dreams Tonight. Its title track was a substantial national hit, climbing into the country top ten. Its success earned her a major-label deal with Elektra in 1976. Her 1977 duet with Carmol Taylor, "Neon Woman", was somewhat successful, and she had three top 20 hits over 1977–1978 with "The Danger of a Stranger" (also a top 40 hit in the UK), "Four Little Letters" and "Standard Lie Number One". She had an additional top-40 hit with her sister Dolly's composition, "Steady as the Rain", in 1979. She recorded three albums for Elektra up to 1979. In 1984, Stella performed a song with Kin Vassey for the soundtrack of the movie Rhinestone, in which Dolly starred.

Though her chart success tapered off after leaving Elektra in 1980, she continued to record, releasing albums for several independent labels, including Accord/Townhouse and Airborne. She is currently with Raptor Records. To date, she has released 22 albums and has had 28 charting singles.

Parton has released a DVD, Live in Nashville, of footage from a 1990 concert in Nashville taken from the Attic Entertainment archives. It is the first of a planned Vintage Collection Series.

In 2019, Parton released an album, Survivor. In addition to eight original songs, Survivor has a cover version of "Wake Me Up" by Avicii and Parton's interpretation of the Bob Seger classic, "Like a Rock".

Television and film work
In 1979, Parton starred in The Dukes of Hazzard episode titled "Deputy Dukes" as Mary Beth Malone, a woman who impersonates a police officer to settle a family score with a prisoner who ends up being transported by Bo (John Schneider) and Luke (Tom Wopat) during a change of venue.

During the 1980s and early 1990s, she starred in several Broadway touring musicals, including Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Pump Boys & Dinettes, Best Little Whorehouse In Texas and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Parton also wrote and staged several Dollywood shows the opening season, as well as appearing on The Dukes of Hazzard (the first country artist to have a dramatic role on the series), Live with Regis and Kathy Lee, The Today Show and Good Morning America. She has been on several international radio programs, including Get Focused Radio with host Kate Hennessy.

Parton appeared with Gena Rowlands and Louis Gossett in the 2000 TV movie The Color of Love: Jacey's Story which was nominated for a Primetime Emmy award.

In 2006, Parton made appearances in two films, A Dance for Bethany and Ghost Town, both scheduled for release in 2007. Each film also includes her music on the soundtrack. Also ready for release in 2007 was her 21st album, which is a collection of original contemporary Christian songs. Followed in 2008, was her 22nd album, Testimony.

She appeared in Dolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors with Jennifer Nettles and Ricky Schroder, an NBC made-for-TV movie based on Dolly's song of the same name that was first broadcast on NBC in December 2015.

In 2016, Parton appeared in Dolly Parton's Christmas of Many Colors: Circle of Love as Corla Bass. The NBC TV movie was nominated for a Primetime Emmy award for Outstanding Television Movie.

In 2018, she took part in the BBC's Celebrity Masterchef series.

She appeared as a mystery guest on To Tell the Truth hosted by Anthony Anderson in 2021, and none of the panelists guessed her as the real sibling of Dolly Parton.

In 2022 she appeared in the Pure Flix film Nothing is Impossible, starring David A.R. White, which was filmed in Tennessee.

Social work
She devotes much of her time to causes such as domestic violence and teaches at the New Opportunity School for Women at Berea College, Kentucky, using her knowledge of hair and make-up to help women build self-esteem.

Parton has been a national spokesperson for Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the Christian Appalachian Project and National Honorary Country Music Ambassador to the American Cancer Society.

Parton went viral on Twitter in December 2020 with a tweet criticizing "old moldy politicians" over the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in the United States.

Consultancy
She has a consulting business (Attic Entertainment Artist Development and Entertainment Consulting) teaching stage presence, hair, make-up, wardrobe techniques and video coaching. Parton has also written three cookbooks, including her recipe-packed book State Fairs and Church Bazaars.

Discography

In the Garden  (1968)
Stella (And the Gospel Carrolls) (1972)
I Want to Hold You in My Dreams (1975)
Country Sweet (1977)
Stella Parton (1978)
Love Ya (1979)
True to Me (1980)
So Far, So Good (1982)
Always Tomorrow (1989)
A Woman's Touch (1995)
Appalachian Blues (2001)
Blue Heart (2002)
Appalachian Gospel (2003)
Songwriter Sessions (2006)
Holiday Magic (2008)
Testimony (2008)
American Coal (2010)
Buried Treasure (2014)
Last Train to Memphis (2015)
Mountain Songbird (2016)
Nashville Nights (2016)
Old Time Singing (2017)
Survivor (2018)

References

External links
Stella Parton – Country, Gospel & Appalachian Music

 Entry at 45cat.com

1949 births
Living people
20th-century American singer-songwriters
20th-century American women singers
21st-century American singer-songwriters
21st-century American women singers
American country singer-songwriters
American women country singers
American Pentecostals
Christians from Tennessee
People from Sevierville, Tennessee
American cookbook writers

Stella Parton


L'Eclisse () is a 1962 Italian romance film written and directed by Michelangelo Antonioni and starring Alain Delon and Monica Vitti. Filmed on location in Rome and Verona, the story follows a young woman (Vitti) who pursues an affair with a confident young stockbroker (Delon). Antonioni attributed some of his inspiration for L'Eclisse to when he filmed a solar eclipse in Florence. The film is considered the last part of a trilogy and is preceded by L'Avventura (1960) and La Notte (1961).

L'Eclisse won the Special Jury Prize at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Palme d'Or. Described by Martin Scorsese as the boldest film in the trilogy, it is one of the director's more acclaimed works. In 2008, the film was included on the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage's 100 Italian films to be saved, a list of 100 films that "have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978."

Plot
On a Monday of July 1961, at dawn, Vittoria, a young literary translator, ends her relationship with Riccardo in his apartment in the EUR residential district of Rome, following a long night of conversation. Riccardo tries to persuade her to stay, but she tells him she no longer loves him and leaves. As she walks the deserted early-morning streets past the EUR tower, Riccardo catches up and walks with her through a wooded area to her apartment building, where they say their final goodbyes.

Sometime later, Vittoria visits her mother at the frantic Rome Stock Exchange, which is very busy upon Vittoria's entrance. A young stockbroker, Piero, overhears an inside tip, rushes to purchase the stocks, and then sells them at a large profit. He introduces himself to Vittoria; he is her mother's stock broker. Following the announcement of a colleague's fatal heart attack and a moment of silence, the room erupts back into frenzied activity. Outside the building, Vittoria and her mother walk to an open market nearby. Vittoria attempts to discuss her own recent breakup, but her mother is preoccupied with her earned profits.

That evening, Vittoria's neighbor Anita (Rosanna Rory) comes to visit and they discuss the former's breakup. Vittoria says she is depressed, disgusted, and confused. Another neighbor, Marta, calls and invites them to her apartment nearby. Marta talks about the farm she and her husband have in Kenya. For a game, Vittoria dresses up as an African dancer with dark makeup, and dances around the apartment. Marta, unamused, asks her to stop. The conversation turns sour as Marta, a colonialist, worries about "monkeys" arming themselves and threatening the minority whites. Vittoria and Anita dismiss such talk. When Marta's dog Zeus gets free of the house, the women run after him. Vittoria is fascinated by the sound of the fencing in the wind. Back in her apartment, Riccardo calls for her, but she hides and doesn't answer.

The next day, Vittoria and Anita fly to Verona in a small airplane. On the way, Vittoria is fascinated by the clouds. At the airport, she watches the airplanes taking off and landing with childlike wonder. "It's so nice here", she tells Anita. Meanwhile, back at the Rome Stock Exchange, Piero is busy making trades. Vittoria arrives at the Stock Exchange and learns that her mother lost about 10 million lire. Another man lost 50 million. Vittoria follows the man through the crowded streets to a small cafe, where she sees him drawing flowers on a small piece of paper and drinking mineral water. She meets Piero, and he drives her to her mother's apartment in his Alfa Romeo Giulietta sportscar. She shows him framed family pictures and her room growing up. Piero tries to kiss her, but she avoids his pass. Piero drives back to his office on Via Po near Via Salaria, where he must break the bad news to his investors.

After work outside his office, Piero meets with a call girl he previously arranged to meet, but is disappointed that she recently changed her hair color from blonde to brunette. Deciding not to go with her, Piero drives to Vittoria's apartment and stands outside her window. He hears her typing. After a drunk walks by and notices Vittoria at the window, Piero comes over. While they are talking, the drunk steals Piero's sportscar. The next morning, Piero and Vittoria arrive at the crash site where the drunk drove the car into a lake. Vittoria watches as they pull the car with the body from the water. As they walk away, Vittoria is surprised that Piero is concerned about the dents and the motor rather than the dead man. They enjoy a playful walk through a park. When they reach her building, Vittoria unties a balloon from a carriage and calling to her new friend Marta tells her to shoot the balloon with her rifle (Marta previously having shot rhinoceros and elephants in Kenya), which she does as it ascends into the sky. When they reach her building, he kisses her, but she seems uneasy. Before she leaves, she drops a piece of wood into a barrel of water.

That evening, Vittoria tries to call Piero, but his phone is busy. When she finally reaches him, she does not speak and he, thinking it's a prank call, yells into the phone and slams down the receiver. The next day, while waiting outside near her house, Vittoria looks in the barrel of water and sees the wood is still there. Piero arrives and tells her he bought a new BMW to replace his Alfa Romeo. She asks to go to his place. They walk past a nurse wheeling a young girl in a baby carriage. Piero takes her to his parents' apartment, which is filled with beautiful works of art and sculpture. As they talk, she seems nervous and unwilling to open up to him: "Two people shouldn't know each other too well if they want to fall in love. But then maybe they shouldn't fall in love at all". They converse playfully, kiss each other through a glass window, and then kiss passionately. After he accidentally tears her dress, she goes into a bedroom and looks at the old family pictures. At the window she looks down to the street where she sees two nuns walking, some people talking at a café, a lone soldier standing on a corner waiting. Piero comes to the bedroom, and they make love.

Sometime later, Piero and Vittoria are lying on a hill looking up at the sky. He looks around and says "I feel like I'm in a foreign country". She says that's how she feels around him. He gets upset when he doesn't understand what she's feeling. She says "I wish I didn't love you or that I loved you much more". Sometime later at his office, Vittoria and Piero kiss and embrace playfully on the couch, even wrestling on the floor like children. When an alarm goes off, they prepare to part. They embrace and talk of seeing each other every day. They agree to meet that evening at 8 pm at the "usual place" near her apartment. That evening, on Sunday 10 September 1961, neither shows up at the appointed meeting place.

Cast
 Alain Delon as Piero
 Monica Vitti as Vittoria
 Francisco Rabal as Riccardo
 Louis Seigner as Ercoli
 Lilla Brignone as Vittoria's Mother (Antonioni)
 Rossana Rory as Anita
 Mirella Ricciardi as Marta

Production

Filming locations
 Rome Stock Exchange, Rome, Lazio, Italy
 Rome, Lazio, Italy
 Verona, Veneto, Italy

Release

Box office
On its theatrical run in Italy, L'Eclisse grossed a total of 305 million lire.
In France, the film had 470,764 admissions.

Reception
While Antonioni's earlier film L'Avventura had been derided upon its 1960 premiere, it was quickly reevaluated to the extent that L'Eclisse became "the most eagerly awaited film of the 1962 Cannes Film Festival"; critics had begun to believe that Antonioni's approach "was perhaps one way forward for an artform that was in danger of endlessly repeating itself". L'Eclisse won the Special Jury Prize at the festival and was nominated for the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm).

It is today considered one of Antonioni's more important works. David Sin wrote: "The intervening years appear not to have diminished its impact as an innovative work of cinema, nor as a wider critique of the age in which we live. The film retains a formal playfulness, with its open form offering different ways of watching and projecting onto the characters...and the overall atmosphere of ennui, so beautifully constructed through sound and image, still feels heavily familiar". Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian called the film "visionary" and argued "Antonioni opens up a sinkhole of existential dismay in the Roman streets and asks us to drop down into it. What a strange and brilliant film it is".

The final sequence is especially praised, with Jonathan Rosenbaum and others regarding it as one of the more effective scenes in Antonioni's oeuvre. Director Martin Scorsese, in his documentary about Italian films titled My Voyage to Italy, describes how the film haunted and inspired him as a young moviegoer, noting it seemed to him a "step forward in storytelling" and "felt less like a story and more like a poem". He adds that the ending is "a frightening way to end a film...but at the time it also felt liberating. The final seven minutes of Eclipse suggested to us that the possibilities in cinema were absolutely limitless". In the 2012 Sight & Sound polls conducted by the British Film Institute, L'Eclisse was voted in both the critics' and directors' polls as one of the 100 greatest films of all time.

Nevertheless, disapproval of the work has occasionally been voiced. Film critic Robin Wood complained that this and all films made by Antonioni after L'Avventura were "self-indulgent", "defeatist" and a "retreat into a fundamentally complacent despair". Jon Lisi of PopMatters criticized the work as "strictly intellectual" in its returns to the viewer and wrote that viewing the film "isn't exactly like watching paint dry, but the pace is so deliberately slow that it might as well be". Lisi dubbed L'Eclisse "beautifully made, historically important, and boring as hell". Conversely, Susan Doll wrote that if Antonioni's works are "out of vogue with movie goers captivated by postmodern irony and fast-paced editing...we are the worse for it. His work reflected not only a major change in Italian society but also a profound shift in film culture. His visually driven style and provocative approach to narrative raised the bar of what constituted popular filmmaking, and audiences at the time rose to the occasion to embrace it".

The film was included in BBC's 2018 list of the 100 greatest foreign language films, ranked by 209
film critics from 43 countries.

References

Bibliography

External links

 Michelangelo Antonioni's L'Eclisse by David Saul Rosenfeld
 L'eclisse: A Vigilance of Desire an essay by Jonathan Rosenbaum at the Criterion Collection

Italian black-and-white films
1960s Italian-language films
1962 romantic drama films
Films directed by Michelangelo Antonioni
Stock trading films
Films with screenplays by Tonino Guerra
Films produced by Robert and Raymond Hakim
Films scored by Giovanni Fusco
Italian romantic drama films
1960s Italian films

L'Eclisse


Benedict Biscop ( – 690), also known as Biscop Baducing, was an Anglo-Saxon abbot and founder of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Priory (where he also founded the famous library) and was considered a saint after his death.

Life

Early career
Benedict, born of a noble Northumbrian family, was for a time a thegn of King Oswiu of Bernicia () At the age of 25 ( 653) Benedict made the first of his five trips to Rome, accompanying his friend Saint Wilfrid the Elder. However Wilfrid was detained in Lyon en route. Benedict completed the journey on his own, and when he returned to England was "full of fervour and enthusiasm ... for the good of the English Church".

Benedict made a second journey to Rome twelve years later. Alchfrith of Deira, a son of King Oswiu, intended to accompany him, but the king refused to grant permission. On this trip Biscop met Acca and Wilfrid. On his return journey to England Benedict stopped at Lérins, a monastic island off the Mediterranean coast of Provence, which had by then adopted the Rule of St. Benedict. During his two-year stay there, from 665 to 667, he underwent a course of instruction, taking monastic vows and the name of "Benedict".

Following the two years in Lérins Benedict made his third trip to Rome. At this time Pope Vitalian commissioned him to accompany Archbishop Theodore of Tarsus back to Canterbury in 669. On their return Archbishop Theodore appointed Benedict as abbot of SS. Peter and Paul's, Canterbury, a role he held for two years.

Bibliophile
Benedict Biscop, the Bibliophile, assembled a library from his travels. His second trip to Rome had been a book-buying trip.  Overall, the collection had an estimated 250 titles of mostly service books. The library included scripture, classical, and secular works.

Founder

Ecgfrith of Northumbria granted Benedict land in 674 for the purpose of building a monastery. He went to the Continent to bring back masons who could build a monastery in the Pre-Romanesque style. Benedict made his fifth and final trip to Rome in 679 to bring back books for a library, saintly relics, stonemasons, glaziers, and a grant from Pope Agatho granting his monastery certain privileges. Benedict made five overseas voyages in all to stock the library.

In 682 Benedict appointed Eosterwine as his coadjutor and the King was so delighted at the success of St Peter's, he gave him land in Jarrow and urged him to build a second monastery. Benedict erected a sister foundation (St Paul) at Jarrow. He appointed Ceolfrid as the superior, who left Wearmouth with 20 monks to start the foundation in Jarrow. Bede, one of Benedict's pupils, tells us that he brought builders and glass-workers from Francia to erect the buildings in stone.

He drew up a rule for his community, based on that of Benedict and the customs of seventeen monasteries he had visited. He also engaged Abbot John, Arch-cantor of St. Peter's in Rome, to teach Roman chant at these monasteries.

In 685, Ecgfrith granted the land south of the River Wear to Biscop. Separated from the monastery, this would be known as the "sundered land," which in time would become the name of the wider urban area.

Benedict's idea was to build a model monastery for England, sharing his knowledge of the experience of the Church in Europe. It was the first ecclesiastical building in Britain to be built in stone, and the use of glass was a novelty for many in 7th-century England. It eventually possessed what was a large library for the time – several hundred volumes – and it was here that Benedict's student Bede wrote his famous works. The library became world-famous and manuscripts that had been copied there became prized possessions throughout Europe, including especially the Codex Amiatinus, the earliest surviving manuscript of the complete Bible in the Latin Vulgate version.

Death
For the last three years of his life Benedict was bed-ridden. He suffered his affliction with great patience and faith. He died on 12 January 690.

Veneration
A sermon of Bede (Homily 17) indicates that there was a very early public cult of Biscop; for his feast, but it became more widespread only after the translation of his relics to Thorney under Ethelwold . He is recognised as a saint by the Christian Church, which holds his feast day on 12 January.

Benedict is remembered in the Church of England with a commemoration on 12 January.

The Eastern Orthodox Church venerates him as a saint and celebrates his feast day on 12th January on the New Calendar.

See also
 Saint Benedict Biscop, patron saint archive

Notes

Sources

Wikisource:Ecclesiastical History of the English People/Book 4#18
Wikisource:Ecclesiastical History of the English People/Book 5#19
Wikisource:Ecclesiastical History of the English People/Book 5#21
HAbb Bede, Lives of the Abbots of Wearmouth and Jarrow
Attwater, Donald and Catherine Rachel John. The Penguin Dictionary of Saints. 3rd edition. New York: Penguin Books, 1993. .
Bede's World guidebook, 2004
AVCeol: Anonymous, "Life of Abbot Ceolfrith" in Webb & Farmer (eds), The Age of Bede. London: Penguin, 1983.
Blair, Peter Hunter, The World of Bede. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970. .
Benedict Biscop at Catholic Forum

External links

628 births
690 deaths
Abbots of St Augustine's
Abbots of Wearmouth
Northumbrian saints
Anglo-Saxon Benedictines
Benedictine abbots
Benedictine scholars
Benedictine saints
Anglo-Saxon saints
English chroniclers
People from Northumberland
7th-century Christian saints
Burials at Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey
Anglican saints

Benedict Biscop


Tim Morgan MRSS (born 1970) is an English sculptor, and a member since 2014 of the Royal Society of Sculptors. Morgan is known for his large-scale steel and glass sculptures such as Vein and Aurora that investigate the properties of light passing through glass.

Early life
Tim Morgan was born in Kent in 1970. He received his art training at Ravensbourne College (1989–90), Edinburgh College of Art (1990–91 and 1996–98), where he received the Andrew Grant Postgraduate Scholarship, and the Royal College of Art, London (1999–2000) where he won the Borders Group Prize.

Career

Morgan works principally with steel and glass in large pieces that are designed to be displayed outside where they may interact with changing light and weather conditions. His sculpture Cypher (2004) consists of a large disc of glass rods held together by a steel band. One of three of the works is installed at the Asticus Building at 21 Palmer Street in London, on the opposite side of the street to the former headquarters until 2019 of the Government Communications Headquarters.

His Vein (2008) consists of glass rods, held in compression between long steel blades. There are 40 Veins, some of which are on display at the Cass Sculpture Foundation at Goodwood.

His Aurora in Cavendish Square, London, consists of thousands of glass rods sandwiched between two pieces of yellow painted steel that form one continuous band but create the illusion of being two separate pieces. The work was installed as part of the City of Westminster's City of Sculpture project, launched in 2010 to promote public art before the London 2012 Olympics.

In 2014, Morgan was elected to membership of the Royal Society of Sculptors.

He has been commissioned by a number of societies including the Contemporary Arts Society and the Cass Sculpture Foundation. Morgan has in addition been an invited artist at Edinburgh's Royal Scottish Academy Visual Arts.

Personal life
In 2006–07, Morgan rode his motorbike 23,000 miles from Montreal, Canada, to Buenos Aires, Argentina. He lives in France with his wife Nushka and their daughter.

References

External links

Living people
1970 births
Artists from Kent
Alumni of the Edinburgh College of Art
English sculptors
Alumni of the Royal College of Art
20th-century British sculptors
21st-century English sculptors
21st-century male artists
English male sculptors

Tim Morgan


Aisin-Giro Puyi or Emperor Puyi (, February 7, 1906–October 17, 1967) was the last Emperor of China. He was crowned emperor in 1908 at the age of three.  His era name as Qing emperor, "Xuantong", means "proclamation of unity".  On February 12, 1912, during the Xinhai Revolution, he was forced to abdicate.  He later became the ruler of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo during World War II. He married five times but never had any children. His father was Zaifeng Prince Chun II. He never knew his mother and was raised by eunuchs.

When he was two years old, in 1908,  he became the Xuantong Emperor (then spelled as Hsuan Tung Emperor).  At the age of six, he was overthrown by Sun Yat-sen in the 1911 Revolution.  He was forced to give up all political power, but he was allowed to keep his title, his servants, and everything he owned in the Forbidden City.  In turn, he had to pay the Republic of China 4 million taels a year and was never allowed to leave the Forbidden City.

In 1919, Pu-yi appointed a British tutor named Reginald Johnston.  It was through him that the young emperor developed a fascination with the Western world, so he began to adopt aspects of the West for himself. He learned how to ride a bicycle, he cut off his own Manchu queue, he even began to wear glasses.

After Pu-yi was married to his first wife, he discovered that many of the palace's treasures were getting stolen. Believing that it was his eunuchs who were stealing his treasures, he demanded that they make an inventory to stop the treasury from getting robbed.  On the June 27, 1923, a fire destroyed the area around the Palace of Established Happiness. He accused the eunuchs of burning the treasury to destroy any proof of their theft. He also overheard some eunuchs' conversation that made him fear for his life. In response, he banished all the eunuchs from the palace.

In 1925, warlord Feng Yuxiang forced the emperor to leave the Forbidden City. Pu-yi then asked his tutor Johnston to go to the British embassy and ask them to let the emperor to move to England. Unfortunately, the embassy refused his request. He then called the Japanese embassy and they agreed to escort him out of Beijing and move him to Tianjin. After the Japanese took over Manchuria in 1932, they made Pu-yi the Emperor of their new puppet state, Manchukuo. Despite being emperor, he practically had no power, but he was constantly manipulated, threatened, and blackmailed by the Japanese government. Once again, the emperor found himself to be a prisoner in his own palace in the Manchukuo capital city of Changchun. Chinese media and writers accused the Japanese and collaborators like Puyi of being homosexuals as an insult.

After the Soviet Red Army invaded Manchuria in 1945, they captured Pu-yi when they invaded Changchun. After the CCP took over China in 1949, the Soviets agreed to hand Pu-yi over to China. For the next ten years, the former emperor was in a prison camp in Liaoning. After the prison guards said that he was reformed, he was freed from prison and was moved back to Beijing. He spent the rest of his life there as a common citizen. He worked as a gardener and then an editor. He earned 100 yuan a month. When he returned to the Forbidden City (which was made into the Imperial Palace Museum), he had to buy a ticket to enter. He thought that it was ironic that he had to buy a ticket just to visit his former home.

Notes

References

1906 births
1967 deaths
Emperors of Qing Dynasty
20th century in China

Puyi


Willie Junior Simmons is an Alabama resident sentenced to life without parole for first-degree robbery in 1982 for wrestling a man to the ground to steal his wallet, which contained $9. Simmons, who had three prior nonviolent convictions, was prosecuted as a habitual offender under Alabama's Habitual Felony Offender Act (HFOA) and has been imprisoned at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama, since 1982.  In the summer of 2021 Willie Simmons was moved to Fountain Correctional Facility which is also located in Atmore, Alabama.

Simmons was born in 1957 and grew up poor in Enterprise, Alabama. After dropping out of high school, he was first arrested for grand larceny at the age of 17. In 1982, at the age of 25, Simmons wrestled down a man on the street and stole his wallet, containing $9. Simmons was arrested and convicted of first-degree robbery. Because he had three prior convictions, Alabama's HFOA at the time recommended that he be prosecuted as a habitual offender and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. All of Simmons' petitions for review and reconsideration of his sentence have been denied.

Simmons' sentence has attracted national attention. Several publications, including Essence magazine, NPR and the Washington Examiner, and celebrity activists such as Kim Kardashian have highlighted his story. Over three million people have signed an online petition on Change.org calling for his release. Citing Simmons' case as "an unjust and expensive failure," the Alabama chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has called for the Alabama legislature to repeal the HFOA.

References

1957 births
Living people
American people convicted of robbery
Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Alabama

Willie Simmons (inmate)