San Jacinto ( ; ; Spanish for "St. Hyacinth") is a city in Riverside County, California, United States. It is located at the north end of the San Jacinto Valley, with Hemet to its south and Beaumont, California, to its north. The mountains associated with the valley are the San Jacinto Mountains. The population was 44,199 at the 2010 census. The city was founded in 1870 and incorporated on April 20, 1888, making it one of the oldest cities in Riverside County.

The city is home to Mt. San Jacinto College, a community college founded in 1965. San Jacinto will also be home to the eastern end of the Mid County Parkway, a planned route that would eventually connect it to the city of Perris. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, the city became a home to many dairies, and a center for agriculture.

San Jacinto also is home to the Soboba Casino, a gaming casino owned and operated by the Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians. The Sobobas are sovereign and self-sufficient in community affairs. They operate an Indian tribal school, the Noli Academy.

History

The Luiseño were the original inhabitants of what later would be called the San Jacinto Valley, having many villages with residents. In their own language, these people called themselves Payomkowishum (also spelled "Payomkawichum"), meaning People of the West. They are a Native American people who at the time of the first contacts with the Spanish in the sixteenth century, inhabited the coastal area of southern California, ranging fifty miles from what now is the southern part of Los Angeles County, California to the northern part of contemporary San Diego County, California, and their settlements extended inland for thirty miles.

The tribe was named Luiseño by the Spanish due to their proximity to the Mission San Luís Rey de Francia ("The Mission of Saint Louis King of France," known as the "King of the Missions"), which was founded on June 13, 1798, by Father Fermín Francisco de Lasuén, in what was the First Military District in what now is Oceanside, California, in northern San Diego County.

The Anza Trail, one of the first European overland routes to California, named after Juan Bautista de Anza,4 crossed the valley in the 1770s. Mission padres named the valley, San Jacinto, which is Spanish for Saint Hyacinth, and around 1820 they established an outpost there.

In 1842 José Antonio Estudillo received the Rancho San Jacinto Viejo Mexican land grant. In the 1860s, the Estudillo family began selling off portions of their rancho and through acquisitions, a small American community began to form. In 1868, local residents petitioned to form a school district and by 1870 a store and post office had been established. With these establishments, 1870 is considered the founding date of San Jacinto.

A plan for the community was developed in 1883 and a city government for it was incorporated on April 20, 1888, within San Diego County. San Jacinto is one of the oldest American cities in the region. In May 1893, Riverside County was created by the division of northern San Diego County and part of what now is San Bernardino County, changing the county government over San Jacinto as the new county was created.

In 1883, the San Jacinto Land Association laid out the modern city of San Jacinto at Five Points. The railroad arrived in 1888 and the city government was incorporated that same year.

The local economy was built on agriculture for many years and the city also received a boost from the many tourists who visited the nearby hot springs. The city, and its residents, helped to start the Ramona Pageant ( California's official State Outdoor Play), in 1923, and have supported the historic production ever since.

On July 15, 1937, San Jacinto was the end point for the longest uninterrupted airplane flight to that date when Mikhail Gromov's crew of three made the historic  polar flight from Moscow, USSR, in a Tupolev ANT-25. This flight followed another similar historic flight over the pole when Valery Chkalov's crew of three ended up in Vancouver's Pearson Airfield earlier that same year. With these two flights, the USSR earned two major milestones in the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) flight records. In the early 1950s the fraternal group E Clampus Vitus and the Riverside County Department of Transportation commemorated the Gromov flight by erecting a stone marker on Cottonwood Avenue, just west of Sanderson Avenue in west-central San Jacinto. The landing site is also marked by California State Historical Landmark Number 989.

Geography

San Jacinto is located at  (33.787119, −116.966672).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which  is land and , or 1.59%, is water. The San Jacinto reservoir is an artificial lake used as a basin for the San Diego Aqueduct, a branch of the Colorado River Aqueduct, west of town.

Since local geological records have been kept, the city has been struck by two large earthquakes, one on Christmas Day in 1899, and the other on April 21, 1918.

Climate
San Jacinto has a hot-summer mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csa) hot, dry summers and cool, wet winters.

Demographics

2010
The 2010 United States Census reported that San Jacinto had a population of 44,199. The population density was . The racial makeup of San Jacinto was 25,272 (57.2%) White (35.1% Non-Hispanic White), 2,928 (6.6%) African American, 812 (1.8%) Native American, 1,341 (3.0%) Asian, 124 (0.3%) Pacific Islander, 11,208 (25.4%) from other races, and 2,514 (5.7%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 23,109 persons (52.3%).

The Census reported that 43,971 people (99.5% of the population) lived in households, 169 (0.4%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 59 (0.1%) were institutionalized.

There were 13,152 households, out of which 6,460 (49.1%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 6,954 (52.9%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 2,121 (16.1%) had a female householder with no husband present, 912 (6.9%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 938 (7.1%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 111 (0.8%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 2,459 households (18.7%) were made up of individuals, and 1,231 (9.4%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.34. There were 9,987 families (75.9% of all households); the average family size was 3.81.

The population was spread out, with 14,487 people (32.8%) under the age of 18, 4,404 people (10.0%) aged 18 to 24, 11,885 people (26.9%) aged 25 to 44, 8,755 people (19.8%) aged 45 to 64, and 4,668 people (10.6%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 30.3 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.4 males.

There were 14,977 housing units at an average density of , of which 8,943 (68.0%) were owner-occupied, and 4,209 (32.0%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 5.7%; the rental vacancy rate was 10.3%. 28,777 people (65.1% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 15,194 people (34.4%) lived in rental housing units.

According to the 2010 United States Census, San Jacinto had a median household income of $47,453, with 18.9% of the population living below the federal poverty line.

2000
As of the census of 2000, there were 23,779 people, 8,314 households, and 5,836 families residing in the city. The population density was 368.6/km (954.6/mi2). There were 9,476 housing units at an average density of 146.9/km (380.4/mi2). The racial makeup of the city was 69.3% White, 2.7% African American, 2.3% Native American, 1.1% Asian, 0.2% Pacific Islander, 19.5% from other races, and 4.9% from two or more races. 40.3% of the population was Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 8,314 households, out of which 36.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.1% were married couples living together, 13.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.8% were non-families. 25.4% of all households were made up of individuals, and 14.7% har someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.84 and the average family size was 3.41.

In the city, the population was spread out, with 31.3% under the age of 18, 8.0% from 18 to 24, 26.1% from 25 to 44, 17.3% from 45 to 64, and 17.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 93.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.1 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $30,627, and the median income for a family was $34,717. Males had a median income of $31,764 versus $25,392 for females. The per capita income for the city was $13,265. 20.3% of the population and 15.2% of families were below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 26.6% of those under the age of 18 and 12.2% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.

Government
Federal:
In the United States House of Representatives, San Jacinto is in .

State:
In the California State Legislature, San Jacinto is in , and .

Local:
In the Riverside County Board of Supervisors, San Jacinto is in the Third District, represented by Chuck Washington.

Tourism

San Jacinto has a memorial to veterans at Druding Park is a tribute to the men and women of the U.S. Armed Services. In the park, each branch of the military has an equipment artifact used by its members in battle, as a symbol of their services. There is a tank for the Army, a propeller for the Air Force, an anchor for the Navy, a lighthouse for the Coast Guard, and in the near future the city government hopes to add a howitzer for the Marine Corps. Various plaques and memorials also grace the  park.

The city is also home to the Estudillo Mansion, which was home to Francisco Estudillo, who was the city's first postmaster and was elected as the city's second mayor. The mansion also has a twin mansion built by Estudillo's brother, Jose Antonio Estudillo, Jr. The two mansions and the grounds are all that remains of the original  Mexican land grant given to the brother's father, Jose Antonio Estudillo in 1842. The mansion was placed on the National Register of Historic Places and on the California Register of Historic Resources. This is only the third Riverside County site to receive this honor. Francisco lost his mansion to foreclosure in 1901, but even though Jose, his brother, died in the same year, his family retained his mansion and property, including the olive grove, and it was considered the Estudillo Estate, becoming the site of many family events, and a couple of family burials, until it was sold in 1919. Seven years later, Adelaide, Jose's wife died in Riverside.

Services

Public safety

Police
The city is served by the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.

Fire
The city of San Jacinto contracts for fire and paramedic services with the Riverside County Fire Department through a cooperative agreement with CAL FIRE. Fire Station 25 is also a CAL FIRE fire station which has a wildland fire engine.

Education
The city is served by the San Jacinto Unified School District, made up of 12 schools. There is one comprehensive high school, San Jacinto High School (San Jacinto, California), and a continuation high school, Mountain View High School. There are 7 elementary schools and 3 middle schools in the city, and one independent studies program on the Mountain View High School campus site. A 6–12 magnet school, San Jacinto Leadership Academy, operates on the past Monte Vista Middle School campus, serving nearly 600 children.

The San Jacinto Valley Academy is a K–12 charter school. This school is IB (International Baccalaureate) accredited.

Cemetery
The San Jacinto Valley Cemetery District maintains the San Jacinto Valley Cemetery in the city. Notable burials include Danish cartoonist Henning Dahl Mikkelsen who created the strip Ferd'nand.

Arts
The Diamond Valley Arts Council (DVAC) maintains an arts complex called the Esplanade Arts Center (EAC), which features an art gallery, community arts classes, and a performance space home to the Inland Stage Company (ISC).

Sports

Mt. San Jacinto College (the Eagles) has a sports stadium for college football and a gymnasium for college basketball, along with a ball park for a collegiate baseball team the Diamond Valley Sabers of the SCCBL (Southern California Baseball League) who also play home games in the Diamond Valley Field in Hemet.

The So Cal Coyotes of the DFI (Developmental Football International) plays half their home games in the Soboba Casino Oaks Sports Complex and their home field in Rancho Mirage in 2013, but the team has moved their home field to Shadow Hills Stadium in Indio in 2018.

The Soboba Casino's sports complex also has an indoor sports facility for boxing events held in the Soboba Indian Reservation.

See also
 Gold Base – the Church of Scientology international headquarters, located nearby

References

External links

 San Jacinto Museum

Cities in Riverside County, California
Incorporated cities and towns in California
1870 establishments in California
1888 establishments in California
Populated places established in 1888

San Jacinto, California


New Gothic or Neo-Gothic is a contemporary art movement that emphasizes darkness and horror.

Manifesto
"The  Art Manifesto" was written by Gothic subculture artist Charles Moffat in 2001, who also coined the term in an effort to differentiate it from Gothic architecture. The manifesto was later updated in 2003, but both versions emphasize rebellion against normality.

Gothic exhibition, Boston 1997
The style may be said to have begun (even if named later) with the "Gothic" exhibition organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, curated by Christoph Grunenberg, which took place April 24 – July 6, 1997. This exhibit included work by Jake and Dinos Chapman, Mike Kelley, Gregory Crewdson, Robert Gober, Jim Hodges, Douglas Gordon, Abigail Lane, Tony Oursler, Alexis Rockman, and Cindy Sherman.

Francesca Gavin's reformulation
Gavin's 2008 book Hell Bound continued to theorize the existence of the movement. She has also referred to the style as "the art of fear". The term is associated with work by Banks Violette, David Noonan and Gabríela Friðriksdóttir, in particular, as well as Christian Jankowski, Marnie Weber, Boo Saville, Terence Koh, and Matthew Stone. Gavin also includes Olaf Breuning, Tal R, Dr Lakra, Abdul Vas, Joss McKinley, Jonathan Meese, Raymond Pettibon, Sue Webster, and Ricky Swallow. The artists involved often take inspiration from extreme metal, hardcore punk, motorcycle clubs, pornography, slasher films, and other elements of popular culture.

See also
Body horror
Drone metal
Gothic fashion
Goth subculture
New French Extremity
Postmodern art
Shock art
Transgressive art
Young British Artists

References

Bibliography
Gavin, Francesca. Hell Bound: New Gothic Art. London: Laurence King Publishing, 2008.
Grunenberg, Christoph, ed. Gothic: Transmutations of Horror in Late Twentieth Century Art. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1997.
Steele, Valerie and Jennifer Park, Gothic: Dark Glamour, Yale University Press and the Fashion Institute of Technology New York, 2008.

Goth subculture
Contemporary art movements

New Gothic


Julio Barragán (1928 – 14 January 2011) was an Argentine painter of the Concretist and Cubist schools.

Life and work
Barragán was born in Buenos Aires. He began studying art at age 12, creating reproductions of Renaissance art masters such as El Greco. He studied at the National School of Ceramics, where he graduated in 1945 with a technical degree and met his future wife, María de las Nieves Adeff (born 1926); Adeff, became an accomplished potter.

His work was first exhibited at the National Fine Arts Exhibition in 1946. His early work was Realist, and he rejected the contemporary genres that had already marked the careers of, among others, his elder brother, Luis Barragán.

Barragán traveled to Paris, France, in the late 1940s, however, and was influenced by Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso. He joined the "Twenty Painters and Sculptors" group with his brother, Bruno Venier, and Oscar Capristo, among others. The group, active in Argentina between 1952 and 1963, exhibited works in a number of Abstract genres, although Julio Barragán's Concrete phase contrasted with much of the group's more surreal work. His style of painting then shifted to Cubism, adopting a chiaroscuro tone that would become his trademark. The landscapes and cityscapes he painted in subsequent decades were marked by Cubist and Impressionist influences. These became his best-known works, and to meet growing demand, he adopted an "assembly line" routine at his Villa Urquiza atelier, whereby several easels were assembled in a row that allowed Barragán to alternate randomly from one work to another.

Barragán's work was exhibited in most of the nation's leading art galleries, including the Gutiérrez y Guad, Sotheby's, Wildenstein, and Witcomb galleries, as well as in the Eduardo Sívori Museum and others. His work earned the Braque Prize at the Buenos Aires Museum of Modern Art (1964), the Grand Prize in Painting at the Belgrano Municipal Salon (1970), and First Prizes at the National Salon in 1976 and 1978. Local art critic Mauricio Neuman described him as a "solitary aristocrat of beauty."

He retired from Buenos Aires' art shows in 2005, and died in his Almagro neighborhood home in 2011 at age 82.

References

1928 births
2011 deaths
Artists from Buenos Aires
Argentine people of Spanish descent
Argentine painters
Argentine male painters
Cubist artists

Julio Barragán


The Behavioural Insights Team (BIT), also known unofficially as the "Nudge Unit", is a UK-based global social purpose organisation that generates and applies behavioural insights to inform policy and improve public services, following nudge theory. Using social engineering, as well as techniques in psychology, behavioral economics, and marketing, the purpose of the organisation is to influence public thinking and decision making in order to improve compliance with government policy and thereby decrease social and government costs related to inaction and poor compliance with policy and regulation. The Behavioural Insights Team has been headed by British psychologist David Halpern since its formation.

Originally set up in 2010 within the UK Cabinet Office to apply nudge theory within British government, BIT expanded into a limited company in 2014 and is now fully owned by British charity Nesta. Today, its work spans across several regions, having run more than 750 projects including 400 randomised controlled trial (RCTs) in various countries. With its headquarters in London and another UK location in Manchester, BIT also has offices in the United States (New York and Washington, DC); Singapore; Australia (Sydney); New Zealand (Wellington); France (Paris); and Canada (Toronto).

The OECD notes that 202 organisations around the world have applied behavioural insights to public policy. Many of these organisations have established their own behavioural insight teams to research the field of behavioural economics. These teams include the Behavioural Insights Unit (BIU) in the New South Wales Government and the  Behavioural Economics Team of the Australian Government (BETA) in the Australian Government. Meanwhile, Harvard University and the Government of British Columbia individually have a Behavioral Insights Group (BIG and BC BIG, respectively).

History
BIT was set up in 2010 by the 2010–15 coalition government of the United Kingdom in a probationary fashion. It was established at the Cabinet Office and headed by psychologist David Halpern.

In April 2013, it was announced that BIT would be partially privatised as a mutual joint venture.

In 2016, BIT won a $3.75m from the Global Innovation Fund.

On 5 February 2014, BIT's ownership was split equally between the government, the charity Nesta, and the team's employees, with Nesta providing £1.9 million in financing and services. Reportedly this was "the first time the [UK] government has privatised civil servants responsible for policy decisions." The Financial Times expected it "to be the first of many policy teams to be spun off as part of plans to shrink central government and create a private enterprise culture in Whitehall."

In December 2021, the group became wholly-owned by Nesta.

Overview
The mission of the organisation is to inform policy and improve public services for citizens and society. In reporting achievements, annual update reports are published highlighting key areas of focus addressed.

UK government departments that had previously received policy advice for free now pay for the service, as the cost of maintaining the team is no longer borne by government.

Methods
Although specific ideas devised by BIT have been imitated in several other countries (see below), chief executive David Halpern said in a 2018 interview with Apolitical that the unit's underlying methodology has still not been widely understood. He said BIT's "greatest legacy" would not be any individual behavioural insight, but rather its commitment to creating a set of variants on any given intervention and testing them against each other. He called the cycle of making variants, testing them, learning what works best and starting again from there "radical incrementalism."

BIT follows a basic, linear process combining fieldwork and behavioural science literature in approaching projects. This four-step methodology involves defining the outcome, understanding the context, building the intervention and finishing by testing, learning and adapting. In testing, BIT heavily uses randomised control trials to increase the evidence base and take an empirical approach to government.

Governance and affiliations
BIT is headed by psychologist David Halpern, and is now owned by the charity Nesta. It works in partnership with governments, local authorities, non-profits, and private organisations to tackle major policy problems.

The organisation has a formal partnership with Harvard University's Behavioral Insights Group (BIG) and close relationships with several universities, including University College London, Harvard University, and the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Pennsylvania.

 members of the BIT global board include:

 Rob Taylor – Chair
 David Halpern – Chief executive
 Janet Baker – Cabinet office
 Elisabeth Costa – Senior director, policy and partnerships
 Nathan Elstub – Nesta
 Nicky Kerr – Director, legal and general counsel
 Ian West – Director, finance

 academic affiliates of the BIT include:

 Angela Duckworth – founder and CEO of Character Lab
 Cass Sunstein – professor at Harvard Law School; co-author of Nudge (2008).
 Daniel Goldstein – principal researcher at Microsoft Research
 David Zendle – lecturer of computer science at the University of York
 Elizabeth Linos – assistant professor of public policy at UC Berkeley
 Gus O'Donnell – Member of the House of Lords; former Cabinet Secretary; former head of the Civil Service
 Michael Norton – professor of business administration at the Harvard Business School
 Michelle Ryan – professor of social and organisational psychology at the University of Exeter
 Nick Chater – professor of behavioural science at Warwick Business School
 Oliver Hauser – senior lecturer in economics at University of Exeter
 Peter John – professor of political science and public policy at University College London
 Peter Tufano – dean of Said Business School, University of Oxford
 Richard Thaler – professor of behavioural science and economics at the Chicago Booth School of Business; co-author of Nudge (2008).
 Rob Ranyard – visiting professor at the Centre for Decision Research, Leeds University Business School
 Silvia Saccardo – assistant professor at the Department of Social and Decision Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University
 Simon Burgess – professor of economics at the University of Bristol
 Thekla Morgenroth – Research Fellow of Social and Organisational Psychology, University of Exeter
 Theresa Marteau – director of the Behaviour and Health Research Unit, University of Cambridge
 Todd Rogers – professor of public policy, Harvard Kennedy School

Projects

Using social norms to increase tax payments
In the UK, BIT tested the impact of tax payment reminders with carefully constructed messages to cue individuals to make tax payments. BIT partnered with Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to assess the effectiveness of norm-based and public good statements in prompting taxpayers to pay on time. The norm-based statements gave statistics showing the timeliness of conscientious individuals paying their tax on time and that the individual was not part of this group as they had failed to pay on time. Additionally, the public good statements illustrated the beneficial public services the individual would have access to if taxes were paid on time and the poor social outcomes that could happen if the individual did not pay tax on time.

The outcomes of the trials indicated an increase in likelihood of individuals paying tax on time, with the norm-based statements increasing total taxes paid within 23 days by more than £1.6 million.

Increasing fine payment rates through text messages
BIT prompted those owing the UK Courts Service fines with a text message ten days before the bailiffs were to be sent to a person, which doubled payments made without the need for further intervention. This innovation has reportedly saved the Courts Service £30 million a year by "sending people owing fines personalised text messages to persuade them to pay promptly."

Similarly, the Behavioural Economics Team of the Australian Government (BETA) conducted a trial with the Australian Department of Human Services on timely reminders to report on time. Individuals on welfare payments for job seekers and students are required to report their income every fortnight before the payment is made. This is essential for the accuracy of payments. Over 80,000 individuals are late for reporting every fortnight which can result in the cancellation of payments.

BETA designed three different SMS reminders to be sent the day before reporting was due. The SMS messages included a short reminder, a cost-emphasising reminder and a benefits-emphasising reminder. The findings illustrate that any SMS option increased the number of individuals reporting by 13.5% at a faster rate than ones who did not receive a text. This further led to 1.7% in fewer payment cancellations.

Increasing loft insulation installation
Although loft insulation is essentially a zero-risk proposition, there were very few people installing it. The team discovered that people's lofts were full of junk, and provided low-cost labour to clear them; this caused a fivefold increase in the proportion of installed insulation.

In June 2012, they published a policy paper on the use of randomised controlled trials in collaboration with Ben Goldacre.

Benefit sanctions for disabled people
Tasked by the Department of Work and Pensions to investigate the effectiveness of "sanctioning" recipients of disability benefits (punishing them with fines of up to three years ineligibility to benefits for supposed bad attitudes or non-compliance), the nudge unit noted that these methods were ineffective, but rather than recommending they be withdrawn, proposed changes which might make sanctions and benefit conditionality more effective.

Locations and international adoption
Behavioural insights has been used by governments across the world to successfully improve outcomes in numerous policy, program, and service areas, including retirement savings, access to post-secondary education, on-time tax payment, and healthcare.

North America
The North American operation of BIT is working with cities and their agencies, as well as other partners, across the United States and Canada, running over 25 randomized controlled trials in the first year of operation.

Canada
The BIT Canada office at Toronto, Ontario, opened in October 2019, working with all levels of government (municipal, provincial, and federal), as well as nonprofits and foundations. Clients of BIT Canada include the Government of Canada, Government of British Columbia, Rideau Hall Foundation, Ontario Securities Commission, University Health Network, and the Region of Peel. The Director of BIT Canada is Sasha Tregebov.

In 2016, Employment and Social Development Canada and the Privy Council Office's Impact and Innovation Unit (IIU; formerly Innovation Hub) launched the Behavioural Insights Community of Practice (BI CoP), a horizontal network of employees, practitioners, and researchers across the government that allows for sharing information, research methodologies, and experimentation results. This community of practice has an open model, wherein all Canadian public servants at all levels are able to take part. BI CoP also has a mandate to "include education, training, and awareness-building."

Complementing the internal BI CoP, the IIU established a Behavioural Insights Network to bring together provincial, territorial, and municipal governments in Canada that work in the field of behavioural insights.

Various provincial governments in Canada also operate nudge units:

 Government of British Columbia – Behavioral Insights Group (BC BIG), a unit of the BC Public Service Agency.
 Government of Ontario – Ontario Behavioural Insights Unit, a unit of the Centre of Excellence for Evidence-Based Decision Making, Treasury Board Secretariat

United States
BIT has expanded to the United States, setting up an office in New York City as well as in Washington, DC. The New York office works both in the United States and internationally, whereas the DC office was established in early 2020 to focus on the United States itself, with partnerships at all levels of government.

During his terms, U.S. President Barack Obama sought to employ nudge theory to advance American domestic policy goals. In 2008, the federal government appointed Cass Sunstein, who helped develop the theory, as administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

The federal Office of Science and Technology Policy also has a "Social and Behavioral Sciences Initiative," whose goal is "to translate academic research findings into improvements in federal program performance and efficiency using rigorous evaluation methods." On 15 September 2015, Obama issued an Executive Order that formally established the Social and Behavioral Sciences Team and directed government agencies to use insights from the social and behavioral sciences to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their work.

Asia-Pacific

Oceania
BIT has an office in Sydney, Australia, and in Wellington, New Zealand. Expansion into Oceania began at a state-level, followed by the setup of teams on a sub-national level. The Wellington office was established in 2016, working with central and local government clients including Ministry of Social Development, the Ministry of Primary Industries, and the New Zealand Police.

In 2012, BIT Australia worked with the state Government of New South Wales (NSW) to establish the Behavioural Insights Unit (BIU) at the Department of Premier and Cabinet (now in the Department of Customer Service), intended to provide policy advice and support to NSW Government agencies. In 2016, the federal government created its own "Nudge Unit" at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet called the Behavioural Economics Team of the Australian Government (BETA) to apply behavioural insights into public policy.

Southeast Asia
Having worked with agencies of the Singaporean government since 2012, BIT opened a permanent office in the city-state in 2016 following successful work with the Ministry of Manpower, the Public Services Division of the Prime Minister's Office, and the Ministry of Home Affairs, among other departments. Work in Singapore has focused on improving social policy in consideration to empiricism and social impact.

The ASEAN-Australia Strategic Youth Partnership has expressed consideration for establishing a centralised behavioural economics team for the region as a modest investment which can deliver measurable benefits for ASEAN communities.

Europe
BIT's global headquarters are based in London, not too far from 10 Downing Street, where the team was originally formed.

BIT North was established in Manchester, UK, in 2016. Working in close partnership with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership, BIT North focuses on various local issues, from recycling to education to health and social care.

France
BIT has been operating in France since 2018, initially through a framework agreement with the Direction Interministerielle de la Transformation Publique (DITP; 'Interministerial Directorate of Public Transformation'), under the ministère de la Transformation et Fonction publiques ('Ministry of Transformation and Public Service').

As work grew in France, BIT opened its Paris office in 2020, its first permanent office in continental Europe, with a team of advisors transferring over from London. BIT France is headed by Laura Litvine.

Organizations
According to the OECD, 202 institutions globally have applied behavioural insights to public policy, and many of these firms have established their own behavioural insight teams to undergo behavioural research (including in behavioural economics) and policy solutions.

 Harvard University (US) – Behavioral Insights Group (BIG)
 NITI Aayog (India) – Behavioural Insights Unit
 Rotman School of Management (Canada) – Behavioural Economics in Action at Rotman (BEAR)
 UBC Sauder School of Business (Canada) – Decision Insights for Business and Society (DIBS)
 University of Cambridge (UK) – Cambridge University Behavioural Insights Team (CUBIT)
 PricewaterhouseCoopers (Canada)

References

External links
 Official Website

2010 establishments in the United Kingdom
Cabinet Office (United Kingdom)
Government-owned companies of the United Kingdom
Nudge theory

Behavioural Insights Team


Jolly Grant Airport  (IATA: DED, ICAO: VIDN), also known as Dehradun Airport, is an airport serving Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India. Jolly Grant Airport in Dehradun is the only operational airport plying daily commercial flights, connecting the Garhwal region by air.

About Jolly Grant Airport
Situated 25km east of Dehradun city, Jolly Grant Airport is nestled in the foothills of Himalayas. The proximity of Jolly Grant Airport with popular places like Dehradun, Mussoorie, Haridwar and Rishikesh enables tourists to fly in to Uttarakhand instead of travelling by rail or by road. The distance from Jolly Grant Airport to Rishikesh and Dehradun can be easily covered in 20 and 40 minutes respectively. Several efforts are being made by the government of Uttarakhand to rope in more airlines as it will help in improving the tourism sector.

Dehradun Airport Flights Schedule
Jolly Grant is the largest commercial airport of Uttarakhand. This airport is centrally located between Dehradun, Haridwar and Rishikesh cities. Daily several flights are operates from here by airline players like IndiGo, Jet Airways, Spice Jet and Air India towards New Delhi International Airport. Tourists can board connecting flights towards cities like Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad via Delhi from here. Now domestic flights are also available from Dehradun Airport.

References

Airports in India
Uttarakhand

Jolly Grant Airport


Keith Clayton Leftwich (July 6, 1954 –  September 19, 2003), was a State Representative and State Senator for Oklahoma.

Born to John V. and Paulyne Leftwich at Tinker Air Force Base Hospital, Leftwich graduated from Choctaw High School in 1972.  One of his accomplishments there was receiving the William Randolph Hearst Award for High School Seniors.  As a student at the University of Oklahoma, he was the recipient of the Nora Wells Award for Outstanding Junior Man and served in Student Congress.  He graduated from Oklahoma City University with a degree in liberal arts.

He started his public political career in 1978 by running for a State Representative seat in South Oklahoma City (then District 91), losing in the Democratic runoff election to Charles Gray, who won the general election.  In 1982, when Gray decided not to run for re-election, Leftwich ran and won the primary, runoff, and general elections.  During the three terms that he served (1983 to 1989), he was chair of the Committee of Government Operations, as well as chair of the interim Committee of Legislative Procedures. One of his interests while in the Oklahoma State House of Representative was reform of the corrections system. He decided to forgo re-election in 1988 in order to run for  State Corporation Commissioner, but lost in the runoff to Charles Morgan.

After his career in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, Leftwich was executive vice-president of the Del City Chamber of Commerce.  In 1990, he ran for District 44 seat of the Oklahoma State Senate, in which he won the primary and defeated the Republican incumbent State Sen. Kay Dudley.  During his career in the State Senate, he served as Chairman for the transportation committee, as well as general government and a transportation subcommittee on appropriations.  He Later was elected by the Democratic Caucus to serve as majority whip.  Although Leftwich was frequently mentioned as a candidate for the Democratic Party nomination for Governor of Oklahoma in the 2002 election, he declined to enter the race and supported Brad Henry.

In January 2002, he held a press conference in which he announced he had contracted neck cancer.  However, he was re-elected that year. Following his death from cancer, his widow Debbe Leftwich won the special election on December 9, 2003 to succeed him.

On March 25, 2004, the library at Oklahoma City Community College was dedicated as the Keith Leftwich Memorial Library.  Later, a portion of Interstate 240 between Interstate 35 and Interstate 44 was dedicated as the Keith Leftwich Memorial Loop.

References

1954 births
2003 deaths
University of Oklahoma alumni
Oklahoma City University alumni
Democratic Party members of the Oklahoma House of Representatives
Democratic Party Oklahoma state senators
20th-century American politicians
Deaths from throat cancer

Keith Leftwich


Giovanni Pontano (1426–1503), later known as Giovanni Gioviano (), was a humanist and poet from Cerreto di Spoleto, in central Italy. He was the leading figure of the Accademia Pontaniana after the death of Antonio Beccadelli in 1471, and the academy took his name.

Biography
Pontano was born at Cerreto in the Duchy of Spoleto, where his father was murdered in one of the frequent civic brawls which then disturbed the peace of Italian towns. His date of birth is given in various sources between 1421 and 1429; it is often given as 1426, but may have been 1429.

His mother escaped with the boy to Perugia, and it was here that Pontano received his first instruction in languages and literature. Failing to recover his patrimony, he abandoned Umbria, and at the age of twenty-two established himself at Naples, which continued to be his chief place of residence during a long and prosperous career. He here began a close friendship with the distinguished scholar, Antonio Beccadelli, through whose influence he gained admission to the royal chancery of Alphonso the Magnanimous. Alphonso discerned the singular gifts of the young scholar, and made him tutor to his sons, notably Alfonso, who would reign for a single year but whose energies in the decade 1485–1495 brought the Renaissance to Naples in many fields, from poetry to villas, from portrait sculpture to fortifications. Pontano was laureated by Pope Innocent VIII on 8 January 1486. His connection with the Aragonese dynasty as political adviser, military secretary and chancellor was henceforth a close one; he passed from tutor to cultural advisor to Alfonso. The most doubtful passage in his diplomatic career is when he welcomed Charles VIII of France upon the entry of that king into Naples in 1495, thus showing that he was too ready to abandon the princes upon whose generosity his fortunes had been raised.

Pontano illustrates in a marked manner the position of power to which men of letters and learning had arrived in Italy. He entered Naples as a penniless scholar. He was almost immediately made the companion and trusted friend of its sovereign, loaded with honours, lodged in a fine house, enrolled among the nobles of the realm, enriched, and placed at the very height of social importance. Following the example of Pomponio Leto in Rome and of Cosimo de' Medici at Florence, Pontano led and lent his name to the Accademia Pontaniana, for the meetings of learned and distinguished men. This became the centre of fashion as well as of erudition in the southern capital, and subsists today.

In 1461 he married his first wife, Adriana Sassone, who bore him son Lucio and three daughters before her death in 1491. Nothing distinguished Pontano more than the strength of his domestic feeling. He was passionately attached to his wife and children; and, while his friend Beccadelli signed the licentious verses of Hermaphroditus, his own Muse celebrated in liberal but loyal strains the pleasures of conjugal affection, the charm of infancy and the sorrows of a husband and a father in the loss of those he loved. Not long after the death of his first wife Pontano took in second marriage a beautiful girl of Ferrara, who is only known to us under the name of Stella.

Although he was at least sixty-five years of age at this period, his poetic faculty displayed itself with more than usual warmth and lustre in the glowing series of elegies, styled Eridanus, which he poured forth to commemorate the rapture of this union. Stella's one child, Lucilio, survived his birth but fifty days; nor did his mother long remain to comfort the scholar's old age. Pontano had already lost his only son by the first marriage; therefore his declining years were solitary. He died in 1503 at Naples, where a remarkable group of terracotta figures, life-sized and painted, still adorns his tomb in the church of Monte Oliveto. He is there represented together with his patron Alfonso and his friend Jacopo Sannazaro in adoration before the dead Christ.

As a diplomat  and state official Pontano played a part of some importance in the affairs of southern Italy and in the Barons' War, the wars with the Papacy, and the expulsion and restoration of the Aragonese dynasty. But his chief claim  is as a scholar. His writings divide themselves into dissertations upon such topics as the "Liberality of Princes", "Ferocity" or "Magnificence", in which he argued that architecture and great monuments were the mark of a great ruler, composed in the rhetorical style of the day, and his poems.

He was distinguished for energy of Latin style, for vigorous intellectual powers, and for the faculty, rare among his contemporaries, of expressing the facts of modern life, the actualities of personal emotion, in language sufficiently classical yet always characteristic of the man. His prose treatises are more useful to students of manners than the similar lucubrations of Poggio Bracciolini. Yet it was principally as a Latin poet that he exhibited his full strength. An ambitious didactic composition in hexameters, entitled Urania, embodying the astronomical science of the age, and adorning this high theme with brilliant mythological episodes, won the admiration of Italy. It still remains a monument of fertile invention, exuberant facility and energetic handling of material. Not less excellent is the didactic poem on orange trees, De hortis Hesperidum. His most original compositions in verse, however, are elegiac and hendecasyllabic pieces on personal topics — the De conjugali amore, Eridanus, Tumuli, Naeniae, Baiae, in which he uttered his vehemently passionate emotions with a warmth of colouring, an evident sincerity, and a truth of painting from reality which excuse their erotic freedom.

Pontano's prose and poems were printed by Aldus Manutius at Venice. Pontano's Latin translation of Claudius Ptolemy's astrological work, the Tetrabiblos (or Quadripartitum) was first printed in 1535 as part of Joachim Camerarius first portfolio edition that also included the Greek text.

Works

References

External links

Index to the works of Pontanus (at Forum Romanum)
  Short biography
A number of texts by Pontanus (at Bibliotheca Augustana)
Works of Giovanni Pontano at Somni
Ioviani Pontani De obedientia De principe, digitized Italian codex (1475)
De principe, digitized codex. Italy (1468)
Ioviani Pontani De principe De obedientia, digitized codex. Italy (1480–1494)

1426 births
1503 deaths
People from the Province of Perugia
Italian poets
Italian male poets
Italian Renaissance humanists
Italian Renaissance writers
Neo-Latin poets
15th-century writers in Latin
15th-century Italian writers

Giovanni Pontano


The Bearer-Independent Call Control (BICC) is a signaling protocol based on N-ISUP that is used for supporting narrowband Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) service over a broadband backbone network.  BICC is designed to interwork with existing transport technologies. BICC is specified in ITU-T recommendation Q.1901.

BICC signaling messages are nearly identical to those in ISDN User Part (ISUP); the main difference being that the narrowband circuit identification code (CIC) has been modified.  The BICC architecture consists of interconnected serving nodes that provide the call service function and the bearer control function.  The call service function uses BICC signaling for call setup and may also interwork with ISUP.  The bearer control function receives directives from the call service function via BICC Bearer Control Protocol (ITU-T recommendation Q.1950) and is responsible for setup and teardown of bearer paths on a set of physical transport links.  Transport links are most commonly Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) or Internet Protocol (IP).

According to the ITU, the completion of the BICC protocols is a historic step toward broadband multimedia networks because it enables the seamless migration from circuit-switched TDM networks to high-capacity broadband multimedia networks.

The Third-Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has included BICC CS 2 in the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) release 4.

References
 ITU-T Recommendation Q.1901 : Bearer Independent Call Control protocol
 ITU-T Recommendation Q.1902.1 : Bearer Independent Call Control protocol (Capability Set 2): Functional description
 ITU-T Recommendation Q.1950 : Bearer independent call bearer control protocol
 ITU-T Press Release : Agreement on BICC protocols: a historic step for evolution towards next-generation server- networks
 3GPP TS 29.205 : Application of Q.1900 series to Bearer Independent CS Network architecture; Stage 3

Network protocols

Bearer-Independent Call Control


Harold Rhode (born September 19, 1949) is an American specialist on the Middle East. Harold Rhode studied in and traveled extensively throughout the Islamic world and has studied and done research in universities and libraries in Egypt, Israel, Syria, Jordan, Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan. He speaks Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, French, and Turkish.

Early life and education
Harold Rhode was born on September 19, 1949, in Philadelphia. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in Islamic History, specializing in the history of the Turks, Arabs, and Iranians. Rhode was studying at Ferdosi University in Iran during the early stages of the revolution that brought Ayatollah Khomeni to power. He has spent his life trying to find ways that Muslims and non-Muslims can co-exist without fighting.

Career
Harold Rhode taught Islamic history at the University of Delaware as an adjunct professor from 1979 until 1981. In May 1982, he joined the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy at the Pentagon as an adviser on the Islamic world with a special emphasis on Turkey, Iran, and Iraq. He retired from this position in 2010. During his tenure he wrote papers on how to understand, negotiate, and deal with Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and other Arab countries.

During the Gulf War, Rhode served as the Turkish Desk officer in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD). While having this position he wrote papers for OSD officials on Iran, Iraq, and other Middle Eastern issues.

Between 1991 and 1994 Harold Rhode served on the US Department of Defense's Policy Planning Staff. While in this position he wrote strategy papers on Middle Eastern and Central Asian topics.

From 1994 until 2010 Harold Rhode worked as an adviser on Islamic Affairs in the Office of Net Assessment, an in-house think tank for the Pentagon.

Probe

Rhode was a subject of a probe conducted by the Senate Intelligence Committee for a U.S. government-authorized meeting he and Larry Franklin had in Rome in late 2001 with Manucher Ghorbanifar, who was part of the Iran-Contra scandal.

References

External links
The Administration and Population of the Sancak of Safed in the Sixteenth Century , Harold Rhode, for Ph.D, Columbia University, 1979.
 On the "Crazies" in Iran Interview with Harold Rhode, The Jerusalem Post
 Laurence, L. (2012). "Shiism and Politics in the Middle East". London: Hurst. Reviewed by Harold Rhode in  Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs, (2014) VIII:I, 149-154

1949 births
20th-century American Jews
Columbia University alumni
Living people
American scholars of Islam
21st-century American Jews

Harold Rhode


Michelle Urry (28 December 1939 – 15 October 2006, born Michelle Dorothy Kaplan) was the cartoon editor of Playboy magazine for over 30 years.  Together with Hugh Hefner, she edited the retrospective Playboy: 50 Years The Cartoons. Among the cartoonists whose career she is credited with developing is B. Kliban.  On learning of her death, Jules Feiffer told the New York Times she was the "mother superior to cartoonists."

Urry was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba.  As a child, she collected comic books rather than the dolls favored by other girls of her age. She graduated from UCLA, and after running a dress shop she moved to Chicago, taking a low-level staff job with Playboy in the late 1960s. By 1971 Urry had become the magazine's cartoon editor, and she held that post until her death.

In 1974, while visiting B. Kliban in his San Francisco studio, Urry was struck by a group of Kliban's offhand cartoons of cats, bought several of them, and prodded Kliban to create a book-length collection of similar work. Kliban's Cat became a best-selling book the next year, and spawned a wide range of popular merchandise.

She married sculptor Stephen Urry and the couple had one child, Caleb Urry. After Stephen's death in 1993, she married Alan Trustman, a screenwriter who is best known for The Thomas Crown Affair and Bullitt.

Aside from her primary job at Playboy, Urry served as a cartoon editor or consulting editor at many other magazines, including Good Housekeeping and Modern Maturity.

References

External links
 Obituary, The New York Times, 18 October 2006
 Obituary, Sequential Comix News

1939 births
2006 deaths
Artists from Winnipeg
American women cartoonists
American magazine editors
Playboy people
Women magazine editors
American cartoonists
20th-century American women
21st-century American women

Michelle Urry


The Mid-Atlantic States (also called Middle Atlantic States or simply Middle East) is a region in the Northeastern United States and form one of the nine geographic divisions within the United States that are officially recognized by the United States Census Bureau. The division consists of three states: New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. This definition corresponds with the region's traditional definition as the section of the Atlantic Seaboard between New England and the South. However, many people consider the Mid-Atlantic to be the states south of the Northeast, centered in Delaware, Maryland.

The traditional Mid-Atlantic States comprise the most densely-populated of the nine U.S. regions, and anchor the megalopolis which runs from Boston to Washington, D.C.. The southeastern part of New York State, eastern Pennsylvania, and all of New Jersey combine to form the bulk of the moral region of the Metropolis, according to socio-political geographers James Patterson and Peter Kim, co-authors of the 1991 book The Day America Told The Truth. (Metropolis begins in the southern Connecticut suburbs of New York City and stretches along the Eastern seaboard to the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C.). The book classifies the remainder of New York State and Pennsylvania in the Rust Belt.

Other websites
 http://geology.er.usgs.gov/states/mid_atl.html

Census Regions of the United States

Mid-Atlantic States


Anne Geddes Gilchrist OBE FSA (8 December 1863 – 24 July 1954) was a British folk song collector. Although less well-known than her London-based counterparts, her expertise was acknowledged by Cecil Sharp, Lucy Broadwood, and John Masefield.

Life and work
Anne Geddes Gilchrist was born in Manchester, to Scottish parents. She had a musical upbringing and was related to Rev Neil Livingston, who compiled a psalter. After meeting Sabine Baring-Gould she became involved with folk music and joined the editorial board of the Folk-Song Society in 1906. She had an unusually good memory for hymn tunes, one of her areas of expertise. Gilchrist is a neglected figure because she did not write any books. Instead she contributed many scholarly articles to the Journal of the Folk-Song Society.

In the very first edition of the Journal of the Folk-Song Society she wrote an article on the song Long Lankin. She reports that a woman in Northumberland used to frighten children by shouting "There's Long Lankin". Gilchrist collected songs from Scotland and the north-west of England. This was particularly valuable, as few folk-song collections had been made from that part of England. Following the discovery of a medieval sculpted stone in Cumberland, she was admitted to the Society of Antiquaries in 1935, at the age of 70. She was awarded the OBE in 1948 for her services to folk song and dance. Her last scholarly article was written at the age of 79. Her papers are lodged in the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library.

References

External links
 Biography
 Portrait of Geddes
 List of articles by Anne Gilchrist
 Long Lankin
 Royal Musical Association

Scottish folk-song collectors
1863 births
1954 deaths
Ballads
Officers of the Order of the British Empire

Anne Gilchrist (collector)


Eustathius or Eustace of Mtskheta (Evstat'i Mtskhet'eli; ) (died  550) is an Orthodox Christian saint, executed for his apostasy from Zoroastrianism by the Sasanian military authorities in Caucasian Iberia (Kartli, eastern Georgia). His story is related in the anonymous 6th-century Georgian hagiographic novel The Passion of Eustathius of Mtskheta.

One of the earliest extant works of the Georgian literature, The Passion of Eustathius of Mtskheta (მარტჳლობაჲ და მოთმინებაჲ წმიდისა ევსტათი მცხეთელისაჲ) was written by an anonymous author later in the 6th century, within thirty years of Eustathius' reported death. The morphology of the work as well as some theological phrases also supports this dating, although the earliest surviving manuscript dates from c. 1000 (Georgian National Center of Manuscripts, MSS H-341). The text is also interesting for the first Georgian formulation of the Ten Commandments, an account of the life of Jesus which recalls Tatian's Diatessaron (a Gospel harmony of the 2nd century), and traces of influence of the 2nd century Apology of Aristides. The Passion was first published by Mikhail Sabinin in 1882.

Eustathius is reported by the hagiographer to have been an Iranian cobbler originally called Gvirobandak, son of a high-ranking Zoroastrian priest (magi), from Ganzak. Having converted to Christianity, he flees persecution to Georgia (Iberia), then under the Iranian military authority, in 541. He settles at the Christian town of Mtskheta and marries a Christian woman. The local Iranian cobblers' guild denounces Eustathius to the marzban Arvand Gushnasp with seven other converts to be judged. Arvand punishes the apostates by having their noses pierced and casts them in prison under sentence of death. Six months later, Arvand releases them, however, as a farewell gesture to the local people, when recalled from Georgia by the king Khosrau I. Four years later, under the new marzban Vezhan Buzmihr, Eustathius is rearrested, but reaffirms his faith before the court in a speech of some 3,000 words that makes up nearly half the Passion. Eventually, the marzban, albeit reluctant, has him beheaded in Tbilisi. The remains of Eustathius were taken to Mtskheta and buried at its principal church.

References

Sources

550s deaths
Saints of Georgia (country)
Georgian people of Iranian descent
Eastern Orthodox saints
Converts to Christianity from Zoroastrianism
6th-century Christian martyrs
People executed by the Sasanian Empire
Executed people from Georgia (country)
People executed for apostasy
6th-century executions
Year of birth unknown
People executed by Iran by decapitation
People from Mtskheta
6th-century Iranian people
Christians in the Sasanian Empire
Christian martyrs executed by decapitation
Persian saints
Executed Iranian people

Eustathius of Mtskheta


A catalytic converter is a device in the exhaust pipe of a car, near its engine. It is used to clean up the exhaust the car sends out into the atmosphere. It works by using a catalyst material, usually made of Platinum, Palladium, and Rhodium. The catalytic converter converts carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and nitrogen oxides, all of which make the air dirty and make people sick, into carbon dioxide, water, and Nitrogen, all of which are less harmful, but unfortunately many of the harmful gases still escape into the atmosphere as a result of deficiencies. These chemicals, however, are still large contributors to global warming. The US auto industry was investigated by the US Department of Justice for "conspiracy" for 15 years of colluding to withhold the technology between 1953 and 1969 while smog devastated urban centers' air quality. A catalytic converter reduces carbon monoxide by contacting it with oxygen, creating carbon dioxide, which is less harmful.  Because hydrocarbons are unburned fuel particles that are put into the catalytic converter, they burn up in the catalytic converter, making it very hot.

Auto parts

fi:Pakoputkisto#Katalysaattori

Catalytic converter


The large Mindoro forest mouse (Apomys gracilirostris)  is a species of rodent in the family Muridae, from the genus Apomys. It is found only in the Philippines. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist montane forests. It is a large mouse with large feet, a long tail and an elongated snout which is morphologically unique within its genus. It is covered in soft fur which is mostly dark brown in colour. Its closest relative is thought to be the Luzon montane forest mouse, based on genetic and morphological similarities.

Discovery and taxonomy
In May and June 1992, an expedition to the Philippines was organised for the purpose of increasing the knowledge on their biodiversity. During this expedition, sixteen examples of a then unknown species of mouse were captured on Mount Halcon, on the island Mindoro. To this day, these animals, all captured between May 28 and June 12, 1992, remain the only known specimens of this species.

In 1995, in the scientific journal Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, biologist Luis A. Ruedas described the animal as Apomys gracilirostris. At the time it was the ninth known species of the endemic Filipino genus Apomys, and the second found on Mindoro, after Apomys musculus (least forest mouse). The editors of a compilation work on the indigenous mammals of the Philippines accepted the animal as a new species in 1998.

A. gracilirostris was the first newly described Apomys since 1962, when Apomys sacobianus (long-nosed Luzon forest mouse) was described. However, it was far from being the only new species discovered in the Philippines. Several new rodents had already been discovered in the eighties, one of which was actually from Mindoro as well (Anonymomys mindorensis or Mindoro climbing rat). A constant supply of new species remained in the years after the description of A. gracilirostris. In ten years time, eight new mammal species were added to the list. In 2006, another new Apomys was described: Apomys camiguinensis (Camiguin forest mouse). Apomys also comprises several species which are yet undescribed, two of which are from Mindoro. Another species from Mindoro, from the predominantly Indonesian genus Maxomys, has yet to receive its scientific name.

In accordance with the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, the name Apomys gracilirostris is a binomen. The generic name, Apomys was proposed by American biologist Edgar Mearns in 1905 and has the meaning of "mouse from Mount Apo" (mys, μῦς, being the Ancient Greek word for "mouse"); this because the type species of the genus was first found on Mount Apo. The specific name, gracilirostris, is a combination of the Latin words gracilis "slender" and rostrum "snout" and refers to the animal's long, slender snout.

Identification
The genus Apomys, of which the large Mindoro forest mouse is a member, can be identified by its small size, a long tail, elongate, narrow hind feet, the presence of four abdominal mammary glands, and a large number of skull characteristics. Within this genus, the large Mindoro forest mouse has several specific identifying features, the most important of which are its very thin and short upper incisors, long lower incisors and long snout. The tail and feet are also relatively long, even within the genus Apomys. The characteristics of the incisors are so peculiar that when Ruedas discovered the species, he initially thought he had found a new genus.

The fur of the large Mindoro forest mouse is soft and smooth. The hairs of the dorsal fur are light gray near the root, and dark brown at the tip. Between the normal hairs are many black tactile hairs. This makes the dorsal fur appear dark brown, although recently captured animals have a dark blue-green hue. Some animals are darker around the midline of the back, and all are a lighter colour at the flanks. The colour of the ventral fur varies between animals, with it being a yellow-brown colour in some, slightly lighter coloured than the dorsal fur in others, still others having gray hairs with brown or silver-coloured tips in the ventral fur, and finally some animals showing no difference between the dorsal and ventral fur at all.

The tail is usually an even, dark colour, but in some animals the ventral side is somewhat darker. In some animals the tail ends in a white tip of 2 to 10 mm in length. The tail has fourteen scales per centimeter. The long, dark hind feet end in long claws (about 4 mm). The claws on the front feet are about 3 mm in length. The animal has seven cervical vertebrae, thirteen thoracic vertebrae, six lumbar vertebrae, three sacral vertebrae and thirty-two to thirty-five caudal vertebrae.

Evolution and phylogenetic relationships

The large Mindoro forest mouse belongs to the Chrotomys division, a group within the Murinae that occurs exclusively on the Philippines and in addition to Apomys also includes Rhynchomys, Chrotomys and Archboldomys. Animals in this division share several morphological and genetic features. Within this group, Apomys is by far the biggest and most extensive genus, containing small, inconspicuous wood mice which are common to the whole of the Philippines, while the other, more specialized genera are barely ever found outside Luzon. Apomys itself was divided in two groups by American biologist Guy Musser in 1982, the first being the datae group, containing only the Luzon montane forest mouse (A. datae), and the second the abrae-hylocetes group, containing all other species. Animals in these two groups differ in the way in which the head is supplied with blood from arteries. Ruedas placed the large Mindiro forest mouse in the datae group. This relationship is further supported by other similarities: both species are relatively large for the genus and have a relatively long snout.

In 2003, a phylogenetic study was published which compared DNA sequences from the cytochrome b gene of thirteen species of Apomys. This study confirmed the proposed relationship between the large Mindoro forest mouse (A. gracilirostris) and the Luzon montane forest mouse (A. datae).

The phylogenetic relationships of the large Mindoro forest mouse can be summarized as follows.

This study also found that the large Mindoro forest mouse was the only Apomys species that displayed deep within-species divergences, which were calculated to date back some 400.000 years. The split between the large Mindoro forest mouse and the Luzon montane forest mouse dates back further still at an estimated three million years ago, putting it in the Pliocene. Apomys itself in turn was found to date back more than four million years, while the Chromotys division was estimated to go back another two million years. These dates were all calculated using a molecular clock.

Another, more elaborate phylogenetic study on all of the endemic Filipino genera and species of Murinae, of which the large Mindoro forest mouse is a member, produced different results. According to this study, the Chromotys division originated some ten million years ago (rather than the estimate of six million years ago from the previous study). It was further calculated that the split between the Chromotys division and its closest relatives, a predominantly African group including Mus, Otomys and Mastomys, had happened about sixteen million years ago. However, since the fossil record of Murinae from the Philippines is non-existent, and controversial for Murinae from other areas, these estimates can only be based on the molecular clock, and not on direct paleontological data.

The large Mindoro forest mouse is the third known rodent endemic to Mindoro, after the Mindoro black rat and the Mindoro climbing rat, and not including the Ilin Island cloudrunner, the occurrence of which has not been confirmed on the island. However, in a compilation work on the indigenous mammals of the Philippines, published in 1998, it was announced that there is a second Apomys on Mindoro. This species has yet to be described and has temporarily been given the name of "Apomys sp. E". It may be related to two other undescribed species from Sibuyan Island and Greater Negros-Panay, Apomys sp. A/C and Apomys sp. B. The local population of A. musculus, the only other Apomys known on the island, may also represent a separate species. Several other species occur exclusively on Mindoro (in addition to the undescribed Maxomys species mentioned earlier), including Oliver's warty pig, the tamaraw and the megabat Styloctenium mindorensis. The relatively large number of endemic species on Mindoro can be explained from the fact that, in all probability, Mindoro was never connected to any other landmass. This enabled the animals present on the island to develop in isolation from their relatives.

A remarkable biogeographical aspect of Mindoro is its status as a transition area between Greater Palawan and the rest of the Philippines. On the one hand, species like Oliver's warty pig and the tamaraw are clearly related to animals from Greater Palawan and the rest of South-East Asia, but on the other, Mindoro also harbours animals from genera like Apomys and Chrotomys, which are clearly Filipino. The latter animals reached Mindoro from Luzon, or possibly in some cases Greater Negros-panay. The large Mindoro forest mouse, with its close relationship to the Luzon montane forest mouse, probably falls into the group of animals that reached the island from Luzon.

Ecology and behaviour

The large Mindoro forest mouse has been found at three different sites in the municipality of San Teodoro, on the North flank of Mount Halcon. These sites are located at altitudes between . There is a good possibility, however, that the large Mindoro forest mouse also occurs on other mountains on Mindoro, especially on the northern part of the island, which is home to large areas of undamaged cloud forest.

The lowest forests in which the large Mindoro forest mouse has been found, at some  above sea level, are mostly between  in height, with the very tallest reaching . The dominant species of tree are from the genera Leptospermum flavescens, Tristaniopsis and Lithocarpus, from the families Myrtaceae and Fagaceae. These very humid forests have a dense understory vegetation, which consists, amongst other plants, of mosses, tree ferns and species of Pandanus. At higher altitudes (between ) the forest is dominated by bamboo, while the only tree species present is Agathis philippinensis. Here, vegetation reaches a height between . There are many smaller plants present, such as ferns, orchids and species of Pandanus. The forest floor is covered with a layer of leaves with a thickness between .

Nothing is known with any certainty about the behaviour of the large Mindoro forest mouse. The long snout, small upper incisors and long lower incisors suggest that the animal feeds on soft invertebrates, but this is not certain. Furthermore, the long tail and elongated hind feet with well-developed claws point towards a climbing lifestyle.

Very little is also known about the animal's procreation habits. A female specimen was found to carry three embryos. Another female had a swollen uterus, and testicles were visible in several of the male specimens.

References

Bibliography

Musser, G.G. 1982. Results of the Archbold Expeditions. No. 108. The definition of Apomys, a native rat of the Philippine islands. American Museum Novitates 2746:1–43.

Apomys
Fauna of Mindoro
Mammals described in 1995
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot

Large Mindoro forest mouse


Cuneiform script is one of the earliest known systems of writing. It used wedge-shaped marks on clay tablets, made by a reed stylus. The name cuneiform itself means "wedge shaped", from the Latin cuneus "wedge" and forma "shape". It came into English usage probably from the Old French cunéiforme.

It was first used in Sumer in the late 4th millennium BC (the 'Uruk IV' period). Cuneiform writing began as a system of pictographs. In the third millennium, the signs became simplified and more abstract. Fewer characters were used, from about 1,000 in the early Bronze Age to about 400 in late Bronze Age (Hittite cuneiform). The system  used a combination of phonetic, consonantal alphabetic (no vowels) and syllabic signs.

The original Sumerian script was adapted for the writing of the Akkadian, Eblaite, Elamite, Hittite, Luwian, Hattic, Hurrian, and Urartian languages, and it inspired the Ugaritic and Old Persian alphabets. Cuneiform writing was gradually replaced by the Phoenician alphabet during the Neo-Assyrian Empire. By the 2nd century BC, the script was extinct. All knowledge of how to read it was lost until it began to be deciphered in the 19th century.

References

Writing systems
Mesopotamia
4th millennium BC

Cuneiform


Copper(II) oxide, also known as cupric oxide, is a chemical compound. Its chemical formula is CuO. It has copper in its +2 oxidation state. It also has oxide ions.

Properties
Copper(II) oxide is a black solid. It dissolves in acids to make copper(II) salts. It can react with carbon monoxide or hydrogen to make copper metal. It dissolves in very concentrated alkalis. It dissolves in ammonia to make a dark blue solution, similar to copper(II) hydroxide.

Preparation
It can be made by heating copper(II) hydroxide. It can also be made by heating copper in air. It can also be made by heating copper(II) carbonate or copper(II) nitrate.

Uses
Copper(II) oxide is used to color ceramics. It is also used to make thermite. It can react with many toxic chemicals to oxidize them, so they are not toxic any more. It can be added to vitamins to get copper into the body. It can also be added to clothing to kill germs.

Safety
Copper(II) oxide is toxic when eaten. It can be eaten in very small amounts, such as in vitamins. This adds copper to the body, which is needed.

Related pages
Copper(I) chloride
Copper(I) oxide

Copper compounds
Oxides

Copper(II) oxide


Abraham Law (October 13, 1806 - February 14, 1885) was the first Reeve of Richmond Hill, Ontario.  Law was married to Elizabeth Klinck, with whom he fathered thirteen children.

Law was born in Pennsylvania.  In 1824 he came to Upper Canada with his parents, who settled outside of Stouffville.  Law came to Richmond Hill in 1826.  In Richmond Hill he took up employment as a general merchant.  He soon came to own a tannery where he worked as a tanner.  In 1827, he purchased a lot at the corner of Yonge Street and today's Richmond Street, where he built an estate he named "Richmond Villa" in 1833.  In the 1850s, Law worked as an assessor for Vaughan Township.

On January 6, 1873, Law was elected the first reeve of the newly incorporated village of Richmond Hill.  The biggest issue that faced the Richmond Hill Village Council during his term was the need for a new high school for the village.  Money was raised for the school and its construction was completed in November 1873.  Law served only a single year as mayor, and was replaced in 1874 by William Harrison.  Law died in Richmond Hill in 1885 and was buried in the Presbyterian church cemetery.

Law crescent in Richmond Hill was named in his honour.

References

1806 births
1885 deaths
American emigrants to pre-Confederation Ontario
Mayors of Richmond Hill, Ontario
Immigrants to Upper Canada

Abraham Law


Hannibal Alkhas (1930 – 2010) was a sculptor, painter and author. He was born in 1930 in Iran into an ethnic Assyrian and Christian family and spent his childhood and teenage years in Kermanshah, Ahwaz and Tehran. In 1951, Hannibal Alkhas moved to the United States in pursuit of his education and studied philosophy for three years at Loyola University of Chicago, Illinois.

From 1953 to 1958 he attended the Art Institute of Chicago where he earned his Bachelor's and Masters of Fine Arts.

In 1959, after the death of his father, the famous Assyrian writer Rabi Adai Alkhas, Hannibal Alkhas returned to Iran and began to teach painting, drawing, and art history at the Tehran School of Fine Arts for the next four years. During this time he established the successful Gilgamesh gallery, the first modern art gallery in Iran where aspiring young artists were introduced.
In 1963 he returned to the United States and taught a Monticello College in Illinois where he became the chairman of the art department.

In 1969 Hannibal again returned to Iran and spent the next eleven (11) years teaching at Tehran University [6].

He taught at Islamic Azad University in Iran.

Hannibal Alkhas has also created book illustrations, written poems and translated many poems to and from Assyrian. His works have been displayed in numerous exhibitions in Iran, Europe, Canada, Australia and the US.

Hannibal Alkhas died on September 14, 2010 at the age of 80 in the United States. He was suffering from cancer.

References

1930 births
2010 deaths
Assyrian people
Iranian artists
Iranian writers

Hannibal Alkhas


Mikael Tariverdiev (15 August 1931, Tbilisi, Georgia – 24 June 1996, Sochi, Russia) was a prominent Soviet composer. He was born of Armenian parents in Georgia but lived in Russia.

He is an author of over 100 romances and 2 operas. But most of all he is known for his music in many popular Soviet movies.

Mikael Tariverdiev was a recipient of multiple awards, including the USSR State Prize (1977) and the prize of the American Academy of Music (1975). He was made People's Artist of Russia in 1986.

The Best Music prize at the largest Russian national film festival Kinotaur is named after Tariverdiev.

Other websites
 Tariverdiev.Ru

20th-century Russian composers
1931 births
1996 deaths
Musicians from Tbilisi

Mikael Tariverdiev


Józef Emanuel Jankowski (1790–1847) was a professor of philosophy at Kraków University.

Life
Jankowski was Feliks Jaroński's successor as professor of philosophy at Kraków University from 1818 and author of a Logic.

Jankowski was one of nearly all the university professors of philosophy in Poland before the November 1830–31 Uprising who held a position that shunned both Positivism and metaphysical speculation, affined to the Scottish philosophers but linked in certain respects to Kantian critique.

See also
History of philosophy in Poland
List of Poles

Notes

References
Władysław Tatarkiewicz, Zarys dziejów filozofii w Polsce (A Brief History of Philosophy in Poland), [in the series:] Historia nauki polskiej w monografiach (History of Polish Learning in Monographs), [volume] XXXII, Kraków, Polska Akademia Umiejętności (Polish Academy of Learning), 1948. This monograph draws from pertinent sections in earlier editions of the author's Historia filozofii (History of Philosophy).

1790 births
1847 deaths
19th-century Polish philosophers

Józef Emanuel Jankowski


Margaret Livingston (born Marguerite Livingston; November 25, 1895 – December 13, 1984), sometimes credited as Marguerite Livingstone or Margaret Livingstone, was an American film actress and businesswoman during the silent film era. She is remembered today as "the Woman from the City" in F. W. Murnau's 1927 film Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans.

Early life
Livingston was born in Salt Lake City, Utah to John Livingston, a Scottish immigrant, and Eda Livingston (née Frome), who was born in Stockholm, Sweden. She was raised in Salt Lake City along with her older sister, Ivy, who also became a film actress.

Career
The young Livingston made her debut in films in 1916. She made over 50 films during the "silent era," most notably in F.W. Murnau's Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, and a further 20 films after she successfully made the transition to sound film in 1929, including Smart Money starring Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney.  She occasionally dubbed voices for some other actresses, including Louise Brooks for The Canary Murder Case (1929).

Livingston was a guest on  William Randolph Hearst's yacht the Oneida during the weekend in November 1924 with film director and producer Thomas Ince, who later died of heart failure. In the Peter Bogdanovich film The Cat's Meow (2001), Livingston, played by Claudia Harrison, is depicted as having an affair with Ince at the time of his death.

Later life
On August 18, 1931, Livingston married the band leader Paul Whiteman in a ceremony in Denver, Colorado. She retired from film acting in 1934. Livingston was unable to have children, and adopted four with her husband. She spent the remainder of her life investing in oil ventures and real estate, and was a partner in the construction of the Colonial House in West Hollywood, California.

Death
Livingston died in Warrington, Pennsylvania on December 13, 1984, at age 89.

Filmography

The Chain Invisible (1916) as Elizabeth King
Alimony (1917) as Florence (as Marguerite Livingston)
Within the Cup (1918) as Minor Role
The Busher (1919) (uncredited)
All Wrong (1919) as Ethel Goodwin (as Marguerite Livingston)
Haunting Shadows (1919) as Marian Deveraux (as Marguerite Livingston)
What's Your Husband Doing? (1920) as Madge Mitchell
Water, Water, Everywhere (1920) as Martha Beecher
Hairpins (1920) as Effie Wainwright
The Brute Master (1920) as The Native 'Taupou'
The Parish Priest (1920) as Agnnes Cassidy
Lying Lips (1921) as Lelia Dodson
The Home Stretch (1921) as Molly
Colorado Pluck (1921) as Angela Featherstone
Passing Through (1921) as Louise Kingston
 Eden and Return (1921) as Connie Demarest
The Social Buccaneer (1923) as Princess Elise
Divorce (1923) as Gloria Gayne
Love's Whirlpool (1924) as A Maid
Wandering Husbands (1924) as Marilyn Foster
Her Marriage Vow (1924) as Estelle Winslow
Butterfly (1924) as Violet Van De Wort
The Chorus Lady (1924) as Patricia O'Brien
The First Year (1926) as Mrs. Barstow
Capital Punishment (1925) as Mona Caldwell
Up the Ladder (1925) as Helen Newhall
I'll Show You the Town (1925) as Lucille Pemberton
Greater Than a Crown (1925) as Molly Montrose
The Wheel (1925) as Elsie Dixon
Havoc (1925) as Violet Deering
After Marriage (1925) as Alma Lathrop
The Best People (1925) as Millie Montgomery
When the Door Opened (1925) as Mrs. Grenfal
Wages for Wives (1925) as Carol Bixby
The Yankee Señor (1926) as Flora
Hell's Four Hundred (1926) as Evelyn Vance
A Trip to Chinatown (1926) as Alicia Cuyer
The Blue Eagle (1926) as Mrs. Mary Rohan
Womanpower (1926) as Dot
Breed of the Sea (1926) as Marietta Rawdon
Slaves of Beauty (1927) as Goldie
Secret Studio (1927) as Nina Clark
Lightning (1927) as Dot Deal / Little Eva
Married Alive (1927) as Amy Duxbury
The Girl from Gay Paree (1927) as Gertie
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) as The Woman from the City
American Beauty (1927) as Mrs. Gillespie
Streets of Shanghai (1927) as Sadie
A Woman's Way (1928) as Liane
Mad Hour (1928) as Maid
The Scarlet Dove (1928) as Olga
Wheel of Chance (1928) as Josie Drew
The Way of the Strong (1928) as Marie
Say It With Sables (1928) as Irene Gordon
Through the Breakers (1928) as Diane Garrett
Beware of Bachelors (1928) as Miss Pfeffer, the vamp
His Private Life (1928) as Yvette Bérgere
The Apache (1928) as Sonya
The Last Warning (1929) as Evalynda Hendon
Dreary House (1928) as Nancy Crowl
The Bellamy Trial (1929) as Mimi Bellamy
The Canary Murder Case (1929, voice only, dubbed dialogue for Louise Brooks) as Margaret Odell (uncredited)
The Office Scandal (1929) as Lillian Tracy
The Charlatan (1929) as Florence Talbot
Innocents of Paris (1929) as Madame Renard
The Girl Who Wouldn't Wait (1929) as Judy Judd
Tonight at Twelve (1929) as Nan Stoddard
Acquitted (1929) as Marian Smith
Seven Keys to Baldpate (1929) as Myra Thornhill
Murder on the Roof (1930) as Marcia
For the Love o' Lil (1930) as Eleanor Cartwright
What a Widow! (1930) as Valli
Big Money (1930) as Mae
The Lady Refuses (1931) as Berthine Waller
Kiki (1931) as Paulette Vaile
God's Gift to Women (1931) as Tania Donaliff
Smart Money (1931) as District Attorney's girl
Broadminded (1931) as Mabel Robinson
Call Her Savage (1932) as Molly
Social Register (1934) as Gloria (final film role)

References

Further reading

External links

Margaret Livingston at Virtual History

1895 births
1984 deaths
Actresses from Salt Lake City
American film actresses
American silent film actresses
American people of Scottish descent
American people of Swedish descent
20th-century American actresses

Margaret Livingston


The coat of arms of Aguascalientes is divided into three sections. The section on the top is blue and shows the image of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción in silver. She is held by two cherubim, symbolizing the foundation of the village. To her left is a water fountain being boiled, which represent the main characteristic of the territory, its hot waters. To her right are a gold chain and a set of lips, symbolizing freedom and the creation of Aguascalientes as an independent state after the secession from Zacatecas in 1857.

The lower dexter section is silver and charged with a dam and a bunch of grapes, which refer to the irrigation and agriculture. The lower sinister section consists of a cogwheel and a bee, symbolizing the industry and the working spirit of the people of Aguascalientes, on a golden yellow field.

The text on the blue outline of the shield reads "Bona Terra, Bona Gens, Aqua Clara, Clarum Coelum", which is Latin for "Good land, good people, clear water, clear sky". The crest is a silver helmet, which represents the founder of the village of Aguascalientes, Juan de Montoro.

The coat of arms was the winning design in a 1946 competition organized by the state government.

Seals of country subdivisions
Aguascalientes

Seal of Aguascalientes


Edward Joseph Cragg (March 19, 1887 – January 22, 1953) was a civil servant, businessman and political figure in Nova Scotia, Canada. He represented Halifax County in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly from 1928 to 1930 as a Liberal member.

He was the son of Francis J. Cragg and Rose Cornelia Patton. Cragg was educated at the La Salle Academy in Halifax. He married Loretta Ethel Donahoe. Cragg worked with the federal Geological Department, then worked as a clerk and later established his own business. In 1930, he resigned as a member of the provincial assembly to run (unsuccessfully) for a federal seat. Cragg was mayor of Halifax from 1934 to 1937. He was manager of the Nova Scotia Power Commission from 1938 to 1953, when he died in Halifax at the age of 65.

References
 A Directory of the Members of the Legislative Assembly of Nova Scotia, 1758-1958, Public Archives of Nova Scotia (1958)

1887 births
1953 deaths
Nova Scotia Liberal Party MLAs
Mayors of Halifax, Nova Scotia

Edward Joseph Cragg


Events from the year 1704 in England.

Incumbents
 Monarch – Anne
 Parliament – 1st of Queen Anne

Events

 18 May – Robert Harley becomes Secretary of State for the Northern Department.
 23 July (3 August New Style) – War of the Spanish Succession: Capture of Gibraltar from Spain by allied English and Dutch forces under Sir George Rooke.
 2 August (13 August NS) – War of the Spanish Succession: At the Battle of Blenheim, an allied army under John Churchill, Earl of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy including English troops defeats the Franco-Bavarian army.
 13 August (24 August NS) – War of the Spanish Succession: Allied French/Spanish and English/Dutch fleets clash in Battle of Málaga off Málaga, causing heavy casualties on both sides but with no ships being sunk.
 3 November – Queen Anne's Bounty (a fund established to augment the incomes of poorer Church of England clergy) receives a Royal Charter.

Undated
 Beau Nash becomes master of ceremonies at Bath, and an arbiter of fashion.
 Aaron Hart becomes rabbi of the Great Synagogue of London and de facto the country's first chief rabbi.
 Thomas Darley purchases the bay Arabian horse Darley Arabian in Aleppo, Syria, and ships him to stud in England where he becomes the most important foundation sire of all modern thoroughbred racing bloodstock.
 approx. date – the first modern orrery is built by George Graham and Thomas Tompion.

Publications
 Isaac Newton's work Opticks.
 John Harris's Lexicon Technicum, an early encyclopedia.
 Daniel Defoe begins publication of A Review of the Affairs of France, a thrice-weekly newspaper reporting on the War of the Spanish Succession, and (in July) publishes his documentary account of the Great Storm of 1703, The Storm.
 Jonathan Swift's satire A Tale of a Tub with The Battle of the Books.

Births
 1 January – Soame Jenyns, writer (died 1787)
 10 April – Benjamin Heath, classical scholar (died 1766)
 4 June – Benjamin Huntsman, inventor and manufacturer (died 1776)
 17 June – John Kay, inventor (died c. 1779 in France)
 22 June – John Taylor, classical scholar (died 1766)
 2 October (bapt.) – Eugene Aram, philologist and murderer (died 1759)
 29 October – John Byng, admiral (executed 1757)

Deaths
 8 April – Henry Sydney, 1st Earl of Romney, statesman (born 1641)
 18 June – Tom Brown, satirist (born 1662)
 28 October – John Locke, philosopher (born 1632)
 11 December – Roger L'Estrange, pamphleteer and author (born 1616)

References

Years of the 18th century in England

1704 in England


The Londesborough Brooch is a Celtic pseudo-penannular brooch from Ireland. Dating from the late eighth or early ninth century, it is a particularly elaborate example of a dress fastener dated to Ireland's artistic golden age, when objects such as the Tara Brooch and Ardagh Chalice were produced. Since 1888, it has been part of the British Museum's collection.

Description
The brooch and pin were cast in silver, though the metal is heavily debased, and tests show it contains about 65% copper, 34% silver, with traces of lead and gold.  This might reflect an origin in melted-down late Roman coins. The pieces were thickly gilded on the front, and selectively on parts of the back of the head. The pin was cast in two pieces, head and shank, joined with a rivet.  Both head and pin were ornamented with geometric and zoomorphic patterns and inset with amber pieces, some now missing.  On the back of the head there are two blue glass studs near where the large terminal joins the hoop.  There are many small differences between the decoration of the right and left sides of the head, although the overall impression is one of symmetry.  Many details of the decoration recall the earlier Tara Brooch and the Breadalbane Brooch (the latter also in the British Museum).  However, unlike most other very elaborate brooches of the type, the Londesborough Brooch lacks any gold filigree decoration, and aspects of the decoration recall larger pieces of church metal work such as shrines.

Commission
The intricate decoration on precious metal and the large size of the brooch suggest it was made for a wealthy patron or religious leader in Ireland in the late eighth or early ninth centuries AD.  The pseudo-penannular form is typical of Irish brooches at this period; in a true penannular brooch there is a gap in the centre of the wide terminals ending the hoop through which the pin can pass.  In the pseudo-penannular type the terminal sides are joined, here by two narrow bands, making the brooch less efficient as a fastener.

Provenance
Little is known about the original circumstances of the brooch's discovery before it became part of Lord Londesborough's collection. The British Museum purchased the brooch in 1888. With the Tara Brooch in Dublin, and the Hunterston Brooch in Edinburgh, it is considered one of the finest of over 50 highly elaborate Irish Celtic brooches to survive.

Notes

References
Susan Youngs (ed), "The Work of Angels", Masterpieces of Celtic Metalwork, 6th–9th centuries AD, catalogue #71, 1989, British Museum Press, London,  (most of the entry is quoted on the BM page, chopped about)

Further reading

Harbison, Peter. The golden age of Irish art. London, Thames and Hudson, 1999

Individual brooches
Celtic brooches
Medieval European objects in the British Museum
Silver-gilt objects

Londesborough Brooch


The Green Climate Fund (GCF) is an international fund for fighting climate change. It is part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It was proposed at the Cancun Conference in Mexico in 2010. It was accepted at the Durban Conference in South Africa in December 2011. The fund's goal is to help developing countries fight climate change by providing them with the money they need to do so. Money may be granted for projects, programs, policies and activities that will help fight climate change or help those countries adapt to global warming.

GCF operates in Songdo, Incheon, South Korea. The Green Climate Fund headquarters were officially opened on 4 December 2013.

The fund is governed by a board of directors. The Board has 24 members. There is an equal number of members from developing and developed countries. Two Co-Chairs of the Board are elected by the Board members. One is a member from a developed country and the other is a member from a developing country. Currently, the Co-Chairs of the Board are Mr. Manfred Konukiewitz (Germany) and Mr. Jose Maria Clemente Sarte Salceda (The Philippines).

Observers have noted that the GCF still has many challenges to work through. These challenges include the way the fund works, what its functions and goals are, how it is governed, and how it will do its job. These must be decided either by the GCF Board or by the countries that are party to the UNFCCC.

Climate change
United Nations
International organizations
2010

Green Climate Fund


Christine Teipel (1621 – 4 May 1630) was a 9 year old child who was executed as a witch. This execution happened in Schmallenberg-Oberkirchen in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

Life
She was questioned on March 7, 1630. She told about 15 other people who had taken part in a Witches' Sabbath, at night. There were 8 men, 6 women, and a little girl. During that year, there were 7 processes, from April to June of that year. During these processes, 58 people were sentenced to burn at the stake for witchcraft. 22 people of these were men, 2 were children.

Christine Teipel was sentenced and executed in the third of seven rounds of trials.

Near Oberkirchen there is a place where commemorative inscriptions have been erected.

Parts of what she had said during the trial

Pact with the devil

"bekend guetlich, daß Johan Bell...vor etzlicher zeit, weiß nit, wieviel jar, in Stephans backhaus sie die zauberei gelert, ...(Sie) Hette auch austrucklich dem teuffel zugesagt, waruf der teuffel in eins wackern jungen gestalt, ...zu ir kommen, ... zu ir gesagt, ob sie im auch stehen [zu ihm stehen] wolte. Sie im druff geandwortet: ja, wen er ir etzwas guts tun wölte, wilches er ir auch zu tun versprochen."

Approximate translation:

"confesses, that Johan Bell (...) had taught her to do magic, some time ago; she does not know how long ago.  This happened in Stephan's bakery. She had also committed to serving the devil. The devil had then appeared in the form of a vigorous young boy. The boy had asked her if she wanted to commit herself to him; she had agreed, under the condition that he should do something good for her, which he had promised (...)

Attending a Sabbat
"Sein boel (Teufelsbuhle) hett mit ir gedanzt... Der tanz hette woll zwei stunde geweret"

Translation:
"Her mate (sex partner) had danced with her... The dance had lasted about two hours"

Sex with the devil
"bekend, daß der bol (Teufelsbuhle) ein ding furm leib gehabt, damit ihr in ir schamb etc., hab kein freud dabei gehabt, were gewesen, als wens holz gewest; und so oft sie zum tanz gezogen, hette er erst zu ihr kommen und boliret [= Geschlechtsverkehr haben], und wen sie´s nit leiden wolten, hette er ir zu schlagen gedrauwet" [= gedroht].

Translation:
"confesses, that the mate (sex partner) had had a thing before him, to put into her (etc), that she did not enjoy it at all, it was like this thing were wood; And whenever she wanted to dance, he had first come, and had had sex; and when she did not want to, he had threatened to beat her (..)"

Books
(All of them are in German)

Alfred Bruns, Die Oberkirchener Hexenprotokolle, in: Schieferbergbau-Heimatmuseum Schmallenberg- Holthausen: Hexen- Gerichtsbarkeit im kurkölnischen Sauerland, Dokumentation zur Ausstellung vom 21.7.- 4.8.1984, "Christinichen Teipeln aus Oberkirchen", S. 26 ff
Tobias A. Kemper: "...der allnoch anwachsenden bluenden jugend zum abscheulichen exempel...". Kinderhexenprozesse in Oberkirchen (Duchy of Westphalia). In: SüdWestfalen Archiv Jg.4/2004. S.115-136.

Other websites
 Pact with the devil

1621 births
1630 deaths
Executed German people
People executed for witchcraft
People from North Rhine-Westphalia

Christine Teipel