Construcționismul social sau construcția socială a realității (de asemenea concept social) este o teorie a cunoașterii în sociologie și teoria comunicării care examinează dezvoltarea înțelegerii lumii prin construcții concomitente, formând o bază pentru presupuneri comune despre realitate. Teoria se centrează pe noțiunea ființelor umane care raționează experiențele lor prin crearea de modele a lumii sociale pe care le răspândesc și le concretizează prin limbaj.

Definiție
Un construct sau construcție socială se referă la semnificația, noțiunea sau conotația dată unui obiect, eveniment sau societate, și adoptată de locuitorii acelei societăți cu referire la felul cum ei percep sau interacționează cu acel obiect sau eveniment. Așadar, un construct social ca idee va fi acceptată de majoritatea societății ca fiind natural, dar poate să nu reprezinte neapărat realitatea și celor dinafara acelei societăți, ideea fiind o "invenție sau născocire a acelei societăți"

Un obiectiv central al construcționismului social este să descopere modurile prin care indivizii și grupurile participă la construirea realității lor percepute. Acest aspect implică analizarea felurilor cum sunt create, instituționalizate, cunoscute și introduse in tradiție diferitele fenomene sociale.

Origine
În ceea ce privește originea sa, construcționismul social este înrădăcinat în "interacționismul simbolic și fenomenologie."  Odată cu cartea The Social Construction of Reality a lui Berger și Luckman publicată în 1966, a luat naștere și acest concept. După patru decenii, un număr mare de teorii și studii au stabilit că oamenii "își creează propriile lumi sociale și culturale în același timp în care aceste lumi îi creează pe ei." Acesta este un punct de vedere care alterează procesele sociale ca "simultan ludice și serioase, prin care realitatea este dezvăluită și învăluită în același timp, creată și distrusă de activitățile noastre." El încearcă să înlocuiască "tradiția intelectuală occidentală" în care cercetătorul "caută cu sârguință certitudinea ca reprezentare a realității prin intermediul afirmațiilor."

În termenii construcționismului social, "realitățile luate ca atare" sunt cultivate din "interacțiuni între și prin agenți sociali;" mai mult, realitatea nu este un simplu adevăr obiectiv "care așteaptă să fie descoperit prin cercetări științifice pozitiviste." Mai degrabă există "realități multiple care se întrec pentru adevăr și legitimitate." Construcționismul social înțelege "rolul fundamental al limbajului și comunicării", iar această cunoaștere "contribuie la actul lingvistic" și mai recent la "actul teoriei discursului." Majoritatea construcționiștilor sociali se supun ideii că "limbajul nu reflectă realitatea; mai degrabă o construiește (creează)."

O definiție mai largă a construcționlismului social se regăsește în specialiștii științelor organizaționale. O metodă construcționlistă la diverse fenomene oranizaționale și manageriale par să fie tot mai răspândite și în creștere.

Andy Lock și Tom Strong au urmărit unele fundamente ale construcționismului social până la unele lucrări științifice din sec. al XVIII-lea ale filosofului politic, retorician, istoric și jurist italian Giambattista Vico.

Berger și Luckmann îi atribuie lui Max Scheler meritul unei mair influențe, acesta creând ideea de sociologie a cunoașterii care a influențat teoria social construcționistă .

După Lock și Strong, alți gânditori importanți a căror muncă a influențat dezvoltarea construcționismului social sunt: Edmund Husserl, Alfred Schutz, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Martin Heidegger, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Paul Ricoeur, Jürgen Habermas, Emmanuel Levinas, Mikhail Bakhtin, Valentin Volosinov, Lev Vygotsky, George Herbert Mead, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Gregory Bateson, Harold Garfinkel, Erving Goffman, Anthony Giddens, Michel Foucault, Ken Gergen, Mary Gergen, Rom Harre, și John Shotter.

Analiza social construcționistă
"Construct social" poate însemna multe lucruri pentru diferiți oameni. Ian Hacking, examinând o mare varietate de cărți și articole cu titluri ca "Construcția socială a X" sau "Constructul X", argumentează că atunci când ceva este numit un "construct social", ele fac referire de fapt la următoarele prezumții:

 (0) În situația prezentă, X este luat ca atare; X pare să fie inevitabil.(1) X trebuie să nu fi existat, sau să nu fie așa cum este. X, sau X așa cum este în prezent, nu este determinat de natura lucrurilor; nu este inevitabil.
Hacking adaugă că următoarele prezumții sunt de multe ori, deși nu mereu, sugerate când se folosește sintagma "construct social":
 (2) X este destul de rău așa cum este. (3) Ne-ar fi mult mai bine dacă X nu ar mai exista, sau cel puțin transforma în mod radical.

Așadar aserțiunea că sexul este un construct social (sex ca gen, nu sex biologic) probabil înseamnă că sexul, așa cum este înțeles în prezent, nu este un rezultat inevitabil al anatomiei, și foarte dependent de procese sociale și istorie. în plus, în funcție de cine anume face aserțiunea, poate să însemne că înțelegerea curentă a sexului este dăunătoare și ar trebui eliminată sau modificată, pe cât posibil.

Conform lui Hacking, revendicările de "construct social" nu sunt întotdeauna clare despre ce anume este "inevitabil" sau ce "trebuie să dispară". Să considerăm afirmația că quarcurile sunt constructe sociale. Pe de-o parte, înțelegem că quarcurile nu sunt "inevitabile" sau "determinate de natura lucrurilor". De de alta, asta poate să însemne că ideea noastră (sau conceptualizarea, înțelegerea) despre quarcuri nu este "inevitabilă" sau "determinată de natura lucrurilor". Diferența dintre "quarcuri" și "ideea noastră despre quarcuri" va pune pe unii într-o dificultate filosofică. Diferența lui Hacking e bazată pe metafizica intuitivă, cu o scindare între lucrurile din natură și ideea despre ele din capul nostru. Hacking propune mai degrabă un mod util de analiză a presupuselor "constructe sociale", decât o metafizică serioasă".

El argumentează că, dacă este luată a doua idee de mai sus, n utrebuie spă existe mereu un conflict între faptul că quarcurile sunt "costructe sociale" și că quarcurile sunt "reale". În exemplul nostru despre sex (gen), asta înseamnă că, deși poate exista o bază biologică legitimă pentru gen, unele dintre percepțiile societății pot să vadă genul drept construct social.

The stronger first position, however, is more-or-less an inevitable corollary of Willard Van Orman Quine's concept of ontological relativity, and particularly of the Duhem-Quine thesis.  That is, according to Quine and like-minded thinkers (who are not usually characterized as social constructionists) there is no single privileged explanatory framework that is closest to "the things themselves"—every theory has merit only in proportion to its explanatory power.

As we step from the phrase to the world of human beings, "social construction" analyses can become more complex. Hacking briefly examines Helène Moussa's analysis of the social construction of "women refugees". According to him, Moussa's argument has several pieces, some of which may be implicit:
 Canadian citizens' idea of "the woman refugee" is not inevitable, but historically contingent. (Thus the idea or category "the woman refugee" can be said to be "socially constructed".)
 Women coming to Canada to seek asylum are profoundly affected by the category of "the woman refugee". Among other things, if a woman does not "count" as a "woman refugee" according to the law, she may be deported, and forced to return to very difficult conditions in her homeland.
 Such women may modify their behaviour, and perhaps even their attitudes towards themselves, in order to gain the benefits of being classified as a "woman refugee".
 If such a woman does not modify her behaviour, she should be considered un-Canadian and as such should not be admitted to citizenship.
Hacking suggests that this third part of the analysis, the "interaction" between a socially constructed category and the individuals that are actually or potentially included in that category, is present in many "social construction" analyses involving types of human beings.

″Social construction-ism accepts that there is an objective reality. It is concerned with how knowledge is constructed and understood. It has therefore an epistemological not an ontological perspective. Criticisms and misunderstanding arise when this central fact is misinterpreted. This is most evident in debates and criticisms surrounding realism and relativism. The words of Kirk and Miller are relevant when they suggest that the search for a final, absolute truth be left to philosophers and theologians. Social construction-ism places great emphasis on everyday interactions between people and how they use language to construct their reality. It regards the social practices people engage in as the focus of enquiry″.

Applications

Personal construct psychology
Since its appearance in the 1950s, personal construct psychology (PCP) has mainly developed as a constructivist theory of personality and a system of transforming individual meaning-making processes, largely in therapeutic contexts. It was based around the notion of persons as scientists who form and test theories about their worlds. Therefore, it represented one of the first attempts to appreciate the constructive nature of experience and the meaning persons give to their experience. Social constructionism (SC), on the other hand, mainly developed as a form of a critique, aimed to transform the oppressing effects of the social meaning-making processes. Over the years, it has grown into a cluster of different approaches, with no single SC position. However, different approaches under the generic term of SC are loosely linked by some shared assumptions about language, knowledge, and reality.

A usual way of thinking about the relationship between PCP and SC is treating them as two separate entities that are similar in some aspects, but also very different in others. This way of conceptualizing this relationship is a logical result of the circumstantial differences of their emergence. In subsequent analyses these differences between PCP and SC were framed around several points of tension, formulated as binary oppositions: personal/social; individualist/relational; agency/structure; constructivist/constructionist. Although some of the most important issues in contemporary psychology are elaborated in these contributions, the polarized positioning also sustained the idea of a separation between PCP and SC, paving the way for only limited opportunities for dialogue between them.

Reframing the relationship between PCP and SC may be of use in both the PCP and the SC communities. On one hand, it extends and enriches SC theory and points to benefits of applying the PCP "toolkit" in constructionist therapy and research. On the other hand, the reframing contributes to PCP theory and points to new ways of addressing social construction in therapeutic conversations.

Educational psychology
Social constructivism has been studied by many educational psychologists, who are concerned with its implications for teaching and learning.  For more on the psychological dimensions of social constructivism, see the work of Ernst von Glasersfeld and A. Sullivan Palincsar.

Systemic therapy
Systemic therapy is a form of psychotherapy which seeks to address people as people in relationship, dealing with the interactions of groups and their interactional patterns and dynamics.

Teleology of social construction
The concepts of weak and strong as applied to opposing philosophical positions, "isms", inform a teleologythe goal-oriented, meaningful or "final end" of an interpretation of reality.  "Isms" are not personal opinions, but the extreme, modal, formulations that actual persons, individuals, can then consider, and take a position between. There are opposing philosophical positions concerning the feasibility of co-creating a common, shared, social reality, called weak and strong.

John R. Searle does not elucidate the terms strong and weak in his book The Construction of Social Reality, but he clearly uses them in his Chinese room argument, where he debates the feasibility of creating a computing machine with a sharable understanding of reality, and he adds "We are precisely such machines." Strong artificial intelligence (Strong AI) is the bet that computer programmers will somehow eventually achieve a computing machine with a mind of its own, and that it will eventually be more powerful than a human mind.  Weak AI bets they won't.

David Deutsch in his book The Fabric of Reality uses a form of strong Turing principle to share Frank Tipler's view of the final state of the universe as an omnipotent (but not omniscient), Omega point, computer.  But this computer is a society of creative thinkers, or people (albeit posthuman transhuman persons), having debates in order to generate information, in the never-ending attempt to attain omniscience of this physicsits evolutionary forms, its computational abilities, and the methods of its epistemologyhaving an eternity to do so. (p. 356)

Because both the Chinese room argument and the construction of social reality deal with Searle and his debates, and because they both use weak and strong to denote a philosophical position, and because both debate the programmability of "the other", it is worth noting the correspondence that "strong AI" is strong social constructionism, and "weak AI" is weak social constructivism.

Strong social constructiv"ism" says "none are able to communicate either a full reality or an accurate ontology, therefore my position must impose, by a sort of divine right, my observer-relative epistemology", whereas weak social constructivism says "none are able to know a full reality, therefore we must cooperate, informing and conveying an objective ontology as best we can."

Weak teleology
Weak social constructionism sees the underlying, objective, "brute fact" elements of the class of languages and functional assignments of human, metaphysical, reality. Brute facts are all facts that are not institutional (metaphysical, social agreement) facts.  The skeptic portrays the weak aspect of social constructivism, and wants to spend effort debating the institutional realities.

Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker writes that "some categories really are social constructions: they exist only because people tacitly agree to act as if they exist. Examples include money, tenure, citizenship, decorations for bravery, and the presidency of the United States."

In a similar vein, Stanley Fish has suggested that baseball's "balls and strikes" are social constructions.

Both Fish and Pinker agree that the sorts of objects indicated here can be described as part of what John Searle calls "social reality."  In particular, they are, in Searle's terms, ontologically subjective but epistemologically objective. "Social facts" are temporally, ontologically, and logically dependent on "brute facts." For example, "money" in the form of its raw materials (rag, pulp, ink) as constituted socially for barter (for example by a banking system) is a social fact of "money" by virtue of (i) collectively willing and intending (ii) to impose some particular function (purpose for which), (iii) by constitutive rules atop the "brute facts." "Social facts have the remarkable feature of having no analogue among physical brute facts" (34). The existence of language is itself constitutive of the social fact (37), which natural or brute facts do not require. Natural or "brute" facts exist independently of language; thus a "mountain" is a mountain in every language and in no language; it simply is what it is.

Searle illustrates the evolution of social facts from brute facts by the constitutive rule: X counts as Y in C. "The Y terms has to assign a new status that the object does not already have just in virtue of satisfying the Y term; and there has to be collective agreement, or at least acceptance, both in the imposition of that status on the stuff referred to by the X term and about the function that goes with that status. Furthermore, because the physical features brute facts specified by the X term are insufficient by themselves to guarantee the fulfillment of the assigned function specified by the Y term, the new status and its attendant functions have to be the sort of things that can be constituted by collective agreement or acceptance."

It is true that language is not a "brute fact," that it is an institutional fact, a human convention, a metaphysical reality (that happens to be physically uttered), but Searle points out that there are language-independent thoughts "noninstitutional, primitive, biological inclinations and cognitions not requiring any linguistic devices," and that there are many "brute facts" amongst both humans and animals that are truths that should not be altered in the social constructs because language does not truly constitute them, despite the attempt to institute them for any group's gain: money and property are language dependent, but desires (thirst, hunger) and emotions (fear, rage) are not.  (Descartes describes the difference between imagination as a sort of vision, or image, and intellect as conceptualizing things by symbolic manipulation.)  Therefore, there is doubt that society or a computer can be completely programmed by language and images, (because there is a programmable, emotive effect of images that derives from the language of judgment towards images).

Finally, against the strong theory and for the weak theory, Searle insists, "it could not be the case, as some have maintained, that all facts are institutional [i.e., social] facts, that there are no brute facts, because the structure of institutional facts reveals that they are logically dependent on brute facts. To suppose that all facts are institutional [i.e., social] would produce an infinite regress or circularity in the account of institutional facts. In order that some facts are institutional, there must be other facts that are brute [i.e., physical, biological, natural]. This is the consequence of the logical structure of institutional facts.".

Ian Hacking, Canadian philosopher of science, insists, "the notion that everything is socially constructed has been going the rounds. John Searle [1995] argues vehemently (and in my opinion cogently) against universal constructionism." "Universal social constructionism is descended from the doctrine that I once named linguistic idealism and attributed, only half in jest, to Richard Nixon [Hacking, 1975, p. 182]. Linguistic idealism is the doctrine that only what is talked about exists, nothing has reality until it is spoken of, or written about. This extravagant notion is descended from Berkeley's idea-ism, which we call idealism: the doctrine that all that exists is mental." "They are a part of what John Searle [1995] calls social reality. His book is titled the Construction of Social Reality, and as I explained elsewhere [Hacking, 1996], that is not a social construction book at all."

Hacking observes, "the label 'social constructionism' is more code than description" of every Leftist, Marxist, Freudian, and Feminist PostModernist to call into question every moral, sex, gender, power, and deviant claim as just another essentialist claim—including the claim that members of the male and female sex are inherently different, rather than historically and socially constructed. Hacking observes that his 1995 simplistic dismissal of the concept actually revealed to many readers the outrageous implications of the theorists: Is child abuse a real evil, or a social construct, asked Hacking? His dismissive attitude, "gave some readers a way to see that there need be no clash between construction and reality," inasmuch as "the metaphor of social construction once had excellent shock value, but now it has become tired."

Informally, they require human practices to sustain their existence, but they have an effect that is (basically) universally agreed upon. The disagreement lies in whether this category should be called "socially constructed." Ian Hacking argues that it should not. Furthermore, it is not clear that authors who write "social construction" analyses ever mean "social construction" in Pinker's sense. ". If they never do, then Pinker (probably among others) has misunderstood the point of a social constructionist argument.

To understand how weak social constructionism can conclude that metaphysics (a human affair) is not the entire "reality," see the arguments  against the study metaphysics. This inability to accurately share the full reality, even given time for a rational conversation, is similarly proclaimed by weak artificial intelligence.

History and development

Berger and Luckmann
Constructionism became prominent in the U.S. with Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann's 1966 book, The Social Construction of Reality. Berger and Luckmann argue that all knowledge, including the most basic, taken-for-granted common sense knowledge of everyday reality, is derived from and maintained by social interactions. When people interact, they do so with the understanding that their respective perceptions of reality are related, and as they act upon this understanding their common knowledge of reality becomes reinforced. Since this common sense knowledge is negotiated by people, human typifications, significations and institutions come to be presented as part of an objective reality, particularly for future generations who were not involved in the original process of negotiation. For example, as parents negotiate rules for their children to follow, those rules confront the children as externally produced "givens" that they cannot change.  Berger and Luckmann's social constructionism has its roots in phenomenology. It links to Heidegger and Edmund Husserl through the teaching of Alfred Schutz, who was also Berger's PhD adviser.

Narrative turn
During the 1970s and 1980s, social constructionist theory underwent a transformation as constructionist sociologists engaged with the work of Michel Foucault and others as a narrative turn in the social sciences was worked out in practice. This particularly affected the emergent sociology of science and the growing field of science and technology studies. In particular, Karin Knorr-Cetina, Bruno Latour, Barry Barnes, Steve Woolgar, and others used social constructionism to relate what science has typically characterized as objective facts to the processes of social construction, with the goal of showing that human subjectivity imposes itself on those facts we take to be objective, not solely the other way around. A particularly provocative title in this line of thought is Andrew Pickering's Constructing Quarks: A Sociological History of Particle Physics. At the same time, Social Constructionism shaped studies of technology – the Sofield, especially on the Social construction of technology, or SCOT, and authors as Wiebe Bijker, Trevor Pinch, Maarten van Wesel, etc. Despite its common perception as objective, mathematics is not immune to social constructionist accounts. Sociologists such as Sal Restivo and Randall Collins, mathematicians including Reuben Hersh and Philip J. Davis, and philosophers including Paul Ernest have published social constructionist treatments of mathematics.

Postmodernism
Social constructionism can be seen as a source of the postmodern movement, and has been influential in the field of cultural studies.  Some have gone so far as to attribute the rise of cultural studies (the cultural turn) to social constructionism. Within the social constructionist strand of postmodernism, the concept of socially constructed reality stresses the ongoing mass-building of worldviews by individuals in dialectical interaction with society at a time. The numerous realities so formed comprise, according to this view, the imagined worlds of human social existence and activity, gradually crystallized by habit into institutions propped up by language conventions, given ongoing legitimacy by mythology, religion and philosophy, maintained by therapies and socialization, and subjectively internalized by upbringing and education to become part of the identity of social citizens.

In the book The Reality of Social Construction, the British sociologist Dave Elder-Vass places the development of social constructionism as one outcome of the legacy of postmodernism. He writes "Perhaps the most widespread and influential product of this process [coming to terms with the legacy of postmodernism] is social constructionism, which has been booming [within the domain of social theory] since the 1980s."

Criticisms
Social constructionism falls toward the nurture end of the spectrum of the larger nature and nurture debate. Consequently, critics have argued that it generally ignores biological influences on behaviour or culture, or suggests that they are unimportant to achieve an understanding of human behaviour. The view of most psychologists and social scientists is that behaviour is a complex outcome of both biological and cultural influences.  Other disciplines, such as evolutionary psychology, behaviour genetics, behavioural neuroscience, epigenetics, etc., take a nature–nurture interactionism approach to understand behaviour or cultural phenomena.

In 1996, to illustrate what he believed to be the intellectual weaknesses of social constructionism and postmodernism, physics professor Alan Sokal submitted an article to the academic journal Social Text deliberately written to be incomprehensible but including phrases and jargon typical of the articles published by the journal. The submission, which was published, was an experiment to see if the journal would "publish an article liberally salted with nonsense if (a) it sounded good and (b) it flattered the editors' ideological preconceptions."  The Postmodernism Generator is a computer program that is designed to produce similarly incomprehensible text. In 1999, Sokal, with coauthor Jean Bricmont published the book Fashionable Nonsense, which criticized postmodernism and social constructionism.

Philosopher Paul Boghossian has also written against social constructionism. He follows Ian Hacking's argument that many adopt social constructionism because of its potentially liberating stance: if things are the way that they are only because of our social conventions, as opposed to being so naturally, then it should be possible to change them into how we would rather have them be. He then states that social constructionists argue that we should refrain from making absolute judgements about what is true and instead state that something is true in the light of this or that theory. Countering this, he states:Later in the same work, Boghossian severely constrains the requirements of relativism. He states that instead of believing that any world view is just as true as any other (cultural relativism), we should believe that:Woolgar and Pawluch argue that constructionsts tend to 'ontological gerrymander' social conditions in and out of their analysis. Following this point, Thibodeaux argued that constructionism can both separate and combine a subject and their effective environment. To resolve this he argued that objective conditions should be used when analyzing how perspectives are motivated.

Social constructionism has been criticized by evolutionary psychologists, including Steven Pinker in his book The Blank Slate. John Tooby and Leda Cosmides used the term "standard social science model" to refer to social-science philosophies that they argue fail to take into account the evolved properties of the brain.

Social construction theory in Communication
A bibliographic review of social construction theory as used within the Communication has now been published, providing a good overview of resources from that disciplinary perspective.

References

Further reading

Books
 Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann, The Social Construction of Reality : A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge (Anchor, 1967; ISBN 0-385-05898-5).
 Joel Best, Images of Issues: Typifying Contemporary Social Problems, New York: Gruyter, 1989
 Ian Hacking, The Social Construction of What? Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999; ISBN 0-674-81200-X
 John Searle, The Construction of Social Reality. New York: Free Press, 1995; ISBN 0-02-928045-1 .
 Charles Arthur Willard, Liberalism and the Problem of Knowledge: A New Rhetoric for Modern Democracy Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996; ISBN 0-226-89845-8.
 Vivien Burr. Social Constructionism, 2nd ed. Routledge 2003]
 Wilson, D. S. (2005), "Evolutionary Social Constructivism". In J. Gottshcall and D. S. Wilson, (Eds.), The Literary Animal: Evolution and the Nature of Narrative. Evanston, IL, Northwestern University Press; ISBN 0-8101-2286-3. Full text
 Sal Restivo and Jennifer Croissant, "Social Constructionism in Science and Technology Studies" (Handbook of Constructionist Research, ed. J.A. Holstein & J.F. Gubrium (Guilford, NY 2008, 213–229; ISBN 978-1-59385-305-1
 Ellul, Jacques. Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes. Trans. Konrad Kellen & Jean Lerner. New York: Knopf, 1965. New York: Random House/ Vintage 1973
 Paul Ernest, (1998) Social Constructivism as a Philosophy of Mathematics; Albany, New York: State University of New York Press
 Kenneth Gergen, (2009, 2nd edition), An Invitation to Social Construction. Los Angeles: Sage.
 Glasersfeld, Ernst von (1995), Radical Constructivism: A Way of Knowing and Learning. London: RoutledgeFalmer.
 Hibberd, Fiona J. (2005), Unfolding Social Constructionism. New York: Springer. ISBN 0-387-22974-4
 André Kukla (2000), Social Constructivism and the Philosophy of Science, London: Routledge, ISBN 0-415-23419-0, ISBN 978-0-415-23419-1
 Poerksen, Bernhard (2004), The Certainty of Uncertainty: Dialogues Introducing Constructivism. Exeter: Imprint-Academic.
 Schmidt, Siegfried J. (2007), Histories and Discourses: Rewriting Constructivism. Exeter: Imprint-Acadenic.
 Sheila McNamee and Kenneth Gergen (1999). Relational Responsibility: Resources for Sustainable Dialogue. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage, Inc.  ISBN 0-7619-1094-8.
 Sheila McNamee and Kenneth Gergen (Eds.) (1992). Therapy as Social Construction. London: Sage  ISBN 0-8039-8303-4.
 Lowenthal, P., & Muth, R. (2008). Constructivism. In E. F. Provenzo, Jr. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of the social and cultural foundations of education (pp. 177–179). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
 Paul Boghossian (2006) Fear of Knowledge: Against Relativism and Constructivism. Oxford University Press. Online review: http://ndpr.nd.edu/news/25184/?id=8364
 Darin Weinberg. 2014. Contemporary Social Constructionism: Key Themes. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press

Articles
 Kitsuse JI, Spector M. Toward a sociology of social problems: Social conditions, value-judgements, and social problems, Social Problems, 20(4) 407-19, 1973
 Mallon, Ron, "Naturalistic Approaches to Social Construction", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Edward N. Zalta (ed.).
 Metzner, Andreas (1998), Constructions of Environmental Issues in Scientific and Public Discourse, in: Mueller, F.; Leupelt, M. (Eds.): Eco Targets, Goal Functions and Orientors. Berlin, Heidelberg, New York (Springer Publishers) 1998, pp. 171–192

Construct social


Philip Charles Anglim (born February 11, 1952) is an American actor. He is best known for his performance as Joseph Merrick in the stage and television versions of The Elephant Man, a role for which he received a Best Actor nomination in the 1979 Tony Awards. Other notable roles include the title role in Macbeth on Broadway and Dane O'Neill, the ill-fated love child who grew up to follow in his unknown father's footsteps on the path to the priesthood in the television mini-series The Thorn Birds. He also had a recurring guest role as the Bajoran priest Vedek Bareil on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Biography
Anglim was born in San Francisco, California. His father, a Catholic of Irish descent, worked as a patent attorney, and his mother, Paule Anglim, was of French-Jewish descent and was a San Francisco art dealer. He originally aspired to become a veterinarian, but after he was asked to appear in a play by one of his teachers, he switched to acting. Anglim graduated with a bachelor's degree in English literature from Yale University in 1973. Subsequently, Anglim spent a year in Connecticut at the Southbury Playhouse.

His feature film debut was in The All-American Boy (1973), and his first television appearance was in the PBS The Adams Chronicles (1976). In 1979, while still an unknown, Anglim optioned the London play The Elephant Man, and debuted off-Broadway at St. Peter's Church. It later moved to The Booth Theater on Broadway in 1979, and earned several awards. He performed as Macbeth on Broadway in 1981 (in which he was replaced by Kelsey Grammer) and again on TV in 1982. In 1982, Anglim appeared in the ABC television version of The Elephant Man, and earned an Emmy nomination for Best Actor for the performance.

Anglim also maintains a cattle farm in Tennessee, and in 1992, founded The Lewis County Children's Fund to help children in the area.

Awards
All of the following were for his performance in The Elephant Man:
 1979 Outstanding Actor in a Play, Drama Desk Award
 1979 nomination for Best Actor, Tony Awards
 1979 Theatre World Award
 1978-1979 OBIE Award Performance
 1982 nomination, Emmy Award
 1982 nomination, Golden Globe

Works

Theater
 What the Butler Saw, 1975, Cincinnati
 The Contrast, 1975, Cincinnati
 Snow White, 1976, New York
 The Elephant Man (1977)
 Macbeth, 1981, New York

Film/television
 The Elephant Man (1982) as John Merrick
 Malone (1987) as Harvey
 Haunted Summer as Lord Byron
 The Man Inside as Rolf Gruel
 The Thorn Birds as Dane O'Neill
 Dallas reunion War of the Ewings
 Millennium episode "Sacrament"
 Macbeth (title role)
 Testament

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine appearances
 "In the Hands of the Prophets"
 "The Circle"
 "The Siege"
 "Shadowplay"
 "The Collaborator"
 "Fascination"
 "Life Support"
 "Resurrection"

References

External links

1953 births
Living people
American male stage actors
American male television actors
Drama Desk Award winners
Male actors from San Francisco
Obie Award recipients
American people of French-Jewish descent
American people of Irish descent

Philip Anglim


Hlinsko is a small city in east Bohemia in the Czech Republic. It is on the banks of the Chrudimka river, in the Bohemian-Moravian highlands on the border of the Iron Mountains. Hlinsko belongs to the Pardubice region. It has about 10,000 inhabitants. Hlinsko is about 590 meters away over the sea.

History
In the 11th century, there was created a potter's camp on the route from Bohemia to Moravia. From there is taken name of the city, which comes from the word "hlína" (clay, material used by potters). First historical remark about Hlinsko comes from first half of 14th century.

From this time, Hlinsko belongs to domination of Rychmburk, which belongs to Tas from Rychmburk, later to Vartenberk and next to Arnošt Flaška from Pardubice. In this century, city obtained reeve's department.

There was an old merchant's route passing through Hlinsko, which was drawed in the Klaudián's map from year 1518. In 1718, clan Kinských bought Rychmburk's domination.

In 1834, Hlinsko became independent on authorities. In 1850, there was created district in Hlinsko.  In 1871 was finished construction of the railroad and began traffic on the road from Pardubice to Havlíčkův Brod (passing through Hlinsko).

There are many well-preserved people's buildings in Hlinsko and its neighborhood already from half of 18th century. In part of Hlinsko it is Betlém, in neighborhood it is outdoor museum of people's architecture in Veselý Kopec, Dřevíkov, Svobodné Hamry and Možděnice. There is camp Ležáky about 10 kilometers from Hlinsko, which was burned by Nazis during World War Two.

In modern history, Hlinsko was district city in years 1949 – 1960, after 1960 city lost benefit of district and it was integrated to Chrudimský district against will of its exponents. City became administrative centre once again in 1.1.2003 after reform of public administration, when Hlinsko became city of third level (city with extended scope).

Culture

Betlém
Set of people's buildings is on right bank of Chrudimka river. Before it was part of the city formed by timbered cottages, in which potters and tailors lived. Building material was mainly wood, wall was only in part around heater.
In 1995, Betlém was declared as monumental reservation of people's architecture.
Many of buildings was renewed. Visitors can look over here how people lived and what traditions they had. There take place periodical exhibitions, too.

Museum and gallery
There are expositions from history of Hlinsko district in museum. Visitors can find here a memorial hall of Adámků's family, learn about history of education, crafting… They can see examples of contemporary suits and fashion accessories. There is permanent exposition of reliefs from Karel Lidický, and an exhibition of images. Name of this exhibition is "Výtvarné Hlinecko" and some of exhibited images are borrowed from National gallery.

Other monuments
Keep, which is considered the oldest building in Hlinsko.
Town hall
Church of Born of Virgin Mary

Social life
For cultural self-realization is there cinema and theater.
For book lovers is there Hlinsko's library, which has two sections: child's and adult's.
City's cultural club Hlinečan offers a wide spectrum of theater shows, concerts, lectures and social actions for inhabitants of Hlinsko and its region. They are organized in Chamber theatre or in local Sokol house.
Every year there are organized Adámek's folklore celebrations. There are concerned groups not only from Czech republic, but also from abroad. Groups Vysočan and Vysočánek are representing Hlinsko.
Hlinsko produce Hlinsko's news, which appears every month.
City has also its own TV – Cable's information service.

Industry
The biggest companies in Hlinsko:

Company ETA
Since 1943.
Production of home electro appliances and car parts.

Dairy Hlinsko
Since 1943.
Production of milk and milk products.

Brewery Rychtář
Since 1913.
Production of light and dark, especially 12° and 10° beer.

Technolen technic cloth
Production and selling of cloth, PVC, driving bands and foils.

Education
Children from Hlinsko can attend three nursery schools. Next they can study at one of three primary schools (Ležáků, Smetanova, Resslova). There is also a special school for children with defects in writing, reading or counting.
There is also one secondary grammar school, Karel Václav Rais's in Hlinsko. It offers four-year and eight-year study.
Parents can sign on their children to art school. It offers education in most artistic disciplines.

Sport
In city stadium with grassy playground there is possible to practice summer sports. It is possible to use covered swimming pool with sauna.
In winter, friends of ice-skating and ice-hockey can use winter stadium or ski lifts, running tracks and hills for sledging.

Sources
History of Hlinsko on its official website

Other websites
Official website of Hlinsko city

Cities in the Czech Republic
Pardubice Region

Hlinsko


In computing, GeoServer is an open-source server written in Java that allows users to share, process and edit geospatial data. Designed for interoperability, it publishes data from any major spatial data source using open standards.  GeoServer has evolved to become an easy method of connecting existing information to virtual globes such as Google Earth and NASA World Wind as well as to web-based maps such as OpenLayers, Leaflet, Google Maps and Bing Maps.  GeoServer functions as the reference implementation of the Open Geospatial Consortium Web Feature Service standard, and also implements the Web Map Service, Web Coverage Service and Web Processing Service specifications.

Goals
GeoServer aims to operate as a node within a free and open Spatial Data Infrastructure.  Just as the Apache HTTP Server has offered a free and open web server to publish HTML, GeoServer aims to do the same for geospatial data.

Features
GeoServer reads a variety of data formats, including:

 PostGIS
 Oracle Spatial
 ArcSDE
 IBM Db2
 MySQL
 MongoDB
 Apache Solr
 Shapefiles
 GeoTIFF
 GTOPO30
 ECW, MrSID
 JPEG2000

Through standard protocols it produces KML, GML, Shapefile, GeoRSS, PDF, GeoJSON, JPEG, GIF, SVG, PNG and more. In addition, one can edit data via the WFS transactional profile (WFS-T).  GeoServer includes an integrated OpenLayers client for previewing data layers.

GeoServer additionally supports efficient publishing of geospatial data to Google Earth through the use of network links, using KML.  Advanced features for Google Earth output include templates for customized pop-ups, time and height visualizations, and "super-overlays".

GeoServer relies on GeoTools, a GIS library.

Usage
 MassGIS (Massachusetts state GIS)
 MACRIS Maps (Massachusetts Historical Commission)
 TriMet  (Transit agency for Portland, Oregon)
 Ordnance Survey (National Mapping Agency of the UK)
 Institut Géographique National (National Mapping Agency of France)
 GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility)
 World Bank
 Global Earthquake Model
 GMOS (Global Mercury Observation System)
 FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations)
 New York City Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications
 TeamSurv
 ITU (International Telecommunication Union)

Architecture
GeoServer uses the Spring Framework, providing a request dispatch architecture for modules implementing OGC services. The web administration application uses wicket, allowing extensions to contribute additional configuration screens. The application provides a REST API implemented using the spring-mvc-framework.

GeoServer is a web application, supporting any common servlet container (a standalone distribution is available with the Jetty (web server) as an embedded server). GeoWebCache, a Java-based caching component similar to TileCache, is bundled with GeoServer, but available separately. Similarly, GeoServer packages GeoTools as a Java library, but it is also available separately.

GeoServer is a longstanding application and has undergone several architectural changes. GeoServer 1.0 was built around the STRUTS framework, with the migration to Spring and Wicket taking place for GeoServer 2.0. Early versions of the REST API used restlet before migration to spring-mvc-framework.

See also

 Open Geospatial Consortium
 Web Feature Service
 Web Map Service
 Web Coverage Service
 MapServer - an open-source server written in C
 Mapnik

References

External links

Free software programmed in Java (programming language)
Geographical technology
Free GIS software

GeoServer


Lee Joseph Cronbach (April 22, 1916 – October 1, 2001) was an American educational psychologist who made contributions to psychological testing and measurement.

At the University of Illinois, Urbana, Cronbach produced many of his works: the "Alpha" paper (Cronbach, 1951), as well as an essay titled "The Two Disciplines of Scientific Psychology", in the American Psychologist magazine in 1957, where he discussed his thoughts on the increasing divergence between the fields of experimental psychology and correlational psychology (to which he himself belonged).

Cronbach was the president of the American Psychological Association, president of the American Educational Research Association, Vida Jacks Professor of Education at Stanford University and a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. Cronbach is considered to be  "one of the most prominent and influential educational psychologists of all time." A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Cronbach as the 48th most cited psychologist of the 20th century.

Education and career
Born in Fresno, California. His father was a Jewish silk merchant. At the age of 5, he scored 200 at an IQ test, and was later selected to participate in Lewis Terman's long-term study of talented children.

Cronbach graduated from Fresno High School at age 14, but as the family could not afford to send him to University, he graduated from Fresno State College to become a teacher. He received a bachelor's degree in chemistry and mathematics and later a master's degree from the University of California, Berkeley. Cronbach had an interest in educational and psychological measurement due to Thurstone's work on the measurement of attitudes. This work of Thurstone intrigued Cronbach, motivating him to complete and receive his doctorate in educational psychology from the University of Chicago in 1940.

After teaching mathematics and chemistry at Fresno High School, Cronbach took faculty positions at the State College of Washington (now Washington State University), the University of Chicago, and the University of Illinois, finally settling at Stanford University in 1964. In 1956 he was elected as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association.

Contributions to educational psychology
Cronbach's research can be clustered into three main areas: measurement theory, program evaluation, and instruction. This includes several issues, such as the nature of the teaching-learning process, the measurement of variables describing instructional interactions, the evaluation of educational programs, and educational psychology's aspiration as an emerging social science discipline. His contributions to measurement issues were of great importance to all educational psychologists. These contributions included improvements to the technology of psychometric modeling, as well as reformulations, which went beyond the mathematics of understanding the psychology of test performances.

Educational psychologists have benefited from Cronbach's quest for a better explanation of learning in response to instruction; making countless contributions to educational psychology. Cronbach was able to sharpen the sensitivity of educational research, such as how different learners cope with the demands within different learning environments. He advocated the use of extensive local studies and field methods, producing useful narratives of teaching and learning.  Cronbach's contributions include refining research questions which seek to understand the person-situation interactions in educational settings, recognizing the abandonment of strict scientism is in favour of a more pluralistic philosophical and empirical agenda, and emphasizing that the role of context is just as essential as improved interpretations of educational processes. Cronbach developed a framework for evaluation design, implementation and analysis. He believed that the purpose of evaluation to provide constructive feedback for program implementers and clients was incorrect. On the contrary, he believed that it was the design, implementation and analysis which should reflect the feedback goal.

Cronbach has proven that research is valuable  - to the extent where research serves the purpose of improving some aspect of social reality.  This allowed Cronbach to lay out guidelines - much like a road-map - for researchers and practitioners of educational psychology spreading awareness of the challenges and prospects of conducting program evaluations.

"The special task of the social scientist in each generation is to pin down the contemporary facts. Beyond that, [Cronbach] shares with the humanistic scholar and the artist in the effort to gain insight into contemporary relationships, and to align the culture's view of man with present realities. To know man as he is is no mean aspiration."

Cronbach's alpha
Cronbach worked on the concept of reliability which had a huge impact on the field of educational measurement. His earliest work was the publication of Cronbach's alpha a method for determining the reliability of educational and psychological tests.  This allowed new interpretations of the index of reliability.  Cronbach had created this formula which could be applied throughout a variety of tests and other measurement instruments - gaining an enormous amount of popularity among practitioners.
Cronbach's alpha provided a measure of reliability from a single test administration thus showing that on repeated occasions, or even other parallel forms of testing, were not needed to estimate a test's consistency (this followed closely from the works of  Kuder and Richardson). The alpha is useful because  not only is it easily calculated, but it is also quite general and can be applied universally - for example: dichotomously scored multiple-choice items or polytimous attitude scales.

The generalizability theory (the "G" theory)
As Cronbach's work on reliability progressed, during the 1950s and 1960s it led to his work on the generalizability theory. He began his work with the aim to produce a handbook on measurement - allowing people to apply mathematical concepts to transform one's behaviours and events into quantitative results.  Cronbach believed that there were two flaws in the concept of taking observed test scores into true score and error components: he believed that true scores were "ill-defined" and errors were "all-inclusive".  The Generalizability theory addresses the question of the relative influence on test performance based on different aspects of how tests are being administered to people. A question that would be addressed, for example, would be: "will students perform consistently on different occasions?"

The Generalizability theory expanded when Cronbach became concerned that an undifferentiated error term covered up information about systematic variations which could be important in terms of test performance.  With this in mind, he teamed up with two other members and developed a "random model" (introduced by the British statistician R.A. Fisher) where he was determined to figure out the complexities of error variance. This "G" theory thus provided a combination of the psychological with the mathematical producing a comprehensive framework and statistical model which identified sources of measurement error.

Cronbach's theory goes beyond examining consistency in a student's relative standing in distribution – it recognizes and acknowledges that the particular item used in any given test is only a small indicator from a wider domain of knowledge. Only such extensions to reliability investigations were made possible by the Generalizability theory - which allowed researchers to address more realistic educational problems, and encouraged researchers to place substantial considerations when they made inquires to demonstrate that validity is important especially when evaluating information extracted from test scores.

With the help from Paul Meehl, Cronbach placed the concept of validity theory in the centre of educational and psychological testing. Cronbach & Meehl believed that "...it [is]imperative that psychologists make a place for [advocating construct validity] in their methodological thinking, so that its rationale, its scientific legitimacy, and its dangers may become explicit and familiar. This would be preferable to the widespread current tendency to engage in what actually amounts to construct validation research and use of constructs in practical testing, while talking an "operational" methodology which, if adopted, would force research into a mold it does not fit." Cronbach acknowledged reliability as an important characteristic of a test, but believed that reliability and validity went hand-in-hand, and at times, 'trade-offs' were necessary in order to improve reliability. The paper, Construct Validity in Psychological Tests, compiled by both Cronbach and Meehl, represents their research efforts for over 50 years on validity.

References

Further reading
Cronbach, L. J., & Shavelson, R. J. (2004). My current thoughts on coefficient alpha and successor procedures. Educational and Psychological Measurement 64, no. 3, pp. 391–418

Sternberg, Robert J. (Ed); Pretz, Jean E. (Ed). (2005). Cognition and Intelligence: Identifying the Mechanisms of the Mind; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 345 pp

External links
 Construct Validity in Psychological Tests, classic text by Cronbach and Paul E. Meehl 1955
 Two Disciplines of Scientific Psychology essay by Cronbach, 1957
 Stanford Memorial Resolution about Lee Cronbach
National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir
 Guide to the Lee J. Cronbach Papers, Stanford University Libraries

1916 births
2001 deaths
Fellows of the American Statistical Association
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
Presidents of the American Psychological Association
20th-century American psychologists
People from Fresno, California
Members of the American Philosophical Society
American educational psychologists

Lee Cronbach


Yusuf bin Ismail bin Yusuf bin Ismail bin Muhammad Nâsir al-Dîn an-Nabhani (1849–1932) born in Ijzim in Palestine, was a Palestinian Sunni Islamic scholar, judge, prolific poet, and defender of the Ottoman Caliphate. He died in Beirut.

Biography
Many of Yusuf al-Nabahani's poems, books, and teachings have remained, but very little is printed about his personal life and activities.

He worked and campaigned against the Wahhabi movement and the reformers in Cairo like Muhammad Abduh and al-Afghani who were changing Sunni Islam. He believed in the law, or Shariah in restricting all Sufi activity, being of the Shafi madhab or thought of Sunni Islam holding a similar stance to al-Ghazali in his later years on Sufism.

His father Ismail al-Nabhani taught him to memorise the Quran at a young age, taught him the sciences of Islamic jurisprudence and then sent him to begin study at the university of al-Azhar Cairo on 16 May 1866 at the age of 17. Yusuf graduated from Al-Azhar in October 1872 at the age of 23 with qualifications from the official cirriculem of al-Azhar and many other qualifications obtained from extra study under multiple Islamic scholars in many of the sciences of the Shariah and its preparatory disciplines.

After he graduated and returned home to Ijzim, he began to hold a number of religious courses in `Akka and his home town of Ijzim. He travelled frequently to Beirut, then Damascus where he met eminent Ulema or Islamic Scholars. Chief among them was the Chief Jurist of Damascus at the time, Mahmud Effendi Hamza with whom he studied the beginning of Sahih al-Bukhari, after which he gave Yusuf a general certificate Ijaza comprising the rest of the Hadith Collections.

Then he headed for Istanbul the capital of the Ottoman Caliphate twice and worked there for several years. He edited the periodical al-Jawâ'ib until it folded. He also proofread the Arabic books that came out of its press. He left the publishers for a new position with the Ottoman Caliphate's government as a judge or Qadi.

He left Istanbul, the first time, for Iraq, to the province of Mosul, then returned to Istanbul. He left a second time in 1300 Hijri when he was appointed Chief Justice of the al-Jaza court in Latakia on the Syro-Palestinian sea-shore. After living there for five years the Ottoman government transferred him to be the grand Mufti, or Chief Justice of al-Quds or Jerusalem. Then he moved to be Chief Justice of Beirut in 1888, although some records point to 1887.

The son of his daughter, Taqiuddin al-Nabhani, was sent by Yusuf to Yusuf's Islamic colleagues & teachers in Cairo at the Al-Azhar university. Taqiuddin later went on to establish the Islamic political group Hizb ut-Tahrir.

His teachers

Shaykh Shams al-Dîn Muhammad al-Anbabi al-Shafi the grand Professor and Imam (chief) of al-Azhar, who died in 1313 Hijra Calendar.
Shaykh `Abd al-Rah.mân al-Sharbînî al-Shafi the Imam of al-Azhar, who died in 1326 Hijra Calendar.
Shaykh Ibrâhîm al-Saqqâ al-Shafi who died in 1298 Hijra Calendar aged around ninety years.
Shaykh al-Sayyid Muh.ammad al-Damanhûrî al-Shafi
Shaykh `Abd al-Qâdir al-Râfi`î al-Hanafi al-Tarabulsî the head professor of the Damascenes' Porch (Ruwâq al-Shawâmm) in al-Azhar, who died in 1323 Hijra Calendar.
Shaykh Yûsuf al-Barqâwî al-Hanbali the head Professor of the Hanbalîs' Porch in al-Azhar Mosque
Shaykh Ibrâhîm al-Zurrû al-Khalîlî al-Shafi who died in 1287 Hijra Calendar, aged around seventy.
Shaykh Ah.mad al-Ajhûrî al-D.arîr al-Shafi who died in 1293 Hijra Calendar, aged around sixty.
Shaykh H.asan al-`Adawî al-Maliki who died in 1298 Hijra Calendar aged around eighty.
Shaykh al-Sayyid `Abd al-Hâdî Najâ al-Abyârî who died in 1305 Hijra Calendar, aged just over seventy years.

In addition he named a number of other teachers in his books "Hâdî al-Murîd" and "Jâmi` Karâmât al-Awliyâ".

Books and writings

Hadi al-Murid ila Tariq al-Asanid
Jâmi` Karamat al-Awliya
Khulasat-al-Kalam fi Tarjih Din al-Islam
Hujjat-Allahi ala al-Alamin fi Mu'jizat Sayyid al-Mursalin (salla'l-Lahu 'alayhi wa sallam)
Sa'adat al-Darayn fi al-Salat 'ala Sayyid al-Kawnayn (salla'l-Lahu 'alayhi wa sallam)
Wasa'il al-Wusul ila Shama'il al-Rasul (salla'l-Lahu 'alayhi wa sallam)
Riyadh al-Jannah fi Adhkar al-Kitab wa-al-Sunnah
Anwar al-Muhammadiyah (Mukhtasar al-Mawahib al-Ladunyah)
Fada'il al-Muhammadiyah
Afdhal Al-Salawat 'ala Sayyidi As-Saadaat (salla'l-Lahu 'alayhi wa sallam)
Muntakhab al-Sahihayn (consisting of some 3010 ahadith. He also supplemented it an edited version of it entitled Qurrat al-'Ayn 'ala Muntakhab al-Sahihayn.
Al-Fath al-Kabir fi Damm al-Ziyadah ila Jami' al-Saghir – a combination of two works: al-Jami' al-Saghir of al-Suyuti with his own supplement on it entitled: Ziyadat al-Jami' al-Saghir. In this book the author has included some 14450 ahadith.
Al-Basha'ir al-Imaniyyah fi al-Mubashshirat al-Manamiyyah
Al-Nazm al-Badi' fi Mawlid al-Shafi' (salla'l-Lahu 'alayhi wa sallam)
Al-Hamzat al-Alfiyyah (Tibat al-Gharra') fi Madh Sayyid al-Anbiya' (salla'l-Lahu 'alayhi wa sallam)
Shawahid al-Haqq fi al-Istighathah bi al-Sayyid al-Khalq (salla'l-Lahu 'alayhi wa sallam)
Al-Asalib al-Badi'ah fi Fadl al-Sahabah wa-Iqna' al-Shi'ah
Qasidat al-Sa'adat al-Ma'ad fi Mawazinat Banat al-Sa'ad
Mithal Na'lihi al-Sharif (salla'l-Lahu 'alayhi wa sallam)
Al-Sabiqat al-Jiyad fi Madh Sayyid al-'Ibad (salla'l-Lahu 'alayhi wa sallam)
Al-Fada'il al-Muhammadiyyah
Al-Wird al-Shafi
Al-Mazdujah al-Gharra' fi al-Istighathah bi-asma' Allah al-Husna
Al-Majmu'ah al-Nabhaniyyah fi al-Mada'ih al-Nabawiyyah wa-Asma' Rijaliha
Nujum al-Muhtadin fi Mu'jizatihi (salla'l-Lahu 'alayhi wa sallam)wa-al-Radd 'ala A'da'ihi Ikhwan al-Shayatin
Irshad al-Hayara fi Tahdhir al-Muslimin min Madaris al-Nasara
Jami' al-Thana' 'ala Allah
Mufarrih al-Kurub wa-Mufarrih al-Qulub
Hizb al-Istighathat bi-al-Sayyid al-Sadat (salla'l-Lahu 'alayhi wa sallam)
Ahsan al-Wasa'il fi Nazm Asma' al-Nabi al-Kamil (salla'l-Lahu 'alayhi wa sallam)
Al-Asma fi-ma li-Sayyidina Muhammadin (salla'l-Lahu 'alayhi wa sallam)min al-Asma'
Al-Burhan al-Musaddid fi Ithbat Nubuwwat Sayyidina Muhammad (salla'l-Lahu 'alayhi wa sallam)
Dalil al-Tujjar ila Akhlaq al-Akhyar
Al-Rahmat al-Muhdat fi Fadl al-Salat
Husn al-Shur'ah fi Mashru'iyyat Salat al-Zuhr Ba'd al-Jumu'ah
Risalat al-Tahdhir min Ittikhadh al-Suwar wa-al-Taswir
Tanbih al-Afkar li-Hikmati Iqbal al-Dunya 'ala al-Kuffar
Sabil al-Najat fi al-Hubb fi Allah wa-al-Bughd fi Allah
Raf' al-Ishtibah fi Istihalat al-Jihhat 'ala Allah
Sa'adat al-Anam fi Ittiba' Din al-Islam
Mukhtasar Irshad al-Hiyari
Al-Ra'iyyat al-Sughra fi Dhamm al-Bid'ah (al-Wahabiyyah) wa-Madh al-Sunnat al-Gharra'
Jawahir al-Bihar fi Fada'il al-Nabi (salla'l-Lahu 'alayhi wa sallam)
Tahdhib al-Nufus fi tartib al-Durus
Ittihaf al-Muslim bi-ma Dhakarahu Sahib al-Targhib wa-al-Tarhib min Ahadith al-Bukhari wa-Muslim
Diwan al-Mada'ih al-Musamma al-'Uqud al-Lu'lu'iyyah fi al-Mada'ih al-Nabawiyyah
Al-Arba'in Arba'in min Ahadith Sayyid al-Mursalin (salla'l-Lahu 'alayhi wa sallam)
Al-Dalalat al-Wadihat (Sharh Dala'il al-Khayrat)
Al-Mubashshirat al-Manamiyyah
Salawat al-Thana' 'ala Sayyid al-Anbiya' (salla'l-Lahu 'alayhi wa sallam)
Al-Qawl al-Haqq fi Madh Sayyid al-Khalq (salla'l-Lahu 'alayhi wa sallam)
Al-Salawat al-Alfiyyah fi al-Kamalat al-Muhammadiyyah
Al-Istighathat al-Kubra bi-Asma' Allah al-Husna
Jami' al-salawat 'ala Sayyid al-Sadat (salla'l-Lahu 'alayhi wa sallam)
Al-Sharaf al-Mu'abbad li-Al Muhammad (salla'l-Lahu 'alayhi wa sallam)
Salawat al-Akhyar 'ala al-Nabi al-Mukhtar (salla'l-Lahu 'alayhi wa sallam)
Tafsir Qurrat al-'Ayn min al-Baydawi wa-al-Jalalayn
Al-Ahadith al-Arba'in fi Ujub Ta'at Amir al-Mu'minin
Al-Ahadith al-Arba'in fi Fada'il Sayyid al-Mursalin (salla'l-Lahu 'alayhi wa sallam)
Al-Ahadith al-Arba'in fi Amthal Afsah al-'Alamin (salla'l-Lahu 'alayhi wa sallam)
Arba'un Hadithan fi fada'il Ahl al-Bayt
Arba'un Hadithan fi Fadl Arba'in Sahabiyyan
Arba'un Hadithan fi Arba'in Sighatan fi al-Salat 'ala al-Nabi (salla'l-Lahu 'alayhi wa sallam)
Arba'un Hadithan fi Fadl Abi Bakr
Arba'un Hadithan fi Fadl 'Umar
Arba'un Hadithan fi Fadl Abi Bakr wa-'Umar
Arba'un Hadithan fi Fadl 'Uthman
Arba'un Hadithan fi Fadl 'Ali
Arba'un Hadithan fi Fadl La 'ilaha illa Allah
Al-Ahadith al-Arba'in fi Fadl al-Jihad wa-al-Mujahidin
Asbab al-Ta'lif min al-'Ajiz wa-al-Da'if
Al-Qasidat al-Ra'iyyat al-Kubra
Al-Siham al-Sa'ibah li Ashab al-Da'awa al-Kadhibah
Al-Salawat al-Arba'in li Awliya' al-Arba'in
Al-Khulasat al-Wafiyyah fi Rijal al-Majmu'ah al-Nabhaniyyah
Ghazawat al-Rasul (salla'l-Lahu 'alayhi wa sallam)
Khulasat al-Bayan fi Ba'd Ma'athar Mawlana al-Sultan 'Abd al-Hamid al-Thani wa-Ajdaduhu Al-'Uthma

See also
 List of Sufis
 List of Ash'aris and Maturidis
 List of Muslim theologians

References

External links
Books
Biography

Selections from "Afdhal Al-Salawat 'ala Sayyidi As-Saadaat"

Asharis
Shafi'is
Sunni Sufis
20th-century Muslim theologians
Critics of Ibn Taymiyya
Critics of Ibn al-Qayyim
Critics of Wahhabism
Sunni imams
Sunni fiqh scholars
Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam
Palestinian Muslims
Palestinian Sunni Muslims
Palestinian Sufis
Palestinian poets
Palestinian judges
Sharia judges
19th-century Muslim theologians
20th-century writers from the Ottoman Empire
1849 births
1932 deaths
19th-century writers from the Ottoman Empire
Supporters of Ibn Arabi

Yusuf al-Nabhani


The Dark Wraith of Shannara  is a graphic novel produced by Terry Brooks in his Shannara series. The story is set several years after the events of The Wishsong of Shannara and Indomitable.

Background
The novel was released on March 25, 2008. It is approximately 208 pages, but much of the book is "behind the scenes" material, such as the creation of the story and preliminary sketches. The story was produced by Terry Brooks, adapted by Robert Place Napton, and illustrated by Edwin David. The novel was Del Rey's first original graphic novel project.

Plot summary

Beginning
Dark Wraith of Shannara began with Jair Ohmsford having a recurring dream in which he relives a section of Indomitable where he managed to become the slain "Weapons Master" Garet Jax. He talked to his sister, Brin, about how he used the Wishsong to do something real (as all he had been able to do before was illusion). She asked Jair to promise not to use the Wishsong again as she feared that he would lose himself in the magic, and not be able to return to who he is if he became Garet Jax again. Jair promised to refrain from using the Wishsong again.

Meeting with Allanon
Jair left, but that night, he was visited by the shade of Allanon, who told him that Kimber Boh and Cogline were  captured by Mwellrets and their master, the Croton Witch. Allanon tells him that they seek to gain information about how to return Paranor to the world from Cogline, who had previously been a Druid. Upon restoring Paranor, they aimed to learn the secrets of the power of the Druids. Jair reluctantly decided that he had to rescue Kimber and Cogline.

The Journey
After meeting Slanter, they both left for Darklin Reach. Upon arriving, Jair and Slanter discovered the tracks made by the Mwellrets and their prisoners. They were also found by Whisper, who tracked Kimber to the cave in which she was trapped. They found her with a broken leg and unable to travel, so they took her back to Hearthstone, where she and Cogline had lived,  to recover. Jair learns from Kimber that the Croton Witch tortured Cogline until he told her how to restore Paranor, and she has forced him to accompany her to Paranor to work the magic.

Soon after they left, Slanter and Jair were confronted by a Koden. Slanter was thrown against a rock and knocked half-blind and dazed, so Jair is forced to break his promise to Brin. He used the Wishsong to become Garet Jax once more, and he quickly slayed the Koden. Eventually, Jair and Slanter found the Mwellrets and the Croton Witch, who are forcing Cogline to use magic to bring back Paranor. Although Jair and Slanter attempted to stop them, it was too late: Paranor was restored. Jair was once more forced to become Garet Jax. Jair, as Garet, destroyed the Mwellrets, and attempted to engage the Croton Witch in combat to the death—but the protective mist of Paranor that slays any who come into contact with it quickly destroyed the Croton Witch. (The mist was the final defense of Paranor; if the castle fell, then it would kill every living thing inside of it.) The mist attempted to destroy Jair and Slanter as well, and so they were forced to take Cogline and run. Jair, with the speed and power of Garet Jax, was able to lead them to safety, and managed to transform back to Jair Ohmsford.

Aftermath
After Kimber and Cogline's reunion, Kimber asked Jair to stay with her. He decided to forego the request and leave with Slanter, saying that he had to find out about himself first.

References

External links
 Dark Wraith Homepage on Terry Brooks' website

2007 books
2007 comics debuts
American graphic novels
Comics based on fiction
Original English-language manga
Shannara novels
Fantasy comics
Del Rey books

Dark Wraith of Shannara


The Zapotec are a native tribe of people from Mexico. People think there are between 300.000 and 400.000 people. Most of them live in the state of Oaxaca. Most of them speak either Zapotec dialect continuum or the Chatino language. Before Christopher Columbus came to America, the Zapotec civilisation was highly developed. It also included a system of writing.

References
Malinowski, Sharon; Sheets, Anna, ed. (1998); "Zapotec" in The Gale Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes; Gale Research, Detroit, Michigan.

Other websites
 Zapotec Culture  (in English and Spanish)
 Zapotec Language  (including variants, in English and Spanish)

Mexico
Native Americans

Zapotec peoples


Tomaž Marušič (19 May 1932 – 16 February 2011) was a Slovenian lawyer and politician.

He was born in Gorizia, Italy. His father, Franc Marušič was a renowned local physician and a staunch Slovene patriot and antifascist. During his childhood, the family moved to the suburb of Solkan, which was included in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1947.

Marušič studied at the Nova Gorica Grammar School. He graduated from law at the University of Ljubljana and worked as a lawyer in Nova Gorica and Koper. During the Slovenian Spring (1988–1990), he joined the newly formed Slovene People's Party. In 1993, he was elected by the City Council of Nova Gorica as the first non-Communist mayor of the town, but lost the elections the following year against Črtomir Špacapan of the Liberal Democracy of Slovenia. From February 1997 until June 2000, Marušič served as Minister for Justice in the coalition government led by Janez Drnovšek.

He is the brother of the renowned historian Branko Marušič and of the Landscape Architect Ivan Janez Marušič.

References

People from Gorizia
University of Ljubljana alumni
1932 births
2011 deaths
Slovenian People's Party politicians
Justice ministers of Slovenia

Tomaž Marušič


Yak polo (or sarlagan polo) is a Mongolian variant of the sport polo. It is played on yaks instead of on horseback.

Originally invented in the early 2000s as a tourist attraction, the sport is as of 2006 reported to have attracted a modest following in Mongolia. The Mongolian Association of Sarlagan Polo claims that the sport is booming, with four games a week being played in the summer of 2006.
In Pakistan, Yak polo is played in the Himalayas and Hindukush at Boroghil in District Chitral. The event is held in July every year and is sponsored by the Sarhad Tourism Corporation, Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

See also
 Yak skiing, another sport (or tourist attraction) involving yaks.

References

Polo
Animals in sport
Sport in Mongolia
Sports originating in Mongolia
Polo in Pakistan
Yaks

Yak polo


Manya Janine Makoski (born April 18, 1984) is a retired American professional soccer midfielder who most recently played for Sky Blue FC in the National Women's Soccer League. She previously played for the Los Angeles Sol and Atlanta Beat of Women's Professional Soccer.

Early life
Makoski was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut to parents, Milton and Mary Makoski. She attended Trumbull High School in Trumbull, Connecticut, where she helped lead the Eagles to four Connecticut FCIAC final championships as well as 1998, 1999, 2001 Connecticut Class LL state championships.

Makoski graduated Trumbull a well-decorated player having been named 2002 Gatorade Connecticut High School Player of the Year, 2001 NSCAA Adidas Connecticut High School Player of the Year, 2001 Parade All-American, 2000-2001 NSCAA All-American, 2000-01 Hartford Courant Player of the Year, 2001 Connecticut CJSA State Player of the Year, 2000 New Haven Register MVP, 2000–2001,  Connecticut Post MVP, and 2000 FCIAC final MVP. She was named to the 2001 NSCAA Adidas U-17 All-American team and was a 2001 Adidas Elite Soccer Program participant (top-150 players in the country). In 2000–2001, she was named to the All-New England team and all-state team and was a Region I Olympic Development Program (ODP) team member.

Arizona State University
Makoski attended Arizona State University and was third all-time in game-winning goals (3), fifth all-time in assists (16) and seventh all-time in goals (6) and points (48) for the Sun Devils. She became one of only three Sun Devils all-time to be honored as an Academic All-American in 2004.

As a freshman during the 2002 season, Makoski played in 19 games with 17 starts, missing the first two games due to U-19 National Team commitments. She ended the year first on the team in assists (9) and second in goals (6), points (21) and game-winning goals (2). Makoski earned Soccer American Freshman All-American, Soccer Buzz first-team Freshman All-American honors and was named to the All-Pac-10 second team, Soccer Buzz second-team All-West Region, and Soccer Buzz All-Freshman (West Region) team. She was named one of 12 finalists for the 2002 National Freshman of the Year by Soccer Buzz Magazine and set the ASU single-season record with nine assists, also good for third in the Pac-10.

In 2003, Makoski started in all 21 games, scoring four goals, including two game-winners against San Francisco and Oregon. She tallied five assists, finishing fourth on the team with 13 points. She earned second-team All-Pac-10 honors and received Honorable Mention All-Pac-10 Academic honors.

In 2004, she led the team in game-winning goals (3), shots on goal (26), and shots (53) after starting in all 19 games. She was selected to Soccer Buzz's All-Region first team, earned first-team All-Pac-10 honors, and Academic All-American second-team honors from the NSCAA. She was named to the Academic All-District VIII second team and Pac-10 All-Academic second team.

Playing career

Club

New Jersey Wildcats
Makoski was a member of the 2004 W-League runner-up New Jersey Wildcats and tallied seven goals for the team. She was one of two players to score a penalty kick in overtime of the championship game.

Los Angeles Sol (WPS)
Makoski was selected 19th overall (5th pick in 3rd round) in the 2008 WPS General Draft. She played 18 games, starting 16, for a total of 1443 minutes, helping the team to the number one spot during the 2009 WPS season.

Atlanta Beat (WPS)
Makoski was selected ninth overall (1st pick in 2nd round) in the Los Angeles Sol Dispersal Draft. Due to an ACL injury, who was listed as an injured reserve for the season.

Thor/KA

Aland United
In 2012 Makoski played for Åland United in Finnish first tier Naisten Liiga. She was the league's top scorer with 31 goals in 26 games as her team finished second. Makoski was also nominated as the player of the season.

Sky Blue FC (NWSL)
On February 2, 2013, it was announced that Makoski signed as a free agent to the Sky Blue FC in the National Women's Soccer League. During the regular season, she started in 19 of the 20 matches in which she appeared  helping the team to a fourth-place position and a spot in the semi-finals.

In October 2013, she announced her retirement from professional soccer.

International
Makoski represented the United States on several youth national teams from 2001 to 2005. From 2001 to 2002, she was a member of the U-19 National Team and was part of the 2002 U-19 World Cup Team that won the FIFA World Championships in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

As a member of the member of the 2003 U-21 National Team, she scored the game-winning goal against the WUSA's San Diego Spirit.

In 2004, representing the United States U-21 National Team, Makoski helped the team clinch their sixth straight Nordic Cup title against Sweden in Iceland, tallying two assists with the team.

In 2005, she won her third straight Nordic Cup as a member of the United States Under-21 National Team, who defeated Norway 4–1 in the final.

Coaching career
Makoski has a varied coaching background including assistant and goalkeeper coach for the University of New Haven and staff head coach for girlsCAN Football in Connecticut, an organization led by a number of "female professional and national team level players, passionate about providing the top levels of coaching for the next generation." She has also coached at the youth level for the United States Youth Soccer League and Connecticut Junior Soccer Association (CJSA) as well as the Olympic Development Program (ODP). Makoski has helped lead camps for the Tiffany Weimer Soccer Academy, WPS Camps, and Kristine Lilly Soccer Academy.

On April 11, 2016, the University of Maryland athletic department announced Makoski's hiring as an assistant for the women's soccer team.

References

External links

 US Soccer player profile
 Los Angeles player profile
 SoccerPlus CT player profile
 New Jersey Wildcats player profile
 W-League player profile
 Arizona State player profile

Los Angeles Sol players
1984 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Bridgeport, Connecticut
Arizona State Sun Devils women's soccer players
Pali Blues players
USL W-League (1995–2015) players
Atlanta Beat (WPS) players
National Women's Soccer League players
NJ/NY Gotham FC players
Women's Professional Soccer players
American women's soccer players
Kansallinen Liiga players
Expatriate women's footballers in Iceland
Expatriate women's footballers in Finland
Åland United players
American expatriate women's soccer players
Women's association football midfielders

Manya Makoski


Ice fishing is the practice of catching fish through an opening in the ice on a frozen body of water. The methods include fishing with fishing rods, lines and hooks or spears. Ice fishermen may fish in the open or in heated enclosures called ice shacks.

Equipment
Basic ice fishing equipment is fairly simple. A short fishing rod, some bait, hooks and a way to drill or chop a hole in the ice. The right clothing is also important to keep warm on the ice. Or, you could get into highly specialized ice fishing gear.
Ice fishing rods are small light fishing rods designed just for ice fishing. One is type called a jigging rod. They are short and designed for moving the bait up and down in a jigging motion.
Ice augers and drills are for cutting a hole in the ice. A basic ice auger is cranked by hand. A power auger may be gas or battery powered. They are for drilling multiple holes. Fairly new to ice fishing is using a battery-powered drill with an auger attached. An ice chisel may also be used to chop through the ice.
Fishing lures are brightly colored fishing lures designed for jigging vertically. They are specific to the species of fish the fisherman is after.
Bait ranges from wax worms to minnows, from corn (fish will eat corn but can't digest it) to salmon eggs.
Tip-ups are made of wood or plastic. They have a spool of fishing line attached. When a fish takes the bait it trips a small flag to tell the fisherman he has a fish on the line. Fishermen may have several holes each with a tip-up. How many depends on the fishing laws of the state or jurisdiction.
Spear fishing is done with the fisherman, usually from a darkened ice shack or enclosure, watches the water carefully through the hole. When a fish appears a multi-tipped fishing spear is thrown. Then it is retrieved by the attached line, with or without a fish. A decoy is used to attract the fish to the area under the hole.

Ice shacks

An important part of ice fishing in the northern parts of North America is the ice shack (ice house, ice shanty, dark house). These are dragged or towed onto the lake using a vehicle such as a snowmobile, ATV or truck. Most portable ice houses which are often made of anything from light tent-like structures to heavy material that designed to shelter fishermen from cold and wind. They can take many different forms. Some are simple structures that are just a place to get in out of the cold. Others are elaborate expensive shelters, warm and safe enough to withstand any weather. They are also loaded with electronics.

Modern ice shacks can have equipment like underwater cameras, sonar fish-finders and lake-mapping apps for their smartphones. Some have all the comforts of home such as big-screen TVs, poker tables, king-size beds and stereo systems. They can have refrigerators, fireplaces and bathrooms with hot showers. Many ice fishermen spend weekends in their comfortable ice shack retreats all winter.

In the northern parts of North America, ice fishing is often a social activity. Some resorts have fish houses that are rented out by the day; often, shuttle service by Snow Track or other vehicles modified to drive on ice is provided. They can appear to a city on the ice where fishing is best. Some even elect a mayor. Most municipalities have requirements to remove ice houses by a certain date before the ice melts.

In Finland, peace and quiet in isolation is often the object of the pastime. In Finland, fish houses are a rare. But wearing a sealed and insulated dry suit designed with space age fabric is not.

References

Fishing
Ice sports
Survival skills

Ice fishing


Mordechai Gebirtig (), born Mordecai Bertig (4 May 1877 – 4 June 1942), was an influential Polish Jewish poet and songwriter of the interwar period. He was shot by Germans in the Kraków Ghetto, occupied Poland, during the Holocaust. A number of his Yiddish songs are sung to this day, including Es brent, Reyzele, Moyshele Mayn Fraynd, and Kinder Yorn.

Life
Mordechai Gebirtig was born in Kraków under the Austrian Partition, and lived in its Jewish working-class quarter all his life. He served for five years in the Austro-Hungarian army. Gebirtig became a renowned folk artist in Yiddish literature and song while in Kraków.  He was self-taught in music, played the shepherd's pipe, and tapped out tunes on the piano with one finger.  He earned his livelihood as a furniture worker; while music and theatre were his avocations. His life ended in the Nazi shooting action carried out in the Kraków Ghetto on the infamous "Bloody Thursday" of June 4, 1942.

Gebirtig belonged to the Jewish Social Democratic Party, a political party in Galicia which merged into the Jewish Labour Bund after World War I. The Bund was a Yiddishist proletarian socialist party, which called for Jewish cultural autonomy in a democratic Second Republic.

Music

From 1906 he was a member of the Jewish Amateur Troupe in Kraków.  He also wrote songs and theater reviews for , the Yiddish organ of the Jewish Social-Democratic Party.  It was in such an environment that Gebirtig developed, encouraged by such professional writers and Yiddishist cultural activists as Avrom Reyzen, who for a time lived and published a journal in Krakow. Gebirtig's talent was his own, but he took the language, themes, types, tone, and timbre of his pieces from his surroundings, in some measure continuing the musical tradition of the popular Galician cabaret entertainers known as the Broder singers, who in turn were beholden to the yet older and still vital tradition of the badchen's (wedding jester's) improvisatory art.

Style of folk songs
He published his first collection of songs in 1920, in the Second Polish Republic. It was titled Folkstimlekh ('of the folk').  His songs spread quickly even before they were published, and many people regarded them as folksongs whose author or authors were anonymous.  Adopted by leading Yiddish players such as Molly Picon, Gebirtig's songs became staples of numerous regular as well as improvised theatrical productions wherever Yiddish theatre was performed.  It is not an exaggeration to say that Gebirtig's songs were lovingly sung the world over.

S'brent
One of Gebirtig's best-known songs is "S'brent" (It is Burning), written in 1938 in response to the 1936 Przytyk pogrom in the shtetl (small town) of Przytyk. Gebirtig had hoped its message, "Don't stand there, brothers, douse the fire!" would be a call to action. Kraków (Cracow) underground Jewish resistance adopted S'brent as its anthem in World War II. "Undzer shtetl brennt" was sung in the Nazi ghettos of German-occupied Europe. Since then the song, in the original Yiddish and in its Hebrew translation titled "Ha-Ayyarah Bo'eret" (העיירה בוערת), "Our Little Town is Burning!" - hence the occasional reference to a Yiddish title, "Undzer Shtetl Brent!", continues to be widely performed in the context of Holocaust commemoration.

Arbetsloze marsh
One of Gebirtig's political songs that is also still popular today is the Arbetloze marsh or Song of the Unemployed:

Publications and recordings
 . Edition Künstlertreff, Wuppertal –  (gramophone record and booklet)
 . Edition Künstlertreff, Wuppertal –
 . Edition Künstlertreff, Wuppertal –
 . Studio Hard, Warschau (CD)
 1946: . Krakau 1946
 1949: . Farl. Dawke, Paris 1949
 1992: . Wuppertal 1992. –
 1997: . Lerner, Tel Aviv 1997
 2005: . Anthony Coleman, piano. Tzadik, 2005

References

Further reading
 Christina Pareigis: "trogt zikh a gezang ...": jiddische Liebeslyrik aus den Jahren 1939-1945. Dölling & Galitz, München 2003. –
 Gertrude Schneider (Hrsg.): Mordechaj Gebirtig: his poetic and musical legacy. Praeger, Westport/Connecticut 2000. –

External links
Official Mordechai Gebirtig Memorial website

Bibliography

 http://fcit.usf.edu/Holocaust/arts/musVicti.htm
 Papers of Mordecai Gebirtig at the YIVO, New York.
 http://holocaustmusic.ort.org/places/ghettos/krakow/gebirtigmordechai/
 https://web.archive.org/web/20110519162239/http://www.jewish-theatre.com/visitor/article_display.aspx?articleID=1901

 http://www.klezmershack.com/bands/vanoort/fayfele/vanoort.fayfele.html ( Mariejan van Oort & Jacques Verheijen produced 'Mayn Fayfele', a musical portrait of Gebirtig, 2003.)
 http://ulrich-greve.eu/free Free scores and song lyrics in Yiddish

Bundists
1877 births
1942 deaths
Writers from Kraków
Jews from Galicia (Eastern Europe)
Yiddish-language poets
Jewish poets
People who died in the Kraków Ghetto
Polish male poets
Deaths by firearm in Poland
Polish civilians killed in World War II
Austro-Hungarian military personnel of World War I
Broder singers

Mordechai Gebirtig


Hydnellum peckii is a fungus in the genus Hydnellum of the family Bankeraceae. It is a hydnoid species, producing spores on the surface of vertical spines or tooth-like projections that hang from the undersurface of the fruit bodies. It is found in North America, Europe, and was recently discovered in Iran (2008) and Korea (2010). Hydnellum peckii is a mycorrhizal species, and forms mutually beneficial relationships with a variety of coniferous trees, growing on the ground singly, scattered, or in fused masses.

The fruit bodies typically have a funnel-shaped cap with a white edge, although the shape can be highly variable. Young, moist fruit bodies can "bleed" bright red guttation droplets that contain a pigment known to have anticoagulant properties similar to heparin. The unusual appearance of the young fruit bodies has earned the species several descriptive common names, including strawberries and cream, the bleeding Hydnellum, the bleeding tooth fungus, the red-juice tooth, and the Devil's tooth. Although Hydnellum peckii fruit bodies are readily identifiable when young, they become brown and nondescript when they age.

Taxonomy, phylogeny, and naming

The species was first described scientifically by American mycologist Howard James Banker in 1913. Italian Pier Andrea Saccardo placed the species in the genus Hydnum in 1925, while Walter Henry Snell and Esther Amelia Dick placed it in Calodon in 1956; Hydnum peckii (Banker) Sacc. and Calodon peckii Snell & E.A. Dick are synonyms of Hydnellum peckii.

The fungus is classified in the stirps (species thought to be descendants of a common ancestor) Diabolum of the genus Hydnellum, a grouping of similar species with the following shared characteristics: flesh that is marked with concentric lines that form alternating pale and darker zones (zonate); an extremely peppery taste; a sweetish odor; spores that are ellipsoid, and not amyloid (that is, not absorbing iodine when stained with Melzer's reagent), acyanophilous (not staining with the reagent Cotton Blue), and covered with tubercules; the presence of clamp connections in the hyphae.

The specific eponym honors mycologist Charles Horton Peck.  The fungus is known in the vernacular by several names, including "strawberries and cream", the "bleeding Hydnellum", the "red-juice tooth", "Peck's hydnum", the "bleeding tooth fungus", and the "devil's tooth".

Description
As in all mushroom-producing fungi, the fruit bodies (sporocarps) are the reproductive structures that are produced from fungal mycelium when the appropriate environmental conditions of temperature, humidity and nutrient availability are met. Hydnellum peckii is a stipitate hydnoid fungus, meaning that it has a cap atop a stipe (stem), and a form resembling a Hydnum—characterized by a teeth-like hymenium, rather than gills or pores on the underside of the cap. Fruit bodies growing closely together often appear to fuse together (this is called "confluence"). They can reach a height of up to . Fresh fruit bodies exude a striking, thick red fluid when they are moist, present even in young specimens, which are lumplike in appearance.

The cap's surface is convex to flattened, more or less uneven and sometimes slightly depressed in the center. It is usually densely covered with "hairs" that give it a texture similar to felt or velvet; these hairs are sloughed off in age, leaving the caps of mature specimens smooth. Its shape varies from somewhat round to irregular, , or even as much as  wide as a result of confluence. The cap is initially whitish, but later turns slightly brownish, with irregular dark-brown to nearly black blotches where it is bruised. In maturity, the surface is fibrous and tough, scaly and jagged, grayish brown in the upper part of the cap, and somewhat woody. The flesh is a pale pinkish brown. The spore print is brown.

The spines are slender, cylindrical and tapering (terete), less than  long, and become shorter closer to the cap edge. They are crowded together, with typically between three and five teeth per square millimeter. Pinkish white initially, they age to a grayish brown. The stem is thick, very short, and often deformed. It becomes bulbous where it penetrates the ground, and may root into the soil for several centimeters. Although it may reach up to  in total length, and is  wide, only about  appear above ground. The upper part is covered with the same teeth found on the underside of the cap, whereas the lower part is hairy and often encases debris from the forest floor. The odor of the fruit body has been described as "mild to disagreeable", or, as Banker suggested in his original description, similar to hickory nuts.

Microscopic features

In deposit, the spores appear brown. Viewing them with a light microscope reveals finer details of their structure: they are roughly spherical but end abruptly in a small point, their surfaces are covered with small, wart-like nodules, and their size is between 5.0–5.3 by 4.0–4.7 µm. The spores are inamyloid, meaning they do not absorb iodine when stained with Melzer's reagent.

Hydnellum peckii'''s cells (the hyphae) also present various characters useful for its characterization. The hyphae that form the cap are hyaline (translucent), smooth, thin-walled, and 3–4 µm thick. They collapse when dry, but may be readily revived with a weak (2%) solution of potassium hydroxide. Those in the cap form an intricate tangle with a tendency to run longitudinally. They are divided into cellular compartments (septa) and have clamp connections—short branches connecting one cell to the previous cell to allow passage of the products of nuclear division. The basidia, the spore-bearing cells in the hymenium, are club-shaped, four-spored, and measure 35–40 by 4.7–6 µm.

Similar speciesHydnellum diabolus (the species epithet is given the neuter diabolum in some publications) has a very similar appearance, so much so that some consider it and H. peckii to be synonymous; H. diabolus is said to have a sweetish pungent odor that is lacking in H. peckii. The differences between the two species are amplified in mature specimens: H. diabolus has an irregularly thickened stem, while the stem of H. peckii is thickened by a "definite spongy layer". Additionally, old specimens of H. peckii have a smooth cap, while H. diabolus is tomentose. The related species H. pineticola also exudes pink droplets of liquid when young and moist. Commonly found growing under conifers in northeastern North America, H. pineticola tastes "unpleasant", but not acrid. Fruit bodies tend to grow singly, rather than in fused clusters, and, unlike H. peckii, they do not have bulbous stems.

Molecular analysis based on the sequences of the internal transcribed spacer DNA of several Hydnellum species placed H. peckii as most closely related to H. ferrugineum and H. spongiosipes.

EcologyHydnellum peckii is a mycorrhizal fungus, and as such establishes a mutualistic relationship with the roots of certain trees (referred to as "hosts"), in which the fungus exchanges minerals and amino acids extracted from the soil for fixed carbon from the host. The subterranean hyphae of the fungus grow a sheath of tissue around the rootlets of a broad range of tree species, in an intimate association that is especially beneficial to the host (termed ectomycorrhizal), as the fungus produces enzymes that mineralize organic compounds and facilitate the transfer of nutrients to the tree.

The ectomycorrhizal structures of H. peckii are among a few in the Bankeraceae that have been studied in detail. They are characterized by a plectenchymatous mantle—a layer of tissue made of hyphae tightly arranged in a parallel orientation, or palisade, and which rarely branch or overlap each other. These hyphae, along with adhering mineral soil particles, are embedded in a gelatinous matrix. The hyphae of the ectomycorrhizae can become chlamydospores, an adaptation that helps the fungus tolerate unfavorable conditions. Chlamydospores of H. peckii have a peculiar structure—markedly distinct from those of other Bankeraceae—with thick, smooth inner walls and an outer wall that is split radially into warts. The most striking characteristic of the ectomycorrhizae as a whole is the way the black outer layers of older sections are shed, giving a "carbonized appearance". The majority of the underground biomass of the fungus is concentrated near the surface, most likely as "mycelial mats"—dense clusters of ectomycorrhizae and mycelium. The mycelium is also known to extend far beyond the site of the fruit bodies, as far as  away.

Molecular techniques have been developed to help with conservation efforts of stipitate hydnoid fungi, including H. peckii. While the distribution of the fungus has traditionally been determined by counting the fruit bodies, this method has a major drawback in that fruit bodies are not produced consistently every year, and the absence of fruit bodies is not an indication of the absence of its mycelium in the soil. More modern techniques using the polymerase chain reaction to assess the presence of the fungal DNA in the soil have helped alleviate the issues in monitoring the presence and distribution of fungi mycelia.

Habitat and distribution

The fruit bodies of Hydnellum peckii are found growing solitary, scattered, or clustered together on the ground under conifers, often among mosses and pine needle litter. H. peckii is a "late-stage" fungus that, in boreal forests dominated by jack pine, typically begins associating with more mature hosts once the canopy has closed. A preference for mountainous or subalpine ecosystems has been noted.

The fungus has a wide distribution in North America, and is particularly common in the Pacific Northwest; its range extends north to Alaska and east to North Carolina. In the Puget Sound area of the U.S. state of Washington, it is found in association with Douglas-fir, fir, and hemlock. Along the Oregon Coast it has been collected under lodgepole pine. In addition to North America, the mushroom is widespread in Europe, and its presence has been documented in Italy, Germany, and Scotland. The species is common in the latter location, but becoming increasingly rare in several European countries, such as Norway, The Netherlands, and the Czech Republic. Increased pollution in central Europe has been suggested as one possible factor in the mushroom's decline there. Reports from Iran in 2008 and Korea in 2010 were the first outside Europe and North America.

Uses
Fruit bodies of H. peckii have been described as resembling "Danish pastry topped with strawberry jam". Hydnellum species are not known to be poisonous, but they are not particularly edible due to their foul taste. This acrid taste persists even in dried specimens.

The fruit bodies of this and other Hydnellum species are prized by mushroom dyers. The colors may range from beige when no mordant is used, to various shades of blue or green depending on the mordant added.

Chemistry

Screening of an extract of Hydnellum peckii revealed the presence of an effective anticoagulant, named atromentin (2,5-dihydroxy-3,6-bis(4-hydroxyphenyl)-1,4-benzoquinone), and similar in biological activity to the well-known anticoagulant heparin. Atromentin also possesses antibacterial activity, inhibiting the enzyme enoyl-acyl carrier protein reductase (essential for the biosynthesis of fatty acids) in the bacteria Streptococcus pneumoniae.Hydnellum peckii'' can bioaccumulate the metal caesium. In one Swedish field study, as much as 9% of the total caesium of the topmost  of soil was found in the fungal mycelium. In general, ectomycorrhizal fungi, which grow most prolifically in the upper organic horizons of the soil or at the interface between the organic and mineral layers, are involved in the retention and cycling of caesium-137 in organic-rich forest soils.

References

External links

Inedible fungi
peckii
Fungi described in 1912
Fungi of North America
Fungi of Europe
Fungi of Asia
Fungi of Western Asia

Hydnellum peckii


Cheng Maoyun (; 25 August 1900 – 31 July 1957) was a Chinese musician and a professor at National Central University and Hangzhou Societal University (杭州社會大學). He wrote the music of the "National Anthem of the Republic of China".

Chen was born in 1990 in Xinjian to a family of officials. He studied music in Jiangxi Provincial Higher Normal School.

The official university song of the National Central University, now in Taiwan, was also composed by Cheng.

References

1900 births
1957 deaths
Chinese academics
Chinese musicians
Chinese composers

Ch'eng Mao-yün


Joshua Heschel Zoref (1633–1700) was a 17th-century ascetic, and an important figure in the Lithuanian Sabbatean movement.  During the messianic fervor of 1666, he claimed to experience visions similar to those of Ezekiel. He, like Judah Leib Prossnitz also, considered himself to be possessed of the role of Messiah ben Joseph, with Shabbatai Tzvi playing the role of Messiah ben David.

Shortly thereafter he began transcribing his visions into five books.  What has survived of these works show them to be entirely built upon the numerical speculations (gematriah) of Nathan Nata Spira.  Some parts of this work, named Sefer Ha-Zoref, came to Nathan ben Levi, while others came into the possession of the Baal Shem Tov, who evidently valued them highly while unaware of their origins.

Scholem (1974) contains a lengthier biography.

References

Sabbateans
17th-century Lithuanian people
Lithuanian Jews
1633 births
1700 deaths
Authors of Kabbalistic works
Hebrew-language writers

Joshua Heschel Zoref


Joseph Burns Crowley (July 19, 1858 – June 25, 1931) was a U.S. Representative from Illinois.

Born in Coshocton, Ohio, Crowley moved with his parents to a farm near St. Marie, Jasper County, Illinois, in 1860, and to Robinson, Illinois, in 1872. He attended the common schools. He engaged in mercantile pursuits 1876-1880. He studied law, and was admitted to the bar in May 1883; he began practice at Robinson, Illinois. He served as president of the Robinson city school board 1884-1888, and as master in chancery 1886-1890.

Crowley was elected judge of Crawford County in November 1886, and reelected in 1890. He was appointed United States special Treasury agent in charge of the seal fisheries of Alaska in April 1893, and served until his resignation in April 1898. Crowley was elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-sixth, Fifty-seventh, and Fifty-eighth Congresses (March 4, 1899 – March 3, 1905). He declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1904 and resumed the practice of law in Robinson, Illinois. He served as State's attorney of Crawford County 1912-1916.

He died in Robinson, Illinois, June 25, 1931, and was interred in the old Robinson Cemetery.

References

1858 births
1931 deaths
People from Coshocton, Ohio
Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Illinois
People from Robinson, Illinois

Joseph B. Crowley